Wizards of Breol Forest [PG-13/Started/Accepting/IC]

[Alice Moonflowyr]

As Alasters' sword went straight through Rautars body, he sighed. "Brilliant move. Stabbing a skeleton. Bravo." Turns out the sword had gone right through Rautars ribcage, instead of connecting with his spine. Alaster cursed and realized he would have to rely more on slashing and hacking than stabbing. Then Rautar got set on fire. He yelled, and proceeded to teleport away with a flutter of his cloak. Rautar was suddenly gone. When he appeared, the flames were gone, but he obviously had suffered some pretty bad damage. He appeared across the room nearby Beatrice, spread his arms wide, and opened his mouth. Alaster knew what was coming. The drain move Rautar had used against En. He also knew he had about three seconds to do something.....

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"Mistress, someone is here asking about Mel and the others." An elven man in sparkling crystal armor kneeled before Queen Julia. "Send him in." She said, curious as to who this person was. A few minutes later, Mark walked in, dragging Raven along. "Who might you be?" As Mark explained his situation, Julia looked interested. When he finished, she pointed him in the right direction, along with a warning about Nekrom, and Rautar. "Rautar is a dangerous foe. But he is weak to light magic. Also...he does not expect the unexpected." As Mark began to walk away, Julia yelled out: "Oh! Wait, take this!" Julia tossed a scroll at Mark. "Its a scroll of Teleport. But it's been augmented so you can get right to the person you want to get to."

[Love of Ghibli]

It seems as if trouble had come a lot quicker than hoped. The mighty skeleton warlord had come to attack the younglings. This made Beatrice's skin crawl as she was having flashbacks to that monster touching her face. Nevertheless with Silvest guiding her she stayed back assuming that without his army the boys would be enough to handle the monster without his army. Silvest had immediately started writing in purple on his chest with his nail though this would probably go unnoticed with the events that were about to transpire. They both watched as Mel's arrow missed its mark and the archer subsequently sacrificed himself for the good of a teammate. Beatrice clutched her pearls (figuratively) but she didn't have time to mourn. Alaster was free now.

The battle ground was no longer safe lightning and fire attacks were thrown everywhere she could potentially do more harm than good. Though she was happy to see Alaster combustion sword move strike the skeleton. But then he vanished, the enemy seemed to have disappeared. Unfortunately Rautar reappeared right behind her ready to steal her essence. Sadly for the skeletal fiend the girl he pounced upon was not in the best of moods. She turned and met his gaze with one of her own clearly signalling that she wasn't afraid this time.

Rautar's next sensation would be a furry fist that was as big as he was punch him from the side propelling him away from Beatrice. Of course this would come from Silvest the familiar as the runes are now inscribed on his chest are glowing. He gave a slight chuckle as he shrunk his fist down to where it was proportional to his body. [color=#800080]Why do I have the strange sensation to say Gear Third all of a sudden? I think this is what Mel was referring to when he said it is our time to shine my dear.[/color] "Oh I think you're right Sil. One thing I made sure to get used to was the enemy trying to take me out when it couldn't handle the boys." Beatrice looked over to the other combatants. "We'll stall this fool..."pointing to Rautar"...till the lock is picked and everyone is out." If anyone was paying attention they would notice that her words were far more confident and almost arrogant as if the severity of her situation didn't matter.

The cause was simple, she had a plan. She immediately waved her hands around and the purple tracer appeared Silvest grinned almost maliciously as the Rune floated directly in front of Silvest. Then Beatrice said with a smirk. "Okay Rautar time for survival of the fittest. Ultimate Darwinism." Silvest opened his mouth and carefully aimed four balls of light so they would touch the rune at the same time. This leading to a similar combo that Beatrice used on the trolls. Before Rautar stood 16 ferocious creatures with educational weapons ready for combat. Beatrice smiled as she said "Sick'em boys." The beast charged at the skeleton. All of them. The four bison tried multiple melee attacks attacks against the man/skeleton creature but weapons were only grazing his bones with their dense iron protractors. The Polar Bears were bashing away at him with there copper shield blades but he didn't seem to be effected. Same with the leopards and their claws of iron. The crocodiles were quite different they decided to stay posted at the corners of the dungeon to make sure the plan was successful, but Rautar should be too busy to notice any of that.

While realizing he was a skeleton Beatrice wondered could this creature feel pain, fatigue, or anything. Attacks were having no effect on him so that meant she would have to have some assurance that her plan would succeed. She moved her hands and concentrated like she was doing the ever popular Hadoken and a mass of purple light grew in her palms. The mass of purple light then changed to words and those words disappeared into air. Next everyone inside the room accept Silvest and Rautar gained a slightly purple glow. [color=#800080][i]Rune of Savage Combat...nice choice there little lady.[/i][/color] Silvest projected mentally to the group.[color=#800080] [i]Now you all are immune to status changes like poisons and the like. But you also gain a perk. [/i][/color]With that he pointed to Mel who's wound should be closing itself up. [color=#800080][i]You can regenerate.[/i][/color] He informed everyone. As he motioned next to Beatrice who was breathing heavily. Using her most powerful Rune and Summon magic does take its toll on her but she could clearly hold (if not defeat) this thing for an hour.

[i]Okay he's taken down 4 of the 12 attackers (2 Bison, 1 Bear, and 1 Leopard) but based on how shiny he's gotten I say we got this. Now someone hit this dude with some lightning so we can win this thing.[/i] She thought spoke to the others as she was making sure not take her eyes off the fight.

[Aix]

Jak creased his eyebrows, brute force evidently wasn't working on this guy. Rautar was skillful and seemed to draw upon an infinite reserve of energy. Fortunately, Jak had been standing back casting Lantern Blasts. His Signweaving made simple spells like the Lantern Blast only take half the time to recharge and by now, his friends had bought him enough time to have twenty of them floating around.

Selena leaped into the fray, her dual swords catching on the torchlight as she jumped, and engaged the Anti-Paladin in close combat, but her reflection magic on her sword was useless flashing into the Anti-Paladin's empty sockets. The Anti-Paladin cackled as with a few lightning fast strokes, blocked all of her strikes and counterattacked. Selena did a spin, her sword flailing out to parry the Anti-Paladin, and within that fluid rotating movement, she shot her foot out and caught the Anti-Paladin in the pelvis.

The Anti-Paladin chuckled. "Used to aiming below the belt, eh? Fortunately, I have no--"

"'That's hardly something to be proud of,' he says," said Jak's hat as Jak himself dashed forwards, swiping at the Anti-Paladin with his dagger. In that same moment, five of Jak's Lantern Blast struck, four hitting the Anti-Paladin at the joints at his elbow and the last knocking the Anti-Paladin's head back. While the Anti-Paladin was distracted, Jak cut down on the weakened arm joint which the Anti-Paladin used to hold his sword, severing it, and then used his other hand to release the Explosive Palm which Jak had saved up into the Anti-Paladin's ribs. A great explosion knocked the skeletal knight back.

