Welcome to Gaia! ::

Seraphis took another moment to just enjoy Silver's nearness and, for that moment, all was right in his world. Reluctantly, he broke the embrace, gazing into her eyes as they parted.

"I'm glad that you're alright," he said softly, "I didn't know what to think. I had heard of people who pushed themselves beyond their limits with their magic. Some of them had been known to fall into comas from which they never awakened..." He stood and turned to face the fire. He watched the flames dance as he continued. "I had feared the same might happen to you... That you might not awaken. Then I thought of all the things that I've wanted to tell you and it killed me to know that I might never have the chance..." He took a moment to feed that horrible thought into the fire. It may have been his imagination, but the fire seemed to oblige with a slight flareup. He turned back to Silver, but averted his gaze to the floor. He wanted to take things slowly, but this situation had reminded him of how quickly everything could come crashing down. He knew he would regret this moment for the rest of his life if he didn't say anything and something would happen to Silver.

"We've only known each other for two weeks, Silver," Seraphis said softly, kneeling before the sofa again and gazing deeply into her iridescent blue orbs, "and I know I have no right feeling this way so soon, but when I look into your eyes, I see...fate...destiny...my future..." He sighed softly and took her hands in his own. "I just feel that you have a right to know... I am falling for you, Silver Lark. I value your friendship above all else... But I love you dearly." He had done it... The one thing he swore he would never do again. Yet, still, he gazed into her eyes, searching for some sign that she returned his affections... Waiting for her to say something... Anything...

Doina looked up as a temple door opened and out came another female elf. The other elf rushed over to her and told her to come inside and rest as the others went to retrieve Blade and Falconer. Relief spread through her limbs and her knees shook a little as she reached out for the hand offered to her. As long as they monitored Blade she should recover nicely and once everyone else regained their strength they would be back in action.

As Doina was lead into the temple she allowed herself to feel some joy on their first defeat of a spawn! They actually did it! They had worked together and defeated the Water Spawn and everyone was alive. Doina sat down, and bowed down her head as she quietly praised the gods for this achievement. Maybe they had nothing to do with this but she felt thankful anyway!

She lifted up her head and looked around at all the others who were crowded around in the temple. Even though they had killed the Spawn, these people’s village was damaged. Doina felt some sympathy for them. But they could rebuild what they had lost and if she had the strength she would help them. She leaned against the wall from her seat and looked at the door, waiting for the stretcher with Blade on it to arrive.

She felt her eyelids get heavy and she fought to keep them up, but fatigue won in the end and Doina dozed off to replenish her spent energy.

She didn’t really dream, her mind was just recapping everything that had happened in the past few days. It mostly replayed the battle with the spawn and the encounter with the white mage, who she still had to ask for his name. But then the images she were seeing changed, and went to images of the past, before Tidal had come and taken all she loved away. She thought of her friends, those that survived and were in the Sisterhood of Itare and those that were gone. She thought of her fellow apprentices and her teacher, Blodeuwedd. She thought of her family too, but the one she thought most about was her brother…

“Agceil…” she murmured in her sleep.

She had been dreaming about a trip she and Agceil had taken one spring, a year before Tidal came to the village of Lugus. It was a short trip to a neighboring village, and they really had been there to get some supplies for Doina, but it was nice. Doina had sang as they traveled and Agceil entertained her with some of his training stories.

But suddenly the world around Doina had gone dark, her brother disappearing. Slowly she awoke to consciousness and stared blankly at the loaf of bread that was hovering in front of her. She blinked slowly, the sleep starting to recede from her eyes. Her eyes traveled from the bread to the hand that was holding the bread, up an arm and over a shoulder till her emerald eyes was looking at a pale face.

Doina’s eyes widened and she scooted back a little more. When did he get here?! How long had she been out? Where was Blade and was she okay?

Doina took a deep breath before turning back to Laquemil. She looked down at the bread and took it, giving him a small thanks. She took a small bite out of it, or at least tried to. Tugging on the loaf she managed to get a piece before she spent her time chewing on it. Damn this bread was hard to eat…was it stale or something? But he had given it to her and she already started eating it so she had to finish it.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask, but what’s your name? Mine is Doina.”

The dark skinned elf accepted the bread, whispering a thanks before biting into it. Or, at least, trying to do so. It was true that the bread wasn't exactly fresh, but it was still edible and probably the best thing that he had right now. He leaned back against the wall, lifting his head up to look around the room before turning his eyes down to the floor. He'd already looked at the fabric of his cloak before, but not the floor, so the floor would probably be a bit more interesting than the cloak. Then he realized that she was saying something. He turned his head, looking at her boots and licking his lips. He was listening now, but there was a bit of a problem.

