by MiscChaos » Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:34 pm
Alena gives a solemn chuckle, the kind with little to no mirth, at Ol'gerr's question. She just hopes her friend isn't too disappointed in her answer when Ol'gerr gave up so much information so freely. "I have lost the first 12 years of my life to the void and when I reached 38 years of life, I was placed in the cave, so unfortunately I do not have much information for you in regards to my time period." She says apologetically, though she continues so that her response isn't a total disappointment. "The world I remember for the most part was hostile. Meepism had not spread too terribly far in my time, so a lot of people feared and rejected those that were different. If you were human, elf, dwarf, etc., then you were fine, but if you were monstrous like the goo-girl or myself, you found yourself run out of town unless you could disguise yourself. Even then, if there was someone in town who could see through your disguise, you were still run out. So my life for the next 8 years repeated in a cycle: Find a town, make a few friends to ease my sense of loneliness, have someone find out about my nature -usually the friend-, and then be run out of town. A few times, they actively tried to kill me, a difficult feat given my natural defenses, but I was far away from the swordmaiden I am today thus my response was to run until they stopped chasing me. I can tell you briefly of the towns themselves, but after a while, I stopped paying attention to them and paid more to the people within. I did see a lot of the countryside, however. It was a lot less developed then what I have seen of the world today, so the grasslands would spread for leagues ahead of me with all manner of beast roaming through living their lives. Forests would spring up so large that you would wonder if there was an end to them, yet would seem so warm and inviting that you would become unsure if you wanted them to. I encountered a desert exactly once in all of my travels and was almost compelled to shout 'Hora hora!' a look for potatoes. I have not the foggiest idea why, but I learned that I do enjoy potatoes. I have seen much of the world around me, untampered with and pure of outside influence. Pure, beautiful, terribly easy to lose yourself in. It is probably why I find myself more at ease in nature than I do in civilization.
"When I was 20, I got lost in a glorious, beyond beauty forestland and stumbled upon a church. The church is the most vivid memory of a place I have. I can tell you the colors of the walls, the style of the stained glass, the little plank I had to be careful of when I slithered over it for fear of breaking it once again. I recall the forest itself with trees so large it seemed like they split the heavens, sparse enough to let sunlight filter though and bless the area with an almost ephemeral light. It as if the slightest disturbance of the quiet could cause it to fade out, yet while it was there it would shine with all its might! In this almost isolated piece of heaven was where I stayed for the next 18 years, recovering from the treatment of the outside world, reading whatever I could get my hands on, and growing stronger fighting with Meep's holy weapon. The clergy I called family came and went as they spread the word of Meep through out, I gather I joined the flock near the beginning of the movement's life, but they always returned with glorious tales of their travels. They had a way with words, so they would always paint vivid pictures of the world for me, describing the utter chill of a tundra or the serene peace of an Elven woods or the fear inducing power of a volcano nearby a village they visited. Most of what I know of the world, I learned through them, so I am not the best source of information in that regards. It was a dream for someone like me and I hope to return there one day, even if everyone I could call family has grown old and died long ago. I do not think my cloister was involved too heavily in that war, but I do remember more than a few of my family being called off to participate. I remember almost hating the High Elves when one of them didn't return. I suppose that is one of the positives of being in the temple for so long: It gave me time to think and cool down from that rage. It replaced it with entirely new ones, but those a lot less destructive." Alena pauses, both to catch her breath since she's been speaking for so long and the gather her thoughts. She's already said most of what she knew of the world during her time period, but that still feels woefully uneven with what Ol'gerr has already shared.
"Though you have already seen it, I could describe the temple. I will not go over what was obvious, you have already experienced those parts. I cannot describe most of the inner temple because that is where the trials where held and I was not allowed to view those for fear of sharing the information with challengers. I can, however, describe the side rooms where I slept. I am likely biased due to my intense dislike for the rest of the temple, but these were the most beautiful part. They were carved almost entirely of crystal, so whenever I lit a fire or created a light, it would reflect off the walls and create a rainbow of color, a rainbow I could twist and cause to dance as I moved the light source throughout the room. I only shared this with one other, though it quickly became apparent that that was a bad idea since she tried to slay me when she figured out I had no information about the challenge for her. Still, it was a glorious place to rest, entertained by the pretty lights across my eyes."