Private Tales Chasing the Sky

[Hath Charosh]

Hath took a slow, careful step through the long grasses. The dry stems scratched at his legs and arms but he paid the discomfort little heed. His skin was thicker than a human's and not prone to irritation.

He had been following a small pack of Kamaleons for several days. They were small lizardfolk, able to change their skin tone to blend into their surroundings.

Hath would not have normally followed such creatures. They had almost bumped into him. So quiet and stealthy that he thought they had ambushed him.

Instead he had realised they were following someone or something. Hath was curious to find out what.

Especially now he had found that whatever they were following, was going around in circles.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

It was the farthest into the savannahs she'd ever traveled, and despite a very thorough upbringing on survival and navigational skills and practice, Ralene Black had found herself well and proper lost. There was something about the lands here she couldn't place, but every time she though she discovered her heading she landed right back where she was to start.

Wasn't anything natural about it. Someone or something was fucking with her, and it wasn't the dragon she'd been tracking. No, that beast's trail was three days cold now.

She'd dismounted from her horse the night prior and decided to give the mare a break, so today they spent their hours traveling on foot instead. By an hour past noon they'd arrived at the same riverbed they'd passed by only the night before. Ral recognized it by the hoofprints still lingering in the dirt.

"Fuck." Even if she knew she was lost, this left her without any doubt at all.

With a deep and aggravated sigh, the young Dreadlord looked to the horse who silently stood waiting to get even more lost, just as annoyed as she was. "Right," Ral looped the reins up over the pommel of the saddle and gave the mare a pat on her shoulder, "go get a drink."

Down along the dried riverbed went her horse while she attempted to peer around for higher ground. If going in the direction she thought was correct had gotten her nowhere, perhaps it was time to take a route that didn't seem right at all. If only she could shrug off the feeling of being watched ... yet everywhere she looked there was nothing to see.

 

[Hath Charosh]

A soft click. Another to the left.

Hath would have mistaken it for insects if he hadn't been trialing the kamaleons. They were spreading out.

It was hard to see the routes they were taking. Even knowing what to look for they were hard to see. Their skins were all broken patterns of yellows and browns.

The orc had been travelling alone for months. Following the kamaleons almost made him feel like he was part of a community. As he remained still so as not to disturb the grasses around him, he felt a flash of shame for that.

The demon that had ridden along with his body for a long time had been purged, but sometimes he imagined it's voice just so he had something to talk to.

The activity made sense when he saw a dark form appearing ahead of them.

Just a few metres from Ralene, a creature detached itself from a rock. Staying close, even its eyes had taken on a similar mottling. It raised a spear over it's head and threw it.

 

[Samantha Black]

Years from now she'd look back on this moment with humored disgust at how easily she, a Level 3 Dreadlord, had been out-tracked and ambushed by a bunch of child-sized lizards. Today, however, Ralene was more concerned with the very sudden stinging pain of a spear head lodging into the soft opening between her pauldron and her cuirass. Having been kneeling down in the sandy loam of the dirt just beyond the riverbed, drawing what she knew of this godforsaken place in her mind and trying to figure out just how she kept ending up back here - she'd been far too distracted with her thoughts to notice the odd clicks.

A spear to the back of her armpit was her penance for carelessness.

Biting back a sound of pain, Ralene immediately pushed to her feet and turned just in time to see a second spear coming straight for her head. With wide eyes she dodged it and turned toward where it had come from to try and see her assailant.

Her shield, which would have come in handy right now, was strapped to her horse's flank.

An arrow can whizzing through the air next and pinged off her breastplate.

Aggravated, Ralene reached to unlodge the spear from under her arm, spraying her own blood in an arc as she then raised it in defense.

"Come on out, fuckers!" then finally a hint of movement in her peripheral, she turned and pointed the spear at it - eyes narrowing as she only just managed to make out the outline of the creature, "Come and get me!"

 

[Hath Charosh]

Come and get me.

They spoke the common trade tongue. With some zeal rather than eloquence. Given the focus of the small band of kamaleons, Hath dared to crawl forward through the grasses.

It was a human warrior. She held up a bloodied spear and held her ground. It was a better idea than running and falling in a hail of missiles.

