Tirel. Late Summer. Late Afternoon.Part of the Zodiac storyline. Closed to BlackAndBlueEyes and Christoph.
Back and forth had she gone, from great forest to thriving winter city. From the rescuing of an ancient powerful lyre, to the formation of a new interest, Philomel had traversed the length of the massive main continent various times over. Salvar and Raiaera had been her keen interest, with a narrow avoidance of terror in Alerar. Pity that one time had led her to be mistakenly blamed for the murder of Zack Blaze, else she would be in high spirits in the act of teaching the dark elves the punishment for taking away from mother nature.
With her ship on the shore and captained now for the past full four months by the strong-hearted mage Vaeron, Philomel had been stuck on land. With few companions but her tera'k mount, her dragon Delath and her beloved Veridian life had been strangely dull, though peppered with acquaintences. The most recent of which was currently sitting on her lap, sniffing at the chill air.
He was a small, neat little thing, with black ears and a white face. A prey creature by habit the rabbit that Philomel had come to name Mao, named for the magical crystal sword that had attracted the strange twitchy creature in the first place, took current pride of place in her attentions. This fact did not bode well with Veridian, who was somewhat growing daily more jealous with this. His golden eyes gleamed, and his pitiless voice in Philomel's head threatened to eat her.
"He is just a rabbit!" Philomel said, not for the first time. "Don't you dare be mean to him!"
Turning around in her seat on the top of her beast of burden, she stared at the fox companion. Perched on the back of the saddle he was in a self-conscious position, curled up tight protectively. Part of it was to do with the situation that her attentions were pitted more these days towards their new companion, but part of it was also to do with the full streets of the city they travelled through. Veridian the fox-formed earth-spirit bared his teeth to his beloved faun, but said no more, not again. This conversation had occurred several times in the last few days and it had always ended in an uneasy silence between them. It was strange that Philomel had picked up a rabbit for her latest familiar - for, as it stood foxes were their natural predator and a dragon ... well - yet it did not seem to bother the faun. She went with the opinion that she was part goat, which was a natural prey beast, therefore having Mao made their party more equal. Of course, Veridian disagreed.
They had come this far north to seek out, if they could, the red-haired girl Amari again, in attempt to make contact. Amari was Shinsou van Osiris' (Philomel's good friend) ex-lover, and now the second in command to the bastard-face Lye Ulroke, the leader of the assassin's guild, the Crimson Hand. It had been with Lye as a puppet ruler that Philomel had previously had to face a war against the Hand, and that was the last time she had been properly in Salvar to live. Since then the faun's distancing from the fading, then somewhat rising assassin club had been varied at most.
Varied. Or non-existent. And she had tried to save Amari from his clutches, but he had tortured her. He had abused her. He had dug his raking claws into the girl and threatened to never let go. Philomel now hated Lye with all her soul.
Of course there had been another involved with the war. Maddison Freebird, Lye Ulroke's puppeteer for when he had been the one dancing on strings. Philomel had less reason to dislike her - after all she had not made herself known recently in terms of torturing an innocent.
As she went through the old city, Philomel glanced around, warily eyeing the strangers that passed before and behind them. Some clustered in small groups, set decoratively before public houses and guild halls, muttering under their breath or talking broadly and openly about those they desired and despised. Overall the architechture was grim, dull-coloured and leering, with the odd one or two shop declaring colour. Humans of all shapes and sizes thronged the streets, with lumbering horses, donkeys and other lesser common beasts of burden squeezing between, scattered sparsely with the odd fair elf or darker-hearted orc. Philomel found herself spying them, watching them, observing them, with an eager ear trying to find the beginnings of the rumours of the red-haired lass which had originally brought her this far north ...
"There'em be a new bookshop, ye ken?"
"Aye, I 'ave seen in. Been in it. Ye?"
"Aye, there'sa librareh also."
"Eh? Ye'um mean tha' the bookshop be a librareh tae?"
"Nawwww..."
She rolled her eyes, moving steadily away from the two strong men. The tera'k huffed a little, feeling bored himself, and extremely hungry. His tiny but perceptive eyes peeked around for hay.
"They'em say ye can find anythin' there."
"Oh aye?"
"Aye, even myths and ye know, them'em old folking tales."
"Aye, my wee lass is pure intae them."
"Aye?"
"Aye..."
Looking around she saw a small alleyway leading down to the shady right. There was the high situated sign of an inn at the start of the lane, so it was probable that there was somewhere to rest there for a moment while they got there barings. Tera'k could have his hay, Mao could look adorable, and Veridian could moan even more.
"Aye, and the proprie'or. Some weird guy wiv a mask an' ... the girl wiv 'air as black as night. Scary beyon' reason ..."
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