Private Tales Shifting Sands

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
"We have our moments." His ears flicked at her challenge and he rose up from his prone position, his tail pulling her just a bit closer. His eyes travelled down to her lips as one was tugged under by her teeth, then back up to hers, a playful light blazing in the golden orbs. "And here I thought you were enjoying my little anatomy lesson." Finally deciding that the tension was enough, the zorren leaned in to press his lips to hers. One hand lowered down to support his new position while the other slid across her waist, pulling the woman even closer against him.

Seteta
 
Seteta's eyes sparkled as Vulpesen scooted her closer, and she slowly leaned into his body, lifting her hand to rest it against his chest.

Vulpesen said:
"And here I thought you were enjoying my little anatomy lesson."
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"Oh, I am," she purred just before his lips covered hers, and she slid her hand up to rest along the side of his neck as she returned the kiss, careful of his fangs. She broke away a moment later, sitting up to pull her abaya off over her head, baring her torso. "But the lesson can be so much more thorough."

Then she leaned down to kiss him again, trembling as his furry tail brushed delicately over her skin.


Later, when the tent was... warmed up, Seteta settled against his side with a quiet, contented sigh as she pulled a blanket over them. She reached for Vulpesen's hand, and set his fingers against the silvery, whirling scars on her right side.

"Those are from my encounter with the Zephyr wolf," she murmured. "It stalked me through the desert for hours, and I had nothing but my magic to defend me. But I was much younger, and was still learning my abilities. I succeeded in killing the wolf, but got caught in the magical backlash from a spell that was beyond my capabalities.

"So even after we part ways, you have to be careful. Just because you know how to do something--or think you know how--doesn't mean your capable of doing it yet."

Vulpesen
 
Laying under his cloak and the elf, Vulpesen sat back, relaxed and comfortable in the company of another for the first time in months. His hand traced lightly over her scar where she moved it, exploring every pattern. Scars to him were stories, tales of days past, and on his own body would be a tapestry of epics which crossed over his torso and limbs like spider webs.

"I think I'd like to see one. Probably not in such a fashion as you have. Still, I'll take your warning into consideration." Learning up for a moment, he placed a kiss to the top of her head. "Impressive that you managed to survive such a predator. That'd get you quite a few drinks back in Veradune." He yawned a bit as the exertion of the travels started to catch up with him while his tail stayed wrapped warmly around his companion. "Though perhaps we can save such tales for the rest of our trip."

Seteta
 
Seteta smiled, settling her head comfortably against Vulpesen's shoulder after he kissed her hair. "They normally travel in packs and avoid elves and men," she murmured. "This one had been separated for some reason, and was desperate and starving. But if it had been whole pack that hunted me, I doubt I would survived, no matter what weapons or magic I did or didn't have."

She heard him yawn, and finally stopped resisting the call of sleep herself, letting her eyes drift shut. It felt nice to fall asleep in someone's arms again. She hadn't realized how much she missed traveling with others, even if it had only been a month since she parted ways with her tribe.

"Yes," she whispered. "There's plenty of time for more tales."


Seteta woke with the dawn the next day, quietly retrieving her clothing and slipping out of the tent to head to the spring. The morning air was chilled, and gooseflesh rippled over her bare skin, but as soon as the sun's rays were hitting the sand with full intensity, it would become unbearably hot.

She smiled as she dipped her toes into the cool spring water. It wasn't large enough to swim in, but it was plenty wide and deep for a quick bath. She stayed at the edge, though, quickly combing her hair and pinning it up before she lowered herself into the water with a shiver.

She soaked for a few minutes, letting the water dissolve the dust and grime of yesterday's travels away, then pressed her hand to the shoreline and took a 'look' at their surroundings. Smiling, she noted that all was clear and quiet in their near vicinity, though she noted the location of some small desert shrubs within reasonable walking distance. There were probably birds nesting there, and she could collect some eggs for breakfast.

Pulling herself out of the water, she quickly dried off, using her headscarf as a towel, and dressed. She draped the damp headscarf over one of the rocks near the tent, then headed off to find breakfast.

Vulpesen
 
As the morning light came through the flaps of the tent, Vulpesen let out a small groan and turned over, his tail flicking up to cover his eyes from the bright rays. "Blasted sun," he growled before slowly rising up to all fours and stretching. From his hips, he eventually heard a familiar double pop which dropped his lower body into what was for him, a more natural posture as his hips found themselves adjusting to their secondary joints.

['Sleep well?'] Varos purred into his mind. ['I felt your consciousness for quite some time after you retired.']

