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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Aug 29, 2016 19:01:46 GMT -6
"Let's just say I'm not mom of the year material." Calming down a bit after her near heart attack experience, Nayru lobbed back a lame, self-effacing joke that betrayed a little of her mindset but not the vastness of it. She had certainly... thought of trying to do it before, but it had never been much of a concern. Dealing with her life, her sin, was enough of a challenge of its own; she didn't need to visit those same tribulations on a child. It would be far kinder to any unborn children to let her bloodline end with her... and it wasn't like there were a huge number of hunky dragons everywhere just waiting to sweep her off her feet. Oh god. Nayru almost vomited a little inside her mouth at the thought of that.
All in all she was actually quite grateful to Mana for changing the subject to tales of horror and agony. It was a nice change of pace from baby poop, as far as the dragon was concerned, though she was wise enough to keep those thoughts private. The hunter becoming the hunted, huh? Aside from giving Nayru some misgivings about nay kind of food or game that Mana could hunt, it was pretty reasonable overall. The strange creature had been incredibly powerful and possessed esoteric abilities that no normal swordsman could prepare for; while not exactly about to admit it, Nayru hadn't been entirely sanguine about her chances either. At least not without transforming, though that came with its own barrel of worms.
"Well, it takes courage to go after something like that knowingly." Smiling a little more warmly at her temporary companion, Nayru leaned up against the wall, not entirely sold yet on the idea of sitting next to a sword-swinging lunatic but definitely warming up to Mana a lot more than she had been when the girl broke into the room a few minutes ago. "I was just passing by when I sensed something amiss and came to investigate. I had no idea what I was getting into." She chuckled in the wake of her words, the sheer understatement a monument to how unexpected the chain of events really had been. But she had NEVER seen anything like that before, so it definitely aroused her curiosity. "Hey, Mana, have you ever heard of creatures like that before? I've never seen a monster... or man like that. I thought at first it might just be an exceptionally powerful magic weapon, but his whole body had changed."
Or had his body always been like that? She hadn't really gotten a good look with all the shifting shadows and dark magic being thrown around, so the dragon was a little fuzzy on if the warrior had been a natural existence, or perhaps simply something like a man driven mad by dark magic or consumed by an especially evil sword.
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Post by Mana on Sept 4, 2016 12:54:23 GMT -6
Mana had to disagree with Nayru. Just by looking at the baby she could tell that the older woman had taken care of him carefully despite her reluctance. Putting the thought aside, choosing not to bring it up again and sending Nayru to madness, Mana gave the thunder lady a meaningful look. She then shrugged and nodded in approval although she didn't really buy that Nayru wouldn't be a good mother.
"Courage huh?" Mana never really thought about that. Had she felt scared when hunting the dark monster? Of course. Although Mana wasn't sure if she was more scared of losing her life or failing in her quest. The Sacaen held her own life dear but she often had tendency to risk it easily. Whether it came from her confidence or her recklessness was something that she couldn't answer confidently. Well, Mana was quite courageous and rarely gave up to her fear. It was the girl herself that decided to pursue the demon after listening to Falcatta spirits that the creature brought great danger to living beings. "I guess so. Although I must admit that I also wanted a rematch when I went to hunt him. Well, you know...we had a unfinished fight before," she said.
"I am not quite sure but I can tell that his power come from the darkness itself. Nether...some people call it Nether. He appeared suddenly when the battle in the City of Heroes was reaching its climax. I was there by chance and I decided to fight him after he mercilessly killed everyone in his path. Falcatta urged me to go well so I did it." Mana looked up as she talked about the huge battle. The demon appearance might be just a small part compared to the great battle between Hargus and the brave warriors but he clearly had done great damage and taken many lives. It was something Mana couldn't ignore. "But you are half right about the magic weapon. The man himself was a victim...a host for powerful nether spirit within the sword. That's what Falcatta told me, by the way," she ended the explanation with patting the sword in her waist.
"I talked to some people who might know about it and then I learned that the evil entity is called Arum. Not sure what it means but..." She paused. The wound in her back ached when she remembered how the blade had slashed her exposed back. The terror and pain from that time wouldn't be easily forgotten. "...It's very strong. The evil probably grants its host great power...something like that. Anyway, I will have to find someone who can tell me what that being really is. My intuition tells me that he should be stopped." Mana sounded serious. Her eyes showed her determination in continuing this difficult and dangerous quest.
"But before that...I will go to train and become better. Losing badly against the demon once has taught me that my power is still lacking against such strong enemy." While her defeat was mostly because of the demon's cunning ploy, without disregarding that he was deadly powerful, Mana had decided that her current self wouldn't survive the second encounter. The girl needed to become stronger first.
"Do you possibly know something about Arum? I myself don't know much about it and well...umm...I didn't bother to listen to the shaman's full explanation about Arum. Yeah, I was foolishly impatient that time," Mana said. Geez...Nayru wouldn't tease her for her foolishness, right?
