Dark Forests

[Iria]

Norther Maiorn, near the Armarborian border

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Iria curled up into a tighter ball as a bird shrieked over his head, wincing at the noise. He was perched up in a tree, where perched meant that he had found one huge enough that the first split was rather high in the air and still quite large enough for a small Laritko nestle against the bark and not be seen from below by anyone who wasn't looking for him.

The bird shrieked again and he glanced up hissing at it. The little thing flashed a horrible shade of green, fleeing away from the tree, and Iria curled up again, this time squeezing his eyes shut and clamping his hands over his furry ears. Today hadn't been a good day. It hadn't been a good day at all.

Sure, it had started out fine, just how it normally did. There weren't a ton of animals out here, and as it were animals tended to have more simplistic emotions, so if there colors were annoying... well most of them were surrounded by the same color until something violently changed their mood, so he could just ignore it.

Except that today he couldn't seem to. Every time he twisted his head around something seemed to be switching, and another would switch, and another, until he just wanted to scream and make them all go away... Well, scratch wanted, that was generally what he actually did on days like this. Sure, it meant that he didn't get to eat today, but at least if he stayed huddled here for a few more hours his head should stop pounding so much.

Granted, last time this had happened it had been because something bad was coming, same with the time before it. One of those had been a horrible storm, the other a troop of humans... Animals seemed to know instinctively when a day was going to go wrong. If it started to storm he knew of a cave he could stay in... but with how the weather looked to be today, it was probably humans or another pack of things, and in that case he was determined to stay right here.

Another bird shrieked, dashing past his eyes -- which had flickered open of their own accord -- in a blaring streak of red. Iria groaned, wrapping an arm over his eyes and curling up even more. Gods today was a bad day.

[Celyn]

The young niveh took a deep breath, and exhaled in a tired sigh. It was done. Blue eyes opened slowly, getting used to the light soon enough. His gaze swept over the ruin carefully, and relaxed when he saw that nothing out of place was there. He'd bee praying and meditating for hours. That was the easy part. He let out a pained groan as he started stretching his arms and back, soon moving on to his legs as he rose.

The sweet scent of rose inscense still floated in the air around him as he brushed the dirt of his pants. The large temple ruin, mostly overgrown but the altar remained free for some reason, was really quiet; except for the soft rustling of feathers...

Celyn stretched his white angel wings and tucked them nicely to his back, picking up his cloak and clasping it on. He looked towards the altar again, smiling slightly. He could almost feel how the forgotten stone had its own shine, despite all the moss and dull grey. Content, he nodded to himself and turned around, leaving the ruins.

His steps took him along a seldom-walked trail, the sheer darkness of the forest around him causing him to pull his cloak tighter around himself, supressing a shudder. It's all for the sake of my quest, he reminded himself, hurrying his steps up a little. He sincerely hoped he would be able to return to that settlement he had passed before the sun went down. This forest didn't seem like it would be friendly at night...

Not to mention the fact that he was exhausted already. Long trips didn't take well to him yet. I can't complain though... Seraph would laugh at me... With renewed determination, he picked up his pace, and soon reached an ill-maintained road, checking both directions before heading northwards. He didn't get far though before there was rustling in the undergrowth, and several scruffy, hungry looking men armed with knives rushed out and encircled him.

Celyn froze isntantly, staring at the men. A feeling, a fear started to blossom within him. Bandits? Here, of all places!?

"Think we can sell this one? Would be a shame to kill him," one of the men muttered, soon replied to by another. "He'll fetch a good price up north."

Biting his lip, the niveh spun around, gasping as two of them lunged closer to catch him. He backed a few steps and started running the other way, aiming for a gap in the circle. Running past one particularly large and slow one, his mind allowed him a second of relief.. and only that, because one of the bandits managed to grab the hem of his cloak and pull him back. "Aghk!" He choked at the sudden forced tug on his throat.

A strong arm placed around his neck, a knife's blade held close to his face. "Try to run again and we kill you." Celyn struggled, but he was just too sore and tired for it to do him any good. "..please... let me go.." he said weakly. Lord, please forgive them... they don't know what they're doing...

[Iria]

Iria hissed as he caught the unmistakable sounds of what he hated the most. People. People with their complex emotions and constantly changing colors, the sounds of boots on leaves close underneath his tree were unmistakable, same with the way they were clumsily hitting against the undergrowth. His ears could catch it all fairly easily. He curled up tighter, hoping that they would just go away.

Except that instead of going away the sounds changed. Iria couldn't catch what words the people were saying... but the tone alone was enough to make him raise his head, green eyes widening as he searched the ground to see what was going on. There, flashes of jarring colors and sparks that probably meant a whole group of people. He shut his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath as he edged out onto the branch and stared down at the people, trying to figure out what was going on.

