genessia | (no subject)

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Who: Li

li_amaranth and whoever decides to cross her path?
What: Nightmares
When: During nightmare event
Where: Fayren ( forests)
Warnings: Potential violence and a very freaked out kelpie?

A. The fears of one Mare
That day had been going well for her. Li had been swimming, done some hunting and generally enjoyed being in the sun. Since her curse was lifted, Li's life has been... peaceful.

However, once night fell, Li started hearing something just on the edge of her hearing. Something strange and.. very terrifyingly familiar. She tensed up, shifting back into her equine form just in time to see a hooded figure approaching her with a book in hand and a long braid of reddish brown hair trailing from beneath the hood. The figure was chanting and raising its hand towards Li as she backed up and let out a loud terrified bellowing neigh before rearing up.

The vibrations from her hooves hitting the ground could probably be felt from several yards. It felt as if an entire herd of horses may have reared up and hit down at the same time as her angry terrified cries scared birds from the trees...

B. The race to get away from the Nightmares
Sometime later, a black mare was tearing through the woods at a pace that might make anyone wonder what was wrong as she wove in and out of the trees as if the very hounds of hell were after her...

At some point she stumbles and ends up ramming her shoulder into a tree, forcing her out of her equine form and into her human one from the pure shock of the hit. Lithium slides down the side of the tree to brace her back against it, just curling up into a ball among the trees roots, quivering as she tries to make herself as small as possible, her breath ragged as she just...tries to comprehend what the hell is going on.

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He sleeps at odd hours, which leaves him with too much energy at night. Gellert remembers big rats and even bats being an issue when the sun set and so he had trained himself to slumber when it was still light out. That habit will be hard to shake, though it serves him well now.

The pounding of hooves alerts him that all isn't well - he had been thinking about checking in on Lithium - and he witnesses her collision with the tree. Outwardly, he looks unfazed, but as soon as she transforms back into a human, he is moving quickly, passing through the shadows like a ghost.

"Lithium." he calls forth a small ball of light and sends it to hover over her, "What are you doing out here?"

The sheer force of her terror had Li shrinking way from the light that suddenly entered the corner of her vision and scrambling to put some distance between her and it as her ragged breaths demonstrated her terror.

Even the pain she felt from slamming into the tree didn't seem to stop her even if there were some pretty deep and obvious scrapes and blood from the impact. For the longest moments, she didn't even seem to be aware that it was Gellert speaking until some part of her came to her senses briefly.

"Gellert..." She tried to calm her breathing despite the fact that she was so on edge. "I need somewhere safe.. please. She can't find me again."

She was bleeding; he could see that much in the light. And she was scared. Immediately he went to her and pulled her into the safety of his arms.

"I'll take you to Albus's. There are wards all around it." and it was the place he personally felt the safest. While holding onto her, he Apparated them to the house.

"Who is she?" his stomach clenched - he thought he knew - but he needed to hear the truth from her.

The moment she was in his arms, she was clinging to him and pressing her head against his shoulder. Li was shaking as she just nodded, not daring to speak until they were someplace safe. The bitch couldn't find them there, right? She really hoped so.

"...The bitch that cursed me. She's here.." she shuddered, her breathing becoming panic laced to the point of nearly hyperventilating. "She's been dead for three hundred years.. how the fuck is she here."

So he was right. Blood red rage filled his chest and threatened to stifle any logical thought. But the sensation of her clinging to him and sounding so frightened helped him master it for a moment.

"Tell me where you last saw her." he led her to a comfortable chair and lowered her down on the cushion, "Lithium, let me deal with her. I'm more powerful than her; you know that."

It wouldn't take much to get her to sit in the chair with how terrified she was. But it would take her a moment to try and think about where she saw the mage. Lithium had taken off at a dead run without paying attention to exactly where she had been heading.

"Clearing.. three miles from my cave I think. Maybe.. two." she shook her head and had to focus damn it! Li knew Gellert was powerful, he could handle this.. right?

"I'll figure it out." he grabbed a pack he kept in a trunk, strapping it around his chest, "She can't barge in here without suffering greatly for it. Besides, Albus and I will be alerted."

Despite being distracted, Gellert made sure she had a large glass of clean water to drink.

"Just relax." he glanced at her before he headed for the door.

Li nodded as she just tried to focus on her breathing, trying to get herself under control. She knew she was safe here. Albus and Gellert were her friends and if she were honesty with herself, part of her little makeshift herd.

