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Kalanna Rai
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 Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 12:21 am Post subject: Eternal Wars- #10: Story Discontinued. |
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I've decided to put my novel on hold, turning it into book two in the series, it makes more sense that way, and letting all of you take a crack at helping me put together the basis of the first book. This is my full writing style so you'll have to bear through the intense discriptions and long winded explanations in certain places. Without further ado read on...
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The Eternal Wars Book One: Dagger, Spear, and Sword.
Chapter One: A Line in the Rock
The Void was a vast and empty place in which hung the Realms, like fragile bubbles suspeded in chill morning air. They swirled and circled and danced on their slender teathers, orbiting a patch of everything in the middle of this nothing. A place rich with beauty found nowhere else for this was her private domaine...her paradise.
Here lush forests of hard and soft woods grew peacefully inbetween the searing heat and blistering storms of the sandy, rocky deserts, and the chill, flat expanse of the arctic tundra. Thick rainforest jungles and the depths of the ocean vied for the attention of a million types of mountains, both craggy and rounded. It was a place of diversity, anything found anywhere could be found here and many things existed nowhere else but in the queer blending zones between sections.
It was a place in which any but it's creator, it's gentle guardian, quickly became lost...sometimes for ages too long. They would find themselves amused by the scamperings of Oslets in the small, bubbling waterfalls that traveled down from one smooth rock ledge to the next.
Enchanted eternally by the play of the lighted water against the jeweled tones of the small creatures' thick, silken pelts. Amused by their tiny, blunt, muzzles, their overly large leaf-shaped ears, their massive eyes that swirled in colors beyond discription, and their long, swishing tails with their fat brush-like bobs on the end. Yes one could watch them while mountains turned into pebbles and be none the wiser.
Rains came and went, even in the deserts and upon the oceans, and breezes travled where they will while strong winds would occasionally shake the great trees that provided life for all things, preditor and prey alike, who lived within this place. Their fruits fell freely to the soft, spongy turf that sent moss creeping up their ancient trunks and hanging, beard-like, from their massive, knarled branches.
Fruits as veried as any other diet, replacing the needs of hunting and killing as completely as the seed replaces the tree that falls. From some trees, like the majestic Fyrnnihuft, came the sweetest fruits, some round others a bent, squashy shape, some soft, others hard as nuts. From twisted bushes, the Qupitna cheif amoung them, came fruits that were, for all purposes, meat. Meat to be cooked and eaten as was wished, or drug away and chewed upon raw as the devourer preffered.
Flowers left their heavy scents, like a heady vintage, upon the ever shifting air, mixing in ways they would have no other place. Some had healing abilities, even though injuries were often seen to by the guardian hereself, while others calmed hurts of the soul by their very sight. It was truely a place of enchantment and wonder, a place of supreme peace and tranquility...and it was all thanks to her.
All one needed to do was look upward to see that there was no sun and no moon or stars. All the light that came when this sanctuary slept came from the pool that lay at it's heart, a pool made not of water but of Thread. Threads, power.
Every imaginable hue of color, and some that defy imagination, that any artist could ever wish for was here. Every texture that a spinner, a weaver, a crafter of fine cloth or clothing, could have ever set their clever fingers at achiving...it was here. And the sound, each Thread had to it a Tone, more tones than any musician could have ever dreamed of, and never a disharmony amoung them.
These Threads wound their way outward, nourishing the magical place and all, save the guardian, the creator, within it. They glowed and pulsed by night, lighting the whole of the creation with a soft, misty, eldrich light that seemed like nothing if not an invitation to lay down where you stood and sleep, untroubled, until the daylight returned.
Daylight. That all pervasive golden glow that set everything to life again. If the Threads nourished the paradise then it was the source of the glow that nourished the threads...it was her. You could crane your neck upwards in vain for eternity, for time passed not in this place, and never see the source of the light. For that you'd have to have her permission to approach, or she'd find you.
Now, as the golden light swept over every inch of the paradise, a soft humming augmented the rich symphony of the Threads. There, sitting on a smooth rock next to the pool, was the creature responsible for all of this richness, this splendor, this perfection. And she was troubled.
Her long scarlet hair, the hue of the blood-fire in a ruby's heart, with it's cinnimon lowlights and bright copper highlights, fell in flame-like waves to veil her massive eyes. Her eyes, in four shades of emerald they were. The darkest only a shade off black, the lightest a brilliant gem like the first leaves of spring. They raidiated spokes of blending color, always shifting yet ever staying the same, the most dominant feature of her slender, wedge shaped head and tapering face.
Her muzzle, with it's equine similarities, was slender and delicate seeming, her chin a bit pointed, giving her profile a beak-like apperance. Her skin, soft as silk, smooth as glass, supple as leather, harder than steel. It's shimmering surface was as jeweled and golden as sun light amber and as brilliantly raidiant and metallic as gold on a summers noon. Underneith it every muscle was like a steel cord, bunching and sharply defined in fitness, as they connected over bones harder than diamond and as pourus as our own.
Yet these bones held a secret more than marrow. In each of those little pours a solution would ebb and flow, causing her to become heavier or lighter as she wished, allowing the massive wings upon her back to function despite her size and lack of a keel bone. Instead she had a massive breast bone, big enough to sheild a man in battle, and muscles than ran over her shoulders, down her arms, along her sides, into her belly, down her back, and over her haunches, connecting, finally, with her tail.
Her tail was yet another marvel the skin upon it bearing a pattern like feathers while being long, supple, and whip-like. Then, with a sudden snap and an electric pulse in just the right muscle groups, the tail rearranged into a beautiful fan of feathers. Just like her massive wings, who's feathers could be a hard, interlocking shield, or a soft, downy brush to lift her into the air, massive wings that mantled far above her body and attached with a rotaing ball and socket joing to her back midway between her shoulders and her spine.
On her shoulders long spines of hardened, ivory bone jutted outward at an angle where they wouldn't interfer with her wing action while flying. Her shoulders were massive and lead to powerful upper arms that tapered into shapely forarms, not unlike those of a human, and into clever hands with three long fingers and an opposable thumb. The fingers were tipped in tiny, ebony-black claws that could suddenly extend to the length of her fingers as the skin pulled back and away turning into wicked crescent razors.
Her legs were long and four jointed, once at hip, once at the ever bent knee, once at the ever bent hock, and once at the ankle. They could fold tightly under her body, for pounces and leaps of unparalled power, or nearly straighten for an unimaginable running speed. Massive tendons ran from her ankles to her hocks, and her haunches were massive with rounded muscles. And even more surprising were her lack of true feet. From her ankle there jutted a small back claw, that could extened into a gripping back toe, and three long, strong toes that ran down from there, ending in long recractable claws.
The skin of the soles of her feet, same as on the palms of her hands, was like sandpaper, it gripped on the slickest surfaces with narey a sound save a soft whisper. She could not loose her footing even on the sheerest of mountains, the smoothest of rocks, or the slickest of ice. Her chest, concealing massive lungs, was shapley and curved, giving a feminen impression while remaining as strong and fortified as the rest of her body. Especially the crest on her head.
Five long, razor sharp blades ran from just between her eyes on her raised, gently sloaping forehead, to the curve where her skull attached to her graceful, curving neck. The first was long, a good couple of feet, the second as long as her head, while the fifth, and smallest, was only six inches long. Fangs of ivory poked out from under her upper lip, three deadly pairs gleaming and sharp.
She was, as she herself put it, a being of peace built for war. Yet now, as she flicked her two massive, delicate ears, which were only slightly larger than her eyes and given to a teardrop shape, or that of a man's palm, back in worry. There was a problem, a disharmony in the Threads for the first time ever.
Her light flickered in anxiety, reflecting in the depths of the dark gem, that seemed to be every color and no color at once, at her throat. It was her only orniment, her cloths being only a plain top of light, soft black leather, and a loincloth-like skirt of the same. At her side, a massive warsword sat, blade sunk to the hilt in the rock.
Now, as she peered into the depths seeking the source of the conflict, she spoke in clear, bell-like tones to the sword. "Well Rath it's as I feared. The Twins are arguing again. I fear that soon things will come to blows between them and then..." She sighed.
Next to her in the earth the massive senient sword crackeled with violet energy. From its gold chased silver quillions and guards, to the pair of massive amythests, one as the pommel jewel the other set into the sword just above the point where it sank into the rock, about a third down the full length of the blade. It sparked out to her, reassuring that should war indeed be the answer that she would not need to go alone. That she would always have the unnaturally sharp, razor edge of it's blade by her side.
With a distracted smile Kalanna Rayker, the Rai Incarnation, or as she preferred, the simple Incarnation of Time, patted the massive pommel jewel. "They're coming." She stood to her full height, twenty-one feet not including blades, and drew Rath from the rock, slinging it easily into a scabbard that wove itself into existance along her spine. The blade purred like a cat, reassuring her once again that she was right. "I know, I just wish this wasn't so hard."
Slowly, still shaking off the effects of their travel through her paradise, the other two eternal incarnates came into view. The first, the twin who had chosen to look like the male equivilant of Kalanna, was covered from head to toe in a shimmering fall of light, obscuring his features from view. A massive golden spear, chased and tassled in pure light, was gripped tightly in his left hand. Kalanna inclined her head to him. Rocorr, Incarnation of Light, Paitence, and Good.
Right on his heels his twin brother, though he barely looked anythign alike having chosen a far different form, came cloaked in deepest night, leaving nothing to be seen but darkness. A massive bronze dagger hung from a skin belt scabbard at his waist and he moved like one ready to commit great harm. Kalanna inclined her head to him also. Yassil, Incarnation of Jealousy, Madness, and Evil.
"You know why we have come." It was not a question but a statement, a bold fact. Yassil's voice was a sibilant whisper that rubbed Kalanna wrongly.
"Yes. I know the question you've both come to ask. And here is my answer." She slowly held out one hand. "Once, long ago, you both came to me and asked me to make you what I am, Incarnates, instead of being content with being Gods. And I allowed you to dip your hands into the Thread and come away with whatever would have you. I gave freely of myself that you might be my equals."
Rocorr coughed slightly. "Kalanna I understand that this is hard..." She turned toward him and with a very final gesture she turn her palm face downward.
"It's not difficult for me, my answer. I say no. No to both of you. I see neither as being any fitter, any better, than the other. The purpose, all those years ago, of making you into Incarnations was to make you equal. Now you have found something else to war over...me. I will not be party to your squabbles as I favor neither of you above the other. You either must accept that or you must dwell upon it as you choose but darken not the doorway of my home again with such nonsense."
For a moment she had hopes that her speech would work...but only for a moment. Then the scales tipped and the future she'd tried so desperately to avoid swung into full view, shoving the other future to that place of 'might have been'. The brother's turned on each other and said in one voice. "It's your fault. What did you do to her?"
The spear swung to the ready, the dagger came free of the belt, and Kalanna was left with little choice. Drawing Rath she swung the mighty blade in between them. "Then is it to be war!" Two hooded head's grimly nodded assent. "With tears standing in her eyes Kalanna completed the vicious swing, sending the brothers far from her home, to opposite sides of her pet realm...Iylsidor.
"Come Rath. We must do what we can to repair this folly." Yet what could be done? Surely she must warn her people, the espiri of the impending war. Yet her apperance amoung them might spark a great panic. She wondered, should she travel as herself or as a simple warrior who had dreamed, perhaps, that some great calamity was upon them? Her vision, troubled by the involvment of the brothers, was of no use to her now. She would have to rely on her own judgement.
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Well? What should she do?
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
Last edited by Kalanna Rai on Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:24 am; edited 17 times in total
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Chinaren
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:01 am Post subject: |
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Interesting Start oh Raily one. I enjoyed it except for the many typos! Do you write in Word? It would fix at least some of them for you, or highlight them anyway.
Mmm, I think she should travel as herself where she can, but slip into a little disguise when needed.
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:57 am Post subject: |
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Hmm. An interesting read. I agree with china. Few typos that can be easily caught by a word processor spell check. If I have any other suggestions, I will post again.
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Chinaren
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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| lordofthenight wrote: | | Another story then Rai - tut tut, discrasful |
Yes, she is catching me up! 
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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F5 china. There doesn't need to be some reason to be the worrywart of the story yet about some calamity. Stay simple, and don a disguise when needed.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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Actually guys...everything I post on this site is straight written right then, right there....All I do inbetween posts is kick around ideas, conversations, bits and pieces of the whole but nothing close to what eventually gets typed.
