The eyes see black, all around. Shadows fail to cast from any directions being that we have strayed far from the pack. Wisps of fog appear and reappear through the trees like apparitions.
The nose smells the thick air and wet grass from the collective dew. There lies a faint taste in the wind of the rain to come.
The ears hear crickets chirping, the whistle of the breeze, the rustle of the leaves.
Yet all that is felt is cold... The climate is slightly humid, and it is felt on the skin, but underneath, not even emotionally, it feels as if the clammy touch of death held a grip on his being.
The fire... I miss it... I can't even hear it anymore. I don't understand why I want it back...
The young angori, feels for his spine in the place that no longer burns. His nail scrapes across it gently, studying the area and then the back of his hand bumps his sword. His eyes, which were at first distant with reflection and longing, now focused and angry. He flicks his hand onto the handle and draws it out. A static charge running through it, the blade crackles with energy and emits an luminescence to cause the nearest trees out in the field to become visible. He practices a sloppy, angered version of the swordplay motions his "assassin mentor" taught him, imagining that he was there training him.
Then that imagination twists the form in his mind to those of the angori leaders who've harassed him since he's shown up in Jastery. Growling, snarling, salivating at the image of his rivals being cut down. Then he stops and looks at the weapon, nearly blinding himself with the light. The energy that flows through it, it still does not feel right. It still feels cold.
"I need the fire..."
Gaius looks off in the direction Riddles seems to be indicating and notices the Angori in the distance. The electricity crackling over the blade illuminates him just enough that Gaius can make him out to be Des.
"Why yes Riddles. That does seem to be Des, or Bambi, or whatever it is they call him nowadays. My, that electricity looks exciting in the dark. It makes me want to play!"
With that, Gaius promptly causes his fists to crackle with electrical power and flies towards Des, fists glowing in the night.
The gnome runs after the fairy, his cart bobbling and bouncing behind him, a squeaky wheel excitedly screeching its approval of it's masters newly found ability to run.
Riddles' belly flops excitedly in synchronization with his footfalls.
"Wait for MEEE!!!! I WANT TO PLAY" screams the gnome, swinging around his wrench wildly, as if it were a lasso.
Using periphery to his advantage, Des spots two figures approaching, of very small statures. He could hear them before he could see them. "Riddles," the one he spoke to about making a weapon for him, and "Gaius", who is known for making many friends amongs Jastery, and who he frequently goes to for his expertise in trading. Even coming at him with energized mitts, he doesn't feel threatened, but as to not come off as threatening, he pivots to face them while sheathing his sword. The light from the clearing fades down to only the hands of the fae.
Even the gnome waddling over, wrench in hand, isn't too scary but just to be sure they aren't hostile, he keeps his hand on the hilt.
Gaius laughs as he hears Riddles running up behind him. "You'd better hurry if you want to play with us!" he taunts.
But then Gaius stops quickly in mid flight when he sees the light disappear. He slowly drifts down to the ground near Des and pouts a bit.
"Awww, but I wanted to play with the electricity. It looked like so much fun."
The gnome runs fast to catch up with the fae, a few leaves of cabbage flying out behind him as he runs. "AHH! NO FAIR!" he screams, sweating as he tries to catch up.
"YOU USED YOUR WINGS!!!!" he screams, as he slowly becomes winded. He pulls out a peice of silk, and plops down on the ground, and starts inhaling into it, as if it were a lunch tote, wheezing a bit.
Des just tilts his head and squints slightly at the odd pair. Part of him wants to burst out laughing.
"I don't 'play' with electricity. I wreck with it. And I'd rather have something better... but this will do for now."
He sidesteps in a quart-circle, with the two being at his 10 o'clock and the town area at his 2.
"Something better eh?" says the gnome in an alluring voice, starting to catch his breath. "What precisely did you have in mind? I am sure between the two of us we could come up with something quite spectacular."
Riddles edges closer to the large angori, and starts attempting to climb up his leg to unsheathe the lightning sword. His mind is occupied solely by the enticing sword, his interest focused on the maker of the weapon, and how he can out perform it's craftsmanship.
He tries wiggling up the leg, but fails. Instead, he just makes grunting noises, staring up at the angori. Ignored, he starts to whine: "GIMMI GIMMI GIMMI!"
He regains his composure. "I am sure we could work something out for your benefit there Mr. Intimidating." he says, brushing off his vacationers shirt and tucking it in.
