The Hidden Island

[lutz]

The Hidden Island is not really an island at all its another realm very simplar to this planet, or at least used to be....

THE LORE
The planet is inhabbited by many different races who all once lived in peace, besides the power hungery Sarsha. The Sarsha were like the Humans on the other world, but they were much more greedy and craved power. The Sarsha believed in old magical arts known as the way of the Shaman still their leader Vacsh McSeth learned a darker art, He found a way to commun with a Demon from this world, the demon Lucifer and the rest of his remaining Sins, there over time found a way to cross over to this realm and the Sarsha Warshipped Lucifer, the once who Warshipped were transformed into twisted creatures, the newly dark Sarsha Banished their former leader for the leadership of Lucifer, not much is known what happened to Vacsh McSeth, Lucifer now commands a army of not only dark Sarsha but a few other races of the realm now follow him to straight his old planet and take control of two realms! the realm Lucifer controls now is a desert, it used to be full of trees and life but now that Lucifer reigns the realm is dead, only a smaller part of the realm breaths life and trees....

The Races of the Realm!
Sarsha- These being were the closet thing to a Human, White hair is their trade mark all Sarsha have white hair, its their eye color that makes them different, they can have green, blue, purple, red, black, yellow, or hazel eyes, they are greedy by nature, but because of the twisted fate of their kind, the few that live run into hidding, ushamed of their greedyness.


Dark Sarsha- These are the twisted creatures that fell into darkness from Lucifers black magics, they serve him to the death!


The Silken- A race of Lizard man, this race is one of the only races that hasn't joined or fallen to Lucifers forces, they blame everything on the Sarsha and are very stubborn, their tribes are now split up to confused Lucifer of their wareabouts, Lizard have a few very useful traits that makes them powerful allies, for one the can regenerate pretty quickly, a normal cut takening only a few mins to heal and a lim or arm, up to a few days/weeks, but of course if you remove the head or destory their heart no regenerating can be complete, they also have harden skin from their scales and at times when their life is in serious danger they can spit acid from their mouth. Silken also range in different colors the colors on the Silken scales are very important in the tribes for its how they steroetype them to be or viewed, they range in Blue, Green, Brown, Red and Yellow,
Blue-These Silken are generaly rare and is said to be very important to the Silken race, something good is suppose to happen to them.
Green- The Normal and most common scaled Silken these are what would be considered normal.
Brown- they are said to be the warriors of the tribe, defenders of life, proud, and honorable.
Red- The natural born leaders of the tribe generaly only red skinned Silken can run for chief.
Yellow- another rare color of scale, but these Silken are considered noble and have more benifits.


The Orc- Another race fallen to Lucifer, these being on the other hand didn't have much of a choice, they only follow those who are powerful because they lack intelligence, they make up for it though in brute strength, they tend to not feel pain in the heat of battle. Orcs take great pride on the battle field and fear nothing they rather die fighting then dieing of old age. Skin tone is green and normal have black or brown hair.


The Kilka- these mystic being live in the last remaining woods on the realm they are almost killed off for they are the biggest threat Lucifer fears, they are great power in the ways of nature and protect the realm at all costs.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Amnesty began to follow the others in. Loz caught her arm. "Nervous?"

She sighed and grinned. "As h**l."

She disappeared through the portal, and found herself standing with Lutz and the others... her brothers came through behind her, and the ex-Turks right behind them. The rest of the party filed through as Ami edged closer to Abel, feeling ready to jump out of her skin. "OK, we're all here. Cool, neat. Uh, now what?"

Loz snuck up behind her and discharged his pile bunker with a loud snap and crackle. Ami yelled and jumped about three feet high, almost knocking poor Abel down. "Hot d**n, Loz! You wanna gimme a heart attack?!"

He wasn't listening... he was losing his mind laughing at her.

Yazoo sighed in a longsuffering fashion. "Oh, yes, you're mature as all h**l."

[lutz]

The desert was hot and dry, a slite breeze of wind tossed some sand but other then that the realm seemed lifeless. Abel looked around the realm with his hand above his eyes.
"Well Samson....were is the Q?"
Samson took a step forward and pulled out a scope looking around the horizon.
"Abel my friend they are right on time..."
the sky turned dark above the group and the portal behind them closed shut. clouds formed above them and odd purple lighting bolts struck the ground near them. Samson dashed out of the range of the group and grinned. the mystic lighting bolts became more intense and form a cage around the group. they were trapped. then in the horizons many dark Sarsha soldiers came towards the group. a few Shamans were in the group of Sarsha as well. Samson looked back at the group.
"Just don't try to use any force or magical power or else this cage will zap you out into a small coma...."
A shaman apporched Samson.
Shaman: "Good work Samson...your air ship is waiting for you..."

