(All New HtD RP Thread!) RED! RED! RED!

"Oh get over yourself," Lehti said to Leif as he sat on the bed. Leif looked up and saw himself but in a completely different form, having a conversation with him!

"You know exactly who you are you miserable fool. Stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Before Leif could answer he was interrupted.

"Be nice. he's going through a hard time right now. he doesn't remember you or me or anything," Cholley said.

"It's OK Leif. Captain Hellcat will wait for you."

Leif was interrupted again. An elf walked across the room to him.

"Hellcat??? She abandoned us. Kyria was the one we truly loved. Hellcat left us with that mad man, Erron. We're still trying to understand why we're so compelled to follow a man who isn't a hero and couldn't care if we lived or died," the elven Leif said.

"It's all so confusing," said Cholley lost in thought as he walked across the floor.

"No....it's very simple....if we stay with Erron we'll eventually die," Lehti complained.

"Oh do be quiet, he's the one that's saved us from death countless times," the elven Leif countered.

"You were just saying he's a mad man!" Lehti argued.

"Don't look at us. He's the one with a thousand voices in his head," Cholley said pointing at the minotaur Leif.

"Then maybe we should help him rid himself of the voices," Lehti commented with a wicked smile. He stood and then stomped down on Cholley smooshing him into a puddle of gooey blood.

Leif's eyes shot open. His head hurt tremendously as if something in his brain had snapped. he loved Hellcat, no he hated her, no she was his friend, just a friend, no a lover. He wanted Kyria to return from the future with his child, no it wasn't his child, yes it was and Turk'en was a bastard who didn't even want it. He hated Erron and had to plot to kill him so he could finally be safe, no Erron was why he was still alive.

Leif was so confused. he glanced around the room. he was still a minotaur. There was no one else in the room. Not even drop of smooshed Cholley on the floor.

Was it all in his head. Who were these people claiming to be him? How did they know Kyria and Hellcat and Erron? Who were Kyria and Hellcat and Erron. Leif felt as if he should know them, but yet he didn't.

Was this it? Was the minotaur finally losing his mind?

"No one knew what was happening. A red mist had come and covered all of Nerin Toth. People who were once alive were now dead. People who were once dead were now alive. People who were once heroes were now evil. And people who were once evil were the only sensible ones in the world. And many couldn't remember anything. It was as if they had lost their minds.

The dwarves worked tirelessly day and night for a solution to the zombie plague. From what everyone had been able to surmise it was because of them the red mist came.

When the King of the Undead's blood was first spilled in his attempt to travel back in time to stop the zombie plague, the arcane energies mixed with his blood which held so much hatred inadvertently caused the plague.

It was all an endless time loop.

The Goddess of Vengeance was very angry over this and became determined to destroy the world because there was no saving it.

However heroes still had faith in the world. They still believed a solution could be found. And they stopped the Goddess and her future version of the King of the Undead whom she had been using before her plans could come to fruition.

Then the man known as Genesis was created. He could somehow how exert control over the undead. None knew how. Genesis believed the undead were the natural choice for the world. He believed it was the next sensible step in the evolution of the humanoid races of the world. the heroes also stood against him and defeated him in a very bitter victory, as the monsters he created were undead the likes of which had never been seen.

The mage known as Lehti believed the world was lost and began capturing other magic users in an attempt to steal their magical energy to immolate the world. he too was defeated but not without some dying in the process.

As the heroes continued to fight back an odd phenomenon occurred.

The red mist came. As I said, it was the dwarves who created it. It is believed in the city of Hillkhan, they built a factory. A large huge machine called The Bleeding Machine, where with the help of magic they have duplicated the original hate tainted blood that created the undead plague in the first place.

This mist...this red mist....this blood mist, is a result of what the dwarves have done. It is their attempt to recreate the world free of the undead.

However they didn't realize the side effects it would have.

This world can never be saved. Even we have come to accept this. Just like we can never truly die. We are the Goddess of Vengeance. And we are seeking our third aspect called Kyria. By her joining with us, we believe we can destroy this factory that creates the mist. And by doing so stop the shifting of reality that the mist is causing."

Trinity explained to Leif and Kyria, who still believed she was someone else due to her memory loss and physical transformation caused by the mist.

Mathias, Erron and Sabal stood in the room with Jade, Trinity, Kyria and Leif.

"So that's why we need you to help us find Turk'en Rah'ell," Sabal said. "He knows where Leif is and probably Kyria. Leif will be needed to keep Turk'en and Kyria alive. Kyria is needed to rejoin her other two aspects of the Goddess of Vengeance, Trinity and Jade. And Turk'en was the last one to hold the mantle of King of the Undead, after Erron lost it. Only Turk'en can keep the Undead from Kyria. And only Leif can keep Turk'en alive. Given that you, minotaur, are both a healer, and your name is Leif, we would assume you are a follower of Leif's teachings. We need you to find him."

