"I don't like it when he goes off alone." The dragoness grunted. The local elf lord sounded intimidating, yes, until you decided to burn him and half of the forest from above. The only way the elves could harm her she could think of was if they were in cahoots with the other wizard. Same could not be said about her companions though.
As their wizard tinkered with her amulet and activated it, she watched in dismay as she changed into an elf with clothes in shambles. Now granted, dragons were entirely happy to live in a cave, but once you get used to living in a fortress of impressive masonry such as one she grown up in after finding her father, even a cave seemed uncomfortable. All things considered, wearing grass and moss and living in the treetops was really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
"And I do not like knofe ears." She said, her hand reaching to the pointy organ that stuck further from her head than her true form's horns. "Maybe I should just fly above and come to the rescue if you start screaming." She grinned.
Dtto, I have been trying to do a darker digimon character for many RPs but whenever I waseven allowed, they didn't accept spirit wielders which I also wanted to do or they kept tanking.
The dragoness was pulled out of her sky staring daydream as the rest of the group came out of the Inn with information to go on. She twisted her head to better hear what was mentioned. It sounded like the southern princess had a mind for this sort of thing, the plan was good, except for their seeming lack in execution. Well then... perhaps there was something she could do about that.
She got up, slowly walking to the group, the possibility of the Inn patrons seeing her in her true form completely lost on her. "Perhaps I could be of help. Wizard, you say you are skilled learning the ins and outs of spells that already exist, correct? If it will help you, have a look at this." she lowered her head, letting the chain with her amulet slip off of her neck and catch on one of her horns, dangling it in front of Rudolph's face.
"And before anyone gets any funny ideas, no, I am not flying you over the forest. I am not some stable animal. Also half of you was mean to me." she stuck out her tongue.
"Well, I was the captain who used a mark XI missile as a tripple A against a fleet of Al'Kesh and gliders..." the captain grinned, "Probably best to keep doomsday weapons from the replicator war locked up, or at least in someone else' hands. If you have a list of what's out there do distribute it to the away team with detailed descriptions, a big red 'do not touch' label and a manual of how to disarm whatever it is. Better prepared than sorry." the captain requested.
She looked at the data projection, looking at their estimated position and the estimated time of arrival. Eight days remaining. She looked at the bridge crew: "Anyone brought a deck of cards?"
Bowels of the ship
"I didn't ask whether the materials are ready, I need something to take my mind off of the insufferable not-a-computer now, not in four hours." Morrigan groaned. "That is not to speak of the food. Staying on Earth for a while has given me a sweet tooth. How do you and Catherine prefer meat that is half raw is beyond my understanding." she frowned.
She moved to inspect the still. "Could you improve cycle time if you used the ship's cooling system instead of free air flow?"
Falnore's quarters
"I am looking forward to see the alien fauna as well." The engineer dreamed, "The flying animals on Earth are something amazing. Do you think there is a chance that a spacefaring civilization developed between the replicators wiping them all out and us arriving?" Falnore proposed. "I think we might find someone if they were somewhere on the outskirts of the galaxy, or possibly far off the stargate network."
Appearance: the dryad is 170 cm tall, generally humanoid in shape but beyond doubt more plant than animal. She seems to have a mix of skin and bark covering her body, forming a sort of natural armor of poor quality. Her movements are slow, but she is very strong compared to similar creature of flesh. As she is a dryad of the leafy type, the seasons affect her as well as the trees, making the mossy growth she has where hair would go bloom in the summer and change colors in the fall.
History: As a little sapling, Moring was almost eaten by a young deer, giving her a deep seeded fear of herbivores of any kind. She was brought up in the family of a tree of eternity, and as such is well attuned with mother nature and ancient spirits. She studied a bit of druidic magic, but adventuring was a bit too much of a thrill for her, so she decided to settle down in a local community and focus on growing whatever the little town may need.
She has attempted to use her products to bake time and time again, but it has only resulted in another deep seeded fear - of fire. She also is not a fan of woodpeckers.
