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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2015 21:00:44 GMT -8
Located just east of the City, the Valley of the Kings is said to be the resting place of ancient Kings of Gaiaton before it was ever called Gaiaton. It was said that the custom of the Kings was to begin building their resting place in a mountain as soon as their crown touched their foreheads, for it would take a long time to make the labyrinth of rooms and halls as beautiful as fit a King in death.
They lined them with gold and wealth, and booby trapped all of it so that they may rest in peace. It is rumored that each King of Gaiaton had their Magus create a unique guardian for each mountain, to make sure their tombs were never disturbed.
Is any of this real? It's hard to say. Many go into the Valley of the Kings and never come back out again, but that might be because of the Living Jungle itself.
Or, perhaps, it's the monstrous guardians themselves... |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2015 18:44:19 GMT -8
Rafaela was moving quickly, quickly, she had to push herself to go faster, faster! Lives were depending on her. Her breasts were rising and falling with the labor of her breathing, sweat over her skin both from how quickly she was moving and with the sultriness of the dark jungle surrounding her.
She kept moving, kept moving until she cried out and barely reached out to grab a branch in time as she suddenly DROPPED as she'd burst through a thicket of leaves. A deep, lush, emerald ravine was beneath her, vines crawling up the mountainside. In fact, what she was hanging onto was a vine that had crawled UP the mountainside, and her weight, lithe though it may be, made it creak as it bent away from the rock, making her drop a few more inches.
She couldn't let go of the statue, however, and found she was in a serious pickle...
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 1, 2015 19:24:12 GMT -8
He kept up with her, it was easy because he did not have to move as fast since he was keeping his distance and staying out of sight. He was slightly taxed however, but soon he noticed the landscape changing. He was moving upon her when he heard a strangled cry and saw her suddenly hanging precariously over the valley. He sighed and walked up to her. "Well..." he said in a matter of fact tone. "Fancy meeting you here... Looks like you could use some help..." he said his arms folded as he looked at her. "Though knowing why you are in this situation to begin with might be the condition of that help..."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2015 19:35:04 GMT -8
The vine gave way a little more, and it made her stomach muscles clench. She looked down and around, her boot tips carefully searching for purchase along the cliff wall she was hanging against.
When she heard Fenris' voice, for a moment she wondered if she'd be better off dead.
"No, no, please," Rafaela said from down below him, dropping a few more inches, crying out and pressing herself against the wall. She tucked the statue beneath her chin, pressing it to the very top of her sternum. "Don't mind me."
With her free hand she searched for another vine, this one more anchored into the cliff-face as it had crawled from above and only felt marginally better.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 1, 2015 20:05:32 GMT -8
He saw his little play was not gonna work and he sighed. "You know you're one icy fucking bitch..." he said as the screams from town told him something had happened, and time was of the essence. She was obviously trying to set things right, but she was chasing her tail in her haste to do so. His men would come to aid the city however. He fell to his stomach. "You obviously are in trouble here, and more is at stake than your ego, you need to let me help you..." he said opening his hand, making sure to grip a root in case this silver haired fox sought too do anything tricky.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 12:09:20 GMT -8
Her leather-wrapped hand fell into Fenris' touch, and she reached a little higher to grip him around the wrist and forearm. "Can you berate me later? I'm concentrating," she quipped back at him with a bunch of snark. With his help, she managed to crawl up from the cliff side and onto its edge, immediately dropping the golden statue from her chin and to her hand.
She then quickly put distance between them. She could also hear the screams from the city, which is what had hastened her in the first place. "You're a nosy stalker, and I don't like you," Rafaela said quiet frankly to him, the cocky thief-for-hire taking him in. "But I want to help Gaiaton, and so do you. I stole this," she held up the statue, "from one of those tombs. Coincidentally, the beasts started attacking. I think the myths are true, and I'm trying to return it."
It wasn't much information, but it was at least some.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 6, 2015 21:12:52 GMT -8
"Don't flatter yourself." he told her as he helped her up, his tone impatient. " I have my own reasons to help, and you just so happen to be the key to that." he told her his arms crossed. He did not comment on her brief explanation and simply gestured forward. "After you..." he told her, since he did not know the way. The screams from town got him anxious, he hoped his men handled it, though he had a feeling things would be bad no matter what at this rate. If only he knew how bad, and what Robert had told the townspeople before the attack.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 23:22:03 GMT -8
She shot him a look from over her shoulder as she turned away from him and walked the edge of the cliffside, her stride confident. When she thought she found a place with enough grips on the edge, she tucked the statue into her satchel and then turned around on all fours and shimmied back down over the edge.
They climbed down the mountain side with little trouble, as even animals didn't truly enjoy being on a vertical surface this high up. It was hot and humid, and sweat slicked her temples and the small of her back and between her breasts, but she kept moving until they got to the canopy of trees.
With a flying leap, she caught onto a thick vine hanging from one of the trees and went swinging to a thick branch in the under carriage, then turned, and flung the vine back to Fenris so he could follow her down. A snake that was coiled and sleeping attacked Rafeala's boot, but the leather was too thick and the fangs got caught there instead.
Calmly, she hacked off its head and kicked the body off the tree, waiting for Fenris to join her. "So," Rafaela said conversationally. "I take it you enjoy when the woman takes the lead?" It was a leading and teasing statement. She'd seen the double-take he'd given the warrior woman that had happened upon them in the City Lower, and it amused Rafaela.
She also didn't like the serious and intense air about their mission that made things too somber. Rafaela was not a somber person, at all.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 7, 2015 10:54:43 GMT -8
He was at home in the wilderness, his presence that of an animal itself, only given the intelligence of a human being. He moved gracefully following her lead, swinging and shimmying across areas, he did not need the vines, as he flicked his palm, a long silver shadow tendril erupted from his wrist and stuck into a tree, creating his own "rope" that he gripped and then swung down with, before it retracted into his body. "You're the one that knows where we have to go."
he answered with a slight growl. "Though yes I prefer strong women." he said resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he wiped sweat from his brow, her own scent stronger than before with her perspiration as he saw her handle herself in the jungle. He did not like females who simply acted as submissive at all times, but he sensed her amusement.
"You got a problem with that?" he asked, wondering why she was discussing his interests when it was clear she was not too fond of him, and they had to move quickly with so much at stake. It made him slightly uncomfortable regardless. Perhaps someday after this; he and her would cross paths again, and he would have catch her.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2015 11:16:05 GMT -8
"And by strong women," Rafaela said as she began to climb down the tree, tossing her head once to get her silvery hair out of her face, "you mean amazons. Warriors that could break you in half." She landed on the forest floor, gracefully crouched, and looking around the half-darkness, the moonlight above making everything seem to glow blue. Then, she lifted her lashes and looked up at Fenris above her, a cat's smile playing over her mouth. "Mama Bears."
She stood, and kept a steady, quick pace through the jungle. She smelled of sweat and of the fresh, damp dirt of the forest floor. She paused only once, to tie her hair up into a high ponytail when it kept coming undone from its braid, and then continued again without complaint. With her more teasing mood, he could probably get a little more information out of her again.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 7, 2015 11:40:49 GMT -8
Fenris sighed. "True." he said. "I do appreciate amazonian women, however there are other aspects to a strong woman, that don't need to adhere to a particular body type, for instance I can tell you are quite domineering." he said smirking, trying to make her uncomfortable as she was doing to him. "So why don't you let me know about what were in for, or how we got to this point to begin with..?" he said as he hacked through a branch with a langes-messer that seemed to do the job just as well as a machete despite its more slender build.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2015 20:10:03 GMT -8
"Please," Rafaela said, and she paused and whipped a knife from her thigh holster, piercing the large spider that had been crawling down a nearby tree trunk. "In your dreams," she told Fenris, yanking her blade out from the tree trunk and continuing onwards, steady in her course.
"I was hired by certain parties to relieve a certain relic from an abandoned facility," she spoke around her breaths. "Other than allowing said certain parties to take one piece of said certain relic, I was allowed to keep the relic and sell it at whatever price I wanted and keep 100% of the proceeds. I agreed, apprehended the relic as was hired to do, delivered the piece, and then left to sell it."
She slipped beneath a low-hanging branch, and pushed a wide leaf out of the way, jerking back when a snake head reared upwards and struck for her. The dagger in her hand was quick, and the head of the snake fell to the toes of her boots while the rest of the body went limp, hanging from the branch like a macabre vine. Warm blood splattered across her breasts and throat, and she reached up and wiped at it, smearing it on her leather breeches. Then she continued talking.
"Only problem was, no one would buy. And then I heard tales that said relic was the cause for these... guardians, or what have you, to attack and kill people of the city. So I figured, good Samaritan that I am, that I'd return the relic and thus appease the beasts."
And then they came to a stop at the base of a mountain, the crickets and bugs and lone monkey calls of the jungle all around them as she tipped her head way back to look at the distance face of an ancient king far above them. "And the only way to do that, is to crawl up and into the Mouth of the King."
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 7, 2015 20:53:04 GMT -8
Fenris got her mind back on business which was more important than banter, he already knew she was far less than interested. He listened and she was finally forthcoming as he leapt from branch to branch. Animals did not seem to randomly attack him as much as her, though occasionally he had to cut a serpent, or duck a stray rock thrown by a monkey.
Most animals seemed to steer clear from him, he growled in frustration, after having to duck another rock, growled and the sound was rather inhuman, it was loud, and had a slight echo to it, and some of the creatures may fall silent in its wake, his dark-brows knitted. "I really do prefer a forest..." He muttered after the fact, almost apologetically to her. He dropped down to the base of the mountain from a nearby branch, landing in a crouch and then rising.
"So any idea what we might be in for? I doubt well get lucky and all its protection is outside..." spoken as he looked up into the "Mouth of the King." He looked at her for a moment as if studying her. "I hope you have some special tricks up your sleeve." he said. "Cause you might need them."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2015 21:28:49 GMT -8
"Listen, doll," she said to him, a little smirk on her mouth. She was growing comfortable around Fenris, regardless of his animalistic impulses to growl at whatever upset him. "I've already done this one. I'm sure I can do this twice."
She stepped closer to him, close enough that she could easily smell his sweat, he could easily smell hers. "Stay light on your toes," she said, her voice low and quiet and teasing. Rafaela turned on her heel and stepped away, grabbing a vine. The muscles of her biceps rippled subtly beneath her flesh as she began to walk up the side of the mountain and closer to the Mouth of the King.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 8, 2015 10:47:16 GMT -8
He raised dark brows at her change in demeanor. "You're trouble." he said as she moved closer, catching her already familiar scent and trying not to get distracted, he had a feeling she relied on such tactics, and she was certainly good at them. "Things might have changed since the last time you were here, don't get cocky." he told her as he watched her go first trying not to look too closely at her underside as he sighed and crawled up behind her slowly towards the maw of ancient stone. He was vigilant, awaiting something bad to happen and on guard. Instead of using the vines, he instead found cracks in the rocks and climbed up on those.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 13:37:00 GMT -8
"You're just now realizing," Rafaela quipped over her shoulder.
She stopped talking as they climbed. The vine she used held steady from one of the trees growing from the top of the King's head and when she got to the base of teh King's head first, she found her footing on the lip and turned to help Fenris up over the edge.
"Down the Devil's throat," she murmured as she climbed up its beard and lips. She paused and took a rope around an upward fang and then around her own waist.
Taking a breath, she stepped back and jumped down into the thick blackness. She disappeared, and the scent of her did, too.
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 10, 2015 13:57:38 GMT -8
He grasped her hand and got to the lip, making their way inside past its craggy teeth. His langes-messer in his left hand; held low as his eyes shined slightly in the half-light not unlike a Wolf. He sniffed and noticed something funny. "How else would we choke him then?" He quipped back at her rather grim metaphor. He then jumped down to follow...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 17:04:20 GMT -8
When he landed, the air was as dark and still as... well, a tomb. Which was fitting. But the smell of Rafaela was there, and in another second, a torch came to life, illuminating her.
"Careful," she said to Fenris and reached out to grab onto his shoulder, moving him away and closer to her. She lowered her torch so he could see the ground, unaware that he had night vision or something close. "These signs. If you step on them, bad things happen."
She swept the torch around to indicate a skeleton, impaled on a spike with the crumbled remains of the decorated stone. She made her way down the hall in front of him, her feet light as she avoided the stones with the decorated sign upon them.
When they made it to the hallway, they could turn either left or right. She held her torch high, and stepped forward to run her hand over the wall, found a marking, and turned right. After carefully stepping again, she came to another hall where you could continue forward or go left. Once more, she searched for a marking, this time different, and then turned left, only to come to an abrupt stop.
There was a yawning darkness before them, with a small pavilion and the rest of what appeared to to be a staircase ten feet down but eight feet over. She turned back to Fenris. "Stand aside please. And hold this."
She gave him the torch, backed up a little and made sure not to press on any decorated tile, and then took a flying leap to the pavilion on the other side. She landed with grace, just on her toes, and then turned back to Fenris. The pavilion wasn't very large, and there were no walls on either side. It was clearly a large staircase, but the darkness was so black around them, that nothing else could be seen.
"Toss me the torch," she said. "But don't jump until I make it to the next pavilion down." There were stairs leading down to the next pavilion, but she clearly didn't intend to take them. "Careful that you don't jump too far. It's a long drop."
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Fenris
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Post by Fenris on Dec 10, 2015 19:59:01 GMT -8
He landed in a crouch, eyes darting back and forth as the torch bloomed to life casting the area in its light. His eyes shining from the extra-illumination. He looked down and saw the sigils, which he might not have noticed had she not pointed them out. He did not go dungeon-diving often.
He deferred to her experience since she had been here before, and followed. As she was in her element. He avoided the stones carefully, and with surprising agility, though he was not as acrobatic as her. He followed her path in her wake, before they came to the area. When she casually gave him the torch and told him to hold it, he gave her a look as if she had just asked him to hold her purse, and half-snatched it away before sighing. "Just let me know when I can do something." he muttered.
She leaped, and he nodded at her instruction. "Careful not to burn yourself..." as he carefully aimed the torch to make its path less erratic. He waited for her too move to the next pavilion, and then made a light leap before landing in a half-crouch."Somethings wrong, this is too easy..." he said trying not to be too loud as he spoke, but so she could hear him.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2015 7:09:34 GMT -8
Rafaela passed him a sly smile, and laughed quietly before she leaped, landing in a crouch and turning to catch the torch as it was tossed to her. She ignited a torch that was in an iron stand upon the square, and then set the other torch down on the ground, the fire burning harmlessly against the stone.
She jumped to the next pavillion, lower and off to the side, also in a light crouch, and then looked over her shoulder at him. "Nonsense. You're just paranoid. Toss me the torch. One more flight of stairs."
Once they had made it to the landing and left the torches burning on the pavillion behind, it was easy to look up and see just how far they had descended into the hollowed mountain. Where they stood now, a crumbling stone archway was before them with only more darkness to greet them, yet the inlay of heiroglyphs were in gold all around them, rich and embroidered, and it seemed like there was a message written on the stone archway, but neither of them could read it.
"I think I could get used to bossing you around," Rafaela told him off-handedly, and led the way through the archway. "I want to show you this, just a second," she said, as she turned and went left instead of right to a small room. Its stone door had crumbled partly away, and Rafaela stood back from it, gesturing Fenris to come forward.
She gave him the torch. "Hold it up so you can see through the hole."
If he did as was asked, he'd see the glimmer of gold and jewels, and twenty mummified bodies laid out in the room, one beside another. The room was still too dark to see anything more, but the shadowy figures of statues and furniture could also be gleaned.
"My best guess," Rafaela said, "is that those were the workers who completed the stone steps," she said, warm at Fenris' side. The cool air of the tomb had cooled her sweat, but the scent was still about her, the scent of feminine strength. "They had no way to get back up without falling to their doom, and ruining the work that they had just completed, so they died here, with their king. Interesting, isn't it?"
She took the torch from him and led him down the hallway, avoiding rubble and holes in the floor. They turned down more labyrinthine hallways and corridors in the darkness, when suddenly, an audible click rang out down the stone hallway.
Rafaela immediately turned to Fenris. 'What did you step on?!" she asked angrily, and the sound of stone grinding on stone could be heard.
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