What a stupid thing to do, follow a dare, Rue thought, it wasn't even from anyone that mattered, just some kid passing by.
"Hey kid, 'dare you to go in the Graveyard."
And of course Rue was all stupid and like, "Oh yeah? What do I get?"
And the boy about his age in peaseant clothing said, "Ummmm, this apple."
And it was a shiny apple.
Boy, that was stupid.
So the boy had jogged with him in the cobbled streets of the Sanctuary to the Grave yard in the, usually avoided, corner of the city, with the bleach white walls in sight and not blocked by buildings. The iron gate towered above the both by at least five feet as they stood in front of it, with spines and skulls and wings carved and casted into it. The gate was not locked, only held shut by a plank ofwood across it. The peaseant boy took three steps forward and removed the bar for Rue. The sky grew dark with a cloud, and Rue grew fearful. But he walked forward anyway and pushed open the creaky, creepy, black old gate. He realized, just after he took his first steps onto the mossy cobbled path lined with graves, that the gate had been barred from the outside, as if to keep things in. Rue shivvered and wrapped his arms around himself.
The annoying boy behind him yelled, "Go tag the fence on the other side or it doesn't count!"
Rue had forgotten about the apple, this was now just something he had to do. As he walked on the old stones, he looked around. Dome shapes, tall angel statues, tower shapes, and squared off tombstoned creepily jutted at random from the ground. The crowded city behind him was forgotten, and its noises were very muted. This starteled Rue and he turned around quickly. Just in time to see the malicious boy close and bar the gate behind him. Rue threw a curse at him and kept walking slowly.
The path extended to the center and then it split two ways in front of the largest tombstone in the bunch: an angel statue with it's feathered wings spread wide and it's neutral, moss-covered face held high. Rue took the left path that curved around the statue and continue to the back. As he walked he became conscious again that the noise of the city was completely gone. He looked back over his shoulder: a mist he did not remember forming blocked view of the city. Rue felt very alone and scared as he peered deep into the mist.
"AHH!!!!" he blurted as something wrapped it's arms around him from behind. He wriggled in it's grip and it resisted. He could see the skinny, pale, bruised arms. He screamed as he noticed that most of the skin on it's fingers was peeled off completely, and flesh was eaten to the point that little fingertips of bone showed through. The arms had blister and sores, but none of this bled. He looked over his shoulder into the eyes of death, dry and emotionless, deeply set in a face of flesh and skin pulled taught over a hard skull. Rue screamed his heart out for help.

((OOC: Yep, Arda could do with a spooky old graveyard somewhere. *racks brain for muse* Come out, come out, wherever you are! XDXD
Haha, this topic is going to be fun.
:brr: <---Tamolux freezing to death.))

Tamolux shuddered in the afternoon wind--a cold and merciless howl that tore through the air, his blond hair, and his teal robes. Gritting his teeth and cursing under his breath, he wrapped his arms around himself to obtain what little body heat he had. Indeed, this 16-year-old mage looked like an ironic joke: spotless teal robes of rich material in contrast with his over-tousled blond hair, a pale and dignified complexion, yet with teeth slightly chattering in the cold. It was almost the same as seeing a king dressed like a court jester, but don't get this wrong; Tamolux Quintero had quite a brain inside that blond head.

Even though it was almost time for dinner, and Tamolux had just exited the walls of the holy city, he wasn't worried about anything, whether it was food or lodgings. He had spent a reasonable amount of time inside the Sanctuary of the Angels carrying out usual businesses, and a breath of air and a short walk was what he had intended. But it turned out that the weather wasn't in preparation for him. Who knew that this cursed weather would bring him such wretched misery? A scornful expression was drawn upon his usually-polite face. His pale blue eyes narrowed against the face of the whistling wind and turned back towards the walls of the Sanctuary, preparing to teleport back.

A gate creaked somewhere nearby, and the young teenager stopped within his tracks. His eyes swept over to his left, and there it was--a haunted-looking graveyard with cracking tombstones centuries too old. Peering closely, he spotted two boys nearby. One was holding the most delicious-looking red apple, while the other one was entering the graveyard with a somewhat paled face. Something clicked in his mind. So, this was a dare, wasn’t it? His lips pulled back into a sly smile.

