Flight of Fancy: IC (Mature) {Currently Closed}

[Tapewolf]

"I'm glad to hear it," Jakob said, tending to Shax and hiding his head-wings.

"So," he added, glancing at the officer.  "What next?  Are we under arrest?  Free to go?  What are the arrangements for compensation?"

[techmaster-glitch]

As Xephelon worked his arcane-sight over Keynan, he found...nothing. The collar was a perfectly mundane piece of material. "I have completed my examination." The exoshell buzzed to Jakob and Kenyan as it scuttled behind everyone to keep up. "There is no magic in the collar. It is entirely ordinary. You can have it removed at any time."

After the entire group made it to where Jakob needed to be so he could retrieve his items, Xephelon's exoshell turned around in place like a spider as the mechanical sounds echoed through the ship. "Oh dear. The ship is lifting off? This could be problematic..." And then the officer was yanked down a hallway by the frog that Xephelon had encountered initially. "...Problematic indeed." He then turned the exoshell's torso so the three light-eyes were looking at Shax, who seemed to be distressed after the lurch of the ship. "Oh dear." Xephelon scuttled closer. Shax had greatly disadvantaged himself to help Xephelon, the Mythos felt he needed to return the favor even if it meant he couldn't get off the ship right away. "Do you have anything metal, glass, or stone on your person? An amulet, a gem, anything of the like? I can imbue magical energy into such items now that can give you any number of temporary beneficial effects that should help you until we can get to a secure location."

[Angel]

The minute he felt the ship lurch, Kenyan knew there would be trouble and mayhem. Sure enough, the frog and the policewoman began to yell, and the group began running for a way out. Kenyan kept his eyes on the pack, and when he found himself lagging a bit, shrugged off his worries of looking more like a Being and switched to all fours, sprinting towards light with the others.

He sprang off the ship in a tangled mess with his comrades, and landed rather hard on the loading dock. Groaning and hissing, he squirmed out of the jumble of bodies and did a quick check to ensure neither himself nor anyone else was injured, then stretched and listened to the others. Tsi'kin nervously poked his head out of Kenyan's shirt, having clung so hard to the lion there were tiny pinpricks of blood on the fabric now, but Kenyan hardly noticed anything except for the sunlight and the words of his new friends. As he listened, he remembered what the Mythos had said ...

"I can have this collar removed?" he asked. "Then the others may be safe too ... or the ones with no magic, I think ... skt-kee! Xyrtia!" He looked at their new surroundings, half taking them in and half hoping to see the blue jay safe and sound ... if she had made it off the ship.

[Tapewolf]

"Ah yes," Jakob said.  "Let me see to that.". A wing shifted slightly, a tentacle extruding from the main mass, a foolish grin on its little doggy head.  It vanished shortly after, smoothed away into a thin blade which he carefully slid between the metal of the collar and the lion's fur and curled around the hard metal of the restraint.
With a small snicking noise, the tentacle closed around it, shearing through the metal with a monomolecular edge. The collar fell off with a clang.

[Inumo]

((I wanted to make this a better post, but I have no clue how and I don't want to hold things up.))

Xyrtia tags along behind Wallace, trying to stay out of the way while saying nothing. People were talking fast, and now was not the time to try and practice the trader's tongue.

[Angel]

Before Kenyan knew what was happening, part of Jakob's wing grew out of his wing and ... grew a head. Then the head turned into a blade, which sliced neatly through Kenyan's collar without even coming close to damaging him. The collar hit the ground, and Tsi'kin popped his head out of Kenyan's shirt again, running down to examine the fallen restraint.

Kenyan rubbed the fur around his neck with a feeling of immense relief, then looked at Jakob in astonishment. "How ... how did you do that? What did your wings do?" Fully aware his next question would be quite rude, but knowing he had to ask, he picked up Tsi'kin and the collar and asked: "What are you?"

[Tapewolf]

"I... am an incubus," Jakob said stiffly.  "We are rare and not well-loved by other races.  Partly because of things some of us did thousands of years ago, mostly because of things we are accused of doing but didn't.  We tend to get over-emotional.  We can shape-shift, especially our wings.
"However, we are not unlike Beings.  Our powers only start to come in during our 20s.  Until then we may as well be Beings.  Some of us think we are until the wings pop out of our heads..."

