Guild Tales: Wings and Bones

The Guild clerk woke the next day, dazed and confused, flagon in her outstretched hand. She managed to clamber her way to the top of the counter from the floor and looked out into the guild hall, as empty as she remembered the night before. She smirked with a satisfied look, contempt with not having to deal with anyone, when she vaguely recalled two figures she had spoken to briefly. Remembering that they came in looking to take part in a quest, she looked over the counter to the Guild Forms box and saw the key from the rooms laying atop several papers. Reaching over, she grabbed everything in the box, threw the key onto the counter behind her. She began reading through the papers.

"An elf and a human, eh? Good, the sewage needs nimble hands to clean up..." She began to read more when her eyes scanned over the quest log. "They're going after that thing, better inform the grave-keeper. Ugh, I hate this job."

She placed the papers on the counter and moved out from behind the counter. Moving past her tail, she forced the door open and started making her way to the back office.

"Sissi, what's for breakfast?" She opened the door to the back office, expecting to see Sisenia already up and working. When she didn't see her, she began to close the door back up, she then noticed the blades over her bed were gone. "What in the hell?" The slight sound of panic in her voice, the shock of a sudden realization began to sober her up. She raced back over to the counter and snatched the papers up, shuffling through them.

"Elf, Human...No you didn't!!!" She realized that Sisenia had filled out a form for herself as well. In a fit of rage she let out a shriek that bellowed throughout the small village, "DAMN YOU SISENIA!!!"

Several miles outside of town, the three adventures had been making their way to Rourke Acres to face the beast. They had been walking since they departed the village that morning and it was already rounding well into the afternoon. Sisenia was several feet ahead of Faelon and Casius, arms stretched out, looking as though she had just been freed from prison.

"This is fantastic," she had stated repeatedly ever since the began the journey, "I am so excited and ready for this."

Fael was unsure how he felt about this, while Cas seemed to be enjoying every minute of it.

"Remind me again exactly why we thought bringing her was a good idea?" Fael looked over at Cas, whispering as to not let Sissi here.

"I will admit, I was a bit skeptical at first," Cas began, "but come on man, she's doing the same thing we did when we started out."

"I get that, but this is a KING level threat, it's not a walk in the park. We're not going up against goblins or gnolls. This is our first real threat." He continued to try and make is claim, but Cas wasn't having any of it.

Cas stopped the both of them from walking and turned to face Fael. "Hey, this is not our first real threat, what about the vampire, or the mind flayer, or the freaking rabid unicorn?"

"To remind you," Fael stared back, "that vampire kill was because you dragged it's casket into the middle of an open field, in the middle of the day, and opened it."

"No one should be asleep that late in the day."

"And that wasn't a mind flayer, it was some poor sap that had a darkmantle stuck on his head."

"Don't think I'll ever eat fish again." Cas kept jesting. "But you have to admit we took down a literal rabid, overpowered, undead unicorn."

Recalling back for a second, Fael rolled his eyes. "Okay, yeah, we did do that. It's not like I can forget, you only remind me every opportunity you get."

"Yeah, see? Real threats that we beat." They began walking again. Cas' perkiness dimmed down a bit and he got serious for a moment. "Don't think I haven't thought about this though, you have 'A' point. This is gonna be a big one, the first KING threat we're going against. Aside from DEITY level, nothing is tougher than this."

"And the unicorn was a LORD level threat at best." Fael interjected. "We have a team dynamic going on here, and Sissi's an unknown factor here. She hasn't even told us why she's doing this, she just told us she's coming with us, without question."

Cas patted Fael on the back. "Then tonight, we will talk with her. If she's going to be working with us, she's gonna have to be open with us."

"Yeah," Fael said with a concerning tone, "then we should be prepared to be open with her as well."

"Well then, until tonight." Cas said.

Cas then called out to Sissi as he ran forward to catch up with her. She had not even noticed they had trailed behind, she was so focused on her excitement. Fael sped up his pace though wasn't keeping with their speed. Cas and Sissi began exchanging conversation when Fael suddenly felt movement off to their side. He looked over to examine a nearby hill and noticed the terrain begin to rise and fragment, something was moving towards them, it was big and fast.

"Cas!!!" Fael called out. "To the south, 80 meters and closing fast."

Cas and Sissi turned to look at where Fael had called out, just in time to see the creature break its head through the ground, revealing it to be a Bulette, an armored creature that moves underground much like a shark in water. It was making a direct line for Fael, Cas began to run straight for him while Sissi began to move to intercept its pathing.

