Who Wants to Live Forever?

[Gerwald Lechner]

D E T E R M I N E D​

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Fury of Aerðs

The night was dark and full of terror, but nothing more dangerous than a single Lupine on the hunt for information about a world the Confederacy was interested in. Were there other ways to gather and collect the information, perhaps, but why risk the death of any other Knight Obsidian when a wolf could do. Gerwald moved freely among the flora and fauna of the world as his own animal allowed him to blend with the forested surroundings the world offered. Worlds such as this one allowed Gerwald to feel a bit more free to roam and be the beast he truly was. Man and beast, one in the same, had been a hard truth for Gerwald to adjust to after the realization the truth of who and what he was carried more weight than his mother had let on.

Gerwald, and his siblings, had not been the last of their kind as they had once thought, and the truth had sent Gerwald down a spiral of one seemingly poor decision after another. His sister seemed to remind him that his decision making abilities were dismal those early days, but once he reconciled the truth of his own situation, Gerwald had changed. Where he had once pushed against any kind of formal training, Gerwald began to excel in the use of the force as well as embrace the oneness of his nature. There were many who had a hand in his newfound freedom, all of them having a different role to play. All of them had shaped him to do exactly what he was doing on Islimore.

Observe. Record. Report.

Islimore was unlike any other world he had been to, though carried marks of his own culture from Stewjon. They trained warriors, but where Stewjon would have not empowered women to fight, it seemed this world did. The Fayth fascinated Gerwald, and he had spent a couple of days observing their training methods and how they interacted with one another. It was not hard to hide from view as a wolf, easier than if he had remained the massive six foot and seven inch beast of man that he was. A system of caves nearby allowed him to roam free, yet return to his human form at will. All of his gear was stored deep into a cave where no one seemed to venture.

The pattern held for about three days before Gerwald decided to move on the Fayth and look for more. He had overheard the rumblings of the existence of an unsanctioned occult somewhere in the forests and caves to the north. This was the exact kind of thing he would have to include on his report, so Gerwald opted to investigate.

Waiting for the cover of nightfall, Gerwald packed up the base camp he had made in one of the nearby caves and began to venture north. It would have been conspicuous for a wolf to be carrying the various gear he had packed with him, but the lightsaber at his hip would be a deterrent for anyone to attack. A breeze had settled through the night air carrying the various scents of the night along with it. The journey was long in the dark, but the moon was full and gave Gerwald a sense that this was exactly where he was meant to be in the moment. Whatever the force had for him along this path also remained to be seen. These were the adventures he had left Stewjon for, and the mystery of what he would find in the north excited him.

He traveled well into the night, and as he neared a smaller cave which seemed to descend into the ground below the sudden exhaustion of his effort hit him. Gerwald followed the stone and dirt floor below, walking along the edge of the wall until he reached a flat floor that contained a small pool. A smile drew at his lips as the dirt from the past few days could finally be washed away. Setting his gear and armor to the side, Gerwald spent several minutes washing the grime of his travel away. As the sun began to peek through the cave, Gerwald was once again dressing and laying out his bedroll.

Long, wet hair laid against the wool blanket he had laid out on the stone floor. His blue eyes looked up at the cave ceiling, counting the stalactites which protruded from it. A few blinks of his eyelids saw them close permanently, and Gerwald Lechner finally gave into the sleep he had need for at least the last day of his investigation.​

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[Amz]

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Tempestuous ​

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“Do not move, if you do not want to die.” sleep he would not. Not with the cool edge of her blade pressed against his neck, as testament of her promise. “How did you find me?” she asked, hovering over the stranger. There was some small measure of light in all of the darkness, her slim form almost looking like a shadow in the dim light.​

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She was dressed in a singular dirty sackcloth, the only form of clothing she’d ever been given by the maniacs who’d held her captive all those years. Deforming themselves for dark spirits that none of them understood. Morrigan knew though. Years upon years of study had provided her with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of these dark places that they wished to go. The incantations carved into her back let the spirits commune with her, beckon her. Many times had she felt their terrible nature and what should come if they had forced her to finish the ritual the cultists had groomed her for. So, when the opportunity to run had presented itself, she’d taken her chance. She would not invoke the ritual correctly, or ever, not as long as she could help it.​

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Eyes like molten gold bore into his, appraising him. He did not look like he was affiliated with the cultists, missing the same key deformities. He had a strange smell, as well. Could he be a temporary ally? Maybe, but she needed to be certain. Dark strands of hair spilled over her shoulder, “Did they send you?” she hissed. Long fingers tightened around the blade in her grip, pushing to nick the right side of his throat. She had not run all this way, to go down without a fight. She refused to be subdued by them again.​

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Gerwald Lechner​

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[Gerwald Lechner]

D E T E R M I N E D​

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Fury of Aerðs

Blue eyes darted open at the sudden pressure of cold steel against his throat. The words his ears heard were not as threatening as the blade itself, though the woman was fooling herself if she thought she would be able to follow through.

