PlaneShift

Fan Area => Roleplaying (Communitive Storywriting) => Single Author Stories => Topic started by: Mask on September 08, 2011, 08:46:52 pm

Title: Burning up
Post by: Mask on September 08, 2011, 08:46:52 pm: Burning up

He choked. The cold was cutting, tearing at him, trying to beat the will to get up out of him. The strange stone felt rough yet unbearably smooth under his numb fingertips. Too many feet had shuffled over it, trying to escape the small cave.
Ninety-two and eight might seem much to some, yet the floor counted in millions -

The outside nothing but darkness. Staircases carved from bone, handrails spiked and ever-rusting but never crumbling completely. He took a deep breath and started to walk, focusing on shielding his spirit, shielding his emotions. He moved quickly and stayed in cover, stayed in the odd shadows of this place. It was better to remain unseen here.

He remembered her, her words, her laughter, her tears, her eyes and her skin; ducked in a small alcove he waited until the sound of wings was becoming more silent. Only the Crimson Mistress knew what creatures lived here, and maybe not even her. He certainly didn't want to find out close up and personal.
The cold was biting his skin where the damaged armor exposed it. The metal was smeared with dirt and blood, and it felt strange to look at it and knew that it had hurt quite a lot more a few moments ago. But at least it didn't reflect.
He took a deep breath. All sounds were strangely muffled, but that didn't mean a thing.

Onwards. He would look for them. He would find them. And then he would return to her, hopefully with good news -

And then he had to speak to Teshia or Caraick, had to speak about the Order with her. Maybe they would understand, maybe they would not. He could worry about that later.

Sobbing in the distance.
“Miomai?”
A familiar voice. Voron frowned and hurried forwards, entering the twisted cathedral. The air was still terribly cold, if it was air he was breathing -

“Mariana? Are you here?”
No answer. He listened and walked towards the direction the voice came from.

He was still cold, despite the rags he had wrapped around himself. He found them near a big heap of trash, things someone threw away that had been here before. A strange land. He even found a bow that was in good shape, and three arrows. More after he looked around a bit and found the scene of a fight.
The arrowheads looked nasty, barbed, possibly poisoned before: black stained edges. The feathers must be from a strange creature that lived around here. Looked interesting. If he went back, payed the tribute he would see if one of these things traveled back with him or not.

More barren wasteland. The terrain was difficult, and he stayed away from anything that looked like a structure or movements. He came pretty close to something back in small gorge a while ago, and there was no telling what it had been. It could move pretty silent, that was for sure.
Different from the creature that jumped him a while ago when he tried to heal a small cut with some crystal way energy. It was difficult enough to weave the energy into the glyph, and then this thing that looked like a collections of spikes and blades on four legs jumped at him. Luckily its attack hit the armor part that was still mostly intact.

Staying close to possible cover, he moved on in silence.

Voron Amar payed his tribute to Dakkru an uncounted time later, and his name was written up again in the large book.
He just lay there a while, feeling the warmth of the azure crystal again.

***
Tried to write something PS related again and chose an ongoing RP to be the subject. 609 words.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Aramara Meibi on September 08, 2011, 11:23:38 pm: you build great atmosphere and setting. A nice account of a trip through the Death Realm.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Mariana Xiechai on September 09, 2011, 05:12:37 am: :love: Epic win!
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Phantomboy86 on September 09, 2011, 05:32:12 am: and here the title had me fooled into thinking burning would be involved, You win this round Voron, but I'll be back!
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Mask on September 09, 2011, 01:11:40 pm: @Aramara: I didn't want to go overboard with it, since there is relatively few official material published. I am not quite happy with this, the character work is terrible.

@Mariana: :-[

@Phantomboy86: Oh, don't worry, burning is involved in more than one way, metaphorically and quite literally. I hope that by the time you're back I've written why and how. ;)
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: miomo on September 09, 2011, 06:17:47 pm: Great story about Voron's trip to the D.R. I have a story about Miomai's trip I have been holding on to for months, and this gives me new inspiration to revisit it.

Keep up the entertaining writing and RP.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Onilise on September 09, 2011, 07:30:35 pm: this did feel unfinished but I love your writing style. You give a lot of attention to detail that comes out in descriptive depth! very nice
Title: A moment of contemplation
Post by: Mask on September 14, 2011, 02:50:45 pm: Rhianon.
Very interesting. Burned from head to toe; even her spirit scorched and scarred ugly.
He felt the soft light of the crystal in his hand and its smooth and polished surface, lost in thought.
It did not surprise him, albeit he had expected a slightly different outcome at first. Did his most promising subject excel itself again? He wasn't quite sure, and it didn't matter much.
The figures are in place.
The subject needed to show what it could do under these kind of circumstances, needed to learn still. He knew that there was a surprise for him ahead, and he wanted it to be a pleasant one.

