An Undead Insurrection

[Mini]

The small village of Kouroshika was literally nestled away between a rock and a hard place. To the west was a large, rock-littered clearing. No wildlife grew there. Long ago it had been a forest, but a terrible war and a raging fire had destroyed and all life that had ever been there. To the east and north were the treacherous Yukiaisu Mountains, which very few souls were brave enough to pass through. Most who tried were never heard from again.

The village sat right at the foot of these mountains. Though it was often cold and they saw a lot of snow, life in the village was, for the most, peaceful. A small forest spread out to the south of the village. Farmers had worked some of the land into fields to plant crops. Children were often seen splashing around in the small creek that ran around the village that had formed from melting glaciers and ice in the mountains. Because the village was so far away from any big village or kingdom, war seldom threatened them.

That all changed on the day a man cloaked in a black hooded cloak entered the village. The man, easily a head taller than even the tallest denizens of Kouroshika. He spoke to no one, returned not a single friendly greeting. Those who were near him when he passed noticed a distinct chill in the air and a strange feeling of gloom wash over them. The man walked down the main street of the village until he came across the inn and tavern. Since it was still fairly early in the day, the tavern was empty save for the young lady sweeping the floor. The man spoke, using as few words as possible, to request a room for at least the next week. The girl was chilled to the bone by his dark and husky voice. She couldn't hurry enough to find him a room key, take his money, then send him on his way. The man vanished up the stairs and stayed in his room for the rest of the day.

As dusk fell across Kourushika, a young boy no older than five slipped away from his mother to go and have one more splash in the puddles outside in his back yard. He picked up a stick and began romping around, roaring as if he was a demon. Just as his mother came out to put an end to his adventures, he caught sight of a bright light streaking across the sky. He pointed to the light, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Look, Mommy! Look! What is it?"

"It must be a shooting star. Quick, close your eyes and make a wish! Shooting stars will grant you a wish if you're a good little boy."

The boy squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. He wished for something exciting to happen. Cautiously, he opened one eye and looked around. "Hey! My wish didn't come true!"

His mother laughed and took his hand, urging him back towards their house. "You have to give a wish time to come true, you silly goose."

The boy turned and looked back up into the sky, but the light was gone. He shut his eyes and made his wish again, just in case the star hadn't heard him. He really wanted something exciting to happen, as nothing exciting ever happened around the village.

The young boy had no idea that his wish was about to come true.

The shining light that had streaked across the sky had not been a shooting star but had in fact been a shard of the Shikon no Tama, or the Jewel of Four Souls, as some people had called it. While it didn't exactly have the same wish-granting power that stars had, it had its own special set of powers. Even a shard this small possessed the unworldly power to resurrect the dead. That is precisely what this jewel was about to do. The jewel fragment shot across the sky over the village and started to fall right over the large rocky field to the west. It landed almost directly in the middle of the field, bounced twice, then rolled to a stop in the dirt.

The man in black saw all of this from his perch on top of a large boulder about ten feet away from where the jewel had landed. He had slipped out of his room unseen and unheard to sit and wait in the field. Somehow, he knew that this jewel was destined to land here in this field. In quite a meticulous fashion, he slipped off the rock, picked up the jewel shard, then started stepping heel to toe to the north. After taking exactly thirty-two paces, he stopped. A soft cackle filled the air as he stooped down and thrust his free hand into a soft spot of dirt. His gloved fingers felt something large and bony. Raspy cackling filled the air as he pulled the object out. It was a large, humanoid skull.

"Tonight is a very special night," he mumbled to no one in particular, gingerly dusting dirt off the skull. "Tonight will be the start of the end. Tonight, all that has been planned will be set into motion. Tonight, Ketsueki Yokushitsu will once again walk these lands!" he yelled, his voice erupting into laughter as he jammed the jewel shard into front of the skull then threw it up in the air.

The skull glowed with an intense purple light as it fell through the air. The ground rumbled. A great rift split open. Bones flew out of the ground, reattaching themselves to each other. The jawbone connected to the skull with a sickening snapping noise. Two eerie flames of yellow burned in the eye sockets.

This process would have continued, had not an arrow struck the skeleton in its back. The man in black gasped and turned in the direction of the arrow. Standing up on a small rise in the field stood a young priestess, empty bow in her hand. "Demons!! Be gone from this land at once!" she shouted, grabbing for another arrow.

"I have no time for this," the man in black said with a sneer. He reached into his pocket and threw a smoke bomb in front of him. When the smoke cleared, both the man in black and the half-revived skeletal creature were gone.

