TOPTOPTOP

~Raven~

Kuruka motioned Raven to step in to a room, “this
is where you’ll be staying for the time been.”

Raven nodded and walked over to the simple
bed.

“It’s not fancy, but I'm sure you don’t mind,”
Kuruka said with a knowing smile.

“No, it’s fine.”

“We’ll send you on your mission tomorrow,”
Kuruka said leaving Raven alone.

She
sat on the bed and pulled out her sword. Holding it up so that it glinted in
the sparse light, raven stared at it, taking the shimmering blue colour it was.
Then she put it down and felt her back, was something meant to be there?

A
knock sounded at the door.

“Yes?”

A
young msn open the door, holding out a bag, bow and arrows, “I believe these
are yours?”

Raven
was unsure, but nodded anyway.

The
man put them down and left.

Slowly
Raven want towards them and picked up the bow, it seemed so natural to be
holding...Raven bent to get an arrow, it slipped in easily and she position herself,
her stance perfect, the kind of perfect that only comes with practise.

Surprised,
Raven lowered the bow and dropped it. Then she turned to the bag. Crouched
beside it, Raven around; pulling out tank tops and scrappy jeans and shorts,
then her hand felt something hard...She pulled it out and stared at it... It
was picture of tall, beautiful woman with long black hair... A cheetah spot
seemed to appear as Raven stared at it. She gasped and jumped back, a shade of
green flashed in her eyes.

She
was on the bed, crouching like a cheetah, snarling like a dog. She realised
that she looked stupid and dropped her stance, the green fading. She finger the
green jewels that hung around her neck, think rapidly.

She
pulled open a draw and looked in. it was the only draw and contain a blank book
for writing in, two pens, a hair brush and a mirror. This was what she
wanted... She peered and had to muffle a shriek, she was the younger version of
the woman in the picture...

Raven
didn’t know what to do and crawled under the blanket, quivering, her eyes
changing from violet to purpley-green and back again.

~Joy~

I
woke up, sort of. I was seeing watch Raven was seeing and what she was doing,
think like normal and hearing Raven’s thoughts, it was weird. I couldn’t doing
anything, just watch this girl move my body.

But
when she picked up the photo of my mum, I felt something shift, and then it was
as it had been before. Only Raven was still freaking out, and when she looked
at herself or at me, the whole is so confusing, I was able to control her a
little, thinking thoughts that go her really thinking.

Ash~

I sat on the stump, in my human avatar. Lanni was in treeform. Rastus was being useful for once and has helping Kimya tend to Malva. Lupa was staring angrily at a bush. As if she could burn it with her stare. Mathew was pacing. We didn't have our weapons, Lupa had all but two of her knives taken (the ones she hid up her sleeve). Lanni, Rastus, Kimya, Mathew and me, had nothing except ourselves. 

Lupa suddenly stood up and slashed the bush to tatters. "Ah, that felt better," she said, then she looked at us all and sighed. "Look, we can't all mope forever; something needs to be done, we need to get Joy back, and Aranel." "Aren't we halfway to the council already?" Lanni said, "Let's go get them to help, give us food, and replenish our stock of weapons." "Why do we want them?" said Lupa. "They haven't helped us once, or done anything about anything yet!" Kimya looked up. "I've done all I can; the council will have the medical herbs we need to help Malva, even if they are less then... even if they haven't helped us once. They can still be of some use." With that said, Rastus and I also got up and he started to turn into a fox, what is he doing, then he grew giant wings. Lupa morphed into a giant black-winged wolf. Kimya became a winged serpent thing. Lanni turned into a condor. I became my dragon self and Kimya looked at me and said, "I know this would be a bit demeaning, but will you carry Malva?" In my mind, she said Lupa is too proud, and everyone else is in forms that aren't large enough. I need to scout to make sure we aren't followed, and I trust that you won't drop her. You can count on me, I replied. Then she placed Malva on me and we were off. Kimya was under the cloud cover, making sure nobody detected us.

Suddenly, Kimya flew up and made us all descend into the clouds. It was cold and wet and the fox that was Rastus started to sneeze. "Why are you doing this to us? You are going to give everyone a cold." I growled. "The military was sending planes our way and I figured they couldn't spot us in clouds this thick" was the answer. We went through the cold and wet for a while, until Kimya went up to check if they were still there. They were gone.

