legendofdragoon | Through the Bog

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Through the Bog

Stopping in Hoax had been a practice in patience and Albert was glad they were on a mission otherwise he might not have been able to extricate himself from Hoax for days. He would have to remember to go back at some point though because the commander of the fort had brought up some legitimate concerns. But that was for another time. Now they had fresh supplies that Albert had not been able to acquire in Bale without raising suspicion and objection from Minister Noishe on his leaving on yet another questionable journey, and they were on their way.

Only the bog now stood between them and Lohan, the gateway to Tiberoa. Albert had heard a few unsettling things about the bog while in Hoax, and knowing Lloyd the Wingly had heard them too, perhaps even investigated further than Albert had been able to. The most alarming of these rumors was that there was something living in the bog, something that had moved in rather recently, and made getting through the bog somewhat difficult.

"Perhaps we should have gone through the prairie," Albert mused aloud. "We would have gone a few miles out of our way but we might have been able to recruit Dart in Seles."

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Were Lloyd more prone to displaying his emotions, he would have been smirking all over while Albert dealt with his fan club. A King's job was never done, it seemed, and it was incredibly annoying. He did help where he could, by occasionally pointing out where it could be overheard that they really needed to get back on the road.

He's got your back Albert, sort of. While secretly being highly amused. At least they had their supplies, and another brief rest before continuing on. The bog, however, would prove to be a problem. Lloyd had indeed heard, and investigated. The bog was poisoned again, but this was not the same as the dragon's poison. Still, the smell already offended his keen Wingly nose, and surely Albert could see his discomfort with the situation.

"I had not taken into account how difficult travel on foot truly was," Flying had its boons. "We have come too far to turn back. We will simply have to deal with whatever lies ahead of us."

"Too true," Albert replied and began forward. "A word of caution, if you did not hear it in the fort, keep to the path and do not follow the lights, whatever you do. There are faeries that live in this bog and, I have read, bogs the world over. They lead travelers astray with their lights."

"More than mere myths, then?" He tended to assume such stories were simply human superstition. Same as the 'fairies' that sometimes inhabited otherwise unoccupied woods. Those tended to be winglies, more often than not. Or other semi-magical races. Well, if Albert took it seriously, he'd be slightly more careful.

Surely a bunch of lights wouldn't cause them any problems though, right? His hubris might end up a problem in the near future.

The magic of the forest might not be readily apparent to a Human, but to a Wingly? A few scant steps into the heavily forested bog and the magic therein was thick and cloying. There was something in this forest, not just alleged bog monsters, but something else. Something wicked that took pleasure in seeing the misfortune of others, and there wasn’t just one. The bog was full of them, whatever they were. Albert called them Faeries so perhaps it was not simply superstition. The Divine Tree had heralded one hundred eight races, who was to say Faeries were not among them?

Then something happened, something decidedly purposeful and malevolent. The magics that hummed in the air grew still, as if sensing another presence among them, and then exploded into a chattering of power all around Lloyd. Albert would see nothing out of the ordinary, he was too human, even with his Dragoon Spirit, he couldn’t sense them by any means other than sight or sound. But the Wingly! It coalesced in places around him, but never stood still long enough. It dispersed almost immediately to coalesce in a different spot nearby, and it did this rapidly. But that wasn’t the only thing happening. There was still the chattering of power pressing itself around him. It was like a hundred voices talking all at once and directly to him, but it was so much more than that because there were no words, no meaning in the way words have meaning, there was emotion and fire and water, and earth, and wind, and light, and dark all at once all concentrated all forced at the Wingly all just to see what he would do.

That something was dreadfully wrong was apparent to Lloyd as soon as he stepped foot in the forest, unfortunately it was already too late. He faltered in his step, grunting softly as though a great weight had suddenly descended on him. "Ngh!"

