Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Libelle, The Rural Paradise

{{Just so you guys know, I am still interested in the roleplay. I've caught a nasty cold, so I wont be posting till I get better, but I've not dropped off the face of the earth.}}

( Colds suck.

Should we just assume Lyrra sticks around, then?

Also, I hope you get better soon! )

Arlo shuffled his hoof in the dirt sheepishly. He tried very hard to be quiet and out of the way while the two were having their exchange, but when he heard the dragon was going to this place called Libelle, he had the urge to go to. So without a second thougth as to what this place was or if the humans would freak out when they saw him, he trotted behind her.

Coming up to her flank, he cautiously peered upward to the creature's face to gauge her reaction to him being there again. it seemed as long as he wasn't talking, she wasn't going to pay him any attention.

It didn't take more than 2 steps for Choshi to realize he was following her. And not only that, walking BESIDE her. She tried her best to ignore the clops of his hooves on the dirt road but she felt her ears pull back in agitation despite her efforts.

He clearly wasn't from this world, she could tell that much. Probably some far off island where everyone is inbred and stupid from the sun, she thought. Glancing an eye down to where he was walking she gave him a quick look over and decided right then and there that there was, indeed, no other possibility, and that her island idea was, in fact, true. Feeling her mouth pull back in a smile she gave a little throaty chuckle before tossing her red main out of her eyes. When the toss didn't do any good to clear her vision she gave an annoyed snort and stopped her walking to bring her head down and reposition it with her claws. The whole ordeal looked pretty awkward, and it wasn't even a few moments before Choshi whipped and accusing head around to stare eye to eye with Arlo. Her long snout nearly touching his chest, she gave another snort of irritation which sent Arlo's hair flying back and enveloping him in a caliginous cloud of black smoke.

"What are YOU looking at?!"

"Let us get moving."

She knew the way to Libelle - the intelligent thing to do would be getting there as soon as possible and then proceed to pretend she didn't know the hellspawn - and try her best to keep away from the rest of the crew, as what she really wanted was to relax. Alone.

So she didn't wait a second more. She grabbed her knapsack, gave Samantha and Lyrra a big smile (which wasn't actually all that fake) and walked away, trying to keep a safe distance from the dragon and Arlo. That would mean nothing but trouble.

The goat man was uncharacteristically quiet during the whole exchange, but when Choshi confronted him face-first (no pun intended) his face split in a grin. “I am looking at a Dragon.” He beamed at her in a way that was not sarcastic and not cocky. It was just….So innocent!

His attention was diverted from the dragon when he saw the three women making to take off in his direction. His ear stood up and he turned to greet them again.

“Are you ladies going to the town?”

Oh great, here he comes again.

Al-raii stopped, looked at the hellspawn, and just stood there for a moment. Arlo's looks and personality couldn't be more different! Then, she nodded. She had a feeling she was going to make a big mistake. What if he... decided to stick to them?

"I am, at least. Are you going there, too? Perhaps..." Oh, boy. "...perhaps we should go together, huh?"

With a small smile added to the hypocrisy, no one would ever suspect she wasn't all that happy to be around him. But hey - she was friendly by nature. And with some luck, he'd leave her alone once when Libelle.

"Looks like," Sam replied while saddling up. She guided Mort off the path, well behind the tree line. He was still pretty nervous about the dragon; this way, he wouldn't see her and start acting like a big baby again, further delaying everything. She let him choose his pace, which inevitably meant a deliberate, plodding gait and excessively frequent rest stops.

He tagged along with his unwilling companions COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact they wanted nothing to do with them. Even if he knew, he probably wouldn't regard their wishes. Instead, his mood had lightened with the invitation to join them on their quest to this strange place called Libelle. He really didn't travel topside very often and he was eager to see all the cool things and people and most importantly the food. As the ragtag band made their way his head swung side to side looking and listening and gasping and pointing; all of which was more than likely ignored by his fellows.

By the time they had reached the town, or at least gotten much closer, he had a head and neck ache from looking about and he rubbed his strong muscles with a pout. "So why are we going here?"

"Oh great, a traveling circus..." Choshi rolled her eyes in distaste as she thought out loud to herself. Possibly TOO loud. The wide eyes and puzzled expressions of the onlookers hinted that they might have over heard her irritated remark, but the thought never registered in her mind. The thought was intended for her, and as far as she was concerned, no one else heard it.

"What makes you think there is a "WE"?" she added in response to Arlo's question with out looking at him. She had craned her long neck to see where she wanted to settle down in the trading grounds. She would need a fair amount of space after all, she wasn't exactly compact, as some might put it.

