Peaceful Days, Nights of Blood 3 (Hibernating for now!)

[Strider Wolfheart]

((Post 300 is mine!!!))

Sylvia sighed sitting back further into the chair, whispering to herself so Raven couldn't hear. 'Kids these days, can't even see what's right infront of them.' Sylvia sat up and picked up her cup. "You want some more? Seeing as your friend took yours."

Aleck smiled at Sasha. "Don't worry, we'll find your friends. I promise." It didn't take long for the butler to open the door. "Master Crow, you're are being invited to dinner by Master Aleck. I have been asked to escort you to the dining hall." The butler bowed and stood aside to allow Crow to pass. "If you would come inside and follow me, sir."  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((But...but it was my turn. D= Oh well, I'll just "say" that it's that one scared servant who cleans everything up in secret while he's away.))

"I thought so." Elistral said to herself. Her fingers gripped the children's book she still held. She forced back another wave of impatience once she heard that there was still some preparation to be done, reminding herself that this entire trip was dangerous to begin with.

Well, that went well..., Verin thought to himself. Strider had, predictably, come to check up on him. He quickly hid his watch with a gloved hand, trying his best to ignore the heat seeping through the leather and the brand from the metal on his skin. "Yes, everything's fine." he said tightly, ending his sentence with a growl once Maxx appeared in the doorway behind his friend. His mind stayed blocked off as he thought, almost desperately, of what to do. There was a window behind him, one that faced a wall outside of course, but an escape nonetheless. "I just...need some fresh air." He tried to seem casual as he edged towards the window. "You don't have to worry about--" He yelped and let go of his wrist as the heat intensified, and fire spouted forth from the watch face to catch onto the nearest flammable object. Which included most things.

Rore had let Gorash go on ahead of him to the house on the hill just outside of Salim after the clean up job for that day had been called off. It would, of course, resume in the morning. The task before them was enormous, although not as a big a task as when Salim had first been razed. Luckily it was only the forest. Just as he stopped by the fountain in the town square to cool off a guard walked up to him. The formal captain had been injured a few hours earlier and was currently in the infirmary. That left him, the unofficial one, to go and see whoever it was that the others had stopped by one of the gates. He sighed and took the lead, rubbing at the remainder of soot in his eyes.

So much formality. Crow almost preferred rough orders and commands to polite invitations that he'd been given in the recent months. The absurdity of the situation, asking a demon nicely to eat dinner, made him laugh aloud and Zeke caw. "As if he had a choice," he said openly with a friendly smile to the butler. He walked past him and looked around. The inside of the place was as extravagant as the corruption of Taraxacum. How much gold had gone into constructing a home that would have been equally beneficial to the owner if it was just a small townhouse? These were the things that he thought about as he followed the butler, snickering inside his head at the how the man held himself. When they reached a pair of predictably fancy looking doors, he waited outside while the butler went in to announce the "guest".  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"Oh, sh*t!" Strider teleported Verin, Maxx, and himself to an open plain. "Verin release it now. I'll return for you after I put out the fire back home." Strider then teleported back to his house to see the curtains and parts of the wall begin to spread the fire. Strider twisted his arms and water splashed the entire room, putting out the fledgling fire. Strider sat down on the singed bed, sighing deeply. The curtains were ruined and the walls had smoke stains on them reaching all the way up the wall, giving it a black, charred texture.

Syvlia dashed into the room that was caught on fire as Strider sat down. "What just happened?" Sylvia looked at the curtains and the wall and all the water, then back to Strider, a questioning look on her face.

"It's a long story. But i'll be back in a flash. I left our guests in a distant place." Strider disappeared again, leaving Sylvia with Raven.

The butler soon returned and announced that Crow had arrive and opened the door fully to allow Crow inside. "Look what the cat dragged in. How's my favorite bird demon?" Aleck opened his arms in greeting. "Oh, may I introduce Sasha. Me and Sardain rescued her from a mine near Salim."  

[transformersgirl13]

((Sorry I forgot to put Maxx and Ray in color in my last post sweatdrop ))

Sasha smiled at Aleck. "Thank you..." It was said softly, She looked over when Crow came in, she blinked at the feathers but didn't untimely freak out seeing as what she was. She glanced at his bird. "Hello." She said in a friendly tone.

Maxx almost fell over when he was teleported, his stomach lurched but he stayed up. Clearly there was something wrong with Verin's watch. Maxx backed up as to not be burned, if Verin let him, Maxx would heal whatever burn the watch would surly give him. Maxx wanted to ask questions but knew not to.Seeing as Verin seemed preoccupied with something else..

