Many Places of the World

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The gnoll but gave a shrug and wrote again.

I could offer to try it if you'd like. I'm not sure what will happen no matter if it's for better or worse, but I can try it in case it's for the worse.

He was a bit surprised at himself; the Meryg he knew from The Plains would not so quickly lie his life down for a stranger. He would not have even put his life down for a friend, in most cases. Yet here he was, ready to drink an unknown potion in order to save the hearing of a princess of a land to which he held no real loyalties.

He looked at the princess, then at the drink.
 
"No I'm not asking you to try it." Without much hesitation she pours some of the potion into a cup and blows on it lightly before taking a deep breath. "Bottoms up I suppose..." She mutters before tilting her head back and downing the drink. Her nose curled up in disgust and she began coughing like crazy. "ugh ugh! That was horrible!" She kind of hollered and rubs her head muttering a bit. "Ugh..." There's a sudden pop in her ear that makes her jump then cover her ears as there's a ringing sound in them.

"Um...very much ow..." Roxanne lightly rubs her ears and shakes her head. "I'm not sure...but it didn't kill me...just tasted awful..." She glances at him over her shoulder and waves at him. "Hmm...I sound like I'm underwater..." She rubs her ears again before talking to Meryg. "Hey, you talk to me...maybe it's just me that sounds foggy."
 
"Uhm," he hummed, unsure of what to say. He always knew what to say until he had to say something for no reason. "Can you hear me, I suppose? How does it sound? Blah, blah, blah," he spoke out, rambling in both human tongue and his own language so that she might see how properly her hearing was functioning.

"Underwater is better than hearing nothing though, yes?" he added with a genuinely happy, albeit still toothy, smile.
 
Roxanne covered her ears once again, his voice had been very loud to her even though he hadn't said anything particularly forceful. "Oh god...T-Talk quieter..." Her eyes are wide and she moves her hand away from her ears and cleans them with a small cloth. "I just wanted to recover my hearing not enhance it." She makes a slightly annoyed face but grumbles and mutters. "This is why...I usually study extensively before I mess with these. Each rose has a different magical property and they're some of the few things that actually have magic." She was speaking at a rather quiet tone, probably trying to get used to her newly sensitive ears. "I do not need anymore strange abilities..." Roxanne grumbles and one has to wonder why the hell she's complaining she can hear after all!

Roxanne throws her hands up in the air and walks out to her balcony and peers over towards the area where smoke was rising, she looked depressed as she looked out over the darkening city before letting out a sigh. "Hey...we should probably sleep...I...I don't feel good still...I know Father's worried but I don't want think I can look them in the eye right now Meryg...I disobeyed them and if it weren't for my research...I would have lost my hearing, besides, I don't want to stress them out too much." She continues to stare out over the city sniffling a little before she turns away and goes into her room.
 
Unsure as to why the princess had become so angry at the fact that her hearing had not only been restored, but enhanced, Meryg watched and listened as she grumbled and muttered to herself and grew visibly and non-visibly tense at the situation. "Princess," he muttered, the smile he had had a few moments before quickly fading into a more typical, hard-lined expression. He figured it looked more natural on him anyway, that expression.

"No, you're right," he said, interrupting his own previous line of thought, "sleep would probably be best for the both of us, yourself especially. You've been through more today than some people ever handle; you've earned the rest."

He watched as she turned away and retreated to her own quarters. He looked at the pallet he had made for himself upon the floor of the balcony the night before. Taking a seat upon it, he brought his spear up into his lap and, unable to sleep, polished the finely sharpened tip with a scrap of cloth from his own clothing.

It would be quite some time before he slept; however, he eventually found it. Rather, it found him.
 
Roxanne hadn't slept the entire night, she had remained laid down staring at the ceiling and before she knew it sunlight blinded her and told her the next day had arrived. With a frustrated sigh she sat up in the morning light, deciding best not to bother Meryg and let the gnoll sleep. She herself was exhausted but with a sigh she grinds up a green rose, boils it down, then takes the still warm liquid out to her garden of metal roses, watering them with the fertilizing water that she had learned to make just yesterday. How long had yesterday been? Obviously really long, since the Princess didn't sleep herself.