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Sept 15, 2016 15:52:07 GMT -6
"...Arum, huh?" Nayru straightened up a bit at the mention of the name, especially in the wake of Mana's explanation. In truth, she didn't know nearly as much as she should about the subject... but what she did know was universally bad, like, super bad news bears. Ultra mega turbo Arum fighter 2 edition bad. Aerious had mentioned their return as well, and while she ah, didn't necessarily take everything he had said at face value - whether she liked it or not, she had to admit he often knew what he was talking about, even if they sometimes drew very different conclusions.
Though she had never heard of Arum possessing people, and wasn't sure if that was even a thing that happened. Nayru didn't like not knowing things. "The Arum are a race of beings from the Nether, born from and molded by it. They've attacked Elibe before," she said, having read it in a book and therefore absolutely qualified as an expert on the subject, "But they were defeated and exterminated, or... something. I'm not sure. It was a LONG time ago, way beyond any human or dragon's life supposedly, and the Scouring destroyed so much information about the distant past that it's hard to really confirm those kinds of stories. They're definitely bad news though, and while I knew they were returning, I didn't realize it was such an... immediate problem haha."
"I've never heard about them possessing people though. That's, uh, kind of worrying." Should she be carrying anti-Arum amulets or something? The dragoness wasn't even sure how you'd stop something like that. Maybe you didn't. Maybe it was just a willpower thing, and the possessed guy had just been a total chickenshit... which would actually make sense given how he ran like a pussy when challenged. Mana seemed pretty fired up about it though, that was for damn sure. Both as a warrior and as a hero. It was a bit impressive to be honest. Nayru wasn't totally emotionless or uncaring of Elibe or anything, but she still struggled to make the connection of her actually being a part of Elibe... probably because 90% of the continent would want her dead if they knew what she was. Did help give a certain level of detachedness. Mana though, even after getting crushed by the guy, still wanted to fight him both out of honor and duty.
All jokes about Sacaens aside, that was a lot of why Nayru tended to like them... and probably part of why she got along with Veigue so well. There was just something about trustworthy, honorable people that she couldn't dislike, even if some of them were stuck so far up their own asses that daylight was but a distant memory. It was a sort of refreshing simplicity in a world with way too many complications. Funny that a year ago she would have looked down on Mana for wanting to fight though, given that now she actually COULD understand the thought - and empathize with Mana a bit in that regard as a result. Amazing what a little character development could do for a girl.
"...So what's the deal with your sword, anyways?" Yup, that was 'damn the ballistas, full speed ahead' Nayru in action, with all the subtlety of a bull elephant and none of the guile. She nodded at the weapon, not particularly excited to get any closer to it than necessary. She still wasn't sure if it was her lack of preparation or if the sword had actually cut through her that easily, and didn't really want to find out. "When you said it talked to you, was that like, a metaphor, or do you actually have conversations with your sword?" Yeah... living for a long time didn't mean you were smart unfortunately, or knew everything, and Nayru hadn't really paid much attention to human weapons development - magic weapons or magic itself - so it was still a bit of a learning experience for her. Remus was definitely helping with healing magic, but in the wise of magic weapons, her only real experience with them had been the fortress in Sacae and Veigue's sword... which was her creation, actually, kinda sorta. How many people could say they had dragon lightning swords, right?
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Post by Mana on Sept 18, 2016 14:19:12 GMT -6
Nayru explained much better than those shamans. At least she explained in simpler words and kept it short but informative so Mana's head wouldn't explode. Listening to the explanation with great curiosity, Mana seemed surprised when Nayru mentioned about how long the Arum had actually exist. Seriously...before the era human and dragon? Wow, that was too far away in the past. Hust how ancient those creatures could be? Mana let out a small chuckle as she agreed with Nayru's opinion. "Anyone should worry! As for myself, I can't imagine I will become corrupted and change into a red-eyed big black demon haha..." Mana seemed to have been convinced that any creature possessed by this Arum would look like Nega Burt. Red eyes and charcoal-black skin with some...fangs? Wait, did he have fangs? Anyway, getting turned into one of those Arum creatures was a bad idea so the girl swore she would kill herself if it were to happen.
Mana felt easier to connect with Nayru now because the dragoness had opened up a bit to her. At least now she laughed and stopped looking angry or terrified. They probably had gone past the blade incident, right? Hopefully yes.... Strange how a baby and a evil monster could arrange a meeting between these two. It connected them who came from very different background and led very different life. Maybe she should try strike someone next time and see if it would start a nice friendship.