Soon we soared down to the place were the council meets. Kimya went up to the cliff and crooned something in a soft tongue to it. It opened up and we walked into... darkness. Kimya lit something and we used it as our torch. The whole place had been ransacked. We walked through the rooms, looking at broken glass, destroyed books and such until we came to a room with a mosaic. It showed a dragon, me, slicing my claw through a chimera. This was hundreds of years ago, when the chimera, a member of the council, had gone berserk and I had cut him in half with seemingly no help (actually Kimya helped me, but no one knew that). This was the reason the council hated me, because even though chimera had gone mad, he was still one of their members and I had cut him in half. We had disposed of the body by chucking it into the sea and then, Silent Eagle had come to be.

Mathew stared at the tile for a minute, then his eyes went red. 

~Raven~

“They
all think you are someone else, so you could easily trick them,” Kuruka told
Raven as they walked down a hall that led to the world outside. “You job is to
find out what they’re doing and draw them into our nets.”

“Who
do they think I am?” Raven asked touching the necklace.

“Some
depressed girl, who once travelled and worked with them, she never was much use
to them and I found out from reliable sources that she had had to be help more
than once by them.”

Raven
was disgusted, “So you want me to be this loser to show them what’s right?”

“Yes.”

They
reached the entrance to the cave. “They’re probably gone to the council pleading
for help. Just follow this map.”

Raven
took it and nodded.

Kuruka
returned the nod and went back inside.

Raven
briefly studied the map then slipped it into a pocket. Then she shifted
confidently into a raven, and took off, soaring up into the sky. She looked
down and looked for land marks and saw that she only had to fly straight for a
while. She left her thoughts drift to the person she was meant to be acting as,
the complete loser. I would be a hard roll and she’d be able to hind her violet
eyes with her hair which was the right colour for girl a depressed girl.

“It
will be easy,” Raven said and flapped her wings.

After
an hour, Raven arrived at the placed marked on the map. She could sense the
shape shifters but knew of no way to get in. She sat on a rock and growled.
Thinking it over, she saw that she’d seem more incessant if she was stuck out
side in the cold, waiting for them. She curled up under a tree and fell asleep.

~Joy~

The
whole thing was spooky. I was now sure that Kuruka knew I could hear everything
that was going on, after what he’d said about me. But I didn’t care, the only
thing I cared about was the other shape shifters and how Raven was going to
trap them. Another thing really weird about the whole necklace thing was when
Raven fell asleep; I formed, became real, leaving Raven alone.

I
wasn’t sure what would happen when she woke up, but I knew that I could do
something to help the others.

So
I pulled the bow and arrows away from Raven, but had to leave the sword because
she was sleeping with her hand on it and ran over to the wall of rock. I could
feel that they were behind it; I just had to get in.

There
were no holes, no cracks, no doors, and no nothing. I lean aganist it
muttering, “Let me in, please...I have to help my friends.”

It
seemed that I was able to speak rock, because it moved and opened just enough
for me to get in. I slipped in to cheetah form and ran down the passage, sure
that a cat would have better night vision and be more a wear of space.

I
entered a large room, with a beautiful, but horrible mosaic. It’s of a dragon slicing a chimera. I shudder and
walk around it. There are doors leading off to darkness all round the room. I raise
a paw and look around. Which one? I sense them as I walk past a door and double
back. It seems to me that this is the darkness of them all. I lift a paw to
step that way when I feet Raven stirring and waking. I fade in to a breeze and
am pulled back to Raven, my prison.

Ash~

I walked towards my grandfather, the only one on the council who didn't want to trample me. He looked into my eyes and we spoke. "You must know by now, that one of your number is not truly one of you. The Asian boy, we sensed his presence in our stones. We felt the same aurora when Silent Eagle came through and tried to destroy this place, we sensed this aurora from the Chimera when he was part of our council, if we wait any longer, he will go mad again, mad with rage at, it is in his fate lines, they are tangled around him, in a deadly web. We must put him back together again." "But, won't that make him go mad again?" "No, it would break the newly gathering bonds of that old curse that was laid on him by, we don't know who. It would give him a little more time, and give him back his memories, in a sane state of mind of course." "How will we put him back together? I slashed him with my dream claw, imbued with the power of a the Key Maiden (one of Kimya's many names), breaking the locks of his being." "We will go to the circle, and there we will rebind the chains and put back the locks of his conscience; let us do it now, before the traitor suspects." Then he left my mind and we walked over to the others, "Let us all go to the main room, we have many things to discuss."

