warforged | your hands protect the flames

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your hands protect the flames

Who: The Dragonsworn
What: The first arrival of the Dragonsworn goes a bit...awry.
Where: Scattered around the perimeter of Suramar.
When: Dawn on March 21st
Warnings: Please PM the mods if any warnings are needed

It is almost as if you've woken from a daydream when the ground meets your feet. The stench of fire is overpowering, and though dawn is just approaching in the canopies of Kalimdor, bright flashes of green can be seen between the branches of impossibly tall trees. If that doesn't snap you out of your surprise, then the sound of nearby spitting in demonic tongue may persuade you to get a grip and notice your surroundings -- you are not alone. There are others like you, huddled just a bit too close, with a somewhat familiar face keeping you from advancing further. Looking down at your hands may briefly reveal a momentary flash of color, but nothing lasting more than a few seconds.

The mages of each flight take the helm of their charges, and they are quick to notice any movement from their groups despite channeling some sort of spell to keep you protected. Stray fire will bounce off an invisible shield that ripples when anything make contact with it. There seems to be nothing in sight but your new comrades, and your guardian -- at least not on the ground. The sky has flying demons swarming a pack of dragons -- and the dragons are very clearly losing. Look just a bit farther, and you might find more dragons, though these clearly have different colored scales than the ones above your head.

While distracted, you may hear your guardian speak to you. "There may yet be wounded nearby -- if you care to, bring them here, and we will tend to them from the Sanctum." Briefly, they gesture skyward, toward the dragons flying overhead. "Do not bring to us any that are not our own, lest you invite their demise!"

But the mage is focused on casting -- they are in no position to halt your advance, and they know it. They speak with concern -- concern for you, concern for the dire situation at hand. The demonic cackling is drawing near. The forests are rapidly becoming overrun, and there are already a few dragons slain on the forest floor.

"Take care, Dragonsworn -- I am bringing us to safety, but it will take time. To wander far is to invite your ruin, and we cannot afford the loss of your life."

[OOC: You are free to mingle on this post as you choose, despite the flight groups being scattered through the forests around Suramar -- after this log, you will be separated into your sanctums, and your interactions will be watched much more closely. Attempting to enter the city itself will result in a vicious attack from demons that will kill. The Dragon Mages will be tagging sporadically to heroes of their matching flight, and the conclusion of this log will lead Dragonsworn through portals to their Sanctums.]

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[ She doesn't notice him running her way at first; but when she does, it sends a quick jolt of anxiety through her. Lady still hasn't figured out who is bad and who is good (well, relative to her and the current situation at least), so seeing a stranger with an axe coming her way isn't immediately a good sign. And the wayward fire hitting the ground nearby definitely isn't a good anything, so she ducks back more fully behind the tree with a fearful squeak.

When he grabs her elbow she doesn't try to pull away, but that's probably because his battered state, no matter how mild it may be, is yet another factor that startles her so much that she feels almost frozen in spot. She doesn't even register what he's asked her. ]

Where - what?

[ At least Bariyan's not staring at her. He's busy keeping his eyes on their surroundings instead, looking and waiting for the exact moment when a cluster of demons might decide that the two-legged creatures scurrying across the ground might be more interesting than the dragons in the air.

But more stray fire is hitting the ground around them. Bariyan spends a second looking longingly towards the group of unfamiliar dragons nearby, then starts to pull at Lady, intending to head away from the fighting.

Hastily, he tries to reformulate his question: ]

Where did you come from?

[ He looks at her now. Notes the dress. Her neatly braided hair. The flowers. She looks awfully out of place here. ]

[ Having a whole few seconds to decide Bariyan isn't going to hurt her and that he is, in fact, better protection than a tree, Lady momentarily crowds his space and huddles closer to him when more fire hits the ground near them. Very quickly she's put her trust in him, so she follows whatever direction he tugs her in. ]

Not here. [ Another distraught sounding and useless answer, because she's misunderstood his question. ] Where I come from we don't have demons or dragons and if we did they certainly wouldn't - [ A squeal as yet another wayward ball of fire hits the ground much too close for comfort. ] - be fighting!

