Floating lives (Closed)

[Saloo]

Shay laughed nervously. He didn't like leaving himself this visible, but if he wasn't he was likely to lose Alex in the dark. He wasn't used to wanting people to follow him.

"Well... I'm not sure if it will actually help. It's a bit of a cultural center, so I'm sure if we can get this place you're from, we can find the way there. That and well..." Shay paused, a little smile appearing on his face. "I've got an old friend who lives in that town. I just hope he's not off on one of his little adventures for once..."

They moved quickly through the town. They soon left the chaos at the bar behind them and the sound died away, leaving them to make their way through the silent city. Shay lead them to the south edge of the city. The moon was bright, giving them easily enough light to see by.

"Right. We're going to head for those hills, there," he said, pointing to a wooded valley to the southeast. "Once we get out of the city, we should be safe. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they've given up already. If they can't corner me, they'll never catch me." Shay gave a self-satisfied smile.

"I'm pretty sure that even they know that by now."

[Akion]

Alex let out a sigh as he walked along the path towards the hills Shay had pointed to. Looking around Alex took in the sights of the local country side, the plants here were alot greener than the ones back home the sun must shine upon these plants alot more than where he came from.

"So this place we're headed to, Delterum. It's two days away?" Alex asked as he absently kicked a few pebles in his path along the road, "is that two days of just walking? or does that factor in resting time as well?"

[Saloo]

"Is that two days of just walking? Or does that factor in resting time as well?"

Shay laughed softly. "Of course that includes sleeping. I don't intend to walk for two days strait, do you?"

They entered the sheltered valley. A small stream wound it's way through the tall grass and trees. Shay found himself a good-sized rock next to the stream and sat on it. He looked up at the sky and took a deep breath.

"Well, it may be a bit close to Boas, but it's as good a place as any to rest for a while." Shay let out a slightly depressed sigh. "Damn it... And here I thought I was going to avoid sleeping on the rocks again."

[Sentari]

The very air was quite literally trembling with agitation, the entire city seemed to be collectively inhaling as it dawned on them just what exactly had transpired moments before... nothing like it had ever happened since... well, before the Harmony had been established, and that was a very, very long time. The focus of this agitation skidded to a halt at the end of dome-roofed hallway and waved its hand over the the door control there. A soft tone, and the door shimmered, vanishing like water. Another, harsher tone from the door told the focus that the Harmony had already found them and was trying to close the door.

The figure scraped through to the other side of the doorway, scant milliseconds before it finished reforming. The figure stopped and took stock of their surroundings and situation. A walkway suspended a kilometer or so above the roiling surface of the Great Ocean, above, the rocky underside of one of the gargantuan stone arches from which the cities of Harmony dangled like stalactites in clusters of spires. Normally, these cities radiated an aura of blue or golden light... right now, though, it was starting to turn red as anger and rage at the figures actions... or rather their decision, began to permeate the population.

The figure began to run, even though they knew the futility of the situation. As if to prove the point, both the door from the tower behind, and the one at the far end of the walkway opened simultaneously, and security forces began to take up positions at both ends. They were unarmed, but then, carrying weapons would just have been a waste of effort. The figure stopped, midway between both towers. A robed man stepped away from the forces at the tower the figure had just left, and walked calmly towards the runaway.

The crimson light of the Harmony had become powerful enough to actually illuminate the figure now. A young man, unlikely to have even see his second decade of life. Motes of light glinted off of his arms, where tracks of delicate looking metalwork wove their way from his fingers and up his arms, to vanish into the concealment of his clothing. His face, too, showed some of this metalworking, though only on a small section of the right side of his face. He glared at the approaching man.

"Now now, young one. Your hostility is not needed"

The man's voice rang clearly through the night air, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. The younger man winced away slightly, as though hearing the voice had induced physical pain.

"I'm not going back... find someone else."

The boy had spoken with a 'real' voice, which cracked slightly with even those few words, as though he had not used it in a long time.

"If it were that simple, do you not think we would not ask this of you?"
"It's not asking if you force me to do it."

The air quivered in anger again.

"I... I don't want to fight..."
"Then come return with us and-"
"But... I won't... won't go back, not ever... not..."

The boy lifted one arm into the air, and screwed his eyes shut. Now seeming like smoke, the crimson essence of the Harmony began to swirl around his hand, building into a condensed manifestation of a people's rage and hate. The security forces raised their palms to the boy, disciplined minds unleashing bolts of psycho-kinetic energy, though even these were sucked up and added to the swirl of destruction.

"Stop! Stop! You will destroy us all!"

