Raticus Ciennedie

 

Summary

Raticus Ciennedie was created by Shamdeo of Kingdom Hearts Insider. He primarily appears in the 2005 roleplay entitled "Anomaly" by kingdomwolfblade and Blackest Night as well as it's 2006 sequel. He also has small cameo appearances in a few number of Kingdom Hearts Insider's roleplays and challenges.

 

About

His template is as follows:

 

Name: Raticus ( RAW-tih-kus ) Lud ( LUHD ) Ciennedie ( KAH-neh-dih )

Titles: Raticus The Bashful, Knight of the Third Wind, Pursuer of The Anomaly, Lieutenant of the Harve Paramilitary Legion, Raticus The Mauler.

Age: A physical appearance of early twenties; an approximate age of 134 circa The Anomaly.

Gender: Male

Homeworld: Narnia ( Country ) / Unnamed planet.

Born: Narnian Year : Nine-Hundred and Eighty-Four.

Deceased: -

Species: Wer-Wolf

Family: Barnabus Fod ( father ), Sibyl Ral ( mother ), Peterus Dim ( younger brother ).

Universe: An expansion upon Kingdom Hearts.

 

Arms

 

Raticus has a Keyblade known as the Rhindongrin ( though in circumstances where a keyblade is not feasible, a hand-and-a-half sword of the same name). It's golden handguard inscribed with many images, and it's intricacy is something unique of itself. The handle is of a silver-colored refective metal, with red and maroon thatched leather around the grip. The blade itself is sharp, with slate-colored leaf and line designs handcrafted down to the middle of the blade. Writing is also present on it, and it reads "When the third wind has blown, the lion's call is known.". At the end, a five-pronged mass meant to be the key of the keyblade jutted out perpendicularly tot he rest. On each golden-colored prong, a symbol was etched into it: a leaf, a snowflake, a fang, a sun, and a crescent. He also carries a hunting dagger, and is not equipped with but can use a bow and arrows and spears. He holds a shield in his left hand, with a red lion emblazoned on it. His proficiency with one and two-handed swords is excellent, and can fight well bare-handed. He is skilled in using daggers, shortswords, longswords, blades, bows, and lances, though rarely carries them freely.

 

Appearance

 

Raticus is approximately six feet tall, and has the physical appearance of a Caucasian male in their early twenties. His hair is brown, with light bangs falling over his forehead, while the rest is "styled" back into a relatively wild fashion. Tufts of cream-colored hair adorn his temples, next his triangular and floppish ears. His eyes are of pure gold, surrounded by deepest black, being that the enlarged sclera blocks the white of his eyes from being visible. The palms of his hands and arches of his feet are about an inch and a half longer than your average human's for the equivalent height and weight. Were he to open his mouth for you, his canines would be the most pronounced of his teeth, designed to rip and tear at difficult tissue. Cream-colored "fur" also lines his forearms and calves, but is almost always well-groomed. His clothing and armor consist of a brown leather ( sleeveless ) brigandine with a crimson and gold tabard worn over it. A dull brown hooded cloak is fastened around his collarbone. Leather vambraces are equipped on his wrists, and dark brown trousers extend down his legs to the plated boots on his feet. He is also known to wear a woolen gray, black, and red scarf of homespun when it is cold.

 

Illustrations

 

Raticus, by Nebula Zero.

 

Personality

 

A personality befitting a knight; loyal and courageous, Raticus also knows civility and humility from a humble upbringing. To those who know him as a friend, Raticus is a warm and kind individual beyond a somewhat startling physical complexion. His voice is deep and yet softspoken, a trait similar to men of his kind. A sort of dull, grayish voice. Those who do not look at Raticus as a friend, tend not to see past such things. When not tending to his duties, Raticus enjoys the simple things in life: eating, sleeping in, dancing and music, etc.

 

Traits

 

+ His eyes allow him a great sense of depth-perception, but he is colorblind.

+ His body regenerates via natural processes much faster than a human.

+ He can jump to heights of fifteen feet with ease, and can lift or push about eight-hundred pounds.

 

Abilities

 

Transformation into a Wer-Wolf, triggered by passing a certain threshold in heartrate or other specific factors. This unique ability by his kind is caused by the symbiotic relationship with a canine virus that was passed to certain vulnerable humans. It is only believed to be the spawn of dark magick, rather than a natural process. Rapid cellular expansion occurs, enough to which the Wer-Wolf resembles a gigantic bipedal wolf nearing ten feet in height. Hormones stimulated by the virus remove the immense pain that would occur with such a rapid growth in body mass. This in effect, is the virus's defense mechanism triggered when it senses amounts of adrenaline of a certain level. That, or heartrate. In his human form, Raticus has several magickal abilities he can use in conjunction with this swordplay. The first of which causes the blade to glow a pale blue. When swung around, it severs the magickal currents that occur naturally in the air, and can effectively deflect and sort of magickal harm ( or heal ) from occurring in that location until the currents re-establish themselves. The second causes the blade to glow golden yellow, and when in contact with metal, causes it to considerably weaken. A follow up hit to that piece of equipment would be particularly effective. The third magick enables his weapon to grow ten times in hardness, and may effectively shatter any sort of weapon of normal make that it comes in contact within five seconds of it's invoking. It is known to glow a pale red.

