Closed To Kill a Glassbeak.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

If the Pycon was able to snort, he would have. Unfortunately such a thing didn't come as easily as it did for a human, who had an actual nasal cavity. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here." Silly questions were better left in the mind and not on the lips. "We're wasting light." He wanted to get as far away from the Shinya as possible, so he turned and set off as fast as his little legs would carry him. The stick dug into the ground with every step, aiding his hobbling and giving him a little more speed for a little less effort - but it was barely noticeable to the Pycon. It wasn't the reason he brought the stick with him, either way. It wasn't even there to help him up the steeper edges of the hills that lined the Unforgiving, although he was merciful that he did have it for those occasions.

It'd likely take another bell or two just to reach a distance that the Shinya wouldn't be likely to follow. Not that the Shinya would intentionally follow them, but Cyq didn't know the range of their vision.. he didn't know whether they may scout out into the Unforgiving for some other reason, and if they did, the last thing he wanted was them finding him in the middle of his business. Once they made it, he'd need to find a flat surface to paint his circle with the needed co-ordinates. All this free time meant that Cyq could properly explain just what would be happening. "Alright. Time for you to know why I've brought you out here, I think. What happens out here remains between you and me, and you'd be wise to keep it that way, because if push comes to shove then you'll be in as deep a trouble as I will be." If the man decided to try and make a run now, then.. well, there was nobody else but the two of them, and a lot of jagged rocks and steep cliffs.

"I'm going to create a Summoning portal and activate it. You're going to use that hypnosis of yours to stop whatever comes through that portal.. and I'm going to kill it." The Pycon had unfortunately spent a little bit of his djed already, in the process of distinguishing Shamus' aura and discovering his little talents. "I don't care how you stop it from attacking. As long as you make sure that it doesn't.. because if it does, then you know that it'll come for you next." Unless he could manipulate the Glassbeak and send it at him.. but no, he couldn't, surely. If he could, then the Pycon would have to deal with the man first, and the Glassbeak second. He'd find a way. "If you could stop it from moving for a few ticks, like you said you could do earlier, that'd be great." There was no friendliness, no geniality to his tone.

This was nothing more than business. This was a deal to be made, an agreement - this was a trade, the Pycons silence in return for Shamus'. It was a fair deal, really. "You pull this off, and you don't have to worry about me telling everyone just who you are and what you can do." He dug the stick into the soil a little harder, between a pair of rocks that were embedded deep into the ground, and used the stick to hoist himself up an extra few steps to make sure that he could keep up with Shamus. His smaller stature made it harder to keep up with a human, considering he had to keep up a pace well over twice the speed of Shamus. "You understand what I'm asking from you, Shamus?"

[Shamus]

35th of Fall, 514 AV Quite straightforward, aren't you. Why so serious pycon? Maybe all pycons just have no patience for fools. I would change that, but I would rather not have a spear through my throat. Thoughts of what he would do if the pycon did not know of hypnotism plagued him the entire hike to the pycon's destination, most of which consisted of convincing the hedgehog to move to Sunberth, where he would surely be destroyed in one way or another. But the trek was much more difficult than Shamus had been guessing it would be which forced him to focus on walking, with steep inclines and steeper declines. He tripped once before learning a technique to prevent falling to the ground, throwing his opposite foot in front right as he began to stumble. It worked well, preventing further accidents for the remainder if the long hike. Shamus wondered whether he would ever here the pycon's possibly convoluted plan, and finally getting his answer as the pair approached flatter ground. He listened closely, sticking every word in his head to keep himself from forgetting it. The way people talk often give a bit of knowledge on them, so remembering how the pycon addressed things was imperative for he could compare other features to his knowledge, which consisted of only humanoid species. More threats, more threats, and more threats. He sighed, all the pycon gave were threats, no please or thankyou, which Shamus would have been just as receptive to. Except then he may have still been using hypnotism and got out of coming all the way out here entirely. His mind was brought back to the present on the word summoning, which immediately caused him to recoil slightly. Summoning could bring extremely dangerous creatures from other planets, something Shamus had no interest in until he knew how to tame whatever came out. "I will need to know what you are summoning out, otherwise I will probably just force it to kill you and ignore me, for I won't be able to stun it until I know what it is." It was the truth, except he had no intentions of having the creature maul the pycon for any reason, he chose not to kill. "If I know what it is you are bringing out I can most likely stun it, although it may only last a few ticks, I don't know how long after that."

