Shadows and Shapes in between the Trees [Job: Nightmare Incarnate: The Beginning] (Akeya Kuusai/Solo)

Job Description:

Akeya yawned as she woke up, for once having decided to sleep inside her actual room rather than the roof of the Guild Hall. After getting out of her bed (a traditional futon, which she folded up and put inside the closet so it wouldn't fill up the rather small room) the half dragon stretched, for once feeling rather lazy. She didn't have anything but the usual training and reading planned for today, but even with that she felt like taking a break, or at least keep it simple. A part of her mind voiced its disapproval at this mindset: laziness is a sign of weakness.

Sighing about this inner conflict Akeya put on her mask and blindfold, then opened the door to enter the hallway which would lead to...some place with food. However when the door was opened about halfway it bumped into something, catching the ninja's attention as she stepped out of her room and looked down at whatever was lying in front of her room. A large, brown, nondescript box squatted on the floor as if it was supposed to be there, and seeing how her name was on it, maybe it was. Either way, Akeya was puzzled by its presence.

Grabbing the box she opened it, her eyes immediately narrowing as she caught the scent of dried blood, not even that old. Inside the box were two items, both being the source of the stench: a tattered book and a recorder lachrima which looked as if it had seen better days. Inspecting both items the ninja's confusion only heightened when she read who was the owner of the book. She had never heard of somebody called Samuel Martin. The fact that she would be sent items like these, stained with blood, from somebody she never heard of before was...suspicious, to say the least.

After having read and heard what the book and the recorder had to say suspicious jumped straight into alarming. Akeya wasn't one to believe too much in faith, but she did feel like stories tended to develop in a certain way. There had been a man whose wife had been troubled by nightmares and terrifying visions. Every attempt at curing her at failed. When somebody finally tried to exorcise whatever evil creature might be haunting her the priest was murdered and the female ran into the Spooky Forest. When a group of Rune Knights were sent after her they were all afflicted with paranoia and creeping fear until something wiped them out. And now without explanation Akeya had a hold on two items which possessed enough information to make her interested in the story without providing everything required to know what exactly was going on. Either this was pure happenstance, or whatever evil creature was at work here was trying to lure more targets to itself.

Normally Akeya would have rejected such an offer, not being stupid enough to fall for it. On the other hand it would bug her forever if she didn't go, and it wasn't like she had anything to do today...

After having eaten and prepared for the day Akeya called for Korikami, the shadow fox quickly appearing right next to her. Looking down at her companion the winged ninja grabbed a piece of paper that she had found before and wrote something down on it before presenting it to the fox, who lazily ate it.

"I'll be out. Don't follow me. If I'm not back by the end of the day, show this to Guildmaster. Also, keep this safe for me."

With that she also presented the box holding the book and the lachrima to Korikami, who stared at her for a couple of seconds before shrugging and also swallowing that. After that he slunk away, apparently happy to just do what his master told him to rather than worry at what she said. The idea of her not returning was not one he really bothered to consider. From what he had seen so far she wouldn't go somewhere without help if she didn't believe she could take care of it on her own, and she was very practical about knowing her limits.

Climbing onto the roof Akeya spread her wings, straining the muscles in the unusual limbs before jumping off of the building and taking to the skies, heading straight for what was generally known as the Spooky Forest. Even if she believed she could take care of this by herself she still didn't feel like she should throw all caution into the wind.

Clover Town wasn't too far away from the Spooky Forest, so it was only an hour or so later that Akeya finished her flight and landed near the tree line of the generally dreaded forest, the big wooden behemoths living up on the name by looking threatening and making the entire place look a lot darker than it should be early on in the morning. Of course, this would do a better job of unnerving Akeya if she didn't prefer shadows and shade over the bright morning sun that illuminated the rest of the land. Still, it did its job of not appearing too welcoming, and while the ninja liked shadows that didn't mean she would just stroll into any dark area like some complete idiot.

