• Graded • Underneath the stars (Noth)

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Finn O'Connor

:: 3rd Ashan, 717

Nightfall was close by the time that Finn stumbled upon the cave. He had not meant to find it, but he had wandered as usual, and this time, he had wandered too far. The city was still visible in the distance, even as the impending night draped the horizon with a blanket of darkness. A speck in the distance. The trouble was how to get there, he couldn't simply go off the roads, for there were many beasts that wandered through the wilds. It was growing colder...

Wrapping his arms tightly around himself, Finn cautiously stepped closer to the hole in the rock. Aside from a log barricading the door, there was nothing there. This was not the hole of some wild animal, he told himself, for no wild animal would put a log at his front door. Yet...neither could it have been entirely human, for all humans and other humanoids lived in the city. Perhaps he'd stumbled across a hermit's cave?

The buzz of excitement that shot through him made him forget how cold and hungry he felt, even if only for a moment. The air was fresh here and the sky...he looked up at the growing darkness, as a sense of utter insignificance washed over him. There were so, so many starts, so many dots in the sky. Where there other worlds out there?

It was too late to go back now. He would only get lost even more in the dark. Besides, a cold wind was starting to pick up. The cave, dark though it loooked, was beginning to grow more and more appealing.

He stepped closer, careful to remain light on his feet.

Nothing.

With some effort he hoisted himself over the log and landed on the other side and-

His heart jumped to his throat. A loud cackle sounded from the cave, echoing a thousand times against the jagged stone walls. He was about to jump right back over the log to flee when the culprit emerged from the hole.

It was a goose?

"Pfff," Finn sighed a deep sigh of relief as he tried to calm his breathing. He wasn't easily frightened, but the goose certainly had given him a good scare.

"What's you doin' here buddy? Lost too?"

He lowered himself to a crouch and attempted to lure the goose closer by clicking his tongue. "You and me both," he sighed, "at least the sky's pretty huh..."

Endurance: Seeking Shelter To Outlast The Cold
Animal Husbandry: Trying To Lure A Goose With Sounds

[Noth]

Moonlight dripped from the sky, landing gently within the interior of the vast cave as if though it were nothing but a strange precipitation as opposed to a lunar phenomenon. As far as Noth knew, no one seemed entirely certain why the moons glowed with such radiance on certain nights, but it was a well-known fact that the exact luminosity displayed by each celestial body was dependent upon the time of Arc and season. Nevertheless, the moonlight seemed to have a calming effect upon the normally vile and busy twilight hybrid located within, and he found himself gazing upon it curiously as various thoughts entered his mind.

That easing moonlight had a conductive effect upon his mental faculties, and the intellectual issues that were formulated within were quickly unraveled into their individual pieces, and solved to an extent that they would not trouble him for some time. He thought carefully of more important ideas, and of the master schemes that would determine his livelihood and the course he would take throughout his brief existence. Specifically, he briefed himself repeatedly over the assorted plans that came to mind when he thought of his imminent conquest of Etzos; imminent perhaps fitting only by a stretched definition. In the grand scheme of eternity and of time itself, his conquest was soon, and perhaps even when compared to the long-term plans often formulated and conducted by entrepreneurs and businessmen, of politically minded individuals and simple folks desperate only to feed their disparaging families.

Noth’s life was one of excitement, and so he had grown to value the few pleasant moments that he had been granted, and though he occasionally craved the adrenal rush of battle or of the hunt, he also felt a longing to simply sit near a warm fire and curl up with a novel. He had left that life behind long ago, but favorable thoughts of it still clung to his soul like burrs on a dog; sometimes they stung, but at least they reminded him of places he had been.

The fact that he was busy occupying himself with thoughts meant that he had not bothered to ignite any light sources within the cave, especially not with the darkness growing ever present outside, and with the moons’ providing enough light. It was perhaps for this reason that he did not notice the creeping silhouette outside of his home until he had already drawn incredibly close, and it took the warning sound of Vern to alert him to the presence of an outsider. Vern was a fierce beast, but she relied almost exclusively upon her master for protection, and therefore it was good for her to distract any potential foes for a moment whilst Noth prepared the more lethal items he possessed. The longbow found itself in his hand with a speedy urgency indicative of a trained reflex, and an arrow was notched and drawn along its string with frightening speed.

