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Post by Kenshin on Nov 1, 2017 20:38:17 GMT -6
Kenshin was in the middle of dinner with his family when pounding on his door interrupted them, Kirala almost instantly jumped out of her seat while rushing to the door. "I got it" the girl proclaimed before leaving Kenshin's sight, almost as quickly as she darted off she had returned, "Daddy, Isamu is at the door saying somebody is looking for you." Kenshin set down his fork "Very well then, I shall let him know they can wait." He rose to his feet as Kirala returned to her seat. Kenshin was greeted with a stern look from Isamu, which honestly wasn't different from normal. "Isamu, could you inform them that I'm busy at the moment and I'll get to them as soon as I'm finished?"
"No can do sir, it's extremely important."
"As well as me spending time with my family, which I haven't had much time for as of late." Kenshin responded.
Isamu wasn't taking no for an answer, nor leaving without Kenshin. "He claims to know the whereabouts of Matis, and that he needs you."
What Isamu had just said had caused Kenshin to become silent. Matis, his cousin who was more like a brother to him, who he hasn't heard from nor of since he had left the village nearly a decade ago suddenly sought out Kenshin out of the blue. It was extremely common for people to lose track of each other, out of everybody that he met during the Bandit War he had ran into only Yaen and Jya a couple of times, by pure chance but for Matis to send word that he needs aid sounded... off some how. "Give me a moment to prepare myself." Isamu had nodded as Kenshin turned to return to his wife and daughter to let them know he had to go, but before doing so he gave them each a long, endearing hug and kiss, then left the room to gather his Regal Blade, Wo Dao, and his bow and quiver.
Isamu had lead Kenshin to where the man was waiting, they had approached him from behind. The outfit he had on appeared to be Sacaen, but Kenshin couldn't figure out what tribe or part of Sacae he was from, he wasted no time in questioning him.
"Who are you, what and how do you know of Matis?" The man turned towards Kenshin, the look in his eyes was blank, much like his facial expression they showed no emotions.
"Me?" the man paused for a moment "I'm... Nergüi. Matis had sent me here in search of you."
His response wasn't enough for the swordsman. "Okay, but why did he send you?" he said in a displeased tone.
"Because he needs you." All of these half answers was grating Kenshin's nerves.
"If he needs me then why are you wasting time by not giving me complete answers?"
Nergüi was silent for a moment before responding slightly enthusiastic, which was a change from his monotone voice "It's not every day you get to meet a legend." If he didn't have potentially important information Kenshin would have decked him right then and there.
"Then where the hell is he and what's wrong?" Yet another pause before he had responded, which was also grating Kenshin's nerves,
"Osita. We were surrounded by monsters, he holed up in a small for not too far from the location of where the castle once stood. I was the weakest, but also the fastest so he sent me here to get you. He needs you immediately."
The sudden appearance of this man, the way he looked, the tone he spoke in, as well as his story rubbed Kenshin the wrong way, but still he couldn't pass up the opportunity that he could reunite with his cousin. With no hesitation he commanded Isamu to inform Katara of what had transpired as he went to retrieve his horse.
Off in the distance, far enough from the City of Heroes where nobody could see them, a hooded figure smiled before turning their horse and taking off away from the city.
Kenshin's horse had trotted almost aimlessly once they had arrived to the barren lands of Ostia. Even if Kenshin had took the time to grab a map it would have done him no good seeing how there was nothing to identify to know his current location. Adding to the uselessness of a map, he knew nothing about anything in Ostia prior to it's destruction. He wasn't sure if he would find a swarm of monsters still or not either, hell by the looks of things it didn't appear there hasn't been much of anything in the location but that didn't stop him from yelling out Matis' name each time he passed by what looked to be ruins of a fort, or a small one that still stood.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 18, 2017 1:02:48 GMT -6
Nayru hadn't been in Ostia in a good... huh. She actually couldn't remember off the top of her head, and given the ever present undead threat, she didn't exactly want to go memory diving. No one knew better than her just how vulnerable she really was when she truly let her guard down - a humanoid body without draconic protection would be easy prey for the monsters that roamed this land. While she had always had power, discipline, control, and experience were... not historically her strongest suits. Not until recently, with Elly and Veigue and Aerious and Remus and Shara and all the others, the last few... years now, she supposed? It seemed so fast, but then did not the years usually fly by?
