-Maniacal laugher- Finished~

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/circling the drain
894 words
"Do you think that we can fix it?"
Brontide shook his head at the mess of engine "I doubt it. Even if we could it would take too long. Vectora will simply have to come retrieve us. You are certain she received the transmission?"
"Positive," Trance said "They replied that they had us on scans, but it'd take at least 3 cycles to reach our position. I didn't realize it was possible to jump that far."
"Nevertheless we did," Brontide turned "Veem, help Trance clear away the debris from the engines, it'll make repairs go easier once we're back on the star craft."
"Yes, sir," Veem tilted his head "Sir?"
"Yes."
"He has a name," Trance muttered.
"You'll let us come with you, right? At least until Tovoth's better?"
"Yes, of course. You may stay with us as long as you find necessary, or long if you decide to join us."
"Thank you...I'll ask Tovoth about it when he's feeling better."
"Hey Brontide?" Sororal's voice came over the comms "Come here a minute? Just you?"
"Coming Doctor."
As Brontide left, Trance and Veem felt to work cleaning out the space dust and asteroid fragments from the engines.
"So, what where you two doing way out here on that freighter anyways?" Trance asked as they began.
"Well... I suppose the simplest way to put it is, we were running away," Veem ducked his head, eyes focused on his working fingers.
"Yeah, that's about what we were doing too."
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm," Trance went quiet for a minute as she pulled on an obstinate fragment of rock "After Kataria was destroyed, Brontide and Vectora decided they'd had enough of the fighting, so they gathered up some other Vives, from both sides, and off we all went."
"So, you're looking for another planet to live on?"
"That seems to be the gist of our plight," Trance gave up on pulling the fragment and glared at it.
"What?" Veem reached out for the rock and removed it with a sharp tug.
"Yeah, that's about what we're doing," she simplified "Thanks."
"You're welcome. I'm not sure what Tovoth had planned."
"Do you just let Tovoth plan everything?"
"He's good at it. Better than I am."
"Fair enough," she laughed "If I let my friend pick out everything we did, I'd have been dead twenty Orbitals ago."
He laughed with her "To be fair, Tovoth killed me once."
Trance paused and gave him an odd look
----
"Is something wrong Doctor?" Brontide asked as he stepped into the tiny medical bay. Sororal was perched on the edge of the surgical table, near the injured Tovoth's head.
"Yes," Sororal took off into the air and held out a small tablet "Y'know how I said he wasn't dying?"
"I recall."
"Well, he's dying now."
Brontide looked at the stats on the screen and shook his head "I don't understand. Did the landing injure him further?"
"No, it appears the jump did," Sororal took the tablet back and flew over to one of the consoles "It seems like he'd been infected with a virus of a sort, but it either was or it had gone dormant but never was cleared out of his systems. The jump reactivated the virus and its completely devouring him, degrading all his internal works and... I think, stilling his Light."
"I didn't know such a thing was possible."
"Me either, but, unfortunately, it seems to be real enough."
"There's nothing you can do to stop it?"
Sororal shook his head "If I knew how the virus went dormant in the first place, I might be able to put it back to sleep so to speak, but I don't have the faintest clue."
Brontide sighed and looked down at the dying Vive "Then I suppose there's nothing we can do. I'll tell Veem."
"Do you want me to do it? It is part of my job."
Brontide paused, then shook his head "No. I will. How long does he have left?"
"Scans say he probably won't make it past the end of the Cycle."
"Right," Brontide touched the middle of his forehead as if it ached "Of course."
----
"No," Veem reached out for the wall to steady himself "No. They said he was better. They said he was better!"
"His body hadn't purged out the virus and the jump reactivated it. Sororal says there's nothing he can do."
"No. Can't you do what they did last time?"
"Do you know what they did last time?"
Veem froze, his wings drooping down, and shook his head.
"Does Tovoth know? If Sororal could manage to wake him up maybe-" Trance trailed off as Brontide shook his head.
"Sororal said that he has less than a Cycle left, all mental actvity is already shutting down."
Veem put his hand over face and didn't move it away from his eyes "Okay...okay..." his voice cracked and his shoulders hunched against his neck.
Trance reached out and put a sympathetic hand on his elbow.
"Would you like to say goodbye?" Brontide asked "If only to put yourself at mind's ease."
"Yes, please," Veem dropped his had down, wet with tears "Please."
Brontide nodded and led Veem back towards the medical bay "Trance are you going to continue working on the engines?"
"No," she had a thoughtful look on her face "I'm going to make a quick call."

