Legends of Cerdryn

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Gota stood, eyes bouncing in turn to each of the persons in the group. Everyone appeared to be making themselves of use. The Sylph had taken to the air in an attempt to find out where they were, it's marvelous wings spreading, the green and brown feathers rustling. The impromptu leader was examining trees. Lucky soon put feet on land once more to confirm that the group were in Kravos, just like Geth had deduced.

"More a knife than a dagger," He replied after Geth spoke. "I believe daggers are a bit lengthier." He motioned with parted hands. "But I understand what you mean. Better to pool resources." The feline-like being shuddered at the word Barghest. Even though he had some skill in defending himself, he'd prefer not being face-to-face with a snarling hound. Usually Gota's father insured he had some protection on his travels, so fighting on his part was always the last path to take.

Something tugged at the back of Gota's mind. He was sure Kravos sounded familiar for some reason. The wood, with trees reaching towards the sky, hiding something in it's depths.

"Kravos, Kravos, Kravos..." He muttered thoughtfully as their half-elf leader conversed with one of the other Altinians. "The woods and Kravos, Kravos and the woods." Gota started to pace in a circle. "The Forests of Kravos!" He exclaimed finally. "Elves come from here! I visited here once! Or, I've visited Aldren. You know? The capital of Kravos." He was busy babbling in his excitement, not to any one in particularly, mentioning stores he visited, inns he slept at and ladies he...

"I don't suppose any of this information really helps." He frowned and looked at his comrades. "Speaking of magic. I know some of it. Also mostly water based," He smiled. His ears had indeed caught a snippet of what Aren had said. "Mine's for finding water, though. Not making it." Gota listened as Geth addressed the group, suggesting either North or South as a travel direction. If Gota's memory didn't fail him and if what the others were saying about the location was true, he agreed with heading North. "If we really are so close to the border, North of it is where Aldren sat. Give or take a few degrees, eh?"

He was ready to set off and follow the troop wherever they decided to go. Even if they ended up searching rather for a border town to the South.
 
For a while Lucky sat cross-legged on the ground, silent and shut-eyed, his staff across his lap. His mind was far away, up in the sky, reading the direction of the winds, the content of the clouds, speed and pressure and temperature - all things that meant nothing to the layman, but to him they painted a moving picture of the weather for this day and the next. There was something else, though, that didn't quite fit. An odd... vibration? Resonance? Something that wasn't usually there. He spent a few minutes trying to identify it, but frankly it was like nothing he'd seen before. Eventually he gave it up and shut off the spell, opening his eyes once more to his surroundings.

He was just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation between Therus and Aren. He'd been aware of the chatter, of course - though his mind was busy elsewhere his ears still worked fine - but he'd been ignoring it so he could focus on the weather. Tuning out distractions was an important skill for a mage if they wanted their spells to work right and not randomly explode. The sylph got up, stretching out a bit, and waited to speak his piece.

"I've checked the weather," he said. "We've got a bit of cumulonimbus coming in from the sea, looks dense but the trade winds are sluggish in this region so..." He trailed off, seeing the looks this explanation got him. Even after twenty years he always forgot to dumb down the weather reports. "Right. Speak Common." Not just an expression; cumulonimbus was an Auran word. Most cloud terms were, since few others could tell the difference between 'cloud' and 'cloud.' "We'll get some heavier clouds this evening and it's gonna rain overnight. I can limit it to a drizzle with a bit of work once we make camp, but it's too late to ward it off entirely. Could've done that yesterday."

He glanced up at the sky above the sea. "There's one other thing," he said slowly. "The air up there is... resonating, I guess. I don't know if there's a word for it. Best guess, it's some sort of after-effect of the chaos storm, but it could also mean the storm's still going on and we're not as far away as we'd like to be. I'll check again tonight, see if it's gotten weaker, but just so you're forewarned, it could be important." Finally, he turned north. "Anyway, I say north. Seems we know what's in that direction. Everyone stick together as we go, even barghests won't attack a group this size. It's stragglers that get picked off."
 
