Base of Grylra Aeries - Churnel Mountains
This long plateau deep in the Churnel mountains runs roughly north/south. Great towering gray rock rises in all directions around you - the only way out of this valley is by a narrow trail that follows a rocky ledge to the northeast. One enormous black stone spire remains standing at one side of this exit, a solitary gatepost, smooth and perfect. It's companion lays fallen and shattered across tens of meters of land.
Dark, heavy smoke drifts along close to the ground, seeping from several of the caves that are scattered about the southern and western of the plateau. Dozens of short stone spikes lay shattered and toppled all around, only a couple remain upright, standing perhaps three meters high. There are several large blackened lumps scattered about the sandy ground, the more intact ones seem to have once been insectoid in nature... but most of them are broken into pieces. The air stinks of death and smoke.
The plateau continues quite a distance to the north, and you can make out a wide steaming crater there.
Contents:
Bloodstorm
Obvious exits:
Starscream's Cave Library Northern Plateau Cave Great Hall Northeast Fly
Bloodstorm circles overhead, gliding down to land. He looks around in disgust..
Bloodstorm walks around slowly, taking in all the destruction.. He makes a face, trying to ignore the stench.
As you walk around, a battered spire next to you, one of Dove's from the fight more than likely, begins to melt. You soon realize a pair of familiar claws are rubbing at the stone, making it melt and flow beneath them.
Bloodstorm tilts his head and pads over curiously. "Dove, is that you?"
Dove doesn't answer at first, she's too busy concentrating on her work, but it is Dove. In a few seconds, she has that spire removed, melted back into the ground from which it came. Only a smoother spot remains where it once was. Dove sighs and sits back, shaking her head as if to clear it. She looks up and nods, "Yes, it's me, Bloodstorm. What's up?"
Bloodstorm blinks and looks around. "I come here sometimes to see if anything has changed for the better.. What are you doing here?"
Dove looks around. You soon realize there are fewer spires than last time and smooth spots where they once had been. "Been cleaning up my mess. Altair and Storm decided it was safe to return, so we've begun the long process of doing so." She waves a forepaw, encompassing the whole area. "I still have my work cut out for me here, then..." She let's out a soft whistle and a sigh, shaking her head. "And then I have to figure out how to fix that crater Kether left..." She looks up at you and asks, "So what have you been up too, hmm?"
Bloodstorm shakes his head slowly and nuzzles you briefly. "Very little. I'm all healed now..or that's what the healers say, though I'm still a bit sore. I keep hoping this place will look different every time I return..I see you've been working on it, but it's still not as I remember."
Dove nods calmly and says just as casually, "You knew he was a great mage, didn't you? During the fight with the bugs here, he sort of blew up half the plateau." She points over her shoulder further into the aerie, "It's back there."
Bloodstorm nodnods. "Of course I knew.." Apparently his memory isn't too good when concerning names..
Bloodstorm says, "I keep hoping that this is just a bad dream."
Dove sighs and shakes her head. "Sorry, dear, but it isn't." She smiles tiredly, trying to change the subject to something more mood lightening and asks, "So, now that you're healed, what do you plan to do now?"
Bloodstorm gives a slight shrug and sits down. "I really don't know. Hopefully help clean this place up."
Dove smiles and nods, asking, "How strong do you feel right now? Think you can help drag some small rocks for me?"
Bloodstorm 's eyes lighten up a bit and he nods. "What do you need?"
Dove smiles and points to some small to medium sized rocks. The largest is the size of a basketball. "Think you can collect all the loose rocks like those into a pile? It clears the area out and they can be reused in a wall. You do that while I continue on these spires of mine. Thanks, Blood." She smiles again, standing up.
Bloodstorm beakgrins and nods, beginning to gather the rocks methodically. He's obviously been bored.. "What kind of wall?"
Dove shrugs before starting on her next spire, "Don't know really, but you never know. At the worst, I could use them to patch holes in the caves and such. The bugs left one helluva mess." With that said, she starts concentrating, eyes half closing as she stands up on her back legs, forepaws gripping the spire before her. Slowly, the rock starts to melt like wax under a flame under her paws. Within a minute, she has the whole thing gone, a smooth spot on the ground all that marks it's previous existence. She sits down again, catching her breath and regaining her energy. She still hasn't regained her full energy yet.
Bloodstorm stops his rock gathering and pads over worriedly. "Perhaps you should wait until later..?"
Dove smiles weakly, shaking her head. "Nah, I'll be fine. As long as I rest between each one, I'm fine. Removing them takes less energy than creating them...longer process that doesn't take a lot of energy at one time. It's the crater I'm worried about. It's why I'm waiting on it till I have more strength to do so."
Bloodstorm just nods. "We need to get some others in here to clear out the bodies..
Aubri comes out of the Great Hall.
Aubri has arrived.
Dove nods. Most of the gryphon bodies have already been taken away by the bugs, but the dead Krzzn'tai carapaces are still lying about.
Aubri chirbles at Dove and nips her as she finishes a spire. "Taking it easy, I see," he chuckles.
