Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 06:10:27 +0100 (BST)
From: Lashrac <eternal_nsync@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Tormented Soul Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I bloody hate these things, there is no point to them But
because it's the law then I'll hafta say something. U can't read this if
you are under the legal age limit (18 or 21 or watever it is your country
says). And to make this a real bummer, no-one mentioned in this story
(Nysnc or A1, U gotta love these guys, and I know, they are the ones in
Destiny's Decision) is gay, although it wouldn't hurt if they were.

Well I actually started this story with the intentions of getting it
updated fast, unlike my Destiny's Decision which I always put off, and ends
up being updated like once a month. But if this goes well then it will be
updated frequently, unless other things get in the way, of which I will
post up a delay message. But I hope u enjoy this story, because I love
writing fantasy stories, and because I love the ppl in it. I want to
recommend so much stories, but I really can't be bothered going through
them this time, so if you really want to know them, just go to the first
chapter. Enough from me, so here it is, chapter 2

------------------

*previously on Tormented Soul*

'Goodbye Lunar, goodbye my brother, protect the 9, you must succeed in
this, we have lost too much. We shall meet again, in the realm of Gods.'

As his last breath was taken away his arms stopped flailing around, and his
legs stopped kicking, his head fell back onto the ground and the
BreathStealer vanished. All that was left was a pale body, a lifeless body,
a body which once belonged to Solomon, known as the Mage of Fire, Lord of
Calimor, brother of Tyrashk.

-----------------

**TORMENTED SOUL**

**Chapter Two**

	Lunar crashed through the forest, searching for the spot where she
left Solomon. She inwardly cursed herself for letting him take on the
Hellhound, but at the same time his brother, who didn't care enough to even
go look for his body, to even shed a tear for his dead brother.  She
finally reached a clearing, one that was not there before. She then
realised why, it was all burnt down, everything was burnt to ashes, it was
the place where Solomon and the Hellhounds fought. Then she noticed it,
lying there in the middle of the clearing, someone clad in red, someone
with short black, red tinged hair. She raced towards the body.

"SOLOMON!"

*Back at the cave*

	The stranger walked towards the cave, he saw someone move within
the darkness. As he entered the cave he spotted them, on his left were 4,
and on his right were the other 5. In the darkness he was barely visible,
his hood and cloak covered his whole body, save his hands. When he spoke
his voice seemed to penetrate their soul, it was as if it could wake the
dead.

"We must leave, they know of our location and it won't be long before more
creatures arrive."

"But what about Lunar, where did she go? and Solomon?"  JC spoke up, he
seemed to speak for the 9 of them.

"JC, Solomon is dead, as for Lunar, it is best if we do not disturb her,
she will return when she wishes to." He spoke with no emotion in his voice,
and as he finished he turned and began walking back outside. When no-one
followed he spoke, still with his back facing them.  "Do you wish to come
with me? or do you want to stay there and wait for more unimaginable
creatures to find you?" His question seemed to stir them as they began to
slowly walk out. They hesitated when they were all out, they looked around
the clearing as if expecting more creatures to appear.

"Um, I guess you know our names already, but we don't know yours."
Christian seemed to be the only one to notice.

"I am who I wish to be, and am what people say I am, I have many names but
also have none." He spoke in riddles, just like Solomon did. "Some call me
the Master of Nothingness, the Mage of Immortality, Destroyer of Souls and
even Summoner of Demons. But to a select few, I am known as Tyrashk
Konisk." On the final words he began to walk into the forest, but alongside
the boulders. The others quickly followed, many of them giving glimpses to
each other about this stranger that was leading them to nowhere.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at yet another clearing, this
time though there were no creatures there to ambush them. They were there
waiting instead. There in the clearing were 6 dragons. 2 were ancient and
the others were barely adults, but at least well trained and obeyed without
question. Tyrashk continued walking, while the others stopped at the edge
of the clearing. Tyrashk noticed their stop and turned around. For the
first time since their encounter Tyrashk reached up and pulled his hood
back, then undid his cloak so that it swayed in the wind.  His hair was a
pure black, it was short and was strangely spiked up like Lance's. His face
lacked all signs of facial hair, and his eyes were a dark maroon, almost
black. All the while his face remained stern and emotionless, and he
motioned with his hand for them to come over to him.

They slowly made their way over, still cautious of the beasts that were
behind Tyrashk. When they were at where Tyrashk stood, he turned and walked
towards the second largest of them, the blue ancient. The great beast bent
its head down and Tyrashk placed his hand on its snout. He nodded once and
the dragon seemed to understand what he wanted. It extended its huge webbed
wings and took to the air in an instant, as if it weighed nothing at all. A
few seconds later it was gone beyond visibility. Tyrashk walked back to the
guys of Nsync and A1.