Curious hazel eyes peered through evergreen leaves, a fox nose peeking out past the tips of the branches. It's fur pitch black with tufts of gold and royal blue, it showed the craftsmanship of a true master in leatherworking. A slender hand reached from the shadows to pull up the mask, revealing a feminine Elven face with a serious demeanor that gazed after the group of strange fellows, each seeming to emit a glow. She slinked down the tree to land upon the ground, the cool air ruffling up her auburn hair, weapons clinking as she made the contact.
"I wonder what these people are up to.." A sharp brow was arched before she walked forward to see what was going on.
Des, unsheaths his sword as if about to battle, and holds it parallel to the horizon from his point of view. The bright, crackling energy shines again, he pets the flat part of the blade several times, kinetically absorbing the energy which makes the glow dull down. As it does so he spots an elven woman in the distance, the one who joined them in the battle against Scorch. "Nyky..."
Then putting his attention back to Riddles, "Slow your roll, wee one." He lowers it slowly into his hands, not taking his off of the handle. "The reason I want something different... I'd rather have fire, to strike fear in the hearts of my enemies and sear the flesh from their bones..."
It wasn't long before the rustling of forestry could be heard just beyond the treeline, Heavy footsteps and mild grumblings could be heard from within the pale, moonlit darkness. It isn't long before what appears to be a single, glowing red eye appears at the center of a dark sihlouette from just beyond the thick leaves and shrubbery.
Though, as if by moving of their own free will, the branches and thick rootwork slowly makes way and carves a path for the mysterious cyclopean sihlouette in the shadows of the woods.
The first thing to be made apparant was the frustrated scowl on the face of a pale uordeq. The large ears which twitched at the occasional noises coming from the distance were comparable to the pair of equally large and round owl-like eyes that gazed out into the crowd of townsfolk with a perplexed and confused expression.
The large, glowing red eye seemed to originate from the uordeqs mouth, as he puffed the lit wrappings of various dried leaves and herbs as the Uordeq inhaled it's burning contents.
Soon the rest of his body emerged, revealing the uordeq to be completely naked with the exception of the ornate leather chestpiece with masterfully crafted oak leaves which adorned the borders of the leather armor and stood as a symbol for his sacred office.
His second article of clothing seemed to be what was a wreath of holly and oak leaves with a bright, gold bell that hung from the center, Ringing loudly with every step he took as he desperately clutched it closely to his crotch to prevent his more sensitive areas from being made public to the folks before him.
After several dozen awkward, embarrassing, and jingling steps out onto the field the Uordeq Shaman finally made it to the crowd of townsfolk before him.
After several seconds of silence, The Shaman lets out a tired sigh and looks at the crowd with vulnerable eyes.
"Hey guys...uh...anybody seen my pants? or my uh...tabard? They kind of...went on an adventure somewhere, I think. Or something....It's been a wild last few nights."
Gaius laughs at the gnome's antics for a minute and listens to Des' answer. "Ah, you want fire, do you? Fire's a lot of fun too! I agree! Scary and all that, yes." The lightning around Gaius' fists dissipates. Gaius smiles goofily at the Angori and his fists erupt into flames.
"I can do fire too! I bet you could learn to, if you tried. You see, all you have to do is..." Gaius is cut short when he is distracted by the mostly naked Uordeq now standing in the clearing.
"Er... hi there Blisdon. No, I haven't seen any pants around here. At least not that anyone is currently not wearing..."
Solas emerges from the woods not too terribly far behind the Shaman of the Wild Hunt, black coat flapping at his feet as he borderline stomps through the woods. His black blindfold is up around his forehead, rather than blocking his vision. His eyes glow a eerie blue from residual magic. Blisdon's pants and tabbard are slung over his shoulder. "They're over here you-"
He cuts off his sentence as he spies the crowd. His eyes widen with excitement. "How interesting." He says half to himself. His eyes narrow and his brow furrows as he spies Des in the crowd. "Right. Your pants are right here Master Dwa- Shaman." He catches himself. He offers the garments to the Uordeq Huntsman.
"Something the matter here?" He addressess the crowd, striking a briar pipe.
The figure strapped the mask upon the back of her head, the nose of the fox bobbing up and down with each time the female moved. The elf placed her fingers against the pommel of her short sword, strapped to her left hip, the silver trimming shining ominously from the obsidian colored blade as if to say it was ready to be drawn for blood. On the elf's right hip held another short sword, much quieter than the Serpens Lacrimo (*Dragon's Tears). This sword was named Insinuatis Vulpes (*Sneaking Fox), the blade being pearl white in color but the hilt being as black as the night sky. Ignoring the sword, the elf turned her attention towards what appeared to be a naked Uordeq who joined the small group. With a brief nod, she immediately slipped her mask back on before the female's cheeks became ablaze with color of crimson.
