Ruins.

[Daggertail]

This was the opportunity of a lifetime for a novice treasure hunter like me. To be able to visit virgin ruins that was closed off by order of the Council of the Fae and be paid for what i find would truly be a great start for me. My tail couldn't stop wagging when I reached the office of the representative for the Council. Everything was stone and old, like the town was itself an ancient ruin where people just happened to live. And this building was no different to show the importance of the man I was meeting. The cheaper places were made of wood that would rot away in the moist air.

"Good day my lady!" He greeted me with a semi polite smirk before getting right to business. "You're the one to investigate the ruins, right?" I nodded with a smile but kept quiet. "Alright I have to make sure you're fit for such service. Have you explored ruins before." I nodded, "For the government before."

"Umm, well not really. I just freelance." I found myself stammering with nerves.

"It's alright." He said as I found myself judging his appearance, he was an old man that was mostly bald and wore fine silks of bright red and purple. He had winds that were like that of a moth though I wondered if he could fly on frail looking things. The man was now silent as he looked over my stuff, from the new wands to my blades. I blushed since my swords were not the best or even something a soldier would use but they worked, though embarrassing as they were.

"Hmm looks good, have some magic just incase the ruins have some monsters that can only be driven off by magic so you're pretty prepared." I smiled as he then started to feel my legs to judge muscles then I yelped as he squeezed my breast.

"Hey, what was that for? Those have nothing to do with treasure hunting." My tail flipped and threatened to cut the man but didn't, I was also ready to slap him.

"Sorry, sorry. Guess I got carried away with such a beautiful woman."

"I'll say, better not pull another stunt like that. I may not have as much experience as some but I will be treated as a professional. Do I get the job?"

"oh sure." he answered hastily and not willing to go any further as to not tempt himself.

*=*=*

With that man out of the way I felt better even though the place was in the swampland where most the path was flooded, though there was an ancient road that led the way. If it wasn't for the fact that the place was off limits with a few patrols checking to see no one disturbed the ruin then it would have been picked bare but for some reason it wasn't.

One bad part of the ruin was that much of it was flooded, many of the bases of the buildings were underwater. I don't mind swimming but in swamps where the fish were famous for eating people was not something I looked forward to. But adventure was work and life wasn't always easy. I'd just have to do what was needed, maybe there'd be some good stuff where I wouldn't have to get wet.

(Claimed by Garwocket)

[Garwocket]

“Ha! ‘Vn in ‘is d’th’d ‘e ch’s me!” Garwocket leaned in towards the withered head of his latest, dying host. The man had lived a long, hard life. He had been handed the hardest pair of consciousness imps that the god of neutrality had ‘on staff’. This host, however, had chosen the hard path and followed almost every suggestion that the worse of the imps had suggested. Garwocket had made the man’s life a living hell, but had loved ever moment of it. “Na, thass g’tta m’ke yer feel juss underball…”

“Can you not speak proper English, just once? It is such a chore listening to your incessant babble…” Rilliumpkiss crossed his arms, folding the cliché white robes over each other. The other side of the man’s consciousness imp was the good, clean version. He was the polar opposite of Garwocket. He could speak clearly for one, and all his other opposites were little things like always having the good thing to say. “And are you not worried about what… our next assignment would be? Or has ruining people’s lives been so ingrained in you that you do not even give thought to what is next.”

The chaotic imp sighed as he took a seat atop his perch. It was so trivial, the lives of humans. He had lasted thousands of years, sat atop the greatest of shoulders, whispered into the minds of the smartest, and they always died. He wished, for once, they would last longer than a paltry hundred years. Or that he could have his own life, what a wicked world he would create if he could run rampant across Earth. But no, he was always forced to bicker with his… equal.

