They are out there...HUNT THE DEAD!

Turk'en looked to Nithelas.

"Erron is the leader of the Hunters. Not anything formal, but we were the first. First to hunt the dead. He is also somehow trapped in my son."

Turk'en turned back to Talkren to help him up. "Are you able to walk?" A couple of wobbly steps forward caused Turk'en to put his arm around his son and help him back on to the litter.

"I'm not sure how it happened, believe me it wasn't conventional, but I am your father. You were brought to me as a babe, but at the time your uncle Erron and I were a wanted man, still are, so I entrusted you into the care of your uncle Aldion. He was still a Hero of Nerin Toth and could keep you safe. And he did so for a few years. Periodically we would meet up in Peregren so I could see you again, but for the most part we were apart.

Your mother... ...Your mother was the Goddess of Vengeance before I released her soul or thought I did, I guess. Her part of her soul, I guess enough to keep her consciousness, went into your uncle Erron making him mortal again. Somehow she got out and in the process, I dont' know what ritual was used, Erron and you merged. Erron wouldn't have let you die. That's probably why he was able to break from the Goddess. But you are half diety. You possess powers to destroy or heal this land. but you will need to learn focus and control. Especially of your emotions. They are, from the evidence we see here, directly connected with your powers. We are going to talk with the druids of Teseron Isle, which is where you are now. We will try and see what we can to to teach you and possible get you and Erron seperated again. He would love to see you again, I'm sure."

Turk'en put his arm on Talkrens shoulder to try to comfort him. This was a lot for the boy godling to soak in all at once. But Turk'en truly wanted to help him. He longed to travel with his son when he was a babe, but the world viewed him as a criminal of the land and it was dangerous. Now he had a chance to help his son and his long time friend.


"We will help you sort this out."



Turk'en got up to walk next to Aldion for a second.

Turk'en turned and whispered to Aldion, "He may be the only hope in saving Erron and Aeon."

Nithelas listened to what the darkling, Turk'en, had to say. It might have been overwhelming for Talkren, but it certainly caused Nith's eyes to widen. While he wasn't officially a part of this group, Nith wondered if any of this would impact him any. Certainly it would, if this Talkren was indeed part god.

The druid had a shuddered from chills.

Hopefully the druid leaders would be able to help these people. At least, Nith hoped these people deserved help. What would happen if the half-god turned evil? There would be more like those druids and rangers...

Nith shook his head. Wiser minds than his were needed to make that decision. He knew it was cruel to rush the group, but he wished to move on to what he was better suited to...

"I am merely an apprentice of the Loremaster, not a hunter. I can take you to him, but I am uncertain about the other druid leaders. Most likely, due to the attacks earlier, they are aware of you. I'm staying in your company only until you find whom you need. It is not for me to meddle in the ways of gods; save for the world of nature."

Talkren lay on the litter as the group carried him to see The Loremaster, an ancient fish aniver said to be all-wise and all knowing...

They had arrived...

and along the way Talkren dreamed as Erron again...

"So how do you think the world will change?" Aldion asked.

"Probably for the better now that this scum is dead," Turk'en replied.

"He was worthless," Aldion stated.

"Yes," Turk'en agreed.

I see them rise above me, and soon it becomes clear that they are not rising above me.,..but I am being lowered below them, into a hole.

"Erron was trash. Proclaimed he has some vendetta against the very monsters he created," Turk'en sneered.

"He never had a vendetta. He reveled in the violence of it all. That's the only real reason he fought them," Aldion added.

I'm not dead though.... please don't bury me.

"He's dead."

"Dead."

But I'm not.

"Dead."

"Dead."

I'm not dead!

"You're dead Erron....and we know you're secret....."

No.

"Yes."

No!

"Yes, we know all about your wife and son....we know about what came...before them."

NO!

"Yes."

Please don't tell.

"Oh, everyone will know. We plan to let everyone know the type of worthless trash you are. The secret you've held from everyone for so long. The reason why you knew how to kill undead, BEFORE there were undead. Everyone will know."

PLEASE!

"It's too late. You're dead and we're going to tell you're secret."

NO!

"Yes."

NO!

"Yes."

NO!

Talkren woke up screaming and thrashing about falling off of the litter just as the group had entered the grove of trees where the Loremaster was normally found at his hut.

"AHHHH!!!!!" he screamed.

"THEY KNOW! THEY ALL KNOW! I KNOW YOU KNOW THEY KNOW WE ALL KNOW HAHAHAHAHA!!" he raved.

"THEY KNOW THE SECRET!!!" Talkren screamed running back into the woods like a madman, out of the site of everyone else.

The group stood stunned and in shock for a moment before they realized what was happening. It was at this point, things went from bad...to worse.

A figure, whose features couldn't be seen stepped out of the hut.

"I have to stop the Goddess. Bring me the baby, or the rest of you end up like him," Mathias said stepping out of the shadows, holding Erron's old trusted kopesh blade in one hand and tossing The Loremaster's decapitated head onto the ground in front of the group.

"NO!!"


