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private Far from home. 1x1 with Illiad Easle


Catpone Cerberus

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@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron chuckled happily at her response, "That's good, I'll get some more advanced books for you tomorrow so you can keep learning."

He moved to show her her harness, all loaded with packages, "I hope it will work out for you tomorrow."

If Ædriga didn't have anything to ask him he would set out his bed, "I'm going to sleep now, have a good night and sleep well."

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@Illiad Easle
"Good night." 
Ædriga would simply respond, only nodding to the first two sentences, she was staring to understand more and more what Ætheron said, but understanding didn't mean she could translate it, and thus replying to it was bit challenging, especially when there was several things he said. She would again stay awake for some time, studying a bit longer before eventually putting the book away and just sitting there for a moment. She would then go to sleep soon enough.

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@Catpone Cerberus

Assuming nothing happened during the night, Ætheron would wake up around sunrise and ensure everything was in order. He would be a bit on edge given Ædriga's reports the previous morning that something had approached the cave during the night, and despite the claim that it had gone the opposite direction he had lingering doubts as to whether they were being followed.

If everythiong seemed undisturbed he would wait at the mouth of the cave looking off towards Ponyville for Ædriga to wake up.

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@Illiad Easle
Nothing would look off, everything being like it had been left, and there was no sign of anyone besides them being around. It wouldn't take long for Ædriga to get up, the truth was, she had woken up before Ætheron, she just hadn't seen any reason to get up yet so she had fallen back into a light sleep that was broken the moment Ætheron had started moving. "Good Morning." she said with a slight accent, she had gotten handle on the pronunciation, but there was bound to be an accent considering how different her native language was from this one.

She again took lungs full of air and stretched a bit, she then took few sniffs of the air, wanting to know if the night visitor had been there. She got a curious look as she sniffed the air, moving bit away again but this time keeping her head nose in the air. "Same." she would then say "No here, there." she pointed into the forest "night." she pointed at her nostrils "no good." she then stuck her tongue out to indicate disgust. "Go away, there." she pointed deeper into the forest. she lastly let out bit of smoke to clear her nostrils from the scent.

Her tone was calm the whole time, as she wanted to communicate that she didn't see the source of the scent as a threat.

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@Catpone Cerberus

(Starting up the AI support)

Ætheron was concerned at the report that their visitor had returned, "Followed us?" He resolved to keep a careful eye out as they travelled today to see if he could spot whatever was following them. "Look around today, see if you can smell out our visitor."

Nonetheless, the sooner they got moving the sooner they could get some distance between them. Ætheron was quick to get his now lighter harness on, then he motioned for Ædriga to do the same. He would be near to help her get it on and properly secured if she were having trouble, but would otherwise let her take care of it herself.

(Here's an AI event)

After an hour or two of traveling through the forest the pair came across a sudden clearing, there was a large stump in the middle, which was surrounded by a small group of ponies seemingly enjoying a picnic of some sorts, singing and playing music. Ætheron did not remember there being a clearing here, and suspected something was off. "This is new, be careful."

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@Illiad Easle
There was no sign of anyone or anything, but Ædriga did keep her senses sharp, not because she was worried about the nightly visitor, but because she was curious what this bad smelling thing was. She didn't have too much trouble with the harness, it took few seconds for her to figure out exactly how Ætheron had meant it to be used, but thanks to them trying it on when it wasn't fully done yet, she had the general idea in mind and it was mostly trying to figure out what was the best way for her to do it alone.

Ætheron didn't need to tell Ædriga to be careful, as she got into wary state even before they had arrived to the clearing, and Ætheron's wariness had fed that wariness even more, which she could sense before he said anything. The reason why she had gotten wary before they had gotten close enough to see was her other senses, she could hear the music and smell the ponies before seeing the opening itself, and while the ponies by themselves made her wary, the fact that they were here was its own concern.

She looked confused at the opening, she may have been new to Equestria, but she still knew something was wrong, she had a naturally good sense of direction and location, so she knew they were on the same route as before, yet there hadn't been an opening like this back then, so that meant that either it had suddenly appeared, or something had affected in a way that she hadn't noticed the change in direction, and either option was a concerning one. 

