Vehemence briskly strides through the forest with his reptilian feet, however not without moments of awkward movement; his cloak billowing into branches, his anklet wings sometimes catching roots. He holds his claymore's hilt resting in his hands, the blade tilted up, resting against his shoulder.
As the trek continues, he begins to frustrate at the wood. His tail begins to thrash and snap against the trees, threatening their bark; with his own emitting small, quick sharp flashes of red, dancing on his skin.
But the fires of his pores settle, retreating back into his fingertips. He feels cold.
"So... who are the lot of you? What are your stories?"
Within the depths of his own cruel heart, Vehemence knew that if he could be inspired by these mere before him, that his intensity could kindle, and feel more like himself. And then, potentially... He could dispose them to gain some of his power back.
For he would do anything neccessary to find his damned thief of hearts.
Now comfortable on Jairdan's shoulder, Macario is able to speak freely: "I came from the old parts of the forest to find a close friend of mine. Like a lot of other kin, he went missing at the onset of all of this. That's it really...though it's been a challenging to get even this far. A lot of the other kin have already given up on their stories, it's kinda sad."
"What about you? You must have quite the tale, at least by the looks of you." says the mouse, noting the Provoker's enthralling appearance.
Pandora seems to perk up as Vehemence asks about her story.
"I was a star. A star...There was a whole story, a story of a king with a beautiful, but foolish, wife. He was given a box for safe-keeping and told never to open it." She digs through her bag and produces the box. "All I had to do was open the box, but I don't seem to be interested enough in what's inside to do so anymore." She hands the box to Vehemence. It's a beautiful box, light yet strong, made from alder and covered with silver engravings and embossing. A tiny lock holds it shut."So, I was fired, and I came here."
She looks jealously at Macario and gazes off in the direction Antika squirmed off in, hoping he'll return so she can ride again.
Amaterasu emerges from the forest again.
"I am the balance of nature, a guardian of the wilds of Tien Tia. My name is Amaterasu of the Sun. I am sorry to hear you have lost things, to my knowledge I have been fine. I do not think I lost anything."
She gives the group an uncomfortably large smile.
He holds the lustrous box in his hand, with a sort of contained apathy, and tosses it back to the pale child. From their stories Vehemence feels nothing of their furor, and thus, feels nothing once more. No empathy.
But the mouse's query makes him remember. Brings him back. His pupils enlarge into blackened holes of vile hate as he summons the memories...
"I have built a kingdom upon which all manner of souls entreat. A kingdom whose business is exaction. To do this, I found the secret holes... the portals. I broke into the Real, and made pacts of heart with not just men, or dwarves... but fiends, and goddesses, and eternal terrors alike. I am VEHEMENCE, and I bless those who love me, with my spirit..."
He inhales as he envisions the damned thief. He sees her in all her vivacity in his mind, and the vermilion tips of his claws flash up his limbs like bolts, until the whole of his skin is covered in a sacred, scarlet tenacity. He vomits the end of his tale thus:
"...but there was one who dared ME. Without word, they came and struck me unawares. My fortress was sacked, and this FOOL thinks that they may freely DO THIS, to ME, and then MOCK ME TO MY FACE, WITH THIS PUTRID HEART, WITHOUT PENANCE!!!"
With his free hand, he grips the beating heart pendant which lay on his breastplate, rips it from the chain, and throws it to the dust in front of him.
This was good. In losing control, he began to feel it again... He began to thirst for the bloodwine.
I... I AM alive...
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The woman bursts into giggles at Vehemences perceived tantrum. Holding her sides she doubles over in a fit of laughter.
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Pandora bobbles the box before getting a hold of it. She shoots Vehemence a glare and tucks it back into the safety of her pack.
"It seems to me that you have lost something, Ameratsu. You don't seem very balanced to me..."
"Again with the yelling. Is it really necessary for the whole forest to hear of your..." Macario gulps nervously at the still-beating organ on the floor. "Of your tell-tale heart?"
