Al'Kaera's Story

After leaving camp, Al'Kaera's group had traveled to Midton, deep through the Vertgold Woods. With Nachytsm as a guardian and Ana as a guide, Al'Kaera felt safe enough walking with his wife, holding her hand firmly as she held onto the pommel of Abbil with her other hand. Dejah had lent the horse to Maree, and Abbil was very gentle with his new rider.

The man was still deep in thought, his eyes the dull gray they had been since he arrived on Terra. The heavy burdens places upon him only seemed to grow, despite- or perhaps because of- all that he had lost. He was almost lost on how to proceed. Only the dire quest they took up allowed him to retain his bearings.

He had spoken privately to a few of his people before they left. Jarlas, in particular, got a stern talking to, with a promise for more later. Apparently the man had been on Terra for months before Al'Kaera and company arrived. He wondered how many others of his people might be lost in these lands.

And then there was the curious Ana. She had clearly taken a liking to Nachytsm, and had some interesting knowledge of his preferences and the like. It was almost as if she had known him in the past, but she was not anyone Al'Kaera recognized- and he had a fairly good memory for Elves. He hadn't managed to speak with her, particularly, with her ahead of the group guiding them along. He almost felt that she was avoiding him.

Perhaps he was just superstitious. In a rare moment, he allows himself a smile and speaks in a low tone to Maree about the natural smells and sounds of the forest around them, and describes to her some of the more interesting foliage. While she may have wandered these woods for aeons for all he knew, they were new to him.

Maree stared blindly ahead. Nothing but black filled her vision. All her other senses were heightened to compensate for her loss of vision. Each foot step, every brush against a tree, even her hair shifting against her shoulders were all sounds she could hear distinctly. It was almost a wonder how she wasn't able to hear Al'Kaera's heart beating in his chest. A heart that she could hear though was Abbil's.

"Tell me a story of Nalinathris, Am Mathanuo. Tell me about when you were younger," Maree said to Al'Kaera. While they were extraordinary lovers and their first meeting seemed Fated, Maree did not know much of her husband. Knowing the path that she had chosen to take, Maree wanted to learn all that she could of the elf she loved.

She let go of his hand and touched his cheek. Her face did not turn toward his but the smile on her face was bright, warm, and beautiful. How tragic it was to see Maree is such a state; a ghost of her former self.

Meanwhile at the head of the group, Anaree was guiding them toward a place close to her heart, Valhaven. It had been the home she grew up in. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was breaking a rule bringing them here. But, she had to question herself, if Molko had taken them there first then what was the harm in her taking them there? So maybe she wasn't breaking a rule.

Though there was a very strict rule her father had set for her that she was breaking. Anaree sighed. She never understood why it was that her father was so set against Anaree having feelings for Nachytsm. He was kind and gentle. The man was also a brute with no intelligence to him at all, but unlike others, Anaree saw a potential in him. And he could be funny when he wasn't even trying.

Anaree laughed at a memory and her eyes searched around for the big, ugly, brute.

Nachytsm was prowling around the perimeter of their advance. He could always tell where Al'Kaera was, and, by virtue of his bond to Maree, he could tell where she was as well. Such was the nature of his bonding to the Ranger.

He was frustrated by the constant sensation of another body nearby. While he could sense life, in a minor sense, it was usually not very pervasive. For some reason, Ana was always there. He knew where she was, and that confused him. He wouldn't say anything about it, of course. Why would he need to?

At that particular moment in the march, his patrol was taking him closer to Ana at the front of the pack. He would be easily heard, crashing through the undergrowth as he was.

He was shocked to see Ana practically staring at him, a laugh on her face, when he finally became visible. He looks back at her for a moment before he mumbles to himself and keeps walking, so as to not disrupt the natural progression of the march. Al'Kaera was always teaching him the virtues of a steady progression. Unfortunately, in this case, that meant it would bring him close to the perplexing woman.

He almost felt like that smile was meant for him.

Looking up to his wife, Al'Kaera's eyes brighten somewhat. While it pained him to see her so, she was still radiant, beautiful. So strong, as well, he knew. That she maintained her grace, even with all that she bore in her now, all the pain and evil...

