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 Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:52 pm
Doina glanced over at Blade as she began to sing to her melody. It took her a little while catch up to the same tempo but when she did the combination of Blade’s voice and her flute was very beautiful. A smile was beginning to appear on her face and her gloom was slowly receding as the song continued. She was even happier that Blade sung it in elfin. It had been awhile since she heard it. Even in the Sisterhood of Itare the other girls hadn’t spoken much of it. They were always in the company of humans and rarely did any of them know a drop of her people’s dialect.
Once Blade stopped singing Doina stopped her song, taking a breath and storing her flute back into his hiding place. She laughed at what Blade said, the idea appealing to her. It would be nice to have some admires, male ones at that. But she didn’t sing for the fame, she sang because she loved to, it had become apart of her. Music coursed through her veins and into her soul, it’s why her healing powers were at it’s greatest when she sung or was able to play her flute.
“That sounds wonderful but I’d prefer if they’d throw down some precious stones as they bow down as well.” she spoke in English.
She was half serious. One of her weakness was for jewels. She wasn’t vain or hungry for the stones but when she came across them she couldn’t help but admire them. Suddenly a question crossed her mind and she looked over at Blade, curiosity in her eyes.
“Since Silver is talking about her home village tell us about yours Blade. I would like to know how you know so much about elfin culture. Most humans don’t know very much.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:50 am
The way Silver blushed at Seraphis' compliments reminded him of someone else he had known. He began to wax nostalgic as his thoughts turned inward. He remembered the last person he had loved, a human girl named Burenna. Silver's blush called his memory back to the first time he and Burenna had declared their love for each other.
That memory seemed so long ago. He was out picking herbs for a curative potion he was trying to master when he heard the siren song that was Burenna's voice. He followed the sound and came to find her sitting on a rock next to a stream, singing an ironic song about a Highwayman who had his heart stolen by the young maiden he intended to rob. Seraphis had applauded her performance and told her that her voice was the most beautiful sound he had ever herd. He remembered how her face had lit up like the sky at sunset.
Suddenly, he became aware that his fingers were absently caressing the scrap of paper in his pocket, the final memento he had from his dear, sweet Burenna. He glance at Silver and then back at his boots, expressions of guilt playing across his features. He felt like he was betraying her memory by pursuing his feelings of infatuation. He realized how silly that sounded. She was dead and gone, yet, he was still alive. He had needs and, by all means, should move on. However, those thoughts did not serve to ease his guilt. Revenge for the death of his love and his family was the one thing that had sustained him these past seven years and now Silver had come into his life, dispelling the simplicity of it all. He did not begrudge her for it, but he mourned the loss all the same.
Seraphis was pulled out of his dour reverie by Silver's light, airy laughter. It was a most welcome sound as it lifted his spirits enough to manage a genuine smile toward her.
"What's so funny?" he asked her curiously.
((Wow, that post was so forced. Turned out good in the end, though. ^_^))
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 1:37 pm
Silver noticed that something was wrong with Seraphis, but didn't know what to do about it. Comforting others wasn't something she knew how to do. Instead, she answered his question with a smile, "My two good friends growing up were a male elf named Brown Robin and a female named Rose Dove. Both were much older than me, but took care of me like a younger sibling in different ways. Brown was who I turned to with my guard's duties, or when I was having a problem with an older elf. Rose was my only contact with the women of the village. As you can imagine, they didn't exactly get along. I was constantly breaking up fights between them, though I tended to side with Brown more than Rose. Anyway, I left the village the instant I heard that Rose was planning my starnight, even though I hate being the center of attention and, what's more, it was going to conflict with other celebrations. I hadn't heard much from anyone once I left, but then during the Rose Moon last year, I recieved word the two of them had married. I can only imagine what their home is like..." Briefly, Silver thoughts turned to the house she had left in Rose's care before she left. Hopefully, she hadn't let Brown near it with a ten foot pole, much less asked him to help. Now she really needed to stop by her childhood home before they left.
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:25 pm
Seraphis scratched his chin. Something Silver had said perplexed him. He had trouble comprehending why someone would leave right before their right of passage ceremony. The reasons she gave were sensible to an extent. It would make sense that she wouldn't want to attend, but to exile her self for decades? It just didn't add up. He suspected that there was more to this story than she was telling.
'In due time,' he thought to himself. Seraphis was a patient man. It appeared that he would be traveling with this group for some time. He trusted Silver to reveal more when she was ready. In response to what Silver had said, he simply smiled and nodded.
