Post by darknthistle on Jan 27, 2007 18:14:19 GMT -8
The Good Times Tavern in the center of the village was rowdy, as was the norm. The sun was shining brightly, and that solar energy always seemed to fuse into the younger residents of Ellaia. Most of the pixies were out of sight, so everyone was on their guard, especially since they had left Fizzle behind to act as if nothing was going on, her hands behind her back and her face pulled into an innocent blank. Both sets of twins were playing together, Naome and Tion teaching Snowbird and Tai how to speak Twin-lingo. Dark's nine-year-old children were slightly confused by the karaths' enthusiasm, but it was infectious over time, and they began to get the hang of it all. Chyenne was busily digging in the new garden outside of the kitchen, happily singing a tune in her native tongue while planting flowers (and a tree "on accident"). Shivelle and Magus had disappeared somewhere to talk to each other, so Melody was happy as a lark, bouncing about with a little water bucket in the garden with her dryad cousin. In fact, everything was happy and fun. Everyone was in a good mood.
Except for Dark.
She was in the kitchen washing dishes by hand, something she only did when she was upset in some way. She absently chewed on her full lower lip, and her dark, fine eyebrows were knitted together in a worried frown. She had been fine all morning... but when noon hit, she had felt, quite suddenly, slightly empty. That usually happened when something was wrong, but Dark could not put her finger on it this time, which disturbed her all the more. She had come to recognize exactly what the feeling was of "hey, Thistle's in trouble again," or "your children are in danger." This feeling was neither of those.
As she dried off the plates, her pointed ears caught the sound of a distant crash, clatter, bang, "THISTLE!!!" Sometimes she hated her extremely good hearing.
Sighing, she put the plates away and walked out the kitchen door, which led to the garden.
"Hey there, Dark!" Chyenne sang to the sorceress as she walked along the garden path. Melody followed suit with "'Ello, meeztris Dark." Dark nodded with a smile and continued walking, making sure to compliment the little beings' work. Both the dryad and the nymph beamed and happily returned to their gardening.
Annoyed yelling continued to penetrate the otherwise calm air as Dark Beauty walked towards the noise. It was coming from Tion and Annie's farmhouse down the road. There were terrified screams as well, and inaudible yelling that sounded suspiciously like Thistle and Gimblefyre accusing each other of blowing cover. Dark could see specks flying madly about the cottage, either flying away from the form of Annie (which was flailing about, trying to catch the feys), or trying to catch each other to slap the other of their kin. Fizzle whizzed past Dark's head, getting to the crime scene so she could join in the fun that she had initially been left out of.
Dark shook her head to herself as she got to the gate. Walking through it, she said calmly amid the chaos, "What is going on here?"
Everything came to a halt, everyone in very interesting poses. Gimblefyre was holding Thistle by the neck and had an arm back, ready to punch the daylights out of her, and Thistle's mouth was wide open, as if she was ready to bite the orange fey's arm right off. Attached to Gimblefyre was Fizzle, her arms about his waist and pulling backward, screaming at him to stop. Annie had managed to catch Gennie and come face to face with her, Gennie's tiny nose touching hers. Bentair was unsuccessfully trying to pry Annie's fingers apart to free Gennie, and Laio was playing dead on the ground. Butterball had been sitting next to Laio with his son Howard, teaching him all about rescue breathing with Laio as his dummy. All of them had turned their heads to look at Dark, their eyes wide.
After a few seconds, the silence was broken with an "Oh, crap" from all of the feys at exactly the same time.
Dark nodded. "You bet, 'oh, crap.' Now, what is going on? And why is everyone in such a violent mood?"
Everyone hastily separated, as if it would do any good, and managed to look shame-faced (even Howard)... except for Liao, who was attempting to look even more dead with his eyes squeezed shut.
Annie looked down, her pink ponytail falling onto one of her shoulders as she said, "I'm sorry, Dark. I'm usually not annoyed easily... I don't know what came over me. You'd think I'd be used to their tricks. But all of the feys had hidden in the house, some of them moving things about and some of them drawing on the furniture with charcoal. I got increasingly upset, and then Thistle crashed into my kitchen, knocking over pots and pans. That's when I snapped."
Thistle had nodded, showing a forming bruise to the sorceress as if to prove Annie's story to be true.
Dark sighed again, her hands on her hips. "Darlings, why don't we try to have a good day for once, okay? Now what do you say to Annie, little ones?"
A well-trained chorus of "Sorry, Annie," sounded, all of them looking rather resentful of having to apologize.
