Solo [The Warfields]Lost and Alone

[Ball]

43rd of Spring 513AV

Ball had been in the city of Nyka for a whole day, it was a foreign location to the lone Pycon and he was not entirely surprised at how he felt compared to everything else around him. He felt small, unimportant really. It was a depressing state of mind for the squire and Ball quickly turned to what he always did when it came to removing bad thoughts. Ball had mounted his fluffy steed and took to locating a secluded and quiet place.

Ball had found such a place, the Warfields. Ball didn't realize he had crossed a bridge ad found himself in a place that wasn't part of the city of Nyka, but actually fell just outside the boundaries to the North. By the time Ball had realized he was actually within the maze Ball had already taken several turns and lengths, the pycon failed to mark or some how denote the way he came. Bringing his trusty dog a halt the squire shifted in his place to look about. Ball saw no clue as to where he was.

The squire saw no signage, no one to ask where he was, just tall walls of rock. Dropping from his mount the tentacled squire shuffled forward several feet before pausing again and rotated a full circle several times, trying to catch his bearing. The only thing Ball had as a bearing was his dog-mount. And that just told him the direction he just came from, but there was no sign as to where he came from prior to that.

Let's face it. You're lost. Ball's mouth drooped into a frown, What would Liege Lord do? Ball once more took to rotating in a circle. Nope, still no idea as to where he came from and how to get out.There has to be a way to figure out where I came from and how to get out...Just have to remain calm...

Ball took in a deep breathe, held it for several seconds, and then released it. Do you own anything you can use as a marker to find your way back to at least... THIS spot? Ball tried his best to make a mental note of everything he owned currently.

[Balderdash]

As Ball's little internal voice rattled off the items in his possession, another spoke. It fitted itself quite neatly between objects, but it was most definitely not his voice. This voice sounded of the churn of magma below one's feet, the shifting tides, the groan of wood. "Dig deeper." Then it was right back to wood shavings and rope. Well, at least until surprise set in. If Ball decided to observe his surroundings, he'd find things growing equally strange. The Warfields were, by their nature, often in use, and now was no exception. The sound of grunts, the squelch of fist-on-flesh, and the occasional scream or swear let the Pycon know that he wasn't alone in the maze. However, if he chose to venture deeper into the maze, as opposed to attempting to walk in the direction of his dear dog, he'd find the sounds of the other combatants dulling slightly. Like he was moving farther away. The walls themselves were tall, and seemed to loom up almost endlessly for the Pycon. On the way ahead for Ball, however, they almost blocked out the sun. While it wasn't quite obvious, something was most certainly wrong. He could turn back, and try to find his way out, or he could venture further. At the moment, there was only a pathway forward, ending at a sharp corner turning towards the right.

[Ball]

Ball turned towards his dog, hearing the voice at first in his mind and frowned. Dig... Deeper,,, He could hear the sounds of combat echoing against the high walls of the maze he found himself in. The walls surrounding him had seemed to have quickly blocked out what sun he was able to see all day long. Ignoring his better judgment and allowing his racial curiosity to cloud his thoughts the squire beckoned his small dog to him.

The dog whimpered, sensing something was off, but Ball ignored it in it's entirety before he climbed upon his mount and ushered it towards the end of the long corridor, pausing several yards from the sharp turn to the right, turning back to look behind him, the corridor he had started up was still there, Ball just shook his head and turned back around and finished the straight-away before he took the right hand turn.

Immediately allowing his combat instincts to kick in, the squired pycon fell into an alert and quiet state, even his poor dog's sore paws were softly padding their way, very little sound emitted from the hound's pads tapping against the ground.