Still - while she recalled the moments spent lying there, bleeding to death from a bandit's knife, before being rescued on the roads of northern Sacae by well meaning farmers. Those seemed so long ago. Longer, perhaps, than even events far beyond them chronologically. That, too, was the mystery and the magic of perspective. Human, dragon, taguel, or beast. Time passed for them all - but it passed differently for each of them.
And yet it had brought her... here. To this nightmarish wasteland, the rotting corpse of the once-proud Ostia. Once, long ago, Nayru had dismissed this place as home to muscle-bound morons, soldiers and knights with far too much interest in machismo and meaningless strength rather than peace and beauty. Now, wandering its remnants, she could nto help but feel as though - something had been lost nonetheless. Her perspective had changed greatly over the last century. She... fought now. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to, as strange as the idea still sounded. She acted, rather than reacted. The dragon was still far from at peace with herself, but the self-loathing bordering on hatred that had consumed her had been kept at bay by those close to her, now. And she was finally looking for answers to the questions that had chased her all her life.
So it was that time had brought her here. To a long dead land, chasing dreams that whispered of truths to be revealed and secrets to be found. Phantoms that danced at the edges of her consciousness, always tinged by the sickly familiar stink of the Nether, beautiful and ugly and fond and loathed. Ghosts that she knew full well led her astray, and yet she followed them nonetheless, a child following a trail of bread crumbs to the witch's candied house. Hoping that in the jaws of damnation lay clues to the past. Hoping against hope that in darkness, light burned bright.
The fact that the tide of undead seemed to have faded and swirled around her was not lost to her, either. There were some, of course. Stupid, loathsome creatures that crumbled to dust beneath her fists. But it was clear, to her, that for some reason she had been spared the worst of it. Was it mere chance? An attempt to lure her into the trap? The jaws of inevitability snapping shut behind her? She had considered them all countless times, and in the end decided that she simply did not know, could not know, and that in the end the decision was simply: continue forward or fall back.
And only one of those options had she considered at all.
So in the end, it didn't matter why. She would find out in time. For now, she simply continued to walk, blessed by the inhuman vitality of her existence with a certainty and endurance that few could even dream of. A horse would be faster, but they didn't... care for her much, and she had grown to live without.
But there was a horse. Sound. Color. The shouts of a man, calling a name she did not know, but in a tone that sounded vaguely familiar, though she did not place it mentally until catching sight of its source. A red clad man, his crimson hair flowing behind him. The slender form she recalled. Was that interesting, auspicious, or ominous? Perhaps all three. Perhaps something else entirely. But while from whence they came certainly varied greatly, each coming from different directions, it did seem that their paths crossed here - and it was no coincidence at all that she had met him here, Nayru knew.
As she approached the relatively slow moving man, in easy vision given that she was some distance in front of him, Nayru couldn't help but smile wryly at the seeming coincidence of it all. The dragon smiled as she approached, greeting the man with a bemused tone. "Kenshin. Fancy meeting you here. Interesting choice for a vacation."
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Post by Kenshin on Dec 4, 2017 0:52:08 GMT -6
Kenshin had spent all morning and most of the afternoon in his journey to find Matis, even though the quest giver had seemed very shady. By the position of the sun, he had figured he had a few more hours of searching left before he had to make up camp. Aimlessly wondering around Ostia at night is probably one of the most dangerous things one could do these days, the swordsman didn't know very much about 'monsters' and their habits. He figured that they were like the Tarvos, they would ruthlessly attack a human without provocation or second thought.
Kenshin's eyes scanned the gods forsaken land around him when his horse had stopped, searching for something that could be an indication of Matis' whereabouts when suddenly he heard a voice. He would be lying if he had said it didn't startle him, without thinking he pulled a couple of arrows from his quiver and his bow as he turned his torso in the direction. The voice had an air of familiarity to it but once he was able to put a face to it things had changed. He sighed in relief as he recognized it as someone that wasn't a threat. He took a couple of seconds to return the arrows to the quiver and put his bow back as he processed what she had said.
"Kenshin. Fancy meeting you here. Interesting choice for a vacation."
