Chapter 2:

...

Nissa

…

Oran Rief the Vastwood was my home, and I was no longer welcome. I had been rash. I had been reckless. It seemed that I was taking cues from my new -human- companion, Chandra. She was brash. Reckless. She would burn the entire forest down if it suited her.

The Eldrazi hadn't yet influenced this area. The trees - massive, straight, seeming to go upward for miles - still ruled Oran Rief. I reached out with my senses, feeling the leylines bringing mana - life energy - through the forest. It was far weaker than it had been before the Eldrazi scourge. Zendikar was dying.

Zendikar was dying, and it was my fault. When I had come back after discovering my spark, I was too arrogant. I believed that I could use my power as a planeswalker to stop The Roil from killing my home. It had been a scourge for thousands of years, as long as the eldest of her tribe, the Joraga, could remember. Rumbling waves of land, appearing and disappearing at will, The Roil killed adventurers and homebodies alike.

After much searching, I found the source. The Roil was a symptom - Zendikar was under attack by poisonous forces held within it. The Eldrazi Titans, trapped in a sort of stasis, the living mana of Zendikar being used to cage them. I had thought that they would leave once I set them free, leave my home and my people. I set them free, and ended The Roil - only to realize that the Eldrazi were an even larger threat.

I had not told my new companion yet. I didn't want her mistrusting me - she seemed to be quite bad at thinking out decisions before acting. She could burn me to a crisp before I finished speaking. I never could tell what a human would do before they did it.

"-Nissa?" I heard Chandra speak, and started, turning toward her. She had been talking. I had not been listening.

"I'm sorry, Chandra, can you repeat your question?" I asked. She huffed, wisps of smoke curling up from her nostrils. Her hair fluttered upward, though it didn't ignite like it tended to do when she was really angry.

"I asked whether this pollen was affecting you as much as it was affecting me," she said. It was true - her eyes were redder than regular, and rheumy. As I looked, she sniffed, and looked away.

"No, I live here," I answered.

"Huh."

We continued walking as I sent tendrils of my self into the leylines underground, searching for the slight increase that signalled where the Joraga were tapping into the living mana, drawing it in from Zendikar. I shied away from the areas that the Eldrazi had ravaged. I didn't want to feel those.

…

Charlie sighed. "Ugh… Mel, does a four work?"

"Nope, sorry. You failed the stealth roll"

"...I guess I sneeze?"

…

Sensing nothing, I looked back toward Chandra just in time to see her sneeze, sparks flying from her nostrils much like flame spouting from a dragon. It was endearing - animals, even dragons, have a way about them that I could understand. Humans, much less so.

"I can't find anyone, do you think we should just continue searching?" I asked. She nodded.

"May as well. I've got nothing better to do." She responded. Several more minutes passed slowly, with me treading through the brush carefully and Chandra stomping over the roots that were "getting in her way."

…

"Alright, is everyone okay if we take a break here? I've gotta take a leak," spouted Charlie.

Mel nodded. "Good plan. I'll order us some pizza and we'll meet back in fifteen minutes."

…

Jenna

…

The chair I was sitting in was finally getting to a comfortable temperature. Mel keeps his apartment at what feels like sub-zero temperatures, and the faux-leather of the seat I'd nabbed always took a long-ass time to reach equivalence with my body. Charlie had left to pee, and Mel was on the phone ordering up some grub, which left me, Gary, and Natalie sitting at the table. Natalie was looking at her phone like she was expecting a call to come through, and Gary was just sitting still, looking down at his character sheet.

So apparently all of the talking would be left up to me. Fantastic.

"So, Gary, you're in college, right?" I asked. He looked up at me, and pushed his overly-large glasses up.

"Y-yeah." He said. One word answer. Fantastic.

"Do you have a major, or are you just partying through college?"

He looked down again, sending his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. He pushed them back into place. "Neither? I haven't declared yet, but I'm still a freshman, so I've got time… that's what the advisors have told me."

"Yeah, probably." I was making headway, but only barely. I made a snap decision - I needed something to do, this could be my pet project while job searching. "You should really take advantage of the opportunities that are available to you, you know. College parties are some of the dopest parties in the world."

"Dude, we're playing Dungeons and Dragons. Do we seem like the type of people who'd go to parties?" Charlie asked as she sat back down.

"I do, I don't see why other people shouldn't," I responded. "That dumb trope of all roleplayers being little weak nerdlings is so passe."

"You probably shouldn't be trying to get underage people to go to parties, Jenna," chided Natalie. She had finally put her phone down. I assumed that no call was better than any call, given her kids. They were hellraisers, and I would know.

"Eh," I said with a noncommittal hand gesture.

"I probably wouldn't go anyway," said Gary. Good heavens, the child was ruddy in the cheeks just from us talking about him. "Not really my scene. Excuse me." He got up and headed in the direction of the bathroom. As he left, Mel came in.

"Alrighty then guys, pizza will be here in five minutes or so," he said.

"Add it to my tab," I responded. He chuckled softly - I had been staying in his apartment for a few weeks as I job hunted, and he was helping me with groceries and food as well. I would pay him back as soon as I was able, and he knew that, so he didn't

pressure me much.

After several more minutes of casual chit-chat, the pizza arrived, and we all started to eat.