makrotatos [o]

[ender]

Ender woke, his injured arm sore but healing, and his dreams left abandoned in the realm of sleep. His eyes were open in the dark, but otherwise he was still, unchanged by the old ghosts that insisted on spending the night with him. Some people leapt out of their nightmares, gasping for breath, but he only closed his eyes again for a second--saw again the faceless soldiers that died by the legion, their deep red blood somehow more memorable than their faces--then he pushed aside his blankets to get out of bed. He didn't feel like sleeping anymore. He remembered that the inn's floorboards were squeaky, and their stairwell was a cacophony in dire need of waxing. There were other travelers here that Ender didn't see any reason to bother, so he pushed his window open, perched onto the sill to close it behind him, and leapt down into the streets of the Plegian town below. It was dark, save for the occasional streetlamp, and their light seemed more like a lure than a beacon. Ender skirted along the edges of them as he wandered the city. It was quiet and deserted at this hour, but Ender liked being alone. It beat the usual company of nightmares he had at night. Alone was good. He didn't mind being alone. He heard something, and he stopped in his tracks. He guessed he was less alone on the streets at night than he thought. @anyone!

[Gilly]

It was late and she was tired, but Gilly had more important things to do than sleep, and practicing her magic was currently at the top of her list. Though she was by no means a genius, she was not completely unintelligent; she knew enough to realize that having some method of self defense was necessary if she was going to be traveling outside Plegia. And she figured she wasn't going to be left with much choice in that regard if she wanted to help her father, so she would have to learn, and fast.

Leaning against a building in the dark, Gilly rubbed at her eyes under her glasses and stared down at her fire tome. It had been her father's, and he hadn't taken the best care of it; the pages were old and tattered and the words smudged in some places. However, it was the only tome of his that Gilly could even remotely manage to use with any success, and so it was the only one she had taken with her when she left home.

Gilly leaned in so close to the tome that her nose touched the page. The streetlamps were not doing much in the way of light and it was making the words hard to read. She squinted for a moment longer before raising her head and announcing triumphantly, "Got it! Ignem magnum asinum!"

The magical fire flared up larger and more suddenly than she anticipated, and Gilly pressed her back hard against the building, staring at the high flame in surprise. Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, illuminated by her fire, and she turned to see a man standing on the street nearby. The fire died down almost as quickly as it had started, plunging the area back into relative darkness. Gilly continued to stare in the direction of the stranger, though without the light of the flame she could barely make out his outline in the night.

"Whoa! When'd you get there?"

Perhaps foolishly, her voice held no trace of fear or even unease at seeing a stranger while she sat alone in the dark. Instead, she sounded genuinely curious, even slightly amused, though whether Gilly was entertained by the sudden appearance of the man or her own carelessness was uncertain.


ender

[ender]

The blaze of light from the fire was followed with a second. Ender had seized his dragonstone as soon as he saw fire. For a few seconds, the light caught his transformation into a dragon. Then it was dark again, and all that stood was a winged silhouette, serpentine even in the darkness. He heard Gilly's voice, and he had the distinct feeling that he wasn't in any danger. Great. Well, there went his night vision. At least it wasn't a pack of thugs and their mage friend. Ender closed his eyes in the darkness; when he opened them again, he was at least able to make out a few different shades of pitch black. Good enough for now. Sighing, he craning his neck and stretching his wings before shifted back into human form.   "I should ask you the same," Ender said, not bothering to give her an actual answer. He was more tired than he thought if he was wandering around at night without his wits about him. At least he wasn't so jumpy that he actually attacked the girl, whatever solace that was. "If you need a light to read by, you might want to invest in an oil lamp instead of sacrificing your eyebrows to whatever god might want them," he drawled. Gilly