Down into the Dark (Fable)

by **Yisanareysin** on June 24th, 2015, 9:56 am

11th of Summer, 515 AV

Sometimes Rey wondered what his wolfish hosts thought of the letters that came for him, or if they noticed that he would leave the inn for some time after each letter. In truth, he would have much preferred to receive letters through dead drops, but in Alvadas, that was more or less unfeasible, at least for Rey. He took some solace in the fact that, as human as they may seem, Micah and Korin were wolves in the end, and were less likely to find him out than a human would, but he still worried.

Still, nothing to be done about that just yet. The spy had more immediate concerns. Smoothing out the slightly crumpled parchment in his hands, Rey read through the letter again, committing the important details to memory.

Please, you've got to help him! :

Rey sighed, no happier than he had been the first time he'd read it. Back into the Underground, in pursuit of a man who may have the Womiyu's attention. He knew he could be reckless, but this was pushing it, even for him. On the other hand, he wasn't really in a position to be turning down jobs, and he had to admit, he was intrigued. As dangerous as the underground was, there was something inexplicably attractive about it. And that edge of danger was half the fun. He'd just have to be careful, that was all.

His mind made up, Reysin dressed himself for the task ahead. The worn, slightly over large trousers he wouldn't miss if he tore or lost them while shifting. Grey shirt, hair tie, black hat and cloak. That last one he stowed in his pack for later. Did he need to pack another set of clothes for a disguise? Probably not, best not to bring more than he needed. He did pack an extra pair of trousers though, just in case. Flametongue on his hip, bracer on his arm, everything else went in his pack. Was he missing anything? He didn't think so.

Now, Where to start... He could, Rey supposed, simply head straight for the Underground, and start searching with the information he had. But the description in the letter was annoyingly vague, and frankly, he'd feel a lot better with more to go on.

So, off to the Slanderer it was then.

Alvadas's new layout rather amused Rey. Sunk into the ground, it was a bit more like home, if the whole top of the nest had been ripped off. It was a bit shadier too, it seemed, although the heat here was almost mild to the desert snake. Some of the humans seemed a little less pleased. Wandering around in search of the screaming statue, Rey noted quite a few concerned looking parents trying to control their children, and even saw one child nearly tumble off a cliff before some attentive passerby caught the giggling girl. Real or not, the illusions had their dangers.

Eventually, the sound of obscenities led him to the Slanderer. Or, rather it led him to a ledge right above the Slanderer. There were, thankfully, steep stairs leading down to the path below.

Before he headed towards the stairs, however, Rey stepped closer to the edge of the ledge to get a better look. From this slight height, he had a decent view of the Slanderer, and those around it. Most folk, in his experience, didn't like to spend more time around the Slanderer than they had to, and those that did were the ones hoping for a verbal spar with the statue. This A.J. though, was just waiting for him. Assuming that he or she was here already.

Scanning the area around the Slanderer, Rey looked for someone staying near the statue who wasn't gleefully yelling back at it, searching for signs of nervousness or restlessness. Whether he found, or thought he found, A.J. or not, he descended, pulling the brim of his hat lower as he approached the Slanderer.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

by **Fable** on June 27th, 2015, 6:17 pm

As he descended towards the statue's platform, where the structure seemed to busy itself with a particularly direct line of insults for the benefit of a rather stout, determined young woman who simply laughed and shook her head after every new affront, Reysin felt a slight tug at his arm. A woman, short and round, similar in appearance to a pig had the creature straightened upwards to walk on two, unsteady legs with mismatched shoes and astonishingly slight feet. Her hair was dark and messy, though it wasn't unclean as its appearance might first indicate, the small and taste of the aroma about her indicating she had bathed recently. Her eyes were reddened about the rims of the pinkish white, soft blue-green irises searching his own, only to fill with a swell of disappointment as she released her gentle grip upon him, turning to face outward and away from the Slanderer and his charge.

"You didn't find him..." The voice was quiet, almost lost in the raucous laughter of those gathered around what had grown to become a bit of a show between statue and woman, the audience invested equally in the statue's pressing and increasingly embarrassing observations and the woman's stout refusals of each. The woman, presumably the "A.J." of the letter, sighed, shaking her head as she crossed her arms, the gesture a bit difficult given the girth of her body in relation to the shortness of her appendages. "I'd hoped you'd just show up with him, but I guess it can't be helped, huh?"

