The chores had been done, the labs had been cleaned, everything was in order after Mistress Mistwalker had gone on a major experiment binge, and Total Eclipse was happy to walk through the darkness that was the Voodoo Queen's hidden base.
To the best of his knowledge, the femme was up in her room, getting some much needed rest, and all the assistants, or Boogys as they preferred to be called, Nairee* knows why, were out gathering supplies to finish up their own projects. Which meant that for now, Eclipse had the entire lab to himself. He wasn't much of a scientist, like the rest of his peers, he was more suited for the other side of the Voodoo Arts, the dark magical rituals that commanded the forces of death and darkness. It was true, he wasn't the worst to ever tread the path, and according to Mistress Mistwalker, this was the best possible reason to allow him to tread the path of the necromancer.
As he slipped the last bottle of preserved frog eyes back into the cabinet, the sound of shuffling paws could be heard behind him. Turning slowly, the panther scanned the dimly lit room with his feline night vision. Nothing could be seen, but that didn't mean nothing was there. Taking a step away from the cabinet, Eclipse shut the door with a strong wave of his tail. As the cabinet closed, and the lock clicked behind him, he began to slowly prowl the lab, searching for anything that could give away the intruder.
"You know, if you are meant to be here, there is no need to hide. And if you are not meant to be here, you will not escape the Lair of the Voodoo Queen. And I, as her second in command, will not allow you to make it out." The panther announced as he rounded the end of one of the work tables, nothing.
The sound again came from behind him, and this time he whirled around, catching a glimpse of black cloth disappearing into, of all places, the stairway leading down to the holding areas. Odd, since there was no other way out of that dungeon. Moving to the doorway, Total Eclipse gave thought to merely shutting and locking the door, trapping the intruder down in the basement, but if it was one of Mistwalker's students, it would not look good to have that student tell his queen that he had trapped them down there without properly investigating.
And so, the tall lean male began to make his way down the torchlit stairway, taking it slow and relying on his natural grace and agility to make as little noise as possible. When he got to the final step, he waved his paw through the air, and the torches all around the underground holding area flared to life, and there in the center of the floor stood a hunched figure dressed in black leather armor, with a hooded black cape. As the figure turned, the face of the intruder could not be seen, as if shrouded in eternal shadow. A paw reached from under the cloak, and in it's paws were two black bladed daggers, held in dusty gray spotted paws.
"You would be wise to turn around and walk away, Male. I am not just an intruder come to steal a small amount of gold, or a few secrets from your Mistress, I am an assassin come to liberate a prisoner of your experimentation. You see, we of the Sha'Nai have become aware that Mistwalker has begun experimenting with the Forbidden Fruit, and there is a person held here that we cannot allow to be experimented on. So, all I demand is that you allow me to free this person, and leave your little operation here unharmed, and in return I will make sure that you are not subject of any of our raids for a while, deal?" The hooded figure bargained, canting its head to the side.
Eclipse just shook his head.
"If I allow you to get in and out without some punishment, your kind will know we are weak, and that is something the Voodoo Queen will not accept. And I will be the one to bear the brunt of her anger. I am afraid that I cannot let you take one of our prisoners, and least of all you may not leave here now that you have gotten in."
He reached over his right shoulder, only to discover his sword was not there, and the dagger he usually kept on the opposite hip was missing as well. When he looked back up, the spy was twirling his dagger in the air between her paws.
"Oh! I'm sorry, was this yours?" She teased, before turning to walk calmly towards the holding cells.
"Stop, or you will face the full wrath of the Necro Arts." Eclipse warned, sliding his left foot back, balled his left paw into a fist at his hip, and held his right paw up, palm out, as it began to glow with purple and black flames.
The intruder did not stop, so Eclipse stepped forward with his left foot and punched at the air with his balled fist. A jet of the dark flames flew across the room and formed a wall in front of the cloaked figure, but with a wave of her hand, the flames dispersed and disappeared.
