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 Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:00 pm
Broken Hammer - On World Chapter 5 - Final Chapter The trip to Fehlar was the longest thus far on the trip so far as Glyph was concerned. It was only a few nights away but the very knowledge that they would soon be at their goal meant each step felt like so much longer to Forest. He was anxious to find Forge - they all were.
The rain continued for three days after they left Birnam, turning the ground to mud that caked and clung. It didn't bother Glyph - it actually felt good to slosh along in the mud after trekking around in dry sand for so long - but it made the going slow at times.
When they finally arrived, the storm had broken and the canyon city stretch out to the north and south. Numerous balconies and windows and doors dotted the walls of the cliffs they stood at the edge, connected by suspension bridges, narrow walkways and winding, seemingly gravity defying pathways. It was beautiful but lonely - the colours, preserved still, were protected from the sun by the cliffs and they were vibrant, lively, a few ragged flags still flapped in the breeze. At the base of the canyon, a river ran sure and strong, its blue waters keeping life viable in this narrow sliver of land. Vegetation grew along each bank, run wild in the absence of tenders and trees grew tall, their thick, black limbs covered in green-blue foliage and bright yellow flowers. The bushes, too, were flowering, indicating that as parched as the world was they traveled in Spring.
Glyph had hurried on at that point and all but disappeared into the tiny jungle at the base of the Canyon, enlivened by the presence of such greenery. His eyes twinkled with merriment as he emerged with a handful of fruit in one hand and a half eaten fruit in the other, "Here... Where do you think we should start?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:12 pm
Fehlar was a welcome sight. Their goal. It was mildly comforting to know that once they had found forge they could return back to the pantheon. To a bearable climate, a hot bath and a comfortable bed. Though, she knew it would not be quite as straight forward as that.
The city of Fehlar, was, or had been beautiful. The bright colours and soaring balconies would have once been full of life. It was easy to imagine it as a centre of trade. Merchants from all over, even off world meeting to buy and sell.
Cosine watched Glyph as he disappeared into the vegetation and smiled as he returned, hands full of goodies and a boyish grin on his lips.
"Perhaps at a temple or hospital again?" Cosine suggested. "Assuming these met a similar fate to those at Birnham? What did you see Kou? any details that might help?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:38 pm
The river was a welcome addition.
No, scratch that, the river was a very welcome addition. The mud he actually had not minded, either, even if he was now a very dirty dragon that was doing to be in a rather pressing need of a bath in short order.
But they, there was a river right there ! And sure enough, just as Glyph vanished into the greenery and vegetation, Xun Jiang headed straight for the river, more or less rolling himself in it like some overgrown cat.
When Glyph did come out, however, he did get back on all four paws - and padded his way to his lover, still dripping wet. The mischievous glint in the dragon's blue eyes made it obvious what his plan consisted of...
Still, he waited until he was given, and thus scarfed down a fruit, THEN he did shake himself, wet dog style, all over Glyph.
Hey, trees did need watering.
"There are really good, through." He did the closest to a grin as one could do with a maw, finned tail wagging lazily back and forth as he clearly expected another fruit. "And this place must have been lovely, in it's prime..." The colors were indeed lovely, and he could give it at least this. The aesthetics of the town looked rather pleasing, so far, even if he did prefer being outside.
When both Glyph and Xun Jiang did exactly what he had expected to do, Ankou had issues trying to repress his amusement. Really, for all Glyph had teased him for his own distraction, he seemed quite easily distracted himself.
He recognized the architecture, the environnement - yes, they were at the right place. And there was, of course, a massive gathering of spirits within. Only this time, well... He did not expect it to be a problem.
It would be a learning experience, at least - he had not had to exert himself much on the way to this town, and keeping the spirits busy in between soul paths had become more or less subconscious action.
"It was way in the back." He gestured toward the city. "A white building, rather large. Broken down shelves... It looked like it might have been a library." Before it had taken a whole different purpose, indeed... "I did not look the whole way through, but I know roughly where it is."