Dove looks up, smiling to her mate. She nips back, then nuzzles him. She says playfully, "I'd like to see you do this, smartmouth."
Bloodstorm avoids the rockpile, using any excuse at the moment to do so. "Hello, Aubri."
Aubri chuckles. "I just want to make sure you're not overexerting yourself." he chuckles and bobs his head at Bloodstorm. "Hello."
Dove nuzzles Aubri again, still sitting. "That's why I'm sitting down silly. So I don't overexert myself. Besides, like I told Blood here a moment ago, removing them takes less energy than creating the stupid things..."
Dove shrugs her wings, adding casually, "Besides, there's only one of me and someone's gotta do it." She says this, yet shows no sign of getting up soon. She's still worn out a bit.
Aubri nods and nibbles her eartufts. "No rush to get them all down, is all I mean."
Bloodstorm says, "Quite true, Aubri..there are other things we could be doing than worrying about rocks."
Dove just sits and looks at Blood, waiting calmly for him to elaborate.
Bloodstorm looks at Dove..then Aubri.. "Well, anything else I suppose. Something away from this terrible smell."
Aubri shakes his head a bit and snorts. "If we all do that, it'll never get done.
Dove stretches her wings some as she's cramped them when concentrating. She asks, "Well, where do you suggest we go?" A brief break from her work is welcome about now.
Bloodstorm sighs and tailflicks. "I don't know. Don't feel like going back to the camp..almost as depressing there as it is here. Too much of a reminded of the attack."
Dove nods absently, "Well, we're there because of the attack." She looks at Blood again and asks, "So. Where too, oh intrepid one?" She smiles, showing she's teasing a little.
Bloodstorm looks down, embarrassed. "Almost anyplace would be better.."
Aubri chuckles.. "Easterly would be nice, I don't want to see the burned up fields either.
Bloodstorm says, "No, no burned fields.."
Dove thinks Bloodstorm already has a destination in mind if he already knows what's there. She says as much, "Well, you already seem to have a destination in mind, Blood. Where too then?" She's still smiling, in a good humor.
Bloodstorm blinks. "Umm..I do..?"
Dove nods to Bloodstorm. "You sound like there is somewhere you want to go too, why else ask now?"
Bloodstorm shakes his head. "I don't know where..just away from here."
Bloodstorm says, "Where do you think I wanted to go..?"
Aubri shrugs. "There's really just forest unless you want to head to the Pyramid.. the core maybe..
Dove thinks out loud, "Well, there's not much south, just the interface to the unicorns, and west is out of the question...what's left?"
Aubri chirps. "The core, the interface would be kind of bland, up northward there's the old ruined capital and the Valley, and the Centaur interface.."
Bloodstorm nods. "Those three are possibilities I suppose.."
Bloodstorm says, "What's there at the ruins?"
Dove shakes her head, "To get somewhat safely to the centaur interface, we'd have to go all the way north to the ruined capitol to bypass the Shkrill...we may as well visit the ruined city itself..."
Aubri chuckles a bit. "A whole lot of Not Much!" He grins. "Well, there's plenty of History if you like that sort of thing."
Bloodstorm 's eyes light up slightly. "I still don't know much of Shrilk's history."
Bloodstorm stretches out, spreading his wings and stretching them as well. "I'm eager to get into the air again.."
Dove nods, fanning hers a bit as well. "I could use a good flight myself..."
Aubri flaps his wings as well, carefully. "I'm good as long as you don't ask for aerobatics..
Bloodstorm grins at Aubri. "Of course not. Your wings look well though."
Aubri chirps and nods. "Well, my WINGS weren't what got wounded.."
Bloodstorm tilts his head. "I *did* kind of want to see the Valley. Just what was described there sounds..interesting."
Bloodstorm sighs. "I'm tired of the nightmares of bugs..if I can't have regular dreams, I at least want to have different nightmares."
Dove shudders a little and asks, "Still interested in that place, huh? I was afraid of that, Bloodstorm. Are you sure you really want to go there?"
Bloodstorm shakes his head. "No, I'm not sure I do want to go, but I'm terribly curious."
Aubri says, "Well, we might as well satisfy your curiosity, hrrm?" And work out a bit, he silently adds, painfully aware of his recent grounding. "I'll let them know we're going.."
Dove sighs, standing up. "Alright then. But you stay close to us when we get there, you understand, Bloodstorm?"
Bloodstorm nodnods.. "There are physical dangers I've heard.."
Dove nods, "Yes. The ghosts can be quite hazardous to the living too. They may be insubstantial, but so is your mind..." She turns to Aubri, "Think we should get anyone else to go with us, or just us three?"
Aubri glances around. "Just us, I'd think.. don't want to take a huge tour group with us."
Dove nods, "I'm ready." She turns to Bloodstorm, asking, "Are you ready to go?"
Bloodstorm nods and stretches his wings a bit more, tail twitching in anticipation. "Ready."
Aubri says, "Now just wait a minute.. Let me go arrange things for my absence." He pads off toward the great hall and the guard officers.."
Dove nods and waits with Bloodstorm for Aubri to get back.
