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3 yrs ago
Current Wheremst
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3 yrs ago
What if *I* was the small creature all along?
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3 yrs ago
O . O staring
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4 yrs ago
OooooooOooOOOOooooooOOOOOooOoooooooOOooOOOOoooOo
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5 yrs ago
V.1.26 (House of Caecilius Iucundus); 4091: Whoever loves, let him flourish. Let him perish who knows not love. Let him perish twice over whoever forbids love.
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Kutur mumbled some reply to the pounding outside, throwing on his usual robe and putting away his tomes. At this point, not even he knew what he was saying. The runes, they permeated the space of his mind, drowning out rational thought with . . . what it was he could not say. Magic, in short. Magic was madness. He had to get away from it for a short while.

"Morning, Kali. It's . . . morning, right?" he asked, throwing open his door. The outside light blinded him, but he squinted through it. A vaguely Kali-shaped figure stood at the door, close enough that he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
_______________________________
Ardasa adored the crowd. They called prayers to her, shouted her name from the streets, it was almost as grand as the ceremony in Hekaga. A mother rushed up the steps and presented her a newborn child, sucking on his claws.

"Please, Your Mercy, bless this child," she said.

"I'm not a goddess. Find a temple, and have the child properly blessed," Ardasa whispered, but touched the child's forehead anyways. "He's very handsome. No doubt you will have many troubles keeping him yours."

"Your praise is a thousand blessings, Your Mercy," she said, and disappeared into the crowd. It won't be long now before more parents begin to do the same.
"I . . . I'm glad to see you back," Rughoi muttered. He stood between the two great mountain ranges, somewhere in the space between where they ended.

"Well, you could be a little more enthusiastic," Ardasa said, giggling. Rughoi shrugged, hiding his face. Ardasa didn't need for him to give her affection immediately. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her snout to his neck. Slowly, she felt his arms return the embrace. This was right. This is where she should be. She doesn't know about the honesty of the entire kobold court, but she could tell immediately the honesty in him.

"Let's get back to the city," Rughoi said. "I pacified the upstarts, but not for long. They'll come crawling back with more demands before the season is up."

"They're good people, I promise," Ardasa said. "I'm surprised you managed to pacify them at all."

"What, you think I can't do it?" Rughoi asked. She could hear the mock hurt in his voice, and it made her smile.

"You know I didn't say that," Ardasa said. "It was good of you to take care of my matters while I was away . . . you didn't hurt any of them, did you?"

"No, but we will need a new meeting table," Rughoi mumbled, causing her to laugh.

"We'll worry about it in time. For now, the court." The two went to find worgs, saddling them and reining them with easy mastery.

"Perhaps I didn't mention, but there is plenty of time now that the guilds want for nothing," Rughoi started. "I have an idea of what we could use the time fo-"

"I'm tired, just let me sleep tonight," Ardasa giggled. "However . . . " she leapt onto the back of the worg and set her feet swinging at its sides. "Don't forget your offer. I'll be wanting to claim it soon enough." She then kicked her worg in its sides, sending leaping towards the city walls, leaving Rughoi in the sand.
The carriage careened through the streets, in a mess of splinters and thatching. Ardasa quickly whispered a prayer to Scen when the carriage drifted wide and missed the wall by mere hands. The back end of it was on fire, and massive holes had been gouged from it by equally massive arrows. In the background, somewhere far away, the sounds of explosions rang out through the city streets. It was magic, it must be.
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The court stood silent. Rughoi stared at the messenger, with an expression that would strike fear into any kobold. The messenger shifted about on his feet, and continued.

"Yes, Your Might. A carriage was spotted approaching the talon pass, claiming to house the empress."

"And you didn't let her in?" Rughoi growled, his voice barely audible. The messenger gulped.

"We thought it best that it go through you first," he said.

"Ready my worg. Tell the good warriors at the pass that should I find their judgement false, they will all suffer a humiliating demotion." The messenger turned to leave, but Rughoi stopped him. "Wait. No, I'll have it this way. If their judgement is false, I will turn them over to Ardasa, and she will decide what is to be done with the guardsmen that chose not to admit her." The messenger nodded, and ran off to complete the tasks given.
Hey, if there's still room here, is it alright if I join in?
"Protect Her Mercy!" shouted a guard, leaping back from the arrow's strike. A second one followed the first, landing on his chest. The strange fire ate through the lamellar, as well as his natural scales, in a matter of seconds. He clawed at his chest and screamed, his own claws digging deep and red gouges from the wound.

More arrows quickly followed, feathering another guard. Ardasa threw herself to the floor of the carriage, and the driver cracked his whip upon the great beasts. They had hardly moved before one of the worgs toppled over, having been pierced twice. The driver drew his sword and cut the reins, pushing the other forward. They sped away, as another crashed through the thatched window, spraying straw and wood splinters into the carriage. Ardasa spit some from her mouth in disgust.

