Gates and Monsters for Daring Adventurers [Open]

[GIR]

Though the fire-mage's words did not reach the ears of the human puppet, and were too distorted by the limits of the pet puppet's brain's ability to make sense of them beyond the simple meaning of aggression, the flow of the human's magics suggested the whispered words were a threat, a hypothesis aided by the slight quickening of the novice mage's magics, as well as the nasty look she shot the fire-mage. A confirmation as good as any confession of the Wyrm's suspicion that the two had bad blood between them. Triggering that bad blood would be essential to removing the threat the fire-mage posed, for even a momentary distraction would be advantage enough. Equally confirmed was its suspicion that the male would keep the peace. The male needed to be dealt with first, that much was certain.

"I'm sorry... I must have interrupted something. Caylee, we should go.", the human puppet was made to say, despite leaving being the last thing the Wyrm wanted. The dog, meanwhile, was made to go straight to the smallest human and pounce at her, testing her reaction time, speed, and strength, and hopefully catching her scent under the pretense of being a playful puppy, something the animal's mind had still vaguely remembered. "Caylee, NO!", the human puppet was made to shout as she was made to run to stop the dog puppet.

[paganchick]

Madaline glared back at Tara, fully convinced she could take the girl. She was more than simply convinced, she was all but certain she could take the girl. Or course she would probably do better with a little distance considering she lacked a sword, still she didn't doubt herself that if it came down to it, she would win.

Madaline's eyes then moved to the girl who barged in. She couldn't put her finger on it but there was something off about the girl. She let her eyes examine the girl very closely, if the slightest this was off she would notice.

"Hey, you're the new attractive man with his shirt off," She said, moving her gaze from the girl and her pet only long enough to wink at Iedomee before her eyes returned to the duo that had barged in. "Got no one to blame but yourself."

[SuperMachinegun]

Lu, being very inexperience with anything to do with quick reactions, had no choice but to be pounce upon by the pup. She played around the little canine as Helos sniffed the dog thoroughly. "He's adorable!" Lu laughed as she stroked the dog through its fluffy fur. She was in glee playing with Caylee, that was until her vision shifted to a dark cave.

The cold air sank down as feathery whisps crawling on the ice-coated ground of the cave. The faint glow of the gate caught her sight. Just as her vision was ending she saw a reptile-like creature slithering amongst the ice. It looked right at her and her vision ended.

She loosened her pats on the dog and crawled back from it. Helos seemed to understand that Lu was troubled and nuzzled his snout next to her face.

Iedomee however was taken aback by Madaline's shift in her mood. All of a sudden she's called him attractive. Iedomee did not really know how to respond to that. "Umm, thanks I guess." He was still sensing something off from the girl that walked in. there was something peculiar about her. She looked like anyone from the village but there was something going on with her.

[GIR]

The Wyrm continued to observe the humans, making a note of the fire mage's suspicious expression. As it did, it could sense a distortion in the magic near the place where it had entered the world, and surfaced to meet the threat, sensing no minds there. As the currents of magic grew stronger, the Wyrm began to see the similarities between it and the smallest human's magics, and looked directly at the source. 'Vision magic, perhaps', one of the Karmid fragments mused in its own ancient tongue.

The Wyrm was puzzled at the new development. The fire mage had first been angry at the novice, then, according to the human fragments, her face became an expression of suspicion. That was expected. What was not was the sudden decision to attempt to attract the male. It was a brief pause, but enough to distract the serpent, causing the puppets to briefly 'freeze' in place as it mulled over the odd action. Suspicious humans did not just stop to attract a mate, the fragments seemed to agree. Perhaps it was a less direct attack on the novice mage? The Wyrm returned its attention to the puppets and resumed the dog's 'playing' and the human's attempts to regain control of the dog.

The decision was made immediately. The smallest human had seen the Wyrm, which meant the puppets could not afford to remain much longer, to speak nothing of the fire mage's suspicion. Slowly, so as to make the dog seem reluctant, the Wyrm made the dog puppet allow herself to be pulled off of the smallest human. "Come on, Caylee. We're going home.", the human puppet was made to say, "I'm sorry again for bothering you.".

[paganchick]

Madaline crossed her arms, waiting in silence until the two left before she began to speak.
"I think we were just spied upon, did you see how both just froze. It was a brief moment yes, but it wasn't right. There are only a few magics that could do that," Madaline looked at Lu.

