A grouchy looking Jezebelle walks into the tavern in a huff, smacking her two bits down on the bar and pulling herself a mug of something strong. “What’s got up everyone’s arse today? I swear by things unholy everyone I passed on the way in here gave the the evil eye or looked at me like I was going to light their tails on fire. Have I wronged you all somehow when I wasn’t looking?” She takes a big swig of what she’s reasonably sure is pure alcohol with some cider mixed in. “Damned, but I haven’t been looked at like that since word got out what side I was on in the war.“
Emily waves after Ray and whispers “Gods be with my son and protect him” before turning to look at Jez, recounting all the rumors
Jezebelle stares darkly at her drink as Emily catches her up on the rumors. “That’s bleak news indeed if it’s true. I’m sorry I missed Ray, I might be better off getting out of town too, if my being here is scaring people. Hope he’s okay out there.“
Emily fixes Jez with the firm look that her children know all too well “You’ll go absolutely nowhere. People can change. You may need to prove it to others, but leaving will do no good, and could put you in even greater danger“
“I wasn’t a willing participant the last time, Em. If we’re in for more of the same… what if she gets control of me again? Or already has her hooks in me and I just don’t know it yet?” Jezebelle gestures to her fur, still bearing the marks of that curse “I am resolved to be on the right side this time. But if I stay it puts people I care about at risk.“
She downs her drink and leaves a coin on the table. “Screw it, you’re probably right. I won’t betray my home, but I ain’t gonna prove that by sulking here. I got work to do if I’m going to earn that trust back.” she makes to leave, but pauses. “Thanks Emily. But… maybe send someone to check in on me once in a while, just in case?“
James gets up and grabs his sword, bow, and arrows, draping his blacksmith apron over his shoulder, “If that boy comes back dead, I shall find a way to bring him back just so I can kill him” he says as he straps his sword and bow to his back, “I may not be a fighter by trade, that certainly doesn’t mean I cannot defend my family” he says quietly as he strokes the side of Emily’s hair, “I love you, my heart” and with a last look back to his wife, he leaves his house and heads to the forge.
Emily nods to Jez “You know I will” looks to James “I was just about to ask you to start making more weapons…just in case“
Anxious and worried, Dove paces in the cave.. not knowing how her Master, the Ranger, is doing. She reaches her right hand to her collar, fidgeting with it as her index fingers loops where her leash is usually attached to. She tries to wait patiently to hear any thing about him.
Lil has been trotting from place to place, coming and going at all hours. Word is she’s been seen in each of the regions, filling her pouches, and spending an unusual amount of time in her burrow.
With all the rumors of fel happening in the area, one has to wonder… what is she about?
The Queen watches the sun rise over the peaceful waters in Roonwit Forest…..but she knows the peace may not be enjoyed for much longer…..
she’s heard the rumors….she’s seen her people become worried….become anxious about what might be out there….what could be coming……
she sighs……feeling her own anxieties build within her…..she looks with sadness but grateful for the peace and warmth of this new day….
Nestled cozily in a copse off the beaten path in Thessaly a caravan stood, the sign outside proudly proclaiming “Fortune Teller.”
The last embers of the morning’s cookfire were just dying out as the sun reached its midpoint, when Jezebelle Queen arrived home. She strode into the dark caravan, and with a whispered word all the candles and the small wood stove flickered alight, illuminating the cluttered confines of the large wagon. A large black raven snoozed on the windowsill, and she gently stroked its ebon beak.
“Oi, carrion jockey, wake up. Time to earn your pay.” She barked.
“Mmnn.. you know you don’t pay me, right?” the raven mumbled sleepily.
“Of course not Grackle, you haven’t earned it, weren’t you listening?”
She replied, sweeping her tarot cards off the small table and carefully pulling a book off the precarious stack of tomes nearby. She opened it to a dog-eared page and started reading as a fat yellow toad crept across the table and hopped atop the crystal ball to peer down at the page.
“Oh dear gods, she’s cheerful” Pollywog moaned. “Something’s always wrong when she’s this cheerful.“
“What useless nonsense is it this time, another banal potion to change your fur color? A cantrip to light people’s tails on fire? Oh, maybe we could try to turn Polly into a princess!” Crowed the raven mockingly.
“Okay, first of all you’re usually the lesson planner, that potion didn’t really work, and no, I actually need you to teach me how to counteract and resist mind control again. It’s been awhile and I’m rusty.” Jezebelle fired back. “and to be fair that tail-on-fire spell would have been very useful, I’d use it everywhere.“
“Oho! Finally Miss Glenstorm asks for something that isn’t manically violent or a complete waste of my considerable talents! To what do I owe the dubious pleasure?” Grackle chortled, hopping from his perch and alighting on the book, tilting his head to one side to examine the diagrams on the page.