Sabal then turned to Kyria (who still had no idea who she really was), "and given that you are already quite the puzzle, and an extraordinary fighter....not many can catch my brother, Mathias, off guard, you're a perfect fit to help protect the minotaur in this perilous mission."

"We need your help," Mathias said in a frank manner

"The unending time loop was bad enough as it was. But this shifting of reality is far worse," Erron explained. "You see with reality constantly shifting the mist could literally cause the world to just blink out of existence instantly with no warning. As if it had never even been."

"It's hard to imagine one man's blood filled with so much hate and need for revenge could cause this," Mathias said.

"Not if you're that man," Erron replied.

Kyria listened carefully to all that was told her. She looked at Sabal and gave a crooked grin. "It's not a smart thing to go sneaking up behind a woman. If that is a common practice of his, then I'm surprised he doesn't get caught more often, or perhaps just something he doesn't brag about."

Her eyes scanned over Mathias before turning back to Trinity and Jade. "I feel for your plight. Well actually...that's a lie, I give a rat's ass and as I may be an enigma..."

Kyria stopped thinking, she looked at the ground as her mind tried to grasp an eluding memory. Enigma...enigma...I know that name. She thought to herself before shaking her head having lost the memory.

"As I was saying...I maybe an enigma but that doesn't mean jack shit. Personally I don't see where helping you would be helping me, except for wasting my time."

Jade walked up to Kyria.

"Let me explain something. This world will NOT end if this mist continues. It will CEASE to EXIST. Meaning people will not die. They will just never been. Meaning this entire world will just never been. There won't be any pain. No mourning. No sorrow or sadness. It will be as if this world never even existed. Do you understand?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter if she understands," Erron cut in. "Either she helps or we throw her off the damn boat. Real simple."

"Well?" Mathias asked.

Kyria stepped upto Jade staring her in the eye. "Again...I don't...give...a...rat's...ass!" She hissed pushing her face closer to Jade's, til Erron spoke.

She stepped back and held her arms out looking at Erron, "By all means, but I won't plummet to the terra below alone."

Cestia slumped against the wall of the ship clenching her hair in her tiny Riverfolk fists. For the life of her, she couldn't understand what was happening, or what had happened.

"Why can't I remember?" She mumbled.

Tears began bubbling behind her eyelids so she bit her lip hard to make them stop. This was no time for weakness.

With the tears taken care of, she let her head fall back against the ship's wall and let out a sigh.

Leif stood there silent. He knew he had to be compliant. Sure, he would help them. Sure he *used* to follow Leif and would now betray him in a moment. Sure he'd go search for the same person that was standing in front of them. Leif was no fool.

Still... the information he was given was unbelievable. He wanted to believe that the women were lying. However, he had one sure reason to believe them... Lehti.

That spirit or ghost. It was... He'd just seen it. Was it a trick of some arcane power? Was he hallucinating because of the mist? He only half listened while the darkling woman and ladies chatted until the woman started getting bossy. Hopefully her decisions wouldn't affect Leif.

Whatever the women wanted, he'd comply... for now. He didn't exactly trust Erron, but he figured he was the most honest right now. He had no choice but follow him. He looked to Erron to see how he reacted.

Kyria wrote:

She stepped back and held her arms out looking at Erron, "By all means, but I won't plummet to the terra below alone."

Erron stared at Kyria for a second. He turned his head slightly and gave her a bit of a crooked smile exactly like the one she so often used.

Her eyes grew wide with realization. It then hit her.

She knew him. She wasn't sure why. She wasn't sure how. But she knew him.

Which made the situation ten times worse. She wasn't sure who this man was or where he came from or how she knew him, but she knew the things he was capable of.

She knew she was in far more danger right now than she ever was on the ground below when she was alone.

Erron darted across the room at a blurring speed grasping her by the hair on her head and slamming her into the wall. A dagger was at her throat.

"KILL YOU!" he growled.....but stopped. He slowly let go and took a step away from her.

"No..." he whispered, barely heard by anyone in the room.

Kyria was confused. She knew him but wasn't sure from where. It was at that point she felt a scar running across her throat....even though Erron had let her go before using the dagger.

"This is impossible," Erron said whispering.

He turned to go out of the room and saw Leif. The minotaur's eyes locked with Erron for only a brief second, but Erron stared at him in shock. This man....he seemed familiar to Leif. The minotaur wasn't sure how, but something odd was certainly happening.

