Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Just so everyone knows, it's A-l-i-a-n-a. Dunno if it's just typos or whatever, but between the L and the N, there is both an I and a second A. Those letters keep getting forgotten, haha.))

Aliana's spirits rose a bit when, after speaking, Lucrezia voiced approval. She had always had the feeling the woman possibly disliked her; they had very rarely spoken. She began feeling good about this whole situation. Her emotions had simmered down, everyone seemed relatively happy, and as of yet, no one was extending their objection to her joining the group. But before she had the time to let her mind wander to a different issue, Nox grabbed her wrist. She gave him a puzzled look, and he just said something about speaking in private. She didn't have time to reply before he dragged her outside, into a side alley.

Once outside, standing in the cold and the snow, Nox began talking. The words that tumbled a bit awkwardly out of his mouth were surprising, nothing like what Aliana had expected to hear. She had prepared herself to be scolded again on being too emotional or on why she shouldn't go. Instead, what she got was a confession. She was grateful that Nox did not outright say he loved her, because that would be a little too shocking and she would worry he was investing too strongly in false affections. Instead, he simply made it clear that his feelings for her were strong. Despite the cold and her hardest efforts, a pink flush crept up her cheeks. She hoped he wouldn't notice.

It seemed he didn't, though, because he moved on to talk about the changes that had affected them. Until now, she had not noticed a single difference in Nox, but her attention was now drawn to the way his teeth were not quite a normal person's. And his eyes... She had always liked people's eyes and payed close attention to their color, favoring the colors of everyone else but herself. She was particularly partial to green eyes, and Nox's were such a pretty green, like his mother's. But now they seemed to be changing color. Not that subtle way like Kristalia's, which were two colors in one, but a stunning contrast. She figured his eyes were connected to the internal transition he was talking about. It frightened her a little for a moment--if she said the same thing, would he go off on her?--but then she found herself overwhelmed with concern, especially when Nox sat down. Perhaps the changing of his eyes and teeth caused him physical pain? She couldn't tell, but she thought she saw him shivering a bit.

"Nox..." Aliana slowly kneeled down to his level, the cold snow soaking through the knees of her pants and sending a single shiver through her body. Gently, she reached out and put her hand on his cheek, along his jaw, and tilted his head up. She leaned forward and closely inspected his eyes, then used her thumb to lift his lip and look at his teeth. "I think..." She paused to collect her thoughts. It would be inconsiderate of her not to know what she was saying and confuse him. "First of all, I'm not going to die. Darius outran the dragon. Of course I can. Second..." She placed the back of her free hand on Nox's forehead. "I think you may be just a tiny bit sick. You're somewhat warm." Then she stood, pulling him up with her and leading him gingerly back inside. "Just don't stay up late drinking. I'm sure you can sleep off the slight fever."

"Sorry," she announced when they rejoined the others. "Nox just wanted to clarify his case. Though unless Darius or Ragnvald object, I do believe I'm still going." At this point she noticed Ragnvald's return. She also noticed his appearance. For the moment, she chose to ignore the fact that he looked like he'd already drank himself half to death.

After Sebastian neglected to respond to Jacob's question, he leaned back in his chair and continued to sip the warming alcohol. He sipped it slowly, but his brain started to feel strange. It would be hard for him to explain to anyone what was going on inside of his skull. His arms started to feel slightly weak and it was getting hard to hold his body upright, even in the chair. Despite this, he took another large gulp, making the edges of his mind become hazy with fog. He tried to focus on what the others were saying, he gathered enough but it felt like ages before the gears in his head started to move.

Rangi spoke of killing the dragon and how it might be done. He wasn't one to comment on Rangi's technique, especially when Jacob knew nothing of dragons or much less combat with them. So he kept quiet and continued to listen to everyone else.

Aliana wanted to join in the dragon fight as well, he didn't think it was a good idea only because he honestly felt that way about all of them. He opened his mouth to say as such but Aliana was already standing up for herself. He smiled softly.

