TWBTS

Rel stood up straighter. "Shall we have transport to get where we need to go then?" He ran over what he'd said in his head, and then corrected himself. "Where I need to go, I mean, excuse me Masters." Then he frowned. "You are sending me off on a mission, are you not?" He checked.

Crisis In The Snow

Drip. Drip. Water splashed down from the roof of the cave, from some kind of icicle.

Charis leaned against the wall of the cave. She wasn't sure what else to say. She watched the drips of water idly.

Drip. Drip. More water fell. A puddle was forming on the cold stone floor.

Charis looked up at the ceiling of their meeting place. It was so cold. Why was something melting at all? She frowned at the dripping water. Then her eyes widened and she hastily jumped back from the puddle. She scarcely had time to activate her lightsaber, and certainly not enough time to shout out a warning, when the ice began to freeze.

The drips stopped coming. The puddle was pushing itself together and up, up, up! The last drop of water froze midair and smashed onto the icy puddle. It was absorbed.

Still the thing grew. Up, and up!

Charis watched it cautiously. She was not going to slice its top off, though the thought had occurred to her. She would wait. And she would be ready.

The thing stopped growing when it was just a little shorter than Charis. It looked like an ice sculpture; there was a basic shape, but no features. One could see where the head was supposed to be.

Then the "head" whirled around (Charis almost jumped back). It'd been on backwards. There were features- buggy features-, and as they watched the sleek ice began to become rough, and changed color and texture until the thing almost looked like any old block of ice, or icy rock.

It turned to stare at the elf in charge.

Crisis

Cassandra felt a convenient disturbance in the Force and spun around in time to see the ice creature forming. She cautiously drew her lightsaber from its place on her belt, but didn't ignite it yet. For the moment, she wasn't sensing danger from it and threatening it with an activated weapon could be the very thing that caused the creature to turn dangerous.

((BOOKY! Now I don't want to post in this thread until after Christmas. Argh! ))

Neíhudir cocked his head, and the twins knew he was trying to determine if he was seeing something or if it actually existed.

"What is your business here?" he finally asked.

Crisis

Gratus frowned. "We know little of anything elvish, much less their lands. News never travels our way - these people are a fairy tale in northern lands. We know where the Eberim are, though, and one must assume that is where the Elves are as well. We can send out joint scouting parties to search them out."

He sat down on the table. "I feel that we should strike as soon as possible, in order to take advantage of the confusion that must arise with the Elves taking in the Eberim."

Crisis

"Then you know little," Träm said, shaking his head. "The elves walk cloaked, invisible to the human eye. They have many alliances, which is why we have come--to strike them before their alliances strike us. They say that a rogue beast, crafted by the elves, passes unseen, now as snow, now as rain, then as water. But it has rebelled from its master--or is trying to win its freedom. It is after the power of the elves, but any others who cross it will feel its wrath. You are right that the arrival of the Eberim has caused trouble--and weakness. The refugees have been taken in, and should strengthen the elven forces, but our spies report that the elves have forced their visitors to surrender their weapons. The elves will be weak, and ready to fall. If we strike before their trust returns to the Eberites, it will be well."

"What of the dragon rider?" a small worried voice ask. A small creature appeared from the folds of Träm's cloak. A low, dark laugh rumbled through the meeting place.

"I will crush them," Legion smiled, a slight sneer on his face.

The thing stared at Neíhudir with its multifaceted eyes. The chitin at the bottom of its face began to click together.

Charis looked at the creature, interested and disgusted at the same time (She'd never had a thing for bugs.). She wondered how it would talk, and then suddenly, to her surprise, she realized that she could hear patterns in the way the thing clicked its chitin. Was it...? Yes! It was speaking, using its chitin and maybe some other things, but definitely its chitin. It was using them, somehow, in the way that humans used their vocal chords!

Charis was intrigued and concentrated harder. Presently she could understand what the bug creature was saying.

The creature spoke in basic, in its curious, grating, and icy voice.

"Can you understand me? I said that I come on an errand of peace."

Neíhudir squinted at it for a moment, then surprise flashed across its face.

"Yes...I can. What sort of peace errand do you come on?"

The creature turned its head to watch Neíhudir more closely. "I wish to form an alliance between myself and your people to prevent many deaths."

Charis began to realize what this creature was, and almost hit herself in the forehead for not realizing it earlier. It was one of the species of creatures who had come down the mountain, in an avalanche, demanding the Magnecrystal.

"Do you wish any payment in return for your services?" Charis spoke up, wording her sentence carefully.

The creature's eyes swivelled to look at Charis. "No." It said simply. Then it focused back on Neíhudir, who it thought seemed to be in charge.

"I am a member of the vortex species, and I am called G-9. I have come here alone on my errand, unknown to my species and against their will."

G-9 stared at Neíhudir while he paused, seeming to be looking at him harder than before. "My species and yours fought once, long ago, for possession of a certain crystal of great power." He paused again. "Know you of how that ended, elf?"

Crisis

"I do, for I was young then. These others, however, do not," he said quietly, hoping that G-9 would expand on it while Neíhudir chewed on this beginning of a proposal.

Crisis

Fingon stared at the creature before him, eager to learn more of this strange new kind.

The ability to change forms would be advantageous to the Vortex on the battlefield, and must cause all sorts of grief for their opponents. This was the first of many thoughts that came to the forefront of Fingon's mind. How they fought was a different matter.

The elf continued to study G-9. Having on of the Vortex on their side would be very helpful, to say the least. They would be able to understand more about these creatures; how they fought, how they thought, how they moved about, how they interacted with one another. Not only would this help battle strategies, but the intellectual knowledge appealed to his elvish nature.

Meav coughed loudly in all directions, and began whittling away on a small ice statue that began looking like an incredibly mutilated human form.

"You were saying something?"

Far out to sea a group of sirens wailed their mournful, but hauntingly beautiful tune, "Lost, lost! All is lost! Where have you gone? All is lost!"

Cassandra heaved an exaggerated sigh of boredom and began practicing lightsaber forms while she waited for someone to do something.

Meav jumped up and tossed her mutilated ice form at Cassandra.

"I suppose we could play around with this, since there isn't much else to do...."

Cassandra grinned diabolically and began levitating large clumps of snow into the air. With a twitch of her hand, she flung them in Meav's direction.