{Artemis and Eldar} Flowers in Springtime {Ciqala and Selene}

Last edited by Artemis on Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

Setting: A large field, on a farmer's land but some way away from any buildings. No other people are currently here. It's early afternoon.
I'm pretty sure we both know the rules by now Wink

It had been a bad idea, Ciqala concluded, to come to a field. Add that to the ever-growing list of Places Not To Go To.

The grass, waving gently in a breeze which threatened to knock him off his feet, was uncut by grazing animals; presumably left to regrow, the place’s emptiness had been the main reason he had chosen it. Unfortunately, he hadn’t bargained on quite how annoying the coarse stuff would be, waving around in his face and making him sneeze from the pollen. Add to that the difficulties it created to wade through it, and the only benefit it really had was that it hid him from anything airborne which might do him harm.

Well, that and the blackberry bushes which ran along the side of it. The thorns made convenient- if dangerous- handles for climbing, and he had managed to scale it a little way and retrieve a berry for himself. Another one had been lying on the ground underneath the brambles, and consequently his hands were stained with purple juice from pulling the fruit apart as he ate it. Absent-mindedly attempting to lick his palms clean, the homunculus glanced over at the adjacent field, where he could hear some sort of livestock moving around, before looking back down at where he was placing his feet- only to stop abruptly.

A large hole lay in the ground less than a metre away from him. Warily, he took a few steps closer towards it. It seemed to be a burrow of some kind, but he wasn’t sure what; hopefully nothing that would want to eat him. After listening for a few moments he was none the wiser, and so took the safer decision to not walk on top of this animal’s home lest it decide to find out who was disturbing it. Extending his hands in front of him and frowning in concentration for a few moments, he created a forcefield which zigzagged up before him like stairs, making sure that it repelled light as well as physical objects so that he could see where to walk. In order to minimise the energy he was spending, he only created what was absolutely necessary for him to stand on at any time; nonetheless, he could feel the drain on him as he put his weight onto the invisible surface, making tiny flicks of his tiny hands to shape it as he went. When he was a metre or so above ground, he paused and stood still briefly, turning to examine the landscape around him.

He wasn’t expecting to see a figure in the distance.

After squinting for a bit to ensure that it really was a person, he grimaced and created a slide which sloped smoothly down to the ground a good distance away from the hole. Despite his concern at having possibly been seen by this person, he couldn’t help but enjoy the trip downwards, grinning to himself as he whizzed down the perfectly smooth barrier. This was something he had made sure to perfect in his forcefields.

When he reached the ground though, he returned to seriousness. Standing on his tiptoes to check where the silhouette was over the grass, he tried to figure out which direction they were going in and how best to get away from them. The last thing he wanted right now was to be hurt, mistaken for a toy, or taken in for experiments.

A field, full of flowers and uncut grass! That was just the thing that Selene needed now. A quiet and peaceful place where she could follow her own thoughts and would not be interrupted by anyone or anything. Nobody who wanted something from her, nobody who wanted to annoy her, no noise, no nothing. It seemed absolutely perfect!

The young woman had had a couple of rough days, or rough weeks really and she was glad for every second she could now spend on her own. Other people might want to drown their sorrows in pubs with pints after pint or in brothels between some woman’s legs – though that was mostly men. Selene preferred to rethink what had just happened to her so she knew what to avoid next time, even though she seemed to have a knack for ending up in more trouble than necessary, which might amongst others be caused by her mouth, but she was not quite ready to admit that yet. She was, in that respect, rather similar to her brother, which was yet another memory she simply pushed to the farthest corner of her mind.

The thought of letting herself simply fall backwards into the lovely field seemed fantastic and she was just about to let herself drop down when her eyes suddenly fell on something rather odd. Something was suspended mid-air and it seemed to be starring at her, before it suddenly slid down towards the ground – somehow – and then disappeared from view.
Selene had no idea what the thing or creature had been and for a second she was not quite sure she wanted to find out. For a few heartbeats, she was frozen on the spot, her arms awkwardly suspended, knees bent, as she had been preparing for a cosy lie-down.

It looked as though that was not going to happen however. Whatever that thing had been, Selene was now intrigued, and she couldn’t shake the feeling of being stared at, which she did not like in the least. However, she was reluctant to go check it out. She may be able to hold her own but she was not necessarily one to seek out trouble and this could smell like trouble if she ventured any closer.
But... the creature – if it had indeed been a living thing – had seemed so small, how much could it really hurt her?
Taking heart, Selene inhaled deeply, straightened herself up once before slowly heading in the direction where she had seen the thing disappear on the ground. She was treading carefully, not knowing what it was; she did not accidentally want to step on it. At least not before she figured out what it was, she could always step on it afterwards if it caused her any pain.

Selene could not see anything though and the further she advanced, the more uncertain she grew about the place where the creature had descended to the ground. Feeling a little stupid about it, but knowing that nobody would be able to hear her apart from this potential small living being, she called out a hesitant: “Hello?”

The woman seemed to have frozen mid-movement, and she was facing him. Had she noticed him…? Yes, from the way the woman was now walking in his general direction, if not entirely certainly, it seemed that she had indeed seen him. Dammit, dammit, dammit. He really didn’t feel like this. Continuing to watch her as best he could, Ciqala moved backwards at a half-run diagonally away from her, hoping that she wouldn’t see the grass swaying as he pushed it aside, or hear the rustling of his passage. But he was distracted by the way she was moving, examining the ground as she took each carefully placed step. What was she up to? It took a few moments for it to occur to him that she could be taking care not to tread on him. In fact, the idea took him aback to the extent that he forgot to look over his shoulder to check where he was going as he stared at the stranger, and tripped over a twig which was sticking out of the ground, buried at one end. A small squeal of alarm emitted from the homunculus’ mouth as he toppled over backwards, arms flailing for something to catch himself on and finding only grass which was pulled down with him. He took most of the impact on his back, his arms not free to break the fall, and had to gasp for air for a few moments before he rolled back onto his feet.

As he regained his footing, he heard a feminine voice calling out a greeting- surely the woman talking to him. Sure enough, when he reared up on his toes again he could make her out, looking around for him. She didn’t seem too sure of his location anymore, and he considered trying to get away. But he had no idea what sort of person she was, she could well find him anyway- and if he was going to be honest with himself, he really wouldn’t mind somebody to talk to. Fervently hoping that he wasn’t about to be attacked, Ciqala created another staircase and platform for himself and climbed over the top of the grass, staying warily on his feet as he called out,
“Um, hi.”

