Journey Trial (PT pt1) - Jeon-e, Mer, Valentine
In Journey Trial ・
By Nora
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The caves below the surface were everywhere, they spanned all under the surface of the continent, and even though the surface reos had been there for centuries, the caves had been there for longer than that. So it's no surprise that they caves had some interesting quirks, let's call them that, like unique vegetation and brilliant gems to illuminate the tunnels, or the damp and musty air in some areas that made the surface reos want to leave as soon as possible from how uncomfortable it was to be in.
And uncomfortable they were, the five of them, as they travelled through this part of the tunnels.
There wasn't any reason to travel in them for land dwellers like Jeon-e, Mer and Valentine, but Saturkeon had suggested it as a shortcut through the continent in order to help Canna reach Thedale faster, so they followed the advice and instead of venturing through the vast and densely populated cities of Vitalus, they were traveling through the underground tunnels of it. They'd have to leave the tunnels, once they arrived near Hoius, but they had been traveling for days with no issues so their journey was going pretty smoothly, if Mer had a say in it.
He, Valentine and Jeon-e had decided to embark in the purity trials, as a way to test themselves and their bond, a test needed both in proving of them being an responsible adult, and a proof that they knew how to care for themselves and others. That's why they had decided to do this adventure together as well, even though Valentine didn't feel the urge to do it and Jeon-e felt indifferent about it, but Mer was young, and wanted to prove himself, so he asked them, and when they had agreed, they all gathered enough for their travels and got ready to begin the journey at the gates of Silver Province.
There, near the gates, they had met Saturkeon, a haedian from the order clan with little to say, and Canna, a small vayron clearly not from here. They got to talking, making small chat as they left the city behind, and Canna told them how she was looking for a guide to bring her closer to Thedale and how Saturkeon, eager to learn more of the land dwellers, had offered her services.
Saturkeon did not seem keen to be on the surface, but once in the tunnels, who had had little mercy for the three reos in the past months, she opened up to them and started mentioning little things here and there, details of the tunnels that outsiders would not have any knowledge of and experiences they would not be privy to. Canna was the most curious, not being from Vitalus and not having taken part to what Mer jokingly dubbed "the great underground exploration", but it was refreshing for Jeon-e to learn about the culture of the haedians, even if Mer talked in the background and Valentine said nothing more than one or two words.
Their travel had been smooth until then, and while their resources had been steadily declining, there was no scarcity of water in the tunnels, and thanks to Saturkeon's haedian lineage, and Canna's trinkets from Thedale, they had been able to barther with some haedians from different clans on the way, making it so that even the food was still abundant in terms of distance and time traveled.
Currently, they had been traveling for a couple hours, in an effort to find a suitable place to camp for the night. Saturkeon had warned them about this part of the tunnels, so they had kept going even when they had met places they would have found suitable days ago, because here, in this part of the tunnels, they weren't suitable. So they had been travelling, keeping an eye out for nice places, and Mer was the first one to notice a change in the wind's behaviour at some point in the tunnel and stop them to veer to a side tunnel.
They all had followed him, and they were met with a widening tunnel at first, and then a vast cavern just sitting there, empty, large enough to hold 30 haedians easily. The ceiling was full of stalactites, and they were all dripping water on different parts of the caves, making it so there was also drinking water available.
Jeon-e looked at Saturkeon, and she nodded, saying "this will do" while dropping the bag she had been carrying.
"Finally!" said enthusiastically Mer.
"Spaces like these are rare, aren't they?" said Valentine, clearly perplexed by what they had found. "I feel uneasy at how empty it is."
Jeon-e looked at Valentine, clearly agreeing with him, but finding nothing to complain about to the others, and Canna just shook her body and stretched her legs, clearly tired at having to keep up with reos bigger than her, with bigger strides while walking. "We should still take the opportunity to rest, it seems isolated enough to me, doesn't it?" she said looking to the side, at Saturkeon.
Saturkeon looked back at her, and warned "We still shouldn't let our guard down. If the haedians from the clans here find us, they won't wait for us to put our guard back up."