"So. Interesting group as this is," Nykyrian kept her eyes down to the ground as she spoke, "I do believe I prefer keeping my eye sight."
Blisdon nodded at Gaius with a wide grin painted across his face
"Well hello there buddy." He said with a smirk "Last night was just a blur after I started chewing on some mushrooms I found in the dirt....Thought I was running off to get frisky with a fine Dwarf lass. Yaknow, I haven't had one of those by the hips since my days Apprenticing an apothecary...."
Blisdon's thoughts trailed off for a moment as his large, uordeq eyes slowly crawled their way up to the moon.
Shortly followed by a curt ring of the bell around his crotch, for no apparently visible reason.
"Needless to say, I woke up spooning with a mother bear in her den...You'd think this wouldn't happen to me as often as it actually does."
After hearing the voice of his empyrean friend, Blisdon turned to Solas and eyed his pants and tabard up and down for a moment- As if appraising an object far to expensive to even consider purchasing..
"You know what...it's kinda nice outside, And I like what this breeze is doing to my...jibbly bits. I think I'll stay as I am, if it's all the same to you.'" mumbled the Uordeq Shaman with a smirk before turning to face the masked Female and approached her.
"Well Hello there stranger, The name's Blisdon." Blisdon Grinned enthusiastically and extended one of the hands which held the Wreath in place out to greet her.
"Shaman of the Wild Hunt and Keeper of the Druids Grove and the one of the best healers this little town has got aound here. Who might you be?"
As Des' eyes fixated on the blazing fists of the fae, an eerie smile spreads across his face and the warmth feels to start to return to him.
But then, the shaman makes his huge nude entrance and interrupts all train of thought into derailing with the loudness, the awkwardness, and the weirdness. Des only mutters one word from all of this as a complete thought.
"Discrete."
Then he sheaths the blade, walks a few steps over to Nyky and attempts to cover her line of sight with his hand.
To Solas he states, "No actual problem cept for the one you just solved. Now if you could solve it a bit faster? I'm tasting dinner again."
Des' face has changed several times through Blisden's story, so much so that a humble narrator like myself cannot keep track but I will say that they were mostly of disgust. As he approaches his newest friend he attempts to be a wall between her and Mr. Flopping-Pelvis without having parts touch him.
Riddles, distracted by the silk, hardly notices the elf, empyrean and shaman's approach. He hears the bell and conversation, without taking any heed of it, and turns just in time to catch a full eyeful of the recreational results of the shaman. He turns away quickly, his rosy cheeks shifting through various different colors due to embarrassment. They finally settle on the color orange, and then shift slowly back to being red. He stands up, and listens to the shaman talking, his eyes growing wider and wider, until they almost fill his goggles. He slowly starts tearing off a piece of silk the size of a fig leaf.
Riddles makes his way over to the familiar form of Solas, and tugs on the seer's tabard, beckoning the empyrean down to his level for a whisper.
"Uhh, Mr. Insightful. Why is that fellow sporting a trophy without a case?" Riddles looks over to Gaius, whose hands appear to be on fire. He shrugs happily, and climbs up the seer, receiving an unsolicited piggy-back ride. He tugs gently on Solas' hair, listening in to Mr. Intimidating's conversation with his beloved mount. He unsheathes his wrench, and waves it at the new elf and shaman. "HELLO ELFY! HELLO MR EXHIBITIONIST!" he cries out, his voice gleefully loud in the night.
The elf grinned before reaching out to grip the man's hands, in time enough for Des to cover her eyes and obscuring her ability to see what she was actually grabbing. Hopefully she was shaking his hand, but she introduced herself as such, "Well hello, my name is Nykyrian. I'm new around these parts. It is nice to meet you Blisdon." Taking her hand back, she dodged underneath Des's hand to actually see the Uordeq eye to eye without talking through fingers, strands of auburn hair covering half of the elf's face. "Glad to know there is a healer here, maybe you can fix my confusion. And as for you.." She turned towards the loud and hyper Riddles. "Nice to meet you also."
"THERES TWO HEALERS HERE MISSY!" shouts the gnome, demanding attention. A crayon falls from his back pocket.
