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 Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:35 pm
Janatheil flashed a grin towards his company, expression open and pulse alive in his chest, giddy as their pace picked up and the pounding rhythm of his hastar’s hoofbeats to the ground rocked through him. Familiar. Quick. Exhilarating. This, he could get used to.
“I don’t,” he admitted. “But it looks like I’m going to learn from the best, and…” He leaned forward, angling his body and lifting his weight a fraction off the saddle, moving to the pulse of his mount, “…I’ve been riding since I learned to walk. It’s a nice view, though…you with the wind in your hair — it’ll be a pity to leave you in the dust.”
With a single stretch and bend of his wings, hands still gripped to his reins, he was u. Feet no longer in the stirrups but alighted on the top of the beast and most of his weight off of it entirely, all kept in a precarious but practiced balance as he rode the wind and drove them further forward.
“See you on the other side, snow fairy.”
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:42 pm
“Cheater!” Asi’s words were lost on the wind as he watched Jana shoot ahead of him. He huffed and clipped his reins, speeding his hastar up but never quite catching up with the frustrating, cheating orderite. He narrowed his eyes, gaze flicking back, momentarily, to see if Tylik was still there. When Asi realized how far they had really gone, he pulled on his hastar’s reins and slowed it down. “Mmm…Janatheil!” His gaze flicked back as he clicked his heels to the sides of his hastar and put it back into a quick gallop. “Hey! Wait up! We went too far. I don’t see my brother or your aunt anymore.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:56 pm
For some time, Janatheil lost himself to the rush of it. The thrumming rhythm. The wind in his wings. The giddy, light-bodiedness that came with riding and gliding simultaneously. It took him some time to realize quite how far ahead he had managed to pull, and at that point, he slowed his beast down reluctantly, dropping from a full run to a gallop and then a slower trot as Asi’wi — finally — caught up.
He opened his mouth to comment, but then shut it at the other’s complaints and glanced back. Sure enough, they had long-since seemed to have left their ‘hunting’ party in the dust. Or snow, as the case may be. After sweeping his gaze over the surrounding tundra and snowdrifts, Janatheil eventually gave an unconcerned shrug.
“You ‘know Aisko’ so well, no big, right? Besides…” He stretched his wings, fanning the feathers — no longer in a flight motion, but simply airing them — and drew a deep breath as he looked out over their surroundings, “…it’s nice to just be out here…and hey…” He shot a lilting grin in the other boy’s direction. “We get some more alone time, eh? We could kiss out here, and no one would be any the wiser.”
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:03 pm
Asi’s lips thinned and his cheeks heated at Jana’s suggestion. “I don’t want to kiss you.” Despite the refusal, though, he couldn’t help but glance, briefly, at Jana’s lips. Her jerked his gaze away and kicked himself mentally. He had never kissed another before and he certainly didn’t want his first to be with such smug orderite that thought he had everything figured out. When, obviously, he didn’t. “I do know Aisko but I’ve never been out this far out on my own.” Even with his reluctance to go any farther — lest they get even more separated from their companions — Asi did have to admit that it was nice being away from authority figures. Not having someone bark orders out to him was always nice.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:11 pm
Janatheil chuckled. With a slight tilt and nudge, he guided his hastar over closer so that he was riding side by side with his companion, close as they could be, comfortably, without running into each other. “It’s alright to relax a little every now and then, you know. Enjoy the space, breathe the air…” He smiled, eyes roaming briefly in the direction of the ocean — and Serenia — before forcing his attention back on track. “We’ll find our way back anyway, you know we will. Or they’ll catch up to us, if we go slow enough. So, oh master of the ice lands…” His attention flit over Asi’wi, assessing, “…if I see one thing on this great continent of yours before I leave, what should it be, mm? What’s the prettiest place on Aisko?”
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:20 pm
Asi frowned at the older boy and the comment about relaxing. He did relax — when stupid orderites weren’t messing up his daily goings on. He forced himself to relax, however, shoving the frown away and he looked out over the land before them. At Jana’s next question, Asi chewed on his lip, thinking, before answering. “Targallah is pretty impressive in and of itself. Not many get the chance to see it.” His gaze flicked over to him, eyebrow raising. “Lake Vanafel is another sight to see while on Aisko. Though it’s on the other side of the continent,” Asi said as he waved his hand off in the opposite direction they were heading. “Mostly it’s just snow and ice and more snow and ice.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:28 pm
“Mm…you’ll have to take me there before I leave, then,” Janatheil said. “I’d like to see it. We could ice skate.” He eyed his company, tone warming to a gentle tease. “I assume you’d at least win at that. Perhaps you’ll even eventually like me enough not to freeze over my bedcovers. Unless, of course, you enjoyed sharing a bed so much that you can't resist seeing to it that it happens again.”
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:34 pm
Asi’s gaze flicked back to Jana and he found himself, not for the first time, wondering exactly why Janatheil was on Aisko. “Mmm, perhaps. Ice skating is fun.” A small, genuine smiles spread across his lips but it was gone, moments later, when Jana mentioned sharing a bed again. It hadn’t been horrible but it wasn’t something Asi was actively going to seek out again. “Your sheets are safe from my ice.” The last thing he wanted was to wake up in Jana’s arms again. Asi rolled his shoulders and remained quiet for a moment. “What’s Serenia like? I’ve only ever been off Aisko once — we went to Ayr.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:48 pm
“It’s beautiful,” Janatheil said. “Fields of gold and green that stretch as far as the eye can see in some locations…great mountain ranges that scrape the sky and challenge the clouds themselves…forests where you can lose yourself and still feel embraced in something wild and elegant. In summer, the sunlight trickles down through the trees like honey, lighting up flowers and vines of all shapes and colors, you can’t imagine it without seeing. And the lakes…”
He trailed off, glancing towards Asi’wi and clearing his throat, faintly abashed at having gone on as much as he did.