"Did you see their eyes, they were facing you," She asked, her voice sweet and kind. Then she turned to Iedomee, taking a step closer to him, completely ignoring Tara.
"Earlier I never said I didn't find you attractive, I only said I wasn't whoring around, there is a difference," Madaline said with a sweet smile.

[SuperMachinegun]

Lu did not know how to reply to Madaline, she was still shaken up by what she saw. The image of the sinister eyes of the creature bore itself in her mind. with every blink it seemed as if the eyes were getting more real and real.

With what Madaline just said, Iedomee clearly knew she was just trying to get to Tara's nerves. At least the two weren't trying to fry each other now. He looked at her smiling. Then at Tara who was completely ignoring the two of them, the scowl on her face was so obvious.

"Lu, let's go," Tara called to her. "It looks like we're interrupting Iedomee's flirt session."

"It's not what you think, I wasn't--"

"Whatever, Iedomeee! I'm not the boss of you. So you just keep doing what you like. But just so you know we're leaving this town first thing in the morning! I already got us two rooms for the night. Come on, Lu."

Lu ran to Tara and grabbed her hand. She turned back to Iedomee. He knew very well what she needed to say from her expression. There was an open gate nearby, and it clearly scared Lu. With that Tara shut the door as loud as she can.

Iedomee sighed and proceeded to stack the buckets that lay around. "Just tolerate Tara for a while. She's a really nice person if you got to know her." he said to Madaline hoping to lighten things up between the two.

[paganchick]

Madaline kept the gentle smile on her face as Tara had her little fit. She, if anything, was jealous. It was so obvious that she had a thing for Iedomee.

"As long as she doesn't think you have a thing for the guy she is crushing on that is," Madaline replied as she started to help Iedomee pick up the buckets. She had thoroughly enjoyed ticking Tara off, it was rather fun. The girl was so jealous, envy was practically radiating off of her.

[GIR]

The Wyrm had scarcely walked the puppets down the street when the door's slamming alerted it to the departure of the novice and the smallest. In it, it sensed an opportunity, but the current puppet's cover was already as good as blown. No, if it was to take advantage of the information it had received, a new puppet was needed, one which could get closer to the group, for there was no longer any mistake to be made: The group was definitely a threat, and all of the fragments agreed that removing that threat was now the only acceptable course of action. Both puppets were made to return to the cave. While they had outlived their usefulness as spies, the Wyrm saw, perhaps, other uses, for after the threat of the smallest human had been dealt with.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the puppets returned, the gate brought forth more of Draconis's wildlife in the form of two kahur-koored, tortoise-like beasts with snow-colored shells, capable of magically forming and firing large pearls from their mouths, like mass accelerator cannons made out of tortoise shells, and a shadow wolf, a large wolf-like beast which, when provoked, could create a cloud of fog darker than any shadow around itself, leading to many humans to refer to them as 'dark clouds with teeth'. This was perfect. The Wyrm quickly overtook the minds of the creatures, making them puppets in no time. Back in its original territory, it had devoured more than enough of the creatures to no longer care about what knowledge their minds held, and the Wyrm saw little need to make them act like themselves in so obviously different a territory. The task of obtaining new puppets as complete as it could be, for the moment, the Wyrm sent the human puppet to the cave's entrance to act as bait, then settled in for a nice, light nap, leaving only a small portion of its mind alert to maintain control and awareness of the puppets.

[SuperMachinegun]

Iedomee returned a little laugh as he and Madaline fixed the place up. The sun had almost set when they finished and left Helos inside the stable. The girls around the stable were gone and lamps were being lit in preparation for the night.

Iedomee thanked Madaline for her help as they parted ways in town. He headed for the inn where Tara and Lu were. There they were having an early dinner. A bowl of soup was set aside for him in front of an empty third seat. Tara was still snobbish and continued to eat her soup.

"Lu," Iedomee whispered discreetly. "Did you see another gate?"

"Yeah," She replied queasily.

"Madaline told me about a cave. We should see it. If ever it is open, we need to seal it before anymore monsters get in. We leave at night when everyone's asleep. Okay?" Iedomee told them, still whispering as he took a spoonful of soup. They both nodded. Just like most of the guests, they went into their rooms to rest. Hopefully everything goes smoothly, but knowing their luck, Iedomee prepared for the worst and set up his equipment as Tara and Lu slept in the next room.

((OOC: Aright that finishes this thread! Now onto the next!))

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