Ryder

This is completely the writing of my friend.

"Listen," Glide said, leading Jericho toward the ruined city on Yochinai, "if you Hannibal anyone there, I'll jab you in the throat."

Jericho nodded. "Fine, no mind games."

"And if you try to eat any of them, I'm gonna slice you open and choke you with your own intestines." Glide added.

 

...

 

Niqi glanced to the horizon, spotting the two figures headed toward the ruined city. She raised a paw, shielding her eyes from the sun. "It's Glide." She said after a moment. "He's got someone with him."

"I told you he'd be back in less than a day." Shetani smirked, nudging Dham with her elbow.

Dham muttered something under his breath, wrapping his wings around himself.

"Where have you been?" Ambree asked, as soon as Glide was within earshot. "And who's that?"

"This a*****e is Jericho," Glide replied, "and the reason I'm late is because I went back to Seisen to grab Full Throttle and he f****n' knocked me out while I was there. Don't bother asking, I'll explain everything once we've dealt with Antel."

Niqi shot him a perplexed look.

"That douchebag I dropped a temple on." Glide said.

"Well, aside from his name, we've learned pretty much nothing from our time on this planet." Niqi stated. "We didn't find anything."

"The ship you sent us after was shipwrecked." Dham said, slightly muffled by his wings. "There wasn't much left of it."

Glide nodded, raising his mask and glancing between his companions. When his gaze turned to Niqi, he grinned. "Sorry, pup, but we need to head back to Aytar. I left Deliverance and Engelsmörder in that temple, and I don't want Antel to have anything that's coated in poison designed to kill angels."

Niqi sighed. "That's just great."

"And I get the feeling that f****r's gonna set up shop on Aytar, just to mess with you." Glide added, flicking Magus from its sheath and drawing a circle in the soil with it. "Let's go, we have to stop on Saikoro and pick everyone else up. If my hunch is right, and Antel's setting up a base on Aytar, we're gonna do the same..."

 

...

 

After a quick stop on Saikoro to round up the others, Glide opened a portal to Aytar. The portal dropped the group in the middle of one of the few areas on the planet that was still wilderness, the sun just beginning to set on the horizon. "Listen up, guys." Glide said, snapping his fingers. "We're going to set up camp here, for now. Trust me when I say that we'll need as much rest as we can get when the time comes to cross swords with Antel and his b******s."

 

...

 

Late in the night, the steady crunch of snow under boots roused Niqi from her slumber. She glanced over at Glide, noticing the Varixian's emerald eye open. "You heard it, too?" She whispered.

Glide nodded. "A thief, most likely coming to kill us in our sleep and steal anything of value."

"Should we wake the others?" Niqi asked, her ears following the footfalls as they slowly came closer.

"No." Glide responded. "Get up, vamp. Sweep around behind him. Grab him, don't kill him."

Deciding not to question Glide's orders, Niqi rose just enough to launch herself to the nearest tree. She waited for the thief to pass below, then dropped down and grabbed his arm, spinning him around and discovering that he was nothing more than a boy.

Glide stood up silently, flicking Magus from its sheath and creeping over to them.

"What are you doing out here, kid?" Niqi asked. "What's your name?"

"I'm called Glide." The boy - a Varixian with four enormous horns and rich brown fur covered in tattoos - replied, a bit too quickly.

Niqi shook her head. "Pick another name, kid. Take a glance over your shoulder. The real Glide is about ready to remove your head from your neck."

The boy glanced over his shoulder, his face becoming quite pale. He pulled himself away from Niqi and fell at Glide's feet. "A-apologies, Nar'zun..." He stammered.

Niqi raised an eyebrow. "Nar'zun?"

"It's Vari. It means 'great father'." Glide explained. "The title they give to those first few Varixians that came from Earth, the ones that are the fathers of the entire race."

"I had no idea you were still alive, Nar'zun." The boy murmured, his eyes fixed on the snow below him. "By now, most think you never existed as one person at all; that 'Glide' was simply a title given to the greatest of warriors."

Glide grabbed the boy roughly by his long tail, giving it a hard tug. The youth scrambled to his feet with a startled oath. "Tell me your name." Glide commanded. "Your real name."

The boy brought his paws up, as if to brush his long platinum hair back, but simply shoved it from his head, revealing short amber hair. "I'm Ryder, my lord."

"Why were you wearing that wig?" Glide asked. "And where did you come from?"

