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Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Ellis Danton on Nov 11, 2016 20:06:02 GMT -7
Dusk on the 3rd of the Scales of Judgment, 5152 In a Clearing Several Miles East of Fort Fabelle
Two days ago, Ellis met Xanthe. His world felt... Changed by the moments they shared. He had never met a savage before, only heard the stories, and she wasn't at all what he expected. She looked the part, certainly, but she was quite intelligent for a creature who had never gone to school, for a beast who had never been taught proper common. He had debated on his half-day journey back to the fort whether or not to tell his superiors about Xanthe. In the end, he decided he would. He went to his leader with just that information - but when he was greeted with anger and disappointment at his failure to gain useful intel on the peacekeepers, he changed his mind. Now he had something to prove. If he could civilise Xanthe, and create an alliance between the Aurcaeli forces and the Attonians? He would be a hero to his people. Heck, he could even be in charge - maybe.
For now, he took his lumps, accepted the verbal abuse and punishments. Then he took on his next assignment - a less important one than before. Faith had been lost in him. He'd show them soon. This assignment was quite simple, actually. Scout out a field for potential use as the land for a new Aurcaeli fort. They wanted to ensure no natives would bother them there, that it wasn't home to any terrifying beasts, and most importantly: no other force was trying to call it home. If they were, Ellis was to return and inform a man who would lead a force down to take them out. If there wasn't, he would plant their flag, and return with both the army, and a team of architects.
He arrived at the location around dusk, and only knew it was here because of the blackened tree marking the place. He had simply been told to go east until he saw that tree, and to stop if he hit another legion's fort. He hadn't gone too far. He was an excellent scout. The blackened tree wasn't as he expected however, being incredibly tall and almost... Lively? For something that had been struck by lightning. He found it almost... Enchanting to look at. He could swear there were tiny volts of electricity jumping through it's branches, lighting up the dusk with an attractive glow. He got closer and the tree felt warm... Could it be a source of power? Perhaps that was why his leader wanted them to make a camp here.
In his distraction, Ellis failed to hear a growl, failed to feel the thundering of heavy footfalls, and didn't catch the beast that was advancing on him until it was too close for comfort. The roar shocked him and he gave out a yell as he turned towards the animal barrelling towards him. He had seen a few bears while scouting the area, but this one was larger than most - or at least it seemed larger when it was coming to attack him. Ellis dodged out of it's way, around the tree, and caught his breath while he loaded the crossbow. How had he not noticed? How had he not been more prepared?
The tree reminded me of her, His mind reasoned, making excuses for his failure to perceive. The bear wasn't as forgiving, and turned to chase him again. This time, he was prepared. He took careful aim with the crossbow and fired, lodging a bolt into the bear's shoulder but barely stunning the thing. He struggled to load another as he ran backwards - but he tripped over one of the tree's roots and tumbled to the ground, the bolt dropping from his hand with a light clink. The bear didn't have any sympathy and lunged...
"H-h-help!" Ellis cried out, praying someone was around, or at least hoping that the bear would be distracted by the sound for the single second he needed to escape. The bear's warmth was too close, it's maw was aimed for whatever fleshy part of him it could grab -- he knew the bear wouldn't be merciful.
Xanthe was scouting. Well, she could make the excuse that she was scouting but to be completely honest sometimes she just wanted to get out and clear her head. The distant rumble of thunder, ever present in Atton, was reassuring and the crisp, fresh breeze helped take her mind off of things even if just for a moment. That morning, she had heard of more of her people being killed by the invaders. A different tribe, smaller already than most, had been lured into an ambush by one of the invading tribes. None had survived. Not even the children.
She couldn't even believe how callous and unfeeling someone would have to be to destroy and entire tribe like that. Then again, the entire world had invaded her beautiful Atton so perhaps that was simply who they were as a people. If that was true, she had no intentions of ever leaving Atton. But.. well, it couldn't be completely true could it? Not all of them were that horrid. The scout she had met the other day, Ellis, had not seemed to be that way at all, and the peacekeepers had never attacked her people. She chose to believe that only some of the tribes from the outside world were ruthless savages without any morals.
