It was a bright sunny day in the ever busy Port Adune. Sailors and workmen alike loading and unloading cargo, whether precious or mundane or even illegal, as shown by a shadowy deal between a sailor and a figure in an alley by the local tavern. Though they thought that they were dealing in private, they were picked out easily by Kaze's gaze. Seeing them as no particular threat, his sight moved on. Port officials scurried amongst the often over-powering figures of the workmen, trying frantically to impose taxes on the goods, and hopeful for a bribe to line their pockets. Some of the smarter (and smaller) officials had hired rather large bodyguards to "assist" them in their tax collection, though some of their methods did involve some scuffling here and there.

All of them, trapped in their own meaningless existance, Kaze thought to himself as he looked over the bow of the ship he had been working on. Finally, land...if I hear anything more about knots and braces I think I will kill someone.

"Hey Kaze!" A sailor shouted from the port, "Captain Kilin is paying everyone...come on!"

"Thanks Jax!" Kaze grinned widely, "Don't take my share like you did the last time!"

What Jax said in reply does not need to be repeated, the mildest description of the content would range between colorful and obscene. That case was further made clear by the outraged expressions passers-by. Kaze shook his head in amusement and bent over to grab his effects beside him, a mere collection of things that hardly made a weight to speak of in his backpack. Holding his katana in his left hand and backpack on the right, he leapt off the ship to the waiting docks below, subtly adding more strength to his legs as he did so. As he landed on the deck with no more than a thump, he stood up straight and took a deep breath of salt-water tinged air. It felt like he was leaving home and journeying to a new one, a bit of him wished that he would stay. He frowned as he joined the line of his crewmates in front of the captain, he had never felt like this ever, even in the village of his birth.

"Frownin' again, aren't we lad," Captain Kilin's words jerked him back to reality. "Thinkin' where to plant yer roots next, 'ey?"

"Something like that Captain," Kaze smiled, he looked back at the ship and his smiled turned to a wistful one.

Kilin saw and understood what was going on and chuckled, "Ah, lad, a few more days aboard an' ye would've given over yerself to the seas."

"I guess so," Kaze looked back at his captain. "But I have things to do on land, I'll be back when I'm finished."

Kilin shook his head in an amused manner, and handed him his gold, "'Til we meet again lad."

As Kaze recieved his pay and walked off with a wink from his captain, his crewmates started cheering, he turned around, still walking away from his foster home of a ship, and saluted in a goodbye. He turned around once and vanished into the crowd, that chapter in his journey-filled life was done.
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Kaze soon found himself in a very homely and clean tavern, eating a fairly good meal of beef stew, bread, and cheese, with some cider to wash it all down. He dug in his backpack and withdrew a piece of parchment with the name Solantis scribbled on it. Underneath it, there was some oddly recognizable writing in Sindarin.

I seriously need to learn Sindarin, he thought, very irritated at himself.

As he finished his tankard of cider, he called over a good-looking barmaid, and asked for another tankard. Mentally, he shrugged to himself and put away the note, then got back to the task at hand...working on the really good meal. After all, these things need to be done on a full stomach.

Amzela streched and walked in, hidden among the crowd. Finally. Some time alone. She quietly walked over to a table and sat down, her clothing clearly destinguishing her from the rest of the group. She wore her clothes for thieving, clearly forgeting to change. In an instant, she was up and running as the tavern's manager started to charge at her, yelling for her to get out of the warm place. She yelped as she dodged a dagger that barely missed her. She quickly ran behind a strange man. By the looks of him, he was a sailor. She slowed down her pace as she got a good look at him, forgetting about the man behind her. Soon, she found herself bounded and gagged.

Kaze was finishing off the last remanents of his meal, feeling somewhat fuller and more satisfied, when he caught a glimpse of a woman sprinting past him. Probably just another thief running from the guard, he thought as he shrugged it off. He picked up his half-full tankard as he fished for the note in his backpack, but a thrown dagger quickly ended that plan as it hit the tankard such a way that the bottom gave out and spilled the cider on the table. Kaze sighed, irritated at the interruption, and he knew that the woman had something to do with it.

He stood up calmy as he put down his tankard and picked up his katana from the table, he motioned over a very reluctant looking barmaid, "Please watch my bag, I have someone to talk to."

