Ebony Sun

Ebony Sun
Chronicle Three: Beginning

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Riddick stared listlessly at the ceiling of the motel room, it was dark and he could feel the biting chill of the desert night on his arms where they were positioned cushioning his head. Leo was curled up silently, motionlessly beside him on the wide moth eaten musty double bed, if the Furyan couldn’t feel the odd warmth emanated from the motionless body beside him he would have thought the man dead.

Listening to the wind outside, he gathered his thoughts.

This place was obviously technologically sub par, no ships otherwise what survivors there were would have hightailed it off the mud ball as soon as possible.

Which meant Riddick was on his own.

Either staying here and relying on Leo and whom the Far Rider left him with later, or waiting for the Necros to come and recapture him and ensure their ‘Lord Marshall’ didn’t escape again.

Lock him up in a gilded cage. Leave him to rot, until they found someone capable of killing him and claiming the throne.

That was another point. Those Convoys the green eyed male mentioned.

He didn’t like the sound of them.

Large groups all travelling together, it was sure to attract Undead attention, pick off the weakest, like animals, these Convoys sounded little more than herds of prey animals banding together for protection. He had to suppress a growl so he didn’t awaken Leo, the Ex-con had already been on the receiving end of a gun to the forehead and a forearm against his throat when he sighed suddenly in the night, Leo was jumpier than Carolyn in the dark of that Hell Planet, Richard B. Riddick was anything but Prey.

Silver eyes slid from the ceiling to the motionless body beside him and frowned slightly.

Six-years of being hunted, Riddick’s eyes studied the younger man and oh boy did he look young, even with his weather beaten tanned features he still looked like a teenager, a sixteen year old. He was a kid. A kid who was his only chance of survival in this God forsaken place.

The Furyan suppressed another sigh, the Great Fucker in the Sky really must have hated him. That or he did something extremely unforgivable in a past life.

Maybe destroyed a Civilisation?

Killed an Angel?

Kicked a puppy?

Glowering back up at the ceiling he closed his eyes, bitching about it wasn’t going to solve matters; he should sleep and conserve his strength, not to mention his patience. He could already tell travelling with Leo was going to sorely test his Self-control.

One way or another.

---

Harry was pouting.

In his haste to escape the Nundu he’d left his sword behind, the sword that Alice had managed to find and sharpen for him, it was a cheap knock off found in an old Wall-Mart but it was his and it was special. He would pop off later with his Firebolt and grab it; he just hoped he didn’t fly into any dragons or wyverns... he supposed he could use a Blood-Magic based Summoning Charm but the chances of infection were very high. All of his blades had been muddied in Undead more times than he cared to count.

The Boy-Who-Lived sighed infinitesimally so as not to wake his bedmate, this Riddick chap was a light sleeper, like Harry himself but no where near as hair-trigger dangerous at the slightest sound. Zombies were silent bastards and he wasn’t even going into what the Vampires were capable of, the defined the term ‘Silent as the Grave’.

He paused in his thoughts... ... ...

Considering all the walking corpses wondering around the face of the planet the Grave looked to be a rather lively and loud place to be. Perhaps he should change his sentiment. But what would fit?

ARRRUGH!! He needed fucking Nicotine!! Cigarettes, cigars, hemp rolled into paper, he didn’t caaaaare. He just needed a fucking SMOKE.

Withdrawl was fucking with his head already.

The black haired 21-year-old slid out of the bed, cat-like feet hitting the ground without even a whisper of sound as he went about rearming himself and leaving the room, it was only when the warmth of his body finally soaked out of the sheets that Riddick’s eyes flickered open and he sat up, narrowing his eyes on the door.

Outside in the early morning sunlight, Harry gave the perimeter a brief go over, disposing of a Gore Crow (What he called infected birds, regardless of species.) before it realised his presence and could summon the rest of the flock.

Stood in the centre of the front clearing to the motel Harry summoned up his magic, partially transforming himself into his Animagus form. He rarely used it anymore, only when his bike was out of fuel or too far out for human legs to make the run through various unpleasant grabby hands, or for when the terrain was too rocky for him to traverse on foot to find edible foods – usually vegetables, the virus wasn’t airborn but water born in the beginning, now that it had run its course none of the world’s water was infected unless one of the Infected drowned in the pool or bled into it, the mists that saturated the earth up in the rocky areas were capable of sustaining plantlife, hardly plantlife that often wasn’t edible unless prepared correctly but still food.

He morphed his teeth into that of a canine’s, an impressively large canine with rather intimidating dagger like fangs.

