Chapter Text
Chapter 1.
Bonesborough was calm, or at least, as calm as it could be, seeing that everything was still chaotic. Monsters through all of Bonesborough have gathered at the market to buy their needs. At first it looked normal, everyone and everything was doing their thing. But if you looked through that, you would see all of the wanted posters, all over town. Each of those posters used to say ‘Eda The Owl Lady’ but since a few years, they have said something else.
Most of those posters were to be found on the main streets, but also in little alleyways. But of course in les amounts, because nobody really goes there. So they were mostly calm.
Or so you would think, because one of the posters is suddenly effected by a breeze created by someone, wearing a cloak, running past at full speed, followed by guardsmen of the most known coven in the Boiling Isles.
“You’ll never catch me!” the person shouted, while blowing a raspberry.
“We’ll see about that criminal!” Shouted the team leader, as he drew a circle in the air which shot a blast of magical energy at the ‘criminal’ .
As the blast shot to the cloaked being, they seemed to reach for something. And right before the blast hit, a shield was suddenly put up out of nowhere.
“You need to do better than that to capture me.” The figure said with a smile. As she stopped running to face the guards head on. “You know, after all this time I really thought that you guys would finally learn you lesson that your tiny group can’t defeat me, right?!” it said wagging it’s fingers. “dis-sa-pointed.”
The guardsmen stopped as well, watching her every move.
The leader smirked. “Who says we didn’t learn from our mistakes?”
Suddenly things could be heard from the rooftops. Many footsteps could be heard. The cloaked figure looked up and saw a lot of guards on the edges of the houses, all with spells ready to fire.
“Huh,” the figure said “so you guys ‘do’ have brains.”
“We will make you eat those words, when we drag your sorry ass to jail.” The leader reacted. “EVERYONE READY!” he shouted to his men.
The figure smirked under the shadow of her cloak.
“AIM!”
One of her hands slipped to her belt.
“FIRE!”
Every guard fired at the same time, creating a lightshow which was able to be seen on the main square. A big explosion followed.
The alley was filled with smoke, nothing was able to be seen. The leader laughed. “Hahaha. There is absolutely NO way that she survived this.” He said with an smug grin. “Now we just need to wait for the smoke to clear and we can recover the body, or at least, what is left of it.”
“Are you sure about that!?” A small laugh was heard.
The leader looked around at his men. “Who said that?! Who has doubts in my masterplan?!”
“I do!” came from the cloud of smoke and dust.
He was so confused. ‘that’s impossible! She couldn’t have survived that in any sort of way!’
But when the dust cleared up, a green energy shield could be seen at the center of their formation. And under that shield was the criminal, completely unharmed.
“But…but…HOW!!”
The figure laughed while she banished her shield. “You really thought you had me. Sorry to disappoint you.”
The leader spoke, “you really think you are that great! But your NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING!!” he said with a deep glare. “We still have you surrounded and you’ve got nowhere to go!”
“That’s what you think.” The figure replied with a brave heart.
“We’ll see, GET HER!”
Some of the guardsmen ran at the criminal. But before any of them could reach her, she seemed to pull something from her belt, a piece of paper. The piece of paper had a mysterious symbol on it, but the cloaked figure knew exactly what it was. She smirked as she threw it on the ground.
Before the guards could do anything they were launched in the air by an explosion. Meanwhile the explosion didn’t seem to effect the caster. But what it did do was create a heavy wind, which blew the top of the cloak of the head of the figure, revealing; tan skin, dark brown hair and hazel-brown eyes, full of determination. “You are so close but yet so far.” Luz Noceda said with a grin. “when do you finally learn your lesson Rhodon? You can’t beat me and you know it.”
Leader Rhodon was pissed. “WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING?!” He shouted. “KEEP ATTACKING!! TAKE HER DOWN!”
As more guards ran up to Luz she quickly grabbed another glyph, tapped it and threw it in the air, creating a small whirlwind. Some of the guards had trouble to keep moving forward while others kept coming closer and closer. “would you look at that. You guys are really going for it. But sadly I can’t let you get any closer.”
And at that, another glyph was used, but instead of causing an explosion when it hit the ground, it made giant plant vines grow, which started attacking the guards getting to close to their caster. they either got hit and knocked out, or they were grabbed and flung across the alley, or just straight into the walls.
Meanwhile, Luz was enjoying the chaos around her. She wasn’t one for extreme violence, but it was pretty funny to see the emperors guards, the guards who are always acting like they are the toughest around, getting beaten up by a plant. A magically summoned plant, but a plant nonetheless. It was also pretty funny how some of the guards tried to warn the others.
