A Difference in Indifference

With surprising (but not impossible) strength for a young teenage boy, he shoved her back off of himself a bit for some breathing room.

"Keep your panties on, gypsy." He snarled. "I work for a power greater than that little spark of yours... he'll have you begging on your knees to be a concubine before you can say Raschek."

Wiping his face with his arm, he took a few deep simmering breaths. Slowly, his countenance morphed into something completely different--softer. He was suddenly the child he appeared to be.

"If I am to return I can tell you only this, Razelle Dacile. More importantly than the rune, He is after blood." As he spoke, he almost touched the stone dangling from Raz's ear, but dropped his hand, non-threatening and child-like. The capital "H" in "He" was blatantly audible in the boy's voice.

"I suggest you forget your friend and run."

Raz nearly flinched, suddenly feeling dirty as she realized that, despite his attitude, she'd threatened a kid and liked it. A young, naive kid. Azra, she was such a sadist.

Watching the boy, she took in his pale features, assailed by guilt. But then she realized his words and then was assailed by anger. Her own hand reached up to fiddle with the gem hanging from her ear, " Like hell I'm leaving Nyk. And, kid, the day I beg for sex is the day the Shir'riek share their city with the rest of us unworthy peasants."

Not spark, but sun. Not little, but all. The Fire roared with rage, and Raz let its sentiments be known, "Oh, and kid? Friend Fire's not pleased with you. I'd avoid piles of dry wood and shit for the next couple days... they have a tendency to light up in this heat. Just sayin'. 'Snot a threat, 's just a warning."

Raz stepped away, intent on leaving. The boy had given her enough to ponder over, and enough to possibly answer some questions. Whoever he worked for was a Big Bad and they wanted a rune... and blood, whatever that meant. Big Bad had some ties to the Shir'riek, or- at the very least- to the family of the Shir'riek child before her. And they knew her name... Which could be why they chose Nyk, if they knew of her friendship with the blacksmith.

Suddenly nervous, Raz turned on her heel, ready to go, not even realizing that Talon was no where in sight.

"Miss Razelle!" The boy called after, reaching for her attention for just one last second. In front of her eyes, his body twisted and contorted into something foreign--completely different--a large white canine. Just as swiftly, he shifted back into his original form. "Though I do not possess your element, I do not fear your Friend. Perhaps He may one day be mine as well."

His smile was genuine, but disappeared from his face quickly, as if it had never been, and he glanced around suspiciously.

"Merry part, Razelle Dacile. If you find yourself in need of assistance, you may call upon the name of Wolfgang L'yth."
In a foreign but somehow traditional manner, he crossed his left arm over his chest and bowed.

And as she walked away, Talon again materialized out of the shadows to walk silently alongside her.

Snarling under her breath, Raz tore her arm away, shooting her companion a glare for good measure, and began to stalk after the flash of her friend. Goddess forbid she say thank you. She would have spotted Nyk eventually.

Speaking of Nyk, the moron was getting away. Raz sped after him,following his lead deep into the woods.

Night fell as he covered some distance, Raz keeping behind him, just out of sight. The fact that it was so easy to slip under the half-breed's radar and tail him spoke greatly of how long it had been since his last escapade. Once a thief, always a thief... but nevertheless, a thief out of practice.

Some time later, after her feet began to ache and her tummy began to rumble (for, Raz realized, she'd skipped dinner what with all the panic Nyk induced), The Ruik's nose began to itch and her skin began to tingle with magic. The fire licked just under her skin.

To state the obvious, they were getting close to wherever they were heading.

Suddenly, the surrounding fortress of trees broke into a clearing, deceptively empty. Raz paused at the edge of the forest to watch as Nyk slunk forward, shifting awkwardly, hopping here and there, as if following a specific path. To her astonishment, one moment he was haltingly making his way through the grass, the next he had vanished before her eyes.

What kind of magic was this...?


((I'm thinking that the house/wherever-the-rune-is is guarded by some heavy-duty wards/runes... maybe something to hide it? Take it away, my friend.))