We all walked down the ruined halls, until we reached a round room with tall stones laid out in a circle. My Grandfather then spoke aloud. "Now!" he said, and everyone pushed Mathew in the center, then they, along with the order/council members in the room each went to a stone. He must have told everyone the his plan, while we walked, I thought. Then everyone shifted, to their true forms. As each "person" touched the stone, a transformation took place. Lanni became an apple tree, green apples glowing wih power. A dark wolf sat on another stone, eyes emanating a steely glow. A red fox, Rastus, was curled around a stone, nine tails gleaming. A icy shape, Malva, gave out an icy power. I wafted around a stone, grey mist coming off me, scaly talons scratching the surface. A tall blond elf stood by a stone, a stocky dwarf by another, one by one, the others revealed their true forms. Then Kimya became her true self; she flew up and inhaled, all that raw power that everyone was emitting, it must have hurt, but she sucked it in, and then breathed it out. It swirled around Mathew, illuminationg chains, all closing in, then it showed a red string. The string of fate. It went out the door and raced to the entrance of the cave.

Silent Eagle~

I sat on Kuruka's shoulder, Raven by his side, Aranel chained to her arm. They wanted to punish Aranel, she had tried to escape when she figured out that her father had just been an illusion. Kuruka claimed to have killed him. He wanted Aranel to see her friends die, he wanted her to suffer.

Suddenly, I fell off Kuruka's shoulder. He tried to grab me, but I was dragged away. I looked down at my feathered chest. My feathers were falling away, scales were replacing them. I was growing, taller and bigger. Then I saw the red string, it was tugging me to a room. When we got to the destination, I passed through a gray mist and then, I entered the web.

Ash~

Silent Eagle had just entered the room. He and Mathew  were both in the guise of the Chimera, and then the chains took Silent Eagle in, and his own chains became visible. They wrapped around him in much the same way Mathew's did. Then Kimya began to weave through the chains, passing through them like they were mist. She began a sort of spiraling dance and when she reached the top of the room, she breathed down, all the power engulfed the two below and they shimmered for a minute, then their forms joined. As this happened, the rainbow of power that had embraced Kimya left her and returned to it's owners. With the glow gone, the room became dark, only Mathew's, I mean the Chimera's eyes glowed red. Then they closed and we were left in total darkness. 

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Sorry I haven't been posting lately guys.

//Kimya

My breath came in ragged gasps as I sank back into the darkness. My heart hammered. I used up more energy than I should have. I wouldn't be much help if the Chimera went mad now. My body wanted to give in to the darkness, to fall back and rest. Yet I force myself into a sitting position and watch, trying to sense what is happening around me. I heard a dull thud as Matt--I mean the Chimera fell to the ground. I yelled for someone to give me light, and Rastus changed form and created a small glow. Now that I could see, it was clear that the initial shock of suddenly being one again was too much for him. The Chimera was slumped on the floor in a dead faint, but he was alive. I sighed in relief, and before I knew it, darkness engulfed me, and I joined him on the floor, unconcious.

//Aranel//

I was chained to a chair now, which was a nice change, and across the table from me was my lovely little brother Kuruka with his little buddy Silent Eagle on his arm. No one else was in the room, for one, Kuruka wanted to talk to me alone. "I know you know things. Things about those...friends of yours. Do tell, dear sister." "Oh right, like how you told me that I'd get dad back. Like how you told Dad and I that you were scoping out with Mom, when really you were planning to slit her throat and leave her by the river to look like an accident!" "Oh shut up, Aranel! You know better than anyone that she deserved it." "She didn't deserve anything! You deserve it, you snotty little-" He reached into his pocket and grabbed a knife, jumping across the table and putting it to my throat. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." "You coward! Just kill me now, you haven't changed at all! You've always been afraid, afraid of everything, until that stupid eagle flew up to you and suddenly you owned everyone! Kill me now, I dare you." It looked like he was going to when an explosion occured outside. He sheathed his knife and darted outside, shutting the door behind him. I stood up, my rope bonds falling to my feet. I'd gotten out of them hours ago. I ran to the door and slid outside. It was time to find my friends.

