Spirits of the Earth

Adela => Serha Plains => Topic started by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 05:21:08 AM

Title: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 05:21:08 AM
The banner flew high, the royal seal of a serpentine body with a lion head, large feathered wings and taloned paws like a bird's feet. That was Zoola, the True dragon that Knouckbeth had destroyed in order to make the entire universe (according to weredragon beliefs, anyway.) and grasping Zoola's neck with a dagger pointed between her eyes was the weredragon goddess of fire, Knouckbeth herself. The flags, or banners, themselves were blue crossed with gold through the center.

King Axel rode ahead with a large, heavily musceled body guard on either side of him. A mask covered his face, the mask was like a modern helmet-mask all you could see beyond the face guard of the helmet-like mask was two large, almost deathly violet eyes. His white stallion was his mount as he rode on, the bodyguards flanking him on either side on large horses, just large enough to hold their weight. Finally, they reached their destination.  There must've been over 3,000 soldiers, each one capable of unknown power and might.

"This will do nicely, men." he called behind him to his soldiers. They nodded, and got to work, beginning to build the new castle. "The last castle was a great fortress at one point, I shall build another, and mine will be greater, stronger, more beautiful than any before..." He said to his advisor, who was watching for a moment before saying "It will take many more men, my lord..." "Yes, yes I suppose it will... You There!" About ten soldiers walked up to him. "Yessir?" "Go and gather up some human slaves, the strongest you can find... don't tell them they will be slaves if they do a good job, just tell them they will live alongside me when they finish building my castle... Along with all these soldiers helping them as well, the castle should be built in no more than a year or two..."Axel said, smirking a bit.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 07:31:59 AM
Essyrn had been fascinating, but it wasn't the place for a Learner. Anyone could drop in there, and many had, so there was no need for someone like Iskim to go and retrieve that city's knowledge. What he needed lay further north, past the edge of the sands, and now that the ground was green he'd decided to keep pace in the sky with the first column of ground-pounders he'd spotted.

And now they were coming to a halt. Isk backed air, arresting his own momentum, and spiraled down on his updraft to get a better look at... whatever it was they were doing. They seemed busy, it would probably be better to wait to ask.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 07:42:29 AM
Axel got down off his horse, telling the few stablehands he had brought to remove the bridle and let the stallion graze for a while. The entire day and quite a ways into the night, Axel ran about like a crazed maniac, telling people what to do, what not to do, and everything else as well. Finally a breeze blew by, carrying the scent of an unknown creature, one of the stablehands, who weren't wearing any protective head gear, lifted their head and sniffed the air. Then walked up to Axel. "My lord, in the sky..." "Aye, we have company..."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 07:59:53 AM
It seemed he'd been spotted. Well, he didn't want to seem sinister, so Isk eased off his updraft a little more to settle lightly on the ground, where he bowed low in the fashion of a chance meeting, with a flourish of the wings.

"Greetings," he said hopefully- ready to take wing again if he turned out to be unwelcome, especially unwelcome enough to attack, but with any luck that wouldn't be necessary. "I seek only knowledge, and would be honored to observe you."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 08:06:00 AM
Axel tilted his head, walking up to the smaller creature, much smaller. "What exactly are you, and what is your name, Seeker-of-weredragon-Knowledge?" He asked, his hand twitching slightly beside the handle of his sword, just in case he needed to take any drastic measure. He studied the bird-like creature, didn't seem like a threat, but he remained in the defensive stance, just in case it was a trick.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 08:19:25 AM
"I am Iskim, a Learner of the rukh," said Isk happily. This one- probably the leader, from the ornateness of his adornments- seemed wary but willing to talk, which meant he probably wasn't going to be attacked. "If you've the time to spare for talking, please- what is weredragon? From the air, I took you for humans."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 08:30:08 AM
Axel blinked, surprised that this creature didn't know what a weredragon was. He then sensed that the people he had ordered to work on his castle were slacking off. He turned his head enough to see them all and indeed, they had all stopped their work to watch Axel and the strange creature. He turned back to the bird-creature "One moment, might want to cover your ears..." Then turned completely so that he was facing his workers. And yelled, sharply, quite loud enough to break glass "BACK TO WORK!" Every weredragon in the immediate vicinity jumped at least a foot in the air, then went back to what they were doing, building the castle, grooming the horses, cooking some provisions for the workers, whatever they were assigned to do. He then turned back to the bird creature. "OK, what is a weredragon, you ask?" Axel thought for a moment, and said "We are a highly intelligent, more so than... humans," he said 'humans' with a disgusted tone, "We are better, smarter, faster, stronger than any other creature known to anything in this universe..." he chuckled and ran a hand through the little hair that was visible behind the mask, "And better looking..." He then sighed and said "But, enough of my superiority-mumbo-jumbo, is there anything specific you want to ask about us weredragons?" He asked, checking every so often that his workers were still working.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 08:41:14 AM
Whatever else weredragons were, they were apparently rather vainglorious. Of course, every group Isk had yet met privately thought that they were smarter and handsomer than everyone else, so he wasn't going to hold it against this one just for putting it into words.

