private The Fall of Andalasia ~Book 1~

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

Whisper bowed her head, knotting her hands nervously " I can't...stop it. It just happens, I'm very sorry."

 

She looked at Zaddion and smiled apologetically "I understand that it's a give-away but I needed fresh air. Who are you?" His gear intrigued her greatly. As did Adrass'. Especially the pistol strapped to his chest.

 

"Well, that's what the Princess tends to do. She has this weird aura about her that affect people, especially mages." Tulla answered.

[Flying Ace 142]

@@Alex Kennedy,

 

"Tulla and this is Tugg, nice to meet you Robert" she said; somewhat distracted by Zaddion and Helena.  The woman was very lithe; sneaking around like a fox.

 

@,

 

With a soft click the carriage door opened and the thin figure of Whisper slunk out. Maybe not as gracefully as most princesses' do; but it wasn't her concern. She gathered the long thin fabric of her green skirt and easily picked up the pace between Adrass and her carriage. She was tall for her age, her long legs helping her match his stride.

 

Of course, this surprised the soldiers and for a moment they were confused before turning back to attention. "Adrass, surely you must be more than a guard,no?" she asked innocently.

 

She saw the ball of liquid and laughed happily. Magic was such a wonder and even though she was one of them, the wonders of it never ceased to amaze her.

 

As soon as the Princess stepped out from her carriage though; a burst of magic crossed over them. Washing them over in a cooling feeling; they felt a surge within their own powers as well.

Another spike in the elements? If these companions could not keep their magic in check for much longer Zaddion was going to blow a fuse, even with his patience and willpower.

 

"Alright, who's too ignorant to understand the simple idea of..." Turning to the caravan behind him he quickly saw the cause of the sudden burst. Giving a slight respectful bow without bending his knees Zaddion suddenly regretted the choice of words in his previous statement.

 

"Princess, are you sure it is wisest to expose yourself so far into the wilderness?" Regaining his composure and retrieving his tight grip on the staff Zaddion could not help feel strange when looking towards their charge. The Magick aura she generated both confused and intrigued him, especially when he felt the very same energy flow through himself.

 

"I don't what you mean about unwise that was amazing! Look what it did," Dresden tossed the liquid ball into the air and it burst giving Dresden a small rain that fell over him. He cleared the water from his eyes and jumped down to walk with the others, " I don't know why your so worried as long as we do our job nothin is going to happen to the princess."

[Sekel 695]

@@RunsWithSquirlz

Helena put her corssbow bolt away and walked across the roofs of the carriages until she came to the princess's carriage. She sat on the roof amd watched the group around the princess curiously. "I got a question for the princess. I get that you need a guard and some mages but why do you need us? It just seems weird to have five extremely different people to help protect you."

[Torrent505 370]

Serafinn watched curiously from the clouds above the caravan, he didn't understand why the princess was being moved like this, but he had decided to follow her. So far he had avoided being spotted as he flew the shortest possible distance from cloud to cloud so he could cloud-walk after the caravan without being spotted.

 

Though the day had started getting late and the clouds had become fewer and smaller; it was only a matter of time before he was seen. But that was fine with him, he had had enough of practicing stalking, now he wanted to play. When he reached the end of the cloud he jumped, diving out of the sky he angled himself for the royal carriage and threw out his wings just before colliding with it. The young dragon still landed rather roughly on the roof and sent out a breeze of hot air in every direction. The drake was just on the edge of legal size (a very large dog), and his scales were colored a fiery ruby red mixed with swirls of creamy ivory, his wings seemed abnormally long and streamer like while flying, but became flat against his back when landed, they tightened looking like a jagged ridge along his back. Serafinn twisted his neck to look between Whisper and the man she was speaking with and gave a mix between a bird cry and a dogs bark, it came our harsh but somewhat musical, anyone familiar with dragons would recognize it as a friendly call of a tame dragon for play. It seemed he had come down just a the right moment, Whisper had come out as well!

 

(Oops wrote this without seeing your post the carriage is would be pretty big so Serafinn just lands directly next to you, so I guess enjoy that moment of 'oh shit a dragon almost landed on me' )

 

••••

 

Eirikir Stahleisen, otherwise known as Andalasia's court fool was juggling four steel balls when the magic rolled over him. He was staying close to the princess' carriage just as he had been ordered, he flinched at the wave of magic and for a moment the four balls hung in the air suspended by his magic as he searched for a threat. He recognized the princess exiting her carriage and accepting that she was the source of the change the balls suddenly continued on the path they had been traveling, he hopes no one had noticed.

