The Banished

[SpiritTraveler]

Hello there, this will be my first time role playing in quite a long time, a year or so. I'm a tad bit rusty, but I'll give it a go. This is open to four or so people, other than myself. Just join right in please.



It's the middle of the night somewhere in the Brokenthorn Forest , the stars in the sky are openly seen through the canopy of leafless trees as snow begins to lightly fall. The moon shines on brightly giving the dark forest a calm, soothing feeling. The only sounds heard are crickets singing back and forth to each other, and the wind quietly whispering through, telling it's tale of a long journey.

A girl is laying at the base of a opened tree sleeping partially inside the hallow hole. She is curled up with her knees to her chest, and arms wrapped around her legs. The light sound of a snapping twig quickly woke Stormy from her slumber. As she sat up trying to figure out what made the noise, she realized how cold it was an instantly began to shiver. Another twig snapped making her jump slightly from the ground. Standing up, she quickly turned her head around seeing a shadowy figure not but a few feet from her.
The grey wolfs shiny coat was a relief to Stormy, and with that she let out a small sigh.

"Mára aurë mae mellon." Hello my friend, she spoke in elvish to her life long companion, and friend. The wolf just lowered his head lightly to the ground then look back up at her with deep blue, worried eyes. "What is it my friend?" Stormy tilted her head to the left, she then saw the blood coming from the wolfs left paw. Stormy's eyes grew a bit big as she rushed over to Apex. "Who did this to you?" The worry in her voice grew as the wolf sat down, and let her inspect the wound. Stormy walked back over to where she was sleeping, taking some green and blue looking flowers from her small black bag. She headed back to her friend and knelt down beside him. She took the flowers between her fingers, crushed them, then rubbed her fingers over the wolfs wound. "There." She smiled lightly at her friend and sighed looking at the night sky.

It had been well over a week since the accident, but it was still fresh in her mind. The yelling, screaming, crying; it was to much. Stormy shut her eyes tight hoping to relinquish the very vivid nightmare...

Everything was peaceful, quiet, and soothing. The drums were beating gently, and the flutes being played. Her family and friends danced around a blazing fire as Stormy prepare for her singing. A tap on the shoulder shocked her, and made her turn around to see her best friend, Boae. Before she said anything, Boae took Stormy's hand, placing something in it. She looked down and saw three eagle feathers tied together in a wooden clip. Stormy looked back at her friend as he smile a wide grin. Boae took the clip from her hand, walked behind her, and tied the clip into Stormy's hair. She turned around and smiled at him.

"Thank you very much, it's beautiful." Stormy smiled and gave her friend a huge hug. Her wolf companion walked up, rubbing the sider of her leg, and lightly growling at Boae. "Apex..." She giggled and told him to leave her be.
"You're even more beautiful." Stormy looked back up at Boae and turned a light shade of red before looking at the ground.
"You speak nonsense." Stormy looked back up at him, grabbed his hand and headed back for the fire. "The ceremony is about to begin." She continued walking forward and turned around, then smiled quickly.

Boae took his seat by the fire, as did the rest of her village did. Stormy stood up looking around at all of the smiling faces. The drums stop, as do the flutes. She inhales a deep breath, then begins her song.

"I Anor hÃ*lol, Hebo estel, Edro gûr lÃ*n, Noro go hûl." She repeats the same words over, and over again. She keeps the same tempo, while holding her hands clasped in front of her. The smiles of her friends, and family never waver. As she sings the lines for a fifth time, she suddenly stops, staring at her loved ones with widened eyes, then, nothing.

She woke what had apparently been hours later. Her mother was sitting in the corner of a room, crying, her hands to her face. Puzzled, Stormy sat up, Apex laying at the side of her bed, lifted his head up staring at her with a newly found wound over his left eye.
"Apex, what happened to you?" Stormy reached out lightly and grazed right below the cut. She stood up out of bed, and fell over, before she hit the ground, two arms caught her. She looked into her mothers pained eyes. "Will you please tell me what is going on?"

Six people dead, three wounded, that's what happens when a Shaman lets pain, hurt, and deceit into their hearts. She could never return to her village ever again. Stormy re opened her eyes to let a tear roll down her cheek. Apex limped over to her side, nuzzling her leg.
"I love you to." She smiled and sat back down at the base of the hallowed tree with Apex laying by her, waiting for sunrise to take place.

[noodleguy]

Hi! This is my first rp here. I've rped beforee, but I'm probably even rustier than you, it's probably been like four years or so now. I just had the urge to get into it, and I found this website. I hope you're still interested in doing it, I know it's been almost a week sicne you posted that. Anyway, I'll just jump right in...hope this is alright...

If there were any in the Brokenthorn forest at dawn that day, they would have seen an unusual sight for those parts. It was a young goblin, a dilapidated sword on his back, fleeing through the tall trees. Occasionally he would slow down and start to mutter to himself, evidence that he was thinking deeply about some subject or another. At the moment, Lice was searching for a place to sleep. He had been walking or running straight, since at least midday the day before.

It can’t have been that big of a deal, could it? I mean, we’ve hardly got any widows or, what’re they called, the little ones…

For the first half an hour or so of the journey, Lice had heard shouting following closely behind him. He broke off of the road into the forest soon after his journey began, and after that it didn’t seem like anyone had been following him. This, at first, had comforted Lice. Then paranoia, mixed with a healthy dose of exhaustion, had begun to eat at his calm. The thought occurred to him that the lack of noise might not mean less pursuit, it might mean better pursuit. He was terrified of the thought. Besides, the whole affair was hardly fair. His reasoning went as thus: surely if the widows or their little brats needed their money so much, they would come down to get the collection tin themselves. Instead, Lice had got it. It must mean Lice wanted it more, or needed it more; otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten it, right? Besides, it wasn’t like there were a lot of widows or, what was the word, orphans, that’s the ticket. Well, there was that old bat Greebel, and her snotty little kids, didn’t everyone know that they had a big pot of gold holed up in their basement anyway? Yeah, that was just common knowledge, that was. And then Lice had offered to give the money back, but he had already spent it on this shiny new hunting knife…
Lice flicked out the hunting knife disdainfully. It didn’t look nearly as appealing as when he had first laid eyes on it in the marketplace. Then he had known that he simply had to have the beautiful, beautiful thing. Now he realized that it was only iron, not steel as he had first imagined, and the blade was obviously a bit worn in places. Hardly shiny or new. Lice felt a sudden urge to fling the thing as deep in the woods as he could. The thought that the knife may very well be his only way to get food stayed his hand. Food. All thoughts of sleep escaped his mind.

And besides, they hadn’t paid him nearly enough, the guard captains hadn’t. Not nearly enough for the shiny new hunting knife I needed so badly. It was practically their fault then. They ought to have given Lice more in the first place, that’s what they should have done, it is for sure. Said a last remnant of Lice’s mind, which was still focused on the previous topic.

I wonder how long it will be before they find out that I, erm, got some money out of the safe in the guardhouse too? It was just…early pay collecting, that’s practically what it was. I was due that money anyway…in a couple of months.

Enough thinking like that. It was time to find food. Lice managed to turn around the endless loops of guilt and punishment in his mind and focus on what was an entirely new subject to him How to get food for himself. His entire life he had known, perhaps, that in an abstract way that once the meager meat that his family had in its pantry had come from somewhere. In a practical way he had always been a lot more focused on the fact that there was never enough. Lice glanced down at the hunting knife again.

Alright Lice, he told himself, what do hunters do anyway? They just find animals and then…and then they…the rest of the thought escaped him. They find animals, that’s what. They hunt for them. Just like I hunt for my sword in the morning, sometimes, if my brothers had been hiding it like they always do. Did. Always did.

