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Post by Tiamat on May 11, 2018 23:12:47 GMT -6
Kesstril groaned a little as the water surrounding her feet amped up the intensity of its massage. She had never experienced such a strange sensation before, but it felt so good. Maybe it was worth having such soft, vulnerable skin sometimes, if this was the trade-off.
Sudden cold, wet pressure at her back made her stiffen. Before she could whip around to figure out what was there, the water soaking through her cloak and tunic reached skin and began to press in at tense muscles. Kesstril's eyes widened as she realized what Drake was doing. An instant later they drooped and she relaxed with a sigh. She grinned at the wizard. "Are you kidding? Don't know how this would feel... against scales, but... I'd love to find out." Her breath caught more than once as she spoke, the pleasurable relief from the combined massage points briefly overwhelming her.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2018 9:53:28 GMT -6
Hmm, he hadn't thought entirely about scales and how hard it would be to press into them let alone massage them. Perhaps it would take a lake to do such a thing. At least he could freely do this now, without having to press extra hard into concrete skin and all. He couldn't feel her muscles through the water, but he knew that they were releasing into a relaxed state the more he grated his wster about her toughened shoulders. The water acted like strong hands in his own image, kneading with thumbs in a circular motion from the base of her neck to the middle of her back while the other fingers drummed along carefully. Watery tendrils patted around her ankles and popped her toes gently as it churned with more intensity, vigoursly beating any hurt flesh into relaxed submission.
He yawned, but the water didn't falter. "I suppose we should be getting some sleep, so that we're ready in the morning for a whole lotta walking." He saw the enjoyment her eyes, but wisely decided to just smirk and not tease her about it. As the water popped her back in tension-releasing moves, he gestured to them. "I can keep this up a little longer for you."
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Post by Tiamat on May 14, 2018 21:24:08 GMT -6
She hummed, eyes half-lidded in contentment. "Yeah. Get some sleep." Kess resisted the urge to lean back into the water, not sure if it would really be able to support her weight. It sure felt solid enough, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. She hadn't forgotten what it was. Drake's offer gave her pause. She tilted her head in clear thought, considering the matter, but eventually shook her head. "Save your strength, wizard. I'll be perfectly fine in the morning. Besides, I'll feel better if I don't get too relaxed out here." For the first time since Drake started his water massage, Kesstril's eyes darted to the woods, studying the dark spaces between the trees.
It occurred to her, then, that she wouldn't be perfectly fine in the morning. She didn't dare fight off the sorcerer's spell while they were in elven land; not only would that draw every last one of the vicious things, but they'd likely arrive when she was still weak and reeling from the curse reasserting itself over her. She couldn't rely on spending a minute in her natural form to heal herself.
Kesstril groaned and flopped back onto the ground, twisting quickly over onto her stomach so she faced the woods away from Drake. If anything was going to come at her, it would likely be from the near side of the forest. She scowled and gave her toes an experimental flex. Tomorrow was going to be awful.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2018 22:38:04 GMT -6
Shrugging off her words and believing she'd be fine without his relaxing aid, he reluctantly peeled the water off of her body and went through the short process of cleansing it--he didn't want to have Kess flavored water, after all. The young wizard settled in a mumbled goodnight and was pretty much out in the next couple of minutes. That left the dragon woman alone with his purple and blue fire, now that his sleep left little to change the hue. It crackled silently, like a whisper trying to start conversation.
Hours later and the fire was much dimmer, threatening to go out altogether. Darkness crept in from the edges of every crevice like tentacles of black. Nothing could sway it away or scare it off...nothing except the orange glow in the distance. It's glowing actions made the darkness hide around her in the form of shadows. It seemed to be passing, not going away or coming closer.
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Post by Tiamat on May 16, 2018 19:16:58 GMT -6
What woke her? Kesstril squinted, opening her eyes in mere slits until she was sure there was no one in the area watching her. The forest was pitch black, an inkwell of darkness that stained everything beyond the dying blue-purple light of Drake's fire. Everything except... Kesstril's eyes widened, her body tensing as she spotted a flickering orange glow in between the trees. It was small, and not quite bright enough to illuminate its surroundings from where she lay. A candle, or a lantern? Someone was out there. A shiver zipped down her spine, shocking her wide awake. Elves. Had they spotted the campfire? Were they taunting her?
The light continued to bob along as whoever was out there passed with slow, steady footsteps, apparently unconcerned by wandering through the woods in the middle of the night. A patrol, perhaps? Someone on a routine check for intruders?
