An Arctic Advent - IC

Blood blinks, grinning widely as he hops onto an empty table. "Fillies and Gentlecolts!" He grins, lighting his horn up with a soft red glow, creating magical tendrils, not of blood but magic, and clapping. "May I have your attentions please!" His horn flashes again and an instrument appears in his hooves as he starts plucking away at it, telling tales of adventurers and merriment.

Spoiler:

LoganAura wrote:Blood blinks, grinning widely as he hops onto an empty table. "Fillies and Gentlecolts!" He grins, lighting his horn up with a soft red glow, creating magical tendrils, not of blood but magic, and clapping. "May I have your attentions please!" His horn flashes again and an instrument appears in his hooves as he starts plucking away at it, telling tales of adventurers and merriment.

Spoiler:

Many of the folk stare at you in incredulity. Glimmer, who was just about out the side door, blushes in utter embarrassment and quickly vacate the premise. However, your display of musical tale-telling has a few of the children come over to you and listening to you, either that or they are just fascinated by the display of magic.

The children's parent keep an eye on their children, but smile appreciatively. Soon enough, most of the folk in the mess hall are all listening and many of them grinning or smiling. However, you can't help but notice a few others decided to get up leave the hall, shaking their heads, and one of them mutters, "...music at a time like this... insensitive..."

Blood pauses for a moment in thought, not long enough for anypony to notice- at least he hopes- as he continues to try and bring some light into this dark time. His tune changed to a lighter diddy as he smiled a bit more tenderly.

"I'll tell a tiny tale, of a kind and little colt
Who everypony laughed at, and thought he was a dolt." Blood bonks himself on the head at this, laughing softly.
"Now tell me little children, just who could that colt be?
But as I sing and laugh to you, I'll tell you it was me!" Blood grins at that.
"I've always been a child, even as I grow old.
For you see fillies and colt, that thought is what's my gold.
A smile on my face and bringing joy to all your hearts.
If anypony's sour?" He grins, winking at the pony who said 'music at a time like this', "Well, I'll make a lemon tart!" Blood laughs, continuing his little ditty.

He glances around telling an embellished tale of an evil king who enslaved ponies, but was in the end defeated by a young filly and colt who were kind and banished the dark pony with their smiles and happiness.

Blood moves to one of the fillies and smiles. "Now tell me little one, why do you think I sing?
Of pearls and ponies, 'venturers, and even evil kings?
The reason is, for all of you to smile and to laugh,
For isn't it just mean and cruel to not let you? 'tis a gaff!
The joy inside your heart my friends." Blood boops a couple of the kids noses with some his magic. "Is all that I do need.
because sorrow is a nasty thing- an evil little weed.
So laugh and play my little ones, and you stallions and mares.
'Cause darkness cannot handle joy- it gets caught unawares." Blood smiles and puts his instrument down. "And now, my friends, For a short time, my songs are at a pause. For you see, I am hungry and need food 'fore it's gone." He still has the tune to his words. "But rest assured, my friends right here, I'll continue right away. I'll also accept some requests of songs for me to play." He grabs his food and eats it quickly before heading back to singing and playing his instrument.

You entertain the children for quite a while, but eventually all good things must come to an end, an most of the children are ushered off to bed by their parents. You receive a fair number of thankful nods from many of the parents as they corral their sleepy children, although you are now feeling quite tired yourself.

One particular child looks is still entirely fascinated by you and was waiting the whole time to finally talk to you. She's a small purple unicorn filly with a fuchsia mane who doesn't even have her cutie mark yet.

"Oh wow, those songs were amazing. How did you learn to play those instruments? How did you make them? Oh I'm Lavender Snip by the way, and I'm trying to figure out how to get my cutie mark, maybe you know huh? How'd you get yours?" She talks rather quickly, almost like she expects to be interrupted at any moment.

* * *

By this time everyone has gotten their meals and if you feel so inclined may find a pallet to sleep upon.

Blood glances to the side and kneels down beside the filly, chuckling lightly. "In order, sweetie... Thank you, lots of practice, I simply used a bit of magic, nice to meet you Lavender Snip, my name is Mage, I don't quite know how to tell you but just do what you're good at. I always liked making ponies happy, and healing their hurt hearts." Blood strums his instrument and sits beside her. "But then my friend got really hurt. Like really badly hurt. I started singing to him, trying to help him feel better, and then I started using some magic without thinking. He..." His blood went into his body and sewed the cuts back up "... Was healed, and I found out that that was what I was good at- I was good at healing ponies whether here." He taps Lavender's chest. "Or an injury." Blood smiles and pats Lavender. "What are you good at little one?"

Camellia had been sleeping on and off for a while but opened an eye drowsily to watch Blood Mage's conversation.

"I don't know, I've tried lot's of things, but nothing ever seems to work out. All the other ponies just laugh at me when I mess up," she admits sadly. "But I want to be able to do what you did. Get everypony's attention, make them laugh and talk to them without being ignored or interrupted. And-"

"Lavender," a temple member calls out from across the room, she's a pegasus sporting some star patterned temple regalia, "it's time for bed!"

