Unearthed Legacy

[Nayt]

There was a problem on Xibtrae's end. Namely that she could barely hear Val. It was like someone was talking in the distance, the same as it was when Xibtrae failed to notice that Val was speaking. The woman heard a whisper that wasn't nearly strong enough to capture her attention, but she wasn't ignorant to how these things worked--she knew to listen for the faint sounds, but it was so difficult, even when she was hearing them in her mind. It was like someone was shouting for Xibtrae from miles away . . .

She couldn't understand anything Val said. She knew something was said, or at least suspected that something was said, but the initial shock of the event had faded, and so her ability to hear Val faded. It would likely be some time before she actually heard the girl, but that was fine. For the time being, Val was safe--and that was the goal. It was the whole reason Xibtrae had suggested such a thing, as it seemed to be the only way to keep her safe. Being outside was just a byproduct; Xibtrae would have been content all the same to have something to actually talk to. In the reverse situation, it would have worked, but as it was . . . well . . . Val wasn't nearly powerful enough for her voice to be heard naturally in this situation, and other forces at work kept the two of them from communicating well, at least for the moment.

"Ic willa . . . cunnian lihtan," Xibtrae whispered once more, finding the same difficulty in using her voice that she did in moving her body, "Lician forþyldgan . . ."

I will try to find a way to release you; please be patient until then. Again, the woman's words were understandable to Val, who wouldn't have comprehended a single word of Xibtrae's speech now that she was getting into much more complex sentences with longer words, on which no Common terms had been based.

But that would have to be taken care of later. For now, Xibtrae had to concentrate on the situation at hand. She had a route out, but couldn't move well enough yet to use it--and she had enemies all around her, not yet attacking, but if she didn't get used to this fast (and though she was trying, she was still stumbling and hunching forward to keep herself balanced, to avoid falling face first into the floor and all), she was going to be in serious trouble . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Val, indeed, was not a very powerful person--especially compared to someone like Xibtrae. She was vaguely aware of her lack of power, but she had no idea that it had any bearing on the situation at hand; she could hear Xibtrae clearly, and the fact that she continued talking to her led her to believe that she could hear her as well.

"Okay," she replied quietly. With the danger passed, the adrenaline in her system was wearing off, and she was finding herself thoroughly exhausted once more. Trapped though she may have been for the moment, she was alive, and for that she was eternally grateful.

The bright side to there being no way out was that there was no real way in, either. So she allowed herself to drop her guard and, wandering over to the bed, decided to lay down for a minute. She wasn't going to sleep--it wasn't her bed, she figured. But maybe just rest her eyes for a bit...

Unfortunately, there were a few problems still facing Xibtrae in addition to the darkness watching her. The light spell was quickly fading, and it wouldn't be long before she was in pitch blackness. Also, she did not have Val's memories of the place, and therefore had no way of knowing which way led to the hole Val fell through, which while not an option for an exit for the young mage was certainly accessible to someone of Xibtrae's abilities.

[Nayt]

A sense of urgency . . . why did she feel that so suddenly? Xibtrae breathed quick, deep breaths, still keeping her body hunched forward. The light was starting to fade. If it was out completely, the only way she'd be able to perceive these creatures would be by looking at their eyes and feeling those spiritual voids inside of them . . .

It wasn't so much that they were literal voids of spirit, as they did have their own individual spirits, but there were supernatural functions within their bodies that allowed them to digest spiritual energy. How flesh and blood digested was a different story, and one Xibtrae didn't know. She could recognize these little spirit eaters, and knew well enough that if they all got a hold of her, she wouldn't be helping any young girl out of a trapped state.

She had to think. Xibtrae knew she had limited movements at the moment, and that it wasn't going to get any better for the time being. There was only one route out, too: up. Every corridor that seemed to matter was blocked off by fallen debris from some time ago.

The light was fading . . . not a good sign. If these creatures were anything like she could imagine when she perceived them, then they'd be tenacious in the dark. They had pure black bodies and deep red eyes, leaving the woman to assume they'd be in their element without light near.