He hadn't really expected a thank you or anything. After travelling with Raz for several weeks now, he was growing used to her snappy, ungrateful behaviour. He kept close to her heels, but as the sizzling, static sense of magic grew around them, he fell back. Unlike Raz, he was much too cautious to run ahead.

He did not catch up with her again until she was paused outside the clearing, where Nyk's conspicious red hair had disappeared just moments ago.

Engulfed in suspicion, Talon stepped out in front of Raz, in a manner that could be argued as protective. He made one painstakingly slow, cautious step forward after another, with one arm out hesitantly in front of him, and the other behind him, as if to push Raz back if she tried to move in front of him again.

After several silent moments, he reached the edge of the treeline and froze. He could feel the magic thick in the air around him, alive and electric--and also dangerous. His left arm, which had been outstretched in front of him, was now bent, showing his obvious hesitance to move forward. Then, in one swift moment, he pushed it straight out toward the open air, and the air around it rippled like a vertical ocean, revealing an opaque wall that shimmered like heat rising off of stone. After several moments, it settled back into place, leaving only the several feet around Talon still visible to their eyes.

Turning, he beckoned Raz foward to stand beside him, knowing that they had to move quickly, lest someone--and there could be anyone or anything on the other side, near or far--spot the disturbance in the ward. The barrier was strong, but he had something just as powerful--and even more magical.

Like he had done before, after they had first conversed with Nyk, he reached into his cloak and withdrew the white silk wrapping. With careful, deliberate motions, he unwrapped it, and--for the first time in many years--he reached down and directly touched its smooth, flawless surface, grasping the hilt tightly with white knuckles. Reaching up, he sliced through the ward as if it were the simple fabric of a Ruiken curtain, and held it aside like so for Raz to enter, narrowing his eyes as if he had just done her some great favor that she owed him for--as if he had made for her some type of unnecessary sacrifice.

Behind the ward, the clearing seemed almost identical as it had before, aside from the light--it was much darker, more like nighttime as opposed to the evening outside. In the shadows of the opposite side, two men were standing with Nyk, their backs to Raz and Talon.

As they moved, Talon swiftly replaced the knife into its coverings and hid it away--hiding also his hand, as he kept himself from making any type of pain-induced sound whatsoever. It was not in his intentions to let Raz see his now-mutilated, bloody palm. After all, unlike the cursed knife that had injured Nyk earlier, this one was not made for Ruikens.

It was much stronger, and made especially for... those like him.

After safely securing both the weapon and his hand, he spirited after Raz like a shadow, following her every move.

((Makin it easy for 'em to get in... or not. XD Who knows what will happen next? I'm just ready to RP through these scenes and continue with more plot--most of which has receded into the turbid, hidden pools of my inefficient memory...)) XD

What. The. Fuck.

One minute Raz was staring at an empty clearing (and Talon's leading back), the next she was being shoved through a split curtain of magic by her companion. Lady's first, indeed.

Raz carefully tracked the movements of her half-breed friend as he met up with men she couldn't recognize. She had no doubt that they were Nyk's escorts for the night. First rule of a high-level heist: Always have an inside man. Or two.

One of the shadowy figures stepped forward, drawing something glittering from his pocket - a rune? - and placing it just-so in the ground. For a moment, nothing and no one moved. Then the earth began to shake.

Raz barely stifled a startled yelp, stumbling slightly. In the distance, Nyk tripped and fell flat on his face. Before their collective stunned eyes, twisting vines and plants began to rise from the ground, something like thick spiraled tree trunks shooting from the dirt to bend into place and form... a house?

- More a mansion, really. Where once there was nothing now stood a monster of earth made from pillars of bark and shingles of leaves. Stone held it all together while vines patched it at the seems.

The fire purred quietly to Raz at the sight of something so flammable.

"Well, shit." She mumbled, regaining her footing. Looks like whoever Nyk was stealing from was a ridiculously powerful Feolan.