"I'll.. try." And she really hoped the protections they had were as good at they though. Though, when he goes looking... he won't find anything. Li's nightmare apparently didn't want to stick around so much..

Albus is in the woods when he hears the slamming sound of a crash into the trees. It's only a few meters away from where he wanders, so he ventures towards it, wand out for safety. He knows another strange event is happening in the city, so it can't hurt to be careful --

But then he sees a familiar form, and he immediately kneels to get a look at her, to see if she was all right. "Li?"

It's not hard to see she's a bit dazed and terrified as she curls up at the base of the tree. Even with his approach, Lithium's on edge and shrinks back as Albus kneels near her. At this close range, it's not hard to see her entire left arm, shoulder and part of her side are scraped up with the worst of it being on her shoulder where its a bit bloody from the impact with the tree.

It's not until she hears his voice that she hazards looking up at him, terror and fear etched on her face. "Keep her away from me."

He glances back behind where Li's come from. "I don't see anyone coming," he says. "But if anything comes close I'll hex them away."

Already he's started to cast spells to heal her, the magic swirling out to clean and close the scrapes on her skin. Gently, he asks, "What happened?"

It was just them.. no one else was around..Li nodded as she tried to get her breathing under control. Albus was someone she trusted so she was trying even if she did jump at the feel of magic brushing against her skin. The way she reacted was as if she was expecting pain for a brief moment.

"I saw her." Li shook her head as she brought her palm up to brush away some tears. "The bitch that cursed me. I saw her in a clearing. She was going to do it again, I could feel it."

Albus looks concerned at that, glancing about the woods to see if there is any incoming threat. He sees and hears nothing, but he casts a shield around them all the same, a glowing bubble of protective magic surrounding them.

"If you feel well enough for it, I can Apparate us away," he says gently, looking back at Li. "Somewhere safer than the woods."

Again she nods. If it got her out of the woods and put distance between her and the mage, she would agree to it whether she felt well enough for the spell or not. "Then get me out of here, please Albus.. I don't want to be cursed again."

He nods and lightly takes her hand in his before casting the spell. It only takes a second, though it might be disorienting for someone who's never experienced it before -- there is a very brief moment in which they slide through a wrinkle in space, and then they are in a new place entirely. Specifically, he has brought them to the Nova City beach -- the curse seems to be affecting Fayren and Everglade, so it seemed wise to pick water outside of those locales.

"All right. I think we might be safer here," he says, glancing about for any signs of danger.

Li's tense as he takes her hand and had to remind herself that his magic wasn't like the mage's. He wouldn't harm her like the bitch did. So she put her trust in Albus as the spell moved them. It took her a few moments to realize it was the beach in Nova City. She rarely visited this one but... if it out distance between her and the bitch, she'd deal with it.

"Are you sure?" So far, there was nothing. Just a terrified Li and him. "She couldn't follow that, right?"

He had heard the rumors of something being amiss in both Fayren and Everglade, and on instinct had begun to prowl the forests, keeping dutiful watch over the area just in case. For a while he might have considered that the broadcast might have been a false alarm in the peace of the forest; nothing at all was happening, and he was growing more and more bored with each pad of his paws.

That boredom was quickly rectified as the cry that cut through the trees made his fur stand on end. He jerked his gaze around, ears flicking sharply in the direction of the sound, before he tore off toward it in a whirl of inky darkness.

Li.

While he couldn't claim to know her well, she was, so far, the closest thing he had to 'friend' in Genessia, and the sound made his blood run cold as ice, even as the forest became a blur.

From wolf to falcon form, he chased the sound of hooves, shifting when necessary to try to keep up with her, calling out to her with that cool, soothing darkness.

Unfortunately, it was her stumbling and the tree that gave him the advantage he needed to catch up, and the state he found her in did nothing to calm his nerves. He dropped from the sky, shifting midair into his human form before landing nearby, then went to her, carefully reaching out with a gentle hand to brush aside her hair and quickly check her over for wounds. She would know his scent... or at least, he hoped she was present enough to recognize it. "Li, what's wrong? What's going on?"

The hit from the tree had left her dazed and still very terrified as she caught the sound of someone approaching her. The usually brazen Kelpie was cowering among the roots of the tree she hit, curled up and trying to make herself as least visible as possible.

