War Of The Litche: Prologue
#1 of Legends Of Corun
Hi there! Nice of you to drop by and read my story ^^ I haven't made some in a VERY long time but I hope you all will enjoy this! ^w^
Screams and blood filled the night of the burning town that was called Knoja. Bodies of various genders, ages, and races littered the streets, their bodies decorated with wounds, burns and blood that continued to pool around the fallen. A Vixen and her kit ran through the street. Her paws tightly grasping her child's as the two armored soldiers behind them chased after her in deadly pursuit.
She looked back and then to her child whose eyes were wide with utter terror, running as fast as her short legs could carry her away from here. A loud gasp from her kit made her skid to a halt, barely avoiding a man who had burst forth from his burning home, his clothes and skin ablaze as he screamed in agony.
"Mommy!" The little girl squeaked, clutching her mother's skirt as she watched the man fall to the ground, his arms trying to put out the flames that were slowly consuming him.
Looking down to her daughter, the vixen gave her paw a squeeze. Looking back, the soldiers were quickly gaining on them and quickly half dragged her daughter away from them in flight. If their lives weren't at stake she would've been cursing the rather long skirt she had, the fabric tangling her legs and making it quite difficult to run.
Flaming arrows flew over head, whizzing through the air before landing on the roofs of houses and buildings, setting them ablaze. Soldiers were everywhere slaughtering every man woman and child who dared to fight back and capturing those who couldn't. The Town guards were doing their best in trying to defend the townspeople and battling with the unknown and very hostile force but were quickly losing, a majority falling to the blade while the rest had been disarmed and held down as robed figures bound them with magic, coating their bodies in a strange blue glow of magical energy that seemed to have frozen their bodies in a state of paralysis.
They ran further through their burning hometown, trying to avoid the soldiers that chased them and the many unexpected dangers that seemed to pop up at every corner. Quickly turning into an alley, the vixen pressed her back against the wall, clutching her daughter close to her body with a paw covering her mouth.
Her chest quickly rose and fell as she tried to refill her aching lungs with air, her eyes wide as she watched the soldiers that pursued them, run past. They stood still for a few more moments before letting out a sigh of relief, now sure that they were safe... for now.
"Mommy, are we going to...." The child began but was quickly shushed by her mother. "Don't worry sweetie, we'll get out of here..." She said breathlessly, looking this way and that for a place for her daughter or maybe both of them to hide in. Quickly spotting a well, she scooped her child into her arms and carried her over to the well and got into the bucket. Making sure she and her daughter were secure, she gave the rope a firm tug. Seeing that it was still good and strong, she carefully eased them both downwards into the watery pit, the last thing the girl was aware of, was the shrinking sky above turning red as the blood that painted her hometown and the screams of those still above, echoing in her ears....
"COME BACK HERE!" A loud voice cried out from behind the wolf, as he gave chase. The wolf looked back to his pursuer, a playful and mischievous glint in his eyes as he clutched the pilfered money pouch in his paw before vaulting over a passing wheel-barrow full of hay. The wolf was clad in a sleeveless black shirt, his lithe frame making it look rather baggy whilst he wore a pair of thick black leather bracers on his forearms and fingerless leather gloves on his paws. Around his neck was a silver choker with a symbol of a dagger cutting open the bottom of a filled coin purse, the emblem of the Thieves' guild. His daggers kept in his dangling sheaths on the side of his right arm and on the left thigh of his brown leather leggings.
Quickly looking over his shoulder long enough to shoot the enraged pedestrian a wink, the wolf sped up a bit to get further away from the pursuing man, a grin on his maw as he suddenly side stepped and whirled about to avoid colliding into a woman carrying a basket full of bread who had cried out as she saw the wolf spin around her and into the mess of races.
"Stop! Stop him!" The man behind him cried out, pointing at the blur of gray fur that easily slipped through the crowd, pushing his way past a young bear with an armful for colorful rolls of cloth, knocking him down and the cloths to the ground.
"Oi! Watch it!" The young bear shot an outraged glare at the man as he ran past, trying to gather his now dirtied load.
