thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

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"Practicality has no place in heroism!" Owain exclaimed, aghast. "When's the last time a hero swooped in to save the fair damsel at the last second by being practical?! NEVER, that's when!" He threw up his arms. "If everyone was practical, evil would roam the lands unchecked!"

Oh, gods help him. Kaoru, just what kind of crazy backwards land is your 'space colony'? Where's your lust for glory?

Well, if Owain couldn't get through to him concerning weapons, maybe they'd have better luck with time travel. "Such is often the way with Outrealms," he said sagely. "Actually, though, I'm from the future. I was sent back in time by the divine dragon herself to save the world from the impending apocalypse. Why, what era do you hail from?"

"The twenty-second century. Probably hundreds of years after you." What the hell was even a divine dragon.

"Your background sounds like a fairy story. There are no such things as dragons." Well, unless you meant bearded dragons or sea dragons or something. "That explains why you're dressed so impractically."

THE SHADE. THE SHADE OF IT ALL.

"The twenty-second century of the Akaneian calendar? Nope, that still puts me ahead of you by..." Owain paused for a moment to mentally do the math. "...Five hundred years. Give or take." His eyebrows raised. "Wow, that's a long time. No wonder I don't know what you're talking about! Your quaint old weapons have evolved considerably since then, and certain ancient magics have been lost to the eroding winds of time."

He hadn't even considered that Kaoru might be from the distant past... it must be unnerving for him to be speaking with someone from modern times. Owain resolved to be more patient with him.

"I'll grant that there may be Outrealms that lack dragons, or even Manaketes. I've never heard of one... but stranger things have happened. Dragons are very real in my realm, though, and I can prove it!" He pushed up his sleeve, revealing the mark on his arm. "BEHOLD! The Brand of the Exalt, marking me as one who bears the blood of Naga, the divine dragon!" He grinned, standing straight and proud. "Impressed? 'Cause you should be!"

And there was absolutely nothing impractical about his clothes, but Owain managed to contain himself this time--he'd just told himself he was going to be patient, after all. He spun around once to give Kaoru a good look at his outfit, coat-tails flapping behind him. "No doubt my futuristic garb must appear strange and wondrous to your eyes," he said, "but it's designed for speed and ease of movement. I've fought many a battle in it, and I can attest to its practicality."

Kaoru facepalmed quietly, but didn't correct Owain, resolving instead to avoid him in the future as much as possible. Which... might have been kind of a callous decision, really, but there was no one here to call him out on it and anyway, if Owain was about to get eaten by a toad or meet some other horrific demise, he could still pitch in to help. Maybe...

Just... this conversation was getting weirder and weirder. He looked at the Brand as directed, but it wasn't really shaped like a dragon or anything, so what was he even looking at?

"...That's a nice tattoo," he said, unable to come up with something less noncommittal. God, what was up with the fur, though? "It just seems like someone would step on your costume."

"It's not a tattoo, it's a Brand," Owain corrected. "THE Brand. Of the Exalt." Man, being patient with someone who lacked even basic knowledge was hard work. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "It is no mere mark made by mortal hands! It surfaces naturally, when the time is ripe. My cousin's is in her eye."

He twisted to look over his shoulder at his coat-tails. "Come on, they're not that long," he insisted. "And I'm far too alert to allow such a thing to happen. Besides, they're cool! See how they flutter majestically in the breeze?" There was no breeze. They weren't fluttering at all. "They're like a cape! Just... lower down."

"A cape for your butt," Kaoru said in a complete deadpan. He was being helpful...

...But that's basically what Owain was wearing, right? A butt-cape?

"Are you using all that fur? Would you be willing to trade for it?" Kaoru hadn't seen many animals around, but what if it got cold? It'd be nice to have a fur-lined mantle.

"Yes--I mean no. No!" Owain gaped at Kaoru in disbelief. A cape for your butt... it was an insult! An outrage! "You would mock the defining attire of an entire order of valiant warriors?!"

Why had he wanted to try to be patient with Kaoru again? It was getting harder to remember by the second. "And yes, I'm using all this fur! There's... not even that much of it..." He paused briefly to mentally take stock of just how much fur trim he had, and deciding that is really wasn't that much, jumped straight back into his tirade. "...But this outfit is a vital part of my heroic persona! A legendary hero must look heroic at all times. That's item six of the Justice Cabal code."

Right, okay. Don't bring up the words 'butt cape' in front of Owain.

"There's more of you?" Well, assuming that the Justice Cabal had a membership of more than one, that was. What a frightening thought...

"If you're sure. But I could probably catch you a grasshopper or something in exchange." You'd like a grasshopper, wouldn't you, Owain? Think about how delicious and... crunchy... it would be.

Edited 2015-03-25 02:34 (UTC)

"HA!" It was not an actual laugh. Owain was just loudly saying 'ha'. He stood with his hands on his hips. "More of me? I am one of a kind, sir! Legends the likes of me don't just fall out of the sky, you know! ...Okay, except for that one time." He wasn't sure why a portal through time had to spit him out in mid-air when he'd entered it from the ground, but that seemed like a really huge design flaw. "And the Justice Cabal is a highly exclusive top-secret club. Membership is very limited. I've probably said too much already."

~~Now there's an understatement.~~

He looked momentarily confused by Kaoru's offer, but quickly shook his head. "The Scion of Heroes can catch his own grasshoppers! Sheesh, if you want some fur so badly, why don't you just, I don't know, sneak up on a sleeping squirrel and give it a haircut?"

Edited 2015-03-26 01:12 (UTC)

"You're the closest thing I've seen to a squirrel so far," Kaoru said, which was actually true because he hadn't seen any squirrels.

