The Adventure Begins

[Fujisawa4654]

I was stunned at the mere sight and thought of what would happen. I just kenw I was doomed and the city around it. This wasn't going to end well.

The ship was burning red hot, it would nto be able to take the landing. THe first thing I did was look around me, there was nothing I could use, but an idea hit me...
The wall I broke. That didn't take much to break it for some reason.. Maybe.. Just maybe I could stop teh ship from landing hard, who knows, probably throw it back into space or at least someplace remote.

I looked back at teh ship that was heading for me, only to notice it was about 1/3 of a mile away from me. That ruined my concentration, I could only think of 2 words, "Oh !@#$" I burted out running away from it as fast as I can, but soon after I tripped and fell into a ditch. I just put my arms to cover my head and waited for the inevitable.

There was silence at first, but then I could hear it, It passed right behind me, the sound that it made when it wooshed by, the fires, the alarms... Then it hit. I could hear it land, I felt the ground shake, dust,sand,and rocks roared over the surface hitting me along the way, then, there was slience again. The dust soon setteled, but no big boom.

I stood up, my body was soar from all the debris and rocks and whatnot hitting me. I saw the path the ship had left, it looked like it plowed through the plains. THe ship obliterated every structure that was in it's path, including one of the palace towers.

I ran over to the beginning fo the path it made, my god, it wasn't very pleasant to look at either. Finally I saw the ship, it was in a nearby lake, which was a good thing because it extinguished the fires. But I noticed one more thing that terrified me. The clinic was ran over as well, with Dr. Jabanijan... I don't know how everyone will take this, it didn't affect me much because I hardly knew the guy.

I wondered where the others had went, but I was clueless. I just hope they weren't in the clinic.

[larewen_evenstar]

Lan stopped running, "My staff! It's still there! I have to go back!" She turned and ran back towards the burning debris of the clinic.

When she reached it, she started climbing over the rubble, or what was left of the rubble.
"I can't leave it in here!" She pushed some of the rocks to the side, leaving burn marks on her hands, but she didn't care, she had to get the staff back. If she lost it then...

She shook her head, and tried not to think of the consequences. She pushed a couple more rocks aside, and saw it. Untarnished, it was alright.

She sighed and pulled it out from the rubble.
She stood up to leave, then saw what looked like a person underneath the rubble, she wwalked over carefully and knelt down next to it.

"Doctor? Are you okay? Are you still alive?" Lana bent over, she didn't want him to reply, but at the same time she did.

"Doctor...please answer..." Lana sat next to him, she put a cheek just above his mouth, he was still breathing.

"Lan..." Dr. Jabanijan grumbled,

"What?" She asked, sadly.

"Am I alive, or did it kill all of us?" He stuggled to get the words out,

"You're alive, but you look like you're in a lot of pain."

"I am." He coughed, then tried to move, but to no avail.

"What can I do?"

"End it."

"I can't. I've killed enough people in my life, I don't want you on my list as well."

"Please, I'm in too much pain to live."

She took a deep breath. "Very well." She looked at him. If Yumi found out she'd killed him...well, yumi would probably try to kill her too. But living in pain was worse than dieing.

She struggled to decide what to do, then she placed her hand firmly over his mouth, and held his nose closed with her other hand. She waited until his chest stopped moving, and took away her hand. She checked for any signs of life, but it was over. He would at least be more comfortable now. He wasn't in pain anymore.

She stood up, picked up her staff and walked away from the body, and the ex-clinic.

Yumi watched her as she came back,

"Is he okay?" She asked, tears streaming down her face.

"No. He died. I'm sorry, Yumi."

[executor82]

Kane opened his eyes and looked up into the clear sky. He must have passed out while total chaos raged around him. The only thing he could remember was, that he, Yumi and Lan hasted out of the clinic and that the huge ship crashed just a few seconds after they had left. He jumped forwards and shielded Yumi and Lan with his own body. Then he felt that debrits and rocks were raining down on them and that he got hit severel times pretty badly. One rock hit him into the side and broke his injured rip completely. The pain rushed through his entire body and then it all went dark and quiet....

He looked around. Just 20 meters ahead of him there was left a huge path where the ship ran over anything that came into its way. Then he saw the others standing at the remainings of the clinic. Yumi has fallen to her knees and cried. Lan stood in front of her and just watched. And where the heck was Miles??

He tried to get up, but the pain was unbarable. So he just layed down and waited for the others to help him.

