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[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens

Chapter 14: a few weeks later
The Lab

In San Diego, in the Zoological institute’s lab, Dr. Samantha York and her colleges plus students have been working on the samples she brought back for three weeks now. Samantha is in the institute’s forensic lab looking at one of the long black hair follicles, which she has been un-able to identify as a known species, when her superior in the division Prof. Johnson walks in; who is an older man with graying hair on top, “Morning Dr. York do you have new findings on the samples you brought back from…. Brooksville was it? “Yes” says Samantha. As Prof. Johnson notices she is using chain mail gloves to pick up the hair strand with a confused look he simply asks, “Why the gloves?” “I will show you, Sam bring over that apple” she calls her young lab assistant Sam who brings over a red apple and hands it to her. She takes the hair in one hand and says with a smirk, “Watch this.” She easily slices the apple in half with the hair which she then cleans off with a cloth which as a result is also cut by the hair.

“What the? How can it do that?” asked Prof. Johnson astounded. “This hair is unlike anything we have seen,” states Samantha, "The follicle has yielded material confirming it to be organic but the strand its self is even stronger than steel of the same dimension. In fact we haven’t been able to cut it for smaller samples until just yesterday when the hair finally showed signs of splitting and deterioration; allowing us to extract a microscopic fraction of the split end as the rest is simply too dense, we couldn’t even cut it with wire cutters before. And the sharpness of it is unlike any mammal’s I’ve seen. I mean the point is like a quill but the rest of the edge is almost scale like in design with a microscopic serrated edge. If I am right this would be the first known Carnivore with quills and the first of any mammal to have this fur structure.”

Prof. Johnson with a glint in his eye says, “Incredible, this is un-disputable proof of an unknown animal, although we will still need to get video tape of the animal and photographs would be nice.” He gave Samantha an odd look when he said that given her report to him about her experiences in the mountains. He continued, “Of course the ultimate proof will have to either be a captured specimen or a body.” “well” interjected Samantha, “I would think a capture would be easier unless rocket launchers are available to us given what we calculated out, you see we did a few models with the hair along with my description of the animal I saw and given its size and the thickness of the hair not even an elephant gun would penetrate it. Then there is the tail, if it were to fold that tail in front of it, it would take a tank to break through, and that’s with only the hair we don’t even know what other surprises it has. I am only conjecturing here, but imagine if it also had bony plates under its skin like a giant sloth; this animal would be virtually invincible to anything primitive man could have used on it. Even with only the fur and not some other defense it would explain why the legend I told you about depicted the animal as a wilderness goddess. Imagine trying to get an arrow through this; and that’s not all we also did a heat test and found this hair has a fire retardant oil on it and the fibers it is made of are highly conductive of electricity even more so than iron. Unfortunately we have been un-able to dissolve the hair fiber with any acid solutions or enzymes, so we have no way of knowing yet of what compounds it is made of. Its amazing that any living thing on this planet could have hair like this.”

“like I told ya boss its an alien” this interruption by Sam was followed by a little fake laugh, “Now Sam we don’t talk like that in front of the guy that signs your pay checks.” Samantha said while indicating Prof. Johnson. Prof. Johnson looked at Sam with a quizzical look then turned to Samantha while asking, “Do you have any other results yet.” “Why yes and this may be even more amazing than the hair.” Samantha answered, “I found a pile of feces and animal parts I believe to be the dumping grounds of this animal and I brought back some fecal samples which have yielded some unusual results.” “Dumping pit?” asked Prof. Johnson. “yes” answered Samantha, “its not all that odd; the cave its self had no smell of droppings near or around it, so it stands to reason that the other animal that was spotted may have been cleaning the cave and removing any thing that may have attracted scavengers and other predators. After all, I got too close to it, it should have reacted more than it did, that or it simply didn’t think I was a threat. We still don’t know enough to determine any behavioral patterns. But the feces is amazing.”

Samantha walked over to the tubes they were testing the feces with, with Prof. Johnson. “luckily,” she says, “the feces wasn’t as resilient as the hair and it gave us some interesting results. We found several things in the feces of course some of which don’t make much sense to me, the expected fur, and feather fragments were found, however the only bones we found had zero exposure to any digestive acids or enzymes suggesting they were the ones dumped on top, I had tried to get a sample away but a few broken bone fragments were in it anyway, so they either don’t swallow the bones or digest them fully, which wouldn’t be a surprise. We found some enzymes in the feces that seemed designed to digest calcium and protein more so than any other animal; and the fat content of the droppings was far too high especially for an animal in that cold of a climate, most predators try to conserve fat not simply let it pass through there systems as waste. Which leads me to a hypothesis that these creatures originally came from a warmer climate or maybe even migrate and this one just got pregnant while too far north and was unable to migrate south, which would account for this being the first time ever that the locals had trouble with livestock being taken by it. Of course I am only guessing at this point but this animal will make us all very famous.” Prof. Johnson looked very pleased by this, “A clever giant animal with a specialized digestive system and armored fur, yes if you can prove its existence, however you will need to go back of course and get photographic proof before we can justify the time and money to send in a team. I would conjecture my self that your migration idea may be off, I personally would think its simply a very clever animal that has been hard pressed. After all, I did my own reading on those two towns and both have been increasing in size over the years, I have the information sitting on your desk for you I figured you had enough on your plate with the samples.” “Uhm Thanks” said Samantha, “may I ask why you went to the bother after all don’t you have your own project you are working on?” “My little alien rodents project is old news at this point, despite it still being a problem, but this type of thing with the large new species now that brings in funding.” With that Prof. Johnson left the lab leaving Samantha to her research.

Samantha was sitting in her office looking over Prof. Johnson’s notes when the phone rang. She answered the phone only to hear the frantic voice of Mayor O’ Brian, “Dr. Samantha York it’s me Mayor O’Brian we have a situation here and you are the only person we know to call. Its just, just horrible, this morning there was an attack, horses and a person this time, he got a clear view of the thing. It was a stable out side of our city the victim is a man named Richard Stevens he is currently in the Brooksville hospital. We would like you to speak with him as soon as you get back if you would. Your description is very much like his, and well, you would need to talk to him your self. I don’t know all the details and our Sheriff isn’t here right now to give you all the details. But I know he described them as giant wolves and he confronted more than one giant wolf; or something like that.” “Don’t worry I am done with what I can do here for now and was about to head back up there in a few days any way, in fact tomorrow I was going to give your office a call to tell you I was on my way back. Don’t worry I would like to talk to Mr. Stevens about his encounter I should be back up there in three days, I have a few more things to set up before I leave.” She finished her talk with the Mayor of Brooksville and hung up the phone and thought, “Well at least I have more proof now, but damn it just had to be an attack on a human didn’t it, well back to the wilderness I go.”

[Rhuen]

& a bonus post for missing a day

Machines

Machine Name: Kah-Rah-Kuh-Tah “Mios”

Type: Space Ship

Description: The exact shape various with in a degree for each individual Mios class Kah-Rah-Kuh-Tah. Imagine a chicken nugget made of black organic exoskeleton/wood like skin. Now on each end place a red dome and one on top and one on bottom and one on each side, giving it a total of six red dome eyes. And in an even number there are long stiff insect like branch legs located on the ends “usually four but it various between four and eight” with several long spire spikes located around the body in different spots “sparse locations and few of them”

Capabilities: The legs can fire red chaos bolts and the spikes fire purple mystic energy bolts. It can also produce a spiritual force field.

History: This version is a mutant weaker version of the “Khaos” class version. In fact the Khaos type was made first of the three and this Mios version second. But this version is the weakest of the three, as it was made to be a basic lie in wait and strike version. Basically during the age of war the Rho-Rai viewed the power levels of their basic Kah-Rah-Kuh-Tah beyond what was really necessary for un-manned fighters. For this reason they created the Mios which still can destroy most force fields and lay waste to meteors the size of mountains. A rare power down during this time period as most the technology was going up in scale “way beyond what is reasonable” and for this reason it was made solely to lay in wait in meteor fields or near planets for the ships of others and then attack from standing positions. In essence they are defense satellites.

Edited by Rhuen, 21 July 2007 - 12:33 PM.

[Rhuen]

and from the Mechanation empire one of their body types.



Name: Nano-Tech Armor

Type: Armor

Physical Description: Covers the user in skin tight to armor like metal skin. Can either look like a metal skin, cloths, or even thicker armor.

Abilities/uses: Strictly defensive system that makes the user immune to most normal damage from impact, heat, cold, electricity, and other low levels of energy. It can change shape and style based on the user’s will. This armor is given to new recruits along with some implants of the mecha-nation. Basically it’s a stage one for the procedure to become more powerful mecha-forms, allowing the user to become acclimated to transformations and mecha abilities.

[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens (cought on yet to the two backstory database item and then one story approach)

Chapter 15: The same time
Mike and the Gargoyle

For three weeks Mike has tracked the reports of the creature the people of the town of Big Bear have dubbed the pet thief demon. Now deep in the forest Mike believes he has found the trail leading to the gargoyle’s nest. As he trudges through the darkness he carries his sacred golden cross in his left hand and the Golem Slayer in his right. “This should be fairly simple,” thinks Mike, “when they’re not hunting, gargoyles are sleeping and the locals saw this one take off some time back.”

“Well here I am.” Mike thinks as he prepares himself to enter the large dark cave. Mike leans up against the edge of the entrance and hears deep breathing from inside, “I guess I don’t need to guess which cave it is, even with out noticing the scratch marks indicating this cave was dug out, nothing makes that kind of rocky grinding breathing other than a gargoyle.”