From this angle he could see the noose closing. When they were in her periphery they closed in with javelins and throwing axes in hand. When she looked in their direction they stayed stock still, difficult to spot.

He had no loyalty to either side. The human was clearly confident being this far out from a town on her own. The kamaleons would hopefully continue in the opposite direction to Hath.

One of the lizardfolk scrabbled up a rock, hoping to throw things down at the human.

"Fuck it," Hath muttered under his breath, reaching over his shoulder.


Thunk

From Ralene's right, one of the lizards tumbled down the rock. It fell still, it's skin returning to a pale green. It had an arrow sticking through its neck.

The creature before her darted back, becoming more visible as it tried to put space between itself and the screaming, bleeding woman.

 

[Samantha Black]

Hunched with her head on a swivel and her eyes narrowed in an effort to find those hazey outlines, Ralene's eyes quickly darted to the inert body that landed to her right. A lizard ... a kobold? No, far too big - child sized nearly. But this one she could see, so where?

The receding form of the one that had stood before her gave her the best clue. Fucking camouflage.

She tossed the spear into the air, caught a back-handed grip and hurled it after the thing, managing to hit it in the lower back and sending it hissing in pain into the weeds. The next thing she did was draw a dagger from her side because - of course - her sword was in its scabbard, also strapped to her horse.

Careless. Careless.

But now she had a better idea of what she was dealing with. There were multiple and they weren't being careless, but calculated. She couldn't see them but, with a word uttered under her breath a flare of green shone around the crown of her skull and along black tattooed markings visible at the shaved sides of her head. Her senses amplified at once. Sight, sound, hearing, and the sensation of the faint breeze across her bare skin.

She could hear the rustling of the reeds and grasses as they moved, the clicks as they communicated. Ralene's blue gaze shifted with an arcane light as she turned to face the first combatant intent to take her head off with a throwing axe. Ral knocked it away with her own blade and quickly introduced the pointy end to its soft belly, then grabbed the creature around the neck and threw it at the flickering movement of another to her left.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Magic.

As far as Hath was concerned, humans and magic were a dangerous mix. He feared the elves for their skill with blade and magic alike. He feared the humans because they had no self-control.

They stood on the shoulders of those that had come before and had no respect for the natural order of things. One day, they would burn the whole world.

He already had another arrow in hand. He had it gripped lightly just on front of the fletchings.

If he wanted these back, he would need to come back after the human was gone. In one smooth motion he knocked the arrow and picked out a target. The little creature was ahead of her and went still.

Hath let his gaze settle on its vague outline as he heaved the bowstring back. He let the point of the arrow settle just above it's head and loosed. Another of the amushers fell to the front before ralene, writhing as it tried to grab the arrow protruding from it's back.

Hath grunted and lowered his bow. That was enough, he decided.

There was movement in his periphery. Two of them had peeled off and came at him from each side. A throwing dart hissed over his head as he dropped. Fortunate as the little lizardfolk secreted a mild poison and weren't afraid to coat their weapons in it.

 

[Samantha Black]

Another one down before her with another arrow. Ral didn't have time to give it too much thought, but she'd come back to it all the same. Her attention shifted to movement at her right again, another lizard coming at her with a spear. This one did not throw it, but intended to charge and stab - which it did with good accuracy but poor planning. Ralene allowed the spear to stick into the metal of her armor where the creature found itself stuck in the assault.

Her hand reached down for the pole just behind the spearhead and dislodged the weapon with a sharp yank that pulled it free from the kamaleon's grip. Without any flourish, Ral then smashed the pole across its head and sent the thing tumbling back into the grasses. She then felt the prickle of needles sinking into her skin; one dart landed at the back of her neck while the other lodged itself into her hairline.

Almost immediately she felt the burning sensation spread through her flesh and knew she'd been poisoned. She couldn't know what that meant for her and she did not plan to find out. Another string of words spoken below her breath - a string broken by the attack of two more kamaleons in tandem. One pounced on her from the back, landing a blow of its axe into her pauldron. Her armor was strong but the axe's blade had effectively locked it in place where it coupled over the cuirass, giving her little vertical use of her weapon hand.