After a few moments of internal decision making, she finally decided on a spot and headed towards it without so much as regarding the eager hellspawn. Ignoring the frantic townspeople as they nervously stepped out of her way, she turned and settled down in a clearing next to another trading tent, which she promptly knocked over with her tail. Twisting her head around to see what it was that got in her way, she scowled at the man who emerged from underneath the collapsed fabric of the tent, merchandise in hand.

"Excuse me...do you mind not getting so close? You're kind of invading my personal space..."

When the man didn't answer, she huffed an irritated cloud of smoke and reached around to a pouch attached to her neck. Unfastening the small button with the tip of a claw, she reached in and pulled out a bag no bigger than her fist, and out of THAT came an unusually large sheet of fabric, which she placed in front of her as a matt for her "merchandise". Picking up the bag again she pulled out a curved blade, that again, seemed much to big for it's container and proceeded to cut off a lock of her hair that she had wrapped in blue ties. Placing the lock of hair on the matt before her, she placed the blade back into the unusually tiny bag and sat back on her haunches, waiting patiently.

Oddly enough, dragon hair has been said to be quite valuable as it's hard to come by and contains many magical properties that can be used in spell components and even be woven into clothing to protect it's wearer. Folding back her ears, Choshi at least hoped the people around here KNEW this...or she might be forced to engage them...which required being nice....letting out a sigh she could only hope for the best.

After a big wait sitting on a tree stump, Mr Fynn had decided he could use a more comfortable seat. And probably breakfast too. So he decided to make Mrs Mavis a small visit. She had invited him for tea not too long ago ("you should really pop by sometime. I'll make you a lime tea, my specialty! And I know you love my cookies with raisins! I'll bake you some!").

So he had dropped by. She was a nice old lady, even if a tad boring ("you know Nightchant, the dark elf next door? I heard he has a mistress in town. Oh, these new folks. When I was young, we'd...").

Of course, when he came back, the trading grounds were full of foreigners! Most were humans... a dragon? Oh boy, such a handful.

The dragon was Mr Fynn's first target. He scurried over, looked up at the mighty beast, and bowed. He had no idea how to greet a dragon - he couldn't shake a dragon's hand, after all...

"Welcome to Libelle! I am the mayor of this fair town, Zacharias Fynn!"

Tilting her head down at the unfamiliar, somewhat annoying voice below her, she focused her vision on the man standing before her. What an odd looking thing he was, she thought, not really paying attention to what he was saying. Flicking an ear she brought her head down to his level and looked him in the eyes, her snout practically against his chest.

"You looking to buy? You better have gold on you."

Mr Fynn was caught by surprise. The dragon was looking down at him, and something about that made the poor man feel quite intimidated.

"I, er... I mean... I was just welcoming you to my t-town, as the Ma- erm, excuse me."

Looking around, desperately looking for an excuse to leave the suddenly terrifying Dragon alone (Dragons always look less frightening from a distance, do they not?) made the mayor notice a few other visitors. They were two elves, a satyr of sorts and a humanoid lizard. The mayor cleared his throat, adjusted his hat and held his cane tighter, for some reason. Then he hurried and went to say hello to them.

Hopefully they would be less frightening and weird than the big dragon.

The poor Mayor would be wrong in his hopes. Arlo brightened the moment he was addressed; his ears and tail stood upward as the man approached them. He had introducedd himself as something official sounding, but Arlo was used to being one of the most offical people from his dimension and it didn't seem important to him. He examined the man's hand, which he held out at length until it got awkward... And then the Hellspawn remembered to shake it. He was asked for an introduction and gladly complied.

"My name is Arlo Khorjex..." The man had added his title so he felt obligated to do the same. "Third Regent of Abbadon, Hell; under Lucifer the uh.. the First and Only." He took the man's hand and gripped it firmly. Arlo's hand was hotter than a normal persons and caused sweat to plume on Zacharias' palm. "It is nice to meet you." He said this with a weird pronounciation, as a foreigner trying out a new language.

Oh.

Not a satyr, then.

A regent of Hell.

How delightful, a regent of Hell loose in his town.

The only thing that kept Mr Fynn from fainting on the spot, was that he lived next door to some retired demon lord called Ghadriul. And they were good friends, as far as human/demon lord relationships went. Still, he was standing before a regent of Hell, and those were pretty important, not to mention the tales his neighbor would tell about the 'good old days'.

Hopefully, Mr Khorjex wouldn't be there to spread corruption or death. Zacharias's hand, the one that had shaken Arlo's, returned to the mayor's pocket, as its owner tried to act and speak in a way that wouldn't get him carbonized by the hellspawn.

"Erm... it is a great honor to meet a figure of nobility such as yourself, Mr Khorjex. I hope you enjoy your stay here in Libelle... some of its inhabitants share your birthplace. Like my neighbor Ghadriul. His name might ring a bell and- oh, excuse me."

And quickly, before he accidentally said something that could upset the hellspawn (he greatly valued his life), he turned to the other three.

"Welcome to my town, honorable visitors... I am the Mayor, Zacharias Fynn." He said, weary, but still politely smiling. What next, devourers of worlds? Humanoid time bombs? Creatures able to carve flesh as if it was stone?

He'd seen pretty bad things... the previous year one of the visitors had been one of the examples mentioned above, the last one; he had left after quite a big scandal. But a regent of Hell and a dragon in the same year? That was just too much.

(Tee hee, "carbonized." Awesome.)

Sam dismounted as Fynn greeted the group. Poor guy. Looked like he'd had better days.

She greeted Zack (as she had already decided to think of him) with a smile, which was fairly disarming since she had put enough points in to her Spunk, Pluck, Moxie and Pulchritude attributes to raise them all to above average.

"What's up mayor. Samantha Brooks, but just call me Sam." As she spoke, Mort trotted over and began snuffling around Fynn, quite happy to meet someone who didn't reek of world-ending evil. Nothing like an invasion of personal space to make a good first impression. At least he's not slobbering on him; it would seem that that is an honor reserved for only the closest of pals. Once satisfied that Fynn was a "Nice Man, Who Probably Has Treats", he went and sat next to Sam, again putting her between him and the grumpy dragon and the clearly psychotic demon from Hell.

"Er, sorry about that, he's just really friendly. So, is there a stable in town? Mort here can fend for himself well enough, but I'd feel terrible just leaving him outside at night while I'm sleepin' in a warm bed."

Having a saurus snuffing around him was quite awkward for the Mayor... or it would have been, if he wasn't already in shock from what had happened before, with Arlo and to a lesser extent, the dragon. Actually, having a quote unquote friendly animal invading his personal space helped him snap out of it, so to speak. Why? He had no idea.

"N-nice meeting you, Miss Brooks. I hope you enjoy your stay here in Libelle!"

He reached for his pocket, and from there took a cookie.

For you see, contrary to Mrs Mavis's belief, he was hardly a fan of her cookies with raisins. In fact, he pretty much hated raisins. So he had pretended to eat a few, while instead putting them in his pockets. A grown man doing such things, for shame.

"Does he... like cookies?" He asked with a small smile.

He was a bit scared that Mort would bite his hand off or something. Animals, you never know...

Mort answered that question for her. After a sniff, he engulfed Fynn's hand with his mouth, swallowing the cookie whole. No damage done, though he'll probably want a towel to dry that hand off before he shakes anybody else's hands with it. And probably some soap and water, 'cause, ew.

Sam couldn't help a chuckle. "Yep, he'll eat pretty much anything, as you can see. Also, you're now his best friend forever, so, you know, my condolences."

Mort sat back again, now looking up at Fynn with his big dumb dinosaur eyes, tail wagging happily.

Good treat! Nice man! Thanks! Another? One more? Again? Eat?

Ewww.

"Well, I always loved animals..." said the mayor, trying not to look too disgusted, before excusing himself. Sam and Mort's friendliness had cheered him up a little. Time to say hello to the other two elves.

He held out his hand at them... only to realize they probably wouldn't want to shake it, anyway. So he awkwardly tried to conceal that movement, in a quite silly manner, as he used that hand to adjust his hat, again. Luckily, before he managed to, he remembered he had his hand full of saurus saliva. And he liked his hat saurus saliva-free.

So there he was, his gooey hand inches away from his hat, looking really embarrassed. And so he stood for a few seconds... and then he waved at them.

"...welcome!..."

The hellspawn was fidgeting now, rocking his weight from hoof to hoof. All this greeting nonsense was making him bored. His attention strayed to the people milling about their wares. His icy eyes fell upon a stand full of shiny metal things. He wasn't sure what they were or what their function was but he was suddenly hungry. and Audibly so, as his stomach rumbled loud enough for his companions to hear.

Without warning, his body turned in the direction he was looking and he slowly but delibrately made his way to this tempting stand. Reaching out like a child, he lifted a piece of succulent metalwork and looked it over with intent.