Atomos: The Beginning Part 6
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The green girl is waving from way up high on her tree, "Take care! Travel quickly, your path is a long one. Always remember who you are, and what you are. Also walk at least a hour before you signal your ship, else you will not be found!" The dark forest is before them at the edge of the groove. Rydia also mentioned the Viera can take to the tree's this time. The darkness within the jungle is as thick and suffocating as it was before, and any light sources seem dampened, but work well enough to keep anybody from running into the tree's or getting tangled in the underbrush. A constant feeling of being watched from the jungle. A few eyes shift here and there, moving each time they are spotted.
"... so take a key and to make a path, you must always be wary of kerosine. Understand?" Zhgir tells the younger black widow spider with utmost severity in his voice. "And when you are in the jungle, you always carry your keys. They are hammers, understand, hammers to heart and soul." The arachnid continues, tapping one of his own for pointed example. But for all it was worth, he did not seem to be... any more concerned about their eerie surroundings, as he was about educating the spiderling.
Tristania climbs down from the tree, and looks back up at her sister; she gazes for a long moment, before she turns and, without a word, starts off into the jungle once more. As she walks, she adjusts her mask, as if ensuring that it is in fact still there, after everything that has transpired. The Dryad's lips press into a thin line, and she sets a brisk pace, one hand resting on the handle of her knobkerrie as she moves.
Though the Viera might have been told that the trees are open to them, Alba, it seems, has chosen to keep to the ground regardless. Her mask is pointed down at the road ahead, ears to the party's flanks -- now and again twitching toward Zhgir, at a particularly nonsensical bit of 'advice' -- and one hand on Talen's shoulder, as though to remind the Summoner of her existence. All in all, Alba is distinctly unhappy, the loss of her own voice being the least of her concerns.
Talen has a hand on Alba's, squeezing from time to time, his face showing a mix of sadness and determination. "I'm never going to be able to say sorry enough, am I?", he asks quietly of her, his eyes seeking hers. "I sincerely hope that this ... adventure has a fruitful ending, for all the concern and anger it has caused already."
Edward speaks up as he holds up a light source, "You seek the Hungering Mask, the artifact that I read Atomos himself created to seed the world with destruction, greed, and gluttony. The path offers no light but the ones you bring yourself, and those lights can be lost along the way." Edwards voice is distant as he starts forward into the jungle. Alfir listens to every word Zhgir speaks and blinks all his eyes at him. "Kerosine? Isn't kerosine a oil used to burn in lanterns?" The young spiderinling asks confused, "But I have my key!" Holding up the one he snagged off Zhgir earlier, "see see! It is your key, but now it is my key, but your key, so now I am yours!" The jungle starts to get lighter the further away you get from the groove, with cracks of light coming in through the tree's. Half a hours walk out the feeling of being watched is gone, the eyes in the jungle having disappeared completely. A thin layer of Mists covers the ground, and the further you go the higher it is getting.
Zhgir points at himself, as well as at the key. "That is Zhgir's key? No, noh no no. Zhgir has never had such a key." He firmly states. "Zhgir is very aware of queen keys. They are the most precious, and most sharpest." He nods firmly, then pats Alfir on his head. "Besides, Zhgir's queen would never forgive him for interloping." He nods his head once again.
The Dryad continues walking, though she gives little indication that she is paying attention to Edward's chatter; she glances in his direction once, but that is all. It is not that Tristania seems to be cold, or aloof, merely... pensive. She remains alert, keen to the sounds of the forest and the presence of her companions, but for the time being, she continues to remain silent.
Ainsley cannot help but stare at Zhgir the whole time he speaks, as if trying to puzzle out what the hell he's actually saying. She looks over at Edward distractedly as he speaks of the mask. She doesn't bother looking over at Talen and Alba, who have their own concerns, and Tristania's presence is barely acknowledged either. She makes sure not to lose where everyone is, though, so that nobody ends up wandering off into the dark or the mists and getting lost in an inhospitable forest.
Under other circumstances, silence would be an ominous response to Talen's quiet question. Briefly, however, she lets her free hand do the talking; hand drawn over her chest, fingers closing, then pushed out toward the trees. At Edward's note, one ear turns toward the Moogle, then bobs her understanding. Her other ear, now and again, tracks Tristania, the bone mask making the hunter's expression something the rest can only guess at. Alba pages, "'It can be gotten' 'Away from here'" to you.
