Welcome to Gaia! ::

Prologue
Like a drum of war the slow, insidious beating sounded in her head. As the world came into haze-drowned view the nauseating blend of blood and sea air assaulted her and caused her to retch out of reflex. The beating suddenly grew more rapid and a searing pain shot through the left side of Zanai’s chest before she realized the beating was her own heart pounding beneath broken ribs. She fought to move her arms and inspect the damage but could feel nothing save the sensation that both arms were restrained. Lifting her horned head caused droplets of thick crimson to fall from her brow as she realized both of her arms were pinned to the massive trunk of a tree that she had her back against. She was held in place at the wrists by thick spikes that were driven deep into the bark of the great oak and when she tried to clench her hands into fists her body ignored the command all together.

“Ha! You b*****d!!” She could only laugh at her situation as her gaze fell back to the grass covered ground beneath her boots. Her fiery red hair cascaded the sharp features of her face and matted against her pale yellow skin due to the blood pumping from a deep gash on her forehead.
Willing enough energy to look forward she could see corpse after skewered corpse stretched about the bloodstained landscape that separated her from the eastern sea. Cool air rolled in from the coast and rustled the bloodied stalks off grass with chilling promises of death that spoke louder than the last beats of Zanai’s heart.

Her expression turned grim when she saw a large shadowed shape stalking across the night horizon against the backdrop of the silver moon as though it taunted her. The ship’s sails swayed as if beckoning her to try and pursue and distant, faint voices seemed to only taunt the defeated woman further as the night air brought death’s embrace closer and the last few moments of Zanai’s life suddenly replayed in a perverse montage.

She saw the faces of her aggressors as they laughed and circled her like scavengers surrounding a wounded animal.

She saw her own arm clumsily swing a sword and miss a man only to be thrust in his throat when he gloated. The man went down, convulsing as blood flew from the wound like a geyser.

There were flashes of steel as more men fell to the ground, struck dead by a sharp weapon.

A blunt weapon smashed into her side and rough, cruel hands through her down to the ground. A giant of a man looked down at her and stomped her repeatedly before things went dark.

Her vision returned long enough to feel two people dragging her towards the giant oak that towered above the carnage. The gruff man that stomped on her stood next to the tree with a barbarous smile hidden beneath his black beard as he clenched a large two handed hammer in one hand and a pair of long spikes in the other.

The image then faded away.

Zanai could feel herself growing cold and the beating of her heart begin to slow before she noted a second methodical tempo overhead. Lifting her head again, she noted a gathering of several black feathered birds with bulbous, white heads likes skulls and cruel, razor sharp beaks began to congregate on the branch of another one of the trees that were lightly peppered about the scene while others descended through the tree line and began helping themselves to the corpses Zanai had left.

A smirk crossed her bloody face when the scavengers began to caw as if they were coordinating and she closed her eyes, resigning herself to the fate she had been dealt.

She heard the alpha male apparent of the group of avian menaces caw loudly before beating his great wings and shooting towards her like an arrow. Her heart began racing again when the bird picked up speed and the harsh noise of its flight grew louder. She took a deep breath and braced herself for what she knew would be the last thing she would ever feel. Death-head vultures, as they were called, liked to go for the throat of dying prey.

Zanai’s heart skipped a beat and she gasped.

Rather than being pierced in the throat by the bird’s razor-like beak, there was a startled squawk followed immediately by frantic flapping.

Zanai’s gray eyes shot open where she saw a pale, lanky woman with blonde hair holding the vulture by its own throat in an implacable grip. Her dark brown eyes never left Zanai as, with a twitch of her wiry fingers, the pale woman tightened her grip and snapped the vulture’s neck, silencing it’s squawking and ceasing its incessant, defiant flapping.

The rest of the flock had frantically scattered back into the night air before the woman even cast the alpha male’s body to the forest floor.

Lowering her slender arm back to her side, the blonde woman silently moved towards Zanai, her unremarkable cloak trailing behind her as she seemed to glide like specter. Zanai watched her, not daring to speak and almost wishing the vultures had made a meal of her as she stared into the eyes of her ghastly rescuer.

“You’ve failed, Zanai.” The woman spoke in a booming voice that no living female should be able to produce. “You’ve let our enemies take the prize from us.”

Zanai shrank back and eyed the woman carefully. Her heart raced once more, its hated and laborious beating echoing louder than ever.


“They ambushed me. Plus I had to protect-AGHHH!!!!” Zanai began to reason and suddenly screamed when the blonde woman reach forth and cruelly ripped the spike from Zanai’s left wrist. Zanai’s eyes burned with hate as she glared at the woman, who simply watched her like a cruel child watching a struggling insect after she’s pulled its legs off.

“You lanky bi-AGGH!!!” Zanai screamed again and collapsed in a heap when the other spike was pulled free.

“It seems as though Baird sails for Duros, given the path he’s going. When you wake up, follow him.”

Zanai heard the booming tone in the pale woman’s instructions clearly even as everything faded and she passed out.


The calm whisper of the wind in her ear woke Zanai up sometime later. Enduring a throbbing headache and adjusting vision, she managed to push herself up and into a sitting position. She let out a deep sigh and looked up to the sky where the rust colored moon peered back at her at her. She raised her hands and looked them over. It had taken her moment to realize that, not only did she have the strength to lift her arms but the wounds left by the spikes were gone. She took a moment to explore the features of her face. The cuts and scars her attackers left were gone, she only hoped they hadn’t ruined the tattoo work that adorned her visage. Her thoughts went to the pale woman, whom she knew she owed her reinstated health too. Then she thought about what the pale woman said.

Duros

Zanai leapt to her feet and straightened the long, black sleeveless coat that hugged her athletic form. Looking her bare arms over she saw the winding network of body art that covered them had appeared the same as always and nodded with approval.

“Okay, Duros…” She muttered to herself, scanning the distant horizon on the Redway Sea. The ship was nowhere to be seen, though the silver moon wasn’t far moved from the last place she remembered seeing it, which meant she wasn’t unconscious for very long. She looked to the south and saw several scattered lights at the water line in the distance. She also faintly noticed large, dark objects rocking idly in the water just beyond the lights. A port town.

Moving like the wind, Zanai grabbed the two curved swords that had been impaled in one of the corpses she had left earlier and shoved them both into the large scabbard that hang at her lower back. Her coat trailed behind her as she made haste for the town, hoping she’d be in time to catch the next boat that was going east across the Redway sea.

I did indeed post this story in the other guild quite some time ago. I think I made a few minor changes to it since that time, though. I'm going through it with a much more careful eye right now, though. Your suggesting her tearign the swords out of the body is just one of the sentences I'm going to add.

One thing I find myself struggling with though is Zanai's race. She's of a people that I made up called Ungarra and I find myself struggling with how exactly that should come up here, if at all. Maybe I should save it for later.

Not completely sure I follow. Do you mean they're too wordy?