Thursday's Child: Sealamin Di'Rahalt

[Badelaire]

Thursday's child has far to go...

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=k4Qo4vxXpC8

'A single arrow can be broken but many arrows bound together take considerably more effort. Sometimes those arrows do not sit well amongst each other in the quiver, but they will still find their mark when you launch them.'

And what am I so far?
Just a leaf driven by the wind.

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NbKA7COPY-E

'It has been a very long time since I stopped to think of my current circumstance. My alloted span is two centuries. The despicable people I am paid to hunt live but a fraction of that time so why is it they seek oblivion into the Grey so easily? I will not understand human-kind, nor will I ever warm to elven. Both are as flawed as one another. Opposite sides of the same coin.'

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=REL0DJkFx28

'Having mastered the techniques of elven archery, passed on from my mother, I find a certain thrill in ending the life of wicked others. I take the best of both worlds and make my own way. I do not need friends or lovers. I will only outlive them. There is only the thrill of the hunt and the sound of fletching whistling through the air. To kill is to be liberated from the fear of mortality. A true hunter never takes their eye off the target.'

[Badelaire]

'These shills of the mist goddess can be a bit pathetic, the lack of convictions and apathy towards others seems counter productive to a cause. Many seem to betray their own words and kind for what I can only perceive as fairly trivial end results. Their very human motivations for doing so should speak volumes. I was a shepard before the turmoil and in some ways I still am. The weakest become a meal to the masses. Never place your trust in others lightly. You will only find disappointment. There's merit in a solitary nature. It allows you to see the wolf coming for the herd.'

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eb6MF0IfsvQ

'Blanca keeps haunting my steps with his vulpine ways and whispering in my ears in an unsullied voice the comings and goings of people kind to him. I don't know why he does this nor why I should care for his well being but his childish curiosity warms my heart and reminds me of times spent hand-in-hand with my mother. He brought word of the Pale Girl who rubs his chin so warmly and makes his ears go flat. Despite being a manhunter, I do appreciate the people who make life seem less cruel and spiteful. I should have asked for names so I could remember the people who fought by my side more often. It is the dead who are my true enemy. I doubt I have the arrows to quell their ranks.'

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5zsY3PxYM0M

The ferrymen were known to those who wander the mists. They take those who subdue them to the destination of their choice but Sealamin had failed to subjugate this one. It was too quick, unerringly so, and had dispatched those he was accompanying with little effort. Now it had him by the throat, lifting his feyblood form off the ground like a child with a doll and led him to the edge of the void. He didn't thrash or kick or scream, there was nothing he could do now but accept as he was hurled headlong into misty nothing with its rictal grin mocking his descent into the nether, that awful formless whispering echoing through his head as he fell deeper and deeper...

Snapping out of his reverie with a start, the shivering cold Sealamin felt had nothing to do with the late showers that had drenched him to his skin as he curls up into a ball, dragging his cloak over his head to try and block the recollection out with the comforting black abyss of more human sleep...

[Badelaire]

The blade pushed against Seal's chest as he slept, the point digging in and rousing him from his human slumber. A rough Balok-edged voice grumbling in the dark.

"Hello feyboy, sleeping rough again?"

"I like the sound of the brook here."

"Ye're an odd one. I got another job for you. Fella' is nasty piece of work feyboy. Ye're don't leave witnesses and I wan' this piece of rahat vanished acum? He' be free wiv som' women folk an' 'at nu sit right with me. Ye'r in?"

"Rahat?"

"Means dung feyboy, why you ask?"

"Sounds awfully close to my clan name."

"Bwahahahahaha, Seal Shit! 'ats what I be callin' ye fom now on!"

"I'd rather you didn't. You look better without a lot of arrows sticking out of you, they would make you look silly."

[Badelaire]

"Hey, fey boy. That's a real nice sword there, wanna sell it to me? I'll take that smouldering coat too if you're just going to toss it away to these tigans..."

[Badelaire]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAEqmp1yfpM&feature=player_detailpage

He wanders about from place to place, a seeker looking for everything and nothing. People are usually only inerested in his aim but not everyone. Some people just looked for him and as he emerged from the horrors of the mist's Paling Fence, he could not remember the last time someone was so glad to see him. It had been that long he had spent walking alone.

