Land of Nightmares

Land of Nightmares


Long ago when the planes were still young an illness befell the land, a sickening plague that cast the planes into eternal darkness and horror. The sky’s clouded over and masked the suns face with an impenetrable black veil. As the shadows grew thicker creatures and peoples started to emerge, with hearts and minds as black as the place to which they originated. Some are lucky enough to be named the Shadowborn, those born with the innate ability to control the shadows and to some extent the creatures within them. Occasionally the Land of Nightmares sucks in the unsuspecting passerby, thrusting them into the great maw of the planes.
By name the Nightmare realm is a place of constant chaos where nothing is a certainty. How would one make do and survive in such a place, local or foreign?
Live or die those are your choices…

a piercing shreak sounded as what seemed to be a winged beast flew overhead, its wings and body seeming to consist of a black mist that would form then dissappear as it reached the boundries of its shape.

Nika lowered his giant head and nudged at Uitalia's back as they walked, his hulking form shadowing that of Uitalia. "Soon my pet soon," she said in a cooing, eerily soothing voice as her footfalls whipped up small puffs of ash from the barren land that they walked. They had been walking for days towards The Midlands where it was roumored work and food was available. The land that they traversed now had been scorched and blackned by the sky where nothing would grow not even the most heardy of grasses. The land on which they walked upon was volcanic, red hot veins ran along the crumbly ashen soil, the heat was likewise unbearable in most spots and so was the constant stifiling smell of sulphur in the air.
Nika nudged her again, harder than the last pushing her forward slightly. The look in his eerie white eyes was obvious... hunger.
Uitalia let out a curt sigh and dug in the pack at her side before throwing back a piece of crudely cut meat which Nicka instantly snapped within his jaws, swollowing the meat as if it was nothing. Soon after he persisted again and attemped to snatch the bag away from his master.
"Nika!" Uitalia said as she replied with a sharp smack across Nika's snout, baring her teeth and letting out a short growl as she did so, a sign of dominace. Nika obviously recognised the action as he lowered his body closer to the ground to appear smaller than the other, a sign of submission.
"Thats better. Well never get to the Midlands with the way youre going. now shush!" Of cource Nika couldnt understand a word she was saying but her body language talked for her, a guesture that he could easily understand... piss off...

Another high pitched yell filled the air. This one however came from the ground, and from a human. The young human called Jaden ran through the volcanic wasteland desperately trying to find a place that didn't scorch the bottom of his feet. "OW OW OW OWWWW!!!!" He cried while jumping around. He found solace in a blackened tree which he quickly scrambled up and sighed with relief. "Finally.. Thought for a moment i was a goner." He brought his foot up closer to his face so he could see how badly they had been burnt. "Wow... Reeeaally should have put on some shoes first..... AND WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO COME OUT HERE ANYWAYS?!" He yelled out to no one in particular. As he listened to his scream echo the tree that he was hanging onto for dear life began to crack. "Oh no.... no no no noooooo......" Within seconds the tree shattered under his weight and Jaden fell onto the steaming ground on his back. With an ear shattering scream he jumped to his feet and ran off pleading to the gods that he would find something half way cool to rest on.

Not long after their brief exchange of 'words' Nika stopped following Uitalia and thrust his head high in the air, his ears swivling from side to side to better catch the noise.
"Nika! lets move before we become something else's food." she began to walk again before Nika bit into a tattered part of her right glove, stopping her in her tracks. "Nika!" she said with a mild irritation in her voice before she heard the noise too. "Thats not like any beast i know." she said quietly to herself before she backed away towards Nika's hulking form. "Hut!" she directed before Nika lowered his back and allowed Uitalia to clamber up onto his back, his form big enough to allow Uitalia to sit on his back and hold onto his neck without causing discomfort for either of them. (piggybacks werent uncommon either depending on the situation.)
Without further provocation from Uitalia Nika lowered to all fours and sprang forward, pounding the loose soil with his paws.

After ahwile Uitalia urged Nika to a slowed hault as another scream hit their ears, close enough to cause temporary deafness. Uitalia shifted forward to Nika's shoulders and allowed the beast to stand, master sitting comfortably atop its broad shoulders. The height advantage making them look more imposing to lesser beasts. "Nika.... if you will." she said as she guestured her hand forward. Without protest the beast recognised the command and inhaled sharply before letting out a bellowing roar which ecchoed across the empty plains.

Upon hearing the loud roar Jaden's fear grew exponentially causing him to shut his eyes and run even faster. AS fate would have it, The young man was running straight towards the beast which made the sound. This he discovered as he ran directly into it with such force that the impact knock Jaden back and flopped him to the ground like a rag doll. He laid there and groaned for a few moments till he looked up to see what he ran into. Seeing the giant beast a few mere inches away from him Jaden naturally went into shock. He scrambled back up to his feet and half crawled half ran in the opposite direction all the while babbling incoherently.

