2019-11-06 - The Sleeping Giant (Private)
Rockslides, dwarves, and giants oh my!
IC Date: 2019-11-06
OOC Date: 2019-07-30
Location: Gray Harbor/Firefly Forest
Related Scenes: 2019-11-09 - Tell Me a Tale 2019-11-29 - Unreliable Narrations
Plot: None
Scene Number: 2517
It was a beautiful day out today, for once, and the transitioning into fall had the leaves of the forest starting to turn . So, of course, it's a perfect day for a hike! Which is what August is currently doing. Hiking. It's been quiet and peaceful thus far, with only a twittering of birds now and then or a rustle of underbrush from a small mammal. He catches a glimpse of ...something. In a broken log. Glinting off the sunlight that dances through the treetops. Upon closer inspection it looks like some kind of book. Hard covered and a golden color. There's a large mountain imprinted on the front cover and there's some strange - very much not any kind of known language - writing on the binding. However, the longer August looks at it, he would notice the lettering shifting and moving until it was something readable. Something in English.
The Sleeping Giant
<FS3> August rolls Alertness: Success (8 7 5 4 1 1 1) (Rolled by: Portal)
It's been a hell of a weekend--but then, when is it not in Gray Harbor?--and hiking is one of the best ways for August to clear his head. He has a lot to think about. A lot.
So when he catches sight of the book, his first thought is simply 'woops, someone left their book out here'. It happens more often than one would think; a few of the books in his cabin are refugees, from National Parks and this very forest. Not being able to read the cover, well, that could just mean it's a foreign language book. Plenty of tourists bring books to read and lose them. (He often donates those to the library if they're in good enough shape.)
He heads to the log to check it out, peers, reaches down to pick up the book for a closer look. The title's not familiar. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, a little alarm bell from a month or so ago is chiming. Wasn't he just unable to read that text? But he's too distracted to sort out what it's related to, so flips open the cover.
The book,. for all intents and purposes is just a book. Though August can sense a faint hint of Glimmer coming off of it as he opens the cover. Instead of there being any of the usual beginning pages like a copyright page or a forward, or anything of that nature, it seems to jump right into the book! The language is the same as the outer cover, but also is shifting and moving so August is able to read it.
The village of Evermore is built on a mountain. There's a variety of steep and narrow walkways and stairs that lead to different areas of the village. One particular set of stairs leads up and up to the temple where the village elder resides. If you continue on past the temple, you will reach a small plateau, if you could even call it that. But from this plateau you can see Mount Hadar.
As August reads these first few sentences, he can feel the scene shifting around him. He knows he's still standing in the middle of the forest, reading a book. But visually he's standing on the small plateau. He can see bits of the village below him and straight ahead, a large mountain range. Though, from this distance, it almost looks like a figure curled in on itself.
August wavers when he senses the Glimmer, wariness making the hair on the back of his neck stand. But it's a village, on a mountain, overlooking a mountain range...sort of his thing...
The experience envelopes him, and he takes a steadying breath. Takes in the ecology of the area, the plants. His eyes fall on the distant mountain with the odd shape. He tilts his head, examining it. There are plenty of weird mountains, of course, so it's not too strange to see one that looks this way. BUt there was Glimmer on the book, so he has to wonder. On the other hand, didn't the human mind leap to patterns it could match?
It seems to be, over all, a normal looking Mountain Range. Maybe more akin to the Appalachia trail in the summer/spring instead of say, Mount Everest or the like. The temperature is a little cooler up here but not so much so that anything extensive is needed. If August happens to examine himself - he doesn't look like himself. He's younger, his skin is darker, and he's wearing some kind of black breeches with a long sleeved cotton shirt.
"Come Luis. We need to finish-" A woman's voice speaks up from a few feet behind where August is standing. But she's cut short when a rumble rolls through- the tremor beneath their feet is light enough so no one gets knocked over - but clearly something big caused it because the ripple effect can be seen in the area between them and Mount Hadar.
The ground shook, causing Evermore to tremble. In the distance, Mount Hadar looks like it's shifted. Only a few inches, but Luis watches the mountain often and it's definitely moved. Could it have just been caused by the tremor? Or was it the cause? Mountains couldn't move on their own though, right? His mother speaks again, "Quickly Luis. We need to finish packing so we can start our journey."
Luis, August thinks, examining his clothes and hands, feeling his face. The tremor makes him wobble, and he eyes the mountain. They shouldn't move, and yet, he remembers the bulge that formed on Mt St Helens in the days before it erupted; remembers waking up that morning with the event burned into his mind's eye.
"Right," August-as-Luis says, eyes still on the mountain. After a second he turns to follow his 'mother', though. "The journey. How long will it be? What should I bring?" Probably questions 'Luis' knows the answer to, but August asks them anyways.
<FS3> August rolls Athletics: Success (8 6 4 4 4 2) (Rolled by: Portal)
"Long enough that we need to pack for it!" Yes, he does likely know this answer already. Innately he gets the sense that it's supposed to take weeks. Maybe even a month or so. "You just need to finish packing your clothes. Your father is rounding up the Flaghr and I've got the rations packs." The mother explains. August can see a man coming their way with a large, lumbering animal that looks something like a cow - but it's dark blue with white spots instead of black and white.
There's another tremor, this one a little harder than the first one. August manages not to fall, but there's a threat of a rock slide impending. An alarm starts ringing out - rousing people. His mother almost falls too but catches herself as well. Then hurries into the small house.
"Right, my clothes." August wavers with this stronger earthquake, glances over his shoulder at the mountain, back to the animal. He pauses to make sure the bovine isn't going to panic and trample anyone, then follows Luis' mother into the house. But which room is his? Packing clothes for a long trip, that is something he can do, and fast.