So, only one option was left for her: jump. Xibtrae leaned her body back, standing up straight, no long hunched over. Twelve feet, that's how high up it was. The woman just had to clear twelve feet. Well, she could try. Xibtrae jumped, but not high enough. The muscles in her legs weren't responding to her mental commands, and though they were moving much better than they were just a few seconds ago, it just wasn't enough. She'd have missed her mark and thrust herself deeper into shadows had she not reached for it, and caught herself: one hand clutching the edge of the hole, while she struggled to get the other up the to take hold also.

Which didn't leave her well off. Rather than standing, she was dangling. But Xibtrae was closer to the route of escape, and that was good enough for the next few seconds. Hopefully . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

The darkness had been waiting patiently, having been promised that time would weaken their prey. For some reason, though, this did not seem to be the case. As they watched, the meal got more lively, not less, and by the time she reached the upper level of the ruins they were growing worried, sensing that their prey was close to escaping.

By the time Xibtrae reached the room Val had fallen into, the light floating near her was barely present, only illuminating a few scant feet in front of her. Fortunately, it was no longer needed--a pillar of daylight shone through the hole in the ceiling.

Kept in check by the knowledge that its prey was dangerous, when Xibtrae failed to clear the jump required and left herself dangling, it saw its last chance. Shades bubbled up from the shadows cast by the sun, as though emerging from a black sea, and in only a few seconds practically covered the floor of the room. Were she to loosen her grip, the maw would likely tear her to pieces.

However, they could not reach her, though several tried to unsuccessfully jump at her legs. They were rabid, uncontrolled, but all that would stop as soon as the larger one reemerged, and strode purposefully towards her. Xibtrae had to act fast, as his humanoid form would have no problems reaching her and pulling her down into the darkness...

[Nayt]

She had let out a gasp as she caught herself, and strained vocally as she brought her other arm up, clutching the edge of the wide hole in the ceiling. For a moment, Xibtrae let herself hang there, dangling above a sea of black death threatening to swallow her hole if her grip failed her.

That was still a sobering sight, though. Xibtrae looked down to the best of her ability, only to see the wave of darkness below her and the maws that wished to brutally dissect her. If only they could have been more like the smaller shades, the one she had inadvertently killed . . .

It definitely restored the need to keep moving, even if she hadn't caught the image of the humanoid one in the corner of her eyes, slowly making his way towards her. As she was, this wasn't a fight she'd be able to handle, and it was imperative that she get out of there as quickly as possible. Originally, she felt that it was a situation she could handle if she needed to, but it had become clear to her now exactly how impossible of a dream that was. Maybe she had gotten herself in a little over her head too quickly . . . but that was fine, at least if she could get herself out of it. So long as she could, then it would wind up being a fruitful endeavor, someone young was saved, and that girl wouldn't be trapped forever, either.

So, Xibtrae strained again, shutting her eyes tight as she tensed every muscle she could, trying to pull up with her arms, but that wound up becoming a failed attempt. She almost fell into the black wave, and let out a cry as pain shot through her body. But that wasn't going to stop her--she needed to get the hell out of there, and fast! So, as she tried again, vocally straining with each tense of her muscles, she brought her legs up, pushing her feet against the ceiling as a means of pushing herself up, and once she was high enough, she was able to get one arm up, and then both arms--and then, she had to crawl and pull herself out, which was much easier said than done, and marked scrapes and scratches all down the front of her body, from chest to thighs, but in the end, she finally managed, and after she was far enough, rolled onto her back, away from the hole, eyes shut, breathing heavy--Xibtrae was exhausted by that alone.

[Zach Kaiser]

Seeing her continued efforts to escape, he increased his pace, and finally arriving under her he leaped, stretching a single obsidian arm out in one final attempt to grasp his prey.

