Winds Of Freedom; Journey To The Heart Of The Storm

[Fate III]

The light of Xelphis bathed across the lush landscape of the tropical land on the island. With such rich access to sunlight and constant rains, the island botany was exceptionally plush and teeming with life. The island was currently experiencing a thick cloak of humidity. This gave way to a healthy and prominent ecosystem that very well may not exist in other places on the island. Towering mushrooms the size of trees littered the expanse with an array of equally amazing foliage living beside them. Despite the tumultuous nature of the perennial storm that encompassed Rudral the weather itself was fairly regulated with periodic displays of natural fury, tornados, maelstroms, etc. Echos of the various native species could be heard in the thicket of the forest. A symphony of natural calls and roars. Whether they belonged to prey or predator mattered little, all here were a part of the cycle of life, and the trio that made their way through the verdant labyrinth were players in its game.

It had been about a day and a half since the party of Cass, Haylin, and Shabuto began their excursion deep into the heart of Rudral. The Seat of Azlan, the vestige of the island, The Storm Gods Shrine. So far the party had a fairly smooth time. Many of the native creatures were weary of the massive fowl alone and chose to stay their distance. Whether that would be the case for the more fearsome beast of the island had yet to be seen. The thick veil of humidity would soon break as the rumblings of water could be heard off in the distance.

[Haylin Gafren]

"Cass, you're my favorite person, you know that?"

Haylin patted Cass on his back and the bird squawked gently in response. Its head perched on a swivel, Cass had the luxury of the best eyes in the group and the most important job: Scout. A day and a half weren't too bad of a trip, Haylin and Cass seldom found themselves out in the wilds for more than an overnight anyway, goings on in the island rarely warranted a multi-night stay away from Erosia. But for this, an off-the-cuff-if-not-totally-bogus chance to make it off the island, the first he'd heard of in his whole stint stranded.

"I didn't know Azlan's place was gonna be so far out. I guess this island is a bit bigger than it lets on."

He didn't take much time mapping out the whole island, maybe he took a long excursion when he first arrived but finding Erosia was a blessing in the night. It didn't take a whole day of travel to even find trouble just outside of Erosia and it all seemed to find him and Cass there anyway, just like Shabuto.

"We still on track?"

[Shabuto Venkage]

"Cass, you're my favorite person, you know that?"

Said his companion while Shabuto trailed them from the tree above. His hearing was immaculate. So long as Haylin's words hit the air Shabuto would be able to hear them. It's a pretty nifty thing, being able to weave the ebb and flow of currents. As they made it through the thicket of mushrooms the forest created Shabuto found himself swinging vine to vine branch to branch with the occasional jump boost from the bouncy mushroom tops.

His vision was eagle-sharp, his chosen way of battle was the short bow after all. His direct sight was lethal and his peripheral was nothing to take lightly either.

"I didn't know Azlan's place was gonna be so far out. I guess this island is a bit bigger than it lets on."

"Been cramped up in Erosia's safety net for too long. When's the last time you've even seen the shore."

Shabuto supposed he was in some kind of oddly good mood. For the first time in ages, he was actually hopeful. He had no idea what to expect at the storm gods' shrine nor had he even encountered SEED before. For them to take two talented mercs like Mara and Zane however, they had to be adept. Strangely that thought alone made this journey more exhilarating to him. For the better part of three years, Shabuto has been from battlefield to battlefield, one mission to the next. He would be lying if he would say the thrill of battle had not become part of him. He was no fool though, this was one of the hearts of the enemy. The moment he failed to meet up with the contact when he first arrived here, the moment the seal given to him by Grixas lost power, at that moment his mission changed, instead of joining SEED and reporting their doings to his lord. He was now on his way to save his friends from their clutches and take a couple of the bastards down with them along the way.

"What am I thinking?"

He said as he continued to hop along the tree. The thrill of battle? He absolutely hated taking a life. Especially in the name of a man he wanted nothing to do with. Could he really deny it though? In the last few years, his heart was becoming increasingly more comfortable with killing. At first, he told himself it was only for survival. After a while though he knew it was more than that. Slowly he felt his lust for battle growing becoming more difficult to control. Ever since the day Grixas placed the living scar curse upon him. Now that it had been broken he found himself discovering the different ways having bursed blood was impacting him. It also scared the hell out of him to think about the many things he might've done under its influence. The many things he cannot remember.

I am not a tool of bloodshed. I want to be able to create. To fill the world with things that will make life better for people. Not stuff that will hurt them.

"We still on track?"