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/redemption
1,012 words
"Yes, I was on Horenn 9 when the plague broke out, but I don't understand why you want to know about it," Vectora's face fuzzed vaguely across the view screen, but her concern was evident.
"It was remarkable because it seemed to have the symptom of stilling Light?"
"No, that was not the symptom that was the main affliction, why are you asking me this? The plague was contained on Horenn."
"Well, maybe, maybe not, I don't know the whole story," Trance tapped furiously on the screen as the signal faded "But how was it cured? There was a cure right? Vectora, can you hear me?"
"...Yes," Vectora answered after a long pause "Yes there was a cure."
"Great. What?"
"It is extremely risky and there's no guarantee that it will work."
"Worth a shot, right?"
"Hardly, if the procedure fails it could end up taking two lives instead of one."
"What's the procedure?"
Vectora sighed and gave in to Trance's persistence "The only way that wad found to cure Dead Light, was a direct Light transfusion from a heathy Vive."
"Oh..." Trance trailed off.
"Not only that, the transfusion has to take place the second the Dead Light had fully taken over the victem, or else the revival will happen unevenly and the victem dies and the doner becomes infected."
"Riiight," Trance trailed her fingers against the tip of her wing "Are you sure there isn't any other option?"
"No, I'm positive," Vectora looked over her shoulder as someone out of sight called her name "Trance I have to go."
"Right," Trance ended the transmisson with a shake of her head.
"I'll do it," she jumped as Veem spoke from behind her.
"Are you certain?"
He nodded.
She swept her wings up and stood "Let's talk to Sororal."
----
"Are you insane? No. No. That's insane, that's impossible, I won't do it," the agitated doctor zoomed from one side of the med bay to the other, arms crossed.
"Are you positive this isn't a viable option," Brontide quieied his eyes tracking Sororal across the room.
"No! For one, Light transfusion is highly a highly unstable and in and of itself could kill Veem, if the plague doesn backtravel and infect him. Secondly I've never even tried to do something as stupid as a Light transfusion, I didn't even know how to do it!"
"I do," Trance said quietly and Sororal gave her a look of utter horror, then he shook his head.
"I won't be responsible for two deaths," he said, crossing his arms and staring Brontide dead in the eye.
"I will not force you to do something against your conscience, Doctor," Brontide bowed his head "Veem-"
"No, please, you have to," Veem looked frantically between Sororal and Brontide "Please! Make him do it!"
Brontide shook his head.
"Trance...?" Veem looked at her, a desperate look in his eyes.
She folded her hands together, then looked up and nodded.
"Do you even understand what a Light transfusion means?" Sororal asked "It literally means to give them your Light. Light equals life, you don't get anymore than what's already inside you. If you give him Light you are giving him a part of your time being alive."
"I..." Veem curled his hands into fists "I wouldn't even be alive now if it wasn't for him."
"It's agonizing," Sororal warned finally "Part of you is being siphoned out of your veins."
"I already said I'd do it."
Trance didn't doubt the resolve in his voice, but she could see his hands shaking despite how tightly his fingers dug into his palms.
"Then let's go," she said "It'll take me some time to set it all up."
----
Veem was silent as Trance moved around the medical bay and she didn't try to engage him in conversation. She could his eyes on the screen, watching Tovoth's slowing Light pulse.
"It'll be any minute now," she told him "You ready?"
He jerked his head in a tight nervous nod.
"Hold out your arm," she instructed, a syringe in her hand. He obeyed, his fingers still curled in towards his palm.
"Alright, Sororal wasn't lying, this is going to hurt like the Void's teeth."
"I know," his voice was small and faint "Just do it already."
She nodded and slowly inserted the tip of the needle into the center of his forearm.
He gasped faintly, screwing his eyes shut and pressed his mouth shut to keep from screaming as the needle bit deeper into his arm.
"Okay, just hold on a little longer," she said, turning and pressing a second needle into Tovoth's neck "It's almost time, it's almost time..."
An alarm went off, signaling that Tovoth's Light pulses had almost slowed to a stop.
"Almost..." Trance said it more to herself than to Veem "Almost... Hold on Veem."
A second alarm went off, indicating that Tovoth's Light was completely still, completely dead.
"Here we go," she breathed out, a flutter of panic and nerves wrapping around her chest. She flicked the switch and the transfusion began.
A high pitched scream began to build in the back of Veem's throat, slowly leaked out past his mouth as the glittering fluid leaked out of his body.
"Hold on, hold on," she soothed, her eyes locked on the screens "Almost there Veem."
She watched as Tovoth's life signs began to flicker, erratic and unsteady, then as more of Veem's Light entered his system, they began to pulse.
"He's back!" She spun around, ending the transfusion. Veem gasped and nearly slid out of his seat.
"Hang on, let me get that needle," she wrapped one hand around his elbow and with the other pulled the syringe out. He dropped to his knees, clutching his arm, strangled sobs tearing out of his throat.
"No sign of the virus, he appears to be perfectly healthy," Trance removed the second needle from Tovoth's neck "Congratulations, it looks like you saved him."
