< Exiting The Beast | Ex Pulplogs | A Feast Before Heaven >
ST The return to the city is made speedy by Umak's help. It takes the efforts of three of the strongest refugees and Myrrh to carry the giant while Xar, Carmine and Corve take care of the rest of their convoy. By daybreak the mottly, sweaty, mucusy group reaches the gates of the city and is allowed in because, of course, the guards deserted to go see about the trouble at the Ziggurat.
Corve makes straight for the hotel, hoping nothing happened to Jaks while they were inside the belly of the behemoth.
Carmine goes with him, worried for him, for Jaks and for Melody.
ST Myrrh tells Xar that he can take care of the refugees himself and sends the dragon-king along wth Carmine and Corve "to keep an eye on them"
Xar`Rex has scrubbed most of the mucous off with sand along the way, and is back to looking, well, like a disturbing statue.
Corve looks at Xar and raises a brow. "Are you ever going to go back to being scaley, or is stone the new you?"
ST At the hotel they find that Jaks is doing just fine and Melody is going stir-crazy inside her room.
Xar`Rex "Not until there is no danger of being lynched. I don't enjoy that."
Corve nods a little as he opens the door to Melody's room, having already checked on Jaks. "Right. Melody? You alright?"
Melody "Where have you BEEN?! It's been THREE DAYS!"
Carmine smiles in greeting to melody, looking for all the world like the trip across the desert had not just happened. "... We got trapped inside a behemoth."
Melody "Well what kind of excuse is...did you say inside?"
Corve looks at her with a most blank look, and then smiles. "Sorry you don't approve of us taking a little longer due to being swallowed."
Xar`Rex "It was...wet."
Carmine "And I got trapped in a pod."
Melody "Well I hope you had fun! Do you know what I had to promise that fat old innkeeper just to prevent him from kicking me and that...that..giant IGUANA of yours out?!"
Melody is all red and blotchy.
Corve narrows his eyes and tilts his head. "Iguana? What did you do?"
Xar`Rex narrows his eyes, and crosses his arms over his chest. She's just like the rest of them.
Melody "Nothing, YET! But what I had to promise! You better get me out of here before I have to make good!"
Xar`Rex "What makes you deserving of rescue?"
Carmine doesn't look impressed, her eyes flashing.
Xar`Rex "You make promises, then break them. You yell at us, who wished only to help. You are no princess. Do not act like one."
Melody swells up with offended dignity. "Well then I'll just get my SELF out of here!"
Melody looks to pick up her things, remembers she has none, and heads for the door!"
Corve crosses his arms slowly, raising a brow at Melody. "... even if she was a princess," he mutters, blocking the doorway. "What did you promise the inkeeper?"
Xar`Rex snorts. "You have nowhere to go. Enjoy the journey there."
Melody "I will! And that is none of your business! Move aside!"
Melody glares at Corve
Corve smirks. "I dont' think you have a say in what is or isn't my business, considering that if it wasn't for my friends and I, you'd be Shajumani chow at the moment. So... what promise did you make?" He doesn't look like he's moving... nor like he's going to be moved by her.
Xar`Rex "I am sure the innkeeper would be happy to tell."
Melody "And that gives you the right to kidnap* me?"
Carmine "Both of you. Out."
Xar`Rex shrugs expressively. "I am hungry." he crunches on out.
Corve narrows his eyes slowly, and then smiles at Carmine. "Sure, love. C'mon Xar, let's go square -our- debt with the innkeeper."
Xar`Rex tromps into the room with the food.
Melody looks at Carmine. "Well, are you* going to let me go?"
Carmine smiles at Melody and nods "I'm sorry about Corve ... he ... must have gotten pretty nervous when I vanished. And then you went and called jaks an iguana ..."
Melody settles down a bit. "Well, I suppose that was a bit uncalled for. But I just have issues with, you know, monster-like-things."
Melody "Being intended as a sacrifice and all."
Carmine "Jaks isn't a monster. And neither is Xar ... he made me this, after all." she shows her new feather clip
Xar`Rex looks around for someone to order food from.
Melody "That's very pretty. I know dragon-kings aren't monsters, but that giant man-eating dinosaur thing sure looks like one! But if it's his..pet or something..I'm sorry I offended him."
