Renard's rapid expression change startles Maras, who instinctively takes a step back.
"Wha-? I was just... thinking about things, y'know? I mean, I can't tell if you do, but I for one think."
Lyudmila chuckles at Chisille's lack of knowledge on the subject. She thought that a dragon of all things would know what lunch is.
"Lunch is a meal. In other words, food. People eat meals generally trice a day. Breakfast in the Morning, when it's becoming light, Lunch around Noon, when the sun is at it's highest point, and Dinner in the evening, when it is getting darker again."
"So in other words. I am suggesting we go look for food. How's that sound?
Chisille nods in realization when Lyudmila explains what lunch is all about, and realizes she was subjected to 'breakfast' as well. She thought it was strange that humans had decided to give names to when they eat food.
"But why wait to eat at... only three times? Why not when hungry? Why only at those times? More questions I ask, more I need to ask later..." she sighs and goes to sit down to help her in her bewilderment, then quickly stops as her underside touches snow again. The word 'food' resonated through her mind though, and at that her nose started to do it's job again.
"Ok... let's find food."
Gwendolyn nods agreeably, using her front teeth to tear a butterfly's body away from its wings.
Vernon is entertained by the prospect of crossing the river.
"Good day for a swim." He jests with the group, and turns to them, placing one hand on Ki's shoulder for comfort. "Is anyone here unable to swim? If so, stay on the banks, the rest of us will return shortly." He looks at Ki; "Climb up on my back, you may be able to swim but I don't want to take any chances with your life." The weapons on his back were padded and sheathed, and therefor would present no danger to the girl.
Vernon is a strong swimmer, and Ki jumps on his back, clutching tight with her legs and arms as Vernon makes his way to the island. The water is cold, very, and the effort is great with the extra weight of Ki, but once there he awaits the others before knocking firmly on the door of the house.
Ace watches Vernon plunge into the river. They close their eyes with a quiet sigh.
For a minute, nothing happens. They tug lightly on the edge of their hood.
Pillars of stone swing out from the water, setting themselves like square stepping stones in the water. As the last one falls still, they start to hop across them. They quickly outpace Vernon, who has to swim.
"Well alrighty then!" Betty takes the lead, feeling relatively good about given the role as leader, even if she didn't think it was going last very gosh darn long. She gives her leg a pat as she starts walking East around the plateau, and tells her little dragon friend to stay close. The only problem was (and something she preferred to keep to herself at that time) was that Betty sometimes got a little stressed out when given responsibility. Now I'm not sayn that leading this small gang of people was a big issue, but she just didn't want to let anybody down, simple as that - I mean like gosh, what if she leads them into the jaws of a monster or something like? That sort of thing wouldn't be a good start at all. So Betty tried taking her mind off the stress she was feeling by thinking about butterflies, and why not Butterflies? Butterflies were nice and pretty and made Betty feel relaxed.
"Butterflies-butterflies-butterflies!" She explained just out of the blue, but feeling much better about everything. Unfortunately, just as she spoke the words, a dark shadow came over the gang, making Betty think that maybe it was gonna start snowing again, that was until she turned around and saw a countless multitude of harmless orange Butterflies following them.
"Oh boy o boy," She said looking ahead sharply again, "best you guys don't look back right now."
Chisille, who was not the kind of dragon that would take advice such as not looking at a dark shadow behind them, especially when the one who gives the advice sounds nervous, turns around to look at what Betty was suddenly so worried about. To her surprise she saw thousands of tiny orange wings flapping in the sky above them like one great big dance.
At first she was quite alarmed by what she saw and a spark threatened to roll off her tongue, until she realized that all the little creatures in the cloud above them were merely butterflies. Harmless and slow. Not even worth the bit of food that was smaller then a snack from that one time she had managed to catch one. "It's fine. Not bad. Butterflies I think they're called. Lots of them." she tells Lyudmila and to a certain extent, Gwendolyn as well.
Her feet were starting to get quite cold from all this walking around in the snow, but without shoes like what the humans had she just had to bare the icy needles trying to dig into her paws as they all walked around the plateau. To try and take her mind of it, she got back to looking up at the rock wall, checking for any crevices, holes or other possible ways up. She couldn't keep the distraction up for long as she shook the cold out of one of her feet, but she still kept looking anyway.
Gwen twitches, turning her head towards the swarm of butterflies on instinct. For a few seconds, she stares at them, unsure of what to say.
Finally, she decides. "Do you think these would kill me if I ate them?"
Vernon is beginning to feel something towards Ki, as one might feel towards a baby sister. He places one hand on her head with a gentle caress when she speaks to the others, moves his hand to her shoulder as they exit the tomb together. Still, his growing emotional attachment to Ki was not necessarily a thing of comfort, for the closer he became to the girl the harder it would be if he happened to fail at his task to protect her. He had already lost far too much to this towns curse.
