Shattered Innocence (IC) [M]

[Noone]

   The sun rose to mark the beginning of a new day, it's radiance providing light to those beneath it's gaze. Yet, it's gentleness could barely be felt in a cold, unforgiving winter. Strong winds blew across the snowy landscape, circulating cold air throughout, and uplifting snow off the ground to give an illusion of a rabid snowstorm. Trees in the distance waved from side to side, leaf-less branches dangling in the cold weather. Yet perhaps the most unwholesome aspect of the setting was the stillness, the silence, with only the wind to be heard.
   A lone angel stood above the wreckage that once was the Whistling Willow, shivering in the cold landscape, enduring the stillness to the best of his ability. Yet, he was more concerned with those on the ground before him, they lay still in the snow. He had pulled them out from underneath the wreckage, and treated their wounds. The sight made him speculate about what had happened the night before. Yet, no clarity came from his thoughts, only confusion, and also sadness stemming from those he could not save in time. He shed a few tears for the lost, frozen on his face from the cold gale until he wiped them off, yet the memory still stung his mind.
   He looked over at those he had healed, checking to see if they still breathed life. He looked over each one... then stood. He had cleaned most of their blood off, but the thought that he could still do something more for them kept circulating through his head.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Red flickers of pain throbbed across Kedered's chest, neck, arms and head. It was worse on his back than his chest. Pride more than anything else kept a groan strangled in his teeth, an intrastringent refusal to acknowledge his pain when confronted with the possible inflicters of said pain. So he lay there, hurting. After a moment, it occurred to the last heir of the Aldoraethar house to open his eyes. Something was wrong with his vision. He could see light and dark, and make out the white of the snow on the ground, but when he moved his hand in front of his face, he saw but a black and yellow blur, not digits. It was cold. He tried to stand, failed.

For want of a more direct means of understanding his situation, Kedered consulted his old friend Memory, trying to track back what had most immediately happened. He had been at some backwoods inn called the Whistling Willow, swilling some ale that was more water than anything else, although the figure, whose features escaped him seemed to enjoy the brew. He was trying to recruit, yes, that was it. And then........... Kedered had to fight through a haze to reach the next part. There was light, there was heat, there was smoke, there was pain. His fur and clothes had caught fire, and he was trying to raise a shield when something struck him on the head. Now that he thought about it, he wondered why he didn't hurt more.

He was lying on his right side, so his left hand went up to his cheekbone, and then to the back of his head, confirming that somehow his skull was all in one piece. His headwings were still hidden too. Another gust of wind blew by, and he shivered. Kedered imagined his clothes were in tatters, and he doubted he could find a reputable tailor to make him new silks. A second attempt at standing succeeded. His hands roamed his body, substituting for his eyes, confirming that his money pouch was still somehow intact, and that the wood of his bow was in reasonable shape, although the string had snapped. The weight of the dagger in his boot was reassuring, he was reasonably certain he wouldn't be up to the effort of casting a spell. If he had more energy he could shapeshift a little, use the anatomical reshuffling to erase most of the pain.

He heard a sound, behind him and to his right, and turned around with a velocity that couldn't be called quick, but was more than he thought he could manage. His legs seemed to be in comparitively good shape. He could sort of make out a figure, and more to cover his own weakness than anything else, Kedered called out "Who are you? Do you know what happened to the inn?"

[Noone]

The angel, previously looking at those who had not woken up yet, turned his attention to Kedered. He took a step back and shivered nervously. A strong gust passed by, he closed his eyes and folded his wings inwards to protect himself from the chill. After a moment, he opened his eyes again, and relaxed his wings. It also gave some time to get a good look at him.
He looks like a tiger based angel, around five foot eight. His face is mostly blue, with orange stripes under his eyes and across his ears. Yellow hair tops his head, it's short, but slightly spikey at some ends, parted to his right. He is currently wearing a red sweater, probably over another shirt, as he can be seen with a yellow collar coming out from underneath. He is also wearing simple looking blue pants, and black and white striped shoes. His feathery wings are bright yellow, with slightly darker feathers along the top rim and lighter colored feathers on the bottom rim of his wings. His tail looks fluffy, and is striped blue and orange, and about 4 feet in length. The irises of his eyes have a bright gold color to them, and betray a certain youth to them. He looks young.
He looked up at Kedered, blinked a few times. He let out some muffled "I... I..." noises at his queries, but gave no coherent answers. He looked at a patch of clear snow, closed his eyes, and took some deep breaths, attempting to muster some confidence. 