The boy was deaf to the man's cries. Blinded by fear and the rage he now wielded, he brought his hand down, clenched his fist, and unleashed everything he had against the man. Only after, cleansed of the massed emotion, did the boy realize his mistake.

The attack carved through the man, the security forces and into the tower at the far end, severing the end of the bridge as it did. With a tortured groan, the bridge began to twist downwards, towards the ocean below. Desperate, the boy tried to grab hold of something, but the smooth surface of the walkway yielded nothing and he began to slide downwards.

His last thoughts before slipping over the edge into the abyss below were powerful enough to snap the colouring of the Harmony from red to sorrowful blue...

[Akion]

Alex sat down on a near by rock "You sleep on rocks often? I'm guessing that the hotel is some what of a luxury for you then?" Alex picked up the rock next to his feet it was course and worn with time but it still had a slightly defined point to it. Alex looked over the feild and wondered if some many many years ago a battle had taken place here, shrugging Alex tossed the rock into the grass behind him.

Looking down the valley Alex noticed the mouth of the valley was quite close, Boas's lights still within view though the shape of the town was now an ill defined mass of buildings. "Tell me Shay; do you know how Boas got it's name?" Alex asked absent mindedly as he stared at it. For such a large town on the verge of being a city it seemed to have a rather understated name. "It's just with all the lights and buildings you'd of thought that the town would have a bigger sounding name. or at least a title."

[Saloo]

"You sleep on rocks often? I'm guessing that the hotel is some what of a luxury for you then?" asked Alex. Shay sighed, as if reminded of something unpleasant.

"I'm sorry to say that I do. I travel a lot, and I don't always end up in a town between days, you know? Besides, every time I stay in a hotel, I risk having to deal with a situation like the one you saw back there." Shay gestured in the general direction of Boas.

"Tell me Shay; do you know how Boas got it's name? It's just with all the lights and buildings you'd of thought that the town would have a bigger sounding name. or at least a title."

"How Boas got it's name?" Shay leaned back, looking up at the stars through a break in the trees above. "Well... As far as I can tell, it was named after the river it's built on. I'm not sure if you saw it back there. We never crossed it, but it's the Boas River. I think the river was named after a kind of snake or something like that.

"The river is a big one though. The capital, Aurnar, is built on it too. If I remember correctly... It comes all the way down from the Sanki Mountains up in the northwest. Then, it leads south through the Guardians Palace and by Aurnar." Shay paused. "If you think about it like that, it's got a pretty big name, this city. It's named after the biggest river in Plana."

[Akion]

Alex pondered what Shay had said. For a place to be named after the biggest river in a country was pretty impressive, where he came from Alex had not heard of such things. The towns and citys were named after their founders or even the kings.

Looking around he noticed a few small holes around them, probably native creatures and such. "Shay do you have sand voles in your country?" Alex asked as he looked over one of the holes it seemed similar to the burrows which the voles dug. "I mean these holes are similar to what my country has, the sand voles make them as their home. We could catch a few for food." he said thoughtfully. His hand played tentivly with the hilt of the knife he'd picked up earlier as he thought about how to catch one.

[Saloo]

"Sand voles?" asked Shay, looking at Alex. "Never heard of them. Those holes are from field mice. Although, you may want to be careful if you stick your hand in there. Sometimes the snakes take up residents in the holes."

Shay smiled. "You really don't have to worry about food anyway. I was in Boas for a while, so I picked up some travel food." He sat up and started rummaging through his many pouches and pockets. "I assume that, since you're asking about food, you're hungry." He found what he was looking for and pulled out a small pouch that was tied shut.

"Catch." He tossed it to Alex. "There's some dried meat in there. It's Zilka meat, so it's better than what I normally carry. Feel free to keep that with you. Food makes traveling easier. At least, it does for me."

"So, I guess you're not used to traveling then? I mean, you lived on an island and never saw the ocean."

[Akion]

Alex looked down at the holes once more pouch in hand. "I guess that where I am from and where we are right now are very different places."

Sitting down on an ajacent rock Alex pulled out a strip of the dried meat. Looking it over he tore a piece off from the strip and rolled it around as he worked away at it, it was salted and rather dry, he had a feeling that the after taste would stay with him for a while to come. Swallowing it he felt the hunger pangs die down slightly "Thank you." he said before taking another bite.

The strip of meat gone Alex looked at Shay, "Travel much? no not really I only ever left the village once, there was never much need to travel, How long are we going to be waiting here? If we wait untill sun rise we might end up meeting a traveller or a bounty hunter, and with your reputation I really don't like the idea of having to run away down the valley."

