In Fields of Fire

[damian]

Flames roared across the landscape as a constant, everything having been reduced to ash, and the flames circling up, then down, moving with the winds that still blew againbst the flames, providing more oxygen for them to burn, endlessly burning the once habitable land of Eastern Parmecia. Nothing could live here within the flames, not on ground level. Nothing except one man on Dragonia- a familiar red-headed individual who stood in the centre of the inferno, flames burning all around him but making no mark, on his suit or his skin. Crimson wore his black shades so he could see safely at the flames, and looked around the land with a mournful expression.

He removed his favourite packet of cigarettes from his breast pocket, popped one out of the top, and switched it to his spare hand. He then shut the case and placed it back inside his pocket, before patting around for his lighter. Shoulders slumping in disappointment, Crimson swept the cigarette through the flames that surrounded him- and his shoulders slumped even further when he found that the cigarette had been immediately reduced to ash.
"At least I have control... Stupid planet." He muttered to himself. Nogard, his right-hand dragon, asked,
"What was that? I can't hear you!"
"I said, at least I have control!" Suicard, his left-hand dragon, decided to join in and asked Crimson,
"At least you have what?!" Crimson sighed, the roars of the flames making conversation very difficult, at least at speaking volume. He kicked off the ground beneath him and shot up, through the walls of flame and into the clouds above, the temperature dropping rapidly once he'd escaped the inferno below.

"I said, at least I have control. What the hell has happened?!" he yelled, partly to the dragons, partly to everything and everyone on Dragonia. He had a naturally high temper and under such stressful circumstances, even the most patient of men would be a tad irritated.
"Well how should we know?" Nogard asked, and his brother Suicard continued,
"We passed out when you did!" That was another thing that had gotten on Crimson's nerves. Someone on Dragonia, or something, had knocked Crimson out- seemingly with no motive- and then reduced Dragonia to this apocalyptic planet, wiping out what Crimson remembered as what was by no means a perfect planet, but at least an above average one. At least nobody was going to come invading any time soon... Why would they want it now?

Crimson remembered the other sites he'd visited after waking up. He tried to visit Zolan Lands- but it had been drowned. He went to Bedoe, amazed at the incredibly quick Winter that had sprung up. Larleta, to Crimson, had been the greatest loss; other than the millions of lives lost. It had been such a beautiful forest, one of Crimson's favourite haunts, and now it was nothing but ash. As Crimson thought back through these past occurences, he felt tears spring up in his eyes, and he closed them sorrowfully. The tears rolled down his cheeks for a second, then evaporated off of his face, due to his own unnatural fires. Shaking his head to regain focus, he coughed aloud so his voice didn't give anything away, then said to the dragons,
"OK, guys, what should we do now? I haven't seen anybody since we woke up, but I really doubt I'm the last guy on Dragonia." His voice cracked halfway through speaking, and he sniffed quietly. The dragons, for once, kept their mouths shut. Far below them, the flames still roared, and Dragonia still lived, still carried on- damaged, but alive.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

(Me is jumping in for playing-ness! Fweeeee! Hope you no mind... get some rp going, perhaps a group for rp in the saga!)

Anything with a pulse of life was rare in this area of destruction... but nonetheless, something was definately alive, aside from the warrior, Crimson, in the endless flames of the once lovely forest. A deep sound came from the twisted, burning floor, and a farmhouse collapsed in on itself with a lurch... but the sound came again, louder this time.

From where the farmhouse once stood, an explosion of smoke and debris slaughtered adjacent fires, dousing their light and heat quite quickly, a shining energy burning its way through the destruction, a form illuminated in the core of the glow: something human, something female, standing on the patch of bare flat ground she'd likely created, light even reaching Crimson through the smoke around him. She lifted off the ground, and a faint droning sound filled the air around it. What was happenening was not immediately obvious, until it sped in Crimson's direction, gaining altitude rapidly as it flew to get out of the heat of the inferno consuming the entirety of the area.

A pair of fast-beating feathered wings buzzed on the woman's back, bearing her aloft and projecting a soft buzz as they did, similar to how a humming bird's wings worked. This creature was strange, seemingly made of a translucent pink substance, homogeneous (the same all the way through it), with a mote of white light flitting about inside it, centered generally on her head and chest. As it drew closer, however, it became opaque, took on fleshy tones, and became an actual human, long brown hair whipping in the wind of her beating wings and movement, clothing forming as she flew, ammounting to a pair of jeans, shoes, gloves, and a black blouse with a white skull and crossbones motif juxtaposed overtop a red star. She wore a worried look on her lovely features, using her wings to maintain her lift and ride the hot air currents, but as she drew near Crimson, she slowed, using her wings to push air foreward and slow to a hover like ten feet in front of him, bright blue eyes glowing in the night and smoke as her aura blazed around her, her strength appearant.