His expression dims slightly. The evil. He could not forget that would be within her until they acted to rid her of it. As a result, he knew he would have to be cautious in revealing more to her than he already had.

A light hearted story would suffice. "Ah," he says, his tone warm and soft. "I will tell you of the first time I escaped from the Conclave," he says. His eyes brighten again just at the thought; the story he had in mind was long, but would keep her entertained. He had managed to find himself all the way to Falashnalan, after all.

"Young Nalinathrian nobles are confined to the Conclave, that they cannot escape. We, like our Falashnali cousins, are oft stricken with wanderlust. Unlike them, we lived in somewhat more dangerous locales. So it was that, like my father, I found a means to escape from the Capital. It all started one morning..." he goes on, regaling her with the tale. It was a pleasant distraction.

"Nachytsm," Anaree said as he came near as a way of greeting the man. The girl tried to dampen her smile biting down on her lip. It wasn't helping really. It was nice to be near Nachytsm without her father leering at her. Hearing her mother's laugh made the atmosphere around them all the more delightful. For that small moment, they were a happy family again. Anaree could have cried it was such a beautiful moment for her.

However, that was broken by the sound of wings in the trees. Hundreds of wings.

"Oh no," Anaree said as she stopped in her tracks. She froze and looked around with wild eyes. The girl knew they would come for her eventually. She had almost made it out of the forest without a single peep! Literally!

"Nachytsm, don't eat them!" Anaree managed to say aloud before a swarm of birds from the forest came flying out of the trees. Many of them landed on Anaree, who had her arms outstretched like long branches of a tree. They covered her head, shoulders, shirt if they could cling well enough. There wasn't room enough for all of them. Several more birds started to settle onto Nachytsm, too.

Their songs filled the air.

Maree tilted her head curiously. It seemed that her husband's tale was broken by the sounds of birds. It was chaos for Maree's ears. "What is happening, my love. Why are there so many birds?" she asked Al'Kaera. The horse stopped walking forward and was soon burdened with birds perching on its body too.

None of them touched Maree.

The hulking man didn't look up at Ana when she said his name. He grunts in reply, instead. When he does look over, he regrets it; she was still looking at him, looking so damned happy. It didn't make sense to Nachytsm. People just weren't happy around him.

He might've been compelled to react in some way, before the young woman cries out that he shouldn't eat 'them.' He wasn't sure what she was talking about. He wasn't even hungry. His thoughts are broken by a veritable swarm of birds enveloping them all.

Nachytsm goes still as a statue. They were on him. That was abnormal; most beasts could not stand his tainted presence. Nel was a rare exception. And speaking of, Nel was outraged. Jumping out of his armor, she clucks and hollers and chases the birds off of him.

The racket was almost deafening, even to Nachytsm.

Al'Kaera had been nearing one of the more interesting parts of his story when the birds came. "... I had said to the man, 'Of course I'm not an Elf, I'm a Fey.' He didn't believe me at first, but I-" the shrill bird calls cut him off. Looking into the sky, he sees the mass of fowl descending upon them. For a moment he thought it was some dark purpose, but there was no malice in these birds. No, if anything, he detected a sense of joy.

"I'm... not sure," he says to Maree. The birds were perching on him, the horse, trees... even Nachytsm. Not Maree, though, he realizes with a pang of sorrow. Speaking in low tones to the birds, he makes them leave him and Maree's steed alone; he seldom used the gift, but as an Elf Lord it was a language he had to learn. He noticed the large concentration of birds on Ana, and so leads Maree's mount that way.

"Lady Ana," he calls out to her. "What is going on?" Nachytsm seemed to be paralyzed with fear, with his pet chicken valiantly defending him from the other avians.

"No, no, no, no, no! Stop that! Get off," Anaree said as she waggled her arms around. The birds flew up off of her and then descended again onto the girl seconds later.

"I said get off!" The girl whined. A few birds left her and settled into the trees instead. Anaree sighed in relief and started to remove more of the birds. She relocated several by directly implanting them into trees. Once she was free of the critters, Anaree began to help Nachytsm and Nel, more so Nel. That poor chicken was in an uproar.