[Lisky]

Garis awoke as the sunlight started bleeding through his eyelids, he blinked a few times, then groggily brought up a wing to block out the sun.  He felt a slight shiver as he collected his thoughts, the last thing he remembered was playing with a rather cold fireball, and trying to catch the eye of the young barmaid.
As his head cleared a little more, he started to stand and noticed he was feeling extremely dizzy.  The wolf stayed in a low crouch while his sense returned, wings spread as the aches and pains started to become apparent across his body.  He looked like a predator ready to pounce as he stared at the wreckage.  Soon he began a look over of the area.  His right hand burst into flames, and his left rested upon his dagger's hilt.  he muttered half to himself "what the hell happened?!"  He then dropped the flame as he spotted someone he thought he recognized from the night before.  In a slow, casual stride, he walked towards the other two, stretching every inch of his body he dulled the pain.  Opting for humor after noticing the wings on the others, he said "i wonder if it's counts as cannibalism if i feed off my own pain"

[Noone]

The angel jumped back at first sight of Garis's flames, and onto the ground. After they waned, he stood himself up, and cast his eyes down into the snow, and then towards the wrecked building. He glanced at Garis, then at Kedered, and shivered, obviously afraid of both of them.
'What was he doing?' he thought, 'That fire could have set the wreckage ablaze!' He took a second look at Garis, but said nothing.
After a moment of regaining his composure, he looked at the two, he didn't know who or what they were, and had never met them before. He breathed a sigh of relief that both of them however, were alive and well as could be, considering the circumstances. He decided to look at those who had not woken up yet, but didn't move.

[Tipod]

As the sun's rays hit his eyelids, Raffiele began to stir from the icy ground. The sudden explosion of light and sound was some of the most acute pain he'd felt in years, actually causing him to black out and hit the floor before being buried underneath an avalanche of wood and snow. He would have been passed out for the entire day had the angel not dragged him out from the debris to recover. It took the demon a few minutes to gather his mind and consider the whos, whats, wheres, whys, and whens.

There he was, ordering a beer and chatting up the locals. It was a simple little assignment he was on: go through some of Ithralia's urban centers and determine just how much of a lockdown on crime and immigration there was in each one. Then, report back to the ass-end of Astarea and tell his employer what the scene was like. And just as he was having a pleasant discussion with a rather enlightened being, the whole place was blown to smithereens. Some pleasant evening it turned out to be.

Making sure all his possessions were in order, the demon got to his feet and trudged towards the others. "Gee, hope the owner had a policy on this place." Assuming he even survived the ordeal. "And let me say right now, if any of you had anything to do with this, you're gonna find yourselves missing a little off the top." His hand fondled the steel tomahawk secured to his sash. If there was one thing Raffiele hated, it was having nice conversations broken up by violent eruptions.

[Lisky]

paying attention to the angel's obvious apprehension, Garis took a moment to try and de-escalate the situation, he folded his wings so as to appear less intimidating, then took a casual but slow stroll towards the angel. he moved holding his arms out from his body, palms out in an attempt to show that he meant no harm.  In as soft a voice as he could manage, he said "i apologize for being so aggressive when i first got up, as you might have guessed, i'm a little confused as to what's going on, and expected the worst... do you know anything about what happened?"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Why are these people so violent? Kedered had spent a few minutes flexing and running in place, trying to let adrenaline do its little biological trick. To a large extent, it worked. He wasn't in top shape by any stretch of the imagination, but his vision had cleared somewhat, and he could move with a minimum of discomfort. He made some surreptitious efforts to shapeshift at some of the more inflamed areas of his back.

Two others had awoken, a hyena demon who looked vaguely familiar, prompting Kedered to search his recollections if he had ever done business with him, or perhaps a relative before. He seemed to be in very good shape, at least relative to how Kedered felt. Or maybe he was a good bluffer. The other was a very obviously young fellow Incubus. He really ought to keep comments like feeding off pain to himself if he doesn't want some being to carve a second smile beneath his chin. And both of them, being so aggressive so soon after waking. Subtlety, subtlety.

