Day 17:
Storm
His head snapped around, startled by the new voice, but the only other beings in the room were Tolnoran and Dlmor. He looked to Tolnoran only to find a curious look on the man's face. "Did you hear that?"
Tolnoran frowned. "Your Dlmor talking?"
"In his defense, this is the first time he's actually been able to hear me." He looked down at Dlmor as the creature rested its chin on his thigh. "I've had to use Transference to talk with him."
Tolnoran frowned at that, looking to Artemis. "You weren't able to hear them?"
He shook his head no. "First time I ever interacted with Dlmor was after it defended me against some other shadow."
"Kret," Dlmor supplied.
"Do all Kret do damage by screaming?"
Tolnoran laughed. "That's one way to put it. They do a sort of psychic attack but I haven’t heard of any doing more than giving someone a severe headache for a few hours.”
“So my experience was strange?”
“In many ways.” Dlmor bared its teeth in a silent snarl. “The damage you had sustained had been unusual for a Kret assault so either you had sustained damage prior to the Kret or something is terribly wrong.”
He ran his hand over Dlmor’s head. “We’ll deal with it when we need to. I’m just glad I can hear and see things of the Second Plane clearly now.”
“You weren’t able to?” Tolnoran asked, curious.
He shook his head no. “Most anything from the Second Plane was either invisible or some strange shadow, inky form and any sound was like a painful screech against my brain. Even the…whatever you had called it - the memory sharing thing-”
“Transference.”
“Even that hurt. But I had been under the impression it had been from the damage that Kret had done.”
Tolnoran pushed his foot against the base of the bed in order to tip the chair back onto two legs. “Strange. And this was any creature from the Second Plane?”
“As far as I could tell.”
Tolnoran settled the chair back onto all four legs, head turning towards the door. “Ysle.”
He frowned, parroting, “Ye-aisle?” as a creature he had never seen before pushed open the door.
“Almost. Condense the front vowel sound. Combined the ‘y’ and ‘i’ sound” The creature walked right up to Tolnoran and nuzzled the hand the man put out. “Isn’t that right, Ysle.” There was a low rumble of a purr from the creature as Tolnoran rubbed its snout. The man grinned at him. “You can see them, yeah?”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “If you mean I see a creature that looks like it's an oversized komodo dragon stretched a bit thin with dusty gray and black scales with red and yellow peeking out from underneath and golden eyes, then yes.”
“This is a Kret, though Ysle has richer coloring than most you’ll see later.” Ysle climbed up onto Tolnoran’s shoulders. The creature was easily as long as the man was tall and yet Tolnoran didn’t even seem to notice as the creature settled on his shoulders, chin resting on top of his head. “Most will be more earth colors to help blend in with either rock or sand, depending on the region they're from. North ones will stand out against the sands. Their coloring will be different shades of gray.”
“Do they talk?”
Tolnoran scratched at Ysle’s neck. “No, not like we do. The only ones that do speak are Dlmor, though Belvren and Jaun can be taught to some degrees of success; Jaun are more likely to learn how to speak in fluid sentences while Belvren seem to stick with a string of words that may or may not make sense together.”
“Talking that difficult to learn?”
“More of switching from a mostly image and emotion based communication to one of words is challenging,” Dlmor spoke up. “Jaun are able to pick it up easier because they use noises to communicate instead of Transference. Belvren can understand and mimic words but they’re more like parrots or other birds that can learn human speech.”
“So what makes Dlmor different?”
“My kind are a step above Jaun in the sense that we’ve had language long before we interacted with humans. We speak through Transference - humans like to call it telepathy but it’s a bit more complex than that. For us, it’s more than the Transference they associate with Belvren, Kret, and the like. Our Transference allows us to create thought into words that a being of language will understand. Most Transference will not work on those of language because of the lack of exposure to the type of Transference those of the Second Plane use.”
“But I understood your Transference?” he questioned, confused.
Tolnoran shifted in his seat. “Those attuned to the Second Plane will be able to understand some Transference. We’re more adapt to understanding the emotion and image thought than others.”
