Sybbyl
Blessed
@dUMMY
Casually, Dorothy walked into the prayer hall of the Enclave after her talk with Tybalt... Many things racing through her ever working mind. She ran her hand along the tops of the seats as she walked down the thin isle, before stopping midway and sliding into the seat of the middle row on the right side.
She sighs lightly, turning her gaze up to the stained glass windows as the night sky twinkled beyond it like fireflies.
"Skraag... So many things cloud my mind this day, thoughts of my new studies, thoughts of the old. My hands tired from the work of building this place, yet in my heart I feel the most content. It's in my deep interest that I please you, to follow alongside you in any battle, be it of words or sword.. Or simply just fighting for a life. I cannot protect the world alone, my god... Bless us.. we need it"
*he laces her fingers together, looking down at her lap with a light stressed attitude. She picks apiece of flint off her shirt and sighs, continuing for a moment...
Morning
Dorothy wakes to the sun, rising in through her green and black stained windows. She yawns, stretching her arms out to the sides and sitting up from the mountainous pile of pillows and stuffed animals that is her bed. Her hair in a mess, she gets up, straightening her nightgown, and goes to brush her hair. After that, she went and changed into a sundress, and slipped on her black flats, and goes across the room to the desk facing the window as the sun is rising over the horizon...
"So I awaken on another sunny day.."
She smiles at the beauty of her new home, the tropical lands of the Enclave.
"You have truly blessed me with these lands, with this opportunity.. I will not disappoint you my lord, before I am through with this, the Enclave will bend around this watery oasis and the temple will rise higher than the trees.."
She smiles at the window, and picks up a stack of papers from last night, straightening them, and looking over the drawings and schematics for the finishing touches of her statue.. Heading down to grab breakfast, and go to the blacksmiths building.
Evening
She grins to herself, in pride, looking up at the glorious structure as the monks put on the finishing touches.. Standing tall, rising above the jungle trees as she had promised, is the Temple to her Lord Skraag. No expense spared, the structure is beautiful in her eyes... She wipes off her dress, and steps forward, ascending the small few steps to the winding staircase before her, making her way up into the open temple. She sighs... Purely filled with bliss, her mind cleared of stress, as she walks forward to the small, private areas of prayer.. and kneels upon the red carpet, looking down into the center of the structure through the glass. She bows her head... Placing her hands on her knees, and prays...
"Skraag... God of Undead, Necromancy.. Skeletons and Zombies, Vampires.. I have had this great structure built in your name.. Please, see it in your eyes, see the prayers which occur here, see the people who pray here, who travel this far just to speak with you in these lands [Un]holy. The Enclave will operate under your reign.. Under the government of the Sorrows, your Temple will be maintained, I'll be sure to that myself.. I've devoted myself to you for years, following in your devout's footsteps, my father.. And I will never rest these efforts until my days are over and I join the others in your kingdom to await the days of the undead..." [ @Michcat ]
She smiles to herself and sighs happily.. opening her eyes and looking up into the roof of the temple where his banners hang, smiling lovingly at it's beauty, this is her place of peace, and Skraag's tool, she will not rest until all of Altera sees this place, and his followers come here to pray. She rises slowly from her knees, bowing low before the center piece of the temple, taking a moment to bask in it's glory, before turning, and heading back to the Enclave to retrieve her gloves, making way towards the smith building.
Dorothy stands in the temple before the scene... A human body hangs upside down by chains as it's blood is drained neatly into the section of floor that is a depression, pooling over the green stained glass. She stands with her hands laced in front of herself, watching it collect while she waits.
"This life was taken for you, Lord Skraag by your devout, by my father... A sacrifice in your name, take it's blood, it's life giving force which flows out of it's veins as I speak. Take it as my offering, to which I pray you allow me successful research on this new subject. To further my knowledge under your name, all my studies, my skills, I sacrifice my precious time to better myself. Now I sacrifice this blood to you as well, it is yours, given in your domain.. "
She continues to watch the blood pool under the body as it drains. Feeling a bit sorry for the person this used to be, but to her it is no longer a person, but a tool for her knowledge. She smiles lightly, hoping and praying that Skraag enjoys her gift to him, and that he sees it in his eyes. She steps down from the temple, telling one of the monks to wait there with the body and ward away the Ocelots until the body is fully drained.
