The Magic Of Moondials (OPEN)

[Vandra Ker Delmar]

Vandra walked toward the moondial that resided at the center of the park's "forest". She let her pale moonlit hand brush the cold stone of the dial. It was a shock to feel that it was hard stone because in the light it look like it might be soft. The moon cast a strange glow on the trees and for anyone other than Vandra, the place could be a little creepy.

But she knew that anything that she should possibly be frightened of here was nothing that she couldn't handle. Vandra was deadly when it came to defending herself, she just looked like easy bait. She sat down in the eerily green grass and listened to the quietness that was hard to find in the city. The night was her time, she adored the strangeness of it all.

[Loel]

Fire was fun and all, but when it was on you the entertainment value was negotiable.

Twerp dived into one of the still ponds of the Moondial Forest, emerging a moment later in a flopping dive that left him gasping on the shore.

He glanced up, and rolled away just in time as a bolt of fire smashed into the sand and fused it into glass.

Even though he looked like a twelve-year-old, Twerp was no slouch, and his heel stamped onto the glass, shattering it. Then he grabbed up a handful, heedless of how the glowing shards cut and burned his fingers, and hurled them all at the demon pursuing him.

It looked like a giant bull with two mouths, one on either side of its face, and both shrieked in agony as the shards struck tender flesh.

Twerp cackled and fled into the forest, shaking out pieces from his hands as he went. The bull recovered shortly and charged after, howling a freakishly wolf-like scream and hacking up more bolts of fire from both throats.

A hectic fifteen seconds later, Twerp burst into another clearing, this one with a moondial in the center, and whirled to face the bull. His flesh warped violently, and what had been a scrawny little kid became a vaguely Germanic teenager.

In his hand was a lethal-looking pistol, and when he raised and fired it the crack that echoed split open the night.

The bull staggered back as half its face evaporated, and before it could recover the doppleganger fired twice more, removing the beast's head entirely.

It staggered and fell, and the doppleganger giggled an oddly high-pitched, strained laugh before collapsing to the ground.

He tilted his head back and looked at the girl on the sundial.

"Ow." he said, then immediately wondered why he couldn't say smarter things to introduce himself to pretty girls.

"I mean hello." he quickly amended, but his deep breaths gave it away as a lie.

[Vandra Ker Delmar]

Vandra thought she heard some rumbling in the distance and brushed it off as a coming storm. Then she realized there wasn't a cloud in the sky and her brows furrowed slightly in confusion. Then, Vandra's previously quiet evening was immediately shattered to pieces as the strangest string of events occurred before her.

She wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her in the dark but she was sure a little boy had just transformed into a teenager, but what was stranger still was the huge bull that was pursuing him. After the gun shots were fired, her queeziness about all the blood and guts had passed, the bull fell and the now teenage boy landed looking back towards her, she couldn't even begin to disguise the look of shock on her face. Her dainty mouth hung open as the guy spoke to her, trying to disguise his pain, her eyes were wide with shock. She knew she should probably run, be ready to fight, or at least have her defenses up but all she could do was slide slowly away from the moondial and gravitate toward the grounded boy.

As she glided across the moon colored grass toward him, a million thoughts ran through her head. Surely none of what she had just witnessed had really happened. She must have eaten something awful to bring on such hallucinations. She could be at home dreaming up something she'd seen in a horror movie. But deep inside she knew that none of that was true, something truly terrifying ad real had just happened in front of her. She regained her senses a bit as she knelt next to the boy. "Are you alright?" Was all her bell like voice could manage a the moment. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to help him if he was injured... she didn't think he was human at the moment. A worried expression fell over her pale face, her blond hair falling over one shoulder as she leaned closer.

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[Loel]

Instead of running away in mortal fear like any sane person, the girl actually made her way to where he laid, asking something. He couldn't hear it over the blood pounding through his ears but he could guess well enough what she had said.

"M' fine." he said, his words slurring slightly from how quickly he was drawing breath. "Jus' give me a mo'ment."

He glanced down at his hand, which looked like nothing more than burnt, shredded meat.

He blinked once, and then skin rippled over the burns, covering it as if nothing had happened. He winced as it pressed down on the burns and cuts.

"See?" he said dizzily, waving his hand at no one in particular. "I got a warranty on this. Even if the service sucks."

Then he tried to stand, and fell right back over.

"That was Amao-Guhl." he said conversationally, as if he hadn't just fallen over. "The big bull thing. We had a disagreement and he always takes that kind of thing very hard."

"I think I'm rambling." he mused as he stood up and fell over again.

[Vandra Ker Delmar]

Vandra's light eyebrows shot together in worry and confusion. He couldn't be physically okay that quickly. When she saw the new skin glide over the cuts and burns that were left on his hand she sucked in air making a gasping noise. How could he do that? This clearly meant he wasn't human. And what was he talking about, his words weren't making sense.