"Well, that was interesting..." A high voice said behind Dark. The elf, startled, turned around. Behind the gate, on the path, was a halfling woman of about 25 years. She had two weapons strapped to her back. She was dressed all in black except for some interesting bracers. They were silver with a dark purple gem situated in the middle of each one. Her hair was silver, and she had two tattoos on her face, starting on her brow above her cold silver-blue eyes and curving to her ear and down to her jaw. Standing slightly behind her was what looked like a Kobold. He had some green leather armor on, a quill and some parchment in his hands, and a crossbow and lute strapped to his back. His beady little eyes were on his paper as he scribbled furiously.
Dark stared at the two of them, wondering who on earth they were. "May I ask who you are?"
"I suppose I could tell you. My name is Perin, and this is…” the woman sighed, "Deekin."
The creature looked up from his writing and said with much enthusiasm, "The faithful Kobold companion!" He then went right back to writing.
Dark looked very uneasy, a look that was not normal. The feys and Annie began to sneak further forward to hear more. "A Kobold? May I ask what your purpose here is?" Dark was usually very friendly to travelers, what was wrong?
The creature, whose race was known for being evil, spoke up. "Deekin is following boss to write his epic tale. He has already written one." He pulled out a book from a pouch on his hip and offered it to Dark Beauty. "If you wants, Deekin will let you have it. It's about boss and Deekin's other adventures with goat-man."
"Valen," Perin offered, obviously speaking about the 'goat-man.' She looked at the sorceress with silver-blue eyes. "He's a Tiefling, not a goat-man."
At this comment, Dark's cerulean eyes widened to an alarming size. "A Tiefling? You mean those half-demon creatures?"
"...Duh. Is there any other type?"
Without answering, Dark closed her eyes, swiftly summoning her will, and then shouted the word, "Palé-néa." With that, the elf disappeared.
Annie and the pixies stood there awkwardly for a minute, not sure of what to do. Dark had seemed upset at the entrance of these two travelers, and that had never happened before. Were they supposed to shun these people or welcome them?
Thistle searched for a way to break the awkward silence. "Uh, the tavern's that way." she said, pointing to the southeastern road.
Before anything else could be said, there was a yell of absolute outrage that echoed from the direction of Dark's cottage. It was so clear... maybe the sound had bounced from the pond and to the farmhouse... or maybe it was just the power of the sorceress. Either way, it made Annie shiver frightfully. Dark was really upset.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Twenty minutes later, everyone who resided in the village was in the tavern, sitting at tables and watching Dark. Perin and Deekin were standing in a corner, Deekin writing furiously.
Shivelle worriedly stared at Dark, who was pacing the floor, her long-fingered hands kneading her black, wavy hair in such a way that the vampiress thought the sorceress would pull her beautiful locks straight out. "Mistress Dark, what is the matter?"
Deekin, who was oblivious to who everyone was, walked up to Shivelle, his eyes scrutinizing. "You looks very strange, Deekin thinks. Very pale, and red lines in hair."
Shivelle, caught slightly off guard, said, "I am a vampire."
"Oh. Deekin tried to write a song about that once, but it very hard to find a word that rhymes with 'vampire.' Same with 'zombie' and 'skeleton.' Deekin not thinks that coincidence."
Shivelle didn't know whether to growl and eat him or laugh at the comment, so she simply scooted her chair closer to Magus.
Dark suddenly cursed very loudly, pounding her fist on the counter and making nearly everyone in the room jump, except for Perin and some of the more manly males. "How did this happen?! I used every spell I could think of to secure it! Who or what on earth could have stolen it?!?!"
Afraid to say anything, but dying of curiosity (maybe it was some sort of treasure?), Naburine asked, "What was stolen, Dark? You're driving us nearly mad."
Dark turned to face everyone, her eyes blazing. "The Palé-néa."
"What on earth is that?" Fizzle inquired squeakily.
"It's an orb of energy. Oh, it's difficult to explain." Annoyed, Dark cursed again.
"Well, um, maybe if you tried to explain, it would calm you down." Annie was extremely scared to see Dark like this. She was holding Tion's hand with a death grip.
Dark inhaled deeply. "Alright. In this world there are two types of energy. One is called 'controlled energy,' which can be handled by different devices, such as a pump or a lever. We are all filled with controlled energy, and it is what magic-users manipulate to create their spells. The other form, 'wild energy,' is nature's energy. Solar and wind power are made up of this type. It is extremely powerful, and therefore difficult to control. In fact, this raw energy is dangerous to try to use at all. In my younger years, I managed to catch, if you will, some of this energy and force it to my will. Using certain arts to create a binding orb, I captured wild energy and put it into the sphere. It took three years for me to finally be able to 'speak' to this energy."
