hadain's quests

[naumachy]

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DO NOT MARK THIS THREAD/POST ANYTHING BESIDES FORMS

all done!

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[dolly]

username; Dolly
kalons featured; Rossa, Roxanne, and Apollyon (my whole party)
image/story;

As the night darkened two silhouettes of kalons could be seen making their way through the town stricken with evil. The streets were quiet, besides screams and the sounds of evil at work. A ghost town. The moon glimmered against the fake jewels the two carried, fake or not they shined unlike anything else. The larger held a lantern, tied to her tail using the woven scarf already tied around.
As they made their way down the street, attention began to arise. From the shadows jumped creatures, small scaly jewel covered creatures.
"Gremlins", growled the larger quietly. They looked towards each other, think of a plan at a moments notice. They obviously hadn't been expecting them till much later on the search thus leaving them unprepared for an early battle.
"Follow my lead", the smaller began throwing the fake valuables she carried in her arms away, buying them some time to think of a better plan than "Follow my lead". She quickly tied her long hair up into a pony tail and opened the small bag she wore around her shoulder. The larger followed doing the same on her bag, out they both took their nifty daggers.
"Never leave home without them huh, Roxanne", laughed the larger, dagger in mouth as she slipped on her finger-less gloves. Roxanne gave a little wink doing the same.
"You would know, Rossa", she replied giving her a small pat on the back.
"Ready?", asked Rossa, more focused on the foe than anything. Her dark purple eyes followed any and every movement one may have made. Too focused on attaching the objects on their backs, they didn't notice a thing. Rossa looked towards Roxanne and gave a nod. Some how knowing what she meant by it, she scanned the streets for an object. Something that would make a sound, something that would alert the gremlins. Without any luck at that, she made a whistle.
One by one they turned over due to the loud noise, what really caught their attention though, were the glimmering objects surrounding Rossa. They hadn't noticed before, but both kalons has been holding entrancingly shiny objects. They ran. Quicker than either had ever seen before. In moments, they were surrounded.
"Ready, darling?", cackled Rossa, ready for a fight as always.
"Aren't I always.", she snarled as she threw it into the crowd. It swiftly flew through until hitting ones towards the middle. Out of the monster it hit cam an earsplitting screech. Rossa, not phased by the noise, ran into the crowd daggers in hand. Roxanne quickly followed jumping over the small Gremlins in her path to reach her love. Rossa dropped to the ground knocking the few around her to the ground with her. Roxanne landed next to her after her calculated jump. The stood up together, back to back ready to really begin the fight.
"Apollyon!", yelled Rossa before they both began their duel with the glimmering creatures. Gremlins surrounded their feet, the treasure they had collected scratching at their legs. Roxanen tried to break through their hard shells but was met with less than favorable results. The creature began climbing her leg, biting and clawing her as it did so. Rossa pushed her aside, stabbing its underside. It fell limp as she pushed it aside. Three of those monsters jumped around her leg, she swiftly swung the lantern she'd been holding at them knocking them, and then some, over.
The ground shimmered a tad as a large creature fell from a nearby home. Up stood a large kalon, it's wings spread out making it's silhouette larger than before.
"It took you long enough hot shot! Fly us outta here.", commanded Rossa biting a grem while simultaneously smacking them over the head with her powerful tail.
"Cool down, honey.", soothed Roxanne kicking two over and attempted to stab another.
"Guys, remember? I can't fly", mumbled Apollyon, running over to join the fight. Rossa shook her head at this comment. She threw a dagger to free a hand to claw one off her. It lodged into one on her far right, as it fell its back shell shattered leaving a minefield of shattered glasses and gems. Roxanne let out a painful screech as her paw slipped on a larger piece.
"That's it.", rumbled losing any small bit of strategy she may have had. Apollyon leaped into the field of heads and swiftly brought her out to safety. He scrambled for his stuff stored in a bag around him.
"Ice cub can't do this", he muttered under his breath cleaning off her fresh cut.
"This isn't the time for petty squabbles, Apollyon. Rossa go get em'!", Roxanne retorted, rolling her eyes at Apollyon and his girl troubles.
Rossa gave a quick smirk as she leaped around the crowd swiftly knocking them to their feet with her strong blows. Before any of them could focus, they were all down.
Roxanne limped over leaning on Apollyons shoulder.
"You did it!", congratulated Roxanne giving Rossa a little highfive.
"Can I dump them in the lake?", asked Rossa digging through Apollyons bag for the net he brought.
"Rossa...", Roxanne replied slightly annoyed at her need to dump large sums of creatures into lakes. She shook her head and continued back to the dim little cobweb stricken shop around the corner.
Rossa, left alone, gave a small grin net in hand.

