[IC] Exodus

[SashaWindrider]

(Yes it is)
"Yes sir. I am now a part of the Demonic Legion so I figured why not. And thank you. " Azurael said, blushing slightly. It took Azurael some time but she managed to find enough Angels for a small squadron, needless to say it was telling none of them were from the Exodus.

Sasha drew a very simple dagger from a hidden pocket within one of her sleeves. The only decoration was a few spirals etched into the hilt. She walked around the border of the camp shedding her blood and reciting the spell. As she completed the ritual things brightened intensely and the dulled back to thier normal colour. A brief him could be heard, much like that of a vibrating tuning fork, that too disappeared. Sasha felt the magic drain completely out of her. She would be quite unable to shapeshift for at least a week and would not be able to sheath or unsheath her wings for roughly the same amount of time. Her temper would also temporarily change to more closely match that of the Order entity that was her legacy. She would be quiet placid and entirely emotionally unattached.

[Redthorn Anvil]

While Azurael was out collecting her new officers, T'vor made his way to the first empty tent he could find and claimed it as his own before falling onto the cot inside for a long nap. He hand't slept in days, but now that things were finally falling in place, he could relax a little.

---

Sephiroth continued this pattern until he circled the whole camp once. He could feel the drain on his magic after each time he invoked her spell, and his arm had collected several cuts along the way. Already he could tell that his mood was being affected, but he wasn't going to let himself get irritated. He completed his circle and met Sasha back at the place they'd begun. He wiped his blood off his knife and stuck it back into his belt.
"That's that, then. Is that all you wanted from me then?" He inquired.

[SashaWindrider]

"Yes, Lord Sephiroth. Quite finished. " Sasha replied, her tone of voice distant. "The dimensional gateway will remain closed to but those of our blood. " Sasha turned walk away, not before adding "Your help was vital". In her detached state this was as close to a thanks as anyone would get. She walked away and found herself a tent. She lay down to sleep, exhausted from the drain of magic.

Azurael dispatched her recruits after giving them thier new assignments. She stopped by T'vor's tent and noted that he was sleeping. Azurael decided not to wake him up but left him a note.
Found recruits, given them assignments. Azurael.

Azurael left the note on a small table next to the bed. She walked away and found Damien who had woken up again by this this point. The both of them decided to have a meal together, in which Azurael decided to persuade Damien to join the joint peacekeeping force.

"Wait until T'vor's awake before you disturb him". Azurael shouted after the rapidly departing Damien.

Sephiroth's rocks had appeared to change in colour slightly and had also grown slightly larger.

[Redthorn Anvil]

Sephiroth found Sasha's new personality to be rather aggravating, but he knew that was only because Chaos had affected him in the same way. He watched her leave, biting back his tongue lest he say something stupid to her back out of irritation. He hadn't noticed the change in the stones' appearances because he'd tucked them away into his pocket for the duration of the spellcasting, but now he returned to where he'd originally been musing before all this occurred and he drew them out again to continue fiddling with them. That was when he noticed the odd change. Curious, he continued to sit and watch them to see if they did anything else.

Meanwhile, ol' T'vor was still napping, and was likely to sleep for the next few hours.

[SashaWindrider]

T'vor was about to get a rude wake up call in the form of a purple haired Demon, who funnily enough was the selfsame Demon that Azurael had tried to stop from waking the slumbering general. Damien arrived outside of T'vor's tent in a tangle of his six limbs. Noisly. Damien had managed to trip over his own feet. As Damien picked himself up he saw that T'vor was not awake and decided that he would just wait outside T'vors tent until the general woke up. Damien sat down resting his back against the tent post. He began to sing softly, it was an old demonic lullaby - old enough to be ancient when the current Grim Reaper was but a babe in arms, it had endured for qiute some time.

The stones had been awakened by something. Perhaps it was Damien playing with them making them float, or the blood ritual spell Sasha and Sephiroth undertook, or something else, whatever it was it was apparent what Damien had thought were stones, were in fact not. The stones began to take on a familiar egg shape and grew larger yet. They stopped growing as if they could sense that growing any larger would cause them to tumble out of the holders hands. They started to emit a deep humming sound and one would possibly sense the 'stones' were impatient and were waiting for something.