Now she was calm again, and she breathed deeply before continuing. "When I did, I learned that nature is very stubborn and very chaotic. Either it will utterly destroy or completely heal. I was able to find a way to make this energy be on my side, and no, I cannot explain how. I kept the orb, which is called Palé-néa, and it shared a bond with me. When Ellaia was made and I had my own house with..." The elf's voice fell slightly, as did her face. "...Rikimaru..." Shaking her head to rid it of the memories of her husband, she continued. "We made a room strictly for the sole purpose of keeping the Palé-néa safe. Combining our powers, my husband and I used every spell and every magical property to create the strongest bindings possible and used other forms of energy to make... how would one put it... magical shackles if you will. The room was also enchanted with warding spells to make it difficult to find." She looked pointedly at Thistle, who had started to talk to her fey buddies about how it could have been possible not to have found it after all the times they had infiltrated Dark's cottage. At the explanation and look, Thistle fell silent and looked somewhat embarrassed.
Annie, intrigued, asked, "So how did you know it was gone when Perin over there mentioned a Tiefling?" From the corner, an unheeded voice piped up, "Slow down! Slow down! Deekin not able to write this fast!"
Dark sighed and finally sat down, her hand coming to rest on her forehead and kneading it. "Besides the bond I had made with my soul to it, I made a pact with the Palé-néa to keep our village safe as long as I kept it safe. Like I said, this energy is extremely powerful, and nature, though nobody ever notices really, has a mind of its own. The Palé-néa was capable of spreading an invisible energy field around the village. Every traveler who neared the boarders would have his intents and soul checked by the energy the Palé-néa wielded. If the traveler meant no harm, it was left alone and allowed in. If the traveler was of ill-intent or simply evil, it was not permitted to enter."
"How is that possible?" Shivelle, who had been wondering how on earth she could have been let in as she was a vampire, was thoroughly confused.
"The Palé-néa would simply put it into the mind of the traveler that where they were heading was dangerous. If that didn't work, then it would convince them through their own thoughts that they did not want to go over there after all, thereby making the traveler avoid Ellaia. It is the reason we have never been attacked, looted, or hurt before. The black dragon from the mountains, I know, was a different story... the Palé-néa was unable to keep that bulk out... and besides, dragons are immune to mind magic." The silence in the room was nearly deafening. Dark had been capable of all that?
Dark was not finished, however."And now, with the Palé-néa gone, anyone can come in. Our village is no longer safe. That prison-lab-asylum beyond the wall could pose a problem... the Palé-néa has informed me that there have been a few times when someone had broken loose and tried to get past the barrier. Even the Palé-néa had problems because some of the minds were so confused and muddled that it was difficult to convince the convicts of anything. Nothing will stop them now... if they can get through the wall, that is." Everyone now looked to Perin and Deekin. They realized that it was essential to question whether these two were friends or foes.
Except for Dark.
She was in the kitchen washing dishes by hand, something she only did when she was upset in some way. She absently chewed on her full lower lip, and her dark, fine eyebrows were knitted together in a worried frown. She had been fine all morning... but when noon hit, she had felt, quite suddenly, slightly empty. That usually happened when something was wrong, but Dark could not put her finger on it this time, which disturbed her all the more. She had come to recognize exactly what the feeling was of "hey, Thistle's in trouble again," or "your children are in danger." This feeling was neither of those.
As she dried off the plates, her pointed ears caught the sound of a distant crash, clatter, bang, "THISTLE!!!" Sometimes she hated her extremely good hearing.
Sighing, she put the plates away and walked out the kitchen door, which led to the garden.
"Hey there, Dark!" Chyenne sang to the sorceress as she walked along the garden path. Melody followed suit with "'Ello, meeztris Dark." Dark nodded with a smile and continued walking, making sure to compliment the little beings' work. Both the dryad and the nymph beamed and happily returned to their gardening.
Annoyed yelling continued to penetrate the otherwise calm air as Dark Beauty walked towards the noise. It was coming from Tion and Annie's farmhouse down the road. There were terrified screams as well, and inaudible yelling that sounded suspiciously like Thistle and Gimblefyre accusing each other of blowing cover. Dark could see specks flying madly about the cottage, either flying away from the form of Annie (which was flailing about, trying to catch the feys), or trying to catch each other to slap the other of their kin. Fizzle whizzed past Dark's head, getting to the crime scene so she could join in the fun that she had initially been left out of.
Dark shook her head to herself as she got to the gate. Walking through it, she said calmly amid the chaos, "What is going on here?"
