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"Uriah the Bold, you have been found guilty of treason, desertion, and terrorism on a grand scale! Give up now, and I might let you live!" Azure called, racing up to the heavily armored Uriah.
"You aren't a Knight of Sor, or the Matran, who are you to accuse me of any crime?!" She retorted, slamming her helmet on to her head, and drawing her once ceremonial blade.
Azure smirked and drew her own blade, finding them much more elegant than a firearm. "I warned you," she whispered cooly.
*****
Theory blinked in astonishment and pain as blood poured from the side of his face. His ears were ringing from the crash, and the gunshot that had managed to crack his skull, and become lodged just under his left eye. The would-be assassin was still nearby, likely helping Syra. "Stupid Thrall..." he muttered as he tried, and failed to move before the pain in his head was too much to handle, and he passed out.
****
Syra moaned in pain as the panels were lifted from her small frame. Her body ached, she was sure her ribs were broken, and blood pooled around her from the small cuts she'd received at the hands of the shattering glass.
"Who, who are you?" She stammered, blinking her eyes slowly in the bright afternoon sun.
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***
"We're askin' the questions here, lady," the woman with the wide brimmed hat snarled, aiming the gun at her.
"You with Theory?" The man in the cloak inquired.
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Ash, M'kama, Horik, and Otis had all seen visions- the woman reaching forward, striking the life out of their lungs, feasting on their innards and consuming their flesh with snakes. Horrors beyond recollection. And then, it was over. They were again standing in the forum.
The woman blinked at the group before turning slowly to Tamil. "They are not here to harm us..." She breathed. "But they are not here to stay either..."
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Not waiting for a response, he turned to Tamil. "What next, Snake-Man?"
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The mystic woman stepped back. Whatever vision she had made them see, as brief as it was, it had a vividness rivalled only by real life. She kept a steady gaze on the group as she stepped back.
Tamil squinted at them. "I could shoot ya?" He offered, followed by a growing laugh from the Cobran crowd. "What do ya'll say, you want a show?" He announced, pulling his revolver out and juggling it hand to hand. Tamil smiled at them and shook his head. "I uh... well look, none of you want to stay, so how about we do each other a little favour?"
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"
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Injured Pilot? Could that mean someone from the ship survived? A Matran pilot, the only person with any knowledge about that gun... But of course, how much did she really know? Ash knew better than anyone that allegiance doesn't mean awareness. Still, something to keep on his mind. Ash stayed quiet as M'kama spoke, but he took the rest of Tamil's words in and let his mind chew on it a bit.
The gun 'will' be dealt with? Perhaps. But by the Cobrans? That's another question altogether. For now, he'd go along with the test. Though... He had some reservations.
Once he began to witness himself being disemboweled however, his mood drastically changed. "BUGGER!!!" He shouted in a mixture of absolute terror and pain. The horrors he witnessed as well shifted between the indescribable, and the all too familiar, things he wished to forget, things he wish he never saw, and things he wished he wasn't seeing right now.
And almost as quickly as it had started, it had ended.
"They are not here to harm us... But they are not here to stay either..."
'Wonder how she came to that bloody conclusion?' Ash wondered sarcastically to himself.
Ash worked to regain his composure, looking between Otis, Horik, the Voodoo man, and Percy. Had they all seen the same things? At any rate, the Voodoo man and Tamil seemed to be on the verge of negotiating a 'favor'.
"Well, as it happens one of our scouting parties is missing... and Seru here is in need of one on her mission. I believe she needs help findin' a witch of the wastes."
Now Ash was starting to feel pretty peeved. Between the bloody hike in the devil's oven (The Bright) to the freaky hallucinations the 'seer' lady (or whatever she was) gave him, Ash was feeling like this whole ordeal was getting pretty lopsided.
The pizza had been pretty good though.
"And what is it that your Seru wants with this witch? Moreover, what should we want with this witch, if anything?" Ash was curious what the 'favor' Tamil was going to offer was, but for now he wanted to know where this witch hunt was going, and why.
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"I agree," Otis said. "I'll help as much as I'm able, in return for your hospitality and generosity this day."
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Ash finally gave a nod to Tamil, trying to ignore the annoyance he felt at the 'S' word. "Oh I'll certainly join the fight, you have nothing to worry about there. However, I do not think this is going to go the way you think it will Cobranite." Ash said grimly.
He turned his gaze now towards the woman who explained the plan, Seru. "The path to peace is a red one."
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She blinked her tired eyes slowly a few times, trying to make the world around her stop spinning before she vomited, but her efforts were in vain, she turned her head to the side and let the measly contents of her stomach spill out onto the sunbaked wreckage of the two Sorillian ships. "S-sorry," she stammered, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. She felt like death but feared a fate worse than the Grim Reaper would await her if she allowed herself to simply close her eyes.