The boorean did not cast a vote, instead going off on xer own south with the goat in tow. Therus was about to object but the boorean only seemed to go back to the native tongue fo the strange furry creatures and didn't have any of it. Possibly had a better feeling or going south than north. Therus had a mind to stop Alvissro but stopped as the boorean seemed pretty adamant about it. He sighed and contimplated the words of the others. Lucky said that the weather would be in their favor but also something about resonation when he had performed his weather divination ritual. Geth knew something about how it went, at least heard a layman's summary of the theory and nothing he had heard resembled that. Gota had said he had been to Aldren before. Geth had been there as well as he grew up in Kravos but in a village south of the great elven city. He wasn't wrong either. Therus surmised the same.

He looked back at where Alvissro had gone and then at the rest, hearing the complaints of the baby goat. "So north it is for us" He said to the group at large. "Our best option would be walking along the beach until we either find a village or a river. If we find a river I think it would be best to follow the river into the forest. It is gonna be dangerous but if we really stick together we should be safe" He said and started to walk north.

"How are you, Hector?" He then asked his dwarf-kin friend, looking over at him. "What do you make of this?"

Hector smiled at his friend "I'm fine considering what has happened, it's not like I haven't been in dire situations before...maybe not this dire but we should be fine with the group we have and what we have until we find a settlement or city." The half dwarf says he shakes his head "Sorry I've been quiet it's a lot to think about getting stranded somewhere with only one person you know and no idea where in the hell ya are. Disconcerting you'd say, I just felt like I would get in the way at this point as there really isn't anything to punch or take down right now." He says looking towards his two hands and giving a shrug to his friend. He had been quiet, wuietly tinkering with his arm, he learned how to properly maintain it without/ with a minimal of tools, once it was on someone it was surprisingly easy when you needed it for everyday life. "Too bad about the boorean, we all really should stick together if only because we're all strangers thrown together in this kind of situation."

"Agreed. But at least it was just one. It wouldn't be good if all would leave off on their own. Do not worry. If we you're lucky you might fight a barghest soon" Geth joked and proceede to walk north along the sand. The air was filled with the sounds of the waves and the seagulls, the boorean quickly out of sight as Alvissro went south towards probably Trestan. The wind was calm with light clouds that partially blocked the sun giving the stranded men a rather comfortable shade. "Since we are going to be travelling for an undetermined amount of time, what are your stories?" He asked his travelling companions, looking over at them in turn, Gota, Lucky and Arel.
 
Gota'sae fell in behind the group as what was left made their way northward. He wasn't entirely thrilled by the fact that they were one person less. Add to that the fact that, that person was the one who had their only sure source of food, thing certainly seemed bleaker. He wasn't referring to the odd cloud that now blocked the sun either. His ears perked up as Therus addressed the folks in the party, eyes on each of them for a moment.

"Usually people lead with their own story before asking others," he piped back. Nonetheless the feline jogged to the front of the group, turning around, his back now facing the way they were moving. "I was born in the beautiful city of Maenora. With its great stone walls and marvelous waters. Wonderful food, brilliant merchants and beautiful women. My father is one of those merchants, my mother one of the women." Gota was keeping up with the pace the others set, albeit in a reversed state.

"Anyway, like most families, I was also trained to follow in the footsteps of the elders. I am to take over my father's business one day. An expansive array of shops and stalls all over the land," he motioned with a wide arc of his arm. "You see, we're quite known for our spices and exotic foods. Very good ingredients, I must say." He licked his lips in a moment of nostalgia. Shaking his head, he continued, "Well I grew up into quite the dashing man, if I do say so myself and so got to travel around everywhere on business. My sister was certainly jealous." He laughed.

"Then again. Considering I was caught on one of those business trips, I'm not really sure she has need to be anymore." Suddenly Gota's heel caught on a largish stone. Arms swung wildly, but in vain. There was nothing to grab on to and his ass hit the ground hard. He cursed with a grimace and rubbed the rump.
 
Lucky smiled up at the sky thoughtfully. "Yeah, the traveler's life is always a risky one," he said with an air of fond memories. "Especially when you go off the beaten paths. That's kind of been my life for a while - by choice, actually." He looked back at the others. "I can't boast such auspicious beginnings. I was born to inkeepers, Sernan Elpida and Malanae Sivas. But they're mostly called by their face names, Hearthsong and Glimmer, respectively. Face names are kind of a sylph tradition, if you can really call it one when it's barely a generation old." He shrugged amiably. "Some call'em 'tourist names,' since that's who they're meant for. We can pick whatever we like, so we do, whether it's something that suits our personalities or our looks or just sounds good in a trade language. One guy actually got his name from his enemies - they call him 'Hurricane.' Scariest bastard I ever served under.

