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The Spirits Beckon (Open)

Started by Xphy, May 03, 2011, 10:10:05 PM

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Xphy

The spirits were unusually active today, and as a trained spectromancer Avrei was more than aware of it. In fact it was the only reason she had decided to travel so deep into the eainforest on such a wet morning. Something was definitely up on her island. She had sensed it long before the rain had stopped falling earlier, and now that it had she had every intention of finding out what was going on.

To most she might have appeared to be alone as she made her way through the damp brush. However that was far from the case. Morrigan was with her as she often was, though only those with the ability to see spirits would actually be aware of it. To everyone else the tall scythe wielding banshee was completely invisible as she diligently floated behind her mistress. She was unusually quiet today, but Avrei thought little of it.

Her concerns were more on what was up ahead.

As she continued to make her way toward the source of the disturbance she would eventually come across what looked like a natural clearing, and after some thought she decided to take a little break. She had been walking for over an hour now, and she was by no means an athlete. So she walked over to a rock near the center of the clearing and brushed the water off so she could sit down. From the looks of things she still had a little ways to go before she reached her destination, but for now she would simply give her legs some time recover.

miss_sanguine

Iktomi was wholly unaware of whatever spiritual concerns there were that led the woman to the center of the forest, instead focused on chasing the various forest voles into their burrows while in his fox form. Their squeaks of terror pleased him, making him give foxy yips of joy as he bounced after them. Once he even managed to step on the tail of one and watched with amusement as it scrabbled at the ground with its tiny paws, held to by the mere pressure of his own larger paw.

As he was chasing a particularly large vole through the foliage, he caught wind of a smell that did not belong--a human--and his head perked up, ears forward, chase forgotten. That continual need to find a companion poked its head out in his consciousness, driving him toward the source of the smell before he knew what he was doing.

His light paws led him near to the center of the forest where a young woman sat on a rock, appearing to all the world alone, but a feeling in the air told him otherwise--a feeling that caressed his black fur like invisible fingers. It was an unworldly feeling, though not uncomfortable.

Lifting his nose to the air, Iktomi took a few good sniffs to understand more of what he was seeing--and not seeing. A woman, young in appearance but somehow held the smell of middle years, and . . . something else, not too unlike his own smell when in this form--his fox form. She had an ethereal smell to her, and she wasn't alone. Something, or someone, else was with her. A being he couldn't see.

After having had his fill of the scene, he decided to make his presence known. He stepped out of the trees into the clear, ears cocked forward in curiosity, tail lowered comfortably behind him. The fox was too curious to try and prank the woman. "Well, well!" he said. "What brings a human to the middle of the woods?"

Xphy

From the moment she had sat down in the clearing Avrei had noticed something unusual about the source of the disturbance, something she hadn't noticed while she was further away. There was something about the lingering spiritual energy that felt oddly familiar to her. It was as though she had felt it before, but she couldn't quite place where. It was strange. Normally she would remember something like that, and even if she couldn't she would at least have a rough idea about it.

The Maharani continued to ponder this until she was interrupted by Morrigan suddenly placed her hand on her shoulder to get her attention, and when she looked up she understood why. There in front of her stood a fox, an odd looking one at that. Its fur was black with hints of reddish brown and it was abnormally large, much larger than a normal fox.

Her senses also told her that he was a spirit of some kind which for brief moment made her consider the possibility of it being a Koweiha and the cause of the disturbance. She ultimately decided against it though. Koweiha were known for having numerous tails, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. This fox spirit only seemed to have one, and while there was a chance that it simply was a weak or young one she doubted that was the case.

Though that did raise the question of what exactly it could have been.

Before Avrei could speculate about its origins however the creature actually spoke to her. That was enough to make her banshee companion move to take a defensive position, though a simple flick of one of her tails against her chest was enough to calm her. The necromancer then returned her attention to fox.

 "Quite possibly the same thing that brought you here," she mused, crossing her legs and watching the creature curiously. She had assumed it was there because of the disturbance. It was a spirit after all, or at the very least it wasn't alive in the traditional sense so it seemed like a reasonable conclusion to make. Of course there could have been other reasons for its presence, but if there were she couldn't think of them.