"Fael, get ready, we need to get it out of the ground." Cas reached Fael and took a defensive stance. Fael raised a hand into the air ready to cast a spell when they noticed Sissi. "What the hell are you doing Sisenia?"

She couldn't here them at this point, she had put herself in the path of the Bulette, the sound of the ground being ripped apart was almost deafening. She readied her blades to attack when the creature broke free of the ground and lept directly over her, nearly 20 feet into the air while still keeping its momentum, it soared over her and flew directly into the two adventurers.

Cas pushed Fael out of the way and dove in the opposite direction nearly escaping it's massive size crashing into the ground between them. Just as fast as it had broken out of the ground, it had dug its way back underground and vanished.

"Where is it?" Cas asked in a panic.

"I don't see it, but did you get a look at the size of it?" Fael was already back to his feet surveying the area for its movements.

Sissi made her way over to the other two. "It was easily over 20 feet." The three of them took up a defensive, each looking in a different direction. "I got an up close look at it, it had armor plating covering it's underside, that shouldn't be right, and why is it here, this is miles away from it's hunting ground."

"We can figure that out after we've dealt with it." Cas spoke up sword drawn. "Fael, is there anything you can do to draw it out?"

"What if we did that thing we did when we fought of that stone giant." Fael said.

"What if we didn't do that, last time we did that I was cleaning that stench from my armor for weeks."

Sissi spoke up. "Guys, this thing is still somewhere under us somewhere, and I don't think it's going away anytime soon."

Fael then began to cast a spell to lift the three of them off the ground, and at the same time began to move the earth from under them down the road they were on. "It'll work better this time, just make sure you go in the right end this time. I'm attempting to make it think we're running for it, maybe it'll foll..."

Before he could finish the ground directly under their feet began to break apart, the bulette shot out breaking Faels spells and scattering them. It landed in front of Sissi with a loud, earth crashing thud. One of it's large legs landed on Sissi's tail, crushing her under it's weight. Sissi let out a loud yell in pain as it dragged her closer, it stared her down before attempting to crush her in its bite. Before it could, Cas had jumped between them and caught it by it's jaws prying it's mouth open.

"SISSI, MOVE!" Cas yelled as he began to push the creature up by it's head. It's massive claw lifted off of her tail and she rolled away from them. She managed to get a few feet away when she rolled back over and saw him holding this massive creature back.

Fael moved in behind Cas and began to chant another spell. "Can you keep it open for just a moment?"

Cas, struggling to keep it back. "I can, but you need to do it fast." As Cas pried its mouth open further, while also pushing it back as its claws dug into the ground, Fael continued to bring about his spell.

Energy began to engulf Fael, has he held one hand out towards Cas. "SHIELD!" He yelled out covering Cas in a magical barrier, giving off a green aura. With his other hand still generating energy from the spell he began before, he then threw it forward at Cas. "ENVELOP SEISMIC DETONATION!" The green aura around Cas soon shifted to a purple hue and began to pulsate rapidly. "Cas, you're good to go."

"This is anything but good, I hate this plan." Cas then placed his foot onto the bulettes jaw and threw himself into its mouth.

Sissi screamed out in horror, Fael ran straight for Sissi, grabbed her and immediately put up a protective barrier. "He'll be fine, but we're too close. GET DOWN!" Sissi instinctively curled her tail around the two of them inside the barrier. She cried out in pain as her injury became more distressed.

The bulette stood for a moment looked over to them and was ready to attack, when all of a sudden it stopped began to look anguished. The cracks in it's armor plating began to separate and steam began to discharge. Its body expanded as though it was being filled with air, and a massive rush of flames spewed from its mouth and eyes. The creature stood there still for a moment, the flames charring the face and armor, then it sagged over and finally died.

They waited a moment, then Fael and Sissi got up. Fael helped Sissi move as the went over to the creatures body still emanating steam and smoke.

Sissi stared in disbelief, but her disbelief turned to worry. "Wait, what about Cas? He just...you said he'd be fine!"

Before he could say anything the creatures head began to move, they both moved back as they saw Cas' foot kick out from the mouth. Fael sat Sissi down and went to help Cas. He pryed open its jaw pushing up with his hands and kicking its lower jaw open to make room for him. Cas wiggled his way out, completely covered in blood and slime from the creatures remains. "Are you alright Cas?"

"I really hate that plan." Cas responded. But something was off, Cas was out of the bulette, but his voice was still coming from inside the creature. "Fael, everything is still dark, how long was I in there?"

Sissi worked her way up to them as Cas stood up, she let out a horrified gasp. "CAS, WHERE IS YOUR HEAD?!?"

Fael turned to face her, Cas' body turned the other way. "Yeah, I'm sure you're gonna want an explanation for this." Cas began, again his voice muffled by the creatures body.