It was then when Seraphis heard an odd noise. The sound of a twig snapping in the wood to his right. He stole a quick, discreet glance, but saw nothing. He looked over his shoulder at the town they had left behind. He estimated their distance to be out of range of the normal footman patrols. This road was well traveled and could surely attract bandits... But he was getting ahead of himself. For the moment, he decided to discreetly alert the others to what he had heard.
"Silver," he whispered, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead, "I think there may be eyes on our backs. I heard something in the woods. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious while I inform the others." With that, he casually walked over to Blade and made a show of engaging in friendly conversation.
"Ms. Blade," he said softly, "I think we are being followed. I heard something in the woods and, from the sound of it, I don't think it's an animal."
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:31 pm
Silver's bright blue eyes narrowed and her hand slid to the hilt of the attack blade. She rolled her eyes at Seraphis's attempt to convince whoever was following them that he was making friendly conversation with Blade. Thank the gods that man is a mage, not an actor. she thought in amusement. If I were a bandit, I would instantly think something was up. Her eyes watched the tree lines for movement, making sure they weren't going to be sneaky and attack while everyone is talking. She hated bandits... Why couldn't they just attack upfront and get it over with?
Snap.
Now she heard it. Her head tilted in the direction of the sound, listening closely. Finally, she whispered softly, "At least four pairs of feet... No more than eight... One pair is more quiet than the other... He'll have the most experience, most likely the leader." For once, she was gratefully for all the stupid exercises Blue Falcon had submitted her to. They had left most of her senses stronger than they would normally be, and she could usually pick apart pairs of steps. Her numbers were always vague enough that she wouldn't under or overestimate the force she was facing. The group of bandits this time wasn't large; they were figuring that Silver's swords were just for show, and that Doina and Seraphis were useless. They were only concerned with Grenth, Ebon, and Blade, because they didn't see her as a woman. Or at least, that was Silver's guess.
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:31 pm
{{I don’t mind you bringing in enemies, just be sure to ask me first before you do it. O: Never specified that in the rules, sorry.}}
"Ooo yes, stones! Shiney ones especially." Blade nodded in agreement, giggling to herself. "Not that it's in my mind to get engaged but I do love rings." But necklaces and things that went on her head, like tiaras, were more of her fancy.
"Hmm? Little old me?" Blade responded, looking over at Doina and blinking. "Welll," she smiled to herself and folded her hands behind her back before speaking. "I was born in Farwind, a small city that used to sit between the two empires Esterdell and Ellahar. But, when I was seven or ten, Tidal came and destroyed it. There was no one left except for me. I should have died but I was saved by a band of elves. From there, after returning to the major elf kingdom only to have it be destroyed, I was taken with the elves that had saved me. They made a settlement in the mountains and I was adopted by one of the knights after he'd decided it was time to put his sword down and turn himself to books. So, I grew up as an elf." Blade unfolded her hands and now began to play the edge of her cloak, holding her harp in her other hand. "My village was a little different from the other elven settlements in that everyone had to be able to know how to use a sword or use magic. All of the children were taught the basics of using a sword and those of us who had the touch of magic were taught how to release it and then use it. Our village was run by a counsel, just like most elven settlements are. These people were elected every five years and were usually the elders of their families or clan. There was a head of the council who usually reigned for life or until they decided to retire. The council was mostly there just in case the power went to the leader’s head. They mostly checked up on things. Once a month there would be town meetings and members of our village would be randomly selected to come and tell the council about what was happening and what they needed.”
Blade stretched her arms up, linking her fingers behind her head and leaning back to use her hands as a head rest. “I was good at using a sword but I hadn’t taken an interest in it. My true touch was with magic and music. I was going to be a bard and magician. The village’s head magician was actually teaching me how to channel my magic into my harp until I left to fight Tidal when I was… hmm, I think it was fifteen.” Blade lowered her arms and crossed an arm underneath her chest, holding her chin. “You have absolutely no idea how depressed I was to miss my coming of age. I brought it upon myself by leaving so early, though, so there’s no point in whining about it.”
Blade yawned, stretching her arms and craning her head back. She could sense something in the trees. Heat. Although she wasn’t sure what it was….
“Hmm? Well, first, you can stop calling me ‘Ms’ Blade. We’re going to be friends now, so no more being so formal with me.” Blade gave him a nonflirtatious wink, her arms lowering and moving into the inside of her cloak. She wasn’t used to men addressing her that way, or anyway for that matter, so it felt a little awkward. But she was calling Lady Silver Lady Silver, right? Oopsie.
