Ara looks up, and takes Taylen's hand. She stands carefully, wincing at the pain in her legs as they regain feeling. "I'm having a really bad day," she sighs, adjusting her right 'ear' back into position.

The bed is comfortable, and slightly warmed from its former occupant. You have to hold your book in the sliver of light coming through the window in order to read.

After an hour, Barry has not returned, and your roommates have all returned to peaceful sleep.

Kilrath

"Oh, that's right, I didn't get to introduce you. Taylen is Freya's close companion. You might have seen him leave. He's elven like me, and had some armor over his shoulder." Aust chuckles, "It kinda looked like he was carrying a dwarf." After saying, that, however, a dour expression gathers on Aust's face. For a little while, he doesn't say anything more, as the two of you continue on your way.

He takes you near to the city's central spire, and leads you up the spiral ramp towards the city's higher levels. As you ascend, you can see the hanging gardens, and areas where the branches have knitted solidly together to resemble a stretch of rolling hills, covered in greenery. An assortment of buildings, varying in size and shape, speckle your field of view as far as your eyes can see in the dim light.

As you reach the next higher tier of the city, Aust leads you away from the spire. He leads you off in what seems like a random direction. The buildings here are all much larger than those from the level below. Aust points to a huge dome as you pass it, "They call these buildings groweries. Some of them have livestock, but most house assorted plants. It's the city's main food supply. There's an aviary around here somewhere, and metalworks near the city's edge. One of the hunters told me they keep it all up here in case the city's lower levels are breached."

Ara makes a few final adjustments to her hair and outfit, resuming the guise of the elven maiden Ariana. She sighs again, and leans on a wall away from the door. "Well, after we got separated, I tried to look for you all, but just ended up lost. I managed to find a friendly gnomish fellow after a while. He was blowing rings, and... well, shapes... with pipe smoke. I remembered Silvan saying he lived here, and when I asked if he knew Silvan Koras, he told me how to find this place. He called it the Koras Estate, so it seemed like my best bet. When I got here, nobody answered, and I didn't feel like getting chased off the edge of the city again, so I let myself in. As for the closet, I thought it was a dark room. But when I stepped in, the door closed behind me, and I got wedged half-facing the hinge."

Ariana blinks, then answers at first in a surprised tone, "Closet? How'd you know that I... oh, right, the dustprints. I only tried on a few things. Whoever had that room before was either very thin, or sadistic. Seriously! Everything in that closet was either a robe, a fur coat, or a corset with limbs."

Taylen smiles "So was there anything interesting in this closet?"

"A very large mushroom, and a lot of tight-fitting clothing. It was a closet." She pauses for a moment, glancing at the broken door, "It was a normal closet."

Ara sighs, and stares at the door again. "As far as I could tell? Just me, the walls, and that door. What kind of psycho puts a magic door on an empty closet, anyway? These people must've been nuts... though I guess that would explain a few things about Silvan."

Taking a glance back down the hallway, she then looks at the elf across from her, "Is anyone else here? From the look of this place, nobody's used it in ages. At least nobody with a broom... or feet."

"On the subject of the dust, the lady who lead me here seemed to indicate Silvan's family has been gone for a long time."

Ariana scoffs, "He probably figured he'd get the woodsman to deal with it."

"You mean he's been here for hours and he just left me in a closet?!" Ariana stands, and approaches Taylen, "Which room is he in? I want to see if he's still asleep."

Shortly after, she drifts slowly off to sleep.

"Fine, but I get to wake him," she says with a glare in her eyes. Ariana follows Taylen as he leads her into Silvan's bedroom. She then steps forward quickly, and gives the sitting elf a resounding slap across the face.

ooc:
Name change, don't be alarmed.

And welcome back, Reyolen, it's time to wake up

These past few days, you seem to wake up in all sorts of odd positions. At the moment, you find yourself staring up at the ceiling, with a mild headache, and a tingling numb feeling over the left side of your face. The edge of your vision catches a pair of green eyes bordered by blonde hair.

Taylen

From the sound of Ara's slap, she hit him pretty hard. He falls backwards with an added thud, where he lay sprawled out on his back, his shoulders bordered on the edge of the moss mat. She stands over him, staring with a cross-looking profile to you.