Nithelas dropped to his knees as his master's head rolled to him. First his fellow rangers and allies. Now even the Loremaster?! How could this be? What was all this about?

Tears streamed down his cheek. His heart was muffled over his soul aching for his rage to be released. His mind was hollow, uncomprehending.

The druid wished he had the power to destroy the killer, but all he could do was pull his weapon. Nithelas stood up, leaving the head to roll where it may, and drew his scimitar.

"Already, I have lost much of my family, then you steal from me my mentor?! Why? Why do you people come here? Why are we involved? Why the death, the pain, the loss?

"There is a plague of death out there, yet still, STILL people have to destroy each other? Even in our darkest nights we as people couldn't find the common ground, the unity we needed?

"Tell, me darkling. Tell me why the Loremaster's death was warranted. Tell me why my brethren were murdered. Tell me why I wish only to plunge this blade into your body to snuff one more life, when so many have already been lost. Tell me!"

Nithelas wrote:

"NO!!"

Talkren stopped running. He was now lost in the woods.

He had heard the scream and it brought him out of his crazed trance....only to begin seeing visions...

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!" Erron screamed at Talkren pushing his head under the water attempting to drown him.

Talkren kicked Erron in the stomach sending him flying off and splashing into the water himself.

They both sank below the depths and swam at each other, both of them drawing blades, Erron wielding dual kopeshes, Talkren wielding a halberd.

The both swung their blades, the weight of the sea dragging their swings. Erron tossed his blades away and grasped Talkren by the throat with both hands.

Both rose to the surface of the water, and Talkren shoved Erron away.

"THIS IS MY BODY! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!' Talkren screamed at Erron.

"NO! I CAN'T LET YOU END ME! NOT WHILE THIS WAR IS RAGING!" Erron screamed back punching Talkren in the jaw.

Talkren sank underwater, but grabbed Erron's legs pulling him down. Talkren then swam back up. Erron followed. As Erron resurfaced, Talkren draw a dagger and stabbed. Erron moved just in time and felt the blade sink into his ribs.

"GAHHH!!!!" Erron screamed.

"YOUR TIME IS OVER ERRON! YOUR FIGHT IS DONE! NOW IT'S TIME FOR ME TO CONINUE ON IN YOUR NAME!" Talkren screamed twisting the blade.

Erron coughed up blood. Talkren twisted the blade more.

"GET OUT OF MY MIND!" TALKREN SCREAMED.

Erron brought his forehead down bashing it into Talkren's nose breaking it.

"NO! YOU AREN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO EXIST!" Erron yelled, coughing up more blood.

Talkren's nose was broken, and it blurred his vision making it difficult to see. He began to swing the dagger blindly. Erron coughed up more blood, and felt himself sinking again. And so...he let himself sink.

Talkren lay on the forest floor, lost, alone, and convulsing, coughing up blood, and having a hard time of seeing.

Erron stood in the desert.

"Where are you, you sone of a bitch?" Erron asked outloud, curious as to talkren's where abouts.

Talkren's hand shot up from under the sand grabbing Erron's ankle and tripping him.

The darkling pushed himself up from his sandy ambush spot and lunged at Erron. The human rolled, causing talkren to miss him. Both men stood up.

"WHO ARE YOU!? THE TALKREN I KNEW WAS AN INFANT!!!" Erron screamed.

"Somewhere...somewhen....in the future....you're dead. me and my father and my Uncle Aldion work in Greyshore fighting the corrupt Knights of Tomath and the Duchess of that city," Talkren replied, 'It was AFTER THE STORM! After this WAR OF DECIMATION you caused! And none of it wouldn't have happened if it were not for you! THE RAVAGING of this world! THE HURTING of those who fought along side you only to be betrayed. THE FUNERAL of those who fell! The FROZEN HELL you dragged people through trying to flee the justice you deserved! THE RE-ENGINEERING OF A CURSE that you created in the first place!" Talkren screamed at Erron.

"Go to hell," Erron said quietly.

"What about the demon.....?" Talkren asked.

"Shut up," Erron said, not liking where this was going.

"Tell me about him...the dwarf with the fire for eyes, the demonic bat-wings....tell me of PIETRO!" he screamed, rushing Erron and tackling him.

"TELL ME WHY YOU COMMUNICATED WITH A DEMON FROM HELL....TELL ME WHY YOU COMMUNICATED WITH PIETRO!!!! TELL ME WHY GOOD OL' PETE THE DEMON DWARF, YOUR DADDY DEAREST TAUGHT YOU HOW TO KILL THE UNDEAD BEFORE THEY EVER EXISTED!!!!" Talkren screamed as he strangled Erron.

Talkren lay in the woods, his own hands wrapped around his own throat strangling himself.

"TELL ME WHY YOU KNEW THE UNDEAD WOULD INEVITABLY KILL YOUR WIFE AND SON AND YOU KNEW ABOUT IT BEFORE IT EVER HAPPENED!!!"

Talkren rolled in the leaves, blood pouring from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

"TELL ME WHY YOU KNEW THE ZOMBIES WOULD COME BEFORE THEY EVER DID!!!!"

