//------------------------------// // VIII - Newfound Discovery // Story: Leather-Winged Oddity // by Deyeaz //------------------------------// Leather-Winged Oddity VIII - Newfound Discovery Destiny is a funny thing. It is not always what you want and it is not always fair, but if you keep your mind and heart open, it will work itself out for you. However, the path that destiny lays out for me still puzzles me. And I trek down this path that destiny crafted for me when I hear the horrifying sound that wakes me up in the dead of night. Howling. Loud, heart-stopping, blood-freezing howling. But these canine calls of the night aren’t those of typical wolves. They sound more... gruff. And I hear other noises besides howling. I hear commands being barked, unintelligible speech, and screaming. Diamond Dogs. I jolt up out of the hammock, Kaileena almost falling off with a yelp of surprise from my sudden jerk. Akio is up and about, grabbing a spear from underneath his hammock. When he turns to face us, I see no kind, carefree look in his face. Replacing it is one of cold determination. “Damien, Kaileena, stay right here!” he orders. He goes outside while me and Kaileena do as he asks and hide in the shadows of the hut. “Damien?” Kaileena whispers to me and hold me tightly as the fight wears on. “Yeah?” I reply. She swallows a lump in her throat. “I’m scared.” I breathe in and sigh deeply, trying to calm my hammering heart from what my mind is about to do. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” “What?!” She protests. “No way! Didn’t you hear my father?!” “Yes, and I don’t care! They might need my help!” “That doesn’t matter!” I see a tear ready to leave her eyes... unless I think it’s just some sort of trick in the light. “Please don’t go!” “Kaileena! Promise me you’ll stay here!” I demand. She’s taken aback by my outburst, but she nods. “Thank you.” I concentrated once more on pulling out Ellipsis. The scythe appears in my hand not a moment later. “I promise I’ll be right back.” I rush outside and into the village grounds. Not a moment after I exit the hut does a vial of green liquid come whizzing at my face. At the last second, I duck before it can hit. I hear a crack and a yelp of pain behind me and risk a glance over at the spot to see a Diamond Dog get hit in the face with the vial and fall to the ground, the green liquid becoming a noxious gas and rendering the Dog unconscious in an instant. Knockout gas, eh? Two can play at that game. I turn around again, and see the same Dog that threw the vial fire a net my way. I swing Ellipsis upwards, the rendered air slicing the oncoming net in two. The Dog, decided it would take too long to reload and fire another net, decides to go for the knockout gas again. This time I am prepared. When the vial gets flung into the air, I slightly sidestep and use my right wing to catch the vial of gas like a baseball mitt would a ball, my wing slowing down to the momentum of the vial rather than just stopping it altogether. With my right wing cocked back like a gun, I step forward, swing my wing, and relaunch the vial back at the Dog. The vial cracks in his face and he is no longer conscious, long before the gas could get to him. I take to the skies to get a look at my surroundings. The cat-people are fighting the Diamond Dog hoard at the eastern side of the valley, and the Dogs are slowly winning. The Urukai members are driving back or killing the Dogs, yet the hounds are either catching them with nets or incapacitating them with knockout gas. If this kept up, there’d be no more Urukai left in this village.... I flew towards the fray of battle and landed in between both the cats and the Dogs, both sides staring at me. “Damien, NO!” I look over to see Akio bound in a net on the Diamond Dog side. “Shut it, slave!” A Dog orders at him, driving the butt of his spear into Akio’s ribcage. Oh, hell no.... I grip Ellipsis tightly in my hands with the sudden rage from the Diamond Dog’s threat at the one who had taken me in for the night. No one, and I mean no one, gets to kick Akio's ass. “What is it, Beta? It so weird....” Another Dog gruffly asked his companion on his left, who has a taller stature, sleeker fur, and a more wolf-like appearance than the others. “Who care?! It big, it strong, and it fly! It be useful in mines with other slaves! Get it!” The Beta commands. Three Dogs at his side fire three more nets at me, yet I slice them with Ellipsis again. I spin and throw the scythe like an Olympian discus at his head, and the blade cleaves his head clean off. I raise my hand and recall Ellipsis, the scythe returning to my hand and mowing down other Dogs in the process. The hoard of slave-gatherers trembled at the body of their Beta leader, the one who was leading the raid. They look at me in horror, which soon becomes rage later on. I glance at them and grit my teeth, my heart still hammering, yet my mind sending me into maximum overdrive. “Make peace with your God now...BECAUSE I’M COMING FOR YOUR NECKS!!!” I rush them, Ellipsis poised and ready to begin its bloodthirsty rampage. I horizontally swing at one of the Diamond Dogs that had tried to capture me, and slice him clean in half. At the peak of the swing, I throw Ellipsis at the Diamonds Dog on my left. I kick the upper half of the dead Dog in front of me at his comrade behind him. The canine comrade screams in fear