Band Of Mages

Chapter 1: The Hell-hound.

drip...drop... Indeed, the sound of blood slowly pattering on the floor was almost mesmerizing. Nearby, a streetlight was flickering in and out of existence. Etaf Dest strolled across the pavement, following the noise. Drip... Drip... the noise was getting closer and closer. Etaf stopped suddenly, the tails of his overcoat flapping beside him. He frowned underneath the shadow of his hat, who was tracking who? Drip.. drip.. The noise was definitely getting closer... and he hadn't moved a step. He diligently slipped towards the wall, moving with such elegance and yet such precision and speed that he was practically undetectable. Drip.. Drip.. Suddenly, the shadow of a dog appeared on the opposite wall. Etaf darted around the corner and peered at the dog. The sound of fabric being dragged across the floor was easily detectable. Etaf peered at the thing in the dogs mouth. It was a body... The body of a young woman.

Etaf cursed underneath his breath. Yet another casaulty to this never-ending war. The dog bit ferociously into the woman's shoulder and blood poured out from the wound into a small pool. It tugged harshly on the body, dragging it across the floor. Etaf stood up. Now was the time for confrontation; he darted around the corner as he reached into his pocket. from the inside of his pocket he took out a yo-yo which was scarred, battered and old, but as he cradled it gently in his hands, almost lovingly, it appeared to be alive and more of a deadly weapon. Made of wood, it had numerous scratches on it's surface from countless battles and skirmishes.

 He faced the hound and spread out his arms as if challenging that vile mutt. Suddenly, without warning, the lamppost died. There was a momentary silence and then, a bright orange light appeared from the hands of Etaf: it lit up his face and his strange cowboy hat that seemed to give the impression that he was sharp and dangerous. He tilted his head ever so slightly and now he bent down cautiously, yo-yo in one hand, light in the other as his over coat drifted lazily behind him. There! towards the right the noise of claws scraping across the floor, almost too quiet a noise for human ears, but Etaf was a hunter. He turned swiftly and threw his yo-yo towards the sound. The yo-yo suddenly changed colour; it had turned a violent shade of orange and barely missed a dark shape  as it flew past. As the creature jumped towards his face for the second time, Etaf arched his back inwardly using his hands to balance himself as he bent backwards. The creature went right past him but landed on it's feet and then it began to circle him like a wolf. It started getting closer yapping with the excitement of blood-lust. Etaf however, remained emotionless, he was not scared of this demon, whatever it was.

 As he retrieved the yo-yo it turned a luminous blue enabling him to see better in the gloom. He thrust out the yoyo numerous times, there were rapid movements around him and each time he thrust the yo-yo it would be just out of reach or slightly to the left or right of the demon. Worse still was the fact that the demon seemed to be closing in on him. He cursed under his breath and dug into his pockets with one, swift practised movement. He retrieved what appeared to be a normal deck of cards. He shuffled them up a bit and when the moment caught his eye he spread his cards out and started throwing them at the creature. As he threw the cards however, there appeared to be a few strands of light ravelling around the cards, all different colours. The cards would spin halfway in the air and sometimes even change direction. The lights seemed to be giving his throws more power. These cards had been his main weapon for a long time, it only seemed natural as he had been a frequent gambler before he had learnt about his magical skills.

Finally one of his cards pelted into the beast's stomach and the beast was flung onto it's side whining piteously. Although he knew the damage was temporary, he had attained an advantage; he now knew exactly what species of demon this was. All this time his brain had been whirling around the possibilites, he knew it was speedy, was black and was a dog but now he knew it was a  Hellhound. Hell-hounds were however, very bad news. They were used by other demons as a sort of scouting pet. They could communicate in a telepathic sort of way and the stronger the hellhound the stronger the demon master. Unfortunately for Etaf, this hellhound was pretty strong.

 It was a well known fact that any demon that owns a hellhound is pretty strong. Etaf spread his hands around his sleeves which seemed to flap up and down as he flicked them. His cards began to spread out in front of him, levitating in the air. Then his cards started flowing from him towards the demonic dog. The dog gave a yelp of fear but Etaf carried on unpityingly, how could he feel pity for something that had already killed a human with such pleasure? The dog desperately tried to move out of the way but the cards were just too many and too powerful. Etaf however, was getting worried, if this demon could withstand so much damage then how much could his master withstand? Also, his cards where running out. The dog was too busy with the cards to notice Etaf pull out his yo-yo again. He needed to strike the dog's weak point; the lower neck.

This time Etaf took his time readying himself for the killing blow and as the last of the cards struck the dog. Even though Etaf had killed many demons, he still felt sorrow and pity for them and he fought to control his emotions; he never really like killing. But these creatures had hurt and killed humans he thought savagely. He swung his yo-yo with as much power as he could muster and there was a short muffled inhumane scream and then the brute burst into flames. Etaf jumped back alarmed, this was the first time a demon had exploded into fire when killed. He was feeling a little un-nerved now. He decided upon whether to continue alone or whether to report back to his team.

Back in his world he had been a solo bounty hunter and had had no team but this universe was so weak and desperately needed his help for there were demons crawling around every night. There were only a few demons that had escaped to this world, but they had manged to grow and breed underground. The humans here were pitiful creatures, this was supposedly an alternate universe but everything here seemed different. No-one used magic anymore and no-one knew how to fight properly, except of course, those who came from the other worlds. The humans here had grown weak and careless, there supposed peace had doomed them.

Why do we suffer to save a world that is not even ours? Why do we save a world with so little magic? We can't even let these humans know that we're saving them! During these cross thoughts Etaf decided to return, this demon's master was obviously powerful. After all, they had been tracking it for ages. It paid to take precautions. Etaf decided to report back to Dumbledore, he would know what to do.

Dumbledore's real name was not in fact Dumbledore; he had taken the name from one of the books in this world. He liked a nice pseudonym, after all the Dumbledore in that story was based around him. Wizards are usually well-known, but only in fiction books. The people are sometimes given memory charms if they see things that they were not meant  to see in order to protect the world. These specific demons feasted on fear, and would only grow more powerful if the people of this world knew of their existence. Thus, upon this world, people did not even know that demons existed.

 However, the humans here have one type of magic. They are so very good at fortune telling and they do so in the form of books; they write. Writing is one of the very few magic abilities that almost all humans are capable of. Yet they do not appreciate it, Etaf's planet had no words and therefore no books. A book is a wondrous thing, it can both tell facts and be persuasive in it's writing. Such knowledge is trapped within a book. It is such a pity that the humans were blessed with the gift of writing, only a selected few will truly appreciate and love the art of writing. There are of course many skilled writers and many readers in this world but there are only a few people who make this magic their life.