People of the Sky (Irriari)

[Alenias]

"They do talk alot," Alenias replied to the Zith's statement with a nod, "Specially out here in the wilderness. They don't talk as much in the city, but I think that's because the city is scary and has lots of mean people. Out here can be scary, but there's no bad men that try to catch you. Just wolves and really big birds, but they warn each other so they can stay safe."

Alenias stared with wide eyed amazement as the Zith's wings lifted her up and off the ground, and then suddenly a bit of panic came on her. Was she one of the really big birds she'd heard the other birds talking about? They said they ate the littler birds! But the Zith hadn't tried to eat Alenias, and she didn't really look like a bird, even with her wings.

"I love flying to!" Alenias replied brightly to the Zith's question, smiling at the woman once more, "I didn't fly much before Aello started taking care of me, but I get to fly a lot more now!"

Before Alenias could think about changing and flying up with the woman pain sprouted from her left arm, and she cried out in pain. Turning her gaze to where the pain was she found an arrow sticking out of her arm, and fresh blood spilling from the wound.

"Don't move Kelvic, unless you want the next one in your back!" called a voice from the wouds, and Alenias froze in fear.

The bad men were here in the wilderness, and Aello wasn't around! What was she supposed to do!? She turned wide eyes back to the Zith, just in time to see an arrow flying towards her, "Look out!" she shouted, hoping the nice woman wouldn't get hurt too.

OOCHope you don't mind that I bring in the slavers now. If ya want me to change it just PM me and I'll edit.

[Irriari]

Irriari smiled at the Kelvic, and her enthusiasm at flying. Finally, someone else understood the joy of hitting the thermals in the air and riding them until one was fully content with life and at peace. Whoever Aello was... they seemed to be nice to let the girl be free and fly more than she had in the past. A happy air permeated the forest and the conversation they held. Sometimes, simple pleasures in life proved to be the best.

Suddenly, a flash of light streaked through Irriari's sight, though she couldn't be sure as to what it was until she saw a dark splotch of red blossoming on the young girls arm. An arrow. Someone had shot her. Irriari snarled angrily and pivoted in the air, scanning the whole forest quickly. The pained girl cried out, and Irriari saw the arrow streaking towards her, but could only move enough to have the arrow clip the lower portion of her right wing, instead of her ribs. On all accounts, it was a good thing, though the spasming, angry nerves in her wing would probably say otherwise. Ignoring the pain, and the voice the yelled out in common, Irriari dove to the ground, and tackled the young girl into the earth in the process, covering her.

Whether she wanted to admit it, she liked the girl, but she was also a liability. Her course of action had been a simple one, dictated by the ease of the maneuver. Flying up would make her vulnerable to archers everywhere- assuming there was more than one, and they could shoot around the trees. They probably could. On the ground, she was less of a target. Irriari yelled at the injured girl who was underneath her.

“If you can shift, shift and get the hell away!”

Irriari knew that the girls bird form was small, too small to be shot in the dense forest by all but the most competent archers. However, if they did hit their target, the blow would tear her apart and leave no room for recuperation. An arrow in the back was hardly better, though. Irriari drew her own bow from her back and pulled an arrow out of her quiver. Movement sounded from the bushes. They were advancing. How many feet were crushing the underbrush? With the blood rushing to her ears, Irriari couldn't tell. Another arrow landed close to them, only a foot away from Irriari's thigh. She nooked an arrow to her bow string and gazed around the woods, waiting, and ready to kill the first person that emerged from the trees.

OOCThe decision to transform (or not) is totally yours! Irr just gets a bit persnickity in battles.

[Alenias]

Alenias gave a startled cry as the Zith tackled her to the ground, and with barely a thought she obeyed the woman's yell. In a swirl of color and light she shifted to her bird from, and then quickly flew out from beneath the woman's dark wings and up into the sky once more. An arrow flew after her, but glanced off of a tree branch and missed by a small distance.

"Shyke!" cursed the voice that had yelled before, but the owner stayed out of easy sight, "Petching Zith, costing me a good slave. I guess you'll do instead."