"Good to see you, Feyboy. I was worried but I knew you'd come out of there!"

"So that is what a hug feels like."

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAL4uwXgTE&feature=player_detailpage

"You are still a child until you tell your story through your skin. Only then will you be a man. She will make you a man and chronicle your story as an adult through your flesh. This is our way. You are still Sy-tel-quessir by blood as well as human. It is time to leave your childhood behind."









"It will be a lifetime test of endurance. Lives are meant to be a constant trial for The People. Burdens are shouldered. Sorrows buried. You cannot change what has gone before and you cannot always choose the easiest path laid out in front of you. This is how we grow strong like the woods around us. We weather all and anchor our roots deep. You know this much already and yet you have farther still to go. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb. You are as human as you are elven, it is not what you are but what you do that others will remember you for."

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=in_Oyywwqa0

The she-wolf's attack was sudden and unexpected, slamming Seal into a tree with a heel kick to the stomach. The air wooshed out of his lungs as he was taken by surprise, tucking up into a defensive ball as frenzied kicks and punches rained down on him as he waited for an opening. Launching up off his feet he was able to hook an arm under one of her legs and unbalanced her, dropping low to sweep the other leg out from under her. With this he springs to one side, masking his form with his cloak and slinks into the long shadows the full moon casts as the she-wolf clawed and howled at the air, charging off in rage.

The all too familiar taste of blood fills his mouth as he swallows it down, spitting it out would leave a scent trail that all but screams out to the other predators in the night like the she-wolf who was taking anything in her sight apart with her hands. With ragged breaths and an arrow nocked he crouches hidden, this was his realm now, the stalker waiting for his prey patiently. He was feyblood afterall, he had plenty of time to be patient as an all too human cold anger seethed through him at being caught off gaurd.

In a blinding flash of light the she-wolf reappeared, blood soaking her hands and face, a mix of her own and those from the wounds she received in her headlong assault at anything in her way.

"FEYBOY!"

Seal steps from the cover of a large and indifferent oak with the Hummingbird raised.

"Help me."

A moment of lucidity, an impassioned plea before Seal shouts hoarsely at her. An uncharacteristic thing to hear his voice so loud.

"ON THE GROUND, ARMS BEHIND YOUR BACK!"

The she-wolf complies as Seal's agile form darts in to plant a foot on the back of her neck, binding her arms together as he hauls her to her feet and slams her face first into a tree in his anger. The she-wolf grunts, every muscle taught as she tries to keep a hold of her own inner rage as Seal shoves her ahead of him to somewhere he can keep her in check. Bound and immobile she thrashes, slamming her head against the wall as her moon madness continues in its ferocity.

"Please, help me! I need you!"

The she-wolf struggles against her bonds, blue bruising and blood forming under the sheer force of her desire to get loose as she continues to twist and kick. Against better judgement Sealamin cuts her bonds, afraid she is going to permanently maim herself, having suffered injuries already but as soon as her arms are free, they claw at him and teeth clamp down into his shoulder with his outcry as an altogether different battle begins...
 

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=J4j04hYjKvA

It had been a tumultuous few days after the affects of Monica's moon-madness became apparent but within the short time they roamed together, what was once a cold and indifferent partnership of necessity grew into something more with each passing day. The cold night rain lashed down on them, the heaven's blessing, as they cut their palms and placed them together. Binding one another at the wrist, Sealamin urges Monica cut the binds that tied physically but not so easily in the spirit. There was no fancy ceremony, no simpering friends and family watching adoringly. They had no-one, alone in the world.



But not anymore.

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xhEj_t8tTLk

The night brought terrors but for such as they it was a profession in hunting and avoiding them. That night though, the balancing point tipped against them for just a brief moment...

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0IQcTcxzCyw

But on they go, poking their noses into places best left untouched. With each new discovery a tapestry of experiences to keep locked away and buried from normal people begins to form...