Personality: Patient - Deadpan - Slow to speak - wise beyond her years
Skills: - Farming - Medicine
Powers: - Up/root - Morning can either merge with a tree or plant her own roots to gain nourishment from the earth. - Eat wood - The dryad can eat wood to rapidly heal herself - Slow poison - Morning's thorns secrete an anaesthetic that slows down movement and reaction times of those affected. It has come in handy though for numbing pain and reducing fevers.
Equipment: Farming equipment, which she can operate herself due to having an ox strength
Home: A tiny forest at the edge of her fields. It is a home to a swarm of honeybees and it has a personal well.
Thaddeus would nod slowly, taking the piece of parchment and the small coin, he removed his blade in the opposite hand. Taking a deep breath he looked at the parchment, he would clear his throat a couple times. It had been some time since he pronounced anything draconic, it put a lot of strain on the throat if you were not a dragon. Handing the paper back to Pyrona he took the hilt of the blade in one hand and levelled it at his chest, in the other he clutched the coin which he placed over the hilt so they were touching, he stared at the hilt, a name would flash into his mind:
~Jaraah~
Taraah felt something stir. Inside of her, so deep within she didn't know she could feel that far into... into her very soul. For a moment, her body felt alien, as if someone else woke up from the deepest slumber, stirred and took the reins form her. But as quickly as the feeling came, it was gone, before the dragoness could figure out what happened. It frightened her to her core nevertheless. What the hell was the Mesmer doing with the spell? Did the magic reacted poorly to his nature? Or did it react to something else? No. Someone.
In another moment Thaddeus would begin to make noises tantamount to growls and jaw snaps, the veins in his neck bulged a bit as the pronunciation had to be forceful. The moment the spell was spoken there was an almost immediate reaction, it was strong, it would throw Thaddeus into a spiral as the whole world seemed to spin. Before long his consciousness was gone and everything went black.
At the same time, the dragoness decided to investigate what she felt. Fishing out another copper coin, she recited the incantation in her head and cast detect thoughts on the half-mesmer. She was curious as to what the spell revealed to him.
He awoke in a cave. It was not any cave he had seen before, that was clear. None other had a bloody altar with the likeness of Tiamat at it's center. A large black dragoness lied coiled behind it. "Now, who will be my clutch champion? Prove to me your worth!" He turned around, and saw six male black dragons, with a fresh corpse of a red female dragon in a puddle of blood in the back corner. He crouched down, and saw that he was not himself, but rather an ash and orange dragon.
The next few moments were a blur, as two of the black dragons turned on their other siblings in a flurry of teeth and claws. That still left the two heading straight for him. Tehre was a momentary feeling of fright. But as quickly as it came, it turned into anger, and hatred, and betrayal! This was their mother! Why did she hurt them and pit them against each other?
The dragon through whose eyes Thadeus was observing jumped to the side, slashing a bloody gash through one of his assailant's fore paw. Landing unsteadily, his tail slammed into the ground to redirect the fall into a slide as a ball of fire gathered in his mouth and it was spat forward. It was no ordinary fire. It was the most vivid red that any fire has ever been, and rather than provide light, the flames cast a shadow. The wounded black was hit, and the shadowfire consumed him. He jumped into the pool of water that served for drinking, but it was useless. The Shadowfire could not be extinguished this easily.
The remaining black clawed at the ground and the corpses of yesterday's dinner came to life, shambling towards her. Darkheart was always a coward, preferring to let something else to get its hands dirty for him. Taraah, for by now it was obvious through whose eyes Thaddeus was watching, charged forward and slammed into her brother, knocking him over. She braced her forward paws on his shoulders, and dragged her rear claws over his exposed stomach, gutting him into a bloody mess.
The two survivors of the other fights were now duelling each other. As soon as one killed the other, he was consumed in his own funeral pyre. Tears started rolling down her eyes. Why did they attack? She never liked her brothers, but were they really so twisted as to kill each other so readily?
"Congratulations, my champion! Now throw their bodies on the altar! They were weak, and our goddess does not tolerate them! A worthy sacrifice in her service!"
