User:Xu Davella/Characters

Intro: The Crystal and The Seed

"If we follow the tracks where the hyena was running, we should be able to find Oomoo." Flaux lifts a sturdy finger to point towards a lightly populated forest, though, in the middle of a cloudy night, it seems much more dense than it is.

The sylvari shakes his head, feeling slightly agitated at the mesmer's lack of foresight, "I don't think that's our best option. If you look at the tracks closely, you can tell that the hyena was running away from something bigger. Here, look." Mana kneels closer to the ground, brushing some long grass aside and revealing a set of cone-shaped hooves, "A minotaur was out hunting earlier on - must have seen the hyena and gave chase. If we take the path through Wynchona Woods, we'd be too far out in the open."

Flaux dismisses the warrior's notion and puts a hand to his forehead, sharing the irritation that Mana is generating, "Well, whatever. We need to find Oomoo and I need my war fans. I can't do my job well without them."

A tremor shakes the ground. Mana stands quickly and draws his rifle, knocking it on his shoulder and facing the rubble pathway "We've been fighting together for months now, and I still don't know what you do. Can't see how a pair of air coolers are going to help you improve whatever talent it is you think you have."

The stocky leaf-thing turns and smiles at the human - Flaux returns the smile unwillingly, and pulls a sword onto his right hand. Another tremor thumps the earth. Flaux reacts and takes a position in front of the rifleman, "Whatever it was that just went in there, it looks like it wants to come out..." His left hand starts becoming transparent as the mesmer readies himself, "And it's most definitely not a minotaur, the hyena would have been caught by now."

Mana looks back, crouches into a Berserker Stance, and gazes into the dead-root forest, "Well, what is it?" Suddenly, before Flaux could answer, a massive beast shadow steps in front of Flaux and swifty raises its right beastly hand to strike him.

Flaux retaliates by putting his left hand up to his face to protect himself. Immediately, a purple wave radiates in the thin space separating Flaux from his new opponent, causing the dark hairy beast to strike an imaginary wall. Simultaneously, Mana fires a Power Shot into the wave, causing the bullet to strike it and repel the monster backwards.

This sends the creature wailing back further than it normally would, but not enough to stop it from shaking itself off and start charging towards the two again. Just as quickly as Mana had fired his first shot, he loads and shoots another, aiming for the monster's legs. The monster roars in pain as the bullet smashes one of its knees, causing it to hunch forward, but the thing still charges towards them, drooling saliva from its enormously sharp teeth as it does so. Flaux makes use of the crippling opportunity and rushes in with his sword, ducking and striking into the monster's leg wound, forcing a knockdown. He slides to the ground as the monster crashes and without hesitation, the mesmer stabs the sword between the creature's black and hungry eyes. The creature wails eerily in reaction before it stops dead, its mouth gaped wide open.

Mana lowers his rifle and flips it onto his back. He strides towards the lying human and offers a hand to help him up. Feeling somewhat exhausted, Flaux reaches for the gesture to help lift himself up, "Thanks" he says.

Mana pats Flaux on the back and looks over at their trophy. He notices that the monster is quite well groomed, with no traces of blood on its claws or fangs. "Flaux, I told you it was a minotaur, you need to be more careful next time."

"Well to be specific it was a 'shadow' minotaur, and what a shadow minotaur is doing in this part of the land is something worth finding out, for certain." Flaux crouches and rips his sword out of the minotaur's skull. The beast soon dissolves into some sooty-ash remains.

"You're right. And those kinds of minotaurs don't hunt for the same food as we do..." still looking at the ash remains, Mana /ponders the situation.

Flaux, who has already lost interest in the conversation, had covered a fair distance ahead of Mana already. He calls out behind him, "get out of that silly dream-thing you keep doing! We've got work to do!"

The irritation seeps back into Mana's head as he sighs and picks up his pace.

