A Calculated Risk (Joining)

[The_Vizir]

The sun shone brilliantly down upon the thawing forest, between bare branches showing the first signs of budding, down upon the dirty snow that still lingered in the shadows and the crevices beneath their roots and between the the rocks. In the clearings and meadows, small shoots of green were already adding their colours to the forest, and promising a rainbow more once the temperature warmed up. And over at the lake known as River's Deep, the last vestiges of ice clung desperately to the shore, while the heart of the cold pool sparkled a brilliant blue, mirroring perfectly the sky. All in all, it was a beautiful d-

*FZZAAT!*

Of course, whenever you make a comment on somethings beauty, tranquillity, or whathaveyou, the laws of dramatic irony will conspire to end it as quickly as possible. In this case, it was caused by a clean rent in the fabric of the multiverse appearing several feet above the rippling waters of the lake. The burst or wind caused by the creation of the vortex caused the water of the lake to ripple with agitation, as the light of the sun was drowned out by the brilliant arcane hues emanating from the portal. The tear hung there for several moments, before it's twisting surface froze, and then seeming shattered into a thousand pieces, pulled back into the nether. Out of the stabilizing rift came something even more surreal... the bow of a ship. And that bow was not alone, as slowly the rest of the finely wrought planeship slid through the rift of it's own creation, massive sails unfurling as it slid back into the Material. Skimming above the surface of the lake, the ship glided quietly towards the shore, the rift snapping shut angrily behind it the moment the final jutting aft rigging slid through.

Fully through, the planeship revealed itself to be rather small, a glorified yacht really, maybe 12 paces from bow to stern. It's sails spread rather impressively out to the sides, appearing far closer to wings than traditional sails, a pair off to both port and starboard, and another smaller set to the aft. The vessel was lacquered wood and polished bronze, inscribed with runes along it's keel and hull, with the gleaming name Mistrunner set into a plate at the bow. And sitting in the wheelhouse was a rather familiar figure to Deep Forest

“I... wow. That... HEY D!” the small draconic being shouted, voice being to break with laughter “Hey D! We made it! HAHA!”

Beneath, clutching to a table for dear life, Darien tried to figure out the appropriate response to that while also trying to dig his second heart out of his intestines. Slowly prying his fingers off the table in the centre of the small ship's living room, the wide-eyed syth slowly collected himself. “Right...” he grumbled to himself “Nothing... seems to have broken off...” he looked around at the chaotic interior, papers, books, and tools lying everywhere... Darien seriously dreaded taking a look at his library. But... it was just a mess. Messes can be cleaned. Sighing, D grabbed for his cane, and grimaced when he found that a jar of jelly had broken on top of it. Fantastic. Whipping the sticky syrup off on his jacket and silently cursing his fur, he slowly made his way through the mess to the stairs that lead up to the deck. Shakily making his way up, the moment his head emerged above the deck itself, he spun around and turned to glare at Sarah “WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS WAS THAT???”

Sarah blinked down at the furious Darien several times behind her veil, before srugging “Turbulance...”

“There's no turbulance between p-” Darien began to snap back, before realizing he was talking to Sarah, and shook his head in frustration “Nevermind...”

Sarah smirked, and returned her eyes to the horizon “So... we said we'd set down in the village, right?”

The dark rogue sighed “No, you said we'll set up shop in the village. I said this was a bad idea that would end up getting us killed.”

His pale companion merely shrugged “Details.” She quickly spun the wheel causing the ship to list rather sharply to one side as she directed it towards where she remembered the village, causing Darien to bounce around the stairwell, cursing repeatedly. In the time it took for him to fall all the way to the bottom, and crawl back up to the deck, grumbling furiously at nothing and everything at the same time, Sarah had brought the ship to the lake's shore, and had begun to fold in the wing-like sails. “Well, D, I think we're here” she grinned over the clanking of gears, cutting off D's inevitable 'are you trying to get us killed?' Instead, he merely glared wordlessly at her as he hauled himself to his feet, then made his way over to the ship's rail. As Sarah returned to the wheelhouse, she began to slowly power down the mistrunner's planar drive, cutting off the arcane energies which allowed the vessel to defy gravity. A snap, and a set of landing struts rolled out from the skyship's keel, locking into place with solid metallic clunks. Finally, the Mistrunner made one last turn around a massive tree, and glided to an almost perfect landing on the edge of the small cluster of houses which made up the village.

