Post #2567754 in Lord of Elements, a roleplay on RPG

[size=100]Music, people dancing, the smell of food filled the enourmous hall. The year had been good for Reimrand. The orbs had returned most of the lands to what it once was. Valrien's gaze shifted from the people at the fore front of his table to those that were singing and dancing in the hall. Most of his people were happy, some were still trying to recuperate. Though he was certainly happy that his Kingdom had slowly started to become what it used to be, he just couldn't settle.

Staring off into space, his lips pulled into a frown as he swirled the cup in his hands, sending the red liquid in a spiral in the depths of the silver goblet. Though it was supposed to be the first celebration since regaining the orbs and restoring Reimrand, there was still much to do. First of all, Valrien's coronation as King couldn't be done yet seeing as any who had been a part of the royal family during that time had died. Not to mention that he wasn't too sure himself if he was ready to be called 'King'.

"Valrien?"

Looking over, the young Prince was met by a pair of fiery eyes. They belonged to the young King Siya Ukomo who was seated just to his left. With him was his protector Damiano, the air King Amon and his protector Kanan. Old memories rose up and Valrien quickly disregarded them. They were too horrifying to recount and he wished them to be gone from his memory entirely.

Swirling the cup, he finally lifted it to his lips and took a very small drink of it, after tasting it, he set the cup down again with a bit of a grimace before he answered Siya's unasked question, "I'm fine."

The Fire King frowned, "You haven't eaten."

"Neither have you."

A blush coursed over his face as Siya glanced down at his uneaten food. Looking away, he leaned back in the chair and didn't say anything further. Valrien sighed heavily knowing where the Kings mind went. Looking across the table, Valrien took a deep breath and almost went to say what was on his mind before cursing himself silently, shaking his head, and looking away again to stare out into the crowd of commoners who were so lost in their dancing that they had no idea of the mood their young Prince was in, nor the reasons for his tension.

"Well, dear, I'll come find you once this is all wrapping up, how's that sound?" Harlan cooed, pulling the woman up against him, his arm around her waist, a goblet of wine in his other hand as he grinned at her. She chuckled, swatting him on the chest while looing at him.

"Sounds good to me, mister Pendrake." she purred back, running a hand up behind his head to pull him into a kiss before stepping away from him, winking then walking off. Harlan grinned as she walked off, watching as she purposefully added a bit more "pop" to her strut. Chuckling to himself, he chugged down the last of the wine in his goblet, seemingly not phased in the slightest as the liquid burnned his throat the whole way down. He then looked into the cup before he began heading towards the table to pour himself some more.

It'd been such a long time since he'd seen, not only this place, but just about any place in Reimrand so cheery. It felt good to see it, especially now that Valrien could start improving this world as a whole. For as long as he'd been alive, Harlan had seen nothing but a dreary land, dead and nearly lifeless. Hell, it was why Harlan did what he did. Alcohol just had a way of making things so much less stressful, and in this world stress was something that there was plenty of. Any possible way to be rid of it was a chance to jump at.

Harlan walked up next to the table, bumping into the chair of the young Fire King Valrien had brought along. Harlan held up a finger to the man, giving him a grin. "Whoopsie, my bad there." he said, though whether he actually understood how to be polite was something to question as he leaned over the fire king to snatch one of the silver pitchers that held more wine. "It feels great to see this many grins, let me tell you!" Harlan said to Siya, still leaning over the king as he filled up his goblet once more. Once finished, Harlan set it back down and finally stood up straight before looking over to Valrien.

He leaned up against the back of Siya's chair, pointing at Valrien with the hand that held the goblet. "Hey! Valerie you need to be one of those grinnin' people! So smile, would you?!" Harlan said, speaking up to be heard over the din of the party going on. He took a drink from his goblet before looking down at Siya. "You too, cutey." Harlan said, grinning and taking another sip from his cup.

