non-three owner kalon form

[Firedancer77]

Carnivore by Starset

Original competition page

[Firedancer77]

Ever since Nicotine could remember, he’d wanted to be a knight for the king’s court.

His name was Rook then, though those around him and his mother knew him as the illegitimate son of the local lord. Because of this, there was a general disdain in their city for the two of them, one that Rook often failed to notice. His mother tried her best to keep him from knowing the extent of their neighbors’ feelings towards him, instead filling his ears with tales of the knights of the king, and how they were renowned as heroes throughout the land.

Rook would have done anything to be like them.

The other kids made fun of him, but Rook never really understood it. His mother did, but he missed her looks of pity and guilt. He was too busy with his thoughts of the knights, and what it would be like to one day be a member of that group. If he could just do that, he’d be a hero for his mother, and maybe she’d finally give him a genuine smile.

It was by accident that he even found out about the knights coming to his town. His mother had done her best to keep the news from him, but eventually word got to him, and he was over the moon. They were picking kids to take on as squires, kids that one day would stand a chance at becoming a knight themselves. The moment Rook found out, he was determined to be in attendance, determined to prove himself and get picked.

And he was there. Despite everyone in the village constantly telling him he wasn’t good enough, despite all the other kids even that day insisting he didn’t have what it took, he stood before the knights, a scrawny kid hoping desperately to achieve his naive dream.

They looked him over for a second. A second. A second that felt like an eternity. And then?

They laughed.

[Firedancer77]

Their laughter burned Rook's ears. He didn't understand. How could he? All his life, he'd seen the knights as heroes.

Why then were they now laughing alongside all the other children who'd come with the same hope as him?

The whole world was crashing around him. All it took was for the knights to laugh in his face, and suddenly he knew the truth, the truth that he'd ignored for so long. No one thought he was going to make it. No one thought he'd ever amount to anything. His mother had tried to shelter him, but in that moment, his eyes were opened to the reality that he was nothing in the eyes of everyone else.

Tears burned his eyes as he stared at the Kalons that starred in the stories his mother had told him. How could they be those same heroes whose tales he'd heard each night before bed? He'd looked up to those knights for so long. How could he still look up to them now?

And yet, in spite of everything, Rook was desperate to prove himself. They laughed, and despite the truth of everyone's opinions, Rook was still determined to prove them wrong. Something was stirring up within him, propelling him to fight for what he had always wanted, even if he wasn't sure he wanted to be equated with the knights any longer.

"Let me prove myself." The words sprung from his lips before he'd fully processed what he was saying.

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His request was met with even more uproarious laughter, and Rook's face burned. Whether it was from humiliation or anger, he wasn't sure, but Rook knew he had to fight back against the cruel knights.

He'd prove himself in spite of their preconceived notions about him. In spite of everyone's thoughts on him, his mother included. He'd prove to everyone that he was stronger than any of them had ever imagined.

"You are weak," the largest of the knights said, staring down at him, "what could you possibly do for the knights?"

"I'm not weak," Rook argued back, bristling at how quickly they brushed him off. "I will prove it to you whatever way you deem necessary."

The knights looked to each other before grinning, and the largest spoke again. "Alright, kid, we'll give you a chance. What's your name?"

"Rook."

He was too caught up in the excitement of actually getting the chance to prove his worth to notice the looks on the knights' faces. They were not grinning, but smirking, looking like cats who'd gotten the cream.

"Well, Rook," the largest said, crouching down to be at his eye level, "meet us here tomorrow morning, and we will give you the chance to prove how worthy you are."

Too excited to wait, Rook bounded off to inform his mother of the good news and of the opportunity that he now had. In his rush, he missed the sinister chuckle of the knights as they watched him leave before turning their attention to the next hopeful Kalon kit.

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Rook arrived at the area the next morning to find a makeshift fighting ring set up with a large crowd jostling around it. A little put off by the sight, he made his way over to where he saw the knights, confusion evident on his face.

"What's going on?" He asked as he approached.

The largest turned to look at him and grinned. "You wanted to prove yourself in any way possible. Now's your chance. You will get to fight one of us. If you win, you'll become my squire."

"And if I lose?"

The knight gave him a crooked grin. "If you're as strong as you are determined, you shouldn't need to worry about that, now should you?"

Rook was too naive to question the devious looks on their faces. Instead, he gave a determined nod, accepting the small, dented sword that was offered to him before being ushered into the ring.

It was only once he was standing on his side of the ring that he'd started to wonder if he'd made a mistake. The largest knight had entered on the other side, holding a shiny sword and wearing new armor. Rook, on the other hand, only had the measly sword they'd given him that seemed at risk of snapping at any minute; he hadn't even been given armor.

