A Page's Tale (Ragamoofin x Krominel)

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Ragamoofin

Candle Goblin
Original poster
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FOLKLORE MEMBER
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Posting Speed
  1. Multiple posts per day
  2. 1-3 posts per day
  3. One post per day
  4. 1-3 posts per week
  5. One post per week
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I'm here whenever you need me, my dude.
Writing Levels
  1. Elementary
  2. Intermediate
  3. Adept
  4. Advanced
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. No Preferences
Genres
Uh, let's see. Fantasy, magical, drama, fluff. The usual.
In the respected court of the Winter Queen, a page shall threatened all her Majesty has sought to create.
 
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A mist had rolled in overnight. It cut visibility around the castle, one could barely make out the armored shapes of various guards doing their morning patrols. As usual, they were loud, as if their voices gaines yet another notch of volume. They called out to their fellow guardsmen, either pleasant wishes for a good morning, or, for the few one could make the assumption of friendship between, an assorted barrage of swears. Dawn had yet to break over the castle walls, let alone over the horizon hidden by mist.

Energy such as theirs was something to behold in the early hours, Casilla could not begin to fathom how they could do it, briefly ignorant to the fact she was meant to follow in their chipper footsteps. As she worked out the kinks in her tunic, she sighed, her frozen breath carrying the mist around her further ahead. A noble sacrifice, she thought. Boots strapped and skirt fixed, Casilla made sure her hair was braided back, close to her scalp so it would not inconvenience her.

Besides the purpose of adjusting her internal clock to the time the other knights awoke, there was little reason for Casilla herself to be up this early. She was still only a page, and her services were called upon when the knights needed something done fast, and done well. Casilla might've been a page, not even a squire, but her confidence in her speed and keen eye for detail was something she happened to pride herself on. Running errands around the castle may have seem like a demeaning task, and even though some of the more bull-headed squires looked down on her, Casilla knew her day would come. She had patience, it was one of her best qualities.

Without even noticing, Casilla's feet had taken her on a walk. She kept close to the walls, chilled stone guiding her through the blanket of gray smothering the courtyard. In the distance, somewhere behind her, she heard a clattering sound. Soon after, a groan, most likely taken in frustration pierced the air. "Vilas!" A smirk stretched along her lips. She was alone, and no matter how unknightly it was, Casilla giggled at the squire's bout of misfortune. She would've given anything to see it personally, after that passing insult of her speed being that of a dry snail. Serves him right.

Knee bumping a bit painfully into a low bench, Casilla lowered her gaze towards the carved stone, as vague as its shape was under the mist. Suddenly, an idea came to her. Day had yet to break, and the knights has nothing for her to so just yet, so why not take a moment for herself to sit? It wasn't like she was going to sleep there, it was only a quick sit. Nothing to worry about. Fingers crossed over her lips, Casilla rose a brow. "Surely, it wouldn't hurt."

So she sat, slowly disappearing into the mist, the slightest trace of a rebellious smile lighting up her face. Unless someone happened upon the same bench, she was utterly unseen! Should the mist rise before day broke, Casilla would bet she could stay hidden until it finally faded.

Goodness, she felt so mischievous.
 
The heavy weight of time dragged on Lucretius. He had sat idle in the dull swamp of souls for nearing a hundred years causing him to grow restless. Shifting from one window to another looking in at the living ruining their tedious lives. Wasting them on trivial things. If only they understood the sacrifice it took to get them there. The humans, perhaps it was futile to think they were any better than this. Although was he ever really much better? Pillaging and killing in the name of some dead king lost to humanity and forgotten along with his legacy. Not worth the blood it cost. In reality that was only the latest in the bodies he’d taken up. His true soul beyond even an age he could remember. If he thought on it hard enough he might recall a time before the earth was set in rotation, but he never really thought that hard about anything anymore. Content to grumble about the routinely dismal comings and goings of everyday souls. Most souls moved on from the afterlife and faded into peaceful oblivion, but Luc was never able to let go.

“Why don’t you just take up another form and try to make something of the world instead of sitting here and complaining to me?” his friend of several hundred years suggested.

“You don’t like our talks, Borin?” Lucretius retorted.

“It’s not that, I just don’t think it’s healthy to obsess so. You’ll never be able to move on if you can’t overcome this Luc,” Borin replied.

Luc thought a moment on that only to counter with, “And look what that’s accomplished for you. Stuck here just like me.”

Borin sighed, “But you’ve been here much longer than I.”

Luc ignored that and looked back down through the shroud onto the planet below. “Maybe I will take up a new form,” he mused to himself.