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Cyq had absolutely no intention in losing what tentative hold he had over the man - the last thing he wanted to do was come off as innocent and sweet. These were the first people to be stabbed in the back when they proved useless - Pycons most of all. He was barely a few inches tall, made of a soft and malleable substance. It was only his amateur knowledge of Reimancy that kept the hedgehog alive at all. At any time, the man could have likely just stepped on the Pycon and walked away if he truly wanted to. Cyq had no understanding of physical combat.. his parents had never been ones for combat, nor many of the others that had passed through Pyconia. True, being stepped on was hardly something that would really hurt at all.. but it'd still be something. Shamus hadn't so far, which meant that the hedgehog had some hold over him. Whether it was the knowledge that not doing so would get him shamed or killed wasn't known just yet.

He wasn't going to lose that hold though. Not when he'd come so far. With such a blatant comment made, the hedgehog didn't hesitate to wheel around and stare, hard, at Shamus with those unblinking eyes. "I'd be careful what I say out here." Especially since he was essentially admitting that he'd do exactly what the Pycon feared most. "You and I are alone out here. Your body won't be found." This was a stand-off. Now or never. The man could turn around, walk back where he'd come from.. he could step on the hedgehog, pick him up and throw him half-way across the Unforgiving itself. Simultaneously, Cyq could draw up a spear of rock and stab it straight through him. This could end up bloody, there was a very good chance of it ending up bloody or worse. "If you even try it, you'll be the first one to die."

Once that was out of the way, he turned back and continued on his walk. "We'll be taking down a Glassbeak. All I need is a few ticks to make the spear and stab it through the middle of it." There was no time for awkwardness now. He could see a spot higher up that held a relatively flat spot before it dipped down into a jagged valley below. It'd do for his intentions - little to no grass or rocks. No more 'most likely's or 'maybe's. If he did, they'd both succeed, and if he didn't, they'd both fail and likely die. "I hope you didn't exhaust yourself back in the Azure." He really did, actually. It was probably the first thing he'd said to the man since meeting him that showed that the Pycon actually cared for Shamus' wellbeing.

[Shamus]

35th of Fall, 514 AV He shook his finger like a parent to a child, waving it back and forth while making a few 'tsks' to enunciate his point. "Enough with the threats pycon, I have no intentions other than to help you, and you continually tell me I will die soon. I have kept every part of our deal, and will do so until this endeavor is over, but you need to simply be a decent per- uh -pycon. " He nearly snorted at the pycon's next comment about him dying first, "I wouldn't attack you, I know no riemancy and carry only a blade. You would attack yourself if I were to kill you," Now that the hedgehog knew of most of his tactics of hypnotism, he was practicaly immune to them and could recognize any foreign thought he placed into the mind easier, so it was slight exageration. But from past experiences he knew that many thought hypnotists could basically control the mind, a lie, but with enough effort they could nearly do so if they had the experience. Shamus sighed, done retaliating against the pycon, thinking that he may be helpful in the future if Shamus helped obediently. His ears perked up to the sound of the pycons voice, and then he wondered how the pycon had a voice with clay vocal cords. He shrugged at the thought, focusing back on the actual words he was supposed to be listening to, quickly realizing he heard glassbeak. He tossed it through his head for a few seconds, recognizing the name but not exactly knowing what it was. Glassbeak, glassbeak, glassbe- the bird, Sea of Grass. Afraid of fire, if I remember right. He must have read of it somewhere, while looking for the unique fauna and flora of Mizahar, which always fascinated him. "Just depleted a decent amount of my djed, but I still got enough to guarantee a few ticks. Anyway, how long do these summons take? I need around thirty seconds before it comes through to mentally prepare and move djed to ready positions, I can do it while your working on the circle, but after I start preparing talking becomes hard until I release the djed, so if I am unresponsive, ignore it." Shamus shrugged, following the pycon's gaze and picking a quicker pace to reach the destination, having no patience for walking behind a slower person. He realized that he hated being held back in every form, for it prevented his full opertunity.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

His jaw set at the rebuke. Perhaps he was overreacting, just a little bit. That didn't mean that his thoughts weren't any less valid. "Don't talk down to me, like a damn child!" Emotion was beginning to push through, even though he tried his best to hold it back. He was afraid. The more he looked at this man, the more his imagination began to run wild with thoughts of how he could be manipulated into being murdered - worse yet was that the man was pretty much openly explaining that he would do it. Hypnotize the Glassbeak and make it attack him the moment he Summoned it, or worse, just make him kill himself. When the Pycon had seen the man last, he'd held the other woman as if she was nothing more than a puppet on a string. Her body reacting to every beck and call. It could be him next, reduced to nothing more than a slave, told to turn and hop right over the edge of one of these cliffs. Nobody would come looking for him, nobody would ever know what had happened. Poof.