Veem looked up at her, tears pouring down his face, still barely able to breath past the agony, and smiled at her.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/ we are the wild
2,092
Edmund looked up from his book as he heard the heavy but muted thud of horse hooves outside his window. The fire in the grate made the inside world reflect on the window, so even as he tried to peer out into the gloaming, all he saw was his own face.
"Best be going, Eddie."
The young man turned as Sam entered his room. The brownie had an odd look in his eyes and a wild dancing smile on his mouth.
"Who's waiting for me?"
"You'll be seeing my lad, you'll be seeing."
Edmund frowned at the small sprite, but he did as he was told, pulling his hat and coat from the rack as he walked out the door. He began to reach for the lantern, but suddenly Sylvie's smooth hand was over his "You'll not be needing that."
The house fairy had the same odd look Sam had, but he trusted her. She understood such things in a way he never would. So he left the lantern.
There was no moon in the sky nor the faintest gleam of the most distant star, yet, there were no clouds to hide the heavenly lights. He swallowed hard and started walking across the grounds, towards where he'd hear the horse stomping. He remembered many nights like this when he was younger, but those times Sylvie had herded him and his siblings into their rooms and Sam had fussed at the windows, making certain the shutters were bolted closed and the windows were latched tightly.
Then they wouldn't see any of the house sprites or brownies until noon the next day and the cats wouldn't come begging for scraps until evening when the lanterns on the steps were lit.
There had only been once, when he and Eliza had gotten out. It was just at the break of twilight, the same time now, with the eerie purple glow, the final requiem of the day's light, hung tangled in the bony fingers of winter's trees. They had only made it to the path that led down to the wishing well before the horses surrounded them, the midnight stallion at the head of the herd. The creatures had screamed with voices that were more near to human than Edmund had ever heard them use before and never since.
Eliza had screamed too and her hand wrapped so tightly around his that his fingers were nearly broken and together they'd fled back to the safety of the manor. Sylvie had given them a knowing look when they entered the kitchen gasping and breathless with terror, but she'd said nothing, as if she understood they'd learned their lesson.
But now Sam told him to go out and Sylvie didn't stop him, though every moment he expected them to come running after him, they didn't.
In the faint dying light he saw the pale sheen of the cream horse, standing at the window, fully tacked.
The tender dark nose scented the air and Edmund held out his hand, waiting to be acknowledgedT and accepted by the creature.
The stallion huffed once, then danced sideways, offering Edmund the saddle. With ease born of practice that not even the unnatural night could shake, Edmund mounted up. He patted the horse on the shoulder, signaling that he was ready.
But the horse stayed stock still, every muscle tense as stone.
"Are you going to take me somewhere?" He asked quietly "Sam and Sylvie said to come out here and you're wearing a saddle, I can only assume-"
The horse bolted before he could finish, its whole body moving forwards at once.
A lifetime of riding fae steeds was the only reason Edmund barely managed to hang on. It was almost instinct that told him to lean forwards, to duck beneath the branches and to pull his legs up high as the horse abandoned the path and plunged through the beating heart of the enchanted forest.
Within seconds Edmund had lost every and all sense of direction and if the horse had decided that it longer wanted him on its back, he would have had no way of making it back home.
But it seemed to desire no such thing as it continued to leap forwards. It was already midnight within the trunks and Edmund could barely make out anything with his eyes, but with his ears he could hear, beyond the sound of the horse's own hooves and heavy breathing, a cacophony of similar noises and the crash as many other bodies rushed through the forest alongside them. He could feel the brush of powerful shoulders against his boots and sense the excitement as the steed joined the rest of the wild herd.
Like a coursing river they poured down a hill, never stopping or hesitating. Bones and spirit knew guided the creatures onwards, while Edmund could only wonder.
Finally the horse began to slow from a canter to a swift trot, then to a walk with just a touch of a bounce in the last step.
They came into a wide clearing and all of a sudden the sky was awash with moonlight. It illuminated everything in the palest detail, painting everything in a way the sun never did. Edmund could see the rest of the herd now, headed by the black stallion. But they weren't alone.
Deer, soft as milk in the moon, stood in groups of threes and fours, a stag with his does, while rabbits, badges, hedgehogs, mice, and wild and feral cats thronged in a ever shifting, ever changing multitude.
He spied from his vantage point, several foxes, red, orange, black and grey, but none of them Reynard.
Something whistled past his ear and his gaze lifted upwards towards the branches that touched the edges of the sky circle. They were heavy and dripping with flighted creatures. Owls, barn and horned, hovered on the highest branches, while robins and doves and goldfinches among many others