Up in the air Alenias' initial panic had died down, and she now circled above the scene trying to figure out what to do. These bad men were going to hurt the Zith lady! She wanted to fly off and get Aello's help, she would be able to stop the bad people, but Aello was far away and it would take too long. Maybe the Zith was strong, and that's why she told Alenias to leave?

Not willing to leave the woman alone with the bad men Alenias continued to circle overhead, keeping her eyes anxiously on the ground beneath the trees, as one of the men revealed himself. It was the archer, a stout and round man with an ugly face and a long bow almost as tall as him, and he grinned as he pulled back his arrow and took aim at Irriari, "Do I gotta poke holes in your wings, or are ya gonna come along quietly?" from his voice he was clearly not the man that had been speaking earlier.

[Irriari]

Irriari felt a small gust of wind as the girl flew above her to safety. She glanced up quickly, hoping that her decision would not kill the girl, but thankfully in bird form the girl was nearly impossible to shoot. Irriari knew because she had seen others of her kind try to shoot the small birds that flitted around the grasses. None of them had been successful. Irriari had been angry and wanted to fight them for their senseless waste of arrows and stupidity, but she didn't. Instead of hunting the glassbeaks and akalak, they had tried to show how skilled they were, and they failed.

“Stay up there and stay high up, no matter what happens.”

Irriari didn't want to say the inevitable. If she was to die here, there was little the girl could do to save her. She would only be throwing her own life away.

She turned to the slaver as he stepped out of the trees and frowned. He was ugly. She refused to be killed by any human, much less an ugly one who had tried to enslave the kelvic girl. It didn't occur to her that she too had enslaved others, because somehow, to the zith, the way humans enslaved others was vile and loathsome. When the slaver aimed his longbow at her, she knew that from such a short distance, the bow would rip her wings to shreds, so she tried something new.

Fake shock filled her face, and she willed tears to fill her eyes, though her body refused to obey the latter of the two commands. Irriari's knees hit the ground first and she laid her hands flat onto the earth, palms up, with her face into the dirt. She breathed in the earthern smell, knowing she couldn't hide the disgust on her face for long. After a few seconds, she looked up at the man and spoke.

“I'll come with you, just don't shoot my wings, please. I won't attack you.”

Irriari hoped the man would take the bait. She waited for a moment, trying to look as pitiful and pathetic as she could. Maybe being on the ground would help. The man squinted at her and slowly un-nooked his arrow, as if he was waiting to see if she would leap up that instant. Slowly he stepped towards her, still squinting and surveying her every move. When he finally got close enough to grab her, he tried reaching for her hair, presumably to pull her up by it. Irriari knew that once he had her hair, he would have a massive amount of control over her, so she moved at the last possible moment and threw herself forward and grabbed his legs. Her claws found a hold on his cheaply made, thin pants and cut through the material to his flesh. She dug in, and reached for tendon, muscles and anything she could find to grab and rip. Above her the man yelled in pain, and through it all managed to grab her hair. He pulled her head roughly up, and she could only guess that he was trying to rip her hair from it's very roots.

Irriari was taken aback by the first pull, but pushed herself upward with the second and stumbled to her feet. She kicked outward with her clawed foot at the mans already injured leg and watched him fall to the earth. Irriari moved to stand above the man, and pinned the man to the earth with her foot on his chest. If she moved, the claws on her feet would tear at his stomach.

“You piece of shyke. I swear to Rhysol, I will gut you right now for trying to shoot me.”

Irriari snarled at him and then swore in zithanese before kicking him in his face.

She yelled up at the girl

“Do you see anymore? Fly around in a circle or something if you do.”

It was silly, but it would work for now.

[Alenias]

Alenias sang out happily as the Zith lady beat up the bad man, glad too that she was strong like Aello. Maybe not as strong as Aello, but still strong. Then the woman called up to her, asking if she saw any more bad people around. Alenias paused in her circling, so the Zith lady wouldn't get confused, and turned her dark eyes around the forest.

