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 Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:11 pm
 "What do you mean how did I get here? How...What...I....You aren't terrified of me?!" Epona was completely taken aback by this Hue's response. Almost everyone was afraid of her and did what she told, but he acted as if he had seen someone like her before. That was almost exciting from the strange man who was surrounded in fire. "And how the hell are you on fire?" She was trying not to cry, and it was everything she could do to keep herself upright. This was absolutely not what she was expecting.
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:18 pm
 "On fire?" In the moment, Hue had forgotten about his Fey-fire. Now that he was reminded of it, he put it out with a thought and returned his attention to the young woman in front of him. "Of course I'm not afraid, you're just a centaur. You must be a long way from home, though." She clearly had been here for a while without any contact with the magical community. It seemed she had completely forgotten where she came from. No matter, Hue was sure they could figure it out. If all else failed, he could ask Erin...
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:29 pm
The man thankfully put himself out, but everything was a little weird for Epona. Her lower lip quivered and her eyes welled up, but she held on and tried not to cry. "Wh-wh-what's a Centaur?" She had gone from a confident almost-warrior to crumbling in just a few seconds. He wasn't normal...and he certainly didn't think she was weird or strange or have any of the reactions that normal people would. "Why aren't you afraid of m-m-m-me?" She stuttered. Epona fought the urge to turn and just run, but he might follow, and he might tell people about her, and she didn't really want people to gawk at her, especially if Hue was reacting like this. She wanted to be normal so bad, and now she almost couldn't take it...
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:35 am
"A centaur is a half-horse, half-human, like you. They come from the deepest forests or other planes, like I presume you did," Hue tried to keep her calm, sensing her emotional state was rapidly deteriorating. Something was very wrong, but Hue could only just put his finger on it. Perhaps whatever was in this forest had kidnaped her as a foal? "Don't cry, please don't cry," Hue tried to make his way off the path but only made it three steps before a raised tree root made him fall in a rather spectacular fashion. Picking himself off the ground, Hue tried to swat the wet dirt off his clothes. When that failed, he sighed and snapped his fingers. The dirt flew off, landing near Epona's hoof. "I'm not afraid because I'm different, too. I'm sure you noticed my ears," Hue pointed to them, smiling. "I come from a different plane, too."
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:59 am
 Secret kept scrying in her demesne, waiting for the intruder to make a mistake. In walked a magical creature of some sort, much to her delight. She always needed more of those in her forest. Yet there was something a bit unsettling about this one. She began preparing a number of divination spells to get more information, but she stopped abruptly. The man was now enveloped in brightly-colored fire. Fey. The memories of her exile bubbled violently to the surface of her consciousness. She remembered how the fey cast her out (albeit for her own protection) and severed her access to the Ethereal realm. She remembered the pain and suffering she experienced when the wild energy in her began to leak out of her and dissipate into the world's mundane, lifeless, stagnant mana. She remembered how hard it was to live in the mortal realm again. All these remembrances swept into her mind and seized her. It was all she could do not to erupt with fury and wrath. Epona had approached the faeling, so she was in the line of fire. Secret tried to hold herself back, but the more she did, the more she dwelled on her grievances. At last, she was fed up. To spook Epona away from the unwelcome visitor, she cast an unusually large Shadow Spikes spell between the two. Next, she began to surround the fey-creature with a dense fog that crackled with magical energy. She charged the fog with the energy of the forest to obscure any magical senses he may be using. Finally, she weaved the roots and vines of the forest together, forming a tight wall encircling the victim. After all this, she stopped to rest--heavy use of magic while in a weakened mental state was both taxing and highly dangerous. As she recharged, she tried to summon back her rational thoughts. She realized that she needed to know more about this threat. Surely, there must be a reason a magical being such as this was absent from its natural plane of existence. This could be very good or very bad news. Trepidation began to edge into her mind, displacing some of her anger but not at all eliminating it.
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:44 am
Epona couldn't help from giggling a little when Hue fell, and she even almost stopped being so upset. She didn't know what he was talking about with these different "planes." She was pretty sure she'd never been on a plane, since there weren't any airports in Delmor. Where would she sit even if she did get on a plane? He must be talking about the airport in capital city, and come from another country. That would certainly explain the height and ears. But the fire? That had nothing to do with airplane travel! Before she could ask what country he was from and how airplane travel had anything to do with the ability to light oneself on fire or flick dirt off a shirt with the snap of his fingers, Secret had stepped into the situation from her home, and suddenly Hue was surrounded by fog, and presumably other nasty things. The good feelings she'd gotten from watching the poor man trip were gone in an instant and the momentarily rational Epona was back to a nearly crying mess. There was nothing she could do to help Hue now... It was supposed to be her job to keep this from happening, and now it was too late. Epona felt a bit like a failure and tried to hold it together. If she watched, maybe she could see what happened and find a way to help Hue. She had so many questions about what it was like in his country.... Ultimately, her curiosity overcame her fear and she stood her ground.
