Shadows Upon Shadows in the Garden (Aislyn, Ruzekiel)

[Yisanareysin]

Ah, but the bard was wonderful amusement. Chaser of chickens? And he didn't seem to recognize them. To be fair though, no one without the sense would recognize Nise as, well, Nise. Rey watched, amused, as the bard tried to walk away, and was blocked off by a hedge. He turned towards "Nise" when Zeke called out her name. So, she had reformed the illusion when he hadn't been looking. No sign of the mud on her clothes, eyes no longer inky black, she looked just like a human again. Pity no illusion could hide how disagreeable she was. And then the bard turned to him with the saddest, most hurt look Rey had ever seen a human muster up. He patted the human's shoulder. "If it'ss any conssolation, it wass very funny. You can have a good laugh with Micah later." Heh. Classic. Then it was just flowers flowers and running and running and he was not exactly sure what was going on but he went with it anyways. The flowers they left behind made a path behind them, and the stalks of the flowers Zeke had plucked led them forwards, but something felt wrong about this. A thought hovered somewhere in the back of his mind, just out of his reach. It was coming to him, but too slowly. He barely heard as his companions admitted defeat. What was it that Nise had said? The plants stayed rooted in place. So did the flower petals, in fact. But what did that mean? The plants were rooted.. Rooted.. "The ground issn't moving." He realized. "And neither are we. Sso we can jusst head in the general direction of the entrancce, or even jusst keep walking in one direction until we reach the border of the mazze." He frowned. "But... that doessn't sseem right." Rey muttered to himself. "When Zeke dissappeared, I could have ssworn he wassn't jusst behind the hedge. I sshould have been able to see his.." Shyke. He'd been about to say his aura. Time to change the subject. "Zeke, do you remember which directionss you took?"

[Aislyn Leavold]

Well, at least her illusion had worked.
It seemed that, though he had definitely caught glimpses of her true nature, Zeke had ignored the change, or was simply too distracted to notice. Hopefully he wouldn’t put two and two together, though Aislyn doubted he would. Frankly, she didn’t expect the man to use much common sense at this point. Ruzekiel was a fun, kindly man, but he hadn’t proven his smarts as of yet.

”No… No, I’ve been here…” Clearing her throat, Aislyn attempted her most Nise-like persona, throwing glances at Rey to make sure he kept his mouth shut. She had gone from hating him to being forced to trust him in five ticks flat. ”You didn’t notice me?” In an effort to regain her persona, Aislyn put on an almost hurt look. She was definitely overdoing it, but anything to distract Zeke from her sudden disappearance; and reappearance.

Letting out a silent sigh as Zeke turned his head away, Aislyn silently led the group farther into the god-forsaken maze they had gotten themselves trapped in. It seemed her earlier idea had melted into nothing, not that she was complaining. Really, it had only been a passing thought. She had thought it would help when she first told them about it, but it seemed her plan was more of a theory. Perhaps if she gave it more thought, came up with something else, she could help a bit more…

Unfortunately, Aislyn didn’t get much time to develop her plan further, as it seemed Zeke had beaten her to it. The man seemed to have been thinking about something previously, and it seemed his thoughts were not in vain. Adding to Aislyn’s idea, Zeke explained that his time spent lost had actually been quite useful; Along the way, he had picked up several pocketfuls of flowers, and, as Aislyn herself had said, if the flowers didn’t move, neither would the stalks. They could follow the cut stalks back to where they had started. Or, at least, as close as possible to where they had started.

Zeke had gotten lost quite early on in the adventure, so if they followed his trail of breadcrumbs- Or in this case, petals- back to that point, they should be near the exit. It would make sense that, if the plants didn’t move, neither would the exits. It was one step closer to where they were, and therefore one step closer to where they needed to go.

In her thought, Aislyn was caught by surprise when Zeke dashed off, presumably to test his theory. She nearly tripped going from a standstill to an all-out run, but kept her balance as she followed the other two through the maze. She didn’t want to end up in the same situation Zeke had been in the beginning of their adventure.

The further into Zeke’s idea they ventured, the more confused Aislyn became. She had nearly caught up to him now, and could hear his occasional murmur of satisfaction when they came across a fork in the road. Soon, they came to a standstill, and it seemed Zeke had exhausted his idea. Fantastic. Zeke might have gotten them even more lost than before, for all they knew. Sighing, Aislyn looked around at their surroundings, hoping to find something that could help them. As the other two spoke amongst themselves, Aislyn took in the scenery around them.

