NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Before anyone asks, this is for the Age of Usurpers.

IC: The streets of Laoxi were quiet as the night entered it's latest hour, the moon shone over the streets, illuminating the streets in it's pale light. Merchants had bordered up their stalls for the night, and the commoners had, mostly, retired to their beds. Occasionally, the drunken ramblings of those who couldn't hold their wine, or the wailings of the stray animal permeated the silence, cutting through the night like a sharp blade, before being silenced by the city guard, who kept their nightly vigil over the silent city.

All it took was a single spark.

In the center of the city stood the Governor's Palace, a testament to the will of the Empire. The large, oriental-style palace stood isolated from the rest of the city, it's stone walls separating the commoners from the governor's private estate. Soldiers of the Imperial Army patrolled the inner grounds across gardens and courtyards, their polearms in hand, their armor glinting in the moonlight. Appointed by the Emperor himself for his administrative skill, Lord Qin had served as Supreme Minister for this prefecture for several years, dutifully rising to the task.

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The guard fell quickly and silently, a blade slicing through his throat. Blood leaked out from the wound, and his armor and weapon clattered as he fell with a thud to the stone walkway. A black-clothed man, his face was covered behind a silk mask. Wiping the blood from his kusarigama, the figure looked around. His main objective had already been accomplished, but that was not enough. Leaping the distance from the floor to the roofs edge in a single go, he pulled the scroll out from his sleeve, unrolling and placing it as flat as he possibly could against the tiled roof. He closed his eyes and uttered the words he was taught. Only a few seconds remained. Standing to his full height, he took off across the roof, approaching the edge, adjacent to the stone walls. Silently, he leapt up the distance to the battlements, and past the patrolling guard, whose back was turned. Jumping from the walls, he landed perfectly onto the roof of a nearby home, and disappeared into the city.

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The ancient letters on the scroll glowed red, as if possessed by some otherworldly power. The characters seemed to shake on the parchment, as if they were being animated. The color slowly engulfed the paper, turning it a bright orange. And suddenly, it turned pitch black.

The building was engulfed in flame as the scroll ignited, quickly spreading fire to the wooden structure.

Picture of Falkor: Link (http://kuron-kim.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Battlemage-74483807) (Please note, It's not my art. And that Falkor is not a mage, in fact he's allergic to magic.)

Falkor was tired. Sure, he guessed that's what happened when a solid boned, heavy creature such as himself flew for hours... Well, atleast he'd managed to catch thermals most of the way. But his wings ached and his muscles hurt, keeping his wings level was difficult and that usually meant he should stop flying. So, he gazed downwards at the ground far below. He noted he was over a city, but alas he had never had the best night vision. So, he continued soaring, watching the going ons of the world below. He was basically just trying to catch a nice thermal to get him away from the city before he landed and could sleep.

He was never renowned for being lucky, he had never been said to be 'in the right place at the right time'. One could even say, the world wasn't nice to him. It was one of those nights to be sure as he soared high over the city named Laoxi. Staring down at the ground he caught a soft glow... His curiousity piqued as it was obviously more light than a torch threw... He began going lower and lower to see what it was, until he was no more than one hundred feet off the rooftops below. It was about then that the whole entire palace went up in flames, He'd been soaring closer and closer when the roof caved in with a billow of flame that ruined his night-vision and caused him to tumble out of the air in surprise... In the process smashing through one of the weak walls of the building.

Tumbling head over heels he finally hit a solid wall. He stared past his toe claws which were oddly above him... Huh... He sat there upside-down against the wall staring at the fire nearby as it crept closer while the world began to right itself. His stunned behavior did not last long however as he pushed himself right side up and looked around. Getting to his feet, he snarled as his head slammed against the roof of the infernal structure.

Shaking his head, he softly heard calls of 'help' nearly muted by the roaring of the flames. Curst chivalry, he thought to himself as he bent low and dug his claws into the ground as he began thudding down the hallways... His massive claws digging into the wood flooring that was catching on fire as he ran. He skidded to a stop on the third floor where he heard labored coughing... Opening the door, his massive form Halo'd by what had to look like the fires of hell, he saw a human woman, or girl... Falling unconscious right before his eyes.

Without thinking, which was his first mistake, he looked back and fourth and picked the girl up easily. HIs muscles easily able to be seen and felt rippling underneath his thick hide as he held her tight against his chest. Retreating back into the hallway he turned to back towards the stairs, only to heard the creak and growl of dying wood right before the deep crash of the stairs collapsing. Now -he- was worried for himself, sure he could charge through fires... But even dragons could be burned alive.

