(IRONSHAS) The body in Ironshas (CHARACTER EXERCISE-M)

Ixas frowned looking down at the body. A man in all his dark garb that the cultists typically wore, and his limbs were spread out in all angles, twisted and wide from eachother, a mad look on his face, with the blood drying on his cheeks and in the sand.
It was only him that Ixas had seen around here upon entering this part of the village, the only man, and he was dead for some evil force. His whole body appeared tainted with evil influence.
Indeed, the strip of road he was on was wide and sandy, the buildings in sandstone and rock were built up either side of it, but not a soul stirred.
Extremely strange, but he would not be put off. One did not fear such obstacles when it came to being the channel of the Willow Mother's influence, in this especially poisoned part of the island. His greatest challenge would be here, but first he wondered, what had caused this man to die?

The padding of Solexa's paws on the sand and the crunch of her own boots in the same shifting earth were the only sounds to Taeo's ears. "Shouldn't have worn a heel." She mumbled to herself, Solexa briefly perking up her ears to listen before deciding that the comment was not important enough to pay any further attention to and kept walking, leading Taeo to the site of this latest malign mystery. She'd heard word that there was a corpse out here somewhere that needed investigating, and with her faithful canine companion's sharp nose, it was little trouble finding the body. The figure on the ground she expected, the crouching one next to it, however, she had not.

Cocking her head to the side and studying the man, Taeo pulled her sand warding scarf away from her mouth as they approached, curious but not quite alarmed yet. "I certainly hope you're not looting. There's half a dozen gods I know of that would disapprove and more than half a dozen villagers nearby that would probably be of the same mind." Smooth introduction, typical Taeo style. Next to her, the almost-horse-sized dog huffed what could only be described as an exasperated sigh.

To anyone looking on from a distance, Oriana would have been a surreal sight; a small, gently shifting patch of shadow moving smoothly across the sand like some kind of ghost. There was a much simpler explanation to it than any kind of spirit, however; she might usually use her powers to illuminate her path, but in the heat of the desert it was more than a relief to deflect some of the bright rays from her back. She moved in a smooth loping gait, her spine flexing gracefully with every stride towards her destination. The air was stifling and stagnant for the most part, but when the odd almost breeze blew through the desert, through the salt off the sea she could smell rusty blood, humans and… something else. Some creature she hadn’t encountered before; a large carnivore, she though. Whatever it was, it was her goal; she’d been hunting for some time now, first seeking any trace of prey, and then tracking this scent across the desert. Now, she could tell that she was close. Staying carefully downwind, she slowed her pace, trotting across the sand swiftly so as not to burn her paws on its baking surface.

It didn’t take long for the creature to come into sight- a wolf-like creature which was about her own size. Slowly, she drifted to a halt in confusion; she’d expected something large, but she’d never seen an animal that size before. That wasn’t the main cause for her confusion, though. The animal had been heading for the human civilisation, just as she’d thought, but it hadn’t just been scavenging whatever corpse she could smell. It was plainly here with the human- or was it a human? She couldn’t tell. Elves and the like were really too similar for her to notice the differences except at very close range. Still, humans were easily the most common, weren’t they?

Despite the twist this had put in her plans, she still needed to eat, and under these circumstances the human corpse looked like her best bet. Hackles raised and head lowered in cautious suspicion, she stalked towards the little group, placing each foot delicately and deliberately in a straight line in front of the last.

Ixas had thought he was alone; in nothing but his dark garb with his bow and pack as usual, and his ever present need to be of help. Yet, someone else was here, and her really quite worryingly large companion. Ixas turned up and around at once to regard her. Now, he was really very tall, but he was neither greatly muscular, not for that creature, nor the sort to wield a blade...It was unsettling to see.
Was this also an evil person? One affected by the wrong beliefs of the north? If so, she would be needing his assistance, yet he waited for now, as she could have been anyone.
Many gods she spoke of...
Well, she did not look like the description of the blood cults.
"No Lady, I do not show any disrespect to the dead, even in their most piteous of states. It would be a taint like this you see here." He raised a hand limply to gesture to the crazed body. "They do not seem to mind much for their dead in any case. How terrible it is then, that one could be here and none would see."
Again he looked around, but saw not a trace of life, except the sudden appearance of a shadow, stalking toward them.
He stood back, standing ready and tense.
"A dragon." He sounded, sounding unamused and mildly surprised. "And I would have thought dogs of such size were unwelcome enough."