[896 words]

[Silver Pandorica]

username; Silver Pandorica
kalons featured; Whole party! Marley, Garrett, and Devin
image/story;

Marley stared at the false gems in her paw. Oh, how she wished they were real. Releasing a sigh, she gazed over at Garrett and Devin as they left the shop. The two were chatting away like everything was right with the world. "Come on," she scowled, motioning for them to follow. "Let's get a move on."

"Cranky much?" Garrett chimed, bouncing up to her.

"Garrett!" Devin exclaimed, sprinting after him. "That's very unkind." She then whispered something in his ear with a small glance at Marley and the two burst out laughing.

Marley let out a groan. "Will you both shut your mouths? You're going to scare all the gremlins away." At that, Devin shrank back and fitted herself in between Garrett and Marley. The latter snorted. The girl was probably afraid of the little creatures. Marley, on the other hand, had dealt with the nasty things before. They'd infested her ship once and nearly stolen half her loot. Blocking out her party's whispering, she narrowed her eyes and gazed around, inspecting the area for gremlins. All she saw were plague victims. The last time she'd been here, the village was lively and in good health. Now it was like half the village had been wiped out, and the other half seemed like they'd just returned from the king's funeral. Figure of speech, by the way. The king wasn't dead. Not that she knew of.

Not that she cared.

Rolling her eyes, she pushed her thoughts away. She'd rather listen to Devin and Garrett. "Hey! Over there!" Garrett suddenly blurted out. Marley's eyes snapped in the direction he was pointing with his muzzle. She caught it in the corner of her eye just as the pest scurried under the porch of an old house.

Bounding over to the porch, she peered underneath. No sight of it. "You scared it off!" She yelped, glaring at Garrett.

The Kalon bowed his head. "Sorry, I just thought-"

"We can still lure it out," Devin said calmly, even though she eyes the porch with fear. "With the jewels, remember?"

Marley's eyebrows went up. Maybe the girl wasn't so useless after all. "Hm. Alright. We need to make sure it doesn't escape, though. Once we have one gremlin, I'm sure the others will be a piece of cake. They'll probably come to try and rescue their buddy, and when they do, we can catch them. Now," she pointed at Garrett. "Stay where you are. Devin, get on this side. I'll go on top of the porch so I can snatch it from above, got it?"

The group nodded and they went into action. Scattering the fake jewels on the ground, she hopped up onto the porch. It was a long, stretched out moment of silence before a little nose peeked out from the edge. Marley got into pouncing position while the others readied to block it from escape. Soon, it was out from its shelter, fingering the goodies it had just discovered. With a smirk, Marley dove off the porch and landed smack-dab on the gremlin. The little creature put up a fight, but Marley managed to stuff it inside the burlap sack with some help from her partners. She was cut and bleeding in a few spots, and a small patch of fur lie on the ground, but she felt amazing.

"Good work, girls," she said, smiling.

"Hey!" Garrett pointed to himself.

"Oh, sorry," Marley said. She hadn't even realized what she'd said. "I'm used to saying that." With an all female crew, she had some terms stuck forever in her brain. "Let's get this thing back to the shop and see if we can get a cage. Then we'll go for the rest."

