TAoM: Louise's point of view
That sure was a weird dream, I will have to ask my familiar about that later just to be sure.
Speaking of her, where is that elf?
Looking around I quickly spot her in the corner of my room were I have laid out the stack of hay, only she is still sleeping, in a very decorated bedroll. Where did she get that from? She did not have it on her when she was summoned. Did she steal it?
More importantly why is she still asleep as a familiar its her duty to wake me up in the morning.
Its time to punish this unruly familiar, and I have thankfully bought just the think for it in case the familiar I summoned misbehaved. Quickly going over to my night stand I pull out the riding crop I bought just for this kind of situation.
I quietly move over to my familiar and check if she is still asleep, and she indeed is, no one can make such a peaceful face other when asleep. But damn she is just so cute when she is asleep, I don't want to wake her up. Wait! Where did that thought come from suddenly?
Doesn't matter time to wake her up.
But as the Riding crop is about to hit her, her eyes suddenly snap open and she grabs my arm stopping it dead in its tracks, seriously what is with her strength, she looks about as weak as me. And how did she wake up so suddenly? I would have kept on rambling questions through my head if she did not pull me out of my musing
"Uh. Good morning, been a while since someone woke me up trying to attack me." She said as she sat up and released my hand.
"How did you do that?" I ask still slightly baffled at my familiars reaction.
"Do what exactly?" She asks as she sits down on a chair and starts combing her hair with a ivory, well, comb that she has pulled out from somewhere.
"How you reacted so quickly to me trying to hit you?" I said the last few words a bit more quiet then the first. "I was certain you were asleep."
"You deducted correctly I was asleep, right until you tried to hit me." She said still combing her hair, which might I add might just be taken care of more than even my own by its looks, making my eyes widen at the implication. "How?" I think out loud.
"Well its a mixture of being an adventurer for quite a few years and hyper sensitive senses. When you have adventured as much as I or my friends you develop a quite light sleep, and you just 'feel' when you should probably wake up." 'Also having Draconic blindsense does little to harm me' She tought to herself. By the end of that sentence she finished combing her hair. "Now, where is my hair band." She says that and I automatically look around for the object she is looking for, as you usually do when someone says he is looking for something, and I do in fact spot something that looks like I could be a hair band on the pillow of her bedroll.
I reach down to grab it, surprised by the texture of it. It has a sort of metallic cool to it yet feels as softer than any cloth I have ever felt, it was also heavier than any cloth that size has any right to be. "Is this what you are looking for?" She looks over, smiles and nods "Ah yes, thank you!"
"What is that thing made of? It didn't quite feel like cloth." I ask her as she quickly ties her hair into a her ponytail.
"I made it out of adamantine and mithral fibres, I was getting annoyed with normal hair bands as they always broke at the most inopportune moments." She said matter of fact like, as if I'm supposed to know what any of that means as she mentally added 'Its also quite heavily enchanted, but she doesn't need to know that'
"Adamantine? Mithral? What is that I have never heard of such cloths." I ask as Raskreia is now quickly and efficiently filling her nails with some kind of black, slightly oversized, file. "Are they cloths from your home?"
"Yes, but they are actually not cloth" I raise my eyebrow at that. "They are metals. Adamantine is a rare metal that weighs the same as steel yet is approximately 3 times as hard, it also is worth around 6 times as much as gold, not including the price to work such a stubborn metal. While mithral is a greenish-silver coloured metal that is about twice as hard as steel while weighing only half as much."
That made me think, both of those metals sounds like excellent material to make weapons or armour out of especially this 'mithral', even if 'adamantine' costs as much as it does. Now that I think about it did those people in my dream not have allot of equipment made out of mithral.
Should not be too expensive if my stupid familiar uses it in a bloody hair band of all things.
As I am thinking about this Rask continues "Also mithral is extremely rare and sometimes confused with silver, hence it is priced around 10 times the price of gold. It was such a pain to work those fibres by the way." I can only nod dumbly at this. I need to stop talking to her its just going to shatter my reality piece by piece.
"Oh yeah, isn't this a school? Don't you have classes?" She asks having finished her morning routine, I on the other hand am still only combing my hair.
"No, today the second years are given time to bond with their familiars."
"Awesome, didn't feel like classes today anyway, could we start this 'bonding' at breakfast tough, haven't eaten anything since last morning, you summoned me just as I was about to ea- draaf (shit)" She suddenly goes wide eyed and some strange word that almost seems animalistic "Well, Kwalin is going to skin me alive for this"
"What? Why, what is going on and who is Kwalin?" no one will skin my familiar alive but me. Not that I have any reason to do so.
"Kwalin is an old friend of mine, as to what is going on. You kinda sorta maybe summoned me as me and my friends met up and were about to have dinner. And I may or may not have forgotten to inform them that I am in fact not currently being eaten alive by demons or the like." She states while pacing around the room. And then suddenly goes stock still with a very worried sort of expression.
"Kwalin! Buddy, how are you, quite early in the morning for you to contact me isn't" She says to thin air with a nervous smile. Great now she lost it.
