Quest for the Lyre of Orphaeo

[Philomel]

Her head tilted to the side as she began to settle down for the night. Watching him was an intrigue, and indeed a blessing almost. The man had a way of moving, acting and speaking that seemed to draw her in, enabling her to trust him. It did not help, naturally, that he was called upon by a goddess almost as great as Drys, and therefore automatically held a high regard in Philomel's mind.

Lips pursing as she listened to him speaking she set down her bed roll, pulling a single cord. It unravelled like a spirited flag, aiming to catch the breeze and declare territory to all inhabitants. Promptly, without looking, she sat and Veridian took up a curled position beside her.

"The moss is not something I particularly care for," she said with a small amount of distaste in her voice, "but I would appreciate any clothing you wish to present me with."

Veridian flicked his tail and yawned a little. Philomel took a moment to pause.

"But we should talk of our mission I think. My sources tell me that the lyre we seek must be obtained before enemy forces come and take it. And the lyre itself lies deep in this forest, and many perilous adventures await us within." She scraped back a stray hair dangling in front of her face.

"I presume you are a fighter, master Breaker. Or a sorceror of some kind?"

The tera'k behind her huffed and decided the conversation was boring - or some similar, perhaps simpler, thought. Turning on hoof he twisted to begin lumbering off in search of sweet grasses and good grazing.

Philomel looked over her shoulder at the sound of the lumbering beast taking a-hoof. Laughing gently, she continued her speaking without allowing Joshua time to answer her question.

"Never mind him," she said, "we will find him come morning."

[Breaker]

Josh sat cross-legged with his back straight and hands clasped loosely around his ankles, enjoying Philomel's presence as much as the night breeze. Her movements showed a practiced grace, from the way she unrolled her bedroll to the pensive purse of her lips. She smelled like only a beautiful woman could smell, and her soft actions told Breaker that she was schooled in the art of seduction. Under any other circumstance he would have allowed the natural attraction to draw him to her, but they had many things to attend to, and his own carnal appetite did not make the list.

"I am a fighter," he said after the faun finished speaking, and the words reminded him of the first time he met Suravani. He smiled, dimpling the Y-shaped scars on his cheeks. "And a lover, and a seeker of adventure." He had said the same thing to Suravani when first she graced him with her presence. It seemed appropriate to explain himself to this daughter of Drys in the same manner. His smile broadened as he stood swiftly and strode a few paces away, to stand in the center of the soul blossom patch. "And I have been called a sorcerer by some I faced in combat." He raised both hands in a wide arc and brought them together in front of his chest, palms pressed in prayer. "The Eternal Tap flows through me, as it does all things, and I have learned to harness its power."

Breaker splayed his palms suddenly, and water rose from his bare hands as if bidden from two natural springs. The twin streams criss-crossed and entwined like wrestling serpents, catching rays of moonlight and making the entire meadow glow. Breaker plucked soul blossoms from where they grew and introduced the blue-purple flowers into the writhing waters. The blossoms blended with the water, becoming one with the liquid and coloring it a deep violet. Contained within the petals, Drys' love lent strength and wisdom to the water. Suravani's light lent grace and power as it too was imbued in the liquid. Lastly Josh poured in a measure of his own brand of magic, and then one droplet at a time, the writhing water froze.

The water became molten ice, and shaped slowly into the form of a hooded cloak, suspended in the air. Josh reached out and grasped it with both hands. It was warm to touch, made so by Drys' love. It was light as silk, made so by Suravani's brilliance. It was strong as steel, made so by Breaker's might. And yet it fluttered in the wind like any fabric, as soft and fragrant as the Fealotë blended within. Josh folded the cloak neatly and plucked a final soul blossom from the patch, and then strode back to Philomel and sat facing the faun.

"This will keep you warmer than wool," he said, presenting the folded cloak, "as safe as a suit of steel armor, and yet as mobile as if it were silk." He reached out and tucked the final soul blossom behind a strand of Philomel's violet hair. Its dyed color matched the cloak well. "And all without compromising your beauty," Breaker remarked. He stroked his stubbled chin with callused fingers.

"It is a small thing, to protect you against the perils we are sure to face," Josh said, and flexed his powerful hands. "But that, so Suravani says, is my part in Drys' plan."

[Philomel]

Philomel felt a slight amount of chagrin rise when the suave man, with the grace of a nobleman and the presence that could only be described as 'gentlemanly,' gifted her with the succulent flower. Eyelashes immediately fluttered, but not in a flirtacious way, more confused than anything - stunned. Her lips parted to say something, but no sound emerged as she tried to understand what she had just felt.

