The Sky is Rising

[Nayeli]

Solo quest. From the Board of Acquisitions of Scara Brae, as described here (http://althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=20532). Mission description repeated here for convenience:

Requirement: An Innari character is all that is required for this mission.

Synopsis: The Shamans of the Great Tribes have witnessed in their dreams a prophetic vision, one that foretells of mountains splitting from the earth, and rising into the sky. This ascendancy is an ancient legend, one that speaks of an earthquake and a great beast in the heart of the Great Forest. You have heard of this legend, and seek out the answer in the nestle of darkness on your own. What you find in the forest is up to you, but the Innari Chieftains speak often of a 'basilisk' and a Behemoth, beasts that control stone...perhaps they hold the key to this new thread.

Reward: Faction point for the Innari, as well as an audience with the Prime Shaman, which unlocks an additional quest.

Access: One character only, will unlock quest chain.Blue mushrooms with purple dots clustered around the bases of ancient and dying oak trees, secreting noxious juices. They grew pointed towards each other like conspirators huddling to discuss the latest murder. Nayeli Ominotago was not afraid, but she was…worried. Perhaps that was the right word—how could she be afraid, after all? The Great Forest (known to the humans as Brokenthorn) was her home. She knew (or so she thought) every danger beneath its leafy canopy. This part of the forest, however was almost entirely alien to her. Here the trees were older than anywhere else, even old enough to have developed thoughts and minds of their own, maybe. Here strange and wild creatures described only in fairy tales elsewhere were as real and common as squirrels or sparrows. Here it was dark.

She stumbled along the overgrown path in the gloom and tried not to pay any attention to how the path was slowly, but surely, being consumed by the forest. She was seeking the dwelling of the hermit-shaman Powala, which was rumored to be in this area somewhere. No one seemed to know exactly where, though, which worried her. That, however, was all she was. Worried. Not afraid. Certainly not afraid. She ran a hand over her braided black hair, and it was then that she saw the omen of death. She gasped, but didn’t shriek. The young Innari (called goblins by some) warrior wasn’t the sort of person to shriek.

The omen was just off the path to her left, and she stood staring at it for a long minute, mesmerized. Then finally she tore herself away from it and continued on her trek. Surely, she thought, it meant nothing. Still, her mother was a shamanness, and Nayeli had been raised to give proper respect to the supernatural. It wasn’t that she was superstitious. She didn’t believe in things like magic or omens or vision-dreams. She knew them to be true, from personal experience, which was entirely different and quite a bit less silly.

Still, the omen was troubling, and therefore she put it at the back of her mind and thought of it no more. The roots she stumbled over and dark trees she passed blended together into one experience, and from then on her journey was timeless. It could have been hours or days, she couldn’t say. The thick canopy of leaves above made everything into a dull gloom, so day and night blended into each other and became one. When she felt the need to sleep, she slept. When she felt the need to eat or drink she chewed jerkey from her pack silently, or took a sip from the squash-shaped canteen at her hip. Eventually she reached the house of the Hermit Powala.

The house was in the shape of a dome, and looked to her to be like a rock lying in the dirt. It looked like the sort of rock that children might turn over with a stick to see the doodlebugs crawling around underneath. She wondered what insects she would find if she turned over this rock. The house—if it could be called that, it looked more like a hovel, even by Innari standards—had a small chimney at the top, which was spouting volumes of thick grey smoke.

The door was perfectly round. She knocked on it three times, and then stepped backwards and waited for it to swing open. This, she had been told, was the proper etiquette. She waited for five minutes and nothing happened. She stepped forward and repeated the process, then stepped back again. The door swung open, and a slimy voice came from the inside. It appeared to be pitch-black inside the house; she couldn’t see a thing.

“That was a test,” the voice of the Hermit Powala said.

“Of what?” Nayeli asked, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind.

“Patience,” the Hermit said. “Come in, daughter of Chieftain Ominotago, of the Boar tribe. I have been expecting you.”

Nayeli bowed her head and stepped in the door.

[Nayeli]

The Hermit Powala was almost exactly the same shape as his house. He was completely bald and utterly enormous. He had uncountable chins, and his arms and legs were merely stubby protuberances out of the great bulk of his torso. He had to be hundreds and hundreds of pounds. He was so fat that he had the appearance of an apple cut in half and set on its bottom. In fact, that was a very good analogy, as his skin was bright red. Nayeli had never seen an Innari that color. Her tribe had people of every shade of green, certainly, from dark greens to yellow-greens to her own attractive light green. Red? Not a one. Sweat gleamed over his entire body, and she was reminded eerily of the mushroom’s she’d seen a while back, glistening with poison.

The Hermit’s hut was uncomfortably small, and Nayeli was forced to stand uncomfortably close to the famous shaman. He surveyed her with beady green eyes like a jeweler examining a particularly shifty diamond. His eyes flickered from her ears, to her face, to the bow on her back and the clothes on her body. Hm, is that a blemish? The gem seems uneven here! What price do you suppose it’ll fetch, mister? Oh, I’m afraid only a few copper pieces, kid, this one’s only glass made to look nice and shiny…

“Hmmm,” he said, after a long while.

“I was sent to ask you, sir, about the dreams?” Nayeli said, eager to fill the silence. “My father sent me, I suppose you know him, he’s—”

“Silence, child,” the Hermit said. His voice was low and authoritative, and Nayeli found her mouth closing without intervention of her brain. She wasn’t normally the sort to follow orders like that at all, either, and this scared her. “You’ve got strange magic in you, daughter of Ominotago. I cannot see its meaning just yet. Let me see that bow you have.”

Again, a command she was physically or mentally unable to resist. Nayeli proffered the bow to the Hermit, and he examined it in silence. The bow was small, because Nayeli was small and she’d crafted it herself.

“Who taught you to write these runes engraved in the wood, hm?” the Hermit said, and he looked up at her sharply.

“No one taught me,” she said, which was true. “They just felt…right.”

The Hermit said nothing. He reached a flabby arm to a shelf on the right, and grabbed a long pipe. He started smoking it immediately, still staring at the bow. The smoke that came out of the pipe was bright red.

When he spoke again, his voice was laden even thicker with tones of authority, and the spell it wove on her was even stronger. “Witch-child, I think you are exactly the wrong person for this quest. Go back. Go home. Forget the dreams where mountains fly, forget the Lizard King, forget your father’s orders and go far, far away from here.”