[621 Words]

[~Static~]

username; ~Static~
kalons featured; Gale, Ada
image/story;

The back alley was dim, lit only by the streetlamp that was on the main road. A thick blanket of clouds weighed down on the city, blocking out any light that the Moon would have otherwise provided. Gale had to squint to see, and that didn't make him any more confident in his task. A few swatches of silk were draped over his left arm, which he hugged close to his chest. He clutched his handful of faux jewelry slightly tighter, his sweaty palms threatening to let them slip from his grasp. He muttered curses under his breath as he managed to catch something scurrying past in the corner of his vision.

"I'm not cut out for this..." He sighed, and grudgingly laid his bait on the damp stone bricks that served as the alley's floor. He quickly ducked behind a stack of crates, peering around the corner of the obstruction to watch.

As Gale watched, a small creature no bigger than his hand darted out from a crack in the bricks of a building. It was vaguely humanoid, but extremely skinny and with pointed features. It wore only a shred of a rag wrapped around its lower half. The creature's eyes were large and green, with vertical slits for pupils; its skin was almost transparent, and streaked with mud and dirt.

The gremlin's gaze locked onto a string of false pearls and it scurried toward it, its feet making no sound as it ran over the swaths of silk. It wrapped its claw-like fingers around a pearl and tugged it violently, snapping the string and causing the rest of the pearls to be scattered across the ground. As Gale watched, many more of the gremlins shot out of their hiding places, greedily snatching up the pearls that were closest to them. They grew further in numbers when the pearls ran out, and began flocking to the pile of "riches". Some wore more decorative pieces of cloth than the first one Gale had seen, but all of them scurried for the prize with the same hungry look in their eyes. They began tearing pieces of silk off with teeth and claws, giving Gale a frightening mental image of what a swarm of angry gremlins could do to a kalon.

"She should be here by now... there's only so much time until they take everything." He thought, worry beginning to fester in his mind. He considered leaving, abandoning his mission completely-

"Ha!" Came Ada's victorious cry, and Gale snapped back to reality. The female kalon stood with one foot securely placed over a crate, scratching and furious squeaking coming from within. She had trapped the majority of the gremlins on top of the bait, as was their plan. Gale stepped out from his hiding spot, letting out a breath of air that he didn't know he'd been holding.

"Where were you?!" He exclaimed, clearly aggravated. Ada chuckled, pointing upwards.

"Relax, I was on the balcony the whole time." She answered. This didn't seem to greatly improve Gale's mood.

"Fine, let's just-" He stopped and cried out as he felt a sharp pain in his leg. The long-haired kalon looked down to see one of the gremlins that had been missed, its teeth having pierced his skin. He shook his leg quickly, sending the creature flying into the nearby building's bricks, where it fell to the ground and lay motionless.

Scanning the ground, Gale saw the other few remaining creatures hissing and squeaking in anger, grouping together as they approached him and Ada. He stepped forward, kicking several of them out of the way and crushing some underfoot, briefly giving chase to the ones that did try to escape. He finally leaned back against the wall when he could see no more.

Ada looked relatively impressed. "That's the most work I've seen you do since we got here." She laughed, gesturing for him to rejoin her. "Now help me get this lid on without them getting out."

Gale obliged, sliding the crate's lid underneath the gremlins' feet and slamming it down securely when they flipped it right-side-up. He gathered up the remainders of the lure, though he doubted it would be of much use now, anyway. "What are we doing with them?" He asked, realizing that he hadn't been informed of this stage of the plan.

"Dumping them into the ocean. That's the only thing we can do with 'em, really. I'll tie a rock or something to the crate to get it to sink."

Gale nodded and helped Ada lift the crate, walking with her out of the alley and out toward the island's cliffs.