 

Biography

 

Many years before Raticus was born, in a time when we knew not of World War, two children from our world stumbled upon a magic of sorts that allotted them access to a "Wood Between Worlds". This wood was a waypoint in which the children could access a multitude of realms. Curious, as any child would be, they traveled to the realm of Charn. This planet was dark, desolate, and frankly... dead. A deep red and elderly sun would barely light the surface covered in massive and shadowed ruins. Braving the steely eeriness of this world, the children came upon a chamber in which many of the land's former rules sat in chairs as if petrified and unmovable. In this room, there was a bell. One of the children, named Digory Kirke ( despite the frantic protests of his friend Polly Plummer ), struck it, producing an intolerable ring that shook through the city's foundation. It was this action, however, that awoke a giant of a woman seated at the head of the long-enchanted empire. This woman, who called herself Jadis, told them that she was one of two rulers ( other than her sister ) of the world. She told them of her magnificent power, citing that she was solely responsible for the annihilation of Sorlois and Bramandin, and commanded her people to fight until the streets ran red with blood. It was after such ugliness, that Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, halting all life. And then, in silence, the world known as Charn seemingly disappeared. Frightened of Jadis, Digory and Polly fled from her and the crumbling halls to the Wood Between Worlds. However, the crafty Jadis had come along with them. They escaped to our world, in which Jadis immediately sought as her new Empire. The escalating situation involved her being confronted by a London coppiceman, to settle the woman deemed a "floozy" and "harlot". Enraged, she tore a bar from a city lamp-post whilst Digory attempted to use the magic again to remove her from our world. In doing so, he inadvertently transported himself, Jadis, Polly, his Uncle Andrew ( who had deviously tested his "magic" upon the children ), and a cabby with his horse to a world enveloped in nothingness. The bar Jadis had torn from our world lay at her feet, which, in the darkness, had begun growing grass. They then came to know that the world that they now inhabited was being sung into existence by an otherworldly and sentient lion. The world was fleshed into a pristine shape of vast wildernesses, expansive mountains, distant seas, and blistering deserts with an assortment of Talking and dumb animals to inhabit them. Unable to bear the song of the lion, Jadis fled from the group westward... and into the mountains. The lion requested of Digory to retreive an apple from a great garden in the West, after laying the dread of a new evil he was responsible for upon his shoulders. Saddled with guilt, and a longing for the "magical lion" to produce a cure for his mother whom ailed of cancer in our world, he dutifully accepted his charge. The cabby's horse, named Strawberry, was transformed into a winged horse and renamed Fledge. He was also given a voice and sentience. Upon Fledge's back, Digory and Polly flew far to the west and high into the mountains. There, they approached a great garden, in which the purest of heart may enter through the gates. Jadis was there waiting, having climbed over the hedges to enter the garden, feasting upon the apples enriched with magic. In vain, she tried to tempt Digory to merely take an apple and return to his mother instead of Aslan to make her well again. Escaping her clutches, he returned with an apple to Aslan. He praised the boy for his task, and then appointed the cabby as the first king along with this wife, to be Queen. After the coronation of King Frank and Queen Helen, the two children returned to our world along with their exasperated uncle to cure his mother with the slices of a magic apple. Meanwhile, Jadis, with her newfound power from consuming the apples herself, disappeared into the far north... slowly plotting her conquest of the country of Narnia.

 

Usurping the Queen Swanwhite hundreds of years later, Narnia became her dominion, and she entranced it a spell of neverending winter. She asserted herself as the White Witch. Queen of Narnia. And Empress of the Lone Islands.

 

Raticus was born to the northwest of Narnia, in the frozen wastes that border the great western mountains. First-born to his mother, Sibyl, and father, Barnabus, Raticus lived in a cave ( a well-furnished, warm, and cozy cave ) with his family and several other families neighboring by. Primarily hunter and gatherers, they made a living by scavenging and harvesting what they could out of the frozen landscape. This, to trade to the south or in payment to the White Witch in taxation for occupation of her dominion. As to be expected, her share was heavy and hard to maintain. It was this, or to pledge unbreakable allegiance to her, obeying every command. This, in turn, appealed to a great percentage of the Wer-Wolf clans who became her brutal assassins. The small few that remained, scraped by as they had been, in an unending winter. A childhood unfettered, Raticus grew up alike those of his kind, dutifully aiding their parents with work and being playful and vulgar little savages when they went about causing mischief. The Wer-Wolf clans in general were viewed with disdain, and were perceived to be witless, hungry, dirty, and wild. It was this, that Raticus and several of his friends often conducted "raids" upon the young satyr, faun, and centaur youth. Never vicious, their actions were often in jest, but were met with heavy-handedness upon the other races, and even those whom had allied with the White Witch. This distrust continued for years. Around the age of sixteen, Raticus and his family were given an ominous warning to ally with the White Witch or face death. It wasn't a concern until Wer-Wolf children, the first-born of three families, were left for dead at the respective cave to which they called home. In great fear, anger, and sadness, the remaining Wer-Wolf clans began to flee north. While it may have been cruel, Raticus and the other first-borns volunteered to stay behind, to save their families from the grizzly deaths they would certainly face if their escape was not covered. Riding eastward upon a horse, Raticus ( who was now unaware that all of the first-borns had been slaughtered ) would aim to seek refuge wherever he could find. Even if it meant befriending the peoples who had held them in grave contempt. There was no alternative.

 

The journey eastward was hard on him, physically and emotionally. For the first time, being separated from his family, not knowing if they were alive or dead, not knowing if he would be alive the next morning frightened him to the bone.

 

If you stood with me, where I was now, you would see before you many hills. These treeless hills were covered light snow, as this is a winter month. However, steeped in the magic of an eternal spell, each month was a winter month, and possibly more cold than the one before it. It had been like this for one-hundred years; always winter, never Christmas. And on this night, a few hours before sunrise, it was especially cold. But with the frigid temperature, it allowed for a magnificently clear sky, in which the many stars and full moon shone down upon the snow and shimmered in pale night. This tranquil landscape seemed veiled in natural silence, and almost felt as if nothing ever had set foot upon the snow-covered earth or spoke a single word within. However, over the slight hum of the air gusts that flow above our heads, this new sound is unmistakable. It was the clopping of horse-hooves upon the snow; slightly dull and distant, and at a relative trot. Upon the horse's back was a rider, sitting sort of slack and eyes towards the earth.

