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Page name: Group 1-The Volcano [Logged in view] [RSS]

2010-06-10 03:07:01

Last author: Chel.
Owner: Chel.

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The Volcano

Due to reasons unknown, Solomon Ash, Alicein Branch and Navzal were thrown into a new world with a new time, completely different from their own. Nothing was familiar and there was no explanation. On everyone's left wrist is a thick, hexagonal gauntlet. On each side were two small holes. Each bracelet was of a different metal, heavy and immovable.
The sky streamed light down into the huge crater. In places in the center of the crater, steam rose from where the rock split open to reveal lava flowing underneath. The walls of the crater were jagged and steep. The deep rumbling of liquid stone circulating below the earth hummed ceaselessly.

Solomon Ash groaned, his head splitting open from a killer hangover. He must've left his window open because his desk was frying his cheek sunny-side-up. It was starting out to be one of those godawful summer days in Los Ang...
His hand reached out for his cigarettes and was greeted by something sharp that sliced the heel of his palm. He yelped in surprise and opened his eyes to see the angry red stone walls of the crater of a volcano. He quickly got to his feet and pressed his handkerchief against his palm. Okay, he thought. Not Los Angeles. Who do I know who has access to a volcano, and how long does my apology have to be? He suddenly noticed something underneath his sleeve, and pulled up the cloth to see an ornate six-sided steel bracer locked around his forearm. It conformed perfectly to his skin and didn't seem to have a seam or any other way to get it on or off.

Alicein Branch found herself suddenly in a place she was pretty sure she hadn't been five minutes ago. All of a sudden she understood why she'd always been taught to never accept drugs from a tweaker. She'd tripped before but never like this. "I expected rainbows and get Dante's Inferno." As her eyes wandered they felt dry and heavy and when she moved her hand to rub them only then did she notice the extra weight attached to her arm. Marveling at it's intricacy she was pretty sure that hadn't been there five minutes ago ether.

Navzal went from smiling in a sitting position, his arm up as if over someone, to yelping, flat on his ass. He scrambled up, coughing from the suddenly dry hot air and looked around. He began to instinctively fold his arms over his chest in a protective position when he noticed a thick gold bracelet on his wrist covered with some decorative bas relief. He breathed deeply as he tried to make sense of the situation.

Solomon jumped at two people suddenly popping into existence. His hand instinctively went for his gun, but when he saw the doped-up dame and the toga kid he relaxed his grip. "Hey," He barked over the rumble of the volcano, much louder than his headache would've liked. They were across the crater, about twenty feet away, but between them was a fissure where the rock broke and exposed the lava.

Navzal jumped and turned to face Solomon when he yelled. He squinted at Solomon, then looked around to spy Alice. It was all clear to him now. "Oh... I get it..." he said dropping his arms, taking on an assertive posture, glaring eyes on Solomon. "I've been drugged. And kidnapped! You know, I'm really flattered, and I'm sure this girl is too..." honestly he was insulted that she was considered high enough caliber to be kidnapped along with him. "And I really don't give a shit who hired you, but..." he looked around. "Genius path you took. Real top notch job. How about you tell me where we are, so I can find a way back to civilization."

Alicein completely noticed the other two when Navzal began speaking, she was glad that people still spoke English in hallucinations and regarded their appearances as somewhat strange, but she'd seen stranger so she wasn't immediately alarmed. After all it was the 70's. "This must be what a bad trip feels like..." she told herself.

Solomon immediately regretted giving him the chance to talk. "Jesus, like I have nothing better to do with my time than babysit a couple of college brats," He circled the crater. "Kidnap you? Kid, they couldn't pay me enough." The walls were steep, but there were cracks in places that might be deep enough to crawl through.

"College?" Alicin scoffed "College is just another tool for the man to brainwash the conformed masses. But you're an hallucination so it doesn't really matter that I'm even talking to you."