***

The two crouched next to each other, the crate in between them. Ada had settled on the idea of securing a large rock to it with rope, and there was certainly no shortage of rocks by the cliffs. It was a steep drop, but Gale was confident he would not fall-
he was significantly more worried that Ada would get caught up in her over-eagerness and accidentally follow the crate over the edge. He looked up when he had finished the knot, and Ada nodded to him.

They moved to the back of the crate and started to push it to the edge of the cliff together, moving it in increments, before giving it one last, hard, shove to send it over.

Gale leaned back, his arms propping himself up against the ground, breathing heavily. They both watched as the crate picked up speed, before finally creating a large splash as it landed, and vanishing beneath the surface of the water.

The only thing Gale was sure of was that they had, most certainly, taken care of the street gremlins.

word count: 951

[lovestruck]

username;
Diamondfox
kalons featured;
Maua,Melanie,Sierra
(Whole party!)
image/story;
Boots clicked on the cobblestones at the pair of kalons set out on their first debut. Maua's ever wary eyes scanned the dark streets, not flinching at all when the street lamp buzzed and flickered. Melanie shuddered, from both fear and the cold. She gulped. Why had Maua chosen her for this task? Perhaps she'd known how bendable Melanie'd be. Or perhaps Melanie was just the first kalon Maua saw, or maybe she'd even told Melanie the truth when she'd said Melanie had potential. Mel contemplated these reasons, before spotting a kit in their pathway. "Hello dear." she called out to the kit, who was shivering. The poor thing couldn't be a day over twelve. She had dark bags under her eyes and she was crying by the road. "Please. Help me. My parents have disappeared. They were holding their golden wedding ring when these awful creatures stole them away." She whimpered, running over to Melanie's now extended arms. Melanie cradled the crying kit and sighed. "It'll be alright. You can stick with us. We'll find your parents. We're going on an adventure- how's that sound?" The kit nodded, "Ok.. I love adventures! She hopped up and down, suddenly perky and happy again. "I'm Sierra by the way." Maua snorted, glaring at the kit. She wasn't particularly happy to have another mouth to feed on their adventure. "You contribute, you can come along," she murmured in a gruff voice. Maua flicked her ear, showing her annoyance. She continued walking, untill they reached the next streetlamp. She sighed, setting down one of her prized knives in the spotlight. It was a silver blade with a delicately curved golden hilt. Small amethysts littered the hilt, shining in the lamplight. Melanie gasped quietly, "Aren't you supposed to use the false gems? That must be worth a fortune! You can't risk losing it!" Melanie lunged towards the dagger, but Maua pulled her back and growled." Go to the left side. Signal somehow when a gremlin is in the light. I'll kill it. "How?" Maua smirked, "You'll see." She nodded to the kit, Sierra, "Im Maua, thats Melanie. Stay with Melanie ok?" Seeing that the kit was gone, Maua scoffed. She'd always hated kits, much too bubbly and happy. The assassin crouched, pulling out another dagger, and waiting.
After what seemed like hours, Melanie shrieked, and Maua opened her drooping eyes. She gasped, seeing the so called gremlins. They were so- strange. Maua observed the creatures, taking in their features. They had large yellow eyes with slit pupils. Their ears were pointed and slim. They were rather short, only going up to about halfway up Maua's leg. They had extremely long claws, but only two toes. They were a very dark purple in color, and their backs were spiny. Their tails were thick and long with a spike coming from them. They had black underbellies and long black tongues that hung from their mouths, dripping with saliva. Maua quickly hurled the dagger in her hand at the closest one. It looked like there were five. Luckily, Maua was always armed to the teeth with weapons. She rolled on the ground, popping up and slashing with her broadsword. She decapitated two of the gremlins with one swipe, their thick black blood sticking on her sword. She gasped, feeling pain in her foot, she looked down to see a gremlin had poked her with his tail. She threw a dagger at him, making her mark as her world became blurry and she fainted.
Melanie gasped. She picked up the amethyst dagger, and fearfully, with her hands shaking, jabbed it towards the last gremlin threateningly. Seeing that his prize was gone, he squealed, high tailing it away. With a huge thrust of her arm, Mel landed the dagger in it's neck, clearly a lucky shot. Melanie retrieved Maua's weapons quickly, panicking only a little. She struggled, heaving Maua's body up into her own arms. She gulped, "Sierra c'mon." She ran as fast as possible, Maua being weighed down more by her heavy weapons. Soon enough they reached the armory. "Can you do anything for her?" Melanie gulped as the armorer explained the effects of Gremlin poison. She was strong though, and if they were lucky she'd be happy and well tomorrow. She had no idea if her new friend would survive, if she'd survive another day, but she knew at least- she wasn't dead yet. And she could push to survive another day.

