Complete Eastern Brisshal First Find, Last Keep

[Siondhe]

The woodlands had surrounded them all since their arrival, but as Kyra glanced ahead, she felt like she could finally see a break in the trees, a sign that they were finally making a break into something beyond the woods. Or so she hoped, at least. Her map had proven almost as useless as it had been since their arrival, the fog covering almost all of it, and leaving no inkling of any sort of guidance towards real civilisation.

Sighing, she turned to the smaller girl who had been tagging along beside her. She'd learnt a little bit about the other individual, but truth be told, she still wasn't sure how they'd lost the rest of the group. One moment, they had all been there, the next...well, the next they were gone. "Well, I'll happily admit that I'm lost...but it looks like the trees are breaking up ahead, so maybe we'll get lucky and find some sort of sign of society, or a trader, or something other than the expanding woodlands around us?"

She gave a flick of the scythe that she held in her hand, the simple weapon picked up earlier in their travels. Although it was smaller than she was used to - barely the same length as her own arm - the piece felt right in her hands. The black shaft gave way to the purple curved blade at the top, with a longer black chain hanging from the base and ending in a dagger-like point that could be thrown outwards. She admired the piece for another moment, before smiling at the other again.

"Well, wherever we are, I don't think we're going to get anywhere by just standing around here and doing nothing - right?" She winked at the other girl, before turning her attention back to the road that they had stumbled across. She wasn't sure if it was the right decision, but this was just a game right? What could possibly go wrong...

@Katelyn the Bewildered

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Walking beside Kyra with a happy skip. Katelyn was humming a small song, almost not hearing what her new Beast friend said at first. “Hm? Ohhhh, the trees are getting a bit thinner aren’t they?” she agreed, snapping back to the conversation. “Yeah! I’m sure we’ll end up at town before too long; or, at least, some sort of land mark?”
Kate seemed to be testing some of her magical abilities that she had chosen during character creation, small wisps of color and sound producing from her hands and encircling around her arms as if they were magical tailed fireflies. Smiling in excitement, she seemed deeply entranced by them at first, watching as the flies appeared to dance around herself and each other, before vanishing into the air as quickly as they came. “Kyra, I can’t remember if I’d asked before; what kinds of masteries did you go for? If it’s alright to ask,” the Faerin inquired curiously. “I went in for a completely magical build, personally. Illusions, summonings… aaaaand Chronomancy,” she stated while remembering the name of the last one.

 

[Siondhe]

"Oh, it's fine to ask. At least, I don't see the harm in it, it's not like we're going to be fighting each other!" She gave a beaming smile to the other girl, before raising her left hand to display the scythe in it. "I decided to go with the slash weapons, illusion and mend focuses, balancing things out a bit. I figured I'd build a combat/support style build, cause y'know...people are always looking for those in these sorts of games."

She glanced down the road again, spying something moving in the distance. Almost immediately, she felt her body tighten up as she strained her ears. No matter how much she focused though, and as good as her hearing was, she couldn't quite pick up anything out of the orindary. Still, she was sure that she had seen something...

"An all magical build? I guess I could see the benefits and power behind that. But personally, I like having something physical to rely on. Just in case, you know? Wouldn't want to be caught without some sort of final option!" She bounced on her toes and she continued leading the pair down the road, still keeping an eye out for anything in the distance that would either signal danger, or civilisation. She was sure there was bound to be something sooner or later.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“True, but I’ve never been really much of the fighty, up close and personal type,” Kate said with a sheepish giggle, itching her hand again like she’d done earlier. “My dad had taught me a bit of self defense with Kyusho-Jitsu when I was younger. And by teaching me, I mean that we basically both taught each other through books and other martial arts classes, hehe.. But ultimately, I don’t really like physical fighting that much. So full-on magic was an easy pick for me! Plus, I doubt that I’d go exploring anywhere too overpowered without at least trying to have someone with me.”

With that, Kate pulled up a small inventory window, rummaging around until she found it. “I do have this, though!” she stated, holding up a small ukulele. “I was debating on Harmonics at first, so I wanted to get some form of instrument. It doesn’t really help with my magic now, but I still like playing it!”

