A Small Peek At Ecrys & Clydia's Journey
It is part of GG2, btw. And I'm only posting it because... well, I don't really have a reason. I just wanted to. But I won't post the whole thing.
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Stage: ( 3 / 7 ) : The Storm:
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The weather conditions changed drastically. Dark silver sky got even darker as thunders started clashing above. The rain was fast and the wind was strong as always. Clydia held onto her cloak, even though protected by Ecrys' aura, the feeling of chill had settled in her. Ecrys looked somewhat pleased of the storm, but he was kind of afraid their aura would drain all his energy quicker under this storm.
It was just after dawn, waves crashed on the shores even with more ferocity. Ecrys mentioned taking an inland route if the storm gets even more intense, let the trees and landscape take all the beating.
"The storm won't get any better!" shouted Ecrys, he was beside Clydia but the wind and waves, along with occasional thunder, clouded too much of their voice. "We should take an inward path when we see one!"
Clydia heard these as Ecrys was speaking with a muffled voice. She wasn't cold, or wet, but her hair and cloak was waving backwards as they trudged against the wind. "Okay!" she added with a slightly nervous tone.
A few minutes passed like this. Then something happened.
A skeletal drake? Yes, it was a skeletal drake. It swooped down from the stormy clouds. First, a tingling, echoing bark was heard; then the mass of bones swooped onto the shore. It happened slow, and its prey noticed the big undead drake. But out of sheer luck, the drake closed its bare, bone jaw at the right moment and bit a fish man, who just crawled out of the sea because maybe he heard Ecrys. The drake almost went in the raging ocean water, but managed to rise up again after tearing a chunk of white flesh from the shoulder of the fish man. The creature hissed croakily as it got knocked out of the incoming wave onto the sands of the shore, one and a half meter in front of Ecrys.
Ecrys and Clydia both looked agast. "You don't see that every day." Ecrys added as he drew his sword, Breeze, out. Clydia readied her flintlock and cast a protection aura around the gun so that the rain wouldn't break it.
The creature struggled to get up. Its left shoulder was destroyed, but as soon as Ecrys went close to it with his sword drawn, the creature swiped at the young man with its rusty, scavenged scimitar. But it didn't even reach Ecrys. Right at that moment, the flintlock blasted two errand shots and shatter of bones along with a shrill bark was faintly heard. Ecrys swore and drew his sword into the creature's heart before it could even gather itself up from the fumbled attack. A splash, and the skeletal drake was lost deep in the raging ocean shoreline waters. Ecrys knocked the fish into the range of waves and the next wave pulled the dead body in the water.
"Ecrys!" Clydia shouted, nervously. "On your right!"
As soon as he turned right with his blade swinging in an arc, he countered the slow strike of the undetected stormspawn. (which looked like a fish and a lizard combined into a monstrosity and the storm wind swirled around it)
The glimmering ice blue blade clashed with the sharp right claw. The force of storm got trapped between light and ice forces and both opponents got blasted off. Ecrys fell right on his bottom, on the sands, the arriving wave landed on him, getting him doused in water. His dryness aura was broken as he lost the focus on it. The stormspawn fell into the water and struggled to get out.
Pow! A muffled noise of gunshot rose and the stormspawn fell back into the water after a few seconds of trying to resist the pain in its rubbery, scaly, gleaming blue chest. The bullet hit just below its gilled neck and left a large, circular cavity. Clydia was soaked in water and looked surprised that the gun even worked this time. She held tightly onto her cloak and the strips of her adventurer's backpack. Her gun was holstered. She shouted Ecrys' name and went near him. She was looking at the young man struggling to get up, swearing as he did so as the waves hit him again. "Are you alright?"
He was up but coughing up the ocean water he gulped. Wet from head to toe, his clothes and hair was stuck on his skin. He looked stupid and miserable, but after the last cough he grinned, almost mad like.
