RP (non-canon) [ARCHIVE: Horizon's Key Non-cannon posts]

[MissingNo]

Echo shrank back from Nicholai's outburst, but she couldn't understand what he said. He was mad about something...so she stayed away from him as the group continued on their way.

---

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Even Sliver was surprised that they weren't stopped at any point. The group stopped for meals and brief rests, but pressed on through the night at Eclipse's insistence and to Gem's annoyance. During the night everyone could hear things moving in the darkness, just beyond their lights, but nothing happened. A large, beastial silhouette blocked the road for a moment, but moved back into the woods with more speed than something that large had a right to have.

The Key's crew took turns riding in the cart when they grew tired and, before the sun cleared the mountains on the second day, the Holy City of Anetheronn was visible in the distance. And, nearer, the walls of the recently-opened Colosseum were seen through the trees.

---

Eclipse slowed a little to speak with Sliver as the Colosseum came into sight. They had a quick, quiet exchange of words and Eclipse returned to his place at the head of the group. Sliver turned and, walking backward, addressed the rest.

"I know you are all eager to make a stop by now, so our silent scout has proposed a brief stop of a more tourist nature. He has told me that the host of the grand Colosseum has offered to entertain us, along with a note that this man may have something to say concerning your quest." The gray fox shrugged at the last statement. "However, the choice is yours to accept or decline."

Gem glanced back at Nicholai and Eliot, then nodded to Sliver. "We need ev'ry lead we c'n get. An' ah think ev'ryone would like a rest."

"Alright, then," Sliver said with a smile. "We should make it there by the day's peak."

((OOC: Please read post in OOC thread before posting here. Thank you.))

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"What do you mean, take a rest?" Eliot mumbled from in the trailer. He was still seated beneath Rising Echo, whose tail was (still) swishing back and forth in his face. He reached out, grabbed the tail and folded it back up onto the top of the crate, scratched his nose and settled into another comfortable position. His eyes drooped a bit.

"I've only been resting all day..." He yawned, and within seconds was asleep again.

 

[MissingNo]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Echo shot a glare at Eliot for touching her tail, sticking her tongue out at him before standing and sliding off the cart to meander toward Winter with her hands folded behind her back.

"It's midmorning, an' y've been sleepin' most th' night." Gem sighed a little. Her feet ached a little, but she knew it'd be a full throb by the time they got to the place Sliver was indicating. "Eliot, if you don' feel like yeh need a rest, get walkin' then. I'd appreciate a li'l sit-down time."

Kiera walked toward the cart, intending to oust Eliot as she nodded at Sliver. "As for this stop...if 'e says some'ne can tell us somethin' about what and who we're lookin' for, that's good 'nough for me."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Eliot slowly lumbered out of the cart. "I wasn't sleeping, skipper." The cargo manager said as he hopped down over the precipice and his feet hit the ground. He looked around quickly as if justifying his actions in the cart the day and the previous day. At least, those few actions he comitted to, anyways. "I was guarding the cargo from an elevated position. I always like to get a top-down shot on the baddies. Advantage of height and element of surprise, and all that shit. Y'know?"

Seeing he wasn't getting anywhere with that line of thought, he sighed. "Alright," He said, keeping a position along the left side of the cart, "So I was asleep. But for the last half of the ride, Echo kept me awake with her furry tail and everything."

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Total Eclipse turned to look back as the little traveling party stopped atop the hill. He then looked down on the Holy City, or rather the outskirts of it, and then back towards Eliot.

"You." He pointed to Eliot, speaking with a deep gravelly voice. "You come with me down into town. You've been resting enough for one day, and while the rest of them take a break, you are to come with me down to the city to arrange for a place to stay."

Looking over the rest of them, he would smile behind his shroud. "Unless there are any others who wish to join us?"

He then waited, leaning against the gnarled twisting trunk of a dead tree.

 

[MissingNo]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Sliver said nothing, looking at Gem. The Key's commander nodded.

"Sliver says we c'n be there by noon, then we'll keep goin'." She glanced at Winter. The young Kohanian didn't appear tired, but she noticed that his pace had slowed from what they had started out the trip with. "If y' want to go out ahead, we'll catch up. Let 'em know we're comin' or somethin'." Gem smiled.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"Then it's settled." Eliot shouldered his rough canvas rucksack and smiled back at his captain. He raised two fingers to his brow in a mock salute, smiled wider and turned back towards his Kohanian guide. "I'll leave when you do."

