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Got Em
Aug 25, 2017 11:30:55 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Aug 25, 2017 11:30:55 GMT
In between Raven's chatter a silence fell over the forest that felt different to before. The Tangle was often a quiet place, but usually subtle sounds abounded if you stopped and paid attention. The soft drone of insects, rustling leaves, the sigh of a breeze ensnared by thick undergrowth. Silence, like the sort that fell now, was eerie. Gabriel didn't think Raven noticed - she was too busy nattering away, all nervous energy and brittle anxiety. Gabriel, though, listened to what wasn't there and knew what it meant. There was time, though, for now.
"The Marshes. Travel south west from here and you'd find them. The entrances aren't obvious but if you focus on the pull from the portal it will lead you there." He was intrigued to hear about her life, as he always was when speaking to other Daemons. How his people found meaning in purpose in life could be very interesting; creatures of chaos, they didn't always need order, or goals, or an overarching understanding of things. But they were also dramatic and intense, and left their mark on the world wherever they went. Gabriel wasn't even a little surprised that Raven named 'harassing the locals' as a main activity.
"Ovçular veyillənmək və toran qaydaları olduğu xaos və qaranlıq torpaq, yes." Daemons rarely used the real name of the Dream Land except when speaking to other Daemons, not least of all because it was so long. Daemons loved stories, and their language was story-like - detailed, meandering and descriptive. Raven might know little or none of the language though, if she'd been changed and more or less left to her own devices.
"The portal is one way only, you can look into the Dream Land but you can't cross from this side. Yes, Daemons are immortal there, and yes, I was born there nearly five hundred years ago. But since Daemons arrest physical aging in their young adulthood, you going on about how old I am is inaccurate and meaningless, as well as annoying."
The first thing to break the eerie silence, outside of them talking, was a kind of keening sigh somewhere distant through the trees. It was so quiet it was at the very edge of even a Daemon's hearing, but Gabriel caught it and tilted his head. Raven was talking about wanting to hunt, and the smile he gave her was predatory and knowing. She had in mind them moving off, quietening down, and seeking something out. She hadn't realised that she'd been following Gabriel deeper and deeper into the trees. She definitely didn't seem to know that something had been hunting them for at least ten minutes now.
"Practice? I hope you're decent with that thing already. Something else has been listening to all your chattering, and we're about to find out what."
Even as he spoke, the first subtle tremor of the ground gave away the fact that whatever was heading their way was big. Really big.
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Got Em
Aug 26, 2017 7:58:32 GMT
Post by Raven on Aug 26, 2017 7:58:32 GMT
Raven hadn’t noticed the shift in the environment, namely because she was always nervous of everything. Her anxiety manifested itself a lot as being jumpy, as well as over chatting when it was not necessary and that was one of those times. She was a little confused by Gabriel’s directions, but she supposed it would be worth to try later. She’d never been to the Marshes, much less the Daemon Tunnels, and was really curious about them now since they lead to the Portal, which was a one-way-road via the other side for daemons to exit the Dream Land to enter Litharia. Maybe once she was done bugging him, she’d go on her way there. “Er, is there like anything I should know more about the tunnels or marshes? Should I have worry about the sun much in the marshes? Or do I need to wear a coat or… ” Truth be told, she knew nothing about that place. Never really heard of it till Gabriel mentioned it.
The crazy pronunciation that he had done sounded like complete gibberish. Raven had never been exposed to the daemon language, as it was not as common in Litharia, and she could muster up for a response was, “Uhhhhhh…..gesundheit.” His age was a huge surprise though. “But that just makes it even like…more true! You’re so much older than me, wow….” His comment about her being annoying went in one ear and out the other. “It’d be cool to be immortal though. If I was still human, I’d have been long dead. Probably married off to some slob. Cleaning all the time. Ya know I-“ Her words were cut off by the tremors of the ground and the clear, loud sound of fresh branches and brush breaking under heavy footfall. Despite her normal jumpiness, in these sorts of situations, her anxiety seemed to do her more good.
Immediately her hands dropped to the two mini-crossbows hanging at her waist. They were already loaded and ready to go. The crossbows had small compartments that had some sort of coiled piece of metal. Whenever she shot a round of bolts, she’d had to pull the string back. Instead of having to reach up to her quiver to get a new bolt for each shot though, the coiled metal would loosen and push up another bolt, ready to go. It was this reason that she could hold one in each hand. When the compartment ran out though, she would have to resort to one.
Bursting through the trees was a massive creature unlike she’d ever seen before. It was three, maybe four times taller than Gabriel, towering well above them. It had run towards them on all fours, but skidded to a halt and was standing on two legs….studying them? What was it doing?
It wore a helmet, which Raven noted was odd for an animal. The helmet was steel plate and huge to fit its dragon-like head. Two sets of curled horns, like a ram, were on each side, and its mouth looked like a mess of death, teeth jagged, sharp, and visibly crooked and uneven. The body was a dark brown, covered with thick hide and occasional thick scales around the shoulers, chest.