[Saloo]

"How long are we going to be waiting here? If we wait untill sun rise we might end up meeting a traveller or a bounty hunter, and with your reputation I really don't like the idea of having to run away down the valley."

Say sighed again. "I guess you're right. We should get as far as we can before the sun comes up, just in case someone more insistent than the city guards decides to look for me." He stood, dusting off his black pants.

"If we follow this road, there's a backwoods trail that we can take to the east for a bit-" Shay suddenly stopped, as if he had just remembered something. He hit himself on the forehead. "s**t... I forgot about the wall. That may cause us some problems," he said. Especially if I have to take this kid along, he added in thought.

"Well, we can figure that part out as we go. Come on, let's get going..." He turned and headed deeper into the valley, following the stream. He put his hands into his pockets and grumbled a little as he started thinking about how they could get around the wall.

[Akion]

"The... The wall?" Alex asked as he walked behind Shay "What's the wall?" Alex considered this as he walked along, by Shay's reaction it was not somthing he was looking forward to.

Alex looked around and noticed a stick of about 12 inches on the side of the road. It was odd there were not any trees near by, nor were there any bushes big enough for it. Picking it up the stick he turned it over in his hand as he walked a bit faster to keep pace with Shay.

Looking down at the stick he traced it's indents with a finger, it was smooth and the grain was almost not there, at the end was a small leaf still alive along the side Alex felt a rough carving of characters he couldn't make out. Looking at them they were so faint and obscure it was harder to make out then using his finger. "Shay what do you make of this?" he asked offering the stick to him

[Sentari]

It was rather surprising, really, that the fall into the ocean hadn't killed him outright... the fact that he was able to think how surprising it was just made his head spin. Or maybe he was dead... and this was what the afterlife felt like... but then, why did his lungs burn and cry out for air that would never come? Was he being punished for his cowardice? Yes... yes that must be it... he'd run away, run from a task so sacred that the entire population of his home had cried out for his blood when he'd left.

... How idiotic he'd been...

The boy opened his eyes. There, not so very far above him was a shimmer of light, a beacon that was taunting him with promise of salvation, to ease the pain and end his suffering. He reached out slowly, just to try, but its presence eluded his grasp and something below, something dark and and unknowable seemed to grab him and pull him deeper into the depths. In his oxygen deprived state, his muddled brain found it quite funny how his arm had taken it on itself to wave goodbye to the little speck of light. Darkness enshrouded him. This was it...


He suddenly became aware of another change in his environment... laying on his side on ground that felt like it was rapidly turning to mud, heavy drops of torrential rain pounding against him. And the air! Oh gods, he'd never realized just how much he'd taken breathing for granted! He dare not open his eyes in case whatever spell or illusion this was burst and floated away, instead simply laying there, breathing slowly and relishing every breath.

There was one other thing he began to notice as his body began to reawaken from its air-lacking coma. The sheer absolute silence! The rain was coming down so hard that he wouldn't have heard a Pulser go off even if it had been just meters away... but the surrounding, overwhelming silence of it all was like... like... like nothing he could ever have dreamed of.

[Saloo]

"The... The wall?" Alex asked. "What's the wall?"

Shay took a deep breath. "The Wall is exactly what it sounds like. It's a defensive wall. It blocks off the pass that leads to the east. It was built in the last age, when a plague or something of that sort infected the coastal regions and they wanted to keep it there.

"The bad thing is that it works both ways. It's going to make it difficult to get through that pass, and it's the only way unless we want to take a few weeks to go around to the south," he finished with a sigh.

"Shay what do you make of this?"

Shay turned. He took the stick in hand and examined it. Running his fingers over the letters, Shay managed to make them out.

"Hmm... That's something I didn't expect to find out here..." He handed the stick back to Alex. "As far as I can tell, the letters are some form of old religious text. I can't really tell what it says, but since it was carved on a still-living branch, I would say it was left by one on Planelia's followers. It's probably a protective charm for travelers. You can keep it with you if you want. If you believe in that kind of thing."

[Akion]

Alex looked it over and thought it was a nice thing to take along, "Well there's no harm in taking it along, protective charm or not it's still alive. Life shouldn't be wasted in a valley like this." Holding it up to the moon he smiled. All things happen for a reason he thought to himself as he looked at the stick, maybe he found it for a reason.

"The wall... maybe there's a crack in it? or a hole? somthing we can climb through? you said it was an ancient thing. It must have degraded some what." Alex said considering it as he walked along, "The houses where I used to live always had to be patched up after the storms, some times even the stone ones."