The Nuit and the Falcon (Anselm & Tasler)

[Anselm]

The old Nuit considered this. He got up and walked over to the back window, which he pushed part way open. “So you can come and go as a falcon if you wish,” he said matter-of-factly. He turned and looked at Tasler. “I appreciate your concern, but please be assured that I am not quite as frail and weak as I might appear,” he said. “I sometimes walk in the forest outside the city, and I would enjoy walking with you. However, if you wish to simply fly there, pick up your belongings and walk back by yourself, that is certainly your prerogative. I intend no infringement upon your liberty.” OCC : It's up to Tasler to decide how he wants retrieve his belongings and then act on that.

[Narrink Akamu]

Tasler looked at the Nuit "If you say so, I don't know you much, if you're not as weak as I think then that's fine by me" He said as he turned around towards the door "The trip might be a bit long, I can't remember since I flew from where I left my things" And I hope they're still there

Tasler walked out of the house while catching up to Anselm's speed but getting some advantage to check if he was going in the right direction. They walked out of the city and passed through a familiar path Anselm might have seen before, but he kept following the main road for a few more minutes until Tasler simply stopped making Anselm stop too. The kelvic looked around, still unsure how far he his from the place he hid his belongings. This started frustrating Tasler as he started walking around thinking and remembering where was it, there was only one thing he remembered and was the shape of pile of rocks he used to hide the things, but the place was pretty much confusing to him.

He looked at Anselm "I need you to wait here, I might be able to find the place but I can't like this" He said as he took off the clothes and left them on the floor as he transformed back to his animal form and soared up until he could see the place more clearly. From this view he could see some lonely trees not so far from the road, he was sure there were fewer trees where he left his things, so he flew closer to that place and found an unfamiliar pile of rocks, partially demolished, but still covering the hole underneath, inside was the bag with everything, including his clothes, his dagger and some other belongings he couldn't carry in his animal form. Tasler proceeded to return to Anselm guiding him to the place while still staying in his animal form and stood on the pile of rocks trying to get Anselm's attention to him.

[Anselm]

Were one to visit the Lord of Council's office in Zeltiva, one might come away with a brochure in which one would find the following: Zeltiva is built on a narrow strip of flat land between the Zastoska Mountains and Mathews Bay. The only way into the city by land is over the Mirahil Pass, which threads between two of the highest peaks in the Zastoskas. It was along the road winding its way toward Mirahil Pass that Anselm and Tasler now walked. Were they to continue following the road it would eventually take them to Syliras, although that would be a very long and dangerous walk indeed. Fortunately for the old Nuit and his old body, they had not walked far before Tasler stopped abruptly and looked around as though searching for familiar landmarks. He transformed into a falcon and had soon led Anselm up a narrow valley to the place where he had cached his belongings in a copse not far from the road. By the time Anselm caught up with him, he had transformed back into his human form and was putting on his clothes. As Anselm had surmised, these clothes fit him much better than the items Anselm had purchased for him. The sun had risen well above the horizon and was creating what promised to be a pleasant day. Anselm sat on a rock and took in the view back down the valley. A movement caught his eye. “Wolves!” he said. “Three of them.” He stood up. They were huge, easily four feet at the shoulder and probably weighing three hundred pounds apiece. Each displayed a healthy set of large pointed teeth and eight inch fangs. As they moved up the narrow valley toward Anselm and Tasler, they spread out so their prey could not escape. As they drew closer Anselm could see that their eyes were blazing red. “The Djed storm has mutated them,” observed Anselm. He slowly backed up toward Tasler, and began the process of creating a fire bolt. Glowing green Res emerged from the palm of his hand and formed itself into a ball hovering just above his fingers. It abruptly burst into flame and shot away from him toward the wolf flanking them on the right, glancing off its haunches and singing its fur. The wolf let out a yelp and backed away. This caused the other two wolves to pause for a moment. Then they continued their deliberate advance toward Anselm and Tasler. Anselm tried to ignore the wolves as he formed a second fire bolt. This one took a little longer and he was having trouble getting it under control. Finally it burst into flame and shot away toward the same wolf he had hit before. This time he scored a direct hit on the wolf's side. It wasn't much of a fireball, but it did manage to ignited the wolf's fur in flame. The wolf yelped again and began snapping at the flames climbing up on to his back. Then he started rolling on the ground trying to put out the fire. “That won't hold him for long," said Anselm. “I'll try to slow down the one on the left.” He moved quickly to the left, focused his attention on the second wolf, which had closed to within twenty feet. He placed a hypnotic suggestion in its mind that it too was on fire. It stopped dead in its tracks and swung its head back and forth as though trying to figure out whether it was really on fire or not. The third wolf charged the old man. EDIT : I rewrote Anselm's use of fire bolts to reflect more accurately the fact that he has pretty minimal skill with reimancy.