Nyk's entourage seemed unfazed by the sudden appearance of a building made from the dirt. They dragged Nyk up and forward, towards a thick tree trunk near the giant stone door. One of them tossed a grappling hook up onto the nearest... window? (Weird.) The other manhandled Nyk to the trunk's base, pointing and gesturing emphatically before sending him scurrying up the tree-pillar. Raz felt a quick spark of anger buzz over her skin; everyone knew that the first to go in had the highest chance of death if they went in blind. One of the asshole inside-men who obviously knew the layout of the mansion should have gone in at the start.

Raz waited the obligatory few seconds after they all disappeared to be sure no one was coming back and then sprinted for the house. What if Nyk had gotten in and tripped another ward? What if he tumbled through the window and into an servant or a guard or the Feolan himself? What if he climbed in and found that there was no floor - the damn place is made of trees! - and fell and - and -

Raz caught herself before she trampled the rune in the ground. Cautiously, she shifted around it, noting that it had not been placed in the ground after all, but in a flat stone oval, carved with symbols. Huh. Fancy that.

Abandoning whatever the hell that was, she ran full-tilt for the targeted pillar. Reaching it quickly, she craned her neck back and glanced up, up, up to find that the last of Nyk's company had dragged his rope and hook up with him. Raz ruled that fact irrelevant. With a twitch of her fingers and a whisper to friend fire she lit up her hands and feet and began to burn footholds in the bark, scrambling up the tree and leaving a hollowed out path behind.

With all the grace of a fire-dancer, she lept from the pillar to the window at the top and slid cleanly through, landing on the - oh, they have a ground - apparently marble floor with no sound. A cursory look around became an awed perusal of the mansion's interior. While outside the building looked ancient and ivy-overed, inside it glowed with burnished, paneled walls and crystal-lined mage lightes. Lavish tapestries and curtains lined the hallway and caught the eye. The place looked like any normal nobleman's house, for all intents and purposes.



((I'm ending it here. I'm stuck on where they're headed inside and who this mysterious Feolan is. I figured, though, that since both the Big Bad guy and our heroes will end up searching for runes for each of the elements fashioned by the Element Gods (or whatever) themselves in order to free Raschek/stop the Bid Bad - according the the plot-line I'm beginning to remember from ye ancient conversations - I figured Nyk could be stealing a Feolan rune from some hotshot, powerful Feolan dude to start us off. Yeah?

God, I'm so rusty at this!!!! SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO REPLY!!!! I'M ASHAMED OF MY FAIL.
))

((Hmmm... I can roll with this. Though in order to be consistent, the original owner of this rune will have to be a Saar... we said that in an earlier post. OH and btw... I had this amusin idea that when Talon starts talking and she doesn't notice, his names that he'll call her will be either "little Ruiken" or "princess," and that'll piss her off which is when she'll suddenly realize he's talking XXDDD as soon as they're on the road again w/o nyk ill enact this > either that or he'll only speak when nyk's not around XD ANYWHO... ONWARD!!))

Talon growled at Raz's forwardness... diving headfirst into such a situation was always a terrible idea. Favoring his mangled left palm--he used only his right hand the climb up after her--he slid through the opening and landed directly behind Raz. Regrettably, she hadn't left him enough space to land, and his hand shot out to her waist to steady himself lest he crash into her. Yanking away immediately, he made a literal hissing sound in his irritation, shaking his hand as if to rid it of their contact.

Through the door, the tiny echoes of the other trio's cautious footsteps could be heard dashing down the hallway. Figuring they were already in deep shit either way, Talon moved soundlessly after them, understanding that Raz would be right behind him.

The end of the hallway, where the three had stopped, housed the grandest doorway, which opened up into a glittering, museum-like display of valuables. Sterotypically, the shining emerald was placed obviously in the center back of the room, displayed conscpicuously behind mere glass--or at least what looked like it. For all they knew, it could be some type of magicked Ice.

However, Nyk's company seemed to know what they were doing. Perhaps they were possible servants of the Master here. The heist before them seemed to be going perfectly. Had to give that nasty little Metal-cross some credit.

Raz stifled a growl when Talon knocked into her and then hissed at her like his clumsiness was her fault. Stupid, silent foreigner.