Perhaps it was that very speed that made him accidentally drop the arrow to the ground with a clatter, leaving him with what effectively would act as a very large band. Sure, it might sting his foe rather painfully and leave them inflicted with several inches of welts, but otherwise it was a poor choice for a home defense tool. He clambered along the dark floor, attempting to locate his arrow, and observing the silhouette carefully for any identifying features. It seemed far too small to be any of his compatriots, and besides that they would know better than to creep into his home at night, especially uninvited.

The voice caught him off guard, and he abandoned the arrow upon the ground, leaning the longbow against the nearby cave wall as he recognized the childish giddiness that typically accompanied the escapades of adventurous young ones. The boy seemed friendly enough, speaking to Vern who seemed not entirely certain how to handle a foe who displayed no outward hostility. The twilight hybrid crept forward on silent feet, allowing himself to take slow and methodical steps forward so as not to rattle his talons against the hard stone floor.

He felt his wing begin to open, like a giant version of a mother hen’s, and he prepared to sweep the child into that large feathered limb in case he might decide to panic at the hybrid’s introduction.

With preparations fully made, he spoke with a rasping but relatively peaceable tone,
“It is a rather a nice night, isn’t it?”

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Finn O'Connor

:: 3rd Ashan, 717

Two eyes like smoldering coals glared at him from within the cave. They were menacing eyes, shining with a baleful light before he was enveloped in darkness as the creature's wing unfolded. Finn inhaled a sharp breath and retreated with slow steps until his heels pressed against the log. Panicked, he glanced down but could not will himself to retreat further, fearing that any more movements would bring the creature's wrath down upon him. When he looked back up, he noticed beast had only one wing and a sting of pity surged through his frame. Then, the monster spoke.

What had been said was lost on the shivering orphan, he could only gawk at the terrifying yet magnificent appearance before him. For a while, the sound of the wind rustling the creature's feathers was all that could be heard. "I don't mean...I don't mean any harm," Finn croaked feebly as he raised his hands, showing that he carried nothing but the clothes on his back. He considered that even if he had come armed, he still wouldn't pose a threat to the Avriel before him. "Please don't eat me," he added in a shaken voice, "you'd be better of with my friend Ollie, he's a lot rounder you know. He eats all the time...I bet he tastes nicer too because I haven't washed in..." he squeezed his tongue between his lips as he counted the trials on his fingers, "three trials!"

It was a lie that Noth would be inclined to believe, given the ragged state of the boy before him, but it was a lie nonetheless. Morning ablutions were a mandatory ritual at the orphanage. One that not even Finn could escape. Just as another bout of silence threatened to follow, the goose let out another noise and Finn leapt up again, startled by the sudden noise, then stumbled and tripped over the log, falling face-down into the dirt on the other side with a deflated "oompfh".

Persuasion: My Friend Ollie Is Fatter And Tastier To Eat

[Noth]

Fear was natural. That wasn’t to say that fear couldn’t necessarily be learned, especially when an authority figure or an expert made it clear that the subject was meant to be feared, or when someone suffered from an irrational phobia caused by onset childhood trauma, but for the most part, fear was natural. Animals felt fear just the same as people felt fear, and Noth could swear that he felt as though the branches of a tree tried to writhe away from the hungering blade of a lumberjack’s axe. The twilight hybrid had groomed himself in such a manner that he would be able to provoke the emotion with little effort, and had done much to frame himself as a monster, a creature of wile and dread that prowled the darkest parts of the night. Many people would see him as such, but some part of them seemed to also recognize that he was sentient, and that would keep some measure of fear at bay. Children were different, they didn’t think so readily on their feet, and Noth felt confident that the child before him was filled with an impending sense of doom that if he could harvest the feeling, he would store it away as a prized possession.