Mike enters the cave (weapons at the ready) to the most unexpected sight, the black gargoyle he has been tracking is slouched over on its nest clearly awake with its arms wrapped around its self. “It’s just sitting there on its pine needle nest not moving.” thought Mike confused. His next big surprise comes when he noticed it only has one wing, and it looks to be terribly banged up. It suddenly raises its head and looks at him with a forlorn expression.

Rawl could smell the human enter his cave; he looked up and noticed he carried the same cross his father had warned him about, “So this order has finally come after me.” He thought. Rawl speaks to the hunter in a sad tone, “So you have come to kill me in my moment of despair, go ahead I have nothing left to live for.” With that he reaches up to where his left wing should have been and looks back down. Then the most un-expected happens rather than out right killing him the hunter talked to him.

“Your kind are egomaniacs that torture there victims,” said Mike, “and will fight to the death when attacked, you know I am going to kill you yet you tell me to kill you, why would a thing like you just sit there… and for that matter what could have hurt something like you like this?” The gargoyle answered him in a deep sad voice telling him a story he couldn’t believe.

The gargoyle described the very mountain Mike had been searching on; only on the rockier section he had not searched, for he believed any den would have been in the softer soil further north. The description placed the den only ten miles from PineRidge, and the gargoyle described its ordeal with the Dire which Mike recognized as the description of Versa. Mike thought to himself after the gargoyle finished his story, “ This creature, this stone demon was defenseless against it, they may be made of stone themselves, that must be the real reason Father Henry gave me this golem slayer, and if what this demon says is true then there are also two cubs. My God the demons are reproducing!” Mike’s thoughts were cut off by the gargoyle asking him, “Hunter I am nothing with out my wing I have not yet eaten and will starve so I ask you to please kill me.” The look in the gargoyle’s eyes looked genuine to Mike, “I will kill you; and then I will hunt down those Dire and rid our world of them as well.” Mike raises the golem slayer to its red point side and chants the Hebrew inscription, the sword glows with a brilliant yellow light. Mike aims the sword at the gargoyle and a beam of light shoots from the sword and strikes the gargoyle. With a mighty howl and beams of light escaping breaks in the monster’s body the gargoyle vanished in a brilliant flash of light. Mike steps out of the cave; his job finished and as he walks back down the hill towards Big Bear he thinks, “I know where you live now Dire, and I have the weapon that will destroy you. This time I will kill you and send you back to Hell where you belong.”

Back inside the cave a few hours after the hunter left a strange blue ball of light appears where Rawl the Onyx Gargoyle once sat and rises through the roof of the cave flying across the sky to the north only to be seen for what it really is by one strange woman with long white hair who stands outside a hotel in Big Bear. The ball rushed through the air, and in the darkness of the night is received by the very wing Versa had torn from his body. Rawl had limited psychic abilities; enough to hear the surface thoughts of the hunter as he thought the name of the Dire which had injured him, and now his evil soul has come back to the last fragment of his body. As the wing regenerates his neck and head along with the rest of his body, Rawl thinks to himself, “Foolish hunter even if one pebble remains we gargoyles can reform our bodies, those golem slayers only work when our entire bodies are attached as one. No matter with the hunter; I will kill you Dire you and your cubs! This time you will not see me coming and…” *oomph* Rawl’s words are cut short as his now fully formed body sinks in the very ground he is standing on, only this is a pit of shit he has sunk into and the smell tells him it is the Dire’s refuse pit he has sunk in.

“my wing, my beautiful wing, that bitch threw it out like it was nothing but garbage! I had hoped to reform in her presence to exact my revenge now that she won’t have me by the throat.” Rawl digs his way out of the pit and climbs up the cliff face to the top where he wipes the dung from his body while growling the most terrible obscenities under his breath. Finnaly calming down abit he says, “Damned she-wolf monster, you and your cubs will die an even slower and more terrible death than I had planned because of this disgrace and insult you have given my gorgeous wing with its black sheen and star white spots. You wont escape for I have your scent and next we meet it will be time for you to die”

[Rhuen]

a plant (an edible plant at that) yum.

Name: Blood Leaf

Type: Vegetable (leafy)

Habitat: Does not exist naturally, is grown in the secret fields of some Elf type races such as the Feline Elves who call themselves the Liahnsa as well as others. The environment is temperate like but completely controlled.

Description: Looks like a small red leafy shrub (semi-triangular leaves), however the leaves are smooth to the touch. Despite its appearance under the thick head of leaves is not a woody plant of thin spongy stalks that all connect to a root bulb. The stalks and root bundle are not taken up until the plant has gone through 15 cycles of re-growing its leaves (which are what is harvested and eaten). The stalks and root bundles are grounded up as a sugary tasting ingredient for some potions and energy drinks. The leaves are red and ooze out a thick red liquid (hence the name of the plant).

History/Abilities: Its not known where they come from originally, or even how more are grown after the stalk and bulb are harvested, a new plant seems to just grow back in the spot the old one was at. The leaves are eaten in their own juices at some dinners and feasts as a dessert, it has a flavor more akin to strawberry candy than any leafy plant. However its not full of sugar at all and is in fact good for humans to eat, although its considered addictive to many species including Goblins. Its effects on Elf type races seems to only be that of a tasty food. Otherwise this plant’s leaves have no special characteristics.
The potions the stalk and bulb are made into tend to be energy boosters and love potions.

[Rhuen]

an alien race: as a side note this race is one of my oldest that I have worked on, and one I am proud of in the sense that unlike most of my older creations they are not magical, feminine hermaphrodites, asexual lesbians, or look like elves, cats, or canines. and these guys are mentioned often in the history of other races. with what I concieve as one of the most original technological systems out there.

The great empire of the

Ohroarnium:
Description: The best way to describe these beings is body part by body part from the head down as they are not humanoids.

The Head: They have a head like that of a carnisaurs dinosaur, covered in green scales, with small iguana like ear holes, and eyes positioned mostly to the sides of the head by more forward than those of a herbivore. The overall impression is that the sense of smell is more important than sight, or some other sensory perception (perhaps electrical sense).

The Torso: a very humanoid torso, with two arms, a chest, and an abdomen. The arms are slender with hands that have four digits, three fingers and a thumb. They have long claw like fingernails, but these are kept for appearances, otherwise they are no different other than general shape and color than those of humans. The chest appears to have a ribcage like that of any humanoid, but clearly the spine can’t be the same given the lower body. On the female Ohroarnium they have stiff breasts which can be of a fairly descent size, but they are not made of fat, nor do they have mammary glands. It would seem this feature is strictly for attracting a mate, which has lead many xenobiologists to hypothesize on the generalization of sexual attractions between variously shaped beings, one being that like the Ohroarnium and humans many upright forward facing life forms utilize a chest level design for attracting a mate.

The Lower Body: the Ohroarnium lack wastes and legs, instead they have three very long and thick around tentacle like limbs, they are similar to the tails of snakes, in fact they are thicker around than an anaconda, but no where near as long. Two are placed where the legs would be and the third behind in place of where the tail would be, the ends of the tails are tapered rather than coming to a thin point, the over all effect is that they are extremely muscular, and in fact when on land they support the body upright as they slither about. This body structure has caused many jokes about Ohroarnium genitalia resembling a cephalopod’s beak, which is unfounded.

An interesting side note is that the Ohroarnium are completely immune to electrical shock, their scales are insulated against it, which seems to be an evolutionary left over from their ancestors as even when cut they are still un-effected but electrical currents, and it doesn’t bother their eyes, nostrils, or throats.

History: The Ohroarnium are one race level below those like the Creators. The Ohroarnium took part in the race to gather their technology when the Creators ascended to becoming energy beings. The Ohroarnium however had a very different technological system and were actually the first to give up looking for it when they discovered just how different it worked from their own. One of the first races below the ascended level races to realize just how different technology can be from one species to another. The Ohroarnium do not utilize living technology in any form, it goes against their beliefs.

The Ohroarnium being immune to electricity and fairly tolerant of high water temperatures as well as being able to breath underwater developed space craft that are filled with water and use the atmosphere inside the ship as a conductor for their equipment. The roofs of the ships gather the oxygen and hydrogen molecules as they are split from the water thanks to the electricity and reform them back into water that is circulated back into the ship. This gives the insides of their vessels an appearance of being filled with scolding hot jets of water with a strong electrical current running through the whole thing. This technological system is very different from any other race and gives the Ohroarnium a monopoly on their own technology as no other race (from their own level or below, yet discovered) can survive in it. Those races able to survive it seen so far are already themselves more advanced than the Ohroarnium.

The Ohroarnium are a vast and highly advanced empire that controls great expanses of space, they currently have very little interaction with the less advanced races.

Book Series Influence: The Ohroarnium hold control over a vast empire in space, when humans venture out into space they will encounter them and be overwhelmed by just how advanced they are. Next to the Qwie the Ohroarnium will seem like the most advanced race out there that the general human population will be aware of.

[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens

Chapter 16: three days later
The Rancher’s tale


In Brooksville Samantha greets Sheriff Peter in the Brooksville Hospital, “The victim’s right in here.” He shows her to the emergency room where a man in his mid thirties with brown mullet hair and stubble is lying in the bed, the first thing Samantha notices is he is missing his right arm and from the bandages it was a recent injury. Sheriff Peter is the first to speak, “Dr. Samantha York this is Mr. Richard Stevens and Mr. Richard Stevens this is Dr. Samantha York of the Zoological institute, we would like for you to describe your ordeal for her if you please.”