Quietly she walks around Meryg and pours the liquid over the roses near him though they absorb it so fast none has a chance to touch the gnoll's fur. Fur huh...? It looks really well taken care of... her thoughts run away with her as she crouches beside Meryg who was holding tight to his well polished spear. She hadn't actually touched him before and her curiosity was getting the better of her so gently, and oh so lightly she touches his fur and runs her skin covered hand through it looking a little stunned. "I...can hear his heart..." Her duel colored eyes blink slowly as she listens, it was strange to her, being able to hear a heart beat without pressing her ear to a chest.
 
The gnoll's ears dished and listened, though he was still fast asleep, to the sound of the water thumping against the petals of the metallic roses. It was like rain falling on a sheet of iron. It was a comforting sound that only served to make his sleep more sound and calm.

Twitching at the slightest touch upon his fur, the gnoll's eyes opened slowly. He looked at the princess and smiled. "Good morning, Princess. Are you feeling any better today?" he sat up with a soft groan as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "I was worried, you know. You seemed more down when you went to bed than the Roxanne I know. Granted, I don't know you all that well."
 
When the gnoll woke up she was frozen and rubbed the back of her head a little blushing slightly. "O-Oh...s-sorry...I didn't mean to wake you...I just...wondered how it felt to touch your fur...I was curious! Sorry again!" She looks away from him as he mentions her attitude before bed. "I did exactly what I was told not to...and I almost got killed and lost my hearing; which I hated that...I hated that more than anything. There was nothing...I didn't hear anything." Now she was showing how panicked she had actually been when her hearing had been taken, she relied on her ears fairly heavily apparently. "What if it hadn't been my hearing...what if I'd lost my sight? I don't know why but all these what ifs just popped into my head last night. I haven't slept. I haven't slept at all..." She curls her knees to her chest again and rests her head on her knees; now it was obvious as to why she had seemed upset, she wasn't even trying to hide it.
 
"But," he said, moving a clawed hand onto one of her shoulders in a supportive manner, "you didn't lose your sight. You lost your hearing, now it's back. You disobeyed, and you and your parents will work at that. What's done is done, Roxanne. You can't change it, so there's not a good deal of use in dwelling upon it."

He chuckled lightly. "And it's fine. The touch felt nice enough."
 
Roxanne goes quiet and takes a deep breath. "Well I guess I should go see them...You can stay here if you'd like, I may be gone awhile...Um...I think mom put something in a cold box in my room...so if you get hungry eat that." She sounded like she expected to be gone for awhile but she also seemed to be procrastinating because she walked into her room and tapped the top of a small rectangular cabinet that opened up and was cold inside. "Anyway this is that...so...I'm gonna go." She gulped and quickly made her way down that long walk of stairs, making sure not to fall while also trying to rub the bags out from under her eyes.

It actually took Roxanne over three hours to return to her quarters and when she did she was silently rubbing her ears before she collapses onto her bed staring at her pillow. She was frighteningly quiet and giving off a fairly angry vibe, would Meryg risk speaking to the Princess or would he leave her be? She wondered this idly while glaring at her pillow, her head was full of awful things right now, that was obvious in the way her right hand seemed to twitch with anger on occasion.
 
While the princess was absent, the gnoll did not have much in way of things to do. He sampled a bit of food and drink from the odd, cold box in the princess' chambers. He had helped himself to a bit of fruit and cheese, though neither were like anything from The Plains. The only cheese in his home was extremely soft and pungent in scent, while the fruits were of different shapes, but some of similar tastes to those that Roserust had to offer.

Then she reentered, no doubt feeling quite down about her audience with her parents.

"Princess?" he muttered, moving to sit upon the edge of the bed. He reached over, a large hand upon her back. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
 
Roxanne comes to life like a wild animal about to be killed by a human and she flings her pillow at the wall with a yell of anger. "T-Th...There isn't anything you can do!! They think it necessary to take my experiments and things though!" Even as he says it there are two guards at the door looking slightly terrified by the angry Princess. Now normally, Roxanne didn't ever throw a fit, but today, they were taking the things most important to her and her mother had been the one behind the entire plot which just causes Roxanne to be angrier and not aiming the yell directly at Meryg she continues her fit. "Mom wants me to do more Princess like things, would rather I cook or sew or do something mundane and not helpful at all!! I told her, I begged her, I needed the roses, they might be my only way to get you home! She didn't care which made me even madder!"