Samson: "Gee thanks guys it was nothing....nothing at all..."
He walked back with the rest of the dark Sarsha group and the five shaman circled the the lighting cage begining a summon spell.
"Back to our base..."
with in second the group was transported to a damp cell, the bars on the cells were made up of the mystic lighting and the walls glew purple like some kind of anti magic force field. the group was captued....

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami must have stood stock still, totally shocked, for at least three straight minutes.

But when she snapped out of it, everybody knew it.

"D**N IT!" Ami screamed. She pounded one of the walls in frustration--

"Ami, don't!" Reno tried to warn her, but it was too late. The force shield zapped her, sending her flying backwards.

The other group members ducked instinctively-- all but Vincent, with whom she collided with at the end of her flight. He barely even flinched as she impacted and crumpled to the bottom of the cell.

She started pushing herself up, but the lightning was still arcing over her body from limb to limb. She lay still and waited for the energy to spend itself, which it finally did.

But by then, she was trying to hard to keep herself from crying to get up.

Her blurry eyes detected a form hunched over her. She looked away, closing her eyes, not wanting to see the confirmation of her failure. So much for "Amnesty the great leader". I led us all straight into a trap... that d**n pirate...

I can't blame him for this. This is all my fault.

She curled into herself, squeezing her eyes shut to hold the tears down.

A few moments of silence passed. (Reno probably opened his mouth once or twice, but Rude both times elbowed him into submission.)

Then Amnesty felt a touch on her arm. Two words, spoken almost too quietly to hear.

"Don't cry."

Ami looked up tentatively and saw Vincent crouched behind her, head down. She couldn't see his face in the shadows... but the pain was too intense to miss.

She stiffened and slowly sat up straight, looking at the various faces staring at her.

They can't break me. I can't let them.

Not when I have to look at so many faces.

She looked back at Vincent. With that immobile face of his, he continued to watch her.

He won't see it happen twice.

"I won't."

She turned and glared at Abel. That was all the signal Kadaj needed. He knocked the lizard creature to the floor and held his sword against his throat. "Either your partner left you with us to make sure we didn't spoil your plans, or he betrayed you along with the rest of us. Either way, you're going to get us out of here. Now if there is anything you have thus far neglected to tell us, confess it now, or certain gentlemen in this room will pry said information from your brain-- before wiping out your memories completely."

[lutz]

Abel put his hands up.
"Nothing is what it seems just wait this out ok....the guards are near by....continue to scream at me but do not kill me please!"

Lutz growled at Abel.
"What makes you think we are trusting you and your partner..."
Abel shook his head.
"nothing...but just wait this out..."
just then foot steps could be heard and a few dark sarsha troop along with Samson himself came down to the cell.

Samson: "aahhh look at me old friends here haha did I do good eh Sarsha?"

Dark Sarsha: "Your ship is waiting....your prize...."

Samson: "Well thank you! good luck with everything....oh and look out for those three brothers over there can't miss them...they are fiesty..."
Samson began to walk towards the exit then spun around quick for one last quote.
"Oh yeah guys, buddies.....Sarsha kind....I am very suprised you trust even me enough to let me down here armed...."

Dark Sarsha: "....huh?"
Samson grabbed his two Scimitars from their holders and slashed right down both guards chests killing them right then and there. three other guards ran over to attack Samson while the fourth ran for an alarm. Samson throw one of his Scimitars at the fourth Dark Sarsha nailing him in thee back, the ran at one of the other three jumping over him followed with a slash to the throat in mid-air. the slash removed the enemies head and Samson slid for the corpse of the forth dark sarsha grabbing his 2nd Scimitars. the two remaining guards attack Samson easily blocking their attack then countering them cutting off their hands. the Sarsha fell to the ground in pain, and Samson finish the with staps in the chest. he grabbed the keys from them and unlocked the cell.
"oh come on you didn't really think I betrayed you did you?"
Lutz dashed out of the cell the moment the door opened and grabbed Samson by the shirt.
"Yes! what are you doing!"