Richard Stevens begins, “Well a few days ago I was woken up by the sound of my horses out at my stable making all kinds of noises. Well it was early so they shouldn’t have been up yet, and I had never heard them make such a ruckus before. Well I started to get up thinking ya-know like one of em had gotten loose or something. But then I heard something I hadn’t heard since my pa had to put a horse down for a broken leg back when I was little. A scream I heard a horse scream, so I think a cougar or a bear or something had gotten to them, so I grab my rifle to take care of the critter or at least chase it away. I headed out and saw around the edge of the stable a bit of a black ear and head so I think a coyote or wolf ya’know but what I saw weren’t no wolf or nothing I had ever seen. There were these two animals ‘bout the size O’ wolves but they looked more like giant foxes or something with dem big heads, ears, and tails, not to mention the legs were in proportion to a fox. After I got over dat I noticed they was eating my prized stallion Blacky. That reminds me one was solid black but the other one was black with this white spot on its chest, well anyway I raised my rifle and my god, oh my god two more ran out of the forest.”

Richard Stevens stopped, sighed and took a drink of water from the cup on the table next to his bed and cradled the cup in both hands just looking down. Samantha in a soft tone spoke to him, “Mr. Stevens I know this must be hard but could you please tell us what happened after the other two appeared?” Richard Stevens looked up and said, “ I still can’t believe it and you will both think I am crazy, the police already think I am crazy, but its true; all of it, well any how you wanted it so here it is. Well one was grey with a whiter underside and the other one was solid black, I figure they was the parents for the smaller two. But this is what you wont believe they was huge, I mean huge. At the shoulder they was taller than my biggest horses and longer than a bus, I swear to god with those big fox tails they was longer than a damned bus! And then that grey one, my god that image will stuck in my head forever I swear it, she stood up or should I say she pushed off the ground with her front paws like a bear and stood up on her hind legs. She was so big she could have looked into the second story of my house. I raised my rifle to shoot it. I was just so scared I had to try something but she came down fast and sliced off my right arm with her claws.” He indicated his missing arm when he said it continuing, “I’m not certain, but I think I passed out soon after but I think my gun must have exploded because I felt this intense heat and the wound was all burnt up.”

Sheriff Peter leaned to Samantha and said, “The wound was cauterized the doctors say it was the only thing that saved his life, other wise he would have bled to death.” “Yep” said Richard, “Now don’t think my wife slept through it all dat commotion, it woke her up, if you want to ask her what she saw she’s at the house right now. She’s the one that called 911. She can back up my story. She saw them things too. But you say your one them zoo scientists right well your going to want to know dis, the strangest thing about this whole thing to me was when that big grey bitch rose up she looked like she had big human breasts instead of lotso little nipples like it should have. That really stuck with me, because I have had dogs my whole life and have hunted down problem foxes and coyotes and they all had them little nipples on da bitches, not this one though just two big tits.”

Samantha leans over to Sheriff Peter while whispering, “That sounds like the big female I saw in the cave, but when I saw her she was laying down in the shadows of the cave so I never noticed anything like that. However considering all the strange things I have found out about them this doesn’t surprise me. If those two Mr. Stevens saw were the only two cubs or pups, which ever term we decide to use, and if only a few offspring are common than there wouldn’t be any need for anymore than two mammary glands.”

Richard Stevens had been drinking his water while Samantha was talking and heard every word. What he heard caused him to cough up his water and get wide eyed. He looked at Samantha then Peter with shock in his face before getting angry and yelling at them, “You people knew!? You knew the whole fucking time about these things and didn’t warn anybody?! Didn’t think to put it on the news or in the god damned paper?! Didn’t think to warn anybody?!”

Peter stands up and says to Richard, “Now sir please calm down, we did put out a report to the local ranchers and farms owners, yourself included about a possible predator problem. However we didn’t know until very recently the nature of the predator that was causing the problems.” Richard Stevens yells out, “Possible problem? Possible fucking problem?! Look at my God damned arm you bastard! No wait ya can’t! Predator problem? Predator problem means bears, cougars, and other such critters not some fucking giant monsters you ass hole! Now get out!”

Samantha and Peter get up and leave the room with Mr. Stevens still yelling obscenities in his room at them. In the hall Samantha says to Peter, “We really should warn these people especially the ones on the out skirts of the towns about these animals. They clearly must be having some food problems, I got reports describing the increase of the various town sizes and an area once thriving with thousands of deer was cut down this last year, they have been cut off from there food supply most likely and are now being forced closer into the towns.” “Well this one got a rifle blast at point blank range they are likely gun shy.” stated Sheriff Peter with a dismissive wave. Samantha walks out into the noon day sun with Peter while saying, “I wouldn’t count on that Sheriff, from what I have found I doubt it even felt it.” Peter watches with a look of un-ease on his face as Samantha gets in her truck and drives out of the hospital parking lot.

[Rhuen]

I wrote that years ago and just noticed an error I made it in.

"he cupped his cup with both hands" and he is missing an arm....my bad.

and now an animal of Other World

Species: Chuner

Type: Fish (eel)

Diet: small fish and crustaceans have also been seen to scavenge carcasses in the water.

Habitat: Shallow rivers and marshes. It originates from the Water Roots Country, but due to becoming a popular food item amongst fish lovers has escaped into the wild in the Land of Styx and a few others. Thankfully despite being a tough little eel most water systems have proven to either have predators that eliminated the eels, the water wasn’t a suitable habitat, or were hunted out of the area by fisherman who knew how much they could sell them for.

Physical description: A brown eel body. The end of its tail has a fan like fin with a strong top and bottom that allow it to close the fan while swimming, the fan isn’t for swimming but rather for kicking up soot to escape from predators. The head is a solid beak hinged at the base where it meets the body. The top and bottom both look like the top beak of a parrot. The curved tips cross each other like scissors, the inside of the jaw is lined with small triangular serrated teeth. The top jaw has on either side near the base a small slanted eye with a cat like pupil (very un-fish like) except it has no lids and the eyes while indented into the head look as solid and un-moving as the rest of the jaw, which when dissected was seen to actually be nothing more than a light and motion sensitive organ and the looks a means to scare potential predators. The space between the fleshy body and hard head is lined with long grass like gills which help pull in oxygen to the armored gills. On the body near the head are a pair of small fins on the underside which seem to serve no known purpose, possibly an evolutionary left over.

Name Origin: The Aesperia were the first to discover this eel when they explored the Water Roots Country, which they later colonized. The word “Chun” in their language is the word for the sound of metal crossing metal, which has come to be used in the name of things like scissors and shears. Chuner is basically a “cute” version of this word, much like how English speaking humans will put a “y” on the end of a word to make it sound cute.

History & Abilities : Those who discovered it in the Water Roots Country quikly tested it as a potential food source thanks to how common it was. The eel was found not only be edible but to be delicious and has since become a common food stock. However its not easy to take care of because its not with out it own special abilities.

Aside from biting, and using its tail fan to kick up soot it does have some special powers. It can shoot concussive bubbles from its mouth. And even create a different sticky bubble that can trap prey or irritate predators. These powers are very low scale and the force of the concussive bubbles isn’t enough to be a threat to even a human let alone a being of Other World like the Aesperia.

[Rhuen]

a magical item

Name: Penguin of Power

Type: Plush Toy

Description: Looks like a palm sized small cute plush toy penguin. It has a small loop on its back that a string or small chain can be inserted into.

Origin: Created by a Tempest Elf in cooperation with a Light Forest Elf as a joke on the average muscle headed goon who wants to rule the world. It was released into the world into the hands of a Mercinary at first who came to be known as the Penguin General due to wearing the Penguin in hole in his helmet which allowed its head to be exposed but most of the body inside the helmet on his head. Since then it has been passed down from warrior to warrior.

Does: The Penguin its self is said to be invincible, or at the least rebuilds its self if destroyed. Its abilities are nothing too spectacular, it enhances the holder’s stamina, strength, speed, senses, and healing ability to that of a super-human. Or in the case of beings who are already above humans levels even higher, a normal human would gain Captain America Level abilities and someone like Captain America The Hulk level abilities. The effect seems greater the stronger the holder before gaining the Penguin of Power. When used however the Penguin must be held against the body of its holder and be visible to others (the exact level of being visible must be greater than 25%). In otherwords the joke was that it grants the user great power but the have to have this penguin doll visible on their body in order to have it.

[Rhuen]

The time has come: Mike the werewolf hunter vs Rhuen of the Elder Rai.
dun dun dun

Howl of the Heavens

Chapter 17: That night
Mike’s confrontation


Ten miles out of PineRidge deep in the rocky region of the mountain Mike King is searching for any signs of the Dire, with his Golem slayer sword drawn at the ready. Into the moon lit night Mike has searched up and down the far side of the mountain when on the flat thick forested region atop the mountain his movements are stopped by the deep thunderous voice of Rhuen, “Foolish little human I had told you not to return here, why then is your vial stench all over this mountain, and why do I see you before me now?” Mike started to think, “before me?” when Rhuen in the same seven foot form Mike had seen before appears out of thin air not fifteen feet in front of Mike. Mike holds up his Golem Slayer with confidence, “I am ready for you now demon. Now prepare to die beast!” Rhuen looks at the weapon Mike is holding and actually rolls his eyes in response thinking, “He can’t be serious with this, what do I look like… a boulder? I should at least try scaring this harmless idiot again.”

