[IC] Journey [SporkoBug & LaQue]

[LaQue]

“I see. Since you answered my question I will tell you where the man is located. He is currently located in a nearby city to the east. The city itself is called Du’Vin and is known for its festival and wine as well their prodigious magical academy. Which could be the reason why the man is there. If you wish to know more about the city feel free to look through the library here at the guild. You currently have all access to its general information thanks to Haki. Now if you excuse me I will be on my way,” Adrian said than got up from the table, “oh, and keep the ring the enchantment will disappear within a few hours and it will turn into any normal rings.”

Adrian started to walk away from the table before Haki said something though a private line so the others couldn’t hear them, “you forgot to ask them if they wanted to join us.”

Reluctantly Adrian turned back to the table and said, “My companion and I are departing for Du’Vin at sundown. So if you wish to join us then we’ll be by the eastern gate. If you are planning to travel alone to the city than a word of warning. The forest that separates where we are at and Du’Vin is filled with far dangerous beasts that what you normally see so be careful.” After finishing he headed out to the city to do some shopping of his own before finding Haki back at the guild. They exchanged a few words before returning to the tavern to rest up before heading out.

[SporkoBug]

Nessa gave a gentle nod to Adrian, "Thank you." She said as she looked at the ring, she moved to stand up from the table silently and look through the library. She left her bag at the table with Ra, and didn't say a word to Chance as she walked off.

Chance watched Adrian and Nessa leave before his eyes lingered to the bag. He held his breath as he looked over to Ra before he stayed at the table. He didn't really have anything to do now, did he want to join the mute and the wolf-man? Would the Blue Demon follow?
"I'm a Star Born." Nessa's voice came again, causing Chance to jump and look at her. "Not a Teifling." She walked back as she lifted up her bag and allowed Ra to climb up her arm. She watched the younger-looking male with a small tilt of her head. "May our Paths cross, Faepire." She turned and left, closing the door gently behind her as she left Chance alone with his thoughts.

Chance blinked, for the first time in his new life, he had felt alone.
He didn't like the idea of working with people, but he also hated the idea of being alone.
"Oh sod it." He said as he slipped awkwardly out of his chair, gathering his things before leaving for the city again.
He got odd glances as he walked alone, people mistaking him for a child. A few going to talk to him before he glared at them to scare them away. He paused as a taller man stood in front of him.
"Hey kid! Where ya' goin'?" He asked in a gruff voice, looking down at him with a small smile.
"Why do you care?" Chance asked.
"A kid like you can't be walking around here alone."
"Why's that?" He played dumb, he always played dumb. He knew what was going to happen, but he didn't really care.
"Its dangerous kiddo. Come on, I'll take you back to the inn. Follow me, I know a short cut." The man lead him along, thinking Chance didn't spot his malicious grin.
Chance gave a grin back and followed the man into the shadows of an alleyway, looking back to make sure no one followed him before he lowered his ears.

---

Nessa stopped as she reached the Tavern again. She swore she heard shouting and yelling before, she looked to Ra who was on alert as well.
It had been about two hours since the talk with Haki and Adrian, and she had done her small amount of shopping. The shop keepers below the town were rather kind to her; was it because people through she was a teifling?

[LaQue]

Adrian and Haki spent the rest of the day getting ready for their journey. Haki had prepared various potions and foods for the road while Adrian drew them a map of the quickest route to Du’Vir. Before long they parted ways to finish final preparations for their journey.

Haki left the city and headed to the nearby forest. Once out of sight, he grabbed a whistle from his bag and blow into it. A soft whistle echoed throughout the forest seemingly causing it to come alive. Various small animals and critters came and greeted him as he waited for the real target of the whistle. Moments later two rather large griffins dropped out of the sky and landed in front of him. Atari and Diana were griffins, magical beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, that Haki had made a contracted with when he discovered his innate magic. He had the blood of a druid running through his veins which allowed him to manipulate the forces of nature and to form contracts with magical beasts.

“I hope you’re ready for a road trip,” Haki said smiling.

Back at the city, Adrian worked as quickly as he could to gather the supplies for a locater spell. He hoped that he could use it to locate the man in Du’Vir. While running around town he noticed Chance following a man into a back ally and decided to investigate. He teleported onto a nearby building and watched the vampire from out of sight. After realizing what Chance was up to, he walked away. He didn’t want to see the rest of that interaction and moved on with his objective.