"But now I'm rambling," he went on. "Back to my story, right? Well, I grew up seeing travelers come and go, whether they were traders or tourists or even visiting dignitaries. They all had a story or ten of their own, and I loved to hear every one. It got me wondering about the world around me, got me excited. I wanted to see all these wonderful places I kept hearing about. Wanted to go out and learn about the world firsthand. So, when my training finished- oh, I should explain that. Every sylph is a soldier. We all train and serve a mandatory period in one or another division of the army, we're not adults until we've done our first term. There's more of them after that. But yeah, when my training finished I hoped I'd at least get to serve in some distant part of Anaemos, or maybe one of the cities. You know what job I got? Assigned to a farm in my hometown, making sure it got enough sun and rain."

The sylph chuckled, shaking his head. "I was so disappointed. I mean, I knew I'd get weather duty, that's what I trained for, but right back where I started? That just felt like cruel irony. I thought I was in for ten more years of waiting around... until I got called in as arcane artillery over an orc incursion not far to the west. That's when I served under Hurricane." For a moment the nostalgic look faded from his features, replaced by an expression that almost seemed weary, but he snapped back so thoroughly it almost seemed like it never happened. "So yeah, I'm not sure that was a real war, more like a greatly extended series of skirmishes. I don't think the scale was big enough to call it a war. But once it was over I was kind of glad to have my weather job back... for a few years, anyway. Once my term was up I was back to wanting adventure. Some people never learn, right?" He grinned cheerfully at the others.

"After that I packed up and did what I'd always said I'd do: Left to go see the world. That was about twenty years ago now, and if I talked about everything that happened in that time I wouldn't shut up for a week." Another grin flashed across his face. "I've seen some crazy stuff, and been part of it too. Hunted pirates under a Maenoran captain, fought wraiths with a witch hunter, shared stories, drinks and brawls with dwarves in both cities and run away from just about every dangerous thing under the sun. I was actually on my way home, taking a boat north from Maenora, when the slavers caught us. Just another tale to tell when I get back, right?"
 
Falling in behind the motley group the formerly beleaguered captain tucked his rags in as much as he could, having discarded his one rather wrecked boot prior all he had to rely on now were his personal skills and his keen sense of opportunity. "I have rarely gone anywhere near what you would consider "the beaten path". The sea is vast, it's meant to be explored, not chartered in thin lines and sailed so often said lines embed themselves into the ocean floor." Aren chuckled, fondling the little trinket he still kept hidden away in his ragged coat pocket. "Anywhere you can find a port, and some places where not a port can be seen, I've been there. I'm not quite as swashbuckling as you are though, Master Lucky. Generally I prefer to have my crew standing with me when time comes to fisticuff. I'm no slouch with a blade, or a mug for that matter... "

Aren straightened himself out and picked up the pace. "You lead long lives, Maenorans are lucky if we hit eighty, but I guess that's the reason why we try so hard to leave our impression upon the world. From Helfast to the Criss Islands and Xantos and beyond. Has anyone here ever been to Xantos? Maenora imports most of it's quarried stone from those desolate places. The people there are both unfortunate and fortunate, which is why we cut them deals on everything we import and buy." Aren let his mind wander a bit. "I remember about 8 years ago, my father took me there. Their cities are vast but they have little farmland, their lifeline's are their harbors and land-routes, brigands had been harassing their shipping lines and so we stepped up, it was the first time I'd ever seen naval combat."

A minor thrill of excitement passed through Aren, his tail puffing up a little and his ears quivering. "Cannons were still pretty new, I remember at least one of our own exploding during the barrage, but the enemy went down without much fight, brigands aren't used to targets who can shoot back, hah. Unlike whatever pirates managed to overcome my ship and my... my... " Aren't throat cracked slightly, before he regained his composure. "Remembrance aside, what shall we do if we get to any civilized area? I don't suppose any of you managed to sneak a few coins with you in your unmentionables?"
 
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