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:27 pm
 Mud at this point was only slightly better than sand, at least it did not get everywhere including some places you would never even think of. She was just glad when they finally caught sight of Felhar. It would have been an even more beautiful place if it were not devoid of life. A river and trees? Well, that would certainly make Xun and Glyph happy.
Unlike Ankou she did not even bother trying to hold in her amusement at Xun doing his best impression of a dog. It did not matter if the dragon king decided she was his next victim, the bath would be quite welcome at this point, maybe it would remove some of the mud. After a little while laughter settled into quieter giggles before finally stopping.
A library seemed an odd choice for a hospital, but given the circumstances perhaps it simply had the most amount of space? "Shall we start looking then, once those two are done of course." She grinned, unable to help herself.
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:14 pm
"Oh don't yo-" Glyph barely got the comment out before Xun shook himself all over Forest, leaving the leafy got sopping wet. "You fiend! I smell like wet lizard now!" He laughed, energized as much as Xun had been and he bounced the fruit in his hand for a moment, teasing, before he threw it at the dragon - but not before making it overly ripe and mushy. The now soft mass was lobbed through the air and landed quite solidly on Xun's brow, the juices dripping down. Grinning, Glyph ran a finger finger through the juice and sampled it, giving a shrug, "Y'know, I think being fruity suits you, Xun!"
Then somebody mentioned a library and he looked up, noticing the group was more or less waiting on Lifewater and himself. Providing Xun with a playful bop on the head, Glyph marched off after the group, "A library huh? Maybe we should start on the bottom level - if they were carting dead around, no sense in pulling them up however many levels as are in those cliffs. Being close to water and medicine would also be beneficial." As he spoke, he tossed a good fruit at Xun with a grin.
"Anyone else want one?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:16 am
Cosine jumped back as Xun shook himself and smirked at the antics of the pair of them. They were so silly sometimes, though it was good, some light relief on what had been a hard journey.
She nodded in agreement to Glyph's estimations. It would make sense to keep the sick, at least on the lower levels.
"Me." She held her hands out to recieve whichever fruit Glyph would pass or throw to her. After days eating old supplies the thought of fresh fruit would be very welcome indeed.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:12 pm
"Now that's just wasteful." Really, if Glyph had thought this would bother him... Ha ! No, but it was a little comical as the dragon simply waited for the mushed fruit to slide down his scales and snatched it before it could fall on the ground. Hey... Waste not !
The group's amusement was certainly not annoying him... Hell, that had more or less been the point. There was relief to know that they were nearly there at least, relief that Forge at the very least seemed like she could take another host, and relief at their current environmental - a far cry from the desolation they had spent most of their time on this planet in.
If he had to make a fool of himself to spread the good humor among the group, then he certainly did not mind in the least.
"Now if you'd excuse me." He said with clearly exaggerated affront. "Someone has gotten me dirty all over again."
At least all this required was a quick face dunking. And some lapping at the water, but that was just details.
When the group started moving he was quick to catch up with them, snatching the thrown fruit from mid-air. "They are really good." He nodded to Cosine, and eyed Tien in a way that did look a little mischievous. Sadly, it looked like they were going to get moving before he could get a chance to give the dirty little wyrmling a bath...
Oh well. Better not to lose track of the end goal, here.
"It was on the bottom level, yes." Ankou nodded. "In a wide-open room... Part of the wall was missing. Crumbled down." Even as he started to walk toward the entrance, he tried to think about features that might help the rest of the group to have some sense of direction. He would find the building, sooner or later, but having some help doing so would not hurt. "I do not think she was very deep in the building at all. It looked like all the bookshelves had been put to the back to give as much place as possible for the sick."
And oh... Oh, they had needed it.
Even from here he could just feel it - the pain, the fear, the dead haunting the ruins of the city angrily. This was very much like Birnam was - the population had gathered in the bigger cities when things had started to go wrong... And it had created pockets of very intense spiritual activity, like this.
Still, Ankou did not look too worried, even as he stepped past a large gate, carved directly from the rock of the canyon - even running his hand over the finer details as he passed it by. There was definitive skill in the carvings, and even through he did not know how to carve stone... Well, the Spirit Guide could still appreciate the craftsmanship of such a thing.