His voice wasn’t really loud enough to carry far, but it would probably reach the woman. She wasn’t too far away, though she was looking away to his left. Trying not to make his nervousness too obvious, he shifted and rubbed his face as he watched her, waiting for her to turn.

Having been prepared for a reply to her hesitant greeting was one thing, but Selene had definitely not been prepared for the quiet sound reaching her ears from a completely different direction from where she was looking at. In addition, when she swiveled around towards the sound, her eyes still rather close to the ground as that had been where she had been looking for most of the time.

The sight catching her eyes made her jump back a few steps in surprise, almost shock, when she met the gaze of this… well, what was it? The little voice and tiny creature lead to believe that it was a small being but that was all Selene could figure out, her brain sending her various bits and pieces of information but unable to make anything of it, the young woman felt like she was growing stupider by the second.

Forcing herself to take a deep breath to calm her wildly beating heart, and to calm her brain from telling her that small equaled little – it was obvious. She almost wanted to scream at herself for being so ridiculously dumb sometimes.

“I.. I’m sorry,” she finally uttered. “I did not quite expect you to pop up in the middle of… in midair.” Her mind was still in a bit of a frenzy but Selene was slowly regaining her composure and was now looking at the being in front of her with interest, her head cocked to the left.

The creature definitely seemed to have human features but she was not sure whether it was a human cursed to being reduced to a tiny size or whether it was something completely different. He – for it definitely was a male being - looked human but Selene knew that did not necessarily mean anything. Maybe the appearance was only an illusion and it was not really anything human-related at all? In any case, he was unlike anything she had ever seen or even heard of, thus she was quite curious but the hesitation with which the creature had met her greeting made her somewhat unsure as to how soon she..

Her brain decided to take a short cut and completely cut her off mid-thought, and she heard herself ask: “May I ask who and what you are?” Her cheeks reddened slightly with the extreme hurry in which she had burst out the question and she was hoping the being would not hex her for being insolent. If it could float mid-air on some sort of magicy thing, it would certainly be able to do other things as well and she was not very fond of the idea of being turned into a frog.

Last edited by Artemis on Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:22 am; edited 1 time in total

The longer the woman stood gaping at him, the lower Ciqala’s expectations for this meeting plummeted. Another one who was baffled by him, apparently. Just because she’d never seen anyone like him before, that was bound to mean he didn’t exist. Maybe he was a figment of her imagination, maybe he was an illusion. Who knew what stupid explanation this one would come up with? It was almost turning into a game for him, trying to find the least probable theory for his existence.

So when the woman finally got herself together and addressed him like he was an actual person, he was more than a little taken aback. After a moment of blinking mutely at her, he shrugged and spread his hands carefreely.
“I guess I am something special,” he said jokingly. In truth, he was starting to weary of holding this forcefield up. It was one thing to just hold a barrier in existence, ready to block things should the need arise; it was another entirely to sustain its solidity so that he could stand on it. Preserving his energy, the homunculus had reduced it to the size of the soles of his feet and let the light stream through it once more.

“Who am I to stop you from asking? My name’s Ciqala, and I’m a homunculus.” He swept his eyes assessingly over Selene, before adding somewhat wearily, “I expect that’s not something you’ve heard of, is it? You don’t need to worry about it.” He flapped a hand dismissively before continuing, “And how about you? Something the human, I’m guessing? Not really hard to tell.” This woman didn’t look threatening or dangerous, but then you could never tell- and it wouldn’t exactly be hard to take down the tiny man. “After all, you’re-woah, shit!" Forgetting that he had reduced his forcefield in size, he shifted where he stood and promptly lost his balance with nothing to support his feet. His expression changed from an over-confident smile to one of horror as he toppled backwards and landed with a whumph in the grass, not hurt but very much embarrassed.

Her question was followed by a rather long moment of silence and Selene was beginning to wonder whether she had said something wrong. Or maybe the being came from a completely different place and did not speak the common language of Dragon’s Cove? It was all the more exciting to her if he really did come from somewhere else, she herself not knowing much more than the general area of where she had been born and raised, and then travelled – away from her family but not really far after all – in order to find a job.

In all honesty, she had no idea how many more languages there even were on Dragons’ Cove but she was fairly certain that it at least had a few dialects diverging from the common but she could not be certain about anything above that.
When the being finally spoke however, she was more than a little relieved that it was in a language she understood. Maybe she had just been overthinking it again and maybe there was not that much difference in the variety of the common across the island.

“Well yes, special you are,” she grinned in return, slightly easing up with the whole situation. So far, he had not shown any hostility towards her, which she took to be a good sign. Her attention was briefly deviated from the being himself however when the thing he was standing on suddenly shrank in size and seemingly disappeared from view – or from her view. She raised a questioning eyebrow but before she could mention anything, the man in front of her spoke up again.

“I…” Selene wanted to introduce herself and actually confirm that, yes, she had never heard of a homunculus before, just as the man now known as Ciqala had predicted, when he already continued speaking, the words seemingly rushing out of him now that he had started. Blinking, she wondered what had brought this on. Had she done something? Or did he just generally go about bashing people for being human?
Not that she couldn’t understand, a little at least. After all, she was used to being stamped the sweet little girl but black sheep of the family because she had not gone down the wedding road at the age of 15 as everyone had expected and wanted her to. Nothing in comparison to not being recognised for your.. well.. race? But still, in a way, she understood, so she let him talk without interruption. The tone gave away the sentiment clearly enough and she figured there’d be no need to even remotely feel offended by it.

“Shit!” Selene joined in when all of a sudden, the homunculus’ wordfall was interrupted as the little man quite literally tumbled through the air and crashed through the grass before Selene could even step in to try and catch Ciqala. It had been an instinctive gesture to reach out to steady him, however, seeing that he was so much smaller and already falling down instead of stumbling or something, Selene’s gesture was a rather useless one.