Aliana and Nox were off having a private moment, he briefly wondered what that was all about, but the thought was cut short when he saw something strange around Talia. Jacob cocked his head to the side and tried to focus on the space just around her body. It seemed like a thin layer of light was radiating off of her skin. He blinked a few times and leaned closer to her and reached out his fingers, curious if the ash white tendrils were tangible. They were more like smoke, curling around his knuckles in obscure twirling strokes. Jacob shook his head, not believing what his eyes were telling him. When he looked again Talia's skin was just as it always had been; back to normal. It must be the ale messing with his vision, making him hallucinate.

His head swirled slightly as he looked down at his mug and mentally blamed it for making him see crazy things. Jacob slammed it on the table with a loud thunk, thought he had meant for it to be quite, and finally spoke up. "I don't think any of you should be galavanting off to fight some magical creature that may or may not even exist! You are all equally likely to get hurt or even killed!!" His speech was starting to slur, but his voice lowered slightly. "Then were would I be..." In almost a whisper he continued "I'm not going to fight that dragon, if you all decide to go, then fine. If anybody gets hurt...come find me." With that he pushed his chair away from the table making a sound of wood on wood. However when he stood it was with a teetering stance.

Jacob cautiously started towards the stairs but stopped, swayed, and asked awkwardly "Which one is my room?"

Sebastian looked around him at the table, his drunken mind not really processing everything that went on around as quickly as it should. He realized only then that the boy he shot the arrow at in the forest had spoken to him, but by then it was to late to really answer, to much thing had already happened and it was in the back of his mind

"Aliana will be fine for t'morrow, she's quick enough to get out of the way of trouble," he said, at this point realizing the slur in his voice. It wasn't much, but it was enough of an indicator for him to go sleep so he could function fully tomorrow. He listened to the plan silently and then he looked at the boy asking where he would sleep.
"Unless someone else got a room for you, you could sleep in the same one as me and Ragni," he said to him to hopefully make up for his ignoring the boys question. ""Right now, I'm off to sleep. I'll see ya'll in the morning," he said to them as he stood up from the table and walked to his and Ragni's room. He took out the three gold purses he had stolen during his walk to the tavern and laid them next to him. As he laid down he held his dagger in his left hand and stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

---

He was fine the next morning, his mind clear and his hangover wasn't to bad. They never really were. During the ride out he did inventory for himself. He had about ten to twelve throwing knives, his two daggers for melee range, and a quiver full of arrows and a decent bow. Not to mention the two spears that Darius had bought for them. Alredy he was thinking of ways to use them to set a trap around where he would fire off his arrows.

When the got to the site where they would draw out the dragon Sebastian looked around him, getting a feel for the place. That's when he found his spot. A tall oak tree, nice and sturdy and with enough branches to hide him even without the leaves due to the frost.
"I'll be firing off my arrows from up there," he said to Darius and the rest. "Don't go near it because I'll be setting my spears that the moment something comes to close they'll fall down and spike ''em," he told them all, then silently went to climb the tree. Getting into place he set his spears, strung his bow, and the held an arrow in one hand. He wasn't feeling talkative this morning, he was feeling tired and the slight hangover didn't help at all.
Another thing that bothered him was what happened in the morning. Their ride up here he looked at himself in the blade of the dagger. His face was gone in the first instance, and then it was back. The sight had startled him, but what was worse was the fact that after that his eyes had changed color. From green to blue, which was odd to him. He knew a few peoples whose eyes had changed colors, but he knew his didn't. Of course he didn't bring up anything to these people. He refused to show weakness, even if he was out of the bandit camp it still felt wrong to do so.

Lucrezia had achieved what she thought was the unthinkable, she had gotten herself completely drunk. By the time Darius had finished going over the plan, all she could do was nod dumbly. In her drunken haze, Lucrezia stood and slowly made her way out of the bar, giving a stupid dopey smile to the group as she went. Lucrezia couldn't remember the last time she felt this... peaceful... She felt as though she could be all right with anything, nothing would bother her, and indeed, nothing did. As she rounded the corner towards her room, she ran into the young man from earlier and he immediately started in on her, but she didn't hear a word he said, Lucrezia waved him off and said in a slurred voice "Let's just be friends again." She grabbed onto him and made him take her to her room, which he took as an invite for something more.

