Warriors Of The Coast

[stonegod]

His muscles tense, the hexer withdrew his sword with a steely hissss. Onyx, barely perceptible in the night, twitched anxiously beside him. Nodding at his watching companion, he stalked his way over to where Cerill was sleeping. He pressed a hand on her shoulder to wake her up. Not a sudden gesture---one meant to awake her but not startle her.

In a low voice, he whispers, "Something's out there. And its not just the jungle spook. Those animals... they're not behaving as they should. Maybe not hostile but..." He left the statement unfinished. Too many questions.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Jango arrived in Newthrone with a minimum of fuss, and a minimum of harrassment from it. The elf refused to name his "other half" now... almost as though it didn't deserve that sort of permanence. It was still up in the air whether Jango would embrace this second skin, or actively try to defy it... but so far on this trip, there had been nothing to defy.

When he arrived, Jango went about purchasing several items of note that he thought would be important to have. Things to help him defend himself should things go wrong. All this time... he was followed by Jina, who ducked and weaved around people and things all up and down the street. Because of his single-mindedness of purpose, and having absolutely no reason to suspect his sister would be here in the nation's capital, he never noticed the young girl following him.

Eventually Jango arrived back at the docks, and the voice gave instructions to him about where they needed to go. The temple was north, and the man who could help him was inside. What was interesting though when Jango inquired about hiring another boat to take him to a certain part of the Whitecliff River, he was told that another person had wanted to go to and get off at the same place. A halfork. Odd. But in any event, since the boatsman knew the place to go, he was quickly hired and Jango was soon off.

This time however... the young stowaway that had hid herself under the deck was discovered. And when Jango was about an hour out of Newthrone up the river... one of the boat workers dragged this young elf above deck, and Jango came face to face with his sister Jina.

"Jango! Um... hi! Please tell him to let me go?"

 

[Velmont]

Jina, why have you followed me? asks Jango to himself, but he knew already the answer. It was so easy to understand her sister.

"What are you doing here, Jina? Why did you followed me? I told you, I told to father and mother I had decided to go alone on that one. I needed time for myself. To be alone. To understand what is happening to me, to my powers, to find the answers that is surely not in Seawell. Not mother, nor Zan could give me the answers I seek."

Jango move toward Jina and put his hand on the hand of the boat worker that was grabbing Jina. "Let her free for a moment. Let us alone." As the boat worker leave them alone. "Jina, it's time for you to have your life, and for me to have mine. We might be twins, but we are two distinct persons and it's time for us to forged our own life. I won't be eternally around you, and you won't be eternally around me. This trip, it is my life, it is the point where I become a single person, and that mean you should go back to Newthrone, go back to Seawell and start to think what you want in your life."

 

[DEFCON 1]

It was early in the morning when Elder Nevillom contacted Aern with the Sending spell. And the message he received back told him everything he needed to know.

"Animals and creatures spied on us last night. One of the mercenaries engaged and disappeared. No further contact from him or them thus far."

He knew right then and there that the Voice had been instructing him truly. This action was just. This crusade to cleanse Khorvaire once more was just. And the Voice would thank him and bring him into the Flames when he passed on. He roused the army early and got them on the road quickly. One of their own had been taken. It was time to act.

When Khalia hears all of this in the command squad meeting, her first thought is "Was it Osten?" He was a hunter after all. She didn't put it past him to engage an enemy. She says a small prayer for whomever it is that got taken, and then another prayer for them all. Nevillom has gotten more strident, more fanatical each and every waking moment. Pretty soon, she wouldn't be surprised if he started seeing boogymen behind every tree and rock.

***

"Any sign of Osten?" Cerril Maise asks her men as they return from their quick scouting of the area. A negative reply makes the shifter shake her head in frustration and murmur to herself. "I don't know what you're doing, Osten, but I hope you didn't get yourself killed."

***

Last night the paladin had the monster hunter and a few others move out from the campsite to get a better grasp of how many animals were out there. As Ari knew more about tracking his prey down than the others, he got much closer to what he was looking for, and surprised his prey. This shock caused a bit of a reaction and a random flash of an attack in defense, and before Ari knew it, he was in combat. Had his glove been off, others might have seen the blueish light from his Mark glow when he reached out and grabbed the elk around it's antlers and chilled it's bones. They also might have seen him get grabbed from behind right after. But no one was able to see it. Especially not back at the camp. And thus when the creatures of the night overwhelmed the monster hunter and took him away, all the Flamist knew was what they could hear.

After a few seconds of tussle, they heard nothing more.

And the next morning, Ari Osten was nowhere to be found.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Jina, it's time for you to have your life, and for me to have mine. We might be twins, but we are two distinct persons and it's time for us to forged our own life. I won't be eternally around you, and you won't be eternally around me. This trip, it is my life, it is the point where I become a single person, and that mean you should go back to Newthrone, go back to Seawell and start to think what you want in your life."

Jina shrugged off the sailor's arm when Jango tells him to let her go, and the young elf can see when she juts out her lower lip in defiance that his comments are probably falling on deaf ears.