Melody "I mean, I'm here all alone for three days worrying if the guards are coming to take me away, with a giant lizard to watch and a fat old greedy innkeeper asking me for money that I have none of!"
Barkeeper sits behind the bar rubbing the same glass with the same rag he always does...rather odd why they always do that.
Carmine "I'm sorry for that. But ... we were swallowed by a behemoth..."
Xar`Rex spots the man and walks over to him. "Do you have food here?"
Melody "Well no offense, but better you then me. You seemed to make it out alright."
Barkeeper "Food? Sure, what are you hungry fo-" He notices that Xar is a statue. "I don't think we serve rocks here sir."
Xar`Rex "Oh, I do not eat rocks. I eat fruit. Vegetables. Do you have those? Maybe bread? I have not eaten for three days."
Barkeeper "Oh i'm sure we have some bread...how did you plan on paying?:
Xar`Rex "Corve has money." he points.
Carmine "I feel ... different, somehow."
Melody "Are you ill?"
Corve blinks and looks up at the Dragon King and then then the barkeeper. He feels like a bank. A walking bank. Perfect. "I'll pay for the food," he says.
Carmine "No, not ill..."
Xar`Rex sees no problem with Corve the Bank, as he is Xar the Money Maker.
Barkeeper "Alright then, how much do you want exactly? We have a nice selection of breads and cheeses with spices..."
Melody "What's wrong then?"
Xar`Rex holds his hands apart, a couple inches beyond the width of his shoulders. "This much, please."
Carmine "I don't know ... something changed."
Corve raises a brow and snorts a little, shaking his head as he chuckles. He leans on the bar and sits down, leaning on it. "And I want a beer."
Melody "Maybe you should go see a healer."
Barkeeper nods and starts preparing their orders, going into the back room.
Carmine "I AM a healer." ...somehow.
Melody "Oh! Well can't you tell whats wrong?"
Carmine shakes her head, and sighs.
Melody offers Carmine a sympathetic hug.
Barkeeper comes back with a mug of beer and a selection of breads and fruits and cheeses.
Corve takes his beer and starts to swallow. He drinks it fast- it lasts about a total of two gulps- and then he slams it down and pays the barkeeper for everything, leaving Xar to eat. Corve himself steps outside the establishment, leaning on the door and rummaging around his pockets for a cigarette. He lights it with a match, and blows the smoke slowly. "We shouldn't be hanging out here," he mutters.
Carmine hugs Melody back.
Xar`Rex devours the food at an impressive pace, although it takes him several times as long as it did for Corve to chug his beer.
Xar`Rex finishes, heaves a great sigh, and then looks up at the barkeep, "You know Melody, yes?"
Melody "If it helps at all, you dont look like anything's wrong with you."
Melody "I'm sure its just a passing thing."
Barkeeper "Melody...the girl upstairs?" He grins for a moment. "Yeah I know her."
Xar`Rex "She said she promised you something."
Barkeeper coughs loudly for a moment, taken a bit by suprise. "Did she now..."
Xar`Rex "She wishes to break her promise, now that we are here to make payment for her lodging."
Barkeeper "What?!" He deflates for a moment. "I...I see." He frowns, looking disappointed.
Xar`Rex "I am not sure whether or not we will do so, yet. It seems my friend is talking to her about it first."
Barkeeper "Oh really..."
Corve leans in through the door, blowing smoke through his nose. "Don't get your hopes up," he says to the barkeep, leaning back out.
Barkeeper he brightens up slightly. "Well that lizard thing down there was quite expensive to feed you know...it certainly eats alot of meat.
Xar`Rex "It does. It is a good thing he does not eat people, is it not?
Barkeeper frowns. "Yeah it is...damn thing snapped at the stable girl though."
Xar`Rex "What was she doing?"
Corve raises a brow and takes a look inside the place, towards the barkeep. What the hell is with people and talking bad about Jaks? He probably took care of the rodent problem at the inn anyway.
Barkeeper "She was trying to get a blanket on it for the night, it gets cold down here at night you know..."
Corve comes back in, cigarette between his lips and looks at the barkeeper. "You sure? Jaks is docile with people who aren't threatening." He folds his arms and rests them on the counter, picking the cigarette from his lips.
Xar`Rex "Are you sure you fed him?"