"Though, I must say, I can cure confusion, but the cure is a toxin. Are you okay with being completely dead for somewhere between a quarter of a wink and nine blinks of an eye?" he says, batting his eyelashes quickly. He gets grumpy and decides to ignore the elf. He stares a bit at the silken leaf he has fashioned. He wiggles it in front of the Shaman.
"You are quite odd for having such dark eyes." he says, his voice trailing off as he searches through the seer's hair.
The burr trots up to the group having left the grumpy Chichen. He looks at Nyky.
"Er yer kernfersed? Er kern ferx dert... Er ers der berst burr herler ern erl er jersery."
He grins and thumps his chest with a big paw and stands up on his hind feet. He hobbles over towards the group and falls back down onto all fours and looks up at them all.
Blisdon had his mouth open to respond with a creative pun about confusion and his abilities as a healer to the remarks of the Masked elf before she was quickly obscured by the large wall of Angori meat who leapt to her defense in front of her.
Blisdons eyes slowly rose to meet the serious Angori infront him, in which his hand quickly followed. "Well, aint you rough and tough tonight?" Blisdon's voice oozed with a jester-like pride as his face was brightly illuminated with a wide grin while he held out his hand to the angori in greeting.
"I can't say I've put your guts back in your belly and sealed up any of your bleeding wounds yet, Though your face looks familiar enough. I think I remember seeing some of the tougher Hornlings beefing you up with pushups in the past. Whats your name?"
Though at the sight of the Gnome he had only seen in passing once before, The uordeq enthusiastically turned and tilted his head upwards to match the gnomes height upon his Farseer friends shoulders.
"Well hey there buddy, I'd shake your hand too but...well you know." mumbled the naked shaman as he glanced downwards at his only spare hand which held the wreath which seperated him from total frontal nudity.
"The Name is Blisdon, Shaman of the Wild Hunt....Would you like any mushrooms? How about you, Friendly She-elf? I've got plenty of mushrooms for everybody!...I know they're in this wreath somewhere..."
The angori slowly acknowledges the deki's hand and shakes it, "Beefing up... you can say that... and contrary to what many believe, my name is Des..."
Desiderio spots Ohren, in bear form, and his hand subtley grips at his weapon's handle. With a blank stare, teeth clenched with his mouth closed, he angeredly speaks, "I guess you're finished abusing my friend for now?"
Solas smiles slyly at Des, but says nothing. He looks to his huntsman, "Suit yourself," He mutters, slinging the pants back over his shoulder. He puffs a few times on his pipe, staring at the Angori blocking the elf's vision with cold and calculating eyes.
Solas leans down "Because Mr. Dr. Riddles," He begins as the gnome begins to climb onto his shoulders. "Oof, hrgk, Well to be honest I dont really know why he's not wearing pants." He jerks his head to one side, dodging the edge of the wrench. "Hey! Watch the hair, and watch where you're swinging that thing." He says, still puffing his pipe. He wipes a bit of ash from his black vest. He looks up with a bit of surprise.
"By the Immortals, don't eat the mushrooms!" He blurts suddenly, the pipe falling to the ground, spilling ash over his boots. He looks down then back up, grasping the gnomes ankles, and holding him in place. "Don't eat the mushrooms." He repeats. "It's a very... bad. Idea."
"Not really one for mushrooms. I like to keep my mind sane for now, but I appreciate the offer." The woman looked to see a burr waddle up to the group, grinning at his offer to cure her confusion. Realizing the appearance of said burr, it didn't help with confusion, it only made it worse. She immediately reached over and wrapped her arms about the burr's neck before speaking again. "It's a burrrrrr. Awe."
"Well now Mr. Exhibitionist, while I do appreciate the offer" said the gnome, perched on top of the Seer, currently sniffing the seer's hair to try to find his lost crayon. "I must decline. I happen to already be in trouble for tinkering while intoxicated. I can't imagine the harm an il-placed wrench would do under the effects of hallucinogens."
Riddles peers down at Mr. Insightful "I must say, I am sorry about the wrench, I shall avoid ashing your shoes in the future" he says, as he slips the man a corncob pipe filled with orange tobacco.
Gaius, who has been standing there dumbfounded at the entire bizarre situation, finally snaps to when he hears Ohren-bear call his name. He looks puzzled for a moment, the fire on his fists dies out, and he puts his arms down.
"Uh... ya know... I'm not really sure what's going on here Ohren. I just came over here to play with electricity with Riddles and Des, but now there's all these people and I guess I don't get to play anything after all." Gaius notices Riddles on top of Solas finally, and chuckles to himself. He flutters up to just above Riddles' head.
