09-17-2014, 11:26 PM
Shiro awakes some time in the early morning, still groggy from being woken in the middle of the night to fight creatures the townspeople could have handled themselves, however rather than be upset he simply accepts that what had transpired could not be changed as he cleans himself up at a washing basin before heading outside to be greeted by his new found friend Sapphira. Despite having only met her recently Shiro couldn't help but have grown attached to her in the short amount of time they'd traveled together. "It's time for me to go girl. you wait for me here alright?" Shiro says evenly as he pets her gently while Sapphira presses her head to him as if regretting his leaving but knowing that he was going somewhere she could not follow. After saying his good byes to her for the time being, the townspeople await him outside the cave with food and drink, some light quartz, small crystals that gather light into themselves and glow in the dark to provide light without the use of a torch. and assurances that Sapphira would be taken care of should he not come back.
Shiro peers into the darkness of the cavern, apprehensive as he descends carefully, his movements lit by the light quartz tied to his belt. Upon reaching the bottom of his climb where he was unable to see from the cave entrance he finds that rather than the sound of his feet striking stone with each step the sound of dried moss rustling underfoot with his steps as though he were walking through short grass, his light quartz becoming somewhat useless as the large cavern he finds himself looking into is filled with glowing mushrooms in various colors, some rare few the size of small trees while others are no larger the knee high bushes. However, despite the wonderfully intriguing landscape set out before him, he was soon reminded of why he descended into this cavern by a large raptor-like creature leaping on him and pinning him from the brush, this particular one covered in the white and blue glowing mushrooms like the landscape around him rather than the red and white mushrooms of the creatures from last night.
Unlike the creatures that attacked the village the previous night this new breed had sharp claws and teeth that made it well suited for hunting prey however, fortunately the creature still suffered from the same stupidity that the creatures from last night did, rendering Shiro able to escape it's grasp and decapitate it with a swift swipe of his claws, it's skin parting just as easily as the previous creatures' did. As the creature's flailing carcass finally falls to the ground, stilling as it's blue, luminescent blood sprays onto the lichen that serves as this cavern's grass Shiro takes the time to examine it, seeing how it's body works by moving parts of it around and familiarizing it's scent from the blood that was pooling at his feet so that he could hopefully prevent future ambushes. After familiarizing himself with the creature's outside functions he takes a claw to it's stomach and cuts it open, looking at it's organs to find a singular singular lung, a normal digestive system, a rather large heart, and female reproductive organs. However, before he can investigate it further a pack of the creatures pins him and drags away the corpse before running off, seeming to have learned that he could kill them with ease so it was better not to mess with him.
Rather than hang around to find out what more lives in this strange mini ecosystem, Shiro rights his things and sets out again, exploring for roughly what felt like an hour however with the lack of sun there was no way to be sure as he eventually reaches a hut built into one of the largest tree-like mushrooms he could find. Rather than enter and be attacked by whoever might live here, Shiro knocks on the door however when it creaks open at the strikes he simply enters to find an absolute mess that looks to have at one point been an arcane study which had been abandoned. While he'd always been interested in mystical arts as a child he had never been able to study them well enough to put them to use. However combining that childhood want with the curiosity at what kind of studies could have been conducted in such and odd place such as this Shiro finds himself compelled to search through the old research notes he finds set before him.
After an unknown quantity of time, the curious lycan finally manages to piece together the story of how this place came to be from a diary found amongst a pile of research notes on plant growth without sunlight. The most recent entry having been dated a year ago by a man that went by the alias of Victor describes his lack of interest in cultivating the fungal land he'd created, seeing it as a failed experiment, so instead he set out to dig deeper into the earth along a pathway to the north he'd found that had collapsed, but he'd managed to get a glimpse of a strange creature just beyond it that he described as "a great dragon of crystal and magic that radiates a pure white light, the merest sight of which had soothed his aching joints which had been growing increasingly painful in his old age".