[Angel]

"In...cu...bus..." Kenyan tested out the strange word on his tongue, then lifted up Tsi'kin. It would be easier for him to understand a new idea if it were explained in his first language. <Do you know what this creature is, my friend? We never met any in the forest.>

<They live with other big creatures,> the little rat squeaked. <We call them four-wings. They can look like other big creatures to hide, but they usually smell the same.>

The lion nodded and squeaked a thank-you before turning back to Jakob. "I am sorry if I said that badly. I ... did not live with Beings for a long time. I do not know some things. It is like the ones of your kind you talked of, who did not know what they were." His ears lowered a bit, and he found he couldn't say more. "Thank you, for taking this off," he added, holding up the collar with a sheepish look.

"What do we do now?" He looked at the iguana policewoman as he said this. "Can we go home? What about the others who were trapped?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha snorted at Kaela's comment about Jake, while the Gryphon in question finished his healing.  "Yeah; but he's always been more like a big brother to me.  He's cute until he talks."

"Oh, Isha, you wound me," her companion quipped as he turned and showed his widest grin.  "You'd say that about this face?"

Her eyes rolled.  "Do your healing, and let's get out of here."

"Already finished," he said with a quick once-over and a quick bow to the tigress.  "Happy to be of help, milady."

It was at that moment that the ship had decided to put on a show.  "WHOA!" the normally-balanced panthress said as she was briefly surprised, rocking off her feet as the ship seemed to pitch and shift like it had suddenly been put onto water like a boat.  She could hear the entirety of the metal beast groaning as if in complaint as it lifted, and the door had been closed far away from where they'd come.  There was nowhere now to go but back up into the bellowing machine...where she'd intended in the first place.

"Oh, we're taking off alright," Aisha confirmed and placed a cautious hand on her boomerang.  "We need to get up there, now."

"Right behind you," Jake confirmed, snatching up his halberd as he ran to keep up with the huntress.

Aisha, having not been this far down in the ship, was mostly going on guesswork as to how to go; but the general consensus in her mind was up.  The sounds down there were mostly footfalls and their own breathing or conversation, but as they got closer, they could hear voices.  As the ship was beginning its ascent, there was no doubt that they would be running into chaos.  Crew, passengers, officers...and there were still three floors to go to the cockpit.

There was a ladder at the very end of the hall through which they'd gone, and a door over a metal catwalk.  In light of the rush, the door was open, devoid of guards.  As of yet.

Aisha knew an opportunity when she saw one.  Ascending the ladder two or three rungs at a time, she'd flung open the door and made her way out onto a short maintenance reach and, soon, to the public areas of the ship.  She'd paused to look and listen, waiting for Jake and Kaela--if she was coming along with them--to catch up.  Time to see what's going on.

*     *     *

Wallard tried to keep his attention steady as the cop hastily questioned him.  It wasn't too easy to stay focused when things were happening all around you; people being ushered every-which-way, loud talking and surprised shouting, the ship getting louder and louder...but the light-colored Gryphon couldn't care much less about the state of the ship behind him.  He had no idea what they were going to do to it when the crew was arrested, but he'd have loved to see it finally go down.  Burned, stripped bare, destroyed.

"Could I testify?  Hell yeah," he answered, his powerful arms crossing.  He looked the buffalo straight in the eyes.  A world of hardness could be found in Wallard's gaze, something that could only be built up through taking so much more than he should have taken, with an iron will.  "An' I reckon everyone else here'd do th' same.  I've been in th' grip a' those bastards fer fourteen years a' my life.  They tried ta get me ta fight for whoever th' hell they work for, cut off my wings, subjected me an' these innocent people to terrible things.  I may never be able to sleep well again..." he sighed, "But it'll be much better when them demons are taken down."

He glanced behind him to see Xyrtia still staying close, though slightly confused on what was going on.  "Also," he added with a nod towards the blue jay, "Do y' have anyone on th' force who knows diff'rn't languages?  She ain't from here, but she could probably tell y' lot a good many things too.  And exactly where would we be stayin...?"

