Describing the amount of life in the forest as mere vibrancy would not be doing it true justice. Every inch of space was covered in dense foilage, insects and animals scampering through the verdant leaves in every direction. The calls of birds and other creatures rang out from the branches above, a chorus of yelps and squeaks and caws that blended together in an oddly natural way, nature's symphonic orchestra at its finest. Solomon smiled slightly at that irrational thought and wiped the sweat from his brow, knowing the action was useless even as he dried his hand off on his baggy black pants. Despite its beauty, the Taurerosa Rainforest was not the most pleasant place in the realm. It was so muggy that every breath felt as if you were drowning, pulling water into your lungs instead of air. The forest floor was flooded, an inch of murky water successfully hiding the foot of mud that he had accidentaly stepped in earlier. His left leg was still coated with mud, which would take forever to dry due to the humid atmosphere. Yet the Quendi felt comfortable here. The rainforest reminded him of his homeland, the verdant (yet much cooler) Yomenïampa forest. He wiped his forehead off again, feeling a flash of irritance at the imperfect environment. This mission was difficult enough already without a rainforest to wade through.
Due to his earlier incident with the mud, Grundy was now perched on a solid branch nearly two meters off of the ground, his sodden leg hanging below him. The other leg was curled up to his chest, both arms wrapped around it. His chin rested lightly on the knee, green eyes scouring the undergrowth. He was here on a job for the Parmamar Library, which probably possessed the largest collection of books, tomes, scrolls, and other things of interest to scholars such as Solomon in all of Arda. A frequent visitor to those massive halls, on his last visit a pair of acolytes had accosted him and begged for him to meet with the Head Librarian over an important matter. He had readily agreed, and now he was here, a carefully written scroll in one pocket and a small bag of coins in the other. For hidden deep in the depths of this massive rainforest was a decrepit temple, one built to a pagan god long-forgotten. And according to the research done by the Parmamar Library, this was the true resting place of a grimoire long sought by scholars across Arda. Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm. The Picatrix. Solomon felt a shiver of excitement crawl up his spine, the same shiver that he had felt when the Librarian had reverently whispered the ancient name. It was a legendary work, believed lost forever to the ravages of time. But one of the Parmamar acolytes had discovered signs of the book's presence here, far from the spot that histories had last mentioned it. Other acolytes had been sent to retrieve the work, but all had failed. So Solomon had been asked to seek it out, a job he had done for the Library before, on occasion. He had been all too happy to agree... especially since the book in question held a special imporatnce for the elf.
Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm. Literally "The Goal of the Sage" in the common tongue. Within the cracked, yellowed pages one could find magic that had not been seen for centuries, magic that was not limited to cheap party tricks like fireballs and lightning storms. No, there was much more... When doing his own research before setting out, Solomon had found a few ancient scrolls that mentioned the Picatrix. Both had added another character to its description that he had not seen before, a symbol it had taken hours to decipher. Time. Solomon could not suppress the grin that spread across his elven features even now, weeks later. Somewhere in the grimoire he would be able to find more of the secrets of time. Perhaps even the key to controlling it... Grundy shook his head, forcing himself to not get too excited. The grimoire was still hidden here, in the undergrowth. He had pinpointed the temple's location earlier and was now waiting for the other members of his team around a half-mile from the entrance to the ruins. The book was too dangerous to seek alone. There were undoubtedly traps set to guard it, both physical and arcane. So Solomon had asked the Head Librarian to recruit three others that Solomon had selected. Two of them were mainly bodyguards. He frowned, trying to remember their names. Kiesu Shiinto and Khan Delnoch, both suggested to the elf in shadowy corners of dark bars. One had some skill with a blade and the other was a brute, an ogre. They were mainly here to keep him and the last member alive, although they didn't know it. Solomon knew of the last man only by his reputation, but that reputation was enough to impress the elf. Tobias Drate, a man whose collection of interesting and sometimes eclectic objects was well-known in the academic community. The elf had heard good and bad things about the noble, but there was no denying his extensive knowledge of Arda. Solomon had invited Tobias to join this escalpade partially to meet the noble and partially because his knowledge would be very helpful in finding the grimoire.
Solomon, lost in his own thoughts, waited for the others.