For a moment, there was pure silence. Raven had chosen fight instead of flight, but she was frozen in place, watching the creature as it watched them. It opened its mouth, but instead of a roar there was….
Wait, it was speaking?!
Raven had no idea that there were things in the world other than shifters, humans, fae, and daemons that were capable of being fully sentient. The thing was muttering words in an unfamiliar language to anything other than its own kind. In its hands it held a halbard, old and rusted but massive in scope and still very dangerous.
A snarl was emitted from its maw rather than words, and that roar she had anticipated finally erupted before it smacked its front hands onto the ground, halberd still being held onto, and sprinted directly for them.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?" Raven did what she did best; Glad that she had studied her surrondings earlier, her wings shot out and with a strong flap, leaped up into the large overhead branches. Some were taller than the beast, but a lot were not. Now that she was above it though, she noted something that had not been visible before.
Whatever it was, it had a thick, massive tail with some sort of two-sided axe. It’s tail was literally like steel! What the hell was that thing. Instinct told her the hide was too thick for her arrows, and she was forced to hop from branch to branch as the creature swung its axe up in her direction.
She moved fast and with grace, leaving no time to worry about anything else other than just surviving. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this thing has a big ass tail that’s, uh…an axe I think?!?” She wasn’t sure if Gabriel had seen it, as laying flat on the ground could have made it blend in easily with the ground. “Not sure if-WHOA.”
The gargoyle opened its mouth and a searing hot waves of flame erupted from its maw, turning the branches and part of the tree that she had just been squatting on to ash. The creature muttered other things, but Raven was over…well, whatever it was.
It could breathe fire, which was bad, but the old man could set himself on fire. She wondered if that meant he was immune to it then? Regardless, if it did it again, there would be an opportunity for her to shoot it in the mouth. For now though, she’d have to aim for the eyes that were slit like a reptiles’, or somewhere like the joints or….
The beast was constantly changing its attention from Raven, to Gabriel, then back to her, and so forth. With a deep breath, she lept off the branch that she was on, the creature face towards her, and flew with incredible speed past the creatures face.
Only aiming for a second, she shot both her crossbows. One embedded itself in the creature’s nose, while the other hit at least one of the eyes she had been aiming for. Bingo!
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Got Em
Aug 27, 2017 3:41:50 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Aug 27, 2017 3:41:50 GMT
Gabriel shook his head.
"Too many trees in the Marshes to worry about the sun. It's a lot like here only...wetter. Lots of mud." He was listening hard now. The tremors were subtle at first, tiny vibrations, but whatever was causing them had enough distance that to feel them at all gave him a way to guess its size. Gabriel pressed his palm to the nearest tree, felt the shudder run from the ground up the trunk. He had no idea what was coming, but it was going to be big, mean, and angry, to hazard a guess.
Raven realised it when the regular sounds of something large approaching filtered through. Branches broke as the thing shouldered trees aside. Heavy footfalls practically rumbled, and Gabriel was already sizing up the place they were standing. Lots of trees - that was good. They weren't in a clearing, which would give something the size of their incoming opponent less room to maneuver. If it lived in the Tangle, though, it was adapted for the dense woods, and he shouldn't rely on its size hindering it too much. Gabriel picked a large tree to stand against, instinctively protecting his back, and when Raven loaded her crossbows he shot her a feral grin, fangs lengthening at the same time as his claws.
He didn't answer Raven's question when the beast appeared, because he had no idea what it was. Bulky, armoured, huge just like he'd guessed, and unmistakably sentient. If the intelligent way it sized them up and the armour it wore and weapons it carried weren't enough to give that away, the fact it spoke in some unknown language cleared things up. Gabriel frowned, disappointed.
"Well, damn. I can't eat that. We'll still have to deal with it though. We've wandered into its territory and pissed it right the hell off." Even as he spoke Raven was taking to the trees - wisely, it was obviously her main advantage, and the beast stopped studying them in favour of charging. Right.
Gabriel ducked behind the tree he was standing next to, light on his feet and making the most of the fact that the beast seemed annoyed by Raven, flitting around above it, and was reacting to her like he might react to an annoying bug - by trying to flatten her with its axe. Fire sprung to life along the Daemon Lord's hands and he skirted the beast on one side, weaving between trees, setting patches of dry undergrowth alight as he went. After a few minutes of careful dodging eight or nine fires - mostly small, but some growing in size - were burning in a circle around the creature, hemming it in - though it could have stepped easily over them if it wanted to. The point wasn't to cage the thing, though. Gabriel could transport instantly between fires, and he wanted a way to dodge.