"You will surely think that what you are is perfectly normal," said Isk, shaking his head with a rustle of feathers. "What you would say is not helpful to me, because your normal is not rukh normal. I prefer to see for myself- though," he added, it just having occurred to him, "if you know unusual magics, I would like to learn. It's something of a hobby. And I should know what you are called."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 08:49:51 AM
"Unusual magic? Ahh, yes." He said, "Weredragon magic really is actually very, very simple... all you really have to do is want something, then let yourself have it. It's actually very easy if you can figure out what that means..." he said with a chuckle. "And I, am Axel," One of his body guards, who wasn't standing too far off, said loud enough for the bird-creature to hear "That's King Axel for all who respect him..." At a glance from Axel, the guard immediately shut his mouth.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 09:02:24 AM
King. It looked as if Isk had been right about who was in charge. Still, since Axel himself hadn't insisted on the title, Isk concluded that he probably wouldn't be offended by informality, so he simply nodded in acknowledgment. "Axel. A fine name. If your magic can be taught to others, would you be willing to become my teacher?" he inquired. "I don't carry possessions-" which was obvious, since he wore not a stitch of clothing that could have had a pocket- "but I am a skilled enough hunter to provide for myself without draining your resources."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 09:13:18 AM
Axel smirked behind the helmet-mask. "I am willing..... it all simply depends which magics of ours you'd like to learn." He said, "For example, I'm afraid I cannot teach you how to use my own weapon, no, not the sword, I have a special weapon that has nothing to do with a physical sense.... it's more of a magic of soul-binding, so, I'm afraid I cannot teach you that... Also, every weredragon has at least two special talents. My, err, nephew," he said, bowing his head for a mere second as though giving respect to the dead. "Before he ran off," he continued "Had three abilities: Hovering, he was faster than me, and he had a special spell he called 'Dance of the Dead.' That spell you'd have to look for him to learn... that spell controls dead bodies to do your bidding." He said, then shook his head. "I myself have five abilities and an endless array of spells, all but the 'Dance of the Dead' spell. Fairly advanced magic, weredragon magic is..."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 09:26:24 AM
"I won't need to learn any kind of flight," said the rukh, with an odd croaking chuckle. "And I'm not out to learn every magic in the world. Anything you feel you can teach is fine, just fine."

With that question cleared up, he waved a wing at the workers. "They build for you?" he asked. "Because you are their 'king'?" That seemed to be one thing weredragons had in common with humans, this silly preoccupation with hierarchies. He kept his voice as neutral as he could, though; if you revealed how silly you thought it was, those with places within the hierarchy tended to get their feathers ruffled. So to speak.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 09:31:32 AM
"What they do for me all depends on what it is I need done." Axel said, "Like right now, they're building a new castle, my.... my brother ruled the one I was previously ruling.... and.... he's dead now..... memories.... too many memories..." He said sadly, it was an act, but weredragons, despite not being very good at lying, were incredible actors.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 09:48:00 AM
It wasn't really necessary to be very good. Isk had been brought up in the assumption that friends were aided, enemies killed or driven off. In neither case was there much point in lying about it, so he'd never learned the many little signs of falsehood.

He'd also never learned much about permanent structures, so it didn't strike him as odd that something as big and solid as a castle should be abandoned and rebuilt purely out of sentimentality. "May earth cool him," he said politely. "If you would rather speak on another subject, we could start learning simpler spells?"
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 10:05:20 AM
"The simpler spells...? Oh right." he said, chuckling slightly. "Well, the most basic of weredragon magics is the fireball caster." He said, taking a glove off his hand, snapped his fingers, then opened the palm of his hand, revealing a large fireball in the palm of his hand, he tossed it up in the air, catching it and tossing it up again and again several times.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 10:58:51 AM
That wasn't the most helpful demonstration Isk had ever seen, being quite devoid of instruction, but it was only elemental magic and that was easy for beings that spent most of their lives in their very own wind patterns.

With a faint smirk and another croaking chuckle, he spread his wings for balance, then lifted one leg off the ground, the claws clenched tightly. The space inside pulsed a few times with wind- then hot wind- then burst into flames. "I'm afraid playing with it is difficult without hands," he said, only a very slight quaver in his voice betraying the strain of warding the heat from his flesh.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:12:32 AM
Axel chuckled. "That's good, but I think that was a little too easy...You ever tried turning a fireball into ice?" he asked with a slight grin, then stared at the fireball, the slightest pulsating of a vein was visible in his arm and then the ball of flame froze, turned blue, then solidified, with the same sound as it solidified as glass creaking and cracking.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:17:55 AM
Isk blinked and hopped toward Axel for a closer look, allowing his flame to dissipate. "That makes no sense. Ice is made of water, fire is made of certain airs. Can you call water out of nothing?"

