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Of Getting Lost & Yetis [Take 2] [Wicked Basket]

Started by Ethereal-Star, April 05, 2015, 08:10:47 PM

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Ethereal-Star

Having just now launched a small cone of cold at the first yeti, Adelaide was surprised when the other one was killed just as quickly as the first one had been. Her magic had only struck a dead corpse as her companion was much faster in his castings than she was--and obviously much more powerful as she didn't have those kinds of capabilities yet. While no weakling at ice magic, hers was still only in the intermediate range. Cryce's had to be in the expert or master level range.

Not to mention, Adelaide could feel her mana reserve depleting even more, she probably only had enough power for one more minor casting before she would need rest to replenish it. Tiredness was taking hold of her as well, however now was not the time to dwell on that. Not while they were in the middle of yeti territory and an unknown assailant watching them no less.

Taking in a deep breath of frigid air, Adelaide let it out in a whoosh and glanced at her ice mage companion. "That was impressive." she commented. Adelaide hoped she would be able to pick up some pointers from him later on. But that would obviously have to wait.

Stepping over the dead bodies of the monsters, Adelaide noticed something on one of the bodies she hadn't seen before. A silver ring with some kind of symbol engraved upon it was hanging on a chain around one of the necks of the corpses. She picked it up, lifting it up and around the beast's neck and took a closer look at it. The symbol was of a lightning bolt surrounded by a circle and with dots surrounding that. It didn't appear to be magical in any way, so it was likely some kind of clan emblem.

Taking a brief once-over at the other body, Adelaide too saw the same ring on a chain around its neck as well. Idly, she wondered if the first yeti she had come across also had this silver engraved ring, but she didn't recall seeing one on it. Didn't mean she hadn't overlooked it though. Running her fingers over the smooth metal, Adelaide peeked a glance at Cryce to see what he was doing.

Wicked Basket

Cryce stepped forward to see what Adelaide had been looking at. It was a ring with a symbol on it that he had never seen before.

"That's unusual," he observed. "I never knew yetis to have a fondness for jewelry."

Cryce looked around, but the blizzard made it quite impossible to really see anything. Adelaide had mentioned the feeling of being watched, and now he was starting to believe her. Something was definitely out there. Or perhaps someone. Someone who had the ability to train yetis apparently.

"I would recommend that we keep walking, but we just end up walking in circles all over again. Perhaps we should just stay here and wait out this blizzard."

Ethereal-Star

Adelaide was about to argue, but then reluctantly decided that he was right. They weren't getting anywhere as it was, so there was really no point to keep up this meaningless meandering. Plus visibility was extremely limited. And she needed rest to replenish her store of magical energy.

Nodding her head in assent, she put the piece of jewelry into her bag for safekeeping. She had a feeling it might come in handy, having some importance later on. Settling away from the bodies and from Cryce too, she sat down on the cold snow and ice, her rod implement placed across her lap, bag slung over her left shoulder. Adelaide made a mental note to study her magic book when she next got the chance to, as she needed to check something. However it would be too difficult to do that now.

The book itself was not really a grimoire, just a basic manual that she had written in and dogeared some of its pages, marking some notes here and there as needed. While it did contain some spells and magical theory, Adelaide was only interested in the section on ice magic. The other types of elemental magic in it didn't really interest her. She figured her companion whose name she didn't know, would have much more information and knowledge than her book would contain, being of a more practiced sort than she was.

So they sat down to wait out the storm. No more attacks came for the time being, and the white-haired ice mage was glad for that. Still an uneasiness was present, permeating the area like a thick sludge of tension.

Wicked Basket

Cryce sat down cross-legged in the snow. The biting winds and freezing cold did not bother him in the least, so the wind did get to the point of being irksome. Cryce formed a wall of ice to shield him from the wind as he sat and meditated in silence.

Ethereal-Star

Resting a bit, Adelaide focused on regaining some of her magic reserve back, feeling more empowered as she did that. She continued at this as she wanted to be at full strength again in case of any more attacks.

A half hour passed in relative silence, the biting winds only proving a minor inconvenience for the female ice mage. The cold was refreshing as always, but Adelaide did have her limits though. As she relaxed, slowly regaining more of her mana back, she felt at peace then, if only for a short time. The tundra was where she belonged, no matter what dangers were present. She would defeat them like she normally would. And perhaps pick up some tidbits from a certain ice mage. However, Adelaide chose not to bother him for he seemed to be involved in his own contemplations, so she let the matter be for now.

Wicked Basket

"You never told me what you were doing out here," Cryce said out of nowhere. "You said you were going to Hyoite, but you never said why."

Though it was highly unusual for him to be the one to start a conversation with anybody, sitting around and doing nothing was boring. He wanted more than the howling wind to listen to, and for once in a great while he actually had someone beside himself to talk to.

Ethereal-Star

Adelaide turned her head when he spoke. "I like the tundra environment. Especially the cold. Hyoite just happens to be located around here." That was all she really said, as unlike Cryce she didn't really feel the need for talking much, unless it was about furthering her own ice magic. So she went back to her own internal ponderings for the moment.

Wicked Basket

Cryce couldn't think on anything else to say. He was not good at small, especially since he traveled alone the majority of the time. With nothing else to do, he resorted to an old hobby. He held his hand palm up out in front of himself and started forming little ice figurines. The little ice shapes changed and flowed from one thing into another before finally resulting in a small ice portrait of his own family. Cryce stared at the small recreation of his family. His expression didn't change, but he became filled with incredible sadness at the memory of his loved ones.

