Contemplating

Well, things are taking a frustrating turn where the Hunters are concerned. It was easy to figure everything out about them while thinking about them in the way I had them for my rp with Rhayvin. In order to tie them closer to our rp, I had it so that they descended from Rhayvin, through Haru. It made so much sense, and still does, with how long I've thought of them in that way. And, normally, I would go ahead and change my original sl idea to incorporate the new one. However, there is one phrase that will not allow me to do that, one which I attatched to the Hunters quite a while ago. That is "Descendents of Seth". Soon after I coined this phrase, I learned, well, that I hadn't coined the phrase at all. In fact, it's a biblical reference, I was told. In Genesis, the third son of Adam and Eve, after Cain and Able, is Seth, and they are his descendents that we all come from. This means that Mankind are the Descendents of Seth. This is by far too good a parallel to pass up in order to take the easy way out. Of course, this leaves the very difficult task of re-writing the history of the Hunters. But, before I do that, let me lay out a few facts about them.



The Hunters were creatures that Tobias hired way back when he first put the bounty out on Rhia. They hunted Rhia down mercilessly, and after a few decades of their pursuit, Rhia began to call them Hunters, as she had no idea what they were or what else to call them. For thousands of years they hunted her, they the only enemy she ever truly feared. Why, if they've hunted her so long and never caught her, you might ask. But it isn't that they never caught her. Quite on the contrary. They caught her hundreds, maybe thousands of times. It was that they could not find a way to kill her. No amount of cutting, slicing, burning, chopping, or anything else they tried seemed to kill her. And so each and every time they got their hands on her, she went through a living hell. On the outside, it would seem as though they were only playing with her. Taking her right up to the edge of death, then leaving her, waiting for her to get well, only to come back and try it all over again.
Now, I said that Rhia had no idea what to call them, because she did not know what they were. This is because their breed was one almost never seen in Rhia's time, or any other time but their own (I'll explain that in a little bit). They communicated not through words or any language known to Rhia - which almost always meant the language didn't exist then - but rather through whistles, hisses, and clicks. Luckily, there was some order to their communication, and Rhia eventually learned the basics, enough so that she was able to better predict their movements and became even more the moving target for them.
A good little trick they had to incapacitate her was that they could feed from her magick. Once they were within one mile of her, they could tap into her energy and magick and directly feed from it. It was an ability passed down to them through their mother. While they did feed from her, an illusion would be created by her magick, as a sort of red flag of warning to Rhia and whoever was with her to get away. That illusion was blood that would come from an imaginary cut on her forehead. Also, if she even felt the tiniest inkling that they were close by, she came across a spell that would tell her if they were near. All that was needed was a glass of water, and her handydandy magick. By turning her finger clockwise around the rim of the glass, and repeating "Aquae Vitae" (Which I believe means Water of Life..it's been a while since I came up with it) either out loud or in her heart, the water would turn black if the Hunters were within five miles, or remain clear if not.
Oh, on to what they really are. Dragoons. That is, half dragons. In the little sub-world of Earth I created for my fantasy side of the story, there are two major types of dragons. The smart ones, and, well, the dumb ones. The stupider breeds took on the form of the big, fire-breathing lugs we all know and love (not all of them breathe fire...still have all the different classes of dragons, of course). The smarter ones evolved from these guys, and began to be able to take on the form of elves or humans, all depending on which they were more around where they lived. Now, they had in-between stages, including being able to call out their wings, along with their fangs, talons, and even scales. Some of them enjoyed keeping their tail around as well. They also had a form that was a sleeker version of the big, full-scale dragon. It was compact, and good for weaving through enemies without presenting a huge target.
The smarter breeds would often live one or two to a large group of the stupider ones. They would lead them, protect them, and often had one dragon they were closest to. However, they would never even consider mating with them. They wanted there to be no chance of their own offspring to come out even remotely stupid. Instead, when their own kind began to thin out, they would take on their humanoid forms and mingle with the humans or elves. They would go for decades or centuries under the guise of one of them, until they were born a child, after which they would take the child and disappear. It's these offspring that became known as Dragoons. While, yes, this went on for quite some time, the reason they were not seen much at all, if ever, by anyone other than dragons was because they were short-lived, at least compared to their dragon and elven parents (they would live longer than humans). Not only that, but they were sterile. So, no, there aren't any quarter-dragons or the like.
Now, the dragoons could never take on the appearance of a full-scale dragon, or even that sleeker form. But, they were able to take on all of the intermediate forms, as well as their entirely humanoid form. And, while they weren't exactly stupid, they weren't nearly as smart as their dragon parent. In fact, they often acted more as pets than members of any sort of family.
As you can see, their being sterile, and the dragon's stubborness not to breed with the lesser dragons, they were dying out fairly quickly. The Great War between Elves and Dragons all but wiped them out, though that is another story altogether.

So, just what happens to bring about the Hunters? That is the very question I am trying to answer all over again. I know who the mother is. Seth's daughter, Cecelia. I know who the father is. A dragon who had stolen away in a deep underground cavern to sleep, named Adonis (maybe. That's the name I've been using for now). It's all a matter of how to get her to him in time.
Okay, so let me talk this out for a bit. It helps. Zelda is born approximately 14 months before Haru, though in appearance they are two years apart. As such, when they enter school, Zelda is two grades ahead of him. Cecelia is born nine months after Seth and Redairu's wedding, and she is still pregnant when he returns with Stacy (don't worry if some of this doesn't make sense. A lot goes on...). Stacy would have been about Zelda's age, and came into the picture when she was around eight or nine. So, it is about ten years later that Zelda and Haru graduate high school, meaning Cecelia is around ten. Now it gets sticky. The Academy is supposed to be destroyed in Zelda and Haru's third year there, which would make Cecelia thirteen or fourteen. One or two years later, the Apocolypse is supposed to begin. By the time Cecelia should have met Adonis, fallen in love, and had a son with him, she'd only be fifteen or sixteen. Which, in itself is entirely possible, except for the little fact that she's supposed to be some courageous and well-known explorer when she finds him. Not exactly something a fifteen or sixteen year old does. Then again... Well, here we go.
Seth becomes a teacher for the Academy fairly quickly, and actually becomes quite the researcher in overseas expeditions. During the summers, perhaps he takes Cecelia along with him during a couple of his trips, during which she was reckless, fearless, and gave the overall impression of being the perfect explorer. It could be during one of these trips that she stumbles across Adonis.
::sighs:: What a relief. I knew I made this blog for something. I can work with this.

Oh, by the way, there's a new picture uploaded on the site linked in the last post, and the one that was difficult to see has been darkened. Enjoy!