HG - Introducing a new story I've been working on set in the same world as the others but in the ancient past before a certain calamity screwed everyone over. I've already written a lot of scenes but for the moment I'm just having fun with it
At that time of night, in that area of the city, it wasn’t uncommon to see an unresponsive person being hefted along by someone else. Calian didn’t even need to avoid the main streets. No one gave them a second glance. He still made sure to give the crowds a wide enough berth. There was, after all, still a few differences between the drunk and the dead.
By the time the neon red signs of the Realm of Bliss came into sight, the man’s body felt as heavy as lead and Calian had barely avoided stumbling a few times. It was a little strange to be bringing an unconscious person into a brothel. Suspicious even. But who would notice? The entire street was filled with folks pursuing their individual desires, too entirely absorbed with the ecstasy of the night to give a single shit who was bringing who where.
Calian pushed through the open doorway of the Realm of Bliss, nodding to a few familiar faces who tactfully ignored the lolling corpse of a man draped on his shoulder. Someone even held the back door open for him which he was eternally grateful for. Once he stepped into the stairwell and the hubbub of the main room became muffled as the door swung shut, he eased the body against the wall and took a moment to catch his breath. He stretched out his arms and shoulders, eyeing the twisting staircase that gleamed at him under the pale, sickly yellow lights. It was always preferable that the body be as undamaged as possible. There was always a chance for the skin to rip or the flesh to tenderise if he dragged it up the steps. Carrying it was always the best option although, naturally, not the easiest. With a quiet word of encouragement to himself, Calian returned to the body and hefted it up onto a shoulder so that the arms and legs dangled off the ground. Already feeling the weight, Calian wasted no time in taking the first step.
It was a good few minutes before Calian finally collapsed onto the third and final landing. Drawing a deep breath, he steadied himself and began furiously rapping on the old wooden door. It wasn’t too late in the night. He would likely still be awake. Sure enough, before he even reached twenty knocks, the door eased open. Calian grinned. Oscar’s eyes darted from Calian’s face, to the body, then back again. Wordlessly, he stood aside to let Calian in.
He hurried over to clear space on the table. Calian set the body down with Oscar’s help to arrange all the limbs properly. A few rogue papers and knick knacks tumbled to the floor but Calian paid them no mind.
“Phew!” Calian exclaimed. “This is not how I was expecting the night to go.”
Oscar seemed surprised. “It wasn’t?”
“Nope! Usually I’m better prepared than this. But not all surprises are unwelcome. I’ve just been working on a new serum.” Calian rubbed his scaly hands together eagerly. “Let’s give it a go.”
Just for fun, here's some art I have of Oscar and Calian just to introduce them. As a treat. Just this once.
RoW - Keran and Kado's first conversation (i know i post a lot of them but i enjoy writing their chemistry so much so that's just how it is. also i love keran he's just a delight to write dialogue for. ok enough justifying my life choices)
“So you’re the one everyone gets so rabid over?”
His accent was strange. It softened all the words and excluded sounds that really should have been there. The meaning of the words escaped Kado.
“Pardon?”
Keran seemed stunned before he narrowed his eyes. “…So you’re the one everyone gets so rabid over?” He repeated with a great deal less enthusiasm and bite.
It still took a moment for the words to become familiar but when they did Kado couldn’t help but smile. “Apologies. Craision isn’t my first language either,” he said mostly in defence of his lack of comprehension.
Keran sneered a little. “You’re awfully polite for someone I’m trying to kill.”
“It’s just how I was raised,” Kado replied with a sardonic grin, hoping he heard correctly. He hefted his sword, eyeing the Southerner curiously. He was small in both height and breadth but the air around him was anything but. He held himself with what Kado could only describe as arrogance and he boldly stared Kado down. There was no fear nor hesitation in that gaze and he was watching him closely; analysing him. Reading him like a book. It felt as if his eyes were piercing into Kado’s very soul. It made him uneasy. Keran seemed to get sick of their staring contest and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know what I expected. I imagined you taller.”
“Disappointed?”
To Kado’s surprise, Keran grinned, revealing two sharp little fangs that poked into his bottom lip. “Extremely.”
RoW - Kado sees the sea with a younger Kado and Hunter a few years before they become brothers. I'm sorry there is no comprehensible sequence of scenes here just trust that fun, lighthearted Kado is in the first half of the story and broody, edgy Kado is the second half
“Kado! Stop running so fast!” Hunter gasped between making apologies to the people they rushed past.
“Hurry up! It’s right there! Do you hear it?” Kado called back. He didn’t slow and received scathing looks and a few choice words from bystanders. He didn’t really take note. He was going to see the ocean!
Kado nearly skidded into a wall as he took a bend and the streets suddenly opened up into a huge wharf. Only then did Kado come to a stop, his breath coming in rasps. His eyes went wide as he gazed at his surroundings. There were merchant stalls in clumps with the strong smell of fish permeating the air. The air was pungent with what Kado guessed was the smell of the ocean. The edge of the wharf was webbed with a maze of stone docks where workers flitted about. Ships dominated the skyline, their masts making the sky seem crowded.