Erron stumbled backwards into Jade and Trinity's desk.

"NO!" he screamed. "YOU'RE DEAD! YOU ALL DIED!" he yelled at Leif in fear. Erron, out of the blue, seemed deathly afraid of Kyria and Leif.

"I KNOW YOU! I KNOW YOU BOTH! YOU ALL DIED!!!!"

Erron barreled past everyone in the room and slammed into the door knocking it off it's hinges.

"NO!!!!" he screamed, running up to the deck of the ship.

Not watching where he was going he slammed into Cestia who stood near the side of the ship.

Both tumbled over...

As Erron and Cestia tumbled from the air ship, the thought came across her mind to just let it all end. Her life so far had been full of heartache and death-all at her own hands. The grief and the anguish she felt seemed to make her fall faster.

She thought she heard the jackass that knocked her over yelling at her.

"Fuck you," she yelled back.

The first thought Cestia had was to let whoever this was keep falling; after all he was the reason she was falling to her death. What would one more death be to her?

Though only a few feet high, her quick enough reflexes allowed her to catch her whip from around her neck. Freefalling back to the land, there were little options for her except to somehow to loop the whip end around something.

Kyria watched as Erron went nuts. She held a puzzled look on her face. Then he stumbled backwards falling over the railing and taking a riverfolk with him.

She ran and grabbed for Erron and swiped his clothing. He knew something about her and she wasn't going to let him get away til she found out what it was.

Kyria grabbed a nearby coil of rope (50') and tied one end to the railing the other she wrapped around her waist, all the while counting, knowing that every second they fell further from her.

She jumped up on the railing and swan dived off, quickly diving down to catch up to Erron. She wrapped her arms around him while snagging the tail of the Riverfolk's whip and giving it a snap sending the riverfolk back up to the ship.

She turned her full attention to Erron squeezing him tight bracing for the jerk as the rope reached its end...

Mathias shouted orders and the crew of the ship helped haul up Kyria, Erron, and Cestia back to the deck of the ship.

As soon as they were back to safety Erron stumbled from everyone and pulled out one of his kopesh swords.

"I'll kill all of you! I killed you all once and I'll kill you all again!" he shouted, clearly having lost his mind.

"Now look mate, none of us--" a deckhand began to say.

SHLUNK!

Erron brought his blade up, when the deckhand got to close, under the armpit of the man and sliced off the arm at the shoulder. The deckhand fell to his knees screaming with blood squirting out of the stump onto Leif's feet.

Erron caught the dismembered arm in the air and spun smacking another deckhand in the face with it.

Another deckhand rushed in and Erron drove his sword straight forward through the deckhand's face and out the back of his head. He kicked the limp body off of his sword, and still using the decapitated arm threw it at a fourth deckhand smacking him in the head, distracting the deckhand long enough for Erron to side step him.

"I don't care how many times I've killed you all before I'll do it again and again!' he screamed like a madman.

Mathias rushed toward him.

Erron jumped into the air putting his body horizontal with the ground, and spun. His blade sliced through the neck of Mathias, and his foot came around kicking the severed head off the body.

The head flew and hit Sabal in the face, snapping her neck to the side killing her instantly.

Erron landed on the ship kneeling.

"I can do this all day you bastards," he growled.

Kyria stepped back from Erron as he was mad...out of his mind. He killed Mathias and Sabal which proved to be a useful thing for her. She ran forward sliding up to Mathias' dead body and grabbed his sword then jumped to her feet, backing a few paces back from Erron. She held the sword to his chest staring him in the eye.

"Let's dance."...

Leif stood back as he watched the man that new Leif's mystery go mad. It seemed to happen so abruptly. Leif was extremely bothered by this. He thought the man would be sane enough to help him. Now, he didn't know what to think. Rather than going against a mad man in a fight, Leif looked for an alternative.

They were too high to jump... The women would probably do something to him anyway.

"The hell do I have to do to get home?" he asked frustrated. He saw as the deckhands were mutilated. Figuring it was a rampage, he headed to the wheel of the ship. He shoved the pilot off the wheel, and right off the ship, unintentionally.

"Oops."

Either way, if Leif was going to get home, he'd have to take fly there himself. He grabbed the wheel.

Suddenly, he was no longer on this ship, he arrives at a port in a tropical region. However, he is the mage in the cabin room.

Then another image, a small man, like one he's seen before, is flying around a beached ship, as undead attack survivors of a wreck.

Finally, one more image. But in another city. Horrid monsters were climbing on the ship, and attacking men. Leif tried to fight back, but he gets knocked off... and he falls.