“Ni, o’gre’ mass’r. Iffin I spok’d lik’s yer wann’d ‘en I wou’n be me, eh?” But the little bugger was worried about where they would go next. If it was another simplistic person with fewer goals than simply survival in a world that was foreign even to those living in it, he was worried he would go insane. He looked to his rival, the epitome of his opposite. He was so nonchalant, so bored. The little imp wondered if he too was going through the same thing…

~*~

But the gods were not uncaring, especially the god of neutrality – as odd as that sounds. He watched his favorite pair carefully, as he always did. They were the funniest two to pair up he had ever seen, and often he would watch them with the other gods to see what they would do next. It was time for a change of scenery for the pair. He did not do it often, but giving them a real life and their own time to explore would be almost more entertaining than leaving them as shoulder imps on another pointless person.

“A Vacation Of Sorts.” And with that it started…

~*~

The man passed, as they all do, leaving the two suspended in a limbo like state before the next mission present itself. Garwocket was like all the other ‘evil sided’ imps, was always alone in the limbo. It was annoying. The ‘good’ imps would always band together and talk, but they needed each other… Garowocket needed no one.

“A Vacation?” Through the mind of the imp tore the words, powerful words of a god. He smiled and let the light envelop him. He knew what that meant; it was the words all imps craved. It meant life, freedom, no silly shoulder to perch atop for years on end. Best of all, it meant that he would not have to deal with a screaming child for two years!

When the light faded what came to him first was the color. Everything seemed so much more vivid, so much clearer. It was dangerously apparent that he was not on earth or at least not on the earth in the same century as he had left. He stood and brushed himself off, his hands clattering against a ramshackle suit of clothing. He smiled in a cruel satisfaction-like grin.

“YER! Im gonna ‘ave me s’m fun.” And with that he began walking, parting his way through the dense vegetation of the unknown world and time. He savored the feel of his hands passing against the soft leaves, the smell of the dank forests, the calls of all sorts of unidentified animals, and the feel of the humid air making his clothes cling to him. He was in heaven, or close enough. Wherever it was, he was pleased to be away from his opposition…


~Ha! Even on his death bed he chooses me!
~Now that has just got to make you feel [wonderful] (said Germanish)

~Nay, ‘o great master. If I spoke like you wanted I would not be me, eh?

~Yeah! I am going to have me some fun.

[Daggertail]

This is one of the hardest and most important part of an adventure. I was only a beginner but I still knew the entrance to the ruins was where I had to be the most careful. It was the place to hunt for traps and see what would mark them if there were any. Traps always had a pattern since people still had to use the place and they had to know what to look for in a trap since most the time no one makes a place just so people can be killed in its traps.

I looked around and examined the mossy stone in hopes there would be some traps out here so I could know what to look for and make the rest of the day much easier but I just couldn't find anything. Perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough or they hid them well or there was nothing here. Either way I sighed and sat for a while before performing the next test.

"This is going to be fun..." I groaned as I walked to the pools of water that some spots were submerged under. Normally I enjoy a good swim and testing the water wasn't needed but being in a swamp, I needed to know what would happen if I took a dip or stayed too long.

Also needed to know if the water was foul, had leeches or predators that could make a meal out of me. First test was to get on hands and knees and try to smell the water. It was hard to be sure in a swamp where foul water was completely abundant and I just had a little hope that the pools of this ruin were not too bad. It's embarrassing to go to a healer for problems relating to bad water. Good news was that even if the water was gross I could swim and be fine if I didn't accidentally drink some or inhale the liquid but again that sometimes happens when something else does.

So next I dipped a finger into the pool and watched intently into the water. This was the fun part as I had to pull out in time if something was there. And as predicted I saw a squirming shadow come up and looking for a meal. I pulled out and watched a little fish jump out. "whew that's good, no leaches, the fish probably eat them all." I smiled realizing that if I had to swim to get the good treasure I could.

[Garwocket]

((Sooooo sorry, I hate it written out and thought i had already posted it))

Garwocket muttered unintelligible babble, as always, while he shoved angrily through the dense Dheathain brush. So, this was what life was like? Your born in a flash of light, then abandoned to the jungle and a less than simplistic life? Well, as far as the imp was concerned, it was all quite idiotic to cry when a host finally departed. Why would anyone not want someone they ‘loved’ to get his final release? Finally be rid of the stupid world known as reality..