"That was fun." Ecrys swore a few times afterwards. Clydia already accepted the misery and let the rain douse her even further, since she didn't know how to cast a full dryness aura. She shouted, because of the wind. "I think now is a good time to go inside the woods!"
Ecrys recast the dryness aura but it was a little late now. Though the warm heat would do the trick sooner or later. "You have to teach me that." Clydia added.
"A skeletal drake... in the name of Daegnon..." Ecrys laughed. "And you shot it down like a pest." Clydia checked her gun to see that it is completely dry. "Where did it even come from?" she asked, not expecting an answer.
"Exciting things are happening today." added Ecrys, still sour with the taste of salt in his mouth. "I should've foreseen that the stormy coast would be... well... stormy..."
---
Stage: (4 / 7 ) : Drying River:
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The storm came to a halt a little after they headed inwards. Both of them and their clothes were still a little wet, though at least the cold was gone.
They headed into the jungles near the stormy coast where a moderately wide river connected with the ocean. The river itself was less than half the size and depth of its own riverbed. The soil on the exposed riverbed walls was wet, barren and rocky, covered with dead fish and patches of water craving algea and dying water plants. The damage looked very similarly distributed, as though the whole source of water disappeared in less than a week. The river had several sources of water, mostly underwater streams and rain water. However, despite the continuous rain, the river was, drying...
Sky had a lighter, silvery gray color. Clouds were less close to the surface. The muddy ground was covered with plants, bushes and broken twigs and vines. With boots weighted by mud, the couple trudged along between the dim river and the jungle clearing.
At his first glance at the river, Ecrys looked, sad. "I see why they've gone wild."
The stench became very disturbing as they approached the drying riverbed. Rotting river algea and especially all the dead fish, combined with the dense humidity...
Clydia was silent, and a little off her mood with the mud, cold and rain. But she had the will to journey forward. The river, or the lack of it, didn't interest her much.
After twenty minutes of walking. They encountered something, peculiar.
A light blue, blurry image floated above the knee deep water. First they thought that it was a heat vapor or something similar, but once it moved around, their idea of this image changed quite fast.
Clydia approached Ecrys and prodded him on his arm. Whispered: "Ecrys, look over there." He did look and saw the image floating around, but it didn't notice them yet. He whispered back: "A ghost? Am I being stupid?"
"Let's see what happens." Clydia said as she drew her pistol out.
Pow! The blast echoed as a few flock of birds flew from the nearby trees. As soon as the shot was triggered and sent off, a wave of water from the river puddle raised as a wall to stop the bullet. The bullet went through the watery wall and a cloudy shriek was heard, barely. The wall of water blocked most of the noise.
Ecrys, somewhat dazzled by the sound of the unexpected blast, looked at Clydia, eyes open wide. The ringing in his ears went in a couple of seconds, only to be replaced by intense buzzing. Clydia already went towards the river to see better. "Oh, shit, no." he understood the buzzing and started running around. "No, nonono! No please." he ran along the river as a swarm of slightly large wasps attacked him, literally attacked him. Curt swears, cries and moans rose, he blasted his magic a few times to hit the wasps but they were quick and almost unending. Clydia noticed what she has done and looked mortified. She stopped right beside the river and wanted to help Ecrys. But then she noticed a fish man in the river. "Fuck, this isn't good." she looked really worried.
The wailing spirit and fish man clashed onto each other. Well, with a raised wave shielding it, the spirit went right through the clawed, two legged fish-like beast and the poor creature fell right into the puddle of water with great force, knocked its head on a rock in the riverbed floor.
Another flash of golden light gleamed briefly. Ecrys was still running around.
Clydia yelled: "I'M SORRY!" stopped for a moment and blasted her gun at the spirit which turned its attention towards swarmed, Ecrys. Halfway through, the spirit dissipated with another shriek. "GO IN THE WATER!" she added afterwards.