“Are you alright?” she asked as she let herself fall to her knees next to Ciqala. “What happened? Weren’t you standing on.. something to keep you up there?” Selene looked the homunculus over with a critical eye but again, it was a useless gesture. She had no clue how to distinguish if anything was broken or not. “Well, at least, you don’t need to continue your rant anymore,” she grinned. “I got the point of me being a mere, clueless human. It’s true as well. And my name is Selene, by the way,” she added with a good-humoured look on her face as she offered to help him sit up.

Last edited by Artemis on Tue May 08, 2012 9:41 am; edited 1 time in total

Maybe he’d been a little blunt. The woman looked taken aback and at a loss as for what to say. Ciqala was thinking about apologising- he wasn’t trying to insult her, just stating some truths.

Once he’d fallen, though, all these thoughts were banished from his head.
“I’m fine,” he muttered as gruffly as he was able to, flushing a deep red and staring down at the floor as he made his way back to his feet, gripping onto her little finger to help. “I was standing on a forcefield… Only reason I’m still alive, those things.” He demonstrated, holding his hand up in the air and making a basic shield between himself and Selene. It was hardly visible unless he made it so, perhaps a slight distortion of light. After holding it for a couple of seconds he closed his hand back into a fist, the disc vanishing as he did so, and let his arm drop back to his side.

“I’m sorry, I was a bit… rude,” he said sheepishly, running one hand through his hair. “Nice to meet you, Selene, I’m sure. I guess I’m just used to people telling me I can’t exist, or something like stupid like that.” He rolled his eyes at the thought, remembering one man who’d decided he was a hallucination and spent half an hour persistently trying to pass his hand through Ciqala to prove it. Really, there was no getting around the idiocy of some people. At least it kept him fit, which was always needed; there was no way to tell when bad weather would strike and he’d need to get under shelter. Hail, a minor annoyance to most people, posed a real danger to a homunculus- the blocks of ice could be as big as his head, easily. Thankfully he’d only been caught out by a hailstorm once, but it had been an unpleasant experience and not one he’d care to repeat.

“So, erm, what do you do? What brings you out here?” He didn’t socialise much, and small talk wasn’t his forte, but Selene seemed nice enough and he felt obliged to talk to her for a little while, at least. And… Well, if he could catch a ride out of this nightmarish field, he’d be extremely glad. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of spending hours more toiling through it in an attempt to just get out, let along get somewhere else. If only he could find somewhere decent to stay for good…

A forcefield, how very interesting! “That is quite a useful trick,” Selene smiled as Ciqala demonstrated the use of his field for her. “Should definitely keep you from harm and who would not want that.” Now that he was a little embarrassed, he was a lot nicer than he had first been when he had addressed her and it almost made her grin when she considered how much an embarrassment in front of someone one either didn’t know or had strong feelings for made one act differently.

“It’s quite alright,” Selene soothed. He might have been rude but he didn’t seem to be used to people being a little more shocked by his appearance as she had been. She could somewhat relate and she was definitely not the one to judge him for being different than what people expected. “I tend to do the same when it comes to people asking where my husband might be and when I then proceed to tell them that I am not married and never have been. Apparently it’s very disdainful for a woman my age not to have tied the knot yet and they then keep telling me for ages how I am a disappointment for my mother, a disgrace for my family, and what I should really be doing with my life.”

Suddenly realising what she had just said, Selene covered her mouth with her hand, looking ashamed. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to dump this all over you. It’s not of any interest to you, I’m sure and I don’t even know you. So sorry,” she repeated as she was desperately hoping for a hole to open up underneath her and swallow her whole.

“As for what brings me here, I’ve been out on a walk without a specific destination in mind. I just felt the need to clear my head before heading back into town trying to find yet another part-time job.” Selene had had a few jobs on and off, a few pick up or drop off jobs, waitressing in a bar before she got thrown out for being too rude to a few customers who had tried to grope her ass. Nothing seemed very permanent in her life at the moment and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

“What about you then? This doesn’t quite seem like a good place for travelling for a homunculus,” she stated, pointedly looking at the tall grass and the small spaces in between the plants. She stumbled slightly over the word ‘homunculus’ but she tried her best not to butcher it too much.

((Sorry if the way Ciqala speaks is a bit weird through this post- I’m just figuring it out atm, should be more consistent soon Smile

))

“Yep, I’m sure glad it’s more on the practical side athings insteada making rainbows or something.” Being able to keep himself from harm was definitely a “useful trick”, even more so than it might have been for anyone else.

Maybe Selene had looked a little surprised when Ciqala had gone off on his tangent, but judging from the way she proceeded to rant, he wasn’t the only one with some issues. He raised his eyebrows slightly at her angry words, but didn’t make any comment until she began to gush apologies. “No, no, don’t you worry ‘bout it,” he insisted, wafting one hand in the air. “I’d rather hear ‘bout someone else’s problems than go on ‘bout my own. Seems to me ya needed to get that off your chest, anyway.” The thought of marriage was a strange one for Ciqala. He was 14, but he’d never grown and never would, having been physically adult when he was created. While he didn’t know all too much about the subject, he would guess- and what Selene said backed it up- that a human of his age, a girl at least, would probably be married or engaged by now. But whether or not that was right, it wasn’t going to happen to him any time soon, simply because there was nobody for him to marry. Not counting the failed attempts of his creator, he’d never met another homunculus, much less an eligible bride. There wasn’t even any way to tell if he’d be able to have children if he did have a wife. Even if Selene didn’t want to tie the knot, at least she had the choice if she ever changed her mind.

Despite the slight resentment he felt because of this, he knew it wasn’t her fault, and so he pushed aside the thoughts to continue the conversation.
“Guess I could say much the same as you, leastways on the, erm… “no specific destination in mind” front. Turns out it ain’t such a good place for me, but I’m always on the move.” He paused briefly, before adding with a shrug, “Noplace seems too great. I don’t fit in so well.” True again, but this field really was bad- give him some solid, cobbled streets any day. Although really, they were a pain too, so uneven to walk over.

A nervous chuckle escaped Selene’s lips at the homunculus’ rather soothing words and she shrugged, still somewhat apologetically but at the same time, she was relieved that he did not look at her sideways for randomly bursting out like that and dumping all her negativity on him. After all, they had only just met.
“Seems like I’m really not the only one with quite a bit of baggage.” It was a fact she had never really considered as most people in her life so far had not had a lot of problems or at least feigned not to. Her family had been one big happy cookie – apart from her – for whom the sun had always seemed to shine. Nonetheless, it was good to see that there were others with issues as well, even though it was not something she wished upon others – well, maybe she would, if they really bugged her a lot.

