Spirits of the Earth [Avani]

[Puck]

39th Night of Summer, 510 AV

A crescent moon glowed in the starfield of a sky, shedding naught but dim light upon the world below. Had a bell tower been near, its tolling would have signified the passing of the midnight bell. But no such heraldry occurred on the Sea of Grass, none except the silent passage of the moon from the western half of the sky to the eastern. A soft wind blew the tall grass softly, as if a thousand field mice were racing through. Yet not a soul disturbed the grass.

Warm mist blew down the plains, an unusual sight to say the least. The cloud refracted brightly, as if magnifying the wan light and projecting hues of purple and blue to glisten for nonexistent eyes. The surreal fog blew over a pair of bodies laying dormant in the grasslands, a solitary Drykas woman and her horse. The gossamer sigh breathed a rolling mist over the pair, small clouds of Djed clinging to their living bodies and pulling on them with a magnetic force that that eddied them into deep, calm breaths.

Something...

Avani awoke with a start as the ground trembled. Cobblestones appeared beneath her, spreading like fresh blood from a corpse. Her Strider was nowhere to be seen, vanished and insignificant in the chaos. The violent tremors of the ground felt like ocean waves beneath her body, making it nigh impossible to stand or escape. The stone tiles had created a huge radius around her, swallowing the tall grass.

Eternal...

Each breath she exhaled released translucent green gas to rise and coalesce in the sky, painting the dark canvas a tranquil olive. White moisture fell from her body like steam flowering from a hot spring, before falling heavily onto the stone ground. The Sea of Grass was disappearing.

Has...

That was when the ground ruptured. A building of immense proportions burst from the earth, showering the area around it with cobblestones and soil. It rose high into the sky, blotting out the horizon as one after another rose, then another, and another. They clambered up towards the sky like fingers breaching the atmosphere, rising into the form of dark obelisks made from earthly substances - the tombstones of nature. The earth directly beneath Avani roiled like boiling water, and suddenly she was being lifted high into the air. Cobblestones fell off the precipice, and soil tumbled from the new height. Bridges materialized between buildings, and canals wove their way between the streets and bridges. Carts, crates, stores, all the trappings of a city appeared before Avani's eyes. Her tower rose higher than everything else, and as far as she could see there was naught but more buildings. The city stretched into forever.
And it was so empty.

Ended.

[Avani]

What was there about the night that enveloped her in a tranquility that washed away all her worries and fears? It was the only time of day where she felt herself melt in the warmth of her Strider, who often acted as a comforting guardian, ever watchful, as was necessary when one lived off the land of the Sea of Grass. In her dreaming state, however, there were vibrant colors that swam and expanded just beneath her lids, forming images in her mind’s eye of untamed beauty that was unreachable. She often stood just on the other side of the expanse of land, where everything was completely washed in gray; as if a desert. But here, on this fateful night, her dreams would be interrupted. When the ground began to tremble and sway beneath her, her lids shot open in shock and she jerked her head around to grasp onto her Strider only to find that Knoton was not there. Vanished, was he and in her sudden anguish she clung to the ground beneath her. An earthquake! Here in Cyphrus? The thought was fleeting as she watched the ground be torn asunder and buildings sprang forth from the very earth like flowers in bloom. In their own way they became beautiful, magnificent structures that converged to form a city. But when she felt herself lift with the rest, she couldn’t help but feel a rush of terror surge through her very bones. Had she angered the gods? Had she somehow, unforeseen and unknowingly acted in such a way that warranted a punishment? She racked her brain for the answers, but none came. She had lived a life as any other Drykas, as any other magician in training; practicing, practicing and more practicing, socializing with others, a cheerful life filled with no regrets but that of the death of her cousin. The land around her had completely reformed, and when the rocks and the earth beneath her had settled, she slowly stood, awed at sudden new color that painted the sky, and at the city that now stood before her that oozed a foreboding invitation. It was frightening. But she soon found that there was no way to enter this city (for where else was she to go?), even if it so much held but one person, which at the moment, she doubted. Jade eyes scouted the ground beneath her feet, searching for something, anything that would allow her to cross and explore the hidden crevices of the buildings. Having found none, she looked up once more. “This must be a dream. Unreal. Knoton must have accidentally kicked me in the head..” Silly thoughts, and yet she spoke them nonetheless. And bracing her lungs, she even attempted to call out to the city, hoping her voice would bounce off the walls and echo into the heart. “This is ridiculous!” She cried, tossing herself on the ground in rising frustration. Her hand, touching the dirt encrusted obelisk beneath her, clicked something in her mind. This was earth forming a layer over the stone beneath, littered throughout, but still usable. Could she move it? But whatever sudden excitement she felt on attempting to force her Djed to move the splattering of dirt beneath her vanished when her eyes carefully scanned the expanse of the city below. It dawned on her that she was, indeed, alone. And these structures tore away at the beautiful world she knew, not unlike the cities she knew of today. Was this meant as a test?

