Roleplayer Guild - Forum Roleplaying Games

Check out the NEW OOC here: Zodiac Balance: The Awakening

If for some reason you need the old one check this out: Zodiac Balance OOC
___________________

The forest was eerily quiet. There were no crickets crying, no owls hooting, even the wind dared not disturb the silence that had enveloped the forest of mount Makiling. The moon bathed everything in silver and this night even the shadows did not stir.

Diwata gasped for air as she struggled to free herself from the invisible ties that bound her to the forest floor. Her arms were crossed at her middle and tied individually at her side. Her feet were bound together, weighed still. Tears fell from her eyes as she fought for life. Her death also meant the death of this forest and too much depended on it for her to give up her hold on life easily. Blood flowed from the wounds on her, liberally on her arm and legs, coloring the silver of the forest floor a violent shade of crimson.

Her cries were silent. Men roamed her woods and finding her in such a state would be a fate worse than dying here and now. Even as she strove to break free, she could not cause too much ruckus that she would get their attention.

A brave soul stepped forward, hesitantly but determinedly towards her, a deer. She looked at it, meeting its eyes and begging it to leave her be. The beast would die if it were to help her. It did not seem to care. It bent its graceful neck and chewed on her ties and freed her. It raised its head and stared unmovingly at Makiling, the Diwata who was already backing away. The creature’s eyes glassed over and it made an unearthly growl. It was a low sound of great pain and Makiling gave a silent cry of her own as she stabbed her hand through the creature, separating heart and body.

She withdrew her blood stained hands. It was wet with the blood of the innocent... or what once was an innocent. Any creature who steps into the cursed circle will be corrupted. And she knew she had little time left before the corruption took over her. She sobbed. When that happened there was no saving this land and the men that lived so near it.

She would be responsible for so many deaths of their kind they would not think twice to destroy this land and all that was in it. She raised her face to the sky.

“Bathala, father, do not leave me with this fate. Please save this land. Give me the strength to summon them.” she cried as she knelt and bowed before the power. Something shot through her middle and pinned her to a near tree. A long blaided spear had her gasping for air. She hung four feet above the floor and the only thing that kept her aloft was the blaid. She held it with both hands, trying hard so that it did not slice her upwards. She was once feared for her power but she was helpless now. The corrupted had found a way to strip her of her gifts at night... life was the only thing they left with her and even that they now strove to take away.

“Bathala. The lands.” She cried as she raised her head to the moon in prayer. “The lands.” She whispered even as she heard the whistle of another spear coming for her.

__________________

...some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them...

Leigh stood solemn in her black dress. This was going to be the first and last time she'd wear one. She wondered if mother was watching over her at that moment, smiling at the momentous occasion of her in a dress.

"Miss Leigh." The priest, somber in his black and purple robes stood next to her. He was the only one to come to her this close. All the others had left after the burial. Soft brown eyes showed sympathy but his body gave off fear when Leigh turned to look at him. Her pupils had most likely gone into slits of darkness as she fought down her emotions. Her eyes clearly saying what she wasn't and that was that she was no human. To give credence to him, he controlled his fear and his sympathy grew stronger. "My condolences to your loss. Sera was a good woman and a good friend."

Leigh only nodded her head. When he brought out his hand, she hesitated. Humans didn't like her and had in fact stood apart from her the entire time in church, the procession, and the burial. She knew they feared her and she in turn cared nothing for them. But still, she would've have liked a little contact. Contact made impressions, relationships, friends. Was she too much of an evil thing to be considered unworthy of an hello or a simple nod of recognition. The priest suddenly smiled at her. "Sera would not have cared for you if you were not good."

Leigh blinked back the tears that suddenly came at the comment. She took his hand and said, "Thank you." before turning away, quickly ending the handshake.

"It's raining." There wasn't a single drop of water falling.

The priest looked up. "It's-" he stopped when he looked back down and saw her face. "Yes, it is." He stood there awhile and then before it grew to night, left her in her solitude. Yet again, she was alone.