Xibtrae would feel his touch--fingers that felt like velvet just barely grazed her foot, but found no purchase, and then she was up, above ground, in the sun and out of their reach.

One by one at first, and then en masse, the shades sank back into darkness, until only the single humanoid one remained. For a minute he stood still, bathed in sunlight, examining his hand; and then, he stepped into the shadows once more, and faded away.

On the surface, with the shades having retreated, there were no immediate threats. There was, in fact, nothing--even the sounds of wildlife were absent, presumably already devoured by the soul-eating creatures. But for now, while the sun was in the sky, she was out of danger--at least from them.

[Nayt]

When she was under the hole earlier, she was bathed in sunlight, but hunched over, she couldn't do much more than see it on the ground and feel it on her skin, and given the urgency of that situation, she couldn't worry about it that much. Now, though . . . that necessity to act was slowly fading away, and every second that passed by that included her not experiencing a shadowy and painful fate were seconds to be appreciated, until finally she felt as if the threat was either gone or temporarily leaving her alone.

Perhaps they didn't fair well in the sunlight?

Sunlight . . .

The woman winced again and groaned as she shielded her shut eyelids with her forearm. It had been the first time she had been in the sun for a long, long time, as well--and though it wasn't going to effect her body any different than it did before she was trapped (a sun tan, for example, was strictly impossible for her, but she could burn nonetheless), she simply wasn't used to dealing with the heat and the sensation it gave off. It also didn't help that this sun was much more intense than what she was accustomed to . . .

After what may well have been minutes of stretching, shielding her eyes, and making her immediate dislike for the sun of this world concrete and unshakable, she finally sat up. The air out here was much cleaner; it reminded her of home. What she once called home, that is. Standing came with less difficulty, too, but if she didn't get used to this moving around thing again, she might wind up in the dark, by herself, still struggling to get out of these ruins. With one hand casting a shadow over her eyes, she peered around, examining her surroundings. It was so strange, to see something new . . . so strange, yet so beautiful.

But alas, she couldn't worry about that now.

Now was the hard part: finding direction. Xibtrae didn't know where she needed to go or how she was going to find out how to swap places with Val again, but she was determined to, and would weakly walk onward, hoping for some semblance of an escape from the ruins, and perhaps some way to civilization--if it even existed on this world . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

With the scenery the same in virtually all around, any direction was as viable as any other. Xibtrae had never stepped foot in this land; the only thing that indicated current sentient life in the area was Val herself.

It would be hours of wading through forest and ruins before Xibtrae would come across anything of note. It was a clearing, which in itself was slightly odd, but more importantly in that clearing was the first things she could consider landmarks.

A pair mindbogglingly large doors. These were likely not too helpful in and of themselves, but in the distance she would spot a lone human figure walking around them...

[Nayt]

Trees . . . Xibtrae's curiosity drove her forward. She expected poisonous orange fruits to hang from each and every tree, and the greenery had her afraid that perhaps this planet had encountered the same fate as her own--poisoned to the core by those viral vegetations . . .

But alas, they were not what she expected. Xibtrae had been through a forest before, she vaguely remembered them--it had been so long! A leaf was plucked, and she was able to stare at it with a smile. For several moments, she spun it by its stem between her fingers, felt the texture of the leaf, and finally allowed herself a moment to enjoy her surroundings. Before they became poisonous, she always appreciated the flora of her world, and it was a pity that her last memories of them were as killers. This almost felt . . . redeeming.

She progressed onward, nonetheless, ignoring any semblance of a path and simply walking on the same direction she had originally established for herself. It wasn't long after that she encountered a rather large clearing, and in the distance, she could tell that she was actually located on quite a considerable feat of elevation. Nonetheless, Xibtrae focused on the seemingly man-made structures ahead.