He then turned back towards Gem, a grave look on his face. "Take good care of everyone while I'm gone. I won't come back to corpses, especially not yours." He lightened the mood with a light guffaw. "You're paying my bills, after all!"

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

When the male made his comment about leaving, Eclipse pushed off the tree and started walking, his pack slung over his back already. He didn't speak at all as he turned to leave, expecting Eliot to just follow.

When they were out of earshot of the rest of the party, the shrouded figure began to mumble something about them only slowing him down, something about a Time Stone, and hoping they would be able to find lodging with the Celebration going on.

"What's your name, Furless One?" He finally called back to Eliot without turning.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"It's Eliot." Eliot answered back. The cargo loader slash strongarm didn't really care if the cloaked male caught that. It appeared that, response or not, the guy didn't care. Eliot couldn't tell, his hood smothered any sense of ability to face-read. Although, on second thought, Eliot would have to be able to see his face to read it. Oh well.

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Eclipse nodded, though it was hidden well by the shroud he wore around the lower portion of his face.

"Eliot. Huh, what an odd name. Well Eliot, I would suggest that you and the rest of your band of whatever it is you are, keep your heads low and don't make too much trouble in town. Get in, get what you need, and then go back to whatever home it is that you came from. It shouldn't be that difficult, do you think that you can handle it?"

The panther turned his head slightly, leaping over a thick root that wound up out of the ground to cross the path before diving back into the soil on the other side. It wasn't that Eclipse didn't care about the Key's crew, it was that he was pretty tired of being told to go here, or do this, and he couldn't wait to finish his own mission...Then they would ALL know the power of the Nagual mind.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"I'm pretty sure I can handle a simple little grab-and-go." The cargo hauler said back to the Kohanian whose back was still turned towards him. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the crew. "Don't worry," he said calmly, "long as we don't say nothing stupid, your people and my people will get along like peas and potatoes."

The kohanian, even from this distance, had cocked his head at the expression. "It's an old Nepleslian euphemism," Eliot explained, "probably older than most of us here."

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

As the neared the bottom of the hill, Eliot would start to hear the cheering and screaming of the spectators within the arena celebrating their chosen gladiator's victory, or maybe a defeat. What mattered with this was that as they passed through the last bit of forest seperating them from the main road, things changed dramatically.

From their starting point at the old hunter's cabin to this, they had been alone on the roads, but as they exitted the woods, they came upon an actual cobbled stone road. And on that road were hundreds of people, both Kohanian and human, mingling and migrating towards the tall slightly golden appearing colosseum. Few went on further than that, towards the black walled gates of the Holy City.

"Welcome to Anetheronn, Eliot, the Holy City of the Kohanians. I have to be honest, you're lucky to be here when you are. The city is just reopening its gates to your kind. There was a bombing not long ago, nearly started a civil war, and all non Kohanians were banned from the city. Put quite a few furless ones out at the mercy of the Mokoi...And then the Avatar stepped in and opened his temple to the refugees. Weak if you ask me. I would have just let them die, faithless cowards. I mean really! Who attacks a Holy Temple?"

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Eliot grimaced. "Overlording Overbitch Ketsurui Yui, Queen Bitch of the Star Army of Yamatai, that's who." The cargo handler adjusted his backpack; the broom handle of his 10mm pistol was jabbing him in an uncomfortable area. "My dad's dad was a ship's captain in the early days of the Empire of Nepleslia, got into a few border conflicts with the conquering Yamataians. We're both understandably hostile towards those sprite-eared sons of bitches and their sex-cat compadres."

He guffawed. "I'm honored to be one of the first few Nepleslian citizens allowed into your Holy City, Eclipse. I promise not to step on any toes while I'm here." Almost prophetically, as he was following Eclipse, he stepped on the foot of one of the To'Yaree heading out of the city. "Oops, sorry!" He said to the guy before heading off after Eclipse again.

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

The panther could not help but smile at the reaction he got from the Nepleslian. There were those who felt the same way walking around them now, but they kept it bottled up and didn't speak it outloud.

"It's not toes you need to worry about, it's tails..." He joked as they shouldered their way through the crowds.

The To'Yaree who had been stepped on looked down to Eliot with a bit of a scowl, but quickly looked back up and crossed his arms. He was a peacekeeper, not another of the tourists. He sort of expected that sort of thing to happen when one is standing in a roiling throng of bodies.

