Description
Name: Nellisanro Dash, although she much prefers to be called Nel.
Age: 10 years. She looks and acts closer to eight, though.
Gender: Female.
Description: Standing at a total height of only about three feet, Nel looks like she's only a little kid. With a thin, small build, big, bright blue eyes and pale silvery-blue hair, like snow on a moonlit night, Nel is pretty clearly not a normal girl. This does not, however, stop her from being incredibly lovable and cute, especially when she's happy, which is always. Her standard outfit consists of a sleeveless blue shirt, tied with a sailor-style collar, over which she wears a lacy white jacket with detached, flowing sleeves, and a blue skirt, trimmed white and lined with various bits of lace. Under this ensemble, she wears a short pair of fluffed out white pants - given that she flies a lot and so modesty is a bit of an issue - and a pair of lacy white socks, over which she wears fancy blue dress shoes. Topping this off with a blue and white bow in her hair and a cheerful grin, Nel is practically the poster child for "Adorable little kid."
Personality
Nel can be summarized in a few words. These words are, respectively, manic, cheerful, hyperactive, energetic, and- OOH, SHINY THING!
With seemingly boundless energy matched only by her curiosity, constant desire for fun and massive appetite, Nel has the attention span of the average gnat. She's playful, outgoing, friendly, cuddly, and generally rather puppy-like in nature. Her usual day consists of "Fun, fun, fun, food, fun, fun, food, fun, fun, food, fun, fun, fun, sleep." Her definition of fun is a rather broad one, as she never seems to get bored, and always finds something entertaining to do, be it chasing rabbits, catching fireflies, singing, dancing, playing tag, or all of the above simultaneously. One thing doesn't change, however. No matter what she's doing, she is always, constantly, 24/7, in motion.
Nel is also a very, very big eater, although her body never shows it. One of her many dreams is to eat an elephant all in one sitting, just to see if she can. She'd probably manage it, too, although how she manages to cram so much into such a small body is a mystery for the ages.
On another note, Nel is rather wary of Humans, as they've killed several of her playmates on occasion. While she finds Human children to fun friends, any time an adult Human shows up, she'll generally make her getaway as quickly as possible. On the other hand, she loves hanging out with other Magispirits, especially Air spirits, given the similarities between herself and that group.
Nel follows a philosophy entirely revolving around speed. The faster you do one thing, the sooner you can move on to doing more things. She crams as much fun into her day as possible, sleeps as fast as she can, then gets up to do it all over again, oftentimes using her ability to travel short distances through time as a sort of reset button, allowing her to re-spend hours she already used up in playing. Similarly, she also believes that you should never pay too much attention to one thing at once, as doing so will cause you to miss out on other interesting things, thus resulting in her rather bad case of ADHD.
Equipment
Nel generally doesn't carry much with her, besides what food and money she can find and the clothes on her back.
History
Nel has had a rather unusual past, by virtue of being... well, Nel. She was one of the few members of a rare community of "Velocity Magispirits," a derivative of Air Magispirits gifted with the power to control speed and directional orientation, both in physical objects and metaphysical concepts. This group of spirits, however, was often hunted by Humans, and many of them died. Since there was no physical object of "Velocity" that their bodies could be brought back to to recover, members of the Velocity group died forever when they were killed. Being a mostly passive group of childlike Magispirits, oftentimes they were too scared to try to defend themselves, making them easy pickings for the Humans they ironically could have easily beaten.
Nel was one of the few survivors of this group, fleeing from the site of the massacre to escape being annihilated. Taking up refuge with a group of Wind Spirits, she traveled around for a while, occupying herself by playing. Given her short attention span, she soon forgot her sorrows and once again took up amusement with her whole heart and soul. Although they eventually parted ways, Nel taking her own path and walking the Earth in search of fun, Nel continued her belief in the carefree lifestyle of the Air Spirits who had taken her in and become her friends. Outrunning any Humans who came after her, Nel set out in search of one thing: a playmate. Sure, she could warp her own velocity to go so fast that she went back in time, then play with a past/alternate version of herself, but that was no fun. Games of tag got boring if the only people playing were all you. Instead, Nel decided that she needed to find some new friends, like her old Wind Spirit buddies from way back when. Thus, she set off on her epic and rather silly quest, spreading joy and chaos wherever she goes! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
(Blue and white.)
