The Freedom Stone

“As Crashing Waves”

A tropical breeze rose amidst the growing winds of the storm overhead. Its warm but swift winds fluttered the knee-length violet hair of the shirtless island man standing in the balcony above. He had introduced himself as Nohea, and to the eyes of the circle he was familiar like a long separated relative. Boke Kin and Meihi both stared at him with slack jaws and blush-inducing thoughts. Nohea turned his head so that a few strands of hair fell away from his flawlessly featured face. He tensed his finely chiseled muscles and leapt down from his vantage point, landing neatly in front of the new arrivals.

“Greetings,” Nohea said with a deep bow, his athletic frame showing nothing but tone without an ounce of spare fat to be seen. “I apologize for the miscommunication earlier,” he spoke with a crisp but pleasant tone in High-Realm, “Not many come this far out to sea who are not from the region. Though lately there have been quite a few more travelers in the area than usual. I feel something unpleasant may be happening.”

Kin and Meihi were still unable to form coherent speech at the sight of the rain-soaked figure before them. Khaljic stepped forward and bowed his head to Nohea, “Sizzle greetings Nohea, I am Suker Khaljic,” he introduced himself, “and these two are Boke Kin or the Realm, and Meihi of the East,” he pointed to the dark haired man in noble robes and the green haired woman in hides. “I believe you are to be the fourth member of our circle fwoosh.”

“I see,” Nohea replied. Khaljic started explaining the journeys the three of them had taken when Nohea raised his hand in a gesture to be silent.

“Wait...” Nohea whispered, “I hear something.” The wind and rain of the storm was all the other three could hear, but the gorgeous island man craned his head as if straining to make something out. On his brow shimmered faintly a golden ring. Meihi recognized that mark as that of the spies and assassins of the Sun, the Midnight Suns. That realization snapped her out of the reverie of looking the man’s mostly bare form over. “Enemies are coming, from the sea.”

The circle readied themselves. Kin raised his golden sword and fireplace poker. Meihi drew a pair of daggers. Khaljic readied his bow and drew a shimmering golden arrow from thin air. Nohea stood in a ready stance, but had nothing on him to use as a weapon. A few minutes passed with only the falling drops of rain making any sound. Then, abruptly, a swarm of misshapen beings burst out of the underbrush and ran screaming toward them. Each was nearly humanoid, but had some characteristic of a sea creature. Some had wide mouths of sharks teeth while others had lashing tentacles instead of arms. “Fey!” Khaljic shouted, recognizing their nature immediately.

Crashing forward with bloodlust in their eyes, the whooping horde of sea-fey approached quickly. Khaljic and Meihi downed a dozen of them as they crossed the clearing outside the ruins of the ancient temple fortress. When the ranks of the chaos beasts finally drew close, Kin swung his weapons about fiercely. His sword cut limbs and his iron poker seared wyld flesh. Nohea darted in small motions, avoiding each attack aimed at him with precision and grace. Not even a strand of his hair was nicked by the coral blades of the invaders. Then, amidst a flurry of exacting motion to artfully evade each swing, Nohea struck.

A balled up fist smashed into the fish-like face of one of the chaos creatures. Crackling essence coursed down Nohea’s arm. Blue-black blood splattered as his punch crushed the face of the fey. Like a shockwave, the wave of power running along the striking limb cracked forward and the face-smashed wyld warrior was hurled through the mob behind until it crashed through a tree fifty feet away. The top half of the tree collapsed on top of the smitten beast.

Without pausing for a moment, Nohea grabbed two of the oceanic hobgoblins by the sides of their heads and smashed their skulls together with a wet splat. As they dropped the island man grabbed a fourth victim by the arm. He whirled about, the seized fey howling in a combination of fury and fear as it was spun around like a heavy ball on a chain and then hurled high into the air. It sailed well over the tops of the trees and landed somewhere out in the jungle, disturbing the rest of a flock of birds.

Kin, Meihi and Khaljic stood in shock at the sudden brutal and powerful attacks of the shortless man. The fey likewise paused their attack in surprise. Nohea watched the fourth hobgoblin fly off into the forest then turned back toward the mob, his silky hair falling away from his face while his opalescent sea-green eyes pierced through their courage. “Who else wants some?” he asked with a calm grin, and returned to a defensive posture.

Seeing the odds they faced from their four foes the fey grumbled and started walking off, complaining about how unfair Creation could be. Meihi kept throwing daggers at some of the stragglers while laughing triumphantly. Kin and Khaljic stowed their weapons, and eventually stopped Meihi from pursuing the defeated warriors of the wyld.

Kin bowed to Nohea, noting the amazing definition in his abdominal muscles as he did. “Damn dude,” he said as he stood back upright after noting that Nohea had eight visible abs, “sometime you need to teach me how to do that.”

“Certainly,” the bronzed island man replied, “but for now, would you three like to come inside my home and out of the rain? I have plenty of food and drink for everyone.”

“You are a crackle most gracious host,” Khaljic accepted the offer on behalf of the trio. They proceeded into the ruins of the old temple, and out of the rain. Sadly for Kin and Meihi, that meant that Nohea started to dry off. Somehow, he still seemed almost to glisten.

Kin/Nohea - CANON!

Also, I just noticed that he's still using that fireplace poker.

lumber_of_the_beast wrote:

Kin/Nohea - CANON!

Well... Kin IS Realmish after all...

I like how Kin is picking up a new combat ability with each circle mate who comes along. It'd be awesome to see a confrontation where he needs to put it all to use.

I'll try to get a new chapter up in the next few days, if I can manage to get it written.