Dlmor’s eyes narrowed and Artemis got the impression that wasn’t quite right. Dlmor caught his staring and he knew it would tell him later. His frown deepened. There had been no pain, no distinction between Dlmor’s thought and his own, and he found himself growing concerned at the concept. Dlmor sent him reassurance and calm, soothing his growing worry. He would learn how to discern the difference now that he was lacking pain.
He buried his hand into the longer fur at the back of Dlmor’s neck. As long as it didn’t use Transference overly much until he did, he would be fine.
He changed the subject. “So what kind of prepping will I need? I haven’t really fought with Dlmor beyond the misunderstanding that was Elias’s arrival.”
Tolnoran laughed. “He told me about that. He feels bad that he had to do that to you and your companions but there had been something else in those woods that had wanted you first.”
“What kind of something else?”
Tolnoran shook his head as Ysle hopped down. “No idea. He didn’t say and I didn’t ask.” The man stood up. “He did tell me he had sent some of ours to go make sure your companions were safe, if that helps.”
The worry didn’t ease as his distrust about the whole thing weighed heavily in his chest. Reassurance and the sense that Tolnoran was telling the truth drifted over him as Dlmor stood up. He let his hand fall into his lap. “A bit.” He turned his gaze back to Tolnoran. “And the prepping?”
“Well, first we’ve got to get you out of that bed and dressed.” Tolnoran’s gaze drifted to the dresser briefly. “Not sure if they stashed anything in here for you - hopefully there’s at least patient garb - but the armory will have gear for you. I’m going to let you get up at your own pace and your Dlmor be your main support as I dig through the dresser.”
He wasn’t sure how Dlmor could help him till said creature hopped down from the bed and easily shifted into a bipedal version of their four legged form. Dlmor stretched its height and enlarged its hands as he pushed the blankets off.
“You do realize he hasn’t been discharged by a healer yet, right?” Dlmor pointed out as those large hands wrapped around his torso as he situated himself on the edge of the bed. Familiarity ghosted its way through his body as the memories of the previous times Dlmor had done this came floating through. He ran his hands over Dlmor’s arms, noticing finally that the pinpricks of sparkling color were individual strands of fur; each strand among the dark, almost black blue strands seemed to behave like prisms. The strands appeared to be a brilliant silver against the darker strands but the light would play off of them causing other colors to flicker off of them. They were thinner than the dark strands and only the tips seemed to glow. Even running his hands over Dlmor’s arms coaxed a cacophony of colors from those silver strands even as silver stayed the predominant color.
A low growl from Dlmor brought his attention back to the room and he realized he had missed something.
Dlmor’s hands were still around his torso but he was on his feet now. Tolnoran was standing beside him, half turned towards the door with a bundle of fabric in the hand closest to him. Ysle was standing between the three of them and the door, crouched and sideways as a warning to those at the door.
Standing in the doorway was a small cluster of people and creatures. One of the creatures looked to be similar to Ysle but the shape was far slimmer and was very clearly furred with long ears and a thin tail. The other two creatures were some creature he didn’t recognize, though one looked to be made out of rock or earth and the other some crystal.
Dlmor answered his unasked questions: the one that looked like Ysle was a Jaun and a dangerous one at that, the other two were Belvren and loyal to their humans to a fault. Along with the creature information came Dlmor’s annoyance and information of those standing in the doorway.
Of the three people, the only woman - Cecile Drev, Head of Communications - had the Jaun - Vulren - but the Jaun was more loyal to the man standing center. The man on the right - Albert Conner, Head of Defense - had a Belvren - Coal - that was made of coal. The man standing center - Hector Fox, Leader of Ilmor Outpost - had a large Belvren - Sharp - that appeared to be made of diamond but was actually made of a crystal that imitated the look of diamond. This last bit of information was filled with a pleased satisfaction coming from Dlmor, of which was followed by the information that it wasn’t something easily discernible and Dlmor was very confident that none of those before them were aware of that fact.
Or, if they were, they were very good at pretending.
“Unusual to see you assisting the healers, Balthazar ,” Albert Conner spoke, sounding mildly amused. “Not enough work out on the field for you?”
“No, Sir,” Tolnoran spoke evenly. “Simply doing as Captain Vex has requested. Will be out on the field shortly.”
