Akando left to take care of other business, leaving Novak with Bolcha and the new arrival. He appeared fully human, but the man's blue eyes and white hair made him stand out, and reminded Novak of Misaki. He certainly looks the part more than me, he thought. Novak was unsure how the goddess chose the forms of the people she summoned, but he was grateful that he himself had been blessed with an appearance that, judging from the reflection he had beheld on the blade of his sword, seemed to not stand out. Not that it stopped this stranger from correctly suspecting Novak of being another of the goddess' chosen.
It seems that even without white hair or animal ears, I stick out like a sore thumb to a perceptive soul. Between his attire, quite distinct from the locals' clothing, and Akando mentioning his role in slaying the beast, it was clear he wouldn't be blending in. Whatever the case may be, however, the white-haired man did not press Novak on the matter further, and did not seem to rouse the attention of the locals.
Bolcha spoke up, asking the two new arrivals for help with some work. The stranger replied first, offering his assistance without hesitation. Perhaps there was more to him than Novak thought. After all, the goddess wouldn't summon someone whom she didn't see potential in for fixing the world, right?
"Certainly, I'll help with whatever you need," Novak spoke. He hadn't been in the town for very long, but he had already become quite invested in the well-being of the locals. Perhaps it was simply his emptied mind latching on to the first friendly civilization he had come across, but he wanted to help put an end to the problems that afflicted them, and every little bit of aid would help. It certainly wouldn't be fitting for one of the goddess' chosen heroes to stand around when there was work to be done.
Augusta spent a good minute looking at Octavia's status. Seed Carrier? Hmm. This was nothing to tell Isidore nor Donovan at the moment. Nick... Not him either, really, but the most he could do is mention something to the other two. Isidore didn't seem to like things that would put him in danger and Donovan had that purification magic. She could always lie, if need be. She was particularly adept at that from her prior life. For now, perhaps her best measure was finding a way to remove the seed from Octavia without hurting her more than necessary. If that plant thought it could one up her, then it had another thing coming!
Still, she had realized that Nick was talking to her. Oh, what did he mention? What should they do next? Did she have any tips? She gave a small, yet somewhat concerned looking smile. "What next? I would propose to find what civilization we can and hope we don't look too different from those native to the land here. And, umm, I suggest staying quiet about the giant plant thing until we know more about the local culture. Hell, I might have to find a way to make Octavia here a bit more... Natural?" She mentioned, struggling to find the words. "Perhaps there's magic to transmogrify a creature." She mused for a minute more and put a hand on Octavia's back to pet her some until she came back to... Whatever world it was they were on.
"And tips. Right. Hmm." The elf woman thought to herself. She gave him most of the information that she knew already. "Most of what I know came from experiencing the draining effect from that slab first hand. It's not too difficult to figure out the barest of ideas when you feel the energy being forced out of you." She pet Octavia, who was what she assumed was the one draining energy from her at the time. "It wasn't pleasant but I felt I had to overcome it. Perhaps I should try and drain all your magical energy and see if you can overcome me?" She teased. Augusta didn't feel confident doing that at all. She would be worried of accidently kill this young man. She wasn't so heartless she could actually kill someone.
About that time, however... She heard a call of sorts. From the direction that Isidore and Donovan went. Should she go to them? She stood and pondered. From her experience so far... Wouldn't she be more a hinderance than a help? "Hmm. For now, I suppose we'll hold down the camp." She mentioned to herself as she stared in the direction the call came from. "Perhaps you should try to practice your magic more, young man." She wasn't sure of his age, but she seemed like one of those long lived elves so it only felt fitting.
Aside from the native girl who amicably introduced herself as Lazhira, it seemed like it would take some time for the new group of people to warm up to her and Leannah. It was certainly understandable, though; back in the ruins, it took Donovan building an entire staircase up to her level until she decided on communicating with the others. And then, there was the nutcase known as Malphas, who she was glad had gotten lost somewhere else, or he’d slowly erode her sanity, or even worse, scare away this new group of earthlings.
Once she had been given permission to inspect the relics from Lazhira, however, her mindset quickly changed as she set back into her old work routines. Crouching down, she allowed the wary girl to helpfully rearrange the artifacts, taking the time to look over the objects as she did so. A small part of her inwardly cringed at how casually everybody had been treating them, but this was another place, in another era. The techniques and the advanced equipment to facilitate them to preserve such things simply didn’t exist here.
As she examined the artifacts and especially the stone tablets, she scrunched her face, unable to make heads or tails of the items. As a marine archeologist in the UK, her main focus was on early to late modern finds from coastal areas and the sea. Stone tablets were simply not a thing she usually looked at. Besides, if the native Lazhira couldn’t make out the language on them, she wouldn’t—Narkissa was far from a linguist. What interested her more at this point was Lazhira’s words. Curse? Temple? Ruins of a temple sounded interesting, but if monsters and magic existed in this world, she shuddered to think about the existence of tangible curses.