Xanthe stopped walking and cocked her head as she heard the angry roar of a bear from somewhere to her left. She didn't initially think too much of it except to make a note not to go in that direction. Bears liked to fight with other bears and with wild animals and with trees all the time so she was about to turn away from the noise and continue her walk when she heard a second noise that was very distinctly not a bear. She could recognize the invader word for help easily enough, and she wasn't about to let anyone, not even a possibly savage invader, get eaten by a bear.
She ran towards the noise and crested a hill from where she could see what was happening. Well, she could at least see the bear from here anyway. She could also see a lightning tree, one of many spread throughout Atton - trees said to be blessed by the deity of storms. Without hesitation Xanthe continued running toward the bear, but while she did so she called lightning from the sky which struck the tree with a mighty crash! The tree absorbed the lightning into itself like sand absorbing water, but it had the effect she wanted; the bear was started and dropped whatever was in its jaws. She was near enough now to see the man on the ground by the tree and it was with dismay that she recognized his shock of red hair. "Ellis!"
She was close enough as well for the bear to spot her and decide that she wasn't worth the energy when he was standing next to an already juicy and delicious snack. As the bear turned back to the man on the ground Xanthe let out a roar of her own that sounded quite convincingly bearlike. "Dauba rof udexa iey th'nysa, di pe thum se sra henats lrana iey thadexp!" she shouted in Attonian, more for the noise and for her own satisfaction than because she thought there was any way the bear would understand her. It did the trick though, and the bear turned around to growl back at her and start lumbering forward angrily. Sus't nop'rs, mefa eban rana di hop'rs yi iey y'p'di thauts!" She hoped Ellis was uninjured enough to run, or even just stay where he was while she dealt with the bear. Mostly she hoped he wasn't dead, but from where she was the bear had been in the way of seeing what injuries he had sustained.
**Approximate Translations** "Leave him alone you brute, and go back to the forest where you belong!" "That's right, come over here and fight me you ugly beast!"
Post by Ellis Danton on Nov 11, 2016 21:43:59 GMT -7
The voice that called back to his cry was familiar, and for a moment Ellis felt he was saved -- until the bear's maw locked onto his leg, anyways. He tried to kick it away with his free leg, roll away - but it just tore when he did. He screamed out in pain. The next things Xanthe screamed sounded like gibberish in his pain - little did he know they would have sounded like gibberish either way.
His vision was covered in bright spots as the beast released him. He wondered if Xanthe had shot it with something, an arrow, a spell -- but then he heard it roar and braced himself for it's bite. It didn't come. Instead the thumping of the ground grew weaker and the sounds quieter. His vision cleared as his adrenaline kicked into full gear, and he saw the bear charging at her.
Oh no, no it wasn't.
His leg was pained, but the adrenaline powered him. He got up and began to lumber towards the bear, pulling out a dagger he kept in case of a situation where he lost his bow. "Xanthe!" He cried out, her name remaining one of the few words he didn't stumble over. His pronunciation was better now, but not even close to perfect. As he got close to the bear, he lunged at it, locking his dagger between its shoulders and relishing in the grunt the bear gave. It kept running, Ellis' weight and the dagger's tearing slowing it down. It stopped its running out of self-preservation, trying to reach around itself to rip Ellis off, but his arms were tight around it's neck and hanging tight. "Xanthe! R-run!" He grunted, hanging onto the brute with his life.
Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. Ellis yelled out her name and ran at the bear, the noble idiot that he was, with nothing but a dagger. Xanthe felt like she learned a lot about him in just that one action, as it was how someone reacted in a crisis that really spoke to their character. It didn't matter that the first (and last) time she had met him he had been nice enough because this right here, this was who he was. Frankly she wished he'd been a coward - this was so much more difficult to deal with now.
