Carcass Carivan

Sickness ravages the land, driving people mad, to breaking point. It is slow at first, effecting the body first showing signs of flu and illness. Then the magic if you are blessed to have it flowing through your veins. Once it devours your magic then it moves to your brain, taking the life out of you in some ways. It destroys your brain but leaves you functioning, a shell that relies on the basic instincts of eating and fighting. Anything that they can find is food, although generally for most races meat it the preferred meal. Thick hides of animals and brute strength generally make them hard to kill when you don't have mind enough to pick up weapons. However humanoids, they can be easy targets, especially those of a smaller race than you. An incurable illness that drives people to cannibalism, that is what these people we now refer to as zombies have. They were once our friends, neighbours... even parents, but once the illness takes hold there is no going back. You are better to die before it takes you fully.

Over the past year the illness has spread rapidly. All it takes is it getting into your blood system, one scratch from one of the creatures could cause you to fall ill, but for those who are hardy, it sometimes takes more. There is only a few safe havens left now, only so many places people can flee to, and even then they are picky about who they will take. The elves are seen as a superior race, they are almost always guaranteed refuge in one of these havens if they can make it. However if you are not one of them, you might be out of luck, left to fend for yourself in a world that is trying to kill you. Every city that falls leave refugees fighting for their lives, trying to find their way to a new town that will accept you before the disease could spread to you. The world is a hard place, food becoming more and more scarce, but there are people still wandering around, fighting, surviving, in search of a new home.

▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
​

"No! You can't come out and play now. We don't want to draw more attention to ourselves. Hadgrit said he saw some of those creatures up ahead. We need to sneak around them. No! We don't need to kill them, we just have to get around them. Go away. No!" Standing behind Hadgrit, but in front of Zelph, Tellia was arguing with herself or so it seemed. By the end she was holding her head, struggling a bit, seeming to fight whatever was within herself as she walked.

"Are ya sure she ain't sick. It would be a mercy to kill her now laddy. Why do you let her suffer like that? She is clearly losing her mind." Hadgrit had only found the pair traveling a couple days ago, he himself had been displaced from the dwarven mining town of Freymead, now traveling looking for safety. Having two kids with him, especially elvish children, was not ideal but at least it was another set of eyes to keep watch while he rested. ​

 

"I'm trying. He won't listen to me." Tellia whined softly as she let the feeling of Zelph braiding her hair calm her slightly. Sometimes her friend could be hard to deal with and while she was mostly able to keep him at bay, when he decided to act up it could be difficult. "Can I have bacon later? I want bacon." It seemed like a luxury to have it. They had been rationing most of their food and the good stuff was eaten on rare occasions so they had more for later.

As she talked with her brother starting to calm down, another voice popped up as a small fairy creature popped up. "I am not a baby!" Tellia retorted a little louder than she meant. She soon found herself clamping her hands over her mouth. "Sorry Zelph." She mumbled quietly.

"If you want to fly ahead go right ahead. I'll watch the kiddies for ya." Hadgrit agreed. It made sense to scout ahead but he didn't really trust the little ones, so he decided it was better to stay behind with them. Iridia decided it was a good idea to sprinkle him with dust and he frowned trying to rub the glitter off, only to get it all on his hand instead. "Stop it. Stop it I said. Don't make me swat ya!" He threatened the fairy creature waving his ax around for emphasis.

 

"But I want it today." Tellia complained. He brought up the bacon and now he was trying to deny her the bacon, that was unfair. "If mom was here, she would let me have the bacon. I miss mommy. When is she meeting up with us?" The last thing that Tellia remembered of her mother was telling them that they had to go, and she would catch up further down the road. It had been nearly a month and they still hadn't seen any sign of either of their parents.

Sitting in her brothers lap she let him continue braiding her hair as she grabbed a bit of her hair in the front and braided it as well. As she calmed down the demon inside also calmed slightly with her. It was a blessing that it calmed down and let her rest for a moment, cuddling with her brother, her main source of comfort.