Nayeli found herself turning towards the door immediately, but this time she managed to stop herself. An immense mental struggle proceeded. Disobeying the Hermit was difficult, almost impossible…but not quite impossible. It was painful, yes, but not impossible. She gritted her teeth. With this kind of power, how is he not a chieftain? she wondered No…how is he not a king? She managed, however, to turn around and face the Hermit once more. “No,” she said, and that was enough. The spell was broken. She breathed deeply, and realized that she had started sweating.

The Hermit, meanwhile, was laughing raucously. Tears of joy streamed out of his eyes, and his limbs flailed like tiny pinwheels. He knocked down vials of poultices and herbs from the shelves, and Nayeli simply stared at him.

“That was a test,” he said, once he’d managed to calm down a bit. A single giggle escaped his lips like a soldier straggling behind an army. “And you passed! You were the only one who did, and you passed. Witch-child, you may be more promising than I thought. Now it’s only fitting that I address the task at hand, hm? You must see the dream!”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, mildly irritated. “What test? What was so funny?”

The Hermit sighed. “I hate children,” he said. “So full of questions! Eventually, little witch-child, you will be filled up with answers like a vase with water, and then you will have no more questions left.”

Nayeli was silent. She’d decided that talking to or asking questions of the Hermit, like talking to most shamans, was utterly useless.

“But back to the business at hand. It is time for you to dream as we shamans do. Are you ready?” The Hermit shook his head and laughed. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, you won’t ever be ready, really.” And with that, the Hermit exhaled an enormous cloud of red smoke. It surrounded Nayeli and filled her mouth, nostrils and lungs with its toxic sweetness. She choked and fell to her knees, and in seconds she was unconscious.

[Nayeli]

When Nayeli awoke, she was on the surface of the moon. Around her, tiny globes of light floated—she realized after a moment that these must be stars. Somewhere beneath (beneath? what did that mean?) she saw the island of Scara Brae laid out like a map. Blue ocean surrounded it. She had no time to appreciate the scenery, though, because after a moment of her lungs screaming for air, she realized that she couldn’t breathe.

She clutched her chest, gasping for air but finding none. It was like being underwater, but instead of water filling her lungs, there was nothing. She felt them shrivel up inside her like deflated balloons, and darkness began to cloud her vision.

“Breathe!” came the voice of the Hermit, and he put his hand on her shoulder. “Calm down!”

She did as he said and her breathing slowed and steadied, and then…air. She took it in with huge gulps, like a fish that’s been pulled out of the sea and then thrown back in. She looked up into the face of the Hermit and gasped. Standing behind her was a muscular, tall Innari warrior. His skin was forest green, not the strawberry red it had been before. Yet it was, without a doubt, the Hermit. His voice was the same, and his little green eyes hadn’t changed at all.

“What? How? Why? Where?” Nayeli asked, but the Hermit shushed her and gestured to the island below them.

“We’ve no time to talk just yet,” he said. “Watch.”

Nayeli did. The island below them began to shake rapidly. The waters around it sloshed back and forth, and immense waves formed and crashed into the beaches. That, however, was boring compared to what was happening in the Windlacer Mountains. The mountains were unscrewing themselves like gigantic tops, and rising rapidly into the air. She watched, stunned. It wasn’t over yet, though—then came the most disturbing part of all. She heard screams. The people below were screaming.

Then, rapidly, the scene changed. She was in utter darkness. Something scaly and cold brushed past her face, and she instinctively leapt back. Then there was horrible, inhuman laughter that was even colder than whatever had touched her. The darkness consumed her, and she was unconscious once more.

When she awoke again (after who knows how long) she was back in the Hermit’s hut. In the real world, she told herself. The Hermit looked at her, his expression grim. All the humor that had been in his face earlier had drained. He looked pale, or at least slightly paler than his usual shade of red.

“Do you understand?” he asked her. She shook her head. “Good. If you said you did, I’d know you were lying, and I’d think you a fool. Allow me to explain. This dream you saw, the dream that I showed you, has been coming to every Innari Shaman of the forest now for months. We’ve worked hard and meditated long to understand it, and the only thing we can know for sure is that it portends catastrophe. However, more interesting and disturbing than that is the bit at the end. What did you see? Anything?”

Nayeli shook her head. “No, there was only darkness. But I felt cold scales brushing against my skin, and I heard…laughter. Evil laughter.”

The Hermit nodded, long and slow. “Indeed? Then you’ve seen nearly as much as any shaman has, though I doubt you understood it. That, we believe, was the Lizard King, otherwise known as the Basilisk. He is an old god...not a god like the Thayne, but an ancient one of the forest. He has slept long, but fear he has now awakened. What this means I cannot say.”

“And you want me to kill it, then?” Nayeli asked, both fearful and eager at once.

The Hermit looked angry. “Are you a fool? A child like you, kill a god? No, of course not! You merely must find him and speak with him. Try and find out what this dream means, and what doom is coming to Scara Brae, but beware. The Lizard King is a tricky god, and a cunning god, and an old god. He is fond of the Innari, but he will as soon eat you as answer your questions, and he always speaks in riddles.”

“Why me?” she asked. “Why not a great Chieftain, like my father, or a Shaman like yourself?”

“It would do no good. The Basilisk would sense us coming too soon, for we are old and powerful, and he would flee. The Lizard King values his privacy. The one for this quest must be someone young, someone with magic, but who can blend into the forest like a little squirrel. Young Innari warriors have been being sent to my abode for months, but none passed the test of will. You were able to resist my magically enhanced voice of command, and so you may have a chance against the Basilisk’s own wiles. He is infinity more powerful than I, but you at least performed better than any of the others who arrived.”

Nayeli didn’t appreciate being compared to a squirrel, but she nodded in assent. She felt as though this might not be the whole truth, but asking the Shaman to go further than he was willing would yield nothing. “Where am I to find him, then?”

“Continue west. Put the dawn at your back and carry on ever in that direction, and when you lose track of the sun, navigate by the plants and your own senses. Once, very deep in this forest, a group of fools had the pretension to build a temple to the Lizard King. They came to no good end, of course, but the temple is probably still there, and it’s possible that the Basilisk now makes it its home. It’s the sort of thing that would please him. Now I can give you no more information, witch-child, for I know no more myself. You must depend on your wits and cunning from here on out. It will be a difficult and dangerous, and you will probably die.”