She didn't wait for him to respond, the question a rhetorical manifestation of her own stream of consciousness. With a subtle nod of her head, she gestured towards a collection of holes in the earthy walls of the now sunken city, a slight shrug following the indication. "If the city is still close to the same, I saw him last around the Slanderer, but..." Here, the shrug returned, her eyes carrying with them a mix of apathy and melancholy. "It's Alvadas."

With a grunt, she settled down onto one of the stony outcroppings that seemed to have sprung up out of the ground, naturally formed benches, as it were. "I don't know much else, but if it helps..." She stooped forward, a herculean effort to be sure, to draw fourth a bag she had stowed behind her feet. Pulling a single, crumpled sock from within its contents, she offered it towards Reysin, extending it in such a way that it seemed the article of clothing was not recently washed. A single sniff would confirm such a supposition. "I have this. It's all the information I have left. I..." She bit her lower lip, eyes falling to the ground. "I understand if you can't find him. It's just-" She met his gaze once more, a slight flicker of hope dancing behind the otherwise pale stare. "I don't know. I just have a feeling he's out there somewhere."

by **Yisanareysin** on July 1st, 2015, 11:00 am

Almost the moment Rey foot left the last step, he felt someone pull at his sleeve. Accustomed to humans being taller than him, he tilted his head slight up when he turned to look, before realizing his mistake and looking down instead. The woman who looked back up at him was surprisingly round, shorter than he was, but, he thought uncharitably, perhaps a little heavier.

He gave no response when she spoke, realizing that she understood why he had come to her first. So when she offered to him a pungent, unwashed sock, he swallowed his distaste and took it. A scent was a valuable lead in an investigation like this, and the stronger the better. He was, however, very careful to stow it in a pocket of his bag separate from his own clothing, partially to preserve the scent, but mostly so he wouldn't have to burn all of his clothes later. Although perhaps it was a little silly to make such a fuss about a sock when he was currently wearing pants he'd taken from a large human who had tried to kill him.

He'd had to wash them to get the smell out. Twice.

Right, focus on the task at hand. That was all the information the round little human had for him, it seemed. She looked rather dejected, and Rey wondered for a moment if he should comfort her, or reassure her or something. But frankly, Reysin had better things to do than stand there awkwardly "there there"ing at her. Instead, he gave her a curt nod, and turned instead towards the hole tunnel things that she had gestured at earlier. A quick look revealed that most of them either led to dead ends, or continued into darkness. In one of the tunnels, however, he could see the faintest outline of a door imbedded in the side of the tunnel.

Walking over, Reysin grasped the doorknob, and flung the door open. As he'd hoped, there were those stairs, twisting down into the inky darkness. At the sight of them, he jerked slightly, terror jolting through him. For a single instant, he thought he could feel those huge meaty fingers around his throat again, choking the life from him as the human's enraged face filled his vision. Shuddering, he grabbed the side of the doorway to steady himself, his eyes clenching shut. Get a grip, Reysin. It's over. Vann and his cronies are long gone, dealt with by the Womiyu.

You don't know that, they might have escaped into the underground they might be there waiting for you they know your face they'll kill you they'll kill you they'll torture you first they'll-

Rey slapped himself lightly, forcing that train of thought down. Even if they hadn't been caught, he was better prepared this time. He was fast, they'd never catch him. And if he was in his dhani form, he'd kill them before they could blink. It'd be a pity to make it so fast, but Rey liked living, thank you very much.

He was fine, he told himself. He was completely fine. He even managed to half convince himself of it until he reached for the handrail and saw his hands were shaking.

He wasn't fine. Shyke, who would be after nearly dying? But like Hai he'd let that stop him. Akajia's shadows, guide my path and hide my trail he prayed as he began to decend, as quietly as he could, into the underground.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

by **Fable** on August 1st, 2015, 8:45 pm

As he descended into the darkness, the echoing tap of his boots against the cool stone, the wafted from the depths a whining hum, like that of a bee or fly. It continued as Reysin delved deeper into the city's underbelly, though its volume never rose beyond the sort of noise at the back of one's head. As he finally made his way to the base of the staircase to stare out into the twisted, ruddy streets illuminated by the bloody orb that hovered in the "sky" above him, his search began.

oocPlease feel free to take as much time as you'd like exploring the underground. I'm going to add what you find when you track them down in a spoiler if you'd like to be surprised! However, I think this is a more efficient way than to just give you a few sentences.

