Closed [Lavender Ruins] Broken Peace, Broken Pieces.

[Archailist]

67th of Summer, 514.

The day started out, the same as any other day. Training. That day, with Ser Iros and his Py-Pole in the Training Grounds. With a huge tower shield a short spear in either hand, the huge crimson Akalak slowly circled the comparatively miniature Pycon. Both of them had their respective weapons aimed at the other, but neither would make a move. Archailist was the faster of them both, able to swing around the short pokes of the knight.. but Ser Iros was more skilled in the use of his spear. As the squirrel made the first move and tried to jab into the open gap between spear and shield, the knight easily turned the spear in a litte half-circle to catch the elastic-like pole and throw it off balance. Another circle, and the thing was nearly flung out of the squirrels paws by the sheer force that wound all the way down the disproportionately-long stick. But since it didn't, the elastic pole swung straight back and slapped against the side of the shield, nearly pushing behind it in the process.

Both of them jumped back. Arch was about ready to jump in again when the Akalak held up a hand, and gestured for him to stay. "That's enough, Arch. I've got a special job for you to do today." At that, his ears perked significantly, although Ser Iros wouldn't say anything more than that. Instead, he spent an extraordinary amount of time simply unstrapping the huge shield from his forearm and slowly removing the various parts of plate-mail from his dark-crimson body. Sometimes, when he didn't force himself to believe otherwise, it looked like the man was covered entirely in blood. Or he had no skin. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to believe over the other.

"I need you to go and investigate a disturbance. Happening around the Lavender Ruins. A hunter went down near there a few days ago and disappeared. Could be that he just got blindsighted by wolves or a bear, but they still want someone to go out there. I'll be trusting you to do that by yourself. Take Xarex - and a Py-Pole. You find anything else out there, come back immediately." The squire nodded in understanding - there were few and far times where he'd be entrusted to g out by himself in response to a disturbance. But, the times were necessary. It wouldn't be long, until he found himself a knight looking after squires of his own. He couldn't always rely on his patron to be there - knights had their own duties to attend to. "Go on, hurry. Your pages will be waiting for you when you return." On his way out of the Grounds, he cursed silently - he'd hoped to be excused from his duties in light of this new situation, but.. a knights work was never done, and so neither would a squires.

...

After saddling Xarex and fixing the flexible amber rod to a groove in his back - alongside his back-pack, containing the usual items like jerky for Xarex - he was off. The knights that stood guard over the entrance gates of the city waved him through unceremoniously, and the thick trees of the Bronze Woods soon filled his vision and covered his path. Xarex, his faithful Sykanis mount, bounded merrily between the trees with much haste; the squirrel atop his back ever-wary of low branches and bushes, with his best efforts to steer clear of them proving fruitless under the unwavering determination of the puppy between his legs. Goodness, why did he bother taking Xarex.. the squirrel could make it on his own just as easily, after all. The trees would never be a hindrance to a squirrel, in the same way as they were to a dog.

"Easy, Xarex. Come on." A good squeeze to the dogs sides with his knees, and a tug back on the reins forced his speeding run to slow into a gentle trot that he had more control over. Evidently Xarex wasn't happy, but there'd be time for their issues later. He could swear that he'd heard something - and the patron had said something about disturbances around the Lavender Ruin, not inside the ruins themselves. He was sure that he was following the right path to them.. and that meant. Could it be, whatever it was that'd caused the disappearances? He hoped so. It'd be time to try out his Py-Pole on something bigger than an Akalak.

"Stay, Xarex." He slowly crawled off the dog, promoting a whimper, but he kept his stern expression and Xarex eventually relented, with ears folded back. He didn't like the look, though.. so a quick, comforting tap to the top of his head and a piece of jerky ripped from the pack in his back-pack, fed to the dog, returned that usual playful expression. Better. "Now, stay. Good boy." He held up one paw, but it wasn't needed.. the pup was too busy nibbling on the jerky to even pay attention to the squirrel any more. He debated trying to grab his attention again but.. it probably wouldn't be important.

