The Sword and The Flute

[Ickedu]

((Tags to Fangs/Anadwen))

A happy tune was the first thing to be heard, played on a flute, not really in tune but nevertheless nice to hear. Soon it was followed by a bright jingle from several chimes and bells which tinkled not quite in the right rhythm.

It was an unexpected sound here in the lonely Terrin mountains, and it took some time before the person responsible for the music reached the clifftop, because the winding path leading up from the valley beyond was steep and arduous.

But finally the forked top of a staff and the white tips of hair could be seen, and a moment later a small person climbed to the top of the cliff. She had a little flute in her hands on which she played. On her back she carried a backpack and her hoopak to which several bells, chimes, feathers and other trinkets were tied which rang in the rhythm of her steps.

"Yippee!!" Peya took the flute away from her lips and let hear an excited cry. At last she had reached her goal.
"Take that, stupid mountains! Dirt, stones, slopes, cliffs, rocks! Ha! Even you damned, broken, too-big-guys-made high stairs! You can take days, even weeks from me! But: No chance in stopping me! I'm here! Yippeeeee!"

Her cry was repeated a few moments later by the echo from the mountains on the other side, and she listened, grinning delighted, to her own words. Then she dropped her backpack to the ground but kept her hoopak on her back and the flute in her hands and looked around the area.

The place she had reached was a plateau at the top of a high cliff. At several places there could be seen old, nearly decayed stonework. Probably once, a long time ago, the clifftop had been fortified and used as a refuge for a long forgotten people. The whole valley with the stream at the bottom could be overlooked from up here. But Peya's interest was directed more to the back of the plateau, where the mountains climbed up again. She could see several alcoves and recesses, some of them leading deeper into the rocks, so that she could not immediately see where they led.

In one of them, she expected to find her actual goal. The caves in which a long time ago was hidden what she was seeking now. She put the flute into her belt, took the hoopak from her back and without thinking longer she picked one of the smaller alcoves and began walking to it. Her hoopak was still jingling brightly with each step she made.

Finally she turned around the corner of the alcove that continued into the rocks as a small, narrow chasm, and stopped to see what was there.

[Anadwen]

Three hours! No... Four... Or three? Up here, one lost the sense of time rather easily, especially if you were as enraged as Grian currently was. He hurried to this accursed cave days on days, and when he gets there... Closed! Closed shut! There's a stone door right before it and no way in! Not at all! It simply drove him crazy, even more crazy than he already was, for mind you, "Fangs" didn't really have all gears fitting in correctly in his head.

He kicked the door. He punched it. He slammed his nunchucks into its edge, and he put the chained blade at his back into the thin gap between the stones. And yet, neither that, nor his rather obscene curses seemed to work.

Breathing deeply, he took a step back, and cracked his knuckles. With a hiss, his breath was released through the fangs of his mask. He leaped forth and charged to slam his fists into the door again, but with no more results than the dozens of his previous attempts. He emitted a disappointed growl, and started violently kicking into the door again.

"F***! F***! F*** you! F*** you, you piece of s***! F*** you! F****** open!" he shouted at it, his voice already sounding ragged from repeating the curse over and over and over. His patience was completely gone, there wasn't one scrap of it left in the teal-haired man with a bone-like mask on his face.

He gave the door a glare, but before he could start cursing it again, he heard the sound of bells, and a voice, singing some nonsense. Someone was singing here? It sounded like some kid... He was tempted to turn around and tell that person to stick their song up their behind, too.

And thus, he kept beating into the stone. Punches that would normally be bone-breaking and kicks strong enough to shatter wood were of no effect, but eventually, something would succeed, right? At least, that was what he thought.

[Ickedu]

When Peya noticed the sight in front of her, she stopped in puzzlement. At first she could make no sense of the unexpected scene.

It was frightening one the one hand. Actually she had not anticipated to meet someone at all and now she saw... well she was not sure what it was that she saw. She was not even sure if the creature with the face...mask...whatever and the ferocious, violent behavior was human at all. But it surely was alarming.

