Trampling Plants and Growing Friendships (Alea)

Date: 24th of Spring 512 AV

It had been a third of the season since the storm that caused rain and hale to bombard Daeth's humble tent he set up, it sat in the Northern reaches near Avanthal. Daeth was getting headaches, not little headaches, big ones that filled his brain and liquefied it. The worst part was that they'd subside into a dull throbbing before immediately coming back, the pain would flood through and that'd leave him in a terrible humor. On top of that the storm seemed to have angered the animals, the animals ran amuck in the Mountains raging at the world like a hurricane in a small glass bottle. He had already found a body near a cave where he knew a polar bear lurked. The body wasn't even eaten or mauled, it was just propped up against the tree near the cave opening. He asked the tree in Nura and it confirmed that the polar bear batted the poor soul into the tree as he passed by. It was getting hard to control, the anger and the headaches. He'd distract himself by meditating. He'd meditate hours and it wouldn't help as every animal around him was running around mad and disturbed. He knew what he had to do. Daeth walked to the patch of vegetation that he'd been tending to for a while and told the doe nibbling on it to eat something more common which it did. It was a special plant, it housed many exotic species of insects and these insects were sources of food for larger animals just as exotic, but it was endangered as the storm had destroyed almost 3/4's of the remaining species in the forest here. He'd been trying to cultivate some in the patch of land near his tent using his limited gardening skills. He smiled a bit as the plants told him they were fine and gave him a variety of positive feelings and thanks for saving them. The impressions of the storm came next. It'd been a while but these plants remembered the storm clearly, they told him of the strange contents of the storm. Each droplet felt like a drop of wild, liquid energy. They'd go into the plant and the plant would practically glow with life but then they'd leave the plant almost straight after tearing and burning on the way out. He gaped at the plants immense insight on the storm. "The storm definitely wasn't what it seemed it's what's causing all the animals to go crazy!" Daeth thought slowly. He felt tired now after the contact and climbed up the tree nearby his plant patch and slept. A few birds landed on him and sang a peaceful song and he slowly felt the anger slip away along with the headache and the birds watched as he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had been having a difficult time sleeping last night. Yesterday was the day Oluse had asked her to travel with him to some place called Riverfall. She hadn't given him an answer yet; she wasn't even sure of the answer herself. There were reasons to go and reasons to stay, but mostly her head was just full of a confused mess of thoughts and feelings that she just couldn't sort out.

Alea couldn't sit still any longer. Silently, she stood up, being careful not to disturb the glowing Gilding next to her. She pulled her boots on, lacing and tying them with slow, methodical precision. Out of habit more than concern for the cold, she grabbed her two wool cloaks and threw them over her shoulders. The first cloak still had bloodstains in it that would probably never come out, but she used the second cloak to cover that up. As she walked toward the stable doors, she heard a soft snort. The horse, Beast, had noticed her leaving. She smiled and patted his nose in an affectionate gesture. That horse caused her trouble at any opportunity, but it was obvious he was worried about her. She also scratched the head of the cat that was napping on Beast's shoulders, but the cat just looked up sleepily, yawned, and continued to ignore Alea.

She tiptoed out of the stables and closed the door slowly behind her. Finally, she let all of her emotional energy release itself in the motion of her legs as she ran, ran away from Avanthal, away from her feelings. She ran toward the ocean, toward her home, as if she could somehow run all the way back to a simpler past, when travelling was just a childhood dream... or maybe it was just that the familiar smell of the ocean just comforted her.

She was breathing heavily by the time she reached the shore, but she wasn't ready to stop running yet. Something about the wind in her hair felt glorious, and she thought she understood now why Yuros loved to run so much. That thought brought a pang of loneliness; it still hadn't been that long since he'd left. Instead of turning back toward the relative safety of Avanthal, Alea turned south, imagining that she could feel the wilderness calling her. Before too long, she had almost forgotten the reasons behind her escape, as if she had actually managed to outrun her confusion. She was just reveling in the feeling of her legs pumping, carrying her across the ground in great strides, her breath going in and out in a steady rhythm. The nostalgic smell of the sea mingled with the newer scent of pines, and for a time, she lost herself in the freedom of the wilds.

So focus was she on her running and her breathing that she did not even notice when her flailing boots happened to squash the Jamoura's garden. In her ignorance, she assumed it was just more vegetation littering the ground beneath the sparse trees, and it did not occur to her to try to avoid it. What she did notice was the tent that was set up in a clearing nearby. She was getting tired, so she used this excuse to slow down and investigate. Was there someone living out here? Alone, away from the city? That seemed...dangerous.

She had crept almost right up to the tent, but she stopped several feet away, suddenly feeling like she was intruding. Belatedly, it occurred to her to examine the ground, and see if she could learn anything. It was close enough to the city that there still wasn't really any snow, but the ground still tended to be damp from all the water that came when the snow melted. She noticed some slight depressions in the mud, but all she could tell was that they did not belong to a boot, and they were bigger than her own feet. And she only saw that much by comparing the prints with her own that she was leaving behind. She wondered what manner of creature lived here, and where they were now....

