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| Not Before the Sun Falls; [p] | |
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| Topic Started: Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:03 am (173 Views) | |
| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:03 am Post #1 |
 
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Djinni. The elf had read enough about the creatures for it to become apparent what he needed to do. Tandorus, the avatar of his God, Akhor, had given him full access to the libraries of Istan, the city of humans. It had been different than he had expected. There was still a sort of homey feeling, despite the patchwork of cultures. He could feel the star elven roots of the city upon first sight, and he was almost stricken with homesickness when he saw the lapis-blue temple that extended into the sky. The tomes had told him little about his fleeting magic and how to get his mana back, but he had learned of powerful spirits of the sands that could help him undo everything that had happened. He could get back his daughter, his wife, his mortality, and his city, and forget everything that had happened, all the pain, all the darkness. It could all be put behind. The djinni were legendary creatures that seemed to fascinate the greedy hearts of Istani men. They were more susceptible to dreams of wealth and power. The legends had never made it to the pyramid cities, Ausir supposed, because they elves had little interest in the treachery of djinn. But Ausir was desperate. The morbid elf had been lacking in information as to the whereabouts of these spirits. He was ravenous for information, spending day and night making shady deals in exchange for tidbits that could help him. After much time and gold wasted, Ausir learned of a hermit in the desert, an eccentric man who lived in the harsh of the desert, living off of beatles and cacti. This man could find him his djinni. The sun had begun its descent. The evening was coming soon, but there were still many hours of daylight remaining. Ausir's red eyes blinked as he approached what he supposed were the hermit's lodgings. There was a great mountain of collectables in the sand: thrown out carpets and rugs, bits of wood, sheets of rusted metal, great tarps of canvas, scraps of clothing, wooden wheels, and even what appeared to be animal remains. Mostly rubbish. |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:44 am Post #2 |
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"One bug, two bug. Red bug, blue bug..." A frail, sick-looking elf sat in his shrine of garbage, counting beetles in the sand. He picked up one of the tiny creatures, a big red beetle, nearly the size of a pond frog, setting it down in the center of a ring he had dug, a six-inch pit, about a foot in diameter. The tiny insect had a set of large mandables that it snapped together menacingly, but the elf had learned through experience that they were more for show than for bite. Next, he plucked a blue beetle, a tiny scarab, the size of a silver piece, from another section of the sand and plopped it too into the pit. For a moment, the two beeltes scurried around in the bit, trying to find some way to escape from the sand prison, when finally, the red one seemed to become aware of the scarab's presence. Its mandables made a tiny, slighty-audible click as they clacked together, and it turned on the blue scarab, which had become its prey, flipping it upside-down and beginning to devour it hungrily. The scarab, still alive, flailed its many legs in desperation, unable to overpower its aggressor. The elf smiled with cruel delight and greedily plucked another blue scarab from the sand, dropping it eagerly into the pit, and again, the red beetle savaged the insect as soon as it was finished with the first. In fact, the elf had been starving the beetles for several days, as long as he knew he could get away with it before they would begin to die. This particular red beetle's fifth cycle of starvation had just been terminated, meaning it was nearly ready for consumption. It needed only to eat three more scarabs. The problem with the desert was that these beetles could only eat twenty-five scarabs before reaching its peak, and anything that might eat the beetles and stick around to be eaten itself was impossible to find in the desert. Praih had to eat the beetles himself, four per day. Only a hundred lives to be consumed, and such small ones. But the desert was his palace. He couldn't leave. Absent-mindedly, the elf plopped another blue scarab into the pit, allowing the beetle to feast on its third meal of the day. |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:01 am Post #3 |
