Cayzle's Wemic Site
 |
|
|
||||||||||
|
 |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Owyth, Urameshi, and the Ghost
It´s the begining of Mirtul, the fifth month of the year, when the spring season begins. The icy cold weather changes to luke warm, the flowers blossoming and welcoming the bright sunny day, and little creatures leaving the warm comfort of their homes to get back to their usual wanderings around the woods. It´s been some time since Owyth left his home, and memories come back to life as he finds himself on the wildlife environment of the Spiderhaunt Woods. Not like the woods are that much lik the plains, but even then he feels like part of it. The matter that other wild animals, as the giant cats, inhabit the forest doesn´t concern him. To him it´s just normal. He feels the nature around him, and pulses with it. He wonders if humans can feel the same way while entering the wild realms. Do they se it as a dangerous thing? He imagines parties of humans, with their weapons drawn, looking around them as they walk slowly, cutting into the woods, anxiuosly waiting to be attacked by huge animals. Owyth had some unpleasant encounters with human travellers on the Northride Road, most of them pointing their weapons at him and ordering him to back off, frightened by the rare visage of a Wemic. Thus Owyth decided to travel through the woods.
After a few days inside it he could sense the the Spiderhaunt is not just a common forest. There is something sinister and dark about it. He has noticed some huge spider webs on the tops of the huge trees and felt himselft observed from the above by red poinpints of light. Maybe those supposedly large spiders are the cause of woods name. Luckly he didn´t cross any of those huge arachnids.
On the begining of the second week of Mirtul, on a cold and dark afternoon, Owyth senses alert him for possible danger. He smells something he haven´t smelled for days. A human. The scent is very clear as this human must be sweating hard, and he notices that some small rodents around him search for cover too, sensing the coming of possible danger. Though if the Wemic could smell this human he could not hear it that well. It seems the human knows his way through the woods, walking with a silently light foot. He wields his greatsword and his eyes scan the woods, as well as his nose and ears, trying to find the direction from which the human is coming. He fails and then suddenly a dark figure is in front of him. Not dark in skin but covered with tigh clothes all over its body. Even it´s face is covered leaving just a small screen for a pair of round black eyes. The figure stops infront of Owyth, and the wemic feels relieved to see that this uhman is not wielding any weapons, though a curiously looking sword can be seen hangin on hisback by a black leather tong. The dark covered man stares at Owyth, his breathing is still heavy and it seems he has been running from or after something. Probably from something the Wemic thinks. He hasn´t seen no other men crossing this way nor has he smelled any other humans. Differently from the other ones Owyth encountered, this one is not frightened by the wemic. Insetad there is only urgency in his wide open eyes. The wemic also notices that the heavy breathing is not just a consequence from the running but also from a grave wound under the ribcage, which the wemic only noticed because he smelled blood. Otherwsie it would pass unnoticed as the dark red color melted with the black background of the man´s clothes.
Even though the man is seriously wounded, Owyth tries to act carefuly. The man has proven himself to be a great warrior, for running silently through the woods with a deadly wound and still look dangerous is not a feat to anyone. If needed, the slender dark man seems capable of reaching his sword with great speed. He continues to look at Owyth, examining the wemic before he makes his next move.
Owyth's ears prick up as he listened intently for the silent Human, and his eyes widen as the figure in dark clothing appears. Unconsciously extending and retracting his foreclaws, Owyth carefully sheaths his greatsword. The Wemic slowly moves back a half step, and sits down.
That requires some explanation. When a Wemic must be still for a time, telling stories around a fire, pausing for a meal, waiting for a friend, or just to take a brief rest, the Wemic commonly assumes a posture in which his hindquarters rest on the ground as his front legs remain straight and his forepaws stay flat on the earth. This they call sitting. Here is an example of sitting, and here is another. This is different from a Wemic sprawling (both hind and forequarters on the ground, but with torso upright) or laying down. (None of this art is mine!)
Now sitting, Owyth spreads his hands wide and speaks in accented common. "Hello, frriend. I mean you no harrm. Why do you trravel with such urrgency?" The Wemic's tail lashes back and forth, betraying his nervousness, but he smiles, saying "Perrhaps I can be of assistance?"