Ryder shrugged. "Nowadays, the leaders of our clans dye the hair of their greatest warriors platinum... but they don't allow anyone other than the clan leaders and their chosen warrior to even go near the dye, so that was as close as I could get." He paused for a moment, knocking the enormous horns from his head. Under them stood four tiny nubs, obviously filed down. "I came here from Var, Nar'zun."

"You're certainly far from home." Glide noted. "Why are you here? And why did you file your horns?"

"I didn't." Ryder replied, sighing. "Only clan leaders and warriors are allowed to grow their horns out; everyone else has to file theirs down. And I'm here because... I was exiled."

Glide found himself running a paw through Ryder's hair. "Feel like sharin'?"

"... It's my eyes." Ryder said after a moment, looking up at Glide with emerald eyes that perfectly matched those he possessed before his death. "The clan leaders claim that anyone born with deep green eyes like mine - ours - would undoubtedly bring about the destruction of the entire Varixian race. It doesn't help matters that I can sort of... jump into people's heads and snoop around..."

"A telepath." Glide laughed. How good are you, kid?

Ryder recoiled, staring at Glide with absolute horror in his eyes. He opened his mouth, but all that escaped was a strangled whimper of fear.

"You went too far in, kid." Glide smirked, holding out his paw. "Come on, walk and talk with me, I'll tell you exactly how far into my mind you can go without losing your breakfast."

Ryder hesitantly took Glide's paw, allowing the older Varixian to lead him back to the campsite. "Who... was that?" He asked.

"Pretty sure the big red dude was Satan." Glide stated. "That f*****g dog was Jason. I'll cut the gruesome details, since you're just a kid. Let's just leave it at 'he deserves everything he gets in there', shall we?"

"He's trapped in your head...?" Ryder murmured, still visibly shaken by what he had witnessed.

Glide thought it over for a few seconds, then shrugged. "That's one way to put it, I guess. It's quite a bit more complicated than that, but when you get down to bare bones 'n' brass tacks, that's basically it. Say, Ryder, have you just been wandering since your exile?"

Ryder nodded. "It's basically all I can do. I have nowhere to go, so I just wander around the planet and steal as much as I can to get by."

Glide snorted derisively. "You've actually succeeded in stealing something from someone? I find that hard to believe."

"I happen to be an excellent thief." Ryder muttered, glaring up at Glide.

"You?" Glide laughed. "Quit f*****g with me. Even a novice thief knows not to try to sneak up on people in the snow. Why do you think crime is down during the winter?" He paused to knock on Ryder's forehead. "Because snow makes more noise than grass when stepped on, and people that hear you sneaking around are going to be ready when you try to steal their stuff."

Ryder's gaze fell to the snow-covered ground once again. "I thought you would be asleep..."

"That's no reason to be careless." Glide stated. "Just because someone is asleep doesn't mean you shouldn't sneak when you're trying to sneak up on them. Would you go crashing through a room full of glass stuff when the owner was asleep, or would you be careful not to shatter anything so he stayed that way?"

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess being careful, no matter what, makes more sense..." Ryder murmured.

Glide nodded, giving the younger male a pat on the head. "Good boy. Now, since you have nowhere to go, you'll be coming with us, okay? I'll teach you all about being a real thief."

"Yes, Nar'zun." Ryder responded, bowing his head.

"Now that that's out of the way, let's get some sleep." Glide said. "There's still a few hours of night left. When morning comes, we'll get introductions and whatnot out of the way."

Ryder nodded, going quiet and choosing a spot near Glide to curl up.

"Hey, Niqi, get the hell over here and go back to sleep." Glide muttered, laying back and closing his eye.

Niqi made her way back to the campsite, laying a few feet from Glide. "I didn't mean to zone out. I was... thinking..." She yawned. Glide didn't respond; she figured he was already asleep. Soon, she was, as well.

Reviews

[KEi]

"Listen," Glide said, leading Jericho toward the ruined city on Yochinai, "if you Hannibal anyone there, I'll jab you in the throat."
LMAO!
I love this guy.
I can't stop laughing.

"And if you try to eat any of them, I'm gonna slice you open and choke you with your own intestines."
I can't even BEGIN....
xD
(My stomach already hurts from laughing.)

"That douchebag I dropped a temple on."
xD

"I'm called Glide." The boy - a Varixian with four enormous horns and rich brown fur covered in tattoos - replied, a bit too quickly.
Niqi shook her head. "Pick another name, kid. Take a glance over your shoulder. The real Glide is about ready to remove your head from your neck."
AHAHAHAHAHA.
Gutted.

Awwwww. Ryder's cute. Can I adopt him?
xD