Damiano glanced over to the Prince's...possibly drunk friend as he moved up next to Siya. The protector didn't move or anything, as he knew the man didn't intend to hurt Siya. He smiled a bit at the man's prodding towards Valrien before the Nevarren turned his head to look over the rest of the party. He too had a goblet in his hand, filled up with wine as he slowly sipped away at it. The smile faded a bit as the protector looked around the room. It almost felt like he was back home, sitting at some ball that his brother may have set up or some other noble house may have. The fact that nobody here was armed and ready to stab someone else in the back at a moments notice was really the big difference between there and here though.

"I-I..." Siya's voice cracked as he struggled to get words after being addressed as 'cutey'. His blush never faded, but it wasn't one out of flattery. He wasn't all too happy either. Like Valrien, there was far too much on his mind.

Across from Siya was Kanan who had lifted his good eye to watch the drunken idiot carefully. He wasn't too keen on the man's proximity to Siya though Kanan was well aware that Damiano wouldn't allow anything to happen to him so long as he was right there within striking distance.

Valrien, on the other hand, sighed heavily and rolled his eyes as he leaned back and rubbed at his face, "Harlan. You're annoying. You're also drunk. Put the cup down and go sober up or something," he said as he shook his head though he knew very well the man wouldn't sober up and probably wouldn't put the cup down either.

"There's something you wish to say, Sire?" Kanan asked softly, deciding to direct the conversation elsewhere as it looked like Valrien was already at his patience limit.

The young Prince glanced over to the one-eyed protector and heaved yet another sigh before he leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, "Yes. First, I'll apologize. I didn't ask you all to come just to celebrate. Though, I will say that I am very grateful for everything that was done to get this far. Unfortunately there is a problem."

He paused slightly. Siya watched him, hands clasped in his lap, a bit of a dark frown on his lips. Kanan didn't move either, simply waiting for what the Prince was going to say. Valrien took a breath, held it, then let it out slowly as he glanced at each of them before continuing, "It was a very long time ago, but.... things were created and unfortunately my family never had the chance to deal with them.

"They're the problem right now. They're still roaming around and they're dangerous, nasty bastards that need to be put out of their misery. I've already heard of killings in some of the newly rebuilt towns. If I don't snuff out this damned... Wretched past...." Valrien's gaze narrowed as he ground his teeth, fingers intertwining tightly as he rested his elbows on the table, "I will lose everything again and this time by creatures who should not even exist."

He left it at that as he took a moment to regain his composure and not sound so pissed off -which was hard since he sounded like it most all the time. After a while, he finally spoke again, his gaze trained on Siya most especially, "I know a lot has happened. You probably do not even wish to be here anymore. I understand. But... I would like to ask for your help again. If you refuse, I will not push. I will find a way to fix this myself... I just..." his gaze flicked over to Harlan for a moment before he stopped talking and waited.

Harlan watched Valrien tell him to put the goblet down. Harlan rolled his eyes, doing the opposite and taking a drink from the goblet before he moved his way over to Valrien's chair, resting his arm on the chair as he leaned against it. "I am not drunk, not yet. I can promise you that, Valrien." he said, taking another sip from his cup as he then looked to the others. Harlan sighed though heavily as Valrien decided to spoil the fun going on here by bringing up some current issues. "You just can't ever let a party be a party, can you Vally?" Harlan mumbled to himself.

Amon, who had been munching on the delicious food set in front of him, looked over to the prince as he spoke. An eyebrow was arched in confusion, Amon making sure to swallow his food before speaking. "Well, firstly, we are plenty happy to have helped you. As for helping you again, well I don't see why not." Amon sat up in his seat, resting the ankle of one leg on the knee of his other as he did so. His staff currently was resting in the room that had been provided for them by Valrien. Amon had no reason to carry it around here, as he certainly had no plans to breakout in chin-ups or anything anytime soon. "But uh....perhaps you can clarify a bit more, on the whole 'things were created', part?"

Damiano leaned forwards onto the table, so that he could look past Siya who he was sitting next to. His own interest had been piqued at this development, "I second that, su majestad. That is an odd piece of information to be attached to a problem regarding, well something living." He took his own sip from his goblet, keeping hold of the cup as he set it down.