Khan scowled as he marched through the annoyingly vibrant forest, his crossbow loaded with his favoured barbed bolts and the Hammer of Souls slung from his belt. The air was sickly sweet and wherever Khan chanced to step either his boot would sink into the mud and he would be forced to drag it out or he would be bitten by some small wretchedly adorable rodent-like animal and be forced to crush its poor skull. There was always another one hiding in nearby shrubs however, and eventually he gave up, trying to catch a glimpse of the sun through the dense canopy of the forest.
He knew the meeting time was soon, but these trees looked the same to him, and after an hour of trudging through the same mud hole, Khan had taken enough.
Checking the map he had been given, Khan guessed roughly where he was and unslung the mighty hammer, loosening his shoulders with a few light exercises before setting his sights on the tree's directly ahead of him. Bellowing out a guttural Howl of rage and pent up anger he surged forwards, slamming his hammer hard against the thick shaft of the towering trees ahead of him. Again and again he swung his hammer against the old tree, and to no avail in moving it. However at least the noise would alert the waiting Scholar that he was close. While he sat and tried to get his bearings he thought back to the agreement that had got him into this
Khan had been approached in his favourite Tavern by a tall blonde haired male. While all the pale skinned races tended to look alike to Khan, he knew that this one was elven, if only by the pointed ears. He had told Khan very little of the mission, and it seemed obvious that he would have seen Khan beneath him in any social gatherings. He was probably right too, but then Brawlers are rarely liked. Khan hadn't thought anything of the location, nor the warnings of danger.
Now he was here in the forest however, it was a whole different story. Khan was out of his element. He had never liked trees, their hugely long lives a spit in the face of his short lived race. And now he was surrounded by the arrogant foliage. Rising to his feet and surging onward towards where he hoped the meeting place was Khan reslung his hammer and again took out his crossbow, attempting to at the very least look the part of a professional. After another while, and three more rages which he duly took out on trees, animals and the ground itself he finally managed to find the clearing the group had agreed to meet within. Staggering out of the tree line, crossbow loaded and swaying as he looked for danger, Khan announced his presence.
"Khan Delnoch, Ogre Fighter and bodyguard, ready for action. Now why in the hells are we in this forsaken, damp, stinking swampland your races call a forest?"
Kiesu growled softly and follwed it by a groan as he sloshed through the heavy waters, his hood wet from the rain which fell upon it, and his patience for the Taurerosa Rainforest. his stomach growled with hunger and his ears rang while they tried desperatley to tune out the sound of the water falling. Kiesu, for some reason, noticed his sword at his left side and his two daggers at his right. He usually went without noticing their existance unless in a battle but he could not understand why he was paying attnetion to them now.
Kiesu stumble as his boots got stuck in the mud and refused to move. Kiesu groaned as he tried desperatley to pull them out of the mud, only to fail and have his foot come out of the boot instead as he fell into the rest of the mud and water. He growled at this as he stood himself up and placed his foot back into his boot and pulled it out by using all of his strength.
He was on the verge of attacking the trees and everything around him until he noticed that Morphine was happily flying along with a large leaf covering her body. She was several meters in front of Kiesu who's mood was close to that of an ogre who was constantly being tricked.
He kicked at the water and splashed Morphine some. Morphine turned and looked at him with a pout as he chuckled a bit and continued on. "Hey, it didn't seem fair for just me to be soaking wet." Kiesu laughed as Morphine sat herself on his shoulder and dropped her leaf.
Kiesu had wondered why he was making his way through this watery hell as he continued on. He quickly remembered that he was meeting a Quendi scholar. why the scholar had picked the Taurerosa Rainforest was a mystery to Kiesu who growled as he made his way closer to the meeting point.
He stopped when he heard a roar and several thuds against a tree that was next to him. He stepped away from it, tripping in the water and standing himself up away from the tree as he watched it for a minute.
Kiesu pulled out a map that the scholar had given him and looked at the location of the meeting point. It was only a few dozen meters away and he let out a sigh of relief as he shrank the distance between his current location and the meeting point.
When he reached the meeting point he looked around and pulled out the map, confirming that this was the meeting point and looked up at the branches of the trees. He saw the scholar and chuckled as he shook his head in disbelief. "Hey!" He shouted before launching his body out of the water and into the branch next to the scholar. He sighed before he spoke. "Is anybody else meeting us here?" He asked with a wry smile as he awaited the scholar's answer.