My eyes lit up at the sight of poor little Naomi cradled in her mother’s hands at Monticello. I could sense the rise of Va’lis’ rage as he turned on his heel. I demanded of Cherry to lock down the line in Monticello to get all the Razele’s in the house immediately! I followed Va’lis out as he ported over to Zento. We looked around and found traces of a fight just outside the city by the docks… we followed it.
Finally, a large pool of blood that I could smell was Isonu’s greeted us at the edge of the south western shore. Va’lis stopped. “They’re gone… and took him.” he said. “But he’s alive, right?” I paused for a moment, “Right? Va’lis.” He stopped looking over the water, “Yes, I feel him still.” With that, I started to strip to my bare necessities, Va’lis stood looking into the water, where you could see the traces of blood into the mist. He looked to me, “What are you doing?” As I unbuckled my Gucci skirt letting it drop on the grass revealing my armor, “What does it look like I am doing? I am going after them!” Va’lis shook his head, “I am afraid I cannot let you do that.” “Let me, Va’lis,” I smirked; he sighed. He knew he couldn’t physically stop me, “Go fetch Flavius, Cassius too. I’ll need our elder vampires.” He just looked at me, as I walked backwards towards the edge of the water…. I disappeared into the water.
The rough chop of the deeper waters was getting hard to deal with, long gone was the stillness of the shore. The mist was thick, so thick that even my vampiric eyes were losing their special talent. Battered by the waves, still I made it to the shore, when I looked up, my eyes gazed upon a hideous creature — a deathbeetle. I took to my trusty Flight Gift and then fired off a Mind Gift pushback that slid the creature into what I now realized to be hundreds more. “Dammit, can’t I ever catch a break!?!” I went in at them; it was harder than I thought. Deathbeetles stood about 9 ft tall, weighed a good 500 lbs, and had razor sharp claws and wings. I managed to get through to the other side and that’s where I found it. The small hut.
The hut was now overrun with Lizardmen, they had flocked to the smell… the smell of fresh blood. It was everywhere. There had been a scuffle, one of the buildings was torn apart. Isonu had caught another wind, tried to escape. I couldn’t help but smirk in pride. That’s my boy. But I knew he was far too hurt and weak to have made anything of it against this lot. I pressed onward. Just then I found the Yomotsu Mines. They were heavily guarded however by their warriors, this was going to hurt. I approached one, who at first seemed baffled. “あなたは誰?” Yeah I had not brushed up on my Tokunese, “Quod ego mea.” Maybe they spoke Latin. Another one came at me… and more. I may be over two thousand years old, but I have my limits. I was going to be run down, I felt it. Just then I felt a hand grab my left shoulder.
Va’lis, my son, beat back the horde of warriors overtaking me, “Not willing to share the fun?” he said. “I was just… grouping… them up… for you, son!” I said with bated breath. Behind him was Flavius and Cassius. I noticed that before…. black. Darkness. I passed out. When I awoke, we were at a camp away from the mine, but not too far. Va’lis held me in his lap, Flavius bit into his wrist letting me feed to regain some of my lost strength. Cassius assessed the situation, “We must regroup, the camp we found… I smelled three and two of them had been stabbed, Isonu must’ve gotten into them with something.” Flavius nodded. “We need to get into that cave, all traces lead there. Va’lis you keep Pandora next to you at all times, let us lead in have the warriors focus on us,” he stated to the group. Cassius agreed and looked at me, “You cannot leave his side. Not for one second,” Cassius said. I had no choice but to agree if we were going to go in there to get Isonu.
Cassius looked at Flavius, “Why would priests and elders be in a dusty old mine where workers should be?” Flavius nodded as Va’lis stated, “Because they are protecting someone or something.” Cassius responded, “Exactly. I think they are protecting the Draconians.” Flavius mulled that over and after some time said, “You might be right, Cass. Why would they bring Isonu here?” I couldn’t help but think… if they are here, that means it would be natural for us to think that David and Zeeke are here too. Could they be? Flavius read my thoughts, “No. they wouldn’t bring Isonu here if their leaders were here. I would think they’d make this a fortress if that were the case.” Cassius agreed, “I agree. We need to retrieve Isonu quick and make our way back to our territory.” I couldn’t agree more.
We went into the mine, with Flavius and Cassius at the front, I kept behind Va’lis who was at the ready. We plowed through a maze of cave tunnels, dispatching the Yomotsu warriors and priests along the way, included some elders. We came upon a guarded corridor that lead down in the bowels of the mines. This particular room was filled with summoned elementals; the priests seemed to be bound to the Earth element. We were already exhausted but we needed to press on. Cassius went in first, followed by Flavius, Va’lis and I stayed behind to try to sneak past the distraction that our Legionnaires were stirring up. I grabbed Va’lis by the waist and flew with him to the entrance of the corridor. We dispatched the fire beetles and their controllers, some of the elders, and managed to get down, only to be met with a huge locked double door of solid steel. Va’lis and I went at it, with all our combined force. When Flavius and Cassius finished clearing the room, they joined us to finish the job. But when we got through…. we were greeted by the three Draconians that took Isonu. “Well well, if it isn’t the Queen of the Damned herself.” My fangs bared, my eyes turned, “Not quite yet.”