Zebb awoke to the sound of Sprig gently snoring nearby. He rolled his eyes and flicked his tail, causing a cloud of dirt to rise into the air. It was just turning light outside and though he could probably use more sleep, there was definitely no sleep to be had once Sprig’s snoring reached maximum level.
He slowly rose to stand on his paws and stretched out all his limbs one by one. There were faint cracks and pops as his joints snapped to attention after being curled up in sleep. With a large sigh and a shake of his head, Zebb felt ready to face the day.
He walked a few yards away from where Sprig slept on in its happy dreams. Zebb envied the mini pixiu slightly. It was so carefree most of the time. Not being a full sized beast, Sprig did not have the same sense for evil spirits as a regular pixiu, and Zebb’s sleep had been troubled for many nights in a row now as something dark and sinister continued to touch the edge of his mind. Their human obviously had no such sense to alert her to the evil that had come close to their home, but Zebb had warned her with his own unsettled thoughts and she had left for the weekend to visit with a friend. Zebb preferred to fight these battles alone, and did not wish to endanger those he held dear.
With Einna away and Sprig sleeping on, he had only Veil and the newest pride member Mishel – not yet emerged from its totem – with which to keep safely out of the way. He had procrastinated on dealing with Veil until the last minute, simply because trying to have any sort of discussion with the cub was like talking to a wall of stone. He huffed his annoyance and traversed the short distance to the tree in which she preferred to sleep in. He stopped below the large, thick trunk of the particular tree and called out to her silently. He knew she heard him, and so he waited, albeit somewhat impatiently.
The branches finally started to creak with the weight of movement and her dark mane emerged from between the leaves as she crouched above him, obviously not willing to come any closer. She said nothing, just stared and waited.
“Veil, I am going to deal with something. Some darkness is close by and it needs to be taken care of before it gets worse.” He sighed when Veil made no indication that she was even listening to him. “I need you to stay here and not go flying or spying on anyone today. I also need you to look over Mishel.” He took the totem from around his neck and held it up to Veil. Einna had made a loop of twine for them to hang totems from and thus carry them around until their ki became strong enough to transform them into pixiu, trusting the protective powers of the pride instead of her own weak human senses. Zebb thought this a wise choice, but it was inconvenient in times like this.
Veil made no move to take the totem, only spoke in her soft voice. “Why must I watch it? Give it to Sprig…. he enjoys such… tasks.” She flicked her tail in annoyance, the only sign of movement she had shown yet.
Zebb glared up at her. “I am entrusting it to you. Someday you will be a beast and you will have to start doing your part in protecting our land. You can start by protecting this totem.” He usually had a soft spot for cubs, but Veil seemed to consistently get under his skin.
She slowly bent her head low and with a muffled sound of begrudging acceptance, allowed Zebb to place the totem’s string around her neck.
“Thank you, Veil. I will be back soon to relieve you of this terrible burden.” He tried to say this with minimal sarcasm. She simply nodded her head and began to disappear back into the tree. Zebb turned to walk away, but was paused by Veil’s soft voice floating down to him.
“Be careful… I have felt this darkness too, and it feels… scary…” Her strange manner of pausing between words made this statement seem all the more disconcerting, but Zebb glanced up into the tree with a smile.
“Of course little one.”
He began walking away and his ears picked up a faint mumbling, “Don’t… call me little one…” He grinned to himself and sped into a swift jog.
Once satisfied that he was a safe distance away from Sprig so as not to awaken the tiny pixiu, and away from Veil so as not to encourage her tendency to follow and spy on him, Zebb unfurled his wings and let them fan out above him. He rustled them once, twice, and then with a running start leaped into the air, using tree trunks to add as leverage and flapped mightily to clear the tree line and soar into the open air of the early morning.
Zebb let his ki and his hunger guide him as he caught the morning updrafts and glided above the land. He circled the copse of trees and scattered clearings near the village that was their home. He knew the darkness was somewhere near, and coming incessantly closer. There was a spot a little ways off. He craned his neck and let his wings glide him closer to the ground as he drifted toward it. The spot was shimmering slightly from above, as if a shadow was passing over it, but there were no clouds in the sky or obstructions which could cause this shadow. That was the spot of his next meal. He was sure of it. With a confident smirk, he settled back down to the earth at the edge of this shadow with a flurry of dirt and pebbles as he landed.