 

But luckily he was still on edge when the dragon landed, the metal balls elongated and sharpened, in two acrobatic bounds he was atop the wagon next to the princess'. About to send the now daggers at whatever threatened the princess he barely stopped himself a he recognized the beast and the call it gave. He tried to play of the daggers as part of his act of being the fool juggling the four of them as he called out using his loud theatric voice in a sing song manner hoping he could avoid panic with his antics, "No cause for alarm, it means no harm! It seems the princess brought a pet,-" then let his voice turn gently mocking, "-a surprise even to her I'd bet!" Of course his little act did nothing to slow the instinctual responses of anyone in the caravan, he prayed it would ease the minds of everyone seconds after.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Torrent505

[Sekel 695]

When Helena heard the dragon roar, she immediately fixed a crossbow bolt to her crossbow and aimed it at the dragon. The crossbow is on her left arm so it's easily concealable and easy to load and fire. She was about to fire when she heard a court fool say that it was the princess's pet. 'Pet? The princess has a pet dragon?' Helena thought to herself. Keeping weary of the dragon, she unloaded the crossbow and placed the bolt back in her quiver. She never really liked dragons all that much and with good reason. Although if it wasn't hurting anyone then maybe she could tolerate it.

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

"Must be the Gods will, perhaps we've been brought together for a-" her wonderful friend had some flying down; landing solidly next to Helena on top of the carriage.

 

"Oh! Finn! There you are!" she outstretched her hand and brushed it against his snout caringly.

 

Tugg gurgled; Serafinno annoyed this beast. Maybe it was because he was a young dragon and still played as such.

 

"He's not really a pet, more like my companion" Whisper answered to the jesters' quip.

 

-Dusk-

 

Far ahead; the caravan was signaled for a stop. It was getting late in the afternoon and it was never wise to travel these lands at night. They began setting up camp a bit from the road and lighting fires.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Adrass.

 

The hunter - content with the days march as well as his recent introduction with the young monarch - had taken to his usual duties at the end of the day.

 

A wanderer at the best of times, it was the least he could do to assist with the trivialities: cooking, and so on. From there he would move on to the more personal daily errands of unspeaking his weaponry. The sigils of his knives needed to be checked, his swords sharpened - at the very least oiled... then there was the matter of cycling the powder of the pistols. Keeping one loaded at all times took vigilant maintenance to ensure it wouldn't misfire, but keeping six meant almost ritualistic inspection at the end of each day.

 

And still, the overwhelming stench of magic made it impossible to focus properly on anything: to smell anything out of the ordinary. The cloth remained firmly wrapped around his mouth and nose - the coat buckled in place even as he sat by the fire. His hood came down again - straw coloured hair glinting the the orange light - but he knew better than to get complacent around mages.

[Sekel 695]

Helena helped trying to set up the fires but that was about all she could help with. She was hell with cooking so she wouldn't dare go near the cookers. Keeping her hood over her head, she had managed to not let anyone see her face. Breathing calmly, she sat down near one of the fires and looked at the, man with thecloTh over his mouth and nose.

@

She just shrugged to herself and set about carefully taking apart her crossbow and maintaining each individual piece before putting it back together. "What do you do for a living?" Helena asked the cloth-mouth man.

[Flying Ace 142]

Dresden was hopping from one foot to the next as he eyed each training dummy he had set up and even put armor on each one, he twilled his daggers so his hands as he gave his focus to his 'enemies' with a hearty laugh he jumped towards the nearest one slashing his arms down wards damaging the chest, with a quick roll towards the next he brought his fist up to punch the dummy in the jaw then with his other hand did quick jabs to the side of the ribs before slashing his daggers across the dummies neck.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Robert had, with some difficulty, managed to locate and secure the boar for cooking, and was now hovering over an enormous pot of stew. As he worked, he whistled a merry tune. He was honestly rather nervous cooking for royalty- he was hardly a professional chef- but the whistling helped calm him down. If he'd bothered to think about it, he might have considered that it was probably due to his magic at work, subconsciously affecting him as much as any other listener.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Adrass.

 

@,

 

There was that question again: he didn't know why it bothered him... quite the contrary, his profession may have been unconventional but it wasn't something that he tried to keep secret at all. Maybe it was the sheer number of mages, and how they were supposed to trust him. More likely though, was that a cooperative, non-fearful princess was much easier than trying to protect than one who might be terrified of him if she overheard.

 

Fresh gunpowder was removed from a small pouch kept somewhere under his coat, filling the now-empty firearm again.

