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 Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:58 am
"Oh, Celia..." Ana said softly, feeling a rush of emotion for her friend. She sat silently next to her for a while longer, unable to find anything to say to the other's confession. Nothing like that had ever happened to her, or to anyone that she knew, and she was not sure how Celia should deal with it. "I-I'm sorry," she said finally, looking down at her hands as she bit her lip once more. "I'm not of much help when it comes to magical things... You can call on me at any time, though... You know that, right?" Ana offered a weak smile, fear lacing the edges and making it all the more sincere. "Maybe you'll be able to find answers in one of those books of yours," she said with an almost broken laugh, gesturing weakly at the nearest stack. "I'm sure this must have happened to someone before."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 2:41 am
((Hey, Kami; I forgot what it was for kind of jewellery Ana wanted in particular? Since I'm sure she indicated something specific... A necklace?
I return from the dead! Kinda... ^^; ))
Having picked up Ana's present, and checked upon the jewellers' progress with her other commissions, Empress was pleased. Her own pieces were progressing rapidly, a few finished, other almost, while the last other pieces were going quite well too. With those last there were no hurry yet, as no date had been set. There was time, and Empress found herself smirking and anticipating that moment when they would realize what those pieces were... Oh yes. She was, surprisingly, actually enjoying the wait.
Being able to be patient (which she could, when so needed) was something else entirely than actually enjoying it, and she found it an interesting and welcome change of pace.
"I'm going to patrol the forests around the city for youkai, if anyone asks for me. Got to be vigliant, right?" Liozu said with a bright smile and clapped the guards standing by one of the portals into the city on their shoulders, giving a wave before he wandered outside.
Now to take things further. She couldn't trust the minions of the so-called Youkai Lady brat to do anything of use, and she needed some of her own, anyway...
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 7:18 pm
Nadil "Of course," she saidm turning to meet his eyes. "I know that." Did she? "Their mansion here." Apperantly she was that awake at least. "They were nobility from Dusis that moved to Arinas to avoid the fighting... but," she titlet her head and lowered her gaze, thinking, "I guess they thought they were going back one day... seeing how they left a mansion here." So she was of Dusian blood after all and would have been born here... A Dusian consort for a Dusian ruler. The tradition hadn't been broken, or, at least not on purpose. "Your parents were... from Draqueen?" Well, that actually made sense as to how a dragon ended up in the middle of Arinas. Apparently they were nobles, too. That would, no doubt, shut some of the courtiers up about Micoi. "I see. You wished to visit their original home but some...very painful memories chased you away?"
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 7:41 pm
Micoi nodded at his first question. "A... friend I've made among the nobles noted that my family name was... too similar to one of the old noble families to not be connected." Almost as if shy to tell the truth or embarrassed, the younger dragon lowered her head a bit along with her gaze so that she wasn't meetin ghis gaze anymore. "The mansion had been magically locked since they left." That certainly proved her connection to said family. "It was a... portrait of them." Micoi chewed slightly at her lower lip for a second. "I had forgotten about them, their faces, long ago because of something that happened... seeing them made me remember." At least she was honest, if not a bit lacking on the details.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:32 am
((Chibi: It was earrings. I mean, we've got plenty of magic/cursed necklaces already, so... xD
Sorry, I'm not going to be on much this week cuz of graduation stuff.))
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:36 am
Being free of snooping eyes and talking mouths (however innocent those eyes and mouths might be, and unknowing), relaxed something in her. The body was wrong, but the problem was of course not that it was someone else's body, but rather that it was male. No matter. She would endure it for as long as needed, and she would get some sweet relief this night. Oh, yes.
"Now, first order of business." Empress drew the sword from where it rested, and buried it blade-first partway into the soft, moss and grass-covered ground. The sunlight around her was gold-green, highlighting Liozu's richly brown hair and bringing out the reds, but at the same time that seemed to twist into darker colours, and the shadow on the ground indicated longer hair.
"Come out now, little dragon, little maggot, little helpless morsel," Empress said in a mocking, sing-song voice as she held what seemed to be a sparkling yarn in one hand, and with the other drew forth the bound Earth. Taking him out of the sword, however, would quickly unravel the weak binding she'd been able to do when she first took over Liozu.
