Closed 60 Summer 514: All Things Poisonous

[Fyra Ashworth]

The smell of Col's melted flesh poisoned Fyra's nostrils, though it had been two days since her eighteenth birthday, the day that the reimancer died in the streets, the day that she had... that the fire had... Since then, she had wandered, knowing where she wanted to go, but not knowing how to get there. Col had been the tracker. She had just been the hunter...

How had killing been so easy before? A swift arrow, a subtle knife... Fyra had never doubted that she could kill if she needed to. It didn't matter if it was an animal or a humanoid, though she had never killed a conscious being before...

Suddenly Fyra felt dizzy. She put a hand against a tree to steady herself. The power required to create fire had been too much for her. Her scars, the two parallel marks running down her back, had reopened as fresh cuts. They had scabbed over by now, but Fyra had lost a lot of blood. It didn't help that everything she ate never made it to her stomach. The smell made her too nauseous.

Fyra knew that she couldn't really smell Col anymore, that he was far away now, but it was her heart, not her mind, that was fooling her senses. While it may be easy to convince the head, emotions are not as easily persuaded.

There was only one thought that kept her going, barely a whisper of an idea: Zeltiva. She had been born there, though she could scarcely remember any details about the city. Fyra did have one memory from her time there, though, and as she walked it was that scene which she chose to replay in her mind. It was that memory that made her tighten her free fist, the one not grasping her bow. Normally, she kept her fists closed to hide the scars on her palms. Now she clenched it in murderous rage. A single phrase echoed in her mind:

"Why are you doing this, father? Why are you doing this, father? Why..."

The reimancer had mentioned Zeltiva as well, though with a certain fondness that Fyra could not understand. What had he said about magic? She knew it was important, but she couldn't remember.

Col would have heard the rustle behind her, but Fyra did not. She continued staggering forward, bracing herself against trees when the waves of weakness overwhelmed her. That smell...

[Jahssasyuri]

Flashback.

Its been awhile.

Yuri examined the expressions on the families faces. Sweat trickled down their brows, a scowl on the wife of the deceased. Murmuring among themselves in the night, only the faint glow of the candlestick offered a glimmer of hope. Hope that these people would refrain from contracting Yuri. Alas, anguish and grief does many a deed to one full of sorrow. She sat in her wooden chair, closest to the door on the far end of the dinner table. She leaned back into the wall, resting the back of her seat. A fan of shadowy graves and dark secrets, it took little time for the woman to adjust her eyesight. Human men and women sat scattered in the home, contemplating on the decision they were making. Of course they knew magic was looked down upon. But whatever reason, they stayed in Sunberth. Now their fellow Reimancer was released from his fleshy cage. Last person to be seen with him was a women that one of the children saw before the man died. Using that as their only source, they were willing to give Yuri five hundred gold pieces to take her out as revenge.

"I'll take it. Ssssave your ssssob sssstory for yourssselvess," said Yuri. Filing her nails with a metal knife to advert her gaze away from the blood-thirsty onlookers, it wasn't lighting up the mood whatsoever. Bewildered by the fact that this coalition of mages decided to take place in Sunberth and now expected retribution for the inevitable, something to scoff at. Her own services could not be considered justice. Simply malice thrown into a pot roast of death. Jetting out of the home with the murderous intent of plenty behind her, Yuri had taken care to listen to the family. When speaking amongst one another, they mentioned the last direction they saw the girl heading. The Northern Wilds was the location.

Dawn filling the dark alleyways and blood streets with a blanket of warmth, the Dhani made her best attempt to slice and dice between tight corners and shortcuts of Sunberth to reach the Northern Wilds. Not one to fancy the grassy undergrowth and forest scenery, Yuri planned to make this a quick one. She always hated areas that were too wet for comfort. Did not suit her style at all.

Bow in hand and a quiver of bows ready for deployment, the hunt began.