Jak quickly snatched up the Anti-Paladin's sword so that the Anti-Paladin could not use magic to retrieve it. Then, he sent the remaining fifteen Lantern Blasts forwards as a distraction and both Jak and Selena leaped forwards to get a physical hit on the Anti-Paladin.

[Astolfo]

Jak had just popped the lock on Alaster's and En's door and En quickly retrieved his sword with a sigh. [i]What a relief. I had this sword for less than a couple of hours and the Swordmage in me felt like it was dying without it.[/i] En had just stumbled out of what had been his little cage with Alaster for the past hour or so. He stretched his back, sighing in relief. His sigh however froze when he felt a sense of deja vu for a second before seeing Rautar round the corner again. [i]Aw damnit. Just when I thought it was going to be all swell. Who am I kidding? Even so, seriously? Not this killer zombie grandpa again.[/i]

[i]Shhhhhrrrrring![/i] The familiar scrape of metal sliding out of its scabbard sounded like music to his ears now as he got ready to face off Rautar, and with the advantage of all his friends against one - albeit powerful - man. He was about to make a super-charged slash of lightning, when the arrow Mel had loosed at Rautar seemed true, but some invisible force pushed it slightly to the side, too quick for almost anyone to see. At this particular angle though, he saw it. [i]Good grief. Not too much of a chance of any damage at long range mostly. Particularly strong strikes might work, but not even anything slightly weaker. Guess it's going to be us melee-ers attacking and distracting, with the long rangers attacking from afar.[/i] En was still thinking when he saw Rautar lunge forward with his life draining blade. Reaal was going to have a new visitor in his heart, when Mel suddenly jumped in front of it, taking the entire brunt in his stomach. "MEL!" En cried out anguished, the yell torn out of him at the sight of the dumb anti-paladin treating his friends like trash.

En lunged at Rautar, and started dealing lightning-fast stabs, slashes, spin-cuts, and other tricks of the blade that seemed to sing in his mind as he battled, instantly filling him with the knowledge of previous Swordmages. As he became a whirlwind of motion, he smoothly transitioned into his whirlwind attacking somehow. Noticing Mel suffering from a corner of his eye, he yelled out, "Beatrice, see if you can get anyone that has medical knowledge in our group! If Mel's not patched up, he's gonna die from blood loss, and fast!" However, the momentary distraction as he yelled it out was enough, and Rautar's blade arced like a snake whipping through the air. En dodged by a fraction of a millimeter, seeing the blade slice through his armor. He gulped.

He noticed Beatrice casting a spell on Mel, healing him, and realizing his own wounds were healing. "Thanks Beat!" He yelled out. As him and his friends kept fighting, he noticed Rautar seemed to be weakening. Ignoring a tiny voice in his head, he kept fighting.

He noticed his attacks and his friends' attacks didn't even seem to scratch them though. [i]Magic, huh? Then eat my lightning!"[/i] He started spinning even faster when he noticed Alastar being tricked into nearly becoming the victim of the life draining magic, when Bea's familiars attacked at Rautar.

As En fought on, he noticed Selena attacking, and kicking the enemy in his manhood, but as the Anti-Paladin laughed, saying he felt nothing, and heard Jak's hat's smart mouth reply, he couldn't help but smirk. He noticed Jak's Lantern Blasts distracting Rautar, and as his arm was cut off, Rautar's evil blade was taken by Jak.

Taking advantage of the distraction Jak had created by sending a flurry of the remaining Lantern Blasts, he started to call upon his Lightning magic. "LIGHTNING FURY!" En charged himself up with a sphere of lightning, and sped towards Rautar, slashing the air so fast a searing bolt shot at Rautar, impaling him in his chest somewhere. Recharging, En quickly fired off a series of blasts, one after another, each pounding into Rautar, burning Rautar's bones almost as the streaks hit, leaving Rautar weakened severely.

"C'mon guys! Let's finish him! Magic, remember!" En yelled out to his friends as Rautar was being slowly defeated. With a cry, En let out a particularly strong shockwave, which threw Rautar across the dungeon. Together, with his friends and fellow travelers, they started pounding Rautar repeatedly, not giving him a moment's break.

A ragged scream was torn from Rautar as he was being crushed by the floods of magic impaling, searing, tearing, throwing, bashing, and eating at him.
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[i]What on Breol….[/i] Rautar's thoughts were swirling around frenziedly. [i]How can such a weak group be even slightly weakening me!? THIS IS AN INSULT! I SHALL KILL THEM ALL![/i] The warning from Nekrom to keep them alive for a brief session went past his thoughts. Rautar was frightened at the unruly, yet effective synchronization in the groups' strikes. He was about to pull the life out of the other Swordsmage who made a mistake, when a heavy paw smashed into him, and as he got up, the Elven warrior woman kicked him, but it didn't have any effect. Rautar moved to attack again when a series of fireballs struck him, and in the distraction and attack, one of his arms were lopped off.

"THIS SHALL NOT STAND!" Rautar yelled in anger as his precious sword was taken as well. He let out a guttural yell as the stupid silver-haired boy struck him over and over with lightning, which seared harder than normal, due to its minor relation of Light.

As the silver boy yelled for his friends to help finish him, Rautar filled with incredible rage, but was helpless almost, as he was thrown from his feet, then instantly pounded and crushed with magic again, with only his will saving him now. [i]No…. I CAN'T! NO![/i]

Rautar's vision began clouding, and Rautar tried to fight back still, but was weak, and with a final cry from one of the group, Rautar was impaled. As a searing sensation wracked his body, he recognized the weapon as his own blade. [i]No… This can't b-….[/i]
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En slumped in relief as Rautar was finally defeated. Together, he and his friends had to use every last bit of their energy, but they did it. Rautar was dead. The final touch the group had decided was that they would all take Rautar's accursed weapon, and finish him with it. So, as Rautar obviously was dying, they all rushed forward, taking the blade, and drove the blade into the now late Anti-Paladin.

"Whew…. That was a close one. You okay guys?" En checked with his friends. After they more or less nodded a general assent, albeit weary mostly, En said, "We shouldn't stay in this place any longer. We need to get out of here, then rest. Okay?" With another nod of assent, his friends and En began to quickly think of a place to escape to.

[Alice Moonflowyr]

Beatrices spell could not have gotten there later, otherwise the situation would have been much worse. Even as it is however, it was still pretty bad. The outside wound had closed, but Mel was still bleeding internally. As Rautar fell, he turned to dust, and Mel started convulsing violently over in the corner.

[i]Guys, Mel is still hurting![/i] Toklo yelled out as he ran over to Mel, holding him down. [i]Come help me, please![/i]

Toklo managed to hold Mel down with Beatrices help, but they needed to act fast. A stomach wound was just as bad as a throat wound if left untreated. Especially one of this magnitude. Mel was still unconcious, and was muttering under his breath. Then he was still. Beatrice checked his breathing, and while it was extremely faint, it was still there.

The group needed to act fast, because there was still a real chance for Mel to die.