Fael then sat Cas' body down next to the bulette before reaching into it's mouth to retrieve his head. Sissi sat there just staring at Cas' headless body as he patted his knees waiting on Fael. Not long after, Fael came out, covered in the creatures liquids same as Cas, with head in hands, and replaced it back on where it belonged. Fael then slumped down next to the two of them and began to catch his breath. They sat there in silence for some time that the sun had already begun to set. The whole time, Sissi stared at Cas, wide eyed, not knowing if she was more intrigued or horrified at what she had just seen.

Finally, Fael broke the silence. "We should probably talk about a few things, we should make camp here. Cas, can you gather some firewood, I'll tend to Sissi's wound." Without a word, Cas stood up and made his way to some nearby trees. Fael stood up and walked over to Sissi.

He began to treat her tail when she finally spoke. "I don't know what I was expecting when I came out here, but I wasn't expecting that. What is he?"

"We have some questions for you too, we didn't get to talk much before we left, you didn't give us much chance to ask." Fael had applied a remedy to her before he began to cast a healing spell. "I think it's time we shared some information."

Later that night, they had gotten a fire going and started cooking up the bulette. Sisenia was already feeling but was still a bit shaken after the days events. Faelon was prepping the food they had cooked up and served some to Sissi. Casius sat there silently waiting for the round of questions that was bout to come up.

"So," Cas started, "I suppose you have somethings you'd like to know about us, just as we have a few outstanding questions for you too. So, where should we start?"

Sissi took a deep breath and then nodded. "I'll go first, what do you want to know?"

The two of them looked at each other then Cas started in with his line of questioning.

"First, Why are you out here? A guild clerk isn't exactly the step before adventurer. You charged into that fight and had it not skipped over you and gone for us, it could've killed you right at the start. Have you ever been in a fight before?"

She shuttered a bit, then responded. "I'm the runt of my litter in my family. I had three older siblings, they went off to become guardians or something, I haven't seen them since I was young. My mother and I came to that village early on and when the beast started making things hard for everyone, my mom took on the role of guild head, but work was skim and she thought it'd be easy work." She stopped briefly before continuing. "I wanted to go out on my own, but my mother forbid it, said I had to stick around and help her, I think it was just so she could have someone to boss around. I did stick around, but..."

"But you wanted to get out on your own." Cas jumped in.

"I wanted to travel, to explore." She continued with her answer. "I wanted to become a warrior and fight. When we first took over the guild hall, adventurers came through all the time. Every now and then I would ask one of them to show me a thing or two about combat I became very prominent in my skill, but a blade that's never used is nothing more than a wall decoration."

Fael then asked, "So why did you decide to join us, why not join one of the other parties that came through your halls?"

"I wanted to before, asked parties if I could join up, but like I said, my mother always forbid it. I had pretty much just accepted it. But then something you said resonated with me, 'How will we know we can't do it if we don't go out there and try.' That's how I knew that if I didn't take that chance and do things on my own, I'd never know if I could be."

"Yep," Cas said, "that does sound like the classic 'go out and be me' kinda adventure, and that line does sound like the kind of lame slag Fael would say."

The three of them chuckled at it, Sissi started to feel a bit more comfortable around them. But then, it was her turn to ask. "Okay, now then, you're turn. I would like to know how you survived decapitation, let alone be able to speak during said show."

With that, Fael looked at Cas, Cas looked Sissi, and with a reluctant shrug of his shoulders, took off his helmet to reveal the underneath. Under the helmet was a human skull, it had a faint black mist emanating from it, and his eyes glowed a deep green. Sissi was silent, the look she gave said she was shocked and taken back, but she managed to kept her composure. Then Fael started to speak.

"We said to you before that we had been adventuring together for almost 4 years. Well when we met, it was not your usual circumstances of bumping into one another and deciding to simply join arms. My mother was a High Elf, and my father...well, he wasn't around to matter much. I spent many of my early years under her watchful care up until about 7 years ago, when I went off on my own. I was more of an outcast from my people anyway, I had always had an interest in mystic arts and mage craft, but was not permitted to practice. So, I went out into the world, whatever my past was, I essentially abandoned. Once I began my journey, I began practicing and experimenting with the elements, I became very prominent in my craft. One thing that I had interest in..." Fael paused and considered what he was about to say.

Cas looked at him steadily. "If we're gonna tell her everything, she's gonna have to know."

Sissi stared with a mix of both worry and concern. She could tell Fael didn't want to say anything as it clearly worried him. She was gonna speak up and say that he didn't have to explain in detail, but he continued.