Helpfully, the beast was able to breathe fire too. And breathe fire it did, growing increasingly irritated by Raven above its head and making more of the forest burn. Probably meant attacking it with fire wouldn't be much help, though, but at least Gabriel and the beast shared that particular strength. When it swung around to face him, roaring and letting out a jettison of fire in his direction, he only grinned as the flames engulfed him. When it died his hands and eyes remained flaming and he was crouched, smiling in a feral, predatory way, lips drawn back over his fangs. Furious, the beast arched its neck and screeched, giving Raven a nice angle to embed a crossbow bolt right in its eye. Gabriel glanced at her, impressed - good aim - and then promptly disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the clearing, surrounded by the flames of his earlier fires, as the beast staggered and roared, its tail slamming into the tree closest to Raven and its halberd jabbing where he'd been standing a moment earlier. Without missing a beat Gabriel willed the mind-controlled knife he owned into existence, already embedded in the monster's other eye. It was there for a second, flickering in and out of this realm, and the beast reared up on its hind legs swiping frantically at its face. With the crossbow bolt embedded in one eye and a bloody hole where the other had been it was blind. And mad. Very, very mad.
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Got Em
Aug 27, 2017 7:28:08 GMT
Post by Raven on Aug 27, 2017 7:28:08 GMT
If Raven had the chance to mention how cool it was that Gabriel could just take the fire without being hurt, she would have mentioned it. But she was too busy dodging the long, flailing tail that seemed purposely directed at her up in the trees while the beast’s attention was on the daemon lord. Her wings were constantly shifting and turning, being adjusted so that she could use them to lightly glide to a branch she couldn’t reach, bending so that they would not get stuck in anything. She was too focused on moving away from the axe-like tail to notice the fire-hoping that Gabriel was doing.
Whatever the hell the thing was, it was intelligent, and she was a little unsure of what to…do entirely. For a brief moment, she managed to get out of reach of the beast and was on a thick branch a few feet above it, facing in its direction. She wasn’t sure what she saw happen, but whatever it was made the thing mad as hell. It was clawing at its face, mainly at the eyes, and when its head shifted enough for her to see, she could see the blood hole where one eye used to be, while the other had a bolt embedded in it.
Fire erupted from its mouth in random directions, and Raven found herself just barely jumping out of the way in time. She could feel her shoulders burning from being so close to the flame, and without looking she knew her feathers had been singed or even burned. The only way to doge the random flames was to hop out of the branches and onto the ground.
Caught off guard, she tried to slow her fall by expanding her wings, but the primaries were singed so bad, they were practically useless. They helped just enough for her to control her fall more, and she curled up and rolled onto the floor, using her body to help take most of the impact rather than her wings.
The air was knocked out of her, but she had no time to try and recover. The thing was not readable; every move it made seemed random as it fought in a blind rage, fires burning, tail swinging up and down, left and right, and even diagonally. Branches were being thrown around, and Raven was trying to avoid the areas of fire that Gabriel had made.
She managed to swipe up one of the mini-crossbows that had fallen onto the ground and just ducked as the axed-tail swung above her head. Raven shook her head to clear it, head pounding and body aching from the fall. The beast was biting and snapping in the air, constantly shifting from standing on two legs, to four, then back to two as it bashed its fists and weapon onto the ground. Since the crossbow was small, it took no effort or time to pull it back and allow it to re-load. Again she aimed, closing her blue eye and focusing with her green. Just as the creature’s mouth opened in her direction, flames dancing at the back of its throat, she released the bolt.
The bolt made its way to the back of the creature’s throat, cutting off the fire that it was just about to release. A guttural, wet scream mixed with some more angry words from its language were released. It was smart, too smart, and just as Raven was making her way to change her position so it could not pinpoint her it swung its halberd at her at an alarming rate.
Raven managed to avoid the blade, but not the shaft of the weapon. She felt the cylinder shaft hit her flat against her stomach, just under her ribs. The sheer force sent her flying (unwillingly) and again, she rolled across the ground, face down in the forest floor clutching at her stomach. Her vison had been blurred from the impact, and her body was desperately gasping for air. Her wings were sprawled out, no longer pressed against her back, but she was very much alive and in a lot of sudden pain, a decent distance from the creature that was thrashing wildly, now unable to breathe fire.
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Got Em
Sept 2, 2017 1:30:38 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 2, 2017 1:30:38 GMT
Unable to see, blinded by pain and blood and wounds where its eyes had been, the beast grew increasingly agitated and angry. It seemed to decide that standing still put it at risk and resorted to using its weaponised tail to cause as much chaos and damage as possible. The clearing shuddered as if earthquakes were running through it whenever the axe hit a tree, sending splinters the size of Gabriel's forearm flying through the air as deadly projectiles. Gabriel didn't stay still either - the forest was burning now, the trees and the ground alike, and wherever there was fire he could teleport instantaneously. He used this to dodge the rampage although such was the chaos that even this wasn't enough to spare him completely. He never even noticed it happen, the pain nonexistent thanks to his Golem heritage, but a splinter the size of a small sword pierced his stomach at a sharp downwards angle and stopped when it hit his hipbone. Blood, searing like the fire than ran through his veins and over his skin, trickled gorily down his abdomen and dripped hot and smoking to the ground.