“And what was this request, Lieutenant,” Hector Fox requested, though it sounded more like an order to Artemis.
It must have to Tolnoran, too, because the man’s grip on the bundle of fabric tightened. “I am to get this young man cleared by the healers. My understanding is Captain Vex had other plans for him that I was not privy to and would take him from me when he was done with other duties.”
Hector Fox’s gaze landed on Artemis. It was surprisingly hard not to bristle under the man’s gaze. “And what is your name, son?”
He hesitated, unsure what he was supposed to say, but that hesitation faded as Dlmor gave him the push to be truthful. “Artemis Lorncroft, sir.”
“Welcome to Ilmor Outpost, Artemis. I look forward to your contributions here.” Hector Fox looked back at Tolnoran. “Captain Vex is currently speaking with part of the Council. I will inform him you have gone where when the meeting concludes?”
“Armory, Sir. I’m waiting on orders to either help with the Crell situation or to cut off the incoming Kret.”
Hector Fox’s gaze flickered down to Ysle. “I will put a word in to have you sent north. Best fight fire with fire.”
“Captain Corax was dealing with the Crell,” Hector Fox directed at Albert Conner.
“Still is. He had a few scouts come back from the north with word of a cluster of Kret but he doesn’t believe it is anything to be concerned about. Captain Vex does, as do I and Cass. Even if Captain Corax’s thoughts of it being not a big deal, I would much rather take care of it now before it becomes one.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Cass is behind you on that decision?” Hector Fox clarified.
Albert Conner nodded. “She suggested putting Captain Vex in charge of it and it would seem he’s taking that decision very seriously if he’s taking the time to convince the Council that it’s worth it.”
Hector Fox’s expression betrayed disbelief and curiosity as the man turned away from the door. “Well, he’ll have an easier time once we give them the latest from Communications.” Hector Fox looked back at Tolnoran. “There’s a storm coming in from the north. Either the Kret are behind it or it’s a coincidence.”
Tolnoran nodded. “I’ll make sure we’re prepared for what may come at us, Sir.”
“See that you do. I don’t want to waste the personnel on a wild goose chase.”
“Of course, Sir.”
Tolnoran frowned. "Your Dlmor talking?"
"In his defense, this is the first time he's actually been able to hear me." He looked down at Dlmor as the creature rested its chin on his thigh. "I've had to use Transference to talk with him."
Tolnoran frowned at that, looking to Artemis. "You weren't able to hear them?"
He shook his head no. "First time I ever interacted with Dlmor was after it defended me against some other shadow."
"Kret," Dlmor supplied.
"Do all Kret do damage by screaming?"
Tolnoran laughed. "That's one way to put it. They do a sort of psychic attack but I haven’t heard of any doing more than giving someone a severe headache for a few hours.”
“So my experience was strange?”
“In many ways.” Dlmor bared its teeth in a silent snarl. “The damage you had sustained had been unusual for a Kret assault so either you had sustained damage prior to the Kret or something is terribly wrong.”
He ran his hand over Dlmor’s head. “We’ll deal with it when we need to. I’m just glad I can hear and see things of the Second Plane clearly now.”
“You weren’t able to?” Tolnoran asked, curious.
He shook his head no. “Most anything from the Second Plane was either invisible or some strange shadow, inky form and any sound was like a painful screech against my brain. Even the…whatever you had called it - the memory sharing thing-”
“Transference.”
“Even that hurt. But I had been under the impression it had been from the damage that Kret had done.”
Tolnoran pushed his foot against the base of the bed in order to tip the chair back onto two legs. “Strange. And this was any creature from the Second Plane?”
“As far as I could tell.”
Tolnoran settled the chair back onto all four legs, head turning towards the door. “Ysle.”
He frowned, parroting, “Ye-aisle?” as a creature he had never seen before pushed open the door.
“Almost. Condense the front vowel sound. Combined the ‘y’ and ‘i’ sound” The creature walked right up to Tolnoran and nuzzled the hand the man put out. “Isn’t that right, Ysle.” There was a low rumble of a purr from the creature as Tolnoran rubbed its snout. The man grinned at him. “You can see them, yeah?”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “If you mean I see a creature that looks like it's an oversized komodo dragon stretched a bit thin with dusty gray and black scales with red and yellow peeking out from underneath and golden eyes, then yes.”
