[Stressed Out, Hungover, and *Still* in the Spooky Old Woods....]
Rylan had been all the more determined to go to the colony after that little episode of the blonde's. There was *something* at that colony alright....something that she didn't want them to know about.
Otherwise, why would she try and keep them from it? Sure....there's monsters. Rylan would be the first to agree with that, as he had seen plenty of them his first night there. The io that had lain claim to the cabin assigned to them had been an eye-full! But Areinnye, monsters ran rampant *everywhere* on this fvadt planet! Byh'hie's protests -- and her inability to say more than "it's bad" or "it's dangerous" -- just didn't sit well with him.
He didn't give a passing thought as to what may be lurking in the forest around him. If something ugly decided to jump out at him at this point, it would be no real surprise anyway. From what he had seen.... there was more zombies out here than anything else, and they were pretty slow- movers at that. It wasn't as if he couldn't out run them. And besides....he had hated to do it....but he had lied earlier. He wasn't *completely* out of ammunition. He was just low on it, was all. He still had at least a few more shots left in the disruptor. More than enough to take out something really nasty between here and the colony if need be. The lie, however, had been a necessary one. He knew the minute that the zombie had come out from under cover, that D'Tarik would finally start to listen to the girl's shrewish demands, and give in. Rylan hadn't taken into consideration the fact that Byh'hie had wrapped his friend so completely around her finger, that he would bliantly refuse to reclaim the rest of their belongings....namely more ammunition.
D'Tarik was a genius.....na doubt about that. But in some things that boy was completely clueless!
Looking ahead of him, Rylan smiled to finally see the clearing through the trees. He wasn't that far from the colony now. Another fifteen minutes walk, and he'd have the rest of their stuff. Perhaps he'd even have a few moments to spare before he'd have to head back to the others, and he could give their old power-generator a look-over. 'Might not be a bad idea..' he had thought. 'Fix the generator... and we could recharge the old clips as well.'
His footsteps came to a halt at the strange, tap-tap-tap sound that echoed in the forest around him. That sound was a completely new io, as far as he was concerned. He had heard groans and moans from the zombies.....slurps and low growls from the monstrosity of the colony's cabin.... and blood- freezing howls from werewolves.....but 'tappity-tap-tap'? "Now what the Areinnye....?"
It didn't *seem* like a sound that foretold of an approaching doom. It *sounded* more like a kid playing with small rocks. Which...at this stage of the game, only made the new sound more unnerving. What would a *child* be doing, alone in woods that were chock-full of monsters? For that matter....Rylan hadn't *seen* any children at the colony, now did he? But then again....his party hadn't exactly been there long enough to meet more than the Dae'hfir and his garrison. So...children might well exist here after all.
After a short while, the sound stopped. Rylan waited a moment, then walked ahead again when the woods around him remained silent. Not ten feet away from the clearing, the sound started up again; bringing Rylan once more to a confused halt. The crackling, rustling sound as of footsteps on old, dried-up leaves made Rylan spin around to see what was coming from behind.
But nothing was there. Again, for a moment, the tappity-tap-tap seemed to stop, and Rylan turned once more to look at the colony through the clearing.
Smiling, he recognized the building that was the closest. It was the Dae'hfir's own....and damned if that wasn't the very window that D'Tarik had claimed he had first seen the blond through! Somehow, Rylan had found the exact spot of where they had first entered the forest. "Lucky or what?" he smiled, and took another step.
The rustling leaves and tappity-tap-tap chour came back the instant his foot had touched the ground. Rylan cast an eye over his shoulder, and saw the trees bending from some unknown giagantic force pushing against them as if they were no more than small branches. The leaves on the ground took flight- filling the air with browns and golds - as if a wind had suddenly caught them up....but there was no wind to be felt. The parting of the trees only grew closer, and some of the less sturdy ones snapped in two and fell with a thunderous crash. No longer worried over the mere 'tappity-tap-tap' that still reverbeated throughout the forest. Rylan ran towards the building, launching himself through the closed window, coming to rest on the floor amidst shards of shattered glass in the percieved safety of the room the small party had occupied only the night before.