When August glances over his shoulder - the mountain seems like it's moved again...but it could just be a trick of the light? It almost seems like legs are uncurling? Maybe? Weird. The bovine seems used to the tremors so it's not freaking out yet but the man - his father presumably - calls that he's going to start bringing it down and will meet them. He innately knows which room is his - going into it. It seems like it's the only other bedroom in the house in any case. August is mid tossing a shirt into a knapsack when the scene starts shifting again.
Deep beneath the surface is a network of caves and tunnels where the Under Fae dwell. They are the main source of weapons, armor, coal, gems, and an array of other ores. August is now in some kind of forge it seems like. He can recognize beings from fantasy - dwarves, gnomes, even some half-giants. Though instead of things being calm and orderly, they're scrambling. The tremors have affected them too. "Man your posts!" A gruff, battlehardened looking dwarf is shouting out. "There's gonna be at least one more!"
Oh yeah. August looks like a dwarf now too!
August blinks, taking in the sudden scene shift. Right. It is a book, after all. (Isn't it?) He tries to find a fellow dwarf to follow, expecting to get yelled at and re-directed. He peers around himself, taking in the setting. "We need to get out of here," he says to no one in particular. "If that mountain's gonna go this whole cavern's a tomb waiting to get filled." He's not sure why his wording comes out that way, figures it's the setting.
<FS3> August rolls Grit: Success (8 6 5 3 1) (Rolled by: Portal)
It totally is a book. His mind reaffirms it. Though it feels a little vague. It's not a dwarf that grabs him up - but a half giant. "C'mon Rothgar! We gotta salvage what we can before the next one hits!" Ettie. August picks up that the half-giant's name is Ettie. He's half-dragging August towards one of the back chambers. "And make sure everyone's out!" But even as he says it - the third tremor hits and this time...well. This time it's not just rocks falling...it's a massive hand that pushes itself through the ceiling of the chamber they're in like it's nothing but dust.
<FS3> August rolls Composure: Success (7 5 4 3 2 2 1 1) (Rolled by: Portal)
Rothgar. Ettie. It's totally just a book. Except August is in a structure (a cave, though, it's a cave, not a hospital) that's collapsing and they have to get everyone out. (Abri en place! rings in his head.)
Ettie doesn't need to drag August for long. It's like two decades of therapy and life didn't happen; he runs towards that chamber, right until he sees the hand. For a half-second his mind freezes, unlocks the next. No, he thinks, and it might be a book, he might not have an option of how to act, but still he tries to shove Rothgar clear. This isn't happening again. It's not.
The hand is made of stone. The fingers are large. Each one even bigger than Ettie. Who, by the way, picks Rothgar-August right up off his feet as they are both flung sideways from the blast of the hand. Ettie lands with a thud against the wall, groaning. Rothgar lands against half against the half-giant and half against the wall himself. August, being in the role of Rothgar at the moment, thinks this should probably hurt immensely. But, in fact, it doesn't. It doesn't even feel like he's tripped and fallen on his knees. He's just laying there. From where he is, he can see the hand lifting up, hear a thunderous groan from somewhere far above them. Something is awake. And it isn't happy.
"Well he's sure pissed about something," August-as-Rothgar mutters, eyeing the hand. He looks down at Ettie, trying to check him over. He has no idea how to tell if a half-giant looks injured, though. "Hey, you okay? How do we stop this thing? Or--make it less angry?" It occurs to him the best solution is probably for someone to lead it away. But where to?
Ettie looks fine, more or less. Like he just took a punch to the gut but otherwise, half-giant are hardy folk. "Oi I'm fine." He grunts, getting to his feet and picking August up again. "Let's get outta here before we all get crushed. Then we'll worry about-"
Once more the scene starts to shift. Ettie's words fading out. A familiar plataeu with a view comes into vision again. Luis again. Words of the book vaguely echo in the back of August's mind. But it's getting a little harder to remember that this is a book.
Luis stared, horrified, at the sight unfolding before his very eyes. He was supposed to be running down the stairs and walkways to meet up with his parents but he was stuck in place. Mount Hadar was...moving. It was starting to stand? A third tremor rocked through the village, sending him sprawling, coming to a stop halfway over the plateau. It was a longgg way down. And so too August finds himself sprawled out over the plateau, half off the edge - hearing rocks crumbling down to the mountain behind him and watching what seems to be a rather massive figure starting to stand where Mount Hadar was supposed to be.
Sleeping Giant indeed.
<FS3> August rolls Composure: Great Success (8 8 8 7 7 4 4 1) (Rolled by: Portal)
Now that he's not in a collapsing cavern, it gets easier to think. Well, a little, because August's first thought is 'the cavern! with all those people in it! it's collapsing!' But then he's Luis again, and Luis is up on a plateau, about to fall the hell off because the mountain isn't a mountain so much as an enormous stone someone who's woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Scrambling for purchase, he thinks, A book. This is just a book. He's not even himself. He's these other people. He could stop being them--stop reading. Close it.
And close it August does! The book slams shut with such force that August might wonder if he was really the one who shut it. But it is closed and he is back in the forest - that he never actually left. The sun is shining, there's bright nature noises, and -thankfully- there's no earthquakes happening!
August stands there for some time, staring around himself. He checks his clothes for dirt or injuries. Looks over his hands. Then he gazes down at the book, runs a hand over the cover. Did Luis survive? Ettie? Rothgar? He wants to know, but there had also been that feeling that the book nature was slipping away, that he was becoming more and more embedded.
He remembers now; Eleanor had something similar happen. He grimaces, carefully tucks the book into his jacket pocket. Can't leave it sitting out around here. The best place will be in Eleanor's safe, until they can determine what to really do with it.
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