A Sign in the Stone (A.S, OPEN)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

In the dark of night, in the furthest depths of the rainforest, monsters lurked. Small, snakelike monsters that devoured everything in their path, burrowing into the ground, the trees, and the creatures within them for nourishment, ravaging all life in the jungle that they could sink their mandibles into.

At least until a precisely-aimed fireball struck them one by one, eating away at the writhing beasts until they were nothing but piles of ash. The resulting flames that had leaped onto the surrounding foliage were quickly snuffed out with just a wave of the hand that had cast them.

Swift sighed, staring at the fire soul gem she had placed on her ring before running her fingers through her bangs in exasperation. She had been hunting and killing these things all day, and while she had successfully eliminated an impressive number of worms, deep down she knew she was making very little progress. How was she to know how many of them had swarmed the island during their initial invasion? For all she knew, there could be thousands of them out there. Even with Evan and Nat's help, they were barely scratching the surface of this swarm.

She wanted to believe they weren't the only ones out there fighting these creatures... but the idea that they would exterminate all of them within the supposed week Kendall had given them... that just sounded far-fetched even to her. They weren't going to accomplish that just running around and killing the small ones. Not with that cloud looming over them, threatening to drop more once this first wave was depleted. There had to be a better plan than this.

After kicking up a bit of the scattered ashes in frustration, Swift continued her hike, trudging through the rainforest until she came across an enormous felled tree. She stuck her hands on her hips and circled around, knowingly scanning the decaying trunk until she reached its tangled web of unearthed roots at the base. Sure enough, she found a nest of red cocoons tucked within it. Not her first encounter with one such cluster. Easy to deal with, and with much less resistance than the worms. She set her claws ablaze with flame...

[ColArana]

A rainforest. Yes, there were bugs, and beasts aplenty, but it normally would have been the perfect place for isolated training. And if a beastie came along, that would just make it better training. Not that conventional animals were normally a threat to Ranuen. Lions and tigers and bears would quickly come to regret trying their luck with the swordsman, and even in his miniature state, he could deal with most predators that would come after him at that size. So then..... what the hell was this?. Granted, Ranuen should have known by now to take nothing for granted on this Island, and acknowledge all the weird and dangerous creatures on it. But this was ridiculous! Damn snake things! The swordsman had already tried.... well. Swording them, and that had only made things worse! Chopping the damn things in half had just made two of them!

"Get... back... damnit!" The swordsman growled as he flung himself backwards, to avoid them. "Piss off!" He roared and cut downwards, the tip of his blade igniting in flame....

A pillar of fire blasted its way up through the canopy, practically a signal flare to Ranuen's position, not fifty meters from Swift's position, and leaving the swordsman in a circle of scorched earth. The worm-things had disappeared. "....Well... that worked... But..." Ranuen really shouldn't have been using his magic so carelessly. He didn't have infinite reserves afterall, and if he ran out, he was in deep trouble. Considering staying at this height was constantly draining his reserves. Sword out, the mage backed off, and started heading away from his ring. Before long he came upon a woman with flaming hands and a bunch of red cocoons. "What's this?" Ranuen asked, half to himself, half to the woman he saw.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift's ears perked the moment she heard a voice in the distance, turning around in time to see a wall of flame instantly spring to life in the direction of the noise. While she certainly felt the threat of the potentially uncontrolled fire hazard, she had to tilt her head in curiosity. If she had to take a guess, she would say that someone out there had the right idea.

Sure enough, a young man about her age came charging out of the trees, questioning the scenario he had discovered. In response, Swift shrugged and plainly asked, "I'm guessing by now you're familiar with those angry worm things, huh?"

She quickly threw a fireball at the cocoons, setting them ablaze while she turned to address her present company again. "I'm not completely certain what they are myself, but I know that they'll eat anything organic, and once they've had their fill, they turn into those babies. And I'm not too keen to see what they look like post-metamorphosis, so my friends and I have taken it upon ourselves to exterminate them. It's... kinda slow going right now..."