Raven blinked at Sylvia. "No thank you." She said as something happened in the other room Raven dashed in right behind Sylvia, Raven examined the damage and gently touched Sylvia's arm. "I hope everyone's okay..." She said, she thought about saying she was sorry about what happened but she didn't think that would help at the moment. Raven gently touched the wall. "At least this is fixable.." It was a mutter to her self, but it ended up being louder than intended. "Some things aren't.."  

[Ty Gwynnia]

Verin was grateful of Strider's quick thinking as the surroundings changed from what he assumed to be a guest bedroom to an open field, although he did feel that constant teleportation shouldn't be called for all the time. Wasn't it taxing, like all magic? Whatever other speculations he had, it would have to wait. Right now, there were more important things than wondering about spells. Just as Maxx, who for some reason had been brought along with him, backed up, he also moved away, fumbling with his watch. He gritted his teeth as the pain increased and raised his arm above his head, blocking his face with his other sleeve. Not a moment later the rest of the fire spouted forth, bright and crackling, and impossibly a little more powerful than it had been when it had been first sucked in. It shot high into the air with no signs of stopping for the next few minutes. Then, at last, it began to die down. Verin reached a tentative hand up and twisted a knob, and the fingers of flame dissipated. Sweat was still beading on his skin when he lowered both arms to rub shakily across his face. "Damn it."

Crow held a hand up to stay Aleck's intended hug, at least he thought that it was going to be. Instead, he started to smooth down the feathers sprouting from his arms, face, neck, and wherever else he could see them. They'd become mussed while flying, and he supposed that it was rude to look that way when one was a guest. Then again, he didn't really care about his appearance anymore. "I wasn't aware that your guy there was a cat, Aleck. And, half-bird demon, unfortunately." he said with a chuckle. Zeke eyed the Sasha girl with one beady eye before cawing loudly at her, then he began to preen himself. "Hello to you, too." He shot a grin at her and went back to speaking with Aleck. "You and Sardain rescued her? That's not like him at all, I'm surprised she's not a bloody mess or in worse condition. Define 'rescued from Salim'."  

[Strider Wolfheart]

Aleck sat back down after his greeting was declined. He hadn't been trying to hug him. Just welcome him with open arms."As in we were pressed for time and we happened to find her wandering around the lower mine crying for help. She was so scared she hid from us at first. But I made her a ward of the state so, Sardain being big on rules, couldn't touch her."

"No, it's all fine. Happens all the time. Azeois casts spells in his sleep sometimes. He'll be able to fix it when he gets back. Now, come. You hungry? We still have some stew on." Sylvia turned and stepped into the kitchen as if nothing bad had happened.

"Now, you'll need rope, parachutes, some food, and sleeping arrangments so maybe some tents would be best. But time moves faster in there and there is a day and night cycle where you're going. To you, time will be moving normally but it'll only be about five minutes where I am. But you will have to go inside your tent at night, and no fires either, it draws the bad things." Jake opened the door to a store room and walked inside, rummaging around. A few moments later he returned with two back packs filled with supplies. "Remember, the library is alive, if you damage one of the books, it won't be too happy. The section where you're going is in the dream center of the library so hope that the library is having a good dream once night falls."

"Gotcha." Demios said, taking a pack. "Oh, and won't I not need a parachute seeing as I have wings?" Demios sprouted his wings and flapped once.

"Once you enter that section, you won't have wings, the library won't let you." Jake started off up the stairs to the next floor, leaving Demios and Elistral to follow him. "This way to the entrance."  

[transformersgirl13]

Sasha's face turned red. "Well lets see, three big guys, most if not all in armor, riding horses with weapons, of course I would be scared silly." She said with a smile. She decided not ignore the 'bloody mess' part of what Crow was saying. She smiled, and listened to them converse.

Raven nodded and followed Sylvia. "That would be lovely, thank you." She said with a smile. "Casts spell in his sleep? That must be fun." she gave a small laugh.

"Do you need any help...?" Maxx asked Verin. It was asked cautiously, Verin would more than less likely need healing after that. "Are you alright?"  

[Ty Gwynnia]

"He's only a stickler for rules when around you, Aleck." Crow murmured. "Did you find whoever you were supposed to?" In truth, he only knew a little about the knights' mission. But he very much doubted that Sasha was the one they had been looking for.

