Dude, where's my house?[Eridanus]

[Ssafirsotibones]

As Bones had missed his attempt to bite a chunk of the rabbit off, it had jumped and landed near Eri. He had in turn made a fast dive and gotten out of the way, and thrown a fireball at the rabbit, which exploded on its fur, sending sparks and bits of flame scattering, catching aflame the bits of fur it hit. Though this was interesting... Bones had not known the man was a mage... He seemed to run into a lot of those... But at least this was not one of those mages, who had no skill with his body. This one seemed quite good, and dextrous, at using his blades and body. Not like most of the mages he had seen... The flame seemed painful to the rabbit, though it did not do all of that much damage. It would open its maw, looking right at Eri, and let out a hoarse screech, like that of metal grinding on metal, sending spittle and globules of blood flying, possibly right into the face of Eri. Then he had his weapons out, as was ready to fight apparently. Eri ran right into its face, and slashed at its legs, once with each weapon, before re-sheathing his blades, and leaping back out of range. In all of that time, Bones had been busy. He had used the opening to his advantage, creeping up quite swiftly on the rabbit, to busy to notice his other foe creeping up behind him, so focused on the smaller one with his shiny blades. Bones pulled himself back, and darted in, maneuvered around, squeezing at the bunny, making it so it could not move, bringing his weight on top of the beast, and wrapping around it., locking up its upper body, crushing it within his iron grip... Bones kept on squeezing, until there was the sudden sound of a large twig snapping... Which was some of the rabbits bones... Then he heard the much louder snap, and he knew that the rabbits spine had been broken... Then he crept his head over, biting into flesh, tearing into his upper back. He pulled back, and lashed out again, hitting the rabbits neck, and ripping out a large chunk of hairy bloody meat. He swallowed the flesh in one gulp, and then grabbed at the rabbit, who was bleeding profusely, and picked it up, and tossed it aside like a rag doll... That one was certainly dead... Though he opened his senses, trying to find the next one, which might leap in at any moment to attack... Or could as easily be escaping, and putting as much distance between them as possible...

[Eridanus]

Eridanus readied himself for the next guerilla strike, but it seemed that his momentary attack distracted the giant rabbit enough for Bones to destroy it. He watched with awe as the dhani devastated the monster with his own powerful bites, and he shook his head as he realized with irony that only a monster can destroy a monster.

Then maybe I'm a monster too, aren't I?

The snake seemed to cock its ears, or what seemed to be its ears, as it attempted to detect another possible presence, and the ethaefal followed suit, slowing his breathing as he entered a brief meditative spell, focusing his senses first within, then extending them outwards.

He relied on his physical senses, enhanced by his inner peace as he attuned himself to the environment, trying to find any anomaly from the usual atmospheric sounds. Pulling from the well of djed within him, he added a tinge of auristics into his hearing, filling every fibre of his being with concentration and magically-enhanced sensing as he extended his hearing further outwards.

There was nothing.

Withdrawing his senses, he shut down the flow of djed to his ears as he opened his eyes, sheathing his swords nonchalantly. He walked out, fully revealing himself to the gladiator.

"That was brutally effective, gladiator Bones. A wonderful display of brutality and effective combat. I applaud you."

[Ssafirsotibones]

Speaking to a dhani, after it had just destroyed an over-sized monster, with blood still dripping from his mouth... Probably not the best idea... Upon hearing his words, Bones darted around to face Eri, looking at him with his huge face and eyes... His tongue darted out, tasting at the air... It took him a moment, to recall what he was doing, that this person was his ally... Sometimes when the hunger took over, and there was so much flesh and blood in the air, he lost track... He took a few calming breaths, and tasted at the air... He could no longer sense the other beast... It seemed to have moved to far off... Indeed, it seemed to have fled seeing its fellow beast killed and attacked. No honor amongst animals it seed... Since the danger has passed, Bones started the shifting once more, slowly changing back into his human form over the course of half a chime. When he was done, he stood before Eri, shivering a bit, in the nude. Blood down his front, and on his face... "Ssank you... You weren't half bad eisser, consssidering." Of course, what he left unsaid, was he was not half bad, for a non-dhani. But for the statements Bones usually made about such creatures, this was quite the compliment, even if it did not seem so. Getting a compliment from Bones, was like trying to pull teeth from a dire tiger. It did not happen easily, and usually involved someone getting injured or bloody. "I ssink we are sssafe for know... Sse osser ssseemsss gone... Perhapsss now we can try and find our way back out..."

