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Sheni
"Grr...Ahh....Uh?" [Sheni Thornshank woke, his surroundings were exactly as he had left them. In the Keidran woods.] "Ugh....my head...grr..." rubs head, adding "What hit me? A humongous bee?" Chuckles at the thought, pulling myself up. "I've got to find a town. This wound won't heal it's self." I look down at my striped fur, wincing as i flex my rent arm. "Let's see, the Keidran medicine-men were no help.. looks like i'll have to find a Human Town, luckily i'm still on the border" Sniffing the air, i pick up slight Human traces.
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The Sentience
It looks like a Keidran has obtained our power...Garen! Jare'kke!
I want you to find this Keidran and bring him to me. This power is not for commoners.
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Sheni Thornshank
"I'm not going anywhere right now, it's getting dark." I set up camp humming along to a bird-song, pitching the tent with ease. "I wonder how close I am to the town, i think i can smell...doe meat?" I say to myself, I have a habit of that. I crawl into the tent and snuggle into the blankets.
"Good night," I say to the empty tent. I shut my eyes and drift off to sleep.

Goxe work up with a pounding headache. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of dusk- or was it dawn? Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it made her headache worse so she stopped and patted her pockets to make sure she still had everything- a small hatchet, a peice of flint and her sword. enough to build a rudimentary shelter and fire to keep her warm. Cutting off a stout branch for a walking stick, she picked a random direction off the moss on a tree and started walking. Under the dense canopy, lighting was bad as as darkenss fell, she started tripping more and more. Finally giving up, she found a nook on a large oak and curled up to sleep fitfully til dawn.

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Dawn Approaches
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Sheni
I yawn, stretching my mouth wide open, showing my teeth. I could have had better nights, I admitted. But now I know I'm on Human grounds.
A bunch of men came by my camp earlier, questioning me about some sort of power....
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Earlier that day
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"Hey! You there! Keidran! You have something we want!" I waited patiently.
"Well? What do you want? I'm tired." *Guards shove Sheni to the ground, holding swords to neck.* The Guards were serious. I had to think quickly or become a carpet for some slaver. I grabbed the hilt of the sword and thumped it on the man's side swiftly, making him stumble and gasp. We caused quite a ruckus. Anyone in the forest could hear us.

Nick opened his eyes only to find himself lying flat on his belly in the middle of a dirt road. He slowly got to his feet brushing off any signs of dirt on his clothes. Nick had no idea what has just happened to him and the only word that he could say was "What the bloody hell just happened?". Nick looked at his body and checked if his contents were still with him. He managed to find a dagger, a shortsword, a bag of coins, small map done crudely during his travels and a couple of throwing knives.
"Looks like everything is here. Good thing no one decided to take advantage of a passed out man...for once" Nick said as he remember all of his drunken nights.
Nick took out his map and looked around him to find the shortest path to the nearest town only to let a strong breeze blow the map right of his hands and and let fly as far as possible.
Nick, still putting his hands up as if he still had the map, said "Son of a [censored]".
Nick let his hands drop down and randomly picked a direction, hopefully meeting someone that can point him to the nearest town.

Sheni
"What in the world are you here for?!" I demanded, the tables turned, I was now on top of them. The superior soldier started cackling insanely. "Eheehee--HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha.."
I noticed something was definitely wrong. I usually strike fear into those i battle. That's when I saw it. The man was disentegrating, becoming one with the ground. They all started to crumble into dirt. I shoved off, What the..? This was too much. "TELL ME! NOW! WHO SENT YOU!" All i could hear was that evil laugh...cackling. They finally sank into the ground gone. the laugh faded. What was that....that THING? All the while, i just noticed, my arm wasn't hurting immensely like it was. I sat down sniffing my surroundings, I thought i smelled a hint of female keidran. I swear by my stripes she was close. My tail was flicking back and forth to the rhythm of the forest... I lay down, to take a little nap.

Gustav was resting against an old tree when lightining struck, sending him up and over a distancce of 10 feet. When he woke up he had a splitting headache, and his bag was beside him. There were no trees in sight, or cities. I don't know where this is, he thought. It was frightening, He wished he had something to defend himself, like one of those crossbows he had been reading about, He imagined every part of it and lamented that he did not have it, he wished he had is so bad. He turned around and heard a clunk, he turned back and there it was, complete with a side quiver that came with it. Not one to deny fate, he took it up, wondering if a Mask was favoring him.

