Gravity is working against me

[Anonymous]

It was raining, but Dahlia didn't mind it— the downpour had helped to clean the blood off her sword.

After a week's worth of travelling, the sheevra had finally tracked down the pesky demon that had eluded her for so long, slaying it in its tracks. It had not been a hell of a battle, but spending so much time having to track it down was troublesome, to say so the least.

Bending down, Dahlia plucked one of its fangs from the demon's jaws, placing it in her palm, watching the rain wash off the blood that stained the ivory white tooth. Joylessly, she pocketed her proof of a job well done, turning her back on the body while sheathing her blades. It was too bad Moonspear was a week's journey away— she could do with a swig of ale at the moment, and it'd be great to curl up next to a fireplace, where it was warm. At the very least, it'd be great if she could get out of the rain, for a moment.

Silver eyes searched the dreary wood, spotting a small glade nearby a river, where the trees arched naturally, providing a natural shelter, which would shield her from the rain. Dahlia ducked inside, and found that the glade was even a little warm— a nice reprieve from the bitter cold rain. The sheevra removed her boots— she had always found footwear to be so constricting— and plunged her feet into the river, soaking her tired limbs. She toyed with the fang of the demon again, looking at it, but with a small smile this time. "One more week until I'm home free," she laughed to herself, deciding that she'd start travelling once again once the rain let up. For now, she'd let herself relax, even if it was just for a short while.

[Anonymous]

It may seem like the middle of nowhere in the woods and the likely chance of seeing another soul is lost. However, travelers tend to lose themselves in beautiful surroundings just to see the sights. One such traveler also found the wilderness to her liking. Just before the sheevra, deeper into the river, there's a break in the rain-speckled water and two bodies emerge. The first body belonged to a lithe young woman with a hot pink mess of hair, wearing only her grace. She burst forth from the water due to an unusually large black dolphin, pushing her out of the water and into the air.
Once she was about fifteen feet out of the water, the young but developed lady arched her back and hung her arms out to her sides with the palms facing the cloud consumed sky. As the dolphin somersaulted a couple times in midair before diving back into the water, the curvaceous girl remained suspended in the air, as if she were frozen in time. She had her eyes closed with her bare chest, facing the sky.
The rain continued to bathe the suspended woman as she simply took it on. Without moving the rest of her body, the pink-haired girl opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to face the demon-hunter's direction. Once she realized that there was someone else nearby, the girl's eyes shot wide open and she struggled a bit in midair before she crashed back down into the water. Soon after, she popped back out of the water, only her head, for a quick breath of air before she started swimming her way to the opposite end of the river, away from Dahlia.

[Anonymous]

And suddenly — a... dolphin?

 No, a woman being... projected out of the water, by a dolphin. The knight quickly pulled her feet out of the water and cast her silver eyes up at the performance. Completely dumbstruck, at first, the sheevra had absolutely no idea what she was looking at here. A woman was merely floating in the air, equipped with pink hair and unequipped of clothing.

Was she a fairy of some kind? A whimsical elf, trying to play tricks on a travelling knight? Either way, she couldn't make heads or tails of it, and merely furrowed her brows for a few moments, wondering if this was some kind of trick, or... or what. Don't get her wrong, she didn't mind the show, but it was so completely random that Dahlia was struck dumb for a good minute or so, until she noticed the dolphin again.

The knight pulled herself to her feet, standing up, placing a hand on the hilt of one of her blade. That dolphin— there was something strange about this dark creature, it smelled like... a strange mixture of darkness that the sheevra could not place her finger on. Being a feral fae, Dahlia knew her fair share of darkness, but this thing... She could not be sure if it was benevolent or not.

The woman seemed to note that she wasn't the only one in this forest, and, as if she had realized that maybe hanging out in the air, naked, while another person was around probably wasn't a great idea. If it had been any other moment, Dahlia would've made some snarky comment, but she could not be certain what intent that creature held. She withdrew both blades slowly, locking eyes with the dark creature.

"Miss," Dahlia called out, to the figure that swam away from her. "You may not want to watch this. Slaying demons can get messy." Granted, her back was already turned away, but she figured a fair warning was in order, before she took the demonesque creature head on.

[Anonymous]

Here was the pink haired girl, taking advantage of her solitude with her companion by going for a swim downstream. Come to find out, there's no such thing as solitude in the middle of nowhere forest. There can be random passerby's present, a bit further downstream from where one left their clothes. Unfortunately for Felicia, she had not recalled how far she had traveled down the river, so getting back to her clothes could be tricky in that situation.
The highly noticeable girl was about halfway towards the opposite bank of the river when she heard the new face finally speak. What she had said made some sort of impact, because it caused Felicia to stop in the middle of the water.
"Ah, crap!" Cursed the pink haired one in the water before she whirled about in the water and started to swim towards the demon huntress. Before long, she was again in the middle of the river and she stopped to throw an arm up and hold a palm out in Dahlia's direction. It would be at that moment that Dahlia would feel the weight of her weapons increase about ten times.
"Philandra, flee!" Felicia yelled out without taking her eyes off the huntress. Soon after, the large black dolphin reemerged from the water but suddenly shifted shape once it was completely out of the water. Its form quickly shrank and contorted into the form of a large raven. After a couple quick flaps to shake the water off, the now bird took to the sky and tried to get as high as the treetops before flying out of sight. Felicia remained, nude in the water and staring down Dahlia.

