The Forest (Anyone)

"I will prepare the broth, then." I walked briskly over to the fire, glad to busy myself with something other than being embarassed. In the pack Azerik at thrown was a canteen full of fresh water, and I poured it into a deep pot I had found in Tarok's tent. It had been a truly facinating thing browsing through it, for the innards of the tent were an actual house. If Tarok was capable of such magic, it did not seem quite as extoordinary that there would be men after him.

The metal pot would be far too heavy to support with wood, so I simply placed it in a flat space of the fire, gently controlling the flames around it. They were flat and somewhat mild, just hot enough for the soup. I tended to it carefully as the water boiled, taking out thyme and bay leaves from my bag to season the broth. As I stirred the fragrant broth, I carefully watched Azerik clean the fish he meant to cook.

"My, what I would not give for lemons..." I sighed longingly. The sour fruit had always been excellent on my fish catches in Bren.

"What was that?" I said looking up from the fish at Leonna's words, "I should have some lemons in my pack...I brought them from home, because I wasn't sure if they grew in this world...it really is useful having a backpack unaffected by time and space you know. The food you store in it never goes bad...now that I think about it, lemon juice mixed with black pepper goes well with fish doesn't it..."

After I rummaged around in my bag for a little bit, I found a good ripe lemon, and a small paper package containing a few grams of powdered black pepper. When I had finished cleaning the fish, I squirted some of the lemon juice, and sprinkled some of the pepper on it, then put the fish onto some sticks, shoving the sticks into the dirt so the fish hung diagonally over the fire. When they had finished cooking, I tossed one each by the stick to Roon, and Zildour, then took a bite out my own. After my second bite, I noticed Leonna eying the fish longingly. Letting out a sigh, I took half the fish of the stick, and held it in my mouth, and tossed her the other half saying, "Here; you can eat it while you're waiting for the broth to finish."

I had to admit, that was a little embarrising. When we were alone, I would have to explain it to Leonna. I dad some Ginko pie in my pack, and split it with Padme. She odded gratefully, as she knew what ginko leaves tasted like, but not Ginko pie. "I added some strawberries." I said to her.

"Yes, yes, strawberries be best!"

I looked away from the delicate flesh of fish in my hands to watch Padme scoop of pawfuls of pie in her paws. She ate with great gusto, and I realized that these strangers must have been traveling for quite some time. If they had been pursued by enemies as well, it was no wonder that they would be hungry and tired. I was amazed to think that Tarok had held off for so long, and what great powers he held to gain the interest of a government. What were they hoping to accomplish by using him?

"The broth is ready now," I stated, gazing into the boiling water. I carefully cut up the remaining pieces of fish and dumped them in, stirring the soup for another minute to let the flavors mix. "Tarok, do you happen to have any bowls? The soup is ready." Despite the foul smelling swamp, the soup still had a pleasant fragrance, and I took out two metal cups of my own from my bag. I dipped one into the boiling liquid, knowing the heat would do nothing to hurt me, and handed it to Azerik. The second I also filled with the soup and presented it to Zildor. "Have as much as you like. We will need our strength soon."

"Yes, yes there in here somewhere." I said and went into the tent. I came out with 4 wooden bowls. "These were handmade by me, so be careful with them." They had ancient carvings along the sides, and they were runes that would make it the perfect tempurture for the user.

"Thanks," I said taking the cup of soup from Leonna, and drinking it quickly, ignoring the searing pain in my throat.

Roon -> After eating the fish, I sat down and "listened" to our surroundings. I heard something lumbering through the forest. I focused in and realized with horror that there was a manticore heading directly towards us.
"We're in trouble. Prepare for battle." I stated.

Ooc: I couldn't really think of anything else that fit. >.<

OoC:

BiC: "What?!?! I am not doing another one-on-one. Leonna, let's see how you fight.

"No one said anything about a one-on-one," I said standing from where I was by the fire and turning to look at Tarok, "and don't you think its a bit rude to demand things of the nice lady who kindly carried you for several hours? Capable, and intelligent you may be, but a gentleman you are not."

"Oh... sorry Leon-" I saw the Manticore swing it's scorpion tail, and pushed her out of the way. "Join if you want, but please don't hurt yourself." I said, jumping up into battle position.

"I hope you weren't talking to me," I said slicing off the end of the manticore's tail with my katana, "a simple minded animal isn't going to get the best of me!"