"You will have to do better than that, Necromancer." The figure called back, but Eclipse was not done.
After the punch, the panther had dropped both paws to his hips, and slowly began to raise them. Two trails of the flames tracked across the ground, and slowly the dirt began to shift, and then rotted limbs began to rise, attatched to long dead corpses of the fail experiment victims. As they pulled themselves from their earthen prisons, the hobbled and crawled towards the assassin. A Tikbalang warrior rose up in front of the cloaked one, but with a shake of that hooded head, it reached out and touched the equine beast, and at the touch, the bones and rotted flesh toppled back to the ground.
"Come now, is that all you have learned? Surely someone who is to be the successor of the Voodoo Queen would have more than just dark flames and a few reanimated corpses at his disposal."
Now Eclipse was getting angry, who was this person and how did they know the exact moves to counter everything he was throwing at them? He had one more trick up his sleeve though, and began to form the hand seals that would free his greatest asset.
Just as the figure reached the door it had been looking for, the door disappeared into shadow, and from that shadow a long limbed, sinewy figure peeled itself out of the shadow, with another two of them doing the same, until the whole shadow was used up. Fiery eyes formed in what could be considered a head, and mouths of sharp shadowy fangs opened and snapped at the leopard in the cloak.
"Now you are showing your true power, Eclipse. Mokoi Shadowlings, and you are controlling them with such authority...I am very impressed. Seeing this has given me an idea. I will offer you an item of great power for the freedom to take what I need, and leave. If you give this item to Mistwalker, you will be hailed as her greatest student, forever looked at as an advisor in the Shadow Arts...Or you could keep the item for yourself, and be secure in the knowledge that if she were ever to replace you, you would have the world's greatest warrior at your beck and call..." Slowly the figure turned, paying little heed to the snapping of the Shadowling's jaws.
This offer struck home with Total Eclipse, and he waved his paws to dismiss the shadowbeings.
"What is this item that you offer me, Thief? Show it to me. Put it on the ground, and then step away." The panther instructed, hands still held up in a ready position to defend himself, even as the other being bent down, and from the folds of her cloak produced a single golden pot, no....an urn.
"These are the cremated remains of Kohana's greatest warrior, called only "The Shadow". What better person to turn this item over to, than Kohana's greatest and most powerful Necromancer and Shadowbender. With this, no army will be able to stand before your might. You will have a champion of unmatched skill and power, bending his knee only to you, no one else." The Sha'Nai said, then backed up with paws held wide to show no trick was being played.
Stepping forward, the male panther lifted the urn in his hands, turning it slowly. Then he would nod slowly. He could not deny that he was worried about being replaced by one of the other students more willing to use the poisons that Mistwalker was fond of employing. This would be his insurance policy against that, and no one would ever know about it.
With a curt nod, the panther stepped to the side, and the cloaked figure disappeared into the cell it had been standing in front of with not a sound, coming back with a small child's body draped over it's shoulder. With a nod in return to the panther, the figure disappeared up the steps like a shadow. When Eclipse began to follow, he found the lab just as he had left it, and the only sign that anyone had been through was the black cloak fluttering down from the circular staircase that led to the back, secret entrance to the labs, which Eclipse caught out of the air, wrapped the urn with, and then stuffed both into his knapsack before slinging it onto his back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just outside the back entrance, the spotted intruder leapt up into a nearby tree with all the grace her species was known for, and laid the small child against the trunk and then turned back to the hidden entrance with a smile.
Reaching up with those wide, yet skilled paws, the spy pulled off the hood it had been wearing letting long white hair cascade from where it had been tightly bound atop her head. The snow leopard's golden eyes shone in the moonlight, as a wicked grin pulled at her muzzle.
"That's right, Kitten, I leave you with the ashes of His Majesty, the true ruler of this world, to do with as you see fit. And when you resurrect him, it will be you they will come after, while I am free to put my own plan into action. And then, the name Laughing Rain will again strike fear into the hearts of all who cross her!" She whispered, and then turned to take up the child again and begin to leap from treetop to treetop, on her way back to her own hidden hideaway.
