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Post by Azonthus on Mar 10, 2005 14:05:30 GMT -5
stefan de velociraptor everpresent omniannoying guy Posts: 13 (6/8/04 8:08 pm) Reply The festival of stars -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- comedy and intrigue in the city of sauropolis
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Post by Azonthus on Mar 10, 2005 14:06:05 GMT -5
stefan de velociraptor everpresent omniannoying guy Posts: 24 (6/8/04 10:44 pm) FOS 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ellie gazed out over the balcony of the guest apartments of sauropolis. The crystal waters of dolphin bay spreading out below her seemed to become the face of the starry sky above, the moon sinking calmly into the waters. She could vaguely see the shadowy forms of the dolphins for which the harbour was named dancing and diving just under the surface, occasionally sending sprays of water high into the air with a powerful flick of their tails. It was just after sunset, the hour of stillness before the festival of stars where the inhabitants of the city rested and turned their thoughts both to the infinite depths of their spirits and the infinite depths of the void. Muffled voices rose softly from the street below and Ellie peered over the rails. Below, Amber, Vorchia and Mathaira stood talking, softly, watching the cool breeze play in the palms across the road. ‘Are you girls going to come up and get changed? The festival is starting in no time!’<br>‘hmph, there is no way you are going to get them there on time, Vorch just got a new dress and they’re discussing how exactly to ruin it within one day to cause that poor tailer as much agony as possible’ came Stormtracer’s voice as she stepped out onto the balcony, short forearms struggling to put on the surcoat bearing her own symbol embossed on a mural of the seven habitats, the traditional saurian dress for the festival of stars. Ellie sighed ‘here let me help you with that thing’ she pulled the cloth tight, maybe a little harder than intended ‘HEY! Watch it! My arms aren’t as thick as yours you know. Unless you want a pair of raptor drumsticks and a very annoyed set of claws and teeth on your hands, you might want to loosen it’ ‘Okay, okay. Keep your crest on already’<br>‘It’s not my crest I’m worried about’ Storm muttered under her breath They managed to get the coat on without a problem and Ellie ducked inside a privacy screen to get dressed. Below in the water a doleful hoot announced the presence of Sapphire, the long shape in the water splashing a thick fin to get them to hurry up. Fearing a thorough drenching, the group on the street hurried inside with an assortment of annoyed recriminations. Along the street laughter rang out as a group of raptors made their way along the sidewalk. As usual, Az, Stefan, Enit and Oggie were in hot debate about some topic that had sprung from a mention. Despite the constant bickering and casual insults, the four were good friends, each with their own strengths in a debate, Az with confidence and compassion, Stefan with cold logic, Enit’s knowledge of precedents and Oggie’s towering presence, which she was using now, drawing herself up to her full height, which was about three times that of Stefan and Az and twice that of Enit. Behind them, Rusty wandered along aimlessly, fiddling with a corner of the deep blue denim bodysuit she was carrying. The party of theropods wandered in and bounded up the stairs so that they and the group that had entered before them arrived at almost the same time. Suddenly the little apartment above the bay got a whole lot more crowded. The last tiny rays of the sun made the clouds glow in the darkness as they flowed smoothly over the sea in their ever-circling contour of the island. Ellie appeared from behind the screens, now clad in a tunic and long pants made of thick critythe cloth, decorated with tiny pieces of quartz. Of all the friends she always seemed to have a good set of clothing for any of the three hundred odd festivals that were held each year on Dinotopia. The scene she was confronted by as she battled her way across to Amber though was slightly less serene than her garb. Vorchia was indeed doing a good job of ruining her new surcoat, having accidentally hooked a claw in one of the straps and was trying to dislodge it, causing small tears