Thread: Medieval Fantasy RPG (PM to join)

Kasil ridge seemed already far away in his memories as the man walked along a forest path near a village he has taken as home for the last few years. The village had started to take a certain liking to him as he never brought trouble along and always offered a helping hand freely and asking nothing in return. He wasn’t without a place to stay as he resided in a comfortable log house only a few miles away from the main gate. He even helped to make the city run along with the village chief as he quickly became the most civilized, respected and friendly person they ever met in these lands.

The place he stayed didn’t reside on any map and the village was more of a place to rest up and continue on as there was nothing much to see. A few farms well kept by the growing young men and their elderly parents, one simple smithy that fixed anything including none metal tools and finally the smallest general store you could ever see that only opened up once a week and only if they had enough stock to sell, which wasn’t that much often. The only place a stranger could sleep was in the partially free space found in old man Kelly’s barn.

The man never gave his name, but all chose to call him friend of the lands as he seemed gentle not only to them, but to their crops as well. He had seemed to have helped the growth of the crops, bettered the condition of the animals and blessed their water as if he were commanding Mother Nature. No one cared that he seemed to have such resourcefulness, but they still held doubts, but didn’t dare to ask as they often saw the man pondering on a rock or near a water current, with a sad face. But when he noticed one was looking or each time he came to the village, his face showing no trace of his sadness, only kindness, understanding and a hand to offer whenever the need. He often watched the Kasil waters from the beach not far away. He often stayed there many hours and even falling asleep after making a small campfire on the warm days of summer.

He nearly arrived to his favorite spot, yet he noticed some smoke rising from behind the trees. Someone seemed to be there already. He slowed himself and peeked from behind the branches and noticed a young women resting.

“How is the breeze?” Asked the man with a calm, yet powerful voice. His tone was friendly and encouraging an answer to his question. The night will probably be long he thought as the sun slowly started to set. He had much to say and much to hear, but time was not something he had taken note of for a very long time…

Ankalik was not a large city, but it was busy and brimmed with life. It was also a relatively young one; the history of Ankalik could not have spanned more than 100 years. Limestone walls, smooth and polished, line the streets, and as the merchants and traders go about their business, the morning sunlight creeps over the city gates and onto the roads.

Ayanna squints as those first threads of light glaze over her scar-ridden face. She was never a morning person. Shielding from the light with her hands, she walks on. The streets were narrow and the air was a musty mix of fog and dew that was only now beginning to clear.

She entered the local tavern. It was a modest little place, but being so early in the morning it was eerily silent. The barman was setting up the counter, gave Ayanna quick glance over, and went back to work. A drunken man, dirty and unshaven, lay sprawled on the floor asleep. And in the corner…

Two figures in brown cloaks sat at the far end. Their faces partly concealed by their hoods, she could discern nothing of their appearance, but their physique tells her they are men. She walks up to them and sits down, her hand instinctively resting on her sheath.

The one on the left spoke, a deep and uninviting voice, yet barely audible. “You are Ayanna?”

“I am. You have a job?”

The one on the right reaches into his cloak. Startled, Ayanna draws her blade, and in barely a flicker of a shadow, lodges it beneath his throat. A wry smile crept across what was visible of his face. “Easy little one,” He slowly pulls out a parchment of paper and a pouch, places them carefully on the table. “Your ship leaves in an hour, I suggest you make haste.” With that, both hooded figures stood up and left the tavern.

Ayanna’s gaze followed them till they were out of sight. Of all the clients she has dealt with, those two were by far the most secretive. Sheathing her dagger, she picked up the items on the table. Inside the pouch was 10 gold pieces. She unfurled the parchment.

‘Half now, half on delivery.
Wharf no. 5, the captain will know where to take you.
Destination not disclosed.
To kill, Kelly Warmsworth.
Use discretion.’