Before Mike can utter the spell he is startled by a deep rumble coming from Rhuen and looks up to a sight he had never expected. Rhuen clinches his fists and with a deep rumble increases in size to a full fourteen feet in height and more muscular but not cliché werewolf muscular. Mike is clearly scared despite his attempts to calm himself, his knees are shaking and his face feels like all the blood has suddenly flushed out of it. He thinks to himself, “Its big, really, really big. Please God protect me and let this sword work or else I will be meeting you soon.” He pats his gun with its silver, saltwater filled, gold tipped bullets with his left hand while he holds his sword with his right hand and thinks, “This is not a werewolf, I don’t think these bullets would be more than a bee sting to something that big, I must act quickly.”

In a shaky voice he says, “You may be a little bigger now, but I will stop you Rhuen, that’s right I know your name demon and I now have the power to stop you, so no one will ever fear your name ever again.” Mike turns the sword to its red side and quickly chants the spell and blasts Rhuen with the beam of brilliant light, “A direct hit right to the chest.” Screams Mike in triumph, which is short lived when the blurriness from the bright flash wears off and Rhuen is still standing there with his arms crossed with a look in his eyes that conveys the message (you done yet?).

Rhuen uncrosses his arms and looks down at Mike, “It may have escaped your limited ability to notice that I am not made of stone, and that weapon which is called a golem slayer was designed to slay golems which are stone creatures and it slays only stone creatures and as I said I am not stone. Fools will be fools I guess.” On the last part Rhuen re-crosses his arms and starts to tap his claws on his upper arms while giving Mike a curious look that seems to say (well now what?).

Mike thinks, “Smart ass monster.” And quickly releases his trump card, starting with the red side and quickly turning the sword he reads the first part of the incantation on the red side, the second part of the second side and so on until he has completely turned all four sides. Turning back to the first side where the letters have changed to a new incantation Mike quickly reads. Upon finishing this incantation the sword is covered in a light blue flame. Mike thinks as he is raising the sword to attack, “I may die in the final flame blast but at least I will take this demon with me.”

Unknown to Mike Rhuen was ease dropping on his thoughts and in the short time Mike was raising the sword to attack Rhuen thought, “this maniac his going to start the whole forest on fire if I don’t stop him.” And in that same moment Rhuen turns his right palm up and a ball of blue sparks appears. Rhuen then grasps his hand out like he was grabbing the hilt of a sword and an arc like the shape of a large Arabian scimitar made of electricity appears in his hand, and with it lunges at Mike.

All Mike saw as he was raising his glowing sword above his head was a sudden flash of blue then nothing. Mike’s vision starts to readjust to the darkness and realizes he is still holding the sword Mike, “That flash that couldn’t have been the Golem Slayer; I am still here and the sword, my God!” Mike lowers the sword which is sliced in two and sees the second piece laying on the ground next to him, “that flash did I do something wrong, no the flash was moving it came from in front of me from…Rhuen.”

Mike looks to where Rhuen was standing to see that nothing is standing there now. He drops his broken sword and with fear in his eyes looks back and forth as he backs away reaching for his gun. As he is fumbling with his sidearm pocket he bumps into something, something that is too hairy to be a tree, “Oh shit.” He exclaims as he looks over his left shoulder and up to the back of Rhuen’s head who turns his head slightly and looks down at Mike with his right hauntingly glowing blue eye and smiles a wicked smile. Mike frantically thinks, “What happened to his giant fox tail, shouldn’t I have stepped on it as I was backing up, or seen it before I did something this stupid.” Before he can think any more in his terrified mindset that doesn’t seem to be allowing it’s self to contemplate his situation properly mike is tripped by Rhuen’s tail as it swings back around from Mike’s right side.

Mike falls to the ground hitting his head on a rotting log and as his gun falls away from him down a nearby rocky slope he drifts into unconsciousness and hears Rhuen say as he looks down at him, “I told you to leave before this, now it seems you and your fellow cohorts in this irritating scheme against me and my kin will have to be punished.” Mikes last sight was the dawning sky as Rhuen walked away leaving him there in the dirt of the forest floor like some discarded carcass.

[Rhuen]

an animal of Other World

Species: Short Winged Wyvern

Type: Dragon (Wyvern)

Diet: Carnivore, small mammals and reptiles.

Habitat: The rocky northern regions of the Land of Dao. It lives in the steep crevices and spiky spires areas where it can be found wrapped around the spires or climbing up the cliffs with the strong hooks on its short wings.

Physical description: a brown serpentine body with a lizard like head, the head has two short grey goat horns. The body is prehensile, with the tip of the tail having a semi-triangular tip. It has short ribbed wings which have a long membrane that implies it evolved from a dragon type that was capable of flight. The membrane is too thick and the finger bones too thick and sturdy to support even gliding, in fact the forefinger has an adjoined extra finger bone that splits off half way down to add strength to the wings which other wise would have had only four fingers (there is a little bit of webbing between these two tips as well). The thumb claw is very thick and strong. This dragon seems to demonstrate a stage in evolution from a flying animal to a climbing animal.

Name Origin: It’s a Wyvern with short wings. Not too original of a name. The Short winged Wyvern was known but not named by the locals. A group of human explorers documented many of the animals here, they found out that the locals viewed this animal as a mutant of a much older species that had gone extinct and this the weak offspring of it. As the humans viewed this as a different species they chose to give it its name, which they chose a descriptive English name as they felt it would stand out from the local names.

History & Abilities : This dragon is the weak descendent of a now extinct dragon, oddly enough its closest relatives are a number of much smaller wyverns and a strictly air born creature called Flar. Very few encounter this dragon as it lives in remote hard to transverse terrain that most just fly over, and as this dragon only eats small prey it seldom attacks those who travel by ground. Aside from normal physical attacks like biteing and constricting it only has one supernatural attack

Fire Stream: its spits a stream of red & yellow fire from its mouth. This fire is much weaker than normal Dragon Fire Breath, so its called by the name Fire Stream which refers to a fire technique of a small stream of fire normally only used to fast ignite a fire pit or just set something on fire. This attack is believed to be used to confuse larger and/or more dangerous creatures and to kill fast prey that it couldn’t catch otherwise.

[Rhuen]

a Vehicle

Machine Name: Kah-Rah-Kuh-Tah “Khaos”

Type: Space Ship

Description: The main body is a saucer shape, in square configuration from each other are four “arm” like appendages that reach high up and curve inward at their tips, they have no visible means of moving other than their bases. The center top of the saucer body has a red dome which serves as the central module and the “eye” of the ship. The saucer body as well as the four arms have a black exoskeleton which resembles a cross between wood and chitin. The under side has a shorter dome which looks to be a soft black almost cloth or gelatin like texture (yet is much stronger) and during combat it becomes solid. In the middle of this under side is a black crystal like spire that is as long down as the arms reach up. The over all effect is something like some tree and plant seeds.

Capabilities:
From around the sides of the saucer smaller spires can appear that shoot mystic energy bolts.
The main arms can fire all manner of energy bursts, usually multi shot spiritual bolts from spheres that appear above their tips, or single chaos bolts.
A massive chaos fire ball can form from the eye between the arms and fire from above.
The crystal spire can shoot a dark energy lightning bolt.
The entire vehicle can surround its self with several types of force fields and even a chaos aura if need be. The arms can transform into longer spider like legs with energy wings in the arc, in this form from the eye it can fire off a chaos blast capable of destroying a planet from the inside out. The only other abilities are teleportation and hyper-space travel.

The limitations of its defenses are unknown as the hull is made from dark fire which allows the ship to absorb energy, but this model is still far more limited than the “Vios” model. This model has a weakness in that it always absorbs energy into its self and all its energy out put is offensive or defensive. In other words it’s a weapon nothing more. Its also is un-manned and has a limited intelligence (a dangerous idea for a planet destroying capable weapon).


History: This was actually the first model of this ship made and the name of Kah-Rah-Kuh-Tah was given to it. The “Khaos” title wasn’t developed till the later models were made. It’s a basic war fighter and the mother ships would store multitudes of these during the time of war at its peak. Many ships firing off blasts that could decimate a planet each. They were un-manned monsters. Many were left on planets to protect those outposts and lie in wait for enemy ships. Because of this some of these have been encountered by younger races and in fact it was one of these that was responsible for the Riffy-An incident. After the age of wars this ship type was abandoned, those left on planets forgotten and many decommissioned as un-necessary, or their bodies and minds altered and assimilated into less monstrous forms like living cities. It is an unfortunate happenstance that so many were made and that the less prepared younger races end up encountering them at all. The only left over is the more advanced “Vios” model still used by some today.

[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens

Chapter 18: The following afternoon
Not so Defenseless Cubs


In the middle of the afternoon with a shady cloud covered sky the gargoyle Rawl has been following the scent of the Dire, which has led him up the side of a cliff. Atop the cliff he can hear barking and the sounds of young cubs playing, the very sound makes him drool as he ascends the cliff. He finally clears the top to see two strange creatures, looking like giant shaggy foxes as big as wolves, with black fur; the one with a female scent has a spot of white fur on her chest while the male is solid black. He looks over to his right to see the very same plateau he had encountered the large female Dire before, and thinks, “yes these two are those two cubs I smelled before, odd their scent is no longer like a wolf’s, ahh anyway large and tasty. How very nice. Strange though if these are the young than why are they not on two legs like their mother, no matter they will be in my stomach soon.”

