[NOTICE] Zana - The Favorite (Tartara Seabreeze)

[Guardian_Iris]

As the pae known as Zana sleeps, a golden twinkling butterfly flits towards her and disappears in her head.

===================

Zana is having a beautiful dream of a dashing male pae there to rescue the Princess from the evil horde of monsters. The prince flies in on his beautiful and majestic shiny, white pegasus and picks up his love whom he's meeting for the first time but her beauty is truly magical. Zana, seating side-saddle in the princes' lap smiles with a tiny tear at the corning of her eye. "I love you, my prince!"

Down below where the evil monster horde are reaching up to try to separate the two, the princes' pegasus kicks the tower and knocks it down, crashing down to crush the monsters so the pair can flee into the sunset where they will marry, have beautiful kids and live happily ever after.

However, nothing is ever that easy.

Zana's eyes slowly close and a smile pulls at the side of her mouth.She kisses the prince, and inhales. When done, she licks her lips and taps a finger to the corner of her mouth to catch any left over. "Deee-lish." Gently, the prince is left to rest on the ground. His majestic pegasus is having a conniption, kicking and trying to stomp the pink demon for what she has done. Purple glares in her eyes and she holds out her palm. "Here, horsey, horsey" The hilt of a dagger appears, with no blade. She stabs the horse in the heart with the hilt, and the once beautiful and majestic steed fell to the ground.

Zana grabbed the hilt to her dagger, pulling it from the horse as blood drips over the invisible blade. She wipes it on the silky white fur of the horse and once again her attention is on the prince. She wasn't quite finished. Turning to her lover she hides the dagger hilt in her hand. "Sweety, are feeling okay?" She pouted and went to sit by his side. He was not dead, but he was drained of almost all of his life energy. She lay by his side, snuggling up to the dear prince and nuzzles his hair and whispers ever so softly in his ear. "This will only hurt a second." And with that, she plunged the dagger into his chest, breaking his sternum and piercing his heart,

The deceivingly innocent-looking demon pushed herself up, and slowly slid her finger from his cheek, down his neck and up the hilt of her dagger. "It's nothing personal, my love." She kissed his cheek and pulled the dagger from the center of a spreading purple mark. The dagger glowed bright with the color of the Taint, dripping a brilliant crimson blood all over the white tunic of her hero. At the tip of the glowing dagger, a simple little spark. Just a little thing, tiny ball of light, like a dying sparkler.

Zana let the spark crystallize and added it to a velveteen satchel. She wiped the blood from her dagger on the shirt of her prince and once in it was clean and in her palm, it disappeared. In all the fuss, she managed to not get a drop of blood upon her person.

"Master will be pleased."

====================

Uneasy, Zana rolls in her bed, interrupting her REM sleep only briefly enough to stop the current dream.

====================

But it wasn't enough to clear her dreaming mind completely.

Zana lay in the soft grass in the courtyard of the brilliant alabaster City of the most dominant race in all of Telrunya. Her brother, Raken, sat beside her, reading from one of the thousands of books he's read from the library. She rolled to face her adoring brother and plucked a blade of grass to twirl in her fingers. "Are you really, truly the hero of the City?" she asked with such enthusiasm and awe.

Proudly, Raken looked to her and gave a nod before continuing on with The Theory of Everything. Zana knew this to be his favorite book, and she loved to hear the excitement in his voice knowing he was able to share his intellect with those he loved most. He sure did love the island!

A pair of eyes with a purple twinkle watched the pair from behind a statue in the garden. Zana shot up straight, and looked again. It was gone. But behind her, she could hear her brother gurgling her name. She turned to watch her own self stab her brother through his back with that same hilt. She reached out, trying to cry 'no' but the deed was done.

Zana pulled the blade from her brother's back and it glowed purple, but there was no spark. She grew angry and grabbed Raken's head to throw his dying body to the side. "Hero my a** ... " she muttered as she walked away.

The real Zana lay crying over his body.

========================

Still sleeping and in and out of the lucid dream stage, Zana kicks her covers off and rolls on the bed, begging for the nightmare to end.

========================

Camping in Ithyl Forest, not quite ready to return home to the Fortress, Zana considered her options. She hasn't met her quota and the sparks she's gathered have been good, but not great. She needed one really good one and then she'd be rewarded handsomely. That is why this is a perfect campsite.