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jesc3yvZSws

A fairly routine grave-robbing that turned into a wild hunt. A creature that fed on the beauty of women and left defiled bodies behind. Monica was adamant, resolute in her pursuit of the werefox that carried out the atrocities so the they hunted. High and low they looked until the woods revealed a hidden secret. And a night of bloodshed ensued...














Father
Gonna take you daughter out tonight
Gonna show her my world
Oh father

Not about to see your light
But if you wanna find hell with me
I can show you what it's like
Till you're bleeding

[Badelaire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G6ni0a9vuk&feature=player_detailpage

With the skirmish over and Hazlik's departure and warning ringing in their ears, the groans of dying men and the famed owlbears were the only sounds that broke the silence of the woods. Un-stringing his bow and stowing the now unbound stave, Seal leans down on his haunches from his vantage point to call down to his lover.

"Something else, to live in fear isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave."

Looking back over her shoulder to the retreating forms of the Rashemi they escorted, Monica clenches her jaw and takes the hilt of her alien sword in both hands. With quick steps she strides to one of the still moving forms of the Mulani soldiers.

"I'd rather die on my feet fighting, than on my knees begging."














And then that blade was driven home...

[Badelaire]

Spoiler: show

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gDxNDY6LD_o[/youtube]

It was something that had nagged the back of Seal's mind ever since that day. The Inevitable Marut's words and its purpose, how alien it was like this new threat looming over them. How each day peeled away at his perceptions of their world and the understanding of others that lay off in the void of the night sky and the infinite sea of stars. An overwhelming revelation and new fear of what other horrors lurk in the abyss between worlds.

Did this world not have enough?

But despite arrows that punctured the finest of armours and pierce the strongest of magical wards flying off the mechanical being's form, there was a great comfort both literal and figuratively in that day's outcome. The inevitable can be stopped when people find the will to act.








"If you lead that thing to Muhar you die here, by my hand. I will not let you sow destruction on them for your own hubris, devil-blood. Take it to the Wall and play the Invidian bull-fighter..."

[Badelaire]

Spoiler: show

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQE6ybPx734&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

They hit the sands running, Har-Akir was almost a literal forge that Seal had come to know and love well. This land was his proving ground in the early days of Ilyushin's training in the bounty killer's trade. Its heat tempered the strong and made brittle the weak. When the sun ducked below the horizon, the dead clawed their way up through the sands to roam as the accursed and endless but this night they shared the nightly dance with an altogether alien people. The Githyanki. In warbands they came, moving with unerring speed and grace not even the elves of Sealamin's birth land of Sithicus could ever hope to mimic. As always they wanted one thing, the silvered sword from the werefox's treasure trove that Monica had adoringly held so often.

But it was becoming an obsession for her.

As they slew the other-worldly people, the blood from their bodies not even cool on the sands, a note is discovered. The contents are short and to the point: Ambush Seal and kill him in retribution for the blade's prolonged possession in human hands. This discovery seems to shock Monica out of her dreamlike state and with a steely determination she charges the wall of Ra with Invidian fury, its heat peeling her skin and causing smoke to rise from her garments as she hurls the strange weapon with all her might towards the form of the long dead Marut Seal had witnessed die only weeks prior...






"Two halves make a whole, I'll be damned if I'm going to let them take you!"

[Badelaire]

Spoiler: show

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AZprTiS2XTo[/youtube]

Long days pass in idle wandering. Alone once more, for the other half had gone in search of her daughter, the regulator checks his old dead-drops. Long yellowed requests and notices that went unanswered from names he didn't know nor cared a great deal to bother replying to anymore were now used to start his fires come evening. There was a fine line between being a bounty killer and an assassin and most of the time these notes were from someone more than capable of doing the dirty work they paid others to do for them.

If Seal was honest, he just got bored of sitting in seedy taverns drinking rum and provoking ruffians into knife fights. The hectic life of adventure was more fitting than the slow death of idle despair that the common folk live every day. Chasing after a future that did not exist but lying with every passing moment that tomorrow would be better. That good things always come to those deserving. Good things don't happen to people. Good things happen for those who go out and seek them. Sit in one place long enough and something bad will always find you. Or someone...

"Do not play games with killers, little boy, you will just get hurt. Never attack a Sithican in the woods, especially when he has his bow in hand."