Stats

Name: Jadirial
Nickname: Jad
Age: eternal
Species: Elemental Sprite
Element: Mist
Personality: Easy to laugh, flighty and mischevious.

A Casual Encounter

The dawn was specially misty that day, and so she had come out to play. A whisp of mist among mist, she was hardly visible but for the trained eye of those who could see spirits. Even then it was hard, for as she danced in the mist, it was as if she were merely a trick of the wind in her incorporeal form. She laughed, her laugh a soft tinkling of glass, as she played between the trees, then stopping abruptly as she saw another, surrounded by ghosts. Curious... she thought, look at all those spirits around him! She studied the xweetok, yes, he was quite interesting...

"Oh, bother..That's it!" Dene was on his last nerve, and thrust a paw onto the ground, drinking up his shadow. He muttered a prayer like his father had taught him, and thrust his hand out at the overzealous spirits,"Sho!" the word burst in shadowy black, and the spirits bounced back. Some began to try and come back, but Dene was, for once, not idle. He quickly drew a pentagram in his shadow ink, and sat on it, smugly. He watched as the spirits around him began to butt up against his ward, and grinned in relief. Ah, it might not be much, but at least he had SOME space.

She giggled as she watched, looking at the spirits bbouce around. She waved her hands from behind her towards him, and a gust of thicker mist blew towards him and the ghosts, the sudden chill making them turn and finally decide to leave, at least for a while. She moved with the mist, floating in a circle around Dene, giggling, still in the form of a disembodied voice, a whis of mist in the mist.

Dene blinked, watching the spirits go and shuddering at the sudden drop in temperature. "..I don't know whether I should be thanking you, or be worried.." he muttered into the thin air.

She grinned mischievously, as the mist became more solid, thick and wet as it swirled around Dene. "That would depend on what you prefer, the ghosts, or the mist." She said, her voice whispy and musical.

Dene shrugged,"To be honest, at this point I'd have to say the mist." He seemed unpreturbed by the thickness of it. He smudged his ward, letting his shadow regain its shape."Well, that's gonna be a waste of energy to keep up; you're a lot stronger than them, so this thing wouldn't really do more than bother you a little bit." He gave a grin her way."Say...do you play chess?"

She laughed, "A ward against spirits might work, but if it guards only against those who have died, it would be of little use." She replied, finally forming a body from the mist, a thin, beautiful xweetok with long curly hair, looking with twinkling eyes at Dene. "Chess? I'm afraid I know little of the games you pets play."

"Would you be interested in learning?" Dene asked, stretching out and getting more comfortable on the plush grass undergrowth.

"Perhaps..." She replied, suddenly jumping around him gracefully as the mist swirled with her. "If it can be learned easily."

"Well, it's a strategy game," And thus, Dene began explaining the in's and out's of chess. It wasn't hard to explain, even if it was a 'thinking' game.

Jadirial listened, although she seemed to never stop moving about him as she did. Finally she came to a stop infront of him again. "I think I understand." She said, "Although I cannot move a chess piece myself, I'd end up just toppling it over."

Dene shrugged,"I've been the one to move for a lot of my friends; happen's when most of the people who I play chess with are dead. Just tell me which pieces you want to move and where, and i'll move them for you, kay?" He produced a worn, but well loved chess set.

Jadirial nodded, moving forward and sitting as close to the ground as she could manage. "What is your name, xweetok?" she asked curiously.

"Introductions already? Meh..formalities stink, so just call me Dene. What can I call you?" Dene focused almost entirely on setting up the board, glad that this one wasn't hyperactive or childish. He might be young in years, but as his cousins plainly pointed out, he wouldn't be uncomfortable in a room of old farts.

"Jadirial." She replied, "Denee... you are new to this forest, aren't you? Haven't seen such a concentration of dead spirits in a while." She commented as she watched him place the pieces.

"..Yeah." Dene wrinkled his nose,"If I'da known that woulda happened to me here I probably wouldn'ta come..at least not without figuring out how to cast a better ward. I almost expect it back at home, but..." he sighed, playing with a rook before setting it in its place,"It's too bothersome to complain. Do you want to be white or black? White traditionally goes first."

"I'll be white then." She said, as she looked at the placed chess pieces, pinting a mily white, slightly fuzzy finger at one rook and then at the spot to move it. "This place doesn't always have so many ghosts, Savenro keeps it quite clean, really." She commented, "These must have come along with you."