Edited 2014-03-22 19:12 (UTC)

Trust in me, then. [ Bariyan watches the fire rain down upon them, trying to predict the direction of battle, pinpoint a better place to hide out. ] Where I come from, we have demons and dragons and worse.

[ He pulls on her arm and puts them on the move again, striking towards the green dragons -- cover's slightly better in that direction -- when the noise surrounding them suddenly becomes a proper cacophony, of shrieking, roaring, all overlaid by the unmistakable sound of laughter from above. Bariyan doesn't pause, and doesn't look up. He guesses that a dragon is dying. ]

But, I meant-- where-- were you with anyone when you came here? [ Bariyan finally gives in and gestures towards the people clustered ahead of them. ] Them?

Worse?

[ What could be worse than this? There are darker worlds out there, of course there are, but they're nothing Lady has ever known about. Lady has known only peace and harmony; being thrust so suddenly into violence and discord is more than rattling.

He may already be holding onto her arm, but when those terrible noises surround them, it's Lady who is quite suddenly holding onto him. She grips his entire arm as though letting go means certain death, and the only reason she keeps moving is because Bariyan doesn't let the noises slow him down. It isn't hard to tell the poor thing is absolutely terrified at this point, and fighting very hard with herself to not cry. ]

N-No, it was... well, just me from home, but I... [ She peers over his arm to the group of people up ahead when he gestures, trying to remember if any of them look familiar. ] Um... maybe? I think?

Undead! [ Bariyan says this very cheerfully. ] Hopefully we won't see any here, though. Any that aren't on our side, at least.

[ He hears an ominous creaking above them and abruptly veers off to the left, yanking Lady with him, just in time to avoid the crashing of several burning branches. More shrieking commences. Bariyan looks up then, but the canopy is too thick for him to see much of the battle.

He thinks about Lady's answer and shakes his head. 'I think' isn't good enough. He's not sure that he dares confront the green dragons on just that. Now, red dragonflight... they've generally been good in his Azeroth. Bariyan likes them, anyway, and they seem to be the only certain allies that Bariyan has in this place. Perhaps they'd be the best place to take Lady for now?

He looks around. If that's where he's going to take her, they're south from here, and there's a spreading fire right in their path.

Bariyan pries his arm away from Lady in order to put it around her shoulders and pull her in. He hefts his axe over his shoulder. He speaks quickly. ]

Are you sure those aren't yours? [ Bariyan looks again towards the green dragons. ] If not, I'll take you elsewhere. [ Another shriek pierces the air. Bariyan winces at this one. ] Fast.

Undead? And... there's good undead?

[ Undead of any kind is an entirely new concept to her - and also a concept that's just going to have to be discussed later, because the falling branches and subsequent tugging in another direction immediately changes what her mind is focused on right now.

At first, she doesn't really want to let go of his arm. But when he puts it around her shoulder instead and pulls her closer, well, that is perfectly okay too. Lady buries her face into Bariyan and squeezes her eyes shut, clearly frightened but at the very least trying to calm herself down by taking a second to look away and contain herself. At his question, she lifts her head just enough that she can peek over both him and her wool sweater, looking again to the green dragons that she's supposed to be with.

Not that she really understands that right now in her panic. ]

No, I'm not sure they aren't, and I'm not sure they are, and I don't understand why everyone's fighting and where I'm supposed to go or do or who to be with-- [ Her quick and panicked answer is cut short by the shrieking, as it makes her squeak in fear and shove her face right back into his shoulder again. ]

Shh. Don't think about that. [ Bariyan squeezes her shoulders, reassuringly, though the edges of his plate armor can't be comfortable. All right, she's panicking. That means they probably should get out before her terror peaks. ] Just stay close to me!

[ He takes a step towards the fire and tries to cast a shield. Light flows from his hands and-- exits his control completely, fizzling, fading, disappearing into the air. Bariyan blinks. It'd done that earlier, too, but he'd thought it was due to... confusion? Side-effects of sudden temporal displacement? He'd thought whatever it was, it'd be temporary.

