Quests IC

Dusting off her satchel and flipping back her hair, Jason walked aimlessly through the city, jumping slightly at the different sounds she heard here and there. Sure, she would have liked to stay a bit longer there, exploring places was in her blood, but she had gotten no useful information of where she could find the razor that belonged to her and that got her upset. The old woman had given here such weird clues, even she seemed to doubt about them when givimg them to Jason. A chain of metal. Didn't know he had the razor on him? The puppet had gone somewhere else, she knew; traveling with her could be exhausting and even a little annoying after a while. Her thoughts run here and there, remembering places she had gone to and what she had found. It was already two years since she left home, her search for the antiques that were stolen from her family seemed to never have an end. Her parents would be worried for her, surely; but she had been updating them on what she had done, though she never revealed her location.

Jason's walk picked up into a small jogging and then she was suddenly racing around the main market, twirling and ducking around as not to break something or disturb someone on their way. After getting out of that place full of people, she made a sharp turn into one of the alleys that was almost too dark to see in and ran through it. Though she was stopped suddenly by something that was on the other end and she had almost no time to halt. With a quick leapt, she tried to pass over it but was caught by something and remained on top of the thing, its surface feeling smooth and cold and metallic on her arms. She looked back and scowled at her whip. "Okay, this is one of the seldom times when you do this to me, you bugger!" She huffed, trying to move her bangs out of her face and tapping on the surface of whatever, or whoever, she was on top. "Um, excuse me, but can I please be put down? I'm stuck up here!"
 
"..Vern." The shapeshifter awkwardly held his hand out for another few seconds before returning it to his side. He turned his head back over his shoulder for a moment, and back again. "I don't hear any shouting, so...they probably lost track of me. The guards had me confused for a vampire for some reason, and I think someone they actually should've been chasing got away because of it..maybe he really was a vampire."

"And he passed off some kind of bag on me. D---, I hope it isn't stolen. I'll have to figure out who it belonged to somehow or other, and..uh, sorry, just, thinking aloud." As he continued to talk, Vern took a closer look at the person he'd nearly run over, and immediately noticed she was dressed in what looked like a deliberate attempt to hide all of her skin. Maybe they had some kind of serious racism problem around here, or it was some kind of skin condition she wanted to hide? What little he could see of her didn't look the least bit out of the ordinary, though.

He leaned against a wall and slid down to a sitting position. After all, he had just run into someone, and despite initially bouncing right back up he couldn't ignore his sore limbs forever. Then he pulled out the small pouch again and carefully opened it a crack, to see what was inside. "Hm.." There were a few things in there: A number of small reddish gems, a few coins that didn't look like any form of currency he was familiar with, some kind of..razor? Nothing that glowed or exploded when he looked at them, but possibly things of value...further increasing the risk of these items being stolen.
 
Azy climbed around the corner of a wall to see two people. She looked at them for a second before seeing the bag the one was holding. It was something shiny in there. She quickly climbed towards the one holding the bag, getting a little above his head. She stopped there, staring at the content of the bag for a moment. She loved shiny things. She used to bring whatever shinies she could find, sometimes straight from someones hands, back to Grozzy. she let out a small squeak of joy.
 
Pleased with the results of his actions, the search of Talrev continued through the narrow alleys, and for the first time, it seemed like he was on the right track, or at least he seemed to recognise a few buildings, but maybe he was just in the place where he came from. He did not know, mainly because he forgot to keep the map of the city in his head during the time when he was being chased by the royal guards, so now he was in a relatively tight spot. Fortunately for him, though, the roads were a bit wider in this area of the town, but he still had to go quite close to the smaller alleys that connected to the main road so that people could fit by him, but at least it was relatively comfortable for both sides. That is, until someone, or something tapped him on the back and tried to jump over him, only to get stuck on one of the irregularities in his skin.

Whatever it was, he barely felt the impact and considered marching on, until he was asked to get it off from his back. Judging by the voice, whoever got stuck on his skin was a human, and a female at that. Letting out a low, almost threatening, but not-quite hostile sound that was somewhere between a cat's purring and a bear's roar, Talrev planted his feet firmly on the ground, then started to raise himself so that his eyes could rotate into a place where they saw what was on his back. What he failed to consider, though, is that an eight-eyes Metal Steed raising his head towards someone who has never seen something like him before could be quite a traumatising experience.

"I see you now. Just give me a second," said Talrev in a voice that was relatively pleasing to the human ear as he put his weight on his right side, tilting himself towards the road at a slight angle. In turn, Jason slowly started to slide down his back.
 
