Lofi Library

That night she ran into trouble. She had been mistaken in coverage, and the tree she had been sleeping in didn't have enough foliage to properly block line of sight. 20 regular zombies had surrounded her during the night and woke her up. she tried climbing higher and tried to keep out of sight from the ground. It's one of the only things she can do in this type of situation. Being out of sight should make them lose interest as long as she is quiet. That’s when she noticed a shooting star in the distance. It was heading in her direction, in her exact direction. After a minute, it still had not reached her. "It's going too slow to be an actual shooting star, what the hell is it?" When it reached her she realized what that it was alive. "Is it was an angel… or a boy? ...on fire? Is my angel visiting me before I die?" He hovered next to the tree. He couldn’t be any older than 10. Feathers extended down the center of his head and were on the tips of his elbows. In his hand was a staff similar to Kaori's except the shape seemed more ... flamboyant. “[[Lain]]! Need any help? Trying out a new form? Not my favorite.” he chuckled. [Lain? He must think I'm someone else... This guy looks crazy though. He is on fire. and has the wings of a blazing angel. His face isn't particularly handsome, but with everything else going on he gives off a since of majesty. He's wearing shorts but has bird feet, and he's holding a staff similar to mine except for the fire like decoration.] “I think you may have the wrong person.” “Hmm...?" He turns his head to the side like an owl would. He looked as though he was pondering something and then you see a light go on in his eyes as his eyes drift toward the staff that Kaori held. "Yea, the staff is all wrong. Wait staff!?" Another light glinted in his eyes as he made the realization that Kaori was holding a staff, "Do you need any help?” “No," she said sarcastically. "I'm just enjoying the view.” “Oh," he said as if crestfallen. "Well… Ok. Enjoy the view, maybe we can talk later. I’d like to ask you about that staff of yours.” He turns and begins to fly off. “It was sarcasm!” Kaori yells. He circles back. “Haha! I know I got it, figured I’d let you stay up there for a bit. How ‘bout this, I'll make a spectacle of myself and lead them away, you climb down, and we meet up at a shed I saw a few miles north of here?” “That 'shed' is my safehouse, so sure.” Kaori looks down to see that the zombies are already focused on the blazing creature in the sky. After he flies off, she makes her way down. She knows this area pretty well, but didn’t have enough daylight to make the rest of the journey. It's not safe to travel at night even if you know the way. She feels a little forced to now. With the bright bird boy in the sky she has a bit more light and a convenient distraction. He diverts himself for a bit to make sure the zombies don’t follow him to Kaori's place. When she gets there, she goes ahead and gets some rest. When she wake, it’s morning and there is no sight of the person who rescued her. I decided to go outside to get some water. “Hello there stranger”, came from the roof of her shack. “Oh, hello. Thank you for last night. Did you get any sleep?” “Yea, like you I like sleeping in high places.” He looks different today. His fire is gone now, and his wings are ragged and small. He also doesn't have his staff. “I see you aren't on fire any more. Is that a product of your staff? I've noticed mine does something similar.” “Yea, I had a bunch of questions at first as well. Let me explain.” He explains that he was looking for a friend. She is of the Nekoma race and has two staves. His friend’s twin sister was one of the original mages that caused the current state of the world. He doesn’t know the specifics because the topic is a little touchy since the sister didn’t survive the incident. He is a half harpy. He was apparently the product of a human raid on the harpy nest. Trying to keep groups together is hard. For humans, food may not be readily available, so some create bands of raiders. It seems the child rearing culture of the harpy kept him from feeling too much grief. He also shows Kaori how he is able to fly. The fire generated by his staff envelopes his feathers which makes him lighter. “Heat rises” as they say. He invites Kaori to travel with him. She is a little hesitant, but she doesn't have much tying her down any more. After being separated from his previous travel companion, Kaori can tell he’s lonely. In truth, so is Kaori. He wants to go looking for her again at the fort. Apparently that's where she went to. It gives Kaori an excuse to look for her father. "I still don't know if he is OK." In Kaori's previous life she was a student. She studied cultures and languages. None of her previous skills translate too well in this new life, but her father had managed to get a journal and pencil for her last birthday. She has been using it less as a journal and more of a way to keep notes on people, trade patterns, and cultural differences than her previous life. Mainly because she spent most of her time avoiding as many people as possible, which makes taking notes quite hard. In truth, she learned more from her father in this world about survival than from anyone in her previous life. Without him, she may need to rely on someone with knowledge on the subject. It also gives her a chance to learn more about things her father never talked about. "Tell me, how did you mistake me for your friend? Doesn't she look... well.. different?" She gestures to all of herself. He laughs, "Yea, there's a reason for that. By the way my name is [[Dante]]." "I'm Kaori." He looks at her staff with the Icy pattern on it and says, "Funny your name is pretty close to the ancient word for ice." "Your name is more fitting than you think Dante." He quirks his head to the side looking confused and it reminds Kaori of how certain birds do the same thing. She laughs. "Are you with me?" They start off back towards the fort. He tells Kaori that the reason why he was around was because they were investigating that fort. They were searching for something and the fort seemed to a prime candidate for where it might be, but it seems as though someone else has already found it. "Aren't you worried about your friend?" "Nah, she can handle herself pretty well. Plus she said she remembered something pretty interesting about one of her staffs that would surprise the crap out of me." "OK, but this place is swarming." He nods. Kaori can tell he's lying. He is obviously worried. Before she could say anything he started scowling. By this time they have gotten pretty close to the fort. "I'm gonna fly on ahead to scout out." His staff appears in his hand and he instantly is incased in flames. He flies up and ahead, stops mid