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The Secret in the Woods (open by request)

Started by Cobalt, June 07, 2015, 03:39:35 AM

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Cobalt

Zea's favorite thing about the Meeting Place was that most of the time it was pretty quiet. People didn't go there to murder their way around, or even cause direct harm in general. It made for a far more serene spectral community than she'd found when she ventured out any of the portals to the mainland. People there didn't have the first fucking clue what to do with ghosts. No wonder they all went deranged before they faded.

She'd come to find someone to help her dig out her basement. The damn thing flooded every time it rained, and it rained frequently. She was well-known enough around Thanatos that while refusals were polite, invitations to go near her basement for pay were always refused.

Unfortunately, someone visiting this realm of soft grass and sturdy trees had brought a guest in with them, and it was not coping well. That assessment was the last thing the priestess remembered. As for where she was now... that wasn't her fault.

Currently, Zea was picking her way barefoot across the pointed needle-like leaves which stabbed outward from tree branches in lieu of proper foliage. Clad only in an ochre shift, her body had stopped trying to shiver its way back to warmth some time ago. It wasn't accustomed to such low humidity, such sharp breezes, but even it knew when to give up.  The light which shone down in shifting pools between the trees would have warmed most people enough, but Zea's body just felt the chill.

She found a river.

Yes. That was what she needed. She needed a river... this river. Was it this river? Maybe if she followed it, she would figure out whether this was the river or whether it was another one. They all connected, right? It had to lead somewhere, right? Maybe it would lead to the river, the river. Her fingers and toes were clumsy with cold, so when she tried to climb down the bank she just ended up slipping into the river itself. That was even colder, but the rocks at the bottom were smooth.

Zea began to walk upstream, seeking the river's source. Her dress was dark with cool river water, just cool enough to be refreshing to someone who wasn't from Thanatos, and clung to her skin as she walked against the current. She needed a river. Right? She remembered a river. There was something there. She needed... something. When she found it, she'd remember why she remembered it. Then things would be clearer.

JackieCat

Kilarhas walked comfortably through the trees, his guard wasn't up, as it usually was, though his weapons or magic could appear in his hands at a moments notice, but he felt safe here, at least safer than normal.  Even though with weapons, he was open to attack.  He was in-between adventures, he would say.  Not chasing after an evil demon or greedy ogre, just taking a rest.

The elf closed his eyes as he walked, taking in the scent, the feel, the connection he had with the forest and its spirits.  He was at complete peace, and in a deep meditative state.

He was broken from this state as he heard the sound of someone in water.

His silver eyes flew open, and he found there was a river off to the side of him ahead.  He could not see much through the trees, so he walked forward to get a better look at whatever creature was in the water.

As she stepped through the trees he was surprised to see a young woman walking through the water.

He walked to the bank and leaned on his staff. "Hello," he said politely. "May I ask what you are doing in that water?  It must be very cold."
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Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

Zea raised her head, paused, and turned to face the source of the sound. Her gaze swept up and down the bank, over and past the person who had addressed her like they were not even there. There'd been a sound? But it did not actually appear to have anything to do with what she was looking for. She should have known. The thing she wanted wouldn't be making noise; it wouldn't be doing anything. It would be waiting, certainly.

She would get there first and then she would decide what to do about sounds. Thing first. She'd find the river where the thing was, then she'd obviously find the thing, and then all would be clear. She'd know what to do. Right now she didn't, and it would be very silly indeed to make decisions before she had all the information.

Immediately she forgot the sound she'd heard, and if she'd seen something... well, it could not possibly have been important. If it were important it would be the thing she was looking for, which she would know when she saw it because of course she would.

One foot in front of the other. This would have been a far more perilous journey if Zea had brought weapons to the Meeting Place, but since she hadn't... it did not much matter what her body did as it headed upstream. It would be fine. If she kept going, she'd find the thing.

When she stumbled, she caught herself on the bank with one hand, fingernails turning bluish with the cold. The current swished around her knees as she pushed onward.

JackieCat

Kilrahas frowned as the woman ignored him, but it didn't seem like she was being rude.  It seemed as if she was in a trance, an uncontrollable hypnotic state.

Her hands were turning blue, and she definitely wasn't dressed for walking around in a freezing cold river.

Kilarhas knew some things about magical trances, and possibly this woman was in one that she herself had devised.  If he attempted to wake her, she could get mad at him if she wanted to be in it, but if she was possessed, then waking her could save her life, or damage her mind.  For sometimes if one is in such a deep state of meditation or trance, the waking of the person could pull and stretch their mind to the breaking point, killing them, or driving them mad.