['Leave it or I think of every shanty I've ever known as loud as I can.']

Putting on what clothes had gone missing and bundling himself up into his cloak, the warlock crawled out from the tent just in time to see Seteta setting down her scarf. "Mornin', sunshine." Still on all fours for the moment, he stretched once more then lifted himself, his hips popping back into their first joints to something that appeared less unsettling than a humanoid who had someone contorted into a quadruped.

With an idea similar to hers and no longer hiding what he was, Vulpesen walked to the nearest date tree after his morning greeting to sink in his claws and start his way up towards the bundles of fruit. They may not have been the oaks and hawthorns of Veradune, but these trees would do to satisfy his desire for altitude.
 
"Sunshine?" Seteta laughed softly to herself as she waved to Vulpesen, then continued her trek to the desert brush. She did not find any eggs, but she did find a couple of sandgrouse and managed to quickly catch and slaughter them.

She brought them back to camp with a triumphant smile. "It's not much," she said, "but it's better to eat sparingly in the morning in the desert. Digesting food is hard when it's hot."

When they'd eaten and broken down camp and collected dates to take with them, Seteta led them back to the road and headed eastward once more.

For the next couple of days, travel went quickly. As they walked, she taught Vulpesen about the desert. About the earth. "To make the earth do what it doesn't naturally do, you must first know what it naturally does," she explained. "Sand flows and blows. Soil clumps and breaks apart. Clay sticks. Add water to any of those and they react similarly but behave differently."

She ran him through drills, slowly expanding the reach of his earth magic. She had him try to mimic the way the sand behaved, she pulled clay out from deep beneath the desert and had him ply and shape it, first with his hands and then with his magic. When they reached the shores of Baal-Asha, she had him dive into the water and pull mud from the riverbed and compare it to the sand and clay.

"Once you know the earth, and know your own limits, you'll be able to do almost anything you can think of within those constraints," she said as they settled down to eat on their third night of travel. "There's so much that I simply won't have the time to teach you or show you, though. Is there anything in particular that you are interested in?"

Vulpesen
 
Descending from the tree and packing up the fruit, Vulpesen enjoyed the meager breakfast before packing up the rest of camp. Meager though the breakfast was, he was fairly certain he would be fine. There had been a few times that he had dealt with low rations and if worse came to worse, he was sure he could dip into the dried rations within his pack.

As his training progressed, Vulpesen applied himself diligently to the studies. What little he had learned of the wilders back home had suggested that stone was unmoving and immutable. Now, learning of its various forms, the warlock found himself expanding his mindset with each new terrain. To his mystical senses, they all had a similar feel, clay, sand, stone, and mud. Yet, there were distinctions among them, much like the countless people he had met on his adventures.

"Practically speaking, that tremor sense you showed me will certainly be useful. As would any manipulation you can do to the shape of stone. I can recall a few mages back home who would enter battle with empty hand and still fell their enemies with blades they'd simply pulled from the ground." With the fox already out of the bag and their remote location, Vulpesen had long since forgone his illusions and now sat in his true shape as they travelled and now as they ate. With each bite of the desert's bounty, his tail swished and flagged in the air.

Seteta
 
Seteta was momentarily confused when Vulpesen mentioned a tremor sense, but after a moment's thought she realized that he meant when she'd used her powers to sense what was around them. She'd never tried to put a name to it, nor had any of the other Abtati she'd met who had similar abilities, but she could see why he called it that. She gnawed at her lip a little when he mentioned stone, though.

She thought for a few minutes as she finished the last of her food, then settled into a cross-legged seat next Vulpesen on the sand. Beyond just the magic lessons, he'd been quite the interesting travel companion so far, and she smiled fondly as his tail swished back and forth.

"With the tremor sense," she finally said, "you will have to build your strength. It was one of the first abilities I started honing, but it still has vast limitations.

"I have few different ways I can use it: I can go wide over the surface, I can go deep into the earth underground, or I can do both in a small, concentrated area. But the further I try to extend my senses like that, the more muffled and straining it becomes. It is very possible that you'll be able to reach farther than I can, since you have a stronger magic ability in general, even if it isn't specific to earth magic. But anything that is directly in contact with the earth, I can sense."

She leaned her head back, watching the sky. The wind had shifted earlier in the day, and while it wouldn't cause any problems for them overnight, the instincts she'd honed simply by surviving in the desert her entire life said to be wary for the next couple of days.

