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 Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:53 pm
[[Note: This is Loch and Annis ONLY. Please stay out if you aren't either of them~]] →→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Most jobs gave Annis money. A few of them gave her insurance--her job had made her a couple of enemies, after all, what with some of her mercenary tasks involving thievery--but no one had ever given her the option of "Get me this item, and you can have anything else you find." It had sounded brilliant at the time; all the dude wanted was this little jewelry box, so if she found a veritable gold mine of money, she didn't have to hand over a single coin.
However, he seemed to have known what he was doing, because the only other thing she found was this... book.
Annis paused in mid-air, the sun rising against higher her back, to study the tome carefully cradled in her arms. Her pouch wasn't nearly large enough to hold the thing--it rivaled the size of any Bolting or Purge tome (and those things tended to be large, by what Annis had seen), and it certainly had aged. The text on the front had worn down to where Annis couldn't recognize any of the characters, though the gold leaf imprinted into the corners and the delicate detailing had managed to survive. It was beautiful to look at, yes, but Annis had no idea what it was about.
"It could be a magical tome... I don't think this is some old man's diary," Annis mused. She carefully pressed a fingertip an illegible character, wings flapping hard.
Annis looked up; a thoughtful smile spread across her features. "But I know someone who can read the language of magic."
There wasn't any reason to linger in mid-air, then. Annis swooped down towards the ground, arms holding the tome protectively against her chest.
-----
Annis was a quick flier, but her destination happened to be at the other side of town; she arrived at the Eyris Bistro after about fifteen minutes of flight. Even with the outdoor tables more crowded than usual, it wasn't difficult to pick out a familiar pair of grey wings from amongst the beorc populating the chairs.
"Pardon me, excuse me," Annis muttered, weaving through people. "Excuse me-- by the way, I'd suggest going for decaf in the future," Annis suggested to a man as his high-strung jittering nearly knocked the back of his chair into Annis' hip. The raven finally made her way over to the edge of the tables and, without requesting permission, sat down in the chair next to the blonde-haired Heron.
"G'morning," Annis chirped at him. She watched him for a few minutes, waiting for the sign that his current cup of coffee had disappeared down his throat--Annis had figured out by now that, despite Loch's angelic appearance, he had no sense of being a morning person whatsoever--before setting down the tome on the table before him. She delicately turned it around so that the cover would face him. "I wanted to ask you about this," she told him, getting right to the point. "I got this as a reward for my last mission. I figure it's a magic tome, but I can't read any of it, so I wanted to ask you to read it for me."
Annis looked up to Loch's expression. She removed a coin from her pouch. "Need me to top off your coffee?" she questioned, partly out of friendship, but mostly out of the desire to encourage him to help her. Hey, it couldn't hurt to make the deal better for him, right? We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:56 pm
Some called it habit. Loch always hated that word. It seemed so...evil. Like one of the seven deadly sins that should have been included but it just wasn't for some reason. No, Loch's morning coffee was ritual. He needed that coffee, otherwise he was one rather irritable heron. Have you ever seen an irritable heron? It's not a pleasant sight.
He took another sip of his lukewarm joe as he flipped the page on his newspaper and ran down the page with his eyes. Nothing really gained his interest - nothing ever happened in Eyris unless it was earth-shattering and in that situation the last concern was putting out the newspaper. So once he'd grown bored of staring at the news he folded the paper neatly and placed it under his plate before taking a bite of his toast. It was then that he was greeted by a rather pleasant sight - Annis, the raven he'd met during the trying times of a couple of months ago and had made a point to keep in contact with since just because she was a friend to him with similar burdens, suddenly popped out a seat next to him and plopped down within it. She watched him for a bit, and he said nothing to her before he finished his toast and his coffee. It was okay that way. Loch rather liked the relationship the two had; the raven had questionable activities and motives, and the heron was often too modest for his own good, but all in all they made a good pair.
