1676/Lost In Coerthas

Lost In Coerthas
Date of Scene:	27 February 2015
Location:	Coerthas, Hydaelyn
Synopsis:	Trying to make good with the people is difficult, but Ryu is trying his best. Though while out hunting, he gets a visit from an unlikely guest.
Cast of Characters:	522, 636

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Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The lands of Coerthas are brutal. Mighty pine trees being covered by inches of snow. The grass slowly dyeing out from the unrelenting cold. Ryan perhaps heard it all while staying there with the people. Some claiming it is the fault of the dragons. Others claiming it is the Fury's wrath for them being sinners to her will.

The people were scared and hope was hard. He may even heard of how their crops would soon be all gone and how many of the livestock were being impacted even beyond the wall of the Ishgardian capitol-- a play he himself could never step foot on.

Yet there was some hope, the animals of the wild could hold the cure for food. At least for meat and such an animal that needed slaying was the Hippocerf. A part bird, part reptile. Its image shows it with bat like wings and scaled body amongst the feathers. While lanky it may be, it has a source of high protein and further they tend to be carnivorousness. A few less carnivores the better, the people within Coerthas seem to believe.

Yet the location of them is difficult to say. They move about and Ryan will have to test his own tracking skills in the winter wonderland.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan was always a soldier, but not a tracker by any means. He was not given much chance to learn how to hunt, so the effort to hunt down the peculiar Hippocerf creatures was difficult. He found himself tromping through the snow with the wind snagging his scarf. During the dark hours, he felt the chill soak into his bones and his body demand that he stop and rest, but the determined and wrathful creature would not stop. Without much to spot him out in the wilderness, it was child's play to get a campfire started... all he had to do was breathe fire on a few pieces of wood. He always made sure he wasn't being watched at the time.

    The fire crackles in front of him while the dark billows. He has a piece of meat cooking near the fire, in order to attract the Hippocerf, while his deep yellow eyes focus on his surroundings in hopes that he spots one before it lunges from the dark to attack him. His sword, the Bonebreaker, is held at one side, unsheathed, ready to bring up and strike at any beast that would dare leap into his campsite.

    The intensity in Ryan's gaze would be able to burn through steel, if he could do such a thing.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
As darkness claims the land, the howling winds only get colder. The fire crackles though with ease and at least the snow stopped falling. As the meat sizzles and cooks, there is only quiet in the land beyond some bugs chattering and the natural sounds of the area as life still tries to cling on.

Yet after a bit-- it gets all to quiet. No more sound beyond the wind itself. Danger.

Ryan may hear the low rumbling, before he may spot the eagle like faces of his prey, only several of them have come. Not just one, or two, but at least five. Their whip like tails snapping around as one steps forward and unfurls its wings.

It then snaps its beak at Ryu, but they do not move in close-- not right away. They seem to be keeping their distance from him and his fire.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan gets up to a stand when he hears the rumbling, staring in the faces of these predatory creatures. He leers at them with the eyes of a Dragon, showing them exactly how dangerous he is with only a look. When one snaps at him, it gets a focused leer that almost says 'You're first.' His mouth wilts into an unhappy frown, because he knows he's unlikely to get out of this without some serious injury.

    He points at that Hippocerf. And then a bright flash of light fills the dark clearing so brightly as to blind those unused to daylight hours. Ryu kept his eyes closed for this. Once he was finished with the flash spell, he would leap into the ranks of Hippocerf with that excessively heavy longsword, and just start booting, chopping and stabbing viciously!

    He secretly hopes he scares off the rest, so that the ones does kill are easier to take home. His frown is fueled by this hope, because he knows it's unlikely to turn out that luckily.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The flash spell goes off and several of the Hippocref's actually scatter and two run off at least. They are wild animals, hungry they may be-- but there is better prey for them to go after that is less dangerous. The three that do remain attempt to recover from the bright light.

As Ryan's sword comes down, they jump back and one attempts to snap at his calf, another going for his wrist, only to be caught by the blade on the apex of the swing. The blade slashing across its face and its falls down into the snow. It screeches a few times and runs off.