The green eyed male calmly sliced back the skin on his right forefinger, drawing enough blood for him to quickly inscribe a summoning rune on the back of his left hand. He was limited in his Magical abilities without a wand, unless he knew the rune appropriate to the attack and a surface to draw it onto in his blood then he could perform it, but nothing beyond extremely simple spells, Summoning Charms, Banishing charms, Fire, water, ice, basic repairing of both skin and fabric but nothing incredible. He didn’t know many runes, that was his problem, he was lucky enough to remember the rune for Summoning Charms and other such things from the text books Hermione fairly shoved down his throat while preparing for the Triwizard tournament. He never did tell Hermione that he went to McGonagall for permission to hunt through the Forbidden Section, not that anyone actually caught him since he usually took the Invisibility cloak and did so after hours hidden away in the still deserted Third Floor Corridor – specifically the Mirror Room.

“~Accio Sword~” He intoned softly, bracing his left arm and stretching it outwards, the rune on the back of his hand glowing a rich gold colour as he focused all his concentration into the act.

Another reason why he so rarely used magic no a days, he just could not afford to lose his situational awareness, at least not to the degree he needed to just to use magic. Alice had taught him how to use raw magic, no runes or wands, just sheer bloody-mindedness and determination, and he could perform a few combat spells but it usually left him with a crippling migraine, the price wasn’t worth the brief burst of power.

Riddick watched from the doorway of the motel, his eyes locked on the golden glow on his hand... why was he suddenly seeing colour now? Specially when it concerned this one?

First his eyes, now the blood on his hand, blood wasn’t gold regardless of what species you were. Well... the Bio raptors didn’t and neither did those Lenzor things... the latter could be passed off as an after affect of becoming a science experiment but the Raptors.... they were alien night-crawlers. He left it at that. He wasn’t the type for deep introspection.

Green-Eyes was obviously concentrating on something so Riddick ignored the gnawing sensation of his stomach in favour of waiting for him to finish whatever it was he was doing.

Being a witness to many cultures, many technologies and abilities, the Furyan was only slightly shocked to see a vaguely familiar sword shooting through the air towards them. He was perhaps a little more impressed than shocked when Green Eyes calmly sidestepped the dangerous blade and caught the leather wrapped hilt with his left hand and spun it carefully so as not to lose grip and keep the momentum until it was controllable. The black haired youth examined the blade carefully before smiling tightly and sheathing it.

“You can stop lurking in the door way now.” He called running a hand through his hair and sighing heavily, stomach snarling rather audibly much to Riddick’s amusement. The Green eyed youth brushed past him, “You coming or what? My pack is back in the room.” He stated slight amusement colouring his tone, an eyebrow raised mockingly.

The two ate a rather unpleasant meal of dry crackers of tinned rice pudding – which by all rights should have gone off by now but Riddick caught a trace of that same golden glow around it as around Leo’s hand earlier – and snarked back and forth at one another. Riddick couldn’t help but compare the Far Rider to another green eyed spit fire he knew, only there were a few glaringly obvious differences, for one Leo was much better at snarking, he gave as good as he damn well got and wasn’t afraid to toe that line, he could take care of himself, the fact he was still alive proved it, and he didn’t look at him with doe-eyes like Kyra had. If anything... the Far Rider seemed slightly... derisive of him.

Green Eyes obviously didn’t think Riddick was capable of caring for himself, in a way he was partially correct but only in matters of this planet. Anywhere else and it would be him who would be relying on the Ex-Con for guidance.

“C’mon Blades, time to get moving. Shot a Gore Crow earlier, that means there’s a flock coming this way, we need to move before they get here.” Leo explained getting to his feet and cleaning up their trash to toss out in the open grave outside.

“Gore Crow?” Riddick asked picking up the heavy supply pack, since Leo was the only one who knew how to drive that ancient bike thing the Furyan would have to sit behind him and wear the pack.

“Animals can get infected as well. Core Crows are what I call infected birds. Species don’t matter much if they’re infected, they’ll all try to take your eyes out equally. Large flocks can go through entire cities and pick them clean of every undead there is, a month after with all the sand blowing in and you’d never know that anyone had even been there.” He explained with a shake of his head as they stepped out into the harsh sunlight, Leo looked over his shoulder at the larger guy before gesturing him to turn around, bewildered the Furyan complied and felt the green eyed male rooting through the back pack. “Here, a shawl to cover your mouth and nose, sunlotion, so you don’t get burned and an over shirt to keep you protected at least a little from the wind.” He explained handing him the three items before closing up the bag and taking the sunlotion from Riddick’s hand.

He’d never heard of something that could prevent skin from burning under harsh UV-light.

