Mokley

Lantern

Kituo said Looking away from Simon to focus on the ghost, he uttered his name. "I'm Kituo - Kituo Maji. Do you know where we are?" . . . In preparation for a possible disaster, Kituo raised the lantern up.

Talan said He ever so slowly took hold of his spear in both hands and with one quick movement he got into a stance his father taught him when facing a wild animal. . . . He quickly backed towards the others with spear in hand aimed towards the darkness. His eyes darted as he scanned the surrounding area preparing for what was out there waiting to strike. . . . He quickly snapped his branch in half and crudely chipped of pieces of the broken off half into a smaller spear. Tossing it in the others' general direction so as to arm themselves he switched his stance from spear to dagger wielding.

Kituo said He held out his incomplete spear to Simon. "Also, you can have this if you want. I won't be needing it."

Simon said Simon looked at Kituo " Why don't you hold on to that for one minute while I get that fire going" . . . He sat down and rolled all of the Ikaro leaves that he had collected nice and snug around the tip of the branch until he had none left. That was when he picked up the trees roots and secured the leaves onto the branch. . . . He sat down and and placed the torch in his lap and grabbed two rocks and slammed them together.

Purple sap dripped from the crude points of the daggers and seeped from the white open wound of the branch in Simon's hands.

The quiet grove, soft by the light of the fireflies, echoed with the gurgle of the stream and the crack, crack, crack of the fire-giving stones.

Shadows moved within the trees, untouched by the light. Talan's careful gaze would show him a flash of something red, a small ruby reflection that darted in the branches and was gone. His acute ears would pick up the scritch and scrabble of claws in the wood, each time a dark shape flitted among the fireflies. Eyes were watching.

"Kituo ... Maji. Help us." The voices whispered in Kituo's ear.

Something invisible slithered in the trembling grass -- several of them, weaving among tiny flowers and setting them shivering, but there was nothing to be seen.

The ghostly figure remained by the stream. Watching. It flickered, and turned its horned head. It was looking at Talan.

Only Talan would hear a whisper of several voices close to his ear, like a distant echo and a breath at once: "The dragon within the iron lantern ... belongs to us."

Simon said Simon blew into it ever so slightly, just enough that it didn't put out the little fire that was there but enough that the fire had slowly gotten bigger, and bigger, and bigger until it had completely caught the whole torch on fire.

For a few moments, the fire burned healthily atop the torch. But the leaves which Simon had used, thinking they were the ikaro of his homeland, did not burn nor blacken. The dark leaves beneath the flames slowly turned golden as the fire burned. These were not ikaro.

The sap from the branch alighted in the fire, and the flames rushed and sparked and turned a midnight shade of purple. The fire hissed and popped and fizzled and sparked with bursts of brightness, and within the purple flames the golden leaves trembled. The smoke was thick and pungent.

Something cool and soft touched the back of Talan's hand. When he looked, it was gone.

Something small and light touched the side of Kituo's neck. When he looked, it was gone.

Something sinewy and fingered rustled in Simon's hair. When he looked, it was gone.

The purple fire snapped and hissed. The shadows in the trees grew urgent and multiplied. Flashes of ruby caught the light.

Simon would hear the echo of several voices in his ear: "Only through the eyes of the forest can one see the truth."

The horned spectre flickered again, and its faceless head turned toward the mask of the wolf lying at Talan's feet.

Lantern

Woohoo! Some amazing posts all around -- you guys are awesome.

Expect a post from me .... soon! There is plotting to be done. Mwahahaha.

Lantern

Yayyy RpG is back online!

Does anyone else plan to post? :)

Ragtag: Steampunk treasure hunting.

Just checking in to say I'm still here! Also I suspect that Northern may still be suffering from the flu. :(

Hi Closet! Good to see you, and hope you do stick around! :D

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Merry Christmas! I got you all a post! :D

Feel better, Northern! Not a lot has changed here, so please do jump in when you return.

Red_massa, I didn't quote anything from your post because Simon didn't interact with the environment. You're not forgotten! ;)

Lantern

Kituo said Shortly after regaining his composure, Kituo took to the adjacent creek. It was exactly what he needed. He was wounded so perhaps a bit of water would remedy some of the pain and bleeding. He splashed his face to clean off the blood, allowing some of the water to enter his mouth to quench his nagging thirst. He indulged himself with the creek until he obtained his fill of water.

The water was cool, sweet, and clear as glass. As it rushed over the stones in the creek bed it sparkled in the light of the fireflies. In Kituo's cupped hands, tiny flecks of gold floated in the water, catching the light. Upon drinking it, Kituo would immediately feel refreshed and alert, as if he'd had a full night's sleep. The bleeding at his ear had stopped, and the wound tingled.

