Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

It had been incredibly warm as the light of Saun finally seemed to fade out almost suddenly, the world around him now just a dry and empty space from which he stood alone within. At first Patrick had looked around clueless as to where he had arrived, but after he'd heard a few things he felt certain then. Where he had fallen was the one place he didn't want to be, because the monster that prowled about awaited him. Even now he heard the overly menacing purrs that curled from the darkness, his own demon awaited within the vast pitch black while it lurked from all around him. Scared now Pat twisted a turn to run in the opposite direction of where he faced, hopeful that he might outrun the beast that haunted his being. The presence of the creature felt so close to him, so eerily nearby as if it's overwhelming hot breath nearly scorched the surface of his skin.

The time had to be drawing closer now, the frequency of these appearances were too common an indication. Still Patrick ran as fast as he could nonetheless, the silvery eyed beast bound to be upon him. Patrick's steps echoed on what seemed like smoothed stone more or less, and yet no matter how far his bare feet took him he noticed something. There were no walls whatsoever here. He kept running with desperation in his mind as the heat behind him slowly started to rise, escalated on the inclination that his nightmare drew closer to him yet. Behind him was the sound of claws sharper than razor scraping against stone, as the curled sounds within the monster's throat became more vigorous in pants.

It chased him.

It drew closer in a manner of Trills compared to the amount of meters Patrick had to have ran, the sounds of a large and hungry predator freshly next to Patrick's own ears as he barely had time to look over his shoulder. He fell forward onto the floor next as the beast growled over him almost in a glide, as the form of the four-legged beast vanished quickly into the cloak of darkness once more. Shaken from the encounter Patrick slowly pushed himself back onto his feet, eyes blood shot as they scanned for the creature in the direction it had went. Nothing. The creature seemed veiled by shadow once again, with his playfully low snarls to echo all around Patrick. The stone beneath his feet felt hot as he stood, the faint light of his familiar friend shone faintly within the distance.

"Patrick!!" Ri called out from such a far away position. "Patrick hurry!! Hurry, run this way!!" She beckoned him as he just watched briefly with his attention split, between her and the Sessfiend that wandered amidst his position. Ri continued to urge him to her place and after another snarl heard from his right, Patrick darted into a sprint for the winged creature he sought to unite himself with. If anything she would be able to help him out of here, help him escape the hunting this creature sought to torture him with. "Patrick run!! Run!!"

"Ri!" He called out to the fairy as he pushed himself further into the run, no matter how much his chests heaved he didn't stop. No. He pushed himself harder to reach her, and just as he began to do so he heard the creature behind him once more. Something else happened though. The floor beneath his feet felt so warm now, rather uncomfortably so in fact, that he heard stone crack right behind him in the process. His pursuit for his friend now challenged by the crumbling of stone beneath his feet, as the pressured heat from below started to swell and rise in force all of a sudden. The Sessfiend seemed to be right behind him, he felt the heavily rushed pants from it's maw upon his flesh as he pushed onward. "Ri'ku!!" He called out just before he felt the ground beneath his feet shift, until nothing remained there to hold him in place as it did beforehand. As Patrick fell he could hear two things in his descent, the cry of the Sessfiend as it too fell into the all consuming void... and the sound of Ri'ku's voice as she called out to him.

Darkness seemed the only thing present until he felt his drift lull to a stop, and then somehow the world around him took on a different form. Patrick at last opened his eyes not to darkness, but to a meadow of flowers that appeared to be bordered with trees all around. Above him existed a plain sky as there existed not two suns, but a sun and a moon that shared the same domain in cohesion. "Where..." Ri'ku fluttered before his face from out of nowhere in a frenzy dynamic, resembling that of the concern she usually displayed for him.

"Patrick! You made it!"

"To... where?" He inquired as she turned to dart about a few inches away.

"I'm not sure." She responded in turn. "Could be another's dream or... a sanctuary perhaps?"

"What?" Patrick scoffed at the implication of her suggestion, no matter how plausible it seemed to explain the outcome. He looked down to find himself dressed in a comfortable pair of cotton clothes, white shirt and white pants that loosely clung to the surface of his flesh. As he walked about the meadow curiously, he heard faintly within the air a dying echo of the beast that chased him. Had this place really served a sanctuary from that creature? Where they legitimately safe here? Within the confines of another's dream even? He needed to investigate first to understand, thus he wandered aimlessly among the flowers to see what he would discover.

Strangely his venture through the meadow and into the woods led him into this sort of tunnel like entrance, until he finally reached an spacious abode inward through the beyond. "This is so exciting!" Ri seemed to eagerly cheer as she bounced about in the air near him, their presence now graced with a dining room of a sort decorated for a gathering. It felt strange mostly because of it's designated location for one, and that it had been so well set within that location. Granted the host of the little gathering seemed to be someone he knew though, Patrick soon found the unusual sensation of the moment seem to lessen upon seeing the little wood roamer. "Well I'll be damned, never thought I'd be seein' you again Niv." He admitted with a chipper smile about himself, the sense of safety overwhelming now that the fallen beast he'd lost seemed far behind him now.

"Oh, sorry." He snickered when Ri'ku fluttered her way down to circle around Niv. "Niv this is Ri'ku, a lil' companion o' mine that nobody can see."

"Except within the Emea," She corrected as she seemed to draw closer to Niv, "I've eagerly waited for this sort of moment Niv. Pleased to meet you naturally!" Though the light of her bubble wouldn't really allow anybody to see, Niv could at least tell when the fairy drew in close to greet her with her own hug. Patrick remembered well just how fond Ri'ku had been of Niv once they had met, which felt like a long time ago even it had just been last winter.