So begins...
"Hey, hey, you're a Magispirit, right?!" The energetic voice burst forth suddenly and without warning from directly above Waterlily, followed by a rustle of leaves and the sound of a falling object as a small body dropped from a tree above, landing right on top of the Water Spirit's back with a childish giggle. Dismounting the victim of her tackle hug and hopping down in front of her, the culprit revealed herself to be a young girl, her elegant dress contrasting sharply with the manic, carefree grin on her innocent face.
"I'm Nel!" She exclaimed joyously, waving her arms about and gesticulating wildly. "This forest is Nel's! Nice lady said she would send Nel some friends to play with, and she did, she did! To stay in Nel's forest, you have to play with Nel! Let's play! Let's play!" She explained nonsensically, beginning to bounce up and down and dance around as though she would die if she ever stopped moving, her face practically glowing for the joy it expressed. She was smiling to a seemingly impossible extent, and for all intents and purposes seemed to be the most excitable little ball of joy and fun that ever walked the Earth. Which she probably was, but that was another matter entirely.
Waterlily looked up as she heard a voice, concerned for a second. But then the water magisprit fell from the sky, and it didn't take too long to realize what she was looking at. Another magisprit, an air magisprit. But that didn't mean she could move before she had been tackled. She stumbled, then straightened as she looked over the young magisprit. She was supposed to be on a mission to stop the war, and the Water Mother Magisprit had sent for a child? Among both humans and magisprits, she was very young; too young for a mission like this. But then, she had most likely traveled before. She was an air magisprit; a nomad by nature, she was more than likely used to traveling. But so young! Surely there were older magisprits, even air magisprits, that would have been useful? Just like there were probably older water magisprits to take her place. Still, she supposed it was someone, some bit of help.
She smiled a little, resisting the urge to shake her head. "Perhaps we'll play later, Nel; when more people show up. Then the games will be more fun, won't they?" She didn't really want to play games with a child magisprit on her own, not when they were supposed to be waiting for others to show up. She paused, glancing around, then turned her attention to the young magisprit, who had previously introduced herself as Nel. "I'm Waterlily. Now...just as a question...the nice lady...was a Mother Magisprit, wasn't she?" Even the young magisprits knew who their Mother Magisprit was; they would at least know enough to know when she was talking to a Mother Magisprit.
"Yup!" Nel affirmed, nodding her head vigorously as she looked up with a grin. "She said she would send Nel lots of friends to play with! You're the first one here! If more are coming, then Nel will wait. It's no fun having to restart a game of tag because new people show up in the middle." She trailed off there, but this silence did not last even a second. Nel, not missing a beat to talk about her favorite subject - everything - quickly piped up once more, still fidgeting and bouncing around to punctuate her words.
"So what sort of games do you like? Did you bring any food? Or sweets? Nel loves sweets! Did you, did you, did you~! Sweets, sweets, give Nel something good to eats~!" And so she started off in a sing-song voice, bouncing up and down, first on her feet, then somehow hopping around on her head in complete defiance of gravity, around the clearing and chanting her rather annoying song as she demanded a treat. Without warning, however, she suddenly stopped, and, looking back up at Waterlily, she started off talking again, still speaking incredibly, almost unintelligibly fast.
"SowhatkindofMagispiritareyou? Howoldareyou? Doyouhaveanyfriends? Wheredoyoulive? Whatsortoffooddoyoulike? What'supwithyourclothes? Didsomeonestealthem? Don'tyougetcoldlikethat?" She babbled on manically, her voice loud and raucous as she rambled continuously, showing no signs of stopping.
