Life Stone

[tangletail]

Leo found himself to be correct to step out of the way, as he soon found Korius with the others haul out of the cells like no tomorrow. The feline himself, gave chase. Rather than coiling around multiple stacks of gold, the feline bounded up the mounds and hopped down once he reached the peak to try and close the distance on him and the large wolf.

Soon enough he had already past the wolf and disappeared into the hallway. He only stopped when he heard the footsteps behind him turn to silence. Panting heavily, Leo looked behind himself to Korius, and groaned after hearing his comment. It didn't make it much better when he had to press against a wall to try and move out of the large man's way.


Now outside, Leo listened to the others suggestions and slowly raised up a palm. There was a note of sarcasm, but none of it was actually meant. In fact, the thief was giving his true opinion on the matter. "Uhm... I vote we make like a tree and get the **censor** out of here..." He let his hand dropped and shook his head when he dipped down onto his knees. "A dragon is still a dragon regardless of age. Hard scales... few weaknesses... annoying breath, and flying lizard. I'd also like to wager we'd be outnumbered badly..."

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius listened after his ears finished ringing, and his heavy heartbeat subsided. "I'm going to have to agree. If it was just the babies, I wouldn't have a problem, but..." He got up and quickly started going for the trees, "Get to cover!" When all of the party had made it to the trees, the flapping had gotten extremely loud, and an army of 13 blue dragons flew towards and into the castle. When there wasn't anymore flapping, Korius let out his breath after he had been holding it the whole time. "When the mother leaves, the other dragons come back to feast on scraps and check on their hoards. They usually take longer to show up, but since we stirred her up, they almost caught us with our pants down." He had some labored breathing, but he tried to control it and pulled out the shining orb that they had taken out. The orb was clear with a glowing crystal shard within it. There was a grimace on his face, "This can't be it. All the documents pointed at it being the size of a baby's fist, not its cuticle." His eyes felt heavy and he collapsed, his breathing faint and seemed to whistle.

[tangletail]

Leo's ears swiveled for a bit as he lets out a soft sigh. However, his left ear had twitched slightly after doing so. His eyes going from relaxed to disturbed and curious.  The ear would continue to twist and turn to hone in on the sound. And eventually he found just the right angle. He'd wince a bit as each vibration hit his ears like a stampede of bulls. He'd remain silent as he looked on through the clouds, and almost cried out after spotting the dragons. He was already running before  Korius's advice.

He himself had dove into a bush by the time he reached the trees. His body hit the dirt hard as he slid to a halt, and stayed low. His ears hard pressed against his head to lower his profile. When the danger past, he'd slowly began to crawl out from under the shrubbery, and lift himself back to his feet.

He listened to every bit of information, and finally looked back to the castle with a frown. But one final note had caught Leo's interest, his head turned to face Korius to find a very defeated expression coming from him. It was surprising to find such a form of emotion being possible from the man, but not at all alarming. In fact, Leo had already prepped himself well in advanced for bad news on the relic. "Let me guess," the thief began casually with almost a humored note. He took a few steps and lowered his body to have a seat on a nearby tree root. His fingers now began to dig through his pouch to pull out the small handful of gems he had collected. "It's not it. Is it," he'd ask with a smile as he now placed them on the ground a small distance ahead of him. He only meant it as a gesture to share the loot, to both ease the impact of the news to anyone who may be upset by it, and also to openly state that he is not a greedy pickpocket.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana followed Korius direction and ran for the trees. She stopped once she got into the trees and out of dragon eyesight. Her attention was then directed to Korius as he spoke. She watched him look at what he had grabbed and knew she had been right. There was no way that was the Life Stone. She saw the gems that Leo laid on the ground as some sort of consolation for the item not being what they were searching for, but a sound redirected her attention and she looked over to find Korius on the ground. Quickly putting her arrow back in her quiver and her bow back over her head, she moved over to him. "Korius?" She said then clapped her hands a couple times over him. "Korius!" Then she paid attention to what she thought was a very, very quiet whistling sound that he was making when he breathed. Kneeling down beside him, she leaned closer and definitely knew she heard a faint whistling sound like the air was moving around something when it moved in and out of him. "Shit. What the hell could you possibly have got in there?!" She said as she hit his chest very hard with a fist. When nothing happened, she continued to hit his chest with her fist every couple seconds to dislodge whatever was caught in his throat since there probably wasn't any way she could lift him to get around him and give him the Heimlich.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina ducked for cover with the others when the dragons flew overhead, the shadow-covered glowing eyes from the castle also retreated as well. She watches them for a bit then Kiana showing sudden concern for Korius made her worry. "C'mon! Don't be doing this to us!" she spoke as she quickly dropped her bow and the arrow she was holding, looking at Kiana. "We need to lay him where he can breathe better. If he's on his chest, it's not as easy." she spoke, trying to turn him over onto his back. Even though he wasn't large, the equipment still attached to him was rather heavy and made it hard to turn him over.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius remained unconscious for the ordeal, but after a few more times that Kiana hit him while he was on his side, he let out a large cough. Four golden coins flew out of his mouth, having been caught in his throat. The black wolf gasped for air as his eyes shot open due to the increased intake of oxygen. Korius rolled back forward and gripped the ground as his body finally regained itself and got up. He looked down and picked up the spit-soaked coins, "Well... along with Leo's gems, I'm sure we'll fetch some good money to feed us tonight, and some comfortable lodging. Now, where's that gem shard?" The wolf looked around for it, unable to find where it had gone to, probably mostly because of how much his hair covers the front of his face. Unbeknownst to him, the orb of the shard had clung and sunk a little into his neck, the shard glowing brightly.

