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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 0:17:15 GMT -5
She hadn’t anticipated the storm. She had been flying back from the human lake—she’d been away for two and a half weeks by the time she’d gotten back over Ellesmera—when the wind began to toss her about. The wind tossed her about like spare leaves, and cautious of her long, thin legs getting caught in branches, she’d only flown higher, though the pressure of the faster, uninhibited winds in the clouds did its fair share of damage to her wings. She didn’t need to go to any particular place now though, she just needed to stay away from the ground, so she rode it wherever it took her and hoped she’d be able to land somewhere safe before the sun set. She hadn’t experimented with her mortality since the curse grew in her, but she didn’t want to find out now that when her elven body came back it died just as easily as it hit the ground from a thousand feet up.
Aoife was lucky though. The storm eased as the afternoon waxed and the dropping sun drew the storm further north, and it dragged her with it, depositing her on the outskirts of the city, not far from the pond she was secretly inhabiting. She knew its owner, the golden man, had seen her frequently, but in the crane’s body she didn’t mind. In the crane’s body he couldn’t ask her questions. He wouldn’t have reasons to. She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t offer him any of the advice that occasionally brimmed up from nowhere into her intuition. Despite her relative luck, however, by the time the crane’s body stripped itself away and left her elven self behind, with just the knee-length dress of feathers that grew from her skin to cover her, and still just as tiny* as she always was, both of her arms felt as though they had been wrenched out of their sockets. Aoife stood, still breathless from the hurt of the change, and went down to the pond to drink, her arms crossed and clutched closely to herself. She’d done magic before the curse but had never had reason to try it afterward. She didn’t even want to try anymore. But the faint chill creeping off the pond made the solid aches in her shoulders ease, so she stayed hunched over it in the new darkness and wondered if it would still hurt when the sunrise took her body back and she had wings again.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 0:32:00 GMT -5
The sun kissed the horizon as a golden speck once more fluttered down from the cliffs and sank in gliding leaps toward the small pond and ivy roofed house. Within a few feet the speck was identified as a large golden man tall with draconian features and wings that covered short distances. As he touched down on the roof, the sun sank below the horizon and the man dropped to his stomach. Below him was the girl-bird who he had seen in his pond and still he knew not what to think of her. Ertength crawled backward on his stomach and pulled aside a latching door in the roof. He dropped in and quickly turned on a light by lighting a candle.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 0:45:27 GMT -5
When a small light flared in one of the windows inside the golden elf's house Aoife cringed, certain she'd be seen. She always hid when wearing this form, to lessen the likelihood that he force her away for her invasion of his property under the guise of being just another animal. Even in the shape of an animal, she still thought, and felt, and formed opinions. It wasn't fair to him not to have told him what was living on his pond but she'd always been too afraid. Just because he spoke to about as many people she did didn't mean he'd understand. She couldn't bring herself to hope that they would have reacted similarly to being marked so different from others of their kind. She rarely thought that far ahead. And besides, people were terrifying just by being people, and huge, and slightly more capable of magic than she was. Or at least more reliably. She couldn't bring herself to ask him for help. He might make her leave. And a pain that she knew was better than a fright she didn't want to face.