"You might not believe but I truly have a conversation with Falcatta. Not the blade, but the spirit within it. See...this sword has magical nature. I know little about its history but it is a sacred sword that Kenshin wielded in the Bandit War. The spirit residing in this sword is...different from the others." Mana explained. To be honest, she could understand why Nayru didn't buy her earlier explanation about talking to the sword. Many spirits had been sealed and tied to magic weapons but none had actually "talked" with voices and proper words to the wielders. Mostly talking with magic weapon was only through sensation and perception but Falcatta seemed to possess higher and stronger spirit than most. "I was surprised too at first. The spirit talked to me a few days after I got the sword. I have also learned that I am the only one who can hear the voice. And do you know what the best part is? It also grants be ability to converse with all kind of spirits and sense them." Mana seemed excited when she spoke. She was always like this everytime she told someone about Falcatta. So excited the girl was, she failed to notice that she moved excitedly which seemed to disturb the baby in her arms. If she wouldn't stop then Nayru would have to face her greatest archenemy once again soon.
"By the way that reminds me...why I can feel that..." Mana paused, tilting her head, as she stared at Nayru curiously. "Why I can feel a spirit residing within you? No, it's incorrect. It's more like....I can feel a spirit staying near you?" The Sacaen girl looked confused. She was sensing the spirit within Nayru's dragonstone but she hadn't been aware about it.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Sept 18, 2016 15:05:15 GMT -6
"Eh, I'm sure you could rock the look pretty well. Sort of a femme fatale, dark and sexy angle, yeah?" If only Nayru knew then what the events of the chimera fight in Bern and her further growth on the island would bring aesthetically to her own transformation, she might not have joked about it so easily... or maybe she would have. At least then they'd have similar looks. "Besides, guys dig bad girls, right?" The dragoness giggled, her maturity severely in question - much as her sanity, given that literally never in her life had she actually been interested in a guy or even really thought about it. But it was so much FUN to tease people a bit that she couldn't help herself.
It was Lynessa's fault, really, monster that she was. Couldn't just leave an innocent maiden alone.
She listened attentively to Mana's explanation, her earlier rancor forgotten. Par for the course for Nayru; she felt strongly, but since she had learned how to express her emotions somewhat, rarely the same for long. Wasn't really much of an improvement in control, but at least now she could be angry without turning into an overgrown lizard and eating people, so... it was something. Admittedly Nayru was a bit out of date on magic weapons, but this Falcatta thing sounded pretty special to her at least. She'd heard of Kenshin of course, but never met him or seen his weapon before. "That's pretty cool though. I've never been able to get more than a vague sense of... something out of a magic weapon before, but I know a guy who has a sword that he managed to talk to once."
Ah yes, Veigue and his little... spirit battle thing while unconscious. Using a sword that was, technically, powered by dragon lightning. Nayru suspected she had been severely drunk the day she thought up THAT little scheme, but whatever, it seemed to have worked pretty well to get Kenji juiced up, and Veigue seemed pretty happy about it. "I thought talking to spirits was more of a mage thing, though. Or at least some mages. I dunno. Hell of a sword to let you do it too, huh?"
It didn't take long for Mana's little side comment to kill the mood more effectively than an executioner's axe though, and while she didn't blurt out a hasty response, there was a definite cageyness that crept into her manner in its wake. She liked Mana well enough, but 'oh yeah I'm a dragon lol' wasn't really a good conversation starter at the best of times, and she had no way of knowing what Mana would do with the information, or what her actual experience with dragons was. "Oh, I, uh, use lightning magic," she technically did not lie, though it was about the least complete or accurate answer in the history of half-truths. And it wouldn't be hard to unravel if Mana pushed, either. But she had been put on the spot and just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
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Post by Mana on Sept 19, 2016 13:18:38 GMT -6
Mana was far less experienced than Nayru in this topic. Boys like bad girls? Did Wyatt like bad girls too? Mana lost in thought. She ws imagining what kind of "bad" Wyatt would like in a girl. A bully? A selfish girl? Or perhaps a man-eating succubus? No no...that was incredibly silly. Dang it. Nayru was far more dangerous than she looked. Simply a few words and she had put a corrupting mind-control into Mana's head. One certain thing about the Sacaen swordgirl was that she could be very naive for most of times. She couldn't stop herself from blushing when she thought about Wyatt. Mana had very little experience in love and had fallen in love only twice in her eighteen years of life...and those guys were Yaen and Wyatt, which both hadn't shown any progress with their romances at all.
The way Nayru spoke, she seemed to know a few things about spirits or at least had some direct experience with magical spirits. Mana shrugged and looked up at the dragoness. "Oh you don't know that....It freaked me out when Falcatta spoke to me for the first time. Trust me...I almost thought it was a ghost." When Mana finished the sentence she felt some kind of energy jolt out of the sword and go through her body. It wasn't painful but it caused a shock. Maybe Falcatta didn't like being compared to ghosts? "Anyway, I have ended up enjoying it. It opened up my eyes...not literally...I mean it made me realize that there's more than just us in this world. I can hear the voices of the trees, the fire, and the wind. It feels great..." Mana skipped the part that she was probably chosen to do something important. Some kind of fate and whatever things. Kenshin had explained to the girl but unfortunately she forgot most of the explanation.
