Deep within the Bowels of the Rock-Beast [OPEN]

by **Ball** on July 18th, 2012, 6:01 pm

The dog seemed content with the meat he was given, happily chewing on the dried bits and thumping its tail againt the ground.

The finger just kept getting closer and closer. Until finally the finger pushed into the ball's clay body and literally rolled over the finger and came to a flopping stop as it struggled to reform into a solid ball on top of the man's hand. The closet thing the ball could possibly be imagined like in its current state was a slug moving and wriggling around without the slimy trail.

After several seconds of pulling into itself and rolling it's body up into the middle to form yet again a perfect ball the Pycon settled into position on the back of the Akalak's hand, okay not a perfect ball, but it was close enough, the bottom curve was slightly wavy to allow for the pycon to set comfortably in the location it was in.

by **Imass** on July 18th, 2012, 6:21 pm

The clay ball felt cool and moist as if was freshly made by a craftsman. It was soft to the touch too, but it still had the distinct earthly feeling. The ball started to ripple again and began to surround Imass' finger. The Knight's eyes widened even more as he witnessed the ball wrap around his finger. He dared not move or even shift his weight.

The clay formation was not a ball anymore, it resembled more like a shapeless slug crawling up the Knight's hand. It climbed and climbed. He could feel the clay 'morphing' around his hand. It almost tickled, but Imass was too amazing the even care. His face had a grin from ear to ear. He almost laughed. A piece of clay was 'crawling' on top of his hand!

Finally after struggling up his hand, the piece of clay turned back into a ball, resting neatly on the back of his hand. It felt like it weighed way too much for it's size. It must have been about an eighth the size of the Akalak's big bear hand, but it felt way too heavy. (He could still carry it with ease, but it weighed too much for a simple ball of clay) Imass could barely comprehend what was going on, but it was truly amazing. This was one of the most amazing things he had seen in all of Mizahar, up to this point in his life.

He lost track of everything around him and focused solely on the ball, "Wow. That was amazing..." Imass didn't say it, but he wanted to see what else the ball of clay could do. Looking around his body, the Knight searched for something to help him. He was extra careful to make sure not to disturb the Pycon or the dog.

Grabbing a loose piece of fabric from his shirt, he ripped off a two foot strand. Wrapping it around his finger, he dangled it right on top of the clay ball. Holding it as still as possible, he gingerly lowered the string down to that it was a mere millimeter above the ball.

EDIT- I added a sentence mentioning Ball's weight. Nothing else changed.

by **Ball** on July 19th, 2012, 2:41 pm

The clay ball could sense the strip of fabric dangling inches above his head, it was quite humiliating to be used for this large blue 'pycon's' amusement. So Ball did what he knew best to do. His body wasn't feeling up to climbing anything, hell he was feeling pain from just slug moving his way to his current position and then reforming.

This was noticeable even to Imass as Ball's body managed to slowly pull a small appendage from the top of it's curved surface and wrap itself around the lower end of the strip. The elasticity didn't last long as the appendage quickly snapped back into the ball's center, pulling the strip of cloth taunt yet still within the grasp of Imass. The next thing that occurred was when the appendage snapped back into Ball he lost his equilibrium and tipped off the mostly flat plane of Imass's large hand. Now the thin piece of fabric was all that was holding the heavily weighted small ball of clay, but how long could that fabric last?

Well, not long, as the ball of clay hung there for such a short period of time in the air the fabric started to tear, and with any tear the weight on the bottom only pulled the tear open even more due to sheer gravity, so really very shortly after Ball was suspended in the air the poor Pycon was quickly plummeting to the ground, sure it wasn't a super far drop, but it was going to hurt.

by **Imass** on July 19th, 2012, 4:28 pm

Imass concentrated on the ball. He fed it positive energy. He calmed his mind. And focused on the clay ball. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was alive. Strangely he could feel some sort of moist warmth radiating from the clay object. The way it was moving also was evidence enough for Imass. He was captivated by this ball of clay and wanted to see how strong it was.

He meditated and closed his eyes, channeling as much positive energy into the ball of clay as possible. Imass did everything from the heart and this just felt right. He prayed to Tyveth to make sure he was doing the right thing. He calmed him mind again. He let the energy flow from his mind towards clay ball.

Perhaps this meditation wasn't physically helping the clay ball, but it certainly showed Imass' disposition on life itself.

When he opened his eyes again, the clay ball was dangling by the edge of the fabric. Imass smiled as he saw the ball had successfully grabbed the piece of string. The Akalak slowly raised the piece of cloth higher and higher into the air. Now the Pycon was at least six inches from Imass' hand.

That is when the fabric suddenly started to tear. The clay ball was too heavy. Imass watched silently. He wanted to see what the ball would do. Two seconds later gravity took it's course and the ball fell into Imass's hand.

The drop was perfect. Not a dent or scratch in the clay ball. It was successful. However, it was apparent now the the clay ball was tired. Imass somehow just knew it, based on how it was acting.

He then gingerly set it on the floor, then sat crossed legged in front of it. To anyone passing by, they would see a big blue guy staring at a dog.

by **Ball** on July 19th, 2012, 4:50 pm

The drop wasn't far, thank the gods, but it was still painful. When the Pycon did land he landed with a slightly less than perfect ball shape and it was more of a thud as his lovely curved surface squished out between Imass's fingers. After the big blue man placed Ball down on the ground did the Pycon finally reform himself into his lovely spherical shape and manged to rest.