Flicking the rock dust from his mane, he stalked towards the darkness, every magical nerve in his body humming with the evil spirit before him. As he tread farther into the area of infected land around the spirit, he attuned every fiber of his being to inspecting and assessing the world around him. He emerged from behind a large thicket and stopped as he saw the small pond in front of him. It wasn’t very large, but its shore was tangled with creeper like vines and overgrown with thorned weeds. Zebb didn’t much care for water, and was unsettled by the fact that the strongest energy from this spirit was coming from inside that pond.
He walked around the edge of the water, seeing if anything would come out. Nothing did. He dipped a paw into the water, breaking its surface and sending out ripples which slowly faded away. Still nothing happened. With a sigh of resignation, Zebb lay his wings as close to the line of his spine as he could, sucked in a huge breath, and walked into the pond until he was standing with the water just below his chin.
The edges of his ki tingled, and the pond began to bubble and froth as if something large was moving beneath the surface. Zebb held his ground and sunk his claws deep into the mud beneath his paws in preparation.
It was slightly anticlimactic when a small head emerged from the water, followed by the pale body of a young human girl. She couldn’t have been more than four or five, her long black hair curled around her shoulders and fanned out in the water surrounding her, her skin was pale, but not grotesque or rotten, the only thing that set her apart from the world of the living (other than the waves of evil that rolled off of her and through Zebb’s ki) were her eyes. Dark pits and nothing more.
Zebb knew better than to take her appearance to heart. He lifted his lip in a snarl and began to summon his ki as a spiritual force around his physical body. He now recognized this spirit as a Shui Gui and knew better than to relax his guard. The little girl smiled at him and spoke in a low, but lilting voice. “You would make an excellent vessel.” This comment was followed by a giggle that seemed to come from the creature’s mouth, but also from all around the surface of the water, echoing and reverberating in order to confuse Zebb’s instincts.
“And you would make an excellent snack,” he retorted, never taking his eyes from the spirit. With no warning, the girl launched herself at Zebb and her face transformed into what one would associate with an evil spirit that sought to drown and posess its victims. Her skin now hung from her body in slimy tendrils and had turned a sickly shade of pale green. Her teeth were sharp and her mouth unnaturally large as she took a chunk of Zebb’s shoulder into her mouth and began to pull him under the surface of water.
Luckily, he was prepared. With a great thrust of his legs, he extracted his claws and leaped into the air, using the leverage he had prepared himself with during their exchange. His wings strained as they tried to raise his waterlogged body out of the pond. Meanwhile, the Shui Gui was clawing at Zebb’s face and attempting to pull him back to the depths of her watery grave while her darkness began to rip away at his shield of Ki.
He snapped his head to the side and took her entire head into his mouth. With a burst of will power, his ki began to pull at her evil spiritual force, just as his physical body rose and carried her further from the pond and into the sky where she would be less powerful.
She fought viciously, tearing and ripping at his physical flesh while her evil energy sucked away at his ki. Unfortunately for her, Zebb was stronger. This was not the first evil spirit he had faced, and nor would she be the last. He doubled the efforts of his ki and began to slowly devour her. As his hunger increased, so did the pace of his attack. The attention paid to his ki left little to be spared for his physical form, and a part of his mind noted the fact that he would pay dearly for this later in any number of painful marks to his hide, but keeping his hold on her darkness and slowly eating away at her existence was more important than the blood dripping from his many wounds.
After such a ferocious fight, it seemed a mere matter of moments, before the evil presence that had once been a Shui Gui was gone. Zebb let his wings carry him back to land and settled, slightly less gracefully than usual, back to earth. His shoulder was dripping blood onto the dirt from a huge gash where the creatures teeth had taken a chunk of his skin, and she had managed to scrape a bloody line down his face and across his chin and chest which stung mightily. There were various other gouges and scrapes to his front legs and back where at one point she had attempted to get above him and rip his wings apart to make him fall back to the water where her strength would give her more of an advantage. Luckily she had not succeeded in this endevour before Zebb had devoured her. Unluckily, there was a lot of pain and blood to be taken care of now.
He shook himself and glanced around. The pond was calm now, the weeds and creepers already shrinking and dying away; a product of the evil that had resided in its waters. The shadow around the land was gone, and his ki thrummed in contentment. He was also rather full. For being such a small evil creature, her energy had been rather filling.
Zebb settled down to lick his wounds clean and let his fur and wings dry before attempting to fly home. The strain on his wings to lift him up and out of the pond had been a bit much, and he felt a soreness and ache where his shoulders connected to his wings. Better to let them rest awhile before attempting to fly again. Besides, there was no rush to leave this place now. The evil spirit was gone, and it was actually quite pretty with the shadow of darkness lifted. He shall have to bring Sprig here sometime. Unlike himself, the little mini loved to play in the water.