It was at that point that the ship's engines roared, and the entirety of it buckled upward, just ready to take off.  Wallard turned around to watch it with a stoic demeanor, straight-faced and emotionless.  But inside, he was screaming elatedly at the top of his lungs.

Good friggin' riddance.

[justacritic]

Hobbies looked back and forth as the ship shuddered. His headwings tilting in confusion. "Did, did something just happen? How long have I been out of it?"

[Yugo]

Kaela bared her teeth as she rubbed the rapidly growing bruise between her ears. She pushed herself to her feet and fought off a wave of dizziness. "A concussion is really the last thing I need," she said as she steadied herself against the wall. The tigress gave herself a once over. Satisfied that at least everything was where it should be, she set off after Aisha and Jake at an easy loping run. Every minute or so, she turned around to check behind for any unwanted pursuers. "We need to be careful once we're up there, Aisha," she murmured as they came to a halt. Kaela turned her veridian eyes upwards towards a maintenance hatch in the ceiling. The sound of heavy footfalls and turning bulkheads was thankfully absent. "If we bite off more than we can chew, we won't be able to escape now that the ship's in the air."

The tigress flexed her hands in anticipation. "Does the crew even know about all the bullshit going on down here? If it's just the captain, easy money, but if all of the ratings and deck officers are complicit too, this'll be a damn sight harder." She watched as Aisha flew up the ladder with grace and agility. "Show-off," she chuckled, close behind.

[Boog]

Finally, seemingly after years, the ship lurched into the air with a jolting shudder. The great thing moved with all the grace of an injured manatee but there was purpose in its drifts and bobs, as powerful engines channeled heat and fuel and arcane to shift its bulk.
Not to say the Qaggathan's were LETTING their guests leave. Around the escaping prisoners and throughout the holds of the ship there was the thump and whine of "Forced Landing Equipment," great siege-harpoon like machines the police had unloaded and were firing at the blimp, and the zap of their necromancers slinging spells to try to peel apart the dead wood of the vehicle and return it to earth, but no palpable hits landed. The dirigible slowly drifted out of their reach, advancing in speed toward the mountains.

Below the Flame of Freedom

The policewoman smiled at Kenyan, "You'll all be sent home in due course, after you've been debriefed. Folks are going to have a LOT of questions about what you've been through and," she yanked on Jeremiah's handcuff again, provoking a surprised  'yarp!' "What you know about the slavers."
"Ma'am, I swear I had NO idea-HNK!" Apparently the iguana was very much of the opinion that Jeremiah had the right to remain very very silent. Any protests just got him shaken around again, and for her small size it was clear she could outmuscle the lanky frog. To be fair, so could some damp washcloths.
"Quiet. You'll be kept very comfortable in the meantime though, and delivered home when it's all settled."
As they were talking, more officers approached from the perimeter, notably one carrying a large medical kit.
"Oh thank goodness, took them long enough. As for compensation," She turned to Jacob, "That wouldn't really be my department, you'll have to reach a little over our heads for that. You'll want to speak to the foreign affairs representative when he comes to collect you from custody."
She ended it with a wink, "And if you need anything else, look up officer Ansini Carmicheal. You folks have a friend in me, I'll look after you as best I can."
With that she stepped back to let the officials do their job and escort Jeremiah away; there was a battery of questions about names, to be checked against a guest registry, affiliations to be checked against documented clans. The medic (after some check in with Jacob) promptly got to work on Shax, the necromancy based healing spells practiced in Qaggath apparently taking just as effectively as any white magic spell. The questions came on one after another, who they worked for, what they'd seen, where they were from, but all the while escorting them to the police wagons. They were given blankets. Xeph was asked if he needed coffee. After their ordeal they were out.
They were... Safe.