The sound and calls sounded nearly human to his ears. Or maybe, beneath the full moon on a night when it was supposed to be waning, upon the back of a fae steed, in night air of the enchanted forest, Edmund's ears human ears were becoming more tuned to the sounds of the calls and cries that comprise their language.
Slowly barks and yips, whistles and tweets, the flicks of ears and tails became real words, some he interpreted with his mind and some wove their meaning into a deeper part of him.
Then, just as he was beginning to fully understand the conversations around him, they died off into silence.
He looked around as the crowd rippled and parted to let a group of creatures he hadn't seen before pass to the center.
The wolves gleamed silver and their eyes beamed like fire. The greatest one among them had a set of high shoulders that could've brushed against Edmund ankles, though he was holding them high on the horse.
This one stepped to the center of the clearing and lifted his head with deliberate majesty and a long slow howl raised out of his mouth from deep within his broad chest.
In response the entire gathering shrieked and whinnied and wailed and yowled in a single voice, then went silent again.
"Brothers, sisters," the wolf's voice was commanding and the depth of it was like the rolling of the storm in the far distance "We have among us, a human."
A rush of soft murmurs ran through the crowd and heads began to turn.
"Who was it that summoned him to our meeting place, I know he did not intrude but has been asked to join us," moon fire eyes locked on the pale cream horse who bore the stranger.
Edmund swallowed and felt the horse whicker softly and toss his head "I don't know who it was, I was asked by the whispers in the wind and the murmurs in the stream to bring him."
"Man, do you know who it was who asked you to join us?" there was no malice or cruelty in the wolf's eyes, but there was a sternness.
Edmund took a breath and shook his head "I do not. The horse came for me and the house sprites told me to come. I am sorry if I am disrupting."
"You are not, but if you were the apology would be well accepted. But it leaves us with the question of who bade you to join us," The wolf turned his head, meeting the eyes of every creature and bird "Who was it, speak now."
There was a nervous hush across all the animals as they looked at each other and stared at the young man.
"Me! Me! It was me, sire wolf," a breathless voice shouted and a great autumn leaf orange blur came tearing out of the shadows, shouldering its way to the center.
Edmund slipped off the horse and also made his way to the middle, reaching out towards Reynard as the fox dropped to his belly, heaving and gasping for breath.
"Thank...thank you Edmund, but I'm fine," the fox said, though he didn't appear to be. His fur was torn and stained with dark red patches and his ears drooped so low they nearly touched the ground.
"And why have you called a human to a meeting of wild folk, little brother?" The wolf asked, lowering his head to meet the fox's gaze.
"Because, we'll need his help, if we are going to succeed with this plan of yours."
"And how will he help?"
"Well, first and most importantly," Reynard slowly managed to climb backs to his paws "It's his sister. He wants to find her and blood ties are strong when the tied love each other."
Edmund wanted to shout for them all to stop, to order them all to stop, then he wanted to pick that scruffy vagabond up by the scruff of his scrawny neck and shake him until his pointed teeth fell out of his head.
Elsie was alive?!
She was ALIVE?!?
But the solemnity in the wolf's eyes and a deep respect inside of Edmund, a sensible part of him that said he was a guest, invited to view and participate in something utterly sacred, kept him quiet.
"You are certain that he will be able to aid us?"
"No, in this case, sire wolf, I believe it must be us to aid him. Yes," Reynard said as protesting voices began to rise up "This is his family. They are as much as part of this place as any one of us."
"Not true, brother fox," The wolf rumbled "They build upon the land, as is the way of their kind, but we live within it, as a part of the breathing soul, without every single one of us creatures, the woods would wither, even the fae and the elves and the sprites know this, flighty and wayward as they can be."
Edmund wondered briefly where that left the dryads and water spirits, but he knew that was not an important question.
"Depends on how you look at it," Reynard's familiar smirk flashed in the dim light "But whatever you say and think, we'll have to help him, while he forges ahead. Because only he can. I tried, which is why I'm late and in the state as you see me. And I believe that only him, not his brother or his sister or his father or mother, can walk it."
"And why is that, brother fox?"
Reynard looked up at Edmund, his smirk growing to a grin "Because he never believed she died."
Edmund stared down at the fox, at a loss for words.
"Well, power of belief is strong, chicken thief, but how does it help the young man and what is your grand plan?"
Even before the calico cat came rubbing against his ankles, he knew it was her. Sometimes he'd heard her talking to her kittens in her strange rhyming way and to make his sisters laugh she'd spin them long tales of doggerel.
"It's quite a lot to tell, so first, are you ready Edmund? You've been waiting a long time."
Edmund took a second to still all the stirring emotions inside him and aware, that every animal eye was tracking the very speed of his breathing, and bowed his head to the wolf and the fox "I am."
"Then we of the wild support you, Edmund of the House of Man," the wolf said, bowing his own head in return.