The air around Earth shimmered, the light in the duel dragon's eyes was nothing less than rage, and he was already twisting the air around himself as the space readied to admit a much larger creature. He would not have the chance.
"I think not." Empress muttered, unravelling the yarn, attaching one end to Earth's forehead and then twisting it all around. "If you were only Wind... I would like to know if whatever he thought he was doing would still be worth doing, now." She smirked as Earth collapsed back into the sword, satisfied with her work. This binding was stronger, more complete than the other one. And despite the lesser magics here, she'd been able to do it. It was a beautiful binding and curse... Would burrow deeper into Earth, do what purpose lay inherent in it, as well as bind it to her more superficial control.
Perfect.
Empress withdrew the sword again and wandered further into the forest with the sword held over her shoulder, stomping around and whistling. She needed someone to take the bait.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:32 pm
"Don't be sorry for me Ana, you're my friend. That's enough help,"replied the Dragon Knight, honestly seeming a little relieved after explaining it to someone else. She couldn't help but let a small giggle escape her at the mention of her many, many books. "Unfortunately, if it is in a book, it's not in one of these. Believe it or not, I've read them all already,"she said, standing up off the bed.
She strode over to Kahaku, picking him up rather like she would were he a cat for the moment. "The way I think of it...I'll probably be able to figure this out eventually, right?" Celia seemed to have decided to take this all...Well, rather positively now. It was odd. Suddenly, it just didn't worry her as much...No, in fact, the more time she let elapse from her watery awakening, the less it bothered her...Was that strange?
It was, and she knew it. But the very fact that she had told what she knew of the tale in full to Ana seemed to be the reason...She knew the Maid would hold her confidence, and that was of significant comfort to her. Really, it was almost as thought the weight of confusion had been lightened, not entirely removed, but lightened by the telling of the events.
Kahaku couldn't help but be a little surprised. Up until this point, she had been confusing him all day...This was really, the first logical thing she had done...Not that he minded, but using him for crowd control was a little unorthodox to be honest; her sword would have sufficed equally well. Her sudden desire to be outside, then inside, alone and with people at the same time...
And that was all before he locked him out of her room, used magic, and hid the truth from Baran...Everything about today seemed suspicious to him...Until she picked him up. He hadn't had one of his Knights do that in...Well, in a very long time. Most of those he chose, like one of his more famous Knights, Rune, seemed to want to treat him like something to be respected...Usually, he didn't mind that, but it did get a little lonely once in a while.
Celia was something entirely different. She had been seemingly terrified to let him out for almost a year, and suddenly she was opening up right before his eyes, and now they were quite close. It was a welcome change of pace, truth be told...But lately she had him worried. This Knight was one he wanted to keep from straying down a path he couldn't help her on, and every oddity they approached seemed to him as though it were trying to lead her that way...Maybe he was just getting paranoid.
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:14 am
"Now, what? You're alone, without your dragon, and only armed with a sword... How will this work for you, dragon knight?" The youkai that stepped out into the clearing from between the thick, old trees looked scruffy. Scraps of clothes hung from his emanciated body, his hair... or what looked like it, anyway, hung in sweaty, unwashed stripes, heavy down his back, and the nails were long, but didn't curl so were obviously claws.
Empress frowed at the evil thing, Liozu's mouth twisting into a moue of displeasure, it didn't look like much. Was this all that lurked around the edges of the city? Would this be what she'd have to settle for. She didn't really want to "settle" for anything.
"Well, perhaps you will do. Perhaps. Look at me, youkai."
The youkai had sputtered as she spoke, and his face turned into a most twisted grimace as he bared his teeth at her.
"Crazy. Why would I--" The youkai's sneer died away as Liozu's shadow swayed in the light, as if there was some other source of light that was bobbing madly and changing the size and position of the dragon knight's shadow, until it showed a tall, slender woman with long, flowing hair. Following this, Liozu's features wavered and paled. It was as if someone had turned him into a seethrough mirror, somehow, as his body and features were still visible, faintly, beneath that which now overlaid it. And what that "mirror" showed was a amply endowed woman with a superior look on her face and a displeased narrowing to her eyes.