Lavender Snip let's out a sigh. "I don't want to be stuck in this temple forever," she says quietly as turns to see the approaching pegasus.

"Hm..." Blood looks at the pegasus and back to Lavender.

The unicorn must be related to the temple in some way, if the regalaed pony is any indication.

He walks with her over to the Pegasus with Lavender. "Hello there. Do you mind if I speak to you while miss Snip goes to bed?" Blood kneels down and lightly nuzzles the filly, whispering- 'I'll listen to you next time I see you' and standing up.

Spoiler:

The filly smiles brightly and nods. "Alright, I'll go to bed. Thanks mister Mage."

The pegasus nods and waits to make sure the filly leaves to the bed-chambers. "A fine job you did handling the children by the way, it helped us a fair amount. Often the children get it into their heads to explore the temple when they get bored, it can become quite the hoof-full tracking them down," she says. "What did you want to talk about?"

"It's fine." Blood smiles. "I love entertaining. As for what I want to talk about... "

"Lavender." Blood says, and there's a bit of bitterness in his tone. "Sounds like she's important to the temple, from the way you singled her out. So, what exactly is her role in the temple?"

LoganAura wrote:"It's fine." Blood smiles. "I love entertaining. As for what I want to talk about... "

"Lavender." Blood says, and there's a bit of bitterness in his tone. "Sounds like she's important to the temple, from the way you singled her out. So, what exactly is her role in the temple?"

"I'm afraid you might be slightly mistaken on that account," she says sadly. "She is a bright young filly, it's true, and honestly she'll likely become a member of the temple eventually if she chooses to. You see she is an orphan that we've informally taken under our wing.

"The temple has a standing agreement with the all of the North, we take in any child who has lost their parents, feed them, teach them, and eventually they are guaranteed a part of the temple provided that they haven't been adopted before the end of their training, all citizens of the North are bound by this contract. But Lavender Snip, she's different. You see, her parents, were merchants; fine ponies from Equestria, to the south, who visited here in the summer and would collect rare and valuable items that could only be found in the north and brought them back with them. They were fairly profitable from what I've heard.

"However six months ago they were going to head up further north to one of the farthest villages in the country, on a promise of a large quantity of Frostberry Jam. The trip should only have taken two weeks, so they asked if their daughter could stay at the temple. We, of course, obliged and haven't heard a word from them since.

"We assume the worst, it was avalanche season after all, and the village in question has written to us that no such ponies visited them. It's sad, but she falls outside of our mandate with the Northern citizens, so she won't actually be a part of the church until she gets her cutie mark and is legally allowed to make the choice. It's a bit of a pickle.

"Really, I just called her out because I know she can be quite chatty and needs her sleep." She finishes smiling gently. "If you don't mind me saying, you look like you could use some sleep yourself. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure all the children are accounted for."

"... I'm very sorry for making a mistake. Honestly, when you had called her out, I thought that she was a filly who had been chosen to be a member of the church who-" The words stick in his mind and Blood stares. "... She is... Essentially the same thing." Blood looks down, then over to the way the filly passed, and bit his lip. "..."

He doesn't want her to have to stay in the temple if she doesn't wish. "I..."

She can't until she gets her cutie mark, and-even then- where would she go?

Either way, she doesn't seem like she'd be happy...

Blood takes a deep breath, blows it out. "I want to take her with me. If that's ok with you."

He'll get backlash from the rest, but that's fine. Hopefully.

Camellia groans.

---

Note: I as a player love the idea though. Mostly just because there's probably little chance the GM was expecting it. Next town we're in we should also kidnap a random NPC we pass and make them our squire. =P

"I-I can't decide that on my own. You'd have to talk to Lady Indigo, she handles the adoption process, but I believe she's out in the town at the moment, she was going to be part of the ceremony after all, and with all the commotion... nearly all the constellations are out of the temple at the moment. I'll certainly tell her when I see her and you'd also have to talk to Lavender Snip herself to see if she would actually want to be adopted. I don't think she knows her parents have passed away, she still thinks thinks they are coming back to her, the poor dear."

"I'll just tell her that I'll see her out of the temple, and take care of her. And thank you." Blood smiles. "I... she said she didn't want to be stuck here forever." Blood notes. "... Something doesn't quite add up..." Blood shakes his head and walks into the sleeping room, looking for the closest mat to Lavender and laying down there, most likely falling asleep."

As patient as the sequoia, as flexible as the willow. Glenrir watches the room, keeping his own council. The only noise he makes is slight shuffling as he rearranges his branches, enuring they are clear of stones or ice crystals caught in the battles. Despite the nonchalance, he was paying attention: Pony politics of personal paternal patronage possibilities were not something covered by Lu'Pine or even Tim Burr, so this was fascinating.

Wave Rider had gone to sleep some time after the last song blissfully unaware of Blood's intent of having a child.

You all go to sleep, whether you have a dream or they elude you, you manage to get a whole six hours of sleep. (enough for an extended rest)

You awaken to sounds of loud, yet distant howling. Timber wolves by the sound of it.

Glenrir hears:

Something seems odd. You see the earlies of morning light filtering in through the window... but it shouldn't be sunrise yet, there should still be four more hours until the sun rises.

