Announcements: Cutting Costs (2024) » January 2024 Copyfraud Attack » Finding Universes to Join (and making yours more visible!) » Guide To Universes On RPG » Member Shoutout Thread » Starter Locations & Prompts for Newcomers » RPG Chat — the official app » Frequently Asked Questions » Suggestions & Requests: THE MASTER THREAD »

Latest Discussions: Adapa Adapa's for adapa » To the Rich Men North of Richmond » Shake Senora » Good Morning RPG! » Ramblings of a Madman: American History Unkempt » Site Revitalization » Map Making Resources » Lost Poetry » Wishes » Ring of Invisibility » Seeking Roleplayer for Rumple/Mr. Gold from Once Upon a Time » Some political parody for these trying times » What dinosaur are you? » So, I have an Etsy » Train Poetry I » Joker » D&D Alignment Chart: How To Get A Theorem Named After You » Dungeon23 : Creative Challenge » Returning User - Is it dead? » Twelve Days of Christmas »

Players Wanted: Serious Anime Crossover Roleplay (semi-literate) » Looking for a long term partner! » JoJo or Mha roleplay » Seeking long-term rp partners for MxM » [MxF] Ruining Beauty / Beauty x Bastard » Minecraft Rp Help Wanted » CALL FOR WITNESSES: The Public v Zosimos » Social Immortal: A Vampire Only Soiree [The Multiverse] » XENOMORPH EDM TOUR Feat. Synthe Gridd: Get Your Tickets! » Aishna: Tower of Desire » Looking for fellow RPGers/Characters » looking for a RP partner (ABO/BL) » Looking for a long term roleplay partner » Explore the World of Boruto with Our Roleplaying Group on FB » More Jedi, Sith, and Imperials needed! » Role-player's Wanted » OSR Armchair Warrior looking for Kin » Friday the 13th Fun, Anyone? » Writers Wanted! » Long term partner to play an older male wanted »

Snippet #2215267

located in Seirras Mountain Range, a part of Mateja: Revolution, one of the many universes on RPG.

Seirras Mountain Range

Extending all along the southern border, the Seirras peaks divide the land between the grasslands to the north and the desert to the south. The Capron Desert eventually dissolves into the sea, and it is beneath these mountains that the Ugnis Tribe resides

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Junea Vrass
Tag Characters » Add to Arc »

Footnotes

Add Footnote »

0.00 INK

Seirras Mountain Range
September 14, Late evening


Night had begun to settle, the last tendrils of sunlight disappearing behind the mountains. All around them, the grass stalks bent and swayed in the gentle breeze that carried from the north. While it was cool, the cold didn't cause Kysa any kind of discomfort as she moved through the grass, her eyes on the ground, making sure she didn't move so fast that she might tug at the rope that bound her and Junea at the waist. It was so easy to get lost here. You absolutely had to keep close to a companion if you had one, lest you lose one another in the dizzyingly large dry ocean.

She felt weary, emotionally spent, all to the point that she felt she was too tired to continue. She said nothing of it though. She did not wish to burden Junea with her complaints. While she was hurting, she knew that he certainly was too. Perhaps more so.

It wasn't until she stumbled that she realized she probably just needed to quit and rest. Straightening, she glanced back to Junea, as if for further instruction. They'd walked for days now, with few rest periods, all the more eager to make it back home to inform the tribe of what had happened. Now, though, she was simply too tired to continue.

Junea's eyes kept forward, and he kept his legs moving as long as he possibly could. It was very rarely that he actually looked to Kysa. Perhaps his feelings were in shame. He had certainly blamed himself for the incident. When Kysa stumbled, though, Junea looked to her, as if for further instruction, before he'd quickly nodded and came close enough to her for the both of them to be able to sit down and see eachother, and for the rope between them to loosen. On his person, he looked for anything that could serve as a blanket or something of the sort, but all of his possessions had been burned along with his brothers.

"We need not go out past the Vanduo village." He said, almost breathed. He didn't show his weariness through his stance, but it certainly came through his voice. "We will send others in our place to bear the news, and tell them to tread away from the Ugnis tribe."

