A hunt gone wrong

Ansrana flitted through the forest, running from the fog that appeared to be engulfing her. It had descended suddenly while she was hunting a fine doe, and she knew to avoid strange magic. She was tiring, she had abandoned most of her gear a while back but the fog kept coming. Her spells were no use, the fog could easily see through her disguises.

About a half hour into the chase the fog stopped, a clear barrier from the way she came. It extended as far as she could see through the foliage, a slowly curving wall. She turned and tentatively explored the area, quickly determining that she was no longer near her homeland. The trees, they were silent. There was nothing sylvan about them, no glow of life. Just...trees. She came to a clearing while exploring the area, stumbled into the middle of it, and wept.

-----------------------

She dried her tears after a few minutes, and looked around. Right...strange forest, unfamiliar life. And she was out in a clearing...this was no way to act. She reached into her pouch of magical items and took out three...her gloves of Burning Touch and her Color Change earring. "Spirits of the wild, hear my plea...summon a Mount to carry me." she said, invoking her spell. Reality around her seemed to bend, and a magnificent stag stepped out of the disturbance. He bowed his head to her, and she quickly got on. She touched her earring, invoking the power to blend her and her mount into the forest, and set off to further explore the area.

As the wind died down and the makeshift, fabric "paper-aeroplane" shape came to a rest in the centre of the forest, it quickly rippled and changed shape, fibres shifting to form a more humanoid look.
Toby stood up slowly, giving a stifled groan as the stiffness of being stuck in one, rigid shape for so long worked itself out. "Ouch..." He glanced around, stretching his sleeves out to either side to try and speed up his recovery.
A shape through the trees caught his attention and he faltered, trying to make it out through the glare of the patch of sunlight he was standing in. It looked like... was it human? Humanoid, at least? Perhaps...?
Toby seized his chance and set off at a jog. If he could just find someone that knew what was going on, he might have a chance at escaping this strange island. He hadn't even explored it; he had spent all of his time so far trying to navigate the fog, and failing miserably.
"Hello?" he called, cupping both sleeves around his face to try and make his voice carry. Damn! He could have sworn he'd seen something. It must have moved away when he wasn't looking.
A small bird landed nearby, inquisitively chirping at him. He paid it no mind and fell back against a tree, sinking to the forest floor and sighing. Toby figured he was a lost cause. Now he was seeing things, on top of being hopelessly lost. And if he was stuck here for more than a few hours, he was going to run the risk of collapsing.
Wonderful.

[ Any post length over three lines is fine, by the way. It's good that you'd choose to do more, though. ]

A quick brown blur darted to a nearby tree. From the tree peeked a brown cat like being. "What's going on?" Kutoto murmered to himself. The alien took a ration from earlier and bit into it, He winced over the taste but forcefuly swallowed the meal as he wondered who the figures were.

Ansrana backed off into the forest, keeping an eye on the newcomer. She frowned, and murmured a spell "Whispering Wind, dancing in the sky...bear my message and let it fly." she felt the power build up in her throat, directed it at the pair, and spoke.

"It's not a wise idea to summon an unwilling archmage." her voice echoed around them. She hoped they wouldn't call her bluff "In fact, it's quite unwise. Why have you summoned me, worms?"

Toby flinched as the voice suddenly echoed out of nowhere. He'd had a bad feeling about this forest right from the start, but this? This took the biscuit.
The cloth-wrought humanoid began looking around, trying to pinpoint a source of the voice, and finding none. "Look, I'm no threat," he called loudly. "I'm not a threat. Okay?"
If this thing attacked him, he was pretty much screwed. He knew this. Better to solve the problem with words before anything bad happened. "I don't know how I got here. Or you," he added as an afterthought. "The white fog won't let me leave. I just end up where I started."
Hopefully this cleared things up a little. If not, he hated to think what would happen. He was in no position to fight anyone.

Ansrana nudged the stag forward, slowly and quietly, until she was right behind the golem. Cloth...burning touch might actually be a threat to him. She shifted her use of color change, instead making her eyes glow blue. She seemed to appear behind him while invoking her gloves. Flames flickered around her hands and forearms, and she glared at him. Between the stag and fire, even if she was a bit young, she had an intimidating presence "You are a golem, correct? Who is your creator? Tell me what you know about this place." she kept an eye on the cat thing, it wouldn't do to be ambushed.

Kutoto shyly looks on at the two figures. He ponders for a moment thinking if they knew what was going on. "M-maybe they don't know" He said out loud, only to recoil in horror over his stupid action that could possibly blow his cover.