Even with Nika's huge form and steady balance the impact sent him back a bit, causing Uitalia to jump from her perch before she fell off. Uitalia shook her head for a moment before she looked at what caused the impact. Before she could do anything however it was already up and running away. "The hell.... is a human doing this far out???" she said to herself as she watched him run, astounded at the lack of foot protection. She let out a sharp sigh before finishing her last scentance, "Dumbass is going to get himself killed.." Uitalia waited ahwile before she felt Nika's white questioning eyes on her.
"Nika.... Fetch..."
No guesture was needed as the beast understood what he was asked to do. Nika lowered to all fours for speed and raced forward towards the poor human. Rather than just draging the human by the collor of his shirt, Nika forced his body to the side and skidded infront of his victem, his snout coming Inches away from Jaden's face, but he diddnt bring him back then oh no. Nika danced around the human for ahwile, to anyone but Uitalia it might of looked like a cat cornering a helpless mouse before ripping it apart. But to Nika it was but a harmless game. After a few moments of this Nika eventually snapped at Jaden's waist, teeth just brushing agasint his skin as Nika grabbed firm hold of Jaden's belt, teeth piercing both his lower jacket and shirt before wraping themselved firmly around the belt.

After a bit of struggling Nika picked the human up and carried him over to his master, once setting Jaden down at Uitalia's feet he placed a large paw on each of Jaden's shoulders to keep him in place.

Not having a single doubt in his mind that he was about to die Jaden did the only thing he could do. Curled up into a ball and pleaded and cry for his life. He began to mutter something about how the other boys in his village made him go out on a wild goose chase and about how he was a completely failure at everything and would really rather not die before he had a chance to prove that he wasn't one.

Uitalia squatted to bring herself face to face with this human, her arms rested easly on her knees and despite her appearance was wel balanced in the position, she lent forward placing her face merely inches away from the pleading Janden's nose. "Lelo bat eta koldarra zara." she said with slight disgust, a phraze in her kinds native toung the translation being 'Youre an idiot and a coward." a phaze of great dishonor in the tribes. "i should leave you here to die considering you were moving in the direction of the Skybeasts lair." She stared at him for a long uneasy moment with her oddly colored green eyes before getting to her feet. "Im taking you to the nearest city before you get yourself killed... corpses dont bother me, but what does bother me is that youll be feeding the beasts an easy meal." Without regard of Jaden's personal desicions she commanded Nika to take the lead. Shortly after xurling his massive paws around Jaden's waist and flinging him over his shoulder Nika began padding towards the praposed position of the city.
Uitalia all the while keeping up from the back ensuring Jaden diddnt d something stupid.
"You got a name or do i have to call you Koldarra." she said more as a statement than a question.

At that moment Jaden was far too scared to notice the woman in front of him's features, which was probably for best considering whenever he tried to talk to cute girls he more often then not froze up on the spot. Though him being too terrified to even speak properly wasn't doing him any good either. " Oh please don't kill me or feed me to your giant dog thing. Please i know coming here was stupid and i never should have even thought of it but everyone told me to leaveandididn'tknowwheretogo and. and and and, they told me not to come back or they'd string me up and let the crows eat me unless i brought back a live creature from out here and i couldn't find anything small enough for me to catch and bring back!!! So pleeaaase don't take me back there!!!" After such a long monolouge it was no wonder that Jaden was out of breathe and only heard every other thing the woman had said to him.

After ahwile of Jadens endless pleading and moaning she could feel her ears go numb, even Nika showed his distress by rolling his eyes every now and then.
"FOR THE LOVE OF ... SHUT UP!!!" she said as she put her hands over her ears. "If theres one thing i cant stand is your constant snivvling!" Nika stopped in his tracks before dumping the human onto the grownd before padding behind Uitalia and laying himself down, resting his giant head on the grownd in a more sundued stance. The ground here consisted of hardned lava rock and as such the ground was much cooler.

Uitalia rubbed her temples for a moment as iff to dispell a headache. "now if you would just keep your mouth shut for a few moments human and let me think i may not have to bury your corpse in a deep hole nearby."
Nika meanwhile slowly raied his paw closer and closer to the bag that contained the meats, in hope that he could grab it while his master wasnt peying attention.

"So all you need is a beast to go back from whence you came right?... right." she paused a moment "Since a snivling little snack like you wont last two seconds out here alone... even with a beast that you could possibly capture." she lat out a sharp sigh, her eyes staring directly at his, a calculating gaze, "ill get you what you need... IF you agree never to show your face in the south of the land nore anywhere near me understood??"
She paced round him for a moment, looking over his figure as if to calculate a best fit. "Youre a luck bastard you know that?" she said with a slight smirk on her face, "As it just so happnes that you ran into a master of the beasts and their toungs."

Just as she said that Nika's hand closed round the bag and ripped it from her side, just before theroing it into teh air and catching it in his mouth.
"NIKA!" Uitalia shouted before thrusting a powerful smack at Nika's nose, detertring him away. After a second he lay down on his back and exposed his throat, whimpering slightly.
"Peh.... stupid animal... did you have any beast in mind Koldarra?"