Serious War RP

Aoife

The misty light of dawn shone through the trees, creating a jagged pattern of light and dark in front of me. I leapt over a fallen tree and landed with a thud. Another hurdle completed. I started to jog and looked at the floor; if I went fast enough they merged together and became one big grey shade. Two opposites coming together to make something in the middle, no differentiation between the pathos. It’s funny how nature works. In a round-about way everything makes sense and is meant to be. The trees, the animals, the prey, the predator; even the Ituri. I skidded on leaves and changed direction, heading towards the great Engel’s resting place. However there was one glaring anomaly in Mother Nature’s plan – the Raz. There ways are so unnatural; so barbarian. They needed to be destroyed before they destroyed everything else. The way they kept killing living things to make things more convenient for themselves was selfishness at its worst. Even thinking of their name made me growl. I slowed down as I entered the circle clearing. Light lay softly in the centre of this place, giving it an ethereal glow. I breathed out and let the anger pour out of my body, not wanting to disturb the God with myself tainted emotions. My body recoiled as I made my way around the edge of the circle. The influence of the Gods was great and even though I had nothing to fear from Engel, it was hard not to feel awed.
“Engel.” The delicate looking tree in the centre of the circle was clearly different to the rest. Its leaves were as red as maple and its trunk shimmered in a golden colour. I pealed the glove off of my hand and placed my palm on the bark. A familiar heat coursed through my hands and the beating of my heart became one with my God’s.
Despite the feeling of warmth, my emotions were in turmoil. Again I was bringing bad news back to my people – I longed for the day when I could tell them the monsters were slain. “A squadron of six is approaching the beech wood territory. Six heavily armed bastred’s. They’re approaching the Fiore Preside.”

Engel

I shifted out of my tree form; I felt my body slowly start shifting. The branches turning into my arms, trunks into legs, leaves into clothes and hair.

Back in my human form I looked at Aofie who was standing next to me. Her cobalt eyes, like mine shining with what looked like anger, and it most likely was, she hated the Raz. I understood why she would as well and it hurt to see my beautiful forest damaged but it was just the way they were. No one could change them and though I myself did not agree with their methods I still wished for peace. I had been watching this war for hundreds of years and was growing weary of it.

Smiling and looking over to Aofie I said. “I see, well you better go get the others, we can’t let them hurt are beautiful home now can we? Oh and Aofie well you’re at it do you mind telling the new seekers to meet me here in two hours for their lesson.” That said I turned around and headed off to find granny earth. ‘I always feel young around someone like her.”

Atlanta

I huphed as I carried out practice within my room. It was one of the worst things about being undercover, you couldn’t stand out that much which meant I had to do running and more intense weapon and martial arts practice late at night or early in the morning. Some times that was impossible though and like today it just left me having to perform it indoors in my cramped room. It limited me to doing push ups and sit ups along with basic movements for weapon training. It was all because I was still new and even the kind hearted Ituris were careful with new comers. Not to mention I had to be especially careful with their gods, they were the biggest danger I faced well staying here.

The other down side was that I was living like and Ituri and I had to be around them constantly. It was annoying and they weren’t as advanced as we Raz were. Oh how I missed my home. I knew what I was signing up for when I started this, being a spy, killing when I can. It had gotten easier as well as time went on. The beginning was the hardest. I had to get lost in the surrounding area were we thought the Ituri lived and then savvier until the Ituri found me. Then it was simply inserting myself into their culture. Well there was a bit more to it them that but that’s the main gist of it.

I had become slightly accustomed to their culture as well though and through my 3 months here I have learnt that they aren’t as bad as I thought, there’s a lot more then I thought. They also don’t carry out sacrifices which is a great breath of fresh air. This however did very little to sway my opinion of them and I was still a Raz on a mission.

Errin
I sat in my solitary place- a hollow tree just big enough for me to comfortabley fit in and wiped the warm blood from my knuckles. I took two big leaves from my pocket and wrapped them around my hands. It was a special kind of leaf that was suposed to stop the wounds from becoming infected. Perhaps practicing on trees was a stupid idea, but maybe it would help the skin to become tougher. I leaned back against the bark and shut my eyes. The stinging slowly began to fade, leaving my hands numb- another useful thing about these leaves.