Jepp! And that's the point about having a 'long and healthy life'. If this goes on I won't even survive the next morning!

[larewen_evenstar]

Lan ran over to Kane when she saw him fall down again.

"Oh my god, your hurt!" She bent down over him, "Where does it hurt?" She watched him for a moment, then looked aorund, "Where;s Fiore?!"

[executor82]

"It hurts everywhere. But the worst is my darn rip. It's broken!", he replyed with a huddled voice. "I dunno where she is. I haven't seen her since we left the clinic. Let's hope she survived that and is save."

He suddenly winced and spit out some blood. Then he tried to smile. "Well, it seems that it's your turn to get me to a healer, huh? What about Yumi? Is she allright?"

[Spanner]

Itamar Lowe studied the books in front of him intently. His eyes ached at the effort of reading in such dim lighting, but he was determined to succeed. He had already absorbed the rudiments of the written language used by the Shadow Tribe, but was still a long way from mastering it.

Suddenly, Itamar could hear the sounds of shouting coming from outside of his home. Alarmed, he leapt to his feet and hurried outside.

Into a nightmare.

The shouting he had heard could now be differentiated into two kinds of sound - angry yelling, and tortured screams. Fires burned everywhere he could see, and unmoving bodies littered the ground. The people who were still moving were running for their lives.

Itamar looked to see who they were running from, and his blood chilled. They were humans! Humans like himself. No, he chided himself, they were nothing like himself. These humans carried long spears and bright lights to illuminate the darkness. Whenever one overtook a blue-skinned tribesman, the unarmed victim was slain without mercy.

Itamar watched in horror as a young girl, certainly no older than seven, tripped and fell, the doll she'd been carrying tumbling from her hands. A human soldier loomed over her with a twisted smile on his face. "No, don't hurt her!" Itamar cried, horrified.

The soldier glanced up at him in irritation. "What are you getting so worked up about? She's nothing more than a blue-skinned animal, just like the rest of these vermin. The sooner they're all dead, the better." He punctuated his remarks with a downward stab, pinning the girl to the ground through her chest. The blue-skinned girl shrieked one last time, and then was silent.

"You monster!" Itamar roared, lunging forward and striking the man across the face. He had been training with Aereala and her fellow Hunters in hand-to-hand combat, and there was some skill behind his blow. The soldier was flung backwards to the ground.

He stood angrily, and wiped a bit of blood from his mouth. "What are you - some kinda Phantom sympathizer? I'll kill you, too!" He roared and rushed at Itamar, spear outstretched.

Grimly, Itamar stood his ground and waited for the attack to connect. The experiments the scientists had engaged him in over the past few days had given him confidence in this strange ability, and he trusted it now. Sure enough, when the spear impacted his chest it splintered. The surprised soldier staggered a few steps, completely surprised.

Without hesitation or mercy, Itamar attacked him, landing blow after blow. Soon, the man lay unconscious on the ground. Itamar was sorely tempted to find a spear of his own and finish him off, but there were others that needed saving. It was too late for the young girl, but she was not the only one fleeing in terror.

Then, the fires disappeared. So did the bodies, and the soldiers, and the lights, and the destruction. "What...?" Itamar asked, confused. "What is going on, here?!"

"I am very sorry," a familiar voice called from behind him.

"What? Aereala?" Itamar whirled to see his friend gazing at him sympathetically.

"Where are the soldiers? The fires?" His eyes focused on a now empty spot of ground. "The little girl?"

"They were all illusion," Aereala replied. "I neglected to inform you, but today was the Day of Remembrance."

"The Day of Remembrance?" Itamar repeated, confused.

"Yes. Every year, the Phantom Tribe uses its abilities to reenact the most horrible slaughter our people ever faced at the hands of our enemies. It happened three centuries ago... The people of Roshtaria discovered our home, and attacked us. We numbered ten thousand. Of that ten thousand, less than five hundred survived. Warrior or scholar, man or woman, adult or child, we were cut down without mercy."

"Horrible," Itamar swallowed.

"I'm sorry you had to endure that," Aereala said eyes lowering guiltily. "Believing that it was real."

"No," Itamar replied, voice a little firmer. "It was for the best. Now I know firsthand what your people have had to face in the past. There is no way that such a slaughter could ever be forgiven!"

"Even if we brought it on ourselves?" Aereala asked in response.

"What? How could you have possibly brought something like this on yourselves?"