“Well, you clueless pigeon, there’s a rumor going round that people are disappearing en masse” The smugness visibly fell from the bird’s face, despite his inability to make such a face to begin with. “I have to assume that she’s back, Grackle. And I can’t go through that again. Will you help me or not?” Jezebelle turned the page, brushing the raven off the book as she did.
“I wouldn’t want to let my pupil down, would I? Even if she is a big curmudgeonly dullard.“
“What does that even mean?” Jezebelle sighed, annoyed.
“Exactly.” chuckled the bird. “Now, the first thing you have to do is…“
Ҳídα Has been in the skies more than usual, feeling uneasy as she watches her friends in scatter bellow. Listening in on crowds and rumors lately but not adding her own input.
Occasionally she would descend, placing symbols in both open and bottlenecked areas. They glowed brightly when placed then faded to remain (hopefully) undetected. Their purpose is sense anything ‘unusual’ pass by them.
She has also decided to prep her mind. If rumors are true, she would NOT be taken this time, she would never have her will taken away again. Her aura and tattoos turning red in her anger. She paused for a moment, caught her breath and returned to the skies…..
Kumi looked up from her journal of potion recipes when she heard shouting coming from the road out front of her home. She pretty much kept her nose in the book these days trying out potion after potion in hopes of restoring her dear old friend and mentor, Anuta. But she could tell from the tone that it was something more than than who was wearing what at some party or other.
Feeling unsettled at the sounds she wiped her hands on her fur and trotted out. As she got closer she heard a centauride going on about disappearances with the small group surrounding her.
“What’s this? Who’s missing?” she asked. The lovely taur who had been speaking waved her arms in the air as she repeated what she’d heard from a friend of a friend who had heard it in the tavern from a very reliable source she said.
“The Ranger, the very tall black, that one, they say he came into the tavern speaking of Taurs going missing, others, too! All around the fringes of our homeland. Who knows how many have gone missing, who knows where they’ve been taken or what has happened to…..”
“Taurs are missing? Which taurs, where?” Kumi asked as she attempted to wrap her head around what they had all had feared most after the great 6 day battle. She shook her head, no she mustn’t allow herself to go there, not until she had more information. It could be something small, a story all blown out of proportion. Maybe even a tale that continued to live on even though the lost taur had been found.
Without another word Kumi broke into a steady canter as she headed toward the tavern to see what she learn.
Ella had been trying her best to remain stoic and supportive as more and more taurs seemed to flock to her to express their worries and concerns about the rumors going around, but just under the surface she was just as concerned and worried as everyone else.
“What if the rumors were true? What if she really WAS coming back? Everything had just gotten back to normal… “, she thought aloud as she slowly made her way from the farm to her favorite spot in Roonwit.
As she crossed the bridge, she caught a glimpse of something in the water; A vision. She stood slack jawed, staring into the stream, watching faceless shadows swarm, attacking anyone they saw. Snatching some, maiming others.
“This… This can’t be right… This isn’t happening… No, no this isn’t happening..“, she muttered before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. When she looked back at the stream, it was just clear water as usual. She continued her walk, slightly rattled…..
Aric slowly walks to the tavern, his head was swimming with what he thought was still hallucinations.
He had left Centuaria for a bit for travel, and was back. The change in surroundings was suppose to help, but it seems as if it didn’t. He moves slowly behind the bar, and reaches for the last of his tonic of the mind, and realizes he has none left.
He puts his hands to his head, and tried to walk over to the healers hut, whispering for the healer but feeling like he was yelling. The water was showing as red, the dew on the grass as drops of blood, and the pull that he felt so many years ago was pulling at him again.
He was starting to feel lost as visions swept across his field of sight. All the things he had done, the lives he had taken, the people he had hurt. It was all flashing before his eyes. “No….please, not again. Please. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore” He thought he had said, then realized he WAS screaming that out loud.
His brain felt like it was throbbing, the blood in his veins as if it was boiling, and he couldn’t stand for the life of him. He was trying to fight this feeling with every fiber of his being. He couldn’t get sucked back into this life he had lived before. Surely he would never be allowed back into centauria if he did.
He felt his home slowly slipping away from him, and the cold, clammy embrace of emptiness was trying to take over. The boiling blood was starting to turn cold, his heart was starting to slow. and a wave of darkness was enveloping him.
He shook his head, and was mightily determined to rise on his hooves and fight the darkness before it actually took him. He gritted his teeth, and used every ounce of strength he had, to stand, and move forward. He rose and moved behind the bar, using it as a way to help keep his balance. “Hopefully today is a slow day” he said softly more to himself than anything.