Suddenly Lice was immensely sad. To overcome the feeling, Lice started to look around vaguely for some sign of animal life. The forest looked pretty empty to him, in the dawn light. He knew that all night it had seemed to be full of all sorts of creatures, grabbing at his arms and legs, stopping his progress. Where were those big animals now, when a goblin wanted them? He idly picked up a rock and tossed it upwards. He failed to catch it, and it fell in the thin layer of snow with a dull thud. He went over to pick it up, and when he leaned over the goblin noticed something incredible. Animal prints! Perfect! He had no idea what sort of animal they could have come from, and they were blurred by the snow that had fallen since their creation, but it was undeniable that they were some sort of track. Lice jumped for joy. It had to be some sort of big deer or something, he told himself as he followed the footprints. Had to be. Practically the only thing that should be allowed to leave footprints for a poor traveler like Lice to find would be a big deer or something. Here he was, hunting now. Lice the Hunter. He liked the sound of that quite a bit. Maybe he could even bring this big deer he found back to the village, and they would be so happy they would take him back.

Lice was so caught up in these thoughts of his imminent fame that, as he followed those prints that he did not consider that they might be facing the opposite direction from which he was going. Nor did he think of the high probability that here in the Brokenthorn forest they were something a good deal more sinister than deer prints. Or, of course, how he would find his way back to the village once he did find this big deer. None of those things so much crossed his mind.

As it happened, Lice was lucky (or unlucky) enough to be going in the right direction. When he finally reached the source of the prints, however, he hardly noticed. It was in a clearing, and Lice was walking quicker and quicker now. The prints had been getting more and more clear, and Lice had the taste of venison in his mouth. He was halfway across the clearing, and entirely exposed when a growling sound woke him out of his reverie.

A large grey wolf was standing facing Lice, clearly in between him and an elven girl who appeared to be sleeping in the hollow of a tree.
“Oh, erm, well, I don’t mean harm, I mean, I was just looking for a deer that I think must be around here someplace…� Lice looked down at the footprints, and then up at the wolf. “Oh. Well, mr. deer, I…�

[SpiritTraveler]

Stormy was envisioning all the blood that day, the day she murdered everyone. Her loved ones, who had done nothing but love her. She saw Boae, his face in the dirt holding onto the eagle feathers he had gotten for her. She saw the head Shaman, pieces everywhere. She tried running from the gruesome scene with no luck, the voices followed her, mocking, and echoing inside he head. She tried to close her eyes, but the visions were engraved in her mind. Screaming, and crying, yelling, Stormy couldn't handle it, she took the dagger found laying on the ground, and with one strike to the chest, she was dead, which was her cue to wake up.

Stormy didn't know when she had fallen asleep, but when she opened her eyes she was greeted by a lovely Apex behind. She rolled her eyes, and slowly lifted her head, but quickly put her head back down when she realized that there was a figure of some sort standing in front of Apex. Stormy pretended to sleep, as she did not want conflict with whoever was there.

She heard Apex growl slightly at the offender, then slowly start to circle, and sniffing the air. Stormy knew that Apex was only trying to figure out who this was, and protect her. Hopefully it would not come to that. She very well knew that her friend would tear whoever was there, to pieces. Blood was not exactly what she wanted to see when she woke up.

Apex had his ears flat against his head, eyes narrowed, and his tail was straight out, parallel to the ground. Apex looked at the offender then at the pig he had caught earlier, that was laying lifeless by the tree, then back up at the offender. Apex just simply growled, bearing his teeth. He had worked very hard to catch that food for his master and himself, he did not need anyone stealing it.

Stormy continued to listen, Apex was in a rotten mood ever since he had been hurt. He was in no mood for any newcomers, so she had no idea of what he would do. It might be smart to wake up and call Apex off, but she wanted to see what the wanderer would do first. She decided to wait a little while longer. If things got out of hand, then she would wake up. She was just so worn out and tired that she did not want to re open her eyes. She just wanted to sleep forever in that little tree.

[noodleguy]

I'm sorry that it's so absurdly long. I was trying to cut down a bit, but I'm trying to use this thread to flesh out my feeling for the character a lot more. He's on a thin rope between good and evil, and this time around he's looking very much like neither. Pure self-interest, that's good old Lice...but nonetheless. I got confused with the voice a few times. It's not clear when it is him thinking and when it is me narrating. Trust me, he does not think in as complex terms as I use...I was trying to desribe how instinct driven he is but...oh well. Once again, sorry it is so long. I do like this rp and this character though!

Extreme conditions have a tendency to draw the wise to rash action, and the foolhardy to wisdom...


Lice had not eaten in almost an entire day. This may not be a long time for a human to go without food, but goblins have shorter metabolisms and Lice was beginning to feel the pains of hunger. It was winter, and he had little or no protection against the cold. What’s more, he hadn’t slept a single minute in far more than he was accustomed to. He was now facing a large, obviously somewhat unusual wolf that could likely kill him within seconds. Finally, the fear that had plagued his mind, the fear of pursuit, the fear of the forest, and even, maybe, the fear of his own guilt had now settled in and dulled. That is not to say that it had vanished, or even become less painful. Quite to the contrary, the fears had taken root deep within him somewhere, becoming the kind of horrible gnawing, life consuming fear that drives sane men to jump at shadows in every corner. It is true that the average goblin leaves most of his life in fear, but even Lice was overloaded with worry at the moment. Goblins are by nature very tribal creatures, and being alone made Lice more nervous than anything else. Mostly it made him nervous of the fact that he might not be alone for long.

It is often said as a detriment of goblins that they are closer than animals than those who live in what is called “civilization� by some. In many circumstances, however, a goblin’s instinctual nature actually acts as an advantage. Somewhere within Lice there awakened a deep and primordial instinct. The instinct that awakened him could be given a simple name: self-preservation. He would survive this trial. Like his namesake, he would hold on to the warm throbbing host of life that he, no his entire species was parasite to at any cost. No less and no more can be expected of any creature.

His tiny mind worked on thinking of the best way to safety, of the best way to food. Given the wolf, it probably would make an awful lot of sense just to leave the clearing altogether. The wolf was obviously one of them spirit thingies that the goblin shamans talked about sometime. All the elves he had ever seen (which could easily be counted on the fingers of one foot,) well that is to say, all the elves he had heard of had had animal thingies following them, all over the place. Had them coming out of the ears, they did. If he left odds are he would be perfectly safe. For a while his heart was set on this, and he stepped back once or twice which. Then his eyes were drawn to a dead pig. What was the likelihood that Lice could catch something as fulfilling as that in the near future? And he would need to, if he were to be able to escape to the next settlement. The instinct of the scavenger gave his thoughts remarkable lucidity, and for that moment he knew that this was his chance. He could die in the snow or the cold, or he could make his stand here.

Fighting. That was another option. Lice discarded that thought immediately. One single cold, hungry, pathetic goblin was no match for a wolf and his possibly more dangerous elf friend. No, that would do him no good. He could see those two roads diverging in front of him, fight or flee, and both lead to a certain death. He kept feeling compelled to one of them, once his hand resting on his sword hilt, once his body nearly turning around entirely to exit as quickly as possible.

Deep from within came an entirely separate voice. It was no more developed than any of the others, than that of the predator, or the prey. If it could be compared to any it would best be compared to that of a parasite, developed from centuries of a society that fed off others for its sustenance. And it was true, the basic form of a goblin may not be a parasite, but the largest form a goblin, a tribe certainly is. A huge parasite of societies, a goblin tribe was, producing little and stealing much. And this voice, this voice of society, told him that there was a third option beyond simple fight or flight. The girl. She was an elf, wasn’t she? The elves didn’t have a tendency towards cruelty, as far as Lice knew. Weren’t they the type to go around singing songs on prancing white horses and the like? Lice wished for a moment that he had paid a bit more attention to current affairs, or even to geography. It seemed unlikely that she would sit by while her wolf friend tore Lice to pieces. And if she were to know that without her action Lice would likely die…Lice had to resist grinning. That was it, perfect. The route to survival. He would simply have to win this girl’s affections. In fact, he needn’t even do that, he must merely win over her sense of guilt. For that is what all truly good creatures are controlled by, his grandmother had once said, the wise woman that she was. And that guilt could be the host he would plung his insect-like claws into and feed off of…for now.

