A Brief Respite, open for anybody

[Daron Zha'ruin]

The bright light had scared him. Now that was nothing unusual, Drows were supposed to shun the light, but this was a light he had never seen before. It was not the light that the insane beings of the surface world hung up for their blasphemous reasons in the ceiling they called a sky, it was a light that was nearly alive, moving, hissing like the painful snake whips, every Drow woman carried as a symbol of being a proud member of the privileged gender, blessed by Lolth... and immediately Daron had understood that this meant nothing good for a scrawny little captured Drow.
If he would have had the time to think about it, he might have come to the conclusion, that entirely nothing in this horrific bright, loud world meant anything good for said scrawny little captured Drow... but he had no time.
When the big man of the light-folk had approached him slowly with a smaller light, that radiated a scorching heat, the little Drow had panicked. Not that he was too strong, he wasn't, but his tiny body and his agility had allowed him to duck away under the large hands that reached or him and run.
Oh and how he had ran,as if he had never been chained, starved, beaten, simply because he knew, that he would have it tenfold worse if they got him again.
The horrible bright lamp in the ceiling they called a "sun" had roasted him, burned his eyes, the shouts of the towns guards and the people he startled had rung in his poor, pointed ears he had pressed flat to his head in terror,so that they nearly disappeared in his matted hair and his muscles had screamed their protest after being forced into one position for too many turnings of the iron wheel than he could count.

Somehow they hadn't caught him.
Somehow he had managed to run out of the light folks village or town or whatever dwelling it had been and scurried into a farm of the large,hard mushrooms the surface-dwellers called a "forest".
It was just too bad that these mushrooms weren't edible, even for the hungriest Drow, but at least they sheltered hi from the lights in the ceiling.
He had dared to fall into a slow, staggering trot there, panting and trembling with exhaustion, with watering eyes and shaking knees, mindlessly searching for a dark, cool place to rest.
And Lolth be praised, he had found such a place.
It seemed to be a cavern,still flooded wit light, but there were several smaller caves that spread from this one. It as darker there and quiet... it was a bit like home and the exhausted dark elf stumbled deeper into the cavern.
Maybe there was a way to the Underdark around here? maybe he could find the way home where things weren't nice as well, but at least... normal?
But after a few more steps, his body refused cooperation. He had been forced above and beyond his limits for too long and the last thing he could consciously do was to drag his sorry self in a dark corner between two large rocks and curl up into a small, dark-skinned heap of misery. Ruby red eyes slid shut and after a soft sigh, the small Drow warrior was fast asleep.

[Lottie Moon]

Charlotte Moon had been indoors all day. This was very out-of-character for the teenager. She hated being cooped up all day with no breaks, but she had been putting off some of her summer reading off for, well, the entire summer. It was time to break down and read at least a hundred or so pages by the end of the day.

The doorstop of a book hand been hard to keep open as she read the words lightly that morning, having to use both hands to keep it open. Best of times, worst of times, bleh. Whatever. Charlie restlessly moved around her room periodically in an effort to keep herself from getting too sick with cabin fever. Trial for an innocent man? Boring. Lottie honestly didn't know how she was supposed to find the French Revolution at all interesting. She had no connections to it-hell, why would she even need something like this? Tale of Two Cities? Bullshit. Lottie was not even going to be able to go to any other city. She knew where she was, and she was glad she wasn't a part of her native world anymore. She liked the idea of growing up not worrying for her life.

But by the second half of the book, Lottie had forgotten about her thoughts from the beginning. She had been too quick to judge the old story and had lost herself in it. It wasn't until she had finished reading it that she realized she had done nothing all day, and her body was practically begging to do something. Swishing her tail, Lottie looked out towards the dusk outdoors. It had probably been a really amazing day, with warm rays of light and powerful smells and sounds. She chewed at the inside of her mouth in frustration. How was she supposed to read when the world was asking her to explore, to do things, to be someone? Teachers never would understand the boundless amounts of energy the pushed through Lottie's veins, pure energy that needed to be treated.

On the other hand, the story of the Two Cities so far away from so long ago had really touched the humanoid's heart. Lottie wondered what it would be like to love someone so much to be willing to sacrifice yourself for their happiness. It was astounding. Looking the way she did in a the world she was made her doubt the ability for her to even know what love is.