Taraah's head snapped back, her tears turning into steam. It was all her fault! Their mot- No! She did not deserved to be called that! Nihelbet has only ever hurt them, to supposed ly make them stronger, most of all her poor red sister, the only one of her siblings she liked! Well, she will get what she wanted. The champion she desired to birth has turned out to be equal part fire and darkness, and it would swallow her whole! Taraah's rage knew no bounds, and at that moment, she screamed with righteous fury as the souls of her brothers and sister were bound into spectres made of the dastardly black fire. And she willed them to tear Nihelbet apart and watched as she was dismembered limb from limb, her flesh rent form her bones.
When it was all done, she released the hold on her siblings' souls, allowing them to move on. Nihelbet would not be allowed such a luxury. Taraah bound her soul to her skull, drawing a bloody rune on it and placing it onto the altar, where it would remain forever as she collapsed the cave entrance.
Thaddeus would slowly open his eyes, the moment he did there was a sick crack of pain shooting through his head. The world was spinning, everything was spinning, taking a deep breath he nearly choked as he sucked in dirt. The moment his chest heaved in another sharp pain shot through his body, he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out but blood that choked him. Everything hurt, he could taste metal in his mouth, everything in him said to just close his eyes, he wanted to, perhaps he would… what was the harm in just closing your eyes? ”Thaddeus! Thaddeus! Get up!” That voice.. ”Get away from him!” Xevoaren… Thaddeus slowly tried to get up but a large boot crashed into his back forcing him back to the ground and driving spurts of electric like pain through his entire body. He screamed in pain, tears were streaming down his dirtied cheeks, never in his life had he felt such horrible pain. ”Foolish beast.” A new voice, this one however was cold, lifeless, evil, Thaddeus felt the pressure on his back release, there was a mighty roar and the ground would tremble underneath him.
Fighting against the pain he lifted his head up and forced his eyes open, everything blurry for a second but when his sight became clear he could see him… his father was standing right infront of him, his back turned to him. Before his father was Xevoaren floating in midair trying desperately to move. ”Xevo…” Thaddeus spoke the dragon's name weakly as he tried to reach out his hand to grab the black boot in front of him. Before he could do so he was lifting in the air as if being extended by an invisible force, he was powerless to do anything as he floated in front of his father next to Xevoaren.. ”Pathetic. Such weak creatures are not meant to survive. I had such high hopes for you boy, but you have chosen your side, which means you have chosen death. I thought you would see that these… worms you call family are filth, that you see reason, but you are too weak, too blind by emotion, just like the others. .”
Thaddeus would watch as things seemed to slow down, his father would raise his hand up in the air, Xevoaren would move further up, farther and farther until he was twenty feet off the ground. With no mercy he was suddenly forced down and slammed into the dirt below. There was an explosion of dirt and dust as the ground gave away forming a large crater shaking the entire area. ”I told you before son, that if you didn’t do it than I would kill Xevoaren, does this trash really mean so much to you that you would die with them?” Thaddeus felt himself move forward as a roughened hand grabbed him from the air by his throat. ”You will not die yet boy, no. Not before I kill this filth, and than Alduin, you will watch, you will suffer for your weakness as I torture them both. I will show you the only true constant in this life and that is power.” Thaddeus could feel the hand tighten around his throat slightly, he could feel a cold rage burning deep inside of him as his father spoke of the deeds he would commit. Reaching his arms up he would grip the arm holding his neck and try to free himself, his father would simply shake his head. With one solid hit his fist drove into Thaddeus’s stomach and launched him back, he slapped the ground and slid a short distance away, he gripped his stomach tightly as blood exploded from his mouth again.