Rylan listened, willing his own heartbeat to cease it's thunderous echo in his ears, then peered out the hole of the building where glass had once rested. The forest was quiet. The trees that had succumbed to the great force that moved them, was the only evidence that it hadn't been just his imagination.
Looking at the small cuts on his hands and arms from the glass, he shrugged, grateful that the injuries weren't anything more serious, and cursed D'Tarik for not coming along as planned -- as tr'Rekkohan had all the medical equipment in that fvadt lab-coat of his.
Believing himself safe while inside the house, Rylan quickly gathered up his bag, and the one that Vyynd had brought as well, and passed a careful eye over the rest of the room, being sure that nothing of theirs was to be left behind. He nodded his head once, knowing he had everything now, and opened the door to leave.
The strange and eerie silence of the house didn't strike him as odd, until he had gotten halfway down the dimly lit hallway. By instinct, he had managed to keep from calling out a "jolan'tru" to warn the house inhabitants that he was present. Wouldn't do to give a warning if there were unfriendlies about, after all. Though the prospect of having one of those painful looking spears of the garrison run through his abdomen wasn't exactly a delightful promise either. But at least he'd have better chances of convincing a garrison member that he wasn't a monster, then trying to convince a monster that he wasn't food.
Carefully, Rylan reached inside his bag, and brought out one of the replacement clips that he had so highly prized. Keeping it tightly in his left hand, he drew his pistol in his right, and leaned up against the wall on one side of the hallway. Carefully, trying not to make a sound, and trying not to feel so bogged down by the stuff he was carrying, he creeped up the hallway, towards the main room.
He had gotten almost there, when he saw the small form of a child walk nonchalantly across the archway. After a slight pause, the child came back and stood silently at the end of the hall, starring curiously at Rylan.
Lowering the weapon, Rylan smiled at the boy?.... girl?.... it was hard to tell in this light.....and nodded to the child, "Jolan'tru." When no answer was forthcoming, Rylan shrugged and tried again, "Umm...do au know where the Dae'hfir is at the moment? I'd like to thank him for the hospitality he showed to me and my friends earlier." then thought only to himself, 'Not to mention ask a few discreet questions about a certain blond....'The child only blinked. Then turned and continued it's walk.
'Strange little thing...' Rylan thought, before stepping away from the wall and following the child, who had now paused near a door that led off the main room. 'Ah! That's the dinning hall.' Rylan nodded, remembering the night by the fireplace and the conversation that was shared. 'He's probably in there then.' But in opening the door, Rylan paused uncertainly, before he stepped through.
The fireplace only held the few remaining embers of a long ago fire. The room itself was cold, dark....and something smelled. Like food that had sat out much to long, and had spoiled. But other than a fine layer of dust, the room lay empty. No trace of the Dae'hfir. No trace of anyone, other than the child who had led him towards the door.
"So....where is he?" Rylan asked, turning around to face the child once more. The small only smiled, but the rest of it's face still remained blank; expressionless. "Well?" Rylan quiried once more. "Do au know, or don't ....." the words ceased in his throat as slowly the child seemed to fade out of existence. Io minute the pale, silent child had been there....the next only a thin, whispy vapor....then it was gone.
"All right ...." Rylan said quietly to the walls around him, as he rubbed his still pounding, hungover head, "I could've done without that...."
The four wall scones within the room flickered and winked out. Leaving Rylan totally alone in the dark. Never mind that it wasn't even noon yet outside....the darkness that enveloped the room could've rivaled that of any moon-less night. "Okay..." Rylan backed away from the room itself, heading towards the door he had only just entered, "I could do without this as well...." Coming to an unexpected stop when his back hit the door. "Hanev!" he whispered. The door hadn't been closed before, yet now it was. His hand found the handle easily enough, and as he suspected would happen, it wouldn't turn. He was locked in.
