Dark Crow Rising

I blink as I stare up at the powerful woman in the white dress, with the three of us cloaked in shadow. She looks down at us as my grip on Vadei loosens and I blink again with shaky breath. How do I explain this...? I'm glad she came to help, I really am!

But...

"LET GO OF ME! YOU IDIOT! YOU STUPID HO!" Vadei screams against my face as she lashes out against me. Moving with her blows, my mind tries to pull itself out of the quagmire I mixed up for myself. Then, as she breaks free from my non-existent grip, her tail makes a lengthy point of sliding along my face. I shake my head slightly as I take in the feeling of barbed whips and sweet treats.

I return my focus to Vapooliar as she sets aside the large rock with a heavy bang. My eyes widen slightly at just how big it is and I feel small looking at it. Vapooliar initially keeps an eye on where the rock came from, but she seems to think everything is fine. She floats down to us just as Vadei starts to pout with plump, red cheeks. I shake my head again as I try to flick this electric feeling out of my veins.

"Are you two alright?" Vapooliar asks as she closely inspects the pair of us. Her gaze lingers uncomfortably on my right arm before she looks into my brown eyes. I look away as I try to hide the offending limb. Vapooliar helps me out of the crater before then doing the same for Vadei.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Vadei seems to..." I answer partially, disoriented by the whole affair. I move my legs about and try to get used to how that jump felt. The crater is surprisingly big for just two people dropping... Did my magic come into play when we hit the ground, perhaps before?

I clutch my right arm by the elbow joint as Vapooliar gets done with Vadei's quiet answer. Vapooliar looks at me and then towards the hole and she smiles slightly. I try to keep my nervousness under control as my right arm continues to let out strange sensations. My grip tightens on it.

Vapooliar presents her smile to me fully, "I see you are managing to get somewhere with your magic."

I blink at the rather joyous, impressed compliment and Vadei comes around to me. Her tail lingers close and Vapooliar watches it. She frowns a little as Vadei starts to tug at me. I look in the direction of the tailed woman.

"Hm?" I ask as she looks away, embarrassed.

"It's nice to see you two getting along." Vapooliar remarks as Vadei starts to get irritated at my immobility. She pouts, then growls, then lets go and walks off. Me and Vapooliar watch as she heads off towards the needle-leg's flower.

"You owe me clothes, Ho!" Vadei barks irritably as I rub my face.

"Back to that, are we? Not going to use my actual name again?" I ask as Vapooliar starts to follow us at my request. We leave behind the damaged mountain just as some needle-legs come by to inspect the damage. I might have some explaining to do later, but, for now, it seems to be fine...

"Quit pushing your luck, Ho." Vadei grumbles as she hides that embarrassed face of hers behind her tail. Bemusedly, I shake my head as the implications fly by Vapooliar's head.

"So were you two doing?" Vapooliar asks as I start to shake my head at Vadei.

"We were racing, we had a bet, she won, I got to pay up." I sum up for Vapooliar as she nods slightly.

"What did you bet?" Vapooliar asks as she makes a point of gesturing the armoured needle-legs away from Vadei. I frown a little at the way everyone is looking at Vadei and how their expressions change. We need to make it clear that she is with us...

"I wanted a chance to brush her tail." I answer as I make a point of getting closer to Vadei. At first, she tries to move away, but, nearly running into some of the needle-legs, she changes her mind.

"Wait a minute... I never got to change what I wanted after you said you would just get it anyway!" Vadei complains as she turns to Vapooliar with one hand pointing up at me. Vapooliar stares at us, unsure of what to do as I quietly laugh to myself.

"Yeah, you never betted anything." I laugh as she growls at the fact she isn't getting more than was initially asked for. Granted, if she wants any more than that, she's just plain greedy. Greedy little thing with a fluffy tail.

"What did you want before?" Vapooliar asks as she seems to smile for the sake of the fact I am.

"Clothes, warm bath, hairbrush, food..." Vadei explains, sneakily adding on something we never agreed to prior. But, I suppose she's more than earned it. I did nearly kill her, after all...