Windshadow wings in along the path toward the plateau, his shadow preceding him like his namesake. Spying the small cluster of friends below, and he banks and backwings in to a landing. "Hrrrr, something happening?"
Bloodstorm looks up and chirps at Wind. "Yes, we were just about to go on a little trip."
Dove looks up as Wind lands. She nods, saying, "Bloodstorm is set on going to the Valley. Aubri is letting the other know where we are going. Once he gets back, we are off. What are you up too right now?"
Bloodstorm says, "I think we might be going to the capital as well.."
Aubri lopes back out of the Great Hall, pulling up eagerly beside Dove. "All right, everything's set!" He chirrups, nodding at Wind.
Dove nods to Bloodstorm and Aubri. "Ready you two? Let's go before I change my mind..." She spreads her wings, adding, "Care to join us, Wind?"
Windshadow gives Bloodstorm a sharp, critical gaze. "He realizes what he's getting us into? -I- try not to hang out in the Valley..." His tone implies that it would be downright foolhardy for any other gryphon the consider it then.
Windshadow nods to Dove. "Of course, if you're set on this trip."
Bloodstorm looks down slightly. "I was..curious..they said we could go."
Aubri gives a snort. "Ahh, we won't be there long. Just a little field trip and history lesson.."
Windshadow says, "oh, going is no problem. Coming back can take work."
Dove nods, "Have to face my ghosts sometime...and I don't mean the current residents there...better to have a reason for going...if only to keep Bloodstorm safe." With that, she takes wing and flies high!
Grylra Airspace
You are flying close to the Churnel Mountains. The winds here are good, though occasionally turbulent - good flying, but sometimes challenging.
Along the western part of the mountain range runs the Grael river, mirrored on the eastern side by the Tyber river. Below you can see the long central plateau that is the home to most of the Grylra activity.
Obvious exits:
Burial Peak Down: Waterfall Down: Sandy Beach Down: Northern Plateau Down: Southern plateau Fly higher
You fly upwards, leaving the Grylra aeries behind.
South Western Sky - East of Churnel Mountains
You are gliding above the river Grael, just to the west of the Churnel mountain cluster. The air is warm, and the winds gusty as they whisk across the great grasslands farther to the west. The river swings nearly due southward, eventually meeting up with the Tyber to exit at the south west interface point. Occasional clouds dot the sky here and there, though they are a harmless white, light and puffy, drifting lazily along high above.
Obvious exits:
Churnel Mountains Up East Northwest Northeast Down: Tyber River Down: Southwestern Interface
Bloodstorm arrives from the Churnel mountains.
Bloodstorm has arrived.
Windshadow arrives from the Churnel mountains.
Windshadow has arrived.
Aubri arrives from the Churnel mountains.
Aubri has arrived.
Aubri takes off somewhat more gently than is his norm, being careful with his body despite his desire to be off..
Bloodstorm keeps his eyes on Dove, not knowing how to get to wherever they're going.
Dove heads northeast, taking it easy to conserve energy herself and so it's not tiring on Aubri.
You wing your way to the north east, skirting the Churnel mountain range.
Sky Above the Pyramid - Shrilk
You are gliding a few hundred meters above the glossy obsidian pyramid that forms the center of the sphere of Shrilk, the binary suns give way to warm upward thermal drafts that help to keep you aloft with minimal effort. From here you can see west over lake Evarim, and east, into the towering Magnarth mountain ranges... Beneath you is dense and beautiful forest, hidden here and there by morning mists. A few clouds are drifting through the sky, but that aside it is a relatively clear day, and a beautiful one to be out flying.
Obvious exits:
Northwest Northeast East Southeast Southwest West Down
Bloodstorm wings in from the south west.
Bloodstorm has arrived.
Windshadow wings in from the south west.
Windshadow has arrived.
Aubri wings in from the south west.
Aubri has arrived.
Aubri wings his way north east...
Aubri has left.
Bloodstorm wings his way north east...
Bloodstorm has left.
Dove continues northeast.
You wing your way north east, towards the valley, and whatever lurks within...
Above the Valley of the Damned
You are gliding far above a desolate, ruined valley. In these skies the suns give no warmth and the winds give no lift. Far below you the land is scorched and ruined, little in the way of vegetation grows anywhere. As you soar along you can see that the very walls of the mountains are blasted and scarred, melted away in places. What used to be a wide roadbed winds through the foothills, only to be buried beneath a huge slide of rock. To the southwest is the great pyramid, to the northeast, the mountains of the Shkrill enclave.
Contents:
Bloodstorm
Aubri
Obvious exits:
Southwest Northeast Down
Windshadow wings in from the south west...
Windshadow has arrived.
Windshadow flies close in formation with Aubri... just out of convenience. He's not mothering his friend, how could you even think that?
Bloodstorm flaps his wings harder..no wind..
Bloodstorm calls out to the others, "It doesn't SEEM that bad!"
Aubri flaps and glides steadily, nothing fancy, as if testing out his wings for the first time..