Ash~

It had been two days since Kuruka had fled with Aranel. Kimya had been unconscious for two days. After she had fainted I had dragged her off into a tunnel followed by Lupa, Malva, Rastus, and Lanni. How small our group had become. Joy and Aranel were with Kuruka and Mathew was the Chimera.  We watched over and took care of her until she woke up, and then, we went to meet the council. 

My grandfather sat at the head and along the table sat Mathew and the others I had seen the other night. When Mathew- umm, I mean the chimera saw me, he blew up. "You made me lose my memory for centuries, I had to live without knowing who I truly was for hundreds of years and now you just think you can waltz in and I'll forgive you-" at this point, I ran out of the room and hid down a tunnel. I knew that the only thing that would come of his speech is that he would challenge me. I don't know what I could do against a council member, but I don't think I could win. Sure, I had won years ago, but that was with the help of Kimya and a lot of meditating. He had gone mad back then, but now, that he was sane, I don't know what would happen to me if I fought him. I sat in the darkness for hours, pondering my fate.

After a long while, I heard footsteps approaching and Kimya walk up. "It's alright," she said soothingly, "Lanni turned out to be a pretty good diplomat and has calmed the council down; the Chimera wanted to challange you, but she shut him up, for a time, the council will not agree to help us with Kuruka directly, in light of your--our--crimes, but they will give us the supplies we need to try to punish him and free Aranel and Joy. But during our mission, we have to bring the chimera to supervise you. They say it is because they don't want your powers in the hands of Kuruka, but I think it is really to make sure that when all this is done, you will be alive to face your sentence. We need to go back to meet the others now." She then took my hand and led me out of the dark hall.

When we got to the council room, I was glared at but not spoken to. Lanni came up to me. "They want to give you your sentence now. I am sorry that we could not get rid of your sentence." She gave me a sad look. I faced Osh and he looked at me sadly and said, "In light of your crimes we have decided not to kill you, since you did it to protect the people of Earth from his wrath, but after this mission we have decided that you will spend three hundred years in solitary confinement; the council has decided this, and you cannot make us change our minds. A gavel sounded and we walked out. After this is all over, I don't want to spend time in confinement. I want to be free to live my life. I feel my actions were justified, so when this is all over, I plan to flee and go somewhere where I can never be found.

Ash~

We gathered what we needed and left that morning, then we left. "How are we going to find Kuruka now!" said Lupa angrily, "Relax," said Rastus. "He will most likely find us first; if you haven't yet noticed, he is very careless, and not that patient, he no longer has the Chimera under his control, so it should be easier." Everyone spread wings (some shapeshifted to do this) and shot up into the sky. We flew awhile, maybe we would spot him from the sky.

After a while, it felt like someone was tailing us, then a Raven flew up, and opened its beak as if to talk, around it's neck was a necklace. "Ahh, a spy," said the Chimera, he opened a clawed hand, and reached for the necklace. The bird snapped at him, he ruffled his scales a bit, then took hold of the necklace, and broke it. It melted in his hand and the bird began to drop; the bird that was Lanni morphed into an eagle and caught the crow. The crow shook for a minute, and then was still. We all descended and when we reached the ground, Joy morphed into herself, clothes and all (I personally think she just morphed the clothes on as part of her). She then told us her tale of woe. Kurakura, was planning a mass assassination; he wanted to kill everyone who had opposed him. First he was going to start with his own family, his father. He was saving Aranel until last, so she could see all her friends die before her eyes. "But, how will we find her father?" Lanni asked. "Didn't he disappear?" said Malva. "Dreams," I suddenly said. "I can search for him through dreams."

When night fell, I became a dragon. I turned to smoke. I first brought Aranel's face to mind. That would be my key, I would search for those who dreamed about her, then those who were related (those who loved/thought of her often) eventually, I tracked the most likely thread, to a cave not far from here. I stayed away from the one that I think was Kuruka, since I have a feeling that if I broke into his mind, I would be killed mentally, and become a souless being.

I became solid again, then woke up the others. We left for the spot. It was on a windy mountain. We walked into the cave; a giant bear slumbered. "Who wants to poke the sleeping bear?' I said silently.