[RogueZero]

After hearing of the Queen Julia, Mark learned that Mel is not alone in his journey. At first Mark was calm, because Mel is not alone, but there is a feeling that continues to bother him, feeling that he should immediately go to where Mel was. "I have to catch up with them!" Mark muttered to himself. After saying goodbye to the wood elves, Mark immediately rushed to leave, when he heard the footsteps stop calling Queen Julia. "Wait, take this!" shouted the Queen Julia, throwing a scroll to Mark. "Its a scroll of Teleport. But it's been augmented so you can get right to the person you want to get to." said the Queen Julia. "Thank you very much Your Majesty!" Mark shouted as he rushed to leave.

When Mark was outside the village of the Wood Elf, Mark took the teleport scroll given by Queen Julia from his pocket. "Are you sure you want to follow Mel?" Raven asked. "Of course, why do you have to ask?" said Mark. "You already know that Mel is not alone, so there's no reason for you to follow him." Raven said to Mark. "I do not care whether he was alone or six, I would still follow him!" Mark said to Raven. "Huh, you were really stubborn ..." Raven said to Mark.

Mark then opened the scroll. "Please, take me to Mel!" Mark begged to the scroll.

Suddenly, the whole body of Mark and Raven glow. "Whoa, this really works!" Mark said in awe.

A moment later Mark appeared in a place that looked like a dungeon.

When he looked to his side, looking Mel was lying in agony. "What in the Breol! Mel! What happened to you!?" Mark shouted. When he looked around, there are five other wizards who seems exhausted, looks like they had just finished a fight with something.

"I had to use my magic!" Mark said as he pulled out his wand. Mark began his magical chant "O Lorem Unda lucis, adiuua Amicis meis in certamine! Life Surge". Suddenly a bright light came out of the magic wand owned by Mark and the light respectively, going into wizards including Mel, healing all of their wounds and re-energize the wizards to its original condition.

Mark's face turned pale. "Gah!" Mark suddenly fell to his knees. "Mark why do you use such magic! Did you know that instead of healing energy that you use it is your energy itself! You could die if you use it like this!" Raven shouted. "Heh, I'm not going to die because of a little thing like this." Mark replied to Raven. Mark tried to lean on the wall and sat down, he looked over at the other magicians whose energy has returned, and then he looked over at Mel. "Heh, I thought I was not going to lose a lot of energy." Mark muttered to himself.

[Cray-Crow]

Reaal was glad to see Alaster take the presented opportunity for a strike completely. He'd driven his blade into the bound Rauter's chest, and engulfed him in flames, igniting the tar as well. He screamed in his flaming shackles. Nice combo, Alaster.

 

To the comrades' dismay, Rauter spread his cloak and was gone. Released from Reaal's tar, he re-emerged behind Beatrice, ready to consume her life essence. He'd obviously taken sever damage to resort to those methods, but Beatrice had grown since their last encouter with the undead paladin. With a gigantic paw, Beatrice's familiar smacked Rauter away from its master. Beatrice proceeded to summon twelve wild creatures that savagely attacked Rauter, but to no avail it seemed. He was impervious to such physical damage.

 

Reaal wanted to assist more but maintaining his previous spell to bind Rauter even for such a short while drained him, but Jak came joined the fray with the right idea. He emitted small blasts of light which severed Rauter's limbs while Selena distracted him with her swordplay.

 

With the final drive, En unleashed incredible amounts of lightning magic, relentlessly striking Rauter. Pain can be heard from him now. It seems the gang was finally getting somewhere. Finished with his own weapon, Rauter was defeated. Beatrice's previous healing spell was taking effect, his exhaustion slowly receding. Which reminded him..

 

"Mel!" Reaal ran to the young man, but stopped in his tracks when someone appeared from thin air. The unknown person immediately recognized Mel and issued a healing spell to stop what Reaal guessed was his more severe internal bleeding. "I don't know who you are, but.. thank you." This boy had just saved the person who'd sacrificed himself for Reaal's life. Reaal couldn't have done anything to save Mel. He was in this boy's debt, as well, now.

 

 

[Alice Moonflowyr]

Mel gave weak shudder, and his eyes fluttered open. "Ugh...I feel like I could throw up." Mel then proceeded to hurl onto the floor, nearly passing out from the pain. He then saw Mark, and a weak smile came upon his face. "Hey...Mark. Long time no see bro." Mel hugged Mark, then immediatly retreated muttering: "No hugs, that hurts." Mel saw the dusty remnants of Rautar and gave a small, half-hearted cheer. "Heey. You got him. You guys are awesome...did Silvest fit in here?" Mel was remembering the gigantic version of Silvest from the jungle, and when he saw Silvest, he looked a bit dissapointed. "Aw Sil, you shoulda gone all badass on him. Woulda kicked his ass." Mel smiled though. "Ahh, all it matters is that you got him. But uh...before we go any further...I gotta rest. Maybe for a few days." Mel was slowly gaining his reason back, and he pulled himself to a proper standing position, groaning.

 

"No, wait what am I saying. Nekroms army is marching. Gotta...gotta go. Gimme my bow." Mark handed Mel his bow, and he tried to pull the string back. Mel managed to get it back quite a bit, but he had to grit his teeth, and a small tear was seen trailing down his cheek. "Alright...I got no more juice left for no magic, but I can fire an arrow or two." Mel was obviously still in serious pain, although the danger of dying was now gone. Mostly. Mark tried to hold him up, but Mel pushed him away growling. "I dont. Need. Help." Mel grabbed Rautars old sword out of Ens hand, using it as a cane. Mel gestured for Alaster to lead the way. He put on his armor, and proceeded up the stairs. Mel snagged the bag, and tossed it to Alaster. "Hold on to this for me." The group took up marching order, with En and Alaster in the front, Reeal behind them, Jak, Selena, and Mark in the middle, and Beatrice and Mel taking up the rear, with Silvest and Toklo watching their back.

 

About halfway up the stairs, Mel felt like he was going to collapse. He leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. When Beatrice tried to help, he grit his teeth. "Please. No. I have to do this. If I cant pick myself up after a little wound like that, who the hell am I to be here in the first place." Mel gave a painful smile then. "Hey Beatrice. When this is all said and done and if I'm, you know, still alive, you wanna go out sometime?" Mel whispered the last part so no one but Beatrice heard.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

The battle with Rautar quickly came to an end, but even as the Anti-paladin's bones disintegrated before them they had the problem of being down one party member which was entirely problematic.  Alaster had a plan for how to deal with this, but before he could make any move towards Mel a stranger emerged from...nowhere and proceeded to heal the party as a whole.  While mel was busy dealing with his sickness, Alaster had moved to put his not pitch-black armor back on.  Just as he pulled his left pauldron back into place, the thought occurred to him that maybe he should invest in a helmet and quite possibly some form of treatment to restore his armor to its original shining state.  Of course he managed to shake the thought from his head in the mean time, and was just in time for Mel to give some sensible orders to the party.

 

Not one to contradict orders that made sense, particularly when they're the very same orders he would have given in the situation, Alaster moved to the front of the group where he and En acted as the point men.  He kept his blade out, though he carried it in only one hand for the moment.  The stairs which the party was traveling up were quite long, and so when they reached the half-way point up the stairs Alaster turned his head to check on the party.