Thinking fast, which was required at a time like this, he pulled his wings around him to shield the girl as he took a few steps backwards... Most litterally stepping into the flame which was rather uncomfortable, just as it began catching his semi-fire-retardant hair on fire he took off running towards the end wall of the building. His heavy footfalls slamming against the wooden floor so hard the feet and claws splintered the wood quite badly as he lowered his head and jutted his shoulder outward.

*CRASH!*

He was through the wall and falling. In an instant too quick for him to think for himself, his instincts took over and spread his wings. Running on pure adrenaline the wings flapped mightily, drawing sparks, ash, and flame upward in a maelstrom of smoke and fire before he lifted upward and onward away from the fire.

He couldn't last long, he was already tired, he was slightly burned, and he was carrying who knows how much weight under him. He flew for five, maybe six miles into the wilderness and made a barely controlled landing. Barely conscious he set the woman down in a somewhat cushiony bed of pine needles under a rather large pine-tree.

Having saved his Damsel, he stumbled out away from the tree and collapsed mightily onto the ground. It was a heavy enough landing that had he been a bigger Drache he may have made the ground tremble. But such things were stories of heaven, not the mortal world here. So, Falkor laid there completely trained of energy and soon was asleep. He was sprawled across the ground just as he fell.

Her eyes fluttered awake, and she moved her hand to block out the rays of the rising sun from her eyes, as it cast a soft orange glow on her surroundings, casting long, tall shadows on everything around her. Speaking of what's around her, where exactly was she, anyway?

She shifted, instantly feeling a small jab of pain, and looked down. She was resting a prickly bed of pine needles. Looking around, she found herself in the middle of a forest. She forced herself to sit up, feeling deep pain in her chest and arms, which made her gasp in surprise.

That's when it all came flooding back. The worst memories in her life. Fire, burning, despair.

Death.

But she obviously wasn't dead. She tried to remember everything that had happened the night before. Her home, turned in an instant into a towering inferno. She remembered running through the burning corridors of the palace, shouting for help, before she was eventually overwhelmed by the fire. She looked down. Her robes, once the finest in fashion, were torn and ragged, and blackened by the flames. She closed her eyes, re-living everything in her mind. How did I get here, she wondered? Looking around, she was quickly startled to hear sonorous snore from a few feet nearby. Darting her head in that direction, she noticed that she wasn't alone. There was...something...there. It was red, and it was big, with two massive wings that jutted out from it's back.

"Well." She said. "That explains a lot."

She rose to her feet, albeit slowly. Her body shuddering with pain, she slowly made got the feeling of walking back. She began to quietly make her way into the forest, figuring that getting away from the beast-thing was probably smart.

The 'maiden' waking up, caused the Drache to slowly rouse. The Deep snore being part of his lazy and tired 'wake up' routine. It took him nearly four more minutes to actually sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes. Looking around tiredly he shook his head with a tired look, trying to remember what was so important and why his muscles ached so. Then it clicked and he reached up to touch his various tender spots across his body where he'd actually managed to get burnt. Sighing mightily the Drache levered himself up to his feet and made sure all his gear was where it was supposed to be... Strapped tightly to his body to make sure it didn't flop or shift in flight...

He sighed walking over to where the 'maiden' had been sleeping and took a few decent whifts of her scent. Not that it would be hard to track her in those robes that smelled of smoke and ash. He sighed mightily, like a bellows deep in his chest, before pushing himself up from his crouch to standing. He finally began tracking the 'maiden's scent as he moved through the woods. He softly cursed the woods, too tired and sore to hold his wings fully up against his back, as the branches thumped the aching flight-limbs making them jolt with pain.

He tried his best to shrug it off as he hiked after the maiden, he could easily over take her considering his stride was nearly twice that or two and a half times that of a normal human's. He soon came into view of her and took a deep breath... Calling out in a deep voice; "Y'know ma'am. D'is 'ere don't seem like th' right place fer ah may-den sooch as yerself t' just be trompin' along alla'lone. Y'may just get brutee-lysed. Ah be thenkin' tha' yer bettuh off walkin wid meh, iffin y' gone decided t' jus goh walkin'. I did, y'know, safe yeh frum th' fahr n' awl."

Damn, he had one hell of an accent. The almost tear-jerkily rough accent sounded more of a growling drawl, which was mostly due to the Drache's own isolationist tendancies and the fact they only half-spoke English when the talked to one another.