"And yet," Mer said, settling on a blanket he had basically pulled out of nowhere, "we still need to sleep."
Saturkeon huffed but said nothing, and they moved quickly, setting up their makeshift camp and taking out their dinner to enjoy.
As they settled in, their conversation turned to the Purity Trials, Canna inquiring the three reos on why they were participating in them.
"I still don’t understand why you are going through them," Canna admitted, her age showing. "Isn’t your life in Vitalus fulfilled enough? Why do you have to prove you're capable through this trial?"
"It’s not only about being capable," Valentine said. "It’s also proving we’re strong enough to protect what and who matters to us, to take care of it."
Jeon-e nodded. "It's the reason why the trials are a group activity, instead of an individual one. You might be able to take care of yourself as best as you can when you're on your own, but caring for someone else as well? Taking care of them? Considering the choices you take because, while you don't mind hurting yourself, you would never want your companion to get hurt? These are all lessons that you need to learn about"
Valentine continued "And if you haven't learned them until this point, the trials will teach you them."
"I was the one that didn't feel ready so, to give you some backstory, i wanted to do this. The two of them, Jeon-e and Valentine, they all seem ready in the world. But I didn't feel ready, so this is for me. To prove that i too, am as ready as they are.
Saturkeon nodded, knowing as well as the other three how important this journey was, and Canna looked at them, reflecting on the knowledge shared.
However, once the silence had properly settled, they all heard a sound echo from the tunnel, a sound that reflected movement from where they came from.
Saturkeon’s head snapped up, and her ears twitched, trying to understand what she was hearing. "We’re not alone," she said, her wings opening up, ready to face whatever came from the tunnel. Valentine and Jeon-e sprang to their feet, while Mer and Canna got up more slowly and started stuffing back into their bags whatever was left out from their dinner.
From the shadows, a group of lean figures emerged, heaedians with sharp eyes, calculating and unforgiving. Their fur, where it wasn't patchy on their bodies, was dull and matted with dust and blood. Their wings, who should have been as strong as Saturkeon's, where full of scars and cuts. They were not here for good.
"The Forgotten Clan," Saturkeon growled, her voice low. "They're who we were trying to avoid. They have nothing left, so they're ready to attack anyone indiscriminately. Keep close"
One of the haedians from the Forgotten Clan spoke, and demanded all they were carrying or they would attack.
Mer bared his teeth, still reckless. "You wish."
Saturkeon hissed at him, but it was too late, as all the haedians from the Forgotten Clan launched themselves in the caves, a blur of claws and spread wings as they tried to steal the bags from the reos' backs.
Jeon-e barely had time to react before a haedian lunged at her, jaws snapping directly for her throat. She twisted, dodging the attack by pure instinct, with only centimiters to spare, and then struck back, her teeth sinking into the shoulder of the haedian who had gone for her throat. The haedian made a pained sound, but she didn’t let go, pushing forward with all her strength and driving him backward, until his paws scrambled for purchase against the stone. The haedian was light, all skin and bones, so the size difference had not been an issue to Jeon-e, her muscles more maintained and more useful than his bigger body.
Mer and Valentine stood near each other, covering their blind spots with efficiency. One haedian had tried coming from above, jumping and gliding down on them, claws sharp and fully directed at Mer's eyes, but he dodged it easily with his smaller size and Valentine, sensing the impending threat, jumped up to the haedian and took hold of the base of one of the wings, clamping down and feeling the skin rip, dragging the enemy down to make him submit. The haedian, now hissing and turning in pain, backed towards the cave walls, trying to escape further attacks now that his focus was on the pain instead of on the attack.
Saturkeon flew up, the high sky in the ceiling and her undamaged wings letting her gain vertical advantage on the haedians that had looked her and Canna's way, and she plunged down towards them, trying to intimidate them into retreating and splitting up, and succeeding.
