Trying to Understand Them

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

Far to the south, in the Great Wood, an orcish figure slowly wanders without direction. He periodically swats a strand of ivy "hair" from his face as he searches the trees for strange movement.

"North...north..." He mumbles to himself "Cathan told me I'd find Kazzel if I traveled north."

After another hour of searching, the figure comes to a clearing and rests next to an old dead stump. He takes out a hand full of tinder along with flint and steel and ignites the pile on the lifeless protrusion. The light reveals the creature to be the treant Ichabod. Through the winter season, he had let his bark return to full thickness but with warm weather closing in, there was no need for the extra protection. Piece by piece, a smooth form emerges and each chip is added to the flame; His eyes never leaving the flickering light.

Fire, it always envigorated and terrified something within himself. The bones protruding from his back demand more heat but the forrest calls for it to be dowsed. Hypnotized, Ichabod sits, picking away at himself until he feals no more bark.

Then the memories of the past week come back with a thud. Cathan had told him that there was a human threat to the north and west of Mittelmarch. Ichy and Kazzel were to meet, discuss their options and report to the soon-to-be King Isen. This most likely meant reconnisense, the occasional skirmish and a kiloreen content on indulging in his own bloodlust.

"This is going to be a hard year" the treant says as he takes a large seed from his pouch. Where the fire was, ashes remain and life would soon emurge. At least that's what Ichy had always told himself. Standing up, he brushes the ivy out of his eyes and takes another look around.

[Isen Ehtar]

Somewhere in a complex maze of tunnels Isen slumps down into a chair, sweat pouring down his face, his arms glistening. His face is barely lit by the glow of a freshly enchanted pair of amulets that lay on the table in front of him. 'Too bad really,' he thought to himself, 'I had really hoped for it to not come to this. Someday I won't have to risk the lives of the innocent to gather information.'

The elf rose slowly, and more than a bit labored. Grasping the amulets firmly in his left hand he started to make his way back to his home, hoping for some sort of rest before he sent out the first of the scouts to the Jovian's city.

[rtiir]

The evening is late and the hall is empty, notes on the Jovians are strewn about the main table. A thin man casted in shadow walks the length of the table, his hand glides across the wood. He stops at the head of the table and sits. He lifts a goblet still holding wine to his nose, sniffs and takes a drink. He tears of a piece of bread, and dips it in the wine and takes a bite. He grabs a piece of paper and a quill from the ink bowl and begins to write.

“I drank of your wine.
I ate of your bread.
I have sat in your chair,
But you were not here. “

He pulls out a dagger with the symbol of the Jovian empire imprinted on the pommel and stakes the note to the table.

And he leaves unseen and unheard.

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

It is dark and damp in the tunnels that Cathan is running in. there is no light for he knows these tunnels far to well. sweat dripping down his face, he seems to be deep in thought.

" What are we going to do about these Jovians," he thinks to himself, " they cannot take this place. Not my home. We are going to need a couple more to help with this and i know just who."

It looks like he has made it to a dead end. Cathan goes up to the wall, puts his hands against it feeling the rough, cool rock infront of him. He starts to push, his arms buldging and his feet digging into the ground beneath. the wall starts to shake then, slowly it begins to move inch by inch. After a couple of minutes there is a crack on the side big enough for Cathan to squeeze through. The cool breeze from the outside is lightly blowing through. He knows that he must hurring just incase anyone is watching. Cathan slips through the crack and pushes the bolder back into place.

It is dark out and it is quiet in the great woods just North of Mittelmarch. Cathan takes a quick break by a nearby stream to cool off, before he is on his way again traveling NorthWest.

" Kazzel will be of great use for this and Ichabod should be on his way, so long as he got my directions correct." he thinks to himself as he starts sprinting through the forest. No light to give away his possition just the light wisp of his bare feet brushing over leaves.

[Isen Ehtar]

OOC: I would like to run the battle that will be linked to this story this upcoming saturday April 5th. If those involved directly with going to the Jovian stronghold would PM me and let me know if you will be at practice this saturday or not that would be awesome.

IC:
As morning rises over Mittelmarch Isen looks to the east and the rising sun. "Something is amiss here." He quickly goes to the throne room where he had hosted a meeting the previous day. Yanking the dagger out of the table he crumples the paper and tosses it aside, slumping into his chair. "What now?" he asks no one. "At least the only lives that are really in danger are those of my Brothers. They can be watched closer than the others. We must carry on with the plans as previously decided. They are capable men that I am sending." A new weight layed heavily on the elf's heart, not sure if this was the right thing to do, but knowing better than to show weakness or indecision to his followers. He shakes his head and places the two newly crafted amulets on the table in front of him, waiting for the men to come to him this day.