Ecrys shouted a genuine cry of pain this time, since before most of the wasps just pierced his leather armor, giving him needle point prods, but a few of them managed to get stabs on his hand shielded cheeks and neck. In pain and anger, a nova of light magic blasted out of him, roasting nearly all of the wasps and the rest of them scattered around, only to come back and haunt him later. Clydia halted about two meters near Ecrys as the light magic blasted. "Ecrys?"
He was holding his blood oozing, swollen neck and face. His leather armor was left with several holes and several 'an inch long' scratches. He facepalmed right into the muddy ground a few seconds later, amidst all the burnt bees. "Oh god" Clydia mumbled worryingly when she reached him.
Ecrys didn't wake up at once. Seems like the wasps had a venom that paralyzed him. She noticed the fish man getting up with an injured 'fish' head, bleeding blue blood. It started paddling towards the other side of the river but Clydia shot it in cold blood. Which, to anyone's surprise, attracted more wasps. "Oh no!"
Wasps swarmed in on Clydia before she could act. A light went off and the wasps scattered around. But the light was weak and casted with urgency, and it faded away almost instantly. It only scared the wasps for a few seconds, which was enough time for Clydia to blast the rest of them with a more focused, searing light magic. The rest of the mad bees fell on the ground, crisp and twitching.
Clydia turned her attention at the miserable looking Ecrys. Kneeling beside him, she held him up and put his head on her knee. He was partially awake and covered in mud, and had a slightly swollen face. "Uh fuffeth uf." The venom affected him quite fast, he looked dazed.
Clydia cast a continuing restorative light magic to heal up as much as she can. A minute and a half passed. Halfway through the healing process, Ecrys gestured her to stop and got up when she did. "Sorry, it tingles, quite itchy. Thank you, I feel better."
The swelling wasn't completely gone, but after carefully washing his face in the blurry river puddle, he looked fine... fine enough.
"So, it was a spirit... The mystery, solved!" he continued. The heal applied areas only tingled and itched, but his whole body was swarmed and he felt like he slept in an iron maiden.
"I won't do that again." Clydia was sweeping the mud off her boots and shins in the river. "I become more and more like you as the time goes."
"Ow!" he repeated, silently, every five seconds or so. He was trying to locate the serious stings and cure them by magic. "Fucking assholes of the animal kingdom. This and giant blood bugs, as the regular sized ones weren't annoying enough."
The clouds had started descending again. "It's better than a blade wound though." he added.
---
Stage: (5 / 7 ) : Fwend?:
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The river separated into two branches and the other branch lead down and ended up connecting to the ocean. The connection point was visible from where the branches had separated. The other branch continued upwards a little and was blocked by a very large obstacle. But that was almost five hundred feet afar.
That obstacle was a couple of very large jungle trees that fell right into the river canal. The force of water was enough to move individual trunks along with the flow, but when all three or four of them stacked together at one point, the waterflow had to change its route.
The rain had increased its volume and started pouring down a few minutes ago.
"Trees have blocked the river." Clydia said when she saw what lied ahead. She was taking the lead this time.
Sitting in mud, under pouring rain, this younger looking fish man was reluctantly eating a dead fish. Its skin was scorched. Its one eye was black, like the rest of its kind, but the other eye was gray and squinted. Its claws were sharp but stubby.
The creature raised its head curiously as it heard Clydia's voice. The rainfall blocked most of their voices but the creature could hear better than a regular human. It threw the dead, slightly rotten fish onto the muddy water and got up to investigate.
Clydia and Ecrys appeared at the end of a corner of jungle bushes and the creature silently watched, recognizing the approaching couple as two humans. Its bad eye twitched.
"<grog>"
"What?" Clydia said. The rain poured badly but she could hear that voice. Then she noticed the little creature. "<grog> <grog>"
"What? I didn't say anything." Ecrys yelled, thinking that Clydia would have a hard time hearing him.
"Not you!" Clydia said. "Come here." Her hand was on his holstered gun, but she didn't draw it out since they were close enough to the creature and it didn't make a move. Ecrys appeared beside her.