[canary.]

username; frequency
kalons featured; Markus
image/story;
[858/500]
The soft clank of Markus' boots filled the silent city. Markus himself had never seen such a quiet, deserted place in his entire life, it made him extremely uncomfortable. Markus quickly glanced at the fake jewels and gems in his satchel. Pfft, anyone could recognize they were fake as soon as they see it. "These gremlin things must be half-blind or something," Markus thought to himself. Clank, clank, clank. The kalon started cringing at the noise. Clank, clank, clank. So annoying! Clank, clank, clank, SCREECH! Markus' blood ran cold. He froze in his spot and held his breath. "What the heck was that?!" was the only thing Markus could think about. "Dook, dook, coo?" Something said. "Reik, reik!" Another strange voice said. What? "Rok, clue, rok!" The voices were getting closer. Markus slowly turned around and... Thousands of them. Millions, if you look closer. What scared Markus the most though, is how the creatures all seemed to blink in sync. The kalon once again froze in his spot. Why did he offer help? What the heck was wrong with him? How was he supposed to get rid of all off them? "H-hey..." The lone kalon croaked. Again, they blinked in sync with each other. Markus eyed them a bit closer... They were very short creatures, they were pretty much one foot high. They had a muzzle similar to that of a cat, and had large eyes painted black. They stood up on two legs, and wore torn-up cloth. They had the largest ears Markus had ever seen, curved upward. Their fur was brown like mud. Were these gremlins? Markus hoped not. "W...What are you... Things?" Markus hesitantly asked. "Gremlin," one with a raspy voice answered rather quickly. Markus looked back at his satchel, how would these help at all? "So... You 'gremlins' like jewels and gems?" Markus asked. They all nodded in sync with a sickening smile, showing their sharp fangs. "Does you have pretty jewel and pretty silk for pretty grem?" a fairly ugly one questioned. Markus thought for a moment. From what Markus heard, these creatures must be hesitant to deal-making. "Go to the mountains and I'll give you 'pretty jewel and pretty silk for pretty grem'," Markus mocked them. They all scoffed. "Hey look a flying slice of bread!" A gremlin pointed behind Markus, and of course the kalon looked behind him. Nothing. He turned back and saw... Nothing. Where the heck did they all go?! There were millions right in front of him a second ago! Great. He scared them all off. What an idiot kalon he was! "Hey guys... Where are you?!" Markus shouted. No response. Markus started exploring the city. Clank, clank, clank. Markus sighed. Clank, clank, clank. The kalon brushed his hair out of his face, getting a better look of the city. There were little holes everywhere, and Markus assumed the gremlins lived in them. Markus continued on until he stopped to see multiple holes. A gremlin poked his head out of one of the holes. "Bet ya can't catch meeee!" The creature said and hid inside the hole. "Why you little brat!" The kalon spat out in disgust. How hard would it be to catch the thing, right? The creature popped its head out again, but from a different hole. Markus ran over to it, and attempted to stomp on the creature but he was too slow. This continued for about twenty minutes until the kalon was exhausted. Markus sat down and panted. Jeez, these gremlin things are horrible! "Give up yet?" The gremlin in the hole popped out again. "Or are you too lazy?" The annoying thing stuck out his tongue and again hid in the hole. The male kalon tried to catch him again, until a bunch of other gremlins were popping out different holes at the same time. Markus stuck his paw in one of the holes, but... "ARGHH!" Markus took out his paw to find it horribly bitten. "You little....!" Markus growled and took a step forward, only to have something soft under his foot. Squish. He slowly looked at the horrible sight. He was stepping on one of them! Markus looked forward to see the thousands of the gremlins hiss at him in unison. "S-sorry!" Markus stammered, only for the creatures to slowly take steps toward him, and of course Markus took steps back. Suddenly, they began charging at him, and Markus darted towards the forest. He ran and ran, hoping he would outrun them but alas, they were super good runners! Markus stuck his paw in his satchel and took one of the fake jewels and he threw it as far as he could possibly throw. The gremlins saw it, and of course, ran towards it. "Jewel!" "Jewel!" "Jewel!" They all said. Markus got a bit closer and threw one after the other, sometimes he wrapped them in the silk. Hopefully that would take care of them... Markus turned back, only to notice how far in the forest he ran. It would take a long time to get back to the city. A sigh escaped Markus' lips. At least those weirdos were gone.