Deciding to ignore mention of the tablets, she spoke up as well. “I’m not sure if I like the sound of a curse. It does sound… intriguing, though?” Unlike the others, Narkissa wasn’t so ready to jump into the role of tomb raider. Especially when it was still their first day or so in this world. Instead, she shot at look at Leannah.
Still… if the runes were supposedly from the God of Knowledge, and could impart said god’s knowledge, it was a tempting risk proposition.
Seeing Lazhira nibbling on the fish though, she felt her stomach growling.
“The temple is pretty safe.” Lazhira replied to Narkissa. “Some small animals occasionally go there, but for the most part its fine! probably.” That 'probably' wasn’t going to give them any confidence in the safety of the place. “As for uhm, what I’ve gathered...w-well, its kind of nonsense.”
She paused for a moment, a hand nervously scratching her neck.
“Like I’m sure you guys know the pretty basic stuff about the Delpithi, the Goddess of the Moon. How her Oceans birthed all life right after humans left the tower?” Lazhira shifted on her feet uncomfortably. “A lot of things say something about the ocean, the goddess tears and sealing a path.” She frowned, poking out her lip and tilting her head in thought. “The rest is just something about the God of Knowledge, Lord Iva just up and leaving, leaving his people tt just sorta do their own thing and how they slowly just sort of left.”
She cast a glance towards Leannah.
“Uhm, and that’s sort of why I think its a curse. There’s this huuuuuge,” She made a sweeping, overhead motion with her arms. “Stone pillar in the middle of the temple that I think basically says ‘Tears dry, ancient fog obscures. The Illuminator guides.’ Lazhira shook her head. “The Illuminator obviously is the God of Knowledge, but I don’t know what everything else is.” She smiled. “Buuut if you wanna see everything yourself, I might be able to show you a few tricks in not getting lost. Should be easy if you...eerr, someone here can use magic right?”
Lazhira gave the group a few moments to respond, however upon seeing most of the travelers collective gazes of both mild curiosity and questions, her enthusiasm dropped slightly.
"...uh, well, I can teach ya! Probably. Shouldn't be too hard."
Unfortunately for Nick, his attempts at magic would be met with what could only be described as utter failure. Try as he might, it seemed almost as though every time he tried to coax some latent ability as Augusta had described it, it literally felt as though it was slipping right through his fingers. He could feel something just beyond his grasp. Like trying to grab water. Towards the end of his attempts, he could feel something accumulating, but before it could finished he ceased his attempts.
At least it didn’t seem to blow up in his face. Could it do that? Maybe he should be careful.
Augusta’s help seemed to be only marginally helpful from here, too.
It seemed as long as they remained here nothing was going to bother them for the moment. Octavia though, not content to stay put decided to sit up and start running around. Cautiously, the hound approached Nick and started playfully barking and wagging her tail as though she wanted to play.
“Good.” He replied simply, motioning them to follow. “If you’ll follow me to the back, there’s a few things.” Assuming the two followed, Bolcha would lead the two to one of the back rooms of the workshop. While the front was where they seemed to do most of the butchering and handling of the skinning and other parts of the animal, the back seemed to be where most of the other crafting endeavors took place.
The room specifically seemed to be used for leather working.
“We do a lot of trade with someone from up north that should be arriving soon. She’s been a godsend for us since our troubles started. Preserved meats, alcohol from her homeland, she’s gotten us through a lot, but we have to keep up our end of the bargain too-”
Walking into the room, however, it seemed it was already occupied.
A fox with fur black as soot, eyes as green emeralds with a tail tipped with fluffy, white fur. In its mouth, was a leather pouch - noticeably containing some leather working tools.
It yipped, bolting out the door right by their feet with the belt of tools in its mouth.
“...Well don’t just stand there, after it! It’s got some of the tools!”
"Hmm. For now, I suppose we'll hold down the camp. Perhaps you should try to practice your magic more, young man."
"Hey now, I doubt you're pretty old yourself." Nick was unamused at Augusta's comment.
-
The two stayed to rest in the area with Nick still continuing to attempt magic. He tried hard, concentrating and focusing, but after several attempts, he produced no results. Nick sat down on the snow-covered ground, panting and a little mad that he was not able to cast magic. He could feel it, the magical energy, but he couldn't grasp it much less control it. It left as soon as it came, giving Nick no opportunity to use it. Damn, Augusta and the others make it look so easy.
He sighed in frustration. It was then that the demon pup Octavia cautiously approached him, barking and wagging her tail. "Now what do you want, you little mutt?" Nick responded to the dog's playfulness with a happy smirk. He rubbed Octavia's head as he continued. "You wanna go play something? How about fetch? Err, sorry if that's too generic. I didn't exactly had a pet back in Earth."
