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

Last edited by Artemis on Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

Ciqala didn’t really know what to do but gape; and gape he did as the clubtail loomed over them, its lack of urgency deeply unsettling. Clearly, their escape was not even a possibility in its mind.

Dazed with shock as he was, it took him a moment to register Selene speaking to him; blinking, he turned to look at her, a question forming on his lips as he raised his hands to form a basic shield around himself. Almost before the forcefield had flickered into shape, though, a strange sensation overtook him- he couldn’t quite say what for a moment, standing half frozen with a puzzled frown.

Then, in an instant, he knew. Sheer terror.

With a squeal of fear, he looked up at the clubtail again, registering for what seemed like the first time just how huge it was. It could eat twenty of him and hardly dent its appetite! Look at its claws, its teeth, its tail- what was he doing still standing around when what he really needed to be doing was running?!

And running was just what he did next, dropping his shield and instead forming a platform just off the ground so that he could sprint away from the clubtail as fast as possible, no branches or grass obstructing his path. No thought crossed his mind except the sheer terror, the need to get away-

But in the next moment, his path was cut off by a massive green-scaled leg descending before him, blocking his escape.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry, tiny one?” hummed Iguifutyia in amusement, forgetting the mage in pursuit at this new entertainment. “I almost didn’t notice you, but when you run about so fast… well, you do draw attention to yourself, don’t you? My, it would be easy to lose track of you… I think I’d better just keep a close eye on you, hm?” As she spoke she leaned slowly closer and closer to the ground, golden eyes fixated on the petrified homunculus.

In the dragon’s moment of distraction, a rangy- looking man, tall and thin and rather austere in appearance, darted out from between the trees, grabbing Selene’s arm as she crouched on the ground and stretching out to touch Sa’am with the very tips of his fingers, his face displaying only a flicker at the acid which oozed so close to his hand.
“Be quiet,” he hissed. “We have to make sure it can’t see us and surprise it. I’m a mage; it shouldn’t be able to see us for a moment.”

Sure enough, when Iguifutyia turned an instant later, her eyes roaming to find Sa’am- her real prey- her gaze slid straight over the little group as if they were not even there, doubt flickering across her features for an instant before she rearranged them into a cruelly grinning mask.
“Hiding, are we?” she cooed. “I know you haven’t gone far; why not just give up now and save yourself all this trouble?” Seemingly unpertubed, she began to poke her nose between trees in a grotesque mockery of children playing hiding games.

Silently, the mage gestured for Sa’am and Selene to move backwards, moving under the canopy of a nearby tree.
“I have an arcanic which should be able to defeat it,” he breathed. “But I can’t make it work properly- truth be told, it’s not mine, and I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

Selene almost jumped up in shock when a hand suddenly grabbed for her and it was only because her throat was already constricted from the pain in her head and the overwhelming weight of the whole situation that she didn’t scream out.

Sa’am’s eyes grew enormous when the mage suddenly appeared and he had already opened his mouth to yelp some more when the man’s hiss interrupted him. Not to mention the glare Selene sent him. He needed to get a grip on himself or he was going to make her skull explode. And then…

“Ciqala!” The sound was a little louder than she had intended it to be and she instantly scurried backwards a little quicker on the advice of the mage but her eyes were searching the clearing to find the homunculus. She hadn’t notice him leap off but she now felt that her shoulder was empty and she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see him!

“Behind the clubtail’s leg,” Sa’am whispered in a very small and very scared voice but he stuck to what he had been told and was as quiet as possible when he replied. His movements were careful and he tested the ground lightly before each step, making sure that he wasn’t going to step on a branch or anything that could give away their position. Of course, Selene – hadn’t she just been glaring at him for not being quiet?! – might have already ruined that just now.

This was just great. Just great!
The acid dragon was making a very conscious effort to try and remain calm, and it might have worked towards the outside, at least he had enough presence of mind to not try and make matters worse by completely losing it, although he had almost jumped out of his skin when the mage had appeared.
Honestly, who did that? Just sneaking up on someone like that and touching them! And then… well Sa’am couldn’t really be angry at the man, after all, he had just thrown an invisibility cloak over them to hide them from the clubtail but that didn’t change the facts. No, it didn’t.

Sa’am’s eyes bulged at the clubtail’s continued teasing and he was starting to shake all over again. Why did he have to have such terrible luck? Couldn’t that thing just go away? The young dragon barely dared looking at the other one, but at the same time, he couldn’t look away from that terrifying, yet splendid face. That was what a dragon looked like – granted, a pissed off one, but…
Selene didn’t know what it was the mage was doing but somehow his presence seemed to calm Sa’am just a little bit. Of course, there was still more than enough fear and terror in the air, not to mention the clubtail’s evergrowing irritation which could practically be cut with a knife.

