Strange Markings for sure

[Jade Laken]

25th of Winter 517 A.V.

Jade walked out of her bungalow as Dina ran off to the mercantile wanting to try the trip on her own that morning. With a smile, the mother was more than happy to let the child do it alone. It would not be long and the little one would be learning a trade and preparing to survive alone in the world. Besides that fact, the mother had other things to do for the day. She had to meet up with an old friend from endrykas. Merevaika was not exactly excited to see the other drykas, but it could not be helped in a settlement as small as Syka. Popping her neck, the girls planned to venture into the jungle and see the trees that were scorched.

“I best hurry,” the girl said walking to where they were to meet up.

The sand in between her toes had become a very calming feeling. She was not in any hurry seeing as how they fif not say what time to meet by. If the other drykas was not there when the blond arrived, she would settle in and relax while watching the world around her. That adventure would show if the two had gotten over their strained past. Jade had dated Merevaika's brother when they were both much younger. As the couple grew his family matched him with another woman causing the pair to split. Merevaika never seemed to truly care for the girl much. Sighing gently she spotted the commons and went up top and relaxed.

“I hope we can put the past behind us,” Jade whispered looking around under the shade of the trees.

The blond braided her hair absentmindedly while waiting. Her mind drifted to her child and pulled a sigh from her body. Even though the girl had made friends after arriving in Syka; she still felt like the pair were alone there. A part of her wished that Syliras had not closed it gates, but nothing could be done about it now. The blond waited for her brown haired companion to join her for the days adventure. It took several bells before the girl finally made it. Standing up, a smile appeared on Jade's face.

“Hello again. Are we ready to go see the trees?” Jade asked.

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

Merevaika lounged idly outside her tent that morning, watching the sea slowly shift in and out as she dug her feet into the sand. The noise of the water still strange, the feel of sand on her feet unnatural, but something about it had become dreamlike and almost comforting. She longed to hear the noises of the Sea of Grass again, but for now this was good enough.

There weren't many mornings when she could sit around and not get much done. But this particular one, she had nothing to do but wait for Jade to turn up.

The sight of the other Drykas confused her so much, in terms of how she felt. Having someone like her, her race, a Drykas, was a comforting sight, especially when it was one she was familiar with. Of course, it was that familiarity that made her hate the woman. When she had been younger, Jade had dated Merevaika's brother. Of course she would hate her. Back then, her brother and her had been so close, apart from when he was dragged away from her by girlfriends like Jade.

But those were old hates, ones with no reasons behind them. Although they clouded her judgement, she was determined to simply get on with Jade, at the very least so they could get something done.

Merevaika needed to know what the scorch marks on the trees were. When she had first saw them, and tried to figure something out, she hadn't been very successful at all, but it seemed like an important thing to know. After all, if something was causing the scorches on the trees, it might cause scorches on her, too.

That was something she felt like it would be a good idea to avoid.

Merevaika lay back, brushing the tips of her fingers against her tent. Where was she? They hadn't agreed on a set time, but this was late for any Drykas.

Then she realised. It was the Commons where they were meant to be meeting. Merevaika wasn't certain where she ever got her tent as a meeting location from.

Rising to her feet, she tried to run, letting her toes sink into the sand as she landed then kick off as hard as she could, finding it harder on the softer sand. Her feet sank in too much. But she managed eventually and neared the Commons, spotting a woman waiting who was most likely Jade. It was a little embarrassing for her to be the one who was late, but she just had to go with it. Making someone wait several bells had to show something, other than being disorganised, right?

"Hello, we see trees now?" Merevaika started, then wondered why she was using Common in the first place. Lack of people to use Pavi with, it seemed. Swapping over quickly, she continued, happier with the now extended vocabulary and grammar options.

"Let's go. There are some near here, I believe. I walked past them yesterday."

Closing her eyes for a moment, she forced herself to see. Then she looked at the glowing paths around them, spotting the red-green trail of her running towards here and the greyish trail that Jade had clearly made - how long had she been waiting? Her trail was light and patchy already - but they weren't the ones she wanted. Concentrating harder, she squinted to make out the lighter trail that was her yesterday - it came out near here.

