Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vilya listened as Sai's voice echoed softly about the cave. She could feel her cheeks flush and was glad for the orange light of the fire that hid the fact.
When he offered her food she held up one hand.
"I can't. My customs won't allow it. Not until I've finished what I set out to do."
Tura growled in the back of her mind. .


Vilya shut her eyes tight, then looked at the gryphon, calm and expressionless behind her.
"No one else in my clan would even have hesitated." The shame in her voice was evident to Tura, the gryphon was silent for a moment.

The young girl glared at her companion, then drew the dagger and rose to step outside.
Tura watched her go, but made no move to follow.
She thought sadly.
Tura stared after the girl for a moment before turning back to the fire.


Vilya stood a little ways away from the entrance to the cave. She looked up at the sky and even the moon seemed wrong somehow. Outside, alone she could truly appreciate the twisted and damaged atmosphere the wild magic created. The trees here seemed bent and rigid, almost as if they had been frozen in agony. There was no wind, but a low, humming sound whispered through the small plateau, like the ghost of a wind. Slowly she raised the dagger and looked at it. It was still the same, its delicately etched blade glinting in the moonlit night.
Slowly, in a voice no louder than a whisper she began to repeat the words of her clan's blood feud spell.

((Which I will post...as soon as I come up with it.))

Tura echoed, then met his eyes.
Tura continued after a short pause.
Tura's gaze went back to the fire, her voice when she spoke again seemed distant, as if her mind was far away.

((Gah, short post...getting into exams next week...not fun.))

Vilya closed her eyes, holding the knife before her in one hand, its blade lining up with the horizon.
“Hai qua hakenai venri lookshao gen diir” The words drifted into the air as their meaning drifting through her mind..’grant the bearer strength…’

“Kwean venri geire kon hsrvun…”

‘strength paid for with blood’

“Haivvaan untao fesk brevet…”

‘so the spell will be repaid’

“Uurka Derkvaire bur Hakenai.”

‘By the enemy or the bearer.’

As she repeated the verse once, hidden symbols on the dagger began to glow. Light trickled like water onto her hand and down her arm, etching a pattern into her coat. Vilya winced as the magic took hold of her but did not falter in repeating the spell a second time.
Whispers began to echo around her, as if all who had taken the oath before were speaking it with her. The light sunk through her clothes, into her skin and through that. Vilya could feel the magic becoming a part of her. The feeling was both thrilling and terrifying. Boldly she spoke the verse one last time, as the magic settled, it began to pulse in time with her heart. The feeling faded and slowly died. The light vanished, and Vilya was left in silence, staring out into the moonlit night.
She pulled back the sleeve of her coat to see her arm, now patterned in black with the symbols that had appeared in light during the incantation.

Tura rose as well but did not move to stop him,

Vilya looked up in surprise, as if she hadn't even noticed Sai until he spoke. She pulled her sleeve back over the mark no meeting his eyes as she faced him. "You'd have tried to stop me." She said quietly. There was no anger in her voice as she spoke again, only something that could have been regret.
"I'm not asking you to understand Sai, my culture is a lot different from your own..The spell changes very little, it'll only be triggered if my life is in danger." She tried to reassure him. "I don't need protecting Sai, I need to see this done."
There was a short silence as she laid a gentle hand on Sai's shoulder before moving past him.
"Lets get some sleep."
As she reached the mouth of the cave she drew her arms about herself and stopped.
"And Sai?...thank you...for coming with me."

Tura pulled back one wing as her companion lay down against her feathery side, as she always did when they were traveling. The gryphon's warmth comforted her and she was glad Tura did not press her about the spell.
Tura nibbled her hair fondly before tucking her wing over the girl so only her head could be seen.
Tura purred, but Vilya could hardly hear her, she was already drifting off into the darkness of sleep.

((yup, morning. Awww fluffy post! blaugh ))

Dawn's light found Vilya packing her bag while Tura was curled tightly into a black, feathery ball.
Carefully she woke her sleeping companion, who yawned and roused Stratus with a mental nudge.
The sun had risen as it always had. Vilya had been afraid that it might not given where they were. It was a comforting fact. The snow glistened as they made their way from the cave, but even though the sun was bright, the sense of unease never left her.
As they climbed the snow began to harden under their feet, soon solid sheets of blue ice became their path but what was odd was the fact that is did not become colder the further they went, but warmer.
Vilya found herself taking off the heavy fur coat the old woman had given her.
Not long after they found the reason why. Stretching across the path, about twenty feet wide, a thick river of molten rock cut through the ice. Vilya examined it carefully, following it to an icy wall against the mountainside. She could see the magma dripping from a ledge behind the ice, but it did not seem to be melting any of it!
"Do you think we could fly over it?"
The gryphon stepped forward. Semita de lucis.>
Slowly a faint glow spread over the river, solidifying into a bridge.