Rick was lying on the shore, the shallow water lapping at him. He awoke when the sun started to rise, and he sat up and tried to figure out what happened. He had a hangover-like headache and looked around for something. He looked around, holding his head, and saw various sizes and shapes of wood around the shore. Did the ship he was riding fall at sea?"Man, I hope the others are alive..." He stood up, wobbling a bit, and then saw a long leather bag wrapped around a spike of wood.
It was Rick's bag. He rushed straight over to his possessions breathing heavily and unwrapped it, and looked inside. All of hi stuff was still in there. He sighed with relief, and then put it on, just now noticin how cold his clothes were. He bent down on his knee and started praying to the Masks. When he was done he stood up and started walking torwards the forest that lined the beach, unknowing what would come upon him.

Sheni
I did not notice the stormclouds that had come overhead. I was focused on finding that female scent. "Looks light it's going to rain" I stated, I was obviously having a mask frown upon me. The musky scent of wet mud and grass swept across me. Covering my nose from the burning stench, I duck into the tent, listening to the pit-pat of rain on my tent..
Thk-Thoom!
Distant thunder and lightning could be heard. It was almost calming.
Thk-Thoom!
I noticed the slight sound difference.. seemed like the storm was headed for me.
THAKKA-THOOM!
This was no ordinary storm, and it was coming towards me.
THK-CRASH!
That's when the whole world disappeared. I was left in a blank canvas. everything covered in white. I was still sitting on..something, or was it nothing? I saw a small object in the distance... a person?
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The Change
The twisting nether of the Dreamscape. An unknown place, thing, or person. Noone can classify what it is. The Dreamscape twisted and turned, morphing impossibly into what the world was. Before it was left. It had become a duplicate. Somehow, everyone in the world, had started to 'shift' into this world. It even seemed like the world it's self was moving.
Even though it was the same world, it wasn't the same dimension.
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Sheni
Before I could even start to move, the nothingness exploded back into a forest. What happened? I don't know. Temporary Blindness? Maybe. Insanity? Not likely. But something felt different. I felt stronger, but not ina physical way. I had never learned any magic. I could never use it. But it felt like a hole in my body was filled... I couldn't take this crazy day. Nothing was as it seemed.

Rocky was standing in a brawler's fighting stye, sweat was slowly going down his face. there was a man in front of him with a nightstick. suddenly the man swung the stick at Rocky, he caught it and pulled the man in close while they were both struggling to hold onto the weapon. he jumped up and sent a kick to the back of the mans head, kncking him out with one blow. "heh, too easy." the crowd around him cheered, some of them booing but he didn't care about them. he grabbed his twin daggers, and the money pouch that had his earnings from the fight and headed back home.

on the way back a storm started to close in, but he paid no mind to it. despite being half Keidran, and an Ocelot Keidran no less, he was used to the rain, even though he didn't like to get wet.

he started talking to himself, playing through a small scenario of what his parents would most likely say when he got home. "the underground fight league again? you know those things are dangerous" "you scare us half to death when you leave and dont tell us where you go, why couldn't you have just joined the templar like your father did" ((the usual thing for hybrid parents, the father was a furry. to whoever is reading this, the parents are NOT TRACE AND FLORA!!! but i wont give their names, too lazy))

"they dont understand, i dont like the templar. they may be different now that the war between the species is over ((no spoilers or assumptions here)) but i still dont want anything to do with them. i'll stick with what dad taught me and practice from there, that's why i'm in these leagues.

besides, templar use longswords, i hate longswords. too much power and not enough speed. that's why i use these babies" he pats the handles of his daggers, both of which are identical in appearance. a handle in the shape of a black dragon claw, with a hooked 12" obsidian heat-treated black blade. the first 2 inches of the blade are serrated for cutting tough surfaces whereas the rest is smooth, sharp enough to cut through flesh like butter. tribal designs are etched into the blade for some class. once a silver color, the designs are now a blood red. from past battles.

a lightning bolt struck the ground close to where he was "yikes! i'd better get home quick!" his brisk walk turned into a sprint, lightning kept striking closer and closer "damn! why couldn't i have been part Cheetah Keidran instead of an Ocelot keidran!"

he was just about to grasp the door handle to his home when a lightning bolt shot right through him. he remember falling forward, but before he reached the ground there was only darkness.

