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Post by Carsaib on Feb 24, 2007 21:13:30 GMT -5
Durza was strolling down the street, and by now, it wasn’t sunny and cheery anymore. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, much to the Shade’s Delight, and he was one of the few people on the streets.
Still, he was furious. Galbatorix wasn’t giving Durza an audience, even though the only reason Durza was in town was because he had been summoned. “So much for wanting to know the details and the news... Why must he be so... Hmmm...” Durza stopped with his speaking, as he was entering treasonous territory. Well... Hopefully he’ll see me tomorrow...
Durza walked along the many streets, passing shops and side-alleys without any realization of where he was headed. Finally finding himself in a small orchard, he leaned against the trunk of one of the taller trees. The rain was getting heavier, but it didn’t bother him. Just means that there’s less of a chance of having to deal with some idiot...
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Post by Howl Wilde on Feb 24, 2007 21:28:16 GMT -5
Howl liked apples. Apples tasted nice. They didn’t actually have apples where he’d grown up in the deserts unless his tribe stole them from merchant trains, but those were usually yucky and dry. The apples here (people were silly: they put their apples in trees, which seemed pretty pointless to Howl because if people like him wanted to steal them he could just climb up and get them) were nice and sweet and cool, like water with honey in it only not really.
The young, scruffy urgal halfbreed was sitting in a tree in an orchard, chewing thoughtfully on slightly sour green apple. Juice dribbled down his chin, matting his hair. He used the back of his wrist to wipe the slobber away and adjusted his bottom so he wasn’t sitting on an uncomfortable lump. The cold was coming on and the dark skinned child looked up at gathering clouds as though expecting it to rain. It aught to rain, because then everybody would go inside and Howl could take what he wanted from the produce and goods accidentally left outside in the roads.
A yucky, bitter taste filled the boy’s mouth and he pulled too-long, fang-like teeth out of the apple he was eating, staring down at it distrustingly. It had suddenly gone bitter and un-yummy very suddenly and he had a funny-tasting pip in his mouth. He spat the pip out and dropped the apple as though it was going to bite him. When he looked down to see where the apple had landed, his eyes went wide – there was someone in a dark hood standing under the tree and had probably been hit on the head by the falling apple core.
“Uhm!” Howl said suddenly. “Uhm! Sorry!” He scrambled higher into the thinner branches of the gnarled old apple tree, looking down worriedly. “Uhm!”
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Post by Carsaib on Feb 24, 2007 22:03:40 GMT -5
Durza heard movement, looked around, and passed it off as nothing. "Hmm... when i finally get back home... ill-" An apple core landed on the top of his head. Swiftly drawing his sword, he examined his surroundings, looking up suprisedly at the attempt of speech. "What the...?"
Sheathing his sword, he looked up into the tree, crossed his arms, and stared at the young...Child? "Who are you, and why are you dropping apple cores on my head?" If this was some kind of Childish game, Durza wasn't in the mood. Fortunately, the kid seemed to be very frightened allready, so Durza felt that he'd be safe from attack.
Just to be sure, Durza walked to another tree, which he leaned against and closed his eyes. "Now... where was I... oh yeah... the stuff that I need to do when i get back to Gil'ead..."
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Post by Howl Wilde on Feb 24, 2007 22:13:53 GMT -5
Howl made a frightened squeaky noise when the dark man looked up – it was a decidedly pathetic noise, especially from Howl, who looked more feral than weak. He turned his head slightly to one side to watch the dark figure, surprised that the apple core wasn’t being thrown back up at him. He understood perfectly what the man said but didn’t respond, instead flashing his small, pointed teeth.
He carefully freed one hand from the bad angle he’d had it in trying to cling to the thin branches and scratched behind one of his horns, his longer claw-like fingernails clicking and skittering against the rough horn. Funny figure: his hair was amusing, but Howl knew for sure his own hair was much more interesting. He liked his hair. It got in his eyes and made him giggle when it scratched his back.
He maneuvered carefully lower in the tree as the dark figure left and scrabbled across a large low bough, perching on the end to watch the dark figure stride off. That was rude, going without introducing himself! He looked like he had stuff on him though, so Howl would be rude too and pinch something – then he could go buy a big black hood like that. That’d be fun: he could hide under it and use it for a tent. And he could wear it maybe but that wasn’t as fun as a tent.
With a swift movement, Howl hooked his legs around the bough and swung so he was hanging upside down, his long hair brushing the ground and his fringe finally out of his amber colored bovine eyes as he dangled upside down less than two meters from the dark man’s face.
“Uhm, Howl said he was sorry,” Howl said, sounding almost like a teacher trying to explain something to a dumb person. Hehe, dumb person. “You supposed to say it’s okay. Polite.”
