Twhirtley

Verissa and Asher (Story Continued)

Verissa immediately set to work, knowing full well that she could fill the wagon to the brim with plants and such, and make no noticeable dent in this area. It rivaled the cultivated farms of Ruby Banks, with a much greater variety, and a true harmony with nature. That was one of the greatest difficulties for the farmers back home, having to constantly fight nature, push it back, try to contain it. Here, nature did what it did best.

She managed to gather lots of lavender, connal, fauxsil, midwife miracle, hawthorn, and so many others. She could spend so much time here, learning a lot. Any herbalist could. It broke her heart that this might be the only time she'd be here for so many years. She'd have to make the most of it. She wish she'd have thought to pack her ink and books from her home. Making notes and drawings helped so much, especially when teaching others. And her new people weren't known for writing things down, preferring verbal and physical lessons. She'd just have to adapt it all to memory. It was her new way.

Many hours were spent packing the cart as tight as would allow, aside from Shenzi's empty pots. Food, herbs, roots; Verissa knew if they had more time, and maybe some more skilled hands, she could process many of these here, and bring back more. But it was not to be, she'd more than make do with what she had. Verissa was happily munching on a fleshy melon, having already fed the dogs some of the smoked meat they brought along. As she was biting into it, juice dribbling down her chin, a pink petal landed on her nose, crossing her eyes as she looked at it. Looking over her food, she saw more of them tumbling through the wind, an impossible amount, as if from an entire forest of whatever shed them.

As Asher brought her over the hill, her jaw literally dropped open. There was a massive tree in the center of a well watered valley. She couldn't be sure, but she thought that it might be taller than even Ebonfort's mighty Citadel. It bore the millions of flowers that were showering the land, spreading the nutrients that it pulled from the earth. She had no doubt this tree, and its water source there, were responsible for all of the life here. She wondered what fruit it bore, maybe cherry? Maybe a nut? It was stunning, a pristine wonder of nature. She felt a comfort washing over her just by being near it. Part of her wanted to rush into this wonderland, and another wanted her to never touch it, for she could only make it lesser.

She felt Asher's arm tuck around her back pulling her close, and heard the expect growl from her pups. But she didn't resist, her mood so high and prosperous. She leaned into the crook of his arm, a palm against his hard muscled chest, feeling his powerful heartbeat. Her voice a soft, relaxed whisper now, "It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It's... perfect." She was quiet, enjoying this nice moment with him, the safety and beauty of it all. Then she realized what else he'd said, shooting an incredulous look up at him, wondering if it was a flourish of his words or if he meant it more literally. Nothing would surprise her anymore. Nodding, "Yes, let's do that."

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

And sometimes they traps... :P

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

By the way guys, dont feel pressured into the gentle nudges i give in the plot. Feel free to ignore them if it means sticking to what your character would do. I throw those out from time to time to help bring people a bit together and give some context to events

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

@vertigh0st - Accepted! Post in the CS section and hop right in :D

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

Verissa could see the swarm within the village was dwindling heavily, but being more scattered, they were much more unpredictable. She saw a small group of them floating around an alcove at the head of an alley, looking for something. It seemed they were closing in on a small hole in the wall, small enough for something to be stored.

Verissa summoned her magic and pushed it into her staff, forming two balls of magic at each end, glowing lavender lightly. She swung the staff around over head, and slung one ball at the hole. Just before its collision she took control of it, and spread the magic over it, forming an invisible shield over it. The skeeters hovered confused, sniffing around until there was no more scent. Until they found another.

The little blonde mage was already slinging the second ball of magic, it flying low. It sunk into the ground before the group. Once deep enough, easily passing through the matter, she rapidly solidified and expanded it. This rapid expansion threw large chunks of rock and earth outward. The shards took out the smaller skeeters, but did little to stop the larger male. It was coming at her fast now, planning to take her down easily.

She spun to the side, just barely getting her shield protected staff between her and the bladed wings. She could feel that the shield was severely weakened from all the constant use. This fight needed ended quickly. Thinking back to a lesson in hunting from Asher, he always emphasized finding an enemy's strength and finding the weakness that strength creates. The bladed wings gave a lot of maneuverability and offensive power. The skeeter dove toward her again, when she thought of a plan. Pushing more magic into her staff, she made a deep, unformed layer around the end of it. She readied herself, and made no attempt to dodge. She swung her staff up. When she felt the bladewing sunk into the magic, she snapped it into existence. The wing caught but the skeeter continued forward, crashing into the woman, its wing breaking off in her magic. It threw her to the ground hard and tumbled past her. With just one wing, it spun in circles trying to lift off the ground. Her dogs made quick work of it.