Flattered. Was that really it? She honestly felt flattered. Rarely before had she ever felt such an emotion as this. Curious and sweet, the sense of laudation was different from being admired or simply praised. There was a certain beauty and romance attached to it, all enhanced by the courteous nature of this singular man.

Her eyes glanced down to the soft fabric before her, trying to rid herself of the rose-tinted blush before it let her duty escape her. After all, she was here as a represenative of her goddess, and admiration was all good but it could not distract her or allow her to drop her guard. After all, this was the Red Forest, and in here spirits still raged like demons of old. Slowly taking in her breath she allowed herself the time to run a hand over the folded material before her, and calm the emotions that were quickly morphing into embarressment.

Fast, she swallowed, and her hand gripped the cloak as she forced her eyes back up, that moment of bashfulness dying away. Incling her head she instilled authority and strength back into her form and smiled simply at the man, once more cross legged before her.

"I thank you for this gift, Breaker of Survani," she conveyed in a capable tone. "It is one of beauty, and it is formed maginificently."

Carefully she unwrapped the cloak from its folds her on her lap and stood in with effortless ease. She swung the cloak around her back and over her shoulders, allowing time for it to fall to the ground. Perfect in size it brushed the top of her pasterns and shimmered with a glorious essence that reminded her somehow of the majesty of Drys. It was clear to her that it was the nature of the area around them, as well as the very flowers they pressed hoof and foot upon that made it so. She watched also the pool of water dying away, merging back with the soil and it came to her mind that Survani was more than a desert diety, but rather also a lifebringer in soul. Where Drys had fruits, she had oases as her gift to the world, and where Drys had roots she had the channels of water running through the Fallien wilderness. This was a gift, but no ordinary gift - it was the merging of two natures, two goddesses, two civilisations.

Slowly, once more with a fast beating heart and feeling the flattery rice again Philomel sat, this time not able to contain the tints of red to her face, the small gatherings of tears in the corners of her eyes. She nodded once more to Breaker and thanked him with a quiet voice.

"We should rest now, though" she said, "come morning we need to leave as dawn breaks and set as far as we can west. The lyre must be found before it falls into enemy hands. Until then," she fixed him with a steady but indebted-converying gaze, "I will thank you again."

[Breaker]

"Let us rest then, daughter of Drys." Breaker said. "It is but a small thing," he assured her, ruffling the fringe of her new cloak, "consider it a gift from our goddesses, to safeguard the lyre-bearer." It did not occur to him to tell Philomel that he required little in the way of rest. Instead he lay down on the soft ground and looked up at the moonbeams filtering through the trees. Even with Suravani's brilliance in full bloom, he found the image of Philomel's blushing face lingering in his mind. She had turned positively scarlet when he presented the cloak and tucked that final soul blossom behind her ear. Her eyes had glistened like twin pools in the moonlight.

If I am not careful, Breaker thought, I may find myself entranced by this faun.

Shall I be jealous? The moon twinkled, and Suravani's musical laugh echoed in Josh's mind.

Can love between two mortals ever serve to make a deity envious? Breaker wondered. Only the wind in the trees answered the frivolous question. Once again clouds passed over the moon, and the demigod found himself alone with the sound of Philomel's slumber.

Perhaps I should sleep as well, Breaker thought, if not out of need then to pass the time. A small part of him, the part that always felt lonely around other mortals, longed to waken the faun and regale her with stories of his adventures. And to hear her tales as well. There may be time for that, much later, he thought, for now it is my duty to guard her, and her duty to rest so that she will be ready for tomorrow's journey.

Breaker lay still on his back and listened to the leaves quaking in the trees, to the branches banging against one another in broken rhythm. To the swish of long grass and bushes, and the far-off howl of hunting Dur'Taigen. Drys seemed to speak to him in those sounds, lulling him to sleep. Rest now, warrior, he swore he heard her say, for the perils ahead will leave you not a moment to close your eyes. Breaker's broad chest rose and fell as his breathing became deep and regular. The breeze quieted, and the clouds covering the moon thickened. The demigod's eyelids drooped shut, and he fell asleep to the rhythmic sounds of the faun slumbering nearby.

[Philomel]

Soundly slept she, wrapped in the arms of Drys. She fell resting to the soft music of the wind playing in the leaves above, and to the great rolling presence beneath the earth of the earth-dragon Delath, the wyrm of soil and rock whom had been gifted to her by her goddess.