Samson: "Hey hey now easy! think about it this way I get my pit bull back and you all know where Lucifer's hidden base is win win and I need convicing acting....nothing better then you all thinking the real thing that group had shamans in it the slightest thought the plan would have ended there! NOW lets sneak out of here to the docking bay of my ship so we can fly out of here!"
Lutz slowly let him go...
"Lead the way..."
Samson darted down the hallway and took a right into the docking bay and opened the doors to his ship froma remote. the ship looked like so...


Samson: "Hop on yall! hurry!"
Abel ran into the ship and went to the c0ckpit and started the ship up ready or take off.
Lutz followed running onto the ship...

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami came to the docking bay, not far behind Lutz. She stopped there for a moment, staring at the entry hatch.

Just behind her, Vincent and Ami's brothers were forced to skid to a stop, narrowly stopping themselves from crashing into her. "Ami, what is it?" Yazoo inquired.

She shook her head and stepped back. "I don't think so." Not again. I refuse to honor that sky pirate with the first inkling of my trust.

Kadaj felt her dark anger and doubt. He nodded agreement and stood with her, blocking the way.

Vincent came forward from behind Ami, slipping past her. He fixed her with a sharp look, snatching her wrist and pulling her forward. "There's no time."

She yanked her arm back and glared defiantly. I don't care. I'm not moving.

A tense moment followed. In the dim light, Vincent could see the brothers' eyes glow dully, like cats' eyes... Ami's eyes had no such glow, but there was a fire there all the same...

He heard steps scuffling over the stone, and angry yells, pursuing them. He took a step closer to her, his gaze intent. "Either way, we have no choice."

She too heard the scuffling, but continued to hold firm... for about the next seven seconds. Her tense muscles relaxed slightly as she grudgingly relented... "All right."

She started moving forward, taking her time about it. Her brothers moved on ahead of her, cautiously entering the ship, testing for traps. The ex-Turks were nowhere near so careful-- they made a break for the hatch and didn't stop until they were inside and belted down with their tray tables in the fully upright and locked position.

Finally, after all the rest of the party had made its way inside to a seat, only Vincent and Ami were left.

She was waiting to be the last one inside, just to make her point.

He was waiting to make sure she got inside and didn't make a break for it at the last second.

Neither seemed to want to look directly at the other.

Ami released a deep breath, the kind you let go of after confessing to a lie. She tried to meet his eyes, but he was looking the wrong way. "Thank you."

He made eye contact, but broke it almost immediately. He didn't want to admit what he could see there. "We should hurry."

A silent consensus was finally reached.

They both got inside at once.

Vincent closed the hatch behind them.

As he found the last vacant seat, directly behind Reno, who was trying to swap dirty jokes with Loz, one thought kept coming to the forefront of his mind.

I should have stayed at the bar.

Ami, seated nearest the thingpit, yelled up at it. "Take us outta here, sleazebucket!"

The ship lifted off, leaving the frustrated and still hollering prison guards behind them.

Ami stared out the viewport and dragged Kadaj over to do the same. "Help me memorize this location. We'll need it later."

He kept a careful eye out, but there were few landmarks to line up the fortress with... it was a flat, level desert everywhere.

Reno raised and eyebrow and yelled towards Abel in the copilot seat. "Don't take this the wrong way, yo... but your dimension's a real fixer-upper, man."

Subconsciously, most of the passengers nodded their heads in agreement.

Ami turned back to Lutz, lowering her voice. "It would seem that besides our less than savory friends up there, you may be the only one who knows quite what we're up against, what sort of world is out there. I want a backup plan-- I trusted those two clowns once, and I need a failsafe in case they plan to betray us again."

Rude shook his head slowly. "I understand your concern, Ami, but if they planned to only betray us later, then why did they take the trouble of helping us escape?"

Reno nodded. "It don't make sense, yo."

Ami's brain ran over the many macabre possibilities... "A reply to that would take more time and more breath than I have right now. Lutz, give me something to work with here. Is there any place, anyONE, we could go to for help? And let's make this fast... after we're done hatching conspiracies, I go back up to the thingpit for a little conference with Abel and company. We're still here to unite the Silken, but I plan on seeing we all still have our hides in one piece afterwards."

Loz kept fiddling with something he had hidden in his jacket. He looked around to be sure no one was watching... to be caught fooling with these would be embarrassing beyond belief.