“Hey, lady, you aren’t going to let this nice doggie rip me to tiny little goblin shreds, are ya? And that pig looks awful tasty, it does fine, fine, nice beautiful lady!� Lice said loudly, addressing the girl over the wolf’s growling. Lice was on his hands and knees now, and very real tears were streaming out of his eyes. “Please, ma’am, if you don’t share some of it with me, I don’t know what I’ll do, Lady. You ain’t going to leave poor old Lice here out in the cold, are ya? That’d be practically, that’d be practically murder, that’d what it’d practically be!�

[SpiritTraveler]

Oh no, it is quite alright. I just wish I could seem to write more. A bit of writers block has taken over my brain. So it's fine. Write as much as you need to get your character across. As long as you don't mind mine being this length.


Stormy lay there, silently, waiting for the right time to open her eyes. She continued to hear Apex growl low, and the wanderer move a bit. She wanted to see what was going on.

Well I might as well sleep, if nothing is going to happen. Maybe they will leave.

Just as she thought that, she heard an unfamiliar voice speak. He wanted food, of all things. Apex had taken over half a day just to get the pig. They were lucky, it's hard to find a pig of that size, at night, while being wounded. Normally Stormy would never think to eat meat, she was a vegan.

It was forbidden to eat any animals, except for pigs, chicken, and fish. Since spirits of the dead enter the life of an animal, it would be absurd for Shamans or elves in particular to eat them. Pigs, however, spirits would never travel inside such an animal. The same goes with chicken, and fish; their lives are to short to be taken, and seen as low creatures.

Although, Stormy had heard of stories where Shamans let evil consume them, and they began to feast on all animals of sorts, that were forbidden. They would devour wolves, snakes, and even eagles. In doing this, the Shaman would gain control of the spirit that was housed inside the animal. Their powers, and life span would enter into the Shaman body, making them all powerful, and dangerous.

Stormy never understood why anyone would want to do such a thing, but I suppose she would not speak against it, for she too had an evil spirit dwelling within her. That is why she vowed to be vegan, except when eating pig every once in a while to keep her immune system boosted. Apex on the other hand ate pig, chicken, fish, and whichever other animal not hosted by a spirit, he could find. He was a bit of a porker.

Stormy traveled her thoughts back to the wanderer, wishing to eat. One one side, she wished to give him as much as he needed to eat. On the other hand, a voice deep within her laughed at his suffering and wished to slice him up right there. Stormy quickly shoved the thought from her head.

No, I must be generous, and kind; so is the way of the Shaman.

Stormy opened her eyes, then sat up staring at the wanderer.

A goblin, not exactly the face I wished to see.

Goblins weren't exactly on the elves best friend list. Most of the ones that Stormy had ever met were cruel, dishonest, and they smelled awful. Even so, Stormy still had to abide by her code of honor, she didn't need to smile, just be kind. She then stood up and looked down at Apex.

"Tolo hi. No diriel Apex." Stormy spoke in an elegant voice to her companion, and with that Apex turned about, heading over to his kill, but not without taking one more glance at the intruder. "Mára aurë. Hello. What is the likes of a goblin doing in the Brokenthorn Forest, alone?" Stormy spoke kind, but stern words.

[noodleguy]

Sorry for philosophizing about the nature of goblin society. I need to use that whole "show don't tell" trick a lot more, don't I? Too much verbosity, not enough action...
Other people are still open to jump in, right? It's ok with us two, but more would be nice ;)

When the girl spoke in the pure elfish it made Lice cringe slightly. He maintained a broad grin on his face, however, and hoped she hadn’t seen his reaction. Goblins were never too friendly with elves, and his ancestral memory was screaming at him to run, to get help, that strength was in numbers. There were no numbers anymore, though. Just Lice, and Lice had to survive on his own. And if that required associating with a nasty elf, then so be it. She had food, that was the point.

With the wolf/deer (for some reason Lice kept that association in his mind) out of the way, Lice felt much more relaxed. At least the threat of having his throat ripped out had subsided a good deal, and that was a little bit comforting. The wolf had moved closer to the pig though, which was not so comforting. Still, this wasn’t over, not until he had some food in his mouth and some sleep out of the way. When the girl spoke in elvish it made him cringe slightly, but he tried to hide it with a broad grin.

“I could ask the same question of you, Lady!� Lice said, dodging the question. If all else failed he could always lie, but it would probably be easier to avoid that altogether. Something about the elf girl made Lice think that she wouldn’t want to talk about her past any more than he did. Hopefully he could play up that little twinge of fear that sat in her eyes and use it to his advantage. Lice had changed a bit since he left the village. His thinking was much more calculating and logical; it had to be if he were to survive. That’s not to say he was any more intelligent, he was just much more focused on the situation at hand. Goblins tend to be excellent at cunning, and Lice was no exception.

“Anyway, Lady, my name is Lice Grumalth. Can we eat now please?� He waited for the obviously impending remark about what an unfortunate name this was. It wasn’t really unfortunate, it was an accurate description of most goblins. The pests in the hair of civilization, the bloodsucking parasites of the world. Sometimes Lice wished it wasn’t that way, but that was reality. The humans had given them no choice when they had started to discriminate against anyone with green skin. Once you pushed the goblins back into the most barren parts of the continent did you expect them to farm and not raid? Of course not. Still, that was life. Nothing a little guy like Lice could do about it, and he would do best to accept it, his parents had always told him. Just go with the flow, suck up the blood, and feed off of society. Survival was all anyone could be expected of in this world, right? That was the logic that Lice accepted, at some basic level of course.

[ZeroWrath]

6 beautiful white wings were spread to their full extension as the person they were attached to flexed his body. He had been walking for quite some time and still want used to the effects of the mortal world. ‘It has to be close.’ He thought to himself looking around from the top of a stump of a mighty and old tree he had just cut down, anything in his way would be cut down he wasn’t one to take the long way around. In his short time here he had been shown the sins of the world, they were so different, they were fun... all his life doing as he was told and now being able to do whatever he wanted. Though not everything was as good as it seemed, he hated this place, and he felt at home in the dense foliage more than in the city and chapels. There were too many colours, too many smells too much activity, it was all overpowering.

As 8 golden lights surround his body, his wings relaxed and he exhaled a deep breath, everything would be ok, it must be around somewhere, a temple to his lord, he had to visit them all, he was told that that’s how serious sinners are forgiven, they travel on a pilgrimage too all the places of worship for that religion. Luckily all temples, shrines, chapels and any other religious building all honoured the one true lord, even if they didn’t know it. He still remembered... the faces of the five angels he killed, the demonic eyes he had set free from captivity. No! He had to think positive; he was already walking a dark path.

“This way!” He said quietly to himself, closing his eyes and pointing in a random direction. He didn’t actually know where he was going, he had just heard it was around here, where ‘here’ was he didn’t know, he wasn’t really sure if he was even ‘around,’ but the search continued, with a small elegant drop to the floor. His lights began to spin around his body at high speeds forming an expanding ring of light that swiftly cut small twigs and thick branches that were in his way, there was the occasion smashing sound and gap in the ring, but it was filled soon enough.