“This is a Kret, though Ysle has richer coloring than most you’ll see later.” Ysle climbed up onto Tolnoran’s shoulders. The creature was easily as long as the man was tall and yet Tolnoran didn’t even seem to notice as the creature settled on his shoulders, chin resting on top of his head. “Most will be more earth colors to help blend in with either rock or sand, depending on the region they're from. North ones will stand out against the sands. Their coloring will be different shades of gray.”
“Do they talk?”
Tolnoran scratched at Ysle’s neck. “No, not like we do. The only ones that do speak are Dlmor, though Belvren and Jaun can be taught to some degrees of success; Jaun are more likely to learn how to speak in fluid sentences while Belvren seem to stick with a string of words that may or may not make sense together.”
“Talking that difficult to learn?”
“More of switching from a mostly image and emotion based communication to one of words is challenging,” Dlmor spoke up. “Jaun are able to pick it up easier because they use noises to communicate instead of Transference. Belvren can understand and mimic words but they’re more like parrots or other birds that can learn human speech.”
“So what makes Dlmor different?”
“My kind are a step above Jaun in the sense that we’ve had language long before we interacted with humans. We speak through Transference - humans like to call it telepathy but it’s a bit more complex than that. For us, it’s more than the Transference they associate with Belvren, Kret, and the like. Our Transference allows us to create thought into words that a being of language will understand. Most Transference will not work on those of language because of the lack of exposure to the type of Transference those of the Second Plane use.”
“But I understood your Transference?” he questioned, confused.
Tolnoran shifted in his seat. “Those attuned to the Second Plane will be able to understand some Transference. We’re more adapt to understanding the emotion and image thought than others.”
Dlmor’s eyes narrowed and Artemis got the impression that wasn’t quite right. Dlmor caught his staring and he knew it would tell him later. His frown deepened. There had been no pain, no distinction between Dlmor’s thought and his own, and he found himself growing concerned at the concept. Dlmor sent him reassurance and calm, soothing his growing worry. He would learn how to discern the difference now that he was lacking pain.
He buried his hand into the longer fur at the back of Dlmor’s neck. As long as it didn’t use Transference overly much until he did, he would be fine.
He changed the subject. “So what kind of prepping will I need? I haven’t really fought with Dlmor beyond the misunderstanding that was Elias’s arrival.”
Tolnoran laughed. “He told me about that. He feels bad that he had to do that to you and your companions but there had been something else in those woods that had wanted you first.”
“What kind of something else?”
Tolnoran shook his head as Ysle hopped down. “No idea. He didn’t say and I didn’t ask.” The man stood up. “He did tell me he had sent some of ours to go make sure your companions were safe, if that helps.”
The worry didn’t ease as his distrust about the whole thing weighed heavily in his chest. Reassurance and the sense that Tolnoran was telling the truth drifted over him as Dlmor stood up. He let his hand fall into his lap. “A bit.” He turned his gaze back to Tolnoran. “And the prepping?”
“Well, first we’ve got to get you out of that bed and dressed.” Tolnoran’s gaze drifted to the dresser briefly. “Not sure if they stashed anything in here for you - hopefully there’s at least patient garb - but the armory will have gear for you. I’m going to let you get up at your own pace and your Dlmor be your main support as I dig through the dresser.”
He wasn’t sure how Dlmor could help him till said creature hopped down from the bed and easily shifted into a bipedal version of their four legged form. Dlmor stretched its height and enlarged its hands as he pushed the blankets off.
“You do realize he hasn’t been discharged by a healer yet, right?” Dlmor pointed out as those large hands wrapped around his torso as he situated himself on the edge of the bed. Familiarity ghosted its way through his body as the memories of the previous times Dlmor had done this came floating through. He ran his hands over Dlmor’s arms, noticing finally that the pinpricks of sparkling color were individual strands of fur; each strand among the dark, almost black blue strands seemed to behave like prisms. The strands appeared to be a brilliant silver against the darker strands but the light would play off of them causing other colors to flicker off of them. They were thinner than the dark strands and only the tips seemed to glow. Even running his hands over Dlmor’s arms coaxed a cacophony of colors from those silver strands even as silver stayed the predominant color.