As she re-enters the Enclave, she smiles proudly at the steel and bone statue of a Skraag minion which stands there in the hallway. A beautiful rendition, it shall protect this place..
She heads upstairs to go about removing the halfling body, its use being expended.
Evening
Dorothy re-enters the temple again, an object wrapped in soft leathers in her hands, about the size of someone's head. She smiles to herself as she approaches the altar, and kneels on the red carpet, setting the object down.
" I am sorry, I have neglected my prayers for longer than a day, but I have been working on this... Beautiful sculpture. It may not be of the best handi-work, but it is something I can be proud of.. I have made it under your name, Lord Skraag, a tribute to your image. "
She unwraps the leathers, revealing a glass sculpture of a skull, crafted well though not exactly mastered in detail, it has it's own style. She smiles at the glass object.
" I worked for two days or so to make this.. I will display this and a few others like it at your ceremony this coming week. I hope you like them, I will not spare any effort on the coming few, and I hope that these will help add a worthy atmosphere for you when I gather the willing attenders to praise you. "
She picks up the glass skull, admiring it, turning it in her hands silently. She looks up at the banners hanging from the ceiling, and stands, glancing around the temple as she wonders where she will display the skulls once she finishes making the others, hoping she will have time to do so after this expedition to Kavdek is over. She descends from the temple, heading back to the glass forge to make a few more smaller models...
Dorothy stands in the rain.. A few miles into the forest just beyond the enclave. In her arms, she clutches a childrens book she wrote when she was nine. Her chest, heaving with heavy breath, the rain hiding the tears spilling over her cheeks as her eyes desperately search in every direction. Her hope is fading as she stumbles in the thick forest. Soaked to the bone from the rain water, she doesn't stop, continuing to trample through the forest in desperation.
"Robert!!-... Diane! Please-"
She screams into the forest, her voice breaking.. She drops to her knees into the soaking ground. She drops the book into the mud and leans forward, placing her hands on the ground before her and dropping her head as she sobs.. Pounding a fist into the dirt.
"You can't take them!!... I won't let you! I won't stop until they're safe again, you hear me! Whoever you are I don't care!"
....
"Skraag help me.. /please/.. Help me find my babies.. Just tell me they're safe, even if I never see them again..Please..Robert..Diane.."
She sobs at the wet ground.. pushing up and sitting there on her knees in the rain, her eyes closed.. Just crying.. Praying and screaming out her useless calls, breaking her throat as she screams out her sobs.
For what seems like hours.. Once the sun has long gone down over the horizon.. She gets off the ground, picking up the ruined book she used to read to the little ones at night.. and slowly made her way back home. Too tired now to cry anymore, to dry of tears to shed another, just a husk, walking back an empty building...
"I tire.. I cannot sleep, I've finished all the preparations I can for the ceremony.. I made more glass.. I can't distract myself anymore. Every night I go out to look for them, I .. I can't stop, but where could they be?"
She kneels by the shrine.. hanging her head.
"I'm just one person.. Just one mother, Dar'Ket is gone, father doesn't leave the sorrows, though I am sure he searches. Just.. Help me keep the strength to go on M'Lord, Skraag"
She wipes a tear from her cheek, looking up into the shrine at the large banners hanging there. Looking at their colors, the way they sway in the wind.. She turns her sight away and stands, like a zombie, she leaves the shrine. Going to retrieve her backpack, and continue to scower the lands for her lost children..
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And so, the second chapter of Dorothy Plug's life begins...
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Dorothy stands in the newly built tower, watching out the window quietly as the sun begins to rise over the waters. She can't help but smile, though deep inside she isn't sure even to herself if it is genuine. Still... She feels at peace.. Her frantic searches for the children have merely become the occasional trip to places she has not visited. Once a week now, she will go to a new place that she can find, and look.. But she no longer calls their names.