When the moon grew high and bright, a single cry of mourning pierced the night. A cry of a wolf lost in the wilderness of her misery.

__________________

Cancia woke up, no longer feeling the soft forest floor beneath her. No, cold hard flat stone. She sat up, slowly, feeling weak, her muscles were soar, picking herself up. She rubbed her head, glancing at her hand as it went by. She pulled her hand back down, holding it in front of her face... looked down at her body. She was hardly there, just a shadow, laying there, surrounded by concrete and cement. She pulled her knees up to her chest, it felt cold... Everywhere, there were people, humans walking by. But no one noticed her. Everyone walked over her, past, no one even glancing down in her direction. Where was her forest? Her friends there, everything? What was this forsaken place?

She stood up, stumbling, she felt dizzy, about to fall. She leaned in against the wall of one of the large buildings. She pulled herself along the wall, slowly gaining enough strength to stand, walking along through the people. She was like a ghost among her, no one saw her, cared if she was there. She was just walking, maybe find a way out of this place.
You've hidden for too long Cancia, this place needs help, your help.
She looked around, was someone talking to her? did she say that to herself, or was it just something in her head? What was she supposed to do to help this place, no one noticed her, she was too weak. Her strength was derived from the health, sustenance of the creatures in the place, so she had very little. Someone walked by, pushing against her, not even feeling her as she was thrown to the ground. Cancia sat up, it didn't hurt, she didn't feel, bleed, all she was was a shadow, ghost floating along. She gazed at her arm, just a slightly darker spot on the landscape, not even enough to notice. Not the beautiful girl she used to be, in her forest, everyone told her how beautiful she was. What was she now? didn't even know.

__________________

__________________

Leigh ran above the town, jumping lightly from roof to roof, as she headed for the fire. Tonight was going to be the last of the arsonist. The human had been burning building after building for the past week, escaping each time she got close. The authorities were unable to catch him, unable to even investigate without the town head's authority. But now, she was prepared. She'd known he would strike again and having now memorized the pattern of his fires she knew where he was going to be.

The sound of laughter drew her to a stop three buildings away from the latest fire. He was right were she had expected him to be -on the building beside the burning bakery. The child-like delight his laughter gave off made her growl. She could sense the happiness he was feeling, the disturbing sense of pride as he looked on. Leigh grit her teeth. How dare he laugh while he burned away someone's livelihood. Drawing down her face mask, she went to him. So silent she was in her arrival that she was surprised when he turned suddenly and quickly aimed a knife at her. Avoiding the slash of his knife she attempted to disarm him when he twisted about and aimed a kick at her. Fighting back, Leigh tried again to disarm him when she heard a scratching noise. The sudden scent of sulfur assailed her. Looking down, she saw the man's hand was on fire and curled into fist directly aimed at her.

Avoiding it, Leigh stumbled back and nearly lost her balance when she realized how close to the edge she was. Righting herself, she drew her blades. Doing a quick step, she lunged at him and knocked away his dagger before slashing at his burning fist. The man screamed in rage as he drew away. Leigh followed him, stabbing him through the chest when she drew close. Pulling out her blade, she stared down at the mayor's body. The inevitable sense of justice met enveloped her. Reaching down she wiped clean her blades with his clothes. Turning away from his lifeless eyes and the fire he'd begun, Leigh didn't see the shadow that stopped behind her, didn't feel the killing intent until she was pushed forward by the blade that went through her chest. As her killer drew it out, Leigh turned. A little girl, barely a decade, stood before her, the blood on her blade going unnoticed. Leigh felt herself falling. The girl watched for those last few seconds before turning away. Leigh waited for the impact of stone as she lost consciousness.

She never hit the ground.

__________________

She was the third daughter of the king of the winged race Amihan. They grew white wings that spread as tall as they were and flew higher and faster under the sun. They lived on the clouds as they were lighter than them, weightless in the world called Erien.

