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 Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 6:46 pm
 She followed obediently after Glyph and stopped short of where Cosine had ended up. If there had been a way to the Underworld here she would've been the first to volunteer to go look for Ankou. She was not afraid of Nergal's domain in the least bit. It would not have been her first trip down there, just the first in this lifetime.
It did not take long to search the area for footprints, there were no extra foot prints aside from their own. The ones that were Ankou's stopped where he had vanished. "None, aside from our own."
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 7:18 pm
 He pursed his lips when she found nothing - no trace of movement or struggle... It was good and bad. He hugged Cosine tight, then crouched so he could look into her eyes, "We'll stay for a bit, mm? I'm not going to leave you alone and I don't want us splitting up again." Of course, the exception was Xun, it seemed, and he looked up to spot the dragon, waving him back to the group.
Still with an arm around Numbers, Glyph turned to address the group. "We won't leave the city before we know where Ankou is but as we search, I propose we take the opportunity to look for Forge as well. At night fall we will come back here and make camp - we will not be far regardless of where we are."
He turned to Cosine then, "That is the plan. I am certain Ankou is fine, wherever he's decided to vanish to. I want you to stay close, however, just in case. All of us - and I mean all of us - need to stick together. We are stronger as a group then on our own." Glyph looked first to Tien then eyed Xun, knowing Lifewater would want to search far and wide but unwilling to let him drift off lest whatever happened to Ankou had indeed been problematic.
And so the day passed, hour after hour, with no sign of Forge or Spirit Guide in the ruins of the city. Treasure lay scattered over marble floors, amphoras full of sour wine still stood untouched despite shattered vases all around. Looted storefronts had merely been moved then abandonned in the chaos of a failing city....
Glyph pocketed some of the treasure - a handful of coins, a plate with a floral-woodsy motif, a finely crafted ocarina, and a medallion with the same emblem as at the gate to keep as mementos of this city and to place at the shrines over the course of their return. The plate and the medallion he would keep but the rest... the rest were to ease the dead.
When they finally made camp back at the hill, the rain finally came - it had been muggy for hours, just on the edge of a torrential downpour, and lightning would crackle between the clouds - but now it broke upon the land. Huge, fat drops warm and refreshing pattered down on Glyph's head, and he lifted his face to drink in the moisture, the sound of the drops against his leaves reminiscent of greener places.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 7:47 pm
Cosine took a moment to compose herself and nodded in agreement with Glyph. At least they could be productive and searching would distract her from thinking the worst.
Search they did, though it turned out to be fruitless. There was no sign of forge, not even a hint of where she might be. By evening they were all feeling rather frustrated to be yet again stuck without a hint of a direction to go.
As night came and with it the rain Cosine sat next to Glyph, Gungnir by her side as the heavens open and the fat droplets poured from the sky. She tilted her head up too, smiling as the water splashed onto her face and soaked her hair and clothes. After so long walking the desert it felt good, very good and she did not care one bit how wet she got. Her mind was one place, hoping that wherever Ankou was, he was indeed safe.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 8:26 pm
Xun Jiang did come back when waved, and more or less did stick around the group, save for the times where he took altitude to get a better view of the whole area. There was no sign of Ankou, and no sign of Forge - not that he could have been able to tell, truly, save for the feeling of a faint, unknown deity-presence... If the goddess was even strong enough to emit that much.
He was glad when night came - if only because it meant he could perch at the mountains again. This constant flying was rather tiring... His wings certainly were sore from all of it, through the rain was doing a fine job at soothing the ache.
And he was definitively enjoying the rain, even if it was accompanied by thunder and lightning.
It started with a faint flicker, a few meters behind the gathered group of gods. The faintest blue flash, easily attributed to a trick of the lightning.
Then another. And another. Still, in the complete silence, it was easy, all too easy, to overlook it, especially with nothing to reflect the lights that suddenly took form in the darkness.
Ankou became quickly aware of two things. The first what that it was night. It was morning when he was pulled - or... so he thought, anyway. It was hard to remember exactly what happened. He kind of remembered running off, but beyond that...
Well.
The second was that he went from dry to drenched in about .5 seconds flat. Why, thank you sky, really.
But now he had to - wait. Oh, there they were. Well. Convinent, really. Ankou did not really think twice - walked in complete silence until he was right behind the gathered deities.
"The rain's sure on overdrive here, is it ?" It was almost too casual for a deity that had been MIA for the last few hours, but that was Ankou being Ankou.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 8:56 pm
It seemed this city was a bust, as far as their quarry was concerned. No sign of Forge and no sign of Ankou either. At least the rain was a relief after the desert. She lay stretched out on the ground near the others, just letting herself get drenched. Her eyes were closed and one warm was thrown across her face.
When someone snuck up on them and spoke she was on her feet quick as lightning, dagger drawn. But then she saw who it was, or at least who she thought it was. "......Ankou?" He had changed in the hours he had been gone and as impolite as it was she found herself staring.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 9:15 pm
Glyph had been lost in thought, mind drifting back across their path and all that they had seen. It was an eye-opening journey for Forest and a reminder that as strong as they were, as vital as they were, they were not invincible.
And then someone was speaking right behind them, without announcing themself, and Glyph started. Spinning, he somehow managed to both get covered in mud and make an attempt to shove Cosine to Xun while summoning a dense, thick, thorny thicket of brambles complete with thorns that would ward off all but the smallest creatures right around the intruder. "Announc-" Glyph finally spotted who it was and flushed only briefly. "....Ankou?" His tone was somewhere between the 'I'm glad to see you' and 'you're in big trouble' range.
"Cosine? Are you alright?" He glanced at Numbers and nodded to Tien, whom had been up and drawn a dagger in a flash.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 9:32 pm
The voice ...