After making the discovery, Shiro stuffs the diary into his pack for later and leaves the mushroom home only to be faced with a larger variant of the raptors he'd been faced with earlier, this one sporting wicked looking horns and usable arms. Rather than back down and be forced to run, Shiro brings out his claws and growls at the creature, challenging it. The creature leaps at him suddenly , slamming against the door as Shiro rolls out of the way, slashing at the creature and expecting his claws to part it's skin just as easily as the others however, much to his disappointment, the creature's skin is more resilient than expected, resulting in the rather small cuts to only anger it further as it rounds on him and roars before charging, attempting to bite him but instead it's only able to get a mouthful of mushroom as Shiro had rolled out of the way again only to leave it chomping on one of the bush sized mushrooms which it rips out of the ground and hurls at the lycan, knocking him a fair distance. The disoriented lycan barely manages to regain his senses just in time to duck out of the way of the creature biting his head off, allowing him the chance to plunge his claws into the side of it's head. The creature roars as it whips it's head around, trying to dislodge Shiro's claws as the lycan crawls up onto it's back and slashes it's throat however, while the lycan is so focused on ending the fight and killing the creature, he fails to move his leg out of reach of the creatures jagged, sharp teeth which soon bite down, crunching through the bone and nearly removing the leg as it falls over, twitching as it breathes it's last.
Shiro cries out in pain as his leg is nearly torn off, the creature's last effort to kill him had finally resulted in a successful hit which put him in quite the bind as he now has to pry the creature's maw open. The process is slow and incredibly painful but The now injured lycan finally manages to free his mangled leg, his natural regenerative abilities managing to staunch the flow of blood but with how dulled his abilities had become he's unable to do any more for himself than crawl back to the mushroom house, bandage and splint his leg, and crawl into bed and rest until he heals.
The next few days flow together into one long mesh of nightmares and fever as the creature had done much worse than simply injure him, the creature's blood and saliva had contained a highly potent toxin which only Shiro's status as a prime and his natural poison resistance as a lycan had prevented him from succumbing to. However that did not mean he was completely out of the woods as while he didn't die immediately, the toxin still left him in with a high fever and with his leg in it's current state he was unable to care for himself as his mind produced horrific nightmares and his body slowly heals itself.
By the time Shiro's completely healed and free of his fever dreams he has no idea how much time has past and decides to look into that later as right now he was starving and dehydrated. After satiating his needs with the supplies given to him by the townsfolk, the weary lycan gathers his things and sets out to finish what he'd come here to do. After a small time of walking he manages to find the carcass of the creature that had nearly killed him, now reduced to bones which are being slowly covered by lichen however with his work nearly done Shiro doesn't give it too much thought and manages to eventually find the cave mentioned in the journal, the path now cleared of debris. As the lycan walks down the path the lichen underfoot begins to give way to various hues of crystals and gems until he finds himself in a small offshoot cavern where the corpse of a crystalline dragon resides with the sword that killed it still sticking out of it's head however, as the journal had described, the light and feeling of relief was still there, suggesting the the poor scientist had most likely found the dragon already dead. Yet something the scientist could not have found as it looked like any other crystal was a small scale at the base of the dragon's neck which seemed to reach out to Shiro's animal instincts.
The curious lycan slowly approaches the crystal, hesitating before touching it only for his body to be lifted into the air, white energy coiling around him and attempting to pull something out of him before he hears a small thud below him, the cavern around him having grown distorted and small coils of light and energy run through the crystals as the pain subsides and Shiro is left facing what looks to be the spirit of the dragon looking at him. The implications of this quickly panics him as he tries to run only to find that his body feels different and more like how he remembered it feeling when he'd let his wolf take over which only panics him further as he begins to move correctly, managing to glimpse how he looked in the crystals of the cave. What he sees causes his panic to stop and his fate to set in to his mind. Rather than skin and his clothing he sees in his reflection a white wolf made of energy, the spirit of his wolf. After a small bit of further exploration he finds his corpse, the husk that was left after his spirit had been removed by the dragon's scale. At the recollection he rounds on the dragon, his spiritual voice guttural and furious as he roars "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME SERPENT?!", his form wavering with the rage he now felt.
The spirit of the dragon studies him briefly before replying in an echoing, high pitched voice "I have freed your spirit from your body so that you may learn". The dragon's words shock Shiro into silence for a long period of time before he asks quietly "and what am i to learn from this?..." his voice having grown more human like at his lamentation of his fate. "Seek a spirit by the calling of Thrall. He shall teach you what you need to know. Which includes how to reclaim your body" the dragon replies before disappearing to leave Shiro to think on his fate.