“You have a what? Typical mages! Stupid devices but no clue how to use them!” And he wanted to call this a rescue? Selene was irritated at the mage, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but notice that he was fairly calm and she clung to that. She let his calm demeanour wash over her in an attempt to help it calm the raging waves in her mind.

“Whatever,” she continued without waiting for a reply. “We have to get Ciqala! We can’t leave him there. He’s terrified and up against… that!” Her hands gestured wildly towards the clubtail. She had finally spotted the homunculus, relieved and then scared when she noticed his predicament. She was already waving at him, motioning for him to come join them, when she realised he could probably not see them and dropped her hands again, defeated. Now what? Her own fear was starting to grow again and she could feel her pulse throbbing against her skull in a very unpleasant manner. “Wha…”

The world went black as she suddenly dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Last edited by Artemis on Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

“Careful!” hissed the mage, his face twisting as he was forced to stagger backwards, turning, to keep contact with both Selene and Sa’am. “If I don’t touch you, the invisibility won’t work. I don’t know if I lost you for a moment there, girl-” his face showing a flicker of anxiety for the first time, he glanced up at the clubtail. It had turned abruptly, beady eyes scanning for a flicker it had seen in the corner of its eye.

“You think you can run circles around me, hm?” Iguifutyia remarked pleasantly, as if appreciating the sunny weather. “Well-” a plummet in her voice, a sudden snap of viciousness- “That won’t last for long.”

For a long moment, the mage didn’t breathe, standing frozen but somehow staying relaxed in a way which suggested long experience with danger. Finally, the dragon turned away and resumed its search. He exhaled steadily, clearly about to proceed with some sort of plan- when Selene abruptly went limp and flopped to the ground like a puppet with cut strings. Sucking in a breath through gritted teeth, he braced himself against her weight, one hand still clenched around her arm and the other stretched to the limit so that his fingertips still touched Sa’am.
“Come closer,” he breathed, along with something inaudible which could well have been a curse. “Goddammit, what’s wrong with her? I don’t see anything- she hasn’t had a blow to the head or anything, has she?”

Ciqala cowered, face covered uselessly by his twig-like arms, the very image of terror. As the clubtail turned away from him once more, he lowered his arms a fraction and looked wildly around for the others, teeth chattering. But- where were they? Nowhere to be seen-

But then, for a split second, he caught a glimpse of something that looked suspiciously like Sa’am. Could it really be? Surely, just a passing shadow- and yet, no shadow he’d ever seen glowed green like that. Maybe he was just crazy, but he had to give this a shot. With another fearful glance at the clubtail, desperately willing it to just not look at him, he began a scrambling crawl towards where he thought he’d seen the young acid dragon.

Sa’am did as the mage bid, his eyes suddenly focused on Selene, away from the retreating form of the scary clubtail. That thing was going to hunt him for the rest of his life if he didn’t manage to find someone to do something about it because he was certainly no match for the beast.

“No, I didn’t see anything hit her either,” Sa’am muttered, the puzzle of Selene’s unconsciousness giving him reason to calm down a little and turning his attention from the scary situation to something else. Not that it was working a lot, but he would take anything he could get.

“Is there something you could do about this? Can you wake her up again? You’re a mage, aren’t you?”

When Selene came to, it seemed as though not much time had passed but the strain was plainly visible on the mage’s face. Sa’am and the man had both moved closer to her so he could maintain the physical contact for his invisibility cloak – Oh good, he had managed to get it to work. Selene almost made another sarcastic comment out loud but then her eyes fell on Sa’am, and she noticed the worry in his eyes.

She didn’t like it. It made her worry, wondering what she had missed in the short – or maybe not so short after all? – moment she had been blacked out. At least it had eased the pressure of the fear in the air and she could feel like she could breathe again.

“Damn, I hate when this happens,” she murmured as she tried to scramble back onto her feet, strangely grateful for the mage’s hold on her arm. While she wasn’t too happy to be dependent on people, she was glad that he helped her up.

Instantly her attention snapped back to where it had been just before she had gone off into darker lands. “Where’s Ciqala??”

