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The Hot Place (Dial M For Mature)

Started by Wrathwyrm, March 15, 2017, 12:33:49 AM

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Wrathwyrm

Well, they made it to Essyrn...  Or rather, they made it to the Niafi River Delta which met the ocean water and gradually led to Essyrn.  The area around Essyrn was oasis, thanks to it being situated by a river that fed the land.  Many miles further along that river was a trade/caravan port on a series of deltas...which was now where they were.

Who were they?  Travis McNaire and Keona of the Yoreiqi, as well as Ira the tiger cub.

What began as a chance meeting on her island of origin, soon became a quest to find a very pale and scarred man with white hair, Keona's father.  The price of failure on this matter was a dire one, since periodically...they were now being hunted by dark creatures, Shadows.  They took the form of deadly snakes of corruption with hydra-like qualities about them.  It left them in a bad position, especially since the last escapade damaged the boat that they'd been sailing with, the one that Travis was now forced to help unload cargo from.

"Oh, gods dammit...  I knew I should've bargained with more than just a dinghy!"

Yes, he did do that.  One only wonders what Travis does when he needs money.  For now, though, he was caught up in this...and wondering why the ship's apparent mouser cat wanted him to deliver a letter to this 'Boomer'.  It was weird, but then...so was that cat.  Eh, no matter.  As long as it wasn't a threat...and he could get away from tripping over it, it would be alright to leave it be.

RedOptics

The fire mistress stood against the railing, looking over into the white desert in awe. Keona had never seen a place so hot and dry, it pleased her. However, she did not think that a flame here could be as big as a bonfire if she used her abilities. Maybe her skin would dry out again, wouldn't that be a relief. Ira pawed at her leg, wanting to be picked up by his companion and succeeding. He purred as the woman held him against her chest, and looked out into the desert with her.

The people here seemed similar to that of those in Yoreiq, simply without the common trait of wings. Her own odd wings twitched, itching to fly out there over the dunes and mountains. Patiently Keona waited for Travis, hoping that he would finish his chore quickly.

Wrathwyrm

Some days, it didn't pay to be a demon...or a human...or anything, really.  If you were a civilized being, then you get roped into things like this.  Travis tended to be a little impatient about work.  He didn't usually do it, not actual grunt work.  In this case, you could see that he was starting to move faster and faster, because of it, getting supply after supply out there before suddenly...his body was cast in obsidian metal and he was using more-powerful wings than he had on his body normally to just fly the things from Point A to Point B until done...then reverted.

It was a good thing the crew had already seen this side of him.

With that done, he picked up his black leather coat - which was not a good thing to wear in a desert, but the heat wouldn't bother him - and got it on before heading over to the brunette beauty that was his companion on this journey.  Technically, he was the companion for her journey, but let's not worry over that right now.

"Alright, we can go.  We can find a caravan to guard or something, though I will say that traveling by the river isn't as harsh as the desert, and it does lead to the city."

Plus, if any shadowy serpents made themselves known, apparently water was as bad for them as fire...

RedOptics

Turning to look at him, absolutely beaming in the desert light, Keona smiled at him, "I'll go wherever leads to the place we need to be." She spoke softly, petting Ira's head. The woman stepped back and headed for the dock, stepping elegantly off the boat and onto a stone path that was partially covered in sand. She stared back at the ocean, as if trying to see if her home was doing alright and all the things and people she left behind.

"Hey do you think I'll ever go back home?" She asked Travis, without turning back to face him. There was a string that was stretched just too far, and soon will snap. She'll lose her longing to go home eventually, because her true origin was hoepfully in Serendipity.

Wrathwyrm

Travis leapt off the boat and sailed down to the dock with his bat-like wings as Keona walked down, preferring to do things in a bit more of a...fun way.  The two of them were in the bright, hot sun.  As a dark and shadow-empowered demon, the power of light was actually Travis' weakness, but he wasn't allergic to mere sunlight.  It was the power of light that got to him, that of magic and other directed energies.  Still, as he stood with Keona now...

"You can if you want.  It's always there, and it's a relaxing place to visit."

It'd be alot more relaxing once Keona didn't have damn shadow-things coming after her too.  Now, the young man looked around, eyeing the various tradesman and stalls for merchantry.

"See anyone who looks like they're in need of protection?"

RedOptics

"Uh, everyone? They're all vulnerable to those... things," Keona meeped softly, tilting her head at the different people. Her appearance would surely drag some attention, but most of it was on the darker figure beside her.

"We should just find a dragon like you said and get over those mountains in the distance." There was a feeling in her gut that burned a warning about the future. Of course it could be pure bogus, but you never know.