After the stinger end had been cut off, a mix of blood and venom spurted from the wound. I covered my eyes for a second to protect them from the spray, and jumped back as I heard its claws tearing through the air towards me. The tip of the claw just barely made a rip in my robe, and I threw a pair of kunai in the general direction of it's face, hoping to hit its eyes. The knives embedded themselves into the creatures left cheek, serving no more than to enrage it further. It swung around violently, and made to swipe at Leonna, who was still on the ground where Tarok had pushed her out of the way. I used my sword to block the claws, and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her out of reach of the manticore.

"You should pay more attention," I said stabbing at the manticore's face, "it's harder to fight when you have to protect someone."

"Oh, so true, Az. Let's not kill this one, send it away like the army, kay?"

"Do you know how much reiatsu that takes," I said as I managed to embed my blade in the creatures left eye, "it's not worth it, just to send away one little monster like this. I only did it for the army, because there was no way we could fight it off. Just as well if we did that, we'd be spotted. The Black Holes give off a really weird glow when it's dark out."

"Mmmkay then. You should have seen me do this one to Ax in the desert. Roc'kus rise'ul." I said, and a giant pillar of rock came out of the ground, sending him, hopefully close to the army, but far away from us. "How's that?"

"Why..." I said looking long-fully after the creature, "I could have used that thing you know...so it would have been really useful in my chimera research...wait a minute; don't manticores have wings?"

As the words left my mouth, the manticore, swooped in on us once more, managing to wrap what was left of it's tail around Tarok's waist, and hoist him into the air.

"I think it might be mad," I said looking at the beast fly away with little nightling.

"Easy." I said, and used my beads to teleport back. "Hey Az, don't you have an idea of how to beat this guy? He's staring to get on my nerves." I said, as he swooped back in for another attack. "You gotta keep a cool head." I said to myself.

"It's easy to beat him," I said stepping to the side as the manticore tried to make a grab for me this time, "but it all comes down to the most energy efficient way to do it. The less tired I am after a fight the better. I could do a whole bunch of really flashy, efficient attacks, but it takes physical energy, and reiatsu for me to do that. Although I do have an abnormally large amount of both, it would be wasteful to use my more adept skills to take care of my petty problems. My skills with the sword are good enough to take care of a mindless animal."

With that said, I jumped into the air as the manticore dived at me, and landed on its back as it went by. It brought us both up above the trees, and I brought my sword down in an arc, lopping off its left wing, causing it to spiral towards the nearest tree. I jumped off its back, and used the tree branches to jump safely back down to the ground. Tarok started to say something about me contradicting myself, but I held up my hand to silence him. Then the manticore came diving towards me, and I shoved my sword through its gaping mouth as it let out a furious roar. It came out through the back of its throat, and I pulled it out and lopped off the creatures head in one swift movement.

"I did all that," I said, "to illustrate my point. Instead of using my various 'magical' abilities, I used physical means to obtain my goal. Instead of teleporting you could have easily cut off the beasts tail. 'Azerik's Battle School 101, Lesson 1: If you can do it without magic, then do it without magic.' No matter what species you are, magic takes more energy than normal movements, and should be used wisely."

"I knew that Az, but I didn't want to fall 1,000 feet in the air."

OoC: Hello! I got permission from Haagar212 to join, I'm pretty nervous though- it's my first time joining a RP.
Sorry if I make any mistakes >.<
I'll be using Eleken Sasura, she's in my Signature.

BiC: Eleken had been walking through the woods for a good few hours now, in fact, she was beginning to feel quite lost.
She sat down on a rock covered in dull green moss to get her bearing straight. As she pulled out her compass, the sound of a
sword connecting with flesh, and a quick yet death-defining noise broke the silence of the night.
Taking sword in hand, she rushed to the scene only to find an odd party of adventurers and warriors gathered in the middle of the forest with the corpse of a manticore beside it's own severed head.
"What happened here?" She said,shocked, as each member of the party quickly turned their heads in her direction.

OoC: I think it's rather short, but it's getting quite late and I need to be up early tomorrow >.> sorry.

"What do you think happened?" I asked the stranger who had so rudely snuck up on us, "We just killed a manticore. Jeez, even Kireza wouldn't ask a stupid question like that..."

After than, I look at the stranger to get a better picture of who she was. It was obvious from the shape of her ears, that she was an elf, but her style of dress, and the Jian sword belted at her waist, were strangely reminiscent of the clothes worn by the ancient Chinese of my world. Quite possibly one of the strangest combinations I'd ever seen. Elves in my experience, resembled Europeans more than Asians...