It wasn't difficult to fool Mana. After Nayru made that not very convincing explanation, Mana looked at the dragoness in awe. "Wow! You can use magic??? That's unbelievable! I never meet a mage who also have strong arms and good with weapons. Wow...I have mistaken your sickles as magic weapons!!" she said. Nayru might not like her kamas being called as sickles but she really had to forgive Mana this time, the girl simply didn't know what those exotic weapons were called. Anywya, the Sacaen admired Nayru instantly, just like how she always attracted to strong people.
"I can't use lightning magic but I have a sword with lightning magic inside. Pretty cool, huh? Haha.... Of course I can't make a strong lightning like that thunder dragon I fought in Bern but I can let out enough power to shock a few people," Mana said excitedly. The topic about lighting dragon came unintentionally. Mana herself already forgot that she had mentioned it. "Talking about lightning dragon... I should really find another one and fight it. The last time I could do nothing..." she said, sighing. That was unintentional, really.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Sept 19, 2016 15:06:41 GMT -6
Fortunately(?) for Mana, the dragon wasn't exactly a great deal more experienced than her on the subject, arguably less so in fact, so there wasn't much chance of her trying to rub it in... though she did notice the sword maiden's maidenly reaction and filed it away for future use. Just in case. It didn't hurt to have a silver weapon for use in the future. Figuratively speaking of course, she already had a pair of silver - anyways. Mana's story was interesting, it DID seem like a talking sword would be pretty weird. "Magic weapons are fascinating, aren't they? Living magic... figuratively and literally. I wonder if they're all intelligent but only a few can communicate, or if it's just a rare few that are sentient?"
For whatever reason, she hadn't been able to figure out how to use one. It just felt... wrong. The magic didn't work with hers. Which was annoying - obviously Nayru had a certain fondness for lightning, but it would've been cool to crap out huge plumes of icy death or fiery damnation or... actually no that sounded really painful and likely to get her sent to see a doctor for severe 'my butt is flaming' syndrome. Anyways, point is, mixing magic was cool but as far as she could tell, not a thing that dragons did. Maybe a manakete thing? They seemed to be few and far between though, she hadn't really met many yet. Something else to the list of things to research. Now she just needed to casually bum a legendary weapon off of someone, maybe Athos would be cool with sharing Forblaze for a while, and see if she could use it. What could go wrong, right?
Part of her felt really bad for misleading Mana - it wasn't LYING, technically, but that was necessary because Nayru sucked donkey ass at actually lying and the only way she could ever fool anyone about anything was a combination of half-truths and lying by omission. The other part was really grateful that Mana was a pure girl who didn't think too much about things that she didn't need to.
Aaaaand she liked fighting dragons.
Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to visit you again.
"Ah... Marcus in the Bernese arena, right?" It was pointless to even try to hide her discomfort with the subject, written in Nayru's tone as much as her guarded stance, and as a result she didn't even notice namedropping her erstwhile former friend's name. "I wasn't there, but I've heard of it. I take it you fought him?" If Mana hadn't mentioned that she didn't do much, Nayru might have been a lot more aggressively unpleasant - she didn't really care for the idea of saving his killer - but it sounded like the Sacaen girl had just been there. And she was curious.
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Post by Mana on Sept 25, 2016 13:18:01 GMT -6
Mana looked up and started thinking, definitely not something she did often, about what Nayru had said. Sentient? The concept about sentient weapons made her confused. Was those weapons alive or simply inhabited by a spirit? Well, she only knew that magic weapon were created by binding a spirit into an object. This was an interesting topic but Nayru simply had wrong discussion partner. She would probably get more interesting and useful feedback if the thunder lady discussed it with a mage or a certain ice dragon...if only the conversation didn't change into a topic about marriage and love which Nayru would probably commit suicide rather than suffering from it.
"I am not sure but...a weapon or any object with a spirit inside it can speak. Not all of them though, some choose to stay quiet. It's said that a spirit in the weapon usually will "speak" only to its master and it's quite different from a normal conversation. They don't use words. They don't speak Basic. That's all I know..." Mana said, shrugging. The girl wouldn't claim herself a master in this subject but she wasn't afraid to share some of her knowledge and personal experience. Although Mana possesed this ability to talk with spirits only after she had inherited Falcatta from the Crimson Demon, she had learned quite a lot.
Mana almost missed the fact that Nayru knew the dragon's name. She stared at the older woman. "Marcus?" When she had been fighting the dragon, the Sacaen swordmaster had been unaware of his name and his relationship with Richter. The name had been brought up in her heated confrontation with the Ilian warrior. The dragon had turned out to be a friend despite whatever reason had forced him to rampage in the arena. It still left a little bad taste inside Mana. Despite her strong belief that she had acted in best interest of innocent civilians at that time, the black-haired maiden couldn't deny that she had made wrong judgement. "It seems you know his name too... But yes, a friend of his told me his name later, a few days after that chaos." Mana replied to Nayru's question. She did notice that Nayru seemed a little unpleasant and the atmosphere around her had become less friendly.