A hand popped the last bite of crust into his mouth and he washed it down with the last bit of coffee. Finally, he turned to Annis, pale eyes wavering between her and the odd book she was carrying. "Good morning, Annis." He smiled a rather charming smile as he slid the plate and mug away from him. "No thank you. I'm rather jittery when I've had too much coffee, and I think I'd rather spare us both." Displacing the thought of exactly what sort of 'mission' Annis must have fulfilled to procure this interesting book, he reached out for it. "May I?" He grasped the tome with both hands, gingerly sliding it towards him, and fingers traced the golden trim along the edges of the cover. "You do know that you cannot exactly 'read' a magic tome, correct? Tomes are written in the Ancient Language, and were one to actually read the incantations written on the pages within, it would only be a series of given verbs instructing the magic sealed within its pages as to what to perform. It'd be a rather uninteresting story, really."
His gaze passed from the book back to Annis's face. "Unfortunately, I have never seen a tome like this before, so I cannot tell you what it is. It does radiate an odd magical energy, but beyond that I would have no guesses." Fingers tenderly grasped the edge of the cover, fixating there as he nodded. "Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance."
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:55 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Annis smiled brightly when Loch finally spoke to her, the exuberance in her smile at odds with his charming one. She had always expected him to be the kind of man to entertain multiple women--or at least to have a new boyfriend every week, what with that man's looks and mannerisms--but as far as Annis had found out, it never happened. Quite peculiar, she decided. But it didn't really matter; just meant he wasn't spending all of his time and money entertaining greedy women that spent too much time tucking and pinning body parts to make themselves look more attractive.
The raven shrugged at his denial of her offer and tucked the coin back into her pouch. "All right, then." At the mention of the book, Annis took her hands back to allow him to move the book closer.
He did explain what the inside of the book would be if the tome ended up being a magical text, he really did, but all Annis heard was "Blah blah Ancient Language is apparently really boring and has no funny words that sound like someone took the alphabet and mashed it together with a mortar and pestle blah."
Annis studied Loch's blue eyes, then cast her own green ones down to the book. The cover really was beautiful, the gold edging and careful, delicate designs inscribed into the hard, worn cover. Annis couldn't guess at its material--if it was leather, it would have eventually disintegrated under the march of time's heels, right?
"Even if it's not magical, it's got to have something written in it, and if it's in the Ancient Language, I wouldn't be able to read it. So we could at least see what's inside, right?" Annis put her own hand at the edge of the cover, gloved fingers brushing against his. "C'mon, what could it hurt? We'll be careful not to cause any damage to the book."
Annis tilted her head to the side, as if capable of peering down into the depths of the paper with the smallest gap between the cover and the first page, but before she could move her hand up, she heard a rustle of fabric behind her. Annis lifted her hand from the book and turned in her chair, arm resting against the its back. The other people in the open cafe seemed to be watching them; more accurately, they had their eyes on the book. It was an old tome, excellently decorated and clearly of some value. If they could get even a little flake of that gold leaf, then maybe...
Annis shook her head from side to side, enough to clear her thoughts. No. No paranoia. Annis looked at the people again, then turned back to the table. Then again...
"Hey, Loch. Let's look at this elsewhere. Some people don't know how to let other people have private business," Annis suggested. She rose to her feet and set a single coin on the table. "I'll carry the book if you'd rather not. Either way, we gotta be careful with it." We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:40 pm
Loch mused for a second. People did have a tendency to be slightly nosy at times like this, eavesdropping and wandering eyes and whatnot. That wasn't a bad idea, really. He'd probably regret offering this later, but...
"In the forests nearby, there's a secluded opening that is quite well lit. I often go there myself to study a text." His place within town wasn't quite that glamorous, and it had horrible lighting so any chance he could find to get out he took. "We could take the book there, if you'd like, so that no one would bother us." With that said, he removed a fair bit of gold, left it on the table, and took Annis's hand briefly to lead her away from the Bistro. "Follow me," he mentioned, letting go of her hand to spread his wings and take flight.
The spot wasn't so far away from the Eyris town square, although for those less aeronautically-inclined it would have taken a bit longer to get there. The road running by the forests was sharp and twisted, and the clearing was deep within the forest. Loch knew the area by heart, though, and soon enough he and his companion had landed within the small clearing. It was a homely area, with soft grass to sit upon and stray trees to sit against and study a book or two.
