Heck, Let's Be Freeform

Madison's eyes lit up when Uggotha asked about her powers. It was her area of expertise. "Oh yes!" she said excitedly. "Some elves even say psionics is the gods' gift to humans in lieu of magic, and our scriptures seem to back them up. It is a source of power we control with our minds, as easily as if it were simply another extension of ourselves. We're still researching the science of it all. Basically, the current theory holds that all humans have a source of psionic energy somewhere inside of them, like water in a tank. How that gets there, we think humans generate it themselves, like how you get the energy to move around because you eat, and that sort of thing. Most people have such a tiny amount of this power, they go through thier entire lives without ever noticing it, much less ever harnessing it - though if they were to try, they'd exhaust it almost instantly, and get one hell of a headache. Then there are those of us who have so much energy, we have to harness it, or it will manifest itself involuntarily if we're not careful. That's when we say someone "has" psionic powers. Mostly women have that power, but there are some men who also have it. Both my parents have psionic powers. We're denoted by these rubys - " Madison gestured to the main gem in her diadem " - I simply chose a more ornate headpiece, though I've seen some women wear thier gems on hempen cords or cotton headbands. Our powers include: telepathy, telekinesis, accelerated healing that would make what you saw Alexis do look slow and agonizing, the ability to extend that healing on to others and heal thier wounds, and the ability to shoot blasts of psionic energy out like bullets or missiles. Here's a light demonstration of some of my powers." Madison's gaze fell on a pair of medium sized rocks, about 4 feet away. She concentrated for only a second, and the rocks rose into the air. With a few deft flicks of her wrist, the rocks began to move, shifting into a sort of stylized dance. "See? All this with the power of my mind."
 
Uggthoa brightened, interested in both Sato's and Madison's descriptions. "Hmm. Very interesting. I know there are some mages that can heal wounds, but they are few and far in-between." she mused for a second, before continuing. "It seems my magic is a mix of both of yours. It is more of a science then Sato's abilities, but I take a bit from both of your realms of power" Uggthoa opened her book to Madison, showing a corprenica of information- scientific formulas, specific movements, strange little observations on how the world works.

"I don't harness the universe's energy; rather, I observe how the world works, and find little quirks that simply don't mesh." Uggthoa then held her finger out, making a small movement with precision trained from exhaustive practice- there was a small popping sound behind Madison's head. "A mage takes advantage of these little quirks, exploiting strange little loopholes in how the world works. Yet, this takes internal 'energy'. The name changes from place to place, but it one runs out, the mage's abilities will take a toll on their body."

Uggthoa puffed out her chest slightly. "Of course, that means I can keep on going for quite a while before any serious harm. Mostly humans and dwarfs use magic- most giants lack enough of the spark, or patience to be a mage. But when a giant is gifted, its frightening. A giant can cast spells that would leave even a powerful human Mage disabled with barely little effect thanks to their fortitude." Uggthoa smiled conspiratorially at the direction of Madison. "Like with your 'psionics', only giant womenfolk have the aptitude for it. Why swing a great axe or fire a cannon when you have that power? The queen of our realm can level a castle with a wave of her hand, pulling a rock from the heavens itself to level it." her look become one of adoration. "She is a sight to behold. Twenty-five feet tall, clad in armour a thick as a foot some places, casualy strolling ahead of a thousand of our mightiest warriors and gunners, slaying the northern monsters with ease." Uggthoa smiled. "I will never have the level of strength, but if we are in your world, I would like to see the scientific knowledge you world has- it might let me learn even more about the universe- and therefore even better ways to abuse it."
 
Sato pondered Uggotha's words and thought carefully. What she said definitely made a lot of sense to him. He lifted his head towards the roof of the canopy, watching the little embers float away on the updraft of the heat from the fire. He saw them soar and die as quickly as they were lifted. He saw little patches of moonlight play on the floor of the clearing. This moment of peace was temporary, however, as Sato snapped back to reality. He heard a howl. Another followed and several followed that. "We might have a small amount of trouble on our hands." said Sato cautiously. He stood and gripped the hilt of his sword, ready for an ambush.
 