The first thing that came to Novak's mind when he saw the animal was that it appeared to be a fox, the same type creature with whom his companion Misaki shared physical characteristics with. He didn't have time to think about it, however, because the fox bolted past them out the doorway, with a leather bag in its mouth, to Bolcha's alarm. Even with all the strange twists and turns that had taken place on this day, Novak could not have predicted that he'd be chasing a tool-pilfering animal.
Then again, I suppose I did spend most of today following a fox around, so perhaps this is simply the new routine for me.
As they pursued it outside, Novak looked around hoping to find something that could help them. There's no way I can catch that thing on foot, he thought to himself. On the other hand, they didn't need to catch it, they only needed to get the animal to let go of the sack it was carrying, whilst not losing it. Maybe if the fox saw something it wanted more than a leather bag, Novak wondered as he glanced at the butchery in progress.
"That thing eats meat, right?""Perhaps it might be willing to let go of the bag if it's offered something more edible," he suggested to Bolcha, glancing down at the pile of unpalatable-looking viscera that nonetheless may appear more appealing to a wild animal.
The pile of guts and organs looked like inedible waste to Novak, but he didn't dare take any without permission. Akando did say that they try to use every part, and the last thing the heroes needed was for one of them to squander the goodwill gained from killing the armored beast.
Augusta giggled at how unamused Nick seemed about her comment. It was worth seeing how people reacted to her saying that. Still though, perhaps she should figure out how to drain others of mana or whatever it was that the stone had done to her. Nick seemed like a fairly genuine guy and it'd be better to have more firepower than less in the situation they were in. Perhaps he would more easily understand how to manipulate the forces of magic if he truly felt it.
Also, however, that could wait. There were more important things to do for the moment. She was sure Donovan and Isidore would bring food of some sort back so they needed a fire of sorts. She just needed some logs and sticks. First thing first though. A small dirt pit. She thought on the issue for a second. What would be the best solution. There was no shovel among them and she wasn't sure quite what to do with magic to turn the soil. She put a hand to her chin and thought for a second before looking over at Nick and Octavia. Wait, Octavia! A smirk crossed her face as she walked the small distance to Nick and Octavia.
"If you both want to play, that's fine. But I ask one thing of Octavia first!" The elfen woman looked down at the demon dog and pet her. "Octavia, can I have you dig a small dirt hole for me? Since those two are out there getting food, I figured we should get a fire to cook said food ready. And prepare a watch schedule. Anyhow, I'm going to collect some sticks and other things. I'll be back in a little bit. Shouldn't take long at all." She mentioned. Sticks shouldn't be a problem. If she needed logs, she could probably blast a small tree with her Magic Missle to break it well enough. Then, after her collection, if Octavia had made a fire pit, she could easily toss in the sticks and logs, maybe some leaves and start a fire with her magic. She had a plan, if nothing else.
Seeing the fox run past the group triggered a sense of wonder in Malphas as well, as he quickly made his move for the beast. While Novak took his time thinking of some sort of plan, Malphas was already on its tail, chasing the creature to the best of his ability. He wondered if his new wings would also help him maneuver through crowded places as well, and this was the perfect place to test them as ethereal wings sprouted from his back.
As he chased after the fox, Malphas had wondered just what sort of creature this was. It was a fox, sure, but were the foxes here normally of this color? Or was this fox... special, in some way? Does it talk? What would it say? All these questions and more would be answered as soon as Malphas caught the damned thing!
It was, admittedly, a bit disappointing to Misaki that what was written on the tablets couldn't be translated by whatever odd magic had allowed her to read the scrolls from earlier. The passing summary from Lazirha about the contents therein were sadly not as enlightening as the foxgirl had hoped they would be, but she found it at least worth remembering for the future in case it ended up becoming relevant.
As she continued carefully moving things around to make things feel less claustrophobic, though, Misaki couldn't help but pause when she heard one of the newcomers trying to fish for any mention of tombs. There was a noticeable frown on her face as she considered the implications thereof; a place of worship did not necessarily preclude the existence of a burial ground, especially if the being in question was not entombed in the first place. Of course, if the two happened to coincide, then all the better, but asking about the presence of a tomb rather than, say, anything pertaining to the pillar that was just emphasized just seemed... Well, like a shot in the dark at best.
What seemed to be more interesting, though, was the offer of teaching magic to them. To this, the foxgirl could not help but perk up a little; given that both Novak and Nobunaga had the ability to fight in melee range well at hand, learning something more utility-focused would at least make her feel a bit less useless in the long run.
"If you're offering, then I would certainly love a chance to at least try and learn some magic," she said, stepping back from the corner she had been working in before dusting herself off. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested."
Maybe if she could get a feel for how the system worked (assuming it wasn't just some manipulation of scientific principles), it'd be easier to make use of in the future...
“Like I’m sure you guys know the pretty basic stuff about the Delpithi, the Goddess of the Moon. How her Oceans birthed all life right after humans left the tower?”