to appear in the fabric and many agonized entreaties from Mathaira. Ellie quickly fished the claw out and draped the garment over her back then continued, dodging between Oggie’s legs to where Amber was standing. She had been joined by Stefan and Azonthus, the three velociraptors were trying to get their garb on. Az, who preferred to wear only a functional harness or nothing at all refused everything but a set of matching leg and armguards made of felt covered leather. Stefan was wearing, or trying to wear, his customary colours of black and gold. The white undershirt he wore under his saurian surcoat gave him the appearance of a cross between a penguin, a samurai and an extremely grumpy komodo dragon. Rusty had managed to get her one piece suit on and joined them, only her face and ivory white talons visible against the multitude of dark costumes traditional to the festival of stars. Amber simply draped her surcoat on and deftly hooked the straps tight, shaking her head at the difficulties of the rest of them. ‘Having fun?’ said Ellie as she placed a hand on her friend’s back. Amber looked up and grinned, retractable teeth sliding out. ‘You bet. Now can we get the hell out of here?’ The riposte caused Stefan to laugh ‘Well, we can try. Just don’t get stepped on, disembowelled, shouted at, tail whipped, blasted by foetid halitosis or pounced by someone who’s a bit overenthusiastic’. He nodded slightly towards Storm, who was bouncing around the room like a jack-in-the-box, trying to simultaneously pounce everybody in sight. ‘I see your point. How many floors up are we? You don’t think we could climb out the window?’<br>‘It’s a possibility. I suggest we just hide in the corner and whimper until they all go away’<br>‘Now THERE’s an idea’ muttered Enit as he sidled up next to the group. ‘Still, I don’t think it’ll work. I think everyone’s just about set for clothes and makeup. ‘Cept you, Azzy, you’ve forgotten your lipstick again’<br>Azzy snarled a snarl that would curdle blood, milk, cement or any other thing that happened to be nearby ‘Just kidding, we should get going now, the festival parade will be starting any moment now. And here’s Barry’ the Baryonyx was making his way to the door, clad in his festival finery ‘so we’re all good to go. OKAY EVERYBODY, LET’S HIT THE STREET!’ Enit roared and was immediately stepped on by a startled Oggie who backpedalled onto his tail. What followed was a spectacular display of deinonychan leaping skills and another whimper of pain as he collapsed back towards the ground clutching his skull. Stefan winced and looked at the small cracked area of ceiling ‘You okay?’ ‘Oooohh… I think so. Emphasis on think’ ‘I’m so sorry Enit. Let’s get out of this place’ apologized Oggie. He turned and swept a path clean for the group and, like water rushing from an upside down bottle that has been shaking, the rest followed quickly out and down the stairs, trampling Barry to a pulp as he made his way up to join them. ‘You know, I think we should have just stayed I in the street and gotten wet’ remarked Amber to Ellie as they peeled the lightly perforated barryonyx of the stairs. Down below, Sapphire was nowhere to be seen and Barry, having been reinflated, was sent to search the waterline for the Ambulocetus. The rest of the group watched as he walked along the sand, occasionally sticking his head under the water and looking around for the walking whale. On the third attempt just as he ducked under a massive spume of foam shot from the water and his head and most of his neck was promptly engulfed by a large mouth. From inside they could vaguely hear something like ‘Gerheroffme! Gerheroffme!’ Sapphire dutifully released the Barryonyx and sprayed a long jet of water at the other festivalgoers, who scattered in disarray. Barry, who had collapsed backwards and lay panting in the sand dragged himself to his feet. Vorchia hurried over. ‘Are you okay?’ Barry sighed and shook the sand from his legs ‘yes, but I’m starting to think being around you lot is hazardous to my health. First I get tenderized, then eaten. I hope we aren’t as hyper at the festival or there’s gonna be hell to pay with brokehorn tomorrow.’<br>Vorchia nodded ‘yeah. Ellie was smart to hide all the chocolate until after the festival’s over. Simultaneously, seven raptorish voices rang out from the street behind them ‘CHOCOLATE?’...