"As you wish." He speaks to the group. "Come if you're coming. There's no time to waste."
Heading back toward town, he explains to those with him the basic objective of the plan at hand: First of all, keeping Ki safe until they arrive at the castle, though he admits that responsibility to fall squarely on his own shoulders. The other objective seemed basic enough, though the details were vague at best; To obtain the three keys that would ultimately grant them access to the summit of the plateau, the castle grounds. One key had already been found, pried from the dead hands of the towns previous Mayer, leaving two more - one of which is said to be in the possession of a young witch, the other in the possession of somebody living underground.
Curi followed Vernon. Finally she spoke up. "Somebody living underground...young witch...where do you think they hang out?." she asked him.
-some others, I guess-
Ace's shield vanishes, leaving six points of light hovering around them. These dart into their outstretched hand, and they snappily shut their fingers around them, tucking them somewhere under their cloak. They choose to follow Vernon back to town, though they remain silent.
Uyir raised his shield and crouched down slightly, so he better covers himself with his protective shield, and then noticed the girl behind Vernon. Likely not Annie, and they did not seem to be a father and daughter. So he unsheathed his sword with his other hand, and drops it on the ground. "Patience Ace, if you would please, I do not believe he wishes us harm, although I do think he would try and kill us if we attacked him. As for our business, we're merely wandering around the town, staying together to have a better chance against any hostile entities. I at least, and I presume the rest of us, came here to prevent whatever is here, and causing such supernatural things to happen, from spreading across the world. Based on what I have seen so far, the quarantine doesn't seem to be working so well, nor would it hold back a hostile entity that I have encountered"
They lower their hand, tucking it under their cloak. After a second, the trembling stops. They don't drop the shield, though. "Quarantine?" they say, quietly. "Ah, that would explain it."
Ace flicks their wrist, tossing a handful of glowing objects into the air around them. As they orbit them, they glow, projecting a hexagonal tube of light around them that stretches to both floor and ceiling.
"Why don't you state yours?" Their tone is pompous, but their voice is cold. The walls on either side of Vernon start to shudder. "And lower those crossbows, unless you would like to learn what it is like to lack a third dimension."
Uyir looks at the hooded figure distrustfully. He didn't trust those who kept even the most basic of information of themselves, such as their appearance, private. However... assistance in dealing with the little girl would prove helpful, so he decided to give the figure the information he is aware of "I honestly have no idea where she is, but a large man known as Boris was the last person I know of who saw her. He should be near the center of town if you want to find him"
Ace flinches as they glance at the figure. They slightly lift one of their hands, which is clenched into a fist.
Chisille slides down off the rocky platform and back onto the snowy ground. She looks over to Gwendolyn and the little bird she has with her, taking a step forward and then another. She sniffed the air where she stood, taking in her scent so she could identify her later. She certainly had that smell of bird about her too.
Once that was done, she supposed she could just try to ignore her for now. Maybe get to know her later on if she proves to be like Betty. There was certainly a pattern that she was making out. The female humans were far more... gentle looking and less prone to scare her off. They usually just screamed and ran when they saw her. Or cowered in terror and begged for their life before their men came along to throw a kitchen knife at her.
She kept close to the rocky plateau wall and started to walk along it. As long as it was there one side of her was protected and she felt far better about moving about like this. Her tail wobbled a bit to the left and to the right as she made her way through the snow. Shorter legs meant harder movement through it...
As the grey dragon before her approaches, Gwendolyn can detect all sorts of magic radiating from her. Some of them feel far stronger then the others, those of which are barely noticeable but nevertheless there, hidden away within her. Before Gwen can comment on it though, the dragon turns away and starts walking beside the cliff of the plateau.
Gwen waves hesitantly at Betty as she walks forward to look at the cliff. She attempts to scratch her forearm under one of her gloves as she glances it over before stepping back to look up to the top. "I could try to help," she says. "It's not like I have anything better to do."
After a while of walking, Chisille, Betty and Lyudmila arrive at the base of the plateau, the almost vertical cliff towering above them. Lyudmila looks around a bit when she spots Gwendolyn.
"Oh, hello!
Chisille walks on over right up to the border of the plateau and jumps up onto a low platform of rock, flapping her wings to give herself some extra lift to get up more easily. Looking right up at the steep hard rocks before her, she could plainly see that there was no way she was going to be able to get all the way up there. Even if she got lucky and found several spots she could grab onto on the way up, parkour style.
"No good here. Need to search around big rock. Might be safe way up elsewhere." she tells the others before her ears picked up Lyudmila greeting someone. She spun around on her little platform causing her spiked tail to tap the rock wall, and saw the girl who was sleeping from before. She looked much less of a threat then the others. That and she didn't want to start fleeing once more and force her group to have to find her again. Instead she opted to shut her trap and watch the conversation unfold.