Carefully, he reached back and removed the flexible pole from the groove on his back - letting the clay shift and fill up the spot where it'd once been. Instead, the pole was poised with the tip pointing high into the air - just in case he did come across.. something. He didn't know what to expect, after all. It could have been a wolf.. a bear.. something else entirely. Whatever it was, making those noises.. he was going to find it. "Hey! Someone there?"

[Gron]

67th of Summer, Year 514

Gron sat quietly meditating in the brush around some ruins he didn't recognize. He has used his ability to change colors that all Jamoura possessed to seamlessly blend into the foliage of the forest. He was out here with the aim to not only reflect on his past life and perhaps gain some knowledge but to also train his shielding magic. He had a shield formed that was tasked to only allow animals with his DNA to pass by using a bit of his hair in the weave. He had only formed this specific shield to keep the small biting insects at bay so he can meditate in true piece. Only a few minutes later the sound of a small creature approached nearby, it was likely only a large rabbit but Gron's curiosity got the better of him and he opened his eyes to look and see if the creature was disable. I though he couldn't yet see it a small voice now accompanied it and was coming ever closer. After a moment it had finally come into Gron's view, it seemed to be an odd looking squirrel at first but a few minute of observation proved otherwise. It's nearly fully smooth skin, lidless eyes, and unnatural movement patterns revealed it to be in truth "A Pycon" he said barely audible under his breath. "What would a Pycon be doing out here this far into the wilderness" he thought to himself. He Stood up and changed his colors hack to there natural black shade, "What are you doing so far out of the city little one" Gron spoke slowly and deliberately.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

His first thoughts when he entered the narrow clearing that he'd originally heard the noise from - nothing. Well, it didn't look like anything in the slightest. The noises must have come from some small bird or something - and indeed, another step in, and a blue bird that looked big enough to fit on even the squirrels palm stood and fluttered off through the canopy filter, beyond his view. Blast. Must be elsewhere then. He was, indeed, about to turn around when a shimmer caught the corner of his eye. Followed quickly by a few more - although, it was something he honestly couldn't put his finger to. He'd never seen shielding before.. the dull colours of Djed swirling around a body that soon revealed itself to be.. a huge creature. Bigger, possibly, than even a bear. He blanched at the very sight. Oh, good lord.

The thing that had caused the disturbance was.. huge. Bigger than the Akalak. More muscular. A true animal. Well, those thoughts all disappeared when he heard the creature begin to speak. He supposed that the face he pulled after he heard the Jamoura speaking, would be similar to those that humans gave when they heard of a talking squirrel going through their streets. He stopped in his tracks and lowered the rather heavy pole down to the ground, while clearing his throat and trying to build up a bit of sense in his mouth. "Well... I'm on a patrol, you see. There's been some disappearances around this area, and I was looking for the.. ahem.. thing responsible. I'm.. guessing that's not you, then?" Hoping, more like. He was used to larger creatures.. humans, Akalaks.. they no longer daunted him. This thing did, though. It did by quite a large margin.

His voice was deeper than a small squirrel's should be, like all Pycon, but it was somewhat shaky. Even his grip on the pole seemed to be fumbling just a little bit. "I.. take it that you haven't seen anything of the sort, then." Suddenly, he was interrupted by.. Xarex. The Sykanis mount literally bounded out of the forestry where he'd been waiting, and ran straight for the large creature, with teeth bared. Immediately, Arch's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "XAREX, STOP!" The dog wasn't interested in listening. He ran straight across the clearing, leapt at the Jamoura.. and immediately fell backwards and onto his paws again when he found himself entirely unable to get purchase on it. Thankfully he seemed unharmed, at least. However, he soon tried several more times.. and each time, his jaws seemed utterly unable to purchase on the shield or the Jamoura.

Archailist became enraptured the moment he saw this. He'd never come across magics, before, of any kind. He'd never heard of shielding.. and so, he found himself drawing closer and closer, just to touch the shield himself.. feel whatever it was that could stop a dog from biting this ape. And.. had the creature been the one to make these? "Is this.. one of your abilities?"

