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!
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
So there were some natural inclinations within Lilliane – which was good to see, given the world they lived within. One moment of staring stupefied at a monster, enemy, or adversary could mean life or death (as far as Melita was concerned; given her own history). As the block came, the spitfire nodded, a grin beginning to reform in the corners of her mouth. Less Cheshire, more amused than anything else. “All right,” and she backed off for a moment, raising the staff back into her grasp, easygoing, relaxed. Almost a nonchalant position, studying, examining, much like a cat.
Before instigating another quick movement and motion – dashing nimbly around, the armament meant to pummel somewhere near Lilliane’s shoulders. “And here?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
A small smile formed on Lillianes face after the successful block. At least she hadn't forgotten everything. Her instinct had been the thing she trusted on the most back then, and it seemed to do her well again. Though this time, she intended to supplement it with actual knowledge.
With a small nod to Melita after the confirmation, Lilliane got into position. She kept an eye on Melita. There was this feeling of being studied, of being checked for weak spots. When the attack came, she was ready, intending to block the strike at her shoulder with the upper part of the staff.
However, unused to the length of the weapon she held in hand, she managed to knock the lower part against her knee and - consequently - the upper half now thrown off track, against her head. "Shit." she muttered, though a moment later, she couldn't help but laugh about the stupidly yet absurd ways in which she managed to make a fool out of herself.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
The next reaction wasn’t expected – Melita had presumed the natural-born instinct of self-preservation was alive and well in the Outlander. Most had it in droves when they arrived here, and if not, quickly learned to snag it with both hands.
Not…knocking a weapon into their knee, and then their head.
The youth stared for a moment before laughing. She couldn’t help the uproarious amount of giggles suddenly flooding against the waves, nor try to hide it as it burst forth from her lungs. After a second or more, probably more, she wiped the stray tears from her eyes. “Okay, well,” and then she laughed again, trying to diminish the efforts in order to teach and instruct, so it only came out occasionally as an abrupt snort. “Let’s adjust your grip,” and she maneuvered Lilliane’s hands down a bit, to see if that would help. “We don’t need you knocking yourself out.” It would defeat the purpose entirely, after all.
Then she motioned back, intending to repeat the exercise, slowly churning her own staff towards Lilliane’s shoulder once more. “Try again.”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
Lilliane wasn't angry about Melita laughing in the slightest. After all, she had probably looked like a character out of a stupid cartoon. And the comedic relief at that. Still chuckling herself, Lilliane nodded. "Yeah, wouldn't want to do my opponent's work for them," she said jokingly as she adjusted her grip accordingly. Taking position yet again, she redied to try another block.
Which this time at least occurred without further self-inflicted harm. Though now, in an effort not to repeat the last mistake, she was so overly cautious that she wasn't fast enough to block anything. Not Melita's slow movement, let alone an actual incoming attack.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Another round of scrutinizing and mulling through movements, aaaand one more set of inscrutable motions. Melita narrowed her eyes, perplexed, as Lilliane’s missed the block again (though, at least, she didn’t hit herself this time). “All right, we’ll come back to that one,” because if it was going to be a weakness in blocking and defending, then it would need to be worked on. The honeybee would be certain to return and cycle back through to that one, when the time was right.
“Let’s try something new,” because the spirit of defense was all well and good, but if Lilliane didn’t know how to assault or siege, that’d be another problem. “We can blend everything together eventually, but you need to know how to attack too.” Going back to her place, regaining the same stance she’d instructed the Outlander on, the youth raised her staff, ready for blows. “See what you can do.”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
With a sigh, Lilliane nodded. She felt like she was standing in her own way. Both literally and figuratively, looking back at her last two attempts on blocking. But she wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Another nod when Melita said they would switch to training attacks, then Lilliane got into position. Hesitating just a moment, thinking about all the possible options, she decided to go with her gut feeling again. And her gut feeling led to something familiar to her.
She did a lunge to the side and went for a low strike, aiming to hit Melita's knees from a slight backward angle. An attack intended to knock the opponent to the ground.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Deliberately, purposefully slow, at any other time the girl might have thwarted Lilliane’s movements. It wasn’t that she felt bad – but the youth should’ve had some measure of success. So she took her time in blocking, permitting the stick to hit her along the stretch of calf muscles, enough for her to dodge and maneuver out of the way thereafter. “There! Much better!” She grinned, readying another approach and tactic, when Fangorn began grumbling and hissing.
Pausing momentarily, she looked to where the vampire gourd was staring, his vines waving, clearly irritated – and then she saw it. Some looming jaguar (a shimmering green – she hadn’t been aware they even came in those hues) along the jungle-lines, where the trees met the sand, pacing, perhaps, in an attempt to gauge them.
The girl narrowed her eyes, sneering; a dangerous, emboldened, and audacious proposition beginning to fill her mind.
“Maybe we should test your methods on that,” and she pointed the predator out, as it appeared to be getting closer. Melita, in all her vehement, vicious, and sometimes incredibly stupid, glory, certainly wasn’t going to let it assume she was prey.
And raced forward, staff in hand, to show the beast exactly what she was made of.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
A small smile appeared on Lillianes face when she seemed to have some semblance of success with her attack. She was quite sure that things would be different in an actual fight between them, but at least she had been good enough for Melita to acknowledge her attempt.
