The Invasion of Arias Chapter 4: Massacre

[Mintaro]

Aquila nods and walks with Tanta over to the horses. He notices the way the horses react when he approaches and stops, looking down at his body. "I've been like this all day..." He says softly. Slowly his body begins to revert back to his human form. The loud sound of bones popping and shifting is heard as his body changes back into a human form. He looks over to Tanta. "I'm going to put something on." Aquila walks behind the caravan and climbs in. His lean well muscled body marred only by feathers on his arms. Aquila stops suddenly noticing something caught in the wheel of the caravan. Something black and gold. Aquila climbs under the caravan and pulls it out. It was his jacket. Upon close inspection it appears mend able as long as he can get new buttons for it. Aquila moves into the caravan and begins rummaging through the scattered supplies. Finding some thick thread and needles. Obviously not made for clothing. He decides to work on his gear. He takes a blanket and begins to work on a pair of pants as well as sewing up his jacket.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Tantalum likewise diminished her own hybrid form. The feathery wings protruding from her back shrank and defeathered as they withdrew silently back into her body. However, nothing else changed much; her hybrid form - of course lacking in wings - remained as she readjusted her dress into a more comfortable position.

She leaned on the door of the caravan, watching Aquila work with keen eyes. There was still the distinct tang of vampire blood - correction, Tantalum thought, half vampire blood - in the air. The skin around her beaked mouth and nose wrinkled slightly.

"Did you have to be so brutal as to massacre a whole village?" she wondered aloud, as if speaking her thoughts unconsciously. She held an earth quill in her four-fingered hand, twirling the heavy, clay object around dexterously.

[TheBlindMime]

"Yes, he did." Hale replied to Tantalum as he stood on top of the caravan. Still in his wereform he looked quite magnificent as a gentle breeze blew threw his hair and feathers. His eyes darting back and forth as he remained motionless, as he watched for any incoming threats. Though he knew the chances of a half-vamp attack after such an onslaught was very slim. Today was a proud day for the Right brothers. Though they had not been born into the life of a werebeast he had felt the pain they encountered from racism quite often.

Many races simply would not tolerate such a freak as a werebeast enter their midst, werebeasts could be noticed from a distance. Their features were too noticable to blend in, Half-vamps on the otherhand lived on a fine line, they could quite easily blend in with a crowd. Most humans were incapable of noticing the keen details that note a half-vampire in their midst, and those inhuman beasts used it to their advantage to feed. Werebeasts were treated as monsters, outcasts, while half-vampires were kept at arms length when they were pointed out. That had to be why they hated werebeasts, at a drop of a hat a werebeast can pick any half-vampire out of the crowd. They hate out of the necessity to feed, or maybe they never got the hatred from their undead parents out of the back of their minds.

Hale could feel it, the anger seething from him. He hated how these people felt sorry for those things they called people that his brother had laid waste to. Is it that shread of humanity that makes them half-vampires that makes us feel for them or was it simply human nature to never feel good about doing what was necessary. I wish I had been in wereform, then I would have realized what that villager was when I went to protect him....It boiled Hale's blood knowing that he had stopped Vargus from finishing that last half-vampire. His thoughts continued to wander as he stood on his makeshift lookout.

Pende had said they showed us mercy when they let us and the girls go without harm, thats a real laugh. I know the real reason they left the women of our group behind. They weren't worth taking to their beds. After all they were tainted by the blood of a beast, we are akin to animals, lower creatures. Things that are hunted, slain for food and survival and no one feels guilty because they don't have a conscious thought in their heads. While half-vamps feel they are akins to gods, the immortals that stalk through the night stealing life to stay forever young. They are the parasites of this earth feeding off all those they meet..... I best focus my mind, that tornado may have drawn attention our way. And no matter how often I think about it, I'll never stop them all. My brother and I will just have to do the best we can... He continues to scan the area in all directions to protect those around him.

[Mintaro]

Aquila smiled up at Tantalum sweetly. "Remember when I mentioned destroying the forest when we were alone? Well I destroyed the half vampires instead. Normally I would have seen to it they were all burned, but ripped apart works just as well." Aquila raises his voice a little calling to his unseen brother. "And if someone had learned their final spell we could have burned them all anyways." Aquila then went back to his sewing. He seemed to be making sheafs for his legs rather then pants. Typical male touch. However effective it may be. "Besides, they would have come after us regardless of what misdirections we may have laid for them. I've never known a half-vampire that didn't try to tear my wings off. Then again, I try to know as little of them as possible. Better to kill them and be done with it." Aquila sighs a little. "Besides, I've been having a crappy last couple of days. It was good to get my hands dirty and blow off a little steam." He said smiling.

[pendejochy]