"Iey ojoes!" she yelled out in frustration as he practically jumped onto the bear and stabbed it between the shoulders. She could almost feel the pain in herself, watching it. She personally had been planning on driving it away rather than killing it, as she believed that all lives were sacred and the poor stupid bear was probably just angry that his home was destroyed by the invaders. She could understand where he was coming from. It's just that she had better ways of dealing with it than a simple bear. She didn't believe it deserved to die for attacking Ellis. Though... she knew she didn't think the same way about the invaders. Or even about her own people who had turned their back on the deity of storms. But they should all know better. The bear was just a bear.
Ellis yelled her name again, followed by a word she didn't understand but she could gather the meaning from pretty quickly. She shook her head and ran toward Ellis and the bear, lightning crackling around her clenched fists. "No! Ellis run!" She didn't know how to make him stop attacking the bear. His dagger was pissing it off about as much as hurting it, and she just wanted to make it leave. "Peace Ellis Peace!"
Post by Ellis Danton on Nov 11, 2016 22:37:16 GMT -7
He groaned as the bear fought, and even more when she didn't move. She spoke in words he didn't understand - but they sounded frustrated, the way his leader sounded when she was frustrated with him. The way his mother sounded when she was frustrated with him. Xanthe may have been a savage, but it seemed a woman was a woman no matter how she was raised.
Xanthe began insisting Ellis run, but it was too late for that now. He wasn't sure he could walk on his leg let alone run, and him and the bear were just a mess of limbs, steel, fur, and teeth now. He shook his head to refuse her command, but it likely couldn't be seen in the shaking of the bear. The next words stopped him, however - Peace she insisted, Peace. He wanted her trust. If she knew how to solve this problem... Well, she was a savage. Besides, the lightning crackling in her hands made his hairs stand on end and his gut clench.
"O-okay!" He yelled, wrestling with the powerful beast, "I trust you!" When he said that, he hoped she understood the sentiment. He hoped that she did whatever she had planned. He hoped that he wasn't eaten. He pulled his dagger out of the bear and tumbled away as it cried out in pain. The tumble sent a jolt through his leg and his stomach flipped over, but he managed to land face-up and turn over to see what Xanthe would do.
The bear snarled and shook Ellis around like a rag doll while trying to shake him off and frankly Xanthe was about ready to go rip Ellis off the bear herself when he yelled out something that sounded affirmative and pulled his dagger from the beast. Without something holding him to the bear, he fell off easily and tumbled out of the way. The tumbling looks like it came less easily though, and for the first time Xanthe noticed an obviously painful wound on the man's leg.
She knew she could deal with that later. Right now she had a bigger problem. She whistled loudly and attracted the attention of the bear who was still angry but was slowed slightly by pain. It ran toward her which was thankfully away from Ellis and while it did she prepared herself for any pain she might bring to herself. She was sure there was a better way to go about what she was about to do but she wasn't thinking clearly at the moment. She'd never felt protective over someone who wasn't one of her own people before and frankly it was distracting her.
As the bear came within biting distance she dodged to the side and then jumped at it, feeling the electricity swell through her as she set her hands on both sides of its back. The bear collapsed immediately, shocked and temporarily paralyzed but not injured. Or rather, not any more injured than he was already. She ran her hand gently over the wound on its back and while she did so she noticed another wound in its shoulder.
"Fa ven sox'p..." She placed one hand over the wound on its back and one on its shoulder, breathing deeply and feeling the skin stitch itself back together under her palms. The bear stirred beneath her as her magic healed not only the wounds but the temporary paralysis as well and she jumped down as soon as the creature was returned to normal. The bear stood up intimidatingly on its hind legs and roared at her angrily. Xanthe had a trick up her sleeves though, and brought a thunderous clap of lightning down upon herself which scared the bear enough that it turned tail and ran for the hills. Hopefully back where it came from, or to a new home that wasn't surrounded by the foreign invaders.
