((Whew, this might be a bit of a long post))
Ode was a bit of a dramatic person, he had a flair for that sort of thing and it came with the territory. He had to be good with painting pictures and instilling ideas in people's minds, or else he might have to turn into a stray cat and search trash cans for food. The good thing was that he wouldn't need to eat a whole lot of food, but still...eating from trash cans wasn't a pleasant experience.
Ode of course wasn't trying to exactly hide what he was, but he didn't want to really...share it. They were still in danger after all, not the greatest of dangers but they were still in some sort of danger. If it got to be really bad he could take to the sky, become a gryphon or something along those lines, they were big and strong enough to carry a person, even a full suited knight really.
Something to think about.
"Evil is subjective, not really a worry." He was right about that, evil was subjective. If ninety nine out of a hundred people said something was evil, then it was evil. Unfortunately the idea of good and evil were passed down in different areas and are ingrained in a person's mind. They are passed down in society and the rules and laws of a nation can often cause a person to understand the concept of right and wrong, of good and evil. Religions were also notorious for it, as well as superstitions. That was unavoidable, and if you went to different countries, you'd find it to be true.
There was no unification, and that would end in disaster.
Ode carefully listened to Perish's story, rather interested in the tale actually. She had a story of love lost, of revenge, of ultimate vengeance, of success, and of consequences. That was the part that people loved to hear about. After all she did to avenge her husband, she ended up twisted...no...altered by this power. She was stuck with the armour, even after she killed the Dark Rider who had changed her life. He actually felt sorry for her, she seemed to have had such a nice life, and she was no doubt a lot more personable and...he didn't want to say intelligent, but less reckless and...innocent almost? She was naive, impulsive perhaps, even more so if she had gone to these lengths to avenge her husband.
He wasn't sure what to call it, but she just seemed like she was vacant...empty almost.
Idly, in the back of his mind, he did think about the fact that she was single now. The natural desire to woo and bed the lady however was overuled by several hundred years of bard instinct. Probably for the best.
"Myself? Well...let's answer one question at a time. As I said, Evil is subjective. You looked like you were in trouble, and Knights usually are upstanding folk, so for the five people to be attacking a knight, it's usually best to help the Knight. And when I say the word Dark, I don't mean it in any sense but the fact that your armour is a dark colour. As for whether or not you should care, it all depends on what you think, not what I think. Some people can't care...that's just how they are. After all, a Knight who fights for a cause, who fights for what they believe in, will probably not care after he beheads several people. It all depends on how you view them right?" The arguement was a long standing one, and it could back for generations. A crusade after all was a holy war usually, and the people involved would never feel bad killing a heathen. A knight sworn to a king would kill the King's enemies without a second thought.
Everything depended on the individual and a bit of circumstance really.
"But that's a debate that I could talk on for hours. As a bard, I have many tales and many songs about such things, of battles fought and won, of disputes great and small, and of people heroic and villainous." Ode was smiling as he told her this, he enjoyed company, and as anyone could see he wasn't a fool, he had quite an intellect, and he had quite a mouth. He was perfect for being a bard.
"Now on to your last question...which was your first question. You wanted to know my story. Well...I'll keep it as clean as I can, but there have been quite a grouping of sordid affairs and romantic soirées." Ode told her with a slight grin on his face as his fingers strummed along the lute's strings. He wouldn't deny his past, and his somewhat insatiable lust. "Ahem. I was born in a place I only know as the Connection Point. It was a very nice little place actually, it connected other worldly energies into a sort of...room that you could venture into and move from one world to another. The magic there, after simply culminating had eventually spawned me and a rather large group of people. Depending on the person, the room appears different. I saw a rolling grassland, of brilliant valleys and streams that stretched into the endless beyond. Venturing around the connection point I stumbled into a river...which incidentally had been a line of serious energy. I ended up plopping out from a river in this world, naked as the day I had been created." He did so like his story, it was a rather nice tale, if the person liked this sort of thing of course.
"I learnt that with all my creation and all the magic that had coursed through my body after falling into the energy stream, I could...cahnge myself. I could go into any form I saw fit, I could change my clothing at will, I could add minute or major details to any form I took, and I could even alter some of the abilities of the forms. However, I did enjoy a human body, and I still don't know why. Perhaps from the time in the Connection Point. At any rate, I happened upon one day, as I pretended to be a finch, a man who was playing a most wondrous pipe flute. I was enchanted by the thing, by the beautiful tune he could create. I followed him back to a city, where I turned myself into a human and went to him in a bar. He was a bard, and I listened to his tales with amazement. A burning fire in my heart was lit that night, and I went to him, asking to train me. Years passed, and he taught me everything he knew. He challenged me to think differently, to not get bothered and burdened by such silly things. He was truly an enlightening and enigmatic fellow. We parted ways, and I began my trade as a wandering minstrel. I went to many places, watched cultures evolve, and quite enjoyed some of the more...finer aspects of being a bard...and a shape shifter." The last bit was said with a bit more of an arousing tone that he meant something a little more...naughty than anything.
"So now you find me here, with you, wandering and winding my way back down into the south." There was a lot more to his story no doubt, he obviously had lived quite a while, but really it was never good to give away the entire story just like that. No you had to draw people into it, make them ask questions, make them think and talk about it, leave them wanting more. Always leave them wanting more.