"Everything is fine!" Anaree called out to Aderas. "I just ... there's this thing were animals really like me! Get off of him!" The elven young lady swatted away a few birds that had perched on Nachytsm's head. Of course that made her push herself up against him and practically climb up his body. A heavy blush settled onto her cheeks. There was a strange dizzy feeling that accompanied the blush too.

When Anaree made eye contact with Nachytsm she made this awkward and strange, nervous, sound. She promptly came away from Nachytsm and turned toward Aderas, who was now very close to her and the wonderful brute.

"They should leave us alone now. Sorry," Anaree mumbled beneath her breath as she dropped her eyes.

She kicked a rock and it turned over in the dirt.

Nachytsm remained paralyzed by the birds, while Nelnethanya chased them away. He was almost in the clear until Anaree got to him. Finding footholds in his leggings, she had climbed up him to swat the three birds off the top of his head. He blinks, then, looking down at her. His arm was trembling slightly, he realized after a moment of eye contact. Why was that?

And then her cheeks turned red. He opens his mouth for a second to say something- he wasn't sure what, just something to make her go away- but she extricated herself from him before he had a chance to. He almost grabbed her, as if she was falling, but he stopped himself. He hoped Al'Kaera didn't notice his slight rumblings, for some reason. He suddenly felt very thirsty.

Nel's feathers were ruffled, as she struts about on Nachytsm's shoulders, wings spread out as if daring the birds to come back.

Al'Kaera bore an expression of amusement as he watches the young woman jumping about to rid herself and Nachytsm of the birds. An experienced man, he was noticing many of the more (or much less) subtle signs of attraction between the woman and his bodyguard.

He wondered, idly, if that was her reason for requesting to join them. Not that he doubted her moral fortitude- he was certain that her conviction to help his wife was genuine, for a reason he could not quite place- but there was clearly something going on there.

Brutish though he was, Al'Kaera knew Nachytsm was not immune to emotion. He locked it away, was afraid of it yes, but he had let it out before. Not since his 'wife' died, however. It had been a great many years since then, with that said...

Just as he had done before, Al'Kaera felt he would need to talk to the young woman about his Bodyguard. Explain his situation... what she was getting herself into. He would have to give her 'The Talk.'

He wondered idly why he thought of it like that.

Turning to Maree, he smiles somewhat. "I think those must have been Lovebirds," he says, a joke on the obviously flustered pair ahead of them.

A rooster crowed in the background. They were not far from breaking the treeline and walking onto Valhaven land.

Anaree's blush deepened as she heard what Aderas said. He would not be laughing if he knew who she was, that was for sure. Anaree had an surge of rebellious feelings but those died down quickly. She loved her father, but she also loved Nachytsm, or at least she thought she did. Anaree was still confused as to what her feelings for Nachytsm truly where. He was nothing like her father and she was nothing like her mother, so she couldn't base a relationship off of the example of her parents. It was all confusing in the end.

"Tell me about Nelnethanya," Anaree said as she lead them to the treeline. She knew that Nachytsm would enjoy talking about Nel. Sometimes he opened up to her, but then other times he just closed himself off. It was agonizingly annoying but Anaree was very patient.

"Lovebirds," Maree asked. Her face turned toward Aderas but her eyes missed her target. They searched blindly around for him. Maree's hands tightened around the pommel of the saddle. She was a strong willed woman but when the love of her life was taken away from her, even just the sight of him ... it was painful.

"Who is this girl that treats Nachytsm so?"

Nachytsm had remained paralyzed for a few moments longer, until the march continued. He had forgotten about his patrol. Nel was still strutting about, and he decided to try and calm her down, petting her beak as gently as he possibly could. The chicken calmed significantly after a while, climbing back into his armor, though her head shoots out and peers towards the tree line at the distant sound of a crowing cock.

Then, the woman, who Nachytsm had almost blissfully forgotten about for a moment, was talking to him again, asking about Nel. He coughs a little bit. "My pet," he says as a response, still idly rubbing her beak. He thought she pronounced her name perfectly. "Means Death," he then adds, charmingly. For it was true; Nelnethanya was the Nalinathrian word for 'Death.' Nachytsm was proud of having named her himself, and Nel seemed quite content with the name as well.