Without looking back, the man kept shoving his way through the crowd, intent on getting his money pouch back from the furred thief. The further he got into the crowd, the thicker it seemed to get. More and more people were stuffed in almost every nook and cranny, merchants shouting off their goods nearby whilst everyone tried to get to their desired locations by squeezing through tight spaces in between other pedestrians. The wolf however found this to be the perfect place to lose his pursuer and ducked into a dark alleyway before watching of the man progressively lose his sense of direction in the sea of various races.
Watching in amusement as the man finally gave up and grudgingly headed back, the wolf bounced the money pouch up and down in his paw, feeling satisfied of another job well done for the day. "Like taking sweets from an infant." He muttered as he turned away from the crowd and walked down the dirty alleyway.
"I thought you were much better than that, Tyrin." A voice said from behind him with mock-disapproval. The wolf turned around to face the voice's owner and found a hooded figure standing atop the edge of the roof, peering down at him.
Grinning, the wolf folded his arms and leaned into the wall as he watched the hooded figure crouch down and suddenly leapt off the edge and into the air! With great ease, the hooded figure spun in the air before silently landing on his feet, his tail making a barely audible 'plop' as it made it contact with the cobblestone floor. "Better than you at least." The wolf responded, his tail twitching a little as the hooded figure pulled his hood back, revealing two pairs of horns that pointed back, two large ones on the side of his face whilst two much larger one lay a few inches above and behind.
The green drake looked up to the wolf with glowing amber eyes, baring his teeth in a bit of a grin as he stood, barely a couple of inches taller than the lupine as he approached him, his boots barely making a sound as he walked. His leather armor hugging his muscular frame, a belt that went from his right shoulder to his left waist keeping his quiver stuck onto his back, his pants somewhat baggy although there were belt straps that constricted the fabric around his upper and lower right thigh and lower right leg, middle left leg and thigh. The drake's right shoulder pad had extra thick padding as his left seemed to have none but an elbow guard that extended down to his wrist in a thick leather brace. "Whatever keeps up your huge ego, Ty." He chuckled a bit.
"What brings you here anyway, Veleat?" The wolf tilted his head as he looked to the drake, a smile on his face as he greeted his old friend with a nod of his head.
"Oh the usual," The lizard grinned, flashing his dangerously sharp white teeth to the lupine as he folded his arms. "Scaling the buildings, enjoying the view, breaking into people's homes and taking their possessions, you know."
"Heh, 'Scaling.'" Tyrin grinned whilst he air quoted the drake, earning a light bop to the head from his friend as he snickered. "Hey, you have to admit it was funny!"
"Not really." He replied with a flat tone and a deadpanned expression to go along with it. "I'm not even laughing."
"Ah, but you ARE laughing." The wolf insisted. "On the inside."
Rolling his eyes, Veleat gave the wolf a friendly light shove as he walked past him, his tail slithering behind him as he stepped into the mess of a crowd that filled the streets with Tyrin coming up close behind him. "This place just keeps getting busier and busier by the day." He muttered to himself.
"It's a merchant town, what did you expect, a quiet monastery?" His lupine companion smirked at him as he came up to his right. "This is a thief's paradise! Easy pickings everywhere for a thief, heavy coin purses, expensive jewelry, valuable family heirlooms-"
"Alright, alright I get it." Veleat chuckled; giving his companion a smile as he narrowly evaded a rat in suspenders, clutching a half-eaten roll of bread in his paw as he rushed past.
"Where are we headed?" The wolf asked, tilting his head in curiosity as his tail twitched behind him.
"To the tavern." His scaly friend quickly answered. "I've been on the rooftops all day and I'm dry as the desert lands of Nakaza."
Moving further into the heavily populated streets, the pair gently pushed and squeezed their way past the seemingly endless sea of pedestrians, trying to make their way to the nearest inn as they were careful to not lose sight of each other. In the busy markets of Calaniv, people often got lost in the busy crowd and would end up getting separated until nightfall, a perfect nightmare for those with children and one heck of a migraine for the guards.
Finally, after what it seemed like ages, the two arrived at their destination, The Copious Ale. Coming through the louvered swinging doors, the Drake took a seat at the bar whilst the wolf went right over to the large board that hung on the wall not too far off from the bar.