Rish and his sister Riska had been playing in the clearing between the plateau, the forest, and the cliff edge when they saw the gargoyle creature ascend the cliff and look at them. Riska turned to Rish and thought to him, “Living thing?” and Risk responded, “it smells like stone.”

Rish and Riska look at the gargoyle and a strange sensation overtakes them the gargoyle didn’t even notice during his own internal dialogue that Rish and Riska’s eyes had turned purple and they could hear his mind and even take information from his brain. Riska looks to Rish and thinks, “it name Rawl, not like us.” in turn Rish thinks back, “Not smell like food, but it have aggressive words and thoughts, we kill maybe?” Rawl looks down at the two cubs and says, “Little cubs don’t worry, I will kill you quickly, but I will savor your flesh.” He commenced to chuckle an evil chuckle. Rish looked at him and shared his thoughts with his sister and too Rawl’s surprise and pain he heard them in his head, “Mean creature, say bad things, violent things we kill you yeah.” Rawl held up his hand to his head and growled, “Tricky little devils, brain tricks won’t save you from my appetite. HA, HA, HA, HA!”

Riska and Rish commence to bark at Rawl who only laughs at their barking when suddenly a bolt of lightning fires from Rish’s mouth and hits Rawl right in his face vaporizing his nose, Rish and Riska stop barking and look at each other curious Riska thinks to Rish, “how you do that? It just like daddy and mommy.” While the siblings are talking to each other Rawl in disbelief brings his hand up to his face and touches the hole where his nose had been but a moment before. Rawl becomes furious, spreads his wings wide and roars at Riska and Rish.

Rish backs up growling and Riska jumps back and barks and to her surprise a strange blue and white bolt formed as though from her breath in front of her face as she barked that flew at Rawl as he roared striking his legs and incasing them in ice. Rawl stops roaring just in time to notice as his weight breaks and shatters his now frozen legs and feet knocking him to the ground with an *oomph*. Rawl stretches out his wings to look fierce in order to intimidate the cubs. As he rises to his right knee Riska charges at him and half way into her jump emits an eerie blue flame aura around her body and with a horrible scream from Rawl she jumps right through his left wing, the force pushing him to fall on his left side, causing him to emit a growl that was half anger half agonizing pain.

Rish watches his sister’s attack and when the gargoyle Rawl falls with his right wing up in the air like a flag Rish can’t help but mimic his sisters attack. With his own body encased in blue flames he lunges and shatters his way through Rawl’s right wing. The force of this blow knocks Rawl onto his back. Rawl looked up to see Riska barking at him. Rawl growls, “Stupid little bitch.” And lunges at her with his left claw, he can’t reach her as she jumps back and he is virtually immobile. Rawl tries to get closer by lifting him self up on his right arm when suddenly his right wrist feels a piercing pain and he is knocked back against the ground and dragged “damn, forgot there were two.” He screams out, “let me go you little beast!” He stops and looks up in anger when a look of fear comes over his face as he sees where he is being dragged and sees Versa, the Dire that had beaten him senseless the first time.

Versa is in her full fourteen foot humanoid form, not that Rawl had ever seen her any other way. She is sitting on a rock on the plateau he had encountered her the first time. Rawl has no time to contemplate his situation as a sudden pain shoots through his wrist, and causes him to release yet another scream as his face falls down in the mud.

Rish stops walking backwards with a look on his face that is a combination of confusion and surprise, he has bitten through Rawl’s wrist. Rish drops the hand and sniffs it thinking, “Smell like sand, see blood, strange.” Rawl with his remaining hand drags himself towards Rish thinking, “one slash just one, kill, kill, must kill.” Rish jumps up in surprise as Rawl screams in pain. Riska is standing on Rawl’s back with his neck in her outstretched jaws, with a mighty growl and *snap* Rawl’s head is severed from his body. For a moment it sprays sandy blood before stopping abruptly. Riska sniffs at the head and jumps back when Rawl tries to bite her while screaming, “just a taste, come on you little BITCH!”

Riska looks across at her brother Rish as he trots over to her as she thinks to him, “It alive, what we do with it.” “Don’t know” Rish thinks back. Riska pushes the head with her paw which then rolls a little way, Riska then smacks it with her tail across the grass towards Rish, who jumps back as Rawl’s head tries to bite him and cusses at him. Rish looks at Riska and thinks to her, “Play? Let’s play, get bitten loose.” Riska nods enthusiastically as Rish smacks the head with his tail towards Riska who then sends it back at Rish with her own tail.

Versa looks on as her children play with the decapitated yet living head like it was a ball. Rawls curses, threats and attempts at biting only making it more fun for her children.

Riska knocks Rawl’s head into the air where Rish jumps up and comes down on it with his claws un-sheathed slashing it as he smacks it to the ground. He slashes five great scars across the left side of Rawls head tearing out his left eye and the front teeth on the left side. Rawl has no idea why they have stopped smacking his head about only that he is relieved, which is short lived as he sees something odd from out his one eye. A shadow of a Dire against a tree, that looks oddly like the shadow he had seen from the corner of his eye outside his cave after his encounter with the female Dire. To his surprise as his vision focuses the shadow moves towards him, Rawl realizes it is not a shadow just a very black Dire, a male.

Rhuen looks down at the head and says, “So you did see me out side your cave.” Rawl thinks, “Psychic, so that’s how that bitch monster knew which way to kick me, damn it!” “Stupid little head, I am Rhuen and me and my family shall be the last things you ever see.” Rhuen then releases a rolling rumble of a growl like some cross between a growl and a purr with a wicked look and smile that would have sent shivers up Rawl’s spine had his head still been attached to it. Rawl can only look on as Rish and Riska trot over to Rhuen, Rish carrying Rawl’s hand in his mouth. Rhuen leans down and pats his children on their heads takeing the hand from Rish as he addresses them, “My children, watch”

Rawl tries to focus his hand to attack but it only twitches in Rhuen’s grasp. Rish and Riska look on fascinated as Rhuen’s hand begins to glow with the same type of blue flame their bodies had been covered in earlier. Rhuen closes his fist vaporizing the hand. Rish and Riska start to wag their tails in excitement which is a stark contrast to Rawl’s reaction. He sensed it, total destruction of every cell. Pure horror runs through Rawl’s mind as he realizes his mistake, these creatures have the power to completely destroy something. He shouldn’t have come alone; he should have brought an army of his kin, but now its too late.

The look in Rhuen’s face reminds Rawl that Rhuen can hear his thoughts. “No” thinks Rawl, “I shouldn’t give this bastard the satisfaction.” Rawl sputters out, “bastad, dee du bastad, me ken vill keel du.” Rhuen walks over to the head and picks it up in such a manner that the jaw is pinned shut. Rhuen turns to his children and says, “Riska, Rish time to practice your fire technique,” Rhuen turns and points to the scattered parts of Rawl and says, “Burn it all, find every last little piece you can. Find and burn it to nothing, till you can no longer smell any of it other than this head I am holding.” Versa and Rhuen look on as their children make themselves glow with the mystical blue fire and jump up and down on the gargoyle’s body parts and on spots where they can smell the blood like some morbid game of hop scotch.

Versa walked over to Rhuen, the two touched muzzles and stood close for a moment watching their children playing before walking out and stamping out the fires with their paws that their children were starting in the dry twigs and grass. Once Rish and Riska stop jumping about and glowing Rhuen and Versa walk around the area sniffing the air until they are satisfied that the only thing left of the gargoyle is the head Rhuen holds in his hand. Rhuen holds up Rawl’s head like a gem keeping the mouth firmly closed with his thumb. Rhuen speaks to the head, “Onyx gargoyle, it is said your kind have incredible healing powers, but I am no human, or amateur, I am older than you or anything you know and I know ALL about the world of demons and darkness, the secret of the regeneration of the Onyx Gargoyles lies with in your skulls. It is not until your head is destroyed that you can fully regenerate your bodies from any little piece, even a grain of your sand blood will do. We cleaned it off the plateau for its and I sense in your mind that no blood remains with in your own lair beast of stone. Any way as I was saying after your head is destroyed along with that little soul diamond with in it, that’s right like I said there are no secrets with me. Then after that is broken your spirit projects into what ever the largest chunk of your body is left but with out anything left, well you die of course. It must have been that hunter with the Golem Slayer sword that did you in and you projected to that useless wing of yours like you had planned this, but your mind is an open book to me, you didn’t. Coincidence played into your hands, or was it fate you are thinking. Well enough talk it is time for you to die.”

Versa places her hand on Rhuen’s arm stopping him, “One moment Rhuen” she then looks at the head of Rawl and says, “Your wing was beautiful so black with little white spots, but it was just too fragile and brittle to be useful for anything, so I discarded it like the useless garbage it was. I even thought to use it as a chew toy, but it was even too stony and brittle for that. Even my children couldn’t make a toy of it.” Versa holds her hand to her face and in a mock smile says, “So like I said I simply dumped it.” This angers Rawl greatly who manages a hateful growl despite his mouth being pinned. Rhuen opens his palm and Rawl blurts out, “Stupid bitch I will kill you!!” Versa merely scoffs at this. Rhuen’s out stretched hand begins to glow with a blue flame; however Versa touches his arm again saying, “Wait, I would like to be the one to finish him.” Rhuen hands over Rawl’s head to Versa, who holds the head in her hand, the look on her face scares Rawl even more than when he was in Rhuen’s hand.

