Forum Thread

Luke thought he heard something. He stops playing and gets up quickly and goes to the trees. He was a little worried that something might follow him. The butterfly follows him. He decides he should probably name it. He decides on Morpho. He sees a crashed bell tower. What happened here. He stays in the trees.

Kismet and Elentiya | location: city's edge | mentions: alone

Elentiya, she thought. She saw this animal battered and broken but with such a fire in his eyes, it was hard to hold his gaze. Where had she heard that name before? Was it in a book?... Somehow she couldn't recall, the memory just out of reach and pushing against her skull: Remember me, remember me! The irritation her forgetfulness had caused was doused suddenly as she heard a new noise.
Kismet hadn't called her spirit animal anything until now, and she couldn't think of a reason why. He just hadn't needed a name, really. The pair didn't talk often enough for her to feel obligated to give him a name or to ask if he had given himself one. Their bond hadn't been strong at first, of course, but how smoothly and effortlessly that had changed! Sometimes she believed they shared the same mind, the way they both looked at strangers, planned and executed attacks, killed for necessity.
He was male, and "Elentiya" was not, but the strength and resilience that practically radiated from him had brought that name forward from the recess of her memories, from a book she couldn't remember the title of.
The noise. A four-legged creature coming from the direction the other had come from-- the other that was now sprawled on the ground underneath the caracal, Elentiya. Kismet exhaled sharply and swung her axe like a baseball bat, lodging it in the creature's neck. Elentiya became an owl and tore at its face as it stumbled to the side. It was gone without having even made a mark on the human or bird.
A third noise-- a bell-- assaulted Kismet's ears and the heightened hearing of Elentiya the owl was abruptly severed. Woman and animal exchanged glances and, without a word, set off towards the sound.
[...]
Elentiya, soaring high above, swooped down once he had seen the chaos around the bell. Kismet slowed and stopped, holding her arm out. Elentiya landed gently, his talons almost circling her arm entirely.
It's a mess, perhaps not even worth it. There were humans, though.
With a tired sigh, Kismet looked ahead, then back towards their abandoned camp. Their camps were never permanent, and she hadn't left anything... but they had chosen somewhere dry enough, warm enough, safe enough. Slowly, her mind ticking, she looked back to where the bell's sound had come from.
"We'll continue," she said, stated but also asked. Elentiya ruffled his wings and shifted into his caracal form. A yes from him.
[...]
Upon reaching the scene, face to face with the fray, Kismet refused to slow down, immediately embedding her axe in the back of a two-legged creature and using it as a shield against another monster facing her. After the collision, she pushed the fallen creature forward into the other, blinding it for a moment, long enough for Elentiya to go for its throat. Two felled, but three more surrounded them. Kismet hesitated a moment and two lunged-- she jumped nearly too late and managed to dodge their jaws. One was killed by her axe cutting the back of his neck. I should sharpen this, she thought as she blocked the second monster with her axe and slid her knife out to stab it. Elentiya was occupied with the third.

Icarus bit his tongue as he heard a creature kill another man. Clenching his fists around his weapons, he sheathed his axe. Casting one last longing glance towards Eden, he started snagging warriors by the backs of their collars, whispering in their ears one word: "Retreat." Each man that heard it immediately stopped fighting, instead sheathing their weapons and sneaking stealthily out of the area, each one trained in how to avoid the beast's detection. Once they were out of the cloud of dust kicked up by the tower's fall, they started sprinting to various places and standing there, two men each standing next to a hole in the ground. Various ladders led down, dropping into a tunnel that lead into the darkness. Each soldier standing by the entrances beckoned to others, willing them into the holes. The first person down was another soldier, who grabbed a flashlight from the wall and lead the way. It was incredibly coordinated, each man knowing exactly what to do. Icarus cleared his few soldiers from the area, and was now moving on to the others nearby. Jogging quietly up to Leo, he instructed him to exit the dist cloud and follow the others into the holes.

Perhaps a bit surprising, Leo followed without much of a fuss, the only sounds made by him was the slither of steel as he sheathed his sword and the crinkle of fabric as he wrapped his Nyaitsu up in fabric, swaddling them close to his chest as he dropped down one of the holes. The darkness didn't scare the king, and he moved quickly one hand gently stroking Sena's unconscious body as if the familiar would burst into nothingness the moment he let go of him.