But on the other hand it was also kind of comical.
The.... thing was fighting against a door with all his power, shouting and seemingly completely out of it's mind, and here stood she... small, weak, exhausted, but knowing how to open the door.

She watched the scene for a few more moments quietly, then she took the flute to her lips again and played one of the short, often practiced tunes of which she expected to get some effect.

And really, as soon as she completed the few notes that resounded through the chasm, a faint glow began highlighting the outlines of the door, but for now without the door actually opening.

Bemused, the flute in one hand, her hoopak in the other she waited for a reaction from the being at the door, but not without observing it attentively for any signs of hostile actions against herself.

[Anadwen]

Once more, Grian was completely prepared to leap at the door again and call it a piece of s***, when its edges started to glow. He instinctively took a step back and shut up, glancing over his shoulder. There was the source of the sounds he heard before... It looked like a little white-haired girl, though, he quickly figured out what it really was. A halfling. Definitely not a child... For all he traveled, he has met those little people a few times already.

His gloved hands lifted the bone-like mask, hiding the bottom half of his face, and revealed a rather youthful-looking and attractive face, albeit quite enraged, too. If it wasn't apparent enough from his stature and eyes, now it was clear that he was a human. With weird hair, but human.

"The f*** was that?" he asked, not too loudly, but completely fitting the expression of surprise and confusion the rest of his face mirrored.
"Did you just...?" he pointed at the door with one hand, keeping the whitened jaw in his hair with the other one, and still staring at the halfling girl.

[Ickedu]

Peya slowly moved a little closer, returned his look, and giggled. Somehow she thought the situation just too funny.

"Yeah, I hope so. Sometimes a little relaxation and a happy tune is just the way to go. But... I am not too sure what you are doing here. Are you here for the work out? Stress relieve? But... somehow... it would be a big chance that you do it here of all things."

She giggled again, trying to keep a cheerful, carefree and innocuous appearance. Inside she was more nervous and a little annoyed. After all she had expected to be the only one knowing of the cave up here in the mountains, and the man she had found now did not look like she had the best chances against him.

So she kept a tight grip to her hoopak and observed the man closely while smiling as friendly as possible.
"Sooo... what do you think you are doing here?"

[Anadwen]

"That's my business, not yours!" Grian burst out, barring his teeth as he spit the words out. This halfling was asking a little too much! And she was laughing... Nobody laughs at him. Not if they like living.

"There's something behind that door, and I'm going to get it. Thanks for opening it, but I think that's where your role ends." he added then, sliding the jaw mask back onto his face. The leather of his gloves appeared very, very dark against its whiteness... It was unusual to wear gloves at this time, too.

He cracked his knuckles, and pushed into the door with one hand at first. It moved, but just a little -  it was obviously very, very heavy. And so, he took a few steps back, and bashed into it full-force with his shoulder. That was a much bigger success - especially because it pushed the door a good distance back.

A large black hollow of the way behind it opened before him.

[Ickedu]

Peya shook her head, still smiling a little. Here she really had met an unusual rude and uncooperative specimen. This thought make her giggle again, before she answered, calling a bit louder so he could her her over the sound of the door or even if he would already have entered the cave.

"Ah, so that's the way you want to do it? Well, have fun! I will wait here until you have slain as much monsters as you can and then they have gotten the best of you. Or until you come crawling back to me because you realize that you need some of the several other tunes I have learned of. See you later!"

Well, the remaining tunes HAD to have a function, didn't they? She really hoped that she would be right, and the man would not just get the artifact and go home again.

She sat down smiling, leaning against a boulder, and watched him what he would do.

[Anadwen]

"Whatever." he grind his teeth, and without much further thoughts walked straight into the cave. A little halfling that he could easily bend over his arm and snap like a twig was not going to laugh at him. She was surely there for the artifact, too... Well, she wasn't getting it!

About fifteen minutes later, though, he was standing in the door again. The left part of his face had two streams of a crimson, blood-like liquid running down it, although it didn't appear to be his own, and so did his knuckles. And the way he stared at Peya... Was unnerving at least.

"Get in before I kick yo ass to the door." he growled.