[Ranger of the North]

WELL THAT WAS A RIDE

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Was that a pun about Edmund riding the horse, or are you talking about Tovoth's close calls.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/ "Look me in the eye. Say it to my face."
1,150 words
"Vectora, may I speak with you?"
"Yes, naturally," Vectora replied, not even looking up from the commpad she was holding "Is there a problem?"
"Yes," Brontide looked down at her, expecting her to stand up and speak to him eye to eye.
She didn't.
"Sororal and Tikker have complained that they have been assigned as partners to work on the maintenance systems three times in a row. Trance and Tovoth as well say that they have been partnered five times consecutively."
"Why is that a problem?"
"Well, the partnering system is supposed to be randomized. You aren't manipulating the outcomes by any chance?"
She lifted her head, eyebrows raised "Why would I do that?"
"I am uncertain. Why would you do that?"
"I wouldn't."
"Are you positive? There's absolutely no reason whatsoever that you would be pairing up certain Vives?"
"No."
He frowned at her, locking her in a heavy stare "None? You aren't encouraging any relationships?"
There was an odd pause "And, if I think that, maybe certain Vives need encouraging with strengething certain relationships, what's wrong with me giving them a...nudge?"
"I don't think they appreciate it."
"Which is precisily why they should work together more."
"It is not efficient."
"It promotes teamwork, which will eventually increase effiency."
"Please stop," he said flatly "The others don't like it."
"Of course, if you say so. Trance and Tovoth, Sororal and Tikker won't have to deal with each other except on randomized occasions.
"Everyone."
"That was everyone."
Brontide held out his commpad "We've been assigned together for the fourth time in a row, nine times in total."
"Oh, well, that's simply practicality. We have many things we need to discuss but hardly any time to do so."
He plucked the pad from her hands and make a quick revision before giving it back "There. Now I will work with Veem and you will work with Tikker. No more of this, please."
"Alright," Vectora nodded "Fine."
"Thank you," Brontide nodded back and turned and excited the room. Spindrift was waiting for him outside the door.
"Well?"
"I told her to stop," Brontide didn't even look at the little Vive as he spread his wings and took off into the hallway.
"What?! No! That's not what you were supposed to do!"
""What are you talking about, that is precisly what I meant to do."
"Nooo," Spindrift crossed his arms over his chest and pouted "You were supposed to tell her that you wanted to be friends!"
"Don't be rediculous. I do not want to be friends with Vectora and she does not want to be friends with me."
"I think she does, why else would she put you two together?"
"We have much to discuss about keeping the colony organized and running smoothly, she thought we could use that time to multitask."
"Don't be silly, she likes you and wants to be friends, she's just as bad at figuring that out as you are."
"Spindrift," there was a tired exasperation in Brontide's voice "I thought you would have understood this by now."
"What?"
"Vectora and I are...were of a separate caste, our entire forming we were groomed to survive without close companionship or reliance on emotional relationships."
"Okay... so...?"
"Vives like us do not have friends, Spindrift, nor do we desire them."
"Oh," Spindrift's wings drooped and he slowed considerably, drifting closer to the floor.
Brontide glanced over his shoulder and realized the formling had stopped completely and was standing still, his head hanging.
"What are you doing?" He asked, turned and flying back "Are you unwell?"
"Oh. No. I..." Spindrift didn't look up at him "I think I'll go see if Sororal wants my help in the medical bay, he...um," awkwardly his wings shuffled against his back "Asked me to help him."
"When?" Brontide asked, frowning.
"Um, a little while ago. I was busy then, but I'm not now, so I should go and, y'know, help."
Spindrift spoke without once even tilting his chin up.
"Spindrift do not lie to me," Brontide said, sternly "What is wrong?"
"Well, y'know," he looked up a little bit and stared down the hall "I just thought that we were friends. But I mean, if you don't want any friends I guess we really aren't."
Brontide had to pause for a long moment to gather his thoughts. Before he was finished Spindrift flicked his wings open and shot off.
"Wait. Come back here," Brontide ordered, but Spindrift didn't comply.
Brontide sighed in frustration and flew after him, overtaking him in a matter of seconds. He caught the young Vive by the arm and forced him to land.
"Spindrift," Brontide realized that Spindrift was crying and reached out to brush away his tears "I didn't mean you. You don't count alright?"
Spindrift closed his eyes and pulled away from Brontide's touch "I don't know what you mean."
"I mean...it's not the same with you. Come here," Brontide pulled him back and finished wiping away the tears "I didn't include you in that statement."
"So..." Spindrift tilted his head "We are friends?"
"I... Did not mean you when I said no companions."
Spindrift crossed his arms and scowled at Brontide "Are we friends?"