“It is a sight to behold, all around,” he said. “Should you find yourself with the opportunity one day, you should make the trip. I am sure your family would be as welcome within our gates, with the proper escort, as I was within yours.”
When a brisker, off-beat wind came cutting across the ice — from a direction distinctly not with the flow of the rest of them — Janatheil frowned, slowing his beast a fraction further and scanning the surrounding area.
“We may have company…”
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:32 am
As Janatheil described his homeland, Serenia, Asi couldn’t help but let a small smile curl up the corner of his lips. It really did sound wonderful and so much different than his homeland of Aisko. He loved his home and really didn’t mind the snow and ice — it was his element, after all. He wouldn’t mind, however, a place that enjoyed more than just the snow. He thought back on his trip to Ayr and how much he had enjoyed the vast amounts of green in that field. And Asi couldn’t remember when he’d seen so many different colors as he had in the flowers in that field. It fascinated him in a way that snow never could.
Asi went to open his mouth to tell Jana he would very much love to visit Serenia but snapped it closed at the chilly gust of wind. His brows pinched together as his gaze flicked over their surroundings. He could feel the difference in the wind compared to what would normally blow through Aisko and it was most definitely not natural. “Ayralas…?” His gaze flicked to Jana. “I’ve never fought a dragon stronger than a ysali. Maybe we should turn and…” Before he even had a chance to finish his sentence the roar of a nearby dragon interrupted him and his hastar started to prance. .
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:24 pm
Ayralas.
Janatheil grunted, squinting out over the barely-visible flecks of silver rushing across the ice. “Run?” he parroted. “And where would the fun be in that.” Flashing a darting, half-taunting half-grinning look in Asi’wi’s direction, Janatheil turned his mount, clipped the reins, and was off, pounding over the snow in the direction of his would-be opponents.
On arrival, the dragons screeched, moving as a unit to dive for him, and Janatheil leapt, wings billowing to catch the currents and slow his fall while he simultaneously drew his maces from their holsters, swept, and clacked them together. Their magic worked immediately, form stretching and melding into a single, dual-ended mace staff by the time he came to a skidding impact on the icy ground. When the first dragon lunged within range, he was already pivoting, lifting, sweeping and bringing the heavy end down with crushing impact on the creature’s head.
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:03 pm
Asi rolled his eyes at Jana’s grin and grunted as he took off. He figured he had one of two options — leave him to the dragons and find Tylik or ride head on into the danger. Asi narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to do before he even moved. “Damn it,” he muttered as he clipped the reins of his hastar and took off after Janatheil. The older boy came into sight just as he was hopping down from his hastar. Asi watched, transfixed, as Jana drew out his weapons. His eyebrows raised as he watched the two separate weapons magically meld into one, larger weapon.
As Jana took out the first of the dragons, Asi opened his mouth to say something but never got a chance to talk. He grunted as the tail of an ayrala dragon connected with his side and he was thrown backwards, away from Janatheil and the other dragons. Asi hit the ground with a thud, the air in his lungs temporarily knocked out. He gasped for breath, unable to force himself to stand. He scrambled backwards as the dragon stalked after him and for a moment, Asi wasn’t sure what to do as he stared the dragon down. When it lunged, snapping at him, Asi’s hand went up and his magic snapped into action.
It happened in a blink of an eye. One moment Asi was staring down the mouth of an ayrala and the next thing he knew, a spike of ice had lodged itself into the dragon’s head and it was disappearing into dust, leaving behind nothing but a sparkling orb. He barely had time to scoop it up before another dragon was coming after him.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:22 pm
Janatheil tensed, spotting out of the corner of his eye as his younger company charged in — and was promptly knocked from his hastar and slung across the hard ground.
Swearing beneath his breath, Jana moved, weapon slinging around to crash into the next beast that dove for him before he beat his wings. Up, up, up. He stepped on the head of one as it snapped towards his boots and then tucked his wings in close as he hopped off again, dropping to a skidding crouch near to Asi’wi, separating his mace-staff and bringing one bashing in towards the beast that had moved for the smaller dovaa.
“Come on then!” he taunted spreading his wings wide and opening his stance. “Looking for a challenge?”
Whether or not the wind was picking up due solely to the ayrala, or something else entirely was not on Janatheil’s mind for the moment. Some combination of whipping winds that shoved and dragged him across the ice, talons, and teeth, made it all fairly difficult to concentrate on much else besides movement, push, crash, and beat. His muscles stung, protesting the exertion but at the same time alive with the rush. He felt his pulse pick up, the energy in his weapons building as the need to push himself climbed. But he fought that.
He knew, now, what that feeling meant and he couldn’t afford it in this instant.
The surrounding storm, however, waited for no one.
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Tangled Puppet rolled 2 100-sided dice:
42, 73
Total: 115 (2-200)
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:42 pm
The next few moments were a blur as Jana fought back the dragon that had been stalking and moved onto the others. Asi winced as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The wind began to grow stronger, whipping Asi’s hair all over the place. He frowned and lifted his shirt up, eyes narrowing at the large bruise already forming there. It would be even nastier, he guessed, before the day was up. As Jana finished off the last dragon, Asi’s gaze flicked up to the sky and the roiling clouds.
“We should find shelter. Storms on Aisko are not to be taken lightly.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Miss Chief aka Uke rolled 2 100-sided dice:
57, 17
Total: 74 (2-200)
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:43 pm
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