Out of nowhere a great heat would heat his skin, forcing his eyes open. A large stream of fire was blowing right over him coming from beyond his father who was seemingly in the center of it. Xevo… just run Xevo.. leave me..” Thaddeus spoke weakly as the blaze died down, in front of him the ground was scarred black, the slight incline that protected him was crumbling away like ash, his father was nowhere to be seen. ”Take that you bastard! Thaddeus I got him, I’m coming!” Thaddeus could feel the heavy thuds coming towards him, ”No… don’t… hes not dead..” He could barely speak, he knew his father wasn’t dead he could feel him, he did not know how but he could. ”Don’t worry I will get you back to father he will heal you.” Before Thaddeus could say anything more his eyes opened in horror as a huge two handed blade shot through Xevoarens right wing, it would rip through it like butter as almost the entire wing was cut off at once. Xevoaren growled in horrible pain as he went to lunge away, but he was already in the air again against his will unable to move. ”You.. Kill me? You pathetic beast.” Xevoaren was flung into the ground again, this time even harder, his screams were horrifying to hear. ”You won’t be needing this anymore.” Thaddeus could hear Xevo crying out in sheer agony, he had never heard him scream like that in all his life, moments later a large thin white bone covered in blood would land nearly next to him.
”I think its time to die.” Thaddeus felt his eyes open fully as the words hit his ears, no, no, no, he was not going to let this happen, he could not, he would not! Reaching his hand out he grabbed the bloodied bone. Getting shakily to his feet, he gripped the bone angrily, the edge was broken and pointed. No more pain, no more pain, no more crying, Xevo was willing to risk everything for him, and he would do the same, even if it killed him he would not let Xevo die here. ”Die filth” The large sword would raise in the air to strike the killing blow, Xevoaren could do nothing but watch as his life was about to end. Before the sword could finish its work, the bone that had just been ripped from his body came bursting through the Mesmers pectoral. For the first time the Mesmer screamed angrily, in one swift movement he dropped the sword as it fell heavily into the dirt and turned and grabbed Thaddeus by the throat and ripped him off his feet, choking his air completely off. You stupid piece of filth! If you wanted to die so badly you should have just asked!” Thaddeus could feel his head swimming, he struggled against his father but to no avail. ”Let him go!!!!!”
Thaddeus felt the grip release as he fell to the ground as Xevoaren slammed into his father with authority and sent him flying away, it was short lived however as he turned his body in mid air and landed on his feet sliding back a couple feet. He looked up coldly at Xevo, in the blink of an eye he raced forward and grabbed Xevo right under his jaw line and started to crush his throat. ”NO!!!!!!!!” Thaddeus would jump on his father's back, grabbing the bone that was still jutting through his shoulder with both hands from the front; he ripped it up with all the strength he had left. His father screamed wildly as darkened blood flew everywhere. ”ENOUGH!!!!!!” His father growled as he grabbed Thaddeus and slammed him into Xevo, both of them flew back from the force a short distance away. Xevoaren was drifting in and out of consciousness as Thaddeus slowly climbed back to his feet, he ignored the pain as his body tried to work against him and keep him down. His father whom was still a short distance away ripped the bone from his shoulder and threw it away in disgust as spurts of his blood would exit the wound before it would heal completely. Thaddeus could feel his body giving out, but he would not fall, no, if there was any chance he could save his brother he would do it.
”If you want to kill him than your gonna have to kill me first you BASTARD!” He screamed the words but there was no strength behind them. Raising his arms up weakly to his sides he blocked Xevo from his father. ”So be it”. His father would disappear from the spot, everything slowed down again as he flung forward and appeared before Thaddeus, his hand moved forward and slammed into his body and rip through him and appeared out the back, his fathers hand going straight through him. His eyes widened as he felt an almost.. Warm calmness come over him. Turning back he looked slowly down at Xevo who was shakily trying to get to his feet, to help him, his mouth was moving but he couldn’t hear him anymore. He felt himself slowly falling towards the ground just as a large black mass shot over him driving his father away. He slammed the ground but he barely felt it, this was it… this was the end, at least… he died protecting his brother, that was all that mattered. He closed his eyes as everything went black.
Out in the real world, the dragoness did not just see the same memory. She felt it. Every blow, stab, and unkind word. She almost screamed when the first impact came. A dull, crushing pain seared through her body, her bones feeling like they nigh shattered. She steeled herself, unable to do anything. By this point, she figured out what was happening. She was not just observing Thadeus' memory.
