Kinda lost like always

i wonder why..
why do i always get lost in forests?

Atsui use to talk to himself a little when he is alone, it's a bad habit he kept from when he was a child, but he usually never do it in front of other people.

He was walking in the forest from two days, the night before he had to climb a tree no to sleep in the mud. As he hate to get his cape dirty that was the only option possible, and it was probably the worst sleep of his life.
Kept on walking for 5 hours, trying to go in a straight direction, he was now feeling very tired, and the gloomy forest mood didn't help a little. Atsui was pretty gloomy itself, but compared to that forest he looked like a happy child jumping around.

I think i should probably rest a bit.. my leg hurt quite a lot *sob*

After those words Atsui chanted a short magic spell called back stab evade, he didn't meet any dangerour animal or monster untill now but.. being carefull never harmed anyone.
After the cast of the spell , he looked for a place he could sit and rest for a bit, and as soon a the right place was found he started to collect lots of leaf and small branch, to put them on the ground.
In that way he would have get less dirty and probably more comfortable..
Even if the forest was totally creepy and full of weird sounds, Atsui was so tired that he fell asleep in a very short time...

Who knows if he would have been able to come out of that forest? The old guy who gave him the map to reach Magnolia had been very nice, giving Atsui a map to follow, but he lost the map after a few hours and was walking aimlessly from then.

Atsui was deep in sleep, and didn't noticed the presence of Marschal at all.

When they guy spoke soundly the sleeping guy woke up all of a sudden, istinctively putting a hand on his knife, just to realize he had lost that one too.

Probably roughly half hour passed from when he fell asleep, and suddenly got woke up by this man voice. Atsui was kinda surprised, of all the places , he never thought he would meet someone in this gloomy forest.
Didn't really know how to behave in that situation, Atsui simply answered the questions with very short answer. But a thing he was sure of, that was not a bad guy, otherwise he could have took advantage of the fact that he was sleeping.

i got lost..

Looking the guy in front of him directly into his eyes, he saw a light of hope, he could have asked how to get out of that damned forest, but he refrained to do so, and waited to see what the cool looking guy wanted from him.

Who dares walk in my forest?

Zecarayus heard the voice call out as he was outside his home. He recognized that voice, one that called to him earlier and now it spoke again, but actually he could understand it now. But the question was, who was walking in the forest? "Shuck!" He called for his skeletal dog, which materialized and appeared next to the side of him looking up at his owner with its tail wagging. Zecarayus went inside and grabbed a cloak with a hood to cover him, while it was nice as a deterrent of the weather he planned to use it to give him a lich like appearance if the situation called for it, even mages found the prospect of fighting a lich very frightening, so it would work well to his advantage if the need called for it.

"Lets go shuck." he called to his pet as the duo left their shack into the depths of the spooky forest, the issue was while it was a wonderful place for zecarayus, the chance to die in the woods were very real due to threats from the savage skull and the forest itself, not to mention whatever brought zecarayus attention to the woods. But now who was zecarayus looking for? Or rather what was special about someone entering the forest that the voice arose?

Unknown to zecarayus, the only reason why he could have heard the voice was because a lich spoke it, and he had already ties to the lich which allowed him this connection, even if zecarayus himself did not realize how it happened.

Still the duo went through the forest, zecarayus had no idea who to look for here, it was not like their was anyway to track down a stranger...and yet. Zecarayus found himself performing a seance with shuck in the circle, the two waited very little as the spooky forest was not short on spirits. In which case they got a location, deep in the forest apparently, in which zecarayus traveled down the most reasonably safest path, until finally...

He saw the two figures far away from him, in which he try to get as much as he can from the distance. A man crumpled at the trunk of the tree, and another one at the top, or was it a woman? He could not tell due to the long hair but still, the way it looked...How should he approach this? Should he offer help? No, these woods were home to the savage skull as well, and this could be a hunt, the people he sees before him could be members of said hunt. Zecarayus thought from where he was for a good while until he finally made his choice.

He motioned shuck to move around the area, a wide grasp where the two couldn't see the spectral dog but close enough to warn Zecarayus of unwanted company approaching the area. He himself muttered something before putting his hand over his face before his face gave away to a skull, no traces of flesh and only blue light shown from his eye sockets. His hands gave away until they were bones, in truth zecarayus now appeared to be an skeletal undead, although physical contact would immediately see through his illusion. Now, time to see who these people are. He thought to himself as he started to move closer, and spoke loud enough for the two mages to hear. "Now what is this? I do suggest you explain why you are here, after all." Zecarayus would continue as he walked until in front of the two. "These woods are home to the dead." he spoke in a echo tone, his jaw not moving at all though the words still appeared to come from the hooded skeleton now in front of them.

