Dreams of a Huntress

Fiore had never dreamt before, but her mind was swept away on the voyage of the sleepless seas, her cries of terror and confusion did not leave her jaws, there was no echo in this dark place, where the waves shone ruby red like a tsunami of blood.

Lightning crashed as the waves did in the sky, and Fiore's ride was one of confusion and terror until that was, until she stood, no longer violently rocked by the bloody sea.

Creatures slithered now, in this place that she didn't recognise or understand, where crimson forms arose from the stone floors, around the table where their glowing eyes gazed from the shadows.

Fiore realised that she was not herself in this place, but a shadow; deep and ominous like the figures around her. There were nine by her count, including herself, standing around the dark table, staring at the thing in its centre.

The thing was small and shiny, a tiny pearl streaked in patterns of stark white and midnight black. The Nine figures were reaching for it, the tallest of them sporting giant... horns on its womanly, smokey shape.

Fiore was afraid, but it was not her that reached out her arm, the glowing symbols flashing on her lower bicep, just like the others.

The Pearl began to shimmer, as sparks flew in the air, writhing, shaking, and as the shadows stood and the electricity sparked in the air, the Egg, Cracked.

The Litchen Huntress, shot up, heavily breathing in the cold air, tasting the stale iron of the air, followed by the unmistakeable deafening raw of the storm above.

A fire burned on the warped Red stone, it was cold but Litch-blood ran warm in Fiore's veins, though it did not stop her from shivering from the strange... thing that she had just woken up to, it was odd and disorienting She couldn't quite seem to recall all of it, but whatever it was she had just experienced, paled in comparison the reality.

The Small form of a Litchen female fed sticks to the flame, Fiore recognized her Kajtik (Outfit), looked at the pink of her hair and the darkness of her eyes, She was caring for a sleeping Nero, carefully feeding him the nourishing jouce from her Ricta canteen.

Fiore recognised this place, the Eye of the Sovereign, where Her hunters and the Warriors had first found Nero and Griff-Griff in the depths of Sacred Yrden, the fierce storm raging on the level ground above them.

"Ghila-Shaman?" Fiore asked hesitantly, she clutched the bridge of her button nose, pain hammering through the beginnings of her still restless mind.

The Shaman did not raise her head, she only peered up the Huntress before continuing to feed Nero more ricta Juice, the Red fruit different than the one's they picked from the Ricta trees in the Valley.

Thus Fruit and its juice was a deep crimson, the liquid passing through Nero's dark lips as Ghila hummed "W-Where is Griff-Griff?" it was the first thing she thought to ask, Griff-Griff, shiny and beautiful as she was, was nowhere to be found.

"Arachnis attacked us in the Yrden caves," Ghila spoke in the smooth voice of Chief Ulsa, only it sounded slightly suspicious and angry on Fiore's ears.

"A-Arachnis? ...But... she...." Fiore's eyes welled, she feared the worst for her new friend,

"It stayed behind, I do not know if the Red devil still lives."

Fiore's brow furrowed, marching up to the Shaman and Nero, crouching beside him and flicking away Ghila's many hands.

The Shamen fixed Fiore with curious eyes as the Huntress carefully brushed aside one of the Male's curly long hairs, touching the Litchen tattoos on his handsome face before tipping up the Ricta canteen and gulping down as much as would fit between her red lips.

"The Red woman calls you Fiore... are you Killik? (a Warrior)" Ghila finally spoke.

"Okku-Fioremika." Fiore corrected, fussing over the **** Nero, trying to calm his slight twitching with the gentle rubbing of his strained muscles.

The Shaman's brows raised on her tanned orange forehead "You are Hunting-kin?"

"I am Highest of the Hunt." Fiore corrected again, she glared up at Ghila... This was not the way she wanted to see her.

"Hmmm, you smell like a warrior."

"-Why did you come here?" Fiore stood, her tone flush and un-broken in her native tongue "30 moons, Bajarineh and I looked for you in those caves when Papa died and Ulsa Cheif was sick with grief. We needed our Shaman, but Ghila has been hiding, why? Why now?" Fiore asked, the anger wrinkling her beauty & youth.

The Shaman's eyes gazed curiously at Fiore's Mysterian Tattoos, without malice or distrust, she seemed, thoughtful "He is truly the son of the Sovereign?" C

The Young Huntress folded her four arms "Yes."