"I wouldn't call this a vacation, had a run in with somebody and they told me to go to hell, and now I'm here. Not exactly sure why they wanted me to come to Ostia." he jokingly responded with. Kenshin would not forget a woman with her levels of beauty, and luckily for him this time he wasn't on the edge so much. Last time the two had met he wasn't sure if she had been a foe or a friend despite her warning. In fact, he had thought that warning would have turned him into a threat given what had just recently transpired in Ilia. "What brings you here? Did the old man give you the same request?" referring to Athos since to the best of his memory, she had planned on going to Arcadia.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 11, 2017 4:54:23 GMT -6
It took a remarkable amount of effort and something almost resembling maturity for Nayru not to respond to Kenshin's initial reaction with some snarky comment about how some things never change. That was just about how he had greeted her the first time, after all; with hostility and a willingness to ruin her day. Either she was REALLY suspicious or he was just on edge all the time. It might have actually bothered her if she hadn't taken the time to actually interact with him back then, learn that there was more to him than the naked aggression - and if she was to be honest with herself, she WAS kinda glad to see someone in this godforsaken shithole of an unrelenting hellscape. Even Kenshin! Rather than responding, she simply crossed her arms as Kenshin realized who she was and leashed his murder instincts, waiting for him to speak.
The dragon was rewarded for her patience with a joke - apparently the dour Sacaen WAS capable of humor, and not a bad sense of it at that. Something about books and covers came to mind. She ignored it and snorted in bemusement at his joke instead. It certainly didn't seem that either of them wanted to be here, understandably so, and yet here they were nonetheless. Helluva way to spend a few days. But she HAD resolved to find the truth, supposedly. To learn more about what made her, her. Even if it meant she had to come to a nightmarish realm such as this. A world of grey, where clouds forever dimmed the sun into a pallid glow, where death roamed eternal on two legs or four. It was certainly not a place she would have chosen to visit without good purpose.
As for whether or not her reasons were actually all that good - well - that remained to be seen. Nayru's feminine features creased into a wry smile at the thought as well as Kenshin's question. It was a fair one to be sure. She didn't blame him in the least for wondering. But it was a difficult one for her to answer. Not in full. Not the details. She would think her mad at best, or worst realize her nature from the contextual clues. And while the last few people she had done the 'btw I'm a dragon lol' thing had gone well, Nayru wasn't quite daft enough to go around sharing it with all the world quite yet.
Still, it would be rude not to answer him, and while she didn't consider him much of a friend, at least not yet, he wasn't a bad sort of human. And they had more in common then he realized. They were both subhuman, after all, in the eyes of Elibe. Monsters and mongrels, embarrassments to the good name of normal human beings. Draconic driftwood and Sacaen scum. "...Following my dreams, I suppose," she responded airily after a moment, her tone light but not sarcastic. Turning away from him to scan the horizon. Eyes moving, searching for threats. She could TASTE the darkness here. The encroaching Nether. It seemed everywhere around them, but faint enough that it could almost be ignored. Danger was near, always near, but not the kind that could be cut with a sword or crushed with an iron fist. It was frustrating as hell, frankly.
That hadn't been much of an answer, though, and she wouldn't quite blame him if he was as frustrated as she by it. So rather than let the subject slip entirely, Nayru continued as if she had never stopped at all. "They led me here, and now it is left to the waker to follow that gossamer trail encasing the dreamer... and find out why." It was a - figure of speech. She hoped. Nayru wasn't sure if someone or something had ACTIVELY been trying to lure her here. But there was something connected to her past, to her, that she had been attuned to in some manner. It was all frustratingly vague, honestly. Dark figures, visions, nightmares. Promises of possibility. Made her sound like a bloody lunatic, in her opinion, but then the truth was sometimes stranger than fiction.
The old man. Athos? She had seen him yes. But was that why she was here? His guidance? Nayru wasn't sure. Wizards worked in mysterious ways, and Athos had mastered the art of mysticism... or bullshit, she could never actually tell which. "No, I am here of my own accord. We both are. Is it coincidence, or...?" The dragon trailed off, not sure what to make of it. She did know better than to give her usual bullshit spiel about it being dangerous and him going home, though. Kenshin didn't exactly strike her as another Elly in constant need of protection. And he HAD slain that Arum, after all.
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Post by Kenshin on Dec 20, 2017 0:47:41 GMT -6
Typically when somebody says they're following their dreams, they're chasing a fantasy version of their self where they're greater than they currently are. But not Nayru, Kenshin could call her crazy but given the fact a stranger, very strange man appeared at his doorstep making a claim to know where Matis was and Kenshin set off to Ostia would bring up his sanity.
"No, I am here of my own accord. We both are. Is it coincidence, or...?"