Darien shot a glance over at Sarah, who looked as surprised as he was that she had not blown the landing, and merely shook her head “You couldn't have done that for the first ninety nine percent of the trip?” he growled, to which Sarah only shrugged mekely. Shaking his head, Darien limped over to a small gap in the railing on the vessel's port, and kicked a small leaver. Mentally rebuking himself as an intense pain shot through his foot as he stubbed a toe, but showing only a flicker of pain in his jaw and eyes, he watched a whirling of gears launched out a gangway, which clanked down to the earth beneath. “Well, guess it's time to reintroduce ourselves...” the rogue announced through clenched teeth, and then, trying to be as elegant as possible, he waddled down the gangway, not looking back so as to protect his ego from Sarah's silent laughter.

[Luxon Cobrat]

That fireball was up in the sky right now. Nothing beautiful about it if you asked Zom. She kept to the shadows of the trees - plentiful as they were - to avoid the worst of it, but even the shadows couldn't keep the natural light off of her completely. It didn't burn, but it made her feel sluggish, and getting herself to move was taxing. On top of that, the usual aches and pains she lived with were worse.

Normally, she wouldn't have been active in the daytime. Every once in a while, though, she had to scope things out to see if anything big was going on. Some creatures in the Forest were active at night, but the ones she relied on to keep the best watch on what was going on in the wider world around them were the humanoids, and they were unfortunately most active at these ungodly hours. Still, she couldn't just rely on Rekka to keep her informed, as she didn't trust that incubus as far as she could throw him. Of course, with her strength, she actually could have thrown him pretty far, so that was a bad metaphor.

Currently, she was still stalking the edge of the trees around the Village, watching the inhabitants for any signs of a commotion. If one broke out, she would move in to see what it was about. Otherwise, her presence would likely put people on guard, and they would clam up around her. After all, aside from being unknown around here who was only seen on occasion, her appearance didn't exactly match the setting. A change of clothes might have helped her to blend in better, but she was rather insistent on her choice of attire.

The landing of a skyship counted as a commotion. Despite her weakened state, Zom moved quickly to get to the landing site, not wanting to miss any details on what this all was about. Upon seeing the two kith coming down the gangplank, she paused, looking thoughtful. She'd run into them quite a while back, that time when Juno electrocuted them. She could only wonder if they would still remember her now...

[The_Vizir]

"Hmm... well..." Darien said after a good long while of looking around the rather quiet village "Uhh... busy day, 'suppose...". With a slight sigh, he turned back to his ship, only to find Sarah dozing off while leaning on the rails. Blinking a few times in surpise, the black taskmage walked slowly up the gangway towards his companion. "Sarah?" he asked softly, to no response. "Sarah." this time with more edge, more annoyance in his voice. He got a light snore in response for that one. Finally, Darien through his hands up in frustration and stomped back down the plank "Emperor dammit, Sarah! It wasn't that long!"

"Hunh?" came the sleepy reply as Sarah raised her head and blinked several times behind her bindings to clear away the sleep "Wha' happen?"

Darien's palm met his face with a sharp slap, and the dark kith groaned in frustration "You bloody well fell asleep, Sarah, that's what happened."

"Really?" Sarah looked around a bit in confusion, before shrugging "Well it was a while, so..."

"Only a few minutes..." Darien sighted and looked over the village... it didn't look deserted, but considering it was predominantly elven in architecture, that wasn't something that could be discerned at first glance.

"Felt more like a few months" Sarah groaned and cracked her neck, and began to make her way down the gangway, when an angry rancour was heard from the hold "Oh come on..." Sarah said in exasperation "D, that damned lampshade is acting up again!"

Darien sighed and shook his head "Sometimes, I wonder if that thing is worth the trouble it puts us through. Go see if you can't calm it down, Sarah..."

"Me? Why me?" the knight asked, an edge of fear in her voice

"Because if it bites you, you get to spend the next week complaining to me. How does that sound?"

Sarah blinked a few times "But... I'd already do that..."

"Exactly" Darien said and pointed into the ship's hold "Now go..."

Sarah turned and walked down into the ship's hold, wondering when she'd lost that argument, and left Darien by his lonesome standing outside on the ground, looking over his sailing shop. Well, not quite the greeting he expected, but maybe once he got the place all set up and looking like a proper business, folks would start showing up... Emperor's willing...