Meanwhile Amaterasu has collapsed in a fit of laughter. Weren't we supposed to be doing something laments the mouse.
"I was.. am..? The Lantern. A legendary light lit by the first flame, and carried by holy men until now.." There was a distant tone in Jairdan's voice, as if what was stolen was something that he was uncertain of. His voice was quiet as he tried to remember what was lost. "I lost.. I don't know.. Did I lose the light? Was I lost?" A shake of his head brought him back to the here and now. "..What good is a light, if it does not illuminate?"
A half shrug was given, careful not to jostle Macario. "Perhaps I will find out. Perhaps I will be extinguished... Worse yet, perhaps I will just exist."
Antika, too busy chasing birds, doesn't see whatever it is, and Pandora can't be bothered, though she does look at the bushes occasionally to see if Antika's coming back.
Vehemence spits on, then retrieves his fleshly token. He gives a glazed glare to the hysteric woman, thinking her cracked of mind, then burns his pupils into Macario for a prolonged moment.
"You'd not know the viscera of this vendetta, mouse."
Vehemence clicks the tips of his fangs together as he grates his jaws. He was so different from these among him. Their mettle was so alien to him. Jairdan, who bore the form of a warrior, gave him some flickering hope... He needed to keep his flickering ardor alive if he were 'ere to catch his thief.
Amaterasu's visage changes completly as she becomes fairly indifferent to the conversation, looking around them.
"I am balanced. I would not be here were I not." she explains, as if to a child.
Motioning to the rest, "Come now! Stop wasting all this time in talk!"
"I am merely here to reestablish my empire, this world robbed me of my industry, I will have it returned" he adjusted his clothing. The way he spoke was if stating a fact. Not a maybe, or an if. Just plain simple fact
Macario is too distracted by the ongoing drama put on by his companions to notice anything at all.
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The thicket goes deeper into the forest, and the ground becomes littered with rocks.The unicorn's tracks becoming increasingly difficult to spot; there are so many broken branches, so many small indentations in the ground that picking out what is and isn't her tracks becomes nearly impossible.
The sounds of animals and rushing water in the distance increases with the advance into the forest. Several roe deer bound nearby but seem to pay the laboring party no mind.
After a few hours travel through the thicket, dusk starts to settle in. While the day has been nice and temperate for a late summer day, the oncoming night brings with it more than a touch of cold and those still in summer gear start to become uncomfortable.
"I suggest we make camp, most of us can not travel easily through this undergrowth"
As Pandora walks through the thicket, she suddenly sees through Antika's eyes. A pile of leaves is lit up from below. She suddenly feels nausous as her eidolon lurches forward and begins digging through the pile.
"Antika, stop! Whatever's in there wants to be left alone..."
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At Sher Khan's words, Pandora nods gratefully.
Now that he is off the ground Macario has the ability to better direct his companions even as they struggle with thick underbrush. While Jairdan continues the trek, the mouse focuses his attention entirely on keeping the tracks in sight.
He merely notes the strange glow coming from the forest floor, still engrossed with the trail. His small Moth companion, on the other hand, flutters down curiously. Unfortunately Antika begins digging in before she can get there, forcing Sophie to flutter nearby as the eidolon searches.
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"It's getting cold too. We can pick it back up again in the morning."
The undergrowth and vegetation does not affect Amaterasu in the least as she moves through the forest unhindered. She is able to easily pick out the trail as the days light dies and the temperature drops.
"Oh dear the cold is more than expected. Perhaps a fire would be appropriate?"
Vehemence almost gets lost inside the verdant wasteland, following suit behind those who may yet help him in ways they do not know. The whole business is a drudgery, and through several more annoyances and outbursts, the night settles.
However, with the night settles Vehemence himself, his fight drifting into cold comatose again, the waves of unsure apathy coiling and cradling 'round his soul.
