Solo [The Bronze Woods] A Strange Encounter

[Vanador Gless]

Spring 42 Day 1 The forest was dark, for humans at least. Covered in the filth of darkness that came with the setting of the sun, transforming the trees into dark shadows that bend and curved into pillars of shadow and woke the nocturnal creatures that slept in the warmth of night. The leaves where bleached white with the silver of the moon that had casted itself a thin sheet of white across the darkness of the Syliras Bronze woods. Vanador walked silently through the trees, his hat held high as he pared threw the thick darkness that would be close to blinding to humans, but to his Widow eyes it was hardly but a thin mist of gray that was sometimes more clear than a brighter summer day to him. It was late, that much was clear to Gless as he stepped over a large hill, reaching for a tree for support as he slid down its side to continue moving. It was not like he enjoy the Wilderness but he had heard from someone in the city that there was a waterfall out here, and what not a better a place to think and work on his hypnotism then there in the silence of night. Or he could even find a snack on his way, he was nearly one-hundred percent sure there had to be at least some deer out here whose blood would make a lovely midnight feast. Or maybe a rabbit, rabbit’s blood was lovely, almost as good as humans; Vanador thought to himself. The trees parted into a sort of clearing with a very bright moonlight that -to his glowing Symenestra eyes- illuminating the pale green vegetation and stone with a pale white that tinted the amethyst protruding from the rock into a fair and dim pink. Stepping into the clearing Vanador shut his eyes and inhaled the night’s cool air, it smelt of salt and grass and dew with the ever so faint hint of rum. Rum? He turned slowly to look into the darkness of the trees. Was he mistaken? He could have swore he smelt rum, or at least some type of liquor. Perhaps it was just in his head... He thought. "cough cough" hacked something close. And then again, "cough cough". Vanador's eyes narrowed as he peered threw the darkness with his keen nocturnal eyes. A hunched and limping form stepped slowly threw a brush only about five trees from him. It looked sickly, but he knew he was drunk. What in Syliras what this person doing drunk out in the Bronze woods at this time of night? He could tell from his stumbling movement and how he reached for tree trunks that he was indeed blind in this vale of shadow, perhaps he was a human? They were all over this horrid place anyway. But why? He asked himself as he resided back into the darkness of the trees with a few steps back, pulling his gloves free from his fingers so his long black nails where ready to cut. Vincent stumbled through the nearly invisible tree trunk filled pitch-black of night, with only the tinny rays of moonlight bleeding threw the treetops hardly lighting his stoned path. Along with this the Rum he had downed was making things spin and his vision had blurred to the point of near disorients. It had been a long time sense he had rank this much and was able to get at least one full night of dreamless sleep. But event that was rare. He coughed heavily as he stumbled over a stone that almost tripped him. As he coughed again he reached up, his hand holding a dirty bottle of rum and pressed the glass to him lips before he chugged another four large sips of rum. The sweet taste of it was something he had needed these last few years, it was like air to him now and it helped the nightmares and tragedy of his past which was a plus. It had been age’s sense he has been in a home he could say he owned, or held onto some Miza without spending it on something like food our drinks the day after he obtained it. But regardless he had found himself lost in the woods once again. Even after being kicked out of the pub he did not know how he ended this far out it to the dense wilderness. But regardless like all the others time he would just walk and walk until he found something in memory that would help him head back towards the city. Or at least to where he could find some more liquor. Maybe if he had been sober he would have noted the wrestling trees above him or the dark form that landed behind him, but he did not and it was not until the point where the man’s thin and cold arm wrapped around his neck did he know he was in trouble. The grip was tight and strong and it was cutting off his air fast. He was too tired for this, and it was late and he was too old for a fight... If he could have sighed he would have but before he had he managed the drunkly mutter the simple but powerful word "refuto" and with the work og magic and the old man reaching behind him back with his free hand a short ten seconds latter a moment before he was about to black out from lack of air a small voided portal flickered open at his back between him and his attempted strangler with a dark pure whimsy light that with it brought a strong pull that repelled the both of them in their own adjacent paths away from the now clear black and blue spiral of light fixed in the air where Vincent had opened it. A small pulling portal.