 

"How's everyone holding up back there?"  The concern in his voice was quite real, as in some way they'd all done something which was more exhausting than necessary.  It was then that he saw Mel had stopped at the back of the group, and held his hand up in a gesture which signaled for the group to stop in their tracks.  He made his way back down the stairs towards where Mel had stopped and Beatrice was trying to attend to him.

 

Taking advantage of Mel's distracted state, Alaster quickly dropped down and slid into a position below and forward of the mage.  He then shot straight up back into a standing position in such a way as for Mel's arms to go over his shoulders and the boy to wind up on his back.  Alaster was the oldest one in the group, and the thin icy beard which he had grown since his last opportunity to shave was certainly showing it.  Thus, he felt somewhat responsible to look out for the younger party members.  When Mel tried to remove himself from the battlemage's armored back, Alaster grabbed him by the arms and held him in place.

 

"Mel, you're in a worse state than any of us right now, " he began, shifting to holding Mel's arms by the wrists with one hand and putting his own sword into the bag of holding with his free one.  "Whether you think you can handle something on your own right now or not, there are five-" he remembered the sudden appearance of Mark and, despite his suspicions, felt the boy was at least sincere about helping Mel, "Six people here who are not going to let you.  Now drop your bow and the Lifedrinker Blade in the bag of holding and hold on."  To emphasize his statement, he lifted up the still-open bag of holding in his free hand.  Mel, realizing there was no way to dissuade Alaster from his chosen course of action, relented and placed both weapons within the confines of the aforementioned bag.  The battlemage then secured the bag to his waist and, now carrying Mel, moved back up to the front of the party just behind En before giving the call for the group to move out.

[Love of Ghibli]

Beatrice let out deep sigh of relief when the skeletal man was defeated. Only to find out the Mel was still bleeding heavily internally. Then some stranger had appeared out of nowhere and healed Mel. Seeing as Mel acknowledged this person by some name...Mark so she actually let her guard down again and fell to her knees tired from over doing her magic. With the aid of Silvest she was able to get back to her feet. Victory was accomplished and they managed to get past their first major boss battle. All things considered life was pretty good. While walking in the forest...well others were walking as Beatrice was riding her Magnet Crocodile...she was trying to figure out how best to enjoy this moment of somewhat tranquility when Mel popped her the question.

"What?...Oh sure, if we're both living I guess it couldn't hurt." She said very nonchalantly. It wasn't that she didn't like Mel she just didn't understand how he turned into this romantic all of a sudden. Was it her not so subtle drunken flirtations with Alaster that brought this on or was it something else. It didn't matter though she certainly wasn't his girlfriend like Jak and the elf women appeared to be and there were just a litany of other things to think about. Such as going to fight an army with the...what 7 of them. She shook her head and facepalmed slightly. 

 

Silvest was behind Beatrice and Mel riding on Leo-Pald, the blade leopard,  because that is the only logical way a creature that small can keep up with the others. Even though the rune effects were cut off to preserve mana, the creatures summoned can still hang around. So Backing up Beatrice and the rest of the group is a bunch of blade wielding animal warriors...and Toklo. Silvest quietly grew to dislike Mel more and more as this new found appreciation for Silvest abilities just seemed to come out of nowhere. Also he couldn't figure out why the two currently weakest people have to bring up the rear. Luckily Silvest had body guards to make sure this wouldn't become such a big deal.

[Alice Moonflowyr]

Back in the cells, a figure emerged from the shadows nearby the dust of Rautar. He was completely cloaked, but as he reached out to poke the dust, his hand was completely black and skeletal. "Hey. Get up already." The figure said in a hiss. As he said this, the dust shivered. Then, it began to pull itself back together, swirling around until Rautar reformed, cloak and all. He felt around for his sword, and cursed upon finding it was gone. "Damn." He then reached for around his neckline, and gave a small shout. "My amulet! Curses! Its gone!"

 

"Obviously, dumbass. Now come on. Those guys are already halfway up the staircase."

 

"Shouldnt you be at the Elven settlement?"

 

"Fuck the elves. The army'll crush them anyway. We need to concentrate on those wizards going up towards the top of the tower."

 

"Not sure I should fight again. I cant use Resurgence for another three days."

 

"Shut up and get your ass to the top of the tower."

 

Rautar dissapeared with a flutter of his cloak. Jack tutted and faded back into the shadows, dissapearing.

 

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Ten Syron warriors stood outside the tower barricades, the area nearly deserted. The Syrons were dressed in black armor, with gauntlets with small swords built into the backs. "Shadow Walkers, forwards." One of them hissed, and the ten rushed forwards, leaving a black streak behind them. They were exeptionally fast, and got to the tower entrance in almost no time flat. The leader motioned them inside, and they were in a circular chamber, with stairs leading down, and leading up. They heard footsteps coming from the lower end, and expertly hid in the room, leaving no trace of themselves. They waited for whoever was coming to show themselves....

 

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Mel grinned when he heard Beatrice awnser. Thats cool then. I'm just gonna...fall asleep now. And he did. Mel fell asleep, snoring lightly on Alasters shoulder. Toklo came up and nudged Beatrice, and he would be smiling if he could. The group entered a circular chamber with stairs directly across from them. The room was suspiciously shadowed, and Alaster felt a tingling on the back of his neck...like he was being watched.

[RogueZero]

When Mark was sitting and resting, a wizard came up to him. He thanked Mark. "I do not know who you are, but thank you.". "No need to thank, I'm just doing what I can do to help you." Mark smiled at the wizard. "Hey, my name is Mark Meitzen, a pleasure to meet you. Mel has always treated me like a brother, so you could say that we were as close as brothers, what's your name?" Mark asked the wizard. "My name is Reaal, Reaal Isaiah, all the pleasure is mine." Reaal said to Mark. When Mark and Reaal finished, Mel woke up with great pain, but he still can greet and hug Mark. Mark then met Beatrice, Alaster, En, Jak, and Selena. Then they share stories of their adventures while in the woods, also about Nekrom troops, with Mark. He knows there is something wrong with this forest, but it was worse than he had expected.

Moments later Mel stood up and asked for someone to pick up his bow, Mark then gave a bow to Mel, Mel took his bow and said that we had to get moving. Worried about the deteriorating condition of Mel, Mark tried to help Mel, but Mel pushed Mark away and said "I do not need help.". Then he motioned Alaster to lead our group. Then we all moved to climb the stairs leading to the upper floor, where Nekrom located. Mark walked in the middle of the line, suddenly Alaster stopped to see the state of the other magicians. He is like a teacher who always looks after his students which reminds Mark to his father who always looks after Mark and Mel. Mel looks in pain, but he could still talk to Beatrice. "It seems that both of them are compatible huh?" asked Raven to Mark. "Hmm, Yes, they really are compatible, it looks like in the near future I will have a sister-in-law." Mark replied to Raven. When Mel was talking to Beatrice, Alaster rapidly moving towards the direction of Mel and holding him on his back. At first Mel tried to climb down from Alaster back, but because Alaster won't let him to do so, Mel surrendered and sleep on Alaster shoulder. "Everyone here is a good person, I'm glad Mel had friends like this." Mark smiled.