 

[Siondhe]

"Oh! You have actual martial arts training?! That's soo cool! The closest I got was getting into archery, which I guess could be useful. But when it comes to games, I tend to be very...well, typical with my weapons. Usually something pretty basic, like a sword or something."

Kyra's ears twitched as she caught the sound of some sort of footsteps in the distance, still a ways out - but a testament to her ability to hear things. Something that she knew would be super useful, if only in keeping them safe.

"Someone's coming, I think. I can hear footsteps in the distance...still a few minutes away, but getting closer. They're coming from...that way, I think?"

She pointed towards the winding road ahead of them, a little off to the left. She figured that the road curved up ahead, or that the individual was moving off the path - although the footsteps didn't seem to impact grassy, soft ground; rather they seemed to contain the hard steps that her companion and herself were causing on the roadway itself.

"I can't say for sure if they're a friend or foe situation, but they don't seem to be in a rush, or trying to act stealthy or anything. I think."

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“Archery is SUPER cool, don’t sell it short!” Katelyn said, beaming happily at Kyra. “Still, that makes sense though; A lot of RPG games have a lot of sword play, so it’s a fairly easy choice.” the pale haired girl seemed to be in thought for a moment, considering her own past experiences with RPGs. The first one she’d played, her entire party practically excised her for choosing to not use any weapons and only carry and store potions galore. Which, frankly, was an insanely good strategy for keeping their overly aggressive tank alive… Shrugging it off, she heard Kyra’s mention of another person, and attempted to listen for the footsteps as well. Strangely, she didn’t really hear anyone; ”but then again, Kyra did have the cute floofy beast ears”, she said aloud absently, believing she was thinking it to herself.

Then, she turned and looked to Kyra. “Well, if they are enemies, at least we have the element of surprise, right?” Kate stated with optimism, preparing herself to provide magical backup if necessary.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra nodded at her companions words, reminiscing on her own experiences in roleplaying games. She'd always been the tank, the one out front who was designed to take the damage, and deal with back. The only exception had been one game where she'd tried - and failed miserably - to be long ranged support. She'd almost never met the timing required to properly buff others, or to prevent strikes, or cover her companions from a range. Up close and personal, she excelled, but at a distance...well, that was something for real life, she guessed.

As the other girl continued speaking, Kyra realised that she'd spoken aloud, as if thinking to herself. She had just considered mentioning it, when Katelyn spoke up again.

"Yeah, we should have the element of surprise, I think. I guess we won't know until we see them, though. Do...you think we should make ourselves scarce before they arrive? Or is it safe enough to meet them out in the open?"

She still wasn't entirely sure what to make of this game. There hadn't been any concerns with the players' they had met thus far, but maybe they had just been lucky. Either way, Kyra wasn't entirely sure what the best approach was here - there was something to be said about hiding, but that would look bad on them, if the other was innocent.

"I guess there's no really good answer, is there? If we hide, we look like we're the ones trying to ambush people. But if they're not nice, and we run straight into them...well, that would be a problem for us too, wouldn't it?"

She beamed another smile at Katelyn as she tried to figure out her conundrum, coming up with no immediate answers. Hopefully, luck would be on their side again.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“Hmmmmm…. Idea!”

As Katelyn grinned wildly, one of her hands flowed with what appeared to be a golden and orange radiance, the other taking a more dark lavender hue. Merging her hands, she then cast the fuse energy at the ground, and from it were summoned two visual clones of themselves. There were, however, obvious differences; the fake Kyra’s eyes were a different color, and her chest size was only a small bit larger than the original. Kate’s double was a bit taller than she was, and her hair was blonde instead of white. “Perfect!” the real Kate had stated, admiring what basically amounted to mindless physical productions of her imagination. “Okidoke, Team Fake K! Walk fifteen paces in front of us, down the path!”