It didn't take long to do so, not with one of the annoying bright ones having what appeared to be a knife (he wasn't exactly sure, the sickly bright yellow of the agressor kept changing to an eye jarring blue then to lime green and it had a rather queezy affect on the little feline) to the throat of a smaller blue one. Iria paused for a moment, staring at the smaller one. The color was staying fairly constant... No, it was changing shades, slightly, but it wasn't the fit of random colors that most people seemed to be.

After a moment of staring he shook himself out of the reverie. The bandits -- he assumed that was what the larger men were -- were bringing the little blue one closer to his tree, and he assumed towards some sort of camp beyond it. Still talking, still annoying... but Iria wasn't sure he'd be able to live with himself if he just let them take someone. There were slavers a bit south of here, he had heard. Hadn't ever seen them this far northwards, since after all there weren't many people up here to catch, but back when he had been with his family the horror stories had been about little beast-children getting snatched by the baddies and sold to people out of the country.

Taking a deep breath, he silently started down the tree, quickly reaching the base on the opposite side from the bandits and drawing a deep breath and crouching down as he peered out the side of the tree, green eyes narrowed. None of the baddies were looking at him -- thank gods -- which meant he might be able to do something.

The one with the kid seemed to have fallen a bit behind the others, maybe taking advantage of his burden to make the other men forge a path. Either way, it was a perfect place for the small Laritko to leap at him, one hand burying his own knife down through the man's shoulder, the other grabbing at the hand across the small ones neck, stripping the knife from it as he tugged his own one out of the man, shoving both knives into his belt (after all, what was the use of wasting a good piece of metal. Hell, out here that was instinct) before he grabbed onto the little man, hauling him towards himself.

It was quick, his kind were good at that, but not quick enough to stop the man from screaming bloody murder at the... well... bloody murder. He shoved the blue person behind him as he edged towards the tree, hissing as the other men turned around. That didn't seem to give them pause, so he muttered, "When we hit a tree grab around my neck." to the small person behind him before letting out an ear piercing scream (not anything like a human scream, but a feline one. The type that generally meant someone was going to die) towards the bandits. That gave them pause, he was glad to see, and they all flushed the color that his mind told him was fear for longer than they had stayed a single color since this all started. Fear was good. Terror would have been better, but fear was good.

He just hoped that the little one behind him wasn't going to freak out too.

[Celyn]

He'd given up trying to struggle free from the larger man's grip by now, half walking, half-dragged through the forest. This is just a test on my faith, he tried to reassure himself. Just a test... The Lord is just testing me... But in all honesty, he couldn't quite repress the thought that he was most likely going to be sold as a slave. And what would they do if they saw his wings?

Would they see the golden anklets and cut his feet off just for selling the metal?

He's... just testing me... The niveh's eyes fluttered close, every singe cell in him protesting against the obviously corrupted and evil prescence of the bandits, yet unable to do anything about it.

His train of thought was interrupted however as the bandit holding him suddenly froze, and howled in pain. The grasp was released and the knife removed. Celyn spun around, eyes widened in shock. The bandit crumpled on the ground; and he saw a flash of strawberry blonde when suddenly his wrist was yanked and the presumed savior pushed him behind himself.

The niveh just stared, unable to comprehend all that happened at once. In front of him was... a beast man? Tail flicking and ears flat against his head. And in front of them... He paled, seeing the amount of blood pouring out of the bandit's body.

There was a hiss, yet the other bandits didn't seem to pay it too much heed. Celyn's attention snapped back towards the beast man as words were muttered. When they hit a tree? Grab is neck? He was starting to feel nauseous. He'd never been in a situation like this before, and quite frankly, he was scared shitless. Seraph ahd never mentioned anything like this.. only that it was a difficult quest-

-and that thought was interrupted by the beast man's sudden animalish cry. Startled, he took a step backwards, back hitting a tree trunk. He winced, as it didn't go to well with his folded wings. Tree... neck... grab... he thought incoherently, gasping as one of the scruffy men started approaching again.. fast. By pure instinct, he stumbled forwards and grabbed around the beast man's neck.

Please Lord, don't let them harm us...

[Iria]

Iria's eyes were about as wide as they could go, though somewhat hidden by hair, as he edged back away from the bandits. The scream had bought them time... but he wasn't sure how much it had. It was only a matter of moments before these idiots of humans realized that even with one of them down already, one small beast-man wasn't going to be able to protect two people. And they were immoral enough that the thought of losing a comrade just meant more profit for the survivors. He could see that much, both from the underlying emotional colors and just common sense.

He tensed as one of them suddenly started to rush towards him, hand going to the knives at his belt... but at the same moment he felt the kid's arms encircle his neck and nearly melted in relief. They were at a tree. The bandits didn't have bows. He could deal with this.