All this bewilderment flashes by in a second. Bariyan bites the inside of his cheek and yanks himself back to the task at hand. The step he'd started taking forwards becomes a step to the side as he whips himself around and starts running, pushing Lady along with him. They're going to have to go around the damn fire. ]

[ Don't think about it and stay close are two things that he definitely doesn't need to say twice. She feels the edges of his armour poke her, but the reassurance and feeling of relative safety that she gets from his squeeze means that she doesn't protest.

Lady watches as the light from his hand fizzles and fades away. For a moment she's reminded of what happens to her creations once they expire, so in the back of her mind she understands that he had been trying to use magic for something. And she understands that whatever it was, it had failed. ]

What's wrong? [ Her voice is small and still carrying an undertone of panic when she speaks, but she at least moves when he directs her to move. She runs with him, holding onto him with all the conviction of a girl who does not want to get separated from her saviour (since yes, that's basically what Bariyan's become in her eyes right now), and does her best to keep up. She can see the fire, she knows he's trying to get them around it, she still doesn't know where she is, and yet - ] Where - where are we going?

To my people. They'll... [ Bariyan hesitates, again. ] They'll get you to safety. [ Or Bariyan will make them. Somehow. Hopefully. Bariyan's got no delusions about his own abilities. He doesn't think he's got the bargaining power to bully a dragon. But, damn it, it's the best thing he can think of right now.

He doesn't answer her question about what had gone wrong. He'd like to know the answer to that himself. Surely... surely the Light hasn't abandoned him, has it? No, that can't be right. The Light would not do that. The more disturbing idea is that, somehow, along the way, he's abandoned the Light.

His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of tearing branches and something heavy crashing into the ground behind them. Bariyan looks. A green dragon has crashed through the trees, and brought a small horde of demons with it. One of them turns to look at Bariyan and Lady.

Bariyan swears very loudly. ]

Never mind staying close-- hold on!

[ He spins towards the demon, ducks, and makes to grab Lady about the waist before completing a 360-degree spin to keep running away. Can't afford to stop for too long, after all. ]

To your people? [ Even in times of panic she holds onto her inherent curiosity, it seems. That, or asking questions helps her deal with the matter at hand a little better. Ignoring the fighting, fire, and demons isn't going to make them go away, but somewhere in her mind she childishly hopes that maybe it will. Somehow.

It is just a childish hope though, because they're suddenly closer than ever to the demons now that they've crashed through the trees and oh god one's staring at them.

Peering over Bariyan's shoulder, it's as though she's momentarily frozen in place when she accidentally makes eye contact with it. Lady has never seen anything like this before, and up until now she's only seen glimpses of the demons in the distance. ] Demons? Those are demons, that's what they look like, oh, oh no, no no, I don't-- [ Her fearful observations go unfinished outloud, but her mind is now buzzing with a million new things that she'd rather not think about at all. Lady, the peaceful girl that she is, has no real support to offer Bariyan, and can only put all of her trust and her faith in him as he moves, grabs her again, and continues to try to separate them from danger. ]

Edited (omg html pls) 2014-03-25 19:26 (UTC)

[ Bariyan lets Lady's panicked words wash over him. With a serenity born from a lifetime of war, and a gentleness that he was simply born with, he picks Lady up and slings her over a shoulder, doing his best to avoid stabbing her with his pauldrons.

He tries to cast a spell again as he runs, but once more the magic is halted. It's not right. He can -- he thinks he can feel it still within him, but locked away. Or something. He's going to have to have some words with a dragon, he thinks.

Hopefully he'll get the chance to. Green fire strikes down at his heels. Bariyan shifts his grip on both Lady and his axe and picks up his pace, diving into the thickest part of the woods that he can see. ]

Don't look at it! But if you do-- tell me what it's doing!

[ She makes a surprised little noise when she's lifted and slung over his shoulder, but other than that she makes no show of protest. Instead, she simply wiggles a bit as she tries to get a better grip on him, hoping to make his job a little easier. And when she feels the pointy parts of his pauldrons dig into her despite his efforts to not stab her, she briefly, lightly touches the offending points and - as both a test of her own powers and a way to keep any more accidental stabbing at a minimum - smoothes them out by temporarily changing them into more rounded shapes. Which means that her magic is working, but as for Bariyan... ]

Are you magic? Is it not working? [ Again she asks an inappropriately timed question, and again she's quickly distracted from her innocent, curious questions by the feeling of fear she can't currently shake. When he tells her to look away she does by squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her face to his back, but still she attempts to be helpful by letting him know the last thing she saw. ] It's-- still there!