Cosine barely had time to register it before she was pushed rather unceremoniously to one side by Glyph. Her hand shot out so she could stabalise herself and she glanced up, through her soaked bangs, water still streaming down her face.
She ignored Glyph's question as she stared at the figure beyond the brambles.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:07 pm
The way Xun Jiang's mane stood on ends was hilarious, actually. His tail tensed and before he could do most of anything, there was a Number goddess being flung in his general direction, and he had to spread his wings to make sure she would not tumble right down on the ground.
He hissed something that Glyph might recognize as a night elven curse word. "The hell are you doing ?!"
It only registered late that the Spirit Guide was... well, different. Uh.
Business end of daggers ? Check.
Thorns trying to creep up his legs ? Check.
Angry dragon hissing ? Check.
"Im just going to gather by the warm welcome that I ******** up somewhere." Really, it was a little hard not to get to that conclusion, even if you name was Ankou.
The brambles continued to grow and coil around his legs until they simply seemed to start growing through him, and he simply slid to the left and re-solidified again.
"So, I guess. Hi, my name is Ankou. I would appreciate if no stabbing was involved in this encounter - bushes or otherwise."
Though why were they all looking at him like that ? He did not feel that different. Was he ? "What, did I grow a second head or something ?" Well. At least he seemed aware that something had happened, which... well, was probably already an improvement on his mental awareness track record so far. "Do I seriously look that different ?"
Never occurred to him that it probably had a lot to do with scaring the ever living s**t out of everyone.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:20 pm
Tien could not help but laugh at his question. "Do you have the mirror handy Glyph? He might need to see this for himself to understand."
She slid the dagger back into its sheathe at her waist and tried to suppress the giggles that did not want to stop. Seeing Xun with his mane standing on end had not helped the matter.
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Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:14 pm
Glyph shook his head and sighed, moving forward to pluck a berry or two from the bush and pop them in his mouth, "That's putting it mildly...." He eyed Cosine, then puffed out his cheeks, then started as Tien asked after the mirror, "Oh! Yeah. Good idea."
Fumbling for it, he drew it from his holster and held it up for Ankou, "See? You've changed. Disappeared for the day, without sound or trace or notice, left your weapon behind... we weren't sure what happened to you." He arched a brow, that mischievous smile playing across his lips as he shrugged, "Though it seems as though I was right and your tendency to space out was indeed the culprit."
He was just glad Ankou was alright.
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Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 9:09 pm
Cosine narrowed her eyes as Ankou spoke. Aparently it was all a big joke. Tien's laugh, Glyph's smug smile, she could feel her irritation growing. She could hardly believe that they could be so casual. Yes he had spaced out before, but disappear? ...
Her anger reached boiling point, she pushed her damp hair out of her green eyes and fixed them on Ankou.
The tiny goddess barged past Glyph, not really caring if she shoved into him and stopped right infront of Ankou.
The slap to his face was natural, spontaneous and hard. An outlet for her irritation. She had been worried sick. Would they be laughing if they had been in her shoes?
"I thought you were gone."
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 12:25 pm
While the others seemed amused enough, well, Xun Jiang happened to be just at the right angle to see Cosine's irritation quite visibly build up.
"Uh, guys..."
Yeah, too late for that. What had to happen happened, and while the Dragon King was quite aware that Ankou deserved it...
Well.
That had to hurt like a b***h, if the sound was any indication. And if anything, Xun Jiang knew what an angry woman was like - half of his mindset was an angry woman, as Glyph could testify - so he knew better than to step into this mess. Nope. Not doing it.
Better to leave Cosine to calm down herself than risk making her ire greater.
...Well really now. "I know that." Really, did they seriously think he was that...
...Uh.
Well, yes. He had been aware he had changed, but he had not thought he had changed much. Which... was clearly not the case.
Ankou did not get too long to ponder this in great detail. There was Cosine, but... Well, he knew that look. He knew that look a little too well. It meant alarm bells. DANGER, DANGER, DANGER.
Still, he did not expect the hand-meet-face scenario. Not at all. In all of the ways he had ever ******** up, he had certainly not ever ******** up enough for THAT.
First reflex was to bring his own hand to try to lessen the string, and well... He certainly had to say something, as full of pitfalls as that option seemed to be.
She thought he was... ? Ugh. The lack of recollection was definitively annoying. Being told what had happened did not make it much clearer. "I did not mean to do that." He admitted, finally. "I am sorry."
Hopefully that would not earn him another slap.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 4:32 pm
Eeesh. Tien cringed when Ankou got slapped. That sounded painful, she did not want to imagine what that must have felt like. Cosine's anger was justified, she could not argue that, the other goddess had been terrified. Like Xun she was content to leave it to work out themselves.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:14 pm
Forest also knew better then to get between the lovers or to countermand the goddess and backed off, padding over to stand by Xun, one hand settling onto his lover's neck. He watched for a moment, then tapped Lifewater, "I think they deserve a moment. C'mon."
Gesturing at Tien, he waved Trickery over, and turned towards the city, "Cosine, Ankou, we'll leave you be. We won't be far." With that, he padded away, "I believe we can do a proper search now that Ankou is returned and definitively clear the area. Did the day reveal anything of interest? Any leads?" The question was posed to Xun and Tien both.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:49 pm
Cosine actually hadn't meant to hit him that hard, she hadn't meant to hit him at all really, and it was not because he was gone but that he, and the others could be so casual about it when she had been worried sick.
"I was scared to death Kou." She was calmer now, regretting the slap just a little. She looked up at him, it was strange to see him so different, though it suited him very much. "You left Gungnir behind, and vanished. I thought I might not see you again, or that you'd be stuck in the Underworld."
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