The stranger didn't draw his weapon, so she didn't see a cause to grab her own off of the harness attached to Solexa. Striding up to the body, she had to look very up to meet his gaze, but for someone as short as she was, that was nothing entirely new. Following the direction of his gesture, she took in the sight of the dead man's maniac stare into the netherworld and sighed. "Great, crazy dead people, just what I need." Taeo muttered to herself, shoulders slumping inward. Her moment of relaxation disturbed by the sudden movement of the dark-clothed man. Taeo was instealy ready to fight him, but his gaze indicated that she wasn't the target of this sudden move. The warning growl from her huge dog companion came only a second later, the hackles of Solexa's grey-brown fur rising along the ridge of crimson.

Hearing the stranger's comment, Solexa flicked her ears back and lifted her teeth in a silent snarl for the comment about her size and focused her gaze instead on the shadow. Moving slowly, Taeo reached out to take the halberd from the back of her dog, gaze on the dragon. "Well, if it were a dragon that killed this poor fellow, he' be in shreds or smashed or gruesome in some other way. This one can't have been the killer." Narrowing her gaze, Taeo drew her weapon and hefted it over her shoulder with expert ease. "Let's see what it does now that it knows we know it's there, hm?"

Could the human really not think of anything better to say? If any of them couldn’t tell she was a dragon, there was clearly something wrong with them. Similarly, she hardly needed to be told that she was unwelcome; the wolf-animal’s growls and the stares of the bipeds were proof enough of that. The woman’s casual assumption about how a dragon’s kill would look couldn’t help but rub Oriana up the wrong way. Who was she to say that, when humans left so much of their kills? If, for whatever reason, she had killed the man, she at least would have done him the courtesy of eating his body, rather than leaving it to fester on the ground. These people hadn’t exactly endeared themselves to Oriana so far… but she wasn’t the sort to dash right over and confront them. Instead, she sidled an uneasy step closer, lifting her chin and forcing herself to stand her ground rather than shuffle about.
“I can hear you, you know,” she said somewhat uncertainly. It felt strange to talk out loud, after so long spent in silence; her voice came out slightly hoarse from disuse. What an excellent first impression; that was really going to inspire respect in them, wasn’t it? Unconsciously, Oriana ducked her head again a little, glancing darkly out of the corner of her eye at the humans.

It still required some getting used to, that. The dragons of this land were much more intelligent than any similar creatures in his homeland had been. Apparently this one did not like what she was overhearing.
"I do agree. It does not look like it might have...it seems quite lithe but not...deadly." Ixas added his comments, even with the dragon present and able to hear every word.

"What do you want dragon?" Ixas offered, still finding it really very strange to ask such a thing to an animal. "You are most silent, so why did you choose to crawl behind us. Perhaps you are not what you seem." Against some other instinct of his, Ixas took a few steps toward the dragon, looking it over. Its body seemed to curve dramatically, and all over it was a sheen like appearance. "Or perhaps you do know of this ones end." He gestured with a tick of his head back to the body, but he did not take his eyes from the dragon. Not that standing in front of the stranger and her "pet" made him feel any better. "If you would rather hear from me first..." And then he took a larger step to one side opening his hand to the pair as well. "I come here to find out of this place. Some had said the existence of Ironshas was only a rumour..."

"All dragons are deadly." Taeo muttered under her breath with a small smile and put her hand between Solexa's shoulders. The dog stopped growling, her fur relaxing somewhat, but remained tense as a strung bow all the same, her gaze never wavering from the dragon. It was simply in her nature to be wary of dragons, whether they seemed threatening or not. Turning her ear to the man's words but keeping her own gaze on the shadowy dragon, Taeo listened with growing curiosity. Ironshas a legend…? Well, she had never doubted it's existence. Few knew the deserts of the western Cove better than her own people, but those belonging to the center and far east had different ideas about the mysterious north west beyond Yarrowitz. "Ironshas is definitely not a rumor, stranger." She said out loud, patting Solexa and leaning her hip against the great beast. "It is as real as any of us standing here. But come now, let's not all get defensive over a corpse. Dragon, if you know anything, won't you tell us? I'm afraid that some strange things have been happening in the area, which is why we're invading your hunting grounds. Forgive the intrusion, but this is sort of an important mission." Taeo couldn't know of course that the man standing next to her was uneasy addressing dragons, but for a native of the Cove who had lived in close contact with their island's special brand of monster, it was no large deal.