Though the mood changed quickly. "Wait, what?!" Lilliane exclaimed as Melita raced towards the jaguar. She'd barely learned how not to knock herself out with the staff, now she was supposed to fight a wild animal? With a mix of bewilderment, disbelief, and panic on her face, Lilliane stood there for a second, staring at the scene in front of her.
With a sigh, she rushed forward to catch up with Melita. Worst case scenario, Lilliane might at least distract the animal a bit. She didn't follow Melita directly, instead splitting off to get the jaguar from two angles. Then one could easily strike while it focused on the other.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
If Melita could hear Lilliane’s panic, she didn’t acknowledge it. Bold and fierce and frequently undaunted, even when she should be, her mettlesome, abrupt methods figured this would be a quick and easy way for the fellow Outlander to learn. She’d be safe. The honeybee wouldn’t let any harm come to her.
Confident in her own abilities, as the jaguar growled at their closeness, Melita maneuvered forward, stretching out the staff’s expanse, a swift and rapid response. It smacked at the jaguar’s shoulder, to which it roared its defiance, swiping at her, barely missing, as the youth dashed to the right.
But with the staff’s abilities, the beast appeared quite confused, rattled. It shook its head, irritated, perplexed, annoyed with the sudden double-vision it was experiencing, and so Melita’s smirk grew, broad and brilliant. “There, now you have a chance!” She announced towards Lilliane, intending to render some confidence.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
While Melita had attacked the jaguar, Lilliane had circled around it. Though the further distraction of the beast because of Melita's attack certainly helped. Melita's further encouragement was certainly helpful, though not entirely necessary. Lilliane knew well enough to take any opening in the defense of an enemy she could get.
Still, this didn't help against bad handling of the weapon she was using. In a similar move to the one she had tried on Melita earlier, Lilliane tried to hit the beast's hind legs. Which did, indeed, work, causing the animal to struggle to stay on its feet. But without Melita's staff confusing the animal, it would not have worked. Lilliane frowned, though she still kept her focus on the animal. There would be time to be angry at herself later. At least it was struggling and not attacking for now.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Melita’s broad, feral grin wove its way onto her features as soon as Lilliane began outright participation, bemused, as the jaguar had difficulty maintaining its footing. She drew back her own weaponry, permitting the flex of her arm muscles to propel the staff onward, knocking the creature into the shoulder, listening for an audible crack of bone or marred wounds.
And while her motion did hit, so did the feline.
Its sight likely diminished by her armament’s additional effects, a paw swiped – though it missed her. Instead, it bludgeoned her weapon, and her fingers must not have been clenched hard enough, grasped in the multitudes, because no sooner had the limb knocked into it, did the staff go flying.
“Fuck’s sake,” she grumbled and hissed, rolling off into the brush and grass to snag it back.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
Suddenly standing there alone with the jaguar, at least for the moment, was not something Lilliane had anticipated. Nor was she particularly happy about it. But there wasn't much time to think. Better hit the beast now, before it could turn around and focus on her.
Taking inspiration from the way Melita had attacked the animal, Lilliane decided to use the staff almost like a spear this time. Waiting for the jaguar to turn, she aimed to hit it right on the nose. Doing so was supposed to help against a lot of animals, right?
While hitting the nose didn't entirely succeed, she knocked the staff against the forehead of the jaguar. This elicited a growl from the animal. She wasn't quite sure if she had managed to startle it or make it even more aggressive.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Hands grasped hold of her favored staff, and a new pulse of determination, tenacity, and boldness cycled through her blood. Her eyes watched as Lilliane managed to hit the damn thing on the forehead – which any other time would’ve made her laugh – her gaze widened instead, and then there was a loud whoop and holler. Something like triumph.
To which, from her vantage point, the youth swung and hit the beast straight on the hindquarters. It hit beautifully, enough for the jaguar to outcry in some semblance of a yelp, then stagger off, back into the brush and bush. It hadn’t made a great, grand choice in opting to pursue the ladies, and it likely wouldn’t do so in the near future, if memories served the animal well. “Nicely done,” the honeybee murmured to herself and Lilliane, impressed with their efforts. A smug grin plastered its way along her mouth, and then she rested her staff against her shoulder. “That was probably enough for today, huh?” Mostly rhetorical, but she figured Lilliane had learned multitudes more than just stances and defensive poses.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
A sigh of relief escaped Lilliane as the jaguar fled. Turning back to Melita, she smiled, trust in her own abilities at least partially restored. "You gave it quite a spanking," she then said with a chuckle. With a nod, she continued. "I think so too." Enough training and frankly, enough craziness. Then again, it was fun too. Another chuckle. "I think you're a bad influence on me." The last time they had met, they had chased some water horse through the jungle. And now they had fought a jaguar.
Taking a look at the branch she had used, she stuck it into the sand. "Guess I'll have to get myself a better one, in case I get to train with you again." She smiled at Melita. But for now, maybe a bit of relaxation. It was already getting warmer and she sure didn't want to keep training once it got really hot. "I think I'll head back to the city now. Thanks for teaching me." She gave Melita a wide smile before heading off.