[ColArana]

So she didn't really know either. "Well, only within the last five minutes or so, but yes." Ranuen quickly answered, and then listened to her explanation. Seems she didn't really know what they were either, huh? But she knew more than he did and that was all that mattered. "I see..." Ranuen said, and followed suit, flicking his blade up and tossing another burst of fire into the mix. "They're stupidly tough... I cut one in half and it just regenerated into two more. Do you know how many of these there are? Or are your friends just running around until they stop coming?" He asked, pricking up his ears to listen to the rainforest. See if he could hear anything.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah, see, here's the problem..." Swift sighed as she watched the flames she had ignited eat at the nest of cocoons. "You happen to notice that red cloud that showed up this morning? It's hanging over the entire island, and these things were dropped out of it. For all we know, there are potentially thousands of these little monsters out there, and they're just gonna keep coming unless we can get rid of that cloud."

She waved her hand, snuffing out the fire once the cocoons had been thoroughly burned away. "So yeah... we have a long way to go."

[ColArana]

Ranuen pondered the dilemma. For about three seconds. "I see...." He said, looking up into the sky. "Wasn't spending a lot of time looking up this morning, but it's hard to miss. So... As you said, these things don't like fire, right? So why don't we just.... set the cloud on fire?" He suggested. No, he didn't have a way to get up to the cloud, that would involve actually thinking ahead, and Ranuen wasn't good at that. "I mean, it seems to be their weakness right?" He added. He drew his attention back to Swift, sheathing his sword.

"Where do we start then?" He added. Only now starting to think of ways they could actually go about his proposed job. Hmmm.... He looked around for a moment. "Actually, does it look safe for the moment? I need to go into my recovery mode. If fire's the only thing that works on these things, I can't be wasting my magic reserves like this." And just like that, Ranuen seemed to vanish before Swift's eyes. Just poofed into thin air. For about two seconds, until his voice suddenly sounded out again, from near Swift's feet.

"By the way, my name's Ranuen. Yours?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift's ears flattened, less with annoyance and more with dismay, as she looked to the sky. "It's a mass of liquid, ice crystals and... presumably whatever the red dust is that these things sometimes emit when they die. Not sure about the latter, but I'm pretty sure those first two things can't be set on fire. Lightning seemed to do a bit of damage earlier, but until we know what exactly is in that thing, I'd rather not waste my time mindlessly striking it if such pedestrian attacks won't do anything in the long run."

She looked down at the swordsman, a split second away from asking him what "recovery mode" implied before he up and disappeared. Her ears perked again, her body stiff while her eyes darted back and forth.

Then she looked down, her sensitive ears easily picking up the voice, her keen eyes spotting the insect-sized Ranuen on a blade of grass. "Ohhhhh, okay. Interesting." She smirked and nodded, certainly intrigued and a little concerned, but staying cool about it mostly for his sake. "Call me Swift. Nice to meet ya."

Figuring she may as well relax for a little while, Swift sat down in the grass, if only to make eye contact easier for her new companion. "So you got fire magic, huh? I don't wanna force you into any corners, but if you're willing, we would certainly appreciate the help. Like I said, there's a lot of these monsters to deal with on the island."

[ColArana]

Ranuen gave a look of disappointment that the whole "set the sky on fire" plan probably wouldn't work. "That's a shame..." He admitted, though perked up a bit at how easily Swift simply resumed the conversation with him, after he shrank down to his spell-induced "normal" height. "Nice to meet you as well, Swift. Yeah, I can use fire magic. Mostly in conjunction with my sword, but I can still do it without it. I specialize in enhancement magic and fire." Ranuen gave a short aside glance. "Without enhancement, I wouldn't last long at this size." He admitted. "But with it, I'm tough, strong and fast enough to deal with most hazards. I can even get stepped on and survive." He said, slightly sardonically but slightly cheerfully.

