~Between Ash and Gold~ Semi-Lit ~ OPEN!

[cjr09]

"I'm Caitlin Faire- I'm the, well, I guess the 'librarian' here. And this is Maya," She gestures to the drake before shaking his hand. "Ah, did you mean this one?" She takes the book out and opens it, flipping to the bookmarked page before handing it to him. "I'd wondered if those rumors had any base, and I thought I'd read it before. It is odd, though," she more mutters the last bit to herself, thinking.

Maya huffs her pleasure at having made a new friend, seeing that the little otterling wasn't a threat to either her bond or her books.

[SkieNight]

James nodded and shook her hand firmly, something that had become a habit due to growing up in the Celtland. "I'm James Therelle, it's a pleaser to meet you and your lovely beast." he said rather formally, with was once again a habit that had just fallen on him. The man did look the dragon over, he had only seen a few drakes in his life time, and this was definitely a grand one. His brown-amber eyes went to her hand and he looked at the book and nodded. That had been the book he was planing on reading after he finished the one of dark magic. "That is exactly it." he said taking it graciously and flipping through it. He skimmed over a few pages before holding it back out for her to take. "Thank you, but finish reading it, then I'll go through it. I just wanted to re-read it and see if there was anything that I had forgotten or overlooked." He leaned back against he shelf and his hand ran over the pages of the book in his hand. "Oh, also my two partners are Gweli and Cilia." he said pointing to his two companions, one of whom was with the drake, while the other was watching the two people with cold, dark eyes.

Gweli, on the other hand, was still by her new found friend. The little otterling was race in between the Drake's legs before scampering up Maya's slippery tail. The pink and cream otterling sat on the rune drake, using her spines to stay on the slink animals. Her little eyes darted from place to place, and her wings ruffled slightly.

[cjr09]

Caitlin shakes her head and hands him the book, "I just needed it for a quick translation for something I need to transcribe a few times," she gently pats Cilia on the head, offering her another treat. "The rumors going around certainly have a place in lore, but I'm not sure how it managed to start."

Maya gently noses the otterling into a more secure position on her back, walking to a more open area so she was sure she wouldn't hit something, then takes off with a few flaps of her massive wings, flying close to the high ceiling as to not disurb the books below.

[SkieNight]

{I'm going to wait for Sphye and/or distortionist to post since it's just been up. Also to Sphye and Distorionist, I have my character Avalon open who is right now in the garden of her house so yeah...}

[Sphye]

Meanwhile, through a forest miles away, a silent duo stalked through the dense woods together.
A flash of red, the swish of an ashen cape, or perhaps a glimpse of a large, deer-like creature were the only traces to be seen. If one were to spy any of this, it would be gone so quickly they'd think it their imagination.

Eliana stalked though the thick trees, bow in her hand. Some of the time she rode upon Razbunare's back, and other times ran beside him. Her family had hit a hard time, and food was scarcer on their table now than ever. Most would have moved away from their parent's house by her age, but Eliana knew that she had to stay to help.

Suddenly, the dark-haired girl saw a furry brown animal several yards off. A rabbit. Quick as a cat, she let an arrow fly.
Perking its' ears up just then, it froze in place. The arrows path was just inches too high. The rabbit ran, and Elina mentally cursed herself. She couldn't afford to make mistakes, not now. Razbunare nuzzled her arm reassuringly.
"I guess we'll just need to keep looking," she whispered to him. Climbing upon his back, she notched another arrow loosely in case she saw another creature. Hopefully she wouldn't miss again.

[Distortionist]

(Oh poop I'm late. Thanks, Skie XD Before I post, what's happening right now?)

[cjr09]

(Oh poop I'm late. Thanks, Skie XD Before I post, what's happening right now?)

(Caitlin and James are talking in the library, Eliana is hunting in the forest with minimal success, Avalon is sitting on a balcony at her house, Leon and Tetra are sparing within the palace walls, Zero's selling stuff just outside the palace gates, and Lyric is sort of floating around spying.)

[Distortionist]

The humid air hung heavy and still above the land. The lithe figure was reduced to a sprawling and gasping mass in the swell of a branch attempting to find relief from the heat. Since becoming a Keeper, Glory had gained catlike agility and many other feline qualities yet the liger's dignified way of dealing with heat eluded her. No doubt Burn had found herself a cool trickling stream nearby and was laughing at her agony. Sighing, she listened to the slow chirping of insects for a few more moments before spontaneously deciding that a different tree might offer more comfort. Glory heaved herself upright and dropped elegantly to a lower branch before springing off and swinging from limb to limb. Stealthily, she made her way across the garden. The grounds actually belonged to the King of Versailles, but the gardeners had wisely chosen to allow her free roam of the land. She was an ambassador of sorts, send down from Mount Bastion to investigate the strange Darkness. The other monks had informed her of the presence of another Keeper residing here, and Glory quickly resolved to seek him out and make his acquaintance. But of course, escape came first.