He could have simply just sent them all, made a soul path and get the spirits out of the way... And had he been nervous in any way about this, he would have done just that, right away. But he really was not nervous at all. The dead were already moving for them, in masses, but one single word made them still in their track, unable to resist his will even though they trashed and fought against his power.
"Right down this path..." He pointed along the white-bricked road.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 4:29 pm
"Sure, Glyph." She would eat as they walked.
Tien had not missed the look that Xun shot her. It seemed she had judged correctly and she may have gotten that bath if they had not started moving along. She followed after Ankou and Cosine, taking in the sights as they headed down the path. Trickery was glad that the Spirit Guide was not nervous. It seemed this would not be a repeat of their entrance onto the world or of Birnam and that was well and good, she had had more than enough dealing with ghosts for quite a while.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:19 am
Glyph handed out the fruit to those who asked, smiling. "It's good to see life's survived in some places..." He murmured, letting Ankou take the lead and chose instead to look around.
It really was a marvellous place, sheltered from the sun and wind and difficult to attack from above - likely the reasons it survived some of the initial weeks. Famine had rolled across the plains above but had the river sustained the plantlife below? It was a narrow strip for the vegetation, perhaps combination of mortal attention and luck? Most of the growth was relatively new, only a few trees had survived Gehenna and their trunks were marked with the signs of disease and damage.
Trails, more then pathways, wound between the wild stands and he spotted a footprint in the mud. It gave him pause and he smiled, gesturing at the print, "There is yet animal life - that print is fresh." As he walked, he let his mana flow outward to touch the plants and the trees, his influence leaving thicker jungle in their wake. Where it grew out of the path or across, the growth seemed to bow out of the way for the group, making it that much easier for them to navigate. "It won't be much longer before this city is reclaimed."
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:44 pm
It was comforting to see the returning vegetation, footprints of animal life too. Cosine ate the fruit she had been given as they made their way down through the city towards the library. Hope was a strong force, perhaps this florishing oasis would spread it further. If life returned on this world then no doubt it did on others too.
Still, there were the dead ... out there somewhere, she was not concerned as before, Ankou was stronger and could surely deal with them. A hospital though, where the sick had died in pain ... she hoped they might be able to bring some respite to those souls
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:54 pm
Xun Jiang paused to sniff at the print, in a gesture that probably did not help the puppy-dragon impression. "Yes... And not too long ago at that." The scent was still very crisp and strong to the dragon's nose, and he could have easily followed it if he had wished to, but saw no need to do so. It smelled like a rabbit and the paw print certainly landed some credibility to that guess.
Yes, Glyph's influence made it easier to navigate the over-grown city. Which certainly was good in his case, as well... all the trees did honestly look the same to him. Not his area of expertise at all.
As he walked he started to sing, whisper-like, reaching out for the agitated souls to try to calm them, not so much out of actual need to do so, but simply because he could. It would make it easier to send them, later on.
It was not long before things became much less straight-forward than he had thought they would be, and thankfully it was not spirits-related. No, the problem was that the remnant of the street that he had been leading the group on was blocked by the remains of a fallen column, shattered into huge hunks that blocked their way, with the overgrowth making scaling or going around the hunks of stone more trouble than it was worth.
Oh, right. Obstacles. That might have actually have been important to notice and take note of. He had not quite thought about that - after all, obstacles were no issues for him.
For everyone else ? Welllll...
Oh, the look on Ankou's face spoke volumes. It was equal parts 'whoops' and equal part of 'I did not allow this to be there.' Highly amusing, but being more bestial in shape made his poker face much more bulletproof that it might have been.
"There are likely other ways." Unfortunately, the amusement in the Dragon King's voice was too thick to possibly be overlooked. "Is the overgrowth thick enough that you can make out a path ?" He asked Glyph. head tilted in his lover's direction.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:49 pm
Well...this might certainly pose an issue...
