Seeking First Contact (Pre-Unveiling & GF'd)

[Mineal Shade]

End of the First Cycle, Kalendryas, Era XV PF

The dispatch from the green and brown clad courier had arrived swiftly. In truth it was just the godsend he needed. Mineal had given the Ranger courier an appraising look mixed with confusion. It seemed odd Mineal had received a missive from Frigid River, or rather a letter at all. However the mosat, short as his tenure was, had learned that any news from the hall was bad news. Of course as he breached the haunting visage of a snow owl in a wax seal with a claw he had no idea to what magnitude he would be employed. It happily allowed him one thing though, to get out of the godsforsaken hellhole of High Peak before its fanged mantle of winter was in full blast.

However it did not seem entirely uncommon that Mineal had been dispatched on the errand. It would be his second ranger to try and contact after it had been cut off from communication from the rest of the empire. Anyways it seems Mineal had some budding skills when it came to trekking. Around Frigid River he was a little more famous, mainly for his exploits in killing monsters and having been to the wild lands and met the strange people beyond the western border of Arakmat. The mosat, however, was not naive enough to think this would be a simple endeavor. Certainly if the Veil was just a natural fog it would be simple enough to follow the roads through the forest back to the city. No doubt it was an unnatural mist, and hopefully not one that had nasties like the unnatural fog that had covered Magic Hollow.

One thing was for certain though, Mineal would not make any progress just staring at the foggy woods. He pulled up the cowl of his grey and white winter camouflage covering and moved towards the edge of the woods.

[Dignitas]

Everwinter had set in on the Restwood, and from what Mineal could make out, it had set in with vengeance. Yes here in the winter long icicles proclaimed their dominance from the pristine trees of the forest as snow blanketed everything within eye shot. The trees did much to stop the howling wind, thank the gods, but still its effects could be felt and for one not as prepared as the mosat, it could be downright deadly if exposed too long. Curiously, no sounds of life were present here in the outreaches of the forest. It was as if the whole forest was silent, mourning something that had been lost. No scurrying in the undergrowth of snow and fallen branches and no chirps of winter birds. Only falling snow and a howling wind were witness to the mosats incursion into this ageless place.

Or wait. What was that? Barely out of the corner of his eye, Mineal could spy what appeared to be what looked like a small glowing ball of blue. It seemed to hover in the peripheral for but an instant, until when the ranger focused on the object it seemed to disappear. Who knew? There were all sorts of tales about the forests that held guard over the Elven city of Silrosia. Most were rumors most likely....strange notions about old spirits of elves and beings of power just as old as the world itself..but even a rumor had to have a grain of truth, didn't it? Whatever the case one thing was certain to the ranger.

He had passed the fallen tree on the right only ten minutes ago.

(ooc: Hello Mineal. I will be modding this thread for you. Please PM me with any comments or questions and such. Thanks!)

[Mineal Shade]

Mineal had heard that the mist was some sort of shield, a barrier keeping the elves out of their home. The mosat had no idea, it did not look much like a barrier. As he stepped under the first eaves of the trees and looked around he could not help but be lulled into the sensible thought that fog was fog and nothing more. But he also remembered Acumin and seeing someone outside the city that looked like he had been frozen into a living statue. It was not until later that the rodenti had found out that the man's odd stature was caused by an invisible barrier and Mineal had been totally unaffected by it because he was a ranger and the fates liked rangers apparently. If the fates liked Mineal they had an odd way of showing it. Maybe there was some higher purpose behind being covered in giant spider innards, fighting off bandits and giant monsters, or spelunking. Maybe the fates were just really bored, Mineal did not know, he was not much of a philosopher.

He looked up at the mass of ice chandeliers that covered the limbs of the trees. As an afterthought he pulled out his water bag and shook it. It was about half empty. Mineal spent some time as he walked plucking icicles and dropping them into his water bag. It would take a little while but under his clothing his body heat would eventually melt the icicles and the rodenti could resupply is water.

