Bloodthirsty (Paradox)

[zozee9]

The search for the drawing took Fiara a little longer. It was amongst a stack of random papers, ranging from pages of books to paintings to love letters. It was basically any one page thing that she found interesting.

Tossing back any page that wasn't correct, Fiara knew it would take her a while to find it. There were five piles that were all stacked a little over half as tall as she was. Deciding that she was bored, Fiara asked, "What does slay mean?" She was still trying to figure out what Sorcha had said.

[Paradox]

"You seem to have found a lot of things here," she bent to pick up a discarded book that wasn't written in any language that she was familiar with it. Regardless, she curiously flipped through the pages an inquired, "Can you even read this?"

Right. Sometimes she forgot that she was speaking to a child, "Sorry. Slay is just another way of saying kill or to make a living thing sleep forever. " She moved over to where Fiara was sifting through he collection. "Maybe I could help you look ? "

[zozee9]

Although Fiara couldn't figure out why Sorcha kept talking about killing things, she decided to let the issue past. It wasn't worth worrying over.

"Of course I can!" Fiara exclaimed, as if she was offended. "I can read all the books I have here! Well, mostly. Some words I don't know the meaning of. That's why I wish I had more dictionaries." She only had a dictionary for the common tongue.

Turning towards Sorcha, she stretched out her hands about a foot apart vertically and described, "It's about this long." Then she moved her hands about a half a foot apart horizontally. "And this wide." She turned back towards her piles of papers and started sorting through them again. "It looks old and faded. And the writing at the bottom is really messy. Like a bunch of squigglies. I don't know why someone would write in squigglies. They're too hard to read."

[Paradox]

Slowpoke sharkie!

ic:

Sorcha nodded while Fiara described what the picture looked like. Well, really, the only thing that the girl seemed to know was the size of the thing but that was enough, right? How many paintings could this girl possibly have found just lying around in the Fell?

Then she looked at a whole line of paintings that matched Fiara's description lined up against the cave wall and frowned.

Oh.

Welllllll now. This could take a little while!

She just had to narrow it down. She was looking for something related to dragons. Shouldn't be too hard! 

While she moved from inspecting one painting after another she inquired,"What's a dictionary?" Sorcha's people didn't have books. Her people didn't record anything. Their stories were passed from one generation to another by word of mouth from a lore keeper.  she had only recently encountered books during her travels and there were so many different sorts that said so many different things that she honestly had no idea what a dictionary was!

[zozee9]

"A dictionary is something that contains lots of words. And it tells you what they mean," explained Fiara. "They have different dictionaries for every language. I use them to teach myself stuff!" She smiled, though it was unlikely that Sorcha could see it.

After a few seconds, Fiara turned towards her companion and held a paper out. "Do you know what this is?" she asked. It wasn't a picture of a dragon, but instead it was a winged human. The being was looking up towards the sky and was holding a young child in her arms. She was glowing in her pure white dress. "It's strange. So I grabbed it."

[Paradox]

"That sounds useful, " Sorcha admitted, although she herself could never see herself needing one since Fiara had never mentioned dictionaries in multiple languages. She knew her own language! The wise men and women taught her all she needed to know. She supposed that books were meant to act as guides for peoples who had none.

Sorcha looked up from her search and turned around to inspect the paper the girl held out, "I am not sure. I think I saw statues and paintings similar to this in Serendipity. It is interesting. I've never seen a human with wings. " She knew they existed out there, but she had yet to encounter one.

Now, it was Sorcha's turn to inquire, "What about this? Do you know anything about it?" She held up an old painting of the Old Kingdom. A place now fallen to ruin since the time when the Fell came to be. A quarter of the painting was damaged though at the bottom.

ooc: My apologies for the slight delay! I was considering what more I should write. I didn't want this to be a simple reactionary post!

[zozee9]

OOC: S'all good, I'm slow on replying to my posties right now. As always, take as long as you need.
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IC:

Fiara simply nodded at Sorcha's explanation. It made sense to her. The concept of angels would not have. She set the paper back down in the pile of non-dragon pictures.

Then, looking at what her friend was holding up, she gasped and clapped her hands out of excitement. Standing up, she pointed at it and declared, "That was this land before some sort of..."—she paused, trying to remember the word—"...curse took over!" That picture was special to Fiara. She didn't understand how important and valuable it might be elsewhere, but instead appreciated that it was an old picture of her home. Some days she liked to imagine what it would be like if Fell still looked like that.

"Sorry about the damage on the picture. I know it makes it less special. But one of the mages said he was trying to do something with the picture! He held it with one hand and started chanting something... but then his hand burst into sparks and the picture fell on the ground. I did my best to save the picture, but the man didn't help. He fell asleep. I don't really understand why he needed the paper to fall asleep—all other mages I know can do it on their own." Fiara rambled all of this before sitting back down and continuing to go through the papers.

