Beginnings (M)

[Fimbulwinter]

It was a sunny, pleasent day in the Capital. People bustled around the great Temple of Vau'Cheth either for worship or by simple passing by. There was, however, a small group reading a large parchment notice. A figure dressed in a black robe, hood up, stood among them reading.

Missing!

Mandolin Blackwood, High Priestess of Tatriel

Yes, we knew that or we wouldn't be here. Ubrey's always been a formal sort of bloke, though. the man thought to himself. He skipped over the theatrics and description, knowing both rather well and read the reward.

..Anyone to bring her back, alive or otherwise, shall be rewarded with fame and fortune!

I'll pass on the fame, he thought, But the fortune doesn't sound half bad... He continued to stand there and reread the poster to be sure of it's contents. He noticed that the others around him were all rather rough looking.

Mercenaries, he thought, Should've figured they'd be here. They always are. He began to listen to their conversation out of curiousity, figuring it would be of what they would be spending their money on.

"When the hell is he gettin' here?" One of them grunted to the others, "I'm gettin' sick of waitin' for 'im!"

"He'll be here, just a little late is all," Another replied.

Odd, wonder who they're referring too... The man thought, Mercenaries don't respect many outside of their profession, so it'll probably be another Merc...but who? The black clad man shook his head slightly and reread the poster.

[Acies Valdun]

Acies couldn't help but feel like whistling on a beautiful day like today. The sun was shining, he could hear the birds singing almost as enthusiastically as he, and best of all... There was money to be earned! Sweet salvation! That thought never failed to put a large smile on the man's soft face. The greed of a Thief had never truly left him...

But, there were other more important things at hand! No longer could he linger about the town square when he quite obviously had a job to take up. After all... No reward if you don't get hired! And, he'd probably have a hard time reading the map to get to the Vau'Cheth Temple as it was... It was written in his own chicken scrawl, and not even the best sages or scholars were able to decipher anything worthwhile from that mass of jumbled and sloppy letters.

The gentle afternoon breeze ruffled the mercenary's hair as he strolled through the city on his way to the temple, reminding him of why he continued to enjoy life as much as he did. Sure he killed people on a daily basis. Sure he'd seen things that made some grown men wet themselves... But, not even that could compare to a day as divine as this! Well, maybe a lusty barmaid or two... But that was another story! Not really, actually. It was kind of his life's story...

Soon he was at the Temple, brushing past the bystanders and making his way past the group of ratehr gruff looking men reading the notice. He already knew of the job, and didn't need to chat over the details with them. So, instead, he would glide over and stand at the main entrance of the Temple itself, assuming he needed to report to the stuffy old High Priest.

"Roll out the red carpet, and fetch the alley whores! The Hurricane is here!" Certainly not the best way to enter a place of prayer, but... What did he care? They probably assumed he was gonna be some uncivillized barbarian no matter what he did, so he might as well have fun with it.

Good Gods, it was wonderful to be alive!

[Janus]

CLICKITY-CLACK CLICKITY-CLACK

BANG BANG BANG

The giant emerald colored beetle skidded to a stop about a half a mile from the Heart of the Land, knowna s Illiria. Pots, pans, and other impliments of cooking destruction rattled in a cacaphony of noise that caused innocent bystanders such as small rodents and birds to run away in fear. A small man perched himself on the neck of the beastly overgrown exosketeton, a gray hood pulled low over his face and dark gloves covering his hands despite the warm weather. Ruby red eyes peered on the horizon suspiciously, as if searching for something before returning to the comfort of the shadows in his cowl.

Dismounting from his not so little friend, Janus pet the creature affectionately, making a few clucking noises to it. In return in made a soft trilling noise before scuttling off, to make it's way around the town in safty. Janus however, made his way towards the city, curious as to it's odd structure. It was over a large body of water? How strange.

Still though he was nervous, and quietly made his way down through the soft grasses that outlayed the city, his small pointed ears twitching when he heard the noise of many people conversing. His lithe frame turned slightly in their direction, and his damnable curiousity won over as he started walking towards the throng of people.