“A lot of things say something about the ocean, the goddess tears and sealing a path.”
Well, a huge pillar in the middle of a mysterious temple was itself a very nice clue. Not that it was an obelisk, but...frankly she had seen one before that was an obelisk at least. She wasn't there to see the thing Lazhira had mentioned after all, nor had she read some scrolls as a certain fox girl seemed to have been noted to have done. All in all she had was her own knowledge and education to base things off of, and-...hmm. Wait just a second. This was all ringing some bells in her mind. There had been that moon she saw after dying too, the whole conversation with a "Goddess" in the nighttime-like void, the rain, the feeling of liquid-filled lungs and being drowned as well as drug deep underwater. She'd woken up coughing up strange alien fluid from some tube in a strange prison complex with a tall watch tower in the center where it almost seemed like a Warden had once set up their office.
Plus thinking back, it could be said it was a one-way exit from that prison complex in the end. They had no door back in, at least, though they had been able to see the way out when trying to escape. Likewise...ancient and very dusty weapons strewn all over the floor, lying about like a looter had tried to grab them up. Heck even those ruined tapestries seemed like they had come about literal ages ago from their appearance and raw condition alone. Place was also like a museum for an alien world in some sense, at least if she were to be honest in hindsight here.
...It was a hell of a series of coincidences, and similarities didn't always mean a correlation was there. That was simple and sound science in and of itself. Yet at the same time these parallels and the symbolic ties to what Lazhira said, it was all too uncanny for her to doubt much. It could be wrong, very wrong indeed, and at best the idea had just hit her mind and brought back the before less-important memories from right before she'd woken up. All the same it was just too damned cool to not think of in some part as well, to imagine and put together.
At least for now her running theory would be: "We woke up in a divine lab-prison made by some moon goddess to create life, and at some point it got sealed off cause looters or something maybe, and then we this much later got reincarnated there by this goddess to rebuild a dead world according to her own words". Heck, at least there was also a very much potential name to place to that particular voice and individual who'd spoken to her at the very least: Delpithi, Goddess of the Moon.
Leannah shook her head lightly. Maybe she could think on it more later, but for now it was just a theory a game theory founded on what evidence and circumstance and new information had just been given to her. More than that, Lazhira seemed to be making an even more interesting offer! It made her ears perk up once more and her tail begin to twitch in obvious excitement. She swore this girl was getting more and more interesting by the moment!
"I'd be happy to learn from you! Ah...of course if your are truly ok with that."
She couldn't help but sound like an excited child for a moment, old passions and mental images of ancient Egyptian priests and magi coming to mind. Even the legend of The Book of Thoth came right back to her mind in turn. All of it! Still, as soon as she caught herself she attempted to simmer back down, trying to somewhat push down her excited inner nerd and Egyptology geek to sound more mature.
Her expectation that there was more to the girl then she had let on was being more and more fulfilled by each passing moment. But now was not the time to press too hard about that. To begin with, there was obviously a reason that she had not revealed more about herself. That much was clearly. Pressuring her to say more could lose her good will, or at least make her less likely to open up. Additionally, there was other information Nobunaga very much desired to extract from the girl while they had the opportunity.
Magic, though...
Nobunaga's expectation already had been that this was a world where such things could exist, given what they had seen already. It was not anything like the impressive but vile tricks implemented by that wandering conjuror in her lifetime. It was a place where such things could simply be, and one could not succeed in this world by continuing to disbelieve in that.
The petite girl had no intention of failure.
"Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to learn magic previously," she began, placing one hand to her chest, still sitting on her knees, "Your offer is quite generous, and I wholeheartedly accept."
She paused for a moment. Still, opportunity to learn about magic aside...
There were other things she wished to know more about, and Lazhira seemed to be quite the knowledgeable sort.
"You seem to have a great awareness of the world about you," Nobunaga commented, head cocked slightly to one side as spoke, "Forgive me for asking, but before any lessons get underway I find myself unshakably curious after hearing it spoken of, what do you know of the Kyrinth?"
“I see…” Narkissa didn’t sound convinced when Lazhira gave her answer on the curse. Her nervous stutter didn’t do much to inspire confidence, after all. She paused for a moment, considering the facts. From a brief glance, her companions were doing the same. At this point, she was also considering the possibility that these ruins could also be, in some way, related to the ones that she and her companions had awoken in.
It was a theory worth considering, at least.
While she was less interested in the mythology of the gods and such similar things, from the relatively advanced pod technology that were in the earlier ruins, she felt an overwhelming curiosity in what other sorts of technology she could find in new ruins. At least to her, that was far more interesting compared to deciphering some dusty stone tablets. What, exactly, was the pinnacle of technology in this world?
Did it lie in ‘magic’?
As if on cue, Lazhira even mentioned it, asking if they’d have experience with magic, and then offering to teach them magic as well. “Ah, somewhat?” She sheepishly held out the tome that she continued to clutch: the book on how to learn magic.