Sitting down onto one of the stools, the drake tapped a claw onto the smooth wooden counter, trying catching the attention of the barkeep, a kangaroo, who was busy trying to wipe off a stubborn smudge from his counter. Looking up up to catch the draconic reptile's eye, the roo raised a brow as he eyed him and his gear before wiping up his paws.
"What can I get you?" He asks, setting the rag aside as soon as he was done.
"Two Monk's Temptation." The drake replied but then blinked before turning to look at his lupine companion, who was examining the notices on the board. His fluffy gray tail swishing left and right as he ran a claw along one of the notices on the board before breaking out into a strange grin, making the drake narrows his eyes in worry. Then the next thing he knew, Tyrin fully extended his claws and brought up his paws and firmly set them atop of the board and dragged them down in a painfully slow manner.
The ear piercing screeching of his claws against the wood causing the other patrons, including Veleat and the barkeep to cringe and scrunch their faces in expressions of pain as, with the exception of the hairless reptiles in the building, their furs and hair stood on end.
"By the emperor's undergarments!" The barkeep cried out, clutching his ears in pain.
"Tyrin!!" The drake hissed, his claws presses against the sides of his head, his sharp teeth rakes against one another at the incredibly annoying and painful screeching that rung in his ears.
With a mischievous grin on his face, the lupine turned around with his paws clasped behind his back to bat his eyes at his slightly taller companion, mocking innocence as he tilted his head. "Yes?"
Veleat's reply was a swift punch to the head.
Several apologies and a couple of drinks later, the two left the tavern with Tyrin rubbing his sore head. "What was that for?" He whined, his ears lay back as he turned to his scaled friend.
"You KNOW what it was for." The drake dangerously narrowed his eyes at him. The narrow slits that are his pupils, flashed at the wolf, making him shrink.
"But it was for fun!" He insisted.
"Well keep that sort of fun to yourself." Veleat growled, turning his head away from the thief. Leaving the wolf to sag a bit, his ears drooping as his tail laid low, almost dragging along the dirty ground.
Seeing this from the corner of his eye, the drake ignored the wolf as they kept on walking further away from the tavern and into the less crowded streets. After a while, the drake let out a sigh and rolled his eyes, he just couldn't stand seeing his friend like this. "Alright I admit it WAS kind of funny." He mutters.
This seemed to cause the wolf to perk up almost right away, his furry gray ears pointed straight up as his tail suddenly came back to life and wagged about in a happy manner. "See? I told you!" He smiles, nudging the reptile's side.
Gods, why have you stuck me with this wolf since childhood? The drake sighed in his thoughts but smiled as he nudged his friend back.
A sudden cry from above made both the wolf and the drake to look up to spot a rather small winged creature slowly descend towards them. Instinctively, the wolf held out his paw to the winged creature and watched it land atop his gloved paw, flapping it's wings a bit whilst it settled itself and chirped.
The bird had a pointed and sharp looking yellow beak, an orange streak running vertically from the tip of its beak to it's forehead where it splits in two and curves around the eyes to go down it's breast where it meets again acting as a borderline between the white of most of it's face and breast and the dark gray feathered abdomen whilst it's back to it's tail feathers, a shade of chocolate brown, the tail feathers resembling a spade with blackened tips.
"A Locke Sparrow." The wolf blinked, carefully running a finger down the bird's back.
Looking up to the wolf and the drake, the bird let out another chirp, as if acknowledging them. It hopped towards the wolf a little bit and stuck out a talon to reveal a tiny roll of paper bound to its leg with string.
"You have a message?" The wolf tilted his head slightly to the side, a brow raised at the roll of paper around the bird's leg.
Veleat stood closer to the wolf, his eyes on the bird as well as the wolf. There was something wrong; he could feel it in his guts. Something very, very wrong.
The bird let out a low pitched cheep, quickly followed by a couple more, both in different pitches but in a familiar fashion to the two.
Taking the string in his claws, the drake gently pulled at it, untying the knot and freeing the scrap from the bird's leg. Carefully unrolling the note as his companion give the bird a couple of bread crumbs he had taken from the remnants of his morning bread, the drake froze as he read its contents
Something has happened. Go to the usual spot. NOW.
That was not good. It was just now the drake had realized it was written in blood red ink, a sign that meant very, very bad trouble. This was certainly not good.