Abandoning the intent to go after his knives he spun around, hitting the tree seemingly with both hands and feet at once and dimmly hoping to all hell that the blue man would be able to hold on until he got to a branch. It wouldn't take him long to do so; he had started climbing with more of a burst of energy than he ever usually would have used, expecting the other to weight at least as much as the small Laritko did -- they seemed to be around the same size so it would have made sense -- but instead... well the kid was like nothing on his back. If he hadn't been so intent on getting to at least the first branch he probably would have been wondering what the child was... but as it was his mind wasn't capable of much beyond pure terror and 'tree, branch, SCARY PEOPLE BAD'

He wasn't all that articulate when he was scared. Not even in his thoughts.

After only a few moments of frantic climbing he managed to wrap his hands around the first branch, hauling himself and the other up onto it, swinging the blue person more or less around to grab around his waist and steady him -- god forbid he fell after all that -- as he crouched on the broad branch, catching his breath.

He loosened one hand and leaned back against the trunk of the tree for a moment, still holding onto the kid with the other as he pressed his free hand over his eyes, hoping to calm down his mind from all the bombardment of horrible colors. "Stupid, damn, colorful things." He muttered, barely loud enough to be heard if at all, before he shook his head, mostly releasing his hold on the other man as he glanced down the tree. The humans and all their horrible now swirling colors stared back up at him, and it looked like they were trying to figure out some way to get the pair down...

[Celyn]

Celyn held on to the beast man for dear life when the latter started to climb, his somewhat frantic mind managing to squeeze in a 'Goodness, he's fast!', before being hauled around as they reached the thick branch. An arm went around his waist and the niveh's mind blanked for a moment, then he realized that he would've probably fallen off if the other man hadn't grabbed on to him like that

He glanced down at the angry humans then looked to the beast man, finally getting a clearer view of his face... which was soon obscured by the man's hand. Is he in pain...? It seemed like it to Cely, although he couldn't make any sense of the muttered words. There was a loud snap, followed by laughter below them. The niveh looked down, only to notice a new person joining the bandits below. He strained his eyes to se... an elf?

Eyes widened as he realized just what that meant. The other humans were grinning. The elf was grinning. The elf's hands were glowing. Oh, snap! A magic user! His glance snapped bak to the beast man, then to the ground, then to the branches above them. A risky plan soon formed in his head. He really doubted the beast man would appreciate the first part of the plan, but he had to do something. He couldn't think of any other way to save them both.

The young niveh took a deep breath, and undid the clasp of his cloak, at the very same time pushing himself and the beast man off the branch. He quickly grabbed hold of the man while they were falling, cloak discarded and falling to the ground as well.

One, two..

White, angelic wings spread out and flapped, and they stopped mere inches from the ground, going upwards instead. The bandits were shocked enough to simply stare, as the two smaller ones flew up and above the tree tops.

Celyn gasped, not quite prepared for the added weight of another as he ascended, face strained, yet he didn't give up. He had to get them away from the bandits. This beast man had saved him, so now Celyn would repay the favor. At one time, it almost seemed as if his wings would give up, but he collected himself, still holding on tightly to the most likely shocked beast man.

His gaze surveyed the land beneath them, looking for a suitable place to land. His exhausted body was starting to protest violently. He hadn't flown in a while, and doing it while tired and carrying another person wasn't such a good start.

Spotting a familiar place, he started descending, wings flapping to make sure they didn't just tumble down and break all their bones. Well, he half succeeded, his arms felt numb and he dropped the beast man foot or two off the ground, before landing himself. But his knees gave out right away and he collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. I think I pulled a few muscles... but we're alive...

Some loose white feathers slowly floated down around them in the ruined temple. There was a weak scent of roses in the air.

[Iria]

The snap attracted Iria's eyes as well, despite not really wanting to know what new horrible colors awaited, and he froze, breath catching as his eyes widened. This newcomer was covered in sparks, so Iria couldn't see what he was from this far away... but even he could see the telltale glow of magic. That the random colors down on the ground were telling him that they were definitely colors of something akin to smug glee really wasn't helping matters at all.

He looked frantically around, trying to figure out some solution that would get him and the blue one out of the tree -- or hell, just out of the way when the elf shot out his magic -- and he was coming up with nothing. Sure, there were plenty of branches, but any way he went, while he might have been able to keep away from arrows, wouldn't be anything like safe from magic... Oh hell.

Because of the frantic turmoil in his mind, he had absolutely no idea that the other person on the branch had even moved before he suddenly felt himself pushed. His mind froze in shock, too scared to even think as he realized dimly that he was falling. Really falling. As in the ground was going to smack into him at any moment.

