The Tales of Zennes “The Nightmare”

Arc 1: During an intense mission, Zennes accidentally displays an interesting power. Confused, Zennes and Kiiwii speak to an old friend, though the answers they seek might lead to more questions. In the cyberpunk world of Fuetar, a planet filled with war, magic, guilds, adventure, and guildkillers (a group of gunsmens and swordsmen who go requests and job posting, which can include bounty’s), the man known as Zennes or “The Nightmare” is a well known, deadly mercenary and assassin who travels between warrior guilds for guildkillers for work. His speaking-animal companion, (which are, as the name suggests, intelligent speaking-animals who oddly enough love to bond with humans and be their lifelong friend/companion, especially guildkillers) is named Kiiwii. He’s been with Zennes for years and is well for known to be a deadly, and loyal partner. So loyal to agree to go on a long, tedious mission up to one of the highest and snowiest mountains, Mount. Gruit, to find some monster that stole a precious heirloom of a nobleman, when it had attacked his carriage. Kiiwii curls in on Zen as much as he can under the guildkillers thick cloak. Oh why did he agree to this again, Kiiwii asks himself. Even the long thin lines tattooed under Zens eyes looked cold, if that was possible! “It’s too cold for this,” Zennes groans, wrapping his cloak tighter around them. The biting cold of the snowy mountain is miserable and causing him to quickly loath the cold. Why did he pick this mission again? Oh yeah, the pay. “I said it would be too cold, Zen,” his furry, companion croons. “Alright you were right, Kii,” Zen mutters. “I hate the cold,” he groans. “Me too,” Kiiwii joins with a whine. “We’re close, the noble guy said he was attacked not too far from this area right?” “Yeah, he said it was just up there.” Kiiwii nods to the a little further up the snowy mountain. Zennes notices a bit of brown peaking out from all the white snow and hurries towards it, at least as fast as he can go in a foot of snow. The brown is the piece of carriage that broke from the attack. Any footsteps are completely hidden by the new snow always building. Zen and Kiiwii meet gazes. “It’s gotta be close, even mountain animals don’t travel much when it’s this snowy.” “Right, we have to be close.” Zennes pulls out his two swords, one in each hand, from their sheath on his back. The swords are samurai ones made of black metal with a silver metal handle. He keeps alert ears as he heads closer to the mountain, hoping to find a cave. As they near the side of the snowy mountain they see a large cave hidden by large icicles covering most of the entrance. The distance between the large icicles was just enough for a giant animal to get through. “I think we just found our nest Kii,” Zennes says, his companions nods. “Yeah. Kind of spooky,” Kiiwii observes. “Stay close to me Kii, we still don’t know what sort of creature we could be dealing with.” Zens tells Kiiwii seriously. His companion nods, tucking his head under Zennes’s. Zennes tightens his grip on his swords as he slips through the large icicles. Making sure his footsteps are light and quiet, Zennes treks through the long cavern. So far the only sound echoing through the cave is dripping water, probably from the wet mountain. Eventually, the cave leads to a opening of a much larger area, a big, black stone cave with ice pillars forming throughout it. Zen scans the area. It appears bare, he narrows his eyes. “Zen watch out!” Kiiwii suddenly calls, and Zennes barely sees the large, mountain ice-cat, a fourteen foot tall white wild cat with elongated canines, a thin whip-like tail, and a thick white mane. They usually live in high mountains like Mount. Gruit, but they rarely interact with humans. Zennes rolls out of the way, barely dodging the massive cat as it speeds towards him. The cat hisses, raising its hackles, and lunges at Zennes again. Zennes expects it this time, and rolls out of the way again, this time slicing the side the cats ankles as he does so with Kiiwii barely hanging onto his shoulder with a high squeal. The cat screams, and looks down at the bleeding cuts on its ankles. “Kiiwii, go find the heirloom! He said it’s a jeweled necklace,” Zennes orders his friend while the massive cat is distracted. “Aye! I’ll be back,” Kiiwii chirps, jumping off of Zens shoulders and scurrying off before the cat notices. Kiiwii smells the cats smell mostly behind a small pillar of ice behind Zennes, and scurries over there. Zennes watches with a calm, even expression as the cat redirects its anger back to him. It raises it haunches again and stalks slowly to him. “I don’t want to hurt you, I just need something you took.” Zennes says gently, even though he knows the mountain cat wouldn’t know what he’s saying. The cat hunches down, ready to pounce again. “I see. Well then, I guess it’s the hard way, I only need to distract you till Kiiwii finds the necklace anyways,” he goes back to fighting stance. The cat run towards him, it reaches its paw at him to swipe, but he jumps on its paw last minute, quickly running up the cats arm, and giving the cat a small cut on its cheek as he leaps off its shoulder. The cat yowls again, pawing at its face. It quickly stops and glares even harder at Zennes and starts to rush at him again. “Any luck so far Kii?” He calls to his companion, watching the angered cat run towards him. “Not yet,” Kiiwii calls back. He’s been sniffing around the pillar, but didn’t find anything. He moves a little farther away from the pillar, and his eyes brighten as they lock on an extremely expensive jeweled necklace, with hundreds of small diamonds incrusted in them. “Perfect,” he chirps, picking up the heirloom with his mouth. Then a warm, heavy breath breathes against the back of his furry neck. “Oh no,” he mumbles around the necklace. Zen leaps as the cat goes to swipe at him again. He notices that the cat always over shoots him by a lot, always ending up super far from him every time it pounces and an idea suddenly pops into his head. “OH KITTY KITTY!” He calls, making sure the cats attention is solely on him. Then he suddenly rushes towards an ice pillar forming from the bottom of the cave, using his speed to run up the side of the pillar and jumps off the tip. Using the pillars height, he jumps up close to the stone ceiling, the cat hot on his heels. And like he expected, the cat overshoots him and accidentally smashes its head hard against the ceiling on the cave. The cat falls to the ground unconscious, Zen landing on top of it. He sighs and rubs his neck, pushing himself off the unconscious cat. Zen jumps as Kiiwii suddenly screams, “ZEN THERES ANOTHER ONE,” the raccoon runs towards Zen, a necklace hanging from his jaws and another even larger mountains ice-cat hot on his heels behind him. Zen barely has a moment to react before the cat suddenly pounces on Zennes, accidentally smacking Kiiwii as it does and sending the raccoon flying against a ice pillar. “KIIWII!” He calls, then the cat traps Zen in its mighty paws. Zennes squirms against them, pushing at the claws trapping him. The cat starts to lean its face closer to his, teeth bared. Zennes squirms harder, he won’t be killed, not like this! Suddenly, a bright red light surrounds the paw trapping him. The mountain cat pulls back with a pained yowl, letting Zen free. The light continues to cover the cats paw’s, and the cat continues to howl in pain. Delusional with pain, the giant mountain ice-cat starts to run around, trying to run off the red light. “Kiiwii get back!” Zen calls as he and Kiiwii run farther from where the mountain cat is running. The cat accidentally hits its head against a large ice pillar after running right into a large pillar of ice, knocking it out too. Zennes and Kiiwii stare in shock at what just occurred. While magic is something that exists in Fuetar, magicals (those who use magic) are born with it and usually come into their power as children, as in before the age of ten. Zennes is well past the age for magic at 26, and he’s never used magic before. “What did you do?” Kiiwii asks in awe and shock. “I have no clue,” Zen admits slowly, his expression matching his companions.