Blade looked over at Silver, nodding to what the elf was saying. Elf ears were damn impressive because Blade couldn't hear anything. "Well, looks like we're going to have a crash course in teamwork in our first hour. Doina, could you come over here and keep me company?" Blade now looked down at her shadow and then up at the sun. It wasn't in front of her, so it would be harder to get her weapons. She remained mostly still for a few more steps until she walked underneath the shadow of a tree. She then stretched her hand out and grabbed one of her double-bladed swords out of what looked like thin air. She could feel body heat in the trees. They were coming closer. She turned her head and swung the long blades in her hand, raising another hand to yawn. She wanted to look unprepared. It would put the enemy's guard down, or so she hoped. It depended on if they'd seen her snatch a giant sword from out of nowhere or not. She stopped playing with the weapon, now lowering it and holding it carefully as to not stab her shoulder or rip her cloak. These things really were huge and she often wondered why the dwarves had found that these weapons were best for her. Unless they were just be bastards. It wasn't as if they really got along with elves and she had acted and "stunk" like one. At least according to them.
They were quiet, Blade would give them that. She was a little disappointed that it wasn't night time or else she would have just started using her shadow powers to scare them off. Oh well. Blade stiffled another yawn, lowering her head. Just as she raised it she spotted something rushing out at her from the corner of her eye. As a sword shot out from the trees Blade raised her own sword, blocking the attack and shifting her sword to make her opponent's sword slide farther down hers. She twisted her sword and sliced through the man's hand, resulting in a loud swear. Without missing a beat her boot met his face and with a loud snapping sound he flew back, stumbling in an attempt to keep himself from falling over.
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:30 am
Doina smiled and nodded. She found someone else who found an interest in the pretty stones! Doina liked rings too but her favorite type of jewelry had to be bracelets and necklaces. When she was younger her brother had gotten her bracelet of a pretty amber stone. She had worn it with pride and never took it off, unfortunately it had gotten lost one day when she went swimming in the river of the village. She had actually cried but her brother calmed her down and told her it was alright. She didn’t have many pieces of jewelry now, nor did she wear them often but she liked to look at them from time to time.
Losing her home and family at such a young age was terrible. But it was a miracle that she was the only one to survive. So that was how she knew so much, she was practically raised by them! Blade’s village was more similar to her own. Her village, Lugus didn’t established a system of government that allowed the people to elect. And their system of education was nearly the same as well. For most of the children it was either the art of battle, magic or medicine. Most of the girls of her village chose the art of healing without the use of magic, it was very exhausting and if you didn’t have the reserves for it, healing through magic could be harmful. Doina was one of the few of her generation to go into magic, though she ended up using it for medicine anyway.
“I was taught how to channel magic through an instrument! Once you learn the basics its actually very easy to do, sometimes I find it even easier than not channeling it through my flute.” she said excitedly.
She didn’t think that she’d have anything common with anyone in the group, not being a fighter. But her and Blade seemed to connect in more ways than one. But Blade was right, she couldn’t imagine missing her coming of age ceremony. She had such fond memories of hers, though at the same time she had to take a test to become the apprentice of her medical master, Lady Blodeuwedd. She had exhausted the magic she had that time but she gained the teachings of the powerful and wise master. She was bursting to ask more questions about Blade’s magical teachings and what it was like in the elf kingdom Isolde, but paused when she heard a sound.
The snapping of twigs was just as apparent to her as it was to Seraphis and Silver. Her face fell a little as she tried to distinguish the sound. It wasn’t a bird, the sound was too loud. She, at first, thought that maybe it was an animal but the faint sounds of different footfalls disproved that. It was too many to be just one animal and if it was a pack they wouldn’t have moved in such a way. They would have been more quiet. It seemed she was one of the last to catch on that they were being followed. At Blade’s call she nodded and stepped over to the other woman. She stood to her said as she stopped in the shade of a tree. Doina then watched as she pulled a huge sword from out of thin air.
‘How…how can she use that thing?’ It really was huge and she wondered just how heavy it was.
It seemed like a long time before any action was taken, the stalkers acting first. One charged towards Blade and quickly the woman parried his attack before slashing at his arm and landing a square kick to his face. Doina winced slightly at the kick but kept her eyes open for the rest of his group.
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:52 pm
The bandits were slowly realizing something:
They were pretty much outclassed. They had of course originally thought that this was a simple group of travelers, maybe with one decent fighter in the group. Nothing serious.
However, 2 of them had straight away heard them. One had fricking cut one of their member's hands! CUT!!
"Idiots!" one of them yelled. "Retreat! RETREAT!"
The bandits did so, pushing one another out of the way in order to get away. The guy who had yelled out the command to retreat paused and looked back.
"Hey what about him!"
"Forget him!"