[Sherashadiss]

Sherashadiss had decided that upon this day, it would be a day where she should go out to look for herbs and plants for her poisonous potions. She had also decided that there was one particular one that she wanted, in case things decided to go pear shape. With poisons, one must always be prepared for accidents, for they do occur, even though she would prefer that they didn’t. The one particular herb that she wanted was called Delaviv, while it did help with speed of child birth it was also helpful of the flushing out of poison from one’s body. She pulled her backpack closer to her form, always weary of thieves and thugs as she made her way out of the city. The woman gently brushed at her pure grey hair, before tucking it behind her ear, occasionally streaks of black can be seen amongst the greys, but it wasn’t exactly easy to see, especially during the night times.

This woman usually kept to herself, she occasionally heard about news when she went off to get into fights or when she visited the taverns and she indeed heard of one particular tid-bit that had peeked her curiousity. A reimancer had died in the streets and while it was not uncommon for people to die because of the constant amount of fighting, but it was a reimancer that had died. They were supposed to be good at what they did, controlling the elements and what not. Wouldn’t they have set fire to someone or placed a bubble of water around one’s head in order to defend them-self? Shadiss didn’t fully understand the world of magic, nor did she really want to, for she preferred her poisons over everything else. It took a certain type of skill to work the herbs and plants found and or bought, but she guessed, it also took a different kind of skill to work magic as well. Indeed, she was somewhat of a recluse, but that didn’t worry the woman, it was less drama and hassle that she had to worry about. Besides, whenever she had an itch, she always visited the taverns or even just the streets of Sunberth to find a fight.

Finally, she found herself in the Northern Wilds as the buildings gave away to hills and patchy forests and her crimson gaze filled with excitement as she pushed forwards so then she would find herself amongst the trees. The grass brushed against her legs, clad in a simple pair of black pants and she visibly relaxed as thieves were not very common outside of Sunberth, however, in case she needed to she had her dagger sheathed in a small sheath attached to her waist. Her gaze flickered over the lands as she looked for that one flower which grew eight inches high, its stalk was square but its leaves were round and was velvety to the touch. Indeed, she knew what it looked like, but finding a plant that was uncommon would be some-what difficult to find. However, she was determined to at least find one of the plant before she returned back to Sunberth.


Common | Snake-Tongue | Thoughts

[Fyra Ashworth]

Fyra took off her backpack and pulled out her waterskin. She drank sparingly, knowing that until she found a reliable source of water, that was all she had to drink. It was almost empty now.

Would she die of dehydration? She hoped not. Fyra greatly preferred the idea of starving to death, but that was a slow way to die. Dehydration was much faster, and at the rate she was going through water, it was likely that that would be her end. Her stomach grumbled loudly.

She hadn't managed to wander very far. What would happen if she went back to Sunberth? To her family? Would they kill her on sight? Col had always been everyone's favorite; he was so optimistic that it was impossible not to like him. Fyra had been different, separate, a cousin rather than a sibling no matter how much she wished the opposite.

No, Fyra had to forget about them now. However, she knew that walking to Zeltiva was basically suicide. Fyra had no idea how to get there, and she didn't have enough supplies to make the journey. Would it be better to die now? When she thought about her future, the prospect was bleak. What was the point of living under so much guilt?

A ship. If she could get to the docks, she could sail to Zeltiva. Fyra was beginning to formulate a plan. It wouldn't bring Col back, and she knew that. But it wasn't really her fault that he had died. Fyra didn't choose to be cursed. Someone else made that choice for her. And she was coming for him.

Fyra decided then to live at least until she had enacted her revenge. For the first time since Col's death, she felt hungry. Not just hungry; she was starving. Fyra took out a day's worth of rations and quickly began to eat it.

