Light Up The Night

[The Alison Beast]

'So that's where you've been hiding.' Fiara thought as she watched the group of men she had been tracking the last few days enter a small enclosed camp with a wagon load of stolen goods. The Green Cloak bandits, as they had come to be called, had been operating out of the forests of Adela for some time now robbing travels, raiding farms and in general making a nuisance of themselves and now, by all appearances, they had made off with another successful haul.

Not that it mattered much to Fiara. She wasn't here for some noble purpose. These bandits, who were obviously doing well enough considering they had set up a permanent fortification in these secluded woods, clearly had grown too wealthy for their own good and it was time for someone to relieve them of that burden. Fiara's eyes gleamed with the thought of all that gold they had stolen, the jewels and riches that they had been living off of for the past few months and as the gates of the wooden fortification surrounding the camp closed it was all she could do to resist the urge to light the place up right there. There was no point in doing more work than she had to however and instead of starting out with the fire and destruction Fiara thought that she would give diplomacy a chance just this once.

Hoping up from behind the bush she had been hiding behind the young Adelan sorceress strode forward towards the gate lightly stepping along the path carved out of the wood as if she was supposed to be there. She stopped short of the wooden gate looking up at it with an appraising eye. It was big but if worse came to worse it would offer little resistance. "Hello in there!" She called over the wall and waited. Tapping her fingers impatiently Fiara stood for a moment with no response and then tried again. "I said 'Hello in there'. It's not very nice to keep a lady waiting."

A shuffling sound came to her from the other side of the gate and Fiara grinned in expectation. After another moment she finally had her reply. "Who the hell is out there and what the hell do you want?" It was a gruff voice, one that the sorceress would have expected from someone with a background in banditry, tough, gravelly like the man had gargled with daggers this morning and washed them down with snake's venom. That being the case Fiara could already tell that this man probably thought more with his muscles than he did with his head.

"Oh my name is Fiara O'Delle and I have a business proposition for you." The sorceress said innocently. "See I know you and your friends have been the cause of all the recent bandit trouble in the area and now that I know where you live that presents a very interesting dilemma for you. See I don't want to have to destroy your little operation here, what you do in your free time is really up to you but if the rumors are true you have built up quite a horde of gold over your time here and I like gold, a lot. Now if you would be kind enough to hand over all the gold you've..."

Fiara's words were cut short as a roar of laughter broke out from the other side of the wall. A bald and scared head popped over the top of the wall and the sorceress got her first look at the owner of the voice. "You want to blackmail us? A girl? How old are you? Fifteen, sixteen summers? A pretty thing though. I'm sure we could find some work for you, if you know what I mean." The man chuckled and made a lewd gesture directed at Fiara.

"Last chance." The sorceress said as she tucked an errant strand of black hair behind her ear.

The bandit chuckled again. "What did you say your name was again girlie?"

"Fiara O'Delle."

The bandit suddenly turned thoughtful and got a far off expression as he turned her name over in his head. "Wait a minute...Wait a minute! I know you. You're the one they call the Firebrand. A girl who's temper is so hot they say she breaths fire like a dragon. They say the only thing more amazing than your magic is how amazingly short you are...I can see they might be on to something there."

Fiara tensed as if she had been struck and stared up at the man with fiery malevolence in her eyes. "What did you just say?"

"Short. I said you are incredibly, unbelievably short."

"No one..." The sorceress said as the magically gems on her wrist flashed a bright red. "...and I mean no one. Calls me short!" Fire crackled at her finger tips and slowly formed into two swirling, roaring balls of flame, one for each hand.

Seeing the anger that he had woken in the young magic user the bandit suddenly began to sweat. "Hey what are you doing? Stop that! I thought you said you wanted to talk!"