With the bear gone, Xanthe turned to find Ellis and ran to him, dropping to her knees beside him. Resting her forehead against his she muttered a quiet "Fa ven sox'p... You are good, Ellis," before looking him over for any wounds she hadn't seen. She took his shoulders in hand and moved him side to side, then the same for his head, then she checked out his arms and finally returned her attention to his leg, muttering the whole time in Attonian in a way that sounded both frustrated and relieved. She looked to Ellis and made eye contact as she moved to place her hands on his wound, so that he would know what she was about to do since she had no idea what the words for it were in his language. Then she gripped his leg and channeled her magic into the broken skin and torn muscle until it began to knit itself together much as the bear's wounds had done until all that was left on his leg was new, unbroken skin.
Finally, she let out a deeply relieved breath and sat back on her heels, looking him over. "Hello."
Post by Ellis Danton on Nov 12, 2016 0:28:03 GMT -7
Watching Xanthe fight -- was that the right word? -- the bear was impressive. He realised in that moment how outmatched he was by her, and how quickly she could have killed him if he had attempted to fight her back near the temple. His instincts had been right, and now instead of being zapped by her magic, she was using it to protect him. These savages had heart, that was for sure. He wasn't positive that many of his fellow soldiers would do the same for them.
It was the shock of thunder and lightning that really brought him to attention though. The sound nearly deafened him, and a loud ringing ran through his head; the light nearly blinded him, and spots crawled into his vision once more. He collapsed to the ground then, missing the bear running away, missing Xanthe coming now to his aid. Her words were near-silent echoes through his thunderstruck ears and she was a blur in his blinking eyes, but he managed a smile when her forehead touched his, knowing that the unintelligible sound she made was "good". That was what they had shared. He tried to reach and pat her back, but the adrenaline had been drained from him, and now all he had was a harsh pain in his leg.
Xanthe moved him about, eliciting moans of pain as his leg was jostled. Eventually, she came to his leg and put her hands on him - the grip she laid snapped him out of his stupor as he gasped and almost cursed -- but he held it back and watched as trickles of electricity moved through his leg and brought the wound back together. It looked good as new aside from a small white scar - she wasn't just an expert warrior, she was a healer as well. He looked at his leg in amazement, and only turned his head up when she spoke - a kind greeting. Hello, in common tongue. He didn't know she knew it, but it made him smile.
He reached over gently and gave her a light pat on the back, "You're... You a-ah-are good, t-too, Xanthe." He laughed a little bit, shaking his head with a bit of embarrassment. "I-i'm sorry... For the, uh, for the..." He made a snarl, growled a bit, and moved his hands in clawing motions -- "B-bear..."
It wasn't really enough to apologise though. Yes, he'd caused trouble -- but trouble would have just meant him being mauled to death. She had had no reason to save him - and now he had every reason to trust her. No one had ever done such a thing for him before. He didn't really know how to express gratitude in a simple way, however. He reached into his pocket cautiously, and pulled out the only thing he had in there - a pendant from his mother. It was worth next to nothing, and he had been too embarrassed to wear it, but he had nothing else to give. He laid it in his hand and held it out to her slowly, trying to find the right words to say: "I... I d-don't-- You don't... You m-might not un-- not know th-these words b-but... Th-thank you. F-for saving m-me."
Xanthe tensed instinctively but didn't react nearly as poorly as the last time when Ellis went to pat her on the back. He smiled at her and said she was good, and for a brief moment she smiled back. She blamed the leftover adrenaline. Ellis spoke, and then made bear-like motions and said 'Bear'. She repeated the word in her head. Bear. Then she watched as he reached into a pocket and removed something small but beautiful. Something unlike anything she had seen, really, and she had quite an impressive Attonian headdress. He held the small pendant out to her and she furrowed her brows in confusion, but when he spoke she could hear the gratitude in his tone. It seems even the invaders knew how to show gratitude. She looked down at the object and took it gently in her own hand, examining it with reverence. She wasn't sure of what words he just said, but she knew he must have thanked her. She didn't know the words the needed in his language, so she responded in her own. "Fa'na ladmefa," she told him, hoping he could understand the meaning behind her words.
