NightBlaze's Story

Fagrim marched through the underbrush of the Dark Woods. He leaned on his staff, heaving every now and then from the exertion of the hike. Two companions trailed behind the dwarf. One was a skeletal wolf that wandered to and fro from tree to tree, bones rattling as it prowled, and the other was a tall silent figure clad in body armor. The armored man carried a cudgel at his hip, and he kept a careful watch on the surrounding woods through the tinted lens of a black biker helmet.

Bloop-5 whirred slowly along, eyes not glowing as bright as they once did.

Alastor McNibmet lifted his head as the newcomer appeared.

Eh?! This place hasn't seen a visitor in years! What d'ye say there, traveler?

he squawked.

Mabus Thumbnail manifests in the Dark Woods, assuming a physical form which is visible and recognizably familiar to others. From his appearance, it was obvious that he was a Dark Elf of some kind. He had pale blue, almost gray skin, pointy ears, long wavey jet black hair and shiny golden eyes which seemed to reflect any light in the dark forest. As he manifested out of thin air, appearing in the center of a magical faery ring in an open clearing in the Dark Woods, he heard a voice. Alastor McNibmet lifted his head up to see Mabus Thumbnail stepping forward out of the darkness and into the woods. The individual addressed him in the universal common language, which Mabus spoke fluently. "Hello there, stranger." Mabus answered, acknowledging Alastor's presence in the clearing. "I am Mabus, what's your name?" He asked curiously, amused that Alastor had addressed him casually without any hesitation or fear despite seeing the dark elf magically appear out of nowhere right in front of him.

Alastor McNibmet chuckled at the formal reply.

Oh, I'm Alastor McNibmet, yer best inventor in all of Aslund!

he boasted before turning back to the tinker-toy-table before him.

Mabus listened as Alastor introduced himself before going back to work, tinkering with one of his latest inventions. Mabus glanced down at the work bench, his golden eyes shimmering and shining from the light reflected off of Alastor's tool set. It was late at night, and Mabus wondered why someone like Alastor McNibmet was out in the middle of the Dark Woods by himself at this hour. "A great inventor? Out here in the forest this late at night? What are you inventing?" Mabus inquired, curiously intrigued with the socially awkward human being who had addressed him, and who didn't even seem to be alarmed by the dark elf's sudden presence, despite Mabus' drastically different skin tone and menacing physical appearance as his pointed ears perked up at the inventor's words.

Bloop-5 had never been in the presence of a being such as Mabus. The small machine gently whirred as it rose to almost-eye-level with Mabus, beginning it's path in a circumference to map width on it's way to height.

Alastor McNibmet was focused on his invention and was either too busy to answer Mabus Thumbnail at that moment or had simply not heard him speaking over the sound of his own clambering and tinkering. Mabus sometimes forgot that humans couldn't hear as well as elves, and was about to repeat himself more loudly when all of a sudden, Bloop-5 came to life and started hovering off the work table right in front of him, causing Mabus to forget what he was about to say as he turned his attention instead on the floating octopus-like machine as it whirred in mid-air, rising to almost-eye-level with the druidic dark elf. Mabus' pointy ears flickered slightly with curiosity, as if having a mind of their own which sometimes betrayed his feelings and emotions. It was obvious that Bloop-5 had caught him by surprise, as Mabus had not sensed another lifeform in the immediate vicinity so close to him. "Oh, well that's interesting. Hello there." Mabus said, still looking at Bloop-5, this time with more caution as he tried to determine whether the robotic octopus was a threat or not.

His golden eyes twinkled briefly, reflecting the light from the inventor's headlamp. Mabus appeared almost-pitch-black at night, but the dim light was enough to betray just a hint of blue tincture to his otherwise shadowy skin. If not for his shining eyes, silver nails and thin gold spiderweb-like decorative jewelry, he might not have been noticeable at all in the Dark Woods, having almost no silhouette which could be observed visually in the shadows. Thumbnail was in his own element, and when he spoke, he bore perfectly white pointed teeth vaguely similar to a piranha's jaws. This only added to his menacing appearance as his wide nostrils flared at the sight of Bloop-5, his 5.8 foot tall slender frame becoming slightly more tense while he glanced down at the seated inventor before looking back up at the small jellyfish-like machine that was whirring in front of him. His pointy ears were standing upright now as Mabus the Darkelf placed his right hand into his matte black robe, keeping his left hand down at his side. He had short but sharp silver nails on his left hand, which was just as dark as his face. But despite his angry expression, Mabus actually wasn't angry either. He just looked more phenotypically unfriendly and malicious, but really he was just startled and unnerved by the mysterious machine with the long spindley tentacles which he had originally mistaken for scrap metal, and was curious to know who or what this thing was.