Soon they were moving on from the conversation, and boy was Cyq happy for it. Everything said over the last few chimes by either of them was quickly forgotten, wiped from memory as if it'd never existed at all. There was only the future now, as he hobbled towards his goal but quickly found himself being overtaken by the human. Though the hedgehog never stumbled, thanks to the support of his walking stick, he was still considerably slower than the human. "I'll need time to draw the circle and activate it. Should take several chimes. You'll have plenty of time, no need to worry about that." Business was finally underway. He was beginning to feel a little more secure, a little happier in his position. The man was, apparently, going to help. At the end of this, he'd have a Glassbeak.

Just the thought of what he could do with such a body was enough to have the hedgehog a little exciting. An actual predator. "Does that creatures name ring any bells, Shamus? Know anything about them in particular?" he asked almost casually while climbing the last few steps, and shrugging off the pack. His walking stick was too blunt to actually be stabbed into the dirt, so he carefully set it down on its side next to the pack as he pulled away the top and removed a large brush and pot of paint. He wanted to make a moderately large circle, to give plenty of room. That meant that he'd need plenty of room though, closer to the edge of the small ledge that they had available. "Mmm.. this will do quite nicely," he said to himself, already busy unscrewing the top of the pot and dipping his brush inside.

True, he'd never done painting before per se. He was more used to carving than anything, since that was all that was ever needed for his maledictions - carve straight into the bones with a chisel or a pick. Paints were what came later, for things like the hides of the animals. He'd often seen his Symnestran tutor using the same blood of the animal that he killed for the malediction circles; casually dipping the brush into the still-warm blood and then painting elaborate circles and pictures over the bones. He never said why, and the Pycon never bothered to ask. It seemed an useful technique, nevertheless.

"I could be a while." This was his first time creating a circle without the help of Corin Row, actually. If he made a mistake, there was no turning to the man to fix it for him. He'd just have to use the dirt to cover up his mistakes, and redraw the circle until it fit what he hoped it should look like.

[Shamus]

35th of Fall, 514 AV "I know it is a bird, a rather large one at that. Afraid of fire, the same thing I will be using to stun it. Ever hear of the three emergency response instincts, fight flight or freeze? I am going to pray upon the freeze." Manipulating fear was a path to quick control, which would render many defenseless to mental or physical assault, which was why politicians brought up other leaders more sensitive topics, which the assaulter would then bring up over and over until his foes were scared of what else would be shown to the world. By then their minds would be too busy dealing with thinking of what would be said next that they could not cook up a decent excuse or fight back with their own insults, rendering them vulnerable and leaving only the attacker left. Shamus's eyes watched like a hawk as Cyq began to work, only waiting until he was what looked like half way done before beginning his own preparations. His mind cleared, eyes closing and leaving his body vulnerable. A single thought echoed through his mind, fire. What does fire feel like, what does it smell like? He bounced his experiences with flames through his head, recalling the smell of smoke from an extinguished candle, gathering djed in his head and encircling the smell, blending the sense with his magic. I need to amplify it, wildfire, not a candle. He recalled the smell of a brazier, stronger smoke, moving it into the djed. He pressed himself to come up with several more instances in which he smelled fire, adding in each to the theoretical bubble of djed surrounding them. He focused, manipulating the djed full of scents to directly under his tongue, where they would be released into the mind of the glassbeak when it was summoned. Hot, not on the bird, just surrounding it. Nowhere to go. Shamus thought it over, eyes still closed in a state of focus and near meditation. It would need to be like a circle of fire to truly affect the freeze response, which was the least likely response under normal circumstances with a predator, which usually fight immediately. Shamus recalled the heat of sitting too close to the hearth, a very hot and unpleasant experience. He imagined that hotter flames had lit the hearth, nearly opening his eyes to check if he was on fire, but remembering it was simply memory. He focused on the burning feeling, catching it in his mind and intertwining it with djed to preserve and allow it to travel through him. He promptly moved it to directly next to his stored sense of the smell of fire, leaving only one snese that he could pray upon without being in a real forest fire, sight. Shamus conjured up crackling flames, then imagined the same flames in a tight ring, enlarging the flicks of orange great heights, to achieve the similarity to what he thought the birds may be afraid of, large forest fires. He wrapped the sight in djed and positioned it directly behind his eyes, ready to push into the birds weaker mind. His eyes cracked open, then exposed the golden iris to the world, gazing upon the pycons work closely, waiting for his warning that he would begin the summoning. He would avoid talking for the rest of the time, to not let any of the precious djed slip, for Shamus could not spare any more without definite overgiving.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