[Puck]

The world was intuitive. It throbbed and pulsed with Djed, harboring deep undercurrents that spoke of change. The city began to warp as Avani's frustration grew, growing darker and more convoluted. Before her eyes, the Drykas noticed the corners of buildings growing sharper, shadows deepening, the entire city transmuting itself into a version slightly more warped and horrific. Several fist sized chunks of rock dislodged from the rim of her tower, clattering to the ground below. Dark clouds had gathered on the horizon in an instant, lightning flashed to be immediately followed by a peal of thunder. The city's mood matched Avani's.

Contrasting starkly with the darkening sky, a great burst of rich green luminescence flashed on the horizon. The intensity of the light was akin to the sun, almost blinding in its ferocity. It forced back clinging shadows and bathed the buildings with radiacnce. For a moment it seemed as if the light would grow, purging the entirety of this corrupted world. However, it was not visible for more than a second before the muted olive sky swallowed it back up. A quiet humming ensued in the aftermath.

The shaman heard whispers, quiet yet carrying the weight of ten thousand years, "The first lesson." The space around Avani thrummed with the growing noise, something was coming. "When the flock strays from the river, the hand of fate must be forced." As the voices uttered the last word, the loose earth scattered on the tower trembled for a fraction of a chime. Given the height of the tower, there was not a chance she could make anything to reach the ground. However, perhaps one of the nearby structures...

The air buzzed with the sound of approach.

[Avani]

There was a deep unsettling sense of fear growing in Avani’s heart. Yes she was frightened for her life, yes she was unsure whether or not she was dreaming or was simply having hallucinations. When her eyes focused on the city below her, morphing and becoming horrific in the sense that it was dark and foreboding all the same, she could not help but feel her heart slow in it’s incessant beat. “Semele, grant me the strength to be as firm as the stone on which I stand.” Her breath was slow and her mind calculating. She watched in amazement as a flaming orb of light came into view, and for a flicker of a moment, all the anguish and fear and doubt she held was melted away, as if from the very intensity of the light. There was hope yet, that perhaps she was not a lost cause. Then as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. “No,” she began, her voice soft yet full of frustration. “No, no no!” She would have ran after the comforting light had she not been isolated from everything else. “It’s a signal… a sign.” She mused to herself. The sudden rumble beneath her feet made her stumble and nearly lose her balance, but her composer was set. A deep breath. That is where I must go… And then a flash of apprehension as the voice of forces unseen reached her ears. The scattered earth beneath her caught her eye. This was the moment where perhaps her use in reimancy would determine her life or death situation. Ease of mind. Slowly she willed the djed to secrete from her very pores, gathering a respectable amount about her hands like a gelatinous shell. “Form a bridge.” She whispered. In her mind, she spoke with more force, more determination, Take the form of the earth beneath me, form the bridge, become a reliable ground beneath my feet. She would exert herself, but her concentration had produced it’s result. The span of which she projected the djed-covered earth reached just the end of the structure ahead of her, but doubt returned, and she wondered if perhaps it was a sturdy as she had hoped it would be. However, she was light on her feet, and just as agile, and she crossed the crumbling bridge in mere chimes, heart racing and sweat dripping from her temples. There would be more, she knew this, but luckily for the time being her body had not been affected by any given amount of overgiving. “Show yourself..” She called into the olive sky. “Are you gods or are you monsters?”

[Puck]

The earth bridge crumbled away, but nary a sound was heard as it disappeared between the structures. Looking down revealed nothing but cobbled stones either, it had simply disappeared. The fact that she would not be using that earth again was clear as the lucid flash that had flushed her with hope a chime ago. Now she stood on the stone roof of the adjacent building, the spire she had come from towering above- it had seemed so much closer and shorter on the descent. This structure was almost flat, with a meter tall parapet surrounding its perimeter. Two plain wooden hatches were positioned about three meters from each other on the roof, polished brass handles dully gleaming in the impoverished light.

The humming Avani heard had grown to a dull roar, flooding the silent city with its sound. Casting her glance about would reveal nothing on the approach, though it rumbled as if hornets had nested in her ear. Something was definitely on the approach.

Another sound, a great cracking noise behind Avani, and vines burst from the ground to snake up the side of the tower she had just abandoned. Its stone had grown old and green, moss hanging from great cracks. The vines dug themselves in, tearing into the stone structure. stones tumbled down the side of the tower, and loud cracking noises could be heard from inside the structure's confines. Within two chimes, the roof of the tower burst, showering rocks like small pieces of metal shrapnel. A massive deciduous tree with brilliant muted green grey foliage seemed to bloom from the top of the tower. The vines continued to pull down stones, and within a matter of chimes, the tower have vanished to be replaced by an immense, tendril covered tree.

The approaching hum continued, the two doors lay before Avani.