[Flashback][Bronze Woods] Avoidance (Magnolia)

[Carthin]

87 of Spring | 510 He even had to admit it to himself- this was getting to be rather childish. Carthin, a battle-ready (for certain understandings of the phrase) youth, had been pacing about the forest, knowing that his destination was under an hour away. He’d been milling about, determined not to reach Syrilas, no matter the cost. Magnus, his horse, had been strangely quiet and obedient the whole trip long. The trip of Nyka hadn’t been a difficult to draining one- mostly straight paths lined with trees. The nights had been quiet, the weather favorable, and in general, it had been an inauspicious beginning to the rest of Carth’s life. Perhaps it was because of the stories his father had told him, the ones he’d taken to heart, or perhaps because of his own imagination, but the youth had expected his first journey out and about to be a bit more… eventful. Not a battle to be fought, and not a face to be met- it was simply him, his horse, and his belongings jingling around in the horse’s saddlebags. Still, now the horse was tied to one of the sturdier branches of a nearby tree- Carth hardly trusted the thing not to do something mind-numbingly stupid if left unattended. The first time he’d tried to mount the thing it had bucked him off the back and trotted away like nothing had happened. The second time hadn’t been much better. And the third… well, he still had a couple bruises on his left side from that attempt… needless to say, the young hero’s relationship with his horse was a strained one. A sheathed long sword clicked against the side of Carthin’s leather armor. He wasn’t sure why he’d worn it- there was nothing to protect himself from. The hardened leather was strapped across his torso, bound around his arms, and pressed against his legs like a second layer of skin. There was a small sledge-like hammer strapped to his right side which he unfastened from his hip, holding the thing experimentally. The boy remembered his father’s hammer, roughly the same shape, though scaled up five or six times until the thing’s head was larger than his own. He took a breath, letting the air slip out between his lips like a desperate sigh. He knew what he should do right now- untie the horse and make the rest of the way into Syrilas. It was a big city, and it would offer him plenty of opportunities to start following in his father’s footsteps. Regardless, though, he could not bring himself to move- the boy simply stood there. He didn’t want to go- he didn’t want to do this… But you have to, a voice in his head whispered, there’s really no choice… A speckled blanket of light broke through the cover of the tall trees. The sun's rays shoved their way through the leafy, green cover and pelted the ground with oddly shaped dots of light which danced as the wind shook each branch. Leaves rustled, as did small animals. Bugs and insects buzzed along, and birds twittered loudly. Carth stood still, and the world kept moving along. He walked over to his horse, grudgingly, and untied it. Holding the reigns, he stood there for a moment, and then tied them to the branch again. He untied them again. He tied them again. This happened two or three more times before he settled with the reigns, once again, tied to the tree. Carthin groaned a pitiful groan and, small hammer still in hand, swung it at the nearest tree, leaving all but the smallest of dents in its sturdy bark.

[Magnolia Corvidae]

Pitious. It was the first word that drifted into Magnolia's mind as she gazed upon the man. Her prey stood rooted in his turmoil like one of the trees that swayed about him. A majority of the creatures around him were thrumming with life, yet the only one with a modicum of interest was quite dead. Magnolia's face was peeking out from the trunk of a tree, looking rather like a woodland spirit--albeit a warped forest indeed that'd accept her as its spirit. She licked her ethereal lips in anticipation.

A mischievious grin danced onto the voyeur's face as ideas coalesced in her brain. She had been considering which of many to pursue, though it did not take long to settle on one. Killing the man before her was not in the plan, for he was a rather attractive specimen. Although, if he was a corpse... Magnolia dismissed the thought rather quickly and proceeded with the fun.

Her hands made a slight flourish and soulmist rolled down her arm. It softly collected in each hand like twin spheres of smoke. The wispy substance trailed lazily through the air as Magnolia bid its departure like she was blowing a kiss. Guided by her willpower, the nigh invisible soulmist drifted over to the man's waist, coiling around him like a belt. Magnolia loosed a cat call and yanked down the man's pants, grinning the entire time.

Working quickly now, her soulmist raced to the fire to wrap itself about two embers. Without a moment's hesitation Magnolia launched the burning projectiles at the man's exposed rear. Magnolia was a horrible shot though, and one of the coals missed entirely. The other, though, looked more promising as it arced through the air toward the man's rear.

[Carthin]

It struck him how stupid he'd look to anybody with half and inclination to watch him. A campsite in the middle of the day, tying and untying the horse like a madman, striking a tree with a hammer. He sighed, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. Looking up at the sun as it watched him through the cover of trees, Carth realized that he was rather warm. The weather had been... sunny. He began undoing the various straps and fastenings that kept his armor on- it felt like a time for normal clothes in any case. The weather didn't seem to agree with leather armor. Suddenly, though, as he was fussing with his pants, Carth noticed something wrapping itself around his waist. It was vague and wispy, like smoke, but with purpose and intent. As it wrapped itself about his waist, the boy felt a wave of panic wash over him- what the hell was this thing? Before he could vocalize any sort of a response to the strange occurrence, he pulled downwards, removing his pants rather unceremoniously. Wide-eyed, the boy reached for the article of clothing as it receded, only to feel something red-hot fly directly into his posterior. The yelp that escaped his mouth would have made his father turn away and groan. On the ground, the would-be hero stamped out as best he could the glowing ember and pulled his pants indignantly up to his waist. Change- yeah right... something was definitely wrong. As he struggled with the straps and buckles, Carth looked about the camp, a scowl on his face. Who did it? It hadn't been the wind- there hadn't been so much as a gentle breeze. Well, who? "Who's there?" he called out bitterly. "Come on," he continued, pulling tight the last of the straps, "Show yourself!" Silence... Magnus, still tied to the tree, watched on. He gave a bemused whinny- whatever forest creature it was, he liked it's style. Carthin gave the horse a look, but received only a snort in response. Don't look at me, the animal seemed to say. If horses could smirk, Magnus would have. NoteBest I could do- armor wouldn't be very protective if you could just pull it off willy nilly, now would it?

