"I believe I understand," Yssil murmured. He turned to the triangle, which still held Aerta's water thrall inside, waiting to be given a command or dismissed. Yssil supposed he'd have to get rid of it first if he wanted to summon one of his own. Or perhaps he could simply summon an additional one...He decided to give this last idea a try. He focused on the perfectly triangular summoning shape, felt Aerta's magic outside and his own magic inside and focused his power, will, and intent in order to summon an additional water-elemental thrall. He did as he saw Aerta had done and worked the energy he could feel flowing in his veins, staying focused and staring with determination at the triangle until another thrall would manifest inside of it.
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Asteria
Asteria watched as Mei attempted to communicate with their Mother. The larger female Dire rat actually understood, grabbed a lizard and proceeded to drag it on her own back to their nest. Asteria frowned as she realized they’d be going to a different location than she had assumed, but trusted their Mother enough that she was willing to follow. She sunk her teeth into the arm of the other lizard, waited for Mei to grab onto it as well, and then proceeded to drag it to their birth-place in this world, straining slightly with the cargo even though she had the help of her sibling.
Mother really was strong. And because that was the case, Asteria wasn’t as worried about having to cover their tracks any longer; something she had realized would have been hard to do anyway, what with the distinctive smell of Dire rats. If a night-time predator wanted to find a meal, they could happen upon them easily enough, and all Asteria could do was trust both her Mother’s sense and her own sharp perceptions in case of an ambush during their sleep.
Once they all finally arrived back to their nest, Asteria exhaustedly curled into a ball and fell asleep. She vaguely felt the familiar warmth of her Dire rat family before a deep and restful sleep overtook her completely.
~
Asteria woke up the next day when the few sun rays managed to make their way into the cave, brightly announcing the continuation of this new life of hers. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her front paws, and a short yawn brought her to full wakefulness – and to a hunger which was strange in its intensity considering she had eaten shortly before sleeping the previous night. Thankfully, the two lizard corpses were still in the nest. They had a stench more awful than ever before, but nonetheless, the sight of what her rat brain interpreted as food caused her to salivate. She really hoped she was much more disease-resistant now than she had been as a human. As far as she knew, rats were sturdy, and being a “monster-type” probably had some additional benefits too.
After that short deliberation, she approached one of the dead lizards and began eating. But she did not randomly bite into it. No, this time, she carefully tore the meat from its forearms, intent on exposing the two long thin bones underneath without damaging them. As morbid as the idea might be, she had remembered something about cavemen or such making weapons and tools from bones the previous night. She didn’t yet know how she would make or use any such thing as a rat, but she was determined to try. With a vague plan in mind, she removed the two long thin bones first from one forearm and then another set from the other. She inspected the four bones; they seemed brittle to her, but thankfully not too damaged. Asteria suspected they would hold together for the duration of her experimentation at the very least. She took a bone between her paws, holding it slightly awkwardly, and proceeded to sharpen one end against her teeth.
She continued with the task until she had four sharpened pieces of bone, which all resembled a needle or with some imagination, a weapon such as a spear-head or a dagger. She picked them all up, wandered to the farthest corner of the nest, and set the bones on the ground. Then, feeling quite embarrassed at what she was about to do, she picked one bone between her paws, grabbing its blunt side with the sharp end pointed forward. She stood up on her hind legs, giving a shaky attempt at bipedality, and kept a precarious balance with the help of her tail.
She gave a cautious sweep to her surroundings; she didn’t want to get caught by an enemy when trying out something so…untested. Satisfied that she was relatively safe, she swung her make-shift weapon in what might one day be called an attack, if she refined it. She mostly used stabbing motions, since that’s what the bone seemed most suited to. Not too long after, Asteria felt tired from the practice and dropped back to her fours. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally stab herself to death while endeavouring to develop a skill or two on her own. She hoped she’d see some sign that what she had done had worked or at least had some sort of an effect. For now, she looked back to her nest to see if her sister and Mother had awakened as well, observing what they intended to do this day. Maybe she could convince Mei to spend some time “training” as it were.