"Being lazy now are ya. You should be keepin an eye out laddy. The lass can take care of her self." Hedrgrit tried to tell the Zelph in order to get him to do something, and by that he meant just not sitting on his *ss. Slinging his axe over his shoulder Hedgrit started to pace looking from the ground while Iridia kept an eye from on top. Rubbing his hand on his pants, Hedgrit only spread the glitter more and frowned up at Iridia. "Stupid fairy and her sparkly *ss dust. That stuff belong in the mines not in the *ss of some pixie." He grumbled as he paced around.
​

From her vantage point Iridia was able to see a couple of what might have seemed to be crawlers. They were in the distance still, not seeming to have noticed the group. They were heading towards a near by house, seeming to be in search of their next meal.

 

"I say we eat them first." A dark voice that was not quite Tellia's slipped from the small girls mouth, leaving her to quickly cover her mouth. It wasn't uncommon that he slipped out, but ever since she was able to speak she had always been warned to keep it suppressed and that she shouldn't let him control her like that. Whenever it happened it freaked Tellia out because she thought she might make someone mad. "Lets keep going." Tellia asked pulling on her brother. She agreed with him, she didn't want to get to close, not while the thing inside her was clearly awake.

"I agree with the laddy. It is stupid to go marchin in there. I am always up for a fight but I would like to live another day thank ye very much." Hedgrit nodded at Zelph, agreeing for once. But then as he heard Tellia he shook his head. "Or we could send the lassie in to distract them while we get the people to safety." No matter how many times he was told Hedgrit didn't understand the "power" that Tellia had and just thought the desease was taking longer than normal to eat at her brain. He wouldn't force her away completely though, not when in some ways the dwarf pitied Zelph for what he must have been going through. "Or you could go yer self. Yer the tiniest of us. You might be able to warn em without drawing much attention." ​

 

"It don't look like you plan on letting 'er die Lad." Hedgrit spun his hammer around in his hand. "I guess I could use with letting off some steam and smashin' some crawler heads in." Hedgrit rested the hammer on his shoulder and start to march ahead. "The little one is annoying but we can't leave 'er to die." Hedgrit pointed out, especially since she was one of the more competent ones on this journey. If she died and he was stuck with the children alone, just the thought was scary.
​

"I won't let him." Tellia whispered in response as she put a lot of her focus on keeping him at bay, though looking towards the way that Iridia had flown off in. "We are going to help her right? Like Hedgrit said, we can't let her die. She is my friend." That may or may not have been true, but Tellia liked to believe it, especially since she never had many friends and the closest one she had often tried to take control of her. "I will stay back this time and hide. I promise. Just don't let her get hurt." She begged of her brother, without the help of her friend she wasn't much help in combat, but she knew that she wasn't allowed to let her friend play, meaning the only good thing that she could do was to sit back and hide, keep herself out of trouble.

Meanwhile the crawlers had reached the house, tearing through the gardens at the moment and looking around. These ones seemed to be a mammoth of a man, perhaps a Goliath, but he was accompanied by a smaller figure, what appeared to be a human child. The child was eating whatever she could muster in the garden, but the goliath like man had his eyes still set on the house ahead, slowly making his way towards it.

 

Tellia tried to follow behind her brother, but she was not nearly as stealthy or as fast as he was. After a short distance Tellia gave up and just slipped behind a tree, watching from a distance. If danger came she knew that her friend would get excited and that could lead to bad things happening. If she kept them away from that danger she could keep him in check, but at the same time she wouldn't be able to help her brother if he got in trouble. Deciding that she didn't even want to watch, Tellia turned around and rested her back against the tree, looking away from the crawlers, trying to hide from them instead as she worked on soothing the demon once more until he slumbered deep within her.