But, she didn't want to think about that now. The day was getting to be evening and soon night, and she had to get some of her energy gone before she dared to go to bed. Grabbing her little ipod from her nightstand and fishing a sweater off of the pile of clothing on the floor of her room, Lottie readied herself. She closed her long eyes for a moment, and then opened them, only to catapult herself out her window. Falling two stories before landing softly on the sidewalk. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the low light, and she took off running.

When Lottie went for a run, not just a jog, but a true run, she seemed to lose herself in the movement of her body, her blood pumping and her speed almost impossibly fast. She was born to be the free wide-eyed teen she was.

The summer warmth still hung in the air, sliding past the girl's animial-esque body, moving faster, closer to the ground. If there was to be anything said of her, it was that she was fast, and she knew it. With her hand, she held her ipod, playing her bubbly pop-music into her ears. Absentmindedly, she began to sing some of the words awkwardly. If there were anything else to be said about Lottie, it was that she could not sing all that well.

“YOU MAKE ME feel like I'm livin' a TEEN-AGE DREAM!” Lottie found herself belting as she moved, her feet taking her to one of her favorite places. The caverns. Not many people were ever there, not really. She got to be alone and still hang out in those really cool spaces that she knew so well. She moved through the stone tunnels, her feet and hands careful not to grab or touch the sharper stones too hard or step on them very long. It would probably be much harder for anyone else, but Charlotte was very good at this sort of thing, and moved like shadows over the many rocks.

It was then that she froze dead. In one of her tunnels, one of her favorite tunnels, mind you, was a smallish man. Not a man. Dark skin, long hair. He was asleep, though, that was good. Charlie tilted her head, was he a new Folded? Well, the teenager didn't know him, which was pretty much a guaranteed “yes.” She stepped back; he may be dangerous. The girl pulled one of her earbuds from her ear, stopping the squawking of the pop singer she listened to. She steadied herself behind a rock, and slowly reached out her tail (barb retracted, of course.) and poked the dark skinned being.

“Excuse me.” She said softly but firmly, “Can you kindly wake up?”

[Daron Zha'ruin]

Daron had been sleeping peacefully...and dreaming. He had dreamt of being back home, in the Underdark and chasing bats. not that they were too tasty, but they were always good enough to add some nourishment to the plain and most of the time scarce rations for the lower warriors that he got. with a bit of fatty mushroom,a bat was good enough to give his meals a bit of taste for some days.
Long, pointy ears twitching with the thrill of the hunt, Daron was asleep when something hard suddenly nudged him and a loud...seemingly female!...voice barked something at him!
Oh no, he had overslept! And now this female would certainly be mad and hurt him and... but he wasn't at home! Not in the dark, quiet, cool Underdark, but in the light-poisoned surface world, where no decent Drow should ever be!
And if the females of the dark elf race were already cruel and vindictive towards the lower gender, and if the males of the light folks were already as bad as the Drow females... how much worse must a *female* of the light folks be??

The mere thought of the horrors, that surely awaited him, made Daron forget his tiredness, his aching muscles, the welts and injuries the hunger...
and something inside him exploded.
A desperate cry, that would have been nothing but an anxious squeak escaped his throat and then, ancient Drow magic casted a sheltering orb of darkness over the Spider Queens minion.
Darkness not like the usual dim darkness of the Underdark, where fluorescent algae and mushrooms, moss and whatever else managed to survive down there, spread there dim light...not a darkness that could be fought by light or a fire, not a darkness that merely affected the eyesight... it was a darkness, that dwelled deep inside the cursed race of the Drow, even in the lowest male slave and had assured their survival for the last millenia.

Casting the impenetrable orb of darkness, gave the Drow a period of grace of about a minute, where the Drow, who had casted the orb was the only one who could see with in this orb. Not even the most powerful priestess of Lolth with the most intricate spells and powerful foci could see within the orb of another Drow.
But Daron, more a child yet than a warrior had no idea about this. He merely squeaked anxiously and ran away from the horrible surface-woman,who would surely kill him or do even worse things, if she would catch him. He had seen her tail retracting towards her and her strangely formed legs for the split of second, but that was nothing he cared about.
She was a surface-dweller and they were horribly by default!
What did it matter to the little Drow what her legs looked like, exactly, as long as his own tiny legs carried him quickly enough away from this place, hopefully closer to the Underdark.

