"Some people like the lull..."

Zenroth · Jul 19, 2003

Elux watched from a table in the inn as events folded out, he was in somewhat of a daze not sure what was happening or what he could do exactly.

From another darker realm Orbix overlooked events transpireing as he stood before the body of a barlon in hyloth that his sacrifice had slain. "Should i really bring this monster back to life? Is my own return to life worth this cost?"

Quiby · Jul 19, 2003

“It isn’t fair,” she stated to no one in particular, she knew that no one had come to comfort her, and that upset her almost as much as the prospect of losing everything she had. She hadn’t stormed out into the kitchen to get attention, but in a way she had expected it; it would have happened under any other circumstances.
Although a more mature portion of her brain told her that she was no longer a child, and in such dire circumstances she’d probably be expected to behave as an adult. Although it was easier to realise what was expected of her than it was to meet those expectations.
She looked up from the darkness imposed by her knees, finding it hard to make out details in the room due to the change in the light. She saw enough to know that she was right; no one had come to comfort her. The cold, hard truth was that there were more important things for people to concern themselves with than her.
“Why does there have to be war?” she muttered to herself, “why do we have to fight?”
She decided that she would rest here as she was for a while, it would be a long few days, and no one seemed to be looking for her, for now at least.
She rested her forehead on her knees, the occasional tear running down to join the others forming a small puddle on the floor.

Things had changed in Yew since she had lived in the area a few years back; the mayor seemed to be more concerned about the effects of the war on trade than he was on the potential damage from an invading army, and the captain of the guard was now an arrogant and patronising man who towered over almost everyone in the town.
She remembered a time when the mayor had been a kind and charismatic man, who cared for the town and the well being of its inhabitants above all else. She also imagined the current captain of the guard wouldn’t stoop to the level of entertaining a twelve-year-old girl’s desire to become a guard, although it looked to her like she was about to achieve that long-lost dream.
She had told them all the details she had known, and they had pressed her for more information; details that she could probably only have learned if she’d had time to sit down for a nice chat with the undead beast.
“I have told you everything I know,” she said finally, “how many more times do you want to hear the same thing?”
She was rapidly losing patience with having to retell the whole story every time they chose to bring someone new in to listen, but she knew that losing her temper would avail her nothing, except an escort to the prison, maybe.

TristanKnight · Jul 20, 2003

Tristan rode off to the Yew bank, in a hurry. He hoped to reach there before the attack...

OoC:
Hey everyone, I'm going to be leaving today and won't be back until Tuesday - I don't expect everyone to wait, but if you wouldn't mind I'd appreciate it. If you need to use Tristan as a filler character or interaction character you have my permission to use him, just don't kill him or make him look like a sissy /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Lord Kishkuman · Jul 21, 2003

The last member of a Juka Scouting party of five was running. Behind him the sound of many feet sounded. Now less then three packs of wolves had attacked his smal party. He couldn't understand what was happening. It was like the whole forest had suddenly turned aganst them. Running around some tall branches the Juka warrior came face to face with three grizzlie bears. Not wanting to face the bears while the wolves closed in on him he began running in a different direction. As he ran something in the underbrush suddenly moved in front of him. Unable to stop himself he triped over the small creture. Hurring to get up a wolf ponced onto his back. The warrior threw the wolf off, but no sooner then he raised his spear then a set of teeth snatched it from his grasp. He roared a Juka battle cry as he was buried under a pile of wolves.

Kysh watched through the eyes of the animals as the same was repeated to Juka scouting parties all over the forest. Kysh him self was riding south. Tristan had asked him to find a body of a man whom Kysh had not heard of. While he had the help of the forest to locate the Body Kysh wished that he had more information or help as to where exactly the body was.

************************************************************

The one armed assassin watched silently from the hill as the young elvish boy left the inn riding south. He was actully startled when he heard a voice behind him saying, "So Gad I see you still haven't Killed that boy like you said you were."

Gad turned to find another man, in around his 50s dressed in dark leather armor, thigh boots and a black sash. In one arm he held a Shadow Iron Closed Helmut and at his side was a Kyrss. Numerous daggers could also seen strapped to the man.

"What are YOU doing here, "snarled Gad his left and only hand dropping to the handle of his sword with the symbol of Chaos on it.

The older man replied, "I heard that Yew was about to be attacked. I have a friend that lives here with his family. I'd rather not see him dead so I came."

"I thought you live by Vesper. How did you hear the news and get here so quickly," Gad retorted his hand not leaving his sword.

"Come now, you know we assassins have our ways. Now perhapes you can tell me why havn't you killed that boy like you said you would, not that it matters one way or another with me. I'm just curious."

Gad spoke with clenched teeth, "I'll kill him when I am ready and when I'm sure he will no longer be any use to me."

"Ahh," the older man responded, " I see, for a moment I thought you might have been a little be guilty, after all it was by your hand that the boy is an orphen and having been one yourself I was afried as to how that might affect you."

"After all," the older man continued before Gad could respond, "I know that the fact your parents tried to leave the Assassin's guild so that you wouldn't have to live the life they did, wouldn't affect at all your desire to be an assassin like they were. And the fact that until your parents died you couldn't kill a rabbit with out getting sick doesn't mean that your anger and bitterness at losing your parents is lifting enough to allow feelings like guild through.

"Yes it would seem that you are still the same hartless killer that your parents never wanted you to become."

Gad's sword was out in a second, "I should kill you where you stand, why do you insist on following me around?"

For the first time the smirk on the face of the older man left and his voice took a more serious, almost threatning tone, "From the last 3 times you tried to kill me you should've learned that I don't die easy. And unfrotunetly befor they died, I made a promise to your parents I'd look after you. At the time I thought it was the least I could do for my best friends and as your godfather. Had I known what you'd become I probably would've just said 'no'. But I did make the promise and I'm bound to keep it.

"Any way," the man's smirk returned, "It was nice running into you. Now if you'd excuse me I have some Juka to kill,"

The older man stepped out of sight into some near by bushes and Gad knew it would be pointless to try to find him once he lost sight of the old assassin, so he just turned back to face the Inn. The boy had ridden out of sight. Gad's breathing slowed as he calmed down. Looking over to where his right arm used to be he whispered to himself, "Your wrong old man, I will never forgive that boy."

Yet, even Gad wasn't sure what he couldn't forgive the boy for. Taking way his arm, or sparing his life afterwards.

Quiby · Jul 21, 2003

When Quiby awoke from her dream, the first thing she noticed was that her tears had stopped, although the evidence would still be clearly visible on her face. She had no idea how long had passed since she’d drifted off to sleep, but it had to have been too long.
She lifted herself to her feet and walked to the sink, casting a suspicious glance at Kysh’s bag as she went, and the absence of any leftover bread dough on the working top close to it. As much as she wanted to respect his privacy, she also considered that she had a right to know what she’d actually brought into her kitchen.
A damp cloth was all that it took to clean away the physical evidence of her tears, and anything else should fade in time. There was nothing she could do about other people’s thoughts, anyway.
She checked her reflection in a knife blade, unable to hold back the smile that lit her face up; she was pleased to note that she still looked as pleasing to her own eye as she always had.

After making sure that she looked no worse for her dream, she made her way to the other side of the room, intent to feed her curiosity about what had helped itself to her bread dough. She took the bag down and peered inside, seeing nothing but darkness until her eyes had been able to adjust to the low light.
“A slime!” she exclaimed, almost loud enough for people in the taproom to hear; her subtlety had been swept away in a kitten-like moment of fascination. The only time she had ever seen a slime was when one was trying to make a feast out of her left ankle, and now she was proverbially face-to-face with one. She tried not to flinch as it reached out a slimy to her cheek; probably to test whether she was edible.
She was surprised to discover that it wasn’t actually as slimy as she thought it would be, in fact it was disappointingly un-slimy. Like a snake or a jellyfish, she concluded, remembering other past experiences, yet trying to avoid memories of giant serpents.
It was almost a disappointment when the slime withdrew back into the back, probably deciding that it wouldn’t eat due to flavour, or the possibility that she could provide more interesting nourishment, such as the bread dough.

Throughout the long years of darkness, Xylon had wondered about the nature of the link that connected the two girls. Although it was nothing but supposition, she was certain that it was down to the fact that they were twin.
Of course they were twins in the loosest, or perhaps tightest sense of the word, since they were, opposites by nature.
She often wondered if it wasn’t her own lack of life that gave Quiby her life, and likewise Quiby’s lack of death that kept her in permanent undead torment. With that in mind, she had considered taking the opportunity of having earned the trust of her sister’s companions to slay her, and test the theory. It was then that she was forced to admit that she loved the girl as a sister, and the feeling had seemed mutual, after all despite their differences, they were the only family they had.

