Setting
Though geographically speaking Drakken Ridge is far less of a formidable barrier than the Dragon Ridge Mountains to the west, Drakken Ridge's danger is characterized by its denizens rather than its geography. The countless caves and caverns that dot the rocky ridges serve as refuge for all manner of carnivorous entities that survived the time of the Fall. Ripe on a diet of voidlings, these animals have become as twisted in shape and form as the creatures they fed upon - and just as menacing.
No sapient races are known to make their home in Drakken Ridge, and in fact neither the indigenous tribes of the Painona Rainforest, nor the barbarian tribes of the Amar Plains are known to cross this stretch of land. Bleached bones are all that remain of those who have tried.
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"Do you see flowers!?" he bellowed toward Saitia. "No! But you see us, and we are animals!" Few animals- or rather, insects- ate at flesh as voraciously as the fly did. "Find water if you can! Wrap something around you! It will keep them out!"
Chaya fiddled with one of her coats, tossing it to Saitia. "Use this!" she called out to her. Her mind races. What if they could not find water? Or shelter? Or anything to outrun the flies?
What would happen if they got to them?
"Saitia! You can do magic?"
She channeled her focus and willed her magic into being, calling forth a cloud of stinging ice and cold. She hoped the flash frost would deter the insects.
Amuk'Ra glanced back at Saitia. "How much ice can you conjure? Enough to make a wall?" he asked her.
"Is ... everyone alright?" she asked wanly.
And then there was the music.
It was quiet at first, barely a faint hum in the back of the gathered trio's minds. A niggling sound that had no identifiable source. It seemed to come from within their own heads. It grew in volume, becoming more identifiable as music. It was an eerie melody, both mournfully beautiful and alarmingly alien all at once. Despite its strange nature, it would coax them towards a state of relaxation and calm. It was comforting. It would be so easy just to let themselves fall into its embrace, to ride upon the enchanting song like a wave and let it take them where'er it wished.
Amuk'Ra crossed his arms and frowned, as he always did. The flies clattered and splatted against the ice wall. "We must wait them out. Young lady, what is the extent of your ma-" he began, pausing to turn around.
Chaya did the same, having heard a source of music. She wasn't sure where it was, and as a result, she got onto her feet and began to spin, looking around. "Hello?" She turned to Saitia. "Are you the one doing that?"
He could either seek to join forces with the people down below, or he could simply perish once the flies found his scent. He had evaded death by the vicious insects once before, when he'd found water deep enough hide from them, but there was no such body of water nearby. So the choice was already quite clear. He had to establish contact with the poor souls in the cave.
The question now was, how?
The man was tall and thin, a pale face closed in a tattered, hooded cloak. His garb was similarly mangled, with chainmail and leather poking through the torn and frayed holes. In his hands were curved blades, wrapped in what appeared to be white bandages.
"Stranger," Archibald said, by way of greeting, before facing the party below. He observed silently, somberly, before turning back to the stranger.
"I intend to assist these people. You would achieve this goal with me, or prefer to remain up here?"
"I wonder what's at the back of that cave."
"Sir," Vorthis said in a quiet, solemn tone, "it is not only my intention to aid them, assuming I am able, but I also hope that they might be able to aid me as well. And if you don't mind, I would ask that you keep your voice down. there are many things in these lands that would make a meal of us both." He made a small gesture, indicating the vicious flies that still swarmed near the cave entrance in the distance. "If you've a plan to save us all, then please, enlighten me."
He said the last words with a slight frown. His right hand rested tensely on the hilt of his unkarta blade.
He crouched, then, reaching into his coat for a small leather satchel. With care, he shook it open, to reveal raw, bloody chunks of meat. Oddly, they didn't smell or attract flies, instead oozing blood and gristle.
"These have a binding spell on them," Archibald said, his tone much softer, "so that their scent does not attract the flies. I carry some with me for these occasions. The way to distract them from the party is to provide an enticing smell and an attractive target."
His grey, almost white irises settled on Vorthis, his expression solemn.
"I shall be the bait. Once the stench reaches them, and I run, they shall follow; a fresher kill, a more stable target. You shall move in my wake, and aid the adventurers."
He held out a hand, wrapped in tattered cloth, to Vorthis. "We shall see if we meet again."
"Wait a moment," he hissed in a low voice. "You seem to be forgetting something. They've sealed themselves away in a wall of solid ice. How the bloody devil do you expect me to break through that? Hack at it with my blade? I doubt that I shall have more than a few minutes to act before some other creature takes note and seeks a meal. The flies are dangerous, true. But there are many more things out in these wilds. The Ridge is not a place trifled with."
He gripped the hilt of the unkarta a bit tighter. Charging straight in wasn't much of a plan. But, to be honest, Vorthis didn't really have a plan of his own either. It irked him, and he was a little on edge because of it.
After some time had passed, Xanth JR. climbed out of the accidental self-made silhouette in the ground in an awkward and clumsy fashion as he whistled in admiration of gravity, and slumping against one of the roots, seemingly unharmed. He smacked one of his pointed ears for a few moments until a small pebble dislodged itself out the ear hole, before going on to say to himself; "That landing was greatly of the immensely uncomfortable kind in the ground, yes yes. Goodly thing it was not with the squashing of a something I had not known was to be of squashing."
He rummaged around in his ear to flick a few extra specks of dirt out and set his peculiar suitcase along side him. He rubbed his nostrils with one free tentacle for a few moments before concluding the obvious aloud; "How of the opposite of fun, I can not be of the seeing of the talky kind of creatures, or not talky for that matter, yes yes. I am now in the lost for I do not know anything of the lands I stand in. Or sit. Hoping greatly I am for the fun times to be had now, goodly."
He then lazily made his way onto his feet, picking his suitcase up by the handle before bellowing out loudly in their species strange voice understood by all kinds; "Hello, is their people of the around areas here?!? I am quickly becoming one with the boredom."
(Continues on in Aelora: Realm of the Lost)
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