The other leaps back from another swing before leaping in to actually pounce at Ryan with its sharp claws reading to dig into his armor.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    "HGGRH!!"

    Ryan's growl of pain is quite inhuman, rumbling through the nearby wilds and only muffled by virtue of the snow, he fights past the sting of having been bit and clawed at by the lanky creatures he's trying to hunt. Predators as they are, it is absurdly difficult to actually kill one of them if he can't use his dragon form to run them down... a fact that is reinforced when one nearly bowls him over when it pounces into him. He reaches to grab it by the underside of its beak when it does this to hold it still...!

    And then he swings his whole body to try and impale the creature through the heart with the very sharp and heavy longsword, hoping to strike down the agile creature while it can't get away from him. He growls much like a dragon as he does this, his teeth pulled into a sneer of pain and determination.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Ryan's blade strikes true as it impales the creature as he shoves it over. It squirms under his blade, before it takes it last breath. The other has ran off by this point after the growl and sneer that the dragon boy has displayed.

Or perhaps it left because something far /large/ has made itself known. The sound of heavy wings can be heard in the air, before a loud 'ka thump' into the snow. A low rumble is heard in the darkness, before a deep voice makes himself known. "You are not from Ishgard and you do not smell of this worlds blood.. whelp."

"Why have you come to these lands?"

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan pulls the blade from the Hippocerf, letting the creature cool in the snow. He lets out a biiig sigh and starts digging in coat to find a cloth to wipe down the sword. He pauses, and turns his head to look over to the growling voice that seems to be offended at him. His frown has faded, surprise replacing it as his brows lift up his face. He begins cleaning the weapon, turning fully to regard the dragon, or at least the source of the voice.

    "After all the fights that made me feel like shit, I got tired of wondering and so I came here to see what it was like instead."

    And then he points out, unhappy with being called that for the third time by people from here, "And my name is Ryan. Not 'whelp,' or whatever other thing you want to call me."

    He glances around, "I gotta say, this is not a great place to live."

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The deep rumbling voice keeps to the shadows, but the pads of the feet can be heard impacting the snow, for a moment, Ryan may catch the edge of the wing--- a Dragon. "Ryan, is it whelp? You are young and so it is fitting. Even if you are not one of our own, you still bare the blood of a dragon within you."

"They will not care if you are ally either and you can not hide yourself for long if the Dragoons were to find you." At last a pair of emerald green eyes break the darkness caught by the fire light. Those draconic pupils thin to slits by the light. "But understand-- I have no interest in harming you.. Ryan.. and for this place.. it was green and lush.. but our Lord, mayhaps-- has cursed this place with eternal winter."

The dragon then seems to walk away. "Eternal winter perhaps in order to cleanse this land from those who have hunted us for far to long."

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan stares into the dark at the hidden dragon, and when the other dragon insists on talking down to him even then for his age, all he can do is let out a tired sigh. He stabs the sword into the ground and leans on the hilt, listening to the other dragon as a warning is given about the Dragoons. His eyes lower, and his mouth wilts into a frown, the war weighing on his mind. It'd be easy to see the dark clouds brewing in his mind.

    He grinds his teeth, mulling over it. But when the dragon turns as if to leave, Ryan grows visibly angry.

    "Eternal winter that renders a beautiful land to a heartless wasteland? Is that what you and your blood want? Is that what you think really will save you from this hunting?"

    "Did you ask for this?"

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
The Dragon can be hard turning around a low growl, as those eyes become visible in the darkness. "No one /asks/ for war. War happens because one can never agree with another. Those men and elezen were brought to our lands thousands of years ago. They claimed it as theirs and damned us from our birthrights. As another empire did long before them to our ancestors." The dragon hisses out.

He moves in closer, his teeth snarl for a moment. "Our people suffered then, as they suffered now. We grow tied and if we do not fight-- they shall descale every last one of us. Do we desire such a fate upon the great mother-- No! For she heard the calls of our ancestors and she hears us cry now! The Pact stands."