As instructed, the minions turned accordingly, and began to walk down the path ahead of them, awkwardly mimicking the original’s footsteps. Kate sweat dropped, and itched her hand again. “Maaaaybe just an illusion would’ve been fine…?”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra's head cocked to the left as the mirages appeared before them, her eyes running over the bodies and noticing the differences immediately. She recognised the spell - it was from the illusion magic that she herself had access to, and as she shifted her eyes towards Katelyn, she couldn't help but stumble out a question.

"Is...that how you really see me? I mean, it's not bad, it's just...not entirely accurate..."

She wasn't sure if her point would be made - not that it mattered now. Shrugging, she decided to simply roll with it, walking alongside the real Katelyn as they made their way after the illusions. They made it all of ten steps before Kyra realised an issue with the plan - one that should have been obvious to her from the start.

"Wait a second, won't seeing two pairs of us cause just as much confusion and concern as if we were hiding? What if they think we're using the illusion magic in an aggressive way, or something? Or what if they can sense the magic, and think it's an attack? I mean, that would be bad wouldn't it?"

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Katelyn had thought about Kyra’s question. “How I see you?” then she looked at the clone ahead of them, then back at Kyra. Then at the clone. Then Kyra’s chest. Realizing the issue, she blushed a bit and giggled out of nervousness. “Ahhh, some small mistakes!!” she excused, “It’s the first time I’ve really used the magic productively, s-so some minor bugs and kinks are expected, I think?”

Then, the purple haired girl had brought up something equally valid for a question, and Kate had a blank expression on her face. “…I hadn’t thought about that; I dunno! I guess I was just hoping the illusion summons would take the hit for us, if the mystery person is hostile?”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra waited as the girl's gaze seemed to bounce back and forth between Kyra and the illusions, as if trying to figure out the difference, or the concern. When it did click, an almost embarrassed giggle, and a slight blush was the real evidence of the mistake. Shaking her head as the girl mumbled out an apology, Kyra waved a hand.

"Don't worry about it. Like you said, first time using it, likely going to be bugs and kinks and such..."

Her attention returned to the road ahead of them as Katelyn's expression went blank. The girl had a good point, if the illusions were attacked first, they should absorb the majority of the damage. Still, it would be best to be prepared. Kyra pushed her mind back to the spells she had memorised upon her own character creation - having chosen the more advanced system, she knew it wouldn't auto-populate the spells for her, but that she'd have to memorise and call them to power herself.

"Well, just to be safe...I guess I'll have some things in my back pocket. Should they be hostile, that is."

She threw another smile at Katelyn as her ears twitched again. Whomever was ahead of them was getting closer. Kyra was fairly sure that once they rounded the bend, they'd run into whomever was there...

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

As they walked closer and closer, it seemed like they would never run into the person they were walking toward. But then, into view came an old man who was leading a sales stall, pulled by a pet donkey. As the man saw the fakes, he quickly began to gain their attention. “E-Excuse me, young ladies, I only request a moment of your time! You see, I have plenty of ware—“

As the clones were not given any extra command, they kept walking down the path and didn’t even pay the man any mind at all.

The man, in response, simply hung his head, a smile on his face but a pleading look of defeat in his eyes. “Oh, a-alright then…”

Kate, having seen this, did her best to quickly dispell her summonings, which faded into a colored mist and dispersed into nothingness as if they were never there. The old man noticed this, and seemed a bit confused, before looking down the path at Katelyn and Kyra, the realization hitting him as he dried his tears. “O-Oh!! That was Illusionary magic, wasn’t it?? Well done!” he complimented.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra's ears had picked up the tones of excitement, before the downright dismay that arrived upon being ignored. Knowing it was likely just an NPC didn't help the pain in her heart at the display, and for a moment she resisted the urge to rush forward and hug the man.

"Awh, he's so sad...maybe that wasn't such a good idea..."

Kyra's whispered words were lost as Katelyn rushed forward, dismissing the spell and calling out to the old man as he held back tears. She cocked her head as the smaller girl tried to console the man, as if she could mend the wounds that she'd inflicted on his soul - assuming he had one.

"Did I hear correctly that you have something to offfer? Perhaps you'd have something of interest for my friend here, she's always looking to spend any coin...err...money?...that she can! Maybe she could buy your entire stock!"