Some time in the night the creeping hunter Veridian returned from where he had gone, unnoticed, by the two bipedals, complete with hare between his teeth. He settled by the hooves of his sleeping beloved, and began to gorge on the meat he had caught. Golden eyes glinted in the firelight, catching those of the awake Breaker and he paused for a moment before raising his muzzle and giving the warrior a bloody, toothy grin.

Then he went back to his bone-snapping and devouring of the large rodent creature. Blood was splattered across the grasses, and if someone had been looking carefully they would have seen the blood slowly draining into the dirt, and in its place a small green blade shoot out and take over the place. Just a single piece of grass, but it was enough to toll a warning. A warning that despite the death of the Forgotten One here that spirits still flew and dark things still occurred, that poisons still were rife and evil still stirred in certain hearts. Beasts still roamed and death still reigned.

The morning slowly came and with that the fox, who had curled up with Philomel under the cloak, and the faun herself began to arise. She blinked in the light and looked over to the other two-legged. A soft smile came to her lips and she felt the same feeling that she had before - a tenderness and a flattery. Her hand ran over the fabric of her cloak, that which he had made as the sun's rays lit up their little camp, and life was coming back.

There was a lyre to get, but for the first time in this adventure she felt positive that it was possible, and maybe ... maybe ... she would enjoy it.

Carefully she got up, letting the cloak fall around her. As she did Veridian got up himself and smiled up at her and she leant to brush his fluff. He chattered to her as she yawned, forced herself with energy and began to roll up her bed. It was time to start, it was time to do things, and this was merely the beginning.

[Breaker]

As fingerling rays of red-gold sunlight permeated the trees Breaker rose to his feet and yawned. He'd had a surprisingly dreamless sleep, for ordinarily his slumber showed him omens or messages from his goddesses. He flexed his shoulders and stretched his arms, sternum popping like a hollow oak. He raised his hands, palms uplifted, and summoned water and air to scour the dust and dirt from his clothing and hair. Within a moment his black shirt and breeches looked clean and pressed, his boots shone as if freshly buffed, and his close-cropped hair appeared freshly washed, neatly framing his scarred face. He bent forward to stretch the muscles in his back and legs and checked his dagger in its boot-sheathe. Everything seemed ready for the start of a great adventure.

"This way," Josh said with a knowing smile and a gesture. Together he and Philomel followed a trail of bruised and flattened foliage until they came across the tera'k where it grazed contentedly on some long grass. With the lyre bearer in the saddle once more, Josh led them west, away from the rising sun, deeper into the great forest. The fox Veridian scampered about his feet at times, popping in and out of the foliage like a ghost.

The dangers of Lindequalmë loomed all around them, and yet Breaker had little trouble leading the strange group safely. They detoured around a crimson tree that hung thick with bloodvines, and squeezed through a maze of boulders lined with fire moss. They trekked past nests of deadly serpents and avoided packs of Dur'Taigen disguised as harmless trees.

Breaker fell into such a rhythm of scanning his surroundings for trouble that he failed to notice a foul stench as they entered an unnatural clearing. He soon spotted the piles of bones though, belonging to everything from small rodents to wolves, and a few haunting human-looking skeletons partially petrified in the loam.

The clearing, it became apparent, was just a place where some giant had lain in some slumber. The flattened area, perhaps fifteen feet in length, was pockmarked with holes left by long vicious spikes, and surrounded by the bones of the giant's victims. A large red oak nearby bore brown tufts of fur and scratch marks where the great beast rubbed its back.

"Be very silent," Josh whispered, lifting a hand, hazel eyes scanning their immediate surroundings, "and move with care, lyre-bearer." Adrenaline spiked in his bloodstream. "It seems we have stumbled into the territory of a Maul."

[Philomel]

Breath was captured in her chest for a moment as she stared at the companion adventurer. Her hand was around the reigns attached to her tera'k's horns and head, leading him on the ground. Upon the beast of burden's back was her bed roll, collected and tied tightly, but it did not seem to encumber him. For as she stopped fully to freeze in her stance he continued at a steady lumbering, until he got to the end of the tether.

He moaned, a quiet low, but she did not listen. Instead her lips formed a circle as her arm extended out, following the reigns. Yet, she remained as firm as she was, stuck there in shock.

"A maul..." she whispered.

