Shadow Slayers

"Nice to meet you, Luair." Mimisko greeted "My name is Mimisko Lunania."

Mimisko smiled at Luair.

"So, are you here to join our guild?"

A glimmer caught Osseus's eye as he tried to avoid the gaze of the elf girl. A glimmer that could only mean one thing: something valuable was nearby. He averted his eyes to the glimmer and focused on it, seeing a purple gem off in the distance.

-!

He moved closer towards it, making out the details of the object. The object presented itself as a purple orb atop a golden pole clutched by a dead body. On closer inspection, he knew exactly the implications of what he just found. He had to get the blacksmith in on this, even if it meant resisting the urge to sell it off. Maybe then, the kid'll work on not being such a wimp.

"HEY!" He yelled to get the kid's attention. He turned around to scope the area, looking for Altheron. With that, he saw the man... play tag? With the kid?

He sighed, realizing his situation. Anyone he legitimately liked were away. He sat down next to the body, contemplating his plans for the next two weeks.

Rylan looked surprised as Manasa ran off, out of the blue, not really giving him a chance to accept or refuse her request. Talking to Gaynor would be no problem, but Rylan still held mixed feelings about Celty. Rylan turned back to Gaynor.

That's odd....why couldn't she just ask them herself..?

"Uh..Manasa would like to speak to you, later..if you're okay with that? I'm not exactly sure when or where, all I know is that she wanted me to ask you and Celty to speak with her.."

Enoch shifted his focus towards the insignias hanging from the vine, his face softening a bit before looking back at her. She must've had a place in her village at one point in her life. People to miss. A home to leave behind. At least when he left, he wouldn't have much to miss except...


Enoch hesitated for a moment, his eyes trained on the ground as he carefully considered how he wanted to approach this question. Ooro had given him nothing but reasons to trust her. He doubted that she would hold any judgments against him. But something about speaking of his origins felt uncomfortably vulnerable. The priest couldn't remember the last time he'd even spoken about such things... It had to have been decades since this was even a topic of conversation for him.


He took a deep breath through his nose, shifting his weight and bringing his focus back to her. If he was going to touch this topic, it would be as objectively as he could manage. But his expression betrayed him, and his discomfort shone through. Enoch finally uttered as flatly as he could manage, "Elven villages aren't welcoming to half-breeds, regardless of the period of time spent away from the community."

   Ooro's gut churned as she saw his expression contort into one of distaste. She braced herself for the oncoming words.


   Her body had frozen completely, and her mind went blank.

  First Osseus, and now...

  While last time she had heard such invigorating news, she was incapacitated by the weight of her own limbs. However, now she had recovered. The face Enoch worn had worried her, but she couldn't hold back as her eyes suddenly watered. Without thinking, she had wrapped her around him, and held him tightly for a few moments.

 

  She had thought Osseus was a diamond in the rough, but now even Enoch had shimmered among them. Judging by the heaviness his words carried, his tale was not going to be well. Ooro knew of her people, and Enoch had been around in her time. While his story may not carry a silver-lining, she couldn't help but feel his very birth perhaps could have. 

  "I never thought I would be able to meet others like you," was all she could choke out through her tears. Her hands unraveled themselves around him, and she placed herself a few spaces back as she wiped her eyelids.

  "I... I know it was inappropriate, but forgive me." Her head shook, "It frightens me to think what you may have been through but... I want to hear it. Please continue."

"A.... game? From the humans...." he thought out loud,  a full smile appearing on his face. A human game. The thought rang in his ears as he ran toward Celty and Oxy. He still had no idea what the point of the game was. After all, he had no gold, and was a far cry from a "noble"; in reality, he didn't even like nobles, but if this little game could bring such joy to such sullen figures, then it couldn't have been too bad. I just.... go with it, he thought. Mimicking their earlier actions, the shaman ran at top speed toward the two, hoping he got the concept of the game down. "I want my gold back, you two!" he yelled as he approached them in their slow pace. Unsure of what to do next, Altheron stood there awkwardly in front of the mother and child for a few seconds, his hand still somewhat raised. Now how did Oxy take his 'gold' earlier again...