The girl jumped forward as the monster-thing spoke to her, whipping around to get a look at the thing. It was pretty tall, for starters. It's skin was a red as dripping blood, and it spoke with an accent that made her shudder inside, and probably outside as well.

"Y'know ma'am. D'is 'ere don't seem like th' right place fer ah may-den sooch as yerself t' just be trompin' along alla'lone. Y'may just get brutee-lysed. Ah be thenkin' tha' yer bettuh off walkin wid meh, iffin y' gone decided t' jus goh walkin'. I did, y'know, safe yeh frum th' fahr n' awl."

She looked up into it's lizard-like face, gazing in wonder at what it was. There had been stories, legends of noble creatures that lived outside the borders of the Empire, but that had to be false. Surely, nothing could live without the light of the Empire to guide it?

"And why should I go with you, monster?" She replied, taking a step back. "Who says you won't be the one to 'brutee-lyse' me?"

Falkor rubbed his chin with a carefully sharpened claw, looking at the horizon as he thought before shrugging. The movement rustled the wings which hung tiredly at his sides, and his tail flicked softly behind him back and fourth. "Weeell..." He mumbled, raising a brow...

"Iffen, y'know iffin, Ah wan'teed t'goh n' Brutee-lyse yeh... Y'dun been asleep fer aboot ahh..." He looked upwards, "Sayin' mebbeh... Six 're soh ahers. Iffin' Ah wanted tew, Ahm onleh guessin' 'ere buh... Ah probleh coulda dun it befer nah. Reckon iffin' I wanteed tew Ah probableh coulda dun gon n' nabbed yeh a few secunds 'go widdout gone n' sayin' nuffin." He shrugged again, leaning against a tree which creaked lightly. While leaning of course his rather large toe claws dug into the sod below him.

"An' justah git things strait, see'in as yeh obveyusleh nut verreh open teh d' ootside werld... Ahm a Drache... Nutta 'Mawnstuh". Yeh." He shrugged again, raising a brow to see what she would say back.

The girl took another step backwards from the thing as it, garishly, explained to her why exactly it didn't kill her right then and there. Although it did have a point, she still couldn't trust it. Something that was totally understandable, given her situation.

"Maybe you like them awake." She said. "Maybe you like to see them squirm before you finish them off." She pictured that happening to her, and faltered for a second. "And why did you save me, anyway? Just happen to be in town?"

Falkor thought for a second, He looked her up and down... "Wheell, why diddai safe yeh? Dat's sempul. Seh, eet goes lahk dis. Sumbuddeh gits d'ere boot in trubbell. An' den.. Sumbuddeh dun goes n' gits 'em teh sayfteh. Yeh kno'? Talkin' on dem terms, yeh getted sum pretteh bad burnz d'ere. Yeh bes' coom wid meh sos I can bandage 'em oop." Rubbing his chin as he watched the lady before him.

"An' y'know. Y'goh right aheed n' jus' run off. Iffen y'ken find y'way beck to th' tahn whare sumbuddeh obviousleh diddent seem ta' be happeh widyeh. S'joost meh boot y'dun seem lahk d'kindeh laydeh who dun gots themselfs forestin' skills. Yehknow?" He shrugged, rustling his wings again as he watched her. He thought for a few seconds about her last two questions for a second before flicking his tail and stood up straight and tall.

His heavily muscled frame would've towered over any other human, while he was only about nine to ten feet tall... That's almost two thirds taller as a normal human and even then he was still blantantly muscled. Looking down at her he sighed, shaking his head. The tatoos, and thick somewhat pebbly but mostly rough leathery skin rippling softly with every movement. His sharp claws were a dull burnt red and absolutely massive. His obviously feral face looked scary enough but every time he opened his mouth to speak the obviously carnivorous teeth, sharp and pointed, shone softly in the morning light...

He looked at her as he crossed his arms, "Lewk mizz. Ah dun know wut yer tahn's lahk, but usualleh... Y'hyoomanes dun like maysive lewkin' mercenarehs joost walkin' 'bout. Ah wuz just caychen ter'mals oveh yer tahn while lookin' fer ah playce teh bed dahn... When yeh hoose promptleh 'asploded intuh flaymes. Bein' th' cheevalroose behsteh ah'm... I dunn gawd in d'ere teh safe sumbuddeh. Wheech just dun 'appened teh beh yew."

