ORIGIN

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

From her place in the air, Asimona observed the fight below. The golem below her was looking up, apparently unable to reach her. She didn't have to worry about it for now, hopefully. The white dog had been joined by a bird to fend off the fish but the two small creatures had a golem of their own to deal with. She narrowed her eyes. It was still some distance away, but the golem would be reaching them soon.

She aimed carefully at its feet, not wanting the icy breath to reach the hybrids and opened her jaws, letting a stream of ice and cold to try and freeze it in place. It wasn't a very powerful blast, but it at least worked this time. She grimaced. She wasn't being a lot of help up here, but she didn't dare go to the ground or else the golem would definitely attack her. No, she was best from a distance for now.

"Can you hear their voice?"
"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags:
notes:

As his dear sister squirmed for release upon waking up, Vinea's breath hitched and he whistled, "no, Skeena! Wai--" but she was already on the ground, eyes set on the bird-dog being dragged into the river. A bolt of ice shot towards the golem, and as it changed its course of action, he bounced onto its head and towards the river-bound hybrid. "We'll help! Don't use your stone! I think the golems want it!" It made sense, right? They ignored him until he actually did something. He was wary of his kin's surroundings, essentially keeping an eye on himself and her; he feared for what would happen if he lost track of her. Unfortunately, he worried fiercely over her. She was just so small.

"If one of us distracts it, maybe it'll leave the bird-dog alone! And we can all run away!" So, with that, he leaped from the rock beast's head and glided down to the fish, spreading out his toes and baring each glowing talon. Unfortunately, he hadn't quite compensated for his lower half, allowing it to drag in the river's current and suck him in, throwing him against the bare minimum of solid ground the sheer riverside had to offer. Water filled his mouth and he warbled fretfully.

The fish held tight to White, thrashing, biting--right up until the moment the little brown owl plunged down, raking it with its talons. This did nothing, except to draw the fish's ire.

The fish snapped at the empty air left in the owl's wake, but at least it let White go, at last. There it lay, twitching in the shallows. It seemed to be growing weaker.

The first golem remained distracted by Asimona, staring up at her as if willing her to come down, so that it could rip her gem from her body and possess her magic for its own.

The second golem, pursuing Vinea, slowly pivoted on its stony feet as the hybrid also flew down to the fish. When Vinea was sucked into the river, the golem stomped after him. Asimona's frost began to hiss up over its legs, forming into ice. This time, instead of stopping at the bank, the ice tripped it up and it seemed to lose its balance: tumbling down, rolling over the fish with a wet crunch, and falling flat into the river--barely missing White. It sank quickly, out of sight.

The fish lay half-crushed from the golem's stomping fall. It had stopped moving, and now meat and bone were visible past its damaged, silvery scales--and something else, something pale blue, and glowing.

@Talion @Skeena @White @Asimona @Vinea

It should be noted that White was half-crow. Most times, she was more dog than crow, but as her muzzle was released and she skittered out of the way of an incoming golem, her eye caught hold of something blue, glowing, and most importantly, shiny.

The instincts bestowed upon her by her mother kicked in near-immediately as the white hybrid fluttered back to the fish with blood dripping from her nose, eyes wide as she opened her jaws and tried to clamp it around whatever was inside the fish.

When she didn't get a good hold of it with her teeth, she decided to dig her paws into it instead, yanking it out the fish and protectively coiling herself around it, sniffing at it.

It stank like fish-guts, but that was probably okay.

With the football-sized object nestled neatly near her stomach, with one pearly-white wing covering it, White absently began to lick the blood off her maw, having forgotten everything else around her.

Vinea gave off a horrific hell-scream of fear as the golem stomped towards him and stumbled off into the riverbed, nearly crumbling onto him. He braced himself, curling up the best he could without letting the river current fling his very delicate and gentle form into the sleepless void. It didn't help that he already felt kinda dizzy from the cold. As the proverbial dust cleared from his mind and he calmed down marginally, something gave him a very good incentive to hoist himself up as quickly as possible and start gallivanting through the shallow water. Something was shining inside of the fish and it got snatched up by that bird-dog.

All innate desires screamed at him to just absolutely tackle that dog and take that glowy thing. For once, he actually listened. And so, the tiny hybrid plodded with all the fierceness he could muster towards the bird-dog and shrieked, "HEY! I nearly died for that! It's MINE!" Another reason was that Mother would really like it. Maybe? Mother deserved a gift. Maybe it would make her even happier! Bracing himself, he lunged at White, spreading his wings in hopes to actually get somewhere even close to his new opponent. Fortunately, he would actually find some success, slamming into something at least.

Satisfaction and relief went through her as the stone creature began to freeze and tumbled into the water. It fell on top of the fish and Asimona, unlike the others, only felt more relief. The fish had caused trouble, this she knew. It was better for them that it was dead now. Yes, she convinced herself that it was better.

But there was still a matter of the golem beneath her. She desperately wanted to join the others and investigate the fish together, but she had been the one to wake up the stones. She would have to be the one to clean it up. She opened her jaws to breath more ice and freeze it into place, but she spluttered and only a bit of saliva came from her mouth.