"Stone is... more difficult. It's made of the same properties of earth but it can vary wildly from place to place and it's... stubborn," she laughed softly. "It's honestly easier for me to make the earth do things it doesn't want to than convince stone to do anything on the spur of the moment."

Her eyes shifted back to the western horizon, worry momentarily etching across her face.

"We should retire early tonight," Seteta said. "I think we're in for a storm tomorrow, and we should get an early start to cover as much distance as possible."


Vulpesen
 
"If I can only sense around a corner, or around the folks immediately trying to kill me with dagger and sword, I think that would be good enough," he mentioned as he leaned back, setting aside the meskit that he was using to eat his now finished food. "I was a soldier once. When the time comes, I hope to regain my commission. Sure I'll change branches, but I expect I'll be getting into more trouble rather than less."

As he mentioned his past, Vulpesen's hand drifted to the hilt of his sword, absent mindedly moving around the leather and gold inlay of the hilt. In terms of weapons, it was certainly well-made and a fair bit elaborate. Still, its design was far from ceremonial, featuring a beautiful though useful cut and thrust guard.

"I suppose I'd best get practicing on that shaping as soon as I can. Even a basic shape to shield myself may come in handy against mages and bladesmen." Seeing Seteta's eyes move to the horizon and her brow knit together in worry, he followed her gaze and focused himself on his environment. He wasn't quite as attuned as she was to the desert, but he'd spent enough time in the seas to recognize an ill wind.

"I suppose I'll set up the tent, then." Rising up, the zorren shrugged off his pack before going for their accommodations. "I don't think I ever asked. Why are you headed to Elbion?" he asked as he started to unroll the small tent before setting about its raising.
 
Seteta watched Vulpesen curiously as he mentioned being a soldier before, saw how his hand moved to caress his weapon. The Abtati had no formal armies. The defense of each tribe was maintained by each tribe, and rarely would they band together against a common enemy or with a common purpose. They were more likely to accept commissions as mercenaries.

"We'll focus on manipulating earth into different forms until we part, then," Seteta nodded.

She began to gather the dinner refuse to bury, setting aside Vulpesen's utensils to be cleaned, while he worked on the tent.

Vulpesen said:
"I don't think I ever asked. Why are you headed to Elbion?"
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"Just the portal stone," Seteta answered. "I'm going to take the Elbion stone to the Falwood stone. My tribe recently disbanded. Our numbers had been dwindling for a few generations, and the oases we relied on were drying up. Most of the others were absorbed into other tribes, but a few of us decided to go our own paths and explore more of Arethil, at least for a while. I've always been curious about the Abtati's... distant cousins. So it seemed like now was as good a time as any to go see Falwood and Fal'Addas."

She quickly buried the remains of dinner some distance away from camp, then returned and settled back into a seat on the sand as Vulpesen was finishing setting the tent up.

"You said earlier you used to be a soldier, that you were hoping to regain your commission," Seteta mentioned with cautious curiosity. "Can I ask what happened?"

Vulpesen
 
Vulpesen nodded at he decision regarding their training and continued to set up the tent. It wasn't a particularly long task given the size of the tent. It was meant for one person to raise up, sleep, and get back on the move. Though, the last few nights he hadn't really minded the fact that its size had left him in close company with his travelling partner.

Hearing her reasoning for her travels, he smiled at the reasoning. She was wandering it seemed, much like he was and for reasons quite similar. Though while he sought knowledge, she sought what he would best describe as family.

Taking a seat on a stone with Seteta, he found himself silent for a moment after her question. His gaze turned down and once more his fingers traced along the hilt at his side. "I guess I left for the same reasons that you did. We were disbanded..." A sadness filled his eyes when he looked up once. "We were betrayed. Of five hundred, only five of us left that battlefield. Some day, I'll go back, but when I do, I need them to know that I am better than I was before. They won't let me hunt the bastard that sold us out unless I do." Sorrow turned to hate as he mentioned the last part, his eyes burning with a fire unlike any other she might have seen from him. When he mentioned slavers, there was always a disdain, but his attacks were a sense of duty and obligation. This was personal.
 
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Hearing Vulpesen's story, even as condensed as it was, Seteta couldn't help the sadness that washed over her. She reached over and gently set her hand on his arm.

"It must have been agonizing, to be one of the few who survived that battle," she murmured, sliding her hand down his arm a moment later to twine her fingers through his. There was little more she could say. Some losses were so great that any words of comfort seemed like mere platitudes.

So she just sat with him quietly for several moments.