[Daeth]

Daeth woke up, the headache had returned and it was pounding on his head again. This time though, it felt slightly different, maybe it was the bird that landed on him, it was rapidly feeding him a steady string of images and emotions. Urgency, vexation, an image of those plants he was trying to grow an image of a girl with long flowing dirty blonde hair... It was a good thing birds could see in color. Many would wonder why the Jamoura, such a slow race, were at the top of the food chain in the Spires. To be honest, if you've ever seen a fast Jamoura, then that'd mean that you've been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Daeth leapt off the tree branch and landed with a loud thud at the base of the tree, a few meters away from the girl. He didn't care who she was, or what she was, all he cared about was her imminent destruction. She needed to be eliminated. She destroyed those plants, the last living species of that plant was squashed to dust beneath her feet. It was quite a bad habit, lately he wanted to crush things, destroy things, unbeknownst to him the cause of it was the Djed storm. The storm that he so easily denounced as just a simple if not rather huge thunder storm. Of course the plants had told him about the true nature of the "rain" but to someone like Daeth with no knowledge of magic or Djed it was just rain. He thundered towards her and grabbed his huge Rock Crusher which was at the base of the tree he was resting on, he swung it and then threw it full force at the human, no doubt he would miss due to him never throwing anything in his whole life but it was worth a shot. The hammer buried itself in the tree 3 feet away from the girl. Daeth winced a bit at the damage he did but it was an old strong tree, he had talked to it and he knew that it would forgive him later. All he had to do now was deal with the girl. He'd rip her apart with his bare hands. He roared an animalistic Jamouran roar

[Alea Davenport]

Alea jumped at the loud thud of something crashing into a tree not far from her face, and she whirled around at the sound of a very large, very angry beast. She knew instantly that running away was not an option, and being killed from behind was always more terrifying for her than charging death head-on.

So, Alea did what she did best. Doing her best to dodge under the giant's hands, she dove toward one of his feet, curling into a tight ball and clinging to his leg. She could feel his large hands grabbing onto her, crushing her, but she just clung tighter, trying to give him as little to grab as possible. When one of his hands closed around her head, she took the opportunity to bite his finger as hard as she could. Maybe, just maybe, if she was enough of a nuisance, he would decide she wasn't worth the trouble. It was pretty much her only hope at this point.

She couldn't see anything through the mass of giant monkey all around her, but moments later, she felt the ground disappear from beneath her. She tried to hold on to the Jamoura's leg, but the force of being flung off was too great, and she felt something in her right shoulder pop as her body flew faster than her arm. She flew through the air for what seemed like an impossible long time. She hit a tree slightly off-center, seriously bruising her left elbow and landed in some brush a few yards beyond that.

Alea was in a great deal of pain, but fear for her life made her try to get up. However, her right arm refused to move. When she tried, a stab of pain went through her shoulder, and she cried out involuntarily. A deep, hacking cough forced its way through her throat, followed by several more, and Alea realized that no amount of fear or her life was going to give her the strength to keep fighting now. Unless raging killers were prone to fits of spontaneous mercy, she was going to have to accept her death.

She would regret dying; there were so many things she'd left undone, and unsaid. Never to see the world, or her family ever again. Never to find Yuros, and understand why he'd left. And Oluse... what would he think had happened to her? He would probably think she was angry at him, that she did not want to go traveling with him, and she realized now that nothing was further from the truth. The strength of this realization sent a few tears trickling down her cheeks. She wanted to live, if only to let her friend know that she wanted to go with him.

[Alea Davenport]

OOCDaeth has been missing for about a month and has not responded to PMs. I am going to conclude this thread now.

A few chimes later, Alea's coughing fit had subsided, and the Jamoura had not come to finish her off. She almost tried to lift herself up to see what was going on, but remembering what happened the last time she tried to move, she thought better of it. She had to think. If she was going to get out of this, she had to be smart about it. Smart and quiet.

She waited a few more moments to calm her breathing and try to evaluate the extent of her injuries. Mostly it just felt like heavy scrapes and bruises, but there was something wrong with her right arm. She would have to be careful not to put any more strain on it. She rolled slowly onto her left side, grimacing at the pain, but not crying out. She managed to get up into a kneeling position, carrying her useless right arm with her bruised left, with little more noise than the rustling of the bushes.

She stood up by propping herself against a tree. Every part of her body was in pain, but none of it seemed permanently damaging, except maybe the arm. Besides, she wasn't safe yet. She couldn't collapse until she made it back to the city.

Alea peered toward the clearing where the Jamoura's tent had been. She could see no sign of the ape, which was not exactly a comfort. If she was lucky, he hadn't seen her, and was lying in wait wherever he was before he'd attacked her the first time. If she was less lucky, he knew exactly where she was, and could attack again at any moment. In either case, her best course of action was the same. Most of her practice was with sneaking away from adult Denvalians, but maybe some of the same principles applied to sneaking away from angry monkeys.

Based on the direction the tent was facing, she was able to get her bearings, and she had a general idea of where the city was. She had not gone too far, maybe a mile or two. She began limping slowly and quietly in what she hoped was the right direction, having to stop and rest every so often lest the pain and dizziness overcome her. This was going to be a long walk.

[Creeper]

Alea Davenport   Skills Stealth: 1 Running: 2 Observation: 1 Tracking: 1 Brawling: 2 Land Navigation: 1   Lores Why Yuros Loves to Run Memory: Facing Death   Other Dislocated Shoulder from being thrown Majorly Bruised Elbow from hitting the tree Minor Scratches from landing in a bush I always love combat threads, too bad it was not finished. Please continue the good fight! Daeth   Skills Climbing: 1 Intimidation: 1 Rock Crusher: 1   Lores Location: Cave Inhabited by Polar Bear Memory: Damaging a Tree in Rage   Other Minor bite wound on Finger from Alea I would've liked to have seen a bit more detail and fleshing out in the use of your use of Phylonura, but well done.