[Gron]

67th of Summer, Year 514

When the Pycon saw him it was quite terrified and bagan to shake, ir seems that Gron was more intimidating than he had though and had scared the small creature. The Pycon mentioned then that he was on patrol for something that had been causing disturbances in the area and Gron figured that the small officer of sorts likely believed Gron had something to do with it. Gron was about to respond when a puppy of all thing charged out and attempted to attack him. Gron hadn't yet taken down his shield before the puppy jumped at him "Wait the shield isn't" is all he managed to say before the little dog bounced off. It seemed that the dog was unharmed which was a relief. The Pycon though seemed quite fascinated with that magic force-field. "This is a form of magic that I have learned called Shielding it's a defensive magic that as you have just seen is quite useful" he answered. "As for these disturbances I haven't noticed anything but I haven't moved very far from that spot since I arrived yesterday" he said pointing to where he had just been sitting. He walked a little closer and full brought down his shield. "My name is Gron I am a Jamoura and it is very nice to meet you" he said to the Squirrel man. Gron notice the pypole that Archailist was wielding and found it quite amusing seeing a Squirrel wielding a weapon but hidden his reactions to it as to not offend his new acquaintance.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

At the mention of a defensive magic, his curiosity only grew. "Huh.. defensive magic.. so you can make barriers like these to stop things from getting inside?" It certainly sounded very useful. Although.. it wouldn't be something he'd wanted to learn. He didn't know a lot about magic, he'd never seen it before.. he'd heard of the dangers that it often posed. People becoming deformed due to the magics they practised, or outright killed.. he wouldn't want to get caught up in all of that, just for the sake of some fancy tricks where he could protect himself from others like that. It wouldn't be worth it, when he could just slip to the side of the attack instead. He wasn't the kind of squirrel to sit there and let people repeatedly step on him and whack him with big swords.. regardless of whether he held shields, or not.

Anyway, he wasn't here to gawk at magics and their users. He was here to find whatever it was that'd caused all of these issues. That was the important part. "Ahh.. well, thank you for the information." That was about the best he could give, considering.. the thing hadn't really moved, apparently, for two days. How such a thing could survive like that, he wouldn't bother asking.. because to be truthful, he didn't know what these Jamoura were capable of. They certainly seemed very good at camouflaging themselves, because he'd never known the thing was there.. until it'd revealed itself at least. And they had this.. shielding thing. It didn't seem that feral, like the Kelvics and the other creatures, so he supposed that was a plus. In fact, he wouldn't mind travelling with one.. they could turn out to be useful, if they had these shields and whatnot. Not to mention, their size.. they must be strong, surely. "I'd understand if you'd prefer to be.. ahem, left to your own devices." Whatever they were, at the very least. "But if you wished.. you'd be welcome to join me. It would actually be quite helpful.. I mean, if you didn't have anything else."

He had to word his suggestion very carefully, he felt. Trying to make sure that he kept a formal tongue.. inviting but not demanding. "If not, I completely understand." As he spoke, Xarex shook his head and with a gesture from the squirrel, slowly walked back over to him. In response, he pulled a piece of jerky from one of the saddle-bags and fed it to him. The dog was still in training after all - he needed to know he'd be rewarded if he did good. "For now, I'd better be going." With the dog still noisily chewing, he gripped the back of the halter on Xarex and hopped up onto his back - slipping his feet into the stirrups and taking hold of the reins. The Py-Pole, of course, was pushed back into place where a groove in his clay opened, and locked around it. No need for harnesses. "The hunter who last came here, went near the Lavender Ruins.. so the plan is, to head inside and have a talk with those there, to see if they've seen anything. After that, I'll walk through to the Purple Forest."

