New Charity
The wendigo cursed the Five who had eluded her so far and she knew now she was running out of ways to prevent them from reaching Miller¡¯s Crossing. The mountain lion, like the other creatures she had called upon, had failed to find the group that was coming to stop her.
In a final effort to seek support from beyond, Charity had started performing another ritual at the center of the town at midnight. This ritual was aimed at obtaining the assistance of the dark lord so she could open the portal to Hell in Miller¡¯s Crossing and begin the invasion of the Earth. Whatever form that assistance came in; Charity was ready to accept it so she could achieve her goal.
Fires burned in barrels around her, and she called upon the netherworld to offer up help so she could complete her task in Miller¡¯s Crossing.??The ritual had her nearly nude, chanting and dancing around a summoning circle in the center of town, seeking the aid she prayed the Master would send her.
Nearly five hours into the ritual, as Charity neared exhaustion from the non-stop writhing and speaking in tongues, the sun was beginning to creep up on the horizon when suddenly, there was a stillness that fell over the town of Miller¡¯s Crossing.
Around Charity, the undead minions she had assembled there as her army, stopped shambling about and they all turned toward where the wendigo was performing her ritual. Slowly, Charity realized her minions were all standing around, staring at her, their empty, often hollow eyes all trained on her sweaty body glistening in the light of the fire.
There was a loud hum that filled the air, and the ground suddenly shook, almost as if an earthquake was happening. Charity finally stopped dancing and looked around, then noticing a chill in the warm early morning air. As she was standing there, looking about in curiosity, there was suddenly a bright flash at the center of her circle and an invisible blast suddenly flung her across the street like a ragdoll.
She looked up from where she landed in the dirt and watched as a man astride a black horse appeared in the center of her circle. Immediately, the undead minions gathered around the horseman, pushing Charity aside as they filed into a giant circle.
The wendigo got to her feet and stepped up onto the front porch of the saloon so she could see over the undead, her gaze falling on the individual who had appeared out of thin air. She smiled and laughed, ¡°Greetings! Our lord has sent you to help me, has he not! You have come to aide me in my quest? Haven¡¯t you?¡±
As she awaited the shadow rider¡¯s response, she was quickly aware that the undead SHE had summoned, now all seemed to be responding directly to the stranger¡¯s presence. Why would they not respond to her this way? She was their mistress¡was she not?
¡°Who are you?¡± she called, hoping to hear a response.
Rider:
?He honestly was tired, weary, sometimes dealing with the flesh bags was far more bothersome than he wanted to deal or contend with.? He was roaming around seeing whom he could devour.
First the homunculi, then the wendigo, then the town inhabitants. ? Each one with their own secrets from the biggest to the smallest and still she couldn¡¯t open the gateway.? It had been a couple of weeks now¡longer if the truth were to be told and yet this one that had all of the power he could grant her from this side couldn¡¯t muster how to get five humans to a town they were all supposed to be going to¡anyway?!?
He killed two imps and drank five souls just thinking about it.? No, he had waited long enough, he moved the Wendigo to go find five souls, it found eight¡more than enough.? The summoning spell was to bring him in his true form, he would just have to do things the old-fashioned way¡outright possession.
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?The beast came upon a campfire and the 8 men were eating and drinking and not paying attention to their surroundings fully.
When the beast fell upon them it was carnage at its finest¡he loved his obedient pet.? He got down to the last two, the one man was begging, then the magical plea came. ?<I will do anything if you save me!> ?
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?It was what he longed to hear.? The dark-skinned man didn¡¯t want to die, but didn¡¯t realize¡he was dead anyway.? He consumed his soul and inhabited his body once the man performed the ritual that would mind them.? He still needed the other five to open the portal for his own body and his own army to come through, but this would do for now.? He shifted a way the fang marks of the Wendigo in his dark chocolate skin, he brushed them off like a simple nuisance.? He then moved to clean the men out, the bodies he burned.? He would sell the horses he knew the current coin of the realm. ?¡®Burnable paper?? How stupid, but it is lighter than gold, so be it.¡¯ ?He redressed himself as he looked at his pet, ¡°Lead me to Miller¡¯s Crossing and you can have your pick of horses save mine.¡± ?The beast followed his orders to the letter, unlike some people!