She would stay close to Ætheron, and while she wasn't as cowardly as she had been before, it was clear she was seeking safety from him. 

 

(sorry for delay, had a bad week)

 

 

Edited by Catpone Cerberus
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@Catpone Cerberus

(No worries, I hope things are better now?)

(The AI seems to have an arc in mind, whether we go with it is up to you.)

Ætheron considered the methods by which they may have cleared so much since they had last passed through, and while it wasn't impossible for them to have cleared it without powerful magics it wasn't very likely. More likely was that this was an illusion by some mischievous kitsune or similar. He decided to lead the way around the edge of the clearing while keeping an eye on those gathered.

One of the musicians took notice of them and waved before approaching, "Excuse me Sir, but what do you think of our little camp?"

Ætheron was a bit blunt in his response, "When did you all get here? This clearing wasn't here last week."

The musician looked a bit chagrined, "We arrived only a few days ago, we were staying in a village before, but..."

Ætheron looked a bit incredulous, and the musician continued, "But the Nightmare Tyrant arrived and threw everybody in the pit of despair!"

Ætheron's expression became more concerned, "The Nightmare Tyrant?"

"Yes, you've heard the stories haven't you? She came and took over the..." The musician looked very uneasy.

Ætheron looked back at Ædriga, "What do you think? Help ponies or keep moving?"

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@Illiad Easle
(yes and yes)

The conversation was bit too much for Ædriga to understand, or more specifically, the most important parts of it, words like 'Nightmare' 'Tyrant' and 'Despair' were outside her understanding, but luckily the tones and expressed emotions told a bit of what was going on. "Help? Help what?" "What Nigtmare Tyran?" she butchered 'Nightmare Tyrant' because this was the first time she had heard those two words and they were long words. She was concerned, she could sense the fear from the ponies, but weirdly enough this didn't make her fearful, in fact, quite the opposite, prey animals being afraid was familiar thus comforting to her, even if she wasn't supposed to eat these ones.  

 

 

Edited by Catpone Cerberus
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@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron thought for a moment before clarifying, "Bad creature, one who cause much fear, pain, and death, attacked a village, caused these ponies to hide here."

The musician looked like he wanted to clarify, but decided not to.

Ætheron continued, "We can help them, go to their village and see if it's safe, or we can just go to Ponyville and do nothing."

He looked over at the ponies around the stump, "I want to help, but I won't make you if you don't want to."

He turned back to the musician, "Where is your village?"

"Well... it's to the South." The musician pointed in the general direction, there was a faint path that they had apparently traveled to get there.

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@Illiad Easle
Explaining it again didn't really help because the new explanation used lot of words that Ædriga didn't understand yet, the foals' book obviously didn't have any words relating to things like death and suffering, and if the new book did, she hadn't gotten to that point yet. But from rest of what Ætheron said, she did get what he was trying to say, she was given a choice, go to Ponyville, which she had figured to mean the place they were going towards, or go to this new place to help these ponies with something, something that based on the emotions shown by everyone, was scary to them, which in her mind meant some kind of predatory creature, which in turn, as weird as it may seem, scared her less than the idea of going to another place with lot of ponies. 

There was a simple explanation for this though, familiarity and predictability, ponies forming a civilization was unfamiliar to her, because they were prey, and prey should not be able to be the strongest one around, but they were, so they were unpredictable in her eyes, this was also why Ætheron scared her at first, she didn't know what he was, so she had no idea how he would act. Predators in the other hand, were predictable, they were a threat, they would try to kill her, and she would be able to read them and act accordingly.

It would take her a second to go through all the information in her head, but she would eventually say "Yes help ponys"

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@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron had a small smile at Ædriga's response, "Glad to hear it."

He turned back to the musician and pointed to his harness, "Ponyville's less than an hour from here, we've got to drop off these packages, but we'll return here as soon as we can and see if your village is safe."

The musician wasn't too happy, but nodded, "We'll wait here, not like we've got anywhere else to go."

