From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Alina hadn't been out of the Greatwood for quite a while. And while she disliked the outside world on principle, there were changes that she needed to know about. So, gritting her teeth, she grabbed her spear and her bow and headed over to the Mathair.
Shivering as she passed through the fog, she made her way towards the signpost for Torchline. Emerging into the bright sunlight and the heat, she blinked. Shading her eyes, her wings wafted behind her, blowing a small breeze around her.
The area was crowded, far more crowded than the Greatwood usually was. Making her way towards a slightly less crowded area, she turned down an alley. It was empty, and she sighed with relief. She started to make her way down it, hands gripping her spear.
Iris was yet to admit it to herself, but the morning had gotten away from her. The two and a half hours she'd spent in Hastings' company had been soaked in his cheap booze. Now, jokes and laughter had started to give way to melancholy, so she decided to slip out before he noticed the sentimentality that seemed to grip her.
'I'm sorry about Elias,' he said as they parted, ruining her perfect goodbye. For that alone, since she needed only so little in the way of an excuse to do so, she snatched the bottle that had sat on the table between them. The room spun when she got up, but she still frowned when a quick shake revealed the bottle was only about a quarter full.
She steadied herself before walking out the door, planning to slip off into the side streets and find one that would take her to a quiet strip of beach. There, she would finish the bitter drink before taking a sobering dip in the sea's waters. As soon as she rounded the corner she let out a terrified shriek. The bottle instinctively left her hand, sent flying towards the armed woman floating up in the air.
For a moment Iris just stood there, doubting her senses and wondering how she could have gotten drunk enough to hallucinate this.
The shriek gave Alina warning. Spinning, she leapt off the ground, wings fanning out behind her and flapping. She had only gotten a short distance off the ground when the bottle smacked into her with bruising force. It hit her shoulder and she grunted in pain as it rattled her body. The force from it also caused her to continue to turn.
So she pivoted midair again. As she completed another revolution she dove forwards and down towards the woman who'd attacked her. The butt of the huntress' spear snapped out, aiming for the stranger's chest. The Fae snarled. "Is this how you treat outsiders here in Torchline?"
Iris was pleasantly surprised when the bottle made contact, revealing her target not to be a hallucination. Her relief was short lived, however. As her unwitting attack spun the woman, Iris' muddled mind got the chance to catch up and recognize the Fae for what she was. What little she knew about the reclusive people mostly consisted of warnings about mischief and trickery. Nothing that would help her as the warrior lounged through the air with surprising speed.
"Wha- No!" The denial was admittedly a lie. Some outsiders were met with far worse welcome. Her hand clumsily searched for the dagger at her belt as she turned to the side to avoid the incoming charge. She wasn't quick enough, and the spear hit her chest right below the shoulder, turning her to face the Fae as pain seemed to surge through her entire left arm. It was like being hit with a hammer. The head of the spear seemed to barely miss Iris' chin.
As her fingers found the hilt of her dagger the alcohol in her blood gave wing to the instinctual anger that had come forth with the pain. "Calm down, I didn't even scratch you!" She hissed with surprising clarity in her voice, slashing upwards through the air and hooking her blade behind the head of the Fae's spear. Adjusting her stance and dragging down, she meant to pull the winged creature back and knock her out of balance.
Alina grinned as her weapon managed to strike the stranger. As the other woman pulled a blade, the huntress scoffed. Narrowing her eyes, she saw how the stranger tried to pull the Fae in and down. Although she briefly considered wrestling with the stranger, in the end Alina decided against it.
Instead, she let the other woman pull the huntress forward. Indeed, the Fae added her own momentum and force to the movement: flying forward, she let herself surge ahead. "Oh, so attacking me unprovoked is okay so long as you don't draw blood then?" Shifting slightly in midair, she kept hold of her spear. However, one leg lashed out in a kick aiming directly for the stranger's head.