Sorry for all the typos but I don't actually have any programs like Word on my PC. Notepad I have but nothing else.
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Chinaren
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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You could download Star Office, which is Sun's free office suite. It is supposed to be pretty good, and it is free!
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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Takes all the fun out of it...
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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Poll's up, votes needed.
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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Voted, and better be winning. 
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| Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:10 am Post subject: |
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So, Rai. You going to write the next chapter? Three votes toward the last option.
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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Be prepared for a long chapter...I'm actually thinking these things out before hand...Oh and by the way...I'm referring to her as Rayker just to keep confusion to a min...
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Chapter Two: The Warmonger Cometh
Rayker sighed, a sound mournful and lost, and stared at the paradise around her. Slowly she sang, a lullabye long remembered by her people, a song of hope and sadness and joy for tommorrow. Sang in the Tones of Threads it was universally understandable, universally appealing.
It wound through every leaf and bow, dropping like a gentle rain to caress the ears of the creatures that frolicked in her home. It diffused through the ocean, like a drop of golden water in an emerald sea, winding it's way into every scale, fin, and wafting reed. Where it touched, sleep came, a dormancy unbreakable, the endless sleep that would last until Rayker woke them...or until Time ended.
Slowly, as her light dimmed like a setting sun, she finished her song on a clear strong note. As it faded, reverberating in echo's until even it stilled in the heavy air, a tear gently threaded it's way down Rayker's amber muzzle to splash, with a gentle note, into the pool of Thread. "Light them well in slumber my friends. I known not when I shall return unto you but I know it shall not be soon."
The Thread's twisted, their odd, faint light the only illumination in the paradise, and from them lifted a light traveling cloak. With a wavering smile Rayker plucked the gift from their grasp. The Thread might be a part of her, spun from the essence of her own self, yet at times it seemed to be something alien and foreing unto her.
She fastened the cloak on over her sparse clothing, having never been one much for ostentatious displays of fabric, and fastened it with the slender toggle made, it seemed, from carved bone of a creamy hue. Hefting Rath's massive, yet insignificant, weight she commanded the blade into it's usual resting place. Within that same heartbeat, a pair of amythests set in silver seemed to grow from the skin on the backs of her hands.
With a last look around, like any good home owner who knew they'd be gone a long time, Rayker took one last look around her paradise. A sense of foreboding swept over her and her eyes grew sharp and hazy as she probed the future with her vision. It was twisted, warped, and cracked like a mirror that had been in a great heat. A plethora of futures sprang about before her eyes, like the flickering of a candle flame.
She hated this, the brother's involvment. It made it impossible to keep the future in a nice, straight chain of events. She'd given them the gift of existence outside of Time. That meant that when they were directly involved in momentous occurrences, like this war for dominence, she couldn't see one nice tidy future because it was ever shifting with possibilities. It made her head ache trying to keep all the senarios straight.
But it wasn't the many senarios that made her grow cold in anger and apprehension. It was the fact that she never returned to her paradise directly in any of the futures. "So I'm going to..." She couldn't die...knew that with a certanty that not even Yassil and Rocorr could claim. She was too strong, too powerful. If anyone tried to destroy her, the only possible way it could be done, they were in for one nasty surprise.
The amythests glowed with warm, violet fire and gave small purring noises as reassurance. Rayker stroked them absently, rubbing her hands together. "Yes I know. We must be going but..." But lingering here wasn't going to change the futures for the better. The brother's knew she wasn't going to sit idle while they tore the Realms out from under her feet.
Drawing her cloak tight about her she opened the door to the realm she called her 'pet'...Iylsidor. She dropped through the fabric of space and Time, a strange sensation for her since she was the physical incarnation of Time, landing in the middle of a sun-soaked plain.
All around her grasses waved in imitation of the sea. Emerald and amber stalks surrounded by hints of lime, yellow-green, goldenrod, and dusky saffron. They rippled, flashing, in the warm breeze that smelled of the east from whence it came, the sharp, cold odors of mountain ridges and alpine medows, of frost, snow, and lost loved ones caught in the high passes. Her cloak flapped around her and she squinted upwards at the azure sky.
White clouds, tinted light green by the small 'sister' suns that cirled their 'mother'. Their was a tale behind them, just as there was a tale behind every hillock and hollow in the region. It was in the nature of the espiri to tell beautiful tales...just as it was to create beautiful art and use a beautiful language. Her people, the one race she'd created in her own image, although that hadn't been her idea at the time, were a people of beauty and peace.
And trained for war. The grim thought flitted across her mind before she could stop it. But it was true. When she'd first wove them from Thread spun specially for the occasion, she may have left out a few of her more 'martial' features but she'd given them a hefty dose of military sense. They had the head for stratagy, tactics, and in battle their normally hot passion burned a fridgid cold that kept them well grounded.
Her people could take care of themselves better than any other race out there. A single espiri, armed correctly, could easily kill a dragon, although no dragons existed in Iylsidor and thus that particular race war was spared. She prided herself on their toughness which co-existed symbiotically with their beauty and seeming fragility. They were each a well made blade, beautiful and deadly, gleaming with precious jewels or simply well made. Balanced and clean-lined...and they were hers.
Her lip curled as she thought of the Brothers. She didn't know who she despised more, Yassil or Rocorr. Sure one might have all the bad traits while the other had all the good, but one had imagination, creativity, while the other could only make half-hearted attempts at improving what someone else had already made.
Take Yassil. He hadn't wanted to look the same as his brother and Rayker so he had fashioned himself into a new creature, had made a race in his image...the ydross. Most, including her own race, thought them ugly, misshapen espiri made because their creator was unwilling to create anything new. Yet the two races, for all their similarities, could not be more different.
One was highly adaptable, readily accepting new ideas and creating new, beautiful, useful things. The other was hidebound by tradition and religious zealotry, a race of warriors constantly honeing their battle-craft. One had feathers with which they expressed many things in little flicks or fidgits. The other had long bony spines and strips of flesh, connected by leather that was full of beautiful and brilliant colors. One had been created by War, the other by Madness.
Yet Rocorr had chosen to look like Rayker herself, changing only a few things here and there. His muzzle was a little more blunted, his frame a little more stocky, his feathers a little more rounded giving his wings a blunt look. His blades, instead of facing edge out in line, were more like shields with a long surface face and sharp outer edges. Most assumed this was because he was male yet none of the espiri looked as he did.
Rath gave a small chirrup, gaining her attention again. "Yes I'm traveling as myself." It chirruped again. "No, I do have a backup plan. If the situation seems to call for it Kalanna Rayker will vanish to be replaced by Kala Rykeira, a warrior from the Frontier." The sword settled again, the gems glowing only with sunslight.
She pulled the hood up over her face and turned her nose to the wind, smelling more than what it would have told any normal traveler. Trouble was brewing on the real Frontier, the espiric armies were already beginning to mass. Seers are certainly earning their keep this time. Her humor faded as she realized that she herself was little more than a Seer.
She might be able to predict certain events without any margin for error but with this much strain on the Fabric of Time...who knew. Already the strain was beginning to build in her muscles, a dull ache that wouldn't go away until this whole, bloody, conflict was resolved. Her wings twitched in irritation. "I'm going to need a long, hot, soak after this one..."
Slowly she scanned the horizion...she was alone without another living creature for a great many miles. The grasses waved invitingly around her hips, nearly begging her to walk not fly. Overhead the sunslight was warm, gentle, and inviting..."To archers as well..." She set off with brisk strides...her long legs swishing through the grasses, her toes picking out sure footing each time, tail like a rudder, swirling the grasses behind her and sweeping any trace of her tracks into oblivion...
She nearly bounded in joy, to be free and ufettered, running alone in the warm sunlight with the breeze turning her scarlet mane into a blood banner, a rebel yell for autumn in this summer landscape. She laughed and the grasses around her burst into flower, praire flowers blossoming from their secret beds amoung the grasses.
The petals came free as she swiftly passed them and soon she had a fragrant wind of lavander, pink, sky blue, creamy white, sherbet orange, and butter yellow trailing in her wake, like an extention on her cloak. Her gaze fixed itself on the horizion, seeing yet unseeing as her destination drew ever closer.
Mychranrai, the Seat of Kings...Yet, even as she skimmed along light-footed, the trouble brewing on the Frontier reached out to wrap icy tendrils of war around her heart. She stopped dead in her tracks, the wind of flowers behind her catching up, swirling for a moment, then falling like a sunset snow around her. Storm clouds gathered over her head, brought perhaps by her swift flight, or perhaps by her dismal thoughts.
She was torn, with two choices of equal merit, two situations demanding her attention. "Noco destrius mocoli nurputim amolae." Which roughly translated means 'Without honor, hope, or home go I....But where was she going to go...
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What will you do?
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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It wasn't that long, Rai.  Hmm. I can't really decide on where to go. Actually, I don't see the two choices we do have. One is the Seat of Kings, but what is the other?
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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You can go to Mychranrai or the Frontier or in the direction of the greatest trouble...or anywhere else you tell me to go save Hell...
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Chinaren
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:12 am Post subject: |
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Vote now please.
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Need to add some spice to the story. Voted.
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Chinaren
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:34 am Post subject: |
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Looks like all three of us want some trouble.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Right...trouble...
------------------
Chapter Three: A Simple Warrior
Limirrius was surrounded by them, what seemed like a thousand ydross slavers to his befuddled brain. That powder...what was in that powder... His reflexes were slowing...slowing...dragging toward the point of non-existence...And suddenly she was there.
Over the knoll of waving grass that blocked the slavers' caravan from sight came a whirling storm of flower petals. They danced and fell and rose again as a figure lept over the knoll and came down on the slavers like a bolt from the skies above. Three went down under her feet, one never to rise as the force of her landing crushed his skull like an egg, spilling his mind over the loam benieth them.
The other two, spattered with bit's of thought, tried to stand but were forced back into the dirt by the sheer strength contained in the newcomer's arms. They flailed a bit before going still as the soft dirt invaded their lungs, driving the air before it. The other slavers, some still fighting with Limirrius, some simply stunned by the sudden appearence of this specter of death, now turned en-mass toward the cloaked warrior.
She moved with leathal grace and deadly efficiancy, not one movement spared the task of unleashing pain on her opponants. Each strike timed just so, each blow delivered in just a certain way, the fight was over before it had begun. Blood filled the small hallow they stood in, the soft ground unable to absorb so much blood at once. As the last slaver fell, Limirrius stood and raised his sword in a warriors salute...before toppling from the poison's that crept, like theives and phantoms through his veins.
For a moment all was still as flower petals rained out of a clear sky to cover the slowly drainin crimson lake, that was congealing around the feet of the cloaked warrior, soaking into her traveling cloak's hem. Tenderly she knelt down to where Limirrius lay atop the bodies of the slain, bloody and delirious, slowly inching toward death from which only an antidote could save him. The ear's on the warrior twitched as she brough one slim hand down upon his brow.
A warm golden glow, remniscent of sunlight on a summer day, honey sticky on one's fingers, a lump of amber rolled, sparkling in the firelight, of home and hearth and kindred arms spread over his body. Slowly the poison was chased from his system, fleeing before the light of it's distruction, like the mist of early morning rising from the dew-damp grass.
When she could find neither wounds nor poison, she lefted Limirrius, though he easily weighed as much as she and could not lesson the load for her, and carried him in her arms away from this place of reeking death and distruction. The flower petals remained...covering the bodies of the fallen like a silent blanket, forgiving them their evils and sending them on their final rest.
---------------------------
Limirrius woke to the sound and warmpth of a fire at his back and the smells of a cook working their special brand of magic. He opened his eyes to see only the nightscape of a clear night on the Secranilia plains. Stars, like small winks of waterdrop light on a stretched canvas of ocean depths, danced in their storied patterns, tales they told changing with every season and every telling. Their little lanterns of light delighting children and saving ships around the whole of the nighttime world.
The grasses played the soft tunes of the night as a quiet breeze strolled, like young lovers, through every stalk and stem, telling all that no danger threatened itself in unharmonious rustlings. This was one of those nights..."You can almost hear the Threads of the World on a night like this."
"If you listen hard enough." He had almost forgotten his companion until she spoke. Her voice conjured many things to mind, resonated on so many levels of being that he was sure the stars themselves heard her. Limirrius had once been told that the King could talk a bird out of the trees and his own impressions of the man did nothing to dissuade this image. Yet the female behind him was as far above the king as the king was above Limirrius.