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"What's a thrall doin' fallin' from the sky in a Sorillian ship?" the drawling man asked, kneeling over and holding something in his hands before Syra. A canteen of water.
****
The battle at the dig site raged, Zambob's soldiers proving the better warriors, as bodies of Remnants littered the battlefield.
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He turned back towards Syra and smiled, "A very simple lesson, yet most only barely struggle to grasp it. See...I was a thrall at one time, myself. But, look at me now. I wasn't...content with crawling around in the sand feeling empty and alone. I found out long ago, that the Rock ain't nothin' but fair. You fight every challenge it throws your way and it rewards you...with somethin' special. Freedom, land...if you don't have it by birthright you rise up to claim your own. If'n you got the gumption, that is."
"What's your name?" he asked of Syra.
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"Look I'll help but don't expect me to stay the whole way," Horik started as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I only got dragged down here cuz I was in trouble in the first place with ya'll. I don't want to be tied down to all this nonsense if it gets life threatening again..."
At that, a low rumble filled the cavern. Slight tremors could be felt by all but considering the size of the area where they stood, Horik knew whatever had caused it had to have been huge.
"Is that, uh, is that common?" she asked, turning to the dark skinned woman of before. Before the woman could answer however, the rumbling grew. People whispered and scrambled, yelled and ran, as debris began to fall through the sky. It was the ground. The ground had risen and chunks of it flew in the air as a writhing body emerged. It was covered in a clear liquid and what appeared out of the ground first was a part that looked much like a head, the tip of the long body a little wider with a slight impression in the middle of it. There were no eyes or mouth but it was seeking something out.
As people ran, the worm rushed forward, darting around the men and wrapping its thin body around Horik, Seru, and the other woman.
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The woman breathed in behind Tamil, her form seeming to raise in pride. There was a slight shake in floors of the Cobran Caverns, but the citizens seemed unfazed. The woman turned her face to Horik. "Do not worry... you have nothing-"
Before her words could finish a portion of the forum's mosaic floor tiles began to shift, a creature breaking through the cracks. Piece of ceramics flew through the air as a slimy, writhing creature emerged- eyeless and blind from it's life in the depths of the Rock. It was attracted by Horik's cooked pizza flesh, as it slithered forward at lightening speed, circling around Horik and capturing her like a python before moving onto it's other prey.
"Woohwee!" Percy exclaimed, pulling out his short-sword and defaulting back to his guardsman duties. "Haven't fought a cave-dweller in a fortnight!"
As the worm launched itself forward toward the dark skinned woman she rose her arms. "Ahul umurca, ka daian daian, motsawa da sakcalan," She exhaled the words as suddenly from beneath her robes her white-robes a serpent head emerged, her body beginning to collapse into the form of a giant snake. From out the robes a thick rope of a body curled endlessly, and rising high into the sky was it's head. The citizens of Cobran witnessing the event fell to their knees, so as to not to look upon the god.
The snake looked down at the worm, who had paused it's advance. "Ba Sakcalan," The Snake whispered, it's voice that of the woman. The slimy worm slowly untangled itself from Horik and drifted beside her, subserviently.
From beside the snake Tamil stepped forward, strolling toward the group. "You are always safe in Cobran," He said, placing a piece of tobacco on his tongue and beginning to chew. He offered the downed Horik an open hand. "Even if you don't know it."
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As the ground shook, Ash found his grip around his pistol again. This was why he hated caves. The mysterious woman tried to calm them all, right up until a giant worm burst through the ground. Ash was knocked to the ground by the force of the worm's entrance, but managed to pull the pistol out and get an aim on it. Not before it had already wrapped itself around Horik though.
"Woohwee! Haven't fought a cave-dweller in a fortnight!" Percy shouted.
Ash had considerably less enthusiasm than Percy, his finger tensed around the trigger. But the moment didn't last too long, as the mysterious woman turned into an enormous snake, towering over everyone gathered. The worm loosened its grip on Horik, seemingly mesmerized by the strange snake.
Quickly picking himself up, Ash made his way to Horik and pulled her away from the slimy creature, and towards the rest of the group that was near safety. "You alright miss?" He asked quickly before looking at M'kama. "This that friend of yours?" He said nodding towards the giant snake.
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He turned to one of the Sorillians. The one who had accompanied the guardian. He had inquired if the Snake was his friend. "Yeah," M'Kama nodded. "I threw a small rock to determine if she was real, and she immediately tried to drown me," he explained, not sounding particularly concerned about the murder attempted upon him by a supernatural reptile. "That's how I ended up shooting through the geyser and meeting Otis and yourself."