Kesstril started to turn her head, to hiss for Drake to wake up, and nearly lost track of the little flame as it passed behind a tree. Her head snapped back around to face it, leery of letting whoever was out there disappear from her sight. There was nothing for it, then. She rose silently to her feet, pausing just long enough to shove her overlarge boots back on, and then crept into the woods. She would just get close enough to figure out who was there, what they were doing, and then she would slip back to the wizard.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2018 23:55:43 GMT -6
The wizard didn't rouse even with the light noise of his companion moving interrupting his snoring. Perhaps he'd grown accustomed to the feeling of someone being nearby at all times, and the distinct lack of her aura was unsettling in his sleep. He shifted on his side and became on the very of awakening. The light that loved along at moderate speed seemed to slow, as if the bearer had noticed her. It ambled over to her and the light slowly shifted from orange to a set of hues produced by purple and blue. The lantern turned out to be a very large ball of vibrating energy, letting off waves in the form of entrancing light. It floated right up to her her face and bobbed a few times, testing her attraction to the flashing lights.
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Post by Tiamat on May 22, 2018 15:40:16 GMT -6
Kesstril blinked at the light, taken aback as it drew close. What was it? "You're no elf," she murmured, frowning at it. No elf magic either, unless she missed her guess. She'd never seen anything like this before, not floating around independently on its own. Its color deepened, darkening to purple and then sliding into blue. Kesstril watched it curiously. The effect rather reminded her of Drake's magefire.
Drake! Just as she remembered her companion, the fist-sized sphere of light rose up right in front of her face, far too close for comfort as it bathed her in the gentle glow of its light. Kesstril shook her head and swatted at it to make it back off. Pretty though it was, she didn't appreciate the intrusion into her space. She eyed it for a moment longer and then tore her gaze away, turning slowly back the way she came. It didn't register how hard it was for her to look away from the bobbing light; she merely peered back through the trees, trying to remember which way Drake and the campsite were. The little light had mostly gone in a straight line, she thought, so if she just walked steadily in... that direction, she should spot the embers of the magefire soon enough.
Kesstril set off, moving carefully across the ground in case there were any elves about.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2018 16:10:38 GMT -6
Indeed embers of light could be seen, gently wafted by the calm breeze of night. But the closer she got, the more she would be able to discern the shape of floating orange and by then the orb of floating orange begwn to bob up to her. As if by some command from the other following her, the wisp stopped short of three feet from her face and waited patiently as the first bobbed up to it. Silent flickers of communication were given between each other, before the second wisp bobbed over the first and the second chased it's fleeing tail. The moved in a perfect circles and flashed colors from every spectrum imaginable ; every shade and brightness was a product of their combined effort.
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Post by Tiamat on May 24, 2018 20:45:13 GMT -6
There, that must be the campfire. Kesstril was so used to associating fire with orange and yellow that she headed right towards the flickering light. If she'd paused to think about it for a minute, she might have remembered that Drake's magefire was always purple and blue. As it was, she was spotted by the misleading little sphere before she realized her mistake. "Oh!" She drew up short and stared at it in dismay. If this wasn't the way back...
With one eye on the new light, she peered away into the woods, searching for any hint of their campfire. The embers had been so low when she left. She hadn't intended to go so far, or veer off from her original route. She sniffed the air. Sap, and the general greenery of a forest, but of course she could detect no hint of smoke or any other odor that might help her find her way back. Movement from the light drew her attention to it. Kesstril watched as the two lights flickered at one another. Were they intelligent?
"I don't suppose you understand me, do you?" Whatever response she'd expected, it wasn't for the two of them to begin rotating in circles and blinking at her in a rainbow of hues. Kesstril grinned in delighted awe. "Is that a yes?" Was that how they talked? They were beautiful. It was almost like they were dancing for her. Another light appeared, practically zipping through the trees to reach its fellows. It slowed and began shifting from pale yellow to a medley of colors as it joined in, bobbing round and around in the air. Kesstril smiled. What a marvelous sight... it was just too bad that Drake was missing out on it too. She would have to tell him about it when she found him.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2018 20:56:11 GMT -6
The new light was welcomed eagerly by the other wisps, and together they formed a spinning heel of colors and light shades. Then they slowly dissolved into something of a serpentine wave, bobbing up when another was down and vice versa. With each new form of movement, the wisps pulled out a different color to flash their bodies with. Weaker than the colors of the gorgon and scepter perhaps, but still very intriguing to behold. Eventually the trio of wisps formed into a wave of single file and led themselves away from Kess at a slow speed, disappearing into the darker places of the forest and killing the darkness there.
Awakened fully by the lack of a partner, Drake grumbled inauribly as he spotted the empty sleeping pace of Kess. She was unbelievable sometimes; choosing to sleep walk now instead of the bazillion other times she could have revealed this quirk. "Guess id better hunt you down before a gorgon takes advantage of...the situation?" He squinted at his eyes at a trio of lights moving in the dark. Who was that near them?
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Post by Tiamat on May 24, 2018 22:06:11 GMT -6
She didn't know how long she watched the lights dance and spin, flashing color after color into the night. Their glow was warm, welcoming, a bright beacon that nevertheless remained soft enough that she could barely make out the trees around them. Of course, Kesstril was hardly focusing on the trees. She wasn't even worried about the possibility of the colorful lights leading an elf right to her. Her breathing slowed and her blinking nearly stopped, so reluctant was she to miss a second of the enthralling show. The lights wove and fell, dipped and swayed, weaving in and out amongst one another as fluidly as a school of fish.
