A Fae in a Foreign Land

[Breaker]

Josh choked on his own scotch as he lost control and laughed out loud, his head thrown back. He heard Jake join in as the half elf realized what had happened.

"I am sorry about that," Josh finally managed, wiping tears of merriment from his eyes with one hand while the other rescued Jarilo's glass. "You'd better not have anymore," he explained as he poured the lion's share of Jarilo's scotch into his glass, "I guess you've never had alcohol before. This is Sirohlian Scotch, one of the finest vintages I've found from anywhere on Althanas." He took a long, savoring sip. "It's an acquired taste, especially the alcoholic content. But I promise I didn't think you'd react-" he cleared his throat to hide a chuckle, "quite so strongly. Here, have some water." Josh pulled over the jug Clara had brought and poured Jarilo a clay mugful. He passed her the mug before resuming his own meal with gusto.

"Hey Jarilo," Jake joked, "how many fingers am I holding up?" The half elf displayed a hand with two fingers straight and the other three curled, and then straightened a third, then a forth, and then dropped them all into a closed fist. "If you can't tell, you might be drunk."

"Eat your dinner, Jake." Josh advised.

The half elf laughed but resumed munching noisily on roasted vegetables, having already demolished his portion of chicken.

~*~

The fiery portal in the clearing swirled and roiled, casting violent shadows across neighboring trees. For an instant it solidified, the flames still as stained glass, and a beastly being sauntered through.

The Flame Caste Drakari stood taller and wider than most of its brethren, taller than the average elf and wider than the average man. Its scales bulged overtop of unnatural muscle accrued from long days of training with might and magic. The Drakari carried a vicious double-ended flail and wore heavy plate-mail protecting the areas its natural armor was weakest. Smoke vented from its draconic snout as the beast exhaled and then drew a long breath, searching for the scent of the Fae. It had taken the Drakari and its brethren some time to read the residual energies left by the Fae's guardian's portal, but they had replicated the portal exactly using their own brand of magic. The Fae had passed this way perhaps an hour earlier... but she had passed this way. Nothing else in this foreign forest smelled at all like the Drakari's target.

The hunter twirled his weapon, skillfully allowing the flail's twin spike balls to swing dangerously close to his legs with each step. He followed the Fae's trail cautiously; if he was to succeed where his entire clan had failed, he would need to strike with both stealth and speed.

[Jarilo]

“Alllcoholll I’ve hadd,” she retorted once she’d recovered herself, “but nothingbeyond the berrywinne my fatthher loves somuch. Andeventhat, was such a lonng timeago.” She was glad to discover that she could still able to speak coherently, though with a slight slur. She found, too, that her cheeks felt hot, which definitely meant that she was enjoying a functional buzz.

Accordingly, she accepted the proffered mug of water with appreciation, though Jacob’s snide little comment made her flick one of her ears in mild annoyance.

Whereas Josh seemed to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing, Jacob struck her more as a ferret--something small, snarky, and generally not worth much of her time. But then, like many of her kind, she wasn’t overly fond of elves. They were all so derisive and vainglorious--so much so, that even half-breeds like Jacob tended to err on the side of priggish--and, when mixed with the mercurial temperament that all fae-folk were known for… well, let’s just say that fae-kind had long since learned to keep their elven interactions to a minimum.

Bravely though, for propriety’s sake, she resisted the urge to retaliate with violent alacrity to Jacob’s snarkiness. Instead--under the combined effects of her buzz, her hunger, and her fit of temper--she tore into the piece of chicken carcass that sat steaming and so perfect before her with predatory zeal. The vegetables soon followed, though they were eaten with some greater semblance of etiquette. After all, she recalled the advice of one of the few friends she had back home: one should never eat vegetables in an agitated manner, he told her once. The butter would get everywhere. One must eat vegetables quite calmly, instead--it is the only way to eat them.

The memory made her grin.

Wotan found her, then. Unceremoniously, the raven only paused to pick up whatever remained of the carcass on her plate before returning to his perch on the mantle, where he could pick the bones in peace.

“Thissplace. Corrone,” Jarilo spoke up, gesturing at the room around her, “feels so sstrange tome.” She felt much more whole after her meal, but the whiskey still slurred her words and made her blood sing. Against her normal instincts, she was beginning to let her guard down among these strangers. “All light andopenness…” she elaborated with furrowed eyebrows, as her ears flattened again, “and the air isso dry. How d’you stand it?”