Beyond that, he couldn't fathom what the girl would want to know, so he hoped he might have given her what she wanted.

Al'Kaera watches Nachytsm and Ana carry on ahead, before he takes Maree by the hand and pats her steed, urging it on slowly. The call of a rooster seemed oddly out of place for the woods, he realized, and that set him on edge slightly. First all those birds after Ana, and now poultry?

He looks up at Maree when she echoes his word. "Ah," he says, feeling somewhat ashamed of himself. He raises a hand to touch her cheek and gently guide her to face him. He would show her better affection when she no longer rode, but having her face him, their exhalations mingling briefly in the space between their lost gaze, was for the moment all they could share.

"I do not know, in truth," he says to her. "She introduced herself as Ana. She has seemed very forthright with helping us, and seems... very familiar. I think she may be a survivor from my homeland. Perhaps an admirer," he muses. "Though her purpose.. I cannot fathom it."

Anaree knew all about Nel. She had just hoped that Nachytsm would have volunteered more information. She liked listening to him talk.

"And how did you find such a clever bird? I've never met a chicken that was so intelligent in my entire life," Anaree said, flattering both Nel and Nachytsm. As she listened to whatever response she was able to get out of Nachytsm, Anaree broke through the line of trees.

The elven girl stopped dead in her tracks and the trace of a smile that had been on her face disappeared. Valhaven. It was a wide expanse of flat land. A large stone house was connected to a tower. The tower had once been a silo but it had been converted for a war. Anaree didn't remember which war it had been, or its significance.

There was a dead vegetable garden that spanned across a good portion of the land. A grape vine had taken over half of the house since it was left uncontrolled. Anaree's mouth watered. She remembered how wonderfully delicious the grapes were. The bare bones of a barn was left. At the moment it would be filled to the brim with old, useless, weaponry.

A small brook cut its way across Valhaven a few yards away from where Anaree stood.

"Valhaven," Anaree said to Nachytsm, and the others who probably had caught up to her by then. "Home away from home," the girl muttered before she walked toward the brook. Molko and Glixenheimer had built a bridge over it for Aderas's growing children, but that was far into the future. They would have to make do for now.

Maree stared out over Valhaven and her brows knit together tightly. She dismounted herself, and almost fell in the process. She had gotten down off the horse on the opposite side of Al'Kaera, and it was on purpose.

Not having said a single word, Maree took off at a run toward Valhaven.


In the distance, perched inside the barn, there was a pale figure. It watched as a group of people broke through the woods. Morana focused in on the group with her keen vision. A particular interest settled onto the golden-haired woman. When that woman began to run, Morana swooped down from her perch and landed lightly on her feet.

She walked calmly towards them all.

"Was hungry," Nachytsm answers honestly, shuffling his feet as he walks. "Nel was brave." He pets the bird affectionately as he walks. He still didn't know what to think of all of this. The keen interest in Nel, the... strange behavior to himself. His gut churning oddities regarding her. It was all just baffling.

He was spared further conversation by her stopping at the edge of a clearing, in which there lay an old fortress. "Valhaven," she said. He grunts, looking around. It was desolate, dead. Suited him fine, but he doubted Al'Kaera would be over fond of it.

When Maree bolts past him, his awkward demeanor was gone. Something was awry, for the blind woman to be charging ahead like that. And then Nachytsm saw the winged creature ahead, which Maree seemed to be running towards.

What was with all the winged creatures in this world? First the creepy sex-switching God thing, then all the damn birds, and now this. Not willing to let Al'Kaera's wife run alone, Nachytsm breaks from Ana's side and charges after her, keeping a ready eye on the steadily approaching woman.

Al'Kaera took Maree's running away less well than Nachytsm. "Maree," he cries out, before following after her and Nachytsm.

He almost didn't notice the approaching figure, so focused was he on making sure his wife was alright. She was after all blind, and could hurt herself severely if she fell. when he did notice her, though, it was with mixed foreboding and relief. There had been someone waiting here, perhaps for them, and that was worrisome.