He saw Raven fall out of the corner of his eye and moved to distract the beast, embedding the interdimensional knife into the creature's ear this time. Sadly the blade was too short to pass the skull but it still made it screech and stagger, pawing now at it's head in agony as the curved metal knife ripped the inner structures of its ear to shreds before disappearing. Gabriel fell to his knees when it hit a tree, the impact so great the ground heaved and roots flew around his head as the giant redwood tumbled. Sparks, ash and smoke exploded outwards from the impact, only adding to the chaos, making it hard to see.
He couldn't tell what Raven did next, but it stopped more fire streaming from the creature's throat. It was thrashing, pulling its head back as it fought to dislodge the blockage in its gullet. Gabriel teleported twice in quick succession to avoid the swing of its halberd at Raven, and saw again when she went flying from the corner of his eye. Ouch. There was no time for checking on her though - Gabriel yelled to get the beast's attention and when it struck at him with a bleeding maw, reduced to using its teeth instead of fire, he braced and let it hit him. Both arms raised, he fended off its jaws physically and telekinetically, managing to hold it still - sort of - for about ten seconds. Which was all he needed. Gabriel was a creature of fire, which meant he didn't like water much. This was a creature of fire too. Maybe it wouldn't like getting wet.
"Aldrnari." The clearing shook again - this time not from the thrashing of a giant creature, but from the ancient power of Gods summoned to a Daemon. Water bubbled up from around where Gabriel stood, coalescing into a concentrated stream which, as much as possible, he directed straight down the beast's throat. Then, unable to hold it any longer, he teleported to the top of a burning tree, balanced on a branch turning to charcoal beneath his feet.
The creature let out a wet, gurgling sound and sat down hard, clawing at its throat. Smoke started pouring from between its teeth, thick and grey, intertwined with silver-blue steam. The water not only extinguished the blocked fire but poured into the lungs and the beast began to drown, a keening cry cutting through the gurgling.
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Got Em
Sept 3, 2017 6:27:05 GMT
Post by Raven on Sept 3, 2017 6:27:05 GMT
Raven was too busy rolling around on the ground in some intense pain to even see what Gabriel was doing. She was trying so hard to make sure her wings were out of reach of the fires, but she was still trying to get some damn air in her lungs. Out of her peripherals, she spotted the first few edges of the primaries on her right wing right at the base of a small thing of fire, burning along with it. Panic set in momentarily, and immediately she gasped for air and shot up onto her feet, pulling the wing close to her.
Suddenly there seemed to be water. Everywhere. And the fire that was inching up her feathers was thankfully put out, but at the expensive of what she needed to be able to fly. Now she’d have to wait for new feathers to grow in.
Her sudden burst of energy and intake of air had been due to the sudden adrenaline burst of fear she had felt at the sight of her precious wings being damaged, but now she was back on the ground, watching at Gabriel finished off the big creature. It drowned from whatever he had done, and was dead on the forest floor now, its head pointed in her direction from where it feel.
Raven was groaning and clutching her abdomen, not sure she was able to stand up. The amount of force that the creature had hit her with would have been enough to kill a human on the spot, but she was no longer that. Hell, she’d been lucky to not have broken anything, but already there was a massive bruise that took up more of her stomach. She cringed as she saw this by pulling up her shirt enough to see the damage. It extended from her hips, up her waist and partially onto her ribs, which were defiantly bruised as well.
Even in that instance of pain, she managed to barely stifle some form of pained smile while looking at the old daemon guy. “That was badass! Holy shi-“ her words were cut short though as she was momentarily racked with a couch full of blood. Damn. There was defiantly some form of internal bleeding going on too.
Instead of complaining though, Raven groaned with a look of disgust. “Fuckin’ gross.” Though she felt she’d done a good job with attacking, the avian daemon felt her confidence waver from her lack of agility and ability to dodge. She didn’t bother to move for the moment though and just…rested for a second, wings sprawled out, charred and damaged so badly, there was no way she could fly for a while.
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Got Em
Sept 9, 2017 3:40:46 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 9, 2017 3:40:46 GMT
The comparative quiet that fell over the forest was unsettling after the beast died. It was far from silent - though the water had put out many of the ground fires, flames still crackled unabated through several trees. The one Gabriel stood on, a huge old birch, was on fire nearly from the ground to the very top and the flames licked and curled around his feet with an odd kind of affection, as if drawn to him. As he watched the creature went through its dying throes - twitching, curling over on itself, a wet gurgling bubbling from its throat. It had no eyes left to go dull but he could see when the muscles went slack over its hulking body as life abandoned the ruined shell. Smoke curled thickly from the ground all around it, the fire put out but the water now drained away, leaving a charred and blackened forest all around them.