"Let's just hope that is is a coincidence." the swordsman responded. The Nabatian didn't have to finish her sentence, Kenshin had a pretty good idea of where it was heading. "I know this is going to sound equally crazy as coming here due to a dream, but the reason I'm here is because somebody had told me that my cousin was here in need of help. That he was surrounded by monsters, but that had to be a week or two ago by my guess." Traveling from Ostia to the eastern part of Sacae was a journey that took a while, factoring in it by foot and needing to stop to rest would make it take longer. Kenshin wasn't a fool, he knew if the story was true the chances of him finding a corpse were pretty high but it would at least be a closure to the story of one of the 'legendary heroes' of the Bandit War.
"I'm pretty aware that if I find him, it would be a corpse." Kenshin was more so talking to himself at that point, saying it aloud put him at ease a bit. The constant feeling of needing to rush would be his downfall if anything had happened out here. He looked up towards the sky for a moment before returning his gaze towards Nayru.
He pulled on the reins to turn the horse in her direction and move closer, once he was a few feet away he stopped the horse. "I figure we don't have too long before it gets dark, I would prefer to find a spot to set up camp while there's still light out. I have a lot of things on my mind right now, the last thing I would want to do is add your safety to the list. In the morning I can take you in whatever direction you're wanting to go." He then leaned over in her direction extending his hand out.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jan 11, 2018 2:49:43 GMT -6
"Hmm." Searching for his cousin in the midst of a run-down zombie post-apocalyptic hellscape, eh? Kenshin had either finally lost all reason and rationality, orrrr he had been drawn here by the same force she had, which would naturally lead to someone or something wanting both of them in likely the most dangerous place on Elibe short of the Prophet's fortress, and apparently had some way to thin out the undead hordes that would normally have barred their path, and perhaps even more importantly had chosen to do so.
...Nayru wasn't sure if she was just a worrywart or this whole damn thing was as obviously a trap as it seemed like. But she was here, wasn't she? And so was Kenshin. For their own personal reasons they had decided that the possibility outweighed the risk. The dragon supposed she had very little room to stand on in terms of judging him for being here.
"Well, if he was ever actually here, he must have found a way to survive for all this time," she said, evenly and calmly. It was clear from Kenshin's words that he was under no delusions of the high chances of meeting his cousin here, but she had felt the need to be kind nonetheless. Though not entirely. 'If he was here' was none too subtle. But in the end - they were both here. So what did it matter? "Someone... or something," she added after a momentary pause, "wanted us here. It would be rude to refuse the invitation." Nayru smiled thinly. She was eager to find answers to her questions, or settle the lack thereof. But as Kenshin spoke, she acceded that he did have a point. While this place was far from safe at the best of times, traveling at night was even riskier. She had excellent senses, but so far she hadn't quite mastered the ability to magically give herself total night vision, and dying alone, in the dark, with no one to help, WOULD kinda suck.
"And it would be rude for me to deny yours, Kenshin." Her smile widening into something more genuine, pleasant enough, accepting of his offer. "You need not worry as to whether I can handle myself, but there is strength in numbers, as they say. And I cannot be everywhere at once. Let's get looking for a half decent campsite then."
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Post by Kenshin on Apr 12, 2018 23:12:20 GMT -6
Kenshin had pulled Nayru on top of his horse, and waited for her to be situated behind him. "If somebody is inviting the two of us out here, then I hope they have a tea party ready." The swordsman said jokingly. Kenshin had came from the north, while he did see a few places that would make for a decent campsite he wanted to avoid back tracking right away so he focused on the horizon to see if he could spot something. There was some sort of structure off towards the east, it was close enough to know something was there but too far to know what it exactly was. Turning his head towards the right he could tell the sun was high enough to make it there before night fall if he had the horse run the entire way. "I see something off to the east, here's hoping to it being halfway decent." Pulling on the reins he turned the horse in that direction then gave the command to run, the horse galloping away.
The sky was a mixture of yellow, orange, and red as they approached the charred barn. Kenshin had noticed the ceiling had collapsed on the front half, circling the barn looking for other noticeable damage to the outside he didn't spot any right away then lead the horse to the door before the two dismounted. The door was open enough for them to enter without touching it, but he stopped before going in to check for any threats. He didn't see any as he reached for the reins of the horse to lead it in. "I suppose this will have to do for the night." he commented as they entered, once inside he pulled the door shut and put the draw bar into place. "Hm. Looks pretty rotted, I guess if something came knocking it would buy us a little bit of time."