An hour later the fun had finally set over the horizon. Adrian and Haki met outside the city gate and waited to see if the others would come. Haki hoped that they would join since it would be better to have allies but Adrian thought otherwise. He didn't like strangers or surprises.

[SporkoBug]

Nessa breathed in as she passed the Tavern, she was tempted to walk inside before she remembered Ra would need more food if they were to properly travel.

When the sun started to set she headed off to the Eastern Gates and looked around to find the two men. Ness gave a wave to Haki and Adrian as she moved towards them.
"Good evening gentlemen." Nessa said with a bigger smile, "I'm all set and ready to go! I haven't travelled with people in a while so I'm excited." She looked to Haki and gave a bigger smile before she looked to Adrian.
She had a small feeling this man didn't like him, but she just wanted him to trust her. If they became friends through all of this then she would be extremely happy, but she was more than satisfied with a trusting team mate.

"Is the Faepire not joining us?" Nessa finally asked after a moment, "A shame. He looked like he could prove helpful."
"No need to cry tears of sadness for not seeing me." Chance said as he hung upside down from a tree branch near the other three, "I'm surprised someone even wanted me. Normally people are happy not to have me." He grumbled before he dropped down and walked towards the group.

"Right, Du'Vir. That's like... a days? Travel from here?" Chance asked, he wasn't sure if he had been there, all of the places sort of just blended together when you've lived for 400 years.

[LaQue]

“Good evening Nessa,” Haki said with a smile. He could sense Chance nearby and waited for him to show himself. Moments later Chance appeared from a nearby tree making Haki smile. Adrian only rolled his eyes and started to walk away. He didn’t like the vampire and secretly hoped that he wouldn’t show.

“Since everyone is here we should get going,” Haki said than walked after Adrian who was a little way down the path.

“Du’vir is about 6 days away but we have a short cut so it should take about 2 to 3 days and that’s if we’re lucky,” Haki said. Then after getting out of sight of the city guards, he stopped and grabbed a whistle from this bag, “speaking of said short cut I hope you guys are not afraid of heights.”

With that last statement, Haki blew into his whistle. Atari and Diana fall from the sky and landed in front of Haki with a loud thud and sending a wave of dust into the air. Immediately they started to sniff him then turn to Chance and Nessa and growled. They formed a barrier between him and the stranger and continued to growl. “Chance, Nessa meat Atari and Diana our mount for the journey. Don’t worry they’re nice…if you don’t provoke them.”

After a moment Haki finally manages to break free from the griffins and turns to the others, “Don't worry they won't bite you RIGHT girls," he cleared his throat causing the griffins to stop their growls, "now Nessa you’ll be riding with Adrian and Chance you’re with me. Any questions?”

[SporkoBug]

Chance froze up as he saw the Griffins, he masked his fear as much as possible as he gave a gentle nod.
"Of course." He said more to himself as he stepped towards Haki, "We're travelling on... These..." It took everything in his power not to cuss out the Griffins, not to call them Fae hunters. "Beautiful specimen." He managed to choke out. He looked up towards the Wolfman with a wary look on his face.

"They... Won't throw me off, right?" He asked, he almost asked if they would attack and attempt to eat him. He had seen Griffins before, but much more wild ones. He was chased by them as a kid, almost being killed by a larger male.

Nessa on the other hand stepped towards the Griffins and held her hand out gently, "Oh you girls are stunning!" She said quietly, before she looked to Adrian with a soft smile. "I don't take too much space, I promise." She said as she lifted Ra from her shoulder and placed him inside her bag.

The small creature didn't protest as he stared at the Griffins, moving to quickly hide with a small chain of scared words.
Ness stopped by Adrian with a bit of a small smile, "At least you don't have to deal with Chance." She mumbled to him quietly, knowing that Chance could hear.

[LaQue]

Yes, I much rather not have to ride with the vampire, Adrian wrote in his journal then showed it to Nessa. Haki had already talked to him about who would be riding with who. He had planned on throwing the vampire off the edge if he got on his nerves but Haki objected to that idea. Haki instead insisted that Adrian would ride with Nessa and let him deal with the vampire. It was a much less appealing plan but Adrian agreed none the less.