Canna, seeing what Saturkeon was doing, started running away from the entrance of the cave, quickly dodging the haedians that tried to lunge at her once they got separated by Saturkeon. One of the haedians tried to get in front of her, but she ducked below him, her size small, and the one that was chasing her came slamming into the one that tried to block the path. Before they could do anything, she bit their shins, making them unable to stand on their feet.
The haedians from the Forgotten Clan were weak, but they did not give in, as they knew that this was the possibility to score some resources for themselves off the backs of the five reos, so the fight kept going. Jeon-e got pinned down by one of the haedians, his face dangerously close to her neck, but she twisted and kicked at his underside, hitting right on his stomach and making him retch, and she slipped from under him, attacking his shins as well, just like Canna had done before to the other haedian.
Valentine and Mer moved together and they too managed to take down their attackers, giving them bleeding shoulders, bleeding wings and to one of them, a limp caused by one of the two sinking his teeth on his back leg, through the muscle and straight to the bone.
Saturkeon was struggling a little, with now two of the haedian's attacking her in the air and trying to push her backwards on the stalactites, trying to make her crash into them and hurt herself. Jeon-e noticed and shouted at her to pay attention, as well as threw herself up, off the back of Valentine, jumping and catching the tail of one and dragging him to the ground, letting Saturkeon to deal with the Forgotten's Clan one on one instead of them ganging up on her. And deal with him she did, as she pushed him mid air, uncaring that he bit her shoulder, and crashed him on the walls of the cave, making him gasp and letting him fall 3 meters to the ground. The haedian landed with a thump, his breath short, and his body weak.
With all haedians injured in one way or another, they all tried to stand, their faces low to the ground, not threatening, and they all tried to group together. "This isn’t over," one of them said, but Saturkeon growled, and Canna looked at them unimpressed while Jeon-e, Mer and Valentine stepped forward.
The haedians, seeing they would get nothing in their injured state, turned their back slowly, leaving the less beaten to guard their retreat, and took to the tunnels. Once the last injured were far away, the two remaining haedians who stood to defend them took off running as well, knowing they had lost.
The five reos held their breath, and once the silence fully settled, they all panted in relief.
Canna wiped her face on a wall. "That was something."
Mer shook his body, trying to dispel his nerves. "Never a boring day in these caves."
Saturkeon exhaled, folding her wings. "They’ll be back if they think they have a chance."
"Let them try," Valentine muttered, clearly proud of them.
Jeon-e sighed. "We should rest and leave as soon as possible. We kept them at bay, but Saturkeon is right, they'll be back with healthier haedians to attack."
They all lied down except for Jeon-e and Saturkeon, who took the first shift as guard.
They had defended their temporary dwelling, and that's what mattered.
Journey Trial (PT pt1) - Jeon-e, Mer, Valentine
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In Journey Trial ・ By Nora
・ Content Warning: Blood!!
2270 words, Journey trial
"Along your journey, you’ll have to find shelter - and not always in the safest of places. Depict your Reosean either defending their temporary home from intruders, chasing the previous residents out, or being chased out themselves!"
https://www.deviantart.com/reos-empire/art/Jeon-e-17263-1119400196
https://www.deviantart.com/reos-empire/art/Valentine-17284-1125665856
https://www.deviantart.com/reos-empire/art/Mer-17277-1123141798
Other reos (no PT):
https://www.deviantart.com/reos-empire/art/Saturkeon-17363-1133143818 owned by Alliion
https://www.deviantart.com/reos-empire/art/Halcyon-Heeler-17365-1133143857 owned by Chrysokami
CP COUNT:
2270 words = +22
Other member's reos = +2
Corresponding land = +1 (Vitalus)
Personal Art = +3
Purity Trials (PTs) = +2
Total = 30 CP
(25 CP for Saturkeon, 24 CP for Canna)
Submitted By Nora
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Submitted: 1 week ago ・
Last Updated: 1 week ago
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[Journey Trial (PT pt1) - Jeon-e, Mer, Valentine by Nora
(Literature) ・ **Content Warning:** Blood!!](https://wor-keeper.com/gallery/view/1115)