The sound of rustling heading towards her alarmed the demon. She stood, watching in the direction from which the noise came. She grinned and flapped her wings to left up into the trees. Her keen eyesight caught her prey coming directly for her campsite. She waited for him to stop to investigate the campsite, as the fire was still lit and a delicious salmon cooked on an old pan.

A wild dog burst from the bushes and stopped abruptly. He sniffed the air, but it was hard to sniff anything out because of the cooking food. Zana grinned and her eyes glowed purple.

The dog growled as she dropped in front of him. "Mighty Messenger. May take a peek in your bags?" She dug her toe in the dirt and gave a flirty smile. "Nice doggy." she giggled.

The wild dog was having none of that. Blood pae are the enemy and he was not going to willingly hand over important communications between the trees to her, of all pae. He his hackles grew and he growled staring his enemy down.

"Oh please. I know who you are. Everypae knows of the King of the Trees' messenger boy." Zana swirled her slender tail in her hands and sashayed towards the dog, obviously not afraid of him. "Come here pwetty puppy, I scwatch yah widdle tummy." She mocked as her fingers grew to claws.

The dog jumped and attacked, but was not fast enough to avoid the jagged claws ripping across his gut. Without the willpower to old his form, the Circle's Mo was on knees, holding an arm over his bleeding midsection.

His hate for her only fueled her desires even more. She held her hands behind her back and the claws disappeared, but the dagger hilt appeared in one palm. She approached, slowly. 'Can I have it yet, or do I have to take it the hard way?"

"You'll never get this package!" Mo screamed at her.

"That's not what I'm after, but thank you for letting me know it's important.' She licked her lip and leapt to Mo, dagger out.

Mo immediately burst up, his golem form ready to take on this worthless blood pae.

But he was too late.

The dagger hit his chest only seconds before the transformation. And by bulking himself up, he actually aided her cause in hitting the soft meat under all that rocky armor. He merely stood there and watched as she struggled and pulled the dagger from out between the cracked rock chest piece. The blade glowed a brilliant purple and on the tip was the most electric and bright spark she's ever seen. Zana's eyes lit because as bright as the spark as it crystallized into the most beautiful crystal.

Mo's golem forum shrunk and he just stood on his knees, his eyes wide, nearly looking like they'd pop from their sockets. His regenerative faun body was trying to heal an unhealable purple wound.

His large transformation had burst the straps from his messenger bag. Zana danced on towards it and picked it up. "I think I'm gonna get a bonus for this."

Still, Mo's body did not die ...

========================

What happens next?

It is up to you to finish Zana's dream sequence!

You have until --March 26th, 2018--to complete the task in order to move on to the next step.

Tartara Seabreeze

 

[Tartara Seabreeze]

This was a nightmare.

The shift in and out of lucidity gave her brief pockets of thought, arriving enough to bring her confusion and fear but leaving before she reached understanding. This was so wrong for the gentle and shy demon.

A more horrifying nightmare didn't exist for her, and she barely knew it.

Warm blood coated her body from her latest kill, spilled on her when her dagger had met target. He had been a worthy opponent, but she knew how to fight in hand to hand combat. Poor little faun. He looked so sad, collapsed on the ground. Gasping for air. "I do so appreciate you picking the hard way. More fun Precious, I'm sure you understand." She spoke to husk of a pae. Was he still alive? A pause to stare at his body before nodding when his chest gave a slight twitch under all that rock. Good, it was just morbid to talk to a dead body.

She flipped open her new messenger bag, yes it was now hers. She won it fair and square. What was so important? Peering down into the delicate sheets of paper within, she cursed under her breath. Zana couldn't understand a word of it. No doubt they had thought to write in code. No matter, her master would easily crack it. "As much as I'd love to stay, I've got better things to do." She slowly bent to be eye level with the wound she had inflicted on him. "I could finish you right now, end your suffering and spare you the agonizing final minutes as your body slowly gives up." As she spoke she slowly brought up a clawed finger, and gently tapped it on his rocky chest piece. The blood on her hand shown most beautifully in the firelight. "But where's the fun in that? Toodles puppers." The demon threw her head back in a laugh before straightening. With the bag in hand, she moved over to the center of her campsite. Quickly gathering her things while eating tidbits of her salmon. When finished, both old pack and new slung on her shoulders, she moved to the firepit. She kicked at the ground around it to shower dirt on the flames, killing the fire. No light nor food to attract a curious traveler. Hardly a trace of her left. The only thing behind was ashes and a carcass.

