Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dontee smirks slightly, seeing the creature move it's mask to show it roll it's eyes at him. He kept his arms crossed as he listened carefully to the creature, becoming more aware of what it is staying. He sighs. "Well, obviously curiosity isn't much of an excuse for you, now is it?... I painted quite a picture of the situation at hand, yet you wish to know even more of a reason for me to approach you... Well, fine..." He leans forward slightly. "... I approach you to feed my curiosity because I do not fear you. I see you as another life form struggling in the world, like so many are... You may be able to cause harm, I know... but potentially you may be peaceful... otherwise you would be trying to kill me as we are currently conversing. I won't harm you if you aren't harming others is my golden rule, with some limited exceptions... such as poking a syringe into a child's arm to inject them a cure to an illness they are suffering or cutting something off of someone to insure that an infection doesn't spread, as some people do.”

He then shrugs his shoulders. ”… but if you feel threatened or uneasy about my presence, then I can leave, for I have little need to stay around a smoking bar and a creature that is apparently unaware of how to have a proper and pleasant conversation.” He says as he steps back and turns a bit so that he no longer faced the creature, his left shoulder being the closest towards the creature.

x-Grey-Rain-x

Shadowing Death

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"Just a little case of mood poisoning. Must be something I hate."

Lael's wings fluttered almost nervously at Karinda's comment about their capability. In truth, Lael had only ever tried to use them once - and once had been quite enough.

They continued through the tunnel in almost complete silence. The only comments to pass their lips were to note difficult areas of the tunnel as Saiirin lit the way. When the little dragon wasn't looking Lael couldn't help but spend an extra moment looking at her. She wished she had a dragon for a companion in her life.

That's why you're headed to Templum, remember? Any companion you can work with will be a good companion. Lael thought to herself.

As the rough rock began to smooth and the stairs re-appeared, Lael announced that they weren't far. By the time the stairs and walls had turned to marble and the sweet, fresh salt laced air had reached them, they could see a slither of light from the doorway ahead. Finally the ground evened out and Lael sprang forward, running toward the aged oak door. It swung easliy on the hinges.

Lael took a greatful breath of the fresh air and smiled. Below them lay the city. Somewhere behind the castle the frist staircase began, curving up the cavernous walls, leading to any number of disguised entrances and exits from Templum. A quater of the way around the city, a similiar staircase begun again, and another again far below their feet. These three huge staircases formed a sort of spiral to the surface, growing ever outward to accomodate for the next staircase.

Where they stood now, Lael and Karinda were backed against one of the sheer cliff like rises of a staircase, their ledge just big enough that two men could ride their horses along it side by side, although not without a certain amount of discomfort. This ledge curved around the edge until it came level with the marble stairs, where it joined them and seemed to meld into them. The small picket fences that ran along the edge of the staircases and ledges, seen to be all over Templum, were just enough to stop young chilrden from toppling to their deaths, but would never have held the weight of a grown man thrown against them.

Lael edged up to the side of her ledge and looked down. It always made her dizzy, but she had decided long ago that it was shameful for a creature with wings to be so afraid of heights. Perhaps if she pushed herself to look upon the drop every so often, she would eventually get used to it.

As she stepped away from the ledge, butterflies fluttering in her stomach, she let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Karinda and Saiirin.

"Welcome to Templum."

((Take note of the descriptions here, all ye Defenders! If you have trouble understanding it, let me know.))

Karinda gaped at the sight before her. Standing on a ledge a hair’s breadth large enough to allow two horses to walk side-by-side, a city gazed up at her from far below within the precipice created by the surrounding walls. Even from their height, the city looked large, some if its buildings built in the old ways while some looked as strange as a pig with five legs. A castle stood near the far end of the magnificent city, its towers reaching up over the other buildings.