Barkeeper "We gave him goatmeat and some grain..." He shrugs, you get the feeling they aren't exactly used to dealing with critters outside of horses.
Corve nods slowly. "He was probably just testy. I apologize."
Barkeeper "It's alright, taught her to be quick on her feet..."
Corve looks at Xar. "We should get going," he says, and gets up, walking up the stairs towards the room and knocking. "Hey, we should be leaving..."
Xar`Rex picks a piece of food out of his teeth with a stony claw. "Things don't taste right when I'm stone." he notes, and rises. "Thank you." he follows Corve up the stairs.
Barkeeper glances back at them as they leave...damn. Hope they don't pay!
Carmine smiles at corve as he comes in.
Corve walks over to Carmine, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and looking at the girls. "So, we done here? Everything fixed? We can pay and get the hell out of this city?"
Carmine nods firmly
Corve nods back and then motions for the door. "Let's go, we'll meet Myrrh and the villagers on the way out."
Xar`Rex "Is she coming with us?"
Xar`Rex nods at Mel
Carmine looks at Mel curiously
Corve shrugs. "Can't leave her here- barkeeper looks like he really doesn't want to get paid... we'll drop her off wherever we drop off the villagers, I guess- in any case, we really should be getting out of here, and take Umak back with Tonidra."
Xar`Rex shrugs
Xar`Rex "Let us go then. We will go see Tonidra again."
Corve nods and starts grabbing the few things they'd left at the room, and then moves people out, closing the door behind him. He steps up behind Carmine and hands her and Xar some of the bags. "Carmine- can you go get Jaks at the stables while I pay the innkeeper?"
Xar`Rex shoulders a couple of bags, and reflects on how often he seems to carry things these days.
Carmine "Of course." She takes the bags like they weigh nothing, going down to the stables.
ST The Circle and their attendant Refugees make tracks out of the city once their debts are paid and their luggage secured. It takes several days of travel to reach the Bronze Hill Tribe, but with Umak and Xa doing the hunting everyone does fairly well as far as food goes. Myrrh and Corve even manage to find a few springs.
ST Umak has assured eveyne that the refugees will be adopted into the tribe. If no one else will take them, he'll make sure his relatives adopt a few.
ST Melody seems to be trying to attach herself to the larghe, handomse and muiscley giant-barbarian, but he is either not noticing or ignoring her.
ST When the group finally arrives at the Bronze Hills, Tonidra greets them with her other two husbands and they all hug and kiss the long-missing Umak. Normid, the second husband and Umak all go to see to the refugees, leaving Tonidra and the Circle alone
Xar`Rex "Tonidra, it is good to see you again." he smiles widely
Tonidra gives everyone a big smile. "Yes, it is, and moreso for you have brought back my much-beloved third husband! I thank you!"
Tonidra leans down and gives everyone a kiss on the forehead!
Myrrh "It was the least we could do...although I wonder how he wound up down there..."
Corve smiles and leans on a nearby wall, watching Carmine carefully. He's not a detective 'cause he misses things, after all.
Tonidra "We shall ask him for his story tonight at the Feast of Safe Returnings!"
Xar`Rex "A Feast will be nice."
Myrrh "A feast will definitely be nice...I don't think I could eat more rations.
Carmine "Yes, it would." She smiles at the Giant. Maybe I can find out a little more of what that thing was and what it did to me...
Myrrh glances are Carmine...she didn't look any different and he's seen her naked before. Then again she would know if she had changed...
Tonidra "Tondira and husbands will prepare a huge Feast! With Yab-yab jam on bread, boiled sun spiders, eye of wildebeast, leg of antelop! Roast dik-dik! Redfruit, spike-apple, cactus-peach...You enjoy much wonderful food."
Corve raises a brow. "You... cook sun-spiders?"
Xar`Rex "Tonidra is wonderful cook!"
Tonidra "Yes, Tonidra knows." She smiles. "Come, we go to home and prepare!"
Xar`Rex follows like a puppy with scales. and feathers.
Corve smiles, looking at Xar and shaking his head with a chuckle as he pets Jaks softly. He wanders over to Carmine slowly, stepping up beside her and, in a low voice: "So... what's going on?" He's not sure- in fact, he's maybe doubting himself a little. But it's never a risk to ask.