"Yes well I don't have a tent, I never really needed one. Scales are sort of like your fur, they keep me warm in such cold climates." Aeirs stood up and grabbed his sword "I am pleased that you are willing to help, would you mind helping me find some firewood and a little bit of brush to keep it lit?" he smiled and then looked around for a more bent and dead tree "ah" he went over and pulled out his blade. The weight of this blade was unbelievably heavy and Aeirs could lift it as if it were a cutting knife. The color of this blade was purple and had a nice shine to it as if in many years it had never been used once. He then closed his eyes for a moment as if he were readying for battle. Then right as he opened it he cut the half dead tree into pieces with decent speed. Just as his guard tapped the sheath each piece of the tree fell down to the grass and moss covered rocks.

(sorry for the long wait, had some school work that took up free time)
 
Yern had barely begun to walk off in search of naturally-fallen wood before Aeirs straight up shredded a half-dead tree. "That looks..like a really tiring way to get firewood," he said, not very loudly and mostly to himself, before heading off to find some properly dry kindling. It didn't take him long to get the stuff and bring it back, and after some digging in his pack he produced some flint and a small piece of steel. After brushing off a couple of breadcrumbs, he was able to get the fire going without much trouble. He sat, cross-legged, and stared into the fire for a good few minutes or so, thinking, perhaps, though of what it wasn't clear. He was content enough.

Then the wolves started howling again. The first one sounded distant, though it was still enough to put Yern slightly on edge. He reassured himself that not only had they not marked any territory in this area, but it was still much too far away to be of concern. Then there were more howls, answering the first ones. They were closer. Yern snapped to his feet in what may have been declared record time, had somebody with a time-keeping device handy been watching, and glanced around cautiously. Yern knew that by now his draconic companion was probably wondering what his deal was, but he didn't say anything. He glanced around nervously, at the directions the howls were coming from, eventually discerning which way must still be open.

Then he looked at Aeirs and actually spoke. "Okay..you said your scales are immune to fire right? Then you have nothing to worry about. Yeah. I'm just going to run that way now." Without further elaboration, Yern ran out of the small clearing he was in, through the thicker part of the forest, and then stopped short of another clearing, hiding in some thicker brush. He stopped because there was a fire in this clearing, and some people, and he wasn't exactly sure whether they were hostile or not. He hid for similar reasons, but was much more interested in avoiding the attention of what he had begun running from in the first place. There were only two or three reasons he could think of for wolves moving out of their territory and then moving around in the kind of positions he'd heard, and none of them were good, but only one of them very deeply concerned him.

((Some time passed during this post and just to be clear, we are now chronologically synced with the other group. We weren't before since Sato observed a fire that hadn't yet been made on this side.))
 
Aeirs brought back some wood for the fire and stacked them into a triangular position. "oh no, it's actually good practice. It's nothing that I can't handle" he watched him pull out the flint and rock and saw him light it up "aww I was hoping to light it up, ah well" Aeris sat down keeping his blade in his lap as he relaxed and heard a slight howl in the distance. "w-wait what? Where you going…?" Aeirs looked a little distraught by his unusual behavior. He stood up again only getting a moments rest and followed close behind noiselessly. Thinking to himself 'this guy knows something I don't… Why can't he just share his information with me?'
 
Sato scanned his surroundings thouroughly, using all of his sensory organs, searching for the slightest sign of movement, ready for an attack. He surveyed each tree, each tall shrub that protruded into the camplight for anything arwy. He heard the soft padding of feet, but from no certain direction. His ears and eyes closed in on a shadow, darting between the trees towards them. He drew his blade. "Show thy self! If you refuse, it will be seen as an act of agression and you will be cut down!" announced Sato to the mysterious shadow. He exprected every possible outcome from this situation. Any decent warrior knew what to expect in a possible confrontation situation, but Sato expected all but the apocalypse.
 
Melissa, who had removed one of her knives from her skirts and was sharpening it with a whetstone looked over at Sato. "Cut it out!" she snapped. "It's just some wolves. They're probably just marking thier territory. They're probably more interested in deer or elk; or else are trying to scare off the coyotes. If anything, they'll probably just hang on the edges of the camp fire. But if it makes you feel better..." Melissa sheathed her knife and picked up a folding camp shovel. She extended the blade, showing that she kept it as sharp as a sword. "I'll have a look around. And if you're still freaking out, you can come too. Just follow my lead." With that, Melissa lit a kerosine lantern, and, with the shovel slung over her shoulder, headed out into the woods.
 