Instead she stealthily entered the overgrown forest, her nature as a Shadow Dragon Slayer causing her to fade into the shadows. If the threat was some kind of human or dark mage she should be able to get the drop on them. If not then at least she was enough on guard not to be caught unprepared herself. Although the fog that was filling the air in between the trees and the lack of any sound was making her even more wary than before...

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

It didn't take long for Akeya to sense that something was amiss. Something was observing her, and from the way her tail flicked behind her, it wasn't doing so with friendly intent. More troublesome, she was being watched but could not detect the one observing her. The only thing she could feel was that cold deadly stare on her, seizing her up as if wondering how to best hunt her down. The fact that it was doing so even though Akeya was still faded amongst the shadows meant that whatever was doing the staring, it wasn't your run off the mill monster. It wasn't giving off any scent, no sound was made, and even though Akeya needed no light to see she still couldn't spot it. And even when she tried to quickly chase it down it stayed at a safe distance, at some point even appearing behind her as if it teleported.

Akeya was quite wary about this observer who managed to elude her so efficiently, although she wasn't exactly intimidated or scared. She wouldn't deny that the stare was one containing a lot of deadly intent, but a half dragon wouldn't get scared just because something was staring at her. But something was out there, and seeing how quickly it showed up it must not have liked her entering the forest. Well, she wasn't going to leave just because of that. First she would have to find the Rune Knights, or whatever remained of them (she really doubted that they were still alive). If she could find them she could find some clues about whatever it was that eventually hunted them down. Unless their bodies were completely unharmed with no traces of magic, at which point Akeya would have to figure out something else. She made her way further into the forest, constantly making sure that if something moved from the direction of the cold stare she would catch it.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

It wasn't too long before Akeya learned that keeping an eye on the direction from which...something was seizing her up was a very good idea indeed.

She hadn't made too much progress before she saw something move in the corner in the eyes, making her duck on instinct as a large rock sailed over her head and smashed into a nearby tree, leaving a clear dent as it fell down onto the ground with a loud thud. And the staring yet continued. Whatever was out there, it wasn't content with just watching its prey, and apparently capable of throwing big rocks at high speed and with a lot of force. Unfortunately Akeya hadn't been able to catch whether it was physically thrown or whether magic had been used, so she had no choice but to just keep an eye out.

Meanwhile the forest was just getting thicker and thicker, the fog becoming heavier until Akeya had a hard time seeing her own feet. Darkness held no obstacle for her eyes, but obstruction was another matter. Worse yet she could see that the fog wasn't completely mundane in nature. Her ability to detect magic was above average, and her blindfold allowed her to see magic as clear as day. The rock hadn't contained any magic, so if magic was used it would have had to be very little, and only enough to launch it. But the fog was filled with magic, dark magic which would make it impossible to get rid off the nuisance unless she had a way to dispel both the fog and the magic at the same time. Throwing big rocks, creating a thick fog which stretched far into every direction with enough magic behind it that it would refuse removal through normal means...this forest was called Spooky for a reason.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

In this deadly silence any sound would stand out like a sore thumb, resounding throughout the forest and attracting all attention. At least, it should. Akeya had been walking as silently as she could for a while know, using the fact that every sound was easily picked up to make sure that she really was being a silent. However when she finally started to hear something else it was as if it come from very far away, the fog muffling it and causing the half dragon to strain even with her enhanced hearing.

It sounded like somebody dying, and in quite some pain while doing so. Stifled moaning and gasping, heavy breathing which rasped due to blood bubbling from the throat...maybe it was one of the Rune Knights. The lachrima had recorded that it hadn't even been more than one or two days since the entire search group had been wiped out. Akeya wouldn't expect anybody to survive that long, but the sound was coming from a completely different reaction than the stare-

The stare suddenly shifted location, now in between Akeya and the (supposedly) dying human. Was it trying to prevent the winged ninja reaching the Rune Knight? Was it challenging her? Akeya narrowed her eyes as she stepped forwards, moving straight towards the source of the sound, like before whatever was keeping an eye on her obediently staying at a safe distance. That didn't make Akeya feel better about this though. When she had started moving towards the source of the sounds it had appeared in her path, but now it just went away as she advanced. If it had wanted to prevent her reaching the one who was gasping for breath it shouldn't have moved out of the way. Unless it was setting a trap. If it had been challenging her maybe it had been frightened by the fact that she just stepped forwards. Unless it was, once again, luring her into a trap. Either way, Akeya decided to at least go towards the moans in a roundabout manner, although she could swear that as she changed her course something laughed at her, very faintly and from really far away...