Dove calls out, "Not yet! Just wait." She then turns and dives down in a spiraling arc, landing.
Valley of the Damned
Nestled here among the towering gray mountains is the site of one of the fiercest gryphon battles of their civil war. This place will live forever in infamy. The valley is eerily silent, no trees and very little grass grows here. Here and there scattered among the stones are obvious bone fragments. Pieces of rib cage, skulls with empty eye sockets staring. Thousands must have fallen here, and for so much to be preserved after so long for some reason no carrion eaters must have fed upon the dead. The battle was several hundred of years ago, but the air still has the salty sweet smell of blood upon it. You hear distant noises, battle cries, screams, but when you try and focus upon them the sounds disappear. Here and there sections of the mountainside and rocks are twisted and melted, huge spaces of earth scarred as though seared with an unimaginable flame. Off the east end of the valley, you can see a small ill used trail leading further up into the mountains. To the west is sylvan forest, underbrush thin enough that you can push through without too much difficulty.
Obvious exits:
Northwest East Fly Skie's Home
Bloodstorm has arrived.
You hear a shrill cry and muffled thud nearby, but when you turn to look, there are only scattered bones.
Aubri has arrived.
Windshadow has arrived.
Bloodstorm sniffs.. "I..smell blood."
Windshadow chuckles darkly. "It gets worse."
Dove sighs and nods, "That's the first thing anyone notices. Odd, isn't it? Nothing is around that has been freshly killed, yet the smell of death is everywhere."
Aubri spirals down in lazy circles, finally landing with a minimum of flapping. He DEFINITELY doesn't want to get stranded walking out of here.
Bloodstorm looks around. "Did you hear that? Strange.. Why does this place still smell like a battlefield?"
Dove nods, not bothering to turn and look. She must be very used to this place...
Windshadow lifts his beak, testing the air. "The taint of death and magic haunts this place. The horrors that took place here do not easily go to rest."
Windshadow says, "It is... an unquiet place."
Bloodstorm doesn't seem frightened..yet. "I can feel the presence of..something. Magic? Ghosts?"
Shadow has arrived.
Shadow walks off the trail to the east, looking none too pleased to have returned to this place of death.
Dove says simply, unemotionally, "Both. I feel them all very well here."
There is an enormous crash of thunder, you look up, a lightning bolt scythes through the cloudless sky, and vanishes moments before striking the ground not two dozen paces from where you stand.
Bloodstorm jumps back! He looks at the others wildly. "Was..that a real lightning bolt or another 'ghost'?"
Aubri jerks to the side with a hiss, glancing at Dove. "This was a battleground hundreds of years ago. This is where great mages fought and died, and thousands of gryphons lost their lives.. that's why it's haunted."
Windshadow nods to Bloodstorm. "Yes, and yes. Magic, ghosts, hate, pain, death, destruction... nothing good."
Bloodstorm nods, padding up to the spot where the bolt hit. (Hmm, did it really hit, or just a false image that was retained by this place?)
Dove stands still, as though no lightning ever hit. It almost makes her spooky in her own right. She says, "As I said before, ghosts are dangerous, even if they are insubstantial. But I don't think that's a ghost." She points over towards the black unicorn standing near a gryphon-sized boulder.
Bloodstorm turns to look, seeing a familiar form..
The black unicorn standing beside the gryphon-sized boulder looks spooked out of her mind. Her eyes are wide and terrified, rolling in their sockets, as the flesh on her body shudders madly, and her tail lashes wildly. She lets out a whiney of terror as the lightning strikes the ground, and she rears up suddenly, then comes down, striking the ground with her front hooves.
Bloodstorm shakes his head slightly, padding back to the others, not having gone far. "What's with her..?"
For a moment you can see shimmering ghostly gryphons all around, locked in mortal combat, blood falling like rain from the sky as beaks and claws tear...
Windshadow rumbles in his throat and eyes the black unicorn thoughtfully. "I'd say you're right. The ghosts I've seen were more vengeful than terrified."
Bloodstorm shakes his head as if to rid himself of a vision.. "I see..saw.. some gryphons fighting."
Windshadow's gaze sweeps around slowly surveying a sea ghostly gryphons locked in combat as spectral blood alls like rain. he doesn't bother asking whether the others see it as well.
Bloodstorm doesn't seem to feel the rain..noting that this is strange.. "Images, locked in time.."
Aubri nods. "Images, souls, whatever.. This is what Dove was made for." He hisses softly, padding closer to Bloodstorm. "Thank the skies she wasn't completed." And, perhaps, this is one reason gryphons tend toward atheism.
The black unicorn's tail lashes against her hocks, as she notices the ghostly gryphons fighting. She does not know that they are not real, and she starts to back up. Thinking the bloody rain is falling on her, she panics again, and she rears up a second time, even as she is backing up. This time when she comes down, her powerful hooves strike the gryphon-sized rock that she would have tripped over had she gone forward.
For a moment you can see shimmering ghostly gryphons all around, locked in mortal combat, blood falling like rain from the sky as beaks and claws tear...
Bloodstorm sees the images of the gryphs again, and he actually walks OUT to them, head tilted curiously.