 

This rider, only a boy ( Or would it be right in calling him a boy? ), had dark brown hair that fell over his forehead in thick bangs, while the rest flowed back into a relatively wild or unkempt look. The hair around his temples clustered in cream-colored tufts. His ears were not round like yours and mine, but triangular and pointed. The young man's eyes, arguably his most striking feature, were golden yellow and semi-luminescent, and the white that surrounded it was not white. In fact they were black, though the true white of his eyes were pulled back farther than your average human's are. These eyes of his made him acutely keen at depth-perception, but left him color-blind. A trade-off you could say, for those of his ilk. He was clothed in leather garb, and with an earthen cloak over his body, that sacrificed warmth for camouflage. ( Although wearing a cloak of this kind looked nothing like snow and ice, you may figure out the purpose soon. ) While his posture hung loose in the saddle, the boy was not a novice rider, having the experience in days past. He was trying his best to keep his eyes open, though the lack of a four days' sleep was starting to wear even on his fears. He decided that a faster pace would do him right in the morning, as his muscles wouldn't have to clench down on the horse's back as tightly through the night. How he desired to sleep, and be warm, and eat, and drink. Along he went, descending down the dip between hills.

 

But off in the distance, there was one... two... three shadows that crept along the hills; they moved with a pace that seemed unnatural. They bounded across the snow-covered earth with fluid grace and towards the young man on horseback. Faster and faster and faster still, they began to close the gap with haste. Among them came bestial snarls and whooping breaths as their large bodies sped forth, honing in on the intended target.

 

Up ahead, the boy raised his glances upward into night's brilliance. He had to be mindful to keep heading due east from this point, lest he waver too far to the north. Two great eastern points of light hung above him in the sky, the Lord of Victory and the Lady of Peace, Tarva and Alambil respectively. The boy had decided to keep heading along toward Alambil as it hung in the far east, and would duly take him there. Keep Tarva on his left, and he would be oriented. It was the fifth night of his eastward trek. The cold was eating him away to the bone. It ate away at his strength with each painful breath. An empty stare shot up to the heavens, and a hard and painful lump coalesced in his throat; and as he tried to fight his emotions back, the faces of those he knew began to reappear in his thoughts. He had to make it; he had to make it to the east, no matter what. But just how could he possibly find someone to help someone like him in the east; they could very well just turn him back. Or... they could kill him in the spot. What was the good of an idea like this? Oh, what a horrid thought. These thoughts had cycled through his mind constantly, and he wondered if it was this time that they would finally give him a good cry. It seemed as if there was no proper place he could escape to; death awaited in the north, and he would surely be caught had he decided to ride southward. It was at this notion, that he fought desperately to keep utter despair from seeping into his heart.

 

Gritting his teeth together to somehow force the massive dry lump in his throat to subside, he gasped when a sound touched upon his sensitive ears. As if almost a knee-jerk reaction, his legs slapped together as he cried out, and at once the horse pulled itself into a gallop. The boy jostled the reigns he held with one hand, looking over his shoulder. No, no, it can't be. They couldn't have possibly followed him out this far and so soon!

 

Even at a bloodcurdling gallop, the three beasts managed to catch up to him, bounding closer and closer inward, as if to box him in. Then, as the young man began turn to the right ever so slightly, one lunged out and caught his side, tearing away the fragments of cloak and leather he wore. Simultaneously, the sensation of cold knives being dragged along his right side caused him to yelp in pain and nearly slide off on his left side. Struggling to maintain his balance on the horse ( which was frightened beyond all it's years ), he bent over to his right despite the sharp pain in his side. It stang fiercely in the great and cold wind. Up ahead, he saw a gorge and an embankment down on the left and right sides. This was the River Shribble. If he were to jump across, he may be able to escape! The beast on his left lunged at him, much to his dismay, but the boy ducked to the right ever so slightly, and to keep his balance and timing with the horse's frantic pace. It missed and landed on massive clawed paws behind him, blocking the third beast from advancing. It was only the one on his right that remained; it snarled and snapped angrily, trying to make it's chance before it would have to back off. The young man's chest heaved up and down, aiming for the western ledge; if the horse was confident enough to make the jump, he would, and in some respect, the boy seemed to trust the horse's judgement more than his own. Had it been a Talking Horse, it would have been much more of an open conversation than the one-sided 'save me'.

 

The beast took one final swipe as the horse leapt into the air, mere inches from the ledge. It missed; the horse and it's rider sailed across the narrow gorge. It was as they were going over that the young man's gaze sunk downward and froze. It must have been hundreds of feet deep, yet narrow. If there was one thing that would freeze his mind, it was the terror of the thought of falling from such a great and terrible height. The horse landed heavy on the eastern side, enough so that the boy felt the reigns slide from his grasp and the impact sending him vaulting off the right side of the force. His body hit the frozen earth hard, and on his stomach, knocking the wind from his breath. Sliding down the embankment, the ice and snow mixed with dirt scratched and tore against his face and body, and his side felt like it had been completely torn from himself. Finally he came to a stop, face-down in the hard snow drift of a few days' past. Lying there unmoving, he struggled to simply breathe; and when that returned to him, the cold air stabbed at his lungs, whilst plumes of hot air rose from him and dissipated soon after.

 

The young man laid still under a canopy of unsympathetic stars, while the sounds and sights and smells from the world around him drained from his senses; it was then that he closed his eyes, finally to sleep.

 

The inhabitants of Ettinsmoor, the Marsh-wiggles, were known to live here at this time. One of which, Muddlebum the Cloud-Watcher, procured his unconscious body from the ice and dressed his wounds. Though deathly afraid of Raticus, Muddlebum eventually came to trust Raticus. It was when they traveled to the Star-Gazer's wigwam, that Raticus was told of a prophecy and of the great lion Aslan, who had returned to the country after a millennia.