@Jobst
Ineraz took the time to give Sera a considering look, as if he hadn’t already made his mind up. The small Gem had switched surprisingly quickly from guilt to anger at the guard to the neutral expression she was currently assuming. “No,” he said clearly and decisively, responding to her last question. He then gave her a very small smile, the uplifted corners markedly softening the innate icy coldness his eyes always seemed to project. “You have shown that you are capable of protecting yourself. And that is something you should always use to your advantage,” he smirked at her briefly, offering her what could be construed as a proud expression.
Then, when he caught sight of the red hand print still in sharp relief against her pale skin once again, he scowled and continued in a low growl. “After all, I can’t always be around to keep the grubby hands of inept fools and greedy imbeciles off you,” Ineraz didn’t even deign to turn around, but it was obvious those insults were also intended for the guard, with whom Ineraz was quite displeased at the moment. Seeing the evidence that someone else had touched what was rightfully his stung.
Ineraz took a moment to calm himself down, then smiled an alarmingly malicious smile. “In fact,” he began on the end of a breathy sigh, then leaned down to be closer to Sera and whispered in her ear. “He is the one who should be punished. Don’t you agree? Wouldn’t you like to watch him suffer? He had no cause and no right to punish you, isn’t that so?” he emphasized some of the words with a hissing lilt which may have been softer than his previous growling insults but certainly didn’t lessen the peril the poor oblivious Drakkan guard was in.
Ineraz continued, really getting into it now that he imagined the kind of fun he might have if he got his bride to cooperate. “Well, what say you? Would you like to look on as he gets flayed? Perhaps you might even enjoy helping me by tenderizing his skin some more with your fire, hmm?” Ineraz’s tone as he softly murmured all these suggestions to Sera was a strange mix of malevolent threat, ominous danger, and a dark seductive undercurrent, the latter of which was there purely for Sera’s sake.
After that speech, Ineraz straightened up back to his full height, and flashed Sera a quick vindictive grin. He licked his lips as his gaze happened to land upon her sweet little mouth. Strangely enough, Ineraz had worked up a deep and thrilling lust in his gut alongside the still simmering rage he felt thrum with every heart-beat. He would very much like to kiss Sera right now, but he knew himself well enough to realize that he might attempt to put his own mark on her, a silly thing which he would regret later. As much as he might appreciate the way she would look with his bite-mark, showcasing the indentation of his teeth, and how she would bleed for his sake…he probably wouldn’t feel the same later, when he returned to his usual clear-headed state. Ineraz looked at Sera expectantly and perhaps with apparent desire, while Zeldria and the idiotic guard by the name of Thinil were barely in his periphery, ignored for now.
Asteria
The fight was over as soon as it began, their somewhat strategic team-attack once again proving to be exceptionally effective. Just after Asteria felt the lizard dying under her teeth, another system message showed up to her. She was no longer surprised that there was such a thing as system messages in this world, but the fact that she actually gained a level was starting to get her thinking in terms of half-forgotten game logic. Gaining experience by killing monsters was definitely common to gaming.
What was more, seeing her current skills led Asteria to believe that levelling up wasn’t the only way to get better, perhaps not even the best way. Sure, she got skill points from gaining a level, but it seemed unlikely that one point would get her a whole level in any skill. If she wanted to confirm her hypothesis, she’d have to invest some skill points and see what happened, but Asteria wanted to try another approach. So, she memorized her current unusable skills with the intent of trying to raise them herself whenever she got the opportunity to do so. For now, she bit into the lizard’s soft body, the chewy and bloody meat serving as a light dinner.
Having been so absorbed in her own thoughts relating to this world’s nature, Asteria noticed Mei only when she was right in front of her, and had apparently dragged the other lizard towards her.