[Paradox]

ooc: Always good to know! I've also been working on getting myself prepared for NaNoWriMo. I'm actually going to participate this year. >> How about you? x3

ic:

"Ah yes, magic. I've heard this story before from the elders of my clan, " she turned her gaze to regard the picture once more, "though it's difficult to imagine that a place like this once looked so beautiful."

Sorcha shrugged, "It's fairly well-preserved. This must be hundreds of years old. It's faded and this damaged section is a small portion here at the bottom." She leaned closer to scrutinize , "It is curious though. I can see some strange markings where the parchment is torn. "She touched it lightly with a fingernail, "And you say this wizard was chanting? It sounds like he was trying to cast a spell, but I don't think it was a sleeping spell. Hmmm. It really could have been anything that he was trying to accomplish. "

She turned her gaze away from the parchment and looked at Fiara now, "I don't suppose you remember where this wizard was? Somewhere in the Fell, obviously but...oh who am I kidding? Even if we went to the spot where the wizard was, it's not like there'd be clues just lying about for my convenience. "

[zozee9]

OOC: Omg totes forgot about NaNoWriMo. I only did it one year when we had to for school (I wrote like a fifty standard page book, lol). I hadn't been planning on doing it, but maybe it would actually be kinda fun... then again, when would i have time?! :( Oh, and sorry for the short post. I didn't know what else to say.
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IC:

Fiara was tossing poems about the sun and pictures of horses and marriage documents behind her, but she still couldn't find the picture. She would look for hours if she had to, though. After all, she was helping someone else. Plus, she'd done more boring things for the entire day.

"In a church!" she replied confidently. Then, in a prideful tone, she added, "I know that because there were chairs lined up and a little platform in the front." She paused. "Well, that and the fact that the magician told me it was a church..."

She gazed at the picture of a unicorn in her hand for a second before tossing that behind her, too.

[Paradox]

ooc: I only do because RP here seems to have slowed down here. ;P So NaNoWriMo will be eating up my freebie time.

And no problem! Short posts happen sometimes! Just write whatever you feel is appropriate for the situation. As long as we're not reducing ourselves to like 1-2 sentences, I think we'll be able to live with ourselves. lol.

My post is kind of short as well. x3 Don't worry! I'll make it up to you sometime with a longer one. Bwahahaha!

ic:

The painting nearly slipped from Sorcha's hand. She stared at Fiara almost incredulously. "A church?" Well, perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised.There were ruins of an old civilization here whose people, in the tales told by her kin, had moved south when the land had been ravaged by magic that their wizards couldn't control.

Sorcha set the painting down and proceeded to resume her search until she came across an old tapestry that depicted dragons that were as dark and twisted as the Fell itself. "Is this it?"   

[zozee9]

OOC: See, now I'm the one with the late responses!

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IC:

Fiara simply nodded when Sorcha repeated her, not quite sure what was so exciting about a church. Weren't churches normal? She had read that almost every village of decent size had one. But instead of inquiring about this, she kept going through the papers.

But when Sorcha spoke again, she looked up and gasped out of excitement. "Yes!" Fiara exclaimed, a giant smile on her face. "That's it! You found it! Good job! I think there might be some writing on the back. It was a bunch of weird symbols and didn't resemble any languages I know so I can't read it. But I think it's writing... why else would it be there?"

[Paradox]

ooc: LOL. A 4 day wait isn't bad! I just made you wait about 6 for this tiny post! Shame on me. xD I'll try to be a little more prompt with my responses.

ic:

Sorcha turned the tapestry around so the two of them could observe the odd symbols woven into the back with silver thread. Unfortunately, the language of wizards was lost on her. "They're rune symbols, I think, but I cannot read them, "she frowned, " you wouldn't happen to have a book about it , would you?"

She doubted it , but it never hurt to ask!

[zozee9]

"A book?" Fiara repeated, uncertain. "A book on runes? No... if I had one of those, I would have deciphered this already!" After all, she deciphered everything she could. That's how she learned to many languages. Then, suddenly feeling as if she had disappointed her friend, Fiara added, "Sorry..."

She sat down onto the ground that was now cluttered with papers. What else was she to do? The paper was found and it was too late to go outside for a journey. The sun had been coming up early lately, after all. Fiara sighed in temporary boredom.

[Paradox]

Sorcha shrugged , "No matter. You did say that you know where the dragon here lives. That information alone is useful enough. Alone , I could track it, but your help would make things go significantly quicker, perhaps."

She set the painting down, leaving where she had found it. She was curious about this place and about the 'vampire' and she wasn't shy about asking questions either, "How long have you been here on your own?"