For the moment, Kilarhas decided to call out once, and if she didn't answer, would just walk along the riverbank, following her.

"Are you in need of assistance?" he called.
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

Sound again. This time, though, it mattered enough to hear it. This was--or could be construed as--a question about the task at hand. Little else even could matter. Assistance was... yes. That was what she was doing right now, enlisting aid. Why not more?

Zea stopped again, looked up, and mouthed a word. Then she remembered that speaking required more than that, and breathed out at the same time, resulting in a muddy and poorly-enunciated, "Yes." Then she turned to look directly at the source of aid. Could she get in? Not as easily. So not that, then. Maybe she didn't need help after all. Maybe this was less relevant to her quest than she'd thought.

"This is my assistance." Words were better this time! "I am in need."

JackieCat

Kilarhas cocked his head at her curiously, he didn't understand what she was talking about.  She was definitely in some sort of trance, from the way she was acting he could definitely tell that much, or she was possessed, or ill, but something was strange.

"What are you doing, exactly?" he asked, walking closer to the river's edge.
My Open Threads!
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

Zea picked her way over a tree root, and around a rock that wasn't completely covered by the water. She braced against it with her fingertips as she remembered once again that she was having a conversation.

"Searching?" It wasn't sarcastic. She just couldn't quite remember what they'd concluded. "Searching." What had they even discussed? Obviously if she was searching for something then there was something she had to search for. What mattered enough to be worth it? Something must, or she wouldn't need to know where it was, would not be searching. That all seemed to follow well enough. They must have settled that out before.

She looked down into the river, watching the clear water rushing over her feet. Little bits of live green things were trailing in the current. That wasn't the way to go, though. She needed another way.

"It's not here. And it..." Maybe this person would know. "...should be?"

JackieCat

Searching?

Kilarhas really didn't know what she was talking about, and she was definitely possessed or something. "Searching for what?" he asked. "What are you searching for?" 

As he waited for her reply he thought back to the water, and how cold it must be.  He needed to get to the bottom of this, and quickly, for he didn't know how strong she was, and if she could handle the cold much longer.  She definitely wasn't dressed for what she was doing.
My Open Threads!
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

What was this person talking about, searching? Was she searching? She was, wasn't she. Good observation. This was important to know. She was searching, and for...

She scrunched up her face with the unselfconscious totality of a little child who has never ever in all their few years smelled anything this terrible. How could she not remember? She stood still, all her effort spent in scouring what she could of the thoughts that felt like hers. A slight tremble in her fingers betrayed that she could yet move, and just was not.

"It... should have been with me. But it's not mine?" A moment's consideration. "No, mine is fine. I wouldn't forget I was looking for mine but I keep forgetting this. But mine is where I left it, so that's good to know."

JackieCat

"What is it?" Kilarhas asked. "What is yours?  What are you looking for?"

This was getting nowhere, she didn't seem to really understand what he was saying, and she assumed he knew what she was talking about, at least that was how Kilarhas interpreted it.  He didn't think he was going to get anything out of her, but he couldn't just leave this young woman like this, she could die if what was happening here wasn't supposed to happen.
My Open Threads!
None currently, but if you want to thread, don't hesitate to PM me!

My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

"I don't know what's mine. Not this, I know that," Zea answered, gesturing down at herself. None of this was hers. Well, it was hers, but not really? So much of her wasn't her. It was like... like... it was like a spiderweb she'd fallen on instead of hitting the ground below, so she was okay but now she was stuck.

"But maybe I'm looking for mine? No, mine is fine. It's someone..."

She gasped so hard and flung her arms into the air with such force that she lost her balance and plopped down into the water with a great splash. Getting up proved difficult, but her enthusiasm was undaunted by the uncooperative body she was currently struggling with.

"My wife! My wife was buried with me and then she got moved and I was looking. We're supposed to be together and we're not." She jabbed a pointing finger at Kilharhas. "Someone took her! So I have to find her and put her back and I didn't have enough of me to do it. I had holes. Like if I were thinking in lace. Thoughts fell through like a net. Like... holes. I had too many holes. I kept falling through holes. And then I got lost."

Because of the holes, see.

They were a major problem.

JackieCat

The body was not theirs?  Kilarhas wasn't sure, but that's what it sounded like to him.  Apparently, from what he surmised, there was an undead spirit or ghost of some sort inside of this young woman's body.  A couple had been buried together, and then the wife had been taken from her grave, stolen?  Then the spirit of the wife's spouse had risen and needed to take possession of a body to retrieve their wife's body?

That's what it sounded like.

