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Skorga: Orakovan Level 6, 4/6 EXP
LUK: 2, 2/3 exp
Creatures faced:
83: Ysali win (level 5, LUK 1)
53, 38, 13, 4: Ysali fails
Words needed: 1800
Rewards: 1 Ysali Orb, +1 LUK and +4 LUK EXP => +2 LUK and 1 EXP

Calculations

5 + (5/2)*4= 15 exp
takes her to Lv 8 with 6 exp left over

Skjalg batted at Skorga’s tail as she passed him by. Turning to look haughtily at him, she sniffed disapprovingly. “Really Skjalg? Weren’t you napping?”

He chuckled and stood up, stretching his long muscled body out before sauntering about her. “Just waiting for you to finish your lessons with the Shaman. I heard her voice stop talking and woke up. And since the tail was so close…” he chuckled; “I figured we could use some experience with fighting… using our magic in things other than just practice.”

Skorga admired his body for a second before grumbling as he went back to the topic he'd been nagging her about lately.
“You really won’t leave this topic alone will you?”

“No.” He bumped his head gently against hers, “Practice is good, Skorga, but you should at least try your magic and hunting out for real. How will you know anything works if you don't try it on something?”

She growled a little and stalked off. Skjalg smirked before following, knowing he’d hit a sore point and wanting to know why she refused to go hunt dragons.
“I’ve done it… everyone else has gone out and at least attempted to hunt a dragon. Why don’t you Skorga?”

“If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you follow?” Came the snarky response, it was a phrase her people had picked up from the Oblivionites, one she particularly liked to use an Orakoir, when she and her friends couldn't fly. She didn’t want to do it. It sounded painful! Why should she court pain?

“I can fly, so sure. Come on Skorga… come on a hunt with me.” He stepped in front of her and forced her to look him in the eye. “And no excuses this time, Skorga… I know you don’t like pain and like to be lazy... but you need to hunt. You need to hone your skills… We aren’t going to be staying here all the time. You said so yourself! You’re practicing your magic, which is good, and you can hunt down small game to feed yourself, but what if you get attacked by a dragon? Or a two-legger?”

She looked into his eyes and saw concern: Skjalg was worried…and more than a little irritated.

“Will you stop pestering me about hunting if I go just once?” She said with a sigh. She liked her life, liked the quiet and peace of home and didn’t want to risk death. Ever since she’d found those bodies in her glade… She’d seen the bones of Khehora who’d died in battle, found their bodies in her peaceful glade buried deep within the earth, chewed on and shattered. She didn’t want to end up like that. But.. if it would just make him drop the subject then one hunt would be fine… and he’d be there so she wouldn’t die.. right?

He smiled and sat back as she gave in. “For a while! Come on, I know where a flock of Lyru live.”

“Mm.. I do like Lyru…” Birds couldn’t reduce her to bones, couldn’t eat her.


“I know… which is why I suggested it.” He said in an amused tone.

She followed him out into the forest, flying just above the canopy and listening to the sounds below. It was peaceful, bird ad insects singing their songs, the far off cry of a predator, rustle of the leaves in the wind.

“So, now that we’re away from the clan and no one is listening…. What’s your real reason for not hunting?” Jalg slowed down to fly at her side, giving her a look that told her he’d keep prying until she gave in. Skorga did not like to give up her secrets, not to anyone! But… Jalg was Jalg.. her best friend and sweetheart… I can make an exception this time… I know he won’t tell anyone, she thought to herself, and I want him to understand why. It was important that she be understood.

“You know that glade I was practicing in? The one where I was making thorns grow from random plants and vines and setting up a maze of plants?”

“Yeah… though you haven’t gone there for a while.”

“I found bones. Khehora bones. Lots of them. Some were shattered, some chewed on… others just…lay there where they’d fallen.” Skorga said in a soft voice. “Something ate some of them, you can tell from the placement…. Others just .. I don’t know how they died. But they were just left there in an untidy mess. No one buried them… My plants found them when I sent their roots deep into the earth. I could see through my plants, see what was in their way… The plants liked that soil; dead bodies make for healthy soil filled with energy.” She was quiet for a while; Skjalg flew by her side, knowing there was more and that she needed time to get it out.

“I.. I don’t want to end up like that. Those bones were from older Khehora, adults who are stronger than me, bigger than me… If they ended up like that, then I can too. Bones carry in them the memory of the power that the once held when alive… these had a lot of power still lingering in them. If they, fully grown and powerful, can be killed and eaten… then what about me? I’m really young and have not grown into my power, won’t I get eaten?”

Skjalg made a soft sound, one of comfort. “You’re afraid Skorga… that’s natural… well.. natural for those with brains..” He said wryly, she gave a small smile in response. There were a lot of brainless idiots in her clan who just charged off without thinking. “But if you never try you’ll never succeed either.”

“I know.” Skorga growled softly. “But I want more power before I risk that…” She looked over at him questioningly, “How do you deal with it? Knowing you could be eaten and the rest left for the forest to consume?”