Of course she had heard of them. In rumour. Great, lumbering creatures who had four arms and were close to apes in stature and build. Their backs, it was told, were covered in wicked spines of possibly posionous type. They were dim witted and had a rage within that was like a fire. A fire that spread fast and vicious, taking up the forest around it in a rapid burn.

"We should definitely leave," she nodded, quietly swinging out her sword.

It might be no use here, but at least it was a protection, for now, as she tugged her tera'k away. He groaned more, in protest, sending a noise shaking through the leaves, much more than she would have liked. She cursed under her breath and began to pull harder on the reigns, muttering how obstinate he was, and he began to object louder, as if telling her, no not that way, what is this? First you stop and now you want me to-

Suddenly. Somewhere. A terrifying roar of barbarious attitude. The very blood froze in Philomel's veins and she found herself beginning to shake. It had taken a lot to already get her out of the staring stupor when she had first heard the word 'maul,' but now the reality was hitting her. She began to see the signs - the scratched-up bark, the blooded grass, the fur caught high in the branches where no one could ever climb. Swallowing her breath she breathed in harder and used more strength than she dared to confess she had and fought over the tera'k who was now the one frozen still. In fear, like the prey animal he was.

"Now is not the time to play dead!" she screamed at the beast.

She flung the reigns up and over his head and ran around to begin scrambling onto his back. In her mind she delved down, and found Veridian, where he was sniffing about foliage. His ears were up, though, now, listening to the roar that shook through mother nature and was ... well gaining was the only right word.

We need to leave, she told him as she heartlessly kicked her tera'k into movement. He bellowed in terror, but followed her direction that pointed out of the way of the forest, away from the maul's screams.

Veridian nodded and turned tail, notifying her with his movements that he was to leave. Anxiously she looked back to Breaker and angled the tera'k's path towards him, and she held out her arm, for him to hold and then fling himself up behind her onto the bovine's mighty back.

"Come," she said, "let's get out of here."

[Breaker]

Breaker reached up and clapped a hand to Philomel's wrist. Their fingers snared each others' forearms and he harnessed the tera'k's momentum to leap up behind her on its broad back. The terrified animal galloped beneath its burden, lowing like an Alerian foghorn as it wove between trees and boulders.

The very ground shook with the maul's pursuit, its great feet thrashing the earth repeatedly. Its roar shook the leaves in trees that parted like grass before its careening run. Despite the tera'k's best efforts the maul seemed to gain ground with each mighty step. Philomel worked the reigns with one hand, the other wielding her sword to chop away bloodvines that dangled across their path. The space between raging Maul and panicked tera'k shrank as the chase wore on.

Breaker released his light grip on Philomel's waist and lifted his weight on his hands, spinning around so he sat astride the tera'k facing backwards. The maul ran in their wake, its four arms flailing in rage, its four jaws dripping putrid saliva. Above the hooked mandibles glared angry bloodshot eyes, eyes that saw only invaders of its territory. Edible invaders.

Josh knew he needed to lighten the tera'k's load for Philomel to escape. He lifted a hand with fingers splayed and froze a thick beam of ice between two wide tree trunks. The maul smashed through the beam, not quite tripping but stumbling enough that its race became a headlong drive. Josh lifted himself on his hands again and crouched on the beast of burden's back. For a moment he watched the maul's stumbling run, calculating distance and speed and time.

Breaker leaped straight up, flipping forcefully while he twisted around in midair. He hung upside down, facing the careening giant, and his left leg lashed out. At the last moment before impact he activated an enchantment in his boot which became heavier by a hundred pounds. And then the solid metal shoe impacted the maul's skull, right between its bloodshot eyes.

The maul's momentum carried it forward and it crashed into the soaring demigod, bearing him to the ground in a massive whump of displaced earth and plant life.

Josh rolled away swiftly, his hip aching from the impact, and found his feet amidst the loam.

The maul lay several yards away, unmoving. Blood seeped from its cracked skull, the thick furry skin broken at the site.

Breaker had felled the beast with a single blow.

[Philomel]

Blinded by intense fear the tera'k kept pounding his hooves onto the earth. Philomel clung to him, grinding her teeth as she switched between watching in front of her and trying to angle around to watch the fight occurring. The battle lasted naught but a few seconds, however those seemed like an age as the intensity rose. As soon as Breaker had departed from behind her she hissed darkly, but knowing it was for her own good. Veridian himself was barely holding on, claws dug in to the leather saddle. With numerous soft roars he kept yowling something between anger and pity for all that was going on. Clearly the fox did not care much for being tossed around.