Gabriel waited until his breathing returned to normal before teleporting back to the ground, using one of the remaining undergrowth fires spared by the water to do so. It took him close to where Raven was hunched on the ground, coughing and spluttering, her wings badly singed. He could smell the acrid scent of charred feathers, which was not all that different from burnt hair, and felt momentarily a little bad though it wasn't like he was the only one setting everything on fire. In fact, the beast had helped him along quite a lot - elementals could absorb energy from their element. Being bathed in fire was invigorating - he felt better than ever.
Not being able to feel pain was, of course, a big part of why he felt so great. He had wandered back over to Raven before his arm bumped the splinter in his stomach, which was the first time he realised it was even there.
"Huh. Shit." Grasping it carefully, Gabriel gave it an experimental tug, just a little, and watched for a spurt of blood that might suggest he'd hit some vital artery. Dark blood did spill from the wound, trickling down his stomach, but it was a sluggish rivulet with no pressure behind it so he grabbed the splinter more firmly and yanked it out. There was a momentary dull ache from where the wood had hit his hip bone, but it didn't look like anything major so, ignoring the blood now seeping from the gaping hole the size of a child's fist, he turned his attention back to Raven.
"Nice shot, right into the eye. And did you shoot into its throat too? I couldn't see through all the smoke. That was a decent hit though...think you'll live?"
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Got Em
Sept 16, 2017 5:38:07 GMT
Post by Raven on Sept 16, 2017 5:38:07 GMT
Raven hadn’t noticed the piece of wood sticking out of Gabriel or, at least, not until she painfully managed to tuck her wings in, grimacing in the process, and rolling over onto her back. She was looking at Gabriel upside down, and when she noticed the splinter Raven regrettably shot up to a sitting position, turning herself around to gawk at the wound. In the process, another cough racked her body and more blood spurted out. Gross.
She made a scowl, lips and chin covered with blood. “Uh. UHHHH. UMMMMMMMMMM. That. That shouldn’t be there. Um. How do you…deal with that?” If the skin that he had wasn’t obvious enough, the lack of reaction to something that seemed so obviously painful confirmed he was defiantly golem, or at least part of it.
Now she grimaced, just imagining if something like that had happened to her. Sure, she hurt all over, and her entire stomach would be purple and green within hours from bruising, but holy shit she hadn’t been impaled! How was he so…calm about it. Couldn’t he like, bleed out or something?! The panic and anxiety, even though it wasn’t her injury, was obvious in her expression.
The praise made her feel better, despite feeling drained. The adrenaline was beginning to die off, and now she was beginning to feel just how awful everything felt. “Uhhhh….” It took her a moment to think of an answer, eyes still locked on Gabriel’s injury. “Oh. Yeah. Um. I could see what it was using to breathe fire and I shot at it. Otherwise I think I’d be dead. Had to act fast and all that. Thanks uh, for the praise. But…youshouldreallytakecareofthatstickthatsimpalingyou.”
It wasn’t so much that she was squeamish as it was more unsettling that he seemed so unconcerned about it. Thinking it was time to get off the ground, she pushed herself up, stumbling forward towards Gabriel, and catching herself just before running into him. Raven eyed her surroundings. The place was a mess of burned patches and a very dead….thing. Its massive weapon was a few feet away from it, but the trees were all chopped up and burned. She wondered if there was anything useful that they could retrieve from the body, though it certainly wasn’t edible.
Reluctantly, she extended one of her wings and looked over to see the full extent of the damage. They were her pride and joy, and they were so obviously ruined. Her entire demeanor of confidence was gone, replaced by a feeling of worthlessness that came with her anxiety. There was no way she could get any lift to fly with the damage that had been done to them. “Well…that stinks.” It’d take months for her feathers to molt and for new ones to come in. She pulled that wing in, grimacing again from the pain it gave her, and checked the other one as well, which was just as bad. Shit.
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Got Em
Sept 17, 2017 4:03:22 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 17, 2017 4:03:22 GMT
Gabriel had had years to practice being injured, and he now had a decent grasp on what injuries were dangerous and what could be brushed off. Being half Golem and not feeling much in the way of pain, of course, made the latter much easier to do - he'd been far less relaxed about the whole process of injury and agony during a short stint in his life when feeling pain was more a part of his everyday life. Raven's reaction to it was faintly alien to a Golem and he shrugged, not even hesitating about prodding the wound with his fingers, until his fingers found bone, confirming it was nothing serious.
"It didn't hit anything important. The bleeding is slowing already, see?" Of course, it still looked pretty gory as he withdrew his hand from the hole, now coated in slippery bright red blood. And the straightforwardness of the wound meant he felt perfectly comfortable, also, with wielding some new magic to take care of it. Fire sprung up along his hands again, though this time it burned near-perfect white, quite different to the red and orange that defined his attacking fire. This was healing fire, and as he pressed his hands to his abdomen the flames poured into the wound, knitting flesh and repairing blood vessels. In minutes, all that was left was the drying blood on his stomach, and a faint redness to the skin.