When at last the mood seemed to dissipate, Seteta leaned over and kissed Vulpesen's cheek. Then she stood and stretched, eyes on the horizon again though her gaze was more observant than worried.

"Tomorrow, I think, you'll get the chance to really practice making shapes with the sand."

Vulpesen
 
"Worse when its one of your own that brings the end," he growled, his throat releasing a low rumble to accompany his words. His hand clasped hers for the moments of silence, happy to have an anchor to the present while his mind worked through the past. Slowly, he released the anger that burned within him, quietly placing it back in the box it had risen out of.

Her kiss dissipated the last of his reflection, and he rose a moment after her, his hands patting away the dust on his cloak. "Good to hear. Lightning can strike my enemies, fire can burn them, and the winds can whisk them away. But I imagine it'll take stone to keep them from doing the same to me." Walking over to her size, he joined her gaze on the horizon before lifting his eyes to the sky. "Speaking of protection, I'm not sure how well my little tent will hold against any sort of sand storm."

Seteta
 
"I think the sandstorm won't hit us until tomorrow, midday probably," Seteta said, then turned to Vulpesen with a grin. "I'll be showing you some tricks, and when it gets to us we will have to stop traveling until it passes. Technically, we could keep navigating using our abilities, but the wind and biting sand would do a number on us."

She slipped her hand into his again, and gently tugged him toward tent. "We should rest soon. It would be best that we were ready to be on our way with the first light of dawn."


While the sky had been clear when they went to bed the night before, though the sunset had been strikingly vivid due to the sand gathering on the wind, in the morning the air was already dusty and the wind rather rough.

"We should reach another spring in a couple hours," Seteta said as she helped to break down the tent. "We'll need to make sure our waterskins are all full. We might even stop there, depending on how the visibility is by the time we reach it. But I wouldn't want to stop before that."

Vulpesen
 
"I look forward to your teachings," he replied, his natural smile slowly returning. Following her tug, he headed for the tent, ready to retire for the night. Perhaps he himself would have a few tricks in the morning. After all, Varos had taught him a few things on his last visit with his master, and perhaps now was a good time to get some practice into his other skills.

As they greeted the windy morning, Vulpesen lifted his tail up to his face, using the fur as a scarf against the whirling sands. "I can probably get us there a little faster. My master has taught me a few tricks, and I'd like to practice them. It should give us some extra time to practice with geomancy." Shrugging his pack off of his back and setting it by his feet, the zorren closed his eyes and focused on an image in his mind, calling forth a common companion to many a traveler. The spell would take a few moments to take effect, but it was one he had seen done at his home, albeit by some of the more practiced wilders.

Slowly at first, his body would enlarge and shift, his black cloak tightening then turning into midnight hair while his tail divided into hundreds of strands. While his first transformation had been a simple unmasking of an illusion, his new trick had been far more real as Seteta would find her partner shifting into a black horse. With a snort, he bobbed his head towards her and his unchanged pack then up towards his back.
 
  • Wonder
Reactions: Seteta
Seteta didn't know what to expect at first when Vulpesen said his master had taught him a few tricks, and she watched curiously as he set his pack aside and closed his eyes.

At first, it didn't seem like anything was happening, but then she noticed Vulpesen was... growing. His shape shifting and clothing morphing, and a short while later Seteta was shaking her head and laughing in delight. When he snorted and gestured toward his back, she couldn't help but smirk.

"This is not how I ever thought I'd ride you," she teased, lugging the large and rather heavy pack over. "You're fortunate I know how to ride bareback, though I'm not sure how to manage your pack as well as keep myself on your back. Can you... get down on your knees? Do you have some straps or something on this thing that I can use to secure it?"

Vulpesen
 
Vulpesen huffed and bobbed his head at her question before walking over to his pack and nipping at one of his pockets. After a few seconds of struggling with the latch, he managed to flip it open, showing a bundle of rope within the pack. Living on the road had certainly taught him to be prepared, though he had to admit that it wouldn't be the most comfortable securement.

With the supplies show, he lowered himself for her to get to work. It might sap some time from their travels, but given his newfound speed, he figured that it would save them hours in the long run. Whuffling in amusement at her comment, he swished his tail to swat lightly at her.

Seteta
 
Seteta laughed softly as Vulpesen flicked her with his tail. Then she huffed and groaned as she hefted the pack onto his back, and worked to secure the strap around his neck. "I think this is what will impede your gait the least," she said as she worked. "The pack should rest on your withers, and I'll sit behind it to keep it from shifting around too much."