Gwen gives Lyudmila a quizzical expression, mirrored by the bird in her hair. "Hello," she says, eyes flickering towards the tiny dragon standing by the cliff. She decides not to mention it.
Uyir chuckles. "If you wish to, you may. I am Uyir, the woman is Curi, the one with the swords is Jord, and Boris already introduced himself. If I may, who are you?" He bows formally to the person as he asks, the hand not holding his shield across his chest
They blink at him, clicking their tongue. "You may call me Ace," they say. "I... do not feel comfortable revealing my true name, so a pseudonym will have to suffice."
Curi follows Uyir. She doesn't care about the person.
As Uyir speaks, their eyes rove over the other members of his group. They frown under the shadow of their hood, fixing Curi with a calculating gaze.
Uyir finishes speaking. "Hm?" they say. "Unfortunate." Their eyes flick suspiciously towards Curi for a moment before turning back to Uyir. "Then may I join you? You look like travelers."
Uyir watches the person pass them silently, helmet turning as he follows their movement, wondering why they seem to be this aloof and uninterested, before returning to walking back into town, whistling a cheery tune
They stop, turning towards him. "Excuse me," they say. "Do you know of a place where I could stay the night?"
Boris stomps up to the person and comes to a sudden halt when he hears their voice, it wasn't the same as the bad girls voice.
"Hey" he said in a much lower tone that eases further while he's talking; "You not the bad girl. You someone else." He takes one step back, realizing that he was probably intimidating, since he usually has that affect on people.
"I... my name is Boris." He tells them. "Pardon my manners if I frightened you at all. But there be bad girl on the loose. I thought you might have been her...."
They blink at Boris, clearly confused. Personally, they decide, they're distinctly more worried about Boris being on the loose. Their stance doesn't relax.
"Pardon, then," they say, walking around Boris and towards the others. They don't walk within his reach.
As the group move on to the edge of the cemetery, Boris is busy goggling Curi, still feeling suspicious of her motives, when he spots something moving along the edge of the road beyond the grave stones. He stops to have a better look and makes out a person huddled in a brown cloak and walking with purpose towards the church.
"Hey guys!" He speaks up to grab the attention of his three companions. "Who is that over there? That might be her - the bad girl!" Boris grimaces and grumbles under his breath. "Maybe I kill her properly this time!"
Boris then heads towards the person hidden in the brown cloak with long heavy strides, calling after them in a loud and menacing voice - "Hey, you there! You come show your face to Boris!"
The person turns around to stare at Boris. Noticeably, they tuck one of their hands under their cloak.
"I don't see why I should," they say, frostily. Their voice has a hint of an accent. No hope of asking him for directions, they decide. He's clearly itching for a fight.
A figure walks through town, their boots stirring up tiny clouds of dust. Their dark eyes flash as they glance back and forth from within the shadows of the hood of their ratty, brown traveler's cloak.
As they march towards the center of town, they slowly draw their cloak tighter around them to ward off the strange chill. But they continue to walk.
"I'm sorry, I don't even know what I'm thinking right now. I'm just so worried about my little friend and at the same utterly enraged by those two buffoons back there," Betty rants as she takes the lead. "I just can't for the life of me believe just how dumb those two guys are, scaring a little innocent creature like that. They ought to get their gosh darn heads examined, and to think I actually thought one of them was cute - like what the hell is even wrong with me?"
She leads on, continuing to rant about one thing or another and following the broken path of dragon prints through the snow. Eventually the tracks lead them to a house, which they search for a little while before finding out that the tracks started up again on the other side of the house. They continue following trail until at it comes to an end at the base of a tree, where they find Chisille nestled in the upper branches frightened out of her mind.
"It's okay, my little sweetie!" Betty calls up to her. "That Ariel guy was only joking, there ain't no one coming after you with no gosh darn pitch forks. You know I wouldn't let anyone hurt a scale on your pretty little head. So you just come on down here this instant, young lady, because if you think I'm gonna let you walk around this town all on your own then you have another thing coming. Now come on down now, or I'm just gonna keep talking until you do. and don't you worry about this witch either, she's a nice witch and alright in my books, and she even tied up those two other fools and set me free so I could find you."
Betty puts her hands smartly on her hips and stares affectionately up at her friend.
Finally she saw something approaching her from the top of the tree she was in. As she watched them get closer she identified the first one she saw as... Betty! The only thing one that she was actually glad to see come. The only other human that had come along with her was that witch Lyudmila right behind her as they walked through the snow, following the rushed footprints that she had left behind.
Betty started to talk to her, implying that the guy who had called her out was merely joking around with his threats.She would've liked to tell that mean guy exactly what she thought of his joke, though the consequences of that action would not go down well... for either her or Ariel, depending on which person throws the first attack.
