Xira Witchblade : Mixed Offspring

[fog]

Name : Xira Witchblade
Race : Half-Drow
Age : 21
Height : 5’ 9”
Weight : 136 lbs
Eyes : a light fierce violet
Hair : white with a slightly warm gold bronze hue to it
Skin : not ebony, not obsidian, but a light gray brown

“Alright jalil… we rest here,” the drowess said as she stopped near a cave mouth of impenetrable darkness.

“Del’heen mallla,” it sounded somewhere from behind her.

Small, loose stones littering the rocky floor caused her almost to trip as she finally caught up with her slim, lightweight mistress.

“Watch where you step, phindar,” the drowess snarled over her shoulder,” You are of no use to me when you break an arm.”
Lael’fryn, First Champion of House S’sril turned her gaze back to the cave in front of them. “Kyorlin,” she simply said and without looking back she made her way to the entrance.

From behind a mask made from strips of cloth wound directly around the head, nosetrils flared dangerously and air was drawn in with a muffled hiss. Violet eyes peering cold and rigid through a narrow slit in a mask that would be more suitable in a desert, narrowed at the drowess’ back as she moved stealthily over the rocks.


Xira plumped the heavy bags down beside her. Bags the two carriers had been hauling all the way from Menzoberranzan... until they found their death just when the small party had entered the Gauth Grottoes.
She pondered… with no one left from their party, now was perhaps a chance. But just when her hand reached for a space in her boot, cries of panic echoed through the narrow canyon. Xira’s hand instead went up to the handle of the blade attached on her back.

“Sreen, ryld! Ulu usstan!” Lael’fryn’s voice sounded from the darkness.

For a moment Xira almost obeyed the command of her mistress. But when growls and the sickening sound of flesh torn apart reached her ears, Xira didn’t think twice. She grabbed one of the bags, turned around and started to run in opposite direction.

“Usstan'sargh wael!!” it sounded behind her, and those were the last words she would ever have to hear from her mistress.


Xira ignored them. Distance was all what mattered right now and she wouldn’t be stopping for anything. And she sure as hell wasn’t turning around for a miserable attempt to save that twat’s life. Instead she ran the air out of her lungs but at some point her feet slipped outwards on the wet rock floor as she rounded a corner. She picked herself up and resumed running, with each footfall a jarring pain shooting from her ankle to her knee, and back. Her heart was beating frantically, yet… it was all or nothing cause whenever she stopped, her body would become a meal as well.

She had no idea of how long she had been running. Eventually she took a left into a narrow chasm that opened into an enormous cavern lit by thousands of fluorescent mushrooms. Xira’s jaw dropped as she faced the radiant blue water of a shimmering waterfall. She perked up her ears and listened carefully. Nothing but the sound of water washing over the rocks into a glowing pool. Safe… at last.

Xira looked a moment over her shoulder into that pitch black forest of stalactites and stalagmites and mumbled,” Yes, perhaps I am a phindar, but it was a phindar that got you hard…”

She paused a moment when she looked back at the ring of stone around the pool, her fingers clenching into a claw,”... and it wasn’t me this time.”

Drow dictionary

[fog]

Sleep tends to come like the falling of a guillotine’s blade. You know it is coming, that it is inevitable, inescapable even when you try to fight it with all the energy you have. During such hours one is considered defenceless and especially in the Underdark that was not something you’d want. Unless you were bored of life of course. Something Xira wasn’t, but at some point sleep came just as instantaneous as it was unwelcome. Given the hours she had been resisting this, it could be sometime before she would be with the world again. Unless something would prevent this from happening…

For quite some time Xira was buried in her sleep, just a tired body wanting nothing more but to lay down. Her mind was all at peace, no carrousel of random thoughts, no lucid dream, no consciousness swirling in a land oblivious to the physical world. Nothing… except darkness. Until something tugged at the edge of her consciousness...