Ignoring the others for a moment, he stiffly made his way closer to the angel. He noticed for the first time his odd blue colored tiger face. The angel was slightly shorter than himself, and seemed to be walking with an ingrained cringe in his step, like he was ever afraid of being struck. Nodding solemnly and bowing at the waist, Kedered said in a full clear voice. "I am Kedered, the heir of the Aldoraethar family, and I would desire to know the name of the fine Creature that saved my life." He rose, and said more normally, less formally. "Do not worry, I seem to owe you a debt, and while it remains unfulfilled, I will not allow harm that I can prevent to come to you. Has the fire or the collapse done you any harm? I am a poor healer, but perhaps there is something I can do."

[Noone]

The angel suddenly seemed a bit calmer, though still quite nervous.
"I.... ". He had trouble mustering the courage, shaking his head shortly after speaking. He took a deep breath, and tried to relax himself.
"I'm alright..." He took another look at what was left of the willow, parts of it's structure were coated in a layer of blood.
The angel closed his eyes.
'I only wish I had been able to save them', he thought, 'but I couldn't, I wish I could have done more...' A small tear started to flow down his left eye. He looked down at a patch of blank snow, almost as if in shame. He then wiped the tear off his face, and turned to face Kedered, still not entirely in control of his mental faculties.
"I'm Kassin.... Kassin Starshine." He paused, glanced at the other two that had arisen.
A wind blew across, blowing snow all across his face, he shivered in the cold weather. He kept running the same thoughts through his head, 'Will they be alright?', 'I wish I could have done more...', 'Maybe I can keep them warm...', the thoughts went on. He closed his eyes, softly trying to keep his composure, and for the large part, failing miserably.

[Tipod]

Raffiele tried his absolute best not to snerk as Kedered introduced himself to the angel. Yeah, heir to the butler and substitute teacher dynasty. He'd heard of the Aldoraethar and other clans from his grandfather's business trips and debates, and knew enough to consider them an example on how not to make a comeback. He could only hope his own family would never drop into such a rut.

"Well, Mr. Starshine," Raffiele spoke to the Angel plainly, "you can't quite blame yourself if someone went crazy and bombed an inn. You weren't to know." His leathery wings folded gently as he looked to the more gored portions of the ruined establishment. He still wanted to punch out whoever wrecked the place, but he had to admit, the perpetrator knew how to make things combust rather nicely. A Thom'sen would always step back to admire the particularly brutal handiwork of others.

[Lisky]

eyeing the newcomer, Garis didn't really trust the demons frankness or attitude.  He turned towards the angel and took a semi-formal bow, he then said, "i am Garis Ahnasazi, a simple adventurer for the moment.  I feel that i owe you a great debt of gratitude, and if there's anything at all you need me to do that would help, please, don't hesitate to ask..." he then looked over at the other two, first the demon again, then the other incubus...
as he looked at the one who had introduced himself as the heir to the Aldoraethar family Garis thought to himself hmm, if it's that family that feels it's entitle to rules the lands that had thrown them out, then pity really.  No one should feel entitled to anything that they themselves haven't worked for... he cut his thoughts off as he  felt the pain of the others... it wasn't great, but it did give him a lot more energy, and also helped him recover far faster than had he been left to his own.

Feeling re-energized, Garis folded his wings around his body like an oversized, feathered cloak.  He looked at the ruble, then asked "anyone else feel like starting a small fire, perhaps it might add a little warmth, and give our fellow survivors something to wake up to besides the icy ground..."

[Noone]

Kassin nodded at Rafielle's comment, but it didn't improve his mood. He continued to stare at the ground, occasionally covering his face with his bright yellow wings when a gust of wind blew in his face.
He turned to Garis, and nodded at his introduction. Kassin wanted to smile, but he couldn't, not while looking at the wreckage and those who did not survive to receive his care. He turned to Garis after a fire was mentioned.
"A.... fire?" He shuddered slightly, both at the cold and at the thought. He didn't want a blaze to erupt and possibly kill those whom were still unconscious. "J...J...J...." He shook his head. "Just be careful." He took long pauses in between his sentences, still trying to regain control of his composure. His thoughts were more stable than they were before, but he was far from an ideal state of mind. He glanced over at the wreckage again. A strong wind blew in his face, blowing his hair and his wings with it's force.
There was plenty of wreckage to fuel a fire with, a lot of the structure was wooden, so could be easily salvaged for firewood, and it's not like anyone would really be upset with a few pieces missing.