"Run for your lives!"
"GODZILLA!"
The yeller groaned and turned back around.
"Why did I decide to work with those idiots again...?"
The sobbing mess of a man on the ground was crawling away from the lady (At least he thought it was a lady) who had cut his hand.
"H-help me!"
"I would, but honestly does it look like I can heal cut hands?"
"P-please!"
"I mean I don't even have bandages! They probably do" He gestured in the general direction of the party. "You could ask them"
The crawler cast them a fearful look.
"Alright I'll ask them."
He sighed.
"Will you grant my temporary companion here some bandages before he bleeds to death? None of us have any, and it'll probably be a while before we manage to roll a party that happens to have some on them. Honestly, everyone just brings mages or something like that with them and have them heal everything with magic..."
The guy on the ground whimpered.
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:43 pm
{{I'm done editing this post, I swear. xD;}}
Well, that was uneventful. 'Bunch of whimps. Cripes.' All that she'd had to do was give the guy a cut and a boot to the face and he was already defeated. Not only that, but everyone else was turning tail. She lifted an eyebrow, taking a step back in order to get closer to Doina. One of her attacker's companions, it seems, was sticking by in order to "help" his friend.
"What? You want us to give you bandages?" Blade responded in half-disbelief, her head pulling back. "You want to make the milking easier for yourselves or what? You don't go off and attack a bunch of people and then expect them to help you right after!" These people were lucky that they'd met someone who was actually merciful! Blade didn't know about her other buddies but she preferred to avoid killing people as much as possible. And the others had actually taken off, practically screaming. You don't jump a bunch of armed people like that! Of course, these days, almost every one was armed. If a person didn't carry a sword it was more than likely that they used spells as their defense and or offense. So she supposed that they may have picked a good group... based on appearance, at least. Well, she hadn't been able to see how her companions fight. So much for a crash course. Ah well, maybe on their next settlement stop she could spar with them. It was best to know your companions' weaknesses and strengths before trying to engage in spawn fights. And, since Silver knew the area so well, Blade had faith that they would be able to spare enough time for it.
And there had to be something was wrong with this guy's head, that was for certain. "And you're not going to die by a cut on the hand, for heaven's sake. Just keep pressure on it and stop whimpering like a b***h in heat." According to the body heat in the area the others had really taken tail and run off. Blade stretched her magical field a bit, only to find that they were still running. Yeah, they were gone. "You lot are probably the worst robbers I've ever come across...." She mumbled to herself, shaking her head. "Didn't you hear the light spawn warning? The shadow spawn is coming. Maybe if you run fast enough I won't have to sick my friends on you." Blade jerked a thumb over at Doina, her eyes lowering. "Especially her. She'll pluck your eyes and guts out just for the hell of it!" Blade now pointed over to Seraphis, her face still strait. Hey, she was a poker player and won almost every time for a reason. "And by every means whatsoever do not let him look you in the eyes.... And on second thought, I could close that cut up for you. A little fire doesn't hurt too much, does it?" Blade lifted a hand, palm up, and blew softly into it. Fire spewed out from between her lips and closed together to form an orb which floated above her palm, ccasionally snapping out to touch her fingers. "Burning closes up open wounds very nicely. Why don't you come a little closer so I can take care of your hand?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:05 am
"Spawn?" The yeller tilted his head back, a thoughtful look appearing on his face. "Those sound awfully familiar. Hey, what do you think?"
He directed the question to the guy on the ground, who was now staring at the flame with a look of fear on his face.
"Oh come on, its just a fire she summoned magically! Doesn't look that creepy does it?"
He sighed, shaking his head.
"Bloody hell I thought you guys said you were experienced thieves! It's why I agreed to help you! First thing you do is give away our position then run in like a bunch of idiots! Do you even know what stealth is?"
The party stared as the 15 year old continued to yell at the injured, scared s*it less man on the ground on the subject of thievery.
"Don't mind the guys who ran off, if they're anything like this guy they couldn't steal candy from a baby...though to be fair that can be hard at times..."
He scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"Right we'll just fix him up and let you get back to what you were doing then?"
Things never really worked out like that for him. They'd probably try to send the both of them off to some jail or something. While there was the fact that he would be getting food and a bath, he kind of liked being free...
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:34 am
Doina just stared at the group as they proceeded to yell in terror and then run off. Really…even though she didn’t want to get into a fight with them the way it ended was so anticlimactic. They had planned on robbing them and then as soon as one of their people get hurt they turn tail and run! Well most of them anyway. One stayed to help the injured one at least.