 

Never mind - it would surface sooner or later no doubt: for now... Well, there were ways to be honest and still avoid the truth. With a subtly movement he pulled at the edge of the greatcoat to ensure the silver knives against his leg were firmly out of sight.

 

"Guess you could call me a mercenary." He shrugged towards the girl: what was it with this caravan? They were barely a handful of folk here fit to be called adults! "Go to places, solve problems and move on. Usually magic stuff... not really a 'living' but y'know - it's what I do."

 

The second gun was returned securely to its place across his chest, before the third was taken out in front of the dire for its routine maintenance. Adrass glanced up as his fingers went to work at the task they had done a thousand times over.

 

A bard was about camp: that brought back memories... curious.

 

Dismissing the thought for the moment and retuning to inspecting the woman that he was speaking with for possibly the first time, he tried to guess at exactly who she was. There was the magic - obviously - but the hood and leather... he might have mistaken her for a particularly radical hunter, if not for her age.

 

"Name's Adrass." He introduced himself - not offering a hand for a number of reasons, not least of all because they were still busy reloading the firearms.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Cinderscribe

[Sekel 695]

@

Hekena didn't bother replying to thd statement. She cleaned up the parts of her crossbow that needed cleaning up and made sure that it was all in the condition she liked it in. Perfect working condition. Slowly putting the pieces back together, she accidentally knocked her hood off, revealing her face. There was a scar on the left cheek but the rest of her face was unmarked. Her hair was messed up from the static the hood made while in contact with her hair.

 

Helena didn't seem to notice her hood was off. "A mercenary? That's interesting." She said to Adrass. She tightened the drawstring until it was taut but not so much for it to break. She placed the crossbow to the side and took her quiver off of her back and set about tinkering with the crossbow bolts."Usually I don't give my name out to anyone but for this little group I'll have to make an exception. It's Helena Birchwood." Helena introduced herself, not once looking up.

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

Whisper sat by the fire; looking around at the small party. The stew smelt absolutely delicious and she was trying her best not to pester the bard for when it would be done.

 

So she quietly turned her attention towards Helena and Adrass; both tinkering with their weapons. She suddenly felt naked realizing she had nothing to defend herself with. The princess wondered what it would be like, to have to survive and work for a living. She probably couldn't survive very long; that's why all these soldiers were here in the first place.

 

A sigh escaped from her mouth and she simply gazed into the fire.

 

Tulla took to sharpening her kit of knives. Sitting against Tuggs side and using a rock to give them a razored edge. Every once in a while she'd look up to watch Dresden as he attacked the dummy. A smile tugged against her lips; the kid was lively alright. 

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Finally the stew was done- at least, Robert was pretty sure it was done. He'd never actually had to cook an entire boar at once before. But he had a pretty good eye for it, if he did say so himself, and it definitely looked ready to go. "Alright, anybody who wants stew better get over here fast! It's first come first serve and the only person guaranteed a bowl is the princess!" Speaking of which, he filled a bowl with the fattiest and most delicious portion of boar and brought to her majesty, humbly handing it over to her.

 

@@RunsWithSquirlz,

 

 "Here you are, your majesty. It's not palace food, but I daresay its the best you'll find out here."

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

"Oh!" she took the bowl from his hands, setting it carefully between her knees "Thank you very much; it smells delicious!"

 

She took no time in eating the stew, very happy with the recipe. Tulla began serving herself a small portion of the stew; making sure there was enough for everyone else.

[Flying Ace 142]

Finally the stew was done- at least, Robert was pretty sure it was done. He'd never actually had to cook an entire boar at once before. But he had a pretty good eye for it, if he did say so himself, and it definitely looked ready to go. "Alright, anybody who wants stew better get over here fast! It's first come first serve and the only person guaranteed a bowl is the princess!" Speaking of which, he filled a bowl with the fattiest and most delicious portion of boar and brought to her majesty, humbly handing it over to her.

 

@@RunsWithSquirlz,

 

 "Here you are, your majesty. It's not palace food, but I daresay its the best you'll find out here."

 

"Oh!" she took the bowl from his hands, setting it carefully between her knees "Thank you very much; it smells delicious!"

 

She took no time in eating the stew, very happy with the recipe. Tulla began serving herself a small portion of the stew; making sure there was enough for everyone else.

Dresden sheathed his daggers and joined the others around the fire, "That smells delicious thank you." Dresden eat his serving in silence for a bit before looking across the fire, "So if you don't mine me asking your highness how are you enjoying our little trip?" Dresden asked waving his spoon in a questioning matter."