Concentrating on his magic, Tamolux pictured the most horrible and terrifying image in his mind. Instantly, an illusion of a corpse appeared behind the boy inside the graveyard--rotten flesh barely clinging to stock white bones, reaching for the boy’s neck as if to strangle him for trespassing. "AHH!!!!" The cry wrung in his ears, and Tamolux almost grinned. A gasp was heard from the apple-holding boy, and he sped off from the graveyard, dropping the precious apple on the ground. Quickly, the mage picked up the fruit and inspected it. Despite the small indent on where it had fell on the ground, the apple still looked as delicious as ever.

Turning back to the boy whose scream had nearly knocked him deaf penetrated his eardrums, an amused expression appeared, and he stepped inside the gate. While he did this, the illusion of the corpse had disappeared. “My, my. Someone’s having a fright, aren’t they?” he said in his oh-so-annoyingly ‘I know everything’ tone However, it was rather hard saying this between chattering teeth, despite his efforts to conceal how cold he was. Taking the apple from his pocket, he held it up so it was in view, as if taunting the boy.

((OOC: I feel bad I didn't type as much, but I really cant think of anything else to type about.))

Rue was aswhamed, infuriated, startled, relieved, embarassed, and confused in the same moment. He felt numb. He stood dumbfounded and dizzy for a small second, sorting out feelings and events in his head:
(The snob has my apple. Where did the snob come from? Did the snob just make the zombie go away? Did the snob imply he made the dead thing come? What happened to the dead thing? I want that apple. Why was the snob grinning so big? Why do I hate it so much? Did the snob just imply he knew everything? I should get that apple. I hate you Snob.)
The last thought was very primal, and not worded in his mind.
Rue had instinctively worked it out that all this confusion and fear was the snob's fault, and he definitly didn't think about it long enough. Rue's face felt numb, and was red. All the details of the graveyard and his other surroundings were blurred out with adrenaline. He slid his feet apart for a strong stance. His muscles clenched once before he let monkey-instinct take over, and took a wide, hard punch at Snob's (I mean Tamolux's) jaw, imagining his fist connect and throw Snob's head aside. The real fist was trailing right behind the imaginary one.
The much smarter, slower to manifest part of Rue loved the adrenaline rush this whole event was bringing him. He loved the way it made him feel like he was dreaming, and nothing he did would have consequences later. And the way it somehow made him faster and stronger. It allowed him to become simpleminded enough to focus his mind and body solely on one object or person, like nothing else mattered at all.

((OOC: It’s okay. =) That’s one interesting post…
LOL. Tamo’s a real snob alright!))

The sun had almost gone down completely now, and the rays lit the skies with splendid bursts of radiant colors. However, Tamolux took no notice of the glorious scenery as he was shaken slightly by the cold, but the low temperature hadn’t seemed to bother him as much since his illusion amusement. Exploring the wonders of his magical extent had always been rather intriguing. And this adrenaline seemed to ebb away the chilling feel of the wind. Getting into mischief was one of the thrills in life, wasn’t it? Life had its offers, and Tamolux was going to gain from whatever offers there were.

But never take the offers that had the proclivity to turn around and give you the misery of you life. No, those were the types of offers that you don’t take, yet Tamolux seemed to have made the mistake of taking one.

The younger boy seethed as he realized where his prize had disappeared to, and found out where the source of his fright came from as well. A whole flood of feelings seemed to come from this realization, and a mixture of embarrassment, relief, and confusion suffused from his facial expressions. Tamolux spotted all this, but wasn’t close to seeing what happened next…

Before he knew it, a strong fist connected with his jaw, and the impact sent him reeling backwards. The mage stumbled a few steps, holding a hand to the left side of his cheek as he dropped the apple, completely awe-struck. No one had ever dared to strike Tamolux Quintero in such a fashion, and his aquamarine eyes widened in shock at the feeling of his throbbing jawbone. The worst beating that he had received in the past was from an elf by the name of Ahni, and that was merely a slap to the face, but it had been enough stun him into silence. And incongruously, the slap was for almost the same reason as the punch he had just received. Doesn’t he ever learn?

