private Starfall

[Leafeon 2,701]

@@Windbreaker, 

 

The question the fellow morph proposed perplexed Aolani slightly. Oh, it was adorable, yes, but still just a bit... odd. Aolani wasn't the kind of person to really ever consider people her friends. She either scared them away or couldn't hold up a conversation with them due to her timid personality. The only friend she really had wasn't exactly nice either, so she withheld her enthusiasm whenever the term was used.

 

However, for the benefit of Beth, she would agree to the proposal. She wouldn't want to upset the girl, after all! "Why, of course!" She said in her normal sing-song voice. "Though, I believe we already are, right?"

[Vaporeon 1,168]

@,

Henry watched as Gallin walked away, grumbling about how weak this team supposedly was. "Wonder whats wrong with him." Henry thought. The titan of a man wasn't much for words and looked rather disappointed as he followed Lhee and the others. Still though he seemed nice enough and would be loads of fun to watch in battle.

 

@@Leafeon,@@Windbreaker, 

With Gallin gone Herny decided to follow the rest of the group. He soon noticed the Altaria girl from before as it seemed she had teamed up with the Braixen Morph. Henry started in their direction, remembering the wand Beth carried. "So, you use magic too huh?" Herny asked coming from behind the fox girl. "Do you have any tomes or do you just use your wand? You know I once saw a guy transform into a Murkrow. With a little bit of teamwork I bet we could achieve something similar or die trying. Either way is fine with me." the Haunter Morph said smiling.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Vaporeon

[EcstaticWind 572]

@@Leafeon,

@@Vaporeon, 

 

"Yeah, I think so, too." Bethany said, still smiling at Aolani. She reached out to hug Aolani, except Henry came up behind them. She gave a startled yelp and came very close to bursting into frightened tears as she held onto Aolani. "P-please d-don't do that... and I don't use m-magic... I d-don't want to turn into a Murkrow..." She said in a quiet and frightened tone. Her courage was gone in a matter of seconds, and moisture started to form at the corners of her eyes.

[Leafeon 2,701]

@@Windbreaker, @@Vaporeon,

 

 

Hm? The girl didn't use spells? Why did she carry a wand, then? Aolani had never gotten the pokemon Beth was, but it also didn't particularly matter to her. Intriguing how one could carry a wand that has no purpose. The peculiar-ness of Beth's item caused Aolani to lose focus and not notice what the ghost morph was saying. 

 

Beth seemed rather upset about his proposal, though Aolani didn't really know why. It actually seemed rather light hearted, despite his previous words to her. "W-well, you wouldn't have to turn into a Murkrow!" Aolani began in a poor attempt to be comforting. "You could disguise yourself as a lot of things with magic, I'd imagine."

[Vaporeon 1,168]

@@Windbreaker,@@Leafeon,

Henry ignored the fact Bethany was on the verge of tears, too busy wondering how someone with a wand couldn't use magic. "You really can't use any magic? Not even the simplest of hexes?" he asked surprised. The Altaria girl then spoke up in an effort to calm down her new friend with Herny soon chiming in. "Oh yeah, there are tons of things you can do with magic. Control shadows, set people on fire, electrocute people, curse people, reanimate corpses to do your bidding..." the Haunter Morph said not realizing he was probably making things worse. It didn't help that the only form of magic he was really familiar with was dark magic. "Of course a lot of this is higher level stuff and I'd need more tomes for that anyway. Maybe I can teach you some spells or something, you must have some way to channel magic if you have a wand. It'll be fun!" he says happily.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Vaporeon

[EcstaticWind 572]

@@Leafeon,

@@Vaporeon,

 

"I didn't say I couldn't use magic. I said I don't use magic. My wand is just a stick I picked up off the ground and shaped that way. Every Braixen carries a stick with them, and I just wanted mine to look nice..." Bethany said. At this point, she wasn't that fond of Henry. His apparent fascination with hurting things scared her and his constant offers were putting pressure on her to the point where she was seriously considering runnning away. The only thing stopping her from doing so was Aolani. With little warning, she broke into tears over the internal conflict.

 

She wrapped her arms around Aolani, almost desperate for some kind of reassurance and clearly choosing to stay despite the fact that her shy and timid nature could lead others to believe that she was a coward. The fact that she was now crying probably didn't help others see her as anything but useless.