Slowly, his muscles tired but not sore, he turned and sat across the fire from his savior. Firelight is a strange thing. It can make people look beautiful beyond belief by hiding those slight imperfections. It can lend mysterious beauty with it's golden-orange light ever dancing across skin and skein. Or it can terrify and demonize as the shadows elongate and the eyes sparkle darkly in a face set to frighten, pulling it into a grotesque grimace.
Yet it did none of these for the warrior. It poured across her, as steady as sunlight as drenching as water, reflecting off her skin until she had a cirrus of firelight about her that clung and twisted and magnifed her perfect beauty. Limirrius had always considered his Elmilissa the most beautiful creature ever...now he had to rethink that statement.
"What did you say?" Her eyes were wide and warmly lit with a gentle inner flame, her soft ears twitched outward a bit in the manner of relaxation. A gentle smile curved half her mouth.
"I said you can hear the Threads of the World tonight." A spark of sadness flared deep withing the noble countenance, a flaw in a moment of perfect stillness. "But all you will hear from them is the music of the end." Limirrius flicked his ears a bit the message clear, i do not understand. The warrior stirred the flames under the battered kettle with her talons, her eyes scrying the flame depths for some secret unpossessable.
"A great battle is soon to unfold over this land, spreading over from the homes of our kindred and beloved friends and into the worlds as yet unknown. Even now the Eternal One's rush to take their positions, gather their armies, and draw their battle lines." Limirrius's body language again said much, in the flicking of ears, the twitching of tail and feathers, while he said nothing.
The warrior was still with only the set of her shoulders, wings, and ears, that dead spark deep in her eyes that was nearly lost amoung their natural glow, to tell him that this news was for her, a heavy burden to bear. She looked from the fire to him, staring into his eyes as if to scry an answer within him. She did not find whatever she was looking for. "I know you wonder how this is and how it came to pass. You are certain in your knowledge that She shall intervene before any great damage is done. Now I must cast even that certainty to doubt."
She turned her attention momentarily to the kettle over the fire. She extended her talons to gently life the scalding hot lid off the now red bellied kettle. She lifted her other hand, a long, polished, much used, much loved wooden spoon held as deftly in it as one might hold an artists brush or a quilled pen. She dipped it into the thick, rich liquid within the pot, each circular stirr sending clouds of fragrant steam to torment his battered senses.
His mouth watered like a starving man's might as the warrior concentrated on the contents of the pot. "What is happening in Iylsidor now is much like what is happening in this soup pot. The right ingredients have been added to the right kettle at the right time, the right fire at the right temperature lit underneith it, now all that remains is to see what hand holds the spoon. Under the control of one the stew might be underdone, another boil it into a tough paste." She took the spoon out and let a small dollop of liquid drizzle onto her talon.
She tasted it, savoring it as only one who truly knows food can, before closing her eyes and smiling. She set the lid at an angle on the kettle, allowing the steam to escape and picked up two wooden bowls from where they sat on a blanket in the grass. Slowly she ladled two large portions into the bowls and pulled, from amoung the cinders, two ash cakes of light and fluffy texture.
She handed him one bowl, one cake, and a spoon and watched his first few bites. "This is very good...very good." She nodded and took a bite herself before returning her intense gaze and serious manner upon him once again.
"And in the hands of one who knows the true nature of that which is in the pot...you will get something better than all of that which went in." For a few moments they ate in a silk delicate, velvet soft silence, stopping only to refill their bowls. Finally, appitite sated and sleep closing in upon him, Limirrius looked again at the warrior who had saved his life.
"I think I understand...I will help you." She smiled and clasped his hand.
"Limirrius," He started as she spoke the name he hand not told her. "I am Rayker. We are well met..." He watched as she packed up her things and put them into several packs that seemed to vanish...magic...into the night. So many questions burned on his lips, each trying to force it's way beyond it's companions...
---------------
What dose he ask?
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"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:17 am Post subject: |
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What Lordy said. Also what does she mean by "we are all met?" Do do what exactly?
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry...I could have sworn I already replied to this comment...but here goes...
First the comment was 'We are well met.' That is a traditional Espiric greeting...thankfully I didn't write it in it's archaic form like I did a privious statement she made. All she ment was that they'd gotten off to a good start...or did she mean more?
Maybe that's the question he should ask because believe me Rave...there are a few more important people they've got to run across before they are 'all met'. And you guy's will be deciding all that too so keep reading...
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"Music makes you braver."
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DarkeFlyte
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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That question at the bottom, thats the descion point, no? Am I allowed to vote or do you have to give me permission? This is a awesome story by the way but just a teensy weensy small correction...
It's does.
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Kalanna Rai wrote: | Sorry...I could have sworn I already replied to this comment...but here goes...
First the comment was 'We are well met.' That is a traditional Espiric greeting...thankfully I didn't write it in it's archaic form like I did a privious statement she made. All she ment was that they'd gotten off to a good start...or did she mean more?
Maybe that's the question he should ask because believe me Rave...there are a few more important people they've got to run across before they are 'all met'. And you guy's will be deciding all that too so keep reading... |
Actually I was very much reminded of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Two scenes in that play actually.
Oberon's "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
AND
Peter Quince's "Are we all met?"
And yeah, you said it. I was wondering if there was more meaning in her words.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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Welcome to my corner of insanity Darke and yes it's sort of a trademark with me to spell dose wrong...or is that does? I think I've mentioned that a few times.
And yes, the question at the bottom is the DP. You just think of a question you'd like Limirrius to ask Rayker and I'll put it in the poll. Depending on the question he asks the story has multiple twists and turns it could take...and you've only met two of the five heros...but I've already given too much away...
And yes Rave...there's quite a bit of meaning behind her seemingly traditional greeting...there's usually quite a bit behind anything this particular character says and does, did I get it right that time?.
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Ravenwing
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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I think so.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:23 am Post subject: |
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And I hit a third...how long will my luck hold! Make voting magic for me oh readers of IF!
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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A dark shadowy figure imerges from the shadows, drops a note and is gone. The note reads
Excellent detail, equistite illustrations, long but not tedious by a long shot. Keep it going, Kalanna, I sense in this the bases for a saga.
I can't wait to see how this ends and look forward to many more interesting chapters in this storygame.
Until later, I lurk in the shadows...
This note has been signed,
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Din. If you keep reading then S.T.S.G. is working. Enjoy...
--------------------------
Chapter Four: Questions and Answers
"Who are you?" Limirrius could barely force the words from his lips. He knew, in his heart of hearts he knew he was talking to someone special. Rayker...the name meant something. Yet his companion only smiled.
"I am the ephermial traveler, the one who you shall cross paths with again and again but shall never be the wiser of. You move within my grasp, waking and sleeping as I ease by. You mesure my stride by the track of the sun and the spinning cycles of the moons. The drops of water which fall, or the grains of sand you collect." She turned that emerald gaze upon him again and smiled. "Sleep. Ponder my riddle in the morning."
Limirrius suddenly felt tired beyond measure. Against their will his eyelids drooped ever lower before falling shut. He tried once to open them and could not. Tried again and...
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Dawn had come, bringing bird song like a morning breeze, rustling the grasses with their sibilent whispers. Rayker stood, head turned to the Mother sun, her crest glowing brilliant amber fire in the first light. Limirrius stood, feeling well rested as if a soft bed had been beneith him not hard ground. Rayker turned, inclining her head to him, and extended a round cake which he took with a nod. "Dawn's greeting. I am sorry for the haste but you must break your fast on the foot this morning."
Taking a bite of the cake, it proved to be sweet honey-grain pressed with star berries, flower berry juice, and topped with sea sugar. A rare treat for a soldier even one as high of standing as Limirrius was. Yet Rayker seemed to be full of surprises. Seeing his enjoyment she extended another. Unable to help himself Limirrius took the proffered cake with child-like sense of glee. It had been too long a time since simple things like this could give him a measure of comfort.
Rayker turned and began bounding toward the rising sun, the east. Only the wilds of the Frontier lay in that direction. Wrapping his cloak tighter around him, though it did no good once the winds caught hold of it, he bounded after her. Still chewing his first cake, second held lightly in his hand, he came up along side her.
"Rayker
"Ker please...or Kal if you must."
"Rae. I can only wonder at your methods. Would it not be better to fly if there is need for such haste?" Rayker's eyebrows had gone up when he'd adressed her in such a formal way. Rae had three meanings. One was a term for a female beloved, another an expression of respect for a female, the last amounted to the highest use of Lady. It was in the third sense he'd used it.
"I am indeed hasty to reach the Frontier but not so hasty I would have a Ydross arrow in my ribs." Involuntarily Limirrius's eyes ran over Kal's skin, taking in the rich golden tones of it. There wasn't a scar to be seen marring the perfect skin and, after he'd seen her own prowess in battle for himself, Limirrius realized she had the highest honor that could ever be given to any warrior...the honor of being Unmarked.
They ran on not speaking but not in silence. Every sound of nature seemed to communicate it's self to Kal and she directed their course around it. Limirrius knew nothing on that depth. He knew when something was wrong from the stillness, or wrong because everything had been desturbed, but not the little changes in natures melody.
Right now they ran with the wind, and the wind sang to them. It sang in the swishing hush of the grasses and flowers they passed, in the whispers and whistles of rocks and gullies. Overhead the sky was clear without even the gauziest whisps of clouds, like some great crystal dome over head. The Mother sun a great jewel of honeyed light circled by her daughters that winked like Kal's eyes.
The wind had shifted, coming from the south today. It smelled of hot desert sands and tropical jungles full of life and decay, of baked earth and alkali flats, and bones of foolish travelers slowly roasting for the carrion birds. He liked this omen naught and his stride faltered, a claw catching in the roots of the grass and throwing him as the strands held an instant too long.
Kal flicked an eye back to him her stride clipping a fraction, pace slightly slowed. "Would you like a rest Limirrius?" He shook his head, hair the color of a night sea rippling at the movement. She nodded but slowed anyway, until they were walking through the grass. They made a gentle noise, not uncommon to the dances native to this region, as the grasses parted for them like eddies of water. Their cloaks were bouyed on the tops of the stalks, spreading like pools of waving water behind them.
"Why are you going to the Frontier Rae?" She looked at Limirrius with an appraising eye. He knew what she saw physically. She saw an espiri male in the prime of his life. Not quite as tall as she was but with a longer crest so they appeared of even hight. His eyes were less almond shaped and slightly smaller, a deep amber in hue with deep rings of golden brown spiking through them.
His hair was a deep purple, the color of sorrows and storm clouds, of deep ocean waters or the crests of night waves. He was broader of shoulder, and had a flatter, deeper chest. His wings lacked her shapely form and his torso was longer and thicker, leading to narrower but just as powerful haunches. His legs were sturdier and shorter, his toes a little more splayed and claws slightly duller.
His tail was less whiplike but still flexible, his arms like those of a blacksmith. His hide was deep black, so black the highlights seemed to be purple and blue, like oil on water, iridescent and shimmering, his wings just as black and tipped in darkest blue, the blue of broken hearts. His crest blades were not turned to the profile, the sharp edge out like hers were, but were flat and broad like a sheild, though just as sharp on the point and edge.
His muzzle was not rounded like hers, more streamlined and sharp instead, and his ears were set a little higher on his head. His hair was cut short, long in the bangs but tapering to little more than a fringe just behind his forth, and last spine.
But he had the sense she was looking beyond that, seeing into the weave of him, of his very soul. He couldn't fathom what she saw there, he was no mystic, he was little enough a mage. Yet he had given his sword to her aid, as long as their paths coincided. Finally she turned that pulsing gaze away from him, freeing him from her spell.
"The Frontier is another day's run away yet and we have traveled for half of this one. That dark smudge there is the mountains of the Boarder. What I want to know is what the Ydross were doing a weeks march into our lands...and what the king's premier General is doing alone and besiged in the middle of nowhere." Limirrius turned to her, blade already dancing in his hands.
"Whoever you are you tread on dangerous ground. The matters you probe are not your concern."
"Put the blade away Limirrius, threats are ill suited to you. If I'd wished you harm should I have just waited for the Ydross poison to take you, or let the slavers drag you away. I'm just as concerned about these matters as you are, and I'm in a position to offer great help."
He looked at her through narrowed eyes. She was mysterious, had answered few of his question, if any at all, and spoke in riddles as often as not. Yet she was a warrior of great skill and she seemed to possess great wisdom. "You should meet the king, come with me and I'll gain you entrence."
