Times Flow

Shadow blinked in surprise once more as the Poe appeared; so it was a shadow creature, like him? His glowing red eyes looked over at the Poe, and a fanged smirk grew on his face when she threw her lantern at him.

"Just a ghost, huh?" he asked with the same smirk, looking at the Poe and giving a small nod. He then looked back at the man, frowning lightly. "Who are you?"

"I," he paused dramaticly, "am but a hopeless romantic searching for true love." He laughed whistfully and held out his hand. "name's Uada Sacra. your's?"

Shadow's expression remained the same deadpan, unamused, "are you fucking serious" expression from before as the man introduced himself in such a grandiose manner. He glanced down at the man's hand; but, never one for those kinds of introductions, he merely frowned and said as he looked back up at him, "You can call me Shadow. And I'll tell you this," he added with a warning growl under his breath, "You're 'searching' in the wrong place. All you'll find out here are dangerous shadow creatures- you SHOULD be inside, somewhere safe." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder behind him, glancing back as he continued, "There's a house a whiles behind me, you can find shelter there. I'm just keeping watch for the night."

"huh. you got a point. sure, i'll go, but i've got one question: any cute girls there?" Lucerna pouted.

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I said it once, I'll say it again- I'm watching over that house, AND everyone in it." He once more jerked his head to the house behind him. "Get a move on, this place isn't safe at night."

Uada thanked him and started towards the house. Lucerna stayed behind staring at Shadow, looking less at him than through him. After a few moments, she offered him an aproving nod and floated off to join Uada at the front of the house.

****

Carol wrapped her arms around her legs, curling into a ball on the chair. she was tired, to be sure, but she didn't feel like falling asleep just yet. Instead she made herself comfortable, closed her eyes, and listened to the smothered sound of wind outside. A sudden knock made her eyes shoot open. "Shadow must be back." she said to the others. She got up and opened the door.
"Welcome ba-" she stopped, realizing who it was. silence. Abruptly, she slammed the door and went back to her chair, looking as if she had seen a ghost. (no pun intended)
From outside, Uada could be heard calling. "CAROL! CAROL, IT'S ME! UADA!"

Shadow watched Uada as he went up to the house- and despite being a few feet away, he could definitely see Carol's terrified expression before she slammed the door on him.

Infuriated, Shadow ran up to the door, slamming Uada against the side of the house and holding his fist to the man's throat- his fist which was now surrounded in pulsing, swirling dark shadow magic.

"Alright now," he snarled, his blood-red eyes narrowed fiercely and his face aglow from the dangerous, threatening shadow magic, "Just who the hell ARE you?!"

Deserax had dozed a bit. Probably from boredom. That changed when he heard the door slam shut and Carol's face as white as a ghost.

"Woah! Carol, are you ok?"

"WHOA WHOA! I didn't do anything!" Uada choked, trying to pry Shadow's hand away from his windpipe. "I told you, i'm just a wanderer! I swear!" Lucerna glowed furiously around them, prepared to take the shadowy man on if he tried anything.
"I was just about to say hi to Carol! I know her from way back!"

****

Carol looked up and smiled wearily. "i'm fine, r-really. I shouldn't have slammed the door, it's just..." she looked outside, though she wasn't able to see Uada and Shadow. "...he's a guy i hoped never to see again." she paused for a moment of thought, then stood. "e-excuse me Deserax, i should probobly go apologize."

Shadow glanced to the side at the floating lantern, but his glowing red eyes only narrowed further as he snarled, looking at the Poe but speaking to Uada, "I can summon a dozen of my own 'pets' to take care of yours." He then glared back at Uada, keeping his fist clenched tight and pressed up against the other's throat, still surrounded by dark magic.

"Why should I believe you?" he growled threateningly at Uada, his fanged sneer clenched together in fury. "I saw the look on her face. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast your head off right now!"

At that moment, Carol stepped out the door and gasped. "Sh-Shadow?! what are you doing?" her eyes locked with Uada's, who seemed to be pleading with her. She frowned, and her fists clenched. "...put him down, please." she said with thinly veiled anger. Uada was overjoyed. "Carol, my love! you came to save me from this brute!!"
"QUIET." the huntress snapped. The harsh tone was unbecomming of her usually soft voice.

Shadow glanced only briefly to the side when Carol came, ordering him to release Uada. Still, he was well aware of the bitterness, anger, and perhaps even hurt in both her voice and expression- and though he stepped away from the man, releasing him, his fist remained clenched by his side, the shadow magic swirling around it only lessening slightly.

"Is this imbecile bothering you?" Shadow snarled, still keeping his narrowed, suspicious eyes upon Uada as he spoke to Carol.