Elric moved swiftly along the deserted trace. He desperately wanted to put as much distance between himself and those gentlemen with whom he had not long ago been enjoined in a late night game of poker. In his experience men of their particular disposition often take offence to being alleviated of such large sums of currency. There was little doubt in Elric’s mind that he could easily dispatch such an assembly of rabble but he felt disinclined to use magic. The fewer people that knew he was an ex-templar, the better. So to follow that old proverb, he would take the money and run.

“Well, which way shall I head?” he said to an empty road. “Perhaps I will head for that quaint border town nestled between the human and keidran territories.” He seemed to recall a nice little tavern there that actually didn’t water-down their whiskey. “That is just what I need, a place that I can drink myself into relative obscurity.”

“I don’t like the look of those storm clouds.” Elric thought as he pressed on. Just as he was passing by an old, gnarled, tree he was blinded by the flash of lightning! There was a deafening explosion and Elric felt himself being hurled backward through the air. He felt his consciousness ebbing away. His last waking thought was, “Shouldn’t I have hit the ground by now?”

Elric awoke at the break of dawn and completely disoriented. “What the hell did I have to drink last night?” he thought to himself. Uttering an oath to himself he stood up and thought, “I have been on many a bender before but by the Masks I can’t remember ever having quite this horrific a degree of pounding in my head.” A quick inspection yielded that his surroundings were exactly the same as the night before only the tree that he had seen get hit by lightning was in no way damaged. “That is odd.” he thought. “The last thing I remember after the tree got hit was falling, falling much farther than I should have. There was also utter darkness, darkness more complete than being temporarily blinded by lightning should have caused. Was it all just a whiskey induced dream?”

After straitening his disheveled garments, Elric decides to continue on to the forest ahead and the border town to be found just beyond it.

The thunderstorm woke her up. Pulling her shabby clothes close, she pressed against the tree trunk. The scene lit up intermittantly by the lightning painted an eerie picture as mosnters frozen by the flashes leaped out at her from every angle. Finally overcoming her instinct to stay as still as possible, she sprinted away from her makeshift shelter. Another bolt flashed by and the fork struck a nearby tree. The force ripped large chunks of the truck flying. One clipped her shoulder, knocking her off balance and as a result she careened into a thick bush. Untangling herself, she continued her mad flight, until a ravine opened up before her and she ran full tilt off the edge. Her head hit a stone and she had the strange feeling of vertigo before everything flashed white....

When she awoke, she was sitting in a wide clearing, with evergreens surrounding her.

As Nick walked on he tries to remember what had happened to him the night before. The only thing that came to Nick's mind was a thunder storm and a bolt of lightning.

"Okay, a lightning bolt. What does that mean? Maybe i was knocked down by the bolt?" Nick kept thinking what had happened last night

Nick eventually manage to spot a town in the horizon. Nick remembered that he was traveling quite close to the border and heard of town nearby.

"Finally, it may be far but hey, it's at least somewhere to go to. Besides a town equals inns(hopefully) which equals to bed and food which i could go for right now including maybe one, two, maybe couplr more rounds of drinks."

Nick contiued on his path heading for the border town.

Sheni
The door swung open to the inn. I walked in, soaking wet. Shook myself, and continued walking up to the innkeeper. As I passed, a Fox-Keidran winked at me flirtingly. I was not in the mood for a heat-crazed night. "Innkeeper, what room can you get me for 40 coins?" I asked, pulling the pouch out of my pockets. "Sir, are you sick?" He said, as he eyed my wound. "No, just a little run in with wolves. Just get me a room." He sighed as he pulled off the key off the wall and handed it to me. "Have a nice stay" he called, I was already half way up the stairs. I opened up the room, the shelves were stacked with books about the Keidran-Human history, how it all began. I was too tired to read those old folklore. I tossed my sheets aside and curled up on the bed. Finally, I thought. Peace and quiet...

