Death Hunters 09: Namia

     In the dark woods a lone figure leaps through the trees stopping at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea before him, the sudden sunlight blinding him for a second.

    “The Archae Sea.” says the man as he brushes aside some of his long shaggy brown hair, “good enough spot to take a rest.”

    “Okay Scrags ole boy,” says the man…who is clearly Scrags the thief, “Got myself a little farther up the coast then I planned, but works for me.”

     He shoves his bag on the ground, opening it, “Let’s see,” he says as he rifles through it, “Fire enhancement crystal, invisibility amulet, strength booster ring, fire orb in a protective box, soul lifter powder, defensive aura booster medallion, and oh….what have we here.”

    He takes out a green sharp crystal key, “Now what are you doing in the client bag? The crystal key to the Green Emerald Swamp Dragon’s lost treasure cave hidden somewhere in the great swamp. Gotta hand it to these local wizards, they have some great loot to make up for my losses back at Stratalia. If I knew I could find all this swag in the wilderness I would never have bothered with that crazy ass place with its crazy ass people and their crazy ass problems…but I think I’ll keep this key for myself.”

    He places the key in his coat pocket.

   “What do you think you’re doing?” comes a female voice behind him.

   Scrags turns, dagger in hand glowing with blue fire at the sight of the pale thin woman with her long black hair. While her cloths are now black royal funeral robes from Croix he recognizes her as the gypsy that he ran into some time back, the gypsy that Rhulan had strangled who turned to smoke and Rhulan said was some manipulative immortal monster or ghost or something.

   “I did not appear before you and send you on your away, away from that witch’s party so you could go on a stealing spree. Did I not appear to you again and again in your dreams to tell you to follow them? To keep a close eye on them? Instead of your aid, you ignore me; instead of your aid I have sat back and hoped that the minions of this bizarre creature called the Thing Named Jim would do the job instead. It is for that reason alone I have allowed you to go on your way and not give into your destiny as one of my chosen ones. Now Thief, I have other chosen ones that you are to join up with, with them you shall know great riches and…”

    “Shut up.” says Scrags as he places one hand on his hip, standing rather oddly for a man and flipping his other hand around. He walks over to her heel to toe like a run way model or a woman wearing a restricting dress.

   “Now, now,” says Scrags with an oddly feminine, yet still his voice, tone, “Poor little Sally, or is it Satasar the goddess of chaos, the guardian deity of Aesperia. You have done a rather poor job of that, one might even think you were responsible for the most hated Dah-Hoth, most hated by the mother, of coming here. Mother has decided that the job of this world’s guardian is now up in the air. You who have committed actions that are contrary to your occupation, the latter not the first perhaps, but even chaos does not mean total entropy and death after all; which is all the Dah-Hoth, and the minions of a reality twister like that cartoon obsessed Jim thing would bring here.”

    “What?” thinks Sally AKA the ghostly avatar of Satasar, “Mother? Who is this? What entity…no, Scrags’ body is being held like a woman’s, like royalty…oh damn it all…and this talk of some mother and guardian deities?”

    Sally extends her mind from its dark slumbering place far at the other end of the world. If one were to be able to see in this cold ink black chamber one would only see a pair of glowing red eyes in the darkness.

    “Death Hunters.” Sally says aloud to who ever is possessing Scrags, “There are Death Hunters on my world, and not just the one sent by The Thing Named Jim.”

    Scrags smiles, or rather the body smiles in response to who ever is controlling him.

    “No,” says Sally to the possessed Scrags, “You are one of them aren’t you?”

   Sally over her long years has sent her own ghostly minions out to explore; even into nearby dimensions, recalling the findings if these searches she says, “Death Hunters…The Netherworld is close to this universe.”

    “About right.” says a female voice now speaking as Scrags’ mouth remains shut.

    “This is not a death world,” says Sally, “Necra or Namia, which ever you be, this is no world for the likes of you! It is a living world, you have no claim here!”

    Scrags falls to the ground unconscious. In front of his sleeping form a ghostly image manifests. A wide dress made of what looks to be blackened dead leaves, a deathly snow white flat stomach, and a black armor brazier
holding up a pair of oversized deathly white breasts. The sides of her abdomen are held by what looks to be the sides of a corset with the straps sewn into her flesh and under her skin, with the back sewn into an exposed spinal column. Her thin deathly white neck holds up a gorgeous exotic face with pointed chin and high cheek bones. Her high black widows peak of hair going down her back into a braid interwoven into her spinal column.

