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Part 9: Departures and arrivals
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Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
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Lazarus comes through the portal, accompanied by a small
sandstorm. On the grasslands the sun is setting, as if time runs
at different speeds on opposite sides of the gate. A few minutes there is several hours here...
Behind him, Duncan steps through the gate, just as the sun touches the horizon.
The gate closes, with a sound like thunder directly overhead and
Duncan, who was still emerging from the portal as it closed shrieks as
he is sucked back into it!
The shriek is cut off as the last vestiges of the opening vanish, leaving only a patch of sand dimly visible in the dusk...
Duncan is gone.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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At Duncan's cry, Lazarus whirls to see the portal disappear.
"Where's your big friend?" he asks, turning back to the man's
travelling companions. "Did he not make it through before that
thing closed up?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"DUNCAN!" Cyan leaps forward, trying to catch his hand, and
narrowly misses losing hers. NOT because she jerks it back, but
because she simply doesn't make it in time.
"Cursed portal!" Cyan glances at Berd with burning, ruby eyes,
and the little dragon cocks his own head, a quizzical expression on his
oddly mobile face, before hanging his head on its neck sadly.
"NO!" Pulling out the cube, Cyan squeezes it in her fingers as
Berd fans his wings, alarmed. "Bring him back!" she orders
hopelessly, holding it up.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kendall
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Since Kendall had returned, Kendall had been scribbling madly in the
sketch book. Instead of a normal picture, there is a proper edged
border to that image, the image of where they just where. As time
passed, Kendall looked up and realized Duncan was not there.
"Hmmmm. It could be time dilation, or.... Well better be sure."
With that Kendall dives back into the book, once again scribbling
madly. By the time Kendall finishes there are ink smudges on
fingers, nose, and cheek. However, an appropriate image is transcribed,
with border. An image of Duncan.
Holding the image up, Kendall shows Cyan the image. "You know him better than I, give it a try."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"Thank you, Kendall!" Cyan gasps, taking the sketch. "Quick work - far quicker than myself."
Slowly, she begins to focus on the image, pouring her energies into it, attempting to bring the crude palinquot to life.
Berd sniffs the image, once, then curls up on Cyan's shoulder and goes to sleep.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
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The bird riders are gone, and night is settling on the plain, stars
winking into life in unfamiliar patterns across the darkening
firmament. A chill breeze springs up across the grassland,
causing the paper held by Cyan to stir slightly in her fingers.
She focusses her attention on the image, ignoring the world around her
as she attempts to reach out across unknown distances to find Duncan...
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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The air burns suddenly as Cyan curses in several different languages,
showing an impressive command of them. Their epithets, in any
case. For a moment, her fingers tighten around the paper,
wrinkling it to the point of tearing...then she relaxes,
slumping. Resigned, she hands the sheet out towards
Kendall. "It is no good. I cannot reach him; either the
sketch is faulty, and I do not believe it is so, or...he is dead, or
somewhere we cannot reach."
Berd's eyes open a crack, then he drops back to sleep.
"I fear we have seen the last of Duncan," Cyan says quietly.
"When we have finished this quest, I will seek him out through the
myriad worlds. I will not rest until I find him...or find of
him. His was a valiant companion, and I do not desert those."
She gazes around herself with dull, emerald eyes. "We have
returned. Back a step, and with a lost companion, to boot."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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At Duncan's cry Lazarus dives to one side, rolling into a crouch that
faces the portal, one hand on the pommel of the large sword strapped to
his back.
What the...? What happened to the big guy?
After a moment, when it's clear that there is no immediate danger, he
rises out of his battle stance to watch Kendall and Cyan's rescue
attempt in silence. One brow twitches briefly as the air catches
on fire from Cyan's curses. He watches the ashes of her anger
fall to the ground like snow and then slowly walks over to join the
woman and her companions.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Lazarus says softly, "if he is still in
Bakhu, trapped there somehow, I guarantee that I can find him once I
return."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Sighing, Cyan drops into a crouch when Kendall takes back the sketch,
and runs fingers through her hair. She gives Lazarus a sapphire
glance, and looks back to the empty space where Duncan disappeared, her
shimmering silk shirt rippling in the breeze. "Are you a
world-walker?" she asks the other man, absently. "Do you have a
method to return to...Bakhu? If not, I fear you will have to wait
with us until we can devise a means to send you on."
Looking to the side, she eyes the heavily armored man. "Ares, has the other man awakened?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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"'World-walker'?" replies Lazarus, brushing sand from his clothes,
"not, really, no. But it wouldn't matter anyway, as I'm exiled
from Bakhu for the time-being. I'll find a way to return
eventually, but I think my re-appearance there would cause some
problems between my people and the Djinni and I've no desire to start
something like that."
As he speaks, Lazarus' attempts at cleaning the sand from his clothes
only serve to create a large cloud of dust around him. Throwing
up his hands, he sighs. "So it looks like we're stuck with each
other for the time being, for better or worse."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Cyan eyes him with some misgivings, then shrugs. He is taking
this awfully well for someone who isn't a world-walker; most of the
people she and Berd have inadvertantly dragged along with themselves
haven't exactly been...stable, afterwards.
Still, while he proclaims his lack of ability to wander the myriad
spheres, that does not mean he speaks the truth. Or, it could
mean that he is simply familiar with the concept.
"We will find a way to send you home, when you wish," she says. It would be possible to construct a palanquet* image easily enough. Slowly, Cyan rises to her feet, and fixes the man with topaz eyes.
"What we do is dangerous," she says quietly, while Berd studies this
man, "and not for the weak, or the faint of heart. We travel
between worlds on the word of the King of Amber, in order to discern
the nature of a threat to the realms. If you come with us, most
certainly you will be facing danger, and possibly death."
Her smile brightens, as do her emerald eyes. "I can promise you, it will be exciting!"
Berd hides his head under one wing.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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Rubbing his chin, Lazarus glances at the sky thoughtfully, "Well, I'm
not all that eager to meet death. It's pretty overrated from what
I hear. But danger seems unavoidable anyway." He sighs.
"I'm Lazarus by the way - archeaologist, biologist and general trouble
magnet." He extends his hand to Cyan.
A slight frown grows on his face, "I do know a tiny bit about Amber and
its King and I think I'd rather hear more about what I'm going to be
involving myself in before I agree to tag along." Lazarus smiles
wryly, "some might suggest that it would be better to take advantage of
your offer of the palaquet and face the Djinni on my own than to deal with Amberites."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Cyan takes his hand and shakes it with a strong grip.
"Cyan." Her mouth twists in in grin, and her opal eyes twinkle in
amusement. "Bard, wanderer, and normally lost. This is
Berd." She indicates the small dragon asleep on her
shoulder. Berd doesn't even wake up, though he does snort out a
puff of suspiciously sweet smelling smoke.
"As to what's going on..." Cyan holds up a rather odd looking
cube, transparant, and shimmering with different images and
landscapes. "Have you ever seen one of these?"
OOC - Dworkin, has the cube changed at all?
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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Lazarus smiles and returns her firm handshake. "Hm, so the King
of Amber has hired a lost wanderer to help him out and you want to add
a trouble magnet to the party?"
As she holds up the cube the smile on his face disappears immediately. "Hm, would you mind if held it for a moment?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"That would depend," Cyan says, growing more serious. "What do
you plan to do with it?" She stares at him, frankly. "You
must realize, we have just met you under trying circumstances, and we
are on a Royal Mission." The capitals are obvious. "Hence,
we do have to be a little careful to whom we hand over this object."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali dusts herself off and Hunter shakes the sand off as well. She
sighs heavily she didn't really know Duncan that well, but being stuck
with those sand thingies couldn't be good. Cyan vows to find him and
gets all antsy about handling the cube over to the new guy... Lazarus.
Kali rolls her eyes, out of Cyan or Berd's sight of course and sighs
again. Hunter whines and noses her and she smiles at him,
promising fun later that night.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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With a groan your unknown guest starts to stir and sit up only to
collapse back “Lord. . .Did anyone get the license number of that
truck?” He says softly more to himself than anyone.
Though his dress is decidedly medieval, his speech is not. He tries to
look around from where he is laid out, moving his head only minimally.
“Where am I and who are you.” he asks quietly.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali squats down besides Jack when she notices him stirring. She
cocks her head to one side and studies him, nostrils flared to take in
his scent and feral yellow eyes gleaming.
"I don't know that name of this place" she pushes back an errant lock
of silver hair "I'll tell you who I am after you tell me who you are"
she says with a bright smile.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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He looks at Kali and his eyes get a bit wider for a moment, then he
relaxes and he laughs a short laugh before grabbing his head with a
groan. After a second he says “Fair enough then, stalemate. Got any
asprin?”
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali smiles at the man and Hunter noses his way past her to see the
current object of his mistress's affection. The huge wolf eyes him with
stunningly intelligent eyes and also takes time to inhale his scent.
Kali laughs at the wolf and growls in a gravely, inhuman manner.
The wolf head retreats as the large predator sits down comfortably next
to Kali.
She looks at Jack, puzzlement showing in her eyes.
"Aspreen?" she asks, struggling to proununce the foreign word "No aspreen... but ulez Kendall should be able to help" she says reassuringly.
"Kendall?" she asks shim after he/she is down with his/her drawing "Would you tend to the... jaciu? He wants aspreen?" she still sounds puzzled.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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He looks at her his deep blues eyes a little less glazed and says with
a show of incredible wit “Jaciu?” Half eyeing the wolf warily
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"He's awake, then? Good. I was becoming concerned he might
be suffering from some sort of concussion," Cyan says. She's
still waiting to see if Lazarus will be telling her if he knows
anything of the cube.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali looks back at the man from Kendall and smiles with a short laugh.
"Yes jaciu" she says, pronouncing it *jhaSEou*. Kali waves
her calloused and scarred hands a bit, trying to think of the right
word, but she cannot.
"I name you jaciu because I do not know your name... it
means..." she trails off, frustrated at her inability to commuincate
her meaning properly.
"Don't worry, I'm not insulting you behind you back" she quips with a chuckle.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Hunter
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Noticing the jaciu's attention, Hunter spreads his lips to reveal dangerously sharp teeth in a lupine grin.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
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The gate is closed, Duncan is lost or dead and a cold breeze blows
across the darkening plain, seeming to whisper words of mockery around
the stones of the circles.
The stars blaze from a clear sky, and a thin sliver of a moon rests on the eastern horizon...
What will these would-be heroes do now?
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Heroes. Cyan waits for Lazarus' answer while staring over
at the new man. She glances at Kallika with amber eyes (both
herself, and Kallika of the amber eyes) and cocks an eyebrow.
It's more than she's heard from the woman since they joined up with her.
Berd stares at the space between the stones.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kendall
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I only have a generic or an odd herbal alternative... Kendall
falls into medical mode and begins to tend "jaciu's". Kendall pulls out
a high tech cellular knitter and waves it over the injuries. The pretty
lights don't go on. With a grin and a shrug, "It was worth a
try." Kendall fishes out the pain killer of choice and some
liquid. After a few moments and some smelly salves, he is
pronounced "done".
"Okay, what is the plan. We can go back to there, I have a true
image." Shows the perfect image drawn before Duncan's. "I also
have the images that occured just before, here." Flipping a few pages
Kendall holds the book up again, I have the images that I remembered
from that farken cube." Closing the book, and resting it and a
hand on a very round feminine hip, "Do we have another scent to follow
or do we want to try a different tact."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"I think it is a good idea," Cyan notes, glancing at him*
briefly. "If you need to look over the cube, just ask,
Kendall. I expect our new friend will not want to go,
though." She glances over at Lazarus, who has just expressed a
disinterest in returning to his land.
"I suppose it it too much to hope for that you have a magical disguise in your bag of tricks?" she asks Kendall, hopefully.
If only we had stayed long enough to find the portal to the next realm!
*To Cyan, who met Kendall as a he, Kendall is a shapeshifted 'he'. :)
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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“All right Big Dog, I get the hint, you’re the alpha wolf.” He says to
hunter then he looks at Kali as Kendall works medical marvels on him,
“Jaciu works as well as anything else. I suppose if I were your
prisoner you would not be treating me so well. May I ask what I am
doing here Silverlocks?” He looks at her hands and back at his own
turning his hands over and seeming to study them for long moments. Then
he starts checking about his person and rummaging in his pack looking
at everything as is looking for something.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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As Lazarus' gaze focuses on the cube in Cyan's hands, his eyes slowly
narrow as though peering into the sun. After a second or two, he
grunts, shakes his head and blinks his eyes rapidly a few times as
though trying to clear them.
"No, I've never run into anything like this before," he says in reply
to Cyan's inquiry. Pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment,
Lazarus smiles briefly, "And I understand that a Royal Mission would
probably involve a little caution. I don't need to look at it
that badly anyway."
"As for returning to Bakhu," he continues, "our people know very little
of the Djinni. But from what we do know, they possess enormous
magic power and are probably capable of detecting us as soon as we
return." As he speaks Lazarus directs his gaze at each of the
members of the group as though gauging their reactions. "That
doesn't mean that I'm worried for myself, but you have to understand
that there is an agreement between the Djinni and my people. The
last time, they let us go and took my truck in exchange for keeping the
peace in tact. If we were to go back, we might not be so
lucky. Are you willing to plunge a world into war in order to
look for your companion who may or may not be there and who may or may
not be dead?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Cyan sighs. "As a matter of fact, our trail also leads through
that world," she says quietly. "A pity you do not know more about
this object...I must ask. Are you willing to assist us with
this? If that is the case, the danger is such that I feel
certain, if we succeed, that King Random will give your world some
assistance with the Djinn, if it is required. If he does not, I
would be willing. As for plunging the world into war...it may be
that we can bypass this place. A moment, if you will."
Moving to where Kallika stands, she looks at the other woman. "How is our injured guest?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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Still rummaging through his pack he says “You do know that your injured guest can both hear and speak for himself, don’t you?”
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali laughes and rubs Hunter's head affectionately. The large wolf
nuzzles her neck and she giggles at the feeling of his cold wet nose on
her skin. He then lies down, content with the state of things.
Kali looks up at Cyan and then at Jack, and smiles a secret smile at
him. When he shots back words at Cyan the smile blossoms and she
looks up at Cyan.
"As you can see he is doing well. I think he will make it" she says gravely and then laughs at her own joke.
She remains quiet while Cyan is there, but once her attention returns to Lazarus, she answers Jack.
"We found you unconscious. The Djinni came and we left quickly, taking
you with us" she shrugs "Do you know who Little Red Riding Hood is?"
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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A ripple of concern passes quickly over Lazarus' face at Cyan's mention
of Amber, but he remains silent as Cyan goes to inquire about Jaciu's health.
Kalika's query about 'Little Red Riding Hood' seems to rouse him out of
his thoughts though. "Ask him if he knows Rip Van Winkle too,"
Lazarus calls out, grinning, "he seemed to have a propensity for taking
long naps as well."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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He laughs at Kali's joke giving a smile and a wink. Then at the last
questions he looks back and forth between them “Dijnni? Little
Red Riding Hood? Rip Vanwinkel?” He says then sits there for long
minuets His brow furrowing, occasionally muttering things like,“I feel
like I should know these & hold on, it’s right on the tip of my
tongue.” after a long time he looks up with a bright look on his
face “Stories! Fairy tales. . .They are tales. They are
possibilities? . .Why?” He looks up at Kali looking confused now, even
a little lost.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Cyan frowns. "My apologies, sir. I did not mean to suggest
you were incapable..." She cocks her head sideways and grins at
Kalika. "Appearances do suggest he will survive," she notes,
dryly. Pausing when Lazarus moves over, she senses that Kallika
would rather be alone with the stranger.
"All stories are possibilities," she notes, redundantly, as Berd rolls
his eyes, then grins again. "In any case, I AM sorry to
interrupt, but I am Cyan." Glancing at Kalika, she cocks one
eyebrow. "And I can see you have met Kalika," she notes with a
broader smile.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
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Kali sighs when Cyan names her... of course it would have come out at
some point anyways, but it was enjoyable for her to keep up the banter
between herself and the jaciu. She hangs her head in mock-shame.
"Ah the goose is up!" she exclaims "Yes my name is Kalika... Kalikia
Wolfblade, but please call me Kali" she says to Lazarus and Jack.
"The other jaciu" she indicates Lazarus "had mentioned
this Little Red Riding Hood person, but I don't who he is! I was hoping
you could help explain" she answers Jack and then eyes him expectingly
"Now that you know my name, it is your turn to share yours so that you
are jaciu no longer" she catches Lazarus's eyes "You, too... please" she tacks on the platitude as an afterthought.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
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Lazarus watches with interest while the other jaciu tries to recall the fairy tales that he'd mentioned. "They are fairy tales, actually," he says, "from another place."
As he says this he notices the stone structures that jut out of the
grasses around him. "Every place has their fairy tales though,"
he murmurs. The look of interest intensifies and he begins to
walk towards the monoliths, then, stoppping abruptly he turns back
towards Kali and the stranger, "Oh, I'm Lazarus by the way. I'm
glad to see you're up and about jaciu. And best to answer Kali's questions quickly too, else she's liable to show you what those big teeth are for."
With that he turns back to the stonework and begins to examine the structures.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kendall
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"I think it is a good idea," Cyan notes, glancing at him* briefly. "If you need to look over the cube, just ask, Kendall.....
Kendall looked up briefly, but continued to finish Jacqui. Kendall had
already committed each of the "cubes" seven faces to memory and
sketched each one previously.
Jacqiu asked, " I suppose if I were your prisoner you would not be treating me so well. "
Kendall giggled musically. Softly Kendall said, "Nope, we treat
everyone equally badly. You should see what we did to our last ally.
His poor doorway will never be the same."
"I suppose it it too much to hope for that you have a magical disguise in your bag of tricks?" she asks Kendall, hopefully.
Kendall had finished the tddp (temporally dimensionally displaced
person) and was standing "Well I might. If not, I might have access to
what you need. What did you have in mind?"
"Do you know about Little Red Riding Hood?" Kendall looked back at the two, smirked and nodded. [i]...Ask him if he knows Rip Van Winkle too," [/i
Kendall realized that the Spheres that Kendall frequented overlapped
greatly with Laz and Jack. Kendall filed that fact away and made
a mental note to follow up with it later.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"Well," Cyan says in answer to Kendall's question, "I was considering a
magical disguise for Lazarus here. But if the Djinn are so
powerful, it would be nearly impossible for such a thing to fool
them. Likely as not, it would only get us in worse
trouble." Pulling out the cube, she stares at it for a
moment. "If we can figure out which is NEXT..."
Glancing over at Lazarus with her sapphire eyes, she appraises him carefully. Will he commit to our assistance? Then to this jaciu of Kalika; they do not even know his name.
Obviously further discussion of their Royal Quest (again with the
capitals) will have to wait until this current confusion is sorted out.
"So," she says, brightening. "I suppose we'd best set up camp, so we can all have a rest? Our jaciu might have already had some sleep, but I doubt it was truly restful,
and would call use some food. Somewhere a little farther away
from this ring of stones, in case the riders come back? I
volunteer to cook dinner...."
Berd's eyes open at that, and his head comes up, obviously taking
interest in the conversation now that it has turned towards something
important.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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He says to Cyan “No offence taken.” Jack finishes with his pack
listening to them. “Kalika.” He says the name softly as if trying it
out still looking a little confused, but the look quickly passes
“Kendal, Cyan, Lazarus,” He looks between them, with his eyes coming to
rest on Kali with a smirk. “I am delighted.” Without taking his eyes
off of her, he continues with a playful smile showing on his face “I
believe I prefer the name that Kali gave me, it seems greatly fitting.
[sigh] Call me—Jack. As for your Little Red riding hood.”
“I believe the story goes something like, There was a
young maid that always wore a red riding hood (Hence the name)
traveling through the forest to see her grandmother and a wolf tricked
her and gobbled up Nana. In the end I believe a woodcutter save her by
killing the wolf. Personally I think the wolf was framed and the whole
thing was a set up by Miss Hood and Mister Cutter to collect Nana’s
insurance money. The moral being that a wolf should never trust strange
people they meet in the forest.” He smiles wickedly for a fraction of a
second
Then he glances back at Kendal for a moment. “I would hate to see the
way you treat your enemies.” Then back to Cyan “Yes I am hungry and
thirst, it seems I have neither food or water in my pack. Also is there
someplace I can clean up around here? I’m fairly coated in dust.”
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"Jack. So, Jack it shall be. I have heard of a Jack who
kills giants..." she sizes him up as she speaks. "I would say you
could be that clever Jack." With a shrug, she glances
around. "There are trees over there. With some luck, we may
find a stream, for that wash you wish." A slight grin,
then. He seems quite taken with Kalika, and her with him as well.
In her head she begins to write that into the little song she's been
composing. After all, what's the point of a Royal Quest (TM)
without a song about it?
"I think we can manage the food, as well, though it means smaller
rations for some. Berd has been needing to diet, in any case."
An angry hiss greets that, and Berd sticks his head under his wing.
Was there a warning in that story? Or a comment on Kalika? "Do you know many stories, Jack? I would be interested in hearing them."
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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“Not half so clever as I’d like.” His deep blue eyes studying her as he
smirks. “Where the thought of trading stories sounds appealing, no
worthy stories come to mind at the moment. Perhaps later when I am
feeling more like myself.”
