Quest Since You Ask, Most Days I Cannot Remember

[Valkyrie]

Fall 72nd, 512

The sky was clear that evening and the brilliance of Morwen’s Lights shone down on Avanthal, reflecting off the million icy surfaces and lighting up the city better then any torch or bonfire might do. Two pairs of feet moved gradually through the snow near Iceglaze Hold. Those pairs of feet were connected to bodies that connected to minds with very different reasons for causing their feet to move them along in that particular direction.

Most of the city slumbered blissfully behind safe icestone and occasionally wood walls though some were certainly less safe then they thought. The pairs of feet moved closer and closer until two pairs of ears heard the gentle crunch of snow from the other and two pairs of eyes caught sight of each other. The two knew each other well enough to recognize who was who despite being neither the best of friends nor the best of enemies. The two slowly drew closer together exchanging greetings and words. Each would be curious as to why the other was out at such a late time but were perhaps guarded about their own purposes.

It was a tense time for any who resided in Morwen’s seat of power including the two facing each other outside the walls of the Iceglaze Hold. Social ties were strained for the Vantha and the non-Vantha wondered where they were left in the knotted problems the city faced. The small amount of wildlife that lived around the city had turned brutal and elk gored hunters before they even drew their bows while inside the city many were frightened by the unnatural monstrosities lurking in the shadows and around corners. Some were more curious then afraid but all were undoubtedly concerned about what might come next and who would decide it.

[Coren]

Coren walked through the deserted streets of avanthal with a singular purpose, ignoring the lights of morwen that refracted on the icy surfaces that compromised avanthal and created a truly breathtaking view while lighting up the streets enough so that a normal man could easily see. Coren did not come out this late in the evening just to admire some pretty lights, neither to catch some fresh air. He had been walking around in the city for a few days already, the sightings of those beautiful animated creations having sparked his intrest, and he was damned if he would let the icewatch get a hold of them before he had a chance to study them in secret at least. He knew those men and women meant well, but they didn't seem to have developed another way of dealing with strange things like these other then smashing it till it stopped being a threat. Coren's walk slowed as he noticed another person who also was out this late. Quite strange, seeing as most regular people where to scared to come out after syna's rays disappeared from the sky. A few moments later the mans face came into view and coren recognized the man. Briar holden. “Good evening Briar, what brings you out for a walk this late?” He greeted the man in his usuall impassive and apathetic tone. Coming to a standstill just a few feet away from him.

[Briar Holden]

. It wasn't so strange anymore for Briar to dare the streets of Avanthal in the middle of the night. He found it quite refreshing to wander without having the watchful eyes of the natives upon him at all times, the foreigner that he undoubtedly was and couldn't seem to shake off of himself. Not that he wanted to, anyway. Keeping himself on the low down as one of those tourists was still playing into his hand. Or at least, he imagined it did. The happenings in the city as of late had caused him some pause, though. He hadn't expected anything like it when he decided to flee his old life and come here to the peaceful tundra, as he'd imagined it to be. It'd be a sight to behold, he'd told himself and whomever he'd asked in his travels here had so kindly agreed with such misconceptions. Though, make no mistake, Avanthal was a beautiful city. It was astonishing, and something he was not used to. It was quite the difference from Sunberth, in truth. While it wasn't the first time he'd seen snow or ice, it was the first time he'd seen it shaped in such extraordinary ways, falling in perfect harmony with the darkness of the night to create an astonishing landscape of glittering ice crystals. He smiled softly to himself while walking on. All things considered, he'd seen more good than bad since coming here, though he had to admit to himself that the image of the ice sculpure's teeth impaling that woman's arm refused to leave his mind. He couldn't find it in himself to ignore or forget, and the strange happenings in this city had stirred his curiousity. And his anxiety. Neither of which could stand to be ignored without tearing him asunder. Though, Briar's thoughts were rudely interrupted by the sound of encroaching footsteps. He halted immediately once he snapped up on them, but it turned out to already be too late at that point. A figrue most familiar to him appeared out of the darkness and Briar put on his best smile to greet the man, raising a hand up to wave to him with with a feigned casual attitude. "Ah, hello! Familiarizing myself with the city, as always! Nightfall's the best deterrent of the crowds and I find that it's so much easier to move about when the streets are clear..." He dips his head down respectfully, sinking into something akin to a bow. To note, he was speaking Common. Because his Vani is still too broken for him to converse coherently with. "Sorry if I interrupted anything. I don't suppose you were headed somewhere?" He straightened back up again and let his hands join in front of his chest. He kept his welcoming smile handy, yet, though it seemed a wee little stiff. Perhaps it was the cold that stiffened his cheeks. .