Waterlily nodded her acknowledgment; so the Mother Magisprit had sent her, so she was supposed to be here, then. She wondered briefly how many were supposed to be there. And then Nel started firing off more questions, much faster. She could barely keep up but, with a moment of thought, was able to discern the actual wording for the questions. "No...I didn't bring any food; I forage from the plants around me whenever I need food. Really, though, some of the berries around here are sweet, if you want to try some." Maybe that would keep her busy for a while. She paused and looked up when she heard more footsteps.
She nodded to the elf woman who had shown up, apparently trying to make herself seem more important than maybe she was. Chest puffed out, stomach sucked in; what was the point? There were no males in the area to try to attract. That, in her mind, was the only reason for such behavior. Granted, they would be on a mission, so she'd have to keep herself in control if they did run across any males. She couldn't afford distractions. Well, on a second thought, maybe every now and then would hurt. She shrugged that thought off; the mission was supposed to come first.
"You're not intruding. We were just waiting for more friends to play with Nel here," she replied, gesturing to the young air magisprit. She looked over their new companion briefly before continuing. "I didn't think you would try to hurt us; odd that you think we would think think that. Water magisprits don't think that way of elves; just humans. They're the ones fighting us witha war, after all, not the elves. ...Anyway...we're glad to have you along; I just hope we don't have too many arguments. They really slow a traveling group down, you know?" She shrugged, then glanced around.
"You didn't happen along anyone else along the way, did you? I'm just trying to see just how big our group is going to be...and to make sure there are no humans that might be a danger in the area. We're far too close to their home for my comfort..."
Waterlily nodded. If she didn't see anyone, then either no one else from the group was coming from that direction, at least - whichever direction she had come from - or somehting had happened to them. At the very least, no human had crossed her path; they weren't out hunting for them today. Not yet, anyway. She paused, looking up when she heard more footsteps. She watched him curiously, knowing even as she did that this was what had helped cause the death of so many magisprits; the ones that were old enough to understand couldn't avoid wanting to be closer to the males, which only made it easier for humans to hunt. 'No,' she told herself firmly in her head, repeating it until it sank in completely. 'No distractions; only the mission. Maybe...after...no. Can't even think about it until it is over...'
She was a little more wary when she finally did notice the sword over his shoulder, but that was soon stabbed into the ground. An ally, then. And he introduced himself as such, too. She nodded to him as she had to the elf, although her face wasn't quite as wary towards him. She silently cursed herself, then smiled at him. She only shot a questioning glance at the elf when she referred to him as human.
But he corrected her, so she left it alone. She nodded to him. "It's good to have another in our group; power in numbers." Which was why most groups of magisprits lived like they did; in groups. "Well, that makes two that have introduced themselves. That would be Nel, back there...she's looking forward to a game of tag. I'm Waterlily, although," she paused, glancing at the dinlander before back to the ground, "Lily would work, too." She shrugged off her sudden shyness and looked back up, between the elf and the dinlander. "It's nice to meet the both of you." 'No distractions,' she reminded herself silently, preventing herself from looking up at the dinlander again. She couldn't afford distractions. Still, she glanced up long enough to note that he had put his feet in the water, boots and cloak set aside. She turned her attention to the discarded garments; less of a distraction that way.
She had to lok up again, though, when he called her and Nel gods. She shook her head. "No...not gods...we're not...quite that powerful, really. We were created by them, yes; assigned to prevent chaos, yes; but not real, true gods."
Azha walked quickly through the forest. She hadn't made up as many miles as she had meant to the other day and now was off course and late. Of course, if she'd had a little bit of a warning that she was going on this journey she might have had more time to prepare. But nope, the black scale and the magispirit had decided to tell her two days before she was supposed to be at the lake. How was that for a warning? Sure she could travel fast, but it wasn't like she had wings. Now she was late, and pretty sure that if she didn't hurry up she'd miss her opportunity to meet up with the group. She'd be lucky if they hadn't already left. Az avoided the path as she walked in case any stray humans were on it. Sure she could defend herself, but fire didn;t mix well with forests. So Az stuck ten feet to the right of the path and just walked through the woods.