A look of almost childlike innocence passed over Fiara's face and she smiled. "You had your chance but there are some things that I can't forgive." Without giving the man the chance to apologize, without even letting him scamper down from the wall the sorceress hurled the two fireballs at the gate causing an explosion that shook the campsite and rocked the ground beneath her feat. The gate came crashing in burning like so much fire wood and as she readied two more fireballs she stepped gingerly through the space that it left open and began to lay waste to everything she saw with glorious, burning fire.

[GreekTheFox]

Bandits. Despicable, loathsome men who thought they could take whatever they want and do as they wish. Their biggest mistake was setting up their little group in her forest. There are many that would argue against that, but none have put so much care and attention to this forest than she. The plants and animals thrived under her attention, and perhaps one day they will overtake the lands taken from them by humans and elves.

Eudora was inside the camp, in the form of a mouse, when someone called from outside the gate. A woman? Though, she was quite brave to demand gold from bandits. Eudora was not here for gold, but to murder the lot and end their miserable existence. Her original plan was to poison their food, but with the distraction going on outside the gate she could be more direct. Which, while she loved subtlety, she also enjoyed to watch the fear and panic on the faces of men as she mauled them to death. Barbaric, but satisfying.

Hidden behind a tent her form shimmered, and grew. Limbs elongating, her torso extending. In moments she had gone from mouse to a sleek cougar. She prepared to move forward, and that's when the gates burst open in a wall of fire. The girl she heard appeared through the destroyed gate, her arms inflamed. Well, this has been one interesting development after another, now has it? Eudora stayed where she was, watching to see how things would turn out.

[The Alison Beast]

Fire, glorious flame burning and consuming everything around in a crackling, roaring inferno. Fiara's blood sang with the power of the magic and the wonderful, exhilarating heat of it all. All of life's pleasures may one day lose their glamour for her but the working of her magic, the slinging of flame, it would always be the constant in her life. She lived for this and by the way she invoked the power of her art she had obviously been made for it too.

Stepping into the midst of the camp the Firebrand began laying waste to what she saw. The bandits, in their surprised state, had barely had time to come to terms with the fact that they were being attacked before fire began to rain down upon them like the wrath of some angry god. A few flame arrows here, a few explosions there and within a matter of minutes the camp had been set ablaze and through it all gleefully hurling the destructive magic was a young girl who had barely graduated from jumping in haystacks and playing with dolls.

Fiara made her way through camp searching for the treasure she desired. What little resistance she met, she dealt with immediately by using her magic. Clearly, if she had to burn this entire camp to ash to find what she sought she would but perhaps that wouldn't be necessary just yet. Movement off to her right caught her eye and she turned to see one of the bandits scurrying away from her like a frightened dog. 'Oh no you don't' She thought and with a flick of her wrist a wall of flame sprouted in the man's path and his flight skidded to a halt as she approached.
"Hello." Fiara said sweetly. As the sorceress walked towards him the man spun around and, realizing he was cornered, began to back away until he felt the warmth of the flames become too hot for comfort. "Maybe you could help me. I'm looking for where you guys keep your treasure. Gold, jewels, anything of value. I'd really appreciate the help."

"Y...y..y...your destroying our camp!" The bandit stammered in disbelief. Despite standing nearly a foot and a half taller than the girl and possibly weigh three times as much it was clear that the man was shaken and thought that his time had come. Fiara however looked at the man with pity as if she was about to scold a small and very stupid child.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeees and that's why I expect a quick answer. I'm going to find it anyways but you would save me a lot of time and I would be grateful. Considering I'm the person who decides if you take another breath or become a lump a charcoal I don't think you have a choice."

The man gulped and pointed to a tent on the east side of the camp that she had not visited yet. "It's there. All of it. Take what you want just please let me go." The bandit's voice was small and afraid but for the most part Fiara didn't notice. Instead of paying attention to the man she simply turned and began marching off in the direction of the tent leaving the broken bandit to sigh in relief.

"Oh," The sorceress said almost as an after though. "I can't have you wandering off if you gave me bad information so don't go anywhere." With a few more gestures three more fire walls sprang up around the man effectively boxing him in and preventing his escape.

