Volund Kaah's Story

While most despised the ash and darkness of this world, Volund embraced it. His time spent in Kardine had taught him well, while searching for a new soul stone. His search was unsuccessful, which bothered him greatly, but in essence, he had no need for another one yet, not to mention the beast guarding it was nearly immortal. His current stone had yet to be used, and he refused to waste it simply in retrieving another stone. He stepped through a shadow, and landed at the top of the wall, and began heading to Harosa. Rumor was that the Rat Queen was at it again. Volund had never encountered her prior, but knew of her kingdom all too well. Her brutality was known throughout the world. Rumor was, one of her champions carried a soul stone, and if Volund had any hope of finding the immortal that guarded the next stone, he would need a 2nd stone.

Each stone would glow if close to another, but only at a very short range. If Volund was to get two together, then he would be able to increase this range greatly, allowing him to locate the third stone. The only problem would be convincing the queen, or killing the man without disturbing the kingdom. Hopefully, she would be willing to ally with him, and retake the land of the gods, expelling them from the earth. Chaos was the only way about this, order would simply appease them.

No doubt she would've heard of Volund, he was very popular around the cities, being hailed as the angel of death, the eater of souls, but most simply referred to him as the Reaper. Children would hide, families rush home, closing their blinds and locking their doors. Now, he didn't have quite as much of a presence as Darkus, but Volund had a presence none the less.

His journey to the rat kingdom was rather quick, simply stepping into the shadows, and he was there. The kindgom was exceedingly clean, it was almost insanity. There wasn't much or a chance of Volund blending in with this crowd. He raised his arms, and floated towards the staircase, before approached by several rats.

"I require an audience with the queen. Volund Kaah is my name." And with that, he simply made his way back, seating himself on a cloud of shadow. He hoped she would not be too long in her decision.

A small black and white form stalked through the streets of Harossa, each paw nimbly dodging dung and debris. It weaved through the crowds, taking in the sights and smells that the city had on offer. 'Quite the kingdom. And Khasm hasn't toppled this place to the ground? Who is the ruler of this facinating place?' Salith thought to herself curiously. Hopping up on a wall, she looked out over the crowd. Sadly, the Rat Kingdom was rather free of actual rodents. It seemed that they were frightened off at the thought of being trampled. Oh well, a treat for another day. It wasn't like she needed food anyway.

Jumping down from her vantage point, she made her way though the markets. When she saw a figure step out from the shadows, seemingly from nowhere, she made a small "hm" and sat down to observe it. 'Most curious' she thought 'It seems that entertainment shall not be lacking tonight.'

Darkus had been lucky on his walk to Harosa, finding not only a freshly slain bear, but two of the wolves that must have been attacking it. It was quite obvious to Darkus as to what this meant. A free ride and its two guard dogs. The undead hadn't taken much pause before raising the dead beasts with, thankfully, no interruption. There had been some jackass with a bow that tried to kill the kid only to find the two wolves at his throat. With that out of his way, Darkus was ready to travel once more.

---

After a good hour on his new mount, Darkus arrived at the entrance to the ruins of Harosa. I don't see much of a difference. Still dirty and full of filth. I wonder if there are any good corpses here. Thought the necromancer as strolled through the gates on his undead bear. Within moments his slightly rotted wolves found the entrance to life within the city.

As he entered into the city's little housing area, Darkus could only show his darkest, most vile grin and a slight evil like chuckle as he got every mix of looks. Many people shifted away from the child riding an undead bear being flanked by two wolves of the same fate. Some of those people hid, others just tried to keep their distance. Some were lolled by the innocent look of the rider and just stared in confusion and amazement.

Approaching a guard with a shit eating grin, Darkus asked "Who and where is your leader? Don't bother wasting my time, if you think you can play around with me." Then came a drip drip drip from the shaking guard.

A crow's caw echoed through the rubble which once housed many humans. Now all that was left was to rummage through the chaos of stone and dirt to find value in the garbage that scavengers haven't picked up yet. What else was a male to do when fights in the arena were starting to become boring?

Haku Karasu had just been down in the heart of Harosa City not two hours prior, dealing with a couple of amateur fighters who lifted a sword just to have a tangible defense. Pathetic creatures... If your couldn't strike with cold eyes, how did they expect to live long in the sewers? The male convinced himself that he had down a service to the fighters as he plunged his rusted blade into their chest. At least their bodies wouldn't go to waste in The Market's bustling streets.

The male lazy walked about on the surface, unsure of what to do with himself. If he couldn't get a challenge in the arena, what else could he do? No way in hell was he about to try and deal with the Rat King's harsh demeanor. As fun as it was to see how she dealt with the pitiful rats, Haku didn't want it to be that one day he would be her next meal.

