Spirits of the Earth

Skalos liked this forest way too much. The people who passed through here wanted to play chase every time. He simply walked up behind some of them and said hello and they begun to play. And they would run until they reached "home", and then they got the villagers involved in chasing! And the villagers tried to play party games, like pin the tail on the donkey, but they had to use arrows, as, in Skalos' mind, he couldn't comprehend the idea that they were trying to kill him. He reasoned they had run out of donkey tails, and were just using arrows as a substitute.

As he plucked an arrow from his trawl of shadow, he wondered if he could play that game too. No, he didn't have their fancy bows to shoot the tails at them. He threw the arrow into the pond and saw a fish. Then he remembered a song he had once heard.


He remembered that a hunting demon had once sung that sung near him. And so, he sang it, over and over as he jabbed his sharp tendrils at the fish, trying to spear it and eat it. He paid no attention to anything but the fish, as he tried to catch it, desperately stabbing and jabbing and clawing.

Risl walk into the village, she had only wanted to get some supplies but instead finds that the whole village is in a panic. People were shouting stuff about a tall monster, and they were all running around like crazy people.

Risl sighed Why did i have to walk in on such a situation? she thought to her self. Risl drew her bow and pluck a single arrow out of her quiver. Well, guess i better go see what this monster is. she thought again as she ran the opposite direction as everybody around.

As the shadow-like beast came into view Risl, with shaky hands, readied her bow and quickly fire an arrow at the beast.

Skalos heard the string of the bow stretch, and hear the arrow being released, but dodged it, letting the fish go.

"Are we playing pin the tail on the donkey still?! We love party games! Can we play charades, or, or riddles! Or jokes!" The tendrils waved as Skalos' laughed manically.

"Where are our manners? We didn't ask elf-friend's name! We are Skalos! We're friends now!" Skalos grinned in a manner that seemed more like baring his teeth at her, his tongue flicking around through his teeth.

Risl paused for a second, and stared an the large dark creature with wide eyes, her heart beating quick in her chest.

"M-My names Risl." she said tentatively taking a step back, her whole body was shaking but she was determined not to run from this monster. "A-and... Who are you?" she said with a shaky voice

"Risl-friend is silly, we just said, we are called Skalos! Will you play riddles with me?" Skalos smiled, all his eyes blinking individually. One of his tendrils grew a nose, and got closer to the Elf, sniffing her.

"We want to start. What has two banks, but no money to put in it's mouth?" Skalos smiled, his primitive brain unable to distinguish the fear.

Risl stood there for several seconds, paralyzed with fear. Risl then glanced to the quiver on her back wishing she could get another arrow and shoot him.

she paused briefly,and tried to suppress her fear. Now i have to answer riddles? what is it with this guy? Risl thought, trying hard not to be afraid but was still shaking  " I-I do-don't know," she said shakily, "W-What?"

Skalos laughed at the fact she didn't know the first riddle.

"A river, silly. Risl-friend's turn now. Give us a difficult one! Go on, we dare you! We can answer it!" Skalos smiled, attempting to reach into her mind. We won't cheat on this riddle, we just want to be friends better. Is that ok with Risl-friend? The voice projected mentally, feeling the slight magic barrier.

"Umm," Risl said still trying to keep her fears down. "What can you catch but not throw?" Risl said trying hard to keep herself from stuttering. don't freak out anymore, Risl, he doesn't want to hurt you, he definitely doesn't want to hurt you. she thought trying to keep herself calm

(i have to sleep now O>O)

"Uhh... Um... Let us think..." Skalos looked down, his brain running through ideas. "A cold!" He laughed and danced, slipping over and laughing even more.

"30 white horses on two red hills. First they stamp, then they stomp, then they champ, then they chomp." Skalos looked at her expectantly.

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OOC: I don't mind if you look these up!

Risl, stared at the strange creature, she had never see anything as strange as this. "Uh," Risl paused and took a couple of steps back. "I don't know, Teeth?" she said and took in a shaky breath. I should try to escape, but he would probably just chase me. It's safer to play along with this strange creatures riddles. she thought "What do the letter 't' and an island have in common?" she said and gazed at the large creature, trying hard to keep her fears in the depths of her heart.

"That's right, although we have 50 teeth." Skalos grinned and laughed over a joke he thought funny, knowing no one else would know it.

"We will figure out your riddle. T... Tea? No... Water has no t... WAIT! We know! They are both in the middle of water!!!" Skalos cackled this time, his tendrils morphing and changing randomly.

"Our turn now... Hmm... What is as big as you are, does not weigh anything? This one isn't too good, because we are one and we are bigger than you and heavier." Skalos didn't like this one too much, because people always got it wrong.

Risl was looking in the direction of the woods, How should i know the answer to this! she thought, But as she stared at the woods in the corner of her eye an idea struck and she turned her attention back to the creature.

"Its my shadow," Risl said as she stared back at the horrifying monstrous thing in front of her, I won't be afraid anymore! she thought with the determination to escape from this.

"Here's mine," Risl cleared her throat,
"Until I am measured,
I am not known.
Yet how you miss me,
When I have flown!
What am I?" Risl said clenching the bow she still held in her hand.

"We have heard that one lots, it's time, silly." Skalos thought of his final one.

"2 fathers and 2 sons go fishing. Each of them catches one fish. So why do they bring home only 3 fish? This is our last one." Skalos smiled grimly. If Risl failed this, she became a meal to catch in his eyes. He had not eaten the fish and now she looked appealing.

Risl Stood their and thought for a second, "there was one grandfather, one father and one son" she said after a short pause to think. Risl felt her fears rising again, He said this was the last riddle, what's he going to do now? she thought and pushed her fears back Maybe he's tired, i'm sure that's it, his going to sleep, he is definitely going to go to sleep. she looked back at the forest from the corner of her eye again, and proceeded to take another couple steps back.