"NO!"

Suddenly, the minotaur awoke, but he turned the wheel too hard in his alarm. The ship lunged and teetered to one side, heading downward.

Kyria wrote:

Kyria stepped back from Erron as he was mad...out of his mind. He killed Mathias and Sabal which proved to be a useful thing for her. She ran forward sliding up to Mathias' dead body and grabbed his sword then jumped to her feet, backing a few paces back from Erron. She held the sword to his chest staring him in the eye.

"Let's dance."...

Leif wrote:

Suddenly, the minotaur awoke, but he turned the wheel too hard in his alarm. The ship lunged and teetered to one side, heading downward.

Erron tumbled forward from the ship abbruptly tilting to the side and downward and impaled himself on the blade Kyria held.

It stabbed through his chest and out his back.

He continued forward from the ship tilting taking down Kyria with him.

Dead deckhand bodies and everyone else tumbled across the deck of the ship as it tilted toward the right with the front aimed almost straight down!

People fell over the side of the ship.

Kyria was one of them.

She couldn't see the ground. She had no idea how high up they were. All she knew was that the ground would come rushing up fast and she would die.

"GNNN!!!!" Erron growled in pain grabbing her wrist while he held onto the rail. "GOT YOU!" he yelled.

People continued falling to their deaths.

The ship was now falling. Without the right pressure in the hot air balloons they began deflating themselves.

"CLIMB!" Erron yelled pulling her back onto the ship, with the blade she had taken from Mathias still stuck in his chest.

CLIMB!

Cestia was more agile than everyone else and was able to catch her footing when the ship began to plummet.

The large craft increased with speed the more it fell. It was like a large missile shot out of a cannon headed straight toward the ground. She tumbled and rolled able to get to her feet every now and again only to be sent tumbling and rolling again. She then felt herself smack into Leif's strong legs as he gripped the wheel firmly.

The ship sped up.

The wheel of the ship was all that stopped Leif and Cestia from tumbling off all together as the ship was now starting to turn upside down.

CLIMB! Erron screamed at Kyria.

"DAMMIT KYRIA, CLIMB!!!" he yelled at her pulling with all of his strength.

The ship smashed into the ground in a huge magical explosion.

Kyria pulled up and got over the railing, her body pushed up against Errons weakly, breathing heavily. "I...am...not....this...Kyria...bitch!" She hissed out as the blimp went crashing down, Kyria and Erron...yet again...in each other's embrace.

Cestia was instantly catapulted to another place and time, maybe another dimension? Maybe it was her short, miserable life flashing before her eyes? Whatever it was, it was peaceful and made her instantly relax.

There was a soft, furry thing next to her that she ran her hands through. It even smelled like flowers. There was even a noise in the wind that sounded like a voice; then the soft, furry thing moved.

"What the?"

In a flash she was taken back to the crash scene where Cestia realized she was clutching to a large...animal?

"Who the hell are you," she asked the huge ball of fur.

Dust settled.

Erron pushed himself up from the rubble and stumbled back down to his knees.

Corpses lay everywhere.

He saw the katana protruding from his chest. His own weapons were no where to be seen.

He gripped the katana.

"son of a... GYAAAHHH!!!!" he yelled in pain yanking the blade out.

He coughed up blood and knew the blade impaled a lung. He knew he would drown to death on his own blood if he didn't find help fast. Quickle, he glanced around.

Kyria lay out cold on the ground. He checked for a pulse. Nothing.

"Idiot," he said to Kyria. Then he saw her breathing. He checked for a pulse again and found it, just barely.

His memories had returned. At first they were only half there, driving him mad, as if half his memories were gone and replaced with someone else's and stack up. It had all been so confusing. Now he felt normal again.

He coughed up more blood and looked down. his leg was clearly broken just below the knee.

He found two pieces of board from the wreckage and grabbed Kyria's arm and ripped off her shirt sleeve.

He worked quickly, and soon his leg was braced. he stood on it and applied pressure. He grimaced in pain, but knew it would hold.

He then stumbled around the wreckage, katana in hand.

He quickly began finding corpses and started dragging them to where Kyria lay unconscious. Lots of corpses.

He couldn't stand the woman, but he certainly wouldn't leave her to be eaten alive like he did Jade so many years ago, before she ever returned.

Erron found it curious that Trinity and Jade were no where to be seen.