He probably would have screamed, or at least tried to roll up into a ball to cushion the fall, except that it was at that moment that he felt arms grab around him and suddenly he was going up, not down. Still absolutely terrified, even more confused. The flashes of changing color below him, though he couldn't focus enough to pinpoint what emotions they were for, were sure evidence that he wasn't just dreaming it... Or maybe he was... Probably not. Some small part of his mind told him that it was probably the blue boy who had grabbed him (noone else who could have done so anyway) and that just sent him into even more turmoil of confusion, since he could have sworn up and down that there were definitely no wings on the young man's back. Not at all.

Iria couldn't have even guessed at how much time passed before he was being dropped down onto the ground. He spun away, launching to his feet and staring at the -- yes, winged. How the hell had he managed to miss that? -- man with wide eyes. For a moment he just stood there, frozen with his ears flat on his head and his tail a frightened poof, before he realized that with the state the blue person seemed to be in it wasn't exactly any danger... And he had just dragged both of them away from danger.

Iria edged closer to the boy, crouching down and tilting his head, eyes still saucer wide, as he reached a hand out towards the stranger, "You alright?" he asked... though in hindsight it was a rather stupid question with the person collapsed like he was.

[Celyn]

Celyn lay crumpled on the ground,eyes closed as he slowly caught his breath. Carrying someone in flight was something he'd never attempted before, and it hadn't turned out all too well. At least I didn't drop him from above the trees, he thought in relief, sky blue eyes opening as he heard the beast man move.

He could tell the beast man was shaken from the elevation, what with the eide-eyed look and poofy tail. But he also seemed to care, asking if Celyn was alright. The young niveh managed a weak smile, trying to sit up versus staying down on the ground. His face contorted in pain at his strained muscles, but he managed to sit nonetheless, wings drooping slightly from exhaustion.

Taking a deep breath, he looked to the laritko again, doing his best to keep the slight smile on his face. He didn't want the man to worry unnecessarily. His body ached, especially his shoulders and arms. "I'm alright," he said with a soft, yet tired, voice. ".. I just pulled a muscle. "

That line was quite an understatement, however he was in no position to complain. They were both unharmed (mostly), they had lost the bandts, and they were on hallowed ground; an area that he had spent hours to purify. Celyn knew that the wicked would be punished should they trespass in such places, that's what Seraph had taught him.

Celyn's gaze had wandered over the ruin, but he soon looked back to the beast man in front of him, smiling slightly. "Thank's for saving me. Who knows what might have happened if you hadn't been there... I'm Celyn by the way."

[Iria]

Iria inched closer to the winged person, still staring at him with wide green eyes. He supposed he was rather odd in how he was reacting to things. Killing a bandit? No problem. Actually talking to someone? Yes problem. Though much to his surprise this person didn't seem to be changing in color...

For a moment he was uneasy, wondering if maybe the lack of changing colors meant something really bad (you'd think he would have been happier, not having his eyes assulted) then he realized with something akin to relief that the blue person was changing color... just not normally so. Iria stared at him a moment, eyes skimming over the different shades and brightnesses that were becoming more apparent the longer he looked, only averting his eyes when he realized the colors were on the brink of forcing him to understand what they meant.

Granted if they were already doing so, keeping the acknowledgement away was just postponing the inevitable. As the winged person spoke his eyes flickered back to him, narrowing slightly as he realized that the person wasn't exactly telling the truth... Okay, looked like mostly the truth, just not quite. The colors were being confusing as to exactly how, but they always were. Iria stopped moving for a moment, closing his eyes as the swirls decided to start informing him of what they meant, only opening them again once his head had stopped hurting a little. The swirls were still talking to him... but at least this person didn't seem to have any majorly strong emotions right now.

He reached out a hand again, his fingers brushing over the colors he could see on the feathered man's shoulders that were telling him they were pain, before he remembered that he really had no excuse for touching the other person -- after all, no one else could see his colors -- and drew his hand back rather quickly, eyes flickering about before he answered, "I'm Iria."

Iria knew what might have happened had Celyn been left with the bandits... but if the other boy didn't already know he didn't see why there was any reason to enlighten him. It was past the point that it really mattered now... except... "We should maybe get less out of the open. Bandits might go the direction you flew and see us."

[Inteus]

Within the deep forest of Northern Maiorn a young rempa rested his head on one of the tall trees. His breathing was calm and deep as he slumbered on the hard wood. As he was sleeping he clutched his small knapsack that was entwined protectively in his arms. A small breeze of wind passed him and he moved deeper into the mat of leaves to get more warmth. As the wind blew harder the boy frowned and was pulled back into reality. He opened his eyes slowly as his vision was blurred a little from sleeping and revealed two striking violet orbs.