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Post by Carsaib on Feb 24, 2007 22:42:02 GMT -5
Durza slolwy opened one of his eyes, then the other. "I am sorry that I am not being polite, young one. I assume you learn't manners the hard way? Did you also know, that it isnt polite to interrupt someone tha tis talking, even if it is to themselves? Anyways, I forgave you by not sending you into an abyss" Durza smiled. "By the way.. what are you? It is a burning question that I really don't want to extricate forcibly, as I'll probably see something I really didn't need to."
The being hanging before him was quite interesting, Durza did admit to himself. Looks like.. I hate to say it... but a cross between an Urgal and a human... Ugh... I dont want to know how that ever happened... This kid was getting a bit too cocky though, and there was enough of an evil intent in the creature's mind that Durza placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. Just in case the rascal tries to do something stupid...
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Post by Howl Wilde on Feb 24, 2007 22:54:30 GMT -5
Howl turned his head to one side again, his long rat-tail hair shifting in the grass as he looked up at the tall, dark figure. Actually, if he had to be honest, hanging upside down wasn’t as fun as it sounded – especially after longer than about twenty seconds, because they blood started flowing to his head and it hurt. He shifted a little, moving his knees along the wooden branches. He could feel the green-grey moss though his breeches: that odd moss that always covers fruit trees, especially apple.
“What’s a abyss?” Howl asked, curious in an animal, almost feline way. “And a ecst’cate?”
Those odd hazel eyes blinked slowly, focused on the shade. He never realized the tall figure was anything other than a very pale human with funny hair, where most humans in the city would have turned and ran, probably. Howl simply found the tall man interesting and was very tempted to reach out and touch his hair. It was a funny red color, like blood only not quite because blood was sticky and the man’s hair didn’t look sticky. None of the humans that Howl’d grown up knowing had hair that color.
“I’s a Howl,” Howl said proudly, not understanding the question about what exactly he was.
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Post by Carsaib on Feb 25, 2007 21:31:51 GMT -5
Durza couldn't help but laugh at the complete obliviousness of the young one before him. "A Howl, Hmmm? I am 'a' Durza. You are quite interesting young one... Normally I wouldn't have the patience for something like this... but..." He shrugged. "I must be tried..." Sighing, he shook his head, closed his eyes, and leaned back against the tree.
In reality, Durza was not the least bit tired; he was curious. I thought Half-elves were rare.. but now I have encountered something much more... Interesting... If he isn't part Urgal than I'm a keg of ale... Though he was curious, he was getting kind of annoyed by the way the kid just kept staring at him, something he could feel even though his eyes were shut. Slowly opening one eye, he fixed the young man with a one-eyed stare. "Don't you have something else you could be doing?"
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Post by Howl Wilde on Feb 27, 2007 1:44:03 GMT -5
“Howl dunno,” the half-breed conceded seriously, his funny dark hazel eyes deadly intense – there was nothing to suggest that he wasn’t taking the conversation with the strange red-headed man entirely as a normal man might take a conversation on which his livelihood may hang. Howl of course, hadn’t quite realized that he should probably be a dead Howl now because the man with the funny hair wasn’t really a man at all. But neither was Howl; the blood circulating in the veins under his sable skin was part human and part urgal: he wasn’t the most intelligent but he was in his own way dangerous: feral, wild, reduced to base instinct where a human might overthink something and perhaps even more animal than even an urgal: simply Howl, for the wild part of him. Howl, wild.
“Does Durza have some’ing else Durza s’ould be doing?” Howl asked, still upside down, his voice earnest enough. Instead of his earlier fear (more surprise than anything else,) he was being unusually open now: his usual reaction to someone he didn’t know was to run away unless cornered, in which case he would usually fight like something possessed. There were few people who could logically gain his attention: the baker’s son, who threw old stale bread outside for the dogs – and for Howl; the old man who fed the birds in the park and would occasionally let Howl watch and / or chase the pidgins and doves; the soldiers who conveniently didn’t see him sleeping where it was forbidden to sleep although that might have been out of caution for the small horns they might just glimpse and mistake him for an urgal left behind by some tribe or other under the Shade’s control.
Howl’s tribe had never been under Empire control: he’d never met a Shade before. Or someone with such funny hair.
“Can Howl touch Durza’s hair?”
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Post by Carsaib on Mar 7, 2007 21:12:53 GMT -5
(I dare you)
“Well... I should be talking with the king about our current prison- Wait a minute, why am I telling you this?” Shaking his head, Durza ran a hand through his hair. This creature, while being quite interesting, was getting more annoying by the minute.
