Lost to the Fog: Roleplaying

[AtiyaTheSeeker]

Somewhere in the rainforests of Africa, the scarlet-scarf-wearing lioness padded through a clearing in the dense foliage. The mysterious fog, a veritable miasma, was rather thin within the jungle itself despite it hanging roughly two inches over the forest floor. Having had the privilege of being invited by those who had been taught under Rafiki himself, Atiya was starting to wonder if the quest issued was more a double-edged sword than she thought. Sure, others were going to come with on this mission from the King and Queen themselves, but just how many of them might have the skills to pull their own weight? How many might wind up becoming liabilities?

How many might not make it out of this odyssey alive?

Atiya tried to push those thoughts to the back of her mind as she continued her cautious stride. She had lost so many before, almost all of her pride, and she wasn't about to lose anyone else. She worked much too hard at studying herbalism to lose another good soul to the darkness. Walking through the beaten path made her think as though she was treading a place of an untold number of deaths, however. The rainforest, normally flooded with the white noise of life -- namely insects, among others -- was silent as the grave. She was sure, at any moment, some nightmarish abomination was going to leap out from the brush and devour her alive. And yet, there was no sign of life. Nothing but an uncanny cool in the normally-humid rainforest, and no company but that unholy vapor at her feet. 

How long had she been walking, she wondered? It felt she was at least a half-hour to an hour into the bush, and yet the path carried on, no end in sight. The pendant wrapped around her neck by a loose cord, encrusted with but a single fragment of quartz, would be the indication of her arrival at the site of the ruins. When she was near, the crystal would glow with blue light. And yet, it hadn't so much as glimmered. As much as she felt she'd regret it, Atiya stopped in her tracks, laying down on her belly to try and rest her legs for a few. She dared not close her eyes, but kept glancing over her line of sight, keeping her ears trained on the ambiance, or lack thereof.

[Deleted]

A giant snake lay high in the branches of a tree, mouth agape as small monkeys walked between her jaws and down inside her throat. There were literally hundreds up here, hiding from the fog, or at least three had been until she had arrived and hypnotised them into walking into her mouth. She felt deliciously full, and the monkeys were small enough that they didn't distort her body too much, although compared to normal she was noticeably thicker.
Still, she would have killed for some larger game. It was then she saw the lioness stop to rest just a few dozen metres away, an grinned. Very slowly, very silently, she began moving down the tree until she was dangling over the lioness. Then she dropped down, wrapping her twenty metre, two-foot- thick body around and around the lioness as tight as would hold her, but not tight enough to cause lasting harm. "Sssssilly placcce to resist, lionesssss," she said, cursing herself at her enormous lisp. She still wasn't used to speaking with a forked tongue. She faced the lioness straight on with a head that was two feet long and winked.

[Deleted]

Kulaani padded through the forest, not very certain about his decision to come here. He had been invited by that crazy baboon to meet with the king and queen of a pride he had never heard of to listen to their plea for help. Why should he care about what happens to them? He doesn't know these lions, it isn't his problem. He would rather continue his hunt to find Msaliti and Giza, his parents trusted friend that betrayed and killed them, and the lion that had cursed him. The last thing he wanted was to get involved with this prides issues. Yet, he couldn't help feeling that it was the right thing to do by meeting with these lions and helping them, and in the end his conscience convinced him to go. While he was walking towards his destination, he heard a sound nearby and dropped into a crouch. He stalked forward toward the noise to see what it was.

[AtiyaTheSeeker]

Caught off-guard by the appearance of the massive snake, Atiya was wrapped with relative ease. Judging the serpent's intents as an obvious threat, Atiya wasted no time. She needed to save her energy to escape the reptile's coils, so she instead called to mind her words of power. The thoughts culminating into a single focus, she would have in any other instance made a clever comeback, or even waved goodbye. But considering she was constricted, even if loosely, she let her magic speak for her.

Glancing somewhere above the snake's midsection, a ball of blue-and-orange flame winked into being and fell downward, threatening to strike the snake. Atiya braced her nose for the result: if the snake didn't release her, the impact would hit her hard, and the uncanny will-o-wisp would fan out into blazing hot flames. Atiya had no desire to become a serpent's meal that night, even if it meant suffering the smell of burning flesh. And, possibly, having to treat her own burns if the fire spread to her. Sacrifices must be made sometimes, after all.

[Deleted]

The snake still had a lot of length not wrapped around the lioness so, upon seeing the fireball she merely rolled sideways and out of the way, the lioness still firmly in her grip. "Fatherssss above," she said, looking skywards, fear evident on her face. "We may be under attack, little lionesss. Do you sssssee anything up there with those big catssss eyesss of yours?" She obviously didn't know her captive was causing the flames.

[Deleted]

Kulaani crept through the foliage and fog toward the noises. He heard voices and peaked out of a bush to see lioness with a large snake wrapped around her, and above them was a ball of fire. Not certain about what's going on and not wanting to take any risks yet, he stayed hidden in the bush and kept on the situation.