[Valkyrie]

Pleasantries having been exchanged between the two men any further attempts at conversation would be halted at the onset of a strange rustling sound. The sound was similar to two pieces of silk being rubbed together and though it was a gentle enough sound it was certainly not a natural tundra sound. The most worrisome part about the sound was that it did not have an echo. Most noises echoed and bounced around the icy city, especially at night when there was not a lot of bodies around to absorb the sound. No echo meant whatever was causing the rustling noise was near. Very near.

Naturally Coren and Briar would look around them to find the source of the noise. Turning each way they would see nothing behind them or on either side. Only night shadows and buildings glittering in the reflection of Morwen’s Lights. It was only the flickering of snow at the corners of their eyes that would invite them to look down at their feet. Passing between them was a long length of fur. In fact, it looked like several lengths of different fur sewn together. Grey, white, even a light brown moved through the snow in a serpentine pattern. A light layer of snow covered its backside and had obscured it from view until it was right below the two men.

The moving fur object, or perhaps creature was a better word since it was clearly capable of some degree of sentience, continued moving through the snow without pause for Coren and Briar. It left a small trail behind it, only visible if one was looking for it specifically, as it moved towards the Iceglaze Hold. A sliver of light was cast down on the snow as the door to the Hold opened with a creak and the fur creature slid inside. The door closed with a quiet click and silence filled the area again, leaving the men with just each other and the event they had just witnessed.

[Coren]

Before coren could make an excuse of why he was out so late he was interrupted by the a strange rustling sound that immediately drew his attention away from the conversation. Now, coren wasn't very well versed in wildlife, but even somebody as untrained as him knew something like that wasn't natural, or at the very least not natural before the massive djed storm this year. He looked around and quickly spotted the creature that the sound was coming from. It was slithering right through his feet, making him recoil a bit, he didn't know what it could do and seeing as the last strange thing he touched actually exploded he didn't really think it an unwarranted reaction to keep his distance from strange beings. As he caught the glimpses of the thing as it slithered through the snow though, he couldn't help but notice how strange it looked.. and moved.. like a bunch of furs where stitched together and somehow twisted through the snow.. Coren's mind threw the strange possibility into his mind.. maybe this wasn't a creature, but one of those animations could such things even be animated at all? His book hadn't mentioned anything like this! Corens curiosity was peaked and it didn't really matter that the creature had entered the iceglaze hold. Aside from coren shelving that piece of information away for later, either its creator might be from that hold or some kind of target of the being lived in there. He really hoped the former though, maybe he could have an enlightening talk with the creator. Only after he already had taken a few steps towards the hold he remembered the person who was still with him and he gave Briar a quick look over his shoulder. “Well, quite an intresting creature isn't it?” Coren kept quiet about his theory of it being an animation, the beggar in front of him wouldn't know the difference anyway. “I hope you do not mind that I go and take a closer look at it, maybe have a talk with its owner.” Frankly he didn't give a damn about what briar thought, he just wanted to figure out if the man would follow him or not.