After an unknown amount of time Shiro finally leaves the cavern and wanders the land in search of the one called Thrall, his mind racing at what waits in store for him once he finds whoever he was searching for and his heart aching to return to his mortal shell before it was too late.
Shiro peers into the darkness of the cavern, apprehensive as he descends carefully, his movements lit by the light quartz tied to his belt. Upon reaching the bottom of his climb where he was unable to see from the cave entrance he finds that rather than the sound of his feet striking stone with each step the sound of dried moss rustling underfoot with his steps as though he were walking through short grass, his light quartz becoming somewhat useless as the large cavern he finds himself looking into is filled with glowing mushrooms in various colors, some rare few the size of small trees while others are no larger the knee high bushes. However, despite the wonderfully intriguing landscape set out before him, he was soon reminded of why he descended into this cavern by a large raptor-like creature leaping on him and pinning him from the brush, this particular one covered in the white and blue glowing mushrooms like the landscape around him rather than the red and white mushrooms of the creatures from last night.
Unlike the creatures that attacked the village the previous night this new breed had sharp claws and teeth that made it well suited for hunting prey however, fortunately the creature still suffered from the same stupidity that the creatures from last night did, rendering Shiro able to escape it's grasp and decapitate it with a swift swipe of his claws, it's skin parting just as easily as the previous creatures' did. As the creature's flailing carcass finally falls to the ground, stilling as it's blue, luminescent blood sprays onto the lichen that serves as this cavern's grass Shiro takes the time to examine it, seeing how it's body works by moving parts of it around and familiarizing it's scent from the blood that was pooling at his feet so that he could hopefully prevent future ambushes. After familiarizing himself with the creature's outside functions he takes a claw to it's stomach and cuts it open, looking at it's organs to find a singular singular lung, a normal digestive system, a rather large heart, and female reproductive organs. However, before he can investigate it further a pack of the creatures pins him and drags away the corpse before running off, seeming to have learned that he could kill them with ease so it was better not to mess with him.
Rather than hang around to find out what more lives in this strange mini ecosystem, Shiro rights his things and sets out again, exploring for roughly what felt like an hour however with the lack of sun there was no way to be sure as he eventually reaches a hut built into one of the largest tree-like mushrooms he could find. Rather than enter and be attacked by whoever might live here, Shiro knocks on the door however when it creaks open at the strikes he simply enters to find an absolute mess that looks to have at one point been an arcane study which had been abandoned. While he'd always been interested in mystical arts as a child he had never been able to study them well enough to put them to use. However combining that childhood want with the curiosity at what kind of studies could have been conducted in such and odd place such as this Shiro finds himself compelled to search through the old research notes he finds set before him.
After an unknown quantity of time, the curious lycan finally manages to piece together the story of how this place came to be from a diary found amongst a pile of research notes on plant growth without sunlight. The most recent entry having been dated a year ago by a man that went by the alias of Victor describes his lack of interest in cultivating the fungal land he'd created, seeing it as a failed experiment, so instead he set out to dig deeper into the earth along a pathway to the north he'd found that had collapsed, but he'd managed to get a glimpse of a strange creature just beyond it that he described as "a great dragon of crystal and magic that radiates a pure white light, the merest sight of which had soothed his aching joints which had been growing increasingly painful in his old age".
After making the discovery, Shiro stuffs the diary into his pack for later and leaves the mushroom home only to be faced with a larger variant of the raptors he'd been faced with earlier, this one sporting wicked looking horns and usable arms. Rather than back down and be forced to run, Shiro brings out his claws and growls at the creature, challenging it. The creature leaps at him suddenly , slamming against the door as Shiro rolls out of the way, slashing at the creature and expecting his claws to part it's skin just as easily as the others however, much to his disappointment, the creature's skin is more resilient than expected, resulting in the rather small cuts to only anger it further as it rounds on him and roars before charging, attempting to bite him but instead it's only able to get a mouthful of mushroom as Shiro had rolled out of the way again only to leave it chomping on one of the bush sized mushrooms which it rips out of the ground and hurls at the lycan, knocking him a fair distance. The disoriented lycan barely manages to regain his senses just in time to duck out of the way of the creature biting his head off, allowing him the chance to plunge his claws into the side of it's head. The creature roars as it whips it's head around, trying to dislodge Shiro's claws as the lycan crawls up onto it's back and slashes it's throat however, while the lycan is so focused on ending the fight and killing the creature, he fails to move his leg out of reach of the creatures jagged, sharp teeth which soon bite down, crunching through the bone and nearly removing the leg as it falls over, twitching as it breathes it's last.