Adrian let out a long sigh than turn to Atari who was going to be his mount for the journey. With ease, he mounted the beast and offer a helping hand to Nessa.

Haki took a moment before answering Chance, “Don’t worry they’re perfectly safe.” He tried his best to hide the fact that he lied because the griffins can get rather possessive but there were few options in the matter. One griffin can’t carry three people so he hoped that Diana was in a forgiving mood. “I mean they won't throw you off and risk throwing me off as well,” Haki said with a nervous laugh.

“And don’t worry if you do fall I’ll catch you,” Haki said with a smile, “So let us call a truce and get going. I’m sorry for calling you as a boy earlier. I was only teasing so don’t take it to heart. would you like me to help you get on?” the griffin was taller than Chance and hoped that his question didn’t offend him.

[SporkoBug]

Nessa smiled to Adrian as he offered his hand to her.
"Thank you sir~" She said as she grabbed his hand to pull herself up with his help.
She moved to sit properly on Atari's back, moving her hand over the Griffins fur with a bigger smile. "She's beautiful..." She trailed off as she looked to Haki and Chance, a smirk spread across her face.

Chance watched Diana carefully. He looked to Haki as he spoke to him before he hesitantly gave a nod.
"...Yes please." Chance finally admitted to Haki, "Help would be very much appreciated."
He seemed to have bought Haki's lie about them being safe; he was just hoping not to get eaten.
Chance didn't even make a snarky reply when Haki mentioned about teasing him, his attention solely on the large beast in front of him.

[LaQue]

“Okay don’t panic and you’ll be fine,” Haki said then grabbed Chance with both hands by the waist and hoist him up onto Diana. The griffin let out a low growl but stopped when Haki cleared his throat. He then got on himself sitting right behind Chance.

With one hand holding on to Chance and the other on the rein he said, “Up Diana.” With that command, Diana stretched her wings and launched into the air with great speed. They reached a hundred meters in seconds before Diana dropped into a nose dive heading straight for the ground. They free-fall for few a seconds before Diana leveled out and glided through the air. The entire time Haki held on to Chance as tight as he could while trying not to fall off himself. “Well then. Could’ve been worse,” Haki said with a nervous smile.

Then almost instantly, Diana started to pick up speed and altitude. “DIANA stop this nonsense,” Haki yelled causing a small shock wave to radiate throughout the air. Diana almost stopped distantly and looked slightly terrified.

“I swore to god,” Haki said under his breath. “Chance are you okay?”

Adrian watched as Diana launched into the sky and perform a nose dive to the ground with a smirk on his face. Seeing that his companion was already far away he signaled Atari to fly. They took off into the air much slower than Diana and flew a little way aways form Haki. After becoming stable in the air he turned to Nessa and offer her an identical ring to the one before. He was never a big talker but didn’t want to ride in complete silence seeing as that would be rude.

[SporkoBug]

Chance, for once, didn't grumble about being picked up and placed on something. He shifted awkwardly on the back of Diana as she snarled at him before Haki got behind him. He was told not to panic, okay, that was going to be easy.
Chance breathed out as Diana started to fly, everything seemed nice and he was going to get an amazing view of the forest as-

He tensed as the Griffin suddenly dove down, he gripped onto whatever he could, which ended up being Haki's legs. Chance shut his eyes in fear, holding his breathe as he tried not to scream. His ears drooped down as he trembled under Haki's grip. Usually, the mans' grip would be annoying and make him angry, but now it was the only source of safety he could feel.
When they seemed to stabilize, he looked back to Haki as he asked if he was okay. He trembled slightly before he nodded once, moving his eyes away and back to his hands, which had moved from Haki's legs to his arms.

Nessa let out a small chuckle as she watched Haki and Chance while Diana seemed to throw them off. She gently gripped onto Atari as she set off as well, gently moving to rub her hand down the beasts side with a small smile.
"I think you're doing great Atari." She said before she turned to Adrian as he offered the ring. "Oh!" She said with a small smile as she gently took it and slipped the ring on. "Thank you, I appreciate the offer." Nessa tilted her head with a smile as she slipped the ring on, "Do you have to keep getting new rings, or can you recharm the same ones used before?" She asked off-handedly.