Barely burying her annoyance, Raz crept after her companion and watched as Nyk's query came into view. It was just at the end of the cavernous chamber, a scant hop-skip away. For a minute, the Ruik thought that she'd get lucky, that Nyk would get away clean and that she could get away from thieving forever.

But, of course, it was never that easy.

One of the inside-men slunk forward, body bending and twisting as if making his way through an acrobatic routine and not a room. His companion followed swiftly behind. Raz wanted to snicker; they almost looked like they were dancing. Badly, but dancing nonetheless.

Nyk mimicked the pair hesitantly, his own movements stilted and stiff in comparison. At the sight of his serious expression, Raz's sudden good humor fled. Something was up. Nyk never looked serious, not even during heists.

Despite her own instincts, Raz slid further forward, trying to puzzle out their actions. And then she noticed the shimmer. Thin, thin, razor sharp wires littered the room in random, indiscernible patterns. One misstep and you'd lose a limb, no doubt.

And then the point-man misstepped.

He didn't lose a limb, at first. There was a flicker of light down the wire and the sudden stench of burning flesh. The fire hummed beneath her skin at the familiar scent. The stranger's body spasmed, jerked, and then fell still, plummeting down, down, down and right through numerous wires. By the time the electrocuted body found the floor it was in severed pieces.

Raz gagged a bit at the mangled man, slammed by the memory of hundreds of dead Ruikens that littered her homeland until she'd given them their proper burial rites and burnt their corpses to join the desert's sand. The process had taken days.

Nyk froze, as did other inside-man. One of them gulped audibly. Nyk's face finally seemed to register that he was in deep shit. Whoever owned this rune was powerful enough to have a house built from earth magic and booby-trapped by Saar trip-wires. For all he knew, there could be other elemental traps all over the room, waiting to be sprung.

And because the irony was too much to resist, at that thought another trap was, in fact, sprung. The remaining inside-man placed a nimble foot on the wrong floor tile, which shudder under his weight and sunk down. Surprise! Ice formed over the walls and ate its way down each of the wires. For a moment, it seemd content just to swallow the wires. Everyone held their breath and hoped.

The fire warned Raz of the sudden drop in temperature just in time, signifying the ice's next move. Heedless of the consequences, she screamed, "Hit the ground!"

Nyk was conditioned to follow her orders after years of partnership. She'd saved his ass one too many times for him to be questioning her logic. He didn't even stop to wonder why she was there, only heard her voice and dropped as insturcted, flat on his stomach, avoiding the now-visible iced-over wires and shielding his head with his hand.

The iced wires attacked. Frozen, solid spikes shot from all of them, a hell of frost and fury. Nyk's accomplice was impaled on the spot. Nyk just barely avoided a hole through his back.

Raz, cover blown, ditched her side-line rutine and burned her way straight through the maze to heave Nyk to his feet. His mission was shot to hell, anyway. "Alright, half-breed, you're done here. We're leaving. Now."




((Will edit later. Holy shit, all my writing this week has been for another SUPERSPECIALAWESOME dream that I had the other night. Must tell you about it. Also? TALON HAIR?!?!?!? MY GOD, WOMAN, HOW DID I MISS THAT TEXT???? WHERE CAN I SEE THIS????))

((Well, not really Talon-hair, per say... but... colorwise... XDDD.))


Facepalm. The is exactly what Talon wanted to do. Stupid, stupid Ruikens. Stupid, stupid thieves. They couldn't leave well enough alone. They had to have more, they had to steal from aristocrats way above their skill level...

He huffed. The Ruikens could have at least shifted into something smaller. With an unusual deftness, he slipped through what remained of the wires to grab onto Raz and her imbecile companion. They were leaving--now. He began to pull them both away, but something stopped him.
Only a few feet away, the rune rested obliviously in its display. The wires were no more. He tried to turn to leave again, frustrated at his own hesitation. But again he turned back.

Fine. Might as well make the troubles worthwhile.

Gliding behind him, he shattered the glass with his bad hand and scooped up the stone with the other, then returned to the Ruikens. With the rune stashed safely away, he kept himself in front of the other two as the trio scrambled for a quick but careful exit. He knew he would regret that.
So he almost wasn't surprised when he saw a well-muscled silhouette, surprisingly lean and tall, slip into the door way to block their exit.

