forum At War // OxO // Closed

Started September 19, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

The Oré family seated themselves at the table, and the kings and queen “got down to business.” Kaylum switched between paying attention and zoning out, understanding that this was important but at the same time getting distracted with playing with his dreadlocks or fiddling with his earrings.
At first, the discussion was a little awkward as the monarchs realized none of them could remember why they were fighting in the first place, and thus couldn’t find a solid basis for the peace treaty. However, as the discussion continued and they began to speak of each country’s needs and issues with each other, they began to develop an outline for the document.
(I’ve been so busy dnjdjhdhj)

When the conversation turned to the battles fought, that was when Nik chimed in every now and again, mainly to show Kevra's point of view of the battles and reasoning behind them, that sort of thing. For the most part, though, the prince remained silent, allowing the monarchs to speak. The reason behind none of them knowing the true reason was simply that the war had been going on since Theodore's grandfather's time; the exact reason hadn't been passed down, each country telling their own, highly differing version of just what, exactly, had gone wrong.
(hsgkdjhfb yikes)

Kaylum also joined the conversation occasionally, but it only if his parents asked him to provide additional information on something. He didn’t know more then anyone else in the room, and perhaps even less, so he mostly talked about more abstract subjects than anything more related to what everyone else was talking about. Kay didn’t want to admit it, but it made him feel rather clueless. Not for the first time, some resentment stirred for his parents at shutting him away for so long.

(do we wanna skip to the end of the negotiations ?)

Nik was still mostly quiet, studying the Tesh royals whenever they spoke. He hadn't ever seen them before; their presence was new. So he took the opportunity to study them. If these peace talks failed, if war reignited, he wanted to have a good sense of who they were and what they would do.

(Sure)

The queen was the one who talked the most out of all of them, of course, her head bobbing and her earrings swinging with it as she spoke. The Tesh king was very quiet, almost as quiet as Kaylum was. Despite this, the prince could sense he was telepathically conversing with his wife even as she spoke aloud.
While Queen Lisette led their army, King Auren handled everything to do with legislation and administration. Out of the three of them, he was the most familiar with their own people and knew what they wanted, so he would speak aloud whenever that subject was brought up.

King Theodore, without a wife to help, handled Kevra's point of view mostly by himself. Nik spoke up about military matters and affairs, since he had had a lot of involvement in that, but Theodore was still king. Nik was only the prince, and hoped to remain prince for a while yet. He didn't want to lsoe his father.

At last, the negotiations of the day had come to a close. The Tesh monarchs had gone to their own tent for further discussion on their own, leaving their son to wander the grounds with his bodyguard.
The rules were simple. Never separate from your bodyguard, never wander into Kevra’s side, and never, ever astral project. Kaylum was used to these rules, except for the fact that Kevra was close enough to wander into. Only thing was, he had a tendency to break these rules when he was bored.
He and Xiomara had walked some ways away from the camp, out into the meadow it was situated in. They talked some about pointless things, some about the things said during the peace negotiations, but only a little. Both of them were quiet types, and enjoyed calm, gentle silence. Only the small sounds of dusk to be heard; the chirping crickets, the occasional howl of a coyote, and the whispers of the grass.

Nikolas was playing cards with his guards at the edge of camp. Errol, Aron, and Lieze were playing, while his fourth guard, Ryker, was off doing something else. Nik sat with his left leg outstretched, his right tucked beneath. They bartered with acorns rather than real money. Caps were worth five, the nut itself ten, and the full acorn twenty. Nik was laughing, setting down his hand. "I win." he said, scooping the pile of bartered cards towards himself.

At some point, Kaylum and Xiomara shifted into their dragon forms. His parents hadn’t said anything about flying. They flew over the camp, greeting other dragons they came across, then circled back to the meadow.
There was silence again, but this time Kay was restless. Not even going back to camp and reading the books he brought along sounded appealing enough. He was in the mood for something more rebellious. He just had to hope that Xiomara would watch over his body and not panic.
He stretched out his limbs, his bones popping and wings revealing their full plumage. Laying down in the grass, he faked a yawn, sharp teeth surrounding his curling tongue as he did so.
“I’ll just lay down for a while,” he murmured. Xiomara nodded, her dark, glossy feathers like ink on the grass as she laid next to him.
Resting his head and closing his eyes, he let his body and spirit separate. When his sight returned, he saw he was looking over his dragon body, lying limp next to his bodyguard. Upon looking closely he could see a bright, bluish-green ball burning inside her like a star. Seeing it gave Kay some reassurance he didn’t know he needed. She must be content and happy now, the way it burned so brightly like that. She had told him that she wished for this endless war to finally come to a close, and now it was finally happening. Perhaps that was it. She had hope.
He looked to the sky, a few of those tiny souls making their first appearance. Kaylum liked to think they were the spirits of the soldiers who had died for Tesh, looking down from above. And speaking of the dead, he looked around to find spirits everywhere. Some looked human, some draconic, some he couldn’t even make out. There weren’t soldiers just in the sky, they were down here too.
Lifting his wings (or at least, he thought he had wings), he took off towards the Kevran camp. His business was with the living, not the dead.