Ethereal-Star

While Cryce did this, Adelaide watched in fascination. She herself had practiced little things like this too, but not to the extent he was doing. The changing of one form to another was much more fluid and natural, something Adelaide still had yet to master. She figured now was as good a time as any to pose her question.

"Could you perhaps teach me some more about ice magic? I--" She paused, trying to best figure out what she wanted to say here. "I am not as experienced as you are."

With that, she conjured up her own little creation, a tiny spinning snowball that gleamed with an icy tint to it in the palm of one hand. She concentrated on making it bigger, gathering more snow to form around it. When she tried to make it disperse into a multitude of snowflakes to drift downwards, the whole thing just exploded abruptly, some of it hitting her in the face.

Adelaide winced. This was something she had been trying to perfect for a month now and with little success. It almost always either exploded or the magic simply dissipated in the attempt. She glared at her hand as though it were the one at fault here.

Wicked Basket

Cryce quickly closed his hand, the figurines dissolving instantly. It looked almost as if she had startled him, but he just wanted to keep her from seeing and inquiring about them figures. She had asked him to teach her about the power of ice they both shared. No one had ever asked that of him before. Cryce watched as the snowball she created exploded in her face.

"You're trying too hard," he said simply. "You're pouring too much power into it. That's why it exploded. You need to balance putting power into it with the power required to sustain it."

Ethereal-Star

Adelaide nodded at this and tried again. Conjuring up another snowball, a bit larger this time she focused on equally dividing the power between sustaining it and splitting it into various snowflakes. It took a little bit, but she finally managed, watching with pleasure as the ball of snow split into many, many snowflakes, at least two dozen of them, swirling about in the air before drifting down to the ground below.

Looking pleased with her success, Adelaide smiled and did so again with the same results. "I actually didn't think about that particular bit." she admitted. "Thanks."

Wicked Basket

Cryce simply gave her a nod in response to her thanks. Admittedly, he was impressed by how quickly she improved after he only told her one thing. She would probably become quite powerful one day, but that wasn't important. Right now he had to focus on riding out this blizzard and keeping an eye out for any possible threats.

Ethereal-Star

Conjuring up a large snowflake, Adelaide let it drift in the air suspended like that before she relinquished her hold on the magic, letting it dissipate. She decided she could practice more later, right now she needed to save her energy for any more possible yeti appearances. Once again, she focused on restoring her inner supply of mana until she felt quite refreshed and ready for anything.

The wind still blew around her, cold as ever but to Adelaide it was pure bliss. So far, apart from the wind, the tundra was quiet with no more threats coming. Adelaide tried to determine whether they were still being watched, and found she wasn't sure now if they were. Whatever was out there had to still be there, but seemed to be waiting for something. Or maybe trying to figure out the best plan of attack. And when it did come, Adelaide would crush it with her ice magic.

Wicked Basket

Adelaide didn't seem to have anymore questions at the moment, so Cryce went back to making ice shapes. It was all there was to do in the middle of a blizzard while they sat.

Ethereal-Star

After some minutes had passed, Adelaide looked over to Cryce. She had some more questions for him, specifically how long he had been practicing his magic for, among others. Opening her mouth to speak, the ice mage abruptly closed it, unsure on how to phrase what she wanted to ask. Maybe later the right words would come to her.

The blizzard was still going strong, the heavy winds stirring ice and snow around continuously, while Adelaide's discomfort grew as the seconds slowly passed them by. Not for the first time, she wondered what was out there. What or who it was that could unite and train yetis to do their bidding. Was it a really smart yeti or some strange half-breed of one? Or was it a human who had somehow managed to ally him or herself with the creatures? Whoever it was must also possess some kind of magic too. It would help explain the feeling of being watched, even though she couldn't see anyone else besides the two of them. Perhaps some type of illusion magic?

Shaking her head, the ice mage tried to clear her thoughts some as wracking her brain for answers they clearly didn't have was doing more to unsettle her than solve anything. She supposed they would just have to wait and see.

Wicked Basket

The blizzard seemed to be lasting an unusually long amount of time. He couldn't help but wonder if the blizzard was the work of whoever it was that seemed to be watching them. What he didn't understand the most was why them? Why be so interested in some random pair of ice mages walking through the snow? Cryce would definitely have some questions if whoever it was ever showed themself.

Ethereal-Star

No one did show themselves however. The blizzard continued on for another half hour before it showed signs of stopping. Another ten to fifteen minutes passed with the snow only trickling down a little now, the wind having abated. Adelaide took that as their cue to get moving again.

Standing up, she hefted both bag and implement in hand, tossing the knapsack over one shoulder only sparing a brief glance in Cryce's direction. "Let's go." Short and to the point, however they still didn't know where they were going. It was either walk or sit here all day in the snow.

Wicked Basket

Cryce nodded and got to his feet. He then made a replica of his staff out of ice and stuck it in the snow.

"Just so that we know we're actually getting somewhere this time," he said.

He then resumed walking with Adelaide through the snow.

Ethereal-Star

As they walked through the snow, Adelaide kept her eyes peeled for any more yetis or anything out of the ordinary. It was about fifty more yards when the silvery-white haired woman spotted the entrance to a cave up ahead, several feet away. She stopped walking and paused, staring at it. Wondering if this was a good thing, since they hadn't come across a cave before.

Walking closer, she saw that the mouth of the cave was fairly wide, enough for two people to walk through without any trouble. There was also a strange scent coming from inside the cave, but Adelaide didn't have a clue as to what it was. Hesitating, she contemplated on what to do.

Wicked Basket

Cryce came up alongside Adelaide and looked at the cave.

"Is this new," he asked. "Or have you passed this before?"

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