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 Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:39 pm
Character: Ravea Wyrm: Alinta Quote: Deep "When the sun sets and the night creeps over the trees, I can't help but pull my cloak closer around me. There's voices in the night. Trees, animals, nightwalkers... a thousand tongues speaking at once. What is it they say? Perhaps man was never meant to know."Several members of your guild set out into the woods, and though they were due back that night, they did not return. The search party sent out to find them was found strewn at the mouth of the wood, unconscious apparently, and they have not awakened since they were found. What has happened? What is the guild to do? More importantly, what will you do? Value: 50 points
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:39 am
//Ravealove, are you sure this is wise?//
The light mental touch that was Alinta's mindvoice held only traces of real fear, Ravea knew. As the female therianthrope padded along in half form, her clawed feet sinking into the soft earth, she took the opportunity to look at her wyrm companion's expression, seeing a rare look of restraint and concern. The wyrm feared not for her own safety but for Ravea's and little Daela's. Alinta feared little for her own safety, as she felt well and truly capable of defending herself.
Reaching up a hand to pat Alinta's shoulder, Ravea nodded, flicking her wings in and out. "I'm sure, Alinta. Something is in that forest, and I'll be damned if I'm going to stand around and wait for it to come out," she said, remembering with a mild chill the way she had found the half-dozen searchers sprawled out at the woods' entrance. All of them, males and females alike, had been contorted into almost unnatural body positions, their eyes frozen open and their mouths moving minutely as if murmuring something. She knew of no poison that did that, and no poison would drop all six right at the entrance to the dark wood. There was something out there.
Or, perhaps, someone.
The original three that had gone into the wood to scout for possible camp or homestead sites had not returned. After two days of worrying and waiting, the search party had set out to find them. Ravea and one of the other warriors had found them that very morning.
It was evening now, and the sun had just disappeared below the horizon. It was already very dark, and the air was still, so still that it made Ravea let out a low hiss of nervousness. Something was very awry here.
//Maybe we shouldn't make much noise. It might attract... stuff. I'm not looking for a fight.// Alinta said in a rather pragmatic fashion, and Ravea had to give a fanged grin at the way the light wyrm's voice sounded rather prim in her head. The big gold brat. She just didn't want to get her hooves dirty.
Good gods, Alinta, you're just as bad as Marint! the therian teased her to lighten the mood as they reached the spot where the search party had been found. The mere thought of those poor souls, lying there in the guild's hospital wing, not moving, not blinking... it made her every animal instinct go on high alert.
Her companion snorted primly at the thought of being like her germaphobic offspring. //Hardly! I rather enjoy a good mud wallow now and then, thank you! Besides, dirty is fun. Fighting for real is not, even if it is necessary.//
Giving a quiet hissing chuckle, Ravea knelt, folding her multi-jointed legs beneath her to examine the spot of bare dirt where the six had been found. She inhaled, sifting through the scents in the air as the light faded even more, giving way to pitch-blackness. When nothing stood out, no discernable scent to mark there being someone or something present, she stood. Nothing. Just nothing. That's not natural.
Feeling quite proud now that she had an advantage her bonded had not, Alinta arched her neck, her eyes sparkling even in the darkness. //You smell nothing with your nose.// Exercising her magic, the light wyrm 'sniffed' about for any magical traces, any sign that some spell had been performed here. She found nothing, which made her stomp a forefoot in annoyance.
Then both females cringed as the feeling of something breathing down the back of their necks passed over them, making Ravea edge closer to Alinta. Maybe we should have waited... she confessed to the wyrm. Slipping out of the guild's frantic "what'll we do?!" conference had not been the greatest idea on record. But as a protective mother and a warrior by blood and training, Ravea had not been about to stand by and let the old fools of guildmasters bicker about how best to deal with the mystery. She had decided to take matters into hers and Alinta's capable hands.
Or, rather, her hands and Alinta's powerful hooves.
Now, however, the idea seemed rather foolhardy.
She rested a hand on the light wyrm's shoulder, trying to fight the instinctive fear of the unknown presence and the instinctive aggression that accompanied said fear. Definitely should have waited. Whatever the hell this is, it's not friendly and-
Whatever she had said was cut off when Alinta let loose a high-pitched battle cry, and then, suddenly, a bright beam of light shot through the darkness, illuminating a dark, two-legged figure standing several yards away.
The figure let loose an enraged screech and then vanished, leaving a perplexed Ravea and annoyed Alinta behind.
What was /that?!/ Ravea exclaimed, staring up at her wyrm as the beam of light faded. And what'd you do?!