He unties a tall walking stick or short staff from loops on his pack.
Looking out at the monolith and Lazarus He asks as he points with the
stick “What are those?”
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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"It is the people who claim to be less clever than they'd like that
disturb me most," Cyan notes, her grin widening, amythest eyes
glittering with amusement. "As for you feeling like yourself,
well...you are Jack, are you not?"
She sobers when he stands. "Those are some sort of gate, aspected
to this." Holding up the cube, she shows it to him - a small
transparent cube with images, one per side.
Seven images in total.
Go figure.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
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Jack shrugs noncommittally “Unless you know something that I do not,
than I am Jack. Why is it that would disturb you?” He asks still
wearing the smirk as he leans in to study the images on the cube
closely without making a move to pick it up. “And what is it that you
are trying to accomplish here? Do you know something that I do not?” he
asks several questions in a row still focusing on the cube.
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Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
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Cyan laughs outright, now. "It is the ones who CLAIM to be less
clever than they hope who are usually far more than they let on.
As to the cube..."
Cyan stares at it. "We are attempting to determine what part this
plays in a possible plot against the Kingdom of Amber, and the Courts
of Chaos both. As I said, it appears on the surface to be a
pathmarker - we proceed from world to world, reversing the path of its
coming to us." She shrugs. "Or so I believe. We have
only managed two worlds, thus far, before being forced to retreat."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Wisdom, knowledge and cleverness are all brothers. Only a fool would
not wish to better themselves in with each. Besides if I was half so
clever as I’d like you would not have had to rescue me from the Dijnni
barrens as you claimed to do. Clever is only as clever does. What is
this kingdom and these courts you mentioned?” He continues to study the
cube still with the amused smirk. Finally he looks up at Cyan looking
much more earnest and serious “May I examine the cube more closely?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
AFter a few moments of examining the stonework, Lazarus comes strolling
back towards the group, an overstuffed leatherbound book tucked under
one shoulder.
As he catches the last bit of the conversation between Jack and Cyan,
Lazarus snorts, "Clever is as clever does?! Hm, I think I've
discovered the true name of our friend here, everyone, meet Forest
Gump." He shakes his head and smiles a bit. "I used to have
a teacher that claimed that cleverness was a poor-man's substitute for
Wisdom and knowledge. If you look at any system of mythology, the
trickster/clever figure always ends up getting himself into more
trouble than he can handle while the characters with true wisdom find
ways to extricate themselves."
Plopping down on the ground with a clang of equipment (which, of
course, also releases another cloud of sand and dust) he chuckles,
"'course, lacking any of those three qualities, I just have to rely on
luck and my stunning good looks to pull me through."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Wisdom, I am told I have little. Again, and again, and
again." This said with a half-exasperated look at Berd.
"Knowledge...without wisdom, knowledge is parrotting. And
cleverness? While I can admit to a certain amount of guile, when
necessary, I have been told that I am ridiculously easy to fool."
Cyan gives them a brilliant smile. "I simply have a tendancy to
believe the best of people."
Turning to both of them, now that they are together, she shrugs.
"Having said that, why not? Lazarus - you asked for the cube
earlier. By all means, examine it. Jack, when he is
done..." She sighs. "I have been too caught up in the
responsibility at being part of something larger. I fear it has
been making me testy. I beg pardon, Kendall, for my occasional
harsh words, though I stand by my actions." Handing the cube over
to Lazarus, she bows to Kendall in apology. "And who is
this...Forrest Gump? He sounds like a wise man. Actions do
speak louder than words...and I have not been terribly clever of late,
myself."
Berd opens his eyes, favour Kendall with a glittering glances, and promptly goes back to sleep.
Turning to Jack, while Lazarus examines the cube, she continues.
"Amber lies at the center of the myriad worlds. It is the
strongest world, and controls powers that allow its people to travel
from one to another. It's ruler, King Random, holds sway over a
court of persons of such power that it is said that they are immortal -
never-dying, always walking the worlds. It is a land of magic,
intrigue...danger...romance..." Cyan sighs, dreamily, then
blinks, becoming quite earnest. "I have been trying to get there
for ages, it seems, but my guide enjoys taking the long way."
Berd has been staring at Cyan with some alarm, during her description
of Amber. Now, with another look of digust, he goes back to sleep.
Apparantly he is a very, very light sleeper. Or fantastically good at feigning it.
"The Courts of Chaos, it is said, lie in opposition to Amber.
They are a place of strange laws of reality, of dark magic, and
ever-changing inhabitants. They are, possibly, the oldest kingdom
to exist, and have recently fought a war with the forces of
Amber. I know not the outcome of the war, as both worlds still
stand." Cyan gives Jack a rueful smile. "I fear much of
what I know is conjecture and hearsay. Probably the others of
this group of world-walkers would be able to speak more on the subject."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks over to Lazarus “You must be incredibly lucky to make up for
the looks.” He grins at Laz good-naturedly and sits back to listen to
Cyan’s tale with rapt attention. “Hmmm, What is it that has forced you
to retreat twice in this quest?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali meets Jack's eyes and returns his smile with one of her own. Hunter whines, and she breaks the eye contact and pets him.
"Soon my friend... soon" she murmurs to him under her breath and the large wolf is calmed for the time being.
She listens attentively to the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Althought she didn't understand what "insurance policy" was, she got
the gist when money was mentioned. When Jack says the word
"stranger" her face lights up in delight and pleasure.
"Stranger!" she cries exuberantly "That's it! jaciu means stranger" she looks happily at Jack, but soon sobers as he gives his light hearted warning.
"I will take that advice to heart" she says to him softly and then
rises and stretches, working the kinks out of her lean, muscular
body. After rolling her head and popping her neck satisfactorily,
everyone's name is out in the open... well almost everyone.
"It is a pleasure to meet both of you, Lazarus" she inclines her head to him "and Jack... or jaciu as he prefers" she looks at him and smiles softly "Forever the
stranger... forever to be untrusted" she turns to the large wolf at her
side and stares deep into his eyes for a few moments.
"Since we are all in the introucing mood... this is Hunter" she indicates the large wolf with a caring smile.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan breaks into light laughter at Jack's sally at Lazarus'
comment. "Oh, we have only manage two worlds, but retreated
once. You see, where we found you was after this one. We
arrived here by travelling the worlds, and then the gate opened.
When we..."
Cyan stops briefly as Kalika speaks, staring at the other woman lazily,
a faint smile flickering on her face. She's already preparing
various melodies for Jack and Kalika; a wild, deep, mysterious one for
Kalika, and a quiet, cunning, and yes, smoothly secretive one for
Jack. Oddly, the two melodies are designed to blend well, in her
head. "Of course, and Hunter as well...far more than he appears,
as are many of us."
Pausing, she ponders that. "Perhaps we might put our cards on the
table, as it were...I realize that many world-walkers are loathe to
give up their secrets, for fear of them being used against them, but we
are on a rather important quest. For all I know, one of you could
be a master of sorcery both black and white, and I never would
guess! Might we discuss our respective skills and training as we
walk, and our methods for Walking the Worlds, so that we are better
acquainted and able to deal with problems as they arise?"
Berd blows an odd smelling smoke ring in Jack's direction. He appears to be laughing silently at some private joke.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
The air is cooling rapidly with the sun down, and from somewhere
overhead comes the cry of a night bird, an owl (or whatever serves as
one in this place), and for a brief moment a dark shape crosses the
stars, wheeling overhead before moving on.
OOC - There are now EIGHT images on the cube, not seven. They picked up an extra one at Taheti...
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks a little saddened by the mention of (The forever stranger.)
The sad look that seems to find a place and rest on his face as he
wanders a little ways towards the stones. He speaks softly as if to
himself as he looks up at the stars. “Forever the stranger, do not
trust yourself.” After a moment he glances back to them. “I can not lay
my cards on the table, I am sorry.” He says and looks back up to the
stars.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan pauses. Something in his voice tells her this isn't simply a
matter of reticence. "Jack? Is there something wrong?
Why can't you tell us? There are none here who would judge
you." Staring at him with shadowed eyes, she thinks for a
moment. "Or is it that you meant exactly what you said - you
CANNOT tell us?" she asks, gently.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali places a gentle hand on Jack's arm.
"Only until you are jaciu no longer" she says to him quietly.
Kali was more than willing to share her training and meager abilities,
but she waited to see how Jack would repsond to Cyan's careful pressing
of the issue.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“I meant what I said, take it as you will.” He replies to Cyan still
looking up at the stars. He glances back over his shoulder to and
reaches over to gently rest his hand on kali's. “How can you be other
than jaciu when that is all you know?” he asks quietly
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"So," Cyan whispers sadly, eyes shading over to deep emerald. "A
stranger, even to yourself. You have my apologies, Jack, for
pressing you on this. I did not..." She hangs her
head. "I am sorry." With a sigh, Cyan gives him a morose
smile. "I will not bother you again about it. But I tell
you this - Jack you are to us? You are hardly jaciu, then. Even if it is only by the knowledge of the name."
It appears they have chosen this spot for their campsite. Cyan
sighs, glancing around with deep, ruby eyes, before beginning to gather
some handy wood and prepare a fire.
"Well, then. Many people are loathe to be the first in these
circumstances. Hence, I am more than happy to unburden
myself. I have been a traveller for many years through the worlds
- perhaps not as long as some, but still. I travel with the help
of my lazy companion, here..." And she indicates Berd, who
briefly awakens long enough to fly down and bathe the the small fire
with his smokey breath. The wood ignites, and Cyan grins.
"Besides starting fires, he can opens paths between the worlds, follow
others...he also has magical powers over the worlds we enter. I
have yet to determine the full extent of his abilities, and he, unlike
myself, dislikes talking about himself." Her grin is wide in the
light of the new fire.
Quietly, she begins to dole out food. It's mostly dried fruits,
breads, and some hard-rined cheese. She makes sure to pass to
Jack and Lazarus, first; they are 'guests', as it were.
"I fear this is the best I can do. Where...oh, yes. I
myself am a bard, and tale-teller. I hunt for tales on every
world. I would appreciate hearing as many of these as you can
give," she says, hopefully. "I play many instruments, and
sing...some here have heard it, and you may ask their opinion.
Berd has instructed me on the creation of the palanquet cards, letting me create images I can use to speak with others, on
different worlds, or to travel through, like gates." Reaching
into her pouch, she pulls out a large deck of cards. "Such as
these. I have used them for other purposes as well...with the
infusion of their power, my clothing is as tough to impact as boiled
leather, though it remains silk or cotton, and Kirilinde..." Here
she unsheathes her long, thin blade; for an instant, a rainbow seems to
flicker on it, like oil on water, and there is an image
within...drifting clouds, mountains...then the sword snaps back in its
simple wooden sheath. "I am decent enough with a blade, and there
have been many opportunities to pick up skills and languages as I've
travelled."
Giving Berd a sour look, she hands him some cheese. "Berd refuses
to give up all of his secrets, but I have told you what I know of
him. No doubt he will be displeased."
On the contrary, the little dragon looks insufferably smug, puffing a small ring of smoke through the air towards Hunter.
"As for where I have been, what I have been doing...that would be
considerably longer a story, as would everyone else's here." She
pauses a beat. "Excepting, of course, Jack." Her grin is
playful, and not at all mocking. "Where was I going? To
Amber, of course. And again, I find myself sidetracked."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Lazarus has placed the small cube
on one knee and has his leather book opened on the other, hastily
scribbling some notes on its pages. Without looking up, he rolls
his eyes at the exchange between Jack and the others.
"Once you've recognized that either incapable or unwilling are possible
interpretations," sighs Lazarus, "then it's going to be pretty
difficult to trust whatever answer he gives, no?"
"Anyway," he continues, still writing notes in the book, "from what I
gather, the best thing for amnesia victims, if that's what he is, is
not to ask them lots of questions, but to share memories of your
own. Images bring back memories better than questions."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"In my homeland it is said that all are jaciu until a name is given... and with one's name you know that one... and they are jaciu no longer" she begins her answer simple enough "But this belief stems
from one of the oldest Chunchee traditions" she squeezes Jack's
hand and then takes a seat.
"Since you have shared your stories, or what you can, I will share some
of mine as well... to answer Jack's questions. The rest can come later"
Kali then assumes the Telling position by curling her legs under her
and placing her palms face down on the top of her legs. She then
continues in a voice loud enough for all to hear.
"First there was Manai, who was both man and woman. Manai was a peaceful being and was sundered to the ma and the nai when the gods forsake it. The beautiful valleys were filled with
water and became the hated oceans, leaving only the craggy mountains
and dangerous forests for Manai. Then, the gods struck Manai with
thunder and lightning, and thus Manai was sundered" she looks at Jack
now, for this is the part that pertains to him "It is said that all are
born with ma for it was He who created the People, but that all will remain jaciu until they have been met with their nai, for only then will they be true manai once more" Kali pauses the required three seconds after concluding the story.
She then rises in a fluid motion and smiles at Jack.
"There is your answer... you must find your nai" she smiles softly at him.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack watches each of them in turn, telling Cyan, “Thank you for your
kindness”. Telling Laz “And you didn’t think you were clever.”. Looking
a little confused at Kali’s explanation he asks “What is my Nai? For
that matter what is my Ma?” smiling a confused smile back as he watches
her amber eyes, searching.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali bites her lip in thought. These questions were not so easy
to answer. She decides to share more of her People in the
explanation... maybe that would help.
"Like most traditions, ours have been twisted and changed throughout the moons. It was decided long, long ago that the ma was what was male and then nai that which was female. Since it was Ma who founded the People of the
Chunchee, males are everything in our society" she spits on the ground,
resentment and old angers rising in her chest "Since Nai abadonned Ma
after the Sundering, the punishment for being female is severe. We pay
the price for Nai's abandonment. Nai went to the forest and there the
animals were created to be Nai's People, as the Chunchee are Ma's" she
pauses "Occasionally an animal of the forest will choose a
Chunchee. This pair bonds and becomes manai, or whole; complete" she shakes her head bitterly and strokes Hunter's head.
"Hunter and I are manai, but we are not complete, so I know that tradition to be false. Ma is you" she says, tapping Jack's chest above his heart "It is what makes you you... I have heard the word soul? Yes soul, ma is your soul... it may be hiding from you Jack, but you cannot lose it. Nai is what completes your ma... what makes it whole, complete... what makes you whole and complete"
Kali locks her yellow eyes with his, but wolfsight is not what she
needed now. She blinks, and in the space of that blink her eyes
change. The yellow is gone and has been replaced by a rich, deep
velvetly purple and it is these human eyes that search Jack's for a
reaction.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack blinks a couple of times taking in her change in eye color with
interest and the wicked smirk returns to Jacks lips. “Forgive me Kali,
I would do no disrespect to anyone’s beliefs, yet if I did not know
better I would say that you were saying I need a good woman to be whole
and maybe a proposition as well. .”
He gives her a wink and his smile grows a bit and then
fades back to a half smile “Seriously I think I understand what
you are trying to say. Right now I need to clean up and I believe you
will need to decide what to do with the Jaciu while he is bathing.”
He reaches into his pack and pulls out a bottle of brandy and a
harmonica dropping the pack again. He hands Cyan the brandy “Save my
food and a glass of this for me if you would.” He turns back to Kali
looking deep in her eyes
“I do not know of any way I can be a help on your quest and I could
potentially be a hindrance. Yet I would desire to see the place of the
Dijinni also, it may hold answers for me as well. Other than that I
have no place to go and no reason to go there, yet it seems I have
reasons to travel with you.” As he say the last he moves a little
closer to her looks into her eyes a moment or two more before turning
to walk towards the trees in search of his stream, walking stick and
harmonic in hand.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali blushes deeply at Jack's words. He had read into them, for she had
been careful to say that the belief she shared was corrupt. She had
also taken pains to not say exactly what he had said. She is about to contradict that statement
but his wink and next statement ease her fears. She chuckles
throatily at him, but doesn't say anything.
Hunter cocks his head up at his mistress and she smiles.
"The offer is still open Cyan... would you like Hunter and I to see if we can come across some fresh game?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Apparently finishing whatever notes he's been making on the cube,
Lazarus slaps the leather volume closed and flips the cube back to
Cyan. As he stands up from his spot on the grass he catches Jack
gazing into Kali's eyes before his walk in search of water, prompting
another eye-roll.
"I can't really tell you anything about the cube - certainly not
anything you didn't already know," he begins. "But if you're
right and this is evidence that the Courts or Amber or both are in
danger, then count me in as lending a hand. I don't know much
about either of the two places, but what I do know is Bakhu's existence
depends on the existence of BOTH of the two poles."
"I would like to know some more details about what the threat is if you have them though," he continues.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan sadly watches Jack walk away. Poor
man...but still, he keeps at least a cloak of good nature about
himself. Or is that from the presence of a certain woman?
Turning to Kalika, she grins. "Of course...just make sure that, if you hunt other game,
you come up with some appropriate excuse as to why you return empty
handed." Her sapphire eyes roll towards Jack's retreating back;
she could hardly have missed the looks exchanged between the two.
More seriously, she nods to Kalika. "But yes, of course, that
would be wonderful...and Kalika? I was very glad to hear more
about you and your people. Perhaps you might give me some of
their songs?"
I hope somebody else is willing to tell of what they can do. I hardly wish to be the only one-
She smacks Berd on the nose as he leans towards Jack's food.
"Leave that!" Glancing down at the brandy, she gives a low
whistle. Not bad. And me liking Brandy, as well.
It would be better to wait for him to return, though. Her hand
flicks out and the cube is taken from the air, with a quick grin to
Lazarus.
"Well, that's a pity...but we would be more than pleased for your
assistance!" With the fire burning merrily, she glances around at
the others. "As for the details on the threat, it might be better
if we wait until Jack returns. It's a long story and, frankly, it
makes my head hurt sometimes." Leaning back, she pulls her bright
red hair into a pony-tail, and ties it. "I am not, I fear, used
to intrigue," comes her unhesitating confession.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Well," replies Lazarus, "intrigue is usually more fun in the telling than in the experiencing."
Moving closer to the fire, he drops the pack from his shoulders and
shrugs out of the harness that holds his massive blade, letting it fall
next to his backpack. Finally he sits down next to the backpack
and begins pulling items out of it. First comes a palm sized
silver square with a small plastic pen attached to it. He touches
the pen to the square and grunts when nothing happens. He goes
through this process with a number of different devices, each device
punctuated with a similar grunt until he runs out of things to
examine. Finally he pulls out a canteen, unscrews the cap and
offers the container to Cyan.
"Well, I was going to say I have a few little things that could help us
on our travels," Lazarus says with a shrug, "but they don't seem to be
working here."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali laughs at Cyan's insinuations.
"Well then off to hunt we go" Hunter rises at these words, excitement glowing in his feral yellow eyes.
"And now, dear Lazarus, one of my more obvious secrets" she says with a smile and a knowing look at Cyan.
The lines of Kali's form begin to blurr and blend. Her flesh
roils and squirms, flowing and molding itself into a new form. It
takes a few long moments and then in Kali's place sits a petite silver
furred female wolf. Her fur shines with the same metallic quality
as Kali's hair, and subtle patterns can be seen in its length.
Hunter yips in excitement and the smalle female wolf points her
delicate nose to the stars and lets out an undulating howl of such
human filled emotions that it pierces to the heart.
Then in a flash of silver fur and grey fur, the two wolves are off,
loping in teh direction Jack went, the small female dwarfed by the
large alpha male.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Looking back towards the source of the howl Jack sees the two wolves
light out from the area lit by the campfire. What are you up to? he
thinks to himself shrugs and moves deeper into the forest until he
finds a deeper part of the stream. Taking a moment to beat the dust and
grit off of his cloak on a tree, before he disrobes except for boxers
and slips in the water. Soon the sounds of Supertramps The Logical song
can be heard from the depths of the forest on the harmonica.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares chuckles as Kalika bounds off with Hunter, "I've seen that before,
and it still scares me. Anyway, as to me. I have few things
to offer. I have an ability to travel from world to world, and to
take others with me. I have a good sword arm, and a blade of
finest quality."
"I also have a place that we can retreat to, where we should be able to
defend ourselves if need be. One caveat, I would rather not take that there."
He indicates the cube.
"Has it shown any change since we met Lazarus and the Djinni?
When we went to Kendall's world, it added an extra image. If it
didn't do the same when we travelled to..... Bakoo did you call
it? If it didn't add an image of Bakoo, it may be worth trying to
find what difference there is between Taheti and Bakoo."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus watches Kali's metamorphosis closely and inclines his head
towards the small wolf after the change is completed,
"Impressive. There were people that could change their forms in
Bakhu, but the change took a lot longer and was extremely
draining." As the two wolves lope off into the evening, he calls
out "happy hunting."
As Cyan begins preparations for food, Lazarus' brows shoot up as though
he has recalled something. Digging back through his pack again he
pulls out two smallish tupperware containers. Opening the first
he finds that it is empty, though he does run one finger around the
insides and then stick it in his mouth. He opens the other to
reveal some dried strips of something or other.
"Heh, well it looks like I'm not going to be too much use for dinner
either." he says with a wry grin, "As usual, Iaret's cookies are long
since gone and all I have left is a few days worth of her cured
crocodile. It's good as far as hard tack goes though. Try
some if you like," he says placing the container on the ground near the
fire.