And then it was over, the lights bobbing away like a trio of ducklings all in a row. "Wait!" Kesstril protested, her voice a low murmur. "Don't stop now." She followed the wisps without thinking, only wanting to see more of their dazzling dance.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2018 1:30:41 GMT -6
The wisps bounced, unaffected by the light protests of Kess as they led her away with renewed fervor. They intended to lead her to places unknown, as they had done time and time again for millennia. Legends often depicted the wisps as dangerous and bizarre only because of the danger of the unknown that they possessed. No one has quite the idea of where the followers are led and do not wish to find out. Kess would have been one of the few to experience what eould happen...
If something hadn't cut it off after eight minutes of walking.
Drake blinked as he heard it; a yell. But it wasn't a yell of...pain, per se. It was a strangely confident yell with a warrior's accent to it, something from someone that constantly broke their voice. It was funny...but too bizarre to actually laugh at. Whether it was Kess or not, The wizard broke into a light jog to catch up with the last humanoid shape he'd seen walking past from a distance. For all knew, his pal was a dragon again and someone was getting the wrong impression of her.
Little did he know that the sound was produced by a figure swinging on a vine, swiping up Kess with an arm around her hips.
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Post by Tiamat on May 31, 2018 18:36:29 GMT -6
The wisps bounced along, cheery and carefree, and Kesstril followed, equally unconcerned. At least, she was until a prolonged shout -- almost a yodel, really -- barreled through the still night and disrupted the peace. Kesstril's lips twitched down in a faint moue of displeasure. Her gaze remained locked on the wisps, however... until a sudden jarring force connected with her waist and yanked her sideways off the ground.
She gasped, her breath knocked out of her all at once, and frowned in confusion as the dull fog that had settled over her mind abruptly cleared. "What...?" Air rushed past her face and she turned into it instinctively, leaving behind all sight of the wisps. They had already disappeared anyway, more and more trees rising between her and them as whoever had her moved further away. Were they flying? There was no lift and drop, no sound of wingbeats in the night -- and no room between the trees. Tense, Kesstril squinted at the form pressed next to her, but couldn't make out much of anything beyond a humanoid face on whoever had snatched her. "What's going on?"
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2018 19:32:05 GMT -6
Drake charged his way forward, curious more than worried about Kess. He spotted illuminated movement in the treetops and made a beeline for the swinging figures as fast as he could. He tripped over a log and stubbed his toe, so he practically danced his way over to the figures as they came to land on the ground. The wizard bounced his last bounce ss he finally stopped before them, and squinted at Kess' awakened features. Then his eyes bulged at the figure beside her.
It was an elf, and not the kind he was expecting in any way. For one, there was a crazed smile on his face as opposed to the calm, indifferent stare he expected elves to have. For another, he was only wearing a brown loincloth and had a spear tucked under one arm. Didn't elves wear intricate clothes made from the finest fabric? And for yet another, he was not skinny by a long shot. And being fat did not go well with a brown loincloth.
Drake moved his stare from the grinning elf to Kess and then back to the elf again. He blinked hard, slapped himself and then blinked once more. "I'm still dreaming. I cant be seeing a naked elf right now."
"Half naked, my boy. Half," The portly creature pointed out swiftly. "Which is really not naked at all. I'm almost entirely clothed."
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Post by Tiamat on Jun 3, 2018 21:48:43 GMT -6
Kesstril's eyes were as wide and round as silver coins as she jerked herself away from the elf. He let her go readily enough, though his hand hovered near her as if to snatch her up again at a moment's notice. She stepped back out of reach of both arm and spear towards Drake, wary. How Drake had arrived she didn't know, but she was grateful for his presence -- both because he provided welcome backup and because he immediately drew the elf's attention towards himself. From the swiftness of the elf's response, she got the impression this was not the first time someone had questioned his choice of attire. To be sure, he was the most unusually-dressed elf she had ever seen, but that didn't change the fact that he was an elf.
She took a deep, steadying breath, and held it in her chest. Although she knew it was useless in her cursed form, it still made her feel a little better. Drake's words from days earlier rang through her head again. "Elves may be smart, but I don't think they'll be smart enough to look at a human and instantly know what you are! Look at me! I'm outrageously smart and I didn't know what you were!" The faintest hint of an amused smile curled her lips up, and she exhaled. Human. As far as any of them would know, she was just another human. Kesstril peered into the trees but saw no hint of any other elves accompanying this one. Of course, that meant very little. Whatever else they were, elves were skilled. If they didn't want to be seen...
She breathed in again, and then out. Just another human. There was no reason for them to suspect her, just as she had to appear unsuspecting of their own true, vicious nature. Though she opened her mouth to speak, Kesstril couldn't bring herself to step any closer to the elf, even if the odds seemed slim that he had any additional weapons to the spear. "Those lights you pulled me away from: what were they? I've never seen creatures like that before."
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