[Breaker]

Josh hid a smile as he watched Jake's face turn a darker shade of red than Clara evoked. The half elf had been born and raised in Concordia, and as a continent-hopping portal-maker, considered himself well traveled. He also considered Corone, more specifically its great forest, to be the finest place on Althanas. Apparently Jarilo's tipsy remarks rubbed him the wrong way.

"I dunno how we stand it," Jake said, "must be we're especially strong here." The half elf pushed back from the table and strode to the door, "I'm going to go do a patrol, if you don't need me Josh."

Breaker nodded.

"Until we meet again, milady." Jake bowed formally and exited with barely a slam of the door.

Josh chuckled and took a warm, greasy bite of chicken. He'd done his best to teach Jake proper manners, but the half elf tended to show them only when he was very upset. Best to let him work it off with a good run... or whatever he had planned. I wonder if we'll see Clara again tonight.

"To answer your question," Josh said as he wiped his mouth, "the people of Corone thrive in the light and openness. The river that runs through here carries lumber south to Tylmerande. It's even hotter there, but more humid being so close to the ocean. Coronians are excellent ship builders... some of the vessels they make could sail all the way to Dheathain. But I'm not that patient." He chuckled again and sipped his scotch to wash down the meal. He would have to drink another ten doubles to get as tipsy as Jarilo, and he had no intention of that, but he could still savor the flavor. "Is there anything else you require?" He asked his guest.

[Jarilo]

“Nno, Joshua Cronen,” came her answer, a slightly slurred echo of what she’d said to him moments before the ambush in Dheathain, “You barely know my name, and you havealready given me much.” The steel in her eyes finally softened into quicksilver as she tilted her antlered head to the side, just as her raven did whenever he was curious about something. “You are so…” she struggled to find the right word, “unexpected, fora human.” Then, absently slipping into her own tongue, she added, “I hardly know what to make of you.”

Having finished with his chicken, Wotan raised his own voice is raspy agreement, fluttering to land on the table beside her as he did so. He began picking at the ends of her dreadlocks as well, which she took as a reminder that she’d left her runes spread out over the small table by the hearth. “Alright, old crow,” she told her raven with a small, almost sheepish grin.

For reasons she could not fathom, she’d begun to feel way more exposed than she was comfortable with all of the sudded… either because of how ‘unexpected’ Josh was, or because of the whiskey--at the moment, the reasons didn’t matter. Jarilo only knew that she needed to do something to combat the self-conscious restlessness she was currently experiencing.

So, she got up and padded back across the small room to reclaim the rocking chair from earlier. As she began regathering her runes, she asked Joshua, “Do you require anything elsefrom me? It’s only fair after all, and you looked troubled byyour reading, earlier…”

[Breaker]

"Not troubled," Josh assured Jarilo with a small smile, "you've given me much to think about, that's all." He stood and stretched with both arms overhead, producing a series of pops down the length of his spine. He brushed bits of vegetable from his black sifan shirt and pants and ran a hand through close cropped brown hair. His hazel eyes met Jarilo's steely gaze. "How would you like to go for a walk in the woods?" He asked, "by night it's a little less warm and dry. It won't be the same as the forests you're used to, but you might like to see more of the area."

Jarilo nodded, a little overenthusiastic with the alcohol in her veins, and her raven squawked its acquiescence. Josh held the door for the Fae an the bird, and together they moved down the short hallways with its unremarkable oil paintings. As they traversed the common room Josh noted that Clara was nowhere to be seen. Could be she's busy in the kitchen, he supposed, but more likely Jake's so-called patrol will turn into a bit of kiss and tickle. Josh smiled and shook his head. Jacob often seemed like an absolute opposite to himself, and yet they got along impeccably. Most of Cronen's friends found Jake somewhat distasteful, whereas most of the half-elf's friends considered Josh aloof and annoying, at best. However Josh had never found such a firm friendship with any of his students, or for that matter, anyone else. Hope the kids enjoy themselves, he thought as he envisioned Jake and Clara racing through the forest, hand in hand.

Night had fallen outside, and a cool breeze called dust motes up from the hardpacked road. Josh led Jarilo out the same wall gate they had entered by, and with the raven winging overhead the pair set off into the woods.