Versa says to Rawl’s head, “You threatened to kill me, threatened to kill my children, and now you return after I clearly told you not to under penalty of death. NOW DIE WORM!!” with that her blue flame glowing claw closed, and in that instant that very instant, Rawl the onyx gargoyle who had lived un-challenged for centuries, who had brought fear and despair to thousands and death to many creatures that had not yet begun to live was now dead. The only remnants, the only observers of this ancient beast’s death simply returned to playing in the cloud shaded noon day like nothing had happened.

[Rhuen]

a race of Other World (and this one is more of a native than the last two, but yeah still a human hybrid) true sentient natives for this place are hard to come by.

Alp:
Description: They have two forms, a completely human, yet trim and fit, and an elf like form. Their elf like form is of normal human height except they have pointed ears, which reach maybe one to two inches higher than their eyes. The average Alp in the Other world has a caramel to brown skin tone, the only Caucasian ones “responsible for some of the vampire stories bearing their name on Earth” were born there as hybrids of Alp and human parents.

Origin: The Alp are descended from humans who the Hinnen had brought to their home world of the Law Lands in Other World. The exact reason the Hinnen did this is unknown, although the likely answer is they were just curious. The Hinnen had created prior to them a hybrid between themselves and humans called the Hinlen, so creating another race like this wouldn’t be too surprising. The Alp like the Hinlen were granted noble status, unlike the other human hybrid the Tussion who also inhabit the same world. So its likely that the Alp have some link like the Hinlen to an older Other world race. As an interesting note the Alp exhibit a special energy signature that has granted them to be grouped into the “dark ones” category. How the Hinnen managed to pull this off is unknown, nor if they had done it on purpose, and had they why they haven’t duplicated it since.

Current Status and Future: The Alp are nobles in the Law Lands, mostly inhabiting Stridonia, they act as ambassadors between the Hinnen and the darker more aggressive races in the other world, as well as the shorter more human sized races “the Hinnen being twenty feet tall on average have a hard time fitting in all meeting halls”. The Alp also run their own government body and Stridonia is recognized as its own state along with Higher Law and Lower Law, together the three make up the entire England sized island of the Law Lands (which constitutes the only un-submerged land on the Law Lands floating continent world.) So it says something for their status that they managed to have their own autonomous state here. As they are immortals and nobles their status in the future is likely to follow the same path it has now.

[Rhuen]

and to make up for the missed day. Here is a plant from Other World

Name: Twilight Strawberry Bush

Type: Bush (fruit bearing)

Habitat: grows thick on many of the Twilight Isles in Other world (the islands float about in an area of the Astral Sea) The environment is like the twilight part of the day in a tropical environment. Always has this light level.

Description: Looks like a woody bush with semi-triangular leaves, these leaves are a decent half a palm in length. The leaves are a dark sky blue in color and the wood is a darker shade of blue that is even purple in placed. The bush bears an edible fruit (Twilight Strawberries). This fruit is sky blue to light blue in color, it looks like a cross between a Strawberry and a Pine Cone. It can have the long or cone shape of a pine cone but tends to have a lump surface like a Strawberry, but the size of a pine cone. The taste is described is being “blue defined” a flavor that can’t be believed till its tasted.

History/Abilities: Its not known how long they have existed on the isles, the fact that the Twilight Isles float about makes harvesting difficult, and growing them is extremely difficult given their need for the type of soil and light found on the Twilight Isles as well as the odd gravity and magnetic fields that allow these Isles to float in the first place. Which given these two factors of only growing naturally in these hard to reach and find places along with the difficulty of growing domestically makes them extremely rare and expensive. A food that is cherished by the extremely rich, in fact it said to be one of the Empress’s favorite foods and she has her own garden of them.
This plant has no special defensive or offensive abilities.

[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens

Chapter 19: Same day
Dilemma of Conscience


In Peter’s office he sits at his desk thinking over the events at the hospital the day before, “They have attacked people, as a sheriff I am obliged to warn the people about this threat to them.” Peter takes a small golden cross off his collar with little gold wings and a halo on it, he rolls it around his fingers, looking at it with sorrowful look, “If I warn any body about Versa and the one that is clearly Rhuen of all things, then I will have betrayed the order.” Peter lets out a deep sigh while saying to himself, “Paul! Grandpa didn’t initiate him, but he heard the same stories. Unless he is stupid he had to get some clues about Versa, I mean she did go to the gas station on a regular basis. At the very least I can warn my own brother.” Peter has made his decision as he grabs his police jacket and heads out to the gas station to warn Paul.

Peter enters through the front door of the empty gas station to find Paul sitting behind the bar watching the small black and white television above the bar. Paul looks over at Peter with a scowl on his face, “Need gas officer?” “Paul I have something very important to tell you, now this may sound strange, but you need to listen it involves the grey haired woman who comes in here.” “shut the hell up!” Paul suddenly screams out; echoing in the empty gas station lobby, “scratch that, shut the fuck up! Dad and that son of yours, those two little ass holes! It’s all their god damn fault! All their fucking fault! See dem pumps out their, them fancy pumps, it cost more to run the electrics to dem then I am getting from people fillen up der engines. No one brother, no one drives out to this god damned middle of no where cept in the winter. And this T.V? I am going to have to sell it, not that it even needs to be here, no one comes here when there is that bar in town. The only, and I mean it the only income I got with this God damned place was from that lady, yeah the mysterious grey haired woman you came all this way to warn me about.”, “Paul!” Peter interrupts, “I am here to warn you about her and it is urgent that you listen to me.”, “Do you think I am stupid! Huh, do you honestly think I don’t know she is some kind of demon or some such none sense and I didn’t need any of that order witchcraft bull shit to figure it out either. And dad, dad was an idiot to leave this trading post just because he figured it out, I figured it out when I was just a kid still. And Dad just like some idiot said her name, when she was still in the trading post even!” Paul stopped to catch his breath and got something to drink.


“Okay,” says Peter trying to act calmly, “granted I figured you would have figured it out, but you can’t blame dad, and about what you just said, he may have said her name but it’s not like he called her by it or something.” “okay” says Paul a little calmer, “all this order business, fine I get it, there are monsters out there, so what, people like you and grandpa okay, but dad and that boy of yours just had to listen to that other idiot from your stupid little order. Moron comes in here and says some bull story about big foot hunting just like that last order idiot that came through here awhile back. But That Mike guy, your boy talks about him like he was bat-man or some stupid shit. A werewolf hunter for your goddamned order, pheh! She came here every three months like clockwork; she bought most of the supplies here.” He motioned over to the stock desk and continued, “But now because of them she has stopped coming here, and now I got excess stock I wouldn’t have bought if she wasn’t going to come back, and it was too late to stop the next shipment and now I have excess stock I can’t afford; and no profit to show for it.”

Paul takes a sip of his beer and Peter takes this opportunity to interject, “Well Paul she has been pregnant these last nine months.” Paul spits out his beer in surprise and can only choke out, “what!?” Peter sighs before continuing “The order knows about all this but for reasons I can’t explain, as I don’t know what they are up to we are on our own here, now what happened was Versa, the woman, is in fact a giant werewolf like monster, which you probably heard about from Nick.” “Yep” said Paul as Peter continued, “Well about the same time Mike showed up another Dire, as we call them, showed up, a male called Rhuen. According to a scientist that showed up Versa was pregnant. Speaking of which, I still don’t know what we are going to do about Dr. Samantha York. She even took samples not that you give a damn if we all get found out.” “Nope sure don’t” said Paul as he took a sip of his beer. Peter gave him a nasty look before continuing, “Well long story short, we found out she was right, Versa did have at least two offspring, they attacked the Steven’s stables outside of Brooksville, and made off with some horses and put Mr. Stevens in the hospital.”

Paul asks, “Does grandpa know about the attack or the offspring as you put it Mr. Smart ass?” “I don’t know if grandpa knows but I am about to go see him after I am done here with you.” “Well you said what you came to say, so I think you’s done here.” As Peter leaves all Paul can think about is, “With a family now she might start coming back, I could be rich, with as much as she bought for herself times four. If only I could figure out a way to get her to start shopping here again. And that man that seemed like he knew her who was here, that must have been Rhuen, he got here at the same time as that Mike idiot wander if I should have told Peter about that,” “Nah” he says out laud before going back to his beer and the game on the television.

Inside the church Peter sees Father Henry Jones, his grandfather and superior in the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross sitting in his chair by the window with his telescope with a somber look on his face while praying. “Grandpa Versa and Rhuen attacked a stable a few days ago.” says Peter interrupting his grandfather’s prayer, “They are getting more violent. Do you know anything about this?” Father Henry turns to his grand-son and says in a low humble voice, “I didn’t know about the stable, not that it matters. Last night as I was looking through my telescope I sat and watched it. I am far too old now, I could, can do nothing but watch.” “What? What did you see?” “last night through the night scope I watched Mike walk on top of the mountain. He disappeared behind some trees, and from the other direction I saw him, it, Rhuen himself came from the other direction. I still can’t believe it, can’t even get my words straight, they both disappeared behind some trees. There was a flash of light and only Rhuen walked out. Mike is most probably dead now; and Peter.” He stopped for second needing to take a breath as though he was trying to choke something up, “Versa just now as you were entering the church I saw her through my telescope here, she was walking into town. At this very moment Versa is walking towards my son’s home; my only son Jeffery and my great grandson Nick are most likely her in her sights for harboring Mike. Peter stands in shock at this news as Father Henry continues, “Versa, the wolf in sheep’s clothing has finally started to show her self and there is nothing I can do to stop it. Peter! We must go! Go now!” Father Henry can only try and keep up with his grandson as they run out of the church and into Peter’s Truck. With his cross in his hands he can only pray they get there before Versa does and get Jeff and Nick out of there in time.