'' He thought with a frown, an eyebrow lifting up. It was embarrassing, but there was nothing that he could really do except to ask to repeat herself.

"" Laquemil answered, moving his head to peer at her with a single eye from the rim of his hood. "" He had his reasons, of course. Not that they were very good ones. He'd spent a lot of time learning old and ancient tongues, but he'd neglected to learn the most common one. He'd grown up speaking elven and even now usually only surrounded people that were able to speak elven. It was mostly because he was more comfortable around the race he'd grown up with and didn't have to worry about inducing any culture shock onto himself. And even now when he had ventured off into various human settlements there was almost always someone who knew elven. While human was the most common, elven was the second most known. Merchants usually knew it or at least had translators in order for the business, so he'd never found himself in trouble for not knowing any human any farther than "hello" and "yes." "" '

Seraphis watched the exchange between Silver and Black in silence. He began to fume when Black brought the validity of Silver's words into question. He had no right... Seraphis stood and took a defensive step forward. Suddenly, he remembered his manners and gave a polite bow towards Fal.

"Forgive me if I speak too brashly, my Lord," Seraphis said, addressing Fal, "But you would do well not to take his council. Aside from being a mage, I could also be called a spawn hunter. I have been chasing these damnable creatures for two years and I can assure you, as I live and breathe-" He then shot a glare at Black Hawk, "they do exist." He closed his eyes a moment and regained his composure.

"It is good to see you are well, my Lord," he said, "The damage the spawn caused was extensive, but it could have been far worse."

((I'm grasping at straws now so I'll end it here. ^_~))

He gave her the strangest of looks, and Doina wondered if she had said something offend him till he spoke. Her own face changed to one of shock. He didn’t know Human? But…that was so odd! Human was somewhat like the common language for all creatures and other life forms that could speak. How could he have gotten by without learning human?

‘He is a white mage…he must have really been cut off from other people!’

Well it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Doina would just speak in elfin with him. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be hard for most of the group to interact with him, since they all spoke elfin. Except for Falconer…but most of the stuff he said was crazy. So it was good that neither would be able to understand each other.

‘He might scare him away….’

““ she admitted quietly.

““

She took another bite of the hard bread and swallowed, the piece traveling down her throat slowly. This was going to take awhile to finish. She took a look around the room and caught sight of Falconer…seeming to have another conversation with himself. She sat up and called Falconer over.

“Hey Falconer! You want some of this bread?” she said pointing to it.

She also wanted to see if he was alright. She couldn’t heal his wounds with magic, though he probably wouldn’t have, but she still wanted to make sure he was alright. Waiting for him to come over she turned back to the white mage.

““

((Geeze, I miss a week or two, when you say you will be slowing down, and I miss the entire battle. -sigh- sorry about that... I was grounded.))

Leon woke up in a corner between a chimney and wall of what was left of a building. He didn't remember much of what he last saw, except for a lot of shouting and a wall of water. He figured that he had been knocked out, which was surprising because his race was accustomed to bashing their heads against each other's. He grunted as he sat up. His fur was coated in ice shards and such, and the plant that was on his hand was now gone. He took the stone out of his cloak and put it back on in an attempt to warm himself. He sighed. He had made a useless fool out of himself, and the damn headache just wouldn't stop. He looked up to see that an elf was trying to get him to his hooves, obviously one of the 'clean up crew' but what Leon found interesting was that he couldn't hear anything the man said. He shook his head and waved his head back and forth to indicate that he was fine as he worked his way to a standing position. This was a silence he had never experienced before, and it was quite interesting.

After about ten minutes of resting and standing behind the wall, too ashamed to confront the group just yet, his hearing gradually came back. Luckily, the other elves had gone about their business collecting the injured. Leon wandered into the battlefield, finding that the water spawn had evaporated. He sighed in relief as he saw Falconer's knife in a puddle. He could at least do that. He picked it up, wiped it off, and put it in his belt. Seeing none of his group, he assumed that they had all went back to Silver's house. He took his time getting there, probably twice as much as he should have. This was the first time that Leon had to come to terms with the fact that he was weak when it came to spawn hunting, and it shamed him.

Once he arrived at the house, he gave a few curt nods to the people there, with the exception of the one who Silver and Seraphis were glaring at. He stumbled over into a corner by the fireplace and sat down on the floor, staring into the flames and wondering distantly where Blade was. He took out his jug and took a long drink from it before he started to warm up a bit. "Gentlemen, I would not suggest that you distress those in the group that Silver Lark has brought with her. If you look at the damage caused, ask yourself what demon you know of that could do such a thing, and then re-analyze your beliefs on weather the spawn exist or not. And in either case, they just saved your sorry excuse for a village. It is usually considered rude to antagonize your rescuers." he said indirectly to the elder and the other elf, neither of whom did he know the names.