((I think its great, very good character development for Vilya.))

Tura watched as the spell faded once they were safely across. She turned back to Vilya only to find her staring at something ahead. A deer, its rump facing them, antlers clattering in a tree.
"Do you think its stuck?" Vilya asked, stepping forward.
The gryphon cautioned.
Her companion nodded and drew her scimitar. As she drew closer she stepped on a loose chunk of ice. It crunched under her boot. The animal stopped moving and raised its furred head, she still couldn't see its face. Vilya stopped as well and watched.
Without warning the animal spun around and she cried out in shock. There was no hair on its face, no skin or flesh, only a bleached, white skull grinning at her as it charged. Its dark eye-sockets held no emotion, but she could feel the rage of the beast as it came down on top of her.
Like lightning Vilya recovered and dodged to the side, bringing her sword up and across to slash the animal across its chest. She spun, expecting to see it fall only to have it right behind her!
She just had time to see the deep slash her scimitar had made before the creature caught her in its antlers and tossed her like a rag doll.
Vilya landed, the wind knocked out of her she struggled to her feet. A flash of black and Tura was before her, facing the skeletal creature with a blood-curdling roar.

The sword cut through it easily. The animal's body jerking as the current exploded through it but still it tried to move forward.
Vilya fell back into the snow, clasping her left side. It was hard for her to breathe and a throbbing pain made it all the more difficult.
I can't complete my task like this. She thought in frustration, suddnely she felt the magic of the spell flare inside her. The symbols shone through her skin for brief moment and suddenly she could breathe again. The pain receded and she rose to rejoin the battle.
Tura spoke quickly as the headless body lunged at her. She batted it aside with one strong wing and continued to defend her companion.
Because of all that was happening Tura did not see that someone was watching them.

((Short post it short gonk ))

((Well excuuuuuse me for keeping my standards. blaugh ))

The creature convulsed and sank, shriveling into a wrinkled skin which burned as the magic that animated it began to blaze in a burst of energy. It gave one last warped cry before it collapsed, the skull falling to the snow as smoke coiled from the eye sockets.
Tura and Vilya had held their breaths and let them out at the same time after a few moments of stillness. Tura stood up straight and came slowly back down the slope to the path, Vilya right behind her.
She growled.
As Vilya approached too Tura did not look at her, but spoke through a mind voice only her companion could hear. Her tone was harsh;



Tura glared at her, then without warning she cast a bringing spell; <capulus istoc accede.> Tura gabbed the hilts of Vilya's scimitars which flew into her beak and walked a few paces away. She laid them on the snow and held one weathered talon gently over them.
The spell was long and complex and Vilya listened intently but did not move to stop her. Many of the words were ancient and to her; incomprehensible, but the little she did catch told her it was a magical protection spell.
Tura once finished sat down and gently scooped up the swords.

Vilya took them carefully, sheathed them and lay a hand on the gryphon's feathered neck.
"We'll get through this." She promised.
The gryphon looked at her through tired eyes.
Vilya looked away, she had no answer for her.

They continued one after recovering from the attack. Vilya saw the landscape become even more strange. Magma now flowed freely in little streamlets that laced the hills. They coiled over the icy banks, even snaked their way up dead trees to from dripping blobs at the end of branches that looked like fruit from the pits of Tartarus itself.
The gryphon muttered.
Tall spikes of blue ice grew out of the ground as well, the place would have been beautiful if it wasn't so wrong.

"Admiring the garden are we?"
A cold, commanding voice rang out through the air. Vilya and Tura looked about wildly, wondering how on earth he escaped their magical detection spells.
There was a short laugh that sent chills up Vilya's spine as recognition came upon her.
"I am in my palace." It said. and at once a wall of ice crumbled away, but as it did, sculptures were formed, and intricate archways. The entrance to the dark palace suddenly stood, as grand as any king's castle, cut into the living face of the glacier.