Ætheron turned to Ædriga, pointing at the packages they were both carrying, "First, take things to office, second help ponies. Move fast."

He hoped she understood as he turned to resume their path before setting off at a full gallop towards Ponyville.

Provided Ædriga didn't have any difficulty keeping up they'd get to the edge of the forest in half an hour, reaching the office five minutes later. Ætheron would slow down if she were having trouble though.

If Ædriga accompanied him all the way to the office at the edge of town, they'd be greeted by a grey pegasus at the counter. "Hi Æther! Who's your helper?" She looked over at Ædriga with a wave and a smile, "Hi! I'm Ditzy Doo, it's nice to meet you!"

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@Illiad Easle
Ædriga was bit confused but followed Ætheron anyway, she just assumed she hadn't understood something, which was true, and trusted that he knew what he was doing. 

She wouldn't have any trouble keeping up with him, in fact, if she wouldn't have been following him, she could probably have overtaken him eventually, because even if her leg hurt a bit, she was a predator, and while she preferred sneaking on her prey, she would chase them down too, and she would always eventually catch them even if injured, exception of course being that one deer that managed to trick her.

She did slow down a bit when they reached the town though, as she hesitated for a bit, but after looking at the stuff she was carrying, she raised her head in similar manner as she had done before entering the city, knowing she would need to get over the noises, smells and ponies eventually, not that there seemed to be as many of them here, and she followed Ætheron in, moving as fast as he did.

"Hi. Ditzy Doo." Ædriga would say, she of course didn't get the name fully right in the first time, but it was pretty good "Good, meet you." "I Ædriga." she looked both at Ditzy and at Ætheron to see from their reactions if she had said everything correctly enough. 

 

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@Catpone Cerberus

Ditzy smiled at the reciprocated greeting and turned back to Ætheron who had already taken off his pack, he seemed in a hurry to get moving, but a thought occured to him and he paused, "We ran into a group of ponies about half an hour into the forest, said their village to the south got attacked by someone called the Nightmare Tyrant. You hear anything about this?"

Ditzy looked puzzled for a moment, then shrugged and shook her head, "Sorry, can't say I've heard anything, nothing's come up this way at least. Though I also don't know of any towns near here to the south."

Ætheron nodded, "I thought as much. We're going to check it out, we should be back later. If we're not back by... lets say three days from now, tell the express we went missing."

Ditzy nodded, "Will do! Stay safe."

If Ædriga hadn't gotten her harness off yet Ætheron would move to assist, and once they were both unloaded he would set off back the way they came, now with a bit more speed than before as he was unburdened besides a few weapons, "Lets go help those creatures."

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@Illiad Easle
Ædriga didn't have trouble with the harness, so it would be off when Ætheron was ready to leave, and she just nodded when he said let's go, she didn't really have much to say or do at the moment since the conversation that Ætheron and Ditzy had didn't include her. She would follow Ætheron and didn't seem to have any problems with the increase in speed, in fact, now that she knew where they were going, she would run next to Ætheron rather than behind him.

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@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron felt good going quickly for once, he hadn't had a chance to really run like this in a while, not since... well, before he had first become an adventurer. Having Ædriga running beside him further encouraged him to pick up the pace, depending on Ædriga's ability he might even reach his top speed (about twice as fast as a pony) before slowing down as they approached the clearing they had left the ponies in.

Before they reached the clearing a few of the ponies they had left came running at them with frantic expressions, both groups stopped before running into each other, "You're back! Oh thank the mother you're back! I was worried we might not find you!"

Ætheron was instantly concerned, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

The mare at the front of the group started to cry, "The Nightmare Tyrant, she... she found us. We barely escaped! But..."

Ætheron lowered himself to better console the mare, "Everything will be alright, focus on getting yourself and anyone you can find to Ponyville." he pointed the way he had come, "They'll keep you safe."

He stood back up, "We'll take care of this tyrant."

The small group nodded in thanks to the both of them before they started running towards Ponyville.

Ætheron proceeded forward with haste, but caution, holding his polearm at the ready as they approached the clearing.