"Where do you send it to?" Justin seemed intrigued by the creatures, but
was still having a hard time believing in them like the others around him.

"I have sent it back to Lunar, she will need it to return to Kelgar's
Castle." He turned around.  "It is time for us to leave." He began walking
back towards the dragons, with the 9 pop stars behind him, all still
confused, lost and speechless.

Tyrashk stopped at the largest of the dragons, it was also an ancient
except its scales were as black as night, its wings were ebony black, and
its eyes glowed a crimson red.  "Ben," he looked towards him, "you shall
ride with me," then he looked towards the others, "and you guys pair up and
hop on."  "Um...ok..." Ben spoke silently, he turned and looked at the
others, who were just as confused as he was.

Justin paired up with JC, Chris with Joey, Lance with Christian and Mark
with Paul. After a full half ann hour of clambering and climbing, they had
finally settled on the backs of the dragons.

"Um....we dunno how to ride these things..." Justin and Mark said
simultaneously, and it was followed by a group of 'Oh yeah's.

"You don't need to, they know what to do." Tyrashk answered casually.

"But what if we fall?" Chris seemed to ask the most important question.

"You won't.......you can't unless it wants you to, or if someone knocks you
off with magic. You will remain seated on the dragon's back even if it is
up-side-down." The last sentence seemed to bring more fear into the guys,
but before they could protest Tyrashk took off, and so the other dragons
followed.

After a few minutes of flying Chris seemed to notice something. Even with
the wind rushing into their faces, he seemed to still hear everything with
ease.  "Hey Tyrashk...how come I can't hear the wind? and I can hear
everyone so easily?"

"They are creatures of magic, they do many things beyong your
imagination. One of which is the ability to understand and speak every
known language, but telepathically." With the final words of Tyrashk's
explanation, everyone heard a voice in their heads.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" they all said in unison.

"That was your dragon, you can speak to it as you speak to me, it will
understand." With that he looked over at Chris, Joey and Justin who all had
smirks on their faces. "We are almost there."

"Let's have a race to the castle!" Chris yelled out.  He was answered by
several 'yeah's.  With that each of the rider's told their dragons to fly
as fast as they could to the castle.  Tyrashk merely stayed at his pace and
shook his head at the people infront of him. He then heard Ben speak up for
the first time since their departure.

"How come you aren't joining them?"

"There is no need to." He harshly responded

"Come on, have some fun, it won't hurt." Tyrashk shifted his body a bit and
turned his head to face Ben at the last few words. He was about to say
something again, but when he looked into those blue eyes infront of him he
was mesmorised.  Never had he felt as he felt now, not in a long time, not
since The Disaster, he felt something inside, something that was not to
exist within him. He seemed to lose his sense of strength, those eyes, they
were so powerful, so beautiful. He wanted to let himself go and open
himself up to Ben, but in a way he couldn't, he wasn't going to do that,
not yet.

Ben gazed into Tyrashk's eyes as he gazed into his.  Their eyes remained
locked for what seemed like eternity, but was only seconds. The deep maroon
eyes caught him, he saw pain in them, he saw emptiness, it was as if those
eyes spoke to him.  He wanted to just put his arms around Tyrashk and hold
him, to help him feel better, but inside him said otherwise. He felt
something towards Tyrashk, it was a mixture of friendship, pity, caringness
and love.

Tyrashk broke away from his gaze, and began thinking 'It is not possible,
how can it be, the word of the Gods cannot be broken, especially not by a
mortal. How can I, The Heartless One, be feeling this way, it cannot be
so.' With that he dismissed the thought, but something remained, something
that creeped its way into him, a sense of happiness. It was something he
had not felt after The Disaster had occurred, and it took over him.
Thinking back a minute or two he remembered Ben's words, "Come on, have
some fun, it won't hurt." without anymore thinking, he patted his ancient
black twice and sent it surging forward. Within seconds he caught up with
the others, it was as if he had been next to them all along, and then he
was gone, he was ahead of them and was landing at the castle.

When they had all dismounted and was once again on solid ground again, a
group of servants came and took them away from the dragon roosts. Ben
noticed that Tyrashk was not with them, and asked the young servant girl
infront of him.  "Do you know where Tyrashk has gone?"

"I'm sorry my Lord, but Lord Tyrashk doesn't tell anyone where he goes, he
shows up when he wishes to and there is almost no way for us to find him."
She answered as pleasantly and unrudely as possible as this was the manner
of a servant. They were each taken to a long hall where their rooms were
located, it seemed as though their arrival was anticipated. Ben entered his
room and saw the most beautiful room he had ever seen, it was better than
any hotel he had stayed in, it was the same size or even bigger than a
penthouse. He walked into what was supposedly the bathroom, and found a
huge spa like tub inside. He was so amazed he had to see if the other guys
had rooms the same. When he poked his head out the door, he quickly found
everyone else doing the same thing.