Ooc: Delayed and short. I apologize but it couldn't be helped. xD

[zozee9]

OOC: S'all good! I completely understand. I don't mind as long as something happens in every post. XD
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IC:

Fiara's smile was back again, brighter than ever. Apparently her friend hadn't minded about the lack of information, after all! Pulling one of her curls so that it straightened and curled and straightened and curled and back and forth, Fiara paused to think about Sorcha's question.

She simply didn't know the answer.

After what felt like a minute, Fiara responded, "I'm six." It was the best thing to say that she could think of.

[Paradox]

Sorcha frowned, her expression skeptical, "You really don't behave like -" She stopped herself and considered what to say. She tended to be a plainspoken woman , but she wasn't completely without tact, " any six year old I know. You're fairly literate and the fact that you've managed to survive here for so long is ...impressive. Most young ones your age would have died."

She supposed that this might have had something to do with being a vampire, but since Fiara couldn't seem to explain what that meant, Sorcha had no idea. "Do you remember anything before you ended up here at all?"

She removed her travel pack from her back and knelt down on the ground,some roots and edible herbs that she had collected along the way. They were not her favorite thing to eat but she knew they were safer to consume than anything that grew or roamed the Fell.

She blinked and then offered some herbs to the child, "I don't suppose you'd like some?" She had no idea what vampires ate, but she couldn't imagine that the child was feasting on Fell monsters because she had much choice.     

[zozee9]

Fiara simply smiled proudly at Sorcha's words. Everybody told her she seemed older than she was—and it made her feel smart and strong! She took offense at none of it. But when Sorcha asked about her memories, Fiara's smile slipped and she went into deep thought.

After a few seconds, she spoke up. "No, I don't really remember anything. Sometimes I have glimpses or apparent memories, but I think those are just day dreams. Or parts of books that I've read. And no thanks, that smells disgusting." It didn't smell like food. It simply smelled repulsive.

She glanced up at the ceiling, once again in thought. Then her head snapped down and she looked directly into Sorcha's eyes, horror clear on her face. "I should have let you have some of the food, shouldn't I have?! That's right, Ma always said to share." She paused. "Not Ma. I just know. I'm supposed to share, aren't I? Share, share, share. I'll get you food tomorrow, then. Since tonight it not an option."

[Paradox]

Sorcha blinked several times, her expression a mixture of puzzlement and amusement. Not because the girl had refused the roots but rather because she thought she should have to provide sustenance for the hunter , "Uh...no, no. Don't worry about that. I'm fine, really. " She assured the girl. 

"I offered you some roots because I thought you might have liked to try something different, but since they are not appealing then I shall enjoy them myself.  I assure you that humans can eat them. They're earthy in taste which isn't my favorite flavor , but all the same they're easier to keep and to find where meat is scarce. " She shook her head, " This is difficult to explain, but I cannot eat- no, I should not eat anything from this land. This place was...changed by a foul kind of magic or so the stories have told. My body is not adapted to such things and I'd rather not take an unnecessary chance and find out whether or not my stomach is immune. " She proceeded to nibble on the roots. "You are not a favorable towards roots or vegetables?  I also have some chives and wintergreen although neither of those does much for the appetite. "

[zozee9]

Despite what Sorcha said, Fiara still felt the need to get her food. Good food. Not the bad smelling stuff she already had.

But, intrigued by what her companion had said, Fiara moved on. "No, just juice. And what do you mean 'foul kind of magic'?" She tilted her head sideways. "Isn't magic good? That's what everyone tells me."

Fiara paused and then continued on as if quoting something. "'Magic was given to us by the gods to quench the evil in this world.' Plus, it helps people sleep! And sleeping is good. Sometimes I wish I could sleep. But if I slept, I wouldn't have time to play!"

The idea of playing now on her mind, Fiara popped up and walked towards her supply of daggers. Then she started flinging them into the wall. It was one of her favorite past times—to throw daggers into the wall and create a shape. This time, she was going for a picture of a dragon.

[Paradox]

Sorcha shook her head, "I should rephrase what I've said because it isn't fair. Magic alone is neither good nor bad. Alone, magic simply is. It doesn't have motives like people do. However , a mage wielding it can be bad because they manipulate magic to defy the natural order of life and cause it harm. This place used to be home to some pretty bad mages who made everything here die or become changed. Like we saw in that painting, I have heard that this land used to be green with trees. Most of the stories also claim that the mages who once lived here did not mean to do what they did, but they were playing with forces that they shouldn't have despite knowing that what they were doing was dangerous. They couldn't control their magic and it changed the land, the creatures and made some of their people very sick. Most of the people who lived here died or simply left.  "

She finished nibbling on her root meal and flinched when the child started playing with knives. She wasn't sure why she found it so unsettling. She had been taught to use a bow at a fairly young age.

"Have you ever considered of leaving this place?" She inquired curiously.