"Yes, let us make camp... Set ourselves apart from this despicable wild..."
His composure looks almost bluish within his pale.
Suiting action to the group's decision, Jairdan started to scout about for a suitable place to make camp that did not have too many obstructions. Care was going to have to be taken to not start a fire that would spread, as well. At least, if the obstructions proved to be branches, they would have fuel for the fire. "I'll start clearing the area if we want to set camp here?"
If there are no voices of dissension, he would set down his pack, taking care to not jostle Macario, and begin clearing. His time in the wilderness did not include much of the way of outdoor living, so he was going to be obviously looking to the others for tips and tricks that he did not know.
Seeing that Jairdan has set to work Macario once again pipes up: "I can help set up the camp if you'd like." He gives a quick chant and summons an unseen being of force that begins to work at his direction.
Amaterasu watches with amusement as camp is made. Having continuously lived in the wilderness she found nothing of the area uncomfortable. After a few moments of watching, and chuckling she disappears into the woods to find food.
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Amaterasu finds wood fairly easily in the forest. While doing so, she also discovers a few wild onions growing nearby. As she leans over to collect her bounty, a a sharp jab hits her lower back. A giggle, light and tiny, erupts from behind her but she is unable to find anything while looking around the area.
Setting up camp goes quickly and without much difficulty. As the sun sets, the party gathers around the campfire to have a meal.
The food was food, and Jairdan was content. He had needed help to remove the breastplate, since it would be uncomfortable to sleep in. Admittedly, the air around the campfire was a bit uncertain, the flickering light ever reminding him of himself. Mostly so because of Vehemence and Sher Khan, was he so uncertain, but he was willing to try to be as sociable as necessary. Mostly, he was contemplating their relationship with the world at large, as stories were not often things that became tangible... Not really, anyways. He voiced his thoughts with a "Hmmmm..." The light and warmth warded off the chill, but something about the evening led the mind to wander.
Another bite was taken before he continued. "I was thinking.. We have our stories, some of them grand concepts", he said, gesturing to Vehemence to preempt any outbursts. "However, the story as an entity is a difficult thing to produce.. Is it possible the story still exists, and we are just their avatars?"
Having built a small nest of leaves near the fire Macario has set himself up for a night of gentle dozing beneath the stars.
When Jairdan speaks he thinks for a moment before responding. "That's a pretty strange question...I think the stories do exist still, somewhere out there, but that doesn't change the fact that we are all connected at our very cores to our respective tales. At the very least a lot of the storykin have changed at the onset of all of this which means their is some sort of correlation. But...I think we're all still individuals beyond that, capable of thinking and acting beyond the stories. That's why we're all out here isn't it?"
The King of Pride, also bereft of his breastplate, is adorned only in his sterling morose lavender cloak, wrapped around his full frame. In his contemplative state, he seems almost civil... almost.
He speaks from his maw of daggers out of pithy empiricism.
"I do not know, knave. The tales I spin are those of the wars in the Real...
Without my blessing, they may have been spurred to inaction, trapped without movement in their blood.
Perhaps this fable-thief means to destroy the Real through destroying us...
Rendering those who abide there bound and crippled without our inspiration, to crush them as a coiling snake. Aye, perhaps that's it....."
Vehemence clicks his teeth together as he broods, shifting his jaw side-to-side in his mouth.
Agh. I need my crown back... How many pacts will it take... I'd rather not negotiate with Asmodeus again... Perhaps Norgorber. His services have been rather keen within the past aeon... We will see what he knows of this heart.
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The night goes by with little of note. During the night, several of those on watch hear footsteps and cracking twigs around them, but investigations into the area could not find the source.
The next day, travel is even tougher than before, with the thickets becoming thicker as you travel deeper into the Churlwood. Amaterasu continues to move quickly through the area.
At noon, the party arrives at an area of lighter undergrowth than before. While taking a brief rest, the giggling that had been following the party for the past day increases, and Vehemence suddenly begins to feel an odd, sinking sensation in his stomach.
