The lead centaur's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Savin' the world. Apparently one of her daughters is up to no good and we aim to stop her."
You notice relief briefly flash across their faces.
"Yea, that sounds okay."
"They want us to speak to their chief. I said we'd do it."
Zes nods weakly at Hobbes, following along.
"It sounded like they don't have bad intentions...for now" he sighs.
"If they wanted to do us harm they probably could have already" Sigrun says as they prepare to follow.
"Could have tried."
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The flame haired warrior grins at her love's bravado, leaning over to bump him playfully.
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Smirking as he staggers a bit he steps over and returns the favor.
Ahead in the distance, a thin plume of smoke drifts above the trees. Soon enough, a large clearing containing a sizeable encampment appears. Broad, circular tent-huts made from hides stretched over wooden frames form a crescent around a large campfire. The muddy ground is churned with numerous hoofprints. Throughout the camp, centaurs mill about, performing mundane tasks such as carrying firewood, filling water buckets, or roasting spitted pheasants over a pit of glowing coals. As you enter, all activity stops as the inhabitants turn their attention to you. Several children openly gawk at your strange appearances; it's clear they've had no contact with other species before.
Ignoring the commotion, your escorts lead you to a large, finely-constructed tent in the center of the crescent, facing the communal fire. Inside, you find a powerful-looking centaur with broad shoulders, a full beard and long mustaches, and a dark bay coat. Giving you a regal nod, he greets you in Sylvan.
"Well we're tryin ta save the world, so peace I guess."
Hobbes says nodding back
Percy speaks just after Hobbes in an attempt to clarify his statement.
He frowned his tail lashing at being left out of the talks. He trusted Percilicious and Hobbes to handle whatever negotiations might be needed, but his curiousity was certainly taking a hold of him. He did his best to just study the Centaur leader and his guards, absolutely fascinated with them.
"I don't think so. At least as far as we know."
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Zses mulls for a moment, then replies to the chief.
The centaur wrinkles his nose in revulsion.
Erdija is a young centaur maiden with long, wild brown hair and a chestnut coat.
He frowned as the others spoke and decided he should start learnign what ever language that was... he didnt like being lived out of conversations. Perhaps Friend Zses would help with it.
"That's pretty far. Thanks for the help. Do you all need anything before we go?"
Korak Kaang shakes his head.
"Just checkin. Thank's chief."
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That night, Zses goes to bed with an heavy hearth, the recent revelations about his family weighing down upon him. Even if there were Allie and the others with him, knowing to not have a place to go back to terrified him.
And I ran away, leaving them there...
Holding his head, the witch goes to bed, trembling, fearful of what nightmares he would have had that night: would he have had the same nightmere he had every night, before all of this happened before he met everyone?
Yes, here he was. In the darkness, he was catching his breath, his legs stinging with the pain of running for hours, maybe days, on end. Now, he would have turned, like always, to the obsidian door behind him, and stand there terrified in fear...
But, turning, the witch didn't see the enormous door, but a swarm of ink black moths, the same that killed his family. This time, though, he did not stand still in fear. Gripping the orange scarf around his neck, his Kapenia, Zses turned away and started running, his steps getting lighter and lighter and the pain in his legs fading with every leap. And this time, he was not running from something, from those creatures, but to something: on a tree that was getting closer and closer stood a raven, it's feather glimmering with stars. Reaching out to it, Zses stretched his hand and, as soon he touched Crow, the world around him started to fade in a flutter of butterfly wings and starry luminescence, as a calming warmth enveloped him.
It was still night, and Zses could still see bare trees in the dark, but he felt completely different from a few moments before: the moon illuminated the forest, and two people were holding his hands and keeping them warm as they walked trough the snowy trees. The tiny hands of a child, he realized, as he saw trough the eyes of the past himself.
“I told you, Laurentiu, I can walk. Besides, it can't just stay in a bed all day long: that would surely kill me!” the woman holding his left hand said, letting out a laugh quickly interrupted by a coughing fit.
“I understand dear, but don't overdo it, okay?” the man called Laurentiu said with worry in his voice, as he hold onto Zses' right hand.
He...was his father, the witch remembered. Zses's mother had been severely ill lately, but she wanted to go on a walk with her husband and her son.
”C'mon, Stela, let's start to get back.” Laurentiu said, turning to the woman.
Stela, Stela...that was his mother's name! But even if he wanted to turn his head and look at her, his past self turned to his father and asked him a question.
“Dad, is mommy going to be okay?” the child asked raising his head, that had been staring at the ground the whole time, and both his parents fell silent.
“Listen, Zses...” his mother started talking, squeezing Zses' hand, and the child raised his head to look at her mother. The Varisian woman, her olive skin made somewhat pale from the illness, looked at the child with her lavender eyes.