[Lisky]

Garis took great care when removing pieces of rubble, collecting some stones to form a rough circle first, set a good ways away from the debris.  The, grabbing some wood, he formed a pile outside the circle, several times what he'd actually need for a fire.  after taking a few minutes to set everything up, he set his hand ablaze, and held it under the chunks of wood until they caught. 
With the fire started, he gestured for the others to come warm themselves, using his own massive wings, and thick fur to take the brunt of the wind around the flames.  He said "come, warm and comfort yourselves around the fire, we'll have some time before anyone else will be in any shape to move anyways.  it can't hurt to keep ourselves comfortable until then"  He stood close to the flames, letting the warmth wash over his front, and collect in his wings.  He brushed away the snow, set his bag on the ground and just knelt in the warmth, enjoying the feeling and letting it wash away the cold and chill of a few minutes ago.

[Tipod]

"I'm plenty warm enough." Raffiele kicked aside a few rocks, looking over some of the more motionless bodies. The temptation to root through their pockets was overwhelming, but earning the ire of the living wasn't worth the slight financial gains at stake. "...it was night when the place went up, right?" He glanced at the others. "And here we are in the morning, woken up by the good Starshine. We're truly seeing the apex of crisis response, people." It didn't surprise him, though. If they were in one of the more densely packed cities, officials would have been hauling carcasses away and stabilizing the injured within the span of... maybe an hour or two, but at least they would have been before sunrise.

[Azlan]

A thousand points of pain danced about his body as Tyrian's foggy mind attempted the fleshy equivalent of a system reboot.  Lingering in a half state, aware of the existence of the pain but unable to feel it, the fox resisted the attempts to return to consciousness.  The logical portion of his mind was literally screaming at him to wake up, but he feared to.  Images played through his mind of light, swirling colors interposed with images of the tavern and disconcerting sounds of chaos, destruction and death.  He lingered on the last image, one where it appeared he was laying on his side, almost looking down his own form, but not quite.  A pool of crimson fluid rapidly widened in front of his eyes, it was blood, his blood.  His vision was becoming dimmer with each progression of the tide of red.  The scene ended abruptly with a thousand explosions of light and then oblivion.  His logical side postulated that such a thing was even more reason he had to wake up, to staunch his bleeding and fight off the shock, the longer he lingered here the more likely he would slip into a coma and then death would not be far behind.  

Amid the warring psyches, a third presence entered, this one burned with ebon fire, rumbled like the deep earth, flowed like the summer tide and carried a voice like an wild sirocco, Fools are you both.  Emotional weak, logical flawed.  I know we are hurt, but another has brought our condition stable, healed the gravest of wounds.  You would do well to thank him, warlock of elements... sorcerer of natural forces.  Now WAKE!

A clap of thunder resounded in Tyrian's mind, throwing it into a wakeful state.  Red shown in his eyes and tiny beams of light shot through small open areas where his eyelids met.  He resisted bolting upright and carefully assessed the situation.  He felt bad, very bad, pain in almost every corner of his body made itself known, from his toes to knees, stomach, chest and head.  He was whole and injuries seemed to now limited to deep bruises, sprains, and the remnants of deep critical wounds hastily made whole with magic... Angel magic.  

An ear slowly rotated and caught the conversations around him.  Other survivors were waking, but he waited patiently listening to the results of their post waking conversations.  They all seemed amiable and from what he could tell, this Kassin had saved them and probably him as well.

Carefully, so as not to cause alarm, the fox opened his eyes.  He attempted to move, but the pain areas that had made themselves known when he awoke all decided to throw him a party at once, he groaned and nearly passed out again.  Breathing hard, which caused pain, Ty bit his lip and shakily came to a sitting position.  He immediately regretted that as the contents of his stomach suddenly staged a revolt and bolted for freedom, a freedom Ty could do little to prevent.  The fox bent over and emptied the contents all over the ground.

The fox stared at the mess and sighed to himself, he was such a fool for eating food, but he had so wanted to try the fish served in the Willow.  They were renowned for it, but now they were gone and their last renowned dish decorated the snow and ash covered ground.  He spit the remnants out and hoped no more remained to try another exodus, pain remained though.  Groaning, he rocked on his heels for a few moments until his stomach finally settled.

Sheepishly he gazed in the direction of the others and completed his intent, rising to his feet.  He leaned on part of the wreckage until the world ceased spinning.  He nodded carefully to the others as he approached the fire.  As he neared, the blaze reduced considerably, but sprang back in full force after a moment.

"Well... um... h*i?"  He squeaked as he found his voice again, "ahem, I mean... hi."