Just as she was about to latch on to a branch, her liger's voice echoed through her mind. To your right, youngling. Experience had long ago taught her to never question her judgement. Changing course slightly, Glory landed on a different branch and peeked around the trunk in the indicated direction. A maiden a few years her senior with hair as bright as flame perched on a balcony. The Keeper analyzed the scene, noting that it was probably her house and garden she sat in and that she seemed to not have noticed her yet. Good. No one catches a cat by surprise. Yet since the girl didn't appear to be an immediate threat, so why did Burn single her out? Glory tried reaching out with her mind but found only vast emptiness. The liger must be preoccupied by something else. Well, Burn wouldn't direct her there if it wasn't important... Perhaps she had useful insight about the Darkness. Lunging forward, Glory made her way to an oak directly adjacent to the balcony. Her altitude made her about eye level with the girl. Leaning out while clinging to a branch, she smiled at her and held out a hand. "Hi! Who are you?"

[SkieNight]

The boy nodded and placed the book on the ground, leaving a mental note to pick it up later. His golden-brown eyes returned to the pages he held in front of him, his eyes racing back and forth as he read. He looked back up at the girl as she spoke. James chuckled at her question, not because it was stupid or anything, it was more of laughing at the world then anyone in particular. "Who knows how these silly things start." he said with a shake of his head as he turned the page. "Someone probably just saw something and jumped to conclusions." In his mind that made more sense. If someone saw something, especially at night, and they didn't know what it was the human mind would make it almost anything, even something terrifying. So the fact that they concluded it was a 'darkness' was no surprise.

Gweli glanced around. The small otterling had never been high off the ground, nevertheless flying. The little pink and cream thing shook in fear for the first few seconds. But once she concluded that the kind drake wasn't going to drop her she relaxed and peaked over the side of the dragon-like thing, watching the rows of books fly by under her.


One minuet, Avalon had been sitting on the balcony, her green eyes watching the young drake zip over the palace gardens, the next the tree to her right moved and a shape emerged. Avalon stumbled off the rim of the balcony and backed up, her hand over her mouth. In her day dream she hadn't seen the girl appear in the tree, but she didn't scream. There was no reason to get the guards over here, nevertheless her father, whom she wanted to deal with a little as possible. At first, Avalon just stared, unsure of what to do with the stranger, but when she saw that the young girl was holding over her hand she walked over and took it awkwardly. "Um.. hello?" Avalon said taking the girls hand and shaking it quickly before pulling her arm back, she was use to curtseying to say hi not shaking hands. "I'm Avalon, Avalon Illis? And you are?"

Avalon almost expected the girl to know who she was, everyone knew who her father was. He being an important figure in Alabaster Government and all. She pushed the stray strand of flaming hair from her face and her eyes glanced to the side of Selven landed on the side of the balcony. The ice-looking dragon didn't take his eyes off Glory as he slowly approached her. "And who are you exactly?" The girl took a few sets forward and leaned against the side studying the human in the tree. She really should have been scared, but Avalon wasn't someone who flinched easily. She should, but she didn't. For what ever reason she girl loved danger, and felt as though she wee attracted to it. Maybe it was her naiveness, or maybe it was just the fact that she was board.

[Distortionist]

A tiny bit gratified to see that her surprise tactic had worked so well, Glory beamed. The girl's handshake was firm but lacked the domination of many others. If she had to guess, she would say that she wasn't accustomed to this manner of greeting. It was rather common for Keepers to shake hands; maybe it was inherited from their ligers' tactile nature. She decided to explore the idea later and focused on the girl.

Avalon Illis. The name did sound vaguely familiar. A nobleman's daughter, perhaps? She opened her mouth to reply when faint wingbeats caught her attention. Glory turned her head to observe a little drake's approach, nodding respectfully to show that she meant no harm to his master. Surely this woman was important, then, to have the favor of such a creature. "Call me Glory." She replied smoothly, returning her gaze to Avalon. She wouldn't share her last name unless she insisted on it. It wasn't actually her real last name; she had no idea what that was. Everything had been left behind when she joined the Keeper Monastery. "My liger directed me to you, for reasons unknown to me. Might you possibly be familiar with the Darkness?" The female swung to a more comfortable position with her legs dangling off the branch to listen. This might take a while.