Chapter XLIV - No Place for a Baby ~Naaro/Rynn

Naaro moved a fern aside and looked around. He turned to check on Rynn and Kai, who were behind him. They had left the Spectrum to search for food. Kai was hungry, and his crying was quite loud. The rest of the Spectrum's crew had been rather annoyed by it, in fact, another part of the reason why the three had gone to explore.

"How's he doing?" Naaro asked as he looked back at the two.

Rynn looked up and replied, "Alright I guess...but he's not going to stop crying until you get him some food."

Naaro nodded, and continued through the brush, searching for something they could feed the tyke.

Rynn looked around as they proceeded, asking Naaro, "Where are we exactly?"

Naaro shrugged, simply answering, "Somewhere on Fa'Diel."

Rynn suddenly noticed a silver berry out of the corner of her eye, and picked it from the bush it was on. She looked it over and sniffed it.

"Naaro? What about this one?" she asked him as she handed the berry to him.

He took it and looked at it.

"Odd color...I don't know hon," he answered with a questioning look on his face, trying to discern whether the berry was healthy or not.

Rynn then took it back, and peeled back the skin. It looked ripe. She sniffed it. It had a sweet smell to it. Deciding it to be safe, she popped it into her mouth.

Naaro kept his eyes on Rynn, hoping she wouldn't drop dead from a powerful poison. She smiled, and pulled off another for Kai, peeling it.

"They're safe. Very sweet."

She took off the papoose and removed her son from it, feeding him the berry. Naaro nodded, breathing a sigh of relief to himself. She kept peeling berries, feeding them to Kai. Some of them went into her own mouth. She also offered Naaro a few, which he took and ate. Naaro sat down at the base of a tree and looked over at Rynn and Kai.

*Was it really right to take them along?* he thought as he watched Kai munch on another berry.

Rynn smiled, peeling another berry for Kai and feeding it to him. She picked a few for later, hoping they'd keep. Kai gurgled, munching happily on the berry. She looked over at Naaro and noticed the expression on his face.

"Ka, what's wrong?" she asked, calling him the Drakoni word for soul.

Naaro noticed his gaze had been discovered, and chuckled lightly.

"Ah, it's nothing darling...just thinking," he replied.

She sat down beside him, Kai reaching over to tug on one of Naaro's dreadlocks.

"What were you thinking?"

Naaro looked over at her, paying little attention to Kai's tugging. He answered, "Nothing really, just random stuff."

Rynn nodded and sighed.

"I see..." she trailed off, listening to a noise. "What's that?"

Naaro got up and looked around, listening. He looked in the direction of the noise, his eyes focusing on a tree with a large figure perching on it, demonic wings opened behind him.

"Greetings, young Karmali, Drakoni."

The figure leaped down from the tree, landing with wings folded around his body. He stood, and took a step forth, his cloak of shadow falling away to reveal someone familiar to Naaro. Rynn's eyes widened, a little afraid. Kai clung close to his mother, sensing her fear. She wrapped her wings around him, hoping to shield him.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The figure smiled, and looked at Naaro with yellow eyes. "You remember me, correct?"

Naaro nodded, on his guard. The figure then looked to Rynn and Kai, appearing to be delighted in their terror.

"I am Moloch, servant of the Black Priest," he told them.

His eyes seemed to pierce their souls. Rynn rubbed Kai's back, making sure he was ok, or at least better than she was feeling. She gulped, holding Kai to her.

"What do you want here, foul creature?"

Moloch smiled, showing his fangs. He suddenly opened his wings, revealing his gored chest, and let out a menacing roar that likely caught the attention of the folks far away in the Spectrum. Rynn screamed, unable to shield her ears as she was holding Kai. He started bawling in terror, clinging tightly to her shirt. She wrapped up in a ball to shield him.

*We'd have been safer back on the Spectrum,* she thought as fear raced through her body.

"Leave them alone!" Naaro snarled as he tossed his shirt aside and pulled out Ocelot.

Moloch turned to Naaro and roared, charging him and swinging a claw. Naaro jumped to the side as Moloch's claws ripped the tree to splinters. Moloch turned after destroying the tree and snarled, leaping into the air and launching a spray of blood from his stomach. Naaro widened his eyes and jumped aside in the nick of time, the blood having an acidic effect on the ground and making a small crater.