At first she didn't see anything, but then she caught sight of some movement. Another bad man, this one taller with black hair, was holding something that flashed in the faint light. Maybe it was a dagger! Alenias had to help the Zith lady!

Letting out as loud a cry as her little body could manage Alenias dove towards the bad man, whose attention was on the Zith lady. As Alenias got close to the bad man she changed in a swirl of light and quickly formed a fist, like Aello had taught her to, and let out an angry yell as she punched, her momentum adding to the strength of the blow against the side of the man's face.

Punching that hard hurt a lot, and Alenias angry yell turned to one at pain as she fell to the ground holding her throbbing hand. It hurt the black haired man a lot more though, and he screamed angrily as blood poured from his nose, "You Vagik! I'll make you pay for that!"

The man lifted up the glinting item in his hand, Alenias could tell it was a dagger now, and stabbed down at Alenias. She just barely managed to dodge to the side, but she cried out as she put her injured hand on the ground to try and get up. Eyes full of tears she tried to get away from the bad man with the dagger, crawling frantically between the trees and bushes.

[Irriari]

OOCI'm not too sure how far away he is, but I'll guesstimate here, if it's not good, tell me and I'll rewrite it.

Irriari's eyes followed the small bird who was little more than a dot amid the clouds. She had gotten far enough up into the sky. Good. At her question, the small bluejay stopped circling and looked around the forest below. Everything happened too fast. Suddenly, the bird was darting down from the sky, and in a flash of bright light and color, the kelvic had transformed again, and her fist was extended downward as she fell.

The dive was beautiful and her transformation seemed effortless, though Irriari winced when she realized how hard the girl would fall. A cry of pain mixed with a yell as both victim and attacker were hurt in a matter of seconds. Irriari sprinted forward and nearly tripped as she lunged into the bush that had covered the man from sight. As she leaped into the air, she saw the girl collapsed on the ground, trying to stand up. Her face was filled with pain and tears marred her brave face. The man was moving forward slowly, clutching his damaged nose with one hand as his other was tightly wrapped around the steel blade.

Irriari fell into the bushes and was surrounded by the stinging pain of the hundred's of tiny branches as they snapped under her weight and cut into her skin. As she tried to roll over, more branches broke and stabbed into her chest and legs. The man laughed and moved towards her, his dagger outstretched towards her shoulder. Irriari scrambled and threw her palm to the ground, and pushed herself up. It was too late. The man had recovered somewhat, and his blade sank down into her shoulder as she rose into the air. Irriari screamed as the blade dug deep and the man removed it for another strike. He next blow was too hasty and he managed to miss, but he moved close enough for her outstretched claws to rake across his arm. The strike stretched her shoulder forward and she screamed again. The girl had to leave and get to safety.

She snarled at the man loudly and waited to try and counteract his next move.

[Alenias]

Alenias stopped her crawling as she heard a scream of pain, and chanced a glance back to see what was going on. When she saw the Zith lady fighting with the bad man, along with bleeding from her shoulder, Alenias gasped and quickly scrambled to her feet. She had to go help the Zith lady!

Cradling her injured hand to her chest Alenias moved quickly and somewhat quietly back towards the man and the Zith lady. As focused as the man was on fighting the Zith he didn't notice Alenias approach behind him. The Kelvic briefly wondered what to do, not sure where to punch if she couldn't punch his face, but then remembered when Aello had taught her how to kick. There were no walls here for her to hurt her foot on, and so with an angry yell Alenias brought her leg up and around, like Aello had taught her, and her shin connected with the man's torso just below the ribs.

The somewhat sneaky attack caused the man to cry out in surprise and a bit of pain, and he turned to glare at Alenias, "Petching Kelvic! When I'm done with your Zith friend here then I'm going to have fun beating you into obediance!"

"Well, we're gonna cut your ears off and listen to ya scream!" Alenias snapped back, trying to sound big and scary like Aello had at the Silver Sliver.