Nayeli gulped.

“Now leave my cabin before I have to kick you out!” the Hermit said harshly. With that, he turned around and his back was facing the young Innari. Seeing that the conversation had been declared over, Nayeli left.

[Nayeli]

As she left the Hermit’s hut, Nayeli realized that she’d forgotten to tell him of the evil omen she’d seen at the beginning of her journey. It was too late to go back now, though, and it probably wasn’t important anyway. She decided not to think about it.

The slim path she’d followed before being reaching the Hermit’s house continued westward for another few miles before abruptly stopping…although it didn’t so much “stop” as blend into the overgrown forest around it, until there was nothing left at all. She stood at the edge of the path, hesitant to go further.

Why had she come this far, anyway? What had motivated her to take up this dangerous mission? She would reap no monetary or physical reward, although she supposed there might be some prestige among the tribe-members for being one of the few to meet and speak with the Lizard King and make it out alive. That and her father, the Chieftain, had commanded her to go on this quest. If she disobeyed him, she would be exiled from the tribe. But even given that…was it really worth risking her life to this extent? Certainly she’d gone on dangerous missions before, but never one so strange or alien as this. She’d battled human and Innari enemies alike, not to mention bears and wolves in the “tamer” sections of the forest, but this was different. Never had she gone up against such terrifying and alien things. Gods, spirits and apocalyptic visions? Innari with skin as red as a tomato? This was far out of her range of experience or skill, clearly.

So…why? She realized with horror that she couldn’t find an appropriate answer to the question. She hadn’t even asked that question until mere moments ago! It was as though some force had been compelling her to come, like a moth lured in to a bright flame. Even now, she felt as though she ought to be walking forward. It was as though a string were tied in her chest and pulling her forwards without her will, forwards towards…what? Where? She narrowed her eyes.

If that was how it was, perhaps she should go back to the Hermit after all. Had he been controlling her from the beginning? It was certainly possible…but he’d seemed genuinely surprised when she passed his little ‘test.’ That, therefore, seemed unlikely. She leaned against a tree and chewed some jerky, pondering this predicament.

Perhaps some creature of the forest was drawing her in. Perhaps even the Basilisk itself, which was said to possess powers over people’s minds, and could even kill with a single glance. But even that didn’t make sense. Why her? Was whatever force that was pulling her towards the deep forest could be a friend or foe, after all…

Nayeli wasn’t the sort of Innari to overthink things—if there even was a sort of Innari that did that. She made her decision quickly, and with precisely the right amount of thought to cover all sides of the issue. Humans have a tendency to chew over thoughts in their brain until they are turned into mush, whereas Innari tend to swallow them whole without giving them enough thought at all. So when Nayeli made her decision, it was without trouble.

She would go ahead. Whether it was an enemy or an ally that was pulling her towards the forest (probably the former), she ought to know exactly what they wanted of her. The curiosity was overwhelming. If it was an ally, things would turn out just fine. If it was an enemy trying to draw her out like a mouse to cheese…

Well, they might just find that Nayeli Ominotago was a bit more than they bargained for. She grinned wickedly. An important truth to Nayeli’s personality was that she hated being forced to do anything for anyone else. If she didn’t work for herself or the interests of her family, home, or people…well, she didn’t work at all. Fiercely independent blood ran through her Innari veins.

Internal struggle complete, and now certain that she was going forward of her own free will, and not due to some magical force or destiny, Nayeli strode forwards to the west.

That was the first time she saw the emerald butterflies.

[Nayeli]

The emerald butterflies were more beautiful than any she had seen before. Their shimmering incandescence lit up the night like a thousand glowing green torches. A thousand indeed, or maybe more; there were certainly too many to count. They fluttered about and around the trees, clustered in little families on the ground, and flew erratic courses about the branches and bushes. Nayeli giggled with childish glee, and stepped further into the forest towards the butterflies.

Is this real? Magic? A trap? she wondered. The butterflies hadn’t been there even a moment ago. Then she’d stepped into the Deep Forest proper, and they had appeared. Maybe that was unsurprising. This deep into the forest, everything was magical and strange. So much life in one place, any place, is going to produce magic. The butterflies certainly were magic…although of what sort, she couldn’t tell. They were indeed beautiful, but she remained a little bit skeptical.

She continued her walk to the west. The butterflies were ever present, and their wondrous appearance never grew any less magnificent. Not for the first or last time, she felt as though time had no real significance in this place. She kept going west, slept when she needed to sleep, ate when she needed to eat, and some number of days passed in this way. She did not, however, bother keeping track.

There was little change to her surroundings, but at some point puddles began to appear around the forest. Strange, since it hadn’t rained in some time, but shallow puddles littered the ground. She looked at one and her reflection gazed up at her. Pale green skin, enormous ears jutting out of the sides of her round head, and big round, inquisitive eyes gazed up at her. Her hair, pulled back into braids, was a mess with sticks and dirt from the forest, but this didn’t really bother her. She had never been terribly concerned with her appearance. She was fairly average for an Innari, pretty, but not beautiful, but such things never really concerned her anyway. She was about to turn away and carry on when the reflection changed.

The puddle shimmered, and instead of looking at a small Innari girl, she found herself staring at a tall and elegant human woman. She gasped. The woman was dressed in a long, flowing, white dress—not the practical and simple deerskins Nayeli wore. Her face was beautiful but sad. Nayeli felt herself drawn to the woman, and she started reaching towards the puddle, but something stopped her. What if, who knew how long ago, that woman in the dress had been staring at just the same puddle? Maybe she’d even reached a hand down, touched the surface, and perhaps fallen in? What would happen if Nayeli did the same? Would she end up looking out from the puddle depths the next time some hapless traveler came this way?

It took an effort of will, but she withdrew her gaze from the puddle and walked away. There were a number of other such puddles, and she was careful not to gaze into them. Maybe they weren’t magic after all, but she found herself jumping through and kicking at them, spreading the water about. Hopping in the puddles made her feel like a child, even if it was for a purpose.

Not long after that, she heard rushing water. There was a river or stream somewhere nearby, and she hurried forward in hopes of finding it. The water in her canteen was running low already, and it would be good to refill it. The sound of water flowing grew larger, and then she found the little brook.