Three massive staircases carved into the circular wall spiraled up the rock wall until they ended at large, intricately carved doors far above. Connected to the staircases, other ledges similar to the one upon which she and Lael stood connected to the large sets of stairs, their presence lying great in numbers. Following the nearest white-fence-lined staircases with her eyes, Karinda found its end near the back of the castle, while the others ended an equal distance away from one another. Looking to the other side, she saw the door through which she had so easy strode had been fitted into the back of a second of the staircases.

“Well,” she breathed, Saiirin motionless at her side from amazement. “’Tis… Extraordinary,” she finished, the sight taking any words she had to say from her mouth.

Walking close to the unguarded edge, Karinda slowly walked toward the staircase to which the ledge connected.



Chaim smiled at Eve’s words.

“As the Lady says,” he replied, his feet carrying them quickly forward. “To avoid any questioning, we shall remain all but invisible to the human authorities. Unless we do something to call to their attention or they know they’re looking for us, their eyes will remain blind to our presence.”

A movement within the shadow of a building caught his eye. His gaze fell momentarily upon a woman sitting within the darkness. The lights of the streetlamps flicked on, their light falling just short of the woman dwelling within the shadow. Sparing her only an extra moment as he and Eve walked by, he cast his gaze again forward.

A few blocks away, a man with a large sword tethered to his back entered his sight. Nearing, the scent of alcohol filled his nostrils as it clung to the man’s clothes while beyond, the flashing red and blue lights of the police cars shone on the walls as the cars pulled into park outside a bar.

“Excuse me,” Chaim placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Do you know anything about what’s happened here?”

((I'm sorry for the wait again! They will cease to happen! I refuse to make a habit of it!))

"Agreed." Loki, finally paying attention to the commotion, nodded and began to move at a faster pace. It bothered her that she had dismissed something that turned out to be more serious than she thought.

Jarod, accustomed to hurrying around strange places, easily kept up. He too had seen the black smoke in the sky. That, and all the people and vehicles screaming and the flashing lights... it all excited him. He wanted to know what had happened, what was going on, who had caused it.

Finally they arrived, their usual 'plan of attack' was initiated. Loki took on the form of something small, Jarod's appeared age changed, he grew a few feet and wore a change of men's clothing carried in his pack. Bebinn of course was taken into account, and she got her own room. The pair assumed she would want privacy. After they made it in, Loki-the-pet had climbed in through a window, then went into the bathroom to change back to her human self and shower.

Jarod, also clean now, had found it more convenient to remain in the older disguise he had taken on. His blond hair and blue eyes were both replaced by brown, his freckles were gone, and he looked to be around twenty years of age. His voice of course had also deepened to match his age. His clothing consisted of jeans, comfortable black shoes and a simple light blue dress shirt. Jarod sat by a window now, eating what remained in his box of crackers, as well as some other food he had purchased from the inn's lunch room. "Can we go see what caused all that commotion?" he asked Loki.

"I don't know. Maybe tomorrow. I'm curious myself, but remember it's not just us anymore." Loki sat on the bed in their room, sorting out what they had in their bags. "We'd have to let Bebinn know, it would be trouble to just get up and go without letting her know first. Speaking of which, we should check on her, make sure everything's going alright. I don't think she's traveled anyplace in a real long time."

"She's kind of scary," Jarod admitted. "You get used to her though. What is she again? Wait, never mind, I'll ask her." He got up and walked to their door, then opened it and looked back at his mother, beckoning for her to go through. "Ladies first." After she had gone through he closed it and went to knock on the one right next to theirs.

Alexander smirks, playing like he is drunk slightly due to the man's response as he walked on. "Yeah, alright, bye then." He says before turning back around to squint his eyes slightly and walk firmly on. "... Walking towards the incident now, while there's nothing left to see but remains..." He thought, mainly of the man being a bit foolish to wish to see the bar now, being it would become a crowded mess.

Alexander soon made it to his next destination, stepping back a few steps to get a look at a sign that hanged above the door before stepping inside the library. He walks to the front desk and asks a silent question to the librarian at it before walking off from her to look over the shelves. "... Of course they have no real book of dragons... why would they?" He asks himself in thought as he looks over a bookshelf.