Mineal was getting used to forests and he had learned they were anything but quiet. Any brightening was a mix of animals running through the brush, birds chirping their silly heads off and a cacophony of bugs making assorted noise as they went about their usual brightening. This forest, winter might it be, was deadly quiet. It was a little eerie hearing Mineal's own footsteps magnified by the silence to the point it felt like hsi ears must surely be larger than they already were.

Something bright flickered in the corner of his eye and the mosat flicked his gaze in the direction. But as soon as he tried to focus on the object it melted away into the surrounding mist. It was one of the moments Mineal wished he knew more wilderness lore. Surely the rangers had a way to deal with that specific problem unbeknownst to Mineal it was as simple as not looking directly at the ball of light.

He continued walking. Shortly he stopped dead in his tracks. Cocking his head to the side he looked at the fallen log. Mineal cursed under his breath, he had been using what few landmarks there were to keep his path straight and to avoid the simplistic mistake of walking in a circle. It had failed, probably from trying to inspect the ball of light. Shuffling over to the log he hopped up on it and had a seat. Crossing his arms the ranger bowed his head slightly in thought. Mineal had once had similar problems trekking the deserts of Arakmat and the wilderness beyond the borders of the empire. Then he has just made a sun sight to tell him which direction was which. He squinted up at the sky with his black eyes, it was too overcast and foggy for a sun sight. Soon he abandoned all trying to go in the correct way seeing that he could not orient himself in the forest. But he sure as feth could walk straight.

Mineal reached to his waistpack and unattached the slim wire that he used to keep track of his cage in the desert. He hopped up and looked down at the log. Noting his original direction Mineal hooked the end loop of the wire onto one of the log's dry limbs. Then he walked to another tree and hooked the remaining end of the wire on a branch. The ranger pulled out his dagger and made a notch in the tree denoting directon. He would have rather used something else but sadly the ranger did not have any chalk. Mineal returned to the log and made another directional mark before picking up the end of the wire and returning to the tree.

So Mineal went to the next tree, and the next. He repeated the process and despite it being slow and tedious it kept Mineal from wasting any more time walking in circles and perhaps dying in the frozen forest.

The mosat might not have any big ideas about fate and the gods but perhaps he was ingenious enough to walk through foggy woods in a straight line. When he tired Mineal thought he might try to catch the little ball of light. It was probably a fae and maybe if he baited his cage trap with something shiny he could capture it and interrogate the thing about Sylrosia. As usual he had almost no information about what was really going on. But that was why he was usually opted for these missions. The mosat was well traveled in the unknown, had fog experience, an intrepid explorer, self reliant and most importantly he came back with results. Still, it would have been nice if they had sent him a partner. At least working as a team would have made the wire walking faster.

OOC: 'what appeared to be what looked like' = awkward. I'm just bustin' your chops, thanks for picking up my thread Dig.

[Dignitas]

The icicles filled Mineals water bag. A good idea it was; for any sources of water in this frigid place were sure to be frozen, and even then if he could crack the ice it was not so good to drink stagnant water. So, with his water bag filled he could continue. Equally ingenious was the use of the wires and marking trees. There was no way this could fail; after all trees wouldn't move and a whole city surely couldn't. The first few minutes were uneventful. Only trees and growth coated with snow. However, then the ranger could notice the strange blue light following him off to the side. This time when he looked at it, it did not move or disappear. It seemed to bounce there in the air, content to follow the Ranger.

Mineal made good progress, and tree after tree was marked. Finally, the ranger came to something. A shimmering bright light in the distance shown itself to him. It was almost hard to look at, it was so blindingly bright. What it was remained unclear. But undoubtedly he was making progress. His next step however, ended up in a puddle. Somehow, in all this winter, this water here had not frozen; Despite temperature not changing.

It was almost as if the forest was taunting him. Playing with him even. It was well known this was the domain of the Elfs, home of the Elfhame. To many, seeing one of Mineals kind in this place would be absurd. And perhaps it was? What was even more absurd however, was the changing environment.

With every step forward, every tree marked, the fog started to grow in thickness. Soon it was so strong that it was hard to walk through, stopping all vision but a few feet before the rangers eyes. Curiously though, the bright blue light that had been following him was visible; its vague outline of color piercing the fog gloom. Mineal had many choices on how to proceed, and it was up to the ranger to continue the way he had been making progress or change. Either way, this forest was getting stranger by the minute.