"What will Ajani say?" Kysa wondered, taking in a shuddering breath before lying down on the ground. It was cold. She was cold. And it showed in the delicate tremor of her shoulders as she curled her arms towards her chest, pillowing the side of her head with her hands. She was gazing at Junea through the stalks of tall grass, watching as he disappeared, then reappeared.

"What could we do? Why haven't we heard of this before?"

They were questions she did not expect an answer to. Another gust of wind blew harder than before, suddenly frigid. She guarded herself, drawing her knees up and lying still. When had the nights become so cold?

"I am not sure what she'll say." Junea admitted. "We did not know of the Ugnis tribe because they were seclusive. It was never a necessity to visit them, and it was always a hassle. I cannot remember much of my last trip there, although I do remember one thing." Junea's shoulders heaved in a sigh. "There were women. And we should have visited them more often. Perhaps then this would not've happened."

Then, he fell backwards, into the unforgiving grasses of the dry desert. His eyes met the sky, and his shoulders spasmed when the bitter wind had come over them. His fingers laced together, before he'd ultimately opened his mouth to speak. "We will need to sleep close. Conserve body heat. Sierras is unforgivingly cold near the solstice times." he said, from the ground. "A fire would only burn the bush around us, or attract attention."

She regarded him a moment, weighing her options, before she shifted to a crouch, shuffling over to where he lay, and lay down next to him. Their skin didn't quite touch, and at the moment, she was content with that, up until the moment another strong gust barreled over them, causing her to shy up against his chest, her eyes wide as she stiffly curled against his side.

"I don't know that I could sleep." she said softly.

"After such exhausting days, I can't imagine that I will have any trouble." Junea replied. He'd resisted the urge to roll over, grab some of that unforgiving dry sea grass and try to get the heat off of it. Both of their bodies radiated heat, though, and it was surely sufficient enough. His breaths, before drifting into slumber, were long and exaggerated. They raised his chest, before it caved in again.

Those breaths seemed to grow shorter and shorter, before returning to a normal pace. That was when the eyes underneath Junea's lids began to flicker and he, himself, fell asleep.

For a little while, Kysa lay next to him, shivering from the cold that licked at her skin. Envying for a few moments the ease with which he'd fallen to sleep, she closed her eyes, forcing herself to think on other things, even as images of fire, of figures burning, danced across her mind's eye.

When she opened them again, the moon had shifted, and the wind had died down, leaving the grass standing tall, bending only slightly to accomodate the two figures who lay together. Junea was still sleeping soundly, his features relaxed in his rest. She sat up on her elbow, her shoulders stiff from lying in her curled position, and took a look around.

A steady glow had begun to reach out to her through the grass stalks. She sat up more fully, her brow knitting together as she squinted her eyes, attempting to gaze past the foliage in order to find the source behind it. It didn't take long to figure out that Motina was beckoning to her.

Fumbling with the ropes at her waist, she untied them quickly, quietly rising to her feet and stepping away from Junea, keeping a note of where he was, and what direction she was walking away from him. North-northeast, she thought, taking slow steps, and parting the grass with her hands.

Motina lead her further and further away, the paces growing longer, time extending, until she found a place where, oddly enough, the grass had begun to wither and die.

It reminded her of the blackened earth they'd found at the homesteads. She knelt, running her hand over the surface of the ground, and grimacing when it felt dry and grainy, not at all like the softer, sandier dirt that rooted the grasses.

Rising, she stepped out a few paces into the dead patch, looking around for Motina's aura. It was nowhere to be found.

That was when the ground shifted. Like wood breaking beneath her wait, the ground suddenly crumbled away, elliciting a sharp cry of surprise as the earth swallowed her up, and plunged her into darkness.

Kysa's scream elicited the heavy eyes of Junea to open, and drearily regard his surroundings. They were bathed in moonlight still, even though the moon had shifted it's position. When those dreary eyes had come to eralization that he was not in a dream, not back home with Ajani or Scout or Nanuk, they'd snapped open, and looked to the sound of her voice. Where grass seemed treaded upon is where she'd gone, and the rope that was tied between them had been either severed or untied, and he wasn't one who could tell, as the other end laid concealed amongn the high grasses.