They both seemed to hang after their own thoughts for quite a while after this before Ciqala picked up the conversation again. “We seem to have that in common,” Selene said lightheartedly. “Fitting in isn’t always easy, especially when you’re not quite what people expect, or most people at least There is always the odd one out, the exception but those are generally harder to come across than the rest of them.”
With a wave of her hand, she brushed the dark thoughts away however and exclaimed with a grin: “Now then, I know there is a lovely little pond not too far from here. What do you say we make our way over there for a bit of a rest? It would give you a break from the grass for a while and we could get something to drink,” she added as she patted around herself only to realise that she had forgotten her waterskin.

“Alternatively, I think there is an old abandoned hunting cabin somewhere not too far from here as well. If you’re searching for a bit of shelter.” Selene turned in the respective directions, shrugging lightly. “Other than that, I’m not really sure what else is out here. I generally just come for walks around the field until I get dizzy from turning in circles.” Even merely talking about it made her feel restless again, thus she forced herself to take a deep breath and straightened up in an attempt to calm herself. Looking at the homunculus amidst the tall grass, she added: "I could offer a hand as well, if you so wish."

Though Ciqala didn’t see why she had any reason to be, Selene was still looking somewhat nervous, and so he cracked a grin back at her in response to her laugh.
“I’m sure you ain’t, darlin’.” It was only just after he had spoken that it was his turn to feel somewhat uncomfortable; the familiar nickname was something he’d just picked up from hearing men speak around towns, and he really had no idea if it was appropriate to use with the rather more refined woman or not. Well, at least there was no chance of her thinking that he was making a move.

When her tone lightened, an easy-going sort of expression replaced the slightly more sombre one which he had been wearing previously, and he smiled again at Selene as he replied,
“And hey, it’d be nice ta think we don’ always need ta fit in, hm? A li’l bit o’ individuality never hurt a one.” This said, Ciqala took a while to contemplate her suggestions before answering, stretching himself out and swinging his arms loosely by his sides in turn.
“Well, seems a shame ta waste some nice weather like this in some dusty ol’ cabin. Ya want to head on over t’the pond? Might be some plants round there fer shade if I need it.” His smile faded and he made a slight face, dropping his head sheepishly to the ground. “And… well, I gotta say a hand does sound nice. I’m damn tireda all this grass.” With a small shrug, he straightened from the slouched position he had been standing in before and looked hopefully up at Selene, who seemed to have been overcome with a need to move all of a sudden. Not a problem as far as he was concerned; every moment he spent in this godforsaken field was one wasted. And a drink did sound good, it was a hot day. Ciqala dehydrated quickly, managing to hold onto some characteristics of clay even with the heavy layers of enchantment which had been cast over him to give him life.

“Ah, you’re quite right about that!” Selene replied with a grin of her own. “Who wants to be like everyone else anyways.”
And that easily, the gloomy mood was broken and the smiling set in for real, minus the odd embarrassing gesture or word that slipped out but that was just normal anyhow. Selene generally didn’t mind too much anymore when she made a bit of a fool of herself. It happened regularly but she generally also quickly made up for it again as well.

Smiling as the homunculus accepted her offer, Selene bent down and let Ciqala step onto her hand before placing him where he requested so that he could enjoy the walk in a more comfortable manner than having to dash around tall grass blades intent on whipping him off his feet at the slightest bit of wind.
The field was quickly left behind as Selene made for the pond she had in mind, already craving the cool shade of the trees. “It will be wonderful to get out of the sun,” she said, only now realising how hot it really was. “The sun is burning quite fiercely today, don’t you think?” It was smalltalk, she knew, but she felt like she needed to explain why she had started sweating so much, not that the homunculus started to think that she was a filthy being.

Once at the pond, Selene carefully put Ciqala back onto the ground again with a lighthearted “There we are!” As she looked at the water with is still, gleaming surface, she felt as though it was calling out to her, but she could hardly lose all decency now in order to strip down to her underwear and delight in a swim.
Instead, she freed her feet from their confines and slowly slipped them into the water before sitting down at the shore. “This is wonderful!” she exclaimed, enjoying the exquisite tickle of the light waves she’d created lapping against her skin.

“Have you ever been to the real shores? To the sea?” Selene asked, wondering how much of the island the homunculus had seen already. Her eyes were glittering in anticipation of maybe hearing of the wonders of the sea but she tried to keep her excitement in check somewhat. There was no need to go off and turn into her brother. She was not an adventurer. Not in the least. Although, she wouldn’t mind visiting the odd spot on Dragon’s Cove, but preferably without trouble and extra adventures and excursions.

The journey to the pond wasn’t a long one, but as he exchanged smalltalk with Selene, Ciqala found himself enjoying the company more than he’d thought he would. Maybe he didn’t know the woman well, but she was pleasant and easy to talk to, and it was just good to have somebody else around. Especially as he knew she wasn’t going to tread on him by mistake, attack him, use him as a research project, or anything else. For once, carried by Selene and relatively protected from the myriad risks of the world, the homunculus could simply… relax.

At the pond, Ciqala looked around for a few moments, a grin slowly breaking across his face. The grass was much shorter here, covered by the dappled shade of the trees’ canopies; it made it more of a pleasant feature than a real obstacle, just brushing halfway up his shins and cushioning the ground nicely when he flopped down on the edge of the pond next to Selene.

“Good choice,” he said cheerfully, kicking his shoes off and stretching to dip the tips of his toes in the water. “Ain’t nothing like a good wash and summin’ ta drink on a hot day.” He took a moment to lean forwards and scoop up water in his hands, splashing it over his face and slurping it from his cupped palms, before sitting back again and craning his head to look up at Selene.
“Never bin t’the sea, nah. Ain’t got much reason to, don’ I know I wouldn’t do so well down there. Better off on solid ground, might be a bit o’ wind but I ain’t got no currents to worry ‘bout.” After a second, Ciqala realised what the obvious excitement on Selene’s face could mean and leant back on his elbows with a would-be casual shrug. “Bin a few other places though, lookin’ fer summ’ere t’stay. You do any travellin’?”