A tiny green-skinned humanoid wielding a needle-sized rapier appears suddenly in front of Vehemence, looking rather disappointed at his current size.
"I have been following you for the past day," it squeaks, "and I have deemed you worthy of being my next opponent! A duel, I say!"
"Duel? Why so? Did this one do you harm or did it insult you? I see no other reason to initiate a duel" he looks at the strange creature
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Attempting to hex a king is never an action returned in kind, in any empire, regardless of its' status being whole or broken.
Vehemence the crownless turns with the scour of the first adversary to face his own tiny enemy.
As he sees the frame of whom challenges him however, the wrath flushes from his frown and the king grins. He even chuckles.
"And who might you be, to be worthy to face the King of War in duel, little thing?"
But even while his face remains jovial, he scans the potential climax of this encounter before him.
He wonders; What could the blessed blood of this faeling be worth- could it bring him any sustenance or gains?
It is such a small thing... perhaps a small pint? Something to do, at least, drink this little one...
He certainly has more fight in him though, despite his frame...
I will reward him.
Vehemence finds joy in the pretense of conflict amidst this dreadful sea of foliage.
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"Pff, I am Orin Warren, greatest of the fey! You are obviously a worthy opponent, and I shall slay you in single combat." The fey creature puffs out its chest and squeaks, Just as I've defeated bandits and thugs and the Nothingman's henchmen!"
He takes a deep bow and brandishes his rapier as he rises. "Now, if you'd please, let us begin!"
The creature concentrates deeply on Vehemence and mutters under its breath, "Be sleek and nimble, like a thimble," obviously casting a spell.
"Using magic in a duel? That's pretty sneaky. You are pretty small though...."
Vehemence cackles further, and in his revel his claws' hue begins to spark up his arms to his face as flashing lightnings, and his left foreclaw, the larger among the rest, begins to crackle alongside the crownless Vehemences' laughing.
The king issues his decree:
"ORIN WARREN, AS A REWARD FOR THE FIGHT OF YOUR OWN LITTLE SPIRIT, TODAY YOUR BLOOD WILL SERVE THE FURNACE KING, IN BATTLE AND DEATH."
Standing by as a witness, Jairdan was curious of the duel. As it was issued and accepted with no desire for alterations on either combatant's part, there was nothing that he felt required him to intercede. The name of the tiny individual was not known to him, so he watched with a slight frown, wondering if a loss of this duel would result in a loss of life. A sigh parted his lips as he looked around at the others to see what their reactions to this scene were.
Khan was simply looking on. Savage and uncultured. Duels. Waste of time and energy. Talking it over and coming to a deal is much more rewarding for both parties
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Amaterasu leans against a tree with a grin of amusement.
"You are one silly little creature."
Antika watches the proceedings with great curiosity, while Pandora yawns and leans against his side, staring at the sky. Suddenly, her head bounces against the ground as Antika slides away to get closer to the fight.
Feeling useless sitting on the sidelines, Macario blinks curiously when the strange creature disappears. With a frown the mouse begins to mutter an enchantment.
"Revelabit"
Vehemence snorts with a pomp displeasure. He had learned to really hate tricksters over the past few days. This blood would taste sweet.
"Deny my blessing and PROFANE THE HONOR OF MY DUEL'S OFFER!? OH ORIN WARREN, YOU INSOLENT FOOL! I WILL DEVOUR YOU."
Vehemence takes his sword in full grip, ready to flay and rip the small mocker. No more would thieves and liars take away his dignity.
No.
They would soon learn remorse.
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The creature giggles again and repeats in a singing chant, "You're no better than the Nothingman, the Nothingman, the Nothingman. You're no better than the Nothingman that eats the feythings whole."
Pain blooms in Vehemence's side as the small creature reappears. A small, angry slash from the creature's rapier appears at the same time.
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