"None of them come close enough to the tree." He looked like he was seriously considering the idea, though. "It wouldn't be helpful to shave fur off. It'd be best to kill it quickly. Then we could skin it and eat the rest of it."

Wouldn't that be wonderful...

"Well yes, of course, that would work too," Owain said dismissively. "And just because we haven't seen any squirrels yet, doesn't mean we won't. We're in a tree. Squirrels love trees. So it's only a matter of time before one shows up!"

A pause... and then a smile slowly spread across Owain face, his indignation over Kaoru's earlier comments apparently forgotten. "Man, if the size of the bugs here is anything to go by... a squirrel would feed us for months! Ooh, and just think of the epic struggle it would take to fell such a mighty beast!"

"Not months," said Kaoru, especially if they were sharing the spoils. "But a good while. It would be best if we had a trap to hold it still. But we don't have the materials for that."

But squirrels were fast, and they probably bit. Kaoru had never been small enough for that to matter before.

"You could fight it. It would require quick reflexes." It seemed like a good idea to use someone like Owain for bait. He probably wouldn't even mind, as long as he could tell everyone afterwards about how he'd bested the foul mammalian menace. Loudly. And repeatedly.

Hmm.

To say that Owain wouldn't mind being used as squirrel bait was an enormous understatement. He'd be thrilled.

"Indeed, I am the epitome of quick reflexes!" he declared loudly. "A paragon of split-second timing! Not to mention formidable strength and rapier wit. No manner of beast great or small can long endure the awesome power of my twitching sword hand!"

He poised said sword hand in front of his face as dramatically as possible. It twitched.

"So if ever the time comes that you have need of my squirrel-smiting services, just call out my name! One quick swing of Mystletainn, and you'll have more fur than you know what to do with!"

Kaoru sort of wondered about that twitching, because if it wasn't an affectation, it was a good thing that Owain wasn't an archer. On the other hand, he would make good bait. Lots of waving shiny things around and yelling, A++ would hire again. "...It's a deal."

"So you've killed people with that sword?" With all that talk about smitings, he assumed that the answer was yes.

"I--huh?" Owain's smile was gone just like that. He blinked, caught off guard by the question, before glancing away with a frown. There were so many awesome tales of bravery and honour he could tell Kaoru about the war against the fell dragon... but how many people had died wasn't one of them.

It was one thing to slay creatures for food or because they were endangering lives. Even Risen--they may have been people once, but they weren't anymore. Just slaves to the will of Grima. But killing actual living people, people who probably had families of their own, and friends and loved ones and hopes and dreams... Owain hated it. He had done it more times than he could count, and would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant protecting his own loved ones, but there would be no dramatic declarations of how glorious it had been to stab his blade deep into an enemy's chest and watch the life fade from their eyes. Winning was glorious, and saving the world was glorious, but that particular detail... not so much.

"Well... yeah," he answered, uncharacteristically quiet, looking down at the sword at his hip and lightly resting his hand on its hilt. "A lot. There was a war."

Oh. Well. That was one thing that Kaoru could kind of understand. Not that he'd ever stabbed anyone in the chest or anything, but he had had a few experiences that... well. After an awkward moment's pause, he reached out and put a hand on Owain's shoulder.

"It's never easy to take a life." Or at the very least, it shouldn't be. Sorry 'bout it, Owain.

Owain looked up in surprise at the touch of a hand on his shoulder. Kaoru really didn't seem like he'd be the touchy-feely type... but no, that was definitely the other boy's hand. It was attached to his arm and everything.

"...You too, huh?" It sure sounded that way. Owain's hand left his sword and came up to grasp Kaoru's firmly... and then he grinned, all traces of melancholy vanishing as quickly as they'd appeared. Because they couldn't very well stand around being sad when a new adventure stretched out before them--at least, Owain sure didn't want to. And he'd rather Kaoru didn't, either.

"Well, everything worked out all right in the end," he said with a slight shrug. His smile widened. "I'll have to tell you all about the climactic battle against the fell dragon and his endless hordes of minions. Have you ever fought a dragon?"

It was not Kaoru's hand it was a ghost hand or something, definitely not attached to Kaoru. Owain better not tell anyone about this, goddammit.

"I only killed one person." But even one person kind of sucked, really. Wherever Owain had come from, it had to be pretty messed up.

...God, was Owain really talking about dragons now. Was that what was going down. Kaoru looked at Owain with dead eyes, only he didn't have such great range of expression, so it was pretty hard to tell if this was any different from his usual face.

"I can't say I have."

One person was still more than enough. The first one was the hardest, Owain thought, because you hadn't had a chance to build up any level of numbness to the sight of death and the knowledge that you'd caused it. Not that it ever got easy... but this was probably a horrible line of thought altogether and for once, Owain didn't push for details, simply nodding in understanding.

He reached out to sling his arm across Kaoru's shoulders again. Because they were totally friends now. And clearly it was going to fall to Owain to educate his new friend concerning dragons and all manner of other heroic subjects.

"Well, to start with, there are many kinds of dragons. This is no mere Manakete I'm referring to, though, but the one-and-only fell dragon Grima, evil god of darkness and despair! See, he's the counterpart to Naga. Whose Brand I bear, remember?" He tapped his arm where the Brand was. "Anyway. The saga is long and convoluted and best told in installments, but the point is that if I can take on an evil dragon god, a squirrel doesn't stand a chance!"

No. They were not friends. They were never, ever friends. Stop touching him, nerd.

Kaoru voiced his displeasure by looking at Owain in mild disapproval but not actually telling him to let go for some reason. Was he going to have to keep track of all of this exposition? He sure hoped not, because it barely made sense to him and to be honest he hadn't really been listening.

"How did you take on an evil dragon god with one sword? Did you crush it under a rock?"

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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