Moving towards his horse he pulled a couple of hares from one of the pouches from the saddle that he caught the prior day to entering Ostia. "I don't have any spices on me, so it's going to be a little bland. I don't suppose you know how to start a fire? I have some small sticks, tender, and flint in the pouch on the other side if you can." Pulling his skinning knife from he belt as he walked away from the horse, then set down one rabbit and began to skin the other.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 3, 2018 1:56:55 GMT -6
"A tea-" Nayru stopped abruptly, barely closing her mouth in time before a small peal of giggles escaped her at the abruptly unexpected thought. Maybe Kenshin wasn't completely allergic to fun after all... or maybe he was just hiding his one true weakness, the fact that he would burst into flames if he actually smiled? Fifty-fifty. Still smiling lightly, Nayru allowed herself to be helped up unto the horse and sat on it decently enough. She wasn't much of a horse rider, usually the damn things were too scared of her to let her anywhere near, but either Kenshin's horse was a lot better trained than most or there was enough wrong with this place that he didn't have the time to be overly bothered with her. Could be either. Or both. She tried not to think about that too hard.
The ride wasn't particularly eventful, it seemed neither of them were sparkling conversationalists and the dire atmosphere of ruined Ostia wasn't really conducive to casual chattering and flirting anyways. Still no monsters accosted them, which seemed... wrong, but it was hard to say that she would have actually preferred to have to fight the entire way in, so the dragon held her tongue and her opinions on the subject to herself for the time being. Their target appeared to be a ruined barn, and she noted Kenshin's caution as they approached and circled it, even how he entered it. Him being on high alert all the time wasn't particularly new, but in this situation it was definitely easier to appreciate. Nayru wasn't exactly a complete stranger to fear and caution, for obvious reasons, but it did fail to occur to her sometimes to actually be afraid of direct threats. So often they were easily dealt with that she took them for granted at times. And in a place like this? Well. A little extra caution from a second party couldn't hurt.
"Well," she responded to Kenshin's comment about the door, glancing around the dim confines of their temporary shelter after they had both dismounted and entered the decrepit structure, "if stone walls and an entire army didn't do much for this place, I don't think a flimsy door matters too much. I'm just grateful to be out of the elements." She spoke with a mixture of bemused irony and simple honesty as she offered a cursory exploration of their surroundings while Kenshin did his thing.
A small part of Nayru was tempted to ask where he got the rabbits from, she wasn't sure if zombie rabbit was edible, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and shoved one of the supports lightly to see if it all came crumbling down. No super strength of course. She wasn't TRYING to take the place down around them. Just see if it was as crumbly as it looked. The beam pleasantly surprised her by NOT exploding into a torrent of poisonous spiders, splinters, or undead, and the roof didn't come tumbling down, so that counted as good enough by her books. "Yeah, fire and I are old friends," the dragon said off handedly while finishing her own little inspection, then her brain turned back on and she regretted having a mouth. "...As in I've camped out before, not that I'm an arsonist."
Slightly bemused by how dumb that had actually sounded, even to her, Nayru recovered the supplies and a a few more broken pieces of wood from where the roof had collapsed in the front and some of the boards broken apart into smaller pieces. A few took a bit of extra work, but at least it would make for extra firewood if needed.
It wasn't until after she had already arranged some wood for a small fire that, staring down at flint and steel, the thought occurred to her that you didn't have to be a fire dragon to still start a fire... maybe... not sure if she was an idiot for only now having thought of it or an idiot for thinking this was a good idea at all, the dragon knelt down, channeling a small degree of power through her right arm as her finger touched the bottom of the pile, a jolt of roiling light and heat leaping forth and charring the wood to cinder in a small radius instantly before the heat and energy ignited the wood and kindling beneath it properly, leaving her feeling ENORMOUSLY proud of herself for doing something any dumbass kid with two minutes of outdoors experience could have done with much less effort.
"Food's food," Nayru said after a few moments, still quite pleased with herself but remembering that there was a conversation (sort of) ongoing a little belatedly. "With or without spices, I appreciate your sharing your provisions with me nonetheless." She had been expecting to go hungry tonight anyways, so even if he was a shitty cook it'd still be a step up from nothing. "If I'd known I'd have brought some of my own, though. Spices are fun. I'm not an amazing cook, but experimenting with them keeps eating fresh even after -" Five hundred years, oh yeah by the way I'm a monster from the worst kinds of tales parents tell their kids to scare them at night "-so many similar meals."