The thick goo of the shroud was difficult to push through and once penetrated one could never guarantee where you would end up or what form you would even be. But Luc gently pushed his fingers through the portal, the goo clinging to his iridescent flesh. Eventually making his way through and falling.

The air about him was crisp as he plummeted to the nearest vacant body. It happened to be a fifteen year old boy who had been in a terrible accident. Luc’s clear visage seeping down into the boy’s empty shell and repairing the damage that had been done to his neck in the fall from his family’s barn roof. His first breath choked with fresh blood. His first sight that of his older ‘brother’s’ look of relief that he didn’t have to tell his father that his brother was dead.

“Ben!”
 
Casilla, barely holding onto what drowsy consciousness she had, found herself thoroughly displeased by the sharp beams of dawn's light striking her eyes. She hissed, eyes wincing to shut out the offending light. Still, Casilla was grateful for the awakening, in a very annoyed manner. Dawn meant most, if not all of the knights were out and about, and their lively presence meant for something for her to do throughout the day. She was grateful for the nap she snuck in, but she wouldn't admit that anytime soon. Collecting herself, Casilla stood up, beginning to wade through the mist that even now hung heavy in the air. It would be fitting to call it a fog, but Casilla liked the ring of mist. It rhymed with mysterious, and that was more fitting than anything else.

On her way out of the courtyard, Casilla bumped something on her shin, and yowled. Hands immediately clasped around her lips, Casilla held her breath, waiting for something to happen. The knights didn't often tolerate laziness, and Casilla had yet to shake off sleep's hold on her. Eyes tight and tired, shoulders slumping like she had weights on her back, Casilla looked rested. It would simply not do, not for the knights' approval, and not for her own guise of alertness. Her yowl seemed to attract no curiosity, and Casilla breathed easy, hand going to her chest. "Thank goodness," she muttered, continuing to walk forward, steps taken to go around whatever she bumped into- at least, she would, had a grip on her not held her firmly in place.

Curiously, Casilla turned her head, a befuddled expression crossing her face right before one of utter surprise manifested in the quickened beat of her heart. Behind her, looming untold feet above her, was a hulking figure lost to the obscuring mist. An appendage had stuck out from the figure, clanking with the sound of heavy armor, settling down on her slim shoulder. Casilla gasped, though all she could inhale was the moist air, her fear stifling the cough that tickled her throat. Digits, rounded and hide in comparison to her, hardly had to dig into her flesh to keep her effectively paralyzed; the terror in her bones took care of that. Another sound of clanking, gutteral grinds, and metallic resistance filled her ears. Another appendage, a hand, no matter how large it was, on her other shoulder.

Casilla froze, the mist glistening from the chilling aura she produced in her scared state of mind, the sound of falling ice crystals accompanying the sounds of the giant behind her. Swallowing heard by her ears ears, Casilla forced herself to attempt to speak, try to make some sense of what was happening. "G-G-goo-" Her words failed her, her mind unable to string together a coherent sentence. The giant spoke for her, a deep rattling tone echoing from the depths of their armor.

"Has your rest put even your tongue to sleep, young lady?" Their voice, touched by booming octaves, seemed to fill the very frozen air around them. The page swore she heard more ice drop from the vibrations. Casilla, nodding without a second thought, or any doomed chance of pretending that she wasn't just asleep, agreed.

Something else erupted from above, repeatedly shaking the hands on her shoulders. A laugh, Casilla thought. Hearty and coming deep from their chest, it trembled and shook her. Heavy pats nearly fell her, the playful action unbecoming of something so outwardly intimidating. "Perhaps you should try another location, hmm? One's snores give away such a spot." Casilla would've argued that she didn't snore, but again, fear stole her tongue, along with all her courage to talk back.

The hands left her shoulders, the figure moving ahead of her in long gaits, hands behind their back, fingers subtly beckoning her. "I have something to ask of you, if you are done with your rest." Casilla, uncharacteristically quiet, nodded once again, and followed behind the knight. "I'm grateful for your enthusiasm. It's rare to find in the early hours, isn't it, Casilla?" Blinking, Casilla furrowed her brow, finding her courage to speak. "How do you know my name, sir?" This wasn't a knight she'd seen before, let alone heard of, even with her time spent as a page. True, the Queen's domain was massive in its expanse, but a majority of the knights were known to group in the castle's walls. The only reason a lowly page such as herself was there because a chance encounter with one of the higher knights.

"I know much about you, and, to begin, I'd like for you to know my name." Turning to face her, the knight looked down at her, their helmet making seeing their face impossible. "I am Eddler, young lady. Captain of the Queen's guard."