Tracking Results :

by **Yisanareysin** on August 17th, 2015, 4:24 am

The Underground hadn't changed much since the last time he was here. Except for the humming, perhaps, though in truth, Rey couldn't tell if it was new, or if he had just never noticed before. Paranoia made him observant. Usually. Regardless, the Underground was the same mess of dark, twisty roads, blood moon hanging above the streets, and the smell of.. Rey couldn't really say what it was. it wasn't an extremely unpleasant smell, but it made his scales itch all the same.

And speaking of unpleasant smells...

Stepping back into a shady corner of the room, Rey stripped, then shifted into his dhani form. Usually, the chance to stretch his tail was wonderfully welcome. Right now, all he could think about was that this was definitely now what he had expected when he'd left the nest. Go out. See the world. Smell people's dirty socks to find him. His younger self would have laughed himself into a knot if someone had told him that.

Still, fate, and whatever god/dess was in charge of that, wound as it would. So Rey took the sock from his pack, and brought it to his nose. He could smell, well, mostly dried sweat. There was a hint of leather, no doubt from the shoes the man wore with it, and underneath it all the slightly sickly smell of the human he was looking for.

Slipping the sock back into his pack for safekeeping, Rey turned back to the stairs. Bending over, he sniffed at the bottom step, his forked tongue flickering out. It smelled of dust, mostly, but there were two scents he could make out. The stronger of the two was, of course, his own, but besides that, he could make out that same sickly scent, without the sweat this time.

"Excellent." Rey hissed to himself.

Keeping close to the ground, he followed the scent of the human out into the streets, using the sock to remind him of the scent when he needed it. It was slow going, partly because Rey had only the most basic training in scent tracking, but mostly because he was a nervous wreck throughout most of it.

The Underground was a dangerously deceptive place, with shadows falling in all the wrong places, and sounds that seemed to come from nowhere. They didn't make Rey jump, precisely, but he was very twitchy. Several times, he thought he'd heard something behind him, or saw something move in a seemingly abandoned building, only to find nothing. Whether these were illusions, or simply his own paranoid mind playing tricks on him, Rey couldn't have said. Perhaps, he thought, there wasn't any difference.

Still, having a goal helped him to push his worries aside. Things flickered in the shadows, something rustled in the distance, and Rey kept moving, focused intently on the scent he was chasing.

This singleminded focus kept him from panicking, but also left him less alert than he normally would have been. Which meant that when he heard something that was not just a distant noise, it took him a moment to realize it.

"So you're just going to let him get away with it?"

Reysin jerked slightly when he heard an actual voice down here. For a brief moment, terror seized him as he registered their words, oh gods it was them they were here for him they-

It was easier to catch ahold of himself this time, and he swallowed his fear as he looked around. The voices were coming from the junction ahead. Which side, he couldn't tell, but they were definitely getting closer. No time to backtrack, and he was afraid he might lose the scent if he went too far from it. Most of the gaps between buildings were too small, but there were a few that were larger. Choosing one that was suitably shadowy and spacious, Rey slithered in. When he was suitably far in, he slid his pack from his shoulder, and coiled around it to hide its lighter color.

Thanking Siku for his dark scales, Rey flattened himself onto the ground to hide his red underbelly, stilling his movements to try and keep hidden. The voices came closer, talking about someone cheating someone else, Rey didn't care. He was entirely focused with keeping himself hidden. As they passed the alley he was in, he kept his head down, worried his yellow eyes would stand out.

Curse his lack of eyelids in this form.

Fortunately, the people that the voices belonged to were engaged in a very animated conversation. From the footsteps, Rey estimated there were three.. no, four of them. They passed by without pausing, apparently too engrossed in their argument to notice him. When their voices grew muffled, Rey dared to slither out for a look. They were gone. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Rey retrieved his pack, and returned to the main path.

There was a fear at first that the group's passing would have obscured the scent he was following, but it was a simple enough thing to retrace the scents until he found where the one he was looking for broke off into a smaller side path.