While walking up the stairs, Mark felt something flowing on the air from the prison where he met Mel and 5 other wizards, a dark and terrible aura flowing from the direction of the prison.

Not long after that, they reached a circular chamber, Mark intends to tell the unsettling feeling he had to Alaster.

[Aix]

With the disintegration of the Anti-Paladin, Jak suddenly felt the world disappear again like it did when he first laid his hands on the Book of Signweaving. Once more, the ancient masters of Signweaving flew by, but they did not stop to teach him anything like they did the previous time. Jak wondered what was going on: Why was he called back? The last of the five masters departed, and then, there was only darkness... Jak stood there in the darkness, feeling very much alone. It felt empty here. Utterly devoid of other existence, utterly devoid of light. After what felt like a long time, a dim purple dot appeared in the distance. Gradually, it grew bigger. It's getting closer, realized Jak. He dropped into a ready fighting stance.

 

Minutes ticked by, and Jak could make out what it was. A snake. A strange, glowing purple snake, slithering closer as if it were on land, when really, it was approximately four feet off the ground. Before Jak casted anything, the snake came to a halt, about four feet before him. Jak paused his hand signs. He regarded the snake with curiosity. It was... strange. He could not help but feel dread at the small thin creature, however, he could not recognize what sort of danger the snake presented.

 

The snake shone brighter and its outline blurred, partially due to the glow and partially due to the fact that it was changing form. The light grew in height to create a blinding pillar of light that began to swirl and spin like a raging tornado. The light expanded outwards and Jak stumbled back. Suddenly, it exploded, the energy burst and Jak was knocked off his feet. Crawling up, Jak found himself face to face with a tall, handsome, young, black-haired man with thin slitted eyes and thin, angular features. The man's long raven-black hair drifted erratically behind him, as if blown by turbulent winds.

 

"Hello, my little friend," the man spoke directly into Jak's mind. "You are... one of the few remaining Signweavers in the world, I suppose. I was, unfortunately, unable to leave my school of magic in the world."

 

"You created Signweaving?" asked Jak incredulously.

 

"Nah, I did not," said the man, though it appeared he wished he did. "But, I was the Founder of the Signweaver's School of Ruin." He looked at Jak for some sort of reaction, and after a few seconds, he was evidently disappointed. "I knew it... they simply erased me and my school from the history books, despite everything. How annoying." Jak didn't really know what to say, and so he remained silent. Seeing that Jak didn't have any questions, the man continued. "You will have to pass on my legacy, no?"

 

"Erm, what?"

 

"My legacy... Nevermind. I am getting ahead of myself, I do not have long," the man said. "I will simply leave you with some of my knowledge and power, for you appear to be in dire need of it if you wish to survive the battle ahead... against Nekrom." The man wove a sign. "The Sigil of Ruin... remember this." Jak looked at it. He already knew it, it was part of the ultimate technique. The man read his mind. "Ah? They did not erase it all? It appears I was simply too useful. Hm..." The man wore a smug smile and wove a few more signs. The signs were burned into Jak's mind like the others. "Well, that is all. Until next time. Level up quickly so we can talk more."

 

[hr]

"Jak? Jak? Are--" Selena stood before him, looking somewhat worried.

 

"Oh... hai," he said. "Sorta dazed out there. I'm fine." He looked around and was surprised to find the newcomer there. He said nothing, however, and accepted the circumstances as they were. It didn't appear that much time had passed, time must have been warped in the dark place, like it is in a dream. Was what he saw real? Yes, he thought. He remembered the hand signs. It must have been.

 

They departed the dungeons, venturing up a staircase and entering a round room shrouded in shadow. Something is weird... Jak thought. He glanced at Selena and her demeanor was grim as well. She felt something, too. The entire group was quiet. With a quick hand sign and a light crackle, a Lantern Blast flared into existence and it floated out ahead of the group, illuminating, somewhat, the area directly ahead of them. After thirty seconds, Jak sent another one after the first.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alaster stopped as they entered the room and began looking around.  There didn't seem to be any sort of exit except a set of stairs right in front of them, and the shadows throughout the room seemed unnatural to be sure.

 

"Toklo, take Mel for a second."   He sent this message mentally so as to avoid anything within the room would not hear them.  Quickly the spirit became a full-sized bear and the trade of carrying was made.  This allowed Alaster to retrieve his blade from the bag of holding, taking care to make certain that Rautar's remained inside, and drop into a ready stance.  He certainly didn't like what he was seeing here, and the sensation of his being watched only made him feel more on edge.  Soon, his gaze drifted across the exit to the room, the same entryway which the Syron warriors had entered through earlier.  Of course Alaster himself knew nothing of the Syrons, and was simply glad to have found the exit.  This was what he began to make his way to whilst keeping in a stance which would make it easy to defend from any attacks which happened to come his way.

 

"Guys, I found a way out of here."  Again, he was sticking to the telepathy cantrip so as to avoid anything which they did not want to find them hearing them.  Of course, a thought briefly occurred to him as he reached the door and as such he chose to speak out loud rather than mentally.  "There's an army out there and we need to get back to warn the wood elves about it.  They're in the most immediate danger."  He hoped the rest of the group still wanted to stick to his plan of getting the hell out of there, particularly since after their duel with Rautar it stood to reason that the group could not handle Nekrom in their current state.  Especially with one of them down for the count indefinitely.

[Alice Moonflowyr]

A Shadow Walker came out from the shadows, his hands raised in the air. "Wait. I apologize for hiding, but we needed to make sure you were not the Skeleton himself, or one of his minions." As he spoke, the other nine Walkers came out, hands raised. When they were sure they werent being attacked, they lowered their hands. The leader walked over to Toklo, who eyed him suspiciously. "He is injured. We can tend to him." Toklo stared at him for maybe a minute, then slowly relinquished control of Mel. The leader of the Shadow Walkers took him over towards the other end of the room, and layed him down. He hissed. "This one has sustained serious damage! The healing, while it did save his life, is rather mediocre though. Aerul, come over here." One of the Shadow Walkers came over to Mel, removing his helmet as he did so. Aerul was bald, his skin completely white. His ears were tapered, not unlike those of an elf, and his eyes were solid black. "Can you tackle an injury of this magnitude?"

 

Aerul looked Mel over. "Stomach wound. Looks like a two-handed blade, medium length. Considerable strength went into the strike. Blood loss alone should have been enough to kill him. But..." Aerul rested a hand upon Mels still-healing wound, and let out a yell. "This....argh. He was hit with a Lifedrinker. His lifeforce has been depleted, by a lot. No normal healing can fix this." The lead Walker looked confused. Aerul sighed. "The way these things work is like so. The human body normally regains energy by eating, sleeping, and drinking. But it consumes a small amount of calories to gain a larger amount of calories. This boy has had so much lifeforce drained out of him, that his body does not have the energy to perform the tasks needed to gain more energy. He needs an infusion of pure life. Which I can obtain from someone, but only if they do it willingly." Aerul looked pointedly at the rest of the group.