 

When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone

Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,

The evil time will be over and done.

 

At this time, four children from our world were sent to an old house in the country to escape the London air-raids in World War II. The Pevensie children eventually came to discover a magical wardrobe, built from the wood of an apple tree, the seed of which belonging to the apple that Digory Kirke had retrieved to cure his mother's cancer. In Narnia, the siblings became acquainted with a faun, and two beavers, while one of the children was captured by the White Witch. After hearing the words of this prophecy, Raticus journeyed south to the eastern coast of Narnia. To Cair Paravel, where the winter's icy grip had thawed and was spreading west. On his travels, he bore witness to new spring, and was then convinced of the prophecy's truth. From there on, he would do what he could to stop the White Witch, the tyrant who had scattered his family to the far ends of the earth.

 

Forces amassed at Beruna, awaiting the arrival of the Pevensie children, for they were to take up arms in battle against the White Witch. Before their arrival, Raticus broke ground on the camp, only to be turned away. With the Narnian forces as addled and few in number as they were, those of "indistinguishable merit" could not jeopardize the upcoming war. Frustrated beyond limit, Raticus wandered from the safety of the Beruna highlands. It was there, here was ambushed and taken prisoner by those of his kind whom had happened upon him. Beaten to nearly an inch of his life, he awoke to find himself in the Witch's camp, and a mask made of iron and bronze affixed to his head with his body roped to a stolid tree. In vain, he tried to claw it from his face, but it's bindings were to tricky to manage. The Witch and her Wer-Wolf cohorts would plan on using him in the war, no matter if he was helpless. In his fear, he descended into a delirious half-mad state. Then a commotion in camp, to which he can not see nor intelligently guess, managed to draw attention away from him. Somehow, his bindings from the tree broke, and with a disoriented fervor, Raticus fled. Seemingly on a road, he slipped and fell down an embankment into a swamp, where the thick mud filled the crevices in the mask. Unable to breathe, he scrambled about, until he lay trembling on the earth... unable to save himself.

 

It was then, that something seemed to be stepping on his face. And with that step, the metal cracked and crumbled, pooling into sand around his head. Half-conscious, and now able to breathe, he could see the silhouette of a lion moving away before descending into a deep sleep. It was that next morning, that Raticus found himself once again in Aslan's Camp, but in the company of a satyr named Falkon. He explained how Aslan, the lion, was leading a band ( of which Falcon was in ) towards his camp. Briefly stopping, he had freed Raticus from certain death, and instructed him to bring him along, quoting Aslan as saying "All who have lost much; and all who have much to gain may follow me". Falkon, convinced that Aslan had meant for Raticus to fight against the oppressive Jadis, began to instruct him on the more fine points of combat in the days leading up to the Pevensies arrival. Slowly rising from his wariness and sulk, Raticus began to train for a war he was supposed to fight in. Supposed to defend Narnia. Supposed to defend the Fauns, the Dwarves, the Satyrs, the Centaurs and so on... Although a small and dismal feeling at first, it welled up inside of him and blossomed; the happiness and fulfillment of fighting hard for those who could not. It was at this time that Falkon taught him many techniques, most notably, the basest fundamentals of the Break Arts. All of which, Raticus was able to absorb in his newfound plight.

 

Then, three of the four Pevensies approached Aslan's camp. They told of their brother's betrayal and capture, to which Aslan was grievous but understanding. In a meeting with the White Witch before the Battle of Beruna began, Aslan purported his own life for the Pevensie child. That night, unbeknownst to the people of Narnia, Jadis executed Aslan upon the Stone Table. When word of the lion's death reached the camp, a great sorrow and dread swept across it. With their leader gone, the battle would fall upon the eldest Pevensie's shoulders to direct.

 

The forces of Aslan and Jadis assembled on the highlands above the Beruna Ford. It was then that the battle began.

 

Clear blue skies and a bright sun shone upon the land, high rocky cliffs and tufts of highland grass were abundant. However, something disturbed this landscape. Cool breezes whipped about, the last throes of a dying winter. On the southern side, near one of the highest cliffs except for the enormous mountains that loomed in the north and west, was a sizeable army poised towards a downward slope of green shortgrassed earth and rocky crag. Rising up onto the line of sight was another army facing south, encroaching steadily upon a point to observe the enemy. Rallying in ferocious bestial cry, they appeared fearsome in number, much to the dismay of the other side. Banners of red and gold adorned pikes, and many other beasts rallied against the northern army, clad in armor helms and handcrafted weaponry. Behind the massive cliff were reinforcements, one of whom was bent over, adjusting the metal plates above the sollerets on his feet.

 

It didn’t seem to fit quite right, as Raticus noted, but this was armor crafted for fauns and satyr rather than werewolves. There hadn’t been much time to prepare, as their party had approached the camp only recently. However, it couldn’t be expected that such visitors would be so eagerly trusted. No matter, the battle would prove that enough. A gauntleted hand reached out and clasped Raticus’ shoulder, clinking on the heavy shoulder plates and mail prompting him to look over to whom it was. A similarly equipped young man signaled, as if to take him aside. Clutching a leather helm Raticus stepped out and behind a crag to converse with the other.

 

"You’re still confident in coming with me?"

 

The other said, slightly trailing off at the end.

 

"Yes." Raticus would simply nod in reply. "You aren’t having doubts... are you?"

 

"Not at all, I’m glad you and the rest decided to walk this path with me. And in seeing that..."

 

The other figure extended a pair of bulky leg braces and a piece of armor that didn’t look like it should by worn by anything. Leaning them against Raticus’ chest, he was forced to take them or topple over backwards from the weight.

 

"...What are these?" Raticus said, raising a naive eyebrow.