Yern was generally friendly, generous and cheerful even to the point of offering food to highwaymen; he had no money and no valuable items other than perhaps his sword. Other than one very troublesome exception, he had no enemies and no reason to develop enemies, so he likewise had no reason to need to hide most of the time. Therefore, he was not a master of stealth. Sound, scent, tracks: Those things he wasn't even trying to hide. The only thing that mattered was staying out of sight. So naturally he was faced with a conundrum when a man who struck him as a quite skilled swordsman called him out and ordered him to come out into the clearing, where anyone out in the nearby thickets could easily see him. He was lucky to have his presence dismissed, and even luckier, perhaps, for someone to come out in his direction.

"Hey." He whispered to her when she got in earshot. "Hey, please tell your scary friend I can't come out in the open right now, but it's nothing personal, I'm not hiding from him, okay? Also, if I do get seen you might want to be ready to run."
 
Aeirs continued to follow and heard a man call out thinking it was himself who he was calling to. Aeirs closed his eyes for a moment until he realized that it was the wolf Yern he was referring to. Saying to himself within his mind 'there's more in this forest; I don't suppose they're after that wolf Yern are they? Well I had better remain hidden, safe than sorry they always say' he unsheathed his blade soundlessly and strapped his scabbard around his waist. Once again Aeirs had a conversation within his head 'if worse comes to worse I can just cause a little forest fire… No maybe I shouldn't, I don't want to seem like a bad person.' He continued to wait patiently until he could have a chance to grab that wolf.
 
Sato heard a voice that was muffled in a whisper as he watched Melissa walk out into the clearing. He lowered his sword, letting the blade hover mere inches above the ground. "Who is speaking to you, young one?" he asked Melissa. He figured that they could possibly be friendly. If that was the case he may as well put his sword away altogether. He resheathed his sword and walked forwards few paces casually towards where Melissa was standing. "A friend of yours, young one?" he asked, genuinely intregued as to why she haddnt lashed out at the voice with her trusty digging tool.
 
"I have a name. Use it," Melissa growled over her shoulder. She'd heard the voice too, and now knew Sato wasn't just jumping at shadows. Her suspicions immediately rose when she heard its words. Anyone who didn't want to be seen - no matter how benevolent they seemed - was no doubt up to no good. She closed the shutters over the lantern, and handed to Sato. "When I say 'open', you open the shutters, got it?" she whispered. Then, she rubbed her wrists, adjusting her manacles just right.

"It's okay," she called out in a friendly, harmless voice, setting down her shovel. "You can come out. It's nice, and dark, and no one else can see you. My scary friend and I won't hurt you."
 
"I really can't do that, they actually see a lot better in the dark. Didn't you hear them howling before? This isn't supposed to be their territory, it isn't scent-marked and they haven't been in this part of the wood in seasons. Do you get it? Someone brought them here, and if they see me he'll take the whole forest down!" Yern did his best to keep his voice down, above a whisper but loud enough for the people in the clearing to hear him as well as the two now closer. It would be hard to miss the fear in his tone.

While he was talking, the air around Yern became noticeably colder, even causing a little bit of mist to condense around his position. He shivered; he was dressed for somewhat cold weather of the sort usually in the region, but not quite this much. He wasn't aware of the cause of the sudden change. A howl came from another end of the clearing, and the temperature fell yet farther, but only for a couple of seconds before returning to what it had been just before the howl.

((Footnote: As far as I can tell, Aeirs stumbled upon a normal wolf, since what Yern is actually afraid of hasn't shown up yet.))
 
"Oh for the love of the gods," Melissa muttered. Not only was this fellow suspicious, he wasn't right in the head. She picked up her shovel again. Fortunately, the more the crazy guy spoke, the closer Melissa could zero in on his location.

"I'm feeling nice right now, so I'll tell you what: you come out where we can see you, and no one gets hurt, okay? Keep this crazy shit up, I'll have to go in there and get you myself."
 
"Calm your temper, young- uh, Melissa. He does have a point. The deer that I hunted was sleeping in the clearing. There is no way that the deer would have stayed in the one place if they could smell the markings... I belive him." cautioned Sato. He spoke this time to the figure in the dark. "Please come out. We have no reason to harm you, friend. You are much safer with us in the clearing than you are out here. Whatever it is you fear cannot harm you if you come with us."