Carol shook her head. "he'd better not, if he knows what's good for him." She said in the same sharp hiss as before. Uada frowned, but was not perturbed.
"But Fate has brought us back together! It must be a sign from the Goddesses that we were meant to be! It's just like a book I read, Eternal Love Forever Eternally!" He pulled a sappy romance book from his travel bag. It was filled with them.
Carol's eye twitched. "I will tell you only one more time: We are not lovers. We are not soulmates. We are never getting married, and I. Don't. Love. You."
Uada was quiet, pondering her words. When Carol was about to turn back inside, he spoke in almost a whisper. "I'm sorry. I think I understand now."
She was speachless.
"I understand that maybe you need more time. It's okay, I'll wait for you!"
Carol threw her hands in the air with frustration. "UUUHG!"

((btw, Uada is more or less harmless. think of him kinda like Broc for pokemon, and Carol is his Nurse Joy, much to her dismay))

( Lol, I kinda figured. xD Shadow just doesn't like those kind of guys and is pretty protective of women in general. )

Shadow watched the two squabble with growing distaste and exasperation. Finally, fed up with the nonsense, he stepped forward, taking charge and snapping, "Uada, leave her alone. Now if you two are quite done," he continued, looking at each of them in turn, "It's dark outside and both of you should be inside. I'll stay out here until morning. We'll leave for Death Mountain at sunup. Everyone okay with that?" Once more he looked between the both of them, his expression clearly showing that he did not have the patience for petty arguing.

Carol averted her eyes, embarassed that she had lost control . "y-yes of course. sorry to bother you with such trivial matters." She had returned to her usual temperment.
Uada nodded. "yes sir!" he saluted Shadow and went inside to make himself comfortable.
Carol waited till just after Uada left to speak again to Shadow. "um, thank you. f-for sticking up for me that is, even over something so ridiculous. it was... kind of you." With that, she said good night, and left Shadow to the dark.

Shadow glared at Uada as he walked inside, rolling his eyes in irritation. He said nothing to Carol as she spoke to him- but, before she could go inside, he'd stepped forward and held out his arm in front of her, stopping her briefly as he said firmly, "If he gives you any more trouble, just let me know." He then gave her a single nod and, letting her go inside, turned and once once more resumed his night-watch duty a couple feet in front of the house, standing still with his arms crossed and his narrowed, blood-red eyes glowing brightly in the dark as they looked endlessly out into the land around them.

"Ghugh..." a strange boy in his mid-teens uttered in pain as he fell to the ground, rolling about three times until he hit a tree. His golden cuffs stopped rattling when he came to a stop.

A grotesque shadow of what was once a man stood over him with hungry eyes, red glowing eyes sunk into his malformed deer-skull for a head. His bony jaws gaped open with needle sharp teeth and dripped with salivated blood. This Wendalfos, this mancreature with its ugly chest cavity and brutally scarred body, this thing with its mutated spine cutting out of his back with blood and puss seeping out, took one of its handmade tomahawks and turned it around to the spike which was opposite to the blade on the other side.

It raised its weapon and prepared to swing down at his head, to puncture his skull and end his life...

The boy came back to his senses and looked up, seeing death looming over him once more he refused to go down. It was the upmost importance that he didn't die, not here not now. It was his destiny to die in his homeland. So the he defied death, and crawled away in time to have this brute lodge his tomahawk into the flesh of the tree. The boy scrambled for his bejeweled sword and picked it up before jumping to his feet.

It was after he had done this, that the monster had released his weapon and prepared to throw it at him. Running on pure adrenaline and reflex the boy deflected the tomahawk with his blade and swung hard at the creature's shoulder. He expected a scream or an ungodly wail of pain, but nothing came out.

Wendalfos couldn't feel any pain, something that he would have never guessed. These were strange monsters in a strange land.

The monster shoved him away, making his hand slip away from his sword once more. This was the third time this had happened, for the boy was oh so inexperienced in swordplay. He would never think that an opponent would be aiming to get his weapon out of his hand. So the boy noted this. He then shot right back up as soon as his rear hit the dirt, and fearlessly dislodged the bloodied sword from the Wendalfos' shoulder.

He took a sloppy stance, awaiting this killer beast's next strike...

( Quick question, where is this happening in relation to the house? )

(Somewhere slightly far from it, in the dark heart of the woods.)

( Okay. )

Shadow hadn't been standing outside long when he began to feel something... His red eyes glowing in the darkness, he frowned as his brow slightly furrowed, and his chin lifted upwards. Being a shadow creature himself, he could feel and sense when there were other creatures of darkness nearby... And there was one quite close to them, moreso than before. Either one was directly approaching them, passing by, or... Shadow blinked. What if it were attacking someone? Reluctantly with a stubborn frown, he glanced idly behind him at the house- could he afford to leave it again, if only for a short time? Last time he did, they picked up an unwanted guest (Uada, that is), but everyone inside was at least alright.