Finally, Az came to a stop at a lake around which were gathered several magi spirits, an elf, and a human male. She listened to their conversation for a few moments before she was able to glean that the male was in fact not quite human. That was good, Az would have been hard pressed not to kill the guy in his sleep if he was human. As it was she was going to have a hard enough time pretending she wanted peace with the humans.
Azha stepped in between the trunks of two intertwining trees. Leaning her back against the right tree she watched how the group interacted and waited for someone to notice her. It was pretty hard not to notice Azha when she wan't wearing a cloak, what with the red scales and eyes. But the group seemed pretty immersed in each other so when the magi spirit called waterlily spoke up saying, "Well...it seems we've all introduced ourselves but myself and our elven friend here." She guestured to the young air magisprit. "She goes by Nel, and I'm Waterlily. Lily will work, too, I suppose..." Azha decided to introduce herself.
Waiting till the elf had finished speaking Az stepped out of the trees and said, "Actually, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Azha." She said grinning. It was meant to be a friendly grin, but with her pointed teeth it probably looked a bit... menacing."
The conversation was suddenly and spontaneously disrupted by a very vocal explosion from the blue haired child.
"Yay! More friends came to play! Welcome to Nel's forest!" The little speed demon exclaimed, bouncing up and down as she zipped around the clearing with speed that belied her small stature. If she was that fast, it might just have been impossible to beat her should they ever play the tag of tag she was looking forward to with such enthusiasm. In the middle of this non-directional dash, however, she suddenly stopped, then blurred over to the Dinlander with a look of wonder and joy written on her face.
"Nel is a Goddess? AWESOME!" She said rapturously, proceeding to bounce up and down around the clearing, chanting as she was ought.
"Nel is a Goddess~, Nel is a Goddess~, Nel is a Goddess!~" She sang, hopping to and fro. This was quickly replaced by a raucous cheer of "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" As bouncing turned to running randomly about in a manner that seemed to defy physics. She would dart into a bush, and emerge in the blink of an eye on the opposite side of the clearing. At points, she would somehow get up into trees, run through the branches, and then appear once more somewhere else.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-" She dashed out of a tree and down into the clearing.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-" She darted into a bush, and then emerged at ludicrous speeds from the opposite end of the clearing.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-" She crashed headlong into Darin's back and fell on her face, cutting off her rejoicings. Undeterred, she sat up, grinning, and, with a giggle, hopped up on the Dinlander's back, hanging off of his shoulders and placing her head on top of his, as though she was using him as a pillow. She was surprisingly light, making her presence less noisome than it otherwise might have been, but it was still probably rather awkward for everyone.
"~Arin is a horsey!" She exclaimed nonsensically, giving Darin a new nickname as she grinned contentedly, satisfied with her new mount.
Songrose shook her head, but let it slide. Really, if they wanted to support the magisprits, they'd accept the truth for what it is, not call them gods. Ah well; that argument was for another time. She looked back as she heard another voice, then glanced at the dinlander as he put his feet back in the water. "Azha; seems like you were hiding there for a while...I mean...you already heard me introducing myself and everyone else, too." she hated doing things more than once, especially more than twice. This made their group larger by one, although she disagreed about elves and dinlanders as two people each. She looked over the entire group.
"...Well...I suppose we might get going soon...I mean...the human village is pretty close...but we still have a ways to walk to get there...and if we don't want to be caught in a hunting trip, we should go soon. I mean..." Humans bothered her a bit, especially their males. They seemed to be more aggressive towards the magisprits. She didn't even want to go into their village to convince them otherwise...but she needed to go. She didn't have much of a choice, since the Mother Magisprit had sent her. Perhaps she'd just find someone to cling to...or just stay near the group. ...Or one of the group. 'No distractions!'
She paused, however, as Nel started running away with the idea of being a goddess, and tackled Darin. She paled slightly, then flushed. "Nel! We're magisprits! And goddesses don't tackle people like that. Really?!" She hated scolding her like this, and it barely even came out as a scolding. She was half-laughing...but also half embarrassed. For her to make magisprits seem like that! Well...maybe they all were when they were young, but not everyone needed to know that. And she had been chosen for this trip, too! She had figured she might behave a bit better.