"As for my help? Are you kidding? This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for!" Despite his grumbles, and occasional bouts of complaints, Ranuen did love to challenge himself and his skills. "I'm totally game!" He said. Then a new thought occurred to him. "Hey... that red dust you were talking about. You know where we can find any? I mean. It's probably around the place, but any place in particular. I'm just wondering.... You might not be able to make it out, even with super senses." Well. Ranuen assumed she had super senses. She looked the type, with those ears. "But maybe at this size, I can get a much closer look at it than you can, you know?" Granted, dust was still likely to be pretty small even to the diminutive Ranuen. But even so, what would be little more than a red speck to a normal human, could well be the size of a golf ball to Ranuen. Even if it was only pea sized relative to Ranuen's new height that could be all the difference needed to get a better look at it.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"I see. That's pretty cool," Swift mused with a nod. Mentally, she took note of Ranuen's abilities and the clear fact that he only had so much magic to devote to both his fire and maintaining an average height before he had to shrink back down. Whether this minuscule form was his "true" height or the result of some outside influence was beyond her, but she quickly decided that it was none of her business and potentially rude to ask. The guy could clearly handle himself, and that was what mattered most.

"Really?" Swift smiled and leaned forward slightly with excitement, happy to hear Ranuen's enthusiasm to lend a hand. Perhaps even a little surprised at how quickly he had jumped on board. "Well... wow! Thanks!"

She rested her chin in her hand when Ranuen questioned her about the red dust and the possibility that he could study it. An interesting proposal, and one that made a lot of sense, given that at his height, he could easily get a closer look at an individual particle. With a deep breath, Swift gathered her thoughts and elaborated, "Well, here's what I know for sure. Anytime I've smashed any of these creatures' cocoons the old-fashioned way, they've spat out puffs of red dust, kinda like a fungus releasing spores. Anytime I incinerate them, the dust seems to burn with them. The worms don't seem to produce any, but I'm questioning whether they will in whatever form they take post-metamorphosis. I was lucky enough not to breathe any of it in those first couple times before I got smart and just burned them, and I don't think I wanna know what would happen if someone did."

She leaned back and cast a glare at the sky. "I'm almost completely certain that this dust and that cloud are made of the same stuff. Don't think anyone would argue with me there."

[ColArana]

Ranuen's enthusiasm matched Swift's. "Of course! I'm always up for a challenge!" Well. A challenge like this anyways. "I'm happy to help anytime!"

Ranuen's eyes narrowed. "You said spores?" He asked to clarify. A look of concern flickered across his face. "That might make some sense." A living creature would have difficulty regenerating the way these worms did. Granted, it could be magic at work, but when in doubt, assume mundane first. If they were spores, would that make these creatures fungal then? Some kind of sentient, evolving fungus? Or some combination of a fungus or animal? Did they Waaagh? "So, what you're saying is... we better go find more of these cocoons! And maybe crack one open without using fire." He suggested. To confirm their theory. "I don't suppose you have a scarf or anything? Something to cover your face as an extra safety precaution?" He suggested. As Swift suggested, it was probably a very bad idea to ingest any of the spores.

"What parts of this rain forest have you checked?" Ranuen asked. "The ones that attacked me came from the East, but I don't know if that says much. For all we know they could be all over this place, right?" He asked, following Swift's gaze to the sky. "Or I guess we could try and track where the biggest concentration of dust falling from the cloud is, and head there? Right?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift supposed that was an appropriate course of action. Studying this dust had to lead to something, and the only way to get it was by cracking open some cocoons. "Can't say I do, but I'm pretty good at holding my breath, and if push comes to shove, I ain't too proud to take my hat off and smother myself with it. Besides, from what I've seen, they float into the sky pretty quickly, so we shouldn't be exposed for too, too long. Not sure about a means of containing the stuff beyond you just swiping a speck of it out of the air..."

She looked around the night-drenched rainforest, retracing her steps. "I've been running back and forth since... well heck, since lunchtime. I'd say I've nearly covered every square inch of this jungle. I've just been noticing more and more cocoons as I backtrack, I guess as a result of the ones that got away. But hey, there's so darn many of them scattered about on this island, I'm sure we can find some in no-"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Swift was promptly cut off by a deep, powerful rumbling, the earth they sat upon shaking as if something had struck it from beneath the surface. Following the initial shudder was a series of equally intense vibrations, the trees swaying, ground shifting, and the world practically spinning from the sudden, violent earthquake. As the tremors grew more and more forceful, a fissure opened between Swift and Ranuen with a mighty POW, the crack snaking along the ground at a rapid rate, and the wider the earth split open... the brighter the blinding silver light emanating from it became.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the earth grew still.