Talen does snort at what the wee spiderling says, and grins at Zhgir. "So are you keeping him then, Zhgir? Teach him the tricks and ways of Emberstrand?" Alba's hand signals are studiously observed, and the male Viera nods in agreement to something amongst what the female signs. His eyes fall upon the Dryad and the wee lizard girl, a colder look reserved for Tristania, and a softer, happier look for Ainsley. "At least we are in decent company, my Hunter, and not total strangers. Hmmm... I do not like how the mist thickens."
The Mist continues to thicken, and it is only a few more minutes of walking that the party finds themselves walking into a small clearing. The light comes down from the highnoon sun and the tree's around the clearing are vibrant green with life. The Mist though is holding thick on all sides, including the side you just walked out of. The shifting patterns making the Mist seem alive. Edward has gone completely silent as he looks around in each direction, "Something is wrong, be on guard." The young spiderling Alfir sniffs as Zhgir says he isn't his. Though at the clearing the spiderling takes one look around and ducks away suddenly going into hiding. The Mist starts to rise in the clearing, and grunts can be heard coming in from the jungle, the party is clearly about to be attacked.
Zhgir shakes his head at Talen, "Nope, it is not a good place for a young spider to be, yes? Corruptive elements, Zhgir thinks Talen knows this." He reaches out with his hand to try and shelter the arachnid "Alfir!" Zhgir calls out as the youth suddenly runs off, and then he looks towards the grunts and growling coming from the jungle. "Zhgir will go search for the Alfir, yes?" He offers - and then dashes in an attempt to hide himself.
The beak of Tristania's mask snaps around to face Zhgir, as the spider makes a dash after Alfir... or perhaps just to hide himself? She grits her teeth, and moves purposefully towards the center of the clearing. "Spread out," she hisses, "It could be malboros." She retrieves a crude doll from her belt, along with several carved bone needles, that she arrays between her fingers on her opposite hand. She stands ready, waiting, gazing this way and that into the mists.
Ainsley halts when the mist seems to rise as if alive and hoping to devour the party. She doesn't need Edward's input to know something isn't right. She turns her gaze passively to look toward one of the shapes in the mist, and one of her hands lift, mana sparkling across her form as she prepares a spell. She focusing on getting her mana shaped so she can cast the spell should an enemy come lurching out of the white curtains that is worth blasting with a stream of fire.
The rising Mist is very evidently making Alba twitchy, and the lack of high ground has her ears set in clear frustration. With short, sharp jabs of a taloned finger, she points at Talen, then Edward. Tristania, then Ainsley, apparently on the spot assigning pairs to cover. Zhgir -- is already gone, and she spends a bare instant swiping a clawed hand after the spider-kin's trail. Slipping her knives out, the blades seethe with unhealthy streamers of magic, as the carvings on her mask skitter and dance to reassemble themselves into a crude representation of a Malboro's maw. Despite reservations, Alba is ready for battle.
Talen watches the wee spiderling hide himself, and then frowns as Zhgir disappears after the little one. He looks to Alba then, and nods at her instructions, the male Viera moving to stand near Edward. "I'll watch your back, wee Bard." His reaction after is similar to Ainsley's, small flames gathering around his left hand in preparation for the battle to come. He does look over at Alba apprehensively, not happy as she's standing alone.
The Mist is thick now, limiting vision to less then twenty feet out, the tree's at the edge of the clearing nothing more then dark shapes. The sky is still bright but even the sun has become obscured. The moogle pulls out a sling and gets ready to at least try to protect himself. The shapes in the mist are still obscure, but as they get closer it can be discerned why. They are dark skeletons! The lifeless monstrosities seeking out the nearest living with a supernatural life sense. This includes the two hiding spideringlings who will find a skeleton each moving up to attack them. Ainsley will find several fireball prospects starting to surround her. The viera are not quiet in their minds anymore, Talen in particular finds the effects of the Mist very strong! Several skeletons charging towards Alba and the currently paralyzed Talen.
"Asch, Zhgir...!" The arachnid hisses, quickly attempting to find anything of use in his variety of pockets. But they were skeletons. "Not again!" Eyeing his chain of keys, and a length of rope, he devises a cunning plan - he quickly ties the two together and attempts to sling the contraption at the nearest skeleton to have the mess tangle in the bony creature. "Zhgir, Zhgir! Where is Zhgir's polearm now..." He breathes rapidly to himself.