[Mineal Shade]

It was slow, plodding progress. Actually Mineal could not even tell if it was progress. For all he knew he was going in the completely wrong direction. Gauging one's heading in a forest was difficult enough but the fog made it nigh impossible. But more than that was the crushing silence, it filled everything so that even nothing had a sound now. It probably would have really bothered most people but Mineal was used to the expanse of everything around him being devoid of other people. He had been alone for a very long time, so much that he avoided large cities now. The noise hurt his ears and he felt intensely more alone an dout of place in the middle of a sea of people than here or the wastes. But he also disliked cities because of N'danosh. There he had been treated as a freak, an oddity left to die with his Aelyrian brethren out in the wastes beyond the walls in a dirty ghetto.

Mineal looked up and noticed again the blue light out of the corner of his eye. This time however, he ignored it until he reached the next tree and secured his wire. Mineal wanted to investigate the bobbing light but he also did not want to lose his path again. When he took the time to focus his gaze out on the blue orb this time it did not fade away into the murky background of misty forest but bobbed alongside him at distance. The ranger thought to call out to the light, chance that it was a kind and curious entity. But he stopped himself, he was still not tired and the rodenti felt he should make some more progress along before he decided to take a break. And so Mineal went back to the task of wire walking, accompanied by a strange blue light.

As he made his way deeper into the fog-drenched forest Mineal was assaulted by a bright light. In response he closed his eyes and held up an arm in front of his face. He stood very still as his eyes slowly readjusted, hurt slightly by the intense light. His rodenti light-sensitive eyes did not take such changes well as they were more fitted for using low light rods to see as opposed to high light cones. Mineal fumbled a paw on his forehead before pulling down his sun goggles, darkened to fight the oppressive glare of the desert suns. He lowered his arm and blinked a number of times. The dark lens made the light bearable though still bright. Mineal took a moment to backtrack and make sure he was moving in the right direction before continuing. Along the way he also stepped in a puddle. Looking around he was slightly perplexed as everythign else seemed to be frozen solid except for this one puddle. Perhaps it was proof that what was going on in the forest was magically done. Or maybe the puddle was attached to some sort of underground stream or aquifer. Mineal had heard that it was very difficult to freeze large bodies of water because the ground warmed them too much, maybe this was just the tip of a larger body of water. All the same it simply could have been cleared of an iced surface by some other traveler seeking water. No matter what it was the forest was showing some serious quirks and hiccups.

It was not lost on the mosat that the farther he delved into the woods the more resistance the fog put up. To Mineal all these strange things were a good sign, stiffer resistance meant he was headed in the right direction. Maybe he was coming even dangerously close to stumbling onto the elf city. Given the circumstances Mineal decided to take a short break and see if he stayed still the fog would dissipate any. It could be the mist was reactive only to his movement, magic was a strange thing to try and understand.

Having become used to the blue orb floating alongside him in the distance the rodenti had nearly forgotten it was there. The ranger raised a hand then let it droop slightly, he was not quite sure how to call out to floating lights in the distance. Especially ones that could be potentially dangerous. Well, simplicity worked best in such things. Raising his paw again he waved it at the blue light.

"Serale."

[Dignitas]

His voice, being the only thing making a sound in this forest was louder then perhaps he had ever heard it before, resonating off the rich dark bark of the restwood. Echoing throughout the cavern like forest of tall trees the greeting would likely alert anyone that was also wandering nearby. The reaction to the curious blue light was only a noticeable single pulse, its neon blue color growing in intensity at the stimulation. However it stayed well away from arm reach or weapon length. The fog was growing ever so much now, that even the light from the distant horizon of tress was loosing its ferocity trying to pierce the natural (and yet un-natural) fog.