"H...hey I told you where it was l...let me go!" The man cried out in desperation but Fiara only smiled. "Be back in a minute." She said in a sing songy voice and began making her way to the other side of the camp.

[Aetius]

Forest fires, they were part of the natural cycle of the Adela Forest.  Whether from a bolt from the gods or the folly of mortals flames would come to the forest occasionally and come as an avatar of death.  Ancient forests would be laid to ash in a matter of a day and once it grew there was no means to stop its wrath outside divine intervention.  For this reason the light and smoke of the flames deep within the forest would spark the interest of one of its immortal inhabitants.  She travelled quickly to the source, as fast as her legs would take her.  The small fae leaped from branch to branch among the trees moving at top speed until she came upon the blazing gate and the burning bandit den.

At this point there was little she could do to stop the camp from burning, she held mixed feelings of both interest and anger.  On one hand she had a rather deep fascination with mortal beings and loved getting any chance to meet one that passed her forest; however she had experienced enough to no longer hold naive beliefs about these short lived races.  Deep down they were capable of great good and terrible evil. 

Watching the scene from a tall pine tree she knew there was a good chance that this fire would spread and engulf the forest, but that did not mean she intended to give up without a fight!  She would stuff her long silver hair into her tunic to protect it from the flames as she rushed like a flash of white toward the raging fire at the gate.  Reaching a place at the wall where the fire burned she would channel her magic into the earth in order to manipulate the ground where the flaming wall burned.  The earth moved as the weakened burning wood cracked against the pressure causing the tall burning wall to collapse onto the ground toward the camp.  It was not much but hopefully it would lessen the chance of the surrounding trees catching fire from the wind.

With the fire now burning hot on the ground she would use further earth magic to engulf the flaming logs with mounds of dirt; suffocating the fire on much of the front gate flames.

Looking into the camp she could see death and panic had stricken all the mortals within it.  It seemed like there had been an attack; as burning arrows and flames littered the inside.  She felt a strong presence of iron within this burning site, she knew all mortal races loved to use that accursed mineral.  There was a sense of fear inside her, knowing she would soon face scared men all armed with her greatest weakness.  However she could not allow this mystery to remain unsolved and was determined to force their hand at revealing who was responsible.

Shaking her fears she rushed into the bandit camp; soon finding the man who was trapped in the magical fire wall the imprisoned him.  Using her own earth magic again she would suffocate one side of the fire with dirt allowing the man to flee for his life.  However she stood in front of the man's escape as he looked down to a female creature unnaturally pale white of hair and skin.  Without any sort of threat she would ask sternly, "Who is responsible for burning my forest!"

The man was obviously shaken by this ordeal he would point in the general direction that the pyromancer would travel as he muttered, "S..sorceress..."  With that Ash'elin would nod as she said "You may leave my presence."  She never even considered the fact that she was allowing a thief and possible murderer to escape-for a fae they held a rather one tracked mind and thought solely in the present.  She did not consider what a large group of mortal men were doing deep in her forest.  Thievery and murder were practically unthinkable in fae society.  Some would say immortality was wasted on them, to never die and yet never develop outside of uncivilized hunting-gatherer clans within the forests.

Nevertheless her target was now clear; she had a fire happy sorceress to deal with-she intended to stop this from going any further even if it meant shortening this magic users already short life.  With that in mind Ash'elin rushed to the direction that the man gave her; the bandit treasure room where the firestarter had gone for her own goals in mind.  The fae's heart raced as flames burned in nearly every tent, but she would soon come across what she suspected to be the sorceress the man mentioned.

She would shout through the inferno hoping to gain the pyromancer's attention.  "Firebringer!  You hold no right to burn the forest of the Fair Folk!  Quell your flames or suffer our disdain."  If Fiara turned and looked she would probably find something that would please her; another woman that was shorter than her!  Ash'elin stood 4'4" with the body similar to a petite female youth.  Still if the woman figured out she was a fae then she would also know that the Fair Folk's power came not from brawn but their arcane power that flowed greatest in the purest blooded fae like Ash'elin.