Oh, this wasn't good. The magic was overpowering, he felt as though he were being assaulted on all sides, every sense overloaded from the attack. He tried to focus on the source, but the coalescing magic that flitted around prevented him from being able to. Lloyd was effectively rendered blind and def, his head pounding from the noise. He fell to one knee, shaking with the effort it took to not black out.

Well, this was fantastic. Remind him to avoid bogs in the future.

"Lloyd?" Albert sounded merely curious at first as Lloyd seemed to lag behind him. "Lloyd!" The king whipped around, his cloak flaring out around him as he hurried back to the Wingly's side. "What is it?" He was down on one knee by the man before any answer or protest could occur. Albert looked to the trees but saw nothing that could have rendered the Wingly to this state.

He would love to answer you Albert, but he's having a hell of a time understanding words at the moment. With a growl of rage Lloyd launched a fireball aimlessly towards the trees, more frustration than anything else. He knew wasting his energy wasn't worth it, but damned if he was going down without a fight.

"Magic." Was all he managed to get out, assuming Albert was asking him what his issue was right now. A safe bet.

Albert ducked instinctively as the fireblast shot out. The trees caught but the fire seemed to fizzle to a harmless flickering smolder. Albert blinked at the trees. That was unusual.

"Magic?" He knew Lloyd wasn't referring to the fireball. Lloyd had tried to attack something. Something in the trees, in the forest. No! In the bog specifically. Something that wasn't letting the trees burn. Faeries!? "Is it the Faeries? Are they doing this? Why am I asking you? You can barely breath."

Albert pulled one of Lloyd's arms around his shoulders and forcibly stood them both up, "We're getting out of here."

Whatever it was was obviously protecting the bog as well, irritating. At Albert's questions he just stared at him in flat annoyance, fortunately he could barely hear him or he'd have said the same thing. Too much headpain, he'll gripe later.

Lloyd just grunted, unable argue, and unwilling. This was not a place he could feasibly get through. Honestly he was lucky he was still conscious. Yes to the dragging, let's get out of this mess king.

No, no! No, no! Don't leave! You're fun! The Faeries chitter chatter at Lloyd. They positively giggle at the retreating backs of the Wingly and his Human.

It would become painfully apparent that the Faeries of the bog are not necessarily restricted to said bog. They continue to bombard Lloyd with their power, following him out of the bog to do so, and it's not just sight and emotion they bombard him with now. The power begins touching gentle brushes of pure, searing magical energy press against his retreating back.

Poor Albert, he's probably never seen a Wingly completely lose his mind, but all that chattering and bombarding with magic was far too much for Lloyd. Especially once it became clear that it would continue to follow him even out of the bog.

Suddenly he pulled himself away from Albert, roaring in rage as he began to unleash all of his most powerful spells at the bog. Just... completely unrestrained. Those skills he'd reserved for their last fight, where Dart had gone for the killing blow at the end. Yeah, all of that. And he'd keep at it until he expended every bit of energy he had and passed out.

Sorry Albert, clearly traveling with Winglies is a bad idea.

Albert stumbled back a bit as Lloyd pulled away and just went...insane... The man just stared at the Wingly for a moment. He had never in the tenure of their acquaintance seen the man really lose it. It was...terrifying.

The king looked to the forest. The Wingly's assault didn't seem to be doing much damage as whatever magic was plaguing Lloyd now expended itself in protecting the trees, and that Albert could see. Like heat ripples in the air wherever Lloyd flung his energy blasts.

This was futile. It was obvious now that the Faeries weren't going to be leaving Lloyd alone. Albert closed his eyes and steeled himself. He hadn't done this in a long, long time. His Dragoon spirit burst into light against his chest beneath his breastplate. He was embraced by the ethereal winds created by the spirit of the Jade Dragon. His wings flapped lazily to keep him airborne and Albert had a moment of self reflection where he realised just how much he had missed this, but that could be reflected on later, for now he could sense in a way what was going on, but even as a Dragoon the magic only touched the periphery of his senses.

