Illusions of Reality.(Cio)

Sucess. That's what Pentlo was not having in his search for a moly. He had consulted a few herbalogists about where to find the elusive herb, but they all had no clue, except for one who told him that they grew around Circe's castle. Pentlo wasn't quite willing to take that risk, however, at least not yet. Pentlo's current objective was to make it to the large city of Carninas, where he might meet an herbologist with more expertise...

Pentlo sat down under the shade of an elm tree to rest. His penguin legs didn't carry him as far as his old human legs used to. Breathing in the refreshing country air, Pentlo took a look around to admire the scenery. The road he was travelling on had been built in a series of major projects in the old Golden age, an age that had long passed. The road had originally beem built through a dense forest bordering the Wernia river, but the trees had all been cut down for lumber, save a few that were left for shade for weary travelers like Pentlo, of course. This left a beautiful view of the glittering, sun-speckled river from the road, interuppted only by the occasional rotten tree stump.

Pentlo pulled a fish and a book of spells out of his backpack. The fish he had caught in the nearby river, and the book he had owned ever since his school days. Pentlo happily munched on the fish, while trying to turn to a page in his book to refresh his knowledge on force field spells, but his wings were clumsy in thier attempt to turn the thin pages. "Basic Fire spells it is then" thought Pentlo as he gave up his attempt to turn to page 220.

Pentlo had not read for long when he noticed a traveller passing down the road. He shortly realized it was a slender young woman with angelic purple hair blowing in the slight breeze. "Geez, what's a hot babe like that doing travelling alone?" he mused. He returned to his book, but looking up, saw that she had paused dead in her tracks and was staring right at him. Pentlo glanced at her nervously as she slowly approached him. "Ummm...can I help you?" Pentlo asked as she got closer, but she didn't answer. Her faced showed that she was confused, Pentlo had caught many curious glances from people in his previous ventures, but this lady certainly took the cake. But in her bewildered expression, Pentlo detected something he didn't expect - anger.

OoC: *hugs a penguin* Awesome opening. :]

BiC:

For a moment, the illusionist's mind reeled, wondering what was going on. "What the- A penguin!? Of all the things I've imagined, a penguin is definitely one of the oddest..." Meghana thought for another moment, wondering if her powers had gotten the better of her. "My mind is starting to play tricks on me... I even made him talk... That's definitely a new one."

Her eyes flickered with an inexplicable anger, "I can't believe I would do this... Though this illusion seems to be able to talk... Maybe it will be an epic character in my tale... Still... I can't take the fact I would do this... Better play along."

Meghana took another step, now within touching distance of the creature. Her hand slowly extended, tentatively patting the bird on its head, making sure that it was one of her solid illusions. "Hm... You're peculiar... I made you talk, solid, and you even have texture... I must be exhausting a lot of my powers on you."

She spoke to the penguin as though speaking to herself, because, in her mind, this being was in her mind. "I wonder what I've named you... I'm obviously keeping this a secret from me... Perhaps it is meant for me to ask... So as to advance the plot."

"Huh?" was the only response she received.

"Did I give you a brain? Hm... I would find it useless to give you the ability to talk and exclude a brain... Well, I supposed I must have." She cocked her head, her eyes surveying him, "What's your name? My mind still won't tell me..."

OoC: It's short for a reason... *has been banished to bed* ;;>>

"Uh, my name is Pentlo, what's yours?" Pentlo responded. "Well, at least were getting somewhere in this strange meeting" he thought to himself.

"Meghana..." she replied in a trance-like voice that indicated her mind was occupied elsewhere. And indeed it was.

"Meghana...that's a pretty name." Pentlo looked down and noticed the meddalion on Meghana's chest. "Um...That's a beatiful necklace you have there, where did you get it?"

Meghana put her hand over her pendant, and she came to a frightening realization. Somehow, she had produced an illusion that could move, talk, and think independently of her commands. Her "illusion" she was looking at now had even showed an intrest in her medallion, what if it suddenly grabbed her medallion and threw it into the river? Or what might happen if she unwillingly created a very dangerous illusion, such as a fully armed warrior intent on killing her? If so, the only way to stop it was to control the illusion, and if she couldn't control the illusion...

Meghana panicked at the thought of being haunted by her own imagination for the rest of her life. "Okay, Okay, calm down, I can make this go away, I hope." she said quietly to herself. She closed her eyes and concentrated on reality, trying to do away with her false illusions. She opened her eyes again, and still saw the face of a very bewildered Pentlo. She tried again and again, sometimes using strange incantations or gestures, but the only thing she accomplished was convincing Pentlo that she must have come from the Carninas mental asylum.