Haylin's voice snapped him back out of that train of thought. He slides vertically down a winding trunk before landing next to his companion. Taking the map out he opened before the group. Not knowing if Cass could understand things like this he learned to treat them as part of the fold. Hell hath no fury like fowl's scourn.

" According to the Map we're a little more than halfway there. Once we make it past the river we'll be only about 2 hours east of the Shrine"

He said as he traced his directions for them with his finger along the surface of the map. It was good they were nearing a water source, after traveling for a day and a half without too much rest they were just about due for a breather. Especially after traveling in this thick ass humidity. it didn't bother him at first, his homeland often had a similar climate. This heat felt...unnatural for some reason.

The thick veil of humidity would soon break as the rumblings of water could be heard off in the distance.

The winds caressed his skin gifting a slight wave of cool freshness. His nose twitched as he smelled the lightly murky smell of mud and water. His ears picked up on the sound of crashing water. They were right on the money.

"It's just over here, Follow me!"

He said taking off back up the tree he came down from with a rather impressive display of athleticism. From the flurry of the vine around him, he swang a small smirk of content on his face.

I...I get to choose who and what I want to be...he's not here to tell me otherwise. My fate....my fate is mine to choose.

[Haylin Gafren]

"I'm telling you there's nothing on this island I actually want to see. You piqued my interest because you came here with the intent of leaving again, I've heard a lot of liars back at Mara's promise people the same thing."

Haylin and Cass took no issue with living their days out in Erosia if that was their fate. As far as endings go, it wouldn't be how either of them wanted or expected things to go, but life had a way of changing very quickly. For all the risk involved with leaving Erosia, Haylin would rather keep himself and Cass alive than die getting lied to. Shabuto's situation just happened to be a special occasion.

"It's just over here, Follow me!"

"Like we'd do anything else at this point?"

They followed Shabuto up the tree, Cass gripping directly into the bark and walking up the side easily, and Haylin goes at it with both hands and feet, gripping into the bark like a bear, scaling the trunk with the seam ease he walks. They were outdoorsy people, Cass and he, and no tree was gonna stop them after 2 days in this wilderness.

[Fate III]

As the trio got closer to the sound of water the air became increasingly more cool. A testament that the map they were given was spot on more or less. Upon arriving the band of unlikely heroes would see the source of the river. The tall trees transitioned to a mixture of mushrooms and stone protrusions naturally decorated with other forms of colorful foliage the closer to the water they got. To anyone with a sense of natural energy, one could tell this place was thick with naten, the very stones themselves almost seemed to pulsate with touch. The most subtle sensations reverberated throughout the earth beneath their feet, should they find them touching the ground. As if the land itself was humming. The waters were aquamarine, pristine, almost more translucent than clear. The colors of the grass mirrored that of the various spectrums that stained the botany around them. Much could be said about the island that imprisons all on it. Despite its horrid nature the nature thriving on the island certainly was beautiful.

A series of smaller mushrooms their hue all a series of blue that seemed to faintly echo in and out of brightness. they arc around as if forming come kind of circle. How curious...

[Shabuto Venkage]

"Definitely not something you see everyday"

He thought as he caught sight of Cass using its staggering leg power the hike up the tree and traverse along the tops with Shabuto. Quite a thing to behold really and brought to question the lethality of their claws. To think of the many beasts they might have slain in order to survive this long 10 years they and Haykin had been trapped here. Shabuto could scarcely imagine what they must have gone through here. In the days that they had been aquatinted, he had come to observe a bit about Haylin. His understandably distrustful nature aside laid a genuine desire to see his homeland again. Although Shabuto could not share in the joy/pain of feeling homesick he understood very well the feelings that came with feeling like a prisoner, having all hope snatched away from you piece by piece. Over the last decade, how many attempts have he made to make it back home? How many times had he failed? Where along those experiences did he finally lose the will to try...to believe? Even that feeling...the moment the last drop of your hope becomes nothing but a void of acceptance. For the last 3 years, he had been absorbed in it. Until he came here...funny. While this place was a prison for Haylin Shabuto was realizing more and more that this place was actually a sanctuary.

Were it not for his promise to Zayne and Mara he might've actually considered staying. At least here he was free from the curse that bound him to Grixas. Here he had the luxury of choice, no longer forced to be satisfied with the mere illusion of it. For some reason deep within him if he did not leave this place something insidious awaited him. The vision granted to him by whatever force resided in Azlan warned him of something horrid that rested here. The vision admonished him to stay and stop whatever this blackness was, to save the children of Kalor and yet revealed nothing for certain as to how he was to accomplish any of it. He was not invested in the welfare of this place, he had no desire to become their savior.