"Ah Laddie so you have heard of the reputation of Hedgrit the Mighty. I can take anyone down in a drinking contest, even those big lugs. They are weak. Nothing compared to me, nothing!" Hedgrit boasted before realizing that he got very off track of the real question. "Besides that well... No. But nothing can defeat Hedgrit the great. I will take down this foe with my hands tied behind my back if I had to." Hedgrit continued to boast rather loudly before he heard rumbling footsteps. "Shit. shitshitshitshit. Time to fight laddie."
​

Knocking on the window there was no response from inside. As Iridia peered inside she could perhaps gain what was a body of a child, torn into. There was no sign of the parents, and the blood seemed long dried. The house was quiet it seems that help had come perhaps a week too late for the child who never made it from her own house.

 

"Shut ye geggie!" Hedgrit yelled at Zelph shortly before he disappeared. He then shook his head and looked towards the goliath that loomed ahead of him. "Come at me ya Howlin Hackit Bampot!" Hegrit charged forward ax in hand to face the goliath, nimbly able to knock the hand swiping for him aside in order to get in a hit of his own on the creature. "Is that all ya got my ma could fight betta." Hedgrit continued to insult the thing a wicked smile on his face as he swung for the arm and cut it off completely before being forced on the defense for a moment.
​

Tellia kept her head down and her ears covered as she heard Hedgrit yelling followed by the screech of what she assumed was a crawler. She had to keep calm. She had to make sure her friend kept calm. She could hear the near sleeping demon talking to her but she did her best to ignore it, silently begging it to go away.

The child seemed unresponsive to the prayer, and didn't seem to be moving at all.

**Shut ye geggie- Shut your mouth
Howlin - Smelly
Hackit - Ugly
Bampot- Idiot.

 

"Oh aim for the head. Aim for the head he says. That thing is like Eight heads higher than me and he wants me to aim for the bloody head. What does he think I am one of those fancy pants elvish snobs?" Spitting on the ground as he spoke those last words, Hedgrit wound up for another hit and it the goliath at about head height for him, right in the knee. He watched the goliath stumble a bit and took another swing for the knee trying to drop the damn thing down to his level while being careful to avoid getting scratched by the damn thing. The goliath let out a mightly cry as he hit it again, finally dropping it to it's knees where Hedgrit proceeded to take a swipe at the other arm, cutting it off before finally taking off it's head once it was safe enough to climb up a little bit on him. "there happy knife ears?"
​

As the fighting started to fade, Tellia heard the sound of Iridia's whistling and she got up, following the sound, but making sure to take a wide loop around where there had been combat moments before. She didn't know what was happening with that and didn't want to know. She just wanted to hear Zelph being back safe, until then she would see what Iridia was up to. Slowly she approached where she spotted the small fairy and just stood there, waiting to see what was happening. She wasn't even sure if she should have followed the whistling so she didn't want to cross any boundaries.

 

"And you said to skip the arms. I would have never done it without taken them out unless you want me to become one of em." Hedgrit pointed out just as Zelph was nearly eaten himself and Hedgrit rolled his eyes at the pointy eared elf. "Sure ya did. just don't go leavin' me with the little one." The both knew that that would not go over well, not when Hedgrit wasn't sure what Tellia was, much less what to do with her.
​

"But there was fighting over there. What if there are still enemies around? I don't want him to wake up again." Tellia expressed her concerns. "Can I wait here while you get them? It might be better that way?" She tried to suggest. She didn't know how much Iridia understood about... well her in general, but she hoped she understood enough to go along with it.

 

"Ah so you noticed. No little ones for me. My lovely lassie wanted one but I put it off, now with all this it isn't possible. And yet still I got stuck with children." Hedgrit flailed his arms like it was a big deal traveling with them, and yet he didn't really want to leave. He then laughed as Iridia flew up and Zelph freaked out for a moment. "Someone is rather jumpy for being so confident with his last kill." He taunted Zelph a little bit before Iridia addressed the goliath on the ground. "HEY! You shut your gabber. I didn't see you takin anything out! I removed it's head too. Just think of it as safety measures to keep the kid safe while I got a good shot on it. Couldn't trust it not to turn around and attack Zelph now could I?" Hedgrit tried desperately to defend himself. ​