Cursed Yoshi

 

Chapter 66 = A creature of darkness

 

Disclaimer: Although all characters here are of my own invention, the original idea of Yoshies, Birdos, etcetera, are copyright of Nintendo, and I make no money from writing this.

 

Darkmark managed to find a half-decent hotel and hired a room, slipping under the covers with a deep sigh just around about midnight. He lay there on his back, as best he could with his wings there, thinking about all that had happened, what he had accomplished, but also what he had lost…

I’m alone now. He thought sadly. Everyone I ever knew is gone… and so are all my plans. Alziana’s dead and I have no Shoreside Village to return to… Shiala’s dead, so I can’t go to the feral village… Visali’s dead, so I can’t return to Corvan… and Manny… he was all I had left… the only people I have are the Dark Gods… I have no choice now but to follow them… to join them…

He sighed and rolled over onto his front to allow space for his wings to spread a little, and fell asleep soon after. That was four hours ago, and in the early hours of the morning, something was tapping against the window of the bedroom…

Tap tap… tap tap… tap tap tap…

The noise wasn’t loud enough to wake Darkmark, and he continued to sleep, flopped on his front with his arms by his side. There was a momentary pause in the tapping noise, before there was a sudden loud thud that woke Darkmark up with a start, and the brown Yoshi immediately hopped out of bed and looked around curiously. Following the tapping sound to the window, he looked out into the early morning darkness and only saw flashes of something against the window as the tapping continued.

He opened the window to take a look, but as soon as he did so, something whipped past him and into the room. Slamming the window shut, Darkmark turned around and conjured up a ball of light to illuminate the room, as well as what he saw to be a smallish bat fluttering in a circle near an open space. Just as Darkmark took a step towards it, there was a bright flash and a cloud of smoke, and Darkmark made an instinctive grab for Karlo-Shin’s sword, unsheathing it and holding it protectively in front of him as the smoke cleared…

“Hello again, Darkmark…”

Standing in front of him was a dark blue Yoshi wearing a dark leather cloak that covered most of his body, with a sheathed sword by his side and two curved fangs protruding from his mouth in an overbite. His fins were dark red, fading into black, and he had his arms folded in front of him as he watched Darkmark intently, before opening his mouth just a little and running a dark red tongue across the protruding fangs…

“Manny?! Aren’t you…?”

“Dead?” The vampire Yoshi chuckled. “I was, but not for long… I’m dead, and yet, I still live…”

“But how?” Darkmark asked in disbelief.

“Heh heh heh… I’m amazed you haven’t already worked it out.” The vampire remarked, and Darkmark noticed that his voice had deepened considerably. “When Foryo bit me back in his castle, he injected me with Volzia, the toxin of darkness… he never intended to kill me. He made me just like him, a vampire, and after you left me for dead… the toxin spread throughout my unconscious body, and made me what I am now. I’m no longer alive, but I’m not dead, either… I am undead, as close to immortal as I will ever get. I don’t know why he chose to inject me… perhaps he thought that he could have another minion, but then you defeated him and his control over me disappeared… so here I am, of my own free will…”

Silence fell, and Darkmark just stared at his old friend, before finally forcing out, “You’re… you’re a vampire?”

“That’s right… you’ve changed too, Darkmark, but you’re still my friend… I hope. Can you accept me for who I am? For what I am? For what I have become?”

“Manny…”

“Can you do that, Darkmark? I accepted you even when you turned evil… even when you wanted to kill me. I accept you even now, even though I can clearly see that you have changed from who you once were. I always accepted you for who you were, because you were my friend… can you return that favour? I do not blame you for what you did… had I had a child with Karin, and then been forced to watch it be murdered and eaten before it hatched, and then see its mother die, I am sure I would have wanted to kill just as much as you did, and still do. I cannot blame you for your feelings, nor the hatred you bear towards the humans and all those who hurt you…”

Darkmark bit his lip uneasily. “How can I trust you?”

“I won’t bite you, I promise. Never, for food or for injecting Volzia, will my fangs puncture your skin… because you’re my friend, and I don’t want to hurt you. I swear this on my honor… I have no life to swear upon any more… and besides, you still have the sword of Karlo-Shin with which you could so easily destroy me like that foolish human. I know you, Darkmark, I know your power and I will never underestimate it…”

After another moment of silence, Darkmark nodded slowly. “Okay, I trust you, Manny…”

He gave a smirk and quipped, “That name does not belong to me…”

“Then what name have you chosen?”

“Skafria.” Manny hissed, putting such a hateful tone into the word that it reminded Darkmark of Klashkna. “Loosely translated from Ancient Yoshi, it means Undead Angel…”

He sighed. “For a moment, Darkmark, when I died, I caught a glimpse of the afterlife… of what lies beyond, of what I missed out on. It was a strange place, filled with Yoshies who lost their lives… and I saw some of the people there we lost… they say you are re-united only with certain people, but I saw others there, ones who I perhaps should not have seen. Karin, Alziana, Shiala, Visali… they were there, waiting for us, and some of them started to fade away as I got closer… but then, the Volzia dragged me back, and spread through me, making me into this…”

He ran his tongue across his fangs again, apparently involuntarily. “I was not the only one that day to have a problem with staying dead… as I left the castle after my undeadening was complete, I ran into that silver assassin, Tsi-Lau. Remember that Foryo was not there when we arrived, and that telepathic transmission you detected? It seems that Yasei-Yeiko knew Tsi-Lau had died, and asked Foryo to inject her to bring her back… he arrived back in that room when we did, and sprung his trap upon me. I didn’t fight her… we both knew it was pointless, as neither of us had silver weapons, nor could we wield them even if we had them. She seemed content to tell me that story… and asked me to tell you that she is out there, waiting for you, waiting to repay you for what you’ve done to her.”

Darkmark clenched his fists. “Doesn’t anybody know how to die any more? Well, so be it… I still have the sword. If she decides to attack me, she can follow Foryo to wherever he is.”

Skafria looked over to the window. “I feel something quite like hunger… I suppose I should go and find someone to feed from… I will return to you in the morning, Darkmark.”

Darkmark looked him in the eyes. “Of course… and when you do… we have a score to settle. We’ve taken care of the queen, and now it’s time to crush all the ants, one by one…”

He held Karlo-Shin’s sword up in front of his face, watching the blade shine brightly, and taking note of the way Skafria winced when he did so. “We head for Corvan tomorrow. I have just two more deaths to avenge… Shiala’s, and my son’s. I will settle this score before I head for the ruins… and if I have to, I will kill every assassin in that entire city to do so.”

 

To be continued…