 

"Since you do not have a fear of battle, might I suggest overcoming one that’s in due time?"

 

The other figure would walk away to rejoin the others in ranks, while Raticus still bore a confused expression. Heavy pads to the right could be heard, and he looked to see a squad of gryphons procuring great boulders from the earth. One of them approached with a greatbow in it’s beak, eyeing Raticus.

 

Meanwhile, the army to the south, led by a witch clad golden mane shaved from a noble lion, allowed her general to proceed forth. They began charging across the great green plain towards the south. As they approached, the signal was given. A young human boy on top of the cliff raised his sword into the air. Like it or not, Raticus had to be ready.

 

The metal braces he had been given were clutched in the massive claws of the gryphon, and Raticus hung upside down as it flew northward several hundred feet in the air. If it was cool on the ground, then it was freezing at that altitude. The fierce wind at his body felt cold enough to give him frostbite. As the gryphon above flapped it’s enormous wings capable of keeping such a load airborne, they passed over the cliff where the lion’s army would soon charge. At this time in history, Raticus had a great fear of heights, and he forced his gaze down along his body and to the blue sky. Nearing the enemy, he pulled up as if doing a sit-up, allowing the piece of "armor" on his back to do it’s job.

 

On the ground, the witch’s minotaur general became aware of the aerial offensive. Roaring back with great vocal prowess to the forces behind, the animalistic cry would alert them to a great threat.

 

"Look to the sky!"

 

Other gryphons flying nearby would release the massive boulders they carried over the advancing army. They flew at such velocity, they screeched through the air and landed with a horrific thud on the first wave, crushing a mass of oncoming troops. Their cries were drowned out with soil being thrown into the air, and crushed bodies being thrown about or rent asunder. Above, the piece of armor Raticus wore concealed him as a boulder being carried through the air. Yet below, dwarven archers begin firing up toward the gryphons in retaliation. The gryphon next to Raticus was shot out of the sky, and a howling screech could be heard as it plummeted downward. Summoning the courage inside, he knew it was time to act. Slamming his hand into the buckle that held the piece of armor on his back, it came loose and fell out of the sky. He would outstretch his body, perpendicular with the ground, and draw the only four arrows he had on him within each finger. It took about ten seconds for him to muster a good shot, as the ground was very very far below him. Three of the arrows let loose and rocketed toward the witch’s general. However, two of them missed entirely, and the third managed to strike a dwarf behind. His goal was to preemptively strike the minotaur, but with one last arrow, he swivelled his hips to the left slightly, taking new aim. The witch’s chariot drawn by two polar bears advanced southward. In due retribution, the last shot zipped through the air towards her minuscule form. However, it was in vain, as it struck the earth just over her shoulder. Hues of deepest darkness looked up the sky to see the assailant hanging underneath a gryphon.

 

Now came the moment Raticus had dreaded, but was duly necessary. Pulling up again, he tossed the bow away, no longer needing it. His hand reached up to the braces on his legs and triggered a mechanism that caused his legs to slide right out. Immediately, he found himself plunging through the air at an unnerving speed. His heart beat faster and faster, and faster still. Falling head first, the great winds whipped his hair about as a silver flames began to encompass his body. It would contort and expand as it fell, shifting and morphing into something far bigger and greater. When the flames subsided, a great wolven form tucked in the air and flipped it’s posture. When the beast finally landed, it shook the earth around him so much, that five dwarves and three minoboars were thrown off their feet as the ground quaked beneath.

 

Rising from it’s haunches, it stood well over nine feet in the air, with magnificent brown fur covering it’s head, back, and tail. Somewhat of a mane fell from it’s neck, and cream colored fur covered it’s torso and along the inlay of his limbs. Claws matched the fiery golden hues in his eyes, and his maw split open to reveal row after row of malevolent fang. Despite this ferocity, he was greatly outnumbered. The lion’s army was charging towards his position with the centaurs’ pikes placed to annihilate the rest of the first wave. Bounding forward, Raticus ( or rather what Raticus had become ), trampled a dwarf under his massive hind paw and lurched to successfully snatch a minoboar in the arm within the fearsome crunch of bone and sinewy muscle. He would do what he can until the reinforcements arrived, and hopefully it would be soon. If there was anything he was sure of now, it was that his path was set; no turning back now.

 

When the conflict ended, it was Narnia standing in victory. The White Witch was no more.

 

The Narnia long prophesied to be came into fruition, entering what was known and referred to as The Golden Age. Governing from Cair Paravel, the Pevensie children soon fit snugly into their new roles. Many campaigns were endeavored in the years thereafter. One was to expel the remaining loyal of Jadis to the North, in which Raticus attended with Falcon and the Third Wind. It was then that Raticus was reunited with the Marsh-wiggle Muddlebum, dutifully catching him an eel, as he had promised once when he had eaten one of Muddlebum's. It was then that they learned of a deeper threat, that the giants of the North were headed southward to claim Ettinsmoor and Narnia. Northward they continued, where Raticus was then reunited with his family by saving them from a impetuous giant. Grievances absolved, the High King allowed them to return to Narnia, which they did. The fight at Harfang was long and fearsome, and became the battle in which the High King's skills were most tested. In the end, they were victorious, and returned to the castle to bring the news of the campaign. There were many of them after that, which Raticus took part in, in one way or another. The christening of the Splendour Hyaline, the conquest of the Lone Islands in the Great Eastern Ocean and the subsequent establishment of Redhaven.Upon their return, they were briefed of the Prince of Archenland's disappearance, a mystery that plagued the neighboring kingdom for years. Though, it was one day, that the boy calling himself Shasta stumbled upon the Narnians to warn them of a Calormene invasion. Among the forces sent to Anvard, Archenland's capital. The battle was long and hard, but again Narnia was victorious. It was then revealed that the boy Shasta was the lost twin Prince whom had fled across the desert to be free.

