| Welcome to Sekkai Fractures. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Loss and Gain; Let's dig a bigger hole Nimirra! | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 25 2012, 03:09 PM (270 Views) | |
| Zinc | Feb 25 2012, 03:09 PM Post #1 |
![]()
The Owl Waife
![]()
|
'How many times has the sun set?' The raven haired girl gazed up at the light blush of the early morning sky. 'And how many times has it risen?' she wondered briefly. Pastel hued eyes traced through the clouds to the bright orb of a sun that was beginning to crest the trees. Trees...how she had missed them in the days since she had come to Lihn. It had been a scarring experience at the worst, and a new culture and opportunity at the best. But it was still quite... jarring, would be the kindest way to put it. Merla felt the proverbial sparrow amongst the pigeons, or in her case and namesake, the black-bird among the parrots. There were many types of humanity amongst the walls of the city. More than she could count, and more than she'd ever known. She'd spent the first few days of her time in the Academy hiding within its walls, but even there, life had abounded. Animals, people, dire wolves, and more intriguingly to the girl, dragons. She had never seen a dragon since the time she had received her critical wounds from the Forest. For a time, she was afraid of the large beasts that were roaming the halls, but after a day or two, and an encounter with a Forest pair, she learned that they weren't all bad, and what she had seen was not a thing like these. There came much to learn with this new world. While she had known briefly of the chaos outside of Nyushi from the conversations she'd heard her mother have with the trees (though they had been one-sided from her perspective), out here in the stone cities, they were all too close and all too real. The Academy it seemed, was still reeling from a recent deceit that had given them cause to believe that their 'Ghost of the Sands' a dragon named Kazuko had been murdered. Merla had no idea what a Kazuko was, and was still quite unsure. Apparently the dragon ghost hadn't returned to her normal haunt. A dragon spirit...that would be interesting to see. Apparently it presided over the hatchings. Was there a medium that could commune with it? Merla gave an internal shrug and looked back around her. She had gone beyond the walls of the city and towards the groves of trees that hedged the clearings that had been cut for the city to expand and flourish. Humanity continued to spill out of the city's gates however, and as she wove through tents to the woods beyond, she shook her head. She'd never thought she'd see so many people. Sometimes she felt smothered, like she couldn't breathe. But as she stepped into the cool shade of the fading autumn trees, she felt a smile pull at her face, and an internal sigh blossomed out of her mouth in an exhale of cool breath in the morning. 'There aren't enough trees' she thought sadly, looking over her shoulder at the city that sat like a straight-backed king in the center of the trees. Shaking her head, she stepped further beneath the canopies of the trees, a knot of tension she hadn't known she'd had beginning to ease with every step. She was supposed to be destined to find her way in the Academy, but she felt so out of place and uncomfortable...Then again, transitions were never simple. She lay a hand on the bark of the tree next to her and glanced up at it. "Why can I not be like you, Sister Oak?" she asked the tall tree. "You shift and bend with the seasons so easily, your branches twist in the wind. I feel brittle and immovable..." she rested her forehead against it for a moment before stepping back and bowing to it. "I ask your permission to rest in your limbs." She paused and wondered if there would be a reply, such as the ones she had never heard, but her mother had always interpreted for her, and frowned. There was to be no more interpretation of the green elements for her now. A sudden and raucous Waurgh! called her attention up to the branches where a great black shape rested. "Hugin!" she called up to him. The raven blinked, ruffled his feathers and gave another short and gravelly call. Waurgh! Merla shrugged to herself and carefully hoisted herself up into the branches, Hugin watching her with vague interest as she brought herself up to his level. "Nice to see you too." she mumbled reaching over and ruffling the feathers near his neck as he tipped his head for her to reach. She settled down on a broad branch, her legs touching the main body of the Oak, and her head cradled on her arms. Hugin hopped up to a few higher branches as she watched him. She hadn't been sleeping well the past few nights. The oddity of her new quarters, the lack of the scent of greenery and the cold scent of stone all around her had amounted to naught but tossing and turning. But here, she could feel her exhaustion returning to her, and in the warm patches of morning sun through the branches, she felt her eyelids begin to droop and she allowed herself to doze, safe amongst that which she knew. |