Then, the noise stopped. Somehow, the tension lasted so few moments, and they had only gone a few hundred feet. It was enough for the faun to look properly around and spy that the great dark doom-beast was felled, right down onto the ground. Breaker himself was standing, or rather oddly crouching as he supported himself on a local branch to catch his breath. So little time, and such a great monstrosity ... never had she seen such a speedy death for a beast so beautiful as the maul.

However, her tera'k was still doing what prey animals did best in the time of fear - run, and keep running, no matter what. The speed and might of the creature served her well in travel, but not so much when it was time to stop and heal. To no avail did she try to pull on his reigns to slow him. Instinct roared through his veins, causing him to keep charging.

Probably until he was several miles away at least.

"Stupid animal," she cursed under her breath as she tried, for one last time to tug on the reigns, to stop or turn him. But it was to no avail. He was as stubborn as she was. Still her beast of burden fled.

Thus she did the only sensible thing - knowing he would just continue until they were away, far away from here and leaving Breaker too far behind. Focusing on her energy she picked up her fist, bringing in the mightiest of strength that she could muster - five times, some said, more than the average fighter - and slammed it into the apex of his neck. Just where the central nerve was, just enough to send him reeling, and then down.

He took a few steps to slow, and to suffer, and to fall. Without warning Veridian of what she was doing she underwent various moans such as, Why did you not tell - arrghghhh! as the tera'k collapsed beneath them. He was still alive, and perfectly well, but his steadiness went, his conciousness vanished and he descended to the ground under the influence of her hit.

Stay with him, Philomel told her beloved fox companion as she rather neatly and gracefully landed to the side, slipping off just in time to the music of the falling, dozed tera'k. Golden eyes just glared at her.

Giving him a sweet smile, then blowing him a kiss she twisted in the air, and the earth very naturally opened up beneath her. A portal shook into existence, whisking her from there and then away. Back she went a good few feet - or rather many few feet to be close to where Breaker was.

As if it was all part of natural circumstance the faun stepped out from the new earth opening, and strode towards the Maul-slayer. She kept the smile on her face.

"Well done, Mr Breaker," she said with a smirk, "I see that we will get on very well."

[Breaker]

Breaker crouched at the maul's side, paying his respects to the fallen monster. He rose as Philomel approached, having sensed the arcane earth shift that brought her near. It seemed the lyre bearer boasted hidden talents. Josh smiled at the beautiful faun, dimpling the scars on his cheeks. A soft breeze played in her purple hair. The forest seemed so silent with the maul's fury gone.

"I had hoped we would," Breaker replied, his hazel eyes meeting her grey ones, "after all, we must work well together, in sight of our goddesses." He leaned down and plucked a handful of dirt, letting the coarse earth cascade between callused fingers to remind him of Suravani's touch. The sensation grounded him in their purpose, and he gestured in the direction of the tera'k's obvious tracks. "We should return to your friends before we attract more attention."

Side by side they followed the tera'k trail, pursuing bruised foliage and battered turf. For all that it had torn up the ground, the beast of burden left barely a sign when compared to the thundering maul.

"The trees are grateful," Philomel said with a sly smile, "for you stopped the giant from felling even more of them in its wrath."

"You can speak to the trees?" Josh wondered. He supposed he should not be too surprised. The faun seemed particularly attuned to the earth, but then, the chance she was having a laugh at his expense lingered.

"They speak to me, mostly," she teased, extending an elegant hand to point at a gently swaying red oak, "see how they dance? They are pleased by your presence."

"As am I by yours, lyre-bearer," Josh said quietly. He thought he glimpsed a dim blush on the faun's neck beneath her purple plait. "Though this forest is filled with dangers, it seems that together we make light of them." The deep violet cloak he had made for her shimmered in the wind, reminding him of the way the soul blossom had looked perched in her hair. The breeze rattled the leaves in the trees, and they seemed to laugh at him. Perhaps they conspired with Philomel.

The faun and the demigod arrived at the downed tera'k's side. Its flanks heaved mightily with slumbering breath, and the fox Veridian crouched at its side. Sunlight cascading through the latticework of tree branches cast irregular patterns over them all, and somewhere distant a Dur'Taigen pack howled.

"It appears your beast has fallen asleep on the job," Josh observed with a twinkle in his hazel eyes.

"He was overstimulated," Philomel said, brandishing a fist, "I put him to bed for the moment."

Josh chuckled and shook his head. She boasted many hidden talents indeed.