Mariela, Scar and her brothers had returned from their visit to the Witches Circle, where things hadn’t exactly gone as well as one would hope. Leaving the Kingdom virtually unattended, it allowed for the start of new dramas…just as Esme had warned.
Dessy:
“Well. Looks like I have made a few enemies…” She spoke, clenching her teeth together and making a bit of a face.“Threatening them probably wasn’t such a great idea. Might have been a mistake, actually.” she said, coming to this realization. “But I guess all royals have to have a few enemies, right?” she then said with a shrug. She gave another smile, before looking forward as they climbed up the steps to the Greed castle, giving a nod to the guards.
She walked into the castle, the door shutting behind them as she turned to look at everyone else. “Now, I suppose the first thing we should do is check on Alice.” she said, moving her hands up to untie the cloak from her neck. “I don’t know the girl, and being how she came from the mysterious place behind the mirror, I don’t much how much she can be trusted.” she said, now taking the cloak and draping it over her arm. “I know she’s a friend of yours, Scar, and you know more about her then I do. I just… don’t quite know what to think of her yet.” she said, looking at Scar.
She then turned her head to look at Tessa and her brothers. “Second thing is to get you three home.” she said, moving her eyes between the three. “You three have been here long enough, and I don’t want you guys to still be here should anything major happen. So we need to figure out a way to get you three home.” she then said, looking back at Scar. He should have a way, right? She certainly hoped so… “Now. Let’s go find Alice. And hope she didn’t get into any trouble…”she said, turning back around to start walking forward again.
It wasn’t such a good idea, to have left Alice behind in the castle, while the group had gone off to see the Witches Circle. Alice was from Wonderland, a place of magic and wonder but also some very dark creatures. Having snuck out of her room in the tower, Alice was feeling a little lonely. The young girl had some friends on the other side of the looking glass, and since Hatter and the Princess of Greed had left her to her own devices, Alice decided she was going to use the mirror in order to bring in some much needed companions.
Carefully sneaking down the winding stair case, she kept an eye out, as guards walked past on their rounds, checking that everything was as it should have been. Giggling to herself, the girl in the blue smock dress skipped out when the opportunity was right and made a dash for the ballroom. Recently reconstructed due to the damage that had occurred during the Masked ball. The magical mirror that had been loaned to Lydia by Raul was still hanging in the same place that the gardening staff had left it, and oddly enough a mystical fog was pouring out of it, like a rolling mist. Thinking that this meant the mirror was still somehow connected to Wonderland, Alice clapped her hands gaily, and danced up to the mirror, singing out.
“You can come out now and play!” She bent forward and peered into the mirror, thinking that her side kick – the white rabbit would come bounding out of the glass. Instead however there was the sound of men yelling…their feet pounding on the other side of the mirror, till all of a sudden, a whole deck of soldier playing cards both red and black came flying out. Spears aloft, but they were actually running from something…..something large.
Alice squeaked and fell back as the playing card soldiers leapt over her and ran around the ballroom, trying to assemble into defensive formations. You could see that they were terrified…of something.
“But the Queen of Hearts is dead…..What is wrong with you deck of fools?” Alice cried.
One of the soldiers then pointed as he stuttered.
“You…forgot about….about….the…” He could barely finish the sentence, when there was a god awful roar. The mirror was actually growing in size to accommodate the bulk of the creature….the monster that was making its way through to the Greed ballroom.
“It’s the Jabberwocky!”
~ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!~
Alice turned around with a horrified expression, her hands coming up to slap against her own cheeks in terror.
“HATTER!!!!!” She screamed as the playing card army all looked up at this most terrible sight.
The creature unfurled each of its wings one at a time, with the tips smashing into the ceiling, before being extended out like massive bat wings. When the wings were unfurled, the elbows came down to the ground, to help the beast to walk forward. Its over sized head had a leathery frill neck that splayed out -with razor sharp teeth that were capable of biting right through skin and bone with ease. it was different to a dragon, but more like a demonic beast with oversized wings. A creature of the purest evil, one that showed no mercy or remorse. It’s pleasure to kill and destroy all in its path.
While Scar had been following along with Mariela, and sadly acknowledging that the whole trip to the Witches Circle had been a mistake, he suddenly heard the terrified screams of Alice, followed by the din of many a soldier. It was only after he heard the mighty roar of the beast….the Jabberwocky, that he knew that Alice was not the only one to have made it through the mirror.
“I think…trouble found her.” Scar cried, as he took hold of Mariela’s hand to run towards the ballroom, and where the newest nightmare to befall Greed had already begun.