Convinced now of the merits of haste, Rey resumed his tracking, at a slightly faster pace now. There were no more unexpected incidents as he followed the scent, until he turned a corner and found more voices echoing in an empty corridor, shadows flickering on the wall opposite. Rey froze for a moment, trying to determine if they were approaching him or not.

They didn't sound, or look like they were moving closer. Nor did it seem like they were leaving, for that matter. Carefully and quietly, Rey set his pack down again, resting it against a wall, and began to slither forwards silently, shifting fully into a snake as he went. Best to keep to a slightly more innocuous form. Humans weren't fond of snakes, but neither did they suspect them of spying.

As he transformed, he listened attentively. Two speakers, a man and a woman, and a third shadow, apparently a person who was staying silent. As the last of his bones slid into place, the voices receded into a softer murmur he couldn't quite make out. Hai.

Keeping the full length of his body pressed to the right wall, Rey slowly poked his fully serpentile head around the corner, hoping to see what was happening without drawing attention. With any luck, his dark coloring would help keep attention away from the snake head on the floor.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

by **Fable** on August 17th, 2015, 6:16 am

The first and most notable thing that Reysin might notice upon curling his head about the stone corner was there were four people huddled at the intersection some ways down the uncertain road: three men and a woman. They had all leaned in close, inspecting something, making them seem an almost comical bump of hissing secrecy. Any vestiges of drollery, however, were quickly shredded as the woman straightened back up, her fingers curled about a leather-clad object, steady, piercing eyes staring down at what she held with a burning gaze of greed, easily discerned even from Reysin's relative distance.

"Thought it would be... more impressive." One of the men straightened, his muscular form barely contained within the restrictive weave of clothes too small for him. A dull, bored light glinted in his dark eyes, lingering on the object for only a tick before he turned his attention towards the smallest of the men. "You sure this is it?"

Before the smaller man, who seemed to be shaking in what was either fear or cold, could answer, the woman's hand flew out, slapping the man beside her with a sharp snap of skin against skin. Dazed, the man lifted a hand to his cheek, eyes surprised but lacking any other emotion. "I told you to shut up, Veryl." The woman, seemingly unperturbed by the massive difference in perceivable size and strength between the two of them, turned her attentions to the last man, her voice rising only slightly as she spoke. "Is it, Hargris?"

The shadows seemed to shift, allowing for Reysin to see the details of those before him for about a chime before it became too murky for more than the general outline of faces at his distance. The woman had bright red hair, tight curls falling to about the middle of her back. She was clad in leathers that were stained dark, though there were stains even darker that suggested her garb was hardly cosmetic. Her features were angular, and her long-limbed body moved with a calculated grace. The most striking thing about her, however, were a familiar set of golden irises that seemed to catch what little of the moon's crimson light as was possible, almost glowing in the short time in which she was fully revealed.

The man, Varyl, was at least six and a half feet tall and very likely just as wide. He had muscle that seemed wholly out of place, but it was his main feature. His face and head seemed too small for the body they rested upon, and his physiognomy was hardly that of anything more than average in both appearance and suggested intellect. He was clothed in leathers similar to the woman, though his were far too small and, if anything, seemed to restrict movement rather than allow it.

The other two men had their backs to the dhani, though the one that seemed to be the odd man out was much smaller, crouched, and quivering. The one called Hargris, however, was cloaked and if Reysin were to test the air, he would find his sense of taste and smell clouded by a heavy aroma of something sweetly pungent.

When he spoke, Hargris did so in a low rumble, his consonants sticking with what almost sounded like a click. "Shiny. Same shiny. My shiny." A hand moved to grab the object, still hidden by murk and shadow, but the woman quickly drew whatever it was away with a slight "tsk". Their voices fell once more as she glanced around, eyes lingering in Reysin's direction, giving her pause.

Whether he recoiled or not, a definitive order was given by the smooth tone of the woman's silky alto. "Veryl... I think I saw something over there. Check it out, would you?." Without hesitation, the heavy steps of the mountain of a man sounded towards Reysin's location as her voice fell to speak with Hargris once more.

by **Yisanareysin** on September 3rd, 2015, 12:42 am

Now that was odd. Rey was almost completely certain he had seen only three shadows, yet there were four people standing there together. Shadows never fell quite right in the Underground. But it was still odd, and frankly, rather ominous.

