Disappear! (One on one, Aero Gorath and faeriethief)

Guest

OoC//:
~Setting~
A small town, with a duke living not to far away. This town is about three miless from a thick forest to the south and east. To the far east, there is a small cliff. In the far south, there is a waterfall. A stream just to the west of the twon runs to this waterfall. To the north lays the duke's house, and to the west there are mountians. Beyond the duke's home lay fields and the main path out of town. It is still summer, but fading into fall.
Current time of day: Afternoonish, about 4:00.

~Plot~
People are disappearing. Then, they're back in a few hours, maybe a couple days. They have no memory of what happened while they were gone, but they're back, safe, and fine. People are concerned, of course, but have no idea what to do about it. Well, the people are returned... How bad can it be? Until the duke himself disappears. And doesn't return.
Now there is a reward to whomever can return the duke. Two young men left immediatly... Their bones were found half a mile away from the town. People are afraid to go, even for the reward. Except for an exception or two...

~Characters~
Zehdof- Kidnapper
Naharai- Shapeshifter
Kear- City Rat
(-Played by faeriethief)
Sill-Vitas
(-Played by Aero Gorath)

Intros will be in next posts.

-Setting-
Seems all good to me. Is the duke's house a manor, villa, or small castle?

-Plot-
I have nothing to add =D

-Characters-
So far, I have none to add. I'll happily take any random people to balance out the difference.

((Are you going to start first? Also, what time of day is it?))

Guest

OoC//:
~Setting~
Eh, manor, I guess... Typical of me to forget a detail like that. xD

~Plot~
Woo~

~Characters~
Okay, sweetness.
---
I can start, I was just running out of time when I posted this. It'll probably start out in the afternoon.

((Sill: Oh gawd >.< Me: Sweet. M'kay. I eagerly await your fabulous intro.))

Guest

OoC//: I forgot to take the notebook home all week, I'm soooo sorry! D=
BiC//:
Even the town was quiet, hushed with worry. The normal laughter and cheer was gone, as if it had been stolen with the duke himself. No one was laughing or talking much, fearing it would bring bad luck. The the sun shone, it didn't feel warm or bright. This was bad, especially for a town like this. Always in smiles, most tears were from laughter, something that now seemed alien and foreign. How could it have once been part of their daily life style, and yet all taken away with one man? Had he really been that important to the people? Or did they just fear that they were next, seeing as the culprit could get past the tight security of the duke's house?

Kear Baeshra thought about this. Sadness, fear, worry... These moods didn't suit the village. No, they didn't, but happiness and thrill and laughter and a sense of home did. But they had deserted the village when the duke was found missing... Or rather, not found at all. Normally, Kear would have cracked a grin at such a thought, but not now. Not while the town mourned for their surely dead duke, and wondered who was to be next. Maybe it's to be me, Kear thought. Or maybe I'm to be chosen never. She would like to know what happened to the Missing.

This thought struck an interesting question, and Kear's green eyes widened behind the curtain of dirty brown mess that was her hair. What if she were to come back with the duke? After all, it wasn't like she had much to lose. A few dear friends, but they would understand why she'd risked her life. The bones should have kept her at bay, but even they did not subside the sudden desire to leave a city rat, and return a hero. Alive, and the duke safe... Images of the reward shone in her mind. It was worth it, she decided. And so, she sneaked back into the hidden nooks of her alley, brown clothes helping her hide, to plan for what she'd need to take tonight.

Last edited by Aero Gorath on Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

Sill-Vitas was by nature a rather curious fellow, though more often than not he would try to disguise this natural curiosity with a harsh word to the contrary, and it usually worked. The thing was, his huge ears seemed to always lead him to places that he never would have imagined going to. For instance, when he heard among the rumblings and banter of a couple of gossipmongers that a Duke had gone missing in a nearby village, his attention had been riveted to the conversation. It wasn’t often that royalty went missing! Well, at least the royalty that had already grown up. Children of dukes and kings and whatnot got kidnapped all of the time. That wouldn’t have been unusual at all.