"Ugh... The storm did this." he was looking at the fallen trees blocking the river. He hadn't noticed the little fish man yet.
"<grog> ... <grog>" the creature looked at the two humans with a wide open one eye, it was somewhat intimidated but it didn't move. Clydia didn't know what to say or what to do. Ecrys finally noticed the young fish man standing on its stubby legs.
He looked at Clydia but she looked as confused as he is. "H-hello?" Clydia asked to the young fish-like two legged creature, <grog>.
Its skin and overall condition, combined with its passive approach, made Clydia reluctant to harm the creature. Ecrys held his sword on his shoulder but he didn't intend to do anything either. They just stood there for half a minute, looking at each other and back at the creature.
"Fwend?" ... as soon as the words spilled out of the scorched fish man's mouth, Ecrys stabbed his sword in the mud ground and half crouched, a little shocked, tried to shrink down to the creature's height, which was slightly lower than four feet. Clydia repeated the word, though in a different manner, as in an answering tone. "Friend."
"Aww!" Clydia added as the creature grogged again. "Can we bring him along."
"Haha!" Ecrys' laugh faded in mere moments. "What?"
"<grog>" the creature added. "Fwend. ... river."
"This must be the 'genius' level in the culture of fish people." Ecrys said. Clydia was already trying to heal the creature's burned skin and bad eye, but couldn't make any difference on the texture. "I hope it does help... Uhh... Does it help?"
The creature squinted its normal eye, but you couldn't tell if it felt better or confused as the spell, supposedly, healed its scars.
"I guess..." Ecrys finally answered Clydia's question. "...it wouldn't hurt."
The creature gently pushed Clydia's healing hand away. "It always itches." Ecrys added. "Doesn't it."
"<grog>" the creature pointed at the tree trunks. At that moment, when they all looked, they saw another, different, larger creature in the water, bashing on the pile of tree trunks. They couldn't hear anything from there due to rain but they could see the creature.
"That can be a storm's work, but I don't see why most of the damage is only over there... And what the hell is that thing?" Ecrys looked around, the dryness aura was slowly spending his energy but he couldn't feel it. When the aura diminishes, then he will feel the overload of energy loss. The rain continued pouring down.
They decided to move towards there, weapons drawn, alongside a new ally.
---
Stage: (4 / 7 ) : Drying River:
---
The storm came to a halt a little after they headed inwards. Both of them and their clothes were still a little wet, though at least the cold was gone.
They headed into the jungles near the stormy coast where a moderately wide river connected with the ocean. The river itself was less than half the size and depth of its own riverbed. The soil on the exposed riverbed walls was wet, barren and rocky, covered with dead fish and patches of water craving algea and dying water plants. The damage looked very similarly distributed, as though the whole source of water disappeared in less than a week. The river had several sources of water, mostly underwater streams and rain water. However, despite the continuous rain, the river was, drying...
Sky had a lighter, silvery gray color. Clouds were less close to the surface. The muddy ground was covered with plants, bushes and broken twigs and vines. With boots weighted by mud, the couple trudged along between the dim river and the jungle clearing.
At his first glance at the river, Ecrys looked, sad. "I see why they've gone wild."
The stench became very disturbing as they approached the drying riverbed. Rotting river algea and especially all the dead fish, combined with the dense humidity...
Clydia was silent, and a little off her mood with the mud, cold and rain. But she had the will to journey forward. The river, or the lack of it, didn't interest her much.
After twenty minutes of walking. They encountered something, peculiar.
A light blue, blurry image floated above the knee deep water. First they thought that it was a heat vapor or something similar, but once it moved around, their idea of this image changed quite fast.
Clydia approached Ecrys and prodded him on his arm. Whispered: "Ecrys, look over there." He did look and saw the image floating around, but it didn't notice them yet. He whispered back: "A ghost? Am I being stupid?"
"Let's see what happens." Clydia said as she drew her pistol out.