"You shouldn't have too much difficulty with the clothes part, compared to me anyway. I'm sure at your age, Vadei, something pretty will suffice." Vapooliar comments and Vadei's ears rise.

"Yes, I've been quite lucky." Vadei smugly remarks as she adjusts her chest area. I look away and catch Vapooliar as she looks down at her chest.

"So you two are alright?" Vapooliar asks me directly as her gaze seems to harden a little. I nod and she smiles before lifting off. The winds she lets off are quite powerful and Vadei seems to struggle standing against them.

"She did that intentionally..." Vadei goes as I shake my head, intent on keeping myself out of whatever that was.

"Wait, Vapooliar, where are you likely to be!?" I call out to her, hoping she isn't too far away.

"Probably by the slope where the aelenvari thorns are mostly stationed!" Vapooliar thankfully calls back before the sky erupts again with her powerful speed. I wave at the trail she leaves behind and return my attention to Vadei.

"Can we get my stuff, now?" she asks uncomfortably as she pays close attention to those around her. She uses her ears at first, but, with how few words these needle-legs speak, she stops. I shake my head slightly. They're aelenvari.

Aelenvari.

"Yeah, sure, stay close to me, Vadei. They won't do anything so long as I am next to you, hopefully." I tell her as she glares at my lack of assurable certainty. But, the shaken-up woman sticks close to me and we move through the aelenvari's 'upper-floors.' With so many barely, lustfully-elicit dressed aelenvari about here, I try to keep my eyes to myself. I start to worry if only to keep my mind focused on something other than all these observing eyes.

Vadei just went through a near-death experience, I need to help her relax. It was my fault and it's worse for the fact I promised nothing like that would happen. No spells, that was the condition. I can't see how that incident with my right arm would not count as a spell.

Vadei's tail suddenly wraps around my left arm and she fastens it into her grip. I blink at her as she sticks close to me, smiling slightly. I follow her gaze to the envious ones of the aelenvari and she starts to lean against me. I lose myself in the softness of her tail, which even in its current state, has.

"I... I know you didn't win the race." Vadei quietly clarifies for reasons not obvious to me.

"Right." I comment as I now try to figure out why she is doing this. Is there a single clear reason? Another on top of wanting to make the aelenvari jealous? Is this the gateway to being able to hold the tail once its fluffiness has been properly preened to a pride-worthy state!?

Looking around the flower, I look at some of the aelenvari men. Not one matched the other with their deformities, but, many of them seem to hate me. The women they are practically blanketed with keep looking at me and their efforts are nearly all seductive. I look back at the men.

Even with their problems, they are all so much more well-built than me, let alone most people I have known. I can't see a fat or overweight one anywhere, none of them look particularly sickly either. Do the aelenvari just really value those they call 'Champion' or something? But, again, they really seem to like it when I practice my magic.

I guess that's what makes me attractive in their eyes. This power I was just cursed enough to get after I made a big mistake. I guess... I guess if I somehow get cold feet about the idea of going back home, to all that hard work...

I can just stay here, live like a high-floorer through the sheer luck of it.

I turn my attention to Vadei as she enjoys all the pretty colours, "Enjoying it?"

"This is the first time I have ever gotten this far into the caravan... It's really pretty." she quietly comments as she hides the lower half of her face behind the tip of her tail. I catch the edges of her smile every now and then but then her ears droop. Her expression sullens.

"Come on, take in the sights." I encourage her to do as I point at all the well-made, gorgeous stuff the aelenvari have. They mostly have tents, so I am not sure if I can call it architecture, but even this marble platform we are walking on is impressive. I'm pretty sure Rose-sweerui told me it's not even natural marble, they made it themselves. The dark lines are some kind of coal-amber mixture and the white stone...

The sheer effort required to assemble something like this, on this scale.

