Monologue

It was time to go.

Clearly, that was the message Hamal was telling her. Her familiar had pulled itself out of the shadows and was now sitting on a rock, lazily washing itself while keeping its eyes fixated on the giant. Every now and then its ears would flick back--although the giant is still now and apparently harmless enough to let people ride on it, Hamal is wary. Still or not, seemingly friendly or not, Hamal does not like it, and it doesn't spare the effort to let out a nasty hiss.

Brushing herself off, Ahtashi ponders how to get down from her earthen cage towards the odd transportation. She supposed she could lower the entire thing to the ground, but that would be expending too much energy in too short a span of time. Making stairs, though, was an easier feat to accomplish, but she'd probably need a guide if she wanted to go down without tumbling and falling on her face.

Stuck in her dilemma, she starts when a hand lands on her shoulder. A quick moment later she remembers that Beth was still here with her, and relaxes.

"If you'd like, I'll guide you," Beth offers, nodding to the newly formed stairs even though she knows that Ahti can't see her. Nonetheless, the blind girl is grateful and offers out her arm. Hamal trots behind them when they reach ground level, and slowly, they make their way up to the giant and pick their way over to a spot.

Hamal plops itself on Ahtashi's lap once the two women had settled down. It's almost like it's sulking, with the way its tail thrashes grumply against the giant's armor. Ahti rubs the creature's back, but it seems to do little to soothe it. In fact, its snarls grow slightly when it finds Caius. Something about this man was wrong--the faint prickling sensation it had gotten when he first tried to communicate with it was growing steadily stronger by the moment. This man was beginning to seem too much like it. A creature of shadows. A demon.

He was too close to Hamal's human. The wisps on the edges of its fur wave with more enthusiasm then usual and it seems to grow slightly larger. Ahti frowns as the beginnings of a dull ache start in her dead eyes, taking her hand off of her familiar to press the heel of her palm against one.

The dull ache spikes upwards with little warning, not long after she's back on the ground. Hamal had moved, suddenly obviously larger than it was before, crashing its shoulder into Caius's leg to throw him off balance. Balancing almost entiredly on its hind les, it hisses viciously. The gates were troubling. This woman Maiev also had a strange feel to her. But to Hamal, the other demon was of utmost concern.

It needed to be identified. It needed to be removed.

After all, Hamal still had a debt to pay off and would not stand to have another demon threaten its repayment.

Gritting her teeth, Ahtashi let out more and more magic, magnifying the cracks she was making in the ground outside the building she was in. She wanted to ground the massive creature. To limit its range of movement. To bury it. But it was definitely going slower than she had originally planned for. Fighting through the densely packed cobblestones of the square was more difficult than she had anticipated, and took more concentration than usual.

Behind her, she could hear Beth scrambling around, picking up and--she assumed--examining various pieces of weaponry. Repeated clunks told her that the other woman was apparently having a difficult time finding something exactly to her liking, but eventually there is a small exhale of satisfication.

Unfortunately, Ahti is not given the opportunity to ask the other woman what she had picked. There is a clamor outside, a scream of a child, and the blind girl abandons her spell efforts to throw her hands up. Her arms had no more than crossed in front of her face before Clare slammed into the building through the window closest to her, and she let ouf a half-scream at the commotion the entrance made.

Hamal, you should really learn to divide your attention more evenly to other people! Ahti thinks in alarm. But there was no time for that. Where was Beth? She cast wildly around for the bearings of the other woman before giving up. She'd just have to take everything, then--she at least knew the rough size of the room and she was fairly certain that the last place she had heard Beth set down a piece of weaponry was not far to her left.

Irrately, she clicks her tongue as she hears a particularly threatening crack to her right. It was too close for comfort, and the surprise of all of these happenings caused her to stumble. Taking a deep breath and steadying herself, she slammed her heel against the flooring, forcing her magic it into the ground far below. The earth rumbles under her command, hitting the collapsing second floor and supporting it, with a portion surging up through the cracks in the floorboards and curving. The ground floor was done for--actually this whole building was done for, but this was still far better than the possibility of falling into a rubble pile and being buried.

When the dust clears, it is to reveal that what remains of the building is encased in an earthen cage, perched on a fat column. Rocks and brick are scattered all around the unnatural tree, and it is quiet until the front starts to crumble. First little pebbles break away, followed by larger chunks, and then with a sudden violent coughing fit Ahtashi pops her head up, covered head to toe in dust and breathing heavily from her spell. The other two are there too, in various states of disarray.

"Lady Gealdrinn?" she chokes out. "...flying warrior? Did we make it through?"

Alive, she tacks on silently at the end.

I think that if I decide to go with my current plan of action with Ahti then the sorcerer kids and their issues with the dark are going to entertain me greatly.

I do love me some darkness and corruption. Yes I do.

Hmmm... I might just wait for a Beth post before I decide to do anything.

*plunks self at the edge of Nep's table*

*commences intense puppy stare*

Although she claims she is halfway done with the Lily post.

So maybe soon there will be a Beth one. SOON

The cat's size is equivalent to the bus cat in My Neighbor Totoro.

 

It isn't, but if you want it to be, make it so.

And I was so certain haha.

I'll probably bounce ideas for a bit and try to write tomorrow, then.