“Nice.” The young women simply replied. “I keep place for you.” She went on with a shy look on her face. She didn’t look down though as she said these words, keeping her gaze strait towards the man. Her blue eyes were quite a contrast to her tanned colored skin. Never had the man seen such a mix in someone before. Maybe it was because of her strange happenings of late that made this possible. He had cured her from an illness no one could seem to cure and did things that he would not have done as his past self. Her mid-back length dark hair flowed naturally behind her and flowed naturally at the small breeze on top of her self-knitted silk-like clothing. Her long legs presumed her to be of a good height, yet she seemed small sitting next to the fire and before the man before her. “I bring food too.” She finally added, taking out some freshly picked berries and two pieces of cooked meat probably from the fire she had made. Her body showed delicate features as if she rarely made practice of physical feats during her daily tasks.

The man simply smiled back and sat back on his usual rock that marked his favorite resting spot. “Thank you Elie, you are very kind.” He simply answered back and didn’t add anything else as if that was all that was needed to be said to please the one who had been generous to him ever since he came to rest in this place. They simply sat there, looking at the stars and eating what had been prepared by the young women. The Kasil waters were calm that night and the summer breeze kept them both warm as they drifted in their own personal thoughts till sleep took both of them away, far far away to a place that they both didn’t want to know, yet could not forget the images that kept coming back every night.

In the large city, the princess snuck threw the shadows, keeping to the walls. She came up behind a young boy and grabbed him, "Gotcha." she said smileing. She picked him up and put him on her hip, "Nari,Nari." he squeeled and flung his arms around her neck, "Its good to see you to Jakjak but you know you shouldnt keep playing hide and seek from your parents like this, they are really worried about you." She said while hugging him. Jakjak looked down, mumbleing "I'm sorry, i just wanted to play." " i know honey, but you need to play at home." Nari sighed " now let me me take you home.'' Together they weaved threw the streets as the sun set, reaching Jakjak's home just before sundown, then she left him with his parents waving goodbye.

Nari had snuck back into the castle unnoticed, she had just closed the door to her room when a voice from behind her yelled, " PRINCESS NARUSIS! where in Azrabel have you been? Do not make me have to bother your parents again!" Nari turned around to find her head maid looking furious and stroming over to her, "And look at your clothes, you should be wearing something more befitting of a princess instead of these dirty old rags, hurry up and change into something more suitable, your parents are having guests over tonight and you need to look presentable, i'll have my girls help you change." With that the head maid stormed out of the room leaving Nari cringing where she stood. Soon enough some young maids came it to help her into a dress and fix her hair, then she walked down to the banquet hall, for what she would find, a very dull evening.

It was such a relief to be out of the water. Ayanna stretched, and took in her surroundings. Though it was only a day, she felt like she had been on that damp and mouldy ship for a year. Her joints aching and her senses weakened, she looked around at where she had arrived.

In front of her was a large expanse of plains, which covered past the hill to the north, of which she could see no more. The gentle mid-day breeze rocked the long-grass back and forth, almost rhythmically. To the west lay a small forest of pines and shrubs. The air was sweet, and the atmosphere was… soothing. For a brief second Ayanna felt calm, and at peace, a feeling that was unfamiliar to her. She closed her eyes and listened to the lapping of waves behind her…

“Me ship’ll be 'ere till sunrise t’morra ma’am. If yer not done yer business by then, we ain’t waitin”

The voice of the captain broke the tranquil spell, and reality came flooding back. Her head throbbed, and the darkness… no… not here, not now. She bit her lip and started walking towards the forest.

“Thank you captain.”

She had to find this Kelly before sundown.

OutOfCharacter: To everyone participating, you will all have a dream, but different than my character, has to do with your own elements, it must be nearly impossible to decipher the images that you will see and I ask that you each pick one face that you will remember. (someone with a similar Element to yours, if there are no characters paired to yours, simply say that you saw a face and it made you think of the element that is paired to yours)

IC:

The night breeze seemed cooler than usual that night. Gusts of wind ravaged the coasted area and brought up some sand in the air. Yet the man and the young women slept through it all, though they might have preferred to awaken at that moment. The dream they had was much darker than the night at hand and less appealing than the strong gusts of wind or the fire that went out suddenly. Slowly the man's mind came to consciousness, but not quite as he would usually. It was a feeling as if he had awakened in another world that was completely unknown to him.