At the same time, she did not look the sort to cause them any trouble. His experience of Angelic beings spoke only of good. But, he had been wrong about first impressions in the past...

He had blitzed past Ana on his way to chase Maree. An adept pathfinder, he would likely catch up to her swiftly.

A feather.
A white feather that swayed gently back and forth in the breeze.
It lazily trailed down toward the earth.

Morana saw it first and took stance. Mana from the earth built around her and shape into the form of an ornate recurve bow. An arrow developed next. The runes marked on Morana's armor shined with ethereal light as she soaked up the natural energy of the earth beneath her feet.

Maree was directly in the line of sight, still running toward the feather. At first it had seemed that she was running to the other one-winged woman, but when the feather came into everyone's view, it was now obvious that she was not. Maree did not even know there was another woman, nor that she was aiming an enchanted arrow directly at her heart.

The first person to reach Maree was Anaree. She outstripped her father in speed in an impressive display. Anaree tackled her mother to the ground and shielded her body over Maree's. She closed her eyes, knowing that her life could possibly end soon. A tear rolled from Anaree's eye.

The enchanted arrow flew through the air, trailing motes of mana behind it, aimed for Nachytsm's center mass.

It was good that Nachytsm kept his eye on the woman. She was clearly hostile, summoning into existence both bow and arrow. He was trailing behind Maree, and he was prepared to throw himself at her if need be.

That turned out not to be necessary. The woman was aiming at him, and soon the bolt flies through the air. Realizing in horror that Nel was still in his armor, he scoops her out and throws her into the air. She would be able to flutter to the ground, unharmed, though damned if she wasn't indignant about it.

Nachytsm was less fine. The dull 'thshlk' of the enchanted arrow penetrating his armor, then his body, was his most immediate concern. Grunting in pain, he glares at the woman. Better she shoot him than the weaker Elves around him. No, now was time for battle to be done, and that was something he could excel at.

Drawing the massive blade from his back, he glares at Morana, a dull red tinge coming to his eyes before he bellows a wordless challenge and charges at her. For his mass, he moved with incredible swiftness.

"Maree," Al'Kaera cries out, moments before Morana fires. Ana had tackled her to the ground, and Al'Kaera could only stall himself and draw his bow. He saw the feather, but he could not take time to pay it any mind. His love was in danger, and that was his first priority, even over the Feathers.

When the woman had fired, the bolt was aimed not at the vulnerable Maree and Ana, but at Nachytsm. Her mistake, he thinks. He knew from personal experience that fighting the man would be a long fought war. And with Al'Kaera there to assist him, this woman, this foul Naari, as she must be, would fall.

Fitting an arrow, he aims and fires once swiftly at the woman, before running a semi-circle around Maree and Ana. He couldn't risk running directly for them, lest the woman decide to turn her attention on him. Half-way to being well in front of them, he would ready another arrow.

It was a wordless battle that could only end in death, for the warparty or for Morana.

Maree clawed at the dirt beneath her fingers. Even with Anaree on top of her, the woman was still attempting to get the feather. It took a great deal of concentration for Anaree to keep her attention on her mother. It seemed that the winged-woman was out for Nachytsm which struck a pang of panic through Anaree.

When he was shot Anaree cried out as if she, too, was the one in pain.

Maree took that opportunity to pull herself out from underneath the body on top of her. She scrambled across the ground until she was on her feet once more. She could feel the feather. Anaree chased after Maree, who ran toward the floating feather blindly.

"Stop! Maree stop!" Anaree called out to her.

Morana's bow died and the mana reshaped itself into a sword. It was complete when he was near enough to parry his first attack. The creature was strong, just as strong as she remembered him. A hatred deep and dark shone in her eyes as she met his gaze. He had killed her and now revenge was hers, just as Naar had promised!

"You will die!" Morana exclaimed before she screamed in pain. Al'Kaera's arrow lodged itself into the meaty bone of her wing. It pinned her against the opened door of the barn behind her. Morana had no choice but to rip herself away from it, damaging her wing further while parrying each of Nachytsm's attacks with her sword.

So far Morana had lost the advantage but she fully intended to gain it back.