[Irriari]

Irriari winced in pain, and let her attention focus on the only three things that mattered: the kelvic in front of her, the pain in her shoulder and the man who sought to harm them both. Irriari watched as the man stumbled, his arm bleeding freely from her hit. He seemed to be disoriented and confused, and Irriari cursed herself for not bringing more poison, or pinning him to the ground with an arrow. Irriari smiled slightly, and the man glared at her. Even if he managed to guess why she was smiling, it would be too late for him. The young girls shin connected with his torso and he fell to one knee, yelling obscenities all the while.

When he threatened to hurt the girl, Irriari snarled and focused on ignoring the pain long enough to permanently shut the man up. Surprisingly, the girl yelled back, and her threat was much scarier than his, and her face was angry enough to make the words meaningful, unlike the slavers.

With the two of them standing and in better condition than the man, Irriari knew she had to end this soon, before he stabbed one of the pair again, or the pain from their wounds had them disabled as he was. Irriari grabbed the mans throat with her good hand, clenching her fingers around the tendons and muscle she found there, pressing tighter and tighter until the man was gasping for air, his already tormented face turning purple. She flicked her wrist back, and a snapping sound echoed slightly through the clearing. It wasn't enough to kill him, she knew, as the times her colony mates had performed the same maneuver, it had been louder. The man collapsed and his body began to convulse. As he did, Irriari stepped on his chest and slammed her clawed foot down on his upper left ribcage. Bones snapped under her weight and the pressure of the blow. Surely, now he would die. Maybe she had punctured a lung or his heart. One could hope.

Irriari turned to Alenias while wiping her foot on the ground.

“We need to scout out the area, make sure this was the last of them and tend to our wounds. After that, we can take what we will from the bodies.”

Irriari stepped forward clutching her wounded arm and grimacing at her aching legs. There would be a doctor in Ravok that she could pay to patch up her wounds. She looked back at the kelvic and considered telling her to stay. No. If another one was around, they would have to stick together. Irriari began to scout the perimeter, searching for more slavers.

[Alenias]

Alenias watched with slightly wide eyes as the Zith lady killed the man. She had been angry, wanting the bad man gone, but her intimidating words had been little more than imitation of Aello. She didn't truly understand what they meant, and so she was simply just glad that he stopped moving. She did go and nudge him a bit with her foot as the Zith lady started talking though.

"Ok," Alenias replied with a nod, feeling it was best to do what the Zith lady said even if she wasn't Aello.

Still holding her injured hand cradled against her chest Alenias followed the Zith woman as they walked around, her dark eyes darting back and forth in search of any other bad men. There was no sign of anyone else though, it seemed those two had been alone, and so Alenias' attention returned to the Zith woman. She was strong like Aello, though Aello was stronger, and nice like Aello too. Maybe they'd like to be friends? Maybe they were already friends?

As they finished with their scouting Alenias tilted her head slightly and asked, "Do you know Aello?"

OOCAgain, sorry about the wait for this post. Hopefully things will calm down a bit more now.

[Verilian]

. . Thread Award . . Alenias At this time your portion of the thread cannot be graded, as you need to update your CS. Once that is done, you may resubmit the thread for grading.. also, while you aren't officially retired, you've been inactive for a year, so unless you become active again I won't be grading it. But you should totally become active again, because I was a big fan, and miss you. Irriari +1 Botany +1 Leadership +3 Unarmed Combat +1 Subterfuge Lores: Talking with Birds, Lore of Kelvics, Ambushed by an Ugly Slaver, Loot: 23 Gold Mizas, 16 Silver Mizas, 1 Longbow, 18 Arrows, 2 Daggers, 2 sets of clothing (take what you like, leave the rest) You Question My Logic? : If there are any questions, feel free to ask. Notes: I can remember reading this thread back when I used to stalk the both of you.. yknow.. in a totally non-creepy way. So nice to have a blast from the past. Good job guys, and keep writing! Notice As per the request of the Founders, threads cannot be graded unless your CS is up to date. This means you need to add threads to your thread list when you make new threads, keep your skills up to date, ledger, living expenses, ect. If you aren't up to date, you'll get a PM from me before I grade your thread. If you are up to date, disregard this notice.