Navzal assumed the girl was still drugged up. He decided to ignore whatever nonsense she had just said and angrily replied, "I am not a college, I'm a Persian! And if you didn't kidnap me, then what are you doing with this girl and I? I don't remember agreeing to go on a walk!"

"I'm a captive. Same as you," Solomon said slowly, glaring at Navzal like he was a moron. The boy's shrill voice stabbed needles into his brain. "Goddammit, Keller, what have you gotten me into?" He muttered to himself. He walked the circumference of the crater slowly, his hands exploring the crevices carefully. There might be some way to climb out.

"Maybe this is like a vision of what's going to happen to our planet if we keep using Styrofoam cups and hair spray?" Alicein wasn't speaking to anyone in particular. She didn't like the idea of being a captive, after all, none of this was real.

Navzal lifted a brow at Alicein and slowly folded his arms. "So we were all kidnapped... if that's true, where's our kidnapper? It doesn't make a lot of sense to dump us in the middle of nowhere. I mean, people get kidnapped for a reason."

"Maybe," Solomon said, "Maybe not." He finally made it across the volcano to the other two. "You got any enemies?" He said, addressing Navzal more than Alicein since she seemed high as a kite.

A slight smile twisted on the corner of Navzal's mouth, but he forced it away. "None either of you would know. Unless either of you are familiar with any Athenians." He decided it was best not to reveal just how many enemies he had.

"Greek, eh?" Solomon snorted. "That explains the colorful locale." He moved back to the spot in the crater that looked easiest to scale. "Any bright ideas as to how to get outta here?" He asked, not really expecting a good answer.

"I would say climb but that would be too obvious." Alicein said gesturing to the volcano's crater-like walls. She'd taken to staring at them, having climbed a rock or two in her time she was checking to see if there where any viable hand and foot holds.

Navzal looked at the crater's walls, down at his expensive sandals and let out an unhappy sigh. "What sense is there dumping us here anyway... I mean... Shit! Do you think some weird cult kidnapped us?" Navzal became panicky again.

"If this is supposed to be some kind of trap or cage then I believe it's meant to instill in us a sense of foreboding and hopelessness. So we wouldn't try to escape." Alicein said "If I where to believe this was all real I mean."

"Yeah, well, they're doing a lousy job," Solomon growled. "Look, it levels off lower here. C'mon," He said, and began to scale the rock, getting high enough to pull himself onto the ledge where the crater began to slant more horizontally. He turned and offered his hand to whoever needed help up.

Well, damn, if it was a cult Navzal was getting the hell out of there. He was too eager to escape to even notice Solomon's hand, let alone worry about the state of his sandals. He scrambled up the side of the crater as best he could.

Solomon looked down at the drugged girl. "Well, are you coming or not?" He said, still offering his hand.

"I'm coming." Alicein said as she was taking off her sandals. She stuffed them in the waste-band of her skirt and took Solomon's hand so she could reach the first set of holds. "I'm ok." She told him as she let go to continue climbing "I've climbed a rock or two in my time." She didn't seem to have very much of a problem, even in her bare feet.

Solomon grunted as he made it across the edge of the crater. The stone continued for about twenty feet and then was smothered in jungle. He shrugged off his trenchcoat and buttoned it around his shoulders like a cape. Not too far away looked to be the beginning of a path, but it was overgrown and it was obvious that no one had used it for years. "Well, whoever wanted us to disappear, they did a good job. This is about as remote as you get."

Navzal was dumb struck when he reached the top. He had never seen any forest remotely like this. He had heard stories from oriental merchants about the wild forests of India, and the thing that stuck out the most about said stories was the recounts of the horrible jungle beasts. His eyes drifted to Solomon and he slowly cracked an uneasy but pleasant smile. It was time to make friends. Stronger, older, could possibly protect him friends. "Looks fun..." he attempted to joke, his eyes on Solomon.

