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Post by Mu-chan on Jan 29, 2007 0:47:52 GMT
Ai Rin put her book back into her bag and threw her bag quite some distance away from herself. Ai Rin then stood up. It was now very dark.
Ai Rin stabbed the blade of her naginata into the ground in front of her and closed her eyes. The air began to circulate around her, and the blade of her weapon and the gem of her pendant began glowing. A magic circle began appearing on the ground around her. The circle's design became more and more intricate. Ai Rin seemed to be ignoring everything around her as she focused on her design, while Fen bought her some time.
She opened her eyes and her purple pupils began glowing. She extended the circle around her by several metres. That was as far as she could extend it.
"... Get all of the wolves to stand on the magic circle. If you can't get them to, destroy them completely. Don't miss a single one," she called out to Fen. She would do it herself, but she wouldn't dare move in case she broke her own spell.
"Once you know you have them all on the circle, step back and close your eyes. Don't forget that," she added.
(the wolves have now stopped appearing as Ai Rin's spell has already begun working -only the wolves already formed remain) (some of the wolves have already entered the circle to attack Ai Rin as they now see her as a threat)
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Post by Maruno on Jan 29, 2007 16:34:47 GMT
"That's just impossible," Fen said as he ran to intercept another wolf. "There's no way they'll all stay in the circle without attacking you!"
Plus, Fen was weak enough already. He really didn't have the energy for this. His light shots didn't seem to have much effect on the wolves, not even a direct hit. Sure, it knocked them away, or the light scared them, but only briefly.
Not to mention half of the wolves were still outside the circle. The ones inside it looked just about ready to pounce. This didn't look good. Fen fired a couple of light shots towards the wolves in the circle, scattering them briefly, and was bitten on his leg by another wolf. He cried out in pain, and fell forwards as the other wolves discovered he was vulnerable.
He was half outside the magic circle now. Just before the other wolves pounced on him to tear him apart, he swung the top half of his staff around and jammed its broken end into the ground. The magic circle expanded several metres, encompassing all the wolves now, as well as Fen and Ai Rin.
It was up to her now.
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Post by Mu-chan on Jan 30, 2007 14:50:23 GMT
Ai Rin wanted to be surprised at the mage's skill, but now wasn't the time. Ai Rin focused her spell which froze the magic circle and the wolves caught on it. Ai Rin let go of her weapon which remained balanced upright in the ground, and then closed her eyes and covered them tightly with her arms.
An extremely bright and powerful light covered them all, extending from the centre of the circle, spreading out far into the forest. The wolves disintegrated. The darkness that tried to devour them was dispelled. The threat was over.
Ai Rin slowly opened her eyes and then sighed a breath of relief. She then looked over towards Fen.
"You're pretty good. If you weren't with me, I might have had to fight those things myself... and to be able to interfere with my mana like that... it's the first time I've seen something like that... such power..." Ai Rin said to Fen.
Not waiting for a reply, Ai Rin then picked up her now fallen weapon and went over to pick up her bag. As she went to collect her bag, she could see the edge of the forest in the distance. She walked back towards the small shrine she saw before to make a copy of its inscription, still wondering what it was. When she was ready, she waited for Fen to speak, as she thought he must have had something to say.
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Post by Maruno on Jan 30, 2007 15:45:03 GMT
Fen remained on the ground. This was not his best day, not really. He groaned slightly. He didn't have enough strength to heal himself, and those wolves hadn't been kind. On top of the bitten leg, which was still bleeding through his now very tattered robes, he had sustained several more scratches. Next to him, the focus of his staff cracked and shattered into a dozen fragments. It had overpowered the spell even beyond the focus' ability, which caused it to destruct. Now the staff was no more than a stick and a rock. "Safe... yet?" he asked weakly, before falling soundly asleep. <<OOC: Time should pass here, I guess. Decide whether you want Ai Rin to drag him to a conveniently nearby house and bed, or whether to leave him in the forest to possibly bleed to death like the nice person you are >>
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Post by Mu-chan on Jan 31, 2007 1:45:49 GMT
Quite some time had passed. It was now morning. Ai Rin sat on a chair next to Fen, who lay bandaged up on a bed.
The room they were in was very bare. As well as the bed and chair, the room contained a small desk and had one small window which looked onto the streets below. On top of the desk was a vase of yellow flowers and a small candle. Ai Rin's belongings lay on the floor next to the small desk. Fen slept peacefully on the bed, while Ai Rin sat with her legs together with her hands grasping her naginata tightly towards her body, just looking at Fen.
Ai Rin looked exausted, and quite ill. She had cast quite a few healing spells on Fen to keep him from dying, and had been forced to drag Fen out of the forest by herself, across the fields, to a small inn in a nearby village. She had enough money for a single room at a cheap inn.
Ai Rin had already eaten a sandwich she managed to purchase from a nearby bakery and had drunk some water to help recover her own health. It was quite clear that her own health was far more important to her than that of some stranger she met in a forest, but she wasn't cold-hearted enough to leave him to die there since he had helped her.
