Eye of the Dragon
DreamLyrics Play-by-Post
Who's Online Now
3 members (Miales, Barry Mulvihill, Neptune), 12 guests, and 19 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Dice Roller
You will need to enable Javascript in order to view the Dice Roller.
Games Recruiting List










Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 5 of 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


Groaning, he rolled to his side, stretched, grimaced and got to his feet.

"Geezly Christmas, I feel worse than I did before the nap."

Jayden wiped his face, expecting to find it sweaty but it wasn't and he frowned at his hands and shook his head. He half-remembered something about a very bad dream, but the details slipped rapidly away from his conscious mind before he could grasp them.

"Feel like I've been rode hard and put up wet."

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
As if the computer heard his words, the little screen saver clears itself, and flashing at the bottom of the screen is yet another message about the hunt for the boy.

AP News Wire - Missing boy's left shoe has been found covered in blood. Hounds are out in force searching the area with volunteers.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


Concentrating on the flashing alert on the computer screen, Jayden almost missed his chair seat as he sat down. He lurched to the left, moving with the rolling chair and managed to catch the arms and pull the office chair back in front of his desk.

"Damn... that doesn't sound good."

Jayden looked around the room.

"Hey, Dizzy... where are you, cat?"

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

Oblivious to the looming dog treat, she is making her way to Jezzabella's.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Dizzy didn't seem to be in the room.


<Tiger-Lily's walk>
The walk across the territories went well. Soon she approached the old cat's house.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She heads up the path looking for Jezzabella.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
The old cat is in the same place, apparently sleeping. Does she ever move? The leader of this little town was certainly old, maybe that was the reason.

One eye opened as Tiger approached. The old cat lifted her hind quarters and stretched from the front shoulders, through an arch and all the way out to the tip of her tail. A quick flick of her head wiggled her ears and whiskers.

She slinked off of the pillow on the window sill and squiggled under the sash of the open window. A light thump as she landed on the porch ready to go.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily

"I presume you know the way to the woods? I travelled there in the metal box and do not have scents to guide me but I can show you where I found the remnants of the casting when we get there."

She assumes they will travel direct so hopefully it is not as far as it seemed travelling with her burden.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
The old cat nods agreeing. The long trek over many different territories begins. The moon travels it's arc in the night as they pad along. Somewhere near it's apex they near where the boy had gone missing. The whole place smells of burdens as they have tromped all over the place since she had been here last.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


He was seldom beset with uneasy nerves, but now Jayden thought... well something was wrong. Of course a missing kid was wrong, but that wasn't it.

Problem was, he didn't know what it was or even what it might be.

Jayden rocked forward and back several times in the swivel office chair and then, without conscious volition he found himself going into the bedroom where he stood on tiptoes and barely reached a box on the top shelf of his closet and almost all the way to the back. Using the tips of his fingers he managed to tip and then slide the box forward until he could get both hands on it.

He took the box back to his desk and opened it. There, inside, was an old looking Charter Arms .44 Special revolver, the bluing scratched and the walnut grips worn.

Jayden would have thrown it away long ago except for the fact that it had been his grandfather's and, after that, his father's. Also in the box were a cleaning kit and a half box of shells. He looked down into the box for several long moments, thinking of his father and of his grandfather.

Then he slowly took the revolver from the box, checked to make sure it was unloaded (he knew it was unloaded, but his father and grandfather had pounded range and gun safety into his head from the time he was about twelve), disassembled the piece and cleaned and oiled it, enjoying the precise little click-click-click of the cylinder as he turned it.

Jayden wiped the gun down and loaded it with six cartridges.

And wondered why...

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
The old piece of metal offered comfort in its own way. Heavy and cold it reminded him of its age, though not without offering other feelings as well.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


His eyes misted over and his focus grew distant as the old memories beset him, but he did not quite cry. There was something behind those memories, edging around them, nagging at him, feelings of a sort which had nothing to do with his male antecedents... everything to do with now and not then.

Or perhaps a different then.

Thinking about it did not seem to help at all.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She scents the air and looks around getting her bearings, then cautiously moves forward to where she found the bones. Before she gets there though she warns Jezzabella that it was just ahead and that was where the strange feelings started.

Then she moves forward carefully and slowly. She will also look to see if her ward is still intact.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Jayden lovingly works the metal till they barely click as they smoothly turn. The weapon will be in the best condition it has been in for years.

The news ticker on his computer notes that nothing more has been found about the boy and the search has been suspended on account of darkness.



Out in the forest Tiger finds her ward still intact. Jezzabella wanders around flicking her tail. "Ward is satisfactory," she offers very nearly a compliment.

She stops near the place the old working had been. Her tail flicks faster and she hunker down. "This is an interesting magic. The little girl burden was kept asleep by this."

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She is listening to the sounds of the woods, alert to any changes that might signify danger approaching. She is pleased that Jezzabella approves her ward. She wants to be useful and to play her part in this new society.

"So the boy burden was singled out, maybe taken to be part of a dark magic working?"

That thought is a frightening one. First because a child burden is involved and secondly because it must be a powerful and dire magic to require such.

"Do we look further in? Or go back to discuss with the others?"