To the best of his knowledge, the femme was up in her room, getting some much needed rest, and all the assistants, or Boogys as they preferred to be called, Nairee* knows why, were out gathering supplies to finish up their own projects. Which meant that for now, Eclipse had the entire lab to himself. He wasn't much of a scientist, like the rest of his peers, he was more suited for the other side of the Voodoo Arts, the dark magical rituals that commanded the forces of death and darkness. It was true, he wasn't the worst to ever tread the path, and according to Mistress Mistwalker, this was the best possible reason to allow him to tread the path of the necromancer.
As he slipped the last bottle of preserved frog eyes back into the cabinet, the sound of shuffling paws could be heard behind him. Turning slowly, the panther scanned the dimly lit room with his feline night vision. Nothing could be seen, but that didn't mean nothing was there. Taking a step away from the cabinet, Eclipse shut the door with a strong wave of his tail. As the cabinet closed, and the lock clicked behind him, he began to slowly prowl the lab, searching for anything that could give away the intruder.
"You know, if you are meant to be here, there is no need to hide. And if you are not meant to be here, you will not escape the Lair of the Voodoo Queen. And I, as her second in command, will not allow you to make it out." The panther announced as he rounded the end of one of the work tables, nothing.
The sound again came from behind him, and this time he whirled around, catching a glimpse of black cloth disappearing into, of all places, the stairway leading down to the holding areas. Odd, since there was no other way out of that dungeon. Moving to the doorway, Total Eclipse gave thought to merely shutting and locking the door, trapping the intruder down in the basement, but if it was one of Mistwalker's students, it would not look good to have that student tell his queen that he had trapped them down there without properly investigating.
And so, the tall lean male began to make his way down the torchlit stairway, taking it slow and relying on his natural grace and agility to make as little noise as possible. When he got to the final step, he waved his paw through the air, and the torches all around the underground holding area flared to life, and there in the center of the floor stood a hunched figure dressed in black leather armor, with a hooded black cape. As the figure turned, the face of the intruder could not be seen, as if shrouded in eternal shadow. A paw reached from under the cloak, and in it's paws were two black bladed daggers, held in dusty gray spotted paws.
"You would be wise to turn around and walk away, Male. I am not just an intruder come to steal a small amount of gold, or a few secrets from your Mistress, I am an assassin come to liberate a prisoner of your experimentation. You see, we of the Sha'Nai have become aware that Mistwalker has begun experimenting with the Forbidden Fruit, and there is a person held here that we cannot allow to be experimented on. So, all I demand is that you allow me to free this person, and leave your little operation here unharmed, and in return I will make sure that you are not subject of any of our raids for a while, deal?" The hooded figure bargained, canting its head to the side.
Eclipse just shook his head.
"If I allow you to get in and out without some punishment, your kind will know we are weak, and that is something the Voodoo Queen will not accept. And I will be the one to bear the brunt of her anger. I am afraid that I cannot let you take one of our prisoners, and least of all you may not leave here now that you have gotten in."
He reached over his right shoulder, only to discover his sword was not there, and the dagger he usually kept on the opposite hip was missing as well. When he looked back up, the spy was twirling his dagger in the air between her paws.
"Oh! I'm sorry, was this yours?" She teased, before turning to walk calmly towards the holding cells.
"Stop, or you will face the full wrath of the Necro Arts." Eclipse warned, sliding his left foot back, balled his left paw into a fist at his hip, and held his right paw up, palm out, as it began to glow with purple and black flames.
The intruder did not stop, so Eclipse stepped forward with his left foot and punched at the air with his balled fist. A jet of the dark flames flew across the room and formed a wall in front of the cloaked figure, but with a wave of her hand, the flames dispersed and disappeared.
"You will have to do better than that, Necromancer." The figure called back, but Eclipse was not done.
