Mission 64

[Arynielle]

ooc; Why 64? I dunno. I like the number 64. Feel free to jump in at anytime. I don't have much of a direction for this so do what you will.

ic; Okay, mission, right... Arynielle Fallyce was trying her best to focus on the task at hand, though she couldn't help but find it quite difficult. She breathed deeply, realizing just how nervous she was. This wasn't her first mission. Far from it, in fact, as she had been on countless missions with her trusted companions. This one was a bit different, however, seeing as she had been separated from the group.

Where were they now? She had no idea, but she knew where the target was. Conveniently enough, he was standing just a few yards from where she hid. Ari was having a mental debate with herself. Should she attempt to take him down now? Or should she try to find the others?

There was a fairly strong chance that she wasn't strong enough to fight him alone. Naturally, she had her trusty bo staff and a fair arsenal of magical spells, though she still had doubts about how she'd face the assassin named Avexis. He was supposedly wanted for a number of crimes, the most brutal being, of course, death. Perhaps she was better off just following him, finding more information about the killer...

[Kriven]

Kriven crashed through the foliage, swinging his mace wildly in a failed attempt to protect his face from the sting of lashing branches. He grumbled quietly as something squished under his heavy footfall. The forest had become too dense for his liking, and he had somehow lost his travelling companions a ways back. As he sloshed through the mud and strange vegetation, he wished that he was not alone. He could sense a danger lurking nearby. Something feral, something that probably sought to make a meal of him.

"Stupid forest, with its stupid predators and its stupid trees and its stupid mud." He muttered, the magical flames that glued his stone arm together flaring up with his discontentment. "That had better not be a manticore. I really don't want to deal with a manticore."

I do. A voice within him said gleefully.

"You shut up. I don't want to deal with you either." To his surprise, the demon listened. His spirits rose slightly knowing that he wouldn't have to deal with the chiding voice inside him for at least a few more moments. On most occasions the demon was merely an annoyance, but there were times when it could overpower him. When he was tossed in an emotional spiral, or adrenaline made his heart beat to quickly.

It lunged for him, lips curled back and claws extended. Long black hair framed its pale white and almost human face. Its eyes were locked to Kriven's throat, but he was more frustrated than worried. With one swing from his mace the creatures monkey-like body was flying through the air. The creature hit a tree and slumped to the ground, but Kriven knew it was far from defeated. The most he could hope for was that he had discouraged the beast, but he knew better. Manticores were resilient creatures.

[P-chan]

Kysho was used to being broke. The thief never had a steady flow of money. In fact, he hadn't had any money at all for around a week now, which meant that he didn't have anything to buy food with, which meant that he was hungry. That was also a typical thing, Kysho being hungry. Since childhood he had learned to ignore his stomach's perpetual rumbling. However, now in addition to being broke and hungry, he was lost in a freaking forest without a freaking map because a freaking monster attacked him and made him freaking drop it. And then it ate the freaking map.

The brunette didn't know how he was supposed to make it out. It had been two days now that he wandered around aimlessly, eating random mushrooms on the ground he would stumble on every now and then. He didn't care if they were poisonous; it actually wouldn't be so bad if he died right now. At least then he wouldn't be broke, hungry, and lost. Maybe he should have let the monster eat him as well.

Leaning against a tree, Kysho squinted and looked around for something else he could eat. He was surprised when he noticed a girl crounching down. At least, he thought it was a girl. Maybe he was hallucinating again like he did sometimes, and what the hell would a girl be doing in a forest like this?

Maybe he could eat her... Nah, he wasn't a cannibal.

"Hey, you!" he screamed at the girl. He hadn't spoken in a while, and the pitch of his voice was higher than usual. Kysho cleared his throat loudly before continuing, "Hey, what are you doing over there? Are you lost, too? Do you have any food? Damn it, I'm really hungry... Why do you look like you're hiding from something? Are you hiding?" He paused, glancing around for anything else in the area. "Should I not be yelling right now? Hey!"

[Kriven]

"Hey, you!" The voice didn't seem that far off. Kriven cocked his head toward it, forgetting about the manticore for a moment. Through the leaves he thought he could see somebody, but they were so far off and so veiled by vegetation that he couldn't be sure. He took a step towards the figure, but stopped suddenly when he heard the plants behind him snap and tear.

"Oh yeah," he muttered as he glanced back at the manticore. It had climbed to its feet, just as he knew it would, and tore through the plants that lay between them. With a savage expression on its manface it lunged through the air once more. Kriven was too slow to react in this instance, and the pain that shot through his bleeding shoulder made sure that he knew it. The manticore tore away and bit again, swallowing what it could and digging its feet into his side for stability.

"Get OFF!" He shouted, clamping his stone hand over the monster’s head and with no small bit of effort, and a great deal of pain, tearing it off his shoulder. He thrust it to the ground where it writhed for a moment before he crushed it beneath the stone spikes of his mace.

"That ought to put a stop to you," he muttered, grinding the mace a bit to make sure that the beast was dead. Then he turned his attention to the gash in his shoulder and the rapidly bleeding scratches beneath his tattered shirt. "Now to put a stop to you."