A small wave of panic rushed through Jason as she saw eight different eyes stared at her as the thing's head moved to look at her. She felt the machine shift under her and knew that it was tilting itself. Sliding to the side, she dusted herself off and wrapped better her whip in her belt; she then made her way slowly to the front of the creature. First thing she noticed, and anyone else could, this being was made of pure metal. It looked like a sort of centipede to her, but the eyes were something else. Jason shivered inwardly.

She cleared her throat and straightened up. "Not to be rude, uh, Mister...but, could I have knowledge of what you are?" She shifted a bit on her feet uncomfortable. "And, by the way, I'm sorry for crashing into you like that. I hope there was no harm done to your...outer shell." Looking at the creature you could just call it like that. A shell. A very useful metal shell, that is. Tilting her head to the side, she inspected a bit more what was in front of her. Both of her eyes twinkled with interest at such an amazing being she had crash into, the goosebumps she had felt were now gone and replaced with a spreading curiosity that was clearly showing in her face. And suddenly the words of the old woman in the shop echoed in her head. Near a chain of metal. Near a chain of metal. Could this be what she had been referring to? The only thing Jason could do was hope for her instincts to tell her the truth and guide her to the Stavros family blade.
 
The small girl nodded in response to his name -Vern-, but frowned at the hand that was now falling back to his side, feeling guilty and perhaps a little grateful that he hadn't questioned her lack of cordiality. She tried to compensate by listening politely to his explanation, and was not uninterestered by the time he had finished. Harry took a moment to reflect. It seemed silly to her that the guards would try and hunt down a vampire in a city that had been built by its kind; perhaps someone could do it, but the guards? The presence in front of her was proof of how inept the guards could be; Vern didn't look anything like a vampire.

In fact, Vern didn't have any distinguishing features. He was just your average male, tall and unremarkable.

Harry perked up when the stranger spoke of the mysterious pouch in his hands. She had no intention of stealing it, of course- the dark bag merely piqued her interest. Who knew what treasures could be inside? As Vern slid down th wall, Harriet unconsciously followed suit -while still keeping a safe distance-, peering over his arms to see the contents better. After inching just a little too close for comfort, the street rat realized what she was doing and quickly glanced away. Not her business ... Even if this fake-vampire man was the most interesting thing, save the military vehicle, that she had seen in weeks.

Luckily, Harriet was distracted from the contents of the bag by a high-pitched squeak; she slowly looked up, and then squinted. Did that dark spot on the wall just move? There, it did it again- yes, that spot was definitely moving. Although the darkness prevented her from seeing whatever-it-was clearly, Harry felt threatened. One glove came sliding off, and a frown etched itself into the dirt of her face.
 
Talrev examined the stranger thoroughly with his many eyes, taking in all the details of the human in front of him. He identified her as a relatively normal female, except for one detail that surprised him. One of the young woman's eyes was brown, while the other was dark green, something he had yet to see on any other human. This strange phenomenon made him interested in the young woman, but Talrev reminded himself to be caotious, after all, he did not know what her intentions were. He contemplated the proper response to her question as he lowered himself back into position, then divided his eyes' attention across her body, making it seem like he was measuring how much of a threat she was to him.

"You did not harm me," said Talrev with a deep voice that had a sharp edge, one that humans would associate with a military commander. "And to answer your question, I am only a wanderer. There is nothing more that you should know about me. Now, I would like to ask you to step aside, as this street is quite narrow, and I would be in the way of your people if I tried to circle around you," said Talrev as he looked around to see people staring at them. "Not to mention that we seem to be attracting a lot of attention, which I do not really like."
 
Vern stared on for another couple of seconds before he noticed the girl..Harriet, she'd said, paying attention to something roughly behind him. He carefully followed her gaze and, thanks to the current configuration of his eyes, caught a spider walking along the wall in enough detail to properly identify it, at least. "Huh..spiders don't grow that big in most places," he said, not thinking how most people would react to the announcement of a very large spider's presence. "I think it must be special someh..oh. Shoot."

Vern realized now that he had seen this creature before, very recently, being pet by a large lizard person whose shop he had subsequently toppled over. Had he managed to get that guy in trouble too? Or did he send off his poisonous spider to assassinate people who offended him? Great, now he wasn't sure whether to run away or try to communicate with the thing. "Uh, where'd your big lizard friend go?" he said finally, keeping his distance. He would feel silly talking to a big spider if he weren't capable of being a bird.
 
