If No One's Around to Hear(Talyafera <3)

[Anonymous]

"Hm, and the dresses and the fire... Burning and burning and the dog's teeth, they bite and nip..."

In the forest, many natural things occur. Birds chirp and flutter and in general annoy the hell out of anyone trying to sleep. Squirrels dart around and have epic ninja battles. Trees grow. Normal, boring things. Maine was not paying attention to these normal, boring things. Well, not really.

If a loon is in the forest all alone, muttering to himself, does he make a sound?

The answer is yes, you dolt. No one humanoid was around, but you can bet that the animals noticed the muttering of the strange human, much you you would notice them chittering to themselves or cawing or whichever is appropriate for the animal in question. But you can bet that they didn't care about the muttering in the least. Which, in fact, was why this particular loony was in this forest. Because the animals didn't care if he was insane.

Maine tugged on a particular bit of his white hair, continuing, walking in an erratic loop, "But where and how and who? Never, silly. Wolf! No, not a wolf, a sheep in wolves' skin. Odd, odd, roles reversed, and a mage? Maybe. Magic in the blood, at least. Always the blood. So much blood."

He didn't like the woods that much. It rained a lot. Sometimes he got sick, and he wanted a hug, but of course the birds wouldn't oblige. They were fickle like that. But the birds didn't try to lock him up, and neither did the other animals or the plants. Not like the humans had. They said that Maine was loony. And maybe he was. But didn't even a loon deserve to be free?

So there he was, in the forest, muttering about the things that he Saw. No one ever believe him, of course, but his had to speak what he Saw or he would explode. And that you be messy--lots of blood. So much blood. But if no human was around to hear, he could mutter and shout about when he saw. And then not explode. Because exploding? Muchly of the badness.

[Tally]

From the direction of La'marri came an odd and continuous roar.  One in the Niahi Woods might have noticed animals fleeing away from the sound and whatever was causing it.  Birds, deer, rabbits...all manner of creature ran from it, seeking shelter deeper in the forest.  Thin plumes of smoke rose up among the trees.

It came roaring toward Maine below the treetops, leaving a tunnel of charred vegetation behind it.  A fire elemental, vaguely human in shape but with no features to see.  It was made all of flame, held together in a man-like form, and it shot upward above Maine, turning its head this way and that as though surveying its surroundings.  Behind it ran a youth, yelling at the top of his lungs the whole way.

"Out of the way, out of the way!  Look out!"  Zephaniah didn't know who he was yelling at way out here.  The squirrels and bunnies he supposed.  It was out of habit, really.  He was so used to calling these warnings at people in cities when he set off fireballs or unleashed flash floods down the streets.  That was one reason he loved places like Arca.  A fine location for any mage looking to hone his craft, Arca was.  They were so forgiving there.

The furious elemental had paused, hovering in the air, possibly waiting for Zephan to get there so it could burn him alive, possibly just looking for good tinder.  Sparks and tongues of flame leapt from its body to the canopy of trees below, some of them catching and starting up small fires in the foliage.  The elemental's body roared like a bonfire.

Zephan caught up at last utilizing the charred path carved by the elemental's wake, leaping over fallen, smoking tree trunks and skidding to a halt opposite Maine.  His blue hair and the sleeves of his coat were singed.  He leaned over with his hands on his knees and sucked in a few lungfuls of air before staring up at the elemental he had conjured.  Bloody big one this time!  Had to be some kind of a personal record.  Ah, probably shouldn't go congratulating himself just yet, though.  Still had to get rid of the thing before it burned the whole of Niahi Woods down!

Zephan's eyes lowered to the boy.  Right strange to see a lone lad out in this forest.  Kid should be careful!  Never know what might happen in a fey forest like this.  Never know when some senseless mage might tear through the place with an untamed fire elemental dangerously close to immolating everything around it.

"Careful there.  He bites," Zephan said to the boy.

The elemental chose that moment to strike.  From the place its mouth would have been it spewed a column of fire toward Maine even as Zephan prepared to banish it.  With one hand he traced the runes in the air that would loose the binds holding the creature to this world.  He gasped when it attacked the boy and began to call up a wind gust with his other hand.

[Anonymous]

Something was Out of the Norm, Maine thought, breaking away from what he Saw when the animals suddenly stopped making their noise. Everyone in the woods knows that when it's silent, something deadly is afoot. In this case, the fire elemental wasn't technically afoot, but it was burning it's way through the forest, straight toward, of all people, loony Maine himself. But fire of this sort held no interest to him, and he turned away from it after a moment that spanned perhaps three seconds. It was not that interesting, and he returned to his mutterings, "Why do the sheep have to jump the fence, there no grass on the other side? No sense, no sense, oh, but the harvest this year, too bad..."

But there was a louder noise, a human voice! Why? Mainer didn't want to go back to the humans! He didn't want to be locked up again and have people talk about him like he didn't understand and tell him to shut up and beat him if he kept talking and it wasn't fair! He wasn't doing anything wrong, he was just being in the forest being insane! No one was here but the animals and they didn't mind. The man stopped in front of him, and Maine ignored the fire elemental because he had bigger problems. This man had to go away. Maine spoke up to tell him so, oddly focused.

