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Petrichor in the Darkness 01

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[7/14/12]

<sunshineley>The chill in the air froze her fingers in place; what was she even doing up here? The sheer drop alone would instantly kill her if she took a single misstep. Rae'Quia stood atop one of the taller peaks of the Jerall Mountains; her pale grey dress caught the mild wind as she pondered going over the edge of the jagged cliff face. Her purple scales shone brightly in the scattered sunlight that filtered through the clouds and few trees. Raen's toes padded softly, getting eager now as she bent low to examine where she would possibly fall if she was to jump. The lowest ground was shadowed over by the other surrounding mountains, and she could not be certain until she took a look on her own. This was to be one of her greater adventures, she thought, but nerves were starting to take a hold of her softly thrumming heart, and she hesitated with a tear running down her solemn face. What if this was to be her final adventure?

<The-Argonian>The cold temperatures were certainly not lost on Noga, who struggled to move across the freezing landscape. This was such a miserable place, especially for a creature of cold-blood. Still, the incredible views were enough to offset the conditions. It truly was a beautiful sight, after all. Noga could almost see entire provinces from his location. As he continued to move higher, a purple object caught his eye. 'How unusual,' He thought, 'For such a colored object to be up here!' Moving closer, Noga soon realized that it was no mere object, but his friend Raen! "Raen!" Noga began, "Is that you?"

<dustomega>With Raen was one of her egg sisters. She couldn't call her a friend yet, but Pif trusted her after the last adventure they had together. This green scales lizard had tagged along with Raen on her next adventure. Pif had been trying her very best not to look down as they were crossing this narrow patch. "Oh by the 9! If I knew we would be doing this I don't think I might have come." she said and then heard the voice of someone. She looked around and noticed Noga not too far out of sight. "Whoa...strange place to meet up with him." she said not expecting to see anyone else up here.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia turned with a nonchalant glance to Pif; not remembering that she had brought someone along with her until just now. "I tried to tell you." She said with a humming tone that sounded as if she was going even more numb from the freezing cold. "It will be better when we get there; I promise you." Raen said this, not knowing if it was actually the truth, and then glanced over to the one who had called her name. "Noga." She tilted her head sideways, her eyes dancing across the scales of his skin for a moment; the neutral expression still covering her face as a couple more tears streamed down. Suddenly her expression changed, and she looked with a down turned head, straight into his eyes. "What-" She called to him sternly. "Are you doing here?"

<The-Argonian>Noga's expression instantly changed from happiness to sadness as he saw the tears streaming down Raen's face. "Raen... Are you crying?" He said, speaking softly, "What is wrong?" He looked at the incredible view that surrounded the group, wondering how anyone could manage to be unhappy in the midst of such beauty, even in such hostile weather. Being near Raen once again caused thoughts to race through Noga's head, but he set them aside for a moment as he attempted to help.

<dustomega>Pif looked at Rae'Quia and noticed her tears as well. "So cold...ok if we can get to a spot a land not so close to the cl-cliff." she said and sniffed up some snout that formed from the cold. "i could use this fire spell to warm us all up." she said. Pif was wearing her black leather armor on this trip. She wore this so much that one might think that she never takes it off. "Come on girl, let's keep moving before we end up as...umm...Frozen Argonians." said Pif not able to think of a clever way of saying that.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia wiped away the tears from her face, and stared down at them for a moment. "Mmm, didn't even notice." She brushed them away, and looked at Noga. "Must be the wind." She remarked nonchalantly, and then turned toward Pif. "Do you know what to do, oh frozen one?" She asked with glazed eyes, and then motioned downward at the edge of the cliff where all of the sunlight faded into darkness. "Do you remember any of what I told you?" Her neck peered around in an odd sort of way to keep an eye on Pif while still being able to see Noga in her sight. "The ruin we're going to see; it's down there." She pointed a finger down at the blackness where the nearby mountains met. "Not exactly sure how to get there ...except from here." She waved nonchalantly, as the cold in the air started to climb its way to her spine and the wind picked up. "So, shall we?" A mischievous smile melted away all of Raen's previous expressions of neutrality, and her eyes seemed to dance for a moment as she paced backwards toward Noga. She suddenly turned on her heels and grabbed him in a body lock, being fairly strong, and lurched with him to the side of the cliff. "You wanted to come, right?" She paused with a grin in his face for a moment. Without another word, she stepped off the cliff, and was free falling down into the blackness.

<The-Argonian>Noga could not help but smile at Raen's actions as she brought him to the cliffside. Disoriented by her handling of him, Noga did not even notice she was gone until a few seconds after. Suddenly, he looked around and noticed that she had, indeed, stepped off of the cliff. The only thought in Noga's head was that Raen surely would not have done so without being absolutely sure that it would be safe. Without a second thought, Noga ran forward and jumped off of the cliff himself, feeling invigorated, yet terrified, as the winds hit him.

<dustomega>The last to jump was Pif as she looked down. "You guys are crazy!" she said and looked around. She was far from any place she knew that would be a shelter, and didn't want to run into any trolls out here by herself. She groaned, and looked down again. "ok...one...two....two and a half..." she gulped and closed her eyes as she jumped, screaming the whole way down.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia kept her peace of mind, falling from the cliff face that had held her only a second or two before. She smiled softly, wishing that she could be like this all of the time; flying through the air without a single care in the world. Or in the universe, as Noga might've put it. The wind whooshed around her cranial spikes, and she knew that the two had followed her; stepping blindly off into the abyss. Most interesting, she thought, that these who barely know her would trust so easily. She could have been plummeting to her death just as she was thinking these words, and she would then be responsible for these lovely people dying as well. 'Known worse ways to die.' Her mind pondered on this for only another moment as the darkness embraced her, and her eyes began to adjust to it. Around them, there were no longer the raggedy edges of broken mountains and a cliff face, instead it was a single wall made of stone to the right. Raen examined the patterns of ink that had been strewn on it to give a more natural appearance. Hidden in plain sight; who knows how many travelers had passed this ruin just because it was at the bottom of a mountain? Suddenly the feeling of falling - not flying - snapped into view; how long would they feel the wind on their faces? Rae'Quia's mind raced to figure out something to hold onto in order to stop this momentum before hitting the floor that had only now reared its form through the darkness. There were no branches or roots hanging this far down into it, and the darkness seemed to press onto them like a blanket, covering their eyes; keeping them from seeing anything but the one wall and the ground. A tree had grown through the stone in the ground, and as Raen neared the end of this falling journey, she could make out that the floor was not quite smooth. Rather, it was ragged with many plants that she had never seen before, and the air was so much warmer already. She turned, the ground being only feet away, and called to Noga for one last time. "I was right; best adventure yet!" She laughed, and then added. "Although short." As if to answer her call, the wind picked up quite a bit from the ground in a curl, and because of this Raen started to slow in her decent. She turned to look; it seemed that the wind was coming from an opening in the wall, and it spun toward the small speck of sky that they could barely see now; making it so the landing was a very soft one. She sat on the ground; unharmed, and yet panting from the adrenaline and strength of the wind that did not let up in the least.

<The-Argonian>As they fell, Noga looked at Rae'Quia in despair. 'I never got to tell her how I felt about her...' Noga thought to himself, looking at Rae'Quia for the final time. 'Nobody had ever made me feel that way before, and now, nobody ever will....' He shut his eyes as he felt a strong gust of wind hit him, slowing his fall. At last, he hit the ground, though not as soft as Raen had. The impact knocked him unconscious, though without any major injuries.

<dustomega>The screams of Pif were heard the whole time as she fell. Her eyes were closed the whole time with her hands over them. her legs kicking and her tail swinging around. "I'm gonna die! NOOOO!" she screamed as she slowed down thanks to the wind and slammed into the ground at a force that hurt her, but didn't kill her. She was panting and lied there. "I...lived?" she asked and sat up. "Ow..." she said and used the lowest level healing spell there was to try and recover. it used up all of what little magic she had, but she felt better.

<sunshineley>The rugged ground looked covered in dirt and broken, but not very worn; as if nobody had been here in many years. Rae'Quia huffed, finally catching her breath, and looking through the gloomy shadows to see where the others had landed with a soft sneeze from the dust. The wind continued to make an eery sound as it whooshed across the stone, above their heads and into the mountains. She glanced around the place, her eyes taking a while to adjust to the darkness. "You guys okay?" She called to them both over the loud current of wind. "I think-" She turned suddenly, and started rummaging through her small satchel and quiver. "I might have a couple healing scrolls around here somewhere if one-a ya needs 'em." She squinted through the gloom, still not seeing anything but the tree that jutted up from the haze. "Nogastin? Piffaroo?" She used their - or rather, what she believed their names to be - and padded silently forward into the darkness. Her toes caught the ground in a most unpleasant way, and she staggered for a moment.

<The-Argonian>Unfortunately, Noga could not hear Raen's call, for he was still unconscious on the ground. A most peculiar dream played in his head at that time. Noga flew, without aid, into the sky, about to touch the first star. Truly, it was a happy thought, but something was wrong: He could not reach it, no matter how hard he tried. Soon, he found that he has travelled too far into space that Nirn could not be seen behind him. One by one, the stars blipped out of existence, leaving Noga truly and utterly alone, to drift through eternity with nothing...

<dustomega>"Hey Rae'Quia!" shouted Pif as she looked around in teh darkness. "I am over here." she said feeling some of her magic come back. she used what little she had to spray a small jet of fire from her hand onto the ground for no more then 3 seconds. The fire was enough to light up a large area of the room she was in for that short time.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia snapped to attention immediately, pulling her hand out of her satchel and making some of the contents rattle to the ground; she walked toward where she had seen the spray of light. "Piffanu?" She questioned the darkness for a moment, and then walked straight into a very strangely squishy rock. She tripped and fell over Noga. "AGH why can't it just be lighter in here??" She screamed for a moment, and then breathed a defeated sigh; pulling herself off of the sleeping dear one, and crossing her legs in a sitting position beside him. She glanced around through the blackness, seeing no other sign of Pif. "I found Nogeen." She said with another sigh, not even sure that anyone had heard her; was she alone in the darkness? "-I think." She paused, blinking and squinting down at the creature that she had stepped over. Was it him; something else? She poked it with a jab of her finger. "Or is this you?"

<The-Argonian>Noga's eyes opened, and he saw that he had not died, and was not drifting in empty blackness for eternity. Instantly, the true nature of the situation hit him and his mind raced. How had he survived? Where was he? Was any of this even real, or was it nothing but another illusion, teasing him into thinking he was alive? Even still, there was something more, a thought that stood before the rest. "Raen..." Noga said, looking at the figure kneeling over him, "Why were you crying?"

<dustomega>Pif walked towards the others, and then gasped. "Oh how stupid of me!" she said. "I think I might have a torch with me...man who would have thought I would really have needed one." she said and sat down and felt around though all her junk till she found one. She used a fire spell and got it going. "There we go!" she said and got back up. She walked to her two buddies. "You two ok?" she asked the two Argonians.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia was looking down at Noga with a solemn expression; her eyes dancing across the worry lines in his face. "I'm alright, Noga; just trust me on this." She said softly with a calm smile as Pif came up to them with the torch. "GAH!" She yelled at the flames, and leapt away from them in a panic. The tree stood silently, breaking the current that still whooshed above them, and Raen hid behind it with a confused fear in her eyes. 'Under attack; from what?' Her mind raced through the panic. 'Attack; the flames attacking; why does this always happen to ME? Oh by Sithis, this day is not going as I had planned at all.'

<The-Argonian>Noga was startled by the event, quickly standing and scrambling to the side of the room where Raen had escaped to. After looking closer, however, Noga saw that the torch carried no threat. Indeed, it was nothing more than their comrade, Pif! "Wait, Raen!" Noga said quickly, pointing to the flame, "It is only Pif! There is nothing to fear." At this time, Noga looked around the room, examining it for the first time. "This is... Incredible! I have never seen such ruins before! I do wonder who built this place... hmm... it does not look Nordic, nor Dwemer..." He continued to murmur to himself as he attempted to ascertain the answer.

<dustomega>Pif looked at Rean as she ran off. "Yeah what he said. It is just me." she said. "You are not scared of a little flame are you?" she asked and looked around the ruins as well. "Maybe it was build by one of the older races." she said. "I don't know though, The Khajiit could have built this for all I know." she said and laughed.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia peered around at her two companions for a moment; one of which held the torch. "Oh-" She padded softly forward, shielding her eyes from the brightness of it as it flickered in the wind. "Still scary though; torches attacking." She laughed at her fear now, still holding her hand as if it was going to damage her eyes. "What a weird thought; torches shaped like people." She glanced around the room now; it was enormous, but the dim light reflected off the walls so perfectly that Raen could see the perimeter of it. There was the large hole that continued to gush warm wind behind her, but in front, there was an even darker space in the wall that seemed ominous. She blinked, and passed by her friends for a moment, pondering upon what could be past this aura of light and in the blackness of the next room. She turned back to Noga and Pif. "Well-" She shrugged with a scattered smile. "Only one way to go I suppose."

<The-Argonian>Noga nodded, looking ahead into the blackness himself. "Indeed, I am excited for what we might find! Please be careful though, we do not know if this place is riddled with traps." He began to walk forward, though his head was slightly turned so that he could see Raen out of the corner of his eye. Finally, he turned around, and spoke to her. "Rae'Quia, there is something that I need to tell you..."

<dustomega>Pif walked ahead a bit to see if she could shine some light on this darker patch. "Hmm I just hope we have a way out after all this is over with." she said.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia's eyes dodged about as her vision cleared from the nearing torch. "Just, uh, keep it away from me, if you please." She said, meaning the torch, staggering a bit so that Pif could pass into the next room. "Yeah-" She paused for a moment. "That I hadn't thought of. But I guess we could assume there is some way out of this place. There just has to be." She stepped forward, meeting eyes with Noga now as they danced. "Oh don't say it!" She smirked, with a loud voice at his sincere face. "I know... I Know that I've gotten you into a mess." She shook her head, sour feelings starting to build up inside her. "I know it was stupid; I don't need a lecture right now if you don't mind." She turned away, curling up her neck and hunching down; lessening her stature by quite a bit in a defeated and sheepish sort of expression.

<The-Argonian>Noga walked towards her, placing a hand on her shoulder. The feelings that he felt at that moment were stronger than ever, and he knew that if he did not say it now, he may never have the chance to say so again. He knew that he would forever be miserable if he was too fearful of rejection to even try to voice his feelings. "Raen..." Said Noga, his hand still on her shoulder, "I... I love you..."

<dustomega>Pif stopped and waited on them. She overheard them talking kind of glad that the one boy with them was in love with Rae'Quia, and not her. Then she got to thinking. "Hmm...Wait did you follow us all the way out here just to be with Rae'Quia?" she asked him.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia looked up from her slump; her thoughts mulling over their predicament suddenly halted, and glanced at his hand. "Noga, I don't-" She blinked as her eyes found their way to his in the dim and flickering light. "I don't understand." She said softly; nobody had held her shoulder like he was just now; what did it mean? Confusion started to bubble up in her mind, and then welled up in her eyes as tears. What was he talking about; what did he mean by that? What exactly was it... what was it to love someone? Suddenly a great number of memories found their way to her mind, and she squinted; some were good, but most of them were very bad. Did he mean... did he mean that she was a thing to be kissed and then thrown away? Did he mean that she was something to be attacked with a great big knife? These memories triggered a pause in thought; would Noga even be able to do something... so unspeakable as those who had said 'I love you' to her before? Or -did he mean that she was something to be worshiped ...like Sithis? "I don't understand!" She said again, this time raising her voice; fear finding its way to her face now.

<The-Argonian>The raised voice startled Noga, but he stayed calm and spoke. "I always thought I knew so much about the universe, but when I first laid eyes on you, I realized that I actually have no idea at all. You showed me friendship, and you showed me what it is like to have someone care about me." As he spoke, small tears began to well in his eyes. "...Nobody else has ever shown me the kindness that I see from you every day... and it is something that I truly appreciate, more than anyone could possibly know... I just..." He quieted, and his head faced the ground. "I was never truly happy before..."

<dustomega>Pif stopped and waited on the two. She was the one lighting their way after all, and couldn't just leave them in the dark. She got a little closer to the two. "Hmm i have a Flawless Amethyst if you need one Noga." she said to him. "I would give it to you for say...200 gold?" she said and grinned.

<sunshineley>Rae'Quia jolted reflexively away from the flame as it got closer, but still blinked at Noga; the fear being only a fleeting moment before confusion set in again. She shrugged a shoulder in a lost sort of way, and gaped as if to say something, though not a single word came out. She looked downwardly at what she could see of her toes in the darkness and straightened her posture again. Silence filled the air, but soon she repositioned with a hand lightly on her hip; her expression framed with a cocked brow. "Well, I am glad you're happy now, Nogicon." She smiled softly to his kind eyes, and turned toward Pif. "I like ammi thist-" She smirked, and pawed through her small satchel for some of her money. "Two hund septims? I think I've got that, or did you want it, No-gee?" Her bag rattled as she realized that a few things were missing from it, having caught a ride on her hand several moments ago when she was rummaging in the darkness. "Hmm, it seems that I have dropped sommit." She mumbled to herself, and then looked backwards into the blackness beside the tree; hoping to see her items from here, though she did not.

<The-Argonian>Noga looked into the dark abyss ahead of them. "Shall we?" He said, kneeling and gesturing to the unknown. He smiled, but there was something different about this one. It was not a simple smile given out of kindness to friends and fellow Argonians. It was a true, sincere expression. Even his eyes seemed to gleam a deeper blue as he kneeled. "Surely, there is much to see in this place!"

<dustomega>Pif shrugged. "Yeah let's go, I don't have the gem on me anyway, I have it back at my hiding spot in Skyrim." she said. "Along with all the other stuff I can't carry on me." she said and handed the torch to Noga. "You lead the way. I like to stick to the shadows if you don't mind."

<sunshineley>"Are you okay?" Rae'Quia looked down at Noga who had knelt beside her and Pif. She took her hand off of her satchel and knelt beside him with a concerned expression while leveling their eyes. "Are you okay?" She repeated, her eyes dancing across his facial scales; she was looking for some sort of reason why he had suddenly became so solemn. Perhaps he was in shock; why else would he be making so little sense to her? She winched, and lurched backwards when Pif had handed Noga the torch; still on her knees, she blinked through the flickering light, and then glanced up at the female. "Could you stop that?" She almost yelled, calling above the wind that continued to howl around them. She pointed to her own face accusingly, accentuating a darted look meant for Pif. "I could've been hurt! Fire so close." She got to her feet, and doubled back into the darkness; looking for some sign of her thinks that she had dropped. "Oh moneybag; where are you, money moneymoney? Come here, the scary lightperson won't hurt you anymore." She seemed to stroke the air for a moment, almost as if to reassure it. "Great-" She turned on her heels to accuse Pif again. "My stuff ran away because of that torch! Can't find it; must've ran away." She paced forward, past her two companions and into the darkness of the next room. "Guess it's better off without me." She said silently, letting the sorrow in her heart edge out as if with the shadows.

<The-Argonian>Noga extinguished the torch, instead casting a simple spell which created a light in his left hand. He looked around the room, eventually locating Raen's bag of money and picking it up. He looked around for Raen, and soon found her near the entrance to the next room. "Raen, I believe that this is yours." He said, extending his right hand which contained her bag. "And yes... I am okay. More so than I have been in a long time, in fact. Are you okay?"

<dustomega>Pif put the torch away now that she didn't need it. "Much better. Darkness and shadows...my two best friends, just about." she said and stayed a little behind the other two in the shadows. "I will be watching you two from the shadows. Protecting you from harm, and all that with my trusty bow." said Plays-In-Fire.
Broken into three parts so it's not so big |D More coming soon, but we haven't finished it yet, so I'm not certain how soon, hah.


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~sunshineley with Rae'Quia
~The-Argonian with Noga
~dustomega with Plays-In-Fire

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Times as marked in #AoT chatroom
Argonians and mentioned provinces are (c) The Elders Scrolls < Bethesda

Sorry about the title XD I didn't know what to name it, and I watched The Doctor's Wife yet again yesterday... aaaand, yeah, well since I tend to call my char Raen, I thought it fit |D
© 2012 - 2024 sunshineley
Comments9
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Funkifan's avatar
Really good story, I really like it much! Is great! :clap:
This was the RP?

And I think the name is original, and funny, don't change it! :D