"...She's not bothering you too much...is she, Darin?" She figured it wouldn't hurt him too much, really. He seemed strong enough to deal with it, and he was a dinlander. But still, that had to be irritating. "Come on, Nel; it's okay to play games, but you shouldn't tackle people like that...
Az smiled as the tiny magi spirit called Nel ran around the clearing in an excited burst of energy. Little kids were adorable, and the little air magi spirit was certainly no exception. Az couldn't help but laughing as Nel lept on to the back of the Dinlander. Just because he wasn't entirely human didn't mean she had to like him. Az didn't know much about the Dinlanders. As a general rule Drakii didn't like the cold. Sure the occasional white scale would venture north, but red scales avoided it like the plague. Smiling at Nel she gave a thumbs up of a approval and turned to listen as Lily began to speak.
human city. Wow, they really weren't waisting time with this whole "make peace deal." She'd at least hoped for a few days spent traveling in the forest, but oh well, such was her lot. The magi spirit looked a little freaked out about the prospect herself, but it wasn't Az's job to console her so she didn't try. Sh nodded and replied to the magi spirit, "All right. To the human city it is. Do you have any specific plan for how were going to go about this?"
Az really hoped the Magi spirit had some plan of attack. She didn't think just walking into the town would be the best idea. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy fighting humans, but nearby a town the results could prove disastrous. As the magi spirit tried to calm down her younger counter part Az added with only a bit of laughter, "Nel, that looks like an excellent game you should continue to play."
"Well, Nel," Darin intoned, "I wouldn't say goddess, but -- ah damn, she's gone." Darin shrugged, staring into the peaceful water of the lake. Things were calm, for now. The birds were singing, the sun was out and there hadn't been any travelers on the road to attack the magispirits, which meant that for now he could just sit back and relax. He didn't get to do that very often, a sellsword's life was often dominated by two things: violence, and walking somewhere to make more violence. Sitting and taking a few breaths to himself was a nearly foreign concept to him, as was settling down. He took a second to look over at his comrades and his charge, his eyes lingered on Lily. She had seemed to be avoiding looking at him; he contemplated why -
Thump
"OOPH" Darin suddenly felt forty or fifty pounds of Magispirit ram into his back at half the speed of sound. He immediately felt his body be lifted forward off the ground, and then promptly thrown into the water. He barely even had time to react as a very startled fish darted away from his head, then he was suddenly waterborn. In the shallows, Darin's eyes gazed into the depths of the lake. His face wasn't amused. As he surfaced again, Nel latched onto his back. Darin looked over one shoulder to see some of Nel's form perched on his back, and felt her head resting on top of his. He made an annoyed face and gave a little sigh, then turned towards Lily again.
"Nah, it's alright. I've been hit harder, and I've been thrown into deeper lakes." Nevertheless, his sopping form didn't look very happy. He moved his hands behind his back and lifted Nel away, just in time to hear Az make a snide comment. He smiled a little mean-spiritedly and plopped Nel onto the Drakii's shoulders.
"I believe this is yours," he grunted, before drying himself off with his cloak and refastening it about his shoulders. He'd caught the bit about the human city before he was underwater. He could only see this ending badly, but it was his duty to follow. He pulled his socks and shoes back on, and lifted his sword to his shoulder.
"Alright, if we're going, let's go. I don't want to be caught in the woods after sundown."
"Hee-hee!" Nel giggled as Darin passed her off to the Drakii. "You think so? Yay! Nel will call it Tackle-Tag, and we can all play it together!" The lively spirit fidgeted a bit as she spoke, then dropped to the ground. Azha was a bit on the uncomfortably spiky side, a fact Nel didn't spend much time thinking about, and thus did not realize was unusual in the least. Trotting over to the Dinlander once more, she looked intently up at him, as though trying to read his thoughts or some such. Her actual intent might soon be realized as the water soaking the mercenary's clothes began to evaporate swiftly. The Velocity Manipulator had warped the natural chemical order to speed up the evaporation process, thereby causing the sellsword to dry out within a few minutes of intense staring. Finally, Nel stopped, and, grinning, bounced up into the air and plopped down gently on Darin's back once more, grinning cheerfully. It seemed that his offhand comment about revering Magispirits as Gods had caused Nel to immediately decide that "Arin" was her new best friend/pony.