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...To be continued
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Post by Azonthus on Mar 10, 2005 14:07:17 GMT -5
stefan de velociraptor everpresent omniannoying guy Posts: 25 (6/8/04 10:45 pm) FOS 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sauropolis, dressed in its evening finery, glittered with a million sparkling gems. Silver thread, diamonds, quartz, white fabric and even the odd sunstone blazed in the great moon’s radiance as the population of the city fanned out along the shores of Dolphin Bay. The little group of flustered dinosaurs and humans, not to mention a newly arrived Quetzocoaltus and a rather wet Ambulocetus (nothing abnormal though) snuck their way into the crowds of spellbound saurians and humans watching the dazzling play of the moonlight on the water. Once a year, midsummer’s eve, the perpetual storms out past the bay ceased for some mysterious reason, turning the bay into a flat plain of light that shimmered and dipped exquisitely in the light of the stars and moon. Below the surface, the group could vaguely see the dolphins for which the bay was named waiting for the midnight bell to sound, the key for the start of the festival. ‘We’d better find an empty spot with a good view’ whispered Stefan as he dodged a sauropod’s foot. ‘Why not here?’ replied Amber ‘Well, judging by the havoc we managed to cause in the flat, it might be a good idea to find a slightly isolated spot so we don’t accidentally shred any of the peaceful citizens of this isle ‘Fair point. Where do you suggest? ‘We could probably head over to the little inlet about ten minutes up the bay from here, you know, the hard to get to bit..’<br>‘Oh, yeah. I know the place. Let’s go! If we don’t hurry we’ll miss the stars’<br>‘C’mon everybody, let’s hit the road… NO! Don’t take that literally you fool!’ Oggie paused with one massive foot poised to smash down on the paving, looking disgruntled. They hurried along by the side of the great bay, more and more people flocked to their posts by the water’s edge. As the buildings of Sauropolis merged seamlessly into the dark pinewoods that surrounded the city, Stefan pulled a small flask out of his surcoat, whipping a few branches together and then dousing them with the contents. Picking up a stone off the ground he planted the sticks in the ground, threw the rock up in the air and jumped after it, spinning and swiping the pebble out of the air in a shower of sparks. The miniature fireworks display fell lightly onto the sticks, which burst massively into flame before he touched the ground. From behind there came several annoyed mutters of ‘showoff’ as he picked up the brand unfazed and a wash of light bathed the darkened wood. Enit tapped Stefan on the shoulder, the smaller raptor looking up. ‘What did you have In that flask of yours?’<br>‘Well, you know how they say ‘would you like tea or something a little stronger?’<br>‘Yeah’<br>‘That was the ‘something a little stronger’ a lot stronger actually’<br>‘Ah. … … do you drink it?’<br>‘Only if there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, else on offer.’ Stefan made a grimace that would have broken several bones if it was attempted by a human and Enit dropped the subject. Several minutes, buises and obnoxious seagull noises later, the first two courtesy of the dense forest branches and the last courtesy of Rusty, they arrived at the secluded area in the inlet. From there there was a great view of the harbour, plenty of space and several angry cretaceous sized centipedes. These large critters, armed with mandibles that could spear off a leg or arm in under a second, provided the perfect distraction for the raptors until the Festival kicked off. The herbivores and humans dealt with the less palatable scorpions. Amber and Rusty reclined luxuriously on a messily sushierised centipede, nibbling on a segment apiece watching Ellie dodge and weave for her life with a large stick, parrying the lighting strikes of a scorpion’s tail, offering advice. She had barely finished rolling out of the way of a last tail swipe and smashed the heavy stick into its face causing it to rear violently and scuttle backwards into the forest. Ellie promptly collapsed to the cheers of Stefan and Enit who were lugging another centipede/morsel/recliner seat into position. The girl ripped open her bag and pulled a flask of water from it, drinking deeply. ‘Well! That was fun. Tell you what. Let’s never, EVER do that again’ Enit laughed
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Post by Azonthus on Mar 10, 2005 14:07:34 GMT -5