Satisfied that she had met her quota, the demoness jumped into the sky to fly from the scene of her crime. No footprints, no broken twigs to give away where she was going, she knew who he was after all. Every pae knew of the King of the Trees. He'd be noticed missing, and a search party would be sent. And it just wouldn't do to be discovered early.

Her flying was slowed by her bags, but the cover of night shielded her from the casual gaze. The demoness was heading home with her quota met, and extra credit to boot.


Outside of her dream as she tossed and turned, tears streaked her soft face. Escaped from the corners of her closed eyes.  

[Tartara Seabreeze]

With the violence behind her and the ruffling of the wind in her hair as she flew, Zana's nightmare had almost turned peaceful. She flew and flew for hours until the first beams of light streaked across the sky.

Until she wasn't alone in the sky anymore.

WHOOSH!

Something whizzed by her head, missing her by a few feet. She started midair, eyes locking on the object as it continued up before falling. An arrow?! SOMEONE SHOT AN ARROW AT HER!

The demon sharply turned, wings fluttering to steady her to hover as she scanned the bottom.

A green faun with cold eyes held a bow in hand, another arrow already notched and pointed at her. Beside him, two brown spotted faun brandished a spear and knife.

Three against one simply wasn't fair.

Time to go! As the next arrow was let loose, Zana promptly pulled in her wings to drop a few feet before snapping them out to catch her. The arrow sailed over her head where her body had once been.

How did they find her? They couldn't have tied her to Mo so quickly! Scouts in the area that came upon her by happenstance? She snarled. "I can't play brother dearest! Buzz off Kaiden!" The demon shouted down. Yes. Kaiden. The last adopted by Tartara.

She used his moment of surprise to quickly turn and flit off again. She'd never outrun or outfly them, not completely to hide her final destination. Not with her packs.

In the sky though with it becoming day, she stuck out like a sore thumb. Though it aggravated her, Zana pulled her wings in again to drop like a stone. Snapping her wings out just before the tree line to glide, slowing her descent before dropping into a large hole in the foliage. This quick drop hopefully made it hard to follow with their on foot perspective.

Her feet softly crunched on the ground, and her body collapse down with it to become low as possible. She couldn't outrun a faun. She couldn't outfly with her packs. Perhaps if she just left with the messenger bag, but she didn't want to leave behind one scrap of her.

No, her best bet was to hide. And wouldn't you know there was a rather large fox den nearby? Crouched low, she shuffled over to it before laying on her belly. Now if there were any foxes in it, they'd be most displeased. But she'd simply kill them, and then they wouldn't be angry anymore. Make herself a fox scarf.

Wiggling into the burrow feet first, it was infact empty. Almost disappointing that. She was careful to move slowly, taking care to not leave foot prints or smudges. With any luck, they'd miss her landing foot prints and thing she continued flying or teleported, or that she landed only to resume flying.

Then she waited, her fingers clawed at the ready incase she had to fight her way out.

She heard voices from behind her. They knew she dropped around there, but not exactly where. Just one soft foot print from her landing in a rather large area.

After what seemed like an eternity, the quiet shuffling of hooves moved away. Still she waited.

The sun climbed up in the sky and her eyes burned from lack of rest.

Still she waited.

Only when the sun had slipped back into night did she wiggle from her den. She felt safer under the cover of night. This time, she continued on foot. They'd be looking for her in the sky.

~~~~~~

Zana climbed up the stairs leading up to the Fortress, her home. Finally. She threw open the door and waltzed inside, throwing her pink hair back.

From down one of the corriders, a soft voice cooed. "Is that Zana? Come here. Welcome home~"

She licked her lips as she angled towards the room where her mistress awaited. With her quota met and extra credit to boot, she surely was solidified as The Favorite.


OOC: Heyo! I hope this is still in the deadline, just wanted to add a quick somethin more after my trip 3nodding