As the fog grew and swirled around the mosat a cold breeze, heart of the winter, flew by wrapping the fog around Mineal gently. The ball of light too was blown with the wind and it tried in vain to overpower the wind and return to its spot on the left of the ranger. Then, flying in front of the ranger about two feet away it pulsed twice very brightly, accompanied with the first sound that Mineal had heard since he entered this weird place. The sound was like that of a very soft gong, not hard on the ears but aural recognizable.

Then it sped off before him, heading toward the bright light. It was if it wanted the ranger to follow it. However, this was a strange land and the curious lights intentions had not been fleshed out. It could be a trap, or it could lead the mosat closer to his goal. Either way, the decision had to be made fast if he was going to follow, the light wasn't slowing down as it took off and only a few seconds would pass before the fog would smother out the light.

[Mineal Shade]

The mosat was taken aback by his own voice. Mineal did not talk very often and when he did say a few words it was usually understood that he had a very meek and quiet voice. His voice had seemed so loud, amplified by the relative silence that for a moment he wondered if it had actually been his voice at all or someone else calling out. He strained his ears to listen for sounds of anything as he looked at the ball of light. The only response he received was a bob from the ball of bluish light. Soon however it gave off a sort of singular pushing and glowed with a little more brilliance.

The mist was not letting up at all. It continued to clump more thickly and his the distance with its trees in nearly their entirety. A cold bite of wind sifted through the trees and Mineal hugged his white covering to himself. The rodenti could not help but feel that his presence and perhaps his voice was making things worse than they were not far away. Who knew, perhaps fifty steps in any direction it was a perfectly sunny brightening. Mineal thought he knew one thing with a relative amount of certainty, whatever all this was that was happening was not natural. There was certainly some unseen hand guiding it all. Mineal pulled the cowl of his hood down against another chilled whip of wind. As it slinked around the tree branches the wind howled like a spectral beast. Still the mosat was glad for the trees, it provided at least some amount of cover for the mosat from the cold. Mineal truly had been smart to get off of High Peak before the winter had started there in earnest.

The ball of light, close by, flashed twice more and with it came the soothing sound of a sort of chime. After the odd display the ball took off, heading forward towards the light that was already obscured partially by the heavy fog. Mineal was not sure what to do, the ball was going too fast for him to continue wire walking. But at the same time he could not fully trust the light to be helping him in any way. Still, it was headed in the same direction Mineal was pointed. The ranger was fairly certain he was on a correct path considering how things had become tougher the farther he traveled. Plus, if the light had been out to trick him Mineal thought it would have made more sense for the thing to have tried to get him to follow it from the very beginning. Instead it had not been roused until he had called out to it.

Considering the elements Mineal felt like he had to follow the light, this was a difficult and unfamiliar place. The rodenti ranger would need all the help he could get. Quickly coiling up his wire Mineal ran off after the light on all fours.

[Dignitas]

Following the light was not an easy thing to do. Zig-zaging quickly through the trees and heavy fog it's blue light trailed brightly in the gloom. It went quicker and quicker and Mineal would have to run to keep up. However it's neon light of blue did intensify for the ranger to spot it easily, a sign that it did indeed want the mosat to follow. Something curious, as the two trailed off through the forest maze of the restwood Mineal would come across another puddle. Then another. With every step the ground grew softer and softer, although it could not be seen. The trees to, blurs of bark and ice as they sprinted quickly through the woods, began to become sparser and sparser. They shortened too, the tall giant trees losing vertical length with every step.

But even still, as they continued Mineal could tell they must be heading in the right direction. Slowly but surely the ears of the ranger could decipher the natural sounds of a forest picking up. The low hum and drone of insects chirping and scurrying. The cawing of birds and hunters of the sky, And even here and there the shuffle of a wild animal through the vegetation. But all this was unseen as the veil of fog still encompassed the two. For many minutes the pace was frantic and one thing was certain. With the fog and travel at high speeds it would be all but impossible to find the way back to where they left off. For better or worse, Mineal's was now in the hands of the strange glowing ball. More and more often Mineals footing connected with water puddles.