“Oh you have?” Selene called out in delight, though feeling a tad ridiculous by doing so but the excitement ran in the family and she couldn’t quite help it. “I haven’t really gotten around much. You see, I’ve only just left the family home not too long ago – for various reasons back then and... – well anyways, and it isn’t really proper for a young woman to travel on her own or even envision such things rather than looking for a husband.”
There were different reasons now for her being out and about in the world than back when she had first slammed the door into her mother’s face and left the house but she wasn’t very keen on getting into those right now, the memories were still too fresh on her mind.

“My parents were fairly old-fashioned and they never left the village either, merely for visits to the next town for trading every once in a while, but other than that... It’s a shame really.” Selene shrugged at the thought of her parents having preferred to leave a boring life just because they didn’t want to risk anything but where was the fun in that? No risk, no fun!

“My brother on the other hand, he has been around Dragon’s Cove, travelling and adventure for quite a while now but I haven’t seen him in years so I wouldn’t even know what he’s gotten up to,” Selene continued, severely pushing down the bile rising in her throat at the thought of her brother just leaving her behind like that.
“I am just going to do it on my own now, at least nobody will bother me then.” Suddenly, it occurred to her that she was doing a sort of monologue and she immediately blushed. “I’m so sorry, I’m just not stopping with all the talking today. Where would you like to go if you could choose a place to visit on Dragon’s Cove? Aside the fact that your height might be an impediment in certain places, what would you want to see?”

Last edited by Artemis on Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:31 am; edited 1 time in total

"Nah? Well, ya should try'n travel some, there's sure as hell a lot t'see." Hesitating, Ciqala fiddled with the blades of grass that sprouted up around his legs. How much more was it sensitive to say? While hardly an expert in social matters, he could tell that they might be touching on a sore topic here. The last thing he wanted was to offend the first person who'd spoken kindly to him in over a month.

"Shame ya never could afore now," he eventually continued, his tone layered with caution. "P'raps yer brother's round, an' ya could travel wi'him?" It took a second after he had said this for him to realise that, while he'd thought about it before speaking for once, it had still probably been a bad decision to say that. Looking over at the tree for an excuse to turn away, he cursed himself in an angry mutter. He really needed to spend more time talking to people. Women in particular- they were just so delicate emotionally. At least he himself provided a good frame of reference for men, though his feelings were a little more robust than those of some. It took a lot to upset Ciqala- not to make him angry, frightened or wary, but to hurt his feelings.

In light of this reflection, Ciqala licked his lips uncomfortably as he turned back to swiftly move the conversation on from the difficult, if brief, silence they had reached.
"Sorry, f'got 'bout yer question. If I could go anyplace..." He tilted back his face in thought, the dappled sunlight which reached them through the tree's canopy highlighting the contours of his features. One fist closed around a single blade of grass, which he tugged from the ground with a sharp jerk as he finally decided,
"I guess the sea'd be good. Always kinda liked th'water, an' s'peaceful nuff less you're round harbourways, or so I hear. But I dunno..." The ponderous expression on Ciqala's face gave way to a slight grimace before he continued. "Ain't got many interests, nor cares. Specially f'pretty places... Ain't got time."

“Ha!” Selene exclaimed in a burst, before settling down as she forced herself to breathe. “You’re probably right,” she acquiesced despite the frown on her forehead. “He is probably around somewhere but I have no idea how or where to find him, thus I should better take matters into my own hands and start travelling by myself.” Selene smiled at the thought, once more pushing away any further thoughts about her brother. Zeke had always been somewhat flaky in that respect and she couldn’t blame him for it either.”After all, there really is a hell of a lot to see out there,” she concluded and after that she let the silence stretch, as they seemingly both wanted to move past this particular moment.

Her eyes were roaming over the lake, catching the odd circles when a fish came up for air and she made a silly pass-time out of counting them though it would never tell her how many fish really were in the pond. However, that was not the point of the exercise either.
When Ciqala broke the silence to reply to her earlier question, she shifted her gaze over to the homunculus with curiosity written all over her face. With a sigh, she let herself flop back onto the ground, crossing her arms behind her head for support as she gazed up into the canopy and the sky beyond.
“The sea would definitely be lovely. Nice beaches, lovely colours, curious animals you don’t get to see elsewhere. The breeze!” Selene sighed. “It would definitely be a nice place to be, and it seems fantastic from everything I’ve heard.” It smelled like freedom, someone had once told her, and it was that thought she could never quite get out of her mind.

“Wait a minute,” Selene shifted a little so she could squint at Ciqala. “You don’t have time to travel to the sea? Or to see beautiful places?” That seemed a little odd to her seeing that they were lounging about as though there was nothing in the world more important than this moment of utter relaxation. “May I ask why that is?” She didn’t want to pry and she understood privacy, but this last comment of his had made her curious.

Rather than drag out the potentially painful conversation, Ciqala gave a nod of agreement to Selene’s words and held his tongue. He wasn’t quite sure what she had been laughing at, but he wasn’t about to ask either. No, much safer to divert the conversation.

“A li’l bit o’breeze can be nice, yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “Lotsa places I’ve heard some good things ‘bout… just never bin t’most of ‘em.” A slight wind stirred the tree above, shifting its slender branches sideways a little so that the sun edged in to shine down on the homunculus. He lolled back on his elbows, turning his face up to its rays and just enjoying the warmth for a few moments. He didn’t turn to Selene to answer her, just rolling his eyes in her direction as he explained,
“Just tryin’a stay alive I guess. Travellin’ takes a damn long time, ain’t easy to get anywhere less I get a ride in a caravan or sumthin’. A rueful grin spread on his face as he added, “That time I tried t’make it up t’Kaionar, that was a mistake f’sure.” All too soon he had learnt that you needed some good guards to stop a caravan of trade goods being attacked well before it reached the city.

As his gaze returned to the clouds which drifted idly by overhead, he suddenly noticed one which was undoubtedly not a cloud. It was black for a start, but the most obvious issue was that it was distinctly dragon-shaped. He couldn’t quite make out the detail from where he was, but abruptly it veered down into a dive, heading roughly in their direction.
“Hey, look a’this…” Ciqala’s voice was uneasy as he drew Selene’s attention to whatever was going on. He had no idea what was happening, but if the dragon proved aggressive, then neither of them stood much of a chance of fighting it off. He might be able to protect them for a while, he supposed, but without his forcefields he doubted he could beat his friend Zack in a fight. And Zack was made of paper.