Sato noticed a thin layer of fog condensing against his skin. The temperature had dropped several degrees and until now, it had gone un-noticed to Sato. He kept looking around, through the trees for any sign of incoming threats.
 
Aeirs was about to lunge out yern but when he heard a howl it was nearby and the air felt a lot colder, colder than the mountains. 'What the hell is going on?' Aeirs backed up looking around and spotted a small glow in the distance. He whispered softly to himself "alright that must be where we set up camp." Aeirs soundlessly crept quickly back to the fire and every few steps he'd look back just in case. When he came to the fire he sat down by the fire, closed his eyes and sighed. "Oh god that was a close one, I hope that thing doesn't come over here." He opened them again and saw four to five other bodies that weren't there before. "Wait a minute this isn't my camp… Awkward"
 
((I'm a little confused. Had Aieris headed into Sato's group's camp, Yern's camp, or a different camp entirely?))
 
It wasn't quite as cold farther out, but the air closes to Yern was chilly enough by now that his teeth were chattering uncontrollably, making it difficult to talk. "I'd r-r-really r-r-rather y-y-you j-j-j-just k-kind of p-pretend I'm n-not here. If he's actually h-h-here he's g-g-going to g-g-get s-s-s-suspicious." He started to sort of awkwardly crabwalk backwards in case they weren't following his advice and were planning to just pull him straight into the clearing, and before he got very far he stumbled directly into the muzzle of a nearby wolf, nearly falling over on top of it. The wolf yelped, and another one came running. Yern jumped to his feet, turning toward the wolves, which were now growling, and backed away from them. From not far off, another howl sounded. This one was different. It sounded a little unnatural, like perhaps a deep-throated man trying to imitate a wolf's call. Yern stood up, likely coming in easy view of his accosters, and he was still shaking, partially from fear. "Aww....sh-sh-shoot. N-n-now I've d-d-done it." More howls answered the strange one, nearly all at once, and many of them fairly close--including the two wolves Yern had just run into. At the sound Yern turned and bolted, not really thinking about direction, straight toward the clearing and also straight toward the two people who had gone looking for him, with enough momentum and blind panic to bowl someone over who was in the way and not especially heavy or strong.

((I think the latest post is Aeirs accidentally stumbling into Sato's camp, where Uggthoa and the other two of demented's characters are, thinking it was his own.))
 
Sato was bewildered. A massive lizardman had come stubling into his camp and then a man with ears and a tail of a wolf had slammed straight into Sato's chest and merely bounced off of it. Sato looked over at the half-dragon and then back at the wolf-man. And then back at the lizard and then at the wolf-man. And then at the wolves that were lunging at the strange man. Sato reacted by pushing the wolf-man aside, who was surprisingly light, as one of the two wolves lunged at him with it's teeth bared. He lifted his arm and the teeth latched down around it. "Insulent pup!" he shouted as he flicked his arm downward, breaking the wolf's jaw and slamming it into the ground. He lifted his right foot and slammed it down into the wolf's throat. A small amount of blood erupted from it's mouth as it's windpipe was crushed. Melissa could deal with the other one exceptionaly well on her own. He turned to the wolf-man. "See? Perfectly safe." he then turned to the lizard man. "And who are you?!" Sato questioned with a hint of delayed surprise.
 
Aeirs watched as the wolf attacked the man, he barely had enough time to withdraw his blade before it was all over. After the wolf laid soundlessly on the ground the man approached him with a question. "Sorry, sorry I'm just a wandering swordsman in search of something." Aeirs said a bit hastily as he continued, feeling a little embarrassed "I was just on my way back to my camp; I thought this was it, so naturally I followed the glowing of fire. Well replace the word follow with the word crept. See now what happened when I first entered these woods I stumbled upon this guy with ears and tail but a body of a human. I accidentally got him mixed up with a race called beasts. So I thought the reason why he left at first was the fact that I angered him, he seemed to be in a hurry you see. Then I guess he heard something so I then got a little suspicious and started to follow him. I got a little lost and began to stalk this wolf." Aeirs pointed to the wolf the man had killed.

"The wolf actually looked similar to that one you had just killed. Anyway I backed off from him and, again, crept my way back here. Lo and behold I must have mistaken your camp with my camp" Aeirs took in a deep breath after his hasted speech about what had happened and followed it up with a smile.
 
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