The rock splits with a shattering crack under the unicorn's hooves. But instead of splitting in two perfect halves as would be expected, the stone cracks, shattering away from some form encased inside. It is hard to tell right now what it is or was...
Windshadow takes a step toward the black unicorn, but not close enough to threaten... threaten more than the apparitions at least. "We mean you no harrrrm..." he rumbles in Common.
Bloodstorm loses interest as the gryphons fade away, and he turns to the unicorn again, seeing the rock split. "What is THAT?"
Windshadow does glance at Dove a moment. "I'd hazard it was a victim of magic."
Dove pads over slowly to the rock, making sure to not get too close to the frightened unicorn. She looks at what the rock released.
Bloodstorm follows alongside Dove, peering as well, looking up at the unicorn. "We won't hurt you.."
You hear a strange clicking noise behind you, and turn, the skeleton of a gryphon has risen together, its empty eyes sockets gazing dully upon you. It takes a step towards you, then slowly fades back into dust.
Windshadow follows a wingspan or so behind, flanking Dove to the side opposite the unicorn. no need to crowd her.
Ears already flattened to the unicorn's skull, try to shrink into her mane as the shattering crack occurs. Despite it all, she stops panicking for the moment, lowering her head in curiosity, before her nostrils flare at a scent she knows is definitely real. Her head jerks up, and she spies the gryphon taking a step toward her, her nostrils flared as she holds her ground. She sees the other gryphons and takes steps backwards from the oddity from the rock. In common, she nickers, "What is THIS place?"
The object released from the rock seems oddly familiar...it is still crusted with rock in a few places, but you soon realize it is a very familiar shape...a gryphon! A small, medium sized one, probably a longwing.
Windshadow rumbles again, "A testament to death and gryphon arrogance."
Bloodstorm chirps in surprise. "What the..it can't be! It can't be alive still..just well-preserved in the rock.."
Windshadow looks gravely at Bloodstorm. "Alive? No. Moving, oh definitely possible."
You hear a shriek, the sound seems to echo back and forth through the valley... then fades away, making you wonder if it ever really happened.
The unicorn jumps at the shriek, eyeballing Windshadow all the same. "It's a terrible place," she says in a quivering voice to him. She paws at the ground, as she sees the kestrel gryph messing with the gravel of the crushed rock.
Dove looks a little harder at the object from the stone. Then the one thing everyone thought they saw the last of from Dove. Abject terror. Her eyes go wide as Shadow's in fear as she haltingly backs up, bumping into Aubri and Windshadow behind her. She yelps in fear, having forgotten they were back there! She stops dead in her tracks, unable to do anything else.
Windshadow nods at Aubri's warning. "Bloodstorm, -everything- here died a long time ago. And what do you see...?"
As the binary suns reach a particular angle the landscape suddenly becomes bathed in red, the color strangely fluid, seeming to flow over the rocks, and gather in pools.
Bloodstorm is about to respond..but then he looks at Dove in surprise. "Dove! What's the matter?"
The object from the rock, the item that made the weapon Dove frozen with fear...is her. A dirty, yet obviously colored, perfect replica of herself.
Windshadow looks to Shadow. "Our greatest, most terrible battle amongst our own kind was fought here...what is it Dove?" His voice is suddenly sharp, tense, as he looks at first Dove then the Valley as a whole. "What's wrong...?" He tenses visibly, hackles raised slightly. Dove is NOT one to frighten easily.
Windshadow's gaze passes the stone once, twice... then settles as he realizes what it is. "Oh -skies-...."
Bloodstorm examines the gryphon more closely.. "It's..Dove? No..colored. I don't understand.."
Aubri pushes forward, swallowing loudly, staring at the statue as well. "Dove? Come on.. Let's go," he wheezes, nudging her with his shoulder, unable to remove his eyes from the thing.
Bloodstorm bends over, not touching..but is rather close to it, not afraid but curious.. "Is this what I think it is..?"
Windshadow slips around Dove, both to place himself reassuringly before her, and to examine the...other more closely. "But what color...?" For some reason he feels it is important to determine.
Windshadow says, ""Back up a bit, Bloodstorm.... and yes, it is what you think it is. The final version, I would guess."
Windshadow says, "Back up a bit, Bloodstorm.... and yes, it is what you think it is. The final version, I would guess." in common.
Bloodstorm takes a single step back, beak still outstretched as he tries to examine..
Shadow bobs her head to Windshadow but startles again as the female gryphon reacts in fear to what she inadvertently uncovered.
The replica looks exactly like Dove, but colored and showing no emotions, no feelings, nothing, as though it were a store mannequin. It's coloring is hard to tell through all the dirt and crusts of stone, but it looks as though was originally a very light brown, tan probably. It is hard to see the color of the eyes as they are closed.
Aubri clears his throat. "Let's leave it alone, yes? Just leave it alone.." He knows what Dove can survive while shielded, and does NOT want another one..
Bloodstorm doesn't hear Aubri, as he's already in the process of picking up a stray rib bone to brush off the dirt and rock for a closer look..