“Mommy's going to be okay: I'm tough! But, remember, sometime bad things happen in life...and you'll be sad, and it'l feel like you don't know what to do anymore, but it's important that you don't drown in that sadness and stop moving forward.” the woman almost started crying, and both her kneeled on the snow and hugged Zses: the child, in the meantime, started looking at the black night sky over her mother's shoulders before she spoke again.
“Because, remember, that even if the night will be dark...there will always be starts there in the sky, to guide you.”
The child raised his head, and he saw the firmament covering the night sky, illuminating the night and filling him with a sad, but calming warmth, the same of the hug of his parent's.
And has he looked at the stars, the sky seemed to grow closer and closer, and he could see memories, snippet of his pasts reflected in each of the stars: memories of sadness and fear, but also of joy, happiness, and hope. Their light started enveloping him and...
Zses springs up from his bed, feeling light as a feather, as if an enormous weight was lifted off him. It takes a moment for him to realize what happened, or the tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.
”I remember...” he mutters to himself, before jumping up and down ””
The witch starts dressing to go tell the others, feeling like he could burst out of joy at any moment, or start having hallucinations, or something!
Hallucinations like that almost two feet tall woman slightly similar to his mother, sitting on a pile of feathers near his bed.
” 'Morning.”
” 'Morning.”
Zses stares at the winged woman.
-----------------------------------
”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” Zses screams, darting out of his tent crossbow in hand and hiding behind any member of the party taller than him that was already out of his/her tent.
”There is this little half-naked fairy woman in my tent!” he fumbles with his crossbow, clearly panicked but much more upbeat than the last day.
After a moment, a miniature woman with violet butterfly wings flies out of the tent, scratching her hair (that, looking at them better, looked more like bird feathers than hair). Leaving sparkly particles after her, she's wearing a sort of familiar looking vest, wrapped around her to cover herself without hampering her wings.
”Wow, that was rude.” the fairy(?) says, putting her hands on her side and speaking in a deep (for someone so tiny) woman voice.
"What in the inferno did you do? And why is that faerie wearing Crow's vest?"
Percy looks at Zses, then at the woman. This was new. Hey, where is crow, anyway? And what do you remember?
Zses' eyes light up at Percy's question. Literally: a starry pattern blinks in Zses' irises.
"Everything! My mother's name was Stela, my dad's Laurentiu, they were both Varisians like me! And I remember my dog's name, the first time I climbed a tree, the route we'd usually travel-" the witch starts recounting with giddiness random pieces of memories from his past, before he snaps back to the current situation.
"Then I woke up and she was there! I have no idea where Crow is!" Zses says, pointing at the fairy.
"Can't you guess?" the woman replies to Percy and Hobbes grinning, before she raises up her arms and looks at them puzzled. "By the way, anyone can tell me how to use these? I had some problems tying up this thing -I?m afraid it'll come off any minute, by the way: anyone got a dress my height? No one?- using these ten meat tubes attached to the two bigger meat tubes. I swear, it's impossible to coordinate this things! Oh, and flying like this, hovering like it's nothing, is so weird and-" the fairy keeps talking incessantly, as she had never been able to take thoughts out of her head in a timely fashion and now was trying to catch up.
Percy holds up her hands to forestall the flood of words and takes a peek at the fairy's shadow.
Hobbes is equally shocked. "What? How? Why? What?"
Like friend Hobbes the samukitty stood there for several moments, opening his mouth, then closing it. He tilted his head to the side and made a confused looking scowl for a moment before tilting his head to the other side. Finally at some study he merely shrugged.
It is good that you remember friend Zsestrian yes yes, and it is nice to meet you talkitive little fairy things as well..
He added nodding. He wanted to know what was going on and yet at the same time... he wasnt sure he wanted to know at all. He could help with some of the minor details at least. He moved to his things and cut off a swatch of his old cloak, (the non fuschia non magical one) and began to fashion weird fairy dresses.
Percy holds up her hands to forestall the flood of words and takes a peek at the fairy's shadow.
The fairy's shadow looks just like Crow's in the last day. As you look at it, for a moment if flickers back to that of a raven, before going back to that of a winged woman.
Percy sighs. It's Crow, though I never knew Crow was female. Anyway, we can't have a member of the party flashing people, so lets get you dressed.
She waves Crow the Fairy into her tent and brings Hobbes and Silence to the door. We're going to have to work together on this. Some of my old stuff should do. Or possibly Allie's...
She starts trying clothes on the fairy and tossing articles out for the the Sexy Shoeless Tailor of War and the Kitty Who Would Sew to alter.