She had been flying absently, sniffing the air and listening for any opportunity to increase her power, when she had heard sounds of combat. Combat almost always resulted in death, and death within her locality allowed her to ‘steal’ the unused life force, and use it to supplement her undead abilities.
It was then that she had felt the emotions of her sister entering her mind, strongly urging her to react to the stimuli that weren’t affecting her.
This had been her first truly understood experience of the link between them, and it had ignited something special between them.

She had seen her sister’s dream as if it had been her own, and the distracting nature of it had resulted in her ungraceful descent into the canopy below. She awoke from the dream that wasn’t hers to find herself very much entangle in the limbs of a mighty Yew tree, unable to fathom the extent of her entanglement.
“This is stupid,” she muttered, realising how foolish she must look hanging from a tree, after all; she was ‘The Xylon’. People who lived in the forests of the land had spread fearful and exaggerated stories of The Xylon; unwilling to admit that probably the smallest undead humanoid in the land had terrified them.
“How the mighty have fallen,” she sighed, freeing her arms from the tangle and placing the palms of her hands over her eyes, with her fingers splayed. A groan of agony drifted from between her clenched teeth as smoke curled up from beneath her palms, wafting away on a wind that smelled decidedly of burning flesh.

When she finally removed her hands, she was forced to squint as her newly restored eyes were flooded with colour and light; so familiar, and yet so strange. She sagged visibly, the process of healing her eyes had not only been agonising, but also more draining that practically anything she had ever attempted before.
Her fresh sight allowed her, eventually, to disengage herself from the tree, although her dwindling energies were too scarce to heal the tears and cuts to her body and wings.
She walked slowly, wearily, hunting for something, anything to feed her need for energy; adding another sense to the hunt this time around.

Lord Kishkuman · Jul 23, 2003

Zeazrom sat on his armored swamp dragon as his army marched. It would seem that most of his scouting parties had dissappeared. Was it possible that they knew of the pending attack? And what could wipe out his scouting parties like that? There would've have to have been warriors all over the forest to do that and he hadn't recived any word of warriors in the forest.

Zeazrom thought of calling the attack off but it was too late. He didn't have enough evidence of a threat to turn back now. In just a few more hours his two groups would fall on the Empath Abby and from there the rest of Yew. What every had taken out his scouting parties would pay dearly.

OOC- Friday morning I'll be going to scout camp for a little over a week, I hadn't expected to go but at the last minute they turned up short on leaders. Directly after that I'll be heading up to Washington for my uncle's wedding and will be there for another week. Not sure If I'll have access to the Internet in Washington so I'll try to drop a post between camp and Washington. So feel free to kill as many Juka as you want.

Quiby · Jul 23, 2003

Hikaru walked the short distance to the jail on foot, with Misa following her a few paces behind, occasionally interrupting the silence with an indignant snort. Hikaru, for the most part, ignored her companion’s poor mood, she had asked for it, after all.
Part of the way through her umpteenth recitation of all she knew about the army, a stable hand had entered with a fierce cut on his forehead and patches of moistness on his face. It turned out that he had attempted to lead Misa to a stable, and had proven to be as stubborn in the matter as Misa had; at least until Misa had given up spitting, and had bitten him.
Hikaru had no choice but to scold the llama for her attack, and Misa now seemed to be sulking.

“Misa, wait outside,” she said with commanding tones, aware that the llama would probably disobey her at the first opportunity. She had a vague memory of entrusting a few items to the safekeeping of the bank, and in keeping with her fatalistic point of view, she wouldn’t be able to use any of it if she were dead.

Lord Kishkuman · Jul 24, 2003

OOC- Guys I'm sorry but something just came totally out of left feild and hit me and I need to vent. One of my 13 year old scouts (who also is from a family that has been very, very close to my family for the last 10 years) last night suffered a major hemorroge in his brain and a blood clout on top of that. The docters are saying that if he survives he will most likly be a vegetable for the rest of his life which seeing how they also discovered he has lukimia (or how ever you spell it) that probly wouldn't be very much longer. As a teenager I baby-sat him and his siblings for 7 years and I've always seen him and his siblings as younger brothers and sisters. I ended up staying over in their house watching the other kids while the parents were at the hospital. Right now my mother and older brother is with the younger kids as the fathre took the two older kids to the hospital.

Chances are scout camp for our troop will be canceled which I think is good becaues I really don't want to be out of town this week and I think the boy's older brother really needs his friends nearby right now.

Right now I need to take a shower and get some sleep since I got none last night. Thx for listening to me I really needed to vent some of these emotions off.

Quiby · Jul 24, 2003

OOC: (Don't worry about this place, I understand, and I'm sure everyone else does also. Real life exists outside of this place, bad (and indeed terrible) things happen in real life, and real life is more important that this, hands down.
You, and the people involved have my sympathies, and I hope everything works out.)

Lord Kishkuman · Jul 24, 2003

OOC-Thx Quiby. Just got word a few moments ago that he passed away. It's going to be busy here for a while. Like I said completely out of left feild.

TristanKnight · Jul 24, 2003

OoC:
Sorry to hear about your loss Kysh. My sympathy is with you. Feel free to vent anytime you need to. My eyes and ears are always open.

Zenroth · Jul 25, 2003

OOC: I to am sorry to hear about your loss in this reality as well Kysh, but remember death is, but another beginning. Just as this life is but one time and plane im sure youll see him again. Atleast thats what ive come to encountered through out my life.

Lord Kishkuman · Jul 30, 2003

Kysh Staggered up to the Empath Abby followed by Hoppy. He had found the body that Tristan had asked him to find. He also happened to find a Juka scouting party he had missed when he had tried to purge the forest of them earlier.

The body was wrapped and being carried by Hoppy. There were some guards prepareing for battle near by. One noticed Kysh and walked over to him, "Boy, are you ok?"

Kysh responded, "Sir this body on my Ki-rin must be taken to a man named Tristan, he as-"

Kysh was unable to finish for his strangth gave out and he collapsed. The Guard caught the boy on his way down and shouted orders to the other guards, "Maxwell! Come over here and take this boy to the shelter with the other non-combatants, Morris take the Kir0in to the stables, I'll see if I can find this Tristan."

Meanwhile back in the Inn Metal poured it's self out of the bag and dropped to the floor. The slime left the Inn and began to make it's way towards Yew.

____________________________________________________________________

Zeazrom could see the Empath Abby in the distance to the south. He was with athe main force and by now the smaller force to the east of the Abby should have arrived in place. Turning to the Juka Lord standing on his left he said, "Give the signal.... all forces attack!"

Quiby · Jul 30, 2003

Xylon was relieved to finally receive the order and quickly made her way inland, having grown bored of circling over the same patch of unremarkable sea for far longer than she wanted to think about. Now that she could see once again, time seemed to pass a lot slower, especially when there was nothing really to see.
She landed softly in front of the prison, a little disappointed at the lack of welcome from the guards. There was no evidence as she flew past that they were gathered within the building, in which case the only other option was that they were preparing for the army, and not her.
“How rude,” she muttered, turning in a full circle to be sure that there was no one around.
“Disappointed?” called a familiar voice from the entrance to the prison
Xylon lifted herself from the ground with a powerful beat of her wings, determined to at least attempt to salvage at least some success out of her orders, since if the town defenders failed to defeat her master, she would surely be punished.
She extended her foot towards the red-haired woman and folded her wings in, putting the momentum of free-fall behind a clawed kick aimed at her chest. Hikaru was, however, as fast as Xylon had imagined, and her kick landed on solid ground with a sound of splintering bone as Hikaru rolled aside.
“Return to your master,” warned Hikaru as she lunged at Xylon with her spear, attempting to catch her before she’d managed to repair her injury.
The tip of the spear bounced of the creature’s shoulder, which had briefly turned to stone along with a quarter of her body surrounding it, jarring the weapon out of Hikaru’s hands. Xylon spun in response, staggering her attacker with a kick to the hip with her shattered leg.
“If I were to return,” she hissed through the pain of her now-healing leg, “what would I tell him?”
She used her wings to lift her off her feet, allowing her to plant both feet in Hikaru’s stomach, the claws tearing at her flesh before bringing them back down to the ground to support her.
“Should I tell him that I allowed myself to be thwarted by an unarmed girl?”