In the darkness, Xander walked with the nature parting in his glow. Xander preferred the night, everything was easier to see there weren’t vibrant colours getting in the way and obscuring your vision. There weren’t sounds coming from every direction but unfortunately it smelt just as bad. He hadn’t gotten used to the transition from night to day yet and his eyes found it hard to adjust, things were often blurry for a while. A gentle breeze ruffled his feathers and he could feel the open air, he had learnt that this meant there was a clearing not too far from where he was, how he longed to see the sky instead of the dark leaves and twisting obscure branches that could strike fear into any man if looked at in the right way, but luckily Xander was raised not to have an imagination.

The golden orbs stopped spinning. Formed into one orb and hid behind Xanders head, illuminating it from behind. His eyes peered at a short green thing, a dog and a mutated human from behind a tree. “Mortal creatures! Maybe they know the location of this temple.” He said softly to himself. Stepping into the open slightly, he stretched his wings and beat them down with all his force, launching himself into the air, manoeuvring in the air and falling through a gap in the canopy slightly behind them, he sat down and listened. He wasn’t willing to talk to anyone, all of his information came from people he had heard as he passed them, he had occasionally been forced to communicate to get what he wanted but in this case, he would surely find it on his own...eventually.

[SpiritTraveler]

Well there ya go, another person. I think maybe one or two more after us, and then no more. It gets a bit hectic after to many people.


Stormy shivered as she felt a 'presence' of some sort near by. It seemed like a powerful entity of some kind. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It wasn't exactly a bad prescence, but it made her weary. She turned her head from the goblin for a moment before speaking to Apex.

"No diriel Apex." Since she was busy, speaking to this Lice character, she made sure that Apex kept an eye out, and an ear open to the surroundings. She turned back to the goblin and tried to smile, with no success. She, instead, rolled her eyes slightly at the imaturity of him.

With a sigh, "Yes, you could ask the same question, but it is a bit more normal for an elf to be traveling in a forest with her companion, then a goblin wandering alone." She put emphasis on the word goblin, as to tell him she wanted him gone, but since he wanted food, and she had food, most likely he was not going anywhere.

Stormy sighed when he asked to eat again. Why should she help the likes of him, what would she gain from it, sense of moral? Deep down she wanted to help, but something in her made her loath him, even though she knew nothing about him, she already despised him. She shook her head before speaking again.

"Traveler I am terribly sorry, but I do not think that you can eat with my companion and I. It would be better for you to just leave. There are animals into the forest down a bit more, I'm sure a goblin like yourself, could easily capture one." She showed a small smile, but not a very pleasant one at that. She turned back to Apex, titling her head a bit when she saw that he was on all fours, bearing his teeth at nothingness. "Apex, Man carel le?" She slowly walked over to her companion, and placed her hand on his head. He was growling at something that he did not like one bit. "No dhÃ*nen." She took her hand from Apex, and stood up.

"Tolo?" She wondered who was there, or, what was there. "Who goes there?" She asked the invisible person, hoping to get a response, so she did not look like she were crazy.

[ZekeBK]

Zeke had been tracking the goblin for a terribly long time, and Zeke hated to be out in the cold. He sort of wished that he had never taken the job to kill the runt. Zeke thought it over he would barely receive a piece of gold for killing the goblin. Zeke sighed and kept on walking and walking, and walking. Zeke was getting annoyed at all the walking. Zeke thought, that when he caught the goblin, he might not even kill him, he might be so horribly bored he'd buy him a beer and GIVE him money. Zeke started to laugh at himself, 'Yeah right', he thought to himself, 'Like I'd do that'. Zeke saw the goblin footprints converge with wolf prints. "Aww you better not have gotten eaten" Zeke talked to nothing. Zeke started to walk faster, and then started to run. If he didn't get to the goblin in time and the wolf killed him, he wouldn't get any money. Zeke thought on the bright side, even if he didn't get to the goblin in time, he'd get wolf meat... and he'd get to play his favorite game wit the goblin's corpse... Punt a Runt 'Yes great fun' Zeke thought to himself. The tracks were getting fresher and fresher, he was catching up. Zeke saw the goblin with an elf and a wolf. Zeke payed no real attention to the wolf or the elf, all he wanted was the goblin. He sprinted out and knocked down the wolf, his only good excuse was that it was in the way. Zeke reached the goblin and picked it up by the shirt collar. "Gotcha'!" Zeke declared, triumphant once again.

[noodleguy]

Oh my, oh my! He literally "picked up" his bounty :P We'll just see how he enjoys having lice in his hair though :P I'm sorry for representing your character for you, Zeke, but this is the impression I've got from messaging back and forth with you, so I hope you won't mind.

Lice maintained his grin, even when the elf cruelly rejected him, and not a single muscle could have betrayed him. His eyes darkened menacingly, however. No matter how adept a liar, there has never been one who could control the emotions of his own eyes...

Then the elf started talking for no apparent reason. Lice had not sensed the magical visitor, he had no magical talent to speak of, and to him it appeared that the elf had begun to speak to the air and the forest. Clearly she was mad. Well, madness was maybe something that Lice could deal with. The basic state of a goblin is madness, and Lice had dealt with that sot before. One minute it is all talking to voices in the woods, the next moment they would either be starting a religion or locked up someplace. The wolf was growling at something too. Maybe while they were distracted he could sprint forward...Lice leaned towards the pig, readying himself for the right moment. If the elf would just step away one more step...

He was so focused on his planned theft that he did not realize that someone was charging towards him until it was too late. His eyes wide with shock, Lice stared down at his captor's maddened face in terror. The eyes of the one who had picked him up were not kind, not at all Lice could see. Nor were they really evil, evil Lice could take advantage of as well. They were eyes that, had Lice ever seen a mirror, would closely reflect his own. Self-serving, neutral, whatever you may call it. Some would call it madness, others would call it rational.

"Please, please good Master! I...I can be useful! Lice the goblin can help you, and will help you! I have a...a...I can help you good, strong, noble Master!!"
Lice fumbled around, trying to think of excuses. He had no plan, other than buying time. Perhaps something would occur to him, perhaps he would simply have the advantage of surprise if a fight started. Or he could always run away, there was this option. But escaping the man's iron grip was first and foremost.
"Lice can heeeeeelp yooouuuu" he wailed.
Somewhere in the back of his parasitic mind Lice wondered which would end up the victor in a battle, the elf girl or this new man. It would be useful to know if things came to that, which side Lice would go to. The girl had betrayed him before, if it could be called betrayal if she hadn't help in the the first place. Nonetheless, he would certainly join her if it seemed she was going to win. he would have to watch things carefully. Probably neither would hesitate to kill poor, codl, hungry, terribly mistreated Lice.

[SpiritTraveler]

After seeing her companion knocked down by a sprinting, whatever that was, Stormy turned quickly to face the goblin being picked up by the collar. Apex was now on all fours growling quite menacingly at the other intruder. His ears quickly leaned to his head, and fangs bared.

Why on earth are there so many travelers in the forest, of all nights!

Stormy sighed, and got a good look at the other traveler. She did not see any abnormalities of any kind, nor did she anything of the odd sort. Maybe he was a human. Before Apex lashed out Stormy quited him.

"Sedho!" She put her hand up in front of her companions eyes, so that he would not attack. Why would a human be chasing a goblin, in the middle of the night, alone, in the forest? Stormy pondered for a brief moment before speaking again, this time to the human. "Man carel le? What are you doing? What is your connection with Lice?" Her tone was stern, and she was a bit annoyed with wandering people continuing to barge in on her. All she wanted was to eat in peace with her Apex.

She glanced behind herself to make sure no more intruders were randomly walking in on them. She looked back at the two, and lightly shook her head at Lice who had so easily given into someone.

"Dôl lost lîn." She quietly whispered the insult under her breath. For some reason a part of her pitied they poor creature, and wished to help him. She did want them both gone though, there was only so much she could do before Apex began his 'protection' mode. She did not want any trouble.