Finally, she spotted it. As she approached, it became slightly clearer, although it was still faint and patchy in places. That didn't matter, as long as she could tell what general direction it went. Pointing towards it, forgetting that Jade couldn't see what she was looking at, Merevaika smiled triumphantly. "Come and keep up."

She walked quickly, getting lost in the trees, but there was luck in the air - soon enough, the pair stumbled across the patch she had planned for. The trees stared at them, wounded. Letting her fingers run along the scorch wounds, she kept her touch light. "Do you have idea what could have made this?" she asked, although she was already half-certain she knew the answer.


"Pavi"
Grassland sign
"Common"

[Jade Laken]

The blond walked behind her fellow drykas. Stopping short, the girl watched the other with curious eyes not sure what was happening. It took a short while before the girl motioned for her to follow ahead. Curious the girl waited till they were away from prying ears before asking any questions.

“Why did you stop and wait?” Jade asked curiously, “you look like you are following something but there are no tracks and markers.”

The young drykas was very confused and wanted some kind of answers. If it was something she could learn, the blond was all for it. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she doubted it was able to be learned. It was not long before the pair had entered the jungle. Jade was still a little nervous about entering the jungle, but Merevaika seemed to have a good understanding about where they were headed.

Shortly after entering, the blond held limbs out of the way while walking through the jungle. She fought the urge to just look at the path ahead of her. Nya had warned her about losing her way because of focusing solely on where she was headed. Thinking back, the blond remembered watching for the edge of the cliff that time out. Shaking her head, Jade focused back in on where they were going. The leaves above them shifted making the girl look up.

Strange creatures moved across the limbs before stopping to stare back down at the girl. Hissing the four legged animal with a long tail kept going as if her presence was only a minor hindrance. The blue eyes looked forward again and quickly caught up with her brown haired companion. Shortly after, they made it to the trees. Her eyebrows furrowed before touching them as well. The marks almost looked like a fire had attacked them, but it was different. Instead of the entire tree being black and burned it was just the stripped barked of the wood.

“It is almost as if a fire hit the tree, but it did not touch the rest of the tree. Or even touch the bushes around it. How strange,” Jade said in reply to Merevaika asking what made them.

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

Jade's curiosity was irritating. Even if she was just asking an ordinary question, one she should have expected. But Merevaika hadn't expected it and hadn't wanted it, so she found it irritating. After all, the woman was easy to irritate and impossible to please. And when personal questions came, that she wasn't ready for but had no plan to reveal the truth about, she was thrown off guard easily, too.

Merevaika make a few incomprehensible noises, searching for an answer, before realising her stuttering was just revealing herself as having something to hide. Thinking quickly, she replied as naturally as she could. "How do you know there are no tracks and markers? Just because you can't see them," she made a disgruntled noise, "Doesn't mean there's nothing there."

Hopefully, Jade would interpret that as simply mundane. Like the great trackers Merevaika had seen in action, who had read so much from nothing in her opinion, perhaps she was simply at a higher level in tracking and could play this off as knowing more about what to look for. What reason would Jade have to realise what Merevaika was seeing was impossible for her to see, no matter how observant she was, no matter how well she could track? Impossible, that was, without the magic.

Merevaika listened to the other Drykas' ideas, musing over them herself. "Like some sort of... directed fire? A stream or jet or-"

Her mind fell onto reimancy for the second time in such a short time. What had it been, ten days, a little more, when she had been considering it as an explanation for the strange things going on. If it was coming up again... But then again, Merevaika knew nothing about the whole thing. Could reimancy even be used like that?

"Have you seen the lights, the rumbling? Do you think they have something to do with all this?" They had to. Who knew how, though. "Maybe the same thing that caused the lights caused this? I don't know how or what or anything..."

The tree crumbled under her touch. Ash blackened her finger as the burnt bark fell to her feet. How new was this? Was there some sort of pattern to it all?

"How many trees are there? How spread out are they? Maybe there's a pattern, a specific radius where they're found, something, anything, that we could use to help us out?" Merevaika paused, brushing the burnt dust from her fingers. "Do you think it's dangerous? Whatever caused the burns?" To us. That was what she cared about - but that part was obvious.

[Gossamer]

The truth was there were multiple trees with such marks all over the area. Those that had left them had no way of covering them up and it was vexing for all involved. The settlers were asking questions about things they shouldn't even realize were around... but there was nothing to be done about it.