The presences he could feel identified the others, though he was too weak to be able to discern what they were by anything other than visuals for now.

[Lisky]

Garis noticed the fox's slow, and rather shy approach, he sat, enjoying his fire, and gave as welcoming of a grin as he could.  While giving a sort of wave, he said, "hello, i'm Garis, come, warm yourself by the fire.  I've been up a bit and thought that we could use a little something to fend off the worst of the cold... i'm not going to lie to you, it feels pretty damn good where i'm sitting"  He gave a sly grin, and used a winged tentacle to clear the snow out of a good sized are around the fire

[Noone]

Kassin rushed over to Tyrian, with a worried look on his face. He spent a few moments examining him, as if a doctor looking over a patient.
"Are... you alright?" He started, he still had a but of a stutter to his speech, still not completely calm about his situation. After a short time, he started to look partly sick himself, he closed his eyes and made a soft groan, as if he were struck by some invisible force.
Kassin folded the fingers on his right hand, and they started to glow with a bluish white color. "Please... hold still for a moment", he started, obviously concerned about Tyrian's well being.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Kedered tried not to snarl at the contempt he could taste the others projecting towards himself. While they pampered themselves by their fire, Kedered started rooting around the wreckage of the inn, gesturing a simple spell allowing him to see magical residues. He was looking for any signs of what caused the explosion. Hopefully, whoever did this would be sloppy enough to leave a mark. Besides, if any magical items were in the wreckage, they should be salvaged.

Off to his left, he saw a second angel arise from the little pile of bodies. His vision still wasn't up to snuff, and he could only make out a general outline, around the same height as himself, bright white coloration, foxish, dull, practical clothes. A flare came up from the first angel, this Kassin, as Kedered felt a spell being cast. Some sort of healing or restorative most likely.

[Azlan]

Tyrian pushed Kassin away lightly, "save the healing, I'm as good as can be expected.  I just don't eat food very often, and our ordeal disturbed my constitution a bit... and well, you know... purge.  I would have handled it fine under normal situations, but this is far from normal."

The fox stepped back and stretched his wings, a few pops could be heard as the stiff joints were forced to move.  With a slight smile and a sideways glance towards Kassin, he sat down near the fire, right next to Garis, "so, Garis is it?  Well met, I am Tyrian XuLedo.  Pardon me for skipping all the formalities of polite company and let me jump right to the business at hand... does anyone know what happened here?  Who did this... atrocious thing and whom do we need to hunt, and pay back for it?"

The fox angel's smile took on a sinister and predatory air at the part where he mentioned pay back.

[Lisky]

"i'm as lost as you are friend, and i doubt anyone else knows much more... i woke up this morning, and found kassin a few feet away" garis replied as he collected his thoughts.  A similar predatory grin moved across his face.  "but when i find the ones responsible, well..." he paused, his smile grew more wicked "lets just say they'll find that the wrath of an Ahnasazi clansmen is not something to be sought after"  his wing opposite Tyrian folded in on itself, forming a long and narrow bladed tentacle for a second, then shifted back into a wing as Garis relaxed... he thought well, this is a rather interesting lot here,  the arrogant incubus and would be king, the demon... and some angels who both seem like rather decent creatures, though apparently the one named Kassin seems to be rather shy...

[Noone]

Kassin nodded, and his hand stopped glowing, aborting whatever spell he was going to cast. He glanced over at Kedered, then went over to the fire.
A survey of the wreckage doesn't locate any magical items. Some of the wooden chunks that were broken off have cauterized edges, yet otherwise the pieces show no signs of burning. Some magical residue remains on some of the pieces at the bottom of the pile, perhaps of some sort of transmutation spell, but it's impossible to tell for sure. It looks like the enchantment has been there for some time, perhaps eight hours or more. No magical residue can be found on most of the pieces or on the corpses buried within the rubble.
Kassin started to say something, yet, found his speech stumbling. His thoughts tried to paint a mental image of the scene, but there was pain... not his... it made his head hurt just trying to think about it.
"I...." He took a deep breath, still trying to steady himself. "I don't have any speculations myself... I woke up to see the Willow as it is now... I tried to rush to save those that were wounded but..." His thoughts screamed at him again for only being able to save a few. He looked at the ground again, and sat down, his eyes staring intently at the fire. A certain fatigue could be seen in his young eyes. He looked over to see that everyone whom he had healed had arisen from the ordeal, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"But, I'm not sure that we should chase after whomever did this... they might be dangerous, and... and..." His speech ended there, his thoughts indicating that he abhorred violence, and the thought of seeing someone injured... or worse, didn't appeal to him. He closed his eyes again briefly, shaking his head with the distaste of his thoughts. He looked up at the sky, watching clouds drifting above. As he examined them, a strong gust of wind blew in his face, and a gentle snowfall came down around him. Kassin stood up, and stepped backwards a few paces. He looked over everyone around them, quickly glancing at them to make sure they were still in good health.
"Regardless... I don't believe we should stay here. I know there is a village nearby named Sharakha, it should only take a few hours to walk there. It's the closest piece of civilization to this location... and I figure we would do well to seek shelter." Another gust blew in his face, and the snowfall became stronger. He closed his wings around himself, shivering in the cold weather. When the gust subsided, his wings relaxed themselves. "The roads are probably going to be snowed over...", he continued. "But I should be able to find our way there without getting lost."

