Darkness Binding 2: Part Two

      The eyes came into focus as they approached. Yellow, catlike eyes moved towards him until a few feet away. As they approached, the murmuring voice became louder, slowly making more sense. It was a deep, yet soothing voice. Soon, they said, "Thank you, father."

      Without any feeling from his jaw, Skotados asked, "How am I your father? What are you?"

      "You brought me into your plane," it replied. "In your plane, I am your spawn. You showed me so much, and now you allow me to see so much more."

     Skotados continued to look into the eyes as if he had a choice. "Go to someone else to see. I don't want you in my life. You have only broken me down."

      A laugh was hissed out by the eyes, "Come now, you're not broken. I have strengthened you. You are infused with me, and that is something divine. You shouldn't think so coldly of me."

      "Why are you doing this to me," he asked desperately.

      The eyes replied, "I don't want to remain in the shadows. You don't know how boring and simple it is here. Consume dark matter, release it as a waste that is then recycled back into dark matter, and consume more. The others can sustain the plane while I go back into your exciting land."

      Skotados wanted desperately to look away. He wanted to run. He wanted to escape. He wanted to wake.

      The eyes continued to speak. "I'm glad you knocked that rock away. I was nearly doomed to boredom. Now we may grow in power together, and perhaps have some fun. You give me so much power, and now you get to use it to help me."

      Skotados growled to the eyes, "Leave my power alone! You will not have it!"

      The eyes narrowed upon hearing him speak those words. With another hiss, it said, "A shame you don't want to be friends. I suppose I can handle things from here. It's already morning, anyway."

     Skotados could feel his heart skip a beat in the dream. "How can you know that," he questioned with worry.

     "I can feel the sunlight hitting your back," it said matter-of-factly. "I suppose I better free myself now before you resist too much."

<><><>

In the waking world, Skotados's body laid asleep on the mat with the pillow next to him. Sweat rolled off of him profusely as he occasionally twitched a leg or ear. The sunlight from the window slowly receded from his; blocked out from the expanding aura from his body. The fur over his entire body stood on end, as if from static. A black mist rose from his skin, coming from every pore in his body. It collected into a thick cloud of darkness above him, condensing into a sphere no larger than a baseball. The air around the sphere rippled and a tear opened up from the sphere, spreading over the length of Skotados. The shadow's tentacles reached out and pushed the tear wide. Slow bringing its head through the fissure, it looked at the unconscious Neopet with delight before leaping into him. The fissure snapped shut, leaving the air rippling for a few seconds after its disappearance.

      Skotados's eyes slowly opened as darkness fogged over them, making the eyeballs all as dark as the pupil. He stood up with staggering balance. The gray fur covering his body shaded over like his eyes, but then grew longer. As he turned around, the end of the fur left a thin trail of lingering shadow lasting a few seconds before vanishing. He stretched out his forearms and shook his head. With a smirk forming at his mouth, his eyes changed from black to yellow and he looked over at the light coming from the window. He laughed and said, "I must say, that's definitely better."

<><><>

After Skotados was possessed, Cray approached the front door of the house. He unsuspectingly knocked on the door and waited for Skotados to answer. After a couple minutes, Cray knocked again. For two more minutes, there was no answer. Looking upward for a second, Cray yelled, "Hey, Skotados, wake up! I'm here to check up on you!"

     Through the door was the sound of a low, continuous growl. Cray got a worried look on his face and cautiously put his hand on the knob. Upon doing that, the door flew off the hinges with a single, loud bang. Cray was knocked five feet away with the broken door on top of him. He quickly pushed the door to the side and said, "What the..."

     Sight of Skotados stopped him from talking and widened his eyes. The shadow vessel took a few steps forward, shadows flowing off his form as he moved. Skotados kept its eyes locked on Cray's. He kept walking towards Cray, wearing no emotion on his face. Cray only laid in the grass and staring back at the creature.