Talkren heard Erron's neck snap. he had killed him. He then looked down. His own dagger was embedded into his heart.

Talkren lay in the woods, very still.

*******************************

Nith made his way toward Mathias.

"Ehh eh eh, I wouldn't come any closer," Mathias said pulling an odd silver contraption about the size of a spellbook from his side pack. It was smooth, with odd copper wires running through is, and a clear casing , where saltpeter could be seen with in it. A small tube poked out of the top, where steam rose out of it. On the face of the contraption was a golden knob.

"Do you know what this is?" Mathias asked.

"No? You see, while you few rangers and druids went to meet these buffoons, as The Loremaster instructed, my minotaur regiment and I descended on Teseron Isle. The minotaur are very skilled assassins, and wiped out The Loremaster's guard with ease. When the chaos erupted not too far away, and several more druids and rangers were killed, didn't you stop to wonder why no one came to help?"

"They were all dead. Including The Loremaster here. You see, when you all left on that ship you were headed this direction. Knowing the baby was half-god, it only made sense that you would seek out the only divinity left on this world; the druids. using my arcane abilities I teleported myself and my men here, and we quickly did away with anyone who might aid the lot of you.

You see, the child is what the goddess wants. She wants the last spark of god like powers that the baby holds with in. And while that bitch, may have sent me to secure the child from you all....I don't plan to return it to her. I plan to kill it. You see, by it being anywhere on this planet, that means there is always an opportunity she will succeed. And tell me...what do you think she'll do to this world once she is at full power again? A world whose heroes banished her once? She is the Goddess of Vengeance after all. Now obviously, my most logical want is to rule this world. But I can't very well do so if she destroys it. So you see, she's just as much my enemy as she is yours. You have to understand....as long as Talkren lives....this world is in immense danger."

"Oh as for my little contraption here. This is called a steam-powered kinetic burst mechanism. it's enchanted you see. The moment i drop this device...which means if you wittle bitty Niffelwuss Dwooid...if you kill me and I drop this device.....well this entire island will cease to be. So I suggest you cooperate. Now then....where's the damn baby?"

********************************
The Civil Agents in this time, having taught the minotaur the self-sustaining life style of cannibalism now ruled all of Southern Krest and The Epicenter of Aeon. Northern Krest however was manned with many dwarves, and the upper part of Northern Krest was
ruled by the desert steam-cycle gangs.

And thus it only made sense for the Civil Agents to turn their sites elsewhere...

..."Sergeant at Arms, Custoveer," the man in the black robe who sat at a desk next to the throne in the King's castle in Riddik, called out, "Bring me several maps from the libraries," he ordered glancing at the King who sat on the throne, now dead as flies buzzed around the corpse.

"Is their one in particular, General?" the sergeant asked.

"Yes...see if you can find the maps of Nerin Toth."

And outside of the castle, millions of Civil Agent soldiers marched through the streets, all armed with steam-powered machine guns.

**********************************

The beasts flew over the sands....one let out a loud roar, and the flying group of zombie dragons descended on Dead Town.

**********************************

Night fell....and the second day of the war was nearly half over.

Quarven yeahled as his body flew through the air and crashed into the group.



He lay, he layed all so very still while the group looked at him. Quarven stood up slowly and groaned as he looked at the disfugered zombie dragon claw stuck in his thigh. Quarven looked at them and said "Dont just stand there help me!" he said as he fumbled with the claw.


Quarven looked at the bunch and thought "What is this world coming to?" Quarven yealed look out as he talked Nith. and held his blade up and a sprinter landed on the blade with mouth open as the blade went thorugh its mouth and out its skull sliding down on top of them both.

Quarven through the dead rotting meat bag off and helped Nith up. "Now" he said "any of you wanna get this god danm thing out of my FUCKING LEG!!!" yealed Quarven through his pain rage and stress.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!" Aldion yelled after the dragons flew over, after Talkren ran off. "That is not the same infant I cared for these past months, is it?! Can it be?! Why the hell am I still yelling!?"

Punky squawked and tried pecking a worm from a not hole in a branch.

Aldion's mechanical arm seized up on him, completely locking up. He cursed the robotic appendage, and wished Carol were there to fix it like usual. He twisted two knobs and switched two hoses around, causing steam to spew around him. "Dammit!"

He could move again, but it ached, like always. He looked up and saw two darklings, one with a dragon claw in his leg screaming about something, and Mathias, threatening to blow up the island. "Well there, friend. I'd like ot help, but we have a bigger threat of all being blown to hell! Bite down on something and pull it out yourself!!!"

Quarven was confused but he suddenly relised he was caught in this group now. Everyone else he knew was dead and he mind aswell help these new found friends, so he did as instructed.

Quarven took of what was rest of his leather armor and dropped it on the ground finding it useless. Quarven took a second look and cut one of the straps off the armor he looked at Aldion and the others as they looked at him.