[AtiyaTheSeeker]

"And what next, I help you while you sssswallow me?" she retorted, her 's' noise mockingly lisped. "Forget it!" What the snake didn't know wouldn't... well, no it would hurt her, but Atiya knew she could use the assumption to her advantage. Glancing up once more, she conjured a pair of mystical fireballs, sending them down to the foggy forest floor to try again at pegging her captor.

So far, her mind was fresh enough to keep this up. If the serpent kept tumbling out of the way, the dizziness from each roll could put Atiya's concentration at risk from the vertigo. She wasn't nearly ready to say her prayers, and kept at the assault for the while, hoping the ophidian adversary wouldn't catch on.

[Deleted]

The snake danced and skittered, all the while holding tight to the lioness, until there was a break in the action. "I'm not going to eat you, sssilly," the snake said, then dodged another. "I'm only kidding. I've had my fill of monkeys today. Here, I'll let you go." and she unspun her coils, but remained staring up at the sky. "I don't kill lionesssses. I have an affffinity for them."

[Deleted]

From the bushes, he watched the snake dodge the rain of fire, taken by surprise by it's agility. As he listened to the snake talk with the lioness, he began to have a strange feeling that something wasn't right. This snake wasn't the same as others he had encountered, but he couldn't figure out what was up. Pushing the thought away, he padded out of the bushes. "Yeah I can certainly see the connection you have for her."

[Deleted]

The snake whipped around at the sound of the newcomer, fangs bared, but stopped an inch from Kulaani's face. "Oh, you're a lion too. Sssorry. A ssnake's instinct." Then she turned back around to the lioness with the scarf. "Sssee anything yet... lioness?"

[Leto]

((Gah! Wait for me guys! xD))

-------

The d’rienna or confederacy had summoned him out on strange business before, but this time it was something entirely different. The word of the deadly miasma that had already wreaked havoc with one of the more politically powerful terrestrial kingdoms had caught the ear of his elders, and thus he had been summoned to investigate. Not to stop it mind you, unless of course it turned out to be a threat to the krajiin as well, he was merely there to observe; find out what it was, possibly the cause of it and then report back. If it proved a potential danger then he’d be tasked with stopping it, or at least prevent it from causing harm to his people.

The king and queen of this land hadn’t been very helpful in providing him with any satisfactory information; instead though they had sent him on a similar mission to what the d’rienna had already given him, except with an added clause; to actually stop this killing fog. With all due respect Lycurgus was not under any obligation to follow their orders, but for now the goals between his people and them were aligned more or less.

Pushing through the jungle Lycurgus stood out among this wall of green, but then he stood out just about anywhere with the exception being down in the deep oceans where he and his kin resided. Voices up ahead had drawn his attention; he knew others had been sent on this mission as well, after all the resident royal family had wanted to create a team to embark on this mission. But as the krajiin made his approach towards the voices, his idea of a team of professionals were quickly crumbling, in truth those he could make out up ahead seemed more like a misfit band of half-skilled adventurers than warriors of any note or skill, despite the fact that they possessed powers.

“And fighting amongst yourselves isn’t going to solve this mission.” The krajiin spoke as the snake rather skillfully had dodged the scarfed lionesses’ attack, and he had walked into view of the clearing. Ice-blue eyes trailing the rag-tag band, eyes landing on the scarfed lioness he was certain he had seen her before somewhere, but then all lions looked near identical to him. The bioluminescent spots along his form gently pulsed with light, betraying his underlying nervousness and worry for this upcoming task.

[Ruby_Fehu]

(And me! Haha)

Tamu kept her pace steady, ears strained to hear anything and everything. Her father had given Tamu and her brother strict orders which she still didn't quite understand but knew better than to say she'll do it then not.
The air was stuffy around her and her eyes were a dark grey reflecting her annoyance at the heat. She knew she could make it rain but if Mchanga was using his abilities now when he wasn't beside her but in the vinicity of her it would ruin whatever he was doing and possibly put him in danger too. Something she would never dream of doing.


Mchanga had ran on ahead when he'd heard a slight commotion up ahead. He slowed greatly as he reached the opening and began prowling forward his head lowered. As the large male stepped into the opening he froze a little at the sight before him. Two lions, a snake and something which Mchanga couldn't quite identify. It looked like a lion but on closer inspection it looked like numerous animals put together into one. He decided to ignore what it was and wait for Tamu, she'd know doubt know what the unusual creature was. "Well this is a most unusual scene." He said, announcing his presence and walking into full sight, his brown mane falling into his eyes as he looked around. With an impatient huff he flicked his head upwards, pushing his mane away from his eyes.

[AtiyaTheSeeker]

Thankful that she was unraveled from the coils, Atiya scampered a few steps back regardless, hunched up in suspicion. "Thank you... for now. Still can't trust you so soon after being coiled like supper", she replied. With three other lions and some strange, cat-like being appearing before her, the lioness was glad to know she wouldn't be alone in this endeavor.

"...eh", she said, resuming a normal stance at the alien's words, "For a peculiar species, you have a point. But trust me", she said, glancing to the snake, "Try something funny, and you're ash. May as well be honest -- those fireballs were my own".