[Due to wibbly wobbly timey wimey, Dorothy has been aging with the children weekly, and is now 27, as they have now grown to 9 years old. The aging has been one year a week, I just havent been announcing it, because shes elven and no one would notice anyhow. so in her dimension of time, it has been roughly four years since she has seen the children.]
She sighs lightly, watching the sun rise. Another day, another sleepless night. Though it is not a miserable existence, she spends her nights working and building. For the better of the followers, for the better of Skraag.
She glances in the general direction of the place where shes going to build the homes...
"They'll have somewhere to go now.." She thinks to herself..
Building homes for the Skraag followers will take time, but it will be worth it. If they can have a safe, neutral place to go in times like these with the Alterans running around swords blazing, the religion will last and spread, and thrive.
She turns, and goes to descend back down the ladder into the halls below.
As she walks through the halls of the Enclave, gazing at it's beauty as though it were a new born child, a feeling of pride overwhelms her.. A feeling of love, of protection. Perhaps she -can- love again, not for a man, or for estranged family.. But for this, for this, for Skraag. She can love what she has left, and this is it, this is what she lives for...
"If there is anything in this world, that I would pick up a sword for, it's this place. Not once in my life have I broken my vows of pacifism.. Not once have I hurt an innocent, or threatened. Only once have I protected, but even then, I did not pick up a weapon. If someone comes here, with violence in their eyes, and tries to hurt my people.. My brothers and sisters of your following, Skraag... -That-.. I would pick up a blade for. I would burn the demons which try to corrupt this place, I would cut down the man who tries to harm our home.. Know this, my Lord, I will protect these lands with my every last dying breath.. That is a promise.. I will face it's enemies with a clear mind, and sharp blade.."
She looks out the open entrance.. Out the archway through the walls, into the vines and trees, where the sun glistens in it's rising.. Something within her sparked.. A reason to live, a reason to continue with her work. If she can love nothing else, she would love this.
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Over the course of the following few days...
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She stands in the archive, holding the copy of the Prophecy she's just ascribed onto a lesser scroll. She carefully puts it in the chest and locks it away, setting it into the open space on the bookshelves. She turns.. Stepping out of the room, her expression is void, her motions are smooth, and though graceful there is a slight air about them. She steps out, turning to open the cabinet door and pull the lever that raises the iron gate blocking off the archive.
"Sad, that I must construct a barrier to protect against the lack of common sense. You would think the Alterans would be more kind, after all the things I have done.. But I suppose I am not searching for reward anyhow.."
She walks then from the entryway out of the enclave, giving a passing glance to the tall statue which stands there in the hallway. She smiles to it, moving on. That statue is like her sense of inspiration, her muse. The first sign of her dedications, and here it stands in her hallway, all her months of hard work.
She heads over to the smith, unlocking the heavy door and walking in, replacing the keys around her neck. Taking a small glance around her workplace.. She walks over to the glass forge, and opens the "blast doors", tossing some timber into the furnaces and lighting it.
As she did the workings of starting the fires for the forges, her mind wandered. She listens to the sound of the fires crackling as they slowly begin to blaze, she lets her thoughts go, and just bask in the glorious distraction. For not only in the temple does she pray.. But here as well. She brought together the materials, going about her usual routine of pulling the molten glass from the first forge and beginning to shape it.
She watched the hot green glass mold and form as she shaped it, like watching a tree grow, watching the shape change. She smiled to herself, a small, but genuine smile. Here in this place, she was not a healer, or a scholar, she was not anyone with responsibility.
She is a child again, here in this place with her tools, she is tiny Dorothy, no worries, no plights. She just shapes the glass with her tools in utter bliss, her personal shrine of Skraag.
For what seemed like timeless hours, she shaped the figurine. She added glass in small amounts, she reheated it, she used what seemed like all of her tools purposes, sparing no expense in details.
A wide smile had spread on her face as she felt she stood in this hall with no one but herself, and Skraag's careful eyes, she sighed, after finally seeing she has nothing more to add, and took a cold drop of water, breaking the glass figurine off the the turning rod. She sanded down the bottom of it and added another glob of glass, pressing it onto the metal table to flatten it's end.