Hikaru was glad that she’d taken the time to replace her old armour with a few pieces that had been lying in the chest she’d kept in the bank, while it didn’t cover nearly as much of her as her previous suit had, it afforded her better movement. After all, at the moment no armour she’d ever worn would have protected her from the mostly blunt blows Xylon had been inflicting on her, and she’d managed to avoid a potentially fatal kick to the chest at the start of the battle.
It was regrettable that the guards had decided that defending the city against the army was more important that stopping a solo attacker sent in as a diversion, while it was probably the most sensible choice to make, Hikaru was regretting her decision to stay and fight her alone. Although she was holding out quite well, despite being really rather outmatched.
She clutched at her stomach as she dragged herself to a half-sitting position, very much aware of the blood running feely from the eight parallel slashes.

Quiby walked swiftly down the stairs and looked around the taproom, her bare feet carrying her as silently as a stalking panther out of habit, as opposed to necessity. She had changed out of her previous large and impractical dress, which would have done nothing but cause problems for her if there were trouble here.
She saw Elux and made her way over to him, moving between tables and people with a grace born of experience.
“Sir,” she said to get his attention, “if you are still looking for a staff, you may use this one,”
She deposited a sturdy staff of about her own height on the table beside him before turning and walking away, her tail quivering for a moment as she tried to forget the memories that the staff had brought back.

TristanKnight · Jul 31, 2003

After quite a bit of arguing that Tristan had permission to be in Xyon's bank box, Tristan was given access. Gathering only what he needed he ventured outward, but to his surprise a group of guards surrounded a boy on the ground. Kysh!? Tristan ran to aid the boy, whose strength had left him. Tristan noticed the boy's Ki-rin carrying a body, Xyon's body. Tristan put the Ring of Orbix on Xyon's finger, then went to tend to Kysh.

[NPC: Gunther the Guard]"Who are you?"

"I am Tristan Knight, I am his friend, I am also a healer."

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 1, 2003

Zeazrom watched as the first volly of arrows arched toward the Empath Abby. Horns from the abby immediatly sounded the alarm.

"Deamons of the underworld!" Zeazrom swore under his breath. Yew had been prepared and now were alerted.

"All warriors, I want that building captured now!!!" Zeazrom yelled to is army and the Juka Warrior yelling their war cries charged the Abby.

With attention on the Empath Abby prehaps he could take his eastern force and attack the western part of Yew from the swamp. He was confident his main force would take the Abby and join him soon.

Motioning to his personal guard to follow he steered his swamp dragon to join his eastern forces."

____________________________________________________________________

Pulling an arrow from his armor and thanking the gods it hadn't down more then scratch his skin the guard turned to Tristan, "Take the boy to the basement of the town hall that is where the non-combatants are taking shelter, take that body on the Kir-in with you, then I fear we will be needing you on the frount lines. Now Hurry!"

The guard turned to face the now charging horde of Juka.

MasterXYON · Aug 1, 2003

Xyon's eyes raised as he lifted his head. He couldn't remember anything that had happened immediately but it all came back to him. He looked around and stood up, as if nothing ever happened he was able to use his body again. There were a multitude of people surrounding him.

"What the bloody abyss is going on?" Xyon said, turning to the strangers. "Why am I in this basement, and where am I? Why are you looking at me like that? What's going on out there?"

After a quick fill in on the details, Xyon was gone from the basement in no time. The guards that were protecting the door to the basement didn't even notice as he got by them.

Xyon sat himself up on the chimney of one of the nearby houses, and began to look around in panic. This was a battlefield, and he didn't have his armor or even a weapon.

TristanKnight · Aug 1, 2003

After leaving Kysh and the body of Xyon in the basement of Empath Abbey - Tristan ventured forth to the front lines. It was almost a regal approach, it seemed as though a path was made through the soldiers as Tristan marched forward, then into combat.

"Don't let them take the Abbey!"

Tristan yelled, as if many could really hear above the sounds of war. Tristan slashed through a Jukan warrior right before an arrow glanced off his shoulder. A large Jukan with a bow was yelling orders to the others around him. He must have been a leader of some kind. He took little effort between his commands to shoot a lethal arrow into a random soldiers head. Tristan found his target...

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 2, 2003

The second and smaller group of juka invaded the western part of yew from the swamp land. Zeazrom couldn't only hope the abby would fall soon and the main part of the army would join them.

OOC- Well I'm off to washington for my uncles wedding. I am almost sure that I won't have internet accese till I come home on the 10th, so while I"m gone I leave it to you guys to make the first part of the battle intreasting, feel free to take that battle any way you want short of killing off any of my charecters (which I know you won't). This battle is a great oppertunity for any one who has been reading along and has been maybe thinking of adding a charecter of their own to enrich the story even more. We can always use a new hero (or villian for that matter).

Quiby · Aug 3, 2003

Xylon heard the sounds of battle in the distance and looked up.
“My master will come seeking me shortly,” she said with resignation, “he will not be pleased with my failure”
She looked back down in time to catch a flash of movement as Hikaru grabbed her spear and swept it in a wide arc, achieving her aim of tearing the relatively fragile membrane of the her wings.
Xylon was at a disadvantage in this respect; she hadn’t had the time to replenish all her energy, and so had little to spare healing anything but the most crippling injury, and turning any part of her body to stone was out of the question.
Before she’d had a chance to react fully to the attack with the spear, the woman was trying something different, and unexpected.
Xylon felt her legs disappear from under her, and all attempts to right her balance with her wings only made matters worse with the damage she’d sustained. A moment of pain as she fell told her that her swift attempt to heal her leg had just been undone by the impact.
She began to rise, keeping her weight off her shattered leg; the pain was almost agonising, but she hadn’t the energy to solve the problem. By the time she’d reached a half-crouch, Hikaru was on her feet, bringing her spear down like a staff.
The impact reduced the spear to about two-thirds of its original length, and transformed the crown of Xylon’s head into a misshapen mess of black hair and half-congealed blood.

Hikaru watched as her opponent fell to her devastating blow, knowing that it very likely wasn’t a killing blow, but it seemed to have incapacitated her for the time being.
“Misa!” she called, deliberately not looking at the wounded creature at her feet as she summoned her mount from the relative safety of the prison. There was a healing salve and some bandages in one of the saddlebags, which would hopefully bring her enough relief from her injuries to avoid being a liability to Misa and her own safety.

It turned out that the salve was every bit as good as she had been lead to believe when she’d brought it, which came as something of a surprise to her. On a number of previous occasions she had been sold healing items with harmful properties by some of the world’s less scrupulous traders, although all but a few of them had paid for their transgressions by her hand.
She’d wrapped a length of bandage around her waist in order to keep from disturbing the healing wounds, all without so much as a glance at her victim, the similarity with the girl at the inn just made the issue that much harder to deal with. She sighed.
“Let’s go,” she commanded, allowing herself a last glance over her shoulder before the buildings of Yew prevented her seeing any more.

OOC: (I do apologise if people were waiting for me to post more, I was waiting to get a little more awareness of what other people were doing, and if anyone else was making plans to get involve in schooling Xylon in the problems inherant in underestimating your foe, and going into battle unprepared.)

Zenroth · Aug 3, 2003

ooc: Havent had net access lately saddly, not sure when ill be able to post, feel free to use Elux however. You can even kill him if desired I trust your all's judgement. Later /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

TristanKnight · Aug 6, 2003

Tristan had his target in sight, pushing his way through the battle. However, before he reached the jukan leader another jukan blocked his path. This one wore strange clothes, but Tristan realized it was chanting magic spells. Tristan's attack didn't kill the creature, only injured it. It has very fast reflexes and was very strong, even if it was a magic-user. After another swing of his mighty sword, Tristan left the jukan mage dead and scoured for his target.

Quiby · Aug 6, 2003

“I haven’t fired one of these things since I was a child,” explained Hikaru to no one, as she drew back the arrow, trying to remember all she’d learned about archery before discovering that, in her case, a spear could be a lot more accurate. Unfortunately, her unconventional attack with the spear had left it a little too short for her to use effectively, and so she had decided on trying a reunion with archery.
She let the arrow fly, trying not to think how close it had come to hitting one of the guards, and how far it had come from hitting any of the Juka.
“Seven O’clock,” she muttered, remembering how her father had described her handicap.
Without wasting any more time on memories of her family, she notched another arrow and drew it back, correcting her aim before sending the arrow on its way.
The fact that she had actually hit one of the Juka was a definite bonus, although she concluded that she was more likely to kill a friend than a foe at this rate, so she removed what was left of her spear from her back, and replaced it with the bow.
“Misa, stay out of trouble,” she commanded pointing in the direction of the abbey vineyards after she had dismounted, knowing that she’d do almost as much harm wading into battle on Misa’s back as she would have done with her archery. Misa seemed to know when she could get away with dragging her heels and behaving badly, which meant she knew that this was a time to obey Hikaru’s commands without so much as a hesitation.
Hikaru ran to join the fighting; ignoring the pain in her stomach, and the blood that subsequently began to stain the bandage around her waist.