"E-eh?" He looked down at his feet as he was headed to them. Janus went as far as to hiss at them. "... Damn you! I need to stay away from people!" He pouted and held his hands in small fists under his face as he whined a moment longer, then quieting as he twitched his ears to hear the conversation better.

"....-estess is missing..."

"...large reward for her or the people who harm h-"

"... -onder if you know who wil-"

Blinking again, he padded behind the crowd and looked at the entrance of the temple, nibbling his bottom lip as soft cloth shoes tapped against the grass. Unexpectedly, someone bumped into him and he squaked indignantly, stumbling to regain his footing and cowering away from the larger person.

"...I... I'm sorreh, eh?" He said, almost confused as to what he -should- say, but the man grunted and he sighed, relaxing a moment as he headed towards the large decorated opening to the temple.

"Roll out the red carpet, and fetch the alley whores! The Hurricane is here!"

Janus turned his head slightly, wondering what on earth was going on. Once again his bottom lip curled between delicate rows of white teeth and he hummed to himself.

~I wonder what's going on... a name like 'Hurricane' sure makes him sound self important. Oh well... there's lot of hurricanes that come through Terra do Fogo! Nothing I can't...handle... oh drat it all who am I kidding... all it takes is someone to cry 'Jinn' and I'm running for my hide again..~

[laertes]

"...alive or otherwise, hmm..." Murmured Laertes as he read the notice, trying not to be annoyed by the rather large amount of people huddled around it. He knew anyone with half a brain could tell he was a harpie, since he didn't feel like wearing his hood and his straw colored hair and golden eyes were in plain view. He didn't really care, though. If he could do the temple a favor and scare a few weaklings off right away, all the better.

'This may turn out to be a little fun, wonder how large the kidnapping group was...' He thought to himself as he backed away, bumping into someone as he did so. He didn't even pay attention to what the person had to say, he just grunted as he continued to the temple entrance. 'small fry, not even worth my time'

"Roll out the red carpet, and fetch the alley whores! The Hurricane is here!"

'Someone's a little cocky' he thought, as his golden eyes shifted toward the loud figure standing at the entrance. 'Let's hope he wont be too annoying...' Laertes eased himself against the wall next to the temple door, looking at his locket to pass the time.

[Fimbulwinter]

The man in black started slightly.

The Hurricane? Interesting... He thought to himself. Of course he knew of one of the most notorious mercenaries of all time, he himself being a breed of one, though he preferred to think of himself as a vigilante of sorts. He took a few steps back, not wanting to draw attention to himself as usual. He noticed a Harpy and disregarded him. Harpys were rare, yes, but he'd met many. They tended to be arrogant and far too self assured. What caught his eye was a shorter figure in a hood and cowl. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

Someone's trying to hide something, but is being far too obvious about it...but what? He wondered, Couldn't be anything too bad...but my curiousity could always use satisfying. He grinned and walked up to the robed figure, placing a hand on his shortsword just in case.

"Good day, stranger. Hoping to earn yourself some gold?" he asked nonchalantly.

[Yue]

The short white haired girl ran for all she was worth, away from a rather stingy shop owner who happened to experience her bad luck, in other words she almost trashed the shop because she tried to reach an item on a high shelf, and started to climb up the shelf itself... and to keep it short, caused a domino effect.

She hurried towards where she could see a rather big group of people had gathered, outside a big temple, most of them didn’t look that friendly though, but the white haired girl hoped she had a better chance there then with the shopkeeper, who was far behind her.

As she got closer she slowed down and started to weave trough the people, without bumping into many of them, she felt extremely short though, as most of them where way bigger then her.

‘I’m going to be trampled if I stay here for long.’ She thought and quickly made her way for the temple and headed up the stairs, just as she was about to enter someone bumped into her harshly from behind and sent her stumbling inside. That in itself wouldn’t have been so bad, if she hadn’t tripped over the last step and started to fall. She let out a startled sound but was able to nimbly catch herself and then crouched low for a moment and let out a low growl at the bulky man who walked inside. She stood and brushed her gloved hands off before she looked around. She momentarily wondered what she had gotten herself into this time before she walked further into the temple, trying her best to look as she belonged and at the same time trying to pick up any clues as to why they all where here.