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

The being (or thing) doing the staring might not be doing anything but stare and move about, but it wasn't exactly passive about doing those things. It never wavered or flagged, the stare trying to bore a hole in the ninja's skull while always staying at the exact same distance, somehow at the same time also swiftly moving from one location to another, always keeping the same distance, as if attached to Akeya by a rope and trying out all the locations it could be at while keeping the rope taut. In front of her, at her sides, behind her...

Akeya wasn't easily intimidated, but she was starting to feel pressured by this continuous murderous glare. Not pressured in the sense that she felt like caving in, but pressured in the sense that she would have to fight soon, and that it wouldn't be easy. In fact, giving all the circumstances, if whatever was staring at her decided to come out things could go wrong very horribly...

But she wasn't going to let that force her into a retreat. Whatever it was that wanted to hunt her down, it had been staying at a safe distance for some time now. With the raw intensity and bloodlust it was displaying it would have charged her the moment that she was deep enough inside the forest to no longer be able to reach the exit. If it could. Something was holding it back. Most likely it wasn't that strong that it felt safe to just recklessly come at her. That meant it wasn't so strong that she wouldn't be able to fight it if it did decide to come out. And if she managed to find the Rune Knights before that point, she should have some more clues on what she was dealing with.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

This time it wasn't a rock that was thrown at Akeya. In fact, nothing was thrown at her. She was thrown herself. Without any warning, from behind Akeya even though she was holding a staring contest with the unseen predator, she was launched right into a tree, letting out a gasp as she smacked against the rough surface, quickly picking herself up and glaring around, preparing for the assailant to show themselves.

Nothing. Not a single damn sign. The fog was so thick and heavy with magic that she couldn't even see any traces of magic. One moment she was walking, the next she was flying, and even though she gathered herself as quickly as possible there was nothing and nobody to blame for it. She might as well have been the only living being inside the entire forest...except for that intense stare, which she had been looking straight at when she was pushed from behind.

Clenching her fists Akeya dusted herself off and resumed her advance, still glaring back at the creature hiding itself so successfully even though its deadly intent was so palpable it could be tasted in the air. At this point the half dragon found that she was moving in nearly half a crouch, her hands ready to strike out at something while her tail lashed out behind her. She was getting more and more tense. She still didn't feel any fear, but the part of her mind which handled instincts screamed 'danger', over and over without pause. This was no longer just Spooky. In this forest an entire squadron of Rune Knights had been hunted down and murdered as if lambs to the slaughter. She would still go on, but whatever she was dealing with, and no matter how reluctant it seemed to actually fight her, it was dangerous. Really, really dangerous.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Footsteps. Right behind her. Akeya spun around, shadows enveloping her, only to immediately freeze: nothing. Once again, absolutely no sign of anything but the staring being and the thick, oh so dense fog. The footsteps once again appeared, now in the distance. And the moans had disappeared. Was the Rune Knight dead? Had they finally lost all their life force and passed on? Had the predator decided to finish off its prey?

But...Akeya had been moving towards the location of the dying man for quite a while now. Yet she didn't feel like the voice had sounded much closer than before as it disappeared. Sure, there had been some progress, but not enough when considering the amount of distance she had covered. And now these footsteps, which appeared in random locations, without any warning, no rhyme and reason, then disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. They also didn't sound like the footsteps of a monster. And certainly not like a ghost, since a ghost wouldn't make normal sounds like that. It sounded like the unstable steps of an adult human, slow, sometimes stumbling.