 

"Why cant you just give him some of your life force? We're all consideralbly weakened." Alaster said, still not fully trusting the group of Syrons.

 

Aerul sighed again. "I would, but I am a Syron. He is a human. We arent compatible. I'm sorry, but it must be one of you."

 

The group of Walkers waited for someone to step up. Mels life was in their hands....

[RogueZero]

When Alaster goes ahead and check out the situation, he said that he discovered the exit. However, all of a sudden came the 10 strangers from the darkness of the chamber, they introduced themselves as Shadow Walkers.

"They did not intend to harm us." thought Mark

They also offered to cure Mel. Mark was relieved to finally have someone who wants to heal Mel. The leader of the Shadow Walker call someone named Aerul to check on Mel. But when Aerul check out Mel, he said that Mel has lost a lot of energy to live and he needs an infusion of pure life energy.

When Mark heard Aerul talking about Mel, Mark knew that he must help Mel, Mel He did not want to die.

Mark was soon walking towards the Syron. "Then take my life energy ..." Mark said seriously to Aerul. "But, can you guarantee that Mel will return to its original state?" asked Mark to Aerul.

[Astolfo]

Aerul stepped forward and motioned for Mark to join him. "So you willingly accept giving part of your life to Mel? You will feel weak, and although healing is guaranteed, it will take several days for your brother to recover." Once Mark nodded his assent, Aerul placed his hands over Mark's, and said, "Repeat this phrase once I tell you to all right? Offero partem vi-tae, qui magi fratrem nomine Mel ei ad sanandum. It means 'I offer part of my life to Mel, my brother, in order to heal him' basically. Alright?"

 

The head Syron stepped back and murmured a few words, and then created a long tube like object out of some sort of semi-transparent substance. He inserted part of one tube into Mel's heart, which surprisingly, slid right through, as if it were an illusion, and pushed the other into Mark's heart. "Transferre." And with that, a pulsing green energy wriggled out of Mark's chest, as if were alive, and crawled through Mel's chest into his heart. Mel started coughing violently for a second before calming down, looking much more at ease.

 

Mark stumbled before catching his breath, slightly exhausted. Alaster asked if Mark was alright, and when Mark showed his assent, the group as a whole sighed in relief at Mel being healed and Mark not showing any negative signs from the transfusion.

 

The group thanked the Syrons, greatly relieved. "Thank you very much for healing Mel. We are going to get out of this tower, as Mel still need to heal. We are also exhausted. Do you have any tips on where we might be able to stay for a couple of days?" When the Syrons told the group of a small Elven village not too far away, but out of Nekrom's notice, the group thanked the Syrons and made their way out of the tower with the Syrons to the small village.

 

--

When the group with the Syrons made their way to the village, the original members realized it was where Julia was, and collectively let out a sigh of relief at being in a familiar and friendly place to dwell for a couple of days.

 

--

Finally.... En sighed. He was exhausted beyond exhausted from all the stress and the serious battles they went through without really resting. Stretching out, he made his way to one of the dozens of beds in Julia's house that she granted them after hearing about their battle. He lied down, closing his eyes. Looking over, he saw his fellow friends and the Syrons doing more or less the same, and they all started to rest, regaining their strength, both mental and physical. He thought of some of the times in his life, and let them wash over him, clearing his stress away little by little....

 

--

 

A black skeleton silently prowled through the night, smelling faint scents and tracking minuscule hints of a group, both human, and something else...... 

[Cray-Crow]

With Nekrom finished, and Mel somewhat healed, the group slowly ascended the black tower. The winding staircase had to be torturous for the injured Mel, but Reaal could hear his stubborn persistence as he trudged stair by stair. After some point, Alaster must've known Mel shouldn't push his wound any further because he halted the group, inquiring to everyone's state. Reaal turned his head nodding to Mel, and Alaster man-handled him over his back.

 

Eventually, an end to the climbing was found in a circular chamber. However, the room was unnervingly darkened by shadows. Looking the rest of the group, their uncertain faces confirmed their shared feelings towards this unsettling space ahead. Jak smartly attempted to illuminate the chamber with his lantern spell. Oddly, it did little in terms of revealing the unknown.

 

After a brief exchange of Mel from Alaster to Toklo, Alaster, as always, made his way into the dark. After a moment, he broadcasted having found an exit. Then, Alaster spoke aloud, mentioning having to warn the wood elves of the undead army advancing to their location. Then, as if by reply, a figure stepped out from the shadows in an unarmed and non-combatant fashion. As he spoke, it was insinuated that his enemy was the skeleton and his allies, not the group. The Syron, as he introduced himself and his kind, proceeded to point out Mel's grave injury, stating and explaining how they could better heal it.

 

With Mel healed of the life draining wound, the Syrons shared a location at which the group would be able to rest after their hardships in this miserable tower.

 

~:~

 

The location, luckily, was familiar and was kept by Julia. Once inside the cottage, Reaal wholeheartedly took a resting position in a fully cushioned chair near the door. He exhaled loudly.

 

"Feels good to kick back after a day like this," he asked no one in particular. "Doesn't it?"

 

 

[Aix]

When the first Lantern Blast did not really light up the darkness, Jak merely passed it off, but when the second Lantern Blast didn’t make a difference either, Jak suspected the supernatural at work here. He was readying for attack when the Shadow Walkers came out of the shadows and revealed themselves as friends. After a moment of scrutiny, Jak released his hand sign and Selena, beside him, dropped her hands back down from holding her swords.

 

One of the Syrons came over and quickly and accurately diagnosed Mel’s wound and soon after, Mel was healed grace to the Syron’s spell and Mark’s self-sacrifice in stepping forth to give up part of his life-force.

 

[hr]

 

As the amalgamated group, the Syrons joined them, walked with raised spirits through the forest, Selena walked ahead of Jak and approached the leader of the Shadow Walkers.

“Have you traveled the forest a lot?” asked Selena, using the voice of an interested bystander.

 

The Syron turned to regard her. He held her gaze for a few seconds before responding with a simple “Yes.” and redirecting his gaze to the path ahead.

 

Selena brightened slightly and continued her inquiry, despite the Syron’s apparent disinterest. “Have you heard of or seen signs of a great draconic creature?” she asked.

 

“A dragon? They are not uncommon in the forest. One is bound to come upon one sooner or later.”

 

“I speak of no ordinary dragon,” said Selena. “The dragon I speak of is powerful enough to even slice and topple the ancient ironwoods, its footprints are twelve feet long and seven feet wide and its breath is hot enough melt steel into puddles upon the ground. Could you have heard about anything like that?

 

“Why do you seek such a horrific creature?” asked the lead Syron, softly, glancing at her again. He detected the earnesty in the young elf’s voice.

 

“It massacred my tribe. I am the last of the Sylfaris. I seek my revenge,” said Selena, she gave up pretending otherwise and took on a fierce tone. Many had discouraged her off this path, deeming it a rather unhealthy obsession, but Selena, throughout, had remained unperturbed and unmoved by these warnings. “I will bring it down so that it will bring no more sorrow to me or to anyone else.”