“Hrm… I.. I’d say I’m not afraid. But a part of me is. I’d also say I haven’t thought about it, but I have. I know each fight could be my last. But to get stronger I need to fight. To survive greater odds, I have to challenge myself. So… if I stayed safe my whole life, I would never become strong enough, I’d always worry about dying, and I'd never be able to do anything about it. The stronger I get, the less fear there is… or---No... There is not less fear.” Skjalg coasted for a moment, letting the wind hold him up as he thought. “There is the same fear but now I am used to it. I’ve learned more than just how to hunt and fight, but also how to deal with the fear.” He looked at her and smiled. “That’s what you need… you need to learn to deal with the fear.”

She thought for a moment, everything he said ... fit, sounded right, correct. But… she didn’t want to end up bones in the earth! She growled, fear… she hated it. And hated that if she told anyone else other than Jalg they’d mock her.
“I’ll try…” She said, “but don’t expect me to like it.”

“You did fight those mara…” Jalg said in a questioning tone.

“With a group and I was in the back with the mages and archers and there was no way I’d be reached. It’s easy to be strong when others are there to protect you…”

She gave a startled squeak and flapped her wings to quickly dash upwards into the air. Something had just used green magic. Something nearby. The plants told her it was hostile, and some plants she could not sense, another's power filled them.

Skjalg followed and hovered above her, “What, Skogra?”

“Something.. just used plant magic.. I can still feel it down there.” She nodded her head at the dark canopy beneath them. “Some of the plants are being controlled… and it’s not friendly…”

Skjalg’s eyes lit up; “Ysali dragon?” He asked, an eager tone in his voice, one that wanted to fight. Skorga wondered how he could be so eager to attack, to kill.

“Probably… I don’t think a Khehora would attack us like that.”
He grinned reached out with his magic to the shadows below, "Guess we’re hunting dragons now and not Lyru! Don’t worry Skorga…and don’t panic. If you panic you won’t be able to fight back.” He said before he dove down into the trees. Skorga hissed in annoyance.

“Oh don’t worry don’t panic… Already worried! And what idiot dives down into a forest when he knows there’s a Ysali dragon down there?” She reached out and poured some of her power into the pants about the vines she could feel controlled by another. She couldn’t take them away, but she could bind them with other plants! She followed, casting her magic out to touch other plants, seeing through them the location of not one but five Ysali dragons. Everything that walked, touched a plant, and the plants could tell what touched them, stepped upon them. For those with the ability to listen, the world was filled with soft whispers of plants.

Skjalg was in danger! She hissed and asked, not command, but asked the plants near the dragons to start rustling, asked them to warn him of the other four dragon's locations. She could not let him get hurt! Her heart pounding, afraid of getting hurt herself as well as for him, she slid into a tree's thick canopy and listened to Skjalg’s growls and roars of the dragon as they grappled in shadow. She could see that he was using his shadows to keep the curling vines away, leaving only tooth and claw to attack with.
But that was just one... and there were two more sneaking while another two were close by but not approaching yet. She hissed in annoyance to herself and dove down towards the one closest to the tumbling melee, causing it to duck and back up. Landing in another tree, she hid once more, asking the plants around her to not tell of her location. She had, over the last few months realized that asking the plants sometimes worked better than just using magic to force them. Magic she used mostly as a fuel, pouring it into plants to help them grow, help them do what she asked for, though she did know how to force them if need be.

The dragon Jalg was facing, something twice his size, gave a gurgling cry that was cut off suddenly. A ball of dark shadows surrounding them seethed in different shades of black and grey before suddenly spewing forth many sharp thin needles, hitting the two dragons who had come to see what all the fuss was about.
Skorga, worried for Jalg and afraid of the two Dragons that were approaching her, suddenly remembered her pouch of seeds. Hadn't she prepared that just for situations like this? She threw the entire thing at them, pouring magic into the briar seeds within to cause huge vines covered in long sharp thorns to curl about one dragon and lash out at the other.
Skorga saw the dragon die, it’s eyes dimming as it’s life left… then it’s body disintegrating eerily to leave behind only a glimmering orb. She gave a soft whimper. That was a death she never wanted. Jalg, hearing her voice, charged out of his shadowy ball to attack the nearest dragon, tendrils of shadow creeping over it to pin it to the ground and leave him a clear shot at its neck. Skorga, seeing the last two dragons were once again approaching after the shadow spikes dispersed, poured the last of her magic into the vine covered trees between her and them, creating a wall of branches and vines to keep her and Jalg safe. She could feel them taking control of the plants from her though, so she hissed at Jalg to hurry up and get the orbs then get out of there.

He chuckled and grabbed her orb as well before flying up and away, following her as she fled.

“That wasn’t so bad right?” He asked. She hissed in half annoyance, half relived anger. It was bad. Terrible! Why’d she have to do that? He’d been so stupid! Charged in to a pack of five!! This was why she didn't want to go hunting yet; she wasn't strong enough!