[LaQue]

Haki held Chance close to making sure he didn’t fall as he did his best to keep Diana temper under control. He had planned on making a truce with Chance but now that was out of options. Diana's temper was much more explosively than he had originally thought which soiled much of his plans. He let out a long sigh and looked to the moon and the thousands of stars that dotted the sky. He always loved the feeling of flying. It was his time to relax and calm himself.

“I’m sorry about Diana. She can be rather temperamental and possessive,” Haki said. He then noticed a twinkle in the sky and looked up to see a small meteor shower. Hundreds of small light fell from the sky lighting up the entire area in a blaze of light.

“Chance look a meteor shower,” Haki said pointing to the sky, “At least there is some beauty in this cruel world.”

“Technically yes I cam able to enchant the same ring but I don’t usually see the same person twice and if I do they usually want to kill me or Haki,” Adrian explained, “in our line of work we make a lot of enemies so it is much easier if I make new ones. Since we’ll be traveling together I might as well make you a more permanent one. I will have to do that once we land if you would like one that is.”

“If you don’t mind me asking. I would like to know how you came to this world,” Adrian said, “and of course I am willing to tell more about myself. Information for information I always say.”

He then notices Haki pointing up to the sky and looked to see a meteor shower, “my my what a sight to behold.”

[SporkoBug]

Chance shook under Haki's grip when he spoke. He had his eyes closed again before he just nodded at his words about Diana. When the wolfman mentioned about the meteor shower he opened his eyes slowly. "O...Oh wow!" He started, his fear suddenly flooding away at the sight. "This looks amazing! I love it!" His ears pricked up slowly and his body seemed to relax.

Nessa listened to Adrian as he mentioned about the ring and enchantments. "That makes sense." She replied with a small nod, "That would be amazing if you could, I'd hate for you to run out of ring supply because of me. And I feel like re-enchanting things just gets tiring."
Nessa went to answer Adrians' questions about where she had come from before her eyes caught the sight of the meteor shower.
"Ah!" She exclaimed, "My stars! I haven't seen a meteor shower this clear since I landed here!"
Ra poked his head out of the bag and watched the stars.
Nessa relaxed a little, she closed her eyes as her freckles glistened softly.

"I don't mind you asking at all." She said softly, [color]"I trust you, so I feel like I can tell you."[/color]
"I came here on a small escape pod, crashing against a small forest. I was taken in by a small family, They were nice. They reclothed me and kept me safe while some wounds healed." SHe reopened her eyes and looked towards the stars again. "I wish I could return to the stars again one day, but for now... I am content with here."

[LaQue]

“Really now?” Haki started, “Seeing that you are at least a few hundred years old. Something like this mustn’t be new to you. I mean there have been countless in the past...actually don’t mind my rambling it is still an amazing sight.”

After a short pause, he started talking again, “Did you know to us Druids meteor showers are messages from the departed that warns us of an upcoming event. If you know how to read them then they would warn us of impending disaster or tell us of an event that will soon come about." He was never the one to read the stars but met many in the past that could. It was fascinating to him but he never showed a talent for it so he never tried learning.

“So Chance, why did you join us? What did this man do to you that cause so much hate?” Haki asked.

Adrian was left with more questions than answers after hearing Nessa's response. What did she mean by escape pod? Why did she call the meteors showers ‘my stars’? He was further taken back by said she trusted him. It was a foolish thing to trust someone especially when you just met them. He learned that the hard way after escaping from his owners many years ago.

“I see. Thank you for telling me. Is there anything you want to know about me or my companion?” Adrian said.

[SporkoBug]

Chance listened to Haki, his ears rotated backwards to hear the Wolfman better.
"For the... Most part of my... Childhood, I guess, I was hidden under the leaves of tall trees." He admitted, his eyes watching the meteor shower. "Being a Druid sounds interesting, being linked in a way to nature that I guess even Fae themselves don't know." He seemed to be zoned out before Haki asked about the link between him and the man.

His ears instinctively flattened and his hackles raised, "He's a sneaky bastard." He started, "He's the reason I'm a stupid bloody half-blooded monster." His tone changed, suddenly becoming bitter and annoyed. "I could have lived a good life. I had almost everything in place, He promised he knew a way to make the woman of my dreams fall in love with me. I stupidly agreed, followed him into the forbidden Dark Veil and then TWAP." He clapped his hands together before he grumbled.