[Nayeli]

The brook flew over smooth, rounded stones that looked almost like cobbles. It wasn’t large enough to be called a river; it was only ten or twelve feet wide at most. Still, it seemed unusually deep in places. While she could see the bottom through most of it, the dark water seemed to form in pits that she couldn’t see the depth of at all. Best to avoid those. The brook laughed at her when she came into its sight, and she had the good sense not to take offense.

She would normally be cautious in such a situation, but it seemed doubtful that the water would be poison. She’d never known of a stream in the Great Forest that would be poisonous to an Innari. She crouched at the side and began to fill her leather water canteen.

Someone was staring at her. That someone was a bright green frog, with yellow spots on its back. It stuck out its tongue its tongue in greeting, and she laughed and returned the gesture. Never had she seen a frog of that exact pattern of colors and dots. She laughed; glad to see that at least someone in this part of the forest was friendly. Well, there were the emerald butterflies, who were ever-present. Lately they seemed more creepy than friendly, though...

“You’re a cute little guy, huh?” she said. “Wonder how old you are?”

“He’s a baby. My baby. And I don’t want Innari scum anywhere near him,” came a deep and slick voice from the brook. Nayeli turned around to find herself confronted by a bright orange frog almost as large as herself. It was fat and round and probably a good three feet long. It was wearing a stern frown, and Nayeli found herself unnerved.

“Excuse me?” she said. Before she had time to react more, the brook came alive. Enormous frogs crawled out of its unforeseen depths, out from behind bushes and in clumps of reeds. They surrounded Nayeli and stared at her with little amphibious eyes.

“No one passes our brook without the leave of the Frog King,” the frog who’d spoken before said. Nayeli gulped. There was a crashing and splashing noise from further upstream, as if something very, very big were moving down the river. She waited there, surrounded on all sides by the frogs, and unable to escape. She supposed she could fight, but the monstrous amphibians outnumbered her, and anything that could talk in this area was bound to possess powerful magic.

She wouldn’t have had time anyway—it wasn’t long at all before the Frog King himself came into view. He was a frog like no other Nayeli had seen. The King was at least twelve feet tall, if not more. Its mouth and belly were enormous circles—she could easily have fit standing up inside its mouth. This was an unnerving thought. It was slimy and green and had a single enormous, wet eye in the center of its forehead. It surveyed her with dull disinterest.

“This one tried to trespass, your majesty. She even took waters from our stream!” the one who had spoken before (apparently a spokes-frog) said.

“Hmmmmmm,” the Frog King said. It surveyed Nayeli and extended a long, huge tongue. She found herself frozen in fear. It wrapped its tongue around her and lifted her into the air. She struggled but couldn’t escape, despite the fact that she was now covered from head to toe in slippery frog-slime. “It doesn’t look very tasty,” the Frog King admitted.

“It? I’m not an it,” Nayeli protested. “I am Nayeli Ominotago, daughter of Chieftain Ominotago, and of the renowned Shamanness Chosovi, and if you don’t let me go, they shall hunt you down and kill you, I swear.”

The Frog King laughed a deep, hearty laugh. “Are the Innari now so rash that they would seek to kill a god? And now, of all times? I don’t think so. Not that they could kill me, even if they so desired, of course.” The frogs around him laughed in eerie unison.

“I have been sent to speak with the Basilisk! The Lizard King desires my presence!” Nayeli said, growing frantic.

The Frog King laughed his laugh once more. “I doubt that, but if it is true, I suppose I shall do you a kindness and spare you a terrible death at the hands of my friend Lizard. You don’t look terribly appetizing—goblins have such a bad aftertaste, really, elves are such much tastier—but I suppose I’ll eat you nonetheless. Goodbye, little one.” And with that, the King opened his massive maw and drew Nayeli towards it. She struggled to escape the vice-grip of his tongue, but could not. Her arms, however, were free—and in a last effort for freedom, she grabbed her bow and an arrow and pointed it straight at the King’s one giant eye. She focused her magic, and the runes on her bow glowed with purple light. The arrow she used lit up with witchfire of the same color, and she let it fly. At this distance, there was no way she could miss. The arrow went home straight into the Frog King’s eye, and he screamed in rage and dropped Nayeli into the brook.

“SEIZE HER!” he screamed.

The King’s servants surrounded her and tried to grab her with their own tongues, but she fled them, stumbling across the stream and splashing through the water. She made it to the other side through some incredible luck, and began to run through the forest. The frogs chased her, but they were slow and awkward in the forest, and Nayeli was lithe and fast. Still, her heartbeat was loud as a drum in her chest, and she tasted bitter adrenaline and fear. Eventually, though, she no longer heard their plunking hops following behind her, and she figured it would probably be safe to rest.

She leaned against a tree and tried to calm down. She was still covered in frog-slime and water, and there was a bright red rash around her middle where the King had grabbed her with his tongue. She laughed hysterically. Chased through giant frogs through the forest, and nearly eaten alive by their King, who purported to be a god? What could come next? She laughed again, and it wasn’t long after that she dozed off and slept for a long time.

[Nayeli]

When she awoke, Nayeli continued her journey west. The emerald butterflies guided her way, as they seemed to crowd around the western direction. She began to suspect that the butterflies had been sent by whatever force was drawing her into the inner forest, but that didn’t bother her. It just meant she’d be less likely to get lost.

As the days passed, the forest grew denser and less friendly. The trees were older here, and they moved and rustled their leaves even when there wasn’t a hint of a breeze. Uneasy images of snakes and frogs and far less friendly creatures plagued her dreams and nightmares. She didn’t see a single animal for weeks—not a squirrel, not a bird or even an insect. Just the damn butterflies. Always the damn butterflies.

That was why she was so pleased when she saw the fox. She’d been walking for several hours that day when she stumbled into a small clearing in the forest. There was a tiny, fuzzy orange creature in the center of the clearing. She froze, not wanting to scare only living creature she’d seen in days away. The baby fox, however, didn’t seem like it was going to be scared away. It moseyed up to her and nuzzled its little nose on her leg. Her heart melted and she crouched down—the thing was simply adorable.

“You don’t have some big mommy who’s going to come and want to eat me, do you?” Nayeli asked. She was only partially kidding—it seemed like everything in this forest found her to be some sort of delicacy. That and the sudden appearance of a harmless baby seemed unlikely. She kept her eyes open for some trick or trap.