[ZekeBK]

Zeke look at the goblin that he had hoisted over the ground, 'Did he say Lice?' Zeke thought to himself. "Dangit" Zeke began to drop the goblin but then stopped. "How can Lice help me?" Zeke said a bit of a crooked smile forming on his face, he felt a bit menacing, and he didn't like it. Zeke thought he was going crazy, but he felt bad about how he just barged into the whole situation, knocking over the wolf and picking up the goblin by the collar... 'wait the wolf?!' Zeke turned and saw the wolf growling angrily and an Elven girl there. He had heard her talking, but just dismissed it as babbling. "Sorry about knocking you down Wolfy, don't take it personally." "Don't run away now goblin or I'll tear your head from your body" He put down the goblin and looked to the little green thing. "What can you tell me about the goblin Fli?" Zeke said pulling out a sketch of the goblin that he was supposed to be catching. "I don't really want to hurt you... Zeke trailed off "A waste of energy".

[noodleguy]

It is apparently entirely impossible for me to write a post of even close to reasonable length. I just get so caught up in the miniscule thought processes and...ARGH. Oh well. I desperatly wanted to get some character development in. I have no intention of playing some snively begging wimp for the rest of my life. Lice will get power, oh he will some day...

“Please, Master, please! I know about the goblin Fli, I really do, oh brave strong merciful master! Lice, Lice knows a lot, practically, practically everything there is to know about the goblin Fli!” Lice whimpered, shaking from a combination of the cold and his utter terror. A goblin pleading for his life in the snow, who hasn’t slept or eaten in over a day, is at least number 18 on the list of the most pathetic things in the multiverse. It also clocks in at about 47 in the list of the most downright ridiculous-looking things in the multiverse, but never mind that for now.
Now, at least, Lice was telling the complete truth. He did know about the goblin Fli. He knew far, far too well about the goblin Fli. Fli had been unusual among goblins in that he was very much a “big picture” kind of thinker. Especially if the picture happened to be worth at least a thousand gold, and was hanging over someone’s mantelpiece.
That was where Lice had found himself one night. Carrying a large piece of art out of some human’s mansion with the goblin Fli. Lice would never have dreamed of such an endeavour, but somehow Fli had convinced him.
“You see, Lice old pal.” Fli made a habit of attempting to talk like a human would. “Life’s just a great big game. And then you die. And cheating’s perfectly allowed, of course.” Fli took a big swig of some sort of alcoholic beverage, Lice couldn’t remember which. “That is, if you don’t get caught.” And Fli had given Lice a huge exaggerated wink and before Lice knew it he was an art thief.
The two goblins had barely escaped that night with their lives. They had to abandon the art as soon as the watchdogs on the premise smelled them out. Lice managed to tunnel under a row of hedges, and Fli had gone off to…somewhere. Lice hadn’t known, and he hadn’t cared. He went back to his little village and forgot all about Fli.

He forgot all about Fli, that was, until just a few months ago. Fli had come back to the village a king among goblins. He wore the finest silks, all tailored just for himself. He bought every meal with gold, pure gold, and he always payed for his friends. He became very popular very quickly.
That was until a few humans had come looking for him. They came to the borders and shouted that if Fli the goblin was not surrendered immediately every building of the village would be burnt down within days. Terrified, the goblin elders unanimously voted to exile Fli immediately. It was Lice’s unfortunate job to tie the goblin up and bring him out to the party of humans. As soon as they were out of earshot of the village, and before the two reached the humans Fli had whispered to him.
“Hey, Lice. You’re a good goblin, a good pal. Now listen. If you’se ever wanting to see me and help me with some…business enterprises like we did before, go to the old temple up in the woods. You know the one I’m talking about, eh? The one in the side of the hill, right up by the riverbank.” Lice indeed did know the location of this temple, but he made no comment. “Anyway…you know how to reach me then, eh?”
“I’m supposed to be taking you to the humans. That’s, that’s not practically my job that is my job.” Lice said blandly.
“Sure, sure, you do that buddy. But those humans, they ain’t quicker than a dead muskrat on a sunny day, if you get my drift. You get my drift?”
Lice did not have a chance to respond. The two goblins had reached the human camp and now walked in silence. Lice dropped Fli off, half expecting some miracle to occur. But no, Fli just sat there, grinning, and the humans thanked Lice and all the goblins for their loyalty. Loyalty to not being destroyed, Lice thought bitterly.
That night, however, news reached the goblins that Fli had miraculously escaped his captors! At first the humans blamed the goblins, of course, but there was no way they could peg anything on the village. Lice was interrogated as well, but he had nothing to do with the escape. It truly seemed Fli had gotten out on his own.
Lice never told anyone about Fli’s whereabouts, but it was always assumed that he knew something. That must be why the man had found Lice. He must have been working for the humans and told that Lice would know the whereabouts to Fli. Well, Lice did know Fli’s whereabouts, and whatever Fli had thought he had never been a friend to Lice. Besides, Lice’s life was on stake here. That was more valuable than someone else’s life, surely? Lice wasn’t sure about that one at all, but nonetheless there was nothing else to do.
“Fli is at the temple, the temple of the riverbank! The old one, the ruins, that’s what they are, the ruins! Old god was worshipped there, new goblins came in, old god left.” Lice shrugged. “Nothing there but Fli now!” Probably nothing there but Fli, anyway.
“I can show you, yes, yes I can show you!” Lice said, his head wobbling back and forth with worry, nearly crying. Lice was literally the epitome of subservience. He couldn’t have looked more ridiculous if he had been kissing the man’s feet.

Somewhere a voice in the back of his mind regretted this. Is this how things are going to be our whole life, Lice? The strange voice asked. Always the henchman, always the crony? We’re disgusting Lice. Disgusting. Disgusting Lice. Nothing more…
It all boiled down to power, Lice argued with the voice in his head. Power was what the man had, and Lice did not. Then why don’t we get some power? The voice asked. But Lice is just a lowly goblin, he said painfully. Lice is weak.

Power comes to those who are willing to take it. Our chance will come, Lice. It will come. And when it does, we must not fear to grab it immediately.

Lice’s conversation with himself lasted a few seconds. Although later on he would consider that it was some higher power speaking to him, that idea would always be dismissed as patently ridiculous. It was true, it was no more than Lice himself, disgusted at his own existence, that spoke to Lice that day. Nothing more than simple shame. It could be compared to a concious, or at least one might try to make that comparison.

But now there is nothing Lice can do about his situation now…someday though…survival first, revenge later, that was the order.

“Sir, though, Master, please, Lice must eat and sleep before we carry on to find the goblin Fli. Otherwise you’ll have one very dead and very useless goblin on your hands, sir. And the cold, Master, I need something for the cold, please Master. Unless you want a very dead Lice in front of you, and that wouldn’t just be practically useless it would really be useless.”

The three times Lice spoke occurred in quick succession, and Lice spoke at a rapid-fire pace. Still, in his mind Lice demarcated clearly between them. It was the thought processes that went through his mind that would later be important to Lice’s future.
That is not to say that the thoughts themselves came quickly, just then. No, as surely and slowly as the movement of tectonic plates Lice’s thoughts had come together, but at this instance they collided into one single huge, mountainous, titanic word in Lice’s goblin brain:

POWER

Others had it, and Lice did not. Humans had it, Goblins did not. The human in front of Lice had it, and Lice did not.
Someday, Lice resolved, he would live to see both those things change. Then it would be the human standing here begging for mercy from Lice, oh yes it would. Oh yes it would, and that would practically be the best day of Lice Grumalth’s life.