She shook her head. "I thought of speaking to the king, indeed could have been there days ago, but I was directed to aid you. You were in great danger and in need of my help, so I came. Now we are closer to the Frontier than we are to Mychranrai so I shall continue and see if I can solve any of the problems there before I confront the king with more woes to add to his burden."
Limirrius could see the sense in that and when Kal turned and begain to run again he followed without hesitation. Her light cloak flowed behind her, like the Thread of the wind made tangible, snapping a merry tune in counter point to his own cloak of fine woven yurra cloth.
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Night had come and the rest of the previous evenings stew had been eaten. Limirrius lay with a full belly and a lazy mind. Yet he could not sleep easy, the meaning of the riddle churned over and over in his mind. The key to her identity lay in his lap if he could but decipher it.
With a disgusted bah he put it away. Such was the realm of the king's Riddle master not Limirrius. He was a stratigist, a Tacticion, a General and leader of men. He was not good at puzzles.
A few yards away Rayker had turned her face to the mountains, listening to their certain song of reaching upward while the world wore them down. She listened to the echos of every footstep that had ever touched their surface, the sure scrubbing of the wild winds aginst their sides, sharpening their peaks.
And through it all the thread of dissonance rang...the tone of war. Tomorrow they would reach the first settlements of the Frontier, and the first crossroad. She could already see it in her mind, a left fork and a right fork.
One would bring them to a large fort fairly quickly, the other would take them to the Front lines themselves, the ongoing war with the Ydross. She would ask Limirrius in the morning what he knew of each place but she was loath to wait that long. She could peer into the future but everything surrounding anything was so uncertain she might get nothing of use at all.
The question remained, should she wait, or make up her mind now. And if she made up her mind...which way did she go?
--------------------------
The Dp is up, have fun.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:32 am Post subject: |
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*The shadowy form of the cloaked and hooded Woman called Din, sneaks in and smiles, adressing the author personally rather than her usual handing off a note before disappearing*
Another interesting chapter, Dragoness, I expected as much when I saw a new chapter out for this rather detailed story. For the Dp, it is difficult to decide what is best when a country stands at war and the future filled with a thousand possibilites as many as the souls that can either be killed, hurt, or saved in a single day of battle.
Foretelling is a great gift, but used too often it can have the potential to show what is best not seen or making it's user so dependent of it that they cease looking at the present altogther and see only the fragements of possibilties that future can be. However, I do not think that this shall be Raykers fate, and incarnation of time, she should be as comfortable in both the past and future as she is in the present.
Nevertheless, because the future is so uncertain, so broken that time itself awaits anxesily (Sp?) for what is next, it is probably best to leave of foreseeing the future and wait. Ask the warrior in the morning if you must, the future is doubtful to trust.
Both path pose a danger to the heros of this story, and the time lost in waiting could be critical and be enough to sway the future one way or the other.
I think however, there is a third option however. Don't ask the warrior, who if even asked might not be well informed of the current state of either destination but ask nature.
This whole chapter Rayker has been listening to the woods, letting them guide her through the world. Why not do so now?
That however is only my suggestion.
I'll be waiting in the shadows until poll can be seen.
*Smiling, Din slips into the nearest corner and disappers into the shadows once again.*
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:05 am Post subject: |
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This is beautifully written, the detail has conjured up some wonderful imagery here for me.
I would only add one suggestion, and that is to be consistent with Rayker's name - it has shifted several times, there has been Kal, Rayker, Rae, Kalanna. Maybe stick to two, i.e., what she is referred to in the narrative, and what Limirrus and others call her.
Whether to wait, or make up her mind to go to the fort or the frontier now?
That's a difficult one. She's been described as a physical incarnation of time - so presumably she's got some feeling of every possible outcome of the future, and the nuances of change with every move she makes.
She has also been described as a being of peace, built for war. She entered the land killing people. The decision might depend upon the way she wants to bring about peace, and the role she wants to play. (or maybe I missed how she wants to do that, I may have to re-read?)
My gut feel would be for her to listen to Limirrus's feelings, get his input, and involve him in her decision upon where to go. Whether or not the warrior's input is well informed or not, the reasons for this would be psychological - he could lose his self esteem in her presence after a while, and she may need a useful ally on the ground later on in the story, and he needs to be 150% mentally and physically prepared.
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Argon18
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:08 am Post subject: |
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I'd do a combination of what Din and Crunchyfrog suggested. Listen both to the woods and to Limirrius since the threads that Rae is trying to repair sound delicate and require subtle shifts in events to weave back together.
The woods probably would give the sense of the pattern that's being disturbed and Limirrius would probably give more insight on the catalyst needed to repair it.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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Poll is up, there can now be voting. YAY!
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:47 am Post subject: |
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Kewl!
I've submitted my vote. I'm going for listening to the woods and Limmirrus. 
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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Right...I've taken care of the title confusion Crunchy. She'll be referred to, and introduced as, Kal but anytime Limirrius speaks to her he'll call her Rae...Enjoy.
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Chapter Five: Slaves
When Limirrius woke in the morning he found Kal sitting on the turf next to him, head cocked to the side, hair falling like a spill of water at sunset over the left side of her body. The light of the dawn sparkled not against it but as though it had been woven in it. Her huge eyes were closed, long lashes fluttering ever so slightly as her eyes flicked beneith her closed lids. From her rhythmic breathing he assumed her to be asleep.
He took a good long look at her, now that she wasn't unnerving him with her intense stare. Her cloak was obviously the finest make, although Limirrius couldn't tell what it had been woven from, it's surface the exact hue of water rushing over obsidian stone. It seemed in constant motion even though it was draped over her unmoving form. It clung to her like a second skin, showing the curves of her arms, the points where the shoulder spines stuck out. Limirrius's brow creased.
He glanced at his own shoulder and saw only a smooth curve of skin yet the cloak indicated protrusions on Kal's. He hadn't noticed her wearing armor, indeed she seemed to be wearing very little other than what was absolutly needed for modesty. Her massive wings extended from the slips that were intended just for her, held in place by toggles of some carved bone of a creamy hue, ivory perhaps. The same could be said for the main toggle.
On her hands rested two...he couldn't call them gauntlets they were more a second skin made entirely of metal each set with a massive smooth round amythest. Her sword, he realize with a start since he hadn't seen the weapon other than it's brilliant flashes when it had saved him. The sun rose higher and something sparkled under the cloak. Peering closer he abruptly pulled back when he felt the weight of her emerald gaze upon him. "Dawn's greeting Rae."
She smiled, standing in a liquid motion that made the movement of the sea seem jerky and clumsy. "Dawn's greeting Limirrius, though I've been up all night." He peered at her but she did not seem weary.
"We could always rest some more Rae..." She turned and gazed in the direction of the Boarder Mountains. She moved ever so slightly and Limirrius took quick strides as she suddenly seemed to pull away. As he reached her side she turned and smiled at him, though there was neither joy nor mirth in it.
"No and I'm afraid you must wait a bit for your morning meal. It will be provided when we reach our destination." Before he could ask they were off again, bounding with great leaps that made their pace yesterday seem like a calm stroll. It wasn't long before Limirrius was floundering.
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Kal sensed her companion was having difficulties and slowed her pace, dropping back to what seemed a snails pace to allow him to breath. He shot her a greatful look and flexed his wings a bit, a silent request that if speed were so needed then flight was the answer. "Limirrius, you know that the great forest of Fendalith covers the slopes of those mountains, well I have spent the night listening to what it told me."
Their footfalls were so slow to her that each one was the thud of a cerimonial drum, the pace of the beat so slow that it could only match a death march. His breathing was still coming in huffs, his wind still gone from him and his strength still flagging, she knew had he not been with her she would have been up and over those mountains a day ago. But she could feel him willing her to continue speaking, the way one might feel a change in barometric pressure, or the stare of an invisible watcher.
Suddenly the waving grasses gave way to a road of hard packed earth. Yet the dust lay heavy upon it and the animal signs from the beasts of burden were weeks old. None had come this way recently, indeed the last travelers of this road had been going the opposite direction. She didn't blame them really, not when war was ready to overrun your home. The forest was not whispering to her now...it was screaming.
The sound of flames greedily feasting on the flesh of the ancient forest lords, of young forest soldiers toppling under the pounding of steel and spell, the smell of charred flesh and bones left to rot in deep green shadows, off arrow pierced lungs and men set to the torch. War had come, had killed, and now stalked forward. "There was a fort in that forest, and a large settlement. They are there no longer."
Limirrius stopped running, coming to a halt as if he'd been struck. Kal stopped moving and stood with her back to him, a wall of silence built between them by his shock and her sorrow. "I had planned on going to that fort and offering them what help I could give, or go to the village and help those who had remained when the rest fled weeks ago. But now no one is left and they both burn."
"Why tell me this now? Why didn't you tell me yesterday? Why did we slow, why did we stop?"
"Would you have had me run your lungs out? There was nothing you could have done General, nothing. Indeed there is only a slim chance I could have accomplished anything myself." She walked back to him and, after a moments hesitation, placed her hands on his shoulders. His own gripped her wrists in a manner that might have been painful had she not been prepared for it. The chords in his forearms stood out as his massive frame shook. A General deeply moved by the loss of one fort, either there were many men there or each single life was percious to him.
"Then they took no prisoners?"
"I did not say that. Over half have been taken captive and are now being marched back to the slave pens at Lar-Duma to be sold to rich ydross merchants in the south." He looked up at her, a deep fire burning in his eyes. The fire of a soldier ready to avenge his comrads.
"Then we shall go and free them." With that he slid from her grip and charged toward the dark line of forest a few miles away. The foot hills of the Boarder Mountians. For a moment she only stared after him, like a golden songbird might stare after the raven that shadowed her, before she turned her own heels upon the open plains and showed that she was more eagle than songbird.
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They broke their fast under the trees, surrounded by the soft edge shadows of an old growth forest and an eldrich haze that wasn't from the smoke of the battle alone. Kal took fruit from the low boughs of an abandoned orchard and they both ate in silence, taking care that each bite made no noise and that they swollowed their food nearly unchewed. They moved like shadows themselves, one with the haze and the carpet of fragrant Turi needles.
The smells of wrongness and smoke grew and the haze lost it's natural smell and became more the acrid tang and white color of the smoke of ruin. They cut out of the trees and found themselves on the forest road, now trampled and stained with the signs of battle. The bodies had been taken but once, only once, they found a young page who must have crawled away with the thought to hide. Only his wounds had proven more serious than he had thought.
They buried him with little cerimony and stood for a moment looking down at the tiny lump of earth near a moss covered log. "Poor lad. Most likely came along with some older sibling hoping that he'd become famous one day. Instead he ends up in the dirt on the roadside and is buried by strangers that don't even know his name." Limirrius turned and, a few moments later, so did Kal as they journey'd toward the fort.
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They knew they were there long before they saw the ruins of the Crayhallia fort itself. The trees were toppled and splintered where great warspells had torn through them and, in places where the ydross had been too lazy, a hand, wing, foot, or tail might protrude from under them. Limirrius was grinding his teeth so hard he feared he might crack or blunt his fangs and beside him Kal was like a shadow, great sorrow touching her face every time they came upon some new patch of distruction.
The fort itself was gone, not even one blackened stone remained atop another, only a massive crater where it once stood. Whisps of smoke still curled from the warm edges of the blasted area, the dirt charred in streaks like some great star had fallen from the sky and smashed this portion of the world from existance. "Limirrius it is dangerous to remain here. There are ydross about."
"Good. I'm in the mood for a little vengance. Let them come Rae." He glanced at Kal to see how she took this order and was shocked as she inclined her head.
"As you wish, I won't desturb you again." With a gliding motion she moved some distance away from him and sat upon a crumbled rock that had once been one of the main gate pillars. She looked...resigned, as if something horrible was going to happen but she couldn't, or wouldn't stop it. Thinking he must have offended her he stood from where he had crouched by the edge of the massive crater and started to move toward her.
He never saw the blow, never knew it was coming until he heard the whistling of something coming through the air at great speed. Then something exploaded against the side of his head, he had been turning to investigate, and his world went black.
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With a groan Limirrius awoke in a rattling wagon, heavy chains chafing his wrists and ankles, a pain running along the edges of his wings, and a strange sensation in his head. He tried to sit up and groaned as the world tilted, but did not throw up though his stomach heaved at the pain in his head and the swimming world before his eyes.
"Easy there son, took a mighty crack to the head you did. Here lemme help ya." There was a feeling of strong hands on his shoulders and he was drug into a sitting position. His cloak was gone, as was his belt and all it's contents, his weapons, and all of his clothing save for his loincloth. Hot sun beat down on his black hide which was befowled with mud, blood, vomit, and offal from other prisoners. He looked at the old man beside him and smiled.
