Catfish and Swamp Gas

"I'm sure they are," Nathifa said. "We would have heard something if ill things had befallen them." She took Akaelin's hand and started walking back in the direction of the camp that the rest of their group had set up last night, quickly glancing over her reflection in a passing puddle of water to check her appearance. "How much farther is it to Nara? Whatever's in there, it would probably be a good idea to get the entire group together as soon as possible."

"We should get there by midday today," Akaelin replied as they arrived back at the camp the others had made. As a chimera, Tynan held a half eaten deer corpse between his front legs, gnawing on it. "Nous allons bientot partir," Akaelin said to the beast. Tynan looked up, running a serpentine tounge over his sharp pirana like teeth. Rising to his paws, he drug the rest of the corpse away, then came back in human form. He pulled out a red stained rag and used it to wipe the blood away from his mouth and hands. "Je suis pret," he replied simply.

Translations

Akaelin: We'll be leaving soon.

Tynan: I'm ready.

Nathifa nodded. "That's good. The sooner we can regroup the better" She closed her eyes and sent out the probing energy of her consciousness, as had become her habit for before they started travel, feeling for anything unusual or any presence at all. Not sensing anything out of the ordinary, she returned her mind to her body and opened her eyes. "We're all clear," she said. "I don't think anything nearby is a threat to us."

Akaelin was actually sort of dreading the trip into Nara. It required going in on a rowboat, since it had been built completely on water. Even the shortest, smoothest trip on water made him sick. "Let's just go," he sighed as they continued on the way to the swamp. Tynan followed at the back, only having a vague idea as to what was going on.

((Insert slight time skip here.))

As midday approached, the air began to go thicker and far more musty as they neared the swamp. The trees became thicker, spanish moss strewn across the low hanging branches. The muddy landscape eventually gave way to water. A small dock held five row boats, each big enough for maybe five people. With Sarian in hawk form, they would all be able to use just one. Akaelin asked Tynan if he could row them in, since - until they got to Nara - he'd be focusing more on not throwing up.

Nathifa was about to point out that she could make their boat glide across the water without oars, but thought better of it since it had usually proved to be a good idea not to let her powers be known. As the boat went across the water, she looked down into the water for any sign of these man-eating catfish that Akaelin had been talking about. There were a couple moments where she thought she saw something in the water, but didn't want to immediately assume that that's what they were.

Akaelin stared at the floor of the boat the entire time while his stomach churned. What little color was in his face started to drain. He took deep, steady breaths, trying to almost will his nausia away.

The trees seemed to open up as they arrived in Nara. The entire town was built upon the swamp with wood that was beginning to rot in many places. Tynan tied the boat to the dock as Akaelin bounded out of the boat, eager to have his feet on a stable surface, even if it could possible give way under his weight at any moment. Nara was a fairly uninhabited place, with little signs of live, save for the trees and plants.

Nathifa noticed the dilapidated conditions of the rotting wooden docks and made a mental note to place her feet carefully, ready to catch herself if she should break through.

"Who do we go and talk to again?" she asked her mate. "And where do we find them?" Though she could sense that there was life in this village, there was no visible sign of anyone milling about.

"Far Dorcha," Akaelin answered. "But I don't know who the hell that is." He looked around as he thought, trying to find any sort of hint as to what Yoko had been talking about. "Perhaps if we go and see Fleet," he mumbled aloud to himself. Fleet was the wise old elder of Nara. Even though he was ancient and nearly blind from cataracts, any time someone needed advice, they went to him. "C'mon," he said in a much more firm tone as he started directing them to the old mans hut. "Careful where you walk though," he added, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "This wood tends to--"

He was inturrupted by a loud crack of splitting wood. Spinning around, he saw Tynan, well half of Tynan. He had started to fall through a rotten section of wood, but had caught himself before hitting the water. Akaelin growled in agitation as he went back to give the chimera a hand up.

"Where do we find Fleet?" Nathifa asked. She looked back at Tynan, making sure that there weren't any giant flesh-eating catfish in the water that might take an interest in the warrior. She took a couple more cautious steps forward before invoking her power to make sure that any boards that she was stepping on would be sure not to break. With a small sign of relief she took her weight off the balls of her feet and walked a little easier.

"He lives over there," Akaelin said, pointing to a hut maybe 20 feet away. As Tynan got his feet back on the dock, he brushed himself off, pulling a large splinter of wood out from his palm with his teeth. "Merde," he mumbled as a small droplet of blood formed, dripping down his hand to fall, a tiny little dot of red in the water.

"He's rather old though," Akaelin continued. "So you'll probably have to speak up when talking to...him..."

