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 Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:39 pm
The elf chuckled, a deep warm sound that emanated from his chest. "And surprises," he replied, not taking her comment amiss at all. She was after all incredibly small to him. He stepped completely out of the room and knelt in front of her, his white robes dragging on the floor as he did so.
"Considering your tongue and unusual appearance," he commented, smiling kindly down at her (since he was still after all quite a bit taller than her, even kneeling), "and considering that I have never in my long years seen anything like you before, would I be wrong to assume that you are from the world that has been connected to ours, called Gaia?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:44 pm
Gion stepped up to Yue and put one hand on each side of his head, just over his temples. He stared into the angel's eyes calmly for a moment, then closed his and bowed his head.
He created a dream world much like he always did with Daemon, but this time the world he created was far from beautiful. He stood in a wide barren land, where the ground was mostly rock with very little growth besides the odd scrub bush or wild grass. Bones littered the ground, skeletons of many different species and races: dwarf, human, elfin, animal ... large and small. The sky was gray and bleak, filled with low-hanging clouds that seemed heavy with rain, though the land itself looked as though it had been in a drought for a long time.
Gion was standing there, dressed as he was at the moment, and a slight breeze was blowing the tendrils of his hair around the points of his ears. He waited patiently, eyes scanning the seemingly endless horizon, for Yue to appear.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:51 pm
Yue fell back upon his meditation since dream worlds was something he was not familiar with. If it weren't for that kind of training he might have been a bit lost, but there was he was. Standing in his usual clothing, looking out into a land that was devoid of life.
"Not much to look at," he commented drly as he appeared.
Lin was tempted to climb onto his knees, but her bare feet might get things on his clothes, and she was bare footed. She didn't like foot wear like a certain angel.
"Yes," Lin replied back, "That's what everyone calls my home," she looked up still, but now she could see his face, "I'm Lin."
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:04 pm
The elderly elf smiled warmly at the child, his laugh lines deepening. "Hello, Lin," he said softly, reaching out one hand to her, palm upwards. "My name is Sir Valdemar. I'm pleased to meet you."
His brown eyes were warm and friendly, filled with kindness and eagerness.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:08 pm
Gion nodded at Yue's words, for a moment as silent as he was in the real world. Then he rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled softly, sound emitting from his throat as it only could here.
"Just wait until we travel through it," he replied in a rich bass voice. He turned and looked at Yue, his eyes serious and determined. "This is the best it gets. You should pray that we don't have to experience the worst."
He nodded at their surroundings. "I would imagine that you would need more than just this to be able to create a portal," he commented. "Landmarks, perhaps, or a map overlay. In the real world, I would be unable to help you with those; here, I can give you both, if you need."
He looked at Yue and waited patiently for his answer.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:13 pm
"Landmarks I would need the most," Yue replied back.
Map overlays he wouldn't need as long as he had that, this was as close to being here as he would get. Distance wasn't a problem as long as it was in the same world, but he needed a landmark to pretty much mark in his mind, since he couldn't mark it physically.
Lin took a finger with her hand, seeing as she was too small to shake properly. She blinked looking up at him, he reminded her of her mother in a way, very friendly and very interested.
"Does that mean anything?" she inquired.
She had not asked to any of the people before because she had been too interested in playing and staying. Now that those two requirements had been passed from her mind, she was just interested in this new world. Her daddy once said that knowing about the place she was in was always important. If it was important then she would try to know.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:24 pm
Sir Valdemar was pleased to see that the child was as inquisitive as he himself had been at one time ... well, and he still was, too.
"My name?" he asked to clarify what she was asking about. "Yes. Would you like to know the simple meaning, or would you like to know where it came from?"
As inquisitive as he was, he also loved spreading his knowledge - in this case, actually a chapter in history that had closed for nearly everyone else alive.
No, for everyone else.
He put out both hands to her. "Would you like to sit on my shoulder?" he offered. "I would imagine that you are as hungry as I, we can talk on the way to break our fast."
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:34 pm
Gion nodded. "Very well then."
He thought for a few moments about what sort of landmark he could use. After all, the Northland was in both name and reality a barren land, and the place in which they were standing in this dream world was named the Barren Plains for a good reason. Of course, it depended on where in the Northland they needed to be ...
"The mountains," he said finally, nodding to himself; and as he spoke the scenery changed. The clouds became darker, thicker, and the amount of bones on the ground increased until it hardly seemed possible to step without stepping on one. Behind him, in the distant south, the base of a mountain was visible. He had chosen that particular mountain for a reason: it had the most distinguishable landmark on it.