"I sensed something strange out here and I was looking into it," she continued, motioning in the direction of the spiritual activity. "Perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me your name?"

miss_sanguine

A human, especially one as curious as this, was far more fun than any forest vole. Humans proved time and again to be a main source of play for Iktomi. Easy to fool, easy to land deals with that they couldn't possibly win, easy to confuse. That they thought themselves clever was what made it enjoyable; mere forest creatures lived their lives from moment to moment without a care or thought for the future.

Would this human be just as fun as all the others? He might have jumped into a game right from the start were he not intrigued. Here was a girl with a non-too-girl-like smell to her, a foxish smell that lured him closer, his large paws treading the ground with no noise as the soft, fresh soil sifted between his toes.

Iktomi sniffed the air again, then laugh, sitting on his haunches when he was but a few feet away. "I doubt it," he said. "Unless the thing that brought you here was your own scent. It's not everyday that I come across a human woman in these woods. Your smell wasn't hard to miss." His nose lifted into the air, checking once again at that other smell. It wasn't just the two of them, that much he was certain.

Wrapping his bushy tail around his front paws, he puffed out his chest and said, "I am Iktomi. Could I have perhaps been the 'something strange' that you sensed?"

Xphy

Avrei watched the fox carefully as it spoke, listening curiously to each word it spoke. It seemed she had been the one that had attracted it here or at least her smell had, not the disturbance like she originally had thought. That was interesting. Could it really not sense the large distortion in the spiritual energy up ahead, or perhaps maybe it was somehow connected to it in some way? Somehow she doubted the latter was the case but she really couldn't tell.

So for now she would assume that they were completely unrelated, at least until proven otherwise

When it asked if it had been what she had sensed the Maharani slowly shook her head. "Unfortunately I don't believe it was. What I sensed is still some ways away," she replied, crossing her legs and pointing in the direction of the disturbance. There was still quite a bit of ground for her to cover, but she was determined to see it for herself. She had come too far already to turn back.

"I don't quite know what it is or how to even describe it, but it feels like it could be something important," she added as she lowered her hand back to her knee and returned her gaze back to the fox. "Still it is a pleasure to meet you Iktomi. My name is Avrei." Her curiosity with the creature had only increased since that had started to speak. Clearly it wasn't normal. It was larger than any normal fox she had ever seen. Not to mention the fact that it could speak. She doubted it was a koweiha, but she couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was.

"If you don't mind me asking what exactly are you? You seem different from anything I have ever heard about or encountered before."

miss_sanguine

Iktomi followed the path of the girl's fingers, which led deeper into the woods, more toward the center. All he could see were trees, a few birds, and sunshine beaming in through the canopies onto the grassy carpets below. He gave an extra sniff to make sure, but still could not sense anything out of the ordinary.

Looking back to her, he let out a curious, "Hm," and cocked his head to the side. "Important, you say? Interesting." What could be so important that it would lead a human such as this deep into the woods? Would it be beneficial for him to check it out as well?

"I?" He put his paw on his chest in an all-too-human-like manner. "Well, I would hope I was different that what you've seen and heard, since I am one-of-a-kind. Sad to know that my reputation of olden days no longer precedes me, though." He feigned a look of disappointment, ears lowering, but he could not hold it for long. "I am a spirit, so to speak, mortal Avrei. And I find your question compatible with my own musings, for I've not met a human quite like you before, either. Or, are you in fact not human at all?"

Xphy

So he was in fact a spirit, yet he didn't seem to sense the same disturbance she did. How odd. Avrei couldn't help but wonder if he was playing her for a fool. Most of the other sentient spirits she had encountered had been able to sense the presence of other spirits, and he was even able to tell she was different from most humans. If the fox was telling the truth though, he would definitely make for an interesting subject to study. Her interests had already been piqued, and she couldn't deny the appeal of the potential knowledge she could gain from interacting to him.

"Me?" she smiled, cupping her hands and placing them on her chest in front of her. "I am a human, but I suppose you could say that I am unlike most you will meet. When I was younger my soul was interwoven with that of old fox known as a Koweiha." As she spoke she brought her tails forward and wrapped them around her body, assuming they were what tipped him off that she was different. "These are a direct result of what happened that day.

"By chance have you heard of them before?" she asked, her eyes falling back on the spirit with genuine curiosity. "Originally I had thought that you might have been one yourself, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

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