And then as suddenly as they started, the ball was slowing down. The fog was clearing out and the surroundings slowly came into view. Traveling slowly the blue ball of light was turning a richer blue, as rich a blue as the seas. And when the view returned, it indeed did seam as if they were at sea. For what appeared was something so surreal, so against reality that it would likely shock the senses. As the fog let up Mineal could spy that he was on top of a mossy rock. Around him, for many many feet was water in each direction. The air was salty, and had a coolness about it that suggested an oceanic front. There was vegetation here and there on other islands like the one Mineal stood on. Like a swamp, mounds of earth raised themselves here and there and algae could be seen coating the top of the water. Insects buzzed loudly and frogs croaked breaking the silence here. The canopy of the forest as gone and somehow the sun had given way to darkening, a moon above them providing as much lumination as the suns breaking through the canopy at day had.

The ball of light chimed again, and this time made its way slowly over to another island where a tree was growing. Floating directly into the tree it simply vanished, leaving the most likely confused Mineal by himself. What was this place, this water haven in the forest? Whatever the case the bright light could be seen in the distance before him. It was larger now then it had been before, but still a ways off. In front of the Ranger was water and islands, as well as to the sides. Had the glowing ball helped or hindered the mosat? It wasn't clear but what was clear was that this place had nothing natural about it. It seemed it was best to be careful here.

[Mineal Shade]

He moved quickly, he had to move fast to keep up with the ball of bouncing light. It weaved in and out of the foggy forest, gliding on the waves of mist. Mineal was kept busy running, the ball never took a break and the ranger was unable to take a moment to check his surroundings for fear of losing sight of the blue ball. At first he had some trepidation that perhaps the ball was leading him in the wrong direction. Perhaps it has been a ruse of whatever magics had descended on the forest swathing it in this gray veil.

But he began to relax and take heart when he began to hear a return of the noises usual to a forest. Accompanying the music of the forest was a thinning of trees and those that were around were shorter, younger no doubt. The third and most interesting development was more water, more melted puddles.

The light began to slow and stopped all together. Mineal was given his first chance to actually look around. The fog was mainly broken but the mosat no longer seemed to be in the heart of a forest. Instead it looked like he was at a tree line on the edge of the sea. That was what hit him first, the smell. He could easily distinguish the pungent smell of salt in the air from snow melt. It was possible this was a low spot in the forest where melt might collect and flood, but that did not explain the salt. It was impossible for it to be an actual sea. The coast was a journey of many brightenings, Mineal was quick on his four feet but he was nowhere near that sort of epic speed that was more reminiscent of winged sandals. He looked up when the ball made a noise and drifted off to another island and into the solitary tree on that little land mass. It was all very strange. When he came across things he did not fully understand the mosat had the foresight to usually take a step back and assess the situation. Rodenti sometimes had a hard time adjusting to the odd things of the rest of the world. Occasionally it took Mineal a longer amount of time to figure out seemingly simplistic things.

Well he was not in any sort of time crunch and it was dark, though the moonlight was very clear and bright. He could take the time to think things through. The mosat flipped down on his rump and drank from his water sack. After a few refreshing sips of cool water he put it away. He laid his mind to unraveling his surroundings. He was obviously not near the sea, so why was the water salty? Well, if he was at a natural sink spot perhaps it was some sort of salt deposition. Though for it to be this salty it would have to be a long lasting terrain feature. Or it could be freak flooding from the heavy snow in the area. That was easy to check. Mineal leaned forward and looked down at where the trees met the water, they did not have limbs beneath the surface of the water. Either this was an established event or it was entirely unnatural in origin. If that had not been enough proof there were always the patches of land that were made by roots catching silt and slowly growing over time. What miffed the ranger the most, though he was no expert on coastal environments, was that algae covered a good portion of the water. For salt water that was very out of the ordinary, also so were frogs. Mineal did not know of any saltwater frogs. Those details lent a lot of credence to the whole landscape being unnatural. But of course the strongest argument for that was the ball of light that had disappeared within the tree.