Just as he was about to ask Selene what she thought of the dragon, another appeared. This one was far easier to identify, a colossal green monster with a deadly-looking mace on the end of its tail. More worryingly, it appeared to be chasing and gaining on the smaller dragon, which he could now see was flapping desperately and, perhaps, with some kind of injury or at least in pain. It didn’t look composed, that was for sure- this was no game.

Last edited by Eldarwen on Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:34 am; edited 1 time in total

“Kaionar, huh?” Selene mused. “I’ve heard it’s a bit of a rough place. But then again, it’s all relative anyways.” The people who have told her Kaionar was rough might have been right, but Selene already though Racksom had been rough and apparently that was nothing in comparison to Kaionar, so to her Kaionar must be… a nightmare?

Ripped out of her musings by Ciqala’s voice, she followed his gaze up into the sky. “Is that…?” Yes, it really was a dragon. “But what…?” Her words died in her throat as a second dragon suddenly appeared behind the much smaller first dragon – size which she’d already thought rather large in all honesty.

He was panicking. It was the least one could say about the current state the acid dragon was in. Never had he thought this day would end with him being chased by an angry clubtail. Yet, here he was and it was not looking good. The previous fight had exhausted him already as he was still inexperienced in many areas and his physical condition was lacking extremely.

Flapping madly, Sa’am went into a straight dive down towards a little lake in the forest, hoping that the narrow passage through the trees might slightly slow the clubtail down. One could always hope! Although he knew it would not buy him a lot of time and it was of no use trying to outfly the beast either. For each stroke of the green dragon’s wings, Sa’am made at least two.

However,he had something to protect. As young as he was, he had a few valuable items left behind by his parents, items that might not necessarily be of any worth to others, but to him they were important. Apparently to the clubtail as well, which Sa’am did not quite understand.

“Ooohh… This does not look good, Ciqala!” Selene abruptly got onto her feet as the black dragon came ever closer, the green one dangerously at its heels. “We need to move, now!” And without waiting for a reply from the homunculus, she quite simply grabbed him and picked him up, running for the cover of the trees.
And not a moment to soon as the dragon already reached the surface of the lake.

Well, here we go! he thought before launching himself out of the dive just before reaching the lake’s surface, dropping his valuables into the lake, but the disturbance thereof barely noticeable through the waves created by his wings. Before he could completely smash into the lake however, he steered away again, lifting his body and hauling it into the trees, finding narrow passages here and there through which he could fly, up and away as quickly as possible. Or so he hoped.

Last edited by Artemis on Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:23 am; edited 1 time in total

Iguifutyia never tired of her lifestyle. Really, why would she? It catered to her every desire and need. The thrill of the hunt and kill, the power, food and of course a handy list of favours owed by all kinds of people. This was a particularly easy job. She would take on anything she was confident she was capable of, which was most things; even dragons with powerful magic usually weren’t a problem against her colossal bulk. She had fought other dragons close to her equal in size, but she had never met another creature which she wasn’t able to look down on. Leviathan dragons over in Bolarf were, apparently, vast even in comparison to her, but she was quite content never to set foot that way if she didn’t have to. Being the toughest thing around suited her.

Now, she leisurely flapped her wings a tiny bit faster and saw immediate results as she drew closer to her prey. She didn’t know what she needed from him, some trinket, but as long as she was allowed to do what she wanted with the dragon himself then she was happy. Perhaps, being smaller, he was nimbler and faster, but she had greater natural endurance- not to mention her lifestyle. Unlike some of those she targeted, this one was no fighter. Obviously he hoped to evade her by taking to the trees. Well, that wouldn’t work. Gleefully, she tipped forwards and began to glide towards the lake as the acid dragon splashed across its surface, evidently hardly able to keep to the sky. As she began to descend through the trees, simply smashing through those in her way, she levelled out to begin searching for her target.

The last thing Ciqala was expecting, really, was to be grabbed from behind as he gaped up at the unfolding spectacle. He didn’t complain though; the last thing he wanted was to be crushed in a crash-landing. He held his breath as they stood in the trees, watching the dragon crashing about with a wave of terror rising in him. He couldn’t even begin to think how big the larger creature must be, when it was so vast compared to this monster. It seemed unlikely to him that he would ever be comfortable around dragons. They could just kill him so easily, more so even than humans.
“What d’you th-“
He didn’t get far before his words were drowned out by a great crashing of branches, and he instinctively cowered into Selene as the clubtail filled his vision for a horrifying few seconds. When the two had finally passed, he exhaled and straightened to stand by himself once more, trying to still trembling hands.
“The small one ain’t lookin’ so good,” he observed needlessly. “Damned if I c’n think of a thing t’do though. Where, uh, what d’you think we should do?”

“That thing is huge,” Selene whispered, her heat racing as she thought of the enormous dragon crashing through the trees behind them in search for its prey. At the first breaking of branches when the clubtail had come into view, she had pressed herself against a tree trunk, hoping it would see neither her nor Ciqala and get the silly idea of wanting a little snack. “Never have I seen such a dragon up close. They’re terrifying!”

Taking a few calming breaths, Selene dared to look back around the trees, Ciqala having peeled himself away from her again as well. “You’re right, that small one looks a bit worse for wear. But I don’t know what we could do to help him. If there even is anything we can do. I mean, it is a clubtail chasing him after all.”

Sa’am had thought he might be in relative safety amidst the trees, but he really had thought wrong. The clubtail quite simply plowed itself a path through the forest, staying almost exactly on his trail. It was frustrating. All he wanted to do by now was sleep. He was exhausted, he was scared and he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing.

As was typical for the acid dragon, as soon as he panicked or lost control, his acid magic began doing what it did best, namely whatever it wanted. It erupted out of his pores as though a gate had been opened somewhere and soon enough the trees around Sa’am began sizzling under the impact of the acid. This made the poor youngling panic even more, but at the same time it gave him another burst of speed. Flapping like mad now, he propelled himself forward in hopes of a hole opening up somewhere and swalling him up so he could escape his almost certain doom.