Being tired out from training, I quickly fell asleep and began to dream about the past, when I lived in a small Ituri settlement that had somehow managed to remain unscathed by the war for all these years. Then the dream became a nightmare about the terrible day when everyone had been brutally slaughtered. They had chosen me along with some other girls to be taken back as sacrifices and we were forced to watch everything.

I suddenly snapped awake. The relief of escaping from the nightmare was short-lived. The sound of footsteps was aproaching nearby. I froze in fear. The footsteps didn't sound like the soft steps of an Ituri. As much as I would love to kill the Raz, I had still never actually had a real fight and didn't feel I was ready yet. I tried to remain as still and quiet as possible, hoping that they would not find me.

Cale

The Razila squadron of five trekked through the wild forest with little difficulty. They stomped on plants that sprang in their way and cut back the thicker bushes with wild swings of their swords. They twisted them in their strange fighting fashion, flicking them out and chopping the heads off of stalks and wounding trees as they went. Cale frowned at his jovial companions. It was the last day of a hard month, trekking around for Ituri settlements and tonight they would all get to go home and visit their families again. They would be bringing back good news too; their sqaudron had been effective and succeded in finding and killing around 30 Ituri over the first two weeks with only two casualties. The last days had been relatively quiet and they honestly weren’t expecting to find anything else. Cale still thought that they shouldn’t let their guard down. But he was always more cautious in the forest. He had been hearing the voice on and off for the whole journey and even though it had taken a break from bothering him now, he could still hear the leaves rustling whispers to him.
Then a girl in the front stopped and ushered them all to be quiet. They made way for Cale to shuffle through them and see what was going on. Another thing that bothered him was that he had been given a whole squadron of young inexperienced soliders.
Cale blinked back his thoughts and stared at the scene in front of him. They had, by some amount of luck, stumbled upon a small settlement of the Ituri. His squadron were outnumbered but that wouldn’t matter in this fight. When caught off guard the Ituri were almost useless in battle and besides most of them here were mere children. The girl smiled, baring her teeth; she knew what was coming. As Cale rose his hand to give the signal to attack a sharp voice pierced through his thoughts.
‘Don’t you dare.’
He was lost for a second; until a familiar twang of a bow rang out next to him. Then as the first arrow burried itself into its victim, a whole load of arrows whizzed from his sides. For once he was not angry at his sqaudron for not waiting for his orders. He withdrew his own arrow, ignoring the voice and stood up, shooting children and adults as he went. The adults of the Ituri were more foucussed on trying to get the children to safety than fighting thier opponents. That’s what gave Cale the upper hand. His arrow stone was warm in his pocket, humming with power as it created the arrows that appeared in his waiting hands. Such a routine was set in his brain; hum, arrow, aim, shoot, kill. Something cut his cheek and he saw an Ituri hovering in the air with glowing blue eyes. The warm blood trickled to his lips and he aimed at the affinity wielder. the arrow was deflected by the air surrounding her but she had created a barrier around the remaining Ituri. Her long hair whipped around her face and a blue aura surrounded the outside of her body. Despite her ethereal appearance, Cale knew that she couldn't keep it up much longer; he saw the panic in her eyes when she realised they wern't going to leave. A few seconds later the barrier of wind wavered and then broke completely. Before the girl even reached the floor Cale had killed her. An arrow in her eye and then one in her unprotected chest.
All that was left were children, with tears of shock running down their faces; staring at their now dead mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. Then In a sea of red and small high pitched cries they were also slaughtered mercilessly. Each small thump and wide eyed expression of fear imprinted itself in Cale’s head and the voice was getting more and more agitated. Soon all that surrounded them was the bloody carnage of the battlefield. Cale's colleagues were already chattering happily to themselves, as if they hadn't just murdered innocent children. Then an Ituri child –he couldn’t have been more than eight years old- stumbled out and gazed at all of his family and friends covered in blood and in eternal slumber. If he had been a Raz child, he would have fled long ago; surviving at any cost and swearing to gain his vengeance. Clearly this child didn’t have that in mind and Cale watched him with a morbid curiousity; trying to imagine the feelings of the boy. A single tear slipped from the child's eye and he silently kissed every single corpse that was lying there without hesistation. Then he fell to his knees, with his head bent and hands locked together in a prayer. He finished his muttering and then looked up with ernest eyes waiting to join the fate of his family. Cale raised his bow to aim. The voice surged through his head loudly.
‘Don’t dare lay a finger on my child. I saved you, you will save him.’
He put a hand to his head and dropped to the same level as the boy; his bow quivering at his side. All the things the boy could turn out to be rushed through his head – a soilder, a healer, a leader, the end to the Razila. He couldn’t look away from those earnest big eyes, couldn’t block out the voice screaming through his head. The boy’s small hand glowed a soft green and reached up to brush his cheek. Cale flinched expecting pain. Instead a warmth pulsed through his cheek and healed the scratch on his cheek. Cale was struck by the gesture of kindness, his mind drove into deeper turmoil.
“I can’t get a clear shot, not with the commander in the way.”
Cale span around at the rough voice of his cohort, enraged that he dared interrupt and then remembered where he was. The voice forced its way through his head and seeped into his body. It was only in control for a second and with a less competent body it probably would have meant nothing. But with Cale it meant everything. Before he knew what was happening he swang up his bow and shot two arrows. One plundged through the boy’s chest that was holding the bow and arrow. The other hit the heart of the girl that had discovered the settlement. They both died instantly. A fierce tingling ran throughout Cale’s body as he gained control once more. His other colleagues were stuck in a moment of shock, but Cale knew what he had to do. They would soon come out of it and take him back to the village to ber sacarifice in front of the whole community. Then his family’s traitourous prayer would be revealed and they would all die. Cale knew he had two choices, much like the boy behind him had had. He could not kill and be taken back and sacrifice his whole family or he could destroy them for his own selfish desires. He let the remaining two arrows fly without giving it another seconds thought and turned back to the boy as the bodies thumped to the floor. He squashed his guilt – none of them had stood a chance, they were all new in the world of fighting and weary of such a long trip. The boy looked up at him with awe and terror. The difference between them was clear.
"Run" Cale's thick voice echoed in the clearing of death. "If you ever see me again; kill me. Show me no mercy as I have shown you none. Go."
The boy stood still and then bowed his head. He ran over to a tree and scampered up it, out of sight.
Cale turned and withdrew his arrows from the bodies of his soldiers. He left them with no prayer for the next world; the Raz didn't mourn for their dead.
He withdrew the sword at his side and gritted his teeth. He drew it across his stomach, savouring the hissing pain that rushed through his body. He shuddered and waited until his hands stopped shaking before he created three similar slashes across his body. He revered in the hot feverish pain that ran throughout his body and then turned to look up at the sky.
"Are you happy now?" he shouted up at the heavens. Cale received no reply; the voice was unusually silent.
He sheathed his sword and rubbed the stone in his pocket. His remaining arrows disapeared. Without another glance at the carnage around him he made his way back to the Razila. Another secret. Another lie. His mountain of them grew once more. Thoughts of his comrades families secret grieving weighed heavily on his mind as he stumbled through the bushes. Cale was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he hadn't realised that somebody had witnessed the whole event.