[The Alison Beast]

'Treasuretreasuretreasuretreasuretreasuretreasuretreasure.' Fiara's mind repeated happily as she walked in the direction the man had pointed. Gold, gems, jewelry, she might just lay down and bathe herself in all those wonderful, delicious riches. In her mind she was already spending it. Food, expensive clothes and magic items floated past her vision and the best part of it all was that there was no one to stop her from claiming it no one at...

A voice from behind her brought Fiara out of her day dreams with a jolt. Someone was talking to her. 'What now?' Another interruption, something else to get in the way of her becoming wealthy and happy. With an exasperated sigh the Firebrand turned to see what distraction had decided to interrupt her otherwise peaceful thoughts. She was ready to blast whoever it was to the seventh layer of hell but as her eyes fell on the small, frail thing before her something made her stop.

The sorceress' eyes narrowed in suspicion. Before her stood what appeared to be a small, young girl. Still, Fiara knew that things were not always as they appeared. She wasn't stupid and this was the first time she had ever heard a little girl talking like that. Fair folk? That was the talk of faeries and tree spirits, not little girls. No, Fiara wasn't fooled by this act. Whatever it was that wanted her attention would have to work a little harder on their illusions next time.

Turning her attention to what the creature had said Fiara stared it down as she responded. "What's all this about forest burning? No one's burning the forest. All I see are bandits who have clear cut a section of land to make a fortified camp. If anything all I'm doing is burning away the filth. If the 'fair folk' had cared so much about their forest in the first place perhaps they wouldn't have let a thieving bunch of ruffians cut down their trees to make a gate and walls. Seems to me they would be happy if this area was cleaned. How else would trees and plant life start to regrow? How would animals ever return to this area if the forest never came back?"

If there was one thing Fiara knew it was her fire and she knew without a doubt that there was no better fertilizer in the world than purifying flame. If this...whatever this thing was wanted its' forest to grow back then the quickest way was to let this camp be laid to waste. The ashes would allow the plants to grow back faster and come back stronger. So long as these bandits were here this section of land was there's. There would be no regrowth. If anything she was doing the forest a favor.

[GreekTheFox]

Lots of interesting developments, including a newcomer into the fray. Eudora followed the "Firebrand" girl from the shadows. So it was treasure she wanted, hmm? The red haired girl had caught the witch's attention, and she would very much like to know more about this sorceress who wielded powerful, destructive magic. While Eudora never cared much for the magic of fire and heat, she knew enough to serve her needs. Fire had its uses, but

And when the fae girl, creatures Eudora tolerated, showed up it only added intrigue to the situation. They thought they were such great caretakers of the forest but did they sing to the life around them? Did then endow it with their own strength and power? Eudora doubted they did.

While the two were distracted she slunk past; her padded paws made no sound. She easily found the bandit's treasure, and with a quiet song vines spurt from the ground. They wrapped around chests and bags and lifted them off the ground and over the still intact wall of the fortress. They would continue deep into the woods and hide themselves in the hallowed trunks of trees and under exposed roots. With another song she left the form of a cougar to that of a snow owl. She perched atop the front pole of the tent. Now to watch once more and see how things develop.

[Aetius]

"Tch..."

Even in the midst of the inferno Ash'elin could not help but focus her annoyance directly toward this firestarter as she tried to make this freelance death out as a noble gesture rather than the endless greed of mortals.  In any case she felt the need to respond despite having the urge to just extinguish the firebrand.

"I suppose you have complete control of this wildfire then?  Can you command the winds from blowing the flames toward the trees around us, can you assure the ground will not spread your flame past these wooden walls...I severely doubt that!"