The woman set down the tiger and he stuck uncharacteristically close to Keona, wary that people to like to hunt his kind. Of course they'd want to hunt a full grown tiger, but the caution was still present.

Wrathwyrm

"Yeah, but we can't offer to protect 'em from something that's after us.  They'll protect themselves by turning us down."

Those shadow demons were definitely after Keona, not anybody else.  They'd kill any liability that got in their way, but their chief goal appeared to be her, in particular.  Telling anybody about this was a liability to them, if they wanted any help at all, to say nothing of things like room and board, the next meal, information...  It was a problem, and speaking of problems...

"We can't just get a dragon, right off.  Essyrn doesn't have any, other than the Kaadir, and it's got no wings.  Gotta make it to Adela first, unless some random Dragonrider just happens to be in town."

...which was possible, but not likely.  It was about as unlikely as anybody hunting Ira.  Yes, this reason was well-known for hunting, but cubs aren't exactly any sport.

"Maybe once we get to Essyrn, we can send a message out for a ride.  There's a guy there I met that seems well-connected, somehow.  A shopkeeper."

RedOptics

"It would seem strange..." She mumbled to herself, placing her hands on her hips while looking around. Only men worked the heavy things, or so she assumed. She did spot a few womanly figures dressed in men's clothing, and that certainly was something to be intrigued in.

"Do you have links all around?" Keona turned her head to look at Travis, a slightly puzzled look in her eyes. The boiling hot area gave her energy, and she felt so much better to be off that ship and in the presence of the boiling sun. Letting off a sigh of content, she fixed her hair and checked her wings, basically just to see if they were still there.

Wrathwyrm

"No, I don't know that many people.  This guy just seems to get around, though he's especially around Essyrn."

And while he was in no connection to the crew they were just with, he was definitely a man of some success in the business world, particularly the act of procuring and selling items.  At leas, when the going got tough, this guy wouldn't be too harmful.  As Travis could remember, the guy didn't have any sort of problems with people...unless you were some guy called Stanislav.  Now, at this moment, Travis was letting Keona take everything in, but they needed to find a caravan that would take them along to town.  Then, as he noticed some of the trade going on, he spotted some of the Yoreiqi fruit and animal trade going to some people.

"I have some fruit packed from the quartermaster, since you couldn't eat last night, but why don't we just follow the fruit to town?"

RedOptics

"Huh... that's neat." She said softly, getting distracted by all sorts of things. But the feeling of uneasiness caused her to wrap her arms around his, studying the people cautiously. The mention of fruit caused her stomach to rumble, deprived of the meal it could not hold down from last night, but now was regretting throwing it away.

Keona took a moment to listen more than to see, to feel more than to smell. The air was still cool against her skin, not hot enough to match the temperature on her surface. Everyone sounded foreign, but what would you expect? Mostly Common was heard, but she did hear a few mutters of other languages that she could not understand. "Yes, let's do that."

Wrathwyrm

Well, even Travis sounded foreign to an islander such as her, but alot of these people were speaking Common through an Essyrni dialect and accent, say, so naturally that would seem weird.  With Keona in agreement with the plan, the young demon handed her the bag, so she could enjoy some breakfast that won't come back up as he approached the people with the crates of produce.  This was a group of men and women loading things on a Kaadir-pulled wagon, but Travis knew the men would get pissy if they weren't the ones addressed.

"Hi there.  Heading into town?"

"Nowhere else to go from here, stranger.  You and the painted lady want something?"

"We're looking to attach ourselves to a caravan to get into town, defending it from bandits and other things."

Travis made a point to include 'other things', just in case he asked about any demon snakes later.  It seemed fairly reasonable.  The man began to speak with the others, and thought it over.  Then, he turned back again.

"Me and the others, we're thinking it might give the Kaadir a break...if you were any good.  You and the girl don't look like much."

"We're both magic.  We have power that can bring down attackers."

"Pfaw!  Magic...  The only magic we need is a good oracle to guide us safely, not a crazy fireball wizard."

"It's of no use in Essyrn, but outside of town, anything can happen."

He considered that for a moment, giving Travis a careful eye.

"You cause us trouble anywhere near to town and I'll denounce you.  We all will."

"I know the law well enough.  They can't fault us for defending ourselves."

"That's between you and the guards.  I'll have none of it.  Deal?"

"Deal."

They would be ready to go, momentarily.

RedOptics

Keona didn't hesitate to take the bag that was handed to her and dig out a dragonfruit, biting into it quickly and humming to herself. The man was rather rude in her standards, defensive or not, and finally she leaned in to whisper to Travis, "Are all Essyrnians that crabby?"