Not liking the tone the 'wanderer' was using with her, Jason crossed her arms over her chest and knitted her eyebrows together. How much she would have liked to know what this being was, yet she felt somewhat threatened with his presence and large metal structure. She gave a sharp definitive nod after he, she could at least say it was a he, finished talking. Squatting down and then taking a big leap, in the blink of an eye she was already on top of a wall and ready to continue her way around the city a bit more. "One more question, sir. Could I at least know your name?" She made a gesture with her hand and curtsied a bit. "Kiara Stavros at your service". Jason rarely used her first name, and she definitely didn't present herself to people or creatures she had just met, but this metal centipede had something about it that made her curious and she really wanted for him to know her name. What could be the worst that could happen? She removed her bangs from her face with a blow and placed herself as if she was about to leap again, only that this time she waited for an answer from the huge metal 'wanderer'. Her eyes twinkled with the typical spirit of adventure that ran through her veins and the curiosity that never left her alone.
 
Azy was taken out of her stealing state as soon as the person under her spoke. She remembered what Grozzy had sent her out to do, and was angered a bit by forgetting that. She backed up the wall slightly, before squeaking a few times and pointing her one front leg towards where she'd come from, trying to signal for the two to go that way. Without waiting for a response, she scurried a bit along the wall in the direction, hoping they would follow. Not many did follow her when she tried this sort of thing, unless they wanted to step on her or something like that. Though it was also the first time someone spoke to her, rather than scream in fear or something like that.
 
Within seconds, Vern had also spotted the black spot on the wall and began to study it; Harriet's eyes shifted between the two and came to settle in the spot once again, stretching her bare fingers unconsciously. She squinted, eyes finally adjusting to the darkness- and what did they decipher? A spider. A curiously large spider. The small girl replaced the glove on her hand. Spiders weren't the prettiest of creatures, but she had never disliked them. This one must have gotten fat on the many moths and mosquitoes present in the caverns, that was all. Certainly not a threat.

Near her, Vern had apparently reached the same conclusion and provided his commentary. He sure likes to think out loud, Harry thought, not without some amusement. However, it seemed that his thoughts were of some consequence, for when he addressed the spider it actually seemed to respond. The girl's jaw dropped. She had never considered that the little creature was sentinent, and felt enormously silly. What a strange situation this was- here was a man who had talked to a spider, expecting a response, and she was the one feeling foolish.

The spider pointed in a direction and scurried away. Without hesitation, Harry stood and began to follow.
 
For a while, Talrev considered his response to the strange person, but eventually, he came to the conclusion that giving his name to her, especially after she gave a name too, would be an appropriate gesture, and more importantly, it would not endanger him in the long run.

"The closest equivalent to my name that you can pronounce would be Talrev," said the Metal Steed with a voice that was a bit softer than his previous one. "It is nice to meet you, Kiara Stavros," continued Talrev, then observed her figure for a while to etch her figure into his memory. When he was done with that, he returned to his search for the city's exit while he made sure that he was not in the way of anyone, which was hard in this rather narrow street. He had to make a stop several times for carriages to pass safely by, but the decreasing number of people told him that he was finally nearing his goal. Sure enough, he spotted the exit of the city after a short time... along with the detachment of the guards that were there to check every traveller.

He knew that scaring off the guards was a bad idea, but he did not know it would have such severe consequences. Perhaps this town was really too close-minded for its own good, but if the guards were at the gate, and they knew of what he did, how was he going to leave this city? Surely, those humans will not let him go unpunished for his actions, but there probably wasn't a single prison cell he fit in, so they would get creative, communicate with some people, and then discover his identity. Talrev shuddered at that thought, so instead of going for the gates, he decided to go into one of the side alleys to rethink his strategy.
 
"Talrev.." Jason tasted the name in her lips and grew accostumed to it. Looking over her shoulder she saw the metal wanderer make his way down the street and then disappear from her sight. She shifted her positon on the wall she was on and let her legs hung on the side of it as she quickly searched her journal in the leather satchel she had. With her quill, she made a quick sketch of what she had seen, writing down some notes of his appearance and his name adorning the edge of the page; maybe someone she would later meet in her journey would know the name of this fascinating creature. When she had finished, she settled her things inside the satchel again and stood up, looking both ways to find an interesting place to check. The rock city itself was a marvelous sight to see, let alone be in it, but many things had to be seen and Jason was surely going to be there to have a piece of them.

She walked along the wall for some time until she was asked by a guard to climb down, after that she had to be careful not to crash into people that carried their valuable things here and there, most of them false copies, she could tell. Though one artifact actually caught her attention as she walked in a busy street and wasn't ready for the crash that followed. She bumped into someone's back, but this person was carrying something in its arms, a box of the sort, and both of them fell forward. This surely wasn't one of Jason's graceful landings.
 