Windshadow says, "It is... colored. Like a real gryphon... that probably means it was a production model. I'd personally prefer that we outright bury it..." in common.
Shadow stretches her head out toward the replica of Dove, but she quickly changes her mind when the larger gryphon tells the smaller to back away. In confusion of all the gryphons rather odd behavior, she steps back, swishing her tail.
You hear a strange clicking noise behind you, and turn, the skeleton of a gryphon has risen together, its empty eyes sockets gazing dully upon you. It takes a step towards you, then slowly fades back into dust.
Dove is paralyzed for a few moments longer before finally snapping herself out of it. She steps once towards it, but can not convince herself to look closer. It is like looking at a dark mirror of oneself. She asks herself, "Is this how I looked when Aubri found me...?"
Bloodstorm blinks, "Did they ALL look like her...?" He begins using the rib to brush off the gryphon..
Aubri twists around and leaps at the skeleton, screeching, "GET AWAY!" with a swipe as it returns to dust. He pants a little and twists back and forth, as it hoping no once noticed the outburst..
Windshadow barks sharply, in time with Aubri, "STOP!"
Bloodstorm skrees in surprise and drops the rib to the ground, seemingly more frightened at Wind than anything else..
Windshadow's foreclaw snaps up, a blur of motion, and slaps toward the rib already toppling from Bloodstorm's grip. "Don't TOUCH it!" Is the ever unshakeable gryphon a bit edgy? Oh hell yes.
Windshadow says more quietly, but still tensely, "Back away... Back away now." He does just that himself.
Bloodstorm glares wide-eyed at Windshadow, confused and frightened..only by everyone's outbursts. "It's..just a bone.." He takes a few more steps back.
The crusted rock on the replica crumbles and breaks off easily as Bloodstorm pokes at it with the bone. But a bone is not much for cleaning anything off with, so he doesn't make much more progress than breaking a few clumps of rock off.
Shadow tosses her head at the sudden violent outbursts from both Aubri and Windshadow. She has no idea why they are afraid of a dead body, but she sure knows why she is afraid of them.
Windshadow nods his beak at the gryphon. "But that is not. Take NO chances here, Bloodstorm. Touch nothing, ESPECIALLY not that. You still don't realize what it could do, what..." He glances at Dove, "...the final versions could be capable of."
You hear a strange clicking noise behind you, and turn, the skeleton of a gryphon has risen together, its empty eyes sockets gazing dully upon you. It takes a step towards you, then slowly fades back into dust.
Dove takes another tentative step towards the replica as Windshadow and Aubri both yell out. She's jumpy as all hell and jumps from the surprise. Her hackles are fully raised.
Bloodstorm nods slowly, shaking a bit. "But..is it a 'final version', or one of the first ones that Dove mentioned?"
There is an enormous crash of thunder, you look up, a lightning bolt scythes through the cloudless sky, and vanishes moments before striking the ground not two dozen paces from where you stand.
Shadow dances a few steps back, until a skeleton that decides to bother her, rises from the ground. She turns to see it, whickers in near surprise and turns her haunch to it, kicking out at it with her back hooves even though it faded back into dust by that time.
Bloodstorm steps forward with Dove, nosing her side. "Are you alright?"
As the binary suns reach a particular angle the landscape suddenly becomes bathed in red, the color strangely fluid, seeming to flow over the rocks, and gather in pools.
Windshadow says, "It is colored like a regular gryphon, Bloodstorm. Until I know otherwise, I am going to treat it like it is a final version that could reactivate any moment. That way we'll be pleasantly surprised if it does not." in common.
Aubri nudges Dove's side, pressing close to her for comfort and support as well. "Nothing here is harmless, Bloodstorm.." he admonishes, clearing his throat nervously.
Dove jumps at the touch from Blood, she even hisses at him. She jumps, hissing as Aubri touches her. But she soon realizes who it is in her terrorized state and calms enough to ask shakily, "Now...now can we go home...?"
Bloodstorm nods slowly.. "It's..dead though." He turns to the replica of Dove, speaking 'at' it. "Hello? Anyone there?" He turns to Dove. "See? Nothing.."
Windshadow lifts a fisted foreclaw. "I swear, I will knock you cold if you keep taunting that thing."
You hear a shrill cry and muffled thud nearby, but when you turn to look, there are only scattered bones.
Bloodstorm shuts up and rubs against Dove..
You hear a shriek, the sound seems to echo back and forth through the valley... then fades away, making you wonder if it ever really happened.
Bloodstorm ponders. "Even if it IS a final version..it'd be like Dove, right? We took care of her.."
Shadow shakes out her curly mane to get the forelock out of her eye. She looks ahead at the rock encrusted dead body again, then up at the gryphons. "Can anyone tell me what is the big deal with that thing?"
Bloodstorm ignores Wind's warning, stepping closer. "Dove didn't attack everything on sight, did she..?" He reached out with a claw, and if allowed, begins to brush it off again..