[Leto]

The newest arrival to their band was a brown maned lion, judging from its physique the krajiin assumed it was a male, he had been taught that the difference between male and female lions were amongst some of the easiest to determine; the male had a mane, the female didn’t, unfortunately more often than not he had also learned that this wasn’t always the case, indeed clearly the present female lion of this band had a mane as well, confusing but Lycurgus had grown accustomed to it… at least in part. “You can say that again.” The krajiin muttered hearing the newest arrival’s comment.

“I’ve seen a lot in my time lady, your display was nothing shocking.” Lycurgus retorted through a half-shrug, as the lioness stated how she was responsible for the fireballs. “If I did elect to try something, I wouldn’t be swinging my claws at your face… people tend to see that coming you know.” The krajiin hummed a low chuckle, he’d let the lionesses words pass even if he did consider it a threat; but then she had just been startled by a giant snake, and a whole slew of strangers had stepped out of the woods around her, even he would’ve been put off by that.

[Deleted]

The massive snake poked out her tongue at the scarf-wearing lioness and pulled a face. "Party pooper. Funny is what I do." Then she looked around. "Who are you all? Why are you all wandering through my foressst? And WHAT the heck are you?" She slithered up to the krajin, flicking out her tongue at him to collect scents.

[Deleted]

Kulaani turned to look at the new arrival, slightly curious at what this creature was. "Who and what are y...." He stopped when another lion appeared and he let out a low growl of annoyance. "Oh wonderful, let's just invite the entire rainforest here and have a party." The king and queen had told him that others were on this quest, but he thought it would only be one or two others. It didn't matter to him because he wasn't planning on locating them, he'd rather have done this alone but that doesn't appear to be happening now.

[Ruby_Fehu]

After a few moments, Tamu wandered onto the scene, she froze - slightly intimidated by the group. "Mchanga." She said slowly, going to his side. "What is going on?" She sent her gaze around pausing momentarily on the snake before finally landing on the unusual lion. She felt her jaw drop as she stepped forward, "You're a Krajiin. You're very rare creatures." She said with interest. "I'm Tamu seeing as you're all asking each other and this is Mchanga." She introduced her brother.



Mchanga looked at his sister in dismay, "How do you know what he is?" He asked, glancing down at her."
"I listened whenever father spoke of creatures like this." She replied smugly and he rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, anyway yes I am Mchanga and strangely enough I too can do skills like that what you did with the fireball." He said looking to the scarfed cat. "So can Tamu." He finished.

[Leto]

The bioluminescent felid was used to getting stared at, sometimes poked or even prodded given it was by a curious child. The snake eventually approached him the vernacular of her words though crude were rife with bewilderment, indeed even the male who had been present when Lycurgus came here almost repeated the snake’s question.

However before he could answer the inquiry another lioness appeared on the scene, stepping up next to the brown maned male, a couple perhaps? No more like siblings, a small smile curved at the edge of Lycurgus’ muzzle as the newest arrival confirmed what he was; the surprise on her face humored the former ambassador a little.

“Well there you have it.” the krajiin shrugged as the girl had answered the puzzled entourage’s questions.

“But we’re not rare miss, most of my kin just don’t like dry land much, I must admit part of me shares their sentiments.” He politely corrected her assumption, granted they weren’t many but they were nowhere near few of them either. Upon revealing that her father had told stories about his kin a small spark of curiosity arose in the krajiin, perhaps he’d inquire her about those stories later down the road. “I am Lycurgus or Lycur if my full name is too much of a mouthful.” He smirked, exhaling a breath though the air did not exit his mouth as normal instead small valve like slits opened on his chest and along the lower part of his ribs, closing as soon as the exhaled air was let out.

“Perhaps we should conclude rest of the introductions while on the move, at this rate we’d stand here until the fog creeps in and swallows us all.” Lycurgus’ proposed gaze trailing the thick forest, his posture was tense, alert.

[Deleted]

"Wait a minute. What's a krajiin? That doesn't answer anything. And what are you all doing here?" The snake thumped her tail with impatience, and extended her body out to block their path. "Thiss iss my home. It's only polite that you tell me before you go."

[Ruby_Fehu]

"My brother and I were just roaming when we came across all of you, we're no going in any particular direction." Tamu informed the snake.

[Deleted]

Kulanni turned his gaze from the krajiin to the large snake, eyes narrowed. "I don't have to tell you anything," He growled before turning his attention back to the krajiin. "and I am not following you anywhere. I don't play well with others and I don't intend to start now."

[AtiyaTheSeeker]

Raising a brow, Atiya felt the situation was getting more and more interesting by the second. Some kind of otherworldly creature? A massive snake making her home outside the Ruins? And this was without even finding the locale yet!

"Perhaps I can explain, then", she replied after a moment. "I came here myself to handle some kind of threat down in the ancient ruins not far from here. The King and Queen think that there is something within that is causing problems for us up on the surface..."

[Deleted]

The snake sneered at Kulaani before listening to the lioness. "I should have guesssed. A royal pawlicker, are you? Your king and queen think there are problemss within. What do you think? Or do you follow blindly?"