While he was busy preparing himself, clearing the few small pebbles from the space with the tip of his walking stick, he shook his head at the questions. He'd never heard of Hypnotism up until that day, so there was little chance he'd heard of any of these techniques. He'd have to remember them for later, though. It was nice to know what the man was planning to do.. made him feel more at ease. Then again, he could just as easily be lying in order to make him feel secure just to kill him afterwards. The Pycon had to take everything with a pinch of salt, just in case. He never needed to voice these thoughts, accuse him of what could very well be a sincere attempt at conversation, but he didn't have to ignore them either. "I see.. you're going to frighten it into silence. Shame I don't know how to use fire yet, or I could have complimented it with some actual fire. Would have made your job easier." Heck, the hypnotist wouldn't even need to do anything.

After that little tidbit of information, the man went silent, and the Pycon took that as a signal to get to work on the circle. He'd start with the outer circle first, of course, before he worked his way inwards towards the center. If he was larger, he probably could have just knelt down and never moved from the spot while he worked.. but given his stature, he had to grip the paintbrush with both paws and walk with it dragging along the floor to create the circle. On the bright side, it wasn't all that hard. With chalk, it was harder, he found; the pieces of chalk were tiny, and it meant he had to bend down in order to use it, and the lines came out wobbly and uncertain. Now, he could stroll around at full height.

Next came the inner circle, which was even easier. All he needed to do was keep it in line with the outer, make sure that the same distance was held between the two layers at all times. There was nothing artistic about what he did - nothing more than simple circles drawn into the soil, soaking it with black ink. Just because it was rather easy to draw out the circles, didn't mean that it wasn't difficult remembering how the different parts were supposed to come together. Whether it was a simple circle or a complicated one didn't matter, he'd only made two or three so far. "Right.. now, is it this one? No.. this one. Yes." He muttered to himself throughout the entire thing, occasionally dropping to one knee to draw up a bit of soil in his paw to cover over his mistakes before re-painting over the same spot.

Eventually, he found himself drawing to the close. A cross running inside the inner circle, connecting four corners where a circle was drawn at each. Three more circles at equal distances from one-another were drawn along the line of the inner circle, and in each one, a number. 0012926672185630. The world of Shoyden, inside which they would find a Glassbeak.

"Alright, it's just about done. I'll need to activate it, and then prepare my spear. Are you ready?" When he glanced back, Shamus was staring at him with those strange golden eyes. "I'll take that as a yes, then." With that, he waddled back to the pack and picked up the last item he'd need - a hunting knife. With this, he returned to the middle of the circle and grit his teeth as the blade pierced his wrist and began slicing a rather large hole in an attempt to remove a piece of clay from his body, and place on the circle. Though slicing himself wasn't really that painful, since he could instantly regenerate the wound, removing a piece of clay was near-excruciating, and he had to stop himself from crying out when it finally came free and dropped right into the middle. He wasted no time standing clear afterwards, though, as nothing happened for a few moments.

Then, the soil inside the circle fell down into nothingness. It was ready.

[Shamus]

35th of Fall, 514 AV It is a shame you don't know fire, I wouldn't petching be on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, no, not nowhere, worse. The Unforgiving. Shamus fumed for a few moments, yelling at the pycon the best he could without using his voice. He proceeded to calm down and focus on clearing his mind and holding back his djed so it didn't rush towards the pycon. Shamus was intrigued by the circles, wondering how drawings could bring forth a creature from some other planet. Thinking of it was quite strange, and Shamus decided he would have to research it or ask the pycon some other time. Maybe summoning is interesting afterall. The only slightly worrying part of watching the pycon work was as he audibly doubted himself and instructed which circle to paint when. The hedgehog usually told himself one thing and then contradicted himself multiple times only seconds later. Shamus wondered what would happen if he messed up in the circle, would it explode or simply not work? Or would it bring something unwanted and incredibly strong from somewhere that Mizahar was never supposed to find. He paid close attention to the pycon writing a long series of numbers, astral coordinates, into the circles. Seems this entire discipline is memorization. Does he use any of his own djed or simply pictures? Why wouldn't he write down the coordinates in some notebook? The whole setup seemed rather strange to Shamus, especially when the pycon cut a chunk of his body off and tossed it into the circle, then ran back. Shamus's eyes went wide as the ground fell through, to whatever the portal led to. He took a deep breath, holding it back and ready to yell out at full force with his djed in tow, which he would push straight into the bird's mind to create the technique called a 'flash'. His eyes locked on the circle, simply waiting for the chance to release brief the image of fire into the predators mind upon arrival. Now he just needed to wait.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Shamus had already prepared himself and was only left waiting, but the Pycon still had many things to prepare before the Glassbeak would enter. His mind was racing with the different steps, drawing on the mental images he'd been instructed to use of rushing water representing his lifeforce, little streams being pulled away, pooling inside his body, running down into his palms. These were all methods that were supposed to be used in calm conditions, under meditation perhaps. Such was not the case here. This was under pressure, where he needed that Res now. Instead he was left fumbling still as the glinting head of a creature began to emerge from the bottom of the portal, rising up as though emerging from a river.