"I must look awful." It was then that he realized Kal wasn't around. "Hey did you see the lady I was captured with?" The old man looked at the others in the cage, three younger espiri of around Limirrius's own age or a little less.
"She put up some fight. Well she didn't put up a fight but her clothing did. They tried to take her things away and several of them paid with their lives. She's got some heavy wards on those things." Limirrius's heart soared.
"So she's still got them? Her cloak and gauntlets and things?" The young man nodded.
"She's still got her wingtips too...which is more than I can say for the rest of us." Well that explained the pain in his wings, naturally they'd be clipped. "The only reason she's even sticking around, near as I can figure, is because they're threatening to harm you if she doesn't. She's packed all of her things up and you can just see her over there if you look hard."
Turning Limirrius could indeed see Kal in a cage by herself. Her cloak had vanished but the sunlight danced upon her silver gauntlets. At her throat, the gleam he'd seen earlier, was a gem that shone like a fallen star, as brilliantly as any of the suns. The ydross gave her a wide berth, muttering in their tounge about the 'Great Mages'. Obviously that was the first person Kal would see. Limirrius shuddered. Ydross great mages were mad, every single one of them, from being in constant contact with their god Yassil.
If they got their hands on Kal she could be ripped apart or worse. He was about to do something desperate when she turned and stared at him full on. "Don't be foolish Limirrius. They're taking us exactly where we want to go. Once there we just need to figure out how to escape. Turn your energies to planning, tactics, that's what you're good at. We'll be there in three days, I hope you've got a plan by then."
When her voice finished ringing in his mind it took him a moment to regain himself, he felt so empty after her vast presence left him. It wasn't quite insane, what she was asking him, but without knowing anything about the slave pens at Lar-Duma, how many guards, the layout, things of that nature, she was asking quite a lot out of him.
Gazing around he wondered what his fellow prisoners might know...or how they might be able to help.
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What will he do?
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Hope you liked.
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"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Argon18
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| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:22 am Post subject: |
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What will he do or what should he do? That might be 2 different things when he already said "I'm in the mood for a little vengance"
What he probably should do is follow up on gathering intel like he already thought of about the slave pens at Lar-Duma, how many guards, the layout, things of that nature so that he can be ready when they get there with a plan to get out.
Depending on whether or not he's still seeking vengance that plan might include freeing all the slaves and getting rid of the ones holding them or it might just involve the 2 of them escaping saving resolving the injustice for later. Part of that could depend on the way he's treated by the guards and the bonds he forms with the prisoners over the 3 days.
But geting the info he needs will help with either scenario so he should accomplish that 1st so he can come up with contingencies for both plans.
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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The show put on by Kal could put Limmirrus in a good position among the prisoners, they are more likely to listen to him than anyone else, and he should exploit this. As a General he is a natural leader anyway. But he has not yet solved her riddle as to who she is... (please correct me if I have missed that!) and if that is the case it could get interestingly akward should his new position be challenged in any way.
She seems to be able to have some kind of topographical vision (having visualized paths ahead in the past) she should be able to give him at least a hazy idea of the layout of the slave pens.
Now about having the wing tips clipped - I am assuming that this means the slaves are now flightless? Is this permanent, or will they grow back?
I would say now is the time to establish his command, and get to know his new companions in reasonable detail, what they are capable of and who he can and cannot trust. Whether any of them know anything about the slave pens may be irrelevant right now. More can be learned when they get there.
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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Yay! Finally a new chappter!
I agree with the others. Find out as much He can about the layout of the prision and about the stucture of the fort. Once he knows everything he can. Use every advantage you can to construct a plan to attack not the outside of the fort but from the inside using whatever prisioners can fight with them.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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The wing clipping is not a permenant thing Crunchy though it does keep them from flying. Espiri will regenerate clipped wings within a week give or take a day for individual ability. Thus their masters have to keep their wings well clipped unless they cut them off completely.
Doing this, however, lowers the value of the slave and casts a pall on the ability of the owner. It's seen as a mark of shame that you couldn't control your slave and had to cut off his wings instead of crippling them.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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Right, the new poll is up. Have at it.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:11 am Post subject: |
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Looking for tie-breaker folks. Who's it gonna be?
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Argon18
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| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:37 am Post subject: |
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What happened to din and frog? They haven't voted yet, too much partying on New Years and they haven't made it back? That sure is a long hangover 
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:12 am Post subject: |
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Ergh, just caught this! I am obviously not catching the new posts as efficiently as I should every time I log in!
Right... vote has been cast - and next time, please can someone just give me a boot up the backside by PM!
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:28 am Post subject: |
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Tie broken, chappy written. Enjoy.
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Chapter Six: Albino Berserker
Limirrius had gleaned some information from his fellow prisoners, not much more than rumors really, but it was something to base his plots upon. One night, three days after he had first woken, he managed to contact Kal. I can't give you something to work with before we get there, not with next to no vaild information to go on. You'll have to bare with me once we get there while I think of something. In his mind he hadn't been able to hear so much as feel her approval of the idea. He knew that, come what may, Kal would back him.
Still as the hot sun beat down on him day after day with neither care for his skin nor cool respite, Limirrius began to wonder if he hadn't made a wrong choice. Everyone said he was a sound tactition, the best many had ever seen, yet even the best of stratigists could make a mental error. Looking around at the grim and, already for some, broken faces Limirrius tried to shoulder more and more of those burdens that were not his.
His cage-mates were more than happy to welcome him and he never could tell them just how much he appriciated their support. The old man, Polluxin, was a dark mahogany brown in color, tipped in cinnimon and sable. His hair might once have been some deep color but with the passing years he had allowed it to silver. "Some folks as is my age like to keep themselves looking like they never age. I know better. And I like ta see the surprise on the faces of some o' the young whipper-snappers when I run circles around them...at my age and all."
One of the three younger espiri in his cage, who happened to be exactly Limirrius's own age, was called Jeeldril. His soft teal skin faded into deep blue points, his long mane of emerald hair might once have sparkled like the jewel who's hue it stole. But, like the rest of them, his hair was matted with straw and his skin was slicked in worse things. He stared off into space, day after day, his glassy gaze ending an inch beyond the bars. Already a deep cut ran across the tip of his snout where a ydross caravaner had struck him with a whip.
His brother, surely their captors didn't know else why would they have been kept together, Nonellsyn did his best to keep Jeeldril in contact with the world but the soft butterscotch colored warrior could no more keep his brother cohearent than Limirrus could have picked Kal's lock from a distance. Every once and a while Nonellsyn's dark black eyes would lock with Limirrius's violet ones and they would share a moment of understanding. If things didn't get better soon, Jeeldril would not make it.
The last, and by far the most surley of the group, was the former fort commander himself. Quiilthren Ruuteon Marsnnipe was not anyone's favorite person and it was unlikely he would become anyone's favorite person in the future. Infact, as Polluxin had bluntly put it while Marsnnipe was sleeping one day, "He's everyone's first choice for an offering to Yassil, a sacrifical offering."
And even though he was expecting it, when Limirrius first caught sight of the slave market at Lar-Duma his heart seemed to shrivel in his breast. A feeling of 'you'll never be free again' assailed his mind. Luckily he recognized it for what it was. "Coercions men...don't listen." Polluxin gave him an unsteady wink, Jeeldril moaned softly while Nonellsyn nodded, and Marsnnipe simply harrumphed it away.
Their captors were hooting in that strange and dissonant language of theirs as they were wheeled in under the massive stone archway that was carved to depict a ydross standing triumphant above many thousand espiri slaves. Beyond the high stone walls, polished mirror bright in places so as to better angle searing beams of light upon the hapless prisoners pinned below, was a scene that struck a violent chord within Limirrius.
Thousands of espiri, not even half of them warriors from the fort, were huddled in squalid pens of metal that had been super-heated by the amplified sun. To touch them was to be branded...and yet few of the slaves were scarred. He wasn't really paying attention to these things, merely filing them away for future fury, Limirrius only had eyes for guard/slave ratios. How many guard towers, how many guards in them, what did they have for weapons, where were the weak points.
If the others noticed his flicking eyes and unhealthy interest they must have chalked it up to terror and desperation. Afterall...no espiri who had ever gone into the slave pens at Lar-Duma had ever come back...well not whole anyway. Their captors jeered around them, playing the crowd of ydross that gathered. Not all who were here were slavers or warriors. There were many buyers and sellers and even a few merchants of much less live wares.
Looking around to tell Kal he'd managed to get his information he went cold in the middle of the desert heat when he realized he could no longer find her pen. For a moment he debated trying to get a fix on her mind but Limirrius was no mage and being no mage was unlikely to try that here. He could only hope that she was alright...after all Kal could take care of herself.
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She had waited until they had left her alone in the antechamber before allowing herself to work. Quickly, quietly, with all her cosiderable stealth and skill, she wove a Barrier that she drooped over the entire camp and several miles beyond. While it didn't block the daily signals of the camp, it blocked any abnormalities or irregularities...and specifically, anything partaining to her mentioned by any ydross when they communed with their god. The last thing she wanted was for Yassil to know she was here, almost a prisoner of his people.
Prisoner...that was not the right term. More like unwelcome guest. She would not have been here were it not important, were the person she needed to meet not enrout. The forest had told her much..the wind from the desert had told her more. In a day, maybe two, the second would be here. Her second Talon ready and waiting...if only Limirrius's talents would shine.
A door boomed at the end of the long hallway and coarse chanting filled her ears, flicking them flat with it's oppressive weight. Frenzied shrieks punctuated the deep gutteral noises, high squeals broken by bass bugles. Their tuunges tie the tones of the Thread in so many snarled knots it was almost better to cut them clean and let them re-grow than to untagle them.
Their robes, espiri hair coarsely woven and horribly mismatched in color terms, trailed along the floor behind them as they plodded toward her. Slowly, each wailing a series of tones irreconcileable with chant of any other, they formed a circle around her. The sounds reached a climax then went dead silent. From under deep cowled hoods, set back deep in brutish sockets from which protruded misshapen muzzles, burned eyes with the animalistic intent to lay her low.
One, whos costume was worse than all the rest, tossed back his hood with the shake of his head. A grotesque mouth full of over-large fangs broke into a horrifying smile, his skin-flaps rose spreading his full frill in a demon's halo that fanned out on either side of his head. His hornes gleamed in the light and his eyes blazed with an intent, a madness, to break her. "You will tell us your secrets...and you will give us what we want slave."
His espiric was broken and halting, far more dischordant than should ever the words have been spoken. Still it would take more than a bad accent to wear her down. Leaning in as far as her bonds would allow, without making it obvious they did no good with her, she allowed her own grin to slid across her face. "Make me..."
------------------------------
Limirrius hadn't seen Kal in two days, didn't know where she was. Then again he wasn't sure where he was either. He'd been shown to several different ydross, some fat, some thin, one with a nasty scar from some espiri's talon down the side of his face. That had been the one who bought him...only after Limirrius managed to give him a matching set on the other side.
Before he knew it the offending talons had been ripped free, leaving him to grow them back. But he still had his wings, he still had his life, and he still was planning. The only change is that now he was sitting in a dark cell by himself, an underground cell with a name scrawled across the top. His owner came past and stopped, glaring in through the small vent slots. When he spoke his espiric was surprisingly good.
"You will fight, fight for Skoti. You are strong, swift, and brave...or maybe it is stupid. Skoti will find out, you will find out. You will fight the Snowflurry tomorrow and then...then Skoti will find out if he wasted his gat or if he has become rich." Limirrius surged across the space between him, managing to lash Skoti across the face with his tail when the tether connected to his neck jerked him off his feet.
After the round of swearing subsided Skoti looked back in at him with an appraising stare. "Skoti think he may be very rich indeed...maybe...yes I'll give you a name now. Skoti will call you...Vetch." Had Limirrius been able to launch a second attack he would have but he was still in the process of getting his collar to stretch back out and allow him to breath. Vetch...Vetch meant Honorless. As Limirrius let out a strangled bellow Skoti walked away laughing.
Getting a grip on his rage, not something he normally let get the best of him but never, never in their long history had any of Limirrius's family been called Honorless, took time. Finally he managed to haul himself up to the tiny window he was given. Blinking down his inner lid to shield his eye against the street grit he was astonished to hear cheering. A cage drawn by four donagur, strange saurian draft beasts, was rumbling down the street.