"As for... who?" His smile drooped in utter confusion as he scratched the back of his head, his eyes briefly shot to the ceiling as he twisted to see the ones Niv referred to. He only had the one 'friend' with him as far as he knew, so to figure out that others had come in behind him intrigued him. "Don't know these two any, guess they must've wandered here like I did." He reasoned as the girl seemed to remain quiet for the most part, the man that followed in behind her seemed confidently comfortable in being here of course. Rather in a natural stride he seemed to take an acorn and sip down it's contents, so that he would shrink down a few sizes to fit a spot at the table set within the room. Patrick's eyes widened as he stood there dumb struck, just what in Idalos did he managed to find himself in? At the suggestion that he and the girl ought to do the same, he followed the lead of his predecessor and took an acorn rather cautiously.

He didn't doubt that what was inside would... hurt him maybe? Acorns were toxic to humans though weren't they? Besides what kind of shit was in this anyhow? It seemed rather pasty when he eyed it curiously, after considering just what all could go wrong he shrugged; and then tilted the acorn so that he could consume this substance. It seemed... tangy almost, but in a sweet manner. Was that sap? Did he just consume sap? The goop seemed to produce the same effect on him, the surface of his skin barely even tickled as Patrick watched his world grow in size. Naturally though it had been him shrinking down a few sizes, just like the other stranger that walked in after they did. "Wow! Now we're about the same size!" Ri cheered as Patrick felt what he could only assume was her hand, she'd guided him along to find a seat next to the stranger himself. Of course Ri'ku made sure she had been closer to Niv, likely because she'd been so eager to finally meet the little Tunawa in person.

"Well this is certainly a lil' odd." He looked to the girl that followed him inside, curious to see where she would sit before taking initiative. "Name's Patrick love, Niv and I are old friends from a while back." He looked from her to the guy that hadn't introduced himself yet, unaware that they'd been in fact graced with the presence of an Immortal. "And you both are?" He inquired as he fiddled around with a leaf that was presumably his plate in this little party.

This private little gathering seemed to develop stranger and stranger as they sat down, first they were to shrink down a few sizes and then next, they were set to play a game of two truths and a sole lie. Patrick was a fan of games naturally, and played one similar to this many times as a bartender... and a drunk. At first when Niv went and with a few guesses from everyone, save Patrick, the truth came to be known for them all to understand. It seemed simple enough, though Patrick didn't like the idea of indulging personal information so openly. He might've known Niv a little sure, but even then such information could only prove leverage on him later... if he weren't careful about what he said. Tei'serin seemed to be the one who went up next, her own silence filled with careful pondering on what it was she should share.

Finally the three statements came to be spoken and left for them to decide, and while a few of the others were either bickering about the possibilities; Patrick remained yet again quieter as he watched Tei'serin a little bit more closely. Ri'ku didn't seem to pay too close attention as she too seemed occupied with the game, but overall Patrick kept himself observant while the other fellow that joined them seemed to make his guess. Either a teacher or farmer, and then the color yellow being stated in the group. The reasoning for the farming to be a lie seemed well enough but... even then the man seemed unsure about the full assurance of his claim. He changed his mind to say that perhaps, and he could've very well been right, Tei was both a farmer and a teacher perhaps. The possibility seemed likely and yet even so, the only other variable was a favorite color...

Yellow... she didn't seem like the type that pointed such things out, and from the posture in her form and roughness of her hands? Patrick could see good and well those hands were worked, and teachers didn't typically have such hands to deal with as they didn't use them for the same purpose of a farmer. "I'll wager that it's teacher actually." He suggested afterwards before the man decided to make the next turn, of course his eyes wandered around the group before they fell on Tei again. "Reason bein' is that you're too loose, too care free with yer posture actually. Teachers have a form of etiquette in their posture, even then the posture wouldn't matter because of how rough yer hands look. Roughed hand's like that means hard work which is what farmer's do, and I don't see why you'd state a favorite color when it's likely one of yer two trades aren't actually real." He shrugged afterwards with a wry grin, a few soft scratches made at the skin of his neck underneath the collar bone.

This of course would've barely revealed the silvery bite marks underneath the cloth that covered his skin, nevertheless he didn't pay any mind to the fact that someone would notice it there. The man went next with his own set of statements, two of them truth while one... a lie. As he rested his eyes on the man, he became more noticeably a figure of attraction to the bartender. Why Patrick hadn't been apt to notice this before was beyond him, but the guy who stated one truth being his name suddenly seemed very attractive to Patrick. Wait. Those names. Ymiden? Audrae? Those were very heavy names to throw onto the table, and the fact this man did so with so little reluctance created another pause in Patrick's demeanor. This man... did he just introduce himself as Ymiden? The Ymiden? As in the Immortal Himself that walked the earth? Now hold on a Trill.

Ymiden was a season to be sure, but the Immortal behind that season? Here? What was his second statement? About Audrae? Audrae who Patrick never met nor hardly heard of, just the basic everyday rumor that she despised man. Was that true? How did this came to be if Ymiden had been Her lover? That is of course IF this 'Ymiden' was in fact telling the truth. "I say bullshit." He stated bluntly to the man with little disregard for his tone. "For one; when has Immortals ever sat down and sipped tea just for fun and games. Two if ya really are Ymiden then why waste time on us puny mortals, when ya probably have better things t' do than 'ask fer our help' as you say." It was likely he came off resentful a little with the topic of Immortals, his arms crossed as he became aware of the sudden silence that developed after his little outburst.