[Magnolia Corvidae]

As Carthin cast about, a cloud of coalescing vapor materialized before his eyes in an instant. Less than an foot from his face, an upside down female face solidified from the misty substance. A body to match the face hardened from the near translucent fog as well, until the ghost before Carthin had fully materialized. Magnolia lay on her back, head upside down facing Carthin with an ear touching grin splitting her face. Obsidian hair fell down orthogonal to the ground, and her eyes twinkled with what seemed like amusement. Though she was rather visible, the woman hovering before looked more like a poor holography image. Her edges flickered, and every now and again she would vanish for a fraction of a second. The surface of her skin crawled with thousands of tiny black pins, indecisive in its solidity.

Magnolia's melodic voice ran rich with sugar despite the tinny quality materialization gave it, "Anything for you, my dear." Her form vanished in less than a blink of an eye, instantly reappearing on her feet behind the much taller man. "Although I do wish you would have left your pants where I put them." This close, Carthin could smell a sickly sweet incense burning emanating from Magnolia.

Whether or not Carthin turned to face Magnolia was irrelevant, for the next instant she was sitting cross legged on the ground at his campfire. Her form flickered violently, threatening to make her evaporate. A small frown broke up her smile as she glanced at her crawling arm flicker. "I'd suppose it would be best if I stopped doing that for now." She let out a small yelp as her entire form reverted into the nigh invisible mist she had been earlier, and suddenly switched back to the pseudo-human form. "Yes, no more of that, I might vanish forever and leave you alone again! So who, pray tell, are you?"

[Carthin]

As he finished re-doing his armor, twisting his head this way and that in search of his prankster, Carth saw something. It began as a shimmering in the air, but soon started to take on a more... definite, palpable shape. Like a Cheshire cat, a face started to come together piece by piece- an eye, a nose, the other eye, a female mouth... In itself, this was rather distressing; the boy was hardly prepared for women to materialize out of thin air. What made his heart simply stop, though, wasn't the fact that she couldn't remain corporeal, or that she faded from vision randomly and without warning. She was inches from his face. "Anything for you, my dear." The voice seemed to drift through the air, toying with his head, much the same way her inconsistent form toyed with his vision and perception of... well, everything. The world itself seemed to start swaying with her words, sighing and whimsical... She disappeared again, though this time did not reappear where she had been. "Although I do wish you would have left your pants where I put them." Eyes open wide, the boy whipped around to keep up with the... woman. What he got, though, was half a glance of her form. He wasn't even sure that he'd seen her that time... was his mind playing tricks on him? The voice spoke again, though this time coming from the campfire. Carth turned abruptly, watching as she spoke candidly to herself, as if this were completely normal. She flickered, and turned her attention back to the young would-be hero. She asked who he was and was met with wide eyes and a mouth agape. Who was he? What was she? "C-Carthin..." he said, fighting through his terror. He had no idea what he was dealing with... the stories of ghosts that he'd heard were always bland and... well, extremely far from the truth. It simply didn't click in his mind that this woman might be... departed. He wanted to ask a hundred questions, run, and strike the thing with his sword. Sadly, all these options were in vicious combat within his head, and none of them seemed to be gaining any sort of advantage over the others. He just stood there, the same look of fear and uncertainty on his face as he watched Magnolia's vague form. Magnus was largely uninterested and reached for the ground with his mouth, sampling some of the grass. Mm, now that was good grass. "Wha-... who... are you?"

[Magnolia Corvidae]

A grin, wide and mischievous, added itself to the ghost's unreal visage. Had her image been working correctly, Carthin would have seen her teeth clamp onto pale lips and charcoal black eyes roll up in mock consideration; however, to the man, the ghost's image had frozen staring at him. A surge, the shattering of an ice prison, and the woman returned with a frown having replaced her smile. "Petch it all!" Her voice, metallic as it was, grew high pitched and grating in her frustration. She closed her eyes as if meditating and the warm air filled her lungs, though she obviously did not draw breath. A split second, and the smile was painted back onto the ghost. She spoke again, metallic honey oozing from her larynx, "My dear, I am Magnolia Corvidae. You may call me Mistress Corvidae though, if you truly insist."

Magnolia lifted from the ground, as if she was rewinding a scene where she was pushed to the ground. In a second, she was upright, and walking toward Carthin. Her small hips swayed mockingly in her approach, in a manner they could never naturally achieve. "As for what I am, I am a ghost." Magnolia was close enough to touch now, and small wisps of ferrous fog curled away from the outline of her hand as she brought it up to brush Carthin's face. The man would have felt a prickling sensation, a field of stinging nettles washing over his muscled cheek. "But, my love, a more pressing query lies before us. What exactly, were you hitting that poor tree for?"

[Kelpie]

Carthin: +1 Interrogation Magnolia: +1 Soulmist Projection, +1 Materialization Mod Note: A shame it was cut short, it was a fun read.