Of Dragons and War III

[Moonitic]

"You're more of a ruler than you think you are," Meekal offered. He paused for a moment, biting his lip. Then, he added in a blurt, "I'm sorry about what's happened with the...."

[Zelda]

"baby? Yes I know. But its not your fault and if you change how you treat Buffy because of it I will PERSONALLY thump you. It hurt me to find out who was the father, but I have dealt with it. If my husband had to have an affair with anyone I am glad it was someone who had the guts to tell me. How are you coping with it?" Zelda had an unnerving habit of turning teh question back onto the questioner, a habit which made most people squirm.

[Moonitic]

"I'm fine," Meekal responded. "It helps to know that it was a spell that caused a lot of it. And I can't be mad at her, because I'm the one who put the spell on her." He shrugged. "We'll be all right."

[Zelda]

"You put a SPELL on her?" Zelda eyes went large, and her eyebrows nearly disappered into her hair, "does Moon know this?" she continued, her mind reeling with the repercussions that this could have, on her, on Meekal, on Moon and even on Arcon. Though she prefered not to think about her husband if at all possible.
"Who helped you do it? and what type of spell was it?" The questions came tumbling out quickly, as Zelda tried to get her mind around the fact that maybe Arcon hadnt meant to be unfaithful to her AFTER all.

[Moonitic]

"I thought you knew..." he muttered. Then his mind traveled back to the night of the ball. Zelda wasn't around, but off dancing & enjoying the night. "Well...I used the gold I found in the cave on Mt. Spire to buy presents for her...& a love potion. But Rosaline drank that one, I think. I found a vile of powder in my doublet & thought it was from Oddledoodle. It was from Zarcon's wizard. I didn't know it until later, after she turned evil & all. It gave her hallucinations. That's what drove her to do all that she's done."

[Zelda]

"Oh Meekal, I didnt know. But thank you for telling me....though why you wanted her to love you, when she already did, even though she didnt know it, is beyond me." With this comment Zelda turned her horse and cantered up to the front of the line for a conversation with Naekos.

[Swordsman]

Unfortunately, she never had the chance. For just as she reached him, he slumped over in the saddle and fell off of Onyx, landing flat on his back in the road.

[Iwant2bafencer]

"Nækos!" Rosaline gasped and jerked Shadowmaker to a stop right beside Nækos' fallen figure.

She quickly swung off her horse and tossed the reins to Meekal before kneeling beside Nækos. She pulled his head up, resting it on her knees. She tried to think of reasons for him to fall off his horse, but only two came to her. One, he had fallen asleep against his normal nature and had lost his balance, highly unlikely but still a possibility. Or two, he was sick and hadn't told anyone.
Rose looked up to Zelda as she knelt on his other side.

"I . . he just . .fell." She stumbled, looking to Zelda to see if she might have a better idea than hers.

[Swordsman]

It was white. Nækos did not like this. Especially since he was, as usual, still in black. And everything around was white. No, not quite everything. There was a bit of grey...it looked like a rock only thinly covered with snow. He reached down, scooped up a handful of the stuff. Light and powdery. On a second thought, he knelt and jammed his hand deep into the snow, trying to feel how deep it was - laying flat out, snow covering up to his shoulder, he still felt only snow beneath his fingertips.

He stood again, brushed it off before it could melt on him. Strange he didn't feel cold.

He looked down at himself, and cursed in Russic. Wearing black, of course. He had to be the single most visible thing in the area.

He looked off to his left, what he sensed to be north. He wanted to go there, had an incredible urge to go there. So he took a step that way.

[Moonitic]

Meekal, of course, panicked. He turned white with fright at the sight of the mighty Swordsman on the ground, seemingly (hopefully) unconscious. But then, a new feeling sparked to life within him. The need to take control. "Someone needs to canvas the area, & make sure no one is hiding. Don't move him, but we have to check for any unusual marks. Check his breathing too." He really didn't know what else to say. His thoughts flew back to the time on the ship, when the startled native that Arcon had lived with had shot Moon with a poisoned dart. Could that be what it was? If only Dr. Abernathy was here!

[Swordsman]

And with that step, the scene changed. Suddenly not all was white - there was grey, all over the place. Boulders strewn all over, with snow in between them. But, because of the wind, it would not stay in one place, leaving the rock bare and grey.

He was hungry, he realized.

And then one of the boulders suddenly moved - in fact, it lifted up a head. Two black eyes with light grey centers stared directly into his face, a long, angular jaw hanging slightly open to reveal rows of curved, perfectly white teeth.