Once rested on the ground beside his trusty hound, who was still chewing away on the jerky. Few people passed the knight off-duty and the stray dog. It wasn't long before the ball of clay was on his way to devouring the strip of fabric. After a few minutes of sitting there being stared at the ball of clay had devoured the entire strip of fabric, adding it to his hoard which rested in the center of his body surrounded his nexus.

[OOC]Added Strip of Fabric From Imass's shirt to Equipment.

by **Imass** on July 19th, 2012, 5:15 pm

Imass watched in amazement as the puckered out ball of clay slowly smoothed out back into it's perfectly round shape. It was amazing. Imass wondered why the clay ball chooses to always stay in a ball form. It could clearly mold into something else. Perhaps this was it's perfect relaxing point. When it is at ease maybe?

After a minute or two, the ball began to slowly eat the thread from Imass's shirt. The Knight's eyes widened in disbelief. Within a few seconds the whole string was gone inside of the ball. This gave Imass an idea. Maybe he could feed it more objects. Perhaps it was an enchanted piece of clay that could hold items. Imass had heard rumors of such magic before.

Leaning forward he said in a calm, happy tone. He tried to project as much friendliness to the clay as possible, "Can you understand me? What do you eat? Can I take you to my room? Is it okay?"

Imass hoped for some kind of answer.

by **Ball** on July 19th, 2012, 5:31 pm

Ball was beginning to like this guy, even though he was being treated as a child, it was a neat perspective and the guy may be able to teach Ball things. Ever agree to learn new things, besides being curious, the Pycon bounced up off the ground slightly in affirmation when asked if he could take Ball to his room. A way out of the Rock-Beast.

As for the eatting thing. Ball paused and then started to hitch forward on the ground, as if he was about to retch. And retch he did. Soon enough the ball's spherical side was being pressed outwardly before it split wide open and out dropped a mushy pile of regular clay. The hole in the side of Ball quickly grew small appendages and pulled the clay back into the main body and worked on folding into itself and becoming a spherical shape once more.

Minutes passed before the spherical Pycon stopped its odd flucations and rounding out of oneself and quivered into a perfectly round sphere of clay-like substance.

by **Imass** on July 19th, 2012, 5:47 pm

In response the Imass' questions the clay ball bounced up off the floor. In the Knight's calm state of mind, he could practically feel the energy coming off the ball. It bounced briskly and happily to Imass' voice and did not back away. The Akalak took this jumping motion as a yes from the clay Pycon.

Then it did something rather interesting. It stopped for a second then jerked forward retching. It shaked in pulsating like intervals. It almost looked like it was rippling slightly. Suddenly a mushy piece of clay began to be pushed out of the ball. Then two small appendages popped out and pulled the circular piece of clay into the main body.

Imass' mouth was wide open. He understood exactly what the ball was trying to say; it wanted some more clay! Imass needed to produce some clay for the ball to consume. Delighted with his discover the Akalak put his hand on the floor and beckoned the ball of clay to proceed.

"Let's go and get you some clay. The dog can come along too!" Imass waited for the clay Pycon to roll or crawl onto his palm.

by **Ball** on July 23rd, 2012, 2:53 pm

The ball of clay quivered and then flung itself at its riding mount. The dog allowed the ball of clay to drop heavily between it's shoulder blades before it grabbed the rest of it's hoard of dried jerky and stepped towards the blue Knight. Once prepped and ready to go Ball gave the dog a signal to let the Knight know they were ready to follow.

Let it be up. Please let it be up this gullet of the Rock-Beast

Once the Knight started in which ever direction his room was the Pycon quickly forgot about going up, this was an adventure!

And the round ball of Pycon-Clay Awesomeness was ready!

by **Imass** on July 23rd, 2012, 4:45 pm

As Imass waited for the Ball to roll on his hand, the most unexpected thing happened. Suddenly the ball of clay "jumped" onto the back of the dog. Imass had no idea how the ball would be able to do that in the first place. It had no legs to jump or nothing. Then again, the Knight was no magician and in the realm of magic anything possible. At least that was the conclusion that the Akalak made.

After a little bit of wiggling and waggling from the ball and the dog mount, the Pycon and it's mount was ready. Shrugging, Imass just lead the way. He really did not know what to think of this ball of clay now. Not only was it riding a dog, but the dog knew exactly what to do without any apparent communication.

This left Imass to wonder how the Ball even communicated in the first place. It had made crude jumping motions before, but how did it interact with such a mount. These were all mysteries that Imass planned on finding out, but first he needed to find some clay.

Making his way through the dark maze of the Fortress City, Imass tried to find the main corridor that lead to the exit. This was especially difficult in the residential districts of the city.

Imass made a right. Then a left. He walked down a spiral staircase, then turned into another corridor. The whole city looked the same: stone, mortar, torches to light the way, and steady flow of people commuting. Walking down this last corridor for awhile, Imass finally broke through to the main street that led out of the castle.

"Almost there!" Imass exclaimed with a smile, pointing at the gate, "Let's go find you some clay!"

He knelt down next to the dog and spoke quietly, "Do you want to ride in my hand for now? I don't think the guards at the gate will like the fact a ball of clay is riding a dog. Even though I am a Knight myself, I can't really help you there. Want to ride in my pocket until we get outside?"

Imass tried to make gestures with his hands to explain himself. He pointed at the knights at the gate and made a slicing motion through his neck. Then he held his hand out on the floor and smiled.