Kituo said "W-who are you?" Kituo asked.

It was too soon. Way too soon. He had only just recollected himself when he saw the horned specter. And it definitely saw them too.

The ghost flickered, but there was no way to tell whether it noticed him. A soft breeze gently lifted a translucent shawl around its neck. And then, it stretched its neck a little, as if to get a better view of the taller men. Its face very certainly was turned toward Kituo, though there were no eyes nor mouth -- just a glow, reminiscent of the glitter in the water.

And then, Kituo would hear a whisper in his damaged ear; it spoke in two hollow, childlike voices, like a faint echo in a cavern: "I am the Sparrow King. Who are you?"

Only Kituo had heard the voice, spoken directly into his ear, though the spectre had never moved from where it stood.

Talan said His eyes were focused only on what he'd need to stay alive and so he picked up a nearby branch from the ground and a relatively flat rock and began whittling away at the branch to make into a spear.

As shavings fell from the branch in his hand, Talan would find that the wood was still new, pliant and alive, though the branch had been found broken in the grass. With every cut of the stone, the white wood beneath the bark seeped with tiny droplets of thick, honeylike sap. It was lavender in color and smelled like sugar and tarnished silver.

Should Kituo happen to look at the sap from the branch, he might recognize it as the same liquid that had been in the glass bottle from the skeleton's cocoon.

Talan said He was about to head on his way when he noticed the masks on the trees. There was something about the wolf mask that called to him, perhaps it's similiarity to a hound he once had as a boy or the fact that it reminded him if himself. An omega wolf was the outcast in a pack, Talan was an outcast in his tribe. The two lone warriors lived similar lives and this caused Talan to reach out ever so carefully, eyes darting in case this was a trap, and plucked the mask from the tree.

The mask was pure white and shaped out of living wood, with no chisel marks anywhere upon it, as if it had been molded instead of carved. It released from the tree easily, as if it had only been held there by the slightest resistance. The spot on the tree where the mask had been was soft, white living wood, exposed and stripped of bark. Very slowly, the wood began to ripple and grow. The tree had begun to grow a new mask.

The mask itself was slightly warm and soft to the touch. There was no physical sensation, but Talan might have the distinct feeling that the entire forest was now watching him.

Lantern

Heyy absolutely no pressure! My post wasn't half as detailed as Zealous' masterpiece. ;)

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Northern! You made it! And you couldn't have chosen an odder time to join up! But we'll make room. Approved! Just remember he'll arrive without his weapon. ;)

I think the most logical thing (and to keep with the rules of the story) would be to have you wake up next to Talan (TheDarkTemplar, Red rune) just before the floor caves in. I'll go ahead and edit you into the latest mod post, and I'll try to make it clear enough for a starting point. I think out of all the characters, yours will possibly have the worst wakeup call.

Essentially, the latest mod post is an effort to bring all the remaining characters together from different places. Since everyone in the thread is now in the same place, nobody has to bother with using the runes anymore unless you really like it and want to. Use the green rune, if you want to do so, since at the end of the mod post everyone is gathered around the green lantern (thanks to Kituo/ZealousBlade).

Edit: OK, Peryn is edited into the mod post, under the red rune section. Also, Scullyosis if you're still around you've been included. If you're not around, I suppose we can assume Starbuck was lost somewhere in the dark abyss.

Lantern

CRACK

In the darkness outside the hut, the stone circle broke with a sound like lightning.

HSSSSSSSSSS

A swarm of something rushed like snakes through the grass, out of the woods, toward the hut. They darted in an ambush from all sides.

The walls of the hut trembled and crumbled. The sharp tips of tree roots pushed through the walls and snaked into the room. Bits of wood and plaster crumbled to the floor in their wake. Jars and boxes crashed to the floor. Strange liquids pooled around their feet.

"RUN!" Yurei screamed, even as she beat at the invading roots with an iron poker. One of the roots grabbed her around the waist and suddenly yanked her high into the air and out through the thatched roof, leaving a hole where she had gone. The iron poker clattered to the floor.

A long thick root, like an anaconda, swirled around Simon's feet and flung him to the ground as it wrapped tightly around his legs. It wrapped itself higher and higher over his body -- it was around his waist, his chest, up to his neck, tight and unforgiving as a hungry snake. When the spiral of root reached his chin it yanked him along the floor and pulled him, speeding through the grass, out into the dark forest air. He would hear the trickle of water pass by; the chitter and screech of an excitable night forest; something big rushing and gnashing its teeth, left behind in an instant. The root dragged Simon -- encased in living wood -- along through leaves and branches, under bushes and over rocks. Once, he might see a swarm of fireflies rush past -- but otherwise there were only sounds, and darkness, and the scrape of dried leaves and sticks in his hair as he was pulled along the ground.