Harlan let out an annoyed huff of air, sighing before he chugged down the remaining wine in his goblet. Valrien could be such a buzzkill at parties, sometimes.

Valrien clicked his tongue in annoyance as he shot his friend a haughty glare, "God... Why the hell am I friends with you," he uttered to himself as he shook his head a little and sighed yet again. He was doing that a lot lately it seemed.

Leaning back from where he'd been resting his arms on the table, he looked off to the right as he pulled his thoughts together to answer the question given to him. Even he wasn't sure on all the details. After all he hadn't been born during that time and it was only by word of mouth that he knew anything about the things anyway.

"They're called Durak's. It was many... many years ago. Before I was even born, when my parents were probably children. I don't know. In any case, the Durak's were created. No... That's putting it lightly," Valrien sighed again, an angry sound because he just couldn't seem to get the words right. His fingers pulled into fists as the other hand tapped the arm of his chair in annoyance. Glaring out into the ground with a look of pure rage on his face, he tried again, "Experimented on. Put together by foul magic, or so I was told. Beasts. Creatures that shouldn't even exist. A mixture of man and boar. It's foul, disgusting, and utterly horrifying.

"They were created when Reimrand was in war with some fanatical. As I'm told he had a way with the magic of the land that no one would even dare to attempt and it put him in the eyes of the Yustri family as a threat to Reimrand. So, the third King declared war on him and though it took a few years. He managed to kill the fanatical and stopped his experiments. However, turmoil was already brewing here in the castle and... Well you know the story to that.

"Due to the betrayal, the inner fighting, the killing of family members... We just weren't ever thinking of the beasts that were created and never taken care of. Until now. Now, I have to do something about them and there's really not much I can do. I have no army, I only have a handful of loyal fighters that I dare to trust with my life," he glanced at Harlan for that, "But, if you wish not to, I will figure a way to deal with the problem."

He took a deep breath before he added, "You should also know that... according to the stories I heard as a child and growing up, the Durak's are... Very volatile. Very dangerous. I'm not even sure what they're capable of."

Harlan grinned at Valrien, "Because I'm just so charming, of course." he said before looking out to the others.

Amon cocked his head to the side, sitting back and looking off ahead. "Wow, the magic you guys have here in Reimrand never ceases to shock me. I thought our elemental tricks were cool, but here you have the magic to create whole new...things." he said, slouching some in his chair so that he could rest his chin in his hand, the elbow braced on the arm of the chair.

Damiano watched Valrien, listening intently the whole time while taking small sips of his goblet. "That is something. And I thought dealing with normal wild hogs was a problem, gotta deal with them in human form? Is there a reason they haven't been an issue before hand? Or was news just a bit hard to spread considering the fractured state of things here?" he asked.

Amon looked at Damiano for a moment before looking back to Valrien. "Also, how many are we talking about here? Because if you are only going to have a few people, such as us...well we aren't exactly an army ourselves in power or capability."

Harlan took his chance to pipe up, talking while he reached forwards to snatch the goblet that sat in front of the one-eyed fella. He didn't seem to set on drinking it, so why let good wine go to waste, Harlan figured. "Well, that is kinda the issue. From how the words sound, it may be a bit of a buggle out there when it comes to those numbers." the man said, not exactly sure what he had just said himself. He stood back up, sipping from the goblet for a moment before pointing out at them with the same hand. "What I meant, is that people say there's a number of the mean critters out there. Nothing too exact though, so won't know 'til we scoots ourselves to there!" Harlan exclaimed, grinning for no reason as he leaned against Valrien's chair again.

Valrien made a strange sound as Harlan snatched up Kanan's cup. Finally he just resigned himself to another sigh and leaned off to the side with his arm up to pillow his head against his fist. He listened to the young man with a frown on his lips. Even so, Harlan's words were very true, "Yes. Despite coming from a drunken bastard-,"

"Not drunk yet." Harlan said

"-he's right. We don't know exactly how many there are. From the latest report, the village was attacked by ten, possibly more," Valrien rolled his eyes at Harlan and continued.