Meanwhile, Wallard's new attendant gave an aggressive, almost simian grin and clapped him on the shoulder once.
"Good man, you'll help us root these bastards out. Yeah, we got a language specialist, we may even have a translator pendant back at the precinct she can use. Maelek! Get over here, we'll need you to process this one," the officer waved to another one, a tall meerkat with a scowl and gestured her to Xyrtia. "She should be able to take care of your girl, lets talk about this more at the precint.
(OOC: If nobody in this batch has anything else to do here I'll be moving you all on to the next part of the story)

Amidst The Roiling Skies

Kaela, Jake and Aisha crept through the maintainance tunnels largely undetected; with most of the passengers still evacuated to the cockpit and the main ship staff still shellshocked from the siege it seemed assumed that the mechanisms could look after themselves for now.
Or, possibly, could be assumed to be a lost cause. From the odd shudder of the ship, something had gone wrong. The inertial dampening spells were down, the antimagic field wasn't back up, and the occasional pop of their ears led to only one conclusion.
While the ship had gotten out of port for now, it was nonetheless on its way down.
They were not safe.

[Tapewolf]

"Thank you, officer," Jakob said, making sure to memorise her name.  "Any idea how long we will be detained?"

[Shax]

Shax would take a glance at Xephelon with a shake of his head. "I-I'll be fine after awhile... T-thank you though..."

But how wrong that turned out to be. Before the medics started to work on him, and the adrenaline started to die down, did he really start feeling the intense pain shooting through his injured shoulder. The shock of what just happened had really started to his him hard, he went on for a pleasant cruise, only to find out it was a slaver ring, police storming in, someone falling on him, getting shot, and having to dig out the bullet head with a knife. Reality started to set in hard and he began to shake a bit, eyes going wide. Everything had happened around him so fast, how sudden things had turned in an instant. In his mind, his grandmother, his clan leader was right. He should have stayed in the safety of SAIA.

It was only as the medics started to work on him that he finally snapped out of his little trance, but he was still shaking, teeth gritting with a sharp intake of pain while the wound was healed.

[Angel]

Kenyan wanted very much to panic, now that it was all sinking in and they were being treated. The iguana woman - Ansini Carmichael - had backed away for now, taking Jeremiah with her. (The lion forced himself to remember her name; she seemed to be the only trustworthy one of the "police".) He, Shax, the Mythos and Jakob were poked and prodded by several Beings, all talking far too quickly. Some were wearing white or blue clothes, and they all had concern in their voices, but he could barely listen to any of them long enough to really know what they meant. He heard words like "malnutrition", "dehydrated", and "trauma", but they all passed through his mind without taking root.

His cuts and bruises from his time in the slavehold were healed, which made him squirm quite a bit, but the sensations weren't overly unpleasant and one or two of the healers spoke soothingly to him while they worked, though he understood little of what they said. He was offered a blanket and a cup of something hot, which he took without complaint, and watched the others. They all seemed relatively calm. If the pack wasn't panicking, neither should he. He held Tsi'kin in his hands to keep the little rat safe, and thought of the forest. <I'll be home soon, my pack. Keep your noses down and move quickly until I come back.>

"What ... do they want ... to know?" he slowly asked Jakob, though he looked at Shax and the Mythos as well.

[Tapewolf]

"Right now they're just checking how healthy we are," Jakob said.  "After that they'll want to interview us and that will vary per-person depending whether you're passenger, staff or prisoner."

[techmaster-glitch]

Xephelon kept himself small as the people milled about him, everyone trying to settle into organized chaos. When someone asked him if he wanted coffee, he turned his body towards them and 'blinked' his light-eyes at them. "Oh thank you, but I do not require coffee." Coffee would send his tiny real body into convulsions from the caffeine. Xephelon left unsaid a request for nutritious gruel or soup, given how busy everyone was, he didn't think anyone could take more time to find something from the kitchens than just simple cups of coffee until things had settled down a bit.

The four-legged metal construct-like thing then wandered over to where Shax was getting treated. Xephelon still felt bad for him. Xephelon watched with arcane curiosity as the medic healed Shax with an application of necromantic magic, an unorthodox way of doing things. I'll have to remember that. He thought to himself. Once Shax's wound was mostly closed up and the medic was putting the finishing touches on it, Xephelon spoke up. "By the way, I apologize for you expending your energy to comfort me after my fall, rather than taking care of yourself. Your wound was far more serious than mine, I'm sure. I can't quite tell, but I'm fairly certain my injuries only extend to bruising, which is highly painful for me but not life-threatening. I should have insisted that you look after yourself. Still, I thank you for what you did. If it pleases you, I think I shall stay by you until this little 'adventure' is over, and I offer my skills and services to you." Xephelon said out in his slightly droning voice, then waited for Shax's response.