The man blinks twice, and force his eyes as if trying to focuse on something. His expression changes from urgency to startleness. He drops to his kness, but that as consequence to a sudden charge of pain from his grave wound. He press his left hand on it and tries to ignore it, to control the shaking of his body. But he fails. He reaches his righ hand to Owyth and says, "Yume...no...kemono...", then he falls unconcious on the ground.
The Wemic didn´t understand what the man just said. But whatever it was, it regarded him. Owyth looks down to the human on the ground, near him. Is this an enemy or a friend? Should he help him? From whom or what is this man running? And why should the Wemic care? It´s not like he has something to do with it. Or does he? That and other many questions storm the lion man´s mind and he ponders about what to do.
The Wemic decides quickly to give the human the benefit of the doubt. Owyth casts a Cure Light Wounds spell on the human, and then tries to make him comfortable. As he does so, he makes a mental inventory of any obvious items on the human -- weapons especially.
Owyth undressed the man to his waist, to take a good look at the wound for a better healing. Just as he started, he realized how complex and well tight the cloth was. The difficulty is not only based in Owyth´s inexperience with that many clothes, as in fact humans generally wear much more clothes than Wemics, but Owyth sees that there is a whole technique involved in wearing this.
After the man´s breast is open for examination Owyth took off his mask, not sure if the wounded man could breath normally with it. ‘It´s a human alright’ he thinks. For a while Owyth had some doubts about the race of this man as his body structure is very similar with a elf´s, both in size and built. But the ears told him otherwise. His face is also very uncommon and the wemic does not remember to have seen another human as this one. He has a round face, the skin a little yellow, with high cheek bones and a very dark and short silky hair.
Owyth then focuses his attention on the wound, which looks more like a thick two inches line, which red dark blood welling out of it. It´s probably done by a long and very sharp blade. Luckly it didn´t hit any vital organs. Concentrating on the healing, Owyth put his palms over the wound and prays. The yellow man´s fast breathing slows down and the wound closes stoping the bleeding. If not for the blood showing on the both of them there is no other sign that someone has been wounded. The man is still unconcious though now he´s just resting. The afternoon already turning into the night, as the sun goes down casting an orange color to the sky, Owyth decides to raise camp and watch for the man to see if the healing really went well. After some hours as the sky is already covered with darkness, Owyth is preparing a couple of rabbits he hunted when he hears some noise from behind him. He looks over his shoulder to see the yellow man sitted, scratching his head and looking around t take a look at where he is. His eyes then meet Owyth´s and they look at each other for a long minute. The yellow man then gets up and moves besides the beastman, near the fire.
He leans forward and smells the rabbit. "Nousagi." he says smiling, with a quick nod of his head. Then, finally realizing the wemic doesn´t understand him he points to the rabbit and says, with a very accented common. "Labbit", and gives the same quick nod.
"I ahm Urameshi. I ahm ninja." he then points to Owyth. "You, biguh kemono otoko...beastmahn. From Urameshi
dream."
Whatever the man meant with that dream thing it sounded like an introduction.
"Well met, Urrameshi," Owyth says, making a mess of the ninja's name. "My name is Owyth. I am not beastman. I am Wemic."
Owyth hands the human a spitted rabbit. "Yes, rrabbit," he says, smiling.
The priest intones over the food in Wemic and then in common. "Thanks be to you, Lorrd of Wemics, for guiding me to these rrabbits. Thanks be to you, Rrabbit Spirrits, for giving us yourr strrength and life."
Turning to the human, Owyth says, "Sit! Eat! These rrabbits will help you get strrongerr!" The Wemic bites into the meat. "Now, please, tell me about yourr drream!"
"Well met, Urrameshi," Owyth says, making a mess of the ninja's name. "My name is Owyth. I am not beastman. I am Wemic."
Owyth hands the human a spitted rabbit. "Yes, rrabbit," he says, smiling.
The ninja accepts it and gives that same quick nod to Owyth. "Sahnk you!"
The priest intones over the food in Wemic and then in common. "Thanks be to you, Lorrd of Wemics, for guiding me to these rrabbits. Thanks be to you, Rrabbit Spirrits, for giving us yourr strrength and life."