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Post by Kenshin on May 9, 2018 22:30:42 GMT -6
Kenshin had cut away a little bit of fur on the bottom of the belly, slowly pulling at the flesh underneath separating the pelt from the meat. After he felt he had done enough he pierced the skin and ran his knife up towards the chest while stopping to work the fur off of the meat. Once he had that part done he began to work the hind leg meat from the pelt, one by one leaving a small amount of fur on each leg. Next he pulled on the fur on the back to expose part of the tail before cutting it, then kept pulling towards the head. He repeated the same process for the front legs as the hind legs, now he worked the pelt over the head before cutting it off. He took his knife and cut the leg holes in half as well as where the tail and head was.
"Eh, I have no room to judge if you were an arsonist. I'm a murderer after all" He joked as he was skinning the first rabbit. He had repeated the same process for the second rabbit while talking about provisions. "To be honest, I didn't bring much, food wise either. I had hunted these before I entered the wasteland known as Ostia." By this time Nayru had the fire going at full force, at least as best as it could given the circumstances. Using his skinning knife he had pulled some nails from parts of the collapsed roof and found a nice sized board and set them near the pelts. Wasting no time he beheaded the rabbits then quickly moved to gutting them. Finding some sticks to jab the rabbit meat on to set over the fire to cook he returned to the hides. "Can you make sure they don't burn while I tan the hides?"
As Kenshin was nailing the hide to the board he had asked Nayru a question. "If you don't mind me asking, but what was your dream about?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 28, 2018 22:37:41 GMT -6
They all had blood on their hands. Some more than others. Nayru grunted at Kenshin's comment, half smiling, though not at him - they were both busy with their respective tasks, and her mind with its eternal morass of unwanted thoughts. It was an interesting world they lived in, one where it was viewed as positive to be capable of killing - where it was acceptable, even desirable, for someone to be an expert on felling men like wheat. Were they all crazy, or was the world itself sick? Sick of death, or sick unto it? A few decades back she might have had an answer. A few centuries even. Now? She wasn't really sure anymore. And she didn't care much for it.
The dragon nodded at Kenshin's request to watch the meat, possessed of a certain vested interest in having edible food tonight. Well, if there was any benefit to being an asocial loner who sucked at civilization, it was that she was at least pretty good with cooking. What a great housewife, eh?
It was interesting. Spending so much time with Veigue, with Remus, now even Mila and Gar - humans she had never met before who had, more or less, been ok with what she was. Amelia and Owain. That god damn f**k**g snake. She had grown almost a little too comfortable with being herself - with feeling safe around others - and nearly forgotten the paranoia that had kept her alive for centuries. Nayru did not fear Kenshin, nor did she distrust him exactly. Athos had trusted him. He had been good to her, mostly, aside from the death threats at the start but what was a little murder between friends. She didn't know him very well, but as far as she could tell she thought she could get to like him. But could she trust him with the full weight of her story, her nature? And would it even be fair to put that burden on him? She wasn't sure about that either.
But lying would do either of them little good. And she was... trying to be better with people. Humanity and dragons would never reconcile if they couldn't at least talk. "Not... dreams, exactly. Whispers, visions, dancing at the edges of my consciousness. I know not if there is something intelligent here that intends to draw me in, or merely some twisted call of the Void itself. But -" Nayru stopped, chuckling without much in the wise of humor filling her voice. "Here I am anyways. If the knowledge I seek is here, I will find it. If not, perhaps I can Lycia some small favor by purging whatever I find in this tainted abode. Though... I wonder why it is we were both called here? If our destruction was intended, one by one would have been more efficient - lambs to the slaughter. And yet I cannot imagine pure light shining from the darkest depths of this twisted hellscape. And why now, so soon after Arcadia? The timing is off. Something is wrong. But I cannot fathom what it is. So..." she shook her head. So many possibilities. So few of them good. "In the end, I came anyways. Whether to hope or destruction remains to be seen."
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Post by Kenshin on Jun 13, 2018 21:56:52 GMT -6
Once he had the hides stretched out and nailed to the board he began to flesh them, removing whatever flesh had remained. "Back during the bandit war, there was an incident that I do not recall but my wife had told me about. I was captured by the enemy, which was the last thing I could remember but then suddenly I was in the middle of a battlefield. Apparently during the time I had no memory of, I was fighting against friend and foe. Perhaps who, or what ever is calling us here is wanting to have us kill each other with magic like that."