[Jahssasyuri]

It was a quiet run through the wilds. Her target could not of been too far away from where Yuri was at. She estimated her own time-line of events, an assumption that the farthest her target could be was less than three hours or so. Not one of the best trackers in the world, or even in Sunberth. Yuri was mainly accustomed to the information network in the city, finding people was easy when they were seen by the majority populace. In the Dhani's case, she was not exactly fluent in tree. Keeping her head on a swivel, Yuri was began to slow her pace when she noticed that there was less flora and underbrush obstructing her path. Not an expert, but even she could tell that the area had been broken through before she arrived.

There depressions in the earth, but nothing solid enough for Yuri to go off of. If it had been raining before, then the mud would of given her a solid footprint to look at. Assuming that the direction was still forward, the Dhani took out an arrow with her right hand, positioning her bow to be ready for a shot to be fired. Increasingly slowing her pace, an opening in the brush about 30 feet away looked like it would be a clearing. Not having a concern for her target to be there, Yuri placed the arrow between her right index and middle finger. Raising the short bow to eye level, she closed her right eye to try and zero in on a certain point across her field of vision. Pulling back on the string, a deep breath helped to steady the shot. Letting go, the armor-piercing arrow glided through the air as it sliced through resistance, hoping to hit something or scare something to make a noise for Yuri to follow.

She was ready to run.

[Sherashadiss]

Drawing a deep breath, her crimson gaze drifted towards the open blue sky as she felt the sun beat down upon her. It was a welcomed heat, much better than the cold of winter, a time where she would hibernate. She dropped her gaze and slipped into a small patch of forest, taking particular note of the plants that grew underneath the trees. The dhani then spotted a particular plant and she dropped to her knees, her fingers reaching out to gently rub them along the top and underside of the wrinkled leaves. It wasn’t the plant that she was looking for, however this one had its own uses. This one was a flower indeed, however it had a slim and leafless stem that produced a yellow blossom with a red center. She slid her hand down to the base of the flower and her thumb, fore finger and middle finger tightly grasped the leafless stem. Gently she pulled the flower upwards, in hopes that she would also pull it up along with its roots without breaking the stem off and leaving the roots under the soil. It appeared however that she wasn’t so lucky and the stem did break off leaving the roots under the soil and a hiss quickly rose to her lips. Lifting the flower up to view eye level, she bit her bottom lip before she shrugged her back pack off her shoulder and dropped it to the ground, opening up the flap to gently place the plant within. The whole plant could be used, including the roots for aching joints and wounds as well as inducing sleep.

She had turned her attention back to the location whether she had picked the flower and her fingers was gently trying to push away the fertile earth when she heard something. Lifting her gaze, she picked up her pack to sling back over her shoulder and she took particular notice of her surroundings. She couldn’t be too sure, but the woman was fairly certain that she had heard heavy steps of some kind. Some twigs of some kind being snapped under some kind of weight. Slowly, she moved to stand from her position upon the ground, brushing dirt from her pants as she did. It was then that she began to turn upon the spot, glancing through the trees trying to spot the location as to where the sound had come from.

Finally Shadiss decided upon a course of action and pushed forwards, pushing away a branch that had gotten in her way and then, a sight befell her gaze as she had let go of the branch. A woman, she noted and she also noted that blood seemed to cling to her white shirt as she used a tree for some kind of support as she ate some food. Shadiss almost wished that she was in her Dhani form in order to taste the air around the woman, there was just something about her that she couldn’t place a finger upon it. That was until an arrow whizzed passed just in front of her to embed in the tree that was to the left. As she focused upon this arrow, it reminded her of something, almost like prey and predator. Except was the woman before her the prey and the owner of the arrow a predator? She then moved forwards quickly, her dagger that was given to her after her mother had died quick into her hand as she hissed low to the strange, human woman as she crouched down to the side of her. ”Get down, someone is firing arrows.” Normally, she wasn’t in the mood to helping those less fortunate, however there seemed to be something about this woman that made her curious, enough to attempt to keep her alive.


Common | Snake-Tongue | Thoughts