Toby surveyed the scene before him with distaste. So the source of the mystery voice wasn't going to reveal itself, then? He sighed and buried his face in his sleeves briefly, taking a deep breath and steeling himself. He got to his feet...
...And felt an unwelcome prickling warmth from somewhere behind him. He whirled around and leapt away from the odd humanoid, narrowing his eyes at her. "Don't do that. I'm highly flammable." No sarcasm, no spite, just a simple factual statement. Toby hadn't gotten the hang of those more complex emotions yet.
"Yes. I'm... a... yeah." And he still wasn't comfortable with saying it out loud. Mentally, he cursed at himself. "I was an accident, I think. I remember a man shouting at someone else, but it's too hazy to recall. I think I fled before they knew I had a mind of my own. They didn't come after me." After a brief pause as he mentally double-checked this memory to see if he could remember any more - he couldn't - Toby relaxed his stance a little more and folded his arms. "Now may we please be civil about this?"

Ansrana looked at them both for a bit, then sighed. She snapped her fingers, cancelling both the glowing eyes and the flames, but leaving the stag "Great, just great. So neither of you two know what's going on?" Upon a second look, she seemed less intimidating and more...young. She sighed "Well, if you can't navigate the fog...I'm currently lacking my grimoire, and have no navigation or teleportation spells at my disposal." She thought a bit "Right. Civil. I am Ansrana Kethian, mage of the elven city of Liadon." she raised an eyebrow at the golem "And you escaped? Pah, your creator was an idiot...everyone knows that you should physically restrain a golem when you imbue life spirits into it. It takes a while to cast the binding spells." she looked back at the fog and sighed "And don't worry, while I know how to break them I never bothered to learn the spells themselves. Besides, I doubt there's many black diamonds here to spare as the material components."

Kutoto crawled out of his spot. "Well since I blew my cover... My name is Kutoto~ nice to meet you both~" The cat like being purred. He added "Have any of you seen a yellow mouse like being by any chance?"

Toby blinked once, then slowly turned to face the small frog-ish, cat-ish humanoid that had just emerged from the forest scenery.
"I didn't see you," he corrected the creature. "I was busy being threatened repeatedly by this elf girl. It's a little too late to back out now, though." He shrugged nonchalantly and faced the elf again.
"If you're done reminding me how abnormal I am, perhaps we should call a truce. That goes for you, too." He pointed at Kutoto and then re-folded his arms. "I think we'd be better off not troubling each other." Toby knew he should offer to group up, for the sake of his energy levels if nothing else, but he found he would rather let someone else suggest it. Talking wasn't his strong point.
Come to think of it, Toby wasn't sure if he had any strong points...

Ansrana turned towards the cat-thing "If you had something that belonged to it, I might be able to pull off an ad-hoc scrying." she turned towards Toby "I apologize. Normally, when one is summoned by a cloudkill spell, the first person they see tends to be the caster. I should have remembered that golems can't cast." she cocked her head, and took a closer look at the golem "Are...you okay? You look tired." she took off her red gloves and put on a pair of blue ones "How long, exactly, did you stay in your creator's presence? The life spirits may not have bonded correctly..."

Kutoto perked and smiled shyly "Don't worry about me. Backstabbing is not my style~" he looked around and commented. "So nobody knows exactly where we are?" he sighed in dissapointment as his ears drooped.

Toby briefly fixed the elf with a glare (not that this was particularly expressive, given that he only had threads to work with) and then looked away. Whatever she was thinking of doing, he wasn't going to fight over it.
"About a grand total of three minutes, I'm guessing. I told you, I was an accident. I doubt they knew what they were doing. I don't remember even being cast a second glance, they were just shouting a lot at each other." He blinked back down at Kutoto and shook his head. "I don't. And I have a feeling the elf doesn't, either."

Kutoto seemed dissapointed by this revelation. "I see..." he quickly perked. "Well that if we all worked together to try and find out what is going on~!" he grinned for a moment which quickly faded away. "Well that is if you want to..." he murmered twiddling his fingers and giving the two a weak smile.

Ansrana looked at the golem "No, I'm serious...I don't think the life spirits..." she closed her eyes, and a glowing dot appeared in the middle of her forehead "There's...there's something chaotic about the energies holding you together..." she frowned, and sighed "I can't make it out without a proper casting." she touched the stag's head "Dismiss." the fabric of reality seemed to stretch and distort, and when it snapped back the stag was gone and Ansrana was standing on the ground "I can try to reattach the spirits with a mixture of a Mending and a Healing spell, if you want. Perhaps I can find what's holding you together, and fix it, if we find whomever summoned us here. I'm fairly certain they'll have at least a basic grimoire."

Toby sighed deeply and bowed his head. "Look, this is me. If I'm defective, I can live with it. I've been managing just fine." He seemed a little touchy on the subject, but almost as soon as the shadowed look had appeared, it was gone. "Besides... it'd be a hassle. We need to focus on the present, and what we can do about finding an exit for you two." The faintest hint of a smile flashed across his face and he turned to Kutoto, bending down slightly and holding out a sleeve. He'd heard handshakes were a fairly reliable way of being polite when meeting new people.