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

For himself Robert took only a very small bowl. A traveling musician learns to live on very little. He was glad everyone else was satisfied with the stew, and it seemed the rumors of the princess' appetite were true. Well, at least he'd found a way to make himself useful.

[Sekel 695]

Helena heard someone calling out something about some sort of stew being ready. Glancing over at Adrass for what was possibly the first time that night, realised he had a couple of pistols strapped to his chest and with a keen eye, thought she spotted an extremely tiny bulge under the greatcoat he wore just over his leg. The bulge looked like it was in the shape of a knife. She raised an eyebrow at it but didn't comment. Instead, she got up and left her crossbow and bolts where she was sitting.

 

@

Thinking that he wasn't going to get it himself, Helena took his bowl as well as her own and walked over to the stew. She noticed that the chef? was sitting nearby, talking with the princess. She ladled small portions into the bowls and took them both back to where she had been sitting. "Here. Figured you had to get something in you." She muttered after placing the bowl in front of him.

Edited July 3, 2014 by XANA

[Torrent505 370]

@RunsWithSquirlz @Alex Kennedy

 

Serafinno was having a wonderful time, he wished he hadn't wasted so much of the trip practicing his stalking. There was so many new people here to meet and so much fun he could have chasing and playing with the travelers. He was very glad he had decided to follow Whisper.

 

His current mission was to seek all around the caravan's campsite and to find large rocks, well rocks the size of a persons head at least. When he found one he would trot around the camp like a dog with a bone, after enough flaunting he would show it to Whisper and then head over to the hole he had dug. The hole went straight down and was just next to the royal carriage, he had dug it as soon as they had called the stop for the night. The rocks he had arranged in a circle around the hole and had begun to slowly stack them up around it. He had a nice big red stone almost shaped like a log that he was bringing over to show Whisper but he let it drop as he sniffed the air.

 

He watched Robert give a bowl of stew to Whisper and made bee line for him. As Robert sat down with his own stew Serafinno nosed his side hard with his snout then looked expectantly at the bowl, then to Whisper and her bowl, then Tulla and her bowl and made three deep rhythmic grunts and nosed him again.

 

***************************

 

 

Eirikr sat on top of the royal carriage watching everyone eat and be merry, it was a sight he truly appreciated, surrounded like this Whisper was safe and it made him think this job might be easy and that the King and Queen had worried for nothing... But the world was full of surprises, he could feel one of them out there on the horizon far off but moving through the woods.

 

A huge magical presence, it had to be a Beta class dragon maybe Psi even, and if his own sensitivity to it was any indication than it was probably a metal dragon. The feeling was intense, as if looking out to see a thunderstorm rolling across open fields towards you but instead of sight you felt it in you're very soul. These things were a part of the old world, a part of nature itself; not like the young playful drake that waited at the princess' heels or any of the stunted, miniaturized, or bastardized lesser dragons that city folk, nobles or beast tamer caught. He could tell it was more like an on coming storm, something that couldn't be tamed or stopped; but it still wouldn't be a threat, old things like that and alpha predators didn't need to waste their time on human prey... Too much work for too little reward after all.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@Torrent505,

 

When the dragon nosed him for the first time, Robert was taken completely off guard and nearly fell over. "Alright, you damn beast, you can have some too. But if anybody complains about not getting enough, I'm blaming you." He filled another bowl and set it on the ground before the dragon. "Eat up. That's all you're getting."

Edited July 3, 2014 by Alex Kennedy

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Adrass

 

@,

 

It was probably poisoned: that was his first thought. One didn't expect a gift from a Mage so easily and live for very long.

 

On the other hand... if she was trying to poison him, he would have expected a more extreme attitude towards him. Open hatred or false friendship - not this vague indifference. Eyeing the stew warily, he looked over towards the girl as he finished loading the fifth gun, before nodding with as much appreciation as he could muster towards one of their kind.

 

There was still a slight problem though... but he had to eat sooner or later.

 

Pulling the makeshift bandanna of (possibly once) red cloth down, Adrass breathed the warm air of the fire - still marred by the stench of magic of course, but no longer tainted by the smell of sweat, blood and dirt which had accumulated over the past couple of years.

 

'And now a bloody Witch has seen your face. Should we throw out the rest of the rules too while we're at it? How about we wander around unarmed, singing and dancing? Ugh...'

 

His face was - for the most part - fairly unmarked. There was no terrible disfigurement or mutation - no missing or miscarriages features. Several scars of varying depths crisscrossed the flesh at irregular intervals, the only thing distinguishing some of them from the others being that they would occasionally sport a blackened colour - a result of wounds that were caused by magical means as opposed to blades and the like.