Verin unstrapped the leather strip of his watch and breathed in sharply as the cool air hit the burn. Underneath the metal back of the watch face a circular brand now stared up at him, the skin an angry red that shone. It had been painful enough getting it but staring at it made the blood in the affected area pound like a heartbeat. He brought his wrist up to his mouth and sucked on the wound to numb the pain, the properties of his saliva already doing their work in quickening the healing process. However, a day or two would still have to pass before the severity dropped. "Mmm..." he groaned as a prickly feeling relieved the pain. "I'll be fine. He extended his arm to Maxx to show him.

"Hm." Was Elistral's reply to everything as she hefted the other pack up, finding it to be more than a little weighty. But that was nothing for her, she'd carried heavier things for a longer amount of time and distance before. The necessity of a parachute, though, was beyond anything that her mind could think of. Did Jake mean to say that rather than walking inbetween isles of books that there was a whole "plane" that the library contained in its center? She'd say it was impossible, especially for an entire day or night cycle that spanned 5 minutes, but her uncle's old castle was still largely a mystery for her. "What a strange place, Demios."

Little information was given to him about the stranger that had been stopped at the gate, short of "a big, buff guy wearing red". Well, at least I know that it's not Strider. he thought to himself, then laughed loudly at the mental overly muscled image. Sure enough, it wasn't his friend, but the man still towered a little over the guards brandishing their weapons. He struck him as seeming familiar before he realized that hours earlier Demios had chased him in the air. The guard leading Rore took his place next to another and the group awaited his decision. "Weren't...weren't you here before?" He asked, just to make sure that it was the same guy.  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"Yes we did, he regretably left us half way to Radic. We were too boring for him. And I don't think i'm that scary. As for Sardain, he's a stickler all the times, just more so around me." Aleck clapped his hands and the butlers and serants began to serve the three their food. "Now, let's all eat before the food gets cold."

"Yeah, one time he teleported both of us and the bed to the middle of the town. We were right beside the fountain." Sylvia laughed as she poured some soup into two bowls. "Or, the time he summoned a tree into our room. I woke up with a branch up my shirt." Sylvia handed Raven her bowl and sat down at the table.

"Yeah. I never knew this place was so unique. I knew it was strange the first time we came but this is just mind blowing." Demios continued to follow behind Jake, his back pack over one of his shoulders. "To think this was here the whole time."

"Oh no, this was just a normal castle when me and Strider got here to rebuild the library. The library itself did all this. The books have a magic to them and with so many brought together it created a unique effect." Jake kept going up the stair until they reached a bookshelf void of books. "Here is the way into the inner workings. Once you go past this you won't be able to leave until you have what you want." Jake pushed the book case and it swung back to reveal a long, dark tunnel that seemed to go to nowhere.  

[transformersgirl13]

"I'm sure he's just trying to be a good influence or something, that's how M-- one of my friends is." She scratched the back of her neck, "Food sounds good." She leaned back in her chair and felt the books weight again and frowned. She was used to the book so why did it decide to bug her now? I'll check you later... She thought to it. She sat down in an open chair and leaned back.

"Thank you. Really? Wow that must have been interesting. What type of stew did you saw this was?" She said sitting down at the table as well. "Maxx has done some funny stuff too, he fazed through a tree once and scared the crap out of my brother." She laughed at that. "His face was so funny."

"Do you want me to heal that for you?" Maxx held out his hand in offering. "I don't mind, I can make it to where you can go ahead and put your watch on and the redness will be gone too, and if I may, I can take the brand away too..."  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"That's kind of you but that brand is permanent." Strider appeared beside Maxx. "That fire came from the dragon you faced earlier. It isn't just a brand, it's magical." Strider went over to Verin and lightly took his hand to inspect the burn. "It won't be too bad. In fact, your last name is branded into your wrist now. Could look worse."

"It's veagtable soup. It has squash, cucumber, and pepper in it. But it sounds like you two have a long history. How long has he been this way? Ghostly, I mean. He couldn't have always been this way."  

[transformersgirl13]

Maxx shrugged, "I've healed stuff like that before so I don't see why I can't now... but that's only if Verin wants to be healed, but he's being a bit quiet and I would like to hear his thoughts if he would care to share?" Maxx looked over at Verin, head tilted to the side slightly.