"You did well." Gabriel waited for Raven to regain her balance, staggering slightly from the effort of getting up. She was in a relatively battered state, but given she was young and inexperienced, this was a significantly better outcome than dead. The fire around his hands flickered and died away as he wandered over to the beast, prodding it's now prone form with a toe. It didn't shift even slightly - it was a solid creature, thick with muscle and a leathery hide. And ugly as sin. There was no way Gabriel was trying to eat that, which was a pain in the arse because the commotion of the fight would have scared everything off for miles and miles.
"Yeah...sorry about your wings. The feathers will grow back, won't they? I can heal any flesh wounds you have if you want me to, though I should warn you it'll feel exactly like getting burnt even though it heals damage instead of causing it." Gabriel was immune to damage from fire, and therefore pain, even if he hadn't already had a tolerance to pain from his Golem breeding. But for those who didn't his healing fire felt like regular fire, and few things in this world were more painful than burning, eve if the pain would fade quickly once it was done.
"Not much I can do about charred feathers, though."
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Got Em
Sept 18, 2017 2:45:06 GMT
Post by Raven on Sept 18, 2017 2:45:06 GMT
Raven was honestly so shocked when Gabriel just…shrugged off being impaled like it was no big deal. Gods, it must have been nice to feel no pain! Just the look of it alone looked agonizing. Still…if he said it didn’t hit anything vital, then there was nothing to freak out about. It was just so odd seeing how someone didn’t really care about it, even if he was a golem. Personally she couldn’t really tell if the bleeding was slowing, but then again she had no desire to just look at his wound to study it. Raven was by no means squeamish, but she wasn’t the biggest fan of blood either.
There was something about the praise she got from the gods damn Daemon Lord that made her crazy proud of herself. “Thanks….See! I told ya I was a good shot.” Though already vain, she was having some self-conflicting thoughts over the loss of her precious wings, even if temporary. The damaged they received almost made her feel utterly useless as a daemon, and unskilled, even stuck. She didn’t like the idea of being tied to the ground for months, but there was literally nothing she could do about it. Now, though, there was a spark that made her feel a bit better and she smiled faintly at the old daemon.
“Uh…y-yeah they’ll grow back. It’ll take a long time though…” She didn’t bother to mention her fear of being stuck on the ground like a normal person. It also added to her claustrophobia, especially when stuck under a bunch of trees.
Thoughts racing, she tried to calm herself by taking a big inhale of breath, though that only backfired. Her entire abdomen tensed with pain and her eyes widened, breath momentarily caught. She considered Gabriel’s offer for a moment, but then decided against it. She’d already felt the heat of the flames that came from that…thing. Raven had no desire to have the feeling of fire on skin, even if it was healing her. Unless it could fix her feathers, which it couldn’t as he stated, she wasn’t interested though she did appreciate the offer.
“Ah! Uh. No thanks. I appreciate the offer though. I might change my mind later if my range of motion lessens.” It probably would, but she’d deal with that later.
Not wanting to waste resources, she went up to the ugly thing and beat down to look at its massive, dragon-like head. Her bolt was still sticking out of the eye, and she didn’t hesitate to put one foot on the creature’s face and put two hands around the bolt to pull.
It came out with a tear, sinew and goopy eye-flesh stuck around the shaft just above the bolt tip. Raven cringed and worked at it to tear the extra flesh off. There was no way she’d get the one in its mouth back.
As she worked on it, Raven moved to find the mini crossbow that had fallen from her grasp. She looked around the clearing and wondered how Gabriel would find anything to eat now. Part of her wondered if the beast found them because of her blabbering, but then she decided she didn’t much care if that was the case. Instead of pondering on that, she turned to face the daemon lord, multi-colored eyes shinning. “So! What are you going to do about food now, eh?” And what if something wants to eat you cause you're bleeding, Raven also questioned, but kept to herself.
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Got Em
Sept 23, 2017 21:08:33 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 23, 2017 21:08:33 GMT
Gabriel thought it was a wise decision, actually, to choose not to be healed. Unless your injuries were severe he wasn't sure it would be worth the pain of the fire. That type of pain was entirely unknown to his personal experience - to the Daemon Lord, flames felt pleasant, caressing, energising. But he'd seen enough people burn, many at his own hands, to get a read on the unique kind of agony it seemed to cause.
"It was good practice if nothing else, right? Some things you can only learn by diving in headfirst, and I'm willing to bet you'll be better at dodging next time. Plus, maybe you learned something about being so noisy this deep into the Tangle." He grinned, sympathetic to Raven's temporary loss of her wings but determinedly optimistic about silver linings. He couldn't help it; he was still buzzing from the thrill of the fight, the aggression that tapped into Daemon nature in such a primal way. He loved it, even when there were consequences. And he loved that every time, he learned something new about his magic, about how to fight, about how to survive. There was nothing more important.
