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[Willow Smythe]

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The cemetery gates nearly shivered from the cold. It moaned with every pass of the wind. It was hours before the sun rises to kiss the land and banish the frigid temperatures and blanketing darkness. Death still lay it's claim to any that fall behind. Fog hung low and spread out amongst the hallowed land, reaching between the gates beckoning to any that would heed its call.
The Harvest moon shone brightly in the pitch black sky, erasing any stars' assisting the moon, this extinguishing life further from this desolate collection of loved ones left behind and long forgotten. Moonlight illuminated three figures before the gate. They donned heavy robes and carried torches. Firelight danced and flickered red, orange and yellow. It chased away the garish white of the moon for seconds at a time.
Two stood before her, silent and determined. To her left, the Thoryne in her side, no longer sallow, she was strong enough for this lesson. Her companion, one of the largest dragon's Willow had seen to date, stood fast, ready and able to annihilate any that so much as glanced wrong at his beloved owner. Sentinel was not even a worthy enough word for this dragon's resolve to end the life of the unfortunate soul that attempted to hurt Thoryne. Though she was healthy, the threat still remained. They were all constantly reminded with Thoryne's limping gait, they were never fully safe.
To her right, Iris, silent and strong. As she peered at her mute daughter she often wondered if her father, Myrddin, parted with a rare chuckle behind closed doors as this seeming punishment had come to pass. Even more haunting, the girl, unlike her sister, had taken on the features of her own father, a ghost laid to rest, yet haunting just the same. Willow often didn't know what do to with the girl, other then send her for more training, with the hopes it would beat sound out of her, but alas that had not come to pass. She was excellent at taking orders and following commands, but not when chaos ensued, which came to pass more often than not with in the family alone. The left side of Iris's face was mostly obscured by her enormous mocking bird. Like Thoryne's dragon, Jelly Bear, Mr. Jelly Bear, the bird was ready to protect iris with the task at hand, no matter the cost. Protecting those of Willow's family line goes far back into the bird's lineage. Darkness, son of Mimus, Nightshade's bird, died protecting her mother from a lich, saving her life. Darkness had big shoes to fill. He would prove himself tonight.

“Now I know you two are wondering why we are outside of a grave yard....” Willow began.

“No, not really mum,” Thoryne replied as Iris shook her head no, “we'd be more surprised if you had us outside the Moonglow Zoo for mother daughter bonding” Iris simply shrugged indifferently.

“Alright, this is reconnaissance, kill the rogues you must. First one to find me, with the correct number of Mausoleum, graves and plaques wins. There is a set of special graves, tell me the family name upon them. You will know it when you see it. Go”
As soon she the word left her mouth, the graveyard became active. Skeletons' bones clanged and ground as they made their ghastly rounds. Zombies moaned their discontent of their mindless roaming. Wraiths waited almost invisibly in the night, just for a chance to impede their progress. The energy was so vibrant it could almost be seen. With a grand, dramatic flourish, Willow turned and walked inside the cemetery and quickly disappeared from view, leaving the two to their own devices.

“C'mon Mr Jelly Bear, we might get to perform an autopsy on a zombie! Wouldn't that be something?”

“Squawk, dead pixies!” the large mocking bird exclaimed.
Thoryne and Iris looked back at the huge bird, with warning looks upon their faces.
The bird clicked his beak testily and screamed

“ROWAN NOT HERE, NOT ROWAN, DEAD PIXIES, DARKNESS NOT EAT FAMILY, DARKNESS GOOD BIRD”
Despite the fondness for her fey cousin, Iris chuckled.
“I'm telling Guard” Thoryne replied coolly.
“NOT AFRAID, BRAVE BIRD DARKNESS IS” the bird yelled before looking over his shoulder for his much larger brother and dropping the subject entirely.

Iris took the lead and had to immediately strike a zombie down upon entering the gates. Thus causing it to crumple and decay back into the earth from which it rose from.

“Do you think you could just stun them? I'd really like to examine a....er.. fresh one? I mean it's not everyday you'd get to determine TWO causes of death” Thoryne requested as she attempted to pick up the skull. Iris just rolled her eyes as she cleaned off the remnants of the zombie from her mace and gave her sister a shooing motion, as they were competitors not team mates.
Iris took the South side first, tallying each grave site carefully on her note pad, while Darkness impulsively counted each mark aloud. The bird in many ways had taken over for Iris's reluctance to speak. The darkness enveloped her as she ventured further and further in.
Thoryne placed a hand upon the Jelly Bear's side calming him and keeping his focus acute. She too, began counting and scanning for her mother's whereabouts. No slip of paper did she need to keep count. Her memory simply took pictures of each, she'd count them later. The cemetery was large, several times she had to rest against her dragon to regain her strength. She she plowed through, limping slightly.
It was hard for the girls to tell, but either the night grew lighter or their eyes became more accustomed to the darkness. They were able to make out the writing on each headstone. Then as if someone had pulled a lever, everything went silent. Each girl waited for several breaths for any faint sound. Thoryne, having reached the center of the cemetery first sat against a small wall. Her dragon, placed his wings protectively around her, looking for the first sign of danger. Then, a twig broke, the dragon growled, yet the foots steps advanced. Jelly Bear began to rear his head for any that came through the opening. The figure came through and the dragon doused them with fire. Less than a second's time, there was a shroud of darkness shielding from the flame.

“Jelly Bear, STOP! It's Iris! I'll be grounded if you kill her!” Thoryne commanded. The beast closed his enormous, fire spewing mouth and studied the “intruder”. From inside the swirling darkness, Iris was hiding behind her shield as an extra precaution. Iris collapsed to her knees and Darkness reformed falling on his back with his wings spread outward.