At that moment Lazarus perks up and furrows his brows in concentration,
catching the beginnings of the Logical Song. Lazarus utters a
short curse, "let's hope that he is suffering from memory loss and that
he remembers something other than the late 70's/early 80's soon."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Interesting music," Cyan notes, picking up the melody and
nodding. "Very good." A grin to Ares, and a nod. "And
the armour, of course," she notes, slyly. Her amber eyes grow
more serious when he speaks of the cube.
"Indeed, it has another image on it. I become concerned."
Tapping a finger on her lips, she frowns. "What if the entire
purpose of the cube was to be picked up by such as we, and dragged
through the myriad worlds, so it could...what? Do whatever it is
doing now?"
A frightful thought. It would indicate a mind capable of far more accurate predictions than her own.
"You be quite," she whispers to Berd. "Cured crocodile," Cyan
continues with faint annoyance in her voice, "could easily be
supplamented by roast dragon."
Berd, unconcerned, crawls down her arm to lie next to the fire.
"Lazy dragon," the redhead whispers, opening her small case and
removing her glittering harp; under the moonlight, the silver inlay
begins to glow with a pale light. "Making Kalika and Hunter get
your food. For shame."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
After a bit the sounds of music stops, a little Jack comes wandering
back to camp still dripping, carrying his armor in a bundle his cloak
wrapped around him. Dropping the bundle in camp he sits down in front
of his food and eyes the unopened bottle of brandy questioningly.
“Could someone tell me all of the details of the Dijinni barrens where
you found Lazarus and I. Also could I have a cup so I may have some
brandy?” He asks
OOC: If you just want to say that you tell him the details that could save on time
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Only if you share!" Cyan laughs, opal eyes flashing. She goes
into her pack and takes out a small metal cup. "Ares could tell
you I have a weakness for Brandy." A shadow crosses her face for
an instant, and she considers that everyone there, on that first day in
the port, are gone, save her and the swordsman.
A sobering thought.
Better do something about that, then. Handing the cup to
Jack, she launches into the tale. It's very detailed and, for
once, without embellishment. While she speaks, she occasionally
motions, grinning, for him to pass her the cup.
And as Cyan talks, her eyes run over Jack's armor and weapons, curiously. They stare for a long time at the pistols.
OOC - Is it good brandy, or foul?
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
OOC: It’s supposed to be fine old brandy
He uncorks the bottle and pours some up taking a couple of sips before
passing the cup to her. He east his food and listens to the tale
pitching a mall piece of cheese over by Berd. Once the tale is done he
looks thoughtful and rubs his chin. Finally he speaks. . .
“The Dijinni may be powerfull but are not all powerful in their world.
The seem to have needs and desires for things that must be rare in
their lands. For example the metal of the truck. They can be bargained
with from the treaty that Lazarus spoke of. The seem to work
independently and even compete against each other for resources.
A clever man or woman might find a way to get in contact
with them and see if a trade or bargain for safe passage could be
struck. Yet again my cleverness falls short as I know of no way to
contact a Dijin short of crossing through the portal again. An act
witch Lazarus believes unwise.” He pulls out the pistol and check to
see if it’s loaded, finding it empty he curses. “Do any of you have
powder and shot? I seemed to have misplaced mine” he asks as he hands
Cyan the flintlock
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan sips at the brandy appreciatively when Jack hands the cup to
her. "Mmmm...It's been days since I've tasted brandy," she says,
leaning back and closing her sapphire eyes. Quietly, she listens
to Jack speak as Berd swallows the cheese pretty much whole, and looks
around hopefully for more. When none is forthcoming (yet), he
sniffs at Cyan's brandy, makes a face, and sneaks some of her
food. Not much.
"I suspect Kendall or I may be capable of contacting the Djinn," Cyan
says quietly. "I was too busy standing on your body, keeping you
from blowing away, but Kendall would have had more opportunity to study
them, and perhaps prepare a palanquet," she notes.
Taking the flintlock, she handles it dextrously, but without any great
skill. "I fear I have no...powder? I am not entirely
familiar with these weapons; I have only seen them once, on one
world. They use the powder to hurl a small ball...the shot?...at
high velocity." Turning the weapon sideways, Cyan studies the
bore. At no time does she gaze down the barrel, and it could be
noted that the weapon never points at anyone else around the
fire. Though she is unfamiliar with them, she understands the
theory, and obviously has enough experience with dangerous objects to
work out the theory of handling.
Trigger...like some crossbows I have seen. But what is the
bent metal for? Striking? Flint...sparks. Sparks
ignite the powder. Hence the smoke. The powder...explodes
in the barrel? How does the weapon not shatter? If the
metal were rienforced...perhaps with magic? Palanquet, like Kirilinde?
"Perhaps we might find some on the way?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Thank you,” He replies to Cyan with a smile “that is all I have so it
will have to last us. May I see the cube?” then looks at Kendall “can
you create the palanquet?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Oh, the cube!" Cyan searches around for a moment, coming out with the cube and handing it over to Jack.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus, has been listening silently to the conversation, worrying a
piece of cured crocodile with his teeth, until Jack asks Kendall to
produce the palanquet.
At that instance he throws the meat into the fire, throwing up a cloud
of sparks as it lands in the flames, and gazes coldly at Jack.
"No one, and I repeat no one, will be contacting the Djinni and initiating any negotiations with them. Not yet anyway," he growls. "You've
drawn a number of conclusions way too hastily. All of you seem to
have forgotten that I live in Bakhu, its my home.
As such I might know something about the place," he continues looking
at the faces of his companions around the fire. "First, my truck,
the vehicle that they took in exchange for maintaining the agreement
and allowing us to leave, is made of metals that are NOT rare at
all. In fact it is rather common place. It is not a NEED,
but a desire. Second, I'd like to hear on what grounds at all you
judge their level of power, given that you were passed out the entire
time," he says gesturing at Jack. "Finally, there is no treaty.
There was an agreement by the Djinni and my people to simply avoid each
other. We don't enter their territory and they don't mess with
us. There are no other terms. Given that the agreement is
so vague, even attempting to contact them may set something off."
As he continues, Lazarus' voice becomes rougher, approaching a snarl
and rising in volume. "I haven't said much of anything about what
I'm capable of. But I will say this. Sometimes when one
stays in a place long enough, it becomes part of them. Bakhu and
it's people have become part of me. From the story I've heard so
far, you have NO reason to go back there short of rescuing your friend,
whom you have NO reason to believe is even alive. I won't risk
you're screwing with my people if you can't come up with any better
reason than the rescue. The life of one man, no matter how
precious to any of you, is not worth the lives of perhaps millions of
people."
Lazarus ends his speech abruptly, one corner of his mouth twitching in barely supressed anger.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Fair enough," Cyan says, unconcerned by the show of anger, and the
rather blatant threat at the end, but considering the words, if not the
tone, thoughtfully. "No returning, or the people will be
harmed. This is something I can understand, completely. I
had no idea the situation was so grave, or I would not have considered
it. Apologies, and have a drink - we are simply discussing
possibilities."
Offering the cup of brandy, she gives Lazarus a small smile, blinking
ruby eyes. "So....will you join myself and Ares in the divulging
of your...how did you put it? Capabilities?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jacks expression remains passively even through the tirade. “First I
was counting on your knowledge of the matter and that you would speak
up with what you know.” He replies evenly and smoothly “Second a desire
is a need to the right individual. Third if they were all powerful they
would have no need for any agreement or your truck. Fifth what friend?
And sixth is that not the next world that the questers must travel
through on their quest? Or is that last incorrect?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Let's not argue," Cyan says easily, tapping Berd on the head.
The little Dragon stretches out slightly, rolling over happily.
"I think we should be able to bypass the world, and move to the
next. Between Kendall and myself, I'm sure we can come up with a palanquet for another one of the worlds on the cube."
A grin, then. "The last thing I wish to see is my two newest
acquaintences attempting to strangle each other. Disturbing, and
I usually have a difficult time finding a rhyme for 'throttle'."
The brandy is a comfortable heat in her stomach, and she relaxes a
little further, despite the tension in the air, stretching, then
pulling off her boots, pushing her feet out and wiggling her toes at
the fire.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus takes the cup that Cyan offers, drains it quickly (into his
gullet of course) and hands it back to the bard. "Apology
accepted," he replies. "As you can see, one of my capabilities is
the ability to explode at a moment's notice. As for the rest,
well, let's just say that I've figured out a bit about how to get from
place to place and that I've had some military experience."
He appears to consider saying more until Jack replies to his
outburst. "No, I have a strong desire to smack you upside the
head right now for being so obtuse, but I can survive without doing
so. That's the difference. If the Djinni really had the
need for our metal they would have expressed it thousands of years
ago. Period. Nothing they did showed they needed the
metal. Usually, there's a fourth after third by the way. As
for the last question from what I've heard in the story, the cube seems
more like a recording device for places that the cube has been.
Taheti wasn't on the cube before you went there. Is Bakhu on
there? If not, in all likelihood, it isn't necessary to go back
to Bakhu. The places that were on the cube when it was first
found are what's important to the quest." Shaking his head, he
picks up another piece of the crocodile jerky and tears into the strip.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan frowns, narrowing amber eyes, then shrugs. The man certainly
has an uncertain temper...and 'travelling place to place' covers a wide
range of abilities. She holds back a sigh; as she suspected,
nobody is going to be forthcoming. Ares himself didn't exactly
say how he got from place to place, though she has her suspiscions.
"Well. Obviously we have all been very obtuse on that
matter. Apparantly I was incorrect, and your world was not on the
cube before." She shrugs. "Hence, we need not return there,
unless we are considering...hmmm...how the cube opened the gate there
to begin with, and why it opened to that world. I suspect that
those are rather important questions, but ones we can examine AFTER we
return to the cube's origin. Because the cube opened the gate
through the standing stones," she says quietly. "To your world."
'...I have a strong desire to smack you upside the head right now
for being so obtuse...usually, there's a fourth after third by the
way....' It's almost as if he's being deliberately antagonistic,
attempting to pick a fight with Jack.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack lapses into silence turning the cube over in his hands and
carefully studying each picture. He settles on one of the pictures and
seems to focus on it intently.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Those are good questions," replies Lazarus, keeping his eyes locked on
Jack and his study of the cube. "Maybe Kendall or Ares have
something to add about the cube now that they've had some experience
with it as well," he continues, his eyes flickering briefly to the two
quiet members of the party before returning to focus on Jack.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack is gazing at the cube, a frown on his face. Suddenly there
is a flicker of light across the surface of the artifact, a shimmer of
polychromatic light spreading out from one of the faces and unfolding in the air above the group.
Slowly the image expands to reveal buildings of glass and metal,
strangely organic in appearance. Suddenly the dark clouds in the
image start to move, and a bizarre clicking noise comes from it.
Peculiar silver spiders are crawling upon some of the buildings...
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Jack! Put the cube down please. Now." Ares scrambles
to his feet, concerned that something might come through the image.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Stupid!" curses Lazarus as he rolls back from the portal snatching his
blade as he does and ending up in a crouch, ready for something to
climb through.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack slowly breaks eye contact with the polyhedron and sets it down
carefully. Watching to see what happens now with a quiet thoughtful
“Hmmm.”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
With contact broken, the image folds in on itself and contracts back
onto the face of the cube once more. There is nothing to show
that it ever existed, apart from the alert stances of certain members
of the group...
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Interesting," Cyan notes. She hasn't moved, recognizing something similar to a palanquet gate, nothing more. Berd's head has come up - he looks alert, but
unconcerned. "We should have tried that ourselves,
earlier." Slowly she walks up and looks down at the cube.
"What made you think to do that, Jack?"
Kneeling down beside the cube, she nods and says, half to the group, half to herself, "...definitely palanquet. No question, I could taste it...."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks at Cyan for a long moment “You mean you didn’t? Oh. . .” a
smirk forms on his face as he bends down and retrieves the cube and
hands it back to Cyan. Yet his eyes are focused on Lazarus “This is
rich, just too, too rich. A stupid, obtuse, fool that does not even
know his own name solving part of the riddle before you, what that says
about you. Poor Lazarus the fool’s fool. Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Jack shakes
his head in mock pity and then the smirk returns again taking on a
better nature as he looks back to Cyan
Jack takes the cup and pours some more brandy, finding a place to sit
by the fire he spreads his cloak on the ground and says “All I
did was look at it Cyan, I don’t know what to tell you beyond that. I
do not even know or maybe do not remember this palanquet you mention.
But come here, sit by the fire and tell us all you can of the quest.”
He offers her the cup of brandy after taking a sip.
OOC: You were also waiting on Jack to return so you could tell Laz and him something at the same time.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Enough sniping!" Cyan stands and stalks in a circle. Her
eyes are chips of obsidian, and the expression on her face indicates
this is no mere tantrum. This is barely controlled fury.
Her voice quivers with it, with an edge that could cut steel.
She's been practicing in the art of the Bard for a long time now, and
her voice can be a razor keen weapon, when necessary. Now seems
to be one of those times.
"The two of you should have your heads dunked in a rainwater
barrel! Unfortunately, there are none handy, so I shall have to
scold you like the children you are! I realize you have both been
under a trying ordeal recently, but there is no excuse for such
behavior. Lazarus, cease your argumentative attempts to draw Jack
into conflict! Jack, striking back with words only leads to
blows, at best!"
During this, Berd does not move; he merely sits on the ground where he
lay before, only the faint glitter from under his eyelids indicating he
is aware of his surroundings.
Taking a few steps away from them, Cyan stares out into the
darkness. Then she swings back to the group around the
flames. "Politeness costs nothing," she notes, her voice far more
calm, almost distant. "Perhaps we should all remember that.
I apologize for my outburst, but ask that we attempt, in the future, to
not goad each other like a cruel man does his dogs."
Then she sits down by the fire as Jack asked, and picks up her harp,
moodily. "Shall I begin the story? Or did we wish to
discuss this further?" The question is not sarcastic; rather, her
tone is tired.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Perhaps the wisest words I have heard tonight,” Jack says with a nod “Please continue with your tale bard.”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Having relaxed a bit after the disappearance of the image/gateway
produced by the cube, Lazarus stiffens a bit at Jack's rejoinder.
His eyes narrow, the muscles in his jaws tense, and one hand flexes on
the worn grip of his blade.
His silence continues for a moment or two even after Cyan's
admonishment. Finally, he relaxes and walks back to the fire,
taking a seat in front of the flames once again, placing his scimitar
over his knees. "No goading intended, Cyan," he begins, staring
into the fire, "I simply do not like it when people take or propose
action without any forethought. But no harm has been done.
Yet. So I will leave it be. Please, continue with your
story."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan glances at Lazarus, then nods.
"Very well." Picking up the harp, she strums on it for a moment,
sending the clear, rippling notes out into the night. "Thank you,
Jack. I will begin."
Still holding the harp, she begins, touching the strings every now and then to set them to shimmering vibration.
Cyan weaves a tale about how they all met in Cadiniagart, a city of the
Golden Circle of trade with Amber. At least, that was the idea -
Prince Bleys was ostentiably in the city to welcome it into the Golden
Circle, and a celebration was occurring. During this celebration,
a woman was slain by several attackers, lead by a man named
Beldin. Before she died, the woman gave a small package into the
keeping of the people who had come to her assistance. She claimed
to be an agent of Prince Julian, and that the papers in the pouch were
of vital importance to Amber.
Then riots began in the streets, with people claiming that the ruler of Cadiniagart had been murdered...by Prince Bleys.
The small group left the city as quickly as possible, following the
reluctant Ares on a journey that would lead them to Amber. On the
way, one of their number simply left, and another was slain by
bandits. (From now on I'll stop explaining where we lost players,
because I don't want to go back and forth and check). Upon
arriving in the Forest of Arden, they were apprehended by Julian's men,
and taken before him and Princess Fiona.
(Here the music takes on a darker tone) Ares, it seemed, may very
well forfeit his life, or his freedom - he was wanted by the royalty of
Amber. But Julian admitted that there must be some plot afoot -
he knew of no agent of his by that description (the woman).
Hence, he and the princess retired to consider the matter further, and
to consult with the contents of the pouch.
As it so happens, the pouch contained a warning that the Courts of
Chaos were plotting against Amber - quickly checking with his contacts,
Prince Julian determined that the Courts had received a similar warning
about Amber. He comissioned the group to find out more -
including Ares, who received a full pardon - and set them on their way.
With a brief stop in Ares' world to gather his armour, the group
returned to Cadiniagart. There, they discovered the cube,
apparantly dropped by the woman or Beldin. The trail from the
area was followed by Hunter, to Beldin's own house - they apprehended
the villain, only to discover he claimed to work for Caine.
Taking Beldin to a world of Kendall's acquaintance, they realized that,
after much questioning, it was very likely the man was telling the
truth. Attempting to contact Amber (Julian), they recieved only a
vague warning, and then the card literally burned in Ares hand.
With no other way to confirm his story, they were forced to take
Beldin's explanation as the truth (it seemed logical), and release
him. Then they continued onward.
Hunter's clever nose led them through World after World, on the trail
of the one who left the cube. Finally, they arrived at the
standing stones, in this world. There, they were accosted by a
group of warriors, who backed down, calling them Nephillim when they saw the cube, and acting as though there was great religious
significance. (Ares could explain it better) The cube
itself grew quite 'excited' when it came into proximity with the
standing stones, and created a gate to the desert. From there,
the group continued, intent on finding the creation point of this odd
device....
Leaning back, the red-haired woman stares into the fire with shimmering
topaz eyes. "There you have it," she says, taking a sip of the
brandy. Despite the length of the tale, her voice does not seem
to be the slightest bit fatigued.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack rocks back and forth where he sits listening to the story, after a
moment or two. He asks “Did you find out anything more about the stones
or the Nephillim?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"The people here believed that the Nephilim existed before time, when
there was eternal day and all creatures were friends. Then
darkness came and the Nephilim used the stones to go in search of the
source of this darkness, with a promise to return eventually.
Since then there has been day and night in the world, presumably as the
Nephilim do battle with the darkness."
Ares laughs quietly, his eyes sparkling with good humour.
"The cube is apparently similar to some artifact of the Nephilim, so I may have encouraged the locals to believe that we were in some way possibly connected to the Nephilim."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
After Aries addition Jack stands up collecting his pack and shouldering
it he reaches around the fire offering his open hand towards Lazarus
“Hey, I’m sorry if I was pain. I guess I I have found out that I do not
like being threatened or talked down to. Truce?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
As the conversation ebbs and flows the sounds of heavy foot steps can be heard.
*thump!draaaagthump!draaaagthump!*
The heavy, fatigued steps get closer. Looking out into the
darkness, one can see the glint of the firelight reflected on
silver. The figure gets closer and it becomes apparent that it is
Kali. Two things are on her shoulders and blood stains her
clothes. Hunter is similarily burdened with just one of the
creatures. She slowly reaches the circle of firelight and sways in
place for a few moments before dumping her load.
She then unties the beast that is bound to Hunter's back. The
great wolf sighs in relief and lies down, glad to be rid of his burden
and tired because of his full belly. The animals are smaller than
wolves, but resemble deer with a single horn protruding from their
nose. Their brown eyes stare up at the sky, very lifeless.
Blood seeps out from their throats, which have been effectively ripped
out. Otherwise the carcasses are in good condition.
Kali sits down after unloading Hunter and takes a moment to get her
bearings. Blood still weeps through the left sleeve of her grey
shirt... the same arm that was injured in the eariler battle. She looks
up at everyone with feral yellow eyes.
"Sorry to crash the party" she smiles without showing her teeth and
looks at Cyan "I'll clean'em up and soon they will be ready to cook...
unless you would rather roast them on a spit?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan grins at Ares explanation. "Well put..." He's a clever one, that one.
Berd nods his head in approval before sinking back into a doze.
After a moment, he opens one eye to look Ares up and down again, before
snorting a puff of scented smoke and yawning hugely.
Far from being discomfited when Kalika returns, Cyan merely stands with
a grin, reaching behind herself and unsheathing a bowie-like
blade. "I can give you hand with that," she notes. "You
might want to bind up that wound."
She stays where she is, though. Until her offer is accepted, the Bard wouldn't dream of touching another person's goods.
Berd, however, has woken up and is eyeing the deerlike creatures with unabashed greed.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali smiles gratefully at Cyan.
"I would appreciate the help... from you" she adds, giving Berd a hard look before winking playfully at him.
She then looks at the lazily oozing wound on her arm and shrugs.
"It's just an old wound... I got a little over board with my running" she says, almost getting the saying right.
She then drags two of the caracasses a little ways from the fire.
She catches Jack's eye and smiles at him before settling down with the
carcasses. After a moment of concentrating, she wipes sweat from
her forehead. For any paying attention it is immediately obvious
that her fingernails have been replaced with savage claws.
It is with these claws that she begins to skin and gut the carcasses.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack pulls his hand back from Lazarus slowly, watching him closely and
nods. Then he moves over and massages Kali’s shoulders for a moment
“Handy girl to have around. I’ll just have to remember to never ask you
for a massage.” he says playfully yet his attention is on the stones as
he talks. Finally he steps away to stare up at them in the dark, “Do
any of you know why the cube is set here? What is the reason for it?