As one of the figures, a woman from the look of it, emerged from the huddle, Rey caught a glimpse of something in her hand, and a gleam in her eye he was very familiar with: that eager hunger he saw from so many merchants, and so many of his clients as well. Whatever it is she was holding, it was, to her, at least, exceptionally valuable.

There was something else about her, something familiar. Amber eyes, crimson hair... Ah. Oddly enough, she looked a little like Phobius. Rey vaguely remembered the little snack mentioning that everyone in his home had red hair. Perhaps she was also from.... what was it called? Inert Mountain or something? It hardly mattered right then, though Rey did resolve to go talk to the little courier later.

The woman seemed to be the leader of this little band, judging from the way the large man deferred to her, despite his size. The other two... neither of them had spoken yet, and until they did, it would be difficult for him to evaluate their relationship to the woman. Still, she acted as though she led all three of them, so that seemed to be a safe assumption to make for the time being.

So far, there had been nothing to disprove the idea that this group was what he had been looking for. The huge man, Veryl, was clearly not the one he was hunting, unless the description he'd been given had been way, way off. The other two had their backs to him, but with any luck, one of them would be Wally. The nameless, nervous seeming one, perhaps. Hargris might have been a fake name, but there was something about that cloaked figure that made his scales itch. And his voice... Rey barely suppressed a shudder at the sound.

Perhaps less effectively than he would have liked. The woman's eyes seemed to flick in his direction, and Rey had to resist the urge to draw back behind the wall, knowing the movement would give him away for sure. The moment she looked away, Rey drew back. To no avail, it seemed. Rey cursed under his breath when the woman spoke again, running through his options.

He couldn't flee, not until he knew if one of the two he couldn't see was his quarry. Fighting was a possibility, but frankly, Rey really didn't want to have to resort to that. The one coming around the corner was the big one, and Rey didn't know if he could win a fight with someone that strong. And even if Rey managed to take him out quickly with a dose of venom, the other three might scatter, and he'd have to chase Wally down all over again. Unfortunately, unless he could somehow hide in an empty corridor, it seemed like he might have to.

Coiling up around his pack to hide it, Rey curled up into as small a pile as he could, his head facing down the corridor. If Rey was lucky, the man wouldn't notice him, somehow, or simply dismiss him as an illusion. If not, Rey was prepared to spit his venom and blind the man.

Akajia preserve me.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

by **Fable** on September 5th, 2015, 6:14 pm

Veryl's lumbering gait crunched down against the uneven cobbles as he made his way down the lane, the sound of his heavy breathing seeming to claw its way ahead of him, wrapping around the dhani much in the same way Reysin wrapped himself into a tight, shadowed coil. There was more than the labored draw and release of air, however, and as he drew ever nearer, there was a faint whisper of voices that seemed to drift from the very stone around them. Most of what they said was too faint to make out clearly, but there was a distinct sense of acidic loathing in their tone, pressing up against the faint shadows that seemed to fall in every direction, each shifting with every syllable. The steps that had once been growing louder had started to fade, and as Veryl's shadow rounded the corner, there was no body attached to its feet.

It stood there, in the crook of the street's curve, nose pointed directly at were Reysin lay with cautious stillness. Had the shade had eyes, it might have seen the soft glint of light against scale, or the entirely out of place nature of finding a sole snake alone in an ever changing, shifting world of reality and illusion. Ticks passed, perhaps chimes or bells, Underground it was impossible to say, but when the time had passed, the shadow simply drifted away, vaporizing into a thin cloud of smoke before altogether dissipating into nothingness, no trace of Veryl left. The whispers also faded, though a single one remained - only it wasn't a whisper so much as it were a snicker, a vestige of biting humor playing at the edges of perception.

"Now." The woman's voice sounded impossibly close, and perhaps rightly so. The woman held the leather clad item just out of sight, her back to the snake in some twist of perspective. He could now easily make out the other two figures, or perhaps better sated, he could make out the one that had appeared to be the nervous, shivering, stout man. Dark hair and pale skin were coupled with the fact that his squat appearance was caused by the ropes that bound his hands to his ankles. The shadows had played their tricks from afar, but from the short distance between Reysin and the unmistakable Wally, it was clear the man was in no cohort with the woman or the hooded figure beside him. "You understand the concept of 'trade', Hargris?