"Our leader at the time was a... vengeful man. He was filled with spite against Roshtaria for the crimes they had committed against our people in the past. He especially loathed the way that they used the Eye of God to keep us cowed and in check. So, without the knowledge or consent of our people, he arranged the assassination of one of the two ruling princesses of Roshtaria - the only ones who could control the Eye."

Itamar blinked. That was surprising to learn, given all that he had learned so far about the peaceful natures of the Phantom Tribe. Then he chided himself for his short-sightedness. The Tribesmen were people, too, and undoubtedly had a few bad eggs among them.

"The queen was enormously popular, and her people were enraged at her murder. It was clearly the work of the Phantom Tribe, and nothing short of war would appease them." Aereala sighed. "It was the beginning of the most thorough manhunt for our people we had ever faced. Eventually, we were found. And we were slaughtered."

Itamar mulled over this a few moments. "It does not matter," he breathed, finally. "The death of one woman does not warrant the murder of an entire race. It still cannot be forgiven." He flashed Aereala a smile. "Thank you, though, for being honest with me. I could easily have forgotten that your people are not without flaws, and your enemies are not without virtues."

Aereala returned his smile. "We are really not so different from your kind. I often find myself wishing, though, that your kind were as tolerant as you, yourself, are."


"Aereala, report."

"Itamar now knows of the Massacre, and of the reasons behind it. He remains sympathetic to our cause."

"Excellent," Nahato replied.

"My lord, may I ask a question?" Aereala's leader nodded for her to continue. "Why did we tell him the whole story? Wouldn't it be better for him to believe our complete innocence in that incident?"

"Perhaps at first," Nahato answered. "But what if he were to discover the truth himself? He would feel betrayed, and likely lose all sympathy for our cause. No, it is best that we feed him our history in full. But slowly, and in the order most likely to secure his trust. Eventually, he will need to be told the story of my predecessor, for our enemies will surely tell him if we do not. Knowing that we have, at times, had leaders with... poor judgement will soften the blow."

Nahato's expression was very stormy, and Aereala knew better than to press him further. "It is as you say, my lord," she responded. It was no secret that Nahato had greatly admired Lord Galus. It was undoubtedly galling to him to imply that Galus might have been insane. However true that might have been.

"Aereala, I believe that our guest will soon be ready to fight on our behalf. Continue his training, and await further instructions. You are dismissed."

Aereala nodded, and departed.

[Fujisawa4654]

I stared, assessing Lana on what she was doing to Dr. Jabanijan. First it looked like they were talking to each other, but then Lana did something, then she left, the Dr's body was still lying there, prefectly still. That lead to a suspicion.

I ran over to Dr. Jabanijan and the ruined clinic. Just by assessment he was dead, but how I was still not sure of. I examined his head, no bad bruises, then I noticed the legs that were bloodied, the rest of his body was not badly hurt, there was no sufficient evidence of him dying on his own unless.. Lan killed him.

I was wondering why, but I did remember that she used to be with the bugrom and lana attempted to kill princess Fiore I believe. I have no idea why she would do that though. I looked around and saw Kane and the rest, including Lana.

She was right there, if she had not told them, she would be there...

I walked over, and instead of approaching this 'conflict' directly, I took a rather different approach.

"Oh there you are," Kane said with a slight smirk. "I was beginning to think you were dead." I just ignored him. "Yumi.." I said softly. "May I borrow you for a sec." It was no use, she was still sitting there, crying. I wouldn't be suprised, her father died, but for some reason I just didn't care.

[larewen_evenstar]

Lan knew Miles knew that she had killed Dr. Jabanijan. And she wasn't going to stop him from telling everyone. The Doctor had told her to do it. She was carrying out his wishes. She hated seeing people in pain, and that was helping Dr. Jabanijan with his pain. She had stopped it. Although she wasn't proud of herself for doing so.

"Well," She watched Miles as he took Yumi slightly away from the group, "I'll see what I can do. Enough people are in pain, I don't want you to be one of them." She didn't plan on hurting him, killing kane was the last thing she wanted to do. She put an arm very gently underneath his shoulders, and another under his knees, and lifted him up carefully. "We'll take you too a healer. You, of all people, don't deserve to be in pain."

She looked for Fiore as she began walking, she knew she couldn't carry Kane for long, but it was the best she could do. She was careful not to crush his chest, in case it made his rib any worse.

*OOC: remember you can't make other people speak.   *

[executor82]

"Well, where should we go now? Dr. Jabanijan was the only healer I knew here. There might be some other healers around, I don't know. But what I know for sure is, that the best healers are at the palace. But you wouldn't like to return there would ya?", Kane grinned. He regretted it a little that he had visited Floristica that rarely in the past 5 years or so.