The girl stopped backing away, instead standing straight up. She was a great deal shorter then her self-proclaimed rescuer. But then again, standing at such a great height, all humans probably were. She was of medium stature for those of her race, leaning toward the short side, almost. She was small, but slender, and sported long, black hair. She would have been quite eye-catching, save for the fact that minor wounds and burns covered her body. For the most part, she was unharmed, however, and looked worse than it actually was. She opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it. There was no reasoning with beasts. So, instead, she simply turned on her heel, and walked off into the forest.

She tromped through the forest like that for several hours, confident that she had made the correct decision. Her small journey had very little contact, aside from the occasional animal or so. Eventually, the trees of the forest gave began to thin, and the sun rose higher in the sky, taking it's place in the heavens, warming the earth. She walked on, thankful to be away from that dragon. Now she had to - somehow - get home, and find out how things were. The fire had come suddenly and quickly, and she feared for the safety of her family.

Eventually, the trees finally gave way, ending at what seemed to be a road. The road itself ran along the border of the forest. On the other side stood grassy hilly plains, which seemed to roll on for miles. She breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, civilization! She turned to move down the road, but quickly stopped, a figure standing right in front of her. He was tall, muscular, and wore an open vest, and a pair of white pants. A triangle-shaped hat covered his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, his question stunning the girl into silence.

"Your money, or your life."

Falkor sighed as she wandered off. He looked down at himself and sighed, taking note of the direction she was going he turned around and walked back to where he'd nearly fell unconcious and began checking in case he'd left anything important behind. Falkor, having checked out his belongings he turned around and began thumping back towards the way she'd come. His tired, slow, yet enormously long, strides were the equivalent to a brisk jog for a human as he wandered after the lady.

Crossing his arms as he wandered he sniffed here and there, Falkor sighed... Truely wondering why he was wasting so much trouble with this pampered girl? He continued tromping along through the rather cushioned ground through the, to any normal being, sound muffling pine needles and moss. This however was not the case for the massive being as he still thumped just as loud as if he was on any other ground, his massive footclaws dredging up ground as he walked. Then, he heard it... Rustling ahead of him, multiple people... Along the route the lady had been travelling. He quickly recognized the area and knew without a doubt what was going to happen.

He stopped, groaned softly as he rubbed his sore wings. Crouching, and turning around... away from the probable attack he took a running start through the forest and leapt upward, whipping his wings open at an opening in the forest and he used his massive wings to propel him upward. Despite this he still brushed the top of a tree rather roughly. It almost made him falter and hurt rather badly.... But it was nothing more than a bump, nothing was broken.

He gained more altitude as he circled to gain altitude before soaring towards the plains and the edge of the forest, towards a road he saw last night.

Taking a step back, the girl was silent as the man took a step in her direction, a wicked smirk coming across his face.

"No money, huh?" Was all he said. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out a crude, yet sharp dagger. "Too bad." He replied. "You'll just have to DIE!" With that, he jumped forward his dagger outstretched for the girl's chest.

Letting out a short gasp, the girl reacted quickly, sidestepping the attack as it came at her. She jumped backwards, putting distance in-between the two.

"Quick little thing, aren't ya?" He said. "Maybe killing you won't be so boring after all..." With that, he lunged yet again, bringing his knife up to strike. With speed and grace that would not have been expected of, the girl whirled and dodged the attacks to the best of her abilities, as the knife's stabs and cuts that came within only an inch of her skin.

Until one came closer than that.

The knife slash cut up her bare arm above the elbow, making a long cut that extend from above the elbow to the shoulder. It bled openly, and the girl cried out in pain as a kick sent her to the ground. The bandit quickly pinned her to the ground, smirking.

"And that, is that."

He raised the knife to deliver the final blow.

High above, Falkor watched the 'duel'. Despite the fatigue that plagued him, he stayed airborne. Weather that be curiosity or concern, he watched. However when the bandit finally pushed his maiden down he pulled his wings in and plummeted from the sky like a rock.

Feet from the ground his wings opened with a leathery 'snap!' before he hit the ground smoothly. His massive form easily eclipsed the bandit from behind, the early morning light shining through his outstretched wings was a scarlet orange. However, he did not wait for the Bandit to make a move to turn around... In front of the Maiden's eyes, a massive clawed hand seemed to close all the way over the Bandit's head as the claws dug into the flesh below his jaw, quickly drawing blood as the bandit screamed in surprise...