"AH FUCK IT!" he yealed as he put the strap in his mouth and bit hard. He then grabbed both hands of the zombie dragons claw and yanked. All that was heared was a loud ripping and tearing noise as blood squirted on Aldions face. Quarven's eyes got wide with pain and terror, he yanked again and his flesh seemed to strecht along with his leather pants as he yealled through the peace of leather. And with a loud squishing and poping sound out came the claw. Quarven then procediade to toss it asied and then he paused and tucked it away in his pants.


He took a deep breath and looked up "Whats next?" he said looking at the small group.

Talkren lay in the forest of Tesseron Isle dying.

The group stood at a stand off with Mathias, who had the island ready to explode via a ton of gunpowder and steam and copper wire.

"Just give me the baby, and I leave," he said calmly.

Before anyone could speak up against Mathias, a loud rushing sound was heard. They weren't far from the shore.

A loud booming sound that slightly shook the ground could be heard and felt.

"That wasn't one of my explosives," Mathias said, "it came from the beach. Give me the baby now! I won't be trapped here by you fools and a regiment of Tomathian knights on some damn ship thats made land! I swear I'll blow us all to hell!"

*********************************************

The rabias corpse lay on the beach, dead, a hole the size of a wagon in it's cranium.

The two undead dragons sniffed the air.

They then began to fly.

*********************************************

"I don't wish any of you harm. I never have. I just want the power that my bitch sister, Sabal never let me near. And the only way I can do that is to kill that little shit factory of a baby. If it lives the goddess will become all powerful eventually! So you have a choice. You either give me the little goddling spawn....or you deal with that crazy goddess at full power!

Now what's it--"

Mathias was interrupted as two gigantic, huge zombie dragons flew down at the grove ready to feast.

Aldion was the first to remember....if Mathias dropped the device the island would blow up. And with two zombie dragons bearing down on them, Mathias' safety became the most important thing in the world.

Aldion paled slightly, remembering the zombie dragon that they had encountered long ago. He gulped heavily, he was the only one present that knew how to fight these things, but he was not the hero this day, no that, weight fell onto other shoulders.

Not Turk'en.

Not Nithelas.

Not the newest members, either.

The dark eyes of the hero were intent on his goal, he knew what must be done, but nonetheless, Punky continued to reach for the worm in the knot hole.

Aldion squeeked at the monkey, Punky squawked back. Aldion sighed, then spoke in the proper dialect, then pointed at Mathias.

Punky nodded and leapt from the tree, trying to fly to the darkling. "YOUR A MONKEY DAMMIT!!!!"

The primate rose and shook, grunted, and lept on Mathias's shoulder. He ran down his forearm, grabbed the silver mechanism, then bit Mathias's thumb.

Punky wrenched it from the fingers, then jumped into a trees branches, crawling into a hollowed out section of the tree.

The dragons swooped down closer, and Aldion dropped to the dirt. He waved his arm frantically, "Get down, all of you!"

Nithelas froze when he saw the bomb. He completely ignored the darkling with the dragon claw in him.

"You will have to thank whatever fate you believe that we're on this island. Nothing else in this wor-"

The druid was cut off when a flight of zombie dragons flew above them.

"Oh-" He just gave up talking.

He listened to Aldion and dropped to the ground, laying as flat as he could. He watched Punky saved the bomb, the day, and everyone there.

"That's a smart companion you have there, elf."

"The kinetic energy of an object is the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its current velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. Negative work of the same magnitude would be required to return the body to a state of rest from that velocity.

Kinetic energy for single objects is completely frame-dependent (relative). For example, a bullet racing by a non-moving observer has kinetic energy in the reference frame of this observer, but the same bullet has zero kinetic energy in the reference frame which moves with the bullet. The kinetic energy of systems of objects, however, may sometimes not be completely removable by simple choice of reference frame. When this is the case, a residual minimum kinetic energy remains in the system as seen by all observers, and this kinetic energy (if present) contributes to the system's invariant mass, which is seen as the same value in all reference frames, and by all observers.

There are various forms of energy: chemical energy, heat, electromagnetic radiation, potential energy (gravitational, electric, elastic, etc.), nuclear energy, rest energy. These can be categorized in two main classes: potential energy and kinetic energy.

Kinetic energy can be best understood by examples that demonstrate how it is transformed to and from other forms of energy. For example, a cyclist will use chemical energy that was provided by food to accelerate a bicycle to a chosen speed. This speed can be maintained without further work, except to overcome air-resistance and friction. The energy has been converted into kinetic energy – the energy of motion – but the process is not completely efficient and heat is also produced within the cyclist.

The kinetic energy in the moving cyclist and the bicycle can be converted to other forms. For example, the cyclist could encounter a hill just high enough to coast up, so that the bicycle comes to a complete halt at the top. The kinetic energy has now largely been converted to gravitational potential energy that can be released by freewheeling down the other side of the hill. (Since the bicycle lost some of its energy to friction, it will never regain all of its speed without further pedaling. Note that the energy is not destroyed; it has only been converted to another form by friction.) Alternatively the cyclist could connect a dynamo to one of the wheels and also generate some electrical energy on the descent. The bicycle would be traveling more slowly at the bottom of the hill because some of the energy has been diverted into making electrical power. Another possibility would be for the cyclist to apply the brakes, in which case the kinetic energy would be dissipated through friction as thermal energy.