As for Pentlo, his old confusion had now given way to an uneasiness, Meghana did not look like a very stable person to him. Meghana's own nerves could have hardly been less a wreck. The thought of her being unable to control her own power produced in her a desperate terror such that she had never felt before. Pentlo started to back away from her. Although he had no reason to fear her, he nonetheless was filled with the anticipation of some sort of attack...

"This illusion is a threat... I mean, obviously since I can't get rid of it, it has the power to revolt... That's not good... Not at all." Her head swung to meet the short penguin's eyes, staring into what she thought was something her imagination had thought up. "Pentlo, correct?"

When he responded with an uneasy "Yes", Meghana couldn't help but bring an exasperated hand to her head.

"No... You won't do this to me, mind! And you, Pentlo, if my mind won't get rid of you, I suppose the only route left to me is the manual one." She stared at him intently, her face calm, but her mind racing, searching, hoping...

~ In her mind~

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" thought the illusionist's brain. "I can't find the penguin anywhere! It's not even in any of my stories! EGAD! Have I gone nuts? More so than usual!?"

~ In person ~

While her mind was working, all that Meghana did was stare down at the short animal. "Hm... This... Isn't working."

All the more that she studied the bird, the more that her mind was at an inpass. This could be a character her mind made subconsciously, with plans for the future plot, or it could be a character she'd completely forgotten. "I give up. There is only one way to find out."

A change of gears occurred in her brain, switching tasks easily from searching, to formulating a spell. "Time for a simplistic twist, what say you?"

Quickly, she bent down, picking up the thing closest to her, in this case, a leaf, and began chanting her rhythm.

"What a nuisance this has come to be...
Tell the course action that is best for me...
With this leaf make me a means of attacking...
One that will send this flightless bird packing..."

As she spoke, the leaf transformed, ever so slowly into a small knife. With a disappointed sigh, she switched it from hand to hand. "I'm not good at using knives... Oh, well... I just need to get rid of this penguin."

OoC: Lalala... Done.

"Oh...****" thought Pentlo as he saw the psychotic girl in front of him weilding a knife. "Please don't eat me!" he exclaimed, "I'm really not that tasty...I'm all blubber, and no meat!" But that did not stop her threatining advance. Pentlo was pinned between Meghana and the tree, and as he was debating with himself of whether or run right or left, he had an idea. He slid on his belly between the legs of his attacker and ran with all of his might to the banks of the river. He took a deep breath and plunged in, hoping to evade his pursuer.

Meghana stood by the river, looking for any sign of her opponent. "This...thing is much smarter than I thought. I wonder..." said Meghana, as she got to work casting another spell.

The waters of the river were dark and murky. Pentlo had a hard time seeing where he was going, so he decided to swim to the surface for air and to see how far from his opponent he was. "I wish I hadn't left my backpack back there" he thought as he was swimming upward, "then I could just swim and swim 'till I'm miles away from that freak."

But something was wrong. The river was only about ten feet deep, yet Pentlo felt that he had swam upward for about thirty. Pentlo panicked; he swam upward some more, but he wasn't getting to the surface. He tried swimming left and right, forward and backward, and even downward, but there was water all around him and he couldn't escape. His normally abundant supply of air was running low while he continued to fight for the surface. He was almost out of air, and he started gasping, expecting a moutful of water...but instead, he was able to breathe! "Oh I get it!" said Pentlo. "Its an illusion! Now what was that anti-illusion spell again?"...

As Meghana was staring into the water, she felt a block in her magic, and her illusion suddenly stopped. "What the-What was that?" she said to herself. "I wonder if its gone now..."

Pentlo found himslef on the river bank about 100 yards down from where Meghana stood. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Now if only I can sneak over there and grab my backpack" he thought, "then I could get out of this nightmare."

Meghana was standing by the river, thinking, while waiting to see if the penguin showed up. Pentlo meanwhile ran toward his backpack, and as he approached Meghana's hearing distance he crept slowly to the tree by which his backpack laid. He was almost there when CRUNCH! He stepped on a rather inconvienent dead leaf. Meghana wheeled around. Pentlo quickly grabbed his backpack and a handful of dead leaves and started running down the road. "Fergo!" he yelled, and the leaves caught fire and formed a wall of flames when he threw them behind him. This was supposed to be a barrier to slow his pursuer, but Pentlo knew he probably wouldn't be able to run away. He would have to face the fight somtime.