He paced a bit, looking the area over, and turned to the raven. "This should do. Now, shall we take a closer look?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:58 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Annis nodded twice, using her free arm to hold the weighty tome against her chest. Annis couldn't feel Loch's hand through her gloves, save for the slight warmth (Probably from holding that coffee mug...) of his palms, but she figured his hands would be soft, very smooth. Magic users were much less inclined towards bearing scars than those who fought on the frontlines.
Annis wrapped her other arm around the book a few moments after he released her hand, stalling for a moment to watch his flight upwards before following him. The flight was smooth--the winds were gentle and did little to batter her frame while above the homes and business of their castle city--but Annis could feel the windswept look to her hair growing quite permanent as she landed next to Loch. Her feet were near-silent as she stepped her feet down onto the grass, wings flapping once before folding behind her back.
Annis watched Loch pace without speaking, her arms still holding the book protectively against her body. His blonde hair seemed to catch the light that filtered through the gap in the trees that actually formed the clearing. Spun gold... Annis mused. She tilted her head to the side a little, watching his grey wings move just slightly as he turned back to face her. He really does have pretty eyes, Annis mused. So blue.
"This should do. Now, shall we take a closer look?"
Annis nodded and walked over to him, brown hair falling across her green eyes as she knelt next to him. Once he was down at her level, Annis put her hands carefully against the edge of the cover, not wishing to knock loose any of the detailing pressed to the hard surface. "Let's see here..." Annis murmured.
The cover was easily lifted; as it parted from that first page, a wind whipped up that sent the dust and dead grass around them swirling and the pages skidding over each other in a frantic effort to keep turning. Annis threw her arms over her face to block the debris from entering her eyes or nose, but as soon as the action was complete, the wind died away instantly. Annis blinked twice, lowered her arms cautiously; had that been nature's work? She found Loch's hand and gripped it, turning her eyes to the book.
It hadn't moved from where it had been set down on the grass. The pages, as if by coincidence, had landed at an exact equilibrium between left and right. Annis read the words aloud, barely above a whisper, in unison with Loch.
"Secrets contained within a shadowed lexicon
Wits and valor, tested in trials undergone
Prepare yourself..."
As the last sound left their lips, a sudden rush of magic sent the pages turning again. A whorl of magic rose up and filled Annis' vision with white. The magic shrieked as the maelstrom of energy swirled and, very suddenly, she felt herself being lifted off of the ground. "Hold on!" Annis tried to shout over the deafening roar, but her voice was lost. She grabbed on tightly to Loch, and then very suddenly, there was an intense pain all along her body, and then focused at her temples.
And then everything went black. We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:17 pm
Together, they opened the book. An odd wind struck, casting debris around that Loch was pretty sure hadn't been there before. He came to this spot rather often, after all. Huddling closer to Annis, he noticed in the back of his mind how nice it felt when his wings brushed against hers - but the thought was quickly displaced when she took his hand. Nodding, he gazed at the book with her, which had fallen in quite the peculiar position, and he glanced back at Annis briefly before returning to the book. The pages stood quite eerily, and Loch found himself murmuring the words upon its pages simultaneously with Annis. It was all very creepy, but Loch didn't think anything of the incantation.
That is, until it was too late.
Before he could react, a fierce magical wind whirled up around the two, blinding them with whiteness. It howled so fiercely that his cries for Annis's safety remained unheard over the chaos. The magic seemed to pierce his very form, tearing through him, his body wracked with agony. He didn't even notice the raven clutch to him as he blacked out.
------------
Some time later, his eyes fluttered open. The first thing he noticed was that he was sitting upon a cold stone floor, his wings pinned painfully against a wall behind him. He shifted his form to free his wings, and became aware that Annis was still collapsed upon his body, weakly clutching onto his form. Loch instinctively put his arms around the girl, holding her tightly as he surveyed the room. It was a fairly foreboding stone room, boxed in from any side. Ornate runes and symbols adorned the walls, none in any form that Loch could comprehend. Above was a gradually sloped ceiling, tapering off into a subtle point. And directly in front of the two, only a few paces ahead in this small room, was a great steel door. It did not seem to be reinforced at all and could easily be pushed open. The question now wasn't whether they would go through it, but what would face them on the other side. They didn't have a choice.