If one truly stopped and looked around, the maze was quite beautiful, with vines and trees weaving their way through the hedges, and flowers growing at every corner. Aislyn even saw a few berry bushes, rooted beside a patch of bright blue flowers. The sight of the fruit caused Aislyn’s stomach to growl, and her mind to realize just how hungry she had become during their adventure in the maze. She hadn’t eaten since nightfall, and from the position of the moon in the sky at that moment, they had been in the maze for quite a while since then.

Plucking one of the berries, she inspected it, regretting her lack of knowledge about edible flora. The topic of conversation behind her seemed to be about the directions Zeke had taken back when he got himself separated. Aislyn sighed at the idea. She hadn’t heard the previous conversation, but if Rey planned to backtrack Zeke’s steps to the entrance, he had another thing coming. It didn’t matter what directions he had taken, the path he had moved on would have rearranged somewhere else by now. Then again, his idea might have been something completely different, and Aislyn was just being negative. Not that it mattered much.

Dropping the berry for fear of poison, Aislyn looked up at the night sky. It was a beautiful night, now that the rain had cleared. Even some of the clouds had moved, to reveal the moon. Letting her eyes wander, Aislyn found her sight dropped onto the tops of the hedges that separated them from the outside world. An idea sprang to mind, and Aislyn was surprised none of them had thought of it before.

The group had been so focused on finding a way out of the maze the old fashioned way, none of them had thought of, quite frankly, cheating. If she could get on top of the hedge, she could find a way out from the very top of the maze. It would be easy, once they could actually see what they were doing.

Turning to the two men, Aislyn hesitated for a moment. If anyone was going to get on top of the maze, it was Aislyn. Rey was probably the strongest, so he would have to be the one boosting her up, and she really didn’t want Zeke falling and hitting his head for the second time in one evening. On top of that, Aislyn was the smallest, and, most likely, the lightest.

Aislyn almost felt bad to interrupt Rey’s idea, and felt even worse to ask for his help, but she went with it anyways. She had cooled down after their earlier fight, especially after Zeke had reappeared. She almost felt like being nice to him. Almost.
”Hey… I know you two are busy for the moment, but could you come over here for a second to give me a boost?”
Pointing to the top of the hedge, Aislyn continued, adding in just a tad bit of sarcasm to annoy Rey. She was definitely acting differently than when they were back at the tavern, but she didn’t really care. Rey already knew why she spoke differently towards him, and if Zeke hadn’t noticed the difference by now, he never would.
”That means you, Snake-Boy.”

[Ruzekiel Soren]

Had something happened between these two when he was gone? Nise’s voice had gone somewhat sour when she was talking to Rey. He wondered if they had had a disagreement, but it didn’t matter just yet. Things weren’t adding up with the mysterious pair. Perhaps he’d ask them about their strange behavior (and of course the Snakebeastery) when…if…they got back to the tavern. Right now though, their secrets meant nothing to him. Mainly because he was incredibly hungry. He had tried to eat one of the berries while he was wandering, but he swiftly found that it was not a particularly healthy berry to consume and his body had gotten rid of it as soon as possible. That was the last time he was eating any unknown fruit, for sure. Zeke was a portly fellow but thick-shouldered and with a strong back, he knew, and he hadn't been much help at all so far, so he crouched down and offered his stable form for Nise to step on so he could hoist her up. It was the least he could do. He wondered why neither Rey or he had thought about getting above the hedge. He supposed it had seemed too simple. “Milady,” he drawled with extravagant flair.

[Yisanareysin]

Snake-Boy? "I'll have you know I'm a hundred and sseventeen years old. Girl." Still, it was a good idea. Although it did have it's risks. What would happen if a hedge moved with her on it? Ah, well. That would be fun to watch. He slithered over, and looked up at the hedges. They were quite a bit taller than your average human, but they were rather thick. There should be plenty of handholds for her near the top. The problem was that his body wasn't really well designed to have weight pressing down on it. If he was stretched out, he'd just fall face first, and if he was coiled.. well, there was a reason that springs could be squeezed. He'd just sink down. Maybe if he supported himself against something. He first coiled up naturally, his body curling towards the middle while his tail wrapped around the outside of the circle. Then he raised himself high up, facing the hedge. His lower half slithered and shifted closer together, tightening his coils so he could brace himself against his tail. His hands reached into the hedge, looking for purchase within. There. He found a thick branch, and held on, trying to support as much of his weight on it as possible. "If you climb onto my sshoulderss, you might be able to climb to the top." He hissed. "Please take off your shoes. And everybody pray to Ionu that this hedge doesn't decide to disappear."