"Are you worthy of serving me, creature? Or should I enjoy your flesh here and now?" Empress sneered, staring at the youkai with cold red eyes, her black hair and drawn-back pink bangs swaying softly in an unreal wind. This was the first time she had been able to get so close to the surface, and it delighted her fiercly, but at the same time it was somewhat hard, as it shouldn't be, to keep the magic in place.
"What the... b***h!" If the youkai recognized Empress, which he was probably too young to do, it didn't register in his mind as he attacked. Empress rolled her eyes, swung her sword in a zig-zag motion in the air before the attacking youkai, and wind followed in the wake of that. Razorsharp wind that left the youkai cleaved in three pieces.
"Pathetic." Empress walked up and kneeled beside the dead youkai, tearing a piece of his flesh away, delicately biting into it. "You couldn't even have the courtsey of being well-tasting." Empress stood up again, finishing off the piece before burying the sword point-down in the ground again.
"Anyone else who would like a taste?" She raised her voice enough to easily be heard, mocking the shadows that had collected around the edges of the scene.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:56 am
Ana laughed lightly as well, standing up and pulling the damp sheet from the bed back into her basket. "I believe it. I believe it," she said, casting her eyes around the piles of books. "You're amazing, Celia," she continued, smiling warmly at her friend. "I can't understand how you can read and actually remember all of that...
"Oh," Ana set down the laundry basket, knocking over one of the aforementioned stacks of library books in her haste and flung her arms around Celia, pulling the other woman tightly to her. "I'm so happy you're feeling better. Thank you for... for thinking of me as a friend." Ana blushed, her face against Celia's. "I know I think of you as one. It's nice to have someone like you, Celia. I was lonely before I met you and Liozu, even if I didn't know it." Stepping back, her hands clasping Celia's forearms, Ana could feel her eyes shining and she blinked back the tears, feeling silly about having to do so.
"I'm glad for you and Baran as well. It's just so wonderful, isn't it?" Ana dropped to her knees to stack the books she knocked over, taking the moment to change the subject slightly and compose herself.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:54 am
"I wouldn't mind having a bite..." She was tiny, the youkai that separated out of the shadows, with feathery hair that stood vaguely out and backwards. Her clothes seemed equally feathery... or like flames.
Empress stared at the youkai, who, for all the black, gray and the shock of red-and-ash hair seemed rather... mousy.
"Only one of you here?" She was rather sure there was more than one, and at least one who recognized her, however vaguely. "If they think I will not kill you, you are all rather simple, aren't you?"
The slender youkai shook her head, hair swaying in such a way the strands did seem like fire.
"No, lady." She grinned as she said it, head tilted just a bit, and Empress smirked. They both knew the tiny youkai had answered both and neither of Empress' questions.
"That will do. How would you like to raise some hell and kill some dragons?" Empress smirked, but then frowned and whirled around just as tall, broad-shouldered dragon woman came into the clearing, spear raised.
"Oh, please," Empress sneered and rolled her eyes slashing her wind as the little youkai sneaked around, quick like the mouse she seemed to resemble, scouring the dragon's back open with glowing hot claws. The dragon, whoever she was, ended up in pieces.
"Hmm." Empress wandered up and nudged the dead dragon, making a grab for the red ball that floated up and away. Briefly, she held it, before it shot away. "It seems the worms will need to find a replacement officer for Red," Empress laughed, amused at the events that had taken place. It wouldn't, of course, have been that easy if the officer had actually know what she was up against, but as it was...
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:01 am
The leaves moved overhead and the air seemed clear and soft. Baran looked down, seeing undergrowth and a bare path beneath his boots and although he had never been there before, something seemed familiar, warm.
There was magic in the air but he was not bothered by it. Taking a step foward, he felt his heart leap a little as some of its warm notes edged closer to it. It was not the sort of skip that he felt when talking to of thinking of Celia, closer to the low throb that he felt when carrying out his work or donning his uniform and looking at himself in the mirror or the excited thrill he had received upon his initiation into the Dragon Clan. It soaked through his flesh and he found himself running, his feet beating noiselessly upon the forest floor.
The sensation grew, throbbing, filling him, until without warning he found himself stopped as if he had run into sticky webbing. The very air about him grew denser, choking, suffocating, and the suddenly overpowering wave of demon aura and magic made his head spin.