"Well, it's more like I was trying to help. I didn't do much...it was mostly other fighters and Bern wyvern riders that fought. I stabbed the dragon once but after that I got knocked out by some kind of exploding light. I fainted for a moment and when I woke up the dragon had been defeated..." If only Mana knew that Nayru had close relationship with the black dragon, she wouldn't talk in this cheerful tone. Unfortunately, the Sacaen girl was still oblivious. Sure she sensed that the thunder lady didn't like this topic but she didn't understand how personal it was for Nayru. "Because of my weakness a dear friend of mine almost died that day. He had suffered an injury he might never recover completely from. I regret it. I should have stopped the dragon sooner..." Mana rubbed the back of her head as she smiled. She looked a bit depressed after revealing her failure to save a friend.
"Tell me, Nayru... Have you met any dragon before? I mean...they should be extinct, right? But it doesn't seem true anymore. There are some rumors about their reappearance... You look like someone who travel a lot so I wonder if you have met some?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Sept 28, 2016 16:05:18 GMT -6
Exploding light...? Well, it seemed Mana didn't really know much about what had happened in the arena, for better or for worse. Going by the scattered stories she had heard of it, it must have been a very chaotic incident indeed, not even the people who were there had been able to give her especially accurate recounts. And apparently, Mana had nearly lost a friend to it. Nayru... wasn't really sure what she felt about that. It certainly added a personal angle to the other side. If she had to protect Veigue... she didn't know where, or if, she would stop. Even if it meant other people got hurt along the way. After all, who better than her to bear that sin, rather than visiting it upon him in the name of self-defense?
"...I met Marcus some time ago... as a human," she said simply, neutrally. Not to argue. Not to convince Mana of anything. But in much the same way that Mana had shared her story, Nayru felt she should share a small chapter of hers. Edited perhaps. But still hers. "He still had wings, and it soon became clear that he was not... physically human." Yeah, he'd come barreling out of the sky on leathery, tattered wings with half a dead rabbit or something. Not exactly the stealthiest entrance. It was a wonder dragons weren't ACTUALLY extinct if they were all as bad at subtlety as she and Marcus apparently were. "He was a lonely and bitter young man, but exactly that: a man. Not a monster. He invited me into his cottage and we spoke for a time before he allowed me to leave unharmed, believing I would not reveal his secret to a world that would not understand him. I bore that trust as long as he lived."
Frankly Nayru wasn't really sure where she was going with this, it felt a bit like she was just rambling, but then again sharing anything personal wasn't exactly easy or natural for her these days. So it wasn't too surprising she wasn't sure if she was doing it right. "I believe you when you say that he needed to be stopped. Whatever happened in the arena, it was clear people's lives were in danger." The dragon in disguise shook her head slowly in he aftermath of her words, though, trying to find the right words. It was... difficult. But then, anything worth doing usually was. "But to me, he was never a monster. Where you made the decision to protect your friend, I can only wonder what drove Marcus to his actions... to suicide. Surely there must have been someone to help him before it came to that."
In the end, deeds were the measure of a man. Perhaps Marcus's smoldering rage, buried in his past, had finally consumed her as hers had taken her before. Perhaps he had finally snapped and tried to seek vengeance on humanity for something. Perhaps he had been forced to it, by hands unseen. Certainly, if there had been a third party at work, no evidence of their subtle manipulations would have survived the chaos of the arena. In the end, though, it didn't matter much. People would remember Marcus as they had known him. Richter would remember him as a friend. Mana would remember him as the beast that nearly killed her friend. And her?
Nayru decided she would have liked to have gotten to know him better when she had the chance.
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Post by Mana on Oct 4, 2016 14:01:19 GMT -6
It was always unpleasant to listen about how people she had fought or killed might not be a bad guy. Sure, they were enemies but that didn't make them 100% evil...just people who stood in different side. Nayru seemed to hold Marcus as a friend, maybe a close friend, so Mana felt a bit awkward. The Sacaen rose both her legs up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around them, leaning her head on her knees, as she listened Nayru talking about the black dragon. Her mind was conflicted whether she had to apologize or not. She didn't apologize to Richter about Marcus' death because her action wasn't wrong so apologizing to Nayru now didn't sound plausible. But did Mana feel wrong about her action? Of course not. She had always believed that her choice to fight the dragon was a correct choice. Maybe half of her motivation was driven from her desire to fight glorious battle but no one should doubt that the girl had gone to fight for the safety of the people in the arena. Hearing Nayru saying that she believed her, Mana felt somewhat relaxed.