Names and Payment

It's high heat in a cloud scattered day. Flaux and Mana have been trying to track Oomoo for the past week, and have found a few more pieces of her journal left behind in some very excluded places. The two had just left krytan lands, and are now venturing onto the shores of the Tarnished Coast, resting only for a few hours at a time, mostly in the day. Neither of them really know where they are going, and it's the first little break from a long string of arguments the two have had since the journey first started. They are heading towards the coast itself, and are tramping through swampy grounds; these moist tropical plantations that weave throughout the scene is spectacular, but they have little time to admire it completely. It has been quite uniform for the past few hours - Mana starts feeling the effects of boredom, so he decides to wind up yet another chain of arguments with his companion, just to break the zero-tension that basks around them.

"So..."

"...What?"

"What is your name?"

"*Sigh*...Do we have to do this?"

"Well let's see, we've been travelling for about an hour...without word, whisper or worry...and the last conversation we had was about payment for my services..."

"Bah! What on earth does a sylvari know about being a mercenary, anyway?"

"Well actually, my namesake was Mana Es Suva'i. He was a mercenary thief...much like yourself, actually."

(A branch can be heard snapping in the distance.)

"I'm a mesmer!"

"(Of course you are...)"

"Look! Just because you know a lot about thieves, and nothing about me, doesn't mean that you can claim that I am not what I know I am!"

"You have a point there. But you did miss one bit of detail?"

"With you, sir, there are a lot of details to be missed."

Mana ignores the sloppy insult, "Asking for your name, was my attempt to try and find out something about you. Since you brushed me off, I naturally assume that you don't really know who you think you are."

(Murmurs, followed by ambient creaks and groans that wash against the fray.)

Flaux grunts at the unexpected comeback, "My name is Flaux Terrahaven, I'm a domination mesmer." He pauses, "Mana Es Suva'i. You have a good name."

"Thank you, sir Flaux Terrahaven. So, you're a frontliner? That explains the hand-palm thingamajig."

"What of it?"

"I noticed that my gunshot worked really well with it. Does that work for most effects?"

"Of course! For instance - if you smack your head into it, it will cause a "pain" effect, like this." As quickly as the mesmer said it, he reaches around and slaps Mana on the back of the head.

Mana's head knocks forward from the slap, muddling his senses momentarily. He shakes his head a little to recover and notices that Flaux is laughing. Feeling somewhat insulted, Mana starts trudging ahead of the human, "Tch, forget that I asked, mesmer."

Already feeling the sting of guilt, Flaux matches his pace to try and catch up with him, "My friend, I'm sorry! It was a joke!"

(A heavily deep creaking sound makes a mark, followed by a crash of falling trees and the fleet of a hundred branches scratching the earth.)

Both companions turn to the noise, and almost right before them, a massive structure of moving trees and limbs stirs. The sylvari panics and is the first to make a break in retreat. He yells behind him while running, "Oakheart!!"

Flauxs eyes widen at the sylvari's action as he yells in return, "You idiot!!" But it was too late. The oakheart hears the scream as it turns its head towards the two. In a heartbeat, the oakheart digs its vines into the ground, and catches the fleeing sylvari in a knot of tangled vines.

The mesmer revealed

The tangling vines feel more like coarse roots as they weave their way around Mana's skin; tearing and ripping the sylvari flesh into agony. Screaming in pain, Mana tries to reach for his rifle, but with the way that the vines wrap around him makes it nearly impossible - all he can do is wait until the Oakheart maneuvers over to where he is entangled and await that crunching, crushing blow to the head, then it would all be over.

Thinking nothing of the matter, Flaux takes a step back and assumes a long stance. His muscles relax, his breathing becomes smooth and fluid and his eyes droop slowly. The mesmer draws his sword with his right hand, and pulls out an ornamental mirror with his left, holding each weapon at his side. As though on cue, Flaux begins to chant a Mantra of Tranquillity with a tone as soft as the breeze that basks under the sun, but reverberates like the echo in an old stone well. Not long after, a faint indistinguishable veil droops over the head of the mesmer as he repeats the chant over and over again.

