Gwyn

Cayna was distracted from her father's desperate plight as she felt a chasm open inside her and it seemed bottomless. She grew frightened, not knowing what was happening to her. Inside the chasm that she thought was void, there appeared something growing. It was small and faint. In her mind's eye, it was herself, wrapped in a glowing cocoon.

A light pierced that darkness and struck the cocoon, making it flash with blinding brilliance.

Cayna didn't realize that as she traversed this inner space within herself, she had closed her eyes and fallen into a trance. The figure did notice, however. He gave a furious roar and batted Cayna's father to the side with ease. He slammed into the stone, cracking the foundation and then slumped to the ground, bleeding and bones broken in many places. He tried to get up, but his strength failed him.

"Cayna!" he said, voice cracking with pain. He reached towards his unaware daughter as the figure approached her.

"You shall not bring this curse into the world again!" the figure said, raising his hands and producing a bright glow between his palms. With a sudden pulse, it shot out in a beam, heading directly at Cayna's head.

"No!" Cayna's father said, trying to stand, to get in the way of the blast but it was fruitless. He couldn't command his broken body any longer. Blood poured from his wounds. He was dying and there was nothing he could do to save his daughter.

The beam flashed towards Cayna who stood still. Then, just as the beam was about to hit her, her eyes opened, having become twin glowing orbs like burning suns.

The beam hit her full force but was deflected upwards. The beam struck the ceiling and debris fell crashing to the ground right on top of Cayna. The rocks that would have crushed her disintegrated as they came too close. Her eyes trained on the figure who back up a step.

"You should not have this power. It's impossible!" he said, taking more steps backwards. The glow around him shimmered and parts of it literally began to burn under the mere scrutiny of her gaze.

Cayna made no answer. She crouched low like a predatory animal, pressing her heels so hard into the ground they cracked the stone. Then she shot forward like a bullet. The figure tried to move but she was far too fast. She batted him with a fist and sent him flying through the air. He used his power to recover and dodge as she continued to attack.

Cayna's form was changing. Her golden aura was taking an outward shell of a wolf-like creature that was taller and broader than she was. It had matching eyes liked hers and glowing teeth as well as claws.

She threw her head up and uttered a scream. The aura turned it into an ear blasting howl that shook the very stone of the room. The figure cringed from the sudden pressure that she exerted into the air. She began to walk forwards, glaring at him, the aura growling and menacing him with swiping claws.

Then the aura flickered, the wolf creature blinked and faltered as the aura began to fall apart. The figure looked up and saw the statue was cracking. He smiled underneath his hood.

"Your time is almost up, lycian scum!" he said, triumphant.

Cayna came at him again but now that the aura was fading, her power was not nearly what it had been previously. The figure dodged her easily and laughed as he did so. The claws and snarling jaws of the beast, while ferocious, were taking longer and longer to blink back into existence. The statue of Tetriel continued to grow more fissures through its foundation.

The glow of the statue faltered and the link flowing through Cayna was all but extinguished. The figure saw his chance and swung out at her. She blocked him but the blow still sent her flying back. She landed on all fours at the base of the statue. The figure wasted no time in pressing the attack. He lunged at her, reaching his fist back and preparing to take her head off in one powerful attack.

A surge of light from the statue responded to his aggression and it flowed into Cayna. She met his punch with the fist of the wolf. They canceled each other out and the statue crumbed to dust behind her.

Coming back to her senses, Cayna blinked, now having normal eyes, and not knowing what was happening. She had been in a dark place for a time and was lost, but now she found herself back in the room with the statue. Yet, now there was no statue and she felt strange, as if her skin were somehow not her own, as if she were a stranger in her own body.

She didn't have time to contemplate as the figure in front of her reached out his hands to grasp her neck and choke the life from her. He cried out in pain as the lingering power of Tetriel still prevented him from getting physically close. He cried out as his hand was burned. With a roar of pure rage he lunged at her again and this time, despite the skin of his hands charring and smoking, he reached out for her, pushing against the protective barrier.

Cayna couldn't run, her body was emptied of energy. She had never felt so exhausted before in her life. She could only watch as the man who had taken her parents from her reached out to take her life too.

The figure gave a triumphant cry as he felt his burning palm brush against the pale flesh of her neck. He closed his fingers to squeeze this diseased lineage from the world at last when something silver flashed by both of their visions. Then, they stared in disbelief as his left arm fell to the floor and blood spurted out from a gory stump.

Reacting at last, he screamed and dashed back as a red lance struck the ground right where he had been standing. If he hadn't moved, it would have pierced straight through his heart.

A man with flowing silver hair and glowing silver eyes landed in between the two weapons as well as in between him and Cayna. He reached his hands out, a pentalpha forming behind him, also glowing silver. The weapons dislodged from the stone floor and returned to his hands. One, a gleaming silver sword and the other a shining, red lance.

He leveled the lance at the figure who held his bloody stump and growled, not at all the composed figure who he had been before. He snarled at the new comer. He opened his mouth to say something but no words were uttered as the lance suddenly shot forward, slicing the man's head in half. The lance twirled midair and returned to its owner, no blood left on its blade. The body of the figure slumped to the ground and the head fell apart. The glow of power the body had exuded disappeared and the body then disintegrated into ash.

The new comer's weapons glowed and then blinked from existence. He turned to Cayna, his eyes still glowing but unlike his silvery skin, his face was a black mask with two glowing silver jewels for eyes. But for their glow, she would not be able to tell if he had a face at all.

"Greetings daughter of Lycia. I am Gwyn and I have been sent to save you." He said with a slight bow. Cayna simply stared at him for a moment, then her eyes fluttered and she fell to the side, fainting from exhaustion and knew no more.

Gwyn looked at her for a moment. His pentalpha and glow disappeared. He looked from her to the bodies of her parents. Seeing as Cayna's father was still barely alive, he walked over to him and knelt at his side. He grasped the man's already cold hand. He knew that he was only a few breaths away from death.

Through blood gurgled words, the dying man spoke "We are sorry, we couldn't protect her." He said. Gwyn only lowered his head in respect. "We wanted her to somehow escape this life, to escape this fate. We could never give her the life she should have had. Now she will walk the road of her ancestors. Guide her, please. Do all you can to keep her safe."

"I will do what I can." Gwyn said, bowing his head. The hand of the man lost all strength and fell to the ground. Then, a moment later, his eyes stared up with the tell tale gray emptiness of dead eyes. The man had passed to the next world.

Gwyn stood up and returned to Cayna, picking her up off the ground. With a series of nimble leaps, he scaled the walls of the cavern, traveling up and out of the caves until he came up into the clear night air where the moon shone down. In the midst of the trees, he looked up, noting that the moon was not quite yet full.

"Soon." He said, staring down Cayna's sleeping face. "Soon, young queen."

With that, he wasted no more time and began to run towards the tallest mountain in the distance while behind him, the giant mecha and the soldiers still searched in vain. By the time the morning sun began to rise against the mountains, he was far beyond their grasp.