So, being the large-eared sneak that he was, Sill-Vitas listened to the women talk and it quickly became apparent to him that this disappearing act was becoming quite the little problem. He vaguely wondered why no one had summoned a slayer or exorcist or something to deal with the missing individuals earlier. Then he remembered that humans were thoughtless by nature, and didn’t ponder over the matter any longer. Now that he was informed of the mystery afoot and having nothing better to do, the shade runner made his way to the village to see what was really going on behind the scenes.

He had waited patiently for the sun to pass it’s zenith before heading down to the village to see what he could, or rather, to hear what he could. It was amazing what sort of things that humans would tell one another when they were sure that no one else could hear them. His favorite technique of hiding out on roofs became applicable as soon as he reached the village. The dragon was on the small side as far as dragons went, but it was still hard to hide himself in broad daylight when he was only a little smaller than the average horse.

Picking a perch on one of the many alleyways that lead off the main road, he hunkered down and prepared to listen to the mindless blathering of the residents. Surprisingly, he actually wasn’t prone to much gossip as per the norm. No, instead it seemed as if this town had a blanket of overwhelming melancholy about it that smothered the soul. He felt almost as if he were being boxed in by the feeling and wondered if the town had always been this dreary or if the recent events had turned this place into the dull town it was now. Sill started to grow twitchy and paranoid and finally had to leave his sitting place or else reveal himself to the citizens just to change the mood a little.

As he turned to leave his eye caught movement in the shadows a street over from where he stood. Narrowing his eyes, the shade runner tried to see what had caught his eye, but whatever it was had moved beyond his field of vision. Curiosity piqued, he silently leapt from his roof to the next one over, padding on silent feet toward the edge of the building to look down into the alley in which he saw the movement. If he were not a creature of the night, he probably would have missed the brown-clad figure walking the length of the alley upon first glance. However, he did see it- or rather her- quite clearly despite the heavy shadows of the ally. He glanced behind him toward the main street and decided that since nothing was going on out that way he would follow this new interesting object to see what would happen.
He walked a few paces behind her on the roof, careful to be as quite as possible. The roofs, however, were not designed for having something the size of a horse walking all over them, and one of the beams he walked along began to squeak, groan, and finally cracked. Panicking, the shade runner took a quick leap to the house on the other side of the alley, claws digging into the wooden structure and a few clay shingles falling to the ground below with a loud crash.

Sill-Vitas winced, lowering his ears and looked to the figure that he had been following. Well, there went his plan to stay quiet…

Guest

The beam wasn't something that broke quietly, and neither were the clay shingles. And since few people ventured out now, especially since they didn't travel the roofs, Kear could come to few conclusions. One such being that someone was being followed. And she knew of no others out doors in the near vicinity. So, unless the stalker was watching someone indoors, they were following her. Kear. The city rat. Upon the realization of this (it really didn't take more than a moment), Kear ducked into some cranny discovered just then.

Now she looked to see who it was. Since the beam had broken first, Kear looked for the room from which the shingles had laid. She could make the figure out, but not to its entirety. Something was wrong about the person that clung to the wood. Unless, of course, it wasn't a person? Perhaps one of the kidnappers? A clumsy one? Kear wondered if, supposing her last theory was true, he would know where the duke was. (Or she. Not like Kear particularly cared.) That would make her mission a lot easier, assuming that she could weave the answer out of them...

Sill-Vitas frowned, seeing the person he had been trying to silently follow dashed into a cranny in the wall, obviously to try and hide. Well, a lot of good that would do! He had already been following the cloaked figure, and it didn't take much effort on his part to find out where she had hidden. Deciding that it probably wouldn't do any good to continue clinging to the roof, he gathered himself and jumped gracefully to the ground, keeping his eyes on the cloaked figure. There was no telling how the biped would react to his presence. Generally, the people who accidentally spotted him lounging around on roofs tended to get angry and panicky and start throwing things or lead an angry mob in an effort to chase him out of town. Since this one didn't look like it was the mob type, he was pretty secure in his thinking that either the biped would throw something at him, or there would be a chance for some actual talking. "Greetings." He said, raising his head slightly and staring intently at the cloaked figure.