So when she saw the light Aoife turned away, getting carefully to her feet and hiding herself among the ferns. There was a thick moss down there, even though it was wet now because of the storm, and it allowed her to see the sky without being able to see the house and fear it.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 1:17:02 GMT -5
Ertength looked outside just as the girl-bird walked into the brush and hid with fear in her every movement as she did so. The man sighed and pulled a small bowl from the cupboard which he filled with berries and cheeses as well as a loaf of bread. Before he could lose his courage, Ertength wrapped his wings around himself like a cloak and stepped outside with the bowl in his hands. Ertength walked toward the bushes and crouched down next to the short girl-bird. "Warmth in the house as well as dry bedding but here's some food. Don't worry, friendly outcasts are allowed here. Come inside if you want." With that, the golden man walked inside and looked back to see what the girl would do.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 1:42:05 GMT -5
She could hear him coming. That was the worst part. Worse even than listening to him crouch not far from her. She could smell the food in a wooden dish and feel the faint blush of warmth that came off of him. She knew that her skin would feel warmer to him if he touched it, but with it now touching just the air it felt cold to her. Since she didnt want to make him chase her by running away, she sat with her face hidden in her knees, until he went away. Only then did she raise her head, stuck between her habits and her intuition. Habit was to avoid all people as much as possible. But the intuitive part of herself that let her know when people were making the right choices told her that he had made a good choice. The intuition she couldn't apply to herself but his decision did, which led her to believe that she ought to follow him back to the house. So, after several minutes of debating with herself, she got stiffly to her feet, arms still clutched in close, and crept toward the house. The door was open so she skirted the faint light spilling out of it, still instinctually avoiding drawing attention to herself, until she got to the doorframe and stopped before the threshold , standing half hidden by the door, peeking worriedly in. She glanced around in a sort of fascination--she hadn't been in a house, or any sort of structure, since she'd been cursed fifty years ago. It was strange to consider going inside one again. After another few minutes of consideration, she hesitantly stepped through when he wasnt looking and sat crouched just inside and to the left of the door. She let her mouth drop open once as if to speak, lost her nerve momentarily and had to start again. "I hav--haven't....been in a house....in a while." She had often gone years without speaking, and now she suspected that the only reason that she had any voice at all--a hoarse, nearly in audible one--was because she had spoken a week ago at the human lake.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 11:03:43 GMT -5
Ertength looked up and smiled at the girl-bird who had walked into his house even though she had been trying to hide from it just a few minutes prior to now. The draconian nodded a few times in understanding and walked toward a chair which he pulled out and sat in carefully. "This house is always open when you need somewhere warm to sleep or just want to be inside. My name is Draconia of Ellesmera." More or less that was true since the Crags had been his birth home but he was raised with Oromis just outside the capital.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 11:18:25 GMT -5
Aoife hadn't been smiled at in years, she couldn't remember how long ago, but the marvel of it dimmed her anxiety, dulling the sharp rake of it against her insides. She'd never seen the golden elf from this close before, typically keeping to the back of his pond and being as birdlike as now came naturally to her. By now it was harder to be elven than to be birdlike. "I...don't get cold much." Her voice felt as though it faded in and out at will, trembling in the back of her throat, and she had to fight with it to use such an unused group of muscles. "Aoife," she offered her own name. "Or Feathered Lady....sometimes." Nobody had asked her name before. Or at least not in this last stretch of her life. They'd pushed their own name on her in their chosen ignorance. The warmth of the house was slowly seeping through her skin, a strange, summery sensation in the middle of winter. She shifted slightly, ducking her head to rest her chin atop her knees, accustomed to being asleep by now, with either her head under her wing or under her arm.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 11:53:56 GMT -5
"Well Aoife, even if you don't get cold I know that pond does. As a bird you do not have to hide from me." Ertength took a deep breath for he hadn't shown another person in awhile but slowly he unfurled his wings and pushed his hair away from his neck. Then he took the table knife and went to slash his arm but the blade shattered instead. "People call me Draconia because of my grandfather turning me into this. Trust me, sanctuary is hard to find when you let your guard down and suddenly people are trying to kill you. Aoife, my name is actually Ertength and I understand." He handed a blanket to the girl and sat there.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 12:20:24 GMT -5
"As a bird you do not have to hide from me." Quietly, she responded, "What about as a person?" That was when people usually wanted her, when she had the proper voice to be able to speak to them. She was safer as a bird than as this half-sized elf she mostly resembled. She had seen his wings before, of course. She had seen the way he could glide without truly flying, as she could. But she hadn't seen the way they shimmered in the candlelight up close. And she started when he brought the blade down against his forearm, only to ruin the blade. He brought her a blanket and, moving her shoulders as little as possible, she managed to pull it over her huddled self. "I was cursed," she explained of her own oddities. "How long have you known what I am?"
