Experience Earning Quest || Trial by Fire (Among other things)

???

One year ago…

leary eyes slowly pried heavy lids apart, the sharp crust of an uninvited sleep poked at the raw and sticky flesh that surrounded them. Pain was the first sensation to register, its raking tendrils slashing across his face with little mercy as the young mule began to regain his consciousness. A strained groan escaped his dry lips as he stirred against the cooling grass. The earth beneath him felt wonderful against his ragged form, its enticing dampness attempting to lull him back into the blackness of the back of his skull. As tempting as the offer was, the dappled equine refused, feeling it urgent to come to his senses.

Time felt… Strange to the injured mule. He couldn't remember how long he had been out for. Trying to think about it made his mind screech loudly in protest, the poor colt wincing at the throb that spiked his head. He'd have to revisit that. Instead, he set his foremost focus upon rising to his hooves. Shakily, he began to push off of the grassy floor. His legs buckled beneath him, rapidly reuniting him with the ground and knocking what air he clung to out of his sore lungs. The force stirred up a fit of coughs, ash clawing up his throat and coating his tongue as a silent reminder of what could have caused his current state.

Was there a fire?

Is there a fire?!

The instinctual fear jolted the mule to his hooves instantly, the sudden rush of blood surging upwards causing him to grow dizzy from the effort. Quickly shaking his head free of the haze, the teak colt spun around in search of the orange beast. His muffled gaze fell upon a line of bright light slicing across the horizon, the pink sun watching over the blaze through the thick plumes of black that grew from the sparks beneath it. Pretty, if it weren't inherently horrifying. However, judging the distance he found himself at now, he could only assume he escaped the worst of it. Relief dripped from his face, or rather blood did.

That was definitely blood.

A shocked bray rushed out of the mule as he bucked around in a panicked circle. Adrenaline bristled down his mane, and he felt the need to run. Not even two steps into his gait, however, he found himself kissing the grass once more, hooves flying over his head as the world spiraled around him. He slid to a halt, unearthing roots and fresh soil as he did. Another defeated moan of pain crept out of his throat. What on earth tripped him up? Eyes rolling about his head freely, the colt slowly turned his head to look behind him. Once his pupils focused, his vision fell upon a journal, one now sat up and splayed in the commotion.

Huh?

Temporarily setting aside his initial panic in wake of curiosity, the mule grabbed a hold of the hard covered book, dragging it towards himself with a weak power about him. He let the journal float before him, twirling it around in his grasp and flipping through the pages. Pieces of it fell to the floor, diagrams of various plants scattering about at his hooves. These images seemed… Vaguely familiar to him. Flickers of memories sparked through his mind, each synapses setting his mind on fire as he tried to remember anything. Nope. Wasn't coming to him today. The curious mule turned to face the front cover finally, his covered eyes widening at the sight on it.

A name, etched in gold stared back at him with a burning intensity.

Nicodemus.

The name rang out in his mind like an alarm bell, chiming throughout the space and awakening memories once more. He heard the name called to him in a voice he knew wasn't his own. He saw fire, everything danced in flames as he fled deep into the forest, leaving the figure and the fire behind him.

Nicodemus

He was Nicodemus.

Nicodemus hummed quietly after a few moments, affirming that he was Nicodemus, this was his journal, and he had a surprisingly vast knowledge of medicinal herbs according to the notes scribbled within the pages he held before himself. Helpful, all things considered as he watched droplets of blood splash against the aged paper that had settled in the grass below. Quickly he scooped up the pages between his teeth and stuffed them back into the confines of the book, worried that his mussed face would ruin any more of the torn pages.

Now equipped with some knowledge of the world he found himself in, Nicodemus held the book tightly to his bruised chest. He had to push forward now. Where he would end up, he wasn't quite sure yet, but he'd find out once he got there. Taking the first steps to his new and mysterious life, Nicodemus trudged deeper into the woods that surrounded him.

What he didn't catch, however, was the glow of red that emanated from within the pages of the leather journal. A spark of life to some degree. A stirring of the bowels within those inscriptions that he'd soon discover...