Dene groaned,"Probably." Then he blinked at the unfamiliar name. he moved the piece as she directed, and responded with one of his own,"Savenro? I'm...not familiar with that name. Is he an omnyouji, or a spirit?"

Jadirial pointed again, "Neither, and both." She replied with a sly grin.

"Like riddles much?" Dene asked wryly as he moved and responded to her move."Sah, how troublesome." But truthfully, he was quite enjoying her company, and his slight, thoughtful smile took the sting out of his normally exasperated line.

Jadirial laughed, her tinkling laugh, as she pointed again where to move. "Dene is an Omnyouji, correct?" She said, looking up at him with a grin. "So he must know much about the different kinds of spirits and ghosts, and types of both."

"Well, I'm still learning...but the only spirit that keeps ghosts in line that comes to mind is called..." he paused, brow wrinkling in thought as he moved her piece and again moved his own,"..Shinigami, I think. My parents speak of it as a rumor, but until it's disproven I can't agree with them."

Jadirial grinned widely, "Yes indeed, Sav-sav is a Shinigami, one tied to this forest." She said, as she stopped to study the pieces, then pointed again, "Check."

Dene laughed, startled, at her move,"Are you *sure* you've never played chess before?" he queried, before moving a piece to save him from that. He didn't seem phased by her mentioning that a supposed myth of a creature was real. Stranger things had happened, after all.

Jadirial laughed again, she seemed to be quick to laugh, flighty as the mists that swirled around them as the sun climbed in the sky. "I think it's called... newbie's luck!" She replied, "Or something like that." She said, looking up at the sun, before pointing to another piece and it's new spot. The mists were growing dimmer with the rising sun.

Dene chuckled, and moved the piece, before answering with a piece of his own,"My turn. Check." He stuck out his tongue in a rare bout of childish glee.

Jadirial pouted as she looked at the board. "Ho hum." She said, indicating a move to save herself as well. Her misty tail swished out behind her, she was slightly excited about this new game, despite how little movement it required. Thinking seemed as interesting as moving though, and she appreciated the new experience.

Dene nodded approvingly, and after relaying her move made another of his own,"You're pretty quick at figuring stuff out. Glad to have someone new to play with. The old farts back home are getting kinda predictable." He snickered,"Guess you couldn't blame them, though. They've been playing the same style for hundreds of years, some of them."

Jadirial grinned, "That must get boring indeed." She replied, as she looked at the board, pointing a suddenly less substancial hand to her new move. She blinked looking around her. "Oh drats..." She sighed, as she noticed how thin the mist was getting. "I'm going to disappear soon, I'm afraid."

"hmm, nocturnal, then?" Dene nodded. "Want me to record where our game stopped, and we can set up where we left off tonight?"

Jadirial nodded, "That would be nice." She said, her voice fainter, her own body disappearing. "Mists can not cling to life when the sun warms the ground." She explained, "As a sprite of the mist, I too fade when the mists clear."

"I'll be back tonight," Dene promised, making note of where each piece was on a spare piece of parchment he kept with him.

She nodded as the sun dispersed the last of the mist, and she was gone.

Dene smirked to himself as he carefully put his chessboard away. Despite all the stuff that happened, tonight wasn't very troublesome at all.

Captured

She was humming to herself as she swayed among the tree's leafage, artistically decorating the tree with whisps of mist and dewdrops. It was something of a pass time for her, to decorate a tree with finely formed droplets of water, and twirling denser mist between it's boughs. She'd show it to Dene when he came to play chess today.

So preoccupied was she, that she never did quite notice that Dene was late. But late he was indeed. Then something pricked her sense of danger, and she whirled around to look below. An odd, dark blue krawk smiled up at her, as he opened a strange bottle. She gasped as she felt the tug, but it was already too late to defend herself, the spell had been cast. As her being was sucked into the bottle, she gave a cry of anguish, as she threw a desperate swish of mist at the ground.

Then the krawk corked the bottle, and she was trapped. He chuckled, as he turned and walked swiftly away, his prize tucked away in his travel bag.

On the ground where the mist had fallen, tiny dew drops formed the word 'HELP!' She could only hope Dene would come... before the morning sun evaporated her plea.

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