Brennan had simply been laying in a tree, snoozing, when voices started to invade his rather pleasant dreams. From what Brennan could hear in his half sleeping state, someone had gotten lost, and two other people were asking this person what had happened to them. Part of Brennan was intrigued and wanted to help this person, another part of him was tired and just wanted to nap on this rather comfy tree branch, and a third part of the small teenager was worried, wondering if this was some sort of elaborate Savage Skull scheme to draw out invaders. "Gah, screw it." Brennan muttered to himself, and rolled out of his tree, hovering in midair and staring down at the strangers. "Do you all have to be so loud?" He asked, a hint of irritation in his voice, and he then proceeded to yawn rather extravagantly, falling to the ground and landing on a column of earth that had erupted from the ground as he did so. "So," He asked, "Who are all of you and why did you have to wake me up? I was having a rather pleasant dream about baked potatoes..." He glanced at the people and noticed that they were seemingly all boys, and looked rather mismatched, like they didn't come here together, and did not know each other at all. "You all look about as related as tantalum, mercury, and krypton..." He exclaimed randomly, forgetting that such comments insulted people. "I'm sorry." He said with a bow, hoping down from his earth pillar, "Sometimes I forget to have manners." He paused for a second and smiled, "My name is Brennan, who are all of you?"

Atsui was rather Petrified from the situation..
half hour ago , he tried to sleep and was completely lost in the forest, walking for 1 day and a half without meeting a single soul, and now 2 people and an undefinited being were in the same place.

It got rather crowded..

He said with the lowest of his voice, probably only the guy next to him could hear his comment.
Now he was looking around himself to try to understand that chaotic situation.
A Lich like guy was standing at some distance from them, and he asked what Atsui was doing there.. the long haired guy asked the same thing, and the last one coming, suddenly seemed to be totally friendly and with no bad intention at all.

"It's not like i'm still dreaming?" Atsui asked to himself, but soon after he realized that wasn't the case. Everything happened really fast, and in a way or another he had to find a way to deal with it.

I know this place is dangerous, even the old man told me not to pass through this forest but, i have my own way to deal with situation..

this look like some kind of joke..
from what everyone assume it looks like a guy can't get lost in a forest.
Is it really that weird?

And what are you?

Atsui turn his head in the look like a lich direction.


You are mostly ideantical to a lich, but i've run away from one in the past, and sorry to tell you so but.. if you're not a "Good Lich" then your Aura is betraying you...
you have no ill mean toward us.

Then as if nothing happened he turned towards the last guy who popped out of nowhere.
Atsui expression was kind of serious since that situation pissed him off a little.
No life in nearly 2 days and now 3 people all of a sudden!! The more he thought about it the more unrealistic the situation looked for him.

But since the last guy introduced himself, politeness told Atsui that he had to introduce himself , even if he would rather just ask for direction and leave that awkward situation, he refrained to do so.

I'm Haru.. and as i said i got lost, i have no ill intention, i just need to reach a city called Magnolia.

After saying that the guy turned silent again waiting for responses from this weird group, and the hope that nothing strage would happened was getting less and less.

He stopped at the sudden appearance of a...child from a tree? He watched the child's descent and fall...only to use the earth to bounce back up to a floating pillow? Yeah, to zecarayus this was weird, sure he's seen weirder, but this is pretty darn close to being the weirdest, and how calm the kid acted as if he woke up from a nap? His attention though was caught back to the man who was laying down and now up. And then called what it seemed to be zecarayus's bluff. Well really he was caught off guard by the man's statement. A good lich? zecarayus had to wonder to himself, to his knowledge, no his own expierence, a lich was emotionless with only one goal set in mind. To think they were good liches made zecarayus shocked, and filled him with some hope. And he even needed to get to magnolia? Yes he can help with that.

But he had to focus on the long haired, zecarayus figured man, as he responded to his question. Zecarayus felt the aura from the long haired man as familiar, yes he felt it before, something, denomic. Still it seemed the man came here for a...thrill? Really the whole situation was weird to zecarayus and it showed when he first tried reply to...all of them. "Uh...ok,ok."   he muttered to himself trying to gather his composure and rubbed his temples, then started again more sure. "All right, it seems all of you are here for one reason or another. And you are right Haru. Unlike the other dead in this forest I am here to make sure you do not die here. Or rather prevent your deaths if you can all agree on NOT killing each other here." He finished and looked at the three in front of him, trying to remember the names. Brennan and haru...he thought to himself, the long haired man did not reveal his name, but that was fine. He met enough people who did not want to give their name for their own reasons. "And to answer your question Brennan, you can call me...Ray." he finished his sentence.