The young man introduced himself as Aidan and Lucrezia just nodded, she really needed to sleep. When they got to her door, she pushed it open and turned to say goodbye, but he was kissing her and she was surprised to note that not all kisses were angry and painful, sometimes they were soft and nice. She found herself kissing back, more out of drunken curiosity than anything. His hands were soon all over but the minute his hands went towards the lower part of her body, she stepped back as if he had hit her. "No," she muttered, and pushed him out, she could already hear the whispers coming, they always knew when she was upset "You need to go, the shadows are here..." Lucrezia pleaded with him and he looked at her like she was mad, she did look the part with her slurred speech and frightened behavior. Aiden quickly left and she shut the door, trying to ignore the whispers.

They wouldn't leave though, Lucrezia tried to make them but her drunken state would not allow it, her inner strength was weakened. She moaned loudly and put her hands to her head, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and quickly turned away, throwing herself onto the bed. Her dress was half off, exposing her large breasts and her hair was wild but it was the miserable look on her face that had made her turn away. Lucrezia clamped her hands over her ears and yelled for the whispers to go away but they wouldn't, they got louder and things got darker and she whimpered and cried but it would not stop. Finally, she let go and was plunged into darkness.




When Lucrezia came to, she was lying in a bed and it was morning; her head ached and she cursed loudly. Something moved beside her and she jumped out of the bed. Lying there naked was none other than Aiden and Lucrezia all too quickly realized that she was naked too. She stumbled a little and grabbed her clothes off the floor, but the situation was becoming clearer as she woke up. It was not her room, but Aiden's, and it was ripped apart, everything seemed shredded. Memories of being trapped in the void were all she had, Lucrezia had no idea what happened to her body. She had scratches all over her fingers and arms, she had clearly done the damage to the room. She slowly crept towards Aiden and saw with relief that he was breathing, but she had clearly done some damage to him as well.

She threw on her dress but groaned when she saw that it too was torn, looking around quickly, she grabbed some pants and a shirt from his drawers and threw them on; with one last look at the man she clearly just had sex with, Lucrezia fled the room and returned to her own. When she got there though, she saw that it was wrecked as well. Lucrezia grabbed her small pack and sword, and fled the room. She didn't care what she looked like, or about anything else, she had to get out of there.

She fled the inn and continued down another alley, no one was around so she stopped and leaned against a wall, breathing rapidly. She couldn't believe what had happened. Her foolish decision to get drunk and forget her problems bit her on the a**, all she had wanted was to live a different life... A devil may care life... Her body was taken the minute her senses were gone, she couldn't fight off the shadows, they had taken what they wanted; and her body had been used for sex and god knows what else. That horrible rage that she felt when provoked came bubbling up but she had no sparring partner this time; the feeling of being violated was gnawing at her insides, only making it worse and she needed a fight.

Then she remembered the dragon, and Lucrezia felt no fear, she only wanted to hurt something else, the way she had been hurt.



Lucrezia soon found herself with the others, setting up the attack on the dragon. She hadn't spoken to anyone, responding with curt nods but never speaking. She had a hardened look on her face, it was cold and uninviting, the way she wanted to be. Lucrezia had no intention of ever getting drunk again, not if it weakened her against the shadows... but she also remembered kissing Aiden, and she had enjoyed it, the thought filled her with disgust.

Shaking off the unwanted memory, Lucrezia hid her sword and began tearing her shirt a little. Darius had decided they would be bait and in her drunk state, she had agreed, which was not what would have happened when she was sober. Lucrezia sighed, no use getting mad about it now, she would take out her irritation on the dragon. Truthfully, she didn't have to do much to herself; Aiden's clothes hugged her body well, showing off her hourglass figure nicely; her large breasts made the shirt too small, but she undid a button anyway, showing more cleavage than usual. The pants were tight, and showed off her large hips, round behind and tiny waist, those parts were usually never highlighted but she found she liked the pants anyway, they were much easier to move around in.