"As for the reasons why it hasn't been an issue," Valrien turned to look at Damiano, "Asier, is because the lands as you said have been so fractured that getting news was near impossible. It's always been an issue, just not a large one like the fact that Reimrand was dying and very close to being a destructive waste land. My priorities were on other things at the time. Now, this is my priority. Freeing my lands of these damned creatures before they destroy everything again."

Valrien rolled his eyes as he leaned back in the chair and rubbed at his face again, "Look. I realize we are no army," he let out a huff of air as he stared up at the ceiling, "I will figure this out. I have always been able to, I can do it again. Please, forget I asked-"

"We'll do it," Siya cut in. He'd been silent up to that point so when he spoke he startled Valrien who shot a quick look over to him in surprise, "We'll help you. It's not like we can't. If we do it right, we can deal with this problem easily. There would be no need for an army. Destroy them bit by bit and the problem is solved."

"Siya..."

"We'll help," the Fire King looked over to Amon, "I'll help."

Valrien's gaze narrowed, "Are you certain you're not doing this to find a way out?"

Siya froze slightly, his gaze wavering a bit at Valrien's choice of words. When he didn't answer for a while, the Prince made a slight growling sound as he leaned in close to Siya, catching his gaze, and slamming his hand on the table, "Rethink your reasons. Then you can come back to me and tell me what you want to do."

Damiano glanced at Siya, listening to his solution to their lack of forces. He couldn't help but smile a bit. The young man was learning quick; it made the protector happy to know that the lessons were going well. Siya could pick up on things quickly, that much was something Damiano had learned over the past year of working for Siya.

He glanced to Valrien when the prince slammed his hand on the table in front of him, causing the protector's eyes to narrow. "Perhaps mi rey simply wants to make sure all that we've worked towards, helping to fix your kingdom, isn't a wasted effort by a bunch of pigmen running rampant?" Damiano kept his own gaze levelled at Valrien. Granted, the man was probably right regarding Siya's reasons. Maybe it was why Siya was picking up on the lessons Damiano was giving him so quickly, because Siya was trying to keep himself distracted and burying himself in work was one of the most effective ways he'd probably discovered. Still, Damiano figured that was not the sole reason Siya wanted to help Valrien.

Amon watched them, clearing his throat loudly to try and get everyone's attention. He sat up in his seat as he spoke, "We will help you, Valrien. We are not exactly ones to leave friends hanging out on an edge after-all! And beyond helping a friend, it still does benefit us. Best we stop the problem before it spreads, right?" he said. "And, I will not sit on my hands if I can do something to stop people from getting killed off by some...abominations. So yes, you are going to get our help." the Air King finished, taking a chance to pluck up a piece of meat from his plate and popping it into his mouth.

Valrien turned his heated gaze to Damiano, a sharp reply on the tip of his tongue before Amon cut in. He only glanced over to the Air King briefly before back to the archer. Grinding his teeth, he looked over to Siya who was avoiding all eye contact. Leaning back in the chair, he took a moment to cool off before he spoke again.

"Fine. I appreciate the help," he muttered. He was never one to be good at 'thank yous' and things like that. Even so, his gaze grew dark as he looked over to Damiano, "I suggest you keep an eye on your King. You may think that he is fine. But he is not," pushing up off the chair, Valrien stood up, "Don't let him kill himself, because that's what he's after," he finished, his voice sharper than before. Turning away from the table he left and headed for the back door to the huge hall.

Once he was through it, he stood in the dark corridor for a long while. Maybe that was too harsh of me... Even so... Siya looks like death already. Stupid... Of course Damiano knows. How could he not? Such an idiot... he chided himself as he started down the hallway in frustration.