There were a few small fires around the clearing, several of the surrounding trees were damaged or broken, one had been wholly uprooted. There were a few scattered piles of ashes and most notably there was a trail of some sort of dried ooze, all the plants within a few inches of the ooze were dead or looked withered. Ætheron scooped a small bit of one of the ash piles and tossed it in one of the small fires, the flames took on a distinct purple hue for about a minute before returning to normal. "Changelings, I had suspected as much."

He looked at the path of death, it ran about due north/south. He dropped a flower on the ooze and it immediately withered upon contact with the ooze. He made sure to draw Ædriga's attention to the ooze and the flower, "Don't touch, very bad."

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@Illiad Easle

Ædriga didn't have any problems keeping up with Ætheron, but as the speed increased, she would after certain point start using her wings to help with turning and other quick movements, not because she couldn't do it without, but why not make it as easy as possible.
 

She looked curiously at the ponies when they ran towards them, she didn't need to understand any words to know what was going on, the combination of the emotions and some logical thinking did the job. As they made their way towards the clearing, Ædriga focused her senses, so she would be able to sense any creature that may be close. She looked curiously around the clearing, it really looked like a dragon attack, if it wasn't for the ooze that pretty clearly had some kind of plant-killing qualities, which indicated that it could affect creatures too, not that she was too worried about it since she believed her scales would protect her even if it affected her, though she would still avoid it. 

She would nod in understanding at Ætheron's warning, she didn't need to be warned as she had figured as much herself, but she figured it was good to lwt him know that she understood. She would stop and focus on her senses until Ætheron decided they should continue or she sensed something. 

 

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@Catpone Cerberus

Focusing her senses, Ædriga would take notice of a shadowy figure standing at the north end of the trail of ooze. The creature looked about the size and shape of a pony, but taller (about alicorn in height), it had piercing red eyes as it looked back at Ædriga. This creature seemed made of the ooze that formed the trail, the ooze seemed to drip off of it as it stood in the shadows on the edge of the clearing.

Ætheron didn't notice this creature, as he turned to Ædriga, "Do you see something?"

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@Illiad Easle
Ædriga tilted her head at what she was seeing, she was wary but didn't know to feel fear as she wasn't fully sure if she was seeing something real or if her mind just was playing tricks on her. She would try to get a scent from the creature to know if it was real. "Big pony, but, no pony?" she would point towards the being "no animal, that." she pointed at the ooze. "It" She then pointed at her eyes with two claws before pointing them forward (the 'look'/'I'll be watching you'-gesture) "us"

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@Scar

The creature would smell no different than the ooze, likely due to being covered in it.

Ætheron was a bit confused by what Ædriga was trying to convey, but looked in the direction she pointed and shuddered, "That... that isn't what I was expecting to find."

Ætheron took a defensive stance but the creature just laughed soundlessly before it turned away to continue its path northward, carving a path through the woods as it killed everything it came in contact with. "That must be what they meant by Nightmare Tyrant, I can see why."

He looked unsure as he turned to spare a glance towards Ædriga, "We follow? Fight?..." Inwardly Ætheron knew there wasn't really a choice.

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@Illiad Easle 
Ædriga got more concerned about the creature after Ætheron's reaction, she assumed him to know more about it, so if he was scared of it, she assumed it was something she should be worried about too. "We here." she said, she didn't necessarily want to know what exactly this thing was if it was so scary to everyone, but she believed that if one was to start a fight, they should also finish it, and she saw the moment they started looking for this thing as the start. "Follow." she would start walking after the thing, knowing that it left the weird trail behind it, she didn't see a reason to hurry too much. 

She kept her senses sharp and bit of smoke had started to come out with her breath, she was now visibly ready to fight, and since they had already been spotted, she didn't see a reason to try and keep herself hidden. 

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@Catpone Cerberus

Ætheron was surprised by Ædriga's courage, he hadn't expected her to take the lead, especially on this sort of thing, but he wasn't going to let her go it alone. He stowed away his pole-arm to pull out his longbow. "Careful, no touch creature, dangerous maybe."

There was a sort of aura of terror around the creature, which would get stronger the closer they got to it.