[Gron]

67th of Summer, Year 514

Gron considered Archailist's proposal, he had completed his Meditations for the day and if he helped the Pycon here he might find an opponent to have a proper test of his abilities. "I would gladly help you... What is your name so I have something to address you by" he asked remembering that Archailist never told him his name yet. Gron stretched out unintentionally flexing in the process showing that most the Jamoura's muscles where bigger than the entire Pycon's body. The streching brought on a yawn that had surprising force behind it, his fangs showed there full length as it ended. "So could you tell me more about these disturbences as we walk" he added after his big yawn. "If we work together perhaps we could understand what is going on here" he added. He then spotted something at the foot of a nearby tree. He walked over to the tree and grabbed what he was looking at. it was a plant that the large ape grabbed but it it's self wasn't what he wanted. He yanked up on the plant pulling up a tuber root about a foot long. He then formed a new shield in his unused had, but he was using this one very differently than the last. He tasked the shield to prevent dirt from passing through it. He dropped the Tuber through the shield but the dirt was left behind leaving a clean root. After dispersing the shield he began to eat the root slowly as he waited for the Pycon.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He had to admit.. he would be very grateful for such assistance. He'd never met a Jamoura before, but seeing one now.. with such use of Shielding at their disposal.. well, it became immediately obvious that having one on his side would certainly be something to be thankful for. "Ahh, wonderful. Oh, yes.. I am the Archailist. Squire of the Syliran Knights, under Ser Iros." He supposed he might as well explain everything - it didn't seem like anything would come from withholding such information as this. If the thing had a particular dislike for knights, there'd be little use to run away from it in the first place. Let alone now.

Oh. And the disturbances.. well. "There's not really a lot to know about them, I'm afraid. No odd sightings except for the person themselves walking into the forest. No sign of a struggle. No body. Just someone never coming home after going out for a hunt. Could be anything.. could be Kriital coming down from the Cobalt Mountains and mistaking them for something like a dead piece of meat, or an easy kill. Could have been blind-sighted by any of the creatures around here.. could be Yukmen, even. Never seen signs of any of these things but.. we keep our eyes open." He increased the pace of the dog by giving a little nudge into his sides, as they began the steady walk. The Jamoura was big.. once again, he was forced to admit it. Even what constituted as a gentle stroll for him, meant that the dog had to speed up a fair amount.

He was about to continue when he noticed the Jamoura stop and begin tugging at.. something at the bottom of a tree. A clue to the disappearances, perhaps.. a clue, a speck of blood, something that could provide vital evidence? As he peeked closer and watched the ape go about his work, he came to realize... nope, it was nothing like that. The guy was just hungry. Nevertheless, he gave a gentle tug on the reins and drew the canine beneath him to a stop, while waiting. He didn't know anything about plants.. after all, he never at any of the damn things and he never would, given that his body wouldn't even be able to digest them. However.. he was quite sure one doesn't just pull plants straight out of the ground and eat them then and there, still covered in soil and goodness-knew-what-else.

He was about to even raise a bit of protest when he saw that the Jamoura.. wasn't eating it. Instead, there seemed to be a bit of waving his hands around.. and then a shimmering film slowly escaping out of one hand and spreading out as more concentration was put into it. Eventually, though, the Jamoura dropped the tuber through and... all the dirt and nasty parts just sat on the film. Like oil in water. And then, the film faded and all the scraps fell to the floor while he casually munched on the food. Once again.. he just felt himself utterly astonished. Was there anything this odd creature simply couldn't do... "So... uhm.. where was I." He'd not noticed it, but he'd completely run off course in his conversation to just stop and watch the thing perform its magic.

"Oh yes. Uhm.. yes. As I was saying before. It could be.. well, anything. The guy could have just run away, and although the rest of the family and friends all say otherwise.. it doesn't seem like one would just disappear entirely due to some strange monster. It could have been slavers.. could have been wild animals.. could have been anything really. But, we need to try at the very least. Bring back.. a body, or anything." Eventually he shrugged his shoulders with a short sigh. Personally, he didn't believe they'd be bringing back anything other than a body, if anything at all. Though, he'd never say that out loud.. but he could see it on other knights' faces.