"I'm not sure-" he began, only to be cut off by a Kalon standing at the edge of the ring.

"Begin!"

The knight charged towards him, and Rook barely managed to dodge, crying out as his opponent's sword grazed his shoulder. It was in that moment, when he saw the murderous intent in the knight's eyes, that Rook realized the terrible mistake he'd made. This was never about letting him prove himself. The knights were toying with him.

Rook had been played for their entertainment, and now they wanted him to suffer.

He lunged towards the edge of the ring, desperate to escape, but his opponent was quicker, tripping him and holding his sword against Rook's throat as Rook's own sword dropped and slid across the ring.

Rook wriggled helplessly below the large knight, tears once again pricking at his eyes. "Why? Why are you doing this? I just wanted to be a knight!"

"Because you are weak and pathetic. You need to learn your place."

"I don't understand," he cried.

"We're making an example out of you, so that anyone like you or your mother will learn what their place is in the world." The knight grinned, pressing the sword a little harder against Rook's throat.

"P-please," Rook choked out, "I don't...don't want to die!"

"You should have thought of that before you tried to be more than the scum that you are."

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Darkness.

There was the briefest flash of pain, and then darkness.

It filled every crevice, every corner of Rook's mind until there was nothing that hadn't been consumed by it.

He was floating in nothingness, drifting aimlessly.

That was when he appeared.

It was a creature unlike anything he'd ever seen. Somehow, he knew it was a Kalon, though he could not distinguish any corporeal form for it. It was just a glowing mass, one with dark eyes and a voice that sounded like booming thunder and a mother's whisper all at once.

"Child," it said in its strange voice, making Rook feel as if he was both burning and freezing at the same time, "look what they have done to you."

"Am I dead?" He sounded pitiful in comparison to the creature (the god?) that waited before him.

"Not quite. I have come to make you an offer."

Rook tilted his head, confused. "Me?"

The creature nodded, or at least Rook believed it would have, had he been able to discern if it even had a head. "Yes. I am a creature from the dawn of time, ancient and powerful. But I do not hold much sway over the land of the living. Some of your kind, our kind, know me as a god. They are not far off, for that is the closest word they have to what I truly am. However, Rook, I do not have a direct way to influence the mortal world."

"How is that possible? If you are so powerful, how could anything stop you?"

"I am not the...gentlest of beings, to say the least. I am called Darkness by those who speak of my existence, among other names. At the dawn of creation, to keep me from destroying the world they had created, several of the others like me set a boundary between me and your world to keep me from directly affecting it. That did not, however, stop me from finding those who could act as vessels for my powers. Harbingers, if you will."

Rook stared long and hard at the glowing mass before him, whose black eyes bored into his. "You are destruction. A cruel creature, and no doubt a crueler master."

"Dying has made you wise, I see. Then again, time flows differently here."

"Why would I work for you?"

"Because, child, what has that world ever offered you? They have destroyed everything you've ever had. Your dreams. Your livelihood. Your own mother has married your murderer."

Rook shook his head. "No, she'd never-" Yet even as he said the words, the sight of his mother walking down the aisle towards the knight whose face was the last he'd ever seen before dying filled his vision. His eyes swam as he cried out in pain, shaking his head. "No!"

The god before him never moved or flinched, just continuing onward. "You have nowhere else to turn. Nothing else to do. You are dead, child. I am offering you the chance at new life. A different live as my servant, enacting revenge on the world that turned its back on you. I am offering you power."

"And if I refuse?"

"I am not called Darkness for no reason."

Rook stared into the voids that were the creature's eyes before finally nodding. He had no reason to refuse, no way of knowing if the trade he was going to make would just be trading one terrible existence for another worse one.

The moment he'd given his assent, his body caught aflame.

there was a coin hidden here for round 3 of the scavenger hunt

[Firedancer77]

It was like he was melting. Rook gasped for breath, trying desperately to force air into his lungs as he floundered about, stumbling around the void as Darkness simply stared at him. Though he had no way of knowing it, somehow, Rook was certain that the terrifying, otherworldly being was grinning.

“Wh-what did you d-do?” He croaked out, body wracked by another wave of pain that made it hard to meet Darkness’ gaze. “Help...help me!”

Tears stung at his eyes as Rook finally lost his footing and fell to the ground, shaking from the pain that continued to wash over his body. It was a pounding pain; every part of him hurt. It was as if he was being ripped apart, disassembled into a million pieces.

“It hurts,” he whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut. “Please, it hurts! Make it stop!”

And suddenly, it did. Rook tried to ignore how it felt that he was simply floating in nothing, no longer grounded to any physical form. What had Darkness done to his body? Rook couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes, terrified of what he’d see when he did.