There it stood, finished. She stepped back, looking at it's detail..
There on the metal table, stood a ten inch tall, beautifully detailed dark green glass figurine, modeled after what Skraag had decided to show himself as when she was a child, when she first saw him therein her father's castle.
Once it had cooled.. She picks it up, turning it in her hands, she takes it out of the forge, she herself still covered in soot and sweat, she didn't care. She locked the forge, making her way through the tropic night, and into the Enclave. She turned through the halls and walked into the green hall, her tiny church for Skraag. She passed the pews without a thought, and made way to the stained glass window. There on it's large sill sat a glass pedastol she had made already, and she placed the figurine On top of it, a perfect fit.
She stepped back with a smile.. and went to sit on the pews in the first row, while she waited for the sun to rise and hit the glass of the figurine...
"If I could do nothing else Skraag, but build the Enclave until I run out of land, teach the people of your glory and live here in this total bliss.. That is what I would do. I would stay here, day and night without a single worry of what the Alterans do, or whether they destroy themselves tomorrow. I'd simply build the gardens, construct the houses and form more glass in your name. Let the Alterans come to me if they wished to learn of your path. " *she sighs* "But they would not come here in curiosity, this I know too well. Nothing can be easy, and I will accept that. Perhaps I can expand my reach.. Build small churches within other areas around the Northern Kingdoms.."
She pondered over that idea for some time.. But as she saw the sunrise's beautiful golden light begin to touch the windows, she was silenced. It's glory shone through the panes, and onto her little statuette, it's light bounced in it's curves and details, and reflected marvelous patterns over the floor and the walls.. It was a beautiful sight to hold..
And there she sat until the suns rays were disrupted by the tree's leaves and vines. Watching the light glint in her creation.
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Chapter Three begins..
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Dorothy walks calmly through the rain forest, lightly damp from a recent and heavy rain.. Her dark green cloak trailing on the uneven earth behind her as she watches her step, careful where she walks as she heads back towards the Enclave. The sun begins to set over the horizon as she walks slowly, her breathing calm, her expression thoughtful, her mind cleared.
For weeks it has been like this.. Total peace. She had found what she was looking for, the acceptance she needed. The work had been getting to her, the failed experiments were starting to frustrate her beyond belief, the wasted efforts for nothing gained.. She was getting nowhere in her studies.
"Silly of me to try it on my own.. I can only do so much with two hands. I'll need to speak to the others soon.. Hm.."
She smiles to herself, as she comes out of the forest, carrying quite a few branches of wood, and goes to the gates of the Enclave.
[Secret entrance redacted from entry for meta purposes]
She steps in as it rises a bit noisely, and walks over to flip the lever on the inside of the wall, the gate dropping. She goes inside.. locking the door behind herself and skips along upstairs to her office, taking off her cloak and hanging it up. She sits at her desk, laying the branches of thick wood ontop of it.. Smiling lightly at the glass skulls and little odd sculptures that decorate the office.
"If only more could see it the way I do.. Perhaps when I am finished gathering myself.. I can make it a goal to educate the Alterans about you, Skraag"
She smiles at the thought, teaching the curious of Skraag's ways..
She looks to the branches curiously, and begins sorting to see which is straighter..
"Should I paint it.. Or maybe carve it.. Hm.."
She ponders over how to decorate it.. Imagining using it for her trips into the forest to better balance, but still wanting to make it attractive. Obviously she'd have to decorate it in Skraag's colors, like she does everything else..
"If you carried a staff.. I wonder what it would look like.. Would you be humble with it? Or maybe have something dramatic,.. Extravagent?"
She shakes her head a bit.. Smiling and picking the straighter of the few, putting the others to the side and picking up her carving knife, going to start cutting away the bark happily.. sighing as she clears her mind, sitting comfortably in her seat while she thinks about new ways to give what she can to Skraag, perhaps another ceremony, or maybe a private sacrifice or two...
*She trails off into thought while she carves...*
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Chapter Four
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wooooooo