[ Not exactly descriptive, but hey, she's trying. ]

[ Bariyan chuckles. ] Despite all my best efforts to wish it away.

[ He dives deeper into the forest. There's another fallen tree here too -- thankfully not on fire -- and he swings out with his axe as he passes, chopping three-fourths of the way through one of its enormous branches before ducking under it. It creaks behind him as it begins its descent. It's probably too much to hope that it'll fall on the demon, but it might give them a bit of time. ]

The magic-- I don't-- know. [ Bariyan grinds his teeth together in momentary frustration and shifts his grip on Lady. Something feels odd about that. It's the new smoothness of his armor, but he doesn't realize that yet. ] But it'll come back to me. [ I think. ]

[ At this point, Lady isn't sure what she does or doesn't want to see, so she alternates between looking around and burying her face into her arms and gets only bits and pieces of the environment around them. She watches as the tree falls and although the demon disappears behind it, she can't tell if it's fallen on their pursuer or simply slowed it down. ]

Are you sure? [ She glances over her shoulder to try looking his way, although with the position she's in she doesn't actually see much. ] I hope it does, I would be unhappy if my magic didn't work too. It... it still does, um, but maybe it didn't at first? And I got it back before I knew it was gone? [ Not exactly the case, but knowing that Bariyan is typically capable of magic that no longer seems to work has her worried, both for him and over the possibilities of what it meant for her. ] Or... nothing's happened yet but it will? [ Now that's a thought she doesn't want to entertain. ]

[ Half a minute later, an enraged bellow sounds out from behind them. Bariyan assumes the worst and tries not to slow down. ]

Could be any of those! [ Bariyan's voice is manically cheerful now; he's speaking on autopilot, while the rest of him focuses on getting them to safety. ] But I'd always hope for the best. [ Autopilot switches off for a moment, as a thought occurs to him: ] Your magic wouldn't -- by any chance -- be able to, er, slow a demon down, would it?

[ Lady's gone back to keeping her eyes closed and trying very hard not to panic any more than she already has, so when she hears the noises behind them, she too has to just assume what's happening. ]

Um... [ Could it? ] No, I don't think... well... I don't know, I just create things, and change things, like your armour, because fighting is awful and mean and terrible and I don't know how to do it! [ Although, now that she's managed to get her mind away from helpless panic, she begins to wonder if maybe there is something she can do without having to fight. But, without knowing the first thing about demons, Lady isn't sure where to start. ] What would slow a demon down?

A wall. A great big wall about a mile thick. That might slow it a little. [ Bariyan's only being half-facetious, here.

His grip on Lady slips; he stumbles, and slows to readjust his hold on her, and that's when the gout of fel energy hits down on his right. It scorches his armor and it sends Bariyan sprinting off again. Instinctively, he tries to pull out threads of Light to toss them behind him, but all he manages are a few pretty and entirely unhelpful sparkles that soon fade away. Shit. ]

[ Facetious or not, it probably isn't that bad of an idea - although Lady really doesn't think that she's capable of doing something so ridiculously large. Normally she spends her creative energy on making dresses and trinkets and maintaining whatever appearance she wants, and normally she has ample time to deliberate and work on bigger projects, so nothing about the situation right now is remotely typical to begin with anyway.

When he stumbles and slows, she considers trying to wiggle out of his grip entirely in order to try making something of substance, but that idea is quickly abandoned at the strike of fire. She watches again as his magic fails to do anything more than harmlessly sparkle, and she knows that she has to do something. Anything.

But - what? If they attack with fire, then... ] Do they like water? Can they swim?

Probably. They can also fly. [ Bariyan can see the cluster of red dragons ahead of him, between the trees -- but they're still so far. ] If you're going to blast it with water, though, I wouldn't object!