RE: Quest || Trial by Fire (Among other things) - Nicodemus - 10-07-2020

Nicodemus

iscover soon he did. Very quickly in fact. Nicodemus had been searching for herbs for quite some time now. One's as mentioned in the journal to help alleviate pain, and some of which he could use as wraps to dress his as-yet-to-be-seen wounds he could feel upon his face. He nosed at a bundle of aromatic plants he had found nestled between two larger bushes. They were low to the ground, green leaves turned wavy and curled at the edges, leaving a delicate appearance to them. Curiously, and quickly as he still was very much in pain, flipped through the pages of his journal, searching for an image that appeared similar to what it was he was looking at.

Dock, it would appear to be, his eyes flicking between the drawing and the plant itself, which looked near identical. Supposedly able to help soothe wounds when made into a paste. Not exactly having the best tools available, Nico, as he dubbed himself due to Nicodemus being a mouthful, began to pluck the leaves from the bushel. He quickly popped them into his mouth and began to grind them between his teeth. He stamped his hind leg in protest as the bitter flavor of the juice filled his mouth. Still he chewed, and once he was satisfied with the resulting liquified remains of leaf, he spat it onto the ground. With as much grace and tact of a newborn foal, Nico rubbed his face into the chewed medicine, scrubbing his nestled horn and the surrounding forehead in the green tinted spittle. He began to lift his face off of the ground when a sight caught his eye. His journal, snapping shut on a few of the Dock leaves that remained and snapping them off of the stems.

To say Nicodemus screamed was an understatement. The mule reared up on his hind legs, stepping back a few paces before his front half met the earth once more. He stared in horror at the journal. There was no way his eyes had deceived him. That… That thing moved! The teak furred colt began to back away slowly, watching the object pensively as he did so. The book remained still as he watched from a distance. Nicodemus, moving from fear to intrigue, folded his legs and flopped down. He waited for something to happen, anything. He had to see it again. Of course, as fate would have it, the moment he dedicates to observing, is the moment of dormancy. Nicodemus glanced around, finding himself a pebble of which he tossed at the journal. The rock bounced off of the inanimate cover and rolled off beside it.

Maybe… Just maybe it was a trick of the eye after all. The mule returned to his hooves, trotting over to the book and moving to pick it up. As he tilted his head down towards the journal, it suddenly sparked back to life, pages flipping open of its own volition and landing upon the page that nestled the leaf within. Nico reared back slightly, not breaking his line of sight from what he could only assume to be a magical journal by this point. He watched in awe as loose pages sat behind the dock leaf slowly began to flicker and draw itself in along the torn edges of where they once sat. The journal was mending itself. While not particularly fast in its work, the object repaired the superficial damage Nicodemus had unintentionally inflicted upon it before his very eyes. The mule sat with the interesting book as it slowly completed its endeavors for several minutes, until finally he carefully plucked the leaf from the pages. He examined it closely, double checking to make sure he hadn’t discovered a magical plant rather than a magical journal. No no, this was definitely the journal as while he turned the leaf over in his inspection, the book fluttered once again and leapt towards Nico. The mule dropped the leaf in surprise and caught the journal between his teeth as it began to come down its arc.

Alright… So. This is what we’re dealing with now. Nicodemus glanced around the forest, suddenly very much aware that he and this enchanted journal were out in the open. An equally sudden anxiety washed over him as he gently gnawed at the leather of the covers sat between his teeth. Maybe it’d be best to keep the mystical properties of the book to himself until he could at least understand how it works. Bringing the leaf his journal had picked and placing it back inside the pages, Nicodemus moved away from the area, feeling as if eyes were now on him.

RE: Quest || Trial by Fire (Among other things) - Nicodemus - 10-07-2020

Nicodemus

verything was moving like a whirlwind around Nico, what with his memory being locked from him, him not particularly knowing exactly where he was in the world, and now this journal with it’s strange abilities… Nicodemus grew weary, his sore body and mind still trudging on in a hapless march forward. As he wandered onward, the mule took time to pick various herbs he found, both studying them and letting the journal press them within its bindings to store for later, namely when he had to redress his face. It was rather symbiotic, the way the book lent itself to him, almost serene. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit that the book pulling at his telekinetic grasp to lead him towards a new specimen was frightening to the shaken equine.