"Good day, stranger. Hoping to earn yourself some gold?"

Yue turned her head slightly towards the voice, spotting a rather short cloaked figure and a man clad in black who had his hand on his weapon...

‘Well it’s an opportunity to figure out what’s going on...’ She thought and strained her ears trying to catch the rest of the conversation, but turned her head away, pretending to look at something else while she listened.

[Acies Valdun]

The Mercenary hadn't expected the Priests to be quite as angry with him as their faces made them seem. Sure, they'd be upset... Who wouldn't be after somebody burst into their temple and said something like that? But... Judging by their furious faces and they way that a few of them were advancing towards him, they might need a little time to cool down

Acies' number one rule of Survival: When badly outnumbered or faced with impossible odds, flee and don't look back! Without so much as a glance back over his shoulder the merc would turn around and bolt away, his only thoughts pertaining to making sure he didn;t have to deal with a slew of pissed priests. And bolt he did, moving at an admirable speed back into the crowd... Right into some hooded figure standing off to the side by another strange individual.

"Urgh... Sorry about that... I need to watch where I'm going more!" This would be mumbled more than said, as Acies was primarily interested in picking himself up off the ground to avoid being trampled by anybody walking by. It was dangerous for shorter folks like him! After he was all nice and not in danger of being smushed, however, he would turn to examine the person he'd just smashed into. He just hoped he hadn't angered anybody powerful or important...

[Janus]

((Ian honey, I edited your post so it was...erm... a bit more accurate X3... Janus isn't on Basil at the moment. He can't take basil into town since she's a giant..scary looking bug. She normally walks around the towns he goes through))

Janus' nose tickled. It was an odd sensation. A delicate gloved finger was rased to his fine featured, if rather shrouded, face to itch his little nose, twitching it like a bunny. What was that odd smell...?

His head turned side to side, his messy mop of white hair flopping out of the cowl slightly as he tried to locate the source, eyes finally falling on...

....harpy.

....-harpy-.

..........harpy.

........................HARPY!

In a brief moment Janus experianced what it was like to feel your heart try to jump out of your eyes. He clutched at the small silver scarab broach on his cloak, panting softly as if he were hyperventilating and looking much like the prey who senses the preditor.

~If I run... it'll be too obvious! I'll draw attention. Stay still! Play dead! Don't breath! ACK! I'm breathing! I'm wheezing! Oh cruel fate! The gods mock my exsistance, I am a mere toy! A pawn! A pawn of the puppet show of life! I am but a mere marionet- GAH! Personal space invaded!~

Janus hopped, like a tense spring he bounced on his feet, the cowl swinging wildly as he turned to look at Fimbul, making a small whining noise. His feet shuffled as he backed away slightly, his fingers twisting wildly around his broach.

Harpy. Man who smells funny far too close.

Ruby eyes cast to the other side and there he spotted a girl who was...growling?

... Growling girl.

~...fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. This day get's better and better.~ Janus' thoughts rang with a definitive dry tone.

"No gold..." His voice was soft and melodious, and all around gentle if a bit timid. "... just... curious."

Nice. That's when all Umbra broke loose in the temple.

~Mr. Self Proclaimed Natural Disaster seems to have caused a disruptio-~ "GAH!" Janus wailed as said Natural Disaster bumped into him, causing him to stumble into one of the priests, who full bodied trampled right into him, causing his smaller body to tumble on the ground and knock up against Yue. His cowl had slipped off, revealing dark near ebony skin and a mop of white fluffy hair as red eyes peered up at her in a manner that said: 'Can you see me? >.>'

... That was just about when everyone froze in their step.

".... crapsticks." Janus managed to mutter before a terrified scream of "WILD JINN!" Reached his delicate pointed ears, causing him to scramble to his hands and knees and attempt to get away.