Iris had greatly underestimated the fae’s maneuverability in the air. She felt the kick coming before it hit, bringing her forearms up to meet it just in time. Her jaw clenched as the pain vibrated through her arms, tilting her blade hoping to nick at her attacker’s limb. The warrior had proven to have a far better sobering effect than the waters of Archlight.
”And you?, she grit through her teeth before assuming a sarcastic tone masked in sugary innocence, ”You were just harmlessly strolling the streets with your spear up in the air?”
She immediately changed her stance to slip under the fae’s leg and swung the hilt of her dagger at her temple, hoping her superior reach would give her an advantage. At some point, surprise had completely given way to anger. Iris was ready to do what she had to to deter further attacks from the aggressive traveler.
As her kick hit the other woman's arm, Alina growled. She was already shifting trying to gain a bit of altitude. "Yes. I was. For my own protection against attack." If the stranger knew anything about Fae, then she'd know that they were literally incapable of lying.
Unfortunately for Iris, superior reach meant much less when one opponent was airborne and armed with a much longer weapon. Although the huntress wasn't able to evade the other woman's attack entirely, Alina took the pommel on her ribs instead of her temple. Pain radiated outwards from it and she grunted.
Pivoting her body, ignoring the ache, she jabbed down with the point of her spear. Her goal was the shoulder of the arm the stranger held the knife in, but the Fae wasn't picky about where her attack landed.
Iris let slip an irritated grunt when her attack missed its target, upset that the woman always seemed to be just out of reach. Normally, she’d avoid alerting her opponent to her inner state, but the sweet taste of liquor was still on her tongue, making her chattier than usual. “You’re just a scared little butterfly, aren’t you?”
The way the fight was going so far, she felt like she was swatting at a fly while drowning in rum. Iris would like to think that the warrior’s wings made the difference between them, but she was not prone to deluding herself. The woman was better and stronger than she was. Iris had to be bolder. She jumped back and shifted her body to the right, but the tip of the spear scraped across the fabric of her shirt, tearing it. Soon, small red droplets spotted the torn edges.
“Don’t you see that you’ve brought this upon yourself? Stop swinging that thing around!” Spotting an opportunity, she stepped onto the spear, making the tip ring against the ground, then jumped off, lunging forward. Her dagger was now facing the fae, swinging across her chest. Now that her surprise opponent had decided to point the sharp end of her spear at her, Iris felt she had to show her teeth if she was to get her to back off.
Alina couldn't help but roll her eyes at her opponent's attempt at trash talk. As the huntress' spear came away tipped with red, however, she grinned down at the other woman. "Says the one who's bleeding." As the stranger stepped onto the Fae's weapon and vaulted off, flying through the air towards Alina, she narrowed her eyes.
Seeing the knife, the huntress dropped her spear. Letting it clatter to the ground, she spun, letting the other woman score a shallow cut across the huntress' ribs. However, now the Fae would hopefully have the last laugh: using her wings and the stranger's own momentum, Alina grabbed the other woman and twisted, attempting to toss the stranger into the nearest wall with as much force as the huntress could muster. "Drop the knife," she growled.
The knife made contact and Iris snickered. ‘Who’s bleeding now?’, she thought, saving her breath and energy on assessing her landing, ‘The frightened tourist.’ She leaned her body back, intending to fall backwards and get some distance between her and the fae, which was when she felt herself being pulled forward.
Before she realized what was going on, she was spinning in the air. Her heart dropped to her stomach before the thought that the winged madwoman could let go of her any second propelled her to move. She used the momentum to extend her body towards the fae. Barely, she managed to hook her spindly leg behind one of the warrior’s, but it was enough for her to pull herself within reach to wrap the other around her waist. Her grip on the dagger weakened, and the blade was sent flying as it slipped from her grasp. “There! It’s gone!” She used all her strength to pull herself close to the dark haired woman and hold on. ”Put me down now, you brute!”. Iris learned that she most definitely did not like flying. Especially with a deranged pilot like the one she now clung to.