Nico’s ears pricked at a subtle noise that drew his attention away from a sprig of burnet that he had found. It sounded like a faint churning, soothing in nature. The mule lifted his nose and sniffed the thick air. There was a moisture that clung all around him. Water, Nico realized. He also realized how parched he was, his mouth and throat still scorched with ash from what he had to assume was from the fire he woke to. He trotted along, weaving through the trees and bushes to follow the sound and scent, until he finally broke through the treeline. Relieved to finally be in an open space, and in the presence of a glistening creek, Nicodemus bounded quickly towards the edge of it.

As luck would have it, Nico in his excitement had overstepped and pressed down awkwardly upon an uneven set of rocks, resulting in the colt tripping yet again. Jaws clacked painfully against each other as his chin hit the ground and bounced into the water. The brown colt jumped back up, shaking the water away in a frantic manner, rivulets of dampened dry blood and water scattering around him haphazardly. The shake down made Nico dizzy, the mule having to take a moment to still himself and catch his breath. Snapping back into the moment, Nicodemus watched in horror as the journal bobbed aimlessly at the surface of the creek before giving way to gravity and sinking down into the shallow depths. Nico rushed over, spraying water all about the quiet shore as he quickly tracked down the book and plucked it from the waterbed. Grasping it between his teeth, the mulicorn shook out as much of the excess water from its papery innards as he could before returning to dry land. He set it down on the rocky bed that encapsulated the stream of water and attempted to pry its now sticky pages open.

”Nono no,” Nicodemus chewed nervously as he peeled away the cover and witnessed the damage. Ink and stains of color bled down the pages he saw, smearing into unrecognizable blots that dripped to the grass below. Page after page, ruined by his own gawky legs. He felt tears prick the corners of his wide eyes as the last of what he had, of what he knew of who he was, literally disappeared before his eyes.

”Nooo…,” Nico whined, slumping down to sit by the bank. He set the journal down, not bothering to close it as he did. He looked down into the water. His rippling reflection met his gaze, only now realizing how much of a mess he had become. Long mane clinging to his head, a blend of reds and browns staining his cheeks and muzzle from dried and rewetted blood and dirt… He and his journal, both pitifully wet and dirty, muddled in knowing what they even were anymore…

At least until the journal began to slowly draw the ink back onto its soaked pages. Nicodemus watched silently as the colors, words, and art returned to their original state over the course of several minutes. The pages, while still appearing damp, were soon legible once more. With a gentle and cautious hoof, Nico touched the page it was open to, sliding it along the words in quiet awe.

”You are… Quite an indomitable spirit, aren’t you?” Nico chuckled tiredly as he picked the book back up and held it close.

RE: Quest || Trial by Fire (Among other things) - Nicodemus - 10-07-2020

Nicodemus

icodemus had carried on since the creek incident, crossing the first run off and making his way back through more forest. He picked more herbs and worked to keep his wound tended to, making sure to let the journal absorb the herbs’ energy. Or what he assumed it to be. The day had been long already, and still he knew nothing other than some of the inner workings of the journal he had admittedly latched onto. Would this book and its powers help him learn of the truth behind who he was? He wasn’t sure, and the more he tried to think on it, the more his head pounded. As if attuned to his stuttered sigh, the journal writhed in his telekinetic hold, popping open and flipping rapidly through the pages before landing on the page that bore the dock leaves it had collected earlier.

Reactionary… Nicodemus plucked the leaves and popped them into his mouth to chew as he shut the journal again. He kept following the sound of another water source as he rendered the herbs to paste. He reached the second creek and approached it much slower this time. Feet dredged through the damp grass before Nicodemus plopped down to the ground tiredly. His head felt as if it were trying to combust. He was pushing himself too hard and he knew it. Yet despite it all, he wanted to remember, damn it! Nico’s hoof hit the water’s surface, sending an arc of water out from the force. Another pang of pain shot through him, and his journal shuffled through its insides to coax another dose to its owner. Nicodemus, however, felt too weak to even bother with it. While it hopped around, pages aflutter between his two front hooves, Nicodemus slowly slumped forward, world growing dark around him. His face landed in the water, the gentle bobbing of it lulling him back into unconsciousness. Under his neck, the open journal sat, pages tapping against his fur as he succumbed to the unrestful sleep that waited for him.

@~~Nicodemus~~ exits via black out oop