Carmine "I don't know ..." she says, upset.
Corve nods a little bit, taking her hand and squeezing. "Something happened inside that pod-thing, didn't it?"
Myrrh follows Xar to leave Corve and Carmine alone.
Carmine "I ... don't remember anything. Again."
Corve squeezes her hand a little. That was probably the worst part- another blotch in her memory would only make it worse... "I'm sorry, love..." he murmurs. "We'll figure out what happened."
Carmine "Somethings changed though..." she says, very softly.
Corve furrows his brow softly, looking at her. "We need to find a good doctor... someone who can figure this out..."
Tonidra looks back at her last two guests. "Something wrong with guests?"
Corve looks over to Tonidra- then back at Carmine. It's up to her to tell Tonidra anything, if she feels she's up to discussing it.
Carmine shakes her head "Sorry ... we were just talking." she gently tugs on Corve's hand, leaving after Myrrh
Corve tightens his jaw for a moment, and then forces a smile at Tonidra. "It's fine... thank you Tonidra." He follows Carmine.
Tonidra "Carmine need to see shaman? Something wrong?"
Corve sighs a little bit. "I think it's up to Carmine to decide. Don't worry about it, my friend, I'm sure everything will be fine." He'll make sure of it- one way or another.
Myrrh looks to Corve and Carmine, concerned.
Tonidra looks concerned, but nods. "Very well. Come to feast and will feel better!"
Carmine "I will. Thank you, Tonidra."
Xar`Rex reluctantly removes his gaze from Tonidra, and looks over at Carmine. He considers, having overheard their conversation along with everyone else, that perhaps she did not come through her experience within the pod completely unscathed. Though still, she looks the same as before.
Tonidra bustles off to see to the feast. Before she goes, she leaves directions to the public baths, the shaman's hut if carmine changes her mind and the well if they are thirsty. Otherwise the Circle can stay in the small exterior tent that Tonidra maintains for visitors.
Corve stands up after a moment to go talk to Tonidra.
Myrrh is torn between his deep seated desire to take a bath and his concern for Carmine.
Corve steps inside the hut Tonidra's in, clearing his throat. "Tonidra..?"
Tonidra looks down at Corve as she prepares some boiling water for her famous Spider-Soup. "Yes?"
Carmine looks after Corve, but then as he goes for a talk with Tonidra, goes to the baths instead
Xar`Rex heads to the baths to take a long soak. The sand made him reasonably clean, but he's been feeling gritty, even after he let the stone form lapse.
Myrrh heads for the baths, not liking that his clothes are starting to get starched...
Corve "I just wanted to ask you... see, I have a daughter- back home in Brume; and I've been away from her for a long time now, I wanted to bring her back something, are there any of you who could make her a dress... from sun-spider silk? It'd be very small- since she's a small kid and of our size, not yours..."
Tonidra considers. "Tonidra thinks she could so such a thing if you made a drawing. Tonidra, after all, wove these tents! Someday Tonidra plans to take family and go to big city and become famous weaver. Tonidra will do this for you for saving Umak."
Corve bows a little bit. "Thank you, Tonidra. I appreciate it."
Corve "Now... if you'll excuse me... I think a bath is in order."
Corve leaves to find Carmine and clean up.
Xar`Rex removes his armor, piling it neatly..then on second thought, taking it to a place for washing, and begins to meticulously scrub it clean.
Carmine is relaxing in the baths.
Myrrh is also relaxing while having a soak. "We need to find a cleaner.
Corve chooses to relax in the same baths- logically.
ST The "place for washing" is a series of tents that give shade and shelter to several natural springs that form a few rocky pools of cool, greenish water. Must be some sort of minerals to make it green, but it smells fine and the giants don't seem to mind. There's a few of them already in the pools, but they don't bother the Circle.
Myrrh "I don't think any of us want to run around in clothes that crunch as you move..."
Carmine smiles at Corve as he joins her in the pool "Everything okay?"
Corve shrugs and nods a little. "Yeah... Tonidra is going to make a sun-spider silk dress for Sunshine...."
Carmine smiles "That will be lovely for her."
Xar`Rex kneels by the springs, and reflects on the journey so far, as he finds a bit of peace in the simple action of cleaning his armor. Suddenly, he laughs harshly, looking down at his hands. Who would have thought he would ever be doing servants' work?