Inteus blinked, not moving a muscle from his comfortable position. The wind persisted on as if trying to wake him, he finally gave in to the forest and started to sit up with much difficulty. The wind caressed the beast man's orange hair as he was sitting against the tree and blowing his hair on his face. Annoyed by this, Inteus brushed his hair upward and rubbed his head. Stretching his arms, the winds now stopped suddenly, making Inteus raise his eyebrow. In his head he thought that something must've caused the winds to blow a while ago but after a moment he brushed away the possibility of anything unusual happening.

Ahhh.. the rempa opened his mouth as a yawn escaped his lips. He did not have any idea what time it was, the sky was still a clear blue color and gave no signs of darkening anytime soon.

Looking around him all he saw were trees, grass and different kinds of plants.. it reminded him so much of home. Shaking his head he pushed out the pictures of his memories in his head and he hit himself softly on the head. He wanted to focus on the current goals of his journey. Fasemoor, his destination, was still a long way to go from where he was. But anything was better than where he settled previously. He came from Clackiern, a place of magic and knowledge, and it was the first stop of his journey. As he expected, the elves were not hospitable to a person like him. A beast-man? Looking for books and seeking knowledge? Unheard of! Remembering the rudeness and discrimination of the dark elves to the rempa, lines formed on his forehead and his eyebrows twitched...How he would have loved to teach them a lesson.

Inteus started to pull his knapsack to his back as he stood up completely. Taking a deep breath he started walking southwards.

Moving at a fast pace, the rempa started to notice something from the corner of his eye--something blue. He turned to the sight, and the blue color faded away. Instinct took over the beast man and he gave out a soft hiss, thinking it was an enemy. He couldn't continue his journey if he knew someone was watching or was a possible threat so Inteus looked for his short dagger that was in his bag. He was not a fighter nor he was powerful but his natural talent of jumping and running fast would be a good advantage for him if the enemy was too slow.

Slowly but surely he neared the place where he had spotted a blue color, holding the hilt of his dagger firmly. He heard a couple of voices as he kneeled and tried to get a better look at the enemy. he inferred that there were more than one person so he proceeded cautiously, making no sound.

[Celyn]

Celyn watched curiously as the beast man's gaze flickered here and there, seemingly uncertain, or even nervous. He doesn't seem to be the social type, he thought, frowning slightly. He started to wonder why the man, who'd introduced himself as Iria, was out in a desolate place like this. Didn't beast men usually live in groups?

His thoughts were interrupted as Iria, wearing an almost fascinated look, reached out to touch his shoulder- just where the muscle ached. But just as sudden as the hand had been placed there, it was retracted. The young niveh didn't really understand what was going on, he'd never been in a situation such as this one before, the laritko acted like he'd never communicated with another person before.

The words spoken by the jaguar snapped him back to attention, mentioning the bandits. He hadn't really thought about that. What if the scruffy men were walking the small trail right at this very moment? Fear flickered in his gaze for a brief second, soon replaced by a slight, determined frown.

"You're right... and I think I know a good place. Let's hurry." He didn't quite feel like being captured again and made to wait for an uncertain fate, and he certainly didn't wish that on his rescuer either. Celyn grabbed the other man's wrist to make him follow, tugging lightly but his grip loose enough so that the laritko would be able to free himself if he wished.

He lead them towards the mossy altar at the other end of the old temple ruin, here letting go and walking up to the stone block. He walked left of it and examined the wall, brow furrowed in concentration. White wings twitched as he found what he was looking for. "Here it is..." and he pushed a loose stone.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then there wa the sound of stone scraping against stone. A piece of the wall, wide enough for a large man to walk through, slid inside and to the side, revealing a small courtyard with an overgrown, cracked fountain in the middle. There was no roof, just the open sky. The niveh turned his head to face the beast man and smiled slightly, awaiting his reaction.

[Iria]

Iria winced back slightly almost on instinct as he caught the beginning of a change in color over the other, something he should have expected, mentioning the bandits. It was something to his amazement, even after having seen how the colors had stayed mostly static before, that the blue stayed. It didn't even change to anything obnoxious, just a different shade of blue with other shades rapidly mixing in.

He was only very cautiously letting the new shades and brightnesses he hadn't seen before start to tell him what they were when the other boy spoke. He didn't answer, instead concentrating on letting only the littlest of things through; when people talked it tended to help their emotions reveal themselves to him, which wasn't always a good thing.

It only startled him a little bit when Celyn grabbed his wrist, just enough to jolt him out of the 'lemme-alone' type reverie he sometimes got in when trying to ignore colors. He supposed if he had been listening closer to the winged man he wouldn't have had to be led, or at least wouldn't have been surprised at all. For all he was rarely around people, Iria didn't mind touching them. He'd had to get more or less out of that habit during the few times he'd actually lived around other people; it tended to freak people out a bit when he went from up on a wardrobe hiding his eyes to clinging to them and still refusing to open his eyes.