[Briar Holden]

. ... Say what you will, but Briar didn't particularly enjoy the thought of being pushy. Not too pushy, anyway. He wasn't the sort to wander into peoples' domains in the middle of the night when he hadn't clearly been invited, but he had to admit to himself that he was more tempted than ever. What he'd just seen slither between himself and Coren had struck him with a strange sense of him having seen the same creature before. It wasn't all too long ago that he'd seen a strange furred snake-like creature speed across the street and into nothingness, though he thought to himself for a moment that it had moved somewhat differently. The creature he'd seen had blended together with the snow in a whole other way and had tunneled through it where it deepened rather than leaving itself a thin trail as it slithered across the ground. Most importantly, it hadn't been invited into any sort of building last he saw it, but what did he know? He didn't see it for more than a few split seconds back then and he'd had no idea where it went after that. ... Deciding not to linger on it anymore, Briar returned to reality with a couple of heavy blinks of his eyes as his distant gaze slipped from the doors to the Iceglaze Hold, sliding its way over to Coren. "Oh, no, that's... I'm curious about this creature, so id you don't mind..." He let his question fall out into silence and a brief shrug, letting them speak for him as he gestured towards the hold. He took a few suggestive steps in that direction, watching the trail in the snow closely as he made way towards the doors, expecting Coren to come along. .

[Valkyrie]

Once Coren and Briar approached the door of the Hold and opened it, they would the hallway immediately before them to appear quite deserted. It was rather late at night after all so most people would be asleep. The hallway was dark except for the light of a single brazier to guide the path of those still awake late at night. The light from the brazier illuminated a trail of wetness leading up the hallway, undoubtedly from snow on the strange creature they had seen melting in the relative warmth of the Hold.

Coren and Briar would have to hurry quickly to follow the wet trail in fear that it might dry before they could find its destination. If they followed the wet trail they would find it led them to the distant corner of that level of the Hold and disappeared behind a regular looking door that looked no different from any other door they had come across. The question of whether to attempt to open the door would inevitably arise as well as the question of what they might find if they did so. Truly, it could be anything. Perhaps the creature was murdering someone inside – though how what appeared to be a length of fur could accomplish that was anyone’s guess – or the person who had let it in was lying in wait for intruders. From their earlier experience with the other constructs this season they would also realize that a booby trap could be a possibility as well. The question of whether to open the door was not a small one.

If the men did choose to attempt to open the door they would find that a thick strap of leather looped around nails on the other side of the door and the wall prevented entry and would take considerable force to break. Once the strap broke open with a considerable snap! the door would swing open easily to a relatively dark room.

[Coren]

Coren narrowed his eyes in suspicion as the hallway before him was deserted, not even sounds from families talking and joking with each others drifting towards his ears from the distance. Call him paranoid but that didn't feel entirely right to him. Still he just motioned towards his companion that he should be quiet and followed the wet trail to its end destination, trying not to make to much ruckus allong the way. A bit slowdown now would be nothing compared to the trouble of being seen and drug into a conversation or worse. Coren followed the trail, keeping silent the entire time, till they reached a point where it dissapeared underneat a door in one of the more distant parts of the hold. Seeing the lack of a keyhole or any kind of locking mechanism from the outside coren assumed that it would be unlocked and carefully tried to open up the door. Only for it to get stuck as he openend it more then a few centimeters. Just enough to open up a small space between the frame and the door to see a thick leather belt. “Closed shut.” Coren whispered to his companion. “Keep out a watch will you, I'm going to try and get this open.” Instead of forcing it open with brute force, as a mundane person would have been forced to do, coren had other tricks up his sleeve to get this obstacle out of their way. He let his djed flare and pushed out his astral body of his right arm, his right arm flalling limp next to his body. After that Coren simply reached through the solid door with his projected astral arm, feeling around for a bit with his astral arm at the other end of the door before he found the leather belt and followed it to the knot and tried to pry the knot open. A lot less noisy then breaking down the bloody door in his opinion.