The cloaked figure let out a low, guttural growl. "Yes. Yes. Give it. Give it to Hargris!" Gloved hands reached forward, the cloak's sleeves slipping to reveal a fine layer of shadowed fur. Wally flinched away, his voice seemingly lost to him, though the fear in his eyes was more than enough to state what he wouldn't say.

Slapping the hands away with a deft swipe of her own, the woman's condescension was clearly stated even without being able to see her face. I will trade it for what you promised me, Hargris. The object was tossed into the air in a slow arc before it landed once more into the confident grip of the woman's hand. "So? Where is it?"

Through the duration of the woman's reprimand of the clearly agitated Hargris, Wally's eyes met with Reysin's. Surprise was the first think to spark in the pale grey gaze that locked with the dhani's, but it was soon replaced with fear. The man began to fidget, and the decision as to whether he would speak or not burned behind his panicked gaze.

by **Yisanareysin** on September 5th, 2015, 11:46 pm

Something was happening. Veryl's steps were growing softer now, and in their place Rey was beginning to hear soft murmurs, contemptuous and hateful, just faint enough that he couldn't hear them clearly. His first thought was that it was Hargris and the woman speaking, but the whispers sounded almost like they were coming from all around him, wisps of indistinct words wafting up from the ground. Under any other circumstances, Rey might have simply dismissed it as part of the oddness of the underground. But in the next moment, the large human's shadow, and only that, stepped into his sight.

Rey had been tense, fearing he would need to break his cover and fight. Now though, faced with that impossible shadow, he found himself relaxing. Shocked, and even awed, he looked into it's featureless face, and absurdly, thought he felt it looking back. How long they stayed there, snake and shade staring at each other, he could not have said, only that after a time, the shadow dissipated, taking with it the whispers, save for one quiet chuckle of amusement.

That... was weird. What the petch had just happened?

His mind breaking out of its daze, Rey saw that he had been moved. Or perhaps it was the streets that had moved, as if there were any real difference between the two in this place. Shifting streets and locations were nothing new in the Alvadas, and perhaps this was all just another one of the city's tricks. Perhaps. On the other hand, there was that shadow. And he had prayed to Akajia for protection, just moments ago. It was a bit of a stretch though. More likely than not, he was jumping to conclusions.

Thank you. He thought to her anyways. Just in case.

There would, hopefully, be time later to dwell on that bizarre event. Rey had more immediate things to deal with.

He was now behind the redheaded woman, opposite to where he'd been, and could see clearly now that the silent, hunched over figure was a bound Wally, clearly distressed about his current circumstances. Hargris was still fairly indistinct, though now facing him. Veryl was nowhere to be seen. Safest to assume he was in the corridor Rey had just disappeared from, still searching. Depending on how slow the man was, that might give him anywhere from a few ticks to a few chimes to do whatever he might need to without having to also deal with the large human.

The scene before him was unfolding quickly, almost faster than Rey could keep track. The leather covered thing was being traded to Hargris for some other object the woman wanted, Hargris was apparently not human, and Wally had spotted him. Too many things to deal with at once.

Priorities, Reysin.

His main goal was to not die. No way of guaranteeing it, but stopping Wally from drawing attention to him would help with that. Slowly, Rey shook his head from side to side, bringing the tip of his tail to his mouth. Hopefully Wally would recognise the universal signal for "shut the petch up."

Secondary goal was to retrieve Wally relatively safely. With the man held captive so close to the other two, Rey couldn't see a way to do that without having to get rid of the others, and he couldn't think of a way to do that without fighting them. Diplomacy didn't seem to be an option at the moment, not least because Rey couldn't make human sounds in this form. He might be able to distract one, but not both of them, and not without them spotting him. Threaten them? Rey wasn't particularly good at scaring people, and then if they fought him he'd lose the element of surprise.

Any other goals? There was figuring out what had just happened to him, but that could be done at a less dangerous time. Whatever it was that was happening here sounded fascinating, but finding out what was being traded was just a little less vital than getting himself and Wally out safely. Pity. Other than those two, nothing else came to mind.