"Fuck-" well, she didn't like resorting to magic to solve her problems but perhaps if she'd done so sooner instead of stubbornly thinking she could find her own way, she might not have been here to begin with. So be it.

She let the second get close, wielding a dagger of its own, and reached out to catch it by the neck. The kamaleon screeched in her grip, sinking its blade into her armpit. Ralene responded with a snarling yell and then loosed a flurry of ancient words that set an alchemy symbol carved into the forearm of her gauntlet alight. A flash of red flared up in a perfect circle around them, filled with crimson symbols, then exploded in flames outward. Both of her assailants went up in flames and quickly turned to char and cinder. The area around her scorched and blackened, catching two more in their wake.

Any others beyond the circle screamed in terror and quickly decided to flee.

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath's dark silhouette rose up and out of the grasses. He had one arm extended. One of the two lizards was held aloft. It shrieked and writhed, grabbing a hatchet from it's belt slightly quicker than Hath retrieved a knife from his.

It swung widly, the flint blade cutting into Hath's shoulder. In return, he drove the sharp knife into one eye and most of the way through its skull.

A dart struck his back and Hath turned to throw the dead kamaleon at its comrade. Hath snarled and bared his tusks.

The creature fled. Not for the size of the towering orc, but because of the flash of fire and wave of heat.

Magic

There were only thirty paces separating him from the battle mage. He turned to face her and stood his ground. Fleeing would have placed him with the attackers.

He hoped the idiot hadn't just started a grass fire. It seemed the area had been reduced to cinders in a flash.

 

[Samantha Black]

It had not, in fact, started a grass fire. Rather, it had not the time nor freedom to do so. Ralene turned with a growl as she yanked the blade from beneath her arm and threw the dagger aside. A quick glance around showed no further rustling grasses or glimmering outlines of child-sized lizards. Only herself and the hulking orc just a few strong paces away remained - though watching him toss aside one of her quarries was enough to stay any motion of attack from herself.

Instead she spared a moment to utter a dispell, gesturing her hand at the lingering babes of flames along the grasses. Their light smothered into smoke at her will until not even a single ember remained. With a slow, deep breath she next turned her will to slowing her heartbeat.

"I'll give you a good fight if you want it, big guy," the Dreadlord spoke to him with a lingering glance, "but I'll give you a better one if you spare me a few minutes respite to deal with this poison."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath stood in silence. The make-believe voice in his head, which took on the persona of the excised demon, spoke in orcish. It was several weeks since he had heard full sentences in human. He had not venturered into their settlements for some time.

"A good...fight?" he called out. Each word sounded wrong as he chewed through it.

He let out a single bark of laughter, right from the gut.

He didn't estimate the ages of humans well, but she looked young. He could respect calling out the challenge, and if she was young it might explain the stupidity.

"You want...for fight?"

Hath let his right foot slide back, turning his torso to one side. It broke the line between them. The front on nature of a challenge met. Orcs used body language to communicate, even with those who did not understand it.

He did not bow his head. Despite his internal thoughts, he did not shake his head and disrespect her or back down.

Hath paused.

"Groona...er...root..." he called out. "You want."

Giving the name of a root in his tongue was hardly going to help her find one.

 

[Samantha Black]

He seemed ... confused. Common must not be his first language and Ralene internally rolled her eyes at this. Of course it wasn't, but he seemed to understand enough. The turn of his body and the shift of his foot may have been the body language of his people, but those sorts of stances were fairly universal among warriors. She understood it and rolled her jaw as she watched.

Did she actually want to fight him? The Dreadlord looked the brute up and down a moment, taking in his size from the distance. Clearly bigger up close, but not big enough to put her off the task. He'd be an interesting challenge, perhaps even a fun one. Worth the additional time off the trail?

Ehhh ... debatable.

She wasn't an Initiate anymore without duty or responsibilities - something Holstag had recently reminded her of. She had a job. Had to put others before herself. Had a godsdamned dragon to find and kill. Had poison spreading through her body.

"Noh," replied the Dreadlord with a grunt, "don't need groona."