[Aislyn Leavold]

Aislyn laughed at Rey's response. Shaking her head as he moved towards hedge she had indicated to, she muttered sarcastically under her breath, "A hundred seventeen years old and still a child.

At least they had agreed to her plan. Though she had only motioned for Rey, both him and Zeke came over to the hedge. An awkward decision, choosing who to stand on. Eventually, she decided on Rey, and not just because she relished in the opportunity to stand on him. In his Dhani form, Rey was much taller than both Zeka and Aislyn, which was a quality they needed right now. She felt bad for Zeke, though. He finally had the chance to be helpful and Aislyn ignored him. She tried to come up with something useful for him to do, but unfortunately, nothing came to mind.

Hopefully he wouldn't be too heartbroken.

Taking off her shoes and laying them in a relatively mud-free part of the path, Aislyn began climbing the giant snakebeast that Reysin was. Unfortunately, scales were not the easiest thing to grab onto, and Rey was not the easiest surface to climb. After several ticks of no progress, Aislyn sighed and decided that maybe a staircase would be better than a ladder. What joy, she would get to step on two men, instead of just one.

Shuffling over to Zeke, Aislyn let the man hoist her up until she could nearly reach the top, but not quite enough to pull herself up. From there, she balanced herself and stepped onto Rey’s shoulders, who was presently stood next to Zeke.
Aislyn felt a little bad taking advantage of both men, but when she finally clambered onto the top of the hedge, the feeling evaporated. What she saw nearly knocked her off the hedge all in itself. The view from on top of the maze was magnificent; Almost unreal.

The maze seemed much bigger from the inside, almost impossibly big. The patterns inside the maze were also quite interesting. Turns, loops, circles that seemed completely random. But, in the end, every maze had an exit. Aislyn just had to find it.
Looking around, Aislyn located an exit nearby. There was one not too far away, though it would take a few chimes to reach. Pointing in that direction, Aislyn pushed herself up onto her knees to get a better look.

But of course, just getting to the exit would be to easy. There had to be something else.

It seemed every time Aislyn blinked, part of the path changed. She would have to guide Rey and Zeke through without really knowing which turns would end up dead ends, and which would truly lead to the exit. It was a start, however, and everything had to start in order to end.

”I can see the exit from here. We should be able to get out if I can just manage to stay on top of this hedge.”

Balancing herself on her knees, Aislyn attempted to stand up, but only succeeded in sinking her feet into the bush. If she stood, her weight was too much for the tree, but if she kneeled down, she should be able to shuffle along.
Risk falling into a bush, or look like an idiot shuffling along a hedge?

”The exit is that way, though from the constantly changing paths, it’s going to be hard to stay on track.”
Pointing to the exit, Aislyn began to shuffle along the hedge on her knees, spreading out her weight enough to keep herself from falling down. Hopefully, Rey and Zeke wouldn’t laugh too hard.

[Ruzekiel Soren]

Allright, so he had no special skills besides lute and entertaining drunken masses, and he was too short to do much else to help, but that was fine with him. Absolutely fine. Who enjoyed being useful anyway? Psh. Zeke shrugged it off and stood up, watching Nise struggle up to try to reach the top of the hedge. He still couldn't place what was different about her. After he had seen that sharpness with Rey he couldn't shake that there was something off about her. Then there was that strange woman he saw when he fell out of the earlier hedge. What was that about? Where was she now? No time to think about that though, not with a slippery coiled up Dhani and a precariously balanced Nise—he looked up and realized she had slid off of Rey and was looking back at him expectantly. “Oh! Right!” He jumped into action and hoisted Nise up as high as he could, proud that his arms were steady as he helped her clamber on top of Rey’s shoulders. Zeke chuckled. “Aaand we’re ready for the circus,” he declared with a grin. ”I can see the exit from here. We should be able to get out if I can just manage to stay on top of this hedge,” Nise mused as she found her balance. “Rey and I’ll spot you,” Zeke said confidently, although he could make no promises that he wouldn't wander off again. Rey could handle it. ”The exit is that way, though from the constantly changing paths, it’s going to be hard to stay on track.” “As long as I have enough bits of flora here,” Zeke murmured, fishing through his pockets, “I think we’ll be…” He looked up and saw Nise, on top of the hedge, shuffling along on her knees. He stared at her waddling for a second and burst into gleeful laughter. "You--" he stammered between guffaws, "You look--" After a moment the laughter faded into snickers. He mimed wiping a tear from his eye and looked back up at the woman on the hedge. "No hard feelings, friend," he said honestly, "But you do look ridiculous." He launched into epic storyteller mode, breaking off another stick and brandishing it--he did very much like brandishing. "And so, Rreysin the Bold, Nise of the Many-skirts, and of course Ruzekiel Chicken-chaser venture forth to find their way home, after brrave Manyskirts sacrifices her dignity to shuffle along the hedges of certain DOOM!" Zeke narrated, taking the lead and dropping flower petals along the path, reinvigorated now with new confidence.