Despite that, Noth had little intention to frighten the poor child beyond belief, especially for something as trivial as trespassing upon his property and talking to his goose. The poor boy stated that he meant no harm, which seemed redundant given their effective sizes and limitations. The hybrid simply nodded his acceptance of that fact, drawing eerily closer as he did so that he might examine the boy closer. He seemed somewhat economically downtrodden, and the Avriel wondered whether he might be a pauper from neighboring Etzos. He couldn’t quite remember for certain, but didn’t Paplo work with the underprivileged children of that city?

If they did, then this would be an absolutely splendid opportunity to keep an eye on his compatriot, and to ensure that he knew all about what was going on in his life lest he ever decide to betray him and the Al’Angyryl. These sneaking thoughts nearly drowned out the frightened words of the badly-dressed child, but he snapped back into consciousness as the fellow pleaded with the bird not to devour him. He was a carnivorous sort, but he had never dreamed of delving into the deep pit that was cannibalism; even monsters had their boundaries. Of course, the child didn’t know that.

“Well, I am particularly ravished.” He spoke, adding an inflection of desperation into his voice as if though he were dreadfully hungry and seeking a fitting meal.

“Still… I’m sure that we could work something out… couldn’t we?” It was a rhetorical question, and Noth made certain that the child understood this by raking his sharpened talons against the nearby stone ground. He felt the friction cause heat between the rock and himself, and wondered for a moment whether or not he might create sparks if he applied enough force.

“Tell me, pauper. Where do you hail from, and what brings you here? While we’re at it… who are your parents?”

Children were taught from a young age that it was often dangerous to talk with strangers, but in this circumstance, it was far more dangerous to hold one’s tongue.

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Finn O'Connor

:: 3rd Ashan, 717

Finn rolled over onto his back and desperately crawled backward as the Avriel loomed over him. Already he imagined how the monster's wicked talons would rip open his gut and feast on his intestines and when the monster spoke, he was not reassured. "Ravished?" he repeated feebly as he ceased his futile retreat. The half breed sharpened its claws on rock, adding to Finn's inclination to answer the creature truthfully. "I'm from the city," he stuttered, "from the orphanage. I dun have any parents. I was just...wandering about I-" The words died in his throat as a paralyzing numbness took hold of him. He'd always imagined himself to die of old age on a tract of land of his own, somewhere quiet and peaceful, not at the claws of a malformed vulture. He squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth, steeling himself for the ripping and tearing that would surely come. Heart racing, he waited. Any moment now. Surely now?

A few quiet trills past and Finn dared to open his eyes again. "If you're going to eat me, get on with it will ya?" A few more moments slipped by and Finn straightened himself up into a cross-legged sit. Considering he hadn't been torn to bits just yet, his fear subsided somewhat. "If you're that hungry, why don't you eat the goose and just le me...go?"

Persuasion: Eat The Goose Instead Of Me

[Noth]

It was a pitiful display that the child made as he attempted to remove himself from the dreadful scenario, his hands taking hold of the ground with apparent abandon as he thrust himself away from the terrifying Avriel. The pitiful child repeated what the hybrid had spoken, apparently not assured by the idea that the monster was fairly hungry. It was strange how children automatically assumed that anything creepy or frightening intended to consume them, though it seemed reasonable enough to conclude that such innate reactions had saved many children in the past from the dangers of wolves and other predatory beasts. Surely it was seldom that a beast would be both terrifying and completely harmless, though some children held an irrational fear of certain insects that seemed to accomplish just that.

The orphan; for her revealed himself to have no parents, seemed to have been caught wandering throughout the territory of the twilight hybrid. He had chased down and hunted others for trespassing upon his lands, but he certainly had no intentions of harming a curious child for something so plainly innocent, especially when he had yet to respond with any disrespectful tones or anything other than blatant fear. Noth observed every reaction of the young boy’s body as he prepared himself for his inevitable fate, attempting to analyze the assorted physical reactions to fear so that he might be better able to identify those emotions on another subject. In particular, he took notice of the tightly squeezed eyes, and the set jaw of someone who gnashed their teeth against one another, though he attempted to see through to less familiar symptoms of fright as well.