Doors, gates--overgrown and collapsed. They couldn't sustain their own weight in the End, and fell in on themselves, but passable in all respects . . . with difficulty. It took great ingenuity to pass in or out, or a companion with such ingenuity who could guide one along. The fallen gates were embedded with two large masses of stone, natural obelisks into the sky, which faced eachother with some distance betwixt them. They were overgrown with weeds and crumbled in spots, unable to withstand the test of time. Even the great magic involved with them that continued to flow forth and recycle itself even after their collapse couldn't hold it up; in another few hundred years without maintenance, they would likely be no more.

Now, it wouldn't take much more than a small explosion near either of the two masses, gates into them included, to shake them into nothing, and render them entirely unusable.

Xibtrae couldn't use them--not that she knew how, or even knew what exactly they were. The woman could feel something odd about them, but she couldn't figure out exactly what. Spiritually they stood out, her sixth sense for Qi told her that much, but beyond that . . .

There was another body there, though--someone moving around, investigating. She needed to be fast, or else the individual might leave. She didn't know them. It was a 100% guarantee. But he or she might be able to help her. Unfortunately, Xibtrae couldn't call out to the individual; she was far too exhausted to do much more than hunch over, grab onto something for support, and cough in exasperation when she wasn't walking as quickly as she could. She could get there, though--she had the energy for that, but nothing more.

If the figure didn't leave by the twenty minutes it took for Xibtrae to arrive, he or she would find the slender, naked young woman of curious genetic heritage walking with one side pressed against the side of one of the natural stone structure, too occupied with gasping for air to speak.

[Zach Kaiser]

As Xibtrae approached, she would find that the figure disappeared from sight several minutes before she arrived--though she would still be able to feel a human's spirit nearby.

If she weren't so busy catching her breath she'd probably notice that he was cautious of her approach, but upon seeing her close up, he let out a cough of surprise. His initial plan had been to sneak up on whatever was approaching, but he decided that wasn't necessary here.

From around a corner he suddenly appeared--a man dressed for travel, wearing a leather vest over his shirt, a pair of brown, sturdy pants, and a belt that was, nearly all the way around, covered in small knives.

He had a lean face, but possessed some lines that put his age in his thirties--otherwise, he could easily pass for a man in his late twenties. Short black hair was hidden under a full brimmed hat, and a small goatee hung from his chin. He grinned and appraised her with red eyes--a rather unusual color, if she knew anything about humans.

"Well, I have to admit you have me at a dilemma here...see, on one hand, a beautiful, naked woman approaching me is always a welcome sight. On the other hand, I'm forced to admit that a beautiful naked woman approaching me here of all places is a bit suspicious. So before I can consent to show you what I have to offer, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask what you're doing here."

[Nayt]

Xibtrae was far too tired to pay attention to all of her senses at once, and by the time that she arrived to find that the figure was gone, she was filled with such disappointment that, for the first time in a long time, she felt the urge to do nothing more than collapse to the ground and give up for now. Before she could commence the act of collapsing, though, someone spoke to her, speaking in a tongue she could barely understand. The woman lifted her eyes to look upon him, a hazy, groggy look in her dazed and pale eyes. She looked blind, with irises seemingly too light for her eyes to take in any light. Xibtrae could only make out a few things he was saying . . .

One of them stood out, though.

Naked . . . naked . . . . . . . it took her a moment to understand what the man was saying, but once she did, Xibtrae finally realized her own nudity. It just hadn't been an issue that she was all that concerned with, having been outside for the first time in thousands of years and all. They did have customs on her world, so long ago--they wore clothes, much like humans seemed to wear clothes here in this world, and for much the same reasons. They bred in her race, on her world; people had children and families, sexual attraction remained all the same, albeit a bit different from an evolutionary preferred-trait standpoint (perhaps allowing for the most emotional attachment between couples, for there could be no genetic preferences due to a seemingly random outcome with children), and it was considered a social indecency to tread through a town with no clothes--and the only thing Xibtrae had on her at the moment were bracelets of sorts on her wrist, something she had yet to notice.