Xylon could hear the sounds of battle vaguely over the ringing in her ears, although she couldn’t tell which direction they came from. The occasional bird flew overhead, mainly scavengers attracted by the smell of death; which no doubt made her presence known for miles around, thanks to her injuries.
She knew her brain had been damaged in the fight; it had happened to her previously, but in the end she would be able to repair the damage. Whether or not she would lose any memories this time was beyond here, although it was a small consolation that she wouldn’t know if she’d lost any memories until she was reminded of them.

MasterXYON · Aug 9, 2003

Xyon ducked behind each tree as he ran along to the ringing of swords and magicical explosions. He was clothed only in a torn robe, and he wasn't too comfortable with the protection it offered him. He soon began to go into a slow jog as he ducked around the trees.

"Owww...." He said, stopping and jumping in place. He felt a sharp sting in his left foot, and he raised it up to see. A large thorn was wedged into his heel, and as Xyon pulled it, it began to bleed horribly. "If they think that'll stop me."

Without looking ahead he took another few steps, but without warning he fell back onto the ground. Rubbing his head he looked up to see one of the strangest creatures he'd ever set eyes upon.

It's eyes gleamed as it raised its hand at Xyon. Knowing what was going to happen, Xyon kicked under his (was it a he?) legs and sent him to the ground as well. He did a backwards sommersault and landed on his feet, painfully.

"Lumina Obsidia!" Xyon yelled, pointing his hands forward to the creature. A black light hit it, but it seemed unfazed. Thinking for a moment what those words were, and how he knew them, Xyon ran.

I want to see my friends, he thought.

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 11, 2003

Kysh opened his eyes and wasn't sure where he was. He was laying on the floor and after propping himself up with his arms saw that he was in the basement of some building. Getting up he tried to remember what happened.

He remembered that Tristan had asked him to go find a body and he had done so but had been attacked by a Juka scouting party on the way to Yew. He barely remembered making it to Yew.

Looking around him he saw that he was not alone in the basement. The room was full of children and elderly people. Obviously he was in the shelter, but had the battle started yet? How long had he been asleep? He got up and went up the stairs and started for the frount doors when a hand stopped him.

"Hang on there boy. Word is the Juka have started their attack on the northeren part of the city. They could be here at any time. You'd best go back down to the basement and wait it out."

Kysh looked up and saw that it was a guard and responded, "I need to go. I have friends out there I need to help. I can handle myself."

The fabric of Kysh's clothes where the guard had grabbed him seemed to change into something very smooth and Kysh moved Effortlessly out of the guards grasp and stepped into the shadow of amoire and dissappeared right after a sword appeared in his hands. He appeared outside the building in the shade of a tree and hid. His blue eyes began to grow green as he touched the minds of nearby animals. Unfortunally most of the animals had fled at the beginning of the battle so he didn't have as clear of a picture of the battle as he would like, and too late he noticed the large group of Juka coming out of the trees nearby.

"Look Out!" he called to the guards infrount of the building but a shower of arrows brough most of the guards down. Then about 50 Juka warriors came out of the woods. Kysh knew that he and the few guards left couldn't take on all 50 Juka. He needed help to cut down those numbers. Kysh strecthed out his senses as far as he could and despite a huge distance found two familiar minds that owed him a favor. Kysh ran over to the main doors with the few remaining Guards and right infrount of the oncoming Juka. Kneeling down to one knee he took hold of the two distant minds with his own and began to pull them closer.

The guards were just begining to yell at Kysh to flee when the elf child's eyes went from glowing green to glowing blue and two large clouds of mist appeared between him and the juka. The juka hesitated a second not sure what was happening and watched as the mist cleared to reveal two dragons before them. One dragon sent a fireball into the midst of the juka army and the other leapt forward grabbing on juka in it's mouth and throwing him to the side. The juka attacked both dragons but the dragons supported each other not letting the juka gain good position on their companion.

Kysh didn't move during this time but then he couldn't while he put all his attentionin keeping the two dragons where they were. The guards were two busy to notice a juka withinjured legs crawl towards Kysh. The Juka had seen that it was the boy that had summoned the dragons and was hoping that if he killed the child that the dragons would dissappear. Just before the juka had dragged himself within range to strike he heard something move almost next to him and turned his head in time to see a slime wrapping itself around his head and then felt the pain as the acid from the slime began decomposing his head.

Mean while the blue light in Kysh's eyes began to fade and as it went out the two dragons were once again surrounded in mist and a moment later they were gone as the mist cleared. Kysh, being able to move again stood up. holding the dragons there took allot of energy and the dragons were begining to get really hurt so he let them go back. Between dead and injured Juka the dragons had cut the enemy force by half. Looking around he saw the dead juka warrior with a slime wrapped around it's head, "Thanks Metal, you better hide nearby I might need you."

THe juka were charging again. Kysh removed his Change Rod and it turned into a bow. At the sametime the brown clothes that he was wearing changed into a blue studded learther armor set. Kysh took a small stone out of his hip pouch and fitted the small nitch in the stone of the string of the bow. Kysh pulled back and released and watched as 3 beams of light shot away from his bow each hitting a charging juka in the face. He got of 3 more shots of 3 beams when the juka got near enough to strike.

The first juka to reach Kysh tried to bring his spear down on the boy but Kysh's bow dissappeared and Kysh ducked and rolled right between the legs of the juka. Kysh then jumped high up to avoid another juka wepon and used his change rod , that had turned into a staff, to push himself higher off the ground. Kysh did a frount flip in the air and landed on top of the head of the juka and as the juka began to bend down under the wieght of the boy landing on him Kysh kicked off the juka pushing it right onto the spear of the juka Kysh had just rolled under.

Kysh landed and turned to face the remaining 20 Juka with the remaining 2 guards, breathing hard and sweating.

************************************************************

Zeazrom watched from a distance as the Elfish boy fought. He didn't like the fact he had just lost a decent part of his army to him. Turning to the rest of the juka with him he ordered, "I want that boy dead along with everyone else in the city hall. NO ONE is to be left alive!"

Quiby · Aug 13, 2003

OOC: (It’s been seven days and I haven’t been able to come up with a post that doesn’t make me want to break every bone in both my hands, as well as the odd non-hand-related bone for good measure. There is a reason, but I wouldn’t want to detract from the cheery atmosphere that no doubt resulted from the fight between Hikaru and Xylon.
I’m still checking this place regularly in case I need to do the mod thing. Plus I am attempting to construct a tolerable post at least daily.
Although with one character immobilised, one completely out of the loop, and the last one about to play a less-than-pivotal role in the battle to defend Yew; I would urge you to continue regardless of my lack of posts.
Use any characters you want; I’m not all that bothered what happens to them, none of them are destined to live forever, anyway.)

TristanKnight · Aug 13, 2003

OoC:
Actually, I was kind of waiting too. Normally I wait and see what everyone else is doing before I post, just so I don't spoil anyone else's plans. It has been awhile though, so I guess I'll make a leap into interaction.

IC:
Tristan noticed that the guards were being pushed back. The Jukans were too powerful for the city guards. The only thing giving anyone hope were the wizards and warriors that defended Yew on principal, not because it was their job. Trying to force the onslaught back, which was making it's was towards Empath Abbey, Tristan noticed something, or someone. It was the girl he had met at the Inn before all of the supernatural events started. The girl he never finished talking to. Though it wasn't out of the ordinary to cross paths with someone more than once, Tristan had never seen her before. Slashing his way through the warriors and dodging the rain of arrows, Tristan approached Hikaru.
"We need to fall back towards the Abbey!"

Tristan yelled, to no one in particular. It was then that they had seen two dragons fly towards it. No one knew for sure if they were here to help, or minions of the Jukan Race.

"Hikaru!"

Tristan saw that she was badly injured, her waist still bleeding from the bandage wrapped around it. Tristan, in almost a graceful fashion, lanced through the chest the jukan warrior Hikaru was fighting, then swung around to cut down another one closing in.

"Come now with me, you are wounded and shouldn't be here."