Tristania perks an eyebrow sharply upwards. "So the dead walk," she observes. Interesting. She eyes the female viera, but apparently understands her gestured instructions, as she moves two steps closer to Ainsley. Her lips quirk upwards into a humorless smile, as she holds out her doll and pushes one of the bone needles into it, straight through the center. The dryad holds her hand up afterwards, palm outwards, and a flash of light bathes one of the skeletons, closest to Ainsley, in healing light; well, healing to the living, at least. [Cure]
The awful skeleton creatures are not quite what she expected, but Ainsley rolls with it. With Tristania striking the nearest skeleton with cure magic, the lizard girl instead turns her spell to the second closest skeleton, aiming to fling the fire spell into its middle, trying to torch the awful creature as it approaches her and her Dryad ally. "I heard grunts, I do not think these are the only creatures out there," she warns the others, apparently believing skeletons cannot make grunting noises. Hmm!
There is a reason, why Viera avoid the Mists whenever possible. There is a better reason, why anyone fond of breathing avoids Viera in the Mists, at all costs. Warnings, proclamations, and frantic requests for help go ignored, as Alba hunches further and further over, as the Mists continue to rise, her breath heavy and ragged, as of someone fighting a great battle. Then, all at once, the magic *snaps* away from her blades, and she stands up straight. For a moment, she tilts her head at the approaching skeletons, her posture one of curious interest... and then Alba is a blur of motion, a granite-eared comet streakiing knives-first toward Tristania's target.
Talen simply stands in place as the skeletons come on, his eyes staring off into space, seeing things that no one else can. He looks from left to right at times, and steps back in surprise, again at things not seen by the others. And then he turns around, heedless of the impending troubles from behind.
The skeleton attacking Zhgir quickly finds itself taking a trip. Crashing hard first into the jungle ground and impacting it hard. The head snaps off. The head then starts to bite its way towards Zhgir still attempting to harm the spiderling. Alfir, out there somewhere manages to dodge and escape to someplace safer. The cure spell causes the dark skeleton hit to pause in its tracks, enough for Alba to rush up and slash it to pieces in a berserk rage. Ainsley's fireball hits the skeleton squarely in the chest and staggers it back, then it starts to charge forward attempting to claw at the lizard girl. Two skeletons come up behind Talen, one of them clawing into him, the other grabbing him to start draining the vieras life away. A process that will take a few minutes, provided the viera doesn't try to get away. Edward seeing Talen frozen though flies up to the viera, and snags the flare gun off him, "Kupo, Ainsley is right! Something bigger is out there! We need to get out of kupo!"
Zhgir does the next sensible thing - after reeling in his keychain - and carefully steps around the snapping head, circling around to try and pin it under his hands. He had a snapping skull at his grasp! "Zh-gir!"
"NO!" Tristania snaps, "We have not walked far enough! Heed my sister's warning and do not use that, or we will die here!" As she speaks, she shifts the doll to clutch it and the needles in one hand, while she draws her knobkerrie with the other; and now, it seems, it is time for the skeletons to know this bone of unicorn. The dryad glances at Aisnley, who seems to be doing just fine, and then swiftly crosses the space between herself and Talen. There is nothing fancy, or showy; she simply whirls the weapon around to bring the business end of it to bear against the skull of one of the skeletons currently picking on the viera.
And then Ainsley is left near Alba, the berserking Viera, and a bunch of angry skeleton undead. She is now going to nearly have a panic attack. She focuses her spell toward the skeleton still lurching toward her, letting out a cry of terror, as her magic doesn't work. She doesn't like getting into melee range with undead beasties! The fire blasts out again, lighting up the clearing!
As the skeleton falls to pieces, Alba crouches, picking up a piece of rib, peering at it... then dropping it back to ground with a heavy, disappointed sigh. Her head turns about the clearing, ears standing ramrod-straight as she spots another likely target. Barely touching the ground, the mad hunter flings herself across the intervening space toward the turned back of the skeleton being spider-handled by Zhgir, daggers poised to fall and rend bone from bone.
Talen seems to snap out of whatever reverie he was lost in when the skeletons jump on him. When the first is beaned by Tristania, he doesn't seem to really notice, simply turning and yanking both arms off the one left standing. Snarling loudly, he backs away a step, and begins to savage the head of the skeleton with its own arms.
The skeleton takes the second blast of fire from Ainsley and falls to the ground turning into dust. Alba is easily able to savage the one Zhgir was attacking, as it was still bound by the rope. Zhgir on the other hand finds the skeleton head turn to dust when Alba ravages the body. The skeleton Talen is attacking is perhaps best described as confused why somebody is attacking it with nothing more then arms. The skeleton chatters a moment and swipes a claw at the Talen, almost seeming a bit unsure now. The grunting noises from the jungle can be seen now. A massive twenty foot tall Devilsaur makes its way into the clearing. Letting out a roar towards the group and then snorting. One of its feet paws at the ground, as the creature gets ready to charge. Edward was holding up the flare gun to fire it, then twirls to face the creature, "Kupo... We can't beat that! We die if we do not!" Holding up the flare gun the moogle fires it, a red streak of light shooting off into the sky!