The priestess stood alone on the hill, arrow in hand. A cold wind blew around her, chilling her to the bone. She shivered. "This is not good. Not good at all," she whispered. "I need to find help. And fast."

[clayton]

"Are you sure that this is the right way?" Raven asked for the third time that evening. He was sore and exaughsted from the battle they had fought earlier, and did not want to risk running into any more demons soon. The village that Merissa was leading them too sounded perfect for them to stay at. He shivered.

"It has to be. Father's notes contained maps of the entire area. There was only one village in this area just west and south of the Yukiaisu Mountains." by the sound of her voice Raven could also tell that she was tired. As she spoke, a star shot across the sky leaving a trail of cold fire across the sky. Merissa looked up at it and smiled remembering the the stories her mother used to tell her when she was little. She streched her arms to the night sky and closed her eyes. "I wish for the happiness that I feel in my heart to last me all my life. That this village will give me hope of living a normal life."

Raven laughed also noticing the shooting star. "Right now I woud give anything just to get out of this cold. How far from the mountains did you say this village was again?" He shivered, knowing this area was prone to snow. He hoped if anything they would be able to find someplace warm and dry in case the mountains would assault them with it. "Damn this cold." he mumbled to himself.

"Raven look!" Merissa pointed to a nearby hilltop. There was a purple glow spreading the top of the hill. Raven grabbed at his sword and started to draw it when suddenly the ground rumbled. There was a second flash of light and suddenly everything was dark again. The ground fell silent and everything was still.

"We should check it out. Someone could be in trouble." Merissa spoke, suddenly running towards the hill, Raven sprinted to catch up to her.

"Are you crazy? What if its a horde of them. You know we cant use the power again today. It would kill us both." he shouted at her.

"You have your sword dont you?" she snapped. "Just because you want to take the safe route doesnt mean we leave others to perish so we can live for another day. Now let's go"

Raven shook his head and mumbled dark things as the two of them made their way to the hilltop. Merissa was much too careless these days. It was going to get them both killed.

[Mini]

The young priestess jumped a mile as she both heard and saw someone else approaching from beyond the hill. She raised her bow back up, aiming to shoot if another demon, skeleton, zombie, or monster were to approach her village. If it was the man in black again, she would most definitely shoot, no questions asked. If it was that skeletal thing, she didn't know what she would do. Her arrow hadn't seemed to do much damage to it.

It was to her surprise that not one, but two people came hustling towards the hill. The figure closest to her was a girl who looked fairly young. The figure behind her was a tall and strong looking young man. Were these two just travelers? She sensed no demonic aura from them. Still, it was always best to err on the side of caution. She kept her bow up.

"Who goes there?! Be ye demons? Do ye know the man in black? Is that why ye have come here, to finish whatever sinister evil he has started?!" she demanded, a fierce look burning in her eyes.

[Knight]

These days found Lucience traveling more often than not- what else was there to do, when one was a walking corpse wrought of sinister magic? In truth, he did seek a remedy to undo what was brought upon himself and thus he wandered. Where he sensed overwhelming auras, demonic or otherwise, he would search out the source and confront it. If it was no use, he would move on or destroy it. He followed no map and the wind was his guide as he trekked through the forests towards the small village of Kouroshika and intended to head straight on through the mountains that none dared cross.

Though as he moved through the overgrowth, the opposite side of the pair and priestess, he had seen and felt the presence of the Jewel shard as it found the earth, and the subsequent dark energies that perverted the very air. Lucience quickened his step, but arrived at the hill too late. The source of the energies had gone. The priestess seemed to be calling out at something, so he merely watched from the shadows and made his best effort to appear inconspicuous, drawing the overcoat hanging from his shoulders closer.

[clayton]

Merissa saw the priestess and immediately bowed before her.

"Nay my lady, I am not a demon, nor be I in league with them. My brother and I are merely travelers in this land, and we had hoped to seek shelter and aid in your village. As for the man in black, I know him not. We only saw flashes of light upon the hilltop and decided to investigate. Right Raven?" she looked back at her brother with a 'watch-what-you-say." look on her face. The last thing they needed right now was to be turned away, especially when it looked like something bbad was going to happen to this area soon.

Raven inclined his head s lightly. "My sister speaks the truth, if your village agrees to let us take shelter for a few days, than in return we agree to help you with any problem you may be facing. Demon hunting may not be our profession, but we have some experience in those matters, if it is indeed a demon that poses a threat."

