Fantasy Magic's End

[noremac]

A great noise came from the forest. A tumult of roars, and shrieks, hooting, and hollering emanated from the center of the dense wood. All those close enough to hear it were terrified for the sound was clearly unnatural.


The source of the cacophony was a gathering of magical beings. In the face of extinction the remaining creatures of magic had retreated deep into the wilderness and built a city in which to hide.


In the center of the forest stood a massive oak tree. It's gnarled arms reached hundreds of feet into the air and held out leaves big enough to be used as tents. Magic pulsed from within the tree's pith and radiated out for many miles. The oak had been rooted here for at least 7,000 years. Legend tells that the tree was even older then that. Thousands of years ago, when magic was stronger, trees use to walk the land. That time is lost. The trees and plants have long since slowed and quit moving entirely. Still though old trees, such as said oak, can still speak, albeit very slowly. This oak in particular was known to speak on occasion. It once had a name but no one remembered it, including the oak. It was now simply called Old Oak.


Surrounding Old Oak was a pine forest. Up in the canopies of all the trees save Old Oak were many tree forts. Some houses were suspended by ropes and vines while others seemed to grow out of the trees themselves. A few of the houses could have only been supported by magic. The canopy was an impressive sight and became known as the Upper City. The Upper City had been built by the primates and other dexterous and cunning animals.


On the forest floor matters were drastically different. Many of the creatures could not live in the trees or had no desire to. The primates had worked only to satisfy their own growing desires. As the magical creatures were not accustom to living in such close quarters a slums was formed. Half derelict lean-tos and stick huts were scattered haphazardly. There were no roads and the paths changed regularly. Some creatures preferred to burrow and built their houses underground. Quite a few burrows had collapsed recently after being walked over to much. Worst of all was the hygiene. No thought had been put into sewage disposal and the waste was beginning to pile up. The smell was terrible. Sicknesses would soon begin to spread. In the Upper City the ground level was know as the Lower City. All the animals actually living in the slums called it the "shit hole" or something to that effect. No one would leave however, for the fear of man was strong.


Currently the first meeting of it's kind is taking place beneath Old Oak:


"We must fight!" Screamed a baboon from his vantage point on one of Old Oak's beamy arms. A chorus of hooting and slapping of hands on wood came in agreement from the other baboons on the limb.


"For too long have we hid in fear of man!" This was met by a murmur of agreement from a large crowd gathered beneath the tree. The baboon kept talking over the crowd as he spread his arms.





"Look what we have built! A city to rival any created by man. Let us continue to learn from the humans and start making weapons! We mu-" But his voice was drowned out by a sudden explosion of shrieks, whistles, and hoots.





"You fool. You fool." A group of owls hooted together in order to be heard.





"WE MUST FIGHT!" The baboon tried to keep the floor but the birds drowned him out again.


A large and fat great horned owl began speaking with a voice that seemed to be carried on the wind. "We cannot fight the humans and hope to survive. War is what they excel in. We have no chance!" This too was met by a murmur of agreement from the crowd. "Instead let us use magic to hide ourselves. We have more magical energy gather-" Before the owl could finish someone else attempted a rebuttal.

 

[KingsPlague]

Closer between the ever so blurry border of the realm of man and the realm of beast stood the human Bairen looking through a makeshift window of a makeshift house, a vein protruding from his forehead as he flicked, snapped and rolled his wrist, cursing under his breath "the damn fire spell worked yesterday, why won't it work now!" he muttered angrily.


Humans and Magic had gone separate ways Eons before Bairen had been born, and his people destroyed everything beautiful to feed their own insatiable hungers. When Bairen was just knee high he had learned about beings that delved deep in the woods that possessed magic from his grandfathers stories, his mother always interrupted telling his grandfather to 'Stop filling the child's mind with silly little stories'. But Bairen's mind had become a kind of magnet for anything magical, he searched libraries for more knowledge, and even risked the occasional break in to safe rooms to try and obtain anything that would teach him more about what lies beyond the realms of man. But lo and behold, after years of searching and a few months in prison, Bairen had almost given up after finding no evidence of magic, until his grandfather passed and left him an old, almost decayed page which stated a small bit of information on how to preform Magic.


And so began Bairen's search for more knowledge, many called him insane and laughed at him for trying to learn something that was no longer meant for humans, but he ignored them, packed his research notes, and left the human world behind him to set out and learn what fate destiny had in store for him


There he stood, in front of a sorry looking house, trying to create a blasted fireball so he could see something inside.

 

[Martin Vole]

Leaves rustle as a streak of wispy purple light circles and coils around the great oak, slithering its way up into the branches like a snake before focusing itself onto a branch. There, bones of a creature weave themselves into existence, followed by flesh, a a long gastly skull emitting a cackle as finally skin and fur are formed into a monstrous possum-like creature with a wide crocodile grin, its tail, barbed and striped wrapped around the branch as its body rests comfortably against it. This was but one of the common incarnations the creature calling herself Beau Geste Bellatroix had come to assume. The creature taps its sharp claws glancing over the gathering.