~RB~
You know that moment when you leave somewhere only to get lost the moment that you walk out? That just happened to be Ayana at this very moment, she couldn’t really say she was happy about the fact, because she wasn’t, and why would she be anyway, but she was definitely pleased that she hadn’t come across anything that was really… aggravating. Of course, with the fact that she had to leave Asgard because of something so easy to have avoided was annoying and shameful in its own way, but even then she carried on with what task she had been given; taking control of this damned power that was afflicting her now. Ayana thought she was going to stay lost for a while, till… of course… things HAD to go wrong. The Valkyrie gave a jump as she heard that damnable roar, not sure where it came from, but she had been walking towards the large castle nearby and with this happening… oh the Valkyrie really didn’t think it could go much worse; of course she was wrong as always.
“….Well, time to test this. Thundering Dash!”
~A few moments later~
With the sudden sound of thunder roiling through the kingdom, it probably wouldn’t be clear what was happening at the moment, but with the Jabberwocky running rampant inside of the ballroom nothing was truly clear at the moment other than there was trouble; at least to Ayana that’s how it was. She didn’t know what the beast was, nor why it was running rampant, but it was definitely something Ayana would bite; she was a Valkyrie after all, combat was her forte and something she could do without a thought in her head. Slamming through one of the glass windows, the bolt of lightning only lasted a moment as it slammed into the head of the Jabberwocky, slamming it shut as it prepared to roar once again with the Valkyrie becoming visible with a raging amount of lightning on the spear. Flipping off of the creature, she dropped it midair and called on her naginata, swinging it so that the long bladed weapon had its edge pointed towards the ground with bright white lightning trailing behind it.
“Well then, been a while since I saw a Dreki(Dragon). …Or a type of one anyway.”
Who was she? She must have been insane… maybe… who knew. Perhaps she was just a battle ready maiden. Obviously, it was the latter.
“I may have to release the seal if this is stronger than I’m expecting… expect the unexpected, huh.”
They were walking back to the ballroom, and Mariela was anxious to get her family home and away from all of this. But at the sudden sound of a loud roar, Mariela stopped and turned her head. “What was that?” she asked, but Scar already grabbed her hand and ran towards the ballroom, the trio following behind them. Mariela stopped and widened her eyes, looking up at the big dragon-like creature. She took a great, frustrated sigh, closing her eyes slightly as she did so, before opening them and looking back. “Scar… what on Earth is that?” she then asked.
Just when Mariela thought things were over… apparently not. Now, she has some giant dragon-creature-thing ruining her ballroom that they just finished rebuilding. She huffed in frustration, and then whipped around to face some guards. “You. Get them three and Alice out of here. Now.” she spoke, pointing for them to lead them out. She then turned to Scar and opened her mouth to speak, before the sound of thunder was heard. Then the sound of shattering glass was heard, and Mariela jumped back when someone seemed to have came from the window.
“I have no idea who that is, but I’ll thank her for the distraction later.” she said. She grabbed Scar’s arm, quickly running, and trying to avoid the shattered glass, to a hallway. “You know this thing better then I do. Is their a weapon or something that can defeat this thing?” she asked urgently. “I don’t know how long that girl can hold it back… but there has to be something.”
Scar could hardly believe his eyes. The sight of the massive Jabberwocky took him totally by surprise. Sure, he had heard of the legend, that the Red queen kept one as her favorite pet, but he had never been privy to see it either in a cage or in the midst of battle. The fact of the matter was, it had come out of the mirror, just like Alice, and by the looks of it, both the red and black playing card armies. The Princess of Greed, his beloved Mariela was asking what the hell it was…and Scar tried to answer her the best way he knew how.
“More of a nightmare than I.” Never a truer word was said. The creature was the embodiment of evil, and not only did it roar loudly, it also had the ability to speak common. As it opened its mouth, showing off rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, a loud bang occurred – the window just to the right of the beast was smashed inwards by a force that was beyond that of Mother nature. A crack of lightning struck the head of the Jabberwocky with enough force to make it snap its mighty jaws shut.
Blinking at this sudden turn of events, Scar could not help but whisper to Mariela “Did you do that?” But, it was not Mariela that caused the diversion, it was a plucky girl that had appeared, holding a lightning charged spear, and she had just flipped off the Jabberwocky’s own head and landed with gymnast like grace on the floor of the ballroom.
Who was this girl? A maiden of white and blue, that scar had never seen before. She certainly didn’t come through the mirror. The girl was talking, but maybe it was too herself. A battle with a Jabberwocky was not exactly the place to make formal introductions. One thing was clear, she was here to fight the beast of Wonderland, and the Jabberwocky turned its attentions on the dangerous little sprite. It snarled viciously, splaying out its frilly leather like neck to make its head seem even larger than before. It was smarting from the lightning strike, and the low rumble from it’s belly indicated that it was hungry……Hungry for the little blue lady.
