forum The Castle Under The Hill // O/O // Closed

Started July 06, 2020 by @MarDeColores this is not it kids

tune

Nova huffed angrily at Kelton. It might not have been too hard for him, but climbing slowly out of the tree was their only way to get out. If he didn't want to wait for them, then he shouldn't have brought them into the tree in the first place. Nova looked around the forest, ready to "kick some butt" as Kelton had said. Unfortunately, they couldn't find where the bandits were. Nova looked at Kelton to ask where they should go, only to see him mutter something. The forest changed almost immediately, which was… weird. They'd ask about it later. "Okay." They nodded, eyes narrowing at the path. After all of this, they really wanted actual bandits, not a really tall child.

Kelton turned back to look at Nova, "I'm sorry for forcing you up and down a tree, next time, how about we try a smaller one?" Noting the death glare from Nova he rephrased his statement, "How about I try a smaller one, and you hang out at the base? Does that seem fair to you?" Not really getting any reaction from Nova he turned back around letting the forest lead them to the people. He quietly whispered a thank you to the forest, before turning back to Nova, "So do you want to see if they really are bandits then begin the attack? Or should we start together?"

Nova listened to what Kelton said, nodding slightly. "I guess. I like the last option the best," They said softly, following Kelton down his weird forest path. "I can go ahead," Nova glanced over at Kelton. Sneaking up on people was fun, and they were pretty good at it. They gave Kelton a big smile, then slipped further down the path. After only a few steps, the path turned into a large clearing. A group of people were standing in it, talking among themselves. As Nova watched, a tall man burst from the underbrush, looking disgruntled.
"They've disappeared! Into thin air!" He exclaimed. The circle of people opened up to let him in, bringing the total of people up to four. Not bad odds. Not the best ones, either, but at least they each only had to take on two people instead of more.
"They looked like adventurers, too, and those guys always have the best stuff," another bandit complained. "Are you sure you checked everywhere?" The bandits started arguing among themselves and Nova turned back to look at Kelton. They waved him over, then pointed at the bandits with a murderous look on their face. Finally, they gave him a thumbs up and an excited smile. Hopefully, he would understand that they were trying to say, come over, these are bandits and we're going to wreck them, okay? and not anything else.

Kelton nodded quickly brandishing his sword, he was ready to have a bit of fun with this. He quietly stepped over towards him making sure not to step on any branches or twigs for fear of giving them away. "Alright." He whispered quietly into Nova's ear, "I think that we can easily take them down, but I have a bit of an idea." He pulled away for a quick second and checked on the bandits again, making sure that this could even work out. "So, we could sort of do it from behind, begin to fight them one by one, and them not really know what is happening? Or we could just flat out attack." He knew that this wasn't the best idea to discuss their plans like this, but he didn't know what else to do. "What do you think?"

Then he got an idea, he knew that Nova didn't want him to kill the bandits, but at least getting them a bit disoriented would be a bit nice. He murmured another request to the forest and soon a few vines came down from their trees. Soon Kelton heard some nervous chuckles and soon angry words as the bandits began to argue among each other. Kelton turned Nova, "Go ahead, and I'll follow your lead."

Nova leaned towards Kelton a bit, not wanting to miss whatever he had to say. "Hmm…" They stared at the bandits, who were still arguing rather loudly. "I say we do a surprise attack! Jump out of the bushes, scream a lot, make them jump out of their skins, you know?" Nova looked at Kelton out of the corner of their eye, not really wanting to take their eyes off the bandits in case they moved suddenly. Kelton whispered something to himself again, strengthening Nova's curiosity even more. "Alright, let's scare them out of their skins!" Nova took a deep breath, then jumped into view of the group.
"Hey!" They screamed, a wild grin on their face. "You were the guys who were following us! You made me climb a tree!" The bandits turned around as one, surprise written all over their faces. Nova didn't wait for them to react and launched themself at the nearest bandit.

Kelton sighed happily seeing the men run off, knowing that they had truly defeated them. He leaned back against a tree cleaning his sword, " Now, shall we finally find that river? It sounds as though it is near." Without him asking, this time the forest opened another path leading to a brook. "I think that we should maybe take a bit of a break when we find it. Maybe eat something? Or just rest for a little, I don't know, but it would be nice to just be able to close my eyes and maybe take a quick nap in a tree? What about you?"