Aron groaned. "You're cleaning me out, you dick." he complained, laughing and shaking his head at his prince. "Absolutely destroying me."

"Not sorry." Nik shrugged, gathering up the cards and shuffling them, dealing them back out to his guards. They weren't p;laying for money, not at all, and so none of them really had anything to lose. That was a good part of the reason Nik was perfectly comfortable with cleaning them out. None of them would lose anything but pride and ego to him.

"You never are." Errol commented in his calm voice, gathering up the cards in his hand. The healer only had one; the other had been cut off some time ago, though not by the Kevrans. The Tesh had been the ones to cut it off, when Errol was captured as a prisoner of war. Despite being a healer, they had still cut off his hand after he had been caught stealing extra rations.

On the Kevran side, he could see that the land here was more flat and hilly. All Kaylum had ever known were the sharp, tall mountains of Tesh, and so he found this flatland rather creepy. It just stretched on and on, into the horizon.
The Kevran prince was easy enough to find. Even in human form, Kaylum could pick up a scent like his. Although, like this, the things of the physical world were somewhat muted, the scent of that man had a certain flavor that Kay had never detected in another human before. Granted, he hadn’t met many humans before, but still. It at least stood out from the swarm of Kevran soldiers he’d seen from earlier that day. Even now, Kay could distinguish him from the hundreds and hundreds of bright and sparkling souls of the humans from the shapeless forms of the ghosts that haunted this place.
Humans souls looked rather strange to him, like glowing blobs that shifted and morphed like clay being shaped by invisible hands. Shifter’s souls, however, always looked to be singular points of light, shining like stars that changed color or dimmed or brightened. What did this mean? He wondered. Were human souls more malleable than shifters? Or perhaps shifters’ souls were more easily broken, while humans could merely be changed? How ironic.
He wasn’t really aware of the physical place he was in now. All he could tell was that the Kevran prince’s soul was before him, incased in a body that faded in and out of Kay’s perception, near three other humans’ souls. It was another glowing blob, but something was wrong with it. Kay tried to see, but Nik’s physical body must’ve shifted in a away that let his soul slip out of Kay’s reach. He moved closer, moved as if to touch it, but he stopped. He saw it now, a dark infection on the glowing thing. A dark star, a black hole. What was it? The prince did not seem that ill. Kay had seen things like this before, but they were closely tied to physical or mental ills. This seemed different somehow, but Kay couldn’t name why.

Nik laughed quietly, and they got to work playing their game, the young prince unaware of the scrutiny his soul was being subjected to. The stain was, in all reality, the influence of the curse. The monster. The guards laughed again as Nik continued his winning streak, cleaning them all out again, scooping their acorns into a pile in front of him and grinning cheekily at them. The prince's card skills had been honed on the front lines, against men for whom it was their only entertainment, sometimes for years. So he had learned quickly how to be quite good at the game.

Kaylum mulled over the strange state of Nik’s soul until he felt a tugging sensation in his navel (or at least, what he thought was his navel). He paused. Had it really been too long? He made to leave, only to hear a shout to his right.
Dragon scum! How dare you invade our land!
Kay turned to see a human ghost materialize near him, their face twisted with rage. From what he could make out, they were wearing a foot soldier’s armor. There was a gash in the ghost’s side, a fatal wound that could never heal.
Am I really invading your land if my physical body isn’t here? he asked.
That tugging sensation again. He had to get out of here anyway— and fast.
The ghost lunged toward him, and Kay dodged out of the way. He flew into the air and, not looking back to see where the ghost was, quickly crossed the camp and over the Tesh border. He found his body just where he left it, but Xiomara was in human form, her hands on Kay’s dragon body. She looked to be urging him awake, on the verge of discovering that he wasn’t just asleep.
He immediately entered his body and opened his eyes, gasping for breath. That was close. Too close. He shifted to human form, Xiomara’s hands landing on his shoulder and torso in her attempt to steady him.
“Your Highness, are you alright? I’ve been calling your name for the past five minutes, but it was like you were dead.” Her eyes were bright with concern against her dark skin.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m fine, I’m fine, must’ve been really tired.”
She stared at him, then sighed. “Alright. Let’s get going before the king and queen start wondering where you are.”

(do we wanna just timeskip or do you have something planned?)

Lieze leaned back on her hands. "I'm out." She said with a laugh, scowling over at Nik. "You've cleaned me out of all my acorns, bastard."

Nik flashed her an unapologetic smile. "Not sorry." He said again, organizing his pile of acorns and caps, then handed the deck to Aron to shuffle and deal.