“No, miss,” the baby fox said. Nayeli was unsurprised. Of course it could talk. “My mommy wouldn’t eat you. I’ve been sent with a present for you, actually.”

“Is that so?” Nayeli asked. The fox nodded in response, and scampered into the woods at the edge of the clearing. When it returned, it was carrying a long piece of cloth in its mouth. It dropped this in Nayeli’s lap, and she examined it.

The cloth was a few feet long, and as dark a black as the spaces between the stars. She could tell it had potent magic, but of what sort she had no idea.

“What is this? Who are you?” Nayeli asked in quick succession. The fox looked confused.

“Ummm, which question do you want me to answer first?” the fox asked. It didn’t seem like the most intelligent of creatures. Nayeli gave a half-hearted smile.

“Who you are would be a good start,” she said.

“I’m Yasha,” the fox said. “My mommy is the Fox Queen, and she said to find the Innari walking out of the edge of the Lizard and Froggie’s territory and give her this blindfold. She gave me a message, too.”

Another forest spirit? This one seemed to be on her side, though…or at least wasn’t trying to eat her right away. That was certainly an improvement. “What was the message?” Nayeli asked.

The fox looked thoughtful for a moment, as if it was having a hard time remembering. “Um, I think she said to wear this blindfold before you meet the Lizard, or else you’ll turn to stone as soon as you look at him. Something like that. I think.”

Nayeli pondered this for a moment. “Why would your mother help me?” she asked.

The fox named Yasha grinned. “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you that. My mom’s a tricky one, uh huh! But she always liked the Innari, and she doesn’t much like the Lizard at the moment, and that ought to be enough reason for you.”

Nayeli nodded slowly. She didn’t trust this gift entirely, but she wasn’t going to turn away help when it was offered. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. The baby fox nodded and scurried into the woods, and she was left alone in the clearing. She stuffed the blindfold in her bag and continued on to the west, pondering the meaning of this meeting as she went.

[Nayeli]

The temple of the Lizard King, which she reached after some more days of eventless journeying, had decayed with age and was covered in ivy and moss. It was a fairly small building compared to the temples Nayeli had seen that humans made for their gods. She wondered if this temple had been constructed by Humans or Innari…or some other, stranger race. A statue graced the outside courtyard: two round globes next to eachother, with pupils carved into them, giving them the appearance of staring eyes. She shuddered. To each side of the temple were enormous statues of men with square heads and no faces. They were on their knees, but each would have been as tall as a building if they were standing. Emerald butterflies crowded around these statues and the temple itself, thick as maggots on a corpse.

Even the trees here were strange. They weren’t friendly oaks or yews, or the less friendly but still familiar trakym or cyper trees. In fact, she had never seen such trees: they were varying shades of purples and blues, with bright red leaves. They were alien and strange.

How long it had taken her to get to this point she couldn't say, but Nayeli could sense that most of her journey was over. Whether she made it out of this temple alive or not, she would at least die with the knowledge that she had made it this far, and that probably counted for something.

She pulled the black blindfold out of her bag and examined it. It was possible that the friendly little fox that had come to her a few days ago had been a trick of some sort, and that this blindfold would kill her or worse. It was possible. However, it was almost certain that if she faced the Basilisk with no protection or armor, she would die. Therefore, she had little choice but to trust the Fox Queen’s child. She walked up to the doorway of the temple, but before she entered she raised the cloth to her eyes and tied it around the back of her head. She couldn't see at all, or even perceive any light. The blindfold was completely opaque. She smiled grimly, but without humor or pleasure. Completely blind, and stepping into the den of a monster, hm? Not many people would be daring enough to do such a thing. Nayeli was not many people, so she would go forward, but still, she was…worried. Not afraid.

Oh, hell. If she was going into almost certain death, she might as well stop lying to herself. She was terrified. So much for her supposed bravery. Still, there was no way that she could turn back now. Afraid or not, she pulled the ancient oak door open and stepped through into the temple.

She could see nothing, but her nostrils were immediately filled with the dusty-dry scent of decay and death. She coughed a few times, but the old air still filled her lungs. It took her a moment of wheezing to regain her composure.

When she did, she realized just how blind she was. She had no idea what sort of room she was in, or how wide it was, or what kinds of traps may be in it. She was as helpless and defenseless as a newborn child. The urge to take off the blindfold and peak was strong, but she did not. If the Basilisk was nearby, a move like that could be deadly. So instead she reached her arms out and began to shuffle slowly across the floor.

Her foot struck something, hard and crunchy. She froze. There was laughter, deep and echoing. Then a voice, as smooth as velvet and dark as a total eclipse of the sun.

“Oh, don’t mind that, little ladybug. That’s just some poor old human’s skeleton. Fellow wasn’t even much good to eat.”

“Who are you?” Nayeli asked, but she already knew the answer to that question.

“Who, me?” the voice asked. “Why, I’m the rat-devourer, the king-slayer, the scaly master of the inner forest. I’m the king of all reptiles on this island of Scara Brae, and I see with their eyes and kill with their claws. But you, my dear delicious little ladybug, may call me the Basilisk.”

[Nayeli]

There was a hissing in the darkness, and something cold and scaly brushed against Nayeli’s cheek for the briefest moment. She couldn’t help herself then—she screamed. No one heard her. She was all alone in the darkness, blind and helpless, and at the mercy of a monster beyond her comprehension.

“Oh don’t do that, that’s not interesting at all,” the Basilisk said, sounding genuinely disappointed. The scaly touch withdrew. “Don’t be boring. Trust me, your life depends on being interesting.”

“Are you going to eat me?” Nayeli asked, voice trembling.

“Honestly, I haven’t decided yet. Tell me, little one, do you remember the omen you saw at the beginning of your little quest?”

Nayeli thought back. “Yes, I do. How do you know about that?”

“I know about a lot of things,” the Basilisk said. “I am very old, after all. Far older than I think you could imagine. But don’t try to distract me! Describe the omen you saw. I want to hear it come from your lips.”

Her voice was calmer than it had been before, but there was still a hint of a tremble. She wanted to seem calm, even if she didn’t feel that way the slightest bit.

“I saw…a spiderweb. More like a thread, dangling from a tree. And at the end of that thread, I saw a ladybug—but only its shell. It was hollow. Empty. The spider had sucked it out, and only the shell of its corpse remained. And it spun around and I felt like it was staring at me.”