As a contrast to her expressionless face before, Ai Rin looked towards Fen quite angrily, while waiting for him to wake up... Fen seemed healthy enough to wake up any time soon...
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Post by Maruno on Jan 31, 2007 13:59:03 GMT
Fen stirred slightly and yawned deeply, before opening his eyes to blink at his surroundings.
"Nn-sa?" he sleepily said, lifting himself up slightly. "I don't even remember drinking..."
Then he remembered, and groaned, as if pleading with the fates to make yesterday not happen. He dropped back onto the bed, limp, and a moment later looked around the room, having put his memories from his mind for the time being.
"Ah, hi," he mumbled when he saw Ai Rin. "How're you?"
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Post by Mu-chan on Feb 1, 2007 2:04:04 GMT
"... If you're well enough for lines like that, move."
Ai Rin put her weapon down by her belongings. She then pulled Fen off the bed whether he liked it or not. She quickly dusted it, and lied down on it.
As she collapsed on the bed she gave out a small sigh of relief. It seems she wanted to rest herself and no longer cared about Fen as he seemed healthy enough, in her opinion at least.
Ai Rin stared at the ceiling feeling faint, not wondering what Fen must have been doing.
"... ... My name is... Ayaran Ai Rin... who exactly are you? ... There's some water over by my bag if you need a drink..." she spoke out, directed at Fen.
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Post by Maruno on Feb 1, 2007 14:44:42 GMT
Fen made a rather annoyed "oof!" when he hit the floor. He rolled half a turn, and stood up. A sharp pain in his leg quickly told him that wasn't a good idea, so he sank quickly onto the chair.
"I presume you healed me," he said to Ai Rin, rhetorically, before going on to mutter: "Not very well, I might add. Where'd you learn to do magic? Honestly, I can't be doing with using up all my magic just to correct yours."
He leaned forward to grab his sore leg, and began to heal it. At his level of training, he could perform most basic spells silently, which was handy to say the least. It wouldn't take him long, either.
"Thanks, though," he said, suddenly kindly and politely, smiling warmly at her. "You went out of your way to help me, so the least I can do is repay you.
"I'm Fen. Fen Dyu Shina. Currently the only member of the Chougokin clan of magi, but I believe I told you that yesterday. What about you, Miss Rin?"
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Post by Mu-chan on Feb 2, 2007 10:49:36 GMT
"Miss Rin?" Ai Rin thought to herself. She thought of saying something but decided to stay silent about it for now, as it seemed more fun.
"I'm just travelling about... searching for something... an artifact that was stolen a long time ago and taken somewhere in this land... I was hired to find it and bring it back... I don't know where it is at the moment, or even what it looks like... I'm heading towards a town somewhere further to the west of this land, where I'm supposed to meet with someone..." she said, holding back any important details.
"As for who I am, I'm a spell-caster exploring this land and the magic here... but I'm running low on money at the moment... I wonder if they hire monster hunters around here, or have any bandits to chase away or need any seals removed or added..." she said half to herself, possibly hoping Fen would have some kind of answer to make the next step easier for herself. She was already aware that Fen would be in a similar situation to herself, since carrying him all the way out of that forest to this village gave her plenty of time to realise not only did he need a new weapon, but also that he wasn't carrying much money on him, if any at all.
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Post by Maruno on Feb 2, 2007 13:49:59 GMT
Money generally wasn't taken to a battlefield, so of course Fen didn't have any. But what was worse was that Ai Rin had apparently snuck through Fen's pockets Of course, Fen didn't know this. "I see," he said, finishing his healing and sitting back upright. "I don't know these parts too well, so I don't know about job opportunities. However, there's always advertising. My clan name should get up a couple of jobs, at least. Then we can go off on that quest of yours. It sounds like it would be fun. "But you look like you need rest," Fen added. "You do that, and I'll go find out a few things around town, okay?"
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Post by Mu-chan on Feb 5, 2007 0:10:43 GMT
Ai Rin hesitated for a moment.
"... Okay... I'll keep the room key with me. If you want to get back in, knock on the door. I've booked this room for a few days. If I'm in, I'll open the door for you..."
Ai Rin thought for a moment.
"Also... you might want to avoid looking for jobs using your clan name... I don't know what your situation is... but if someone wiped out the rest of your clan, you should be careful who you reveal your name to..." she added.
Fen was now free to go elsewhere.
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Post by Maruno on Feb 5, 2007 16:34:06 GMT
"Sleep tight," Fen winked. "I'll be back shortly."
He stood up and left the room. Then his shoulders sagged with a sigh. That really wasn't his character at the moment. It took real effort to be so upbeat and cheerful. Now that he'd slept, the battle had become firmly a part of history. At least yesterday it had still felt something like a dream.
He left the inn and looked around some.
It was the kind of village that only had one street, a really wide one that was well-trodden. It wasn't so much a village as a service station for traffic going from one more important place to another more important place.
Having said that, some of the villagers obviously lived here without trying to cater for travelers. The village was surrounded by two or three fields, along with two farms, which together certainly sustained the village. There was even a windmill in the distance.