[Gron]

67th of Summer, Year 514

Gron finished his tuber while he listened to Arch tell him about the disappearances. Gron wasn't really sure either what was going on but now he was interested in finding out. "I suppose we should interrogate some of those villagers then" he said "please lead the way since I am unfamiliar with these land" he added. Gron could feel his Djed starting to deplete slightly, he knew that he now has to conserve his Remaining Djed supply in case they run into some kind of trouble. Gron could see that the small dog that Arch rode was going to have difficultly keeping up with Gron's large strides so he lessed his pace to match it more comfortably. Then a fleeting thought passed his mined about the Syliras Knights and that perhaps he would enjoy being one but quickly pulled it aside for the time being. "Are you intending to return to Syliras upon your return?" he asked "If so I would like to accompany you there if that is no trouble. The Jamoura followed along behind Arch keeping pace carefully as not to move to fast for the puppy again.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He frowned, quite suddenly, while looking up to the Jamoura. ".. Villagers?" No such thing. Those that lived, lived inside the castle - the outside would always be too dangerous for people to live in by themselves. The only exception to this, would be the man the were on their way to speak with. An Eiyon - in other words, a priest of Death, that had lived in the Bronze Woods than anyone else would ever know. "We'll talk with Calidus Mortem, in case he's seen anything. If not, we'll continue investigations around the Lavender Ruins, and then we'll head back. No point pushing any further than that.. this forest is dangerous to everyone, including you and me." Not that he was a coward.. but he had his orders. He'd do all that he could, but beyond that.. well, there was little else.

Soon enough he found himself pushed ahead slightly by the Jamoura, having to talk over his shoulder frequently - and that meant splitting his concentration and organizing his thoughts between watching the path ahead and not whacking into any trees or ditches.. and talking to the Jamoura behind him. "I can take you back to Syliras, if you wish. Why, haven't you already been there?" It'd be strange for a creature to linger just on the outskirts of a city but never venture inside. However, given the Jamouran's.. appearance.. he wondered if that would be such a mystery. There'd be no revulsion, for certain.. if anything, reverence. However, there was still the matter of those eyes staring at him, all the time.. the same ones that the squirrel often felt, for possibly quite different and yet very similar reasons.

Eventually, his mind was forced off such a subject.. as they came to the ruined entrance, with its missing gates, leading into the Lavender Ruins. "We're here." Xarex's awkward steps on the few stones of the path still in one piece, sent rattles across the empty courtyard, currently completely overrun with numerous climbing plants and roots that dug into the stone remains. Goats were munching merrily on clumps of grass pushing up between the cracks of the few pieces of stone that still littered the grounds. They didn't even bother raising their heads from their grazing though. Arch barely gave them much of a glance though - his attention was focused squarely upon the keep. "Come on. We'll need to move further in." The doors were missing as well, with numerous plants pressing up through the solid rock in its few fractures, to spread them wide open.

Archailist didn't dismount until they came, at long last, to the stairs leading up to the ruined entrance. A quick pat to Xarex's head, and he began to walk inside.. but the puppy stepped with him, and quickly ascended the stairs. He wasn't sure if it was such a good idea, though. He didn't know if dogs would be allowed inside the house.. if it could really be called a house. "No, stay outside." He tried to be stern.. but the more he glanced about the courtyard, he realized that it was no place for a puppy. Besides.. he didn't want his companion to be left outside. Without even the conviction in his voice to give the order, he shook his head and gave another pat to the dogs head. "Alright, alright. Stay close, Xarex." After one last look to the Jamoura, he turned and slipped into the halls of the keep - quickly gesturing for the ape to follow.

[Gron]

67th of Summer, Year 514

They came upon some ancient looking ruins at raise Gron interest and would have liked to examine them and learn more about the structures, however his companion continued onward with aims within the keep. They arrived at the steps shortly after arriving at the ruins. It was here that the Pycon was guiding them, hopefully to some answers. There where a flight of steps that lead in into the ruins them self, Archailist started to climb them while dissuading Xarex though the pup had no intentions of leaving his master. Gron followed them up and began to walk along side the pair "Is there anything I need to know about this person before we enter" Gron said not wanting to be to surprised when they enter. He saw hoping that this person would give them what they where looking for without any trouble. Gron like most Jamoura where not out-rightly violent and if Arch's plan revolved around Gron being the muscle, well he was sure how much he could convince himself to help though he could at least act intimidating.