“GET IN MY BELLY!” The Jabberwocky roared as it opened its mouth again, but only this time it released a purple and mauve coloured spray of energy, that crackled and blasted towards the girl with the spear with as much ferocity as her lightning strike had.
With the girl being caught up in the fight with the beast, Scar waved his hands for the nearest guards to get Tessa, Sam and Sean to safety, while Alice was still hiding in behind a large file of playing card soldiers. She was too scared to move away.
Scar was now trying to get Mariela out of the way too, but she wanted to know if they had a weapon in the castle that could defeat such a beast. It took a good minute or two to think of something, till he suddenly had a flash of memory about a sword that he had seen in a glass display case in the blacksmith shop. The shop run by Suda, the dwarf.
“Mammon’s sword! Down in the work shop of Suda…..its all I can think of!” He had to shout to be heard over the roars and terrified screams that echoed throughout the ballroom.
~RB~
Oh Ayana was not pleased with the current turn of events at all, but she at least was finding a decent time to take control of the current situation with her powers. Which meant it may be a good idea to get the others out of here, but first… precautions had to be taken to prevent something from going wrong once she did unlock the seal; meaning she did one thing. Turning around for a moment she reached into her armor and hurled a stone tablet to Mariela. It was inscribed in two different languages, one was Old Norse, of course, and the other in the common language. The words inscribed were as such: The trickery of Loki undone, the skill of Thor turned to strength, the all seeing eye of the All Father opened; knowing the desire of her heart. By decree of these words, the seal is done, and the Valkyrie shall be forever masked with a power greater than hers.
“That’s a seal to replace the limiter on my true form, you’re going to need it if I use it! Now get the hell out of here, things are about to get really ugly! OI YOU STUPID FOOLS! QUIT LOLLY GAGGING AROUND AND TOSS ME A SHIELD!!!!!!”
That last sentence hurled at the dumb ass cards cowering from the massive dragon while a maiden fought, it was a sight to see in all honesty. They were supposed to be men, and instead they cowered like school girls. Humph. Pitiful.
Spinning at the Jabberwocky, Ayana’s naginata was already positioned as it became wreathed in brilliant white lightning while she swung straight at the dangerous, roaring beast with his stream of violet flames. With a ferocious battle cry of her own, the girl lashed out at the spray of energy and sliced through it; creating a wall of lightning which took it on as she wreathed her own body in lightning.
“Thundering Dash!”
Shooting into the air with a crack of thunder, Ayana landed on the roof within the second and then called on her halberd with its ax blade, letting herself fall down within a moment as she brought it down with all of her strength; roaring at the top of her lungs with every ounce of ferocity that lay within her being. That beast may have been terrible, but he definitely had a match here in this Valkyrie.
“Thor’s Hammer Blow!”
With the force of the halberd slamming down on the Jabberwocky with enough power to not only slam his mouth shut yet AGAIN, but it also would have slammed his head flat onto the ground while a massive bolt of lightning rained down through the window and slammed into the blade of the pole-arm, making it hammer with even more force that caused the flooring of the ballroom to erupt outwards around she and the Jabberwocky, creating what could have considered a miniature arena.
Should that have connected, she would have again flipped off of the beast while pointing the halberd at the beast, roaring right back at it with all the ferocity of Valhalla.
“Come at me beast! Dragon or not, I will not retreat!!”
Her eyes shifted to the Jabberwocky when it spoke, before looking back at Scar. “It talks?!“ she spoke. She covered her ears at the roaring and screaming, but uncovered them when Scar began speaking of a sword. “The armory.” she said with a nod. Before she could run off she turned her head when the girl spoke. Mariela reached out, catching the tablet in her hand and looking down at it, before looking at the girl when she spoke. “Great. Wonderful.” she said at the mention of a seal, and to get out of there, looking down at the tablet and turning it in her hand. At the mention of needing a shield, Mariela looked at a guard. “You. Throw her a shield. Now.” she ordered.
She watched the guards remove Tessa and her brother, then turned to look at Scar. “Scar. Go get Alice. Bring her with Tessa and my brothers and make sure they are out of harm’s way. Stay with them and do not enter the ballroom.” she said, looking back up at the Jabberwocky. “I’m gonna go to the armory and get this sword while she’s distracting him.”she said, then without another word she turned on her heel and ran off, making her way down to the armory where Suda, the dwarf, and the supposed sword might be at. “Quickly!” she said over her shoulder as she ran off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Opening the door to the armory, Mariela stepped in and eagerly looked around. “Suda!” she called, turning to look around the armroy to see if she can find said sword. “Where’s the sword Mammon carried?” she then asked. “It’s urgent!” she called again, tucking the stone tablet under her arm.
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