Pow! The blast echoed as a few flock of birds flew from the nearby trees. As soon as the shot was triggered and sent off, a wave of water from the river puddle raised as a wall to stop the bullet. The bullet went through the watery wall and a cloudy shriek was heard, barely. The wall of water blocked most of the noise.
Ecrys, somewhat dazzled by the sound of the unexpected blast, looked at Clydia, eyes open wide. The ringing in his ears went in a couple of seconds, only to be replaced by intense buzzing. Clydia already went towards the river to see better. "Oh, shit, no." he understood the buzzing and started running around. "No, nonono! No please." he ran along the river as a swarm of slightly large wasps attacked him, literally attacked him. Curt swears, cries and moans rose, he blasted his magic a few times to hit the wasps but they were quick and almost unending. Clydia noticed what she has done and looked mortified. She stopped right beside the river and wanted to help Ecrys. But then she noticed a fish man in the river. "Fuck, this isn't good." she looked really worried.
The wailing spirit and fish man clashed onto each other. Well, with a raised wave shielding it, the spirit went right through the clawed, two legged fish-like beast and the poor creature fell right into the puddle of water with great force, knocked its head on a rock in the riverbed floor.
Another flash of golden light gleamed briefly. Ecrys was still running around.
Clydia yelled: "I'M SORRY!" stopped for a moment and blasted her gun at the spirit which turned its attention towards swarmed, Ecrys. Halfway through, the spirit dissipated with another shriek. "GO IN THE WATER!" she added afterwards.
Ecrys shouted a genuine cry of pain this time, since before most of the wasps just pierced his leather armor, giving him needle point prods, but a few of them managed to get stabs on his hand shielded cheeks and neck. In pain and anger, a nova of light magic blasted out of him, roasting nearly all of the wasps and the rest of them scattered around, only to come back and haunt him later. Clydia halted about two meters near Ecrys as the light magic blasted. "Ecrys?"
He was holding his blood oozing, swollen neck and face. His leather armor was left with several holes and several 'an inch long' scratches. He facepalmed right into the muddy ground a few seconds later, amidst all the burnt bees. "Oh god" Clydia mumbled worryingly when she reached him.
Ecrys didn't wake up at once. Seems like the wasps had a venom that paralyzed him. She noticed the fish man getting up with an injured 'fish' head, bleeding blue blood. It started paddling towards the other side of the river but Clydia shot it in cold blood. Which, to anyone's surprise, attracted more wasps. "Oh no!"
Wasps swarmed in on Clydia before she could act. A light went off and the wasps scattered around. But the light was weak and casted with urgency, and it faded away almost instantly. It only scared the wasps for a few seconds, which was enough time for Clydia to blast the rest of them with a more focused, searing light magic. The rest of the mad bees fell on the ground, crisp and twitching.
Clydia turned her attention at the miserable looking Ecrys. Kneeling beside him, she held him up and put his head on her knee. He was partially awake and covered in mud, and had a slightly swollen face. "Uh fuffeth uf." The venom affected him quite fast, he looked dazed.
Clydia cast a continuing restorative light magic to heal up as much as she can. A minute and a half passed. Halfway through the healing process, Ecrys gestured her to stop and got up when she did. "Sorry, it tingles, quite itchy. Thank you, I feel better."
The swelling wasn't completely gone, but after carefully washing his face in the blurry river puddle, he looked fine... fine enough.
"So, it was a spirit... The mystery, solved!" he continued. The heal applied areas only tingled and itched, but his whole body was swarmed and he felt like he slept in an iron maiden.
"I won't do that again." Clydia was sweeping the mud off her boots and shins in the river. "I become more and more like you as the time goes."
"Ow!" he repeated, silently, every five seconds or so. He was trying to locate the serious stings and cure them by magic. "Fucking assholes of the animal kingdom. This and giant blood bugs, as the regular sized ones weren't annoying enough."
