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!
After putting up a notice on the board, Sah had set out to the Sea of Glass. He wasn't sure if anyone would come, but he needed to get started as soon as possible. The time crunch on this quest was no joke, but the Abandoned was determined. As such, he'd come prepared.
With a bag of knives, ice pics, and a long rectangular container to put the glass in, Sah began his search. Walking along the Sea of Glass he tried to determine which place was best for collecting his jagged shard. Occasionally he tested a part of the ice to see if it was even cuttable.
It wasn't like Sah needed a minder. He had all that lightning and shit and honestly Tal felt bad for whatever poor, stupid beastie tried to give the hunter a hard time.
It was definitely for the sake of the poor beasts of the Sea that Tal harnessed up the team and headed out that morning after glancing at the notice board. It wasn't like he was returning the favor when Sah had come to check on him in the desert. That would imply a deeper concern for the other man than he would ever admit to out loud.
But, well, the Citadel hadn't been a comfortable place to be lately and in truth, any excuse to get out and ride free over the crisp Longheat snow was a welcome one.
The sled flew on freshly-waxed runners, the dogs pulling with eager abandon as they carried their cargo of one young man and a few axes and wires and wood for a fire across the Tundra and then over the Sea. Boreal flew overhead, calling directions from the path the hunter had left before and it wasn't long before Tal caught sight of the tall form standing out against the Sea's flat expanse and headed his way. "Didja get lost?" he called out as hupped for the dogs to slow down and set the snow brake to slide to a gracefully looped stop a little ways away.
Sah rolled his eyes with a snort as Tal showed up. Figures of all people, it'd be the courier. "Not yet." On some level he wondered if this was the man returning the favor. He'd tease him about it later. For now, he had a job to do.
"Well, if you're here, give me a hand." The Abandoned continued to walk along the ice, testing patches to see if any worked. "I need to find a spot to cut a shard out." If he'd had time, Sah probably would have hesitated from forming his sentence as a request for help. But under the current circumstances, efficiency trumped pride.
Tal snorted at the 'polite request' but if Sah had phrased it more nicely he would have been genuinely worried - and maybe a little weirded out. "Aye aye, your highness," he snarked back with a grin, making sure the dogs were settled before he went to walk a little distance away from the hunter.
"I mean. We can start hackin' away and see what comes loose. How big a shard are y'thinkin'?" He tilted the other man a wry glance. "An' why couldn't y'just break off an icicle from a roof in Snowcloak, if y'just needed a shard of ice?" Scuffing his feet against the ice he tested his own area for a place where it might be just a bit softer and easier to cut.
At a distance, the Ursur looks like nothing more than a snowdrift. Upon closer inspection, however, its thick white fur and huge tusks make it stand out as a once fearsome predator, now fallen and lifeless. There are no major visible injuries upon the creature - no blood at all to be seen - but this does not look natural.
You know what, fuck Tal. Sah rolled his eyes and flipped the courier off. "It's Alpha, peasant." Without elaborating at all, Sah continued checking patches of ice. One part under his coot creaked, "Maybe here. And it needs to be dagger sized...maybe." Safrin hadn't really specified but she'd said sharp. A large knife sized one seemed feasible to fulfill that.
"It has to be from here. A sharp piece from the Sea of Glass, not an icicle over my doorstep." Not that there were any. Color him paranoid, but everyday Sah removed the ones from his doorways. Just in case one fell and hurt his pups.
And then he spotted the ursur. "Fuck, not again." Sah muttered as he walked over and inspected the creature. "I saw something like this on Ceffyl Dŵr in the Feverlands. Dead and with no blood left. Though that one had its neck slit too. We'll have to report this one."
And then Sah spotted a large crack where the creature had fallen. His brow furrowed slightly, How fucked up would it be if I grabbed a shard from there?" It was already rather cracked. Getting a decent sized shard from that section wouldn't be too difficult.
Tal wrinkled his nose at the word, scoffing. "You an' your weird Outlander shit," he waved it off. "But sure, whatever you say, Alfalfa."
He glanced over as Sah identified a reasonable place, though dark brows went up at the specificity. "'Nother quest, huh?" he guessed. He was getting a lot of practice at those lately, and not just for himself. Somehow, some people Flora had figured out that they could hire the courier to get their fancy ingredients for them, and he was getting better at recognizing when something had to be just so to please a god.
But before he could be nosy, Boreal let out a rumble of warning and they all noticed the dead ursur at the same time. Tal grumbled as he joined the hunter in heading over and sighed at the mountain of fur and flesh (but no blood). "You too, huh? Think this is my fourth ursur this year. I'll put somethin' up on the notice board when we get back." He stared at it glumly, distracted from their task - though Sah wasn't.
Tal followed his gaze and raised a brow. "Why would it be fucked up?" he asked curiously. Unlimbering his axe from his hip he eyed the crack and then looked back at Sah. "Want me to give it a whack and see what pops loose?"