The heron hugged Annis tightly. "Annis? Annis, are you okay?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:48 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Loch was a heron, not to mention a student of the magical arts; being able to recover from a magical assault wasn't as daunting a task for someone like Annis. Yes, ravens tended towards more magical resistance than their hawk brethren, but that didn't mean she was capable of shrugging away an attack like that. Annis could feel a comforting warmth against her as she slowly came to, arms still grasping onto Loch's chest. She could feel Loch's arms holding her close to him.
"Annis? Annis, are you okay?"
Annis murmured something and slowly shifted to an upright position, taking in a deep breath. The deep-set ache in her bones made movement painful, but already the fire was fading, and in a few minutes, Annis was fully awake. "I-I'm fine... I'm fine." She moved her hair away from her face, blinking hard as her vision focused on Loch's face near hers.
"Really... I'm fine." Annis slowly rose to her feet; she wobbled on the first step, then regained her balance, striding slowly towards the door. She tried to ignore the runes--were they pulsing?--but she found her green eyes tracing them along the walls as she stopped in front of the door. Annis slowly removed her gloves, then silently found Loch's hand once he had followed her over. It helped reassure her; being subjected to fiery magical pain and then dumped in an entirely foreign location was bad enough, so it was good to have a friend there.
Hm, his hand is soft.
Annis looked to Loch's face for a second. There was a faint hissing from the steel door, and Annis snapped her vision back to the door, her hand tightening on Loch's. A message had very suddenly burned itself into the metal, glowing bright and legible against the steel.
This realm is my own; invaders have no power
Keep hold of your wits in this darkest hour
Get a grip, you two
Annis turned her eyes back to Loch, taking in a long, silent breath. "Are... you ready?" she asked quietly. "It's... we can't get out any other way..." Annis stared hard at the door, as if her piercing gaze could melt a hole through the steel, then placed her free hand against the door. A single gentle push was enough to open the door. The darkened area it seemed to lead to faded away to a long hallway, torches lit periodically along both walls, with numerous branching paths in either direction that seemed to go deeper into the area.
"...It's a maze..." Annis murmured. We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:31 am
Even as one of the most calm and serene people a person could find, Loch was still beginning to find himself quite unnerved by this unusual turn of events. He took a deep breath to calm himself, if for no other reason than to present an air of stability to keep Annis calm. If she saw him becoming nervous, she would likely freak out herself, and that was the last thing the two needed at a time like this. His mind wandered over to that hand of hers that was tightly gripping his own. That girl had quite a grip, he mused. He focused on her touch and silently took another deep breath. Ah, yes, that was better.
Loch gazed at the words upon the door for a moment, pondering their meaning. "Invaders have no power"? His first instinct was to raise his free hand to face-level and murmur the quick incantation that was Fire he had memorized, and flames traced his fingertips. So that worked. And hopefully Annis still had her wits about her (as the door had mentioned) so that she could use those daggers. Whatever faced them on the other side of this door, they could fortunately still fight against.
"I'm ready..." Loch whispered, as if his voice would awaken sleeping dangers within, "Let's go." The two pushed the door further open, and stepped inside.
Loch made sure to keep his hand on Annis's, his fingertips idly tensing and relaxing against her palm. No words were necessary as they paced the long hallway, passing the dimly lit torches every several steps. When the first branch in the path came, Loch shook his head and kept onto the introductory path. His intuition couldn't help him out here, with the fierce magical energies in the air, but habit had taught him never to take the first option available. So upon reaching the second turn, he opted to take it, leading Annis alongside him as they navigated the new trail.
This path extended a far way before finally reaching a corner. Loch paused in the corner to eye an interesting statue placed within it. This statue in particular seemed to be that of some sort of long-haired maiden. Her eyes were covered by a cloth, her clothing was tattered, and she seemed to be holding some sort of long blade. It was an odd statue, but still very interesting.
So interesting, in fact, that when the statue suddenly sprung to life and thrust its blade between the two, Loch hardly had time to react. Instinctively, he shoved Annis one direction while he dodged another, breaking the hold between the two.
Aaaaaaaaaaagh!
His body was wracked with a searing pain almost immediately. He tried to reach within his robe to fetch Thoron, but his hands were shaking too intensely from the pain. Through watering eyes, he decided his next priority was keeping Annis safe, and without thinking, he found her and grabbed onto her as they fell against the wall. The pain suddenly ceased.
