forum At War // OxO // Closed

Started September 19, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

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.

(great! Yes I can, no problem!)

A few days later, Nik was in the training ring, hard at work. He did his best to stay in fighting shape, even if the fighting might be over. He was wearing a sleeve-less shirt that showed the soulmate mark on his shoulder; it had been there forever, but had never turned the colors that would signal his soulmate. He was currently had at work, sparring with Aron using bars rather than swords. That way they could whack each other and walk away with nothing worse than bruises and sore spots. The two circled each other, silent as they waited for openings. Both young men were fighting fit and front-tested, among the best. Aron was no longer fit for front-line duty, as he'd undergone too much trauma and now had battle-shock. Nik was physically unfit, after the damage to his left leg, but he still fought masterfully.

After inspecting Nikolas’ soul, Kaylum was more curious about him than anything else. Which was good, he supposed, since the whole point of this was to put an end to any feelings of animosity. For the past few days he’d tried to catch glimpses of the Kevran prince fairly often outside of peace negotiations, whether he’d be in his body or outside of it.
Now he was getting a full view. He sat in the training ring, playing with his dreadlocks in discomfort. He wasn’t here of his own volition, rather because his father suggested it. Something about actually getting to know humans through actual socializing and common interest. Truthfully, he’d rather be in the meadow or his tent, reading. It was warm down down here at the border, so Kay had gone shirtless, both because of the heat and in case Xiomara wanted to practice her fighting with him. The draping silks he usually wore just weren’t practical here.
Xiomara was in front of him, wrestling with another Tesh soldier in their dragon forms. The sounds of flapping feathers, growls, and snorts filled the air as they tumbled, glossy black feathers and gleaming pearlescent scales flashing before Kay’s eyes. It was easy to keep track of what was going on, though. Xiomara was winning, having a knack for trapping her opponent with her wings, then pouncing at the right moment. The soldier managed to push her off a few times, to his credit.
Some yards away though, Kay could see Nikolas fighting with his own soldier. Some of the disappointment from earlier disappeared as he watched; despite the human’s wounded leg, Kay could see the truth in the stories the soldiers told from the war.

All of Nik's guards were, in some way, technically unfit for duty. Lieze, well, had undergone far too much trauma while a POW. Errol was missing a hand, and wasn't a good fighter in any case. He was a healer. Ryker wasn't Kevran and had never been in their army in the first place. Aron had served on the front lines for far too long, resulting in the battle shock he still dealt with. Nik didn't mind any of their issues; he'd picked them all himself. He wanted his guards to be men and women he could trust, and he trusted all four of them with his life.

He lunged, swiping at Aron. The wooden bars bashed against each other as the two fought. Aron, since he was bigger, had a bigger stick, to correspond with the size of sword he typically used, whereas Nik's was a bit smaller. Both were fitted to their body size, though the weight balance was obviously different than their swords would have been. Nik was all too aware of the Tesh prince and shifters on their side of the ring, but did his best to ignore them. It was a little bit harder for Aron, for whom the sounds of the Tesh fighting brought back far too many traumatic memories. Nik knew that, and as a result was going just a little bit easy on Aron, to give his guard some time to adjust to the sounds. If Aron needed a moment, they had signals that they used. Thus far, he had not, and so the two continued to clash and draw back, clash and draw back, circling each other and waiting for an opening.

Physically, they were almost perfectly matched. Aron was a little taller, and broader in the shoulders, but they were well-matched despite that physical difference.

Overall, the fight was fairly brief. Xiomara won, managing to keep the soldier down for more than five seconds. The two separated, bowing their heads and stretching their wings to each other as a sign of respect and sportsmanship. Here it was easy to see the differences between them when their forms weren’t blurring together. Xiomara had her dark, void-like body contrasting with her bright, teal colored eyes. The soldier was easily lighter in color, a muddy bluish-purple with lighter speckles and off-white belly. An old scar wrapped around his shoulder and reached over his ribs, though it didn’t seem to play any part in his defeat. He was smaller than Xiomara though, which may have played that part. His eyes were a glittering amber, revealing his satisfaction with being on the losing side; it was was best to take it with dignity, especially in front of the prince.
After the soldier took his leave, Xiomara approached him, her feathers fluffed up in triumph. Kaylum gave her a standing ovation.
“Wonderful job, Xiomara,” he said, his ears perked up and a glitter in his eye. “You were always the best.”
“Oh, maybe not the best,” she replied humbly, but her tail swished back and forth with pleasure. “Do you want to have a go?”
“Uhhh…” he hesitated, his gaze drifting over to the Kevrans. The more he watched, the more it seemed like they were dancing instead of fighting. The repetition of the clashing and drawing back was almost hypnotizing. “I don’t know.”
“Might as well.” She also looked over to Nikolas and Aron. “Try your luck to impress them.”
“Impress them?” He raised his brow. “And why would I want to do that?”
Her eyes seemed to smirk at him. “Better impress them than stare at them forever, right?”
Kay rolled his own eyes. “I don’t really care, but I suppose.”
He got to his feet and shifted, then shook out his body. “You know I’m going to lose,” he said, lifting his head in an almost haughty way.
“Well, just remember what I’ve taught you,” Xiomara chuckled. “And always handle your failures with dignity.”

(how should they figure out that they're soulmates? Like who should notice first?)

Once the two Tesh were no longer fighting, it was easier for Aron to slip into his element, and the two really began to duel in earnest, then. It was a spectacle, if a different sort than the two dragons had been. This was swordsmanship by two fit young men who both knew exactly what they were doing. Even if Nik was used to dual wielding, he was just as used to using just the one sword; he excelled at both. Aron's weapon of choice as a heavy broadsword, which, while the stick was different, was not too different so as to handicap him. None of Nik's other guards were currently in the room; it was only he and Aron. Both were starting to sweat more, foreheads slick and shirts sticking to their backs and chests.