The first thing he noticed was that everything was dark and silent, yet invisible things kept bumping into him. It was as if they were nearly going through him and not disturbing his physiology. To his dreamy mind, it came to him the thought of gravitons, the thing that no one has ever been able to prove in over a century of attempts. His power was being stretched out before him suddenly as the gravitons restructured themselves to a will he did not procure. A face came to him, that of a woman he had once loved and had stopped long ago unwillingly and with remorse. He could not take away from his sight this image until he used nearly all of his will to make it disappear. Quickly, he felt himself falling and he could not stop, even when calling forth his powers that called upon the power of Gravity. He fell down, up, left, right, in all directions, being pulled harder and harder with each tug. He also felt his body ripping apart and when the pain was too much, he would awaken again, on the beach with the young women still sleeping beside him.

He could still remember the last image he saw from the dream. It was a woman he had never met, but one thing was certain, he would never forget it. One thing came out most, a thin gash running from the corner of her mouth all the way down to the side of her neck. She had many marks that showed just as much that her life had not been an easy one. He knew this had a meaning, but not how he was going to find this person that appeared in his dream. A new journey was about to begin, yet he felt uneasy not with the figure, but what came before it, a darkness much stronger than his own, one that he felt as if he knew it once already in the past, but the feeling was brief so he could not dwell on the thought much. He looked at the sky and saw a dawn that was soon to occur, an hour at most.

Like a panther, she lurked. A shadow among shadows, ever so silently, ever so gracefully.

The old man was there, the one called Kelly, sitting by his small wooden desk reading, with nothing but the dim candle-light lantern beside it to guide him through the pages. Ayanna studied him from just beyond the door. It was surprisingly easy to find his whereabouts; a modest barn, just north of the village beyond the woods. Shaia Village, the locals called it, though Ayanna had heard of no such place around Kasil, or anywhere for that matter. They were also only too happy to point to her the where-abouts of “old man” Kelly, and it seems, from what was told to her, that he holds quite a reputation among the locals.

From behind, she could see how old he was. His frame was frail, and his hair a sparse patch of silver and grey that lined his crown. He wore a plain nightgown which covered him from neck to feet.

Surveying the room, Ayanna sensed no traps or ambushes, and seeing no visible weapons, she advanced, her footsteps deliberate yet deathly silent, with her dagger snug in her hand.

Old man Kelly closed his book. Without turning around, he spoke, not a hoarse whisper of man who has lived past his years, but a sturdy bellow, a lion in despair. “It would seem that my past has caught up to me.” And he turned. Ayanna saw his wrinkled face and his deep-set eyes, full of memories and hopelessness. “I tried you know,” he continued, his gaze holding hers steady. “I tried to change, I tried to atone for all I’ve done.”

She felt the darkness rising inside of her. “You cannot change what was done in the past.” And with that, she plunged her dagger into the old man’s neck. Blood dripped down from the fatal wound, and silently, he fell to the floor. Pulling her dagger out, she found the blade was not red with blood, but black.

Then the dizziness came. Ayanna stumbled to get up and, cursing, ran outside into the night. Her head throbbed with an intensity that she had never known… a million voices screaming, clawing at her mind like carrion feasting on the dead. As she approached the woods, she could see nothing, feel nothing but pain and she dropped down to her knees. Suddenly, a sound… a horrendous screech of agony and torture… was it her own voice? She could not tell. Her mind was slipping into the darkness, which she welcomed with grateful longing… anything… anything but this. As Ayanna’s last threads of consciousness faded into the oblivion, she barely made out the figure standing before her… no … two figures… a man and a woman, calling to her … begging to her… before she collapsed into the arms of darkness itself, with her dagger firmly clutched in her hand.