Even though she recognized his scent, she was still flinching when she felt his gentle hand brush aside her hair. As for wounds, her upper arm, shoulder and side were scraped up with the point of impact on her shoulder taking the worst of it, making her bleed. It looked painful but, Lithium was to terrified to feel the pain just yet.

Even her breathing was harsh, near hyperventilating from her mad dash through the woods and it takes her several moments of gulping down air before she can even speak. "She's here...I can't.. I'm not..Never again." She wasn't aware if she made sense or not. Her mind was too jumbled with fear to really string together what terrified her so much.

He nearly snarled at the wounds, but kept his hands away from them, instead focused on getting her sitting up right and calming her breathing. Even as he guided her to sit, he scanned the forest and shook his head, keeping a vigilant eye on the space around them. "'She'? Deep breaths... I don't see anyone else and I'm not going anywhere. You're safe."

He shifted his eyes, but...nothing.

For the moment, they were alone in the woods as she nodded, taking deep shuddering breaths as she just tried to calm down. It was a long process before her breathing was approaching any type of normal.

"Are you sure? No one else.. just us?"

"Just us," he confirmed, making one last sweep before settling his attention on her once more. He took her in again, this time properly assessing the injuries as he spoke. "What's going on?" he asked gently, shrugging out of the knife belt across his chest. A moment later, and he had slipped the his shirt off and sling it carefully over her head, leaving it around her neck for her to adjust as she would. While the nudity didn't quite bother him in such a high stress situation... she was still a lady.

Li didn't say anything until his shirt was settled around her shoulders and she was pulling it tight around her. Normally, Li didn't like human clothing but, right now she was taking comfort in his scent surrounding her even if she was on edge.

"I saw the mage that cursed me." She shuddered and clung to his shirt as she ducked her head, still curling herself up tight as she could. "I was in the woods and she appeared and started cursing me again..."

That... That was alarming.

He sat back on his heels, scanning the forest again as he slipped the knife belt back over his head. "Do you have someplace safe I can take you?" Obviously, if this woman had shaken someone like Li so badly, his hunt was far from over, but he wanted her out of harms way as quickly as possible, preferably someplace she felt comfortable. "What of your wizards? I'm afraid I'm not much against spells..."

"My cave." It was the safest haven she had beyond hiding at Albus's house and Li wasn't in any mindset to contact her wizards at the moment. Not without causing massive amounts of panic.

"Try and find Gellert and Albus...They're my wizards." she finally looked up at Kier and for once, looked utterly helpless. After she pulled herself together, she'd deny it until the end of time.. but, for now..

Li knew she didn't stand a chance against that woman. She hadn't three hundred years ago and now would be no different.

He nodded, then stood, offering a large, warm hand to help her as well. He had seen that look before; not on her, of course, but many times throughout his service to the king. Li was just fortunate he was on her side...

"I'll make sure you make it safely to your cave. Lead the way," he told her, reaching to his back pocket to check for his device. "Then I'll contact down your wizards."

She took his hand, clinging to it as she allowed him to pull her up. Li wasn't about to let go of him its seemed as she started to lead the way back to her cave. The way she moved spoke of her fear, her footing a lot meeker than its usual brazen strength. She was shook all the way to her core right now.

There wasn't anything out of the ordinary as they approached her cave. There was a slight feeling of magic from the various protections Gellert out on it at one point though.. But, it was in the clearing when Li froze. There was a woman with reddish brown hair standing in the treeline dressed in a dark dress glaring straight at Li with a book in her hands and muttering as she read from it.

Li spotted her and froze, her fear spiking as she started to back away from the clearing....

He stayed calm and sturdy at her side, frowning to himself at her faltering steps. It was so unlike the woman he had met not terribly long ago, and he never would have imagined she could be reduced to this. He could smell the terror on her, and if this mage were truly out there, he couldn't blame her. The very thought of it made his own back sting.

He paused a moment when they passed through the magic, blinking at her in question, but in the next moment she had frozen again, and her fear staunched any curiosity he had.

A deep growl rumbled in his chest as he slipped an arm around her to pull her back, then stepped in front of her to confront the woman on his own. Teeth bared, he assessed the area and stared her down. "I suggest you leave... I've yet to hunt today."

Li didn't resist him pulling her back or even seem to notice that he stepped in front of her. She was trembling, frozen as the woman glanced to him before focusing back to Lithium as if he didn't matter and his threat meant nothing to her.

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B

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I PICK C, as in Combo A+B

Re: I PICK C, as in Combo A+B

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