Dracons emerged from the shadows of the buildings. Some wore armor, hammered with the insignia of the state and armed with cruel swords. Others were clad in dark cloth, nocking arrows into strings as long as she is tall. Were they Hekaga soldiers? Did they serve the prince? The carriage stumbled along, under the power of only one worg. It rattled through dim alleyways, occasionally hit by an arrow with such force that it caused the entire box to shake, and approached the city walls, as well as its open gate.
Ardasa wasn't surprised by the servant's comment. She had heard it too many times in this city, most often from Ternoc himself. She didn't want to live in fear like these people did, expecting at any moment for a cold-blooded killer to leap from the shadows and put her to death. Yet, these people knew the city better than she, and it was not her place to tell them how their city is, or even ought to be. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," she said, removing the crown with a sigh. Carefully, she replaced it beside its counterpart, and closed the box. "Now, I suppose I'd best be off now."

Ardasa found her carriage outside the palace, flanked by kobold guards. Had they better armor, they would have been almost intimidating. As she approached, one opened the carriage door while the rest knelt. "Uhh . . . arise, warriors. No need for this ceremony," she said. The carriage driver idly tossed a slab of meat to the worgs, as she made herself comfortable inside. Well, this was it. "We'd best be going now. I hear stories about the crime in this city." The driver nodded, and set his whip upon the worgs, bringing the carriage into a jolting start as it made its way towards the city gates.
I'm beginning to suspect someone who is not me has access to my RPG account.
"How kind of him," Ardasa said. Curiosity struck her, as she accepted the box from the hands of the dracon. She grasped the smaller crown and, with unsteady hands, placed it upon her own head. "How does it look?" she asked the messenger. She had thought that there were mirrors lining every part of the palace. It seems, that by some stroke of poor luck, the exception just so happened to be where she found herself. "I don't know, it just seems so fancy. It's a bit . . . much. Maybe you don't understand. You must have grown up in this city of colors and riches, oh how lucky you are. This is just the way your life is, isn't it? Once you see miracles up every tree and along every path, they just lose their magic." She stopped her rambling, only to notice that the dracon has not had the opportunity to speak at all. "Oh! Silly me, you'll just have to bear it a little longer. I do this sometimes. Well? Does the crown fit right?"
Ardasa, without any ceremony, plopped herself upon the bed and sank into it. This was not the mat she kept in the palace at home, but a mattress, stuffed with the feathers of birds. Words swam through her head, arranging in the most nonsensical of ways before fading into the ground mush that is her thoughts. The crown, the words, the legends lulled her into a fitful sleep.

She dreamed a wild dream in the night. Arjun charging that impossible tower, as arrows rained down on him from above. When his sword struck the stone, it gave before him, sending the entire stoneworks tumbling down. Blood spilled out, and the scream of a woman rang out as blue cracks of magic danced along the air. Lightning struck the ground, shattering it open and revealing the world below. A world of fire and death, and Arjun backed up. But he was stopped, just before he could leap out from the opening circle of doom. A claw, a dracon claw, reached out and grabbed Arjun, flinging him back. Nergamesh. He laughed, as the kobold fell into the flames. Then, Nergamesh jumped, far into the clouds, beyond the very sun itself, up to where nobody can know. The clouds grew heavy, and rains carved into the ground like knives and shovels.

Ardasa was jolted awake by the morning. The sun, it danced painfully in her eyes. She rose and rubbed them with a groan, pulling her robes over herself and sneezing. When she left her room, she found herself face to face with a kobold. A Xigyll legionnaire, by the looks of his armor. He kneeled, and spoke. "The good commander Rebat has chosen to embark for home, feeling his duty here to be done. He has left myself and those under my command to escort Your Mercy home, if it so pleases you." Ardasa nodded numbly, and he rushed off, presumably to repeat the order to his troops. Where was Ternoc? Perhaps it was best that she give him a proper farewell. The dinner last night was not the most spirited, and she wanted to make amends before she returned home. Less importantly, she was curious about the crown she was promised.
Ardasa quieted. This was not a man who wanted to socialize. Was Xigyll's reputation so horrible, that even its allies cannot hide their revulsion? Was it Ternoc's blindness that keeps him critical and distant, or her own? The soup was thick and creamy, the lamb fat and hearty, but she was unsatisfied.

The night, inevitably, wound down. The sunset sky changed from its vibrant pinks and golds to a deep purple, which was eventually swallowed by the merry light of the burning torches. She doesn't think she has said a word since Ternoc's earlier rebuke. She was trapped in her own mind, thinking back to the two stories, playing them in her mind again and again. How could both legends be true, while completely opposing each other? She lived her entire life taking Aunt Sasak's word as it was said, but was the old storyteller lying, misinformed, or does the fault lie in the dracon scribes?

"It seems to be getting late. I intend to return to Xigyll come the morning. I'll call it a triumph of good spirit over evil, if you would agree. We both need a triumph, I think, tonight of all nights. Would you be so kind as to show me to my sleeping quarters tonight?" Ardasa said, hopping off of her chair. The ground seemed further away than she remembered it.
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