“look out behind you!”
“GREG! DUCK!”
“where!?” SMACK!
STEVE, ONE IS COMING RIGHT FOR… never mind.”
Luz was enjoying herself, that much was sure. But it started to turn really boring. Besides, she needed to be back home very soon before the seekers came out. And so she disband every spell, and picked up the glyphs which reformed. “ Alright everyone, it was fun, but I’ve got to go home. You guys know how it is: you come home late and I don’t really want to get into trouble with the rest, soooo, yeah, I going to have to wrap this up.” She said as she grabbed two more glyphs from the pouch on her belt. She then activated the first which let out a shockwave which knocked the guards against the walls, followed up by her second glyph, which shot out a wave as well, seemingly made out of lightning, and when the guards were hid they immediately went unconscious. “Easy as always.” She said as she began walking away.
Suddenly a ball of fire flew past her face, just missing it. “not. So. Fast.”
Luz turned around, and saw that Rhodon, who had called up a barrier to guard himself, was still standing. He looked at her with murder in his eyes. “You are not getting away. NOT THIS TIME!” he shouted.
Luz sighed. “You said the same thing last time, and the time before that, and the time before THAT, and… THAT DOES NOT MATTER!!” he interrupted her. “You will not escape. I’m going to bring you to the Emperor, alive or dead.” He said as he drew a spell circle.
“Keep dreaming buddy, I am not going anywhere, except to my home. And there is nothing you can do about it.” She dared him.
Rhodon smirked. “oh, can’t I?” he said as he fired the spell, a bolt of lightning right at Luz. But she anticipated this and dodged it. All those years on the run really had improved her skills. As an response, she grabbed another glyph and fired of a fireball. Rhodon dodged that and repaid the act by drawing two more circles, each firing their own projectiles, which Luz dodged. But before Luz could recover Rhodon let out a raged shout and came rushing at her for a more hands on approach.
Luz couldn’t react in time and took a big blow, which send her flying backwards. “ugh,” she groaned. “How is it possible that you can give punches like that?”
The guard laughed at that. “Kid, there is so much you don’t know about me and my fellow guards.” He smirked. “But allow me to show you.” Rhodon said as he drew a spell circle, reached in, and pulled out a big battle axe. He let out a shout as he ran at Luz, axe lifted above his head.
Luz’s eyes shrunk and she quickly pulled out two other glyphs, one she slapped on her arm and activated it, the other one she kept in her hand, which, when activated, turned into a sword. She luckily managed to block his strike.
Rhodon was shocked. “But how?!” he said, looking down at Luz. “I’m bigger and way stronger then you, how did you block me?!”
Luz smirked, as she pulled away her sword while jumping away from him. “it’s very simple actually.” She said with pride in her voice. “You see this?” she pointed at the glyph on her arm. “this glyph has the same effect as a power-glyph, you know, those glyphs used by the construction coven. Very useful, if I say so myself.”
The guard glared at her and swung his axe at her with and angry roar. Luz dodged it and answered with swinging her sword, which just missed her enemy, who immediately swung his axe down to chop her in half. Luz just managed to get out of its way, when she saw that her opponent had drawn a spell circle, which released a lightning bolt.
It was a direct hit.
“AAAAAAAAH” she screamed. She may have been hit before, but it definitely didn’t get less painful. The bolt also disabled her power-glyph. When the lightning stopped going through her body, she fell on the ground. “I hate lightning bolts. Why is it always lightning bolts?!” she muttered as she tried to get up.
“Not so fast.”
When Luz looked up at the words of the guard, she saw that he was swinging his axe again. She quickly tried to block it, but she could block all of it and still got hit. She quickly tried to crawl back, to see what the damage was. The axe made a big cut in her stomach, luckily not deep enough to hit organs, but it was still bleeding big time and hurt like hell.
“what’s wrong?” Rhodon said, mocking her, “did the big bad guard hurt you? Serves you right. You’re lucky the emperor would prefer you alive than dead.” He got an evil grin on his face. “but that doesn’t mean that I can’t hurt you some more!”
Next thing Luz knew, a heavy kick landed right in her ribcage and made her back hit one of the walls, HARD! She tried to not show weakness, to not show pain, to not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was hurting her.
“Did you really think you could get away, after all that has happened?!” another kick. “It was only a matter of time before we would finally catch you.” Another kick. “and now, you are going to spent the rest of your life behind bars, where. You. BELONG!!” he shouted the last word as he gave her one final kick.
That broke her, it hurt so much. She had broken at least two or three ribs by now. But she was not done with him. “You are supposed to be a guard?! You’re not a guard, you’re just someone who enjoys watching other people and beings suffer!”