"Who are you talking to? There is no one here!" She just waves me of. How dare she! "Hey I'm talking to you!" She keeps ignoring me, right riding crop it is.
"Yes I know that I should have contacted you. Yes I know you were worried for me but I'm fine. This place might actually be some fun, so I will stick around for a bit. I'm sorry again for not contacting you immediately, ill make it up to you guys." She continues talking to nothing while dodging all of my swings. But at the end she just stops and smiles at the ceiling, making me hit her square in the face.
"Ow, what was that for?" Raskreia asks while rubbing her nose a little.
"That's for ignoring me." I state as I turn to leave out of my room "Now lets go its getting late, and I don't want to miss breakfast."
Private demi-plane: Readers point of view
Thorgal and Zarhon are patiently waiting for Kwalin to come out of his spell induced trance with which he is communicating with Raskreia.
After about a minute of waiting the dwarf stands up and wipes some sweat from his brow.
"By my beard I hate maintaining inter-planar communication. Anyways, I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?"
"Give us the good news first." Asks Thorgal already ready to plunge head first into the depths of the abyss to save his long time friend.
"Good news is, Raskreia is safe and sound. She is actually intending to stay where ever she currently is for the moment." Says Kwalin as Thorgal and Zarhon both let out a sigh of relief.
Thorgal because a friend is safe, and Zarhon because he does not have to jump into a possible life or death situation. "And the bad news?" Asks the bard.
Kwalin now makes a very grim face, making the other two worried again. As he slowly says.
"You see… Raskreia… Is still as much an idiot as when we first met her" And with that the three of them start laughing, remembering some of the things their eccentric dragon friend has done.
After they have stopped laughing Zarhon speaks up "Sooo… what do we do?"
Kwalin was the next to speak up "Well I for one intend to go back to my forge, If the lass calls for my or our help I will go but other than that I see no reason to."
"Then I to will go back to my duties." Thorgal states now seated on a couch and drinking recently served tea.
"I for one would love to go to this world, as such could I request a gate to said world from you Kwalin? If I remember correctly you have it prepared in case we had to rescue Raskreia, you are not going to use it anyway otherwise." The bard asks now too enjoying the served tea.
Kwalin folds his arms to reply. "And what would you be doing there, if this humble vending machine for spells may ask."
"To do bard things, of course. Spread my music, gather new and newer heard before lore. You know that sort of thing. There is no harm in it now is there."
The dwarf strokes his beard at this. "I suppose there is no harm in it, alright step right up." He states and starts chanting a spell and after he says the word "Gate" a circular portal of energy opens in front of the dwarf and the tiefling quickly steps trough and the portal closes behind him.
Thorgal takes a sip from his tea. "You sent him into the middle of nowhere didn't you?" He states with a neutral expression.
And Kwalin replies with an equally neutral one "Oh I'm sure he simply loves forests"
After a moment they both smile at the thought of a certain bard now probably cursing in all the languages of the lower planes.
TAoM: Readers point of view
As Louise and Raskreia left for the dining hall they ran into a certain red head and her pet salamander.
"Louise, good morning, and I see your familiar is still with you. I must admit she is quite something to look, at but nothing in comparison to my Flame" She motions to the salamander next to her and the other two can only think 'She named her salamander Flame?'.
She then turns toward Raskreia. "How much is she paying you to play the roll of her familiar then?"
Raskreia could see that Louise was about to snap at the red head so she quickly tried to defuse the situation.
"I thank you for the compliment on my looks, but I can assure you that Louise here has quite legitimately summoned me, or how else would you explain the runes which I have been, quite painfully I might add, branded after the so called "ritual of binding." Raskreia stated with a innocent smile "Besides how would I have made it into the centre of the summoning circle without anyone noticing? I'm just a commoner after all." It would have taken an inquisitor to see through Raskreia's lie.
Louise seemed still a bit angry but calmed down considerably when she noticed that this had struck the red head silent.
"But where are my manners. My name is Raskreia Darastrix (Dragon) , may I know yours?" Raskreia said to the red head with a voice that could make sirens jealous.
That seemed to snap the red head out of it as she quickly introduced herself. "You certainly may, my name is Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhalt-Zerbst"
"A pretty name for a pretty woman. Now while it was a pleasure having met you Louise and I were just on the way to the dining hall. And both her and me would just hate being late, so I'm sorry to say that we must bid you farewell for now." At that she starts walking with Louise quickly trying to catch up again.
After they are out of earshot Louise confronts Raskreia "Why were you so polite to that Zerbst, when you have been anything but to me?" There was a clear hint of annoyance in her voice.
Raskreia pays it little mind as she answers "Well two reasons: first its always better to make allies rather than enemies, you should keep that one in mind. You will make enemies even without trying, so actually going out of ones way to make an enemy should be avoided."
That made Louise think a little, she could see the reasoning in those words. "And the second reason?"
"I just didn't feel like listening to you two arguing over petty little insults and jabs at ones pride so early in the morning." She looked at Louise with a sheepish smile on her face.