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Ausir heard a voice from within what appeared to be the center of the hermit's home, a place sheltered from the sun by a roof of mats and canvas. He couldn't make out the words, but there was somebody here anyway. He hoped the words hadn't been a threat, or a command to leave. Unsure of how to attract the hermit's attention -- knocking on the mats seemed awkward, and he wasn't sure how they would hold, anyway --, the morbid elf followed what seemed to be a pathway through the trash, wound around to the backside of the tent. Ausir took the luxury of following it. As he rounded the structure, he noticed an opening on the other side of a tent, and he sensed movement within. "Hello?" he called to the unknown person within. Finally, as he came around, he saw a figure hunched in the sand, shirtless. His bony back was turned to Ausir, and his white hair was long and shaggy, falling below the man's shoulders, the ends not visible to the morbid elf from where he stood. The stranger wore roomy cotton white pants, stained with dirt and food. His feet were bare. |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:22 am Post #4 |
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"Hello?" a voice came from outside, and for a moment, the elf froze. He wasn't sure how to react, so he remained rigid, squatting in the sand as his red beetle and its fourth blue scarab had their bout. It had been a while since he interacted with people, with real people, and he had to give it some thought. "Hello?" the deranged elf mimicked, copying the trespassor's inflection. The result was eery. The elf stuffed his red beetle into his mouth greedily, snaching it up and forcing the whole thing through his lips, his cheeks bloated as he chewed. He then plucked up the scarab, which remained living in the pit, not yet devoured, between his thumb and forefinger and stuffed it too into his gluttonous mouth. This was a bother. The beetle had missed two of its meals, and Praih would have to eat them himself. The elf turned, his mouth still stuffed with mashed up beetles, and examined the newcomer. There was a stranger here, no doubt an elf. Much of his body was decorated with strips of linen cloth, as if it were being preserved after death. His red eyes gleamed even in the fierce desert sun, and he carried with him a noble sceptre, which he used as a walking stick, apparently. Struggling to gulp down his mouthful, he managed to spew out a sentence among bits of mashed up insect: "What do you want?" |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:56 am Post #5 |
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"Hello? What do you want?" was the blunt response of the hermit living inside. He seemed to be in the middle of a meal, and for a moment, he felt bad for having intruded. But as he looked into the elf's eyes, he forgot about it. There was something infinitely sad in the elf's eyes, and even Ausir, a man of little empathy, could recognize this. The hermit had lost something very close to him, had suffered traumas not unlike his own. The hermit was also deathly frail, appearing sick and weak. His eyes were sunken into his head, dark circles drawn around them. His skin was pale and grayish, and he had very little body fat, his bones visible beneath skin that seemed barely to cling to him, like death's wrappings. His tangled white hair seemed limp and lackluster as it framed his dirty face. "I was told to seek you," Ausir said. "I am hunting a djinni." |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:14 am Post #6 |
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"Told by whom?" the elf said, finally swallowing his beetles. He licked his lips and smacked them loudly before standing his full height and exiting the tent to hover over the stranger, his joints popping and snapping loudly as he moved, his bones seemingly creaking with strain. He examined the strange elf, mistrust in his silver eyes, before he took a step back. "I know about genies..." Praih mused, chewing his lip passively, "I came to the desert because of them. You're lucky to have come here." He wondered for a moment, just why this stranger was hunting a genie. And which one was he after? The elf knew of several, but he knew none by name. He knew none specifically, but he knew where to find them. He was not foolish enough to waste his time squandering wishes, however. He had discovered his new life was far more stimulating than his old one had been. "Which genie are you hunting?" the derange elf asked, cocking his head to one side. |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:25 am Post #7 |
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Ausir shrank back beneath the elf's towering body. Once he stood up, the morbid elf became aware of the hermit's frightening height. He was probably a head taller than him, and even with his lack of muscle or bulk, there was something violent in the hermit, something that legitimately terrified the sorcerer. He took a step backwards, drawing his shoulders in. His eyes dimmed submissively, and he noted a sort of malicious satisfaction in the hermit when allowed to assert his dominance. If the sorcerer were to travel with him, this would be a trait in need of careful vigilance, one most likely kept in check by Amehait. At present, the drake hatchling was busy hunting for food nearby. Usually, she was succesful in finding some sort of baby mammal or snake eggs when she hunted in the wild, being far more adept at traversing the shifting sands than her master, and for this, Ausir was thankful. To the time away, however, Ausir was less warm, finding it difficult to remain active in his missions while his companion was away. "Which genie are you hunting?" the hermit finally asked, and Ausir was happy to have such willing assisitance from a stranger. Would there be a catch? Probably. "Any I can get my hands on. I have a mission of immeasurable importance that required the aid of a djinni," he tried to explain. He couldn't delve into specifics. In fact, he was quite afraid to. How would this hermit react if he knew that Ausir was cursed, unliving, undead? |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:33 am Post #8 |
