Take stock of strength and sanity

[Rhaxta]

What were these blurs?

Blobs of colour in a chasm of white light.
Primary, mostly. Red and blue, very primitive.
Then it grew and spread like a rash. Spreading, becoming more and more sophisticated. More shades of red; like light shining on blood. Blues of ocean and sky. Greens of leaves, grass and trees. Brown; brass and copper.
The patches of colour were stretched through the white as the world twisted. The colour thinned into threads, something told her they shouldn't break, keep hold. It was so difficult. All her world were these colours.

They knotted, and suddenly swarmed back into dense blocks, took shape, and became two other figures. Then the ground flowed beneath her, and the sky twisted above. She was blinded as things focused and took detail. She saw only a second of it and before the relief of escape even touched her; grey spots appeared before her vision and blocked it all. A sharp piercing in her ears and she heard a thump that shook her to her core.

''Ow..'' came a murmur. She would have panicked if she had the energy to do so, she felt like she was about to die. The skin on her head where she had landed had split on a rock and blood was lacing into her already dark brown-red hair. Her mental and physical exhaustion was all she felt. She hadn't stopped; never mind slept, for days. Unless it involved that poison, but that was a struggle to shake off and she felt worse for the experience. Her endurance was something else but now her energy had run out. She had to use magic to defend herself and Arkantos in different bouts, to chase him. She felt like she had passed through each of the seven levels of frozen hell.

After laying still for a few long seconds after the fall, Rhaxta murmured. ''M'fine..really...just..just leave me here for a few... I may have over-done it.''
Her tired mind touched against Rash'agal's; probably more forcefully than intended though not threateningly. Like a baby deer on fresh legs stumbling clumsily into it's mother. No words passed, there was a vibe of trust but her distaste for the situation was obvious.
It wasn't exactly one of her.. stronger moments. She didn't know what the rider would do and she didn't like the idea of being unconscious if he proved menacing. Then again, she wasn't even entirely sure if she could even trust Arkantos right now, considering.


(Yay post. <: Idea is they are south of Feinster along the river going south from Leona Lake? Close to Surda. let me know if anyone wants to change. I left it open)

[dannylam4]

Everything around him was swirling. His senses were going crazy, all perspectives of light and color beyond anything he could imagine. He tried to close his eyes, but he wasn't even sure if his eyes were even open. For all he knew, everything around him was just his mind attempting to compensate things it couldn't comprehend. He wasn't even sure if he was breathing oxygen any more.

As everything slowly returned to normal, Pike stumbled forward, his eyes slowly recovering as if he had been spinning for the past few minutes. He fell forward, the metal coil from his arm shooting forward and turning into a spear. Pike dropped to his knees, stabbing the floor with his spear. The air around him turned cold as he took a deep breath, sucking in the cool air. He exhaled deep, standing up and straightening himself. "I think I've had smoother rides on Forest when he was drunk..." Pike said, rubbing his head as his spear returned to it's coiled position.

[Arkantos]

Arkantos was last to arrive. As he fully appeared, he made a point of sending a few death-spells backwards through the flux before collapsing it. The resulting blast on the opposite side should have been enough to kill most of the people in the immediate area, even if they were warded. The experience of teleportation itself was odd, but Arkantos didn't really bother paying much attention to it, focusing instead on trying to reach a commune with the spirit that inhabited him. Its thoughts, however, were totally alien to that of his own, though some emotions and other primitive functions could manage to get through.

"I don't suppose anyone can actually discern our location, then?" Arkantos asked noncommittally as he attempted a brief form of cleansing meditation to offset the loss of energy. Then he noticed that Rhaxta, sprawled out on the ground. He chuckled lightly, then more genuinely at Pike's comment. His armor creaked as he stretched and shifted in ways that he couldn't have done previously if he had been human. Satisfied that his body had not suffered any undue duress, he trotted over to Rhaxta's prone form and lifted up her head, gently pouring a skein of wine he had down her throat. It was cold to the touch, but not surprisingly; Arkantos didn't mind the use of energy to maintain the cold temperature of his wine, regardless of the heat.

"Here, drink this. I've enchanted this wineskin myself. It should aid in your recovery. Once you can move again, we can continue our return to Varden high command." he murmured to Rhaxta softly. Turning to the third member of their party, he called out to him in a slightly louder, more commanding voice,"Rider Pike, I assume you are currently aware of the Varden's location, yes? I suggest we do all we can to gain our bearings as fast as possible."