He silently scolded himself for not having the foresight to bring any medical supplies. Such precautions had not seemed necessary beforehand, when there were always allies nearby to aid him. But now he was alone, and badly injured. The blood would undoubtedly draw more manticore, and he knew that he could hardly deal with even a single other.

He browsed the nearby plants, knowing that his sister Krystallin had once used them to heal his many injuries, but he had no knowledge of what plants contained healing properties. But he did know that many of them were deadly, especially when used improperly. Grumbling he turned his gaze back to where he thought he had seen the person through the trees. They were still there. Seeing no other desirable option he started towards them.

"Is that Ari?" he asked himself out loud as he drew nearer to the person. He stumbled towards her, or who he thought was her, hoping that he was correct. Because if he wasn't- well, he didn't really want to think about that.

[Arynielle]

ooc; I don't know how old Kysho is so I just made the assumption that he's not terribly old. XD

ic; Avexis paced forward, looking around to make sure that no one was watching, at which point, Ari retracted her head and hid behind a large tree. She calmed her breathing, sorely hoping that the assassin wouldn't be able to sense that she was here. That would be unfortunate, indeed, because she would likely not survive long enough to tell the tale.

Luckily, he was probably too smug with his secrets to suspect anything. When Ari gathered up the courage to peer from behind the tree again, he was gone. There was no sign of him anywhere. The half-elf frowned, sliding from her hiding place and walking toward where Avexis had last stood. For being someone who had spent her entire life around nature, she thought she would be able to find something unusual... but to her dismay, there was nothing, nothing but grass and shrubbery as anyone would have expected from a forest such as this. She sighed loudly.

Ari's mind had been so focused upon the mission, that what she heard next made the hair rise on her neck, and she jumped several inches from the ground.

"Hey, you!"

She whipped around, only to see a boy, someone who she was not familiar with. Anyone else might have been a bit more cautious about welcoming others, especially on a mission such as this, but this was Ari. Sympathetic Ari would let down her guard for anybody who came to her in need of help.

"Hey, what are you doing over there? Are you lost, too? Do you have any food? Damn it, I'm really hungry... Why do you look like you're hiding from something? Are you hiding?"

She might have looked rather suspicious for the boy to be asking her all of these questions, though she doubted that he cared too much as long as she spared him a bite to eat. "Sorry," she said, a sheepish grin on her face. "You startled me, is all. You know, I do have a bit of something from earlier... just give me a second and let me find it..." She started toward the boy, meanwhile digging through the small pouch she carried at her waist. There was a hunk of bread and cheese wrapped carefully in a fold of cloth. "It's not much, but it'll have to do for now. Here, take it."

From another area in the woods, there was movement, and Ari's elf ears picked up the sound quite easily. She turned around, only to notice that there was someone there. Although she couldn't quite see who it was, she grew nervous, at first thinking that it might have been the vengeful Avexis, waiting to slaughter her. As the figure came closer, she sighed in relief. It was Kriven, one of her many companions! ...but wait. Was that blood? Damn it. What had he gotten himself into? "Kriven! I'm so glad to see you... but what happened?" It didn't matter-- she would heal him up in a jiffy.

[Aleu]

It was, of course, an insult to the clan to request mercenaries for a mission to which there were others already assigned. It showed a certain lack of respect and faith in their capabilities. It was, of course, also a tremendous waste of money on the part of the employer -- tremendous enough for the clan's need for coin in the coffers to outweigh the blow to their dignity. The previous season's market had not been kind, and the collective family pockets ran a little too shallow for comfort.

In layman's terms, beggars could not be choosers. That was roughly Kapu's understanding of the situation. Sort of. Since his ascension to the rank of asura, he'd been privy to more of the inner workings and bureaucracy of the clan, in addition to some of the other more well-kept secrets.

From appearances, though, one really couldn't tell that anything had changed. Same chestnut, tousled hair, a sleepy set of eyes, a sort of detached, half amused grin and a perpetual slouch, Kapu looked none the worse (or better, as his sisters often noted) for his promotion to one of the highest ranks in the family. The Asura (for there was only one at a time) was a unique rank: despite being high in the filial hierarchy, it wasn't a leadership kind of role. It was sort of a "head mage practitioner." It wasn't really a bad thing to be: he was allowed access to a lot more material than he would normally be given, and a lot more respect wherever he went.

Aleu tapped him lightly on the back of the head, rousing him from his walking reverie (probably thinking about his girlfriend). "Hey." She was one thing that would probably never change. That quiet mischievous demeanour, the little grin and the graceful yet impish nature to her movements. The sly little sparkle in her eyes and the the way she talked, how everything turned playful in her hands - life seemed a game to her. Serene often commented on it, saying how she seemed a kind of "big, fat fairy."

"You can sense it, right? Ari's up there, with our friend." Ari was one of those people you find once or twice in your life that never seem to really go away, no matter how many times you said goodbye. She always popped up again before long. She was a kind girl, a bit drifty in the head and not really the most practical of people, but it was because she had a good heart. That caused no end of grief to Silver the few times that they had worked together.