"Thank the gods! This one does! Thank them all a thousand times and more!" she mused aloud, then turned her full attention on Crimson, the strange creature's energy dulling to a throbbing, humming light around her. "Excuse me, Hello!" she adressed to Crimson, nodding in greeting and smiling nervously. "It is good to see another living person! That it is!" She pweeped cheerily, then looked somberly back to the flames of the farmhouse and the settlements around. "But... I don't think any but us survived... whatever happened when it did." she said somberly, her eyes sad when she looked back at Crimson.

[Jimmy Claymore]

"Arrrrrrrgh" Rizuk moaned to himself as he gingerly raised his head to look around the landscape surrounding him, he couldn't remember where he had been last but something felt odd. There was fire everywhere, an endless sea of flames licking upwards like the surface of Gehenna, Rizuk blinked and tried to hide his memories rushing to the surface of his mind. He curled into a ball and screamed hoarsely over and over again as images burnt beneath his eyelids

Scorched Earth, blazing flames
FIRE
Skeletons of great beasts slain in mid combat
FIRE
Blood laying in lakes around the entire Zolan Lands
FIRE
A single egg, hatching
FIRE
Rolling down a hill...
FIRE
And waking up to see...
FIRE
...carnage

"NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Rizuk howled to the heavens as he fought against his own memories, tears were beginning to course down his face as he breathed in air in ragged clumps, what was he doing here? It looked like his birth place but he was in Parmecia, for a horrible moment he felt an emotion completely alien to him, complete and utter. Fear. He staggered to his feet and stumbled away from the blaze as best he could, it was everywhere. He just kept whispering to himself to ignore it and it'll go away he was trapped in a nightmare. He was used to being stuck in desperate situations, his confidence was absolute but this... he felt like an infant again, trapped in flames. He coughed through the smoke and debated transforming to fly away but finally saw someone, two people. He had to focus, make it real, blot out his terror with something else. With characteristic manners he shouted at them
"Oi! What's going on?" His voice was shaking more than he meant it to "You, Red Haired one, your a Flame Elemental too right? What happened here? You do this?" His fear made him sound accusatory and he hoped mildly his eyes didn't hold that same haunted look he knew was there.

[damian]

Crimson was surprised when an odd creature suddenly flew up towards him, its bizarre appearance changing slowly as it flew towards him, even clothes forming out of seemingly nowhere. He watched this all blinking in confusion, and when shefinally reached him to talk Crimson cocked his head to one side and watched her fast-beating wings thoughtfully. Now, she seemed pretty good-looking, but before-hand... her changing appearance on the way up... Crimson shook his head. As long as there was a survivor, he didn't mind.
"Hey! Yeah I agree, it's great to see another... erm... person?" He greeted her in response, but as her voice dropped sorrowfully Crimson nodded slowly, looking down on the flames below them in mourning.
"Yeah... We might be all that's left. Well if we are, I should at least know your name? I'm Crimson, by the way." He smiled genuinely, pleased to finally have some real company.
"Hey! What about us?!" Nogard and Suicard piped up simultaneously, and Crimson rolled his grey eyes, even as he rolled up his sleeves to show her the tattoos.
"This is Nogard, and this is Suicard. Say hey guys."
"Hello!!" They said, again simultaneously, and very eagerly as well.

That was when Rizuk, one of the other fighters Crimson had met before, suddenly appeared as well, exploding up out of the flames beneath them. Or at least, his voice did. Crimson frowned to himself as he heard it, and looked down, convinced he recognised it. But there was a quiver in the voice that Crimson found, above all else, deeply disturbing. It was almost as if Rizuk was scared. But then when he accused Crimson of being behind this inferno, he snapped a little and yelled back down to him,
"YOU THINK I WOULD?!" His eyes flared up a brighter orange as his anger rose, and he clenched his fists savagely, almost as a challenge to an unseen opponent. Then he remembered the stranger in front of him, and looked at her eyes apologetically.
"Sorry. I'm... a little on edge." He let out a breath to regain his temper, and ran an almost shaking hand through his hair. This was tough.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