"Get a grip, you two"
So that was the meaning of this riddle. He would have paused to decide the complexities of this trial, but there was kind of a living statue still pacing towards them, brandishing its blade for the next strike. Taking care not to lose contact with Annis, he removed Thoron with a free hand, lay it upon his lap open, and spoke the incantation that triggered a ball of lightning within his hand that he then cast at the statue's head. It shattered explosively, raining stones upon the wall and the floor with a clatter. The statue froze.
Loch stood up, pulling Annis to her feet as well and grabbing his tome. "It would appear as though we cannot lose contact with each other in this room, otherwise...that will happen again." He smiled weakly, trying to convince her that there was some humor to be found within this. "We should continue. This trial will be over the sooner we find a way out of here."
Meanwhile, the funny thing about stone statues is that they don't work quite like a living being. Removing the head really doesn't do anything to them, besides destroying the head. It had already started lumbering towards them again, and it was now blocking their path as it did so.
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 2:41 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Annis didn't dare stray from Loch; she was used to foraying into known territory or being given time to familiarize herself with the lay of the land before acting upon any mercenary contract. Being dragged head-first into an entirely strange area--not to mention the fact that there didn't seem to be any other way out--wasn't doing much for her nerves.
No matter what, I don't think we're going to make it out of here if we don't stick together... Annis squeezed Loch's palm at this thought, her other hand tense at her thigh, near one of her dagger's hilt. Her senses were fine and she still had her weapons; with Loch's magic and her daggers, they could handle anything that came their way.
Right?
Annis didn't argue with Loch as he opted past the first turn in the path. He seemed to know what he was doing, and Annis had no better clue of how to proceed than he did. She acutely heard every footfall between the two of them as they moved down the hallway. Annis could have sworn the lamps were starting to fade just slightly as they rounded the next corner and came face-to-face with a... statue?
Annis stared at it, not taking the same artistic appreciation for it that Loch might have. Her eyes went from the blinded eyes--(Creepy)--to the tattered clothing--(Creepier)--and finally to the sword grasped in both hands--(Seriously, who makes these things?). Annis barely registered that the statue seemed to have tears running down its face from under the cloth when, very suddenly, Annis' ears were filled with the grinding of stone against stone as the maiden sprang to life. Her hand immediately went to her thigh, drawing her dagger. She stumbled to the side as Loch leaped away from the thrusting blow, and as she began to pull herself back to her feet, she froze.
The pain was intense, enough to send a brief scream hurtling out from her lips. She fell onto her knees, chest seizing as she desperately tried to inhale; nothing seemed to stay in her lungs. Annis felt her throat tighten when Loch appeared, grabbed onto her, and roughly fell with her in tow. Annis felt the scrap of her own dagger against her leg, cutting through the material of her pants and her skin just barely deep enough to draw blood, but more importantly, the crippling pain had ceased.
The dawning realization was enough for Annis to swear under her breath, a dark expression coming over her face before disappearing in the face of the clear and still-present danger.
Annis watched almost dumbly as Loch seized control of the situation, sending the statue's head flying as shrapnel before helping her to her feet. Annis glanced at the drops of blood--her own blood, that was sure disconcerting--at her dagger before looking to Loch. She managed a weak laugh and turned her eyes over to the frozen statue, now headless.
"Yeah..." Annis murmured. She twined her fingers through Loch's, as if the extra grip would keep her from letting go.
...Of course, that grinding stone noise a minute later was more than enough for Annis to realize that the bugger was back. She turned towards the statue, forcing Loch to move, and stared at it for a moment. Blocking the way down the hall, still holding that sword in its hand...
Annis lifted her dagger, aimed for a split second. There was a small fissure in the stone along the statue's collarbone. She lunged as the statue lifted its arms to strike, dragging Loch behind her; the dagger plunging deep into the aged stone sent a multitude of fine cracks throughout the statue's chest. Before it--she--whatever could bring the sword down upon Annis' skull, the statue's torso collapsed into a pile of broken rock. The sword turned into shards of stone and dust upon the floor, falling barely a foot from Annis' toes. Annis stared, then looked back at Loch.
