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~*~ TDT2: The Blood Debt ~*~

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[#80N8R0VWZ]

[#80N8R0VWZ]

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Smurf, actually, it's been proven that sugar doesn't have that much of an impact on a child's "hyperness".
Smeeze, it HAS been proven, however, that your adds bring joy and happiness into the lives' of many :D So, w00t! ^_^
-~* The Icelandic Grim Reaper is here *~-

27-Oct-2007 11:51:50

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

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*~*~*~*
Bond threw a look over his shoulder. There was no pursuit as he pounded through the forest, none that he could see. He would have heard yelling if there was any; he was so wired all of his senses were on high alert.
He allowed himself to relax slightly, and his weary mind wandered, replaying his escape in his mind.

Bond squatted beside her, coughing with exertion. Two fingers sought a pulse in her neck and were rewarded; he huffed a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, Rivera…” he whispered hoarsely. “You were actually good to me today. But I have to go, don’t you see? You can’t keep me here forever. I have to help them. I can’t be your prisoner, I can’t.” A tear rolled down his cheek and his face crumpled, he ran his fingers down the side of her cheek. He hated what he had to do. “But it** the only way, don’t you see? I have to be there. I have to see when Issavan finally realizes what it*s like to lose, after he’s made us lose so much. If you can’t help me do that…then you can’t help me at all. I won’t be your prisoner. So I have to go. But I am sorry…you were good to me.”
Shuddering, he rose and turned to Storm’s stall. “Since she was five, huh? You must be pretty old now, boy.” He stroked the horse’s nose, who whickered in return. “No…I need someone younger. And it sounds like you’re pretty special to her.” Bond strolled down the aisle, until he spied a mare nudging at her stall door, sleek black but for two white socks above her hooves. She whinnied loudly when he approached, but let him touch her and slide into the stall.
“You’ll do fine,” he muttered to himself. He quickly scanned the area, finding saddle and bridle nearby on a peg. With practiced motions he swiftly geared his horse to go, then opened the door and swung into the saddle. His muscles protested angrily and his chest was heaving, but he forced himself onward. “Let’s go, girl,” he urged, and tapped her sides with his heels.

27-Oct-2007 18:32:48

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

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Together horse and rider pounded up the ramp and burst through the barn door into the forest. “I’m coming, Krystal!” Bond exclaimed happily, and they set off at a canter in the direction he had heard her yell.

Now Bond had no idea how long he’d been riding, perhaps an hour or two. They had slowed to a walk; both severely needed the change of pace. The mare’s flanks were flecked with foam and sweat, while Bond gasped and coughed. The horse skittered at every grating noise that erupted from his throat. He clung desperately to the reins, feeling weak after the initial rush of freedom had left him.
Desperate to remain awake and alert, he began to sing, an old song that had always been one of his favorites.
“And I…will walk forever…
And I’ll not…stop until I’m with you…that I swear
Then I’ll get lost…into your eyes…
And know everything is…all right
I know…everything will be all right…”
He coughed loudly, sending the horse skittering aside. “Sorry, girl…” he whispered, leaning forward in the saddle. He rested his head on the black mane, and slowly darkness closed in.

“Rivera!”
The voice sounded far away. She decided to ignore it, and let herself drift back to sleep.
“Rivera, wake up!”
Louder now, more forceful. “Father…” she mumbled. “Let me sleep.”
“Oh thank the Gods you’re all right…” her father gasped, and she felt herself lifted up into his arms. Sighing, she let her consciousness return to her body, and opened her eyes.