Held inside it's bars was an espiri with pure white skin, talons like glass, and wings like the cirrus of the moon. She snarled at the filthy ydross that pressed close, her eyes blazing brilliant crimson. A roar, the roar of a berserker split across the yard. Limirrius suddenly knew who the Snowflurry was...and suddenly realized that his clever escape plan wouldn't work. No it was going to have to be a run, him darting out of the arena, or whatever, somehow. Then he had to find Kal, if she was still alive, and run like hell.
He listened as the Snowflurry, screetching and roaring, was brought down to his level and loaded into the cell next to him. She continued to rail for a long time after the guards had gone then suddenly stopped. Ruby eyes appeared in the small slot that allowed competitors to look at each other. "Sorry about all the fuss but they expect it. They'd think something was wrong with me if I didn't." A white tail-tip slid through the small opening, flexing into several curling feathers. "I'm Vyllinia, and you must be the one they call...Vetch was it."
At his snarl she flexed her tail, his gripping it in a formal lock before she could withdraw it. "Limirrius, not Vetch...never Vetch. Pleasure to meet you." Slowly, formalities aside, their tails unlocked and they slumped down close to their mutual sides of the wall. "So have you been doing this long?"
She sighed. "Too long. I've had to fight and fight again...but I'm a mercy fighter. I beat them until they don't move then I leave em alone. The old joke is that if you play dead you'll live. You're new though...right out of the Homeland I hear."
"And I plan on going back." The vehemence in his own voice surprised him. She tapped the wall.
"Do it tonight, while they're all tipsy over the big fight tomorrow. You'll be able to slip free easy...I'll even help." Limirrius thumped the wall.
"How?"
"By coming with you of course. I'm sick of the blood, the gore, the screams, and worrying whether I've killed some poor bastard or not. Besides, the two of us going back to back outta have a better chance than just one of us. I'd have tried this before but none of my opponants have ever been as...rational or competant as you. They all break their first week and see fighting as their only option. You...you're different. So...what do you say?" The tail came back through the slot. "Partners?"
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What will he do?
--------------------
Hope you liked.
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Agree of course. Even if she's speaking half truths it's worth of the shot.
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:50 am Post subject: |
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What happened to the other characters at the beginning of the chapter? Does he feel duty bound to find them too and include them in his escape plan? Or maybe he could rescue them later.
Any espiri looks to be an ally right now but can Snowflurry be trusted? She is in good condition, has been allowed to keep a good name, has she been groomed by the Ydross? Has she been given privileges he doesn't know about? Why has she been put in a cell next to Limirrus? Could she be a spy?
On the other hand, she is, at the moment, his only tangible hope of escape, and that is exactly what Kal's advice was.
I'd say agree, but be very wary of her.
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Argon18
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| Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:57 am Post subject: |
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Is Snowflurry the second talon Kal was waiting for?
It sounds like a Roman slave revolt in the making with Spartacus as a gladiator to organize the escape.
With both of them working together it might be easier to release the rest of the prisoners. That would give Limirrus a lot more tactical options.
That Barrier she wove would probably prevent them from calling in reinforcements and I don't think they would have to worry about the ones doing the interrogation since it sounded like they wouldn't last very long.
So the conditions for a revolt seem ripe when they can get more manpower and resources together.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:25 am Post subject: |
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Right...new poll.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:10 am Post subject: |
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Sorry about the long chapter lag...Enjoy.
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Chapter Seven: Jail Break
After careful consideration of all his options, and there weren't many, Limirrius clasped Vyllinia's tail. "I accept your offer although we're going to do this my way." Vyllinia chuckled.
"Fine Rius...you do the planning I'll be the muscle." Limirrius chuckled...it had been a long time since anyone had called him by a nickname. It had been a long time since he'd been adressed by his name at all. He'd almost begun to believe that his title was his name. Then Kal had appeared and his life had changed.
Scooting closer to the wall Limirrius began to whisper to Vyllinia. "Right, here's the plan..."
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Kal stood in a circle of Ydross High Mages, watching them as they wailed once again to their God. She expressed no outward emotion but inside she was laughing. All the effort they were expending was waisted...her Barrier hadn't given an inch. The Grand High Mage looked up at her with baleful eyes. "You are a mighty mage but when our God comes you shall fall."
"When your God comes he shall be displeased that I have escaped." The Grand High Mage's eyes went wide and hollow.
"Wha..." It was at that moment that the doors burst open, splintered by an angery mob of armed former slaves. Leading the head of the charge was the black form of Limirrius and the pale shape of Vyllinia. Before the mages could move, Rath was in Kal's hands, scribing a vicious arc in the air. Heads rolled across the floor...lips still moving, eyes still blinking. The threads jangled with the sound of cut lives.
Standing Kal nodded to the head of the mob, and the mob itself. Drawing her cloak tighter about her and flicking the blood from her blade with one jerk, she pointed her nose to the door. "Let's go."
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Vyllinia hadn't been free in ages, almost forgot what freedom was like. But now, as she overwhelmed drunken guards and ripped free the caging of her people, a feeling welled inside her. It filled a void she didn't know was there, an emptiness that hadn't existed until it ceased to exist. Sending her spear through the chest of another attacker she cooed to the children in the now open pen. They refused to budge for the blood stained stranger.
Suddenly her spin turned to ice as a shadow swept over her. She'd never felt like this before...like the one opponant she could not beat was breathing down her neck. Standing and turning slowly, one eye scouting the limit of her vision to give her the earliest possible warning, Vyllinia turned to face the presence. She relaxed a fraction when she discerned the identity of the being behind her.
Limirrius's strange companion, the baleful beauty with a leathal circular swing. When Vyllinia had first set eyes upon her, standing there in bonds and wards, she'd gotten the sense of something emmense being held by a gossamer thread. When she'd torn through it all Vyllinia had seen, for an instant, all the power behind that casual action. There was no keener blade, and precious few blows more powerful. Yet for this lady it had been a simple liquid movement of wrist, arm, and shoulder.
Now she stood there, emerald eyes boring into Vyllinia's innermost self, looking immaculate and calm. "Let me handle the children. Limirrius will require your aid to bring down the Patrons." Vyllinia nodded, a savage grin splitting her white muzzle. The Patrons, hers in particular, deserved a slow, lingering death. A pity she did not have time to roast their entrails over a slow flame but they had to be away before the night was through.
Dancing away over the sand she spared a backward glance for the fine lady and was amazed at the sight. With only one hand extended she'd gathered the frightened children and brought light back to their eyes. Once again she wondered who Limirrius was to travel with this person...and who was this person that she traveled at all?
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Dawn showed the slave pens of Lar-Duma empty and broken, her buildings aflame, smoke spiraling into the sky. Slaves had bolted in every direction, each lugging as much water and food as they could carry...save three. Limirrius, Vyllinia, and Kal were traveling light, Limirrius having stopped only long enough to find and gather his posessions, Vyllinia having stripped what she wished from her Patron's corpse, and Kal had taken nothing at all.
Perhaps the only thing that hurt for Limirrius in this moment of joy was the fact that of his four cage-mates only one lived. Polluxin had been marked out quickly as a potential rally point and beaten to death before the slave pens that first day. Quiilthren had had a spear through his eye before he'd even finished his first pompus speech. And poor Jeeldril had been slain out of hand for being sickly. Nonellsyn had shaved him, as was customary, and was bearing his hair home again for proper rites...at least he'd been able to get that much before the guards had stolen Jeeldril's corpse.
Sand and more sand welled around them making Limirrius worry about water and supplies but he trusted Kal. She'd provided before, no doubt she'd do so again...even if there was another mouth to feed this time around. Still stumbling over shifting dunes of too fine sand was nobody's idea of fun and Limirrius caught himself in mid grumble more than once. Still it was better than Vyllinia, who openly swore every time her long legs sunk up to the knee in some random drift, or when she took a breath and the wind blew sand in her nostrils.
Never once did Kal complain though the wind tugged at her cloak and streamed her mane of hair behind her. Limirrius observed with a tinge of envy that her wings had not been clipped...or if they had she'd already regrown them. He would have loved to fly above the sand laden winds and the torturous terrain. It wasn't until the sun sunk into his eyes that he realized something. They were headed in a different direction than the one they'd been brought from. He put forth the effort to catch up to Kal's side.
Without seeming to put forth effort Kal had long ago pulled ahead of them, her footsteps never seeming to sink like their's did. Nor did sand ever sting her eyes, foul her breath, coat her teeth, and line her mouth. She looked as if she were out for a walk in a windy garden. Still Limirrius reached her side, huffing slightly. "Rae...I've noticed we do not return from whence we came. Why?"
A flick of her ear was all the sign he got that she was listening as they walked in silence for several minutes. When she spoke there was the weight of worlds in her words. "We can do nothing behind us, the past is set. In the places before us we might do great good. The future remains flexible, the Threads pliable to the hand of the weaver." And like that Limirrius found himself falling back again to straggle alonside Vyllinia.
"Well? What did she say?"
"She says we're pressing on to parts unknown." He stole a glance at Vyllinia who slipped again down the side of a large dune. Swearing as tender feet became even more tender, she sliced a gash into the dune behind her.
"Ah so we're basically at her mercy? What if she decides to leave us in the middle of the night?" The gash was already healed by shifting sand as Limirrius pulled her forward and free.
"She won't do that...she's honorable if a bit mysterious. If she wanted us dead I'm sure she could have managed that by now." Still as he turned toward Kal, he turned the riddle of her identity over again in his head. What could it mean? He knew it was the key to a great puzzle but what could it mean?
He gave up as the sun sank below the duned horizon. Soon enough, as the temperature dropped into the frozen lows of the desert night, Kal called a halt. Things magically appeared in her hands, including stones that burned with great heat. A pot was soon simmering over the flames, mouth-watering aromas whirling off to tickle his nose. Vyllinia was also not unmoved he wryly noted, watching her scamper around the cookpot like an over-eager child.
When dinner, another hearty stew, was ladled out Limirrius began to feel much better. It was impossible to be unhappy while eating Kal's cooking. He and Vyllinia both watched Kal as she watched the stars, sighing contentedly over their meal which, while sparse by Espiric standards was as filling as a veritable feast. Suddenly Kal stopped eating and rose to her feet, ears flicked backwards. "Get your weapons ready...we've got company coming. Keep them discreet though."
"How hostile?" Kal flicked her left wingtip a few times.
"Maybe very...maybe not at all. It all depends..."
"On what?" Kal smiled at him.
"On just how good I am at what I do. And just how well you can spin an act from thin air." He exchanged a glance with Vyllinia. What could possibly be coming?
-------------------
What might it be?
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Sorry it took so long. It's a bit broken up because I was trying to write this as first the haze of battle and then the weary aftermath. Hope you liked.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:52 am Post subject: |
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Hmmm... I think it should be something that is not all that it seems. I would say that whatever it is, it would either appear to be hostile but then turn out not to be, or vice versa, depending on their actions.
The reason I am taking this idea is because of the following text | Quote: | "How hostile?" Kal flicked her left wingtip a few times.
"Maybe very...maybe not at all. It all depends..."
"On what?" Kal smiled at him.
"On just how good I am at what I do. And just how well you can spin an act from thin air." |
We know that Kal is good at anything she turns her hand to, but Limirrus is mortal, and has failings, as we have already seen.
I think perhaps it could be an Ydross, who has changed his allegiance, or has a grievance against individuals of his own kind, for whatever reason. But our heroes would need to be convinced.
Depending on their actions, they could end up gaining a very useful ally that could be used as a spy in the future, or alternatively throwing away that possibility and dealing with a hostile situation.
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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*raises an eyebrow* I like CrunchFrog's idea...mainly because I would have never thought of it myself, and because I have no better ideas.
And as usual with all your tale's Rai, only one word can describe them. Wow.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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Any other ideas or should I just head straight to chappy?
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Argon18
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| Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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The line "spin an act from thin air" sounds like they need an innocuous cover to me. Like merchants, bards or circus type folk. To convince the people that are coming that they aren't a threat, and get them on their side.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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Yay! Now I've got enough options for a poll!
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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And the poll is up!
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:30 am Post subject: |
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I know you're all waiting paitently for this next chapter. I'm sorry, I've really been trying to write it but this story, more than any other, is really dependant upon mood. I've not really been in the right mood to get this chappy out lately.
Don't worry. I'm sure I'll break the block soon...