[Narrink Akamu]

Tasler took time to make sure everything was in its place, the dagger was still there which was one of the primary concerns for him. When he turned around he barely distinguished the shape of three beasts. "what's that" he asked in surprise of finding three shapes before Anselm could answer "Wolves!" Tasler got surprised for the mysterious oversized creatures. A few questions came to the Kelvic's mind but it was mostly answered "The Djed storm must have mutated them"Djed? Tasler didn't understand much about this but there was no time for questions.

Tasler grabbed his dagger and instinctively attacked the right wolf stabbing it repeatedly aiming to the chest and the head of the beast

[Anselm]

Anselm could do a number of things with projection, but he had just one technique mastered well enough to do quickly. He called it “the poker.” It involved detaching his astral left hand, forming it into a fist with one finger pointing out, and then poking something with it. He couldn't put much power into it and his range was limited to a few arms' lengths. But in the right situation it could be quite effective, if only because the recipient would not see it coming and would certainly not be expecting it. It was to “the poker” that Anselm now availed himself. He poked the charging wolf in the eye. Two things happened. First, the wolf Anselm had hypnotized broke free of the spell and backed up several steps, its head still swaying back and forth. Second, the wolf Anselm had poked in the eye stopped dead in its tracks and started shaking its head vigorously. This gave Anselm an opportunity to poke it in the other eye, which he promptly did. Anselm quickly assessed the situation. The good news was that he had managed to stop two wolves from ripping his head off. The bad news was that they were both eyeing him now and looked pretty ticked off. He glanced over at Tasler, who was busy slashing and stabbing the hell out of the third wolf. For its part, the wolf was alternately yelping in pain and snapping at its tormentor as it backed away. I hope he finishes playing with that wolf pretty soon. Anselm thought. I could use a little help here.

[Narrink Akamu]

Tasler kept stabbing the creature until he felt it was safe to leave it alone, it might not cause trouble for now, maybe would try to run away, but he had one of his legs hurt, so he would have trouble trying to. The kelvic saw the other two wolves eyeing the old man. Tasler jumped on one of the wolfs like he was trying to mount him and quickly punished it with the dagger in its eyes in an attempt to blind him thus leaving Anselm with the other wolf. The wolf started shaking in pain from the stabs in the eyes and Tasler simply grabbed from the skin of the wolf with one hand trying not to fall while with the other he tried a clean cut on the wolf's neck trying to execute it instantaneously.

[Anselm]

The middle wolf, which Anselm guessed was the pack leader, was having a bad day. Anselm had poked it in both eyes and now Tasler was riding on its back inflicting some serious damage with his dagger. It seemed likely that Tasler, who had become something of a wild man, would soon finish it off entirely. The right flank wolf hadn't fared much better. It's hind quarters were charred. One of its ears was missing. One of its eyes had become a well of blood. It had two deep gashes on its chest just below the neck. And it was dragging a badly injured left front leg. Apparently it had had enough because it was limping away as quickly as it could. The left flank wolf had finally figured out that it wasn't on fire after all, but seemed hesitant to attack the strange old man. Meanwhile, the strange old man was concentrating on forming another fire ball, which was soon dancing just above his open palm and then shot out toward the wolf. Anselm had intended the fire ball to hit the wolf's head. It missed and exploded on the ground just to the right of the wolf, causing a huckleberry bush to burst into flame. Evidently this was enough to convince the wolf that it didn't want anything more to do the Nuit. It turned and ran. Anselm turned to watch Tasler finish off the pack leader.

[Narrink Akamu]

Tasler finished off the pack leader with some quick stabs on the neck causing a bigger stain of blood drop from the wound soon draining the rest from the mutated animal. "Rest in peace" Tasler said as he jumped off the animal as the corpse fell to the ground with a loud thud. Tasler looked around, one of them was still limping still on sigh, but was no longer a threat to them "Is it alright if we leave him like that?" He said still holding the dagger in his hands looking at the limping wolf.

[Anselm]

Anselm waved a dismissive hand toward the remaining wolf, which was making its escape as quickly as it could. “Let it go,” he said. Then he sat down heavily on the ground. He watched the wolf disappear down the valley and out of sight. “I don't think it's going to bother us again. Nor the other one for that matter. I think you killed the pack leader." He got up off the ground and walked over to look at the dead wolf. It was big. It was meat. Zeltiva was going to need meat. “Nice job, by the way. You know, if you were to skin and butcher this animal, we could probably get a pretty good price for the pelt and meat. You should collect its teeth and claws, too. Make a necklace out of them. A kind of memento of an impressive kill.” He walked over to a tree and sat down in its shade. “Probably want to move pretty fast, though. Who knows what other beasts are lurking around here?” With that he appeared to lose interest and just stared off into the distance.

[Narrink Akamu]

Tasler tried to drag the body around, but it was too heavy to go fast while dragging them, it was too heavy to carry it as a falcon too. "If we should return as soon as possible, do you mind if you help me a bit?" he said as he approached the body and started gathering the wolf's claws and teeth as the nuit suggested.