Verissa laid there, hurting from the collision, looking around to see the numbers pretty much depleted. A flash of light in the air made her look up. Something, or someone, was on fire in the air, then suddenly, was falling out of the sky like a stone. She couldn't make out what it was, aside from red. Really red. She saw the thing fall somewhere on the other side of the village. Remus and Remilia were nudging her to get up, not seeing any immediate threats.

Moving slowly, Verissa made her way for the crash site, using her staff for support. But she found a woman with her arm sliced off along the way, a strange looking half-elf nearby, having seemingly finished off several skeeters. "Someone crashed over that way," pointing to where she suspected the crash to have occurred, "Go check it out. I have a feeling its an ally." She knew the man had no reason to listen to her, she was just a Screamer after all, but she figured in a moment of chaos a little leadership could get people to do anything.

She knelt down by the woman, pulling out her healing kit, already applying a shield to the arm nub when she had an idea. Maybe she could reattach the arm. She'd learned a lot from Shenzi and knew she needed to push her boundaries as a healer. She picked up the woman's nearby arm, finding the cut right at the elbow joint, was quite clean. Setting to work quickly, she cleaned both nub and severed arm, glad to see healthy bleeding from the live side. She shielded both exposed ends, stopping the blood, and lining them up. Shenzi told her that with her magic, to not think like a doctor, to go beyond what a doctor could do. Hands glowing, she permeated both sides of the joint completely. She pressed the arm to the joint, knowing that it still wasn't yet connected.

Her instinct was to try stitching, but there were too many internal features to try that. She could feel them with her magic, they were identical on each side but too small for stitches. A bunch of different types of tubes, cut off from one another by the walls of her shield. Her eyes widened and she was chewing her lip in concentration, having to focus completely on feel now. She adjusted her magic, using it to move the arm into place, matching everything up more precisely. Then, she started opening the walls, little by little, so that artery met artery, vein to vein, nerve to nerve, so that everything could flow again. She did this so slowly, trying to make sure as to seal each thing the moment she reopened the tube. The ligaments were trickier though, she had to stretch them to meet in the proper places and stick them there. She didn't notice that nearly a full stretch had passed before she rested back on her haunches, having just finished putting salve on the outside of the wound and bandaging it up.

The woman stirred, groaning in pain. Her eyes fluttered open, and both hands came to her stomach, gripping it tight, fingers winding in the cloth. Verissa saw that somehow, she'd made it work, the arm was working. She was exhausted, physically and mentally and magically. The woman got up and immediately ran away, back home she assumed. Verissa just leaned back on the ground, trying to rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the far side of the village, the local stable had a new occupant. A crimson, naked half-dragon woman had crashed through the thin wooden roof and landed in a pile of hay. The hay helped stopped the worst of the injuries, but the roof had done some major damage. Her left wing was bent at an awkward angle, broken in at least two places, with a large slash in the membrane. Her face was heavily bruised from the impact, and she was covered in small slashes and splintered pieces of wood. And despite being unconscious, she'd survived.

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One that looked quite similar approached the Argonian bounty hunter. He was a black half dragon, old, scar covered, scars that appeared to be burns. But he stood out from all the others, for his wings were gone. He had scars where they'd been. He wore a simple tunic, a set of twin swords on his hips. "You might want to get moving bounty hunter. That princess corpse will attract beast and wealth monger alike. The corpse is worth more than you'd make in a lifetime. Though you might want to take some help, it might get bloody." He turned as a lone skeeter dove at him, a straggler from the fight.

Half dragon merely kept walking toward it, and it in a blur, the creature was halved, quartered, sliced into so many pieces. He never stopped walking, his swords already sheathed. Once he'd walked through the space, the creature's blood spurted out of the pieces of his corpse, and not a single drop landed on his tunic. He made his way out of the city, heading for the two fallen dragons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drache's plan had worked, even better than intended. The skeeters altered course, diving after the smelling clothes and ignoring her completely as she fell. Skeeters all throughout dove into the ground, attacking and assaulting all that the scent touched. It took only a few breath attacks from stray dragons to vanquish them all.

Galceledes stirred weakly, taking a mental check of himself. He would be sore for a while, but it seemed everything was in order. He lifted his head, seeing Vesenthicar nudging at old Tam, finding no movement. Galc looked around, saw the grooves in the earth, and quickly discerned what had happened. Tam had saved him. Galc pulled himself slowly up on all fours and moved over to Tam, shoving Vesenthicar out of the way. He roared as loud as he could in Tam's face as loudly as he could muster. But the old silver didn't move. He was gone.

He let out a mournful roar, and all dragons knew that meant that one of their own had fallen, and that they would all be expected in consuming its corpse. When Galceledes looked down, to take that first bite, he saw a woman standing atop Tam's corpse. He'd not sensed her arrival in any way, and even though he could see her, he still couldn't be sure she was there. She smirked, giggled once, and disappeared, along with Galc's corpse. There was no trace of scent of the fallen brethren. Galceledes immediately went into a frenzy of rage and frustration. Vesenthicar flew away from him silently, to report what had happened to the rest of the dragons, letting Galc vent.