"Nel is sorry about making you go splash!" The enthusiastic spirit said breezily in what was apparently supposed to be a sort of apology. It seemed that she had taken his passing her off as some sort of indicator that she was too heavy, however, as she suddenly seemed nigh weightless. The cause of this was that she was manipulating the speed at which gravity pulled her down to be close to zero, causing her weight to drop significantly. At most, it was like having a small, bouncing pillow strapped to the Dinlander's back. Nel was quite comfortable in her little perch, as the sellsword's thick clothing gave her an easy handhold, allowing her to hang onto him quite easily, while also providing her with a comfortable amount of padding to cling to.
"We're gonna have an adventure? Nel likes adventures! Let's go, let's go! Go, Arin~, go!" She declared in her usual sing-song voice, clearly ecstatic at the prospect of some fun.
Waterlily sighed. Nel was proving to be much more active than she had thought. She glanced over the group briefly, then shook her head. "Well...I'm not trying to rush or take control...I mean, if anyone wants to wait and see if others come...or if we want to move on...I'm only offering suggestions..." She glanced briefly at Darin, covered in water, then to the young magisprit on the Drakii's shoulders. "Honestly, Nel; please try not to make so much noise! Do you want to bring humans here?"
Still, her energetic behavior had given her a reason to look at the male again. But she quickly diverted her attention. "Umm...if you'd like...it'd be easy enough for me to get the water off of you...water magisprit, you know..." After all, they were going to be traveling together; they needed to know they could help each other out, right? Even if it was something small, it was a start. Chances were things were going to get much more difficult, and they were going to need help even more then. Chances were, they'd be needing healing, and that was her one area of expertise. Anyway, he didn't seem too happy about it. But then Nel was making the water evaporate quickly, and so her offer was pretty much useless now. Either way, she had offered.
"You should ask before using powers on people, even if it is to help people out, Nel. It's more polite. Anyway, I'm just happy there's more than just me and Nel traveling like this. A pair of magisprit wouldn't get far on their own..."
'Oh boy. "Tackle-Tag". My back already looks forward to it.'
Darin smiled tiredly at Nel when she spoke, then stared blankly back at her as Nel did... Whatever it was she was trying to do. Read his mind or something? Could magispirits do that? He certainly hoped they couldn't... Otherwise this adventure could get interesting fast. And not just because of the split personality currently lurking in the back of his mind, mostly because of the host of unwholesome thoughts and inner monologues that were running through it.
As the swordsman desperately tried to shield his thoughts from those around him, struck by a sudden and unnecessary burst of paranoia, Darin noticed his clothes were drying. And much quicker than they should have been, at that. How interesting. Then, suddenly, she was gone again. Instead, it felt as though someone had tied a pillow to his back. A pillow with a voice that sounded mysteriously like -- 'Ah.'
"No, no, it's fine, just... Try and warn me next time, okay, Nel?" Darin said, attempting to sound sweet and fatherly and forgiving and failing on all accounts. He ambled away from the Drakii, who made him uneasy, and went to stand by Lily, just as she started to speak. She mentioned her gratitude for having traveling companions, and Darin smiled softly, placing a hand on the magispirit's shoulder. "Hey," he said breezily, "you'd do fine if you stayed hidden. But now that you've got me around, you could easily run all the way around the world with a sign around your neck that said 'I'm a Magispirit!' and nobody would touch you."
He smiled a bit wider. "Just do me a favor and don't wander off, kay? I can't guarantee your safety if I don't know where you are."