Groona was the word for root in the tradetongue, a language she was fairly fluent with. Perhaps that was his own? Ralene eyed the orc where he stood, openly cleaned her dagger on her gloved palm and sheathed it. A sheathed weapon was no less dangerous but the act of sheathing signaled non-threat. Ral slowly lowered herself to kneel on the ground and calmly placed her hands on her thighs. The fire of the wounds beneath each arm were beginning to really smart. She could feel the blood soaking into the layers beneath her armor. She was going to stink of it if she didn't take the time to wash up later.

["I just need a moment."] she said to him in tradetongue.

The Dreadlord took a deep breath in and closed her eyes, then very slowly released it through her nose. Slow her heart rate, slow the bleeding, slow the spread of poison. Listen for the approach of the orc through her enhanced hearing. Activate the clarifying spell.

 

[Hath Charosh]

"Humph."

Hath had been around humans - or at least an orc raised by humans - to pick up a few mannerisms. The sound managed to convey how little he believed that a few moments could deal with the poison.

It was mild, but she was very small and was bleeding.

She has actually been considering fighting him. He didn't know why. If she had a grudge against orcs it would be best to put some distance between them.

Hath walked closer. He took an arced path that never his chest angled right at her. She was always off to his right, even as he approached to retrieve an arrow.

He didn't turn his back to her either. Hath didn't survive out her by being stupid.

"You come here. Look for fight?" he asked. The first arrow shaft snapped. He grunted in annoyance.

 

[Samantha Black]

This particular spell of hers took time, focus, clarity of mind just short of meditation. She could do it distracted, she didn't even necessarily have to be kneeling, but given the unknown nature of the poison Ralene decided she wasn't going to take any unecessary risks.

Taking a moment in a kneel would ensure the spell worked at peak effectiveness.

The orc did not seem to understand what needing a moment meant. He approached and she immediately cracked an eye open at him. Then he spoke.

"Not with you," she replied shortly, then glanced to the body he pulled the arrow from, "or them."

It occurred to her then that this orc might be a local or, more importantly, might know his way out of this damned mobius loop valley. The Dreadlord made a face and rolled the taste of her souring pride in her mouth.

"I'm hunting a dragon. It came through this valley three days ago. I was on its trail, then," Ral popped her lips, "I got lost."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"Not with me," he muttered. He managed to impart a little disbelief as he echoed her words. She had looked like she was spoiling for a fight.

He knew that feeling. When your blood was up, you lashed out at anything that looked dangerous.

The second arrow was easiest. He pulled the feathers off and pushed it through the lizard's neck. A straight arrow was harder to come by than feathers.

A dragon?

She wouldn't be alone. She didn't look like a tracker to Hath but no one would be stupid enough to hunt a dragon alone.

"You lose...a dragon. Then you lose you?"

His expression offered no judgement. Somehow, the casual shrug that followed did. Hath checked the kamaleons for anything worth taking. She had killed more of them, but she was occupied so it seemed fair game. Unfortunately their weapons were rudimental. He took a pair of flint knives. A little work and they would make spare arrowheads for when he ran out of steel.

 

[Samantha Black]

Was he ... mocking her? Ralene narrowed her eyes at the orc, brows skating over the expression between suspicion and offense. He was free to loot the bodies of the fallen until the day grew old, aside from a potential meal (probably not the best option out here) she had no design for them.

But mocking her?

"Yes," Ral watched him while the effects of her detoxifying spell continued to slowly filter through the veins of her body, "that is what I said." More or less. Maybe he wasn't actually mocking her. Maybe he was just stupid and parroting her words.

"It went northeast but this valley intends to keep me moving in a circle." There was something wholly unnatural about it - some element of magic perhaps keeping her here. Fae, maybe. A notion she would never have entertained had it not been for her own personal run-in with one.

Oh, fae existed and she was mad about it.

"Lead me out of this valley and I will make it worth your trouble. Name your price."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Hath took some enjoyment in that expression. She could not tell if he was enjoying her story or simply trying to understand what she had said.

Usually his ignorance was endlessly frustrating. Trying to trade with humans was always difficult because they insisted on making it so numerical. Every place seemed to have it's own denomination of coins and values.

Today he would enjoy playing up to his ignorance.

"Dragon..." he said slowly, making the word sound unfamiliar to him. It was not.