[SpiritTraveler]

Hey guys, I'm kinda... going through some stuff right now, so if you could hold off posting for just a day or two? I'll be back on then. <3

[noodleguy]

No problem at all. Tell us when you're back. And best of luck with whatever it is. :)

[SpiritTraveler]

When the human apologized to Stormy for hurting Apex she cooled down a bit, and nodded toward him. Apex stared up at her with confused eyes. She smiled at him, and he walked back over to the pig, and lazed down next to the decaying death. Stormy looked back over to the human, and the pathetic-looking Lice. She shook her head, thinking to herself.

Lice, that is pathetic. He had no self respect whatsoever, this scene was embarrassing, and pitiful. If I were him I would show that stupid human who was boss. I would snap his pathetic little neck in two...

Stormy shook those awful thoughts out of her mind. How could she think such things? She was a peaceful wood elf, wood elves just don't think of killing things like that. It was becoming more clear to her that each day the spirit seemed to be taking over her thoughts. She couldn't go a day now without thinking like the spirit. It was not good, she didn't want to be overcome by it. There had to be a reason it was getting more into her thoughts, she just couldn't figure out why.

Stormy knew very few things about the spirit inhabiting her body; one, it was a female Princess who was murdered by her one true love-a man. Two, she was an evil spirit who could never cross over, because of her lust for vengeance on every man possible. Three, she was strong, super strong; and four, she was slowly, but surely, for some reason, taking over Stormy. She wanted the vile woman out from her body to cross over into the next life, but how?

Never mind that, she reverted her attention to the pathetic scene before her. Ignoring most of it while she was thinking, she heard something about a temple, and another goblin and that's all. Stormy decided that it was best for her to leave while she still had a chance. They didn't need an elf, and her wolf lagging about, while they had things to do. Such as strangle innocent creatures, and beg for mercy. She wanted to continue on with her mission; find a place to stay, and get a job. She needed to find it soon, she was running out of time, it was getting colder each night, and she wanted to try to find another shaman that could possibly help her remove the spirit from her before it killed her, or another person.

Since they were occupied talking, and whatnot, Stormy decided to take her chance then. She looked over at Apex, sighing. Apex took that as a sign and stood up wagging his tail. Stormy quickly, but quietly grabbed her things, heading past the pig, and walking off in the opposite direction of the goblin, and human. It was a shame that she was basically giving away the pig, but a strong wolf such as Apex could find another meal, and Stormy could very easily eat the vegetation in the forest, for the time being.

[ZekeBK]

Zeke had bad vibes the whole time he was in the forest, and when he got here, it was like a bad vibe was a tangible thing and he was standing on it. For some reason unknown to Zeke, this Elf girl creased him. He felt like she felt she was better than him, HIM! Zeke couldn't help but turned away from the goblin and starting something.

"Sorry if you think that you could do a much better of handling this situation than either me or the gremlin here, but if it's that much of a problem, I can just kill you, take that pig of yours, and me and Lice can discuss this over dinner." Zeke snapped at the girl. Zeke wasn't provoked, but he felt that he was. Zeke was letting his anger get the best of him. "How does that sound to you Lice?" Zeke turned back to the goblin "good? Maybe we'll do it". He almost did that, but the girl was gone, where, he didn't know, but now, they had bacon. Why did Zeke always have to be so mean, he knew he was mean, and he didn't like it, but, he couldn't help it. Zeke could be a nice guy sure, but when he even got the slightest bit ticked off. That was it, either for him, the other person, or everyone.

[noodleguy]

Lice almost breathed a sigh of relief, but the danger clearly was not entirely over yet. At least the man now seemed to have already started counting Lice as an ally. That was a good thing, a very good thing. What anger had once been irrationally directed towards Lice was now…irrationally directed towards the elf. Well, there was nothing Lice could do about it. Lice simply marveled at the person in front of him. He was just like one of those toys, Lice reflected, with unusual clarity. They were little clockwork things a merchant had brought into the village once. You turned a little knob, and that wound the spring. The goal was to cram all the energy you could into the little box, and then when you let go…BAM! The little wooden ball inside it shot halfway across the room, if you aimed it just right. Made a satisfyingly large noise to all the kids too, Lice remembered. Aiming it really was the difficulty though. Once it was set off, who knew where it would go. The man was equally wound up with energy, and probably equally unpredictable. Except, unlike the toy, he seemed to Lice to be dangerous. Very dangerous.

There was something about the girl that had been…calming. Disquieting too, at points, yes, but despite the few flares of darkness she had exhibited on her face, the elf seemed to be like a nice cool beacon compared to the red hot madness standing next to Lice. With someone like that man…who knew how long Lice could stay alive. Only as long as he was useful, that was for sure. Maybe not even that. No, with just the man and Lice alone things would probably turn very sour indeed.

Although he had a twinge of regret about seeing her go, Lice didn’t feel that he could do anything. He had no choice but to prove his loyalty to his new “Master.� The word sounded disgusting in his mouth. Ugh.

“Look, Master,� Lice stopped himself from cringing and turned it into a grin, “Lice can be useful for you, very useful!� Lice said, as pathetically as he could, as he sat down and began to skin the pig with his shiny hunting knife. Oh, that shiny hunting knife. What a nasty thing it was. Lice took big violent hacks at the pig’s loose skin as he thought about the knife. Shiny, shiny knife. What a nasty, rotten, evil looking thing it was, Lice thought bitterly. At least now it was making itself a little useful.

Lice didn’t have much experience with skinning an animal, but luckily he wasn’t too picky about his food. As soon as there was something recognizable as meat on the thing, Lice dug in. It wasn’t uncommon for him to eat raw food; goblins believed that cooking a food was actually pretty unsanitary. That was a fact, perhaps, which explained a lot about goblin society. Lice ate ravenously. Somewhere in the back of his mind he considered that maybe he ought to leave a larger portion of the animal for Zeke, but Lice couldn’t control himself to that level. He ate a little over half of the entire pig before he forced himself to stop.

His stomach more than full and all immediate threats to Lice’s well-being gone, the goblin slept. It was the kind of truly undisturbed sleep that can only come to the truly traumatized and fatigued. Lice curled up on the little tree where not too long ago someone else had been and he slept, all worries gone for the moment.

[ZekeBK]

Zeke observed the goblin skinning the pig, he obviously had no experience in this type of thing, but that was ok, he didn't care. Zeke thought about the pros and cons to keeping the goblin around. Pro, the goblin could do all the little jobs that Zeke didn't really like doing. Con, he'd take up food, he'd already eaten more than half of the pig. Zeke looked closer at the goblin, more into his personality. He saw that the goblin was much like him, a neutral personality. But he was just a sorry goblin, he could be very useful with that, the goblin probably already knew that fact and probably exploited it.

Zeke thought about the whole situation, it was like getting a dog, he couldn't quite decide if he should keep it. It was like a father-son conflict but with just him. Zeke was a kid at heart, he decided to keep the goblin. Maybe karma would reward him for letting the goblin live, who knows?

[SpiritTraveler]

I so have writers block. Sorry if my posts are short. v_v



As Stormy continued walking along with Apex, she had realized something. A temple is exactly what she needed to rid herself of the entity within her. She stopped in her tracks, and Apex looked up at her, slightly tilting his head to the side. Stormy thought about it a bit more. If she went to the temple, and tried to perform a shaman ceremony in a place that strong, just maybe it might work.

For a brief moment Stormy had her hopes high on getting rid of this curse. Yet, something could go terribly wrong. She could accidentally hurt Apex in the process, or even worse, die herself. She continued meditating on the pros and cons to this problem. Apex just watched her and sat right at her feet, continuing to stare at her.

I suppose I could go ahead of the rest of them, and try to perform a ceremony. I don't have any of the right supplies though.

You don't need to. We are fine the way we are. You will not perform any such ceremony.