The barmaid nodded fearfully, Kaze smiled and patted her cheek. He then ran in the same direction as the woman did before. As he ran out of the back door, quickly brought up his sheathed katana in what was instinct and managed to ward off a blow from a staff to his head. In a counter-attack, he leapt over his attacker and quickly twirled around, striking the neck with the edge of his right hand. The attacker quickly dropped and now Kaze was able to see the situation he got himself into.

There were two male humans, one female elf, and a male orc; the one he had dispatched was a male elf as well, they all wore brown leather armor, except the last elf, who wore a black robe. Their armor all had the same symbol on them, a mask super-imposed on a sword. The woman was bound and was nearest the mage, Kaze smiled at her.

"Now look at what you got me into."

"Stop him you fools!" The mage shrieked and started chanting some spell.

His first priority was to take care of the mage, but he had to get to the woman first in case they tried to kill her. The shapeshifter smiled as he crouched down into a stance, his still sheathed katana held out in front of him.

"Let's go!" Unknown to him, as he ran forward, he shouted the words in perfect Sindarin.

Amzela reached down to her kit. She pulled out a small knife and started to saw at the bindings. As the battle unfolded in front of her, she noticed a new man. The man she stop to see who he was. The sailor man. She grunted as the bindings of her hands fell loose. Amzela shrugged up the knife, the blade cutting her once. The binding fell loose of that. Now my legs. She struggled to reach her bindings on her ankles, her knife slithering down her sleeve. The knife dropped out of reach and she winced. The orc, who was known as Mencesgruel, spotted the knife. "Uh oh..." Mencesgruel started to charge at her. Amzela quickly reached for her sword and swung, missing the orc by an inch. The orc raised his club and brought it down on Amzela, hitting her side. She winced and came down by the pain. "Snap out of it girl," she whispered. She crawled over to the sailor. "What is your name, sailor?"

"First of all," he grunted as he parried a blow from the orc's club. He quickly countered with a sword strike to the neck, his katana was still sheathed to make sure it was not fatal. "I'm not a sailor, I'm just a traveler."

The strike managed to hit the orc's neck, forcing him to collapse on his knees. Twirling around to give himself more striking power, he hit the orc's neck again, this time on the opposite side. Mencesgruel's eyes glazed over and he fell face first into the ground. Turning to face the thief, he suddenly flew forward as a staff hit his back. Spasming in pain he looked up at his attacker, the elven mage, his body suddenly straightened and he could not move.

"Do you understand me human?" She asked with a strange lilting accent.

"Can't any idiot?" He snarled back, still struggling against his bonds.

"Now that's real funny," without warning or an expression, she hit his stomach with full force. "I am Kalin, one of The Chosen. Do you know this girl? Answer me or I will be forced to take other...measures."

As if to accentuate her statement, her hand became wreathed in blue fire.

(OOC - The italics are Sindarin)

"Why is it so hard to find live seahorses by the sea?"

Vol was not in the best of moods today, apparently. Despite the lovely sunshine and the breeze freshening from the sea, her face remained in its typical stormy scowl.

She had earlier been prowling the fish markets looking for the little creatures, but had only walked away with a single, rather sad looking dried specimen, knobbly and small and entirely not what she was after. The merchants she had asked seemed either horrified or disgusted at the notion.

Uncultured plebs.

The rest of her shopping trip had been modestly successful; she had managed to find a vial of real cinnamon bark at a price that wasn't hideously extortionate and had obtained a small bag of dried wolfberries earlier in the day.

But the last few mercantile experiences left a metaphorically bad taste in her mouth.


In actuality what she tasted was apples, seeing as she was eating one at the moment.


Still irritated and now out of money, Voluna ambled along the edge of a street until a flash of something blue caught the corner of her eye. Curious, she peered down a smallish side street that led behind a decent looking tavern. What she saw looked like a falling out of three stooges over an elf; an orc was apparently unconscious on the ground, some chick was crawling around, a sailor had apparently suffered a fit of epileptic paralysis and elf seemed like she was about to set the sailor’s face on fire. Or at least, that's what it looked like to her sardonic mind.

Quality family entertainment!


She took a step or two into the street—not too close, but the others were some distance away still—and leaned against a wall to watch, still eating that apple.

"Sorry." She dodged the orcs blow and let the traveler do the work. She stopped short as the mage came upon him, the staff at his back. He fell rigged.

"Do you understand me human?" She asked with a strange lilting accent.