As the dragons moved further away from the lake again, Selene cautiously stepped out from behind the trees and moved a little closer to the lake again. It must have been chance more than anything that made her detect the glimmer of whatever it was that the black dragon had let fall into the lake. Though she did not know it was that specific thing. The young woman merely figured she had not seen it before due to a different vantage point.

“Ciqala, look! There is something in the lake! Can you see what it is?” Moving left and right a few paces to try and distinguish a clearer shape of the thing, she almost forgot about the dragons until she noticed a funny smell creep into her nose. Instantly, her head flew in the direction of the dragons, the crashing of trees still clearly audible, to see what caused the smell. Wrinkling her nose, she muttered, uncertain: “This does not smell good. Maybe we should get out of here.”

Terrifying was indeed the word, though it still seemed somewhat insufficient when Ciqala looked at the destruction the larger dragon had left with no discernible effort. How did it work that some creatures were so massive, and here he was defenceless?
Of course, he wasn’t supposed to exist at all. That would be it.
“Y’know what, I think yer onter somethin’ there. Clubtail, huh? Well… damn well don’t look like we c’n do a thing.” He shook his head dismally as Selene warily left their cover, keeping a light hold on her arm to maintain his balance.

Just trying to get a grip on himself after that unexpected occurrence, Ciqala didn’t notice the item sitting in the lake. When Selene pointed it out to him, though, he peered into the water with just as much interest as her.
“I reckon I cou-“ He didn’t get to finish his sentence before she interjected, causing him to frown in alarm and take several deep breaths of the air. “Don’t smell qui’e righ’… I ain’t got much smell, y’see,” he explained sheepishly. “Le’s get movin’ soonish, yeah, but firs’… I reckon I could ge’ a good look a’that thing in th’water. Won’ take long.” It only took a moment for him to create a small slide from Selene’s hand, which he shot down to land on the edge of the water. Here, he had to concentrate more; he first created a forcefield around his body, pulling it in carefully to be near skin-tight, but leaving larger flat areas at his hands and feet and a roomy spike around his head. “Air in, wa’er out,” was all he said before slipping into the pond and kicking his way down to the bottom with the flippers he had given himself. It wasn’t too hard to find the object even under the surface, sunlight enough to see in the fairly small and shallow pool of water. Even if it hadn’t been, it was too shiny to miss. The only question he had was what it was- and after a moment just bobbing there, staring at it with unmasked curiosity for all the waterweed to see, he paddled forwards once more to get a closer look.

The trees were swiftly no problem- evidently the smaller dragon was having a little problem with fear, leaking acid in much the same way humans leaked urine when afraid. Almost pitiful really, but it did have the distinct advantage of sending up plumes of gas from the damaged trees. It was, she had to admit, tiring to plow through the endless branches and it was something of a relief when she was able to ease up out of the canopy and just skim the leaves instead, keeping a keen eye pointed downwards. She thought she was gaining fairly steadily on her prey, though he seemed to have sped up slightly. It wouldn’t be long, hopefully, before she had caught up completely… and then it would be a simple matter of striking.

Selene wasn’t quite sure this was a good idea but she was too slow in stopping Ciqala from jumping straight into the water and diving for the object. It was odd how most people and even animals were so attracted by anything shiny that caught their attention but there was no helping it.
She wasn’t quite sure how the homunculus did it but the water seemed to edge away from him wherever he moved, thus she decided he would most likely be fine by himself in the water.

Instead, she kept an eye out for the dragons. Though they may be disappearing into the trees, it was no guarantee that they would not suddenly be turning around in their tracks and race back towards the lake, which was an encounter she'd very much like to avoid. Not that she disliked dragon, but she disliked huge angry ones, or those that could easily damage her merely by standing too closely to her. By the smell that was left behind by them, this seemed to be the case for the first one.

Even though merely seconds had passed, Selene was starting to grow edgy. Ciqala was taking far too long in her opinion for just a look he wanted to take, and the dragons were still too close by for her taste. She wanted to get a move on. Every single muscle in her body was ready to flee at the slightest scary sound and she was starting to sweat under the strain of staying put. She did not want to leave the homunculus behind, not after getting him to this spot in the first place.

The vicious beast at his tail was closing in, he was certain of it. He could almost feel her breathing down his neck. Unsure of where she was right about then, Sa’am was too chicken however to turn around to check, also knowing that the second he would not concentrate on his flight anymore, something would go wrong.
However, if he did not find a solution soon, it would most certainly be his demise. His strength was fading, despite the adrenaline pumping through his body and edging him on relentlessly. Sa’am knew that this could not go on forever and as soon as the clubtail was not hindered by the trees anymore, she would catch him. She very definitely would.
He did not want to die, he really did not. But he did not know what to do. Thus at least for now, the panic and fear of death kept driving him onwards.

From her vantage point, it almost looked as though he was swimming even deeper into the water and she was wondering why that was so. He could’ve gotten a look at the thing from half-way the distance he had already swum, no?
“Come ooon, hurry!”
It was then when all of a sudden a shrill sound came from the lake, brief but ear-piercingly loud.

”Oh no, the gem!” Sa’am abruptly halted in his flight, turned around as quickly as he could without ripping his wings to shreds on the low-hanging branches – even though they were scarcer at almost the edge of the forest – and made for the lake in a beeline, ignoring the clubtail in his tracks.
How had it been found already? He wasn’t even sure what exactly it did, he just knew that creatures who were not the owner were not allowed to touch it. He had inherited this from his parents, and it was practically everything he had left of them. He was not going to let it fall into the hands of someone else!

Last edited by Artemis on Sun Dec 16, 2012 6:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

Once he had moved a little closer, Ciqala could see that the object wasn’t necessarily anything too unusual- a faceted gem of some kind. Underneath the water and with light glinting so brightly off its surface, he couldn’t quite make out what colour it was, but even if he had been able to then he wouldn’t have been able to tell how valuable the stone was anyway. Oddly, it was held in some kind of net bag- what that accomplished he didn’t know. It did make him wonder just where the thing had come from in the first place- surely they would have noticed it when they were sitting by the lake, shiny as it was.

On a strange impulse, he shrank down his forcefields to hook his hands through the netting, hauling up on the bag to test its weight. It wasn’t easy for him to lift, but with the water supporting it he could manage, and so he flexed his legs and primed the shields which created his flippers, before kicking off from the bottom of the pond and rising swiftly to the surface.