"Don't go friend, the games are only just starting. We are going to have lots of fun here together. Or were we going to play chase? We like chase. All the ladies we meet scream out of happiness and play chase instantly. We find it fun when they have the town chase us back!" His voice was projected into he mind instead of speaking physically, and it was different mentally, being deeper, and it being 8 voices slightly out of time, mostly children's voices. One of the voices wasn't talking, but singing. It was singing a nursery rhyme. Twinkle Twinkle to be exact.

Risl stopped backing away, Man, i wasn't built for all this stress, she thought and started to chew her bottom lip, All i want to do was take a nap up a tree for 7 or 9 hours of my life, but instead i'm here, talking to a who-knows-what! she clenched her hands in to fists, feeling the smooth, hard wood of her bow, she then got an idea, she took an arrow from her quiver, slowly, and readied her bow, pulling the string tightly back to her cheek, she aimed for what she hoped was his head.

Skalos saw her draw the bow. "Pin the tail on the donkey? We love this game!" Skalos grinned and waited for her to shoot, not able to judge where the arrow was going to land.

Risl paused for a second Pin the tail on the... what? she thought this guys is one of the most rediculous... things i have ever met! she quickly moved her focus back to the beast, pulling her arrow back a little bit farther, and firing the arrow.

The arrow pierced between Skalos' eyes, and he screeched in pain. "We will hurt Risl-enemy for that!" He ripped the arrow out, and charged Risl, baring his fangs, and lunged, trying to sink claws and teeth into her.

Risl turned and ran for the woods trying to focus he attention on running and not on the beast, what was with that sudden change of personality?! she thought to herself sprinting forward as fast as she could, even though she could her the large beast coming in behind her, Risl ignored it as best she could, and forced herself not to look back.

Skalos teleported to a spot in front of her, and snarled, attempting to grab her. "You tried to hurt us! WE KILL YOU!! DIE!!" Skalos opened his mouth to bite her.

Risl quickly came to a stop and watch with wide eyes as his mouth came into bite her, instinctively she threw down her bow and reach for her dagger and torn it out of its sheathe. she took the blade and attempted stab him in the mouth with it.

The dagger landed in place, and Skalos pulled away, taking the knife in his mouth, and ripping it out. Skalos went to grab her shoulders, trying to dig his claws in.

Risl screamed in pain as his sharp claws dug into her, she could felt herself sweating bullets, and thought of everything she could do to get out of this, she grabbed an arrow from her slowly emptying quiver and tried to stab it in to his hand.

Skalos took yet anther wound, but still kept fighting. He recoiled with one hand, tearing the arrow out, the using his claws to try and slash her face. He dug his other hand in, trying to keep a hold of his victim.

Risl tried to escape but he had deeply dug his claws into her, she could feel blood running down her side, Is this how it ends for me? No! i don't want it to end here! I won't let it! she thought finding herself with new determination, she took another  arrow, had one in each hand, she took it and tried to stab it in to the hand that was going for her face.

Skalos screeched yet again, his demonic rage being the only thing keeping him from fleeing to recover. He felt physical pain, and he had to leave to recover from it. But he would kill this girl first. The arrow went straight through his hand, and he used a tendril to try and strangle the girl.

the dark tendril coiled around her neck and tighten, Risl could feel the tightness in her chest as her body begged for air. Risl looked behind her, she had only 1 arrow left, she slowly reach back and a grabbed it with shaky hands as her other hand grabbed at the tendril around her neck, she gasped for air that she couldn't get, a tried to use hr last arrow to stab into the tendril.

The arrow pierced the tendril, and instantly, Skalos released his grip on the girl, screaming in pain as he bled from the stab wounds. He began to crawl away, stumbling several times and falling flat at one point.

"Risl-enemy, please don't hurt us anymore! We beg it of you!"

Risl fell to the ground and immediately started to gasp of air, Risl could feel her legs ache and found herself too weak to move. She looked over at the beast as it crawled away, " I couldn't hurt you right now... even if i want to..." she panted still trying to regain her breath.

Skalos actually began to weep, trying to trap her sympathies. "Please don't hurt us... Please, please, please, don't hurt us.... We only attacked cause you did hurt us.... No more pain, please..." Skalos let out a tormented wail.

Risl looked on Skalos and began to regret her actions against him. she felt her stomach become heavy with guilt. Maybe, i was wrong. she thought Maybe he isn't a bad guy, just misunderstood. she sighed. I'm such a fool. just because he looks scary doesn't mean he is automatically a monster.

Risl took a deep breath " Look, i think this was just a big misunderstanding, I thought you were attacking this village so i attacked back. I.. I'm sorry" and with those last few words she looked down at the ground.

She was sorry. His brain snapped back, and he felt his old habits return immediately. "So you are Risl-friend then? We don't have to be scared of you? Yippeee!!" Skalos shouted. "We can be friends, we can be friends!" He danced slightly, waiting for his wounds to heal.

Risl watched him dance, "Yeah, we can be friends." she said while giggling. She stood up and picked up her wooden bow, her limbs still aching from the stress of the fight.

Risl then wandered over to where her dagger had fallen, pick it up and put it back in it sheathe.

"We can play games? And do fun friend things?" Skalos felt his wounds begin to seal and recover completely. While she might take a while, he was very ready to fight again.

"We can, but not right now. My injures don't heal as fast as yours." Risl said as she walked over to a nearby house, using it to support her weight.

"Did we hurt you? Do you want us to go and find a healer? We can bring healer here to help." Skalos looked genuinely worried, and Nice and Nasty were arguing in his head over the incident.