The woman fluttering in front of Crimson did a little mid-air bow to Crimson as he visibly was glad to see the shifter woman, the gladness quite present in his voice. Then, of course, Crimson introduced himself. At that, the Leyline fluttering before him blinked once and looked up from the flames below, and blushed visibly. "A pleasure to meet you, Crimson... but sadly this is where I always have trouble... You see, I don't have a real name of my own... I have something like 'nicknames'... Really, anything you felt appropriate to call me would be fine by me..." she said, bowing again in the air, deeper this time though. "Though, people have called me Mai and more often, Karen..." she said, cheerily and bowing a third time. She. Was. Adorable. Every action so bubbly, each word melodious and pleasant from her voice. She radiated lethal doses, equal parts, of innocent and kind, and it showed.

Then, of course, Crimson introduced his two dragon tattoos. Of course, Leyline, being as she was, did not-at-all mind that they were talking dragon tattoos where some people might... She sensed the energy in them, and drew closer to Crimson to get a better look, her big, emotive glowing blue eyes, like two sapphire-lensed flashlights staring them, and crimson for that matter, over briefly, before accepting everything she saw as fact... well, that's how it felt when her eyes looked him over.

Then, of course, Rizuk made his presence known to her in the area below and nearby, in an area that she had not had a chance to search yet for survivors. Well, she felt the dragon within him easily enough, and as he struggled with his own inner workings, her blue eyes turned to him momentarily before he shouted up. She heard every word amidst the flames, hearing him with, really, every pore of her skin. It wasn't long before the powerful creature below shouted up to them both, and emanated the disturbing fear all over in his voice, his eyes burning far below as Leyline met them, whether the half-dragon knew it or not. Her stomache sank, but she swallowed, and shook her head a little.

Then, of course, Crimson freaked out and thundered down at him, making Leyline blink once and look back at him, just before he looked to her eyes for comfort. "I understand... That I do." she murmured comfortingly, and gave him another cheerful smile, making a n.n kind of face at him, sincere as she flitted foreward to bow again kindly.

"Father Nightningale should be coming up soon... I hope he diddn't get hurt..." leyline murmured, looking over her shoulder at the farmhouse and the surrounding area behind her where she herself had been searching.

(ooc thats your cue, Raron ^^

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk had only slightly acknowledged there was someone else up there with Crimson as he responded pretty savagely
"Then who did, because I swear I will rip out their hearts!" Rizuk wasn't used to feeling scared and having about 2K years to repress memories, he was definitely not used to having them suddenly rear up and remind him of how helpless he was as a baby. He was still too wrapped in himself to really notice that Crimson and the other one would probably not be feeling too brilliantly themselves. He couldn't realistically fly up there since he was so full of negative emotions his transformation would almost certainly go wrong. Instead he leapt at the nearest rock face he could see and clambered up heavily, using his claws for leverage, he emerged onto a plateu that was closer to the two flying beings. He grunted with the mild effort that the difficult climb had made him exert, he glanced downwards and felt another reverberation with his past, he saw the Zolan lands burning and held the side of his head with one clawed hand as he tried to throw the image out,
"No... no... stop burning, stop burning..." He finally pried his eyes away and forced himself to look at the sky. The Smoke was blotting it out again, just like before... the blood red and dark grey smoke looked like a scene from hell and Rizuk's mind made everything infinitely worse for him. He could feel himself almost convulsing as he shut his eyes tightly, forcing out the mental pictures.
What the hell?! This isn't me, I'm practically having a Seizure over this shit!
Rizuk finally forced himself up again,
"Someone, give me a lift... I can't be here..." He coughed, the smoke getting to his lungs again, his sheer terror making him swallow his pride again.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

The leyline in female form gave Rizuk a sympathetic look, smiling and blushing softly as she fluttered slowly towards the disturbed dragon. Gently, the Leyline's aura enveloped the man, spreading a calming sensation through him as she continued to draw close to him. "Please trust me, Dragon-man..." she asked, her voice soft as she extended her hands out to him, and cradled his face. Her hands felt cool compared to how his flesh burned in the wake of the flames. With a smoothe motion, she pressed her energy against and into the dragon, very gentle and caring in her ministrations, but her energies, if successful, would force a physical shift of the man's body, giving him wings like hers and thus the ability to fly. Either way though, she would remove her hands from his face and her influence from his cardiovascular system (she would have to strengthen it to give him the ability to fly) and she would approach him, trying to take him up in her arms to bring him airborne with her until his wings started working or to bear him up if they did not.
The change would last until she released the energy in Rizuk's anatomy... really, as long as he wanted, but she had tried nonetheless, and let him feel the kindness of her energies upon him. She was definately benign.