The metallic construct-looking Mythos then looked around, and noticed the rather raggedy lion Being staring at him. Xephelon was quite used to stares, although he suddenly found himself a bit curious about rescued slave in return. The idea of slavery really sat askew with him, and he hoped the Being was alright. He kept one of his 'eyes' on that Being.

[Angel]

Kenyan twitched his tail and thought about Jakob's words. "Inter-view... what does that mean? They will talk more to us? After I tell them what I know, can I go home? Ansini said we could. I want to go back." Unconsciously he made a bit of a kitten-face. He was healed, and felt more cared for than he had in days, but the lion-lynx was still sick with worry for his pack. Tsi'kin nosed his hand, and Kenyan stroked him slowly before noticing the Mythos looking at him ... if he even had eyes. Kenyan was rather curious about the metal-encased creature; he used the fewest understandable words out of his current pack, but he seemed friendly for someone protected by something so deadly.

"What is your pack like?" he asked the Mythos. "Do they all wear shells? Why?" Now that the impending doom was mostly gone, he was feeling more talkative, if more tired.

[Tapewolf]

"Hopefully they'll let us all go home," Jakob said.  "But I wouldn't bank on it being quick."

[Aisha deCabre]

The ship was shuddering.  Beneath their running feet, Aisha, Jake, and Kaela were making their swiftest ways up into the ship from the groaning skeletal infrastructure.  The door had closed, and there was no turning back.  Aisha knew this, although somewhere in her deathly ironclad determination, she registered that the Flame of Freedom was moving...but only barely ascending.

Soon, the mechanical rumbling turned slowly into the chaotic murmur of people.  Individuals--crew, patrons, and officers alike--were rushing about through the corridors, just trying to make some order out of the madness.  The trio stopped in their tracks, listening for some coherence in their conversations from behind the walls, but could barely make out much.  A commanding voice went "Get everyone into a large enough area, now!", while a few others screamed in sparse tones, "The bridge, get to the bridge!  EVERYONE TO THE BRIDGE!" and still others (definitely the rich patrons still littering the ship) were growling things like "This is absurd, can we not go back to our cabins and secure our possessions?  My most expensive suit is in there!"  And "This is your life on the line, you dolt!  Follow the officers!"

"...I'm guessing we'll be dodging a few obstacles once we get through that door," Jake muttered.

Aisha nodded.  "Keep your weapon up and spells handy, amigos."

"Spells...wait, the dampener!  Why isn't that back on if the ship's flying again?" said the Gryphon.

The panthress paused, thinking that was indeed a bit strange...but mostly a strange amount of good luck.  "We'll worry about that later.  C'mon, you'll be behind us.  Kaela, you're up front with me.  We head straight through and up to the cockpit.  We have to find the captain."

"I'll just be happy to put him in shackles," Jake whispered with a rather avian hiss out of his beak.

Just a quick count...three...two...one...

And Aisha shoved the door open into the second-lowest deck, a space reserved mostly for quiet lounging and relaxation--though now it was all in an uproar as they rushed in from the halls, with very few people taking notice of three new faces among them.  Shoving past throngs of people, some having to be pushed or kicked out of the way, and off into the spiral staircase to the rooms and into the bow area.  Aisha recognized the bar, the lounge, and the stage where the captain himself had welcomed the airship's passengers...so many people, never knowing that they were going to be involved in such a great mess...

It was around here that Aisha spotted two faces--one familiar and one not-so-familiar.  Dodging a few panicked officers who seemed to not have the time to question the weapon-clad adventurers, the panther called out to the two of them.

"Kafzeil, good to see you're safe!  Come with us, hurry, we're ending this!"

"Made new friends?" Jake said in a hushed tone, and Aisha rolled her eyes; why did he ever seem to find the time, even in a rush as they were in, to make introductions?

Regardless, the quick decisions were made to follow the hordes of trampling feet.  The entirety of the Flame of Freedom's population, whomever they were, were finally being ushered in an orderly fashion towards the top decks.