~*~

Jake red-hot temper cooled the moment he and Clara entered the forest. He had honestly intended to do a regular patrol, but then as he'd passed trough the Krowesnest's common room the young woman had shot him perhaps the most sultry smile in all of Althanas. How was a poor lonely half elf supposed to resist? He'd invited her to come along, and now they strode through the forest side by side, chatting frivolously.

"My hands are cold," Clara mentioned, twining the fingers of her left hand through his right and holding on tight, "there, that's much better."

"Err, what about your other hand?" Jake fumbled, distracted by the heat waves that seemed to radiate from their connected palms.

Clara laughed like a wound music box, the sound almost too pretty for their surroundings.

"You're right," Clara stopped suddenly and pivoted in front of Jake so their noses nearly touched. She had long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes and wore a simple cotton dress which nonetheless highlighted her fine figure. With each deep breath she took her bosom seemed to grow, coming close to touching the leather jacket covering Jake's chest. "My other hand is cold," she added, and slipped her right into his left.

Jake felt a chemical reaction as his green eyes locked with her blue. He only had to tilt his head downward the slightest bit to meet her lips. The two embraced until Jake broke the kiss. He turned away from Clara, brow furrowed and green eyes sparkling.

"What is it?" The serving girl asked.

"Can't you hear that?" Jake said. His pointed ears all but quivered.

The Drakari crashed into sight, and Clara shrieked, hands covering her mouth but doing nothing to mute the sound. She had never seen something so monstrous in all her life.

"Drakari..." Jake hissed. He had seen the warlike creature on previous visits to Dheathain, but had never interacted with them. Certainly he'd never fought one. But by the way the thing swung its vicious double-flail, he was about to get his chance.

"Run," Jake whispered to Clara as he unshouldered his redwood recurve bow, "run back to the Krowesnest and tell Josh a Flame Caste Drakari has ported in." The half elf strung an arrow and sighted along the smooth shaft. "It must have read the residue from my doorway," hem muttered through gritted teeth as the bow bent to its fullest extent.

Clara clutched the front of her dress and raced back the way they had come, crashing through the underbrush and whimpering on every odd step.

Jake could not blame her; between the fearsome spiked armor, the bloodred scales, and the draconic maw full of fangs, the Drakari looked like something from a Coronian child's nightmare. Fear spiked the adrenaline in Jacob's bloodstream but he drew a deep, calming breath and loosed his first shaft on the exhale.

The arrow glanced off the Drakari's pauldron. The Drakari snorted a cloud of smoke and sauntered forward, whipping its flail into a deadly figure of eight.

Jake snatched another arrow from the quiver on his hip and slapped it onto his bow, and drew and fired as quickly as he could breathe. This time the steel bodkin head penetrated the armor where the pauldron met the chest plate, but the Drakari gave no indication that it had struck the flesh beneath. It did not even bother to remove the arrow, but continued trudging forward with the vicious flail whirling before it.

"Blood and guts," Jake muttered. He shouldered his bow and drew the liviol tonfa from his left hip in a single motion. The blue fighting stick had seen him through more duels and battles than he could count, but for the first time Jake found himself wishing for a proper blade. He had no desire to injure the Drakari or knock it unconscious... only to kill the best as quickly as possible.

The Drakari lunged forward and flicked one of the flail heads into a vertical arc. Jake barely ducked out of the way in time, and then had to backpedal and slip to the left as the other end of the flail followed the path of the first. Jake did not dare attempt to parry the flails with his tonfa, for he felt certain the chains would wrap around his weapon and knew he could not best the Drakari in the contest of strength that would ensue.

Jake bobbed and weaved to the left and then right, dodging deadly spiked balls at every turn and keeping his tonfa upraised in both hands, waiting for a chance to strike. The Drakari seemed frustrated, for as its breathing grew heavier smoke and sparks emanated from its fearsome snout.

Seeing an opportunity, Jake backpedalled to a solid oak tree and heard one of the flails thunk into the trunk and stick as he ducked under the latest assault. Not wasting anytime, he uncoiled like a spring and thrust the end of his tonfa deep into the Drakari's maw, knocking out several of its fangs and causing blood to flow. The drakari seemed unaffected and took one hand off of its weapon long enough to buffet Jake across the head with a steel gauntlet.