[Yisanareysin]

Nise was heavier than she looked. Rey's arms were beginning to shake as she clambered up onto his shoulders, all of her weight and his pressing down on his arms and coils. When she finally settled completely atop the hedge, he flopped down onto the ground, rolling his shoulders. Everything he'd done in the past bell or so was beginning to catch up to him, and his exhaustion made it difficult to force himself to straighten up and listen to Nise. Well, at least there was an exit that she could see. Though the ever changing nature of the maze made that a lot less helpful that it might have been in a normal city, it was still something. He took a moment to roll his eyes at Zeke's antics, not bothering to hide his grin. "Why am I the bold? You would think that of the three of uss, I'd be the mosst ssuited to chassing chickenss." He teased. And of course, many-skirts was not quite an accurate description of Nise, though of course, Zeke couldn't possibly be expected to know that. Speaking of which though, it did seem a little risky for the woman to be crawling on top of the hedge like that. He had seen himself how easy it was to find fault in the illusion if it came into contact with something. If she moved the wrong way, even an idiot would realize something was wrong. So the decision was, warn her or not? On one hand, she was rather infuriating, interesting though she may be. And he was curious to see know if she would react to Zeke discovering her the same way she had reacted to him discovering it. On the other hand, watching the bard discover her secrets would be only a temporary pleasure. And the less people who knew a secret, the better the secret was. And perhaps it would help raise her opinion of him? Things were always better when people liked him. Especially little mysteries like her. He raised himself as close to her as he could, shifting to block Zeke's view of her. "Do be careful on the hedgess of DOOOOM. We wouldn't want your many dresssess to be... caught, do you?"

[Aislyn Leavold]

Hedges of doom? Many dresses? Had Zeke somehow convinced Rey of his stories? Had Rey somehow gained a sense of humour over the past few chimes? What did he mean ‘Caught’? There was nothing for her clothing to get caught on-
oh.
Oh.

Just as Aislyn was about to make a sarcastic remark back at Reysin, she found the gears inside her head clicking together as what Rey said slowly began to make sense. She had been so focused on finding an exit, Lyn had completely forgotten about herself. And that, most certainly, was a first. Forgetting to think about herself was not something Aislyn did often. As much as she loved other people, self-preservation was always high up on Aislyn’s list of things to think about. Though today, that very list seemed very, very wrong.

The biggest surprise, however, was the fact that it was Reysin that had warned her. Reysin. As far as Aislyn had seen, Rey hadn’t given two shykes about her for the entirety of their encounter, now suddenly he cared? What kind of magic was this?
Either way, she heeded his warning.

Aislyn adjusted herself, trying to divide her time between maintaining the illusion of her outfit and staying on top of the hedge. It was a tricky balance, but she managed. She just had to imagine how a skirt would fall on her knees as she crawled her way along the hedge. This meant she spent the majority of her time looking down, but that wasn’t too terribly much of a problem. Every once in a while she would look up, just to guide her two followers on which way to turn, or what path to take at a fork in the road.

”Ah.. Almost there. Take a left here and then” A blink, and the path changed. ”Oh. Okay, no… A right here, then a left at that fork.” Was that even right? Aislyn traced her eyes along the path she had guided the two men in, but every time she looked away their course was forced to change.