Az Stuck her tongue out at Darin when he dumped Nel on her back but the little girl quickly hopped off her back after discovering her shoulder horns. The girl went back to Darin, declaring that from now on the game would be called tackle tag. Azha grinned, Darin was pretty clearly not a natural mother.
"Have fun with that game, " She pointed to her shoulders, " Shoulder horns, instant protection from tackled tag." Also instant protection from hugs, which kind of sucked... Not that she wanted a hug from Darin. She didn't. He was obnoxious, unmotherly, and human-like. But hey, if there was a cute Drakii guy along the route...
Az shook her head, if there was a cute Drakii guy along the route her first priority wouldn't be to flirt. It would be to tell him the plan, and then maybe flirt a bit. She smiled mischievously as she noticed that Darin had edged away from her. Perhaps he was starting to get the message...
She raised her eyebrows when he spouted off the cheesy line about protecting the water lily. Well, well, well... The "god" and her disciple hmmm? It was fine by her, if those two like each other she was all for it. Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun with them.
After Darin's line about "nobody will touch you" Az let out an obviously fake cough and muttered, "Nobody but him."
Waterlily glanced at the hand at her shoulder, gave him a brief sile, then looked up at Nel. "I'm sure that much is true; I already wear that sign, anyway. What human has blue hair?" She shook her head, glancing back down at the ground. She glanced at Az as she coughed, and it was pretty much obvious that she didn't really need to cough. While she couldn't hear her muttering, she assumed it was about her, or the fact that Darin had moved closer to her. Either way, she wasn't going to let it bother her.
"Nel's more likely to run off; trying to find more playmates, or play tag...or tackle-tag, I guess..." She looked back to Az. Perhaps instant protection from tackle-tag, but not so much from wind-tag, if Nel ever learned that one. Maybe she'd teach it to her later. She glanced around the group again, allowing herself to only briefly smile at darin and Nel again, before looking towards the village. "Well...let's go, then. We certainly aren't going to learn anything by sitting here...or get anywhere..." And they certainly weren't going to accomplish their mission by staying in Nel's forest.
She paused, though, realizing that someone was missing. "...Where did our elven friend go? Marielle?"
Waterlily frowned at the tunic he pulled from his pack. The clothing that would help her blend in was just so...restraining. Magisprits were free spirits, bound only by their elements, and their Mother Magisprit. Such clothing got caught in the tight trees of the forest, and restricted movement in the water, especially when she wanted to dance. But, she supposed, it was a good idea. She glanced at Nel, and nodded to her. "And her? Her hair color isn't exactly normal, and her clothing might make her look like a noble's child." She reluctantly pulled the tunic on over her top, frowning irritably at the cap as she did. She made sure most of her hair was stuffed into the back of the tunic; it was too long to pull into the cap.
She glanced around, then shrugged and started walking. "..You don't think the humans there would suspect too much...would they? I mean...even if I wasn't a magisprit, a drakii, an elf, a dinlander, a child, and a human would make for an odd traveling group, wouldn't it? It is a rather small village...for a human home, anyway. A magisprit family would never get that big..." She shuddered at the thought. Not only would there be humans there, but so many of them! She glanced down at her clothing, noting how much it would have clashed with her usual theme of blue.
"...Can't we just get this over with...this is too far from home...and too much adventure for me...all at once..."
Aaren paused, looking curiously over the footprint he had found. He assumed it was a magisprit; who else walked around in the middle of the woods barefoot? Surely they weren't far now. It didn't seem so old. He glance around briefly, then back to his most recent traveling companion. "Looks like a magisprit to me...what do you think?" If it was, then they might already be so close to their objective. Granted, he had no way of knowing if it was a water magisprit, or plant, or animal, or any of the various types.
But at least he had found the trail. And that led them closer to the death of a magisprit. He was an experienced fighter, but had never once been hunting for magisprits before. But his elf companion had said she had killed a Mother Magisprit before; and they were much more powerful than the other magisprits. So hunting down an ordinary magisprit must be nothing to her, he figured. "Let's get this over with...so we can move on to the next one..."