He slowly rose to stand on his paws and stretched out all his limbs one by one. There were faint cracks and pops as his joints snapped to attention after being curled up in sleep. With a large sigh and a shake of his head, Zebb felt ready to face the day.
He walked a few yards away from where Sprig slept on in its happy dreams. Zebb envied the mini pixiu slightly. It was so carefree most of the time. Not being a full sized beast, Sprig did not have the same sense for evil spirits as a regular pixiu, and Zebb’s sleep had been troubled for many nights in a row now as something dark and sinister continued to touch the edge of his mind. Their human obviously had no such sense to alert her to the evil that had come close to their home, but Zebb had warned her with his own unsettled thoughts and she had left for the weekend to visit with a friend. Zebb preferred to fight these battles alone, and did not wish to endanger those he held dear.
With Einna away and Sprig sleeping on, he had only Veil and the newest pride member Mishel – not yet emerged from its totem – with which to keep safely out of the way. He had procrastinated on dealing with Veil until the last minute, simply because trying to have any sort of discussion with the cub was like talking to a wall of stone. He huffed his annoyance and traversed the short distance to the tree in which she preferred to sleep in. He stopped below the large, thick trunk of the particular tree and called out to her silently. He knew she heard him, and so he waited, albeit somewhat impatiently.
The branches finally started to creak with the weight of movement and her dark mane emerged from between the leaves as she crouched above him, obviously not willing to come any closer. She said nothing, just stared and waited.
“Veil, I am going to deal with something. Some darkness is close by and it needs to be taken care of before it gets worse.” He sighed when Veil made no indication that she was even listening to him. “I need you to stay here and not go flying or spying on anyone today. I also need you to look over Mishel.” He took the totem from around his neck and held it up to Veil. Einna had made a loop of twine for them to hang totems from and thus carry them around until their ki became strong enough to transform them into pixiu, trusting the protective powers of the pride instead of her own weak human senses. Zebb thought this a wise choice, but it was inconvenient in times like this.
Veil made no move to take the totem, only spoke in her soft voice. “Why must I watch it? Give it to Sprig…. he enjoys such… tasks.” She flicked her tail in annoyance, the only sign of movement she had shown yet.
Zebb glared up at her. “I am entrusting it to you. Someday you will be a beast and you will have to start doing your part in protecting our land. You can start by protecting this totem.” He usually had a soft spot for cubs, but Veil seemed to consistently get under his skin.
She slowly bent her head low and with a muffled sound of begrudging acceptance, allowed Zebb to place the totem’s string around her neck.
“Thank you, Veil. I will be back soon to relieve you of this terrible burden.” He tried to say this with minimal sarcasm. She simply nodded her head and began to disappear back into the tree. Zebb turned to walk away, but was paused by Veil’s soft voice floating down to him.
“Be careful… I have felt this darkness too, and it feels… scary…” Her strange manner of pausing between words made this statement seem all the more disconcerting, but Zebb glanced up into the tree with a smile.
“Of course little one.”
He began walking away and his ears picked up a faint mumbling, “Don’t… call me little one…” He grinned to himself and sped into a swift jog.
Once satisfied that he was a safe distance away from Sprig so as not to awaken the tiny pixiu, and away from Veil so as not to encourage her tendency to follow and spy on him, Zebb unfurled his wings and let them fan out above him. He rustled them once, twice, and then with a running start leaped into the air, using tree trunks to add as leverage and flapped mightily to clear the tree line and soar into the open air of the early morning.
Zebb let his ki and his hunger guide him as he caught the morning updrafts and glided above the land. He circled the copse of trees and scattered clearings near the village that was their home. He knew the darkness was somewhere near, and coming incessantly closer. There was a spot a little ways off. He craned his neck and let his wings glide him closer to the ground as he drifted toward it. The spot was shimmering slightly from above, as if a shadow was passing over it, but there were no clouds in the sky or obstructions which could cause this shadow. That was the spot of his next meal. He was sure of it. With a confident smirk, he settled back down to the earth at the edge of this shadow with a flurry of dirt and pebbles as he landed.
Flicking the rock dust from his mane, he stalked towards the darkness, every magical nerve in his body humming with the evil spirit before him. As he tread farther into the area of infected land around the spirit, he attuned every fiber of his being to inspecting and assessing the world around him. He emerged from behind a large thicket and stopped as he saw the small pond in front of him. It wasn’t very large, but its shore was tangled with creeper like vines and overgrown with thorned weeds. Zebb didn’t much care for water, and was unsettled by the fact that the strongest energy from this spirit was coming from inside that pond.
