Boy, I'll make a crater out of you, yet...

[-Caithann]

It was just a mile or two away from the city. Everything was quiet, all was right. Deer grazed, rabbits hopped along their merry little way, completely unaware of the world outside the forest.

It was all too comfortable, so naturally it had to end.

It happened in a flash with a loud crashing noise as the orb of hate and anger struck the ground. He had escaped the spell punishing his betrayal barely. It was close, too close.

In fact, you could almost say the spell worked.

In the epicenter of the crater, the man laid motionlessly, his clothes were burnt, slightly tattered. Long sleeved shirt with wide cuffs, a simple breastplate with an insignia long since burned away. Simple, light skin lacking any hard scales or marring of war. Black trousers tucked into knee high folded boots. Dark, almost black hair that turned a deep red in certain lights. An unassuming longsword that had an exceptional heat to it.

The man sat up, blinking his eyes and running a hand through his hair. His scuffy, burned fingerless leather gloves carrying a familiar scent of home that was gone decades ago. "Where the hell am I?" He asked nobody.

He didn't ask the question of who he was, because it was pointless. He already knew who he was. Caithann Nova'Dn, Elemental swordmage belonging to an academy he just couldn't rightly remember the name of. He had no inclinations of anger, hatred, or spite for the rest of the world. It was like the angry, dragonic demigod ball of hatred shrivelled up and was hiding inside his old self. The old self nobody knew; the old self nobody hated.

He didn't even know it. Was he actually doing it?

The mage groaned and pushed himself to his feet. Everything hurt, he probably tripped and ended up in the middle of that crater. Everything over the past few days was fuzzy - he hated teleportation.

[-Calignious]

It was the first time Zarak visited Moun. He didn't like the taste of the small city's architecture, food, culture, or even it's people as a whole. It seemed like a wasteful city, just sitting here with out purpose. What brought him here was a hunch with the help of a small lead, that there was a possibility he might find something worth while. A majority of these kind of situations lead to dead ends, this one was no different.

He stood on the leading on the balcony of a small inn on the second floor. He was scheduled to stay one night, and then leave in the morning back to getting on his crazy treasure hunt for power. He studied the surrounding terrain outside of the city, leading him to the mountain range nearby. What dark secrets did the land hold; or better yet, how much time will Zarak waste looking for something that may not exist? Some questions aren't better left unanswered, but those without any answers at all are just that. Meaningless.

Without warning, there was a sudden flash of light that blinded the wildlife and partially the city. Following the light, the earth shook with ferocious force. Neighbors can be heard panicking next door, while some people in the streets below ducked for cover. When it was all over, people went back to their normal business - no one asked questions.

It was left to him to investigate, just what happened out there. Maybe, there was something in Moun worth looking into after all. He stepped back into the shadows of his room, and quickly disappeared in the darkness Only to animate himself outside of the city, closer to the epicenter.

There was a large crater, and it was still quite difficult to see. Zarak moved closer to it's edge and found someone or something standing at its center.

"You look like you need a drink.."

Reaching to his own personal stash within his trench coat, he whipped out the canteen and tossed it to him.

[-Caithann]

Caithann winces as the man's words struck his mind. It was like a bad hangover. A hand instinctively shot up to catch the canteen. He opened it and gave an experimental sniff before taking a brief swig. He didn't want to squander the kindness of a perfect stranger, but he didn't want to be too trusting as well.

"Do you have any idea what happened here?" The mage asked, trudging forward up to clambor out of the crater, offering the other man his canteen back.

He patted himself down, trying his best not to look too ragged. He didn't want to think he was the cause of that crater as the shell and barrier energies faded from his body subconsciously. "You're from around here?" He asked, trying to lessen the awkward he felt.

[-Calignious]

"Actually, I was hoping that you'd tell me what just happened."

Zarak grinned at the strange man. It was obvious that he was disoriented, and anyone who could put two and two together would know that he caused the crater and the explosion of light, so was he just playing dumb?

"I was over in the city when it happened; big flash of light, small earthquake, and then just you."

He observed the man who was walking out of the crater now, and took back his metal canteen. He shook it up a bit, and stowed it back into a pocket of his trusty trench coat. Right away, he straightened up his back and stood facing the man in a formal manner.

"The name's Zarak Mazroth, and no I'm not from here. Curiosity brought me to this dull place, but things seem to be picking up here - with your little explosion and all. Anyways, what brings you here? Business or pleasure?"

[-Caithann]

Caithann looked skyward again, his eyes focusing on nothing in particular before he quickly lost that focus and let them wander. "What happened?" What -did- happen?

"I... hrm." He didn't know, in truth.

He simply shrugged, then turned to give the man his attention, nodding slightly at the name. "Zarak, right. I-" He suddenly felt very compelled not to give the man his name.

There was a quick change and deflection of topics, instead addressing the man's other question, "Uhhh.. I think... I'm just sort of here."

He didn't realize how out of it he sounded. "Gavin." He said out of left field, "My name is Gavin. And I'm sort of a freelancer, I guess." Freelancer sounded good, and it wasn't too out of the way in regards of the truth. The truth he knew, of course.

"You're here out of curiosity, what exactly does that mean? Is something around here?"

[-Calignious]

Zarak frowned at the stranger's response. He was rather disappointed that the man was absolutely clueless as to what happened several minutes prior to the conversation. He knew that there must have been some sort of dark secret behind it all, but there was no way he was going to squeeze it out of this guy.

The man continued to stutter over his words, it seemed like he was in a state of helplessness. He later called himself Gavin, and couldn't answer why he was here in Moun. Was this all just a facade to the truth, or was ignorance really bliss? Zarak couldn't tell.

I don't have time to being playing games, or helping people that are lost...

"Freelancer, sounds.... interesting." Zarak spoke with a rather unenthusiastic response. "Well, I thought there was something interesting to do here.. to find." He looked up towards the mountain range as he spoke now, "but I guess I was wrong."

He turned back to face Gavin in the face, and tried to make eye contact. He grinned for a moment before continuing. "Well, I really must get back to my studies. I have a feeling that I'll run into you again someday, Gavin. Good luck."

As soon as he finished, darkness shrouded Zarak's body. He just vanished.

[OOC: Bye bye! O_O]