---

Nox watches this sight from the darkness a building gave her. She watches Icarus with a look of both admiration and anger. This guy was definitely on the top of whatever strange social ladder was set for this city. She was curious whenever or not this guy would be considered a target for her. If he was mostly good she could turn a blind eye on him, but if he were bad... Well, she would find a way to take care of him. This guy must have money she thinks to herself. If she wanted to rob someone now would be the chance. She couldn't risk watching the bridge tomorrow, if she wanted to get money it would have to be tonight. After a moment of consideration, she decides that he is too big of a target. But the guy that just went into the tunnel... Maybe he could work. She slinks towards the tunnel, staring at Leo as she quickly catches up to him. She walks behind him, but keeps her distance. She wasn't going to underestimate him, he could be dangerous. Freyja, who has returned to her raven form, perches on her shoulder. She could practically feel the disapproval burning off of Freyja. Nox is usually calculated with her attacks, going after the lowest scum. Usually the people that tried to cross into this city were dangerous, only coming to help contribute to the chaos. She took it upon herself to stop them. But right now, she didn't have time for calculated attacks. She would have to try and get Leo by himself, never an easy task. But she could be patient.

Luke sees some two legged creatures trying to run at him in the trees. He loads up three arrows from his quiver on his back and he shoots all of them at once, hitting the three of them at once, watching them stumble and fall dead. He lifts up his hoodie. He jumps to another tree, and then another, until he gets to a safer position and then he sat and watched. He looked through the dust, Morpho on his shoulder, just looking like part of his hoodie. He saw some people going into holes. Maybe he should go too. He saw Nox through the dust. She could be untrustworthy. He hops a few more trees to get a closer look.

Icarus slunk around the clearing a few more times, watching as the remaining beasts carefully poked and prodded at rubble with their tentacles. He could hear more charging, tearing apart rubble in their way as they located the source of the bell's sound. He had evacuated most, if not all, of the fighters that had been there. He stepped around and froze, his eyes landing on Eden. His hands flew into a flurry of signals, american sign language, telling her to get to the tunnels and leave the motorcycle there.

After a few moments of simply wandering around, Leo finally looked up to see his surroundings. The tight carvers made his eyes sparkle as he gripped Sena closer, the familiar now rousing from his rest. "Don't go off writing on the walls now, Leo." Sena grumbled, curling in closer to the warmth that Leo provided.

"What do you take me for?!" Leo chuckled, gently smoothing out ruffled up fur and smiling at the bundle of fur and warmth that was nestled in his arms. He was completely oblivious to the person tailing him, though since he too was following the torchlight he wouldn't have paid any mind even if he had noticed

---

Nox glances around, looking quite annoyed that there were so many people gathered around her. She could take care of this right now if they were alone. She lowers her head, quickly trying to form a plan in her head. Maybe she could pick pocket him? But she doesn't see any signs of money on his person, her best bet would be to interogate him. "Go" she tells Freyja, speaking as softly as possible. Freyja hops onto the ground and turns into her panther form. Now that she can see in the dark, she can run ahead and see if there is a place where she can "speak" with Leo. Freyja races off, leaving Nox alone.

Luke sees people going into holes. He jumps down from the tree, but Morpho stays on his shoulder, blinding in with the hoodie. He starts walking towards the holes, putting up his hoodie. He passes by Nox. He eyes her suspiciously, then continued walking.

As a black blur darted past him, Leo yelped and laughed, clutching his cats closer before laughing. So there was something in these tunnels, eh? How interesting! A song, a song it comes! A song of mystery and suspense, of a group of explorers stuck in a cave as they traverse the perilous caverns as danger lurks at ever corner!! How beautiful, the world should be blessed by his compositions! Bursting into laughter that echoed throughout the chambers, Leo whipped out his chalk and began to write furiously upon the walls, music flowing forth in a wellspring of beauty and art

---

Nox almost slams into Leo, who has abruptly stopped to write on the walls. She was slightly confused by his random fit of laughter. How crazy was this guy? At least now that they stopped this would give them a chance to be alone. Once again, she is thankful that her clothing was black. It mostly concealed her. The only giveaway that she was there was her pale hair. Nothing could be done about that. She leans against the wall near Leo and lowers her head, trying to be as invisible as possible. It seemed like everyone was too preoccupied with their own lives to take notice to them. After a minute or so. They were alone, or at least, she assumed they were alone. It was too dark to really tell. She raises her head and watches him work until Freyja returns. She quickly does, sensing that now was their time to strike. What are you doing? Nox signs and Freyja voices. Nox decides to be kind for now, at least until she figured out if it were worth stealing from Leo or not.

