Sleeping Handsome

Cursed Woods of Raelm






After silence, hours of silence, silence through the night, silence through the small animals that crawled over him, silence that echoed from it's sheer volume, Scabbar spoke. "I hate you." he groaned, pushing himself up from the forest floor carefully. His arms were still oh so weak right now.

"Oh finally you're awake." Alavara replied seemingly unaffected by his words. "About time. I was starting to get bored." She slowly sat up and stretched her arms as the fire beside her suddenly blazed back into life. "Are you hungry? Or are you eager to try and fix the mess we're in?"

There was a slight adjustment of the hood, and vomit splattered to the floor. It had happened sometime during the night, and Scabbar had almost choked on it. "No food." he grimaced as he brought the hood back down "But I need water. Water to drink. Water to clean."

"Theres a small river just that way.." Alavara replied pointing to the right of where there fire was. "It should be safe enough to drink..I think." She shrugged lightly, deciding she would let him find out for himself. "If you're not hungry then we'll leave once you're ready." 

Scabbar made his way down towards the river, his movements a little careful, pained, and squishy. He eventually found the river. He didn't dare drink from it, he didn't trust Alavara on that, but he did pull his hood off and began to rinse it out. He also dipped his hand in and began to wash off the rest of the sick from his face, hair and clothes.

Alavara extinguished the fire with a wave of her hand then began looking about her for any signs of which way Eon and the others went. She moved quickly when she spotted dog like tracks and after stooping to inspect them for a moment straightened up and looked towards Scabbar. "It seems they're moving back towards the castle..." she called to him.

"The place you said we couldn't get into." Scabbar said, staying hidden among the bushes as he cleaned up, filling the hood, emptying it again, and getting as much out as possible before putting it back on. A wet hood was better than none. "Should we head them off then?" he asked, wondering if Alavara expected him to run.

"I'm not sure we'd catch them in time." Alavara replied with a frown. She looked thoughtful for a few moments before looking back at Scabbar. "It looks like we might need to get some disguises to get us into the castle. Its the only solution I can come up with to allow us to follow them."

"I worked there. I know back doors as well." Scabbar pointed out, shaking his head and squeezing the cloth around his head to dry it out slightly "I might be able to get us relatively far into the castle without being noticed." He didn't really trust her magic. Just as a rule really, don't trust magic to keep working.

"Well as comfortable as you are to wonder around the castle as you are, drows aren't trusted and the first sighting of me would make them raise the alarm..so I'm going to transform myself." Alavara replied. With a few muttered words she was suddenly in the disguise of a human woman with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. "Shall we go then?" She asked turning to look at Scabbar.

Scabbar nodded, then said blearily "Don't I know you from somewhere? I mean.. her..." He waved a hand at the illusion, a bit confused as he turned and began to walk. If Alavara thought he was going to run, he'd be happy to throw up on her to show he was in no fit state.

"Do you?" Alavara asked glancing at Scabbar as she started walking beside him. "How exactly do you know this girl?" There was honest curiosity in her voice before she waited for him to answer.

"I don't know..." Scabbar said with a small shrug of his shoulders "The village I think? It just seems like someone I've seen before." He was a little defensive of his life outside of killing people.

"Its just my luck that I've somehow taken the form of an old friend or yours.." Alavara replied with a frown. "..or maybe a loved one, a sister or maybe even your wife." She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. Was it possible that this man would have someone like that. "Do you wish for me to change? I could take the form of the princess..it would make things easier if we just got rid of her after all.."

"Perhaps you should take the form of one of the cleaners of the castle." Scabbar said, saying nothing about possible loved ones, family or even romantic issues "They can go about with no one noticing them. The smallest people are sometimes the best to be after all."

"A cleaner?" Alavara repeated with narrowed eyes. When he continued talking she realised he was probably right. "Perhaps the princesses handmaiden..that way I can keep an eye on her and stop her going to Eon and the others when they reach the castle and you can concentrate on getting rid of them. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Can you make me invulnerable to magic first?" Scabbar said, rubbing his stomach wound and wincing slightly. He had quite a bad wound still after all, and poison was still in his system "Because I really... really hate the fact they keep stopping me."

"Fine." Alavara said with a sigh then suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. An intense heat began to spread from her hand and Scabbar would surely feel it quickly spread throughout his body. This lasted for a few minutes before she finally let go. "There. You should be immune to most magics now and anything that group throws at you shouldn't be a problem."