"That stone belongs to a very distinguished friend of mine. I think it would be best if you put it back."

Well, shit.

And then the green-tinted light of strong Feolan magic hailed the fast approach of rope-like roots, stretched from the nearby forest, intending to bind them. Talon gave Raz an acknowledging nod--if the Earth had any weakness, it was Fire.

Raz flicked her fingers and a wall of flame roared up from the ground to eat the vines away. The air filled with heat and faint forest-flavored smoke. Sweat beaded on her skin, familiar and welcome under the fire's never-ending hunger. It tickled insistently at her insides, having had a taste of anything and wanting anything more. A small, detached part of her momentarily wondered if whatever Nyk was trying to steal was really worth the effort, but the fire's appetite and her own battle-lust drowned it out.

Nyk, noting the Feolan vs. Fire duel about to commence, took one look at Raz' sudden manic grin and sprinted for the door. After all, a good thief always knew when to bow-out and get-away.


((Short post is short. I've got nothing. Your move, green-text guy.))

((Wow, so, I was having some TERRIBLE fucking cramps this morning. Like, immobilizing pain. but then I started writing this post... and they went away. XDDD. Screw antidrug... Talon = my drug. XD))

Talon stood close beside Raz, keeping his hems carefully out of the fire's reach. He kept a blade handy, cutting the occassional stray, charred roots that managed to shoot through the flames.

The man leaned against the wall, frowning. The fire now lit up his features--definitely Feolan. If a little more refined. A slight five o'clock shadow was all that remained where any normal Feolan would have tried to maintain a beard. His features were sunken, pale, and thin, but hard muscles still lined his visible arms, almost more of a Xanten figure--the kind of body one gets from living off the night rather than the day. His piercing emerald eyes, the same color as the rune hidden under Talon's cloak, seemed to be searching for something through the depths of Raz's fire.

"Fine," he finally said, standing. He turned away, his voice casual. "You know, I honestly didn't want to hurt you. Especially you, Ruiken girl. You're too beautiful to go to waste."

The floor underneath them shook, tearing open to reveal the ground two stories below. The entire world seemed to rumble as the house caved in.

Talon grabbed Raz's arm, keeping them from becoming separated as the floor split between them. Splintered wood thrashed dangerously around them. The safest place to go was also the most dangerous--down. Through the growing cave-in and the layers of jagged earth and rock, to ground level, where he was sure they could make an escape.

Raz took Talon's hint.

The Ruik in question sent her admirer a sharp grin and a spare thought on how nice it would be to take a tumble with anyone in sheets after such a long dry-spell. "Mother always taught us not to waste." With a (rather lame) parting shot she flared her fire higher and hotter and brighter and leaped into the growing cavern below. A good thief always knows how to make an exit, I suppose.

I just hope I don't go crunch at the bottom...

Air whistled past her ears. Her stomach flew into her throat as she lost all sense of up or down. She felt her limbs flailing around her, trying to slow her descent, but she seemed incapable of anything but picking up momentum. Falling bits of stone and dirt slipped past all around her. A rock hit her shoulder - Sonofabitch - and collapsing dust momentarily blinded her to ground rushing up below.

That's when she met the ground, of course. Eyes slammed shut and blinking out debris, Raz hit the floor on her already wounded shoulder. And, lo and behold, it happened to go crunch.

Nyk, meanwhile, made it all of three steps before Raz's fire ate away his escape. After only a moment's hesitation he wheeled back around to follow his fool-hardy friend. Azra, help me. A leap of faith, indeed!






((Wasn't sure how far we wanted Nyk along. I figure he could stick around. I'm rather fond of him, and Raz could use a friend she can rant to whenever she's pissed at Talon. Which she will be. Especially often when his ex shows up... actually, Nyk would be great to have around when the ex shows to make awkward sexual advances towards the ex and make the entire situation worse. YES. Haha. And I know that we want Talon talking, but... maybe Nyk can hit a rock on his way down and end up unconscious for a while? And they take off, dragging dead-to-the-world Nyk along and Talon starts talking. And Nyk can be, like, comatose. So they seek out a healer of something who just happens to have the next rune? And they get caught up when someone comes to steal the healer's rune? Meh, I dunno. If we need him gone, he'll be gone.