A dark shape lurking under the water caught the wolfs attention as he peered through the hole the chimera had made. "Dammit!" he swore loudly, grabbing Tynan by his sleeve. "Move, move move," he said urgently. As they moved a massive catfish lept out of the water where they had been, splintering the wood and ruining what was left of that section of wood. It seemed to hover in the air for just a moment, eyeing them with dark black orbs, before crashing back into the water, sending up a wave that sprayed anyone within 15 ft of the immediate area.

"Those are some big catfish," Nathifa commented, eyes wide and half in shock. Though Akaelin had said things about them, she thought that he had been exaggerating. Though it would be less than simple to escape from the mouth of a simple animal, she didn't really fancy getting grabbed by one of those. "How do they rebuild the docks that those fish destroy?"

Akaelin shrugged, apparently undaunted by the giant fish that had almost eaten him and Tynan. "They're so used to it that it doesn't really bother them anymore," he answered. A few people came out, looking tired and defeated. Akaelin left to allow them to do their work.

At the door to Fleets hut, he didn't bother to knock, since the old man wouldn't hear it anyways. Instead, he just opened the door, assaulted by the warm smell of gingerbread and...something else. Pine? He had no idea. "Fleet? Are you hear?" he called out. An older man with white hair and thick glasses rounded the corner, a wooden cane supporting most of his weight. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as if trying to determine who or what Akaelin was. "Yoko? S'at you?" he asked, shuffling up closer. "No Fleet," Akaelin replied, trying to be patient. "It's Ak-"

"Yoko, it's so good to see you," Fleet continued, wrapping his arms around the wolf. "You got shorter you did. ...Such a good boy."

Nathifa stifled a laugh at the old man's behavior and mistaking Akaelin for Yoko. "Excuse me," she said politely. "Do you know where in this village we could find a Far Dorcha?"

((whee shortpost))

"Far Dorcha?" Fleet echoed, releasing Akaelin from his grip. He grinned, eyes glazing over as if lost in a memory. "Ahh...Eponas wild daughter. She's an expert of tough love she is. She's got her crown of stars, even though her sister Laiste is the more gentle one."

As Fleet went off into a story about faeries and magic, realization slammed into Akaelin like a rock. Far Dorcha wasn't real. "Fuck!" he cursed, running a hand through his hair. They had come all this way for nothing. He let out a long breath, weighing the options in his mind. "Perhaps we could check the libarary," he mumbled. It really wasn't much of a library, but maybe it would help. If there was nothing there, then he was going to rip Yokos tongue out for his lies. The librarian would have to be old by now. She had been in her late twenties when the wolf had lived in Nara almost 20 years ago. He barely remembered her, other than her long, curly copper hair.

"She's a character in a story?" Nathifa asked as she followed Akaelin to the library. "Maybe he wanted us to look in the book that has that story in it." She glanced down nervously as they stepped back onto the unstable wooden platforms.

"I hope so," Akaelin replied. "If Yoko sent us here for nothing, then I think I might cut off a few extra body parts before I cut off his head."

He opened the door to the library and stepped inside, closing it once everyone had followed him in. It was just as small as he remembered, perhaps even smaller. "I guess we should fan out and start looking for anything having to do with Far Dorcha," he sighed, taking a book off of the shelf. After flipping through a few pages, he looked up to see Tynan looking through a different volume, looking thoroughly confused.

"Tu te tiens juste la et etre assez," Akaelin declared, taking the book from the chimeras hands. "Ce que vous dites," Tynan replied, throwing up his hands in surrender.

((Translations
Akaelin: You just stand there and look pretty.
Tynan: Whatever you say.))

Nathifa's eyebrows knitted together in worry. "I'm sorry to say this, but that would really hurt Kitai." she said. "I understand we will probably have to kill him, but why do it in such a cruel way."
She picked up a book and started flipping through it for any mention of Far Dorcha. "He must have left some clue in a book, or there's a clue in the story. A clue to what, I don't know."

Akaelin let out a small breath and shook his head. "After everything that little bastards put me through, there's no such thing as cruel," he replied, keeping his eyes on the text. "She won't be around when he dies and I'm sure she'll get over it. She claims they're just friends, and she's got plenty of those. As for the kids, she'll have Arakil, Birch, and half the Rebellion willing to help her out." It might've sounded cruel, but that was just his wolfs logic at work. To him, everything was either black or white. There was no gray area to be found.

"Excuse me, are you looking for something in particular?"

Akaelin looked up at the woman next to him. To a normal person, her height probably would've been intimidating, but Akaelin was so used to being shorter than almost everyone he knew that it didn't really bug him anymore. She had to be almost as tall as Faorn, but not quite. A pair of glasses rested in front of hunter green eyes, and dark copper curls hung about her face. Mentally, Akaelin declared that this person must've been related to the old librarian.

"I'm Saga."