And the freedom fighters (and whomever had been dragged along) had slashed, jumped, shoved, and fought their way to the last stairwell...

And to the door of the cockpit.  Aisha's blood started boiling when, from inside, she picked up the sound of a very outraged and panicked demon wolf barking orders to a throng of staff members or guardsmen.

"...secure the holds, and I want as many of those cops killed as possible!  Get the patrons out of the way, however you do it, it doesn't matter anymore!"

Despite the state he was surely in, Captain Uidnatan was barely startled when the door was kicked.

*     *     *

Down on the ground, Wallard was more than happy to follow the buffalo away from the chaos that was being wreaked to the Flame of Freedom as it was trying to get the hell out of Dodge, as it were, and through the straight and dirty street toward the precinct.  Next to him, the meerkat called Maelek sighed heavily as she walked along with Xyrtia, looking the avian up and down before trying to speak.

Xyrtia heard a few different languages from her, as she tried to communicate, though it was quite a confusing time.  All she seemed to know was that they were free, and these people ushering herself and Wallard away were at best trying to help.  But finally, she did hear one familiar line, though the accent was stuttered and awkward.

<-Hello, Miss.  Can you understand me?->

[Inumo]

The meerkat next to Xyrtia whistled and chirped gibberish for a while; it didn't take long for the bluejay to realize she was trying to determine what set of syntaxes and sequences was her mother tongue. Suddenly there was a moment of clarity in her speech as she hit on the right language. <-That one, that's it, that's my language!-> Xyrtia jumped in, excited. <-Oh my gosh, it's a relief that someone's able to speak straight with me. First there was...-> The air was filled with the bluejay's chatter as she got halfway through describing her travails before abruptly cutting off. <-Er, sorry,-> she said much more slowly, finally noticing the meerkat's dumbfounded expression. <-How much of that did you catch?->

[Yugo]

((Only a month to post! I'm the best. >.>))

Kaela felt her stomach slowly roll towards her backside as the ship's nose tilted upwards. There was no going back now, at least not for anyone without a pair of wings. She sniffed as she kept pace alongside Aisha and Jake, thumbing the blade in her hands to test its sharpness. The airship's superstructure whined and creaked around them, loudly complaining about being put under such stress. Airships weren't exactly made to be maneuverable. Kaela silently prayed that whoever was at the helm didn't lose their nerve. Any sudden, stupid moves would snap the keel straight in half.

They paused at the messy sound of panicking people. "Sounds like someone's trying to herd cats up there," Kaela chuckled. The crew was struggling to maintain even a semblance of order. Apparently trying to run a top-flight cruise ship and a slaving ring at the same time could cause some difficulties. What a surprise. The tigress leaned against the bulkhead and frowned. It sounded like the whole deck was packed from aft to bow with bodies. "This is going to be a spectacularly bloody mess, innit? Might watch how you flex those magical muscles if I were you." She turned to Aisha. "Alright, just use me like a dozer. I doubt there'll be many out in the hallways that can stand in front of me once I've built up a good head of steam. We punch through the decks, punch into the bridge, punch the captain in the mouth, and then we all go home and laugh about it over a glass of sherry."

Aisha started the count and shouldered open the door. Kaela threw some strategically placed elbows as she shoved her way directly into the crowd. Most were smart enough to move aside for a pair of blade-wielding fighters, but hip-throws and kicks moved the rest. They emerged into the 'captain's bar'.

Kaela followed Aisha's gaze towards a pair of new allies. "New mates?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. They barely stopped for more greeting than a nod, pushing on towards the cockpit.

She held out a hand towards Aisha as the panther lifted up a foot to smash the door in. "Mine," Kaela said with relish, planting her heel directly above the lock and smashing the mechanism into a useless mess.

"Surrender or die in obscurity!

[techmaster-glitch]

Xephelon turned to fully face the Being who he was watching as the Being approached to speak to him. Xephelon's three light-eyes 'blinked' in sequence as he regarded the lion-ish person. "My pack?" Xephelon queried, but he was already sure of what the Being meant.