He went back to work and began piling the dead bodies on top of Kyria, hoping the stench would help make sure the undead didn't discover her. Eventually burying her beneath some thirty dead bodies, all piled on top of her, Erronw as satisfied with her work. He hated her....but he wouldn't leave her to die. Not because he had grown a conscious or anything. But simply because she might be of use later on. So Kyria was buried by thirty dead corpses all piled on top of her, some with missing limbs or heads, some with crushed skulls, some with their lower jaws ripped off, some that had already defecated all over themselves. She was buried under all of them.

Errons smiled. She'd have some work ahead of her when she would eventually wake up.

Finding a leather strap he quickly strapped the katana to his back for easy access, and discovered the corpses of Mathias and Sabal. walking past them he found Leif out cold but alive, still clutching the wheel and with him, clutching Leif, was Cestia.

"I need him," he said, shoving Cestia to the side as if she were just an annoyance.

"Wake up, Leif," he said, kicking the minotaur in what looked to be a dislocated shoulder.

A rough, hard movement jarred Cestia. For a moment, the pounding in her head was more than she wanted to deal with. And she could tell her body would be badly bruised, everything hurt.

She heard someone yelling and there was a "thud" next to her. Cautiously she opened her eyes to see the same jackass that had knocked her over the edge of the ship.

"Youuuu," she hissed forcing herself to her feet.

Her right ankle was sending unbearable shock waves of pain through her body. She knew that it must be broken or at the best severely sprained. But this was no time to think about pain or show weakness.

"Who the hell are you," she growled.

Leif roared inn pain when Erron kicked him. He grabbed his shoulder and held it as he stood up, clumsily. He wasn't sure why the human was kicking him; possibly for crashing the ship? Either way, Leif was still lost as to what happened. He just blamed it on the visions he had. Either way, he was on the ground now, so he got to where he wanted to be.


Leif clenched his teeth as he pushed the arm back to where it was meant to be. He couldn't pop it back in himself, but with a moment of calm, and a healing spell, the bones, muscles and whole arm was set back to where he needed it.

He shrugged his shoulder to test out the healing, and found it suffice. Ignoring the human, that kicked him, Leif turned to see what the area was like.

"Any idea where we are? I plan to visit those dwarves that created this mist. It's hallucinations are annoying, and dangerous," he said plainly.

"They aren't hallucinations. They're something else. You may look like a minotaur but you still have the same eyes, Leif. I need healed and fast if we're going to live. This place is going to be swarming with a horde soon. We need to find the others and fast. We can't beat these dwarves without Turk'en controlling the undead to stay off our backs, and Aldion knows dwarven technology better than any of us because of his prosthetics. Finding Hellcat so we can get a different ship would be a good idea too." Erron said.

"You," he pointed at Cestia, "quit screwing around and look for something to set the pile of bodies on fire. The smoke will help cover our scent from the undead," he finished pointing at the same pile of 30 corpses he had put on top of Kyria.

Kyria slowly came too gasping for breath. The weight of the 30 bodies pressing down on her chest was suffocating her. She kicked and pushed at the weight bearing down on her but it was all in vane.

[quote"Carmen"]"You," he pointed at Cestia, "quit screwing around and look for something to set the pile of bodies on fire. The smoke will help cover our scent from the undead," he finished pointing at the same pile of 30 corpses he had put on top of Kyria.
[/quote]

She wasn't sure if there was another pile of bodies around anywhere but it was that uncertainty that made her panic and her breathing became faster and shorter. She eyed around and saw a small opening. She began squirming, slowly wiggling and working herself out from under the bodies.

Once she was free she rolled over and got on her hands and knees breathing heavily. She looked around and saw no other piles of bodies lying about. She slowly got to her feet glaring at Erron.

Having no weapons she reached down a grabbed a dismembered arm and calf and ran up on Erron. Her first blow was to his groin to bring him down to her level then she beat him with the dismembered parts.

"Whoah, whoah!" Leif ran up to the woman beating on Erron. He didn't necessarily like Erron, but the human was Leif's best shot at understanding what was happening.

"Ma'am, I don't know if you understand me or not, but can you please stop? I think we need him to sort things out. I need to heal him."

Kyria felt herself pulled away from Erron by some huge furball. She didn't understand a blasted thing he was saying but it didn't matter he was interfering in matters that were none of his concern. So just as she was doing to Erron she turned on the furball, beating him with the bloody stumps.

At moments like this, Leif was glad he was turned into an minotaur. The woman's blows were strong, but his hide absorbed most of it. He backed away and tried to block her swings with his arms. He then pointed back at the human.

"Okay, okay! Hit him, hit him! I'm sorry. I surrender!"

Erron stood up and turned as Kyria shifted her anger onto Leif.

WAM!

He punched her right in the face knocking her to the ground.

"Knock it off you moron!" he yelled at her.