The Dragon then moves his head away from the light. "I'm old and weary. Our lord has sent us his son, but for us to revive the lands, we must cleanse it of those whom would dare stand in our way. There is no peace to be made.. they are not interested in peace." Then there is a gentle low rumble. "and this war spills out to your lands, beyond our own. That is why you are here.. isn't it? To solve that answer?"

Ryu (636) has posed:
    "You and your new leader have brought your war out of these lands, and this /world/, and into the lands of people who had nothing to do with men or elezen. All you are doing is creating more enemies, who know even less about who you are," Ryan tells the dragon, with a sweeping gesture of one of his hands, "/I/ am interested in peace, because every single time your blood goes to another battle and I have to fight them, it cuts into me." He places his hand on his chest. "I don't want to have to fight you. You aren't the first to tell me about the history of this place, and I doubt you are the only one who just wants it to stop. There has to be a way to coexist."

    He is practically pleading. "Please. Find another way. There is always another way."

    "... What is your name? You never told me." He realizes that he has no idea who he's speaking to.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
"My name is unimportant and there is no coexisting. They have sinned and sinned against Hydaelyn herself. Those whom stand with us, the ones they deem heretics have tried." The Dragon rumbles about then, his clawed hand sweeping as he speaks, expressing his words. "And they now kill each of them, by dropping them down into that accursed pit."

"As for why the wars come to your lands," He snorts softly. "Because Hydaelyn is suffering and we can not place the stress upon her. Your lands are rich and for our Lord to return in full, we need the resources to do so. That way we /can/ end this war." The Dragon then goes to move away, but yet he does not leave. Remaining in the shadows. "..and while we would seek refuge.. both of your greater powers have aligned themselves with the sinners of this world."

"Destiny, Fate-- whatever you may call it has chosen this path. The motions have already been set Ryan.. and I have perhaps already said to much to you. You do best to leave this land, before /he/ finds you."

Ryu (636) has posed:
    It really is an impossible situation. Ryan lets out a sigh, and looks down at the Hippocerf that he had slain just a moment ago. He blinks once, slowly, and thinks on his mission that brought him out here. "Fate is bullshit," he remarks in a growl. "After living my whole life thinking things would never change, I refuse to go back. I'm sorry. I guess we're similar in that way."

    Then he steps over to tie up the Hippocerf with some rope, preparing to bring it back and get his payment. "Before who finds me?" he asks, as he hefts the dead creature up in his arms. He steps over to the campfire and stamps it out with a few stomps of his boots and a few kicks to knock dirt onto it. "Do I have enough time to get out of this area?"

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
As the light fades and darkness takes hold. Ryan may starts to see the dragon now. There are scars over his scales from many long battles. The wing skins have a few holes here and there and he is missing one of his horns.

The Dragon lowers his head gently. "A man who leads this charge for the Son, while the Son gathers up his own strength... and I do not know how much time you may have." The dragon then unfurls his wings and with a hard leap takes back up into the air once more.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan watches the dragon take off, and clicks his tongue lightly. Then he turns to leave, going back toward the town that asked for one of these Hippocerf. At the very least he can feed a few people for a little while.

    He puts a hand up to his ear and reports in while he walks, after he retrieves his sword properly. His voice is tired, because it's soul-crushing to know how titanic of a problem this all is, and how little he can actually do to stop it at this point.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
As Ryan walks off in the snow with his prize, a pair of armored figures show up where he just was. All them wearing like armor with dark coloration, all but one whom has chrome mixed in with his. They have draconic like helms and their armor jagged, yet smooth in other locations.

"Should we follow?" One of them asks looking to the slightly chrome figure.

"Not. Yet. Let us see what they do next..." They then walk back away into the darkness...

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryan carries on, completely ignorant of the presence of the ominous figures. He has food to bring back to hungry villagers, his only concern is whatever stands between his him and his objective right now. He's never been the best at this sort of thing.