He walked around the edge of the water, seeing if anything would come out. Nothing did. He dipped a paw into the water, breaking its surface and sending out ripples which slowly faded away. Still nothing happened. With a sigh of resignation, Zebb lay his wings as close to the line of his spine as he could, sucked in a huge breath, and walked into the pond until he was standing with the water just below his chin.
The edges of his ki tingled, and the pond began to bubble and froth as if something large was moving beneath the surface. Zebb held his ground and sunk his claws deep into the mud beneath his paws in preparation.
It was slightly anticlimactic when a small head emerged from the water, followed by the pale body of a young human girl. She couldn’t have been more than four or five, her long black hair curled around her shoulders and fanned out in the water surrounding her, her skin was pale, but not grotesque or rotten, the only thing that set her apart from the world of the living (other than the waves of evil that rolled off of her and through Zebb’s ki) were her eyes. Dark pits and nothing more.
Zebb knew better than to take her appearance to heart. He lifted his lip in a snarl and began to summon his ki as a spiritual force around his physical body. He now recognized this spirit as a Shui Gui and knew better than to relax his guard. The little girl smiled at him and spoke in a low, but lilting voice. “You would make an excellent vessel.” This comment was followed by a giggle that seemed to come from the creature’s mouth, but also from all around the surface of the water, echoing and reverberating in order to confuse Zebb’s instincts.
“And you would make an excellent snack,” he retorted, never taking his eyes from the spirit. With no warning, the girl launched herself at Zebb and her face transformed into what one would associate with an evil spirit that sought to drown and posess its victims. Her skin now hung from her body in slimy tendrils and had turned a sickly shade of pale green. Her teeth were sharp and her mouth unnaturally large as she took a chunk of Zebb’s shoulder into her mouth and began to pull him under the surface of water.
Luckily, he was prepared. With a great thrust of his legs, he extracted his claws and leaped into the air, using the leverage he had prepared himself with during their exchange. His wings strained as they tried to raise his waterlogged body out of the pond. Meanwhile, the Shui Gui was clawing at Zebb’s face and attempting to pull him back to the depths of her watery grave while her darkness began to rip away at his shield of Ki.
He snapped his head to the side and took her entire head into his mouth. With a burst of will power, his ki began to pull at her evil spiritual force, just as his physical body rose and carried her further from the pond and into the sky where she would be less powerful.
She fought viciously, tearing and ripping at his physical flesh while her evil energy sucked away at his ki. Unfortunately for her, Zebb was stronger. This was not the first evil spirit he had faced, and nor would she be the last. He doubled the efforts of his ki and began to slowly devour her. As his hunger increased, so did the pace of his attack. The attention paid to his ki left little to be spared for his physical form, and a part of his mind noted the fact that he would pay dearly for this later in any number of painful marks to his hide, but keeping his hold on her darkness and slowly eating away at her existence was more important than the blood dripping from his many wounds.
After such a ferocious fight, it seemed a mere matter of moments, before the evil presence that had once been a Shui Gui was gone. Zebb let his wings carry him back to land and settled, slightly less gracefully than usual, back to earth. His shoulder was dripping blood onto the dirt from a huge gash where the creatures teeth had taken a chunk of his skin, and she had managed to scrape a bloody line down his face and across his chin and chest which stung mightily. There were various other gouges and scrapes to his front legs and back where at one point she had attempted to get above him and rip his wings apart to make him fall back to the water where her strength would give her more of an advantage. Luckily she had not succeeded in this endevour before Zebb had devoured her. Unluckily, there was a lot of pain and blood to be taken care of now.
He shook himself and glanced around. The pond was calm now, the weeds and creepers already shrinking and dying away; a product of the evil that had resided in its waters. The shadow around the land was gone, and his ki thrummed in contentment. He was also rather full. For being such a small evil creature, her energy had been rather filling.
Zebb settled down to lick his wounds clean and let his fur and wings dry before attempting to fly home. The strain on his wings to lift him up and out of the pond had been a bit much, and he felt a soreness and ache where his shoulders connected to his wings. Better to let them rest awhile before attempting to fly again. Besides, there was no rush to leave this place now. The evil spirit was gone, and it was actually quite pretty with the shadow of darkness lifted. He shall have to bring Sprig here sometime. Unlike himself, the little mini loved to play in the water.