"Big, wings, fire?" he asked, mimicking flight with his arms. He emphasised the word big.

"What do you have to trade?" he asked of her offer. He hadn't not been planning of visiting a human settlement any time soon, so coins were not appealing.

 

[Samantha Black]

Interesting. The idea that she'd lost a whole damned dragon was unbelievable moments before. Now he seemed to have forgotten what they were?

Ral didn't buy it. Her eyes narrowed further. Moments like this at the academy usually ended in broken noses, and not her own. She didn't like being played and he was definitely mocking her. Still, he was the first sentient thing she'd run into out here that might actually be of use in breaking the loop. The lizards certainly had no intention of helping her and for all she knew the survivors could be coming back with backup. It was not safe or smart to linger here much longer.

Best to forgo her sense of personal offense for the more important matter of progress on her quarry. And getting the fuck out of here.

"Coin, rations, supplies ... weapons," a few spare daggers she could part with, though her eyes landed on his sorry collection of arrows, "arrows."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"Arrows?" he asked hopefully.

Hath stood up and turned to look at her directly. They seemed to be past unintended violence.

"They would be too small," he immediately dismissed.

"Supplies...dried meat?" he asked hopefully.

In truth, getting the battle mage further away from the part of the world seemed to be a reward of its own.

A few days northeast would put her a good distance away from his intended route and hopefully seal her fate in being eaten by a dragon

 

[Samantha Black]

"They would be too small."

Ralene sniffed at that remark, watching him with a dry sort of stare the way a mother watched a child getting ready for mischief. Unamused, patience wearing thin.

She could feel the count of her detoxification spell winding down, like the dwindling trickle of cold blood after sliding into a warm bath. The tingle reached her toes and fingertips, skirting along the crown of her scalp and up the back of her neck. Pins and needles, she closed her eyes and drew in one final deep and lasting breath then exhaled sharply to expel the remnants of lingering arcane flotsam from her ethernatural self.

The Dreadlord slowly rose to her feet, rolled her shoulders, tested the flex of her hands within their gloves and gauntlets before pinching her bottom lip beneath her top teeth and loosing a high-pitched whistle.

"I'm hunting a dragon," she reminded him as her horse trotted up from the river's edge and pushed through the brush to her side, "not rabbits."

The horse wore most of her arsenal: multiple quivvers of overlarge arrows made of the finest Vel Anirian aloy with hide-piercing heads that could tear an armored man apart; two longswords of equal quality; and several long dastardly looking pieces that appeared to be parts of a spear made from a curious black metal. Her great bow was slung at the horse's side, secured beneath the saddle's fender.

Beyond that, it carried several saddle bags presumably filled with supplies, "But I'd rather give you dried meat than arrows anyway. Dried meat won't kill a dragon." She moved to the back left bag and sorted through it, pulling out a beeswax linen wrap containing a portion of her rations in dried meat. She tossed it to him and pointed after it for good measure.

"Half now, the rest after you lead me out of this accursed valley."

 

[Hath Charosh]

Half now? Did she think him so starved that he would go over and above in his task for another handful of dried meat?

Fucking humans.

Her arrows were going to be killing a dragon either. Not unless it ate her and the horse whole and got one lodged in its throat.

Hath just managed to turn quickly enough that she wouldn't see the smirk.

'Come. Fetch my things, " he grunted.

Hath turned his back towards her and walked away. Across his bared skin she would see the stories writ in scar tissue, the new layered upon the old.

He stepped into the long grasses to retrieve his axe and bow. There was nothing special about the bow. It was well made, tall enough for Hath but with an elegant recurve. The axe, however, was clearly dwarven made.

"Follow," he grunted, almost immediately setting off at a jog.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene wasn't generally racist and she'd met some pretty interesting orcs, but the feeling was drawing fairly mutual between them. The sooner they got out of this valley and parted ways, the better. She turned to her mare and mounted up, cringing at the fresh stinging of the stab wounds beneath her arms.

Right, healing potion. Her hand dipped into a molded satchel on the horse's right flank to fish out a small phial filled with glowing blue liquid. With the reins in one hand and the phial in the other, she nudged the horse into a trot to follow after her guide, downing the healing potion along the way.