Turning to the human, Owyth says, "Sit! Eat! These rrabbits will help you get strrongerr!" The Wemic bites into the meat. "Now, please, tell me about yourr drream!"
Urameshi sits down says something unintelligible in his own language, probably giving thanks for the food, the same way the Wemic did. He takes a bite at the food and gives the Owyth a smile of approval. "Good!" he says.
While they dinner the rabbit, Urameshi tells his lionman companion his story. "Longuh timmagoh there was a Daiakuma, a gureat demon, in my land. His name was Gurimu. Gurimu was evil and he destroyed our houses, killed our chiruhdren and buhrought a reinguh of terror to our land. To defeat Gurimu, Ryuu Kami-sama, our Doragon God gave us Seinaru Katana, the holy sworud." With that, the oriental man unsheathes the sword that was hanging on his back. It’s really a marvelous piece. Its long and cold metal blade, reflecting the orange fire light. Some symbols are carved along the whole lenght of the blade and they shine with a faint blue light of their own. After wemic had a chance to look at it, from a distance of course, Urameshi sheates the sword again. "This is the sworud that killed Gurimu tousands of yearus agoh. Now Gurimu wants to live again and his minions are turying to destroy this sworud. They attacked the gureat temple sixsu monsus agoh but I managed to save the sworud and fled. Now I must look for Gurimu. He is going to reborn in a royal blood child. In my dream I saw a beastman, big and sturong, and I was walking along with it on a buright road. You are that beast...wemic, I mean, and your path is the path of the Doragon God. He chosen you and I must follow." With that Urameshi sighs heavily for the effort of telling such a big story in a the difficult ocidental language known as common.
Urameshi is not the best story teller, Owyth realizes, but he sees that they have something in common. They are both outsiders, or at least, at a certain point of view they look like don’t belong here. What are the odds of two strangers, to each other and to this land, to meet in a dangerous forest as the Spiderhaunt Woods, and both of them speak the common language? If the ninja is right in the interpretation of his dream there are no odds, 'cause when the gods interfere in the lives of mortals the odds become even.
Owyth looked intently at the ninja. "My people believe in the trruth of drreams, and we do not ignorre them lightly." The Wemic falls silent.
Bright stars wheel overhead as Owyth ponders the ninja's words. He sees a few bats flying in the sky, and points them out to Urameshi.
"Those bats think they fly wherre they will, but in trruth, the wind moves them," Owyth says. "You and I, my new frriend, are small bats, and yourr worrds make me feel the wind strrongly on us. If you wish, let us fly togetherr with the wind."
"And if I underrstand you, we will have to kill a child. That seems unhappy worrk to me." Owyth says. "But maybe we will have no choice. Let us sleep tonight, Urrameshi, and rrememberr our drreams in the morrning."
Tomorrow, Owyth will try to use his Dream Reading ability to see if there is any insight to be obtained from the night's visions.
Urameshi nods to the wemic in agreement. He finishes his rabbit and goes sit with his back against a tree. He dresses his clothes back, not to leave his chest open in the chilly night. "That woundo I had," he says, not directly to the wemic but loud enough for him to hear, as his attention is more focused on the surroundings. "...was done by evil spirit. I hurt it bad too. It’s not comingu tonight but we should be careful tomorow." He looks to the wemic when he finishes to see if he heard him. He then finds a soft spot on the ground and lays down, filling his mask with dry leaves for a pillow, and falls sleep.
The night was calm and a little chilly. No bad dreams tormented their minds but instead there was a feeling, something slightly disturbing, that left them a little nauseated and they woke up early, in the luke warm morning, with a bad feeling in their stomach. After they ate something and started walking the feeling was gone but they don’t feel as rested as they would like to.