Just finding out that there are people who consider the cubes owners
angels is not enough. Why? why?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I have an idea about that. I think the cube is designed to do
two things. First, I believe it records every place where it
spends more than a certain amount of time. That way it provides a
way to contact places that you have been to before, without filling up
with all the places you pass through on the way there."
"Second, I think it tries to activate powerful artifacts that it finds,
like the stones. Why it does that, I have no idea. Those
two ideas fit what we have seen it do so far, but may be revised later
if it shows different behaviour."
Aries pauses, arranging his thoughts before continuing, "We know
whoever held it before us, probably the dead woman, Cylla, must have
been here recently, because Hunter led us here by backtracking her
trail, not by using the cube as a gate, and when we spent time in Taheti, the cube
added a face with an image of that place. However, it didn't add
Bakoo, because we weren't there long enough to trigger the recording
function."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
He looks at Ares, “But why was she here may I ask? Or am I being slow?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"That I can't say, until we find out who sent her here, we won't know
why. Maybe she was sent to all the places on the cube for
different reasons." Ares shrugs, "We just don't know enough yet."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus seems absorbed by the flickering flames throughout Cyan's song
and Ares' speculations - so absorbed that he doesn't seem to notice
Jack's offer of hand and truce.
After Ares' replies to Jack's last question, Lazarus blinks a few times
and stands up abruptly, slapping his kilt, generating yet another dust
cloud. "I'm going to take a second look at the stones," he
says. He begins to move towards the rock formation and then stops
suddenly. "Though it does seem as though you let Beldrin off a
bit easy," he continues, his back turned to the fire. "As all of
you know, all of the royals in the courts of chaos and in amber make
Machiavelli look like a chump. If someone is attacking both at
once and has any hopes of succeeding, they've got to be equally
tricky. You weren't able to contact Caine to confirm his story
and it equally well could have been recording his stops in shadow. None of us here may enjoy intrigue, but it might
be worth it to consider all of the possibilities." Lazarus
shrugs, "just feels to me he gave in to capture way too easily, but it
could be I'm paranoid."
At that, he resumes his path towards the stones, pausing for a moment
to give Jack a hardy slap on the back. "And no truce necessary
Jack. Not when then there are no problems between us to begin
with." With that, he continues on towards the rock formation.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Hence, the backtracking!" Cyan calls, from over by the carcasses
of the animals. Lacking claws, she's using her hunting knife to
deftly skin and gut the one she works on, showing that she is no
stranger to this sort of thing. Berd ambles over and sniffs
delicately at what she is tossing out, then snorts, and heads back to
the fire. "Finicky," the Bard notes. "We need more answers
first - the questions, as you can see, are coming naturally. I
agree with Ares - I think the cube takes a certain amount of time to
'create' a record. We certainly weren't in the desert for a
terribly long interval."
Amber eyes shining in the dim light, she wipes her blade clean on the
grass. Oddly, her silk shirt and other clothing seems to repell
the blood - it beads up and slides off.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali looks at Jack from over her shoulder and through a light veil of
silver hair. Her gaze is curious, but when she feels his hands kneading
her back, a lazy smile comes to her face and she arches her back for a
moment, reveling in the feeling. It was new to her. She gives a
throaty laugh at his quip about her adminstering the same treatment to
him as she continues her grisly work.
A light wind blows the strands of thick hair that have worked their way
free of her tight braid over her shoulder... and into the blood.
She sighs tiredly, but didn't mind that much. It was obvious she
was going to have to wash up and cean up this set of clothing before
settling down for the night anyways.
Kali looks at Cyan from across her own kills.
"Did you tell them about that card-portal thingy burning up?" she asks, unsure of what has been said and what has not been.
Her metallic brows knit in concentration for a moment as she deals with a particularly tought piece of sinew.
"Ah!" she breathes in satisfaction as it yields beneath her sharp claws.
She then smiles at Jack yet again.
"Thank you" she says earnestly.
As Lazarus leaves the camp fire, Hunter's eyes spark in the firelight
as they catch the other man's gaze. Once the wolf has the
anthropologist's attention, the wolf rolls his eyes obviously before
lying his head down on his paws and groanly loudly.
Kali blushes.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan frowns. She's never heard of this Machiavelli, so Lazarus'
insinuations about the Royal Family of Amber are confusing - she isn't
sure what he is saying, but obviously it's something he believes
self-evident. Probably something about them being clever, or
duplicitous. If that was the case, she could have called him on
the insult, but the way he said it makes it seem almost like common
knowledge. Abrutply it's clear to her just how little she
actually KNOWS of Amber and its environs.
With a sigh, she finishes up, glancing over at Kalika and Jack flirting with each other. "Yes, I mentioned the palanquet aflame. Is there something wrong with Hunter?" she asks, emerald eyes shining in the dim light.
Berd glances at her, at Hunter, and then curls up, snorting a cloud of disgust into the air.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks to Lazarus as he goes by, “Careful Bro-hiem and let me know
when you are done I wish to try a couple of things with the stones but
don’t want anyone around them when I do. After I hear what you find
that is.” Jack looks back at the girls for a second then sits down
tailor fashion closing his eyes. One eye pops open and he looks to Ares
“You don’t by chance have my lost name anywhere in that bag of tricks
do you Ares?” He chuckles dryly and close the eye again.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I'm sure you didn't leave anything out, but I don't know what's been
said and what's not" Kali then looks over at Hunter and narrows her
eyes.
The large wolf turns and looks at her with large, puppy dog eyes.
He seems to be saying "Whaaaaat?" to those paying any attention. Kali
laughs at him and moves on to the next carcassm, gutting it efficiently
with her clawed fingertips.
She looks over at Cyan after a few minutes of vocal silence on Kali's part.
"He's a male, what can I say?" she shrugs and Hunter narrows his eyes are her.
She smiles largely at the wolf, who once again lies his head down to rest.
"Honestly I've never really paid any attention to you guys when you
start talking about the portals and cards and drawings" Kali says to
Cyan "So if you have already tried this, then I apologize for my
impertience. Are we able to use the images on the cube as a portal like
the cards?" she asks, not even attempting to say the word "palanquet."
OOC: Tuesdays and Thursdays are my school days so please don't expect a
lot of posts for me today (just so you know Cyan, if you are waiting
hours and hours for Kali to say something) :)
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan laughs at the comment. "Well...men are simple to
understand. Sometimes. Then again, the woman who thinks she
has figured them all out immediately bumps into one that doesn't fit
her rigid little mould."
"As for being impertinant," she notes, packing the guts up for
disposal, far away, where animals won't disturb them in the night, "not
at all. The more questions, the more likely we will discern the
answer to them. Jack has tried to use the images as a portal, and
succeeded - the energy the cube gives off is that of the palanquet.
We did not, obviously, use the portal." Another grin, her topaz
eyes glittering in the dark at Kalika's deep amber gaze.
"Should you think of anything else, please tell me...I am poor with
puzzles, much to the disgust of my teachers." Sitting back on her
haunches, she imitates (surprisingly well) a man's deep, rich
tone. "'A Bard is more than a parrotter of tales and
songs....' Feh." A shrug, then. "I fear I have little
patience for such things."
Berd utters a musical chirp. Cyan glares at him, then shrugs,
defeated. "Correction. I fear I have little patience."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus smiles at the wolf's expression. He stops for a moment,
crosses his eyes and sticks his tongue out as though he's gagging on
something and then continues on his way towards the stonework,
chuckling as he moves into the night.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
After a short time, Lazarus returns from the stones and plops down by the fire again, a thoughtful look on his face.
"There's some sort of residual energy left there, like an after image,
left both on the stones and in the center of the circle, but it seems
to be fading pretty fast. It's sort of like the afterimage you
get after looking into a bright light. Anyway, like I said, it's
fading fast. It looks like Ares might be right on the second
count," Lazarus continues, rubbing his chin, "Either the cube activates
the stones and uses them to project the gateway or serves just as a
sort of battery or energy source that the stones use to create the
gateway."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I was thinking more in terms of the sun providing them with their
power. The gate shut at sunset, and the local tales seem to tie
the Nephilim to daylight, with night being the domain of their enemy."
"It makes tactical sense to me, if your enemy is only active in
darkness, then deny him access to your transport routes when he is able
to move."
Ares scratches his cheek, then adds, "Maybe the sun provides the power
to form the portal, but the cube acts as a key to actually open
it. Without the portal, the key does nothing, but without the key
the gate stays shut."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus chews on his lower lip for a moment and then replies, "that's a
possibility too, as the the locals did say that these 'bright ones'
built a key to open doorways to walk among the stars. Whether the
gates are powered by the sun or not, I can't tell from my simple
methods," he continues, "but it didn't feel as though it were simply
the sun. It'd be easy enough to tell in the morning though."
Looking more directly at Ares he adds, "You might also want to talk to
the local people more about these bright ones tomorrow if we can find
them." With a wry smile, he finishes, "Especially since you seem
to have such a good rapport with them."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jacks eyes open “Lazarus is right, I can feel where the energy was
myself.” He stands and moves back over to Kali to massage her shoulders
some more absentmindedly. “If what you say is true then the woman that
had the cube may have stayed here for a while instead of just passed
through. Does her trail just end here? Did you show a picture of her to
the locals and ask about her?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Good questions," replies Lazarus, once again fixing his gaze on the
crackling fire, "and it occurs to me that if she did stay here for some
time then she may have had assistance in the place. It might not
be a bad idea to be a bit wary tonight and set some watches."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
As Lazarus leaves the camp a rough, lupine equivalent of laughter follows him to the stones.
Kali chuckles at Cyan, but the serious look in her eyes says she gets
the obvious message. She looks sadly at Hunter and says in a more
subdued voice:
"Yes it is quite dissapointing when your expectations are not met...
that is why I refuse them" she smiles at the large wolf, her feelings
for him shining in her eyes.
She looks up suddenly at Ares, her gaze dancing between him and Cyan.
"Do we even know why the stones opened the portal to Baku? Why not one
of the other images on the cube? And if we can move around through the
cards, can't other people?" she snorts derisively "Why create a
structure to limit other worldly travel when others can come on the
whim of a picture... unless it blocks that palanquot energy, too" she
wonders aloud, feeling like a child in the presence of elders.
She is happy for Jack's touch. Surprising it helps her find her
voice to speak out.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan watches the smaller, but equally competent, hunter, her sapphire eyes taking on a sad cast. A quick nod to her, then.
Pausing, she looks at the stones, and then back to Kalika. "I
have no idea," she confesses. "I am hardly a master of the
card...I fear my knowledge only comes in dribs and drabs. A
talented amateur, no more. Ask Kendall, if you seek answers for
that," she says with heavy disappointment at failing to be able to give
Kalika the answer she needs. A quick glare at Berd, to find the
little dragon staring back with glittering eyes; this time, it is Cyan
who looks away first.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Kali,” Jack says softly with a smirk “I do believe that is twice
tonight you have proven that worldly does not mean wise and
cosmopolitan dose not mean clever, you are a gem dear.” His hands stop
their work on her shoulders but remain resting there for the moment as
he looks at the rest of the group “All of these names you mention I do
not know. All of this talk of palanquet I am starting to understand a
bit, but I am in over my head here and the well of my cleverness has
run dry.” He smiles “By the lack of answers I will assume there is a
lack of answers and we have more to do here. I just know that it is
beyond me for the moment ” He chuckles lightly
Finally he lifts his hands from Kali’s shoulders and moves over to Cyan, leaning down he whispers something to her.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Kalika is invaluable. She brings much to the table, as one might
say," Cyan agrees, quietly. Then, when Jack moves over to where
she sits, she responds in the same, low tones, perfectly directed to
his ears only.
There is a tiny smile on her face as she speaks to Jack, amythest eyes
glowing faintly in the dim light of the fire. Berd slowly turns
his head to look at the amnisiac wanderer, his own eyes glittering like
tiny crystals. For a long moment, he stares at the man,
expressionless. His tail lashes once, before slipping back down
again.
Then the little dragon's lips split in a razor-toothed smile, genuine,
despite its threatening appearance, and his tail comes up again, the
tip making a circular pattern at the side of his head before flopping
to the ground.
Cyan continues to cut the meat, arranging it in strips to be put on
spits over the fire. She has some spices, that she gladly
contributes.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack walks over to the dragon kneeling down on all fours to get at eye
level with it he whispers something. Then he stands and moves to a tree
or rock, picking up his pack as he does so. He pulls out his bedroll
and spreads it, he sits leaning against the tree and pulls out a sketch
and charcoal and sets to work trying to sketch something
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd stares at the man for a long moment, his tail thumping on the
ground irritably. To be caught between two of his favourite
things! Curiousity and laziness. Sadly, he gazes at the
fire.
His friend Cyan helps Kalika put some meat on a spit, and lay it across
the fire (his GOOD friend Cyan!). She then pulls out her small
book of paper, and nudges him with a foot. Briefly, he considers
doing something extremely unpleasant to her, but decides against
it. As her fingers begin to dance a quill across the page, he
rises to his feet, arches his back, and flaps over to where Jack sits.
There is a feeling of energies gathering behind him as Cyan sketches, and he knows what she is doing. About time, as well.
Sitting down in front of the man, he scratches his neck with his tail, then stares at Jack expectantly.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack stares back at the little drake, his hand no longer working on the sketch
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd's eyes glitter in amusement for a moment.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack and Berds eyes remain locked
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ibid.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack smirks but otherwise does not move
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd yawns, spilling out a cloud of oddly flavoured smoke.
The dragon's head comes up for a moment, weaving like a serpent, eyes
glittering. Then one eye closes, slowly, and opens again.
Fanning the air carefully with his wings, Berd swoops down to land near the fire.
Cyan glances up from the picture she is drawing. Sketches.
Sketches of everyone in the group. "Did you have a good
talk?" Berd absently notes their quality, and approves before
catching the question. He cocks an eyebrow at his friend.
"Well?"
With a snort, the tiny dragon turns over to warm his stomach by the
fire. This is not her business, and he has important things to
think over. Chief of which - when will the food be finished?
Cyan turns and looks at Jack, speculatively. She goes back to
adding Ares' beard to his sketch, frowning now. The meat on the
fire sizzles slightly.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus watches the Jack and Berd game for a moment with an expression
of either amusement or confusion - it's unclear. Shaking his head
slightly he grabs his scimitar from its resting place on his pack and
straps it onto his back. "Well I think I'm going to go stretch me
legs for a bit and think things through. You all, er," he pauses
for a moment and looks at Jack, "play nicely while I'm gone. Or
something." Still shaking his head he stalks off into the night.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack’s smirk is gone, the look on his face near unreadable. Maybe with
hints of things, but easily imagination also. He pulls the harmonica
from his pocket and plays something quite, bluesy and soulful as he
rest against the tree. He watches Laz go wondering what he is up to,
but figures it best not to intrude. Other than that Jack seems to be
lost in his own little world of thought.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali laughs when Jack calls her a "gem."
"If you say so..." she says with doubt in her voice.
She doesn't comment on Cyan's compliment, but continues to work. She
wasn't used to this... and therefore didn't know how to react or
respond, so she just stayed quiet.
"Thank you for your honest answer Cyan. That is one of your best
attributes, I appreciate it" she replies when Cyan admits her inability
to answer her question.
She would ask the great ulez later, when she was more proper and wasn't so disgusting to behold. She didn't want to insult Kendall.
After adding her strips of meat to Cyan's own, Kali gathers the
packages of entrails and what's left of the carcasses. Jack is
involved with her internal dialogue and she smiles fondly at him,
hoping that the dragon was helping him find himself.
"I'm going to bury these and then wash up... I'll be back in awhile"
she chuckles at the sight of Berd and Jack staring intently at each
other "That's a good friend you have their Cyan... almost like a manai" she then nods her head in farewell and departs towards the woods to bury the remains.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Well, no sense obfuscating or lying...it certainly cannot help the
situation," Cyan replies to Kalika's thanks. "Perhaps
someday you will tell me what my worst attribute is." Quietly,
the bard goes back to cooking.
As the huntress walks away, Cyan grins after her. "Do not say
that too loudly," she says. "He will puff up more than he is."
The dragon snorts, and gives a musical chirp in response, immediately settling back to watch the food hungrily.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack finally finishes the tune. He makes a half hearted quip about
“Needing someone to wash your back?” but it’s easy to tell his hearts
just not quite as light as his words. Softly, almost morosely he says
“Wake me when it’s my turn to take watch. I will eat then” Putting
everything back into his pack he covers up and lays down with his back
to the camp fire.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali pauses at Jack's words and squats down besides him. She
smells of the blood that soaks her clothing and mats her hair.
"If you would like to talk I don't mind company" she says to him softly, yellow eyes searching his.
It was obvious something was bothering him. Usually one needed
time to themself to sort things out, but she wanted Jack to know that
she was there if he needed to use someone as a sounding board.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
His eyes look tired as he looks back at hers searching hers for a
moment. His face looks like a hard mask if it’s normal smiling self and
he is even a bit pale. “I believe I am just about talked out myself.
The drake may have given me more than I can chew for the moment.” He
looks over at the dragon scrunching his face at it and sticking out his
tongue, half heartedly. “But if you would like company I will tag along
and listen as long as you don’t hit me with anything to deep.” He gives
a weak smile, which is better than he was doing a moment ago. Yet still
not quite as a lively reaction as he would normally give.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd gives the two conversing people an odd sort of leer in response to
Jack's face - half knowing, half self-satisfied. There is an
undertone of concerning in his glittery eyes, though.
Then he chirps in surprise.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan removes her foot from Berd's tail, as he twists around with a wounded expression on his face.
"What did you say to him?" she hisses angrily.
Looking mightily piqued, the little dragon kicks off into the air,
soaring higher into the sky until he is lost in the starry blackness
above. Cyan curses softly in an Eldar language, before turning
back to Jack and Kalika, talking together a distance away.
"Jack, I am sorry if Berd disturbed you. Sometimes he can be
quite the arrogant fool." The expression on her face is genuinely
regretful. Morosely, she goes over the song Jack was playing in
her head while she turns back to the fire.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Oh posh Cyan.” Jack waves a distracted hand in her direction “Don’t
blame the drake, it did nothing wrong. I just don’t believe I was quite
ready for what it said at the end. Growth is often painful they say,
who is ever ready for pain?”
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Do not 'oh posh' me, Jack!" Furious now, but not with Jack, Cyan
points one of the spits at him, then puts it back on the fire.
"Berd puts his foot in it sometimes - he pushes people too far, too
fast. And maybe, just maybe, Lord Wise Drake was completely
wrong!" Eyes flashing with topaz sparkles, she stands up and
glares into the night sky. Then she glances back at Jack and
Kalika. "I am sorry - I take up much of your time with my...well,
I should just continue to cook."
Unwilling to disturb the two again, she sits back down and moodily
turns the spits, swearing to herself she won't let Berd have an ounce
of the meat.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack stands seeming to gain strength yet still looking tired behind the
fire of his emotion. “Do not presume for me Cyan! No, none of us know
if he is right or wrong, yes his words disturbed me. Perhaps a small
pain now will prepare me for what is to come, whatever that may be. It
is my mind and my soul, I deem who has wronged it or slighted me.” Jack
tired blue eyes glare at her as if daring her to question him. Then he
looks to Kali “Do you need a hand carrying that.” Nodding to the mess
of gore.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali witnesses the interchange between Cyan and Jack silently.
"Yes I would appreciate it" she says to Jack "The change tires me...
especially after a hunt" she sighs and begins to lead them towards the
woods.
"Are you sure you want to give yourself over to my every gabbering whim?" she looks up at him with a sly smile.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack goes about the grim business of collecting the discarded mess and follows her.
The smile he shines back at her now stronger now with the adrenaline of
that last outburst. “Only if you are certain you want to be caught
alone in the forest with a jaciu.” He manages a wicked smile. “You need
to ask Lazarus about the story of Silverlocks and the three jacui.”
Slipping back behind the safe comfortabe light hearted banter.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Before Jack leaves, Cyan jerks as if slapped, then nods, slowly, bright
sapphire eyes meeting his icy blue ones. "As you wish,
Jack. I will remember your words. I apologize for my
presumption." There is an edge to her voice, but it is not
directed to Jack.
Quietly she turns away, sitting down by the fire and continuing to work on the food. A nobleman. And one with a prickly ego, it seems. I certainly have stepped into it this time. Normally if someone warned her off, she would return the favour, but in this case, it is clear she was trespassing.
Idiot. Now you have both he and Berd annoyed at you.
Jack she could handle - it would be simplicity to keep away from him,
allow Kalika to deal with him. It seemed the two had hit it off
fabulously, and he reacted well to her, allowing her to tease and jest
with him.
A shame, really. The last thing she had wanted was someone annoyed at her. Berd is right...you can't help everyone, and many do not wish for you to try. A fault of her own, she had to admit, and Cyan could not blame Jack for his reaction. Had it been you? What would YOU have done?
With a shrug, Cyan turns back to the fire. If he were truly
annoyed, Berd might simply vanish for a few days. His capacity
for sustained anger was as limited as her own, though - he would
return, soon enough, unable to remain annoyed unless he was TRULY
furious.
Jack, though.... I might find myself at the wrong end of a sword, if I am not careful. With him demanding satisfaction.