Out of everything Mineal could take one thing as a certainty. That one thing being whatever was happening here was not working in conjunction with the magic of the veil. In fact, whatever was happening here was in stark opposition of what had happened around the rest of the forest. There was no snow, insects and frogs were still active in winter and there was no mist. Maybe it was an angry water spirit, which would make sense in conjunction with the ball’s blue glow. Or perhaps it was just a fae who had made its home in the tree and wanted to show Mineal something. The ranger knew nothing of politics but he did know that something or someone who revolted against the veil was more likely to help him get through. If nothing else the blue light had been entirely unaffected by the veil’s fog and that would be useful in finding the missing elf city.

Mineal stood up, resolute in his decision that this had been a fortuitous choice and it was worth further investigation. He looked around and picked up a long stick. Stepping over to the edge of the island he was on Mineal broke up the algae and tested the water for depth and what the bed of the swamp-like landscape was comprised of.

[Dignitas]

The algae broke up easily enough, floating away like tiny islands in a vast sea. Mineals gut instinct was likely right. There were no major bodies of water in this area that anyone knew of. Of course, that was Dependant upon where "this area" was. Having traveled so far and so fast in the thick gloom it was impossible to keep ones bearings. Plunging the stick down in the water it didn't appear to have a bottom. That, or the water was deeper then what a swamp normally catered too. Dragonflies buzzed around as frogs croaked loudly.

The next mini island was about 30 feet away and the Mosat would have to swim to get there. Unless there was a more simplistic approach in this mystical yet decidedly un-natural locale.

[Mineal Shade]

The water was deep. Deep water did not bode well for the mosat. More importantly he did not know why the water was so deep, it defied what he thought to be the lay of the land where he was. Or at least where he thought he was considering that he could only make a very rough and broad estimate.

Mineal investigated further by dragging the stick around the island's shore on the side the ball of light had disappeared. To his chagrin he found that it was all too deep for him to really test the bottom. While the ranger thought he would probably be safe just swimming to the island there was no need to take the easy way out. Still the rodenti found himself at a frayed end. How to get across, he could not walk and he would rather avoid swimming. The ranger looked around, perhaps he could make a temporary raft but that would require a lot of time and effort. Looking up he blinked his big black eyes, then blinked again. Mineal looked at the stick in his hand and then back up.

Sticking the piece of wood in his mouth Mineal scampered on all fours over to the tree he was on the island with. Quickly he ascended into the branches and carefully worked his way out on a branch roughly halfway up the tree. Working quietly and with dextrous speed he pulled out his resourceful wire again and wrapped one end around the middle of the stick he had until he made a nice tight hitch. It looked sturdy enough to hold his weight without snapping. The ranger leaned back and launched the stick like a javelin at some of the sturdier branches in the tree on the island he was attempting to reach. He missed. Mineal patiently tried again, and again until he finally looped the stick end of the wire over a good looking branch on roughly the ninth try. He took the wire in his hand and made big flicks of his wrist until he looped more of the wire around itself between the stick and branch to keep it from slipping. Pulling on the wire brought the whole agenda tight against the opposing branch. But Mineal still needed something to secure himself to the line. Sadly he did not have a gri gri like he had back in Acumin when he had been spelunking. His belt buckle would have to do. Mineal winched the buckle tighter so it would not snap against his body. Threading the wire through his belt he put on his other leather glove and took up the slack in the line so he would swing rather than fall straight down into the water. The rodenti grabbed the line in his gloved hand and jerked it snug back behind his hip where friction on the belt would help him hold up his own weight. At least with this method he would be able to lower himself if he swung too high off the ground or it looked like he was going to swing into the tree trunk in the middle of the island. He could just drop to the ground, not graceful but it kept him out of the unknown water.

Mineal checked his line was tight and stood up. He jerked on the line to make sure his anchor was secure and did all the double and triple checking someone very nervous did. The rodenti took a deep breath and hopped off the branch he was standing on to swing towards the next island.

[Seregon]

:}-OOC-{:Permission has been granted by the Lord Dignitas to continue with this thread. Enjoy!