Stretching experimentally, his arms over his head so the muscles in his abdomen pulled taut, Gabriel affirmed that his healing had been successful. There was no strange sensation from the movement, no tug of muscle or loss of range or anything unusual about how it felt. The blood would wash off soon enough and apart from the redness you'd have never known he was injured. He left the minor scrapes and cuts alone - unable to feel the pain from them, he couldn't have identified where they were without a reflective surface anyway, and they'd heal on their own in a few days. Daemons generally healed quite quickly, a function of a powerful biology alien to this world and therefore comparatively sped up.
"Good bloody question, that thing has definitely scared off anything edible for miles around. My best bet now is to find the nearest village and beg, borrow or steal dinner from someone living there." Small villages were scattered throughout the Tangle, built into clearings, housing hardy hunters and fishers and peasants who lived off the land. Often heavily fenced, their occupants cold and wary of strangers, there were ways nonetheless for charismatic travellers to find a meal and a bed for the night. Otherwise, he'd have to stalk for miles through the trees to leave behind the radius of destruction. Gabriel could have teleported right into one of these villages central bonfires if he so pleased, and would definitely do so if he didn't find one soon, but first he figured he'd check if Raven wanted to do the same.
"Did you want to tag along still? I don't know where one of these villages is, exactly, but I know how to find them if we happen to be close enough."
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Got Em
Sept 24, 2017 5:41:17 GMT
Post by Raven on Sept 24, 2017 5:41:17 GMT
Though she felt really defeated, there was a sort of high that had come with the fight. Part of it was adrenaline, but there was more to it. It was..exciting, almost, to have to be stronger than her opponent or die. Gabriel was right of course. When she was a human and used her family’s library to read books, she’d never read a book about fighting that hadn’t included learn from trial and error. Raven had been in a few squabbles growing up, but nothing that she’d ever consider too serious. She tended to provoke people a lot too, finding it enjoyable to threaten and tease wary travelers when she was bored.
Raven did frown though, not too amused at being told she was too loud. She didn’t comment on it though. Gabriel’s attitude was completely different from when she’d met and talked to him. Now it seemed like he was willing to tolerate her instead of tell her how naïve and annoying she was. Not that that’d have bothered her much anyways.
Well, on the bright side at least Raven wasn’t the one that scared everything off. It was the giant thingy that had done it instead. She looked down at the carcass and realized it’d be a good idea for them to get moving soon. Wouldn’t other things come soon to eat it? Or worse, more things like it to come kill them?!
Suddenly a little antsy, she began to look around to see if there was anything coming now. “Huh? Oh yeah! I’d like to. I don’t get to hang out with people much. Nice to have some company, even if you’re, ya know, old.” Now at this point, she was just saying it to purposely bug him a little. There was a sly grin across her lips, but it was the first time she’d smiled since realizing her feathers were toast. “Maybe, just maybe, I’ll try to be quiet now. I…can’t fly and don’t really wanna fight anything without having that advantage.”
“Wait! Do you eat fish at all? I can get those really easy. There were some at the lack you saw me at. Small, but they make a good snack.” Fish was Raven’s favorite food. It also just felt right to make the offer.
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Got Em
Sept 29, 2017 2:34:54 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 29, 2017 2:34:54 GMT
Gabriel, determined not to be the only one celebrating, nudged Raven when she frowned.
"Cheer up, would you? I mean, look at this thing." He gestured at the hulking shape of the felled beast, clawed hand waving through the air.
"Whatever the hell it's called, it's wearing a helmet. And carrying a weapon. It's approximately the size of a house, and it breathes fire. Finding one of these things has to be rare. Surviving one, even rarer. How many people in this world can say they fought one of those....things....and won?" Gabriel liked epic tales, heroic victories, beating the odds. It made for a great story, and for someone who could weave stories from magic, adding tales to his history was endlessly appealing.
Though the smell of the place was getting off putting. Now that the creature was dead and the fires were going out, lessening the smoke curling amongst the trees, it was apparent the beast had an unpleasant, musky scent. Time to get out of here, Gabriel thought. He considered Raven's suggestion of fish and then shook his head.
"I eat fish, sure, but we shouldn't go back to the lake. You didn't find out if there were more people hunting you, remember? And if there are, they'll have found the bodies of their compatriots and be both pissed off and forewarned." She still had a lot to learn about self-preservation, it seemed, but hopefully the fight with the beast had made a start on that.
"If you're coming, I can't teleport with you without frying you to a crisp. So inconvenient, how most people get burnt by fire. But it's easy to find the signs of a village from the wilderness surrounding it, if you know how to look. Come on." Gabriel picked a thin deer path that headed north west, more or less, and started walking, figuring Raven would follow if she wanted to. They were too deep into the woods to find a village very close, and no-one with any brains would be living in giant beast territory. Still, a walk would help burn off the adrenaline that had him all on edge.