as he catches the upper body of his fallen friend. With Ellipsis now done with killing the Dog I had thrown it at, I recall the scythe once more, only to throw it like a tomahawk at the screaming Dog before. The scythe burrows into his whole face as I jump on the lower half of the still-standing Dog’s body, kick off of it, plant my talons on the other Dog’s chest, and rip out the scythe from his face as the two of us tip over from the force of my landing. When his body falls to the ground with a thud, I turn to the Dog that was at my right, and swing low, the blade of Ellipsis cutting off one of his legs. He falls over with a scream of agony and a thud. I run over, kick him in the chin to knock his torso upright, stab the blade into his throat before he falls back down, and swing the scythe, ripping his head off as the blood from his neck pours in generous amounts. I continue my onslaught, dodging and dispatching any nets or knockout gas vials that are sent my way. And all the while, I'm humming "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" like a fucking pansy. But still... what is this... feeling I am getting? With every Dog I swing at and slay, the feeling grows in intensity, and is in constant need of replenishment, that form of said replenishment being in the form of killing more enemies. Is this... bloodlust? No... It can’t be. The only things I’ve ever killed until this point were the warthog and that Lacuni teenage girl, but the former was to save my life and the latter was to help put someone out of their misery. But my thoughts on this possible desire to kill were only proven correct as I mow down the enemy. The blood being slung into the night shines like liquid rubies in the light of the sinking moon and the torches, and the screams of my enemies are like a skilled orchestrator is creating the most magnificent of classical preludes, boleros, nocturnes, requiems, and serenades.... This... this is bloodlust.... and as I progress with this... murderous rape I have created... I begin to love every single second of it. I look around me, and the number of Diamond Dogs has significantly decreased, the deceased mutts littering the ground. I glare at the remaining seven Dogs in front of me, and they start to slowly back away. “G-get back!” One of them wails in fear as he tries to toss a vial of knockout gas at me, but his hand was shaking violently when he threw it, so the speed and trajectory are below par. I catch the vial in my left hand and launch it back at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him out, the other hounds next to him holding their breath to prevent sharing their fallen comrade's fate. “St-st-stay away, demon!” Another shrieks. “Stay away!” “No can do, boys...” I say darkly as I advance upon them. They are backed up against a tree, with nowhere to go. “You all have a meetin’ with th’ Reaper... and you. Won’t. Miss it....” Their screams are the last things that escape their throats. I take a knee, wipe my face with my scarf, and assess the damage done to me. My heart is once again pounding at a ludicrous rate and my breathing is ragged and heavy. I have multiple cuts on me that I don't even remember receiving, each one bleeding their black blood and heavily staining my slashed and torn clothes. I am run ragged from the battle, with sweat pouring out in streams, stinging the wounds as they enter them. The other Diamond Dogs who had seen or heard of my massacre leave the village at breakneck speeds, a cacophony of whines issuing from their throats as they ran with their tails between their legs, abandoning the villagers they had intended to take with them. I stand amidst the gory mess before me, scythe still dripping blood. I weakly flick the polearm and let the red liquid fling off of it onto the ground. Despite my current status, I take to the skies and ascend high into the air, just to see the Dogs running away. “DON’T COME BACK HERE IF YA WANT TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY!!!” I shout at them with as much force as I could summon. Unfortunately, I was far too cocky for my own good when I said this. My outcry is rewarded with another vial of knockout gas from one of the fleeing Dogs in a last-ditch effort. Unlike the last one, which was shaky and imbalanced, this throw is as accurate as a bullet from a sniper rifle. The brittle glass of the container slams into my chest and shatters to pieces, leaving a painful sting where it struck. The liquid inside the vial turns into a gas when exposed to the oxygen, leaking into the air and entering my body. The gas ravages my respiratory system and plummets my brain into a temporary shut-down, sending me into a realm of unconsciousness. This won't be good at all, considering that I'm still airbourne. The last things I can only witness as I descend into both the darkness of incapacitation and the ground of the village are gasps of shock and someone screaming my name. Shadow: IS THIS WHAT I FUCKING THINK IT IS? Fuck yeah it is. Io Kusanagi, author of the bad-ass fiction The Blue Stranger, The Red Curtain, drew that for me. Why? BECAUSE HE'S AN ARTISTIC BADASS, THAT'S WHY. SO... props to Io for his awesome art work, and not to sound like a whore, but which one of you is capable of drawing Kaileena and/or Akio? If so, tell so in the comments! If not, that's alright. Next chapter will be up in a few days. ~S.W