Slowly, gently, the murderous Avriel extended his feathered fingers, pressing one of the cold and callused flanges against the side of the boy’s neck, and allowing for the tactile sensation of a pulsing heart to press against the intrusive appendage. He had learned the presence of such a large blood vessel through less than savory autopsies of his victims, and the subsequent training he had induced upon their lifeless corpses. Anatomy was terribly simple to understand when one could simply rend apart a new body if they needed to locate a new piece. Admittedly, his two victims had been full-blooded Avriel, but it seemed logical that the blood vessels would be similarly placed in a human, and his hypothesis seemed to have been proven correct.

He removed the invading finger, allowing for the touch to fade from the child’s neck, and observed as he gradually brought himself out of the catatonic state fear had impressed upon him. His eyes seemed to flicker open, and Noth’s own crimson orbs steadily observed them, discerning various physical traits as he watched. The child questioned why he had yet to be consumed, though the twilight hybrid said nothing, attempting to learn as much as he could from the final moments of fear before it completely subsided, and the young boy placed himself into a classic cross-legged position.

“Vern? It’s considered bad taste to eat your pets.” He paused, whistling a tune reminiscent of a songbirds lilt and summoning the small goose to his side.

“Admittedly, it’s also considered bad taste to eat your fellow beings, though I’ve met a few cannibals here and there, and they seem terribly gentle folk.” He chuckled quietly to himself, arising slightly from his hunched position, and leaning back into the nearby cave-mouth.

“You wander quite far from your orphanage, child. Don’t you know, there are monsters in the woods? Now then, what is your name, and what drew you here?”

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Finn O'Connor

:: 3rd Ashan, 717

Finn held his breath the bird's talon caressed the throbbing vein in his neck. Visions of the claw ripping through the exposed skin plagued his mind and he let out a quiet sigh of relief when the monster withdrew its lethal finger instead. It seemed to get some sort of twisted pleasure out of tormenting him. Like a cat toying with a mouse before devouring it whole. Gulping down a lump in his throat, Finn mustered the courage to speak while his hands found the dirt as he moved backward, inch by inch. "He's a nice goose," Finn said in a feeble attempt to start a more friendly conversation. "I meant no offense...I didn't realize he was your pet."

Even as he uttered the words he found the concept to be fairly ridiculous. What could an imposing, albeit malformed, creature like the Avriel before him possibly gain from owning a goose? Between the two, he certainly would rather fight the quacking animal if it came down to that.

"I was just explorin'," he muttered, taking the opportunity to shift a bit further away from the Avriel. "Well, first my teacher Paplo said you could find all kinds of useful things in the woods. Mushrooms for example. Didn't find any though." For a moment he seemed to forget about the danger he was in and simply smiled. He hadn't been searching too hard really, he just enjoyed being outside and away from the buzz of the city.

Having put a little more distance between them now, Finn rose up and prepared to run. Yet, he remained for a part of his mind knew that if he tried to flee, he'd only be endangering himself. Besides, it was starting to get damned dark and it would not be easy to find the way home now.

A cold gust of wind caused him to shiver involuntarily and he gave the Avriel a whimsical look. There wasn't much else for it...

"Can I," he pointed towards the cave. "It's getting quite cold..."

He couldn't quite bring himself to outright ask for shelter, but the suggestion was plain as day.

Tactics: Sometimes It Better Not To Flee

[Noth]

The child backpedaled immediately after learning that Vern was his pet, declaring that he was a nice goose, and that he hadn’t realized. Ignorance was something that the twilight hybrid could understand, and was even willing to forgive so long as it didn’t lead to bloodshed. It legitimately wasn’t the young boy’s fault for not knowing that Vern was under his careful watch, and so the grievance was forgotten in an instant, the only thing spoken in response to it was a simple sentence,

“She is rather a nice goose.”

The Avriel had long combated the forces of ignorance and hate which threatened to tear down his livelihood and stop his beating heart. His own people hunted him for possessing impure blood, though thankfully the distance from Athart helped to limit the number of pureblood hunters that passed through the area in search of him. Nonetheless, he had little doubt that there would be more of them who came in the future, lusting to wipe away what they perceived as a transgression against their entire race, a stain on their proud lineage of slave driving and death. The twilight hybrid faced similar threats and hostilities from the people of Etzos, though to a far lesser degree. There was some who had determined that all Avriel were wicked and cruel, and perhaps they were correct to some extent, but Noth would certainly have rather avoided conflict with them than incite it. A trial would come when that ignorance would be purged from the land, and from the ashes would arise a new era of prosperity and knowledge, wisdom and might.