Like any physical quantity which is a function of velocity, the kinetic energy of an object depends on the relationship between the object and the observer's frame of reference. Thus the kinetic energy of an object is not invariant.

There are several different equations that may be used to calculate the kinetic energy of an object. In many cases they give almost the same answer to well within measurable accuracy. Where they differ, the choice of which to use is determined by the velocity of the body or its size. Thus, if the object is moving at a velocity much smaller than the speed of light, the Newtonian (classical) mechanics will be sufficiently accurate; but if the speed is comparable to the speed of light, relativity starts to make significant differences to the result and should be used. If the size of the object is sub-atomic, the quantum mechanical equation is most appropriate.

In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a "point object" (a body so small that its size can be ignored), or a non-rotating rigid body, is given by the equation

E_k = \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix} mv^2

where m is the mass and v is the speed of the body. In SI units (used for most modern scientific work), mass is measured in kilograms, speed in metres per second, and the resulting kinetic energy is in joules.

For example, one would calculate the kinetic energy of an 80 kg mass traveling at 18 meters per second (40 mph) as

E_k = \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix} \cdot 80 \cdot 18^2 = 12,960 \ \mathrm{joules}.

Note that the kinetic energy increases with the square of the speed. This means, for example, that an object traveling twice as fast will have four times as much kinetic energy. As a result of this, a car traveling twice as fast requires four times as much distance to stop (assuming a constant braking force. See mechanical work).

The kinetic energy of an object is related to its momentum by the equation:

E_k = \frac{p^2}{2m}

where p is momentum.

For the translational kinetic energy, that is the kinetic energy associated with rectilinear motion, of a body with constant mass m, whose center of mass is moving in a straight line with speed v, as seen above is equal to

E_t = \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix} mv^2

where:

m is mass of the body
v is speed of the center of mass of the body.

The kinetic energy of any entity is relative to the frame of reference in which it is measured. An isolated system (no energy can enter or leave) has a total energy which is unchanging over time as seen by any one observer. Thus, the chemical energy converted to kinetic energy by a rocket engine will be divided differently between the rocket ship and its exhaust stream depending upon the chosen frame of reference. But the total energy of the system (including kinetic energy, fuel chemical energy, heat energy, etc), will be conserved over time in a given reference frame, regardless of the choice of measurement frame. However, different observers will disagree on what the value of this conserved energy is.

In addition, although the energy of such systems is dependent on the measurement frame, the minimal total energy which is seen in any frame will be the total energy seen by observers in the center of momentum frame; this minimal energy corresponds to the invariant mass of the aggregate. The calculated value of this invariant mass compensates for changing energy in different frames, and is thus the same for all frames and observers.

[edit] Derivation

The work done accelerating a particle during the infinitesimal time interval dt is given by the dot product of force and displacement:

\mathbf{F} \cdot d \mathbf{x} = \mathbf{F} \cdot \mathbf{v} d t = \frac{d \mathbf{p}}{d t} \cdot \mathbf{v} d t = \mathbf{v} \cdot d \mathbf{p} = \mathbf{v} \cdot d (m \mathbf{v}).

Applying the product rule we see that:

d(\mathbf{v} \cdot \mathbf{v}) = (d \mathbf{v}) \cdot \mathbf{v} + \mathbf{v} \cdot (d \mathbf{v}) = 2(\mathbf{v} \cdot d\mathbf{v}).

Therefore (assuming constant mass), the following can be seen:

\mathbf{v} \cdot d (m \mathbf{v}) = \frac{m}{2} d (\mathbf{v} \cdot \mathbf{v}) = \frac{m}{2} d v^2 = d \left(\frac{m v^2}{2}\right).

Since this is a total differential (that is, it only depends on the final state, not how the particle got there), we can integrate it and call the result kinetic energy:

E_k = \int \mathbf{F} \cdot d \mathbf{x} = \int \mathbf{v} \cdot d \mathbf{p}= \frac{m v^2}{2}.

This equation states that the kinetic energy (Ek) is equal to the integral of the dot product of the velocity (v) of a body and the infinitesimal change of the body's momentum (p). It is assumed that the body starts with no kinetic energy when it is at rest (motionless)."

That was the last thought that went through Punky's mind as one of the zombie dragon's wings struck the tree sending it flying.

The two dragons landed, roaring to the heavens.



**********************

All of Nerin Toth, The Epicenter, and Nju Shenghuo felt the tremors of Teseron isle exploding.

**********************

Nithelas and Mathias were the first to wake up. They stared around confused. Teseron Isle was nothing more than barren wasteland. Only a few trees burnt to crisps still stood. There was no grass. No nothing.

Mathias crawled over to him slowly..."l-listen to me," he said, coughing, "we-we have to work together. Those dragons are still out there...somewhere on this island. And we have no cover or shelter from them before they find us."