Seeing how uneasy Navzal looked, Solomon gave him a smirk. "Hey, don't worry," he said. "If we stick together we should be okay. Luckily for us, the idiots didn't take my gun, so if anything gets too friendly I'll be able to handle it." He slid the revolver part of the way out of its holster and let it drop back down. He knelt and tucked his pants into his shoes to avoid getting malaria from mosquito bites before taking out his pocket knife and frowning desolately at the overgrown path. "Either of you happen to have a machete by any chance?"

"I have a knife." Alicein said as she topped the wall and produced the pocket knife her dad had given her several years ago. "Can't cut threw the jungle with it but it might come in handy anyway." That was if all of this was indeed real.

"It'll have to do," Solomon said. He had his own pocket knife on him as well but it wasn't going to do a lot to those vines. "Come on. Watch your step." He began tromping through the underbrush, making the way as smooth as he could for the barefoot girl and the fop.

Alicin slipped her sandals back on after brushing the rock dust from her feet. She fell in behind Sol and Navzal, silently remarking the natural beauty of the jungle around them. She kept her eyes peeled to the floor for snakes and other critters that might do them harm. For an hallucination this stuff seemed awfully real.

Navzal tried to stay as close to Solomon without actually touching him. "Do you think there's lions in here?" He asked nervously. As he walked a vine brushed his shoulder and he jumped with a yelp. He grabbed the back of Solomon's shirt and cried, "Snake! Kill it!"

Solomon whipped out his gun and whirled on the vine, stared at it, relaxed, and gave Navzal a look, holstering his gun.

Alicein was just about to remark on how lions mainly came from the plains and savannas of Africa when she spied the cause of Navzal's disturbance. "You're a jumpy one dude." She said with a smile, swinging the vine out of her way. "I have something that can take care of that." It wasn't exactly easy to tell if she was joking or not but she was smiling.

Navzal had long concluded that whatever drug their captors had used to bring them here was still fully effecting the girl. Therefore he could forgive her oddities a little. "We're in a jungle... there are things that could eat us here..." he said in an annoyed tone to Alicein. He looked back at Solomon and gave him a sheepish smile as he feel in step next to him. "What is that weapon, by the way? Is it a sort of club?"

"If we make enough noise we should be fine." Alicein said to herself since Nav's attention was already drawn to Sol's pistol.

"It's a revolver," Solomon said, bemused. "You know, 'bang, bang!' and whatever you were aiming at is dead?" He pantomimed the recoil from the shots. "Where did you say you were from?"

"It fires small projectiles made of led." Alicin added incase Nav didn't quite get sol's whole "bang bang" bit.

Navzal raised a brow in blank confusion at Solomon's explanation. Before he could say where he lived, Alicein chimed in. "So, it's like a cross bow?"

"Same basic principle yes." Alicein explained, "Only more lots more deadly."

Solomon holstered the gun again. "I'm Solomon, by the way," He said, figuring, what the hell, anytime is a good time to introduce yourself. "Solomon Ash."

Navzal felt more relaxed with this killing machine explained to him. "I'm Navzal," he said quickly and happily to Solomon. Yes, he'd be befriending this man. He didn't give a shit about the girl though. "Son of Zal. He's a famous Magus in Media."

"Is he, now?" Solomon grinned. "They must be tryna hold you for ransom, then." Poor frat boy probably didn't even hear them coming, he thought. "How 'bout you, doll? Got a name?"

"Alicein Wonderland Branch." Alicein said offering her hand to Sol with what appeared to be intentions of shaking it. "My mom has a thing for the book."

"My condolences," Solomon said, shaking the hand offered. "I don't suppose you're a baroness, or the child of some oil tycoon?"

"Nope." Alicein said still holding Sol's hand "Your from Chicago?" she turned his hand over and looked at his palm and added "You used to be a cop." Before letting go of his hand.

"You're a gypsy hobo," Solomon said, confirming her statements. "Not to be redundant," He added.