As Kenshin spoke he kept working on his current task, removing the hides from the boards and holding the fur-less side over the fire. Normally he would leave them out in the sun to dry out, but he didn't have the time currently to do so. "But since there's two of us, I don't see that actually happening. It's been quite some time, but I think they had to use a staff to cast whatever spell it was and they were directly in front of me. You do bring up a good question, why us and why here? Were they attempting to catch us alone but we met up beforehand?" He could feel the skins stiffen a bit before pulling them away from the fire.
Taking the blunt edge of the blade he smacked it upon the skulls to break them and remove the brain. He rubbed them between his hands until they were like a paste and began to spread it all over the fur-less sides of the pelts and let them sit there once he was finished. "I'll have to finish these in the morning. I came here under false pretenses, but meeting up with you had it's advantages. I do not plan on leaving Ostia till whatever summoned us here is dealt with, if I recall correctly you said you had a run in with whatever that thing was after the invasion of my home?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Aug 4, 2018 2:58:34 GMT -6
Nayru looked up at Kenshin as he told his strange tale of magic with her brow slowly furrowing into a further degree of concern. Not because she thought he was crazy. But because she feared he was not. After centuries of more or less avoiding or ignoring human magi, some of whom had some ability to sense her own magic and could be weird about it, she was... well, there was no way to say it, for all she knew about a lot of other things Nayru wasn't really with human magic beyond what she had seen Remus use. Especially when it came to Elder magics, something she had never had much interest in in the first place. Nor staff magic until she had met Remus, and even then she had never known much of staves that could do... that.
"Magic like that..." She looked down, not particularly enthusiastic about the subject. "Hmm. If even you fell prey to it I cannot imagine it is something trivial that preys on weak wills. That is a dangerous sort of magic indeed, one I know little of." Well, 'nothing' and 'little' were pretty much the same thing but she didn't like admitting she didn't know ANYTHING about it at all. "Yes, thank you for the warning. Just in case, we should endeavor to help each other ward off the spell, if such is indeed possible." That and hoping that dragons were immune to it. Nayru wasn't sure that she would be, though, and the idea of slaughtering mindlessly again - well - she had enough experience with that already. Too much. It was not something she would like to revisit. An enemy she could strike, but when her own weakness was weaponized for evil...
The dragon lapsed into a small silence as Kenshin continued to speak and she had to spare some measure of attention on twirling the meat to keep it cooking evenly. She was no five star chef but even an idiot like her would eventually learn some degree of cooking skill over a few hundred years. She had come here with a mixture of hope and concern, but the more Kenshin spoke the more it sank in how dangerous it might be. Not for herself. Death would be all she deserved. But for him, and for what dark possibilities of the future lurked here waiting for her. Or perhaps for a her who wasn't... her.
Besides, she totally had a great track record with Arum, right? Killed zero for two. Well, at least she had managed to drive off that sword guy. "Yeah," she said, somewhat absentmindedly, blinking and focusing her attention more at the task at hand as she strove to rise to the level of a proper conversation rather than simply responding to Kenshin's last question with a simple yes or no question. "Yes, the shadowed swordsman savaging Sacae. I am still grateful that you handled him while I was dealing with other issues. Elibe today needs all the help it can get. But there is a possibility that we may face another creature like him, or worse, somewhere in the depths of Ostia. That magic may be the least of our concerns soon."
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Post by Kenshin on Aug 11, 2018 2:23:40 GMT -6
Kenshin stood up straight and wiped his hands on his pants when Nayru was talking about the black skinned creature the two fought at different times. The swordsman walked towards the fire silent, thinking about what little he had saw the thing do in their very brief fight then sat down on the ground next to Nayru with one leg bent with the knee pointing upwards before resting his arms on it. He kept the silence for a few moments while looking in the fire's direction, taking in the warmth it provided.
"It's been a while since the last time we saw each other and I think I've slept a couple times since then. But that thing, you said it was some sort of Rrun? I do remember you not sounding too sure that you knew a lot about them. The one we both had a run in with had spawned some black tendrils and smoke before something stopped it. Judging by what you just said, that wasn't even the tip of the ice burg."