Glenrir nods to himself. A call to arms. Fire used so freely in this realm was likely only one source. He should hunt the unicorn down. But he was the runt of the litter, the small one, as indicated even by his name, merely a glen. Many twigs build a wolf, as the idiom went, but along with that expression, the implication that any given twig is of no importance, can be shifted, can be lost, without damage to the whole.

It may be his tribe, it may not. Many timber wolves were still quite hostile to even his... Excuses. That's what they were. All excuses. The others have had rest enough, and a wolf's cry might as well be a herald of a different sort to the ponies. They would need time to prepare, but they were already waking. He walked from the room to the halls, and then to the outside. Not running, but not a casual saunter either.

Freed from the echo-chamber of a den that church was, he lets howl a different wolfsong of his own in reply. He then echoes the previous original howls, albeit with a slightly different warble.

Howling:

If he was directly ordered to, he would abandon his post, but it was drilled into his barrel that mutual existence with the ponies was valuable. This was not the first time they were attacked, though more often with wild animals, not something as serious as flames. There was honour in keeping lines of diplomacy, of keeping the (essentially) escape route safe, and so he would work to ensure the town could re-establish its dominance, despite the need to go. To hunt. To have blood coat his joints.

A unicorn needed rescuing first. Order before chaos. It was how the ponies had bested his bynd so long ago, and wolves were not so proud as to not learn from the victors. Even when that choice was harder than ebony.

Camellia stretched as she gave a soft yawn, then rubbed her eyes and wondered vaguely what time it was. She padded over to Glenrir and asked, "Wa's the howl'in abou?" clearly still half-asleep.

Carn murmured irritably as he awoke, shaking his head...There was a lot of howling...And the sun...That was odd, he must have been more worn out than he thought, shaking his head as he wandered out of the temple, glancing around sleepily. "Hmm...? Something wrong...? If you wanted to get a start before morning, you should have said somethin'..." He took a few breaths, clearly not getting that anything was wrong, other than perhaps a late start...

Glenrir looks back at the other two. Predators. It made sense they would be up earlier, they were likely at least a bit more nocturnal than the ponies. "News. A bynd not far from here has been attacked. Considering the heat rations, it is most likely the pony of yesterday, as fire was the primary weapon. I was advising them that the open ice sheets near the town would be less flammable than the conifer forest, and better to stage a defense. I am obligated to lend aide here now, having accepted partial payment, so I can but relay the message onwards as my only aide... I cannot imagine why they would be struck, though. At this time of night we have the advantage over diurnal creatures."

The timber wolf looks a bit sullen in the clear morning light. Technically that wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough. The howls could only convey so much information, a lot of it was pieced together from intuition and logic, but for more complicated messages signals could get mixed. His was on the edge of that complexity level, so there was some interpretation. It wasn't the only thing bugging the plant-beast, though.

"And you're tired for a reason. The sun is incorrect. While I mayn't have a steadfast was of knowing it, we need not sleep; I have not been standing vigil for nearly long enough to justify the sun's position. The festival began in earnest at early dusk. Full nightfall was the fire-eater, right before moonrise. It is none too much later than midnight right now, if you would believe it. The sun rose five hours before it should have."

"Exactly how far away is this bynd?" Camellia says with a yawn that lightly ices the floor.

Blood wakes up slowly, subconciously using his tendrils to aid him in in grooming himself. Blood slaps himself a couple of times before bouncing over to the timberwolf, kitsune, and bear. "Mornin! Er-" Blood caught the last part of Glenir's statement. "Evenin', then." Blood shakes himself off, looking around. "... Contemplating findin' that mare and takin' my cloak back, but she needs it more'n me." He cricks a couple of stiff bones. "So, headin for wolves first or unicorn. I'm not leavin' your family to fight that flankhole."

Spoiler:

"I would say we could make it before dawn, were time not such a fluid concept right now." Glenrir considers the echo and the distance.

"But we don't build castles, nor walls nor mountain forts like the ponyfolk. They were under attack. Not detecting one coming, or a scout being singed, but under attack. I have no blood to rush to my head--" Technically true, but metaphorically lying like pyrite. "--So I could tell: Our fight with the serpent was over in less than one minute. And in that time, two buildings were wrecked, ponies were brought to their knees. By the time the guard finished, it had been five minutes, at the most. Bloodlust extends perception of time to make it seem like hours between the swing of a claw and connection, I hear, but fights are frantic, quick, and lethal with the wolves."

He sighs, a fully forced action considering its pretty clear he doesn't need to breathe. "My choice is not so much loyalty but helplessness. I am not acting over-loyal nor kind with you, there is merely naught I can do. If the tribe survives, we pull ourselves together rapidly if dissembled. If it fails, as the elders say, ashes fertilize the forest for new growth."

The last was said without conviction. Yes, there was honour in a death in glorious combat, bravely battling the blaze, but without anywolf to recognize that honour, what value was it? He finises his thoughts quietly, but with at least half-hearted conviction. "We said we would secure the constellation. If the unicorn is otherwise occupied, it would be a disservice to not use it to our advantage."