That... was actually a lot more than a party trick. If he went back to his flight with that tomorrow, he'd have obtained more of value in weeks than most Learners managed all their lives.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:23:05 AM
"There's a little, not much, but a little water in -any- air, even in air like this, it's called Humidity. Humidity is how 'moist' or 'muggy' the air is. Now, if this air was any dryer, it would take -at least- an hour before that fireball froze... But if it were any more humid...?" He said, he would let Isk fill in the blank if he wanted to.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:36:46 AM
"I come from a desert," said Isk defensively. "I knew there was water in the air, but- this much?"

Okay, so that wasn't it. It was that he hadn't the faintest idea how to go about this particular spell. He'd lit fires before, but altering water was a new one by him. "I- think I need more detail for this," he admitted, a touch embarrassed since he'd just been showing off.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:45:03 AM
Axel raised an eyebrow when the small bird-creature started getting defensive, but said nothing. He then smiled and chuckled a bit. "After creating the fireball,  you have to concentrate on the air surrounding it, and freeze the water in the air to form a type of icy caccoon around the fireball... The fire inside, if you just leave it like that, will continue to burn either until the ice melts completely, or," he then dropped the ball of ice, revealing that it was hallow inside after it had split open wioth a crack, and there were now two hallow halves of the what the fireball once was. "Until it extinguishes itself..."
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 11:55:50 AM
"Oh, that's why it looked like too much water. It's hollow," said Isk. That made rather more sense. "Why the fire, though? Making the ice on its own must be simpler. Is it just to look impressive? Because it's good at that," he added, in case Axel had thought his opinion of the little trick's practicality had reflected his opinion of the actual spell. Showing off with magic was far from a new concept; spells could be art, not only tools.

Experimentally, he flashed another fire into existence, hovering in midair, but when he tried to bring the water in it just dampened the thing, making it flicker dimly and finally go out. Even so, that was more water-from-air than he'd ever called up before, so on the whole he looked more pleased with himself than otherwise.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:02:11 PM
Axel chuckled slightly. "I think you should probably work on that one before I try to teach you anymore..." He said, and shook his head a bit. Overall, he was a little impressed that the bird-creature had managed to do -that much.-
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:18:03 PM
Isk nodded solemnly. "It will do little good at home," he said, "the air is as dry as the sand. But knowledge is knowledge."

Suspecting that forming ice around fire wasn't really the best first lesson, he picked up one of the rapidly-melting pieces of Axel's ice-shell and regarded it quizzically. Meltwater was all over its surface, a little drop threatening to drip off the bottom, and he didn't want it to melt.

The weredragon had said: Want, then have. So the droplet wouldn't fall. And it didn't, solidifying into part of the block of ice. Of course, now it was getting a bit too cold for his foot, so he laid it carefully in the grass, but it was clearly growing, the tiny crystals of new frost riming its edges.

In retrospect, he probably should have thought of calling frost himself, but then you often needed another perspective to show you what you'd overlooked. That was why there were Learners in the first place.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:27:31 PM
Axel had watched him do all this, then smiled, "You're getting there.... not too bad though." he said, clapping his hands together once. He then chuckled once more, He didn't have much else to say except the slightest of encouragements. He had been told that young children needed encouragement in order to learn, so, same basic principle.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:34:15 PM
Isk would have been rather miffed at being described as a child; eleven years old was fully adult as the rukh matured, and his odd interests had left him a bit sensitive to being condescended to. But his focus was fully on the chunk of ice, and now he released it from his mind's icy grip and formed an intense upward jet of wind instead, to flip the thing high into the air so that he could bat it into his mouth, and there speed its melting.

"I was thirsty," he explained, with a sharp-toothed grin.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:38:58 PM
Axel raised an eyebrow. "Ah, I see..." he said, then laughed a little. "So, how much did you want to learn today, anyway? I've still got the construction of my castle to direct, y'know, not that I wouldn't mind a break now and then." He shrugged, turning his head to make sure everyone was still working.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 12:48:04 PM
Isk fluffed his wings in a kind of shrug-like gesture. "If you've a task to complete, don't let me keep you. I should eat soon, at any rate; new magic is hungry work, I find." That was one of the good points about the Serha plains, at any rate. Finding a meal-sized creature would only be the work of a few moments even if his new friends weren't inclined to feed this stranger out of the sky for free.
Title: Re: Onward, Men! (open to all)
Post by: Anonymous on July 10, 2009, 01:00:44 PM
"well, then, go find something to nourish yourself, we'll continue this another time, eh?" He asked, waiting for his answer before he would walk back to the construction area.The task at hand was a far more wearisome task than teaching magic, it would be wiserto deal with more difficult tasks first, the easier tasks would be tackled later.