"Oh my, more hiding, or more fighting, neither option entices me in the least," she says in a raspy voice, resting her cheek against her knuckles. "If you rush into war with the humans, then that is all there ever will be, and if you hide, you'll only continue to live in isolation forever... and trust me on this one, dear birdy, it is not a life worth living."


Bellatroix rolls off the branch and dangles herself by her long tail, anchored to the tree by her barbs. "Honestly, you should think not for yourselves, but for your children, and their children, do you want them born into a world of violence and bloodshed, or a life closed from growth, and sheltered forever in isolation and fear? It is certain, you... we... cannot keep living like this, but these options... are they better."


She spreads out her arms, and closes her eyes. "I have not forgotten the old world, the old dream, I am a fragment of the old magic afterall. Perhaps instead of violence for the sake of violence, we should instead try to force harmony in the world, to let nature once more retake it." She puts her hands to her chest and gives a wide and toothy open grin. "I would ever so gladly offer myself as a conduit, of course."

 

[Nobody1441]

"If I may..." Cress's voice interjected from a branch high up, slowly growing closer as he spoke. He was heard, but not seen as he began his slow decent down the tree. "The world as we know it now is in a bit of a rut. We know that all of us can't hide forever, and that the humans don't seek to coexist peacefully, even with one another." He slipped, as if from thin air, into view, standing near the great owl, hood pulled back to reveal his nearly human tone, and head. He looked toward the great owl and toward Bellatroix simultaneously, addressing them both.


"We cannot hide everyone, but we also cannot risk an all out war with them. They out number us greatly, and I don't think we could sustain the losses and continue on. We are weak in our current state, and retaking the world as we stand would not go well. The Owl is right, yet so are you." His eyes rolled around, darting from creature to creature. "But for the time, I believe we should hide ourselves, but not in isolation." His eyes scanned the many faces, and locked onto the baboons. "If we are to hide, we should do it to gain an advantage. So we need not wage war, but only deliver a swift, decisive strike. It will take time, but I think this bodes better than to copy the humans we wish to overcome. For I promise, they would destroy us. After all, they have a history of war far greater than our own." Cress finished his thought, realizing all eyes were on him after he was done. He never liked being the center of attention, so he slipped slowly away, under the branch he was standing on with the great owl, walking towards the base of the tree.

 

[KingsPlague]

"FINALLY!" Bairen shouted as the flame in his hand sparked up, his wrist was sore from the jerking motions he spent countless minutes doing so he could finally see where he was going. He had made it into the deeper woods, for some reason all the housings he past were abandon and most likely the citizens had gone to wherever the hustling bustling noises where coming from, which Bairen tried to avoid at all costs. The flame in his hand flickered and floated just above his palm, his skin singing ever so slightly every time the small ball of fire came a little to close to comfort.


Bairen couldn't control his curiosity, and moved ever closer to the loud noises coming from the great tree of magic, the flame in his hand becoming less and less controllable as the magic of the tree became too overwhelming and the flame simply went out.

 

[Martin Vole]

Bellatroix hung there for a moment listening to Cress. She knew what he was suggesting, it was an infiltration, a sound and fitting plan from a chameleon. But how well would that translate across the board she wondered? She was among few that could remold herself into almost anything she desired, the rest would require magic to disguise themselves. And the other problem, in her mind, was if successful, how absolute such a "decisive strike" would be? Does this too imply a genocide? And what would her own gains be from that? Her eyes blank out into a purple haze incapable of being read.


As Cress finished his speech she swayed back and fort then clapped her claws together. "Cress, my dear, if nothing else you are strikingly shrewd, let no one tell you otherwise!" She once again places a knuckle to her cheek in thought. "But alas, there is one we lack input from with more voice than I." With this her ears pick up a yell, not of distress but of excitement, triumph. The haze clears from her eyes and watches below as a figure holding a spark rushes to see the meeting being held. It was a human... how interesting.


Her toothy grin once again widens, swinging herself off the branch, somersaulting through the air and landing with a thunderous crash in front of Bairen then looms over him. "Oh my, was that perhaps... was it magic?" She was taking initiative to prevent someone else from doing so, particularly the apes who, agitated as they were, would have attacked him. "Oh, but what impeccable timing, we were just discussing the extinction of humanity!" She says this so abruptly, slapping her hands onto her mouth playing like she said something she didn't intend to. She was testing him for a reaction.

 

[KingsPlague]

Bairen had opened a book, jotting down notes on his surroundings and how the creatures of this world had created their city, It wasn't anything like the grand cities of the humans, but every creature seemed to have a different way to build.