It was not the threat of a duel that had her worried. It was
possible, very possible that Jack was her better. I have met better, in my travels. She doubted he would actually KILL her if they came to blows over his annoyance - he did not seem the type. Then again, that anger was...rather unexpected. And a bit of pain...a bit of wounding...it wouldn't be the first time.
No, her concern was over what would happen with the group if two of them fought.
And nobles rarely, if ever, forgot 'slights' to their honour.
Cyan hoped the apology would be enough. It was sincere - she
stepped where she should not. It did not bother her to give one -
travelling with Berd, one learned to recognize when one was wrong, or
have it pointed out to them, ad nauseum, until one admitted the fact.
With a sigh, she continued to cook the meat, taking off what was finished, and slipping more on, applying more herbs. I will simply have to stay on my toes around him in the future.
Unfortunately, she admitted to herself, if she had a fault (and Cyan knew she had many), lack of concentration was it.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
High above, Berd soars in the sky. Eyes shining with annoyance,
he rises until the Campfire is merely a dot beneath him, and the cool
air begins to leech away the heat of his anger. Floating there,
he gazes around, the night darkness no impediment to his sight, and his
natural curiousity takes over, forcing him to search about for other
points of light.
The foolish child. Sticking her nose in where it did not
belong. What went on between him and the amnesiac was his own
business, not hers. And he certainly did not deserve to have
someone step on his tail for that! Always striving to help
others, always becoming involved in their problems. Laudable, but
there was a good reason that for many years they had been searching for
Amber, and had been 'unable' to find it.
They would eat her alive, there.
Cadinagart had been a mistake, but something had...drawn him
there. A locus, a nexus of possibility. Once there, the
little dragon had realized his mistake, but by that point, it was too
late. He had hoped that the group she had been with would help
shield her from the worst of Amber; if nothing else, Cyan was skilled
at making friends, not by trying, but by dint of what she was.
The other bard, Lexy, had shown such promise with duplicity that Berd
had been fairly sure she could have steered the red-haired woman
through the troubled waters of Amber's intrigue.
Not now. Where Lexy had gone, the little dragon could not fathom.
Now he was left with an interesting hand to play, as it were.
Fortunately the wolf-child was an agent of the princess, and now of
Prince Julian. In addition, she appeared to be getting along
witht he bard. This Jack was a wild card - while Berd was certain
as to the cause of his madness, he could not depend on the man.
Who knew what he would do if he regained his memory? Lazarus
showed promise, but his temper was...unfortunate. Another person
Berd could not depend upon, for Cyan's anger could be equally
explosive, given the proper fuse. Kendall was erratic, but
competent - now, if he could only keep Cyan from becoming irritated
with his different manners (woefully inexperienced in the ways of the
universe, that girl). She might be quick to forgive and forget,
but there was no assurances the same was the case with the
shifter. Ares....he thought he could count on Ares, despite his
first impressions of the man. Ah, well, he, himself, was hardly
infallible.
Besides, for all he could think about 'playing hands', the dragon knew
this was out of his control. It was merely a comforting illusion
when he thought on his friend's safety.
Cyan's safety. With a heavy sigh, the little dragon stared back
down at the campfire. He should probably go down and check to see
if the meat is finished. Yes. That would be wise.
For the meat.
Circling, he takes a final glance around the night sky, searching the land.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
About an hour and half after he left the camp, Lazarus trots into the
ring of fire light, a bit out of breath, his face glittering with
sweat. Unbuckling the sword from his back, he tosses to the blade
to the ground and plunks himself down next to it. Letting out a
relaxed sigh, the large blond man untucks his shirt, wipes the sweat
from his brow (of course the sweat is replaced by a dusty smudge) with
the end of the garment and lays back in the grass.
"I haven't had a good run like that in a long time. Did I miss anything while I was gone?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"No. Kalika and Jack went somewhere to talk," Cyan says quietly,
the meat laid out in little, neat piles, some indigenous plants she has
identified as safe gathered up as well and torn into a rough salad in a
bowl. It won't be perfect, but everyone needs their greens.
Her tone of voice is normal when she says 'talk' - there are no hidden
meanings.
Glancing at Ares she shrugs. "If you want your food, feel free to
take some." The redhaired bard toys with her own, staring
alternately out into the shadows of the forest and up into the night
sky with her deep, emerald eyes.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali laughs at Jack's insinuations that she would be unable to handle herself with a jaciu.
"Believe me, that is the last of my worries..." she says seriously before smiling "There are no jaciu about" she winks at him and then pauses.
She looks around, yellow eyes gleaning sight from the darkness, and then nods.
"This place is as good as any" she says satisfactorily.
She then kneels on the ground and, using her clawed hand, begins to dig
a hole for the carcasses. Her braided hair shines in the moonlight as
she works.
"Silverlocks and... the... three.... jaciu....?" she says,
her words stretched out because of her labor "Never... heard of...
that... one.... either" she chuckles dryly and looks up at him, pausing
in her efforts "Besides, why should I ask him when I could ask you?"
She holds his gaze for a moment before resuming digging.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks around in mock confusion “Well I guess you are right. I
don’t see and jaciu, but I heard there was a particularly wicked one
lurking about someplace.” He looks down at his smooth well manicured
hands, shrugs and kneels down to help he as best he can.
He stops for a second “I’m certain he would tell it so much better than
I, you know of my tendency to forget certain details.” flashes her a
wolfish grin “So you know all there is to know about be and I believe
you owe me some jabbering. Tell me of yourself Miss Wolfblade. What’s a
girl like you doing on a quest like this?” as he finishes he sets back
to digging.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali tries to look scared, but she doesn't get it quite right.
"Ooohh yes... good thing I have you here to protect me" she says fluttering her eyes and then giggling.
"Not that I am saying you aren't a skilled fighter, but I don't know" she shrugs and smiles easily.
She takes Jack's change of subject in stride. "Alright, I will speak,
but remember- you asked for it" she smiles wickedly and then
concentrates for a few moments.
She gasps for air, but once she catches her breath, she is able to dig
without having her speech affected. The benefit of larger, more
wolfish lungs.
"I swear, the changes get harder with each try" she says more to herself than to Jack. She then begins to dig and talk.
"As I mentioned before my People, the Chunchee, are an extremely
patriarchial soceity. Men hold all the power and women are
treated as filth, scum, and slaves. Noble men lose face when
their wives or mistresses birth girlchilds. they often kill them and
the mother so that no one knows" she says gravely "My parents were
merchants, my mother a weaver and sewer, my father a hunter.
There were dissapointed with a girl of course, but at least they would
have extra help around the house, and once I came of age I could be
sold into slavery" her voice, once hard, now softens up "that all
changed when Hunter found me. I was with my mother at the river,
she was doing the wash. I felt pulled to the woods... so I
went. The woods of the Chunchee lands are dangerous and filled
with hungry animals. When my mother realized where I went she
thought me killed and eaten. But instead I was given newlife. Only few
Chunchee are selected by animals, called nai and together the pair is called, you guessed it, manai.
This is because it is believed that the animal completes Chunchee and
vice versa. They are trained as our warriors and the most elite are the gurndai- the bodyguards. After being Bound to Hunter, I realized that he was not my nai just as he knew I was not his ma. Our society named us manai,
but only we knew the truth. We are great friends and the magic of
the Bond allows me to shift shapes and wear any aspect of the wolven
form I wish. Hence these" she flashes the dirt encrusted claws.
Throughout her talking, Kali was digging at a rapid pace. With
her and Jack's combined efforts, the hole was large enough for the
carcasses. After dumping them in the hole, now the task of
filling it back up remains.
"To make a VERY long story only a long story, I was trained as a manai warrior. Very few women are Chosen, and it was a very...
disturbing period of my life" once again her voice is cold and distant
"I completed my training and was unwanted by the other warriors, who
considered me inferior. I was made gurndai just so that I
could be assigned outside of Chunchee lands. I served as the body guard
to one of our ambassadors to our neighbors in Shadow, the
Brintizzi. I completed a mission that involved resucing the son
of the Queen with a group of what Cyan called world walkers. We
were all made Brintizzi Citizens for our efforts. After the mission was
completed I was alienated by the ambassdor for jealously ate at his
heart. I left to complete my training elsewhere. Hunter led me through
Shadow until I came across Princess Fiona of Amber. She was under
attack and Hunter and I aided her. For lack of something better to do
and because we truly have no home, Hunter and I agreed to help the
Prince Julian in figuring this mystery out, but honestly I don't feel
like much help. I don't understand about the magic of the portals and
such... all I have known is violence and fighting" she confides "But
then I am used to being out of my league" she laughs dryly as she pats
the ground firm beneath her fingers.
She concentrates once again. Slowly the dirty claws retract and
replaced by broken fingernails. She notices for the first time the
reppercussions of Jack helping with the dig.
"Your hands! They are ditry once again and after they have just been
washed... I am sorry, I could have handled this dirty mess myself" she
is a little surprised at how much she shared with Jack and feels a
little shamed by the amount of labor be contributed on what was to be
her errand.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack laughs at Kali’s antics relaxing just a little more. “I believe I
need more of your protection would be closer the truth be told.” giving
her a mischievous wink.
Jacks help with the hole was minimal and unskilled but he did the best he could.
Jack looks at her for a moment speaking softly, “No I was not worried
about my hands, I was concerned with who I was verses who I will be.
Earlier today I noticed your hands and arms in comparison to my own. My
own showed no signs of war or work. Talking advantage of this rare
opportunity to choose who I am, I decided to define myself as they type
of man to help my friends and to work with others rather than sit idly
by. We are from different worlds in more ways than one. I chose to take
a step towards your world.” his smile is soft but not easily readable.
“Maybe I will not be content with who I was but instead chose the man I
was meant to be. What next?” He asks resting on his haunches
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus plucks a long blade of grass from the ground and begins to chew
on its end. Clasping his hands behind his head, he lays back and
closes his eyes. "You expecting rain staring at the sky like that
Cyan? I hope not. It'd ruin my first camping trip in thiry
years."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali nods at Jack.
"If you are in need of protection you came to the right person" she
says with an easy, accepting smile. Does this mean she will seriously
protect Jack? Hard to tell from the outside.
She sits comfortably while Jack speaks and she smiles at him and reaches for his hands.
"May I?"
(Assuming Jack's ok with her examining his hands- if not let me know and I'll edit the post)
Her hands are tough, callused, rough. Her supple fingers, trace
the along Jack's hands, exploring and sometimes probing with surprising
strength. After doing so, she bows her head once in thanks and looks at
him. Her eyes take in his clothing, the pack, remembers the staff from
before... and his interest in the cube and the stones. She smiles.
"You are right... we come from very different worlds and schools of thought. You are like an ulez...
a magic-ian?... yes your hands are soft and smooth...not used to hard
labors, and you carry a staff, hardly a warrior's choice weapon" she
chuckles "But that does not mean you are without your talents. A life
following a warrior's path is physically difficult and it says a lot
about your character that you are willing to take a step in that
direction" she thinks for a few moments and then rises, brushing her
self off.
"We might as well head for the water while I jabber" she says with an
easy smile, and offers her hands to help Jack to his feet. As they
walk, she continues to talk.
"If you have forgotten your mystical skills I would think it would be
very tempting to throw yourself into the physical... skills that you
can learn and flourish at without trying to remember what you lost..."
she looks up at him "It would be a good way to avoid your past" she
returns her gaze to the path they are taking "But it doesn't seem like
that is what you want" she sighs quietly.
"I'm sorry... talking of this must bother you, I don't want to push you
to speak about things... but if you ever want to I am here for you" she
smiles supportively at him, glad that the night hid the blush on her
cheeks.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
The air grows cooler, and the moon slides up the sky as the companions
indulge in friendly conversation. Hunter dozes close to the fire,
enjoying the warmth against his furred flank. Occasionally he
raises his head and looks out into the darkness with eyes that seem to
glow with a light of their own, yellow as the sodium streetlamps that
those of the group from more advanced worlds are familiar with.
Suddenly his hackles rise, and he starts to grumble, deep in his throat.
[Private to Kalika Wolfblade: Kalika
suddenly catches a scent on the air. Musty and strange, yet
almost familiar, almost like the reptile smell of the Brintizzi...
strong too, and getting stronger.]
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
OOC: Jack does let her examine his hands
Jack walks along in silence for a moment “Thanks you for telling me
your past and giving me a glimpse into your life.” He says finally
braking his silence then adds with hesitation “It is not that I
want to give up my skills or not remember my past Kali, I want to
choose who I will be. When I snapped at Cyan, I feel that it was a
remnant of who I was. I do not truly like that, I shall have to explain
myself to Cyan when I get back.” He seems lost in thought as he walks
and talks. “The word friend seems alien to my lips, ally would work
better for who I was I feel. Again I do not like that, friend is such a
warm word of hope. I like that word as who I am. Yet part of me screams
not to trust it, not to believe. It is not a question of will I be a
warrior or a magi. It is a question of will I work, will I trust. Do
you understand? I have a sword anyway, it’s hidden in the staff.” Jack
stops dead in his tracks. “The staff. . .it holds a hidden sword? I
didn’t know that, yet now I--I feel it’s true.” He gives a short laugh
As they come up to the stream he stops several yards this side of it “I
shall wash my hands after you are done.” he leans up against a tree
pointing back towards camp and sits down. “Kali. . .thank you.” he says
softly
This message was last edited by the player at 22:24, Sun 06 Apr 2003.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali gives Jack her full attention while he speaks. A smile lights up
her face when he realizes his staff hides a sword... she opens her
mouth to respond... and then freezes.
The change in her demeanor is instantly noticeable. Her muscles tense
and adrendaline lends strength to her limbs... and her ability to
change. Kali turns and looks at Jack from behind a hard mask of
caution, and her citrine eyes are devoid of emotion. She motions for
him to be quiet.
She then turns her face into the wind, her nostrils flaring as she
inhales the scent of Brintizzi... of predator. Her left hand falls to
the well worn hilt of her sword, claws silently forming on her right.
She contrates and her inner ear reforms, now more sensitive to the
sounds of the forest.
She reaches for the Bond with Hunter and calls out to him.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
If only I could see in the dark like she does Jack wishes as he
remembers his armor and staff left back in camp. He slides out his
pathetic main gaunch and prepares to move trying to tell anything in
the night.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Rain? Not rain, but..."
There is a whisper of wind, then Berd lands on the ground
silently. He gives Cyan a sharp-eyed look, then pads over to the
piles of meat. She picks up on and offers it to him. "Here
- take as much as you wish. I am not hungry, it seems."
Sighing, she nibbles on a small plant while Berd demolishes her share of the meat.
"Just waiting for Berd," she continues to Lazarus. The dragon
ignores her. Standing, she stretches and glances around at the
trees. "I wonder how long those two will take?"
Sitting back down, Cyan pulls out her quill and small book, and begins
to sketch Ares' face. Begin there. Then to Kendall.
Then...
"I wish our little group would learn to trust more," she says absently
while scribbling. "Trust is only found when it is given, and not
before. I have trusted everyone enough to give the entire
account, the length and breadth of the power I hold within. If
others do not, how can we depend, how can we plan?" She
sighs. "It was too much to ask for. I should have known it
would not be the case."
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hunter rises to his feet, teeth bared, hackles raised. His eyes
burn as he glares out into the darkness, and he walks towards the edge
of the firelight, snarling as he goes.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan pauses, slowly coming to her feet, the sketchbook falling to the
ground. "Berd?" she asks. There is a dull whisper in
the air, and she's holding steel, the razor edge of the blade
shimmering with a rainbow glisten as clouds seem to float across the
flat.
Her shining topaz eyes fall on Jack's staff. "Berd - find Jack and Kalika - now!"
Something is out there. Something dangerous.
Reaching out with her spirit, moving to stand just behind Hunter and
turning sideways, her arm against her ribs, she begins to search the
darkness, attempting to feel for a presence in the shadows.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd rises into the air, gracefully despite his full belly - it hampers
him not at all. Going high, he shoots over the top of the trees,
his senses reaching out, searching for the touch of something SOLID in the darkness, something he can grasp onto as Kalika and Jack.
A frisson of worry spills down his spine for an instant, but he sheds it. Cyan can handle herself adequately.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus listens quietly to Cyan, sucking thoughtfully on the blade of
grass he'd plucked from the ground. As she finishes, he sighs and
sits up, runnning a hand through his hair.
"Cyan, you have to understand that for some people trusting isn't so
easy. Especially where the Courts of Chaos and Amber are
concerned. I'm surprised that Berd, as your teacher/mentor,
hasn't told you about this," he says, giving the little dragon a
skeptical glance. "I can't tell you too much about Amber but I am
somewhat familiar with the Courts of Chaos, and the Royals there have
been practicing intrigue and deception as a way of life since time
immemorial. It is a part of them as much as their hands or feet,"
he continues, holding out a hand, palm upwards, towards the bard, "and
it comes as natural to them as breathing." Spitting out the now
mangled piece of grass, Lazarus smiles a bit, "So when you ask us to
divulge details about our lives, details about our abilities, even if
it sounds like a good idea, you may not realize how difficult it is to
do what you're asking. You, whether you have good intentions
yourself or not, are on a mission for Amber and while you may do
nothing harmful with what you know, others may."
Fully, into lecture mode, Lazarus blinks a few times when Berd zips off and Cyan draws her blade.
"What's up?"
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"As you wish, Lazarus," Cyan replies tersely, still standing, her thin
blade drawn, staring into the darkness. "It seems a terribly
lonely way to live one's life...I wish you well in you path." She
gestures at the snarling wolf. "Hunter senses something -
something that is screaming danger to him."
Cyan's other hand creeps around to the small of her back.
"I suggest you prepare yourself, and if you do have any abilities to
sense what is out there, use them." Her grin is tight, and
mirthless. "You do not have to 'divulge' any of the information
you receive to me, of course - if it is as individuals we must fight,
so be it, though I would be more pleased to work in concert with my
associates."
OOC - Hunter was left at the camp...
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Glancing around a bit, Lazarus picks up his scimitar and unsheathes it as he stands.
"Anything I could do would take too long if it's coming fast.
How's that for sharing?" he says, the grin still on his face.
Peering into the darkness, he adopts a stance of readiness.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Kuk!" Kali curses softly under her breath.
Kali moves under the protection of the forest canopy, taking Jack with
her. Once under the cover of the trees, she motions for Jack to
up against a tree, rigidly straight, against the soutwest side, so that
the creature will only see blank bark as it flys by. She then
presses her back against him so that she is facing the forest and he is
sandwiched against the tree. She turns her head back and whispers as
softly as she can.
"Sorry... predator flying by... hopefully pass right over...."
She then closes her eyes and harnesses the strength that the bursts of
adrenaline caused by the prospect of a fight. With that strength
she calls out to Hunter as loud as she mentally can:
:COME TO THE FOREST WITH THE PACK!!!!!:
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack lets himself be dragged along complying with her as she moves.
Half worried at the situation and half enjoying where it’s put him, he
answers in a hushed whisper pressing himself to the tree. “No problem,
I can feel the beast also.” He stands there tracking it with his mind,
feeling it move.
===========================================================
Re: Part 9 - Departures and arrivals by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Turning so that he faces away from the fire, Lazarus scans the night
for any signs of danger. Catching Cyan's focus out of the corner
of his eye, he chuckles a bit, "'sides, some of us just don't have
anything interesting to share like a dragon, palanquet, and a sword
made out of a rainbow. But if you want, I'll share with you the
data I collected from the crypt I was studying before y'all popped in
on me."
===========================================================
Death from above by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Something vast eclipses the stars, and there is a sound like thunder,
followed by a blast of wind which all but extinguishes the
campfire. Hunter flattens himself with a snarl and flash of
teeth, then bolts towards the stand of trees where Kalika and Jack are
concealed...
And a nightmare lands almost on top of the fire...
Dark in colour, scaly and two-legged, with a body as large as a small
house, the creature spreads wings which seem to cover half the sky and
opens a mouth large enough to swallow a horse. Row upon row of
dagger-sized teeth gleam within that dark maw and saliva drools from
the scaly lips, hissing and spitting where it drips to the ground.
It makes a noise, somewhere between a hiss and a roar, and the stench of rotten meat blasts from its jaws...
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares rolls clear as the thing drops into the camp, drawing his blade
and scrambling to his feet. He weighs his choices, fight or
flight, then realises that there would be no way to gather up their
belongings before moving away from this beast.
Instead he tries to move around to one side, away from the jaws.
His blade slashes out towards one of the thing's legs, even while he
readies himself to jump clear if the monster tries to attack him.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali relaxes slightly.
"It pass..." she then freezes, muscles tightening once again "Fuck!" this time her epiphet is more understandable.
She steps back and faces Jack, the sound of something running towards them can be heard.
"It flew right over us... and landed on the camp fire. Hunter is coming...the others are there with it"
Hunter bounds up to her side, hackles raised and teeth barred.
"I know, I know" she murmurs to him, running her hand through his fur.
"Jack, we have a few options. I am going to fight that thing, you can
come or you can stay here. I don't mean to be blunt, but which is it?"
she asks, speaking quickly, the need to spill blood rising in her.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Stop wasting time talking to me and get us out behind the beast!” he
hisses through his teeth and bolts towards the camp site “I’ll do what
I can or die trying!” he tries move through the forest as quickly as he
can. He knows he has no chance of keeping up with her or them, but he
tries.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali's arm catches Jack's in a vicelike grip.