"Ah... are... you all right?" she smiled sheepishly, putting the dagger into its scabbard. Her leg was still bleeding, but barely; it would be fine soon. "We'd better keep going." We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:00 pm
Loch watched with awe (not like he actually had a choice, as he was yanked behind the woman due to their current situation) as she made quicker work of the statue than he had. He couldn't help but be astounded by her fluid motions with those daggers, and it took her voice to bring him back to reality.
"Er, hold on...you've sustained an injury." The hand that was holding her own slipped from her hold and traced her arm up to the shoulder, which he then put his arm around. Gently, he sat her down against the wall and retrieved his Mend staff - unfortunately, the only one he'd had the foresight to grab before he left this morning. It was habit for him to grab it for emergencies, and this would certainly count as one. The cut was on the inside of her thigh, near the top of her leg. He softly peeled the torn cloth back and held the staff to it, letting its magic (which, to his relief, was not impeded either) do its job.
"There we go," he murmured, helping her to her feet. "Come on." He grasped her hand tightly and took off at a brisk pace. The faster they traveled, the faster they'd get out of here. Turn after turn, Loch hit no dead ends. Poor Annis could only hang on as his pace intensified. Loch silently thanked a keen sense of intuition that wasn't as absent as he thought as they finally came upon a long hall much like the one they'd entered in. Finally, the exit! He was running now, and the door was only a short distance away--
fwish~
Something sharp caught Loch's arm, slicing through the fabric and slightly nicking the skin. Immediately he stopped, huddling close to Annis, and turned around to face two odd archers in the path they'd come from. The sight was unnerving, as the two seemed to lack faces. But they both brandished fierce bows, and that was enough to make Loch remove his tome once again. He awkwardly held it with one hand as he glanced to the other side and saw two others blocking the exit. They were trapped.
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:25 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Annis shook her head, running one hand through her messy hair. "No, no, it's fine, really, it's just a little cu--" she tried, but Loch didn't seem to want any of that. Annis found herself sitting on the floor with his arm around her shoulder. The raven turned her eyes down, watching as Loch found his Mend staff. Okay, so he would heal the cut, no problem, then they could--
"You don't--" she started, but stopped, face turning red as his free hand moved to the cut at the inside of her thigh, moving away the bloodied cloth to reach the damaged flesh. "Wa-Watch your hand!" she cried out. Annis started to move her legs away from him, face starting to burn crimson. Too close too close too-- aaaaah okay that feels nice...
The Mend staff worked quickly, and as Annis dazedly let Loch pull her up to her feet, she could feel no pain from her thigh. There wasn't much time to linger, though; Loch was already setting off at a jog, practically dragging Annis along until she recovered and matched his pace. He was faster than she thought, Annis realized, as the twists and turned became more serpentine and more frequent. The raven noted that each time they turned a corner, the torches lighting the walls seemed to dim, just a little bit. Twice Annis nearly fell in attempting to match Loch's erratically-rising speed, but she never let go of his hand. Annis squeezed his palm as they sprinted for the exit, a hopeful smile lighting up her features.
Thank the goddess...! Home free!
Fwish!
Annis let out a small cry as Loch's sleeve very suddenly gained a neat cut. The heron had moved closer now, and Annis let him, drawing her dagger again. Loch had seen it too; they didn't have faces. Annis stared at the opposing archers as she gripped onto her dagger, pressing a little closer to Loch. She paused, blinked; what were those arrows made of? The archer seemed to answer her question; another fired his mighty bow, and the projectile nicked right past the band on Annis' left arm and embedded itself in the stone floor, right into one of the many cracks that had appeared over time. Annis turned her eyes towards it, looked back to the archers, then paused and stared at the arrow again. It wasn't even an arrow; it looked, for all logical purposes, like someone had cut out the letters for the word 'opaque' from sharp obsidian stone and glued them together.
"...So we're in a book, being shot at with words. I don't think the author of this thing knows the meaning of subtlety," Annis muttered. She took a firmer stance against Loch and kept a wary eye on the archers near the door. The one that had fired the second word was removing another 'arrow' from his quiver.
Now!
Annis threw her dagger, aiming for the faceless archer's heart. It was slightly off, landing a little lower than intended, but it still seemed to puncture the creature's heart; it let out a gurgling sound and fell, dead, to the floor.