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Argon18
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| Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:56 am Post subject: |
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Believe me I know how that can be, since it's been 8 months and I've only gotten 3 and a half chapters done onAn Angel's Destiny it's tough to get around that block because every time I do and get a bit more finished it crops up again. The mood really seems to come and go very quickly.
I wish you luck and look forward to whatever you come up with
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:43 am Post subject: |
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OMG! Can it be? It is! A new chappy! Enjoy.
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Chapter Eight: 'Humble' Merchants
Limirrius and Vyllinia exchanged a glance and a few flicks of ear and wing. Neither were happy about the sudden turn of events but neither had much of a choice. Limirrius saw Vyllinia's mouth open to complain and cut her off with a swift flick of his tail, a gesture for silence. Still he couldn't help agreeing with the white female in his heart as his palms, dry from years of dealing with pre-battle fear, gripped the hilt of the sword that was just obscured by his ragged cloak.
Next to him Vyllinia casually leaned against her spear as if making sure it was well anchored in the desert sand, as if that position was the most comfortable she could relax into. Perhaps it was only his soldier's eye that let him see the slight quiver of ready muscles under her gleaming skin. He mimed a gesture to her and watched as she took spoon in tail and began to ladel stew into her mouth. He twitched distaste at that, it was highly bad manners afterall, but he'd seen more than one caravan guard do such. Almost instantly inspiration struck.
He opened his mouth to tell Kal his plan, to say that if she were to act like a merchant that they could act like her guards, certainly she couldn't play herself off as anything but a lady. They could say that a storm had swollowed their caravan and they were all that was left. But as he caught the glance of one corner of an emerald eye, his words stuck in his throat like honey-toffee and he couldn't get them past his suddenly thick tounge. Yet she flicked an ear in understanding and a clear shift of her stance made everything clear...'let me do the talking'.
The noises only Kal had heard at first had been growing steadily louder until now their source burst over the rim of dunes that blocked them from sight and sheltered the small party from the chill night winds. A group of Ydross, their hides dull in the starlight, came to a sudden halt, weapons flashing to readiness. Limirrius and Vyllinia sprang to their feet, dinners forgone, weapons in hand. Much to his surprise, Kal had began to glow with an inner light. Just visible in that glow, were Threads, twisting and twining as in the power of all great mages he'd seen in the King's Court.
For a few moments there was a tense stand off...then Limirrius felt himself relaxing. He noticed the same thing in the Ydross and in Vyllinia. He realized suddenly, it was Kal's light. She had a soft look on her face, a look of one offering peace, and her light felt like all the good things in life. Of home, hearth, kindred, song, sweets, and strong spirits that put fire in the bones.
She quietly spoke, her soft voice making even the jangling, disharmonic, harsh tones of the Ydross language sound like something beautiful and worthy of praise. Limirrius, who'd never learned more than a few words, found himself as captivated as their sudden guests. As he watched their ranks parted and an old Ydross shambled forward on the arms of two much younger.
He leaned unsteadily on his staff, eyes blinking a bit as they tried to focus. He too glowed with light, although it was free of Thread and of a much more sullen color, not pure and light, but heavy and muddied. Slowly he spoke with words that held surprisingly little accent. "You seem peacful indeed Sila. Your companions, however, do not."
Kal's response was smooth. "They were guards of the caravan and respond to everything strange with weapons drawn. As you can see they are no longer threatening and have relaxed their guard." The elder paused for a moment and made a speculative noise.
"How much of that is their doing and how much of that is the charm of your light?" Kal shrugged.
"I suppose much of it is their doing but no doubt my light has helped to relax them as much as yours helps to keep your people energized. I tell you the truth though when I say we've no wish to fight this night...especially on stomaches half empty." She gestured at the cookpot, fire, and scattered stew that had been rendered unfit to eat when they had sprang up from the sand.
A chuckle ran through the Ydross ranks. They were warriors, afterall, and all warriors shared the same dislike of marching and fighting hungery. Slowly the remaining tension in the air evaporated an the light from the two mages dimmed then vanished altogether. The elder spoke rapidly in his own language to his own people and, with sudden swiftness, turned back to Kal. A wizened smile submerged his features in even deeper wrinkles. "We would share your meal...if you would have us."
Limirrius heard Vyllinia suck in a breath although the action seemed unnoticed by the Ydross. He too felt a little stunned. For Ydross to share anything was an indication of trust. It was rare enough for one Ydross to trust another. For a group of them to trust armed, and highly magical, Espiri...never. Yet it was happening here, in this hollow of desert sand, tonight. He looked at Kal once again and wondered just who she was to make such things happen.
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Vyllinia didn't want anything to do with the Ydross at first, her years of captivity given her many valid reasons for her deep-seated hatred. Yet as they took up positions by the fire, each handing a bit of something to Kal to go into the cookpot and add to the stew, she couldn't help but notice the difference between these and all the others she had seen. And they were remarkable differences.
They were all filthy, for one, but it was honest filth. It was the kind of dirty that happened to anyone who was poor and attempting to make an honest living in a dishonest land. Their clothing was more hole than cloth, rags that barely preserved their modesty, and not one of the garmets had ever been 'fine'. Even the elder's robes, the best kept garmet to be seen, were little better than many burlap sacks stitched together.
They were all gaunt and lean, emphasising just how much it cost them for everyone to give some bit of food to this communal dinner, and many bore the marks of slavery past. It came as a shock to Limirrius, Vyllinia noticed. Did he not think that they Ydross enslaved their own? While it was true they generally did not, if one was truely impoverished then they degraded themselves to the point where they ceased to be a Ydross and became Nifla or nothing. A possession to be bought, sold, and used until broken.
Kal must have seen this because, after the first few contributions of food, she shook her head and declared she had enough to feed everyone. Vyllinia watched the shocked expressions ripple through the band, no village. That's what it had to be, a nomadic village that traveled the desert. It would certainly explain their condition and the fact that they had elders and children, even infants, with them. Their hand wagons and few beast-teams were circled nearby, a few guards stations to keep watch.
Limirrius and gotten himself into a conversation with a different elder of the village she noticed. Scooting closer she overheard little snippits of their hushed whispers before Limirrius introduced her to the conversation's other party, inviting her to join in. "This is Vyllinia, Armsmaster Yogan. She knows more about Ydross than I do."
The Armsmaster's shrewed eyes swept up and down her. "Indeed she would. Tell me Snowflurry...how is it that you are now free."
Vyllinia stifled Limirrius's growl with a small chuckle of her own and a very hard edged smile. "I bought my freedom in blood. It is good to see you again Lok-Tal...I hoped that you made it clear during that fire." He laughed at that, showing her the burns that decorated his shoulders and back that had been hidden under his tattered cloak.
"Just barely...my Patron wasn't so lucky. It is good that we both meet on this side of the Wall and I am still very greatful that you have a heavy left foot. I didn't mind having my skull cracked half so much as I would have minded death." He turned a swift look on Limirrius. "Indeed there are many who would reward...Vyllinia...for her mercy. It is something none of my people would have shown her...or ourselves for that matter."
Their conversation was interrupted as Kal called out that the stew was done and began to ladel heaping spoonfuls of the savory, aromatic creation into the splintered, battered, and over worn bowls of the village. Yogan looked at the bowl, filled to the brim, and dug in with his talons, spitting large chunks of meat and vegetibles befor downing the thick liquid and licking the bowl clean. He then made a face towards Vyllinia. "Forgive my manners. Good food is hard to come by out here. Any food his hard to come by."
"So what is this?" He grinned as she motioned toward the villagers and their meagar possessions.
"This is one of the Saskiti, the Self-Freed villages. All of us here were once slaves, or are the children of slaves. Even Fortil, our mage, was once a fighter in the Pits. We've no love of the rest of our kind and no love for Yassil and his tyranny either. We'd follow your ways if we could but we know not whether your...?" He grasped for words before Limirrius smoothly supplied.
"The Rai, you mean the Rai. Our Greatest Lady." Yogan nodded then scowled.
"I have learned much of your language but that one thing confuses me. I have heard that word used so often for many by your people captured as slaves. True, most of the time they were calling for salvation, but some times it was for those of greater rank or for those they loved. How can this be?" Vyllinia hastily sketched six shapes, Espiric runes, in the sand.
"This is the Ray rune. Turned to the lesser side like this," she tapped a rune tilted on it's side, "It means Beloved for a man or is showing great affection for a male. Turned to the greater side," she tapped the upright rune, "It means High Lord or is showing great respect for a male."
She pointed to the next in the series. "This is the Rae rune. It's the female version. It's meanings are the same for the females of our species. Limirrius and I both address Kal, the one cooking, as Rae in the greater sense." She looked at Yogan who had looked briefly at Kal then back. "Are you understanding this?"
"Yes. These terms are much like our own Sil and Sila...but this last one here..." Limirrius spoke for that one.
"It's lesser sense is used only for our Royalty as it means 'leader of all'...or that's as close a translation as I can put down. It's greater sense is used only for Rayker herself. Rai in the greater sense means 'first of all' or 'Greatest Lady'." Yogan puzzled for a few moments before nodding slowly.
"I understand now. You are a complex people, indeed I should have gathered as much from the time it took me to learn even this basic amount of your language." Vyllinia laughed at that.
"You speak it well enough. Better than some Espiri I've met in my time. But what were you saying before, about this village and others no longer following your God?"
His eyes darkened and he shook himself like a creature emerging from cold water. "Yassil is a brutal and harsh thing who loves the good things not. He cares only for blood, and possessions, and hate. We," he swept an arm to include the village, "do not care for such as that. We would follow your Rai. From what we have learned of her she is fair and just and that is enough for us. But would she accept us?"
Vyllinia had opened her mouth to say they'd never get past the Temple guards to ask when Kal suddenly was there, looming over them to ladel another spoonful of stew into Yogan's bowl. "The Rai accepts all who are true in their worship of her."
"But the Temple!" Vyllinia felt her flush start the instant after she'd blurted it out. Kal gave her an immesurable look softened by the merest whisp of a smile.
"The trappings of worship matter not. It's the intent behind them. Otherwise why should those lost in darkness bother with prayer? Or those enslave and condemned?" As she moved away in the darkness Vyllinia looked at Limirris.
"And who's she?" He shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as mine."
Vyllinia looked at the Kal, and then at the camp which had begun to bed down. A sudden thought struck her. "Limirrius...what are we going to do with all these Ydross?"
-------------------------------
Hope you liked.
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"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting... Well written, but for a few spelling mistakes. A nomadic village of Ydross gives more depth to this people now than just pure evil departure from Espiri. It was a good read.
As for DP, I'm not really sure what to do with them, or what use they are for the cause, except maybe to appear again later in the story at a crucial point. I think perhaps find out more about some key characters in the tribe, for use in the story later on.
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:58 am Post subject: |
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Take them with you of course. Sorry, I don't have any better ideas. Never did have any ideas for this one.....it is too interesting of a condriumn for a small mind like my mine to solve.
One hand to take them with you means you have an army.
But if you take them with you, you have an army. With all the needs and demands of army, plus there's women, children, etc.
Leave them, and what use are they too you? None. An oppurunity missed is worse then a oppurunity spoiled.
Ask The Rai, is a suggestion, maybe being all wise, she'll know better the consquences of each action.
Another option is to travel with them to the nearest town. Safety is in numbers, and who is going to look for a bunch of runaway escapees in a bunch of Ydross. This may also give the groups more oppurunity to know each other, and give us some time to figure out what to do with them.
Sorry, but I'm no more wiser of what to do with this dp then I was a few months ago.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:25 am Post subject: |
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The poll is being up my friends, enjoy!
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"Music makes you braver."
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Chinaren
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| Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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I voted to travel with them why not.
Several spelling mistakes in this one Rai- swallow not swollow, and hungry, not hungery for two, and I'm not sure I understood the stuff about the Rae rune either, but that's probably just me being dense!
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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You may consider re-reading the part of the Rai rune China. It's slightly important...But anywho...Enjoy!
------------------------
Chapter Nine: Into the Night
Limirrius shook his head, surveying the group of Ydross. "We'll travel with them for now. I'm just following Kal, afterall, so I suppose I'll go where she goes. If she chooses to leave them, I'll leave...until then I stay." Vyllinia sighed and flopped down on the sand.
"Well, we're in this together, whatever this is. So I suppose we'll keep traveling with them." She turned and looked over at Yogan. "So where are you heading anyway?"
The Armsmaster shrugged. "We travel where we will although lately Fortil has been telling us that something is calling us south. Although what's south of here except more expases of burning deserts I cannot say. Perhaps the...Rae? of yours knows." Limirrius and Vyllinia shared a glance...it was worth a shot.