‘For a vegetarian you make a pretty good hunter!’<br>‘Don’t remind me, and would you two eat a little less messily!’ she groused at Amber and Rusty, who looked back, Rusty with a long leg dangling out the side of her mouth. She tossed her head back and swallowed it with gusto, cocking her head towards Ellie afterwards ‘I’m sorry, it’s not my fault I’m a theropod you know. Plus this thing is a real treat. Would go down a storm roasted lightly with a nice bit of salt and pepper and a sluice of white vinegar. ‘Ooohhh. Don’t make me sick’ mumbled Mathaira as she sat down next to the group, keeping her eyes off the desiccated corpses of the giant centipedes. Suddenly, with a silent glory, the festival started. From the darkness above the bay, high in the air giant flowers blossomed into space. Pure white and as soft as feathers the blossoms fell lightly to earth, followed by others dropped from skybax riders circling high in the air above the water. As each fell it divided into a thousand beams of light, tracing downwards like shooting stars to disappear just above the heads of the crowd. The riders then produced sunstones, riding ever upwards and dancing in the heavens in bursts of brilliant light, a tale with no words about creation and the greatness of the sky. Below, dolphins and their partners sent beams of radiance up into the sky with their own stones from below the surface, the muted reflection a testament to the broken glory that we see on earth. Several gasps resounded from the group as the lights dipped, wove and shone in a dazzling display of beauty and strength. For almost an hour the lights danced, occasionally joined by bursts of joyous song, the calibre of the deep voiced sauropods to the shrill haunting song of the small ornithomorids piercing the night like the voice of a god. Soon however, the stars died away and a final burst of light from every candle, torch, stone and fire marked the end of the display. The festival itself would begin soon and it was a time of customary meditation and contemplation among Dinotopians. Though still high on life and love , each member of the group fell silent, remembering the codes and their lives, seeking peace inside themselves before letting their essences intertwine with the fabric of the universe and reached out to touch the tiny points of light that showed above the harbour. Somewhere in the city a great bell tolled once, twice and continually for almost a minute, each ringing peal representing one of the ‘stars’ of Dinotopia, people who had honoured their land with their lives so powerfully and with such devotion that they were recognized as living representations of the ideal of the island. After exactly 49 peals, the bell fell silent. Each opened their eyes and turned to the next person, exchanging the greeting of Dinotopia. They lept to their feet. The time for contemplation was over; the time for revelry had begun. Suddenly, bottles of wine appeared everywhere, claws opened bags that held great bunches of leaves and boxes of delicious salads and stews for the vegetarians. The raptors continued to much on their centipedes. As they lounged on the shore of the bay, drinking up the calm before heading back into the more lively parts of the city, they had already managed to get slightly tipsy. Storm leaned over towards Stefan ‘You know, you look kinda handsome in that surcoat of yours. I’d go out with you if you weren’t so uptight about cross species bonding and hybrids’<br>‘Me?’ Stefan faked an insulted face ‘why would you go out with me? I mean, the only thing I have that’s useful is a ridiculously vulgar sense of humour (several ‘hear hear’ s resounded from the others) and a philosophically annoying attitude second to none. ‘That and you seem to argue with absolute constancy, pall up with flamers and scum, still insist on fighting as a way of life and are really, really ugly’ chirped in Sapphire from the water ‘Yeah, that too I suppose’ he replied, tipping her the slightest of winks ‘Hey, can you hear something?’ asked Hardkick, who had joined them at the waterfront earlier ‘Yes, I can, you talking to me, Rusty getting drunk, Sapphire blowing bubbles, Stormy bouncing off the walls and other sounds. But, I think, nothing out of the ordinary. What is this sound you can hear’<br>Hardkick pondered for a moment. ‘It sounds like someone quite high up yelling ‘Geronimo’ at the top of their voice and plummeting directly towards us from the heavens ‘Oh don’t be stupid, find some other description, that doesn’t tell me anyth- With a resounding ‘whoosh’ Croco fell from quite high up yelling ‘Geronimo’ at the top of his voice and plummeted directly towards them from the heavens. The group scattered as a massive mushroom cloud of water hovered menacingly in the air above the waterside for a moment before rushing all over every single one of them. From above came the shrill laughter of Speedwing. ‘you know’ Barry groused ‘maybe I should just buy a Jacuzzi suit so I don’t have to bother drying off every fifteen minutes’ He wrapped his towel around his arms and then packed it back into his side bags ‘That’s the spirit’ Laughed Stefan, slapping the Baryonyx on the thigh ‘think positive!’<br>A thoroughly bedraggled Croco was towelling himself under the wings of his massive companion, joking with Amber as the group got ready to hit the party proper ‘You know, we’d better be careful. If we can cause this much carnage while we’re sober, I’d hate to see us drunk’ remarked Stefan as they looked over the group ‘Well’ Said Hardkick with a laugh ‘you are old enough now, so why not give it a try? We may as well see what a tipsy philosopher can come up with, might be the meaning of life the universe and everything, you never know’<br>‘We shall see’ laughed his friend ‘We shall indeed see’<br>