 

“It’s impossible for you to take it on, even with this group,” said the Syron matter-of-factly. There was no hint of worry or fear for her in his voice, more pure, plain fact. “The monster would require an army of the most powerful wizards in Breol to take on. I knew your tribe, an encounter of a past journey. Something they could not defend themselves against, you would hardly stand a chance.”

 

“You know of it,” stated Selena.

 

The Syron did nothing to disabuse her of the notion, but began to walk faster. She was correct, of course.

 

“Tell me what you know!” Selena demanded. She chased after him and reached out to stop him, but the Syron brushed her off.

 

“I refuse to help a youngling with her deathwish,” said the Syron coldly. His tone gave no mistake that the conversation was over. Selena, defiantly, opened her mouth to speak again, but a deadly glare from the leader of the Shadow Walkers silenced her. Seeming rather downtrodden, the elf fell back to walk alongside Jak.

Jak didn’t know how to comfort her. He, too, wondered if it was a good idea to pursue such a dangerous creature, he was truly worried for her, but he held no doubt that Selena would be adamant on this issue no matter what he, or anyone for that matter, said. Assuredly, she was merely biding her time with the Syron and would likely try to pry it out of him later.

 

“We are here,” announced the lead Syron. It was the village they were at before.

 

[hr]

 

Selena went to report to the queen and Jak was free to wander the village alone. He had left his stuff at Selena’s place, as being one of the queen’s prized eyes and ears in the forest, she had quite a small mansion. Having grown up at a rundown orphanage, Jak had no qualms against living in luxury.

 

Drifting aimlessly, he came upon Reaal’s cottage. Hoping for some company or conversation, he came up to the door.

 

"Feels good to kick back after a day like this. Doesn’t it?”

 

“I guess so,” sent Jak telepathically, and he smirked slightly.

 

[hr]

 

Julia listened intently as Selena recounted the incidents of their travels. She creased her thin eyebrows at the mention of the Anti-Paladin but said nothing. As Selena finished her tale, the Queen thanked her and gave her leave, but Selena asked for one last thing.

 

“The Syrons know of the monster which I seek. I beg this favor of you, my queen, I wish to know about the monster, could you help me?”

 

The Queen froze and looked at her in her eyes.

[Love of Ghibli]

Beatrice was already alerted to the presence of others because was communicating with her animal bodyguards as she was now the only one picking up the rear. Luckily when the Syrons revealed themselves to be friendlies Beatrice took a sigh of relief. Of course like all events that take place nowadays there can't be moments happiness. One of the Syrons explained how Mel's Lifeforce was taken away from him and that he would need another party member to offer some up in exchange. Naturally she wanted to offer her lifeforce but there were 5 pairs of eyes just glaring at her almost daring her to do something that stupid. Especially Silvest who almost hacked her mind just to make her stay quite. Luckily there was Mark the brother...or something of the that nature and he offered his lifeforce up to reviving Mel. That was a life savor.

The Syrons mentioned elven woods and some village nearby that was out of the watch of lord Nekrom immediately Beatrice suspected the same village she got drunk at. How many Elven village's could there be? Of course the group was walking with her once again picking up the rear which was good it gave her time to collect her thoughts as she was riding her massive crocodile. So much to think about and so much happened in the last week that just twisted and turned her head. She wanted to enjoy this peace and deceptively tranquil tranquility while she still had a chance. She had made it back to the elven camp and it was just as she thought it wood be. Still elvish though this place did house a great memory. Though it wasn't 3 days old yet she still wanted to sit back and relax. Maybe get a recharge on some mana while she was here.

[RogueZero]

Aerul said that Mel needed a few days to recover after a transfusion of life energy. Mark then nodded, Aerul asked Mark to repeat what was said by him "Offero partem vi-tae, qui magic fratrem nominee Mel ei ad sanandum. It means' I offer part of my life to Mel, my brother, in order to heal him . " Mark repeats sentences spoken by Aerul. Suddenly a long tube like object out of some sort of semi-transparent substance Appeared. Aerul part of one tube inserted into Mel's heart, roomates surprisingly, slid right through, as if it were an illusion, and pushed the other into Mark's heart. "Transferre." And with that, a pulsing green energy wriggled out of Mark's chest, as if were alive, and crawled through Mel's chest into his heart. Mel started coughing violently for a second before calming down, looking much more at ease.

Mark stumbled before catching his breath, slightly exhausted. Alaster asked if Mark was alright, and when Mark nodded, the group as a whole Mel sighed in relief at being Healed and Mark not showing any negative signs from the transfusion.

After that, the wizards asked the Shadow Walkers where they can rest. They say that there is a wood elf village not far from this place. Mark then stood up and said, "Then what are we waiting for? We should let Mel rest ..." said Mark.

The Syrons then escort us to the village. On the way to the village, Mark saw that Selena is asking something to the leader of the Shadow Walkers. Not long after that, Selena and the leader of the Shadow Walkers argued, the argument is terminated by the leader of the Shadow Walkers who says "I refuse to help a youngling with her deathwish!". Mark thought to himself, about what they were talking about. Soon they all arrive at the entrance of the village wood elf, surprisingly, It's the place where Mark meets with Queen Julia.

"Hooray!'s We're going back to heaven again!" Raven shouted for joy. Mark and the other wizards then go into the village, and there parted to rest in their respective places. Mark would like to thank the Queen Julia, because She helped Mark to meet with Mel again, so Mark decided to thank directly to Queen Julia. When Mark got to the place where Queen Julia is, he heard the sound of Selena that was giving  a report of our fighting with Rautar. Mark then went into hiding and eavesdropping Selena and Queen Julia. Selena said that the Syrons know about the monster that she was looking for. Mark thought again about what the monster is being discussed by Selena. Mark decided to leave the area quietly. He slipped quietly, but he accidentally hit an elven man wearing an armor. "What are you doing here?" The elven man asked. "Uh, Um ... I, I, I just ..." Mark was nervous, not knowing what to say. "Answer me! What are you doing here?? Did you eavesdrop the conversation!?" shouted the elven man. "Eh ..." Mark could not answer. The elven man then dragged Mark to the presence of Queen Julia and Selena that are talking. "Your Majesty, this kid is eavesdropping to the conversation." The man said to the Queen Julia.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alaster watched the process involved in healing Mel of the wound, caused by the Lifedrinker which was now stowed away in the group's bag of holding, apprehensively.  Mark had beaten him to offering to exchange his life force to help Mel, after all he did feel responsible for the group as he was the oldest amongst them.  All the same, he was quite glad when everything was said and done given that the group was set to be back in fighting order relatively quickly.  With that said and done, they made their way out of the tower.

 

Much to his dismay, the Battlemage noticed that the battlements surrounding the tower were void of any of the garrison which should have been there.  This confirmed the party's suspicions that Nekrom's forces were on the march, and as such he felt the need to make haste back to the elven camp with the intention of warning them of the army's march.  After all they WERE those closest to the tower and thus in the most immediate danger. 