Pvednes

Thomas trots a brown stallion in front of you, on the end of a ten foot line. Just weeks ago, this horse bucked and kicked at anyone who went too close. Now it strides proudly yet casually in smooth circles. Soon it will be ready for a saddle.

Kilrath

Aust leads you to a long building, round over the top like half a cylinder, with quarter spheres closing off the ends. "Welcome to the hunters' barracks," he says with a slight grin. "They're not much for beds, but it's a great place to get information."

[ 02-09-2004: Message edited by: Taylen ]

The set of green eyes belongs to Ara, or Ariana, or whatever she calls herself. She's staring at you, and her disposition seems similar to a few nights ago, just before she dropped your spellbook over the campfire. Taylen is standing a bit back, near the center of the room. He has apparently found someplace to put down the orc armor.

"Where have I been?! I've been wedged in your damned self-closing closet for hours!" Ara fumes, the points of her elven ears shivering. "And when you come home, do you let me out? No, you don't have time to let me out, because you're too busy going to sleep! And don't tell me you didn't know!"

[ 02-10-2004: Message edited by: Reyolen ]

"What kind of idiot do you take me for?" Ara growls, then turns to Taylen. "Would you like to explain to Silvan about the closet in his house that he insists isn't there?"

You are absolutely certain that your old home has no closets with doors. The only doors at all, let alone with locks, are the front entrance and the door to your father's laboratory.

Taylen stops and folds his arms across his chest, "Meanwhile the news I have pertinent to our current objectives is that I found out more information on the structure we saw in the orc camp, including how to destroy them, and that we will probably see more if we continue on our current path. I also know one of the elders will be more than happy to tell us about the substances we found, I would have had her do it then but I only had one, so decided it would be better to get them all done at once. She did however mention that they had something to do with dragons blood, which I doubt is an easy thing to get ahold of, especially in sufficient quantity to make all those structures. Leading me to believe a very powerful entity is behind all this. I am supposed to meet Aust later and see if he found out any additional info."

Ara stands there, flustered, as she prepares to yell at several instances. However, by the time Taylen finishes speaking, the wind has disappeared from what she intended to say. Instead, she turns to Taylen, and exhales, "Thank you!"

She then turns to Silvan, a little calmer, "If you must know, I came here looking for you, and when you didn't answer the door, I let myself in so I wouldn't be chased off the city by a bear again. That damned closet of yours looked like a dark room until I got close, then the door swung shut and pinned me to the back wall. I'm having a really lousy evening, so you will watch your attitude before I beat you over the head with a grappling hook."

Silvan sits on his bed and continues, "The information you have provided, Taylen, seems to be of great importance indeed. I'm not in the know on dragon's blood or orcs, but I have believed since our first encounter that someone or something powerful was pulling the strings behind this whole operation. We should speak with the elder as soon as we can, after meeting with our compatriot Aust, of course." Silvan turns to Ara now, and asks, "You were chased by a bear? What are you talking about? I'm also curious where you disappeared to while we were talking to the elders."

[ 02-13-2004: Message edited by: Reyolen ]

"Elders? What elders? Last time I saw you boys was back at the entrance, before we got separated. I was walking around looking for you, but then this big bear started walking towards me. I backed away, but it kept coming... and I ran out of room to back up. It was either drop off, or join the bear for supper. It's a good thing this place is made of trees; the twisted branches under the walking paths made for decent handholds. I waited a few minutes for the bear to leave, then climbed out."

Ariana seems calm now, and though disheveled, she begins to compose herself, smoothing out the wrinkles in her outfit. Her look softens, as she gazes into Silvan's eyes for a moment, "And I promise not to enter any more of your houses without permission. Usually when I work, I don't break anything." Looking at the slightly tattered sleeve on her left forearm, she adds, "Maybe it's time I changed professions anyway."

"Hmmm, I'm curious about something Silvan, if that wasn't a closet Ara got stuck in, what exactly was it?"

Tania twitches a little in the bed, sleeping soundly.

"Sounds good to me." Arthur said shrugingly, knowing that he hadn't much choice as he was a total stranger to these parts.

Before moving Arthur lets out a good stretch, the "nighttime" in this place if you can call it that made it a bit difficult for Arthur to tell just how late it was.

((OOC Would it be appropriate to ask if my character is tired? Seems like I just woke up not too long ago.))