It wasn’t that Durza had any Qualms with the kid; it was just that he was frazzled from his let down by the king, and he wasn’t normally a sociable person. He had decided to try and be nice however, but the kid’s last question had crossed the line. “Can you what? Touch my hair? Why would you want to do that, and better yet, why would I want you to do that?” he had said this half to himself, not intending to actually say it aloud.
Durza was actually quite proud of his blood red hair, and he kept it very well groomed. Also, another question was nagging at him. All Urgals he encountered either treated him with a fearful respect or a dumbfound fear. The Chiefs were funny, the biggest and strongest of the tribe, cowering when Durza looked at them.
But this one, this ‘Howl’, was half Urgal, and as far as Durza could tell, had no relation to any of the tribes he commanded or destroyed. But... Asking to touch his hair? What in the name of the king was this creature thinking? “NO! Of course not!”
(sorry for the wait... Mreh.. there arent any excuses... other than being lazy... Sorry)
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Post by Howl Wilde on Mar 7, 2007 22:49:57 GMT -5
Howl blinked when Durza mentioned the king – Durza knew the king? The king was like, a really big powerfully scary chief only he wasn’t an urgal so maybe that was why he was called the king not the chief? Howl was under the impression people found it staggeringly amazing to know a king personally but it wasn’t unusual to know a chief, so maybe that was a difference too? Howl scratched at his head again, revealing his short stubby horns for a moment as his hair was brushed aside. Their blunt points disappeared again his Howl’s hands returned to hanging limply from his shoulders. He was starting to feel a little dizzy from being upside down and as Durza continued muttering almost to himself, Howl began to right himself.
He was in the middle of getting back onto the bough and replying when Durza suddenly growled. Howl whimpered, falling right off the branch and landing badly on the damp, muddy grass. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide and worried. Durza shouted. Durza was offended by Howl’s question? Did humans not like their hair touched like urgals didn’t really mind? What funny little pink people men were. Urgals were much more sensible, like Howl.
“Uhm!” Howl yipped, backing against the trunk of his tree once more, afraid to run on the wet dirt and fall over and be easy prey. His small hands bunched into fists, his dark face hidden by an expression of part worry, part fear, part anger / wild, animal something.
“Jus’ ‘at Durza has funny blood-looking hair and Howl never seen fur like blood ‘afore,” Howl tried to explain. “Don’ wanna make Durza mad! Please don’ hurt Howl!”
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Post by Carsaib on Mar 10, 2007 20:42:59 GMT -5
As howl fell from the tree, Durza’s anger disappeared, replaced with amusement. He laughed heartily for a bit before regaining his composure. ”So sorry, little one. I wasn’t trying to scare you. Actually, I wasn’t truly angry... at you anyways.”
Durza sighed, continuing in a tone that conveyed a slight annoyance. “It has been a long, frustrating day, one filled with me dealing with foolishness from those I serve and those that serve me. Now calm down. I understand your curiosity. I do believe that I am the only being in the kingdom to have this color hair. Also, it isn’t custom to have one’s hair touched on another’s whim.”
He was getting curious again though. He had scattered, wiped out, or enslaved all the tribes he came across, but if the child hadn’t ever seen a shade, then that meant that there were still a few roving tribes left, ones that weren’t under his and (through him) Galbatorix’s control. ”What tribe did you come from, Howl? Where did it roam? Do you know?” If Galbatorix learned that there was a tribe outside their control, he would probably punish the shade. This prospect put a misguided grimace on Durza’s face as he spoke.
(sorry for the wait... again...`~`)
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Post by Howl Wilde on Mar 14, 2007 21:41:31 GMT -5
Howl, distrustful, keep his eyes focused on the taller figure, straightening up from his attack-ready crouch. He pulled his dark hair out of his eyes, shuffled his feet a little, made a bleating noise and shrugged, still backed up against the trunk of the tree. He wanted to turn around and climb back up, but that would mean turning his back on someone he didn’t completely trust at very much any more and he didn’t want to get a pointy thing in his back because he was silly enough to not keep an eye on a possible foe.
“Well, Howl’s glad Durza not angry at Howl,” Howl tried, careful, testing the words’ effect on the irascible, bad-tempered red-haired fellow. “And Howl’s sorry Howl asked Durza st’pid ques’on.”
He put his hands in the pockets of his breeches, although one pocket had a hole in it and the other was full of small stolen items, including a short knife that was more than a little blunt. Howl looked quiet and still now, but his eyes were still wide and slightly bulging like when you catch a rabbit in the headlights – it’s deathly still but its eyes bulge terribly. Howl wasn’t exactly a hare or a rabbit, but that didn’t stop him looking a little like one.
“Don’t ‘meber were tribe is now. Howl runned away. In desert som'place.”
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