Without her permission the guards come in and start taking the things from her room carelessly dropping them and breaking things and what have you, Roxanne was not having it though. "If you're going to TAKE my things then treat them carefully they're still useful you know you...you...." She glares darkly at the working guards some part of her wished she had any ability to fight right now. An idea comes to her though and she curls her long nails into her palms; the guards hadn't been that smart, they had come into her space in normal clothes with only spears that were leaned on a wall far away. She dashes at the two guards, her nails were long, surely she could do something to the guards with them.

When Roxanne hits the guards they're bowled over; she wasn't so weak after all, or maybe it was just her anger powering her. Either way she dug those nails of hers into one of their faces creating three lines of bloody streaks but the other guard is too quick and grabs the angry Princess restraining her. "Don't you dare touch my roses outside!! Do you hear me!?"

"That is a lady's pursuit, the queen has told us not to touch the garden." The guard she had scratched answered her curtly; he was amazingly patient apparently because he was controlling the anger that he surely had for the Princess at that point.
 
Meryg could not believe his ears. Surely the queen had not thought this through for, as Roxanne had said, her experimentation with the roses was the one and only chance he had at finding his way home. Surely the queen would not doom him to remain in Roserust for the rest of his days? It was a fine place for her, sure enough, but not for a gnoll. He needed the wind and the open grass. Metal and machinery was not for his kind.

Still, he was more stoic in this news than the princess had been. The gnoll walked past the commotion and out to his place upon the balcony. He gathered his spear and stood, looking out over the city in thought. Simply, there was nothing that could be done. Should he go against the wishes of royalty, he would no doubt be labeled a traitor or something similar to what his own kind had labeled him. He would be imprisoned or banished to lands more unknown than his own vast plains.

He cursed in his own language and turned about. "I have to talk to them," he muttered. Trying something was better than nothing.

"I request an audience with the king and queen," he said to the guards as he walked back into the room. "I figure I'm due at least that, being a visitor who did not even choose to visit."

Meryg looked at Roxanne and shrugged.
 
Roxanne was still angry but she shook the guard off who glared at her; of course he got the glare back and it looked far more creepy when she did it because of those brightly colored eyes that seemed to glow in the dark. The guard cringed before turning his attention to the gnoll preparing to attack if Meryg decided to attack; of course since he didn't the guard frowned and muttered. "Right this way then sir, and you, Princess Roxanne I am not to let you out of my sight so you unfortunately have to come as well."

That was not news she needed, her high pitched scream hurt her ears and probably Meryg's but it wouldn't affect the guard the way it did those with sharp ears. "I was just there! I don't want to go back!" The guard rolls his eyes and grabs Roxanne dragging her along behind him. Feeling annoyed and pushed around Roxanne was looking around and happened to look on her balcony; only three hours ago had the garden been only half full, now it was filled to the brim with lots of roses overflowing almost on the patches; but one stood out on the balcony. It was white in full bloom.

Roxanne pulled away from the guard who growled at the impertinent Princess but he was ignored and Roxanne darted forward and broke off that white rose. Apparently she had watered it too much with the green liquid but oh well, there were roses all over and it looked pretty because some of the metallic vines hung over the edge. She would have to leave it like this she decided before following the guard one more keeping her white rose close to her chest.
 
The gnoll more or less led the group of them to the throne room. He had been there once, and once was enough for him to remember the way; he had to remember much more complicated directions on hunting excursions, so memorizing where a portrait was or some other marker in the castle was no large task.

With the permission of the guards, the gnoll entered the throne room with his spear at his side. Again he did not bow. "I request," he started, not waiting to be spoken to, "that Princess Roxanne be allowed to research the roses like before. Else your majesties do not care whether or not I get home in a timely fashion."

[OoC: I nearly typed Elsa instead of Roxanne. Thanks, Frozen soundtrack.]
 
(Oh gawd...I nearly died of the laughter! Thanks.... o.o; What the hell do I call you out of RP? XD)

Roxanne had been forced to stay by the guard's side even though she kept growling and glaring at the person who was keeping her; very much against her will; right next to him. She listened to Meryg noticing that her parents were actually pleased at seeing him.

"Ah, we are sorry about that Meryg, but it's only for awhile. Perhaps until we solve our little problem..." The king spoke to him with a smile; pointedly ignoring his daughter's presence. "Worry not about the request I made of you earlier by the way. We're fairly certain we can find and locate the ones who attacked our city. You don't seem like you have children to me Meryg so you cannot understand why I've chosen to take away her research." The queen coughs next to her king and stares at him for a moment. "Ahem...I mean why my queen and I have chosen this path for her." That comment quickly earns a dark glare from Roxanne who was normally very sweet.