She couldn't keep track of both the footsteps and the being staring at her. Actually, that wasn't the complete truth: she just couldn't keep track of the footsteps. There was no way to know where they would appear, how long they would last, and where they would appear next. She could as well be trying to predict where the pebbles somebody else was throwing would fall, even though the only thing she was allowed to look at were the ripples they caused on the surface of the pond.

She'd just have to keep an eye on whatever was tracking her. She would keep her ears trained for the footsteps, but constantly swivelling around trying to catch them wasn't going to work. Her tail lashed out behind her every time the footsteps came from that direction, hoping to strike at the mysterious wanderer.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

This time Akeya was prepared, having experienced it before: something pushed her, and before she actually crashed into anything she turned into a shadow, swiftly flowing away from the direction of the push before turning towards it and clenching her fists, nails digging into her own skin through two layers of thick cloth.

As she was starting to expect, there was nothing to get back at for pushing her. The footsteps came from an entirely different direction at the time, and the stare hadn't changed its location for a while now, besides to stay at the same distance from Akeya. Nothing to keep an eye on, nothing to get annoyed at, nothing to attack. She would be pushed around, and apparently she had no choice but to be happy that nothing worse was done to her.

Damned if she would be happy about it. Picking up the pace Akeya headed yet deeper into the forest, wondering how much further she would have to walk just to pick up traces of the Rune Knights. The last dated record had only an hour later than the one detailing them entering the forest. They had gone north. How had they known that? Every direction looked the same here. Even if they had a compass the fog should have blocked that out, seeping so much dark magic that obstructed everything. A surprise the recording lachrima had still worked. How had it made its way out of the forest and in front of her doorstep? Lieutenant Jacob had claimed to be the last alive. The recording device never made it clear whether he died or not. Had he escaped? But in that case he would have alerted the rest of the Rune Knights, not just send his lachrima to some random mage.

The book wasn't much better. Samuel Martin was most likely the local that had guided the Rune Knights, hoping to find his wife. But even if that was the case, would he have taken his journal with him? If he hadn't, or if he hadn't been the local doing the guiding, there shouldn't have been bloodstains on the book. If he had taken the journal into the forest, how had it come out without its owner? Did Samuel survive? Maybe the lieutenant had assumed to be the last alive as he panicked and ran away. But once again:

why had she been the only one alerted of all this?

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Every sound so far had been muffled, far away, barely audible. The fog dampened everything: it caused everything to become pale, as if colour was sucked away. Sounds were weak. The air tasted cold and dead. Even scents appeared to be washed away.

Except this time. This time Akeya got the full warning, her head snapping upwards as a loud groaning made itself apparent. Not the groaning of an animal, but the groaning of wood breaking and tearing. Seeing the source of this sound Akeya jumped backwards, in time to see a big tree come crashing down. If she hadn't moved it would have been right on top of her, and looking at its size she wasn't sure she would have survived that, half dragon or not.

Quickly heading towards what used to be the base of the trunk she examined the stump, but it didn't give any hints towards what had caused its collapse. It just looked as if the tree had fallen over, wood and weight tearing itself apart to cause wanton destruction.

Was it coincidence? How likely was it to be coincidence? Sounds that appeared and disappeared, malevolent beings constantly staring without ever getting close or going far away, thrown rocks and the air itself pushing her against nearby objects. Nothing could be seen as coincidence. She was being hunted, and while the predator wasn't willing to fight her, it was capable of making trees which looked sturdy enough to last a century fall over and smash everything below it to pieces.

While Akeya was wondering what to do about the fact that a tree had just basically blocked her path she finally caught the scent of something besides the surroundings wood: blood. Human blood. Wasting no time the half dragon made way towards the source of the scent, ignoring the footsteps, although she could never ignore that dark stare, aimed straight at her throat...

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Making her way through the (by now very creepy and disturbing) forest Akeya felt like something was missing. Something had been there all along, and now it wasn't there any more. She still had all her equipment, while she had been pushed about and threatened with blunt trauma she hadn't sustained any real damage...but something was gone, with no sign of it ever having been there. While following the scent the half dragon worried and worried until she finally realized it, which made her freeze with realization.