[damian]

Crimson frowned at "Karen" and asked her,
"Father Nightingale?" Looking down towards the flames, he sincerely doubted that anyone who had not escaped by now, wasn't going to be escaping any time soon. While "Karen" flew down and rescued Rizuk, Crimson lit up another cigarette with his finger and started smoking, trying to relax his fried nerves.

Once his two companions had returned, Rizuk with his new and bizarre appendages, Crimson decided to take charge, as Rizuk was clearly in no position to.
"Okay, Karen, whoever this Father Nightingale guy is, I'm er... I'm sure he'll find us later," Crimson said, making sure not to tell Karen that he was fairly sure Father Nightingale was dead, as he didn't want to shatter her childish innocence that had endeared her to him already, "But we should probably get outta here and start trying to find anyone else who might've made it. If we survived, who knows what else did?"

Almost in answer to Crimson's final question, a massive roar went up from the flames beneath them. It wasn't like a normal bestial roar though; there was a hissing sound behind it, and it roared as if in two voices, one very high pitched and screeching, the other very low and guttural. It roared on and on for a short amount of time, then echoed out as he roar halted. Crimson opened his mouth to say something else to the others, then closed it. Then he shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and muttered,
"Aaah fuck. I don't even wanna know." Letting out his breath nervously, he looked down once more at the constantly moving fires of Parmecia; and felt as if the fires looked back.
(OOC: OK you two, in my next post I'm gonna introduce our Saga animal, I just have a few more additions to make to the profile.)

[Kham’sin]

(I have arrived to post with Leyline)
Deep within the flames a patch of fire was moved aside by something pushing through, it was a golden sphere of energy outlined by nine silver orbs and within the sphere stood a man, wildeyed though unafraid. His name was Father Nightingale and the world as briefly as he knew it had changed once more. He looked around the scarred flaming wasteland, desperatly looking for his friend, his traveling companion... his... he shook his head out of speculation and searched the harder when his eyes were drawn to three figures standing in the sky as he looked at them he recognised one... he breathed out in relief... Till he heard the twin roars...
He heard the voice of the angel
"... that can NOT be good... let's get off the ground shall we?..."
He simply nodded as the top two orbs detached from the sphere and attached themselves to Father Nightingales back as the other orbs closed the brief gap in the sphere protecting the "priest" from the flames, and the two orbs on his back flared golden energy in the shape of angelic wings.
The sphere and occupant began to quickly ascend and the orbs deteched from the sphere and orbitied around him as the protected sphere vanished, no longer needed to defend against the flames. Nightingale was quickly level with the group and though he looked briefly at the other two he soaked in the sight of leyline and smiled, glad she was alright.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

When Karen returned to level with Crimson, she calked her head as the man appearantly took charge of the situation, imposing order upon an inherently chaotic situation. Karen was glad for this, her body still a little cooked from the heat of the fires before, even if it did not show, and a bit of order reminded her that chaos wasn't a natural state, but a transiton period.

She wasn't, however, at ease just dismissing Father Nightingale as 'going to meet up later' with her. She was worried about him, in those flames, even if he had that angel-thingy (whatever it was) to protect him. Sighing, she shot a sad look down at the flames again, about to leave with Crimson... but something told her to just hold on for a moment longer... and she was rewarded.

Father Nightingale's shield aura appeared in the black and red glow of the fields of fire, and her heart skipped a beat... but shortly after that, it literally lost another, mortal dread washing over her as she heard a cry in the flames... something primal and strong, alien and terrible enough to make the whole situation seem... so much scarier. The unknown now had teeth and claws and a cry that make her break out in a cold, fear-fueled sweat, and that, friends, is the worst kind of unknown.

William took to the air, and quickly closed the distance, and she gratefully flitted close to him to get close. she found him comforting, like any child might find the presence of a priest or a father comforting when they're frightened. She bowed respectfully to Father Nightingale again, and blushed, her fear appearant to anyone who had eyes. "Hello Father, Pacifica...." she said, and bowed to the motes as well.