Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Azrael Erebus · (08-01-2018)

Nightmares. Those pesky little dream demons, that interrupt what might otherwise be a blissfully, peace filled moment of rest. Burrowing into our subconscious thoughts, they invoke the things that we most dread. Bringing forth a myriad of emotions that leave us in a state of unease. From memories that were long since buried to elaborate fantasies, concocted of the most darkest, deadly design. They plague and torment. Leaving one venerable and weak to their vicious attacks. Relentless, they unearth our weaknesses. Our fears, faults and deepest of sorrows. Nothing is off the table and everything is open game. They stir the pot and make us remember what we wish to forget. Unearthing monsters from the past that entice rage, regret and intense fright. It is a brutal assault. In the wake of which, we are left haunted. Shaken to the core. Like victims of a bombing, some are left shell-shocked. While others emerge untarnished, till the next blitz. We are all powerless to stop these creatures. Lest one ceases to sleep. Everyone is doomed to experience them, at one point or another. It is an equal opportunity onslaught upon us all. From the most frail to the mightiest of heroes, we are all subject to fall. For we all must rest at some point. Even that mysterious marvel that's journeyed from afar, the intrepid traveler of galaxies, the man from the stars - Azrael Erebus, isn't immune. And tonight would prove to be a prime example. As the spaceman slumbers and his mind journeys back to a time, when he wasn't the brave warrior who laughs in the face of danger and leaps straight into a fight. Back to a time when he was quite small... the moment when he lost it all.

It was a warm, sunny day in the village of Moonspire. Young Azrael Erebus was only ten years of age and far from the tall, commanding presence of a man, that he is today. Short and incredibly scrawny, with a mess of long black tangles, upon his head and wide, wild eyes that always seemed to be moving and darting to focus on something new, he might have been diagnosed with A.D.D - if he were a child living on Earth today. However, this was the planet Ozuul and the practice of medicating children, that didn't harbor some treacherous, disease wasn't a commonplace custom, so Azrael was simply taken as highly inquisitive, imaginative, an explorer and somewhat of a busy-body, at times. For he was always getting into something or another and quite often, those things led to some sort of a disaster. For instance, on this bright, radiant mid-afternoon, while his younger sister Alara sat picking flowers under a tree, Azrael found himself climbing that same tree, in order to investigate, a large, fuzzy orb that was growing from one of the branches. He'd seen them before and always wondered, what might be inside? On this day; however, he decided the time of wondering was through. For today, seemed like the appropriate moment, to make that discovery.

Higher and higher he climbed, hopping into the air and grasping onto branches, in order to pull himself up, he was now very far off the ground. Yet that didn't seem to bother him. In fact, he didn't notice the distance at all. There were much more interesting prospects ahead to remain focused on, than wasting his time paying attention to a silly thing like that. So he continued upward, till he reached the spot of that strange, furry ball. Tilting his head; from the left and then to the right, Azrael raised a lone, curious brow. Ultimately deciding, there was only one way, to uncover what this odd thing was... he poked it. Resulting in the fluffy, sphere swaying slightly but other than that, nothing happened. Which led Azrael to his next conclusion, he didn't hit it hard enough. So he punched it. This time the soft texture of the orb, indented inward as it swayed; back and forth, a little more swiftly. Still nothing happened. Utterly curious. Azrael finally grabbed onto the fuzzy ball and yanked it from its secure spot, hanging within the tree. An unfortunate choice on Azrael's part because as soon as he pulled that fluffy orb down in order to give it a closer, more hands on inspection, hundreds of elongated, worm like critters, with a dozen legs, glowing green eyes and sharp pincers, swarmed from the top of the fluffy orb.

Azrael screamed and threw the fuzzy sphere as hard as he could, but it was too late. Some of those hostile, tiny critters had fallen onto the branch, that he was currently standing on and they wanted revenge. They scurried after Azrael as he backed away. His foot eventually landing on one of those frightfully nasty, crawly critters, that made its way around the branch, to the other side. Its sharp pincers instantly biting into Azrael's foot, he yelped in pain and lost his balance. An act that seen the small, alien boy plummeting from his surmounted heights within the tree, to the ground below. He heard Alara scream as he crashed through the tree's leaves and boughs, desperately flailing his arms about in an attempt to latch onto one of the branches. To no avail. Azrael was plummeting fast and he knew what was coming. The ground and it was not going to give him a friendly greeting. No. This was going to come with tremendous pain. Much worse than the time that he fell off his roof or the time he ventured too far on a cliff, it crumbled and gave way beneath his feet and he wound up, plunging into the lake below. This time, he knew the consequences would be far more, severe. So he did his best to brace for the impact and closed his eyes.

Except what Azrael felt next was not the agony of the awaiting ground's embrace. No. What Azrael encountered was the sensation of being caught, moments before impact. The experience was quite abrupt and unexpected but definitely way better than the alternative. Azrael opened his eyes and seen his father, Ingólfr Erebus. Standing at eight feet tall, he was built like a tank, with broad shoulders and arms that were like tree trunks. Dark brown hair, flowed behind him in the wind as he looked down sternly at his son. Ingólfr was a serious man, who had little patience for foolishness. Yet, fate handed him a son like Azrael, so he did his best to remain calm, in the times that ordinarily would cause him immense anger and stress. After all, he loved his son very much. Still, what small amount of tolerance that he held for his son's antics was wearing, very thin. An unknown factor to Azrael, it didn't stop him from breaking out into a grin, as he looked up at his father and said.

