[Quest] Clinging to the Past (Paragon)

by **Warden Thrice** on March 2nd, 2012, 11:26 pm

oocI’m assuming their outside now because it was never really specified, but if I’m wrong I’ll change it.

“I…” Eorar couldn’t think of anything to say.

His eyes refused to meet Javar’s, wandering instead to the surface of the water, the cliff face, the coral reef below. Perhaps he was actually looking for who he was speaking of, but he had no hope of finding them. He knew little of ghosts, but he knew much of Charoda. He didn’t want to say it to this creature, who seemed so lost and childlike that even thinking of hurting his feelings washed Eorar with guilt.

“Javar, I…” He looked the ghost full in the eye. “…I don’t think they are here.”

by **Paragon** on March 4th, 2012, 10:20 am

"What do you mean...?" the ghost asked incredulously, tone wispy and quiet. "We were all here... the poison. I..."

Suddenly, Javar swam forward through the water, in his ghostly way. Eorar would struggle to keep up with the ghost, but he had to.

Javar had refused to reincarnate. His body trapped in the cosmic cycle of his ghostly presence. If he accepted the truth, perhaps he could pass on.

The currents were unkempt in the water, moving one way, then the other. There were ships nearby, clanging and crashing about. For a Charoda, this patch of sea was a world away from the coralline Charbosi.

by **Warden Thrice** on March 9th, 2012, 11:40 pm

Eorar hung his head as Javar looked about in confusion, pitying his dead companion but unsure of what to do. He was fairly certain that the rest of the Charoda’s family had passed, but why had he refused to follow them?

His musings were cut off as Javar streaked away. Eorar did his best to keep up, though it was not easy by any means. Above them, the sounds of a busy winter day rang doubly loud through the water, which carried sound much better than air, and Eorar’s eyes automatically flitted to the belly of each ship, on the lookout for anchors.

“Where are you going?” he called after Javar.

by **Paragon** on March 15th, 2012, 12:53 pm

"To the surface," Javar rasped, "I must get to the surface."

Somehow, the ghost believed everything would come to him in wild clarity as he breached the skin of water. But it was not so. His head bobbed up into a harbour busy with the days goings on. No one cared. No one saw him.

He turned back round to find Eorar arriving beside him.

He just wanted to understand. He just wanted to remember. And there was a desire inside him too, soulmist writhing, that he wanted to somehow move on.

"What should I do, Eorar?" he finally asked, voice soft and dulcet.

He suddenly felt aware that Zeltiva was no longer his home. He had clung to that cave, but did it truly mean anything to him anymore. Recent memories seemed to recede, rejoining to the past.

by **Warden Thrice** on March 22nd, 2012, 9:59 pm

Javar threw a hasty reply over his shoulder as he shot towards the surface, leaving Eorar to struggle after him.

The ghost breached to surface of the water, but whatever force had driven him there receded. He had retreated a few feet by the time Eorar found himself beside him, gills flared for breath.

Javar’s excursion seemed to have brought no revelations; indeed, he seemed more agitated. Tendrils of something akin to smoke twisted around him, and his face was pained.

Eorar felt utterly helpless at the question

“I don’t know.” He groped around his mind for something, anything, to suggest. “What is the clearest thing you remember? From your life?”

by **Paragon** on March 29th, 2012, 11:29 pm

"Clearest...?" Javar asked almost deliriously. He thought for a moment, calming somewhat, before his eyes flashed with recognition. "A party. We had a party. Lots of Charoda... food, and dance. I... I think I remember it."

It seemed to comfort him, the memory like a bag of mizas, that he could take hold of and never let go. A possession, a reminder of the past, something he could keep.

"Do you think that was with my family?"

There was a tenderness to his voice. Past loves resurfaced in his memory, the recollection soothing his wild soul.

by **Warden Thrice** on May 7th, 2012, 6:42 pm

An image came unbidden to Eorar’s mind of the cave, his cave, not absent of any kind of light but instead glowing, with others of his kind celebrating and laughing and being happy. Had his cave once been like that?

“Yes,” he said with more confidence then he realized. “I think that it was.”

He tilted his head and felt a warmth borrowed from Javar.

“It sounds like they were happy. And that you were happy with them.”

A chill washed over him, hardening into a decision. He was going to help this Charoda move on.

by **Paragon** on May 10th, 2012, 12:35 pm

Javar was confused. Truly confused. So many thoughts glistened amongst the workings of his mind, like spun silk criss-crossing, binding him.

So this Charoda thought that was his family? The memories were remnants, but he wanted to grasp the whole. He wanted to understand again.

"Yes, I was happy," Javar nodded, "I remember being happy. I felt warm. I felt like... sunshine."

But what to do now? He was so lost, so very lost. And yet this Charoda seemed to want to help him. There was a genuine spark of kindness coming from him. He felt so cold, yet warmth and spirit seemed to return to him in the moment.