[Mini]

The priestess lowered her bow as she saw that the two who approached her appeared to be just as human as she was. She sighed softly in relief, for she had been very afraid of who and what they might have been. They were dressed for traveling, that much could be certain, and they looked very tired.

"Forgive me," she said quietly, glancing them over. "I know not what just happened prior to your arrival, but it could only be bad. A man dressed in black was in our village earlier. He came out here and was... He was... Did you see what he did?" she asked, a horrified look on her face. "He reached into the ground and pulled out a human skull, and then I saw a bright purple light. The whole earth shook, and bones came flying up out of the ground to form a person! I shot the creature with one of my arrows, but then they vanished in a puff of smoke. I thought you and your brother might have been the man in black or that skeleton thing," she said, shivering. As she spoke, the formality of her speech seemed to vanish entirely. Sighing, she ran her free hand through her short dark brown hair.

"Did you see any of it? I'm really quite-- wait. Do you sense that?" she asked, whipping her bow back up as she turned to scan the surrounding area. "There's someone else out there. I can sense it," she whispered, holding her arrow taut.

[Knight]

Lucience's solemn expression shifted, each corner of his lips turning upwards in a wicked grin whilst he watched the priestess quickly become alert again when she sensed some of his aura. There was no point in hiding any longer and risk a misunderstanding, so he moved out from his place in the shadows and walked the rest of the way up the hill, heading towards the three. He kept his hands lowered and tucked away beneath the overcoat draped on his shoulders. The nightly wind toyed with strands of his hair that came loose, blowing it about.

"If you intend on using that, then do so now while you've the chance." Lucience called out with a taunt. He stopped still a good ways away to prevent provoking the priestess any more than she already was, but his hands remained clenched tightly into fists. If the priestess fired upon him, he'd be ready with a spell to defend himself and then he would have to disable her quickly and possibly kill the other two if they proved themselves to be trouble.

[clayton]

Raven tilted his head as he tried to push the barriers of his mind out towards the empty land around them. He could sense something, or someone out there, more than one of them in fact, but both from different directions. One closer than the pther one, probably even close enough to see them. the other felt quite far away and veru strange.

"I can feel something." Raven began, but its unusual, not like any demon I have felt before, indeed it barely feels demonic, it feels....evil." as if that msakes it any better. he thought to himself smugly. "I cant tell though that there is more than one entity out there watching us right now."

"You mentioned a skeleton-figure' Merissa added stepping infront of her brother and addressing the priestes directly. "a man in black as well, but you did not tell us how they came to be here or what they are. A priestless like yourself would not attack anything with blessed arrows unles they are a threat to themselves or the ones the protect. Who are they?"

It was then that the figure at the bottom the hill chose to make themselves visible to them. He was draped in an overcoat, that hid most of his face and features, but Raven could make out masquline form beneath the layers of its cloak. He quickly found the handle of his sword and gripped it tightly waiting for the figure to make the first move Merissa did the same with his scythe. Out of the corner of his mouth he whispered to the priestess. "Is this him?"

[Mini]

The young priestess ((who really needs a name))gasped as the dark clothed figure made his way out of the shadows of some of the larger rocks and practically strutted up the hill towards herself and the two travelers. A cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. Something about this man, if he could even be called that, gave her the heebie-jeebies. She was vaguely aware of the other two talking, but then they too noticed this stranger approaching them. The man had a sword, she saw. Thank goodness, she also thought. The young girl also had a weapon.

"N-No, this is not the man in black I saw earlier," she whispered to Raven. "This man is different, but I sense a very dark power around him."

Clearing her throat a little, the priestess stood up straight and tried to make herself looking menacing. It was a bit hard to do when a part of her wanted to run screaming back to the village, but she wasn't about to let anyone know that. She pulled her arrow back and held it taut, ready to fire it at a moment's notice.

"As priestess and guardian of this village, I order thee, stop right there! Take one more step and I promise ye, I will shoot! What is thy name, and what be thy business here?!" she demanded of the stranger.

[clayton]

"who then?" Merissa whispered silently to the priestess. She knew her brother could feel this man's evil aura, if he was indeed a man. Though he had no visable weapons, she could tell that he was hiding a fierce and deadly power underneath that cloak.

"Can you ?" Raven mouthed to her in the darkness. What he was asking was if she c ould use her power to temporarily render anyones power in the general area for over an hour, it would make her physically exaughsted but it helped them escape dangerous situations. The only problem was they had been walking all day, neither Raven or Merissa could use their power without it killing them in the process. It did not look good for any of them. Merissa could only hope that this man wasnt as sinister as she looked.