He rushed to his feet, the ground underneath him making an audible crunch as he'd done so, and whipped toward the sound of her screaming. It had mattered not if he yelled back to her, as if there had been anyone around, their cover certainly had already been blown. "Kysa!" He yelled, and his feet carried him so. "Where are you? Where have you gone?" He yelled again, into the night.

The man's eyes stayed upward while his feet carried him forward, and his hand clasped around his mouth to yell. "Kys-" He started again, before the same darkness that engulfed Kysa had engulfed him too. He only uttered a sharp breath in of anticipation, and braced himself to hit the ground.

The rope came with him.

The impact was surprisingly soft, the loamy earth having the feel of well-tilled soil. There was no way to tell how far he had fallen, or how large the space was that he'd fallen into. It was black as night, with only a thin shaft of moonlight igniting the immediate area with its silver glow.

"Junea!" Kysa gasped from the darkness, and her voice seemed to echo into distant places. She came to him, her pale skin lighting white in the moon's beams, and her brow was furrowed with worry. "Are you alright?!"

Junea quickly rolled onto his back, the moonlight illuminating his face as he'd rolled into the thin shaft that penetrated the barren ground above. For a moment, he groaned, and his other hand met the shoulder that'd taken the impact, before he'd crawled to his feet and grasped Kysa's arm. He held it up to the light, as if there were a perverse fear that it wasn't actually her.

"Are you?" He finally asked.

She nodded weakly, her eyes flickering to his hand before turning away from him.

Then, he looked to the beam of light that illuminated such a small portion of the tunnel. "What is this?"

"I don't know," she responded in a murmur, gently removing her arm from his grip and taking a few steps away, into the darkness. Suddenly, a tongue of orange flame bloomed in her palm, lighting up the area around her, and revealing a massive earthen tunnel that extended to darkness behind them, and on to a solid dirt wall ahead. Her eyes were wide, the flame suspended over her palm flickering strange shadows against the walls.

"There isn't a creature in all of Mateja that can make a hovel this size..." she breathed.

Junea's eyes had snapped to the fire that Kysa formed in her hands. For a moment, his brow twitched, in confusion. There weren't many of the water tribe who could conjure such a thing. Regardless, though, he pried his eyes away from the flame, and set them on the vastness of the tunnel of which they'd fallen. Then, he looked up.

"It is best that we get back to ground. Finish our rest. We will send our replacements to this location when we get back to the tribe."

The suggestion was immediate, and encroached upon the lines of 'suggestion' and 'demand'.

"How will we reach it?"

The flame extinguished, and she walked back over to where Junea stood.

"Can you lift me?" she asked, looking to him. "Let me take the rope and I can help pull you up." When she put her hand on his shoulder, it was pleasantly warm. Her eyes glanced towards the hole.

"I'd just need to stand on your shoulders for a moment." she said.

Junea's lips pulled into a tight line, but he nodded nonetheless. It would certainly be easier than her lifting he. Almost immediately, the man bent to a knee. When Kysa was to step upon them, he lifted his body and his shoulders, though one of them seemed weaker, and slacked a little bit. If she didn't have a good grip, she may have slipped, if not for that he put his hands over her ankles when she'd boarded.

Her balance was relatively precise. She wasted little time reaching for the lip of the hole, grabbing at stalks of grass before bodily pulling herself up. The rope she held tight in her hand, her legs swinging briefly before she managed to drag herself up and onto high ground. Then, she turned about, digging in her heels and wrapping the rope around her forearm a few times.

"Come on Junea!" she called down.

"I've got you, try to jump!"

Junea glanced upwards, to the rope, before he'd crouched and jumped to grab it. Both his hands had a firm grip on the dangling object, and since Kysa's forearms were strong enough, he quickly pulled himself to the lip of the hole they'd fallen through. Thankfully, the lip hadn't caved under his weight. For a moment, his hands grasped for stalks of grass to lighten the pressure on his companion's forearms, before they seemed to backtack.

A hiss came from his mouth, and his eyes widened. For a moment, he'd glanced down as if he'd been bitten by something. He'd know in a moment, though, when he had swung his leg over the edge.