[Tipod]

"Chasing some petty bomber's pointless, so you got the right idea." Raffiele crouched next to a corpse to give it a closer look, lifting the arm and letting it flop back to the ground. That childhood fascination with prodding dead things never quite left him. "The place would be painted in entrails and still standing if someone like me did it. There'd be a few disemboweled people and soulless husks if a cubi did it. But this? Come on, this just lacks finesse. Getting the little worm responsible wouldn't even be worth it." Whoever done it was responsible for disrupting his rest and relaxation... but Rafa had no desire to run around a snowy valley just to find and beat up one person.

"Though I can jump on the Sharakha idea," he spoke as he stood tall and perused the others. "So long as we leave before some cops finally show." If and when they did show. Raffiele was never a tremendous fan of authority figures, being or otherwise.

[Noone]

Kassin took a few steps back, he shuddered at what he heard from Rafielle. He didn't like thinking about bloody scenes like the one he has just been part of. He took a quick glance at Kedered, but he himself wasn't interested in what he was examining.

The wind started to grow stronger, bringing it's biting chill with it. Gentle snowfall started to become more rapid and harsh. The air became colder as time passed.

Kassin shook his head. "It's the closest place I know of we can seek shelter, and I would prefer to spend as little time as possible exposed to this weather. This place is not densely populated... and much of the surrounding area is unoccupied. I don't know if the rest of you know your way around here..." He closed his eyes as a gust of cold wind and snow blasted into his face. Kassin waiting for it to pass before he resumed speaking. "I guess once we reach there, we can seek shelter, I don't think this weather is going to get any nicer in the immediate future." Another gust blew into his face, he took a glance at the fire, flickering and dancing with the winds. It probably wouldn't be able to sustain itself if the weather continued to become more harsh.

"After that...", he continued, "I suppose we could go our separate ways, for now... it might be wiser for us to make sure we stay together in this weather."

[Azlan]

Tyrian thought the idea of the town was wise, they would need shelter and a bit of time before they decided what to do.  Nodding to himself, he stood and placed his hand out into the top portion of the licking flames consuming every bit of fire and heat.

"let us go then, we will all best be served by shelter and to distance ourselves from the happenings here.  The authorities might well blame us for this act of murder."

Despite the temperature, he was not affected as Kassin seemed to be, indeed his attire seemed rather light for someone traveling amid the heavy winter snows.

[Lisky]

Garis eased himself up, and said "well then, i guess we ought to get moving" He stretched his body, cracking the last of his waking aches and pains away, then picked up his bag, and swung it over his left shoulder.  "i'm good to go, feel free to lead on whenever your ready kassin"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Kedered was close enough to hear the discussion, and made his way over to where the speakers were. Nodding to the demon, he said softly "You're right, this awas kind of sloppy, unless it was for some other than destroying the inn or killing people. I didn't see any attempt to keep anyone inside the inn as the spell that set off the explosion went off."

Really noticing the cold for the first time as a result of Kassin's shivering, Kedered started shapeshifting to make his fur somewhat longer and thicker. After another moment of reflection "Going to a town strikes me as a reasonable idea, certainly better than simply standing around here, although the little paranoid side of my brain is wondering if whoever did this might be watching the most obvious place to travel to."

[Noone]

Chapter 1: A Long Cold Winter

Kassin nodded, he started to advance down a snow-covered road. The pavement itself wasn't even visible, covered in knee-deep snow. He smiled as he took glances at those that still lived. With a small nod, he simply said "Lets head out then."