[tangletail]

Leo watched the entire ordeal, with his eyes growing wide. He hadn't realized that the party's leader condition had gone down. But he didn't move, not when the others were doing what they could to save him. After all, one extra person would likely get in the way. Instead, he leaned forward to watch, as Kiana pounded into Korius. His ear flicking just a little, as he caught the sound of some clinking noises coming from the berserker's throat.

Then finally, out came... coins? Leo's eyes narrowed a bit suspiciously, curious if he was toying with them once more. "Korius..." he sighed with his ears laid back in embarrassment. How dare he make them believe that he was dying or critically injured once more! His paws reached forward to dig through the large man's fur and pull the gem free. And held it in front of his nose. "You need to teach me that trick of yours later..."

If it wasn't taken from his hand, the cat would attempt to balance it on the bridge of the wolf's snout. "So what exactly is this? Your reaction practically says this is not the rock we are looking for."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana paused with her fist hovering in the air between herself and Korius when the coins flew out of his mouth. Her eyebrows raised in surprise at the sight and she watched as Korius rolled over and got back up then picked up the coins, acting like what happened wasn't really a big deal or anything. Looking down and shaking her head, she got to her feet then chuckled at Leo's comment about needing to be shown that trick later. "I would rather not pound on another person's chest again so please don't purposely inhale coins to hide or store them." She said, looking over to see Leo pulling the glowing orb out of Korius' neck fur and holding it in front of his nose. After that, she waited for the answer of what the item actually was. "Yeah, that's definitely no Life Stone... Though it looks important."

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios wasn't the smartest fur. He could do nothing as he watched Kiana and Karina tried to save Korius's life. When the giant wolf spit out several coins Helios was almost livid at the trick. But that's when he noticed the shard Korius had. It gave off a faint glow giving the impression that it was most certainly magic in some respect. Then it hit him, what Korius had said right before he played the trick. "It's a piece of the Stone isn't it, Not the whole Lifestone. That's why such a large dragon hoard showed up right? The Lifestone attracts people to it so why not animals too?" Helios hadn't realized how smart his statement sounded, but he regretted it hoping no one would take much note in his fault in his acting.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina let out a sigh when Korius started to breath again, sitting down next to her bow and arrow that she had dropped. "Next time when you go swimming in coins, hold your breath." she spoke with an uneasy chuckle, trying to catch her own breath from all of the excitement that had happened. She was not as concerned about the gem as the others seemed to be because it did not look like what the legends had shown to her. "It kinda looks like a magic artifact for sure, but why only a part of one? Why not have it all-together?" she spoke in a thought out-loud before she got up and put her bow back on her back while putting the arrow back into her quiver, doing a mental check to see how many arrows she used by feeling the fletchings.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius shot Leo a look on his little comment, "That wasn't a trick. It must have gotten in my throat when I was shouting at you all earlier. I thought my breathing was being hindered by the cold. Unlike you, I don't have a restless hand." He then looked at the shining shard while feeling his throat, "Well, it definitely does have some magical properties. My throat was a little cut up when Kiana got me to cough them up. Just now, it felt like the tearing had mended itself." Right after that, he heard Helios mentioning it might be a fragment of the Stone. "It sounds feasible. The Life Stone has been lost for thousands of years. It would make sense that someone saw fit to try to destroy it, or to divide it up and sell portions of it to become rich. Let's just keep a hold of it until we can find out whether or not it really is a piece of the Life Stone or not."