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:16 am
"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" Had it all been a trap? Was the helpless centaur child just some sort of bait for this greater power? No, Hue recollected his thoughts, he had seen the girl's face as the spells started flying. She hadn't been expecting it, either. "All right, Hue, you're trapped in a cage of vines with your magic senses blocked. What do you do now?" This thing, whatever it was, clearly liked the forest. Maybe that was the key to getting it's attention. "Okay, let me go! Let me go or I'll kill off this entire forest!" To help back up his ridiculous claim, Hue grabbed hold of a sizable vine that made up his cell. He forced some of his own magic through it, conjuring an illusion of the tree it was attached to suddenly withering and dying. With any luck, his forest spirit would be too drained from the barrage of spells to notice that the tree was actually fine.
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:51 am
Secret was still trying to recover from the first barrage of spells, but something went wrong. Somehow, the fey had seen through both the fog and the magic shield. What's more, this allowed him to notice he was trapped. So much for that plan, she thought bitterly. She tried to clear her mind so she could recuperate more quickly, but the fey decided to provoke her by threatening the forest. He attempted to cast some sort of illusion on the wall of his cell, but the part of her consciousness that extended into the vines seemed fine. This confused her and threw her off her equilibrium. She didn't understand what he was doing, but she did know one thing: nobody threatens her forest and lives. As soon as she recovered, she went into a furious rage. She started bending and twisting the fibers in the wall of plant-life. Suddenly, an abscess grew along the interior wall. As it reached critical mass, it exploded in a torrent of sharp splinters flying in every direction. Soon, more ulcers began to form, each delivering its own hail of projectiles. At the moment, this was all she could do. Though she had very powerful magic, she couldn't do much while unbalanced and not in control of the fight. Still, one misstep for the young creature and it would be his last.
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:44 pm
"Guess that was a bad idea," Hue hit the deck as his cage began to explode around him. His initial though that this was a forest spirit was clearly way off. No steward of Nature would force living things to be torn apart like this. He considered a number of different options for escape, but the best one seemed to be to attempt to wait out this temper tantrum. Not even a faceless entity could keep this much magic together forever. A sizable splinter skimmed Hue's back, causing him to gasp in pain. His frustration built as the unyielding cage continued to buckle. He was a fey, a child of the trees, yet he found himself totally helpless in the grip of nature's fury. He toyed with the idea of trying to call for help, but the wards seemed too resilient to sneak a message through. As more pointing wood rained down, Hue caught himself praying to whatever Fey deity might have been listening. Hell, any available deity would be nice.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:37 pm
"NO!" Epona shouted in horror as she heard Secret destroy the woods. She ran back about 50 yards to shield herself and watched as events unfolded. She was frozen, wanting to be involved but knowing there was nothing she could do (given the time restraints of some author, somewhere...) So Epona sat, waiting for some kind of opportunity.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:16 pm
< < Previously on Battlestar Galactica As Cael broke through the treeline, he glanced around trying to see anything through the branches and the fog. "Hello!," he called out. "Is anyone hurt?" Running into the forest, Cael forgot to watch where he was going and tripped over a root falling into the fetal position and rolling along the ground until he crashed into the base of a large oak tree. Dazed, confused and upside down, Cael pulled tried righting himself and fell face first into a puddle. Sitting up and brushing the mud from his eyes he looked at the base of the tree he had just rolled into and saw a small book. A rather remarkable book decorated with gold leaf and red ink. "Woah...," the breathless whisper escaped his lips in amazement. Cael picked up the book and tried brushing the mud from it. Turing the book over in his hands, he examined the remarkable symbols that covered the book trying to fond some sort of label. On the spine was some wonderfully elaborate script that displayed what Cael determined to be the name of the book: The Alchemy Index. Intrigued and wide-eyed, Cael opened to book to find out what tales a book like this would tell. Against his expectations, he surprisingly found the pages to b blank. Flipping though the pages searching for anything inside to reflect the remarkable cover, Cael reached the last page, the only page with any writing what-so-ever. In the same script that conveyed the title of the book, a single message was inscribed on the final page: "This story has not yet been written."Perplexed, Cael stared at the page for a good five minutes before shaking his head and tucking the book away in his pocket. He stood up and looked around again remembering that that had recently been explosions and someone screaming. "Uh... Hello? Is there anyone out here?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:30 pm