Guest

The voice wasn't something she expected. "Uhm," she almost gasped, turning to see who- or what?- had spoken to her. She turned to face it, starting to say something, but her mputh only hung open for a moment. A dragon? A dragon? Not many of those were around here, as far as Kear's knowledge extended. She shook her head a little, to make sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. They weren't; unless, of course, it was some sort of spell. In which case, her eyes couldn't be blamed. Blinking a few times, she closed her mouth. "Uh, hullo." The fact that a dragon was talking to her was still keeping her mind a bit slow in surprised. "You... Were you following me?" She asked, gesturing to the broken clay times and split wooden beam. "Or... Were you just, uh, going this way?" Her eyebrows furrowed slightly at her stutter, but nothing could be done now. The past couldn't be changed, or else someone would have warned the Duke, surely.

Sill had his ears cocked forward, listening intently to what the puny biped was saying. However, once the female- yes, he had been right in that assumption- had started speaking, he was instantly struck by the inclination to turn and simply walk away. He didn't need to stand talking to a bumbling mumbling human anyway... but, there was always the question who else could I ask?. After all, his whole reason for being here centered entirely on getting some questions answered. So, swallowing his irritation, the Shade-runner flattened his ears against his head and took a few cautious steps forward. "No, biped, I was following the other street rat that was stalking through the shadows. Did you see them pass through?" He asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from dripping through his voice. "I am Sill-Vitas, an outsider to this town. I heard rumors of some strange goings on here, and came to investigate." It was only a little stretch of the truth... He didn't much care if the duke or whatever royalty ever was found, that was a biped matter. But, strange happenings did evoke his curiosity, and Sill-Vitas had never been one to deny himself an adventure.

Guest

((Damn it, I'm sorry about my several-month-long disappearances. I get lazy for a day, then I realize months have gone by. I'm reeeeaaaallllyyyyy sorry! D': ))

It took a moment for Kear to get the sarcasm. She blamed it on how scarse it had been, but really, she was just a human. Trying to save herself (how impossible!) she let a smile escape. Might as well try not to seem too stupid- no comment on the dragon's words was necessary. Well, who was she kidding? "Yep, he jumped in the other crack in the wall. Can't say what happened beyond that- you showed up, so I didn't watch his leave." Hopefully she'd have humored him at least a little bit. "Kear Baeshra. Nice to meetchya, Sill-Vitas." Well, at least she could adjust quickly, if nothing else. "The rumors are true. Duke lives about half a mile t' the north, maid couldn't find him a few mornings ago. Nothin' much more to investigate, 'xcept what no one's gonna," Kear explained. "Unless a dragon's seein' more'n the story than us humans..."

Oh? So the biped had some wit about her? How interesting! He liked interesting. However, the implication that he knew what nobody else in the village seemed to nearly had him snort in amusement, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. “As fun as capturing your human ruler might sound, I find no use for ransom gold, and don’t have the patience to deal with a reluctant biped for overlong.” He looked once to the direction that Kear had mentioned, discerning a castle through the afternoon haze, ear flicking back as somebody on the main street dropped something that made a loud noise. “Huh, so you’ve all given up?” He asked at length, turning his eyes back on Kear in appraisal. “This duke is important, yes? Hm… maybe…” He examined one of his claws thoughtfully, as if within that bright ivory nail he could find the answer to whatever question was brewing in that clever head of his. “Yes.” He announced suddenly, snapping his head back up to meet the female biped’s eyes. “I have little better to do, so I’ll see if I can’t find this over-stuffed royal of yours. Who do I ask about the man? I have a keener nose than you humans, perhaps I can simply sniff him out and find that the fool has locked himself in the larder.”