Last edited by Artemis on Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

Oriana couldn’t help but let out a low hiss at the man’s words. What did he think she was, some kind of talking horse which couldn’t really understand what he said? How could he live on Dragons Cove and not understand dragons? True, those who lived more wild like her didn’t come into contact with humans so often, but there were those such as the dragons in the Elites who lived in the same buildings as humans. She thought it was disgusting and unnatural, herself; dragons belonged out in the wild. They had sharp claws and teeth for a reason, after all. Any dragon who pretended otherwise was playing some kind of sick game in trying to be a human. The woman here seemed better than many- at least she seemed to have slightly more understanding of dragons- perhaps the man was a halfwit, if he wasn’t sure of Ironshas’ existence either. He didn’t speak like he was, but then you could never tell, could you? The humans were all so sheep-like and feeble you wouldn’t really notice if they were below average intelligence.

It took a few seconds of further wary evaluation, scanning her eyes over the two humans, before Oriana eventually decided to answer. “I came to eat,” she muttered, taking another few sidling steps closer. “They’re only my hunting grounds for the time being. I don’t know anything, I haven’t been here long.” Her gaze flicked between the two for a few seconds before returning to the corpse on the ground. She wouldn’t kill a human just to eat them, of course, but when the corpse was already lying there… A rumble ran through her stomach at the scent of the meat, still relatively fresh.

“What do you need with this body?” she asked after a moment, looking up and holding their eyes for slightly longer this time. “What importance does it have to you?”

Nevermind whoever this person near to him was, or her strange wolf companion...This dragon had come to eat, and Ixas was repulsed that it might talk like a human, to humans, and then eat one too. "You will not be eating, then." He said quite firmly, though his voice was without any pressure, only calm and resolute. "My wish would be to give the tainted body a burial. Though I first wonder what family he belongs to so they might take up their duty instead...and why he would be here."
Why had nobody come out to inspect such a gory scene? It was the day, and the heat was obvious, Ixas himself was aching to be in the shade of homes, but then, how had this one come to be here?
"So you will not be making a meal of him, dragon. You should show the dead some respect." He chided, not yet understanding, even after coming all this way to ironshas, how a creature could be 'Intelligent' and yet like this, too. Dragon or not.

Ah, a quandary then. The last thing that Taeo wanted to do was anger a dragon and start a fight out here in the middle of the desert, but she couldn't have this stranger be morally objective enough to want to start the fight either. "You might know this dragon, but we often take great offense when another of our community is murdered." Taeo said in a no-nonsense sort of tone, laying down her halberd and spreading her hands as she walked unarmed toward the body. When Solexa tried to follow, she gave the huge dog the signal to stay put and, against every instinct, Solexa grudgingly obeyed.

"This is an especially grizzly looking murder." Taeo continued, taking another few slow steps forward with her hands held out to her sides where the dragon could plainly see them. When she got close enough to the body, she knelt down and took a good look at the state of the man's corpse. It had been out in the sun for a while, drying up in the intense heat and was definitely well on its way to start shriveling. "Probably some maniac ritual… Don't know if you'd want to eat this guy. Might poison you." She shot the dragon a quick smile before returning to her studies, tilting her head from side to side as she looked the dead man over. Gods, but did he reek this close up. Glancing over her shoulder at the cloaked man and then the dragon, she heaved a little sigh. "Do either of you know anything about the cultists that are rumored to plague this area?"

Perhaps she hadn’t expressly stated her intentions for the corpse, but apparently these humans weren’t stupid; they’d picked up on it quickly enough. Oriana’s belly ached with hunger as she threw one more wistful glance at the body before returning her dark, wary eyes to what she thought was the male- though they both could have been either gender, really, she couldn’t tell- especially as this one appeared male but still had the long hair she thought was favoured by females. Either way-
“I suppose I won’t be eating just yet, no,” she said, her voice tight with suppressed annoyance as she flicked the tip of her tail irritably. “But I will have to eat at some point, of course.” This was accompanied by a dark, fleeting look at the man; what did he expect her to do, let herself starve when there was meat readily available?