"Damned thing!" shouted Meghana, frustrated that Pentlo hadn't disappeared already. "I'm not giving this up" she thought, and she ran toward the fleeing penguin...

OoC: Penguins rock. :O It took me a day longer than I originally had planned to... But yay.

BiC:

Her white boots pounded against the ground and Meghana was in hot pursuit of her short enemy. "I can't just let my thoughts run amok... I have to stop him!"

Within a couple of steps, she came face to face with the wall of fire. "I'm starting to hate my mind..." The illusionist stared at the fire, quickly thinking of a way to escape this sudden conflict. Immediately, she cupped her hands and dove for some dirt, quickly using her powers on it. By the time her hand got to the flame, the soil had already become what she'd intended it to do.

The newly formed water splashed across the flames, somehow spreading entirely along the wall, extinguishing it. "Hmph... Here, penguin, penguin, penguin... Time to get you out of my brain..."

It would be easy to tell whether or not Meghana, with long legs, would catch up with Pentlo, who had small penguin-like feet. So it was only expected that the woman would reach the flightless bird.

"Aha! I've caught you... You know, you're a sneaky one you are... So much so that I'm not sure I can actually go through destroying you... I mean, you've got to be one of the more original characters that I've come up with for a while... Which is why I've decided that it would work much more nicely if I don't kill you. I mean... Why make my mind anymore... Stressed. Mindgleam, come to me." Meghana rose her hand and the two fighters were completely covered in shadow.

The wind around them picked up, the leaves fluttering about. A loud roar rang through the air and the ground shook as her dragon landed on the ground beside the penguin, snorting smoke.

A smile came across her face, "Pentlo, meet Mindgleam."

"Oh, Hi, Mindgleam...My name's Pentlo. How are you feeling today?" said Pentlo as he backed away slowly form the menacing beast. His mind was a muddle of "Damn!" "Crud..." "****!" "Great..." " and "Why me?", with a little hint of "I'm hungry!". Mindgleam let out a ferocious roar, and Pentlo ran as fast as he could, which - unfortunately for him - was not very fast. Pentlo felt a searing heat on his tail feathers, and he glanced behind him to see a stream of fire coming from the dragon's mouth. "Just my luck, a fire breathing dragon!" he said to himself with a nervous sigh. He knew no spells nor had the magic potential to dispatch the dragon, but he could try to frustrate it. "Frigos!" he yelled, hoping to cerate a basic ice missile, but nothing happened. "Dang...uh...Frigas!" he tried again, but nothing happened this time either. "Oh, come on...Frigo!" Pentlo felt his magic working, but not as he had hoped. Instead of bombarding the dragon in a small snowstorm, he found himself encased in ice and unable to move!

Pentlo tried to break free of his icy prison, but had not the strength. "Well, at least he ought to breathe fire out get me out of this mess quickly..." he thought. But instead of releasing flames like Pentlo had hoped, Mindgleam swatted him with his powerful tail and sent him hurtling along the ground. Pentlo hit a tree stump, which broke his icy straight-jacket, but gave him a backache that would pain him for about a week afterward. Pentlo barely had time to rub his bruises and recollect his thoughts when he saw another fireball headed his way. He jumped away just in time, and turned around to see his friend-by-collision tree stump in flame, a grim reminder of what he might have been had not he made it in time...

As he was busy trying to fight the dragon, Pentlo's mind drifted over to Meghana. "What is she doing now, anyways..." he thought. He looked over and saw her sitting in the grass, her eyes closed as if she was trying to focus on something. Pentlo was quite bewildered, but then it clicked. "Oh...so she's a dragon tamer!” Pentlo had read about the dragon tamers, people who had been given a dragon from birth that they "mind-melded" with and controlled for the rest of their lives. Lucky for Pentlo, he remembered clearly an "exorcism" spell that was able to rid a being of any foreign mind control. "Dem riddius!" he yelled, and the spell worked perfectly, the dragon's angry appearance soon gave way to a look of confusion and fear, and it collapsed to the ground.

"Nooooo!" yelled Meghana shrilly, her head throbbing by the mind-break. She rushed over to her fallen dragon and kneeled by his side. "Dead! No no no no! He can't be-"

"He's not." interrupted Pentlo. "Your slave will come to in a few minutes, but I assure you, he's the least of your worries." Pentlo said threateningly.

Meghana's thoughts were a muddle, and her pounding headache did not make things any better. "There's no way an illusion could do this, simply no way!" thought Meghana, "but then that would mean..." "Oh my God!" exclaimed Meghana to herself, "What have I done?!...". But there was no time for her to reflect. Pentlo, more courageous and confident with his recent victory over the dragon, readied an attack...