The heat caused the girl to feel both sweaty and dried up at the same time, she would sigh as she said "I suppose it is not worth arguing with an arsonist; I will contain this fire...simply take what you came here for and do not feed these flames."  She grit her teeth as she turned away toward the wooden wall with the largest fire.

While it pained her to let such a careless egotist go free, Ash'elin's first concern was keeping this fire from spreading out of the camp.  Like before she would collapse the now burning walls so that they fell into the camp ground and as she did with other sections of the wall she would bury the wood in earth to choke the fire of its much needed air.  Luckily thus far there was no strong winds blowing, though that could change in an instant.  She would not be bothered by the bandits, most that survived the initial attack had ran away leaving it a mystery if any bandits still remained.  As she continued to extinguish flames Ash'elin found herself unable to get the pyromancer out of her mind.  The way the woman self-righteously called her firestorm a blessing to the forest caused the back of her neck to feel pinpricks.  Ash'elin knew better than any that life could be restored after a wildfire; she had lived to see that whole cycle happen with her own eyes!  To hear this mortal try to lecture her was beyond annoying, this red-head who would only find the forest regrown at the end of her own life-completely content to let the ancient trees burn while sleeping soundly knowing nature would restore itself while she laid in some tavern miles away.  Still she ignored the urge to return to the pyromancer's presence; so long as she could keep this burning camp from spreading into the trees she would be satisfied.

[The Alison Beast]

Fiara's blood burned almost as hot as the flames around her. It was a story the sorceress had heard all too often. She would go off to do one good deed and what does she get? People complaining about her methods. It was always you burned down my barn this, you blew a smoking crater in my field that, honestly people had no clue what it was like to deal with such...restrictions. Could she be blamed if a random gust of wind took a flame to a nearby tree? Surely such was the act of gods and devils who had far more time on their hands than she did and yet here she was being blamed for the capricious whims of the natural world.

The Firebrand's eyebrow twitched. It took all of her considerably taxed patience to bear the insults to her craft and her pride but with great effort she finally relaxed, albeit slightly, as the fae turned to be about the business of quenching the flames of her spell fire. 'Wildfire...' Fiara thought as the creature turned away. 'As if I needed a lesson in control from some dandelion eating earth spirit...' She thought as she bit her tongue and swallowed her wounded pride. She still would get what she wanted and the fae creature could be content with the fact that she would unleash no more of her spells in the forest even if the primary reason for that was because there was nothing left to blow up.

Turning on her heels with an imperious air Fiara focused her full attention on what she had originally come for, the mountains and mountains of gold that most assuredly waited for her at the other end of the bandit compound. Stalking over to the treasure tent the almost euphoric delight that the sorceress had felt before the fae creature arrived returned and washed away her cares.

Once again the young fire mage practically floated upon clouds over to where the reward for all her hard work rest. So deep were her thoughts of treasure that she hardly even noticed the snow owl perched atop the front pole of the tent and certainly didn't pause long enough to wonder what such an oddly placed creature was doing in this part of the forest, let alone with all the chaos that surrounded it.

Gleefully Fiara threw open the front flap of the tent and gazed in wonder at all the beautiful, shining... "Nothing?" She said in the small wondering voice of a child brought to the pinnacle of expectation and then dropped back into reality with all the force of a falling boulder. Slowly the realization of what she was seeing, or more aptly, not seeing before her sank in replacing the sense of loss and disappointment with a fiery rage and at that point Fiara forgot everything. All that remained was the need to burn.

Turning Fiara looked for something, anything that would abate the anger that threatened to burn her out of her skin. It was then that her eyes fell upon the lonely snow owl perched on the top of the tent and looking out at the scene around it as if it had bought a ticket to the show. The sorceress' gaze narrowed and without a word her fingers sparked with new flame. Drawing back her arm she prepared to unless a fireball that would turn the owl and most likely the tent and wall behind it to ash. If she couldn't have her treasure she would at least have roast bird to eat tonight for good or for bad.