All of a sudden, Groz'Len was knocked over by someone crashing into him from behind, with whoever it was landing on him. "Watch where you're going!" He hissed, attempting to push whoever it was off him. For a moment he was scared Azy had gotten squashed, before he remembered he'd sent her off. He got up rather slowly, still feeling the cold.
 
There was some shifting to do before the female werecat was able to stand on her feet again. The person she had bumped into had rough skin, and whatever it was carrying, it was worth taking a look. She furrowed her brow and saw this person slowly rose, inspecting everything about it. Well, seems you can find any kind of people in this city. By the looks of it, this person a male, and his skin was complete scales. Jason couldn't help to stare. "Ahem...I'll start watching my path...sir. Sorry I bumped...into you." She looked around and realized she had walked into a strange alley, away from the other traders and people. She looked again at this being, but her feet just wouldn't move from their spot. A new layer of curiosity seemed to cover her unmatching eyes, making her appearance more cat-like than it already was.
 
As he got up, Groz'Len turned towards... whoever had knocked him over. It was a female, a female looking a bit different from most, it seemed. "Well, none of us were harmed, so no harm done, I guess." He said, taking off and opening his backpack to make sure nothing of much value had been damaged. "You don't happen to know your way around this city, by any chance? I'm attempting to get out of this cave, but I'm lost." He asked, still rummaging around his pack.
 
Eventually the spider led the pair--shapeshifter and gloved girl--up to a rather odd combination of people. First there was that odd metal thing, some kind of vehicle or unusual creature Vern hadn't encountered any of before today. And then there was the lizard, the spider's owner. Finally, he seemed to be talking to a woman, the most 'normal'-looking of the three by human perspective, though Vern thought there was something to her..eyes or something..that didn't quite seem right for a full human. In any case, the lizard seemed to be looking for an exit to the city.

"Uh, hey," he said, waving at the group he'd brought himself to the attention of with his free hand, the other one still holding onto the odd pouch. Looking at the lizard he said, "Your spider friend brought us..um, sorry for running into your shop earlier. The main roads have some arrows painted to help people get out, but I think I know which way the nearest exit is. This alley looks kinda familiar, I mean."
 
Azy climber straight up to Groz'Lens head, almost embracing him, having been gone from him. Groz gave her a light petting, before turning towards the new person. He answered him "Well, I have a problem, so I should stay off the main roads... Wait a minute... You where the one who ran into my shop?! You're the reason I'm stuck in this cave?!" He took a few steps towards the new guy. "I should tear you apart for that." He said, staring him right in the eyes. "But I doubt that would make my situation any better, so I wont." He followed up with. In a fight, he'd be sluggish now, and he wanted to conserve energy, in case he needed it for something more... Lethal to him.
 
It looked like that today was the day of surprises for Talrev, as his eyes saw what he thought was the lizard man and that Kiara girl at a more distant part of the alley, but he could not get a clear view of them just yet. Kiara seemed to be apologising for something, but he could not make out what the lizard man was doing, as he was at the improper angle for him to get a good view on his actions. However, he decided against going closer, at least for now, because he still did not really know their intentions, especially that of the lizard man. Sure, he seemed harmless enough, but he could not know of his intentions, so he waited there, at least until he saw the young girl he bumped into earlier and a strange man approaching Kiara and the lizard man from a close-by alleyway.

That was the point where he could no longer deny his own curiousity, so he moved within earshot of the group, the disadvantage of which was that they could see him as well. However, what he heard was incredibly useful to him indeed as it pointed to the person who was responsible for how the guards treated him. And if there is one thing that Talrev disliked is others getting him into trouble.

"So you were the person who got me into this mess," said Talrev, whose voice was as unpleasant to the human ear as he could make it be. "I must tell you that you caused me quite the trouble, and appearently, you hold something of extreme value to the city, because they have barricaded the exits. I am also chased by them, so I can not leave this city. How do you plan to make this up to me?"
 
Vern gave the great metal creature a look for a moment, not so much for its appearance (though that might have been a contributing factor) as for its (or his, whatever) accusation. "What, this?" he said, indicating the pouch in his hand. "First of all, they chased after me because they thought I was a vampire, and before that they were after someone who may have actually been a vampire. I don't even think they saw him shove this thing on me. And, second, what could possibly be so important about a razor and a bunch of red stones?" He shook his head. "I'd blame that guy, if you ask me. But..yeah, barricaded checkpoints might be a problem." Not for me, but for the lizard and this guy..

"I bet they don't even know all the ways out of here. Maybe I could just go look for a secret exit or something that isn't blocked and we can all just get outta here."
 
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