[Umbreon 569]

@@Windbreaker, @@Vaporeon,@@Leafeon,@,@@Aerodynas,@@Tricksters Pride,

 

Walking out of town, the road really wasn't much of a road by this point, mostly a dirt trail run down by ruts likely made by wagon wheels.  It didn't take long in this direction for the farms and fields to give way to wilderness though - almost like stepping into another world.  There was a wooden fence set up as though trying to keep the forest at bay, or more likely, to try and keep wandering villagers from headed into the forest by accident.

 

Walking up to the fence, Lhee turns around to lean against it to look over his new "team".  Sighing quietly, the Umbreon-Morph rubs at the bridge of his nose and mutters under his breath "how the hell did I get roped back into this..."  Raising his voice enough to actually be heard, he tries to ignore the state of many of his new companions to focus on the job at hand.  "Listen up!  The forest thins out a few feet in, once we're past this underbrush.  The canopy is too thick for stuff to litter up the floor once we're past the border.  I've gone into these woods by myself a few times.  They're named the Wolf Woods after the Mightyena pack that makes it their home, but that doesn't mean there aren't other creatures living here as well.  Just watch your step, stay aware of your surroundings, and don't wander off by yourself...  Arceus forbid that our first injury be because someone stepped on a damn Weedle."  He glances around briefly, resting one hand on the hilt of one of his daggers.  "We'll head in once our final member catches up..."

[Tricksters Pride 100]

@@Aerodynas, 

 

Merric was unperturbed when Naomi nearly ran into him, he was confident enough in his balance that he simply wasn't worried of falling over... Though he was puzzled by her reaction to his words. *'But... A Tarous is a pack ani-... Oh, um that was an offensive request then. (sigh) Dammit, mere moments after meeting another morph and i offend them too.....'* So after sighing and cringing slightly at his mistake (Thankfully unnoticed by Naomi because she refused to look at him after his mistake...) Merric muttered an apology and left in the direction that Lhee had said the blacksmith was... Thankfully it was in the same direction as his backpack (Stored for a convenient escape if the need had arisen to run.) so he probably wouldn't further offend his companions by taking too long.

[Vaporeon 1,168]

@@Umbreon,@@Windbreaker,@@Leafeon,

"Oh..." Henry said slightly disappointed to find out that Bethany's wand was a simple stick. He was about to speak up again when the girl started crying out of nowhere. "Hey, why're you crying?" the Haunter Morph asked confused. It was then when Henry overheard Lhee has he spoke to the group, mentioning the pack of Mightyena that lived the woods. "That sounds fun..." Henry says thinking out loud. "Oh I know what'll make you feel better." he says to Bethany. "Traveling through Wolf Woods is a blast! The Mightyena there are surprisingly nice once you get to know them." he explains. "And don't worry, if anything tries to kill you I don't mind hunting it down and exacting revenge it in a rage-filled fury causing blood to fly everywhere." the boy says smiling. "Welp let's get going, shall we?" he says walking off.

[Umbreon 569]

@@Vaporeon,@@Tricksters Pride, @@Windbreaker, @@Leafeon,@,@@Aerodynas,

 

 

After waiting by the fence for a few minutes, Lhee lets out a loud sigh before pinching the bridge of his nose again.  One member of the team was crying, and now another one was talking about making friends with the very Mightyena they had been ordered to go in and cull.  "Bloody hell, that bastard Shade did this just to spite me..."  Turning around to put his back to the others, Lhee faces the fence just long enough to kick one of the boards making up the wooden barrier.  It seemed he had led them to this part of the fence on purpose - at the kick, the loose board fell away leaving a gap that was much easier to step over than the neighboring sections.

 

"Come on - Verric can catch up...  Something tells me we're going to be leaving a pretty obvious trail."  He glances out of the corner of his eye towards the massive guy hauling the dead Emboar, before stepping over the fence himself.  Without waiting to see that the others were following, the Umbreon-Morph starts pushing through the somewhat thick underbrush.