Anuriel happened to have a short amount of free time. She wandered to where Sephiroth was. "Lord Sephiroth, I haven't seen you in quite some time. Either yourself or your cohort would pilfer food. I do recall accidentally mistaking General al'Tvor for an intruder once." Anuriel said, referring to the very scene Sephiroth and the General had reminsced together over on the ship.

[Redthorn Anvil]

Sephiroth looked up as he was addressed by a familiar voice. He grinned at the cook.
"I was just reminding him of that a few days ago. Speaking of pilfering, I'll have to stop by later, I miss your food." He showed her the little eggs he was holding. "One of T'vor's men gave me these. He thought they were stones, but it looks like he was wrong. I'm a little concerned though, because importing creatures from Genesis could bring imbalance to this planet. I'm not sure what I should do with them." He told the woman. He set them down on the ground beside him.

---

T'vor grumbled as he was rudely awoken by sounds outside his tent. But he recognized the singer right away.
"What do you want, boy?" He demanded of Damian as he rose from his bed. He picked up his helm from the ground beside his bed and set it atop his dresser. He then re-tied his hair back.

[SashaWindrider]

"You are always welcome in my kitchen. So's T'vor if he wants. I always used to keep a little extra food aside for you two when I figured what was going on." Anuriel said.

Anuriel closely scrutinized the stones. "By the gods, dragon stones. " Anuriel said in a reverent voice. "I have on heard stories about them. I doubt they will unbalance the ecosystem. If anything they will balance it. They did for Genesis. "

The stones grew to thier full size. Spider web cracks began spreading all over the eggs. Sephiroth's face was the first they saw so they imprinted on him. Each dragon was wildly different to the next. So far they only communicated in humming sounds. "I think you are their mother" Anuriel said. "If I am correct, they will only need you for a short amount of time and then they will be off to pair themselves with a rider. "

The dragons curled up at Sephiroth's feet in a messy pile.
---------------------------
Damien got a fright and cracked his head against the tent post. "Uh, Azurael suggested I become a part of the peacekeeping force and to come ask you about it."

"I always thought your helm was a part of you. I didn't know you were actually normal underneath it. " Damien said, having never seen the general without his trademark helm before.

[Redthorn Anvil]

"I think that they certainly think so. I'll have to ask T'vor about how I should care for these little things. He's the dragon expert." Sephiroth replied. He had to admit though, they were pretty cute. Considering their eggs had similar coloring, he suspected that they were probably from the same clutch, regardless of the difference in appearance and clearly different personalities.
"It's good to see you, Miss Anuriel. Have I ever told you how much like a mother you are to me?" He asked, then shook his head. "Look at me, waxing sentimental. Must be I'm still jogged from our difficult trip."

---

"Be careful, purple-head. There's a reason not many people have seen me without the darned thing." T'vor replied ominously.
"Now, about your question. Under any other circumstances, I'd say no, because you're my best pilot. But I don't need pilots right now. So sure. You can join my squad. I'll boot you if I catch you fooling around though."

[SashaWindrider]

"No you haven't, but I am honored you think of me in such a way." Anuriel said. In a true motherly fashion, she said "You'll have to find a wife one day and make little future rulers." Anuriel knew full well that this would likely be far off, if it ever did happen. She mused that perhaps it wasn't so important that either ruler of each kingdom have a successor, after all they were a nearly extinct species on a hostile planet and thier only home now being a burnt out husk after a supernova wiping it out. She shook her head, those rainy day thoughts simply would not do.

Anuriel turned her thoughts back to the dragonlets. "One of my ancestors way back was a dragon rider, must have been over a thousand years ago now. He passed down a tome of dragon lore. Perhaps you would like it, seeing as you are now King Sephiroth Dov-bormah. A demon king has not held that title for quite some time. I suppose Grim would know when the last demon king held the title of Dov-bormah. You lead the dov now. "

-------------------
There are two things those of the feathered variety can do - they will either flatten thier plumage for fluff it up. Damien's feathers done the second thing. Once he gathered T'vor wasn't going to harm him right then his feathers slowly went back to normal. "Thank you sir. "

[Redthorn Anvil]

"Thank you, miss Anuriel, I'd appreciate that." He replied to her offer. He avoided answering her about the whole 'getting himself a wife' thing. He had more immediate problems to solve right now. Like getting this camp situated and secure.