Fear for his life hit him full fourse, adrenaline coursing through him, making him jump straight up in the air in surprise. The creature unfolded further, revealing wide, thin wings and a long, graceful body marked over with streaks of darker grey and black - the camouflage that let it blend into the landscape so easily as it slept. And then it left to the sky, beating its wings hard against the wind, kicking more snow up, and was gone as fast as it had appeared.

[Iwant2bafencer]

Rosaline began checking his body for anything that might have caused his fall, but found nothing. She held one hand above his mouth and the other she placed on his diaphram.

"His breathing is fine, it's as if he's sleeping." She informed no one in particular.

"Falcour." She called behind her to where the gypsies rode, falcour seemd to be one of the onyl ones not drunk. "What do you know about medicines?"

[Zelda]

"Naekos?" Zelda went pale, and slide off Abercrombie. See her head of the strike force fall was not what she was expecting.
"Is he alright?" she enquired of Rosaline, who was bending over the halfing trying very hard not to cry.
"I think so," she replied. "He is breathing at least."
Meanwhile some of the party had fanned out to see if there was a reason for the sudden halt to proceedings.
Zelda suddenly didnt feel that good, and slumped against a tree. "I think I may just have a nap," she mumbled to herself.

[Swordsman]

He turned to the south, and took a step.

He stood on a rocky outcropping, a precipice that jutted up and out from the side of a cliff. The view was magnificent - a green field just below, then a young, thin forest. Beyond this lay a strip of grassland that stretched from side to side as far as he could see; beyond this, sand, and the sea. Sunlight sparkled across it, racing down the shoreline.

"I can feel heat..." he muttered in Russic, as indeed the sun warmed the clothes on his back.

Turning around, he found more grassland behind him, stretching away into the distance, and eventually up into the mountains on the horizon.

He looked down. A tiny runic symbol was carved into the rock at his feet, nearly worn away by wind and rain. As far as he could tell, on closer inspection, it was something very near the ancient Russic rune for "sword". When he reached down to touch it, it was warm - unlike the surrounding rock. He ran his fingers around the lines, and suddenly a crack appeared in the rock all around it, making a rough ellipse perhaps six inches in area.

He opened his eyes.

[Moonitic]

In response to the lack of anyone doing anything, Meekal jumped from his mount & entered the foliage, weapon drawn. Someone had to be in there, & Meekal would flush them out. That is, if he didn't get attacked first. But that was a chance he had to take. Whoever was crafty enough to take out Nækos had to be hidden well, there was no other explaination for his friend's sudden drop.

[Darion McNair]

Darion and Senyik were off their horses as quick as able and to the aid of their leader

"Swordsman are you in pain?" asked Senyik, urgently.

Darion tapped Senyik on the arm to get his attention. "Sorcerers?" he asked, completely at a loss of any other explanation.

"If so then the rest of us may be at risk." Senyik replied. A quick scan of their surroundings revealed no possible attacker.

"I'll check the perimeter." Darion told him. With that he went off, using his quiet subtlety to take in the surroundings with extreme detail. He had to find who did this to the Swordsman. If he could be incapacitated in such a way, any one of them could.

[Crin Dalmeiier]

Surprisingly, it was Crin, and not Falcour, that shouldered her way through the crowd, set look on her face. "Talmour, help the others secure the border," she clicked without thinking in Zarconian. Understanding, he nodded and pulled Ame from her horse, nodding his head to indicate that they should search the nearby area. Falcour worked on securing the horses to nearby treebranches as Crin knelt by the Swordsman. His eyes were open--always a good thing.

Crin kept her hands to herself, but her eyes scouted the Swordsman's body, searching for any wounds. Seeing none, she cleared her throat. "I don't think it's sorcerors," she deduced quickly, holding her hands close to the Swordsman's shoulder. "He doesn't feel like he's been touched by that sort of magic. Swordsman, do you feel anything odd? Pains in your head? Dizziness? How many fingers am I holding up?"

She held up two fingers and a thumb, and waited for his answer.

[Swordsman]

He skipped the fingers, and grabbed her wrist instead, twisting it down and to the side, wrenching her onto the ground.

[Crin Dalmeiier]

"Oof!" Crin hit the ground, already curled up into a defensive position, and used her free arm to lever herself up, twisting over and driving her elbow into his stomach. "I said how many fingers, not kill me!"

[Swordsman]

A second later he had wedged a leg beneath her, levering her around and slamming her on the ground beside him. He blocked the punch she swung across at him, snatching that wrist and pulling again, landing her directly on top of him.