One of the only actual good things about his strange magic was that if someone wanted to hurt him, he knew. If someone who didn't want to hurt him or otherwise do anything to him wanted to grab hold of him... that was fine. So instead of pulling away he meekly allowed himself to be lead... wherever the winged person was going. The only safe place he could guess at was a tree, and with a magic user they'd likely be able to find them fairly quickly no matter how high he took them.

Iria was a tiny bit confused when they stopped where they did... Unless the winged man wanted him to climb over it? He was about to suggest that, but stopped in confusion when Celyn started doing something. The Laritko still was utterly in the dark about what could be happening when the wall started moving.

One would think that with magic constantly invading on his life something like this would be meager fare... at least, one would think that right up until the point that they saw the jaguar. His tail was poofed again, ears flat on his head and green eyes staring at the new opening in shock from where he had jumped to more or less behind the other boy. He stayed utterly still for a moment, some irrational part of his mind expecting something else to happen, before he asked, pure amazement in his voice, "Is it magic?"

A moment later he shook himself -- not just his head, but something like a violent shudder but not a shudder from his ears to the tip of his tail, settling down some of the poofed hair as he edged towards the opening. "Can you close it too?" He asked, looking towards the person, strange eyes still horribly wide and somewhere between amazed and scared.

[Inteus]

The young rempa skittered quietly as he moved to a better position as to surprise the enemies. He peeked from the long green plants that surrounded him, his violet eyes blinked curiously. Then he had a better look at the two strangers..

Inteus's eyes widened as he saw a boy with large white feather wings, taken aback, he rested his body on the dirt ground.

"Angel?..." he muttered under his breath, still careful not to make any sound as to let them know he was there.

He had never seen a man who looked like this before, the sight was truly breathtaking. He followed him and stopped when he stopped. They came across some kind of structure in the deep forest, and the boy entered it as well as the other man. Inteus was too focused on the new creature that he forgot to mind his companion. He did not catch much of a glance of the other but he was definite it was a beast man, a Laritko. He had witnessed many fights in his childhood, and he specifically remembered the one when his clan fought the fierce Laritko's. The Laritko's at that time had a big conflict between the Rempas, both types of beast-men were stubborn and persisted on getting more power, and so the fights became worse. Flashes of blood and suffering entered the man's mind as he remembered the horrible past. Pushing away those thoughts he settled his eyes on the two people who were now seemingly going inside the old ruin.

The rempa did not bother to follow them at this point. According to Inteus's calculations, these two were not as big a threat than he thought. He wanted to avoid having to meet these two face to face, so he sneaked away and walked opposite of the location they were in. He removed his hand from his dagger and fastened the weapon on his belt so that he may use it later if there was any trouble in the forest. He moved away from the place but stopped dead on his tracks after a few steps. The angel. Would he see another creature like him again? His inquiries and questions made him doubt his choice of leaving more and more.

But then-- his ears twitched as he heard sounds from a distance not far from where he was.

It sounded like chattering amongst a group of people with a distinct accent he recognized from somewhere. --and the sound seemed to get louder and louder.

The group was coming closer.

A bit panic-stricken, the rempa ran to the place where the two other strangers were. Somehow, even if they all get discovered by this group he could always try to sneak away while they apprehend the other two. Inteus ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

[Celyn]

He frowned slightly when he saw the laritko's reaction; the beast man looked surprised to say the least, with his tail all poofed again, ears down, and eyes wide. It looked.. dare he say it? .. cute. The niveh supressed a giggle and just smiled at his new friend, nodding slowly. There's a mechanism on the other side as well.. and it's not magical at all. Just a hiding place for the priests who lived here a long time ago."

Of course, Seraph had been thorough with teaching Celyn about the world he was about to enter. And Celyn, eager to please, had tried to memorize everything he was told. It was important for his quest, but more than anything, he wanted to understand the people of the world. All he knew was heaven, after all.

But, as one would expect, there was one thing Seraph had stressed was more important than anything else. In order to complete his quest and ascend from apprenticeship, he had to be good, pure, and free from temptation at all times. That was the basic criteria. Angels are ethereal beings, expected to be free from all earthly needs. And that's what he himself was going to be some day.

Seraph used to say that the world was a corrupted place, full of desires and filth. But Celyn, having seen it firsthand, didn't fully agree. There were lots of bad things of course, but more so, people who worked to make them good again.