Healing magic flowed to his jaw instinctively, but the small spell was barely enough to heal the injury. This punch had erased whatever dignity he had that day, and that was quite a large amount, so to speak, and he gritted his teeth in frustration in realization of what had happened. But no matter what, he couldn’t quite convince himself that this wasn’t his own fault. His eyes narrowed at the boy, and his anger flared, but Tamolux managed to suppress the fire, telling himself that this little boy wasn’t worth the waste of effort. Soon enough, his expression was as polite and composed as before. “Pardon me,” he said, straightening and dusting off his teal robes with a small sniff. “It must be the dreadful weather,” he commented, and folded his arms neatly behind his back. “What’s your name, boy?” he asked in his most prominent voice (though he was only 16 and two years older than the boy), trying to erase his hurt dignity as best as possible.

"Roland Light," Rue announced loudly, "and don't forget it, Pigface." Rue had licked the Snob, and it felt good. The boy hadn't seen it coming at all.
Rue stomped over to the apple on the ground, and scooped it off the stones. There was a wet splatter where it had landed. He wiped it all around with his shirt and inspected its surface. Sadly, it was bruised and had no more gloss. Oh, well.
Rue took a bite out of his apple, mealy and sweet, and noticed as he calmed down (visibly, as his shoulders unclenched) that the mist and deafening of the city was still present. The mist only allowed his eyes a few things to focus on to. All other things phased in and out, and when Rue looked straight into the mist he felt like he was crosseyed.
He turned back towards numb-headed Snob, who, along with the center angel statue, was the only solid object, and asked irritatedly: "What was that for anyway?"

((OOC: *museless* XD
Sorry for the delay. >< Now I'm finally at my cousin's house and there's enough computers to go around! :xmasgrin: ))

Tamolux fingered the bruise where the pesky little boy had struck him rather suddenly. At the small touch, his jaw throbbed slightly, and Tamolux almost groaned in frustration as he rolled his eyes skyward. What did this little twerp think he was doing, ruining his good looks like this? Without proper healing, this injury would probably be a scar to his perfection for the next few days. True, true; this was all too unbelievable to bear. His eyes narrowed at the trouble-making boy, wholly wishing that this brat did not exist in this world, or any other world.

"Roland Light," the brat announced with a great amount of defiance, "and don't forget it, Pigface." Letting his pale fingers drop from the bruise on his jaw, let them fall to their usual posture folded behind his back. /Pigface./ That word made him flinch visibly. Tamolux had never found insults to his looks easy, though they did not come often, luckily enough. Hearing this Roland boy calling him that, the mage felt a surge of pride brimming to the surface. "It's Mister Tamolux Quintero to you, boy, so have the manners," he said firmly, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly at Roland.

His stomach growled loudly as the youngster bit into the tasty apple.

Even though it didn't have much of its former shine, the red fruit looked as red as ever, and the sight of the apple was enough to render him speechless with starvation as the bite Roland took vexed him. With a sniff, he shoved the thoughts of food out of his mind, and glanced at the angel statue nearby instead to keep the sight of the apple out of his field of vision. If it fell on the floor, I wouldn't want to eat it anyways, he thought haughtily. In an hour or so, he'd probably be drinking a steaming cup of herbal tea.

"What was that for anyways?" came an irritated voice, and Tamolux's eyes snapped right back to the little twerp, though he took care not to look at the delicious apple in his hands. "I have my reasons," Tamolux fired back, glancing around at their surroundings in the graveyard. "The situation you were in almost begged for trouble," he continued, feeling a small grin tugging the corner of his mouth. It seemed that this boy was one for seeking thrills, and Tamolux sure gave him one that spooked the living daylights out of him. Pity that he didn't get the apple in the end, and Tamolux almost snorted at the thought of that apple.

Since they were some distance outside the holy city, things around here probably weren't as holy. In fact, the angel here couldn't compare with the marble ones, and by the dark features and moldy colors, this could very well have been an angel of death. In fact, it was. Outside the world of the Sanctuary, things were quite the opposite. Tamolux wouldn't be surprised if something resembling the illusion he had created earlier haunted this place. The thought made the teenager peer over the statue curiously.