Once more, despite himself, Shadow's attention was drawn back outside, as if something invisible were pulling him to the dark creature's location. He scowled bitterly in distaste at this- but, knowing it would be practically useless to keep trying to resist it, sighed as he began to walk towards it. However, after a few steps, the feeling grew stronger- and so did the sounds that came along with it. The clang of metal, the sounds of a scuffling... A fight was taking place. His pace quickened as he ran into the woods, his blood-red eyes glowing as they practically hovered in the blackness, the rest of his black-clothed body disguised by the dark shadows of the trees and the night.

Finally, he burst through the tree-line, stopping instantly with his narrowed eyes fiercely set upon what was in front of him- a battle scene. A teenage boy, crudely handling a sword as he faced against a strange, redead-like monster. Shadow said nothing as he tore his eyes away from the boy and faced the monster- and he took a step forward, his hand lightly extended. A dark magic began to glow around his open palm- and in a split second, it had disappeared- but not without leaving something behind in the child's grasp. Gripping tightly the hilt of his sword, which had been summoned from nothingness, Shadow glared as he swung it lightly down by his side, preparing a skilled and powerful stance as he faced against the zombie. His attention stayed on the monster- but he said one thing aloud to the boy beside him.

"Stay behind me."

The boy glanced from the monster to Shadow. A sense of stubbornness and confidence took over his will for surviving to see another day, and forced him to disagree with this warrior of skill.

He noticed how flawless his stance was, and how he handled his weapon. Truly, this could be the warrior he was looking for...

And yet...

The boy shook his head and replied, "No. My kill." in a rather monotone way. He wanted to prove himself worthy, and possibly gain this skilled stranger's respect. It was too late for him to do anything else, for the monster had produced yet another tomahawk and threw it at the foreign lad. He fell back and barely missed it, dropping his sword in the process.

The monster let out a growling cackle and reached behind its back. With a sickening sound, the Wendalfos unsheathed its crudely shaped serrated longsword of meteorite metal...straight from the skin of its back. It suddenly turned to face Shadow, hoping for a challenge. Without warning, it charged like a bezerk savage and released a barrage of violent strikes.

Shadow glanced over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes.

"Idiot. Shove your pride elsewhere, you won't need it if you're dead," he said simply, bluntly, harshly- showing he didn't give a rat's ass about whatever sort of thought caused this boy to foolishly go up against something that could quite possibly kill him in one hit.

Instead, he looked back at the monster as it drew its sword towards him. Despite everything, Shadow gave a bitter, dark chuckle. "Oh, this should be fun," he muttered under his breath as he tightened the grip on his sword, his red eyes beginning to glow... And as the dark shadow-magic which had earlier appeared around his hands now began to swirl around the very, jagged and sharpened edge of his blade, he sneered as he charged the monster head-on, swinging it harshly and expertly at the monster's midsection, aiming to cleave it right in half where it stood, the magic swirling all around it and making it both an offensive and defensive weapon.

The monster's blade met with Shadow's, as it seemed that the monster's bezerk flurry of strikes was halted by Shadow's single powerful swing. Luckily, the monster's brute strength matched with the force of the attack. He was able to clash blades without staggering back or flinching. The monster took a step back and went for a vertical swing.

Shadow's moves were near effortless as he parried with the monster, his narrowed, red eyes calculating each move made by the monster and determining what its next would be, and how he would counter it. He'd created monsters like this before; he knew their fighting style as if it were his own. However, this was different- if anything, he was holding back so he could evaluate how these things fought. If he would be facing more creatures similar to this come morning, it would behoove him to know their tactics so he could more easily control them.

As it went in for a vertical swing, Shadow took a simple step backwards and held up his sword horizontally, deflecting the blade easily by having it strike the blunt side of his own sword. The dark blade rang out in a metallic clash as it was struck; but, as if it were made of a super-strong material, it hardly even scratched, and sparks seemed to fly off from the metal. Taking another step forward, his boots scuffing against the dirt and rock beneath him, Shadow sent another wave of dark magic through his body, channeling it though his arms and the sword he wielded. If all went well, as he pushed against the monster and sent the magic through it, it would be enough to make the beast stagger backwards; if so, this would be when Shadow took his chance and went in for a quick, beheading slice.

The monster seemed to buy, attempting to push back in the clash of their blades. What wasn't expected was the sudden burst of speed it showed by becoming a hazy shadow and darting back. The monster was now a few meters away from Shadow, breathing heavily with a growling voice. It suddenly zigzagged towards him with the same speed, kicking up dust and stones in its path.

It would slowly advance towards Shadow and take its time to finally make contact.