He looked at Lan. She had recovered fast and she seemed to be a person of strong willpower. She really had something of a fighter inside her. But the strained expression in her face made her look even a little cute. Or should he say cuter? He still couldn't believe it that she should be working for the Bugrom, she seemed so nice and innocent. He looked at her seriously. "Are you returning to the Bugrom forces after this?"

[larewen_evenstar]

"I wouldn't return to them even if my life depended on it." She looked pained. "I had a terrible time there. The current leader of the bugroms, well...lets just say...he liked me too much." She shook her head and tried not to think about it.

"I don't know any healers in this area, and I'm not taking you to the Hive, so unless Yumi can help you, then I think you're in a bit of trouble." She put him down gently, and pulled him onto her back, where she could carry him more easily. "My medical knowledge is sort of limited, I haven't had many experiences with injured people wanting my help."

[Fujisawa4654]

"Yumi, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to come with me to see your father's corpse." I said, a bit tensely. "But I don't want to, I can't stand to see my father's dead body! I just can't!" She kept on rambling on, I couldn't exactly stand a girl crying so bad, even though i've seen it so many times before... That was it, I grapped her arm, hoping she would pay more attention to me than her father for a while.

"Yumi, I know this is hard to take, but, what happened to my father was even worse."

"How can it be!? That can't be right you're a warrior in the military!"

"I am NOT a warrior, I am a soldier, there's a difference between them." Yumi turned her head, being ignorant as if I am wrong. "I'll at least tell you this, my father was caught in the middle of the war. Now, fufill yoru duties, there was something strange about his death, please, follow me." Still, she was hesitant.

"His wounds, it doesn't look like he died from the ship crash, the wounds prove it." "What? Are you saying he was murdured at the last minute?" "Could be, but I'm not sure, you know more than I do, you have a look."

She got up with her legs shaking, but once she put her head up, I'm sure she saw the clinic, then broke out crying again, falling on me, crying on my shoulder. Finaly she had the courage to speak again, but it was faint. "Who do you think murdured him?" She said with anger.

"Lana." I answered.

"RRrrrgh, that bitch!" she shoved offa me and looked mad as hell. "Wait a sec she--" "SHUT UP!" That was.. Unexpected but... This is best left in their hands, I've interfered too much.

[executor82]

Yumi turned around and glared at Lana. She saw her just dragging Kane away from here. Flames of hatred flamed in her eyes as she picked up a bar that was lying within the debrits. "And now she tries to steal Kane from me! Maybe to kill him too?? I won't allow this! You will regret this you little bitch! You'll pay for iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!", Yumi dashed forwards inflamed with rage.

"I guess so!" Kane replied on Lanas comment. "Well somehow this feels stange. It seems that we have switched places this ti.....", he was cut off by Yumis cry. He looked over his shoulder and saw Yumi dashing towards them holding a bar in both hands and with furiousness in her eyes.

"What the....!!", Kane gasped.

[larewen_evenstar]

Lan turned round, and saw Yumi running towards her.

"Eep!" She began to run away from Yumi, being careful not to hut Kane in the process. "She's gonna kill me! This ain't good!" She put Kane down, and pulled her staff from her belt.

"If you want a fight, I'll give you one!" The staff transformed into a long, silver sword. "You wont kill me, you know you can't!" Lana stood and waited for Yumi to come.

[executor82]

"What the hell is going on??", Kane yelled as Yumi zoomed past him.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!", Yumi didn't respond. She lifted the bar and attacked with a sequence of blows against Lan.

"Yumi! What's going on with you? Are you out of mind? STOP IT!, his whole chest began to hurt when he yelled at Yumi and he was cut off by a fit of coughing. He spit some blood again. He tried to get up, ignoring the pain that rushed through his body. "Lan! Please don't hurt her! I beg you! Do you hear me? DON'T HURT HER!!"

He got to his feet and lurched towards them....

[Fujisawa4654]

Yumi was fighting out of pure rage. Knowing her I thought she wouldn't. She seemed too nice. I ran up to Yumi and grabbed her left arm, the arm that the pole wasn't holding.

"Yumi stop!" I yelled, she stalled, but she responded, "Stop!" she said, then... I don't know how but so fast, that metal pole.. She turned around and swung at my head. Knocking me unconsious on the ground.