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The mad old elf smiled and offered his hand as a greeting, smiling a wide, haunting smile. He liked this elf. He was ambitious, and he liked that. Certainly Praih would help him, but of course, it would have to be on one very specific condition. The manic elf needed to leave the Istan desert, and he knew that the only way he could get out was through a native guide. The elf would guide this stranger to a genie, but the stranger would have to guide Praih out of the desert. "My name is Praih," the deranged elf said, and he wouldn't even wait for a response before turning around and digging through a pile of rubbish that sat almost directly outside of his little shack. Scarabs and other desert insects scurried away from the mountain of refuse as the slender elf picked it apart. |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:45 am Post #9 |
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Ausir was apprehensive about the handshake, but he took it anyway. From the hermit's smile, he hoped that the elf was willing to help him, but the lack of an auditory response sent mixed signals to the mage. "My name is Praih," the hermit finally said, and Ausir ceased to hold his breath. He had been given a name, which was surely a sign of alliance, anyway. "Ausir Tanen," the morbid elf replied as the hermit turned away from him, digging through a mound of trash in the sand. "Will you help me? I'd be willing to pay whatever price you demand," the wizard said, hoping that Praih's turning away wasn't out of lack of interest. |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:55 am Post #10 |
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"No price," Praih said, shaking his gaunt head as he dug through the rubbish pile, searching for something. "I am too wise for money, you see. I require only the finer things in life," he said, and his hand caught what he was looking for, a smooth leather handle. He withdrew a longsword, wrapped in a leather scabbard, from the pile, and he looked at it with a smile. "I'll show you to your genie, Ausir Tanen, and all I ask for in return is a pleasant journey," he said, and he held out the blade to his new ally, the sheathed blade laying horizontally across his palms. Its hilt was encrusted with a single, emerald jewel. "Nice, isn't it? I can't use it either," he said casually, a wide grin on his face as he tied a belt around his waist and attached the scabbard onto his left hip. Next, he reached over into the mound of rubbish and pulled out one more piece of curio. It was a wooden mask, painted to look like the visage of a demon. The elf put it over his face and looked at his ally, that creepy grin still visible through a slot in the mask's mouth. "Pretty spooky, eh?" Finally, he took up a thin white cloak and wrapped it around his waist, letting it hang like a skirt to his ankles. The white cloak was the only clean part about him, totally pure despite his haggard appearance. He tied a pale lavender sash, it almost looked like silk, around his white skirt, around his waist next, using it to hold it up, before adjust his blade so that it could be drawn easily, but concealed beneath the cloak. "Are we ready to go, Ausir?" |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:28 pm Post #11 |
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There was something about the way the hermit spoke that made Ausir uneasy. He had an inflection to his voice that complimented his frail, crazed appearance in all the wrong ways. The elf was the image of lunacy; that was undeniable, but he could see the hurt in Praih's eyes and knew that whatever trauma he had suffered had caused his unnerving possession. He was slightly offended, to tell the truth, by the hermit's assumption that Ausir could not wield a blade, though he had assumed correctly. The sorcerer was sure that swordplay was something he could learn. He had simply never been interested enough in the art to try. Nor did he need to. Secondly, the elf withdrew a wooden mask, painted and carved to look frightening. He wondered why he needed such a bizzare item, but Praih's eccentricities alone nearly resolved the question. "Are we ready to go, Ausir?" the hermit elf asked as he buckled his sword to his waist and threw a gown around him. "Yes, I should like to leave as soon as possible," he replied, prepared to follow his guide wherever he should lead. |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:44 pm Post #12 |