Then things took a another turn as the robbers asked for their assistance. Was he joking? They had tried to fight them and take their stuff! Now just because they failed they had to help? Doina didn’t mind lending a helping hand but it was kind of hard to forgive people who tried to attack you. Blade went off on the guy, pretty much voicing Doina’s thoughts. She didn’t seem the type but the elf hoped that Blade wouldn’t want to just kill the remaining two to have them out of the way. It would be pointless to kill them.
“Maybe if you run fast enough I won't have to sick my friends on you. Especially her. She'll pluck your eyes and guts out just for the hell of it!"
What? Doina looked at Blade in confusion. What was she talking about her? She would never do something like that! Doina had such a calm and gentle nature that she wouldn’t even pick the wings off a butterfly. Well, there was that one time but it was for medicine and she felt a little bad about it afterwards. But back to the original subject, what did Blade think she was doing? Then she pointed to Seraphis and warned them not to stare into his eyes. Was she…joking? But her face looked so serious! Doina turned her head and hid the small smile appearing on her face with her hand.
Her face paled slightly when Blade offered to ‘help’ the injured one by closing up his hand with fire. Okay, now she knew she was joking but the thought was still frightening. She reached out a hand to touch Blade’s shoulder to get her attention.
“The fire may work a little too well.” she said with a small chuckle.
Yeah he wouldn’t have to worry about the cut anymore, since his hand set ablaze would be a more pressing matter. She took a step forward and looked down at the hand. It could have been worse, it still was bleeding but taking the right procedures would cause it clot soon. Then the only matter would be to keep it clean so that it wouldn’t become disinfected.
“You should take my friend’s words and put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. The cut isn’t too deep and should be fine later on.”
She might have been tempted to heal the wound but the guy’s friend seemed not think too highly of just having healers in a group with his little comment. She tried not to take it personally but she ended up doing so anyway. But if they didn’t cover that wound up soon she might just heal it to cease the sight of blood.
Then the guy proceeded to talk to other thief. The guy probably wasn’t afraid of the fact that she summoned the fire but that she was going to use it on his hand. But then Doina backtracked as it clicked in her mind what the younger male had said.
“You don’t know about the spawn?” she said in a bit of disbelief.
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:49 am
"Lady, I've probably seen many examples of the spawn things you're talking about (But for some reason I highly doubt that I have...), but really, you think someone's going to bother to sit down and talk to me about something like that? Look at me!"
He gestured wildly at himself.
"I'm a 15 year old child whose probably showered only 4 or 5 times in my childhood who can steal anything that's not on fire or nailed down. Most people tend to avoid me."
He glared down at the injured man on the floor.
"Its probably why these f-kers asked me to help them, make me do all the work and they'll just live off what I steal for them. Un-freaking-lievable."
He shook his head, before moving forward to kick the man on the ground.
"Up you get you stupid lug. As soon as we're done here, I'm sending you back to the rest of the group, tell them I don't want anything to do with you bastards anymore."
"B-b-but none of us can-"
"Tough. Learn how to."
"B-b-but what are you going to do?"
"Hey, I can look after myself just fine! I'm sure I can find a nice village or something where I can loot like crazy everyday...maybe set up a thief empire or something. Yeah, I could become like a mini-boss or something, wait for a party of travelers to come and fight me and suffer defeat at their hands. It'll be awesome."
Cue the staring. And the raised eyebrows. And the questionings of his sanity.
"Hey, what's with those looks? In my profession you either go crazy or...you go crazy."
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:04 pm
“The spawn aren’t exactly something you need to be sat down and talked to about.” she said quietly.
Ever since Tidal had disappeared and the spawn emerged, they had caused the most trouble in the land of Pangaea. From the highest mountaintops to the lowest valleys, everyone had heard of the terrible spawn. Or at least that was what she thought before meeting this kid.
As he gestured to himself she couldn’t help but notice how…dirty his appearance was. She could believe that he had only showed a few times in his life. She tried not to judge people simply on their appearance but she could understand others wanting to stay clear of an unclean person.
‘That and that they realize too late they’ve been robbed.’ she thought, if his boastings about his thieving skills were true.
His plan was a bit…well it was a lot crazy but she found herself speechless. She rose a brow at him before turning to Blade and silently asking her what they should do now. Would they just leave? The younger boy was asking for some assistance and then he would be on his way. She didn’t know about the others but it didn’t look like Blade was willing to help them. She didn’t know if the party would appreciate it but Doina would heal the guy’s hand so that they could be on their way quicker.
“To be honest that is a very sad plan. You’ll both be on your way as soon as your friend gets his injury taken care of right?”
This was a very awkward situation for her.
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