"That was a difficult time. Everyone was in panic...me too. A huge black dragon appeared without warning and chaos followed. I just couldn't turn my back and flee. If your story about him is true, then maybe his rampage was caused by something. Maybe he felt threatened or something...." Mana paused and let out a small laugh. "It's kinda weird talking about him like this...I am still not used seeing a dragon as a....a human. I have been taught that they were creatures from the past...mysterious and dangerous. After I have learned that they can somehow take a human form, it makes me confused and lost." Inside her heart, Mana wondered if she should have stopped a bit that time just to confirm if the dragon had truly wanted to harm innocent people. Would she have stopped fighting him if he had somehow explained to her? Unlikely. She probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.
"I have always dreamed for an interesting battle against a dragon but now that idea doesn't interest me so much anymore. I guess that means I am not a child anymore," Mana said, smiling. It was weird for the girl. She had matured throughout her journey and her view had changed. Of course Mana was still a warrior girl who loved good fight however now she wouldn't go fight randomly without reason...probably. "Don't get me wrong. I still want to test myself against a dragon someday. But I hope it's more like a friendly sparring." Mana wasn't lying. Maybe asking a dragon for a friendly spar would be a foolish idea but the girl preferred it than a battle-to-death.
"Uuum, it was kinda heavy conversation. Lets change to another topic, shall we?" Mana stared at Nayru, ingraining the dragoness' look into her mind. Now that things had calmed down Mana began to realize that Nayru wore exotic clothing and the older woman possessed unique features. "Now that I think about it...where are you from, Nayru? You certainly don't look like a Sacaen for me but I am pretty sure you aren't an Ilian or Bernese either."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 4, 2016 19:45:11 GMT -6
"In your position, I would have done the same thing." Nayru smiled, a mix of ruefulness and reassurance; a complex mix of emotions that she didn't truly know how to penetrate but could not ignore. It was the truth regardless. She wasn't HAPPY Marcus was dead, and she wanted to think there had been a reason for what he did... but if he dropped out of the sky and started attacking Veigue, she would have killed him herself, kin or not. So she couldn't exactly judge Mana for doing the same, and Mana had no real reason to think of a dragon as a person in the first place. "Mana, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that regretting the past doesn't change anything. Learn from it, but don't let it dominate you. It-"
She looked away, not quite able to meet the Sacaen's eyes. Not out of falsehood, but a truth too ugly to exist. "It doesn't end well." The dragon had communicated more in what she didn't say than by what she had, about the closest to a confession she was really capable of on the subject. She knew all too well but living wrapped in your own failure for centuries on end was like, and human lives were so... short. They should try to enjoy them at least. She, er, wasn't sure if that was incredibly condescending or childish or maybe both, but that was something Nayru had always been drawn to in humans, the way they burned so bright and then vanished. As a dragon, outside of the threat of being killed she never really had to think about just... randomly dying, and after enough centuries it was hard to think in days and weeks, and easy to think in years and decades. Being able to focus on the 'now' was a trait she tried to cultivate... almost in emulation of humans, in some ways. Kind of ironic.
She didn't really have an answer to Mana's talk of sparring with dragons, so Nayru passively followed the subject change without much ado. What was she gonan say, 'sure you can spar against a dragon WAIT NO PLEASE DON'T SCREAM AND RUN.' Actually, knowing Mana, she'd probably scream and attack, which would be even worse. Nayru didn't trust that damn sword any further than she could throw it, and not even that much, 'cuz she could throw it a lot further than she trusted it. Besides, origin stories were... ironically enough, pretty easy. She just had to leave out a few MINOR unimportant details like the part where she happened to be from Arcadia, and the dragon thing, and the part where it was 550 odd years ago. Nothing too important.
So Nayru just grinned at her counterpart, fairly comfortable with the question despite her usual reticence about personal info. "Nabata born and raised. I'm a desert girl at heart, probably why I like Sacae so much, but I've traveled basically everywhere and pick up bits of local clothing and culture along the way. Gives me a bit of a mysterious wanderer vibe, yanno? Course, it's ruined when I explain, but..." the dragon shrugged expressively, taking refuge in a slightly twisted version of the truth. Didn't matter if you sucked at lying if you never lied, just offered a slightly different perspective on the truth.
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Post by Mana on Oct 6, 2016 15:38:06 GMT -6
Nayru looked a bit strange. No, to put it more precisely...she looked a bit sad and troubled. The dragoness tried to share her wisdom and Mana understood what she was trying to convey. A past shouldn't be a burden? That sounded true but it wasn't easy to let go past like nothing. Did Nayru have the same trouble? Maybe something from the past she couldn't forget? Mana could only put a smirk and looked down. Funny how both women seemed to unconsciously avoid each other's eyes. Not sure what burdened Nayru but Mana certainly had always been tortured by her nightmare about the raid that had destroyed her tribe. "That sounds hard. It isn't easy to forget some bad memories. They just keep coming back..." Mana muttered, her voice trailing off.