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

as the sun rises Cathan wakes with it. he has only slept a couple of hours to get a little rest. he gets up and starts moving NW again. a couple of hours have gone by and suddenly Cathan sees something move just to his right. he stops to check and hide. about 50 yds out a try the looks of an orc is slowly moving through the forest. Cathan realizes it is Ichabod. "I am glad he has found his way thus far. i was a little afraid he might have gotten lost," Cathan thinks to himself.

he decides to play a little trick on Ichabod. he sneaks around behind him. slowly comming up beside him with out make any noise, Cathan starts walking next to Ichabod.

Startling Ichabod, Cathan says, "So I see you have found your way here, I guess we should go together to find Kazzell. we don't have much time, I have already got my orders and I shall be leaving in a couple of days."

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

Caught in an awkward pose, trying to reach the last ripe berry on a tree, Ichy hears the burning voice of Cathán behind him. Having finally reached the fruit, the treant tosses it behind him and hears a satisfying noise. He turns around to see his demonic friend wearing a colorful orb on his right horn.

"Good luck with your orders. Have you seen Kazzell yet?"
...pausing to think for a moment
"And what are my orders in this? I'd ask Isen myself but its a bit late for that."

Ichabod takes a long look around, thinking to himself: "I must have passed the city over night. I'm much further north than I thought."

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

Cathán pulls the fruit off his head and tosses it back to ichabod. "I do not know what Isen wants you or Kazzell to do, I'm just comming to get you. This way you don't get lost and Kazzell can actually come to town for an important reason. If we travel this way long enough we should run into him sooner or later."

Cathan starts jogging ahead trying to move his treant friend along so that they could get to Kazzell before he left to meet up with Gravein.

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

An hour's travel later, Cathán and Ichabod have found a path to follow. A few yards down the path Cathán feels a minute resistance against his foot and the sound of a heavy falling object follows. By instinct he dives for the nearest cover. One loud crash later, Ichabod is pinned against a tree with a sharpened log burried in his gut.
Extremely confused, Ichy looks down to see a deep crack in his torso.

"Agh, kah! Hey Cathán, help me get this tree out of me." he says, reaching into a bag and pulling out three Acorns and grabbing the projectile with his other hand.

"Uuuh... let me h'help you with... that?"

A few good tugs and the log comes out. Ichy presses the seeds into the wound and patches it up with a hand ful of mud.

"Why aren't you dead?" the demon asks with hesitation.

"I'm not made of flesh, I don't think I have too many organs to worry about and the bones, well, go ahead and break them. They aren't needed. I'm a tree, and as long as I can plant a seed or two..." pointing to the gash, now leaking a little sap... "I'll be fine. Still, lets rest for a moment. I don't want to break any further." He sits.

Cathán sits beside Ichabod with a curious look on his face. " That is a good idea... anyway Kazzell should be around here since this looks like one of his traps. He should be close by, we will wait for him here."

[Kazzell KumoKi]

OOC: I will spell/grammar check later. I had to type while this was in my head which happened to be at 5:25am. I hope I'm doing this right...

IC:
As the 2 sit and talk of things a set of pure ivory daggers streak past their faces and stick into the ground next to each of them. They each look at the daggers with intrigue and realize that the foliage surrounding them seems to begin to grow and entangle them constricting them to the ground and forcing their chests forward. just then there is a rumbling in the tree tops and a gash of brown and green streaks down in front of them.

Here stands the Killoren Blood Druid they seek. The embodiment of destruction and death. Natures answer to the plague of mankind. Kazzell KumoKi. As he pushes his deep, lusterless black vine-like dreadlocks over his shoulder to reveal his face his coal black eyes barely look down at the 2 creatures he has now captured and he begins to speak.

"You don't have to bow gentlemen. I know you see yourselves in front of greatness and you tremble in fear not knowing what I'll do next but remember, you carry the mark of the fang so you are safe here in my realm."

as he finishes his statement he relaxes from his regal stance and approaches his captives only to retrieve his ivory daggers from the ground where they stick. He slashes the daggers across the creatures backs releasing them from the now retreating foliage and helps the tree stand up.