Trying to remember the layout of the room from the brief time he had spent in it before, he remembered another set of double-doors on the far side of the room. It would mean he'd have to grope around blindly in the dark.....with Elements only knew what else lurked in here with him. But if one door didn't open....
"Who's to say the other door will either, Rylan?" he questioned himself silently.
Sighing, Rylan tried to steer himself through the darkened room, finally deciding after he crashed into something hard that feeling along the walls, until he finally came to the double-doors would've been a better move.
Still...he was halfway through the fvadt room now...so he kept walking blindly. After a few more "Ow!"s and "Fvadt!"s he finally reached his destination. And surprisingly, the doors opened rather easily. The hallway beyond, Rylan remembered, would eventually lead outside.
Strange that he hadn't seen even io of the Dae'hfir's personal garrison yet....but perhaps they were out on patrol again. "Ie..." Rylan agreed with himself, crossing the hall to the door that led outside. "Perhaps the Dae'hfir is with them....or visiting some of the populous....or whatever it is that Dae'hfir-a do."
But when Rylan opened the final door that would grant him access to the outside once more, he learned the fate of the Dae'hfir and what looked to be at least fifteen of his personal guard.
Blood-drenched bones were scattered everywhere in the courtyard. Bits and pieces of flesh and gore hung precariously off of the low bushes, shrubs, and
Areinnye even the steps that Rylan had almost walked out on. In the center of the blood bath was the Dae'hfir. He wasn't torn apart as the others had been.....there wasn't a scratch on him, in fact. He just stood there, in his long, black leather overcoat, which now gleamed from the blood that drenched it. Even his hair was saturated with the green life's-blood of the people who had served him.
The Dae'hfir stood rigidly still, then slowly he turned his head. But instead of turning only as far as his shoulder, the head kept right on moving -- until his chin was lined up perfectly with his spine. At first, Rylan couldn't move. He only stared at what used to be the Dae'hfir in a detached kind of shock; his own jaw hanging open in utter disbelief and horror. Then the Dae'hfir grinned, his face actually splitting apart, the lower half of his face seemingly growing longer...and then incredibly, in a bone-joint-defying feat, the Dae'hfir charged at the gawking boy with an animalistic roar.
That broke the spell for Rylan. Calmly he raised the pistol that he still held in his right hand, and fired until the clip had depleted itself.
[In the Colony]
The walk though the bloodbath that had once been the Dae'hfir-a courtyard had been a treacherous one, and as carefully as he tried to step through all the gore and goo, Rylan had slipped and fallen a couple of times anyway. That last fall had been the worst! He had ended up with his face practically in the torn-apart torso of one of the slain. After retching a few times after that particular fall, he had finally managed to half-stumble, half-slip to the gate.
He didn't manage to get more than three steps out on to the dirt pathway before his shaking legs refused to hold him any more, and he slumped to the ground on his knees. Shaking badly and taking ragged and gasping breaths, he tried to wipe away the blood of the fallen garrison members, using a random shirt grabbed hasitly from one of the bags he had reclaimed from the Dae'hfir-a dwelling. Too late, he realized that he hadn't taken a shirt from his own bag, but from Vyynd's instead.
Glancing around quickly, Rylan shrugged and tossed the soiled shirt over his shoulder, and stood. 'Well now what?' He thought, surveying the area around him, keeping an eye out for any other unpleasent surprises the colony had waiting for him. But the colony looked to be as deserted as the night they had come here. Didn't seem that the people that lived here in the small and run-down cabins ventured out in the daytime either.
'Then again, Rylan....' he warned himself, casting a glance back at the forboding-looking gate he had only just come through, 'who's to say there's any io alive here anyway? Maybe the Dae'hfir took care of all of them.'