She was no longer being stared at.

The entire time that she had been in the forest that hidden entity had been watching her, trailing and tracking her with such certainty that she had been expecting it to attack her every second (actually at first she had just been wary, but in her current state she had trouble remembering that she was calm at the beginning). But now she was truly alone in the forest. Except for the sounds of foot-

They were also gone.

Several seconds passed by.

Nothing.

No sound whatsoever. No staring, no sound, no nothing. Whatever had been haunting and hunting there, and in the process had become her one and only companion in this forest, had disappeared. Somehow that was even worse than if it had just continued.

That train of thought immediately disappeared when Akeya heard something breathe right into her ear. Spinning around shadows gathered around her hand and formed a claw, slashing right through empty air before dissipating. However the distraction had done its job: with a loud crack a branch fell on Akeya's shoulder, making her stumble and clutch the injured joint. It was bruised rather heavily, although after some testing the half dragon confirmed that she could still use it. Painfully.

The breathing continued, now circling around her at the distance of a few measly feet. And nothing to support the sounds. Still cradling her shoulder Akeya moved on, making her way deeper into the darkness as the scent of blood became stronger and stronger.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

By now Akeya wasn't sure whether she should even bother sneaking about rather than just running. She was already being chased, her presence was already know. She might as well hurry up. Except that doing so would make it much easier for her to fall into a trap. Not that this specific enemy really needed traps, but her urge for caution still won out. It turned out that this saved her life.

When the breathing once again became particularly loud, now accompanied by rustling as if something was forcing its way through the thick undergrowth the half dragon immediately responded. Turning into a shadow she dashed forwards, but instead of going into a mad rush she quickly came to a halt and turned around, just in time to hear a giant boulder smash down onto the ground in the spot where she would have been if she had kept running.

Spinning around Akeya stared at the boulder. It was way too big to just be something that had been stuck amongst the branches before finally falling down. Beyond that, there hadn't been any sound of something falling down amongst the branches. One moment there had been nothing, and now a giant stone was lying there. The heavy breathing and rustling continued, sometimes in the same place and sometimes apart, sometimes sounding like one person, sometimes like several.

Shaking her head the half dragon made her way around the boulder, still following the smell of blood. Even with the staring gone she felt threatened from all sides, with random attacks with no apparent source and sounds of which she could never find the cause. It really was as if this place was haunted, but these ghosts wanted more than to just be noisy. However even when cornered Akeya wasn't some frightened prey. It was more like a predator being forced to go on the offensive.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

The rustling and breathing followed Akeya as she moved through the thick overgrowth with apparent haste, at least having enough shadows for her to merge with and became hard to track. Unfortunately her current opponent wasn't one that cared about whether she was hard to spot to not. It knew she was here, it was tracking her, and judging from everything that had happened so far it would eventually try to kill her. In fact it had already made several attempts, and it wasn't too long before another one happened.

Akeya was looking around, still trying to remain as careful as possible while at the same time feeling her instincts yell at her to go faster, to prepare for a fight, when suddenly she was once again pushed forwards, this time straight into a falling tree! Not wasting a second she once again turned into a shadow, once she could touch the ground immediately throwing herself to the side as with a loud thundering another green giant was felled.

Panting heavily Akeya stared at where she had just been pushed towards. Whatever was tracking her was obviously getting impatient. It had begun this whole thing with throwing a rock and pushing her around, but now it was actively trying to crush her to a pulp using trees and giant rocks. It even went so far as to push her straight into the path of her demise this time. Wincing as she felt her shoulder start to protest against the clumsy dodge Akeya stood up, once again focusing on her goal now that it was very close. The stench of blood was thick in the air here: the chances that this was another deception were very low, seeing how all the other tricks had been about strange sounds. Rustling, breathing, footsteps, moans of the dying...but this stench of blood was different. And very strong.