Short reply is short. Fail reply is fail.
...Raz's retort is fail.

Also: MY NEW AVATAR MATCHES MY POSTS! XD))

((Healer would be... perfect To the Illyrians! ^.^ And alright sounds good ))

Talon landed lightly on the ground and almost winced as he heard the crumble from Raz's shoulder. He herded her ahead of them out of the debris, coughing through the dust.
Stay low, stay smooth, stay undetected. They would be fine.

The shroud around the clearing had fallen, but in the time they had taken, night had fallen as well. Crickets amd glitterbugs livened the forest, making it sing and glow, as if there weren't a crumbling colossus in their midst. But they were barely enough light to see by.

The lanterns of the small city turned the trees into welcome silhouettes. Talon slowed the pace and let Raz take the lead from there, pulling his cloak tighter and wrapping his good hand around his concealed ribcage. For once, he could go for some sleep.

((Indeed, though. The posts are getting shorter. I imagine they'll lengthen again and get easier/more interesting once we get out of the action scenes and back into journeying.))

Raz stumbled ahead of Talon, cataloging her injuries. The numbed, rattling shoulder was an obvious bad sign. The sting in her ankle indicated it twisted, probably done while she was scrambling out of that hell-hole. She could feel a tiny trickle of blood flowing down her temple and a collection of other small cuts here and there. Everything just felt sore.

Once she and Talon hit the chaos of the Black Market's nights, she breathed a small sigh of relief. She had allies here, at the least, safe-houses hidden throughout the city for when she needed some patching up. At the thought, she immediately turned down an allow and stole her way through the backways to the Hellsgate, where she'd been only hours before. Mara would be pleased to see her alive - pleased enough to offer her ale and free lodging, no doubt.

Her friend's tavern was within sight when she suddenly stopped, growing pale. "Where's Nyk?"


((OK. Two choices: We can have Nyk still back in the rubble, knocked out the second he hit the ground, or we can have Nyk hit his head and concuss himself, bumbling after them, making his way to the tavern, and falling unconscious there... Option one gives us a chance to possibly face the Feolan baddie again, option two moves the plot along.))

((Let's just move the plot along XD We can let them themselves figure out what's going on fiinally, or at least the basics. They need 7 more fucking runes XD lol. There's plenty of time to have dramatic battles when we actually need them. Though I imagine the Illyrian won't be much of a battle, lol. That can be more of a... soulsearching learning experience? XD And I already have a tiny bit of plan for the Xanten... but only a side idea, not much XD But yeah, we can go ahead and move on.))


Talon shook his head and brushed past the Ruiken, nudging her injured shoulder just enough to hopefully get a rise. He didn't care for this. Had he not done enough? No, apparently not. The 'Ele blade burned on his side under its wrappings more than usual. He had been stupid and gone and gotten himself hurt again.

Without looking back, he shuffled off in the direction of the Hellsgate, willing Raz to follow. Forget the stupid halfbreed. He'd find his way home. He found his way there, didn't he?

The light of the tavern made him squint against its harsh brightness. He walked through it. He did not pause to allow Raz to speak to that girlfriend of hers. She could stop if the wanted. He went straight past the woman and up the stairs toward the room they had been in before... and almost tripped.

Nyk was sprawled across the floor in front of him, looking like something a mousehunting feline had drug home. Talon tapped him once or twice with his foot before sliding him to the side so he wouldn't endanger any other passers-by. He glanced back toward where Raz had been behind him, wondering if she saw her friend, or if she would soon. After sufficiently propping him up, Talon continued into the room and sat down in one of the chairs, bringing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them in an almost childlike position. He put his face down and was out like a light, not bothering to dress any of his acquired wounds.

As he drifted in and out, he wondered if Raz had come across that friends of hers yet.

((Random post is random.))