[Briar Holden]

. ... He wasn't about to protest. While Briar would've been quick to enter the hold itself, he soon sank back behind Coren once they headed through the entrance hall, following the wet trail slithering across the floor. He took the time to watch the trail as they walked, trying to make sense of the creature's movements in his head by determining if the trail was completely straight or swayed. This would determine if it was, in fact, a furred or fur-dressed snake or not. His suspicions were likely wrong and he knew that all too well---magic wasn't his area of expertise. Magic was something he'd learned to fear early in his life and his knowledge spanned only over the few events in which he'd spotted the use of it. Suffice to say, it wasn't much. Trying to better understand the situation he put himself in, he still tried to rationalize what he saw. He hoped with all his heart that it was just a snake, absent-mindedly rubbing his foot over the wet trail as they moved across the hall to make it sway more than it already did. At least he could fool himself a bit, for now. Maybe. When Coren instructed him to take watch while he dealt with the suspiciously sealed door, Briar didn't protest. He spun about and let his back face the man while he kept a lookout over the room. This place was very mysterious, indeed. It didn't make much sense, did it? It hadn't been a very long time since they saw the strange creature swim past their feet to be let inside the building, although they didn't actually see anyone in the doorway. He couldn't remember seeing a human or similar silhouette, at least. Assuming the door had been opened by a human or somesuch, however, they'd have to have moved very quickly to be able to seal this door so effectively. And, in the event there hadn't been a human or Vantha at the other side of the door... Briar's brow lowered as he glanced back to check how big the gap was between the bottom of the door and the doorframe, or floor. Whichever came first. His stomach tightened a little bit and a hand drifted absent-mindedly to clutch his gut. He had a bad feeling about this. .

[Valkyrie]

As Coren pulled the knot it loosened and fell back against the door with a gentle thump. The door swung open slowly with a quiet creak. The two men would be immediately overwhelmed with wet, musty smell and beneath that a faint odor of rotten meat. The room beyond the door was dark although a faint light coming from a hallway to their right provided meager illumination. The room was mostly shadowed but their eyes would begin to adjust after a few moments allowing them to see the shadowed outline of objects.

Drawn by the mystery of the room Coren and Briar stepped forward into it. From what they could see this room didn’t seem unordinary compared to any other Arvinta entry room. The outline of a few chairs and a table could be distinguished as well as a lumpy shape atop one of the chairs. The lumpy shape did not move so the men would decide to leave it alone for now. It was likely that wherever the light was coming from would be the source of their curiosity.

Stepping quietly down the long, shadowed hallway Coren and Briar would note that the light was coming through an open door on the far left side of the hallway. There were several other doors between where they stood and the target doorway but they were all closed and no light could be seen beneath their frames. As the men were walking down the hallway the furred creature they had seen earlier slithered out of the lighted open doorway and towards them.

Making its way over to where they stood it lifted the front flap of its body and seemed to regard them through two reflective stones sewn onto the top of it. The stones seemed to serve as its eyes though they could not recall noticing them in their previous encounter, perhaps they had not looked closely enough. If they attempted to pick it up the creature would always attempt to slither away though once they started walking down the hallway again it would slither along quietly by their side.

Once the two reached the open doorway, they would feel startled at the sight before them. The room appeared to have been a bedroom previously but had now been converted into a workshop of sorts. Tools of various natures were strewn haphazardly about the room as well as several tanned pelts and chunks of icestone.

The sight that would draw their attention the most, however, was the man sitting in the middle of the room with his back towards them. A chunk of icestone that was being carved into a currently indiscernible shape lay under his arm. The man had greasy black hair with light blue highlights indicating that he was a Vantha. His slender body was clothed in a ragged shirt and pants that looked as though they hadn’t been washed since they were stitched together. Once they looked at the man long enough they would realize his body was shaking gently though it was unknown if the shake was voluntary or involuntary. The man turned his head slightly at the sound of their footsteps, his face still hidden by his stringy black hair.

“What do you want? Wh… who are you?” the man’s voice was shaky and faint like a candle light being extinguished. The sentient furred creature slithered away from their feet and into the lap of the man. The presence of the creature seemed to calm him and his hand moved slowly as it stroked the fur.