RP:Reece Drops the Orb
Part of the Glass Orb Arc
Reece "Dropping" the Orb
ELF lifts a hand to her forehead to shade her eyes for a moment as she peers down into the bubbling spring that she sits beside. Now free of the academy for the day, the woman wears her usual well-tailored leggings and loose-fitting tunic. But it is not so loose as it once was. Her stomach swells the soft, pliant leather of the front of it, the round bump appearing all the larger in comparison to her slender, agile frame. Upon her lap rests what appears to be a tiger cub. He currently sleeps, a thing ELF is thankful for, for she feels exhaustion now when asked to try and keep up with his antics. Eyes on the spring, she searches. Ah, there it was, a small, bright yellow fish in the water. Seemingly oddly satisfied with this, her gaze softens and begins to drift over the surrounding forest. Her mind utters the call for company, but as yet, nothing happens. Her stomach ripples against the cub who stirs, stretches, then drops his head again.
Reece ghosts through the trees towards the spring of vitality, moonlight glistening off his silvery form and lancing through his wings so as to present an ephemeral image, phantomlike in the land lit only by starlight. With his mind open to the presence of others he seeks someone, anyone really, to begin his unusual test of his clanmates and then there he hears it, metaphorically, ELF's call for company. With near-silent tread and half-spread wings, leaving but the faintest mark of his passage on the land around him he flits towards the spring like a forest spirit, a high-pitched giggle escaping from a childlike visage specially prepared for just this event.
ELF looks up from her self-involved perusal of the water at her feet at the sound of the giggle. When she had asked for company, she had kept her request specific to animals. Strange that another sentient would come, but perhaps he overheard the summons. At the sound, the cub rolls over, then rises to his feet. He does not leave ELF's lap, but his green eyes fix upon the stranger. A pathetic attempt at a warning rumble comes from him, and ELF has to try desperately not to laugh. To do so would be to offend him, and felines took long to forget such insult. She says nothing, but simply watches him come closer. Perhaps he would pass by and leave her undisturbed, or perhaps not. The first move remained his, or perhaps the cub's, for his tail had begun to twitch.
Reece smiles gleefully, his gaze flicking to the elfess and her cub intermittently as he seems almost to dance from point to point, tree to tree. The feline’s baby-growl, picked up in all its vibrant detail by his owlish ears, elicits another giggle from the avian. The motion of a hand to his mouth brushes against the 'robe' he wears, the quiet tinkle of chain mail seeming to flow like ripples from the contact. Dropping from full flit to a sudden crouch on the opposite side of the spring to the elf the illusionist cocks his head slightly to one side, wide silver-blue eyes staring at her with an expression he had observed from forest sprites and which he hoped was suitably emulated here. Now it was someone else's move, himself content to sit in this position and stare for as long as it took.
ELF watches the approach of the stranger with some interest, a hand against the cub's chest to keep him from launching himself. She flicks a thought at his mind, but in his baby need to prove his manhood by protecting the mother figure, he does not listen. The rumbling continues. The man's guise was perfect, except for one thing. ELF was a druid, and one of no little power. She knew her forests well, and, through life flow signatures, always knew the origins of one who came close to her. Spirits had a different flow to the earthly-bound, but the fact that he pretends causes her enough interest to speak. In her musical, slightly lilted rendering of the common tongue, she asks, "Why do you attempt emulation? Do not you know in whose company you sit? Such dissembling is pointless, and could perhaps even be viewed as insult. Have a care, stranger." There is no threat in her tone, but a chilling matter-of-factness. ELF had hardened since the death of her husband, not to the point where she would willingly lash. But now, where once lay a heart of softness lies a heart tempered by the fires, as would steel be.
Reece's stare falters for the barest of moments, he knew who this elf was but it seemed to him that perhaps her reputation were... outdated. With a rustle his wings snap tight to his back, seeming to reflect moonlight in a shimmering echo of his movement as he shifts to sit upon a convenient moss-covered rock, facing bodily off towards ELF's left but turning his face to keep her in his view. In his high voice he says, "Perhaps I emulate simply for amusement, a game or a challenge?" Mischievously his tone turns almost taunting, "Perhaps I should ask if you know in whose company you sit?" In his unique vision each life form shone before him, each one providing him with information on what it was. As such he could be reasonably certain that they were alone and so his relaxed pose on the rock was indeed genuine.