The Basilisk chuckled. “Yes, that’s correct,” he said, as if Nayeli hadn’t just been describing her own experience. “That’s a bad omen for a beginning of a quest. Does it occur to you how the ladybug must have felt, just before the spider sucked out her insides? Does it occur to you that it might be something a little bit like what you’re feeling right now?”

Despair welled up within her. “So you are going to eat me, then?”

“No, I don’t think so. I have better plans that that. You’re oh so much more entertaining alive than dead, at least for now. Frog tried to eat you, didn’t he? Oh, he’s a damn fool. I’ll almost certainly have to punish him for that, it’s just a total lack of imagination on his part. No wonder he’s so fat, all he ever does is eat…ah, do you see what I have to work with, here?”

She was silent, having nothing to say. It occurred to her that she was meeting with the Basilisk for a purpose, after all, and maybe she ought to try and turn the conversation back to that. “What was the meaning of the dreams that Shamans have been having?” she ventured.

The Basilisk laughed. “Oh you are a cute little ladybug after all. I think I just might keep you. And of course, I see no reason to not answer your question.”

“You don’t?” Nayeli asked, somewhat stunned. She hadn’t expected the Basilisk to give her any answer at all on that point. But perhaps the goal of her quest could be accomplished after all.

“Ah yes, the dreams. I don’t know I’m really allowed to tell you, actually, although I suppose it doesn’t matter much, since you won’t be leaving. But there’re older and more powerful gods and spirits out there than me, and they might be quite unhappy if I reveal their plans. Still, I’ve taken quite a liking to you, so why not? I was the one who sent the dreams out, and I did it because I like the Innari. It’s a warning.”

“A warning of what?” Nayeli asked, trying to ignore the bit where he said she wouldn’t be able to leave.

“Disaster! Calamity! Death! It’s all coming to Scara Brae, you see. All the threads are woven together now, like a spider’s web, and everything is connected to everything else, and I would be very careful where you step. And you and the Innari, and the humans and elves and the rest are all caught up in it like insects in a spider’s web…”

“What does that even mean?” Nayeli asked, more confused than ever.

“It means that you should be ready for war, little ladybug. This island is filled with enemies for the Innari, and you are surrounded on all sides by those who wish you harm. And I, believe it or not, would be fairly sad to see the Innari go. You are my cousins, after all. Not as graceful as the elves, or as proud as the dwarves, or resourceful as the men…but I’m quite fond of you nonetheless. So yes, you should prepare yourself. If the Innari tribes all work together, they could be quite a force indeed. If you are not united, however...you will all die.”

Nayeli shook her head. “My father never wanted a war of any sort. He’s only ever argued for peace between all the peoples on the island.”

The Basilisk laughed. “You really don’t know your father very well at all, do you?” Then he changed the subject rapidly. “You know, you probably should have turned back at the beginning of this journey.”

“I—I couldn’t. I had a duty. My father—”

“Your father?” the Basilisk said, sounding angry all of the sudden. “Your father? Is that really why you went on this journey, little ladybug? Because if that’s the case, you are far stupider than I imagined. You’ve been played like a pawn, right from the beginning, you know that? The reason they sent you wasn't because they thought I would run away, or some such nonsense. They sent you because they were afraid. They wanted someone disposable. In other words, they, or at least the Hermit, lied to you.”

“That’s not true! My father and mother are noble people, as is the Hermit, they wouldn’t…”

“They would. You're just stupid, dirty goblins after all. Well, your mother certainly would lie to you, she’s an interesting witch. I’ve talked to her on occasion, did you know that? But yes, your father may just be even more of a stupid idealist than I thought, in which case good for you. Hmmmm.”

There was silence for a long moment, and Nayeli wondered if she should take this opportunity to flee. She’d probably gotten as much information as she was going to get out of the Basilisk, and it might be good to flee before she ended up eaten. She stepped backwards, and immediately her path was blocked by a wall of cold, scaly flesh. The Basilisk laughed once more.

“That dirty blindfold that Fox gave you, curse her forevermore, may protect you from my eyes…but I’ve got other ways of keeping you here, ladybug. I don’t intend to let you leave. No, you’ll stay here with me in the darkness, until all that you are, all that you hate and love, drains away into the night…and then you will be devoured. That is your fate.” The Basilisk laughed again, and his deep, hoarse laughter echoed across the stone walls of the temple and nearly drove her to madness right then and there.

[Nayeli]

Nayeli slammed a fist against the tail or leg or whatever it was that was blocking her path. For the first time she wondered just what the Basilisk looked like. A dragon? A snake? Some other reptile? It didn’t matter. Anyone who saw it would surely die, just as surely as she was going to die now.

Just as she was on the verge of despair, she remembered something her mother had once told her about spirits and forest gods. They like games, Nayeli, the Shamanness had said. You can catch one in a game more surely than in a net. Whether or not this advice applied to the Basilisk she didn’t know, but it was the only thing she had left.

“Alright,” she said. “Alright. Fine. But if I’m going to starve to death anyway, how about a game to pass the time?”

The Basilisk hissed, and a rough forked tongue brushed against her cheek. “A game? Interesting…what sort of game would that be?”

Nayeli thought quickly. There was one ancient game she knew, one that was respected and revered by people of every race, all across the world. It was, at least, traditional. “How about a riddle game? We take turns asking riddles, and the winner is the first to ask one the other can’t answer.”

When the Basilisk spoke, he sounded pleased. “That sounds fun indeed, and I have been bored for ever so long. Who shall ask the first riddle?”

“Wait! Before we begin, well, a game is only interesting if something is at stake, right? So how about a bet. If you win, I take off this blindfold. And if I win, you let me go.”

Once again, the Basilisk hissed. “Ah, so that’s how it is, tricky little one? This is all a ploy for you to bargain for escape? Well, very well. I agree to those conditions, and swear on my honor, such as it is, that I will uphold them. You won’t win. Go ahead and ask the first riddle, ladybug. I’ll give you that much.”

Nayeli thought for a long time. She’d played many riddle games with her family before, but those had been a long time ago, when she was a child. After a bit of thought, she finally remembered one that her cousin had told that she’d thought was pretty clever.