But his leg didn't meet the lip of the hole. Instead, his hip went to swing it over and abruptly was pulled back, as if someone were holding his foot. When it'd jerked in such a fashion, he released a yelp of pain. One hand impulsively went down to meet his leg, while the other struggled to hang on.

A yell from beneath had signified what was to come. It wasn't a yell from Junea, or Kysa, but another person. Gravely, he looked into her eyes, and she returned his gaze with a fearful look of her own.

"Run. Back to the place where we slept, and hide."

Just after, Junea's other hand slipped, and he fell again into the same darkness that they'd met beforehand. When he'd met the ground, his cries ceased as if they were being stifled.

Kysa, try as she might, was unable to keep him up. Fighting against whatever was pulling him in, she ended up loosening the earth that kept her from falling into the hole, and as a result, she once again felt the ground open up beneath her.

This time, however, arms were there to catch her when she fell. And those arms weren't the welcoming ones of Junea. No, in the darkness, she couldn't see, but the rancid breath of the one who'd welcomed her into the darkness. Soon enough, he shoved her to the ground and unlatched something from his pocket. From the darkness that covered the tunnel, though, it couldn't be said what.

Suddenly, a voice from the same man rang out. "Kill him!" It said. "Take her back to Ignio and Mama!"

The silhouetted face tipped it's chin sideways, before it'd stepped back into the moonlight. Dark gray, almost charcoal-like skin had graced the face of the man, and his eyes sheened with a film of blindness.

Another two had appeared to restrain Kysa, while the one who'd hit the moonlight suddenly dipped his head to the right and melded with the darkness. A pained yell echoed through the tunnel, though it couldn't be adamant who'd it belonged to.

"Junea!" Kysa managed a stifled cry. Her hands had braced some of the fall as the first man shoved her to the ground, but the other two were quickly approaching. If she was restrained, she wouldn't have a chance.

So as soon as one drew close, she pivoted onto her side, swinging a kick out for the nearest one's leg, her hand igniting into flame, briefly illuminating the scene as she grabbed for the man who restrained her, attempting to burn his face.

"Get away!" she cried.

The man's utterances of pain seemed so animalistic that it was a surprise they had even belonged to a human being. He stumbled backward onto the ground, holding his face. They had all dealt with fire, the Ugnis, and their skin was like leather, but leather burned. The rank smell of flesh seemed to waft into the area. The other man seemed bothered not by the anguish his companion had been in, and quickly went to sweep an arrow-pointed shaft with a rope toward Kysa. In the split second it'd come at her, she might've noticed that it had already been tinted by deep scarlet blood.

And the same colored blood seemed to seep at Kysa's feet, the trail still coming from the darkness that her flame hadn't reached. Finally, Junea's voice had come from the darkness. It was hoarse, and even difficult to understand. "Kysa!" He yelled. "Get up, run, and get help." He breathed, weakly.

Still yet, the sounds of motion and fighting came from the darkness.

"Don't be a fool!" she shouted back, rolling quickly to one side and grimacing as the spearhead drove into the dirt where her shoulder had been. She landed a kick for the nearest Ugnis' chest, before she pushed herself to her feet and took a good step back, both of her hands ignited into flame.

"Junea!" she cried. "To me!"

She was ready when they came for her, fighting them the way an expert warrior might. With the flames encircling her palms, it made her attacks that much more deadly. They were going to survive this. They absolutely had to.

The survival of their own tribe depended on it.

The Ugnis had jabbed so fiercely that when his weapon hadn't stuck into Kysa, it jammed into the wall behind her. He struggled to pull it out, and when his chest had sent a crack through the dimly lit hovel, he stumbled backward and fell into the dirt behind him. He laid next to his companion, who steadily breathed, but nurtured a newly blind face. He grasped his fellow tribe member, and began to drag him off into the darkness, ever slowly.

The dense sound of a palm against skin had resounded through the dirt walls on the other Vanduo's side, however. Junea had shot away from his aggressor, and into the visible light of Kysa's flames. His leg gave out from underneath him and he stumbled, sending him to the floor. The flickering light of the flames had extended to show the bleeding body of the Ugnis that Junea had managed to fight off before stumbling toward his fellow tribe member.