Roxanne makes no comments but she keeps her back on her parents who she knew wouldn't budge from the choice they'd made, if nothing else her parents were consistent. The queen bows her head slightly to Meryg though before speaking, "I'm sure we can solve the problem soon. Roserust isn't so bad...so stay awhile. We will give her the items back in time; depending on how well she behaves herself it will be sooner rather than later."

Anyone could tell that Roxanne had a whole explosion building up so without even giving Meryg another chance to speak they shoo him and the guard with Roxanne off. She doesn't explode at this exact moment her head bowed she spoke to the guard. "Stay out of my area, guard the stairs or something but you don't need to be at my door." The guard looks like he's about to say something but thinks twice and with a glare at Roxanne he stops at the bottom of the stairs that led up to Roxanne's quarters.
 
They could shoo him away like common rabble if they liked, but that couldn't stop him from saying his peace as he walked, his back turned to the queen and king.

"This is how you treat an unfortunate visitor, then? You take away his chance at returning home in a petty squabble with your daughter? Perhaps she should be allowed to leave when she likes, perhaps allowed to see a bit of the world outside of the view from her balcony! Then, just maybe, she wouldn't be so keen on sneaking away with a man she hardly knows!"

He shook a guard's hand off of his shoulder and turned back about, eying the king and queen coldly. He stamped his spear upon the ground and growled. "Just because I don't have anyone waiting for me doesn't mean I should be delayed my return, and just because the princess disobeyed you does not mean I should be punished for it as well. This is anything but fair."

[OoC: Gosh, I mean. Hm. Well, my name's Josh. I guess that'd do okay. xD Or Oppen if you like to just use usernames. You?]
 
(Haley or Arius, either one works.)

"Sorry...Neither of them answered you..." Roxanne mumbles as they arrive in her room and she pulls the white rose from her hiding place smiling a little. "Thanks for not telling on me though, you know about scratching that one guard's face. Oh but that was just a distraction." She giggles as she pulls out that tea pot of hers and a few of her other instruments that she had managed to grab, only the essentials, like her grinder, the tea pot, and her magnifying glass; they hadn't bother to take her pot out of the room though. "I...This rose is different...far different from all the others, and it grew so quickly because of my experiments." She smiles at Meryg brightly and rubs the mark around her neck that spelled out her name.

"They said...it would come to me in time...I sped up the time...I think this white rose is your ticket home." She grins over her shoulder at him her rusted red hair falling over her cyan blue eye as she smiled at him. She didn't look stressed out at all, she seemed perfectly pleased. "I just have to repeat the same process I did when I made that tea, but...well I think I have to dump it this time, on the ground to form the portal, but remember this won't take you home directly...I'll explain if it works..." She's done the process many times in the past few days and so it's quickly repeated and she sits waiting for the water to boil.
 
"Won't take me--? What do you mean it won't take me home directly? Wasn't that the point?" he asked, a little perturbed at the thought of ending up somewhere else. He thought of the possibilities. What if, he thought to himself, he ended up in a less friendly place than Roxanne's home? What if, wherever he ended up, there was no one to help him? Worse still, what if he ended up somewhere where there was no one else at all? The possibilities, most for ill, were truly endless. That thought frightened him more than anything had ever frightened him before.

"What if I end up in a place that's only water or fire? What if I end up somewhere where there's no magic anymore? What then?"

He was being cast aside, in a way. Roxanne was trying to help him, but it would likely end up harming him. Still, he could not stay in Roserust for the rest of his life. There was no reason for him to stay. Then again, was there really a reason for him to return to The Plains of Eternity?

Meryg frowned. "Gnolls aren't supposed to say that they're afraid," he said, hoping that, along with the pinning of his ears, was enough of a hint to the princess.
 
Roxanne smiles, it's a bright smile. "I never said you'd be going alone, now did I?" She doesn't give him much time to process this before she stands up and starts to grind up the whole white rose mixing the white and green powder together. "Of course...if you don't want to go...right now. Then I can always just hold onto this potion and put it in my little icebox." The water finishes boiling and she poured it into her tea pot while dumping the white and green powder in as well. She lets it steep like this while she waits of Meryg to make up his mind smiling at him gently.

(Sorry I know it's a short response but his answer determines where the RP goes next.)
 
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