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Post by graybeardhalt on Mar 18, 2011 20:49:13 GMT -5
-"OH SHI-!!!!!!" Butch took off running, slipping and sliding on the ice. He was making good progress, but he stepped into a crack, taking a few seconds to get out. He kept running like hell.
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Post by Noven on Mar 18, 2011 20:52:32 GMT -5
-Talfen started moving by natural instinct, and as he went past Matt he saw him staring upwards, blankly. He grabbed him by the arm, and continued running, trying to get out. He was naturally fast, and was only slowed to about the level of Luke. Talfen made good progress still, even while forced to drag along what, at least he was proving to be, the dead weight that was Matt.
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Post by FinlandiaWhiteEyes on Mar 18, 2011 20:59:43 GMT -5
-Undine lifted herself into the air, through the block as it fell.
-The block slammed into the ice, cracking and splintering everything around it. Luckily, the group was far enough away to avoid damage from the block, the crevass it created, and the splinters of ice that flew in every which way.
-A deep, relieved sigh was heard from every human. Undine chuckled as she landed back on the ground.
-"I am glad I did not need my jam jar. Now, come."
-They walked a little further. Undine stopped, very suddenly, and Luke stepped into her, shivering and pulling away.
-"The ice...was never this thi-"
-The surface they were standing on cracked, splintered and then shattered. They fell into a shallow pit in the ice.
-Finding themselves in a cold, strange ice cavern, the group quickly stood up and looked around. The cavern was empty but for a large, perfectly round sphere made of some sort of smooth black stone.
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Post by lukuz13 on Mar 18, 2011 21:05:26 GMT -5
Luke slowly stood again, groaning a bit from the ice, holding his head.
"Agh... damn its like rock." Luke sighed, sliding his hand along the wall as they slowly entered the chamber. Letting his gaze move from the scenery with a blueish hue to the smooth dark stone, Luke turned to Undine for a moment.
"I'm going to take a guess and say... we probably shouldn't touch that should we?" Luke spoke jokingly, yet a hint of caution loomed in his voice.
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Post by Noven on Mar 18, 2011 21:08:09 GMT -5
-"Damn it." Talfen muttered. A small amount of blood was flowing from the head of Matt, he must have been hit by some ice chunk along the way. "Anyone want to bandage him? And volunteers to carry the poor bastard?" He thought to himself Just how useless could this man get? Knocked out in battle against mere novices in the Empire's service? Stunned seeing some mere ice falling? Would he prove to turn tail and run in battle because he saw some "sharp, pointy" objects turned on him?
-Talfen had this urge to... with no other way to describe it... *Facepalm* It was the glaring term in his mind, and he understood it, naturally, as if it was being channeled into his body, mind... his soul...
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Post by graybeardhalt on Mar 18, 2011 21:11:47 GMT -5
-Butch landed right on his face, slamming into the ground. No true words escaped from his mouth, just a clash of syllables to describe how much pain he was in. He laid on his side, clutching his face his eyes slightly tearing up in the pain. After a few minutes he was able to pull himself together and get up, his face just a huge red mark. He looked around. "Where the hell are we?" He asked, his voice echoing through the cave.
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Post by FinlandiaWhiteEyes on Mar 18, 2011 21:13:30 GMT -5
-The water elemental moved a couple of steps closer to the sphere.
-"What do you believe this is? I have never seen such a thing before..."
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Post by lukuz13 on Mar 18, 2011 21:17:10 GMT -5
Luke looked at Undine a bit puzzled that even she did not recognize the sphere, stepping closer he allowed his gloved hand to slide over the smooth surface, examining it with care.
"It looks like it has been here for ages..." Luke spoke softly, as if to prevent awakening a creature, turning his blue eyes to Undine.
"Do you not recognize it in the least?" He ensured
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Post by FinlandiaWhiteEyes on Mar 18, 2011 21:24:11 GMT -5
-""No, I..."
-Her voice tailed off, eyes wide with amazement.
-Luke's touch had changed something about the rock. It was...glowing. He pulled his hand away quickly, eyes wide. Suddenly, it became clearer, much more transparent. It also grew so cold that even Undine felt the chill.
-The black stone sphere had become ice. A blur of red could be seen in its centre.
-Then the ice shattered outwards, flying up to the hole in the ceiling, filling the gap, and trapping them inside this icy cavern.
-But none of the company noticed this. Their attention was fixed on a small figure, sleeping in what would have been the centre of the sphere.
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Post by Mog on Mar 18, 2011 21:53:16 GMT -5
For a second no sound interrupted the silence that had fallen but the steady drip from the ceiling onto the half-sphere remaining before the adventurers and their similarly aqueous guide. A drop fell and splashed gently off the creature lay in the centre of the semi-sphere. The nose twitched.
Slowly, the creature seemed to get up, but in no ordinary fashion or even in any way considered remotely human. It was as if the being was dragged up like a puppet on a string would be, pulled slowly but surely by invisible wire hanging from the ceiling of what could yet become the traveler’s icy tomb. Their immediate future, the brightest of the five realised, seemed to hinge on the sudden appearance of this uncertain factor (a remarkable deduction, considering the brains of the outfit did not, in fact, possess a brain).