[lutz]

Lutz scratched his head.
"hhmm this realm is very dead, but from my readings there is still another race of beings that hate the Dark Sarsha with all their hearts...they call themselves the Kilka, from what I read is there is only a few left but they are very powerful, like demi-gods....but I don't know where they would be in this realm something you might want to ask Abel and.....Samson..."
Lutz took a deep breath and placed his hairy wolf hand on her shoulder.
"Ami....what Samson did may not have been the most honest way to help up but he still helped us....lot, besides what do you expect coming from a sky pirate...."
Samson walked out of the c0ckpit and stood before the group.
"alright we are home free Abel and I just scanned the ship for any bugs, so yup we are clean....and would ya all stop with the me back stabbing ya deal! do I have to explain meself again, some shamans have mind reading gifts...I needed you all to seriously believe I was betraying you to have them conviced, not to mention we now know the location of their base and have an airship to fly in on this realm, beats walking in the hot desert! eh savvy? now just all you that think I am a complete @ss just remember I am the captain of this ship! and I just saved all your lives!"
he turned around and walk right back in the c0ckpit. Lutz looked back at Amnesty.
"Ami, I know its hard to believe...but hes right...for once the scum bag is right...he did save us and help a bunch..."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Amnesty couldn't help remembering what Vieve had said about Lutz... about how easy it had been to decieve his pure heart.

"Lutz, if he hadn't gotten us captured to begin with, he wouldn't have needed to save us," she said quietly, so the captain wouldn't hear. "But as Vincent says... we don't seem to have any choice, except to just go with whatever they're planning."

She glared up at the c0ckpit. "And whether he's really out to help us or not, yes, I DO think and will persist in thinking he is indeed a complete a**." She gave Lutz a friendly pat on the shoulder, though her face still showed the gravity of her thoughts. "I'm gonna go make nice with the Captain and Toinille up there. I'll be back in a few minutes... If I'm not, send a search party."

She entered the c0ckpit. "Afternoon, boys," she greeted irritably. "Sorry about letting my fangs show back there, but you know, you can only get betrayed so many times before you start expecting it. So if we can put that messy business behind us, I'd like to get down to business."

Ami, in truth, had no intention of putting the "messy business" behind her. But they did need to pull together and fast-- the Sarsha were now fully aware of their presence in this realm, a prospect she had hoped to avoid.

****

Reno glanced at Loz, who had almost dropped something he had hidden in his coat. "Hey, what's that ya got there? Whatcha foolin' around with, yo?"

"Nothing," he replied quickly.

Kadaj didn't buy that for a second. He approached his brother, radiating quiet menace. "Are you sure?" he pressed, with the low, metered voice that he usually saved for people he was preparing to kill.

[lutz]

Samson was sitting in his captains chair looking into his locket, a small tear rolled down his cheeck and Samson quickly wipped it away. Abel was flying the airship. Samson took a look back a noticed Amnesty had walked in the c0ckpit.
"Oh ready your gun Abel! could get messy with miss tightwod over there."
Abel glared at Samson.
"Samson now is not the time..."

Samson: "Oh yes of course, back to us selfish two timers to help these guys out thats right!"

Abel: ".....Amnesty...please sit."

Samson turned his seat so he wouldn't have to look at Amnesty.

Abel: "So whats the plan...."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami glared at Samson's turned back. The silent treatment, huh? If he intends to be childish about this, then I have nothing to say to him whatever.

She spoke to Abel instead, pointedly ignoring Samson altogether-- completely missing how badly he was hurting. "You tell me. I have no idea what the Silken are all about. We're supposed to bring them together, so maybe the first question is, what pulled them apart to begin with? Is there any common ground we can work with?" She lowered herself carefully into a seat, trying to forget temporarily how she had related to these men in moments past, focusing on the here and now.

[lutz]

Abel thought to himself.
Well...I do know where Akasha part of the tribe is now...but her father is there....
"The Silken tribes split up so we could all live on, so Lucifer and his armies couldn't track us down so easy and kill us! but as of right now none of the open desert is safe...."

Samson was in his seat looking into his locket once more.
This would be so much easier if you were here...ya have a way with people I....I miss you so much
within the locket was a picture of a beautiful young women, a normal Sarsha women. Samson spun the chair around, he had a red face.
"I am just going to uuhh leave to my room in the Pit Bull here."
Samson rose from he seat and walked out the c0ckpit.

