Strange things happen...

Strange things happen...
Somewhere on the outskirts of a small town in the middle of nowhere, a girl named Clarissa sat in a tree, feeling sorry for herself. It was a beautiful day, just the right temperature, just the right amount of wind, the right percentage of the sky covered in clouds... Not too dry, not too humid... So, you ask, Why was Clarissa upset? The truth? She was bored. Nothing ever happened in her little town. It was perfectly mundane, as far as she knew. Of course, it didn't help that she had just finished reading one of her favorite books for the 1200th time, as, upon finishing it, she was always reminded that the sequel was extremely hard to get on the lengthy continent of North America. It was(as far as she knew) equally difficult to acquire in South America, or the wide Eurasia. She wasn't sure about Africa, but she couldn't see any reason why t would be easier to get it there than any of the others; few countries there spoke English, after all. She considered Antarctica for a moment, and decided that it must be even more difficult to get it there, as so few people that stay at the South Pole for any length of time have the free time or the desire to read Australian science fiction. Clarissa pulled herself up to a higher branch, lost in thought. She leaned back against the solid trunk and sighed. Someone would be looking for her soon. She stared up through the leaves and watched a cloud gently drift across her field of vision. Just as the cloud vanished behind a screen of leaves, she heard a loud popping noise. She sat up and examined what she could see of the ground. "Hello? Is anyone there? Is someone there? Am I talking to myself? Am I talking to a tree?" she called down. Nothing answered. Frowning, she snapped, "If it's you, Zack, I'm gonna tell mom you shot at something!" She waited again. No response. That was good; she'd doubted her little brother would dare borrow a friend's bb gun again. Of course, that still left the question; what had made that sound? And more importantly; Should she investigate? Clarissa considered the alternatives for about half a second, then began carefully climbing back towards the ground. She'd stop about ten feet from the ground and look around. Just to be safe. ***

"Ouch," Natalia muttered, rubbing her ankle. She wondered what she'd tripped on, since she was in a perfectly clear little meadow, one of her favorite places to practice magic, showing it to her familiar... "Anli?" she called, suddenly worried. She couldn't see the familiar... Looking up, she noticed the strange abundance of trees. She no longer seemed to be in a meadow. Behind her was a large root, sticking up out of the ground as if inviting one to trip on it. She addressed it calmly; "I sincerely doubt that such a mischievous root is what caused this," she commented, gesturing at the trees that surrounded her. "Therefore, I shall only blame you for my injured foot, and then only a little, as it is partly my fault too, I'm sure." She examined her surroundings, fascinated. None of these trees were really like those at home. For one thing, it appeared that the light was coming from a whole other direction- but no, it was merely a different time. Sensing something behind her, Natalia calmly stood, wincing a bit as she put weight on her left foot. She began walking straight head, where she thought the trees were thinning out a little. Don't go that way. "Why not, Anli?" she asked, turning back to smile at her familiar. I explored there already. While you were still... knocked out? There's an odd cliff, with strange noisy creatures going much too fast beneath it. And we're injured, the coyote pointed out, calmly. "Well... yes. Sorry about that..." Natalia murmured, fascinated by the image of the strange cliff Anli had shown her. "Do you think they use wind magic of some type to go so fast?" Her familiar sighed. PLease don't try to go see, 'Talia. I can't keep you from falling off a cliff! Natalia smiled reassuringly, but Anli was looking back the way they'd come. "What is it? Anli?" It sounded like a person. Do you hear it? Can you tell what's being said? "No... But it doesn't sound unfriendly... Shall we go check it out?" Ask another silly question, Anli said. They were already heading back towards the voice.