Eclipse looked back and saw he was getting seperated from Eliot, so he went back, grabbed the male's shirt collar with a muffled, 'no offense', and then turned and attempted to drag the male to the side of the road where the crowd was a little thinner. They would have to pass through the bazaar, but it would give them a chance to pick up any last minute supplies.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"I can handle not stepping on tails," Eliot said, "so long as they're not wagging in my face." The merchant quickly retracted his statement. "Not that you guys can do anything about it, I mean, prehensile tails are usually docked when it comes to Nepleslian housepets, but I don't think you guys approve of surgiccal removal of the tailpart." Hhe cargo hauler cradled his face in one hand. He had sworn off making himself look like an idiot here, and yet here he was. Making an idiot of himself.

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Eclipse looked back at Eliot again, and then back to the front as they got into the thinner crowds and started making their way towards the large gates of the Holy City.

When they finally made it, the large doors with their intricate carvings that were a mix of art, and history were wide open to allow large crowds to come and go. Many soldiers could be seen walking around the city to keep the peace, sunlight glinting off of their metal armor but of special intrest were the weapons they weilded which glowed slightly.

"Alright, the tourist district is straight ahead. We'll check there first, before going to the higher class district to see if the Resort still has vacancy. If there is anything you wish to know, Eliot, I will allow you to ask now that we are not being crowded and herded."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"Is there anywhere I can pick up a suit of armor and some weapons like those guys over there?" Eliot flicked a thumb towards the guardsmen. He looked at their weapons, and noted the slight glow. At first, he attributed it to the sun, but then he remembered the sun wasn't that high out yet. The glow was originating from the blade itself. He cocked his head a little to the right, watching it swing back and forth in the guard's hand.

"And how do their weapons glow?" The cargo hauler asked simply. "I know it isn't a trick of the light; there isn't enough light to trick with."

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Looking over in the direction that Eliot pointed, Eclipse took in the full scene. Flicking his ears a time or two in thought, he would turn back to his companion.

"Well, the armor I would say no. That is armor specially crafted for members of the Order of the Silver Fang. No smith outside of their order knows the techniques needed to create armor light enough to not inhibit the movements of the one wearing it, but strong enough to take a full hit from a weilder of the arts. The weapons on the other hand, which glow with power imbued into them by gems in the pommel and a little help from masters of magic enchanting the blades, are far more easy to come by, if you are looking for something simple. The more complex and powerful, the more difficult it will be to find someone willing to work with you."

The panther smiled behind his shroud and then turned to head towards a large building that looked like a modern day apartment complex, but with a sandwich board sign declaring the building an inn and tavern.

"We'll try here first, The Golden Bird is a favorite spot for travellers from the Sky City to stay. It's close enough to all the hotspots that you shouldn't be bored, but as you can see, lavish enough that you don't have to give up many comforts."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

"Well then," Eliot replied, "no sense in wasting any more time dawdling around." The cargo hauler stooped briefly to fasten a pair of clips that had come loose on his boots, then returned to his full height in front of the Kohanian. Granted, Eclipse still dwarfed him, but small comforts where they can be gained. "Lead the way, my friend."

 

[AoK]

Re: [Horizon's Key] Job 01: Shakedown (Chapter 2)

Laughing to himself, a sound that in itself was frightening due to the depth and hollowness with which the sound was given. Then Eclipse turned from Eliot and started leading their way towards the inn. Once there, the panther started to talk with the woman behind the counter, a tall brunette dressed in a tavern wench's style, fluffy white shirt beneath a blue frock.

After several minutes of arguing about price, Eclipse reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a pouch that jangled as it landed on the counter's top. The woman behind the counter chuckled softly and dumped the contents out, counting off the worth of the gold coins and richly colored gems held within.

"Alright, on the word of Mistress Mistwalker's prized apprentice, and this here, I will allow them room and board here for two months, but no more. If they plan to stay later, I'll need more." She commented to the panther, turning to pull a ring of skeleton style keys off the wall, holding them out to Eclipse, who made a slight motion with his paw to the cargo specialist standing beside him.

"There you are. It seems that a high ranking official of state was not able to make his reservation this morning, so you have been given his suite for the duration of the Celebration. Once it is over, you and your crew will need to move to smaller rooms to free up the suite for His Majesty's honored guests. But you will be treated well until then...Then you become just like any other member of the populace for the duration of, as she said, two months time. But I anticipate that will be much longer than you will need."