 

Exactly one year after, the Kings and Queens left on the annual Hunting Of The White Stag, but never returned. The country, up in arms, and despairing it's lost rulers slowly dissolved as a nation. But before that, in the middle of the night, Aslan came to Raticus in his sleep. He was told of a threat greater than all the land that was consuming the stars above, and that he must ally with others from other realms to stop the darkness from claiming their own world. Having matured and acquired experience as a warrior, Raticus accepted, though fearful of the worlds beyond. Through the Wood Between Worlds he went, emerging on a foreign planet far from his own.

 

It was Agaz, the frozen planet. In the furthest reaches of the universe, in the most distant of quadrants, a lone bastion was second upon a vast multitude of desolate frozen realms encircling a young sun. This world, as inhospitable as it seemed, had become the crucible of new life skittering across it's surface. Covered nearly completely in floating ice, only several small mountain ranges poked up over the planet. Massive white bergs floated in the the deep blue ocean and each thunderous shift can be heard for miles. The most breathtaking features of this planet, however, were the massive bergs that floated weightlessly in the atmosphere. Matter of factly, they were so gargantuan, that cities had been built into them, amongst the spires of blue and white ice and black rock. The massive lumps of this dark black rock that supported them were comprised almost entirely of gaiarite ( the dubbed term for this mysterious stone) that floated nearly a mile from the surface of the planet. Carried slowly by the shifting winds in Agaz's atmosphere, these city-bergs would aimlessly coagulate the sky, but never collide. The gaiarite negatively reacts to itself, and so each would not come within a mile of each other without being softly repeled. Every so often, an airship twirls around the peaks and underneath the street-bridges, a technology granting travel and business with other city-bergs on Agaz. The soft and sweet humming of their engines is akin to a hummingbird's flap and a bumblebee's buzz.

 

Harve, or politically known as the Fifteenth Berg, was draped in nightfall with the billions of stars in the galaxy as a magnificient nightscape. If you were to stand in one of the many streets that stretched like bridges between each massive paramount, you would barely be able to see the ocean's choked waters crashing between the ice a near mile below. Cold winds circulate throughout the spires, alit with pinpricks of golden yellow. Warm homes amongst other sorts of places have been carved into the rock surface of the massive ice-covered gaiarite spires. They were considerably high up, with glass panes looking down into the many-tiered levels of the city-berg of Harve.

 

It was here that the Harve Paramilitary Legion of Light-Forces had established itself. In the following year, Raticus was sent to different planets to repel what had been labeled the Heartless from consuming the souls of the innocent and plunging worlds into ruin. Meanwhile, the Harve Acadamie was established, seeking out keyblade bearers and training them to repel the darkness. Raticus himself would train the newcomers from time to time, sometimes regarded as a surrogate uncle to those who had lost their homes.

 

It was that very year that Raticus, along with Ludwig, Yuwain, and Angela ( the other three in his assigned squad ) were dispatched to a world under attack by the Heartless. It was a world named Ramandi.

 

Several figures garbed in dark-hooded cloaks fled along the ground and up the stairs of a cobblestone terrace. Smoke billowed up from several homes, as vents opened within the earth, spewing fire and brimstone. It would have been a perfectly serene summer night had it not been for this dilemma. Splitting up, one of the cloaked men ascended a high flight of stairs to his right, soon to be faced with another leading back to the left. However, something garnered his attention; a ragged thing lay in the street, and upon closer inspection, he found it to be a child. It was a boy, quite young, in fact. His clothes had been shredded, and sat in a lifeless slump, heart ripped from his body. The Heartless swarm had devastated the city after the heart had been shattered, and this casualty was but one of millions. The cloaked man picked the boy up and set him aside, placing his small hands over his chest reverently. Had there been more time, it would have been proper to give him a funeral. Turning his head away from the awful sight, he would catch a brilliant flash of light coming from atop the second flight of stairs. Standing, the man would creep upwards, his cloak gliding along the stairs.

 

When he reached the top, the light had subsided, and there seemed to be nothing but a few ransacked houses and dissipating black smoke. Upon his ears, he could hear the sniffing and sobbing of another being and stepped forward. There he saw it, another child clutching a doll and standing in the opening of where a door had been. She was wincing, and the man wasn’t sure why. She stared up to him as his hand would pull back the hood from over his shadowed features.

 

The young one almost burst into tears when she saw the strange foreign man. His brown hair fell over his eyes in bangs, while the rest was styled back in a sort of wild fashion. Tufts of cream-colored hair poked out from his temples where pointed ears were quite visible. His most striking feature was his eyes, golden and luminous, surrounded by black. To a child of that age and reasoning they seemed to call out with a frightening dull grey voice:

 

"I am hunger. I am thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy’s body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies..."

 

To the man, whom if you hadn’t guessed by now was Raticus, the girl’s eyes were similar to the boy’s he had encountered moments ago. Yes, their scents were akin, and he assumed that they were siblings. Quaking with fear, she turned away until Raticus knelt down and brushed some hair from her face.

 

"Come on now, everything will be alright. I’ll take you somewhere safe."

 

The stench of death lurked behind her in the rubble of what he assumed to be her home. Most likely her parents had been crushed when their roof collapsed with the sudden eruptions in the earth. The ground would rumble under their feet softly, and the planet’s impending death drew closer and closer. At long last, the young one would reach out to his cloak and clasp it in her hands. Lifting her up, he placed her on his shoulders and set off along the houses to the rendezvous point. As she was carried along, she mumbled something about "brother" and "went to get help". She obviously didn’t know the grave fate he had suffered. But after that, she was out like a light, spent from trying to hold back her tears. The other men were waiting there when Raticus arrived, and behind them was an expansive gummi ship. All boarding, he would take her to a quaint room, for lack of an infirmary. He would set her down on a bed near a window while the pilot took off from the ground. Tucking her in, it seemed that the bed eclipsed her in size. Raticus would pull off his cloak and lay it on the adjacent bed. He sat at the foot of the girl’s bed, and looked down to the floor. He sat like that for a while, once looking over to her. "She may very well be the last of her kind.", he thought to himself. Truly terrible, the girl had lost her family and her home to the Heartless.