Of course she looked rather kind and not like a maniac. Besides, she hasn't used her powers since yesterday, was it that obvious she was a pyrocaster?

"We won't be here for more than a few days, promise! We just need a way to get to Serendipity of course." She chuckled, putting on her kindest face. Hopefully they wouldn't make too many enemies here. There was the possibility of her accidentally finding out a portion of her power was stronger than she thought, but the chance of that was low.

Wrathwyrm

Travis gave her a quick shake of his head and a "Nah" to her question, so the party before them wouldnn't pick up on what she was saying.  Still, all Essyrni had this view of magic, that destructive magic was pointless and that any power over water was a crime against nature.  It was their way.  Several of the group looked at Keona as she spoke up, a bit confused.

"I already said 'deal'.  What more do you want?"

Yeah, this guy was definitely rude, and there would be others like him.  He thought in terms of business, like many people of the country.  They were, all of them, in some kind of silent feud where money was their sword and shield, and everyone was careful not to be disarmed or overpowered suddenly.  Travis whispered to Keona.

"Just let it go.  Their minds are elsewhere, I think."

Currently, their minds were on finishing their load-up and getting their great beast of burden to go.  The Kaadir was sacred in these parts, a backbone of labor and military support.  They revered it, being a large dark-scaled wingless dragon of some decent size.  Just one was needed to pull this large cart, and it did so with fair ease.  Kaadir were animals, not wise old dragons, but the Essyrni liked them for the curiously high level of adaptability and the intellect they did show, despite this.  For instance, this one had leads to guide it, but after making so many runs to the delta area, they only needed a word to get it in motion and it knew where to go.  Equally, it would not leave people behind, so this caravan was on the move at a pleasant pace.

RedOptics

She bit her lip, slightly embarrassed at her own words. But Travis's own made him smile, and the woman silently would follow him. Back on Yoreiq, animals such as those were simply passerbys, arriving in flight or water and leaving for the mainland a few days after. Keona went over any large lizards in her memories that she had encountered. There were serpents, wind snakes, hatchlings, wyverns and dragons that she had seen, but the only large creature that she felt in harmony with were the Phoenix.

"You say this land is quite small correct?" She whispered in response to Travis, picking Ira up. He didn't squirm at all, more rather petrified by the large bacl lizard. He did not like scaley things, and normally he killed lizards and snakes once his eyes were set on them back home. Of course no one knew of his fear, but right now the Tiger simply stared at the presence.

Wrathwyrm

The mighty hunter had met a new opponent today, a great big reptile.  Fortunately, though he was afraid of it, the Kaadir made no indication that it even knew the little tiger was there.  So, as Ira was rooted on the spot when Keona picked him up, he had also been in no danger.  As they went along, Keona asked Travis about Essyrn.  He was no expert at it, but fortunately he knew this bit.

"It's mostly the big city that the Shah rules over.  It kind of owns the whole oasis area, but I don't think you really have their guards out here, maybe people they hire to look around.  It's small, though, because of all the desert.  There's no point in ruling sand and glass if you can't do anything with it."

You could do things with glass, but since the area in which you could find it was so extensive, there was no point trying to hold a monopoly on that,  Anyone could get some glass for their needs, no question.  The only business in that was selling things made from the glass, not the supply itself, so no one bothered to guard it.

RedOptics

"I would like to see the glass... I heard it needs to be really hot..." Of course heat was something she was normally drawn to, and of course she'd wish to see smoldering glass deserts and active volcanoes and anything of the sort. Keona had an excited glint her eyes, gazing into Travis's with a pleaful set or orbs. She clutched Ira to her chest as he returned from fear, and entered reality yet again. He made little movement in her arms as he tried to ignore the fact that there were more of them spread out.

The woman fixed the string on her top, pulling them tighter and tucking her wings closer. If she were to accidentally set something on fire... that would be bad news. "We should get going then, Travy... it's best we try to focus on the task at hand."

Wrathwyrm

"Well, if we get a dragonrider to take us from Essyrn, we'll be flying over it, regardless."

It's a big desert, and it's a big heat.  Consequently, it's a big area of glass and hard to miss.

"If you wanna see it on the ground, we'll have to get 'im to land."

Seeing the look in his eyes, Travis smiled as he said that, indicating that he'd be fine with doing that for her.  The rider might get annoyed, but so what?  It wouldn't ruin his day to look at a glass desert a while, right?  Besides, even a guy like him could appreciate the eerie beauty of it.  Who could refuse those lovely eyes?  They had a power all of their own, like Ira's power of cute.  The moment was eventually broken by Keona reminding them that they were kind of falling behind the caravan, which was on the move.