     With her white pupil-less eyes she looks at Sally, a smile crossing her death face that curdle milk. Her hands are bone, the flesh stopping just above the elbows.

    She points an accusatory finger at Sally and speaks in her queenly voice, “The rules say nothing about what type of deity can rule this world. A death goddess is as suited as a chaos goddess, perhaps even more so. Ghosts wander this world, skeletons, zombies, this world is home to undead creatures as well as living ones. Clearly a chaos goddess is ill-suited to maintain balance here.”

    “Your opinions don’t matter Namia.” says Sally, “The mother goddess of this universe gave me this world herself, you can not take it from me!”

    “Weren’t you listening?” says Namia, “Mother knows you are the one that manipulated events so those foolish humans would summon the Dah-Hoth, mother knows you allowed them to come here, and even partook in aiding them, or perhaps they were aiding you, in an attack on some school or something. How drab, how beneath a goddess to bother with some human adventurers…or perhaps she’s back? That little up-start you were so…how should I say this, hissy about not so long ago.”

     *Ha, haaa, haaa, haaa!*

      “You are such a silly little goddess, in either case your competence as a guardian deity has come into question, so anyone who wants to is free to try and wrestle control of this world from you. Personally I abhor direct conflict, so I’ll just show mother who is better at keeping this world balanced with out resorting to petty acts of violence, not that it would really take much for someone like me to defeat something like you.”

    With another high pitched laugh Namia vanishes like the very ghosts she rules over.

     Sally scowls, “I won’t let Rhulan rule this world, I will not let Namia rule this world, and I know you’re watching Ro-Ko-Naka, I won’t let anyone else rule this world either.”

    She thinks to herself as she vanishes, “If only my body were free I’d end all this in a heartbeat!”

   ******

   About twenty minutes later Scrags’ fingers start to move and his eyes open, “Damn…it…” he says with a horse voice.

   He strains to raise himself, feeling his body gaining more mobility by the moment, “Possession,” he says, “body control, distant mind puppetry, what ever else, shit, specialty powers like those are just shit, down right creepy. Bitch could have at least left my eyes open when she dropped me on the ground paralyzed. Or you know better yet blocked my memory and awareness like the puppet master thieves we have in the guild. Definitely no amateur though to leave me paralyzed, bitch must have just been sadistic.”

    He shakes him self as the feeling comes completely back to him thinking, “Sally, Namia, Rhulan, shit how many high level psychos with the special ability of immortality are wandering around this fricken world still? I could have sworn the archives said most of those freaky ass holes all left like right after we all got here. Guess they’re all still around thinking they’re gods or some weird shit.”

   He lifts up his bag, “Never mind Scrags ole boy, get Rhulan, Namia, Sally, and all that weird shit out of your head you got a job to do.”

   That night at a designated spot along the coast line, at the dock of a small fishing village Scrags meets up with two individuals, a blond woman in a business suit and her brother an orange haired man in a t-shirt and jeans, better known as Pillage and Plunder. With few words he gets in the boat with them, each having a bag like his filled with loot.

    “Well, well, well,” says the man by the name of Plunder, “you think these three bags full of trinkets is enough to make up for the lost golden egg class swag old man Scrags here lost from Stratalia.”

    Before Scrags can say anything Plunder’s sister Pillage snaps at Plunder, “Shut it Plunder! Don’t be saying anything like that around our contact. As far as they know this is from Stratalia, and many times more the weight they asked for. This stuff may be just treasure and trinkets in Stratalian territory, but to the Magnus Empire magic objects are like gold for their research departments, so long as neither of you two brought anything as worthless as potions or luck charms we should be good.”

    Scrags opens his back which meets her approval, however several vials of liquids and herbs are tossed into the sea from Plunder’s bag as she sifts through it.

   “Talking shit doesn’t cut it.” says Pillage, “and why would you think some scientist from the Magnus Empire would want a love potion?”

   Plunder just shrugs meeting a “fine” from Pillage.

   Scrags doesn’t react instead opting to lean back by the golem motor pushing them through the water thinking to himself, “I’d call that sibling rivalry, but I think its more like schizophrenia or something, although one person with two bodies yelling at him…her…what ever…self, oh forget it. Crazy ass group A traded for crazy ass group B, story of my life.”