**********************

Nearly 70 miles away, Turk'en woke next Quarven and Alemar. The only thing he could think of was Talkren.....and where was he.

**********************

200 miles south of Turk'en and the others, Aldion opened his eye. The robotic steam powered eye was gone as was the hand. He would have to find new parts. Near him was KroweAdello who soon woke as well. Aldion looked around. Everything was just dirt, a few rocks, and a few burnt out trees viewable in the distance. however nearby was an over turned trunk of a tree.

Punky popped his head out of a hole in the trunk, revealing most of the fur on his head burnt away. He held up the odd detonator which was mostly melted now.

"Moo?" Punky said.

Nithelas looked around at the immolation that had just occurred. His friends, his family, his loved ones, his home... All were taken from him that day.

Mathias crawled over to him and tried to come to an agreement. Nithelas didn't care. All was lost. There wasn't anything in his life right now. The darkling sobbed relentlessly. He was done. He was tired.

"Why? What point is there? Why do I care about this world? There's nothing left for me," he said through unbroken sobs.

"You stole everything! You did this to me!" Nithelas started to get up. The scimitar was still in his hand.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Nithelas was quickly becoming hysterical, swinging the sword around without though. His screams were as loud as he could make them.

Nithelas came at Mathias swinging the scimitar. Mathias reached down to his boot and quickly drew the small flint lock pistol he kept holstered there, and aimed.

BLAM! BLAM!

Nitheles dropped, his blood mixing with the sand. Mathias reached into a pouch and reloaded the pistol and then re-holstered it. he then walked over and picked up the scimitar.

"Blown out knee caps are probably one of the most painful places to be shot...well other than a gut shot. Why am I letting you live? So you can tell everyone.....so you can tell everyone that when I become King of the Undead....I'll be a merciful king," he finished and then spat in Nithelas' face and walked away.

"You bastard! You asshole! You stole everything from me!" Screamed Nithelas, after he finished screaming in pain at having his knees blasted out.

"You are no king! You're just some pissed off little brother."

Without his scimitar, Nithelas couldn't even cut his own throat. He crawled on his side, crying out in pain every time he inched forward. He was crawling towards Mathias, only because he couldn't let himself just lie there.

He slid forward a couple feet before his head sank into the scorched ground. His sobbing continued. Between sobs and chokes, he would look up at Mathias, wishing everything would just be reversed.

Nithelas started to hear noises off in the distance. He was left alone there, helpless to what ever monster discovered him first. Would he be eaten and ravaged by undead, or would he be swallowed whole by dragon zombies? Or something worse?

Something was crawling towards him, straight towards him. He couldn't see what it was though. It was too dark. He swore he saw movement. A dark blur. It was there, two feet from him. He could feel it.

"What are you?" Nithelas asked in fright.

"His name is Zevren, my lost druid."

"Who are you?!" Nithelas asked in surprise.

"Someone that knows what its like to lose everything. I too, was a druid, but my powers are lost now, much like yours. Come. We need to go."

"Where?"

"Home, my apprentice."

A fire blazed two feet away next to Zevren. The hollow monster lifted Nithelas, who winced at the pain, and the three vanished into the flames.

Quarven opend his eyes he spat and coughed as he wiped the dirt from his eyes and spit it out.

"UHHHHHH" a moan came from Quarven, confused and in pain. He stood on his feet and it appeared that when the claw came out his own sword went in. Quarven didn't evem care he pulled it out whisperd some elven words and the wound closed part of the way he sticthed the rest.

"Hey, Turk get up" said Quarven as he nudged him with his foot "Where gonna go get your son, we dont have much time lets move." Quarven waited for Turken to gather his wits, when suddenly Quarven looked around for the first time in minutes.

"Nothing" said with emptyness, fittingly because thats all he saw, nothing.

Two Months Later...

Aldion and KrowAdello sat in a small beat up inn just outside of Peregren in the village of Nekrut, along with Aldion's pet monkey, Punky.

They tried to keep to themselves as much as possible. When the Civil Agents gestapo like regime came through Nerin Toth, they did so like a mass of locusts destroying everything. While the Civil Agents were indeed cannibals they didn't kill everyone. In fact most people they didn't even bother to eat. So many people had already died that even the Agents knew that if they killed off everyone on this planet then they would have no one to rule over. And so it was, that the only places left on Nerin Toth that weren't overrun by the Civil Agents influence were Nju Shenghuo, The Hellhole, and The Long Reach.

Aldion and KroweAdello had decided that the best route for them to take would be to lay low and keep themselves fed by taking the odd mercenary job once in a while.

And now they waited at The Inn of The Decimated Solace for their contact to show up. The man who would give them their next job.

********************************************************

Quarven, Alemar and Turken were camped outside of Krest. They had found passage on a Riverfolk jewlry trading ship and had sailed to the continent of Northern Krest. Turken had the idea that speaking with the King of Krest, Stonehollow Steelbeard, would help in them in locating Talkren possibly. The King was the only one left on all of Aeon who still stood against the Civil Agents new world order. And so they had made it to the seventy foot high wall surrounding the Kingdom of Krest and they camped. Now they pondered how to make it over that wall.