"What does that mean? Gypsy Hobo? Does she have rich family too?" Navzal asked, looking at Alicein with a bit of disgust. She sure didn't look rich. She looked absolutely crazy.

"I don't believe in material wealth." Alicein told them "I believe in wealth of the spirit."

"Yeah, well, that'n a nickel will get you a cuppa coffee," Solomon replied. He pulled a thick tangle of vines apart and climbed through, holding the gap open for the other two.

Navzal had no idea what Solomon said, so he just looked up at him confused. Alicein's statement made sense, however. "So, she's a hermit?" Navzal was in the habit of not talking directly to women except to scold them. He was sexist, not attracted to them and had a habit of enraging the wives of the guys he stayed with. That being said, as curious as he was about Alicein, he asked Solomon all the questions.

"I am not a hermit." Alicein told Nav speaking to him directly, her tone was slightly stern and aggravated but she wasn't yelling by any means. "And I am standing right here. If you want to know something ask me not him. He doesn't know me any better than you do. I am quite capable of speaking for myself."

Navzal looked back at her with an irritated but overall indifferent look. He then looked back forwards, annoyed at the uppity female. He had learned that women would whine forever if given the chance, and the best thing to do was ignore them. "Have you been to a jungle before?" he asked Solomon, blowing Alecein off.

Alicein's eyes narrowed considerably and she brushed pass Nav without touching him. She wanted to push him over into a man eating plant or something but resisted the urge. She moved out in front of Solomon so she wouldn't have to listen to Nav's sexist drivel.

"Forests? Yes. Swamps? Yes. Jungles? No," Solomon replied to Navzal, watching Alicein move ahead of them. "I've flown over them, but I've never had the pleasure of wading through one." Stone markers began to appear along the path.

"Wait wait wait... Flown?" Navzal said with a slight smile, believing Solomon was joking. That was just too ridiculous.

"Yeah, I was a pilot in the war," Solomon said. "Didn't get to do a lotta sightseeing, to tell the truth, though I can't say I ever wanted to."

"A pilot..." Navzal repeated, confused but overall a bit giddy that this man was a soldier. "Is that like a cavalryman who rides giant birds?" This was very exciting. Navzal was used to encountering foreigners and hearing stories, so nothing really blew his mind.

"Airplanes, son," Solomon explained with a frown. "Fighter jets. Where did you say you were from?"

"Greece," Navzal said quickly, too absorbed with the idea of flying. "So, are these things animals? Or do you strap something to your arms like Icarus?" The idea seemed completely amazing to him and his eyes lit up as he imagined scantily clad warrior men with wings shooting arrows.

Alicein was taking notice of the stone markers, every so often stopping to see if they were marked with any sort of words of symbols. She could still hear the men talking behind her and wondered if Sol was talking about the war so many young men had fled to Canada to avoid.

Solomon grinned. "That must be one damn remote island you're from," He said. "No, you fly it from the inside, like an automobile with wings. You know, the big, steel birds with propeller engines? The bigger ones hold bombs inside, and they fall outta their bellies and blow up the enemy's airfields and supply depots and whatever else needs blowing up." His hands expressed what he was saying, and in his eye was an expression of amazement that the boy had never heard any of this before.

"So, they're automatons? " Navzal asked, thinking about the mechanized statues he had seen in Greek temples. He was picturing huge metallic birds spitting fire onto rows of screaming soldiers. This was just too cool.

Alicein moved several paces further, examining the markers whenever she found one. The boy's voices where growing more distant as she gained more distance between them.

"More like automatons, yes," Solomon said, keeping an eye on Alicein. "I mostly flew fighter planes, got into dogfights with the enemy, that sort of thing."

The markers began to appear more frequently and the ground shifted from dirt to cobbled stones into an actual path.

Alicein looked behind here where Solomon and Navzal where supposed to be. She'd gotten far enough ahead of them that they where no longer behind her. She thought about calling to them but figured against it. They could find out when they got here. She continued on, more spite in her steps that she intended. Nav's actions had really upset her.