“I’ve only got some of the basics down since I only just started reading, but I’d love some practical learning experiences.”
“Wouldn’t have made the offer if I wasn’t gonna.” She replied with a grin to leannah. “Learning new stuff is fun, right? Never taught anyone before though so I’m not sure how well I can do, eheh.” Good, it seemed they were all willing to learn about it.
Of course, being interrupted by Nobunaga was a derailment of the conversation.
“Oh, uhm...” Lazhira glanced off to the side. “I dunno what you mean, I don’t know any more than anyone else. W-well, aside from legends. They say it looks like a really tall deer, with antlers that hold up the sky as it walks the earth, commands the winds and even has the ability to make the sky fall upon someone should it want too.”
A pause as she seemed to internally debate something.
“But those are just some oral legends. I doubt it’s actually that powerful.” Her expression brightened as she held out a hand and pointed a single finger upwards. “But enough of that. You guys wanna learn, I can teach ya! First thing you need to know is that all magic comes from either two sources. Either within someone, or by being gifted by some source. Like say, the Goddess Delpithi giving some of the Elves the ability to foretell the fate of someone’s endeavor. Elder Beasts also sometimes grant people a part of their power if they worship them, too. As for how you do it...uh...”
A small, palm sized sphere appeared at the tip of Lazhira’s finger, perfectly smooth in appearance yet it pulsed lightly in time with her breathing, filling the immediate area with a light.
“...there! Uh...wait that probably didn’t help. Hold on, give me your hand. I won’t do anything weird, promise!” She said, walking over to Misaki. Assuming the fox girl let her, Lazhira took the other girls hand gently, breathing in and ‘pulling’ on the other girls mana. Misaki herself would feel a slight ‘tug’, as though something was uncomfortably trying to pull her towards something. “That’s sort of..well, I dunno what to call it. But that’s what it ‘feels’ like a bit. To actually do something with it you just have to sort of attempt to grab it and do something with it.”
She would release her hand next.
“Like say, you want to make a fire, you just need to sort of figure out how much you need to put into it and just sort of ‘give it a shape’. Like with this little light ball here, I just sort of condense the energy into a sphere and put enough energy until it well, lights up! Uh, does that help? Sort of the best I can do.”
Assuming she now wasn’t interrupted by Nobunaga for objectively dodging the question, she would go around the room and attempt this process with everyone.
Octavia rubbed her head against Nick’s hand as she was petted, at the mention of ‘fetch’ the pup backed away, eagerly wagging her tail. It seemed at least she knew what that was, and likely she was entirely up for it. She however, did not seem keen on following Augusta’s order of digging a pit. When she was asked, Octavia tilted her head whining a bit as it apparently didn’t want to go through with that request. Still it didn’t seem like it was going to refuse.
Walking in a circle, the pup trotted to a place where the snow was shallow and got to work removing the snow and digging up some of the earth under it. It wasn’t exactly easy. The ground under the snow was densely packed, but by the time Augusta had finished, a small pit had been constructed.
And once she had come back with the sticks...Octavia immediately snatched one from the elf, knocked any she had put into the pit out, barked, and ran off to Nick with her tail wagging.
“A small bit shouldn’t hurt, but it’s odd...we don’t normally see foxes in this area.” The craftsman frowned, but left it at that as he let the two of them take care of the problem. As Novak decided to go for a more intelligent approach, Malphas went directly after the small vermin. The fox was swift, and seemed to know the town better than they did. It ducked down narrow paths between houses, slipped between a few peoples legs as they passed, and at one point climbed up a pile of logs and managed to get onto the roof of a house.
If this fox was just a simple fox, it seemed to be quite the intelligent and clever little animal.
After stealing a fish from a fisherman, Malphas would eventually chase the fox to a small building near the edge of the northern part of the village. It circled the building once, still managing to evade Malphas’ clutches. Each time he would make an attempt at catching it, the little vermin seemed to even somehow manage to grin slightly.
It however, was now standing still and seemed to be waiting for Malphas or Novak to make another move, bag of tools and a newly acquired fish still in its possession.
Octavia was excited at the mention of 'fetch', though Nick was not sure how it knew the game considering it was born several hours ago and being an entirely alien dog not from Earth. Unfortunately for the pup, Augusta had a request for it first. Namely, to dig out a pit for a fire they could use. The demon dog complied, albeit reluctantly, and quickly dug out some snow and ground while Augusta went to collect some sticks. Nick felt he had to join the Elf but they were done as soon as they started.
Once Augusta returned with the wood, Octavia snatched one from her and knocked out the ones from the pit and ran straight to Nick with her tail wagging. "...Uhh, she's not gonna like that." He sheepishly remarked as he took the stick from the pup's mouth. "A-Anyway, you wanna play fetch, Octavia?" Nick first wagged the stick in front of Octavia. "[colorskyblue]Then go get it![/color]" He hurled the stick away. It was not a far throw, but still distant enough to take Octavia several seconds to retrieve it and return it to Nick.