An arrow grazed Tristan's neck and found home in a guard behind him. Tristan looked up to see the same jukan lord, this time looking for him. The lord must have thought that Tristan was a leader of some kind. Another arrow came, Tristan pushed Hikaru out of the way, barely dodging the arrow. The lord came in closer, as to improve his accuracy. Tristan pulled out his dagger and threw it at the lord, but it was deflected by another jukan's shield. The lord had jukan guards around him. It was a strategic battle on the part of the jukans. Tristan had an idea.

"Hikaru, it is not safe for you here, come with me I beg of you!"

Another arrow quickly came towards him, this one glancing off a guard who was fully dressed in platemail. Tristan grabbed Hikaru's arm, not giving her the chance to stay and die, and forced through the guards to the back, where the archers stood, firing into the oncoming jukans.

"Men, there is a lard Jukan warrior, with a bow, match his skills and take him down. Do not give them mercy!"

With that, Tristan, and a few others carrying wounded, made their way towards the abbey.

"Let me carry you."

Tristan said to Hikaru, after noticing that blood pumped on every stride she made. Out of the corner of Tristan's eye he saw someone. It looked like the young Xyon from days of old. Tristan saw Xyon look in his direction, so Tristan waved him over, but kept moving. Some of these soldiers would not make it without immediate care. As Tristan approached the abbey, he saw what looked like the young boy Kysh, with only two guards left to protect the abbey.

Quiby · Aug 15, 2003

Tristan was right, of course; she probably wasn’t fit to be on her feet, let alone pitting herself against an invading army. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a bed as the Juka fought their way inside the building.
“Would you listen if I said ‘no’ ?” she asked, looking up at him with an expression that seemed to blend her frustration and pain together with a slight hint of good humour.
She didn’t really have a lot of choice, beside casting the remains of her spear aside and doing all she could to make lifting and carrying her as easy as she could.

Xylon rolled her head to the side, looking in the direction of the battle that waged beyond the trees and buildings. Many living things had died so far in the battle, and many more continued to die with each passing minute; their deaths slowly bringing Xylon back from her incapacitation.
Her skull was almost healed, although she would wait until she was satisfied that it would withstand another such attack before restoring the bones in her leg.
“It will not be long now, master,” she whispered for her own benefit, since he probably wasn’t even aware of her loss.

OOC: (To be honest, my delaying was down to just not being able to focus. On a normal day, I have what I would have described a few years ago as a lot on my mind. Having a lot on my mind these days borders on crippling, and it’d just been a bad week for it.
One late occurring problem was Smokie (one of our cats) going missing. But while I was writing this post, she comes wandering in the back door like she hasn’t actually been missing for days. She must have been locked in a garage or something, since she’s still stuffing her face.
That coincides pretty well with the return of Xylon, another feline who’s a pain in the posterior.)

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 15, 2003

Life is unpredictable. Zeazrom knew that. In battle things could change in an instant. He had intended to take his second force and attack the rest of Yew but upon seeing the frount doors of the abby almost defenceless he had decided to turn north and attack it. His force aganst two guards and a boy should have been simple, but of course nothing is ever as simple as it should be.

The boy with gloing green eyes moved like lightning and his wepon changed it's form to match what ever the best attack for the situation was. More then his speed the boy seemed to know every thing happening on the battle field as if he had eyes everywhere. Glancing up he noticed that a flock of birds seemed to decided to watch the battle. Thinking, Zeazrom wondered if maybe the boy could see through the eyes of these birds. That would explain how he cold seem to "see" things happening behind him. It would also explain his missing scout partys in the forest.

Watching the battle he noticed that the elf boy showed signs of fatigue, so he ordered 20 more juka into the battle, and nodded to his archers to get ready. If this was the same boy talked about in Ilshinar then he need to die. Now where was Xylon when he needed her

____________________________________________________________________

With the help of the birds Kysh got a clearer picture of the battle. He saw that Tristan was nearby with the lady from the Inn. He thought fleetingly of Xylon was he dodged two Juka spears but his mind came back to the battle as more Juka joined the battle.

At the moment Kysh's change rod was in the form of the Sword of Valor. The magic effects of that sword seemed to enhance both his speed and strength. He found the extra speed more useful for his style of fighting was based on using speed and agilty to dodge wepons and try to hit vital spots or knock the opponete of balance. Some of the other Swords of virtures came in handy also. When a guard was knocked to the ground Kysh turned his change rod into the Sword of Compassion and pointed it at the guard and as if there was a wall surrounding the guard the juka's blows just bounced off before hitting the guard allowing him to pick his wepon up and regain his footing.

Now there were a huge number of juka on the field and most were concentrating on Kysh. As Kysh was backing up so not to be completly surrounded he saw through the eyes of the birds above him large amount of arrows from the trees flying right at him. He turned his change rod into a Heater shield and put it between him and the arrows and heard them bouncing off. To his side a Juka was coming in striking range seemingly unslowed by being hit by a friendly arrow. Kysh turned his change rod back into a sword to face the Juka when he suddenly felt something slam painfully into his chest. One of the arrows had been fired late and Kysh lowered his shield as it arrived.

Kysh hit the ground on his back and looked at the arrow sticking out of him. Despite the pain his only thoughts were about the people in the abby that were defencless is the juka got in. He could hear Juka laughing near by with detemination Kysh reached for the arrow and pulled it out. Then in Kysh's mind he held the image of his body without injury in his mind and the arrow wound dissapeared as Kysh's eyes changed from glowing green to red.

Standing up Kysh appeared to grow by two feet. Kysh didn't wast time attacking the Juka. Kysh knew changing the form of his own body would eat up what little energy he had left and once it gave out he'd go back to injured heap on the ground and more then likely die from that arrow wound. The first juka attacked with his spear and Kysh just grabbed it with his hand and tossed the spear behind him over his head Juka warrior and all. Another Blow he blocked effortlessly with his change rod which was in the form of his trusty double bladded staff. Kysh quickly began cutting through the Juka but every step he took the red glow in his eyes began to more and more fade.

Inside a minute he had cut through half the remaming juka but by that time he was also fighting to stay awake. Kysh cut down another juka then stumbled and kneeling and resting on his staff mumbled, "Can't fight anymore, " and collapsed. The glow in his eyes faded completly and Kysh returned to his normal size and the wound from the arrow reappeared and began to bleed heavily.

The juka stood watching Kysh for a moment wondering if it was some sort of trick. Then they drew near Kysh's body and seeing the blood began to laugh again. One walked over to the boy intent on making sure the boy was drawing his last breaths when suddenly every thing around the juka went dark. Not only were they and every one nearby envelped in complete darkness but they began to hear whisperings from all directions and shadows were felt more then seen all around them. It lasted for a few seconds and then every one in the darkness could suddenly see again. The remaining juka were dead all with their heads nearly cut off. Standing next to Kysh was a man dressed in black cloths holding a sword with the symbol of chaos. The man held the sword as one normally holds a knife with the blade running along side his arm. He held it with his left hand for he was missing his right arm.

Turning to the guard he spoke, "I'm no expert but I belive this boy in in immediate need of a healer."

OOC- My cat was good at dissapearing when she was younger. In her later years however she got bored of exploring the streets beating up on dogs and decided life was better spending all day sleeping on my pillow. And yes she did actully like fighting dogs. I had to put myself between my cat and a friends golden retriver once, never saw a dog bleed so much. Anyway I'm happy the cat came back, I remember how much I worried when my kitty dissappeared.

By the way I hope no one refrains from posting becaues they worry about messing with my plans. I find adapting the story to other people's posts the funnest part of posting here. When there is something I really really want to happen I 'll find a way to make it happen no matter what other people post so just go for it.

Quiby · Aug 15, 2003

Xylon dragged herself up to stand on her single good leg, not trusting her still-healing right leg to support its share of her weight, no matter how little that was in reality. She found that she could wait no longer for her healing to complete; the link provided by the collar suggested that her master was wondering where she was, and it wouldn’t pay in the long run to keep him waiting. Especially after failing him so completely.
It might also be of benefit to her, if she arrived before him with some evidence of her injuries, rather than just the clotted blood that matted her hair, and her word. She still had the tear in her wing, which she failed to remember until she attempted to take flight, but resolved that she would have to repair the damage or walk.
She suspected that flight would be her better option, for reasons not limited to the comparative ease of repairing her wing over rebuilding the shattered bone in her leg.