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 12:39:58 GMT -5
"I often times come back here from Ellesmera at sunset and land on my roof. About three months ago I saw you change into you elf form and so I started researching it. You are cursed but you are not the curse so you were intriguing to me. Tonight I saw you and decided to talk to you. And you do not have to come in here to talk so if you want just show up as a crane or as an elf. I will not judge either way you choose." Ertength grabbed a small piece of bread and began eating while he waited for this girl to talk again.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 12:50:29 GMT -5
Aoife blinked at him curiously. "Why not land on the grass?" Especially after her long years in the wilderness, as tough as her feet had become, planked wood felt unnaturally uncomfortable to her, strangely rigid. But as much as it tired her to realize that he'd known about her for three months and she hadn't known of it, she comforted herself in that she'd spent nearly ten years secluding herself at his pond and he hadn't seen her change before. His offer felt strange to her--why would he want her around if she was just a bird again, and all she could do was sit and watch, not even speaking?
She sighed then, since her shoulders weren't feeling any better. She'd left his proffered bowl of berries out on the moss because she wasn't sure she could move her arms enough to pick it up. Mustering her courage, she asked, tentative, "Do you....is there anything you can do to...help me? I flew through the storm. My shoulders ache." Trying to hold them perfectly still against herself made her muscles cramp terribly, and wasn't helping anymore.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 13:06:03 GMT -5
"My roof is covered in vines and moss which makes it soft enough to land on. Plus I wear boots that make my feet protected from discomfort like solid wood planking." Ertength frowned as Aoife asked if he could help with her shoulders and shook his head. "Because of my appearance I no longer have control of magic. It is stronger but wild just like dragons. I can siphon energy into you until you heal your shoulders but that's all I can do to help." Ertength looked apologetically at Aoife while hoping that he could help her. If only there were more he could do.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 13:12:23 GMT -5
To his apology Aoife just shook her head. "I can't use it anymore either." She paused, thinking, looking around the modest kitchen as if it would produce something to assist them. "Can you wrap my arms to me so they don't cramp? I don't need them unless I'm traveling anyway." Speaking was coming easier and easier now that she was doing consistently, but she still spoke almost silently. Even in her past life she'd never been loud, had always been inconspicuous and easy to overlook. She looked a bit too unique now to be mistaken for anybody to look over and forget about, but she hid well enough that she didn't mind.
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Post by Brenton on Jan 3, 2014 20:55:53 GMT -5
Ertength looked around his small house and walked over to a shelf that held wraps for injured wings. He picked up a roll of the tan crossweave fabric and walked back over to the girl in the blanket who was in pain. The draconian elf unrolled the wrap and started slowly. Perhaps you should rest for the next two or three days and left your body recuperate. Maybe there's a cure for this curse or something. He finished and looked at Aoife to see if she felt better. Hopefully this girl would get better and not try to go somewhere injured just to die.
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Post by Harbor on Jan 3, 2014 21:21:45 GMT -5
Allowing another person to approach her went against everything Aoife had habituated herself to since her curse. She stood, letting the blanket fall away, so he could reach around her and didnt loom over her quite so much. But she held herself as still as possible with her arms clutched together before her, carefully not cringing away when he wrapped the cloth around her. She truly didnt mind having her arms and hands bound and useless. Since she ate and did everything she needed to to live as a bird, she didnt ever use her hands, and she only used her arms as wings. "It's wearing off," she told him as he tied off the wraps firmly. She was about the same size in this body as her other body, so it should hold after the change. "I don't need my arms or wings unless I'm going somewhere, and I don't want to go anywhere again anytime soon." Her vacation hadn't gone all that well so she felt no need to go anywhere again anytime soon. She would miss flying, but she didnt need it. She'd be all right. She bobbed her head in a shy indication of gratitude. "Thank you." She was able to give him a tentative smile when she relaxed her arms and found them securely held against her. [/b]
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