The target, on the other hand, was not a familiar presence. Kapu focused a little at Aleu's words, probing and trying to sense Avexis a little more deeply. He masked his presence adequately -- you wouldn't really be able to tell he was there unless you were gifted or looking for him specifically, but by the feel of his aura he was too confident in his own abilities to even consider anyone a threat. Idiot. With that much hubris Kapu wouldn't even need to get in range of sight to kill the sucker.

"I'm going to go forward and keep an eye on Ari, I'll see you soon." Without waiting for a response, Aleu ran towards the thicket and disappeared into the foliage without a sound. Silent running in the forest -- it was a good skill to have, since missions always seemed to happen in... well, forests. Why always a forest, anyway? Prickly, tangley place to be, with vines and crap all over the place to trip you up...

About a kilometer away, Aleu crept quietly out of the underbrush, standing a few arms' lengths away from Ari. "Psst. Remember me?"

[P-chan]

"Hell yeah! Right on," Kysho eagerly exclaimed as he accepted the food from Ari. He was glad for the bread, but the cheese on the other hand... He never liked cheese. It reeked and came from a freaking cow. That was so disgusting. Still, the sight of food and fact that he held some in his hands managed to make him even hungrier. After sitting down on the ground, he scarfed down the bread and, grudgingly, the cheese as well.

All the commotion from other people appearing around him didn't bother him at all. He licked the last breadcrumbs from his fingertips as he looked up at them silently. None of the new faces interested him, and he looked back up to Ari. More importantly, he looked at the pouch she pulled the food from. If she was nice enough to give him this food even though they were complete strangers, maybe she'd give him more.

Or hey, maybe she'd give him some gold if he asked for it. Now that would be cool. People tended not to do that, though. The last time he was courteous for a change and actually asked for someone else's gold instead of stealing it, they threw a fit and tried to kill him. Kysho had no choice but to kill them instead and take it from them.

Not that there was a problem with killing other people. But even though he didn't have a problem doing it if he had to, he still preferred not to. He was a thief after all, not an assassin or something like that. Thief sounded a lot nicer than assassin anyways.

Either way, before he asked someone to, uh, donate to his, uh, personal fund, he had to hang around them more. You couldn't just ask a stranger to give you money, as he had learned previously. He had no clue why all these people were congregating together in this one place, but that didn't really matter. He was still really hungry

"Hey, hey. You, nice girl," Kysho called out as he poked Ari's leg. "Do you have any more food? I'm still huuuungry."

[Kriven]

"I found a friend along the way," Kriven muttered as Ari worked her magic. He felt the bleeding stop, and knew that the wound was slowly closing, but the pain would not subside. Not for a long while, in any case.

"Who's this kid?" he asked, gesturing toward the strange boy poking at Ari's leg.

There's something about him I like... the demon growled. The note of genuine interest in its voice concerned Kriven greatly.

(Sorry it's so scarce and so late. New classes have eaten my soul.)

[Arynielle]

Ari frowned at Kysho's response, not because she was upset, but because he looked awfully hungry and she had nothing else to give him. "I'm sorry," she replied. "That was all the food that I had..." Her voice drifted off as she continued working on Kriven's wounds. Magic was her strong suit. Even though she was quite apt with her trusty bo staff, she was still better with magical spells. Being a half-elf had its benefits, despite the lack of social acceptance.

As Kriven's open cut finished healing, she removed her hand from his body; the flow of magic stopped, along with the mellow, warm sensation that was a result of her healing spell. Ari raised an eyebrow to Kriven's comment. "Oh? This one?" Realization hit her, and she addressed Kysho. "I don't actually know! We just met. Say, what's your name? I'm Ari." She extended her hand, assuming that the young newcomer would accept it.

At that point, something unexpected happened. Well, practically everything on these missions were somewhat unexpected, but Ari certainly was not expecting this. Ari's elven ears twitched as they detected something from the nearby brush. Naturally, began to focus on what could be the cause of this noise, only to hear a familiar voice moments later. "Aleu?" She turned around, noticing the girl with whom she had ventured with on countless occasions. "Oh my! Aleu, I haven't seen you in forever! Where did you come from?" Ari leapt toward Aleu in an almost crushing embrace.

[Aleu]

"Eep." Aleu tried her best to return the embrace, but her arms were pinned tight to her sides and Ari was doing a good job of compressing her rib cage as well. "Ahh, ahh, I'm glad to see you too, ple.. please let go of me ;_;" Freeing herself, Aleu held her old friend at (a safe) arm's length and smiled. "I thought I heard the sound of trouble not far off. How've you been?" She turned a little, to look at the others. "You and company, I guess."

Releasing Ari, she bent at the knees to look Kriven in the eye. "I see you for the first time in months and you're all beat up!" Aleu gave him a once over. "Real beat up. You can't stay out of trouble, can you?

'And speaking of trouble, what's this thing?" Aleu finally turned towards Kysho, still grabbing at Ari. "Are you some kind of cat? Or a dog? Do you know tricks?"