27-Oct-2007 18:33:24

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

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“All right?” she echoed weakly. “What happened?” Her throat hurt desperately, and her voice was little more than a rasping sound.
It was dark, wherever she was. A musty smell assaulted her nose…hay. Then it all came rushing back to her: the stables, Bond, showing him the forest, then Storm…and then suffocating, choking, and his whispered words in her ear. Some part of her had heard, heard the apology, his explanation, seen the tears tracing down his cheeks.
“I don’t know,” her father was saying. “I came in to do the feeding tonight and found you lying here.”
“The prisoner…”
“What?” he demanded sharply.
“Bond – he was here. He got away.”
“Rivera!” he exclaimed, releasing her to grab his head in frustration. “Oh, how could you let him escape?”
She climbed carefully to her feet, rubbing her aching throat. “I’ll find him,” she swore, feeling rage sweep through her, rage at Bond, and at herself. “Believe me, I’ll find him.”
“You had better,” snarled her father.
She glanced over his shoulder, seeing three other people standing there, all staring openly. “Evan, get me a bow, two full quivers, and a sword.” The first man bowed quickly and hurried off. “Alena, I need a pack full of provisions and travel gear.” The woman nodded and followed suit.
Her father glared. “Wait, I’ll get a squad for you. You should wait until morning anyway, the rains have set in.”
“I know how to track, Father,” she hissed back. “Rain will just make his tracks more obvious; he’ll leave me a clear trail in the mud. I need to find him, father. On my own.”

27-Oct-2007 18:33:47

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

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By now Alena and Evan returned, handing her the gear and disappearing again, with her father’s third companion. Rivera turned to Storm and hurriedly threw on saddle and bridle. “Rivera, no. You obviously can’t handle him on your own,” her father insisted.
Rivera whirled, blue eyes flashing like ice. “Do not tell me what I can and can’t handle, Father. I’ll bring him back, and you can’t stop me. You’ll see.* Then she vaulted into the saddle and brushed past her father to the outdoors.
Outside, the sky was dark and the rain had begun to patter down. Rivera*s eyes, accustomed to the darkness, easily scanned the ground for signs of Bond. Soon she spotted a set of hoofprints in the soggy dirt, and set off to find him.
*~*~*~*
Bond woke with the rain. The first cold drop brought him to consciousness. It rolled down his nose, trailing ice, then tickled the tip before dropping off. The mare’s skin shifted as it dropped onto her fur, and he was jolted sideways. He grabbed at her mane and barely kept from falling.
Then he sat up and looked around. They were still, sadly, in the forest. He blinked, trying to clear his muddled thoughts. More cold rain helped with that. Somehow, they must have veered off course. They should have reached the road by now, otherwise, assuming Krystal had been on the road.
“Krystal!” he yelled, his voice cracking with the strain. He coughed again. “Krystal!” he cried, but his voice had no strength for another call.
“You’ll never find her.”
Bond’s head whipped around, so fast that his shirt snagged on a branch and ripped. Icy cold droplets rolled down his back, lighting fire in his half-healed wounds. “Rivera?” he gasped, squinting into the gloomy, blue-tinged fog of the forest.

27-Oct-2007 18:34:00 - Last edited on 27-Oct-2007 18:51:15 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
And there she was, practically glowing in the darkness, lit with a surreal light as she emerged from between the trees. “Yes, it’s me.” She laughed, but the noise was so high that it hurt his ears, and he bent his head in pain. Lightning flashed over head, and the thunder crashed.
“I’m sorry,” he moaned. “Can’t you understand?”
“I understand,” she said slowly, approaching him and the horse. Bond noted dully that the mare did*’t react a bit as Rivera*s pale figure came ever closer. “That doesn’t make it okay.”
“I told you, you can’t go back to them.” More thunder, deafening, and the lightning blinded him with blue fire.
Bond spun in the saddle. There was Rivera again, approaching from another direction. Suddenly there were more, coming from all sides, a half-dozen Riveras, closing in, encircling him, so that there was no escape.
“There’s no escape,” the first Rivera said calmly.
“Escape…” the others echoed, one by one. Bond cowered in his saddle, sobbing.
“You have to stay, forever,” she said, as the others echoed again. The circle closed in tighter, and he saw a bow in her hands. Then they all had bows, and drew back their arrows.
“No!” he shouted. “Don’t! Please!*
*It’s too late.”
“Late…” Their echoes were drowned in the thunder.
Then the arrows flew, and he felt them sink into his flesh. The impact knocked him from the saddle and sent his mare trotting away with a startled cry. He knelt on the ground, weeping, as the fire consumed him. Then he slumped sideways, and blackness rolled in as the pain vanished. Overhead, the thunder crashed loudly.
~*~*~*~ End of Chapter ~*~*~*~

27-Oct-2007 18:51:34 - Last edited on 27-Oct-2007 18:52:29 by Crystal Smee

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