Once the bodies were consumed in the fire, he cleaned up the evidence and moved to mount on the horse, and followed the Wendigo to the outskirts of the city. ? The beast had been summoned back to her, he let it go as he wasn¡¯t ready to show up just yet. ? It was still dark and the man would be human come sunrise, but he knew him and would summon him again later.? For now, it was good to have one ¡®Loyal and Capable¡¯ Pet!
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?He rode into the city he could feel the dark call of the woman Charity, he wanted to touch her but he wasn¡¯t sure she was worthy of his touch any longer.? He could only handle so much failure before he thought she was incompetent in all things¡including that!? Now he was far more interested in her reaction to how¡he truly NO longer needed her.? He longed to bathe in the fear of that recognition.? Once she found out that which she was summoning or trying to summon was here and she had now outlived her usefulness, what did she have left to offer?
He rode slowly into town all but invisible in the twilight, he frowned as he looked around at the slow zombies shuffling.? He chanted and with a wave of his hand the townspeople began to look a bit more¡normal.
They seem to look better, humans were simply exasperating.? You can¡¯t spring a trap with bad bait.? No one wanted to stay in a town with half-dead people or dead people.? He needed to make them feel and act normal so he breathed out some of the soul energy he had taken to touch that part of them that had truly been alive once.? As soon as he did that he slowly let the horse trot into town letting the extra energy filter to the people around him, it would take a bit to filter to the whole town but by sunrise hopefully all except those that were truly dead.? He needed to wake this place up. ? He continued to stalk her in the shade the shadows truly cloaking him from view as he watched her with all of her efforts.? She was dedicated and amusing, perhaps he would keep her for a bit, give her a chance at least as a concubine¡maybe.
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?He winced as he watched her pull and he moved till he was in the center of her circle and with a quick blast of hellfire the smoke came forth in a flash and knocked down everything in 10-foot diameter.
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?He stood before her now as she was getting helped off of the ground at her ritual place she was soaked in sweat and any other time he would have very much enjoyed her and her efforts, but now¡now he was standing in front of her on his own.? His good pet was forced to perform a summoning ritual that didn¡¯t need to be done.
He waved the Wendigo on, it had done its job accordingly. ? The sounds of her ritual had crawled up his spine and he heard her useless drivel as he dismounted and looked at her like a deep shade, he was covered head to toe in the cloak.? Half the group around her were all but zombies, the other half looked like regular living people.? As those that were half dead came in contact with the more living, they changed as well, which made them also look at her with a bit of anger of having snuffed their lives.? More than open to serve their new master even with this half existence. ?
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?He stood easily 6¡¯2 ¨C 6¡¯4 not sure because of the hat, wore.? His eyes glowed briefly with an eerie orange light before turning back to their dark brown.
He smiled a bit with his pearl white teeth gleaming like he was apt to devour her, they were pretty¡which out here was a sight to behold anyway.? He approached her in calm focused ease, once he was standing in front of her. ?¡°NO¡I haven¡¯t!¡±
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?His hand whipped out like the strike of a rattler and pulled her down into his arms.? He held her by her throat. ?¡°I am he, who is wondering what kept you from freeing me before now¡¡± He squeezed as he nuzzled her neck. ?¡°¡I am he who is wondering why I had to wait so long to destroy five humans when I gave you the power to do so¡.¡± His long forked tongue licked over her naked form stroking her as if she were candy, wondering about her taste. ?¡°¡I am he who is wondering why I should let you live if I can accomplish this without you?? Tell me now why should your Master let you live?
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(Tag Sicillien, Etienne, Chase, Callie, Flynn, Charity, Rider)