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"Then follow," the elf replied, slipping his feet into a pair of sandals and turning away from Ausir and beginning to follow the same path the elf had taken out of the garbage palace. The atmosphere was at its hottest, just as the sun was going down, and Praih was thankful for his sandals. Every now and then, his footsteps would fling a small collection of scalding sand onto his foot, causing him to grunt in pain as he shook the sand from his sandal. As they walked through the desert, a cry pierced the sky, the sound of a large bird of prey, the elf hoped. He wasn't prepared to do battle with a powerful foe, but he stood his ground as he scanned the sky for its source. |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:14 pm Post #13 |
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His trained feet falling nimbly over the dunes, Ausir followed his guide through the desert. He was putting an awful lot of faith into the hermit, and found himself, on several occasions, doubting this faith. Praih could be luring him into the desert to be killed, and quite easily. Amehait was no where to be found, and the morbid elf was unarmed in magic and unskilled in combat. Even with no skill with his sword whatsoever, the eccentric hermit would probably have an edge over him, especially if an ambush were at hand. It was also possible that Praih had some store of magic, and even though Ausir was an accomplished wizard, he had no magic available to him, and could not counter an attack. On the other hand, Praih could quite simply be mad. Ausir had found him eating insects in a palace of collected garbage. He was quite reclusive from society, and the look in his eyes was enough to denote some chemical imbalance. This could easily be a wild goose chase that would end with both of them killed. His thoughts were interupted by the screetching, and he immediately put up his guard. Looking to the sky, Ausir's glowing eyes focused on an enormous bird of prey. Its wing span was greater than the length of the sorcerer's entire body, and its talons could easily snatch up one or both of the puny elves in the sand. Its brown feathers reminded Ausir of a great desert eagle, but this was far too large to be an eagle, even a tor-zjindali riding eagle. Its crooken beak snapped hungrily as it swooped. Where was Amehait? |
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| Praih | Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:05 pm Post #14 |
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The enormous roc came into view, obscured by the sunlight as it swooped, and the elf prepared himself. He drew his longsword, holding it unsure before him. He really didn't know how to use the weapon, having taken it from his old home before he abandoned it. He had always considered himself more a lover than a fighter. "We don't stand a chance, love," the elf said as the bird came down, beak first, snapping and hungry. He swung his sword out blindly before him, and he felt the sharp edge connect firmly with the creature. The blade was met by a squawk of agony and the deranged elf felt a gust of wind against his skin as its great wings carried it up into the sky once more. The monster turned on Ausir, now, deciding he was the least dangerous of the two elves. The bird's face was gashed deeply by the blade, red blood trickling down its beak, feathers ruffled. The sword had missed the its eye by centimeters. The roc was lucky. |
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| Ausir | Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:24 pm Post #15 |
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Ausir watched the blade connect with the roc's head, and while he understood it was a surprisingly critical blow, it would not cause much significant damage to the roc, only infuriating it. It was better than anything Ausir could have managed without his companion. His only weapons were a wand and a sceptre, neither of them sharp or especially damaging without the help of magic. The bird took to the sky once more, gaining momentum before swooping once more, charging Ausir, talons bared. Had the attack connected, it could easily have torn the sorcerer to pieces, but the agile elf wouldn't allow it to connect, diving away, landing safely in the sand. He scrambled to his feet in time for the roc's sharp beak to jab out at him. Ausir tried to swat with his sceptre, but the bird avoided the attack, snapping at him once more, this time connecting with his arm and tearing the skin. Black blood welled on the wound, dying the surrounding wrappings a yellowish brown, like iodine. Satisfied, the enormous creature kicked off the sand, throwing itself into the sky again, and throwing up a cloud of dust in Ausir's face. He coughed as he cupped the wound on his arm, trying to control the bleeding. |
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5:03 PM May 22