Shiro cries out in pain as his leg is nearly torn off, the creature's last effort to kill him had finally resulted in a successful hit which put him in quite the bind as he now has to pry the creature's maw open. The process is slow and incredibly painful but The now injured lycan finally manages to free his mangled leg, his natural regenerative abilities managing to staunch the flow of blood but with how dulled his abilities had become he's unable to do any more for himself than crawl back to the mushroom house, bandage and splint his leg, and crawl into bed and rest until he heals.
The next few days flow together into one long mesh of nightmares and fever as the creature had done much worse than simply injure him, the creature's blood and saliva had contained a highly potent toxin which only Shiro's status as a prime and his natural poison resistance as a lycan had prevented him from succumbing to. However that did not mean he was completely out of the woods as while he didn't die immediately, the toxin still left him in with a high fever and with his leg in it's current state he was unable to care for himself as his mind produced horrific nightmares and his body slowly heals itself.
By the time Shiro's completely healed and free of his fever dreams he has no idea how much time has past and decides to look into that later as right now he was starving and dehydrated. After satiating his needs with the supplies given to him by the townsfolk, the weary lycan gathers his things and sets out to finish what he'd come here to do. After a small time of walking he manages to find the carcass of the creature that had nearly killed him, now reduced to bones which are being slowly covered by lichen however with his work nearly done Shiro doesn't give it too much thought and manages to eventually find the cave mentioned in the journal, the path now cleared of debris. As the lycan walks down the path the lichen underfoot begins to give way to various hues of crystals and gems until he finds himself in a small offshoot cavern where the corpse of a crystalline dragon resides with the sword that killed it still sticking out of it's head however, as the journal had described, the light and feeling of relief was still there, suggesting the the poor scientist had most likely found the dragon already dead. Yet something the scientist could not have found as it looked like any other crystal was a small scale at the base of the dragon's neck which seemed to reach out to Shiro's animal instincts.
The curious lycan slowly approaches the crystal, hesitating before touching it only for his body to be lifted into the air, white energy coiling around him and attempting to pull something out of him before he hears a small thud below him, the cavern around him having grown distorted and small coils of light and energy run through the crystals as the pain subsides and Shiro is left facing what looks to be the spirit of the dragon looking at him. The implications of this quickly panics him as he tries to run only to find that his body feels different and more like how he remembered it feeling when he'd let his wolf take over which only panics him further as he begins to move correctly, managing to glimpse how he looked in the crystals of the cave. What he sees causes his panic to stop and his fate to set in to his mind. Rather than skin and his clothing he sees in his reflection a white wolf made of energy, the spirit of his wolf. After a small bit of further exploration he finds his corpse, the husk that was left after his spirit had been removed by the dragon's scale. At the recollection he rounds on the dragon, his spiritual voice guttural and furious as he roars "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME SERPENT?!", his form wavering with the rage he now felt.
The spirit of the dragon studies him briefly before replying in an echoing, high pitched voice "I have freed your spirit from your body so that you may learn". The dragon's words shock Shiro into silence for a long period of time before he asks quietly "and what am i to learn from this?..." his voice having grown more human like at his lamentation of his fate. "Seek a spirit by the calling of Thrall. He shall teach you what you need to know. Which includes how to reclaim your body" the dragon replies before disappearing to leave Shiro to think on his fate.
After an unknown amount of time Shiro finally leaves the cavern and wanders the land in search of the one called Thrall, his mind racing at what waits in store for him once he finds whoever he was searching for and his heart aching to return to his mortal shell before it was too late.