That worked for about all of two seconds. The priests of Vau'Cheth were apparently rather muscled for he felt his small form lift off the ground by his collar, the large priest turning him so eyes met eyes. The priest had a rather nasty scowl on his face, with several pockmarks riddled here and there as they starred at eachother.

".... It's all in your imaginatiooooooon..." Janus wiggled his fingers at the priest in a 'mystical' manner, continuing to do so for a moment before he paused and raised a brow. "... not working, is it?"

The priest shook his head.

"....crapsticks. Ever hear of blue peppers? They grow in the forest near Mancanza Di Misericordia, vary rare! Most people can't eat them as they are bitter and much too strong but dried and ground into a powder, they make this absolutely -delish- seasoning for blackened fish, particularly the ones with a very strong taste because it has a lovely counter effect to create a lighter taste in the meat..." Thus began a fountain of insane cooking rambling, like a nervous habit as he tried his best to avoid a painful fate at the hands of thuggish holy men.

[Yue]

The white haired girl looked around, brushing her black bangs away from her eyes as she looked around, trying to spot the Jinn or whatever it was, but a moment later she jumped back as the guy on the floor was hauled up into the air by one of the priests. She stared up at them in confusion, it seemed like that was the theme of the day. Then a small frown settled on her childish face and she was about to tell the priest to pick on somebody his own size when the white haired guy started to make weird motions with his fingers at the priest and said ".... It's all in your imaginatiooooooon..."

But whatever it was he was attempting to do it didn’t work... Yue raised an eyebrow at them and was once again about to speak up when Janus started to ramble about... food? The Vitkatt just stood there for a few moments listening and looking confused before she finally got a hold of herself.

“Hey! Why don’t ya pick on someone yer own size? He’s like half yer size? Is that fair? I don’t think so. And ain’t priests supposed to be like pacifists or something?” She said and crossed her arms lightly over her chest as she looked up at the priests with a raised eyebrow. She however took a step back when he shot her a nasty look...

“Geez... if looks could kill you would be a mass murderer...” She mumbled earning herself an even meaner look.

[Fimbulwinter]

"Heh, figures." Fimbulwinter mumbled to himself. He watched the white haired girl attempt to challenge the Priest. Fimbulwinter knew for a fact, however, that the Priests of Vau'Cheth were not...pacifistic at all. He'd seen them wage war against the Undead once and had wondered why anyone would challenge them. He then looked at the dangling Jinn, a thought forming in his mind.

Well, I've always liked the Jinn...rather nice. He thought to himself, then sighed.

He took a step forward and spoke to the Priest, "Would you be so kind as to release my slave?" He gave the Priest a look that would freeze a Salamander and frowned slightly, "They're rather costly, after all..."
"Why'd he run away if he's yours?" the Priest asked in a harsh tone.
"Because he was frightened and was looking for his master to prove he wasn't wild, you imbecile. You'd think Ubrey would've taught you to have half a brain.."
"Y-you know the High Priest?" The Priest asked, suddenly worried.
"We're aquainted." Fimbulwinter replied hastily, "Now, let go of my slave?"
The Priest dropped the Jinn and apologized. Fimbulwinter gave the Jinn a look of dont-protest-or-the-priest-will-get-both-of-us and motioned for the Jinn to follow him.

"Come on, slave," he said in a commanding tone, "We've places to be." And he began walking, hoping the Jinn would have half a brain and follow him.

[Acies Valdun]

((Sorreh! I should double check all the posts before I make mine, from now on... And, damn you Nate! You stole my idea! Curse yooooou!))

Was a little suprised as he found himself looking down at a Jinn boy, not having expected to see one in these lands. That made him the second free Jinn Acies had seen in his entire life, and the youngest one in that category. Were it not for the fact that the poor kid was probably going to get beaten and enslaved thanks to him, the Mercenary might have been a little excited about the event. Damn priests, ruining everything.

"Hey, put my-" Acies started to speak up, about to do the only logical thing he could think of at the moment... Try to pass it off that the kid was his and had lagged behind him a bit. Unfortunately, luck did not seem to be with him on this, as he quickly found himself being cut off.

