Stranger at the Gate

[DragonSong]

@Cinnabar


"Tilly? Barnabus? Briar? Come on, where are you?"

Caliope bit her lip as she picked her way through the underbrush of the forest, peering around desperately for her three missing charges. The bonded group had been out with her shopping in the market, but a stray carriage horse had spooked the little creatures and before she'd really had time to react they'd been off, darting for the safety of her cottage.

Only the little dears seemed to have gotten a bit turned around, because the faint trail she'd been following had veered into the woods just outside town. Gods, it was like a nightmare; all of the huge Niahi woods to search for three little teacup dragons.

"Barney! Come on, come on out loves, let's go home!" she called, growing more desperate by the minute.

She was so driven to distraction that she almost walked face first into a massive tree-- some sort of ash-- only managing to catch herself when she saw the telltale spark of magic glittering around the edges of the trunk.

"Oh!" Startled, the hedgewitch drew up short, tilting her head at the tree. It was...odd. Not like any magic she'd seen before. Subtle, almost like it was woven into the fabric of the tree itself.

Exactly the kind of thing that might attract some young, curious teacup dragons.

Brow setting into a determined frown, Cali reached out-- and drew her hand back with a sharp hiss as the magic crackled at her touch. A barrier.

Well. She was having precisely none of that. If her dragons were on the other side of that barrier, so was getting through. One way or another.

While she wasn't particularly gifted in magic, she didn't need to be to simply through raw power at the thing. Which she did. And again. And again, and again, and again, each time her magic drawing a sound like a chiming gong as it struck the barrier, though she paid it no mind.

[Bunbun]

Although it was Cyrillis' job to protect Dreamhaven from whatever potential threats might befall it, he didn't actually tend to see action all that often. Most people were completely unaware of the place's existence, and the ones who did know about it were typically fae who had a good reason to be visiting. The barrier did a pretty good job of handling the rest, so all in all, the queendom was already well protected from outside threats.

Some guards might have allowed themselves to grow relaxed under such circumstances, but not him. It was his sworn duty to do whatever he could to protect his home, even if the threat of danger wasn't always immediately apparent. That was the reason he made sure to constantly be in top shape, and also why he kept himself on high alert during patrols.

Perhaps that was why he was able to pick up on the faint ringing sounds making their way through the woods, even though he was a fair bit away from the source of the noise. His ears twitched slightly as he noticed the disturbance, distracting him from what would have been another ordinary day of patrols. Judging from the direction the sound seemed to be emanating from, it was unlikely that it was coming from inside the barrier, which was a bit worrying. Even if whoever was causing the noise didn't actually pose a threat, it was probably a good idea for him to at least keep an eye on them until they'd left.

A few minutes of flying later, the originator of the noise finally came into Cyrillis' view. He took a brief moment to inspect her from a distance, taking advantage of his small size to spy through small gaps in the leaves and branches of the forest while remaining relatively hidden. She might not have looked like much of a threat, but one thing was for certain- she had access to some sort of magic, and she was making use of it to attack the barrier.

Obviously, he couldn't simply stand by and watch while this happened, but it wouldn't do to introduce himself in his current form if he wanted to appear intimidating. So, landing on the ground behind one of the trees he had used for cover, the pixie concentrated all of his magic into helping him grow to his more human-like size. It was a transformation that he knew wouldn't last for very long, but if all went well, this interaction would be over before that became a problem.

Stepping out from behind the tree in his hopefully-now-imitating form, Cyrillis marched up to the witch with a stern look on his face and a hand resting on his sword. He had no intention of harming her just yet, but in a situation like this, it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.

"You there. What do you think you're doing? This barrier is here for a reason, and I don't appreciate strangers trying to pry their way inside without permission."

[DragonSong]

"Ack!"

Caliope jumped back, another burst of magic fizzling out at her fingertips as she stared at this stranger in shock and slightly panic. "I, um, I mean...wh-who are you?" she demanded, desperately trying to come up with some excuse that might lead him not to...

Well, she had no idea what he might do to her, but she had a feeling she really didn't want to find out.

[Bunbun]

Cyrillis squinted slightly at the girl's response, his wings fluttering idly as he pondered whether or not he could trust her. She did seem to be genuinely surprised by his presence, which supported the idea that she could simply be a curious traveller who had happened upon the barrier by chance. On the other hand, though, he couldn't be completely honest with her- appearances could be deceiving, and he couldn't just go around telling every random passerby about the existence of Dreamhaven.