[Balderdash]

The hallway that the duo entered was mundane enough- perhaps even disappointingly so. A small, suspiciously dark stain was on the left wall, and after another sharp turn, the pathway forked, with one corridor leading left, and one right. On the wall facing Ball was a most curious mural. Two hands, one gauntleted in the style of the Syliran Knights opposite one that was eerily realistic- and, if Ball had a keen eye, a little too similar to a certain former Wave Guard's- both reaching out towards a radiant blonde woman in a white dress. She was kneeling. Above her was a wizened brown hand. From it, green threads outstretched and vanished in the air. The maze was completely silent now. But at least Ball had a choice now- go left, in the direction of the gauntlet, or right, in the direction of Wrenmae's hand. Of course, back was also still an option.

[Ball]

Ball was a season combatant, well he liked to think himself one at least , having seen combat in the seas before the undead isle Ball ignored the suspiciously dark stain on the wall as he and his mount passed by it. It was the wall before him that took the small clay squire several minutes to understand what he was seeing.

It was a trio of hands and a woman. Her hair was blonde and radiated before her in a fan of solar beauty, her white dress only accented her hair. Her kneeling being was flanked on the left by a gauntleted hand outstretched towards her; the squire recognized the gauntlet as one that would belong to a Syliran Knight, from the right was a hand he would’ve recognized had he known the real man known as Wrenmae. The last hand was the one that confused Ball the most, it was above the woman and outstretched towards the sky. Green rays of color ran in lines from extended tips to the sky above, fading the further they went.

Turning his mount around in a circle the squire took in his surroundings, the forked corridor gave him three directions to go, the way he came which was no good cause he could not recall how he got where he was, the way of the Knights, which was his chosen path of life, and the way of the Blighter, which he knew not as such but that is what it was.

The last hand though, it was the brown wizened hand that nagged at Ball’s nexus. There was something about it that made Ball wary of taking either pathway visible before him.

A warrior always takes the path of least resistance… A knight takes the path that requires the most courage to transgress. Halting his mount Ball slipped off it’s back and started towards the wall, he wanted a closer look at it… There were clear cracks in the mural were the rocks of the wall protruded, these would allow the clay being places to rest and climb from.

Take one last look backwards Ball turned once more to the mural and reached with his body to the first small outcrop, using his flexibility the pycon wrapped his body over the top of the rock protrusion and pulled himself up on to it’s top surface, examining the painting and his surroundings before venturing to the next outcrop.

The Pycon continued in this fashion until he was close to the brown hand, taking a very long look at it, he examined the position of it’s fingers to the other three objects in the mural, the green lines, even the creases painted to make the hand appear more realistic.

Created goes to Arandolya

[Balderdash]

It was a gnarled, calloused hand. Tan and weathered. The strings themselves seemed to flow effortlessly from its skin without seams. Green and glowing softly. Now, that was different. It wasn't a trick of colors, the strings were actually growing. If Ball decided to look higher than the hand, he'd find that the mural had changed. Two dazzling green eyes peered at him from the depths of the cloud, and words written in bright green paint spelled "CLEVER" above the mural. Both passages led to a sharp turn again. And over the wall itself? A set of corridors that made a sort of L shape.

[Ball]

Reading the word across the sky Ball frowned a bit, he wasn’t entirely sure who or what was writing those words that didn’t matter right now, he had a clear view of the maze from his standpoint. He saw several path options all of which were pretty clear cut in direction: The one he came from was out of the question, so he ignored that one. Looking at the other four he had options to he paused.

Two lead over this wall and then the two down there that lead right and left. Rotating his body from one side to the other Ball peered over the wall, seen more pathways there and then obviously he was on a pathway already! The Wall was in itself a path, and the most clear cut on at that. Looking up at the words he frowned, seeing the green eyes peering from the clouds.

Eyes meant people… People need something to stand or sit upon… In order to sit in a chair or on a bench there needed to be a solid surface… That means. Ball’s mouth went pencil thin, reaching with a tentacle he grabbed at a strand of the glowing and flowing strings. Feeling one of the strings the pycon realized they were painted and thus couldn’t be removed. Grr. Staring up at the eyes in the sky Ball growled loudly as he bounced in place, each bounce made the small clay being airborne just a bit longer.