"One thing that I had interest in was necromancy, or more so, the ability to revive the dead."

Sissi shuttered hard, the thought of necromancer practices was horrifying to most, so much, that few in their whole lives actually meet anyone who practices.

Fael saw Sissi retreat after him saying that and immediately fell back over his statement. "But, I assure you, I don't look to use such acts in acts of combat or torment like they are more commonly known for. I want to understand it for potential benefits of protecting life already existing. Those that practice necromancy often use it for power benefits only. But it is understandable that to truly understand something, it has to be practiced."

It had just clicked to Sissi as she gazed over at Casius with his skull still exposed. "So that would make you a sentient skeleton ghoul?"

He stared at her intently and silently as though in a trance. She stared back at him worry and terror building in her mind. His silence began to scare her, the world began to deafen around her, as she started to drift into the feeling of dread.

"Nah, I ain't no ghoul." His words broke through her loss of focus and snapped her back, though her heart was still racing. "My story is much shorter and sweeter than his. See I was a born and raised human, trained my whole life to be a knight. Then one day..." He moved his thumb across his bony neck indicating the gesture for death. "Killed in battle, was an embarrassing death too, epic sword fight, blood and death everywhere, then just when it was getting good, I got kicked in the chest by a horse..."

Sissi chimed in. "Well if it was during a battle then I guess..." She was then promptly cut off by Cas.

"And fell head first onto an Almirajs horn."

The three of them fell silent again, Fael was barely containing his laughter, Cas had realized that telling the story sounds far more ridiculous out loud.

"Isn't an almiraj just a..."

"Rabbit with a horn, yes." Once again, Cas cut her off. "An entire field of death and mayhem, and a rabbit kills me, unbelievable."

After a further moment of silence, both Fael and Sissi broke out laughing. Cas, despite lack of facial features, somehow managed to look even more unimpressed at their reactions.

Fael took a breath then spoke up. "I'm sorry Cas, but I had all but forgotten that is how it happened." Cas then chuckled at the thought, and considered that it was indeed pretty humorous.

After they were able to settle, Sissi continued with her inquiry. "So how did you go from rabbit head and dead to this?" Gesturing to Cas.

Fael picked up the story from there. "I had been in the practice of necromancy for a little while now, and I had discovered a method of resurrection in my studies that I had yet seen used before. It requires a previously deceased body, and a soon to be deceased soul. I had tried a few times before and been unsuccessful, I've only ever dealt with bodies that have passed after some time, I needed one within the window of opportunity."

"And it just so happened that I had not yet parted from this world." Cas jumped in, sounding almost boastful that he hadn't died yet.

"The rest is pretty straight forward," Fael jumped back in, at this point they decided to trade on and off for the rest of the story. "I found him after the fight, clinging onto life, performed the ritual."

"And before you knew it, I was this bag of bones."

Sissi had become somewhat enticed by the story at this point. "I guess it was lucky there was a skeletal corpse nearby for you to use."

Cas then spoke up again. "Oh no, I was a literal bag of bones."

Sissi looked over at Fael when he said back. "Yeah, I had been holding onto those bones for quite some time, needed to have it on hand and ready."

The night had turned into constant moments of dead silence, Sissi tried to settle into all she had seen and heard today, but couldn't find the words for it all.

"So," Fael said, "Sisenia, do you still think you want to travel with us after everything we've told you?"

Sissi sat contemplating all that she had learned in the short amount of time she had with them, they weren't the usual party, and certainly had not much valuable merit to their names. They had secrets, even after everything she was told, she still felt that she wasn't being told the whole story. But, they did save her life during that fight, and felt the need to be open with her about their history, maybe after traveling with them for some time, she would get to know them more. They didn't seem too bothered with keeping her around, but what would be waiting for her if she went back. No, she thought to herself, she couldn't go back, she needed to move forward, and this might be that chance she needed. If she did this, there would be no going back. She would have to make it out here, and she wouldn't be able to do it alone.

"If you will have me on your journey, then yes, I wish to join your party."

The two looked at each other, remembering back to their conversation earlier between the two of them. Cas felt that she would be a good addition if she could get some in world experience. As for Fael, there were still aspects of his world he was not ready to reveal. But he knew if it eventually did come out, he would need allies he could rely on, he would need to trust them as much as they would need to trust him.

They both looked at her and agreed. Cas spoke up. "Welcome to the team, but if we're really going to do this, we're all going to have to be on the same page. We don't know the extent of what we're getting into when we get there, so we can't just be a team, we'll need to work as one."

"We should all get some rest," Fael said, "we're in for a long road ahead."

End