At the base of the mountain was an area that was clear of bones, though not naturally. It was ringed with rocks the size of enormous boulders, boulders that would theoretically take more than a dozen men and lots of equipment to move. Yet it too was unnatural, for they were placed in a perfect circle, an even dozen boulders, and the northernmost boulder was twice as tall as the others and carved with many mysterious symbols.
The cleared area filled more than an acre of space, and in the dead center of it was another ring of stones with a pillar in the center.
"Some say this was once a place of sacrifice for the ancient races," Gion murmured softly, his memory adding more details to the dream world. Carvings, runes, shapes ...
"Others," he went on, "say that this is where the real world meets that of the Halls of Mandos, where the dead are judged. The more reliable stories claim it is nothing more than a sacred relic site that has been abandoned by those who created it. I don't know what the truth is. But this is the only real landmark in the entire Northland, the only place that is distinguishable from any other."
He turned once more and cast his gaze upon Yue. "Is this enough?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:56 pm
"This will do," Yue looked around carefully..
As long as there was a place to mark up later not here though, he wouldn't be comfortable adding a rune here.
"If you don't mind travelling this way again when we leave, we can take this place back as long as there is a good place to leave a mark," he told Gion.
Lin nodded as she took his hands and crawled on so she could be picked up. The thought of food sounded good to her, it was always good to have something to eat in the morning, that's what her big brother Yukito told her. Then again he ate a lot.
"I guess both," she murmrued since she didn't know it could come somewhere too.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:06 pm
"Well," Sir Valdemar began, placing Lin carefully on his shoulder (where she seemed to fit ever so nicely), "the name Valdemar means 'from the sea'. A long time ago ... a very long time ago, when the world was newly created, there was no one living in it. There were no humans, no dwarfs, no elves. This was before the time of the animals, before the dragons, before everything but the unicorns."
His eyes grew distant as he headed towards the tower and the stairs. "The unicorns," he sighed nostalgically. "The only beings born of this world that are older than we Firstborn."
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:07 pm
"It's been abandoned for millenia," Gion assured Yue. "It wouldn't matter."
He paused. "Do you need to look some more, get a feel for it?" he asked cautiously. "Or are you ready to return and attempt the portal?"
In the distance, smoke (or something similar) could be seen rising from an unknown origin.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:16 pm
His shoulder was a good place to stay and she could see everything from where she was, which was good Lin thought to herself as she listened. On one sense she couldn't imagine the world being that empty, but then again she was a Second and the Second world was empty, but not as empty as when her big sister was born, so Lin thought it wasn't a good comparance besides all the animals probably were there before the Seconds.
"If they're older then why are you called Firstborn?"
Yue shook his head, "No, this is good," he told Gion, "I ready."
He won't say he thinks, because he knows there is no such thing, either you are ready or you aren't.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:33 pm
"Because unicorns," the historian replied patiently, "are, for all their intelligence, still animals. We elves ..."
He paused, wondering how he could explain it so that it would make sense to the little girl. He wondered what the history of their world was, how everything had come into being there.
"We are called the Firstborn because we were born, not literally, from The One, Ilúvatar," he said finally. "We are his children, his firstborn. Secondborn are the humans, but that is another story for another time, if you are interested. But getting back to the one at hand ... before we were created, Ilúvatar had his heavenly company, the Ainúr, create the world itself. The Valar, those who chose to leave Ilúvatar's company and live in this world, were the ones who created us. We were created from the elements ... I and my few companions were brought forth from the waters of the sea. Therefore, I called myself Valdemar ... of the sea."
In a way, he missed those times. There was only peace, the light of the Trees, there was no hunger, no war, no evil ...
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:36 pm
Gion nodded, and the dream world dissipated like a mist in their minds. He opened his eyes in the real world and lowered his hands from Yue's head, then took a step back to give the angel room.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:37 pm
Nadya looked from Gion to Yue and back. "Well?" she asked in a soft voice, her tone inquisitive yet distant. She turned her gaze to Yue. "Will you be able to do it?"
If so, they could leave the horses behind - which, considering the unease generated by her simple mention of them, was a good thing.
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![[T]he [O]thers's avatar](https://a1cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/fe/ce/f6078ff69cefe_flip.png?t=1432603596_6.00_00&a=1&i=53107&s=stand&f=front)
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