The Cursed Woods of Raelm

Archive Two







A mighty flash of bright lightning suddenly brought Reise and Scabbar--in the form of his entrapped soul--down from the skies. He gave a small, frustrated growl and began to pace slowly, rubbing his chin and thinking as he held the ax in his hand. He huffed, hummed and mumbled, then sighed and shook his head, throwing the ax roughly with as much force as he could. It flew over thirty feet before sticking firmly into a tree trunk. He looked up at the sky and glowered. "Something tells me... they're getting a helping hand from a sea of clouds." He then snapped his fingers, and with another clash of electricity, Eon was at his side.

He shook out his fur, then turned his red eyes on Reise obediently, awaiting his next orders, his tail low and ears perked. This made Reise smile a little crookedly.

"I do believe we'll need some help of our own. But first," Reise then waved his hand, and a looking glass appeared before him. He snatched it from the air and opened it up to its full magnified length, then put the smaller piece to his eye. "Ah! There!" he smiled widely, insanely. "A perfect host!" He snapped the looking glass shut and with a wave of his hand and a small tornado of black sand, a tall man that was well-built with plenty of muscle and dressed to be a smither stood before him.

He blinked and looked around, his soot-covered face an expression of surprise and confusion. "W-wha..?" he asked, his eyes finally finding Reise and the black wolf beside him. "Who are you? What's going on? How did I get here?"

Reise rubbed his hands together and smiled widely with crooked, jagged teeth. He gave a little chortle and opened his arms, the axe pulling free from the tree and flying into his palm. "I brought you here! You needn't know who I am, because your soul is about to perish so that your body can house a demented psychopath!" he said quickly, then tossed the axe to the man. "Catch!"

The man was so frazzled and confused, that even with Reise's explanation, his hands still moved to catch the ax. He caught the handle with both hands, then gasped as he was gripped with immense burning pain from the inside out as Scabbar's soul took over his own. Meanwhile, Reise bounced around, clapping and laughing loudly.

The man screamed like there were parasites burrowing under his skin and eating his flesh, though no doubt it did actually feel like that as Scabbar forcefully crushed his soul into this man's body. The hood began to form from the bottom up this time, the man's eyes screaming and pleading as the strange cloth material began to weave itself up over his face. As Scabbar gained control of the lips, he couldn't help but groan "You think this hurts? Try being burned alive..." at his second victim. Eventually, Scabbar stood before Reise, breathing deeply, coughing a little and grabbing his axe tight. Even though there was no smoke in the air, he could still taste it. "Did... I get that one at least?"

"Oooh, I'm afraid not. A powerful wind blew in and took her away like ash in a tornado." Reise explained in a mock whining voice. He waved his hand though, and a bottle of strong liquor appeared in front of Scabbar, floating in midair. "Have this and be merry." he laughed. "No, they're getting help from somewhere... and I think it's about time we find out who and stop them. But first... There is one last sprite left, and Eon here knows exactly where they're going." he smiled, patting the black wolf's head. "Through his eyes and ears, I was able to gather that they're heading for the Elf kingdom buried deep within Cuole. So.. that is where we must head."

"Oh for... god dammit..." Scabbar hissed, taking the alcohol from the air and grimacing, wiping his chin and finding some soot was still on the hood. He coughed, rubbing his chest and glad to find it wasn't melted. He knocked the top off the alcohol again, drinking as he watched the wolf. It was weird. He was suddenly desiring a dog sandwich. It had been a while since he'd properly eaten, or had any natural bodily function past drinking and dying. "So..." he coughed once he'd done drinking, "This Elf kingdom. Good fighters there?"

Reise grinned darkly and folded his arms delicately across his chest. "Oh yes. The best fighters; better even than the knights in Layfette." he explained. "I have a feeling you'll rather enjoy the time we spend there."

Scabbar grunted as he splashed a little drink over his hands and began to scrub at this new body of his. "Face it, Reise, I'm the only person who's done you any good, and that pretty much includes you. Why do you really bother keeping that mutt around?"

Reise paused, looking at Scabbar and tilting his head at an unnatural angle with his eyes wide. "Oh? You really think you're the only one who's done me any good?" he echoed, then buzzed with contained energy. "If I recall correctly, I'm the one who had the foresight to trap your soul in an ax so that you could fulfill your revenge. I've successfully frozen my brother, his stupid wife, and my mother. I've led you to two of the three sprites, and I intend to take you to the third one--the fact that the first two escaped is out of our hands." He buzzed again, black sand and smoke shooting off of his body like flares off of the sun, the world suddenly seeming to get much darker around them. "I could have very easily left you a dead, tortured soul, Scabbar. Feel lucky that I was so gracious as to bring you back to life twice already." The energy then seemed to dissipate and he smiled at Scabbar insanely. "As for the mutt, I keep him around because I know how much pain it'll bring my brother and his family when Eon is the one helping kill them." He laughed loudly, then twitched and sighed, going quiet.

"You stall, Reise." Scabbar muttered, rubbing his neck as if he'd felt a pair of hands around it just then. The black sand and smoke had been a nice touch, but nothing much phased him since he'd been set on fire... twice. And honestly... death wouldn't be too bad right now. "Next time we step through a door and see one of those sprites, blow a hole right through them. Next chance you get, doesn't matter if I'm sitting on top of them, kill them." Scabbar grunted and shook his head "I am fed up of these magical things just... spiriting away. You see a chance, take it."

Reise scoffed through his nose and rolled his eyes. "Scabbar, this is where you and I differ. You are all business, with the quick deaths and glory. I enjoy a good game out of my prey." he said and rubbed his hands together a little mischeviously. "I enjoy watching them suffer and squirm. And I intend to get every squirm and wriggle of discomfort, pain, anger and any other negative emotion I can out of that family of mine."

Yeah, he was certainly insane. Scabbar shook his head, seeing that he was probably going to have to finish this himself, because Reise didn't sound like he even knew HOW to kill a person. He just wanted to make them suffer until their body gave out on them. He took a deep breath and swung his axe back and forth a few times between sips of his drink "So where's this place again?"

Reise shrugged. "Hell if I know for sure. It's buried deep within Cuole. We'll start looking for it." he nodded.

Scabbar just grunted, the hooded gaze impassive as it watched him. Well wasn't this a fine mess? Scabbar spat some alcohol on the ground after raising his hood a bit, a tooth falling out as he spat. Scabbar would have been picking his nose to show his distaste for whatever was actually happening right here, if he ever wanted to lift his hood any higher than his mouth. He felt... exposed without it. It wasn't him under this hood, he WAS the hood. He didn't like moving himself around too much. All he knew is that he wanted this done with so he could try killing stuff.

Reise merely grinned at Scabbar, chuckling at him with a content little sigh. "I have a plan, Scabbar... a very intricate plan. I have heard of a special little treasure that the Elves are keeping there. I know exactly how to get to her." he grinned. "You, however, will have to busy yourself for a bit. Go to a nearby town and have some fun with the locals there, find yourself a dog to skin, things of that sort." he nodded, waving him off. "Take a day off." He snapped his fingers and Eon loped after him obediently, his ears down as he trudged through the forest floor.

Scabbar did not take days off. He killed things, and he... No, that was pretty much all he did. Scabbar grunted as he scuffed the boots of the man he had just possessed on the ground, noticing they were new. He stuck his hand in his pocket. "This guy has no money." he muttered to himself as he ferreted around in the pockets again "Take a day off my ass."



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