Their race carried a holy task. They were the guardians of the Path of Life. They protected what could now roughly be called as souls as these lives entered or left their mortal shells. It was a thankless task, for the lives they accompanied often never knew anything outside its desperate attempt to reach its mortal casing... or it never knew beyond the desperation of staying within their broken ones.

It was also a task rife with danger, because although they cannot be seen or noticed by the soul they deliver, a perceptive soul of another can. And often these living souls are not willing to free their broken kin and in their blind and painful grief they attack. Many of the winged race have fallen in this manner. Amihans are not invulnerable to blade or fist but the task needs to be done. It was a task that the Holiest of Beings have bestowed upon them and it was an honor to serve.

Amihans, however, in defense, have learned of ways to conceal themselves. They lived with the light and so had learned to use it. They could blend into it, use its brightness to blind, bend it so they were invisible, anything to hide them from the eyes of the race they guarded. They could still, of course, be felt and held, but of course, who would think to touch something they could not see? And so it had gone on through centuries, the Amihan visiting the race of Alupaan only in birth and death with the aid of the sun. The latter unknowing of the trade.

For all the art of light bending that the Amihan had mastered however, there was a race that they could not trick. The Allons of the sea. They were blue tinged fish people who lived beneath the waves and played under the silver light of the moon.

It is said that they were the race who were once tasked as guardians but they pitied the living souls and so had, for a while, stopped delivering. They left the mortals to suffer in their broken shells.

The Alupaan grew miserable, there were too many of them with too little to keep them all alive. Soon the number of the broken and frail people grew and they began to turn against each other. It was this that had awakened to Allon. They immediately sent a great wave to claim, free and deliver the souls as they should have. They saved the Alupaans from the death of their race but the holy being thought the people of the waves now unfit for the holy task. They were then given a new task, one that suited their nature more. If the Amihan only bothered themselves with the beginning and ending of the mortal life, they busied themselves with what lay in between. They provided life in the bounty that their waters carried, they punished the unjust by withholding it. It was their task to Maintain life.

The Allon and the Amihan however are not allies. Water melted the feathers of the Amihans, salt water caused them a great burning pain and only the sunlight can restore them. Sunlight on the other hand, hurt the Allons, dried their skin too much and turned them, if they were not careful into sand. It was these differences that fed the distance and therefore the distrust between the winged and the finned race. They were each other’s weaknesses, lived in what would be the death of the other. It came as no surprise that the king, father to this third daughter of the Amihan, forbid all winged creatures from meeting the finned ones.

And so it went, the path of life, carried by the races as they lived in a teetering peace. Not one of them knew of course that that peace would be shattered soon. And that it would be shattered by love.

In the world of Erien, it was not the Earth and Sky who loved first, it was the Sky and the Sea. This is their story.

The third princess had flown through the skies, after delivering life to a faithful and loving couple. The child had taken so long and she wanted to see the life through safely that the sun had long since set before she had deemed it safe to leave, before she had taken to the skies again.

She had spread her wings, and for a moment, was frozen in wonder as the moon blessed her. It was not as brilliant as the light of the sun, but somehow, it was equally as beautiful. She rose up to kiss it, and to thank it for lighting her way home. It was indeed a blessing, for the moon meant that the clouds brought no rain to delay her more.

She would have to take shelter if it rained. The water would wash out her wings, and there was nothing more shameful than a wingless Amihan. Without wings, one cannot deliver souls. And there was nothing else an Amihan was for but to deliver them

She, however, did not master the light of the moon, she did not know how to bend it properly, or if she was bending it at all. She flew at a low height to avoid detection and it was on this flight that she had met the man who would change her life forever.

He lay on the forest floor, unconscious and unmoving. He was silent but something about him cried so much of pain that she had dipped into the ground, and had, for the first time of her life, felt the ground beneath her feet.

She wore no shoes. What would they be for? She never walked anywhere. She looked at her feet against the damp and thick green grass. She smiled at the peculiar and ticklish feeling of them. Her wings behind her, she knelt before him and gasped as she discovered what he was. An Allon. So far from the shore. What was he doing here? Curiosity overrode caution and she lay her hand on his forehead.