After the punch, the panther had dropped both paws to his hips, and slowly began to raise them. Two trails of the flames tracked across the ground, and slowly the dirt began to shift, and then rotted limbs began to rise, attatched to long dead corpses of the fail experiment victims. As they pulled themselves from their earthen prisons, the hobbled and crawled towards the assassin. A Tikbalang warrior rose up in front of the cloaked one, but with a shake of that hooded head, it reached out and touched the equine beast, and at the touch, the bones and rotted flesh toppled back to the ground.
"Come now, is that all you have learned? Surely someone who is to be the successor of the Voodoo Queen would have more than just dark flames and a few reanimated corpses at his disposal."
Now Eclipse was getting angry, who was this person and how did they know the exact moves to counter everything he was throwing at them? He had one more trick up his sleeve though, and began to form the hand seals that would free his greatest asset.
Just as the figure reached the door it had been looking for, the door disappeared into shadow, and from that shadow a long limbed, sinewy figure peeled itself out of the shadow, with another two of them doing the same, until the whole shadow was used up. Fiery eyes formed in what could be considered a head, and mouths of sharp shadowy fangs opened and snapped at the leopard in the cloak.
"Now you are showing your true power, Eclipse. Mokoi Shadowlings, and you are controlling them with such authority...I am very impressed. Seeing this has given me an idea. I will offer you an item of great power for the freedom to take what I need, and leave. If you give this item to Mistwalker, you will be hailed as her greatest student, forever looked at as an advisor in the Shadow Arts...Or you could keep the item for yourself, and be secure in the knowledge that if she were ever to replace you, you would have the world's greatest warrior at your beck and call..." Slowly the figure turned, paying little heed to the snapping of the Shadowling's jaws.
This offer struck home with Total Eclipse, and he waved his paws to dismiss the shadowbeings.
"What is this item that you offer me, Thief? Show it to me. Put it on the ground, and then step away." The panther instructed, hands still held up in a ready position to defend himself, even as the other being bent down, and from the folds of her cloak produced a single golden pot, no....an urn.
"These are the cremated remains of Kohana's greatest warrior, called only "The Shadow". What better person to turn this item over to, than Kohana's greatest and most powerful Necromancer and Shadowbender. With this, no army will be able to stand before your might. You will have a champion of unmatched skill and power, bending his knee only to you, no one else." The Sha'Nai said, then backed up with paws held wide to show no trick was being played.
Stepping forward, the male panther lifted the urn in his hands, turning it slowly. Then he would nod slowly. He could not deny that he was worried about being replaced by one of the other students more willing to use the poisons that Mistwalker was fond of employing. This would be his insurance policy against that, and no one would ever know about it.
With a curt nod, the panther stepped to the side, and the cloaked figure disappeared into the cell it had been standing in front of with not a sound, coming back with a small child's body draped over it's shoulder. With a nod in return to the panther, the figure disappeared up the steps like a shadow. When Eclipse began to follow, he found the lab just as he had left it, and the only sign that anyone had been through was the black cloak fluttering down from the circular staircase that led to the back, secret entrance to the labs, which Eclipse caught out of the air, wrapped the urn with, and then stuffed both into his knapsack before slinging it onto his back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just outside the back entrance, the spotted intruder leapt up into a nearby tree with all the grace her species was known for, and laid the small child against the trunk and then turned back to the hidden entrance with a smile.
Reaching up with those wide, yet skilled paws, the spy pulled off the hood it had been wearing letting long white hair cascade from where it had been tightly bound atop her head. The snow leopard's golden eyes shone in the moonlight, as a wicked grin pulled at her muzzle.
"That's right, Kitten, I leave you with the ashes of His Majesty, the true ruler of this world, to do with as you see fit. And when you resurrect him, it will be you they will come after, while I am free to put my own plan into action. And then, the name Laughing Rain will again strike fear into the hearts of all who cross her!" She whispered, and then turned to take up the child again and begin to leap from treetop to treetop, on her way back to her own hidden hideaway.
