[Crystal Hall] Join Me in the Cold [Nivex]

[Naya]

45th Winter, 510AV

To be honest, Naya had nothing to do. She was bored. If anyone came up to her, she would say she was meditating, drawing on her inspiration to think up another epic story that she would weave. Though in all honesty, this was the biggest lie.

Naya was sitting on the first floor of the Crystal Hall, looking out the windows and admiring the view. Also known as, zoning out completely and not paying a single piece of attention.

With a huff, she pushed herself up and strode through the hall, making sure to swagger her way through, earning glances and making herself as loud as possible. If she were to die of boredom, she may at least make herself noticeable while doing it.

She pushed through the large double doors with a bang, walking dramatically through them. She liked to think she looked quite cool while doing it. She posed slightly, one hand on her hip, hair swinging out behind her. Hopefully, she had garnered someone's lasting attention.

It was with a melodramatic sigh that she swept over to a pole, grasping it, doing a twirl around it, and then resting her head on the icy cold pole. "Oh, my!" She cried out.

Now for someone to join her.

[Nivex]

Nivex had never paid any attention to the Crystal Hall when she was younger, but curiosity got the better of her on that day. She strolled in the rather large building, and awed at its wide, elegant space around her. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen this place before! Walking around the area and admiring the sights, Nivex made a B-line towards a large window. "Beautiful!" Nivex said to herself softly. It was any wonder how the girl grew up in Avanthal and had never admired the attractions. She placed her hand on the chilling windowed, and stared at the cityscape below. Slowly, she took her hand off the window, which stuck on there for a moment. After walking backwards away from the window to view the city one last time, Nivex turned back around to view the rest of the building. Nivex creaked open one of the two large doors, and peaked passed them to see if anyone was inside. Someone was there, to Nivex's surprise. She fully opened the door and advanced inside, slightly challenged of what she was seeing. Inside was a woman, who must have been bored out of her mind, posing by a pole. Nivex had heard her yell something out loud. Maybe I shouldn't be in this place,Nivex thought to herselfif being in her is going to do that to me... "Excuse me," Nivex called out to the woman, shutting the door slowly behind her. "I don't mean to be rude, but are you ok? I couldn't help but notice that you were, er, twirling."

[Naya]

Twirling around the pole, Naya soon discovered, was rather fun. She watched the rest of the room spin around, her head thrown backwards - viewing everything in upside down. The effect was rather relaxing.

Spinning around, she could see the warm wood of the interior and the icy, ethereal glare of the snow and ice outside. It was quite a meditative experience. She forgot about the rest of the world for a couple of minutes.

Naya was broken from her trance by a voice. It was a woman's voice, softer and more lyrical than most. She looked to be around Naya's own age, and was also quite short. Naya was over all the midgets in this world, especially after the barfight a few nights back.

She stepped off the pole, hurriedly composing herself - before remembering she was going to put on a show. Dramatically, she flung herself to the ground, and wrapped her arms around it. She began to wail loudly, weeping and carrying on. She took some slight pleasure in the utterly confused face of the girl before her.

After she had deemed she had spent enough time weeping, she flung herself prostrate onto the floor, and began to crawl towards the girl. She grabbed onto the girl's ankles and held on, as if for dear life. She continued to weep.

"Okay? I am not okay! They came! Like a storm in the night! Unseen, but heard and absolutely destructive! And now they're gone, they're all gone!"

With that last exclamation, she fell again into a sobbing heap. This was seriously amusing.

[Naya]

Sorry!I accidently submitted this post twice, and because it won't let me delete it, I'm just replacing it with this message.

[Nivex]

Nivex was utterly startled. A second ago, this woman was twirling around a pole like a dancer. Now she was weeping tremendously! Not to mention, Nivex was completely stuck on the ground by the ankles, and she didn't think she could get the woman off of her. "Well..." Nivex tried to wiggle herself out like a worm, but it was completely useless. "I-I'd love to help, but I'm not sure what you're talking about." She huffed a big sigh, and simply gave up. Well, I guess I'm not getting out of here without helping. Might as well. Nivex sighed again. "Who is 'they'? And what did 'they' do?

[Naya]

Naya was trying not to giggle aloud at the startled and uncomfortable look on the woman's face. She made a mental note to do this sort of this more often, it was extremely amusing. Naya wondered if the woman would actually fall for her tears, but, thankfully, it seemed she was gullible enough to fall for the crocodile tears that were currently spilling from her eyes.

Naya thanked Hayere again and again in her mind for teaching her how to cry on demand. She would bet that the old man were watching her right now, amused at Naya's dramatic nature and shaking his head and sighing. Poor girl.

"Miss, please help me!" She gasped out, struggling to breath in between each equally-fake sob. "No, do not struggle or run away! They might hear you! They could still be watching... we must be cautious." Naya cautiously pulled herself up, body tense and twitching, head snapping from side to side - as if the imagined "They" were already upon them. It was clear that the girl thought Naya insane. This was hilarious.