"Stop being stupid!" she hisses, trying to penetrate the fog of bravado that seemed to have poessessed him.
"If we go charging into there all gung ho then the creature is going to
eat us alive!! Especially if we break every twig on the way, alerting
it to our presence" she stares intently into his eyes and releases his
arm when she is convinced he will not flee.
"We will move quickly, from behind, where it won't be able to see
us...and hopefully also downwind. We will be able to attack if
from behind and surprise it" she explains the simple plan.
Kali then moves through the forest. Her plan is to emerge from the
forest behind the creature so that they can attack unnoticed from the
rear.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack stops when she grabs him. “If they are fighting that beast odds
are it will be to busy to hear us coming. But I will trust you
judgment. If I can get close enough to make contact with it a may be
able to tie it up until you guys finish it.” He follows her a
little miffed at himself.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan moves in a blur, dancing into a pattern that keeps her circling
it, and moves in towards the creature. A touch of doubt runs
through her; her clothing will likely be not enough to save her from a
direct blow, though a glancing strike will likely be deflected.
Instead of fully flanking the beast, the woman makes sure to stay
within its field of vision, trying to gain its attention. Her
stance is more defensive than offensive, focusing more on dodging than
parrying - her footwork is quick and sure, even on the uneven ground.
"Somebody get behind it!" Cyan screams, driving in to lance the tip of
her blade at the creature. The strikes she levels at it are
performed with the last hand-length of her razor keen blade, keeping
her at her optimum distance to use the weapon - none of them are
killing blows. Instead, she attempts to strike at muscle, and
areas such as the inner thighs of the enormous creature, striving to
wound, bleed, and weaken it, if this is possible. While her light
sword may not appear capable of penetrating its hide and muscle,
appearances can be deceiving.
Above all, her tactic is meant to keep the creature's attention focused on HER.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"By the...." Lazarus blinks a few times at the scaley monstrosity,
taking in its enormous bulk. Cyan's words seem to rouse him to
action though. Watching Ares move around to the side of the
creature, he quickly he adjusts the grip on his large blade and begins
to skirt around to the other side of the beast, keeping out of range of
its claws or wings. As he does so he waits for a moment of
distraction when the creature might be looking away from him.
When it does, he is going to dart in and slash at vulnerable points
like hamstrings.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kendall
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kendall rolls off to the side, trying for a little cover. Kendall
pulls a trump out of a puffy sleeve. Waiting for the moment the
creature makes a threatening move to activate the spell, which releases
the fury of the earth, against the creature. Kendall hopes it is
simply a flashy entrance rather than a real threat.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd pauses. It's hard to miss the bellowing roar, or the cries
of the people in the night, especially when one is flying above the
trees. For an instant, he hovers, then whips his body around,
darting back towards the campsite.
Jack and Kalika will have to manage on their own - Cyan is in danger, and that's his primary concern.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
The monster snaps its jaws at Ares as the man runs past, and then
brings its eyes to bear on Cyan once more, the head weaving on a
serpentine neck as the bard's blade opens an oozing black cut along one
side of it's muzzle. It rears back, and it's tail lashes as it
howls its rage at the dark sky.
Lazarus takes the opportunity to dive in low under it and slash across
the back of one of the tree-like legs, just as Ares does the same
against the other one.
Lazarus' blade turns against the heavy scales, striking sparks from the
armoured limb, but Ares manages to inflict a shallow wound. The
beast shifts its weight on to one leg and kicks backwards with the
other, catching Ares a glancing blow and spinning him away, although
his armour protects him from injury...
Kendall raises his hand towards the creature, something small and
rectangular held between his fingers. There is a flare of red
light, and a stream of liquid flame springs through the air, slamming
into the scaled hide and causing the monster to roar in pain and anger
again as the burning liquid splashes to the ground and solidifies into
red hot stone.
Kalika, Hunter and Jack work their way around behind the creature,
keeping to the tree line in an effort to avoid it's attention.
The horses, a fierce breed though they may be, are starting to panic, tugging at the ropes which tether them.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Their weapons cannot harm the beast! Cyan notes this with
horror as Kendall's blast strikes the demonic beast, and she does some
quick footwork to avoid getting splashed with liquid stone.
Well done! Now, if I can just-
Darting in, she thrusts quickly upward, trying to slip Kirilindë's
viciously keen point upwards into the beasts belly and then spin away,
tearing it out using the razor edge. As she twists away, she lets
the tip of the blade work a pattern, whipping cuts to put a razor
barrier up through which the creature must reach to touch her.
Berd! Where are you?
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack simply follows Kali's lead, hoping it will bring him close enough
to make physical contact with the beast and present an opening for him
to do so. As they make their way up to it he watches closely studying
the beast of any weaknesses or also good places to attempt this stunt
from.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares rolls to his feet, recovering quickly thanks to the protection
granted by his armor, he returns to the combat almost as suddenly as he
left, this time attempting to stab with the sword, trying to drive it
into the monstrous beast's thigh muscle, putting all of his weight and
momentum behind the thrust.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali watches the creature's tail lash and looks up at Jack and smiles
at him. An odd expression given their position. She concentrates,
and her muscles shift and buldge... she is going to need the strength
of both world's if she is going to succeed.
She watches the tail lash, back and forth, back and forth. She
walks out from the cover, counting on the beast being to distracted by
its pain to notice her. Back and forth...back and forth. Kali is now
standing just out of the tail's range. Back and forth back and
forth... she tenses.. and forth and back and forth and back NOW.
Kali sprints towards the beast, while it's tail whips away from
her. She runs with all of her strength, her soft boots barely
touching the ruptured loam of the earth before they are up again,
propelled by her rapidly pumping legs.
She closes the distance between herself and the monster's back side in
seconds. She hears the *whoosh* of the beast's serpentine tail as
it completes it's arc and begins to swing back towards her. Her
eyes set determined, her mind calls to Hunter :Protect the jaciu: and then she acts.
Using the momentum of her whirling sprint, Kali springs into the air
towards the beast. As she rises towards it, both hands lock
around the worn sheath of her blade, and she ignores the pain caused as
her own claws dig into the flesh of her non-clawed hand. She
draws the blade, which flahes with an eerie silver light as it reflects
the moonbeams. As she makes her descent towards the creature, she
drives the blade into its back, confident that the magicked blade would
sink in to the hilt. This causes her to hang from the sword which
is sunk into the creature's back.
Her plan was to have her weight force the blade down so that its sharp
blade would render a deep, long split in the reptilian beast's
backside. If her weight isn't enough to do this, she will plant
her feet on the thick, scaly hide and shove down with all her strength
to force the blade to cleave through the resilient flesh of the flying
monstrosity.
Of course if her blade doesn't pierce the things hide it will be another story all together....
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Hunter
-----------------------------------------------------------
As his mistress sprints towards the monster, Hunter steps in front of Jack, teeth barred and a low growl rumbling in his throat.
He watches with alert, lupine eyes as Kali executes her maneuver.
The large wolf looks up at Jack for a moment before returing his
attention to his Bonded. The deep growl has been replaced by an
anxious whine as he awaits the outcome.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kendall
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kendall circles around to avoid the continuing spray from striking an
ally. The Card is extended outward, being held with both hands on
outstreched arms. It was as if the card itself was a great
weight. Kendall mused, "If it wasn't trying to kill us, that
things resistance would be facinating."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Darting under the beast's wing, Lazarus hears the creature roar as Cyan and Ares score hits. Maybe this won't be so bad as I'd thought...
Now in range of the beast's vulnerable hamstring, Lazarus gathers his
strength and brings his blade down onto the back of the creature's
leg... And manages to strike some pretty sparks as his blade
skitters off the beast's armored hide.
"Aaww fer cryin' out loud!!"
Slashing a few more times at the monstrosity with the same results,
Lazarus dodges his way back outside of the creature's flailing wings
and leg.
Taking a second to survey the damage done to the dragon-like creature
he notices the wounds caused by the blades of Cyan and Ares... What,
am I the only one without a freakin' magic sword?! Must have
skipped adventuring classes the day they taught the magic sword rule.
Sheathing his blade, a look of intense concetration settles onto Lazarus' face. Fine, if my stupid meat-cleaver won't work, we'll try something else.
The large blond man shifts his stance so that his legs are a bit wider
than his shoulders and his fists are gathered at the top of his
hips. After a second or two of holding this position he thrusts
his right hand towards the beast, palm open.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares rolls to his feet and charges in again, only to see Kalika hurtle
past him driven by not-quite-human muscles. Her silver hair
streams behind her like a banner as she leaps and drives her blade down
into the creatures hindquarters. There is a flash of blue sparks
as the blade strikes a scale which is harder than steel, and then
skitters sideways an inch or two to pierce the flesh under the
adjoining scale. It bites deep, driven by the woman's weight, and
acrid-smelling ichor flows over the scales.
Ares has similar luck, driving his blade into the beast's thigh and
almost gagging on the stench of the liquid that pours from the wound.
The beast roars, an ear-splitting bellow of rage and torment, and tries
to kick at Ares again, but it's injured leg is clumsy and poorly
coordinated.
Cyan dances a walz of deadly steel as she slips in under the creature,
looking for a soft spot. Her slim bladed sword strikes leathery
flesh between the large armoured plates of the monster's
underside. The creature's stinking blood spills out of the
injury, and the bard skips sideways, dragging her blade to open a long
slash across the belly of the beast.
Lazarus strikes futilely at the vast reptile's armoured leg, seemingly
without effect, and he is forced to move away as the monster steps
backwards, and the jaws descend towards Cyan, gaping wide to devour the
bard, spittle dripping from the razor-sharp teeth as they descend
towards her.
The jaws snap shut just above her, with a noise which (to her at least)
sounds like the gates of Hell slamming closed. The thing raises
its head and emits a muffled bellow, almost as if its mouth is jammed
shut.
Lazarus stands well clear of the beast, sweat standing out on his brow,
and one hand extended towards the dragon-like creature, although there
is no obvious effect, unlike Kendall's attack, which still spurts
boiling molten stone against the things scales, which are blistering
and burning in the fearsome heat.
Jack, guarded by the wolf, Hunter, moves around behind the beast,
carefully looking for a chance to move in closer and launch his own
attack.
The creature spreads its wings and crouches lower as if about to launch
itself into the air, dismayed that its easy pickings are fighting back
so effectively, and seemingly unable to even open its mouth to bite at
the annoying creatures which sting at it and burn it.
To add insult to injury, something small and brilliantly coloured
flashes past its huge slit-pupilled eye, trumpetting frantically...
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd wings in crazily, shooting by the beast, his glittering, golden
eyes searching for signs of injury on his people. Nothing truely
deadly, yet, but he can see Ares has been struck, and the creature
nearly took Cyan's head off moments before. Something is holding
its mouth shut, something probably from the man, Lazarus...or
Jack. The others are too busy fighting, and frankly, Berd doesn't
much care at the moment who's doing it.
Silent now, filled to the brim with fury, he rises before the creature like a tiny star, hovering out of its reach.
DIE.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sweat is running down Lazarus' face in rivulets that soak through the
front of the light linen shirt he's wearing and his outstretched arm
trembles a bit as though holding off some great force.
"Everybody get back! Give it room to get out of here, it's just looking for a way out now!"
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Berd! Let it go!" Cyan backs away, still keeping her blade
ready. Should the creature turn on her compatriots behind it, she
will attack, with everything she has, trying to thrust Kirilindë into a
lethally vulnerable spot. If it leaves, she will let it go.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack hangs back at Lazarus’s yell feeling both helpless and useless
with hunter here guarding him. It is a horrible feeling one that he
finds does not sit well in his craw.
He stands there thinking to himself “You fool! If she wouldn’t
have stopped you, you would have gotten yourself killed and maybe
someone else. Now you are left here with a babysitter! You are no help
to them and could easily endanger their quest in your current state.
Better they had never found you than have to baby sit a fool at a
critical time. Better none had found you. . .”
Uncertain where that last though comes from he watches ready to make
the charge if the beast does not take off, but ready to fall back if it
comes this way. Torn between helping them and running he watches. .
.Uselessly. . .
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
As the black ichor spills from the deep wound inflicted by her sword,
Kali's nose wiggles as it reworks itself so that she is not so
overwhelmed by the pugent scent.
She pulls her blade free, and then realizes that the monster has been
imobilised. Then she hears Lazarus's strained shout. She turns
and jogs back to Jack's side, her blade covered with the thick black
blood of the monster. She squats down and wipes the blade off on
the grass, the claws on her hand retracting back to dirty
fingernails. She looks up at Jack, yellow eyes bright in the
night light.
"This concluded sooner than I thought" she comments, and then cocks her
head to the side as she studies his face. She rises from her
squat, but doesn't sheath her blade. It wasn't clean enough yet. Hunter
returns to her side with a whine as he noses her bloody hand. She
pats him absentmindedly, her attention still on Jack. She motions to
the beast.
"Our enemy is beaten, our allies alive... and yet you do not seem happy" her silvery brows knit together "Why is that?"
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Dworkin (GM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
As Kalika springs clear, the creature leaps into the air, the vast
wings beating downwards to carry it's bulk skywards. Lazarus gets
lifted from his feet, perhaps by the blast of wind from the wings, and
lands heavily before falling onto his back.
As it rises higher, the beast shakes its head back and forth, then
opens its maw and shrieks, an earsplitting noise, that almost deafens
Kalika with her sensitive hearing, and is quite unlike the aggressive
bellowing of earlier in the encounter.
Then it wheels in the air and is gone, stabbed, burned, and humiliated... not a good night's hunting for an apex predator.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack’s attention is riveted between the two, The great beast springing
to the air, yet also Kali’s animal grace and beauty in motion. He
is so wrapped up in them and his own brooding worries that he does not
realize that he is frowning as she appears at his side watching the
dragon skyward bound. He looks at her with surprise for a split
second and then his constant all knowing know nothing smile returns to
his face accompanied by a look of respect, perhaps even
something more. “Nothing,” he says softly smiling at her “Just
worrisome thoughts of no real matter.” He sidesteps the question “You
and your allies were magnificent.” he says right before the great beast
screams in the night sky. As he sees Kali’s reaction he steps towards
her his hands reaching out but uncertainty draws them up short. “Are
you alright?” he asks looking a bit worried.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali watches Jack's expressions change, a soft half smile on her lips.
She caught the distinction in his words and is about to respond when
the injured beast screeches. She squeezes her eyes shut and
winces as the cry reverberates through her ears. She doesn't
bother shifting them back. The adrenaline rush was fading fast...
as was her strength. The ringing in her ears clears, and judging by the
look on his face, Jack had asked her something. She looks down at
Hunter for a long moment before scratching the top of his massive head.
"I'll be ok... once the ringing in my ears fades completely" she chuckles, rubbing the side of her head comically.
"And you are right, we did do a magnificent job... all of
us" she stresses her point by reaching out and catching his hands
"Unless you do not wish to be our ally?" she questions, and is struck
by the force of her own feelings as she contemplates the possible
answers to that question.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares watches the creature depart, then moves over to help Lazarus back
to his feet. "I don't know what that was exactly, but I don't
want to meet it's big brother." He holds his sword up in front of
him, "This blade has a keen edge, and a keener point, but it took all
of my weight and strength to pierce that thing's hide."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus' eyes widen as the beast gathers itself and launches its bulk into the air.
He manages an "Uh oh" and then is unceremoniously dumped onto his back.
Rubbing the back of his head, the blond haired man accepts Ares' hand
out of the shallow Lazarus-shaped hole in the sod. As he
straightens, he shakes a fist at the form of the dragon-creature
disappearing in the night sky. "AND DON'T COME BACK!!!"
"Thanks Ares, and no, I DEFINITELY do not want to meet his older
brother." At Ares' comment about his sword Lazarus pauses
thoughtfully, "I wonder how the locals defend themselves against that
thing. Maybe they don't...."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"What's done is done," Cyan says cheerfully, focusing on Kirilinde for
a moment. The blade shimmers, slightly, then the blood
vanishes. A satisfied smile crosses her face, and she jumps as
Berd lands on her shoulder, trilling loudly in pride.
"Yes, I know, we owe it all to you," the red-haired woman notes, eyes
glittering like opals in the dim light. Berd chirps happily,
snorting a puff of smoke in the direction of the departing beast.
"Good armor you have there, Ares - I have to say my heart skipped a
beat when I saw you struck." She winks. "And quite a neat
trick you played, Lazarus," Cyan continues, grinning. "Probably
saved me from losing my head." Berd sniffs loudly, but glances at
Lazarus with approval in his glittering eyes.
Turning, Cyan cocks an eyebrow at Kendall. "I feel much safer,"
she says, "knowing at least ONE of us is a capable spellmaster."
A grin. "Either that, or you have a palanquet that opens to a volcano. Either way, my thanks."
Glancing across the torn turf, she waves her hand to Jack and
Kalika. "Good to see you both well! Bravely done,
Kalika. You certainly showed up the men!" A laugh to the
men in question tells them she is anything but serious about that last
comment.
Berd stares after the creature, eyes narrowing. There is an
annoyed look on his reptilian face, then he gives a quick chirp.
Taking off her gloves, Cyan slaps them on her leg to clear out the
dust. Her face shadows as she does, the smile fading, eyes hazing
over to amethyst. Crouching down on her haunches, she runs her fingers
through her hair, shuddering slightly at her body relaxes.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Long moments pass while Jack looks into her amber eyes. His expression
a bit more solemn tinged with confusion even looking a little lost.
“I—I wish to be your ally.” he looks as if he is about to say something
more then he hesitates. He stands there holding her hands lightly and
searching her eyes. . .Looking for something
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hearing Cyan's through the ringing of her ears, Kali looks over and
releases one of Jack's hands to wave back. She does not move
towards them just yet. Instead she gently takes up the released hand
once again, just as her eyes lock with Jack's. Her back stiffens
a bit and Hunter's head shots up, eyeing Jack warily. He does not
move to attack, trusting his mistress.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares, content that the beast has moved on, wipes his blade on the turf
and sheathes it. "With that out of the way, that still leaves us
with one problem. Where to next? We followed the trail back
to here, the person who made it must have come from somewhere.
They could not have come here with the cube, since the cube can only
make gates to places it has been before, although it can open gates
that already exist."
"That leaves two options as I see it. Either the cube was brought
here before they got hold of it, and then they used it to get here, or
there was a pre-existing gate that brought them here."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Brushing a few errant bits of grass from his backside, Lazarus
shrugs. "I doubt that thing could've laid a tooth on you after
watching your footwork Cyan. Anytime you need me to start a fire
by striking sparks off a live dragon's scales though just let me know."
Walking over to where he'd left his pack earlier in the evening, he
crouches down and begins to check his gear over, making sure that
nothing was damaged from the battle. "I think will tag along if
you'll have me," he calls over his shoulder, "that is if you'll ask
Berd to stop looking up my kilt. It's considered a bit rude where
I come from."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack breaks eye contact with Kali letting go of one of her hands, but
not before she sees his sly smile looking satisfied. He turns to go
back to the camp still holding her other hand. “You can throw me up
against a tree and protect me any time you like.” He says softly “I
believe I shall go listen to the stones.” casting a glance in her
direction.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Just good training," Cyan says, distantly, in response to Lazarus. She makes no respose to the kilt comment.
Everyone is so...blase.
In the heat of combat, nothing ever seems to register to her - it's
always a blur. Now, afterwards, she can still feel the hot breath
as the teeth slammed together above her, almost tangling in her
hair. Still feel the sickening penetration of her blade into the creature's body. Ares is discussing the
cube as if they have been walking in the forest. Lazarus is
cracking jokes. Kalika and Jack are acting like they've been
together for a year, and that makes the most sense of anything.
More than anything else, Cyan simply wants to throw up the meat in her stomach.
None of this shows. Perhaps her face is a trifle paler than
usual, but it's dark, and she is a redhead. Her opalescent eyes
glistening, she walks into the woods in the direction from which Kalika
and Jack came. "Did you two find a river? I'll be back in a
moment. I need to wash up...alone." The last word is
delivered with a certain finality.
Berd, used to this reaction, settles himself down beside the
fire. When Jack announces his wish to examine the stones, the
little dragon raises his head, then shakes himself, getting to his feet
and fluttering after the man.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
When the eye contact is broken Kali takes a moment to regain her
bearings. She doesn't move to follow Jack towards the camp, but
also doesn't let his hand go either. She laughs quietly at Jack's words.
"Be carefuly what you wish for lalai" she smiles slyly "You just might get it" she squeezes his hand before releasing it.
"Enjoy your time with the stones, I fear we may not be near them for
long" she says seriously, she does not question that he can hear the
stones. She motions to herself, the black blood of the beast being the
newest stain "I really need to clean up now" she laughs at herself and jerks her head out.
Hunter rises and bounds gracefully into the camp, picks up Kali's
tattered pack from it's straps and heads back to her side. Flickering
yellow eyes catch deep, deep blue ones. "Take care"
Kali then turns and places her sword across her shoulders, the blade
not clean enough to be sheated. She heads towards the water, Hunter and
her pack in tow. She can't help but to fall into step besides
Cyan.
"I know you don't want company, but I need a good scrubbing as well.
I'll leave you once we get to the water" she explains her presence
neutrally, not sure how the other woman will react to it.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"No, no," Cyan says distractedly, vaguely registering what the other
woman says. "I see you and Jack are getting along well."