He tensed slightly when something cold and wet suddenly hit his shoulders, but relaxed when he realised it was just Leo rubbing in the lotion, it felt very odd and he wasn’t sure if he actually tolerated being touched yet but... the smaller male had no ulterior motive beyond making sure he arrived at this convoy in as best shape as possible. Carefully shrugging off the bag Riddick waited for Leo to finish before shrugging into the faded plaid shirt, it was thin but durable if absolutely godawful in design, so awkward for movement.

“C’mon, we’re burning daylight and I’d like to be somewhere defensible when night falls.”

Riddick swung on behind the smaller male as he gunned the engine, “All the nasties come out to play in the dark huh?” He rumbled.

“No. Just the Vampires.”

He really had no response to that.

---

Riddick had been on this planet for a week and a half now, and he could honestly say he actually... liked it here, almost as much as Leo seemed to hate it.

But Green Eyes was generally apathetic to things he hadn’t a hope in hell of changing so his hatred of the situation was only vague at best. “No use crying over spilt milk” He had said, which went onto a conversation about what milk was, where it came from and then onto various species of animal that this planet once had yet could no longer support, along with which ones became infected and deadly.

That was another thing; Riddick had probably held more civil conversation with Leo than he had any other living and breathing individual his whole life. It amused him to realise that the younger male had absolutely no issue with him, even after Riddick came clean about why he was being hunted – he wasn’t ashamed of what he’d done and saw no reason to hide it, hell he was proud of it. Leo still smacked him upside the head and shouted at him for some reason or another before turning away quickly to hide the grin that twitched in the corner of his lips – Riddick caught it never the less but couldn’t hold it against the youth.

Leo... was a strange kid. They’d encountered another Far Rider the black haired youth called Cylo, thing is, that guy called the green eyed male Felix.

Apparently Leo wasn’t his real name.

It was only when questioned about it he explained that people rarely kept their birth names anymore, those names just made them remember families long dead, homes long abandoned and what their lives had been before the outbreak. It wasn’t healthy to hold onto those memories and allow yourself to slip into depression and hatred. Plus... if one of you fell, you could not claim that you knew them, that you were close to them, you couldn’t mourn them because you never knew them. It was just easier on everyone.

Riddick couldn’t understand that, he said as much and received a shrug of the green eyed male’s shoulder, “You will eventually.” He stated flatly with such cold certainty that even the Furyan felt a chill run down his spine.

Despite being 21 he still looked like a kid. No kid should talk like that.

The two were on their way to another motel to avoid nightfall; the first time they had been forced to camp out Leo had sliced his wrist and walked around the whole perimeter of their little campsite leaving an uninterrupted circle of red. Riddick had long since given up asking him why he seemed to enjoy slicing himself up so much but that night he finally saw just why.

The campfire had burned into low embers, not enough to provide any truly substantial heat but enough for some light, it was when his eyes cracked open in the gloom he realised why Leo had made those ‘bloodwards’. Their little campsite was surrounded by gaunt paper white creatures with long fangs and vacant white eyes, ears pointed upwards and narrow faces, they looked truly horrifying and even Riddick who could usually find some form of aesthetic pleasure in seeing such an obviously superior predator couldn’t help but be sickened at the sight of the creatures salivating just out of the blood ring.

“They can’t get in. Those wards are Phoenix based since I used my own blood, they try to get in, they fry. Go to sleep, even if a regular undead gets here those things’ll eat it long before it reaches us. Vampires, Nundu and Wyvern are the only Infected who will go for other infected.”

According to Cylo they were on the back of one of the older Convoys, apparently they were a Mixed Convoy, meaning they had both normal people and those like Leo – Special people – and they were one of the older more successful convoys, unusually large at that.

Riddick didn’t like the idea of being around so many people, he may see about becoming a Far Rider himself if he couldn’t get off world.

“There’s a group already there!” Leo shouted over the howl of the wind in their ears. Riddick frowned slightly and shifted his weight to peer over the green-eyed-male’s shoulder.

He was right.

The motel they were headed for was a small one floor faux wood building with a convenience store to the right and a small service station beside it, goggle-clad eyes could see the trucks, cars and singular motorbike already there – there was another Far Rider with them – in all he counted two cars, two trucks and two larger vehicles he didn’t know. (Two 4x4’s, an ambulance, a white movers van, a bus and a tanker truck)

Apparently the Convoy heard them approaching because a few people were stood out in the sun waiting for them, pulling to a stop Leo allowed Riddick to climb off before swinging off himself and getting a good look at the small threesome in front of him.

“Remus?”

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Yes I’m cutting off there. This chapter has been like pulling teeth so I’m really sorry it’s late and not up to its usual standard. I just wanted to get it out there because you’ve all be absolute dolls about waiting for me to get off my ass and do something. Hopefully Harry’s way of doing magic is plausible, I wanted to give him an advantage without making him SUPER!HARRY OF ZOMBIE DOOM.

Did it work?