Luke suddenly stops, letting people pass by him. Morpho wanted to check something out. He looks in the direction that the little blue butterfly was pointing his antennae in and sees the faint shape of Nox and Leo. He wonders what they’re doing. He leans on another wall, sending in Morpho to check it out. It was his idea after all.

There was no reply as Leo continued to write with his tongue sticking out as he slowly moved along the wall, filling out the drab area with beauty and splendor. Sena, however, seemed to notice and glared at the direction of the voice before batting Leo's nose with his tail. "Ou-sama, someone's speaking to you." He informed Leo who didn't seem to hear him either, humming absentmindedly to himself as he composed his heart out. Sighing at his antics, Sena turned to rest his chin on Leo's arm, staring out into the darkness. "Well, if you have something to say to us, then speak. If not, walk around us. Ou-sama doesn't like to be interrupted when he's composing." He snapped, washing himself without much care as to who was talking to them

---

"That's too bad then" Nox replies. She puts a hand on Leo's shoulder and roughly spins him around to face her. "You! I demand any cash that you have on hand" Nox snaps. With her free hand, she unsheathes her dagger and points it near his chest. She is careful to not point the dagger too close to him, she didn't want to actually hurt him.

Daedris withdrew into his tattoo rather quickly when Eden gestured to her familier, the owl tattoo once again appearing on her forearm. The monsters were preoccupied with the belltower it seemed, picking it apart like vultures at a corpse. Her eyes drifted over Icarus again, and dropped to the signals he was making with his hand. American Sign Language. Once a language she had used when she became one with stone and shadow. Turning her gaze to her motorcycle, she dragged it to the side of a building; the black blending in perfectly before taking herself to the tunnels. Just looking at it made her throat tighten. Not a cage. Not a cage. Not a cage. Not a cage. Not a cage. Taking a deep breath of the ruined outdoors, she climbed down, not daring to meet Icarus’s eyes again.

"Wha- Hey!" Hissing like a disgruntled cat, Leo barred his teeth and tried to flip back to continue composing. It mostly worked until the angle of the dagger dug into his back and he turned around to snarl at Nox. "What do you want?!" he spat, wriggling around to get out of Nox's hold. It really seemed like he didn't listen to anything that had been said up until this point

---

Icarus watched, then made his way to the tunnel she'd gone down. He slid down the ladder with more than a little noise, but it thankfully did not echo out of the area. He took a breath, then turned to face Eden, who was making her way shakily down the tunnel. His voice was a hoarse whisper, unheard by even himself. "Eden?" He swallowed hard, then tried again, his voice audible now: "Eden? He stepped closer to her. "Eden, it's alright. The tunnel opens up at the end, there's plenty of space. Eden, take my hand and we'll get through this tunnel and it'll be over." He stepped up beside her, keeping a respectful distance from her slightly shaky form. His hand was held out to the side if she did indeed need to take it. He heard whispers of others in the tunnel, but was more focused on Eden. His other hand snagged a flashlight from the wall and flicked it on, illuminating the tunnel. "Eden, you have to trust me. It's just around that little bend." His flashlight gestured to the far wall, indicating that as their destination.

"Quiet down" Nox warns. She looks around, making sure nobody was around. When nobody immediately races towards them to aid Leo she relaxes. "I'll make this quick so you can go back to... Composing. Now, don't make me repeat this again, give me your money" her tone was meant to be harsh and threatening. But once again her voice fails her. It's far too soft and gentle to come out remotely threatening, if it weren't for the dagger pressed against him, it could sound like she was pretending to rob him. Nox is quickly reminded why she uses Freyja to speak.

"Money? What do you need that for? No matter, here you go~" Drawing out of his inner pocket form his jerkin, Leo held out a fairly heavy bag of money. He completely ignored the sputtering that Sena made as the cat attempted to grab the bag back but Leo simply laughed and held the bag out, not even flinching as Sena clawed at his arm. "Stupid Sena, we don't need that much money. Even if we do, I can always compose more and more and more until we have so much we don't even know what to do with it!! Wahahahaha!!" Throwing his head back, Leo dropped the bag by Nox's feet and picked up Sena, petting him softly.

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