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Post by Azonthus on Mar 10, 2005 14:07:58 GMT -5
stefan de velociraptor everpresent omniannoying guy Posts: 26 (6/8/04 10:45 pm)
FOS 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group, after stopping to recover from a second trek through the thick pines that caused yet more bruises and curses to resound through the dark branches, continued on to the city. They had, actually, found a brilliant method of clearing a path. Rusty discovered that by placing Oggie in front and feeding him a certain type of cognac, Oggie’s natural tendency to alternately step on, talon-carve or bite into chunks anything that got in his way was infinitely magnified by the strong drink and soon they had a wide thoroughfare in which to stroll, littered with the splintered branches that lay as a testament to why trees really aren’t all that suited to trying to keep a nine-foot raptor at bay Once back at the flat the saurians managed to change their side bags without too many problems and the humans filled bags with crafts and toys that they had spent the last few days preparing as the customary gifts given to the children who flocked to the great square of Sauropolis to watch the parade and ceremony. They managed to squeeze in and out without too much of an incident, though Hardkick somehow managed to trip over Rusty’s tail, falling, mouth open so that a fang pierced just above Enit’s thigh, who inturn reflexively kicked Stefan in the face, who fell over backwards into Ellie’s lap. After the participants had suitably re-inserted their entrails through their split sides and sewn them up, they traipsed back down the stairs, managing to narrowly miss flattening Barry a second time ‘See, life just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?’ remarked Vira as Barry sighed with relief ‘Indeed’ he replied grumpily It was a ten-minute walk to the great square and every street was filled with light and joy. The festival of stars was one of the greatest on Dinotopia and almost every inhabitant of the island took part with up to half travelling to sauropolis for the star-crowning. On every corner entertainers and artists plied their trade with a vigour, music and laughter filling the night as paint was applied liberally to canvas as the parade continued. On the corner of the great square itself a middle-aged man with short, cropped hair and a casual shirt that didn’t quite fit the occasion sketched the parade as it passed through the square. ‘Who is that guy?’ whispered Vorchia to Stormy as they passed him ‘I’m not exactly sure, I’ve only seen him once before. Second name’s Garny, no, Gurney, that’s the one’<br>‘Kinda weird looking fella if you ask me’<br>‘Hmm, yeah, looks like he’s spying on the parade rather than being a part of it. Maybe he’s trying to write some kind of book or something.’<br>‘Well, it doesn’t matter much anyway, it probably won’t affect us so let’s get down to the party’<br>‘So agreed. I hope they had that fried nautilus stall there was last year, those are soooooo good’<br>By the time they reached the open area at the center of the square the parade had half passed. The group split up and ransacked the stalls, trading crafts and jokes for the good food and beautiful creations made for the festival. On dinotopia, jewels and gold were relatively plentiful thanks to the mechanized mining techniques of millennia past, huge deposits of precious minerals and stones had been recovered from the ancient ruins and now decorated the inhabitants of the island. The result was that dinotopian metal smiths were amazingly good at their art and, due to the difficulty of procuring food in an active volcano caldera, willingly traded their crafts for food and news, commodities easy to come by in the political heart of the island. Soon most of the female raptors were dripping with various pendants and other jewellery while Stormy muched on afried nautilus and Vira chattered energetically to a struthie smith who was inlaying delicate gold leaf sheets onto her talons before carving scrolling and waving patterns into the gold and varnishing the whole lot, sealing the delicate leaf from damage. Stefan fingered a tiny egg shaped pendant inscribed with the yin-yang symbol. Rusty was hell-bent on just drinking her sorrows away and was quickly involved in a game of catch-me-if-you can. Enit and Amber, who had managed to remain relatively sober, watched