When she reached the lower limbs of the tree, Clarissa was astonished to see a coyote sniffing at the bottom of the tree. At least, she was certain it wasn't a wolf or a dog, and it didn't look like a fox, so as the only other canine species seen even occasionally around here, that was what it must be. It looked thoughtfully up the tree, making Clarissa (illogically) press herself back against the trunk, nervously. Wait, Do coyotes climb? she asked herself. Deciding that it didn't seem likely, she peered back over the branch at the creature. It seemed to be distracted by something behind it. She glanced in the direction the coyote was looking and saw a strange girl, wearing outlandish brown black and green clothing examining the ground nearby. She stared at the odd person for a moment, until she remembered the coyote. Shoot! Do coyotes attack people? I don't know! I have to warn her! Clarissa hurriedly climbed down to the lowest branch, three or four feet off the ground. Some ounce of self-preservation kept her from climbing all the way down. It also left her perfectly poised to climb rapidly back UP the tree, if it turned out that coyotes could jump. She looked down then, and found herself looking straight into the coyotes eyes. Something was odd about them... but then, she had never seen a coyote's eyes before... "Hello. Was it you that we heard yelling? Why are you up there? Are you in trouble?" the strange girl asked. She was standing next to the coyote, looking up, completely unconcerned by her proximity to a carnivorous canine. "Hi...No...That is a coyote, right?" Clarissa responded, baffled. The other girl and the coyote looked at each other. "Yes... She is a coyote. Her name's Anli. I am Natalia Kyabri." "Um... I'm Clarissa... I didn't know you could tame coyotes!" "What? She's my familiar, not a pet! I'm a Journey-woman Wind Mage!" The girl declared, glaring up at Clarissa, "Can't you see my sash? Not to mention the uniform?" The coyote was glaring at Clarissa too. "Uh... Mage? Familiar? Are you looking for a con or something? A party? It's not Halloween, y'know." Clarissa asked. "A... A con? What is that? What are you talking about -um- Clarissa?" Clarissa just stared down at her. Natalia didn't look much older than her, and since the coyote didn't seem likely to attack the other girl, she decided it was safe to be on the ground. "I'm gonna come down there," she warned in response. Without waiting for an answer, she swung herself over the branch to the ground. Natalia watched, interested. "You are very good at that. Are you a plant mage?" "What?! No! I just... climb this tree a lot." "Oh, I see." The coyote was sniffing around the tree again. Natalia watched her familiar, and suddenly winced. Clarissa glanced at her, surprised. It looked like the coyote was limping... "Where are we, Clarissa? Is there a town or village healer nearby? We-sorry- I injured my ankle..." "A healer? Umm... Did you sprain it or just twist it? If it's sprained you shouldn't be standing up!" Clarissa gestured at the ground. "Sit down and let me take a look at it. My aunt's a doctor." Obediently, Natalia sank to the ground. The coyote wandered back over and sat next to Clarissa, watching with interest as she gently examined the injured ankle. "Yep, that's sprained. It doesn't look too bad though. Come to my house; I'll find you an Ace bandage," Carissa offered. "It's not far." "Ah... Alright. What's an Ace bandage?" Natalia asked as Clarissa helped her to her feet. "Uh... You're kidding right? Where are you from?" "Rusticus Academy."

((Ok, since I now have a few posts here, and some idea of what this 'No Rules' Roleplay is about, I shall post this as an official(Yes? No? Maybe?) explanation/invitation. This takes place, as I've already said, in some anonymous little town far enough from any major center of civilization that there are large trees to climb and spy on people from. I would place it somewhere in New York... but I live here, so... (Honestly, for all those who have never been to NY- it's really, truly, not all NYC!) Anyway, if you join in, or just read my posts, you are welcome to place it anywhere on the globe!(Well, ok... It has actually has to be in North America...Or the people have to think that they are in North America...) As for what s currently happening- Natalia(And perhaps some other people;)) got caught in some strange portal thing or a very severely fumbled spell and landed in a world that far more closely resembles ours than theirs. This spell happened to deposit her/them within a two-mile wide circle, whose center point happens to be the tree Clarissa was climbing. Anyone is welcome in the woods- use a character from the proper roleplay or someone you make up on the spot(or whatever!) I don't care as long as they're interesting, and/or you post every once and awhile... or everyday. They can be from Clarissa's neighborhood or from elsewhere, whatever you want! About my characters: Who is Clarissa? Just a random girl who likes tree-climbing; I merely liked the name, and needed another human character. :wink: As for Natalia and Anlia: I'm using as-yet-unapproved character from the actual official roleplay in this to give me a chance to figure out if I feel I need to change something in her submission, or if I ..'forgot' any interesting little tidbits that I suddenly think up. (Her familiar herself is proof that this helps!) She has a wonderfully interesting description of a decent length elsewhere, waiting for someone with actual authority over this forum to say 'yea' or 'nay,' so I shall not repeat it here. So... Enjoy this little *rule-free roleplay! *Lack of rules only guaranteed when read by a person who does not understand English **By rules, I mean basically the rules (written or unwritten) applying to this entire forum involving basic courtesy and friendliness. ***Oh yes, and OOC must be marked as such in some way, but I'm sure everyone knows that!)) ((Also, have some rootbeer!)) :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :rootbeer: :wink:

OOC:I'm going to join you here, because as of right now this is the only place that has anyone to interact with. That and it's the only place I can automatically have my familiar without explination. "OWW!!!! What th-, where th-, I'm so confused." Yea, well while your being confused, I'M being CRUSHED. Would you kindly ROLL OFF OF ME! "Oh, sorry Silver." He moved off of his familiar, a stunning Lasionycteris Noctivagans. For those of you who have no clue what that is, it's a silver haired bat. Lysurus, you must learn to stop talking when you speak to me, it makes you seem crazy... even if people do know what your doing. "Your probably right, I'll get to it eventually. Where are we anyway... and what happened?" YOU got knocked out, while I was taking my nap in your claok, and YOU have been resting on top of me for the last half-hour. "Great, that answers half my question... sort of. This place looks like the forest, but there wasn't one near us, was there?" No, something weird is going on, we should find someone and see if they know anything. "Good idea, get to it Mr. Echo location." Oh gods your pathetic. ... Theres someone, two people over in that direction. With that the bat pointed northish, and they were off.

((YaY! That makes me very happy! I'll post more once I return from the irritating place from which homework assignments are received!))

"Um... What?" Clarissa asked. She looked confused. You know, 'Talia, if I didn't know better I'd say she has never heard of Rusticus Academy. Anli commented dryly. I think you might be right.... Natalia?! I was kidding! Anli stared at her human, astonished. "Where are we, Clarissa? All the mage academies are well known..." Something occurred to her, "We aren't in Sei, are we?" Clarissa looked even more confused, "Where's Sei? I've never heard of it. Or your school. Sorry. As for where we are..." Natalia and Anli stared at her as Clarissa suddenly began ranting about the generally out-of-the-way location of her home, bookstores, "publishers," and somewhere she called 'Australia', which was apparently very, very far away, or merely difficult to get to. Have you ever heard of any of these places? Anli asked, thoroughly confused by this newest human acquaintance. And what's an 'Airplane?' Um... It sounds like some enchanted flying object... but I've never heard of anything like it! I wonder how they do it? You would need a very very strong enchantment to let it fly as far as this 'Australia' seems to be... Natalia, now very distracted, nodded absently and made appropriate noises of agreement as she thought about this, entirely ignoring Clarissa's continued rant. Anli listened with one ear, just in case Clarissa said something Natalia would want to hear. With the rest of her attention she was watching the forest around them, looking for anything that would tell her where they were. She smelled something vaguely familiar and paused for a second, trying to remember... Natalia! Someone from school! she thought at the mage, and ran off to investigate. Clarissa noticed this, since it happened just as she was winding down. "Oh... Natalia? Is it OK that your coyote just ran off?" "Mm-hmm... She just smelled something... How do your mages get those 'airplanes' you mentioned to stay up? They must get very tired. How far do they fly, again?" "Um... What? Mages don't make those fly... I'm not even sure we have any. They have engines... they run on special fuel... and they go all around the world." "Oh! How many of them are they? How does one go about making one? Do they take up much space? I'd love to try!" "What? I have no idea how many airplanes there are! How on Earth should I know that?" "They're very common, then? Fascinating. Ouch!" Natalia had, in her excitement, tripped over yet another root. "Are you ok? You didn't sprain the other ankle, did you?" Clarissa asked, helping her back up. "No, I'm fine. I'm just clumsy today. But about those airplanes-" *** Anli was creeping towards the other person she'd smelled, carefully, quietly, trying to get in a position from which she could see whoever it was when Natalia tripped. She yelped before she could stop it, and peered nervously around, to see if anyone had heard her.

"What was that noise?!" What noise? "Oh, don't even joke, I know you heard it!" Fine, it was a coyote. Sounded like Natalia's familiar. "Nice, a friendly face... a friendly furry face at least. Which way?" Right over there, behind those bushes. It's not that hard to tell from this distance if you just tried. "Well I don't have sensitive ears like you, so sorry." Note a very sarcastic tone of voice with the sorry. "Anli, it is you." Your very good at stating the obviose. "Wheres Natalia, where are we, what happened?" She can't talk to you. "Oh right, oops. Anli, take us to Natalia... please."

Anli stopped trying to hide and considered Lysurus and his familiar. Natalia, I found Lysurus and Silver. Do you want me to bring them back with me? she thouhgt to Natali. What?! Someone else is here? Lysurus? Of course I want you to bring him! Does he have any idea what happened? I believe he has even less knowledge of what's happened than we do, Anli informed 'Talia, sounding amused, I think, since I hadn't noticed either of them around, that they just woke up. Also, when I found them, Lysurus asked ME if I knew what happened, she paused for a moment, to look Lysurus straight in the eyes, hoping to convey 'Follow me,' and headed back towards Natalia and Clarissa. So I hope the two of you together can figure this out. We're coming now, 'Talia. "Oh good." Natalia said happily. "Oh good what?" Clarissa responded. "Anli found one of my classmates and his familiar not too far from here. She's bringing them back with her, so we should wait here..." Clarissa nodded and they sat on a conveniently located root. "I haven't gotten to talk with Lysurus lately... We're going to graduate very soon..." she added quietly, "I wonder where we'll be posted?" Clarissa shrugged. "So this Lysurus is a friend of yours? Is he a 'wind mage' too?" "No, of course not. Lysurus is a plant mage." Natalia said, surprised. She had forgotten where she was, her mind on the future. "So... How much longer will it be?" Clarissa asked, slightly impatient. "Um..."Anli, where are you? Natalia asked, Almost there. Two minutes away, maybe. "They'll be here very soon, Clarissa." "Cool." They sat in silence for a moment. "Hey, Natalia. You say you're a wind mage, right?" Clarissa asked finally. "Yes... Why?" "How would you go about proving it?" "Umm..." "Could you, say, conjure up a tornado?" "I could but I won't. However, if you want to see something..." She reached into a pocket and withdrew a small stone with some(to Clarissa) odd markings on it. "This is one of my wind sculptures, my newest one. I was showing some younger students how to make them, or things like them, depending on their elements. I was going to work on it in our woods before this happened. Would you tie this around your head?" "Why?" "So you can see it." Natalia informed her seriously. Her expression said 'Yes, I'm really, truly, honestly not playing a trick on you,' so Clarissa blindfolded herself with this bit of cloth. She heard Natalia do something, and suddenly she could see twisting, twirling streams of flowing bright colors. They were shaped rather like a tornado. "That's amazing, Natalia!"Clarissa exclaimed, "It's so pretty! But... I'm blindfolded! How can I see it?" "If I was certain, I could make it visible without the blindfold," Natalia "But I don't want to mess this up by changing the spells around too much." "Oh... It's still gorgeous," Clarissa assured her. "Thank you. That's why I make them!" Natalia responded drolly.

"How long is it going to take to get to Natalia?" Quit complaining and just keep walking. After a minute walking they came to a clearing where two girls sat. "Hey, Nat'!" Didn't she hate being called that? "I thought she liked my nick-name for her." As he ran over he used his magic to bring up another tree root for him to sit on. Nat looked happy to see him, the other girl... still hadn't seen him. "Your showing her your wind sculptures? Hey I'm Lyusurus, you can say hi when your done looking at the sculpture. May I have the honour of knowong your name?" Very smooth, I think I'm falling in love. "Oh thank you master of the sarcasm," he said to his bat familliar. Your talking out loud still. He looked up to see he was getting a very strange look from the new girl. "Umm... I was talking to my bat." This didn't help with the girl's puzzled expresion. He lifted his cloak to reveal Silver under his arm, hanging from the cloak. OWW, you know sun light hurts my eyes if I'm not ready. Warn me next time your going to do that! "Sorry." Another puzzled expresion. Teach me, oh master of the first impresion. "Your not helping." And your doing worse by the second. "Shut-up!" The girl looked almost frightened now. "I think I need to work on my first impresions." You THINK?