He seemed to know where he was going. At least that was the impression she got in the way that he moved with purpose. Though anyone could move with purpose and not have a heading, she decided to trust that his localized instincts and bearings were better than her own. He'd gotten into and out of this valley prior, right?

She followed him for what felt like a few hours, and though the scenery did change she began to wonder just how much. By the late afternoon with the sky slowly growing darker, Ralene found herself looking at a peculiarly familiar scene. Brows furrowing over cold blue eyes, she slowed her horse to a stand, "Hey..." she spoke, and then - "hey!"

Her mare snorted, eyes rolling as the Dreadlord reined her around in a circle, "This is..." her lip curled upward, the whites of her teeth bared in a growl, eyes falling upon an area of brush off to her left just a dozen or so meters away where - sure enough, the doused campfire of her previous night spent out here. Hoof prints and the tracks of her boots left behind told her all she needed to know.

"This is the same place I was before. We've gone in another fucking circle! How. HOW is this possible!"

 

[Hath Charosh]

The flash of pain wasn't lost on Hath. The orc felt a twinge of guilt. His general disdain for human mages had, perhaps, stopped him from considering that she was the one to be ambushed.

Hath had stopped and turned to face Ralene. He was no healer but could have at least helped bind wounds. However, she had already fished out a vial of something.

If she had healing potions then they could just press on, he decided.

This is the same place I was before. Weve gone in another fucking circle! How. HOW is this possible!

Hath walked back to the battle mage. He was used to running for long hours, but the sun had been harsh. Sweat beaded and rolled down his form and he was breathing hard.

He approached the small camp fire, noted the shape of the impressions in the ground.

"You want...we follow tracks...find out?"

By which he meant, do you want me to point out where you got lost?

He refused to believe there was anything but incompetence at play.

 

[Samantha Black]

The fury that bloomed across her expression at that helpful little suggestion could have crumbled a mountain.

"Brilliant fucking idea!" Ralene blurted so suddenly it make her horse startle, "Except of course for the fact that I have already done that and ended up right back-" she threw her arms out to gesture wildly to her current predicament, "FUCKING HERE."

Her jaw dropped to loose a furious, roaring yell, hands coiling into fists that drew up to either side of her head as though fighting the urge to tear something apart in her anger. That sort of thing had worked for tempering when she was younger - when it had been encouraged. When hapless fellow Initiates or captured elves had been offered to the stronger students practically on a silver platter.

But that sort of thing didn't solve problems anymore and she reckoned going after the orc would only be more trouble than it was worth. Fun, maybe, but not smart.

Ralene opened her eyes and slowly dropped her fists to rest on her thighs. Her horse shifted uneasily beneath her. She looked at the orc with a hard stare, "Fuck."

"I'm not-" drew a sharp breath in through her nose, lips screwed up in frustration, "mad at you. I've been out here for three days and someone or something is having a go at me."

Another long, deep breath through her nose. She suddenly planted a smile on her face that did not reach her eyes and looked entirely misplaced there, "We'll try it your way then. Please," Ral gestured to the trail, "follow tracks, find out."

 

[Hath Charosh]

FUCKING HERE.

Hath didn't take a step back, but he tensed up. He was a more seasoned fighter than he had once been. As the tension set it, he focused on keeping it from locking him up. He needed to be ready to stay in motion if the human decided to start throwing punches rather than insults.

He bared his tusks, as was instinct and let out a low growl.

As the human brought her fists to her head and screamed Hath took a half step back. He canted his head to one side and looked up at Ralene curiously.

Im not- drew a sharp breath in through her nose, lips screwed up in frustration, mad at you. Ive been out here for three days and someone or something is having a go at me.

Hath took a moment to reach into his pack. He drew out a thin strip of salted, dried meat and popped it into his mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, he actually felt a tiny bit sorry for the battle mage.

"We will keep north," he said firmly, deciding not to mock her any more. He still didn't trust that the human knew how to navigate a straight line. Most of them kept to their cities.

---

"Fuck," muttered Hath, several hours later.

He had tried to lead them on a straight path, but now he was standing in front of a set of tracks that matched the horse behind him.