Kenshin's gaze went from the fire towards Nayru, he figured the two would be fighting whatever summoned them here together but he didn't see anything she could fight with on her person unless she had a couple of hidden daggers or used magic. He prayed to the spirits of the plains that she didn't intend to fight it with her bare hands.
"I have a spare blade that you could use, if you don't know how to use a sword then I have a bow that I can lend you." Speaking of weapons, Amanojaku has been quite as of late. Ever since the mysterious person showed up to his village. He figured the spirit would be screaming at him to give into a revenge driven rage while traveling to Ostia, but nope. Just silence.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Aug 11, 2018 3:10:58 GMT -6
"Arum."
Nayru stared at the fire for a few moments, trying to put her thoughts in order. What she had learned in Arcadia, from Erim. And thoughts of how much she had left to learn. "Part of why I returned to Arcadia was to learn more about them. I did not find as many answers as I hoped, but I now know better where to find those answers. After I finish up here, I will find them, or die trying."
The dragon sort of regretted her words immediately - they sounded a bit pompous to her. At least to the her that had spent most of her life running. But while she was still... her, the time with Veigue and Remus had changed enough that she could say that sort of thing. Her visit to Arcadia. Her discussions with Erim, the hints and implications that interested and worried her alike. The savage tragedy in the village with Shara. She didn't have the luxury of looking away any more. She HAD to know. And she needed strength to beat the answers out of the guardian who had spared her.
"What I do know for now... is that the Arum are a group, a race, of Nether-dwelling spirits that can infect a living being, consume it, and use it as a host. They may have once been a race on Elibe or natural to the Nether, I am unsure of that. But the situation in Ostia stinks of their influence. Hordes of the undead march for Worde, for Thria, and yet no generals, no monsters, join them; more bodies than ever fell here during the Etrurian invasion. Something infests this land, and the possibility that the attacks so far have been mere distractions while the true enemy builds its forces cannot be ignored."
She looked down, opening her fingers and closing her hand into a tight fist. Feeling the muscles pull taut, the warm flow of raw essence coursing beneath her skin, through her body; the reinforcement she relied so much on. Never fun to explain to humans. Before meeting Remus she hadn't even known about their own flavor of reinforcement magic. Nayru looked up at Kenshin, grinning lopsidedly as she chuckled in the wake of his offer. Not at the offer, but the mental image of her trying to beat someone to death with a bow. It didn't go well, even in her head. "Don't worry about me. Just think of me as a more hands on type of mage. I'm not too good with most weapons, not for lack of trying, so I'd be more likely to accidentally break your bow than do much useful with it. Besides, I hear you're a hell of a swordsman, so it'd be even more embarrassing for me and distracting for you for me to be swinging a sword around like a madwoman."
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Post by Kenshin on Aug 11, 2018 4:11:59 GMT -6
Six years ago, a monster was just a story to scare your child into acting right. Six months ago, if you died you stayed dead. Six days ago Ostia was a no-go zone. Six minutes ago, the Nether was something dark magic users talked about as a source of magic. Boy did things get flipped upside down for Kenshin the older he got. Think you know the world and it throws a curve ball aimed for your face. Kenshin chuckled a bit when Nayru mentioned the part about swinging a sword like a mad woman. "You know, it's harder to read somebody when they're flailing around. The fact the have a sharp object in their hand can make it down right scary." he joked in return. "Besides, I'm just a decent swordsman. The nickname and 'legend' play a role in intimidation. If the person is confident enough to not let that bother them I even struggle."
Kenshin started to lean backwards as he moved his hands behind his head, locking his fingers in between each other as his back hit the ground with a soft thud. "A 'hands on mage' eh? So do you slap some sense as well as a spell into people then?" Kenshin had thrown in another joke to "mentally prepare" himself for his next question. "I'm sure you heard about the bandit attack on my village not too long ago. Hargus, who had been dead for a while now, was walking the plains of Sacae during that battle. Right before all hell broke lose something about him just changed, his skin turned black like the Arum we both fought but there was more than just that. He grew horns and wings like a..." He honestly couldn't remember what that dragon he met that helped everybody get past the sand storm in Arcadia called himself. "Like a dragon in a human body. You mentioned that there wasn't any generals, do you suppose Hargus was one of those things? He was able to cause the dead to come back to life and command them."
There was a reason he had laid down, and it wasn't to chillax. He was trying to hide the fear and doubt in his eyes when talking about Hargus' return. He does have a reputation to uphold after all, even if it was in front of a single woman.
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