Adjusting herself again so she both looked normal and didn’t fall off, Aislyn took a look down at Rey and Zeke. She found Zeke looking ahead, but somehow met Rey’s eye. They shared a knowing look, though on Aislyn’s side it was more of an infuriated scowl, with just a hint of gratitude behind it. She wouldn’t admit it for all the mizas in the world, but she was grateful for the man’s warning.
That didn’t mean she liked him now.
No, the man was still a bone-headed shyke, just a slightly less infuriating one.

As they drew closer to the exit, Aislyn began thinking of what she would do once she got out. Sure, she was a good enough person not to run off before the two men made their way out, but after they were close enough to the exit to find it themselves… Well, it was past midnight by now. It wouldn’t exactly be difficult to slip away into the night. Besides, maybe she would even come back to see Zeke sometime. The man seemed nice enough, perhaps enough to even return to his place of work. Probably not as “Nise”, but maybe she could get to know him again, in different circumstances, with a different face. “Maya”, perhaps. It couldn’t hurt, as long as she didn’t run into Rey.

”We’re… Nearly there. A few more turns, about fifty feet.” Aislyn threw a smile down at the men, or rather, Zeke. She refused to meet Rey’s eye. ”As long as the maze doesn’t turn us around… We’re golden.”

[Ruzekiel Soren]

“Excellent!” Zeke exclaimed, rubbing his hands together gleefully. He beamed up at Manyskirts. Why Nise had to go subtly changing her clothing like that was beyond him. Must be a lady thing. He shrugged it off and gestured to the two companions. “Off we go adventurers, to finally make our way out alive and well…hopefully. Drinks for everyone when we get back, on me!” He paused and stopped in the middle of the path to think. “Unless I’m out of coppers. Nevermind that then.” He started to turn back to front, but again he noticed something…strange about the way Rey and Nise were acting around each other. It didn’t make any sense. He knew it was none of his business, but it was very odd—He knew something happened between them while he was out (besides the snakebeast transformery) but he found that he was incredibly curious about what that something was. He slowed down and fell to the back to better observe them. Huh. He had a nagging feeling that there was an entire world of emotions and reactions that he had completely missed. He wasn’t usually so nosy, but he was a wee bit nervous about the Dhani, and he couldn’t stop thinking about the stories he’d heard round the fire. Zeke was worried about Nise. She seemed so different than she was at the tavern. He just couldn’t place what was wrong. Were they fighting about something? Was there blackmail involved? Did the two assassins suddenly realize they were targeting each other this entire time? He tried to stifle his overactive imagination, started up a cheery whistle to dispel the tension and kept up the jig, flinging a petal back at the path every so often. He could almost smell the distinct fragrance of spilt ale and fresh bread as they neared the exit, but that may have just been his stomach.

[Yisanareysin]

At first, Rey wasn't sure she had caught on to his meaning. She didn't seemed to be doing anything different, or making excuses to try and get off of the hedge. She was just staying up there, guiding them along. Watching her closely though, he began to notice how often she was looking down at her knees. His eyes dropped to her skirt to watch, following Zeke on pure instinct. It took a while, but he eventually understood. While she was looking down, there was a natural fluidity to the way her skirt moved. When she looked up though, the material followed her legs a little more stiffly. It was a subtle difference, and Rey doubted he would have noticed it if he hadn't been looking. So, she was adjusting this illusion as she moved? That brought up so many different questions. Questions that she likely would refuse to answer, even if Zeke were not with them. Still, he had managed to tease answers out of her earlier. Perhaps he could do it again. When he looked up, their eyes met, and he grinned briefly. She still looked annoyed, but at least she didn't look like she wanted to murder him anymore. It was a start, anyways. Rey turned back to the front, slightly surprised to realize he was now leading. He'd been so intently focused on Nise, that he had more or less forgotten about the bard entirely. Not, he supposed, that it mattered overly much. As far as he could tell the bard was fairly plain, no danger to Rey at all. Or perhaps that was what he wanted Rey to think. It would be so easy to take a sniff, just peek at his aura... Rey shook the thought away. His arms felt heavy, and exhaustion was dug deep into his bones. If he sensed the bard's aura, he suspected he would just collapse on the spot. Still, he should probably speak to him, if only to distract the bard from Nise. (He did so love to hoard secrets) "I hope you're prepared to have Korin and Micah teassing you about thiss for a while. You sshould have sseen Micah'ss facce when you firsst mentioned Dhani." It had been very funny.