“I already ate from this one, but thank you,” she stared at the lizards’ corpses as an idea formed in her mind. “Would you help me drag one or both back to our little chamber? A food supply would serve us well, and there is something I want to try out…tomorrow,” Asteria commented.
Standing so close to two corpses made her realize the stench they produced, and it was sure to get worse as they decomposed over time. She was willing to put up with it in their temporary base back underground, but it did lead to another problem. “Do you think we should cover the tracks leading to our ‘home’? I don’t want to get attacked while I’m sleeping,” Asteria thought she might be rambling already, but she was honestly tired, and wanted to go to sleep. The threatening situations she had faced today really seemed to be developing a bit of a healthy paranoia in her though.
@Jobst
"So understanding how the shapes are supposed to be is enough to create them correctly?" Yssil reaffirmed. "And 'thrall' seems a proper name for the weakest of elementals," he commented, then watched Aerta summon a simple water elemental. "Basically, with ritual we can draw on a kind of magic that we are not naturally attuned to. This can then increase the variety of what a sorcerer like us can do. Is that correct?" he questioned. Yssil's experience with rituals truly was minimal and he wanted to know if he had the gist of it. "I'd like and try conjuring one of these too, and then see what they're capable of. May I?" he asked, wondering if Aerta's demonstration was complete already.
Asteria
Tch, so much for that plan. In this situation, that was the most concrete thought Asteria had the time to consider. As the two globs of poison flew towards her slowly, she avoided most of the attack by jumping aside. Unfortunately, a bit of her fur did get hit. Asteria rolled in a patch of dirt, removing as much of the acid as she could. She did not want to experience what its effect would be like if it reached her skin and ate into her meat. She saw the way her Mother engaged the two lizards head on. And since trying to go around an enemy while it was distracted from the front had worked so well last time, she attempted the same thing now.
Asteria dashed to the side in zigzagging motions, trying to add unpredictability to her innate speed in the event that either of the lizards tried taking her out before she was able to reach them. When she was perpendicular and relatively close to the more injured of the opponents, she charged the lizard in an attempt to head-butt it from the side. If she were lucky, she might be able to unbalance it enough so that it would flip over on its back or alternatively, make it crash into the other (healthier) lizard and disturb both of their attacks momentarily. Depending on what happened as a consequence of her attack, Asteria thought she could either bite into the nearest lizard to damage it or use her speed to dodge if either of them tried biting her. And perhaps her sister would actually consider how she attacked this time, though as long as she actually helped in some manner to kill the lizards and didn't get in her way, Asteria didn't much care what exactly Mei did.
@Jobst
Asteria
Keeping her focus on observing and trying to discern the events, Asteria noticed the appearance of two lizards, who had been hidden from her line of sight previously by one of the cave’s columns. Perhaps that had been what Lorek had been targeting initially? It honestly mattered no longer, for he was obviously furious due to having been attacked by Mei. Her attack left him severely wounded and he ran away or rather, floated away swiftly. The two opportunistic lizards still seemed focused on attacking the weakest Wisp. The other one, Danny, followed his injured fellow. Just in case the lizards tried changing their minds about who they should attack, Asteria hissed at them menacingly, puffing up as best she could.
And while she was warning the pair of lizards away just in case, Mei rushed back to her and their Mother, shivering and snuggling in between them. “What did you think you were doing?” Asteria questioned her lowly, trying to keep the aggression and accusation out of her tone, but succeeded only partially. She took several deep breaths to dispel her frustration and continued on in a much calmer manner. “Whatever. It’s done now. This just cost us two or three potential allies though,” she muttered grumpily. Despite that, she brushed against her sister reassuringly. And that must have been based on her new instincts, because she couldn’t remember ever being so affectionate to someone who was basically a stranger – though technically a sibling. “I don’t know about you, but I want to track Edward down and see if at least some of this mess can be fixed.”
