The Traveler Arrives (Joining)

[forgerofsouls]

At long last he took his first step into the village. At long last did he arrive. At long last could he take a break! He stretched out his limbs for a few minutes before taking a look around. It was what he was told it was. A village in the trees, made by elves. It was indeed a somewhat awe inspiring sight to behold. Of course, he wasn't to thrilled that the instructions given to him about how to reach here were at best, sketchy. He had gotten lost and only by dumb luck did he happen to fly up and spot the houses in the trees.

Yes, the golden half-dragon that radiated light and heat stood on the branch that he landed on, near one of the buildings of the village. His silver armor reflecting the his own light a little bit, giving the image of glowing armor. The massive sword strapped to his back in an ackward way did little to limit his moverment, for in flight he carried the sword, including its scabbard. When land bound, he folded his wings in a way that they can easly rest comfortably beneath the sword. His hands were dragon talongs, another indicator to his already obvious heratige.

His fins seamed to twitch as he turned his head looking for signs of life, of course being winter most people would be indoors if possible. But due to his own inner furnace, so to speak, the cold did little to hinder him, unless it was used as a direct attack. He wondered about the going ons here, and maybe finding some shelter to use as a base of operations for his search. But first thing first, to locate someone.

[Griatch]

Despite the cold of day, the sounds of life could be heard from all around the village, once one listened for it. Stretching as it did over two adjoining giant trees, it was however impossible to actually overlook the whole village at once; the mass of crisscrossing branches, houses and the sheer bulk of the trees themselves blocking line of sight. So the sounds sometimes appeared muffled and distant even when they were actually close. The sunlight, cold and crisp in the winter day, came sifting down, sometimes in open patches like here, further off like bright shifting pillars finding their way through the vast canopy. Unlit elven globes of light were everywhere, clearly meant to bring light to this sheltered world come nightfall.

A group of elven children came running down the branch parallel to the one Klinge had landed on -- several wing-flaps to the west. That branch itself was wide enough to be called a road. It passed by the nearby house and disappeared into a sort of natural tunnel, whose roof was made of intertwined branches, some evergreen, some bare to the cold of winter. The children, who was involved in a very non-elven-dignified snowball fight, paused when they noticed the newcomer. Most of them only gave Klinge a curious glance before running on towards the tunnel. But a small elven girl, surely no older than five, stopped and walked over to the edge of her branch waving a chubby hand at him.

"Hi" she called, giving him a top-to-toe overview like only a child can. "I'm Ylvai. Who are you?"

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OOC: In case you wonder, Ylvai is an village NPC, you can find info about her [here] .

[forgerofsouls]

Klinge listened closely to the noise of the billage. The village was bigger than he expected, and more active than one would expect in the cold of winter. He was also surprised at the branches, roads in their own right. It was deffently different than his cities. This one was much smaller, and in the tree tops. The cities on his planet were huge megatropolises stretchy for hundreds of miles, roads were big enough to fit four massive dragons at the same time. Here the branches were big enough to count as roads, but nothing like the ones back home. And yet, the village had its own beauty that his cities could not have. That beauty being the very nature it was made from.

He watched the children running on the other branch, many of them taking quick glances at him. He just smiled as they ran by and into a tunnel. Than one stopped causing him to watch her, she walked to the edge and called out to him. He smiled and walked to the edge of his own branch. "Hello Ylvai! I am Prince Klinge Angstauge! It is a pleasure to make your aquitance!" He finished his sentence with a bow to her. He straightened up and looked over at the young girl. It was kinda funny to think that his first greeting would come from a child, but one could not be picky, and sometimes talking with children can be fun.

[Griatch]

Ylvai nodded, her childish curiosity clearly arosen. "Hello, Klinge! What are you a prince of?" she asked. "We have no princes here, but mum reads these stories..." The child waved her hands, "... and princes always run of with princesses and kills dragons and such."