As soon as the revelation came to her that she was, in fact, in the nude, she dedicated both arms to covering her breasts, while one leg was devoted to crossing over the other, ideally to cover all bases. Her head was hung low and she stared at the grass before the man's feet, her dust covered porcelain white cheeks flaring a deep crimson.

Xibtrae wasn't going to be looking up to him again for some time, feeling a deep well of shame left untouched for so long at a boiling point fairly quickly. If she could have run away, hid somewhere, or smacked him for looking at her with such a lustful stare, she would have--but right now, that just wasn't an option.

"Ic eom losian . . ." she whispered to the ground, her voice naturally soft, but meek due to a lack of use for so long, and her current fatigued state. The untrained ear would be incapable of comprehending the speech, but if one listened intently enough, it sounded like she was saying I am lost.

[Zach Kaiser]

Her reaction, he was forced to admit, disappointed him. "You're naked and wandering in one of the most dangerous places on the planet--you bloody better be lost, because otherwise you'd be insane. Ah, I suppose it was too much to think you were some forest nymph who spotted me from afar and fell for my dashing figure and was coming to bring me back to your nest for several days worth of passion."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he tried to decide what to do with her. On one hand, there was still no guarantee that it wasn't a trap of some kind, or that she wasn't dangerous of her own merits, but he figured anyone who'd spring a trap relying on the goodness of his heart was far too misinformed to be of any threat.

And if a woman was dangerous...well, that was just part of the thrill.

"Well, I guess I can't just leave a pretty bird like you to fend for yourself, can I? Hold on a second." He went back around a corner and pulled out a backpack, which he ditched when he saw her approach so he could move more quietly.

"Here ya go," he said, tossing a rather plain shirt and pair of pants at her. "Though believe me, you'll look much better without 'em." He wasn't going to turn away while he changed, but she ducked around the corner to do it he wasn't going to follow her, either.

[Nayt]

It was surprising when he threw something at her, and she nearly fell over when the two articles of clothing. Xibtrae let out a gasp, a soft squeak of sorts (though not as high pitched as a teenage girl's), and shut her eyes tightly, tensing up as she expected there to be some sort of pain coming from these somethings hitting her in the stomach. When there was no discernible agony, she slowly opened her eyes and looked down to the ground. So that's what the man was talking about . . . what he was giving her. What he assured her that she'd look better without. These were statements that she got the general idea of, having to fill in the blanks based on the similarities between their languages. Needless to say, she found it difficult to appreciate that sort of comment this early.

"I-ic þancie . . . þē . . ." she whispered. Now matter how much she didn't appreciate the comment (at the moment; it would have likely made her self conscious otherwise), this man was being kind to her, and she wasn't one to deny that sort of behavior. This time, it sounded as if she had said I-I thank . . . you . . .

Xibtrae didn't bother to hide in order to put the clothes on. She couldn't. She wanted to, that was for sure--she didn't want someone staring at her naked body like this. It was uncomfortable, and made her feel like even less of a person than she had originally felt . . .

But she couldn't make it. If she had tried to go around the massive rock formation to a private place to regain decency, she wouldn't have been coming back out from around it. Xibtrae was convinced that the next twenty steps or so she took were going to be her last for awhile. So she begrudgingly let her arms fall, and with great difficulty, bent over to grab the shirt--or the pants. Right, the pants first. They were going to be the most difficult part. Balance was the key, here, and she essentially had to lean all of her weight in with her shoulder against the stone wall, while getting her legs into the pants one at a time, and finally tugging them up without dying of exhaustion. They were pretty large on her, large enough that she was going to need a belt to make them work--because she wasn't going to be able to hold them up all the time.

Nonetheless that allowed her to move onto the shirt, which she lifted and tried to pull over her head, only to find that not holding onto the pants let them fall back down to her ankles. With the very top of her head, mainly just a bit of hair, even, poking out of the collar, she grumbled as she bent down to grab the sides of the pants and pull them back up. Perhaps they should have been done last. This could be done, though, she just needed to use the wall to hold her pants up! Right! This was doable!