---

"Right. Now, get outta here. I wasn't done sleeping yet. So try not to wake me up again. I might not be so accommodating next time." T'vor shooed him away. "Unless it's something very important." He amended.
When Damien left the tent, T'vor fell back into his cot with a sigh and attempted to fall asleep again.

[SashaWindrider]

Anuriel noticed how carefully Sephiroth avoided her question, she noticed people tended to avoid answering such a question regardless of who was asking.

Anuriel went to her tent and retrieved the tome. It was certainly ancient looking and appeared to be made from some sort of thick leather. A polished stone was embedded in the middle of the cover. "Dov-bormah has appeared. " Anuriel whispered to herself.

She made the return journey to Sephiroth. One of the dragonlets, a dark grey one with long slender wings, appeared to regard her very carefully before falling asleep on Sephiroth's feet. The others were having a brawl, rolling around in a mess of wings, legs, and bodies. "The book, Seph-dov. " Anuriel said.

Anuriel held out the book just as one of the dragonlets discovered he could breathe fire. Right at Sephiroth. The offender whimpered, knowing it was bad even though it was an accident.
--------------
Damien scarpered as fast as his feet could carry him. He ran to Azurael. "What's wrong?" Azurael asked, concerned at the panic on Damien's face.

"The dragon man threatened me. " Damien said, and melodramatically appeared to faint. "you should have gone to drama school. " Azurael muttered as she picked the demon up and carried him to the medical tent. She dropped him on the floor and gave him a hefty kick to the ribs.

"Of, why did you do that?" Damien complained.

"I had to carry you here and your bad acting."

"Medic!" Azurael called out.
---------
Sasha had once again awoken and was walking about in a detached state.

[Redthorn Anvil]

"Argh, you careless beast..." Sephiroth brushed out the fire from the hem of his coat. "Try not to kill me, all right? I'm too busy to die just yet. He was a little exasperated, but he stroked the little creature's neck so he'd know that Sephiroth wasn't angry with him.
"Thank you, miss Anuriel, you're very kind." He replied to the cook, accepting the tome. He gave the still-awake dragons a pointed look.
"This is for you, you know. Try not to burn it either, hm? Besides, I can't replace it if you do." He told them. He wasn't sure if they understood him yet, but Kain had always told him that it was good to talk to hatchling dragons so they could get accustomed to hearing your voice.
He flipped through the ancient book just to get a feel for its contents. They appeared to be the stories of great dragon riders and their dragons, and the things they accomplished together.
"This will help me help you." He told them. He leaned over to look at the one that was sleeping on his foot.
"...That can't be comfortable." He commented.

---

Ariadel was on the spot. "Just Ari or Aria is fine. What's he done?" She asked, dragging Damien to his feet and over to a bed.

[SashaWindrider]

"Krosis bormah" the little dragon said. It's voice high and squeaky, nothing at all like the massive rumble it would have at full size. "Body hard to control when new. " Clearly this one was more advanced than the rest of the litter. It was at the moment a soft charcoal black but would darken enough to give the night sky a run for it's money so to speak. "Hungry now. "

The dragon on Sephiroth's feet continued to sleep, ignoring his statement.

"I need to head back to the kitchen, you and Dragon-man are welcome anytime. " Anuriel said.

-----------
"T'vor scared him and now he's acting dramatic, I figured bringing the fool here would cure him. " Azurael said. She then slyly added "Stupid can't be cured though. "

Damien stood in gobsmacked silence.

[Redthorn Anvil]

"Actually, miss Anuriel, I think I'll come with you. Since this one is hungry. Might as well feed them all." He told the chef. Scooping up the little dragons in his hands, with the book under one arm, and trying not to disturb the sleeping one too much, he stood to accompany Anuriel back to the kitchen.

---

Ariadel snorted. "So you let ole' Stoneface scare ya, huh? Okay granted he's intimidating, but he's hardly scary. Unless he's mad! Then he is. But I guess he scares a lot of people. It's kind of his reputation. Legacy. Whatever you wanna call it. All you need is a hot cup of tea, boy. Relax."
She turned to Azurael. "So how are you holding up? The medicine I gave you work all right? Well it must have, you don't look sick to me."