Ylvai paused in her flow of words, taking yet another look of the glowing figure with his massive sword. His physical appearance did not seem to give her much second thought, clearly she was used to strange creatures. But she gave his sword a long look. "Are you here to kill a dragon?" she finally asked. "That would be kinda mean to the dragons. Mum says they are kinda nice if you don't throw eggs at them. Or something like that."

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OOC: Sorry for the long wait, I'm back in more normal gear now though.

[forgerofsouls]

((ooc: no problem lol))
ic:

Klinge gave a small chuckle as Ylvai told him about the stories about princes and princesses and dragons. Indeed, it was wierd to be telling a half-dragon about stories such as those. "I am the Prince of the planet Draconis Firerim, dimension 1222354. So you could say I am an alien to this world." Klinge said, not knowing if the child would fully understand.

"And as far as dragon hunting goes. That is out of the question. I am a half-dragon myself. My father is a full dragon. The planet I come from is full of dragons. So dragon hunting is out of the question." Of course that didn't extent to defending oneself or others from attacks from dragons. Klinge would fight another dragon in order to defend people.

Klinge pondered about flying over to Yvlai's branch so that way the two of them didn't need to talk loadly to be able to be heard. He decided that was the better idea and so spread his wings and jumped of the side, the wings giving powerful pumps soon liftin him up and over to the branch Yvlai was on. He landed several feet away, so as to not accidently hit her with his wings. Not an easy feet to do because of their size mind you, but he had been flying for a long time and thus had gotten used to using them to not hit people with them when landing.

[Griatch]

Ylvai didn't really follow Klinge's talk about large-numbered dimensions, but her eyes grew wide as he continued. "It's good that you're not hunting dragons" she said sagely. She looked curious. "So how big is your dad?"

She backed away as Klinge flew over to her side with considerable elegance. "You're very big too" the child commented as Klinge stood towering over her. "Why do you shine like that? I know this girl who has a horn that changes colour when she's happy! Is that why you shine too?"

[forgerofsouls]

Klinge had to chuckle at the girl, he didn't find himself very big. Than again, thats why chatting with a child could be fun. "My father is really big, almost 500 feet long. I get my size from my mother, who was not a dragon." He told Ylvai. Then he thought about the second question, why does he shine?

According to what his father told him, Radiant Dragons shine because they hold the inner fire for justice and hope. How much of that was true he did not know. But, that was what he was told and didn't see no reason to not tell Ylvai. "Well, I shine because of my dragon heritage. The dragon in me shines because according to my father, we hold the inner fire of justice and hope. And the light from these shines through us so that we can be a beckon of light in the darkness." He told her. Of course, how much of that was true or false even he didn't know.

"A girl with a horn that changes color when she is happy? What is she? A living moonstone?" Klinge asked jokingly.

[Griatch]

"500 feet is very big" Ylvai informed him seriously, but it was clear such a large number was something of a difficulty for her. "I think...
...well you are very big anyway. And shiny."

The child made a face at his joke. "She's not a moonstone, silly! Crystal is a ... um ... a uni! And her horn glows all reddish and yellowish and it's very nice to play with. Did you know that she can change into a girl and back? It's true!" she added, proud to instill this valuable knowledge unto Klinge.
She continued, "So, you are not here to hunt dragons, that is good. So why are you here? Do you live here? I haven't seen you before, but mum says there are many people in the forest I haven't seen before..."

[forgerofsouls]

Klinge did admit to himself that to a child he would seam big. And Ylvai even told him about a unicorn named Crystal. That brought back memories of Aria, the eight member of the royal guard. Aria called herself a Unisus. Which was basically an unicorn with wings like that of a pegasus. He wondered how Aria and Crystal would interact with each other? She seamed to not truely understand how large his father was, or atleast the number itself. But he let it slide do to how young she was. Then she asked some questions.