A familiar name caught the murderous bird’s attention once more, and crimson eyes focused in on the child as they sought to understand what he had stated. The easy conclusion came quickest; Paplo was the teacher of this particular child, and he had just so happened to stumble upon one of that dreadful actor’s compatriots. The chances were infinitesimal, but it seemed that fate or chance or whatever over-arching system in charge of determining such things had planted the young child to the cave of the Al’Angyryl.

Noth’s face became steely once more as he came to the sudden realization that he could not identify himself with Paplo Ynush. If he were to speak as if though he were aware of the teacher’s presence, then the prying young one might investigate further into their relationship, and that would put vicious Mammon on trial before his peers and registrants. Instead, the hybrid would have to feign not having known the fellow, and though he was uncertain as to whether the boy had seen his expression at the name Ynush, he felt certain he could twist the tale in such a manner that he would suspect nothing, especially since fright was still on his side. People tended to be far less analytical when they were afraid, and Noth felt inclined to capitalize upon that phenomena.

“Paplo? Where does he teach? I am not familiar with him… did the old teacher, Solomon depart so soon?” It was a falsified name, though given a city the size of Etzos, there was a fair chance that a Solomon roamed its streets somewhere.

“No matter. Your teacher is correct, whatever your name is. There are many useful elements found in the forests.”His sentence was accompanied by a gesticulating hand, as if though he sought to grasp hold of the child’s name from thin air.

The boy stood, and Noth wondered whether or not he would flee from him like a lamb from a wolf, but he chose instead to remain, still as a statue except for his gesture towards the cave, and the gentle shuddering of his body from a blast of frigid wind.

His request was not unreasonable, and the hybrid understood immediately that he desired shelter from the elements of the night. Predators would be out in force during the twilight hours, and the vespers having died so recently meant that many of those slobbering and gnawing beasts would be just awakening, still intent on finding fresh food for the night. Beyond that, the bitter cold of the dark would cause some mild discomfort for those who walked through it, but if one were to stay completely outside without any shelter, they might risk frostbite or perhaps fall ill from the cool temperatures. It was true that Etzos was only twenty or thirty bits away, but in the shadow of night, and without the help of a guiding light, there was little doubt the boy would be lost to the world beyond his comforting city walls.

If he had been a dozen years older, than the twilight hybrid would have simply told him to try his hardest to survive the night, and then refused him entry. It wouldn’t have been malicious, but the bird was paranoid of strangers at times, especially ones who wished to remain whilst he slept and was vulnerable. As it stood, there was little to no threat in allowing the boy, and beyond that, his tainted heart still beat with some semblance of a code, one which held the hallowed words ‘Do not harm the young and innocent, nor allow them to come to harm.’

With a sigh, the Avriel nodded his head, admitting the boy to his home.

“Come. There is much to discuss… and then you may rest. I trust you enjoy squirrel flesh, for it is all that I possess, and even then only the pieces of bone that have no yet been gnawed.” Admittedly, those pieces tended to be rather tender, and succulent meat did cling to the bone. The hybrid whistled a shrill and violent noise reminiscent of his life thus far, and Vern retreated back into the safety of the cave.

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Finn O'Connor

:: 3rd Ashan, 717

The half-bird's dry remark did little to alleviate the tension in the frame of the lost boy. Finn carefully gauged the Avriel's reaction but was unable to detect a sign of friendliness on its face. Indeed, the creature seemed barely willing to let him enter his abode. Their mutual distrust was perhaps the only common ground they held as Finn quietly shuffled into the cavernous shelter.