“’Uman’s,” he muttered more. “S’tupid. Tr’in ta n’vent new shite ta kee’ ‘ems’lves livin’ an’ ‘elthy. Th’r juss deel’n wi’rubb’sh!” The imp was not as pleased with his vacation destination as he had been with the general idea of ‘goin’ on ‘oliday!’, as those crazy brits said. If this was the god’s new fun, he wanted no part of it. NONE AT ALL!

“CRAAAAWWWW!” The imp ducked as quickly as he could. Barely grazing his shiny bell capped cap the talons of an overly large bird snapped. So, life was about being eaten by the wild and uncontrollable too! He wondered where the breaks and peace from life came in, like the pause button. Or if he could save and reset at any point. Garwocket had been very fascinated by video games, turned one host into a long fabled ‘l33t pwn’er of the newbzorz’… whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. Even his incoherent babble wasn’t as bad as those gamers.

“D’med bl’dy b’rd! Ge’ yer sumthin’ els’ta ea’! Sumthin’ nah new ta dis worl’!” He could see it circling though, flapping its long, red-tipped wings. The sun may not have broken through the canopy – but sent its heat anyway – but it glinted off the beak of that bird like a swords edge. The hazel eyes of the imp watched it wheel dangerously, knowing another attempt on his fresh life would be coming all too soon. “Dam’, dam’, dam’… I ‘ope yer tr’in’ ta kill R’ll-r’mp-kiz’r as ba’ as ya’ll ‘r me!”

Garwocket charged through the brush, making his way to the foot of some quite complex and ancient structure. He turned to admire its vine coverer walls, but heard the screech of the predator overhead. He would have to take in the scenes when his life was not in peril. As quickly as his tiny legs could carry him he found the entrance, and escape…

Once inside he could only wonder if it would have been so bad to be a part of an epic imp verses devil hawk fight. At least that would not smell like years of dank mold and stagnant water. He swatted a cruel little mosquito, cursing at the blood suckin’ vampiric bastard. It seemed that no one had entered the – what he could only assume it was – ruins in a very long time. He tapped the water pools with a curious, rough finger and looked into it for pretty, a fish of some sort. The possibly lurking creatures that may have inhabited the water never crossed his mind.

Instead he was caught off guard by a bright red headed, blood shot eyed, tail toting, bonafide demon. “By l’cif’rs gre’t fall…” he whispered in his best hallowed voice. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run… exactly. That was unless he wanted to charge into the dark, dank confines of the ruins. So, being the fearless kind of person – errm, imp – he hopped out of his shadowed nook.

“’Ail Sat’n! Plez, ‘e sa’ nada ea’ ma bra’ns, er do ‘ny ‘ther zombi’ munst’r shite…”


~Humans, Stupid. Trying to invent new shit to keep themselves living and healthy. They are just dealing with rubbish!

~Damned bloody bird! Go get yourself something not new to this world!
~Damn, damn, damn… I hope you are trying to kill Rill-rump-kisser as bad as you all are me!

~By Lucifer’s great fall…
~Hail Satan! Please, he said no to eat my brains, or do any other zombie monster shit…

[Daggertail]

It was almost time to go in. My heart was beating like a mad tribesman drummer signaling the warriors to attack. I wanted to know what treasure would be in there. Could I defeat the traps and escape the monsters that roamed there, would I make lots of money off of the plunder or only enough to live on, maybe there'd be a prize from the fey for doing such a good job, I could only hope.

Being at such state almost made me ready for my heart to pop when I heard the racket coming right for me. I fell on my tail and I saw the strangest creature. He, I was sure he was male was talking near gibberish but for some reason I could make out some words. He seemed to be talking about cloth and undead and bran. My tail flicked as i got down to examine the creature. It was a little man, though a little funny looking and talking but he wasn't hostile.

"Umm Hello, I'm Tyria." I said hoping he'd understand, I wasn't sure if I could understand him so sounding friendly was very important. "Do you live here?" I asked with a smile and wondered if he could be my guide, having a guide would be kid of like cheating but then again, who would care if I cheat a little.

well even if he didn't live here, he would have his uses, I'm sure he could squeeze into places I couldn't reach, even with my tail and maybe there was some other trick to him. One always has to keep her options open.