From anyone else, that might be considered a catty comment. From
Cyan, it's just an observation. She stumbles through the dark,
catching herself quickly each time - it's obvious that she has no
ability to see in darkness, and the light of the moon barely penetrates
the cover.
Obviously everyone else is far more experienced at this sort of thing than I, she thinks quietly. Glancing at Kalika, the other woman shrouded
in shadows, Cyan gives a sickly grin. It looks ghastly in the dim
light. "You did amazingly back there. Very brave of you to
jump on it like that." Some things stand out in her mind, like
snapshots. Kalika's leap is one of them. The rest is a hazy
blur.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Yes" Kali replies, replying the words in her head for hidden meanings
in Cyan's tone. She finds none and smiles at her "Surprisingly so" she
adds.
When Cyan stumbles yet again, Kali offers an arm out to her in a silent
offer of support. She doesn't want the other woman to feel inferior,
but it was obvious she was distracted and Kali didn't want her to fall
and hurt herself.
"You are one to talk!" she retorts with a smile, concern rising in her
breast at the sight of the ghastly smile "By Engaging the thing from
the front, you had many worries- and your blade still struck true,
while I attacked for behind. Quite cowardly really" she says, not
really caring if her actions were "honorable" or not "Yes" she muses
"It was a well coordinated attack. With bravery from all... but mostly
from you" she decides... and then cannot curb her curiosity any longer:
"Are you feeling alright?"
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lalai, he thinks to himself. Oh I can’t wait to hear this one as he
watches her disappear into the night. He wanders down to the camp
collecting his belongings and packing everything up “You guys were
amazing.” he says to no one in particular as he collects his stuff once
he has it collected he adds “I’m going to go see if I can solve a
riddle I shall be over at the stones if anyone needs me.” Stopping by
Lazurus for a second he looks at him. “I am sorry for needling you
earlier Laz. I have a lot on my mind and little mind left to deal with
it.” Without waiting for a response he walks to the stones with the
small drake following him.
Jack drops his pack and bundled armor by the edge of the stones.
Letting his mind focus on the stones he circles the stones once in a
clock wise fashion then completely back around in a counter clock wise
fashion. paying close attention to where each energy flows would be and
how it would flow, he maps it out in his mind. Finally he sits down up
against a stone pressing his hands to the monolith . Focusing his mind
and pressing deeper into the stones. Trying to unravel the enigma that
is the heart of their nature.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan gratefully takes the other woman's arm; she has no pride to be
damaged here, only a reasonable idea of her own capabilities...and she
knows she cannot see in the dark.
"Not bravery." she says, distractedly. "Once something happens,
it is as though I lose my head. Everything blurs, and....
Cowardly? You? I think not. Once a fight begins,
there is only life and death. And leaping onto the back of an
enraged beast the size of a house does not strike me as cowardly, in
any case."
Turning to look at Kalika, she feels her stomach lurch. "I hate
to fight," Cyan says. "Fear hits me, then everything goes
away. It becomes a dream, a terrible, beautiful dream. Then
I come to myself standing amoung wounded people, if I am lucky.
If not, corpses. I have never harmed an ally, thank the spirits."
Abruptly she turns away, gagging, as her gorge rises. With a
ruthless display of will, Cyan manages to control her stomach and
merely coughs. "Sorry," she gasps, wiping tears of reaction to
the near-vomiting from her glittering sapphire eyes.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali is a good guide and soon the sound of rushing water can be heard.
She lets the issue of cowardice and bravery pass. She didn't need
the other's approval to make herself confident in her skills and
abilities... and she sensed that Cyan didn't either. When Cyan
pales and forces her bile down, Kali remains quiet.
"Killing... even fighting is not an easy thing to do. I appreciate you
sharing this with me. If for some reason you did turn on allies during
a fight, it is good to know that you do not realize what you are doing"
she grins up at the taller woman and is glad when they reach the edge
of the river.
"If you don't mind waiting on me I'll help you back once you've recovered and I'm clean" she offers in a friendly manner.
Kali then retrieves the pack from Hunter and thanks him mentally. His
task completed, the large wolf lopes back to camp eager to reclaim his
napping spot and hoping the men had rekindled the fire.
Kali moves down stream a bit, giving Cyan room and ensuring that her
suds won't pollute the fresh, clean water Cyan will be using.
Showing no humility, Kali strips and enters the water with her soiled
clothing and a bar of soap. She commences scrubbing the garments... and
then herself.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus waves off Jack's apology, "Forget it," he says shaking his head.
Turning back to Ares, he tucks a stray strand of hair behind his ear
and looks thoughtfully at the warrior. "So option #1 is that the
cube had been here before so that whoever you're looking for could use
it to be transported here without some pre-existing gate. Or,
Option #2, supposing that the cube is a key that can activate any
dormant gateway, the same persons used it as a key to transport them
here and then the cube gained the image of this place after they had
spent sufficient time here."
Lazarus rubs his chin thoughtfully, sitting back in the grass, "Sounds
right, I just don't know how we can tell which is actually the
case. The locals hadn't seen any other Nephilim, but I'm not sure that counts as evidence for either of the two options really. What do you think?"
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan shows no hesitation in removing her clothing. Years on the
road has inured her to modesty in front of other women. Moving
downstream of Kalika, she dips each article of clothing in the water,
and hangs it on a bush to dry, that's all. The water simply seems
to slide off of them.
Quietly she soaps herself down, struggling to control her queasy
stomach. The fact that she is in the water 'used' by Kalika
doesn't seem to bother her much - she isn't drinking it, and any foul
substances from the creature will be washed quickly away. It
doesn't take her long - her clothing protected her from the worst of
the ichor.
Climbing out of the water, she touches her shirt and breeches. Almost done drying.
"How long have you been travelling, Kalika? And why are you travelling?"
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd wanders over near to where Jack is sitting, and plops down on the
ground with a loud yawn. Glancing between the stones and Jack, he
waits to see if anything happens.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
It takes Kali awhile to answer Cyan's question as she is engrossed in
the task of scrubbing the black blood out of her clothing. When
she is satisfied that she got as much of it out that she could, Kali
leaves the water and wrings out the sopping wet material and also hangs
it out to dry. She undoes her braid, freeing her waist long hair
and then plunges back into the water, this time to scrub the stains off
of her own hide. When she surfaces, a bright smile on her face,
she answers Cyan.
"I'm not sure how you measure time... it's hard to keep track when you
move from Shadow to Shadow. It's been awhile since I have been 'home'"
she pauses to wash the soap from herself and begins to wash the mass of
her hair "At first I travelled to earn a higher place with my People.
Now, I am not sure if that is possible, so I travel because it is
better than the alternative. What about you Cyan? How did you meet
Berd? Why do you roam the roads?" she asks, as a faint scent
reminiscent of lavender drifts down to the bard's nose.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I met Berd..." Cyan's nose wrinkles as she thinks this question
over. "...when I was very young, I think. He is always been
there, but I have memories of being small, and stretching my hand out
to him. He's been my friend, my teacher, for as long as I can
recall." She grins. "It is a wonder I am not mad."
"As for why I travel...I travel because I can." She waves her arm
about. "How many people can walk the worlds? Very
few. I walk them to see different places, to learn new songs, new
music...to meet new people. It is my life." Cyan shoots
Kalika a wry look. "Rather shallow. I had hopes of finally
finding Amber...now I am not so sure I wish to do so. From what
the others say, my impression of it is considerably different than the
reality."
A sigh, then.
"Kalika, what do you mean by earning a higher place, and what would be
the alternative?" Cyan glances towards her, amythest eyes almost
black in the dim light. "If you do not mind me asking...."
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I do not think that is shallow at all. As you said, you have an
ability that few others poessess, you might as well make the most of it
and enjoy it to the fullest. As for Amber, I have only heard that it is
a place of scheming and backstabbing... but that was from a Chaos Lord,
and I guess their opinion is biased" she says, unsure of why. She
smiles at the memory of Fizbin and the othes, arguing over things she
doubted she would ever fully understand. She then laughs outright "I
remember once he made himself into a chair... and one of our group sat
on him" she laughs heartily "To see the look on both of their faces...
ahh" her laughter subsides into a soft sigh. She missed them keenly
sometimes, and wondered what they were doing... how they fared.
"Sorry" she says gruffly coming back into focus. "It is difficult to
explain.. my People are male driven. To have a female in a
traditionally male role angered and scared many. I was given top honors
so that I could be sent away, but if a travelling bodyguard can
repeatedly prove their skills in other lands and return with this
proof, they are met with a huge feast and their deeds are
celebrated. They become oshin,
teachers... the highest rank other than chieftain. They cannot be
touched, hurt, disrespected. They are revered" her smile is grim "I
planned on forcing them to acknowledge me in that position. To use
their plan to get rid of me against them... to force them to respect me
and make it so that they could not hurt me" she says coldly, then she
warms up "Being consumed by such a.. vindictive? goal eats you away.
Slowly I am learning there are better things. I am not fit to be oshin quite yet... and if I ever am I am no longer sure if I would return or
not" her narrative is ended with a light *splush* as she goes under
water once again- this time to scrub the soap out of her hair.
===========================================================
Re: Death from above by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan shares the laugh at Kalika's mention of her friends and their
antics, though her emerald eyes cloud over at the comments about
Amber. She listens to Kalika speak of her home, and nods,
slowly. While Kalika scrubs her hair, the redhead pulls on her
clothing, already dry.
Clever, she is, comes the thought, to turn tradition into a weapon. But I wonder - how will she find victory, should it come? Another glance at the woman in the water. I think she answered the question herself, Cyan.
With a sigh, Cyan pulls a silver comb, one of her few pieces of luxury
baggage, through her hair until the tangles are gone. When Kalika
resurfaces, she waves the comb in the moonlight. "I hope you get
what you want...even if it is not what you originally expected."
A grin, and a shrug. "Thank you, for the story. Would you
like to use the comb?"
===========================================================
At the Stones by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd watches Jack sitting tailor fashion, soon his
forehead is coated in a thin sheen of sweat. His face alternates
between a mask of deep concentration and a relaxed meditative look,
always his eyes are closed. After about ten minutes Jack body goes
rigid, his eyes fluttering like in REM sleep and his muscles twitching
in light spasms. Yet he does not break contact with the stones.
This soon passes leaving Jack as he was,
alternating between focussed concentration and relaxed meditation,
nothing exists for him but the stones.
===========================================================
Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali surfaces and slogs out of the water, her limbs heavy with
fatigue. She wrings out her mass of hair, the pale light of the
moon illuminating her pale skin... and the scars that mar it. She
kneels down and rummages through her pack, seeking her spare set of
clothing.
"I am not unhappy with my lot in life" she replies with a shrug of her own.
Locating the spare set of clothing, which is darker than the greys and
whites of the drying set, Kali sets it on top of the back pack.
She twists up the heavy, knotted mass of her hair and ties it up with a
leather cord, the dark amulet around her neck swaying with the
motion. She then shakes her limbs to rid them of most of the
water, and dresses in the dry set of clothing. From the pack she
pulls two lengths of cloth, one clean and pristine, the other
stained. She wipes her blade clean with the stained cloth,
removing the stain of the beast's blood and with a whispered charm she
sheathes the blade. The clean cloth is wrapped about her right hand,
binding the shallow wounds her own claws rent in her flesh. Kali then
reshoulders the pack and gathers her wet things.
"I appreciate the offer... I actually have a comb in my pack, but it's
going to take me awhile to get the knots out of my hair. I'd rather
work on it while in the warmth of the fire... if they even restarted
it" she comments with a wry chuckle.
She offers Cyan her arm with a smile and then leads them back to the
campsite, pleased with the opportunity to bond with the other woman.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan smiles, taking Kalika's arm and staring blindly out into the
darkness with opalescent eyes. "Fair enough...I could give you a
hand with your hair. I've enough of it myself to know how much
trouble it can be." She glances down at the other woman as the
walk, more out of habit than any ability to see her. "Your sword
cut into the beast well enough, while Ares' and Lazarus' just bounced
off. Is it Artificed, or simply forged of stronger metals?"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Watch it here... there we go" Kali comments as they pass an area thick with rocks, branches, and other woodland debris.
"Thanks for the offer... I need any help I can get when dealing with
this mass" she smiles in the darkness "As for my sword, it is forged of
starmetal... the strongest and one of the rarest metals known to my
People. Our ulez enchanted it as well, to enhance its natural strength" she says fondly "I take it your blade is spelled as well?"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Starmetal?" That sounds like Galvorn.
"Interesting. I recall a couple of swords, forged of something
like that...my blade is not spelled, not to the best of my
knowledge. Like yours, it is made of a very, very strong
alloy. Ithilinaur, it is called. After it was forged, Berd and I worked with it for a long time, bathing it in the forces of the palanquet. The result is an extremely sharp, virtually unbreakable blade..." Her sapphire eyes cloud at the thought.
A moment later, Cyan perks up in another of her mercurial shifts of
mood. "I have often needed to use such in my travels. It
seemed like a fine idea at the time!" Thinking for a moment, Cyan
shrugs, and continues. "As it carries a palanquet image of my homeland, I find that it resists the enchantments of
wizards, and passes the resistance to me when I am holding it."
Another grin to Kalika. "I hear the others...we shall get to work on your hair in moments!"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I have came across swords with similar properties as well" her eyes
darken "but no metal is indestructible... one I travelled with thought
it was he was heartbroken when the blade was broken" she recalls
quietly.
The two women are free of the woods now and Kali releases Cyan's hand and as they walk into camp.
"Well I see you managed to hold down the camp while we were away" Kali greets Ares, Kendall, Lazarus,and Hunter with a smile.
She sits down and pulls a simple wooden comb from her now unshouldered
pack and unties the leather thong that was keeping the dripping mass
tied up. It falls in a thick, wet tangle of snarls. Kali looks up
at Cyan.
"Are you sure you want to help?" she laughs as she begins to comb out a
section, working methodically to remove all of the snarls and tangles.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Exactly why I use the term 'virtually unbreakable," Cyan says,
laughing, as they leave the forest. She glances around. The
place is still a mess. None of the men have bothered cleaning
anything up after the beast's appearance.
Typical. We hunt. We prepare the food. We cook. And now we clean up, while they do 'important' things.
Eyes flashing with ruby irritation, Cyan shakes the dirt and ashes from
her pack and bedroll, and looks down at the meat, now lying strewn
about the ground. With a sigh, she shakes her head, hoping that
at least Hunter will be able to get something of them, and picks out
some of the pieces of meat that HAVEN'T been spoiled by flying Ichor,
washing them with water from her canteen.
"Better than sweeping their things for them," she mutters to Kalika,
sitting down behind her and putting the bowl of (now) cold meat beside
her. "They would have left everything lying in filth until
morning. I hope that will be enough...the rest, I fear, may well
be spoiled by the beast's blood."
Shrugging off her annoyance, she grins and begins sorting through Kalika's hair with her smooth, silver comb.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
The sounds of the two women laughing seems to rouse Lazarus from whatever line of thought he'd been pursuing in Ares' company.
He blinks a few times and shrugs, "maybe this is best pursued with the
full group present. In the meantime, I'm going to start the camp
fire again, and," he says looking down at the the dirt and sweat
encrusted excuse for a shirt he's still wearing, "then find this river
everyone has been talking about and decontaminate myself."
Rummaging through his pack again, he pulls out a small box of
matches. He quickly gathers some of the grass lying around and
rebuilds the fire. Once the flames look as though they're strong
enough to continue on their own, he strips out of his shirt, snatches
his pack and heads in the direction that the women had just returned
from.
"Be back in a minute," he calls over his shoulder, "and don't start dessert without me."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"And not even a 'thank you'for your troubles" Kali replies good
naturedly "I'll help clean things up more after this is dealt with. If
I let it dry this way it's only worse and I woulnd't worry about the
meat. If anyone complains they can cook it next time"
She watches Lazarus light the fire, interested in the things he used to
start it. She wonders what they are, but the man departs before she can
ask. Instead she addresses Cyan.
"So what is your homeland called? Do you miss it?" she asks while continuing to pull on knots.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"My homeworld...." Cyan continues working at her hair with the
comb, the smooth, slick metal making it relatively (relatively!)
easy. It obvious why she kept this particular piece of luxury.
"Arda." Berd's head perks up from the other side of the camp and
his glittering eyes narrow. "My homeworld is called Arda, but it
has been a long time since I have walked its green hills, and wandered
the tall, snowy mountains and mist-shrouded valleys. I regard it,
occasionally, in Kirilindë, or within the image engraved on my harp,
but...I do not visit." Her face grows slightly confused. "I
have been travelling for a long while," Cyan notes, still combing
Kalika's hair, "and it...seemed counterproductive to return, and
remove...all of my progress."
Berd flaps over and settles on her shoulder, reaching out his needle
sharp teeth and tugging gently on some of the knots in Kalika's
hair. Cyan's topaz eyes clear. "Careful with that," she
says, and the little dragon looks at her reprovingly before going back
to his work.
"I suppose I could fashion an image of where I am, and then return, but
in truth...." She grins, her humour restored, "I am enjoying
myself far too much!"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Arda" Kali rolls the name on her tongue "A nice name. Is there a
reason you do not return? Have you been exiled, like Ares?" she asks
bluntly, losing what little bit of tack she had "Sorry... sometimes I
speak to freely" she apologizes, color rising on her cheeks.
She smiles as Berd chips in the effort to remove the tangles and knots from her hair.
"Don't worry Cyan... I trust him" she smiles "Thank you for your help
Berd... it's sorely needed and appreciated" she address the little
dragon sincerely.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Some time after the fist set of spasms witnessed by Berd, Jack muscles
become bow taut again. His whole body quivers with strain, his face
again contorted in a mask of concentration. His breath short and
shallow, a low rumble rolls deep on his throat his lips moving in an
unspoken whisper. As quickly as it stared his body goes slack again, he
half slumps forward on the stone. Lips still moving, eyelids fluttering
without opening and he now breathes regularly again.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali's attention is pulled to Jack by his sudden, spasmodic movement.
She witnessed the episode with a small frown on her face, but she does
not call out or move to assist him. She continues to work on her
hair, concern showing starkly on his face. She remembered him
telling her he was going to listen to the stones... perhaps he didn't
like what they had to say. She made a note to ask him about it in the
morning.
Ah yes the morning... this thought provokes a huge yawn. Kali then
rolls her shoulders, and moves on to the next section of long thick
hair.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Exiled? I...no, not exiled," Cyan replies as Berd chirps
happily. "Only that there is much more out here, things that are
far more interesting than the land in which I grew up. With
Berd's help I can visit place of which I had only dreams before.
Places like Amber...."
She shrugs. "Do not concern yourself too much with being
politic. I have a habit of speaking bluntly myself." A
careful, slow pull at some of Kalika's hair. "It has gotten me
into some trouble, at times...."
Cyan glances over to Jack after Kalika does so. "What could he be
doing?" she whispers in the Huntress' ear as she continues to work on
the hair.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
After 10 minutes or so, a newly cleaned Lazarus comes stumping back
from the river wearing similar clothes to those he'd been wearing
before, minus the dirt etc. He drops his pack down next to the
fire along with his old clothes wadded up, a set of heavy boots with
steel greaves attached to the fronts, and some heavy steel vambraces
worked to resemble serpents.
Sitting down to put on socks and boots, he notices Jack out of the
corner of his eye. Turning to Cyan and Kali he asks, "Is Jack ok
over there? I've seen people nap in odd positions before, but
this looks more like he's passed out."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I was just asking Kalika the very same question," Cyan notes.
"It is a rather odd position in which to be napping..." Finishing
another length of thick hair, she smiles in satisfaction. "Why do
you not go over and ask him? I am a little...tangled up in my
work."
Her eyes glitter like topaz as she smiles. Berd wraps his tail
around her neck comfortably, and resumes tugging at Kalika's hair,
helping little, but certainly involved.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
All of a sudden I am the authority on Jack Kali thinks wryly to
herself aftter first Cyan, then Lazarus inquire after him. Still, she
is happy that the others have accepted him into their little group as
she had.
"He is listening to the stones" Kali says with a shrug "At least that's
what he told me he was doing..." she shrugs again and moves on to
another section of hair.
With all this extra help their task was almost complete. Feral yellow eyes settle on Lazarus.
"So Laz, where are you from? What were you doing in Bacoo? Good thing
we arrived just in time to rescue you, eh?" she asks, her eyes
glittering with mirth.
At his place by the fire, Hunter sighs loudly.
"Oh quiet you!" Kali says teasingly "You're supposed to be on my side!"
A lupine snort is the only reply.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan tugs out the last of the tangles. "Hmm...that is it!
If you wish, I could help you braid it. But first, I must check
on something."
Berd squeaks in annoyance as she gets up, and glares at her when she
walks towards Jack. Pausing, Cyan chuckles at the interplay
between Kalika and Hunter. "Does it remind you of anyone?" she
asks.
An injured silence is her only reply.
Stopping two paces from Jack, she studies him, quietly. "Jack? Are you well?"
He looks like someone who has passed out.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
From where you are you can see his eyes moving beneath his eye lids and
his lips move as if whispering with no sound, but he does not answer.