Klinge gave it some thought before answering. Smiling he decided to tell her the truth. "I am here because my father is very sick and needs some type of medicine that I am supposed to be able to find here in this forest. What I am looking for I do not know. And no, I do not live here. Though I guess since that I am expecting to be here for an extended period of time I should find a place to stay here. And your mum is most likely right. This forest is huge! Bigger than all other forests I've seen. Bigger than some cities to." He told her, smiling the whole time.

[Griatch]

Ylvai blinked. "It is not fun to be sick." she said. "I was all sniffel-y and cough-y last summer, I did not like that at all. When I was little we used to go to Gaia for healing stuff. I remember Gaia, she was a pretty lady, but mum said she had to go somewhere far away. So now mum go to Blackback when she needs stuff. Maybe you should go talk to him too, for that medicine?"

[forgerofsouls]

"Being sick it certainly not fun. And can you tell me where to find Blackback?" Klinge asked. He wondered, who was this Blackback, and would he have what he saught? Doubtful, with the strangeness of this disease. It would certainly be plausible that Blackback would not have any knowledge about a cure, much less a cure itself.

[Griatch]

"Yes, of course I know where Blackback is" she said. "Blackback is very big and red. And he's a merchant too! He has all sorts of bottles and things."

She held out a small hand to Klinge. "Come on!" she said happily. "I'll take you to Blackback!"

[forgerofsouls]

Big and red? Klinge couldn't help but wonder what type of creature this Blackback is. "Lead the way Ylvai." He said giving the child a smile and taking her hand.

[Griatch]

The elven child led her large companion by the hand, taking him down through the vast tree with sure steps.

The village, was not so much a centered cluster of buildings as a widely spread out collection of houses wherever the trees allowed a house to sit on a huge branch or hang beneath one. The greens of the giant plant itself blocked the view of most the village at any time. Here and there they passed a "square" with more houses where large branches met, only here was the sky visible enough to let piles of snow build up for the amusement of elven children. Elves where everywhere, passing them, doing chores, the sound of village life sometimes strong, sometimes muffled by the bulk of the tree. Most ften they walked down long green tunnels and branch-roads winding its way above or beyond others. People they met nodded politely to Ylvai and Klinge, not paying them much heed.

"This is South Tree" Ylvai told Klinge. "It's where my mum and dad and me and my brothers and sisters live. North tree is nice too, one gets more tired there though, there are some steeper branches you really have to climb!"

They were, by way of a series of sloping, overlapping branches and winding staircases, moving down through the tree towards the ground.

Eventually Ylvai pointed towards a large construct by the branch ahead, it was a large platform suspended in lines that disappeared into the canopy of leaves. "There's the big thing that moves up and down!" she said, pulling Klinge's hand to go faster. Before they got any closer however a large creature with red fur and a large leather overcoat appeared ahead, reaching the elevator before them.

"Blackback!" Ylvai screamed, stopping the troll in its tracks just as it was about to step on the elvevator. Turning, the large creature nodded to the child and her companion as they came up tho him. "Hello, Ylvai. Found a new friend?"

[forgerofsouls]

Klinge let himself be pulled along by the child smiling. It was so easy to live happy for someone her age in a place that seamed so peaceful. He remebered his childhood. Filled with studing and training. No real time for play. But that was what came with being a prince.

As she lead him towards where Blackback was supposedly at Klinge listened to her tell him about the village. And than he looked at the elevator she pointed out. While simple looking it nonetheless did its job well he suspected. Elevators on his planet could be much larger in size, and much more complicated.

Than a large creature had beat them to the elevator. But than Ylvai had yelled out "Blackback!" which was apperently the creature's name. In fact, Klinge realized, this was the one they were coming to see. Giving a polite nod in return to Blackback Klinge decided to let Ylvai introduce him. It was custom on his world for hosts and hostesses to introduce guests to one another. And in a sense, though young, Ylvai was basically playing the role of hostess, regardless if she knew that or not.