Twilight Dawn. Near the Smoke Clan's Hideout.
The darkest part of the night was an ally in these times. Forsburn and Maypul had finally reached the Smoke Clan's hideout, and had found a rather thick set of shrubs to conceal themselves within. Neither of them were particularly adapted to seeing in the dark, so they had agreed to wait until dawn to approach. They did not want to make the Smoke Clan wary of approaching shadows, especially after the recent Fire Kingdom attack.
It had taken them a couple of days to get this far. Forsburn would have used smoke portals to travel faster, but he had been exhausted from the fight with the Shadows, and had not yet rested properly. So after all that traveling, it felt good to just sit for a while.
Fortunately, the free time to sit and think was good, in Forsburn's opinion, as he could retreat into his thoughts and determine a proper course of action. Specifically, he needed to ensure that the Smoke Clan would not only avoid harming his traveling companion, but also listen to what she had to say. Unfortunately, said companion had been rather stressful to travel with for the last few days.
It seemed that, as time passed and his thoughts become more formulated, her attention span decreased. This led to her asking rather direct questions that Forsburn was absolutely not comfortable with answering. He had stated this many times each day, as had been necessary. It seemed the message had not gotten through and so Maypul had taken this downtime to prod yet again.
"So, Fors," She whispered excitedly, "I know you haven't answered a single one of my questions aloud yet, but I just want to ask you one more thing."
"Please don't," Forsburn muttered. He was more than tired of hearing her questions already, but he also knew he could not stop her from asking.
"Don't you think that your continued dividing of self between Fire and Smoke will ever get the better of you?"
Forsburn was surprised. He had not thought that she would ask such a thing.
Maypul continued, "You have had ample time to process your brother's apology, and of course you have discovered your new life among the Smoke Clan. But you're still divided on your primary allegiance."
"What's your point?" Forsburn had an idea of what she was getting at, but her points were valid and he started to questioned himself.
"My point is, you are born of fire, but you have chosen to follow the smoke. But if there comes a time that the two of them don't play nice together, who would you chose to fight for?"
Forsburn needed to dodge her questioning. He had already followed her stringing to far, "I'm not a fighter, so I guess it doesn't matter." Of course he saw the flaw in that logic.
Maypul, however, was more clever than she let on. A point Forsburn had been learning recently. "Wrong," she said. "You would rather your own brother see past the falseness of the Fire Kingdom and come to see the same sort of revelation you have seen in the Smoke Clan, right?"
Wide-eyed and slack-jawed, he released how much she had read right through him. She had beaten him at his own game, and he didn't even know she was playing. As he thought back to all the questions she had been asking the last few days, and his nonchalant responses, he could see how she picked up on every vocalization and gesture he had made. It was safe to assume, he thought, that she already had an answer to each question by now. He could feel the victorious joy emanating from Maypul, all as she grinned and lightly snickered in the darkness.
The sun became visible and the moment passed. Forsburn did not feel the need to deny her, "You are… rather smart."
"Oh? You ready to acknowledge something?" Again, he could feel her mischievous grin, but glanced at her to verify it. And as he looked at her, he couldn't help but notice he may have met his match in wit. He felt the tiniest fear within him as he saw the morning sun sparkle against her grinning complexion. "You were right… about everything."
They stayed silent for a time, letting the sun shine more upon the land. Maypul spoke first, her voice now somber, "I'm sorry…. I know it can be hard to choose sides… choosing between the ones you love and what's right. I've already had to make that choice once…. I'm just lucky to not've lost my sister in the process."
Forsburn looked upon her sorrowful expression. She had clearly lost much else, and it had all taken a toll on her. He felt sorry for her, and realised that he too would soon know that pain.
"Mayreed, right?" He quietly responded, in effort to comfort her.
She seemed shocked, "Um... How did you know that?"
"You mentioned her name in passing back at the Godai Delta."
"Oh," Maypul blushed, "guess I'm a bit of a blabbermouth." She felt embarrassed at not remembering her own words, and that she gave away her sister's name so freely at all.
"I suppose I'm getting used to it by now." Forsburn said slyly.
Maypul landed a strong blow to Forsburn's shoulder, blushing intensely. "No one asked for your opinion!"
Forsburn laughed a bit, caressing his shoulder slightly as he stood up from the bush. Maypul stood as well. She yelped as black smoke coiled around them. The smoke constricted into the form of a large snake, and the two were swiftly captured. They immediately attempted to struggle free, but the snake had them in a firm grasp.
"What the hell?!" Maypul shrieked as one of the snake's eyes came level with her own. Forsburn, however, had ceased his writhing as he realised who had caught them.
The snake spoke to Maypul, "And who are you to be sneaking about dawn by our home?"
Her response, "None of your damn business, ya freak!" was not well tempered.
Forsburn tried to intervene, "Brother! I bring her as a trusted friend." He noticed how difficult it was to speak under the crushing force of being enveloped by a snake. "We are true and mean no harm to the sanctuary."
The snake's eye now drifted before Forsburn, "Ahhh, Forsburn, I thought it was you." The snake's tongue flickered out of its mouth for a brief moment. "You should know that outsiders are forbidden, lest their flame be smothered for ever."
Maypul, still struggling violently, retorted "I'm not one of those Fire Kingdom hotheads, you slimy creaton!"
"Damnit, May, shut up for minute!" Forsburn hissed. As Maypul reluctantly complied, he spoke in a more formal tone back at the Smoke clansman, "We are here to shed light on the recent events that have plagued Aether. We can explain everything, but I must speak with Claiyen."
"Fine, we will escort you." As the snake said this, smoke erupted from behind him and seven more members of Smoke Clan came forth.
The snake released Forsburn and Maypul, and got into the circle formation the seven other clansmen had started around them. Forsburn, yet again, had to think ahead and ensure he said the right things; there was no guarantee that Claiyen would believe a word of what he and Maypul had seen.
He turned to Maypul and whispered, "I'm going to need you to let me do the talking for a while. We are in a great deal of danger until Claiyen tells the rest of the clan to not kill us both."
She whispered back angrily, "I thought you were part of the Smoke Clan! Why the hell can't you just say a secret password and let them know we aren't a threat?"
"It doesn't work that way," He said, annoyed. "Besides, they just recently had been violently attacked by the Fire Kingdom and those Shadows, on separate occasions. We can only hope they haven't been attacked since then since then. With every incident, Smoke Clan becomes more and more wary of strangers, and the last time any of them saw you, they were dealing with one of those aforementioned attacks."
Maypul grumbled and nodded, acknowledging the facts.
They would need to be careful to avoid unwanted aggression. Claiyen was a reasonable Chief, but she protected her own, and would not hesitate to destroy a threat to the Clan. Forsburn knew this from just brief conversations with her, and did not like the idea of being on Claiyen's bad side. If this did not go perfectly, he would lose his home a second time….
Forsburn couldn't bare the thought.
A/N: So, its been a minute. I am going to try and be more devoted to this story. I even proofreaded CH1 again, and did the same to this chapter before uploading. But i may have missed somestuff so bear with me.
I'm actually going to make another pass at the story mode to refamiliarize myself with the characters.
The chapters may feel a bit separated, as in some amount of time has passed between them. Each chapter will, of course explained what has happened since, but i am not someone who explains every single occurance, unless significant. This chapter is a perfect example, i skipped much of the actual dialogue during Fors's and May's traveling, because its more important to imply what was said then to actually write it and end up force feeding you guys. Now, you can surely make some guessing to what was asked, but it matters more that you guys understand the gist of what had passed between chapters.
ANYWAY, i'll stop rambling. Sadly, I think I still have the only FanFic of RoA on this site, But check the web and you'll find a story better than mine.
I will address right now, that I am taking the Rivals of Aether cannon as the primary source for this story. I already know what paths will be walked, but what characters actually play important roles is not always decided. i.e. I love Absa and Etalus, but they aren't in the story mode at all... so you best believe im trying to think of a way to nestle them in there.
Take care!