Following Talia's example, she splashed some blood on her neck, breasts and arms like it was a perfume and turned to the mercs "Why do I always end up covered in blood when I have adventures with you?" she said, raising a black eyebrow "So do I look helpless and distraught enough for this plan?" Looking sexy was the easy part, acting helpless would be more frustrating. Oddly enough, around the men in the group, Lucrezia never felt the wary of them, she didn't even care if she was more exposed around them, she figured with Darius and Ragni, they had experience enough with women that her exposed fleshed probably wasn't a big deal, they had seen it all before; but they also had never once tried to sleep with her, this made her feel much more comfortable with them.

She stood next to Talia and tried to look vulnerable, the desire to fight was strong though and she just wasn't feeling it. She turned to Talia and saw she was troubled too "Don't forget how strong you are," she said to her "You can handle anything." She meant it to be empowering, she hoped it worked. With a deep breath, she looked into the distance, wondering what would happen next.

Growing tired of the general air of intoxication and vulgarity pervading the tavern, Tamaro soon followed Talia and Jacob to her room, but rather than laying on the floor he climbed out of the window and pulled himself onto the roof. It was more quiet there, and bundled in his travelling clothes he was warm and comfortable.

He slept soundly and spent the next day walking the rooftops and getting familiar with the city. Everything was so big and new. His nervousness about being in the big city had subsided, leaving curiosity. He bought food with the small amount of money he had and came back often to check on the others. Everyone was doing well, all things considered. They had their own ways of dealing with things, some a little more healthy than others. For Tamaro at least, the most frightening thing went from what he would do now to whether he and the others would survive against a dragon.

He didn't like it at all. Though he couldn't see anything wrong with the plan as it was devised, strictly speaking, it felt like a terrible idea all the same. Ten thousand per head split ten ways was one thousand, he'd determined midway through the second day, which hardly seemed worth losing their lives. Then again, ten people were ten times more likely to defeat a dragon than one person. It was a risk. Throughout it he also couldn't help wondering whether the soldiers might intend to kill off everyone else after it was done to take the reward for themselves. But it seemed a far-fetched notion though, and Tamaro felt bad afterwards for having thought of it.

The following day he rode out on a black horse with a shiny coat and nice hooves. It was a bit wild, as the stableman warned, so came at a lower price. Tamaro saw none of the wildness as he gently patted it on the withers while a stable hand nervously secured a saddle to it. It was a good horse, strong and fast. Tamaro hitched it a fair distance from the clearing, to branch it could break if tugged on hard enough, but not so weak that it couldn't sustain some idle tugging if the horse got a little spooked. Above all, he wanted to make sure this horse wouldn't become a snack.

With this done, he kneeled near the trees in waiting, with his spears and iron plate concealed but at the ready. He felt no desire to dally or spend any more time in preparation than was necessary. Now that he was here, he wanted as little time as possible to dwell on what an awful idea attacking a dragon was. Because of this, he saw the ladies in preparation of being bait. He let out an involuntary growl as Darius made as if he were going to rip Talia's shirt. He didn't see the need in making them expose skin anyway. Though he couldn't claim to be a scholar in the subject of dragons, it seemed unlikely to him that dragons preferred their meals to be half-naked. If anything, this only caused problems, as Tamaro now tried to avert his gaze.

Jacob felt himself being pulled away from the others, looking down he found Talia's hand wrapped around his wrist. His head, still being fuzzy, took a few moments to process, "Hey wait, I shouldn't sleep in a room with you, You're a girl." He lifted his free hand to point at her forehead "Don't you want your privacy?" Each of his words was smushed into the next, barely understandable. Realizing that Talia wasn't going to answer, and that it didn't matter anyway, he went along with it.

He let her vent as he tried to get his barrings, gazing around the room with a glossy look on his face. Then she made to remove his garnets. "No, no I can get them-" But it was no use, Talia would have her way. He did fidget quite a bit, having Talia try and take care of him made Jacob feel like a little kid, he hated that feeling. However he was also grateful to have someone looking out for him.