Okay, enough heavy conversation and sad moment. If this continued, the might ended up crying while hugging each other and probably waking up the little monster. Nayru would probably hate that. Sooo....like Mana suggested, the topic had moved on to something lighter and maybe more interesting as well. Mana had expected Nayru to come from far place but she had never expected Nabata. Wow, the only difference between their homelands was that Sacae was often called as the sea of grass while Nabata was the sea of sand. By the way, the swordswoman knew very little about the desert. I was unfortunate that she hadn't found a chance to explore the hottest place in Elibe. The place sounded mysterious and offered adventure...and that included sunburn and terrible dehydration, of course.
"What it look like?" Mana asked excitedly, leaning her body toward Nayru. "I mean the desert... I never see it so I can only imagine how it looks like. Is Nabata desert like...a vast beach with a lot of sand and huge scorpions?" Alright, Mana certainly had wrong image about the desert but seriously...huge scorpion? It seemed someone had fed lies to the naive Sacaen or she had simply read wrong fantasy book.
"Yeah, your choice for outfit is quite interesting. Never seen someone wear their clothes like you." It was a compliment. Mana might not have good sense for fashion but she could agree that Nayru's outfit could leave quite strong impression to anyone who saw the dragoness wrapped in those exotic clothes. The black-haired girl looked at the dragoness with clear interest. "It sounds you have traveled a lot. I envy you, you know... I want to go and roam the continent like you do. No problem! I am still young. I still have a lot of time to travel and see new places!!" Mana seemed to get encouraged. The girl was reminded by seeing Nayru that there was still a lot of surprises waiting in every corner of Elibe.
Out of nowhere, Mana couldn't resist to throw a comment about Nayru's look. "You look great. You must be popular with men!"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 9, 2016 18:49:42 GMT -6
"Well, on the surface it's kind of crap," Nayru agreed with a wry smile and a small chuckle. No real arguing that fact - she didn't know many people who COULD argue with a straight face that Nabata didn't suck to live in. The heat, the sand, the dryness - she didn't HATE it per se, she'd acclimated to it well enough, but that didn't mean she was exceptionally fond of it either. But... Nayru DID have a certain attachment to her homeland, even if it wasn't really obvious from the surface, so she continued in a brighter tone rather than continuing the self-effacing commentary. "It's what's beneath the shifting sands that's the real treasure, though. Ruins more ancient than both of us combined, hundreds... even thousands of years old. Hints to parts of the history of Elibe that were lost to the Scouring. Civilizations we didn't even know existed. They say there are entire cities buried somewhere down there. So much knowledge just waiting to be found!"
Ruin Maniac Nayru mode ended abruptly as she realized she had started rambling (again), leaving Nayru to have enough decency to be slightly abashed at her verbal explosion. "Er. Sorry. I just find that stuff fascinating. It's so hard to get an accurate, unbiased look at history that experiencing it for myself is sort of a rush." She rubbed the back of her head in ill hidden embarrassment, but didn't stand back from her statements. They were true after all... just maybe a bit more than she had really planned to say. But it wasn't some big dark secret, just kind of immature of her to get so excited about something like that that easily.
"Can't say as that I've seen any really giant scorpions, but I've heard rumors about them... then again, we all thought monsters were just stupid rumors until recently, didn't we? Who knows, maybe there ARE giant scorpions roaming Nabata. There's so much out there that we may never know." She grinned at the Sacaen swordswoman, Nayru's usual tendency to encourage irresponsible and flat out dangerous behavior never in the least bit hampered by minor things like reality. "Isn't this the best time in Elibe's recent history to go traveling yourself, though? Danger around every corner, an atmosphere of struggle that breeds master swordsmen, monsters and bandits alike to test your skills on... you can travel AND train simultaneously!"
If only the Nayru of a few years ago could see the new, irresponsible idjit who had taken her place.
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Post by Mana on Oct 14, 2016 14:53:03 GMT -6
Mana felt somewhat disappointed when Nayru mentioned how terrible the surface of the desert could be. She didn't pla to go there anytime soon but hearing that it might not offer exciting experiences was discouraging. However Nayru quickly followed with good news as the dragoness began her rambling about ruins. Maybe for thee first time since their encounter, Mana saw Nayru talking excitedly. The older lady was like a child who telling her friend about her favorite toy. Could a ruin be that exciting? Mana herself didn't really have much experiences with those...old, dusty, and sometimes dangerous places. There was only one time when she had explored a mysterious ruin with some companions a long time ago in Lycia, which she had forgotten most of the details about what had happened.
"Wow, that sounds nice. I am not sure I will understand the lost history or civilization but for some reason I have gotten this tingling feeling, probably excitement, after I listened to your enthusiastic explanation. You must have explored a lot of those ruins if you know this much. I don't know...I just get the feeling that you have a lot of personal experiences exploring those places." Mana's eyes were sparkling with excitement. The Sacaen wasn't lying when she said she probably wouldn't understand the depth of archaeology like Nayru did. For Mana, the little adventures and unknown challenges inside a ruin were worth more than learning the history behind the ruin.