Nova grinned after the men, shaking their fist after them. "Ha, those guys weren't even challenging. Good fighting, Kelton." They nodded at him and sheathed their sword. "Yeah, let's. I agree with taking a break. It will be nice to relax after that, even if that fight wasn't that hard." Nova's eyes narrowed slightly at the path opening in the forest but decided to ask him when they both got to the river. "Yeah, you can nap in a tree. I'll stay firmly on the ground and keep watch, if you want. Watching the river rush by would be rest enough." They smiled at Kelton and skipped ahead a little bit.

Kelton sighed happily watching Nova run ahead, "All right, you do that. But don't come whining to me when you see how comfortable I am up in my tree!" He called after him as he ran after him. Soon they made it to the river. Just seeing the river calmed him, but he wasn't going to jump in or splash around in it just yet. He looked around for a nice tall tree and when he found one, hopped up and into it. Now he had a clear view of everything going on. Or well, the swaying of the trees. Feeling completely calmed and relaxed he closed his eyes and began to doze off.

"That will never happen!" Nova glanced over their shoulder, giving Kelton a teasing smile. "I guarantee it." The sounds of the river grew closer, and they soon made it to the banks of the river. It was perfect, with clear water rushing over smooth stones. They didn't even have to wander too far down the banks to find a nice little beach. While Kelton was sleeping in a tree, Nova planned to dip their feet in the river and throw rocks into it. Nova watched Kelton climb into a tree with a laugh, then sat down on a big rock near the river. They listened to the river for a few minutes, then started pulling their boots off. The river was freezing, and they gasped a little when the dipped their feet into it. They could only stand it for a minute or so before they had to take their feet out and rest them on a rock. But it was really nice all the same.

Kelton had started to really fall asleep when he heard a sharp noise, or at least he thought he did. Sitting up he looked around and saw Nova sitting over by the river, he sort of wanted to go over there, but from the look on Nova's face, plus their slight shivering, he decided it against it. He heard the noise again and turned around only to come face to face with an angry looking mother bird. "A-all right, I'm leaving." He muttered as he jumped down from the tree and over to Nova, "So, the water is cold? Right?"

After a few minutes of keeping their feet out of the water, Nova chanced another dip. Their feet froze even faster this time, and they carefully propped their feet on the rock again. "Yeah, it is. Stick your hand in and see for yourself." Nova turned and grinned at Kelton. "Or your feet. They turn into ice after a minute or so, but it feels really good." Nova turned their attention to the ground around then and selected a rock. It was time to throw all the rocks around them into the water. "By the way, what's that thing you do where you whisper something and the woods shift to help you? I saw you do it to find the bandits and it's pretty cool." They shifted slightly and glanced sideways at Kelton while still keeping their head turned towards the water.

((OOOOOOOOOffff soorry I am back now, I feel terrible about not repsonding to this))

Kelton decided to try his luck and stuck his hand in river, "You know what, it's freezing, but." He said as he began to roll up his pantlegs. "If you begin to wade, it's not as bad, and if you decide to go for a nice swim." He started to walk into the deeper part of the river, "Then it won't feel as bad." Him being the weird person he was then decided to sit down in the river, "Oh uhm that uhm. . ." He looked away nervously trying to think of something to say, or at least anything that would get him out of this situation, "I don't know what you're talking about, nothing happened when I did that, in fact I didn't do anything. At all." He picked a smooth stone from the river and began to toy with it, "Uhm, so the bandits, that was fun, it would be fun to do it again."

(You're fine! :)
Nova watched in slight awe as Kelton not only stuck his hand in the river, but then proceeded to walk into the river. Their mouth dropped open for a split second when he sat down in the freezing water. "Oh my gods, Kelton! Aren't you frozen?" Nova leaned forward slightly, letting the stone drop into the water nearest to them. He seemed really uncomfortable about the question they asked, but they really didn't want to let him get away with not telling them what it was. "It was something," Nova insisted. "It's fine if you have magic. I have some magic, if that makes you feel better." They didn't show it to him right then, but that was only because they didn't want to tire themself out too much. "Yeah, it was fun. We can totally do it again the next time bandits come by, and definitely once we get to the castle." They picked up another rock and threw it into the river next to Kelton.