OoC: XD Excellentness.

BiC:

"Mindgleam... That... illusion. To be able to effect my powers at such a level... Can he really be..." Caught in thought, the illusionist was paying no mind to the stout animal. Even though, with each thought that entered her mind, he just got himself closer and closer to attacking her.

Pentlo's mouth opened to utter another of his spells, and Meghana did not hesitate in simply clenching his beak with her hand. “Quiet. I'm trying to think here.”

She heard a few mumbles, but completely ignored the bird's struggles. His wings floundered about, trying to get to her, and the woman turned away, lost in thought. “Is he really an illusion? I mean, after what he did to Mindgleam, I wonder if I would even have the power sufficient enough to do so... It can't be that I've been mistaken... I mean, in all of my life, being mistaken about an illusion is just a shame for someone like me... An illusionist should know everything about illusions, especially whether or not something is an illusion.”

Meghana continued to ramble on, the penguin also continually squirming. Her head jerked to Pentlo, brimming with excitement, “Ah hah! I've got it. You and everything that has happened is a dream and I only need to wake up. Yup, yup. That is the only logical solution.”

“Mm?”

“What was that? Ah, yes... It seems I've got your beak,” she released his beak, “What was it you were saying?”

Suddenly, a spell, which the magic wielder could quite understand, escaped his beak.

After a few moments, Meghana found herself completely encased in vines, up to her neck. “Oh... I guess that tells me what you were trying to say, huh?”

“Indeed!”

Her hand fingered around the plants, reaching for the one thing that would release her. As her hand gripped around the sharp edge she exclaimed in both excitement and pain, “Aha!”

The knife she'd stowed away began extracting bright red blood from her hand, the throbbing pain only secondary to the constricting of the vines. Regardless, she began to saw her way out of the plant like prison, the penguin seeming to have turned his back from her after determining that the 'aha' meant nothing.

Within a few seconds, her right hand could swing out a few inches. Using this new found ability, she took the knife up by its handle, cutting away the rest, relentlessly. Once they'd been weakened, the vines gave up, Meghana toppling over herself as she fell to the ground.

She looked at the blood on her hand, and at the penguin who'd started to walk away. “Well, it's not a dream...”

Her right hand hurting too much to hold the knife properly, she switched it to her left, quietly approaching the penguin. Once she'd closed the distance to a few yards, she threw the knife, almost as though going for the kill. For being thrown with her left hand, the knife got fairly close, missing his head by mere inches.

“Woah!” came the scream from the penguin as he reeled around, wide eyed at the large knife which had narrowly escaped killing him.

“That vine was nice, but a true illusionist knows how to manipulate her surroundings... even if it does require reverting back to more primal methods.

"Gah! Crazy lady! Why don't you ever leave me alone!" Pentlo said as he tried running away from the much faster Meghana, who had picked up her knife and was gaining speed. He turned around, knowing he had to fight, but as he was thinking of an appropriate spell, another idea came to him. "Oh, ****..." he said softly to himself, gazing into the distance behind Meghana.

Meghana heard him, and turned around to see what may be troubling him, but looking around, she saw nothing worth noticing. She turned around and saw Pentlo running away...again. "Urgh! So he managed to pull one over on an illusionist, out of all people. What irony." Sighed Meghana. She was more frustrated at the aspect of being tricked than Pentlo escaping. It was nearly impossible for the penguin to escape.

"You're not getting away this time, Mr. Pentlo!" Pentlo heard with much dismay. His ruse didn't work, not that he really expected it to. He suddnely thought of a spell that might help him gain some time. He uttered something unintelligible, and the ground under him started to shake. "Uh oh..." he thought. The earth under his feet sprung up quickly, flinging him high into the air. "Damn...my targeting must have been off..." he thought, for he was actually trying to target Meghana. He landed upside down in the thick branches of a tree. He regained his composure, rubbed a little bump on his head, and peered out of the thick leaves to see the status of his enemy. She was scanning the area around her, looking to and fro in the sky and on the ground. "Great!" thought Pentlo "She doesn't see me. Perhaps I can slip away without being noticed."

Pentlo quitely slipped down the tree and started running, but Meghana saw him. "There you are!" she exclaimed, a grim indication to Pentlo that he had been disovered. "Maybe I can try to freeze her instead" he thought, and started to prepare an ice spell. He turned around, ready to attack, but then looking behind his purseur, his face fell.