Kyra tried to hide her pleasure behind her hand, the small giggle muffled against the flesh of her own apendage. She couldn't help but enjoy her little ruse, although she hoped that Katelyn wouldn't be too upset by it.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

“O-Oh, why that would be wonderful!!” the old man said obliviously. “I have many trinkets and tools I could sell, and I offer many services as a craftsman!”

At Kyra’s joke, Katelyn sweat dropped once more and giggled nervously, realizing that she had backed herself into a corner. “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have too much currency right this second; But, I’d love to see what you might have in stock! And did you mention you craft things??”

“Ah, yes, I’m a bit of a tailor and blacksmith of sorts!” the old man replied, tying the reigns of his donkey to the tree behind him. “You see, name is Arand, a traveling crafter and collector of fine goods! If you would like, I’d be happy to procure something for either of you, or perhaps improve on what you have?”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra's ears seemed to twitch in response to the man's words. She, like Katelyn, had limited access to currency in the moment - the typical affects of a newcomer to a world - but someone who could improve weaponry and other gear, was someone to hold on to indefinitely.

"Oh, well, I can't speak for my counterpart here, but I would definitely be interested in some improved upon gear. In the future, that is. For the moment I'm a bit partial to the piece that I have...but that's not going to last forever. Would you happen to have a normal route that you follow, or a main area of operation that you can be found in at another time if we did wish to procure finer goods from you? I'd be willing to see what you have now, but like my travelling companion, I myself am limited on currency at the current moment - so I cannot say for sure whether I'd even be able to purchase anything right now or not!"

She glanced over at Katelyn, her eyes going wide and her ears twitching in excitement as she tried to convey the score they had just come across. She wasn't sure of the other girl's experience, but Kyra's own had taught her to hold onto merchants like this, as they may prove more than valuable in the future.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Arand nodded, giving the girls a smile. “A regular path? Hmmm… Well, I don’t usually give my route to newcomers, but you both seem like very nice girls! I suppose I don’t see the harm,” he replies before a tattered scroll of paper and a pen seemingly materialized into his hands, with a form of magic unlike what Kyra and Katelyn had seen thus far.

Meanwhile, Kate was looking back at Kyra, equally as excited. Then, from the corner of her eye, the Faerin noticed the man’s magic, and she beamed even more. “You know magic, too?!” she blurted out. Arand looked up confused, then realized that Katelyn had noticed what he had done, before giving a warm smile and chuckle. “Ah, yes I do! I dabble in various arts, here and there,” he explained while drawing a map of his usual route. “I mostly only rely on magical classes that help with my crafting, however. From what I’ve seen, though, if you’re intending to find a teacher, there are the occasional practitioners of strict arts scattered about the land; if you know where to look, that is. I would offer to teach you some small tricks, miss, but I’m afraid I’m not particularly gifted in any specific school of magic.”

As if the man had read her mind, Katelyn seemed only slightly disappointed that the man couldn’t help her improve her magic. But, at the mention of other potential masters of magic, she bounced right back, beaming a happy smile. “That’s alright, mister Arand! You’re already being a great help to us as it is! Also, since you’ve told us your name; Mine is Katelyn, the Bewildered! And my cute friend here is Kyra! …Since you’re here, I might be able to afford an upgrade to my robes, if you’re able?”

Looking up again as he finished his map and handed it to Kyra, a spark of inspiration appeared in the man’s eyes as he gave a hearty laugh. “Well of course, miss Katelyn! I’m a craftsman; it’s what I do! Did you have a particular thought in mind, perhaps?”

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra waited off to the side, watching as the two fiddled over the creation of Katelyn's newest outfit. She'd considered replacing her own garments, before deciding that was something to do later. She was sure that her own idealistic outfit was something that she would need the skills and equipment of a full blacksmith for, as much as she trusted that Arand could create something of finer appearance.

When the two had finished, Kyra gave a single nod at the individual before watching him head off - making his way along the route that he had just shared with the two. Turning back to Katelyn, Kyra eyed her new outfit with a look of approval, before smiling at the smaller girl.

