//------------------------------// // dead or alive // Story: shimmering hope. // by dragenfire68 //------------------------------// ((Innistrad, 4 days later.)) "What was that it was pathetic," Lillianna said watching sunset fail once again to blast apart what appeared to be a heavily armored zombie. Sunset growled as she held her hands up again her hands glowing as she let loose another bolt from her hands, only this time, it caught it the chest causing it to explode outwards, in a huge fan of fire, Sunset looked warily at her mentor. "better, but still sloppy, using that much energy for a simple zombie is a waste, try again." She said waving her hand, putting the zombie back together. "Fine." Sunset held up her hand, glowing brighter and brighter until- "okay stop, you're doing it wrong still, let me show you how to do this." Lillianna said, interrupting her spell she was building. Lillianna quickly whipped out her hand-throwing a bolt of magic out, where it crashed into the zombie reducing it to a pile of dust. "see, all that building must be done quickly, but it will take years to master it, so don't be too discouraged if you fail." "let me try again." "what?" "I want to try again." "very well, knock yourself out, kid." Lillianna raised another zombie for Sunset to practice on, leaving her alone, as much fun as it was to taunt her, she was getting tired, it wasn't often that she spent this much time in one place, but raising her new apprentice took a lot out of her, so she went to her chambers. Six hours later Lillianna awoke to the sounds of howling and a scream, causing her to sit bolt upright because the scream sounded just like her new apprentice, but as she made her way to the front of her Mansion, passing the lab, she made it to the door but before she opened she saw a glowing orange aura. "Oh, you worthless pup wanna play, let us play." A demonic voice sounded, Lillianna looked outside her window seeing that her apprentice was now sporting wings, her hands filled with fire, surrounded by about 4 werewolves, all lost to the primal madness, but before they even started to leap, she brought her hands forwards releasing a beam of pure heat, blasting the wolves apart, and setting the forest behind them in flames, the battle took all but six seconds, before the demon laid down on the ground and changed back, Lillianna brought her inside shortly after, and put her on the bed that normally was for her. "first a planeswalker, and now she's a goddamn demon, what have I got myself into, whatever, she is now even more interesting, she kinda reminds me, of me.... damn." Lillianna mused out loud, but not enough to wake the sleeping girl. The next day Sunset confided why she was out there, apparently, Sunset went into her mentor's lab to find a potion for mana, a way to replenish her magic stores, but when she went to make it, the core ingredient in it was out, so she figured she may find a few out in the marshes, but what she didn't count on was to run into a pack of feral werewolves, which was strange, Lillianna was sure that the packs here don't travel that far into the marshes. "Well, looks like we will have to go into town, great oh well, stay close to me and whatever you do, don't wander off, or stray too far," Lillianna said, checking that her stores of various spell components were indeed low, meaning that they would have to travel either to trade for components or scavenge. "Why?" "Let's just say that people here don't appreciate people like you and me, and the last thing we need is for you to fall into the fanatical hands of the Inquisition, even though you're barely an adult, that won't stop them from doing unimaginable things to you for answers." Sunset shivered and nodded as she and Lillianna set off on the boat, traveling upstream to a small village, Lillianna had her Skeleton oarsman go up to the dock and tie it to the dock, she stood up and got out helping Sunset up, they took a moment for the oarsman to hand them their bags, which surprised her. "What's in here?" "Flash powder, a dagger, medical herbs, and various other things that are for just in case, because we are going to be traveling for a while." They didn't stay in town for long, there were already a good many stares that made Sunset uncomfortable, and Lillianna knew it, so they headed for the wall encircling the village. "Keep your magic on hand at all times, there are things out there that will give you nightmares for days if you not careful, so be ready, and above all, don't worry about me, I can take of myself, your survival is always the most important thing, no matter what," Lillianna warned "Alright, so where is our first city?" "Hmm, it would be here, a small coastal village, unnamed but its fishing is always plentiful, and because it resides so close to the vampire and werewolf country, there is always the stuff we need, but its a month journey by foot." "then why don't we teleport there?" "Teleportation takes a large amount of mana, and it draws enormous attention when your enemies know you can do it." "what about our boat?" "well, that passes through the Ulvenwald forest, so not gonna happen either." "Okay, so we are journeying by foot then." they set out from the gate that had closed with a final clang, with a look at the large countryside, but Lillianna was not a foolish woman, she stopped about thirty yards from the gate and waved her hands while concentrating, soon two skeletal horses were waiting, purple fire dancing in their eyes. "neat, and here I thought we would be walking, by the way, I saw four major regions on there." "Thanks, and yes there are four major regions that we may get to in time." "what are they?" "the biggest city is gavony, there the cowards hide behind their walls and leave the rest of the realm undefended, next there is stensia, where people like us are safe from the ruthless inquisitors and other fanatics that would love to see us stamped out, next is kessig a dangerous region filled with ruthless wolves and other things that skulk in the night, finally there is nephalia, a coastal region, the river we were on would have led straight to Ulm, but we aren't going to any major cities, yet." "well let the adventure begin."