Zhgir lets out a disappointed sound as his prize turns to dust in front of him. Turning around, he begins to reel his line - up until he notices Alba. "Zhgir." He holds up his hands, staying completely frozen, still holding onto the rope. "Zhgir, just Zhgir. No kill Zhgir, yes?" He takes a careful step forward - reaching upwards with his hands in an attempt to touch the viera on her ears. Meanwhile, he holds the rope loose in front of him - prepared to loop it around Alba's waist, just to keep the mist-mad viera less suicidal.
Tristania pauses in the act of smashing a skeleton to pieces, in time to take in two things. First, there really is something else coming, just like Ainsley predicted, and it's rather large and probably has bad breath. Second, Edward has wasted the flare. "Fool," she snarls, as she leaves Talen to finish beating the skeleton to pieces with its own arms. She crosses the ground swiftly, tucking her knobkerrie back into her belt as she goes. She holds her doll at the ready, and flourishes a needle, before stabbing it straight through both of the legs. Her palm held up, a ray of bluish light lances out to stricke hte Devilsaur, though it doesn't seem to cause any particular damage. [Slow]
The lizard girl recoils away from the rest of the skeletons-- and then a devilsaur shows up. She stares up at it with wide eyes. Ainsley was not expecting to see this, and she knows she's nothing but a funsize snack for the tremendous beast. And then Edward goes and fires the flare, when explicitly told not to. "YOU BLOODY IDIOT!! NOW WE ALMOST CERTAINLY ARE GOING TO DIE!" she practically /roars/ at him. She glares up at the tremendous dinosaur monster, and uses, well, [Focus] to prepare herself, gazing at the tremendous creature. She is trying to eye the magical aura around the beast, sensing it, in preparation of sending a spell through its defenses as effectively as possible.
Fortune, it seems, favors Zhgir. As the spider reaches out to touch her hear, Alba's mask rises, head tilting curiously to one size... And then the Devilsaur breaks into the clearing. Chalky puffs of powdered bone follow Alba as she scrabbles, by all accounts incredibly gleeful, toward the massive reptile, seeking to scale the beast and see what treasures lay under its hide.
Talen takes a few whacks at it, but does eventually remove the skull from the skeleton's body. And then brings down a foot hard to crunch the skeleton's lower jaw off. "BITE THE DUST BONEBREATH!" A maniacal gleam appears in his eyes as the devilsaur thumps into the clearing, and he races towards it as well, his dagger being drawn from its sheath. "DEVILSTEAKS!"
The Mist begins to shift as the wind picks up a little. Something can be heard, perhaps a air ship, approaching off in the distance. Edward glares at both Tristania and Ainsley, "We have a second flare!" He offers as a counter point, "Can't kupo to try..." his voice going softer as he flies out of the way of another skeleton. A few more starting to enter in from the jungle into the clearing. Ainsley may of just had her life saved. The Devilsaur charging down the lizard woman, but much slower then it normally would and giving the lizard girl a chance to get out of harms way. The slowed creature will also be easily to climb for the moment for the viera, but it is starting to fade already as the creature is starting to speed up again.
Zhgir breathes a sigh of relief as Alba suddenly has other things in her mind - the time-tested distraction working as always. However, then he is suddenly yanked after Alba, and the arachnid suddenly realizes that all those sounds and lights coming from the clearing were very soon part of his sphere of interest. "Alba-queen, no! Bad Alba-queen!" He calls out as he struggles to stay on step with the loping Viera, wrapped keys jangling around her waist. "No skulls for you!" Well, perhaps the pair at least distracted the skeletons some.
Alfir, who had been hiding on Zhgir's back pops up his head, "Wee!!!"