The morning walk is quiet with nothing unnusual crossing their way. The sun shining at its full brightness in the sky and the rumbling in their stomachs make them decide to halt for lunch. Nothing left from yesterday’s rabbit Owyth searches for any sign of game, which he finds quickly. A few feet ahead a grunt can be heard and one very familiar to the wemic. A boar. A lone young boar, probably strayed from the others. Owyth moves forward quietly but then he hears the boar squeal with pain. Something has gotten it! Advancing swiftly the wemic and the ninja behind him find out the boar, dead with a long and thin wood shaft buried in the animal’s torso. Someone was there before there, and Owyth finds out, by the already familliar scent, that it’s a human. When the hunter appears he is startled to see the ninja and the lion man, standing right there beside his game. He can not hide his fear but he stands his ground, probably not wanting to leave without his boar. The man is quite tall, six and a half inches, with a long and curly red hair and a full beard of the same collor and as dirty and wild looking. He is dressed in brown and green garments, and carries a long knife at his belt, a bow at his back with the string crossed over his chest, and a quiver full of arrows. With his back straight he swallows and looks to the two odd looking men. "That is my game" he says pointing to the boar on the ground but makes no movement to get it.
Out of character:
You said, "The man is quite tall, six and a half inches."
Probably you meant feet? hee hee
In character:
Owyth is careful not to step on the newcomer.
The Wemic steps back from the boar, and motions to the ninja to do the same. "Yes, yourr boarr," he says, his accent thick in his throat. Owyth smiles and motions that the human should take his game.
"Maybe we can sharre. Sharre food, sharre names, sharre storries," Owyth says. "You arre a talented hunterr. Perrhaps we can hunt togetherr."
"Fear not. We are friendly." Owyth looks to Urameshi for confirmation.
The man shows confidence as he walks past them and takes off the long arrow buried in the boar. The arrow is really the biggest one Owyth has ever seen.
"I use this one when the animal is still. It always kills it instantly." He says technicaly, his attention still on the boar. "I learned this from a strange elf, years ago. Anyway, my name is Eric, also known as Eric the Red." He says, now greeting them with a smile. "Come, lets make some fire and eat this fat pig." He raises the animal by its hind legs and smiles onde more to the wemic and ninja. Then something disturbs Owyth and he notices that Urameshi is feeling it too. There is a strange energy in the air and they feel nauseated, just like on the previous night.
"What? What is it?" The hunter’s smile fades as he tries to understand the look in their faces.
Urameshi unsheaths the holy sword and Eric steps back not really sure of the ninja’s intention. The leafs in the trees and bushes, are blown by a fierce and quick wind, that moves circling them. A humming then can be heard, in a grave and low tone and rising until it is felt loud and echoing, vibrating against their chests. The hunter unsheats his long knife and his instincts tell him to turn around. He turns just in time to see his killer. A huge ghostly grey samurai, who crossed Eric’s chest with his long katana. Releasing the sword, the hunter’s body falls to the ground together with the boar, and the ghost samurai turns to Urameshi, his eyes nothing but a pair of white pinpoints showing in the dark background of his helm. The samurai points his sword to the ninja.
"That, evil spirit! He wants holy sworudo!" Urameshi tells Owyth. "Run. I fight him. Your weaponsu can’t hurt him! Go!"
The samurai stays still, his sword still pointing to Urameshi, as if he is waiting the ninja to give the holy sword to him.
Owyth steps back a hex in shock of seeing the ghostly warrior, and Eric lying dead. His hackles rise and a soft growl rises from deep in his throat. The Wemic's tail begins lashing quickly back and forth like a whip. Owyth says, "Urrrameshi, this is Abomination!" Then the priest casts a Bless spell over both of them.
Owyth cast a bless spell in both him and Urameshi. The ninja realises there is nothing he can do to make the wemic run away, so he prepares himself, raising his sword infront of him and with an incredible speed he advances forward making an horizontal thrust on the samurai’s chest level, but it’s parried easily by the ghost samurai who kicks Urameshi in the belly and send him back, rolling on the floor. The ninja gasps for air, still crouched on the floor and the samurai slowly moves forward. His steps are soundless and his armor doesn’t make a sound. The only sound coming from the ghost is a humming, sudenly interrupted by a deep echoing voice: "Senaru Katana o Kure!"
Drawing his greatsword, Owyth gathers himself for a huge leap, and then launches himself high into the air. He jumps over the ghost-samurai, a full ten feet off the ground at that point. He lands on the side directly opposite the ninja, facing the samurai. Owyth takes a swing at the ghost with his greatsword (not claws!), but his primary goal is to distract the ghost and perhaps let the ninja land a blow. He is blessed, so that may help him.