Oh. [ Fending off demons isn't exactly something Lady is remotely familiar with so she's kind of having trouble deciding what on earth to do about it. She knows it wants to hurt them but she doesn't like the idea of hurting it simply on the principle of violence is awful, but options seem a little limited right now. ]

I've made... a river before, with a little waterfall, and a pond for Mr. Teabiscuit... [ In other words, nothing quite like a blast of water. ] But if demons and fly and swim then those are all dumb ideas and I'm dumb for thinking that and, and-- [ Lady stops to take in a deep breath, seeming to know she's slipping back into a panic that does neither of them any good. ] I can-- make a cage for it. If you slow down. [ Which she kind of doesn't want him to do, but she knows she works much better when stationary. ]

Edited 2014-03-31 21:52 (UTC)

[ Mr. Teabiscuit? Mr. Teabiscuit? Bariyan would be charmed if he weren't fast approaching panic. He's not sure he can defend himself against a demon without the Light, let alone himself and this poor girl. Which is why he's very reluctant to slow down.

But he's slowing anyway. He's tiring; he never was a good runner.

He squints ahead at the shield, bites the inside of his cheek, and slows his pace to a hasty stumble. His shoulders tense in anticipation of being blasted by fire any second now. ]

Be quick, please!

[ Part of her really wouldn't have been too upset if he had ignored her request to slow down, but because he does comply, she knows that she has no choice now. So, with one prolonged inhale of breath as she gathers every bit of courage she has in her, Lady wiggles her way right out of Bariyan's arms and not only turns to face the demon rapidly approaching, but takes a few steps in its direction.

With two shaking hands raised in front of her, she concentrates. She remembers the birdcage the parakeet of her childhood used to live in, and repurposes it for something much larger, much stronger, and much less friendly than Crackers had been. The wisps of her magic flow from her hands and just as their pursuer catches up and lunges forward - it is quite suddenly meet by a wall of metal bars. With no time to stop or change direction, the creature rams into the barricade Lady's created, and the agitated noise it makes is enough to make the girl stumble backward, trip, and fall back. But even falling and sitting in the dirt, Lady concentrates on finishing her cage, curling the metal around, behind, and above it to keep the thing grounded and trapped.

It's an absurdly decorative looking thing, with curls, flourishes and embellishments all over the black metal, but it works. The demon, not at all pleased, thrashes and shrieks from inside the confines, and Lady sits there staring with wide eyes and hands that have not stopped shaking since she wiggled free from Bariyan. ]

Oh, oh gosh, there, I, I-- [ She squeals and scrambles to the side when the angry creature tries to use fire to escape, the edges of her dress catching fire in the process. And once she realizes that, the poor thing just squeals again and rolls in the dirt to put out the little flame before it gets any worse. ]

[ Bariyan watches this all in tense, wide-eyed fascination, until Lady's dress bursts into flames -- then he swears and dives at her, sliding knees into the dirt to bring Lady's rolling to a halt against them. He slams a hand down against the flame, using his gauntlets to smother the fire out. But the display has already given the demon at least some idea of what further damage it could do from its new position, so Bariyan's quick to pick Lady up in both arms after that and dash away, just in time to avoid another gout of flame.

He listens for the sound of screeching metal, afraid that the demon will burst out before Bariyan can get a headstart on it, but Lady's cage seems to be holding strong. He looks down at her. ]

Are you all right? Did you get burned?

[ Lady makes a few more little noises of panic as Bariyan helps put the out the flame, but otherwise she seems to be unharmed. When he picks her up again she immediately clings to him and tries to focus on just... breathing, for a minute, and then she reinforces the metal of her cage while she is still in range of it. As much the demon fights against its new confines, the metal doesn't seem to be giving way. Lady knows that with prolonged time away from her it will simply fade from existence on its own anyway but for now, it's good enough. It's enough to give them the time they need to put as much distance as possible between it and them.

When asked if she's been burned, Lady quietly shakes her head. ]

No, no burns. Just my dress, but um, that's... okay. [ She's already fixed it, actually, although with the way he's carrying her it may not be easy to tell. ] Are... you alright?

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