After a moment of smug preening, the light wyrm regained her serious expression. //I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't like sunlight. I don't think it's shadowed in nature, but it isn't nice. Oh... new magic I learned before. You like?//
Torn between thwacking the wyrm for not revealing this trick earlier and praising her for her great wisdom and power, Ravea gave a noncomittal grunt and headed into the woods. Well, whatever it is, it's in here somewhere, and I want to know what the hell it is. And what it did with Chessa, Zaniel, and little Delph.
While Alinta followed behind her, Ravea used her superior night vision to navigate her way through the dense wood. Well, this certainly wasn't a very habitable place. That nixed the idea of ever settling in this little patch of wood. She vowed to never go back in again, once she found her fellow rangers and got the hell out.
After a time, even her bat eyes were no good in the pitch black, and she had to use her sonic skills to navigate, pinging sound waves back and forth to paint a rough picture of the way ahead. The dense trees were quite confusing, though, and she stumbled far more times than she would have liked. She wanted to turn back, and she could sense Alinta wanted to as well. Only the thought of Daela falling prey to the thing kept her going. Her child was never going to end up like the rangers in the hospital wing.
Ever.
Suddenly, the trees vanished, and they were in a large, circular clearing. If Ravea's sense of reckoning was right, they were in roughly the center of the wood, and judging by the eerie blue light illuminating the rocks present in the clearing, this was where they needed to be.
Alinta gave a surprised snort as she caught one of the rocks moving ever so slightly, and she headbutted Ravea gently on the shoulder, tactfully avoiding the therian's folded wings. //Ravealove, they're here! It has them! They're here!// the light wyrm exclaimed joyfully, recognizing the three rangers, one of whom was barely into his teens. //They're alive!//
Barely alive, Ravea noted to herself. All three were grouped together on the far side of the clearing and looked to be in the same condition as the rangers back at the guild headquarters. She hissed quietly as the hair on the back of her neck began to stand on end. It was here.
"Miiiiiiiiiine..." a voice hissed, the quality nothing more than a sibiliant whisper against their ears and minds. "Miiiiiiiiine..."
Illuminated by the glow of the rocks and the dark green glow surrounding its own presence, the figure appeared again. It was nude, and it was male, and it was nothing like anything Ravea had ever dealt with.
Alinta, although frightened, stomped a forefoot. "You! Let them go!" she said aloud, staunchly standing her ground with her typical energy. She punctuated her statement with a sharp hiss. "Now!"
As the glow increased, Ravea could see that the creature was roughly human, except for its green skin color. It had pointed ears and narrow black eyes. Its long fingers and toes were curling and uncurling, and it uttered something in a language neither female could understand. Only word one came through clearly:
"Miiiiiine."
What's his?! And what /is/ he?! Ravea inquired desperately of her bonded companion, eyeing the creature with much trepidation. Despite the fear his presence inspired and the obvious effect of what his actions on the other rangers, he seemed strangely non-aggressive. The therian frowned. She hadn't expected this.
Alinta looked similarly perplexed as the creature seemed to not respond to her challenge. She looked rather amusing, even in the eerie light, as she tilted her head to one side and then the other, tail swishing back and forth. //How should I know?! Some kind of forest spirit, maybe. This must be his woods, and he doesn't like us. I think we're not like him because I shot that light at him...// the wyrm pondered.
Giving a soft snort, Ravea glared up at her wyrm, feeling her legs trembling a bit with instinctive fear. Well, then do it again! Make him leave!
The light wyrm shook her head. "No... no, he's not attacking us anymore, see?" she said, and, as she said, the dark-eyed spirit was simply staring darkly at them, agitated but not obviously aggressive. Whether it was fear of Alinta or simply a lack of fight was not really clear.
A snort echoed from the light wyrm, and she stomped a forefoot on the ground. "Oh! He just wants us out!"
Ravea slapped a clawed hand against her forehead. Gods, sometimes Alinta drove her bonkers. Here they were, practically held hostage by some malign and mildly powerful forest... spirit.... and her wyrm had the brilliant idea that the spirit was only annoyed because it wanted them gone. Honestly... where had Alinta picked up that idea?! "Alinta, damnit, that is the most idiotic thing I have /ever/ heard! He just wants /us/ for some reason!" she snapped back. Frick. Was she on the hormonal part of her cycle again? Bad timing, all of this.
As soon as she spoke, there was a sudden outbreak of hissing from the spirit, and then a few words came through clearly amongst the mental and vocal cacophony.
"Mine... rocks. Miiiine trees... Mine. Mine!" the thing was hissing frantically as he waved his long-fingered hands about. "Mine! Out! Miiiiiiiiiine!"