"If there's anything else you'd like to know I am happy to share." She replied to Adrian before she paused.
"In terms of you two..." She trailed off, trying to think of a good question to ask. She was coming up with several questions about Haki, but she wanted to know more about Adrian from Adrian, and she was sure she would get a chance to ask Haki.
"How... Did you two meet?"

[LaQue]

“Hm, that’s one way to put it. Bring a druid has its perks but it’s not as amazing as people are lead to believe. We are indeed more connected to nature than most which allow us to see through the eyes of druids of the past and the millions of creatures that ever lived which means sometimes I can't tell my memories from the memories of others. It's also rather lonely. Most of the people I meet only want my Druid’s Blessing which is a whole other mess,” Haki said.

Haki stayed quiet and listened to Chance’s story. He figured that Chance was tricked into becoming a vampire. Though he didn’t remember the man being a vampire which begs the question if they were searching for the same man.

“Enough of that, so tell me more about yourself. How did you ended up here? Are you always this gloomy and vengeful? Now that I think about it what does a vampire actually do? I haven’t met many must less talk to one. Most of them want to kill me for my blood because is apparently sweeter and has medicinal properties. Do you have to drink blood? Is it a survival thing? Or a craving? Speaking of which I have some blood with me if you’re ever running out. I also have normal food too if you’re ever hungry. I mean push come to serve I have more than enough blood to spare,” Haki said with a laugh.

“Now that’s a very long story. Haki and I have been together since birth. We were both born into slavery and were sold as a pair since we refuse to leave each other. He’s the closest thing I have to a family so let’s leave it at that. I rather not dig up old memories,” Adrian said. He didn’t want to end their conversation on such a note but the memories left a bitter taste in his mouth.

[SporkoBug]

Chance gave a small laugh at Haki's mention of people only wanting him for his blessing.
"I get that." He started, "I'm hunted mainly for the fae side of me, so I completely understand."
When asked about himself he held his breath."How... I got here?" He asked.
"I was following the mans trail. It... went dead, a while ago. So I went back to what I know best, thieving. Or being a rogue in general honestly." He gave a small, single breathe-out laugh.

"I wasn't always this cynical either, no." He couldn't help but smile, "But living for so long being hunted down and nearly killed at least once every ten years makes you... grumpy. As for what Vampires can do... I.. Don't fully know. The guy didn't say anything when he lead me to the monster that attacked me. Apparently it was all part of his plan, there have been stories of another Fae-Vampire cross but I don't know. I honestly don't know a lot..." He started with a small laugh, "I have to drink blood, yes. Not all the time, I can still stomach food, but I need blood otherwise I go... weird.." He shuddered.

Nessa only nodded as Adrian seemed to snap that case closed.
"Understandable, my apologies for bringing it up." She said before she looked to the sky again. "So, Do you have any special abilities? Apart from the enchanting the rings of course."

[LaQue]

“Grumpy is an understatement,” Haki said with a laugh, “I’ve met grumpy and you are beyond that.”

“You're not doing yourself any good for being grumpy. There is much of this world you haven’t seen even if you’ve lived hundreds of years. So lighten up, it makes the whole nearly dying thing and all of the bad stuff much easier to deal with. And I’m speaking as someone who risks their life for a living and has seen the worst that humanity has to give,” Haki said. For a long time, he was in the same spot was Chance. The world becomes very dull when you have seen everything the world has to offer, good and bad.

“I know how about you see the world through my eyes,” Haki said than place a hand over Chance’s eye and chanted a spell. He then removed his hand causing the world to change. The meteor shower became twisting ribbons of color. Streams of emerald, gold, and crimson danced and twirled in the cosmos. The plants below glowed a brilliant green with thousands of different hues. The once empty sky was now filled with all forms of spirits creatures of the vail that glided through the air.

“This is how I see the world. It’s a lot less dull if you know where to look,” Haki explained hoping it would impress the vampire.

---

“Enchanting is not actually my specialty. I specialize in Spacial Manipulation. My enchanting skills are that of a novice. I can only enchant the one enchantment that allows for telepathic communication anything beyond that is too hard. If you want to talk about Magic ask Haki. between me and him he is much more adept at it than I. A little hard to believe but I am the muscle and he's the brain,” Adrian said, “mostly because he’s as dangerous as a butterfly. Not to say that he is weak but he would never hurt anyone."

