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Brimstone
Dance of the Trapped
By Sylvana Lorrdain (with a bit of dialogue help from Josh Nolan)
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The buildings were coming down around her - perhaps it was part of her lot
in life to be caught in the worst areas of a situation. An explosion had
separated her from the others, the concussion tossing her back and away
from them even as the bright flash momentarily blinded her. The dust cloud
and debris rained down around her, and by the time she could see through
the haze, she was attacked.
She grinned, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, tasting the
blood on her barely-split lip as one might a favoured elixir.
Her pulse pounded in her ears; blood... blood... blood... calling
her to spill it to the ground.
A flash of silver eyes, a whistle of metal through the air, and her
makeshift weapon sliced through. Bones shattered, a scream sang to her
ears - and then nothing. Just her bar-cum-staff halfway imbedded in the
body of her attacker.
Too close. Everything looming, closing in, suffocating. Screams and
explosions filled her ears, dust her lungs.
Trapped.
She had to find them, to leave, to escape. Josh, Alison, Solun - they had
to run, to somehow get out alive.
She cried out in pain as a stray blaster bolt grazed her arm... or was it
that their aim was off? Stupid mistake, that. Letting her see. Letting
her hear... feel.
Blood needed to be spilled, to flow free; red, like life, like a river.
One scream, among many, joining the cacophony... a musical score of
carnage. She didn't pause this time, her still healing leg moving just a
mite sluggishly as she accepted the dance that the music sang to her.
Blood dance of the trapped.
Need air, freedom - have to get out.
Every hall looked like the last. Some empty, some filled with panic, some
she avoided altogether - the air too thick with dust and debris.
Air....
A slight breeze tugged at the strands of hair that had loosed themselves
from her braid. Could be an explosion... could be anything.
It smelled clean, beneath the blood and fear. Clean... like outside.
Keeping an eye out for anyone she cared for, Sylvana followed the scent of
clean. Her eyes now shone a muddy silver as she picked her way through the
chaos, finally stumbling out into daylight.
The sun was bright, momentarily blinding her, but the clean air was life to
her lungs, and she took deep breaths of it, as though afraid that any
moment would take it from her forever. The garden was eerily quiet, empty.
A scream was suddenly cut off, and Sylvana turned just in time to see the
hooded head of a jawa soar past her, blood spattering her as it did so.
A moment of inattention was all it took. The brief thought, So THAT'S
what a jawa looks like! was interrupted by her own scream as the ground
beneath her feet broke like water to reveal the fearsome head of a
landshark.
Quickly, she turned - grasping her bar and attempting a bit of a pole-vault
in order to get away more quickly. She'd barely made it to air when the
creature latched onto her left leg and began to shake her like a toy.
The bar flew from her hands to clatter somewhere on the ground as she was
whipped back and forth. This is it, I'm going to die... she thought
as she shut her eyes tight against the pain. Of course it'd go for the
GOOD leg....
In mere moments, a battle cry rent the air. There was a searing pain just
above her left knee, and she fell to the ground in a heap even as the
landshark that had attacked her roared in pain.
Awkwardly, she rolled to her back and looked up at the blurred figure above
her, hacking the creature's skull in two before turning on her, eyes
blazing as much as the lightsabre in his hands, striped hair flying around
his face as though on an electric charge.
Words of thanks for her life stilled on her lips as the nude figure
crouched down over her, wrapping a hand about her throat. "Hello again,
Highness."
"I'm not..." she tried to push him away. "Get off!" she choked out as his
hand started to squeeze around her throat. Shoulda killed him...
spilled his blood....
"Thought you could hurt me, but I'm stronger, now... oh so much stronger,
Highness."
He was, she could feel it... feel the power and darkness radiating off him
like frozen heat. She gasped for air as he leaned down, almost nose to
nose with her. "You could have led us, but you chose to be a coward. You
chose to hide, to run from your Responsibility, your Right. You could have
saved us all. You didn't, but now I can. I'm stronger. I have power.
Passion feeds my strength and you are no longer needed. You're no leader,
you're an obstacle."
They say that one's entire life flashes before their eyes when they're
about to die. Sylvana was momentarily annoyed that only the past twenty
minutes deemed themselves worthy of a review. She also wondered why in all
hells did it have to be her 'good' leg.
His eyes scanned over her face, reddening now. Her hands scrabbled at his,
trying to push him away, to get air, to breathe. "No... not an obstacle...
a conduit." Herthrir lowered his mouth to her purpling lips for barely a
moment, then bit down to pierce the lower lip then swallowing her strangled
scream before pulling away. "I'll take your passion, your power,
and use it to feed my own, Highness. It will be magnifi-"
Suddenly she was able to breathe again as his hand tore from her throat; as
something, someone, tackled him away from her.
Sylvana gasped for air, pushing herself up with one hand to look and see
what had happened, even as she panted for breath. She dragged the back of
her free hand across her mouth, wincing at the pain in her pierced lip even
as it came away bloody. She spat his taste from her mouth and looked up.
She stilled, her eyes frozen on the scene before her.
Solun.
Solun had saved her, and now had Herthrir trapped beneath him, holding the
mad Firrereo down. She could almost see the darkness radiating off from
him like a live thing, reaching to tear at Solun. To harm him, and free
Herthrir.
The Caamasi held firm even as cuts appeared in his clothing; blood staining
it, and his fur. "How dare you," he whispered.
"I do as I like, Solun. I have The Power now. You don't have any power
over me!" Herthrir spat at him, the phlegm hitting the furred face and
wetting it a shade darker as it slowly trailed downward.
"I have an offering for you," Solun said, his voice strong and calm, even
in this chaos. "An offering my people alone can make. Only an outsider of
powers such as yours can accept this gift, and I think you are worthy of
it."
Herthrir's struggles ceased, a wild light coming once more to his eyes. A
greedy light. "Give it, lest I decide to tear it from you." His
hateful speech was punctuated by another bit of darkness tearing at Solun's
skin, a gash slicing through his ear.
"Very well. I bring you," his eyes locked with Herthrir's as his hands
released him to grab the Firrereo's face between them. "Hell."
Herthrir screamed as decades of gruesome battle memnii flooded into him,
writhing even as his hands clawed at the ground and at Solun to free him.
Sylvana saw a shadow hover over them, and when she looked up she screamed
in alarm. "Solun, look out!"
The Caamasi looked up to see the landshark poised to strike, and as the
mammoth creature began its descent, he gave Sylvana a look that could only
be construed as peace with his fate... as relief.
A moment later both he and Herthrir were gone, swallowed whole.
So passed dear, kind Solun Kla'Unkell.
A sob tore itself from her throat, she had to turn away from where they'd
been, even as the landshark disappeared back beneath the ground. She
covered her face with one shaking hand. "No! NO! It... no...."
She looked up miserably as she saw the ground split open before her, the
landshark resurfacing and looking down at her with glittery eyes. Her
breath caught as she saw a corner of what had been Solun's clothing peeking
from it's mouth.
Sylvana bowed her head, the will to fight had fled.
"I will accept my death with grace, I will face my foe unflinchingly,
and I will die with honor. I won't fight when it is futile," she
whispered, looking the creature straight on.
She would indeed accept her fate... and she would die as she should have so
many times before.
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