A faint line appeared on the mage’s forehead as his composure broke a little under the stress of the moment.
“I don’t know, I could try but when I have no idea of the cause-” his low, rapid words were cut off as, without warning, Selene’s eyes flicked open and she moved to stand, apparently unfazed by her brief period of unconsciousness. For a moment, he hesitated, uncertain of whether or not it was wise for her to rise so rapidly- but when she made it clear that this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, he clearly figured they had greater issues on their hands at present. His grip was iron on her arm as he half-lifted her to her feet regardless of whether or not she needed it, slackening his hold only a little once she was propped up on her feet again.
“Ciqala? A friend of yours, I’m assuming? We’ll have to sort that out. First, though-” turning a fierce gaze on Selene, he gave her arm a small, brisk shake. “You need to be quieter if you don’t want to die, girl. We’re lucky it’s making as much noise as it is…” For a moment, his attention slid to where the clubtail appeared to have started knocking down trees in an attempt to uncover them. “Best not push it, I don’t know how good its hearing is. And unless you have some bright idea, this arcanic is our best shot, so you’d do well to pipe down and cooperate so that we can get it working. Right now, though… We better pick up this Ciqala.”

The aforementioned homunculus couldn’t decide whether or not to be relieved that Iguifutyia had turned her attention to demolishing trees. On the plus side, it might delay her eating him- that would be little comfort if she knocked a tree on top of him, though. Teeth gritted, he pushed himself to his feet and began a precarious sprint towards the shadowy corner which was his only hope, trying not to trip over the twigs and other debris in his path. He didn’t get to run for long, though- the clubtail, despite having apparently forgotten all about him, was just finishing up felling a tree which now came crashing slowly but surely down in Ciqala’s path. He fell over backwards in his haste to get away, ending up scuttling crablike across the ground, eyes wide with terror as the tree smashed resolutely into the ground, blocking him off from his supposed escape.

“There!” Sa’am hissed in as low a voice as he could muster. “Do you see him?” His voice was trembling with fear and distress but the dragon felt like it wasn’t as bad anymore as it had been before, like some of it had drained away, but he couldn’t be sure, nor was he willing to spend too much time on such reflections now. They were useless. Not panicking was a good thing, anything else didn’t matter. Well, except maybe that enormous dragon that was still stomping around like a mad cow.

Selene glanced at Sa’am and followed the direction of his gaze. At first, she didn’t see Ciqala, much to her rising fear, but then she spotted the small figure making a mad dash for their hiding spot. She desperately wanted to shout out to him so he would find them because their cloak might be a bit of a problem but she clamped her mouth tightly shut, listening to the advice their unexpected helper had given.

“Oh no!” Selene breathed, almost stepping away from the mage had he not tightened his grip when a tree suddenly crashed in front of Ciqala – or.. did she dare think it? Could it have dropped onto him? As soon as the trunk had come into her line of vision, it had blocked all of the homunculus and there was no way to be certain that he was still alive.

“No, no! We have to help him!” She simply refused to believe that he had been squashed. He had to be out there still! “Is there nothing you can do? Can’t you just.. I don’t know… airlift him into your bubble? Or just something?!” Her agitation was visibly growing again.

At Sa’am’s hissed call to attention, the mage turned his head, squinting into the undergrowth to make out what the dragon was looking at. Expecting another human, or maybe a dragon, he took a moment to realise that he was supposed to be looking at the tiny figure fighting to step over a bramble which lay across his path. His eyes bulged for a moment in shock- that wasn’t any creature he’d come across before. Unfortunately, though, he didn’t get to gawp for long as the tree flopped down between them, rather effectively obscuring his view.
“Okay. Okay, calm down. I saw him, I just… let me think.” Suppressing an urge to run his hands through his hair in exasperation- it certainly wouldn’t help them if they all popped back into visibility- the mage screwed his eyes shut and tried to think, half his attention still taken up by the spell which was becoming a bit of a struggle to maintain. Moving Ciqala by magic was a difficult business, touching on blood magic as it did- given it was quite likely he’d resist an unknown force levitating him, it wasn’t something the mage was about to attempt. If they just had some time, though…
“A diversion might be our best hope,” he muttered, glancing sideways at his two companions. “I’ll try to draw her attention- and you go and get your friend, and bring him back to us. Then… we’ll have to see about getting out of here. Be ready to move, if she takes the bait.”

Without further ado- he wasn’t exactly getting stronger- he focused his attention on a bush distanced well away from their little group, on the other side of the rampaging clubtail. A twist of magic exerted upon its branches caused a large crack as he snapped one, then a great rustling of its leaves accompanied the image of and acid dragon fleeing the shelter of the bush. The details weren’t perfect by any means, but the illusion took far less focus than it might have done, when Sa’am was right next to him to provide a reference. He could feel the invisibility spell wavering as he diverted his focus- but much to his relief, the clubtail’s focus was also upon the illusory acid dragon.

“Don’t think you’ll escape me that easily!” Her snarl rang across the clearing as she bunched her hindquarters and sprang over the newly-felled tree, making to pursue the illusion- and leaving the group to her back, out of eyeshot for a few precious moments.

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