Harlan just watched the exchange of glares and words quietly, knowing now more than ever to just keep quiet. He simply sipped away at his wine, shaking his head a bit at Valrien's comments. As Valrien stood up from the chair and stormed off for the back doorway, Harlan looked to the others, tipping his cup to them. "Alrighty, well I'll let you figure out your plans then. I'm gonna stop him from hitting his head to hard on a wall." he went to turn, stopped while he looked at his goblet, before chugging it down, then setting the cup down and then snatching the Air King's drink. "Not without some help though." Harlan said with a grin before turning and walking off to follow after Valrien.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that!" Amon protested, but the man was gone by this point, causing the Air King to pout. "Well damn..." he said before turning to look at Siya. He watched the Fire King for a moment, remaining quiet before he stood up from his place, and heading around the table and over to Siya. He stopped next to the younger king's chair, reaching down and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Siya, if and when you need to talk, just find me ok? I know exactly how you feel right now, so just find me when you are ready, ok?" With that, Amon squeezed the Fire King's shoulder before he looked over to Kanan. "Now, we need to find what else there is around here to look at and do! That, and I want to see you dance!" Amon said with a bit of a wicked grin before he turned and walked off into the crowd. He knew Kanan would follow, the man was like a puppy sometimes, or at least that is how Amon likened it.

Damiano looked up at the Air King, glad the man had said something. Truthfully, Damiano's only thought or response to Valrien's words had been to slug the man across the face and knock him unconcious. However, that would hardly help much in the end. Sadly, Damiano really had no idea what to say to Siya. He didn't really know what the man was feeling, as Damiano hadn't had much in the way of relationships or even that much for friendships back home, so when he had left it behind he hadn't really lost all that much other than luxury. He just looked at Siya, remaining quiet for a few moments before attempting something. "Maybe, mi rey, it's best if we try to enjoy the party? I'm sure Valrien will simmer down, and then we can get to helping him with his Durak problem, ok?"

Siya sat without moving. He closed his eyes as Amon reached out to take his shoulder. After the Air King spoke, he only nodded slowly before reopening his eyes and managing to keep his emotions under a very tight lock and key. When Amon walked away, he resigned himself to silence before Damiano spoke to him.

"Alright," he answered mostly as an automatic answer. He chanced a glance over to his protector and gave a very small, very forced smile, "He'll be fine," Siya answered in return, "We'll figure this out."

Kanan, on the other hand, was dealing with his King and trying his best not to blush at the thought of having to dance, "Sire..." he said, his voice slightly off put at being embarassed in such a way. Even so, he stood up and followed after his King just like he always did. He was always by Amon's side so long as nothing kept him from his King.

As he caught up to Amon, he glanced over to his King with his good eye, a bit of a frown lacing his lips, "Sire... About Lord Siya... Do you think it's a good idea to let him stay? Perhaps he should return home..."

Amon was chuckling at Kanan's response, enjoying putting the man in odd spots such as this. It was always entertaining to see how the stoic protector would try to work his way through the akward situations. It was a little mean of Amon, possibly, but that was hardly going to stop the Air King if it wasn't causing much harm.

Amon had moved to a more crowded section of the area, mingling amongst the people and greeting people here and there. He stopped though when Kanan once more grabbed his attention, causing Amon to turn to face him. It wasn't a frown that found it's way on the king's face, rather he simply nibbled on his bottom lip, crossing his arms. "I...really have no idea, Kanan. I mean, if I were in his spot I would be choosing to stay here as well to try and keep my mind off of it." He moved close enough to Kanan so he didn't have to shout over the crowd. "I mean, when I lost the rest of my family and also lost Allia, I didn't have much to distract me so I was kinda forced to face it."

Amon glanced back in the direction of where Siya was, rubbing the back of his head while frowning some. "I really don't know what to do for him, Kanan. Just gotta hope eventually he decides to face it at some point or another, I guess." he said with a sigh.

Kanan turned to look back at Siya as well. The young king looked so... lifeless. Kanan felt bitterness at the back of his throat. He felt useless. Even though he wasn't Siya's protector, he still knew the young man very well. His eye shifted over to Damiano. Perhaps the archer could do more for Siya than anyone else. Kanan took a moment before he nodded in agreement to Amon's words, "I see, Sire," he answered softly.

"I hope that he will find peace."
[/img]

Snippet #2567754

located in Reimrand, a part of Lord of Elements, one of the many universes on RPG.

Setting

Characters Present

Footnotes