"Oh, yummy." Raven said after taking a bite. "Nah, Maxx became this way when he was.... Six I think... and I was... four..? Yeah, something like that, but when we were little he got really sick and, of course, I was the kid who had the mind set of 'well if I was sick I'd want someone to play with me still' so everyday I could I took an hour or so out of my day to hang out with him and play with this ball I used to have. This went on for a while, then he, ya know, died... and when that happened his parents told me he was asleep whenever I tried to play with him, so I snuck in his room. and ended up falling asleep waiting on him, and he woke me up sometime later asking if I wanted to go outside and we did.. I've never seen his parents act the way they did when we walked out of the room." Raven scratched her head as she remembered. "I think my dad called me a stubborn mule for sneaking in his room, but I think he had tears too..."  

[Ty Gwynnia]

"Yay me." Verin raised his other hand and waved it around in fake excitement. Now whenever someone happened to look at his wrist they'd find his father's backwards initials staring up at them. The brand would've probably been permanent even if the fire hadn't been magical, it had just been that hot. He took his hand away from Strider and showed it to Maxx again. "You're free to try, I don't care either way."

"Well then, let's hope we find it quickly," Elistral peered deep into the gloom, her eyesight only going as far as 30 feet before she could not see anything else. "I doubt there's any game to kill if we run out of food...Food is in this pack, right?"

"Mhm, I'm sure he is, Aleck." Crow nodded unconvincingly and took a seat as well. Zeke hopped off of his shoulder and onto the back of the chair, ruffling his feathers as he eyed all of the shiny objects in the room. "Food sounds great, but I've got a question: Why such a big house? Most knights are modest and don't need such...extravagant homes. This seems a bit much."  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"Nope, you won't need it. The reason you can only see a hallway here is because the time in there moves faster. When you enter there your core time will stay the same but when you exit seconds would have passed here. It's all very technical. Wishy-washy, timey-whimey technical stuff." Jake did a short wobble of his hand. "But, after you, and watch your step. Reality in there is unstable." Jake was about to step aside to let them in but stopped having a sudden thought. "Oh! One more thing. Avoid dark areas, that isn't a shadow, it's tiny predatory insects. And if you ever meet a giant glowing entity speak with it. It often gives rather accurate prophecies." Jake then stepped aside and let them enter. "Good luck."

Demios looked at Elistral with an unsure face before he stepped into the entrance, walking forward into the tunnel before he stopped to look back and suggest walking in together. When he looked back he could only see darkness and with a panicked turn forward he was only a step from setting foot inside of something he, even in his later years, would say would be the most magnificent sight he'd ever seen. Long in the distance were entire buildings, trees, mountains, and hills made of bookcases and the water was made of moving pages. Up above there was a sun as if it had been drawn but still gave off light. The sky was a gigantic opened book help up by giant book cases that lined every horizon. He was even standing inside of a small hole in one. He turned around and exited, stepping out as if he had just walked in and turned. "You have to see this."

"This coming from the one who has barely talked with him. But actually this has been my family's home for many generations. My ancestors were one of the first five families to travel with (Insert name of the first king here) to this valley. Only me and Sardain are lucky enough to have such large houses in the knighthood. We're technically lords but we found more pleasure in the knighthood then in the council room. We hold sway though." Aleck picked up his tea and sipped it, not liking the taste, so he put it down and put in a few sugar cubes and began to stir. "Any other pressing questions, Crow?"

Sylvia paused and looked at Raven for a moment. "In all of this time, have you ever thought that you being in that room was the reason he woke up?"  

[transformersgirl13]

Sasha shrugged with a smile. "Hey, I'm just making a guess big guy." She pondered on when Aleck had said. "That's cool." She leaned her elbows on the table, and the second she did took them off again, remembering that it counted as bad manners. So she settled with folding her arms instead.

Maxx gently took Verin's wrist and a bright blue aura drifted from Maxx's shoulder to Verin's wrist. When the aura touched the burn it started to fade and after several seconds and the brand started to, what seemed like, come off Verin's skin, but wouldn't go away completely. Maxx started at it for a few minutes before letting Verin's wrist go. "It was worth a shot." the brand wasn't gone, it just looked older now, but that was the only difference.

Raven looked Sylvia straight in the eye. "Yes, it's crossed my thoughts several times, but I refuse to talk to Maxx about it because that's one topic we don't bring up, and avoid at all times. If possible. Well, except once, when I first asked him, he just smiled all looked at me saying, "maybe it was just the fact that you visited me everyday, made me feel better since I had someone to play with" So we left it at that." With that Raven shrugged at had another bite of soup. "And him saying that only strengthened what I already felt about playing with him when he was sick, and yes, I've spent a few nights thinking about it in depth and that was all I would really ever conclude about the situation. "