Ghila nodded "Then I am more of a fool than I thought possible." Crouching by the Red Warrior from another world, examining his horns, feeling the symbols on his bicep, observing the three pointed lines that ran under his eyes and down his cheeks, the mark of one beloved by the Hoard. "Do you know when Chief Ulsa's Devil magic was born on her arm?"

Fiore shook her head.

"On her 19th year, as old as you are now, My mate tried to lay claim to her, as He did me, I was a weak Ruler, Ghila knows this. One hundred good warriors were underground with them, along with Ghila-Shaman... I tried to protect her, but she... exploded, like Devil's black powder, suddenly My mate was shrivelled until his bones were no more than grains of sand, and One Hundred good Warriors were dead and cold.

Ulsa was bigger, stronger, I was small, tired, My chest would not rise with the breath of life, without the Healers quick actions, She would have killed all of us." Ghila told this story with a dark look of conflict on her face "...The Marks changed Ulsa, made her dangerous, unpredictable, she lead her warriors to kill more and more Red Devils, stealing their cargo, arming the Hoard with it. Leading the Tribe away from the Sovereign-"

"So that's why Ghila ran!? because you were scared of Mystrian marks?" Fiore growled.

"Ghila fears nothing, but the fall of the Hoard, and the losing of our Sovereigns ways."

"Red Devils came in a flying metal Bird! they assaulted our people's Valley, do you think that we would have survived without Chief Ulsa and Devil firearms? Without the Nero and Griff-Griff!?" Fiore spoke with a fury she had never known, an authority that she had never carried, a power that she had never felt... was Ghila, right? did the Devil Marks, change her?

But the Shaman did not yell, she only sat by the Warwolf, staring, contemplating "And now, The Wolf that mounts the world, is Red of skin and horned of head..." She frowned, looking like the world that she knew was wrong "...I have kept the Great tree and the Ruins alone, The stars I have followed, have lead me down the wrong path, I was a fool to fight Daughter Ulsa when her time came to be Chief. Everything Shaman Tila taught me was wrong... but I will make it right with sovereign if this Male is his will."

Fiore peered at Ghila, if she was trying to make amends then Fiore wanted no part of it "He needs to taste the Blood of the Warrior, I know you know where the Great tree is, Ulsa-Chief told me of the red Ricta that grows from its branches..."

"Then you will have it, let us go." Ghila stood, but Fiore halted her.

"We wait for Griff-Griff."

The Shaman rolled her eyes "500 Arachni were in that cave, your Red friend is dead."

Fiore smirked as the sound of footsteps echoed in the crater, light footsteps made heavy by exhaustion.

The Litchen, Granddaughter and Grandmother, watched as a silvery form fell from the Craters edge, landing a little clumsily on her feet as she shambled into view.

Griff-Griff's armour was scratched, dented and soaked in deep emerald green blood that was soaked into her short black hair, making her usually regal ivory form appear as a hunched, injured shambler.

Griffin limped over, one of her eyes slightly blackened from where something had hit her hard, clutching a wound on her side as she tossed Ghila back her blood-soaked spear.

Fiore smiled as Griff walked over quietly wheezing as she fell on her ass, gently lowering down the side of her head and laying it on Nero's chest "I am never... doing that... again." She puffed breathlessly, closing her blue eyes and falling into a gentle rest-

"Get up Devil woman, the Great Tree is just past the ruins." Ghila was smiling as she cleaned off her spear, but Griffin's eyes opened with a deep exasperation.

"Ugh." Griff got shakily up to her feet, holding the handle of her sword in her sheath.

Fiore rushed over, dusting her off and taking her giddily into her arms "Griff-Griff is alive! I knew nothing could stop the one who struck that flying ship from the sky!" Fire giggled as Griffin wheezed.

"Please.... stop that, it hurts." Griffin chuckled.

Fiore carried Nero in her left arms, helping Griff along with her right as Ghila trudged forward though the great covered archway of Red sandstone, further into the ruins of "So... your back up on your feet eh? ...You're already changing." Griff muttered as they stepped into the ancient ruins, surrounded by red crags and broken cobblestone huts, Fioremika could tell that Griff didn't like it here.

"Changeing?" Fioremika asked, she could feel them... something was sparking at her insides, filling her with something hungry, something wild that wanted to suck the life from life itself.