He took the shard from Leo and placed the spit-covered coins in its place. "Let's go find a nice tavern for some food. I'm sure these coins will get us plenty to eat, and a comfortable enough inn to sleep." Korius never wanted to keep too much on hand, and should times like this that show up with gems and/or treasure, he makes it a point to spend as much of it as possible so as not to be targeted by bandits. Such things were unnecessary problems, and have been the cause of missing out on getting kills, or being able to get to certain places at the right time. Today's quest was one prime example of one that was time sensitive. He led the group away from the castle, heading directly west towards the closest town. It took an hour, but it seemed to pass like nothing. During the walk, Korius just tried to avoid conversation about the coins in his throat. Any questions he got were met with a half-hearted, untranslatable mutter.

Korius was sure the party was impacted by their first encounter with a real quest, but how they dealt with it and how much it actually impacted them, he didn't know. His years of experience only allowed him to judge people's skills, not their inner personalities. When they reached town, he waved the party off, "Go ahead and get some food and rest. I'll see you all in the morning." The wolf separated himself from the group to just go to the inn and rent the rooms for them all. Korius went to his own room and sat down on the bed. The inn keeper brought him a bottle of hard liquor that he ordered, and he drank, reflecting on the past, the present and how the party should push into the future.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana followed along with the group to the town after the purpose of the shard was guessed at. She hadn't blamed Korius for getting irritated with his choking being interpreted as a trick. Choking was not fun and she didn't believe anyone would do it on purpose to play any sort of joke (pretending, yes, but not for real). When they were told to get food and rest when they got to the city, she immediately went to get food though she saw Korius head off to the inn instead. She got more food than she would need then took it back to the inn. Asking the innkeeper about the rooms, she headed upstairs to the ones he had said were booked for the group. Seeing an open door as she walked down the hall, she figured that was where Korius was. Walking to the doorway, she rapped on the door with her free hand. She saw Korius sitting on the bed with a bottle of liquor, unsurprisingly, and she shook her head in her mind. "I've learned you like your drink, but I figured you could use some food." She said and raised the tray in her left hand slightly as emphasis. If he didn't want the food, she would eat her own and give the rest to one of the others or dry to use during their next venture. If he did, she would give it to him but she figured he probably would want to be left alone after receiving it.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius's ears perked when there was a rap at the door an looked up. He was surprised to see Kiana there, though it obviously didn't show on his forested face. In the past, no party member had ever spent any time with him or bothered to worry about him during these kinds of times. However, it didn't upset him. This WAS the first time he ever worked with first-time adventurers, so it just must be how they are. Trying not to be rude, he attempted once more to lighten the mood, "Thank you. And what will you be eating tonight?"

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana was kind of glad that he didn't reject the food, though she wasn't sure if it was because she really wanted him to eat or something else. She stepped through the doorway after he spoke, taking his thanks as an invitation to come in. "Your scraps, if you'll allow me, sir." She said with the attitude of a lowly servant, thinking of how her mother talked to those she thought were "beneath" her (Kiana included), and she bowed while holding the trays out to him with both hands. Chuckling sort of uneasily, she straightened back up. Handing him the top tray, which was bigger, she pulled the bottom back towards herself. He was a big guy so she knew he needed more food than she did, probably more than the other two guys combined, hence the bigger tray. She wasn't quite sure what to do after that, not knowing if she should leave or stay and if she stayed, what she should say or do besides eat. "I knew you'd need a lot of food so I hope it's enough. At least it will dilute the liquor some and maybe allow you to drink more if you want." She was grasping at straws while trying not to offend him as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius rested the tray onto his thighs and brought the food to his mouth with his hands. He has never had to use utensils before, and with him missing an arm and being a berserker, no one ever expected him to. The wolf ate with a level of politeness, "It will be more than fine. Unlike a lot of other berserkers, only the strongest alcohol can affect me. Liquor like this is nothing." Korius took a swig after each large mouthful, finishing his meal fairly quick. He chuckled a little, but it was at himself. He had never realized how old he was until he met this group, and it was a bit of an awakening. When finished, Korius moved the tray onto the little night stand and took another swig to refresh his pallet. "The alcohol is like water for rare berserkers like me. It refreshes and helps with regeneration. We can't grow things back, but whatever is left heals at a higher rate. However, like everyone else, it helps numb the pain of loss. My last party had been with me for over 4 years, the newest member for 1. Even worse was that he was the son of the one he replaced. I lost 2 generations of noble knights in the short span of 4 years. You may not know my history, but in the last almost 30 years, I've been in and lost over 9 parties in my search for the Life Stone, all of which had been disbanded because they all died."