With no other reason than her own hesitations to delay her, she took flight; she would find her master and prove herself worthy, at least until his control over her was broken.
The flight was a short one, made even shorter by the hurried nature of her flight. While she had never even seen her master previously, she concluded that she would be able to find him logically, and identify him by his scent.
She swept down towards the most likely individual and landed lightly beside him on her left leg, while keeping her right leg off the ground, possibly unnecessarily. She bowed respectfully, pulling off the manoeuvre as best she could with only one good leg.
“Master,” she addressed him, looking up at him with an expression of almost child-like innocence, “I do not think that we can win this battle. We have no advantages in this battle, and the our numbers dwindle with every passing minute”
She opted not to tell him that it was her actions that had resulted in the guards being alerted, and that certain members of the defending force knew one of her master’s biggest weaknesses. Her eyes flicked to the ring on his finger, seeing it for the first time.
The ring seemed to be silver, which would be yet another reason that she couldn’t remove it from his finger herself. Entwined around the rather plain band, as had been described to her, was an almost passable representation of herself.

OOC: (Your post might be long, but mine's red/php-bin/shared/images/icons/tongue.gif)

TristanKnight · Aug 15, 2003

Tristan saw ahead as a cloud of darkness engulfed the battle. By the time Tristan reached the area, all that was left were slain jukans and two guards - and a strange one-armed man... It only took a minute for Tristan to noticed Kysh was there, badly injured.

"Get this boy inside! He surely die if left unattended!"

Tristan trudged into the abbey and layed Hikaru on a table. Throwing his weapon and what little cumbersome armor he had down, Tristan went straight to work. Within minutes the lobby of the abbey was a field hospital.

"Set the boy down here!"

Tristan was trying to direct those bringing the injured in.

"Get me water and bandages, I will need everything we can get."

Tristan first tended to Kysh, who was not in very good condition. Where the arrow was ripped from him would need to be stitched back together, but Tristan didn't know if any organs had been hit by the arrow... After careful treatment, Kysh's would was clean, stitched, and bandaged. Tristan then focused on Hikaru, and removed her old bandages. With as much care, but as fast as possible, Tristan cleaned and stitched her up as well. His work was not done by a long shot though... More injured men and women were lying around on tables, the floor, everywhere.

Quiby · Aug 16, 2003

Hikaru closed her eyes as Tristan started work on the third of her eight wounds in an effort to make the pain a little more bearable, not that the effort helped her any; her tolerance for pain was woefully lacking. The only thing that had kept her from giving in to the pain was a promise that she had made to her sister, years before.
When she reopened her eyes again she was alone. She guessed that she hadn’t been out for very long, since the invading army hadn’t come to demonstrate their undoubtedly poor bedside manner.
She noticed Tristan a short distance from her, looking as if her were possibly adjusting a bandage or similar; she wouldn’t be able to see properly without sitting up.
“Sir?” she called over to him; surprised at how weak her voice actually sounded, and wondering if he’d hear her. She hadn’t called him by his first name because she wasn’t sure that she could trust her memory to supply her with an accurate name, plus it wouldn’t feel right to address someone you’d barely met, and yet had saved your life by his or her first name.
She relaxed her neck muscled, realising how tiring it was in her current state and waited, hoping that he had heard her call.

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 17, 2003

Zeazrom looked up and down Xylon, "Let me guess. You ran into some problems at the jail. Well, whatever happened it would seem we were all out classed today. I think your right. I'll have the archers cover our retreat back to the dungeon. I Want you to stay with the archers and help them out after the main force has left. Then I want you to wait for me at the dungeon. I'm going to Buccaneers Den. I'd like to hire some people to keep an eye on some of the warriors I've seen fight here today. I've seen some intreasting things here.

"And do try to keep the archers alive, I'd really hate to loose them, "he finished with a hint of threatning in his voice.

Having said that he turned his swamp dragon away and left with his guards.

____________________________________________________________________

Gad watched a guard take Kysh into the abby, then sheathing his sword right under his only arm but keeping his hold on the hilt of the sword he stepped into the Shade of the trees and dissappeared. He reappeared under a tree near where Zeazrom was talking to his undead servent. He had seen the undead creture many times as he spied on Zeazrom in the dungeon and despite being well hidden he sometimes wondered if the creture knew he was there.

Gad listened to every thing said and heard the Chaos Dragoon leave.

OOC- truth be it, I perfer writing short posts, long ones take too much time but are sometimes needed. Oh ya and I perfer blue Maybe I should start writing in that.

Quiby · Aug 17, 2003

Xylon said nothing as she watched her master leave, her eyes following him even after he had disappeared into the trees, wondering how much he knew. His words had seemed to hint that he suspected something, although he hadn’t asked for an explanation from her, which probably wasn’t a good sign for her.
“Did you really think that you’d learn anything?” she asked without looking away from where her master had been, “I made sure that the people of Yew had due warning of the invasion in return for the chance of freedom”
She brought her wings to their full extend in a sudden motion, partly in preparation for her flight, and partly out of frustration.
“But still, I am a slave!” she hissed, bringing her wings back in close in an equally swift motion, and spinning on her heel.
She strode purposefully towards the guards, who were still engaged with her allies, and thereby keeping them from a safe retreat.
With all of her senses she sought after the leader; noticing an individual who appeared to be shouting more than the others, although his words were lost among the other sounds of the confrontation.

Approaching from the rear was easier than she could have hoped, and before any of the guards had even noticed her it was too late.
She brought her foot up and slammed her heel into the back of the guard’s knee, bringing him down in the middle of the thrust with his pike. If she wasn’t so frustrated, the discovery that he wasn’t wearing any protection on his neck would have delighted her, instead she saw an opportunity and applied her instincts.
“Hold your arms! All of you!” she yelled, the claws of her left foot resting on the prone guard’s neck; a mere twitch of her muscles away from slashing his throat.

OOC: (I have no idea whether either side would listen to her or not, to be honest. The Juka might do, because she’s an ally, and a truce would allow them a safe retreat. The guards might do, because she’s threatening one of their number (she doesn’t know if he’s a leader, or just loud).
She just has to assist in the retreat, and she’s attempting to do so with as little loss of life on both sides as possible.
The reason I’ve left it there is to see if anyone else wants to intervene; I don’t really want to dictate the course of the battle. Though if no one does anything to do with it, I’ll some roll dice and get all reminiscent of my D&D days (we never could decide anything, so it all came down to dice rolls))

TristanKnight · Aug 18, 2003

Tristan finished the patient he was on and returned to Hikaru.

"Do you need anything, are your bandages okay?"

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 18, 2003

When the undead creture called for the fighting to stop a near by guard possibly intimadated by the undead creture raised his hand to strike anyways but stopped as a dagger stuck it's self right through his hand. Gad who had followed the undead creture out of curiosity said, "I belive she said stop fighting and I belive that's one of your friends she is holding in her hands."

Then turning to the creture he said, "For being undead you seem to have developed a sofe spot somewhere. Since you decided not to reveal me as I have listened I'll do this for you. I won't kill that elf boy until after he frees you. Which I trust he will once he recovers. Now you might want to tell these people why you stopped the battle."

Quiby · Aug 18, 2003

Xylon took her foot from the neck of the guard and cast her eyes down the line, it seemed that everyone on both sides, even the archers, had obeyed her demands. She hadn’t really been expecting any of the combatants to listen to her, and yet they stared at her en masse, waiting to hear what she had to say.
Now I’m going to have to play at being a peacekeeper, she thought bitterly to herself, wondering how she had gone through the transition from soulless killer to diplomat. She took a deep breath.
“This battle is over,” she stated in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
She turned to face the Jukans, her allies, and spoke to them in their own guttural language. “The order to retreat has been given, disobedience is not an option. Should any of you see fit to disobey me, I will see to it that you are enjoying the hospitality of Yew prison by dusk”
“Guardians of Yew,” she addressed the guards and their allies in the common tongue, “should any one of see fit to break the truce that I have called and attack my allies as they heed the order to withdraw, then you will die by my hand,” she cast a threatening glance at each of them before adding, “as will every person within the walls of the abbey”

“I have no idea where to even begin to thank you for all you’ve done,” she said, after a long pause, “I suppose I’m just not used to people caring enough to even consider saving my life”
She hesitated as she visibly fought to keep the tears from forming in her eyes.
“Maybe I can try again, when I have more blood inside my body than outside,” she smiled weakly for a moment, until she remembered the reason she had called him over.
“I need to know if Misa is-“ she winced in pain as her wounds chose that time to remind her how bad they were, “if she is okay.”
She inhaled sharply in response to another reminder from her stomach, her expression becoming one of concern, “the ‘Xylon’ creature is still out there, I don’t think she’s dead”

Quiby peered out the east-facing window of the kitchen for what must have been the hundredth time in the last hour, her eyes scanning the forest for signs of the army that was supposedly coming.
She saw nothing unusual, much the same as she had every other time she’d looked out.
“Perhaps they are not coming,” she suggested to herself; a prospect that, if she were certain of it, would have cheered her up, no end.
She walked to another window and looked out, deciding that the army could be waiting in the shadows of the trees and she wouldn’t know it from in here, because even with her superior senses the windows blocked most of the sound and distorted everything she saw.