[Anonymous]

Dahlia had been meaning to cut the dolphin's head off with a single, swift strike, but before she could do so, the woman in the stream flung her hand out towards her, and the knight's weapons were rendered ten times as heavy as they were before. The sheevra's silver eyes widened at this, and found herself sinking to her knees from how unexpectedly heavy her blades had become. Shia and Scorn sank into the earth, and despite her sheevra strength, it seemed like pulling them out would be an impossible task. Scowling, she retracted her claws, prepared to slice the beast open with her bare hands if she had to, but by then, the creature had changed its form, and flew away, taking to the skies. The knight groaned — shapeshifters were always a pain in the neck — but noticed the pink one was glaring at her, as if Dahlia had done something wrong.

Right, it was her who had made her weapons so heavy. Dahlia raised an eyebrow, resting a hand on Shia, which was still far too heavy for the sheevra to pick up. "What? Don't look at me like that! I was merely doing my job." The knight laughed a little, somehow amused at this situation, despite everything. Was this one this demon's summoner, or what? She still didn't know the story, but there was nothing she could do about the shapeshifter now, and she wanted to know this woman's story, first. "Do you make a habit of fraternizing with demons? Or perhaps you're that demon's mistress? I'm honestly curious." After all, the woman didn't have the aura of a demon herself — it was a curious case.

[Anonymous]

Felicia's lack of clothing didn't bother her at the time, because she was more worried about Philandra's safety. The pink haired girl's glare lifted when she was sure her companion was gone and out of sight. Then came the huntress's questionnaire. That brought on a raised pink eyebrow.
"Demon? Hardly." Scoffed the gravity wielder as she lowered her hand. That motion returned the swords to their normal weight. The girl then began to swim to the shore that Dahlia was on.
"For your information, Philandra is just a creature from the shadow realm. There isn't even a hint of demonic blood in her. You should learn to look before you leap." Felicia pressed in an annoyed fashion as she crawled up onto the dry land, still very nude. She didn't seem as bothered about it as she was before. Without any further word, she turned around and started walking away from the demon huntress, following the river upstream.

[Anonymous]

Dahlia couldn't help but hold back a laugh at the stranger's advice. "Look before you leap?" she echoed, placing a hand on her hip. "Is this advice really coming from someone who does nude acrobatics in public rivers?" He grinned, shaking her head. "Right, love. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

As the pink-haired stranger lowered her hand, Dahlia found that her swords were back to their normal weight. The knight pulled them out of the ground and sheathed them, thankful to have her weapons back. She didn't seem like a malevolent person after all then — just snarky, and maybe she hung around questionable creatures, but probably not malevolent. Probably.

Apparently, that... thing... was simply a 'creature' from the 'shadow realm'. Dahlia narrowed her eyes pensively at that revelation — this 'shadow realm' wasn't a topic that the Full Moon covered, and it was a little disconcerting to hear her toss around a term that she had never heard of before. She had been training with the Order her whole life, so it was rare that she ran into terminology that she hadn't heard of before.

"Shadow realm, huh..." Dahlia began, skeptical, but not dismissive. "In any case, her aura's dark enough to mistake her for a demon. If I were you, I'd be careful around the roads to Moonspear — the other members of the Order probably won't be as lenient as I'm being right now."

If not for the fact that Dahlia was already considerably weakened from hunting that other demon, she probably would've had a lot more questions to ask her about this 'shadow realm'. The witch didn't even seem to be paying attention to Dahlia's warning, but she felt she should be warned, at least, if her creature really wasn't a demon, as she claimed. Then again, if she chose not to listen, Dahlia wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.

[Anonymous]

It hadn't dawned on Felicia that her advice wasn't quite so sound until Dahlia parroted what she said, followed by the comment about her little swim. It was a good thing that she was walking away from the demon huntress, because her face had turned bright red with the comment. She even had to bite her tongue to prevent further embarrassment.
Then Dahlia continued to warn Gravitch about some Order in a place called Moonspear. Even though Felicia is originally from Arca, she's not too familiar with the outer regions of the city. Just a bit upstream and the pink haired girl rounded a large tree that hugged the banks of the river. Her clothes were on the ground there and she was even still within earshot.
"It's funny that you mention that," Felicia's voice could be heard from the other side of the tree as she puts on her clothes.
"Because I don't rightly know where I am. I figured I was lost in the middle of nowhere and decided to go for a swim with Philandra." She finished, still somewhat occupied with putting on her clothing.

[Anonymous]

The knight looked away as the stranger pulled her clothes back on — sure, she kept some questionable company, but Dahlia figured she should still be polite. Granted, to a sheevra, nudity wasn't as sexual as humans made it out to be, but she had learned that most humans liked their privacy to be respected. Not this one, though — she went around diving nude in rivers and everything... bizarre.

"You're far from lost in the middle of nowhere," Dahlia corrected, laughing a little. It was a little amusing to her, given that she could read the roads of Moonspear like the back of her hand — she couldn't tell last when she had felt as if she was hopelessly lost. Probably back in her training days, but that felt like centuries ago. "We're actually very close to Rillaria, capital of Moonspear," the sheevra informed, her grey eyes cast away from the pink-haired witch.

"Are you in need of an escort?" She was heading in the same direction, anyway.