"Wow, you got really tall."
"Are you sniffing my hair?" Solas asks, slightly glancing up. "Oh hello Ohren." He pauses for a moment. "Hair Sniffing, why?" When the pipe is produced in front of him he falls silent. He examines the orange tabacco for a quick second before exclaiming, "It's orange. Why is it Orange, Doctor? Well only one way to find out." He lights up the fresh pipe and inhales the thick smoke into his lungs. "What is this?" He asks the gnome on his shoulders. He offers the pipe back up to him.
Riddles scootches over to Solas' right shoulder, leaving room on the left for Gaius to perch on. He beckon's his buddy over.
Riddles looks down at Solas, and takes the pipe and takes a drag from the pipe.
"Elementary my dear Mr. Insightful, the tobacco is orange because ALL the best tobacco is orange. It truly is very simple." he says, with a fake tone of arrogance. He chuckles.
"No no, but in all seriouslynesses, the tobacco is orange and hairy for a simple reason, the best tobacco really is orange and hairy. The hairs give the tobacco flavor, and the orange comes from the orange zest and the sweet lemongrass flavoring you get, with a hint of ginger in there." the doctor says, choking down another hit before passing the pipe to Solas. A slight haze of greenish purple appears around the pair.
The female elf unwrapped her arms from around the burr before straightening to stand, reaching upwards to scratch at her pointed ears apologetically. Coughing, the woman patted the burr's shoulder before saying, "Sorry, I have a strong like for creatures. My favorite animal happens to be the bear. My name is Nykyrian, nice to meet you...Ohren is it?" Stepping away sheepishly, the girl shifted over to stand next to the group, eyeing the haze of greenish purple with caution. "Odd."
She felt refreshed as he used his healing spell to apparently help her confusion. With a brief nod, the elf grinned in reply. "Thank you very much, Ohren. I really needed that." Hazel eyes trailed across the group in curiosity, realizing that she still had no idea what brought these people to this area besides to jester with nudity and bring about the loss of the woman's eyesight.
The elf's arms crossed in front of her chest, pressing against the black leather vest buttoned up at the front. A narrow chin tilted in the opposite direction as the bear's, a smirk splitting beneath the space beneath the mask as the woman noted him licking his chops. "I'm doing alright, I suppose. How are you, O burly one?"
The young angori, backsteps through the fray of people, and stands on the outer edge of the small congregation, studying the group with a cross look on his face.
The jolly hoot with the odd disposition and apparent tendencies toward wardrobe malfunctions.
The overly curious wee one flailing his tools about with little to no regard for others.
The fae... who he actually has no qualms with, but that is probably what makes him so annoying.
The elf with the odd fascination of wildlife.
The blind seer who isn't blind.
And the oafish shapeshifter who seems to always be there, soaking up thunder more than his blade can dish it out.
Without a sound, and a hateful grimmace, Des uses the time that no one is paying attention and the darkness of the night to hide in plain sight, stealing away to a more secluded area to be left to his thoughts.
Ohren chuckles and swats her shoulder with a big paw.
"Erts er ker Nerkerern. Er ternk erm gering ter ger berk ter mer hert ernd slerp. Er merber er sherd ger ter der terbern ernd gert serm ferd... Erder wer... Erll ser yer erernd."
The large bear falls back down onto all fours and begins to pad off in the direction of the Crimson Quarter.
The gnome looks around, suddenly aware of all the people leaving. He turns his head in all directions, looking for the Angori, and sees nothing but the behind of the bear walking away.
"AHH! Where y'all going?" he says, flailing his wrench around again, this time losing his balance and falling off the calm seer's shoulders. Apparently the greenish purple haze had been affecting him a bit strongly.
The silhouettes of a gnome and a fairy can be seen easily in the distance, despite the fog. An onlooker may have seen the gnome give a sweeping bow to the fairy, and then be able to watch the pair walk away from the tavern, a slight skip in the gnome's step. The pair draw closer, and the gnome stops, his rickety cart hobbling to a stop behind him.
"By the Immortals Gaius, did you see that?" the gnome, interrupted mid-sentence spurts out, seeing a glowing blade in the distance. "Ahh, I think I know that fellow, the tall one, yes yes yes. I am not quite sure if all my cogs are in place, but I do believe that is Mr. Intimidating, do you agree Mr. Dazzling?" the gnome says, with a turn to his friend, remarking on the large outline of the angori in the distance.