After a few paces, he took one last glance at the Willow, and took a deep sigh, and continued on. His orange striped blue ears started to turn red in the cold. He withdrew his hands inside his shirt and sweater's sleeves, protecting his fingers from the numbing cold. The prospect of walking several hours in this bitter chill did not please him, but he had no better options other than to trudge along. The roads didn't make themselves clear, nor were there any road marks, other than leaf-less trees that dotted the landscape, their branches flowing with the strong winds above.

The journey dragged on for hours in the cold landscape. It was silent, with only the sound of the rushing wind that could be heard, passing through. The snow got no better as time went on, but did not get significantly worse. Kassin, despite his shivering, numb hands and ears, and overall discomfort in the chill, didn't lose resolve and kept going. He didn't say a thing, but his thoughts were still plagued by what had happened at the Willow, and they didn't make him comfortable. He tried to keep them out of his head by thinking about Atharra's geography, or what he knew of it, mostly things about Ithralia.

'I'd rather keep away from Northwestern Ithralia, that place is dangerous... constantly under assault by demons from Narukh and soldiers from Thularia, and the locals are usually paranoid and will scream at the mere sight of me... but I can barely blame them. I don't really think I can stand Southeastern Ithralia either... it's got a lot of people in poverty, and seeing that makes me hurt on the inside. No one lives in Whispwood, to the southwest of our location, it's supposed to be a scary place too. Sharakha is in Northeastern Ithralia...'

Kassin cut his trail of thoughts as he continued along, his ears at this point were almost completely numb, as snow blew by them. He took some glances around. "We're almost there..., just a little bit farther." He continued on. After a relatively short walk, some buildings came into view. Yet, the sight seemed oddly still for some reason. Sharp details couldn't be made from this distance, though smoke could be seen rising from some of the buildings.

In a flash, Kassin yelped out in pain, and touched his left hand to the side of his forehead. He fell to his knees in the snow, and touched his right hand to the ground to support himself. He continued to groan in pain, and closed his eyes. No visible force had struck him, though he continued to wail as if grievously injured. After a few moments, the feeling subsided, he took a few deep breaths, but did not get up. 

[Lisky]

Garis took a few steps forward, and offered a hand to help the angel up.  he asked "what's going on? are you alright?"  Watching the smoke in the distance, he prepared himself for a fight mentally, but kept his outward appearance calm.  His wings twitched slightly and his ears were pivoting like a search radar, listening for anything that might be an approaching hostile.  He started feeling the pain of others, and the cold that had started to become draining left his body as he felt re-energized yet again..

[Tipod]

"Hahah, what's wrong with you?" Raffiele chuckled and gave a slight leer towards Kassin. "Hear the sound of a crying child?" He took the notion in stride, up until remembering that angels getting hit by unseen agony was often an early warning system. Stopping in his tracks, the hyena sniffed and drew his weapons.

Nobody ever got the drop on me until last night. The tomahawk twirled expertly in his right hand. Gave me the works before; you can't do it no more.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Kedered tramped along with the group, paying little attention to where he walked or the cold outside. Much of his mental energy was invested in attempting to force the tiny shreds of information he had on the attack at the Whispering Willow into some sort of cohesive sense, and the rest of it was involved in shapeshifting. Throughout the trek, his back had looked like some pestilent ooze, distending and swaying as he walked, only to be forced down from its lumpiness into a more normal shape. Though brutal and exhausting, the reshuffling of anatomy left Kedered largely restored from his injuries in the explosion.

He kept half an ear to the running line of patter that Kassin was saying, idly noting that his description of the locals in northwestern Ithralia seemed to have their terror focused on Kassin personally, an odd factoid given that the meek little angel was possibly the least threatening person he had run across this decade. Too bad he can't thicken his fur like I did. I wonder if the cold froze his brain.

Abruptly, he was shocked into full wakefullness, the smell of smoke entering Kedered's nostrils. Almost simultaneously, Kassin keeled over and started groaning. Kedered moved towards the supine angel, but when he saw Garis getting there first, he moved to interpose himself to the village, and whatever potential hostiles might emerge from the place. A little niggling suspicion emerged in his skull, and Kedered resolved to test something when they had a moment of peace.

In the meantime, Kedered waved in some preliminary spells, enhancing his sight and hearing, trying to get a better idea what was going inside the hamlet, muttering to himself "It would have been too easy to have a warm room and a bath, huh?"