"Would you be so kind as to release my slave? They're rather costly, after all..."

The hooded man started to barter with the priests now, trying to convince him that the Jinn belonged to him... Uh-oh! What if this clown wsas trying to take advantage of the situation, and get a new slave! Not happening, Mr. Dark Hooded Guy! Well... What if he really -was- the Jinn's owner? Even worse! Acies had to save the kid! Even if Jinn had always been slaves, as long as he could remember anyways, the Ex-thief didn't like it. He'd been in prison before, and that was horrible enough... He could only imagine what it'd be like to have the prison follow him and keep him imprisoned everywhere he went!

Before he noticed the Hood was starting to walk away, trying to get the Jinn to come with him. One thing was for sure, they did need to get away from thsoe priests... So, he would just follow them to make sure the Hood didn't try and take advantage and milk a slave out of all this! Hooded men generally weren't the most trustworthy sorts, so he didn't expect the guy to do anything else. Why would a normal, non-shady guy need to conceal his identity? Unless... Was he a Jinn, too? It was possible. Not likely, though... So, the Thi- ERm... Ex-Thief, would quickly move over towards the Jinn.

Acies would start by pressing his form into the boy's backside, moving in close enoguh so that nobody could overhear him. "Umm... Awfully sorry about smashing into you, Kid. If it's any consolation, I'll make sure this shady lookin' fellow doesn't try and enslave you, or re-slave you if he actually is yer owner." Damn, Acies wasn't making himself look too sane today... Yelling at priests, bowling over helpless folks, trying to help an Ex-slave/slave be free from getting captured... He needed to stop trying to help people so often! At least h'd gotten the unattachment thing down, though...

A gentle and slow push would be given to the Jinn's lower back, trying to get him to move quickly so that nobody decided to think too much on what had gone down. They might decide to call the Hood's bluff, or do something stupid to hurt the kid. Besides... If he was gonna try and stab the bad guy, he'd have to get away from so many people! ...Jeez, he needed to stop thinking so violently. People were gonna think he's crazy!

[Janus]

((Murp. Laertes, sorry about leaving you behind honey but I think Nate is going to like... drive me absolutely -insane- with his IM's if I don't post X3... so, I'm sure you can come up with a clever catch up post dear!))

“Hey! Why don’t ya pick on someone yer own size? He’s like half yer size? Is that fair? I don’t think so. And ain’t priests supposed to be like pacifists or something?”

"Listen to the lady! She speaks with wisdom! Look at me, I'm scrawny and pitiful..." *cue watery pleading eyes* "I swear, I'm not too proud to beg for my life! I'm masterful at groveling, it's like a career for me! Pleaaaaase for the love of holy chocolate and silver spoons don't bend my body in ways that weren't meant to beeeeee.... I like my bones in tact...." Really though, Janus was trying to think of how hard he would have to kick at that man's kneecaps to make any sort of damage...

"Would you be so kind as to release my slave?"

Ooooh if he had his mighty spatula of fury would Janus ever wallop that boy on the head for calling him a slave. As it stood now, he was left to dangle, slightly choking on his collar and making a garble of noises as he at least -thought- of said spatula with sadistic fondness.

In a matter of moments Janus was dumped uncerimoniously on the ground, and he was get the 'hush boy' looks he used to get from his mumsie. It was like a dark raincloud hung over the 'youth' as he sat on his rear end on the ground, pouting large enough where a fae could land on his lower lip and thinking some rather unkind things at the moment as his mind was cast into a 'woe is I' frame. The disgruntled look was PAINFULLY obvious on his face as he shuffled to his feet and 'obeyed' the command to follow Fimbulwinter.

"Come on, slave," he said in a commanding tone, "We've places to be." And he began walking, hoping the Jinn would have half a brain and follow him.

You could almost hear the teeth splitting in his head he was grinding them so much. His eye ticked noticably and the jinn seemed to have a problem with his nose twitching.

"Umm... Awfully sorry about smashing into you, Kid. If it's any consolation, I'll make sure this shady lookin' fellow doesn't try and enslave you, or re-slave you if he actually is yer owner."