Misaki's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she stared at the small sphere of light that Lazirha had created. While she was no scientist, the fact that this was not something she could explain by more 'rational' means made it abundantly clear that delving into magic was going to be a fair deal less straightforward than she had inwardly hoped. It wasn't anything deal-breaking given everything she had already seen today, but without any way to directly understand the methodology behind the magic of this world in the first place, mimicking it would probably bring about an uncomfortable amount of embarrassment.
Luckily enough, the de facto magic teacher had taken the chance to take her hand, and though Misaki herself took a moment to realize what it was that Lazirha was doing, wrapping her head around to concept took no more than a few seconds. Describing it as if someone was trying to pull on her bloodstream wouldn't be too far off-base, at least in her eyes, and after another brief half-explanation from Lazirha, the foxgirl decided to take a crack at mimicking it on her own.
If the whole matter was focused around a mix of idealization and the actual manipulation of what she assumed to be mana or whatever equivalent she had floating in her body, then using what she knew about light on a more scientific level could lead to varying degrees of intensity or something along those lines, wouldn't it?
Of course, the only thing left to do now was experiment. Though she didn't expect to grasp the ability to cast magic immediately, trying to pull upon the same sensation that Lazirha had induced while coupling it with various mental images meant that this was probably a good a place as any to start. Anything beyond light could probably be toyed with in a place that wasn't someone's home, though.
It was fortunate that the silver-haired fellow took off after the fox, because Novak would likely have lost track of it in his detour to find something to lure it out. Once he had a piece of beast gut, Novak dashed after his impromptu companion, reasoning that the fox would not be far ahead. With how much the unknown man stood out, it wasn't hard to track him down, and soon the two of them were in hot pusuit of the little furry thief.
The chase took them all over the town. The fox proved too elusive for them to catch, and even had the audacity to steal a fish mid-pursuit. At the same time, however, for all its clever moves, it did not succeed in shaking its pursuers. Eventually it took them to a house, where it once again evaded the other fellow's attempt's to catch it. It did not flee into the woods, however, but simply circled the house. It was at this point that Novak began to suspect that something was going on.
It's got a straight line into the woods were we'd never catch it, so why is it running around like this? As Novak looked at the animal, a thought dawned on him. It's toying with us. It didn't fail to shake us off, I'd bet it wanted us to chase it.
"Does this animal seem to be acting strangely to you?" he asked the white-haired man. "There were several piles of edible flesh lying nearby, and it chooses to steal a bag of tools instead. It could have bolted into the woods where it'd never be caught, but it instead leads on a chase all over town. I think this fox is playing with us."
Novak knelt down and held out the piece of animal intestine, offering it to the fox. "Perhaps this might be to your liking, but you can't hold it, the bag, and the fish in your mouth all at once," he spoke softly, feeling a bit silly about talking to an animal. If the fox were to approach, Novak would place the piece of viscera on the ground and take a few steps back, and gesture for his companion to do the same.
Trying to chase after this sly creature was no easy feat. Having run across town trying to get a grasp on it was quite the exercise. If anything, Malphas thought the fox was making a fool out of him! It didn't matter either way. So long as Malphas kept sight of the creature, it would not slip out of their view. Perhaps Novak would cone out of nowhere with some sort of net or other apparatus to help catch the thing.
No matter what Novak had planned, it was clear to Malphas that the beast was cornered. Why else would it stop so plainly, encumbered with not one, but two stolen goods? Surely, a dull animal such as this wouldn't try to fool the mentally superior Malphas! Still, he knew he needed to be careful, because if he had performed one wrong move, it would scamper off once more! And Malphas was not in the mood for another jog across the village.
A thought entered Malphas's head. He began to think back to what happened earlier in the tower, when they had infused their legs with... magic to aide in their escape. Of course, Malphas knew that simply making himself faster would not give him the necessary dexterity to skillfully capture the creature. No, he'd have to do something else, something different. It was at this moment that Malphas had thought he made his next stroke of genius!
What if instead of infusing his legs with the energy within his soul, he instead filled his words with such power?
Malphas took a deep breath as he attempted to work with the magical energies within him, attempting to direct it towards not his tongue, but the air within his lungs. Looking the fox right into its eyes, Malphas released the magically infused air, exhaling a simple phrase.
"Drop what you're holding."
Once more, Malphas played with powers that he didn't truly understand. It was no different than in life, after all. If he wished to reach the heights he truly sought for himself, then he would have to make the impossible happen.
lIf Malphas wished to be a saint, then he would have to learn to make miracles.