The half elf lost his bearings and stumbled several steps, and then lost his feet and fell like a scarecrow without a post. He fought to keep his eyes open, to bring his tonfa between himself and the advancing monster, but his strength failed him as his mind threatened to spin into unconsciousness.

The Drakari advanced. Its bloody maw split into a facsimile of a smile as it whirled it's flail in preparation to finish the young half elf.

[Jarilo]

As they stepped into the forest once more, Jarilo had to take a moment to close her eyes. There was peace in the faint moisture in the air that misted so gently across her face, and in the natural smells that comforted her in ways nothing else could. Cronen was right, it seemed: Though this forest was a sad, little echo of Deathain, she found that when the merciless sun inevitably conceded to the gentle moon, a little glory returned to these beleaguered trees--and so, too, did her sense of well-being.

Abruptly, she laughed, and her anxieties left her like spider webs in the wind. Seized by the moment and by whiskey that lingered in her veins, she danced ahead of her bigger-than-life companion, plunging into the darkened wood with the gestalten intermingling of delight and curiosity.

She flitted from tree to tree, like a hummingbird, caressing each of them as though they were holy. She was consumed with a desire to know this forest--to feel the shape of its shadows, and to learn it's vital song.

But the forest spoke to her in a foreign dialect, one that wasn’t so intrinsically understood.

Furrowing her eyebrows as she continued her exploration, she struggled to interpret the garbled message. “Breaker,” she called to her companion, breathless with wonder, “this forest is as unexpected as you are!”

~

Silently above her, Wotan did not share in his mistress’s reckless abandonment. Irrespective of whatever the forest was or wasn’t saying, his own instincts were telling him that something was very wrong.

[Breaker]

Josh smiled as he watched Jarilo flit from tree to tree, following the Fae with long easy strides. He wanted to allow the Fae's playfulness to take him over, but he could hear someone crashing through the underbrush. And then he heard the running feet, and the sobbing.

"M-m-monster!" Clara cried as she stumbled through a thornbush and into sight. The pretty young girl's face was red and tear-streaked, and her previously clean cotton dress bore a myriad of burrs, stains, and tears from dashing through the woods. "Breaker!" She exclaimed upon seeing him.

Josh arrived at her side as her knees wobbled and clasped the girl's forearms to keep her upright.

"What monster?" He asked, speaking calmly and looking deep into her eyes. His thumbs kneaded tiny trigger points on the insides of her arms, and Clara calmed somewhat. "Where's Jake?" Josh asked.

"Oh no, Jake!" The thought set Clara crying anew. "He said... tell you there's a... flame-something. A Drakari! He's fighting a monster all alone. I should have stayed and helped, I should have-"

"Clara, you did the right thing," Josh reassured her, "now I need you to run along back to Underwood. We'll meet you at the Krowesnest... me and Jake both. Go now." He gave her arms a final squeeze and sent the girl on her way, cotton skirt swishing about her knees as she ran.

Breaker sniffed the air and listened. Beneath the array of soft forest scents he could smell blood and sweat on the breeze. The sounds of two bodies moving about, one large and heavy, the other small and slight, barely reached his ears.

"The Drakari must have followed us from Dheathain," Josh reasoned aloud, beckoning for Jarilo to follow, "if we're lucky, it will just be the one. Hurry now, Jake will need our help." Breaker tore into the underbrush, at first moving slowly enough that Jarilo could keep up, and then accelerating as the sounds of combat grew louder. He could hear the heavy clank-clank of metal armor moving about, which did not bode well for Jake. The half-elf was used to humans being sluggish in their platemail; the Drakari would be strong enough to move almost as if unencumbered. Soon he could hear the beast panting, as well as Jake's defter breathing. Breaker burst into the clearing just as Jake crashed to the ground.

"Fire-spitter!" Cronen roared in Dheath, using an insult in the Drakari's native tongue to turn its head. He saw the work Jake's tonfa had done - blood and broken fangs decorated the beast's open maw. Well done, Jake. Breaker raised his right hand to shoulder level with fingers splayed and palm vertical. Pure white energy crackled into existence, forming a small ball in front of his hand. A ball which could lance out and punch straight through the Drakari's armor at a moment's notice.

"I give you one chance," Josh continued in Dheath, "leave this continent and never return, or I'll kill you where you stand."