"I think... I think that's a good idea. Although my judgement generally isn't too sound. But I think you're right. Working together would be... beneficial."

Kutoto perked and gave a redicilously huge smile. "Glad to be of assistance!" The cat like being chirped as he held out his hand and shook Toby's hand. "I think assistance is the only way we are going to find anything out here."

Ansrana thought for a bit "You're right. We need to stick together...but there's not enough of us to really make a difference in our numbers. I actually may be able to do something about that, though." She closed her eyes, and a faint glow appeared around her "I'm going to send out a message to nearby non-hostile life." she turned and smiled at Toby "The best thing about this spell is that I can direct it based on intent." she breathed out, and raised her hands.

"Whispering Wind, dancing in the sky...hear my message and let it fly!" the glow focused into her throat "Hello there! My name is Ansrana Kethian, mage of the elven city of Liadon." as she spoke, her words echoed around them (You two would recognize it as how I spoke earlier) "If you know anything about this place, I would appreciate it if you would come to the forest and tell me. And don't worry...this spell is set to avoid hostilities. If you know anything, anything at all, please contact me in some way. Ta!" the words echoed around them, dissipating suddenly when a small wind blew through.

She turned towards Toby and Kutoto "I specified myself in case there are any hostilities. You can either stay here with me or leave, do what you want, but I would suggest you at least hide. If you decide to stay, I can ensure that you are not seen."

Toby looked on with a hint of mild annoyance as the elf called more people to join them. He hoped it wouldn't draw a crowd; for all the energy it would give, he just didn't know how to get along with people.
Then again... perhaps more people would shift the spotlight away from him? Toby allowed himself a small smile and decided to follow the elf's instructions, stepping towards a tree and leaping to a high branch - aided somewhat by the vague wing-shapes that had suddenly replaced his scarf.
"I'll be watching," he called down to his two new 'allies' (he supposed he could call them that), and promptly shape-shifted into a long, thin vine that hung itself about the upper branches of the tree.
Of course, such a disguise wasn't exactly the most obscure thing in the world, given that greyish fabric isn't the best indicator of plant life, but since he was so out of the way of where people would be looking, it wasn't too bad a hiding place.
"Not everyone can detect others via magical signature, and this time, I'm well prepared for those who can. Don't waste time concealing me."

Kutoto sighed. "Very well then..." said the cat as he walked up to a tree. "I'm agile anyway so it would be very difficult catching me..." some rather sharp claws revealed themselves as Kutoto started to quickly scale the tree.

Ansrana looked at Toby "Interesting...so your form isn't set. Not to worry though, it is a basic spell, and I have an item that allows me to cast it without expending energy. It's called color change, and it'll blend you in as a vine much more effectively." she shrugged "But if you're against more magic, very well. I guess there's not much more to do than wait...unless either of you two are damaged. I can fix that..." she had seen archmages practice before...they almost never did anything mundanely if they could do it with magic. She figured she might as well keep up the ruse...she turned to the cat-thing "As for you, it never hurts to be hidden. I'd rather stick with intimidation if necessary, rather than combat, I currently don't have many evocation spells at my disposal." she grimaced "Dropped my grimoire along with my bow and swords back when the fog was chasing me."

Toby listened in disinterest, thankful that he wasn't required to do anything strenuous - at least just yet. "More magical interference would just complicate things," he stated matter-of-factly. "And I'm not damaged. Don't worry about me."
This seemed like one of those rare occasions that he could just stay where he was and recover quietly. The forest was warm; the mist had retreated now, and sunlight dappled the leaf litter. If he wasn't awaiting possible new arrivals, he would probably have fallen asleep. As it was, he was content with merely resting a simple form.

[ Kind of short for me xD sorreh. ]

High above the ground, a being materialized. Her body started composing from her feet up. It happened slowly, taking at least five seconds. Two of her claws on her right paw were pressed to her red mask. She removed the two claws from their place, revealing two black eyes that were only transparent in one direction. As the last of her scales solidified, she began to fall. She approached the ground with incredible speed. She regained her wits just in time though and yelled, "Wee such shurkh!"

She stopped just off the ground and fell softly on to the forest floor. She looked around, seemingly confused. Her yellow eyes locked on the sorceress, "Thuh thicks? Errrmm... woo skurr?"

Ansrana stared for a bit "Uhm...right...I...I think I can..." she screwed up her mouth "Ah, speak language would apply...but...maybe I can do it ad-hoc?" she concentrated, and the glowing dot appeared in the middle of her forehead "But without the full spell, it might not..." her aura shone again, and extended to the lizard-person. She looked like she was tiring, it was clear that incomplete spells took more out of her than the ones she chanted.


**OOC**If this works, it's not going to work well. If it works, the only thing that's going to pass through is the general meaning of the words, not actual conversation. Here's hoping she speaks our language!**/OOC**