Xibtrae felt a surge of confidence, shut down when she realized how silly this must have looked, her essentially having her back to the wall, leaning forward, her butt up against the wall, and weight pressed to the wall as such--keeping her pants from falling down again. This worked until she got the collar of the shirt down to her horns, at which point she could go no further. She tried tugging hard on the shirt, then sliding her arms into the chest of the shirt and trying to pull it down collar first from the insane, then trying to pull the collar back so it could clear those horns protruding from above her ears and out beyond the back of her skull . . . but there was nothing she could do about it.

One final attempt saw her standing up straight and leaning her head back, which would have worked if she kept with it, but removing the pressure placed on her pants caused them to fall again. At that point, the struggle was more than enough than Xibtrae could take, and she allowed herself to slide down to the ground, back pressed up against the wall, the collar of the shirt still wrapped around her forehead.

". . . ic āgiefan . . ." the young woman whispered as she sulked, sitting on the ground where she didn't feel confident enough to move from anytime in the near future. This time, her statement didn't sound anything like a Common phrase.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Eh, you're welcome...I think."

It was difficult to say whether he should have found the sight amusing, arousing, or kind of pathetic--in the end he felt a mixture of all three, and while he didn't understand the actual word she used, he got the gist of what she meant.

"Alright, alright, here," he said, happy for an excuse to get closer to her without, hopefully, upsetting her. Most humans would probably find the horns and skin tone a bit off-putting, but to him they were exotic--a plus to be sure.

Carefully, as he didn't want to rip it (it was his, after all), he slid her shirt over her horns and to her head. Lest he push his luck, he decided that she could handle it from there.

"Let me see if I can do something about those pants." Unfortunately, he only had one belt, and he wasn't about to hand it over--it carried his weapons, after all. But if there was one thing he was good at...well, it was throwing knives, but if there was a second thing he was not-quite-as-good-but-still-pretty-good at, it was improvising.

He went back to his pack, this time retrieving a length of rope from it. He eyed her up, this time not (just) to admire her, but to estimate how big her waist was, before cutting an appropriate length of rope.

"This'll have to do for a belt," he said as he tossed it next to her. "Much as I like seeing a girl's pants come off, it makes traveling a bit difficult."

[Nayt]

With the man's help, Xibtrae was able to lean her head back so her horns were closer to her back, rather than just sticking out relatively parallel to the ground. That seemed to be the easiest way to get that done. During the process (which she wasn't initially prepared for), she clamped her thighs together for modesty's sake, as the pants were down by her ankles, unable to be held up by anything other than her bare hands--that she had on her at the moment, that is. The man had the utilities to fix that. Once her head was through (and God help her if she had to reverse the process without assistance), she sulked again and stared at the ground, feeling more and more pathetic by the second. There wasn't a moment in her life that she could remember prior to this that she needed someone to help dress her. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and while the man could find humor in it, Xibtrae could not.

Xibtrae was a fairly thin person, and were it not for bust size, she would have felt as if she were partially swimming in the shirt. As it was, though, the shirt was fairly tight against her breasts, but loose everywhere else. This was decidedly uncomfortable, but it was better than being shirtless.

When presented with rope, she guessed what she had to do with it, and pulled the pants back up to her waist again. Xibtrae threaded the rope through the belt loops--something she was familiar with in the past, though not with something so uncouth as rope--and tied it in front, content that it wouldn't fall again.

Xibtrae repeated one of her earlier statements: "Ic þancie þē." But for what felt like an eternity after the fact, she was quiet. She didn't make eye contact, she didn't stand up, and she kept fooling with the shirt to try and make it less tight on her chest, failing to find a way. It was a shirt made for men, not women, and didn't account for the curves of the female body. This was excruciatingly disappointing. After she finally came to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to fully escape indecency, Xibtrae finally declared in a melancholic whisper, "Mīn nama is Xibtrae . . ."

Well, he'd seen her naked--he might as well at least know her name . . .