[Eridanus]

Eridanus found the huge snake staring at him with such great hunger than he tightened his grip, ready to defend himself should the need arose. Fortunately, Bones managed to get a hold of himself, and transformed back into a shivering human. With that, the ethaefal calmed down, reducing his own adrenaline as well as releasing his grip on the flux threads within his body.

Carefully maintaining a focus on his soul, he redirected the djed threads to their appropriate muscles, spending several moments doing so before nodding with a satisfied smile.

"Yes, yes it seems so. Perhaps we should get out of this place, if the maze should allow it. Be my guest!"

[Ssafirsotibones]

Now done more or less it seemed, with fighting, Bones let out a sigh of relief... It seemed the city really did like testing him, and thrusting enemies at him for him to face... Perhaps it knew something he did not... Or just knew he could take what it dished out... He was not sure which of the two he would prefer. Though with this living city, it was hard to ever know what it really wanted... Or what its real goal was. Bones simply set off back in a direction, which smelled right. He was not sure why, but it did... Perhaps it was the pretty flowers near it... Regardless, he was pretty sure that if he went along this way, the city would take him back out of the maze. As he walked along, he noticed how cold it was, and was once more shivering a bit... It was more abrasive, when he did not have scales... "Not sssure were I am going to ssstay, what wiss my place gone... I guessss I will figure sssomessing out..." That said, he walked along, tasting at the air, which he was pretty sure smelled fresher. Were they nearing the exit?

[Eridanus]

"Your house is gone?" Eridanus remarked in interest. "I had been living in the Cubacious Inn, but it disappeared as well, to the annoyance of me and several other disgruntled patrons."

Shrugging, he continued walking alongside the gladiator, taking note of the path that they traveled as they retraced their steps. It was not a surefire way of finding the exit, but it was a better measure than randomly walking deeper into the unknown. Passing by the strange flower and colorful tree that Rayage had grown with Alchemy many years before, he plucked one of the strange hybrid flowers, keeping it in one of the pockets of his robes as a keepsake. Perhaps he would show it to Rayage if he ever got to meet the nuit.

As they walked in silence, he opened his palms as he extracted djed around the flower, shaping the astral energy such that is covered the object's delicate shape. It was harder than normal due to the small size, but he finally did so, and he tasked the shield against blunt force. That would prevent him from accidentally crushing the fragile flower. Satisfied, he replaced the flower into his pocket, realizing that they were now standing at the entrance of the maze.

"Here we are!" He announced cheerfully. "I suppose I'd have to find somewhere to stay, too," He wondered aloud, though in his mind he was considering just sleeping in his small cubicle in the Department of Illusion offices. Of course, he could not mention this or risk having the Hypnotism team being set on him.

"Take care, Bones!" The ethaefal waved as he took his leave.

As he walked out, he remembered the notice that the Womiyu were collecting bounties. Shaking his head, he quickly did a u-turn, moving to find the oversized bunny so as to remove its head. With that, he headed straight to where the Womiyu was stationed, awkwardly lugging the evidence of his bounty to collect the gold.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Bones XP Award: Detection- 1 Hunting- 2 Rhetoric- 4 Interrogation- 3 Philosophy- 1 Observation- 1 Lore: Dude, Where's my House? The Garden of No Return Trying to Smash Your Prey The Difference Between Dhani and Ethaefal Shifting The Basics of Ethaefal A Suitable Agent of Change The Chosen Path A Feral Rabbit Appears! Notes: Name:Eridanus XP Award: Acrobatics- 1 Rhetoric- 4 Interrogation- 3 Philosophy- 1 Flux- 1 Reimancy- 1 Observation- 1 Lore: The Garden of No Return Is That Bones? Explaining Ethaefalan Basics The Basics of Dhani Subtle Differences Between All The Dhani Types Not Knowing Why Becoming Frustrated A Feral Rabbit Appears! Notes: Bones, the detection was not only for trying to sense the location of your "nest," but for the excessive use of sniffing the air with your tongue and such. Eri, you were not given any auristics points because you did not use it enough during the course of the thread. Also, had you both been more descriptive, you would have been awarded more points. Otherwise, keep up the good work! Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM