paixaorpg | Not My Forest… [Complete]

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Not My Forest… [Complete]

Character(s): Aisling and whomever would like to stumble across her.
Content: Aisling arrives in Paixao.
Setting: The vicinity of Muspelheim
Time: Dusk
Warnings: Annoying little fairy-wolf thing ;)

Aisling blinked. A moment ago, the white wolf’s forest had been illuminated with a flash of lightning, but when the blinding light faded, Aisling found herself in front of a pair of gates unlike any she’d seen. Kell’s gates had been crafted from slain trees. These were made of gold… And the metal was pulled into flame-like points.

Though the blonde man standing at the gates looked nothing like a Viking, the gates still reminded her of the Northmen, the ones who had driven her friend away. Flames were always left in their wake, and gold was their only goal. The wolf’s green eyes widened, her ears tilting back… when she heard a crunch behind her. She spun around, only to find others behind her, all in a line. This wasn’t her forest, and she didn’t know what to think of these people.

Aisling growled at the strangers but rather than attack, she turned and fled, nearly bowling over the man guarding the gates. Aisling leaped lightly over the strange, rectangular thing he had been holding out to her as it skittered across the ground and continued running with a howl until she felt she was far enough from the others to be safe. Only then did her pace slow to a walk.

Silent as wind, her sleek, pale body slipped through the city streets like a mist. Her paws left hardly a mark on the cobblestones, and her long tail practically swept away any hint of a footprint she left. The wolf’s eyes glowed almost eerily in the dimmer spots, and as the cobbled streets passed under her, she began looking more and more from side to side, as if desperate to find something.

Aisling knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong with this place. There were creatures about, though unfamiliar, and yet there were no plants. None at all. The sky itself, while twinkling with stars, lacked the depth her sky had —This one was fake.

It was all fake.

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Sheik had only been in the strange city a few minutes before the white wolf arrived. She had stopped only a moment, out of sight, to organize her thoughts, form some kind of plan before going further in. But the sudden disturbance at the gate grabbed her attention, as bystanders clamored to get out of the creature's path.

Intrigued, she watched it a moment, then put away the small device she'd been given and began to follow.

She tailed the wolf at a distance - not as comfortable a distance as she would have liked, but any further back and she would lose it in the streets - for several minutes before it slowed. Sheik matched its pace. Seeing it up close reinforced her first impression, that this creature was something more than a wolf, and if that was so - well.

She closed the distance a little, just enough to let it notice her presence, although her footsteps remained as silent as before. Beyond that, she would let the wolf make the first move.

The wolf turned her head, enough to glance over her shoulder at the stranger. This… person, dressed nothing like those she’d seen in Kells. Her ears titled back, listening for footsteps… humans were always so loud after all. However, she scarcely heard much more than the occasional whisper of fabric over the noise the rest of this place made.

In the flash of an instant, the wolf crouched, then shot straight upward! Yet, she seemed hardly a wolf at all! Long, silver hair trailed behind her form, and delicate hands grasped the ornate, Victorian details on the walls as she scaled the nearest building. A moment later, a girl far smaller than the wolf perched on the rooftop, before crouching, hiding all but her eyes.

A high, youthful voice called out. “Who are you?”

Sheik remained where she was, peering up after the wolf-turned-girl as she climbed to the roof. So she'd been right about that, at least. Magical creatures were notoriously fickle, but maybe if this went well, she'd have an ally in the short term.

"My name is Sheik," she called upward, not unduly loud. "Who are you?"

Aisling titled her head, silver strands of hair rolling off her shoulders and onto the roof. However, in response to the question, the girl merely giggled. She stood, then hopped into the air, flipping into an aerial summersault before landing lightly on her feet back on street level. She was short, her hair resting on the ground behind her.

"What kind of place is this?" She made a grand gesture with her hands. "Where are the trees?"

No name, then? Ordinarily it wouldn't have mattered, since technically, Sheik hadn't given her real name, either. But it was important, here, to place herself on an equal footing with the girl, and that meant laying down a few basic conditions.

"If I'm to answer your questions, then you must answer mine as well," she replied, folding her arms across her chest.

The girl frowned, her dark, feral eyebrows drawing closer together. There were a few moments of silence as she stood with her arms folded in front of her chest, before she closed her eyes and tilted her head up toward Sheik.

“Aisling.” She replied simply, before opening her eyes and lifting one eyebrow.

There we are. Now that that was established, they could move on. Sheik let her hands return to her sides, one of them resting lightly on her hip. "This is a city known as Paixao," she said, in answer to Aisling's second question. "I've been here only a short time myself, so I know little more than that. As for trees, I've yet to see any."