"Well, that certainly went better than I could've expected. We managed to snag a possibly super helpful merchant for the future as well! All in all, I'd say that was a good day's...we forgot to ask him how to get to somewhere civilised..."

Her face fell as she realised what they'd done. She could still hear the sound of footsteps in the distance, quickly making their way along the path, and for a moment she considered racing after them before she simply sighed heavily.

"I guess if we just continue on this path, we should get somewhere of some importance, right? I mean, travelling merchant...he must've come from somewhere with people?"

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Waving goodbye to Arand, Katelyn happily skipped next to Kyra, loving the new hakama that she had on. It wasn’t the best, by any means, but it was definitely more improved on than her starting robes that she had equipped earlier, with smoother, tougher material and a color scheme that matched her hair. Two small ribbons tied up portions of her hair as well now, in navy and cerulean.

Then, as Kyra had mentioned the primary concern of the moment, the small girl nearly faceplanted once again, but quickly caught herself and began to think. “Hmmmm… Well, that map might give hints to at least an approximation of where a town might be, but outside of that, I’m sure we’d run into a town eventually? Until then, I could try and get an aerial view… maybe.”

Activating her magic again, the variously colored light wisps reappeared, and fused together, forming a tiny red cartoonish bird with abs and muscular wings. Opening its eyes, the bird looked up at Katelyn. “Hn? Whatcha want, huh? NERD?” the bird popped off, clearly having a belittling attitude as it flexed its wing muscles like a Chad.

“Just need ya to fly up and see if there’s a town nearby that you can see!” Katelyn responded with a cheerful smile, not paying the bird’s comment any mind. “Tch, whatever lady,” the bird finished, before flying up into the sky.

 

[Siondhe]

Kyra's eyes followed the bird as it lifted off, her expression a mixture of shock, interest and confusion. As she tried to piece together what she had just seen, she found herself only becoming more and more confused, the experience far beyond anything she'd encountered before.

"That uh... That was a bird, right? A big, talking, nonsensical bird. Did I see that right? I did see that right, right? That...what was that?"

She glanced at Katelyn, before shaking her head. The entire scenario had been odd, but that wasn't a reason for her to suddenly loose her head in any way. She gave one last glance upwards, before deciding they had to do something.

"Should we keep going along the road while we wait? I'm sure your...bird...will be able to find us again, even if we do move on. There must be some sort of connection between the summoned beings, and summoners, right?"

The idea seemed only logical to her, even with as little knowledge as she had about the summoning magic. She'd taken a quick look over it on character creation, but it hadn't been her taste. Still, it felt like that might be the case - or at least she hoped.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Watching the ridiculously cartoonish proportioned bird fly up into the air with a giggle, Kate heard Kyra’s conjumbled questions and looked over to her with a smile. “That was my Alter!” she attempted to explain. “I fuse my illusionary magic with my Summoning magic, as best as I can anyways.

From what I’d read into with Summons, they reflect your primary ability, and depending on what it is, it might cause differences like summoning animals and undead, or tiny fairies, or spirits! So, with me already looking into Illusion as my primary, I thought that maybe it’d let me basically summon whatever I could effectively envision? Or something like that, anyways.”

Blushing a bit as she realized that she was rambling again, Katelyn laughed and shook it off, shrugging her shoulders at her foxy friend’s next question. “Sure, I don’t see any reason why we should stop,” she’d said, as they began to make their way down the path some more.

If Kyra had been around her a bit longer, she might start to notice the estranged look of anxiety hidden behind the summoner’s smile. She really didn’t know what to make with her current situation; that is, she really wasn’t used to having anyone close enough to talk with. And to be frank, she wasn’t quite used to talking in the first place. Katelyn itched her hand again, humming to herself to distract from her internal wars, trying to think of something to talk about.

“S-So, what kinds of games have you played?” the faerin asked, beaming up at Kyra. “I’ve always enjoyed games like Final Fantasy, especially 10. My outfit’s actually kinda themed after one of the main characters from that one, Yuna!”