Casilla was appropriately flabbergasted.
 
The effort of healing a broken body such as Ben’s was enough to drain a spirit for a lifetime. Luc looked up at his new brother only find his mind fading into a peaceful restfulness. Ben’s older brother picked Luc up and brought him up to the house. A meagre little shack compared to the palace Luc resided at the last time he took human form.

When Luc awoke it was dark out. A fire was blazing in the fireplace and the smell of soup lingered in the air. A familiar shape came into view. “There’s some soup left for you if you want some. Father rode into town to find a doctor. There was a lot of blood and father said you might need leeches for your head.” Luc lifted his hand up to his temple feeling the large lump that had formed there. “He said the leeches would release the demons that got into you when you fell. They’re trying to get out but they got trapped which is what that lump is.”

‘Oh my god, I’m surrounded by idiots. Has civilisation really digressed this far since the last time I was here?’ Luc thought.

“I think I’ll have some of that soup.” Luc’s new voice was harsh and foreign. It cracked with the shifting hormones of adolescence. This was truly quite embarrassing for him. His new brother shifted across the room and brought back a crude wooden bowl of vegetable soup.

Just as he began to sip down the hot liquid a scream came from outside. “You stay here,” his brother ordered him as he ran out of the door and into the darkness. Luc did as he was told. He was not one to make bad impressions on his first night. Men were yelling outside. The sound of scraping metal pierced through the cracks in the log home. More screams and then silence fell on the farm. Luc pulled himself from the bed. His head burst with fresh pain but he had to see what was going on. He moved over to the window and peered outside. It was too dark to make out anything but he could hear a snap and then a grinding noise.

Luc had his apprehensions but didn’t really have a choice. He grabbed a lantern from the counter, lit it, and headed out the front door. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air. A light mist rolled across the ground. “Hello?” he called. No answer. He looked around in the halo of light from the lantern and as he moved forward the scene became clearer. Fresh blood pooled across the ground and one, two, five bodies. One of which was his brother’s the rest whom he assumed to be that of neighbouring townsmen. They all appeared to have been mauled by some sort of animal. Some even had limbs torn completely off. Luc’s heart was racing. What could have done such a thing?

Luc turned and looked back around. He had the feeling of being watched. An intensely ominous dread befell him. But all he could see was the happy glow of the fire from inside the house.

Another scream rang out. This one from a distance. Luc decided to run, there wasn’t really any other course of action available to him. He dropped the lantern where he stood and sprinted in the opposite direction from the scream toward what he could only hope was a town.
 
Casilla rolled her fingers through soft fur, legs curled beneath her bottom as she kept up her gentle petting, a contented purr emitting from the snowy creature in her lap. Round, and looking completely made of snow, the captain of the knights had delivered his task onto her in the form of the strange thing. "Surely you won't be much trouble, hmm?" Pressing against the rounded curve of her nails, Casilla gave a humored chuckle, equally puzzled and enraptured by what the thing could be. The captain had allowed her entry into his chambers, the doors firmly shut as not to let his pet escape the room. She was at the foot of a large chest, looking rusted and heavy with its internal burden. Oddly enough, she saw no lock to keep it closed.

Casilla was to entertain Sir Eddler's pet until he returned from his patrol for the day. By far, it was one of the easiest tasks she ever got stuck with. The only thing she regretted was the fact that it might not last as long as she would have preferred. The fluffy creature, whatever it was, was an absolute joy to entertain. It had claws; she'd seen them when she pressed on the blushing pink pads of it's feet-things. But it didn't seem intent on hurting her with them, despite being able to. Casilla very much liked how it purred, as well.

Spreading the fur of the creature with her other hand, Casilla was surprised to find even more pinkish flesh. It was soft against the unyielding firmness of her hands. Casilla had seen many pets, and this certainly wasn't the first time she'd sat in place of the owner, but this creature was unlike anything she ever met. It was an organic thing.

Fitting her fingers under the forelegs of the creature, Casilla hefted it up, staring into those crystalline blue eyes. "What are you?"

The creature's mouth opened, a long sound that nearly frightened Casilla into letting go. Then, the creature was on the floor, her fingers clasped around thin air. Her own mouth opening in surprise, Casilla looked to the organic thing, eyes in disbelief as she saw it simply disappear. It was at the door now, pawing at it with unsheathed claws. "Wait!" She called, but it was too late. The creature had phased through the door.

Without thinking, Casilla ran, bursting through the doors with an untold quickness.
 
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