Stood straight now, the being reached up its arms and stretched, obviously waking from a long sleep. This alone was nothing to stare at, what was truly amazing was that behind the unknown creature the walls too seemed to be bending and stretching, curving outward. The drops of water on the semi-sphere around the creature began to rapidly race away from the creature, small cracks appeared in the ice as glaciers changed directions in a mad fit, trees, grass, flowers and all else miles away suddenly found themselves attempting to run from an unknown threat. Birds took flight and erratically flew as quickly as they could into any horizon not filled by this strange yet terrible unknown. Around the planet and beyond everything, everything, felt something deep in the code that had built it, some primal urge that could not be described or explained without a very large and very powerful drum, some dire need to get away. At the focus of all this, the anomaly finished stretching, it's languid yawn dying away. It opened its eyes and suddenly, the urge was gone. Everything snapped backward and all sense of a threat vanished. The five travelers suddenly found themselves leaning forward in curiosity again, as opposed to leaning back just ever so slightly.
Our team regarded a small creature. Stood up it would reach no higher than an average man's knee, if not for the strange bauble, or pom-pom protruding from its head. Counting the top-most part of the wire connecting the pom-pom to the head before it began to droop, Butch and his slightly less awesome companions guessed that he would reach to about waist height. He wore simple clothing, expensive looking shoes, an interesting and colourful jacket and a hat that was something like a beret which hid the point the wire became head.
The creature pulled the hat down its face slightly, covering its eyes. It seemed to be sniffing the air. There was a slight pause, and the four human travelers felt as though a small hand was pressed lightly against their forehead. A second later, the sensation vanished, and the creature sank into thought.
Seeming to come to a conclusion, the small creature nodded to itself. Still with its cap covering its eyes, it gave the group a warm smile, the kind associated with people who are everyone’s friend after an hour at any good party. The thing then shot out an arm to point an accusing finger... straight... at... Luke.
"You! What is the one thing worse than a monster hiding in the dark?"
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Post by lukuz13 on Mar 18, 2011 22:07:33 GMT -5
Luke stared at the strange being, his eyes taunted to look at the jiggling 'pom pom' on his head, before he slowly came back to his senses and realized he was being accosted by the thing.
"Worse then a monster in the dark?" Luke repeated, amazed at its speech before thinking hard. He never was that good with riddles. Then suddenly it came to him as if by a flash of memory
"A monster that nobody else knows is a monster." Luke spoke slowly, as if cautious with his answer. "Though that is not the only kind..."
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Post by Mog on Mar 18, 2011 22:16:25 GMT -5
At first the creature scoffed.
"Heh, 'that's not the only kind though,' pick an answer and stick with it, please."
"...Although. A monster that no one knows is a monster? So, you say the one thing worse that a monster hiding in the dark is a monster hiding in the light? Well, it makes sense, as much sense as any other answer I've ever gotten anyway, and it certainly sounds poetic, though you clearly over thought it. Do you... no... it can wait."
The being smiled. "Achintya. My name is Achintya. I'm a creature not like or unlike your damp friend here. Pleased to meet you." Another of those boundlessly friendly smiles shone at the five with the force of a sun.
"...Don't suppose you've got any food?"
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Post by graybeardhalt on Mar 18, 2011 22:22:56 GMT -5
-Butch was just staring at Achintya in awe. He quickly walked over to it. "Well my name's Butch and I think you are just adorable. You remind me so much of my pet squirrel Phillip." Butch quickly grabbed the pom-pom shaped object. "What is this thing anyway, some sort of decoration?" He said smiling a bit to Achintya, and flexing his hand slightly as he did so.
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Post by Mog on Mar 18, 2011 22:38:04 GMT -5
Butch, his face glowing with adoration, suddenly snapped his hand away, his eyes wide, showing a cross between confusion and horror. It had only been for a second, less than that even... but for a second, he'd seen something personal. It was as if his mind had been kicked, and for a moment his thoughts were flooded with visions of his Mother and... Radroaches... The visions were accompanied with an angry snarl of "Get off." There was no voice and Butch could remember no one speaking, it was like the actual phrase had been removed, and only the knowledge that something had been said remained.
Opening his now tear filled eyes and staring from his hand to Achintya, the small creature looked up at him sympathetically.
"I'm sorry about that" it said, "believe me, it wasn't on purpose. You just don't touch the pom-pom. Even i don't know why. You just don't."
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Post by FinlandiaWhiteEyes on Mar 18, 2011 22:44:16 GMT -5
-She sensed the brief, strange clash with interest. Seeing the usually mild, happy, if slightly slow Butch with tears in his eyes was unnerving. 'What is this creature?' she thought. She was grasped with a desire to touch the pom-pom herself, just to see what would happen. She was, however, firm enough in will to push that desire aside.
-"Achintya?" Undine's form rippled as she knelt to look into the being's face directly. Such a strange creature. She had never seen anything quite like it in any world she had visited. Yet it was certainly intelligent. When it yawned...the world had recoiled. Even the water had shied away. Such a fascinating creature. 'Not like or unlike'...she chose to ignore the 'damp'. And the 'friend'. She gazed at it for a long time, before smiling and standing up.
-"Food, I do not have. If you are thirsty, however, I can help you there." Her words held more than a hint of irony. She caught a drip of water that was falling from the cave, moved it through the air and let it splash onto Achintya's nose.
-Falling through a glacier would usually put her in a bad mood. Today, the boundless curiosity of the spirit was piqued.
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