The clouds had started descending again. "It's better than a blade wound though." he added.
---
Stage: (5 / 7 ) : Fwend?:
---
The river separated into two branches and the other branch lead down and ended up connecting to the ocean. The connection point was visible from where the branches had separated. The other branch continued upwards a little and was blocked by a very large obstacle. But that was almost five hundred feet afar.
That obstacle was a couple of very large jungle trees that fell right into the river canal. The force of water was enough to move individual trunks along with the flow, but when all three or four of them stacked together at one point, the waterflow had to change its route.
The rain had increased its volume and started pouring down a few minutes ago.
"Trees have blocked the river." Clydia said when she saw what lied ahead. She was taking the lead this time.
Sitting in mud, under pouring rain, this younger looking fish man was reluctantly eating a dead fish. Its skin was scorched. Its one eye was black, like the rest of its kind, but the other eye was gray and squinted. Its claws were sharp but stubby.
The creature raised its head curiously as it heard Clydia's voice. The rainfall blocked most of their voices but the creature could hear better than a regular human. It threw the dead, slightly rotten fish onto the muddy water and got up to investigate.
Clydia and Ecrys appeared at the end of a corner of jungle bushes and the creature silently watched, recognizing the approaching couple as two humans. Its bad eye twitched.
"<grog>"
"What?" Clydia said. The rain poured badly but she could hear that voice. Then she noticed the little creature. "<grog> <grog>"
"What? I didn't say anything." Ecrys yelled, thinking that Clydia would have a hard time hearing him.
"Not you!" Clydia said. "Come here." Her hand was on his holstered gun, but she didn't draw it out since they were close enough to the creature and it didn't make a move. Ecrys appeared beside her.
"Ugh... The storm did this." he was looking at the fallen trees blocking the river. He hadn't noticed the little fish man yet.
"<grog> ... <grog>" the creature looked at the two humans with a wide open one eye, it was somewhat intimidated but it didn't move. Clydia didn't know what to say or what to do. Ecrys finally noticed the young fish man standing on its stubby legs.
He looked at Clydia but she looked as confused as he is. "H-hello?" Clydia asked to the young fish-like two legged creature, <grog>.
Its skin and overall condition, combined with its passive approach, made Clydia reluctant to harm the creature. Ecrys held his sword on his shoulder but he didn't intend to do anything either. They just stood there for half a minute, looking at each other and back at the creature.
"Fwend?" ... as soon as the words spilled out of the scorched fish man's mouth, Ecrys stabbed his sword in the mud ground and half crouched, a little shocked, tried to shrink down to the creature's height, which was slightly lower than four feet. Clydia repeated the word, though in a different manner, as in an answering tone. "Friend."
"Aww!" Clydia added as the creature grogged again. "Can we bring him along."
"Haha!" Ecrys' laugh faded in mere moments. "What?"
"<grog>" the creature added. "Fwend. ... river."
"This must be the 'genius' level in the culture of fish people." Ecrys said. Clydia was already trying to heal the creature's burned skin and bad eye, but couldn't make any difference on the texture. "I hope it does help... Uhh... Does it help?"
The creature squinted its normal eye, but you couldn't tell if it felt better or confused as the spell, supposedly, healed its scars.
"I guess..." Ecrys finally answered Clydia's question. "...it wouldn't hurt."
The creature gently pushed Clydia's healing hand away. "It always itches." Ecrys added. "Doesn't it."
"<grog>" the creature pointed at the tree trunks. At that moment, when they all looked, they saw another, different, larger creature in the water, bashing on the pile of tree trunks. They couldn't hear anything from there due to rain but they could see the creature.
"That can be a storm's work, but I don't see why most of the damage is only over there... And what the hell is that thing?" Ecrys looked around, the dryness aura was slowly spending his energy but he couldn't feel it. When the aura diminishes, then he will feel the overload of energy loss. The rain continued pouring down.
They decided to move towards there, weapons drawn, alongside a new ally.
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