There was really only one thing he could do at this point, and he hoped to Soa it would work. He called upon his own Dragoon magic and focused it at Lloyd.

"Rose Storm."

The wind picked up, unnoticeable at first, but it grew quickly into a maelstrom surrounding Lloyd in a bubble of wind. There were rose petals whipping about in the air around the Wingly. The spell took quite a bit out of Albert, he flapped his wings tiredly, but hopefully the power of Rose Storm would protect Lloyd from the power of the Faeries.

At least the onslaught allowed him to clear his mind, since the magic was forced to turn its attentions to keeping him from burning down their precious bog. The Dragoon magic helped further, though Lloyd did cast Albert a surprised glance. He'd never been on the receiving end of beneficial dragoon magic, so that was very strange to him. Even out of practice it remained powerful, enough to help curb the edge of it.

"Fall back!" Lloyd barked, now at least able to think somewhat clearly. Already he was making a swift retreat, and hopefully Albert wouldn't be far behind. Okay, bog was out of the question. There was no way they were making it through there.

"Lloyd- Gah!" Albert's protest was cut off by the power of the Dragoon spirit dispersing. He hadn't been prepared for it, had thought he could hold out longer, but no. It caught him off guard and he fell to the dirt on his back, his elbows jarring against the ground. The king grimaced and pushed himself up. Lloyd had already made his retreat and so the King broke into a sprint to catch up.

"Lloyd!" He shouted, "Lloyd, there's no other way!"

Lloyd hadn't gone far, just far enough to hopefully be out of range of the stupid faerie attacks. Until he could get his wits about himself. Okay so... focusing exclusively on offensive magic continued to prove to be poor planning on Lloyd's part. He knew this, but there was no getting around it now.

When he stopped he was finally winded, mostly due to the exertion of using so much magic, more than the run. Sorry Albert, just going to need a moment here. "I will not survive entry through that bog." He grumbled, glaring darkly down the path they'd come from.

Albert rubbed his elbows and frowned at Lloyd, "You can and you will. We cannot go back, it will take two days at least to back track and three more to go by way of the prairie. I will help you. Rose Storm can protect you from the brunt of their attack. Besides, those malevolent little beasts need to be dealt with, and there is still the bog beast. We cannot let this bog get the better of us."

Albert was right, but you can bet that Lloyd was stubbornly glaring. This was like asking him to go waltzing around Mayfil, not going to happen. For any reason, ever. Except he kind of had to go through the bog and seriously fuck the bog. Bogs are now at the top of his list of things to destroy mercilessly. He took a few more moments to try to calm down and get his senses to stop burning, augh this headache.

"...I am going to burn this bog to the ground." He growled out irritably. Yes Lloyd, that's the answer. Maul things. B| You don't learn do you? "You're right, we have already lost precious time. Very well." He's been through some dreadful things on his travels, surely this won't kill him. Maybe.

"Okay," Albert said with a nod. He turned back toward the bog. "We will move as fast as possible and be on the look out for anything suspicious. Rose Storm should last a while, but tell me if you feel it begin to fade and I will recast it. Hopefully, you won't need me to, transforming without the insanity of battle is much more difficult and...draining."

Albert gives Lloyd a brief nod and marches rapidly back toward the Bog, giving Lloyd no time to answer or change his mind. He enters the bog warily but doesn't slow down, though he checks over his shoulder discreetly to make sure Lloyd is in fact following.

"I doubt we will be without battle for long, in there," Lloyd drew his sword, mentally fortifying himself as well as he could as they approached once more. He did not have magical defenses of his own, but now that he knew what to expect he might be able to force himself to focus through it, especially with the help of Rose Storm. "Still, I will let you know."

Lloyd wouldn't leave him to deal with the bog on his own, even if he was loathe to go back in. Still the fairies tried to torment him, but Albet's spell held for now and he was able to at least not be completely overwhelmed. Bah, disgraceful.

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Through the Bog

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