Hunter finally caught up. There was a slight wheeze in his breath as he clapped a hand on Kado’s shoulder. “By Caloris, Kado, you can really move sometimes.”
Kado ignored him, instead clasping him by the arm and dragging him towards one of the longer jetties that stretched far out on the water. “Come on!”
Hunter managed an exasperated laugh as the two of them dodged workers and crates, dashing down the jetty.
“It’s such a deep blue. And look! Look at the size of that iceberg!” They both make it to the end of the pier and Kado fell silent.
The water stretched on and on. There was a clear, straight line between the sea and the sky. Chunks of ice drifted in the water and a cold, salty breeze blew in. Sea birds cried out as they scavenged for scraps of meat. Smaller boats were dotted about but nothing interrupted the horizon. Nothing except for the tall shape of a ship the like of which Kado had never seen before. He had seen river boats and he had seen Meidanese sea ships in books before with their huge wooden hulls, dozens of oars, and giant, sweeping sails. But this one had a strange silhouette. Kado squinted at it and only looked away when Hunter tugged on his sleeve. He had plopped down on the edge of the pier, his legs dangling off the edge. Kado joined him. The strange ship drifted slowly closer. It was huge. At least three times larger than the biggest ship currently at port. It had at least three tall masts and thrice as many sails.
“Hunter…” Kado said slowly and his friend looked down at him with a questioning hum. “You don’t think that’s…a Southern ship do you?”
Hunter followed Kado’s line of sight. “Oh, yeah. It is. Impressive aren’t they?”
Kado’s face broke into a huge grin and he jumped back up. “Do you think there are Southerners aboard? I’ve never met a Southerner before! Hunter! We have to see it dock!” Kado’s words fell into indecipherable, excited babbling. Hunter opened his mouth to speak before a voice cut them both off.
“There’s no time.” The both of them turned to see that Mara had managed to track them down. She, too, was gazing towards the distant ship. “Besides, Southerners are not welcome in Dumoros. They will be restocked and sent on their way. Even just that has taken many years of diplomacy.”
Kado deflated. “Why? The Southerners have all sorts of new stuff. Just look at their ships!” He turned back to watch it once more.
“I believe ‘new’ is the key word here. Come boys, your time to run amuck is over.” Mara turned and strode back towards the shore.
Hunter stood, brushed off his pants, and turned to follow. Kado hesitated, his eyes still glued to the approaching shape of the foreign ship. The other two had gotten several paces away before he finally rushed to catch up.
HG - A snippet with the airship crew before their first meeting with Calian
“Alright!” The captain called out to them all, voice raised to be heard over the wind. Everyone quieted and looked towards her expectantly. “We’ve got a few passengers for this flight. They’ll be boarding in the next couple hours. Does everyone know what that means?” There was silence and a few exchanged glances. Kipps looked around expectantly but didn’t seem surprised. “Behave yourselves. Yes? Does everyone understand?” She nodded encouragingly until everyone nodded along with her. “Great! Jim?”
James cleared his throat, looking down at a clipboard. “We’ve got…Amity Manwar, daughter of a business owner in Indoxus, failed arranged marriage.” He glanced up to eye them all. “Let’s leave her alone,” he said pointedly as he flipped the page. “Next is Elias Osborne, travelling musician, first time in one of the big cities, no one important but, regardless, no funny business.” He flipped to the next page and paused. “…Final passenger. Calian, doctor. No last name, no address, no ID. No other information. Just Calian. Mercy, are you sure this is a good idea? This is extremely shady.”
“'Course. He’s a decent doctor. Doesn’t even ask for payment.”
“That doesn’t comfort me.” James snapped the board shut. “Thoughts, captain?”
Kipps shrugged. “If he pays, he sails.”
Once they were dismissed, Mercy got back to work checking the ropes. Brandy found their way over and leaned against the railing, watching her. Mercy ignored them until they finally rolled their eyes.
“So you just happen to know this random guy who happens to be in this city and happens to board this ship?”
Mercy sighed through her nose. “I dunno what you’re getting at, Brandy.”
They shrugged as if it were obvious. “You’re hiding something. Is this…a lover perhaps?”
“No,” Mercy snorted. “He’s not my type. Nowhere near my type.”
“Okay, okay. So what’s the deal then?”
“I got acquainted with someone in my travels a while ago. People who travel and know each other help each other out. I barely even know him, we spoke for maybe a minute but it’s just the way we do things.” Mercy threw a heap of rope into Brandy’s arms and smiled. “Satisfied?”
Brandy groaned. “You’re so boring.”
RoW - Kaedo and Hunter met just before they began their rotori training and were running from a pack of beasts. They ended up helping each other although this was when Kaedo was pretty much useless so Hunter was sorta forced into the role of older brother from the very beginning (they don't actually become brothers for a number of years)
As they slid and skidded down the slope the shriek of a retaetra echoed up the valley as it crested over a lip and began darting towards them.
“Hunter…” Kaedo warned, his grip tightening on Hunter’s arm.
Hunter turned away from watching for pursuers and noticeably tensed at the rapidly approaching visage of claws and teeth. He slammed his heels into the rugged rocks beneath them succeeding only in making the both of them flip and begin tumbling.