![]() |
|
| Nimirra | Mar 4 2012, 11:11 PM Post #2 |
|
Meathods of Madness
![]()
|
It seemed like eons had passed since the blonde had allowed himself to stretch his legs outside the Academy's grounds. He'd been confined to his tasks about the massive building and gotten so lost in the shuffle he hadn't even thought of a well earned break from life as a candidate. Finally a day came where he was able to stop the flurry of organized chaos that was his agenda and come to terms with the need of a vacation of sorts. His mind had been ablaze with options and theories on what he should or could do for nearly a week after this revelation, but never did it quite seem content with one conclusion or another. And then it dawned on him: a hunting trip. Nothing too drawn out and overly advantageous, but enough to escape the white stone walls for a day of forested nostalgia. All his plans had been carefully laid, like a deck of cards that had been left strewn about and forgotten suddenly being swept up and made orderly once again. Once he had his goal, the disarray had turned into swift arrangement. He had a purpose, and he'd see it through or bulldoze whatever stood in his way of completion. Luckily there were no bumps in the road to throw the determined man off his beaten path, and he woke to the black haze of early morning, well before sunrise. In his living quarter he dressed for the hunt, fastening the cords of his boots and fitting the straps of his double scabbard, twin swords carried more for safekeeping than for demanding need. As he strode towards the doorway to take his leave Mannix swirled the muted gray cloak over his shoulders, letting it billow behind him as he fastened the clasp at his throat. The navigation of hallways had become second hand to the blonde lad, feet carrying him almost on their own accord, threading their way deftly towards the stables. Behind him he could tell from the telltale clicking of hooves on stone that he was going to be joined by Aithne, whether he willed her to come or not. Mannix sighed, choosing to let the trotting boar keep pace without challenging her determination. He'd only lose, after all. Soon melodious footfalls slowed before one of the horse stalls, a blue roan Percheron mare whickering her greeting. Minutes passed as tack was settled and strapped into place while the dark pointed equine patiently stood. Outside the paddock, Aithne chomped greedily on a hunk of pebble her keeper had tossed to occupy, like a thick chew given to distract a destructive dog. Shortly thereafter, the two sets of hooves clattered off, cantering towards the outskirts of Lihn. The traversing went as smoothly as the rhythmic gait of his borrowed mare. They raced the sunrise, horse and stone boar pounding ground beneath them with powerful strides. Soon the road gave way to wilderness, the tangle of underbrush and thicket growing around them, masking the city and civilization beyond its feral borders. The wood was calming, but still foreign to the young man. He'd grown up within a wall of needling pines and bristled trunks. Here stood a leafy canopy, less foreboding and more enchanting than Vidalaner's forest. Chocolate hunter's eyes and sensitive ears adjusted, sharpened to the natural hush of the wilderness. Mannix shifted the worn leather reins to one hand, reaching with the freed palm to move the bow from its saddle rig to over his shoulder. Best to be prepared in case his quarry revealed itself early. While he scanned the thicket's floor for sign of suitable game, the dove winged gargoyle took it upon herself to find amusement elsewhere. She ambled off at her leisured pace, grunting at the shafts of rising light filtering through the leaves to brighten her terra cotta frame. Occasionally she tossed her heavy head, scoring leaves away with her wicked tusks in search of any delectable pebbles hidden in the foliage. A croaking, deep call above bid her to stop, ears laying back and eyes turning skyward to seek the source of audible disturbance. Above she spied one of her master's kind, the two-legs, and an nettlesome bird that seemed to be the source of the irritable noise. The winged boar snorted, issuing them a challenging bray. This didn't seem to sate her entirely, so she added a glorious unfolding of six dovelet wings, mantling them fiercely while her short tuft of tail swished back in forth in ire. Like her form's namesake, the boar had cornered its pray up a tree, and while she couldn't climb to retrieve them, she could make a right racket and wait stubbornly for them to come within range of her jaws or tusks. Eventually. |
