Charison kills a Forgotten Mindspawn, terrified of the night, only has fire to protect him.
Charison's ego was inflated, he had slain his first monster. He lased out on the dwarven cat and created a fire construct more powerful than anything he had ever created. He felt good. The young fire elf could see a silouette of a large city towards the sunset. With dusk approaching, Charision decided to rest for the night.
A fire for warmth was easy to manage, shelter was a bit more difficult. Fire elves are not the strongest of the Galfin races, the elves from the Firefang Jags used natural outcrops and caves to from their houses. Charison was in the middle of a small forest, very far from his comfort of home.
The night remained quiet as Chaison sat by his fire, looking over his shoulder frequently. The brave elf would never admit it but he was scared. A subtle purple glow could be seen from behind some distant trees. His young mind was running rampant with what could be watching him at that moment. His imagination had gotten the better of him as he watched the faint glow get brighter. And small sound from an insect to the wind caused Charison to jump. The glow continued to creep closer to the elf. Charison formed a small fireball in his hands and prepared himslef for an attack.
The creature emerged from behind a tree. The twisted humanoid had grey skin and elongated limbs, it stood around 4 heads tall. It's giant, black eyes blankly stared at Charison as it slowly moved closer. The creature's transparent skull held a purple crystal that was creating the glow.
Charison enlarged the fire balls in his hands. The tattoos on the elf's leg started shining bright orange. A snake-like trail of fire spiralled around Charison's arms and formed gauntlets made of fire. The grey creature realized that this strange creature he was stalking was about to attack and panicked. A wave of psionic enrgy emanated from the purple crystal in the small creature's skull. Charison leaped over the wave and rolled towards the terrified, grey monster. With one swift fiery punch, the creature layed dead on the ground.
Charison was not proud of this battle. The elf killed this monster out of fear not bravery. Charisonn was still alone. He was still afraid. He had no idea how long it would take him to fall asleep on this dark night.
Penoir uses leaf from a Softbirch tree to throw his voice and calm Charison down, builds shelter in hillside, Join up
Chapter 14 - The Understanding
It was as black as coal and getting colder. Wind whistled through the trees to create fake sounds of others in the small forest. Penoit the plain dwarf was not equipped to survive in the woods. He had only intended this to be a day's trip to see the master wizard but burying the dwarven cat had set his plans back. The plain dwarves had built their homes with their bare hands. Using rock and mud to create livable homes for centuries. If only Penoir had brought a lanturn to let him see what he was doing. Better yet, he would use the flame to start a fire since a Coolbreeze night was not to be taken lightly in the Great Plateau province. As Penoir Nettlehut's large boots crushed the twigs under his feet, he saw a distant orange glow flickering beyonf some trees. Penoir did not want to run into the impulsive fire elf that killed the dwarven cat so he began to tread with caution. Not knowing if the elf was friend or foe, Penoir prepared himself for a scuffle with the elf.
As he slowly approached the person by the fire, he saw the pale-green hued skin of the fire elves on the frightened youth. The elf was clearly on edge, he had fireballs readied in his hand and was looking nervously around. Penoir did not want to get torched by this terrified, impulsive boy. It was amazing how a race could have so much power at their disposal and not be fully trained how to control it.
Penoir had no formal schooling but knew enough about nature to get by. Penoir reached up and ripped a cone shaped leaf from the tree above him. This was a softbirch leaf. Using an old rangers's trick he learned years ago, Penoir Nettlehut was able to throw his voice in which ever direction the cone pointed.
"Be wise, young elf." Penoir whispered to the left of the fire elf.
The plain dwarf's deep voice frightened the elf. In the opposite direction of Penoir, the young elf blasted one of his fire balls. A bush was now aflame.
"I'm not here to harm you, just want to come to an understanding." The dwarf said in a fatherly tone. Penoir was starting to realize that this wasn't some elf that wanted to create destruction. He was just young and had a lot of power to handle. The elf was frantically looking around as the voice was coming from all directions.
"Show yourself!" The elf bellowed.
As Penoir slowly walked into the light, the elf's face went from terror to relieved to smirking.
"Well. You're kind of short" The elf pointed out.
"I'm a dwarf, what were you expecting?" Penoir chuckled.
"You had a voice that was deep, I thought your race had squeaky voices," The elf seemed honestly curious, even though he came off rude.
"That would be gnomes my young friend. Do you not get out much? I mean, I haven't seen many fire elves in my years, and that would be a lot of years." Penoir sat down next to the fire, warming his hands up.
"The Flame Master doesn't really like it when we leave the Jags." the fire elf sat down near Penoir, happiness was showing on his face. He clearly did not want to be alone.
"The Flame Master, eh? Seems like kind of a dumb title." Penoir chuckled to himself. The tattoo on the fire elf's leg started to glow. Penoir took an interest in this as the elf got more angry.
"You take that back!" The elf changed emotons very fast.
"Simmer down, young one. We're all friends here." Penoir jokingly put his hands up. The elf calmed quickly.
"I guess its true what people say about a fire elf's temper. Some rumors are yet to be seen. I have been told that your hair sets on fire when you get angry. I have also heard that there is nothing more brave than a fire elf warrior, you seemed outright terrified of me." Penoir looked over at the young elf.
"I wasn't scared. There is a difference between fear and being battleready. Not that you would know anything about that, Dwarf." The elf said bluntly.
"That must be true because that bush you set on fire seemed like a real battle threat. Also, my name is not dwarf. It is Penoir Nettlehut. Happy to meet you, young fire head." the dwarf farmer responded.
"Fire elf hair isn't actually made of fire." The elf snapped back.
"Fire head was refering to your temper, not your hair style." Penoir smiled at the elf.
"It's Charison." the fire elf mumbled as he looked into the flames.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Charison." Penoir was now looking into the fire.
"I think we could help eachother out." Penoir continued.
"It will way too cold tonight for me to fall asleep and you are way to on edge to do the same. If you allow me to stay by your fire, I could grab some rocks from that mound over there and build a quick but funtioinal shelter. I mean, a wall is at least better than sitting here with your back exposed. Charison glanced over at the dwarf. He knew the old man was right. Penoir continued.
"If dwarves are good at anything, it's building and farming. Now since I don't see my crop anywhere near me, that must mean I have some building to do." Penoir lit a stick as a torch and started walking towards the rocks.
Charison seemed less stressed now that he had a companion to last teh night with. As they both layed their staring at the stars, each discussed why they were wandering the Great Plateau in the middle of the night. Charison had no real goal yet and offered to aid Penoir in clearing his name and finding the antidote for Beruka. Both of the new allies fell asleep with warmth and a shelter.