 

Early the next morning ( although you wouldn’t guess if from being in space ), the girl awoke to the sound of Raticus entering the room again. When she looked upon his eyes again, the memories of the previous night flooded back into her mind, and her eyes welled up with tears. Raticus sat on the foot of her bed once again, and they talked for nearly a half hour about what had happened. The girl stole looks out the window for a majority of the time, amazed at the stars and the great emptiness that flew by. Raticus did his best to explain to her about this ‘space’, and told her that it was alright to be scared. ( Truth is, he was absolutely petrified the first time he had seen it for himself. ) As their conversation came to an end, she pointed out a light blue sphere coming closer and closer.

 

"May I ask your name?" Raticus said, reminding his formalities.

 

The girl paused for a moment. In all that had happened, she had nearly forgot it!

 

"...Koinu."

 

Raticus would nod, a few bangs falling over his forehead. "You may call me Raticus, Koinu."

 

After a few minutes, the gummi ship entered the atmosphere, and lowered through thin and cold-looking clouds. Koinu would have seen the ship lowering towards the large blobs moving across the surface of the world. However, now that they neared it quickly, she would have realized that it was a giant iceberg that was floating in the sky. Giant spires of blue ice and dark navy blue towers rose on the top of the berg, and buildings could be seen within the ice as well. Gray stone walkways lined and stretched across to the different towers set in the ice. In the distance, you could see many of these same icebergs floating in the clear blue sky, as if they were floating towns built into the ice. Koinu was taken aback by all of this, but her gaze was still fixated out of the window.

 

Then, a bright white sun shone into the gummi ship's window as the pilot set it down on a wide area near a tower. Getting up, Raticus walked past Koinu out of the room and opened the hatch. A gust of cool air blew around in the cabin as he took the cloak he had set on the bed next to her. Koinu got out of bed, knowing that it was a good time to get to her feet. Rubbing her cheeks free of the remains of her dry tears, she stood still as Raticus tied the cloak around her to keep her warm.

 

"Time for another ride." He said, and Koinu nodded. She rode on his shoulders out of the gummi ship and into a land she knew was far from home.

 

It wasn't too terribly cold, but when the wind picked up, it could bring a bitter chill to your hands and ears. He stepped out onto the landing and walked over to a bridge that ran along the left side of a large ice spire that seemed to stretch more than a hundred feet into the air. Koinu held on to him tight, her face leaning on the back of his neck. He was surprisingly warm, and she wondered why he didn’t feel cold with the light clothes he had. Raticus wore a beige jerkin with a wide collar that flapped in the wind, dark blue suspenders, and gray trousers with black boots.

 

If Koinu were to look around her current whereabouts, she would be able to see a row of shops carved into the ice and stone across the way. It seemed as if there was an item shop and accessory shop nearby to name a few, and many more in the same area. In order to get there, one would have to cross a bridge that hung over a mile-down drop. Thankfully, there were sturdy stone guardrails that accompanied the sides of each path. People milled about in their daily duties, dressed in heavy-looking clothing. Children played out in the large and natural ice rinks that popped up here and there. School wouldn’t begin until the midmorning. Koinu noticed that the entire iceberg in the sky was moving like the gummi ships that swirled around the spires, but only much slower.

 

As the crew, along with Raticus and Koinu, entered through the large black gates to the gigantic building, they passed through several doors, noticing that it became progressively warmer as they traveled inward. He set her down when they came to a luxuriously decorated hallway with green and violet carpet pinpricked with silver designs. She noticed that a lot of things were hand made, and wondered what made them and who made them in a world that had at first seemed to be in endless ice. A place Koinu would come to know as the Hall of the Ancients. It was then that Raticus knelt down to her and spoke.

 

"Koinu, I have some business to take care of. But don’t fret, a friend of mine is going have you for breakfast!"

 

At first, Koinu’s eyes widened after he said that, dreading that one of Raticus’s similarly-looking friends was going to gobble her up. But once she saw the woman behind him dressed in pastel clothes with her hands daintily folded in front of her, she had second thoughts. She was elderly, and had a grandmotherly aura about her. Koinu’s eyes begged Raticus not to leave her, but she knew he had to leave.

 

"Don’t you worry, I will be back before you know that I am gone."

 

And Raticus left Koinu with the nurse, who stepped forward and laid her hand on her shoulder.

 

"Come with me." She said excitedly, finally meeting the one they had spoke of.

 

The nurse extended her hand, and Koinu took it after a moment of apprehension. They went hand-in-hand up to a room with a gigantic door and in it had some of the most lavish furnishings Koinu had ever seen. They left their shoes at the door and crossed the thick dark brown carpeting that covered the floor. It was divinely comfortable on the bottoms of her feet, which had become chilled from being lightly dressed outside. The nurse took the cloak that she wore from Koinu and set it on a wooden peg jutting out from the back side of a door leading to a bedroom. She had Koinu set herself down on an enormous white comforter and the nurse retrieved a platter with silver handles adorning the sides of it. Lifting off the cover, the nurse would sit next to her and sip a cup of tea.