Talia went to the other side of the room to dress and Jacob let his eyes close, his brain felt slightly clearer this way. He still thought it would have been more appropriate for him to be in Sebastain and Ragni's room but he was in no condition to go against Talia. His thoughts stuck to his yearning to be elsewhere. Was it really because he felt it was the more appropriate action? He grumbled to himself and rolled into his side.

"Your not an idiot." He paused and opened his eyes to look at Talia. "Thanks for looking out for me." His speech was slightly clearer but would still give away his intoxication. "I have always thought of you as a sister..." His last sentence was more of a mumble and his eyes started to droop. It only took a few moments for him to fall asleep and drool to start forming.

The next day he woke to an empty room. He felt a slight breeze against his face and turned to see the window open. Jacob sat up and growned, his hand moving to the side of his skull. "Oww" It ached terribly. He tried to shake it off but that only made things ten times worse. He got out of bed and moved to the other side of the room, were he found a shallow pale of water. He washed his face, the cool water helped to clear his head, then quickly got dressed. He needed to go further into town and find a medicine shop or something of the like. Grabbing his pack and fastening his hooked sword back into his makeshift belt he left the room and exited the tavern.

After getting directions from a few of the citizens he found what he was looking for. Once inside he purchased more viles, some flint to boil water, many rolls of cloth, as well as an assortment of herbs. Tumeric, basil, and ginseng were three he bought the most off. He also got clove, jasmine, and Passion flower. Satisfied with his hall, he paid and left the shop.

He spent the rest of the day getting the layout of the city, creating a mental map of locations he might want to visit later. He took note of a well that was located towards the outskirts of town.

The sun descended in the sky and Jacob returned to his room. Still empty. He wanted to give Talia the bed to herself so he made a pile with his shirt and used it as a pillow. He propped his back up against the far wall and let his eyes close.

He woke the next day hopeing to see Talia or Tamaro but again he was alone. Jacob assumed they were already off fighting the dragon, or at least getting ready to. "I hope they are alright."

Grabbing his stuff he set out to find a well and with that a spot were he could start a small fire. He walked toward the edge of the forest, making sure he wasn't too close to any of the trees, and starting making a small pit. He grabbed rocks and placed them in a circle, dug it deeper inside the circle, then grouped some dry brush in the middle. Jacob used the flint to make light the brush. A fire sprang to life. He removed one of his bowls from his pack and filled it with water from the well. Then set it upon the fire to heat up.

While the water heated up he took out his grinding stone and started crushing the turmeric and basil together.

Darius watched as everyone prepared. He heard some mumbling from the women about exposing a little flesh. He chuckled at their reservations, he wasn’t asking them to walk around sky clad, just roughed up. He didn’t know if it would make any difference to the dragon, but he knew all old myths of their kind said things about virgin sacrifices, so some sort of sexuality might come into play. He knew it was a mistake to try and reach for Kristalia’s shirt, but what was done was done. He heeded all of their words and waited.
Some of them were in trees, Nox was giving out poison. The dragon wouldn’t know what hit it. Though Darius was sure that it would be dangerous, but he was thinking this might be overkill. Spears anchoring it, arrows turning it into a pincushion, poison numbing and sickening it, and then hacking it to bits. It would be an interesting battle to be sure. He was never fond of stakeouts, but he didn’t know how else to draw in a flying creature. He didn’t have any experience in this department. He was pretty sure that nobody did. He fought some big beasts in the jungle, but none with wings and fire breathing. The anticipation was tiring him out. He knew that the thing was horrifying, so he was trying to sufficiently prepare himself for the mental shock of the monstrosity, but staying so focused and pumped full of adrenaline was wearing him out. The sun grew higher in the sky as the day went on. There wasn’t much talking going on. As specified. It was just so boring. It was different in war, when you knew the enemy was there, or was going to be there, without even knowing if the dragon would even show, Darius couldn’t help but grit his teeth.
“Our cash cow better show his scaly a** soon. I’m getting tired….”