The wemic´s jump gets the samurai´s attention and left his guard open for a quick instant -- but enough for Urameshi to attack. The ninja jumped to his feet and crossed the ghost´s chest with the cold shining blue katana.
Owyth, on the opposite side, finds no trouble in thrusting his broadsword through the samurai´s back. Except for the fact that he found no solid body to hit. At the same time his blade disapeared inside the grey samurai, the blue katana emerged from its back.
The ghost cried in pain but Owyth was sure it wasn´t from his blow. He realised his sword is harmless against this evil spirit, as Urameshi has stated before. As both wemic and the ninja retrieve their swords the samurai steps forward, going for the ninja. It is as if the ghost is ignoring Owyth, sure that he can´t hurt him.
Raising his sword high in the air the samurai swings at Urameshi who was backstepping and quickly jumped into a branch in a near tree. The ghost samurai gets closer but the branch is too high for the grey ghost to impose any danger to the ninja. The samurai stays there, still, looking up to the ninja and swinging his sword, trying to hit Urameshi´s feet, but the ninja is too fast. He sees Owyth approaching and whistles to the lion man. Their eyes meet and no words need to be changed. The ninja throws the holy sword to the wemic who catches it in the air, the grey ghost samurai with it´s back to him. Owyth finds enough time to hit the samurai and this time he felt blade cutting. The ghost turns quickly to the wemic, crying out loud all his anger to the lion man. He extands his free hand to him. "Seinaru katana o kure!!!"
Owyth wonders what the heck the ghost's words mean as he presses his attack on the ghost. The Wemic has not yet quite ruled out the possibility that Urameshi is a thief and that this ghost is the rightful owner of the blade. But the evil unnatural feeling that came over him before the battle decides him in favor of his new friend.
All these thoughts flee as the Wemic concentrates on the attack. He tries to maneuver closer to the ninja's tree as he attacks.
Out of Character: Owyth is AC 4, THAC0 20, Blessed, and, unless the weapon is a 2H sword, not proficient (alas).
Owyth tries to circle to the right of the samurai, getting closer to the tree as the ghost stands between him and the ninja. Concentrating on his attack Owyth swings against the grey samurai, but the wemic is not used to the weight and balance of this sword. The samurai parries easily and lands a heavy high kick on the wemic´s jaw(3 dmg), drawing blood and making him backstep a little. Feeling a little alone in the battle Owyth´s eyes search for the ninja to see what he´s doing...
Urameshi is sitted on the branch, legs crossed and hands held in a strange way. His eyes are closed and his lips are moving, forming silent words. The wemic guesses the ninja is praying to his Dragon God, and hopes something very useful comes up from that. For now Owyth have to deal with the samurai alone.
With no other choice, Owyth continues to fight, hoping to land a blow.
The fight keeps going with Owyth trying to hit the samurai who deflect his first two blows and cuts the wemic on the right arm,a shallow wound, but enough to make Owyth reflect about the possibility of defeating the ghost samurai. He looks once more to the ninja over the tree and sees that he suddenly stops praying. Not seeing any effects from Urameshi´s prayer the wemic launches himself for another attack on the grey ghost, who parries the attack. But, then, as the blades are locked as both fighter match their strenght, the holy sword starts to get brighter, it´s faint blue aura growing fast till the blade is involved by blue cold fire. The samurai´s sword, once a solid weapon, suddenly breaks in half, easily like an egg shell. Owyth feels the power of the sword inside his body, flowing with the blood in his veins, and he gives another swing at ghost, not really sure of the results but more confident than before. The samurai tries to dodge but fails. The sword cuts deeply on its chest, and the ghost cries in pain. Grey vapor starts coming out of the big hole in his chest as the ghost retreats.
"The head!!" Owyth hears Urameshi shouting and without any hesitation severs the ghost head. A geyser of grey vapor comes from the neckhole and covers the whole figure of the samurai. Then, just after the it dissipates, the samurai is gone.
Urameshi jumps to the ground and walks towards the wemic, a little smile in his face. "You did great job." he taps the wemic on the shoulder.
That afternoon they buried Eric´s body, ate the boar, tended their wounds, and after a little rest kept going.