The female seemed somewhat more understanding; still rude, of course, but at least she had the decency to show herself unarmed and approach cautiously. “Dragons, too, care if one close to them is killed,” Oriana pointed out- what did she think, that they had no emotions? “It is unfortunate that he has been killed violently and pointlessly. No innocent deserves that death.” Moving slowly and deliberately, she approached the body and sniffed it delicately, inspecting the wounds with a critical eye. The human woman was right; perhaps it would not be wise to eat this one, if he had been involved in a blood magic ritual. There was an odd smell to his corpse, but that could be just a remnant of his scent in life; certainly the expected scent of decay setting in was there.
“That they use strange, dangerous magic, and it is safer to avoid them,” she replied, tail twitching uneasily as she half-crouched to the ground, not relaxed enough to sit or even simply stand still. “I do not involve myself with them. They are humans of the strangest kind and I do not wish for this trouble.”

Ixas was at least satisfied that the stranger had put the dragon off of consuming the body, even if for the wrong reason. Cursed or not, it was not right to act like a human and then eat one.
He did not miss the pointed look that the dark-bodied dragon gave him, but nodded slowly on its next words.
"So at least we can agree to that one thing, however..." He eyed the body again, unsettled to hear about magic now. Well, when they said evil things were in Ironshas, magic was almost a given. It was bad enough that all of this island lived amidst and because of the dreaded stuff, and now this twisted corpse, full of awful magic -the only kind.

"No I do not." Ixas said clearly, unafraid to admit how little he knew. "What do you know of them?" He said flatly, with a candor not often found amongst people. But now interest was now piqued. The woman seemed fairly at ease around here, one might even say she was a little familiar about it all. "All I understand is that they come from a darker shade in life. Even to you Island folk they are strange." His tone was innocent and unapologetic as he looked at the woman squarely, though his eyes did not quite manage to peel themselves away entirely from the dragon or the great wolf-beast.

Taeo's brows drew together at the man's choice of wording. You island folk? As if he came from anywhere other than Dragons' Cove himself! Perhaps he was a Charkoras native. That would explain his intolerance for dragons and penchant for overdressing given the hot weather. Seeing as he had nothing more to add to the conversation in light of the cultists, Taeo moved her attention back to the dragon. "They must be pretty prevalent around here, to bother you this much." She said almost absently, moving aside some of the fabric swathing the rotting corpse and revealed a small charm around his neck. Likely a sign of his belonging to the cult.

She withdrew a tiny little dagger from the lip of her boot and cut the cord to the necklace, putting the knife back and stood to get away from the reek. "Well, if they've been terrorizing the countryside and the Elites haven't stepped in yet..." She trailed off, looking to the dragon for confirmation of this point. "...Then I suppose someone has to do something about it." Behind her Solexa woofed softly as if in agreement, keeping her eyes resolutely on the dragon in case it decided to suddenly pull some funny business now that its meal had been spoiled by evil magic.

Looking over her shoulder at the cloaked man, Taeo gave him a long searching look. "Having come all the way out here already, can I assume that you're up to this adventure?"

While Oriana didn't spend much time talking to others and was consequently left with distinctly odd-sounding speech, she was still perfectly capable of picking up on how Ixas had separated himself from 'island folk'. What was that supposed to mean? Even if he was not from the main island of Dragons Cove, he had to be from one of the other smaller islands surrounding it. Oriana thought the woman looked confused, as well, though it was hard to tell. Well, never mind.

The night dragon watched intently as Taeo crouched to remove some kind of jewellery from the corpse's neck, her motivation yet another human mystery which eluded Oriana.
She flicked her tail in agreement as Taeo continued- not unsurprisingly, she hadn't come across any Elites in the desert. All the same, it did seem to her as if this were the sort of thing the Elites would normally investigate... in which case, should they really be getting involved? Could they not just leave the Elites to do their job?

Apparently not. It seemed as if Oriana had already been signed up for this mission whether she wanted it or not- and, despite herself, she felt a slight curiosity, a need to explain this oddity to herself. Moreover, it seemed that she would have to venture into town to feed herself anyway- she didn't have the energy to pass more fruitless days hunting in the empty desert- and if she went with these people, perhaps she would not be forced to steal from humans who had no doubt worked for the meat themselves. Waiting for the male one to answer, she held that strange creature's gaze. It was clearly more intelligent than the average wolf or dog, but that didn't mean she was about to back down to it.

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