VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 11:19:23 02/11/02 Mon
Author: Laurel and Rowan
Subject: Through the Looking Glass
In reply to: Marz and co. 's message, "To the ruins of Twilight" on 10:15:15 02/11/02 Mon

Laurel couldn’t help feeling a little excited when Argus assured her that he was a magic-user. And the things he could do! So similar to what earth-magic practitioners such as herself attempted to work with; healing, for example, and strengthening of the body. She found herself suddenly feeling slightly mortified that he might be more powerful than she; after all, her healing abilities were rudimentary, at best, and those blessings he spoke of were simply beyond her level of training as of yet.

She decided, however, that he was perhaps bluffing, since men often did that when speaking to her, although she could never quite fathom why. Besides, it would make her feel much better if she persisted in believing that he wasn’t all that more proficient than she was.

“You are a healer,” she pressed on, her green eyes lighting up. “Can you speak to the earth, too?” To demonstrate, she whispered the words to a very simple spell, causing the sand between them to rise up and swirl slowly in a tiny little whirlwind before falling back to the earth. “And what is this hammer of the sun spell? I should like to try it, too, whatever it is!”

Oh, wouldn’t it be absolutely splendid if they could attempt to teach one another? It would be like being in school again, and she would be learning new spells just like before, and perhaps have the privilege of sharing what she knew with their new friend.

Before they could begin seriously discussing magic, though, the centaurs began to herd everyone together, indicating that it was time to move on to the ruins of the nearby city. Laurel complied quickly, shouldering her pack and her bow, checking to be sure the weapon was in good condition. It was likely that they would encounter resistance, whether from the Sharm or some other foreign entity, and she began to realize that this unsettled her not in the least. Finally, she was beginning to enjoy this role of “adventurer” and to even anticipate what exciting thing they might next encounter.

As she climbed the rubble into the city, walking single file with the rest, she nearly laughed to see Mikoshi bounding along beside her, furry gray tail held proudly in the air. She was now quite certain the Jann cat was no ordinary cat. The creature had a mind of its own (though most cats did, admittedly), and she wouldn’t think of ordering it to stay behind with the centaurs if it would rather accompany them.

Tia’s sudden scream made even whirl around, hands flying to their various weapons when they saw the fingers emerging from a wall, wrapped around the tiny thief in an attempt to pull her through it. Laurel immediately crouched down behind a pile of rubble and began firing arrows in rapid succession at the wall, her bolts flying true to hit the weapon-wielding hands almost every time.

It seemed almost fruitless, though, as every time one bleeding hand slipped back into the stonework, another, healthier one emerged to take its place. Instead of focusing on this rather unsettling setback, she tried to focus on disabling the archer hands as quickly as possible, so that none of her friends at least had to worry about fending off flying arrows while attempting to rescue Tia.

~*~*~*~*~

Rowan soon gave up trying to fight the hands that were flailing about on the wall. Every time he wounded one it would disappear, only to be replaced by another one, usually brandishing a new weapon, too. He’d never encountered anything like this in his life, and it was absolutely frustrating! How the hell were they supposed to fight this thing, anyway?

Instead of trying to ponder that, he simply sheathed his swords and dove for Tia, catching his arms around her shoulders as she was still being dragged through. Swiftly, he palmed a dagger and slashed at the various appendages holding on to her, and now him, too, but once again it was an almost pointless task. The hands were all over Tia, and now they gripped his own ankles, as well. He struggled as best he could, but they were slowly being pulled into the wall until he was waist deep in stone, with nothing save Tia’s head and shoulders still outside it.

“Sweet Lady, protect us,” he breathed, instinctively closing his eyes and holding his breath as they were finally pulled through. Rather than being trapped in stone, however, they actually emerged on what he at first thought was the other aside. The wall tossed them carelessly out, throwing them several feet out so that they landed roughly on the dirt, Rowan’s arms still holding Tia protectively.

After a few seconds, however, it finally dawned on him what was wrong. The cries from the other side were indefinably muffled, as if they came from many miles away. As he glanced around the abandoned area they were in, he realized he didn’t recognize it at all, either. Quickly, he released Tia and crawled toward the wall, touching its cool, unyielding surface with his fingers.

“What should we do?” he asked, turning to give her a vaguely worried look, his blue eyes shining in the moonlight. “Think we should try to call out to them so that they’ll follow?” He didn’t relish the idea of just the two of them together in this place, separated from the others. Sure, he’d wanted to get Tia alone earlier, but this hadn’t exactly been the plan in mind!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.