“Hunter!” Kaedo yelped still not letting go. “Hunter, Hunter, Hunter! Do something!”
“I’m trying!” Hunter yelled back, scrabbling with his bow and barely holding onto it as it bashed against protruding boulders.
Kaedo couldn’t clearly see the retaetra as the world spun round and round aside from its brief blurred shape. He pushed past the numbness in his arms and wrapped them around Hunter’s torso. “Stop spinning!” He yelled into Hunter’s ear.
“You’re not helping!”
Hunter was struggling to position the bow correctly which didn’t even have an arrow knocked. Kaedo reached around to Hunter’s half-closed quiver where several arrows still rattled around. He ripped it open, releasing the remaining arrows and just barely grabbing one as the weight of both of them slammed onto his arm for a moment. He handed it to Hunter and flung his other arm out to steady them. The retaetra was upon them. Kaedo thought his heart would jump out of his throat.
A short ‘fwip’ sounded by Kaedo’s head and the retaetra’s collected dive crumbled. Still holding onto Hunter for dear life, Kaedo watched as the beast flew over them and collided with the rockface above. Hunter released a disbelieving grunt. Kaedo let his breath go. It didn’t take long for him to remember that they were still sliding faster and faster. That lip the retaetra had come from got closer, revealing the valley that plunged deep into the earth.
“Uh, Hunter?” Kaedo managed. “That edge…”
“It’s a cliff,” Hunter finished for him and redoubled his efforts to slow them down.
The edge was approaching too fast and Kaedo managed to shriek one last, “Hunter!”, before the cutting stone beneath him vanished. For a moment, he was falling but he was soon yanked to a stop. His shredded palms burned against his grip on Hunter’s arm but he had no intentions of letting go. The land far below leered up at him past his dangling feet. He looked up.
Hunter had wedged his other arm around a bump in the surface of the slope, his bow still held firmly in his hand. He glanced down to meet Kaedo’s eyes and offered a shaky smile. “I got us.”
RoW - A little clip from an exchange between Keran and Mara (I will mention that Kaedo's name's spelling has been altered and I can't be bothered changing it in the older posts. Pronounced 'kai-doh')
Keran turned to see that Mara had picked up a piece of parchment. His heart lurched as he realised it was the page he had found in that abandoned base. The one written in what he knew to be Senkrenese in that elegant, flawless hand that he knew belonged to Kaedo.
“This is Senkrenese poetry,” she said as her eyes followed the script in that up-and-down pattern that language was written in. “Where did you find this?”
Keran fought the urge to fidget and instead turned back to what he was doing, trying to keep his voice neutral as he said, “I just found it…lying around. It looked interesting.”
Mara was silent for a moment, reading. “It’s uncommonly written. The poet is a skilled composer. I imagine even some native speakers couldn’t understand what is being conveyed here. Many of these words are elaborate and obscure with the most niche of meanings.”
Mara didn’t really talk about things that didn’t interest her. Keran couldn’t help but wonder what exactly she found interesting about that writing. Could it be that she enjoyed Senkrenese poetry? Or did she too recognise that handwriting?
“What does it say?” Keran asked, hoping that Mara would interpret his own interest as poetry related as well.
“This poem evokes passion and longing. Pain. Distance. It would take me some time to translate it fully and even then much of the meaning would be lost. It certainly wouldn’t sound as pleasant.”
By then, Keran had turned back around to face Mara and had stepped closer to better see the page. “But you can read it, can’t you? What’s it about?”
Mara returned the page to the table. “The thing about Senkrenese poetry is that it’s never really ‘about’ anything. It’s a way to share emotions, feelings, and sensations. To the ignorant, it can read like nonsense. This particular piece refers to some sort of figure. Whether this figure is a source of creative inspiration, a caricature of creativity, the manifestation of creativity itself, or a person who is renowned for their creative talents is uncertain. Only the composer knows this.”
“I thought the point of Senkrenese was to be unambiguous.”
Mara met Keran’s eyes. “There is never any point to natural language but to communicate. How this is done depends on centuries of growth.” She didn’t wait for Keran to lower his gaze first. She gave one last glance to the poem and then left.
RoW - Keran being a poetic lil guy (describing Alanys to someone from Meidas)
"Sand plains and sand mountains. That's a lot of sand."
"Yes. But it's not all sand. There's green, there's rock. There are plants that grow in the sand just as there are plants that grow in the snow. There are the red sands of the east and the golden sands of the west. There is stone painted in red, orange, and white. There's water of the purest blue. There's speckled yellow shrubland, twisting, rolling gorges, and escarpments like fortresses. When the sun touches the horizon, it sets the world on fire."
Also, random non-story-related but world-related thingy that I liked the vibes of. Likely spoken by Moukib to a mortal
Yours is the world at the end of time. Here at the edge of nothing, life goes on, fractured, unbalanced, unstable yet existing still. There is nothing else left but here. It all died uncountable years ago. In some twisting of fate, you are here now, standing at the precipice of cold, quiet emptiness. When this world's time in this reality comes to a close, all will be still and nothing will come after.
