Paths (Open Roleplay!)

(Working on developing my characters a little more. If you would like to join, feel free to do so with human, Shinlai, or even animal characters. The village in which this is set is not official...yet, and I will be introducing a brand new character of mine into the Shinlai world through this role play within the next couple of posts.)

A loud crash echoed through the forest as a massive tree was struck by a bolt of lightning. The storms around Rennaveil had been getting worse with each passing day, for the last four or so days. It was so peculiar though, because the storms where dry, and did not bring any rain to the thirsty village. The wind was howling, and the thunder shook the ground below the villagers feet.

Two Shinlai from the village, Aborox and Tornado, had been traveling between Rennaveil and another nearby village to trade for food and supplies, and got caught out in the storm. Using his element, the enormous, black Earth Lai had made a makeshift shelter within the wall of a cliff, and stood guard near the opening. Tornado was much too busy keeping herself entertained in the background to even notice that she was speaking to herself, all the while chasing after crickets that scurried across the floor of the cave each time the thunder rumbled. Aborox did his best to tune out the sounds, and entered into an almost meditative mindset. Each time the lightning flashed, and whited out the world, he would count inside his head.

"One, Two, Three, Four..."

A loud crash caused him to close his eyes and calculate where the bolt of lightning had struck. The Air Shinlai, who was rolling around on the ground behind Aborox, shot up in an instant and stared out of the entrance to the cave, and sniffed... something smelled odd in the wind, but she couldn't quite tell what it was, though she knew it was a familiar scent. Aborox sighed and looked back at her, then towards the sky. Another bright flash of lightning, and he began to count.

"One, Two..."

The Thunder rumbled and rolled in the air, rattling the boulder of an Earth Shinlai. It was getting much closer, almost too close for comfort. Aborox turned around to walk back when another flash illuminated the cave, turning him into a wall of black against the blinding light. Tornado's eyes widened and a small shadow appeared in the light. The crash of thunder hurt her head, but she did not budge- for when the light was gone, and only the roll of thunder lingered in the air, her eyes where too focused on what stood before the cave.

Another Shinlai... A very unhappy Shinlai.

(Been wanting to shove Rayner into a RP involving Nado for a while now, hehehe)

The wind was divine, the lightning masterful, the thunder wild. Rayner could not control any of it, and this he found somewhat disturbing. Of course, every now and then storms like this occurred, storms that nature took all her force onto and denied his kind any part in. He could have shifted the wind away, but this wind was stronger than he, there was nothing to be done about it. So the only logical option was to seek cover, and quickly.

"Oh *&^%." He scampered about on long, thin legs, his body twisting and turning in a serpentine manor to avoid possible obstacles. But the rage was upon him, and a tree came crashing down very near his head. It splintered upon impact and exploded into a thousand charred splinters, which lodged themselves into his coat and burned his skin.

By the time he had spotted a thing that looked good to hide beneath, he stunk of charred wood and flesh. Divinity. He shook his head, the downy fur around his neck shedding some with all the black specks he could dislodge. It was a wonder the whole area wasn't ablaze, he thought to himself. This venture was hopeless, worthless. He would have done better to abandon his post. At least that way he could have been with his mate, and his dear, sweet Paoli with fur like a delicate sprinkling of snow. The thought of seeing them was all that kept him from being completely miserable and downtrodden. After all, when he thought about his life, there wasn't much else he'd done to be considered worthwhile. It shamed him, sometimes. Picked at his mind and brought him nothing but ill-aimed rage.

So he walked on, and when he arrived it was not with a smile, but a blank stare. There were others here already. Had not his nostrils been clogged by the smell of his own singed flesh, he should have done better to recognize them. As it were, he stood very still, miserable and uncertain. Thunder clapped in the air, and he twitched ever so slightly. Stand by or die, it seemed to howl. Best to stand by then. He would rather be killed by whatever roguish beasts might be inside than wait to be fried and left a sad corpse.

"May I enter? It's really awful out here."

(could I join in?)

(Sure thing!)

Aborox nodded his head at the familiar voice, all too aware of what would happen to anyone trapped outside in the storms. He would allow it, but only this once, as his kindness was all he had after being trapped out here with such annoyances as the fluffy Air Shinlai behind him proved to bring. Of course, he wasn't too sure how she would react, especially with Rayner around. In any case, he only hoped it would keep her quiet and not provoke any violence. The dark clouds on the horizon hovered closer with each passing second.