"Nel has a solution!" The chipper Magispirit piped up. "Nel's power can do all sorts of awesome things! Watch! Watch!" She declared, and, brushing a hand through her hair, caused something very bizarre to occur. In an instant, her hair seemed to change colors, cycling down through green and yellow until it settled in a perfectly normal dirty blonde color. Grinning broadly, she looked at her new friends as though expecting them to praise her. She didn't know how she could do half the things she could do, but it didn't stop her from doing some of them.
In reality, what the Velocity Manipulator had done was alter the speed at which light reflecting off of her hair oscillated up and down, causing the wavelength to become longer and longer, thereby changing the predominant color of the light to instead be a much more normal color than her blue tresses normally were. That, at least, solved one of their problems.
"Mm? Nel?" With her weight having been reduced so significantly, Darin had almost completely forgotten her existence. Now, though, he remembered that there was an air Magispirit perched on his shoulders, which was a rather difficult place to hide someone. "Well, I don't have another spare hat and tunic..." He scratched his chin, his fingers absently finding their way to the scar on his face. A few moments passed in silence as the low breeze blew across the field.
"Oh, I've got it." Darin grinned at his own creativity. He quickly removed his backpack and cloak and laid them on the ground, then promptly lifted Nel off of the ground and plopped her on the cloak for a second. He shifted some of the stuff in his backpack and then unceremoniously gathered the air Magispirit's clothes about her and stuffed her into the backpack, leaving her head and neck poking out of the opening while her torso and legs, stuck in the fetal position, were hidden inside. He lifted the lighter pack to his back and promptly shouldered it, then fastened his cloak about his shoulders, still smiling at his thought process.
"This is about the most brilliant thing I've ever done in my life; thank the gods my pack is fairly spacious," Darik intoned. He lowered his voice and cast his eyes at Marielle briefly before looking back to Lily. "That and this arrangement will keep the small ones quiet -"
Footsteps on the path. Darik's ear perked up. Low voices. "Let's get this over with..." one of them said, or something like that. Darik removed his pack and left it next to Lily, giving her a serious look.
"Stay here. Keep an eye on the others. Everyone else, come on." With that said, Darik lifted his sword to his shoulder and made his way back onto the path, heading for the source of the voices. He eventually wandered across them - a man and a girl, an elf. Darik grimaced inwardly. He hated fighting elves; they were so goddamn quick. Outwardly, he looked like he was just another traveler.
"Hail, gentleman, lady. Stopping to rest for a spell?" Darik's voice held no incredulity, but his eyes were sharp, and he was looking for a threat. He was really, really hoping he didn't find one.
Waterlily paused when Darin said to stay there. He seemed to be much more serious. She knelt down to the young air mahgisprit, looking over her hair curiously. Still, she gave Nel a calm, and hopefully reassuring, smile. "That's a neat trick, Nel. Now no one will know the difference." She glanced to where Darin and Marielle had gone, biting her lip worriedly, but then put on a much calmer face to look back at Nel. "How about we play another game? You and I will hide here somewhere, and see if any of the others can find us. Hide-and-go-seek, okay?" She suggested. This way, they'd be hidden if an enemy did come by, but that she could reveal herself when their group came back.
"But you have to be quiet, and try not to show yourself until I say so, okay? If they don't find us, I'll let you know so we can tell them they've lost the game. If they find you, though, they win. Doesn't that sound like fun, Nel?"
"A game sounds fun," Nel said cheerfully. "But Nel is in a bag right now. Maybe Nel can hide here?" Gesturing downward, she pointed out the sack she now occupied. She had been set down a bit behind a few bushes, and with her face turned rearward, so she couldn't see what was going on. She could, however, hear the people who had just started talking. They said strange things which Nel didn't exactly understand, but something about them told her that they weren't nice people. Their voices, perhaps. Either way, she didn't like the sound of whoever had just showed up, and so decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if she just stayed down for the time being. Dropping her head down halfway into the bag, she peered nervously over the rim of it. They hadn't seemed to have noticed her due to the broad frame of Darin blocking her from view as he entered the path, so it looked like she was safe for now...
