(Edited)The Predator of the Dark Woods

Joined: Posts: -19

Antubis and Arken had just got back to Kelrath from a tough day of hunting in Lasentrop, and decided to stop by the boards east of the fountain to see what some other adventurers were up to. It was the same old stuff...poetry, squabbles, and hello's.
Antubis, bored with petty chit chat, headed up to check out the Immortal's board and discovered a path into Nosfer from the woods west of Mt. Haledor. A mischevious grin stretched itself thinly across his broad face, "Interesting...." Being the glutton for curiousity that Arken is, Antubis easily convinced his priestly accomplice to join him on his exploration of the area.
On the wagon ride there Arken started thinking about the name of the city, "Nosfer eh? I've heard that name before....had something to do with bats or something likewise dark and menacing. I'm not getting a good feeling from this...."
" Dark and menacing? HA!" Antubis laughed pompously. "And what pray tell do you think I am priest?"
Arken shook his head in disgust and replied, "Dark and menacing? Aye, perhaps.... but I know your tricks now." The priest of Light let out a giddy laugh, pointed to the marker a few clicks from their position and said, "We are almost there, let us see just how dark and menacing you are."
The two of them left the wagon and headed into unknown territory for them both. A dark wood loomed in the distance, vultures and crows circled the forest, wildlife seemed cautious of even stepping into the shadow of the wood, and even the wind raced through trees chilling Arken and Antubis to the bone.
Arken stifled a sigh and was the first to step into the darkness. The light from Antubis' shimmering ball illuminated the area, and the priest spotted a strange gate with two enormous statues perched atop its beams. The creatures' outstretched wings seemed to silhouette the blue moon of winter and cradle it between the two of them.
" Those gargoyles give me a wierd feeling Ant...." Arken said with a shudder.
" Ahh... come on you've seen worse. Remeber that bone dragon? That had to have been alot creepier than those two statues..." Antubis replied dismissively to the priest.
" Well, yeah.... but why are they facing towards the village instead of outwards to ward off intruders?" The priest asked while eyeing a chameleon perched on a nearby branch.
" Who knows....I'm hungry though, ever ate chameleon? Heard they taste like chicken kebab.." Antubis said quickly to change the subject and hastily drew his sword. Arken rolled his eyes in disbelief and began to chant the words for shrine. Antubis severed the lizards head from its body and barbarically devoured what remained.
" Uh oh...." Arken said as a shrine dedicated to Osiris flashed into existence. " The noise of the forest is gone..... this does not bode well."
A shrill chirping resounded a little to west of them and the Lord of the Fighters gripped his sword tightly.
"What the hell was that?" Antubis asked with only the slightest hint of fear in his voice. They hastily scanned the area and saw an enormous black horde of vampire bats speeding to their location. "Dammit!" Antubis exclaimed and drew his bow. As the first of the bats came into his range, Antubis let fly a shower of arrows....killing only one.
Arken quick chanted sanctuary and bless upon them both and drew his dagger. " What have you gotten me into now! Osiris save me from this man's curiousity..." the priest said under his breath.
The ebony cloud of bats swarmed the area and soon the party's health began to wane. Bat after bat fell at Antubis' feet as Arken attempted a new spell his trainer was in the process of teaching him. His brow furrowed in fervor and Arken loosed a series of strange words. Arken and Antubis immediately looked alot better and Antubis said, "Eh? Good job there priest! You have group heal down now?"
Arken shook his head, "Not completely.....it was luck, I could fail it anytime." The priest pierced the wing of a bat and watched it sail into the bushes near the gates. As he started the chant for another heal, one of the larger bats in the swarm darted down, firmly sank its fangs deep into Arken's neck causing him great pain and knocking him unconscious. Antubis let out a scream of rage and let fly a barrage of slashes unable to be seen by a mortal's eyes.
The bloodsuckers flew in all directions; some impaling themselves on branches, others slamming into trees and falling dead. The unholy cloud of the little beasts began to thin and the bats dispersed sensing their doom. Soon it was just the priest and the Fighter standing in the blood and corpses of an unknown number of bats.
Antubis reached down and smacked the priest with his sword to wake him up. "HEY!" Arken screamed as he awoke. "You smack me with that again and your gonna lose that arm!" he said defiantly. " And dammit... I need some sleep. Those bats drained almost everything I had, one of 'em even friggin bit me."
Antubis nodded, "Yeah okay, take a nap. I'll just sit here and enjoy the taste of my pipe." Antubis lit a small fire and stretched his aching muscles. He stared dreamily at the moon and marveled at the way its beam caused the blood from the bats to glisten like an obsidian jewel. As he slipped further into his thoughts, the loud snap of a twig being broken resonated in the quiet wood.
Perhaps if he weren't so tired from the onslaught of hundreds of bats Antubis would have noticed, but he too was soon fast asleep. He heard a loud scream as Arken departed from life as he knew it and awoke to the sight of an eerie looking beast made of the darkest of dark shadows towering over him. Only two beams of light penetrated the monster's being, and yet even the moonlight trapped in it's eyes seemed somehow captive.
' Damnation!" he screamed and grabbed all of Arken's equipment and recalled to his guild with the power of Shou Lung. Antubis rested inside his guild, awating Arken's voice in his mind. Minutes slipped and turned into hours, hours raced by and changed into days, but still Antubis heard nothing from his companion.
The priest's words echoed through his mind, torturing him daily....
"Uh oh....the noise of the forest is gone..."
"I'm not getting a good feeling about this..."
"Those gargoyles are giving me a wierd feeling Ant...."
AAARRRRGGGHHH......the picture of Arken's agonized face mirrored in the glossy eyes of the dark beast would not shake itself from his memory. The appearance of the beast began to take on a new shape as each night's dreams became less vibrant from memory and more elaborative from imagination and fear. Fire and smoke now surrounded the creature, long horns grew from its spine all the way to its head, and sometimes he even imagined it holding the moon in one hand and the decapitated head of Arken in the grasp of the other.
The beast mocked him, it taunted him, and as time progressed..... it finally came to frighten him. A long and sleepless month had passed for the troubled fighter when suddenly a wispy voice barely intelligable echoed through Antubis' head, "I can't...."
"Can't what !!" Antubis screamed as startled onlookers marveled at his sanity.
"Can't come back..." the whisper of Arken's ghost said. "....kill predator...only....come back..." two pearly eyes flashed inside his mind, a demonic howl shook the fighter to his very soul, and the voice suddenly stopped and Antubis heard no more.
A fiery glow shot forth from Ant's eyes and he bared his fangs in defiance of the dark beast in the forest. "If the monster must die for you to return.... so be it." The Lord of the Fighters raised Shou Lung overhead and in a flash he was gone. The fighter's voice echoed throughout the guild halls, somehow trapped without its owner's throat to silence it, " Your not dying yet, you still owe me money Arken!"