For a brief second Brontide wanted to give up and shout incomprehensibly at the top of his lungs. Why did everyone have to be both so unbelievably sensitive over the smallest things, yet demand the greatest detail over them.
"Well if you can't even say it, I guess you're right. We're not friends."
"Yes, we are friends, alright? We are friends," Brontide snapped, more to attempt to placate Spindrift than out of any heartfelt emotions.
Spindrift didn't accept it "Friends don't talk to each other like that."
Brontide wanted to slam his head against the wall.
Spindrift waited a second, as if expecting an apology, but when he didn't get one, he began to march off.
"Consider it this way," Brontide growled "An absence of friendship has left me lacking in the skills of properly communicating and making myself understood in such...situations."
Spindrift seemed to understand that one "So we are friends."
"Yes," Brontide replied, more relieved that Spindrift's tone of voice had lightened, than the possibility that they'd come to any sort of understanding "We are...friends."
And just like that, everything was fine again. Spindrift smiled and opened his wings up. Brontide was forced to blame it on the fact that Spindrift was still hardly more than a child. Emotions were supposed to be stronger and harder for formlings to control.
Not that Brontide knew much about formlings.
"So, are you alright?" he asked as Spindrift flew up and settled on his shoulder.
"Yup. Are you?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"Good."
Brontide needed to take a break and go to sleep. He was done with trying to figure everyone out. It was much easier when he gave orders and everyone followed them.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/ crawl
653 words
"I can't believe you got us stuck in here."
"Oh," it was impossible for Tikker to turn around in the tight space, but her voice carried all the spite her face could "This is SO not my fault."
"Yes it is," Sororal grumbled, poking at the sole of her foot and making her squeak "If you hadn't been playing around with your stupid swords and stupid daggers than I wouldn't have locked us in here."
Both of the small Vives were on their hands and knees, squeezing through a space between the ship's corridor and outer hull plating. It was hardly intended for any living being to ever be trapped within its confines and had no lights, unlike a maintenance access. The only way they could see was by the tiny headlamp in Tikker's helmet and that was barely enough for them to see each other.
"Hey, I only had one of my daggers out and I wasn't even doing anything with it."
"You were cutting wires at random!"
"Was not!"
"Was too! You set the alarm off!"
"Did not. How much longer until we get to the next port?"
"I have no idea."
He sighed and wished he was the one with the light in his helmet so he'd have gone ahead.
"Aren't you supposed to know this?" She whined "My wings hurt because they keep scraping the ceiling."
"Well my eyes hurt cause I keep having to look at you," Sororal knew by the sound she made that he'd probably have been dead if Tikker had been able to turn around to get at him.
"Here, is this it?" she crawled into a small hollow in the wall.
"Yeah," he crawled after her and sat up on his knees "Hey, I need your light to see."
She stuck her head obnoxiously close to his and began to breath loudly.
He resisted the urge to jab her between the eyes with his elbow and began to pull at the wires.
"Hey, how come you get to cut wires?"
"I'm not cutting them, I'm hacking into the outer control panel so it will open the hatch and let us out. There."
She looked around "Nothing happened."
"It'll take about 15 minutes for the command to process."
"What!? I can't be stuck in here with you for another 15 minutes! I'll stab you or myself!"
"Please, stab me first. If you stab yourself I am morally obligated to save your life but I really don't want to."
She scowled at him and wriggled to the furthest possible corner away from him. Which meant when she sat up, their knees were just about touching and their feet were pressed against each other.
"I hate you," she spat, with all the maturity of a formling.
"I hate you too," he indulged himself with the same maturity and make an ugly face at her.
"You and your stupid face and your stupid armor which is a stupid color-"
"You have stupid knives."
"You have knives too!"
"Those are surgical instruments! I use them to save lives, not take them!"
"Well, they're stupid too. And your stupid smile and your stupid funny jokes."
"My what?"
"Your stupid jokes."
"No," he jabbed his finger at her "You said funny."
"I said stupid funny."
"You said funny," he persisted and smirked "You like my jokes."
"I do not! They're horrible, horrible jokes!"
"Yooou like them!"
"I do not!"
"And what else did you say, my smile? You like my smile?"
"I did not say that!" she howled and lunged for his throat. He was only saved by the premature opening of the maintenance hatch, which he had his back leaning against, and he tumbled out onto the floor, Tikker hissing and snarling above him.
"You're cute when you're mad!" he shouted, knowing he'd sealed his fate and took off flying at top speed, Tikker shrieking like a juggernaut behind him.