...........................

The silver light, however, remained.



The light rose in a single pillar from the furthest corner of the crack, several yards away from the two travelers. It flickered and flowed like the flame of a candle, yet it maintained an oddly distinct shape... that of a man, complete with blank, ghostly eyes that seemed to stare directly at Swift.

The specter raised a hand, gesturing for them to follow it. Then it turned around and started walking deeper into the forest, the earth it treaded upon splintering as if the silver light was cutting through it from beneath. It paused to look over its shoulder, again beckoning the two wide-eyed onlookers to come along.

[ColArana]

Ranuen nodded. "Yeah, I can be quick enough. I'll grab what I can as quick as I can." He agreed. As Swift continued, Ranuen noted that it sounded like she'd been pretty damn busy. He'd only been chilling and meditating and training in his one little zone. But just as Swift seemed about to finish, the ground split apart. "Whoa! What the heck!?" Ranuen's miniaturized voice lost in the din of the cracking and heaving of earth. A blinding light emanated, forcing Ranuen to shield his eyes. "What is that!?" Was it related to the red dust? Well.... probably. Or it could have been general magical phenomena. But considering the day so far, Ranuen was willing to bet it was dust related. Ranuen tried his best to gaze into the flickering pillar of light--- no. No. It wasn't a pillar. It was a figure. A figure of light!

The figure beckoned for them to follow, and Ranuen glanced at Swift uneasily. ".....I feel.... this probably has some relevance to what's going on..." He noted, checking to see if he could cross the fissure back over to Swift's side, without having to waste strength pushing himself to "normal human height". "Guess.... we should try following him, shouldn't we?" He suggested, starting to pass in the direction of the specter and moving to Swift's side of the fissue as soon as he could to try and hitch a ride with the woman. Not like at his size, he'd be much of a burden to carry.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"WHOA GEEZ!!!" Swift scrambled away from the growing crack, ears erect and heart racing at the sight of the intense light erupting from the fractured ground. She remained stiff even as the earth settled and the light moved away from them towards a single point. All she could do was sit there and stare, shocked and confused, not sure whether to be terrified or awestruck by the phenomenon.

However, slowly and steadily, Swift started to relax as she found herself mystified by the glowing figure that had risen from the earth. This man in the light that gazed at her with eyes like the moon. His piercing stare was intense and unwavering, yet possessed an underlying kindness that silently insisted she could trust him. And the longer she stared back at him, the more Swift did trust him. His presence had quickly turned warm and inviting in her heart and soul, like that of a benevolent guardian, invoking a sense of curiosity and wonder within her.

He wanted to show her something. And through this unspoken connection she couldn't explain, she wanted to know what it was.

"Yeah..." Swift stood up, leaping over to Ranuen's side of the crack, letting him climb onto her palm, then her shoulder. "Might as well."

Then Swift started walking, following the silver specter, easily keeping up with him as she maneuvered through the rainforest's wild landscape. She didn't speak. She didn't tear her eyes away from the light. All that mattered was seeing where it was taking her.

[ParamountKeymaster]

The light continued to walk through the forest, continuously staring straight ahead once he was certain that Swift was following him. His vacant expression never changed, no matter what natural obstacle they came across. The earth split to grant him passage, resealing itself behind him until it looked as if there was never a crack to begin with. The flora that covered the ground seemed to move aside of its own accord, clearing the path they treaded upon. All was eerily silent, as if the creatures of the rainforest were quieting themselves in reverence of the being of light.

He stopped when he reached a clearing, raising a hand to signal for Swift to follow suit. Then he pointed to a dark shape against the night canvas looming just ahead, that of a large building hidden amongst the trees. The Stone Temple...