Tornado stood tall and stared, unsure of how to greet her brother. She hadn't seen him in so long, and honestly, the only thing that had given her any reminder that she had a brother was her last name and the faint memories of when they where younger. She could remember times of bullying her younger brother when she was learning to use her element- and at times sticking up for him when they got into sticky situations. Her eyes flickered around the room and focused on the ground.

There was a soft rumble of thunder in the background before she muttered under her breath.

"Brother."

Aborox stood his ground near the entrance of the stone shelter, his bright red eyes keeping a close watch over what was going on and looked off into the distance.

"Bear in mind we only have a few minutes before the next storm hits. By the looks of it, we may be trapped here until nightfall when the air cools and becomes more stable."

He spoke in such a deep voice that it echoed in the cave and looked over the two Air Shinlai.

(could i join in too?)

(Feel free to jump in with a post so long as you can make your characters fit into the current setting. c: )

Jagter sat at his camp bored and feeling unproductive "This storm has all the game all skitterish." he then looked up at the sky "Four days of this four days of nothing but searching." he said with a sigh "The contractors at the guild won't be too please."
A crack of thunder snapped he out of his thoughts. "I'd better find better shelter before im killed by a falling tree." He then stood up rolled up his sleeping bag and put out the low burning campfire "Now there was a cave in the cliffs I passed not too far it." as Jagter began to think about scaling the cliff walls he slumped "Maybe I should just pitch a tent near the cliffs it beats breaking my neck anyday." he thought to himself as he made his way to the cliffs

Kyamos sighed, he really hate the weather. Rain rain rain all the day he thought when a sound of thunder clap and scent of another Shinlai made him pop out of his thoughts. Kyamos is sitting on the medium-high branch of the soaking tree right above the sinster Shinlai with bright glowing red eyes and a bluish fluffy shinlai which are so soaking wet. Kyamos watched quietly as he can not to fall off the branches. Thanks to his dad who taught him to hop branches to another and survial skills which made him able to travel on own and learn the experiences with ways of Shinlai's

Kyamos hopped into lowest and least stronger branches to get closer look and he saw white shinlai which he heard bluish shinlai muttered "brother."

"Tornado?"

As he ventured into the cavernous shelter, Rayner's eyes began to adjust. His eyesight in the darkness was still not terribly good, but now that he had heard her voice, he realized that he recognized her outline as well. She'd changed. But she hadn't. Not that much, anyway.

And the other one. That was Aborox, the massive Earth shinlai he had met in the woods. It was the same day he'd first met Ryshka, Rayner remembered that well. But this meant that here he stood, uncomfortable and trapped between two followers of Daila, who together could do him any amount of harm, though it may go against their general behavior. Rayner didn't like that reasoning. All he knew was what he remembered, and the most recent snippets were unpleasant.

"Trapped, I see." He chuckled, then growled lightly. "How have you been, dearest sister? Enjoying freedom? Have you found Daila yet?"

In the deepest reaches of his mind, Rayner still loved her as he had when they were growing up. He wished that they could go hunting, and when she caught her prey, he might skin it so that they could have coats to dance in. But now he only wanted her to suffer. If only for a moment. Just to suffer a bit for leaving him, and for all that the Darkbloods had done to his mind. Perhaps if he could destroy their shelter, he might suffer too, but it would be worth it... Wouldn't it?

But he was too tired to put his heart into any vengeance. Instead of attacking Tornado, or worrying too much about Aborox, Rayner sunk to the ground with a discontented rumble, closing his eyes since they seemed to be doing him little good in this light anyway. "I hear them watching us." He mumbled.

The blue and black Lai was too busy listening to the sounds to reply to her brother, but she felt similarly. She looked away and lay down on the ground, resting her head against a smooth boulder, occasionally looking over to Rayner, and then to the ground. While she wanted nothing more than for them to get along, for once, it didn't seem very likely. while she still had hard feelings for her brother's choices- she still cared for him. Speaking of which- she wasn't as strict as Aborox was. Though, he looked a little more interested in keeping watch near the door. Sounds outside in the trees had his fullest attention, and the scent of other Shinlai in the area.

It wasn't until a bit of time that Tornado spoke out.

"Rayner. Do you remember when dad told us how to tell when the storms where coming?"

She turned her head to look at him, then looked out of the entrance of the cave with a bit of a soft smile. Using her element, she pushed leaves off of the cave floor into a small formation before her, making the bottoms of the leaves face upwards and rustle together as she did so.