 

It came to something of a surprise to him, then, when they found the village just as it had been and upon asking around was made aware that keeping themselves hidden was something at which the wood elves were incredibly skilled.  All the same, he felt the need to go and speak to their queen for obvious reasons.  First, though, he planned to make himself look presentable.  He hated his beard, and the worst thing about it was how quickly it grew back.  I mean he was already sporting quite the impressive amount of cheek, lip, and chin hair.  He managed to procure a traveling razor, he'd neglected to bring his own from Reli when leaving the city, in the camp and set about removing the hair from his face with practiced skill.  After only a few minutes he'd managed to leave his face smooth as a baby's bottom, and equally void of his unpleasant hair.  The razor was slipped into his traveling pack, which he'd since managed to separate from the bag of holding, and after a brief moment the black-armored Mage made his way to meet with the Queen.

 

Alaster arrived just in time to find Mark being accused of eavesdropping on the conversation that had been going on and, using the most commanding voice which he could muster, Alaster spoke out.

 

"In case any of you didn't know," He began, stepping forward and quite forcefully pulling Mark away from where this Elven man had dragged him to and standing him on his feet, "we have bigger problems than whether or not someone was listening in on a conversation not exactly being made in hushed tones.  Nekrom's forces are on the move, we need to get word to the various cities across Breol so that they can mount a defense."  He paused for a moment, and then went ahead with the proper honorific for being in the company of royalty.  In other words, he bowed quite deeply so that his head was level with his waist.  "My queen, I have heard tell of the skillful nature of wood elves and on my travels have seen it in action time and time again.  What I ask next I ask for the purpose of helping to guarantee your people's safety as well as assist us in our goal.  We must travel to the nearest city, I do not have a map with me and as such I can offer little say as to which that is, and assist them in mounting a defense against Nekrom's forces.  Your people have little in the way of a defensible position here in the forest, and your abilities could be put to good use in the fight against Nekrom.  My queen, I beg of you to join us on our journey."

[Cray-Crow]

Hearing Jak's mental voice projected through the cottage door, Reaal stood up from his cozy chair. The knob creaked as it rotated, as well as the hinges that turned as the door opened. Jak was standing there with a sly grin on his face. The two had never really conversed before. Reaal assumed Jak had just wanted to know one of his comrades a little more. Understandable, seeing as how they fought with each other.

 

"Didn't expect any visitors." Reaal turned around and headed to the kitchen. It was customary to offer some sort of beverage or food where he was from, and Reaal couldn't help but adhere to the small tradition. He gathered some dried herbs, spices and a copper pot. "What's going on?"

 

He turned the faucet on, filling the pot with warm water, and then placed it onto a stove. After starting the heat with a match from his pocket, Reaal stirred in the spices and herbs and placed the lid cover, allowing the rise of pressure within the copper dishware, decreasing the boiling point of the water. "Some tea. Would you like some?"

[Alice Moonflowyr]

Mel blinked awake, lying inside one of the cottages, and groaned. Son of a...my head hurts. Mel thought to himself.

 

"Oh good, you're awake." Aerul walked over to Mel, took his pulse, and lay a hand on his stomach. Mel flinched. After getting filled in by Aerul, who had apparently been waiting for him to wake up, he asked: "So where is everyone else?"

 

"Out having a good time. You should too."

 

"But....the army...."

 

"Is not your problem right now." Aerul looked stern. "Its going to take you about three days to be in fighting shape again. Rest. Eat. Sleep. Let the others take care of any...problems."

 

Mel would love to do that, but it wasnt in his nature. He at least had to check on Reeal, the person he took a sword for, and Beatrice. He found that, after a hearty meal an Elven man brought him, he could walk without too much trouble. Aerul didnt want him going faster than a jog though, and had forbidden Mel to even think of using magic or picking up a weapon. He found Reeal in his cabin with Jak, and he saw that tea was being prepared. When Reeal offered him some, Mel declined. "Nah, I just ate and stuff. Plus, tea isnt really....my cup of tea....wow I really did get hurt didnt I?" Mel smiled at his lack of being able to make a good joke, which was his most obvious talent from the first half of the journey. "I'm just here to check on you Reeal. Make sure I didnt take a sword through my gut for nothing." The way Mel said the last part sounded like a joke, but the look on his face said he'd do it again, and for anyone in the party, should it happen again.
"Anyway, I have to go find Beatrice....for unrelated reasons."

 

Mel, after asking around, figured out which cabin Beatrice was in. The door was open and Beatrice lay on a bed, probably thinking, with Silvest out of sight. To Mel anyways. He leaned on the door frame, more out of tiredness than actual intrest in looking cool, and knocked. Beatrice looked over. Mel raised a hand. "If you hug me, I'll probably faint from the pain." Mel grinned though. "Doctor Syron says its gonna take maybe three days for me to recover." Mel then gestured out the door, and when Beatrice looked rather puzzled, Mel gently smacked his forehead. "Lets go get a drink." He said with a smile, gesturing outside again.

 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

 

Julia slowly shook her head at Selena, and mindspoke to her: We will discuss this matter later.

 

Then Alaster showed up. Julia listened to what he had to say, and spoke clearly, and with authority. "I will not assist in taking you to another village." Before Alaster could protest, she held up a hand to show she was not done yet. "Mel Revisa, your friend, has been severly injured and is only alive due to the healing expertise of the Syron Aerul. He must rest here until he is ready to fight again. Plus, if I know Nekrom, he loves a grudge. He'll come here first, with a good chunk of his army. The other cities have had this problem before, they can deal with it."

 

Julia gestured for Alaster to leave. "I must discuss with my generals on how to defend ourselves. Leave." As Alaster turned his back to leave, Julia said one last thing: "If you or any of your party leave without Mel, I will inform him of it, putting whoever left in the worst light possible." Julia said no more.

[Love of Ghibli]

There she was the young maiden laying in a bed looking at a scenery about to doze off into a nice nap. Of course to on lookers she would be completely surrounded by her animal bodyguards that were sure to stave off any intruders that would dare disturb her slumber. Silvest was smiling as he watched his little princess doze off into slumber land. This was all going fine of course until that repeat nuisance known as Mel decided to once again rear his disruptive head. Feeding off the hostile energy of their leader Beatrice's summons started to glare and growl lightly at the young leader of the pack. It was interesting to watch as Mel disregarded their presence to flirt more with Beatrice or whatever this was he was doing. To be quite honest Silvest was subtly hoping that Mel didn't make it out of his near death bout. This journey may have gone a lot smoother. But fate can be cruel sometimes and not everyone gets what they want all the time. 

Beatrice on the other hand was simply too tired to care about anything. Her near death trama and quick expulsion of magic drained her of energy and she was not really fit to be wooed at any point. She barely regained some form of consciousness and managed to say some words to the nice lad as a courtesy. "No...sorry dude, I'm...just gonna take a nap for now." Beatrice passed out while Silvest simply curled up to her side and her animal guardians still glaring at Mel. Clearly if the boy tried to make one of his classic sleep next to Beatrice or just get within the personal space of Beatrice moves he would have a fight on his hands.