Guest

Ransom gold? At first, Kear was confused. (The curses of being human.) A few moments later, it clicked into place; the dragon was thinking about motive. Correct? It would be more than a bit of a bother if he was mumbling about something he's already done, and Kear had been too stupid to realize this. Hand him in. Find the duke and such. But still, he seemed to be thinking that it wasn't his sort of action. She watched him watch the castle, and turned sharply when the object on the main street was dropped. When the dragon spoke again, Kear again turned to him quickly. "Given up? I.. Well, for th' most part, I'd say so." She swallowed quickly. "We're too scared to look." Though she'd opened her mouth to say more, the dragon had looked down and was already considering whatever it was for himself. She closed her mouth, but blinked at the dragon's sudden answer. Blink, blink. Oh, an answer. He'd asked a question. "The Duchess, I think... Someone up at the manor," she concluded, and eyed the dragon again. "The larder was checked," Kear mumbled in afterthought, though she really had no idea whether or not this was true.

Typical humans, unsure of their own abilities and so unwilling to snuffle into unknown territory. If this duke person was so important, it should have occurred to Sill that it would have been very odd for the man to be left absent for so long, but it didn't. He eavesdropped, but he wasn't exactly part of human society and so was unaware that the man having been mission for so long was probably a sign of something greater lurking in the shadows of this mystery. "The Duchess, eh?" He mumbled, considering the option. That sounded like an important person. "Then I will start at the castle to look for this duke. It sounds like you have quite a mystery on your hands." His tails twitched in barely restrained eagerness to be off on an adventure. He almost turned to go, then stopped himself and looked at Kear, cocking his head to the side slightly, examining her. There was of course the problem with being a dragon about trying to get anything but screams out of bipeds, for which Kear might well serve as a valuable asset. "Are you coming?" Of course she had never volunteered herself for such an adventure, but he certainly wasn't going to do it alone.

Guest

Quite a mystery? That much had been established some time ago... But, Sill was a dragon, and certainly not an occupant of the town. He couldn't be blamed for recently learning of it- and anyways, as Kear reasoned, stating things sometimes made them clearer in your head. She herself was prone to muttering about problems when thought alone, at any rate. Keeping silent, though wondering what sort of reaction Sill expected by going to the manor, Kear watched him. He had a sort of leading charisma around him, or Kear had more of a following one. "Am I coming?" she repeated, stupidly. Why wouldn't she- wasn't this obvious? No... No, it wasn't. The girl hadn't shown much interest in going up to this point, had she? "Oh. Yes... Yes, I'm coming." She waited for some sort of protest, but doubted that it would come. She'd taken long enough to get used to the fact that Sill was indeed a dragon, not to mention a talking creature that was human. Unless Sill was an incredibly patient dragon, he'd want someone to help the person he conversed with get over their shock. Or... Something along those lines.

He frowned briefly when Kear didn't immediately start walking as soon as she agreed to come along with him on this particular misadventure, his tails twitching. "Well, then let's go." He said, beginning to walk and trusting that the human would catch up with him soon enough. He was eager to see what this whole nonsensical capturing and not-finding of the Duke was about, but remembered that most bipeds couldn't keep up with a dragon on the run, so made sure to keep his pace in check at a normal walking speed. "What else is there to know about your royalty's refusal to show his face in the light of day?" Sill asked lightly, turning back to shoot a quick look at the human following along behind him. "I don't suppose that you bipeds are at war again or something, are you?" If that were the case, then he probably would have seen evidence of such a thing, but bipeds were sneaky that way on occasion. Saying one thing and meaning another completely. Of course if a couple of self-important bipeds were angry at each other, the kidnapping might be easily enough traced back to whoever it was on the other half of the argument, which would be a less fun circumstance but something to go adventuring about all the same.

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