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

The sudden heat let the corroded and frozen exoskeleton of the skeeter Princess expand rapidly. There were thunderous cracks as the armor split in several places before it simple erupted in shrapnel. With her armor sundered, many pieces severing her wings she was defeated. She maintained her floating air for just a moment, almost suspended in pure disbelief before she could no longer maintain her weight. She let out the most shrill and high pitched death screech. As she started to fall, she saw the crimson creature responsible for her death and with her dying breath, spit a yellow gloop at the exhausted woman, hitting her square in the stomach. The blow caused no damage, but stunk to high hell.

And then the princess fell.

Tam was already in a deep dive, eyes on where he'd meet Galceledes. It was so close to the ground. Rotmek knew this. He shouted over the roaring winds, "Be well friend." He loosened his hooks and let the wind catch him, throwing him from the dragon's back. Once he was free of the momentum and in his own free fall, he opened his rucksack, and a parachute opened up. Letting him drift about lazily, as he watched his golden friend in a suicidal dive.

Tam crashed into Galc's unconscious form hard, throwing them into a tumble, shifting the momentum from downward to outward. Tam scrambled, trying to find purchase on the blue, before managing to dig in his claws and tuck in his wings, bracing for what came next. They hit soft plains soil hard, with a sickening thud and bounce, skipping like a stone, rolling and tumbling over the ground. At some point Tam lost his grip and Galc flew loose from him. When they finally stopped, there were deep grooves in the ground from their landings, and neither of them seemed to be moving.

The other dragons expected the skeeters that had hung around the princess to go after the defenseless dragons, but they had all turned to face another direction. Drache. The scent she'd been marked with sent them into a frenzy, to avenge their fallen princess. They would all stop at nothing to kill the marked one, not worried about anything else at this point. And it wouldn't be long until the skeeters in the village would smell her too.

The screeches synced up, with a single purpose. And then they all started their diving attack toward the tired dragoness.

Verissa and Asher (Story Continued)

Verissa awoke easily, having slept without any disturbance. She really didn't want to leave the cozy warmth of her bed, but the day was beautiful to say the least. Remus walked out near Phantom sniffing at the air, keeping as alert as he could for any dangers, being the more attentive of the two. Remilia sat between Verissa and Asher, desperately wanting to join her brother, but Verissa didn't want her walking just yet, though soon. Remilia slumped her head down in Asher's lap, looking up at him during most of the ride, more as a curiosity than anything.

As they continued onward, Verissa noticed something odd about this place. Everything seemed... bigger. The grasses, flowers, everything seemed to be getting larger as they went. She kept looking back at Asher, knowing that he knew about this already, wanting explanation, being tormented by his desire to surprise her. When she saw the blueberries, she hopped down from the wagon, staff in one hand, basket in the other. Remus was immediately at her side. These berries were enormous, both in bush and in fruit. They looked so amazingly healthy as well, deep in color, no sign of any rot, pests, or anything foul. They were perfect. It took no time at all to fill her basket, and her mouth.

Teeth stained purple, she saw the tiny little birds and smiled. Until she got a closer look. Then she was reminded of a story her father told her as a child. Excitedly she shouted, startling the little birds a bit, "Are these griffins?!" She found herself giggling as she did as a girl. Griffins were huge, and in this land of giant plants, they were tiny. Everything was backwards, and it amuse her to no end.

She climbed back into the wagon, offering the berries to Asher as a breakfast, and immediately began filling his ear with chatter about the stories her father told her of griffins, throwing out theories as to why everything was so big, from a magic gardener to super water to this spot getting more sunlight than any other. It was the most she'd ever talked to him since her capture.

Verissa lost track of time until they came over a hill and saw a valley the color of her eyes. Lavender. That plant was one of the most used in her herbalism. It was a staple for all herbalists. It helped keep wounds from festering and rotting. And there was more than enough to supply her entire tribe for hundreds of years. And that was when she realized why everything was so big, with a field of these flowers so huge that it was practically a sea, with islands of other flowering plants.

Just as one buzzed past Asher's head, in an excited whisper, "It's the bees." Once she'd made that realization, she began to see them everywhere, working fervently, maintaining this oasis of plush life. And they were huge, rat sized. She looked over at Asher with eyes of wonder and appreciation. "This is... you brought me here... because you know I... Thank you."

She climbed out of the wagon, and helped Remilia down as well, "Be careful and stay close." Remilia tested her injured leg, but the shield held firm. Verissa had not only made it well, but there was such a strong desire to protect her pup that it only bolstered the magic. Verissa moved to the back of the wagon, grabbing her kit, several baskets, some rope, "Asher, come help me with this, we can't pass this up. I don't know why we brought so many pot... oh..,"at which she began laughing heartily, "We're getting honey for that wily fox aren't we?"