It would reach another clearing before they could get close enough to think about attacking, it moved surprisingly fast for a creature that looked like it was made of tar.

The screams from the clearing confirmed that the creature had been following after something, likely the rest of the group that had escaped the first attack.

These screams seemed to help Ætheron overcome the terror imposed by the creature. He stood tall to fire on the creature before moving around to flank it like they had with the manticore before. The creature didn't seem to notice that it had been struck with an arrow.

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(edited)

@Illiad Easle
Ædriga could feel the aura of terror surrounding the creature, she wasn't immune to it, but she could tell that there was something weird about the fear she felt, in fact, it reminded her a bit of the fear her kind felt when more powerful individual of her kind was present, it was different from the fear you felt when you for example feared for your life. She didn't let it stop her though, quite opposite actually, more afraid she was something, more she wanted to kill it.
 

She noticed that it didn't seem to care when Ætheron had attacked it with his weapon, but it didn't really change what she was planning to do, as she quickly made her way towards the creature until she was in range to unleash a huge stream of steel-melting-hot dragon fire at it, it was surprising how much fire there was considering her size. She would stop breathing fire and retreat after few seconds of constant flow of flames. She made sure there was nobody else in that direction before unleashing the fire.

Edited by Catpone Cerberus
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@Catpone Cerberus

The creature paused, or potentially was stopped by Ædriga's fire, the ooze that covered it dried and fell away under the fire, revealing a layer of chitinous plates under the ooze until the ooze returned. It looked like the ooze was being continuously secreted by the creature.

The creature turned to stare at Ædriga, it's piercing red eyes were fixed on her with an odd mix of emotions within. The mouth of the creature opened, and outwardly Ædriga could hear its shrill scream, but in her mind she heard it speak: "This wyrm is weak, isn't it?" The voice was feminine and condescending.

Ætheron tried to get the creature's attention away from Ædriga, but his arrows had little to no effect on the creature.

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@Illiad Easle
Ædriga ignored the condescending voice in her head, she didn't know if it was real or not, but she didn't care, she had heard enough insults in her life to tolerate it for now, besides, she had learned a new thing about this creature, and it was time for her next attempt. In different situation, she would have probably asked Ætheron for help, since she wasn't nearly as sure of her own abilities as she seemed to be, but because it seemed that his weapon didn't do anything, there was no point risking the arguably less protected friend. 

Her next attempt? it was time to charge the creature, but with a small twist. She would start running towards it, ready to dodge if it tried to counter attack, and either run past it or jump over it depending on the angle she managed to get, attempting to swipe it with her claws as she did. She would flame the slime as she went towards it to avoid it as much as possible. It didn't really matter to her where she it if she hit, as she just wanted to know if she could even do anything to this thing, her claws were quite a weapon, since they were made to go through her kind's harder than steel scales, so if they didn't do anything, and this thing was fireproof, she was out of options, because the last thing to try would be snapping the neck of the creature, but that was bit too risky if there was any chance they could just...retreat. 

Regardless of result, assuming he or something else didn't  stop her before she did anything, Ætheron would have the chance to see that Ædriga used her head in a fight instead of just blindly trusting on brute force.

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@Catpone Cerberus

It was quite smart of her to burn away the ooze before striking, the attack surprised even the creature who hadn't tried to dodge but screamed in pain at the strike.

Instead of blood, more of the ooze came out of the wound, getting on her claws. It would feel like she had stuck them in acid, and would act like acid until or unless she burned the ooze off of herself.

Ætheron was impressed by her strategy, and was quick enough to get an arrow lodged in the open wound left by her claws, but the creature didn't react as much as it did to the initial strike.

The area was suddenly filled with a very bright light as a powerful beam of magic collided with the creature, causing it to step backwards before descending into the ooze trail it had left, disappearing completely.

The beam stopped to reveal none other than Princess Twilight, and she didn't seem too pleased to see Ætheron. "Once again a bunch of ponies come running out of the forest complaining about a monster, and I find you at the root."

Ætheron wouldn't respond, and would instead ignore the princess in favor of making sure Ædriga was alright after the effects of her strike.

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