A low growl from Dlmor brought his attention back to the room and he realized he had missed something.
Dlmor’s hands were still around his torso but he was on his feet now. Tolnoran was standing beside him, half turned towards the door with a bundle of fabric in the hand closest to him. Ysle was standing between the three of them and the door, crouched and sideways as a warning to those at the door.
Standing in the doorway was a small cluster of people and creatures. One of the creatures looked to be similar to Ysle but the shape was far slimmer and was very clearly furred with long ears and a thin tail. The other two creatures were some creature he didn’t recognize, though one looked to be made out of rock or earth and the other some crystal.
Dlmor answered his unasked questions: the one that looked like Ysle was a Jaun and a dangerous one at that, the other two were Belvren and loyal to their humans to a fault. Along with the creature information came Dlmor’s annoyance and information of those standing in the doorway.
Of the three people, the only woman - Cecile Drev, Head of Communications - had the Jaun - Vulren - but the Jaun was more loyal to the man standing center. The man on the right - Albert Conner, Head of Defense - had a Belvren - Coal - that was made of coal. The man standing center - Hector Fox, Leader of Ilmor Outpost - had a large Belvren - Sharp - that appeared to be made of diamond but was actually made of a crystal that imitated the look of diamond. This last bit of information was filled with a pleased satisfaction coming from Dlmor, of which was followed by the information that it wasn’t something easily discernible and Dlmor was very confident that none of those before them were aware of that fact.
Or, if they were, they were very good at pretending.
“Unusual to see you assisting the healers, Balthazar ,” Albert Conner spoke, sounding mildly amused. “Not enough work out on the field for you?”
“No, Sir,” Tolnoran spoke evenly. “Simply doing as Captain Vex has requested. Will be out on the field shortly.”
“And what was this request, Lieutenant,” Hector Fox requested, though it sounded more like an order to Artemis.
It must have to Tolnoran, too, because the man’s grip on the bundle of fabric tightened. “I am to get this young man cleared by the healers. My understanding is Captain Vex had other plans for him that I was not privy to and would take him from me when he was done with other duties.”
Hector Fox’s gaze landed on Artemis. It was surprisingly hard not to bristle under the man’s gaze. “And what is your name, son?”
He hesitated, unsure what he was supposed to say, but that hesitation faded as Dlmor gave him the push to be truthful. “Artemis Lorncroft, sir.”
“Welcome to Ilmor Outpost, Artemis. I look forward to your contributions here.” Hector Fox looked back at Tolnoran. “Captain Vex is currently speaking with part of the Council. I will inform him you have gone where when the meeting concludes?”
“Armory, Sir. I’m waiting on orders to either help with the Crell situation or to cut off the incoming Kret.”
Hector Fox’s gaze flickered down to Ysle. “I will put a word in to have you sent north. Best fight fire with fire.”
“Captain Corax was dealing with the Crell,” Hector Fox directed at Albert Conner.
“Still is. He had a few scouts come back from the north with word of a cluster of Kret but he doesn’t believe it is anything to be concerned about. Captain Vex does, as do I and Cass. Even if Captain Corax’s thoughts of it being not a big deal, I would much rather take care of it now before it becomes one.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Cass is behind you on that decision?” Hector Fox clarified.
Albert Conner nodded. “She suggested putting Captain Vex in charge of it and it would seem he’s taking that decision very seriously if he’s taking the time to convince the Council that it’s worth it.”
Hector Fox’s expression betrayed disbelief and curiosity as the man turned away from the door. “Well, he’ll have an easier time once we give them the latest from Communications.” Hector Fox looked back at Tolnoran. “There’s a storm coming in from the north. Either the Kret are behind it or it’s a coincidence.”
Tolnoran nodded. “I’ll make sure we’re prepared for what may come at us, Sir.”
“See that you do. I don’t want to waste the personnel on a wild goose chase.”
“Of course, Sir.”