Myrrh "Er...does she know how to work in that scale?"
Corve "She asked me to provide a drawing- I was going to ask you, Myrrh. You know Sunshine best next to me- and you can probably make a faithful life sized drawing..."
Myrrh "Oh of course. Shouldn't be too hard...can she read?"
Corve "Uh... I don't know... I think you should talk to her about that."
Myrrh "Alright, i'll get on it after i've finished with the clothes."
Corve "Thanks."
Myrrh nods and sinks under the water.
Giant wades over curiously eyeing Xar's feathers. 'Nice wings,' he grunts.
Xar`Rex sighs and sits back on his heels. This life is not going as he planned. But he will prove his worth, even if it means washing his own clothes. He finishes quickly, not really bothering with perfection, and walks back to the baths, slipping into the water across from his friends.
Xar`Rex "Nice. I suppose. They are useful."
Giant "Your sort don't normally have them do they?"
Xar`Rex "No, not at all." so much for a quiet, relaxing bath... "That is why I travel."
Giant "Travel far?"
Xar`Rex "I have traveled much... I am from this Direction, though I have made a new home in Brume."
Giant looks round at the others, "and you lot. You travel far?"
Myrrh surfaces from under the water and sighs contentedly...it didn't have bath attendants but beggars can't be choosers.
Carmine leans on Corve, and waits for him to answer, not sure she wants to.
Myrrh "We come from Brume, it's a nation that floats above the Blessed isle."
Giant "Above?"
Corve "Yes. In the sky."
Plant floats up from the depths of the greenish pool in which the giant and the circle are relaxing in. Fluffy, with bulbs of some sort dotting its mass, the floating plant drifts around the pool, bumping into things and people as the movements of the bathers push it around.
Xar`Rex wonder if the plant tastes good
Giant "I never understodd how that worked. Much prefer to stay down here myself."
Corve raises a brow at the plant and looks at the giant they converse with. "What is that?"
Plant floats into Myrrh's chest and sticks.
Myrrh studies the plant, always curious about local flora.
Myrrh glances down at it.
Giant "So, what brings you out here?"
Xar`Rex "The Black Viper Cult. We search for its roots."
Myrrh tries nudging the plant away from him, using his handy water finding stick.
Plant is getting some kind of green-blue material on Myrrh's chest, but it appears to wash off. Being nudged by the stick, the patch of greenish fuzz and blueish bulbs floats away, towards Corve.
Giant "Cult? Sounds nasty that?"
Carmine eyes the plant with suspicion
Xar`Rex "It is nasty. They wish to hurt people."
Myrrh "Hm. What plant is that, friend? I don't think i've seen it before."
Plant bumps into Corve's leg and floats around him, just floating.
Corve picks the plant up and looks at it.
Plant trails long, fuzzy roots out of the water.
Giant allows himself to float over closer to Carmine. "Dunno. Pool plant." Giant looks to Carmine, "So. Are you from this fancy floating island as well?"
Corve narrows his eyes as he raises them to the giant, raising a brow and tensing.
Plant gets the same green-blue plant stuff all over Corve's hand as it did on Myrrh's chest.
Carmine "I ..am now, yes." she says, and leans on corve a little more obviously.
Giant "You know, this village may not be a fancy floaty place, put we know how to show visitors a fun time." Giant stretches slightly to show off his muscles. "With the right guide of course"
Plant senses Corve's anger and decides it likes this one. In a flash the small floating plant as wrapped its fuzzy roots around Corve's arm and is crawing up his limb, trying to reach his shoulder!
Xar`Rex "We do not have time for fun. We must save Brume."
Corve blinks and looks at the plant, slipping his hand from around Carmine and grabbing at the plant, tugging to get it off. "What the hell is it doing?!"
Giant "I've never seen one do that"
Plant clings voraciously to Corve's arm and continues its attempts to crawl up the limb.
Giant "Red'uns are man eating. But that one's not red. Shouldn't worry"
Corve pushes and tugs at it, trying to get it off him. "Dammit..."
Carmine takes a firm hold of the thing, and pulls. "Off him!"
Giant looks at Xar, ignoring the plant. "I could show you a good time too if you wanted?"