She finished securing the pack, making sure the knot was secure but not going to become too tight to undo later. "All right, I'll climb on now, and then you can stand," she said, making sure her face scarf was secured in place as well. There was just enough sand blowing through the air now that she didn't want to breathe too much of it in. "I'm not sure how well I can mount bareback with the pack where it's sitting."

Once she was settled in place, Seteta loosely grabbed on to Vulpesen's mane, and shifted her weight with him as he stood again. She leaned forward over the pack, and spoke softly in his ear, "The spring should be directly southeast of us. I'm not sure of the exact distance, so we'll need to check in a while to make sure we haven't gotten off course."

Vulpesen
 
He shifted a bit from side to side once she had secured the pack, ensuring that the load wouldn't shift too much while he ran. Finding it to his liking, he allowed the elf onto his back. It was something of an odd sensation for him. Being an officer in the scouting corps, Vulpesen was used to being one of the more mobile units in his unit. However, being the mode of transportation as opposed to the rider was certainly an odd reversal of fortune.

['Remember to keep your bucking for- ']

['Do Not.'] Vulpesen growled back at his patron through the bond. While his voice had no way to reach Seteta's ears, his words could find Varos quite well. With his short mental conversation, he had nearly missed Seteta's directions, though their heading at least made its way to his ears. With a quick nod and a huff, he set off.

His pace started slow, a quick walk, before slowly speeding up into a smooth trot, then up from there. As he tested each gait, he worked to be mindful of the passenger on his back, trying to ensure as comfortable a ride as possible while they traversed the windswept desert. Idly, he pondered the benefits of a sentient horse.

Seteta
 
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While Seteta was accustomed to riding horses, it was clear at times that Vulpesen was not accustomed to being a horse... or being ridden like a horse. She instinctively found herself trying to give him signals with her heels, but of course he didn't know to be alert for them, or what they meant.

"Vulpesen!" she called over the wind when he moved into a gallop. "You'll wear yourself out quickly at this pace. Alternate between walking and trotting."

Eventually, through some small amount of trial and error, the two found a good rhythm and a reliable means of communication as they traveled. It wasn't long before they reached the spring, and Seteta quickly filled all their waterskins before mounting the shapeshifted horse again. The horizon behind them was completely obscured by the sandstorm, but the front edge of it had not yet reached them.

"A couple more hours, I think, before we have to stop," Seteta said, and they were off again.

Eventually, when the wind was whipping sand around them and Seteta could hardly tell the difference between the air and the sand below them, she brought Vulpesen to a halt.

"Time to shift back!" she hollered over the blustering wind as she unfastened the pack from around his neck. When he was back to his normal form, Seteta took Vulpesen's hand and tugged him down to kneel beside her on the sand. "Watch, not just with your eyes, but with your magic!"

Then, still holding his hand, Seteta pressed her hands to the earth, and began to work.

Slowly, all around them in a circle, a wall of sand began to rise. It wasn't terribly thick, but it didn't need to be. As its height built itself out of the earth and rose into a dome over them, Seteta's skill truly showed, but more in the magic itself than the appearance of their shelter.

Rather than adhering the sand to itself, forcing it to take a shape and remain in a shape that was completely unnatural for it--though in some ways, that would be easier than what she did now--Seteta essentially wove a net of sand and magic. The strands of magic between each grain of sand were so small that the dome appeared to be solid, but it still allowed air to flow through, though at a much slower speed than the wind itself. If the sun was not obscured by the sandstorm, it would allow some light through as well, though right now there was just enough so that they could dimly make out each other's silhouettes.

When the dome finally closed itself over above them, Seteta tied off the magic but left it connected to her awareness. At least, that was the best way she could think to describe it.

She leaned back on her heels with a weary sigh.

"It will be some time before you're able to do something of this magnitude," she told Vulpesen. "Both due to the size of shelter" --which was large enough in all directions that they could lie side by side with arms stretched out or overhead and still have space between them-- "and the way the magic was used."

Vulpesen
 
Taking Seteta's advice, Vulpesen shifted his pace to match something more sustainable. As he became more accustomed to his new body, he found his strides coming longer and more easily across the shifting sands. Just as with booted foot, the sand seemed to swallow each hoof, making his movement more difficult. Thankfully with four legs to keep himself stable, Vulpesen managed to prevent and stumbling's as he traversed the hostile landscape.

When Seteta finally called for a stop, there was no small amount of relief in the warlock's mind. With naught but long lashes to protect him from the stinging sand, Vulpesen was happy to finally take a form to defend himself from the aggressive winds.