“The life I lead is hours or less, I am quickest when thin and slowest when fat, and wind is the bane of the gift that I bring. What am I?” She asked.

The Basilisk didn’t even have to think about it. He spoke immediately. “A candle, of course. How boring. My turn to ask the riddle now, ladybug.” Then he gave his riddle: “Alive as you but without breath, as cold in my life as I am in my death; never a thirst but yet I always drink, dressed in a mail but never a clink. What am I?”

Nayeli shuddered. The Basilisk’s voice was terribly creepy, and of course his riddle would be about the coldness of death and the like. At first she thought the answer would be something dreadfully morbid, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew it wouldn’t be. The first line suggested that it was an animal of some sort. The second and fourth lines she had no idea…but the third could mean something always in the water. Then the answer occurred to her, and it all made sense. “A fish!” she said. “It’s a fish, of course.”

“I started easy,” the Basilisk said, chuckling. “I don’t want the fun to wear out to quick, after all.”

Nayeli ignored this and thought of her own riddle. She looked around for inspiration, but only saw one thing…and this inspired her to create her own. It wasn’t terribly good, but at least the Basilisk wouldn’t have heard it before. “The more that there is, the less that you see; squint all you wish when surrounded by me. What am I?”

This riddle took the Basilisk a minute to ponder, perhaps just because the answer was so blatantly obvious, but eventually he did get it. “The darkness. That was still too easy, ladybug. Try harder. That is, if you manage to get my next one at all. There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good. What are their names?”

She sat in the darkness for a long time thinking this one over. It felt like she’d been in this accursed temple for years, and the darkness was oppressive and thick as smoke. The urge to take off the blindfold was strong, but she knew that if she did that she would die, and never see the light of day again. So instead she pondered the Basilisk’s riddle, and mulled it over in her mind until she felt as though she’d considered every single word a hundred times.

“Give up, ladybug?” The Basilisk said, impatient.

“No,” Nayeli said. “I think I heard that one before, actually. The brother’s names are Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind. I don’t think you’re half as tricky as you think you are, Lizard King.”

The Basilisk grunted. “Very well. Ask your own riddle, then, and if you’re so tricky you better make it a good one. I’m tiring of this game.”

Nayeli thought back to the riddle games her mother had played with her, and a riddle occurred to her that she thought would be almost impossible for the Basilisk to guess. He had doubtless never experienced the answer himself in his entire long life, judging by his speech. It was simple, but good. Sometimes shortest riddles were the hardest.

When she spoke, her speech was slow and deliberate. “What is always too late?”

It was a long time before the Basilisk said anything at all.

[Nayeli]

When the Basilisk spoke again, its voice was quiet and unsteady. For the first time in her conversation with it, she thought it sounded afraid. She felt the scaly limb behind her retreat. “I don’t know,” the Lizard King admitted quietly. “I really don’t know.”

Nayeli grinned triumphantly and immediately sprinted for the door to the temple. There was a mournful and angry roar from behind her.

“Wait! No! Don’t go! You can’t go, I won’t let you! I drew you here because you just looked so lovely and delicious, I love you, I…I want to eat you! I’m so alone and trapped in this prison, DON’T LEAVE ME, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME, DON’T LEAVE MEEEEEEE!” The Basilisk wailed, completely undignified. Its (she imagined) gigantic body convulsed, and she could feel the temple shaking beneath her. She ran for the exit as fast as she possibly could. Something very large started to come from behind her and chase her, and she ran faster, certain that the Basilisk wouldn’t keep its promise now. A dreadful thought occurred to her: what if she couldn’t find the exit? What if she’d become disoriented, and she would never find the doorway, and be eaten alive by the monster?

The Basilisk screamed at her. “What was the answer? You cheated! You CHEATED!”

Her heart beat faster and faster, and she was more terrified than she’d been in her entire life. The door couldn’t have been that far away, but the chase seemed to go on for an eternity. Distance and time might not mean quite the same thing here as they did in the outside world. Eventually, however, she felt the wooden door before her. She shoved through it and then slammed it behind her. Something slammed against the door from the inside, but she braced it with her body. She ripped the blindfold from her head, threw it on the ground, and and blinked like a newborn babe in the light. Oh, the light! Glorious light! It was gloomy in this part of the forest, but being able to see anything at all was like a drink of fresh, clean water in the desert. She stepped into the clearing and looked back at the temple.

The temple crouched like a tiger, but she didn’t think the Basilisk would be able to get out. It had said something about being trapped in there, and that was good. Whoever had built that prison for it was a savior, if that was what it was.

She was almost ready to breathe deeply and relax when the statues before her moved. The enormous statues of men with cubes for head got up off their knees and stood up. Each was as large as a house. Nayeli backed away nervously, marveling in wonder, but also terrified. The statues began to lumber towards her, their steps slow, but their legs impossibly long. She notched an arrow and sent it flying towards one’s head, but it simply bounced off the stone with no effect.

Then a voice emanated from both statues simultaneously. It was the Basilisk’s voice. “YOU CHEATED! YOU CHEATED! YOU CHEATED AND MY BEHEMOTHS WILL GET YOU NOW, HAHA, THEY SURE WILL, AND THEY’LL CRUSH YOU AND MASH YOU AND USE YOUR BONES FOR PASTE,” the statues said.

Nayeli ran. The statues chased, crashing down trees as they followed her through the woods. She realized with horror that she was losing ground to the enormous golems, and was probably going to be caught. More than that, she was exhausted and completely out of breath. Nayeli had a very low endurance and stamina, and although adrenaline pumped through her veins, she was past her limit now. It would be so easy to just…give up. She stumbled on a root and fell to the ground.

Behind her, something jumped out of the bushes, and Nayeli turned her head to look back. It was a large fox, bright red and with a bristling tail. It faced down the statues, and when she spoke Nayeli was not at all surprised.

“Stop, Lizard,” the Fox Queen said. The massive statues lumbered towards her, and Nayeli feared for the Queen’s life. “The girl Innari isn’t yours. She must bring the warning back to her people, you surely must understand that. Your appetite will have to remain unfulfilled for now.”

The behemoth-statues came right up to the fox, and looked as though they were about to crush her. “LEAVE, FOX. THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS,” the statues said.

The fox laughed. “Do not try to test your power against mine, Lizard. You’ve been trapped in that temple for too long—you’ve withered away to a shadow of your former self. I, on the other hand, am as strong and alive as ever. Don’t test me.”