The voice echoed in Stormy's head causing her to change her mind, back and forth it continued. Yes, no, on, and on. She finally decided to continue to the temple. She was going to get rid of this vile woman once and all. She would need a few herbs, and hopefully her powers were strong enough to perform such a ceremony by herself, but her hopes were now high. There was a possibility to be normal again, and maybe even return to the village.

"Hebo estel. Tolo hi." Stormy spoke to Apex as he began to frantically, and happily wag his tail. Stormy smiled and continued walking on, hoping to find the temple by the next night.

[noodleguy]

When Lice awoke the next day it was already nearly ten in the morning. He could see the bounty hunter sleeping, spread out haphazardly on the ground around the campfire they had made last night. Cautiously, Lice rose up on his elbows, and then on his knees, surveying the clearing. Last night the two had fallen asleep next to the nice little campfire that was now in ashes at Lice’s feet. The man, who had introduced himself as Zeke, had cooked his pork over it hastily.

Speaking of the pork…

Lice looked over to the remains of the pig’s course. Sure enough, there was still some meat left on those bones. Enough for breakfast, anyway. Lice scrambled over and grabbed a bone, gnawing the little bit of nourishment he could off it. While he ate, or tried to, Lice finally felt that he had some small amount of security. The man, Zeke, Lice reminded himself, he had fully accepted Lice as a member of his ‘team.’ Although Lice didn’t enjoy being treated like an animal, the man certainly had taken to him like a brand new puppy dog. The bounty hunter, tough as he might be still acted an awful lot like a big child, emotions always at the brim. And that meant that Lice’s survival was ensured for another few days.

Soon the two would be moving on to the old temple. Lice was idly curious as to the location of the elf girl, and he realized with a twinge of sadness that he had never learned her name, but it no longer mattered much. Soon Zeke and Lice would be capturing the rogue goblin, and when they did that there would certainly be wealth to be had. Lice could prove himself useful, he was sure, in dealing with Fli. And once they had the bounty…Lice just might split. He hadn’t thought that far into the future just yet. For the first time, ever, Lice actually felt a bit of excitement about what the future might hold. They were going on An Adventure, he thought with childish glee. For once, his pessimistic mind seemed open to limitless possibilities. Mostly his pessimistic mind was filled with food and groggy with sleep, a cynical voice inside Lice’s head interjected. Lice stifled the voice quickly. No use thinking such thoughts.

Of course, there was another reason for going to the temple which Lice hadn’t even told himself. There were odd rumors about artifacts and enchantments which could be gained there, and maybe they could be useful in his quest to gain Power and stop being a subservient wimp. Lice only briefly thought such things, and such processes of logic were moved to a subconscious level. Still…

Lice looked over at Zeke amiably. He might as well let the poor man sleep, he guessed. Certainly a large, grumpy bounty hunter would be no good to him. And so Lice sat in the thin snow, relaxed and allowing the motion of his thoughts to drift across the landscape.

[ZekeBK]

"YAWN" Zeke woke up slowly, as slowly as you could imagine. "Ugh" Zeke grunted and squinted, trying to get some sort of vision, he saw the little green man. "Hey little buddy" Zeke yawned at the goblin. "I mean, uhm coworker" Zeke corrected himself. If Zeke was going to get the most he could out of the goblin's partnership with him, he had to be friendly to him, treat him as an equal, which was harder than anyone could imagine for Zeke.

"How'd you sleep?" Zeke strained the friendly membrane in his brain, "Good I trust". Zeke didn't even know what he was saying, he didn't talk like this, what the hell was he thinking.... oh well. "Well" Zeke continued, wiping the sleep drool from his cheek, "We better get moving if we're both ready".

Zeke started out through the snowy forest, gawking at the glistening tree branches. "Wow" Zeke said softly to himself outloud. Zeke hadn't seen anything like this since he had to take down those stinkin' little...

Zeke wasn't real alert at that time he'd been staring at the trees and walking, he barely knew where he was going. After three huge white furballs jumped out of nowhere and landed in the path he had to change his stance. It was the Snow Badgers. The creatures had thin black lips and eyes that contrasted well with the well of it's thick white body. It had short and pudgy legs, teeth, and ears. Even though the creatures backs only came up to Zeke's waist, they were still vicious, and a great danger to Lice.

One of the creatures jumped at Zeke, Zeke never knew HOW they could jump. Zeke caught the creature in midair, with the blade of his sword through the chest. The other two went to attack Lice, Zeke grabbed the one by the scruff of it's neck, but the other one was too fast for Zeke. Zeke hoped that Lice was handy with a sword, or else he was done for.

[noodleguy]

Sweet, snow badgers. Finally, some action! Good job Zeke.

Lice was actually starting to feel a bit of endearment towards Zeke at this point. The bounty hunter was condescending to him, certainly, but he at least tried not to be. And he treated Lice with something approaching kindness; that was another plus.

Lice followed a few feet behind Zeke in the forest, marveling at the ice covered trees. They were more beautiful here deep in the forest than the scrawny ones near the forest. If he hadn’t been so cold maybe he could have enjoyed it. Other than the chill, the walk was rather pleasant and Lice was still feeling the cheer from before. At least things were looking up from yesterday.

Errr, until now, that is. The three snow badgers jumped out of the trees in apparent slow motion. Lice was horrified, snow badgers never came this close to the village. But, he reflected briefly, they weren’t close to the village, were they? They were deep into the forest, two barely nourished, freezing cold humanoids with almost no protection. They were in fact prime targets for the badgers.

Briefly Lice considered fleeing again, running as far and as fast as he could and leaving the bounty hunter behind to die. But flight did not seem like an option. For one, Lice would not be able to survive on his own in the forest. The badgers could run faster than he could and would gladly chase after him once they finished off Zeke. Soon enough he would be dead that way. And if flight wasn’t an option, what was?

Fight.

After only a moment of hesitation, Lice drew his sword from the leathery bindings on his back. He watched as Zeke countered a jump from one of the badgers, and saw with a little bit of panic that the other two had gone for him first. Go for the weaker target first, would they? Well, maybe they would come to regret this. Lice gulped. Maybe he would come to regret this two.

Leaning forward slightly, Lice jumped. He jumped on to the back of one of the badgers, plunging his sword into its side as it attempted to shake him off. He managed to hold his grip, luckily, and the badger underneath him writhed, flinging Lice about in every direction. Lice simply dug the fingers of one hand into its scruffy neck fur, and, gripping his sword that was still plunged into the animal’s side tightly, Lice held on as well as he could. It was like one of those games they used to play as kids. Jump onto the bull and see how long you could stay until he bucked you. Yes, it was just like that, except far more deadly. One of the badger’s friends, Lice couldn’t see which, jumped to try and grab Lice off with its big jaws. Luckily, in the madness of the badger bucking beneath him, Lice was swung into range and he kicked the thing’s muzzle with all his might. It spun off into the snow, but Lice was left hanging on to the badger beneath him for dear life.

[SpiritTraveler]

Well... I'm not going to be on for a while. I don't really know actually, I'm having medical problems. Really bad. So if you would like to continue on you can, I just literally can not type. So I guess I'll be on whenever this is over. Sorry. :/

[noodleguy]

I've talked to Spirit about this, and she doesn't mind if eke and I carry on. So, that's what's going to happen, I believe...

[ZekeBK]

(OOC: sorry for the shortness of this, I just, write short)
Zeke slit the throat of the badger that he had grabbed by the scruff and threw it to the side. He had to save the little green man. "Hold on!" Zeke called out running towards the other badger, 'of course he was holding on, he'd be dead if he didn't'. Zeke lunged at the goblin and the badger, grabbing hold of the trashing round fuzball's head. It tried to bite at him, but Zeke held tight to it's head. Zeke gave a single twisting motion and the badger was dead. Before Zeke could get up he heard thumping and breaking of sticks. "Here comes Mama"

[ZeroWrath]

Xander was getting bored of this, He had stayed watching the two all night, he didn’t need to sleep or eat, so he was used to staring at nothing. He had watched the mutated human girl run off but she was of no interest to him. Only the little green thing had the information that he needed. He knew of the temples location and how to find it. He was the only one that was needed.