After the fourth bounce Ball coiled his internal body mass into a tight corkscrew shape, leaving his outer semi-spherical form to take the brunt of his impact. Pulling in his tentacles the Pycon regained his namesake shape, and thus more bounce for his impact. Using the mass he had attributed to his tentacles to further tighten and lengthen the inner coil spring of his body Ball allowed himself to bounce as high as he could…He managed to reach a grand height of two feet from the top of the wall.

Reaching his two foot maximum Ball released the coil that his inner body was and thus rocketed himself upward, not knowing if he would reach his adversary in the sky or not. The inner spring coiling worked like this: With each tightening of the spring shape Ball was reserving kinetic energy to aid in a sudden burst of speed and momentum, Ball used this technique once before last Winter against Markus in their spar. The releasing of the coil would release the kinetic energy and the obvious response to that would be to propel the form of Ball further upwards… This most likely didn’t send him high enough, the coil move only adds about three feet of additional height, making his three feet a whopping six.

If he didn’t make it up the first time on his descent Ball’s inner body would once more take on an inner coil shape and on impact would rocket upwards to peak just shy of his most recent height, so around 5-feet and 11 inches of height, and once more he released the coil and rocketed up another three feet, making it a close 9 feet of upward gain, he would continue this for a few minutes until he was either face to face with the man who’s eyes taunt him by revealing themselves to him or Ball realized that no matter how much he pushed upward he would never make it to those staring eyes.

Created goes to Arandolya

[Balderdash]

Ball bounced to them all right, and he could swear they were following him, but nothing happened. No congratulations, no fanfare, no hidden mystery, nothing. It appeared that looking the mural in the eye was a dead end.

[Ball]

After several minutes of jumping he saw that his attempts were getting nowhere and settled on the wall’s surface, looking down at his dog he frowned, there was no way he could see that his dog could get up here and the pycon wasn’t too happy about leaving his companion and mount. With a heavy sigh Ball dropped from the wall. Looking back at its face and then to his dog he grumbled, the wall’s topside would be fastest to get around on but his damn dog couldn’t get up there…Could he? Ball paused before he quickly unraveled the banner that was rolled up on his mount’s rump, coughing up all his belongings into said banner the Pycon rolled it back up tightly. Stepping back up the wall Ball stretched a tentacle to wrap around the first stubby outcrop, pushing more mass to that point the Pycon created a small platform, using the rest of his mass the Pycon formed a set of stairs, his mouth eye level with his mount. “Up!”

The dog whimpered and stayed put, Ball once more commanded the dog to go up, and this time it did, quickly stepping up the clay stairs onto the platform. Once in place Ball shifted the stairs up to the next rock and commanded the dog up, this time the dog quickly went up; Ball shifted the mass that was once under his dog to form around the outcrop so his dog had a place to stand upon…

Ball continued this makeshift stair-landing combination until his dog was standing on the top of the wall and Ball was standing beside it. Huffing and out of breathe Ball climbed on to his dog’s back and looked about, None of the pathways looked good to him so he frowned and looked at the opposite of the wall and nodded, ‘Down’ He pointed to the other side of the wall, the dog whimpered and jumped anyway, luckily for Ball and the mount the mount wasn’t stupid, nearing the ground the mount rolled to his side, throwing the pycon and rolling safely onto it’s side before sitting up and panting.

Ball went flying of course but otherwise he was okay, getting back to his mount he once more found himself in a series of corridors but this time he was on the other side of the wall… Speaking of wall, Ball turned and looked at the wall behind him, that which was before him originally.

Created goes to Arandolya

[Balderdash]

And on that wall there was... Absolutely nothing. Turned out the mural was just a mural. But, on a much happier note, one of the corridors seemed to have a light at the end of it! Ooh! Progress! Of course, the poor Pycon still didn't have any answers, but hey! He could leave! That was something, right?