[Firedancer77]

As quickly as the flaming pain stopped, a new pain took its place. It was slow, so slow that Rook did not initially notice, but once he did, he was almost ready to declare this pain worse than the fire that had consumed him before.

It was cold, and as it traveled over his existence - did he even have a body anymore? - he felt as if he was stuck, unable to move any part of him. The only good thing was that he was starting to feel himself again, starting to sense that he had some sort of corporeal body, though it was foreign to him. Whatever it was, it was not the body he had had before, and as each part seemed to reappear, it was overwhelmed with the sensation of pins and needles.

Finally he could take it no longer, releasing a scream of anguish as his eyes shot open and he stared back into the void that was Darkness.

He froze upon doing so. Something had changed. It was hard to notice when standing in what was essentially a void, but it was just noticeable enough for Rook to catch it. He was taller. How could that be?

“I’ve remade you into a form more...suitable for serving me,” he could feel the cold grin of Darkness from the chill it sent through his new, foreign body. “A kit is not much help to a deity.”

“And just what does this form look like?” A glance at his paws showed that, at least in color, he looked relatively the same, just bigger and older. How was he to know what else was changed?

“You’ll learn in due time.”

Lacking the energy to argue any further, Rook slumped to the ground before him, the adrenaline from all the pain finally fading away and leaving him drained. “I...why didn’t you warn me about the pain?”

“A servant of Darkness incarnate can’t handle a little bit of pain?” It sounded as if the creature was teasing him, playfully rather than maliciously, but Rook wasn’t certain. “Stand up, child. There’s no need for you to be flopped over like that.” There was the disdainful tone he’d come to expect from this deity, despite only knowing him for moments. “You are not a mortal any longer. As a symbol of that, you should take on a new name. Not that anyone will know you when I send you back to serve me; time works differently here.”

“A new name?”

Darkness seemed to pace around him, despite his eyes never leaving from their fixed position in front of Rook. “Yes, a new name for a new being. Nicotine seems far more fitting.”

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Nicotine stood on the street corner, staring at the bustling village he had once called home. It had changed so much and yet so little since he'd died and met Darkness.

Everyone's eyes flicked right past the spot he was standing in. One benefit to his new status as a harbinger of and for Darkness was the powers the came with it, namely his new ability to deflect attention from wherever he was standing. He was essentially invisible when he used that particular power, and going unseen was a welcome break from all the stares he got as a kid, before he had died.

Besides, the town was never particularly fond of strangers, so even if he was lucky enough to go unrecognized (as he wasn't quite sure how much time had passed between his death and subsequent return to the mortal world), he would get plenty of odd looks. Plenty of distrust. Plenty of whispers, and murmurs, and stares. He would still be treated terribly, even if he was no longer seen as the illegitimate son of lord.

The halo above his head would no doubt just garner even more attention.

There was no way of knowing what had happened to his mother. She was definitely gone, but whether what Darkness had showed him was true or not remained to be seen. Nicotine couldn't just walk up to someone and ask, especially not like this. But goodness, what was he supposed to do to find out?

Whatever. That wasn't why he was here. Darkness had told him to inflict pain on the mortal world he could no longer directly make suffer, and since he had no other purpose anymore, he would oblige.

Starting here.

With a far more sinister grin than any other that he'd ever worn, Nicotine walked out into the street. Where should he begin to terrorize the town that'd terrorized him?

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"Here," Nicotine finally announced, dropping the magic that shielded him from every other Kalon's eyes. "Here is where it will begin."

The Kalons around him stopped and stared, beginning to whisper fearfully at the sight of him in the center of the town square. No one seemed to recognize him, and no one had seen how he got there. He was an enigma.

And the last thing they'd get to see.

"Time for a show," he murmured. "Let's see just what Darkness has imbued in me. This better work"

Crouching low to the ground, Nicotine blew onto the wagon wheel standing near him, watching in satisfaction as a fire sprung up and grew into a blaze. After a moment of shock and horror, screaming broke out, and the crowd began to run as Nicotine let out a crazed laugh, stepping back to admire the growing flames.

"This is what you deserve!" he bellowed to the few Kalons who had yet to flee the scene. "This is your punishment for your crimes: darkness!"

With an absolutely feral grin, he prowled towards a nearby building, and so the process repeated, till everything on the town was on fire. And in the middle of it all stood Nicotine, cold despite being encased in heat.

Was it worth it?

No. It had done nothing to fill the slowly growing void inside Nicotine that was threatening to consume him. In fact, he felt nothing. Just emptiness, as empty as the dark holes that were Darkness' eyes.

But he had nothing else to do. So he would destroy this town and everything else on this forsaken mortal plane of existence, and do as Darkness asked of him.

It was better than the empty purposeless existence he was currently leading.