And then he picked it up, a strong presence of undead coming from the direction he came from, perhaps they followed his trail? But why would undead come after a necromancer of all mages? Unless..."I would suggest we cut our business short here, if not then it seems we will  all deal with trouble." he said, the echo voice carried a grim tone this time as soon he felt it coming from behind to, you didn't have to be a necromancer to know something was coming...In truth? The four mages would have found themselves in the middle of a hunt conducted by the savage skull.

The guy next to Atsui introduced himself short after the "Lich" warning, but probably that was only because the guy still had to decide to reveal his name or not. Since there are some people that prefer to remain unknown.
Marschal was his name, Atsui could feel that guy self confidence just by listening at the way he talked, his words were kinda nice, but they sounded just that for Atsui ears, but in his eyes he was sure that guy could handle the situation even alone if he just wanted.

I'd prefer to avoid battle if possibile.. my magic aren't very suited for combat.. but if you guys want to go at it, i will not run away.

The lost mage was aware of the limit of his magic, but surely he was no coward. If that weird group decided to fight the incoming undead, he would have not retreat from the fight, after all he grew up on the road and ended up in forest like that when he was even younger. Of course he actually never had a fight with these monsters, but he knew how to run away from them pretty easily.

Luckyly for him the small group seemed to be inclined to avoid the fight too. The necromancer had already stated that they should have moved quickly , and the pointy ear guy as well agreed, only the younger one of the group still had to say something.

The sound of the monster getting closer was getting clear and stronger, and even a bit of the stench reached Atsui nose.

Still.. if we want to go, we should get going fast.
I still need to reach magnolia after all, i'm traveling from years.

After saying those words the black haired guy turned his head in brennan direction, waiting for a response.

After haru asked his question the brush near zecarayus exploded with a grey wolf coming out, it was covered in gashes and had it's bony ribs showing, proving it was undead. It lunged for zecarayus in which zecarayus was forced to act by over riding the control of the undead. It fortunately worked and the undead wolf merely collided with him before getting up, showing no signs of aggression toward the group. However another undead wolf poked its head and snarled forward to marschal now, in which zecarayus's wolf intercepted as ordered by zecarayus and both tore each other to pieces. Further away a wolf ran up the hill in clear view of the group and it spotted. Zecarayus was not welcoming the sight of the savage skull mark on the undead wolf's hide glowing a bright violet, a mark he knew well as he had encountered the guild before. And then, instead of attacking, the undead wolf howled aloud into the spooky forest, and to have it respond by several other howls.

The wolves would have began to gather in a circle around the group snarling and with the purpose of holding the group to where they are until the hunters followed up, which at this point the hunters would have started to make their way to where the wolves gathered, soon the hunters would join the wolves. But for now the group would have to deal with circle of undead wolves surrounding them and threatening to attack them. Zecarayus had to think of the situation, undead wolves were in a circle, and keeping them from moving, not good.

"All right, unless you got a life for everyone here marschal, then lets not take chances." he spoke as one of the wolves charged and he cast a spirit bolt at it, directly hitting the wolf on the head returning it back to death. All though another wolf replaced its space in the circle, it was clear that the strength of these wolves were in their numbers, or maybe it just was that zecarayus was naturally stronger in the forest that has housed so many deaths. "Then again, it seems their someone else pulling the strings here." he said with his back turned and facing the wolves, still keeping up the skeleton appearance. He wanted to keep this group alive since they agreed on not killing each other, that and they all now faced the threat of the savage skull.

OOC: Keep in mind brennan said it was ok to skip him for this one post

In no time the group was surrounded by undead wolf, and what was before a peaceful chit chat, became in a flash a frenetic fight.

Wolves were attacking from all directions, but luckily enough the two mage that were with Atsui were kinda strong, many wolves were melting and disappearing as they just strike them one time.


Don't you guys have some super special magic to get rid of them all at once? I'm not very strong my self i usually prefer to avoid fights.

Saying that he positioned himself shoulder against shoulder with Marschal since he was closer, and started to cast his Void compression spell.
The wolven were really frail, as when Atsui casted his magic, he could kill them in a straight line, giving the group a small space between the circle to run away from that mess. The lost mage could have used his teleport magic to run away, but he didn't want to look like a coward, and he still need them to guide him out of the forest.

This way guys!!

Atsui started to run through the hole in the formation that he himself had created. He had one magic spell only for attacking but it was quite usefull.
After passing the wolven the boy turned his head towards the other wizards.

Hurry up !!