She took one of her leather strings and tied the pendant to it carefully, strapping it to her armour. Now that the immediate danger was over she stood up and held out a hand to help Ellis to his feet, then realized this was a good opportunity to learn more. And to perhaps teach as well? "Ellis word, bear. Xanthe word, thaun." Last time he taught her 'word'. Now, she could teach him her own words.
Post by Ellis Danton on Nov 12, 2016 9:54:14 GMT -7
She accepted the trinket and said something, and he assumed it must have been some words of gratitude. Or at least, he hoped it was. Fa'na ladmefa he repeated in his head a few times. You are welcome He reminded himself of it's supposed meaning.
He watched as she tied the necklace to her armor, and couldn't help but smile. Oh what his mother would think, seeing the pendant she made for him, the thing she had hoped he'd wear to remember her - on a savage's armor. The thought of his mother's shocked face made him even happier he had given it to Xanthe... Besides, it suited her more than him. He was pulled out of his mind when she offered him a hand, which he took. His leg didn't ache when weight was pressed on it, and it left him surprised at just how well she had healed him. She really was something. Were all savages so skilled in Evocation magic? Or was she some kind of battle mage? Whatever the case, he knew now not to anger her.
When Xanthe told him what bear meant for her, he was astounded. She had truly grasped the concept of word something so difficult to do, and now she was trying to share knowledge with him. How much of a benefit could he be to the Aurcaeli forces if he could communicate with the savages in their own rough tongue? His eyes lit up as he realized how his leader would need to see his worth, would need to appreciate him far more, would need to show him immense gratitude. And so he listened. Thaun. Thaun. He spoke it aloud, hesitant and a little incorrect, but not stumbling: "Thaun. Thaun. Thaun." He was almost shocked at how his stutter seemed not to infect this word. Perhaps it was because he had to think on so much more deliberately. Or perhaps the sounds of the savage language were less complex than common. Whatever the reason, he actually quite liked how it felt on his tongue. "Thaun," He said once more, with a smile.
He pointed to the necklace he had given her, and decided to tell her this word next, "M-my, er, Ellis' word p-pendant. Xanthe w-word?"
Last Edit: Nov 12, 2016 9:54:45 GMT -7 by Ellis Danton
Xanthe had never encountered an invader who was like Ellis. Truthfully, she hadn't actually tried speaking to many of them so her experience was quite limited but there was something about him that was different, and she liked it. He seemed to be genuinely pleased when she attacked the pendant to her armour and she was glad it hadn't been meant for some other purpose that she didn't understand.
When she explained her word for bear, he listened and repeated it a few times as though testing the word, and she nodded encouragingly as he said it a final time, completely correctly. She was glad that in addition to teaching her his language, he was also willing to learn hers. Maybe if she could convince him over time that her and her people were fine here without the invaders, he could speak to his tribe and convince them. And maybe if she could speak their language, she could speak to them all and convince them, before they destroyed her beautiful Atton any more.
Ellis pointed at the charm he'd given her and said his word was pendant, and then asked for her word. This was good, very good. "Demas," she told him, excited for this exchange of knowledge. She wanted to teach him everything. She gave him a second to think about that and repeat it if necessary, and then realized she could ask something that had been bothering her for a while. She always had to refer to herself as Xanthe because she didn't know the invader word for referring to herself! If they did have a word for it, like her people did, then she probably sounded like a child always saying 'Xanthe this, Xanthe that', and she wanted to learn that most of all.
"Ellis?" She pointed to herself, hoping that he would understand what she meant. "Yi," she began, then pointed him and said "Fa." She did it another time to hopefully get her point across and then ended with, "Ellis word?"
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