Celyn realized he'd been drifting off in thought, and smiled to Iria again. "I don't think the bandits will be able to find us here, it closes up rather tightly..." The young niveh blinked at the sound of footsteps on stone. Alarm showed on his face as he saw someone approach in haste...

[Iria]

Iria felt somewhat sheepish as the winged person explained, letting his fur settle back to normal. He supposed it would make sense that there would be some sort of mechanism moving it... though as far as he was concerned that may as well have just been another sort of magic. He hadn't exactly stayed in 'civilization' for long, if it was a plant in the forest he generally knew exactly what to do with it, but math, reading... all of that wasn't even in his sphere of knowledge other than knowing it existed.

Thus the idea that something someone put together could literally move a stone wall... just trying to imagine how in the world it had been done made his head hurt a little. It just didn't make sense. Granted, neither did magic, but it wasn't supposed to make sense.

That the winged person didn't think the bandits could come in was comforting... maybe there was some sort of security mechanism? Or maybe the bandits weren't any smarter than Iria and wouldn't assume there was some sort of opening... granted it hadn't been obvious at all so that was the most likely.

His relative calm didn't last for long as the same footsteps that rapidly changed Celyn's blue attracted his attention. Iria spun around, going back to the exact same wide-eyed tail-poofed half panic that he'd been in a moment before as he tugged the long -- and still bloody, he would have to clean it soon -- dirk from his belt.

Then Iria caught sight of little bits of emotion that barged their meaning into his mind will he or nil he, and said "It's okay, he's scared too.", wincing a bit as the person came fully into view. This one had sparks flying in some unholy looking orb around him... which in some ways was actually better than the people who just went all Technicolor to hide their skin. It wasn't often that he could actually see what someone looked like other than shape. The sparks were currently a eye-blinding orange and hadn't wasted any time in informing him of what they meant; of course... "Bandits are probably heading this way then." He added, backing up a little bit and tucking the dirk back into his belt, wide eyes flickering nervously between Celyn and the incoming stranger.

[Ohanzee Shawl]

Ohanzee Shawl dropped down in the forest silently. The elves around hear were reporting slavers and bandits in the area. 500 coin and a set of elven throwing daggers were on the table: he really wanted the daggers.

The young Er Pri slipped out of the tree line and onto the deserted road. A small sniff of the air and he cringed. Humans. A fair amount of them actually. And these were the kind that didn't bathe regularly. He padded silently through the underbrush, being careful not to break any branches or crush any twigs. He slid behind one of the slower bandits and flicked his wrist: his wire spooled out and he slipped it around the man's neck. A quick twist and a swift kick to the back of the man's knees and his neck snapped. Ohanzee slammed a palm into the man's throat and heard the gurgle of the trachea breaking: 7 minutes till the man expired.

The Er Pri assassin did not pause. He moved on, winding the wire up rapidly on the spring loaded spool. Two more bandits fell to throwing knives through their throats: the tiny blades glimmering in the blood that pooled around their bladed edges. And then Ohanzee saw him: the elven leader of the pack. The magic user was stepping into a ruined temple. He looked and saw the rempa towards the end. He attached a blade to the end of his wire spool and twisted the kunai lightly.

"Shake him loose, the mortal coil..." the Er Pri cried in a haunting voice. The elf turned around just as the wired blade slammed into his throat. Ohanzee blinked blandly, his emotions repressed as an assassin's should, and focused his mind on the speared elf. "Bring me the proof of the deed done. Show them the target is naught." He tensed the wire and sent a pulse of shadow energy towards the elf. A part of the elf's soul was trapped in the blade in his throat. The elf crumpled and the Er Pri walked forward.

"Target eliminated."

[Inteus]

The wind caressed Inteus's hair as he ran swiftly towards the temple place. Looking behind him he could see the vague figures of the bandits headed by a large man who towered over the others. He quickly deduced it was an elf and that this group was running towards him, seeing that he was fleeing. He came upon the place where he saw the two strangers again, and both of them seemed to be in utter panic and confusion as they looked at him.

The rempa stopped a little as he neared the two people, feeling that something was happening to the bandits who were coming. He turned as soon as he was close enough to the two and saw some unconscious bodies of the bandits not far from where he was. The eath and blood did not faze him, he was used to that, but he hated the violence.

His eyes flickered to the blue haired boy and the laritko, who were eying the unexpected turn of events as well. The rempa stepped forward and saw that the large elf had been killed by a strike to the neck, he neared the motionless body and saw someone else, an er pri. Inteus's ears stood up and his body acted in defense to the newcomer. Suddenly, a faint light traveled through the wire where the weapon was connected, sending the elf's body into a strange fit. And then he was motionless once again.