For the next minute or so, her soul recalled the memory! She stood through it all, only dropping to her knees at the end. She knew the wounds were not real, but they hurt her all the same. And when her soul stirred before, it was now screaming in rage at the injustice of it all! Her chest felt like it was going to explode.
What finally made her body cry out in anguish was when she saw the older Mesmer impale Thaddeus like he was made of butter. She felt like dying there and then, and a lesser dragon might. That was her brother! Her anguish turned to fury such as she has not felt since that day Nihelbet made her fight her siblings, and she drew her blade, pushing through the pain and charging forward! She would slay that Mesmer if it was the last thing her battered body ever did!
She woke up from the memory only when she slammed sword first into the wagon, the magic finally fading away and letting her go. She shook her head. No. Not her brother. Not in this life. Yet, anyway.
Thaddeus opened his eyes as the world around him spun into a frenzy and slowly but surely returned to the real world. A.. memory? But it was not his own, it couldn’t have been. Pyrona… had he been inside of a memory from Pyrona? No, not just inside a memory, it had felt as if he was living it himself, he could feel it still, everything that had happened was still reverberating in his body. The rage, the pain, it was almost overwhelming, not of his own but of the other that rivaled his own and it shook him. When he looked up and saw Pyrona’s sword inside the side of his cart he barely registered it as he stared at the dragoness. ”What the hell was that? Was that… was that your memory? What kind of spell did you have me do?”
"I don't know what you've seen. But I think I know why." the dragoness whined, stumbling a few paces away from the wagon to an empty space. With a whisper of her mantra, she changed back into her true self. Good thing they were not in clear view of the inn anymore. "Your Draconic could use some sharpening. I think you cast detect thoughts instead of detect presence by mistake. As to why you've seen some memory of mine? I have only one explanation. The spell latched onto what reacted most to the true name of the dragon." she lowered her head to look Thaddeus straight into the eyes. "Me. I apologize for intruding, but when you started casting I felt something resonate within me, so I cast detect thoughts on you. You must have been thinking of where that bone came form on some level. I saw you and Xevoaren battling against another Mesmer and doing, forgive me, poorly. I see no better explanation as to why the spell would react to to me rather than the bone - I carry the soul of Xevoaren. I was him in a past life." she proposed. It was a hypothesis, but she only needed the feelings in her core to know it was true.
”That's… that's impossible.. Thaddeus looked at Pyrona with a rather distasteful glare. She was mocking him, she had used her magic to peer into his thoughts and saw a memory and now she was playing a cruel joke on him, trying to get in his head. But the question was, did he really believe that? He wanted to but deep down his heart was telling him that she was telling the truth or at least she thought she was. It would explain why he felt a connection to her even though he knew nothing about her, but that would not be enough to convince him. ”So what you're saying to me.. Is that you are the reincarnation of Xevoaren?” He shook his head side to side, deciding to ignore what his heart was telling him deep down. ”He’s dead and he is not coming back, Alduin and him may have believed in reincarnation but not me. They spent hours trying to convince me but It was just something to make one feel better about death. A way to make it easier to live with the passing, convincing yourself day after day that they will come back someday when they never will. Spending year after year living with the hope that one day some stripling will look at you and in their eyes you will see your long departed brother. I don’t know why any of this is happening but I know this, your not the reincarnation of Xevoaren.”
"Of course." Taraah nodded, "A death is a death, and the person is not coming back, it is the end of our stories here in the mortal world, the only way to change that is a divine act. We do not believe in anything like that." She agreed.
"And I do not claim to be him. I am my own person, thank you very much. My life ends with my death. What we believe in is that the soul is immortal and moves on, reincarnating into a new being based on the worth of it's previous life. If you were a scumbag, your next life may be spent as an ant, or a honeybee, a member of a hive without free will, but spending your life doing work that matters for the benefit of others. Likewise, if you lived the life of a hero dedicated to the protection of the people, you may be a demigod in the next life." She explained.
"Naturally, like with all beliefs, there are sects that modify this part and that. I am not sure if what you were taught matches what I told you or whether you care to believe in it. It defies my beliefs as well! I was taught the soul cannot move on if the body is not laid to rest in its entirety." She nodded her snout towards the bone in the sword, "Yet here I stand. If you do not think my hypothesis is correct, then answer me this: Why did the spell target me, rather than the bone? You can ask the wizard to teach you how to cast the spell in a language you are proficient in. See if the result is the same."
