#...on the other hand. 'horse that ditched its knight to hunt dragons on its own' could be pretty funny

[corishadowfang]

GIVE BRAIN A HORSE-- (I'm joining the horseposting, haha.)

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            “…Master Brain.  What is that?”

            Brain, for his part, didn’t seem particularly concerned with the situation.  He wasn’t even looking at Sigurd, calmly petting the—the creature he’d apparently decided to lead into Headquarters.  “A horse.”

            “…Right.  I…suppose I can see that.”  Sigurd had the vague urge to rub his temples.  Or shake Brain, maybe—but then, he supposed he probably wasn’t supposed to do that to a Union Leader, so vaguely-strained questioning would have to do.  “And…why is it here?”

            “Followed me.”

            “From where?”

            Brain finally looked at him and grinned, smile just a little too sharp for his liking.  “Don’t worry about it.”

            …He was going to have to file an incident report later, wasn’t he.

            “Master Brain,” Sigurd said, trying very, very hard to keep his voice level and failing, “you didn’t…steal this, did you?”

            “Not as far as you’re aware.  Her name’s Lux, by the way.”

            “Master Brain—”

            “She belonged to Romulus and I owed Remus a favor.”  Brain shrugged, like that was a normal thing to do, but Sigurd guessed he didn’t really know what the Union Leaders had done on their off-time.  (It was such a strange image that it threw him for a moment.  The Union Leaders, engaging in petty theft and pranks?  It didn’t fit the image that had been built up in the stories.)

            “What would Master Ephemer think,” Sigurd started, trying to get his train of thought back on track, “if he found out you’d stolen someone’s—”

            “He’d help, probably.”  Brain tilted his head, looking thoughtful.  “Maybe not successfully.”  Gently, he tugged on the horse’s halter, and it took Sigurd a moment to realize he was bringing her closer, wait no he didn’t know how to act around horses—  “She’s not going to hurt you,” Brain said, face crinkling in amusement that seemed sincere rather than the strained sort of thing Sigurd usually saw.  “Look, just pet her.  She’s pretty gentle.”

            The horse nosed his shoulder with a quiet snort, and Sigurd side-stepped a little, hands pulled in.  It made her nervous, apparently, because she pulled her head back quickly, ears flicking and hooves tapping an unsteady sort of beat.  Brain shushed her, and she calmed quickly, but Sigurd stared at her with trepidation.

            …Of all the things the Union Leader had done, this was probably one of the strangest.  He’d ditched meetings, harassed the Founders, and generally tried to stick his nose in places he probably shouldn’t, but those all felt some degree of normal.  Frustrating, but Sigurd knew how to deal with that.  He wasn’t sure he knew how to deal with a horse.

            But he looks happy, something in the back of his mind whispered, and—so he did.  Brain wasn’t watching him; his expression had gone soft, hand carefully stroking the horse’s muzzle.  He looked more relaxed than Sigurd had ever seen him.

            He could feel something in him crumbling, and he knew he was going to regret this later, but he sighed, his whole body sinking with the sound.  “Well,” he said, resigned, “do we need to find somewhere to hide her?”

            Brain glanced at him, head cocked and eyes narrowed.

            “…We’re just taking her to the meeting, aren’t we.”

            (It was almost worth the odd stares and whispers throughout the meeting to watch Brain introduce the horse to his new-found friends later.  Almost.

            The fact that Brain apparently didn’t know how to ride the horse, however, felt a little more vindicating.)

[2ndmeta]

Here is a list of 14 Creatures I have used and will continue to use in all my writing (and before anyone says anything, yes I based some off older video game characters):

1)Shadow dragon- first off, it's a dragon. Secondly, name means it can travel through shadows, and manipulate tham as it sees fit. Shadow dragons can take on a human form to walk unsuspecting through people. They gravitate to introverts and 'night owls.' These dragons are easily the most complicated as they love hoarding but each one hoards something different. Some hoard books others information, one that meets a character im working, on hoards hats. It takes a lot to make a shadow dragon fight but when they do their mastery of magic and durability make it nearly impossible to kill them.

2)Screenling- this creature is black as night and has the natural ability to feel no pain or fear. They will fight even after losing limbs. Their fingers are all flexible yet hard as steel. They kill mercilessly and emit gutteral screams to lure(or warn) their victims. The only way to kill this creature is to chop it into pieces(not limbs pieces)

3)Mirswith- this creature is a human/snake being. It's arms end in three bladed hands. It's natural ability other then it's incredible speed is disappear. It blends into it's surroundings at all times and is undetectable by most magics. The mirswith society is much like a beehive, every member serves the queen mother. They devour their victims as a group and thus kill whole towns at a time.

4)Blade master- The blade master is an orcish chief. They have trained with their blades the moment they can hold one. Every blade master has killed hundreds of people including their own to earn their title. They have 3 abilities. First, protection: they negate all damage dealt to them for a short time. Second, Shadow copy: the blade master creates 2 copies of himself that look the exact same but deal no damage. They are used to help him escape or confuse his enemies. Third, whirlwind: the blade master produces a second blade and his speed spikes. He is able to deflect attacks and deal attacks twice as quickly as a mirswith and appears as a tornado of steel to his enemies.