@Jobst
Asteria
So, her sister's name was Mei. Judging by her introduction, she was either shy or still struggling with proper pronunciation due to her being a rat. The male Dire rat introduced himself as Edward and he seemed the type to try and lighten the situation just to fail utterly. It was a bit embarrassing even just witnessing his awkwardness, but thankfully the moment passed quickly. Their Mother squeaked at her children and included Ed, though he wasn’t her blood kin. Asteria recognized she wanted them to go back inside to safety, which wasn’t too terrible of an idea, though the Wisps would likely not be welcomed by Mother. She turned around to try and conclude their meeting, when one of the Wisps, Lorek, swiftly descended and seemed to target something for an attack. Asteria wasn’t sure what, but was rather startled when Mei charged at him, yelling at him to stop. Did she honestly think he was about to attack them? In Asteria’s mind that was an odd conclusion to jump to, seeing as they were all former humans…Though that didn’t mean that some wouldn’t be hostile. Still, she wished her sister wasn’t quite so reckless.
Asteria went closer to their Mother, deciding that she would provide backup from behind Mei if she had to, but more importantly, wanted to hold a position which would enable the trio of Dire rats to escape back to their previous location, the burrow leading to the dug-out chamber. Asteria wouldn’t mind if Ed were to go with them, but seeing the conflict, he escaped. She was of half a mind to track him down and reason with him, but she could do so after this conflict was resolved. Hopefully, none of them would get killed, but the other Wisp, Danny, floated on the sides somewhat menacingly. He was apparently content to simply observe for now, just as Asteria was, but him assisting the other Wisp wasn’t out of the question. Asteria put her left paw into Mother’s fur, squeaking softly at her, hoping to convey that they should just wait for now and help Mei escape if it was needed. Then, knowing Dire rats had exceptional senses, she concentrated on her sight, hearing and even tactile senses so she could properly react to any further developments in this unfortunate situation.
@Jobst @Searat @Duthguy @Bishop
Ineraz enjoyed the last of his meal as he listened to Zeldria’s story. He imagined that what she described was something that happened in Gemmenia often. After all, rolling over and begging for mercy seemed to be the collective gemmenite strategy when faced with an adversary. Ineraz could not honestly understand or empathize with such a position. As a Drakkan, he was proud to claim that he would rather fight to the bitter end than even think of giving up as the Gems, and Zeldria specifically, seemed to have. Were Gems truly destined to be weak, then? To be nothing more than prey? He certainly hoped that it was possible to strengthen them. He had designs on having his first brides live as long as they could, and frailty wouldn’t be conducive to that goal.
“You saved them from slaughter,” he observed calmly and continued in a similarly light tone “One would think that having made such a commitment, you would be willing, perhaps even eager to fit into the role of a bride fully…” he trailed off, looking up and down her body pointedly. “Not that I intend to force you,” he reiterated, holding her gaze with earnest intentness. “But is your reluctance simply because you see us as monsters?” he wondered honestly. If he could gain some insight into her reasoning, he might be able to convince her more easily…eventually.
After that, they both finished off their breakfast before continuing another conversation line. “If you have supervision, which should ensure you don’t attempt to poison us all, you may cook. I’ll arrange it,” he confirmed. And the allusion he made to her trying to kill them wasn’t even a humorous one. He believed fully that such a thing was a distinct possibility. Trying to murder what was basically one’s jailer was certainly a valid tactic, though it was unlikely to save any Gem who attempted it. Ineraz was considering how the Gem’s seemingly docile nature could lead her to consider killing anyone over a cup of wine when a guard approached him.
“Your smallest bride has decided to cause some trouble. Would you like me to bring her to you?” the Drakkan whispered. Ineraz smelled burned flesh on him and a quick glance confirmed him to be injured. With lightning speed, he whirled on the other male, stood up directly next to him and grabbed him by the throat with his right hand. His left descended purposefully to the hilt of his dagger, which was currently one of the only two weapons on him, his other ones still in the outside training area.