She wondered whether her blunt explanation that she was going outside had offended anyone as she pulled herself up onto a higher branch; it was only logical that she should be doing what she could do best.
Her ability to see and hear more than most people was a clear advantage in keeping watch, plus she was able to move almost silently if she had to, as well as her well-practiced skill at running away.

TristanKnight · Aug 19, 2003

Tristan wiped his hands with a rag.

"How should I find her?"

He handed the rag to another healer who had helped in tending to the wounded.

"I shall do my best to return your friend to you."

Gathering up his things, Tristan brushed his hand over Hikaru's head.

"Wait for me here until this is over, if I do not come back, please tell Quiby, the girl at the Inn, what has happened to me. Try to break it to her easy, I care a great deal about her."

Tristan left in search of Misa, not knowing exactly where the animal had went, hoping the creature would trust him if he did find it, and praying that nothing horrible had happened to Hikaru's companion...

Elowan · Aug 19, 2003

Aravel and Elowan ran toward the exit of the Ice dungeon, as fast as they could run on ice. Aravel was more experienced in this by far, but Elowan was managing. The roaring got louder, and the arctic ogre lord was closing in, huge as it was. Elowan turned and fired an arrow, but due to all the running he was doing and the thrashing of the ogre lord, it hit its club. Aravel however saw a flat section of ice, and turned completely around while still sliding on his heels (his ice boots were spiked on the ball of the foot) and he took aim, and fired his crossbow, scoring a marvelous hit right in the ogre's eye. He turned around and kept running. The entrance was ahead, but five ratmen were camped right in front of it, ready to ambush unweary adventurers. Elowan thought that they would have more trouble, but if the ogre lord scared two experienced rangers, then you can bet that it scared several ratmen. They tucked tail and ran in front of the rangers, but were left in the dust and trampled by the ogre. As soon as they left the dungeon, they felt great relief. But this was a mad ogre. It followed them out of the dungeon.
About 30 minutes, 17 arrows, 2 throwing daggers, 4 crossbow quarrels and 2 bloody swords later, the two rangers walked away from the ogre corpse. In the cold snow that carcass would last, unless the wolves were plentiful this year. Beaten, battered and bruised, both of them walked toward Aravel's cabin, about two miles away.
There they bandaged their wounds, and repaired what could be repaired, and counted their booty. Rangers care little for gold, and more for weapons and equipment. Gold couldn't save your life when cornered by giant forest spiders or ice serpents, but trusty weapons and armour can.
"So you got your third Glacial staff, this 'Icicle dagger' you wanted, and a burning stone that gives off light and heat but does not burn anything else. May I return to the woods now? I don't see how you can enjoy life in the cold," Elowan said.
"You've had me down in the southlands long enough. I wanted you to pay me a visit up here. Where the air is more crisp and refreshing than the air you breathe in the forest, clogged with pollen and humidity. The cold had an invigorating bite that wakes you, jolts you, reminds you that you are alive. The life is challenging. That's why I love it," Aravel replied.
"Sure it's invigorating out in the nice dry air, but do you remember when I fell into that ice pool? That can claim an elf's life."
"You puny elves lose your heat too fast. No wonder you like the warm forest."
"It's not always warm in the winter. Frankly, it's as bad as it is out here at that time of year."
"Bah! I've seen your winters. That's what I would call mildly warm."
"Fine! Call it warm. I'd like any warmth that I can get now. I've been up at the roof of the world for eight weeks now! I need to get back to my people, they need..."
Elowan stopped there. He was reminded of the dreams he was having. Suffering. Battle. Armies.
Aravel recognized this. He had seen Elowan stirring in his cot. He knew that Elowan had a keen connection to his people and the forest around them. There was great battle somewhere else in the world.
“You don’t think that…Something is happening, do you?” Aravel asked.
“I think so. I have dreams like these before things happen, minor ones, so I usually ignore them. These are more persistent. They tell me that…I should be there. They don’t warn me that something may happen, they warn me that it is happening. We have no way of knowing this for sure. But my intuition tells me that I should be south.”
All rangers, Frost, Forest, Desert, or whatever domain they resided in knew that they should always trust their gut, or their intuition.
Elowan and Aravel both realized that they should go. They packed, and noticing that it was getting dark, decided to set out tomorrow. They had supper and went to bed.
The next day, they set out southwards. Aravel knew the way to the local moongate, and traveling my horseback they made it in half a day’s time. Choosing their destination, they arrived in the closest moongate to the White Stag Inn. After an hour they reached it, stabled their horses, and went inside.
They ordered a noontime meal, but noticed that Garth seemed rushed.
“Where’s Quiby?” Aravel asked.
“Gone. Yer friends Tristan and Xyon and the rest are gone too. Some new ones. There’s talk of another attack on the town of Yew. As long as it isn’t near my Inn, I’m fine. This old place has been burnt down too many times already. Anyway, I’ll be right back with yer stew.”
Uh-oh. Trouble was stirring up again. At least the world wasn’t in a state of emergency. After Aravel and Elowan finished, they saddled their horses and took off towards the Yew moongate. At last, another life-threatening adventure with friends!

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 20, 2003

Gad noticeed the Juka archers begin to back off and saw the guards hesitate but not make any moves. They seemed intimidated by this monster. Not really caring one way or another what happened to anyone outside he entered the abby. Seeing the boy bandeged up he turned to the man that looked like he had been tending the wounded and asked without any show of emotion, "So will the child live?"
____________________________________________________________________

Zeazrom upon leaving the battle sent his juka guards away and removed his Chaos Dragoon armor and changed into a normal Valorite chainmail suit. Since many warriors had seen the powers of the Chaos dragoons many in this land had taken to riding armored swamp dragons out of jelosy for power of the dragoons. There for no one would know what he was, they never did.

Before heading to Buccaneers Den as he had told Xylon he went to a near by inn called the White Stag. He knew that warriors tended to gather there and he had some questions he wanted answered.

He entered the Inn, looked around and smiling announced, "Good news the Juka army has been beaten. I'd offer a toast to all the brave warriors who helped defend the city but sadly I know not their names."

Zeazrom continued looking around at the people in the inn seeing if any would offer any names. If they did not he'd find them by some other way.

Quiby · Aug 20, 2003

Quiby sat in almost absolute silence as she watched and listened as the world went by, her breathing came in deep, controlled breaths through her nose, making her no louder in that respect than the whispering of the breeze through the leaves that mostly shielded her from sight. Of course, anyone with a sharp enough nose would probably be able to smell the smells of the inn that seemed to permeate the fabric of her clothes the moment she washed them.
She had watched as two vaguely familiar faces passed close to her tree in the direction of the inn, although she couldn’t recognise them by name, she was sure she had seen at least one of them before in the inn.
A while later, as boredom made her really want to be doing something, in fact anything that wasn’t sitting silently in a tree, waiting for an army that didn’t seem to be coming, the two men she had seen earlier passed a little close to her tree in the opposite direction. Their banter made it obvious to her that they were friends, and it seemed that they were heading off in the direction of Yew; it didn’t take a genius to work out why, and Quiby suspected it was related to the invasion. She stifled a yawn and returned her attention to the forest around her again, resisting the urge to sharpen the claw-like fingernails on the tree bark.
More time passed by slowly, Quiby didn’t know how long it had been, all she really cared about was that she was bored, and the winds that were kicked up as the sun sunk towards the horizon began to chill her. She stretched, her muscles quivering as she did so, causing the leaves to rustle slightly, and making her pause to wonder how strong the branch really was.
She sighed as she lowered herself onto another, stouter branch as she began her descent, “it’s more fun climbing trees,” she said to herself softly, more to here a voice than anything else.
A few branches later she landed with the grace of her purely feline ancestors, not even breaking the twig that happened to be under the little toe of her right foot; an accomplishment she could be truly proud of, especially considering the relative clumsiness of her humanoid body.