 

With everything that had happened, she found that she was ravenously hungry. Now normally, it wasn’t the most extravagant of things, but Koinu would later describe it as the best breakfast she had ever had, despite how she felt. First she was given a cup of hot chocolate, but it wasn’t anything like what we’re used to. Koinu had to hold it in two hands, and it was filled just below the brim. It was garnished with heavy cream and what smelled like cinnamon; after every drink, she found that she would have to lick her upper lip to get all the cream off and avoid looking silly. It was marvelously thick and sweet, and it was almost like a meal in itself. There was buttered toast with jam that looked like fire, and Koinu discovered that it tasted even better than the hot chocolate had. Also, there were peppered eggs and baked fish, which Koinu had just as much of before she leaned back, with her hands laid over her stomach. The nurse chuckled and moved the dishes aside.

 

"They say that hunger makes the best spice. Now hold on a moment, and we’ll draw a nice you a nice hot bath."

 

And once that had been taken care of ( Koinu would later describe it as the best bath she ever had. ) she was given comfortable clothes to dress in. Sitting back down on the comforter where she had just had her meal, Koinu scrunched up in a fetal position, wondering if she was enjoying this too much. She stared out the large window of the room into the blue sky. The ice on the horizon was a brilliant white and faded off to either side. Sooner than she was aware, Koinu drifted off into a deep sleep.

 

However, she would not dream of her home and family, but her slumber was more of an Awakening.

 

Koinu awoke with a start, looking about and remembering where she was; she noticed that the nurse was gone and Raticus stood at the window looking out upon the many miles of ice. He was drinking coffee out of a smallish container and she could smell it from where she sat upright. Looking to her right hand, she stared at where she had dreamt her keyblade to have been. Folding her arms across her chest, she felt uneasy about the whole matter. The sun had set, but the sky was a deep red near the horizon and melted into a peachy gold and then into a pale green, and then to the deep blue of night. She decided at that point to tell Raticus about her dream, to which he was very attentive.

 

After she had finished, Raticus insisted that he come with her to see the Elder, where she retold her story of the Awakening. They seemed to marvel at her, at a child so young coming to possess such a gift. Many days passed that Koinu spent in the Hall of the Ancients, growing accustomed to living as they did. Her nurse even took her out and about the many tiered bergs of the city, visiting various shops and watching public pantomimes ( a weekly affair ) and with each day, she felt a little bit better. Raticus would visit her every day when he was home from the missions he had. However, she would never forget what had happened to her family and home.

 

It wasn’t long before she asked her Nurse ( and Raticus later on ) about what had happened to her home world. They told her all that they knew about the Heartless and the dark forces of the universe that threaten all they knew. The Temple of the Ancients trained disassociated children in the arts of using the keyblade to combat the forces of darkness, and on the day marking her first month since arriving in the city, she was promptly enrolled.

 

~ Ten years later. ~

 

"Oh dear, oh dear... Oh dear!"

 

The nurse watched from an outdoor balcony as something large, snake-like, and covered with black fur barrel-rolled around the towers and through the walkways connecting the spires. A gargantuan Heartless screeched in the sky, prompting guards stationed about to sound the alarm. It had been ten years since Koinu had first decided to undergo training with her Keyblade, and now more than ever, she was anxious to move to the next level and prove to the Elder that she was as good as Raticus said she was. However, at this point, she began to question whether she had gone about things the right way. Her hands were clenched around masses of black Heartless fur, and her trainer’s Keyblade was clenched in her teeth. The gigantine Heartless writhed about and shot through the air at a maddening speed. The wind at Koinu’s body was incredibly cold, but she inched forward and forward until she neared the sweet spot. Yes. It was the one spot where a Heartless like this could be taken down. A patch of bare black scales with a glowing symbol was struck repeatedly by Koinu’s keyblade, and the Heartless fell from the sky. Regaining her balance, she leapt off, landing on a walkway that connected two districts. She leaned over the rail to watch it’s descent. When the beast hit the ice a mile below it evaporated into black smoke that caught the wind immediately.

 

She turned around and held out her keyblade, and it disappeared in a flash of light. Now that that was finished, the Elder would have to giver her a new keyblade. Then, she could join Raticus as an apprentice on the missions he often went on. But more importantly, she would have the power to do away with the forces that took what was most precious to her all those years ago.

 

People who had been outdoors clapped and cheered Koinu, shouting such things as, "Way to go Koinu!" and "You showed him who’s boss!" and "That-a-girl!".

 

The first person to approach Koinu was her nurse, whom embraced her in a magnificent hug. At first, she thought the nurse would scold her for being so reckless, but instead, she would say with tears rolling down her significantly aged cheeks:

 

"Now it’s time. Go see the Elder, he’s seen everything."

 

But before she took off, she bumped into Raticus, whom had also seen what had happened from below. He was dressed in the same attire he is as present, but looked not a hair older.

 

"Yes, go tell them of your deeds."

 

And Koinu hurried as fast as she could through the crowds of cheering ( and thankful ) civilians to the great Hall of the Ancients. It was that very night that the ceremony was held, banquet and all, to honor her ascension through the ranks. There, she was presented with her new keyblade, dubbed the "Wolf Fang" keyblade. It was as she was presented this keyblade that the Elder explained this new weapon. It went something like: "To the slayer of the great Heartless, we give thee the ‘Wolf Fang’ keyblade; when it bites, it never lets go, no matter how much it is thrashed within the cold biting air!" Honorable laughter broke out among the attendees as it was presented, and then everyone proceeded to sup. ( Koinu later described it as the best supper she ever had. )

 

It wasn’t long before she was briefed with her first mission by Raticus himself, and told that she was to accompany him on a journey to retrieve the ultimate weapon against the forces of darkness, ‘Holy.’

 

Not long after, they would be on the path of another mysterious entity.

 

( TO BE CONTINUED WITH ANOMALY : Will be updated as soon as I have the time. )

 

Themes

 

Immediate Music – “The Black Legend ( Choir )”

Contact me (Shamdeo) on Kingdom Hearts Insider if you would like a copy of this music file.