"Away!" he cried loudly, a fair amount of fear in his eyes, that he would be taken back, "You can't make me, not even with the sparkle! I'll go out before I go! Leave not even a flicker for you! So off and away—" Of course, so focused on making him leave, Maine was, that he didn't notice what Zephaniah was saying, nor did he notice the fire. he was always Seeing things burning, and so he didn't think that it was Out of the Norm, not like Zephaniah was. Even the column of fire didn't interest Maine, though it, indeed, should have. Quite a bit.

[Tally]

OOC: Sorry it took me so long!! ^_^;;

Cripes.  The kid wasn't moving.

No one had ever been hurt due to Zephan's fumbled magic.  Well, no one had ever been seriously hurt.  It had never happened before and he wouldn't let it happen now.  Pausing in his tracing of the runes, he focused all his power and sent a gust of air straight at the boy.  It wasn't gentle.  It would be enough to clobber him to the ground, out of harm's way, even as it buffeted the column of fire upward.

The air around them turned hot, became hazy.  The fire elemental was going to light the very atmosphere on fire.  Zephan felt his hair singe.

He grinned.  Too late, too bad.  Back to where you came from.

Zephan competed the runes of banishment, the magic bleeding off into the visible spectrum and making them glow in the air.  They were a severing, cutting the invisible ties that bound the elemental to its physical body, the body Zephan himself had invoked.  Call him irresponsible, call him irreverent, but never let it be said he didn't clean up his own messes.

The elemental shuttered at the completion of the runes, a tremor shaking its whole form.  It shrank just like a dying fire, the flames vanishing into the air.  It left nothing behind save the destruction it had wrought.

Zephaniah glanced around, still alert.  Sometimes these things didn't go down easily.  It could still be alive.  But the clearing—well, it was a clearing now that most of the trees had been burned down—was quiet save for the crackle of dying fires and the call of distant birds.  It was over.  Zephan flopped to the ground, laying upon his back in the grass with his arms spread wide.  What an ordeal.  Gee.  He'd think twice before summoning fire elementals again.  Next time he'd try something smaller, something the size of a dog maybe.

He panted to catch his breath and closed his eyes.  He was burned out.  Ha ha.  Burned.  Yeah, he couldn't have lit a candle just then if his life depended on it.  Hopefully it did not.  Hopefully the strange kid wouldn't decide Zephan needed to pay for all the damage he'd caused.  And almost killing him.  

Anyway, he'd just stay right here until his heart rate went back down.  Then he reckoned he'd have to get up and find out where he was and how he could get back to civilization.

He hoped he wasn't laying in any ants.

[Anonymous]

((Oh, that's okay, I've been out of my mind with school work lately anyway.))

It hurt. It hurt and it hurt and it hurt, and Maine whimpered. No one with the sparkle had tried to attack him before, and he--and it hurt, though he had disapeeared into the forest to escape from this pain, from people who didn't understand that he had a right to be insane. He moaned in pain, feeling the rough bark through the worn fabric of his shirt. He had flown fifteen feet through a few bushes and into a tree. he should get up and run, he know that he should. The man wouldn't follow him, the stars told him, singing softly to try and ease his aches.

Long ago with the help of a women he'd never seen again, Maine had escaped from a village on the edge of this forest. They'd said he was evil, a demon, a bringer of bad luck, said he talked too much, about thing that were true, and untrue, and hidden, and well known. But he had to he had to talk because what he Saw would well inside him and BURST if he didn't and it hurt and it wasn't fair!

"Oh, the sparkle, using it to hurt me, and I, I didn' do anything and the stars are said and it hurts, Sparkle-man, and please, please, no," He was muttering aloud now, his Sight trained on the present, allowing him to focus on it. Because his eyes rarely saw what was in front of it and registered, no, he was looking at the man with his Sight now, and talking to him in a soft, running mummer.

Maine refused to go. Re. Fused.

[Tally]

The sky was bright, and Zephan closed his eyes against it.

With his sense of sight cut off, he looked inward.  Burned out, most definitely.  Not just his fire channels either, but all of them.  Too much energy too fast.  It had left him raw, like a skinned animal.  But this was all invisible, all afflictions upon his soul instead of his body, for it was through his higher self that he invoked the elements.

Zephan cracked his eyes open as a cluster of clouds passed before the sun.  Blue and white filled his vision.  It would take hours of rest before he could summon even a spit of magic, and days still until his channels would heal again and he'd be back into his full power.  Right good fortune he'd gotten himself out in the middle of the forest, else he'd have every mage in La'maari shaking their heads at him in gentle rebuke.  It weren't exactly the height of wisdom, searing yourself to near crippling.

He hadn't forgotten about the boy, but he'd rather expected the lad to be putting distance between them by now.  It was a surprise when his voice piped up across the ruined clearing.

Zephan flipped over onto his side, propped his elbow on the ground and supported his head with his fist.  The lad looked like a wild thing.  And spoke like he was touched in the head which, if he were living out in these fey woods, wouldn't be the most astonishing thing ever.  Hardy soldiers could venture into the Niahi forestlands and come out raving madmen.  Though most never came out at all.

"Eh?  Mayhap you could venture a might closer and say that again?  I'm a wise old sorcerer you see—hundreds of years old—and my hearing is going.  Indeed, I have many fearsome and arcane names given me by awed plainfolk over the centuries. They are all words of great and terrible power.  You can call me Zephaniah though."