Leannah sat there, enraptured in Lazhira's explanation and example before giving a silent look at one of her own hands. Magic. Such a thing didn't exist back home-...well, actually she had no idea. For the most part 'no', but then again how could some goddess nab them up as souls if back home was a total no-magic zone? Or maybe they'd ended up somewhere else beyond their home where-. Ah. No, that was beginning to get a bit too crazy for her liking. Would have to save those thoughts for far, far later. Same for her theory about the goddess and the prison and all of that, albeit in regards to this matter she'd note 'elves' for a later thing to look into, which theory was frankly for now was a work in progress only and in its infancy. For now, it was lesson time! Not always her favorite time in her younger years, admittedly, but frankly to be a student of something again was in some sense exhilarating and exciting.
Even so, as Lazhira got around to her she let the girl take her hand gently before-...wow. A tug. Like a child pulling on a blanket, kind of, or tugging on your shirt. And yet it was vaguely familiar in some sense, reminiscent of her cat-propelled rocket stunt back at the prison-fortress area. Kinda. Sorta. However, the way Lazhiura breathed was something all too reminiscent of anime and frankly real life martial arts to the former child prodigy. Likewise, the gist seemed to her to be 'grab at your own mana, like wet clay or sculpture shape it, and then input the amount of energy into it to probably determine the strength of the result'. Or something like that? It was the first words off the top of her head, so for now she'd give herself some leeway on that at least.
Taking an initial deep and slow breath, Leannah let her breathing fall into a controlled pace. As natural to her as, frankly, a wolf's natural instincts were to the wolf itself. It was like flipping a switch without having to think hard on it at all.
The catgirl then attempted to do as the human girl has suggested: 'pull'. Pull from within herself, like how Lazhira had 'tugged' on her but doing it to herself this time instead. Yes. Imagine a river, even, flowing with water. She was the source, and the river was the flow of energy outwards. Of course don't make it too big, or she'd pull a stunt like a certain someone had earlier, but choke and limit the flow outwards from within herself. She wasn't trying to escape a stone giant monster thing this time around.
Then focus that flow of energy into her hand, and shape it into a nice ball. Perfectly smooth and round, and pushing the energy into it to ignite that fire! Imagine it like the radiance of the sun on a hot summer day, but with a softness and intensity brought to somewhere between the likes of the sun and the moon. A light of great enough intensity to be able to guide the way, but not a fireball that would burn up or blind all around it (though that thought would be a note for later).
Octavia was overly eager to play fetch with Nick. Not only did she steal a stick from Augusta, but she also knocked all the others out of the pit she dug. The elven beauty sighed and hung her head a small bit. "Yes, yes. Have fun while I prepare camp so you don't freeze at night." She mentioned, only slightly irritated at it. Octavia was still technically a puppy she supposed, so there was much energy to be had. "Nick, please just keep her entertained for a bit."
The woman continued with her preparing. She set the sticks in a way that would easily allow the fire to breath and brought a small flick of fire to her finger, tossing it into the pit and catching one of the sticks. Luckily, they seemed to be mostly dry. She went about to gather up some logs using her previously considered "blasting a small tree apart" strategy. Luckily, a good target was nearby so it didn't take too long to gather up a couple of logs quickly. She set them near enough the pit it was easy to add, but not near enough to let them accidently catch fire. The last thing she did.... She found some fairly straight sticks and a sharp rock. They needed to cook the food if Isidore and Donovan found meat. A stick should serve just fine for now. It's not like that had a pot or anything. She just needed to sharpen some sticks so they could cook over the fire.
Now, she just needed those two to come back with the food... "Where the hell are they?" Did they fall to some forest beasts? No. Neither of those two seemed like they'd fail to fight a couple of beasts from the forest. She sat on the nearby rock, tending the fire.
Keeping Lazhira’s explanation in mind, Misaki attempted to make a small ball of light herself. Of course, knowing how light works scientifically, and then putting it to practice with something slightly unscientific, would prove a bit difficult, but doable. Trying to copy what Lazhira had done, Misaki would find a similar sensation as the girl had shown her, the magic flowing into the spell she was attempting to weave.
A small spark of light, no bigger than a bouncy ball would form should she eventually direct it somewhere with those thoughts in mind. Nothing impressive, and certainly not like Lazhira’s own example. The light was less intense, gentle, and almost welcoming with a small aura of rainbow colored light surrounding the core.
Perhaps Leannah should have also not decided to start with something other than just light. focusing inwards, feeling the flow of ‘mana’ within. Like water, it flowed within, gently through her body with each beat of her heart, slowly flowing from somewhere within her chest. Directing it proved simple enough, she just had to try. It was somewhat difficult at first, trying to direct it. Slowly however, it began moving as she wanted it too. Instead of simply being dispersed through her body, the energy began slowly moving towards her arm.
Her palm began heating up as the energy gathered in the point, the gentle warmness of a pleasant spring day. More energy was poured, Leannah slowly understanding the ability to not draw on too much too quickly. Soon, it reached a point where the energy flared outwards causing her to involuntarily flinch, the sound of whooshing flame igniting in the palm of her hand.