Speech somewhere in the distance… speech that was much more rapid than her own ordinary voice, reminding her of squabbling children but in a very very peculiar way.

“It is pretty…”

“It is mine…”

“It will hurt us…”

“But we are nine…”


Xira stirred in her sleep and rolled from her shoulder on her back, laying seemingly peaceful for a moment longer.

The voices turned more excited, and startled.

“It has a weapon…”

“It has a knife…”

“It can fight…”

“She will take life…”


Xira's eyes flew open as she realised the voices may not have been a dream. There was also a rhythmical cadence to them, and in a way almost pleasant to the ear. The first voice always seemed the youngest, while the last one seemed older than the rest, more wise, notifying and urging the others to take caution.

“It is awake…”

“Not more on its side…”

“It will find us…”

“We must now hide…”


The girl jumped up, a blade in each hand, and more than ready to sell her life dearly. Her light violet eyes flicked left and right with muscle constrictions and tingling around them as she crouched slowly. Invisible to anyone else, behind her mask Xira expressed a surge of anxiety when she couldn’t immediately track the source of the voices.

Then, her gaze shifted to the glowing pool and slowly she inched across the cave towards the water. When she leaned over the circular wall of rocks around the pool, the water was surprisingly clear yet she still couldn’t tell how deep it was. Her reflection shimmered perfect on its surface. But then, something flickered in the dephts, like tiny dancing lights.

Suddenly, beneath her reflection, another face appeared, alien yet with pretty almondshaped eyes. Before she could react, cold hands grabbed her wrists and yanked her under. The cold shock had her gasp for air, an involuntary reflex that caused her almost to drown right away as the air in her lungs was partially replaced by water. Her eyes dilated, tiny sparks of disbelief within them as she stared at a creature offering her three bubbles...

[lum]

Her brow furrowed in confusion, but it didn’t take her long to overcome the shock of both the cold water as well as this alien encounter. She accepted them and when the being motioned her to swallow one, she did, trusting her instinct on this one, trusting this individual was one of the few in the Underdark that didn’t long for her death. Crisp, cold water filled her mouth as her lips parted to ‘eat’ the bubble. Her brain panicked for air as some of the fluid invaded her throat as well. And then suddenly, as she swallowed the bubble, sweet oxygen started to rush through her lungs and airway.


The feminine appearance smiled at her and motioned Xira to follow her, deeper into the pool until the world turned dark indigo around them. She tried to open her mouth to talk and ask something, but she notice she wasn’t able to produce any intelligible words. Further and further down they went, the pressure on her ears increasing. The freedom was… intoxicating however, now that she was able to breath underwater. And though it was getting darker, Xira was still able to make out shapes in the cold blue darkness, all sorts of fluorescent and spooky fish shooting in any direction over the submerged rock formation before the two much larger humanoids.


Cause that is what the appearance was. Humanoid. But one unlike anything Xira had ever seen. The blue skinned being lead her in what seemed a large pipe that felt as if it wormed through and underneath the very bed-rock of the Underdark. The surface of the walls were fairly smooth, every roughness they ever have had, completely eroded over the ages by the current of this subterranean river. The longer she was in it the more she got to judge distances better, which meant her eyes were adapting to the underwater environment. At some point she sensed a sort of turbulence in the water surrounding her, and when she looked up she noticed a black, deep looking hole where water and everything in it was pulled at with slight force, a suction if you will.


Her blue skinned companion took her head and helped her get past this strange force, offering Xira a slightly startled expression. Finally the darkness started to make way for an environment that was cast blue by filtered icy light pouring from a small vertical crevasse. Her companion featuring white irises, looked over her shoulder and motioned Xira to follow her up and out of the blue darkness. She never thought she would be this happy at the prospect of more brighter surroundings...