The scene was real suddenly and he gasped, able to hear his breath for the first time. He shifted his weight, unable to actually move away, and the leaves under his feet crunched and were ground into the humid dirt. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, their wetness and pressure all too real, as he struggled to back up from the sickly sweet perfume and escape back into the comforting warm heat.
Except that the warmth was coming from in front of him, like the draining evil, and he heard a short cry escape his lips in frustration and fear as the two forces inexplicably rushed to a head and broke against each other. The crash burst through his head and the shock freed his hands to clamp against his ears although it continued to reverberate inside his head. The pain was suddenly unbearable and he collapsed against the cloying threads of demon magic, sinking to the ground as something up ahead shattered and fell in red wet pieces.
The world faded into anticlimax and a plain white light. Dimly, Baran was aware of some...thing sensing him, prodding at him, feeling him out. Then a vague whisper of disappointment and stronger resolution and patient waiting. A red glow burned at the edges of his vision, a flickering of the warmth of before, then blackness at the edge of consciousness.
Baran sat up in his bunk, running a hand over his face and feeling as though he had just sat down, not as if he had been asleep for some time.
"...Some dream."
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:59 pm
Celia smiled, really having been surprised by the hug, but in a rather good way. She crouched down next to the maid, helping to pile her books back up as they had been before. "It is, really nice..."She said, trying to add to the topic change, as she had realized what Ana was trying to do.
'Oh please...' Celia blinked. She hadn't meant to think that. Was there a way to not mean what you thought? The knight couldn't help but wonder how such a thing would have come about. Maybe she was just sleepy...That would make her grumpy, wouldn't it? As she finished placing the last book on top of the stack, she decided to simply attribute it to stress, and move on.
"Well, I guess I should probably get changed, shouldn't I?"she said, with a slight smile. It was odd. This was to be the second time in less than a month she dawned the white outfit, whereas before she had barely worn it at all.
The little dragon smiled, seeing the friends chat. It was such a relief to see Celia acting normal again! As she set him down to straighten the books, he curled up on the floor a moment contently...
Until, as he saw her place a book down, his head snapped up. Just for a moment, he thought he had...No, he couldn't have. Clearly, the dragon was just nervous, after how strangely his Knight had been acting today...Still, he had trouble shaking the feeling...
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:40 pm
Ana smiled as Celia helped her clean up, oblivious to the worry that her friend and the dragon were experiencing. "Have you two done anything recently? I don't mean to listen to gossip, but I heard that he took you out on a date into town." She giggled nervously. "You might not know it, but you two are quite the talk. You're the hottest young couple. I overhear as much about you as I do about..." Ana stopped suddenly, her face burning bright red. She had recently heard her own name mentioned in excitedly whispered conversations and she knew that it was due to her own involvement with the Earth Dragon Knight. She was not used to this sort of attention, always having been the typical wallflower, and she still was not certain how to take it. Ignoring it seemed to be working for the most part, although it was humiliating to walk in on your own gossip...
...It was also, somehow, strangely gratifying. Ana felt oddly liberated and giddy because of their talk. She had never felt so proud before over so small a thing as being recognized for a conquest that was not even her own. After all, Liozu had been the one who had done all the wooing. She had just fallen into his arms like anyone would. They were envious and intrigued and instead of feeling guilty or completely mortified she found herself filled with a silent and slow-growing confidence.
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:06 am
"...About you two?"Celia grinned; she had heard the conversations about Ana and her fellow Knight as well. Giggling maids and less-than-conspicuous fighters had been chatting about the couple in the hallways, gardens...even a few in the library. However, she still hadn't actually managed to catch any of the tidbits about herself and Baran. Perhaps she had just been tuning them out, or maybe they were just more careful about that conversation since Baran was a fighter...Really, it was hard to say.
"You seem to be the talk of the castle. Its cute. You know, even though Liozu is a Dragon Knight...I really don't know all that much about him in general...I guess because I spend so much time in the Library, i miss out on things, huh?"she said, really thinking it strange. Truth be told, she knew little about the other knights, not just the one her friend was dating.
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:20 pm
"I know what you mean," Ana agreed, standing up again now that the books had been sorted out. "I don't know much about the other girls I work with, either. I suppose it is different for you, though. The other Knights are out on missions and things like that a lot. I don't really have an excuse. They're always there. We even share a dormitory."
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