"Chogan." The male bellowed out with his hands in the pockets of his pants. He paused in his pacing and a black bird landed on his shoulder, a loud caw leaving its beak. "I might be heading back down to see if the market has any promising new treasures." The shapeshifter took one hand out of his pocket and looked at his palm where a gold coin shined in the sunlight. "Maybe I'll use this if catching a rat or two won't get me what I want." A sly grin curled on his lips before he began walking again with the bird on his shoulder. "You'll okay, right? I assume you found something to eat." The crow nodded its head, its dark eyes staring out in front of the two before furling its wings and taking off again.

"Take care then." He tossed the small coin in his hand a few times, curious as to why his companion suddenly left. Normally the human would have to shoo the animal off. When he realized what happened, a chuckle escaped his throat. That creature found something wiggling around in the stones. Must of went to catch some meat.

Haku pocketed the currency and took in a deep breath of the air outside. Soon he would be back in the depth of the sewers and breathing in the disgusting scents of death, poverty, and despair. Sometimes the human wondered why he stayed here and didn't go back to the crystal forest where his friend was undoubtedly waiting for him to return. Then he remembered the course heat and the fact that the Rat King would dice him if he ever came back. At least the arena was a little entertaining when new challengers beat up the lowly competitors who were just there for a way to end the suffering or gain a few coins.

Into the sewers he went, the market being the first location he came to. When he stepped further in, he noticed something... out of place. A black cloaked figure sat on a cloud of what Haku would only assume was smog. His eyebrows furrowed as his pace slowed down and his gaze checked the immediate surroundings. The rats were confused, some creature had entered the domain and they didn't know what to do when he showed no fear. How strange...

As a rat walked past the champion, he grabbed its collar and pulled him to be in front of him. The skinny pest weighed almost nothing and was horrified to suddenly be pulled away while he was trying to get out of the market. "Don't kill me! Spare me! I have a wife and four kids!"

"Relax." Haku said with a smirk. "All I want to know is who the fancy thing on a cloud of black is. Why is he here?"

"H-h-he appeared out of the shadows! He announced himself a V-Volund Kaah and he wishes to see our King! Though he used the 'Q' word..." The male rat stumbled as he spoke, his gloved hands shaking profusely. Someone volunteered to enter the depths of the sewers to see the king? Did they have a screw loose or did they feel the urge to end their life in this lowly city? The champion nodded and pushed the rat away from him, no longer needed the scrawny creature.

Before walking up to the cloud riding stranger, he paused to see a cat sitting a distance away from the male. While every rat tried to avoid the cloaked man and the critters that scurried ran away to their homes, this cat watched curiously. Perhaps it was this man's companion?

"You have an odd request for a guest into the kingdom." Haku called as he took long strides towards the figure. "Volund Kaah... haven't heard that name much around these parts. Then again the kingdom is underground." He scoffed, grinning at his own joke. Word had spread about a man with incredible power, one who could suck the life out of a human. The reaper they called him; however, the question was where was the sliver of truth in this rumor and what was just a story?

"You may also want to learn whom you are dealing with." As if on a cue, a blood curdling scream rang through the tunnels, a male had apparently taken in his last breath. "A queen doesn't exist in this sewer. Our king is a female and calling her queen is grounds to get yourself killed."

The human experiment took his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped a small pouch, pulling out a small, dead rat that he had killed two days before just so he could shift into it. Plenty of the critters roamed the city though, and he was confident in his ability to grab another as he threw the corpse towards the cat while he spoke. Might as well reward a fearless creature for its time in a hell hole.

"If you would like to wait for the Rat King to make her presence known, you might be able to get an audience with her, but when you address her again, I suggest not using the inferior name of queen and instead calling her what she is."

"If you would like to wait for the Rat King to make her presence known, you might be able to get an audience with her, but when you address her again, I suggest not using the inferior name of queen and instead calling her what she is."

Volund spoke, humbled by his disregard of their customs. "I apologize, we do not have such customs where I am from." Which was, partially true. His people had no ruler, only death. They praised it, and, each ascendance was trapped in a soul stone in the center of town. This stone was believed to hold a connection to the afterlife, and, in turn, to the gods. Of course, this was all before. Now his village was nothing but ruin and ghosts, souls who had escaped when the large stone was broken. As far a Volund knew, he was the last surviving member of the Clan Grimm.

"As for me, I am, what some call The Reaper. Some of what you have heard is true, however, most is undoubtedly ramblings of those who wish to scare their children into good behavior. There was once a large clan of us, almost 100, but alas, I am the last one."

And with that, Volund stepped back into the shadows, waiting for the Rat King to make her presence known.