[lum]

She got out of the water after one last kick and until it was shallow enough to give her boots a bit of grip, but not before marvelling at the cave that surrounded a subterranean pond. The walls gave off a dim bluish fluorescent glow, and the ceiling was so high and so dark, it seemed as if it was a worm hole rising up all the way to the Surface. She clung to the rocky pond wall and lifted herself out. In spite of the icy water, her muscles felt like they were burning, probably due the effort. It really felt like she had been swimming for hours. And the current on the way here had been strong at times, forcing her often to the side. Her sodden clothing and armor also weighed her down, so she decided to take a seat on some protusion and rest a moment as she looked out over the calm surface.

How this pond was exactly supplied with water, Xira couldn’t perceive from her point of vantage, but she suspected it might be a welling up from bottom water to this cave. There was no trace of her earlier companion either and Xira wondered why she had been lead to this place. Water dripped from her hair down her shoulders and between her breasts as she after a few moments sitting straightened herself again. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest when she tried to scramble up the slope that would take her to a more elevated position. But as she turned back to look at the water, she saw something flickering in its icy dephts. Shapes became visible below the surface. Small, humanoid shapes that got more clear and more sharply outlined as they reached the spot where Xira had emerged. Several heads swiflty popped up from the water and large, almond-shaped eyes turned to the half-drowess, studying her carefully.

“It has swam…”

“... many miles…”

“... It’s a madame…

“... but she’d succeed in many trials.”


Xira slowly descended down the slope towards the waterline again, this time however without drawing her blade.

“It comes down…!”

“... we need to hurry…!”
“... turned around…”

“... but do we need to worry?”

Several heads disappeared again under water, others remained floating around, just above the surface. Xira could count at least twenty of these creatures or more out there. Some were swimming nervously back and forth in the radiant blue water.

“Big she is…”

“... yet not so black…”

“...what do we say to this…?”

“...maybe we wait till it says something back.”

Xira tilted her head as she listened to the chattering voices in a much much higher pitch than her own, the last voice in each rhyme sounding like the older and more comforting one. It was hard to tell who said what and they all looked so alike. They all also looked female these aquatic humanoids featuring a blue and green skin, pointy ears and hair that was a dark blue.

“Vendui… eh, hello. If you mean I’m not a drow, you are right. I am not. And… neither are you. My name is Xira, and who are you? Why did you take me to this… place?”

“It is a Xira…!”

“... not so dark…”

“... different aura…”

“... not a monster, not a shark!”

Hmm.. not a monster eh…? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, little… Little what? I’ve never seen any like these before. They are most definitely not commonly found in the Underdark. Probably some Surface type of Fey or something.

“So. Who of you is in charge. Any… matr… hmm… leader…?”
The heads turned a moment to look at each other and then back at Xira.

“She has a thousand tricks up her sleeve…”

“...she also knows the way…”

“... she keeps the peace…”

“... she knows gray.”

“She is the keeper…”

“...not a dreamer…”

“She is the leader…”

“... she is Queen Una-Raiver…”

The water beings moved to a left and right side, forming a circle as a larger shadow emerged from the lower parts and gracefully slid closer through the now quiet water. Whatever or whoever it was, it featured a body that glistened and shimmered. A quiet melody rose up from the others. Xira sensed a certain energy building up in the air above and surrounding the pond. It all felt a little bit spooky too and Xira wondered if she wouldn’t need her blade after all.

Too late as the being surfaced. This had to be the Queen they mentioned… and she was stunning. Her hair, which was a flowing midnight blue, framed around a wide alien face, and it didn’t look as if it got wet at all. The newcomer’s head featured something that reminded Xira of insects’ antennea which in this case ended into soft glowing lantern-like lights. As the Queen rose up from the water, thin, dark blue material flowed over her firm shapely form, showing every curve above and below, and the hint of a few other things without ever giving up a glimpse. It covered a flat belly, a slim waist and hiked up over well-rounded hips towards a more widely ribcage. The silky-like material shifted as she walked towards Xira, and all the rest of her body seemed illuminated and alive.

And the way how she moved even on land… next to this ‘queen’... Xira would consider a drowess rather clumsy...