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Jezzabella

"We see what else we can learn. The night is still new and I am getting older by the nap." Though her words said one thing, she clearly looked at Tiger to pick a direction to go.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

Presumably the right direction would be the way they were heading last time as that seemed to trigger a reaction. She looks around to determine which way that was and starts off in that direction, eyes bright in the darkness and nose scenting.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
The forest is dark and full of all the usual smells. Much of the feelings she had noticed during the day were not present. Maybe she had imagined them?

Soon the two cats had made their way across the stream and up the side of a small hill. Many burdens had made their way through the underbrush over the last few days.

Yet her sensitive nose led her towards a hollow in a tree. There she noticed something that the burdens and their baying dogs had missed. A small piece of string. It was wrapped around a small leaf as if tying it up for hanging.

====================
Back in the apartment the pistol has been returned to a perfect state of cleanliness. The cat however had not returned nor scratched on the window asking to be let in.

The computer beckoned with unfinished work that he had ignored when he took a nap earlier. The news ticker continued to taunt him with irrelevant pieces of news that didn't seem to matter.

Last edited by Pandemonium; Tue 27/10/15 05:36 UTC.
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She is a little on edge as they move through the forest. She remembers what she had felt earlier but she also has a responsibility to keep their leader safe which makes it more scary.

Yet nothing happens. Maybe because Jezzabella is here?

Anyway, following the faint scent leads her to find a leaf with string attached. She fights a feeling to jump on it and toss it in the air. Why does string have that effect?

"The scent is stronger here."

She points daintily with her paw.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Jezzabella

The old cat stiffly stalks around the leaf and wiggles her whiskers in a frown. "I do not know this magic, yet it stinks of something untoward. This is a taunt of some kind, can you feel it? The urge to grab it and take it down? I believe this drew the small burden here, though I can not say for what purpose."

That was when Tiger-Lily smelled it. Blood.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


Jayden put the revolver back in the closet and turned to walk back to his work desk, but something held him and, after a long moment, he retrieved the pistol and took it with him and placed it beside his laptop on the desk.

Somehow he felt better with it close to him.

For thirty minutes or so, he did some rather desultory work on the website whose deadline was rapidly approaching, but, there to, something was drawing him back to the news ticker and simultaneously disappointing him with its repetitive banality.

Jayden was worried about the missing boy he did not know and about the cat which he did not understand.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She watches Jezzabella examine the leaf, respectful of her wisdom.

"Yes I felt it."

She is relieved to find it a compulsion magic, rather than her inner kitten spontaneously erupting! Then she catches a new scent, not a pleasant one. Her back arches and her hackles rise.

"I smell blood."

She immediately tries to identify its source.

Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
OP Offline
Chaotic Obfuscator
Moderator
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 14,888
Likes: 9
Her keen senses lead her towards a small bowl in the roots of a tree. No burden, no dogs have been any where near here. Yet, without a doubt, she is able to discover its source. The crumpled body of a burden. It was the little boy. Looking over the form she notes claw marks all over it. Something cat like wounded the boy and took him down. What killed him was something different, something powerful. The body was twisted by great force.

Jezzabella looked over the scene and his whiskers twitched angrily. Clearly this isn't what she had hoped to find. She gives voice to a question that plagued them both. "Why didn't the other burdens and their dogs find this? Possibly the magic you warded? It might have been a shield that you broke when you did your ward?"

==================================================
The news ticker turned from mundane to Halloween themed news. The local museum was going to have a celebration of all things related, docents dressed in costume, candy for the kids. Anything to get people to come to the little used building.

It talked about a school Halloween party the night before so that the kids can enjoy both nights of festivities.

A local pub was offering a free drink if one came in costume the night of All Hallows Eve.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Member
Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 46,267
Jayden


Never a fan of Halloween, at least not in the years since adolescence, Jayden at first paid little attention to the Halloween themed news. Something, however, kept drawing his attention back to the scrolling news ticker.

And it wasn't just that he could use a drink.

Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Wizop
Administrator
Offline
Wizop
Administrator
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 76,228
Likes: 55
Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She is shaken. Even though she has seen death before, never has she seen it in one so young and innocent.

"I don't know. It is possible. What do we do now? We can't just leave him here. Some sort of dark magic, do you think?"

She forces herself to peer a little closer.

Page 5 of 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Moderated by  Pandemonium 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Newest Members
Talon475, Randal Trimmer, Kimf, Yvon, Xiang Chin
177 Registered Users
Today's Birthdays
There are no members with birthdays on this day.
Member Spotlight
Posts: 47,983
Joined: August 2001
Forum Statistics
Forums103
Topics2,816
Posts139,483
Members177
Most Online296
Jan 19th, 2020
March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
†Restricted forums can only be accessed by DreamLyrics members of the age of 18 years or older. Access which is granted by the Behind Closed Doors Procedure.
™DreamLyrics Play-by-Post. DreamLyrics Play-by-Post does not own copyright on DreamLyrics texts or graphics, except trademarked DreamLyrics logos and logotypes. The works contained in DreamLyrics are copyrighted (automatically, under the Berne Convention) by the original authors and may be available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence. (See Copyrights for details.)
Privacy Policy
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5