He was as beautiful as the moon. His skin was the color of the silver moon teased a little by the midnight sky. His eyes opened and focused on her. They were the most brilliant of greens. “Amihan?” he said weakly.

“Yes.” She whispered.

He looked at her then and asked her if she had come to deliver him to the holy being, she answered a prompt no even as he tried to sit up and failed. She had noticed his legs, how could an Allon have them?

It was then that she had learned of the secrets of the Allon. They had the power to trade in their fins, for a short while, for the legs of the Alupaan. Only they needed to be back in the water before dawn if they left at sunset or before dusk if they left at sunrise. They would be trapped as an Alupaan if they failed to make it and they would wither, slowly, as the rocks on the shore did, as time passes them.

The woman, sensing the light of dawn, bent before him and embraced him. She then spread her wings and flapped them as hard as she could and raced for the water. She had reached it for him just before sunrise.

The warmth that she had felt as he had answered her embrace stayed with her even after she had left him to the depths of the sea.

It was then that she had broken her father’s rule. She had not only met an Allon, she had helped it, touched it... and before she knew it, she had loved him.

They met every night since then. They talked and shared life and love under the secret blessing of the moon. She stayed a feet from the water, looking down on him and he stayed beneath the surface, looking up at her, her eyes carrying the hue of the water he was in. They had dreamed for a place where they can somehow meet and always, they had searched the horizon for when the sky had met the sea.

A third princess’ habitual disappearance was not something that can be easily ignored, however, and soon, the first princess had found out the third’s secret. The laws of the air were strict. And the princess had to be punished.

The father, in his misguided rules, hated his daughter then, how dare she break her own father’s rules? He then proceeded and gave her the harshest punishment of all, he ripped off her wings. The crimson feathers flew with the wind as the cries of the wingless filled the land. She was then flown into the heart of the land of the Alupaans, trapped and invisible to everybody, trapped in a place where no one can see her, trapped in a place where no Allon can reach her... or so they thought.

The Allon who had loved her, saw it all happen and with broken wings in his hands, proceeded and stepped out of the water that dusk and walked towards the land. Every step hurt him for he also, did not often use these legs. He followed the trail of broken wings, praying that he would find her before grief ate at her. She could not hide from his eyes, he thought, for no matter what light the bent, he would surely find her. He did not think that now, as the sun colored the skies her hair, he no longer looked with the eyes of an Allon but an Alupaan. He had exceeded the limit.

He walked after her still, searching for her in the dense forests of the land.

She however, had learned to live without wings, her feet were bruised and bleeding, unused to walking. She was however, shamed and do had bent the light away from her. No one should see her in her shame. She, however frequented the grass, for they somehow reminded her of him and of the time they had first met.

It was in one of these walks that she saw a pile of sand, mixing with the green of the grass and the crimson of her wings. She knew who this was and she lay weeping beside it.

“Amihan?” it whispered in a secret and last whisper of a breath.

“No.” she sobbed as she cradled the sand in her bosom, bathing it with her salted tears. “Not Amihan my love...” She cried and flew through the night, with invisible wings that he had gifted her with his last breath. She then plunged into the water with her last breath, searching for the horizon where they oh could meet. “Atalantea. I am Atalantea.”

__________________

...some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them...

__________________

Atalantea's hand closed around the spear before it reached the bleeding Diwata. She also glided towards her and lay her hands on the woman's gaping wounds. "Help me." she cried.

Atalantea's eyes met hers then stared back down at the woman's wound. She felt the presence of the Null Balance, they were like a stain on a pure white sheet. They shifted from world to world, upsetting the balance, killing off one race so the other would dominate and eventually die. Obviously in this world it was this race who was dying.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the warm flesh, reconnecting, healing, sealing. She let herself be all energy and life, a warmth to ward off the cold, the light to burn off the stain.

There may be a battle ongoing around her but she trusted her team mates to keep her safe. She was vulnerable when healing, especially with this kind of poisoned wound. They wouldn't have healed if not for the arm of the Zodiac. The Null balance were becoming more dangerous.