5)Death night- this creature is neither human or fully dead. Riding a skeletal horse he has command over dead forces but other than it's magical abilities has as much health and power as a regular human knight. His powers include, Death coil: the knight sends a spectral Skull flying towards his target that instantly kills them. Death pact: this allows him to suck the remaining health out of any undead creature and replenish his own with it. Ritual Dead: this ability raises fresh or recently buried corpses of the dead to fight along side the knight. They die when either the knight falls or their head is separated from their body

6)Night priestess- She is an Elven Huntress that rides a magically enhanced panther. She has the natural ability of evasion. This allows her and her panther to be nearly invisible at night. Her powers include Star arrow starfall and scouts eye. Star arrow brings a star down from the heavens to pierce the enemy with its fiery holiness. Starfall brings the power of thousands of stars to crash down and burn enemies and buildings. And scouts eye sends spectral owls to search through areas with potential threats. The Night Priestess is one with the nature around her. She is most likely to guard the divine beast and is an extreme sexist.

7) Lich- the Lich is one of the most formidable opponent when dealing with death and magic. His natural ability is glide. He floats just above the ground and is thus unaffected by ground attacks. He also is able to move faster than most people or creatures. Being a dead general the Lich cannot be killed by a majority of attack. Cutting his head off or using holy/star magic/attacks can kill him. His powers include frost nova and ice shock. Frost nova: freezes his opponents from the inside out if their health is low. Ice shock: sends waves of blizzard force winds mixed with sharp iceshards towards an enemy. Both attacks can be countered with heat based attacks or abilities. Bundling up in layers helps too. If you happen to survive the attacks you likely will fall to his undead minions.

8)Kodo Beast- this beast is a Komodo Dragon the size of a rhinoceros without the tail. It is extremely touch and can be tamed as a pet by some. It is not picky on who it eats though and thus even as a pet is a dangerous animal. It's main ability is devour. It can use it's ability to eat anything from a small shrub to an elephant whole in one bite. This ability shrinks anything too big down to a manageable size. If killed within 2 minutes the thing it "devoured" can break free and survive but good luck killing it. The hide on this beast is as think as a cinder block. Susceptible to magic

9)Witch Doctor- this is an orc that has ditched his people to pursue magic of all types. He has three abilities but they are all used as support and thus a single witch doctor is only a minor threat. But a single witch doctor is bullshit. The travel in packs of 3 or more. The abilities include bloodlust, growth, and healing ward. Bloodlust allows the target's attack to increase in both speed and power by 10x. This ability stacks. Growth is a fear tactic it increases the physical size of the target by 2x. This ability also stacks. They also weild bowstaffs for when they must fight.

10)Abomination - this creature is sewn together bits of other creatures and animals to create a giant hulking mass of dead monstrosities. Any of its 3-6 arms carry weapons. It's three legs are weak points if you get close enough as it has three heads facing different directions. It is constantly emitting an infectious odor that slowly kills the creatures and beings as well as plant life around it. It is immune to its own poisonous odor and so usually travels with others of its kind or other undead creatures. Good luck killing it as it have 4 hearts spread throughout it's massive body that must be peirced or broken to kill it.

11)Orc - the Orc is a relative well know creature. They travel in "War Band"s or "Tribe"s depending on the circumstance. Most Tribe's have a blade master as a chief and all orcs see strength as the right to rule. They can not be intimidated as the bigger something is the stronger you must be to win. Their fear is of one thing and one thing only: being unworthy of fighting. The greatest insult to an orc is not being fought. War bands consist of 20-25 orcs where the tribe consists of 40+ orcs learn to Smith and fight from the moment they are able to lift a hammer.

12)Gunsmith- nasty little buggers. These creatures are the size of garden gnomes they build random mounted guns out of things they find. If you see one you are likely in the crosshairs of all the others. They travel and build in groups of 50 or more. It is unknown where they come from and most guns they build are also their homes. The guns are camouflaged into the surroundings. The Gunsmiths are mostly simple peaceful creatures. But they are also fiercely territorial and will fight to the last for their lands. Tiny though they are, they have been known to hunt dragons for sport.

13)Night Archer- the knight archers are elves (moonshadow elves only they can turn completely invisible during the night no matter the moon cycle) they use only Bows or Crossbows but often poison their arrows or enchant their arrows. They follow the night priestesses and have the ability to listen to and feel the thoughts of the trees and other nature attuned creatures. They are sworn enemies of undead things and nature means everything to them. Anything living that doesn't threaten nature(trees, grass, creatures that rely on normal everyday flora, etc.) Is their friend and ally. All night archers attempt to be peacekeepers and they number in the thousands and travel as one

14)Ghoul - the Ghoul is the simplest of undead creatures. They are the bodies of the dead brought to life through hate and malice. Any corpse can become a ghoul. The Death Knights lead ghouls around to do their bidding and can use them as both warriors or builders. Each ghoul is a warped version of whoever it was when still alive. Their teeth grow unreasonably long and pointed, their nails do the same. They lose the ability to walk on 2 feet and so must crawl instead but they also increase in speed so as to keep pace with bears in the wild. Ghouls alone are not hard to fight as they are incredibly stupid but in larger numbers or joined with the other dead they become endless waves of enemies. Ghouls can be killed by being broken apart, burned, exercised, or any other means of physical death as well as spiritual; however if their energy is not dispersed they can reform and any ghoul is a cannable and will feed off broken ghouls to regain health. This is why they can create endless waves of themselves... the more people, creatures, or elves that die the more numbers they have.