Thankfully as Betty continued to discipline her from below, no others appeared to have followed the pair. Great. She was free to get down from this tree without those others gawking at her for who she was or implying more death threats on her.
Chisille spread her leathery grey wings out and crawled to the end of the branch she was on. She took a leap off of it, causing the branch itself to spring back and wobble unsteadily as she soared through the air, spiraling around the tree as she slowly descended from it's height. Once she was close enough to the ground, she put on the metaphorical brakes and came to a sudden stop mid-air, landing on the fresh snow a few meters away from Betty and Lyudmila. "Sorry..." she muttered in apology for running away as she slowly walked the rest of the distance towards them, stopping halfway between where she was and where they were standing.
"Well, good thing we found you. Shall we continue with our original plan and try to find a way into the castle?"
Gwendolyn sits up, blinking the sand out of her eyes. The bird in her arms flutters as she moves, shifting itself onto the top of her head as she blearily looks around. Glancing at the ground below her, she scoots forward, dropping into a crouch as she hits the ground.
She turns her eyes back at the ground, staring, perplexed, at the many footprints at her feet. After a moment, she moves, following them to wherever they may lead.
Where would they get an Iron Golem from? They don't seem to have one and I doubt they could find enough iron save for ripping you off. And I assume you would notice.
1
Gwendolyn nods agreeably, using her front teeth to tear a butterfly's body away from its wings.
Ace watches Vernon plunge into the river. They close their eyes with a quiet sigh.
For a minute, nothing happens. They tug lightly on the edge of their hood.
Pillars of stone swing out from the water, setting themselves like square stepping stones in the water. As the last one falls still, they start to hop across them. They quickly outpace Vernon, who has to swim.
1
Gwen twitches, turning her head towards the swarm of butterflies on instinct. For a few seconds, she stares at them, unsure of what to say.
Finally, she decides. "Do you think these would kill me if I ate them?"
0
Ace's shield vanishes, leaving six points of light hovering around them. These dart into their outstretched hand, and they snappily shut their fingers around them, tucking them somewhere under their cloak. They choose to follow Vernon back to town, though they remain silent.
0
They lower their hand, tucking it under their cloak. After a second, the trembling stops. They don't drop the shield, though. "Quarantine?" they say, quietly. "Ah, that would explain it."
0
Ace flicks their wrist, tossing a handful of glowing objects into the air around them. As they orbit them, they glow, projecting a hexagonal tube of light around them that stretches to both floor and ceiling.
"Why don't you state yours?" Their tone is pompous, but their voice is cold. The walls on either side of Vernon start to shudder. "And lower those crossbows, unless you would like to learn what it is like to lack a third dimension."
0
Ace flinches as they glance at the figure. They slightly lift one of their hands, which is clenched into a fist.
0
Gwen waves hesitantly at Betty as she walks forward to look at the cliff. She attempts to scratch her forearm under one of her gloves as she glances it over before stepping back to look up to the top. "I could try to help," she says. "It's not like I have anything better to do."
0
Gwen gives Lyudmila a quizzical expression, mirrored by the bird in her hair. "Hello," she says, eyes flickering towards the tiny dragon standing by the cliff. She decides not to mention it.
0
They blink at him, clicking their tongue. "You may call me Ace," they say. "I... do not feel comfortable revealing my true name, so a pseudonym will have to suffice."
0
As Uyir speaks, their eyes rove over the other members of his group. They frown under the shadow of their hood, fixing Curi with a calculating gaze.
Uyir finishes speaking. "Hm?" they say. "Unfortunate." Their eyes flick suspiciously towards Curi for a moment before turning back to Uyir. "Then may I join you? You look like travelers."
0
They stop, turning towards him. "Excuse me," they say. "Do you know of a place where I could stay the night?"
0
They blink at Boris, clearly confused. Personally, they decide, they're distinctly more worried about Boris being on the loose. Their stance doesn't relax.
"Pardon, then," they say, walking around Boris and towards the others. They don't walk within his reach.
0
The person turns around to stare at Boris. Noticeably, they tuck one of their hands under their cloak.
"I don't see why I should," they say, frostily. Their voice has a hint of an accent. No hope of asking him for directions, they decide. He's clearly itching for a fight.
0
A figure walks through town, their boots stirring up tiny clouds of dust. Their dark eyes flash as they glance back and forth from within the shadows of the hood of their ratty, brown traveler's cloak.
As they march towards the center of town, they slowly draw their cloak tighter around them to ward off the strange chill. But they continue to walk.
0
Gwendolyn sits up, blinking the sand out of her eyes. The bird in her arms flutters as she moves, shifting itself onto the top of her head as she blearily looks around. Glancing at the ground below her, she scoots forward, dropping into a crouch as she hits the ground.
She turns her eyes back at the ground, staring, perplexed, at the many footprints at her feet. After a moment, she moves, following them to wherever they may lead.