"Every time you can see the light side of the leaves, there's a storm coming."

The Shinlai looked down at the ground and released the collection of leaves, scattering them all over the place.

"It's funny how they didn't do that this time."

She sighed softly and looked straight ahead to Aborox and stretched herself, becoming comfortable with her brother's presence. The black Earth Shinlai had been listening to what she was saying, but preferred to leave them alone to speak. Not like he was much of a speaker anyways. He was more interested in the sounds coming from the trees, and an unusual smell coming from the West. a grunt escaped his maw, and his bright red eyes looked into the trees, narrowing, trying to see what's going on.

(Sorry for the late reply I'm swamped with school work)

Jagter had made his way toward the cliffs to find shelter from the storm as he approached the cliffs he noticed from a distance he noticed 3 shinlai by the cliff he notice rayner and nado right away but the other shinlai was hard to identify with it's dark coloration jagter called out as to not surprise them as jagter assumed the shinlai being large animals could react violently to being startled.

Beshanla had been traveling through here for-... well, she couldn't really remember why she was here, or how. She was wet, and her hair was in tangles, she was miserable and if one more tree tried to squish her she'd - well... she didn't know what she'd do to it, either. But it'd be bad! She was fussing over herself, soaking wet and frustrated, not paying attention to where she was walking, so much so in fact that she nearly ran into Jagter when she pushed her way through a bush. She jolted. She really should pay attention and- why was he yelling? She looked to where he was yelling. Oh. How had she not noticed that, either? She really was too self centered, this should have made that clear to her. She looked down on the human, nothing that he too, was wet. She slowly moved back toward the bush.

((I tried. *Keels* ))

(note: since i given /kyamos a revamp he is blue with teal markings and his new name is Falcon)

Falcon looks interested in leaves swooping up together by a blue Air shinlai which is talking about how do you know when storm is coming. Falcon thought of red/ black shinlai to see what he reacts then looked at him. Startled that was that shinlai are staring directly at him. Hoping that black shinlai wont notice his bright cyan eyes. Falcon hopped to another lowest branch which made leaves shook and fell to ground.

Startled Jagter quickly turned around shocked that a shinlai was able to so close without him noticing "Oh ...you startled me." he raised his arm to show he meant no harm but keep one hand his on the hilt of is sword "I didn't see you there." Jagter slowly stepped back "I guess your looking for shelter too eh?"
He chuckled but was cut short when he saw the gleam of eyes in the dark he squinted and could make out the shape of a shinlai in a tree "You know that shinlai in tree over there?" He asked and waved at the shinlai in the tree

"Yes, I remember."

Rayner huffed lightly, and turned his head, avoiding eye contact. Now he felt guilty. Tornado really hadn't changed at all. For some reason, he had expected her to react to his bitterness, but she was still the big sister, and he her little brother. He wasn't sure whether that thought hurt him or made him happy. A little bit of both, he supposed.

There had been a time, back when things were happier than they appeared now, that their parents had taught them many tricks. He remembered some of them fondly, but did not take practice of these very often. It all went so badly... He sighed, and turned his gaze to the enormous dark shinlai. Funny, Rayner was certain that Aborox could be a dangerous enemy, but he seemed intent on something else. The coming storm, most likely.

I'm not even a threat. He realized this to his great displeasure, and a sad mumbling escaped his mouth. "I think I should go out and wait to be stuck by lightning." He continued, pressing his face into the dirt. "Those poor fools. Maybe they'll see and wise up. Not that they deserve the courtesy."

Falcon could feel several eyes are on him. Frightned, Falcon jumped as thunder flash struck at right time blinding Falcon as he missed another branch and landed loudly on forest floor front of huge black sinister shinlai. Falcon muttered and shudder back until his rear hits the tree trunk that he been on.

Falcon quickly checked his surrounding and notice there is another lai', its so white like snow he wondered. White lai have been burying his face into dirty looking gulity he assumed. "what to do what to do" Falcon muttered to himself as his eyes went to sinister black lai' watching him carefully with bright cyan eyes.

Besh shook her head, looking as the lai fell to the ground, she winced at the reaction. She looked back to the human, his hand on his sword. He didn't smell afraid but that gesture made her nervous. Some humans got a little carried away. She was going to find a way to make her own shelter, not sure if the other lai were friendly or not, but it'd be great if one of them could start her a fire. Or perhaps the human. "Do you know those ones?" She asked, lifting a leg and gesturing with her head in the direction of the group in the cave.