[Rhaxta]

The rich, bitter taste of the wine cut through the haze in Rhaxta's mind. She murmured and licked her lips free of the stray beads of liquid that had fallen from the enchanted skein. Some energy returning, she half opened an eye and peered at Arkantos.
''That's your fault, you know,'' she muttered. ''a girl only has so much energy to go running around after an insane friend possessed by something even more insane. Circles, I tell you. '' Rhaxta leaned up a bit and took another swig from the wineskin. She gave a cheeky grin. ''What? It's good''. Arching her back, Rhaxta placed her feet on the ground and bent, rolling to her feet in a much more elegant manner than how she got to the ground in the first place.

She looked to the rider, then to Arkantos, then around where they had appeared. Trees, grass, sky. She sighed, then stopped herself. She snuffled slightly. ''Does the air smell different to you two?'' She shook her head, unable to tell what it was, though it was familiar. She shrugged it off for now.

''I don't know this place..but if you guys have no magical means to find out, it will be dark soon. If it's clear we may be able to get our bearings from the sky.'' Rhaxta spoke, looking up to the setting sky as she did. Finally, this nightmarish day was nearly over. She ruffled a hand through her long red hair and was about to speak, when something growled and interrupted. ''Uh..'scuse me..'' she said, patting her stomach. ''If we do have to wait 'till nightfall, I am going to go hunting. I could actually eat a stag, and I imagine Rash'agal hasn't made you totally immune to hunger, Arkantos?'' she said, flashing a wolf-ish grin.

[dannylam4]

Taking another deep breath, Pike tried to catch to scent of the air around him as Rhaxta had noted. "There's always a difference in smells between the city and the forests," Pike stated, tasting the cool air. "No blacksmiths filling the air with smoke, no piles of dung left on the streets by horses... I'm not sure where we are, but I at least know we're far off from Urû’baen."

He bent down, brushing his fingers through the grass, hoping to catch some fresh tracks of any animals that were distinct to the area, or even any animals they could have for dinner. "This would be a lot easier if Forest were here..." Pike said, standing up. "I haven't a clue where we are... If we don't figure it out by sundown, at least the stars should be able to tell us where to go."

Holding out his arm, Pike's coil of metal ran down his arm again, forming a bow and arrow in hand. "I can hear some running water nearby... a little to the west, I think," Pike said, turning towards that direction. "Camping there should at least guarantee us some fish, or some animals taking a drink, if we're lucky."

[Arkantos]

Arkantos folded his arms regretfully, shaking his head slowly as he paced methodically in the direction Pike had indicated.

"I'm sorry, Rhaxta. Much as I'd love to...go hunting with you, I'm afraid I'd ruin it entirely. Have you not noticed the fact that Shades aren't exactly beloved by nature? If an elf, say, saw me, they wouldn't ask whose side I was on. They'd merely sense me, and attempt to kill me in the swiftest, most brutal way possible. Such is the price of power. However, that doesn't mean I can't contribute. If you'd like, I can at least use a long-range sensory sweep to see what we can find. If neither I nor Pike, here, can locate anything with magic, then we'll leave it up to you to hunt. As for me, I think my talents will be best served in creating a temporary defensive camp; I still have plenty of energy to spare." He said to Rhaxta, not a little sadly. It seemed that, for the first time, he was realizing just how drastically his life would change now that he was one of the hated and feared race of Shades that walked the face of Alagaesia...

[Rhaxta]

Rhaxta watched as he folded his arms and paced away. She snorted, slightly out of anger for her own stupid suggestion, and out of anger over the prejudice that seemed to revolve in each situation in every world. Foreign or common, important or insignificant.
''I'm sorry my friend, I simply did not think. Though I do not want to risk you, I feel that any elf wouldn't stand a chance as they'd be quite taken aback by seeing me by your side,'' she murred. ''They'd probably be more outraged at me being a 'traitorous' half-elf for simply being around you.. I've heard the full breeds are quite proud creatures.''

She gave a slight sigh, her shoulders falling slightly. ''I may have pretty much exhausted my magic, but it is about time I exercised my old skills. Thank you though, my friend. I suppose I shall meet you folks by the river when I have some success.'' she said. Not waiting for much of a response, she nodded to the pair before turning on her heel and starting at a gentle bound, and disappeared through the curtain of foliage.

After a few minutes, Rhaxta realized she wasn't actually paying attention to the track, or indeed anything she would need to focus on to track and hunt. She skidded to a stop and snapped out of her peculiar day dream. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. Finally coming to grips and beginning to observe the trail with a focused mind, Rhaxta began to trail any nearby game, ears and eyes alert and working, though her mind struggling on a different trail of thought.