Janus turned and gave Acies a look that communicated an obvious silent question of 'what is WRONG with you' before sniffing slightly and indignantly, muttering in his soft melodic voice.

"... you know you'd think after I turned a hundred cycles the 'kid' comments would stop." He folded his arms across his chest and looked rather put off and tossed both Fimbulwinter and Acies a heated look before wisely turning his head down to appear submissive... that didn't stop the smart ass comment slipping from his lips though.

"... I'm not anyone's man-bitch. Hmph." He felt a shove against his backside and squaked slightly, stumbling as he regained his footing and tossed Yue another look, giving her a small 'thanks' of a smile.

~Great... either these two are insanely generous and helpful or just downright bloody bonkers.~

[laertes]

((Heh, sorry. Work load and mind strain have been heavy as of late. Will try to keep up the best I can^^.))

'Well, that was an amusing little show, too bad there wasn't nay fighting' Laertes said to himself as he secures his Cat's Cradle back into their proper place in his cloak 'speaking of fighting...'

"Does anyone here know exactly when things are going to start around here," He says as he pushes himself from his spot on the wall "I am beginning to grow rather bored with these useless antics involving a slave."

Anyone with half a brain could tell Laertes was growing very impatient, very quickly. It may have been the tapping of his foot, the crossing of his arms, or the very pissed-off look on his face. Whatever the case, you could easily tell he was craving the thrill of battle and death.

[Fimbulwinter]

Fimbulwinter eyed the Hurricane as he followed the Jinn.

Last I checked, the Hurricane wasn't an advocate of slavery...so he must be making sure I'm not. Fits what I know of him rather well. Fimbulwinter thought to himself. He walked calmly and with purpose outside, doing his best to make himself appear unnoticable and keeping the Jinn close to make sure no one got the Wild Jinn idea again. He walked into a back alley, turned around and said simply.

"You're welcome."

The dark alley provided ample cover and he watched the Hurricane walk in.

"Dont worry, he's free to go." Fimbulwinter said to the Hurricane nonchalantly, "I'm not a big fan of slavery."

He turned around and considered disappearing, but figured there was no point in wasting the energy. Rather, he started walking down the dark alley towards the Silverbrook Inn. He needed to get some rest and buy some supplies if he was to track down Mandolin.

I should probably go feed Ragnarok, as well. He thought as he walked off. Then he had a thought. He turned around abrubtly and looked at the Jinn.

"Sir, I was wondering. You look like you need someone to keep you safe and I could use a cook. Food was never my strongsuit. Care to come with?" Fimbulwinter asked politely.

[Acies Valdun]

Sighed softly upon recieving the 'What the hell is wrong with you' look from the young Jinn, a look he found himself getting quite often. He was starting to get tired of always seeming crazy... "I'm not crazy!" The mercenary mumbled to himself, as if he needed somebody to reassure him of this. "...Nevermind the fact that I'm whispering to myself that I'm not crazy."

"... you know you'd think after I turned a hundred cycles the 'kid' comments would stop."

The comment made the Ex-thief snap back into the real world, where he didn't have time to talk to himself all day. Acies had to run the statement in his mind once or twice before he starting thinking clearly again, which he would need to explain himself. This would make it seem like he paused and had to think harder for a moment. This was not the case, Acies had just been on another train of thought.

"Erm... Sorry.. Well, it's because I don't know what to call you! Jinn sounds rude, and you look more like a kid to me than an adult, so I used it. I'm sure you'll stop hearing it when ya stop looking like the children of younger races." The human was trying to explain himself, but it just was making him sound.. Well, sorta clueless. Ergh...

The Mercenary wouldn't bother speaking again until The Hood was done talking, though he did tense a bit at the odd man's request to bring the boy along as a cook. "Sounds suspicious to me... I think you might be tryin' to blackmail the... Nice Jinn male! I don't think you can be trusted, Hooded Guy." It was a simple accusation, but Acies didn't have the patience or time to be very elaborate. Soon he was going to head back to the temple, where he could glean some information from the other Mercs.