Getting to their feet they crossed the camp in search of Kal, whom they found sitting on the edge of the camp staring at the stars. She didn't so much as twitch when they sat down next to her. "Good evening. I trust you finished your meal."
Limirrius nodded. "Indeed, it was kind of you to feed the village Rae. Though where you found the food I know not." Her wings rustled in a gesture of negation and her gaze on the heavens never wavered.
"You've come to ask me a question. What is it?"
Vyllinia shot Limirrius a 'how'd she know' glance and was rewarded by his shrug. The former gladiator instantly made a mental note to keep an eye on the strange female. She was a little to handy with sword and spell for Vy's liking. Still she spoke up. "We wanted to know what's south of here. The Ydross mage said something was drawing them south."
Slowly, her bountiful flaming locks moving like an endless bloody sea across her shoulders, Kal turned to face first Vyllinia then Limirrius. Her green eyes were luminous and swirling, their emerald depths stretching away to nothingness. Slowly, one golden hand came up, ebony talon pointing away into the darkness. "Beyond the Dunes of Salcrind lies the City of Fire. The Ydross go there because they are needed by those who live there."
"So why are we traveling with them?" Kal smiled a crooked smile, that was no less beautiful for it's lack of symmetry, and lowered her hand. Staring back out across the sea of sand, her wings mantled tight around her. For a moment Vyllinia thought the Rae would ignore her question.
"We go there because they have need of us as well." Then, as suddenly as a winter storm might ruffle the mountain passes, she was on her feet. "I must go on ahead of you, I cannot make it in time with the pair of you at my side. You shall stay with the Ydross, for they will need your help in the coming journey." With a last look over her shoulder she was off, sand swirling around her footsteps, erasing them as if she'd never been.
Her voiced floated back to them on the wind. "Fear not. You're being watched over."
For a moment both Limirrius and Vyllinia were stunned into silence. Then, shaking his head, Limirrius stood and nodded into the darkness that had swollowed Kal whole. "Safe journey lady. I look forward to meeting you in the City of Fire."
Vyllinia looked at him as he turned to go as if he were mad. "Are you crazy!" She shouted, coming to her feet. "She goes off and you just shrug and say oh well? This is NOT a good thing."
"No, Vy, it's not. But we're going to make due because we have to. Something much bigger than either of us is afoot. Kal is...not who she seems to be."
"Well who is she then?" The albino demanded, hands on hips. Limirrius shrugged again.
"I still havn't figured that out."
-------------------
Miles away from them a silent figure winged it's way over the desert, a massive sandstorm being generated by the intense speed of her passage. Her wings thrummed against the air, striking the threads of the world and causing a ripple to run like an electric current. Yet this ripple went unnoticed by those who would have gained the most from knowing of her passage.
Her heart beat in rapid rhythem, her wings virtually clawing the air. She should have just teleported herself there, saved time and effort. But that would have made an even greater disturbance and would have attracted far more notice than simple flight did. Soon enough she'd reach the City of Flames and within her third talon. She only hoped she wouldn't be too late.
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Deep in a cell under the city of flames, Tennabu wrinkled her nose at the tray before her. Couldn't the guards provide a decent last meal? She knew she didn't deserve much but she deserved better than this slop. Not even a gurei would eat this and they were the utmost of scavengers.
Kicking the tray aside, Tennabu stood and stretched as far as her chains would allow, wincing a bit s they chafed against her already sore wrists. She licked the wounds a bit, wincing as she tasted the first signs of infection. She'd need some medical attention soon or...she laughed. What was she thinking, medical attention. When the sun rose she'd be dead, erased from the Pattern forever.
Her survival instincts surged again. She had to escape! Maybe she could use something around here as a lockpick...even a scrap of bone would do. But after yet another fuitless search of the cell revealed nothing for the master theif to use, Tennabu sat down heavily. "Only a slender scrap of bone...or metal...or maybe a magic spell. Anything would be welcome."
It was then that a desperate plan leaped into her head...
---------------------------
What is Tennabu's plan?
-------------------------
There you go, a new chappy finally.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Crunchyfrog
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| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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Tennabu is a new character, I cannot think what her plan may be, knowing very little about her. I have no idea who lives in the city of fire, or what their predicament is.
Limirrus and Vy seem to have dwindled to little more than onlookers now, of Kal's campaign. She seems to have it all wrapped up, and I feel as lost and clueless as they probably do...
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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Right, to clear the air....
Tennabu is the person Kal is after. She's a master theif in the City of Fire, which is the southern most city of the Espiri nation. She's been thrown into prison and sentanced to execution at dawn unless she somehow escapes. Being a master theif it won't take much for her to pick the lock on her shakles and escape through the barred windows...but she needs someting sturdy to pick the lock with. ANYTHING will work at this point...
The City of Flames is renown for it's shady people. The rest of the Espiri look on it as little more than a city full of theives, slavers, and double agents...and they're not very wrong about it. It's the last desert outpost of the Espiric people and one of their major contact points with the Ydross...
Limirrius and Vyllinia will actually have the DP for the next chapter so they're very much still strong characters, and if they're a little puzzled right now it's all to the better since next chapter their ignorace will clear...
Does that help any?
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"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:51 am Post subject: |
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Are the rats in the dugeon...I've been bone make good lock picks in a bind, but that's the only thing I've got.
Sorry Rai, you sorta lost me when you switched view points to a whole new character in this chapter.....
But I have every bit of faith it will all make sense, eventually. I hope.
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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It's been a long time coming but here it is. I ran with Dinranwen's suggestion since she was the only one to make one. Enjoy!
--------------------------
Chapter Ten: Across the Distance
Tennabu cast her gaze around her disparingly. But the only things she saw were straw, stone, slop, and the ever present rats. Suddenly inspiration bloomed in her brain and she sized one of the larger buck rats. She ripped into it until she procured one of it's longer bones. After a few moments of sharpening she inserted it into the lock and fished around. For a moment her hopes soared, she was going to get out. Then the bone snapped and her hopes snapped with it.
For a long moment she stared disbelievingly at the small pieces. Then she hurled them against the wall of her cell, roaring at the top of her lungs. "It's not fair!" She beat her hands against the stone in vain, her talons striking sparks. Finally, her rage exhausted, she slumped back down on the floor of her cell. Tears flowed from her large eyes, coursing along her muzzel till they fell from the tips of her fangs.
Just when her spirits were lowest, something hit the stone floor infront of her. It was a long spear of bone, the shard of an espiri's talon. "Quickly." She looked up to see a pair of blue eyes peering through the small, barred window in the door. "Come on Tenna!"
With a grin Tennabu applied herself, the shackles clicking free in rapid succession. In moments she was standing, rubbing her wrists, bone pick tucked away in her tangled hair. She winced a bit as the door was yanked open, filling the cell with light bright enough to make her eyes water. Blinking them she extended her hands to the espiri that waited in the hallway for her. "What took you so long?"
Her rescuer snorted. "Humph. I had to find a mage capable of getting past those damn trap wards along the third corridor. They really invested some work in those I tell ya."
She smiled at him. Nimmkuls could always be counted on in a pinch. She craned her head around to see this mage Nimm had recruited. She stood back off to the side, long rippling cloak obscuring her body. Her head was held high and her gaze was untroubled, her wings folded in an easy manner. Obviously she felt at ease as if she wasn't risking her life helping a condemned prisioner escape. Tenna couldn't tear her eyes away from the stranger. She was beautiful...and dangerous. Someone worthy of respect and fear.
"Well then. Let's not hang around here. Surely guards will be coming soon." Tenna watched the lady mage's ears swivel around.
"No. We are safe for the time being." The lady crossed to where Tennabu stood and took her wrists without even inquiring if she might. Healing energies swirled out, soothing the sores and burning out the young infection. After a moment she removed her hands, nodding as if satisfied by the results. "You will mend quickly."
Tennabu and Nimm shared a glance before Nimm jerked his head toward the door. Not knowing which route they'd taken into the prison, Tenna was content to follow Nimm. And while normally she wouldn't have let a stranger guard her back, Tennabu felt no ill ease letting the lady fall in line behind her.
Slowly, the ackward procession made their way out of the belly of the beast and into the shadows of the welcoming night. Standing in filthy water next to a sewer pipe Tennabu savored every breath of stench laden air. It was air freely inhaled. She grinned at Nimm before turning to thank the lady mage. However, only a ripple in the water showed where the lady had been standing.
For a moment Tennabu stood with mouth agap. The lady hadn't even waited for a reward. She turned to Nimm, puzzelment on her face. "Did you already pay her?"
He shook his head. "No. It was rather strange. She walked up and offered to help me free you...knew everything about the situation. I didn't even need to ask."
Tennabu tumbled this problem over in her mind for some time as she and Nimm made their way from the drainage tunnel to the Den. They stopped by the Baths on their way to wash off the sewage stenches, leaving them dripping and slightly scented. They padded into the Den, talons clicking on the cobbled entry. Tennabu found herself relaxing, feeling the safety of familiar walls. Yet she still couldn't shake the quandry the lady mage had presented her with.
What mage offers to do a job...and takes no paymet? As the door shut behind her, a quite laughter sounded in Tennabu's ears. I have much vested in you, young Tennabu. We shall meet again soon...
-------------------------------
Limmirius and Vyllinia struggled across the desert with the tribe of Ydross behind them. They walked ahead, using their sharper senses to scout. Indeed they even took to the sky for short periods of time when sandstorms didn't threaten. Yet those times were few and far between as the stretches of sands grew ever more trecherous and threatening.
Strange beasts of the desert sprang from the shifting sands, their hides and chitenous shells all verying shades of golden or red brown. They resembled everything from giant carnivorous versions of northern insects, to huge shaggy beasts like desert mammoths with razor sharp fangs eight feet long. They attacked in packs or in single stealth charges.
The packs were easily delt with, Limmirius and Vyllinia had experiance dealing with far more intelligent and vicious creatures in greater numbers. It was those stealthy creatures that they often missed. Those would often snag one of the Ydross so swiftly not even a scream could be heard. Then the village would mourn, their wails undulating across the still arid expanse. During these moments Vyllinia and Limmirius were reminded they were outsiders. They never shared the grief, the pain, the sorrow of loss.
Indeed this isolation drove them closer together, to the point where their skills matched so well. His brilliance for tactics and fieldmarshellship, her sheer ferocity and penchant for dirty tricks. They blended well...but not seamlessly. They had little magics between them...but what they did have was enough for two to struggle through everything. They didn't realize that others noticed their bond, or even that such existed, until one late evening when Armsmaster Yogan approached them.
"I am sorry to intrude but the Elder wishes to see you." They exchanged a glance, the rose to follow Yogan. They didn't dare silently converse, Yogan knew too many hand signals. Indeed, they both could only stew in their own thoughts as they wondered over the cause of their summons.
Yogan stood aside as they entered the flap of one of the few tents the nomadic village owned. The Elder motioned for them to sit, staring at each of them in turn. Then he sighed. "I suppose you are wondering why I've called you." He looked at both of them with squinted eyes. "Well, it's because the village has noticed a change."
The elder tried for a weak smile but failed. "It's this. Were you Ydross I would know what to say...but you are not and I do not."
Limmirius opened his mouth to reply but the Elder silenced him with a lifted hand. "What I'm trying to say is that we are not sure how to act around espiri during their time of pairing."
Limmirius and Vyllinia looked at each other for a short moment before they began to laugh. The first to get over his mirth Limmirius was the first to speak. "Sir, our Threads are not so Twined."
The Elder nodded slowly. "Ah, pardon an old Ydross. It was the only conclusion we could come to for your reclusiveness."
Vyllinia spoke now. "We thought that it was you who kept your distance."
The Elder favored them with a sad smile. "On the contrary. We have done everything we could think of to include you. You have done so much for us we wished to include you in everything. You have drawn only further apart from us...yet closer to each other."
Limmirrius and Vyllinia looked at each other once again before both speaking.
"But it's not..."
"Surely you cannot mean..."
The Elder raised his hands again. "Please. If you are both so insistant there is a way of finding out."
---------------------------------
What is this way?
----------------------------
Well reader? Are you still there? Hope you liked.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Kalanna Rai
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| Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:27 am Post subject: |
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PUBLIC NOTICE: This story has been discontinued.
Lily, can you send it to the Archives.
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Lilith
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| Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:31 am Post subject: |
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I'm afraid I'm going to have to refuse until you either come to your senses.... or give me a valid reason.
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