"Are you a ghost inside this woman's body?" Kilarhas asked. "Or a spirit?"
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

A ghost or a spirit? That sounded complicated. If there was an answer, it was too full of holes and she couldn't quite get to it or hold the whole thing. It fell through her onto the other thing, the thing she was in.

"This isn't mine," she answered, eager to help to whatever extent she could, since she knew a thing or two about being on a mission. She thought she did, anyway. The details were a little hazy. "It just has fewer holes, so I'm getting a lot more done! I remembered that I need to find some river... bank? Riverbank. What a strange word in Common; I feel like I didn't call it that. But she does. No holes. Well. Fewer holes."

She pointed upriver.

"I can't stay and talk. You should come with me. You remind me of things."

JackieCat

Her reminded her of things?  What kinds of things?  But now Kilarhas was curious, he wanted to know what this woman, and whatever was inside her, was all about.

"I'll come with you," he said. "I'll follow, you lead the way. Are you sure you can't walk out of the river?  It must be very cold for your body.  If you could walk on the riverbank you could still look for the riverbank you are looking for."
My Open Threads!
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

"Hunh," she grunted, considering this observation. He hadn't steered her wrong so far, so... maybe? She looked down. Bodies. She wasn't used to them anymore. They wanted things, needed things. On some level she must have known that, or had before her awareness of it had fallen through one of the holes.

"I can't think of any reason why not. Price I pay for a mind without holes, or maybe a mind that fills holes?" She shook her head. "Maybe it's cold."

After a bit of flailing and some skidding in mud and non-trivial dirtying of skin and fingernails and hair, Zea pulled herself onto the bank. Notably, her sojourn into the river did not appear to have harmed her beyond her body's general preference for regulating its temperature. She didn't seem hurt. Perhaps in the Meeting Place she couldn't be, not until her intentions shifted her away from the protection offered. She didn't have any visible weapons. Maybe that was good enough.

"It's big and overhangy. She's there. But I haven't ever seen anything like that."

JackieCat

Kilarhas still didn't completely understand what she was talking about, but at least she had gotten out of the nearly freezing water. "Okay," he said to her, or the spirit or ghost or whatever was inside of her. "Let's keep walking and you can find your riverbank."
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My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

"Yes! Good idea."

Zea shook a pointing finger at Kilarhas, solver of problems and rememberer of things like the purpose of her current corporeality.

"Yes. Okay. You've got good eyes on you. I'm looking for, uh..." She looked up above the treeline, squinted, then turned around in a circle. "Not those..." She gestured vaguely in the direction of basically everything. "...those pointy ones. The round ones."

They were currently surrounded by conifers. Perhaps they were to blame.

"There was a little stand of them. The pointy ones. And a... fish?"

She turned to Kilarhas, the one who knew what was going on. "How was there a fish?"

JackieCat

Kilarhas shook his head. "I don't know anything about a fish. What were round?  The trees?  And a stand of them, a stand of what?  Tell me more about this."

She was speaking as if she expected him to know exactly what she was talking about, he would just have to be patient.  Very patient.
My Open Threads!
None currently, but if you want to thread, don't hesitate to PM me!

My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

Cobalt

Zea exhaled sharply, making a little hfff of exasperation.

This was why she kept this one around. She must know him, and obviously this was why. She was sensible and kept people near who could ask the important questions like what are you talking about. If nobody ever asked, how was she supposed to know?

"Round trees. But a few pointy ones. A clearing, like in the woods. Yes."

She marched with lively steps and renewed purpose, having figured out the object of her investigation. A river, with a riverbank, and a clearing, with pointy trees inside but mostly round trees up until then.

"Ah! Oh, wait. I can do this." She halted and held both of her hands straight forward toward Kilarhas. "You must promise to be very good." She lowered one hand and wagged a stern finger. "Promise to be good."

JackieCat

Kilarhas held up his hands. "Okay," he said. "I'll be good, now what?"

He would have to play along with the woman, or ghost, or whatever, until he knew exactly what was going on.
My Open Threads!
None currently, but if you want to thread, don't hesitate to PM me!

My Characters!
Kirl Moonharber---Lorin--- The Feari --- Akhe---Kilarhas---Naarilash---Kinn---Jiminie---Faelis---Karishk---Cirick---Sieera---Kornos--- Ariznim--- Dergan---Meerior---Zier'ik'shalsalimigarizdeniime---Keyne---Seridin---Elliot---Healin---Warn Danish---Revvil---Kashka---Ishka---Nox---Skiffiles---Jlyyth---
Flordia
---Larcan---Kannae---Anton

For summaries of my characters, JackieCat's Characters!

Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.  It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
~The Doctor

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