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Dreams of lavish feasts and nice, comfortable beds filled Valedus L'Archel's mind that night. Huge turkeys basted in the finest of... bastings... gravy boats filled to the brim with the delicious smelling (though foul looking) brown liquid, pies of every imaginable type, white silky mashed potatoes and salads made from the crispest greens and most succulent vegetables lined tables filling up entire hallways. It was a lonely feast though, with only Vale himself seated in front of the largest, most beautiful-looking cooked turkey in the house with a huge white silk napkin stuffed down the front of his shirt (making a makeshift bib) and a large fork and knife in either hand.
Vale woke up in a puddle of his own drool... again. Sleeping in the wilderness had made him starve for normal food- which hardtack and rabbits were not. His stomach growled and he reached for a wild onion he had pulled last night. One bit and he was up and running, his eyes and nose immediately filling with water. Snuffling, he stepped out of the tent to see his two acquaintances staring at each other. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to remove his bed-head.
"If you guys are going to start making out or something, wait for me to get back into the tent. You're looking at each other like a couple of long lost lovers." He ducked back into the tent and began to pack half of the food into Sirxeko's nearly empty pack. Luckily, he had washed everything he found in a small stream he found during the night- where he also filled all the water containers he could find- Never know when you'll find another stream, so Vale thought it was best to be prepared. Anyway- nothing inside of his pack of any importance got dirty- though it may have gotten a bit damp.
He slid back out of the tent and began to break it down- stowing the parts in a separate pack as he took it apart. He rolled up his bedroll and stuffed it into the same pack as the tent before turning back to the two men. He plopped down adjacent to them, sitting on the pack with his tent and bedroll in it. He studied both men for a moment before sighing again.
"So... when are we going to get going? Daylight will only stay around for so long- and I prefer to not travel during the night. Monsters seem to appear more frequently during the night anyway- and we can't have a fire while walking- unless you want to set this forest on fire." He shook his head before continuing, "Anyway, we should probably get moving soon. Sorry for running out on you, Big Purple and Scary, but I'm not a fan of fighting monsters... especially in the dark."
Belzera chuckles at Valedus's words, the sunrise had barely finished as he had rose and now he spoke of leaving before night fall. Belzera looks up to one of the tree's and smiles raising his hand to one of the thicker ones, his hand closes so one finger is pointing towards the tree in question and with a small flash of light a purple beam flashes from just in front of the tip of the Demons fingers and hits the branches and cuases a small explosion that blasts the branch off of the tree and down onto the ground. Belzera then walks towards it and picks it up snapping off several of the branches that came of the broken brnach, a few of them where quite sturdy too, Belzera then quickly and skillfully peels the bark off of the main branch with his fingers and tosses the branch to Valedus before turning his attention to the others.
"Cast a Fire Spell on the thicker end of that and hey presto you have a Torch, might last an hour or two since the wood is thick. You could also wrap cloth around the end and just ignite that for a longer lasting torch."
He finishes stripping the other decent sized branches that he had snapped off of that main one and tosses them at Valedus's feet and then wipes his hands together and smirks at the pair of them.
"Spares for you too, and guess what you now have a way to have portable fire without burning down the forest"
Belzera then starts to stretch his muscles doing routine stretches before unfolding his wings widely, it was obvious this was just another stretch as after several different movements he folded them back and returned to the pair, he wanted to see just how strong they where since these two where one of the few people he had met on the new Gaia that felt like they would be strong enough to face down troubles that occured across Gaia.
"Before we part how about a little sparring session? We don't need to worry too much, since I reckon one of you two has Cure and don't worry I don't plan to kill either of you and well if you refuse I guess I'd leave it at that although I'd be a little disappointed after that little discussion we had Human and alittle surprised that a Demon of any sort would pass up the chance to find weaknesses in another"
Belzera chuckles faintly and raises his hands up into a ready stance as his feet slide into a strong firm stance and just for a moment Belzera seemed to an immovable force as something in the air he carried showed his experience and just how dangerous he could be and to Valedus his last words would probably reveal something about the scars that where visable on Belzera's lower gut and back, the fact that Belzera had always been fighting for his life possibly from the day he was born.