Dove takes another step closer to it, so it is close enough by her for Shadow to see the resemblance. She's a little too unnerved to trust herself with speaking just yet, so she let's Shadow's eyes speak for her...
Bloodstorm partly wants to see what Dove's 'supposed' to look like too.
Windshadow turns and steps forward, muscular breast practically bulldozing Bloodstorm aside. "Last warning, Bloodstorm. You wanted to come here, I'll be damned if I'm going to let you wake a centuries-dead killing machine."
Shadow's gray eyes widen, as she gets it finally. "It looks like you...," she nickers softly, tossing her head - now more confused than ever. It is enough to get her mind off the spectral events.
Bloodstorm cowers again and backs away.. "Al..alright."
Aubri follows Dove with even more trepidation, obviously wanting to go.. NOW.. but not willing to leave her behind. "Come on, Dove, let's go," he murmurs emphatically.
Dove nods slowly to Shadow. She finally gets the courage to say softly to the unicorn, "I am one of these things, although an unfinished one..." She hangs her head sadly, eyes closed. She's ignored Windshadow and Bloodstorm the entire time.
Bloodstorm shivers and huddles up against Dove, not looking at Wind.
Shadow tilts her head, ears perking forward. "What is one of these things?" She asks, blinking at the sadness the gryphoness shows.
As the binary suns reach a particular angle the landscape suddenly becomes bathed in red, the color strangely fluid, seeming to flow over the rocks, and gather in pools.
Windshadow says, "Death, Shadow, I suggest you leave it. I -still- say we should bury it. VERY deep." in common.
Dove sighs sadly, not having the heart to answer Shadow's question. The futility of things is getting to her now that her fear is fading...that and she feels something from this replica...
Bloodstorm blinks.. "Death..?"
Windshadow just shakes his head and rustles his wings. "Let's just say it is a specter of the past best left forgotten."
Shadow stamps a back hoof. "That's death?" She snorts. "It's a lifeless corpse. It didn't move when your friend used that bone on it. If you were poking me with a bone, and I was alive, I'd do something about it." She starts to approach the rock encrusted body and then thumps it with her hoof. "It's not going to move now. You gryphons are silly."
Bloodstorm answers Shadow finally. "It is..or was..a kind of weapon I believe, not a real gryphon."
As the binary suns reach a particular angle the landscape suddenly becomes bathed in red, the color strangely fluid, seeming to flow over the rocks, and gather in pools.
As Shadow's hoof fully touches the head of the replica, its eye opens briefly, flashing bright red, before dimming so quickly, you aren't sure if you saw it before the whole thing start to cave in, crumbling like tilled dirt, clumps and dust falling away in a pile. An errant breeze picks up the finer dust, carrying it off amongst the ghosts and the bones.
Bloodstorm eeps! "You destroyed it! It's..dust?"
Aubri jerks and screeches, starting to shove Dove away before it disintegrates before his eyes. He stares at the dust for a long time, blinking, stunned.
Dove sighs, shaking her head. She speaks up, "It was already dead, Blood. What you saw was the last of it's power. It was in stone for too long to stay alive. It takes energy to do that. Think of it, it's been in stone for centuries. You saw what a few days did to me, just think what a few centuries would do..."
Bloodstorm steps forward after he recovers, picking up a few clumps of the stuff in his talons.."It looked real though..I don't get it."
Shadow lets out an equine whinny of triumph. "I told you it was dead." The fierceness in her eyes flashes out before dulling back to normal, and she tosses her head.
Windshadow practically quivers in alarm as she thumps it, and skreees alarm as the eye opens, glaring red... then dims and caves in? He is still for a long, silent moment, just staring at the dust. Finally, he says, "Thank whatever powers you worship, unicorn. It's possible just one of those things could destroy your entire sphere. So laugh while it is safe."
Shadow shakes her head, pinning her ears. "I care not for my sphere. My own kind is not there for me," she says, ruefully.
Aubri lets out a breath he didn't know he held. "It must have run out of power long ago.." he starts, "It.. starved to death.."
Windshadow settles his plumage, then slowly walks over to give Dove a long and sincere nuzzle. "I for one am thankful for you just as you are, Dove."
Bloodstorm holds out the dirt that came from the crumbled gryph..blowing it away. "What WAS it made of?"
Bloodstorm sighs and shakes his head. "Poor thing."
Shadow paws at the mere particles of dust as she shares practically the same space as Bloodstorm in messing with the aftermath of her bold thump to the dead body that had the feral gryphons so terrified.
You hear a strange clicking noise behind you, and turn, the skeleton of a gryphon has risen together, its empty eyes sockets gazing dully upon you. It takes a step towards you, then slowly fades back into dust.
Bloodstorm is upset..they could have seen what a finished Dove looked like, even if it was dead..
Aubri squawks and snaps in Bloodstorm's direction. "No. No pity on it. It's better off dead."
Bloodstorm chirps at Aubri? "But..it was just like Dove, and she's nice.."
Within seconds, the entire body collapsing to dust except...a single tan feather lays in the pile of dust and crumbled rock. It, somehow has remained whole, as though it were separate from the rest. Upon closer examination, it is covered in fine runes, unreadable for now...It is a primary wing pinion.