Ineraz was barely holding back his sudden rage, an explosive response to the conclusion he had jumped to. “And what precisely did you do to make her burn you?” He flexed his right hand and practically hissed out his next accusation. “Did you touch my bride inappropriately?”
“No!” The other Drakkan seemed torn between defending himself physically and apologizing and explaining verbally. “I wouldn’t, you must know that,” he gritted out. “If I were that untrustworthy, I wouldn’t have ended up as a guard here,” now he seemed insulted.
Ineraz was not willing to release him just yet, though he lightened his grip and demeanour. “Then explain what happened,” he demanded.
The Drakkan guard straightened. “She was heading outside and would have left the estate if I hadn’t stopped her,” he kept his gaze on Ineraz’s earnestly, and had done so all the while. Ineraz believed that the guard was truthful and finally released him, though he was not entirely placated.
“And where is she now? Hopefully, not alone and unsupervised?” he stressed icily. This seemed to perturb the guard almost more than Ineraz grabbing him by the neck had.
The guard shifted uncomfortably and admitted “I left her in the hall leading to the front entrance. She should be supervised enough,” he sounded a bit too doubtful for Ineraz’s taste, but he simply narrowed his eyes at the guard for now.
“Don’t think I won’t confirm what happened with her,” Ineraz warned, the hint of threat still present in his tone and posture. “Come along then,” he looked from the guard to Zeldria, wanting for them both to follow.
The trio headed towards the manor’s entrance, and found Sera wandering a corridor, seemingly distressed. Ineraz faced her sternly, but threw a quick glare at the guard once he saw the red slap mark on her cheek. Nonetheless, he kept up his austere front as he refocused on Sera.
“You burned one of my guards?” he drawled the question, not giving away the fact that it was the guard he found fault with rather than her just yet. He desired for her to be honest when retelling her side of the event and if he appeared too sympathetic from the get go, she would surely use that in her favour.
Asteria
Just before the encounter with the male Dire rat, Asteria received a system notification about Mother joining their party. The fact that this world actually had game elements was something she would have to consider later. Right now, she had to deal with the situation on hand, which involved a Wisp floating to them and revealing he was from Earth. The male Dire rat answered first, and told them of his status as an ex-human as well. Asteria frowned and glanced at her sister. Were all of them from Earth? Even their Mother? She wished she could talk to her sister in private, since she was an established ally, but unfortunately, that was currently not possible. Asteria had some vague memories of playing MMOs and the like as a young adult, and that experience led her to believe that if a party system existed, other people could be invited as well. However, she was hesitant to try it out with strangers.
The male Wisp who had asked of their origins declared his intention to be an ally. Well, whether that was truly the case would yet to be seen. As far as Asteria was concerned, actions spoke louder than words, especially about trustworthiness. For now, the only ones who had proven to be dependable were her sibling and her Mother. Just as she was considering joining in the conversation, yet another Wisp approached them and introduced himself as Lorek. For some strange reason, he also wanted to know their former occupation, of all things. Why would such a thing matter? Nonetheless, the other Wisp answered, though without providing his name. So much for getting priorities straight.
Asteria huffed and made a careful effort to articulate her answer properly. “I’m Asteria.” There, practice and some concentrated effort and she recognized that she spoke in a way they would understand. Though how exactly that worked was a bit beyond her; it could have been via magic or their inherently human perception or something else entirely. “Not that I see much point in knowing what we used to be, but I was a lawyer,” she wasn’t certain if her grasp on conveying tone was as it should be just yet, but the brusqueness of her statement was probably apparent enough. She did want to discuss several things with these strangers, but her past certainly wasn’t one of them. After all, the present they found themselves in was much more important. Speaking of… “After our introductions, why don’t we share information on this world with each other?” She recommended.
@Jobst @Searat @Duthguy @Bishop
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