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 Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:57 pm
"Well," Jeddeth said, its voice full of false confidence. "Let's be off. Don't wander away from the group, since we'll probably never find you again and you'll probably be picked off and eaten."
"By what?"
"Predators, bandits, rogue Hakin leftover from the uprising...."
"Great."
Julian nudged Crow along, beckoning for the others to follow.
"We've been through worse," he reminded her patiently. She made an assenting noise, but still looked into the mist warily. Julian took a quick breath and steeled himself.
"Fine. I'll go first."
Head craned back to see how high the wall of mist rose, Julian stepped forward across the border.
"There. Not so bad."
"Famous last words," Crow said dryly, following close after.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:01 pm
"Why don't we just send the immortal in first?" Rabid asked innocently enough, hugging herself as she followed the group. Liam snorted.
"Easy for you to say."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:07 pm
The first hour was spent walking through a total white-out. There was no real sense of up or down, left or right. The group walked single file, with Jeddeth at the front plodding on all fours. The disorienting mist moved and writhed like a living thing, curling over their faces and obscuring their bodies. It deadened sound and dimmed light, for all the world feeling as though existence had been wiped out.
It nettled Crow slightly, and she clung very tightly to Liam's hand.
"Jeddeth," Julian said after a time. "How can you even navigate through this? I can't see my hand in front of my face."
Jeddeth shrugged.
"I'm going home," it said. "I always know where it lies, whether I like it or not."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:09 pm
Liam squeezed Crow's hand reassuringly, pretty sure they were going to die whether or not Gaping Maw of Horror knew where it was going.
"Home? Home sounds good."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:15 pm
Jeddeth gave a tired chuh of laughter.
"I'd rather be spitted and burnt alive then go back to that place," it said. "Forgive me the mistake of calling it home. It is hell."
Julian, falling into step beside Rabid but his attention elsewhere, made no move to disagree. A deeply uncomfortable silence fell on the group until Crow inevitably tripped and fell over, landing hard.
"Owf....what did I trip on," she muttered, wincing as a scrape on her chin itched and healed. She groped blindly in the mist, irritated curiosity spurring her until her fingers met metal. "Hm?"
She picked up a crude helmet, battered and rust-eaten, and gasped sharply as the former owner's cracked skull fell out of it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:18 pm
Rabid yelped and, finding Julian was no comfort, clung to Liam.
"NNFH! NNFH!"
"Sorry." And she let go.
Liam stepped forward and picked the skull up to examine it, turning it this way and that with one hand.
"Huh."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:26 pm
Jeddeth gave a growling sigh, and pointed out into the thinning mist.
"Look there," it said, its voice full of gracious sarcasm. "The great House of Ambreveii."
"Ambre-what?" Crow said, craning her head to look past Jeddeth. They'd come across a vast ruin. It had been definitively impressive once, and its wreckage no less so. There were ancient dead scattered everywhere, and faded colorless banners hanging moldy and soaked in the mist-choked fields.
"The fog was a defense," the creature said, taking the skull from Liam's hand and placing it back on the ground. "With the house's scions all executed, there was no one left to keep it in check. But," it added sarcastically, "it did work, after all. No one conquered Ambreveii. They left it all alone, after they'd utterly ruined it."
"How much farther until we're out of here?" Julian asked, still looking at the ruined House.
"A long way," Jeddeth said, spitting slimy sputum onto the dead and rocky ground.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:28 pm
"Hey!" Liam snapped, brow furrowing in anger, and then he saw the rest of the dead things. Oh, sweet Jesus...
"Hey. Hey. Later."
"There's not going to be a later. I want t--"
"Liam."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:34 pm
"Better these then those in the pit," Jeddeth said. "Steal from there, and sure as sin you'll be on the chopping block."
"Pit?"
"You'll see."
"Can't wait," Crow said, head ducking down. She wanted nothing more than to leave, but Jeddeth had elected they rest for a bit. So, sitting beside Julian, she tugged on her brother's sleeve. When this gained no response, she punched him.
"Hey! Ow!"
"Stop broodin' and go see your girlfriend," she said. "You've done nothin' but angst and ignore her."
Julian blanched.
"Again?"
"Again."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:38 pm
Liam gave a little, involuntary whoop of excitement and immediately bolted for the ruins, examining various bones and armor, looking for something perhaps intact enough to use later and, even if not, this was pretty damn awesome. He muttered to himself in Vavvian and skittered to a rather smallish corpse and removed a finger bone. He no longer looked at all humanoid in movement or stature.
"Come back," Rabid hissed, hugging herself once more.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:45 pm
Finding nothing better to do, Crow trailed after Liam. She carefully stepped over the bodies. Jeddeth took off on its own, wading into a bone-choked stream and dipping its maw into the icy water and drinking.
Julian, shamed by the realization he'd been ignoring people again, approached Rabid guiltily.
"Hey."
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:48 pm
Rabid turned to Julian and smiled, and then faced the ruins again. God, if this didn't make things fifteen times worse...
Liam, on the other hand, paid no attention to his significant other. He continued scampering about, occasionally on all fours, and examining skull after skull. He whimpered in a rather inhuman manner, having not found any yet. Stupid time. Always having to ruin potential minions.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:03 pm
The smile made Julian cringe. She must be angry with him. He sat beside her, head ducking down.
"I'm sorry," he said. He hadn't even planned on speaking, but out the words came.
Crow shrugged off Liam's inattention and wandered a bit on her own. A spiraling staircase opened before her, leading up a ruined watchtower. She climbed, looking upwards to the fogged sky. A lonely ragged banner hung listlessly, and at her gentle touch the time-worn fibers disintigrated.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:07 pm
"For what? You didn't do anything," Rabid said simply, plopping down to teh ground beside Julian, glad for something to distract her attention.
Liam threw another fairly-intact skull into intangibility, rummaged around, and stole a helmet and sword too. Hey, if he was going to die, he was going to die with cool toys.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:15 pm
"For ignoring you," Julian said, pitching a rock into the trickling stream. "For scaring you. For making you suffer over all of this supernatural bullshit."
He leaned his head against Rabid's shoulder on impulse, hair lying damp over his face.
Crow climbed further up the stairs until she reached what was left of the turret. There were a few bodies, riddled with spiky and convoluted iron arrows. She reached out to touch one, curious. Her fingers brushed metal. It felt heated until it burned white hot.
"OW!"
She stumbled back, putting her injured fingers in her mouth instinctively. She tasted salt, heavy and burning on her tongue. She spit it out and fled the tower, frightened.
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