“I didn’t find you,” he said as his eyes looked over the woman and then back to knife in her hand.

Slowly his hand moved from his side until one quick motion saw him grabbing her wrist and twisting so the knife was pulled away from his throat. Gerwald took the knife into his own hand.

“I don’t know who they are, and I don’t know why you’re wearing sackcloth, but I came north investigating the rumor of cultist activity. We are not far from Confederacy space, and I’m simply scouting the world for Knights Obsidian.“

She looked afraid, and dirty. Without realizing it, Gerwald was certain he’d stumbled onto her hiding place. Without knowing who she was running from, Gerwald could only assume it was the cultists he had heard rumors about. The wolf was certain she could help him. His nose ruffled as a breeze blew and he caught hold of her scent. She was not human. The scent was distinctly.... feline. His eyes narrowed as a soft and low growl threatened to stick in his throat.

“You are not what you seem...”​

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[Fury of Aerðs]

It happened quicker than she could anticipate, and being dispatched of her only defensive weapon so easily made her lips press firmly into a straight line and the muscle beneath her bronze skin tense. There were other ways to kill a man, if necessary, she thought, glancing at the thin flesh of his throat that was still exposed to her.

Hey eyes were still trained on him, but lifted upward as he spoke, explaining his situation and how he came upon her location. It seemed he did not work for the cultists, or the Fayth. Meeting his cool-steel gaze, she discerned there was a modicum of truth behind what he said, and sighed, carefully stepping off him.

“And perhaps I acted too hastily,” she admitted calmly, feeling herself relax a bit and ignoring his comment about her not being what she seemed. The same could be said for him.

She called the blade he’d taken from her through the air and back to her own hand, “I’m sorry for attacking you. I thought you were looking for me, and I didn’t wish for you to reveal my presence here.” There was a pause as she looked him over, still not entirely sure how much she could trust this stranger. “I’m Morrigan,” she stated, sheathing the blade and tucking it into the band at her waist.

“You say you are from the Confederacy?” She asked, her brow raised. There were whispers of an entity beyond this world that bore such a name, but with the strong lack of any technological advancement and its restrictions since the plague, leaving Islimore was near impossible, so it always seemed more fairytale than fact that such a thing really existed. “Do you have a way of returning to them? If you do, then I will make you a deal. If you promise to take me from this world, I will help you find these cultists you seek. It is them I hide from.”

Gerwald Lechner

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

D E T E R M I N E D​

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Fury of Aerðs

Gerwald wasted no time in standing to his feet the moment the woman stepped off of him. He should have been excited, even aroused, to have such a beautiful creature on top of him as she had been. The knife put a damper on that, as did the fact Gerwald still held his heart for another. More than anything his curiosity about this woman and her origin got the better of him. She knew of the ones he was tracking, and they had been the ones to mistreat her.

Gerwald almost growled.

His life on Stewjon had seen the powerful few rule over the weaker masses. His own sister Alwine had been imprisoned, beaten, and tortured because in her anger the force tore a blaze of fire across the landscape. It had been enough to cause significant damage and draw attention to their family. Gerwald had not been there, it had been her anger toward him that caused it, but all of that seemed moot now. In the end, it had been Alwine who left. She was no longer with him, and that had been her choice.

Life was in a strange place. It was only natural for Gerwald to throw himself into what the Knights Obsidian wanted from him, and today it was this investigation. It would become personal now. There was still a flare of lupine temper that Gerwald carried deep inside him. The growl he had contained continued to grow until he could feel it nearing his throat.

“I cannot blame you for attacking me considering,” Gerwald said with a nod. “Gerwald, and I have a ship.”

Did she even know what that was? As Gerwald regarded her once more he wondered if she even knew what technology was. She had to, the world he was on seemed abandoned, not in complete ruin or destruction. There had to be ships and advancement somewhere. Gerwald was certainly curious about that as well.

He did not miss her use of the force. The Lupine grinned as he showed off his own power, using the force to assist him in putting on the rest of his morph armor. His crossguard saber was the final thing he took in hand as it was attached to his belt. Gerwald opted not to use his helmet as he wanted to smell the forest as he stepped out of the cave. He looked over his shoulder back to the feline before making a complete exit.
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“If you are still in the mood to kill when we arrive, you will wait for my word to do so. Promise me that, and I will not stand in the way of your vengeance.”​