They had arrived at the river, the breeze sent a wave of relaxation through Shabuto. It was welcomed for sure helping to release the tension that was casually building up inside him. He was nagged by skepticism of whether he would truly be able to deliver his promises, not only save his friends. Also not being made a liar about getting Haylin and Cass home. Part of him was starting to feel like he might be in over his head.

Your fate is to shape the very foundation of the cosmos itself.

The echos of that voice rang briefly in his head sending a tingling sensation through his body. Whatever this being was it believed in Shabuto, he had never really had any reason to believe in himself. He wasn't truly sure how to feel... one thing he did know though.

"I want to try...I must"

Nearing the brim of the river he dropped his small sack and rushed to the bank. Before taking a sip he caught his reflection in the waters. He cupped a little pool of it in his hands. His palms radiated a soft green light, a nifty spell his teacher gifted him. It allowed him to detect harmful substances in water and plants. Perks of being raised by a Venkage Druid.

"The water good to go guys!"

He said as the light faded and he took a drink. out the corner of his eye as he wiped the fluid from his lips. He noticed the faint glow in the near distance. What was it?

[Haylin Gafren]

Hamlin and Cass burst through the leaves and landed gently a little behind Shabuto. After clearing the water for drink, Hamlin yawned as he pulled up to the bank. He caught a glimpse of a faint glow off of Shabuto’s hands before he took a sip and grew curious.

“What’s with the glow? You got a water filter in them fingers?” He asked jokingly Hamlin came with his own clutch of water he and Cass shared. He dispensed some to Cass who sipped readily.Both Hamlin and Cass scanned their surroundings, unsure of their new surroundings. They didn’t recognize many of the plants in this area, save for the larger trees and ferns that made up most of what Haylin assumed to be the dominant flora in the island. IT was peaceful here, uncannily so. It was probably the river, flowing water adds a sense of calm to any scene.

“Y’know, this island wouldn’t be too bad if you weren’t always at risk of finding a bad way.”

Cass leaned over and checked its reflection in the river’s surface. Haylin didn’t want to get too loose, they were too far away from Erosia to make a convenient trip back, they needed to.stay vigilant.

[Shabuto Venkage]

“What’s with the glow? You got a water filter in them fingers?”

Shabuto smirked coyly at the remark. It quite honestly wasn't too far off from the truth of it actually. Much of what Shabuto knew about surviving in the wild was largely due to his upbringing. A land of veritable chaos that very much was woven into the landscape. Jagged peaks and fearsome denizens of nature riddled the lands he was from. Everything had the potential to be dangerous if approached wrong. That was a fact of life in general. A lioness is a ferocious hunter and will slay gods in order to provide for the young. Yet her ferocity is born from a place of love and loyalty. So much of his younger life he spent cursing those very lands until he met the Hermit. Who showed him that beauty and art existed in all things. Even a land as ferociously turbulent as his homeland was a fragment of a tapestry that spanned infinitely into the cosmos.

"Heh actually you're not too far off the money there. I was raised by a Druid."

Shabuto said gazing around them. His peripheral never truly ignored the faint glow in the distance. He never really had the inclination to share about his home before the Nightmare Wolves. Even among his party only Mara ever really opened up about her life before her kingdom was razed. They thought were due for a breather and he was also curious about Haylin's homeland.

"Mean ole bastard, constantly belittled me and put me through a crucible most of my life...for a long time I resented him."

He grabbed at 1 of the 2 medallions he wore around his neck. One that Benva gave him that supposedly absorbed moonlight in order to starve the dark aura of his Staff. The second belonged to the Hermit, whose name he still didn't know. He held it up in the light his face became enveloped in a soft greenish-blue hue.

" Hell, still do"

After all, he gave him away to the Nightmare Wolves, he had no memory of his life before he found himself in the man"Care". He let the heirloom fall from his grip.

"Still, he's the closest thing to a parent I can remember.

He said as he took out a cantine and filled it to the brim with water.

"He practically beat survival into me. Taught me many things that connected me to the world around me while teaching me to separate myself from it at the same time. He taught me a fair amount of his drudic arts. The law of killed or be killed. Always telling me I needed to be strong, to be able to handle myself after he was gone...I thought he meant when he eventually kicked the bucket...not from, well."

Shabuto found his expression shifting into a more somber one. Every time he tried to remember his life before it was like a thick murky black was preventing him from reaching them. He always felt like his staff had something to do with this, but still so much about it was unknown. But Beneva seemed to know something that brought to question, was this artifact from the archipelagos? Or was Rudral it's original home? Just when he had that thought the staff hummed slightly, a single but pervasive sensation that went down Shabuto's spine. He shivered reaching for it and laying the wrapped staff before him staring at it.