"Yup, guess so."

That said, they would just have to quicken their pace a little to get back to the people they were watching over.  Once done, Travis struck a little conversation, curious about the work.

"So, lotta different stuff on that beast."

"Mmm-hmmm."

Some people weren't exactly invested into the art of communication.  Travis tried again.

"I mean, it's not all that much of one thing you can make heavy profit on."

"We make profit on all of it.  Somebody always needs this stuff.  We take what we can sell.  That's it."

"Yeah, like for instance, that captain wanted to sell us a dinghy.  What're we gonna use that for?"


Mention of his dinghy annoyed Travis a little, but just a little.

"I dunno.,  You've got this river.  It goes right to the city."

"Maybe if we wanted a little hobby boat for retirement, but that's not the case here."

"Fair enough, but...you can sell everything in there, no question?"

The man he'd been talking to originally shrugged.

"There's always a guy.  Even if we can't get prime rate, there's always a guy who can do something with it.  We're not businessmen.  We're in the business of transporting goods, and this was surplus.  We get anyone to take it, we win.  That's all."

"And there's always a guy."

"There's always a guy."

For some reason, Travis licked his lips before saying this next part.

"Is it Akbar?"

The man flinched and looked at him with both surprise and amusement.

"Oh!  So, you know him?"

"Needed information about Essyrn, first time in.  Headed in and found a funny little man who sells nearly everything.  Couldn't forget that if I tried."

The two of them laughed a bit at that.  Knowing the same funny little man will do that to you.  It wasn't especially important, or like they were somehow magically on the same page, but it created a little familiarity there.

RedOptics

Keona followed suit silently, keeping her eyes on the two for the time being. Ira was still tense in her arms, glaring at the beast ahead as if waiting to sound the alarm once a threatening movement was detected. Of course there was nothing to worry about, but being the protector of Keona, he had his cautiousness. The woman's gaze slowly drifted out into the open desert as stands and small buildings started to thin out. She was worried, or simply paranoid at the fact that the beasts seemed to have been manifesting faster than ever now that the talisman was gone.

They were regaining their strength... and whoever is manifesting these is getting better at it. That is, if someone was manifesting these monstrosities... She had finished the fruit in her hand and burned the core to dust, as to reduce the amount of waste as it disintegrated in the wind. Her gaze then returned forward, but not without catching a glimpse of what she thought was something kicking up the sand from afar. A double-take, and there was nothing there. Of course her paranoia must be tricking her eyes, or the dryness of the area might be getting to her. One of the two.

As the others were conversing, she quietly lostened for the time being, trying to push her thoughts from her head and trying to make sense of this new system.

Wrathwyrm

The funny thing about Kaadir was that they were somewhat intelligent, maybe even as much as Ira was.  They had awareness about them, and were more use to the ways of the desert than anyone here.  So, at the time of Keona seeing that something might've kicked up some sand, the right eye of the Kaadir also caught that movement, turning its head slightly to focus on it.  It paused, briefly, which caught the attention of the caravan.

"Something caught its eye.  What do you see up there?"

They had a man on the cart with a looking glass to keep watch on their surroundings, since the Kaadir barely needed a driver.  He looked where the reptile had looked, but he'd missed it, if it were ever there at all, and shook his head with an emphatic shrug.

"This happen often?"

"The Kaadir knows the difference between wind-whipped sand and something moving it.  If it looks, we watch.  Caught a fair few bandits that way.  A truly blessed beast in our land."

"Yeah...  Good thing we decided to tag along..."

And he almost meant it, too.  A shame it was probably one of those snakes...

RedOptics

"I've read about sand wyrms back on Yoreiq. Could've been one of those, right? Or... do they even live here?" Keona asked, a slight bit of uneasiness making its way out along with her tone as she closed the distance between her and Travis. Ira squirmed in her arms and managed to climb onto her shoulder, worried that the wyrm might bite his tail if he was any lower. The woman's wings twitched, as if feeling the same.

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the paranoia that infused her mind. "Mh... let's just keep going. We have magic... there's no way anything would want to tangle with us... right?" She chuckled nervously, rubbing her arm. Her feathers let of a black dust as her paranoia caused a rise in her temperature. The material was burning away into black ash, only to regenerate rather quickly. This was only an effect of anxiety, and will soon pass once her mind was taken off it. Strangely enough, Ira was immune to her heat, able to stand on his paws while she only grew hotter by the second.

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