on in disbelief as the raptor literally ran up walls to escape her overenthusiastic pursuers. She had underestimated the amount of opposition she was facing however, and was quickly swamped by a horde of compsognathus, high on the chase, who desperately tried to drag the larger dinosaur down. With fifteen of the little creatures hanging off her, Rusty staggered, king-kong style, to the top of the square where she was promptly jumped upon by several larger human teenagers and flattened into a rather spiky, raptor shaped crepe. As Rusty peeled herself off the pavement, the bell above the square began to toll again. It was time for the greatest event of the festival. Though the festival occurred every year, this part happened maybe once a century. A new star was added to Dinotopia’s records and tonight that star would be revealed. The recognition of a new star was a huge event in dinotopia, a society that revolved around recognizing personal achievement and commitment to one’s ideals. No one knew who the new star would be, except the council of elders themselves, so the identity of the new star was a hot topic for gossip. Even the star themselves did not know until the night, but when the bell tolled they always felt an irresistible urge to come forward. The group gathered again at the edge of the stalls, watching the stage at the front of the square. As the bell tolled for the final time a hush fell over the crowd. Nothing moved, even the flock of seagulls that seemed to nest perpetually in Rusty’s throat figured out that now would probably not be a good time to throw a rather loud and raucous party. A figure detached itself from the crowd towards the rear of the stage and climbed slowly up the stairs. The elders waited in silence as the stranger walked up to them and turned. There was no mistaking those red and yellow stripes. The celebrations lasted the rest of the night and it was almost dawn before they managed to battle their way through the crowds to find Az, sitting talking to Bokehorn. The manoeuvrer involved scooting up the tail of a confused Brach, dodging a low flying skybax, using Enit’s ten foot leap for the best of uses and finally sliding painfully down the wall on the other side of the square after being given a ‘booster’ by the Brach’s neck. As the various raptors picked themselves up from the dust, croco landed immaculately in front of them while the low flying skybax, speedwing, landed lightly on a roof nearby. ‘Hey! Azzy! Over here!’<br>‘Oh, hi guys’<br>‘Wow, you should be proud! A star no less, and here we were thinking Crabb was finally going to get one!’<br>‘Yeah, that reminds me, you owe me a massage Stormy’ poked in Vorchia ‘It wasn’t that painter guy. He was just some random nobody after all’<br>‘Azzy, I got something for you as a present when I heard about the stardom’<br>Said Stefan, rummaging in one of his side-bags with his head. A few seconds later a muffled grunt of triumph came from the bag and he emerged, dragging a massive hunk of nicely wrapped, high quality chocolate.
All hell broke lose
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Post by thereisnosaurus on Jul 9, 2005 19:57:21 GMT -5
‘You know, that wasn’t really the smartest thing you could have done in the situation’ Said Az as she looked forlornly at the decapitated and disemboweled hunk of chocolate that was all that was left of the once handsome block. Stefan lay sprawled on the ground in front of her and the other raptors were plastered around him in various stages of dismemberment. Soft swearing resounded from a corner where Vorchia was attempting to re-attach her tail. ‘I… Know…’ whispered the raptor as he got shakily to his feet ‘have… you seen my right middle-finger perchance?’ He collapsed again and a beautiful ringing crack caused by skull/granite convergence signaled the end to the gift-giver’s consciousness. Az sighed and retrieved the digit, pushing it into the nub of bone and gory flesh that remained on his hand, the flesh re-knitting as the raptors amazing chocolate fuelled metabolism sealed the wound and healed. The night was coming to an end, the last stars weaving their diamond trails in the silvery air above. She felt the pain of years flow through her, the strain of love for her homeland and its peoples. And now she had been recognized, with the highest of honors on Dinotopia no less, yet she felt none the wiser, none the greater. The stars themselves were none the brighter for her efforts. Why. Why work, devote one’s life to a cause that seemed never to become more beautiful. For every minute lavished upon polishing her soul it seemed to become even more encrusted with the grime of doubt and terrible knowledge. Even a utopia could not stem the ocean of despair and forlornness on which she now floated. Sick of the stars, their innocence and tranquility momentarily revolting her, she looked back down at her friends. Storm, riddled with the scurryings of a tireless