"Your 19 years old right, Litchen don't celebrate Birthdays?"

Fiore raised an eyebrow "Birth day? as in the day I was born? Why would I celebrate the day I was born?"

"Mysteria's powers manifest on their 19th birthday, a Catalyst, that's what we call it, it sets everything off, something traumatic or even nearly traumatic..." Griff explained through laboured breaths.

Fiore's mind reflected to Ulsa, those Red-Killers all around her, ready to take her away, she recalled the overwhelming feeling inside, like something had died and been reborn within her, that is when she was branded "...When Ulsa-Chief was attacked?"

"That's right-" Griff erupted in a deathly cough, heavy but breathless, a spray of red leaving her lips. Fiore grimaced, helping Griff stand as she nearly buckled under her own weight "I'm fine-I'm fine." She assured.

"Griff-Griff has lost a lot of blood."

"I'm all out of juice, I can't s-seal the wound." Griff grunted, she did fall this time landing face down in the dirt.

Fiore darted down "Griff!" She cried, rolling the Mysteria over who chuckled, her face covered in dirt, her beautiful lips tainted with blood.

"Ghila! Help me!" Fiore called in Litch-tongue, causing the Shaman to look back and march towards them. "It will be okay, Griff, Fiore promises, She'll heal Nero so He can heal you--" Fiore puzzled as Griffin chuckled, cackling to herself through painful sounding coughs.

"Why is the foolish, red woman laughing?" Ghila asked as she crouched beside them.

"T-Thats, the first time, she's ever just called me Griff! hahaha... hehe.... ugh." She sounded slight loopy, Ghila pulled aside Griffin's hand from her wound, saw the viscous green that oozed from it.

"Venom" She said grimly.

"C-Can you save her?" Fiore asked, but Ghila's expression on darkened further "Please, Please..."

Fiore knew the stories, an Adult Aracni could inject enough poison to kill 30 Litchen in 30 seconds... it was only by the Soverigns graces that she survived, that or... some strange Myserian magic that Fiore didn't know.

Griff was a new friend, and yet, through battle and hardship, the beginnings of a bond had began to burn between them. And the Huntress had lost enough friends.

"We need to get to the tree. Now!" Fiore growled

"It is still an hour away, she might not survive."

Fiore had seen it done many times befoe, not that she had any idea what she was doing. and Yet, as she gently closed her eyes, Fiore tried to imagine taking it away, just a little bit, like picking a Ricta from a tree, something sharp burned against the skin of her arm, and slowly a deep, unbareable pain began to siphon inside, faster and harder than she could bare, the unbearable pain cutting deep into the recesses of her soul, threatening to drag her away.

"I... am strong, Fioremika... will save her friends!"

Fiore's roar echoed throughout the whole of Yrden, her voice cracking through the huge underground structure, as Griffin of Blades gasped to life, Clutching Fiore's arm as she grunted, the unbearable pain still sparking through her body, rattling her bones.

"What did Devil-Woman do!?" Ghila cried.

Griff, looked over Fiore, heavily breathing, sweat coating her youthful beauty "Fiore, did it..."

"You, leeched the pain away, perfect transfer, first time?" Griff whispered in wonder.

Fiore grunted, clutching her gut where Griff's wound was "That gouge, really hurts. a lot." She said through a pained smile.

Griff seemed overwhelmed, confused "Why?"

"Griff... is, Fiore's friend."

The Mysterian warrior sighed, giving Fiore a warm smile and drawing the Litchen into a hug. Fiore flushed, she... had never been embraced by a Red-Devil before, She was warm and strong but soft. "Can you keep a secret?" Griff's voice was but a whispered in Fiore's ears.

"Secret? like a Hoard secret, are we our own Hoard now!" Fiore asked almost too enthusiastically.

Ghila looked Vexed as she picked up the Warwolf, the poor man was being thrown around like a sack of potatoes.

"I suppose like a Hoard Secret, yes... You cannot tell anyone, ever."

"I swear it on the Soverign."

Griffin pulled Fiore tight "My Name, is Aquila, only You and Nero know that. Never tell anyone. Or I'll have to kill you, and I really don't want to do that."

Aquila? that sounded, oddly familiar, perhaps a type of Bird, or maybe a Flower?

"Enough. We will be going, unless Red-Woman wants to die."