Sirxeko listened to all that Belzera had to say, and then turned to Vale. "This guy's ridiculous." He said incredulously. He was not referring to the idea of sparring, but the whole concept of the torch. Could Belzera really believe that they didn't know how a torch works? Sirxeko sighed and took the branch from Vale's hands. He calmly walked past Belzera, ignoring the combative stance, and stopped once he was out of the small clearing and in the woods proper. He held the makeshift torch with his hand at eye level, the torch itself raising just above his head. In other words, he held the torch like any normal person would hold a torch. "We know all about torches, Belzera, and we know when it is and isn't possible to use one. Do you see now why a torch would not work?" Sirxeko asks, gesturing toward the extremely low hanging tree branches in the tightly packed forest. The lowest of the limbs stopped half-way down Sirxeko's chest, well below the height of the torch. "Obviously the forest is much to thick to use any form of portable fire." Sirxeko tosses the branch aside, sighing.
They had the same issue last night, discussing the workings of the English language. Sirxeko was still sure that he was in the right on that issue as well; the only reason Belzera would mention his ability to fly was if he was in some way proud of that particular attribute of his, and the only reason he would be proud of something that is so trivial is if he had somehow come up with some creative way to use it, like if he had developed a unique aerial combat style or something.
Sirxek returned to where his pack lay and lifted it by one of its straps. "The forest is also a bit thick for flying in." He said, voicing his thoughts, "So you would lose what ever advantage your flight would have given you... Unless you were to fly above the trees, though that's a long way up, and if you were to fly that high, we'd likely be long gone by the time you gained enough height to dive upon us." He scanned the tree line. "So in a spar you would likely be humbled, however, I think that Vale is right. We need to get going. It's a long enough trip to Dollet as it is, without wasting half the day with games."
He then hoisted his pack to his shoulders and stared at the larger demon. He couldn't say that he disliked Belzera, he was just surprised at him. How was it that a great demon such as Belzera, one who seemed to be older than the oldest trees in that forest, could possibly lack basic intellect. The laws of physics and momentum must be different in the demon world for him not to realize that fire plus low hanging branches equals bad. He sighed again and looked down at Vale. "Ready to head off?"
Belzera chuckles and relaxes his stance and puts his hands behind his head as the Human proceeded to explain why using torches in a forest so thick, but this was meaningless comments as he'd walked along forest trails wondering off of the trails after hearing them and just smirked at the words of the Human.
"About 10 minutes in that direction is a forest trail which will render your point meaningless, so some how torches would be handy in a well worn path through a forest where Branches aren't in your faces, but hell if you've ever been through a thick forests and jungles before you hold a torch low at about your waist while your hunched paying attention to were you are walking keeping an eye out for traps and natural hazards."
Belzera then turns to face the way he had entered the small clearing last night and then looks back at the pair of them.
"And even if you don't find the trail there are two of you, one clears the path and the other carries the torch, but whatever good luck on your journey you guys"
Belzera then slowly walks towards the trees one hand slipping into his pocket and the other waving back to the pair as he vanishes back into the woods leaving them alone as he continued his journey to deling city easily finding his way back to the forest trail and then smirking before he summons his blade and slashes several large words into a couple of the trees before he turns towards Deling in the distance and starts walking again, the words he carved into several trees where.
<- Dollet that way, don't get lost too badly - Belzera
"Well, it appears our flamboyantly colored friend likes to make equally flamboyant exits. How very... un-general-like of him." Vale shakes his head and walks over to the pile of torches and scratches his head- frowning. "I don't have enough space in my bag to carry all of these... I might be able to squeeze one or two in, but with all the food there simply isn't enough room. Unless you have another bag hidden somewhere?"
Stuffing two of the many torches into one of his packs (and almost ripping it in the process) Vale sighs and stands, obviously waiting for Sirxeko to hurry the crap up- he didn't want to be kept in this forest any longer than he had to be.
"No, no I do not." Sirxeko said as he hoisted his own pack to his shoulders. "Though we could always just make more torches if those don't last. How hard is it to find a tree branch in the forest?" He looks around the clearing one last time to make sure he had everything. Then he turns in the direction Belzera had pointed. "Ten minute walk to a forest path? We should get going if we want to get there any time this week." They walk out of the clearing. Soon they find the path, and Belzera's message. "Try not to get too lost? Well, we're on the path now! Guy doesn't do anything half-way, does he?" Sirxeko shakes his head and leads the way along the path. They were on their way.
word count 138 Total - 4858
((I suppose that's the end of the thread. Unless Vale has anything to add?))