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Post by Morgan on Sept 1, 2019 11:08:33 GMT -6
All of this training that Morgan had worked on with Nico was going to be useful some day, darnit! The last quest that Morgan had done had been pretty useless, for showing off all of Nico's hard work. Morgan had wanted nothing more than to actually make sure that Nico could take care of himself, and of course they'd been sent on a wild goose chase after one of those blasted little orbaru critters. Morgan had not been interested really in the quest prize either, and had sold it to the Jackalope anyway. Now it was time to try for a better quest, this month! Morgan was sure that they would find something befitting of them to do, this month. These hopes were perhaps dashed whenever Morgan saw the elderly individual standing near the quest board... Oh, they weren't going to even get to get to the board today, were they? Nico whimpered a bit at Morgan's heel, staring at the strange being. She gave Morgan the creeps, as well.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2019 10:45:24 GMT -6
Morgan was very right, as soon as their breathing, or footsteps, or perhaps even the whimpering of the houluh was heard, the individual had stood up from her seat on the ground and came up to Morgan. Morgan was actually quite a bit shorter than this stooped over elderly individual, and they instinctively stood up taller, eyes buzzing with magic. Morgan breathed, trying to force the chaos magic down. No need to protect oneself right now. The lady couldn't hurt them. Nico had already began reacting, however, and stood just in front of Morgan off to the side, growling with his hackles raised. Morgan quickly gave him the command to calm down and heel, and he did so, slinking back to Morgan's side quietly.
The lady was certainly different, but Morgan was finally put at ease when they realized that she was blind, and stooping over a strange cane. The cane was twisted, though, and she had an odd aura about her...
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2019 10:48:56 GMT -6
Morgan wasn't sure of how, but they suddenly came to the realization that this woman was also an elemental. Perhaps it was just the sensing of magic, but Morgan could tell that she had a dark aura about her. How ironic, that someone of chaos magic would meet someone of shadow magic. The human tilted their head anyway, hazel eyes obscured by the bright lights of their glasses for a moment as they listened. Why did this particular woman need someone's help for something that sounds so trivial? Morgan's teeth were bared out of instinct. The houluh was sticking close to Morgan's side now, refusing to budge a single inch. His hackles remained raised, and his ears were perked forward. After a little while, Morgan finally relented.
"I'll do it. But I don't think you need my help. Why ask someone else to do it when you can, huh?" Morgan asked, bluntly, in an accusatory manner.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2019 10:53:08 GMT -6
The woman seemed to think that something about this was hilarious; perhaps she was used to people being afraid of her, and probably pets alike, or perhaps she thought it was cute that someone like Morgan was questioning her in such a blatant manner. Morgan felt a flash of rage suddenly, and the woman quieted down, as if just now realizing that she was dealing with a fellow elemental. After a moment, the woman looked gravely, creepily, directly into Morgan's eyes before cracking a grin, complete with false teeth. Morgan was noticing other things about her now; the COD foot around her neck, a few cave vulticus finger bones strung in a bracelet along with full ambers along her wrist. Now Morgan could see what was causing Nico to be anxious, either he had noticed that, or perhaps she was one of those people that animals just feared naturally. Either way, Morgan knew Nico wanted no part of it.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2019 10:56:48 GMT -6
The woman finally seemed to decide, and then she admitted it while simultaneously finding it hilarious and chuckling. 'Animals don't like me none, dearie.' Was all that Morgan was given, and all that they needed. "Certainly, I'll go take care of your problem, Miss..." Morgan trailed off, voice aloof. 'Call me granny.' The woman offered, and Morgan forced theirself not to sneer. "Miss uh, granny. Yes, We'll take care of this, and then return with your crystal." Morgan wasn't going to ask whether or not this crystal was in fact what they were thinking it was; a magical one, right? However; elementals didn't really need magical crystals, so Morgan wasn't sure what to think of the reason why she would need this if that was what it was. At this, Morgan turned immediately, calling down to the houluh and not to the woman; "Lets go, Nico. We've got some ghost-busting to do."
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2019 17:31:41 GMT -6
Ghost busting indeed, it would seem. Nico followed Morgan at the heel he was trained to move at, and Morgan managed to make it to the place that they were told the garden would be. It was absolutely terrifying. The first thing that Morgan noticed were the CODs strung up by their feet in the front. They were all pure black, and Morgan felt a strange presence radiating off of them. The human tilted their head down instinctively as they passed under them, even though they were too high for Morgan to have to worry about them touching their hair. Nico also ducked as he passed under, but starting looking more brave almost instantly. It would seem that the anticipation was more of an issue than the implementation; the area didn't look too bad. There were bonsai trees everywhere, in pots, shoes, and even test tube sets. Morgan was frankly amused.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2019 17:34:10 GMT -6
The thing that amused Morgan the most was the house that was on the property; this old lady lived in her own garden! It made the human chuckle a tad. They thought about doing a bit of vandalizing, but eventually decided not to. She was a shadow mage, after all. Wouldn't want that on them! The house was made to look like it had chicken feet; and they were surprisingly robotic. Morgan stepped up to the realistic looking things and peered into all of the clockwork mechanics of it. They could not help but be impressed; they hadn't really learned clockworks yet, and they wished that they had. It was undoubted to Morgan, however, that the woman could relocate her house by making it 'walk' on the giant chicken legs. The low laughter erupted from their throat, and they reached down to pet Nico. "Look at that, Nico! She's so... Interesting!"