Suddenly Bairen's train of thought was Interrupted by a rather odd creature landing right in front of him, he stumbled backward in shock and landed on his backside. The creature had begun asking questions as Bairen fumbled in his bag for an old tome, he flipped through it to try and find any information about this creature, "Y-yes, it was magic. I-I-I am B-Bairen, I'm studying the a-a-art of m-magic" he stuttered, trying to keep his heart from jumping out of his chest. He stopped flipping through his book and looked at the creature "Ai-Eidolon, not much information on your species, here, everything blurred and worn." his tone softened as the books seemed to calm his nerves, which was quickly negated by the comment of genocide. "Y-You want to eliminate mankind? Are y-you insane, D-Don't you know what my wretched kind is capable of now? S-Sure you have magic, but Magic cannot protect you from the p-powers that they have now created." he squeaked, knowing that his people were creating some great destructive power, but being gone for so long not knowing exactly what.

 

[Martin Vole]

She rubs a claw on her chin as this Bairen spoke, studying him, listening as he spoke. She sensed no other humans around, only him, which was quite peculiar in her mind. She listens to him, amused by his behavior. More than anything, she was studying his responses, sizing up what kind of person he was before proceeding. "Quite fortunate that you would wind up here, sir Bairen," she responds courteously. "I am Beau Geste Bellatroix, but you are free to refer to me as 'Bella'."


She looks at the tome, surprised more than anything that any information existed. "We were rare then, even more so now, only fitting that even written history be denied us," she states coldly, casting a blank stare towards nothing in particular. She quickly returns to a toothy grin and squints her eyes. "At risk of sounding vain, I was probably a lot more spectacular back when that book was written, my golden days... as it were. You are free to glean me for what I know of course."


Bellatroix laughs at being called insane, perhaps more true for word than the human would know, divulging such information and taking such initiative to a human, the enemy. "Perhaps I am deranged, a hermit's life ill suits the cradle of a sane mind. But I agree, in the golden days I could conjure a miasm to melt bone, to mold a form to make the earth tremble," she exclaims waving her hands into the air, looking up towards the heavens and her jaw agape. She lowers again, a small grin this time, her voice softens. "But that is a day long passed, even I wouldn't stand a chance and I know nothing of current man."


She looms in now, getting close and squinting one eye shut. Her words now a whisper "Tell me though, sir Bairen, why does a human now stand before us? Us who have been forced into this corner by humanity?" She tilts her head to the side, her large purple eye staring right at him. "No doubt do some of the apes now contemplate to maim or murder, the birds fear for more to follow, not to mention the many others who see the entirety of your kind as a stain upon this world... feel lucky I spotted you first..."

 

[KingsPlague]

"Just Bairen" he squeaked as she called him sir the second time, his eyes frantically looking around as more creatures joined together to build a circle of howling and gnashing teeth, ready to relieve him of being a human at any moment.


Bairen cleared his throat and looked back to Bella who was now inches from his face, he jumped slightly and took a deep breath,trying to collect his thoughts before he spoke, what he expected, to be his last words. "I am Bairen" he began, his voice jumping in pitch like that of a pubescent boy "I have left Humanity behind me to learn magic, as I feel that this is a dying out and is something that even a lowly human such as myself could learn from the great creatures beyond the border of man." his heart was racing, sweat pouring from each and every gland in his face, and his bladder threatening to give way at even the slightest of harsh comments.


His eyes met Bella's showing nothing but the purest of fears, the growling and snarling had stopped as the creatures pondered the explanation before bursting out in a chorus of laughs. "A human? Learn Magic?" they seemed to find this rather amusing and impossible.

 

[Martin Vole]

Bella rises up giving him some room to breathe, the barbs of her tail retract, clicking in place like a switchblade. She rubs her chin as if in thought, but she had already decided her stance from the moment Bairen first spoke. "I am in favor of the human named Bairen," she states in a calm and sincere tone. There are murmurs of confusion but she ignores it. "I have lived long and witnessed much of the menace of man, but I have observed some nobility among them... I believe s-... ahem... Bairen as such."


"And I saw it for my own eyes, a spark of magic within his palm... a part of him, even deeper than the mind, seeks solace within nature," she says looking to the creatures gathered around, pantomiming every word. "In fact, I can feel there is a kindred magic within him."


She looks up into the tree, of particular, the baboon who screamed for war. "I know many of you may oppose me in this matter, if so, speak now or hold your peace!" Her voice was now more a roar, so much that all present could hear her. "But I beg that you not judge him purely on race."

 

[Nobody1441]

OOC: Sorry on late reply... We were having a time moving me back into my room (from flooding) so i had no comp or internet for a while, but I should be back on track now.


Cress had begun making his way slowly down the tree, eyeing the human up and down, watching Bella taunt him and hearing Bairen's plea. "But I beg that you not judge him purely on race." Bella roared out, a frightening moment for Cress indeed. However this intrigued him, a human learning magic, ending up in this place at this time.


"Perhaps we SHOULD judge him based on race." Cress spoke as he made his way quickly towards Bairen. He never took an eye off the human, using the other to make sure not to run into any larger animals. He was very near the human, both eyes focused on his face, when he spoke next. "He knows humans better than any of us." Cress's tongue whipped out to catch a bug very near his face. " I propose a trade, if all else can agree. We need to know how the humans work and live, in order to find where best to strike. He wants to learn magic. It seems only fair that we could help each other."