The two had finally decided to move after a time that seemed endless, they set off almost immediately and everything was fine, He planned on following them there and then just ignoring them like the pathetic creatures they were...but no, they had to go and alert some of the even lesser creatures...well, lesser to the human. As much as he hated taking un-necicary action, he could not avoid it now. Raising his right hand, Xander suddenly spread his fingers wide and the 8 golden lights surrounding him shot towards Lice, disturbing the frost slowly creeping along the trees and grass.

4 of the lights surrounded Lice, and another 4 surrounded the badger he had kicked. The human could die for all he cared; the only difference it would make would be that Xander would have to talk to that horrid creature himself. Each light stopped there spinning and extended into meter length blades. Hidden by the trees Xander closed his eyes and clenched his open hand sending all 8 blades into the 2 surrounded badgers, one narrowly missing Lice’s arm.

Snap

Something moved behind Xander, it was ok he could kill nearly anything in this mortal place with his divine golden orbs....that were currently stuck in 2 badgers.

Snap

It must have been big to make a crunch underfoot like that, but Xander didn’t want to find out what it was. It probably thought he was some big bird. Spreading his wings wide Xander turned and immediately thrust with them, lifting himself off of the ground and heading back at some speed, before smashing his back against a tree. Gazing up in pain from the collision, he was glad of the pain. That was a big badger.

[noodleguy]

The snow badger's convulsions had nearly succeeded in throwing Lice off when Zeke saved him. The creature's head made a surprisingly loud snapping sound when the bounty hunter snapped it. Some would have found the noise to be disgusting, Lice only felt relief. The grateful goblin was about to thank Zeke, or at least make some sort of comment about what they ought to do next, but he saw the man's head turn towards the depths of the woods. Then there came something that Lice entirely did not expect. Eight huge lights flew out of the woods, surrounding Lice and the still living badger. The lights quickly turned into swords, and Lice felt that perhaps he should stand very, very still. One of the blades had even nicked Lice's arm, giving him a tiny scrape. It was clear that these were quite dangerous, and although the badger appeared to be similarly constrained Lice doubted that the creator of the lights had any good intentions.

Out of the woods Lice saw a giant bird step out. But…that wasn't a bird. That was…an angel? That must be it. Lice had heard stories about angels from the occasional human missionary that came and tried to convert the village. They were almost always laughed right out of the place, but Lice had always been intrigued to listen to them. He always listened the most closely to the stories of those with divine powers, who could use their God as a weapon or a tool. That was a special sort of power that intrigued Lice, and as he examined the blades that encircled him he wondered if the two were related. Before Lice could ponder this any further, however, another sound came from the woods. This was a great cracking and crashing of branches and and a tromping of snow.

The other snow badgers couldn't afford to make such a sound. They were scavengers, picking on the weak and the dead, and their stealth was what allowed them to survive. In fact, most predators need stealth. Even the great cats walk quietly, and powerful hunters of the air will not be found making loud noises unless their success in the hunt is certain. It is a dangerous creature indeed that has become so powerful that it no longer needs to be silent.

Lice gulped and turned to watch the forest. Slowly there emerged another snow badger. This one was almost as tall as Lice, and its furry coat made it seem even larger. The thing's face was covered in scars and imperfections. Lice realized that its claws were also almost twice as large as those of the others. From what Lice knew about snow badgers it must have been a female, the larger and more dangerous of that species. Its eyes were mad and wary, swiveling about the clearing with the attention span of a lemming. Eventually they settled on the corpses of its fellows. The creature growled a frightening sound that instinctively caused Lice to want to back up. He tried to take a few steps back and then stopped. That might not be such a good idea with these blades of light circling him

Then the thing jumped. Lice winced and raised his arms to defend himself, but the thing hadn't jumped for him or Zeke. It had leaped for the newcomer, the bird-man or angel. Lice watched helplessly as the man flew...into the air. The bird-man smacked into the tree ungracefully, but he was out of the reach of the badger.

With horror Lice watched as the thing went after Zeke. He could do nothing, and mutely he watched as it leaped for his new friend. Lice hoped that the man was as strong as he claimed to be, or that the new bird-man was as nice as the angels in the stories.

[ZekeBK]

Zeke got up from the the neck snapping position he had taken, and watched the Angel. Angel? Angels were graceful, they didn't fly into trees to avoid badgers, they turned their flesh into meaty slabs flying through sky, and they turned thier bones to shrapnel to kill other badgers. They didn't fly into trees.

But what the angel was doing was none of Zeke's real concern, his two main concerns were: keeping Lice safe, and killing the fat polar bear looking thing that had just jumped out at him. Zeke dodged to the right and threw his dagger out into the badger's neck. It landed with a rippling of flesh moving down it's side and a bit of blood. "Man this thing is fat!" Zeke said. The badger got angrier. It jumped over to Zeke, too fast for him to dodge, but not too fast to block. Zeke held up his sword when the creature tried to knock him away, creating the perfect shield. It's thick and blubbery skin was too rough to do any real damage, Zeke had to think for a second. He turned and pulled the dagger from the creature's neck. It let out a roar hiss type of noise and went after Zeke again. Zeke took the dagger in hand and when the creature got close enough, Zeke kicked pryed open it's jaw, breaking it, then sent the dagger through the roof of it's mouth into it's brain. Zeke pulled out his blood covered arm, and shook it for a second, then went back in to retrieve the dagger. "Glad that's over"

[SpiritTraveler]

Okay... so, I'm terribly sorry that took so long, but my writers block is back, and seriously aweful. I appologize.




It had felt as though she had been walking for the longest time. Stormy was beyond parched, and her stomach was rumbling. Apex stared up at Stormy with worried eyes. She just smiled and continued walking.
"I'm fine." Although that was a lie, and Apex knew it. She hadn't the chance to eat since she stormed off like a baby after running into those two earlier. She probably should have stayed to eat, but of course her emotions got in the way as always.

I wish I could control them better, then I wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.

Apex sensed she was distraught, he stopped in his tracks, and sat down on the ground looking up at her again. She smiled once more.
"I suppose a quick stop wont really do any harm." Apex nodded and ran off to find something for the both of them to eat. Stormy sat there alone staring at the rotting bark from the large tree in front of her. She zoned out a bit, thinking of her family and what they might be doing right this moment. She finally shook the memory from her head and looked behind her, she heard a rustling from the bushes.
"Apex?" Silence filled the air, and a cold breeze chilled Stormy's spine. A bad feeling suddenly filled her as she sat down on a stump. "It must be the wind." She shook the feeling from her, and waited for her companion to return.

[ZeroWrath]

Sorry, with Christmas and everything, I have been really busy.

Xander Lifted himself up from the ground and dusted himself off. That was not an experience he enjoyed, Stretching, he found that he had once again broken a wing... if that damn tree wasn't in the way. They had only just healed, not even breathing, Xander was calm and relaxed though he was in agony...Looks like he was walking, so he couldn't afford to waste any time.

Xander lifted his hand into the air and all of the blades returned to there harmless light form and gathered in his hand. Clenching his fist, the light stretched too a good meter and a half and began to fill out becoming a blade resembling a wing. There was no need for this but He had to make sure the green thing knew of his power and didn't bother too run....that would be troublesome.

Ignorant of the dead badger as if it didn't even exist now that it was dead, Xander loomed over Lice.

"Creature,Take me to the temple."

Xander was a man of few words, and being demanding wasn't something he did often so for extra encouragement he increased his grip on the golden blade makeing it scrape across the ground showing that it was very real.