[Lepid]

.

[ede]

username: ede
kalons featured: rufus
story:

Over the dusty counter, Hadain turned away. I felt sorry for him, the one armed fellow who runs the armoury. Slightly rude, but I could tell he was lonely I took one last glance over the items, and turned to leave. I couldn’t imagine how many kalons would come to the shop. Clearly, not enough. The layer of dust could be used as a measure of time in the shop.

One glance outside the door showed me the dark world outside, the place which I once knew as bright and colourful was now dim. Any company, if brief, was welcome. Who knows how long this journey will be?

I turned back and glanced over my shoulder. ‘Do you need any help around here? y’know, I’ll be sticking around the town for a bit,’ I asked gruffly, fearing he would be offended. I shouldn’t have worried though. It was like someone had switched him on. His ears pricked, and he glanced at me with interest, his eyes coming alive and I could see him as he might have been in his younger days, strong, smart and crafty.

‘You want to help? I could use it.’ He replied. ‘How about take care of the little street gremlins? You have to draw them out, y'know, they like to hoard pretty things. Here, take this.’

He stood up from behind the counter and dust billowed around his figure. I approached him cautiously and he stretched out his paws and jewellery and silk fell into my paws.

‘The jewellery is false,’ he said, looking at my greedy expression as I gazed at all the pretty items. I smiled at him sheepishly.

‘I’ll take care of the gremlins,’ I said. ‘Where is the best place to find them?’

He cupped his chin. ‘At night, by the clock tower. They like to play with the time. You may have noticed none of our clocks have the same time, it’s cos those buggers.’

I thanked him and wandered out of the armoury. The sun was low on the horizon, making the already gloomy shell of a town gloomier.
I put the items into my rucksack and heaved my items on my back. The clock tower wasn’t far from here, but I wanted to get a good look around before laying my trap.

The streets had an abandoned feel to them, even though I knew I wasn’t alone. I reached the clock tower and stared up at it. A threatening figure in the darkening sky, I felt a shiver run down my back. And then I heard it, the scratch of small claws.
I knew it was the gremlins. I secured a net around a branch of a nearby tree. I wasn’t going to go into the clock tower to find them, no way. Scattering the jewellery around the net, I tied the silks around the knots of the net.

They were small black things, with multiple legs and multiple heads. They were made of blackness and they swarmed towards the net. My skin started to crawl as I imagined them crawling up my skin, through my fur and in my ears. Too early, I yanked the net. The gremlins scattered, screeching at a pitch I could just hear. Cursing myself, I waited. I waited all night for them to come back and while I did see a head poke out, I didn’t see them again.

