Phoenix Maplewood go in flames, meet in flames - we'll find in flames just who's to blame

this old crone had lived long enough to recognize whatever ill omens were in store had only just begun. the first tremor to rumble beneath her feet had happened nearly a week ago -- and yet, already the landscape had been rid of many of its denizens.

this was bad news for caiaphas, who was already lean with tired and dulling starvation. cursing whatever leviathans breathed in the deeps and had decided to waken, caiaphas braced as yet another rumble rolled out -- this time rattling her to her bones.

once the spasm underfoot had resided, caiaphas looked darkly out into the maplewood. birds had long since left their roosts, and nary a mouse dared poke its head out to slate her endless hungery.

The mountains turned out to be chaotic, beyond what he'd ever imagined. Revui had hoped to find whatever slept beneath them and confront it - perhaps fight it, foolish as the image might have been - and yet the quaking led to unforseen dangers. Paths closing off, trees loose from their moorings. Birds had fled quickly, and so he followed them down from the mountain that had become his fixation; he watched the silhouette of lone star become a deep azure on the horizon, then fade to silver, until it was gone entirely and the land had leveled out.

But the quaking had increased exponentially, and Revui had nowhere else to turn but the golden forest - towards which he now wove, a stern-faced gargoyle on the hunt for somewhere to lay low and something to eat, but there was no sign of food or safety anywhere. The final waves of one quake would end, and within moments there would be aftershocks; he kept moving, deep to the heart of the wood.

The ensuing silence was ominous. Revui wondered what would come next - then was stunned, noticing something move independent of the earth. The shape of something sharp and dark followed by latern-lit eyes, glowering and jaundiced, towards which he drifted on the off-chance it was a friendly face ( or perhaps they knew of a safe haven ). As he came within the crone's line of sight he chuffed to her, though it was unneccessary; had she not heard him bludgeon his way between the trees, she'd easily spot him shining and silver in the light.

a new noise rose in the forest, eclipsing the last of the earth's distant grumbles. caiaphas fixed her gaze on the approacher, affording him a scanty flick of an ear as his chuff reached her. in truth, the sound of his heavy tread far preceded him, yet the almost-polite way he hailed her drew the crone's attention.

caiaphas turned her ear, listening a moment longer. any shift in the ground below had faded, receding in that far off manner of thunder's distant and bellowing finish. no secondary peal started, though somehow the siren suspected more were to come. "bad omens, friend." caiaphas remarked to her companion, measuring him with hawkbit yellow eyes. he was a sturdy and immensely built creature; something about the tungsten glint in his marine gaze had her wary. "seems they are getting closer together."

The stranger spoke of bad omens; he did not know what those were, but presumed by the rocking of the dirt beneath his feet that they were not good - likely never good. Her hawkish eyes watched him and he grew indifferent to that stare; looking away from her briefly, as a cat might, trying to ease his racing heart while the trembling ebbs to stillness again. But it does not last, and soon Revui is skirting closer to the stranger - for comfort maybe, or merely because she was standing somewhere more stable and he thought to take up space upon the raft of solidity she had found.

What did this mean? Was this a portent for something greater, something awful? Or was this a common thing off of the mountains? He had not spent too much time away from Moonspear or Nova Peak; Revui was a mountaineer, and even when he had visited and sustained himself within the western vale, he was surrounded by the mountains. This space was different from all he'd experienced: flat, open, mostly exposed even with the maplewood growing haphazardly around him. He decided he did not like it; but he could not turn around again either, what with the disaster at his flank.

Takes some getting used to, he speaks - and we all thought he had forgotten how, pah!

the leviathan comes closer; caiaphas marked his approach with a quick flit of her yellow gaze. he was a tall beast, strong too -- his muscular status reminded her of a man used to life's hardships.

all the same he moved as if uncertain, or caiaphas fancied he did; as if he were not accustomed to company, or the social graces required to withstand it. the siren queen flicked a half-torn ear in his direction, addressing his words with a stern nod. "i would prefer not to have to get used to it at all." her tone seemed conversational, but caiaphas could not help but wonder...

friend, or foe?

Her comment made him snort softly, piggishly, because he found it amusing and not many things had that effect on him. Her words did little else; there was quiet, which he liked, and a sour look cast his way from the yellow-eyed crone that might've offended anyone else. She was studying him and it didn't bother Revui one bit, mostly because he didn't have the social skills to be offended. He'd observed her in his own way — watched the way she moved, kept tabs on how close she was to his position — but she was old, and he felt he was himself, superior. Strong and young and in no way susceptible to whatever harm she could do. It was wrong, of course. Had Revui known who this woman was — if he had been granted any knowledge of the world off of Moonspear's slopes as he grew up — her reputation would've brought him a semblance of interest.

He watched her for a moment, their eyes meeting, and he did not turn away. There was a confidence within Revui that had been bred and trained in to him, but a lack of challenge, which was rare. Perhaps he did not feel it necessary to waste his energy on someone like her. But he scrutinized the harsh angles of her face all the same, by all assumptions just as cold and calculating as the witch. Then he morosely speaks again, shattering the silence: Forest won't be safe.

Too many trees. Too many twists and turns and dead-end routes. Not as bad as a mountain, he thinks, but he isn't on a mountain right now. He wonders if there is anywhere on earth that would be safe from the chaos of these quakes, but is more intrigued by what could be causing them. Whatever leviathan stirs deep beneath, he wants to find it. Fight it. Defeat it. As a small aftershock rumbles through the trees Revui turns to regard it with an anticipatory shift of his shoulders, as if he is squaring off against a potential enemy; his eyes glance away from the woman for a breath.

the mountaineer laughed, prompting caiaphas to glance at him in quiet interest. caiaphas hadn't missed the way revui sized her up anew -- as an old crone, she could not say she hated it. it had been some time since she had been measured in any respect in the eyes of another -- and even longer since she had proven their assumptions false. as it was, the siren was so tired these days -- oldness had a way of cutting all the vinegar out of you and only leaving spite.

she looked involuntarily to the forests as revui spoke; oh, he was right -- trees had a way of killing anything underfoot when they fell, and if she was to die, it wasn't going to be at the rough hands of an upended pine. "neither is the coast, i'd guess." which left.. very few options. "nor mountains, nor plateaus, nor waterways. i suppose the only place to be safe would be if you were a bird."