There was a moment of tension, and the air seemed filled with electricity and powerful competing magics. The fox and the statues said nothing, but Nayeli could sense that some sort of an exchange occurred. Eventually, with no further words, the statues simply walked away, back towards the temple. The fox seemed to relax, and she turned towards Nayeli.

“You’ve caused a lot of trouble, little Innari,” the Fox Queen said. “But you treated my son Yasha well, and so I suppose I’ll forgive you that.”

“Thank you,” Nayeli said. “For saving me and for the blindfold, that is.”

The Fox shook her head. “I wasn’t doing it for you, really. It’s for the good of Scara Brae. There are things going on here on this island that are beyond your comprehension, and you are to play some small role in it all. It isn’t your destiny to end up crushed by the Lizard’s servants.”

Nayeli shook her head angrily. “Destiny? No, I don’t want a destiny, nor will I accept one. I make my own life, and my own choices.”

There was a moment of tension, where the Fox looked angry, but then she laughed. “I like that,” she said. “I like that a lot, and I like you too. Independence is something I respect above all else. Do that, then, little Innari. It’s a very fox-like quality. You may have just found yourself a new guardian spirit. But under one condition. Never mind the machinations of those around you. Be your own person, make your own future and your own choices.”

“I wasn’t planning on doing anything else,” Nayeli said. “No one, not god or spirit, will push me like a pawn in some game. I don’t believe in fate or destiny, and even if such things do exist, it won’t be for me.”

The Fox laughed again. “Good,” she said. “Very good.”


* * *

The Hermit Powala looked down at her gravely. He took a long draw on his pipe, and was silent for a long time. “That is a wild, almost unbelievable tale, child. You were gone for nearly two months, did you know that?”

“No, I didn’t. I wasn’t keeping track of time,” Nayeli admitted. “I suppose most of that was on the return trip, I took my time and rested, and it was peaceful. The Frog King didn’t harass me again, probably because he didn’t want to risk invoking the wrath of Fox.”

The Hermit nodded. “I must think the significance of all this over, of course. I think that you may be playing a greater role in future events than I at first foresaw. But before you go, I have one question. What was the answer to your riddle, the one the Basilisk couldn’t guess?”

Nayeli smiled. “Regret,” she said. “The answer was regret.”

Spoils:

Those listed in the quest description.
- Faction Point(s) for the Innari
- Additional Quest

I would also like to request a new skill.
Strong Willed: Nayeli is somewhat resistant to magics that try to control or deceive her. She has a chance to resist such spells, assuming that the caster is no more than two levels higher than her, and that the caster's will isn't significantly higher than her own.

[Taskmienster]

The Sky is Rising: Medium commentary as requested, and as always if you have questions or concerns feel free to PM or IM me.



Continuity 4

:: I never truly got a strong feel for the character as a whole. The issue with clarity was almost exclusively due to background information that could have helped quite a bit. The goal for the thread, as well as how you went about it and the conclusion were all hunky dory, it was just the little things that lead up to it and a little bit more about the character could have helped. Such as, why was she the only goblin that was able to ignore the Compulsion Spell that the hermit had placed on her? Was it a strong will and iron resolve from something in her past? What set her apart in her back-story that allowed for her to be the first to accomplish the feat?

Setting 6

:: The setting is well done in the clear and present sense, as in you easily gave me as a reader something to see and be able to picture. Though the other senses that could have been used to incorporate the writer were mostly overlooked. I seem to say this to a lot of people, let the surroundings have shape, as well as smell, sounds, feelings, and tastes. It isn’t terribly difficult, but it does take a little bit more time and practice to get it down to a point where it works and flows with your writing. Every writer’s different, so just work on that and you’ll be set.

Pacing 5

:: General pacing wasn’t bad. It was slow when it needed to be, and yet a little bit drawn out when it should have been a bit quicker. Just seemed that you kept the pacing the same all the way through, and without any type of change it feels like I’m reading the same exact situational circumstances at all times. A bit heightened, as if something is about to happen, but it didn’t really quicken or precisely pin-point any immediate action like it could have.

Dialogue 5

:: Well written, though it was somewhat bland. I’m going to say this for both dialogue and persona, so I might as well put it in here and not repeat it. Quirks, changes in tone, expressions with body movement and body language is as much an intricate portion of dialogue as anything else is. It helps if you really try and make that dialogue real, and when you do that you will easily bump all scores for personality and action as well. Though, specifically for dialogue, I would have expected something a little bit different. It’s not poorly written, as I said, but it really doesn’t leave any lasting impression. Other than through the narrative, I wouldn’t have been able to discern the goblin characters from any regular human speech in Corone. Try and add something that really draws the dialogue to be another attribute of your character, just like your appearance, what weapons/armor/spells you have, and the like. It’s just as important.

Action 5

:: Aside from what I said in Dialogue – Your actions aren’t just drawing a bow and letting loose an arrow, or walking, and engaging your surroundings, but how you do those things. What makes your character unique in the way she does things? Or why doesn’t she do something a specific way, that kind of thing. It’s mostly about quirks that people don’t score as high in action as they could have. Actions for some characters, like how they flick a cigarette never finished because they don’t ever want to let it burn that long, are the personality quirks that make them more real. Try and incorporate more of that into your movements and it’ll help your persona as well.

Persona 6

:: See Above.

Technique 7

:: Might just be a pet-peeve of mine, but using words like “here” or “this” tend to imply present tense instead of past and throw off the writing. It might just be a different writing technique that you work better with, but it just makes for awkward reading at times. Not really docking points, as much as pointing out that it looks strange and stands out quite a bit.

Mechanics 8

:: Didn’t really see many issues, just a few things here and there that were mostly technique as far as I could tell. Not going to hold writing preference against you. :p

Clarity 7.5

:: It was relatively clear what was going on, but at some points following along was a little difficult. It was mostly pacing, with a very slight addition of trouble with following the setting at times, but more pacing then anything.

Wild Card 6


Score: 59.5


Rewards:

Nayeli :: 600 exp | 100 gold
((Spoils approved. The ability to break the spell is rewarded, though I would still suggest exactly what I said in the continuity to help explain it so that it’s not just another random affect that is always in effect. However, I’m going to suggest that it’s only one level ahead of you at this time instead of two.))

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added!