The first thing that struck the Pycon was simply how big it was. A good four or five feet tall, hardly a bird with armored scales running over its throat and chest, with odd plumage cresting the top of its body where the scales wouldn't reach. It wasn't a bird, but neither was it a lizard.. the more the Pycon stared at it, the less he really thought he knew what it was at all. He'd have time to properly inspect the thing once it was dead, though. The things head was rearing back with that glossy beak clacking at the air as it steadily emerged, growing right before the hedgehogs eyes until it stood at its full height inside the circle. Its eyes were entirely fixed on Shamus for the moment, almost with a look of hunger. Good - the Pycon would have time to get rid of the creature now.

One thing that he took at a glance was the fact that the thing was surrounded by an odd aura. He wasn't using auristics for the moment, either. There was a definite orange-brown aura that surrounded the creature, thinning down into a strand that connected to the inside of the circle - a leash. This was new. He'd never summoned a creature before, and of course had no idea what it meant to have this leash, or really how to control it. However, there was no time for that. The Glassbeak had already begun to strain the leash, in an attempt to push closer to Shamus. However, the leash was holding - perhaps a few extra moments were being given. Thank goodness.

Res was pooling in his paws, growing as he drunk away more djed in the creation of an exceptionally large spear that soon wound itself in threads above the Glassbeak, pointing straight down towards it. This was really pushing his limits, but he didn't say anything. He needed to concentrate on finishing the spear, transmuting the outside layers, like the layers of sedimentary rock he could see in his minds eye as he crafted the tip - he needed to ensure that it was sharp, after all.

[Shamus]

35th of Fall, 514 AV It is coming out. Prepare yourself Shamus. Focus. He stared at the emerging beast, focusing on it and only it, staring right into its beady eyes. Everything else seemed to fall into a blurred scene of colors. The noise stopped, the gentle breeze no longer whistling as if it did not want to interrupt the standoff between Shamus and the glassbeak. Time itself seemed slowed in Shamus's mind. He let out his held back air with a puff of air releasing it in an almighty roar, conjuring up the loudest yell Shamus could muster. He forced the djed straight toward the bird, ramming into its mind and slipping in, this was nothing subtle, he was trying to overpower it. "Fear, fire!" he pushed the image through his eyes into the birds, the smell and feel of flickering flames surrounding the large feathery creature and entering into it, forcing the fake images to become real to the bird primal senses. It huddled back, shrinking away from the invisible ring of fire that was not there, only to whip around and find more columns of flame encircling its mind. It froze, unable to run, unable to hide. It was trapped in its own mind with its fear surrounding it, with no idea of how to react. The hypnotism would wear off in a few mere ticks, Shamus couldn't guarantee much more than that, which he had warned the pycon of. Better make that spear fast. Shamus was depleted for the moment, not risking any more of himself on the bird unless it directly threatened his life, even overgiving was less of a threat than death. The glassbeak began to twitch, the flash dissipating from the mind and leaving the bird to recover. "Pycon, hurry! Few more ticks and it will move again!" Shamus quietly scolded himself for not running while he had the chance, or not using magic in the market in the first place, both options would have worked just fine. Or even if he was brought out here, if he hadn't manipulated the shop owner and used a large amount of his djed on the pycon, he may have been able to simply scare the bird off or not see him. It was the last chance, bird slowly turning to glance down at the pycon and back toward Shamus, cocking its head one final time. Gaining coherency. Eat the clay thing, not me! Please?