"Well move along, we don't have all season."

She stood at the back of the wagon, arms outstretched full of all the tools for the Swordmaster to carry. "This is going to be fun." She turned and moved into the field, only carrying her kit, stopping at the first massive bundle of lavender. She knelt down, studying it. She saw the giant bees flitting about within them, unconcerned about her presence. She doubted many creatures messed with bees this big. She picked out the biggest, healthiest stalks, and snipped them free, making sure to only take a few from each plant, so that they could continue to grow healthily. Each big bundle she made, she tied up and hung from a rope and handed to Asher. "I could stay here for so long, it's a magical place. Are there many places of such... wonderful oddness in the Kerawac? Like this?"

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

Tam had incredibly sharp hearing, listening to his companions' plan forming. A small part of him was a bit miffed that he wasn't going to get his one-on-one fight, but he'd learned long ago that pride was for the foolish. He was incredibly calm in the freefall with the Princess, for he knew Rotmek already had a plan in place for such events. And that's when he saw the round object get thrown down between their bellies. He'd feel this in the morning, but knew it wouldn't do any lasting damage to either of them.

There was a booming explosion of dwarven engineering between the beasts as the device went off. It sent the two beasts flying apart from each other, scales and insect legs ripped off. Tam went with the rolling, maintaining the momentum, ignoring how hard it was to breath for the moment. Using it, he dove into a deep banking dive that would've made all but the most hardened flight veteran pass out. But Rotmek never passed out. It's why he was the best. The insect didn't recover quite in time, still mildly stunned. It righted itself, floating to take in its surroundings when a golden missile struck into it at full speed should first. The creature screamed in pain.

Tam sent some breath over the creature, just for a weakening coating. He had control of the momentum now, and while tackling forward, he kept adding to it with powerful flaps of his wings, biting at the creature's tough shell. He felt needle like legs sticking beneath some of his scales but ignored it. He saw several of the dragons in position, particularly the ice breather. He suddenly extended his wings catching the full force of the air, and feeling the nearly muscle ripping strain in his chest and back as he stopped immediately. The creature didn't have enough of a grip and continued forward. Straight into the icy breath of Galceledas. Ice formed heavily over the creature's torso, filling the cracks formed by Tam's breath. It also made the creature much heavier and sluggish and it began to fall, trying to right itself with its bladed wings. It caught itself for a moment, suspended in the air, head thrashing sending out wild, erratic sonic blasts. One hit Galceledas directly in the face. He immediately lost consciousness and began to drop from the sky like a stone.

Verissa and Asher (Story Continued)

Verissa enjoyed the look of wonderment in Asher's eyes. He was genuinely intrigued and interested and... impressed in her ability. There was no fear in his eyes, no need to stab her in the heart for having this magic, no need to lock her up as a monster. He fully accepted her as she was. She also learned something valuable in her magic at that moment. Each time he poked, she could feel it ever so slightly. Not against her skin, but in her being. She could feel it through her magic. That alone had so many applications.

When his fingers trailed up her arm, it raised slight goosebumps upon her skin, eliciting a shiver from the woman. His massive, hardened hand held her chin as gently as one might hold a flower. Under his praise her cheeks flushed red and she felt the need to try and look away from his eyes. But she savored the moment, seeing how his eyes resembled stormy clouds in the distant sky. How they could turn into life giving rains or torrential floods at the drop of a hat. She felt that described this man well. There was pain in those eyes, as well as joy from time to time. She knew that he used to have a wife from something Shenzi mentioned once. Verissa assumed that the woman died.

There would always be a ghost haunting those eyes.

And in that moment, Verissa felt her own grow a bit watery, so she tore away her gaze, nearly muttering the phrase that was on her tongue. 'Things could be different,' but the words never came. She let the shield fade away, feeling the energy drift back into the world. "Yes, let's stop."

When they did, she began setting up their sleeping space. She set out their bedrolls side by side, making the warming furs ever so neat and tidy. She set Remilia on the far side of hers, crawling beneath them with the injured dog. Remus laid near her head, his snout always pointing in Asher's direction. She wondered if it would be cold tonight. She lay on her side, facing Asher's side. She really wanted to ask about what made him sad, but also didn't want to bring him more pain. So she just lie there, watching the man, sometimes the stars, and sometimes just listening to the wind. She realized she'd never slept under the stars when she was in Ebonfort. Nor had she come so close to sharing a bed with a man. But his bed was still taken by his wife. It seemed anyone could see that.

She'd have to leave at some point it seemed. There was no room for her in his life. Rolling over and cuddling Remilia, she let the silent tears flow, not sure if they were for him or for herself.

All Cities Must Fall (Original, Accepting)

Well, maybe I like feeding babies to demonic insects. Which I do.