His friend immediately strung his bow and fired 'angrily' at them. We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:59 pm
As it turned out, Annis was quite the adept fighter. He'd never actually seen her in action, all of their meetings being somewhat amiable. It was fortunate that she was rather skilled in battle, though, for situations just like these. Loch, on the other hand, was proving rather useless with just one hand. Fire and Elwind he had memorized. Unfortunately, Thoron was his power move and it he did not have committed to memory. One cover and about a third of its pages were held within his free hand, and the rest flapped uselessly with the two's frantic movement. This wasn't going to work. Attacks still came relentlessly from both sides, even after Annis had eliminated one of the archers. As surreal as their attacks were, Loch had noticed, they were still dangerous attacks and he didn't want to get struck critically by one.
"Hold on! Stay to my back!" Annis was mercilessly thrown behind him as he let go of her hand and planted his back solidly to hers. She was a smart girl; she'd stay there if she wanted to avoid the pain again. With his now open hand, he flipped the book open against his arm, found a certain page, and hurled an explosive ball of energy towards the door. The remaining archer towards the door had a great shield, however, and upon raising it, the ball of electricity immediately dissipated. Loch cursed inaudibly - his ace wasn't going to work. He raised his hand again, muttered the incantation of his Elwind spell, and blades of wind soared towards the archer and struck it, sending it a few steps back.
That door...it's metal!
This idea in mind, he fired another Elwind at the archer, producing the same effects. The archer was ready and fired a series of words back at the two, which Loch avoided by grabbing Annis and ducking to the side. Finally, Loch fired off one more Elwind and flipped open the Thoron again to hurl a shot in rapid succession. The Elwind struck the archer once more, pressing it up against the door. A shield was raised to block the Thoron already. However, the archer was not Thoron's target - the spell struck the door, and an explosive charge of energy rocked through it, electrocuting the archer where it was. It fell lifeless to the ground.
Two left. "I am sorry about that, Annis," he apologized as he grabbed her hand again. "Shall we run for it, or fight them off?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:28 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...It was all Annis could do to keep herself from being pierced by any of the flying 'arrows' that filled the air around her, holding her other dagger in front of her as she stuck close to Loch. She wanted her other dagger back, but there was no way to effectively dual-wield when one hand was taken making sure that you didn't get painfully reprimanded for losing skin contact, and it was off near the other archer blocking the door, anyway. Annis folded her wings close to her back as she managed to deflect a single "I" that was fired by one of the archers, watching as the letter spun wildly to the right and hit the wall, falling to the ground.
Loch was better at long-range fighting than her, and as he tugged her close to his back, Annis stayed there. Apparently wing-to-wing contact was also suitable, because the pain didn't return as Loch advanced on the remaining archer with wind spells. Annis managed to use both her dagger and her momentum to keep both herself and Loch from being struck down by a flying word, though at least once, Loch simply grabbed onto her and ducked down to the side. Annis had to wonder, at least later, who here had more combat instinct and practice; the balance-driven heron, or the mercenary raven.
It was of little consequence, at least. Loch's final Thoron was enough to send the archer down to the ground, and Annis sighed a breath of relief. She squeezed his palm gratefully, sparing a few seconds to look directly at Loch.
"Shall we run for it, or fight them off?"
Annis opened her mouth to answer as 'pancakes' went whizzing past her ear, barely avoiding her. She paused, knelt down--with Loch's hand still gripped tightly in hers--and picked up a fallen 'earthquake.' She looked over to the archers, aimed carefully, and threw. It wasn't the best aim--it was worse than the dagger throw she had performed just minutes ago--but it sank deeply enough into the archer's gut that he fell to the ground, bleeding and incapable of fighting while he was busy trying not to die.
"Both," Annis responded breathlessly before turning to the door and tightening her grip on Loch's hand as she ran. She ducked down as they moved, helping Loch avoid another fired word, and scooped up her thrown dagger. As she reached the steel door, her boot caught on one of the dropped bows, and her hand broke away from Loch's as she tripped right over the threshold and into the next square room. The dagger fell out of her hand and clattered onto the floor, skidding a few feet before her.