[SashaWindrider]

Anuriel lead the way to the kitchen and began preparing a hot meaty broth. As she was preparing the broth the dragonlets crowded around her feet resting their chins on the tops of her feet, much in the same way a dog would on someone's lap when they know delicious food is around. Anuriel tried to stiffle a giggle and failed. "Would you like to feed them? " Anuriel said holding the bowl towards Sephiroth.

"Legacy? You mean the General had ancestors just like him?" A slightly startled Damien asked.

"The medicine worked brilliantly. You are a marvel. I know of no Angel healer with the ability to do that. Thank you very much. However I have decided that in order to prevent a further occurance I will forgo flying. " Azurael said.

Sasha found herself near the medic tent. She hardly recalled how she got there. Her use of blood magic had affected her more profoundly than it had Sephiroth. "Order?" Sasha said.

[Redthorn Anvil]

"As long as they don't eat my fingers, I don't have a problem with that." Sephiroth replied, accepting the bowl from her and sitting himself down on the ground. He wasn't sure if the dragonlets could fly yet, so he thought perhaps taking it to a table wouldn't be such a grand idea.

---

"None that I ever met in person, but I heard some pretty rough things about his dad before he got killed. It's probably where Stoneface gets it from." Ari nodded her head. "I heard he punished soldiers by clipping their wings!" She added.

[SashaWindrider]

"I doubt they would do that. They see you as their leader. I am pretty sure they don't eat those they hold in high regard. Don't forget to see T'vor. I dare say the dragonlets would be interested in him, he is enough of a dragon himself. " Anuriel said.

"More dov in hofkiin golt?" The black dragon said.

"No. But one of our kind looks and acts like one. " Anuriel said.

The black dragon partook of more food then looked at Sephiroth. "Dov-bormah, I am young and not named. You would name me? "

The other dragonlets continued eating.
-----------
Azurael frowned. Clipping wings was barbaric, it was equivalent to saying that they were not worthy of wings and we're not worthy of being an angel or demon. She had a disturbing thought. "Maybe the General has a reason for being as he does. If his father treated soldiers so barbarically then it makes one wonder how his father treated him. "

[Redthorn Anvil]

"I really don't know any dragon names, but I'm sure T'vor can help with that, and this book, too." Sephiroth assured the little dragon. Ari was about to reply to Azurael, but he interjected.
"T'vor wasn't very old himself when his father was killed. Actually, I remember when it happened--his father's funeral is when the two of us met. We were only children at the time, so even if his father had abused him, he likely wouldn't remember it now. T'vor's always been rather private, though, and I wouldn't put it past him to hide things, even from me. I knew for a fact that he didn't exactly think highly of his father. But then, there aren't many people he thinks highly of."

[SashaWindrider]

Anuriel looked at the dragons. "Perhaps we had best go see T'Vor then. I think the dragonlets will like him. Do you know where he is? " Anuriel said. She could see the black dragon was eager to be named.

"I don't mean to sound rude or disrespectful but it sounds like this world is far better off without the General's father. " Azurael said.

Sasha wandered on into the medical tent. "I don't believe I quite have my faculties in order at the moment and I feel a distinct lack of my soul as it were. " Sasha said emotionlessly. Without feeling she could not adequately put into words what she was feeling.

[Redthorn Anvil]

[I just realized a profound err on my part, because Seph isn't anywhere near the medical tent, and yet I had him interrupt poor Ari, oops XDDD]

"Oh, he's probably sleeping, if I know him at all. But I think this is important enough to warrant the risk of rousing him." Sephiroth replied. "If this doesn't put a grin on his face, Anuriel, I'll cut my hair." He told the cook.

---

"I'm sure the General would agree with you if you told him that!" Ari chortled. She turned to Sasha. "Well, let's see. Blank expression, bland tone of voice, distant-looking eyes...You used Order, didn't you? Yeah. That's normal. Nothing I can do about those effects, hun, just try not to use Order again until you feel more like yourself, otherwise you'll make it worse. Best cure for lack of emotion, in my medical opinion? Go have a drink. Have several."