Never having felt more stupid in her life, Ravea frowned. That's it? He was just peeved that they were in his forest? "What? You want us to leave? That's all? Just get out of your forest?" she rasped around her extended fangs. She wasn't thoroughly convinced and flared her wings out, hissing in annoyance.
When Alinta punctuated her bonded's gesture with a small flare of light, the spirit instinctively flinched, and Ravea felt an idea forming. After a brief mental relay with her wyrm to convey the idea, the therian spoke aloud. "You want us out? All of us? None of us to ever come back in your forest?"
The spirit glowed more brightly green and gave a loud hiss. "Yesssssssss..."
Ah ha. Now they were getting somewhere. "All right, then," Ravea said as she shifted to her human form, hands planted on her hips. "Let's bargain. We'll all get out and leave you be if you give us back our friends and wake up the other ones that you left there at the edge of the woods. We don't come back in these woods, and you don't come out to bother us."
The spirit creature gave them what was obviously a very dubious look. He probably didn't trust them, and Ravea didn't quite blame him. She didn't pity him, though. He was holding nine people unconscious and doing gods-knew-what to their minds in the process. Nope. No pity.
"Fine. You don't trust us. Then wake these three up and give them to us. We'll take them and leave. When we're out, you wake up the others that are back with us. I don't know what spell you're using on them, but you stop it as soon as we're out. If we come back to the woods at all, then you're free to do what you like. But if we leave you alone, you leave us alone, got it?" Ravea wasn't sure that the spirit really understood all she said, but she saw his expression shift to one of wicked delight and then of acquiescence.
He nodded and uttered more of the spine-tingling hissing, waving his hands around for several moments.
Ravea felt a thrill as the three rangers on the other side of the clearing began to stir. The creature edged out of their way as she and Alinta made their way over, both of them keeping one wary eye on the spirit. She didn't trust him in the least, and Alinta didn't either, if the way the light flared around the wyrm was any indication. She touched Chessa's shoulder as the woman blinked herself awake. "Chessa? Chessa, can you move?"
Her eyes haunted, shivering, the ranger nodded. "Yeah..." she croaked weakly. "Dreams. Nightmares. Chased by trees...."
"They're over now. Come on. I'm not sure how long he'll stay in a good mood for," Ravea said grimly, watching as Alinta helped a wobbly Zaniel to his feet. It took them a few minutes to get all three rangers up, and Ravea had to throw Delph's arm around her shoulders to keep him upright while she took stock of the situation.
The creature was still looking rather delighted as it stared at them, although its fidgeting implied a bit of impatience. Delph was unsteady but awake. He hadn't said a word, but he looked to be a bit better off than Chessa. Zaniel was already wide awake and steady, his amber eyes a mixture of concern for his companions, self-reproach, and dislike for the glowing green forest spirit. Chessa was the worst off, and she was riding on Alinta's back, leaning forward against the wyrm's warm neck. Her eyes were haunted, and she trembled, clinging to Alinta's obvious warmth.
Alinta seemed to barely notice her burden and kept her gaze locked firmly on the creature, even as they moved across the clearing and back into the woods themselves. She stepped behind Ravea, who found it surprisingly more easy to navigate the treacherous woods now. Perhaps the creature had let up on the darkness he held over the trees, eager to get them out and gone. As soon as they emerged back into cool, free air, away from the trees, the creature appeared again.
"Yooooours..." he said, gesturing at the distant lights of the guild headquarters. "Miiiiiine." He gestured at the forest and then vanished in a flare of deep green light, leaving five very relieved beings behind to head back toward safety.
"Gods, that was awful," Delph muttered, his gait quite unsteady as he leaned on Ravea more than she would have liked. "I'm never going back in there again! Wish I knew why he held us instead of letting us go..."
Alinta rumbled quietly, turning to give the teen a mildly reproachful look. "Good, because we're not rescuing you again," she rasped. "And you could say thank you! I nearly wet myself of fright in there trying to save your skinny buttocks!"
Her unusually snobby remark elicited a bark of laughter from Zaniel and Ravea, and even Chessa managed a very weak grin. "I'll say thank you," Zaniel said fervently, leaning against Alinta's shoulder a bit as they made their way slowly along the path. "But for the record, we didn't really need the gory details..."
At the guild headquarters, the miraculous awakening of the six members of the search party prompted an all-around celebration. It was only when they recovered enough to tell of their dark dreams that the guild understood what they had disturbed in the dark woods nearby...The End
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:53 am
The Grade
Creativity: 6/6
Syntax: 1/2
Style: 2/2
Overall: 9/10
Points: 45 exp
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