Sah chuckled, "Respect other cultures dumbass." The jibe rolled off his shoulders, the Outlander too amused at Tal's expression to get to offended.
Of course, the specificness of the request made the purpose clear. "Yup, my first actually." He waved his hand vaguely, "Abandoned Outlander and all that shit. Probably better in my interest to be careful with Caido's Gods." And Safrin had sure as hell seemed to appreciate the level of respect, he gave in turn because of it. That had been flattering as well as reassuring.
Sah nodded at Tal's comment, "If it's happening that often, it's probably for the best to inform people." Clearly something was wandering Caido and harvesting blood for something. As far as he knew, it'd yet to go after a person, but that didn't mean it wouldn't try to.
He shrugged at the comment, "Respecting the dead? But hey, if you think not, I've got it." With a wave of his hand a surge of telekinetic energy smashed into the ice with force. The ice cracked and shattered, shards going in multiple directions though Sah used his magic to ensure that none came sailing at them.
Once done he bent down to inspect the pieces, picking up a larger one. It was sharp for sure, jagged along the sides, and probably a little over half a foot long. "This should work."
"I'll put it on my t'do list," Tal agreed with a wicked grin. He just didn't mention that it was going at the bottom of the list. Well, not all other cultures. Just Sah.
A low whistle met the news of Sah's first quest and the courier actually gave the hunter a nod of respect. "Congrats on it. I hope it works out for ya. An' since I'm helpin' you with this..."
Whatever he was going to add trailed away as they were distracted by the ursur and went to investigate. Nodding in agreement that people needed to be informed, Tal checked over the beast for clues before coming back to help with the ice.
Not that he needed to help. He scoffed enviously as Sah's magic did the job and pretended to brush shards of ice off his sweater (not that any had actually hit him, thanks to the invisible protection). "Show off," he grumbled, bumping his shoulder hard into the hunter's before they split to begin their various collections.
"Glad t'hear it. Now, about respectin' th'dead... think you can use your power to flip this sucker over? An' grab a saw. No use lettin' the meat go to waste."
Sah was surprised at Tal's genuine support. "Thank you. I hope so too." He was caught off by it, honestly. But it was appreciated, nonetheless.
The Abandoned snorted at the jibe and Tal's pretending, "I do try." Seriously, training magic was exhausting. Not that Tal knew that, but hey. Sah was proud of how much effort he'd put into getting his telekinesis to its current level. And even if the courier was pretending, Sah sneakily sent a quick glance to make sure that he had in fact blocked any shards from hitting the man. Just in case.
Tal was certainly right about making use of the opportunity. "Sure." After carefully placing his shark away in his bag, Sah used his magic to roll the ursur over. "Let's make quick work of this. Just in case whatever did this comes back." Having said, that, the hunter pulled out his skinning tools and started to work on the ursur.
The gods were tricky business and Tal wouldn't joke about that. Well, not much. But he knew how hard it was to be Abandoned and get a favorable response so he didn't tease Sah about finally getting some divine help. With a nod of acknowledgment they shifted gears to collecting shards and examining dead tusked bears.
He used his axe to behead the beast, but it was easier to let Sah use his specialized tools for skinning the body and then follow in his wake, using the axe to hack of chunks of meat and limbs into more manageable sizes for loading into the sled. "Not a mark on it before we got to it," Tal grunted as he carried a load to the sled. "Maybe it was magic?"
Sah's brow furrowed as he worked, "If it was, that might be worse for us." That implied an even greater threat than a mere creature. Thankfully it wasn't the work of a dragon as far as he could tell. The Abandoned had no issue with companion dragons like Boreal. But if he ever saw a white dragon again it'd be too soon.
The hunter soon finished skinning the ursur and folded up the fur for transport. "Mind if we load all of this up on your sled? I don't think we can carry it all ourselves." Between the large fur and the sizable quantity of meat, it'd too much. Though the Abandoned could probably carry most of it with his magic. But if anything attacked, he'd have to drop it most likely.
That was a good point that Tal hadn't wanted to think about and he grimaced but nodded. The work was too hard to allow for much talking after that; taking apart a reindeer was hard enough, but tackling an ursur required a level of exertion and stamina that left little breath for idle chatter until they'd finished the worst of the task.
At least the lack of blood made it a relatively clean job and Tal considered the pile of meat they'd amassed. "Can't fit it all on the sled," he admitted reluctantly with a scowl for not being better prepared. "Would've brought a bigger one if I'd thought... well, doesn't matter now. Let's get the skin an' tusks on it, though an'-- wait!" Expression lightening, he reached for his Bag of Holding and shook it out, then started shoving the large hunks of meat into it. "They're frozen solid an' not bloody, so why not?" He grinned and between the two of them they were soon able to save the meat and skin both, leaving a pile of empty bones and bloodless viscera on the Sea in their wake.
At least their households would be well stocked when Deepfrost came again.
~Fin~