********************************************************

Nithelas had captured Mathias in an odd situation in which Zevren had been searching for food for them only to be ambushed by Mathias. however, being weakened, Mathias was easy enough to apprehend. Now Nithelas and Zevren were on an airship and getting ready to touch down in Nju Shenghuo. Mathias had calmed down some and had even taken to speaking to Nithelas better and even helped changed the bandages on Nithelas' knees every few hours. Eventually Nithelas and Mathias grew not necessarily as friends but close enough to where they did respect each other. Mathias had explained that if they were to get Talkren back before the goddess did, that perhaps with his divine powers Talkren could repair the land. And it was this that led them to Nju Shenghuo, hoping to find Talkren there.

********************************************************

Edaw, the God of Hell, arrived in Medrith, a small shipping village. His ogre appearance was not startling to anyone, and he kept a cloak on to hide his draconic wings from others. He had gained passage on a ship and soon left sailing north to Nju Shenghuo.

********************************************************

"The time draws near," the goddess said as she sat on a throne not rightfully hers in Dead Town. She stared down at the corpse of Erron and laughed. "it is finally mine. I have the throne. And once that infatuated love-stricken fool, Edaw does away with that fool, Popurum, nothing will stand in my way of destroying this world...and then rebuilding it in MY image. Son come to me..."

The boy walked forward. He was only 3 feet tall, with short blond hair. It was Edaw Jr. His bat wings spread wide. His accelerated again could only be described as miraculous...or perhaps devious as it was possible it was from the culmination of a demon's blood and a fallen goddess' blood that spawned this god-child.

"You're brother, Talkren, travel to this location," she said casting an illusion of a city for the boy to see, "go there. Kill him. And then my son, you will have earned your rightful place as the new King of Hell."

********************************************************

An odd occurrence had started in those last two months.....the undead....began to grow weaker.

It had been months....he had woken up in the desert, his body beaten and bruised and left for dead. The goddess no longer had a use for him and had left his corpse in the desert for the carrion's to feast upon. Then he had awoken.

He had traveled for some time, most believing that his babbling was nothing more than the insanity that afflicted most of those still left alive on this world.

And it was later that he found himself near Krest.

He stumbled not far from a camp site one night, mumbling away not knowing what he was saying. Turken's camp site.

"Turken...father....have to work together, Jade...no....mud...nails," Erron mumbled as he stumbled past Turken, Quarven, and Alemar's camp.

Aldion sipped his ale slowly, more for show than actually enjoying the hog piss. He and Krowe had grown a reputation of being dark, mysterious, and brooding, which Aldion suspected the other man of being anyways, just not himself.

They both spoke little, to each other or anyone else, Aldion was combating the status of a hero. To hide himself, he even had to hide Reaver since, sadly, there were not many scythe wielding elves around tehse days.

He'd found a dwarf a few weeks ago that managed to fix his body parts (although his arm seized twice a day now), and on top of it all, his eye now constantly hurt him like a bitch!

Aldion was about to leave, when he saw their contact enter the room. Aldion kept his face covered by the hood of his cloak, Krowe sat there saying nothing, hat hiding his features. The elf looked at the knight who entered, "Speak, Tomathian," he said disinterestedly.

The slightly portly human was nervous, and shaking horribly, evidently, their new reputation proceeded them. After swallowing an apparent lump, the knight spoke, "I- its a simple mission. De-dead or al-alive," he stammered, layin out a piece of paper.

"Payment?" Aldion asked.

"3 days Tomathian rations"

"For both of us?"

"For both," agreed the knight, still shaking.

Aldion grabbed the paper, "You're serious?"

"Very, sir," The human said.

Aldion passed the paper to Krowe, who only nodded. The elf spoke, "Isn't this knightly business, shouldn't you people be covering this yourself?"

The human sighed, "We've been Crawling in that damn stink for to long, we're too deep in it to do anything else."

Aldion nodded, "We'll leave tonight."

The human stood shakily and walked out, the faint hint of urine trailing behind him.

Aldion looked at the paper again, "Seems alot of trouble for a damn chicken..."

Wanted Poster wrote:

WANTED
DEAD or ALIVE

For the Murder of Knight of Tomath, Sir Goodfry.

LARGE $$$ REWARD!

For information please contact Lieutenant Oswald Oren in Peregren or General Karos the White in Port Skell.

Below the words were the pictures of Steven and Kam.

Turk'en got up after hearing someone talking and walking through thier camp site.

"TALKREN!"

Turk'en shouted upon seeing his son.

"Alemar, get me some water!"

Turk'en ran up and put his arms around his son, gently cohersing him to come back to the camp. Talkren was rambling names he shouldn't know.

"Calm down my son, you are safe with us.' Turk'en helped Talkren to lay down on the darklings bedroll, next to the fire, ' rest now."

"ALEMAR, HURRY UP WITH THAT WATER! QUARVEN, GET ME SOME RATIONS AND MY OTHER BLANKET FROM MY PACK!"