And without much more effort the massive muscles in the dragon's biceps flexed smoothly as he bodily pulled the Bandit up and backward into the air, hanging from his skull. The Drache snorted softly and stated shortly, "Bad Hyoomane." Before he slammed the bandit down onto the ground at his feet. Looking -waaay- down at the stunned Bandit he shrugged and promptly stomped a massive clawed foot down onto the Bandit's head with a wet *spleck!*

((Hope it's OK, you can yell at me later if I need to change the post any. ;) ))

Blood splattered onto the ground, coating the immediate area around the bandit's location with thick red liquid. The girl shuddered as blood splattered onto her skin and clothing, disheveling her appearance even more. She looked up into the massive creature's face in bewilderment.

"You...saved me..." Was all she could utter.

Falkor looked down at his foot and softly wiped his foot off on the dead bandit's shirt, lacerating his chest and ripping apart his shirt while doing it... Sighing as he shook his head at the mess covering his foot and lower leg. However, when he'd finished he looked over towards the girl softly and finally took note of what she said...

Crossing his arms, he cocked his head to one side as he looked her up and down. Reaching down he offered a massive hand, the tips of the claws still dripping softly with blood. He gave a soft smile, "Well, whud'd yeh expeck? Ah wuz gunna le'cha die n' stoof? Nah. Been thro' too moock truble t' geef oop n'yeh." He looked down at the bandit.

Crouching he literally began carefully taking off the bandit's pants and shoes. His massive hands and claws were unwieldy, "Y'kent goh wandrin' bout wid joost a mussied oop robe an' no shoes. S'yeh kno' Moight s'well jus' goh'n git yeh d'ese. Ken yeh 'elp?"

She looked up at the massive hand extended towards her, it's claws still dripping with blood. She looked up at it. Maybe the stories were true, after all. This creature, while it looked fierce enough, did seem to be quite protective of her, as it had just demonstrated in slaughtering her attacker with a swift stomp of her foot. It looked as though it seemed genuinely interested in her well-being.

Maybe it didn't want to kill her after all...

She took it's outstretched hand, and was hoisted up to her feet, almost throwing her across the road (the thing obviously didn't seem to know it's own strength.)

"Well, whud'd yeh expeck? Ah wuz gunna le'cha die n' stoof? Nah. Been thro' too moock truble t' geef oop n'yeh."

She looked at it for a second, as if wondering if it was really being genuine. "I guess not..." She said, still slightly whimsical. Perhaps it would be best if she didn't go running off alone again, even if her only option was with this...beast. No, she would have to stop thinking if it as that, even though it's mannerisms weren't exactly...sophisticated.

Suddenly, it stooped down, and began fondling with the dead bandit's body, much to her surprise.

"Y'kent goh wandrin' bout wid joost a mussied oop robe an' no shoes. S'yeh kno' Moight s'well jus' goh'n git yeh d'ese. Ken yeh 'elp?"

She stood there for a moment, wondering if it had just said was actually true. She gazed at it as it tried to get off the man clothing, ripping and tearing it in the process. Then, suddenly, she laughed.

"Stop." She said, smiling now. She knelt down beside the headless body, trying to not notice the blood. "You're making it worse..."

Falkor took the hint that he was making things worse, he pulled his hands carefully away and with an almost amusing waddle backwards, his wings flipped softly back and fourth to keep him upright as he backed away from the body and the Lady. He settled back onto his haunches and watched the lady quietly... She'd taken reasonably good care of herself in the earlier fight against this dead bandit. Maybe she -was- worth while to take care of? Nothing like many of the other sub-kingdoms which had attempted to hire him on as a guard for their 'beautiful maidens'.

He paused before realizing he in fact did not remember her name, maybe she never told him. He folded his wings carefully and watched her for a few more moments before asking; "Yeh kno'se, D'ya haffa name? Ahm called Falkor th' Drache. O'cerse, y'kno'se yeh probleh ken call meh Falkor."

As he sat there, he took a brief look around to look across his surroundings... Making sure they were in fact, alone. He couldn't have them being ambushed.

The girl looked down at the headless corpse, pretending not to notice the blood that puddled around her as she carefully the clothing he was wearing. She held his vest in front of her. It was big, designed to be worn by big men like he was. It was torn on various places were the thing's claws had ripped it, and blood stained it. She looked at it with disdain, before looking at her own ragged clothing, which weren't much better at any rate.

"Couldn't there have been less blood?" She remarked, staring at the thing. She sighed. "We should find some place to wash this." She looked up at the...drache, was it? Even though it had just introduced itself, she found the name hard to remember.

"I'm Xiao. Just...Xiao." She smiled. She thought it would be okay to say her name by now. She no longer believed it would kill her -- right now, at any rate.

OOC-Hello. I'm the guy asked to RP the bad guys. This is a placeholder.