Noah turned to see Ellyn running away. He drew his sword to feel better about what was going on, and to look like he knew what he was doing, but it didn't appear to help him in any way.
Campus Tour
- Thread starter Starkidd
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- ophion hughes
- Jun 18, 2015
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Ahh, it was a mess. A real mess. The moment people started yelling he winced, and when the kid he was supposed to be giving a tour to drew his sword... that was a bit too much. The girl was already on her way out of the school, but a sword? What was he doing?Rather than going after the girl, he stuck with the student he was supposed to (kind of) be responsible for. "Put that away - it's just going to make people panic. We should be going after her up to the mountains." Or he supposed they could stay and try and find someone to evacuate with. Or maybe there would be shelters here, magically defended.
Ellyn, upon seeing they weren't following her, turned and took a few steps toward them.
"What are you two waiting for?"
She stepped back over to them, her nerves clear on her face. She would rather stick with them then run off on her own, though.
She noticed Noah had pulled out his sword.
"It's a tsunami; I don't think that's going to help. But it will scare people away from us. Put it away."
"What are you two waiting for?"
She stepped back over to them, her nerves clear on her face. She would rather stick with them then run off on her own, though.
She noticed Noah had pulled out his sword.
"It's a tsunami; I don't think that's going to help. But it will scare people away from us. Put it away."
- Jun 18, 2015
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"We can't waste time. The mountains are far enough away, and they're going to be enough of a pain to climb that there's not going to be much time to waste." He encouraged, waiting for the boy to put away his sword before he started off again.The island was deeply wooded past the school. The city was less safe, but more open, and Ophion had some vague hopes that the thick tree cover would lessen the impact of the wave if they didn't make it all the way up the mountain. Even if a tsunami would rip up individual trees, it wasn't going to rip up a whole forest - every successive tree in it's way would lessen the power, right?
That was the theory, anyway.
For the most part, Ophion travelled in silence. It was exhausting enough hiking through the woods, and with them travelling up a steady incline, it was all the worse. It wasn't until almost a half hour later that he broke the silence with a small gasp.
"Shit, I just realized all my reference materials are back there." All his first party materials were still holed up in his dorm - and what about the library?
Ellyn hadn't considered the forest for cover, but she was quick to fall into Ophion's thinking. He was an adult, and he knew what he was doing. To Ellyn, though, the silence was a double edged sword. On one hand, she was alert and listening for any sound, snapping to attention whenever she heard something. On the other, it was maddening and only deepened her nerves.
She was just getting used to it when Ophion cursed. At first, she thought she had missed something important, and her face paled, then he mentioned books. Subconsciously, the girl looked over her shoulder in the direction they had come from.
They were alone.
Where had the other boy gone? It took her a minute to find her voice. And when she did, all she managed was, "he's gone." She completely stopped and turned in a full 180. "What the Hell." And to Ophion, she said, "the other kid must have run off. How far do you think he got? Should we go back?"
- Jun 18, 2015
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He didn't even notice that the boy had gone missing - not right away. He was lost, mentally panicking over the thought of all those books. Surely the library would have wards, wouldn't it? Things to protect the books? But the whole reason the tsunami was even an issue was because wards had failed.Please, whatever god happened to be up there, please don't let the library be ruined.
And then, abruptly, the girl behind him spoke up. The boy was missing? The boy was missing. He twirled in place, finding absolutely no sign of him. But how far back?
"Give me a moment." He said, letting out a little sigh. He hated using his taste-smell, but... well, he didn't have much option. At least there was only one (or maybe two) human around.
He stuck his tongue out in an act that would have been comical if not for the seriousness of the situation, pulling it back into his mouth and rubbing it along the roof of his mouth. He could suddenly taste-smell everything for a good distance around him, and... nope, nothing. Just the girl (who tasted as gross as humans normally did, but not especially so), him, and an odd tang of copper that he suspected meant an animal had been killed nearby.
"He must have fallen behind farther back - at least thirty minutes ago, if not more. It's possible he turned around when we hit the forest and went back to the school. I don't think we have time to go back." He didn't want to just leave him, but he didn't see another option.