And apparently named after her too. "You know anything about Far Dorcha?" Akaelin asked dryly, putting the book back on whatever shelf he felt like. Wordlessly, Saga grabbed the book and put it back in its proper place. "And who sent you looking for that topic?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in what seemed like amusement. "Some little bastard whom I'm going to kill if I don't find anything on it," Akaelin grumbled. A wide grin spread across Sagas face in response. "He told me you'd say that," she said warmly. Turning around, she guestured for the two of them to follow her.

Nathifa sighed at Akaelin's response. Despite his faults she loved him with all her heart, but wished that he was able to see that gray area. Her attention changed focus as the librarian said that someone had said that people would come looking for information on Far Dorcha.

"So Yoko was here," she said. "I told you he wouldn't just send us on a wild goose chase."

(( ^^; I haven't been going here very much, because I'm restricted from going here. So I'll be on whenever my parents are out of the house.))

Faorn looked around triumphantly, "I told you I wouldn't get killed yet!" Immature as she was, she couldn't wait to tell everyone that she saw a killer-catfish. Davyn, who stayed behind, already knew of Faorn's accomplishment (if you put it that way), due to the connection between the twins. Sarian shook her head in disapproval. Sarian was still perched on her shoulder ever since they had gotten on the row boats. As the days went by, the hawk could have sworn that Faorn was getting more and more immature and reckless than when she was when she was younger. When she was younger, she was a thousand times more serious because of surviving and living on her own. Also the fact that she once worshiped Lycaon affected her younger-self.

Sarian hoped that Faorn would change.

Akaelin was a little suspicious, but followed Saga back into a room seperate from the rest of the library. As they did so, Akaelin weighed the name Saga in his mind over and over again, trying to remember where he had heard it before, beside the old librarian.

"Saga..." he mumbled out loud as he though. What did the name Saga have to do with books and poe-

"Saga?"

"Yes," the woman asked, peeking back over her shoulder. "Saga, Saga?" Akaelin repeated. "Yes, that's my name," she said with a small grin, turning to face the wolf. "Norse goddess of poetry?"

"Your point?"

Wordlessly, Akaelin brought his fist back and punched the goddess in the nose. He was expecting to get a hurt hand, but instead, felt the crunch of bone and the warm, slippery blood slide between his fingers. "Owwwwwiee!!" Saga whined, cupping her hands over her nose. "Whud wah' dat fer?"

So this had been a wild goose chase after all. Yoko had led them straight to the enemy. "So why haven't you blasted me yet you carpet licker?" Saga winced as she set her nose back into place, wiping the blood off with the back of her hand. "What? You think that all gods are all powerful masters of fighting?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "I'm a goddess of poetry, not war. Even the youngest whelp could best me in a sword fight. When it comes to a battle of wits though, I have yet to meet an equal. Yoko wanted me to show you a way to defeat Hel, so that's what I'm going to do as long as you don't punch me again."

((Note: After this scene, Saga won't be in the rp anymore. She's just here to give a bit of information.))

"I don't like to say I told you so..." Nathifa said. "But I told you so. Yoko wouldn't leave us to our fate without trying to give us a little bit of hope. If there exists a way to defeat Hel, then I suggest that we take it."

((Yay shortpost))

Akaelin stuck his tongue out at his mate playfully and immaturely. He still harbored a few suspicions for the fox, but decided to listen anyways. "Hel does have one very major weakness," Saga said, taking a few steps back and leaning against the wall, as if she thought that Akaelin might try and hit her again. "The biggest source of her power, is misery. The more of it there is in the world, the stronger she becomes. Likewise, the more happiness there is, the weaker she gets."

"So we somehow have to get the whole world to be happy that their existance will probably be ending soon?" Akaelin asked sarcasticly. Saga shrugged in response. "I'm just hear to give you the message."

"err, okay, maybe I take that back," Nathifa said. "There's no way we could cause everybody to become happy in order to make Hel weaker. Everyone's powers depend on something...like Set, what are his on? We have to have something that could defeat her through strength. That or we could show up to confront her with everyone drunk out of their minds so much that they think they're happy."

"It might work," Saga said with another shrug. "Sometimes, though, if you catch her on a good day, and if you ask nicely, she might do you a favor...say...fight with both hands behind her back...call off the attack...return Yoko. You never know. She's weird like that."

Now it was Akaelins turn to roll his eyes. He highly doubted that they would get Hel to do anything simply by asking nicely. "Well, that's great and all, but it's not that useful." He cast a quick, victorious glance in his mates direction, before turning his attention back to Saga. "Your time is appreciated. If that is all you have to say, then we'll be leaving now. We've been away from our group for too long."

"Don't let the catfish eat you on the way out," Saga said happily.