Never trust the story teller.

They heave against the rubble with body and mind, the scent of their emotions (fear and anger, mostly) first mingling with the smell of sweat, then overcome by it as the regimes toil away.

The futility of the situation is not lost on him. Even magic does not seem to help them. Po's request goes apparently unnoticed by the dense wall of trees, and Florentine's window only bakes the rocks. An odd hush falls over the prison, broken only by the huff of strained breathing and the sound of rocks tumbling over each other. As they labor, Eik tries not to think about who will die first, and other dire things of that nature-- but morbidity still slips into his thoughtstream here and there.

In the end, of course, it is all for naught.

The gods, or at least one of them, open the way for them without much ceremony other than the glowing of some stones. Sweat-soaked and weary of another trick, he doesn't much feel like celebrating. He returns Seraphina's stare, and in that way they communicate without words. Before he follows her, he turns to the other regimes and offers a small, weary smile. Perhaps one day they'll all get together and laugh about the events that unfolded at the summit. Perhaps.

Eik follows Seraphina through the thicket and back to their people. He merely nods his head to the statue as they leave. It is a gesture of acknowledgement, if not gratitude. 

He hopes this is his last encounter with the gods of Novus, but he fears it is just the beginning.

Only trust the story.

After what may have been hours, the last of the trembling finally subsided. And in its wake…. There was silence. For minutes, hours, days; many would argue how long it truly lasted. Tempus’ voice did not carry across the breeze, and the gentle wind went quiet. The gods had been seen and heard - both their voices and their corporeal forms. For some, anger flared at their sudden and unexplainable appearance. And for others, there was only awestruck silence or fevered questions.

But the silence - both from the inhabitants of Novus and from Novus itself - would not last long. As light broke across the land it found all four of Tempus’ children standing, their attention unwavering and their eyes trained on the horizon. No matter where they were in the lands…. The stared off to Veneror.

Their speechless gaze felt like an eternity in a second. And then the ground shook.

No, it was not another earthquake that would split the earth… this was something else entirely. From the caverns beneath Veneror - from the caves, from the crevices in the mountain, from the trees and from the soil - they emerged. Four beasts of all measure and size - none of which had ever been seen by any inhabitant near nor far.

The holes that peppered the Bellum Steppe at the bottom of Veneror Peak caved, opening up miniature craters in their wake as a flurry of brown and iridescent copper-streaked fur burst forth from the ground. The creatures were wild-eyed, standing only a few feet high but boasting long teeth that clattered together in a deafening roar as their long fore-claws scraped and moved the dirt beneath their paws. Their clamor headed towards Terrastella, leaving upturned soil and caving hillsides in their wake as their fervor grew to new heights.

The leaves of the trees scattered across Veneror shuddered, their branches bending and bark cracking. They lunged nimbly from the trees, arms spread wide for the air to catch upon the membranes stretched from wrist to ankle. They were hoisted high into the skies, as the wind began to whip angrily amidst the Worship peak, golden fur shining brightly in the sun. The currents beneath their bodies lurched them in the di unrection of Delumine, a flicker of flames appearing upon the keratin spines gracing their backs.

Ancient trees cracked and felled themselves from the Arma mountains as a massive flock of feathered raptors clamored angrily from amidst their depths. Their talons ripped the thick branches, tree trunks cracked with the resounding shockwave of their beating wings, and beaks clacked angrily at the skies. Their shrieks echoed through the mountainside as their wings - a duo set that were a monstrous 25 feet across - crested them towards Dencote, rolling storm clouds trailing in their wake.

And at last, the thrumming wardrum of hooves echoed. It grew louder, louder, louder - the grass cracked beneath their hooves and talons, turning to ice and splintering in their mighty wake. The lumbering gallop of the winged ungulates could be felt in the sternum of every nearby inhabitant as the massive creatures burst forth from seemingly nowhere in the mountainside. Their back feet dug into the ground with every pace, heavy talons digging into the dirt and thrusting them off with more force. There large antlers were translucent and appeared nearly icy, seemingly to leave a mist in their wake, their wild eyes set on Solterra as they galloped away.

 

After the earthquake tremors subside in the wake of Tempus and Veneror, silence stretches across all of Novus. It is days before the wind rustles or the birds sing, but the silence is broken as suddenly as it started.

From four different parts of the Veneror Peaks burst four different creatures, their like never before seen in Novus or across the world. They arrive in packs according to species, fleeing from the Peaks and headed each in different directions. It won’t be long before they make their arrival within each of the four Courts!

This thread is now closed!