[Lottie Moon]

The little man jolted awake. If Lottie hadn't been absolutely positive that this was a newly Folded, she would have been after him in a flash. But this little creature was obviously very afraid of Lottie. She rolled her eyes to herself as he gave a sharp shriek and blackness expanded from him.

Magic. Lottie was not a magical being in the slightest. She had nothing to penetrate the inky black, so she just waited patiently until the darkness dissipated. Damn magic. She hated that illusions and the like could do such things. It was cheating.

"You know, it's sad I wasn't really expecting it to go much better than that," Lottie muttered to herself bitterly. She let the little thing go off, she could find anything in these caves. She knew them better than the rocks themselves. Fishing her earbuds from her sweatshirt's pocket, she placed them in her ears and flicked her music over to more of a finding song. Katy Perry was too peppy for times like this. She needed something more serious.

Her thumb found the album she had in mind, and pressed play as the harsh voice of P!nk flooded into her ears. Lottie smiled to herself, her lips syncing to the words she knew so well, "Why so ser-i-ous?"

With the blackness gone, Lottie's legs sprung her forward, her hands catching a stalactite and swinging her body around. Her feet made contact with the wall, again her two sets of knees reacted, propelling her body through the darkness.

Faster. Her body whispered, making her move forward, her speed increasing. Her hand-like feet catching her and holding her body stopping her from hurting herself on any sharp stones. It was as if she didn't even need to think about anything. She just had to keep moving forward. Lottie didn't know it, but it was part of the nature of the people she descended from. She was in hunting mode.

"So if you're too cool for school..." Lottie hummed, stopping at a fork in the diverging tunnel. It took a simple breath in for her to know which way this newcomer had gone. She couldn't help but let a smile trace over her lips. Again, she took the earbuds from the sides of her head, slipping them back into her sweatshirt. She hated doing the stop-and-play-and-stop thing she was doing with her music. It wasn't like she had a choice, though. She sighed, going into the smaller tunnel. As said, she knew this labyrinth better than anyone ever could, and this tunnel the little creature had decided to go down was a dead end.

Charlotte was gentler this time when she spoke, "Hello? Uh, buddy? You gotta come with me..."

She had never been good at this. Charlie knew what she looked like. She knew she was a monster, even to most of the strange creatures that came to the Point. She knew.... she wasn't pretty. She sighed, disheartened as she thought about her appearance.

Dammit. She just wanted to leave, but she couldn't. She had to get this guy a translator and get him registered. She was pathetic.

"Please can ya make this easy on me?" She pleaded, mostly to some unnamed god that cast this problem on her.

[Daron Zha'ruin]

Daron had not looked back. He was much too scared to do this, more than happy that Lolth had granted her children this second-chance exit of the orb of darkness to save their lives to fight another day and so he trotted hastily through the caves, hoping blindly to find a way back into the Underdark where he belonged - a way back home.
He had never been here before and could not know if there was an entrance back into the world that was his home, the lightless caverns of the Underdark, for unknown millenia separated from the surface world. He was just living on hope.

Of course, there was a possibility of the female surface-dweller following him and he was wary. Every few second, one of his long, pointy ears twitched, turning backwards to listen for any sounds like a radar.
He was helpless... sure, he was a warrior now,but he was unarmed, weakened by his long captivity, starvation, abuse.
Furthermore, he was still young for a member of the Drow race and, what was the worst of all, he was just a male!
Even the mightiest female, blessed by Lolth, wouldn't have entered the surface world on her own and though Lolth had granted her children the innate ability of the orb of darkness and the fairy fire, no male Drow would have ever dared to learn more about magic, this was a privilege of the superior gender.

And since the little lost Drow never got the idea to look around, he did not see his pursuer hanging from the wall and nearly walking on it... like a holy spider!
He just got alarmed to her presence, when she was again walking on the ground and called out to her in the unintelligible howling that seemed to be the language of the light folk.
Terrified, Daron ducked behind a large rock, hoping against hope, that she wouldn't see him. The surface-dwellers needed this horrible bright light that they hung up in the ceiling to see, right?