"Having two does not make it acceptable to *waste one*," Tristania snaps. But she gives no further reproach to the moogle; there is still a devilsaur to consider. She notes the female viera attempting to scale the side of it, and... that might just work. "Go for the eyes!" she shouts. Meanwhile, her spell appears to be wearing off; that will not do. She flicks the end of a needle, and then jams it into the doll through the legs, beside the first one; her hand comes up, and another blast of energy bathes the devilsaur (and thankfully not Alba in the process). [Slow]
And Ainsley manages to scurry away from the giant dinosaur thing before it gobbles her up! She scrabbles to the side, and reaches up with a hand. "Destruction's spark, the dancing light of life, FIRE!" she incants, throwing up both hands as she tries to shape a spell as best she can, aiming it for the core of the great big monster's mass, hoping to blast it effectively with a fireball! Mana dances around her as she casts, as well.
Heedless of the spider trying to keep pace with her, Alba scurries up the side of the devil saur in the best way that she knows how; toe-claws and daggers as climbing aids, right into its flesh. It's only when she's about halfway up, that the tugging on her waist slows her down... but still goes unnoticed, forcing her to merely dig in harder on her way up.
The Viera Alba will quickly find that the devilsaurs hide is very tough and very thick. Her daggers having to be forced in and taking far longer to climb up the creature then she would of expected normally.
Talen climbs up the opposing side of the great beast, sharpened toeclaws and one knife digging into the Devilsaur's flesh. He's down one stabbing implement, but he doesn't have the dangling arachnids to slow him down. The mad male Viera is aiming towards the head. Did someone mention go for its eyes, Boo?
The Mist is being blown away now as the familier airship Enterprise can be seen. Cecil looks over the deck and quickly orders rope ladders to be thrown over the side for the party to grab a hold of. Alfir is quickly seen already climbing up one and disappearing over the side of the ship. With the Mist gone the Viera will find their minds starting to clear up. The party will also notice the jungle around them is full of dark skeletons, perhaps even hundreds of them. The fireball hits the Devilsaur and staggers it for a moment. The spell hit for full impact clearly did hurt it, but the creature is big and can take a beating. The devilsaur lets out a roar as it feels creatures climbing up its legs. The tail of the creature suddenly whiping around and attempting to snap at Alba to knock her off. Edward kupo's again and flies towards one of the ladders grabbing it to start climbing up. The winds from the ship making it impossible for the moogle to try to fly up.
Zhgir's out of breath by the time he reaches the beasts side. Legs burning from the immense burst he did to hang onto Alba, he lifts his hand up towards the airship. "Alfir, not you too...!" He cries out, then lets out less than manly chirr as that tail slaps at him. "Zhgir, Zhgir!" The arachnid hisses as he scrabbles past Alba to ascend the creature on its back, waving two of his hands to try and grab one of the floating rope ladders. "Emergency evacuation! Emergency evacuation!"
"Move, lizard! To the ladder!" Tristania hurriedly stows her doll and needles, before directing a rough but not entirely unkind shove to Ainsley, in the direction of the ladders. With that done, she makes haste for one herself; no time to waste, after all. The airship actually found them. "You're still an idiot," she comments to Edward, as she makes haste to ascend. A forest full of skeletons? Definitely time to be leaving.
Ainsley tries to hurry toward the ladder, but before she attempts to climb up, she'd throw another fireball back at the great big devilsaur, trying to make it hurt as much as possible. Burns are not fun and can impede movement, so she's going to give her berserking allies as much of an advantage over the monstrous creature as possible! Because it would suck to lose two friends this abruptly.
It's fairly easy to tell when the Mist has cleared itself from the Viera's mind; dangling from the side of the devilsaur, she pauses, shaking her head for a moment... Then is crushed against the creature's side by the force of its tail, very nearly losing her grip on her daggers. With a wordless, noiseless snarl she gathers herself up against the Fiend's body, mask tilted up toward the airship. A moment's shifting position, and one hand is free to point at one of the rope ladders and wave it outward.
"AAAYOOOO SILVER AAWAAAA... huuuuuh?" A very confused Talen clings to the back of the raging Devilsaur. He looks around and then up, having seen a dangling ladder go by. Then he sees Alba hanging on, and he reaches a hand down to help her. "Stupid mists how on earth did I get up here stupid mists dammit..."
Everybody manage to be able to grab a ladder. Alba jumps off the creatures back and does a flip grabbing the ladder with a experts grace. Talen has to jump off the creatures back after a few moments and grabs one with his own grace. Ainsley, Zhgir, and Tristania all manage to grab a ladder as they swing by. Once everybody has a ladder the airship starts to take off and the rope ladders are pulled in. The skeletons are converging on the devilsaur and a new fight happens below the party, at leastone they can observe before the airship gets out of view. The devilsaur was clearly winning though. As the last of the party is pulled onto the deck Cecil looks them over, "So... did you find Rydia and learn anything?"
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