Abel: "There is still a place we could go....there is a small area in this realm that would be safe, a place not even Lucifer himself would go with out his full strength of the army backing him up....its called the Kilka Wood....the last remaining woods in this realm...."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Amnesty watched Samson leaving curiously. That's weird... Is he OK? He looked a little--

She shook her head violently.

Geez, snap out of it, girl! Isn't that the guy you wanted to disembowel about five minutes ago? Let him go wallow in self pity if he wants to. Boo-hoo, poor little him. If even ONE little thing had gone wrong back there, whether he intended it or not, you and all your friends would be dead by now.

Amnesty turned her attention back to Abel, and brightened at the mention of a forest. The woods were her natural habitat... she had grown up in the forests near her home. "That sounds like the place for us. If the Silken only split up to protect themselves, rallying them there should be easy-- it's only contacting them all that might prove tricky. But do you think the Kilka will be friendly to us? I mean, you DID say that humans look like Sarsha, and as Lutz tells me, the Kilka hate corrupted Sarsha with a burning passion."

[lutz]

Abel remember the Kilka now.
"Hard to say I haven't see a Kilka sense I was a little Silken...those were better times, when this realm seemed to be full of magic...but the Kilka do yes hate all Sarsha, and sure they have little trust for the normal looking ones...we will set down in the forest and hope we don't bump into one of them....they are very powerful....so powerful even Lucifer fears them...he does have the upper hand though he found a way to kill off most of them...its hard to say if any of them are still alive..."
Abel set a course to the Kilka Wood.

***********************

Samson sad into his room feeling very depressed. he pulled out a box from under his bed, it was full of letters. He picked up one from the box a began to read. it read.

Dear Samson,
I have missed you so much sense that last night we were together, all I could think about was you and how you were doing. Such a lovely night that was, I have read through all your letters at least ten times each, you know me I love those letters, I will probably read them a few more times before I am through. At least I have this picture of you, getting more sick of not seeing you, but at least this picture is here even though this picture can't keep me warm at night. I keep thinking of you baby, Keep wishing I could be with you, I want to leave and find you even when your in the worst possible area, suppose this war has hurt alot of things in our lives besides a wedding date, other peoples lives as well. please don't die out there, I have never been so lonely as I am right now, I never knew I could love someone as much as I love you. I will be waiting for you, waiting for the next letter from you.

Love Carissa Ann

Samson squeezed the letter tight
Carissa....

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami watched out the viewport, straining to glimpse any sign on green. She hated hot, dry places like deserts, or cities in summer-- she'd take that freezing cold village of hers over a desert anytime. She got up from her seat. "Let me tell the others where we're off to. How far is this forest from here?"

She kept mentally running through ways to spread the word to the Silken about where to gather, but most of the ways she could think of were too risky...

****

Several threats and minor acts of violence later, Kadaj and Yazoo had finally discovered what Loz was hiding from them.

Vincent recognized them immediately. They were the bombs that Rufus' henchmen had planted on the Ragnorak, which he'd defused and thrown away.

"Loz, where in the h**l did you get these?" Kadaj asked tiredly.

He shrugged uncomfortably (uncomfortably because Yazoo had his arm pinned behind his back). "Awk... Somebody put 'em in the cargo hold, so I brought 'em when we salvaged the wreck."

Yazoo shook his head. "You know our kind doesn't believe in these. They're wasteful."

Loz shot a glare at him. "I didn't see ya complain when we used 'em at the caves," he groaned.

Reno nodded. "Man has a point."

Kadaj shot a lethal glare at him. "I do not recall asking you."

Reno grinned awkwardly and backed off.

[lutz]

Abel pointed at the horizon
"Right infront of us only a matter of minutes Amnesty..."
so inform your friends and we should be landing shortly.

*********************

Samson dropped the letter back down into the box and did a soft kick, to put it back under the bed, to soft because he left a corner of the box sticking out from under his bed and as he left he forgot to close his door. Samson walked back to the C0ckpit and sat down.
"Ahhh I see we are close to the forest...the forest! you do know the Kilka there will rip my head off! you do know that Abel!"

Abel: "Yes I do know that but its safer then if we stayed out in the desert....you know the shamans all seeing eyes..."

Samson took a deep breath
Man risking my neck for a bunch of people who don't even trust me....what a day...