She straightened up again and then coiled up next to the wagon, pondering the conundrum. "If you ask what this means… I do not know. Us meeting could just be a fluke. But what I saw in your head… I know what it's like to lose siblings. Meeting in a previous life or not, I will be there if you need me. Whether to talk or to kill someone."
Thaddeus would sigh and sit on the edge of the wagon crossing his arms as he thought of what Pyrona said. He didn’t have an answer to her question, he knew nothing of magic, Alduin tried to teach him some but it just did not take. That was one of the reasons he trained with a blade or close combat. ”Forgive me, I have become so untrusting through these passing years. In truth, I wanted to believe more than anything that his soul was here, for a lot of years that kept me going, but eventually I just had to let go of him.” Letting his mind wander he went back to the memory he had felt from the dragoness. If he really thought about it, the two of them were more similar than either of them would think. ”Look, I don’t know if an old soul resides within you, I don’t understand that kind of thing, I never did. But it is nice to see a dragon again, I've missed them for so long now, up until you whipped me with your tail I thought I would never see another live dragon again. For what it's worth, I am glad your here.” Thaddeus became quiet, he wasn’t all that good with emotions.
”Then I shall keep you company.” the dragoness purred, looking at the skies, ”Until you no longer need it, or grow tired of it. I have been looking for new home, perhaps I shall find it here yet.” After that, she laid her head on her tail, almost ready to doze off after the emotional flight of a revelation.
A small smile graced Taraah's face as she finally got somewhere with what she wanted. "I assume you know draconic pronounciation. It is a bit of dark magic that is as low level as it gets, but it serves some useful purposes." she said, producing a piece of parchment and a quill from her satchel. Then she wrote an incantation in draconic runes. When said out loud, the draconic language sounded like growls, jaw snaps, and stones rumbling down the side of the hill, but the words could be formed by a humanoid mouth, if barely.
"The ritual calls for a piece of a body to recall the soul it inhabited it. The older the body, the more of an imprint the soul would leave on it, but if cast early enough, even a young bone would do. Now, as you would know, knowing a dragon's true name is to have power over them. If you modify a detection spell to use a somatic input and think of the true name of the dragon, it should resonate with the soul recall and detect it as the dragon him or herself. I won't even need to know the name of the dragon, as you would not know the name if you weren't close." she said, sliding over the copper coin the detection spell required as a material component.
She hoped the man spoke truth. She could use someone she could trust. Most of all, it would be less strange why he felt familiar despite the two of them never meeting before.
Taraah laughed out loud as the wizard rated her performance, snapping her fingers and letting the reanimated bodies drop and rest forever. "Words of ignorance form a student of only half the books that were ever written!" She reached for one of the fallen bandits that was not dead, only writhing on the ground. "The use of magic can be distasteful, but not the magic itself. Necromancy can be used to raise an army of undead soldiers, or to heal injuries beyond the ken of healers." It turned out the subject of the demonstration was the bandit that Shina shot to the shoulder. Taraah ripped the arrow out, the arm hanging limply as the nerves were severed. Then, she cast a reanimation spell that replaced the severed nerves with magic. The bandit gazed on his arm that worked once more, flexing his fingers in front of his eyes.
Before Taraah swiftly snapped his neck.
"And even the undead soldiers can fight for good." She cleaned her blade on a piece of bandit clothing, noticing with displeasure that indeed, as she mentioned at Shina's forge, the silver plating was wearing off too much for her eyes' liking. Sheating the sword, she returned to the wagon, wondering if anyone would mind if she took a bite out of a bandit's liver. It was good for vitamins! She decided against it though, silently praying this inn was better than the last. The innkeep seemed more bubbly and awake at least. She looked back to Thaddeus, continuing their earlier conversation as if nothing happened: "So... would you agree to cast the spell yourself if I show you how? I need only to observe the results." she suggested.
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