His violet eyes wandered to the nearing er pri, his body reacted to the enemy and he let out a soft hiss. The gray-haired man revealed himself and Inteus saw his raccoon ears and tail. He cursed inwardly, another beast man, but this person was obviously a million times more dangerous than the Laritko. Somehow, Inteus was impressed and awestruck by how fast and clean the er pri had disposed of the bandits without even being caught by anyone. Also, he did not seem to be a person who would save people just for the sake of saving, something seemed different about this man.

Still with a fierce look on his face, Inteus backed up.

[Celyn]

Things happened a little too fast for the young niveh to actually have time to react properly. He watched Iria tense up as the beast man, a tiger? .. came running. The rempa seemed just as alarmed as they were, and the reason was oon apparant as the bandits came into view in the other side of the ruin- the mage first in line.

Celyn was just about to pull Iria back into the garden and hide when he heard a startled cry from somewhere. He froze, not sure if he wanted to know what it was. But fate had its own way with things and almost simultaneously as the rempa reached them, the mage's throat was slashed open.

The young niveh's eyes widened in shock as he saw the elf crumple to the ground, blood pouring out of his body and staining the stone crimson. He felt his skin crawl, as a death tainted the newly purified structure. The place he'd spent hours to cleanse had now been soiled because of his own mistakes. And even worse, someone's life had been put out right in front of him.

He couldn't take it anymore. All of this was too much to take in at one time for him. Between the hours of prayer, the capture, the flight, and now this; his mind completely blanked. Knees gave out and he fell; fainted.

[Iria]

Iria shrank back in fear as the bandits came into view. Frantically wondering if Cel would be able to close the gate in time to block them out... Sure, he had been capable of getting in to grab the angel, but that had been part luck part surprise part shrewd judgment of how much he could do before he had to get the hell out... With all of them coming there was no way he would be able to do much of anything. Not with them all flashing colors to confuse him and... well, they could probably fight better than he could anyway.

He shivered as someone called something out, then realized with a jolt that there was an island of non-emotion in the sea of bandits, and that it was actually a person. Iria's fur stood up and his eyes widened more than they were, tail lashing too and fro as he stared with horror as the non-emotion person killed the one with magic. He didn't mind death, really in most cases he would have been rather grateful in this case considering those being killed had been planning on capturing him and the winged boy...

But that he actually couldn't see any emotions there was terrifying him. As much as he hated having to see them, not being able to was absolutely creepy. It was like a giant complex doll was killing the bandits or something. He'd never seen someone that had gone without changing for so long. All he could think of was that the person was making himself not feel anything... or that he really was something scary.

A sudden flicker in the corner of his eye drew his eyes to the person who had been scared and running towards them before, the scared emotion having obviously changed when the rempa saw the emotionless person, sparkling with anger. Iria was oddly reassured by the sparkles of emotion, like they showed that everything was still absolutely normal.

He swung his head back around to look towards the winged person, suddenly worrying about how that one was coping... and winced, not because of the colors, but because the shades of blue immediately started screaming at him about guilt and despair and frustration before the winged person suddenly drained of emotional color.

That was something Iria recognized. The lack of most emotion -- there were still little tendrils of some blue trailing around Celyn -- meant sleep... And that suddenly meant fainting...

Irira leapt towards the other boy, managing to more or less catch the light person before his head hit the ground, the rather ungainly way he had jumped making it so that instead he hit the ground himself... but at least the winged person hadn't based his head open . The Laritko shifted so that he was able to pull the pale form with him as he stood up. He wrapped his arms around Celyn's waist and shifted the boy so that his head was resting on the Laritko's shoulder, making it so he could carry the unconscious boy with him as he carefully backed up a few steps, wondering if he would be able to figure out how to close the gateway into the courtyard if the other two people proved dangerous.

HIs gaze shifted so that he could stare at them with wide eyes -- he would have glared, but he was too terrified to make his eyes behave -- and his mind raced wondering what he should do.

[Ohanzee Shawl]

Ohanzee pulled on the wire and twirled his wrist. The blade sailed into his palm with practiced ease. He unhooked the blade and slid it into a pouch: money and knifes in the bank. He snapped his wrist to one side and the coil wound upon itself. He looked forward and eyed the rempa lightly. The intelligence he had gathered said nothing about beast men working with the slavers. No. They were far too proud for that.

Regardless, this was a possible enemy. He stepped forward, taking care to miss the body of the elf and the blood. He spied a bag of coins on the elf's hip. He kicked the back into the air and caught it deftly, sliding it into his pocket. He then slid two kunai into his left hand and stared at the rempa. His ears twitched lightly and he sniffed the air: there were two other creatures in an alcove in the temple. He redistributed his weight, aiming to take out all three as quickly as possible if need be.

"Be ye with yonder slavers dead, or be ye their quarry?" he asked, his voice devoid of all emotion.