As Mineal soared through the air - the crisp, clear, darkening air that was filled with both moonlight and stars - he was inwardly thankful for the illumination provided by both. It afforded him the opportunity to see where he was going, instead of flying about in utter darkness and chaos. However, upon landing on the next patch of soil - with a blunt thud – the mosat suddenly realized something he hadn't before. The stars weren't twinkling! Landing on his backside, he was forced to look up, and as he did he had the perfect opportunity to soak in the celestial display above him. The stars should have been winking in and out, sparkling away in the darkened sky, but, they weren’t! They were simply looming there, hanging in the sky like little balls of pulsating matter. Was this simply another trick of The Veil or something a bit more ominous? It was hard to tell and, quite honestly, anything was possible at this moment in time. Getting to his feet, Mineal continued to keep an eye on the sky above. It had to bother him that nature wasn’t behaving the way it should be, but, there wasn’t much he could do about it from where he was currently standing. So, he simply pressed on. From island to island the mosat traveled, gaining a bit more confidence with each leap and subsequent drop. By the time he reached his tenth island, he had his landing down perfectly. There were no more bumbling tumbles for this particular ranger. As he stood now, surveying the area, attempting to figure out his next move, his attention was suddenly drawn skyward yet again. He watched with a keen eye as one of the many orbs of light quickly darted toward the moon, immediately confirming his notion that they were certainly not stars. Stars didn’t behave in this manner, well, not the stars he knew. He continued to watch as the orb pulsed and grew, suddenly taking the shape of an all too familiar denizen of the forest. And then Mineal watched, in utter amazement, as the creature lifted a slim arm toward the glowing, heavenly body and simply plucked it from the darkened sky! And in the span of a single heartbeat both the fae and the moon were gone, leaving Mineal standing all alone in utter darkness.

[Mineal Shade]

Mineal was a first in many arenas. He was the first rodenti in N'danosh, the first rodenti ranger to his and seemingly anyone else's recollection. but now he could add to it the first true flying rodenti, relequis could certainly jump between branches but Mineal soared through the air in what he could easily say was the most awkward feeling in his short life. On top of that it felt like his stomach was doing backflips over itself as he gained speed on the downward arc.

The ground came up to me him fast, very fast. And in the span of a thought Mineal found himself tumbling across the mossy sand bank of another island. Lowing momentum he slowed and laid out flat on his back, uncomfortably on top of his tail. Above him was the black blanket of darkening, peering at him from behind the tree tops. Across it were scattered the thousand immutable lanterns of light, like miniature fires so far away and perhaps inviting him to visit. The mosat took a moment to look at the lights given he was not exactly in a massive hurry to get to the place he did not know if he was even headed towards.

It was only after a short moment Mineal realized the lights scattered across the quilt of the sky were not blinking as they usually did. Strange, unnatural but as he had found in the Veil natural was more a whim than a reliability. Things in this area were far stranger than Mineal had predicted. The ranger dusted himself off anf retrieved his swinging gear before repeating the process so that he might move on and perhaps get to the center of it all.

In short time Mineal proved himself capable at handling the swing landing and before long he landed agile on four paws and moved on without wasting time. It was monotonous going but he had a destination to meet and to do so he kept his eyes wide and alert of his surroundings. Any change in the landscape could indicate he had made a wrong turn. Standing on the island Mineal contemplated his next move. His surroundings had not seemed to change much and if anything they might be considered static. It was in this lull, such a lack of change, that when one of the stoic lights above him shook itself free and shifted across the sky Mineal was immediately drawn to the motion.

But what he found was not a star at all screaming across the celestial discs, it was a small denizen of the forest and one of which Mineal was already becoming to recognize at first sight. He watched as the small figure shot across the sky and with a smooth motion delicately plucked the moon out of the air. Snuffed like a candle at bed time the moon disappeared and with it the light the mosat had been using to guide his way through the environment. The rodenti was plunged instead into a deep darkness.

Darkness, familiar but not as cold as the familiar, oppressive darkness of the new moon in the desert. There was a disquieting inky blackness. Nothing living, nothing moving but the sand in the wind for more than a brightening's travel. There was a terrible thing, cold and the singular feeling of being alone permeated the very mind and marrow of the bone. The mosat's large ears pricked forward on his head and began to take in the sounds around him and matched with the powerful sensor of his nose Mineal began to take his bearings.