"I see you found my new trap brother Ichabod! How do you like it? I have been watching you and Cathán travel for a day or so now wondering when you'd meet up and what this "important reason" to come to town might be. If it has anything to do with these Jovians then your only leading me in the direction i was heading. So let us meet up with brother Isen, AH I mean 'King Isen!' and speak with him about these jovians who are encroaching on my realm."

Kazzell helps his brothers remove the rest of the vines from their bodies and resets his trap.

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

Cathán rises, brushing off the foliage that had just entangled him. " We must hurry then for I have but a couple of days before I must meet up with Gravein and scout out these Jovians."

[Kazzell KumoKi]

"Brother Ichabod how well can you keep up with us?"

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

Cathán turns toward both of them, "He can keep up, don't worry about that, we must hurry to get back to Mittelmarch. There is much to be done and so little time." Cathán doesn't listen to any questions or replies and heads south back towards Mittelmarch.

[Kazzell KumoKi]

"hmm well his mission was to bring us back to town so if you want, we can go at your pace and he can just show up looking like a fool thinking we are right behind him. Hows that sound Brother Oakenfellow?"
with a soft smirk Kazzell begins to walk at ichabods normal pace toward town.

[Kazzell KumoKi]

OOC:i guess finals is taking it's toll on this story for now eh?

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

Ichabod finally spits out a chewed up vine, still writhing about.

"Actually, I feel a little better now. I might ask you to do that agin soon, and tell me how you did it in the first place."

Ichy's strides make for a comfortable jog to the Killorean.

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

Cathán relizing that the two are following a little slower than anticipated he slows his pace as well. The trek back to Mittelmarch to even longer than before. All three of them arrived at what seemed to be a giant stone next to the side of a cliff. "We are finally here brothers." Cathán says. Instead of moving closer to the bolder Cathán goes over to an old, rotten tree. He reaches his hand into one of the holes of the tree and pulls out two scrolls. They both have Lord Isen's mark on it.

Cathán opens the first one to read it,

Cathán,
You left to quickly for me to give you the scroll to give to Kazzell and Ichabod. When you do recieve this make sure to give the other scroll to them. It will tell them of their job. You need to know as well, they are going to be the runners for you, Gravein, Suihaden, and Kotaro. All of you will give what information you find to Kazzell and Ichabod and they will return it to me. You better head on your way because i believe by the time you get this it will be about time for you to meet up with Gravein. Good luck to all of you.

King Isen

After reading his scroll Cathán gives the other scroll to Kazzell and says, " this is what Brother Isen wants you two to do. I have to leave now to join up with Gravein I will see you two soon enough." Cathán bids his farwell and heads off towards the Jovian Impire leaving Kazzell and Ichabod by the old tree.

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

"Open the scroll little one. What does it say?"

[Kazzell KumoKi]

*Opens the scroll*

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

*reads the scroll*

Ok. Good luck silent one.

*Strides off in the direction of Cathán*

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

5 moons later in the shadows of a building in the Jovian Empire, a very dark figure waits as a couple of guards march by. The dark figure slides past them and slips into another shadow a little bit farther down the road. When he stops he scribbles a couple of things down on a piece of parchment that he has. After being in the Jovian Empire for over 4 and a half hours, the figure heads for the walls of the city, just barely missing a couple of guards on his way out. When the figure makes it to the walls he slides a loose block out and slips inside the hole, pulling the block back so that his exit is not found. Once back into the woods, the figure pulls back his hood reveiling horns on his head and red skin. Cathán heads back to the meet up point where Ichabod or Kazzell should be waiting.

After an hour Cathán makes it to the clearing where Kazzell and Ichabod should be. At first he does not see anyone, so he waits hoping that they are somewhere close by, so that he can give them the map of the Empire with gaurd patrols, week points in the walls, and location of men on the wall.

[Kazzell KumoKi]

OOC: *i'm at a loss*

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

OOC: strait to the point, you and ichabod are runners. i have mapped out the empire and weak points like i was suppose to and gravien is doing the same. a couple of other people are actually inside their ranks. im in a clear about an hour from the jovians walls waiting for you or ichabod to get my information from me and take it to the king. is that good enough for you

[Kazzell KumoKi]

ooc: perfectly described thanx for getting me on track essay!

[Ichabod Oakenfellow]

Branches creek and wave in the evening winds but one goes againts the current and slowley reaches out to the devilish silhouette. One tree seems not to belong. Roots breach earth, the boughs bend and its trunk splits slowely. Ichabod's more familiar shape becomes decernable in a few minutes.

"AAHHHHhhhhh..... What do you have for me?", he says, stretching his stiff joints.