     They were interrupted when a beam of light energy flew from the side, hitting Skotados on his right side and knocking him to the ground. Cray looked to the side to see Yorvick charging at them. Cray stumbled to his feet to stand at Yorvick's side once he got there. They both looked at Skotados as he scrambled to all fours and bared his teeth at them.

     "So," Skotados said, "the two of you return to my presence. Hoping I'll just leave again if you give the opportunity?"

     Yorvick's eyes widened as much as Cray's. The two stood silent for a moment before Cray broke the silence with, "Leave now and we can get you out of this place again. I don't know how you got back, but you don't have to stay in this plane."

     The shadow took a step forward. "Why would I want to got back? It's more exciting here, and it's not like I'm ignorant now. Besides, I know the two of you can only do something about it if I go willingly."

     Yorvick rose his fists to his shoulders as they grew with light energy. "Cray, you're the expert, so can it still paralyze with a single hit?"

     Cray whipped his tail on the ground and stepped forward as he replied, "Nope."

     The two charged at Skotados, Cray from the ground and Yorvick from the sky. At the same time, Skotados pounced at them and ran straight for Cray. Yorvick darted downward, Cray opened his jaws to bare his teeth, and Skotados jumped towards Cray's face. Just before any of them hit one another, Skotados burst into shadows and reformed on Cray's back. Yorvick landed on his hands and rolled on the ground. Cray twisted around and tried to swipe at Skotados, but couldn't reach. Skotados extended his claws and jabbed them into Cray's back. Cray screamed as Skotados mockingly said, "Well, doesn't this seem familiar?"

     Cray swung his tail to smack Skotados off his back. Before he could pounce at Cray again, Yorvick shot off another blast of light. Skotados attempted to burst into shadows to avoid it, but took the hit halfway between the transition. With a loud growl, he stayed together and was knocked seven feet away. He was stunned for a moment from the blast, but looked up at them with a vicious smile. With their moment of hesitation, Skotados quickly sank down into the shadows being cast by the grass. Yorvick and Cray looked around them, trying to be wary of everything around them. Without warning, two shadow tendrils shot from the ground and sent them both four feet into the air before curving around and slamming them on the ground. The tendrils then returned to the ground and Skotados left the area with a deep laugh.

<><><>

The two sat in chairs in Yorvick's kitchen. Smooth, wooden chairs surrounded a table in the middle of the room. Some steaks sat on three plates scattered on the table. The floor was covered in white, ceramic tiles. Cray sat backwards in his chair, back facing Yorvick. Yorvick was busy putting bandages on the wounds from Skotados's claws. The wounds weren't deep, but they did break the skin.

     As Yorvick put the bandages on, he could only think to say, "I guess a straightforward approach is out of the question."

     Cray said with anger in his tone, "We were premature. I don't even know what we can do to help him. For all we know, there isn't anything to do."

     Yorvick paused his hands for a moment before he finished up with the bandages. "Alright, just leave those on for a while."

     Cray turned and yelled, "We don't even know where he is! Our friend is out there and we're having to deal with our wounds!"

     Yorvick stood and walked out the door into the living room. Cray sighed and walked after him. After going through the door, Cray saw Yorvick take a sword down off a stand on the wall. Yorvick turned towards Cray and calmly said, "Let's go find him. If we can at least knock him out, then we can try to free him. It's the only chance we've got."

     Cray turned to the exit and left without another word. Yorvick figured he was leaving to start the search, so he followed behind. Once they were both outside, Cray said, "I have to go somewhere. It should only be a couple of days, but it'll give me the answers we need. Try to make sure he stays out of trouble."

     Yorvick formed a confused look on his face and asked with a hard voice, "What do you mean you have to go somewhere? Where could you possibly have to go that's more important than finding Skotados first?"

     "I can't say," Cray replied without facing him, "I just have to go. It's a very secret area, which not many know about. When I come back, I'll know what to do. Just promise me you'll keep him at bay."

     Yorvick sighed before responding with, "This better be worth it."

     With that, Cray walked off towards the docks.

To be continued...