*Great...acidic blood,* he thought as he stared at the crater.

His mind snapped back into the moment as Moloch tackled him, sending both flying into a tree. Rynn quickly stood, and with one arm around Kai, she grabbed the papoose. Kai was bawling, his eyes red, his fists holding Rynn's shirt tightly. Hunger was quickly forgotten. She started backing off, wings wrapped tightly around Kai. Naaro jabbed one of the ends of Ocelot into Moloch's open stomach, and the demon stumbled backward, howling. Naaro jumped to his feet and extended a blade from one end of the crystal bo staff, slashing Moloch across one of his wings. Moloch dropped to one knee, holding the wing. The demon gave Naaro a glare, and leapt to the branch of a still-standing tree. Rynn turned, heading back to the Spectrum. She hoped Naaro would be able to deal with this threat. Now she wished she'd left Kai at home, with her family. This was no place for a baby!

"I'm not here to kill you, Karukylis," Moloch told Naaro, folding his wings back over his body. "I have a message for you," he said, his wing bleeding lightly.

Naaro stood, holding Ocelot at the ready.

"And what is that message?" he asked the demon, suspicious.

Moloch began, "Young Karmali, you have an appointment with my master, the Black Priest. He wishes to show you something you're probably not aware of. I am not going to take you to him; that task is someone else's. Be forewarned: your soul is not what it seems. All these years of do-gooding will soon be nothing...it is the Essence's will."

Naaro gave Moloch a questioning look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The demon simply smiled, and a swirling black vortex opened underfoot.

"Farewell, Karmali...Maggot Spray!"

Moloch opened his wings and fired a spray of crimson maggots which covered Naaro's body, blinding him as he cried out and struggled to get them off. Moloch then sunk into the vortex, disappearing below the dark, swirling depths.

Rynn stopped, hearing Naaro cry out. She turned, heading back. She'd protect Kai. Turning back to where she left Naaro, she screamed. Maggots covered her love.

"Naaro!" she cried.

"Arrgh!" he cried as he brushed the maggots off madly.

He eventually got all of them off. He was panting, the maggots having given him a good scare.

"Are you ok?" Rynn asked, walking toward him.

Kai calmed down, the evil Moloch having left. He hiccupped, looking at his father. Naaro nodded.

"Moloch left me with them as a present," he told Rynn, scratching a place where the maggots had left him with an itch.

She nodded. "Gross things. We need to get back. I don't like it here."

Naaro nodded, replying, "Let's go."

The two then turned back in the direction of the Spectrum, walking toward it.

*What did he mean?* Naaro thought as he walked, puzzled by Moloch's words.

He continued thinking as they climbed onto the Spectrum and looked around.

"Ah, good, you quieted your child," Kaye noticed as the two walked back in.

Naaro nodded, and walked off toward the cabins. Rynn stopped him.

"Honey...could you watch over Kai for me?"

She held Kai out to Naaro. He nodded, grumbling lightly to himself, and took Kai, continuing toward the cabins and entering the one he and Rynn had taken as their own. He set down on the bed and rocked Kai to sleep. The child quickly fell asleep, and Naaro set him down in the crib. He then climbed into the bed he and Rynn shared, going to sleep.

"The Weapon is here, Naaro."

Naaro glanced around, finding himself atop the very same pyramid Rexxor had been on earlier, on planet Cocytus.

*Looks like the place from my dream...but why am I here?* he thought as he looked around.

The voice that had said something about a Weapon earlier spoke to him once more: "The Weapon is here...come and claim it, Naaro."

Naaro cried out, "Who...where are you?!"

The voice spoke once moreL "The Weapon...it beckons to you. Come...Cocytus calls your soul..."

A glow from behind caught Naaro's attention. He turned, and discovered the source of the glow: a sword, floating in front of him. It had a hilt of gold, intricately carved with a seashell in the middle and draconic wings on either side. The handle was wrapped in gold chain, and a ruby orb was encased in an eagle's talons on the bottom. The blade of the sword was straight and double-edged, and the scabbard was wood with intricately-carved gold on the top and the bottom. It also seemed to radiate intense power.

"...Weapon?" Naaro uttered, in awe of the blade.

The glow of the blade then turned into a blinding flash, and the next thing Naaro knew, he was staring up at the ceiling of his cabin. He groaned, muttering to himself, "Just a dream..." and going back to sleep.