"Ow..." Annis muttered. She slowly pulled herself back to her feet, rubbing her elbow. "Dammit, I hit that hard... Loch, are you all ri--" she began to ask as she ruffled her feathers. She froze, eyes widening. Two realizations hit her, and hard.
One, she wasn't holding onto Loch's hand anymore. And there wasn't any pain.
Two, her dagger was suddenly much, much larger than it should have been.
Annis rapidly checked her hip for her other dagger; it was still there. Annis hesitated for a moment, then slowly turned to face the doorway where, hopefully, Loch was still standing.
She stared at him for a few long seconds, then slowly pressed her hand against her face. "...Please tell me that I haven't become pocket-sized," she muttered. "Please tell me the entire room grew, not that I shrank."
If either of them noticed the door at the other end of the room, the letters were already glowing brightly.
A world that surrounds you with death and malaise
You can die in silence or in a painful blaze
Try changing your perspective on things
[[Okay now I swear I'm in bed.]] We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:58 pm
Loch ran for dear life as well upon Annis's cue, dashing into the next room once she had deterred one of the remaining archers. Loch himself tripped over Annis as she fell, tumbling towards another wall. The newest room was different from the previous - instead of a gigantic maze, the room was open, but several obstacles seemed to bar their progress from the door at the other side. Loch would have taken the time to observe more than that, but something that shocked him was Annis's voice. Not the voice itself, but the fact that it seemed to be much smaller and fainter than he recognized.
"Please tell me the entire room grew, not that I shrank."
Loch really would have liked to have told her that. There were a million things he would have liked to tell her then. Unfortunately, that simply was not the case, as when he turned around he was staring down at a foot-tall Annis. This made him approximately six times taller than her now, and the danger of the labyrinth was forgotten in one sheer moment of awkwardness. He cautiously took a step closer to her and knelt down. "I'm...afraid that isn't the case." He quickly averted his eyes, as though staring at her in such a...condition...would be a mortal sin. As he did this, though, the sheer tenseness of the situation suddenly occurred rather humorous to him, and although he didn't want to, he found that he had to stifle an insincere snicker.
"But we cannot stop," he mentioned, quickly regaining his composure and reaching over to pick up Annis's fallen dagger. "We have to keep going."
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:17 pm
→→→→→→The hands I'd kept clean→→→→→→Now look dirty→→→→→→Before I can doubt my memories→→→→→→My memories are doubting me...Annis slowly lowered her palm from her face as Loch knelt down before her. The sight of him very suddenly much taller than her--yes, he was usually about half a foot taller, but not five feet taller--was enough to send a shiver down her spine. Her eyebrows went up as he quickly looked away from her. Annis folded her arms under her bust and watched him. Finally, as he snickered, her expression darkened.
"It's bad enough that I'm stuck like this," she told him, inwardly wincing at how tinny her voice was at this size, "but you don't have to laugh at me. How would you feel if your weapons were suddenly the size of toothpicks?"
Annis didn't move her arms from where they rested as she watched him pick up the dagger. "Fine, just... hold on. Hold still." She flapped her wings hard, trying to lift off of the ground, but... nothing.
Absolutely nothing. She stayed on the ground.
Her eyes rounded with shock, face paling just slightly. One foot tall, and no flight to help me. ...Yeah, I'm boned... Without another word, Annis leaped onto his forearm, climbed up his sleeve, and settled herself on his shoulder. "All right, now you can keep going," she mumbled, her voice considerably sobered after this realization.
Loch would see, upon entering the next trial area, not a maze, but rather a long hallway. Instead of navigating through the labyrinth, he would have to complete an obstacle course, but having his small companion with him was bound to make things more difficult. The distance was shrouded in black--a magical cloak used to keep the further tasks a surprise?--but Loch could see a row of monkey bars closest to him, with what looked like a series of floating panels, all moving from left to right at uneven intervals, over a deep crevasse in the ground.
Annis looked over at Loch, then back at the course. "...First things first, I suppose," she suggested. "Hey, listen; try to, um, be careful not to let me fall off, okay...? I can't fly to pick myself back up." We're mirrors, both of us←←←←←←
Reflecting each other's karma←←←←←←
Our dirty hands will touch←←←←←←
And we'll know its shape...←←←←←←
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