 "Oi!" called a small sounding voice from behind Cael near the tree he had just hit, "You know, when people run into someone else they usually stick around to apologize before running off to be somewhere else!" Cael wheeled around looking for the source of the voice but saw only trees. Seeing noone, he assumed that the voice had come from the tree. "Um... I'm sorry... if I had know that trees could feel pain, I would have apologized." Laughter rang out, rattling the branches in response to the idea that this boy had hurt a tree. "Don't be silly," the same small voice said, "trees can't feel pain. And even if they could it would take one much greater than you to hurt it." Cael began to get a little agitated with this someone that insulted him from some hiding place. "You talk down to me but you don't sound so big yourself." The disembodied voice also sounded like it was getting a little agitated. "LITTLE?!? Who are you calling little child? I, who have lives for thousands of years, Guardian Beast of the Book, Keruberosu, shall not be talked down to by someone so young. Leave this place before I decide that you are no longer entertaining me."  biggrin LOO40KCICbh9M:https://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg279/Saiyan_Princess/Card%20Captor%20Sakura/ks28.jpg" style='float:right' /> "Book...?," replied Cael pulling the book that he had just picked up from the base of the tree out of his pocket. "Do you mean this book?" "What book?," the voice snapped and with that a little yellow-furred head stuck out from behind a tree and glanced at the book that Cael was holding. Cael had never seen a creature like it before in real life. It looked like a furry, stuffed teddy bear with wings and a fluffy tail. He was so caught off guard by the creatures appearance that he didn't even recoil when the creature flew at him, grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, and started to throttle him screaming "Wheredidyoufindthatbookgiveitbackiamtheguardianbeastandishalldestroyyouwithallofmymightandpowerifyoudonotreturnthatbooktomethisinstant!" Shaken back to his senses from his original shock, Cael swatted the creature with the book in his hand who released his death-grip to dodge the incoming text. Cael took this opportunity to flee the forest and the creature, who unfortunately began chasing him without a second thought.
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:49 pm
As the splinters performed their task, Secret tried her best to recover as much strength as she could. Aware on some level that she needed to end the fight soon, she began preparing one last spell. She began performing the verbal and somatic components of it, but both her voice and hands were growing shaky. What's more, she wasn't devoting enough mana to the task, and what little was appropriated was left quite unbalanced. It seemed as if the spell would surely fail, so she pushed into it with all her might. Her physical and mental reserves now depleted, the spell fired, but it took her along for the ride. She fell to the ground, just as the shadows began to swirl all around. The spells she had cast before began to unweave themselves, dropping the barriers that separated her victim from the outside world. At the same time, the most recent spell began to take effect. Shadowy, spectral arms burst forth from the ground around the two prone figures. As the two sunk deeper into the shadows, the hands began tugging weakly yet persistently at them. Finally, both Secret and the suspicious faeling were catapulted into a small realm full of shifting shadows and endless night. Secret's spirit began to try to breathe heavily as she tried her best to recover. She stumbled to her feet, barely strong enough to stand. While bent over, she struggled to raise her head and see her target. That's when she finally snapped. She began an awkward, weaving charge toward her loathsome opponent. Meanwhile, she swung her arms wildly, trying to cast some sort of projectile spell. However, all she could accomplish was making her hands glow with a completely harmless, black flame. Screaming wildly, she reached the man and began to pound her fists into his body. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! HATE YOU! HATE! Hate..." she yelled, her voice trailing off. He began sobbing hysterically, her punches losing more and more strength. "Nnnngh! Why did you do this? Why?" As tears streamed down her face, exhaustion finally caught up with her. She fainted into the young fae's arms, weeping bitterly into his shoulder.
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 5:25 pm
Feeling the world bleed away around them, Hue took a quick look around. The planes had never been his best subject, but he recognized the Gray Wastes at once. Whatever this girl was upset about, it was enough for her to risk Hades. Gritting his teeth, the fey swept up the girl with one arm and reached for the fading strands of the hasty spell with the other. Knowing he had only seconds before the way was lost, Hue jerked the two of them down the narrow trail of magic and they both careened back into Adohi forest. Back in the world of the living, he had a chance to really look at this being who had attacked him. "You're not a vengeful nature spirit at all," Hue looked at the girl with great interest. "You're just a human with exceptional magic talents. Why in the world did you attack me like that?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:08 am
Secret wanted so badly to flee, to forget this had ever happened and to be as far away from here as possible. She raised her head off of the faeling's shoulder, registering and reacting to his voice but unable--or unwilling--to comprehend. As she gathered what little strength remained in her arms, she weakly thrust herself off of him, stumbling backward and falling sideways into the damp earth. All her options were now gone. She couldn't avoid the reality in front of her, but she was ill-equipped to confront it. So, her soul decided to do something it had never done before: turn off. She was still breathing and moving, but if one took the time to stare into her eyes, nothing would stare back but a deep, bottomless abyss. She rose to all fours, holding her head execution-style while looking up at the man. "Finish it," she said, her voice cold and lifeless. "Complete your duties now and end me."
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