"What does it look like? I'm a guard. It's my duty to keep this area secure, and as of now, it's strictly off-limits. Nobody is allowed through the barrier." He paused for a moment, thinking, then slowly released his grip on his sword, instead opting to cross his arms over his chest. "Look. I'm not going to hurt you unless I find out that you're up to something, but I do need to know what you're doing here, and I'd prefer not to have to ask again."

[DragonSong]

"I-- well, I..." Cali's eyes widened, drawn to the movement of his wings. Realization hit her like a sack of flower, nearly knocking the breath from her body. "You--! But you're a-- a--"

Oh good gods!

"But you're a faerie!" the hedgewitch exclaimed, staggering back a step. Her eyes flickered between the guard and the barrier. "So you mean this...this is a..."

Once again her voice trailed off, though this time it was not from befuddlement, but rather because a sharp, startled cry tore from her lips. Gesturing widely with her hand toward the barrier, she suddenly noticed a soft, golden-green glow surrounding her fingers, spreading steadily up to her wrist, then her forearm. "Wh-what's happening?!"

[Bunbun]

While the witch's state of shock from her sudden realization was understandable given the circumstances, it was still frustrating that Cyrillis still hadn't received a single straight answer from her. He couldn't just stand there and ask the same question over and over again- even if his patience wasn't limited, he could already feel the effects of his transformation taking their toll on his body. He really needed to start getting some answers sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, the situation didn't look to be improving for either of them. The appearance of the strange glowing energy was something that surprised him almost as much as it did her, and for the first time, his stern demeanour was replaced by one of concern. Was this some sort of defence mechanism being used by the barrier in retaliation for being attacked? He wasn't sure of the answer to that, and all he could do to answer the girl's question was mutter a short "I... I don't..."

He didn't know. What he did know, however, was that he couldn't stand and watch while whatever-it-was happened to a potentially innocent traveller. And if the barrier really was reacting to being attacked... well, it wasn't going to hurt a faerie, right?

Quickly regaining his composure, Cyrillis stepped up to the barrier and reached through with his arms, offering his hands to her. "Here, hold on to my hands. Quickly. I won't let anything happen to you."

[DragonSong]

"I-I--"

Rather desperate and entirely at a loss, Calliope did as he said, reaching out to grab his hands and holding tight.

The moment she approached the barrier however, the glow spreading up her arms flashed sporadically and suddenly raced to cover every inch of her skin, surrounding her in green-gold light. Wide eyed and terrified, she grabbed frantically at the stranger's hand, finding herself tipping forward as colors and light seemed to swirl around her--

"Help!"

His hands were suddenly massive in hers, then not in hers at all. A startled, pained cry tore from her as she found herself falling, the ground growing rapidly closer, trees shooting up and suddenly massive in her vision.

The next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the ground, blinking green and gold sparks out of her vision, staring up at the canopy above her. What in all hells just happened?! Panting lightly and grumbling to herself, she tried to sit up, weaving dizzily in place. "Wha...?"

She looked up. And her eyes went wide.

The faerie was huge towering above her like a living mountain! But...but the trees were bigger too, and the foliage she'd so recently stumbled through...

It dawned on her, quite abruptly, that the world had not grown massive around her. She had shrunk.

Eyes wide, Caliope jumped to her feet, staring down at her suddenly tiny self. "Oh my gods!"

[Bunbun]

While Cyrillis wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting to happen when the girl grabbed his hands, what happened next was... well, it was pretty safe to say that what actually happened wasn't something that he even considered to be a possibility. As she grew smaller and her hands rapidly began to slip away from his, he had to fight the urge to grasp at them again- although it may have stopped her from falling, she was shrinking at such a rate that doing so that trying to grab hold of her would likely result in her getting injured... or worse. There wasn't much he could do except watch in bewilderment as she continued to shrink, becoming gradually more difficult to see until she was no bigger than a pixie in their usual form.

It was an odd feeling, suddenly being so much larger in comparison to someone else. It was typically the other way around when it came to humans, and he avoided shifting around other pixies whenever possible as to avoid frightening them. The whole situation was pretty unbelievable, and it took him kneeling to the ground and getting a closer look to confirm that his eyes weren't deceiving him.

The question the became what exactly he was supposed to do about it. The first step seemed pretty obvious, though, and that was to return to his original size. The poor girl probably wasn't going to respond well to a giant trying to talk to her after everything that had already happened, and he couldn't hold this form much longer anyways.

Standing back upright, Cyrillis allowed his body to become enveloped by a soft glow, similar to the light that had surrounded the witch moments prior. Sure enough, he began to shrink just as she had, his wings flapping and picking up speed as he made his descent. By the time he was the same size as her, they were beating at an incredible rate, slowing his fall and allowing him to land gracefully on his feet in front of her.