[Ranger of the North]

Was that a pun about Edmund riding the horse, or are you talking about Tovoth's close calls.

Both XD


Aaaahahaha, Tikker and Sororal are great XD RUN, BOY, RUN!!

[TheSongOfTheStars]

He's gonna have to be pretty fast XD

[TheSongOfTheStars]

/ bones
480 words
"What is this place?"
Ishton and Cassiopeia had come to the edge of the weary gray woods and found themselves comfronted by an iron wrought fence that encircled a wide plot of barren ground.
"It's a cemetary," Cassiopeia shivered a bit "Where humans bury their dead."
"Ah, I see," Ishton peered down curiously over the fence, which came up about as high as his midsection "What are all the markers for?"
"Those are tombstones. They have the name of who's buried there and when they were born and died."
"Fascinating. But don't they ever get full, since there's one space for every human?"
"Sometimes. Then I guess we build another place. Do Vives bury their dead or do you, like, melt them or something?"
"Melt them? Do humans incinerate the bodies before burying them?
"No, it's either cremation or burying, not both."
"What do you do with the ashes if you don't bury them?" Ishton asked cautiously.
"Scatter them or keep them, I suppose."
"Humans will keep the ashes of a dead...nevermind, yes, Vives do bury their dead, but not like this," Ishton started walking again, alongside the fence, every now and then glancing back at the weathered stones, but for the most part his head was bowed to meet Cassiopeia's gaze "We have subterranean vaults where the bodies are stored until they decompose."
"So does that mean on your planet there are just caves overflowing with decomposing bodies?"
"Well...yes, not any more bizarre than patches of fenced in land with decomposing human bodies."
"Yeah, but they're buried, you can't see them. What if you just walked in a cave?"
"They are guarded to keep the disrespectful out and the caves are rarely overflowing, Vive bodies decompose within completely to dust within about...5 human years."
"Wow, all the way?"
"Yes. Why, how long do human bodies take?"
She frowned, kicking at a stone as she walk "I'm not sure. I think the flesh rots off in like... 12 years? 15 maybe. But the bones go a lot slower. I think if they're in a certain environment they can last literally centuries."
"What?" he gave her an astonished look "No. That can't be."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's true. Like, archeologists find gravesites and bones from civilizations that died out before we ever came to this continent."
He shook his head "That can't be true. How could the body stay around so much longer after the spirit was gone?"
"Dunno, that's just how it works," she swallowed and looked up as they came to the end of the cemetery "Can we maybe talk about something else now?"
"Does it disturb you to think of such things?"
"A little bit," she admitted, running her fingers through her hair "I don't like the idea of all that's left of me being bones in a box one day."
"Alright, then let's change the subject."