Turk'en watched over his son who was laying down but not resting very peacefully. He kept mumbling names and places amongst random other comments. Something struck Turk'en as out of place.



"Did you say Jade?"

Sitting in a corner of the tavern Kikani saw the emissary come in and sit at a table occupied by two other gentlemen. She had her suspicions as to who those two men were, but nothing was confirmed until one of them passed a paper to the other, showing his metal arm. Not very many of those around these parts.

The emissary got up and left with haste and the other two sat still. The one with the arm looking at the sheet again.

Kikani was used to men of these calibre. She wasn't that much in the world though so she didn't notice the big burly human that thought that she was trying to catch his eye.

He got up from his table and came walking to hers.

"yer staring pertty hard there. Why don't ye come over to talk to us. We'll show you a good time."

The man stuck of ale and sweat. Kikani couldn't hold her disgust of this man.


"I definitely wasn't staring at you or your stinking friends. Now will you get out of my way...


...Sir your too fat for me to see through."


The burly man growled and slammed his hands on the table, making all the patrons take notice of him and the woman.

"YOU THINK YOUR BETTER'N US? THINK YER SMARTER!? LETS SEE HOW MUCH BETTER YE ARE WHEN I RIP YOUR EYES OUT!"

The man reached out and grabbed the woman by the front of her blouse.

Kikani tried to keep some of he modesty as her shirt almost ripped off.


A tear ran down her cheek as she flinched and recoiled as best she could from the man.

"P..p..please, no!"

Outside of Peregren, in the village of Nekrut, in the tavern, at the bar, on a stool; Populus Willow, the human, the druid, of Teseron Isle; sat, waited, listened, and watched the cloaked, metal armed, paper holding, stranger.

"Whatcha got there?" asked the nosy druid, talking to Aldion.

A bang and crash and the sound of glass being disturbed threw the eyes of Populus to the woman being targeted by a large drunk man.

The man seemed angry and began to tare off the woman's blouse. Lus at this time let out a loud wolfish whistle.

"If we had some food, we'd have dinner AND a show, eh?" laughed the human. He smacked the elf's arm. Time to time, Lus would dart his eyes to the wanted poster.

"Cute little fuzz ball, ya got there," he says as he pokes Punky with a spoon.

Punky growled at the human, then bit his thumb. He made an obscene gesture, then scittered under the table.

Aldion paid scant attention to the new comer, he only kept a wary eye on the new girl and burly asshole. He looked at Krowe and teh two nodded to each other.

Aldion tapped the large, foul human on the shoulder, "Sir, I believe this woman thinks you are disgusting, and I can't say I blame her, you actually make me taste vomit in my mouth." The human turned and his face immediately connected with Aldion's metal fist, knocking him out cold.

The drunken sod's friends all began to stand, reaching for swords and whatever else they could grab. "So this was the leader?" Aldion asked himself, "Sad really."

The other humans were starting for the elf and then stopped, two of the four humans faced short blades at their throats, and Aldion held the other two at bay with his longsword.

He saw the woman eyeing him, making him slightkly suspicious of her, but she wasnt a zombie, so there was a good start. "The name's Alex, and you are?" he asked her, smashing the hilt into one of the thugs forehead...

"Ki...Kikani"

Kikani was by no means helpless but her abilities were not in the realm of the Martial. The girl pulled her blouse back up quickly straightening it out and tying her modest bodice back. She watched the two men fighting on her behalf and was glad that there were still chivarous people in this world. Kikani quickly jumped up on to her seat and grabbed her staff. Given to her by her master it possessed some kind of arcane enchantment on it but she wasn't told what was on it. She grabbed her glass instinctually as two of the combatants bumped into the table. One of the brutes had Aldion bent over the table pressing down on him.


CRASH!

Kikani wasn't sure why she did it but it shocked her as much as it shocked the brute.

"YOU WITCH!"

The brute reached for her hoping to grab her and pin her down with Aldion.

She jumped as far back as she could on the bench seat and narrowly avoided the brutes grasp.

"OH!"
She exclaimed realizing he missed

Turken wrote:

Turk'en got up after hearing someone talking and walking through thier camp site.

"TALKREN!"

Turk'en shouted upon seeing his son.

"Alemar, get me some water!"

Turk'en
ran up and put his arms around his son, gently cohersing him to come
back to the camp. Talkren was rambling names he shouldn't know.

"Calm
down my son, you are safe with us.' Turk'en helped Talkren to lay down
on the darklings bedroll, next to the fire, ' rest now."

"ALEMAR, HURRY UP WITH THAT WATER! QUARVEN, GET ME SOME RATIONS AND MY OTHER BLANKET FROM MY PACK!"

Turk'en
watched over his son who was laying down but not resting very
peacefully. He kept mumbling names and places amongst random other
comments. Something struck Turk'en as out of place.



"Did you say Jade?"

Erron
slowly sat up....Turken must have been mistaken from the darkness of
the night and being so far away from the fire of their camp....as Erron
looked at the darkling, he muttered, "Father?" but in Talkrens
voice.