Errin
I looked on in shock, unable to believe what I had just seen. I waited untill the one remaining Raz had disapeared into the distance before stepping out from my hiding place and looking around. The scene was terrible. There were pobably about thirty Iturians who had been killed here- about half of them being children. Even those who tried to fight hadn't stood a chance against the attackers. I wished I could have fought and saved them, but there was nothing I could do. If I had tried, I would've just been throwing away my life and dying for nothing. I need to survive so I can become stronger and not die in vain like those who fought here.
Even so, after what I'd expereinced in the past, I was used to the cruelty of the Raz and it didn't surprise me at all, however the thing that shocked me so much was not seeing the Ituri die but it was the four Raz who also lay dead- killed by one of their own. Why would a Raz kill his own people to save an Iturian? Especially when just moments before he had been killing Iturians himself. Was it possible that the child had somehow manipulated his actions? I never normally talked to others about the things I had seen, but after returning to my tree to think about it some more I decided that this was different- I had to tell someone and see what they thought. I felt that it should be someone who can communicate with the gods, so I got up and began to head towards the large settlment were I remembered becoming aquainted with a seeker. When I arived, I quickly found her at one of the circles- places were seekers aparently meet with the gods. "I have to tell you something" I said as I walked up to her. I told her what had happened- though taking care to make it sound like I had tried to fight rather than just watched.

