The sun is beginning to set over the Nexan wilderness, creating a spray of colors over the horizon. It is the noisy time of day when creatures of the daylight clamor their goodnights, and the creatures of the night are just beginning to awake. The reddish sun casts shadows over the mountainous landscape, illuminating two figures who have stopped their day's travel to make camp for the night.
Michael surveys the clearing on the mountainside, stretching out his legs.
Jarik takes a breath and scans the area, "Is the entire world this...bleak?"
Michael blinks, uncomprehendingly. "Black? No, see, green..." He points to a nearby bush.
Michael points to his robe. "This black."
Jarik tries not to smirk, "No, bleak...barren...desolate."
Michael scratches his head. "Dead?"
Jarik hmms, "Close, similar idea."
Michael says, "No, not dead. Alive. The world is full."
Michael picks a leaf and shows it to Jarik. "It is beautiful, yes?"
Jarik hms, "Well, I'm just used to forests and life surrounding me. Here, I just don't 'feel' the life. I can't even feel you. It's as if this world is emotionally dead, or damped..."
Michael thinks for a moment, then nods. "Maybe, it is just hiding?"
Michael puts down his bow and quiver, and collects wood in the last light of day.
Jarik looks to the sky, "Perhaps... Perhaps."
Michael piles some in the middle of the clearing and looks up for a moment, smiling. "Perhaps, you are hiding?"
Jarik tilts his head, then chuckles, "Only from my past." He turns to look over at the pile, "I take it we are to camp here tonight?"
Michael says, "You want to continue? The journey is not short. The journey will take many weeks. We should rest."
Jarik says, "No, this is fine. I'm just used to traveling alone, and for long periods of time, thats all."
Michael says, "I am the same."
Michael looks around, thoughtfully.
Jarik says, "The last person I traveled with for a time was Delachiel. That was long ago now."
Michael says, "Who is this Delachiel? She is Hree-^to, like you?"
Jarik says, "A what? She is a xardeth elf and a friend of mine."
Michael says, "Sar-death?"
Michael nods... "Hree-^to...um, Hree man. Hree?" Michael puts his hands up near his head, making as if he had scoop-shaped ears. He wags his behind and imaginary tail a bit and makes a 'Yerf!' sound.
Jarik blinks, "Oh! You mean a fox. No, she was not."
Michael says, "Fox?"
Michael nods to himself. "Yes. Hree. Fox."
Michael smiles.
Jarik looks away, "There are no other foxes on my home world. Delachiel I met on another world and she helped me try to locate a criminal."
Michael says, "Where did you come from?"
Michael says, "There must be two, to make more..."
Michael smirks.
Jarik leans against a rock, "Oh, there were, once. I am all that's left. My race was destroyed over 5 years ago."
Michael nods solemnly, then sits on the ground and holds some leaves in a hand. As he passes the other hand over it, the leaves start to smolder and catch fire.
Michael places the burning leaves under some other small branches and starts up the fire.
Jarik shrugs, "It's of no concern. When I am gone, so will my race die and be forgotten..."
Michael says, "Your own choice, that is..."
Jarik raises an eyebrow, "My choice...?"
Michael says, "Yes. Death is not the same as forgetted."
Jarik looks at the fire, "My race was small and sparce. We were quiet and peaceful." He looks up, "There can be no more because...I walk alone."
Michael snorts.
Jarik says, "I will not condemn someone to love me. Everyday I face danger, the possibility of it being my last day. No one should have to live with that."
Michael says, "Alone? No Kainudy Dragons? No Delachiels? No Nights?"
Michael says, "Again, your own choice."
Michael says, "If you are so sad of your own choice, how good did you choose?"
Michael throws some larger logs on the fire and lays back.
Jarik says, "I had no choice, not after the day they came. Perhaps part of me died with them... I've known love...and I lost it that day, I lost everything. I...couldn't face that again."
Michael throws a log on the fire. "You knewed love. You are not alone."
Michael stands and looks at Jarik. "Tell me. Is loosing all mean never having again?"
Michael says, "Yes? Then why you are fighting your shadow?"
Jarik says, "Because, I want to give others a chance I never had. A chance at life and happiness."
Michael says, "Then; You are not alone. You will not be forgotted."
Jarik looks up at the darkening sky, "Being forgotten isn't what I'm afraid of. I want people to see what I stood for, to learn that one person can make a difference... It's the ideals I want remembered..."
