OoC:
Here is the link to Erin's profile.
BiC:
Erin was lost, and she blamed it entirely on Irala.
“You were the one who decided to take us here!” Irala said with a flutter from her wings.
“Not my problem.”
“You were a jerk who distracted me while I was trying to get us to Rome. It’s your fault.”
Erin threw her bag to the side and sat down, feeling too tired to continue standing. Opening portals was tough work and being taken to the wrong place just made the young woman frustrated. The grass tickled her elbows as she leaned back on them, looking up at the overcast sky. She closed her eyes and breathed in; the air tasted like summer. Indeed, the humidity seemed to weigh down upon the woman, making her skin feel uncomfortably sticky.
A hot wind swept her hair into her face, bringing with it a grassy scent. Opening her eyes, the brunette observed the trees surrounding her, their branches slapping each other. They weren’t especially tall, but she still needed to crane her neck to see the topmost leaves. Erin pursed her lips when she found the forest was lacking in wildlife. The trees were bare of nests; the grass was too long; there weren’t even any signs of makeshift paths.
Perhaps they’re hiding from the upcoming storm? Erin glanced up at the gray sky once more.
“Hey Erin, when you decide to pay attention to me again, you should climb up this tree! There’s something you should see!”
The psychic closed her eyes and laid her head on the ground, silently laughing. Climb a tree? How old did Irala think she was? Six?
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m just fine on the ground.”
A moment later, the woman felt a weight on her stomach and opened an eye to see her companion sitting there.
“Trust me, this is worth seeing.”
Erin rolled her eyes and got up, leaning against the tree for support as her head spun briefly. She could feel small gusts of air from Irala’s fluttering wings on her neck. Once the spots were gone from her vision, the woman looked up at the tree. It was one of the taller trees in the general area, although she’d seen far grander trees in her own backyard.
The wrinkled bark was rough beneath her hands as she reached for the lowest branch. Wrapping her hands around it, she pulled herself up, pressing her feet against the tree’s trunk in an attempt to make her ascent easier. She tried pulling herself upwards first, but her only reward was a pair of sore arms. Frowning, she hung from the branch lamely, wondering how a little kid could scramble up an entire tree in the time it was taking her to climb one branch. She glanced at her feet, and suddenly realized what she was doing wrong; smiling, she exerted the force from her feet and was able to get enough momentum to pull herself up onto the branch.
Erin would have felt extremely proud were it not for the fact that she still had the rest of the tree to climb before her task was completed.
The young woman felt extremely uncomfortable as the branches grew thinner; additionally, the wind was picking up, and she continually found herself being attacked by the foliage around her. At one point, Irala seemed to lose control of herself as she bolted right for Erin, cowering her hair.
“Can I help you?” Erin had asked on that occasion, heart pounding as she grasped for the tree’s trunk, promptly wrapping her arms around it.
“There was thunder! It just came out of nowhere and it was loud!” The Pabali flew off Erin’s shoulder, her antennae drooping and her eyes wide. A moment later, lightning flashed in the sky, soaking everything in a bright light a few fleeting seconds.
“Aren’t we, I dunno, not supposed to be in trees during lighting storms? And isn’t it juvenile to be scared of the thunder?” Erin shrugged her shoulders as she reached for the next branch.
“I mean, it’s just a sound. What’s so terrifying about that? It can’t hurt you or anything.”
“You wouldn’t understand!”
The brunette just smiled, knowing full well her companion was correct. Having never heard anything but her companion’s voice, it was extremely difficult for Erin to fully grasp how frightening thunder’s growl was. Although she didn’t understand it, she accepted the fact that sometimes people acted irrationally towards insignificant things; and thunder was just one of those things.
Finally! Erin found herself releasing a sigh as she made it to the top of the tree. The wind whipped her hair around her face as another lighting bolt danced from cloud to cloud, and she could almost smell the storm in the air. Looking at her closest friend, she asked,
“So what is it you wanted to show me?”
“Check that out.” She pointed a stubby little paw to her right.
“Wow.” Erin felt the word needed to be spoken out loud; for, less than a mile away, was a building far grander than anything she’d ever seen before.
It was majestic, encircled by many Romanesque columns made of a white stone – marble, Erin guessed, though it was hard to judge from the distance – which bore ivy ropes on them. The roof was domed, triggering images of the Pantheon in Erin’s head. Trees enclosed the area in which it was located, making her wonder if it was supposed to be hidden from the rest of the world. However, despite its secluded location, the woman felt drawn to it, almost as if it was calling for her.
“Hey Irala, you wanna go exploring?” Erin grinned as she climbed down the tree with much more ease than she’d had climbing up it. With a flick of her wrist, her discarded backpack flew to her hands, and she eased it on her back.
“Erin…”
“What’s life without adventure! Irala, make sure I’m going in the right direction towards it, alright?”
Irala grumbled something incoherent but flew above the canopy, directing her grounded comrade every so often. Erin forced herself to run faster as the wind blew in sporadic directions. Lightning flashed above, illuminating her way. There was the faintest remnant of a path that Erin hadn’t noticed earlier, and she followed it, although it was still nice having Irala direct her.
Finally, after many minutes of ducking underneath stray branches and weaving between trees, the woman finally made it to the clearing with the building. The building looked far greater when Erin was right in front of it, and she almost felt intimidated by it. There was a certain elegance to the building which left Erin in a state of awe, and she simply stared at it for many minutes.
“C’mon, it’s gonna rain soon,” Irala said with a nudge.
“You wanted to investigate it! Let’s go inside!”
Erin smiled, knowing that, although the Pabali would never admit it, she was just as curious as the psychic. There was a small set of stairs that led to the main door; it was tall and made of stone. There were various inscriptions in the door, and it took Erin a few moments of studying to realize that they formed letters of some sort. She traced the letters idly, fascinated by them. There were many different inscriptions, clumped together in various groups, and the woman realized that whatever was being engraved in the door was being said in many different languages. She smiled when her fingers found an inscription in English:
“Those who wish to learn may enter through this door.”
Erin’s hazel eyes sparkled as she and Irala looked at each other.
“Let’s do this,” the psychic told her companion, hands placed on the cool stone as she prepared to open it.
10-16-2009, 08:52 PM