A small ball of fire, sitting right in the palm of her hand. It wasn’t quite the perfect thing she had imagined. The core wasn’t quite solid, shifting and changing, not quite able to settle. She had at least, succeeded in making a seemingly small fireball-
Before she could react, suddenly more magic began flowing into the spell. She wasn’t doing that, was she? Try as she might to calm the sudden influx of mana, she couldn’t stop it. The ball of fire began growing rapidly outwards, until it was the size of a basketball, pulsing violently and angrily as it gave off more and more heat until -
“Wha! Hey that’s dangerous!”
Was all Lazhira could say before the inevitable happened. Misaki’s might find some small amusement in proving her own thoughts correct.
There was a blinding flash of light, a loud bang.
A concussive force slammed into everyone present in the room. Leannah herself was knocked off her feet, along with various artifacts being knocked from their resting places and joining her on the ground. Thankfully, no one would seem hurt. The only who did was Leannah, who seemed to suffer small, but painful burns.
“H-hey! Are you okay!?” Lazhira shouted. “You can’t just do something like that to start with, jeez! Even I know better than to do that!”
Octavia bolted after the stick, the pup chasing after it as it sailed through the air not too far away from Nick. She leaped into the air as it sailed, catching the object in her mouth. Unfortunately, she was also not quite looking where she was going. As she landed, her feet sank into a pile of soft snow, the action catching the pup off guard and sent it tumbling face first into it, so her back legs were sticking out while she frantically tried to wiggle herself out of the predicament.
Augusta would have a fairly easy time tending to the fire. Her magic could easily light a flame, and it didn’t seem as though her magical fire couldn’t persist once it was cast upon something. All that was left for them to do really, was either wait for their companions to return, or attempt more practice at something. Rest was equally good, but perhaps honing their skills would prove beneficial in the long run.
Octavia had finally pulled herself free, shaking her head and body to fling off snow before grabbing the stick and bringing it back over to Nick, dropping it at his feet.
The fox tilted its head, almost giving the impression of taking Novak’s challenge of carrying everything at once. For a moment it looked as though it might bolt again, but instead of doing so it cautiously approached the outstretched hand and viscera that he was holding. As it was placed on the ground, the foxes tail swayed gently, sniffing the offering silently as it seemingly mulled over the offer.
Malphas’ approach caused the best to tilt its head towards him, silently observing him with its green eyes. The same feeling of force that built in his legs that one time, that lifted him above the earth and over obstacles could be felt building in his lungs. He released the energy, the words quickly following suit as they both passed his lips, giving a single command to the beast. Even as far as Novak could tell, the words were...heavy, almost. As though there was a certain weight to them. The fox however, didn’t seem too impressed. It looked up at Malphas, narrowing its eyes at him...and then dropped the fish, grabbed some of the viscera and bolted into the building through a small hole near the bottom of a wall.
Well, if there was a question about its intelligence...it did drop what it was holding. Was it mocking him?
They could follow it inside if they wished. Assuming they did, they would find the door open and no one barring them entry. Assuming the two followed it inside, they would find a somewhat surprising sight. The place seemed to be a storage hut of some sort. Immediately upon entering the smell of fish and...alcohol? Would greet them. A number of wooden boxes were stacked, fishing nets and line hanging on the walls and ceiling. Of course, this in and of itself wouldn’t be too surprising.
No, the surprising thing was the source of the alcohol smell.
A woman, at least, she looked like a woman. She was fairly short if so, not even reaching a full five feet from looking at her. Two large, furry fox ears flicked curiously at the noise they made as they entered, a large bushy tail swayed lazily behind her from where she was laying on her side on a pillow that had been placed on top of a stack of boxes. In one hand, she was holding a large bowl, the other had a long pipe, smoke gently rising from an opening on its end. Her green eyes stared at them lazily. She was dressed fairly lightly save for a large cloak covering her body seemingly of oriental design. A pair of boots had been knocked to the ground some distance away, leaving her feet exposed to the air, though she didn’t seem to mind.
“Tsk, don’t you know its rude to make so much noise? Its bad luck to interrupt someone drinking ya know.” She harrumphed, tail flicking in an annoyed manner as she took a small sip of her drink from the bowl. “Ahhh, don’t suppose it matters though. Not like I have room to talk about causing trouble, heh. Could you not tell anyone I’m here by the way? I’m not anyone suspicious, just a traveling little fox that’s currently slightly drunk, fufu.”
The similarities to this girl and their previous quarry were obvious, but that was a far-fetched idea, wasn’t it?
“Not that anyone would believe you if you did tell them. I’m a bit ahead of schedule after all.” She sat up, balancing the bowl on the ends of her fingers, grinning mischievously at the pair. “Haven’t seen you in this village before, and from the weird way you’re both dressed you’re travelers. Wouldn’t happen to be looking for something, would you?”