"Can't any idiot?" He snarled back, still struggling against his bonds.

"Now that's real funny," without warning or an expression, she hit him in the stomach with full force. "I am Kalin, one of The Chosen. Do you know this girl? Answer me or I will be forced to take other...measures."
"Great. That curse is still on me. When will I stop understanding Sindarin? The language drives me nuts." Amzela slithered between Kalin and the traveler.
"What do you want, Kalin. The last time, you were just as stupid. Don't tell me you want him again."

Kaze's eyes darted between Kalin and Amzela, as he wondered what they were talking about then it hit him.

"Wait a minute, I can't speak that silly language in the first place," as he said the words, reverting to common, Kalin was very shocked and thus her Hold Person spell was broken.

Feeling the sudden freedom, Kaze leapt up and rolled towards the mage, avoiding another deadly horizontal staff swing. As he got within arm's length of her, he vaulted up, feet first straight into her left shoulder. One short flight later Kalin looked up at Kaze and Amzela with pure hatred, she growled.

"Then what language am I speaking in now you fool?"

"That's easy, it's..." he stopped as a strange block within him crumbled.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Kaze's eyes widened in shock.

"Finally..." she looked at Amzela. "To answer your question...yes, tell Blackarrow that he cannot escape us for long."

She thrust out her right arm at Amzela, Kaze quickly leapt to interpose himself between the two women expecting the worse. A small appeared front of her palm and quickly flared into a blinding light, as it faded away, Kalin was gone, only the insignia of the Chosen and her staff were left behind.

Kaze turned around, rapidly blinking his eyes as he did so, then looked at Amzela.

"The name's Kaze," he introduced himself with a small smile. "Now, what do you say we go back in and you tell me your name and what just happened here?"

Picking up his weapon, he quickly scanned the alley for anymore threats...there were none. Incidently, the bodies of the other Chosen had also vanished. Kaze just sighed, and muttered, "I hate it when they do that."
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(OOC: Quotes are for him remembering stuff, and Amzela you can GM Kaze in your next post...only if you are going to talk with him)

Aw, is the party over?


Voluna was...disappointed. Oh, sure, there was probably something incredibly significant to what had just occured, but Vol was sadly out of the loop.

Finishing her current mouthful of apple, the healer shifted a little and called out to the two who remained in the alley, projecting her voice to be more easily heard.


"Forgive my nosy intrusion, but what the hell was that about?"


She frowned at the rather stripped apple core, and with a flick of her wrist tossed it aside, wiping her hands of the remaining moisture before stepping away from the wall. Vol advanced a few steps, trying to keep her face relatively neutral; having an "I eat babies" face wasn't exactly conclusive to getting a potential answer.

And Vol liked worming every possible grain of information out of something, even if it was completely irrelevant--but still interesting

Her brothers just said she was nosy.



Which was completely true.

ooc:Sorry for the wait.

Amzela breathed slowly. "It's a long story."
Kaze shooked his head "Tell me everything."
"Well, me and Blackarrow where an odd group. I was friends and kept his secret of being a vampier. Then there was Kalin, a young apprentice at the time. She met Blackarrow through school and instantly fell in love with him. Kalin and me use to be friends togeather. That was ten years ago. Did you get that all?" Kaze nodded.

"A year past and Blackarrow was fully aware that Kalin was flattered by him. It turned out that he loved me. I couldn't do anything about it because of Sargraysa and Markus. One day, Blackarrow and me were playing in the square when we wandered into a shop, which happened to be Kalin's teacher's. Kalin was in the back room studying when she walked out and saw him hand in hand with me. Kalin screamed and released a stream of raw magic. It knocked over vials and potions, which spilled all over Blackarrow. He transformed into a vampier and Kalin cursed him to never fall in love and always stand as a vampier. As for me, she cursed me to understand everything in Sindarin, wither I like it or not."

"As you can see back there, she is one of the most powerful mages. The shop went down in flames with the teacher and is no longer existing. Kalin lives in a cave, with her dragon and her handimen."

Amzela took a big breath and let the words sink in before she reached her conclusion. "Blackarrow's spiritaul body took over someone else in our little band of thieves. He converts back into a vampier, into his own body, ever other week."

"Forgive my nosy intrusion, but what the hell was that about?"

Amzela whipped around to face Sargraysa, or what she thought was Sargraysa. She backed away slowly, then turned around and ran.

(Out)