The scouts weren't far gone though. The marks were as fresh as they came. And although they bagged what they were after, sometimes it took multiple shots to bring the game down. And those shots left evidence. It was just two bad the ladies investigating hadn't thought to keep their voices down or to attempt to conceal the movements.

Perimeter alarms went off silently alerting the team that had recently passed that there was large scale activity here behind them where they set the tiny sensors. They broke off their forward motion, circled back, and converged on the site that held both Jade and Merevaika. Two men glanced at each other, their alien features shaking their heads silently that two females would be out in the jungle wilds on their own, not giving a care in the world to their safety.

The first man nodded to the second and they both raised their weapons. Two shots blazed out at the same time, each taking a girl down. One shot, however, was noticeably less bright than the other.

Merevaika and Jade would not know what hit them.... blue filled their field of vision and suddenly... nothing. They drifted in a sea of darkness, relaxed, alone.... unable to move, unable to think.... though they could hear.

The language was foreign as the men approached. They argued, with one tapping his weapon. He disassembled it as they walked and pulled forth a small dull storm gem that just had faint tint of glow to it. He dropped it on the ground, disgusted, and held his hand out to the other man. That man handed him another gem, this one glowing. It was fitted into his weapon, the covering replaced, and they reached the spot the women were sprawled.

Quickly they worked, taking tissue and blood samples, then because they were female and it was available, they harvested eggs. They cut locks of hair and then behind the arms, deep under the fatty tissue, they inserted tiny ruby red gemstones as well... through a small cut they made in each girls' arm. They sealed the wounds with some sort of cream that caused it to scab over quickly and then nodded.

"We almost have enough. These two just look human. Its too bad. There's a bounty on all the exotics now." The second man said to the first as they worked, in a language neither girl would understand.

In and out in five chimes. Five chimes to bag and tag and then release women that shouldn't be released at all. The two chafed at the confinement, eyes open, able to see... but not able to move. Once the procedures were done and the men gone... men that hardly looked like men... the two women were left laying in the forest. It took them a good half bell or more to wake up and by that time, the men were gone. So too were all the signs of them being there.

When the women could talk and get on their feet again, like clockwork, fire lit the sky and the ground shook a little. But even the djed trails, if there ever had been any, were long gone.

[Jade Laken]

Jade looked at Mere and nodded when she snapped at her. The girl was used to people screaming at her for one reason or another. Whether it was to get attention back home over all the noise, or while training the knights. That had become a fact of life no matter what so she got over it and kept going with her life. Her and her child's survival was what mattered to her now and that meant learning on her feet. The girl had a weird feeling while moving through the jungle; she glanced around often like she had been instructed to by her teachers. The girl felt the grit on the trunks, pulling her hand back the drykas smelled her fingers. She was trying to see if there was a particular smell that would stand out, but there was nothing but the scent of burnt wood.

“I have seen them only briefly though, my little one is freaked out by the noise,” Jade said, “it looks as if someone took a torch and forced it in and swept sideways. But it doesn't look to be on all the trees. I can't imagine anyone actually making a pattern.”

The blond felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up suddenly. She went very still and her movements stilled as well. The girl listened closely trying to figure out what had her feeling watched. Turning her head some, she looked around watching for any leaves or foliage to move. Forcing the feeling to the back of her mind, the girl turned back to look at the trees. Ticks later, she cried out as a flash of blue entered her vision. Her body hit the ground beside Merevaika's as a darkness over came them. Trying to move, the girl began to panic some when her body would not listen to her. Blue eyed widened when strange human like creatures appeared before them. White and blue orbs followed the creatures as they collected “samples” from Mere in just a few chimes then did the same to her.

'What the petching skye are they?' Jade asked herself wishing for the ability to move.

She wanted to fight them or at least try to stop what they were doing or called themselves doing. The girl yearned to do something other than just lay there and let these “men” do whatever it was they called themselves doing. The egg collecting was the weirdest part for the women, Jade was sure of that. Last thing, she had expected was that of all things to be taken along with hair and skin cells. The girl hissed on the inside when a knife cut into her back. Confused she felt something getting pushed under her skin before it was resealed.