“Speaking of magic. I’ve heard that yours is particularly impressive,” Adrian said.

[SporkoBug]

Chance was about to argue before Haki put his hands over his eyes. He opened his mouth to yell at Haki before he saw all of the colours.
"What the... Hell...." He said as he looked around slowly, "This is amazing! You really see like this all the time? Wouldn't that make you dizzy? The glowy lights from the plants, all of the lights and movement in the sky!"
He felt his head get achy from all of the different colour movements, but he didn't want to get sick but he wanted to keep looking.

"Is it.. hard to become a Druid?" Chance asked after a moment of silence, he glanced back to Haki with a droop of his ears, "Or like... Nature magic in general?"

---

"Spacial manipulation?" Nessa's interests were peaked, "How do you mean? Like, Star magic, or just moving things to one place to another?" She tilted her head slightly before she blinked at Adrian as she was asked about her magic.
"Star-Born are born with innate magic of the Stars." She started, moving her hands up slowly to clasp them together; exactly in the way she did back at the guild.

She pulled her hands away to reveal a small glistening star. "There are many things I can do with my powers, but my main enjoyment from it is this." She let the little star go, watching it spiral around them before shooting across the sky and watched it dance around Haki and Chance, before shooting upwards before exploding in a small shower of sparkles over Chances head.

[LaQue]

The spell only lasted a few minutes before all the colors started to fade. “I don’t see this all the time but I do have the ability to see it at will.”

“And no sorry you can not become a Druid. It is something you are born into not become. And to be frank you wouldn’t make a very good Druid. I gave up a lot of things when I became a Druid the biggest thing being the ability to hurt others. As a Druid I’m a watcher, an observer, I can only interview when something threatens the world. So most of the time I’m a pacifist. I don’t fight, hurt people, or defend myself by attack others. So technically I’m at your mercy if you decide to attack me. Well, you’ll probably get malled by Atari and Diana but I digress,” Haki said, “as for nature magic. You can try and see if you have any affinity for it.”

Haki reached into his bag and grabbed a small container. It was filled with seeds and small dried flowers. He picked out a small acorn then returned the container to bag.

“Here show me your palm,” Haki said than grabbed one of the chance’s hands and place the acorn on his palm, “focus your energy into your palm and the acorn. Whatever happens to it will tell us your magical affinity. If it grows then you have an affinity for nature, if it burst to flame it’s fire, if it levitates than air and so on.”

---

“Spacial manipulation allows me to change how objects and people interact with space. I can give an example,” Adrian said than clapped his hand together sending out an echoing sound. He then grabbed his journal and threw it into the air but instead of falling it stayed afloat in a fixed position next to them.

“I can also use it to teleport though only my self and only to places I can see but your magic is far fascinating,” Adrian mumbles as he watched the little star fly off.

[SporkoBug]

Chance blinked as the spell started to diffuse from his body. He felt the remnants of the magic dance around his body before he looked to Haki as he mentioned about his magic and the Acorn. He looked to the Acorn in his palm and breathed in slowly, "Fae have... innate tie to magic but I've never found mine." He uttered before he nodded at the mention of focusing.

He closed his eyes and focused on the object in his palm. He didn't want to focus enough to give him a headache. Chance felt a small spark in his chest, energy slowly drip down from his chest and down his arms and to his palm. His palm slowly seemed to glisten with runes before the runes suddenly spiralled to purple. Light around the acorn seemed to sparkle before its' colour suddenly changed from it's dull brown to a soft blue hue.
Chance slowly opened his eyes to look at acorn. "Whoa!" He started before he moved to look at the Acorn a bit better, before it suddenly flexed in colour and a small vine suddenly spiralled from his palm.

It coiled up around his Acorn and seemed to tighten, and start to drain the Acorn of what little energy it had in it. The vine slowly sprouting a couple of little leaves.
"What?" Chance blinked, "What??"

---

Nessa watched Adrian give an example of his magic, her eyes widened even more before she grinned.
"Oh wow!" She started, ignoring his mention of her magic, "That's amazing! It's that spacial manipulation, that's amazing. I haven't come across something like this ever, I've only read about it in books!" She grinned. "Especially since it just stays there too, Does it take a lot of energy to do things?"