[Rhuen]

a cosmic force

Name: The essence of Chaos

Race: Primordial conceptual (one of the three)

Gender: Appears in the form of a woman, but has no actual gender

Description: As a conceptual being of this level a physical description is impossible. When this being appears before anything it looks like a female being with long hair and flowing wing cape like arms that comes from the fabric of space its self as it looks like a massive shadow with dark red energy flowing about it, often appearing as a massive imposing being relative to the size of what it is speaking with. (from the size of a house to towering over the largest star ships).

Origin: According to the elder belief system this was one of three beings that came into existence at the dawn of the universe along with the essences of void and oblivion. This being represents the aspect of nature where matter and energy change and try to forever fly apart chaotically with out reason or pattern. In the origin myth she created a corner of the universe of total entropy before her reach reached the other two and vice versa at which point the three fought before reaching a stalemate and the combination of their three powers creating the universe that exists today.

[Rhuen]

a weapon

Name: Runic Sword

Type: Sword

Description: A Black broad sword, the blade along the edge is a charcoal color while the rest of the blade, the hilt and the guard are all dark black. Along the flat part of the blade are runic symbols. They are hour glass shaped symbols lined up, these carvings light up with crimson light when the sword’s special properties are used.

Origin: According to legend the first Runic Sword was created by the Empress while on Earth, she based it on the belief of carving or painting runes on a blade to give it special powers. She decided to create one that genuinely works with intense magical powers.
Since then however others have copied the original’s design, the Rai Rhuen also has made some as has Rhulan and she passed the skill down to the Aesperia. The method is difficult and the strength of the weapon connected with the owner of the blade so they are still very rare.

Attacks: The beauty of the Runic sword is the simplistity of its power. The sword uses the elemental powers of its wielder. In fact it really only has two powers, which are varied in appearance and strength by the wielder.

1: Spiritual Blade: The sword surrounds its self with an energy that is a copy of the spiritual power of its wielder: IE normal beings would have a chi blade while a fire elemental would have a fire aura around the blade.

2: Spiritual Blast: This can be the form of an arc slash bolt, a beam off the blade, a beam from an orb that forms at the tip of the blade, or a blast of energy from around the blade that originates at the guard (which can be a spiral blast or a massive beam of power) like the Spiritual blade this one is also a copy of the wielder’s elemental power.

“secret power” Beings that use powers of various elements can actually call the blade to use attacks from which ever of their powers they chose. The strength of the attack however is proportional to the strength of that element so if they have weak fire moves but stronger ice moves the ice versions of the two above attacks would be at a higher power than the fire.

[Rhuen]

Howl of the Heavens (warning violance)

Chapter 20: Sun set of that same day
Change in the wind


As night falls on PineRidge Versa in her human guise with her traditional leather cloths on with the image of the hunter Mike given to her from Rhuen fresh in her mind she walks right down the road with the Jones’ residence in sight and a mission in her mind. Past the main streets, past the shops, past one small bar, past many mail boxes that signified drive ways, with her children following from the shadows of the forest, and she travels. Along a long drive to an old one story house backed up against the forest Versa has found her target. She stops out side the house and sniffs the air, "yes" she thinks to herself and to her children who are outside the view of the streets in the forest line, "this is it, the smell is just as Rhuen sensed to me these are the humans that helped that foolish hunter. Well my children lets meet these Joneses shall we." With a wicked smile she walks up to the door and rings the bell. The door is answered by the human she recognizes from the trading post, "Nick" she thinks, "I thought the scent was familiar."

Nick Jones had been inside reading his latest video game magazine when he heard the door bell ring; he looks up and realizes his grandfather is out back so he puts his magazine down and answers the door. He is struck speechless by the beautiful yet some how familiar stranger at the door and he barely staggers out an, "Uhm can I help you? I mean do you need something or someone?" Nick has to make a mental effort to keep his eyes "above the horizon" as he talks to this drop dead gorgeous woman. She interrupts his chain of thought, "I am looking for Jeff Jones is he in right now?"

Nick comes back to reality and answers, "yep, err I mean I'll go get 'im for yas". Nick runs out back where his grandpa is working on a new chicken coop. "Hey grandpa there is a lady at the door for you." "I'm not expecting any one.” He states confused as he puts down his hammer and follows Nick inside, “Is it that Samantha lady that was here a while back?" he asks as they walk through the kitchen from the backyard, "Nope" replies Nick, "I've never seen this lady before, I think, she's kinda familiar but I don't know where I seen her before." as Nick enters the living room from the Kitchen he sees the woman standing in the living room.

Nick thinks it odd that her eyes seem even bluer than when she was at the door and she looks angry for some reason. Jeff follows behind him and is struck dumb at what he sees before him. The very thing that has haunted his nightmares for the last few years, "Versa" he says quietly out laud. Nick looks at his grandpa standing there scared stiff and the wicked evil smile on the woman's face as he realizes who "Versa" is. He exclaims, "What the fu..." which is cut short as Versa lunges forward faster than the blink of an eye and pins Nick against the wall with one hand holding the collar of his shirt.

As Jeff stands frozen at the junction between the living room and Kitchen and Nick pinned to the wall Versa speaks, "Arrogant little Humans, I have defended this land from the evils of this world and the other side for longer than your very town has even existed and yet you two decide to bring some worthless little hunter here to kill me." she turns to Nick and says, "You, I know from looking into your mind just now have nothing to do with bringing that hunter here, that blame rests all with Mr. Jeff Jones here, his thoughts have betrayed him just now.”

Jeff had started to think about how he had asked Rick to call the werewolf hunter. Versa turned back to Nick still in her grasp, “However I can not allow you to tell any one of what you have seen." As she raises her hand she stops what she is doing as she is distracted by Jeff suddenly bolting into the kitchen. "Coward,” says Versa with sly smile, “he would leave his own grandson to my mercy and run. He is even more worthless than I thought." Just as Jeff passes the kitchen table and reaches for the back door he is almost hit as Versa flings Nick into the kitchen table knocking him out cold and shattering the table. Jeff barely makes it out the back when he is face to face with two animals resembling to him giant black foxes; one with a white spot between its front paws on its chest.

They growled baring their large teeth and backed Jeff back into the house. "Rish my son and Riska my daughter." Versa states to Jeff as he backs up into the house. Jeff looks down at Nick lying on the ruined table and looks up at Versa then back at Rish and Riska and in a trembling voice asks, "What…what are you going to do with us? ,” with a sudden serge of courage he chokes out, “you know no matter what you do you won't get away with it." "And what exactly makes you think that my little prey?" "Mike. The hunter I brought here is going to hunt you all down and kill you that’s why!"

To Jeff's utter horror she simply laughs and says to him, "Mike the werewolf hunter lies on the forest floor right now as we speak." She turns her attentions away from Jeff, "First I shall deal with the younger one, Nick. His name I believe, it’s a shame I must punish you mortals, but you must be taught not to meddle in the affairs of the gods after all."

Jeff can only watch as Versa shifts her form; her cloths appear to tighten on her voluptuous body as she increases in size. Her hair doesn't seem to change, however her face changes to that of a grey furred fox and an overly long fluffy tail comes out a flap that wasn't apparent before in her pants and her moccasins vanish in a blue electric haze as her feet become the digi-tride paws of a canine or feline with three toes. She has taken on her seven foot form while still wearing cloths that now fit like skin tight leather dominatrix clothing.

Versa picked up Nick by his wrists with her right hand and held him up this way against the wall. Jeff tried to move back only to be stopped by a low growl from Riska and Rish and to his surprise the two twins uttered, "stay here or we eat you. Go on move we want to chase you.” followed with a little snicker afterwards. Jeff was convinced he could do nothing but stay there and watch and wait to see what happens. As Versa held Nick against the wall Nick slowly and groggily came too, forgetting where he was. His first fuzzy sight was Versa’s cleavage in her now skin tight clothing. Nick’s first dizzy response was a whistle and to say, “Whoa” in a lewd manner.

Versa grabs his chin with her free hand lifting his face to hers, the sight of her grey muzzle and piercing blue eyes was enough to abruptly snap him back to reality as she said, “those sounds shall be the last ones you ever make.” With her index and middle fingers on her left hand she props his mouth open and forces her clawed hand into his mouth pressing down on his tongue, he could feel her claws touching the back of his throat. Nick in his desperation to escape bit down on her hand shattering several of his teeth, his only thoughts during this pain were, “God Damn it, her hand is like fucking metal or something!” Before he can continue his thought he is cut short by a searing pain in his mouth and tries to scream but is gagged by Versa’s hand. He sees a small column of smoke rise from his mouth and a strange blue light being emitted from his mouth, or more properly Versa’s hand. The searing stops and Versa says, “I have burned out your impudent tongue human.” She pulls out her hand ripping several of Nick’s teeth out of his clenched jaws in the process. He watches in horror as Versa’s left hand starts to glow with a blue fire and with a quick gesture Nick falls on his rear to the floor. He tries to scream as he sees his smoking hands lying next to him separated from his arms. He looks down and sees the smoking cartelized stumps where his hands once were. Versa had both severed his hands and cartelized the wounds preventing him from bleeding to death. She looks down at Nick who is now paralyzed with fear and shock “This is your punishment,” she says in a tone as if scolding a small child, “you shall never speak nor write of what you have seen here today. However consider yourself lucky it could have been worse after all.”