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2019 17:38:26 GMT -6
Morgan did honestly think that too. Perhaps the woman could teach them something; something about being an elemental, since the jackalope couldn't really help them with that much, and perhaps even something about clockworks, in the long run. "Welp, I guess someone that old is still good for something after all. Let's get going, Nico." The human mused, arrogantly, before stepping away. They kept to the stone path, to keep from knocking over any of her little bonsais. Some of them were harmless looking, cute and round, or gently guided to grow in curving, cloudy manners. Some of them were wretched though, dark things with massive branches that looked like claws. Morgan shivered, just looking at those. The garden was huge, and the woman had tons of pets living in it. There were even multiple leaf scatters; those were rare. Morgan marveled at some of them, theirself. Nico stayed aloof of them, snooty.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2019 17:55:22 GMT -6
Morgan had not really expected to be asked to do something this mundane by an old lady today, so they were perhaps taking it a little more leisurely than they should have done. Nico was feeding off of this, melting back into his much more aloof, fluid self. Morgan was proud of that; there was something about Nico that made him feel like a reflection of their emotional selfhood. He was often nervous before Morgan noticed that they even were, and he recovered just as lightning fast when Morgan worked on it. They were quickly learning to lean on him more and more, which wasn't something that Nico seemed to mind. They were in a lot of ways like one individual, and Morgan refused to think of it that way. Nico was just an excellent companion, and Morgan disliked being away from him. That was all, of course. There was no way that his psycho-social bond was as far along as Morgan was secretly fearing.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2019 17:58:59 GMT -6
Morgan finally made their way to the path that was indicated by the older individual, and it turned out that they were quite right. It was certainly possible that this was where the nyssa went; but where were the tracks? Morgan took a step back, searching for them, and then their heart nearly skipped a beat. Oh; that was a BIG damn footprint! Morgan frowned softly, noting that there was a HUGE footprint, and Morgan had been standing in it. So had Nico, and they were three feet apart. AND there was room to spare. Holy. Crap. The human blinked for a moment, and then decided pretty quickly that they were not afraid; they were amused. How did one of these giant creatures get that damn big? "Nico... Do you reckon you could get a scent, boyo?" Maybe he will be useful today after all. The thoughts trickled through the RoT unbeknownst to Morgan, and Nico trotted off into the overgrown thicket.
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Post by Jack on Sept 3, 2019 18:49:38 GMT -6
A low creak sounded throughout the area, ominous and almost desperate to get away, even though the footprints were rather far apart, it might be easy to hunt it down.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 5, 2019 17:16:58 GMT -6
The pair followed the widely spaced huge footprints, knowing for sure that they were definitely that of a nyssa. For one, they were pretty large- and for two, they had splinters in them. These splinters were absolutely huge, and Morgan knew that they were indicative of a giant plant animal. The thing that was most concerning was not the size; instead it was the tiny, smoldering pieces of wood that were shed along the path. Morgan stopped to look at one, curiously, and noted the charred scent. This wasn't good; certainly not good. They couldn't help but stare down worriedly at Nico for a second; he wasn't ready to deal with an elemental yet, Morgan didn't think. However, they couldn't just turn back now. Nico didn't seem too worried, but he was definitely watchful. He smelled the charred pieces along the tracks, and the tracks as well. Morgan continued on carefully.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 5, 2019 17:21:27 GMT -6
Though both were being careful, Morgan couldn't help but snicker as the houluh raised his leg and marked a few of the splinters along the way. They really just couldn't help it; it was that funny to them. However, they didn't scold him (because they thought it was great and wanted to encourage it) and didn't really have time or inclination to stop and speak at all. Following the giant Nyssa was just absolutely more and more interesting as they went on. For one, it was getting more and more obvious that this creature was covered in a billion little thorns. The thorns were starting to be shed, and each one was getting stuck in nearby smaller trees. In fact, they were on fire as well... Morgan stopped and looked at them quietly for a moment. They could smell some sort of a wax on them, or perhaps a fat? That was causing them to stay on fire for much longer.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 5, 2019 17:27:49 GMT -6
Nico definitely noticed this as well; sniffing the things for much longer than Morgan had been noticing it. It was quite interesting to Morgan that often the tiny houluh was more observant than Morgan. It made sense, he was a canine, and those types of creatures tended to have incredibly good noses in comparison to humans. The pair continued to go through the forest, at first fairly nonplussed, until suddenly Morgan's foot nearly caught on something. The human glanced down, expecting to see a root that was pulled up to make it to where Morgan's foot could have accidentally have gotten underneath it; but instead Morgan caught the sight of a moving bit of root. "Oh, oh that makes sense." Morgan said, mumbling. That made a lot of sense; this nyssa was big. Roots were long, so if the root was this small then it hopefully meant that the nyssa was still a good distance from them.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 5, 2019 17:33:32 GMT -6
While Morgan wasn't particularly made worried by this, Nico was concerned enough for the both of them. Carefully dodging each of the coiling and roiling roots along the way, Nico followed at Morgan's heel loyally. Morgan knew that Nico by virtue of being a hound was one of the most loyal creatures that the Lab had probably produced, but he was especially perfect. The human was oddly proud of him, he had been trained quite extensively and would hopefully he would be even more trained in the future. When they got out of this, of course. The roots were getting thicker and thicker as they went on, which was both a good and a bad sign. The good thing; they were getting closer! The bad thing... They were getting closer! Morgan chuckled at this thought, and nearly tripped over one of the roots when it whipped quickly. There was no way that the nyssa didn't know they were coming now.
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