The last thing he expected was to set off some kind of booby trap. As soon as the gem brushed his skin through the net, a noise emitted from it which felt as if it had fragmented his eardrums. He broke the surface with a moan, arms feebly tugging his prize to the surface so that Selene could take the weight from him. Once Ciqala was out of the water he flopped on the bank, catching both his breath and his bearings. Swimming without actually feeling the water or getting wet was a bizarre experience, and no matter how many times he did it- admittedly not that many- he always felt odd afterwards. It took a few seconds, but when his body had confirmed that it was dry, he pushed himself to his feet to frown up at his newfound friend.
“We’d better get movin’, I s’pose,” he conceded somewhat gloomily. Just when he found somewhere he wouldn’t mind staying for a few hours at the very least, a couple of crazy dragons came crashing past and he had to start from scratch. At least he had somebody with him now, though; that was good for all sorts of reasons. “What d’you reckon that thing is anyway?” She’d probably know more than him. Women liked gems and the like, didn’t they?

Concentration wasn’t really necessary for such low effort work; her eyes directed downwards, Iguifutyia glid lazily along the trail burnt into the trees below. An abrupt shriek of noise was enough to shake her from this stupor, however, and when her gaze hit solid green canopy shortly afterwards, she experienced the horrible realisation that her slackness had cost her. It was one thing for that little acid to flit around however he wanted, but manoeuvering was a painstakingly slow business for a dragon of her size. Cursing herself, the clubtail banked round as sharply as she was able and scoured the trees to see where her little friend had got to. It wasn’t immediately obvious, her surroundings stretching similarly in all directions. She loosed a roar of pent-up rage before directing herself to where it sounded like that bizarre noise had come from. It couldn’t do her any harm to investigate, could it?

Much as he had suspected, that shrilling hadn’t meant anything good. As if summoned by some demonic spirit, noises of the dragons began to fade back into earshot. Faint crashes of branches… followed by a roar which made him suddenly wish he had stayed in Kaionar after all. There were some dragons there, true… but none of them sounded like that.

Selene’s ears were still trying to recover from the noise as she was pacing along the water’s edge, glancing around all the time in anticipation of some sort of attack. She may not have a clue what this had meant but she was certain that nothing good could come of it.

That was when one of a nearer by tree completely sagged into a heap as the acid was burning its way through its core. With a shriek, Selene jumped and promptly stumbled, crashing to the ground and half-way in the water just as Ciqala finally came up for air again.

Picking herself up, she gave the homunculus a hand by first of all taking the weird bag and its insides from him to stuff it into the opening of her shirt. As soon as her skin touched it, another shriek was emitted and Selene cursed her curiosity while reaching for Ciqala himself, completely ignoring his question for the time being.
“Later,” she merely replied as she put him on her shoulder. “Hold on tight,” she said as she already began running towards the forest, away from where the sound of rapidly nearing dragons was getting louder by the second.

Panic, panic, panic!
It was all that was going on inside Sa’am’s head now. He had to get back to his treasure, he simply had to. Even if it meant delivering himself into the grasp of the clubtail. He would think of something if the time came.
For a brief moment of time, the clubtail was not breathing down his neck however and the acid was starting to feel a little hope flare up, only to have it crushed again as quickly as it had appeared as the clubtail seemed to be turning into the same direction he had. Without even noticing the ruse, he had shaken off the large dragon, a detail he would do well to remember.

As another call from the gem reached his ears, Sa’am put a surge of speed behind his flight, pushing himself to the very edge of his strength in hopes of getting there before it was too late. He did not pay any heed to the fact that he had absolutely no idea what he might be getting himself into yet again.

“Why does this always have to happen?” Selene grunted as she pushed into the shadow of the trees, hoping that the trunks would quickly hide them from view. She had no idea what the dragons were up to but she was in no mood to find out either. “Something always needs to ruin the peaceful calm.”
However, she would not be all too upset about not being calm for the time being if she could be certain that they would get out of this without a scratch on them, and that meant outrunning two dragons if the things had caught the scent of the human and the homunculus to track them.
She must be flat out of her mind!
"Do you have any bright ideas?"

Ciqala didn’t need telling twice; after nearly falling off as Selene took off abruptly, he braced his legs against her shoulders and took up handfuls of her shirt to hold on to.
“What, this ‘appens a lot t’yer? Think you need t’make some life changes.” His voice was high and panicky; his remarks were a feeble attempt to cover up his terror. Who knew what had happened to the smaller dragon, but with the luck he seemed to be having today it was probably coming this way and bringing the clubtail after it. To make matters worse, the gem Selene had hastily shoved down her shirt emitted another screech, which made him start and nearly fall off her shoulder again.
“Bloody thing be’er not keep on with that,” he moaned. It seemed all too likely that it would; it didn’t appear to be particularly happy about them taking it, judging by the noises. It was a baffling thing; perhaps just some lost jewel which had once been enchanted to prevent theft, but then what was the purpose of its little bag? It seemed unlikely anyway, seeing as the thing wasn’t set into jewellery or anything.

Now really wasn’t the time to be contemplating on the item’s origins, though.
“I don’ have no ideas, ferget /good/ ones,” he said, desperation in his voice. “Ain’ no way we’re gonna outrun a dragon.” His shields wouldn’t hold long against one, either. They might be able to hide, but it didn’t seem like all too viable an option. There was just nowhere to go!

And, it turned out, no time either as sound behind them alerted him to the presence of the smaller dragon. Twisting on Selene’s shoulder to get a look at it, he yelled,
“It’s headed our way! Don’ look vicious exac’ly, more… scared.” It was true; breathing heavily, it kept casting terrified glances upwards, sideways and every other direction. It was obviously sure of an imminent death at the hands- or talons, or tail maybe- of the other dragon, wherever that one was now. Probably not far, judging by how fast it had been travelling. With a shudder of horror, Ciqala pressed closer to Selene in fear.

» Ciqala (Homunculus)
» Best of the Best [Eldar x Rogue]
» [Tarz] Let's go Fishing! (Adelais and Selene)
» Artemis's Eggs/Dragons
» A meeting in the City {Artemis~StormKatz}