She was always the strong one. The leader. He was always the follower. And even after he says his peace he suspects that she has no intention of listening to him. It agrees with Jango's assessment.

"She will not stop us, Jango. We have work to do. Stop her you must. Kill her if you have to. She is not family any longer. We are now family."

As Jango ponders this, it becomes clear that it doesn't matter anyway, because there is nowhere for Jina to go. The boat has it's schedule to keep, and isn't going to turn around to dump her off anyplace. Instead, the two twins are forced to pay for another fare, and at least for the time being, brother and sister are adventuring together once more.

 

[drothgery]

Attempting to find out what the rush was about, and if Ari was the missing person, Khalia kept asking people until she found someone who would give her a complete answer.

Since she joined this endeavour, she had been trying to identify those among it with skill, intelligence, and leadership ability. A little overzealousness in the cause of the Flame, she could handle. She had a touch of that herself, truly told. But those who did not think before they lept -- they were dangerous. And the Elder was one of those.

 

[Velmont]

I won't kill her. She is still of the same blood of me. She is still my sister, even if she can't understand. thinks Jango. Jango was becoming red, both from the presence of Jina and the thought it wanted to kill her.

"You'll go back to Seawell, or to Newthrone if you prefer, wherever it please you Jina, but you won't follow me on that trip. I'll pay you a passage on the next boat that go back to Seawell if you like." On that, Jango turns heel and climb up on teh upper deck. He looks at the water a moment, seeing the wave in the water created by the boat. Griot lands next to him. Jango starts to play with the feather of the neck of the hawk. It seems to calm him.

What could make him so hot tempered? He has never been like that before. He used to let teh life carry him, following his sister in her adventures, studying his art, following his mother's instruction, helping at the Inn, helping his parents with the clients... When life is easy, it is easy to follow and don't care, but it seems all have turned wrong lately, his life was out of control and it was carryng him a direction he didn't wanted, and now he want to take back control... or do he just want to convince himself he is trying?

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Osten? Is that you?"

That voice... that voice is...

Ari Osten had been walking for about an hour in complete darkness, because from what he could tell a bag was covering his head. His arms bound behind his back, his weapons taken from him, hands pushing him in his back... this was not he was expecting when he went to check out the animals that had been hanging around the Flamist's campsite.

Now, as he was stopped short and sat roughly down on a long log, this voice that he did not expect is questioning him, asking him if he is who he thinks he is.

"Wait... you know this guy?" another voice is heard.

"Yeah, Rogan... I think... the clothes are familiar..."

The bag is suddenly pulled from Ari Osten's head, and sure enough, standing in front of him in the firelight is the halfork Watchman Skarghash. What in the blazes is Skarghash doing out here?

"What in the blazes are you doing out here, Osten?" the halfork asks.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Khalia asks several people about what is going on both here in their camp and with the scouting party. She had hoped that her prior relationship (if you could call it that) with Tod Ellston would generate some answers... but unfortunately he is off gathering water for their sudden trip. Instead, it is Brother Donovan that she ends up communicating with.

She knows little of Horatio Donovan, other than he is more rough and ready than the charismatic Ellston. A scarred and tatooed man with a fiery side to him, he has his men's respect because he had the knowledge on how to get things done. He doesn't pull punches, but he also plays straight with everyone he meets. Definitely a templar of the people.

When Khalia and Horatio quickly pow-wow, it becomes obvious that no one at this point knows really what is going on, because either Nevillom isn't asking the right questions, or isn't freely giving up the answers. But as the two of them talk, both Khalia and Horatio agree that the Elder is walking a very fine line, and both are willing to back each other up should something need to be done.

Finally, the important parties all return from their quick duties and Elder Samuel Nevillom ushers the army forth further into the jungles and into inevitability.

 

[Autumn]

Jina says nothing, but her defiant pout never fades as she watches her brother go. It's only after he's been out of sight for some moments that her expression softens, willful anger replaced by sadness. She was prepared to encounter resistance, of course, once Jango found out she had followed him. She thought she was prepared for that. But still, to hear such words from her brother... it hurts.

She refuses to let it get to her, though. She deliberately relaxes her posture, straightening her shoulders from the hunch they had started to fall into. She has to be strong, and stick to her resolve. She knows in her heart that Jango is wrong, that now more than ever he needs her to be there for him.

He was right about one thing: the two of them are adults now They are their own people. It's Jango's right to go off on this journey. And it's Jina's right to stick to him whether he likes it or not, and make sure her damn fool brother doesn't get himself killed or worse.

She gives a tough smile. Maybe it doesn't make sense, logically. But who needs logic when you have a sister's intuition?

Besides... this is an adventure. A real one. She's determined to enjoy it at least a little.

She gets up and strides up to the deck, ignoring Jango to go stand on the other side of the deck and look out on the water. She gives a long, slow yawning stretch and then grins, her eyes glittering as she takes in the new scenery. This is the life, and she'll be damned before she'll let anybody put her on a boat back to her sleepy hometown.