He looks as if he is resting against the stone, but not passed out.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Quietly Cyan tiptoes away, Berd letting out a chiming chirp in her ear
when they arrive back at the fire. "Yes, indeed, you were
correct." She looks at the others. "He seems all right, but
in a trance."
Stitting down, Cyan waits to see if Kalika will require assistance with her hair, and to see what Laz will say.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Still gazing at Jack, Lazarus replies with a chuckle, "Well, my guess
is that the rest of the group saved both of our butts, because if it
weren't for them we'd still be arguing there now... As for where
I'm from, let me check on Jack first, then I'll give you the whole soap
opera." He picks up one of his vambraces and tosses it to Kali,
"but this might give you a hint about my home."
The metal armguard is intricately worked to look like a snake.
Most of the metal is shaped to look like scales. The front of the
vambrace looks like the head of a serpent with the opening for one's
hand fashioned like the creature's gaping maw.
With that, he stands up and walks to where Jack is slumped over on the
stone and crouches down beside him, looking intently at the man.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan glances at the wristband. "I think he takes the whole
'mysterious stranger' a trifle too far." She frowns. The
snakes mean nothing to her. Well, they could mean any number of
things, given the amount of worlds through which she has passed.
"Well, there are the snake-worshippers on Eldabarion IV, but the snake
they worship has some disturbingly human characteristics, and
constricts their star, so that would not be it. The Lords of Apep
have the snake as their symbol, but it isn't quite the same as that,
and anyone who dared wear it for protection would be risking his own
life and limb...probably the one it covered." Cyan brings up one
hand and begins ticking off possibilities. Berd covers his head
with his wing.
"The Ram Pythons of Fornax believe that the snake is their tribal
protector, and also have some disturbing habits involving something
called a 'death noogie', but I expect..."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus grunts in satisfaction after a few moments of gazing at the
comotose Jack. "Looks like he's ok. As Cyan said, he's in
some sort of trance, but his mind appears active anyway..." he trails
off and is silent for a heartbeat or two.
"Anyway," he continues suddenly, striding back to the two women and
plunking himself down by the fire once again, "got me figured out
yet? One of my more annoying habits is playing guessing games, if
you hadn't noticed yet."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan is STILL rattling off possibilities. It seems she's become
much more interested in the list, now, than the point behind it.
Berd groans, faintly.
"Oh, my apologies," she says, breaking off in mid comment about
Lambeton. "Guessing games. I dislike guessing games."
She shrugs. "Nobody else seemed terribly interested in being
forthcoming of their own skills, their power. I assume people
will simply tell each other when they are ready."
Her eyes take on an obsidian sheen. "I am very tired of
scampering after people, begging them for tidbits of information, and
playing their games, all in order to...what? Feed their
ego? Satisfy their desire to remain aloof, and high above?
Or is it their sense of caution, the one I have been informed of, that
causes them to play guessing games, instead of being completely silent
on the matter? I would think silence would be more logical."
Berd makes a rumbling purr in his chest, and Cyan relaxes
slightly. "But do go ahead, if you wish to tell us."
Absently she takes out her sword and, by habit, begins to clean it,
despite the fact that it is unstained. Her voice is strained, but
polite. "I would be interested to know of your background."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus listens to Cyan, his head cocked to one side. When she is
finished, he shrugs, "Well, most of the guessing games I like have
nothing to do with people or their egos. I spent a long time in
shadow studying biology, psychology and anthropology. Figuring
out why, say, Cheetah males range in groups as opposed to most large
hunting cats where females stay in groups is a kind of guessing game
and that's the kind of game I like as is figuring out the mystery of
the cube. I didn't mean I enjoy having people guess about
me." He smiles, "In fact, if it were up to me, I'd rather
just have most people leave me alone to my work."
The smile fades away and his face hardens, "Anyway, I'll save you the
trouble of scampering and you can do with the information what you
like. My full name is Lazarus Khozora, second in line to the seat
of house Khozora of the Courts of Chaos, twice over PhD from the
University of Chicago, survivor of the patternfall wars, shapeshifter
and master of the logrus. Now, given what you know of the courts
and their relationship to Amber, maybe you can understand why it is
that I wasn't too terribly eager to reveal my background to you
initially, you being on a mission for the team that crushed my homeland
a while back and all? I'm not eager to engage in the sort of
political games that are an essential part of the courts - not that my
house is all that important - and this is why I left the courts shortly
after the war. But old habits die hard and you are the first
people with connections to Amber - and thus the courts as well - that
I've run into in the sixty years that I've spent in Bakhu." His
blue eyes narrow slightly and the muscles in his jaws clench and
unclench for a moment. "Given all of that, perhaps you can accept my apology for not immediately dumping my lifestory in your lap."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan nods slowly. The names mean nothing to her, there's that word, <i/>Logrus<i>, again, but his reasoning is sound. From what she knows of Amber and Chaos, which is, truth be told, very little.
So she gives a short, brusque nod after his apology.
"Accepted. It sounds as though you find yourself in a difficult
situation. If that is the case, might it not be better to return
to the Courts and see if you can pry into what appear to be paralleling
what is happening to Amber? It might yield more useful results."
Truthfully, with two, interested groups pursuing the problem from both
ends, as it were, it would likely be solved that much more quickly.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ares hears Lazarus' explanation through, then comments, "We've been
told that whoever is behind this situation, may also be attacking the
Courts too. By helping us, you may be helping Chaos as well as
Amber."
"Very well... "
"I am Ares, an exile from Amber. I have walked the Pattern, which
means that I must have the blood of royalty in my veins, but I have no
idea who my father is, or possibly was, and nobody has admitted to
it. At least not in my hearing."
"Apart from that I have this blade, Heartsong,
this armor, and a certain facility for combat, honed by nearly a
hundred years away from Amber in a place called Olympu. There are
creatures there that made our recent guest look like a puppy dog."
"I think, incidentally, that the reason the ladies had more luck with
that thing was their use of stabbing attacks, rather than cutting
blows. The point of a blade could find its way in, between the scales,
while the edge would strike them and be deflected. Just something
to bear in mind, for future reference."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Actually," Cyan says, grinning at Ares, "I have the strength of ten, for my heart is pure."
Berd snorts, and crawls off her.
"Well, perhaps not. But Kirilindë is surprisingly...effective,
for all of its relative lightness." Her hesitation on the word is
fractional. "I...gashed the creature with a cut as well, I think,
slicing through the scales. It is possible that it was more
vulnerable to the energies within the blade." She shrugs.
"So. How did you walk the...Pattern, Ares? I understand it
is a well guarded place of power, full of enchantment and
mystery." Cyan's emerald eyes sparkle as she leans forward.
"I suspect it is quite a story...."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"The cut you inflicted, followed on from a stab wound which gave the
initial penetration, then you dragged your blade along the edge of one
of the belly plates."
"As for how I came to walk the Pattern," Ares grins, a twinkle in his
eye, "I sneaked in, using skills I learned during my misspent youth in
the city of Amber. I picked up a few items, and found myself
pursued by guards. By sheer luck, or maybe something else, I
ended up in the room where the Pattern is located. The Pattern
provided the best means of potential escape. I took it."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus chuckles at Ares' story. "From what I know of Amber, they
may have exiled you more for their wounded ego at having someone sneak
by their defenses and use their pattern than for the trinkets you
picked up."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Thank you for the offer Cyan... I'll take whatever help I can" she
says with a grin. In all actuality, she had never had another
person help her with her hair before. It was a treat to have
Cyan's help and deep inside Kali enjoyed the physical show of affection
and friendship. It was so unlike what she was used to that she wanted
to experience as much as she could so that she would not lose the
memory.
Kali sets her hands and her wooden comb in her lap as Lazarus shares
his story... and she gets the rehash of Ares's. She laughs at
Ares as he explains their accomplishments where he failed.
"Come now Ares, there's no need to undermine our ability. We worked the
creature's natural defense into our attacks and scored hits, you and
Laz on te other hand... well you didn't. You win some, you lose some"
she shrugs "Just because we are women does mean we are thoughtless" she
adds with the slightest hint of a dangerous edge.
Then Lazarus mentions being from the Courts and she lights up like a Christmas tree.
"Lazarus, do you know of a Lord of Chaos named Fizbin?" she asks,
knowing it was a long shot, but worth asking "Is Jack from the Courts
as well?" she tacks on, her mind trying to formulate the connection
between the two men.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus smiles as Kali challenges Ares, "well I have no problems
admitting I couldn't put a dent in that thing. Apparently I
forgot to stop at the magic sword store like you all did before
stepping out on this adventure. In Ares' defense though, I'm
pretty sure I saw him get in one hit. And I doubt Ares would
undermine your competence - afterall, I learned about how nasty your
bite can be in the first few minutes we met," as he says this his smile
broadens to reveal a large set of pearly white fangs.
At Kali's question, Lazarus tucks a stray strand of hair behind his ear
and shakes his head, "Well, in Jack's case, I don't recognize
him. That doesn't mean he's not from the Courts. They're a
pretty big place and my family isn't all that well connected so he
could have been raised there without my ever having seen him. As
for Fizbin, let me think a moment..."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan rubs her temples. She has vague memories of cutting the
thing...along its muzzle? with just the tip of Kirilinde.
Frowning, she shrugs. "Perhaps you are correct, Ares. I am
merely glad the armor you have is proof against such attacks. You
took a wicked blow."
She grins at his explanation of taking the pattern. "Well, that
showed desperation, as well as a certain mad bravery! I have
heard that this...Pattern...slays those not of the Royal blood."
When Kalika accepts her offer, Cyan slips behind the girl.
"So. How do you wish your hair done? One braid?
Plaited?" Her smile slips slightly when Kalika takes offence at
Ares' comments, and she pats the other girl on the shoulder. "I
do not think Ares meant it in that way," Cyan says, glancing at the
armored man. "At least, I hope not. Perhaps he was simply
noting that we had the better strategy in this case...in any case, with
the style of blade I bear, the thrust is used as much as the
slash. With your heavier swords," she continues, motioning at
Ares' blade and Lazarus' scimitar, "it is the cut."
Her eyebrow comes up, topaz eyes turning to Lazarus, eyeing his
teeth. "Well...I do not know of magical blades - mine is not
enchanted. But it is a fine weapon."
By Laurelin the Golden! Does everyone in this group shift shape?
The discussion of the Courts, she listens to intently, but does not add anything.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali looks sheepish after listening to Lazarus and Cyan. She offers an apology to Ares.
"Cyan and Lazarus are right... I jump to offense too quickly. It's a
sore spot for me, I apologize" she dips her head and then shoots
Lazarus an apraising look "Is that all? Why Hunter's are bigger than
those nursing teeth" she teases "My blade... I never thought to name
it, is spelled, but I didn't get it at a store. It was given to me when
I completed my training and was given my assignment" she stars darkly
into the fire and then looks at Hunter suddenly, her eyes unreadable.
She turns to look at Cyan.
"Honestly I've never had any help with my hair before. I only know how
to braid it. Feel free to experiment and do with it what you wish...
style wise" she smiles weakly and then looks for Kendall.
if Kendall is within earshot she says "Kendall? What about you? What is
your story?" she asks, wondering about the place where the inhabitants
are born asexual.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"At a store indeed." Cyan laughs, and then nods to Kalika.
Bending forward, she begins a long, french braid with the majority of
Kalika's hair, leaving some of it free.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"No offence intended or taken ladies, I was merely noting the fact that
the point seemed more effective than the edge in that case." He
shrugs, "As I said, I have some ability with combat, and a tendency to
analyse tactics after a battle to see what I can learn."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
After a few moments of consideration, Lazarus shakes his head again,
"Nope, sorry FizBin doesn't ring a bell, but if he's someone you need
to get in touch with I could try to find out about it him if I'm ever
home again." Toying with one of the vambraces, he shrugs, "I
spent much more time hanging out with creatures from the pits than I
did hobknobbing with humans I guess. If he were a demon," as he
continues, his ears grow big and pointy, "I'd probably know him."
"Speaking of the Courts, your idea is interesting Cyan, I just don't
know how long it would take a group of us to get there, probably quite
some time. And once we arrived, I don't have very many
resources. My family is fairly low on the food chain there so
making any real inquiries of people of power might be difficult.
It probably wouldn't be too hard to confirm that the Courts were
experiencing similar problems as Amber, but it might be hard to find
out much more than that." He chuckles, "Sounds like someone is
trying to get rid of me already. And here I thought you didn't
play games of intrigue."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Games of intrigue? I am not sure I understand," Cyan says,
frowning. "If you are speaking of my strategy of coming at it
from two directions, that is merely common sense. If you are
speaking of the possibility that I have said this merely to get rid of
you, that is not the case. If I wished you gone, I would have
asked you to leave," she says, quiet seriously, her eyes glittering
sapphires. "Rather, I was considering both good strategy and your
own, personal feelings. You might be more comfortable around your
own people, with whom you do not share a bad history of actual
warefare."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus sighs, his fangs and ears shrinking to their normal size, "You
sound like my father. I've never been big on common sense,
another flaw maybe. On the other hand, it seems like the cube is
the key to the puzzle, so I'm not sure what going to the courts would
achieve apart from telling us that they are experiencing similar
difficulties. Seems like checking out the pictures on the cube is
the best way to go in this case."
"Anyway," he continues, "I left the Courts because I'm not comfortable around my "own" people. I think of the Bakhu as my people now."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali nods when Lazarus answers her question.
"I figured it was a long shot, but worth asking. I don't need to find
him/contact him. Just an old friend" she explains, and then falls
silent as Cyan works on her hair and the others converse around her.
After examining the vambrace Laz tossed at her she tosses it back with a smile.
"It means nothing to me... but good quality" she offers.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
About twenty minuets after his last episode Jacks body lurches again in
the same manner only to quite and still again after a few moments.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"That is beginning to concern me," Cyan says. "Berd..." The
dragon's head comes up with a puff of reddish, odd smelling smoke, and
a small, inquisitive 'cheep'. "Jack is not looking well."
Her tone makes it a request.
Sighing, the little dragon rouses himself as Cyan finishes the long
french braid and begins making several smaller, shorter braids with the
hair that remains loose, some on the sides of Kalika's head. She
leaves the front free. All the while her emerald eyes flicker
towards Berd and Jack, worriedly.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd flits over to the stone on which Jack lies, and sits down, cocking
his head at the man inquisitively. He stares down with his
glittering eyes for a long moment.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd leans a little closer. Smoke puffs from his mouth. If Jack had been to Woodstock, he'd recognize the scent.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
At the stones.
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Re: Cut to the river... by Berd
-----------------------------------------------------------
Berd chirps, and flies back to Cyan. Landing on her shoulder, he
quickly hops down into her lap and curls up. Cyan sighs.
"Apparantly Jack is all right."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus plucks the bracer out of the air. "From everything I
could see, Jack's ok. It looks as though he really is talking to
the stones. I could probably break it up if need be, but he could
be finding out something important." He shrugs, "or he could
simply be enjoying the conversation."
"Well," he says, standing up and stretching, "it's been a long day for
me, I think I'll go take a nap, and maybe," he continues, smiling once
again, this time revealing massively oversized buck-teeth, "practish
growing someshing bigger than nurshing teef. Wake me up if Jack
shtartsh to get worsh, or if the dragon creashure comesh back."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
After a while longer you hear a deep intake of breath from Jack as he
pulls back from the stone. He sits staring at them for a moment.
Getting up he pulls a water skin out of his pack, pouring water over
his hands cleaning and scrubbing them before picking up his gear and
walking back into camp. He glances at the people around camp,
nods giving a faint smile as he pulls out his sleeping bag,
wrapping it around himself he sits down by the fire a distant look in
his eyes.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Interesting bedroll... Cyan studies it for a moment, then decides to give Jack some time to collect himself.
"So, did you determine anything about the stones?"
Five seconds sounds like about enough.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack looks over at Cyan and Kali the far off look slowly dissolves and
he give a weak smile “I have determined that I need another Aspreen.”
He says playfully mimicking Kali’s pronunciation. His blue eyes meet
Cyan’s “It’s not like your palanquet energy. This is something
different, somehow alive feeling, organic, natural, and ancient beyond
belief. It's dormant at the moment, like something that's asleep
but could wake at any moment. It pulses slowly and very faintly, like
slow breathing, with a twenty minute gap between pulses. It gave me a
headache to concentrate on it. It’s like it’s alive yet not sentient.
Is there any of the brandy left that’s still good?”
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
"We never did finish it," Cyan says, picking it up and dusting it
off. "Luckily, our friend failed to stomp on it as well."
She hands it over, a pensive expression in her topaz eyes.
"That...is something of which *I*'ve never heard. Have you?" she
inquires, looking back.
"Has anyone?"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Anything like what?” he asks before he opens the bottle, wipes off the
top and presses it to his lips. “Oh,” he says when he brings the bottle
down “How am I supposed to know if I ever heard of any thing like
that?” He crinkles his facet her.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan shoots him a look, obviously not the least bit embarassed.
"Not you. I assume you would tell us if you remembered
anything." She taps her fingertip on her lip, considering.
"Of course, if it DID jog something, that could give us some
answers...perhaps this is your scheme, entirely, and something blew up
in your face, and took away your memory?"
Emerald eyes stare at Jack for a long moment, then Cyan breaks into a
grin. "Or not. Does anyone ELSE recall something?"
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Not off-hand," replies Lazarus, a thoughtful look on his face, "but
maybe something will come to me in the morning." Gathering his
gear he finds an open spot on the other side of the fire and lays down,
pillowing his head on his pack and closing his eys.
"Oh and glad to see you back amongst the living again Jack."
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Ares
-----------------------------------------------------------
"I've heard that the Logrus is like a living power, but if this is
related to the Logrus I'd have thought Lazarus would have recognised
it. I know I don't recognise it, and I haven't heard of anything
like it." Ares shrugs and looks at Kendall.
===========================================================
Re: Cut to the river... by Lazarus
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lazarus opens one eye as Ares speculates about the Logrus. "Not
the logrus for sure, and looking at the cube with the logrus isn't a
particularly pleasant experience."
===========================================================
Lalai? by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jack smiles “Yea good to be back Laz, Next time someone else can try to
fit their mind in a rock. Heard of having rocks in your head but this
is ridiculous.” His smirk returns. “I guess just had to prove myself
good for something after being useless in that fight. But I do have one
question.” Jack looks over at Kali with one upraised eyebrow and a
questioning look “What the heck is Lalai? Oh and I almost forgot, the
power was there long before the stones. The stones are sagging under
the weight of the power.”
===========================================================
Re: Lalai? by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali smiles a greeting at Jack, and listens the others, keeping her own
counsel. She shrugs when asked about hearing anything about energy
patterns and the like. She didn't do well with the mystical
energies. She fought in the physical world. The others ones
often elluded her grasp. Her yellow eyes fall the fire, the
flames flickering in their depth as the conversation floats around and
Laz retires for the night. A Lord of Chaos... just like FizBin...
She snaps out of her thoughts when she hears the word lalai spoken. Kali's eyes snap up and met Jack's. Hers are
unfocused, wild for a moment before she gathers her thoughts. She then
smiles easily and chuckles dryly.
"Lalai is companion... ally" she explains with a playful smile "Nothing too damning I hope" she jokes with a yawn.
===========================================================
Re: Lalai? by Jack
-----------------------------------------------------------
“No, Not at all Kali” Jack give a quick smile as moves him self and the
sleeping bag away from the fire a little ways. “I’m Alright here and
it’s going to take me a while to wind down. I’ll take first watch in
case that beast decides to come back. Why don’t you guys catch some
rest?”
===========================================================
Re: Lalai? by Kalika Wolfblade
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kali nods, her silvery hair gleaming in the firelight depsite being braided into a multitude of plaits by Cyan.
She rises and stretches, another yawn tearing free from her throat. She turns and smiles at Cyan.
"thank you for your help Cyan. It will be forgotten... or go unpaid"
she then looks at Jack and can't help but to giggle at the sight of him
wrapped up in that odd bedding, ready to take on first watch "Yes you
look very prepared to fend off any monster who may venture near..." she
pauses a moment, and a saying from Johnee, an old friend comes to mind.
She smiles "go get'em tiger. I'll take second watch so feel free to
wake me when your ready for bed" she laughs again at herself and
retrieves her pack from the ground.
From the pack, Kali removes a simply woven blanket. She lies down
a few yards from the fire and, like Laz, uses her pack as a
pillow. She spreads the blanket over the darkly colored clothing
and stares sleepily into the fire, her mind wandering once again.
===========================================================
Re: Lalai? by Cyan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cyan waves off Kalika's offer of 'repayment'. "It was my
pleasure, of course, Kalika. If you ever need assistance, taming
your hair, please, let me know. I would be glad to help."
Pulling up her own back, she unrolls the bedroll and slips into it,
pulling her pack behind her for a backrest. The esoteric
discussion is beginning to bore her, and she pulls out her book,
beginning to make sketches of the various people - Ares, Duncan (from
memory), Kalika, Hunter, Kendall, Jack, Lazarus. "I will stay up
for a bit, Jack, and take second watch. I hope you do not mind if
I remain silent...this is something I feel may come in useful in the
future." With a quick smile at him, Cyan continues to sketch,
long into the night, ruby eyes focused on her work.
Berd lies down on the bedroll, as close to the fire as he can be.
Soon, he is asleep...possibly...with curls of purple smoke rising from
his nostrils.
===========================================================
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