The chanting continues as the veil takes form and changes into a plume of smoke that drifts its way to the sylvari and more importantly, to the ancient oakheart that is trudging its way to fulfil its need to doom the unlucky warrior. Mana passes out from the pain, and a few twig snaps are heard coming from him as the tough bark breaks some of the sylvari’s limbs. The smoke, encouraged by the mesmer’s mantra, continues to dance along the field – unconcerned and uncaring.

One strong breath from the oakheart, and one shallow breath from the fallen warrior was all it took before everything turned still. More breathing, and the sylvari’s eyes become less heavy as an exhausted moan is breathed out. The oakheart breathes more slowly as it relaxes and comes to a slow stop as it starts to feel the comforting sensations of rest. Mana can already feel the vines loosen, and once they sink back into the earth, he crumbles in relief like a worn doll. Sleep. That's the only thing that the oakheart and the recovering sylvari care about now.

A soul in the fire

Night casts its fiendish chill as the moon's sickle shivers in the air. The Shiverpeak Mountains remain nothing more than a forgotten horizon as it's remnant of swift cold cradles the night's own. The twining and twisting stretch of canopy and shrub threaten from a distance not so far. There, in a moment of frozen winter rye rests a clearing of cushioned brown earth, and a campfire basking gently at its center, acting as a shielding guardian against the snap and bite of the cool winds.

A spark, followed by a hand with a broken branch of log being tossed in to it, feeds the fire's hunger to burn ever so warmly. Tired and sad green eyes stare into the flame's enchanting dances as it begs it's master to feed it more. Medium, shaggy black hair glistens blankly from the fires embers, and a clean lined jaw clenches with pursed lips, as his caucasian skin tans from the heat of the flame.

On the other side, lay a resting fay-like creature, bundled with its arms folded and knees up to the chest, it's faint green skin armored by its own growth accentuates muscularly toned features around the body. The head rests on a small backpack as its leafy hair drops raggedly across his face. The flames flicker and flaunt its soothing heat across the young creature - and not a moment later, failing eyes begin to awaken slowly. The sylvari stirs for a moment, soon wincing at the sudden brightness radiating from the fire.

Mana's voice is croaky as he murmurs some words, Flaux immediately interjects, "Rest, friend. We have to be up again before daybreak."

Hearing the human speak sends a wave of relief through the sylvari's insides. But a sudden pain reflux causes him to crutch his body tighter, "Ugh...what happened?" he manages to say.

Flaux looks over to his companion with a small sense of sympathy toward him, "We were attacked by an oakheart. It was quick. I didn't think you were going to make it out alive. I thought you...you were going to die." His voice chokes slightly at having to relive the event.

Hearing this, Mana tries to sit himself up to try to remember the situation. Although the memory remains vague, the pain from the fight soon has him back lying on the ground again, "I remember the branches. They were crushing the life out of me. I was going to die..." He rests his head back and looks to the sky - patches of clouds masking the stars, much like it has been ever since they had been travelling. His eyes move over to where Flaux sits as he speaks again, "...I don't remember how I survived, but I know that I have only you to thank." Mana's breathing becomes shallow as he looks back up and rests his eyes, "Thank you. Really. Thank you."

An involuntary hint of a smile creeps to one corner of Flaux's lips as he lowers his head in response. He reaches behind him and snaps off another branch from the newly collected pile, and tosses the fire some more food. Smoke emanates in response, slowly drifting high into the sky, adding to the clouds among the night and stars.

Good Morning

"Good morning!"

"Ahai."

"What?"

"...Nevermind. You ready to head off?" Flaux has packed the last of his belongings, and goes to make sure that the dead fire is properly killed by stomping the last of the embers.

"Yeah definitely. I have something for you, actually." Mana stands up slowly, and picks up a peculiar length of branch, handing it over to the human, "A trophy from your recent conquest!" The sylvari beams a smile as he holds the item in front of him.

Flaux bows his head and takes the staff to examine it, "You tore a staff out of the creature? Hmm...definitely a good design." He then grasps it firmly with his right hand and stabs the base of it into the ground. A gentle hum pulses in the earth as he does so, "Yes. Very useful. Thank you."

Mana laughs heartily, "Ahh so you do have a good side? That's good to know!"