Bloodstorm carefully reaches out and snatches up the feather, looking at it without concern for danger.. "I can't read what this says.."
Aubri shakes his head. "Dove is a GRYPHON! That was a WEAPON!" he cries emphatically, almost angrily at the comparison.
Shadow steps back from the feather. It belongs to the gryphon that takes it.
Bloodstorm says, "It's intact..a real gryphon's feather?"
Windshadow pads forward, and peers at the held feather. "Real feathers do not have runes. Perhaps... perhaps the runes were part of the magic that empowered the final..." His gaze is turned thoughtfully upon Dove.
Dove sadly thinks she knows what the feather is. She reaches out a foreclaw to Bloodstorm, "Let me see it for a moment please, Bloodstorm." Her voice is sad, almost toneless.
Bloodstorm holds it out for Dove obediently. "What..?"
There is an enormous crash of thunder, you look up, a lightning bolt scythes through the cloudless sky, and vanishes moments before striking the ground not two dozen paces from where you stand.
Windshadow watches and listens, waiting for Dove's appraisal.
Dove takes the feather and looks closely at it. She rubs it against her flank to rub the dirt and dust off, showing the material it's made of underneath. She sighs, looking closer at it, reading the runes. She nods, handing the feather back. "That's what I thought." The feather is vaguely shiny where Dove rubbed it. With more rubbing and some water, it will probably shine like metal. Dove does not speak further about it.
Shadow raises her head and watches as the lightning bolt slashes across the sky, and she flares her nostrils red, murmuring to herself in Kefetiun, "Beautiful."
Windshadow nods, and says quietly, "Raise your wing, Dove...?"
Bloodstorm looks at Dove and noses. "What..? What is it?" He looks at the feather..
Aubri grips Dove's wing gently and begins stroking her primaries slowly, almost grimly.
Bloodstorm tilts his head. "What are you doing, Aubri? She has one too?"
Dove nods, answering for Aubri simply, "I do."
Bloodstorm blinkblinks. "But what IS it?"
Windshadow nods to himself, eyeing Dove's wing... and his expression changes slowly as he has a radical thought.
Windshadow says, "Oh my... I wonder...." in common.
Dove shakes her head, refusing to answer.
Shadow lowers her head and flicks her ears independently of each other, as she lifts up a back hoof to rest her body. With eyes alert and nostrils flared, she watches the gryphons huddle around the feather.
Bloodstorm turns to Wind.. "What?"
Windshadow says, "Tell me, Aubri... how do we know Dove is incomplete?" in common.
Bloodstorm is confused..he doesn't seem to understand why that would matter. He just wants to know what the feather is for..
For a moment you can see shimmering ghostly gryphons all around, locked in mortal combat, blood falling like rain from the sky as beaks and claws tear.
Aubri nuzzles her back. "She's only got control of the two elements.. she's albino, she's ... got a personality.."
You hear a shriek, the sound seems to echo back and forth through the valley... then fades away, making you wonder if it ever really happened.
For a moment you can see shimmering ghostly gryphons all around, locked in mortal combat, blood falling like rain from the sky as beaks and claws tear...
Windshadow says, "Yet she has one of those feathers, like a finished model..." in common.
Bloodstorm says, "Why wouldn't a complete one have a personality too..? And if the feather is necessary for even an unfinished one, of course she'd have one.."
Dove shakes her head, still refusing to answer. Instead, she turns and walks away slowly and sadly, waiting for Aubri to come with her. She can't stay here any longer...
Bloodstorm blinks, quite confused. "Dove, are you ok? Perhaps we should go.."
Bloodstorm intently tries to make sense of any of the runes..
Windshadow tilts his head slightly, 'frowning' in thought. "She seems more like a hatched gryphon than anything we've discovered about these... others. I hypothesize she was meant to be something better. Do we know, did the others have such a conscience?"
Windshadow says, "Such a... soul." in common.
You hear a shrill cry and muffled thud nearby, but when you turn to look, there are only scattered bones.
Bloodstorm says, "Why is she so upset? Aubri..Wind?"
Windshadow says, "THAT one was obviously a weapon. A gryphon designed for pure destruction. Yet everything Dove believes, everything she IS at heart, goes against this." in common.
Dove shakes her head, answering Windshadow. "They did not. It is why they were so expendable. And why I was created. They could not pass off for very real gryphons, they could not get close enough to do enough damage. This I know..." She continues walking slowly away though.
Bloodstorm follows Dove, nosing her gently. "But you have a soul..you were made better than the others."
Windshadow shakes his head slightly. "Something just doesn't hold with me about a prototype designed to kill being able to so completely shun its purpose. I believe Dove was intended for a higher purpose.... but we can hash that out later."
Bloodstorm says, "Couldn't pass for real..? It sure looked real.."
Aubri follows Dove closely, deep in thought, shaking his head. "Does it matter?" he murrs softly at Windshadow.
Windshadow gives a last look at the scattered dust, then turns to follow. "Only in that it makes her all the more precious."