As the woman wrapped herself around Alina, she groaned. At least the stranger dropped the knife as the Fae demanded. She, however, didn't accede to her opponent's demand right away. Instead the huntress used her rapidly draining strength to keep them aloft, wings pumping furiously.
They weren't falling, but they weren't rising either. Rather, they were sort of jerking back and forth between the two.
She shifted so she could glare directly at the other woman. "Tell me why you attacked me first," Alina growled. Her lips pressed into a thin line and she narrowed her eyes at the stranger. Although her muscles burned with the strain, she wouldn't give up just yet.
Iris’ grip on the woman tightened, although not considerably. Her unremarkable strength was at its limit, and the air aerobatics made her queasy as she kept bracing for a fall, or worse, another wild attack. Although in the back corner of her mind, she was impressed by the fae’s ability to keep them both aloft, she desperately wished to feel the ground beneath her feet.
The question jolted her. “Well, uh…” To Iris, the reason seemed inconsequential now, especially as having to find the words to voice it under the warrior’s scrupulous gaze made a specific shade of red surface on the girl’s face. She did her best to keep her voice level and stated, “When you stalked up the street weapon in hand I reacted… instinctively.” Thinking back on the shriek she let out at the sight of what, at the time, looked like nothing more than a strange winged creature, she hesitated in maintaining eye contact with her captor. Although in ferociousness the woman was a monster, in appearance she was clearly striking.
Wanting to move past the event her tone shifted. “Come now, butterfly, I’ll buy you a drink if you let me down”, she offered jokingly, although her voice was breathy and hitched with yet another descent that preceded the swing of the fae’s wings. She wished for a good bottle of booze to do its work on the whole encounter. As far as she was concerned this unexpected bout of embarrassment was meant to be a fuzzy memory at best.
Grunting at the stranger's response, Alina dipped. Her strength almost failed her, but she managed to get Iris most of the way towards the ground before the huntress released her. And if she intentionally dropped the other woman a little sooner than strictly necessary, well, no one could prove it.
Scowling, the Fae swooped down and retrieved her spear. She landed, leaving some space between herself and the stranger. Alina's chest heaved with exertion and her body was drenched in sweat from the godsforsaken heat. "Do you attack everyone you see carrying a weapon? Because everyone I've seen here seems to carry one."
Shaking her head, she gripped the haft of her spear tightly. "Don't call me butterfly. And I have no desire to have a drink with you." Her eyes flicked to the point of her weapon. "But there is something you can do for me."
10-22-2020, 11:51 PM (This post was last modified: 10-22-2020, 11:56 PM by Iris.)
I R I S
Iris landed on her feet, hitting the ground hard. She straightened herself and fixed her clothes, or what was left of them. A bubbly feeling welled up inside of her, before slipping out in the form of a chuckle. The ride was tumultuous but exhilarating. It was not unlike the thrill of being picked up by the tall waves and tossed back at the shore, urging you to dive back in and wrestle with the water again and again. Of course, Iris was done wrestling with the fae. The rush that had gone to her head lead her to the brink of asking the woman to take her flying again sometime, but Iris concluded that the humor would be lost on her.
"No, only strange and volatile creatures like you. Sailors and pickpockets I'm quite used to." Now that she was free of the fae's grip, she recovered her usual countenance, her tone gently teasing. She felt the strain on her muscles as she strolled over to pick up her dagger, watching the fae's movements from the corner of her eye.
Iris wasn't expecting cheeriness, but the persistence of the fae's bad mood astounded her. "You may not think so, but you could really use one, you know." She commented softly, treading on the border of setting the woman off again.
Iris' interest was piqued, eyebrow raised as she spun the newly recovered blade between her right hand and the tip of her left index finger. "Well then, I'm going to need a drink." She leaned against the alley wall, letting the fae continue.