air and flares up a bit. Something is wrong. Kaori finds a tall tree and climbs it as high as she can. Ahead is a massive horde. "They must have been inside the fort." It is 2 or 3 times as many as Kaori saw the other day. She doesn't know why she agreed to come back here, but then again she never told him about me losing my father 2 days before. In the horde she sees something familiar. Two staffs similar to their own. Dante doubles back coming to Kaori looking upset. "She's gone..." "You don't mean... I'm sorr..." she stutters. He doesn't let [[Kaori]] finish and fly's off again. "I'll be back!" he yells back. He flies over the horde. He quickly swoops down and grabs on to the staffs. The 2 zombies holding them don't let go. His momentum got him up a bit but with the added weight he isn't going to be able to stay up for much longer. A small shuffle of unnatural movement happens in the sky between Dante and the 2 zombies. One of the zombies drops letting go of the staff. Dante lets go of the staff that the first zombie let go of. It disappears. The zombie that dropped disappears as it falls into the horde. Then he grabs hold of the other zombie. With less weight he glides as fast as he can towards Kaori's tree unable to gain any height. The zombie that is currently holding the second staff has a different appearance. It's no longer a sickly brownish green husk, now it is a long black haired almond skinned Nekoma woman and definitely not a zombie. "TAKE CARE OF HER!" he yells as he drops her on top of Kaori inside the tree. He flies off towards the horde again. Kaori and the woman tumble down until Kaori catches a branch and reach out in time to catch the collar of the Nekoma's robe. The Nekoma's weight is too much for for Kaori to bare. The Nekoma seems to have passed out during the fall. Kaori's hurt wrist causes her grasp to fail and they both fall to the ground. The zombies are undoubtedly on a path straight there. Kaori picks up the Nekoma and carries her on her back, but the Nekoma's legs drag because of the difference of height. A pain shoots through Kaori's right shoulder and wrist, but she grits her teeth and makes her way back towards her safehouse. "Why am I doing this? I don't even know these people." Half an hour later she is exhausted and is hiding in some bushes surrounding a tree. Both rest there for a few minutes. Then a crackling sound is made a few feet off. Its not the sound of zombies, it's way too fast. A familiar shadow zooms by. "Dante!" Kaori calls out to get his attention. "What are you doing in there!? I was leading the dead away from your area. You could have just stayed where you were." "She passed out, and we fell out of the tree! I tried carrying her, but she's too heavy." "That's rude," an unfamiliar voice said. The woman sits up a bit and leans against the tree. Getting a better look at her face, she's much younger than Kaori thought. (Seventeen, maybe eighteen years old?) Her sapphire blue eyes contrast her tan skin and black hair making you want to only look at them. "What the hell was that?" says Dante with an aggravated look on his face. "Later, can we please get somewhere more comfortable? I feel like I got hit with a brick." "Fine." Dante looks over at Kaori with pleading eyes, "Can you help me get her up?" "I think I can do that myself now." The Nekoma struggles to stand so Kaori grabs her arm and helps her. "Thank you." She seemed cold at first but Kaori senses a certain warmth in that thank you. "No problem." They make it back to Kaori's safehouse and the exhaustions sets in. Lain immediately passes out on Kaori's bed. Kaori lays on her father's bed and falls asleep as well. Even though it was only mid afternoon everyone slept until morning. When morning comes, Kaori sets a fire in the fire place. It's still partially dark out so the smoke shouldn't be clearly visible. Dante is still asleep with his back against the front door. He still has that worried expression on his face. Kaori cooks up some breakfast of stir fried mushrooms and onions for everyone and the smell wakes the others. "So what was that anyways?" Dante waste no time asking slightly annoyed. "I told you you'd be surprised. I remembered one of the words used with one of my staffs." "That's beside the point I may have been surprised but I thought you were gone!... I didn't know you had changed your appearance down there. When you told me that I'd be surprised I didn't expect that. You turned around, said something, and then walked into the crowd of dead like it was nothing and they didn't go after you. After a while I couldn't see you. I got worried." His mood becomes sad instead of the original annoyance. "Honestly I didn't know if I was a goner as well." She catches herself, looks at Kaori, and her accent changes abruptly back to the "proper" tone. "When you didn't come back I had to act the part all night; because, when I tried to leave, a lot of them would follow me almost as if it was a game of follow the leader. I did get to look around the fort quite a bit though. Nothing is there. The insides are rotting so much that you could get hurt falling through the floor if you went above the first floor." She looks at Kaori, "That shouldn't have been a problem for you though. It seems as though you may have found what we were looking for anyways." She looks at Kaori and then the ice staff sitting against the wall. "I had not made it inside yet when an abnormal one burst through a window up stairs. A few minutes later I saw her coming out of a window on the western side. I'm guessing you found that staff up on the upper floors?" "Yea, me and my father were looking for something to salvage or sell." Kaori looks away for a minute and Dante looking surprised speaks up to fill the silence. "She was camped out in a tree half way between here and there. After seeing the staff I thought it might be you. She had a good bit of them below her so I helped. Besides that what was the word you remembered?" "Alter! It lets you modify your current appearance including clothing. I remembered it from one of the times me and my sister use to visit him. Wait, I am sorry. We are being rude. You has no idea what we are talking about. Thank you for helping me yesterday. After being there for so long I was exhausted. If it hadn't been for you two, I would definitely had passed out inside that horde instead. That would have been the end of me." Her politeness is in stark contrast to Dante's brashness, but her accent comes through when she's excited about something. (It's pretty cute.) "Dante helped me out, I wouldn't have been able to do much with my wrist the way it is. I had no intention of going back in, but seeing to you was the least I could do. Oh, I'm sorry I know both of your names but neither of you know mine. I'm Kaori."