"I don't know of any Solomon," he answered quietly, though his voice was amplified and distorted by the jagged rock inside the cave. "Paplo is my new teacher. He's a bit..." Finn caught himself and shot a sideways glance at Noth before continuing. Though the monster hadn't devoured him just yet didn't mean he could not accidentally upset it. Indeed, upsetting people seemed to be one of his prime abilities and he reminded himself to take extra care with what he said. "He's a bit strange..." he said tenatively. Strange was however putting it mildly. On his first day in Paplo's class the teacher had taken him to a museum, of all places, for punishment, but not before chasing him down a hallway and giving him something to eat. Now that his mind returned to the ocassion, it was all rather strange indeed.

His feet scuffed to a sudden halt as he stepped further into the cave. "My name is Finn," he said rather suddenly before casting a worried glance over his shoulder. They had much to discuss? How so? He swallowed visibly as he resigned himself to his fate. There was no turning back now, and stepping back into the dark seemed the more dangerous of his options as a distant howl passed through the night. "I am not too hungry," he lied. In truth he simply hadn't ever tasted squirrel before and was worried that the bird might slip poison into his food to incapacitate him.

Eager to switch subject, Finn set his eyes on Vern instead and waited for the goose to hobble after them. He opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it. The bird didn't need to know the real reason he was out wandering through the wild after sunset. Not yet.

Not yet.

Deception: Lying About Not Being Hungry To Avoid Food Poisoning

[Noth]

Noth recognized immediately that it would be difficult to convince the child that he did not wish to harm him. After all, he had spent the last several Arcs attempting to make himself more fearsome in appearance, and he knew that he must appear to be some monstrous fairy-tale beast to the boy. Nonetheless, even the murderous Avriel had some lines that he would not cross, and prominent among those was that he would not harm a child. They seemed undeserving of his wrath, even when they were petty and arrogant and disrespectful. They were children, and they ought to be granted at least a few Arcs of peace before the world attempted to tear away their innocence, and drive them into the timeless global conflict. Past history also made it incredibly difficult for the hybrid to imagine stealing someone’s parents away from them, especially whilst they would be able to observe the event. It simply felt too familiar, too harsh to contemplate.

The answer given by the child was expected given the fictional nature of Solomon, and it allowed for a hint of relief to spread through the twilight feathers of the bird as he realized that he needn’t describe his relationship with that imaginary person. Lying had never come as naturally to him as it had to someone like Paplo Ynush, but it was a necessary talent to employ on many occasions. He was certainly no expert on it though, and it displayed numerous traits that would indicate he was lying, albeit almost all of them were concealed beneath his coat of feathers.

The child continued, stating that Paplo was a strange person. The hybrid had to strangle a bark of laughter at that, turning his head slightly so that the young boy could not see the humor in his crimson eyes. Yes, Ynush was indeed a strange person, one who held many secrets and identities, and one who could just as easily have been lying about every aspect of his life to everyone he knew. Finn; as he identified himself, seemed rather off-put by the suggestion that the pair had much to discuss, and the tension that wracked his youthful body seemed almost palpable to the predatory Avriel.

It seemed likely that fear had kept the boy from consuming the leftovers of his last meal, but admittedly Noth wasn’t terribly upset about that outcome. He had only offered the food as an attempt at gaining trust or appearing friendly, and he could certainly use the leftover meals for the next trial’s breakfast if they were spared from the ravenous appetite inherent in children. In celebration of the reacquisition of his last meal, the hybrid scooped up a smaller bone with loose wrappings of squirrel flesh still hanging off of it by weak tendrils of muscle, and promptly began to nibble away at the succulent and crisp meat.

“Tell me more about this Paplo fellow. How strange is he?” He questioned gently, conversational tones taking hold of his voice in a vain attempt at making himself seem less threatening.

“For that matter, how is the orphanage? I’ve never been… though I imagine I ought to have gone.” He hadn’t considered himself an orphan before, because he had recently become an adult when the incident with his father had begun, but in a way, he was not so dissimilar from the downtrodden Finn. The government would pay no heed to his grief if they had discovered him with his slain father, however, and he knew that he would have been ignored and told to fix his own problems even if he managed to alleviate suspicions towards himself. Adults were meant to be strong, were meant to be resilient and independent. No one cared if they were really just grieving children hiding in the bodies of grown men and women, no one worried that they were whining babes who simply needed a helping hand.

That wasn't how life worked.