He made his way through the corridor without leaving traces in the dust. Nobody ever came to this part, and he took some precautions which he thought useful. Yet he had to admit that the spiders disturbed the harmony of this place with their presence, their dark, greedy spirits. They where no real danger, he just lured them here carefully. Same with the brigands that “found” a better hiding spot close to one of the entry points.
He had placed some seeds in pockets of fertile soil he found in the tunnels to this place and was sure the plants would also contribute to his defense.
And then he had set up his usual perimeter of wards, guardians and traps, just to make sure.

And all of this meaningless, in the end.
He smiled slightly and placed the crystal on his working table between other minerals of different color and shape, but a similarity invisible to the normal eye. His thoughts wandered back to the girl, the thread of her fate somehow familiar and already dull, but attractive still.
Maybe she could be of use to him. She showed promising resilience and determination, but she was no figure for the current play, he could see that quite clearly.
And then there was the issue of the young cat. He had promised her father something, and he always kept his promises.

The man in the robe walked over to the window and looked out into the cave's gray. Something in his heart, which was no longer his own, but still -
something inside him missed the stars and the moon.
Maybe he should seed some crystals up there and connect them into the castle's defenses. He could do that and think about what to do with this Rhianon character.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Mariana Xiechai on September 14, 2011, 04:32:01 pm: Ohhhhhh hohoooo.....
*chills*
Who's this new guy eh? Now I'm curious!
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Onilise on September 14, 2011, 06:20:11 pm: Is it PC to say cat? Loved it!! :thumbup:
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Aramara Meibi on September 14, 2011, 06:34:57 pm: I don't think it is in settings to say 'cat'. Nor is it to reference the moon and stars. In all the discussions I've been part of or read on the subject, it's always been said that any passage through the Labyrinths from the outside world would be impossible at least within one generation. All races were either created in Yliakum and are native to it, or were brought here through portals from other worlds. The only race I think that came through the Labyrinths are the Xacha, who are being retconned out of existence.

Not to say I wasn't intrigued.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Phantomboy86 on September 14, 2011, 11:36:45 pm: Quote from: Aramara Meibi on September 14, 2011, 06:34:57 pm
I don't think it is in settings to say 'cat'. Nor is it to reference the moon and stars. In all the discussions I've been part of or read on the subject, it's always been said that any passage through the Labyrinths from the outside world would be impossible at least within one generation. All races were either created in Yliakum and are native to it, or were brought here through portals from other worlds. The only race I think that came through the Labyrinths are the Xacha, who are being retconned out of existence.

Not to say I wasn't intrigued.

Some races came from worlds that did have stars and moons. (im going to guess Demoria had them), though getting this knowledge after countless generations, thats up to the reader whether its realistic.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Aramara Meibi on September 14, 2011, 11:40:38 pm: very true. Maybe they had cats on Demoria as well. Maybe this Dermorian is one of those special few who have chosen to live out eternity in the DR and thus is one of the original elves to settle in Yliakum? Or maybe he's scrying on the present from the distant past?
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Mask on September 15, 2011, 11:58:34 am: I would like to state that, as I do not have access to development material, my writings might conflict with the official setting. But as long as I do not have official information about for example whether or not cats or the knowledge about them exist in Yliakum (the first settlers from outside brought chicken with them, among other things - that is a weak excuse, but at least it's not that bad), I will simply make something up and hopefully something that is believable and enjoyable. I hope it stays reasonable, but still I want to point out:

This is not a representation of actual lore and might conflict with it.
Title: Re: Burning up
Post by: Mask on January 01, 2012, 10:16:37 pm: Think of untouched meadows
serene shadows
Tlokes singing in the night
Mother of trees
Taking away all your fright
Close your eyes and sleep well, my child

She remembered the lullaby quite clearly, the old enkidukai's voice hovering through a cheap tent's twilight, mixing with the snoring of her siblings. She wrapped the lullaby around herself as a impenetrable cocoon.
She would kill him.
She would kill him, and he would never come back.

Shackles clicked shut, yet he was still asleep. Maybe things would have been different if he had been awake, but it didn't make a difference right now. No.
No, this was her victory. It would be sweeter if he was awake, but he would be soon enough. She looked back one final time, the reached inside her, weaving the currents into the one pattern she knew. When the weaving reached the glyph, it accepted the structure as part of its own, adding the last and final component to the spell, igniting the pattern.
Fwoooooooooooooooosh!
Blue flames raced over the alcohol-soaked rugs, the dye burning orange, yellow, green for a moment before the fabric itself caught fire, turning black and withering away.
He woke, his eyed widened and he raged against the shackles, unable to shout or call for help.
She smiled coldly at him and walked away, tiptoeing past those that still slept peacefully in the hallways and the living room. They had a little too much to drink last night.
Maybe the spice in their dinner had been ... modified. Nobody would ever find out, only wonder how the fire had been started in the first place. Then of course they would find the hideout and its small kitchen and conclude the logical thing: that a rival had burned them to the ground. She locked the door behind her and strolled out into a cold morning.