((OOC: I would like either someone with demonic heritage, or someone to fight with. Both if possible. This thread is set before her Summoning levels, and any spells besides Light.))
What use was it? She knew that she really should rejoin the fight on the side she had always fought on, the side of good, but she hadn’t really been fighting that fight for some time. Instead she was coming to grips with herself and now… now she didn’t want to be part of that war anymore. She knew beings from both sides, had allies and dare she say even friends on both sides. She owed debts to both sides, to the good and the evil, and she was also both good and evil. Aether didn’t dare rejoining that war. She really didn’t have to, did she? It wasn’t like she was really that useful of a fighter. What use was it?
AD had caught herself in circular logic as she traveled along at a quick pace. She was running, though not from anything or toward anything. With no goal in mind she had simply taken off. She just needed to move, had to move. It had never mattered where she was going or where she had been. It wasn’t like AD had a place she could call home anyways. Home was simply the wilds, no one to bother her, no one to judge her.
The forest she was in was cold and damp in the late evening. Clouds darkening the sky with the promise of yet more rain. She ran along a road, or at least what resembled a road, and still her boots and pants were covered in a splattering of mud. Her thick burgundy braids lay heavy with water, as she had been out in the first drenching from the clouds. The woods along the path would seem dark and foreboding to most, but would have provided shelter from the downpour if she had taken refuge in them. If Aether Draka had bothered to think of the woods she would have retreated to the trees. Instead she continued to run even though her legs were starting to protest along with her stomach.
Then, quite unplanned, she stopped running. It had started with her slipping on the edge of a pothole, followed by a loud plop as her other foot followed. Stumbling forward, she slipped once more on the mud. Catching herself before falling she stopped. One of her shoes was now full of pothole water and her legs had started to hurt. Abruptly she fell on her knees and sat back on her heels, gasping for breath for a moment. It didn’t take her long after that to once more become lost in thought once more. Perhaps ignorance was bliss…
Storm clouds hid the sunlight from her sight as AD simply sat upon the muddy road. She wrapped her arms about herself and hung her head. Why was she even trying to save herself? She knew she was more evil then good, she considered them friends now when once she had thought them her foe, the enemy. That was when she had been a fool.The truth, the reality, was just too much to know now. So much was wrong with it, too much of it she didn’t want to believe. She couldn’t even cry now, just hurt. It was almost as if she had been betrayed. She had managed to fool herself for so long. No doubt most of her life was gone and only now did time seemed to matter. How long did she have?
Aether Draka shook her head afraid of time now. Her soaked hair hid her face as she looked at the palm of her hand where a thin raised scar, white with the cold, ran unmistakably across. A reminder… she couldn’t forget it now. She would never forget. Closing her hand around the mark, for her a mark of her reality, she staggered weakly to her feet. For the first time in a long time she realized how lost she was. The road was coated in mud, but it was going to take her back to Cascadea or perhaps some other falls. She needed to head a different way, back to Taras. She needed to find and speak with Oppal. She had learned of Shadowdancing from him and it had brought her control over her darker powers. Now she needed something else, a form of guidance, someone to help her reforge herself.
She took a deep and shaky breath. Only she could fix her now. Feeling better she started walking once more, looking for a path that would lead her to Taras. More then likely she would have to make her own. As she turned a bend in the road she stopped. A wagon lay overturned on the road. It’s contents, and passengers, scattered across her path. With the distant feeling she had right then it didn’t click what this was. She walked forward once more, feeling as if this massacre wasn’t that… it looked as if it had been a one sided war.
"Disgusting things." A hushed voice grumbled to it's self, "How do creatures eat these?" And yet, even through his complaints, Kenjis still tour off another leaf with his mouth, chewed and swallowed.
He was being lazy now laying on a low branch of a well sized tree. Slowly he was eating the leaves nearest his mouth making disgusted expressions as he ate them. Yet he still ate them and had already eaten more then half the leaves on that particular branch already even if the tree had few leaves to begin with.
Below him sat an overturned wagon and two bodies. The very ones had left there after becoming angry with had he gained. He had been hungry and had attacked the two men hoping that there would be food in the wagon. But much to Kenji's disappointment there had only been a bit of cheese and water to eat. The cheese had been squished when Kenji had struggled battling the younger of the two men he had killed. The water meant nothing to Kenji. It had been raining only a short while ago and he was not thirsty. Aside from that the wagon only held different clothes. Completely worthless in Kenji's mind and in his anger he had thrown them all across the wet ground.
Now he was sulking up in his tree. Angry that his surprise attack had all been for nothing. Yet he still stay near the wagon, as if to guard it. He had killed the two men and therefore he felt there belongings now belong to him. He was not going to let anyone else take his goods even if he felt that they were worthless. He figured he could at lest use them as bedding or sell them for a small amount of gold.
"Do not touch my things." Kenji hissed, his eyes narrowing as he watched a woman walk into view. He still lay on his branch not wanting to move quite yet. Perhaps if he could spot a pouch or something on the woman that looked as if it could hold food he would attack her. It was much better then eating more leaves. Or if she touched his newly acquired things. After all he had just warned her not to touch them. As far as he was concerned even the bodies of the two dead men belonged to him now and she was not allowed to have any of it. He didn’t like sharing.
A voice sounded out from the trees and for the first time she noticed that it was not just a path. There were trees here too… and someone in the trees. She slowed to a stop and looked up at him, then around at the mess around her. For a moment, she wondered where the horse had gone. That is if they had been using a horse to pull the wagon. It could have been a cow of some sort too… or whatever… Whatever, yes, she decided she did feel that way, why should she care about this stranger and his ‘things’. She doubted everything was his. Nothing seemed worthwhile though, not with it as muddy as she felt she was. Not unless she wanted to loot the dead, but if he was staking claim to something it would be that. No, there was nothing here of interest what so ever and it made her feel even more downtrodden.
“Whatever.” She shrugged, and continued to walk down the road, intentionally putting the wagon between herself and him. She didn’t want to talk, not even with Turin who had given up talking to her while she had been running. He was no doubt once more asleep in her bag. She paused on the far side of the wagon as something shinny caught her eye. There, just under the edge of the wagon, was a coin pouch with a few silver spilled out in the mud. Money was money, but he would see her stoop to get them. She shrugged and went on her way and whispered to her fly dragon in draconic.
“Turin, wake up.” ‘I’m not asleep.’ his telepathic reply came from inside her bag. “There’s silver back there, under the wagon. Do you think you could get it?” she continued in draconic. ‘Is that a real question?’
“Fine, just don’t bring it straight to me.” She finished and fell silent, hoping that he would simply think she was talking to herself. Turin peeked out of the top edge of the backpack to see what he had to work with. How he would do this was quickly forming in the tiny fly dragon’s mind. ‘Just keep walking.’ Turin told her as he readied himself to move as fast as he could.