"Ha! I'm not falling for that again!" Meghana said, brandishing her knife threateningly. But then she heard a loud roar coming from behid her. She wheeled around, and saw Mindgleam standing right behind her. "Ah, you're awake again!" said Meghana, victoriously. "Perhaps you can take care of this troublesome bird for me." But something in her mind felt wrong. Pentlo started running away. "Quick, get him!" said Meghana. She then realized, the mindlink she usually felt between she and her dragon was not there! The dragon lifted its right arm, and struck its master to the ground with a powerful force. He lifted up a foot, and was going to crush her against the earth. Meghana thought quickly, and taking her knife, shoved it into the bottom of the dragon's foot. Mindgleam reled in pain, although the wound wasn't very bad. Meghana quickly got up and ran away in the same direction Pentlo was headed.

Pentlo tuned around and saw the dragon and its master not far behind him. He quickly turned around, and threw the ice missle he was preparing for Meghana into the face of Mindgleam. This annoyed the dargon greatly. He shook the layer of ice off his eyes, and gave Pentlo a look that would strike fear into the heart of King Kong. Pentlo couldn't run away fast enough, so he covered his face with his wings and awaited his probably gruesome fate, but the dragon didn't do anything. It looked most confused and frustrated, and was looking about. "Quick, over here!" he heard Meghana's voice coming from behind the mound of earth that had previously served as his luanchpad. "You're invisible to the dragon, its an illusion, come quickly!" Pentlo was uncertain, but he figured he had nothing better to do.

"Why is my own dragon attacking me!" Meghana said scoldingly as Pentlo approached.

"The spell I casted earlier hasn't worn off. Without your control, he's mindless, meaning he's either reverting to animal instincts or a previous state of mind." said Pentlo, making sure not to get within arm's distance of Meghana.

"But I thought you said the spell would wear of in minutes!"

"I meant he would regain conciousness...I'm not sure when the spell will wear off."

"Urgh...well, we need to work together to take this dragon out, you know."

"What?! But you tried to kill me!"

"And I saved your life too! Besides...I thought...well, you still may be...I don't know...Nevermind! Just...can you trust me?"

"No, but I can pretend to."

"Does that mean you'll help me out?"

"I guess I have no other choice. But I assure you, I will be watching you!"

They had no more time for conversation. The invisibility had worn off, and the dragon knocked away the mound of earth that had served as their only sheild. They had to face a danger larger than any of them, but thier distrust may prove more dangerous...

OoC: Sorry for the crappiness. I blame it on acute viral nasopharyngitis. :3

BiC:

Looking up, a great sadness was plastered on Meghana's face. This was her dragon. The thing she was most connected to... but all the same, her resolution was equally set. It was her duty to control this creature, and she would do so to the best of her ability. “Alright, let's do this my way, don't get any ideas or... you wouldn't want to know.”

She shot the penguin a furtive glance before throwing dirt up in her dragon's face. It pained her to do so, but she had no other choice. After grabbing the bird's wing, she dashed underneath the belly of the giant creature, maintaining a steady pace. Of course, the dragon didn't take this lightly and as the two warriors made their way to the opposite end of the immense creature, it stomped about.

They had nearly made it through when a large foot fell down upon the fringe of Meghana's skirt, bringing her down. It's needless to say that, due to having been dragging him along, Pentlo also was left at the mercy of the oncoming barrage of claws and scales.

Yet, in what seemed like a spark of luck, a foot was about to close on the illusionists head. Yes, luck. For this foot, being one out of the four, had the woman's knife implanted in its sole. Meghana breathed out the word, “Brilliant” and with that, she took the handle of the blade, twisting it further into the dragon's flesh.

Her blue eyes cringed at seeing her dragon reel in pain, but, once more, it had to be done. Having this short window of opportunity, the temporary duo squeezed out, readying themselves to get back in the fray. Once she'd thoroughly brushed herself off, the tamer turned to make sure the penguin was still whole. She approached him, her eyes flaming with the excellent plan which she'd just thought up... or rather dug up.

“Listen up. This is going to be like that time in my sixty fifth story. You know, right?” Meghana knew that if this was indeed an illusion, it would at least have some recollection of the stories she told. “Alright let's do this.”

“Huh?” was the response which she was so oblivious to.

Still, she dove in, the plan set like stone. A stone with which Pentlo was clearly not familiar with, but a stone none the less.

She looked at her ally impatiently. “What are you waiting for? Make some water with your magic already! How else am I to use Sorceress’ Cascade?”

OoC: Yesh. Lame. I know. *cough* >>