Kelton chuckled shaking his head, "Do I look frozen to you? Come on and get in the water, it's perfect!" He got up and started to walk towards Nova, then when Nova continued he plopped back down into the water, "As I said, it was nothing, if I had magic - which I don't since it's not real - I would use it more often, but since I don't and it's not real, I don't know." He knew that he sounded defensive, but he really didn't want anyone finding out, especially since at times magic wasn't the best thing to have. He remembered when one of the elders of his village was accused of being a mage - he had always thought that it weird that magic was looked down on at times, he always thought that it was interesting, but that was besides the point- it was not pretty for that man. " Of course we can, I plan on having the time of my life at the castel." He said as he threw a stone near Nova.

"You're crazy." Nova shook their head and tossed another stone at the water near Kelton. Their eyebrows furrowed in confusion at his words. "Magic isn't real? It is real! Do you want to see? I'll prove to you that it is real." Nova held up their hand. This might end up killing them later on, but as long as they didn't run into anyone or anything too powerful that day, it would be okay. They couldn't believe that Kelton was denying the existence of magic, but it was sort of understandable. Some places really didn't like magic, but to deny its existence completely? It really was weird. Nova took a deep breath, then opened their hand, with their palm facing upwards. A tiny glow emenated from their palm, growing brighter until what looked like a star was hovering in the air. "See? Magic." Nova let their hand drop and the star disappeared with a pop. "Of course." They fixed him with a playful smirk and tossed another rock towards him.

Kelton groaned shaking his head, "Maybe magic is real for you, but for me, it isn't, alright?" He crossed his arms and looked away as Nova began to show him one of his tricks, "Look, I understand that you think that it is beautiful and such, but that cannot be magic, the thing simply cannot exist." Yet in his heart he knew that it could, it just scared him to believe. He doged another stone of Nova's and sighed shaking his head, "May we change the subject please? Perhaps to where we will stay the night? Or what we will eat, should we stop for the day and enjoy the beauty of the river?" He said as he stood up and headed over to one of the bushes, the situation was sort of upsetting him, "And perhaps we could catch something to eat, I think I packed some food, but the next town is about a days journey away." He lifted his hands to cup one of the flowers in his hand, but as soon as he touched it, it went limp and grey, "Or we could continue moving, that's an option too." He said as he jumped back from the bush, "What do you think?"

"Alright." Nova frowned but decided not to push him too much. He really must have been from one of those magic-denying places. "Well, we could stay here. It's really nice. And it's not like we're in a rush or anything to get to the castle, so a rest day– or several– can't hurt." They kicked at the water with their toes. "Yeah, we could try that. I bet we could get a few rabbits." Nova didn't turn to watch Kelton, instead keeping their eyes trained on the river. They were kind of annoyed that he was continuing to ignore the evidence that magic existed, but there was nothing they could do. Getting mad wouldn't help anyone. "I think staying here would be nice. I don't want to get to the castle quickly. We have to enjoy the journey, and that means we stop at anything and everything beautiful." Nova finally turned to look at Kelton, a bright smile on their face.

"Alright, I'll set up my bed then." Kelton said as he headed back over to his tree. He began to climb it with one hand, carrying his knapsack and sword in the other. He found another nice branch to lay his things then headed back to the branch he had been napping on earlier. Once he finished making sure everything was in order he jumped down from the tree and headed back to Noca, "So shall I hunt something for us, will you, or should we go together." He had already "forgotten" the conversation from earlier, so he was trying to make it seem as though nothing will happen, "And also, I do think that it would be nice to stay a bit here, it's quite, well quiet and peaceful here, and I quiet enjoy it."

"Okay." Nova continued to watch Kelton as he climbed up into the tree. It was kind of funny to watch. Maybe they'd try sleeping in a tree one day, but for now they would make do with the ground. "Uh, we could go together. Just in case we run into another group of bandits or something." Nova suggested, shrugging. They weren't making any moves to get out of the river just yet, though if Kelton started to, they would start getting out. "Yeah, it is really nice." Nova dipped their fingers into the river, then flicked them towards Kelton. "Even if the river is a little too cold to be comfortable. At least for me. I still don't understand how you can stand being in there for more than a minute."