Thankfully for Ankou, Tien did not see his expression. She was too busy studying the fallen column in front of them, looking for possible ways to climb over it. Trickery did however hear Xun Jiang's question about cutting a path through the overgrowth and the goddess paused in her inspection and glanced in Glyph's direction. Could he really do that? It would certainly be interesting to see.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:13 pm
He hadn't been paying much attention to their journey, silently guiding them in a relatively straight line along the banks of the river. The waters ran in a narrow, deep channel here, cutting under the cliff on the far side and it allowed the greenery space to grow. It was an interesting subtropical blend, sleepy and curious to Glyph's mind, like something coming out of a winter sleep.
He nearly walked into Tien and Cosine when Xun asked his question, and he blinked, looking over the column. Thick vines had already grown over the column, and the cracked surfaces were filled dirt that hummed with the life of germinating seeds. Forest hadn't looked at it very long when he nodded, "Easily. Though can all fly, remember?" He chuckled and shook his head, stepping forward.
As he did so, the forest audibly shifted - the vines bowed into steps, the nearby tree lowered a few branches... the vegetation itself adjusted to the call of its lord. Neatly and without much effort, he stepped up the living stairs, crossed a short bridge of vines, and set a hand on his hip as he paused atop a giant section of the column, quite pleased with himself. "Coming?" He grinned, waving them forward, "Mind the sprouts, though." Indeed, the path was lined with moss and tiny green shoots from the myriad of plants that had pushed forth leaves at his passing.
Taking the opportunity to look out from the vantage point, he followed the road with his eyes to where it curved round a corner and forked, one path going towards a dark area in the cliff face, "What about there? Near the fork."
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:46 am
Cosine studied the fallen column with interest. Again, there was talk of flying. Though it seemed a logical solution she had never actually tried it. In theory her wings should be too small to take her weight, though she was a goddess and imagined that the usual rules of physics did not apply.
Still, she was very grateful when Glyph managed to manipulate the branches into steps of a sort. Though not opposed to the idea of flying, she did not think the journey was the best time to be experimenting with such things incase of failure.
Cosine followed him up, her bare feet making it easy to navigate the odd shapes of the branch stairs.
"It looks promising." She replied to his question.
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:47 am
Could all fly, hmm ? Oh, that was awfully tempting to see just how well trees did fly.. if the couch time earned for giving in to the temptation of griping his lover by the loincloth and taking off for any other reason than an emergency would not have been endless. He also knew better than to try it when they were others around as he had no idea how Forest would react to it.
Still, sometimes Glyph made it almost too tempting to be mischievous. As it was, he simply let out a low chuckle as he walked in step with Forest, well used to what his lover could do by now, blue scales catching and reflecting the sunlight following the movement of his careful steps. Yes, he could feel the flow of the river from here, and the deeper the got in the city, the more he started to think that the town had been built to follow it, that the river was not new, but ancient, that it had survived, down there, more or less protected by the cliffs.
Even as he walked, his form seemed to shift, twist a bit, until he was back to his more human-like shape. He saw no need to keep his dragon form here, and it certainly would make it easier to walk through smaller areas and actually fit into building. Still, the shift back to two legs after weeks spent on four was a little strange, and Xun Jiang did need to work on his balance a bit before he jumped down to the other side of the fallen column, using the time in which everyone else would catch up to look through his bag for his clothing. Even down there, the sun was still strong...
Well, that certainly did solve the problem nicely. And he had no idea Glyph could have even done that.
True enough, Forest's playful words did remind him that he had never seen his beloved fly... But, much like her, Ankou seemed to think that later would likely be a much better time to tackle that particular issue.
He could have simply made his own way, now that he knew everyone else would be able to pass safely, but he had to admit the living stairs made him curious. So he stepped in last, letting Tien make her way up first, his ascension slow mostly due to that fact that he was, indeed, minding the sprouts. Which was not as easy as one might have thought.
Once at the top he jumped sideways to the top of the column, looking out in the distance as Glyph pointed. "Yes, over there." Really, Fehlar was a massive city - and likely the capital of this country, now that he thought about it. And now that he finally had calmed the souls, he was only starting to have a more accurate mental 'map'. "This city is massive, through... It will take us quite a while to get there by foot."
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