< Name O'Spain | Ex Pulplogs | A Dark Valley >
ST On one of his lazy, late-night flights around the Ill-Omen, Xar Rex is letting his mind wander as he skims through the air.
ST Clouds gently brush past him on their way to whatever destination the Storm Lords have decreed for them and there are no birds to share the sky with. Aside from the distant lights of the Omen, Xar is alone in the chilly night.
Xar`Rex banks to the left to catch a passing updraft, skimming along in the wake of the ship, and watching for shapes in the clouds
ST Xar can hardly see it, in fact he thinks it is nothing more then a trick of Luna's light until it gets closer. But yes, that cloud is in fact glowing faintly purple. How strange. It gives off the distinct whiff of eggplant as well.
Xar`Rex frowns suspiciously... there should not be Wyld taint here. It has been impressed upon him that he is not to go running off without telling anyone, and so, he swoops over the deck, signalling one of the crew as to where he's going, and gesturing for him to turn and avoid the cloud. Then he is gone, off to investigate.
ST So impulsive is Xar that he fails to notice the crewman does not even acknowledge him nor apparently even see him. Instead he simply gestures and then flies off, right for the cloud. It doesn't take long for him to reach the strange-smelling purple cloud. And even less time to find it reaching for him...hungrily!
Xar`Rex has not quite internalized the bit after that; the one that says "and don't go haring off by yourself"
Xar`Rex dives down to avoid the cloud, backing off a bit. Clouds don't do *that*
ST The cloud, predictably, DOES do that. It even follows Xar, picking up speed and turning a nasty shade of red-violet. Its smell thickens, almost burning Xar's sensitive nose.
Xar`Rex flaps hard, doing a flip in the air, and heads back towards the ship, shouting, "Myrrh! Corve! Wake up!" He pauses for a second to hurl a ball of fire back at his pursuer...cloud...thing.
ST The fireball extinguishes the moment it touches the cloud. And as Xar looks behind him, he sees the cloud is right at his heels. And then, a moment later, he feels its strange embrace as the purple-red-black cloud overtakes him and he disappears inside it.
Corve stirs, finally. Xar's call wakes him up, and he rises, grabbing his coat and slipping it on as he slings his rifle into his hands by the strap. "... can't even get a decent nap in anymore."
Xar`Rex makes a strangled noise, and growls, "Not again!"
ST As Xar is embraced by the cloud, he can hear it gibbering maddly. Just words strung together without meaning, fast and high-pitched. Fun! Run! Play! Eat! Oranges! Sea! Wave! Cow!
ST There is a strange feeling in Xar's wings that he's never felt before. A sort of buzzing tingle that grows stronger and stronger each moment. But he can hardly see his own snout in front of his eyes, much less his paws or wings.
Xar`Rex blinks, clawing the cloud away from his eyes with little effect. He wraps his wings tightly around himself. "What are you doing?"
ST Bird! Wave! Fire!
Xar`Rex "I am bird?"
ST There is a strange moment that comes next. The cloud has apparently finished playing with Xar and it leaves. But as it departs, Xar notes that now the cloud has wings. Wings with bright, flame-colored plumage. Wings that look an awful lot like his. And he can't feel anything but that strange cold tingle in his own wings.
Xar`Rex shakes himself, looking back over his shoulders to make sure his are still there.
ST Xar finds, quite unhappily, that they are not. He also discovers that upon discovering this he has removed whatever last vestige of the cloud's power that was keeping him aloft. He starts to fall quite quickly.
Xar`Rex 's eyes widen, reptilian pupils narrowing to a slit, and he howls in anger, then angles himself into the dive that would normally be controlled with semi-folded wings, and plunges face-first into the ocean
ST The impact hurts considerably, coming from a few hundred feet in the air without wings to control it or help with breaking. Sore all over his body, especially on his nose, Xar bobs up and down in the ocean. The Ill-Omen is out of sight, hidden by clouds and distance. There is nothing around him except black water.
Xar`Rex grumbles to himself, and shifts into Mosok form, cutting through the waves in the direction he thinks the ship went.
ST What seems like hours later, Xar is unhappy. He's been searching for most of the night and now the sun is starting to rise from the waters at the horizon. Nothing. Not a single sign of his friends...or anything at all really. Not even any fish.
Xar`Rex grumbles some more, and keeps heading in the direction Oteki had said the Sea Witch lived in. If nothing else, he could probably find them there. He is torn on the sudden loss of his wings - they made him different... but they made him different.
ST The sun is near falling into the water again and Xar still sees nothing around him. He is tired, weighed down by his armor and equipment. He was stronger in the air, thanks to enchantments in his armor. But now they are useless, since he no longer has his wings. He finds himself floating some of the time, needing to rest.
