SD 5

Yay. Another part of my fanfic!

Necros opened his eyes, looked around, sighed, and then closed his eyes again.

“Why her?” he muttered wearily. “Of all the people, why did I have to get her?” Necros ran his hands through his hair, and wearily began looking for his charge. “March!” he shouted. “March Pathway!” There was no reply, except for the chattering laugh of a chipmunk, scampering around in a nearby tree. Necros looked up and scowled. He glared at the chipmunk. “Come down this instant March.” The chipmunk looked at Necros cheekily, and then jumped off a narrow branch. A young girl landed lightly on the dewy grass, still chuckling, as she wiped a strand of crimson hair out of her sparkling blue eyes.

“What?” she enquired gleefully. “Have I upset you or something?” She tilted her head to one side. “I didn’t vanish really. I was right above your head all along!” March chuckled again. “Some guardian you are.”

Necros scowled and slumped against the trunk of the tree, too exhausted to come up with a retort. Out of all his many charges, Necros reflected, March was the worst. She never stood still, always vanishing, or talking incessantly. And when she actually got into danger, like all his charges were apt to do, she didn’t even have the courtesy to let him deal with the assassin or vampire or whatever it was, having singlehandedly defeated them, before Necros could catch up. But at least she seemed to irritate or terrify them as much as she infuriated him, Necros thought. He often wondered why he remained March’s guardian at all. Because I wouldn’t want to have her as an enemy, he realised. And the pay is good. Necros looked around and groaned miserably. March had disappeared again.

♦♦♦

Skyril Oblivion smiled and looked out of the window of her room in Elysium Asylum. A beautiful tempest raged outside, the torrential rain beating against the window in a pleasant rhythm, as the wind howled and the world was little up with dazzling lightning.

“Beautiful weather” Skyril murmured. Her green eyes flashed as a sudden knock on the door interrupted her stormy daydreams but it was only Kallista.

“I just got a message from Octa. Pyro is in trouble. We need to go after him.”

“But I barely know him! What do you need me for?”

“Well you’re the only one crazy enough to go on a rescue mission in this weather” Kallista grinned.

“Crazy? Moi? I’ll have you know that this is excellent weather to be out on a rescue mission”

“Like I said crazy”

Skyril jumped up. “Let’s go”

“He’s at the Wastelands of the Southern Cliffs”

“But isn’t that the place with the Pit of Broken Souls?”

Kallista nodded.

“Why is he there in the first place?”

“Apparently he decided to hunt down Nyx Dawn”

“And you call me the crazy one” Skyril muttered.

♦♦♦

Pyro Dawn gasped as he looked around for Nyx Dawn. The Pit of Broken Souls loomed on either side, the jagged rocks gleaming menacingly in the rain. Nyx Dawn had vanished into the inky darkness and Pyro knew that she was waiting to strike. He gulped nervously and wished that he hadn’t come here alone. His plan had seemed so simple at first, Octaboona wouldn’t tell him anything, claiming that he wasn’t ready to know, and he needed to more training. Yet Pyro was impatient at the best of times and he wanted answers. So he decided to get them from the one other person who might have the knowledge he needed. Nyx Dawn. So whilst Octaboona was engrossed in the history of ‘The Empire of Quetzal Acratoon’ which Octaboona said was about the Ziggurat cities of Nuevo Maya, Pyro had slipped away and gone to the Wastelands of the Southern Cliffs, which according to Octaboona, Nyx Dawn often frequented. Now that he was here however, he realised that his quest was futile, and that Nyx Dawn was most likely going to kill him.

A silver knife whistled past his head and Pyro jumped. Yet it wasn’t Nyx who had thrown it. He sighed with relief as he spotted Kallista, Octaboona and the stranger who had thrown the silver knife. Yet before he could ask her, who she was and why she had thrown the knife, Nyx Dawn snarled as she leapt out of the shadows.

♦♦♦

Meanwhile March Pathway laughed and clapped her hands together. She had finally tracked down the current dwelling place of Octaboona Ambrosius. She briefly wondered where Necros had got to then dismissed the thought as she approached the location. March had always been fond of the Tale of The Eight Great Immortals, which had been passed down her family for generations. And now she discovered that the story was true and the last of the Great Immortals was actually alive. March knocked on the door but no reply came. So March turned into a cat and curled up on the door step waiting for Octaboona to come home.

♦♦♦

Octaboona waved a hand and Nyx Dawn went flying. “Why does the boy have to be so curious?” he grumbled to himself. “This is not how I planned to spend my afternoon, chasing down an assassin”. Kallista and Skyril stood by his side as Pyro scrambled towards them. Skyril threw another silver knife at Nyx, but she twisted aside at the last moment and then sent a whirling shadow towards Octaboona, who ducked and then deflected the shadow back at Nyx. Skyril concentrated and held her palm out towards Nyx’s eyes. A sudden flash appeared around her hands and two glowing orbs flew from Nyx’s face and into Skyril’s outstretched palms. Nyx cursed as her sight left her, blind she stumbled away moaning.

Kallista ran forward, yet Nyx had disappeared into the shadows. Skyril dropped her hands and the orbs flew into the distance. Although this gave Nyx back her sight it also allowed her to pinpoint Nyx’s location. Pyro aimed at the orbs and unleashed two twin torrents of flame. Octaboona muttered again. “Home. Now.”  Yet as the four of them turned to leave, Nyx Dawn crept out from behind a blackened pillar, shook the soot from her hair and pushed at the shadows, then vanished as the shadows enveloped her. Caught unaware Skyril screamed as the shadows buffeted her and pushed her off the edge of the Pit of Broken Souls, as she fell towards the jagged rocks, many feet below.