She gasped dramatically as the woman said she'd help her. "Oh, thank you Miss! Thank you for helping me!" She got close to the girl, looking down on her and invading her personal space. She breathed out her words, so that her warm breath flew into her eyes, evidently making the girl more uncomfortable then she already was.

"They are a most monstrous breed. They're 8 foot tall, with purple skin. They breathe jets of icy steam, and if you get in the way, they freeze you to death. Once you are frozen, you melt away into nothingness. And they killed my entire family! My husband, my two little girls! Right here, not an hour ago!" With that she collapsed onto the girls shoulder, wailing and sobbing louder than ever before.

[Nivex]

Either this woman is tall, or I need to grow a few inches... It was clear as day that Nivex was uncomfortable. Not just because of the breathing in her face (which Nivex could smell what the woman ate that day), but because the hysterical woman seemed to be absolutely out of her mind. After wiping her eyes off, Nivex looked at the hysterical woman. Giants? Purple skinned? Nivex thought jokingly, though wouldn't dare say it out loud. You're not talking about Akalaks, are you?" Well, she was unsure how tall the Akalaks seemed to others, but to her, they were larger than trees. Nivex looked around the room right as the woman mentioned that there the fight in the same room they were in. It sure didn't look bad. No blood or anything, not even a scuff on the floors. Nivex wondered if the woman had been lying the whole time. Yet looking at the woman's horrifically mourning expression and seeing all the tears fall, she sure didn't seem like she was lying. Perhaps she was simply mad? Maybe she really did think something bad had happened? "Well..." NIvex scratched her head, "Although I'm sadden by your...loss, I have to wonder. There doesn't seem to be anything here to indicate a fight...The room seems perfectly well, er, not to offend you. Are you sure that this happened?"

[Naya]

"Saddened by my loss?!" Naya shrieked, secretly extremely proud of her performance. "Why, you don't know how deep my pain is! I have lost all of my family in one go, and you stand there in your skepticism?! I will not have it!" She burst out sobbing yet again, wrapping her arms around the awkward shorter woman, falling and placing all her weight on her.

"You idiot! Did I not just say that once they have been frozen into ice, they melt away into nothingness!? If there was blood, my anguish would be less! I would have some physical evidence of my beloved family! But this... it is as if they never existed!" Of course, they never did exist, but the woman did not have to know that.

This performance was going swimmingly. The reaction of the woman was priceless. Now, if only there was more of an audience.

Naya suddenly jumped up, eyes wide and hand clamped down like a vice on the woman's wrist. "We must go outside! We must warn the others of the Ice Breathing Purpleskins! Avanthal must know of this danger!"

With that, Naya ran in a frenzy twice around the girl, letting out a maddened shriek. Grabbing onto the girl's wrist once more, she began to drag her towards the large double doors, which would lead back into the main hall and eventually outside.

Pretending to be mad was fun. She should do it more often.

[Nivex]

"Hey, Lady!" Nivex nearly collapsed from the woman's weight while she crashed onto her. Nivex was many things, but compassionate she was not. Nivex finally pushed the woman off of her, and stepped back, gasping for air. "Look, no use in insulting me, alright? I'm just trying to make sense of this situation-" She was cut off from the woman's insane ranting. Nivex jumped back again, startled as the woman shouted that she wanted to 'warn others' of this monster. The woman grabbed her wrists, and Nivex wailed as she was drug off into the doors. "W-WAIT!" The shorter girl shouted. She tried to drag her feet, but the larger woman was just too strong for her. With no time at all, they both were out in the freezing cold outside. Nivex looked at the frantic woman, and tried her best to calm her down. "Look, lets just think of the situation for a second!" She tried to negotiate. "Do you really want people to know of this? If you wire them up, you'll just cause more havoc! More people might die, and more if they go after this thing!" The Vantha postured herself up, and took another deep breath.

[Naya]

A burst of fresh hair hit Naya in the face as she ran outside of the Crystal Hall, looking down the stairs that wound down towards the rest of Avanthal. She had enjoyed the incredulous stares from the other meditative occupants of the main hall as she had run through, shrieking, calling out made-up war cries and leaping every few steps, all the while holding onto an extremely uncomfortable looking woman, trailing along behind her.

She wondered what this would do to her reputation, and giggled as she imagined it - Naya the Insane Storyteller: a brilliant weaver of epics, though not quite right in the head. The giggle probably didn't help to convince the other woman of her sanity, but it was all part of the act.

The younger girl was trying to calm her down! Ha! She had thought the girl would catch on by now, but evidently not. Thank you, Hayere, for teaching me how to ensnare the mind by my own whims, she breathed silently. It was times like this that she sincerely missed the old man - usually, she would return to her Hold, crouch at his feet and excitedly regale all that had happened and watch his eyes crinkle up in silent mirth. But he was gone now, and the least she could do was continue on as if he was still at home, waiting for her stories.

"But you're failing to see the bigger picture! My family DIED in there, the least we can do is take down some of these Ice Breathing Purpleskins with us!"

The thought of Hayere was beginning to slow her manicism down, and she was losing momentum. But she was going to wrap this up nicely and dramatically.