![]() |
|
| Zinc | Mar 8 2012, 09:20 PM Post #3 |
![]()
The Owl Waife
![]()
|
The easy sway of the branch in the cool autumn breezes of the day had acted as a lull to the black haired young woman. That, accompanied by the warmth of the dappled light that cast across her arms, back, and face, dyed an orange tint by the changing leaves was more than enough of a natural lullaby to help her ease into a calm sleep. Her balance wasn't compromised in the least by the precarious position she'd fallen asleep in upon the boughs of the trees. Hugin preened nearby in a patch of his own dappled sunlight and enjoyed the general quiet of not having the two-legs he called his flock running around and making a general muck of raven customs. Unfortunately for Hugin, there wasn't much calm to be had for him this day. He twitched his head, his eyes glancing down at the forest floor with a tip of his head as a flash of terra cotta orange caught his attention in comparison to the dull brown of the dirt below. It was followed by an obnoxious bray that sounded more like something he'd like to drop something on than something interesting. He hopped down a few branches to get a better view of the ground, and heard the two-legs stirring. He ignored her and tipped his head to observe the stone boar that had found herself stomping about on the ground below their tree. Hugin watched her unfold six small feathered wings, much like his own, and then croaked, unimpressed. He rubbed his beak on the branch he was perched on for a moment before uttering a rather human-like, but altogether rough, laugh of 'hahaha' at the odd creature. His branch briefly buckled and his feathers rose in a mixture of irritation and alarm as he watched his two-legs flock put her weight onto the branch. It was sturdy, and it would hold, but he hadn't heard her move, and that unnerved him. He shook out his feathers, pretending he hadn't been alarmed in the least and laughed again, this time at Merla and turned his head to look down at Aithne, his dark eyes flicking over her before he decided that, now that his human had found it interesting, she was no longer worth his time. He spread dark wings and fluttered back to a higher branch, with an interesting view of the boar gargoyle and his human, but resumed preening. He didn't care. Nope. Merla on the other hand, had a glint of interest beginning behind her eyes. She perched upon the broad branch, much akin to the way one would have expected of any bird, a half crouch with her hands braced on the branch beneath her and studied the oddity that was Aithne. She was already odd with her coloration and her texture. She was obviously not a normal boar, and appeared to be made of something that wasn't fur and flesh. But what was it that she was comprised of? The wings as well, six in all, were something else that didn't belong upon her body. The eyes of the boar didn't glint with the life one would expect of the reflective mucus membrane of an eye, they were flat and lacked a brightness and sheen. She had flat stone eyes, but still moved, still appeared to think like no more than a boar. Which was why Merla stayed where she was. She had rarely seen boars whens he was out in Nyushi's open forests with her father. But Talon had enforced quite clearly in her mind, that boars were dangerous and ill-tempered creatures. They didn't tend to enjoy being anywhere near people, and their foul natures would send them charging at anything that irritated them. It didn't take much to make them angry. Their weapons were their relentless natures, their sharp hooves, and their tusks which could catch flesh and tear through it as easily as any predators fangs. Even from her perch on the low branches, Merla could see the tusks on the terra cotta gargoyle. She would observe her, though she wouldn't leave the tree. Briefly she wondered if she would be stuck in the tree for the night, the boar having the ability to herd her back into the branches any time that she tried to pick her way down. She frowned. There were worse things, true enough. But she really wouldn't appreciate being stuck here either. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Outer Lihn · Next Topic » |

Player Guide
News Portal
Members
Calender
Gold Shop






7:41 AM Jul 11