God he hated magic. Scabbar was tempted to swing the axe around and take Alavara's head off, but he was supposing she lied a bit. After all, why should she make him immune to herself? He didn't trust her. He hefted his axe up, groaning to himself as he walked along. The poison still hurt.

"You're welcome." Alavara muttered with an eye roll. "Well let's get to the castle and report to prince Reise. He's not going to be happy with how things went yesterday." She knew this was an understatement. Reise was going to be furious.

"Whatever." Scabbar said with a grunt and a shrug. He really didn't feel like thanking her, after all, she let him lay there in his own vomit all night. He kinda just wanted to get this over with, he was just getting paid to kill people.

---

Ziane shifted a little as she felt the sun beating down on her face from between the branches of the dead trees. It was smoggy here in the cursed woods, but she could still feel the sun's warmth and glow on her fur. She opened her eyes with a wince, glancing up at the sky and around at where she was. She had passed out so quickly the night before... That she felt a little disoriented now. She then remembered Noctis and how he had helped her, stayed with her... Was he still..? She gasped and shifted to look around, but the movement abruptly reminded her of her wound and she let out a loud growl of pain, a hand covering her temporarily patched wound.

"Huh? What?" Noctis said with a jump from where he still lay beside Ziane, his arm still wrapped around her protectively. He had fallen asleep during the night as he tried to keep watch. "Are you alright?" He asked her in a concerned tone though his voice was still tired.

"Y-yeah... peachy." Ziane grumbled sourly, rubbing the spot gingerly before shifting more carefully to turn and look at him. Well... he was still here, she had to give him props for that. She sighed a little and smiled crookedly. "Good morning, sleeping beauty. How'd you sleep?" she teased.

Noctis sat up and scratched his head with an embarrassed expression. "Uh yeah..sorry. I meant to stay awake to keep watch but I just got so tired. I haven't slept properly in days. But we didn't get attacked so everything's okay.." he shrugged lightly then looked at Ziane. "How are you feeling? Did you sleep well?"

Ziane nodded and sighed, relaxing back on the ground again for a moment with a deep breath. "Well enough." she whispered. She rolled her head to look at him, raising her eyebrows. "We need to get moving. The sun is coming up..." she whispered. "Help me up and let's get on the road."

Noctis slowly got to his feet them gave a loud yawn and a stretch before reaching his hand down and offering it to Ziane to help her up. "Do you want me to change into the horse again? I could get us there in no time.." he asked her.

Ziane grunted and winced as she pulled herself to her feet with his help, then shook her head. "N-no... I can't hang onto you as a horse in this condition. Besides, there are plenty of creatures in these woods that would love to have a stallion like you for breakfast." she mumbled, giving him a playful nudge in the side. "If we could fly it would be faster... and safer.."

"Fly? What did you have in mind for me?" Noctis asked with a raised eyebrow after he had helped her to her feet. "What sort of creature would be deemed acceptable to fly into Layfette without being shot down?"

Ziane looked at him and a playful smirk glittered across her lips and through her cat eyes. "A Griffith." she said softly. "I'm sure you can pull that off, can't you?" she asked in a light voice, patting his chest encouragingly.

"A griffith?!" Noctis replied and sighed. "Nothing too hard then.." He said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "Okay i'll give it a go." He sighed then closed his eyes to concentrate. When he opened them he turned his head to inspect his form. "Does it look okay?"

Ziane hummed, rubbing her chin as she looked this way and that at Noctis' new form. Finally, she smiled coyly at him and nodded. "It looks perfect. Can you fly?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean... It'll be alright?" She asked this as she moved closer to his side, lightly putting a hand against his shoulder.

"I guess there's only one way to find out..you want to climb up or would you feel more comfortable if I gave it a test run without you first?" Noctis asked as he gave his large wings a small flutter before outstretching them completely ready to fly.

"We don't have time for a test run. Let's just go." Ziane mumbled, grunting in pain as she pulled herself up onto his back. Her movements were less graceful than before, thanks to her wound, and her muscles were all stiff and sore from the fight yesterday. "I'm ready." she said, once her thighs were gripping to his sides and her hands were gripping to the feathers on his neck.

"Just so you know..i've never flown before. So this isn't going to be as graceful as its meant to be." Noctis told her then looked up towards the sky. "Okay well here goes.." He started beating his vast wings and for a few moments he didn't think anything was going to happen until suddenly he lifted from the ground and quickly began to gain height. "Hold on tight.." He said once they were above the trees then he turned in the direction of the Layfette and took off, trying his best not to knock her off.



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