“Darkness is tired, Darkness is hot!” Iris pulled out her canteen, the contents cool from the night's temperature and poured it onto the exhausted creature.

“NOW DARKNESS IS WET!!” He complained as he landed on the armored girl's shoulder. Droplets of water rolled off from the bird and down the silver plating landing on the earth. Iris glared at her sister accusingly.

“What? You know she would have.” Thoryne maintained. Iris drew her mace and began to advance on her sister. “WAIT! Can't we talk about this?” She called out as Jelly Bear stepped between them, obscuring Iris's line of sight. The large bird looked between the two girls and squawked “Grounded if kill sister, can't hunt dead pixies for darkness if grounded” Frustrated, Iris stowed her mace and walked a few paces away from her sister and sat upon a stone, resting. Iris pulled out her note pad and counted all her tally marks. She was sure she found them all, yet none of the names were significant to her. Did she miss the name of Minax's grave? Mondain's? They were average names, nothing special. Eventually, there will be one with her name upon it. Perhaps that was the lesson?

“Did you find the grave mum was talking about?” Thoryne inquired, breaking the tense silence. Iris simply shrugged and shook her head, not taking her gaze off her note pad as she counted. Just then, a shadowy figure took form and walked slowly towards them. The guardian pets at the ready, began to take charge, then yielded when they recognized Willow. The green haired woman smirked, satisfied at the reaction. The girls breathed a sigh of relief, both have had enough startling for one night.

“Mother, we've looked through this whole cemetery, counted each grave but couldn't find anything special” The green haired woman simply tilted her head in surprise. She made a zipping motion at her mouth and pointed toward a mausoleum that seemingly came out of no where. Both girls sighed but hefted themselves up and headed toward it. Willow took the front, Iris middle and Thoryne the back. As they moved, she caught a glimpse of something. It moved far too swiftly for her to settle her eyes to get any sort of clear shot. The only certain thing about its position is that it was getting closer.


To be continued ...
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Malorn ‎(12:14 AM):
I'm an idiot

[Willow Smythe]

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“we're being followed” Thoryne said as they reached the mausoleum Willow nodded and ushered them inside. Thoryne placed Jelly Bear outside as guard seeing as he was far too large to fit inside. He was discontent at this command but resigned as it was not the first of the sort. Willow locked the doors behind them as they entered. She then advanced on Iris, placing her hand under the young girls chin. There was a loud clang at the door, and then another. Darkness, took wing but before he could surround them in his shroud, Willow smacked him against the wall. The bird, fell to the stone floor in a broken lump of feathers. Iris opened her mouth in a soundless confused and furious scream. She looked upon her mother with fury.
Another clang from outside and then another ensued. Thoryne charged their mother with all her might, to no avail. Willow simply slammed her against the wall with little more effort than the bird and returned her gaze to Iris, tightening her hold upon the girl. She then turned Iris's face to the side and licked her cheek. Iris struggled to get free. The metal door swung open, a cloaked figure stalked in. She wrenched Iris from her grasp and threw her to the ground against her sister. The figure took Willow by the throat and held her against a wall. It then drew a dagger, the torch light reflecting off its blade and rammed it into their mother's heart. The light from Willow's eyes began to fade, almost as if they were retreating into her skull. She slumped to the ground, dead.
Thoryne screamed, placing her hands over her eyes and shut her eyes. Tears streamed down Iris's eyes as she grabbed her sister and urged her through the door looking upon the figure with loathing. The cloaked figure turned on them and laughed. As the sound reached the girls' ears they froze, unable to do little more than just stare at the creature before them. It lifted its hands to the hood that shrouded its face and threw it back. A crown of green hair was being shaken vigorously. An impish, dolphin like smile flashed upon the face.

“M...mu...mum” Thoryne stammered confusedly.

Willow placed her hands upon her hips “I see you found the graves” She motioned to the wall. “As well as a doppelganger zombie” they looked upon the fallen imposter. Its hair had turned like straw. The creatures skin had begun to loose its form and decay.
Iris untangled herself from her sister and ran towards Willow, colliding with her in an embrace. Willow hugged her daughter and held out a hand for Thoryne. She struggled to get up from the ground, but refused her mother's hand.
“No thank you mum, I am fine” She simply stated as she got to her feet and proceeded to brush herself off. Iris broke the embrace and took out her mace swinging it at her mother's knee.
“Ow, good form, but what was that for?”
Iris simply turned on her heel away from her mother looking at the wall. She was prepared to hold her stubborn stance, but the name on the wall before her caused her to drop her mace.

GRACE REAUCHER

She ran her hands over the engraving, tracing each letter. It was her own name, in part. Her father used to say that she looked just like her aunt, Grace. So much so, that he gave her name as Iris's middle name. Iris knew her father's grisly family history yet it was always a shock to see the years span of only twelve years. She motioned her sister over to see. Thoryne trudged over carefully, eying their mother cautiously.
“Oh, aunt Grace. Papa said that she was young. She's younger than us now. Look there's Grandmum and Grandpa, the dead ones” As traumatic as the night had been, their mother's intended lesson had set in. History, untold in books, lay behind these walls, forever entombed and silent, yet these were three among hundreds that were previously counted and then overlooked.

“Time to go home girls, it's late” She placed a hand on each of their shoulders, guiding them out. Each filed out of the door and blinked. Daylight chased away the spirits, making them retreat to their daily sanctuaries. The girls walked apart from their mother, eager to get home and rest. They knew that a new lesson would begin tomorrow.
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Malorn ‎(12:14 AM):
I'm an idiot