"Um," he stumbled, "Tag?". He then tapped Celty on the shoulder before backing up slowly, waiting for a response fora little while, then running in the other direction without warning.

"You are it!"

Daryn had made her way to the forest to search for food. She was fairly successful until she came across a glorious looking berry bush. You would think this would've been a good thing, but as soon as Daryn stepped close enough to pick its fruits, her world was turned upside-down. Suddenly, and literally.

"Oh, SHIIIIII-"



She was still for a while as she digested what just happened.

Dear Yakoshi, Archex, and anyone listening, why is this happening to me?

She swung back and forth to give her some momentum to reach up and untie herself.

"Of all-" she swung back, "the berry bushes," she swung forth, "I had to find-" She reached up to untie herself, but it was no use due to the equal momentum swinging her back and making her lose her grip, "I had to find the one that somebody trapped!"

With a final swing and 'quick' thinking, she got out one of her newly acquired knives and cut through the rope. She fell to the ground, but not before she righted herself. She hit her head with a nasty force.

"God- fu- dammit-" She rolled around in pain for a second before getting back up. It then occurred to her.

If someone trapped this bush, someone likes to hunt here.
She looked around frantically.
If someone likes to hunt here, someone must have lived near here. Recently!
She found what she was searching for. It looked to be a trail used to get there from somewhere else. She knew that somewhere else could be the place where someone had resided after the end of normalcy.

She cut down the rope used to trap her for it looked to be in good condition. She gathered the berries she had gone there to gather, and thought about pursuing the trail.

I could, but I don't know how far it would be. I don't want to get too awfully far from the guild- what if they leave me behind? She then thought about Enoch and how she hadn't left him on the battlefield. No. Surely he'd say something.
She made up her mind and followed the trail. It wasn't too long before she saw a cottage in the distance.
Success! she jogged the rest of the way there, careful to look out for any other possible traps she could get caught in.

When she reached the cottage, there was a musty air that was familiar. Abandoned, she immediately thought. There were two planks of wood sticking out of the ground in front of the small building. They had names scrawled on them. Graves.

She took a deep breath and kicked the door down. There was a carcass sitting at a table. A wave of nausea spilled over her, but such a sight was not uncommon to see. She knew this, so she knew she couldn't throw up. That would be weak. She scavenged the cottage for anything useful, but the only thing she found was a bow and some arrows. It was to be expected. This man was a hunter after all. She took them from their places.

Before she left, a small closet caught her eye. There could be something of use inside, so with a final motion she opened it. She was met face to face with a helmet.

A helmet of her people. A knight's helmet, one exactly like the one worn every day by her fa-

She could have fainted, but she willed herself to stand upright.

She turned around to face the dead man at the table. She stared at the rotting flesh that once held a face.
It couldn't be him.

In her horrified state, she couldn't think about the many times she had turned over a helmet just like the one behind her. She couldn't think about how it made sense that the helmet was here because they were near the place she had been born, the place her father had worked. She couldn't think about how this man truly could not have been her father, because her father's helmet was as abandoned as she was, left at home when she went on her journey to become the opposite of him. All she could do was feel despair.

She thought about the graves outside of the humble cottage. He couldn't have started anew. No one would have wanted him. No one could have wanted him to come home every day, to say 'I love you' and to say how proud he was to be a father. She stepped toward the man. She was sure it was not him. So sure, that she took out her sword and started to yell at the empty shell of a human in front of her.

"No one could have wanted you home as much as I did!" In one swing, she lowered her sword with all the force she could muster and cut the dead man's head off.

She turned around and stared at the helmet. She didn't have the strength to take it with her.

"I'm leaving you now." She said calmly, not looking at the substitute for her rage. "Don't wait for me."

She put her sword back in its sheath and made her way back to camp.