So I waited until the next night. I checked in with Habain and told him what I had failed to do. He just shook his head kindly at me and told to come back once I’d scared them off.

Now determination filled me, it was a matter of pride now. The next evening was cooler, and I pulled a cloak of my pack and wrapped it around myself. I had set up camp on the outskirts of the town, close enough to be safe, far enough to stay away from the things creeping around at night.

Again, I positioned the items Habain had given me and waited. The gremlins took even longer to come out this time, I guess they were aware I was there. But eventually they came.
This time, I waited until the things had crept into the net. There was hundreds of them, children of the demons. This time, I snapped the net shut at the right moment. It hung, suspended in the air from where it had been snatched up. The net crawled with the gremlins. I cut the net free and ran, past the town, over a bridge and dropped them into the river.

Exhausted, I rested.

(769 words)

[néktar]

[ username; nektar ∙ kalons featured; odo ]

fools gold: [ 1,081 ]
odo stood outside the shop now, his arms full of fake jewelry, gems, and silk. his ears flicked back as he looked at the items, "..if they enjoy pretty items wouldn't it have to be real?" he murmured to himself before swinging the wooden box off of his back and setting it on the floor. he slid out a large drawer on the bottom of the box and placed the fake jewelry and silks inside the drawer, he slid it close again with a soft 'click'. he then placed a strap on his shoulder as he stood up, he glanced around the street before him was dimly lit with hanging lanterns that stood at the edges of the street, mainly before every building. his four eyes scanned the large stone wall adjacent to where he now stood. his grip tightened on his strap as he noticed a reasonably dark area between lamps. he saw two shining golden eyes peering out from the shadows before him. he stared back at them, the longer he stared the more eyes appeared. they blinked in and out, they gawked at him, curious about his glowing eyes and halo. he took a step towards the glittering sea of eyes in the stone wall and in a rush they all disappeared. he blinked then laughed under his breath, he then walked over to the lamp post and set down his wooden box once more. he swung the front end open and slid out one of the top drawers, it jingled with glittering gems. "i'm sure you guys will like these much better." he murmured and grabbed a handful of gems. they had an unusual and alluring glow to them, he himself had to pry his eyes away from the glittering gems, they seemed to pull at his soul and suck his mind into oblivion. he also grabbed a strange looking flask from the second drawer, "you guys will have a nice little home in my collection.."

odo walked into the shadows after placing his box back on his shoulders, he made sure to lock the box as well as he didn't know what these creatures could do. he stood there for a moment with the lamp posts light shining behind him, her remembered where he had first seen the creatures glowing eyes. he crouched down and leveled his eyes with a medium sized hole, he stared deeper into the seemingly infinite darkness, as he got closer to it he saw movement as a small claw lashed out at his eyes. he moved back quickly then smirked, "a little too close for comfort bud?" he spoke as though the gremlin could understand what he was saying. he looked through the glowing gems in his hand and chose a medium sized pale blue one, he placed the gem at the very edge of the hole. he then moved away from it so he was out of sight but still could grab the gremlin when he showed his face. he took the flask in one of his hands and had his free hand ready, he had been waiting only a few seconds before two small black hands crept out, the dark creature then poked his head out it stared wide eyed at the gem and picked it up to inspect it closer. that is when odo saw his chance, he snapped out his hand and grabbed the creature by it's large ears, it growled and hissed as odo brought it close to him.
"hello there." he said before holding the flask under the gremlin, it began to suck the creature into it as though it were a black hole. the gremlin was squeezed into the flask with a sudden 'pop'. odo stood up and picked up the glowing gem the long eared gremlin had dropped.