 

Sure enough, it was as he said and after a few yards in the brush began to thin out.  Once past the perimeter of the woods the ground was mostly clear other than fallen leaves and small ground cover, with the tall trees and their thick canopies high overhead.  It was fairly dark by this point, far darker than it should have been for how early in the morning it was, but the trees did an effective job of covering the ground in shadows.  It was noticeable enough that the blue rings on Lhee's ears, tail, and forehead had started to glow slightly so that his companions could better keep track of him.  Turning to lean against a tree trunk, he turns around to make sure everyone had made it through the brush without problem...  He was beginning to wonder if that would be the case the longer he watched them, though.

 

Be nice, you were new once too...  They don't have her to look after them like you did, either.  You're the leader of Sol now, it's up to you to keep them safe.

 

Like you couldn't keep her safe.  Can you go through that failure again?

 

"Ah!"  Startled, seemingly by his own train of thought, Lhee had lashed out with a fist and struck the tree trunk he was standing near.  His eyes go wide as he realizes what he was doing, his ears perking up before falling back down to their usual position tilted towards the back of his head.  Too embarrassed to see if any of the others had seen his outburst, Lhee grits his teeth before turning to start walking deeper into the Wolf Woods and quickly pulling his fist in front of him so no one behind him would see as he brought his now-bloody knuckles up to his mouth.  He shuts his eyes for a moment and his rings glow brighter for a couple seconds as he waits for the scrapes from the bark to heal, trying to seal them up before anyone would have a chance to point them out.

[EcstaticWind 572]

@@Leafeon,

@@Vaporeon,

 

After a while, Bethany managed to stop crying, probably to everyone's relief. She wasn't feeling much better yet, since that scare earlier was still on her mind. So, she decided to do something about it. She turned to Aolani, whom she'd stuck pretty close to, and said, "I'll be back in a moment. I'm going up ahead to take care of something with the Haunter boy."

 

Somehow gathering the courage, Bethany marched up to Henry and answered his question from earlier. "I was crying because you scared me, then you put a lot of pressure on me with the offers of magic. I don't know anyone here that well, and you're kind of scary. Sorry to say, but you did ask."

 

As if in apology, she dug into her pockets and brought out the dried berries and offered some to Henry. It was likely that Henry wouldn't even care about what Bethany said, but it made her feel a little better and braver now that she said it. "Could we start over and be friends?"

[Leafeon 2,701]

@@Windbreaker, @@Umbreon,

 

 

"Ah... Alright." Aolani said as Beth wandered away. She seemed a bit... clingy. Aolani didn't mind, of course, but such a clinginess to her of all people was a poor idea. She gripped her halberd a bit tighter. Aolani would have to protect Beth. She'd need some luck with that.

 

As these thoughts were passing through the altaria morph's head, she noted Lhee acting... oddly. He had made a loud noise, such a noise that caught her attention easily. He then looked to punch a tree, and walk off. His fist was obviously bleeding, which seemed to cause his rings to glow a bit brighter. Odd, but didn't that hurt? Having nothing better to do, Aolani cautiously walked up to him. "Uhm, you alright Lhee?" She asked him. Though her voice sounded concerned, the girl gave him a warm smile.

[Umbreon 569]

@@Leafeon, 

 

Lhee hesitates as Aolani walks up to him, not turning to look towards her immediately.  Of course someone had noticed - he wasn't lucky enough for it to have slipped by.  Realizing that the pause would be suspicious, he quickly turns towards the Altaria morph and grins slightly.  "F-Fine!  I'm fine, really."  He glances towards his knuckles, giving a small sigh as his Wish finally triggered and the scrapes started to close.  He wipes the blood off on his leather armour before holding his hand up for her to see.  "Erm...  Just keeping in practice before anything serious comes up!  Haven't had to heal anything in a while, needed to make sure it still works!"

 

She's not going to buy that.  You screamed, people don't scream for exercises.

 

You're the leader of Sol now, you can come up with an excuse if you need to.

 

@@Windbreaker,@@Vaporeon, @@Tricksters Pride, @, @@Aerodynas,

 

The noise being made by the party entering the woods had attracted attention.  A growl from up ahead would cut off any conversation, a Mightyena standing between two trees.  It stares at the intruders to its woods for a moment before lifting its head up and howling.  In the distance others take up the howl - the alarm was out that there were strangers in the woods.  Before any of the morphs would have a chance to do anything to the loan Mightyena it turns around and races off towards the direction of the other howls - trying to get back to the safety of its pack.