The only other Ugnis left standing had been the one who'd come behind Junea, but calls of other tribesmen echoed in the near distance.

Kysa was breathing hard, the flames extinguishing as she shifted sideways to grab Junea's arm and pull him close. "Don't leave my side," she instructed, pulling them back againts the wall of dirt. She still held tightly to him, leaning back against the earthen surface and closing her eyes in concentration.

The ground began to tremble faintly, vibrations increasing in intensity as dirt clods and stone fell from the ceiling. In the distance, surprised, frightened shouting could be heard.

Junea had clutched the fabric of Kysa's shirt in the near-darkness. His head dug into the wall behind her, and his other hand rubbed the bruise that laid around his throat. Surely enough, he was on knee, for the other leg's flesh had been ripped from it's place.

The man that had remained, the Ugnis who fought toward Kysa and Junea, gave a surprised yell before a large rock had fallen to nearly crush his foot. He staggered back with a yelp, before drawing backwards into the cavern.

The dull roar signified the collapse of the tunnel, the gust of air and dirt rushing towards the pair. Kysa changed positions, pinning Junea to the wall and doing her best to surround him, to guard him as the dirt came barreling closer.

The sound filled her ears, causing her to grimace before suddenly, in a breathless moment, all noise stopped. Behind them, a gentle ledge sloped upwards towards the pre-dawn sky.

Kysa glanced to Junea, smiling weakly, before her knees gave out and she found herself collapsing sideways.

Junea's arms reached out to Kysa, catching her before she could hit the rough of the ground. His hands then reached above him, to the dirt wall. They met metal. Metal attached to rope. In good measure, he pulled the Ugnis weapon out and it jerked him backwards, but he'd soon meet Kysa again. "Almost day." He breathed. "Only a little further. Come. Can you come?"

His eyes paranoidly shifted between Kysa and the darkness, and the hand he wasn't using to shepherd his companion white-knuckled around the weapon.

Her breathing was ragged, as if she'd run for miles without stopping. Gritting her teeth, the woman got her hands beneath her, easing herself to a standing position, and closing her eyes as a rush of dizziness suddenly overcame her.

"Go ahead." she managed, taking slow, deep breaths. "I'll catch up. That took more energy than I thought it would..."

He looked at the collapsed tunnel behind them. If Ugnis were to come, they'd have a very hard time. But what was the point of him leaving her there? Would Motina save them this time? Did they need help?

Junea cautiously climbed up to surface-level via the ramp that Kysa had made, but he was no more able to run than she was. When he'd gotten up there, the dirt and grime that'd gotten into the wound on his leg caused him to stop. He looked to the skies, that of which hung in a teal-purple twilight, and threatened to peek a morning sun over soon.

But it didn't look like help was around.

"I can help you up," Junea finally rasped. He slid down again, half-way, and lurched a hand toward his companion. "We must leave eventually."

Kysa looked about ready to reply, before a high, keening bugle interrupted her. Her eyes widened as she angled her face skyward. "Junea," she managed. "Go back, quickly! Oro comes!"

She pointed, just in time, as a massive, transparent mass flew over the mouth of the hole, dangerously close to the ground. The faint rumble indicated that it had landed not far away, but out of sight due to the lip of earth that stood high over their heads.

Junea turned quickly. He was not a stranger to that bugling sound, and mostly, the beasts who bore it did not fly alone. His hands grasped broken stalks and burned dirt as he haphazardly pulled his way to the top of the lip. Speaking anything had caused him a surmountable amount of pain, but that didn't keep the man from rasping the tribe's name.

"Oro! Mums reikia pagalbos!"

"I can see that!" Came the returned cry. The man dismounted from the large, physical mass that seemed to move and shift like a thunderhead. As the creature elongated, wings unfolding from its torso, the transparent wyvern began to slowly move closer to Junea, a gentle rumble moving through it as it lowered its serpentine head, eyes blinking like black coals in its massive face. At full height, it could easily outstand two men, and the length was easily twice that much. The man who rode it bore similar appearance to Junea, except his clothing was light, close-fitting, and a pair of glass-framed goggles sat fixed to his forehead, to block out the wind as he flew.