he stood again at the dark stone wall. "this will take me all night if i do them one at a time.." he thought to himself then took out all the gems he had from his cloak pocket and placed them along the stone wall on the ground. he knew the power of these gems and was sure that the gremlins would be much to transfixed by them to notice he was picking them off one by one. odo placed himself in a crouched position on top of the stone wall where he sat perched like a cat waiting for it's prey. he sat there a few moments before seeing the creatures stalking out of their holes in the stone wall. they slid along the shadows all having varying mutations, long tails, large ears, crooked teeth and jaws, large hands or devil horns of sorts. he watched them all swarm over the enticing gem stones along the ground, each one picked up a particular one, never two going after the same. he smirked and then hopped down from the wall behind the hoard. he was correct when he thought they would be too busy admiring stones to worry about him, he grabbed one by the tail and into the flask it went. another going the same way. one after the other he picked them off until there was only one little scrawny one left. it had been looking at a particularly large white and pink gemstone, it was much to big for him to carry. he was not like the others though, he noticed odo coming towards him, though he did not run away. he gawked at him with large eyes, a two fangs that stuck out of his mouth. his claws pointed at the gem stone and he slid his heavy tail around him. odo tilted his head and crouched down looking at him, "sorry little guy you can't have that gemstone." he held out his hand and the small gremlin clambered onto it hanging on to his thumb as odo went around picking up all the gemstones.

odo took a liking to the small creature, he decided to let him tag along for now dubbing him that name dracula due to his large fangs. he finished putting away the gemstones into his wooden box, dracula was now on his talisman that hung from his horns. as odo stood up he swung around on it and odo chuckled, he walked back towards the shop, he entered it and the small creature hid behind the talisman. odo went up to the salesmen and placed the flask on the counter.

"your gremlin problem is solved sir."

[Cosmonaut]

username; Cosmonaut
kalons featured; Minnow
image/story; vv

Minnow eagerly took a long glance at the shiny "treasures" now in his arms. Despite their obvious cheapness in quality, he had always held a fondness for such things; his sparkly pink hairclips he'd been wearing at the time were prime examples of this. He couldn't help but grin at the sight of the shinies, and looked back up at Hadain.

"No problem!"

~~~

Once he'd began setting up the traps, Minnow found that catching the small, mischievous demons was not as easy as he had initially expected. He'd bought some large mouse traps, and set some pearls as bait, but it hadn't occurred to him until after he heard the distinct clap of a mouse trap that the shadowy creatures were much bigger than he had anticipated. As in, they towered over Minnow's small frame, at at least double his own height of 4'7". Little street gremlins, Hadain's words echoed in his mind. Little. Of course.

Not only was their size now revealed to be a problem to Minnow, but he was shocked by their appearance as well. He'd been expecting a small, ugly looking hairless creature, but instead these things looked like a solid black shadow figure. In a way it terrified him even more than the image he had in mind.

The worst part, though? The mouse trap had triggered on its foot, and while it stumbled back in surprise, it was able to run away with no problem. It took the pearl set out as bait and ran, Minnow too shocked to do anything. When he came back to his senses, it was already too late for him to attempt to catch the shadow demon.

"Oh. Okay," Minnow muttered to himself in frustration. This was definitely not going as planned. Gathering up the remaining supplies he'd bought, he decided to rethink his strategy over a pastry from a nearby cafe.

~~~

He made his way back to the entrance of a dark alleyway, clutching his mousetraps, bait, and spellbook he'd brought with him. Minnow had managed to find a spell that could be of use for this task, although he hadn't tested it and wasn't completely sure if it would work. With the traps set out, he waited patiently at the side. It felt like ages before the sudden clap of a trap urged him to immediately snap around and cast the spell. With a loud yell echoing through the alley, the shadow thing froze in its place and visibly cringed, before fading away into the shadows of the alleyway.

"Oh, yeah!" Minnow excitedly yelled. His planned had worked; he figured out a spell to confine something to shadows, and with the being made of shadows itself, it was trapped within its own body and forced to exit in the only way it could. It wasn't something he expected to work at all; it was simply an unfamiliar spell he'd used hopefully on a whim. With his plan being a success, he was able to complete the task of rooting out the shadow creatures.



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