"Nice catch."

Ingólfr sighed deeply as Azrael did a back flip out of his father's arms and landed on his feet.

"Is it your goal to kill yourself?"

"No. I just didn't fully anticipate the course of my actions."

"That's the problem. You never do and one day, you're going to fall and I'm not going to be there to catch you. What then?"

"Brace for impact and hope for the best."

Azrael laughed, clearly not affected by the possibility of what might have happened, had his father not been there. This brought Ingólfr's restraint to his son's shenanigans, to its limits as he grabbed Azrael by the shoulders, firmly and shook him hard.

"You've got to stop this nonsense. You're getting older and soon you'll be a man. You need to get your head out of the clouds and start living in the real world. There are consequences to your actions. When you fall, you can get hurt or worse... you die and there's no coming back from that. Do you understand me? This irresponsibility and senselessness, has got to stop."

Azrael's normal wide eyed stare, increased even larger as he bit his lip and stammered.

"I understand. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Ingólfr wanted to believe his son but after raising him this long, he wasn't sure his son would ever learn how to exist with his feet firmly planted on the ground of reality. However, before anything more could be said. There was a loud commotion coming from the center of the village. Ingólfr turned his eyes toward the source and seen two large spacecrafts, surrounded by a squadron of armed, hideous monsters with potato shaped heads.

"Get your sister and go inside the house. Now!"

Words that came out like a drill sergeant's orders, strict and harsh, Ingólfr let go of his son. Confused and shaken, Azrael did as he was commanded. Running over to Alara, he grabbed the small girl from her spot on the ground, by her hand and pulled her along with him as he raced to their home. In spite of Alara's attempts to release herself from Azrael's grip, to run back and retrieve the flowers that she dropped, in Azrael's hasty retrieval of her. Once inside, Alara promptly stomped on his foot. The same foot that was bit by that awful insect. Azrael furrowed his brows in anger but held his tongue as the situation seemed far too dire to be yelling at his sister for being a brat. Outside he heard screaming and a loud, noise that he had never heard before. That sound was the noise of weapons being fired. Terrified, Azrael grabbed his sister and ran upstairs, to the bedroom that they both shared. Where he looked out the window and witnessed his father and mother being led away to a giant space craft by a hideous mutant with a potato shaped head. There were dozens of these monsters surrounding the village too. And they all looked exactly alike. The sight petrified Azrael as he backed away from the window. He was in shock, he didn't know what to do and before he could even realize what was happening, Alara had leaped from the window.

Gasping Azrael rushed to the window but it was too late. While Alara had landed safely on a bed of hay, she had been spotted by one of the atrocious beasts. Within seconds, she was encircled by these freaks and forced to her feet, as a few of the mutants entered the house. Azrael was in a state of immense panic and his heart was racing so fast, it hurt. He heard the horrible freaks climbing up the stairs. With his mind in a whirl, a mixture of fear and dread encasing him whole, Azrael dropped to the floor and crawled under his bed. Shutting his eyes tight, he covered his own nose and mouth, to keep from making a sound and waited. An eternity passed as heavy footsteps marched around the room. Till the point where Azrael thought he might pass out, from either his lack of oxygen or fright. Yet before that could occur, the monsters decided that they were satisfied with their search and left the room. Their massive, lumbering footfalls fading as they descended down the stairs. Squirming from underneath the bed, Azrael clambered over to the window and peered out. Only to see his family pushed aboard a spacecraft by one of those treacherous creatures, a sinister smile plastered on its freakish, potato shaped head. The entire village was in ruins and the smell of smoke rose high in the air as Azrael dropped to his knees and screamed. With tears running down his face, he watched as the ships took off into the sky.

Moments later, Azrael shot out of bed, gasping and covered with sweat. He hadn't had this nightmare in ages. Running his hand back through his hair, he climbed out of bed and walked to the window. His eyes instantly drawn to the night sky. Deep down he felt a surge of dread. Something was coming. Something bad.

"Joachim Bright. What can I say, I'm flattered. It's not everyday, someone lays on the flirting that hard and propositions me in their promotional video. Granted you aren't the first and probably won't be the last, it's still a nice change of pace, compared to the ordinary banter that I'm used to hearing from my opponents. To answer your curiosity, I'm indeed... not from Earth, which by definition makes me an alien. In response to your request, I'm intrigued. Dare I say... even interested. Especially, since we'll be facing off on Wednesday Night Warfare and nothing can be better after a good fight, than an even more aggressive romp, between the sheets. Lets focus on the battle first and then see how things play out after that though, shall we? As for what I know about you, pertaining to your experience in the ring, I must say it is rather impressive. For a novice. Which is not a slam on you at all. Merely an observation. Though, be that as it may, your performance still grasped my attention. Enough to spark my interest in the fight and give me something to look forward to as far as this match goes. I'm certain you will bring your very best and I promise, I won't do any less. Out of respect for you, I swear I'll bring everything I've got. I sincerely only hope, that you can keep up."

"See you in the ring, Joachim."

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Nightmares... the things that go - BUMP! in our sleep
Author	Message