“guilty as charged,” he said with a proud smile. “and if you think this is the end, you are SO wrong. You see, you are just the start. The others will soon follow, and I’ll make sure that you will see them suffer.” He then leaned down to whisper in her ear. “every. Single. Day.”
Something inside of Luz snapped like a rubber band. You threaten her, that’s fine. But you don’t, DON’T, threaten the ones she cares about! Her family! And so, with some effort, she reached for her pouch, and pulled out a special glyph, a special project of hers, and slapped it on her arm.
Before Rhodon knew it, he was flung backwards. He landed in a crouch position and looked at the criminal. His eyes widened as he saw her, something was different about her, as in, WAY different. For example:
SHE WAS FLOATING!
Luz was floating in the air multiple inches of the ground, her eyes aglow, magic seemed to go through the veins of her arms, flowing with power. She then spoke, full of anger, “YOU DARE THREATEN THEM?!! IF YOU LAY ONE FINGER, OR TENTACLE OR WHATEVER ON THEM, I SWEAR THAT I WILL MAKE YOU LIFE A LIVING HELL!!!”
The guard took a step back, but still tried to put up a though front. “Do I need to afraid of THIS? A simple lightshow? You don’t scare me! What could YOU, possibly do?!”
On her face formed a dark grin. She laughed. “Well, allow me to show you.” When she suddenly drew a spell circle and unleashed a blast of energy, right at the guard. He, of course, didn’t expect this and took the blast head-on, which send him flying backwards, and into a dumpster. The bang that followed was able to be heard from a kilometer away.
“uuuuugh.” He groaned. That kid really could pack a punch, or spell in this case. He recovered and saw that Luz hadn’t moved at all. She just floated there, looking at him. “Nice try kid.” He said as he stood back up. “but if that is all you can do, then you are lost.”
Luz smirked. “that’s not all I can do,” she said as she drew another spell circle. The guard was suddenly grabbed by some force, and thrown into the air. As he reached the peak of his flight, Luz was suddenly there and drew another circle, summoning a Warhammer in the process. Rhodon gulped as he saw what was going to happen, as Luz swung down the hammer and struck him down, literally. He was send down like a rocket, until he hit the ground, creating a small crater.
As he climbed out of the crater, Luz was in front of him again. “How did you survive that?! Most beings would have been killed!”
“that’s something you will never find OUT!” he said as he quickly fired a spell at her.
Luz answered by casting a barrier to stop the spell from reaching her. “you still haven’t learned you lesson, have you?” she leaned in close. “I’m stronger then you, I’m smarter then you, I’m faster then you, you can’t catch me. Boop.” She said as she booped the nose of his mask. Luz started walking away. “better luck next time.”
Rhodon quickly got up and ran at her, but before he could reach her he was blasted back by another spell. “when do you finally realize that you’ve had you chance today. Maybe you’ll catch me tomorrow. Probably not, but hey, what can you do.” She said as she drew another circle, which summoned some heavy rope.
The rope quickly wrapped itself around the guard, restraining him in the process.
“and just to make sure that you will not do any funny business.” She drew one last circle. Suddenly the ropes weren’t ropes, but snakes, BIG snakes. “that should keep you busy.” She said as she opened her pouch and pulled something from it, a staff. The staff was completely made out of wood, and at the top of the staff, sat a manticore palisman. She was just about to go, when she saw one of the wanted posters. “hmm” she said. “looks like the bounty has gone up again. Interesting. And you guys really need to use some better photo. I mean, this one is pretty old.” She said as she took the poster of the wall. “but I’ll take this with me as a souvenir, of what happened today.” She then looked at her palisman.
“Let’s go home.” She said to the palisman, as she got on the staff and pushed off of the ground. “see you next time Rhodon!” she called out as she flew away. The last thing she heard from him that day was a angry shout. “Damn you, Guardian!!”
She snickered as she flew, messing around with Rhodon was always fun, but this time was really close. She frowned. The guards are getting stronger with each day, that could be a problem.
She suddenly hissed in pain. The effects of her wounds are coming back. “looks like it wore out already. Dang it. I hoped it would at least last until I could get to my room, apparently not.” She sighed. “I’m definitely going to get in trouble for this, *sigh* again.”
She then looked at the wanted poster and smiled. They had worked so hard for this. To most, a wanted poster is something bad, a symbol of shame. But to her and her family, it was a symbol of pride, a symbol of accomplishment.
She read the poster out loud, even though she knew what it said:
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE,
THE GUARDIANS OF HOPE!