"That cut in the land extends for miles back to the mountains!" he explained as he came closer, breaking into a jog. "Caiphus and I were patrolling close by when we heard the noise. Are you alone?"

He searched the area in disbelief, as if he didn't understand why Junea would be on his own.

"No," He started. He was on his side, due to the rather prominent wound on his leg. Quickly, he gestured to the lip and cave-in that was to the side of him. "One other woman survived. She is down there. The rest of our team was murdered by the Ugnis."

"I will explain further when we are both safe." He added, a certain urgency to his voice.

The man regarded Junea with a look of disbelief written all over his face. He seemed to be in a small state of shock. "Ugnis, but..."

The sounds of Kysa struggling to get to the lip of the cave-in caught his attention, and he immediately jogged over to the edge, glancing down before jumping in to offer Kysa a hand. As he vanished from sight, a second, massive wyvern went flying overhead, landing in the same spot that the first had touched down.

It wasn't long before the first figure emerged with Kysa held delicately in his arms. And the woman, who looked too tired to keep her head up, was resting her cheek against his chest, eyes closed in her exhaustion.

"Name's Trystan." he called to Junea, as Caiphus came forward with his hands planted on his hips. The pair looked very similar, as though related. Brothers, perhaps. Caiphus, whose eyes and hair were darker than Trystan's, glanced over Kysa before looking to Junea.

"Traveling alone?" he querried. "Foolish, in these parts. Did you know of the tunnel that caved in?"

"We were fighting to get back to our tribe, after the rest of our team had been murdered. Do not call us foolish." Junea said, an amount of serpentry to his voice. "... Murdered by the Ugnis. The Ugnis, who are building a tunnel toward the colonist's settlement. They tried to kill us as well. Motina's grace saved us both, but the others were not so lucky. The Ugnis no longer heed Motina."

He reached up and grasped Trystan's garment, to pull himself up. Uneasily, he looked between Kysa and Trystan. The tunnel had caved in, and it was of Kysa's doing, but...

"We were lucky that it had collapsed."

"But how?" Wondered Caiphus. "It's a massive structure, and anyone with a mastery of the elements would not have dug so shallow that the surface would collapse. He looked from Junea to Trystan, who had begun to carry Kysa away from the others, towards a wyvern that stood ready for flight.

Caiphus watched them go, and looked back to Junea with a brow raised.

"Was it you?"

Junea's eyes narrowed toward Caiphus.

"No."

At that moment, he rubbed his neck and bore a feigned expression of pain. Where he rubbed, there was a ring of bruised purple. Then, he looked to Caiphus' wyvern.

"May we go?"

Trystan had already stepped onto his wyvern's back, with Kysa still tucked close to his torso. Her dark hair had come undone , spilling about her shoulders, and giving the illusion that it was a child that Trystan carried with him, and not a grown woman. Caiphus turned to watch as the wyvern spread its massive, transparent wings, before glancing back to Junea and offering out an arm.

"Yes. Daylight comes." he said, seeming to ponder something as he guided the man towards his own mount.

"The woman was weakened severely. Could it be that she was the one responsible for the tunnel collapse?" he asked of the other.

Relentless and curious, a folly of youth, it seemed.

"Ask her yourself, when you see to it that we are both better. I am sure she will be able to supply you with an answer better than I will." Junea hissed again. He clasped Caiphus' arm, and pulled himself onto the wyvern with the other Oro tribesman. "Let us be off. You can ask your questions later. We both have had enough for the matter of a few days. A sanctuary is what we both need."

There was no argument after that. Once the pair had mounted the wyvern, the massive creature extended its leathery wings, clawing at empty air with the membranous extensions as it pulled its body and the passengers into the air. Caiphus adjusted his goggles over his eyes, before turning back to instruct Junea to be careful. Random particles of dust and dirt could blind a man at the speeds they traveled.

As they aimed into the sunrise, the land opened up before them, a sprawling myriad of color. Sanctuary waited for them. Answers, perhaps.

Or more questions.

cron