And then, suddenly, the ground stopped. There was nothing to see but darkness, but there was nothing but air beneath him. He had been pulled over the edge of a high precipice. The sounds of the forest were left behind. Simon would have the distinct feeling, in the complete darkness, that there was a gaping chasm below him, hollow and deep and dark as nothingness.

The root released him, and Simon had nothing to hold onto, nothing to touch or see or hear; only empty space all around. He fell down, down . . . down, into darkness.

And then, as he fell, just in front of him in the distance there appeared a small green light.



Peryn

It was quick like a blow to the head.

Peryn's sleep was soon shattered by hot, crippling pain exploding in his skull. A piercing light flashed behind his eyes. A terrible, trembling horror ripped through him like knives of ice. Blinded, he would feel as if he were falling, falling from an impossible height, down and deep into a hungry hot chasm stretched wide to receive him like the great maw of a beast. Its damp swirling breath smelled bittersweet, like chocolate laced with a hint of cinnamon ...

He awoke at night, to the sound of two people arguing. He lay on a metal platform that was covered in roots and vines and moss, that was ticking from deep within it. Above him, a red glowing lantern hung by a thread from the bough of an ancient gnarled tree. All around him, there was a deep and dark forest. He might catch a glimpse of an owl laying its claws on a small silver box at the edge of the platform. But there wasn't time to investigate further.

Peryn & Talan

The tree roots that covered the metal platform suddenly shifted, like petrified snakes suddenly come to life.

GRRRROOOOOAAAAANNNN CRACK!

The platform creaked under the strain of the roots, and then -- quite suddenly -- there was no floor beneath Starbuck, Talan and Peryn. Only dark, empty space.

The metal platform fell out from beneath them, and in the time it took to take a breath, the red light of the lantern and the ground itself rushed away above them. They fell, deep into still, black nothingness. The spot of the lantern's light was gone high above. There was nothing but dark and empty space.

Until, in the distance to their left, they might see a small green light.



While the great wolf stared at Kituo -- and the lantern glowed green in his trembling hand -- the metal platform under his feet suddenly gave way with a tremendous, shattering CRACK. The roots that crisscrossed the broken platform had shifted, and with a great yank had further destroyed the metal and thrust it down into the deep dark abyss below. In a moment there was nothing beneath Kituo but empty, gaping darkness. He -- and the lantern gripped tightly in his hand -- fell.

The wolf's howl faded above him.

The lantern glowed bright while he fell, and fell. In its light, he might see the flash of eyes rushing past him. A jutting stone appeared in the light, and Kituo narrowly missed being gouged by its sharp point. A swarm of fluttering butterflies appeared and then disappeared in the green light. Leaves glimmered and rushed past. There seemed to be no end in sight.





And then, in midair, their fall began to slow. As if weightless, Simon, Kituo, Peryn and Talan floated down into the darkness.

Bubbles, glimmering with a golden light, rose up from the darkness below. They surrounded the travelers and swirled gently around them. The air seemed to be getting thicker, and smelled like musky incense. A warm wind swirled around them, and the three were gently falling closer and closer, until the green lantern that Kituo held illuminated them all. First Simon drifted into the light of the lantern -- then Talan and Peryn, from the opposite side, was blown closer by the warm wind. Bubbles swirled all around them, as if it were they that had slowed the fall.

The lantern light illuminated treetops, and glimmered on water far below; they heard the rush of a waterfall, and the whisper of leaves in the wind. As they descended at last toward the ground, fireflies appeared and swarmed overhead. The fireflies gathered on the boughs of the trees -- millions upon millions of them, like a star-encrusted sky -- and gave a golden light to the still forest that they now found themselves in.

Their feet touched the grass, and they were standing on the bank of a small creek that glimmered by the light of the fireflies overhead. The trees here were slightly different -- dry and cracked, but full of deep green leaves. Their branches were covered in bright glowing fireflies. There was no ticking here: no sign of human interference, or that any human had ever set foot here at all.

Each of the trees had a face peeking out from the trunk. They were not living faces, but masks: white masks that seemed to be growing out of the bark. Each tree only had one mask, and each mask represented a different animal: a wolf, a badger, a deer, a hawk, a bear. One touch might release the mask from the tree, so delicately were they attached.

The travelers were being watched. A few yards away, someone -- or something -- stood very still. It was shaped like a child, with horns like a bull -- but it was entirely ghostly white, translucent and glowing. The ghostly child flickered and turned its faceless head, looking from one traveler to the next, and its long translucent coat lifted in the breeze.