"Are... are you alright? I've never heard of something like this happening before. The barrier isn't supposed to do... this."

[DragonSong]

"What just happened?!" Calliope felt her heartbeat hammering against her ribs and could have sworn her vision was starting to flicker at the edges. "I-- I'm-- you're-- help!"

She didn't know what to do, what to say, what to think. Eyes wide, she barely managed to stagger to her feet, head craned back as she observed the suddenly much bigger world around her.

Her eyes welled up. Sniffling, she covered her mouth. "How do I change back?!"

[Bunbun]

"How do you change back? That is... well... I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that. As far as I know, this is the first time something like this has happened. I can do it for myself whenever I want, but for someone who isn't supposed to be able to change size... it's difficult to say where to start. Maybe it will wear off eventually on its own, or maybe it's something that persists for as long was you remain inside the barrier. Or perhaps the solution is something else entirely."

It may have seemed like a very matter-of-fact answer, but the truth was that Cyrillis was having a rough time keeping himself calm as well. To his knowledge, there wasn't any protocol in place to handle a situation like a human breaching the barrier, especially not when said human went on to shrink to the size of a pixie. The decision now fell on him, and he needed to at least sound confident to convince the both of them that he knew what he was doing.

"For the time being, though, I'll have to insist on accompanying you. At least until you've been restored to your proper size. You're not used to being this small; it would be dangerous for you to wander around like this on your own."

[DragonSong]

Blinking up at him-- up at him, how the hell was he taller than her now!-- Cali did her best to swallow back confused, frightened tears and bit her lip, nodding. "O-okay," she mumbled. Her arms wrapped around her middle and she hunched her shoulders slightly.

Then, rather abruptly, she remembered why she was here in the first place.

"Oh!" Her head snapped back toward the barrier, then around to the pixie again. "My dragons! They're lost, I came out here to find them, but...but now..."

[Bunbun]

((I'm really sorry it took me so long to get around to this. Midterms ate up most of my time for the past few weeks and I haven't had very much time to write.))

"Dragons...?"

The pixie's eyebrows raised a bit at the mention of dragons. That couldn't possibly true, could it? If he was able to track down a human disturbing the barrier, then noticing the presence of one of those massive beasts shouldn't have been much of an issue. Maybe the shock of everything that had just happened to the girl was causing her to think irrationally- he wouldn't be surprised.

"I'm afraid there hasn't been any... dragons around here recently. Or at all, to my knowledge. Dragons are the sort of thing that I'd hope the barrier would keep at bay."

Another small flutter of his wings, and Cyrillis tilted his his head curiously. "What would you be doing with one of those, anyway? You don't seem the type to be dealing with something as dangerous as a dragon."

[DragonSong]

[No worries! I've been a bit lax in posting myself]



"They're not dangerous at all!"

Cali realized, rather abruptly, that this fae man likely would have no idea what she was talking about, and quickly started trying to explain herself. "I mean, mine aren't. The dragons. They're-- well, they're very small, only about this big--"

She raised her hands up, pretending to hold something the size of a melon or so. Then she flushed as she realized again with her current size that things were...different. "Well, I mean..they're that big when I'm...big. My normal size. So like this I suppose they'd be..."

She trialed off. Her eyes widened a bit. "Oh dear."

She'd thought it was difficult corralling the little critters before. What on earth was she going to do now?

[Bunbun]

Tiny dragons... well, he supposed that was technically possible. Dragons as a whole tended to vary quite a bit from each other, so a species that defied the whole "massive beast" image wasn't completely out of the question. In any case, the existence of smaller dragons was far more likely than the possibility that any big dragons were around and had somehow avoided his detection.

"...I see. If that's the case, then it's possible that they've ended up on this side of the barrier, especially considering that it seems to be acting... well, strange. I'm not sure it was designed to ward off creatures like that. It may not sense them as a potential threat."

Dangerous or not, though, it wasn't a good idea to let the dragons wander about Dreamhaven without any form of supervision. They would still be considerably bigger than a pixie, and the sudden appearance of a bunch of unknown creatures had the potential to cause a panic in the queendom.

Cyrillis' expression darkened slightly, reflecting his deepening concern. "It would be best for the both of us if we found these dragons of yours as soon as possible. Did you happen to see which way they were headed?"

[DragonSong]

"I...well, um..." Cali bit her lip, trying to force back nervous tears. This was all just so much! "I-- I thought they were going this way, toward the-- the barrier, but then I couldn't get through, and then..."

she swallowed thickly, hiding her face in her hands. She would not cry, she would not cry. She was a grown woman and she would not cry.

Taking a breath to steady herself, she cleared her throat and got shakily to her feet. "I suppose we should get moving."