Plant reacts violently to Corve's bumbling attempt to remove it and it, somehow, bites deeply into his bicep muscle! OW! It feels kinda..fuzzy..wow. Everything feels fuzzy NOW...but that wears off and Corve is left with just the feeling of a large set of thorns biting into his arm.
Xar`Rex is watching the plant eat Corve. "Is that normal?"
Giant "Only for the man eating ones"
Corve hisses and takes another swing at the thing, trying to get it off him.
Carmine "No, that's not normal." Carmine scowls at the plant. "...hold still."
Myrrh "Uh...I think that's a man eatting one."
Plant could well be a man-eating plant!
Giant doesn't seem worried
Plant is certainly gnawing on a man!
Giant "I could get it off"
Corve tries to hold still.
Carmine takes a very careful grip on the plant, grabbing it on both sides of the 'jaw' then twisting her arms to pull it off without Corve's flesh before throwing it on the poolside.
Corve pulls his arm away as soon as the plant is off, and climbs out of the water. "What the fuck is going on here..?" He looks around at the other giants nearby, then and the to the one talking to them.
Plant is removed, after much straining on the parts of both the plant and Carmine. It takes a minute or so for her to pull it away, as it keeps trying to bite deeper into his arm, but it eventually lays on the poolside, dehydrating rapidly.
Carmine There is a flash of light and then suddenly there is a 4ft long blade of light in Carmine's hand that she stabs /down/ ontot the plant, before pulling it out, leaving a very dead plant, the blade vanishing once more.
Plant twitches.
Plant is now very dead.
Myrrh "You know that reminds me of that trip down into the deep east..."
Carmine nods, and slips back into the water, looking at Corve's arm in concern.
ST Other Giant?
Other Giant? looks over at Corve. "It was just a man-eating plant and it didn't even eat you. Nothing to worry about!"
Corve looks at Carmine and then his arm. "You know... this trip is really beginning to get on my nerves..." He looks at the other giant and raises a brow. "Why are there man-eating plants in the water?"
Other Giant? "They grow out of the cracks in the bottom of the pools. That's why the water is green."
Other Giant? looks unconcerned.
Giant moves closer to carmine again, "you know, there are plenty of other things in this village that like a nice nibble on tasty people"
Other Giant? "Most of the time they're red though."
Xar`Rex ducks down into the pool, and investigates the cracks along the bottom
Corve is really not in the mood for a giant to be hitting on his girlfriend, and he expresses it, with every inch of his face, as he looks up at the giant and scowls.
Myrrh chuckles as the giant tries to put the moves on Carmine.
Giant ignores Corve
Giant glances back at Corve and scrambles to get out the pool, splashing vigorously as he does so, and stepping on Xar underneath the water
Xar`Rex sends up a burst of indignant bubbles at the Giant
Corve gives a slight grin at the giant's sudden retreat, but it doesn't last long, as he looks back at his wound. "Damn thing..."
Carmine "It will be alright soon enough." She kisses him.
Xar`Rex surfaces, looking supremely cranky. "Who stepped on me?"
Other Giant? laughs heartily at the other Giant's retreat! HAHA!
Giant grumbles as he goes
Myrrh "Uh...giant man stepping plant?"
Corve kisses her back, and nods, rubbing his arm. "Yeah..." He glances at Xar and nods to the retreating giant. "He was in a hurry."
Normid steps into the bathing area, still wearing his loincloth of lizard skin and a big smile for everyone! "The Feast of Safe Returnings is prepared!...has something happened?" He notices Corve's arm and expression, as well as the annoyed Dragon-King
Corve looks over to Normid and snorts. "Your pool has man-eating plants."
Normid "Oh! Yes! I should have told you."
Corve nods his head a little, as if to say 'that would've been nice,' and then shrugs. "It's alright- no harm. I'll be fine in a while."
Myrrh "A feast sounds good right about now. Should take your thoughts away from your arm." he smirks and gets out of the pool.
Normid nods. "Yes, feast!"
Normid turns to lead the way!
Corve dresses and waits for Carmine before following.
Xar`Rex sends one last baleful look in the direction of the panicked giant, then follows the others.
Carmine carefully ties her four ribbons about her, then slips on her sandles and follows corve out.
Myrrh gets dressed and heads for the feast!
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