The village looked reminiscent of an Ol' Western film, but such things didn't exist in this reality. Besides, this village was greener and a lot more made out of stone. Flowers grew in front of the houses, and the less well used parts of the road were covered with grass instead. It was the kind of place where money was kept in a box on the off chance a trip to a big town was organised, and where favours and agreements were the currency of the realm. And that, I think, would be quite a nice way to live.
Deciding that in such a small community everyone would know everyone else, Fen decided to stop by what the village called the "Official", the town hall slash village reception slash police station. It was the best place to ask about offering services, as well as finding out a little about the place. He crossed the mostly empty street; everyone else would be busy making a living instead of wandering around the streets.
He entered the building to a little tinkle of a bell.
<OOC: Cue a new character? Perhaps a receptionist, perhaps another traveler to eventually team up with, perhaps both? Your choice. Anyone can enter now.> <<OOC: Assuming there's more than just the two of us reading this, and that they're simply waiting for a chance to enter. I was speaking to the general audience rather than Mu-chan specifically ^^ >
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Post by gantz on Feb 9, 2007 13:58:26 GMT
At the light sound of the bell Riku Alantya, a tall man approaching his middle years, opened an eye lazily. Fully expecting it to be one of the local residents he didn’t even bother to move his feet from the old wooden table that occupied most of what passed as the entrance hall. He could pretend to sleep, he thought. He was tired and didn’t want to be ‘good-daying’ one of the friendly gossip-mongers who filled their days just…..
He sat bolt upright. This was him! Him! That stranger who’d come into the Village yesterday. He’d been badgered for information about the two newcomers five times today. Five! Never before had he heard such a commotion be made about passing travellers – the income of this village used to come solely from travellers after all. It’s not that people didn’t pass through nowadays, but what troubled the locals was the direction these people had come from.
Travellers simply didn’t come from the forest any more. Not since that stone had started playing up again. Nobody knew where it came from, and it mostly just sat there, but the inscriptions had been changing again just like they did all those years ago: people stopped coming from the woods back then as well.
All this had bred something of a distrust of magic into the locals, and as Riku sized up this stranger he couldn’t help but feel this man had at least a passing familiarity with wizardry of some sort. Feeling a little uneasy, and more than a little curious about this tired-looking stranger, Riku attempted to hide his surprise and said:
“Greetings traveller. We welcome you as we welcome all strangers, with warmth and hospitality.” Customary greeting over, he was now able to talk freely. “Is there something you wanted?”
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Post by Maruno on Feb 9, 2007 17:12:21 GMT
"Yes, hi," Fen replied. "I'm Fen, Fen Dyu Shina. Uhmm..." How to put this? "I'm a little short on money, so I was wondering whether there were any jobs going spare. I'm quite capable."
That felt really awkward. Fen smiled a little "eheh".
"Oh, and I was also wondering about this village. Background, tradition and so forth, you understand. I'm not entirely sure where I am."
<OOC: Gantz!> <OOC: Feel free to make up what you want.>
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Post by gantz on Feb 13, 2007 0:25:24 GMT
Riku’s uneasiness ebbed a little at this. This Fen character seemed uneasy himself, and also seemed to be asking for help (albeit not in so many words). He was still on guard though - after all, anyone who could enter the town from those woods must have power of a kind…
“Oh, well…” Riku stood up to address Fen “I’m Riku, Riku Alantya. Pleased to meet you, Fen. You are currently in the village of Fos Lunenwé - a small community as I’m sure you’ve gathered, but viable none the less.” Riku considered telling Fen more but decided to see how the conversation went first. This man who stood before him had an air of confidence about him which can only come from power. Riku wanted to be sure that this power would not be dangerous.
Riku decided a change in topic could be timely, but already thought that, should Fen seem amicable, he would offer some information about the history of the village. He paused to consider what work could be appropriate. “As regards work it would be useful to know what skills you have, we’re only a village and we get much of our income from catering for people who pass through. There are farms here though - and they’ve been under more strain to provide for people recently. Lending a hand there could get you some extra money. Yeoman Perrintoth is the most prosperous and probably the most likely to be able to afford a new farmhand.”
This was awkward. Fen’s odd attire was clearly well-made… once upon a time at least. Riku now began to suspect a story of a once prosperous man who’d… fallen upon hard times, shall we say. It was no good, Riku had to say it: “There is one thing though. From the way you came into town..” Riku shuffled his right foot a little an the wooden floorboard, making a gentle swishing sound as this childlike gesture accompanied his embarrassment “it’s just… Yeoman Perrintoth would not look so kindly on someone who is fond of the grape.”
Feeling rather awkward Riku half screwed-up his eyes and waited to see if he had offended Fen.
<OOC: Should names mentioned for the first time be highlighted?> <OOC: I’m not trying to get out of making things up about the village, I just read it back and it looks a little like that. I just thought a sceptical and slightly nervous local wouldn’t jump straight into it with someone they could see as a powerful threat>
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