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Got Em
Sept 29, 2017 22:21:58 GMT
Post by Raven on Sept 29, 2017 22:21:58 GMT
Raven sighed, but manage to force a smile when Gabriel nudged her. The fight really did change his attitude completely around. She made a note to herself; if the old man is grumpy, find something deadly to potentially threaten his life, have him fight it, then boom. Not grumpy. She wondered if anyone of his close friends (if he even had any) had a similar mindset. “I mean, will anyone actually believe it if I tell them I fought this though? We don’t even know what to call it. I dunno if it’d be a great story to say, ‘So yeah, I was with the Daemon Lord and we encountered this giant thing in the woods and killed it with lots of fire.’ Or maybe I’m just bad at storytelling.” Now that she thought about it though, it was pretty exciting! She did have something to talk about, something badass beyond being captured by humans and destroying her feathers.
Now she felt kind of dumb for even suggesting to get fish. Truth be told, she just wanted to show off how good she was at grabbing them from the water. The ligaments in her thumb gave her the ability to hyper extend it more than normal, so in a way her hands, with claws extending, could be more like an osprey’s foot. He was right though, of course. It seemed like he was right about a lot of things, and that made her feel a bit self conscious of how she perceived herself for just a moment. That moment was gone after little more than a few seconds however.
“I don’t really get why anyone would be hunting me though. Not like I’ve done…much to make anyone want to kill me specifically. But you’re right I suppose…” The only thing she could really think of was that they wanted her feathers. They were common accessories in jewelry, so why not?
She cringed at the thought of there being more fire. “Uh please no more fire. Fire bad. But I would like to come with! I mean you’re pretty cool and all and I don’t really get the chance to meet lots of other daemons.” Because the reality was she had no clue what she was doing. Raven had a grasp on some daemon things, such as her claws and fangs, and was somewhat knowledgeable on their customs and culture thanks to the woman that turned her, but there still was so much she didn’t know. As expected, she followed after Gabriel, folding her singed wings up against her back and trying to ignore the fact that if something found them now, she’d have no way to escape.
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Got Em
Oct 7, 2017 4:19:38 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Oct 7, 2017 4:19:38 GMT
Gabriel arched a brow at Raven's attempts to put their fight into words, then sighed.
"Bad at story-telling is right. But it's not your fault, you didn't grow up in the Dream Land." Daemons, generally, loved stories - so much so that legends had sprung up around this in Litharia. Tell a Daemon about to kill you an epic tale and he might spare your life, or so the saying went - a twist on the classic tale of the sphinx. As a Bardic Golem, Gabriel's love for stories exceeded even general Daemon tendency, and although he had twisted his magic into darker paths of manipulation and control, often it could be more purely wielded in the art of storytelling. Raven wouldn't have this innate love for story-telling, though; Daemon biology might have sprung from an old kind of magic, but her innate tendencies had been shaped while she was Human.
"Not thing, beast. And we didn't encounter it, it hunted us down. And we didn't kill it with fire, we killed it with magic and tenacity and luck." Small corrections, just a start to the story it could be. Gabriel's real talent was visual though; he could bring someone into the very story he told through the magic of illusions, and no teaching would give Raven that ability. She should at least stop underselling herself, though.
"It might be true that they were just hunters who chanced upon you in the Forest and thought you'd be worth more than animal skins. But few people hunt Daemons without planning it in advance, and it's really not worth the risk to go back there and find out." Gabriel could be confident of killing most attackers unprepared for meeting him, but he couldn't ensure surviving being outnumbered. And, he might have ways of getting out of tight spots in a hurry, but he didn't think Raven did. No, best to move on, put distance between them and the men who had hunted her, and hope it ended with the three of them. Gabriel had a nagging sense there might be something more to the situation than a chance encounter - after all, there were easier places to get slaves and feathers.
He could cover the ground quickly, when he wanted to, and as they left the smouldering carcass of the beast well behind, following the trails through the woods animals had worn in through repeated passage, the first signs of habitation began to appear. Subtle at first - trees missing branches, paths that were more direct and less meandering, a dearth of some types of undergrowth in favour of plants more useful to people. And then more obvious signs - a basket hanging in a tree, stumps where pines had been felled for firewood, and a small crooked fence that curled around the Forest and marked the edge of a territory. A small village would lay beyond, just through the trees - there would be clearings, connected to one another by paths, a central bonfire, people. Too early to say what kind of people, how they eked out a living in this dark dangerous forest, but Gabriel was looking only for a meal and perhaps a place to rest. It would do.
"If this is a primarily Human or Shifter village, which is most likely, they may fear and mistrust Daemons. Don't give them a reason to be frightened of you, or you definitely won't be fed. Ready?"
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” Truth be told, she knew nothing about that place. Never really heard of it till Gabriel mentioned it. 
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