Kneeling with Seteta once he had retaken his original shape, Vulpesen opened himself up t the web of magic around them, doing his best to sense the motion of her spell while his eyes watched for the results. His head tilted slightly as he watched the sands rise in the web of magic, each grain captured by the web which suspended them. "Not what I was expecting, but I suppose that'll work."

Turning back towards her, he couldn't help but feel she was right as she mentioned the time it would take for him to do such intricate work. With his gleaming eyes, he could just make out her tired expression as she sat back, his golden orbs appearing as two bright beacons in the dark. "Will you be able to sleep or will the dome require that you stay up?"
 
"I'll be able to rest, but I can't sleep deeply," Seteta said. "And besides, now we have time practice some things for you. Though... I think I will rest for a bit first."

She shifted and moved to actually sit, then reached up to unwrap her headscarf and shake out the sand that had accumulated in it.

"You wouldn't happen to have a way to conjure up some sort of light source, would you?" she asked as she reached for a waterskin.

While the scarf over her mouth and nose had kept most of the dust and sand out of her mouth, she was still parched, and she drank the water gratefully. Once finished, she set the waterskin aside and flopped on her back to stretch with a groan. It had been a while since she'd ridden a horse.

Vulpesen
 
Sinking into the sand as he sat, Vulpesen found that her concentration on the wall of sand was much the same as his illusions. While Varos could take over while he slept, it did take some degree of concentration to keep it up at all times.

"Light? Maybe. My shadowmancy works best with an opposite endeavor, but I think I've got a trick or two up my sleeve." Closing his eyes to focus on the darkness around him, Vulpesen started to go through his pack. Though bereft of his secrets and thus, much of his power, he had kept enough hidden to access his ability to sense what lay in the darkness.

After a bit of shuffling, he managed to produce a pitch covered torch which he lifted up. While he had yet to learn the ways of pyromancy, there was more than one way to make a spark. After a bit of focus, Vulpesen channeled the energy within himself into his fingertips, causing an arc of lightning tot ravel from his fingers to the torch. A couple of tries later and the pitch caught, lighting the shelter as fire rose up from the heat.

Reaching for his own canteen, he had a a few greedy gulps of the preserving water, using it to clear away the buildup of sand and dust within his system. "How you and your people managed to make this place your home, I'm not sure that I will ever understand. Sure the creatures of the forest tried to kill us, but at least the wilds provided for us between the near death experiences."

Seteta
 
"Well, there are plenty of things we can do in the dark," Seteta teased, but she sat back up and watched Vulpesen curiously. When he finished with the torch, she commented, "It's a good thing I've allowed for airflow in this structure. If you ever have to do something like this again, make sure that you don't rely on a light source that will use up the air too."

She laid back down as Vulpesen drank, tucking her headscarf under her head as a makeshift pillow.

Vulpesen said:
"How you and your people managed to make this place your home, I'm not sure that I will ever understand. Sure the creatures of the forest tried to kill us, but at least the wilds provided for us between the near death experiences."
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"It's all I've ever known," Seteta answered quietly. "And the desert provides as well as any other place, if one knows where to look, even if the climate is harsh."

She closed her eyes and smiled softly, fingers tracing in the sand. "Our myths and legends say that the Abtati used to rule a prosperous empire here in Amol-Kalit. But whether it is true, and what brought about our supposed demise, I cannot say. It is lost to the sands of time.

"When I was a girl, though, I used to dream that maybe, if the Abtati still ruled, that I would have been a princess. Or a queen."

Vulpesen
 
"The wilds provide. Seems that holds true no matter where you are. Nature whispers her secrets, one only needs to listen." Hearing of her people's past and her dreams, Vulpesen let a wistful smile crawl upon his face. For a brief moment, he was transported back to the spires of Veradune, looking out over the grand forest below. "You do have a certain nobility around you. A strength of character." Bringing himself back to the present, he leaned down to press his lips briefly to hers.

Rising back up, he moved over and sank the torch into the sand near the edge of their dome. With the torch now partially buried, he took a deep breath and focused his energy into a jolt of lightning. Light would crackle around the base of the torch and into the ground, crystalizing the sand before he could release the wooden shaft, leaving the light firmly in place.

"I'm sure you'll teach me an easier way to do that at some point, but I'll work with what I've got. Hopefully, I'll manage to get myself a smokeless light sometime in the future." he said, laying back down beside Seteta, his tail moving to lay across her lap.
 
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