It started when I found this thing... that's when he began to change. That was when he started to teach me to control my abilities and hone my skills. Years we bleed as we trained fought and survived. The day my training was completed, was the last day I saw him...or my home..."

[Haylin Gafren]

“Sounds rough, buddy.”

The Tribes celebrated their rites of passage, congratulating them on acquiring their own cassowary and throwing a feast in their honor. Although he didn’t make it back for his own, Haylin fondly remembered the festivals of of his brothers and sisters, parties dancing long into the night and celebrations spanning days. The thought of returning home flushed him with warmth.

He reached down and took a drink with Cass, a quick swig slaking his thirst.

“You don’t have any other family out there? They might be looking for you at this point.”

In Haylin’s case, he left and wasn’t meant to return until he tamed one off Cass’s kin, so they could have presumed him dead or failed, but they’d always welcome him back. He hurt hearing Shabuto’s circumstances, but once they got off the island he could get back home if he wanted. It was a win-win. It seemed the first step had something to do with the staff in front of them.

“You ever figure it what it’s for?”

[Shabuto Venkage]

“You don’t have any other family out there? They might be looking for you at this point.”

Shabuto's brow furrowed in frustration. Not that he was frustrated with Haylin but more so with the fact that he genuinely could not remember his life before the Druid. Grixas made sure of this. After all, how can you hope to return to a life of freedom that you cannot recall? What use would the notion of autonomy be with no place to return? It was used as a means to erase tethers to life before the Nightmare wolves. He was only allowed to keep his knowledge of the Druid because of the many things he taught him that Grixas saw innate value in. Anything aside from that Shabuto could not recall...not even how he came upon the staff itself let alone the "pact" that the thing kept whispering in his mind. All Shabuto had ever known was darkness. The only luminance was the brief flashes of lightning crackling across the sky. A perennial storm, never-ending tempestuous conflict. The only joy that Shabuto truly felt was crafting. During training, he got to experiment and create a litany of things. The one thing his father encouraged and praised him for. To know now that he only did so to prepare Shabuto for his life in warfare...

" No..."

His response was a bit mordant. He tried to contain the stinging pain associated with the often overwhelming sensations of loss embedded within him. Perhaps that is another reason he felt so connected to this place. It reminded him so much of the only bit of life he ever experienced. Though those days were tough there were also moments of what he thought were happiness. The day the old man called him by his name. The day he cooked a whole spread of dishes for Shabuto's birthday. The one who raised him was often a cruel cynical soul and yet...when Shabuto left him and he told Shabuto he was like a son to him it released something in him. For the first time in his life, he felt something that he had only heard of in novels...love. But now...

"The druid sold me out, he was killed right before I was taken. My Lord, no, Grixas, wanted me to know there was no one in the world coming to save me that there was no need to dream... to hope. All that I ever could imagine would soon be blanketed in a thick veil of black. A void of joy, aspiration...his void."

As he said that he touched the scar on his inner right forearm. Marking like that of a wolf's claw scraping the flesh.

“You ever figure it what it’s for?”

He stared at it intensely glaring even. A weapon crafted from something insidious. Day and night Shabuto felt the lulling pull of it's inivation to darkness...it's sway to chaos. Encouraging him to remember a pact. With whom or what however he couldn't recall.

"Not a clue... can't even recall picking up the damned thing. Beneva though, the witch who lives in a hut just on the outskirts of Erosia seemed to know of it... real talk she is the one who told me about the way of the islands. Something she said was that because I had this staff I would be the only one capable of doing so."

He grabbed it holding it towards the swaying sun, if Shabuto listened closely it almost seemed like the thing was hissing in reaction to the direct sunlight. His eyes widened before placing it back on. It must've sounded crazy to Haylin. That Shabuto would place his trust in a woman he'd never met before. More than anyone on this rock. Shabuto though was also going off something else...something he had not shared with anyone, not even his guild.

"This ring though...I crafted it from my very bone, whether she intended to stab me in the back or not was irrelevant to me. This ring will respond to my wishes...my dreams. And right now, there is no stronger emotion nor thought in my body than saving my guild members. My friends..."

There was no one waiting for Shabuto off this island. Though, that did not leave him entirely alone in the dark. His guiding lights the constellations in his bleak night sky. Everything he cared for was on this island. To fulfill his promise to them he would tear SEED in twain.