Jeff could only look on as his grandson was “punished” by Versa, “My God what have I done?” Jeff thought watching his grandson sitting on the floor. Versa turns to Jeff and said with a grand gesture, “At least you admit all this was your fault little human.” Versa shrank back down to her human form and walked towards Jeff with a broad smile on her face. Jeff backed up in fear only to be reminded of the ones behind him by a low growl from Rish and Riska. Jeff looked behind himself quickly and turned back to Versa who was now standing uncomfortably close to his face with a smile on her face that sent shivers down his spine. “There is no escape,” she said, “my children are just waiting for you to run so they can chase you down.” She leans in and whispers to him, “In fact they want you to run, they came with me just for that reason.” She pulled her head away and Jeff looked back at Rish and Riska behind him and instantly turned pale with fright, he had never seen such malicious smiles on the faces of anything, not to mention their large canine teeth adding to its effect. Versa placed her left hand palm down over the right side of Jeff’s face covering his ear in her palm and slowly turned his face to her’s.

Before Jeff can react he feels a sudden sharp electric buzz through out his body starting from his ear. She had paralyzed him, but he doesn’t have any time to think about that as a searing pain strikes the right side of his face especially in and on his ear as though a probe of pure fire was piercing his skull. He tries desperately to scream but can’t move at all let alone move his mouth to scream. The terrible heat on his face feels like its worming its way into his head and approaching his brain. Jeff thinks frantically, “Oh dear God help me, I have to get away, get help, please God save me, Jesus protect mig, Gob gelp geem goobs glibby glooloob.”

His thoughts turned to gibberish as Versa’s burning touch penetrated his brain. Versa removed her hand from Jeff’s face and he collapsed to the ground gibbering meaningless sounds with a look of terror upon his face and smoke rising off the side of his head. Versa walked out the back door with her children in tow. They met Rhuen who was just waiting outside of the gleam of the back porch light in his shadowy trench coated human form, and together they headed back to their den.

An hour later in the Brooksville Lodge with in the mind of Samantha York a very strange dream is occurring. Samantha in her dream finds her self in her typical lab setting winning a prize for her discovery of the new species of canine, when suddenly every thing freezes and a strange anthropomorphic fox creature standing roughly six feet tall appears next to her, and that wasn’t the strangest thing about it, it was completely made of a light blue fire. It had sky blue eyes in which the color was solid taking up the whole space of the eye socket with no signs of eyelids or tear ducts. This creature takes Samantha by the hand, and suddenly she finds her self in a bubble with this creature flying out of the dream. Then out a yellow wall that seemed to encompass the whole dream, and through a black inky sea, then up to the surface into a world with a purple sky that seemed to be filled with a blue light like that of a full moon’s night. They floated over a large river system that flowed into the black sea.

Suddenly she finds her self on the ground of this strange land with the bubble and the strange fire creature gone. She found herself in a forest by the river filled with strange thorn covered black trees with dark purple leaves. Out of a nearby black bush with black leaves a small black fox with a mane of hair, an oddly long and snaky tail and strikingly haunting blue eyes emerged. This black fox speaks to her, “Samantha York, please sit down on the rock behind you.” She finds a rock behind her that wasn’t there before and when she turns back after sitting down sees the fox sitting on a another rock that wasn’t there before. The fox speaks to her, “I will keep this short and to the point. You are mixed up in something beyond your understanding, even beyond the understanding of those fool hearty humans who seek to harm me, my mate, and my children. My mate seems to think your heart is pure and only seeking knowledge so I will warn you about this, and to make sure you know this is more than a dream I shall give you a way to test this warning. That sheriff you met before is a member of a bunch of control freak priests called the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross, Now repeat that name.” Samantha says, “The Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross”. “Good” said the black fox, “They all have on their collars a little symbol, it’s a pin of a gold cross with wings on the side polls of the crucifix and a gold halo on the top part. Also he is not the only one, that hunter Mike and another you have not met yet are also members. Be warned if you team up with them you will get no mercy from me.”

Before she could protest she found herself back in her normal dream and back to the reward ceremony in it, this was short lived however as the whole dream turned black and she found her self being pulled backwards by a giant grey furry hand over her midsection that appeared to a cross between a human hand and a paw of some sort with black claws in place of finger nails. This hand pulled her backwards into a giant feminine frame with her head backed up against the lower abdomen or upper thigh of this frame, she looked up to see above her two very human yet fur covered female breasts and a strange fox or jackal like muzzle that turned down allowing her to see this forms dark blue eyes looking back at her. This creature looked familiar, like the animal she had seen in the cave. Although she felt un-easy at the strangely aroused feeling she was getting by being held by this being, she felt oddly comfortable next to it. She looked on as the giant female creature opened her great jaws and spoke, “Awaken my dear.” With these words Samantha shot up right in her bed breathing hard. She got up from her bed and wrapped a robe around her pale well toned naked body as she walked over to the window and looked out to the south to see an approaching storm eclipsing the moon and stars.

[Rhuen]

an alien race (if you think my universe is just filled with humanoids and the occasional mer-body type think again) Some aliens are more alien than others and this race gets up there in the weird meter but not as far up as some coming later. Also as I failed to list how some others' names are pronounced.
Ohroarnium (oh-roar-knee-um)
Ooskar "oooh-scar" okay those shouldn't have been hard to figure out, but some down the line will be.

Miag: (pronounced) "me-agg"
Description: The Miag physical description is something of an odd image, they are not techniquelly bipeds, yet are arranged in such a way. Their body resembles a beetle positioned upright, their head is a dome like structure on top the body with a flexible ridge that remains hidden beneath the exoskeleton, this gives the appearance of a line separating the head from the body. They have two large compound eyes positioned in front of the head and a small mouth with many sharp insect like mouth parts. They tend to have one or two tall horns on top of their heads, one just above the space between their eyes, and if they have a second its on the opposite point in the back of the head, the second horn curves inwards and falls short of the forward horn’s length.

On the upper part of their body they have two arms with grasping hands, four digits, three fingers and an opposable thumb, all claw like and ending in sharp points. The round base of the body has four legs that arc upwards and bend down at the knee like the back legs of a grasshopper; the feet have four large padded digits with sharp points. The overall body effect is an upright beetle.

History: The Miag evolved on a small planet with a high oxygen content, which allowed for a life form with an exoskeleton and no lungs to evolve into a sentient being. This is extremely rare, in fact only three such races have reached the cosmic scale, and the two others are the much more advanced Gurfar and Crin. The Miag had their first contact however with the Carsoon; both races were about equal in technological power, although both used radically different technological systems. The Miag utilize air pressure and density with an Oxygen based fuel system with enzymes native to their planet, while the Carsoon based their technology on simple combustion and mechanical properties. As the two races were about equal in power and were only a system apart they fought over resources. The Miag believed this the norm for the universe till they met the Ohroarnium and learned just how many races existed and how far they could travel.

The Ohroarnium saw a potential in the Miag that was lacking in the much more war like Carsoon and introduced the Miag to the Gurfar, the Gurfar being ever curious about life forms that evolved similar to the themselves (a religious reason) took to Miag under their wing so to speak (figure of speech only, the Gurfar don’t have wings, more details in their own section.) After this point the Miag became a part of the galactic scene as a subordinate race to the Gurfar, and later to the Crin who were also more advanced than the Miag. The three races would later develop a three way alliance, racial based, where they all vowed that due to the fewness of races with their body type in the universe that even reached the sentient level, a fairly common body type, but most tend to be very small and primitive and stay that way for possibly billions of years. This alliance with its tendency to protect even moderately evolved animals of their type tends to “get on the nerves” of the races like the Qwie who view worlds as resources, and those with out sentient life forms the property of who ever discovers them, a few in contrast to the alliance who argue that worlds with potential sentient life forms should be protected as well, although they tend to only force the issue when the potential sentient life forms are of their own body type. However both view points stand in contrast with several other races who believe that any world that develops life on its own should be protected. This has lead to many legal conflicts between the various races in regards to how to treat living worlds. The Miag tend to push the issue more so than the Crin or Gurfar, as the Crin are on par with races like the Grunaga and Dai-ohm in advancement and the Gurfar are on par with races like the Ohroarnium. Those two are more patient with life, but the Miag are as one would say too close to the issue as they have a written history that speaks of oral legends passed down by ancestors that they believe had these other races met wouldn’t have regarded as sentient life forms (based on the differences in physical appearance, tool usage, and language).

Book Series Influence: The Miag are one of the first few races humans meet when they first go out into space, the physical appearance of the Miag throws humans off and some falsely believe based on similar looking monsters that the Miag had visited Earth at some point. An assumption proved incorrect when its discovered that at the time these monsters were imagined the Miag were barely capable of traveling between their system and those nearest, let alone going to the opposite side of the galaxy to visit Earth. The Miag had a similar distrust of humans (as do with all humanoids) as they bare a passing resemblance to the Carsoon who are also humanoid. Aside from a few meetings here and there the Miag don’t play a major role in the main story arcs, as they tend to want to avoid dealing with humanoids.