ST During one of these resting floats, Xar feels something stirring the water near him. Something very, very large.
Xar`Rex curses and peers through the water around himself, trying to discern what it is.
ST Under Xar, it rises. Xar is lifted upon its back, thrust out of the water as the vast creature surfaces. He scrambles around on its back, trying to figure out what it is and if it wants to eat him. It seems to be a clam the approximate size of a small city. Crusted with barnacles the size of men and decked with its own small reef of coral.
Xar`Rex "Cursed Wyld." he grouches, crouching on the lip of the clam. He decides it might be nice to rest on top of it for a while, though.
ST "What's wrong with the Wyld, my good friend?"
Xar`Rex jumps away from the voice, then stares at it. "It changes things.
Barnacle is a particularly large Barnacle, nearly the size of Xar. As the thing speaks, its shell opens and closes slightly. Xar notes that the shell is a strange shade of bright yellow-and-pink swirls. "So? Changes are good."
Xar`Rex "Not always." he replies unhappily. "I've lost my friends. And my wings."
Barnacle "I'll be your friend. And what of wings? What good are they, really?"
Xar`Rex cocks his head to one side, eyeing the barnacle. "They need me. I think." he scratches a small design into the surface of the clamshell. "Without my wings, I am not myself anymore. No more than I was when I got them."
Barnacle "You weren't good enough before?"
Xar`Rex "Not good enough to save m... why am I telling this to you?"
Barnacle "Because you want to."
Xar`Rex "Oh," he replies doubtfully.
Xar`Rex keeps glancing back over his shoulder at the space his wings should be.
Barnacle "How did you get wings? You don't look like you should have wings."
Xar`Rex chuckles grimly. "I met something in the Wyld who thought I should look like it."
Barnacle "If you don't like the Wyld, why do you mind that it's gone now?"
Xar`Rex sighs. "I had grown used to them. They were useful"
Barnacle "Well, I'm sure you'll get used to this too."
Xar`Rex growls, and looks off into the distance. "I need to get back to the ship."
Barnacle "I don't see a ship."
Xar`Rex "That's the PROBLEM isn't it?" he gets to his feet and paces. "If I'd had my wings, I never would have lost them."
Barnacle "Are you so sure? These are dangerous skies and waters."
Xar`Rex "Of course I am. I was not far away."
Happy-Barnacle speaks up not far from the other barnacle. "I'm sure you'll find them! It's very good to have friends...maybe they'll go looking for you!"
Barnacle "Indeed, I'm sure they will."
Xar`Rex scowls, not nearly as happy as the barnacles. "I am tired of being found, rescued, and helped. I should be able to do things myself."
Happy-Barnacle "Well what were you doing before you lost your barings?
Xar`Rex "We were flying to visit a friend of my friend. And I saw a cloud that looked bad, so I went to see."
Happy-Barnacle "Well there, you see! You were scouting ahead! That's important!"
Xar`Rex snorts. "Yes. Important."
Happy-Barnacle "Well do your friends scout ahead? Aren't you the most skilled at it?"
Xar`Rex "Except when I get caught, I suppose."
Happy-Barnacle "Well i'm sure you can still scout! If you stayed around here i'm sure you could get new wings, or maybe better wings!"
Xar`Rex "What do you know of wings?"
Happy-Barnacle "I know birds fly on them...and the singing octopods use them as well!"
Xar`Rex "Singing octopods?"
Happy-Barnacle "You haven't heard of them? They're in the deep wyld of the west. Flying through the air and singing trying to entrance Tiya sailors to dance for them. Very strange bunch. I hear they're quite the sophisticates!"
Xar`Rex "And what do they do to the ones who dance?"
Happy-Barnacle "I think they steal their passions, ovaries, and left pinky fingers and send them back into the sea. But they are very pretty singers!"
Xar`Rex snorts again. "See, the Wyld cannot be trusted. It is time for me to go. Thank you for the rest, and conversation." He rises and dives off the edge of the clam, back into the ocean
Happy-Barnacle "You're welcome! Mind the dancing Gar!"
Xar`Rex keeps an eye out for this dancing Gar while he swims along, lost in thought.
Happy-Barnacle "He was a very nice boy. Too bad about the attitude."
ST Xar dives into the water...and wakes up on the Ill-Omen, feeling very strange.
Xar`Rex immediately checks for his wings, even before his eyes are fully open
ST Xar's wings are in their normal place: his back.
Xar`Rex wraps them around himself like a cloak, and sits up. He'd grown so used to them, learned how to use them to his advantage, after that day. He hated them, then, thought of them as a curse, a taint. But now... they are as much a part of who he is, as his claws, his scales. He catches his breath, and looks in the direction of the others, rising to go check on them.
< Name O'Spain | Ex Pulplogs | A Dark Valley >
Stryck Wiki