Ellyn might have laughed when Ophion stuck his tongue out, but now was not the time for humor or laughter. She wasn;t quite panicked, but she was on edge. She was very fortunate to be with someone -- anyone -- but even better that it was someone who knew their way around better than she did.
She looked over her shoulder again and sighed heavily. "So, we either go back and get caught up in the wave, or we continue and let some boy probably die? Not a whole lot of good options here." She didn't want to sound terrible, but Ellyn had no desire to turn around. "Even if we went back, there's no guarantee we'd find him. He probably doesn't want us to; he didn't bother to mention anything when he left."
Ellyn looked to Ophion, hoping dearly that the fear in her eyes wasn't showing through. Her lips were set in a firm line, and her eyes were hard with fear, she'd have liked to believe she gave nothing away, but she knew that wasn't true. Ellyn couldn't hide emotions; they showed through in her eyes plain as day. She doubted he'd mentioned anything, what with the situation. If this wasn't the time to be afraid, then when was it?
"if this wave is magical in nature, what do you think caused it? Has anything like this ever happened to Manta Carlos before?" Ellyn's mind was too much a mess to remember if this had ben mentioned, or even if she should have been talking right then, all she knew was she needed to hear something. She needed to take her mind off the impending danger.
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"It's going to be bad either way. If we go back, like you said, there's no guarantee we'll even find him. He might have gotten lost, or he might have doubled back intentionally. Maybe he just fell behind." Although that seemed like the least plausible option to him, considering he was far from fit. He was winded just from the hike, and they still had plenty of time to go. He felt at least partially responsible for the boy (he had been supposed to be giving him a tour), but... well, there was no point in sacrificing himself for a chance at saving someone.Especially not such a slim chance.
The girl look frightened. It occurred to Ophion that he didn't even know her name - they'd literally met after the announcement, and as much as they'd had time to talk, he hadn't felt like it. He wasn't showing his own fear at all, but a huge part of that was that he wasn't really scared - not yet. It was like getting a cancer diagnosis, in that it didn't sink in right away. It hadn't happened yet, and while it was almost guaranteed to happen, a huge part of him was still in the mindset that someone would find a way to stop it.
"Nothing that I'm aware of, no. We had a hurricane a few years back, which was really bad, but it was a pretty normal hurricane as far as I know. That was the reason we put so much effort into the wards." Wards that had failed them the first time they'd really needed them. "We should get going though." He said, gesturing up the hill.
He sounded so calm. One of them needed to be. How frightened must she have looked? His voice soothed her nerves. When he motioned back up the hill, Ellyn nodded. Now she walked by his side, rather than behind him. It reminded her she wasn't alone. She wasn't. Everything would be okay.
"I'm sorry about your books," she said because she knew how important reading material was. It was sad to think the library, their dorms, everything, would be ruined. Maybe something would survive, sure, but how much? How many sentimental items would be destroyed first? Things like that had always made Ellyn sad.
"And, uh, I'm Ellyn Korvyn by the way. Just thought you should know, seeing as we're trying not to die together. That one was a joke, at least, a little; she smiled when she said it, a look that brightened her face. "What's your name?"
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"It's alright." It wasn't really, but he felt obligated to say it anyway. Was it wrong of him that he was more upset about the books than the people? People were almost definitely going to die, but all his brain could think on was the books that would be washed away, lost forever.No, he decided - it was just that the books were a more tangible and clear loss to him. He knew people would die, but he didn't know who, or anything beyond that. He knew exactly how the books would be lost, so it felt more real to him.
"Ophion Hughes. I'm a graduate student - I do tours and work as a teacher's aid." He paused, deciding he might as well continue. "And I focus on history, if that helps." Ahh, history. His one true love, and now a huge chunk of it was going to be washed away. At least he could make himself feel better by supporting someone.
"I'm also not much of a hiker, but I figure we've started going uphill, so every bit helps?" The incline was only gradually increasing, and he had to try and notice it at the point where they were.
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