Though, I am curious as to how they were able to make something like this, given the size. Magic is all over this thing quite blatantly but I don't see any real industry anywhere. It all just sort of blends together as a bunch of tents. Even if several are quite distinct from others with the materials they are made up of, the style they've made with them and all that.

I look down at my right arm and ponder something that seems to calm me down... Are there others out there who can manipulate rock? I would be happy to know that is the case. I'm not turning into a bug, my magic just happens to be rocky...!

Vadei frowns and she looks at me, "Why should I take in the sights of something I don't care for?"

"Because even one ray of light is better than nothing? Regardless of the people around us, it is all nice to look at." I explain to her.

"I don't want a single ray from the Sun God's grave. I want a sea of it. I want it in a place I care about, with people I care about." she whines as she sighs.

"Home?" I ask, even though it's obvious.

"Yes..." she nods quietly.

"We at least have that in common, then." I say, but, she turns a scowl my way. I stare into her silver eyes as they burn with the grim knowledge about my home.

"Is yours even a home worth going back to?" she sneers in question. My expression flattens and remains that way. Even as a heavy breath passes through my nose.

"It's the only home I know, it may not be as extravagant as what I am getting now, but I feel safe at the very least. Even if I was open towards these women and how they throw themselves at me, I'd throw it all back just to feel safe again. I may be young for a human but I have seen enough for one lifetime in but a few days." I say, looking down further and further with each word.

"You are as strong as you are now yet unwilling to stand up for yourself? Whichever god thought it was a good idea to bless you with this strength was gravely mistaken then." Vadei snorts out of the blue.

"Stand up for myself?" I repeat as she confuses me, "I'm not a coward."

"If you refuse to help in situations where you can help but don't then what are you? Certainly not brave." she jabs as she starts to slightly step away from me. I blink at what she is saying and while I know she can't be talking about the cave. I can't help but think about it. Does she know that I did what I did...?

"A lot of talk coming from someone who was so recently saved-" I try to say as I start to feel mildly angry. She has no right to speak to me like this. None!

"Aiding someone in an incident of your own making is not bravery. It is a responsibility. Bravery is saving someone and helping someone not related to any of your actions." she says and I come to a sharp stop just as she puts some proper distance between us. I think about how I cowered away from helping the aelenvari and all those other people.

'Champion,' this cruel joke of a title...

Champion, the term repeats itself to me as I nervously rub my thumb over a finger. The smiles Vapooliar gives me, Rose'lhia's actions towards me... They are all based on false assumptions. I left those people to die, this power isn't mine, it's the bugs!

I sigh, "Let's just get your stuff..."

We arrive at the tent and I open it up for her so she won't be attacked by the aelenvari. She steps into the tent and immediately dives towards the stuff she likes the look of. The perfumes she can't get enough of. She indulges in it all without a care whilst I keep frowning to myself...

An aelenvari worker storms out from elsewhere in the tent with a bright, aggressive flare about her. She approaches Vadei and I watch initially, but step in to stop her from going anywhere with her anger. The aelenvari is surprised to see me and her face brightens up with red shading and a smile. She eagerly looks up at me as I just get close to her for the sake of keeping her away.

The aelenvari squirms nervously as their bulbs change and dim into humming a soft tone of light. I keep looking back to Vadei as she seemingly goes about this slowly with the intention to annoy. My nose blasts the next breath out against the aelenvari's face. She doesn't seem to know what to do, but she seems happy enough.

"Do you have everything?" I ask Vadei miserably as she reappears with her arms full of all kinds of stuff. She nods vigorously and I send the aelenvari off with a lingering touch. Nodding Vadei out of the tent, I then leave behind her. I try not to care much but I just can't focus off of her words right now.

"Oh... I can't wear any of this when I am this dirty!" she complains with a smile as she starts to walk towards the lake. My eyes linger on the aelenvari and she gives me a little, cute wave as I leave. I nod to myself, content that I apparently didn't just rob my hosts who have been kind enough to nurse me back to health.

A failure like me who was content to let their people die to save his own skin... Even children...