Shortly after they left the pair alone once more. Thirty chimes after their departure, Jade could take deep breathes and move her eyes more freely. But her body was still very stiff and now sore from what had occurred. She glanced over to see if Mere was fairing any better, but it seemed that it would take both a longer time to speak and move. Taking a deep breath, the drykas wanted to sleep as the sky began to darken. Trying one more time, she went to move her arm and was surprised to see it respond. The girl sat up quickly and instantly regretted it getting dizzy from the sudden jerk.

“What were they?” Jade asked and looked over at her companion, “what the petching crap did they do to us?”

The girl slowly tested her legs to see if they had feeling yet. Still rather numb, she remember them dropping a blue stone and instantly starting looking around. Spotting it, Jade managed to wiggle around and stretch enough to grab it. Sitting up, she showed it to Merevaika while keeping it out of her reach before speaking.

“Have you seen anything like it?” Jade asked.

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

There was a noise behind her. She didn't have a chance to even register what it was. It must have been a crack of a twig, or the brushing of leaves, or a single breath. Something that lasted a moment, a moment that was already too late. The Drykas didn't notice something hitting her. Not until her vision shifted through every shade of blue until the darkest one of all.

Still, in her state, she could hear something. She couldn't think about what she heard, do anything about it, but the noises drifted in. Foreign, unfamiliar, terrifying noises.

Her body refused to move. To try to move. She sat in this state, not certain what was happening, for too long. Slowly, her vision returned from darkness. Two figures disappeared from sight. Merevaika lay there on the ground, wondering when the animals would come. The two women were sitting ducks, lying on the ground unable to control their muscles. If a predator came across them right now, smelled the tasty fresh meat that wouldn't and couldn't move out of its way, they'd be dead even before they knew it.

But chimes passed, and nothing happened. More chimes went by and nothing came. Slowly, she felt something happen to her body. Legs loosened, hands gained motion. Her eyes started to flicker back and forth, desperately scanning their surroundings for danger. Her mouth opened, gasping for air and feeling it rush in. "Jade?" she managed to mumble out, before she could prop herself up.

She didn't go much higher than a seated position at first. The sky was on fire again and she could feel the rumbling through the ground. The Drykas still couldn't find it within her to stand.

Instead, she started a check on her own body. Her toes could wriggle and there was feeling in her legs again, although they didn't have the strength to stand. Her fingers could move, although with little control. A shorter lock of hair than the rest brushed against her ear. A pain in her lower body where they had taken the eggs. She checked the rest of her limbs - there was a scab were there hadn't been, behind her arm. A scab - but why there, what had they been doing? A scab like that should have taken a few bells, even a day, to form. For a second she panicked about the time, but then realised Leth wasn't visible through the canopy. The night was young so something unnatural had made her scab over so quickly.

As Jade began to ask her what the alien creatures were, Merevaika tried to see where they had gone. Her eyes flashed with magic, the sudden shock causing her a slight prickling before she managed to dull the pain. But, as she looked around, she couldn't see anything. Where she expected to find paths, bright and different to the norm - or at least to her own - there was nothing.

Had they faded already? Once again, she was debating the time period this had happened in.

"How long have we been like that? How long since they left us?" she asked quickly, getting her worries in before replying to Jade's own questions, "And I don't know what they did. I don't know who they were. I don't even know how to find them again - there's nothing there. No sign of where they went. That they were here at all."

Her voice was raspy, both from being still for so long and from being terrified. Now her voice was quiet, but now it didn't matter. The people who had ambushed them had disappeared.

Jade wriggled closer to her. She had something in her hand and as Merevaika shuffled closer too, she could make it out. A murky blue gemstone, not like one she recognised. Considering Jade was asking her about it too, it couldn't be a gemstone of Drykas. Despite the murkiness, there was a slight glow coming off it, almost a hum of energy.

"I... No, I haven't. It's..." She reached out, taking it from Jade carefully and running it through her fingers. Thinking back to the time they had found gems over the beach, she tried to remember anyone knowing anything. They had all been useless, not even knowing Semele's name. But then again, that hadn't been the whole of Syka. "Shall we try ask? Someone else might recognise it. We had gemstones, once, on the beach. Were you there for that? There were gemstones everywhere, people took so many. Perhaps someone might recognise it because they already have one?"

It was a long shot. And before they could reach the beach, they have to wait until they could walk. But then... then perhaps something would become clear.