She instead angled herself so that she was moving away slightly from the others, trying to draw the golem to follow her so she could deal with it without it bothering the others.

"Can you hear their voice?"
"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags:
notes:

The hybrid's keen ears could pick up the splashing of the wolfbird and the fish, and she felt fear. Something was wrong, she couldn't see from here, but the wolfbird needed help. And she didn't know why, maybe it had been sparked by some of Mother's words?, but she had a desperate urge to help. Skeena couldn't just stand by and watch it die.

'Aww, how cute, the freak wants to help another freak! Go ahead then, get us killed!'

But she'd long learned to ignore The Voice, and so she turned to her brother as he said they'd help. She understood what he meant - don't use your Magic, which made sense after all considering that's what had drawn it to her in the first place. And then Brother leaped down, landing atop the rock beast's head, before fluttering down to the fish. Horror rolled in her stomach as he was pulled into the water, and she keened "Brother!", before beginning to make her way down to the commotion.

'Look what you've done, now Vinea will die because of you.' and that dug into her. If something happened to Vinea, to Serek or Mother, she'd never forgive herself.

A loud sound, and then a crunch. Skeena's head snapped to the side, and she whined quietly as her ribs complained. The rock beast that had been after them had fallen over, crushing the monster fish. She could see something pale blue and glowing in its side, but she was more worried over Vinea to care, although The Voice was snarling, goading her to go see what it was.

Thankfully, Vinea managed to get out of the water... and charged right at the wolfbird, yelling at the top of his lungs.

She reached them right as he snapped at the birddog, and lunged forward, attempting to grab him by his tail. "Brother Vinea! Are you alright? We shouldn't fight, let's all calm down!" There was a tinge of panic in her voice - she couldn't fight, her ribs were killing her. "Let's see what it is before anything happens!" she panted, trying to get the wolfbird's attention as well.

@Vinea
@White

Talion felt his talons uselessly glance off the fish's rubbery hide, but he didn't stick around to try scouring it again. He wasn't a fighter, and he wasn't aiming to hurt the fish anyway. As he glided over the water, making another wide circle around the group, he saw the fish fall back from when it had snapped up at him. It had been too slow, but it had given up the bird-dog in favor of him, which was what he had intended all along.

The owl was even more grateful that he had followed his instincts and swooped away whenever one of the golems toppled on to the fish. An echoing crunch heralded the fish's end, and the golem's, since it rolled into the river and disappeared under the water.

The soft, pale blue glow caught Talion's eye just as the bird-dog leaped on to the fish's carcass. With no regard for anyone else present, it pried the gem from the fish, and then carried it on to the bank. Its nonchalant behavior as it suddenly began to clean itself was too much for Talion to take. "Really!?" Talion screeched at the same time that one of the tiny creatures yelled.

He whipped his heart-shaped face toward the other voice just in time to see them launch themselves at the bird-dog. Unfortunately, their companion, the other tiny creature, caught their tail and held them back. Since the dragon was still busy with the other golem, Talion took it upon himself to say what they were all thinking no doubt.

Taking no mind to the squeaking words of the second hybrid, Talion screeched out,"You don't get to just keep that! You wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me!" He landed beside the bird-dog whenever he said the word 'me'. His dark brown eyes were narrowed, glaring daggers at the ivory creature. There was no way he was being cheated out of his destiny, again. Especially not be some dog.

As Asimona backed up further, the golem pursued. It seemed to be quite locked in its task of catching her, at first, leaving the others safe to bicker amongst themselves over who got to keep the beautiful, shiny stone.

The fish lay there dead; as the others fought the body shifted, and a faint glint of another gem caught the light. This one was a steely silver-black, and embedded firmly just beneath the jaw. At first glance it might have looked like another scar, but no, definitely also a shiny object.

The glowing blue stone, meanwhile, could (now that it was free of the fish) now be seen more clearly. Glowing glyphs marked its surface, and it seemed perfectly-cut, with twenty faceted sides.

As the glyphs began to glow, pulsing a bright white, the golem turned--and began thundering its way back to the others.

@White @Talion @Skeena @Vinea @Asimona

Something with wings joined the fry, throwing in its voice before landing beside them. It seemed angry with the wolf-bird, and she couldn't fault it. But at the moment, she was attempting to bring the peace. "Everyone, please!" she groaned.

Something glimmered in the corner of her eye, and she turned to see the fish's body. If she tilted her head, she could make out something glimmering under its jaw. Perhaps...?

The little hybrid scurried over to the corpse, and took a careful grip on the shiny black thing. She dug in her legs, and snapped her head from side to side, tearing it free. She stumbled back, and sat down on her haunches, holding it down with her forelegs as she observed it.

Keen ears twitched, and she looked up, seeing the golem making its way to them. She stepped in front of the thing she'd tugged free, raising her voice. "Hey!" she hoped to draw their attention to the Golem.

@Vinea
@White

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Asimona

Vinea

Game Master Dark

White

Vinea

Asimona

Skeena

Talion

Game Master Dark

Skeena