"My 'pack' is...much like myself, I suppose. Though we tend to be more solitary Creatures by nature." Xephelon answered to Kenyan's first question. "And yes, most of us wear shells like this that we craft ourselves. Some build theirs for combat and war, others like me build ours to enhance our already-existing abilities. And we wear these exoshells because, well...within this shell, I am actually a very weak Creature. We don't like admitting that, though." Xephelon answered to the other questions, being free with his answers as the poor Being had been enslaved very recently, and Xephelon figured he deserved more complete answers.

"But where are my manners." Xephelon suddenly said. "My name is Xephelon. What would your name be, friend?"

[Angel]

Kenyan listened intently to the creature, nodding every so often to indicate he understood. The creature (Xephelon? Zeffelon?) was using easier words for his sake, which he appreciated, although there were still words he didn't quite grasp. Still, he was able to pick up what he didn't understand from the context. <A pack of creatures that wear shells and live lonely lives ... in their own way, they sound like my old pride.> That thought brought a troubled look to his face, but he brushed it off to answer Xephelon's questions. The creature's honesty was refreshing, and it was always hard to admit weakness aloud, so he responded in kind.

"My name is Kenyan. I was caught by the ship's men because ... my pride left me a long time ago. There were no other Beings to stop them, and the animals in the forest were like your pack ... they were too weak on their own. And I ... I do not like to fight. So I could not stop them either." His ears drooped and he smiled sadly. "Perhaps the animals and I needed shells too." He shook his head and changed the subject, not ready to worry about his family again yet.

"Why were you on the ship? The other slaves and I only saw a little of what was above us, when we escaped."

[techmaster-glitch]

Xephelon made a mental frown (not really having much in the way of expressing emotions) as the Being Kenyan told his story. Ridiculous, short-sighed slavers. Putting aside the obvious moral failing of slavery, the cowards go after the weak who would hardly be useful in the first place, since they can't contain the strong. Slavery offended all of Xephelon's sensibilities, morality and efficiency both. He also understood and respected Kenyan's disinclination for combat, as Xephelon himself typically avoided or ran from any engagement, as he already had been doing.

When Kenyan was done, Xephelon responded. "It is very sad that your pride left you. Why would they do that?" The Mythos wondered. "And it is unfortunate that no one else was able to protect you. I understand the dislike for fighting, as I dislike it myself." Xephelon continued to try and refrain from speaking in his usual big words for the sake of the Being. "As for why I am on this ship, well, I heard it was the pinnacle of...well, um...I heard it was a very impressive ship, very advanced. I wanted to see it for myself. I had no idea the crew was involved in slavery. But now that I know...I find myself very sad that such a good ship was being used for such bad reasons." Xephelon explained, then looked around at the rest of the group. "But now I just want to survive and get off this ship. I will help everyone else around me with my skills for that. I can grant magical protection and power to others."

[Angel]

Kenyan's ears flickered at Xephelon's first question. "I do not know. They left when I was a cub. I think they may have forgotten me. They were always moving quickly." It was the one thing he remembered about his pride; they moved from place to place very often, and rarely settled. Forgetting him had always seemed like the most logical explanation for leaving him behind.

"I have been told that not everyone likes to fight. In the forest it was a hard choice not to, so I am glad to hear it," he added with a smile. "And the ship is very nice, outside the slave hold. I hope I can help people now that I am out of it as well. What sort of help do you think you can give? All I want is to go home, and help the other slaves do so too."

[techmaster-glitch]

"That is quite sad, and rather neglectful of them if they simply forgot you." Xephelon replied to Kenyan's explanation of his pride. The strange construct-like thing continued to listen as Kenyan continued to speak. Xephelon had little to say in return to most of it, except for Kenyan's question at the end. "As for help I can give...are you aware of magical items that give their users special properties? Such as amulets that make someone stronger, faster, or more protected? Usually, permanent items like these require a great deal of time and energy to create. I can effectively make such items on the spot by putting temporary magic into any nonliving object. That is my primary and most valuable ability, I can make those who do fight into better fighters. And yes, I wish to see all the other slaves freed as well." Xephelon answered.

He then looked around. "I wonder what we will be doing next, though."


(OOC: Sorry Angel, would have had this up sooner, but totally kept forgetting about this for days)