{At greatclub? I can't use anything like that. I don't have the strenth to walk up to some monster and bonk it on the head, it'd tear me to shreads. Well, maybe I could let someone borrow it. Maybe the dragonkin, or that Gnoll. Or...maybe I could use it to mend some broken bridges. Not in a literal sense, that is.}
Girito picked up the "greatclub" and strained under it's weight as he carried it into the caravan. <Hey, Aquilla. I know you're still sore about what happened at the village. But, um, I got this soveneer from the village. If you'd like, you could borrow it if you would find this useful. Vargus said this was a "fine weapon." But, if you don't need it, I'll just leave it here for now. The others can borrow it too if they think it would be useful. I'll leave you to your mending.>
Girito dragged the greatclub out of the way. It went to Tantalum. <Hey, Tantalum. Good to see you again. Pende is up on top on the caravan, in rather bad shape, performing a private healing procedure, could you make sure no one bothers him? I wouldn't want any of you harmed.>
I decided to start my procedure. I sat up and used my free hand to cast the spell. I could feel a force burning within my lungs, healing me.
Well not healing, per say, but drawing the negitive chemicals within myself. Undead and non-undead both produce them within their flesh and blood, but non-undeads are capable of synthisizing positive chemicals to negate the bad ones. Undeads cannot.
I was enjoying having the badness absorbed into the smoke of the fire. I grabbed my loose hand had held it against the stump left from the tornado incident. It somewhat reattached, it stayed attached to the stump, but it would a bit more time to fully reattach. But, since it could stay on its own, I could focus on my head. Small whisps of very dark smoke emerged from my headless neck. I grabbed my head with my good hand, as my other hand was't fully recovered, and reattached my head to my neck. It felt good to have it back there. I layed back down to allow bones to find their positions and flesh to rejoin.
The fire was getting stronger and as I breathed out, a few inches of a pale fire danced in front of my month. I goofed around, altering my mouth to change the positions of the fire. Such a simple thing helped pass the time spent healing. With each breath, I coughed out dark smoke in greater quanitys. The smoke was so dark, you could see it even if you were in the darkest of caves.
When I was fully healed, the process left a cloud of smoke, slowly disipating into the air. Eventully, the smoke would go away on it's own, no different than any other smoke, but that would take a while. The process left me with an unpleasent taste of soot in my mouth. My hand felt much better and that helped climb down and into the caravan.
I made a beeline for a small pot of water, looked inside for any pollutants, and drank the water quickly, trying to get rid of that awful soot taste. When I drank my fill of water, I rested on a wall oppisite to Aquilla.

[Ryu Kurai]

Vargus glared at Hale for a moment, turning away suddenly as the were-eagle rose his gaze. "There we are, all finished." He said, patting one of the horses gently on the side. He moved over to the caravan and lept up into it with an almost unearthly ease. "Your name was Aquilla, correct? Didn't you have something to ask me? I believe I excused myself from one of you to assist with the horses." He sat down and folded his hands, looking evenly at Aquilla.

Karvan moved over to the back of the caravan and sighed. This had been a very troubling midday stop. First, their horses are stolen, and then a whole village is killed. He pulled his sword off of his back. He stared into the blade, watching his reflection. He remebered an old Yujiran proverb, something like "The cook who does not start the fire shall never make the meal". He grumbled a bit, and sheathed his sword again. He went back into the caravan and walked past Vargus and Aquilla. "Shirin," He said, the lanky human turning his head at his name. "We leave quickly." He pulled Shirin up onto the caravan by his shirt and set him down gently, walking back into the caravan and sitting down in a corner.

"Man, you just had to say something! Did have to frickin' pick me up and be all bigger than me! Next time you get your arm chopped off I'm puttin' it back on backwards." He mumbled, turning back to look at the dragonkin, who was staring at him with a vicious look in his eyes. A frightened look shot over Shirin's face. "J-just chill, alright?! I was only joking..." He turned back towards the members of the group who were standing outside the caravan. "Alright, get back in, the big guy wants to go, so I guess we have to bow to his will." he said, his voice oozing with sarcasm. He looked back at Karvan again. "Just kidding! Sheesh, no one knows how to take a joke around here..."

[Gineko]

Aiera yawned. She wasn't paying any attention to what the others were saying. For some reason she was feeling excessively tired. She went into the caravan and took some of the spare clothes from the pile of stuff. Folding them up into a pillow she laid down to take a nap.

OOC: well, cats do need 18 hours of sleep *shrug*

[pendejochy]

{Now that's a good idea.} I thought as I saw Aiera sleeping with my half open eyes. {I should feel all better after a good nap.}
I made my way to that pile of clothes. I thought Aiera looked a bit cold, so I pulled a blanket from out of the pile and threw it over Aiera. I got a wad of clothes to use as a pillow, like Aiera did, but couldn't find another blanket, so I simply slept in my robes. Trace, barely seeable smoke was coming from my nostrils as I slept, leftover from the spell I used earlier.
*snore*
"Man, I love sleeping!" I mumbled.
*snore*
"I wish I could wake up, so I can go back to sleep again!" I mumbled again.

OOC:gonna be gone for the weekend.

[Mintaro]

Aquila had thanked Pende in the most diplomatically polite fashion. However he had also refused the club just as politely.

Aquila turned to look at Vargus as he began to speak to him. Thinking, "Had I?" Aquila decided not to waste this opportunity as the caravan began to move. "Well we have already discussed the enemies, you said you don't remember, and you know they have what they need but not what it is exactly. Can you tell us anything about weapons? magics? Or I don't know maybe even a vague location would be nice." Aquila stopped for a moment. "However if thats unknown tell us about those...interesting legs of yours. I have only seen things like those in the dwarven districts and those were not that advanced."

Aquila then noticed the pile of spare clothing that Aiera had dug up. "Now why they hell couldn't I find those!" He thought to himself as pende took even more of them. "Bah to hell with it. These pants will suit me fine!" He finished in his head as he listened to Vargus's response.

[Ryu Kurai]

OOC: This is the only time I'm going to have besides late, late sunday to post.

Vargus shook his head again. "I can't remember, and I don't understand why. I have a good memory, but for some reason I just can't seem to remember anything about them..." He paused as Aquilla refered to the leg. "You think I would know anything about this? Like I would have someone do this to me... I lost my leg a long time ago in a raid on my home village. I eventually just learned how to manage without, but it's strange... This thing almost seems to have a mind of its own. I know you wouldn't understand, but it makes me feel the slightest bit nostalgic... But other than it's attached to me and it seems I can move it, I don't know anything else about it, sorry." He said his eyes meeting the cold, light blue metal of his left leg as he spoke.