"Warranty? Disagreement?" She was beginning to sound a bit incoherent herself. She was gaping at him again. When he tried to stand up he fell back down again and she moved her hands towards him like that was going to help anything. She rose to her feet and when he tried to stand a second time, she caught him... sort of. She stumbled a bit but steadied them both.

"Rambling." she repeated quietly. "How could you have a disagreement with a bull... What happened... Where did it come from... What are you?!" Her eyes were wide but still she felt no fear. In fact she was rather worried about this strange.... guy. That couldn't possibly be normal.

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[Loel]

He looked at her sharply for a moment, and it was most likely then that she noticed his eyes; although on the surface they were blue, beneath they were like lakes of paint. They shifted slowly from color to color, drifting from a majestic purple to a odd, light orange tint and then to herbal green.

"Aw hell, you're human, aren't you?" he said, blinking. Then he sighed.

"I hate explaining this whole deal." he sighed, as she helped him to his feet. He was very careful not to brush anything he shouldn't.

The bull-thing twitched and loosed a low bellow, trying to get back to its feet. It was failing miserably, as the removal of its head had taken away its balance completely.

"Merde." he sighed. "Hold on a sec."

Removing his weight from the girl's shoulder, he carefully walked over to a sapling, and drew a knife from a sheathe somewhere beneath his shirt. He cut the small tree in two, and whittled on the broken end until it was gleaming sharp.

He turned around, walked drunkenly over to where Bull-Thing laid, and practically fell on it, improvised-stake first.

It made a lot of noise and struggled a bit, but then it went still again. Curiously enough, it began flaking away at the edges, like old, frail paper.

Leaving the eroding bull behind, he stumbled his way over to the moondial and sat down.

"Okay, listen up." he said, grimacing from the ache in his arm. "We are not alone in the universe."

After taking a moment to survey the look on her face, he exploded into laughter.

"God I love saying that." he chuckled. Shaking his head, he looked back up at the girl.

"Okay: M'name's Loel. I disagreed with the bull because I like not being eaten. Yes it would have eaten me, and it wouldn't have been fun."

The newly-christened Loel took a deep breath, and exhaled suddenly, wincing.

"Okay, cracked rib." he whimpered, and scrunched up his face. A hollow cracking noise sounded, and he bit his lip for a moment before breathing again.

"Bull-Thing came from hell, as in literal hell. And I guess you could say I'm the nerd from his neighborhood." he finished, and looked up.

"Any more questions?" he said weakly.

[Vandra Ker Delmar]

Human? What else was there? Vandra gaped at the boy... Loel. So he wasn't a boy, he was a... He was not human. This couldn't be real, this was so much to wrap her tiny human brain around. Literal hell? There is no such thing as hell, no heaven; so no... whatever he was.

She looked over at the disintegrating bull-thing. That was just something playing a trick on her mind, right? That ugly, beastly thing wasn't actually there was it? She'd seen some pretty disturbing things in her short lifetime, but never had she ever laid eyes on something this bizarre and this... awful. And yet, her fear instinct still hadn't kicked in. She should be running, screaming, checking herself into a mental institution; and yet she sat there, looking curiously at the being in front of her with a look of concern on her face.

She was still worried about his well-being. The wicked creature hadn't done too much harm had it? Then he took in a breath and winced, he mentioned something about a cracked rib and then there was a sickening cracking noise. Her own face scrunched up in pain for him. She finally spoke. "Are you sure you don't need some sort of medical attention? I can help you to the hospital or something." Her hands still hovered in the air as if she could do something to make it all better. She was genuinely concerned for this stranger, this... being.

When he mentioned being a nerd from that neighborhood all concern seemed to disappear and she nearly snorted her disbelieve at him. Just by looking at him now, it was hard to believe that he was a so called nerd. But maybe it was just a figure of speech to get her to understand why she witnessed such a sudden and seemingly random fight to the death. She cocked her head to the side with a confused look on her face, much resembling a curious puppy. "So, what exactly are you if you aren't... human." Her voice chimed, she found it hard to say what she still had trouble believing.

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[Loel]

Cease shook his head, his breathing already evening out. "I'm from the same neighborhood as bullboy, which means yes, I'm not human." he answered openly. He poked the rib twice with a finger, and, apparently satisfied with it, stood up and began walking in circles to keep his adrenaline flowing.

"I'll be fine." he added, as he paced. "I can't spit fire like the other guy could, but I'm still kinda tough."

He made a face. "Kind of."

"In any case." he continued, "I suppose you could call me a sort of demonic misfit, although the term 'demon' is probably not a good fit." he said, then thought for a moment.

"I'm not making a lot of sense, am I?" he muttered to no one in paticular.

He sighed, turned,. and bowed fully at the waist to the girl.

"'Pologies for disturbing your night." he said, hiding the small wince that came with bowing. "I'm fairly sure bullfighting wasn't on tonight's agenda."

An eyebrow raised on his face, and he continued, "You should probably go home though. Those things tend to come in packs, from my experience. And they're always hungry."