"Dogfights in giant automaton birds?" Navzal said with a skeptical amused smile. He hadn't noticed Alecein was gone. Hell, he still thought she was behind him. The more Solomon talked, the more Navzal found him attractive. A warrior who rides fire spewing mechanical birds? So cool!

"Well, not literally dogfights," Solomon shrugged. "Like how crows go after a hawk, only spewing bullets." He smirked. "There's a whole section of graveyard in Germany for the bastard Kraut pilots I took down." Something about Navzal's wide-eyed wonder made him want to puff out his chest. A little concerned that he couldn't see Alicein anymore, he picked up his pace.

Alicein was quite a ways ahead of them, sitting on her haunches admiring another one of those markers. She was determined to find something on them, a name of a town, the marking of a road. A skull and crossbones signaling danger wouldn't be half bad, it was at least something.

"Are you a hero?" Nazval asked, so intrigued by these foreign words and fantastical stories. If he was any closer to Solomon he would have been leaning on him. He felt totally safe now, despite being in a mysterious jungle.

Solomon shook his head. "No. Just damn lucky."

The markings were well-weathered and barely legible, but looked almost Aztec in origin. Some of the bigger ones looked like heads.

Alicein's curiosity was peeked but despite how she tried she couldn't make out the symbols. She looked behind her and noticed she could no longer hear Solomon and Nazval so she decided to sit ant wait till she could at least hear their voices.

Not far ahead of Alicein was a wide, decorated entrance leading into the mountain.

Solomon caught up with Alicein. "Find anything?" He asked.

"Oh nothing, just this wide decorated entrance." Alicein said looking at the opening, trying to decide if the markings where Myan or not.

The sound of breaking twigs and foilage could be faintly heard to the groups left. It progressed to become louder and louder in combination with grunts and squeaks until it was too late to react. A cluster of people tumbled down the slope onto the three unexpected strangers in front of The Temple Entrance.

Back to: Gallery of Stones
Characters:The 6
Group 2-The Sea Cave

2010-04-10 [Ravenclaw]: does it conform as we grow or does it start out that way?

2010-04-10 [Chel.]: Basically you can have it look however you want. The only guidelines are that it is made out of a metal different from everyone else's and must have the 6 sides with two stone holes each.

2010-04-10 [Ravenclaw]: ok, that's cool

2010-04-10 [Ravenclaw]: are we all in the exact same place or do we have to locate each other?

2010-04-13 [Chel.]: You mean the two groups?

2010-04-13 [Ravenclaw]: nevermind, i figured it out

2010-04-18 [Chel.]: HEY.

2010-04-23 [Pnelma Tirian]: ...anybody?

2010-04-23 [NOOOPE]: what's being asked? I'm posting!

2010-04-27 [Chel.]: ?

2010-04-27 [NOOOPE]: So uh, what's the other side of the crater like?

2010-04-28 [Chel.]: Aw, cute.

2010-04-30 [Ravenclaw]: "I have a knife." Alicein said as she topped the wall and produced the pocket knife her dad had given her several years ago. "Can cut threw the jungle with it but it might come in handy any way." That was if all of this was indeed real.

2010-04-30 [Chel.]: Not this again >_>

2010-05-12 [NOOOPE]: It would sound like med- EEE- aa. Not MEE-dee-aa, so I don't think Solomon would get confused.

2010-05-12 [Pnelma Tirian]: :(

2010-05-13 [NOOOPE]: It sucks they are spelled the same. I was trying to look up Media as in the place forever and kept getting sites about tv and shit.

2010-05-27 [Pnelma Tirian]: shitty short post, sorry.

2010-06-06 [Chel.]: pardon?

2010-06-06 [Ravenclaw]: i posted last can't blame me.

2010-06-10 [Pnelma Tirian]: lol, Rc.

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