“I hate these dark, musty old forests.” Elric thought blithely. “It is at times like these that I wish I had the nose of a Keidran. I rely too much on my eyes and ears which of course are both easily fooled in a mist such as that storm has left behind.” Just then an arrow plunges into a tree just scant inches above Elric’s head. Without hesitation Elric flattens himself against another tree. “Well that will teach me to think too much and not pay attention to my surroundings.” Elric muses. “Who is out there and what business do you have with me?” Elric demands of the now still forest. The only reply is his own voice echoing in the mist. “I can’t stay here for long. I don’t know how many of them there are and I could be flanked at any moment. Wasn’t there a spell, a spell to detect the aura of heat produced by living beings? Oh I was never good at such magic. Well it’s either stand here and get shot, move and get shot, or try the spell.”

Elric concentrates, losing himself to the magic, forgetting the world around him. “There! I see him! It’s just one person. I can see him clearly, perched on the lowest branch of that tree ahead.” Elric’s thoughts race. “I shouldn’t be able to see him this clearly, I can barely cast that spell. Something strange is going on but no time to think about it now. I have to kill my assailant now or risk being hunted the rest of the way through the forest. I have no choice but to use magic, I could never get close enough to use my long sword.” Elric sends his mind down the twisting corridors of darkness necessary to call upon the power of magic he desperately needs. There is a bright flash of scarlet in the woods. The forest is no longer silent but now is filled with the screams of pure agony issuing forth from Elric’s would-be assassin. Elric looks on in astonishment. “That flare spell was far more powerful than it should have been. I am lucky it just rained or I could have incinerated the whole forest. As it is I won’t be able to learn anything from my assailant as there is even now almost nothing left but ashes.” Elric mulled over the events as he again guided his step towards the border town.

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Several Hours Pass
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“Finally, I am here!” he exclaims. “One more minute in those damp woods and I would have come down with fever.” Finding the tavern he had been longing for he enters. “Innkeeper, a glass of your best scotch!” Eyeing Elric’s soaked and somewhat travel stained clothing the innkeeper replies, “You have coin enough to pay for this I trust.” With a smile Elric responds, “Aye, coin enough and leave the bottle.” Elric matches action to words and tosses ten gold coins on the counter. The innkeeper grins while handing over the bottle and glass. “There will be more where that came from if you serve me some hot food and reserve me a room upstairs.” Having secured his scotch Elric heads for a table in the corner where he sits facing the door. As he pours the scotch he ponders the events of his recent magic use. “Granted it has been quite a while since I studied magic but I have never heard of one’s powers growing stronger without practice. Still it was exhilarating to feel that power again. Perhaps it has been to long. I can’t help but think something else is going on though.”

Lost in his thoughts, Elric almost doesn’t notice the wounded Keidran enter the inn. “That looks like a nasty gash in his arm. I wonder if he ran afoul of unsavory characters in the forest as well. Maybe he learned more from the encounter than I did. I know little healing magic but perhaps in exchange for easing his pain I could gain some information.” Again losing himself in his thoughts, Elric doesn’t see the Keidran slip away upstairs. Muttering an oath to himself Elric decides to try to catch the Keidran in the morning. “I know better than to bother a man in the privacy of his room. He won’t be going far injured like that. I should be able to find him in the town tomorrow.” Elric forgets the Keidran and returns his attention to his much beloved scotch.

Swearing was her first thought. After venting for several minutes, she calmed down and paced the edge of the clearing. Picking an arbitrary direction she walked on, suddenly aware that clothes were badly singed and she smelled very strongly of baked ceder. Her weary resignation at being hopelessly lost in an entirely foreign wood gave way to utter astonishment when she came across a road. Staring, she walked along side it before giving in to her curiosity and steping onto the beaten path. After hours of slogging through underbrush, fallen logs and skirting small patches of swamp, Goxe practically sang to be able to walk on level ground. Finally another sign of civilization appeared and she paused only once after sighting the tavern/inn. Suppose the owners were unfriendly to keidran? Even with the two species on good terms politically, it wasn't entirely uncommon in her experience for the two to be naturally wary of each other. shaking it off she stepped through the threshold and slipped passed the few occupants at the bar towards the fire. After warming herself, she sat next to a male drinking a scotch and ordered a mug of mead, "Nasty weather." she said to no one in particular.