Engel

My eyes widened as I listened to what Errnin said. A Raz had killed its own and only moments before was killing it the Ituri. It made no sense. What I couldn’t bring my thought away from where the lives that we had lost, far too many, the troops hadn’t gotten there in time and the village had lost its people. It was truly heart ranching. I put my hand on Aofies shoulder telling her I was going, but to find me. We needed to talk. At the moment I needed to consult with the other gods. Maybe they would have an idea about the Raz, and clear up what was going on.

Atlanta

I had decided I need to get to work, I had been ideal for a week, nearly being caught had made me extra cautious and so I had thought it best not to do any killing.

I had gone into the trees to look for my new prey, jumping through them which felt so natural. I had decided to go to the outskirts to do some killing today as it didn’t seem the greatest idea to do it in the main hub. It hadn’t been my intention to come across a village and see the slaughter of the Ituri and sadly some Raz. It had shocked me to see Cale, the one who I had known since I was young, who had even taught me some fighting skills. I cared and looked like a brother and now I felt slightly and confused at seeing what had happened. I was very compelled to take after him yet was unsure if it was the smartest thing to do.

Aoife
“I see, well you better go get the others, we can’t let them hurt are beautiful home now can we? Oh and Aofie well you’re at it do you mind telling the new seekers to meet me here in two hours for their lesson.”
I nodded to the God and bowed to take my leave when a girl approached us. Her eyes were veiled with an emotion which made me uneasy.
"I have something to tell you." The hushed tones of her voice froze me to the spot.
The feeling of dread increased tenfold as she revealed to us what had happened while we had been talking.
I looked up at a canopy in the trees and watched as a bird weaved its way around the trunks making its way back to its family. How many people have been denied that journey home now? How many people had taken that journey only to find that there was no home waiting for them when they got back? The answer was too many. I muttered a quick prayer for the departed and the honourable Shayka who had risked her life and used her affinity to try and protect them. When the girl mentioned the Raz traitor my thoughts were brought crashing down.
"Proof of their corruption" I snarled and then looked at the girl "I bet he wanted the glory of killing to himself." I stored the description of his features in mind and promised myself I would eliminate the solider. The only thing that brought me relief was news of the one survivor. What that boy did was something that most adults wouldn't have the courage -or self control- to do. It would do good to have somebody like that in the main village for a while.
Engel tapped me on the shoulder and muttered something about meeting him, to which I absently nodded and watched the God leave. The first thing to do would be to find that child and then find out more details of the killer. After that it was hunting time.
I went to exit the circle and then looked back at the girl.
"Show me where the child is."

Engel

I closed my eyes in sadness at having to retell the story that I had only recently heard myself, to the other gods. The sadness of the loss of life was horrible and was made even worse that I could do nothing to help. “so what do you think is going on?” I asked to the two in front of me. One of them should at least have a clue about what is going on.

Atlanta

Finally deciding that I wouldn’t do much harm by leaving and going after Cale and that if I didn’t I would constantly be worried about what I had seen I took off after him. I travelled at a quick pace trying to catch up with the Raz that had taken of awhile ago.

It didn’t take long to find and catch up to him though he was still moving pretty quickly himself for someone being injured. I sped up my pace a tiny bit coming up closer to him. I analyzed him first, seeing if I would be at risk if I confronted him, seeing if he would harm me. Though I was sure he wouldn’t kill me as quickly as he did the newbie’s earlier I still had to be cautious.

I made my presence known in a hope for not startling him. I again sped up and came beside him, grabbed his arm and then stopped him. Whether he liked it or not I was going to talk to him and find out what was going on. This was Cale, I couldn’t just leave him!

Errin

"I bet he wanted the glory of killing to himself" the seeker said. I didn't agree but I said nothing- he had no reason to spare that child even if it was the case. I gazed at the seekers cloudy blue eyes with envy. She nodded as if responding to someone- was it possible that one of the gods was there as I had been speaking? I was annoyed that I would never be given the chance to see them for myself, I would never even know what they really looked like. I was looking sadly at the centre of the circle when the seeker turned to leave. "Show me where the child is." She said. "I'll try but he might have moved on now" I said. I had seen the tree which he had gone up but I hadn't checked on him at all afterwards, he could have continued and gone anywhere now. Still, I couldn't tell her this. I already thought that she might suspect that I hadn't helped with the fight- after all how would I possibly have survived when that affinity user hadn't. Reluctantly, I walked in front to lead the way.