So, fighting. Rey was not a good fighter. Perhaps there was another way he couldn't see, at least, not with these senses. And if he used his sense, he'd at least know a bit more of what to expect if he did have to fight them.

Best do it as quick as possible, then. No need to sense Wally, there was probably nothing particularly special about him Rey needed to know. Same went for the woman too, as she seemed like just another human. Hargris, on the other hand, was a complete unknown. So, sense him, figure out what he was, and any potential weaknesses Rey could exploit. Then sense the object the woman was holding, partly to see if there was something about it he could take advantage of, but mostly because Rey was burning with curiosity.

This was not a particularly good plan, but it was the only one he had at the moment. Hopefully it wouldn't get him killed.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

by **Fable** on September 6th, 2015, 5:30 am

Reysin's unspoken command was, for the most part, well received by Wally, though the man's eyes were so filled with fear and panic - not all from his staring contest with the oddly cognizant snake - that it was difficult to tell for how long the pale man might remain as silent as his quivering, crooked nose seemed to suggest, lips sealed tight in a fearful line. There was more at play than a simple case of ophiophobia, and it did not require an aurist to understand that the danger of the situation was the most real thing in the flickering shadows of the cramped alley. Still, as Reysin turned his attentions elsewhere, Wally kept his mouth shut, sweat beading at his temples to run down his face in a wobbly trail, forcing his eyes from the only hope he had of mercy towards the greed filled eyes of the Inartian before him, far too nervous a wreck to venture another tick of time wondering just who exactly - or what exactly - Hargris was.

As the magic filled his senses, turning the shadowed world around him into layer upon layer of scent and taste, the first thing that hit his tongue was not that of a living thing. It was dark, loamy even, reminiscent of the earth only fetid. It was not the flavor or heady bite of rot, but there was something distinctly expired about it. Even if he tried, Reysin would not be able to differentiate the odd aroma and flavor from that of Hargris, but if he dug deeper in the alien scent specifically, he would find an electric buzz of energy, a sizzle of power enough to singe his nostrils and burn his tongue. As for Hargris himself, the oddly sweet, heady scent was emboldened by his investigations, a mix of lavender and mint with a heavy undercurrent of copper - or perhaps it was something more sanguine. There was more to the aura, a wildness that found purchase in flare of acrid spice. Should Reysin linger, the spice was more than wildness; it was a feral rage, instinctual, animalistic, that was more that spice, it was a flame, bright and hot, more than enough to flare up against his senses with a heat and ardor to force him out of his investigative magics. As for weaknesses, there was only a steady, subtle tang of salt and the scent of murky waters; beyond that, the spice and sweetness were too strong to discern anything more.

The object in the woman's hand, however, immediately flooded Reysin's senses with an overwhelming rush of taste and scent too myriad to be processed. It was like an explosion of light, tossing away his creeping tendrils of interrogation as easily as a child might swat back a fly. There was no malice to the denial, only an overpowering sense of something "more".

Hargris pulled something from his cloak, an object about the size of his gloved palm and wrapped in a rusty, dirt-stained cloth. "Here, here, Hargris has it here."

"Show me." The woman's voice carried with it a venomous disdain.

The cloak figured snarled, eliciting a dark stain and growing influence of fear from the pitiable mess that was Wally, who whimpered in embarrassment and anxious nervousness. The woman, however, only turned her head towards the growing mess with a click of her tongue. Even without being able to see her expression, disgust was clearly conveyed. The cloth was partially removed by the reluctant Hargris, guttural noises that were something less than a growl but more than muttering drifted from his hooded face. There, in his hand, was what appeared to be a miniature human skull. The top of the bone wasn't quite connected, giving it an odd appearance as there was a rough, triangular shape missing from it. In the poor light of the alley's position, it was difficult, though not impossible, to discern the various shapes and designs engraved within a circle centered in the middle of the skull's forehead.

Both the woman and Hargris stared at the object, which - for all the world - seemed as though it stared back at them. Wally, however, had had enough. With a single, frantic twitch of his head towards the dhani to single some change of plan that had never once been intimated nor explained, he threw himself against Hargris with a roar that was far closer to that of a full blown scream of terror and rage coupled into one.