A scent caught her nose and pulled her out of her moment of pride; it smelled somewhat of the swamp around Yew, which was not really surprising considering its relative proximity, but there were other smells mixed in with it. She couldn’t place them perfectly, although she suspected that the bristling of her fur meant it couldn’t be anything good. Of course there were at least two varieties of spices, and a type of herb that she kept in the kitchen that had pretty much the same effect.
It was somewhat refreshing to loosen the shackles that her duties, and indeed her human half had placed over her other half, and she found that she was quite enjoying the challenge of stalking the potentially innocent traveller.
By the time her cautious approach had allowed to sight her target, he was already entering the inn. This reminded her that she had left Garth to run the place, which made a change since it was usually her that did everything. It occurred to her that Garth was a lot older than she was, physically at least, and so the work that she usually found tiring would be backbreaking for him.
She decided that, if after all her watching and waiting the only suspicious thing she could find was a warrior with enough money to be able to afford armour crafted from Valorite, then she would make it her new mission to get him to spend some of his money on her food.

She skirted around some tables so as to reach Garth, hopefully before anyone attempted to collar her for service; she would have to change before she resumed her duties.
“I am sorry, sir,” she apologised, “if you would like to take this gentleman’s order, I shall be down and changed in a moment”
She smiled at Garth’s relieved expression; the daytime crowds very rarely relented in their need for serving. She turned in the direction of the stairs, casting a swift glance at the warrior as she did so.

Xylon watched as the Juka retreated into the surrounding forest, her ears listening for even the slightest sound of trouble from within the woods, although everything seemed to be going smoothly, too smoothly in fact.
“I shall remain here until I am happy that both sides are upholding their sides of the truce,” she announced after a long pause. She had planned to remain behind after her allies had departed to be certain of their safe retreat, but now that she was effectively alone in the city with the guards, the thought that they would probably attempt to capture her occurred to her.
Maybe they would succeed this time if they tried it as a group, rather than leaving a lone girl to do the job; she would wait in hope, but only time would tell.

Misa watched from the cover of the vineyards, things were mostly quiet now, and the non-humans had moved off into the woods shortly afterwards. She understood the creature that had addressed the humans to be the one that had been in the woods, and had not attacked her mistress when duly provoked to do so. It had, however attacked her a short while ago, but her mistress had won, barely, which was something that worried her greatly. She had lost site of her mistress some time after that, when the familiar male had carried her into the big building.
Now that same male, or at least a similar looking one came out of the building, and Misa decided that she would disobey her mistress and try to find her. Of course, if she never found her mistress, she would get away without being verbally chastised. But she would happily accept her punishment, just to know that her mistress was safe.
She moved cautiously out from behind the vines, knowing that since she didn’t really understand any humans that weren’t her mistress, she might still be in danger and just not know it.

OOC: (At least today I won’t be able to say, “Where did the morning go?” because I know exactly where it went; here. I admit, I got a little carried away with Quiby’s part, but she’s been idling for so long I figure she deserves compensation. As for Misa, all I can say is that I have no idea how a llama thinks, but she needed a little more than “Misa walked out from behind the vines.”)

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 23, 2003

Zeazrom watched as a girl walked into the inn. This girl held his intreast becaues she posed a remarkable resemblence to his slave. As she went into the kitchen he turned the ring on his finger around and clenched his fist so that the figure on the ring couldn't be seen. He thought about leaving but he decided to wait for the girl to come back from the kitchen. Perhaps he could get some information from her.

Quiby · Aug 23, 2003

Quiby changed into something a little more typical of her day-to-day attire as quickly as was humanly possible, perhaps even a little faster considering her slightly more flexible joints, and ran a brush through her hair.
When she re-entered the taproom, Garth’s expression as he rose wearily to his feet told her that the new arrival had yet to order anything.
“Good day, sir, I am sorry to have kept you waiting” she said politely, even though it had only been a matter of minutes. She scooped up an empty mug as she passed it, quickly falling back into her usual habits now that she was back to work. “Is there something I might do for you?” she continued as she deposited the mug on the bar-top, “perhaps a drink, or something to eat?”

TristanKnight · Aug 23, 2003

Tristan looked about, the fighting seemed to have stopped. That was what the surge of wounded had been. Glancing around, Tristan saw a llama, prancing almost shyly by a tree.

"Misa?"

Tristan approached the animal, he did not know for sure how to communicate with it, so he just spoke slow.

"Misa, your master wishes to see you. Follow me."

Tristan gestured the llama in his direction and hoped that it would follow him.

OoC:
Sorry for the late reply, Internet access was cut off for me, so I couldn't get back here.

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 23, 2003

Zeazrom answered with a smile, "Well I'll take an ale and maybe some information . I've just returned from the battle at Yew. It went very well. I saw some really skilled warriors there and was wondering if maybe you knew any of them and how I might be able to find them. I'm currently looking for quality warriors."

Quiby · Aug 23, 2003

Misa stared at the familiar human for a moment; he had made the sound that she had always assumed was a reference to her, then a number of sounds that were beyond her understanding, and then made a gesture that she recognised as an invitation to approach.
It seemed obvious enough that the human had carried her mistress into the large building, and now he was looking for her. Whatever the reason probably had something to do with her mistress, and therefore there was no question as to whether she should go to the human; if he meant her harm she would just have to kick him.
Without a great deal of hesitation, Misa walked up to the human, casting a quick glance in the direction of the seemingly non-hostile undead creature.

Quiby couldn’t help but look relieved at the news of the battle going well as she moved around to the serving side of the bar, deciding that the man would probably notice if she served him the cheapest ale, and might still complain about the price of the most expensive, despite his apparent wealth.
“I do not know who is actually in Yew,” she admitted, “although I suspect that a few of the people who were her, and now are not here would probably be in Yew”
She thought for a moment before continuing, as she put his ale on the bar in front of him.
“I think if Tristan and Kysh are there, then they will return here before too long,” she neglected to mention the possibility that they had not survived, “there was another, a red haired lady who left at the same time Kysh did. She might not be back here, and I do not know where else she might go”
Quiby paused to think whether she had missed anyone she knew who might be there out, but couldn’t think of anyone.
“Are you sure I cannot interest you in a little food?” she asked, trying again to get him to order something to eat.

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 24, 2003

"Tristan and Kysh huh? Are they both Human? I think I remember seeing a few elves fighting also. I wonder if they would be intreasted in joining my group..." Zeazrom began to mumble to himself, then as if remembering he was talking quickly added, "Oh yes and I'll have some soup if there is any to be had."

Quiby · Aug 24, 2003

Quiby accompanied her nod with an affirming syllable, “Kysh is an elf, but Tristan is human.” She paused for a moment to try and remember something, “I cannot remember how old Kysh said he was, but he looks about as old as I do, although he is a little older than I am.”
She seized the pause that followed to ask a question of her own.
“There is a little stew left over from today,” she explained, “or if you do not mind waiting for a little while I can prepare something a little fresher for you.”

Lord Kishkuman · Aug 25, 2003

"The stew is fine thank you," Zeazrom stated and let Quiby leave. So Kysh was the name of that Elf child. He would need to talk to his contacts in Ilshinar to find out if it was the same elf child from the hidden elf city he had heard about. Now he needed to find out who that Assassin that appeared was. The tone the gilr used when she mentioned Tristan's name didn't sound like one used when decent people were talking about an assassin so this Tristan must have been another one of the warriors defending Yew.

Zeazrom decided he would finish his meal then start out for Buc's Den like he had planned to do and find some people to keep an eye on the warriors here.

____________________________________________________________________

After making sure that the boy was in no danger Gad decided it was time for him to leave passing the man who had treated the boy. The man was being followed by a llama. The one armed assassin said nothing as he passed the man to leave the city.

Quiby · Aug 25, 2003

Xylon landed lightly a short distance ahead of the assassin and turned to face him, her face showing a hint of amusement that seemed out of place on the face of an undead creature.
“Killing the boy would be a bad idea,” she said, without preamble, “should he so much as attempt to free me, then I would owe him a debt of honour, even more so should he succeed.”
She was about to mention that his death would also upset her sister, which was an occurrence she sought to avoid, but decided to try and leave her sister out of things. If she had any sense she’d be staying as far away from danger as possible, which probably meant that wherever she was, she was most likely in the thick of it.
“Traders often say ‘the riskier the road, the greater the profit’,” she explained, “but they also say ‘you can’t make a deal if you’re dead’; in fact you can’t do much of anything if you’re dead.”

Quiby smiled and retreated back into the kitchen, glad to be away from whatever smell the man seemed to be carrying around with him. The fact that she couldn’t place it made it worse, since it mean that it wasn’t one of the smells that she dealt with often, and knew were harmless, but for all intents and purposes he was a hungry traveller, and it was therefore her duty to make remove the ‘hungry’ part from the description.
With a smile that always seemed to surface whenever she had something to do, she set about preparing the man’s meal.

"Some people like the lull..."

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