Everything came to a halt, everyone in very interesting poses. Gimblefyre was holding Thistle by the neck and had an arm back, ready to punch the daylights out of her, and Thistle's mouth was wide open, as if she was ready to bite the orange fey's arm right off. Attached to Gimblefyre was Fizzle, her arms about his waist and pulling backward, screaming at him to stop. Annie had managed to catch Gennie and come face to face with her, Gennie's tiny nose touching hers. Bentair was unsuccessfully trying to pry Annie's fingers apart to free Gennie, and Laio was playing dead on the ground. Butterball had been sitting next to Laio with his son Howard, teaching him all about rescue breathing with Laio as his dummy. All of them had turned their heads to look at Dark, their eyes wide.
After a few seconds, the silence was broken with an "Oh, crap" from all of the feys at exactly the same time.
Dark nodded. "You bet, 'oh, crap.' Now, what is going on? And why is everyone in such a violent mood?"
Everyone hastily separated, as if it would do any good, and managed to look shame-faced (even Howard)... except for Liao, who was attempting to look even more dead with his eyes squeezed shut.
Annie looked down, her pink ponytail falling onto one of her shoulders as she said, "I'm sorry, Dark. I'm usually not annoyed easily... I don't know what came over me. You'd think I'd be used to their tricks. But all of the feys had hidden in the house, some of them moving things about and some of them drawing on the furniture with charcoal. I got increasingly upset, and then Thistle crashed into my kitchen, knocking over pots and pans. That's when I snapped."
Thistle had nodded, showing a forming bruise to the sorceress as if to prove Annie's story to be true.
Dark sighed again, her hands on her hips. "Darlings, why don't we try to have a good day for once, okay? Now what do you say to Annie, little ones?"
A well-trained chorus of "Sorry, Annie," sounded, all of them looking rather resentful of having to apologize.
"Well, that was interesting..." A high voice said behind Dark. The elf, startled, turned around. Behind the gate, on the path, was a halfling woman of about 25 years. She had two weapons strapped to her back. She was dressed all in black except for some interesting bracers. They were silver with a dark purple gem situated in the middle of each one. Her hair was silver, and she had two tattoos on her face, starting on her brow above her cold silver-blue eyes and curving to her ear and down to her jaw. Standing slightly behind her was what looked like a Kobold. He had some green leather armor on, a quill and some parchment in his hands, and a crossbow and lute strapped to his back. His beady little eyes were on his paper as he scribbled furiously.
Dark stared at the two of them, wondering who on earth they were. "May I ask who you are?"
"I suppose I could tell you. My name is Perin, and this is…” the woman sighed, "Deekin."
The creature looked up from his writing and said with much enthusiasm, "The faithful Kobold companion!" He then went right back to writing.
Dark looked very uneasy, a look that was not normal. The feys and Annie began to sneak further forward to hear more. "A Kobold? May I ask what your purpose here is?" Dark was usually very friendly to travelers, what was wrong?
The creature, whose race was known for being evil, spoke up. "Deekin is following boss to write his epic tale. He has already written one." He pulled out a book from a pouch on his hip and offered it to Dark Beauty. "If you wants, Deekin will let you have it. It's about boss and Deekin's other adventures with goat-man."
"Valen," Perin offered, obviously speaking about the 'goat-man.' She looked at the sorceress with silver-blue eyes. "He's a Tiefling, not a goat-man."
At this comment, Dark's cerulean eyes widened to an alarming size. "A Tiefling? You mean those half-demon creatures?"
"...Duh. Is there any other type?"
Without answering, Dark closed her eyes, swiftly summoning her will, and then shouted the word, "Palé-néa." With that, the elf disappeared.
Annie and the pixies stood there awkwardly for a minute, not sure of what to do. Dark had seemed upset at the entrance of these two travelers, and that had never happened before. Were they supposed to shun these people or welcome them?
Thistle searched for a way to break the awkward silence. "Uh, the tavern's that way." she said, pointing to the southeastern road.
Before anything else could be said, there was a yell of absolute outrage that echoed from the direction of Dark's cottage. It was so clear... maybe the sound had bounced from the pond and to the farmhouse... or maybe it was just the power of the sorceress. Either way, it made Annie shiver frightfully. Dark was really upset.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Twenty minutes later, everyone who resided in the village was in the tavern, sitting at tables and watching Dark. Perin and Deekin were standing in a corner, Deekin writing furiously.
Shivelle worriedly stared at Dark, who was pacing the floor, her long-fingered hands kneading her black, wavy hair in such a way that the vampiress thought the sorceress would pull her beautiful locks straight out. "Mistress Dark, what is the matter?"
Deekin, who was oblivious to who everyone was, walked up to Shivelle, his eyes scrutinizing. "You looks very strange, Deekin thinks. Very pale, and red lines in hair."