Peter winces underneath his helmet again. Another headache, and he wasn't quite sure how he got here. He coughs once, and again presses his leather gloves against his metal temple. As he looks around, there are quite a lot of figures, both human and not quite human in various places in the trees. He stumbles through the dirt toward the three figures closest to him, his heavy metal boots pressing deep indentations in the earth. He gives a friendly "Howdy," to the figures, one of which looks like an... Octopus? The other two looked human enough, but as he got closer, he wasn't quite sure about one of them. He makes out pointed ears, and almost immediately asks, "Hey, Moon, is that you?" As he gets closer, though, he doesn't think so. They were dressed quite different.

He takes off his helmet in the hopes that maybe he'll be able to see better in the dark, but it doesn't help much. He says again, "Howdy, what are y'all doing here?"

Thumbnail stared at Bloop-5 for a moment, examining its structure while still keeping a bit of caution. After a moment, he withdrew his right hand from his black robe collar, holding a purple handkerchief. Thumbnail glanced at Bloop-5 with a bit of hesitation before moving his hand closer to it. He noticed that the machine was somewhat dirty and neglected, its strange small red eyes glowing rather dim, so Mabus used his purple handkerchief to wipe the octopus-like robot's face, polishing its metallic exterior in hopes that it might be able to see him better, and perhaps deem the Darkelf as less of a threat.

That wasn't to say there weren't hidden dangers in the forest. As he put away his handkerchief, Thumbnail's dark vision and elven senses started to kick in. He started to sense a powerful presence in the Dark Woods, one of great size and a familiar scent. "Dragons" he whispered to himself, becoming more aware of his surroundings in the dark. But there was something else closing in on his position. Thumbnail's pointy ears perked up as Peter coughed. Humans were always easy to detect, for even the stealthy ones were loud and smelled funny to elves. Thumbnail was able to detect him coming from a mile away, and could see Peter R. Sheffield approaching even in the dead of night. Thumbnail's golden eyes shimmered again briefly as Bloop-5 scanned over them, and he glanced down at the inventor again before peering into the Dark Woods.

Peter's heavy boots made quite a ruckus to the Darkelf as he approached the scene, greeting them from the darkness. Thumbnail stood there motionlessly as the man approached the clearing before stopping to remove his helmet. "Hello there," Mabus said calmly while looking directly at the man in the heavy armour. It was obvious that Peter couldn't see him very well in the dark, but Thumbnail's voice alone was enough to inform the stranger that he was not this Moon character. Mabus examined Peter's metal suit for a moment, but said nothing as he looked around, still sensing another hidden presence in the immediate area. The Darkelf was very keen and aware of the hidden dangers in the darkness, even if nobody else could feel it.

At that moment, Peter R. Sheffield spoke again. "Howdy, what are y'all doing here?" he asked. It seemed like a legitimate question to most people. "I should be asking you the same," Mabus answered. After all, Mabus was a Darkelf, and the Dark Woods were as natural to him as a fish in water. If anyone was out of their element, it was the strange inventor and the man in the metal suit. What were humans doing this deep in the Dark Woods at this hour of the night? Mabus found that to be quite suspicious and strange. After a moment, Thumbnail reached back into his black robe and pulled out a small glass vile with a cork in it, containing a strange glowing blue liquid which appeared to be some kind of elixir.

A soft wind blew through , barely offering cool for the sweat in the dank of the dark woods.

Peter glances up. He takes a deep breath, savoring the fresh air, before it passes.
He glances around, barely taking in his surroundings as he does an unsteady circle, trying look at all around him.
He was just present in the moment, wasn't he? What was going on? Why didn't anything happen? What did just happen?
His mind races, trying to gather thoughts.
It's... It's like every time something happens, I wake up, but between then...
The thought is lost as he glances down to his hands, aware they are now shaking, and sees that he's holding his pistol in his gloved fingers. He hastily holsters the gun, unsteadily handling the straps on the holster as he does so. He's gasping for breath, and feels suddenly ill.
He falls to his knees, breathing shakily and quickly before falling onto his side and lying there.
I'm just... tired...
His vision dims as he slips into an unsteady sleep, the breeze gracing his face as it picks up again, allowing a ghost of a smile to cross his face before he blinks into the abyss.

Bloop-5 whirred and shifted quickly into the shadows of a higher limb, to continue observing those below. One of the beings, maybe people - Bloop didn't get a true inspection, held a blue vial.

A cool breeze swept through - the other fell to their knees. Something seemed amiss in these parts. Was it the air? Bloop didn't have feelings or thought upon initial programming, but if the little mechanical thing did it would think that it must be something in the air.