Michael smiles and nods. "Ah-ha. So there it is. You worry you will fail."
Jarik says, "I have before... I failed my family...my mother..my sister...everyone."
Michael walks over, and lays a hand on Jarik's shoulder.
Nebula wakes up.
Michael says, "You have lost much...When you have nothing, you only can gain. If you try."
Michael shrugs. "You don't try, you don't gain. Your loss is no good."
Jarik shakes his head, "I can't... I see them in the eye of the people I meet. I hear their cries in my sleep."
Michael says, "Get over it."
Jarik looks at Michael, and says nothing.
Michael says, "Look at you. Look at your task."
Jarik says, "'Then don't ask about Jarik's past. His past is what drives him so."
Jarik says, "My task is to stop the creature from escaping. Once that is done, things may change. Nothing is ever constant."
Michael says, "Yes. I tell you, your past hurts. I know."
Michael sticks his hand into the fire and pulls it out quickly. "The fire hurts, don't sit in it. Use it to light your way."
Jarik hmmfs, "I've spent so long trying to help others... I've never tried to help myself."
Michael says, "A sick healer can heal other people, then die. Or can heal herself, then heal forever."
Jarik looks up, "Where are you from...?"
Michael says, "Here."
Jarik says, "Here?"
Jarik says, "Have you any family?"
Michael nods and pats the ground. "Yes. Here."
Michael says, "Oh, some..."
Michael smiles.
Jarik chuckles... "Why did you offer to show me to Haven?"
Michael says, "I offered to take you."
Jarik says, "But why? I'm curious..."
Michael shrugs, "I was going home? You look for people? Lots of people in Haven."
Jarik nods slightly, "What is Haven like? For that matter, what is this world like?"
Michael says, "Haven has a lot of people. Lots"
Jarik says, "What is the cities purpose, trade?"
Michael says, "Ah, and Nexus is big...has lots of water, it's green some places, brown sometimes, white sometimes."
Michael nods, "I think so. It grew fast."
Jarik hmms, "Is this world visited much by offworlders?"
Michael says, "Off...offenders?"
Michael says, "Yes, many offending people."
Jarik chuckles
Jarik says, "Nono, as in travellers from other worlds."
Michael scratches his chin. "I do not know. I think, maybe, yes?"
Michael says, "Many new..."
Jarik nods...
Michael seaches for the right word. "Magic doors?"
Michael says, "Close enough."
Jarik nods.
Michael says, "Many long ago, too."
Jarik hms.
Jarik says, "Perhaps someone there will know of this creature of decay and how to stop it..."
Jarik says, "I can hope."
Michael says, "Maybe. I have never heard of it."
Michael says, "But I haven't been looking."
Jarik says, "Well, it's been imprisoned for over a thousand years"
Jarik says, "And probably forgotten about."
Michael nods and yawns.
Jarik says, "I don't even know how the first of my order stopped him."
Michael shrugs. "If he did."
Jarik says, "All hints suggest he did, somehow."
Michael rolls a really big log onto the fire.
Jarik says, "All that was found of him was this sword..."
Jarik draws the sword from it's scabbard...
Michael cocks his head?
It's old and battered. Many nicks in the metal and tarnish on the quillion. The leatherwrapped handle is frayed and tattered.
Michael blinks and cocks his head at the sword.
Jarik returns the blade to it's scabbard, "It's said to have been a gift to him by a dragon he rescued when he was young."
Michael says, "Hmmm..."
Michael scratches his chin, deep in thought.
Jarik says, "It's been carried by all heads of the order. It has some magical ability, but nothing spectacular."
Michael says, "What's that?"
Jarik draws the sword again and it ignites in a blue flame, "When charged, it cannot be damaged. It is no more powerful than a regular sword, though. It takes and amplifies the users innate magical power."
Michael says, "oh..."
Michael nods sagely.
Jarik lets the energy fade and the flame die before returning it to the scabbard, "Nothing all that useful, actually."
Michael says, "Seems useful to me."
Jarik shrugs, "It makes a good torch."
Michael says, "If that's what you choose to use it for..."
Michael says, "We should sleep."
Jarik nods, "Yes. We need to continue at dawn, so we'd best get sleep. Goodnight, Michael..."
Michael stands and walks over to a tree, which he nimbly climbs up to a sturdy branch.
Michael drapes himself over the branch and mutters, "Goodnight."
Jarik reclines against a rock and pulls his hood over his face...