ELF gives the man? Child? the person, no more than a dismissive shrug as she reaches down to shift the cub upon her lap. His fur bristles now, and ELF takes a moment for a stern word to hopefully settle him somewhat before returning her attention to the one before her. As he sits on the rock, she shifts slightly, the discomfort given by her now rippling stomach not shown in that cool, serene, indifferent mask she wears as an expression. "Perhaps, stranger," says she, her words still lilting, "One should ask himself why I should care. What does it matter? In time, either you will tell me, or you will not. What use does wondering afford me? And why know if knowing grants me no boon? I will not lower myself to digging for such information. Either you will divulge or you will not." Whilst her words are not cold, they are haughty, a typical trait of her race upon meeting strangers and one which ELF has not mastered yet.
Reece feels his face split almost unwillingly into a grin, this was the ELF he had heard about. With an oddly sharp shrug the avian lifts one foot to cross his legs, resting one ankle upon the other's knee. Pursing his lips briefly he changes his mind and swaps them over, a delicate hand outstretching briefly to flick a sticky piece of grass from the toe of his boot. "Perhaps then it does not matter and I shall not tell you." Like a magicians trick he procures a small glass orb, though as he has no sleeves it is not immediately obvious where it may have come from. This he rolls between his fingers as he goes to make light conversation, "It surprises me not to find the Empress of Life here, here where life is at its most potent. You must be chagrined to be so predictable."
ELF shrugs her shoulders again, her eyes flicking to the orb in his hands as he rolls it. Curious. She had not seen its like before. Yet she wonders little as her gaze returns to study his face with its usual penetrating quality. This unsettled many, but whether it would him remained to be seen. "The empress of life? If you refer to Lauria, stranger she is here. She is everywhere. As for being so predictable, I confess that I do not follow the path you take. Explain, if you will. If predictable means taking my ease at my spring, then I am guilty as charged." She appears supremely content with her guilt, however.
Reece catches her gaze briefly and meets it with a twitch of the corner of his mouth. Swiftly his gaze returns to the orb though for her penetrating look, though not unsettling per se, would certainly throw off his act should he give it time. "Take the empress of life to mean whom you will, but while all spirits and deities may be all places you most certainly are here." With a flick he passes the orb to his other hand, catching between his fore and middle fingers. "Guilty as charged..." His voice seems to lose a touch of the childlike quality in musings for a moment, "Well then let us hope you don't change." Odd words left unexplained as the avian rises swiftly to his feet, spinning on the spot as part of the single fluid motion. Catching the moonlight with a sparkle of light the orb flickers across the intervening distance and lands silently in the grass a short distance from the elfess, though the avian makes a deliberate motion as if he had put it in a pocket. With a parting wink the illusionist lets out another childish giggle from between pale lips as he flits into non-existence, vanishing like mist before the elfess could have a chance to react.
ELF watches him go, still with some curiosity. What a strange man, and rather unsettling at that. ELF felt an instinctual distrust of him. He had tried to deceive then had given her nought but riddles to puzzle over. As he vanishes, she releases her hold on the cub who scampers from her lap. He, being young and enamoured of such things, makes straight for the sparkling object in the grass. He stops by it, crouches, sniffs, twitches his tail, then creeps a little closer. A gust of wind causes the ball to roll and he jumps back. He waits, and when it stills, creeps after it once more. With a squeak, he pounces and bats the object, appearing totally nonplussed as it rolls away from him. He chases, and soon cub and orb are lost in the depths of the forest. ELF does not attempt to bring him back. His mind is full of the need to chase, chase, chase, pounce and claim. She knows she cannot reach him in this state. No doubt he would soon tire of the pretty object and come back. She remains, placidly sitting in the peace of the forest.