"Well, Li, if you're going to cal me Nat, I guess I'll have to call you Rus!" Natalia said, giggling. She glanced over at Clarissa, who had slipped the blindfold off her face and was staring at Lysurus with and odd, sightly terrified expression. You know, Lysusrus really doesn't look threatening at alll, Anli commented, I wonder why she's- Clarissa burst out laughing, interrupting the familiar, though she didn't realize that, of course. "Your hair is awesome! I've never seen anyone with that shade of green. Where'd you get it?" She had stood and was examining his hair. "What'd you say your name was? Lysurus? Cool name. I'm Clarissa. Do you have to talk to your bat out loud like that? He's your 'Familiar,' right?" She examined him closely, "You don't have any sprained ankles or anything, do you?" And suddenly she's a chatterbox. How'd that happen? What did you do to her, 'Talia? Nothing! Natalia snapped at her familiar silently, I think it must be the hair. The way she's reacting you'd think it was sign of noble birth here, or something... They looked at each other, then back at Clarissa, who was curently pulling at Lysurus' hair. I... think that people very rarely do that to nobles... Natalia said, trying hard not to laugh. "How often do you dye your hair?" Clarissa asked, adding yet another question to the already lengthy list.

Help, HELP! Lysurus thought to Silver. Since you actually thought, instead of talking, I'll help. The answers are: fumbled spell, yes Lysurus is my name... my favorite color is blue, if I was a superhero- wait, whats a superhero? OWW, shes pulling your hair, tell her to stop. "I don't dye my hair, and could you stop that please." Very courteous of you to request, Rus. Silver said. Your still not helping! Lyusurus shot back, and don't call me Rus! "Please stop?" When she continued, Lysurus pulled a root of the ground and wrapped it around her foot with a spell, then promptly moved five feet away. Good idea. "Thanks." You were doing so good with not talking. "Hey Natalia, where are we. I don't remember any forests near the academy."

"How'd you do this?" Clarissa asked, examining the roots entangling her feet. "Actually, more importantly, how do I get OUT?" Natalia smiled. "Lysurus, your fighting technique is very similar to mine! And I have no idea where we are; all I know is that we are ver far away from some country called 'Australia.' Do you remember how you got here? All we know," she gestured at Anli as she spoke, "is that between one step and another we were somewhere else. I passed out, and somehow managed to trip on a root simultaneously, while Anli was merely very confused. She decided to explore while waiting for me to recover, and found an odd clliff with stranger creatures going really, really fast." "The highway?" Clarissa asked, startled, "Anli got all the way to the highway?! That's five miles away! How long were you unconcious?" She was attempting to remove the roots from her ankle, or her ankle from the roots' embrace. Highway? It wasn't high... Ask her what a highway is, 'Talia. And ask her what those creatures were, Anli ordered. Besides, it was only 4 and a half miles away... she added, muttering. I was about to, Anli. And I doubt she really cares about the exact distance from where she was to this 'highway' "What is a 'highway,' Clarissa? And what were those fast things?" "Ah...A highway is a road people take to go long distances quickly, 'cause the speed limits are higher and more cars can take them at once... for the most part, they are very direct... The 'fast things' were.. auto-mobiles." She was hoping that the older word would be more helpful. From the looks of confusion on the others' faces, it wasn't helpful. "Horseless carriages? Cars? Trucks? SUVs? Convertibles? Minivans? Sedans? Any of these ring a bell?" "Um..No..."

"Your not getting out of those vines untill I know my hair is safe. Hmm, Australia... never heard of it. I don't know how we got here. I remember being in class, class ended, on my way out I tripped and woke up here." You missed the part where you crushed me! "Nows not a good time, Silver." "Wait a second, horse'less' drawn cariges? I know horsedrawn. Natalia, were they going as fast as a horsedrawn carridge?"

((I was at school and couldn't remember the code for the color I use... And I didn't want to go check. I barely had enough time to post the previous message as it was.)) Tell him that there were no horses involved. If someone managed to get a horse going that fast it would DIE! Anli informed Natalia. "Um, no, Li. They were going faster. Much, much faster." Natalia said, looking slightly concerned. "In fact, Anli says that if she saw any horse going that fast she would expect it to no longer be alive when it stopped..." "That's not so. Horses go that fast all the time." Clarissa responded absently. "They have special trailers for them and everything." She had finally managed to get one leg free of the roots, and trying hard not to get her other leg any more scratched up as she pulled the roots away. "What?! Really? How?" Natalia asked, astonished, "And what's a 'trailer?" "A thing cars-well, trucks or SUVs really- pull," Clarissa informed her, "Do you guys really not know any of this, or are you laying a trick on me?" she asked seriously, sitting back down, now on the roots that had previously trapped her legs. "I've really never heard of any of these things," Natalia assured Clarissa. "Right Li?"

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