"Is everyone thinking what I'm thinking?" Joey spoke up.

"YEAH!" everyone yelled in unison. And with that everyone closed their
doors and bolted towards the ready tubs.

Ben relaxed in the tub and almost fell asleep. He spent almost an hour in
the tub and most of it was spent thinking. About the day's events, from the
time Solomon came through the door, to when he was gazing into the eyes of
Tyrashk. He wanted to know more, about this mysterious man, the servants
know of him, but yet they do not know where he is. It was a puzzle Ben
wanted to solve, one because he had already put his foot in it, and
secondly because there was something about Tyrashk that he liked, he didn't
know what, but there was something there when he looked into his eyes.

*Outside the Castle in the forest*

The sun was slowly setting, and from where Tyrashk wasc he could see the
castle. He saw Lunar's dragon return, but he did not move. Instead he sat
and waited a while, deep in thought, until suddenly a voice penetrated
them.

"My son, you look troubled." A ghostly form was sitting upon one of the
rocks.

"Father.........I......somethings happening." Tyrashk didn't look up, he
knew who it was.

"I feel your pain, but there is also something else there, something
minute, but powerful..."  the ghostly figure closed his eyes for a few
seconds before the flew open again, "OH MY."

Tyrashk looked up when he heard his father gasp, "What is wrong?"

"This cannot be happening," he was looking up at the sky, "this is strange
indeed."

"What is father? Tell me?"

The ghostly figure looked back down "The curse the Gods have placed upon
you is fading, a part of it has already gone, but it is still there, only a
small proportion has faded, but it is never-the-less fading. I do not know
why, but perhaps it has something to do with The Chosen Ones." With his
last few words he began to fade away, his shape slowly turned into a mist
and disappeared. Tyrashk hopped off the boulder, tied his cloak around
himself and pulled on his hood and began to make his way back to the
Castle.

*Inside the Castle*

When all the guys had finished in the tub, they had found their clothes
missing, instead they found different clothes, the ones that they had seen
some people wearing when they were being escorted to their rooms. They were
also all invited to dine with the one they call Master Kelgar, some of them
remembered Lunar mention it that day, but they didn't know who he was at
first, now they were going to meet him.

They all ended up in a group being escorted towards the dining hall. Each
of them wore a different design, each one matching what they had imagined
in their heads. The garments were made of either silk, a very soft fabric
or leather (leather belts and boots). To their surprise they looked quite
good in them, and also they seemed to fit perfectly to their liking. They
reached a pair of large wooden doors, where they stopped. Their escort
walked off and they were left there. Suddenly the doors opened and a young
girl came out, she beckoned for them to follow her as she went in.

They were taken to the large table in the center of the hall, at the end
sat an old man, at least in his 80s. They got closer and closer until they
finally reached him. Their escort didn't leave, but instead introduced
them.

"Master Kelgar, The Chosen Ones, as you have ordered."  With that she bowed
her head, never looking up to speak, and then, without turning her back
until at least 10 metres away, she backed away from him and then
left. Before anything was said or done, the doors to the dining hall burst
open. Lunar came charging in, in her arms was the limp and lifeless body of
Solomon, her beautiful green eyes were now bloodshot from crying, and her
face was stained with tears.

"Master Kelgar! Solomon......is.......Solomon is.........gone." As the last
word left her mouth, she reached Kelgar, kneeled down and let Solomon's
body lay on the ground. She clutched to his lifeless body as if it would
bring him back, but there was nothing else she could do. Kelgar looked at
the body of his disciple who was now gone, and he watched his other
disciple weep, and then he thought of Tyrashk, who was once his disciple
until The Disaster changed his life forever.

Tyrashk watched from the shadows of the dining hall, no-one noticed him and
no-one knew he was there. He was not known as the Heartless One for no
reason, he did nothing, not even shed a single tear for his dead brother,
he killed with no mercy, and he watched as his last relative died and still
felt nothing.

"Goodbye Solomon, my brother." With those few words he turned and walked
away into the shadows.

------------------------

AAARRRRRHHHHHHH! I finished another chapter! I cannot belive it...my head
is about to explode from so much thinking, i've had to type up a little
guide for myself just to get this plot concrete and to stop my self from
getting lost. PHEW *wipes his forhead* that was hard to write.  I mean i
think there are a few spots that could do with some BETTER words, but i
can't think that well right now, its being stressful lately and it has
taken every ounce of effort and will power to finish this chapter.....its
taken me a whole day, with all the other stuff in between.  SO pls have
pity on my when u send the feedback. I am exhausted and I need to sleep
now...so pls look out for the next chapter soon!