There was no point in pretending she had more information than she really did, or in offering some theory without any proof. If nothing else, it would shorten the time they had to spend on fruitless questions.

At any rate, it was her turn to ask. "Now. What sort of being are you, and how did you come here?" she said, voice still level. (Two questions for two questions - a fair trade.)

“What kind of place has no trees?” The question was likely rhetorical, but her tone of voice was rather disapproving. Aisling then zipped to the other side of the street, and back up a building she went, perching on a ledge to get a better view. But there was nothing to see, and there was no scent of plantlife in the air.

However, when Sheik spoke up again, Aisling hooked her feet into some of the deep, ornate details carved into the ledge she was crouching upon, and swung so she was hanging upside-down, yet still looking at Sheik. “These days they call people like me ‘fairies.’ Everyone knows that!” She then titled her head, her hair hanging down. “And… I don’t know how I got here. But I’d be a lot happier in my forest.”

A forest fairy? That was unexpected. Needless to say, Aisling was a far cry from the tiny, winged fairies Sheik was familiar with. She filed that information away, with a mental note to return to it later.

The story, short though it was, matched up with her own experience. Suddenly finding oneself in a strange place was definitely abnormal, yet here they were, two very different creatures, both arriving mysteriously within minutes of each other. Which could mean neither of them had been targeted specifically. ("Could", not "did.")

"Your forest? Which forest is that?" she asked, almost conversationally.

“Which one? Only the best one!” Aisling hopped down right in front of Sheik, looking up at the figure that practically towered before her. Something about the stranger’s scent seemed off to Aisling; It didn’t match what she saw. But, Aisling was too busy discussing more important matters.

“The trees reach almost to the sky,” The fairy threw her hands upwards, palms up. “And the water’s clear as a crystal.” As she spoke, Aisling slipped a little farther away in a curving line, her long hair trailing fluidly behind her.

Aisling then turned to look over her shoulder. “Of course, the mists hide it from those who would want to spoil it.”

A moment later, Aisling found a new perch halfway up a building, sitting like a dove in a tree. “And where do you live? A city like Kells?”

Sheik's first instinct was not to answer. But the deal was a question for a question, after all, and she had to hold up her end of it, too.

"I don't live anywhere," she said, after a moment's deliberation. "My homeland is called Hyrule, but I go where I am needed, as it suits me."

She had lived near a city, once, but the Castle Town couldn't be called a city anymore, not while Ganondorf and his army of abominations still occupied it. At least Aisling's forest, hidden in the mists, didn't seem to have felt his dark influence. Somehow it lay outside his reach.

... Why was that?

"Hyrule." She thought on it a moment, then shrugged. "Never heard of it." Then, Aisling hopped to a little balcony, closer to the curved celing of the street. If she'd not heard of such a place, that meant it wasn't close enough to her forest to be a problem. But also meant this person couldn't help her get back to it.

But that lead Aisling to wonder just what kind of person Sheik could be. The stranger wasn't dressed like a monk, northman, or a typical wanderer. Aisling titled her head a bit, wondering if it was worth her time to ask...

Sheik watched the fairy-girl in silence, pausing a moment to think. Logically it had to be a matter of distance. She had never heard of Aisling's home, nor had Aisling heard of hers, and neither of them, before today, had heard of a domed city called Paixao. Probably, then, all of them were very far from each other, and possibly in time as well as space, but that raised more questions than it answered.

"Hm." After a little while, she spoke up again. "Maybe we can help one another, Aisling."

Aisling dropped off of her perch and back onto the street. She never stood still for very long, flitting from place to place. "Well... I guess so." She agreed, with a small smile. "But only until I can get back to my forest." She used her thumb to point at herself as she spoke, then flipped backwards, landing in a crouch.

"Maybe we can find someplace here with no ceiling... Then we can get a better idea of where we are! C'mon!" Aisling then took off a few feet down the street. She ran gracefully on her hands and feet, yet was still shaped like a girl. After a moment, she hesitated, looking over her shoulder.

That was that, then. For the moment, at least, Sheik had her ally, and together they had a direction, if not a concrete goal. And for the moment, that was enough. Once she knew more about this place, then she could start piecing together a real plan, whatever that would turn out to be. Anything to keep from standing still.

Aisling was looking back at her now, waiting. Sheik gave her a quick nod, then followed after her, silently matching her speed.

Yes. First, let's see about finding the sky.

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Not My Forest… [Complete]

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