Please post, anybody. Jasper says xbgx, yes, anyone who posts will get a extra extra big karma boost! 

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Ash~

Lupa went over and poked the bear, he growled in anger and tried to swipe her with his claw. She jumped back. Then he got up and turned around, to him, we must have looked odd, a mix of humonoid figures, and birds changing into humonoid figures. He morphed into a large man, in overalls, and introduced himself in a gruff voice. "I am Dylan, who are you?" He glared at us then, as if daring us to speak. "Kuruka is after you," Kimya said simply. "We need to get you to safety." "You are too late," he replied. "Kuruka is already here."  

And there in the doorway was Kuruka. Attacted to his wrist, was Aranel. "My son, what have you been up to/" Dylan said; it sounded as though he knew though. "Hello Father" said Kuruka. "Have you washed your neck, do you have any last requests?" "Nothing besides that you turn yourself in."

As they were talking, Rastus was inching towards Aranel; when he got close, he morphed his hand into a lockpick and began to try to pick the chain around Aranel's arm. Suddenly, Kuruka noticed him, and hit him with the chain. "I will get you later," he snapped. He began to walk towards his father; his father stepped back a few steps. The room was silent. Then, his father morphed into a giant snake and swallowed him. Kuruka burst through the skin, and his father, broke into a bloody mess. Then within a second of this, the Chimera, ran up, and breathed fire on him. Kuruka turned into a salamander, smiling evilly. Lupa, the wolf, attacked him, biting through his skin as the Chimera drew back. Lupa's jaws widened and widened as they burned. She spat him out, and Malva stepped forward. "No, this is my fight, get away or I bite you," Lupa said; she looked back over at Kuruka who was now a venomous snake. He danced around her legs as she yipped, becoming a badger and attempting to bite him. Lanni seemed to see a chance, and ignoring Lupa's warning, she took her new lightsaber and swung, attempting to cut Kuruka in half."This is fruitless, let's just all go at him at once," said Kimya as Lanni missed. We did. Lanni became a tree, blocking him from escaping with her roots, Rastus was a fox, darting around, a red blur, trying to bit Kuruka, Kimya turned her arm into a spear, stabbing at him. Aranel, who had been released when Kuruka became a snake, swung the manacle, Lupa morphed into a wolf, biting him. The chimera and I both became our true forms as an invisble Malva went around to attack him from behind, trying to avoid hitting the raven that was Joy. This all happened in a instant. Kuruka was dead it seemed. So before anyone could react, I turned into smoke, blending with the dark of the cave, spreading out thin; it was time for me to make my escape.

My task was done. Kuruka was dead. I needed to get away; nobody could survive such a beating. I kept my aura close, to try to hide from the chimera. Then I turned into a dragon and pumped my heavy wings. I soared over the mountain. As I turned around to look back though, I saw the Chimera, in hot pursuit. I dropped from the sky, in a pencil dive, in human form, but he was too fast. He caught me in a claw, and took me back to the cave. 

In the cave, the beaten bloody snake that was Kuruka stirred. Lupa moved to stamp on him, but the chimera used his other claw to stop her. He picked Kuruka up. "Come on,we have to get back to the council to turn this criminal in, and on the way, we may be able to save Dylan."

Back at the council, Aranel took her father to get his wounds tended, and we met with council. Kuruka was sentenced to death, with crimes for murder, abduction, etc. hanging over his head. After that, Kimya spoke to me; this was in our heads of course. "As we go to see your last sight of sky, I want you to become smoke and escape." "How will I escape,  that is when they will be watching me the most." "Just do it," Kimya ended. We went with the dwarf, Helden, to see my last breath of fresh air, Kimya followed close behind. Then, as we stepped out from the cliff, Kimya attacked, she swung at him, and I became smoke, going into her head. Then, she turned into a falcon. Dwarves are not shapeshifters, so he could not follow. We escaped into the desert, and then into the mountains of somewhere far far away. They would never find us, in this lifetime. 

In five years, Kimya went out, to find those other shapeshifters, she was careful, so she was able to bring them to our den, to reminisce and to catch up on life.

End

I finished this RP, since it seemed dead. I am sorry if someone was planning to post. But no one has in a while, so I thought it was okay to finnish it.