"....or maybe they're all in hiding." he finished outloud. He noded his head in agreement with that thought, and walked over to the closest cabin on his right, then continued his train of thought silently, 'If I'm lucky, I'll at least find *some io* here who can tell us more about the colony and what's going on around here than "it's very, very bad"!'
This last brought a smirk to his face, as he wiped away the grime from the window to peer inside the small cabin. Nothing but cobwebs and dust as far as he could tell. But then again....he couldn't see into *all* the rooms now, could he? And as his luck would have it.....he didn't bring along a tricorder, as he had known that D'Tarik had one in that all-purpose lab-coat of his. And D'Tarik wasn't here.
'Well that just goes to show au, Rylan.' he grumbled to himself, walking around to the door, 'Next time au'll know better, eh?'
Bracing himself for whatever kind of "Mr. Nasty" lurked in the room beyond the door, he readied his disruptor -- after making sure he had indeed plugged in the fresh clip -- and opened the door slowly.
Of course the fvadt hinges squeaked! So much for stealth! But at least, the room was empty. Slowly, and quietly, Rylan went from room to room, searching for any trace that someone lived there....but found nothing. Just that same thin layer of dust and a musty, rotten smell that had lingered in the dinning hall of the Dae'hfir-a own dwelling.
He went from cabin to cabin in much the same manner. Cautious and quiet, searching and finding no signs of life....or even signs that life had once dwelled in the colony at one time, at all. No clothing, no dishes, no personal object of any kind. It wasn't until he had searched the eighth cabin that he found anything at all.
After turning away from the small bedchamber area of the eighth cabin, Rylan caught something amiss out of the corner of his eye, and walked over to the open closet. There on the floor was a small little frame....the kind that held still-holopics. Picking the frame up, he walked closer to the small window within the room. Foregoing cleaning away the grime that filtered the daylight, he smashed the glass instead, then examined the tiny frame more closely.
Though it was darkened and faded, damaged from neglect, there was a holopic within the frame after all. Peering closely, trying to make out the picture in spite of the damage done to it, he could see a group of six people. One of those, he recognized as the Dae'hfir himself. He seemed to stand a little apart from four of the others, wearing a rather disapproving scowl on his face. Another was a woman in civilian attire, and the only one out of the group that stood close to the Dae'hfir. 'Perhaps his wife....' the thought flicked briefly through his mind. Three of the others within the pic were males, wearing the uniforms of the Tal'Shiar. But it was the last person in the holopic that brought a triumphant -- if somewhat angry -- little smile to Rylan's face.
It was a girl, standing to the far left of the picture. He couldn't tell if she wore civilian clothing or a uniform, as the holopic was too damaged to make out that detail clearly. But the face was clear. It was her....the blond. There was no mistaking that hair!
Tapping an edge of the damaged frame on his left palm, he thought "So...three Tal'Shiar...the Dae'hfir, and probably his wife....and Bhy'hie." he turned and headed out of the room, still looking at the picture. "Why is she in this picture? Perhaps the Dae'hfir-a daughter? Na.....she's standing on the other side....far away from the civilian couple. So she must be with one of the others. A daughter of io of them.... or... she's an Agent herself."
Pausing in his footsteps for a moment, Rylan considered this last possibility carefully. Byh'hie certainly didn't strike io as an agent. She seemed a little too.... well... na capable enough mentally. She didn't seem to have the attitude of an Agent. But that aside.....she was stronger than she appeared; she was fast and silent when she needed to be; and she seemed to know an awful lot about the monsters that inhabited the planet. Not to mention that she was adamantly against any of them coming back to the colony.
"Well..." Rylan stated quietly, unaware that he was talking out loud, "it'll certainly be interesting to hear her explanation of this." He tucked the frame safely into his pocket and headed for the door outside. As his foot came down, there was a loud "KRRACCK!!", and Rylan fell through the rotten floorboards of the cabin.
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