"What other race is there?" she asked the lulled Diwata.

"Race?" She answered weakly.

She didn't understand anything. Perhaps it was Atalantea's problem, she didn't ask the right question? They were all gifted with the ability to adapt. They all at least had two shells, their original form and a temporary one to help them blend with the local world. They were also gifted the ability to adapt to the language of whoever they talked to.

"What are you?" she asked instead.

"A Diwata."

"Who harmed you?"

"Humans." The woman cried. "Humans have killed most of us already. It is getting worse, I may be the last of my kind."

Another spear whistled through and hit the trunk of the tree between them. Atalantea watched as several hair strands flew to the floor. She whipped her head around and angrily looked for her attacker. She found something that looked like an Alupaan, only this was poisoned with the Null Balance's Venom.

"Be free." she said, before gliding through the battle and holding her hands up for him. As he hands closed around his face, the man convulsed, shook like he were a fish out of water... or perhaps a bird underwater. "Be Free." she said as he fell to the floor.

She raised her head and looked at the number of their enemies. She couldn't count. They were too much.

__________________

...some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them...

Leigh woke up disoriented. Am I dead? Why is heaven, or maybe hell, a forest? She'd expected snowy mountains somehow (and not really the pearly white gates the humans had been told of).

Sighing, she remained lying down. Not moving, just feeling the forest floor beneath her. She ignored the tickling of the leaves on her scalp, on her ears. Curling a hand, she lightly grabbed some leaves. Lifting it before her face, she winced. She was now fairly sure it wasn't a dream...a couple of ants were biting her hand. Ignoring them, she let her hand fall to her side. Breathing in the scents of nature, Leigh grew still. She was breathing again. The wound should have ended my life. How can this be?

Sitting erect, she felt for her wound. Her blood was drying on her coat. Opening the top, she saw more drying blood contrasting with her white armor. The tunic inside also felt sticky. However, she couldn't feel any tear in her skin as she breathed deeply (she didn't remove her armor, her fingers shaking and weak as it was). There was no pain nor any tears on her clothing and armor even.

Using a nearby tree for support, she stood up but nearly fell with the dizziness that assaulted her. She was alive, true, but the blood loss was still a present danger it seemed. If I had been healed, why not completely? she wondered lazily. Pushing against the bark of the tree, she stood straighter and breathed deeply once more. Frowning, Leigh breathed again. Something...is different. Moving forward, she scented it.

Blood!

She knew her own scent so this blood was not from her own body but from something...natural. Concentrating on the scent she finally noticed the unnatural stillness of the forest. Even the ants weren't moving. Opting to follow the trail of blood, Leigh used the surrounding trees as support and walked forward. The blood she was scenting was different from a human's. It smelled like nature itself yet different somehow.

Hearing movement from somewhere, she stopped. Slowly, pitting her back against the tree, she prepared to draw out her blades. She closed her coat, her white armor would be a dead give away. Drawing her blades slowly, she hid, waiting for the malice to come closer. Using her sense of smell, she located the stranger some ways away to her left. Slowly rounding the tree, she hid herself in the shade. The blood she'd scented earlier was growing stronger now, it too seemed to be coming closer. The sudden rise of malice from the stranger alarmed her. It was beyond hate. Leigh could feel the stranger's need for something, an unnatural hunger. Shaking off her weariness, Leigh peered over the side of the tree.

A shuffle of leaves and something fell into view. Another movement from and he came out. A human? She watched as the man moved towards the being that fell on the ground. It looked like a small child but the curuscasion gave away it's kind. It was not human either. Still not moving, she watched as the being looked around the forest as if to make sure it was alone. Leigh was surprised. The man's eyes was pure white. He drew a blade and prepared to stab the being on the floor when someone ran into them. This time it was a young woman and this being's eyes held a red cross that seemed to shine with wet blood. Leigh was getting more confused. This assembly was not natural.

What is happening here?

__________________

__________________