Shivelle, caught slightly off guard, said, "I am a vampire."
"Oh. Deekin tried to write a song about that once, but it very hard to find a word that rhymes with 'vampire.' Same with 'zombie' and 'skeleton.' Deekin not thinks that coincidence."
Shivelle didn't know whether to growl and eat him or laugh at the comment, so she simply scooted her chair closer to Magus.
Dark suddenly cursed very loudly, pounding her fist on the counter and making nearly everyone in the room jump, except for Perin and some of the more manly males. "How did this happen?! I used every spell I could think of to secure it! Who or what on earth could have stolen it?!?!"
Afraid to say anything, but dying of curiosity (maybe it was some sort of treasure?), Naburine asked, "What was stolen, Dark? You're driving us nearly mad."
Dark turned to face everyone, her eyes blazing. "The Palé-néa."
"What on earth is that?" Fizzle inquired squeakily.
"It's an orb of energy. Oh, it's difficult to explain." Annoyed, Dark cursed again.
"Well, um, maybe if you tried to explain, it would calm you down." Annie was extremely scared to see Dark like this. She was holding Tion's hand with a death grip.
Dark inhaled deeply. "Alright. In this world there are two types of energy. One is called 'controlled energy,' which can be handled by different devices, such as a pump or a lever. We are all filled with controlled energy, and it is what magic-users manipulate to create their spells. The other form, 'wild energy,' is nature's energy. Solar and wind power are made up of this type. It is extremely powerful, and therefore difficult to control. In fact, this raw energy is dangerous to try to use at all. In my younger years, I managed to catch, if you will, some of this energy and force it to my will. Using certain arts to create a binding orb, I captured wild energy and put it into the sphere. It took three years for me to finally be able to 'speak' to this energy."
Now she was calm again, and she breathed deeply before continuing. "When I did, I learned that nature is very stubborn and very chaotic. Either it will utterly destroy or completely heal. I was able to find a way to make this energy be on my side, and no, I cannot explain how. I kept the orb, which is called Palé-néa, and it shared a bond with me. When Ellaia was made and I had my own house with..." The elf's voice fell slightly, as did her face. "...Rikimaru..." Shaking her head to rid it of the memories of her husband, she continued. "We made a room strictly for the sole purpose of keeping the Palé-néa safe. Combining our powers, my husband and I used every spell and every magical property to create the strongest bindings possible and used other forms of energy to make... how would one put it... magical shackles if you will. The room was also enchanted with warding spells to make it difficult to find." She looked pointedly at Thistle, who had started to talk to her fey buddies about how it could have been possible not to have found it after all the times they had infiltrated Dark's cottage. At the explanation and look, Thistle fell silent and looked somewhat embarrassed.
Annie, intrigued, asked, "So how did you know it was gone when Perin over there mentioned a Tiefling?" From the corner, an unheeded voice piped up, "Slow down! Slow down! Deekin not able to write this fast!"
Dark sighed and finally sat down, her hand coming to rest on her forehead and kneading it. "Besides the bond I had made with my soul to it, I made a pact with the Palé-néa to keep our village safe as long as I kept it safe. Like I said, this energy is extremely powerful, and nature, though nobody ever notices really, has a mind of its own. The Palé-néa was capable of spreading an invisible energy field around the village. Every traveler who neared the boarders would have his intents and soul checked by the energy the Palé-néa wielded. If the traveler meant no harm, it was left alone and allowed in. If the traveler was of ill-intent or simply evil, it was not permitted to enter."
"How is that possible?" Shivelle, who had been wondering how on earth she could have been let in as she was a vampire, was thoroughly confused.
"The Palé-néa would simply put it into the mind of the traveler that where they were heading was dangerous. If that didn't work, then it would convince them through their own thoughts that they did not want to go over there after all, thereby making the traveler avoid Ellaia. It is the reason we have never been attacked, looted, or hurt before. The black dragon from the mountains, I know, was a different story... the Palé-néa was unable to keep that bulk out... and besides, dragons are immune to mind magic." The silence in the room was nearly deafening. Dark had been capable of all that?
Dark was not finished, however."And now, with the Palé-néa gone, anyone can come in. Our village is no longer safe. That prison-lab-asylum beyond the wall could pose a problem... the Palé-néa has informed me that there have been a few times when someone had broken loose and tried to get past the barrier. Even the Palé-néa had problems because some of the minds were so confused and muddled that it was difficult to convince the convicts of anything. Nothing will stop them now... if they can get through the wall, that is." Everyone now looked to Perin and Deekin. They realized that it was essential to question whether these two were friends or foes.