imagination, lacking in time to complete anything and ever eager to please and help. Rusty, wise and ready, gentle when needed and vocal on her ideals. She saw Barry, standing staring at the rippling waters of the bay, their endless shifting as varied as his own life, his sorrows breaking reality with their keening, his heart bleeding a river of words that tried, yet could not quite, express the feelings that lay deep inside him. Vorchia, happy faced and determined, yet Az could sense the same guilt, the same doubt that lay in her own soul in that of the other, the nameless fear that stripped all her strength and left her powerless, at times, to the pain that assaulted her. There lay Stefan, joking to the end, a spirit of flame that flickered and warmed her own at times but darted around her unpredictably, as often burning as healing. And Oggie, stronger than her and yet weaker at times, forgotten in the chaos of life, a voice that spoke only wisdom and yet was seldom heeded by those rushing to hear the great tales of new things occurring. All these and more, souls pressing against her, fears and panic reaching for her seeking her warmth. Inside her small body she raged against them, holding them at bay, weakening until they would find a way inside and break her heart, again, and again. More pressed in, wise Bronty, Toki, scientifically probing her faith, C’xoila, broken by all that had taken him, Minstelae, despairing and joyful at once. She fled, but the souls remained, soaking her with her own failures. They still suffered and she yet lived, she had failed them. With a cry she collapsed on the stone, retching, her claws digging with insane strength deep into the rock on which she knelt. Blinded, she staggered on, fighting off the shadows until finally she could go no further and fell, prostrated against a wall. Looking up, tears blurring the earth and stars into a mass of shining blankness, she saw the wall against which she had fallen. Words had been carved into those slabs of stone, twelve sentences, one broken and incomplete, stood out clear through the tears, She sat up. The codes. They calmed her a little, turning the mindless flight into mere terror and building a soothing wall around her, holding out and absorbing the cloak of souls. Huddling against the wall she cried, weeping for every cut and bruise that she had not jumped to take for someone else, every doubt that she had not overcome in time to prevent another’s suffering. She wept for herself, her life, her friends, her gods. She wept for the world in which she lived, feeling the deep power of the earth beneath her, racked by cataclysms yet as solid as the stones of which it was made. Soon the tears stopped, the choking sobs coming to an end. She lay there, curled, and cried herself to sleep. A short distance away, raptors and others climbed to their feet, shaking their heads and clearing the last of the chocolate from their comatose lips. Storm tried to stand up but fell back as one of her legs collapsed, numbed by it’s awkward position. One by one, the others awoke and looked at the approaching dawn Stefan staggered over and gave her a hand up as Rusty helped sow on the last jagged bit of Vorchia’s tail. The sun lay below the horizon, warmth seeping imperceptibly over the hills and the stars shining their last as they fell for a swathe of hours until they should rise again, avatars of each soul that shone on the earth, incorruptible reflections of the fire that burns in every heart. The group made their way to the guest houses, the closest building. Collapsing on couches and chairs, the friends talked quietly of the night that lay still passing outside the doors. A quiet lay above them, reflections of joy and sorrows past. Stefan lay on a palette, head still reeling from his fall. He watched his companions talk and smiled almost imperceptibly. This, the hour of stillness, the hour before dawn. Nothing woke and even those that did were somehow quieted by the beauty of the coming of the new day. Through the aches, though, he felt a pang in his heart. He could feel a great pain near, he knew the source. He was tempted to go, to help, but knew it was forbidden. He watched those around him, wondering whether they had gone through the same. He could see their minds flickering with beauty and hope, love holding them above the nets of despair for which another wept on the cold stones outside. A tear dripped softly onto his smile and he slept, at last, peacefully on the hard mattress, soul free to wander the paths that glistened with the grace of his imagination, majestic and terrible.
I've decided to finish the festival of stars there, and I'm thinking of starting a new set called the festival of the sun. can anyone see the link?
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Post by utoraptor3000 on Oct 4, 2005 14:39:10 GMT -5
yes. i would certainly like to hear more
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