 

"Thanks." Grunted the hunter reluctantly, picking up the bowl and beginning to eat.

 

And suddenly... nothing happened. No pain. No crippling agony or numbed mind. No spasms , shakes or sudden weakness. He wasn't poisoned - at least as far as he could tell.

 

'Huh...'

 

He glanced back at the girl... woman... whatever.

 

"Birchwood? Huh." He forced conversation between mouthfuls of food. "You're from Illia?"

[Sekel 695]

@

Helena glanced at him when he took the bowl before sitting back down. Judging from the way his eyes moved, it seemed he ws thinking that it could be poisoned. Plonking back down where she was sitting before, she grabbed her own bowl and ate some of the stew. It seemed tasty. 'Tch. Why would think I poisoned it? Because the way I look? Possibly.' Helena thought while she ate.

 

"Birchwood? Huh." He forced conversation between mouthfuls of food. "You're from Illia?"

She nodded her head. She swallowed a mouthful and answered, "I'm from Illia. What of it?" She asked him. He was probably making conversation. "I saw the knife under your coat. Why you hiding them?"

[Sanctified Absence 126]

That presence, it was so strange that someone, or something could generate such a beautiful feeling from its mere existence alone. It had been a while since Zaddion had felt the wild elements of nature rather than the refined auras he was used to. Now he was caught in the middle of two remarkable signatures, one coming from the princess and one from... Something else deeper into the wilderness.

 

Finally snapping out of his trance and noticing the prospect of food, the Mage finally left the edge of the darkness towards the centre of the camp. It appeared as though the others already had their sustenance in hand, this was no problem as he was more than content with whatever they had left behind.

 

Taking a seat not uncomfortably close but not very far from the others around the fire, Zaddion finally took some time to make an assessment of his companions. The princess was a Mage in some form or the other no doubt, the aura she generated was astounding compared to what he has seen. The other guards were a strange lot, some of them appeared to have a weak magical aura, certainly weaker (or at least more familiar) than that of the princess. Do they even know how to hide their Magick?

 

His sensory powers were almost useless with both the princess and the creature in the wilderness giving off such powerful Magick, he was not used to distinguishing lesser with greater auras as he had almost no experience with the latter. Reaching into a large pouch hanging over his left Zaddion drew a particularly large grimoire,  wrapped in chains that were made of some sort of white metal. Placing his palm of the lock a tiny flash of light foreshadowed the collapse of the restraints to the floor. 

 

Removing the crystal cover from it's duty of obscuring the lore within, the pages began to move at Zaddion's mere gesture. One could say these pages were marked with an almost trivial enchantment designed to react to more refined Light, so that even through the mere act of focusing and tilting his eyes the pages would turn. Hundreds of pages passed within the space of a few seconds before he finally reached the page he was looking for. There would be no gaining the attention of Zaddion now, or at least without physically snapping him out of his trance... For he was reading.  

Edited July 3, 2014 by Blissful Chaos

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Adrass.

 

@,

 

"No reason." Shrugged the walking armoury. Pistols on his chest and swords strapped to his back, a couple of knives would ordinarily have been the least likely thing to try and conceal - little more than a backup weapon: a last resort. These however, served a specific purpose.

 

"Knives just tend to unnerve folks, that's all... weird, I know."

 

He neglected to explain the nullifying runes or the unusual properties of these specific weapons.

 

"Just wondered - you sounded like it, that's all." The hunter noted, changing the subject quickly. "Recognise the accent: apprentice of mine was from there. Good lass - bit too idealistic..."

 

Adrass paused - scanning the skies and the land around them as the wave of magic settled over the land. It happened from time to time: an inescapable, unplesant fact of life. Probably dragons of some kind - it was far too powerful to be a Mage, which put it firmly outside his duty to deal with.

[Sekel 695]

@

"Hmmhmm." Helena murmured to herself.She continued to eat the small portion of stew while she thought things through. Looking at her quiver with all it's tricked out crossbow bolts, she wondered why he would conceal knives. Usually mercenaries don't do that unless they have a whole array of them. He's only got two. "People think that thieves are weird but you only have two knives, so why do you conceal them? Shouldn't you try and conceal your other weapons first?" Helena asked him, noticing the pistols he had strapped to his chest and two sword hilts peeking out over his shoulders.

 

Helena had finished her stew and set her bowl to one side, only to pick up the bolt she had been tinkering with. She went to Andalasia in the first place to get some materials that could only be found in that kingdom. It was to make a kind of new crossbow bolt she's had an idea for for quite some time.

Edited July 3, 2014 by XANA