Nayru really should stop putting strange ideas to Mana's head because the impulsive swordswoman almost never doubted things that people said. Giant scorpions? Alright, maybe the chance that they truly existed wasn't zero...but seriously? So far there hadn't been any official report about giant bug or something like that in Nabata desert, YET. Mana's blood was already boiling as the girl imagined a tough but fun battle against a giant scorpion so please Nayru...just stop!
When the topic of going travelling was brought up, Mana had mixed expression. Of course the desire to do just that was there inside her heart but it wasn't that simple. The recent events had bound the girl with some responsibilities, some were self-imposed, like hunting Arum. Maybe no one would accuse her as irresponsible for following her heart to take some adventures to faraway land but the black-haired maiden believed that she would be required more by her homeland. This was a difficult time for Sacaen. The blood from the battle in The City of Heroes hadn't been dry until now but more dangerous force was steadily approaching. Mana knew her own skills and abilities. She would be needed sooner or later to help repelling the unwanted guest out of the plains.
"Yeah...that sounds nice. I did that for awhile before I took part in the grand tournament in Bern. Aaw I kinda miss those moments. I will surely do it again someday but for now I have chosen to stay in the plains until things have calmed down," Mana said, shrugging. She put up a wide smile but she didn't really look pleased. But Mana wasn't someone who liked to lament her situation for long so she cheerfully punched the air and said excitedly, "I know what you mean. Sure there were some times when *cough* worst outcome were very close but the dangers were the ones that made my adventures exciting. Like that crazy battle I had in a village in Lycia!" Mana didn't bother to explain the details of the battle to the poor Nayru and continued bombarding the dragoness with more excited shouts.
"Maybe I will try Ilia next. I just realize that I've never considered the snow mountains to be exciting place. Who know... I will probably be surprised. Hmm... what will be there? Frozen temple? Vast tundra? Evil ice dragon?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 17, 2016 7:24:40 GMT -6
A lot of personal experience...?
Nayru hardly even made a token attempt to mask the amusement in her face, dancing in her eyes, at Mana's little comment. A lot of ruins! Oh Mana, you sweet summer child, you have no f**k**g idea. The dragon had spent the better part of three centuries actively exploring them on her own - and close to another in Arcadia exploring those in the vicinity. She had more experience sfting through old ruins than a dozen of Elibe's foremost archaeologists, and more perspective on how they were linked together than pretty much anyone else she had ever known. Not to toot her own horn, simply that was the one thing Nayru could honestly say, without any need for apology or self-defacement, that she knew a lot about. She LOVED exploring the past, which was either ironic or fitting given how much trouble she had had in re-learning to live in the present.
"I guess you could say it's something of a hobby of mine" was all she said, but if voices could smile, Nayru's would have the cheekiest crap-eating grin in the history of voices. It sounded like Mana didn't feel the same as she did, which was fine - Nayru was just grateful the girl had showed interest in her work, it was more than most would, and she knew better than most from long centuries of experience that frankly most people didn't care at all and didn't want to hear about it in the first place. So by those standards, Mana had been quite kind about it. And in he end, wasn't that a decent chunk of what socializing was about? Giving enough of a crap about the other person and their interests, even if you personally didn't care, for them to realize you cared enough to listen? It sounded kinda mercenary when she put it like that, but it didn't make it any less true.
The dragon grinned at Mana's little village comment. She knew ALL about crazy village battles. "You'd think that bastions of civilization would be more peaceful, but most of my craziest fights have been in the ruins of towns, villages, churches..." Well, she hadn't had the fight against the chimera in Bern yet, or gone to the island, so Nayru didn't have to add any major qualifiers for that. Funny how those things turned out. "Though there were those Baels in... one of those midget Lycian countries, I can never keep them straight." A Lycian fanatic, she was not. And that reminder brought to mind something else she needed to sort out eventually. At least she could transform now... hopefully... though that would still be a terrible solution.
For her part, Nayru responded to Mana's innocent suggestion with a minor choking fit. The girl couldn't know the truth, of course, or else she'd have to kill her. Er, not literally. But that experience with Lynessa had been harrowing to say the least and being reminded of it unexpectedly had certainly taken her off guard. "If there are any ice manaketes, Mana," she managed to say gravely with a tone of great import, not actually noticing that Mana had said dragon and not manakete, "it is assured that they are among the cruelest beings to have ever lived, monsters so great that man and monster and other dragons alike should tremble in their presence, for here stands the face of pure..." crap, she had been winging that and ran out of ideas. Evil? Malevolence? Malarkey? Troll? "Look, I'm just saying, if you find out someone's an ice manakete, run and never look back. At least that's what I heard from a... friend."
Oh yeah. Real smooth Nayru.
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