Heavenfall

Ryoko didn't always sleep too well, and today was no different.

Troubled by talk of bandits and murder already taking place, by strange stories she didn't understand, and by people and customs which... weren't at all like her own... she had gone to find some space.

There, in the darkness, she settled down in the clearing, a few paces from the large stone marker. She didn't know what it was for... who had placed it... but she did feel a certain sadness about the place. As if perhaps it was marking the memories of some past event, now forgotten...

Did souls linger, waiting for their deeds to be sung? Did caretaking spirits wait for an accounting?

Setting her bow to string, she began to play as the mood took her, a haunting song, with pulsing strokes of her bow that marked out a relentless, emotional rhythm. As she fell into the tempo of the moment, she let music slip from her lips, her alto voice echoing around the clearing, the words of an old song the ogres had taught her, for lost souls and forgotten warriors set to the improvised tune.

"Where are the men of the old legion,
Who fought together side by side?
Shoulder to shoulder, blade by blade,
Fought till they fell and died.
Who so ready and undismayed?
Who so merry and true?
Where are the men of the old legion?
Where are the boys we once knew?

Then steadily, shoulder to shoulder,
steadily blade by blade,
ready and strong, marching along,
be like the men of the old legion.

Over the hills, far away they lie,
far form the land of their love.
Kingdoms alter, years go by,
but the sky is still there up above.
Now in earth, proudly laid,
find they a place or a part,
fierce boys of the old legion,
sleep deep in of our heart."

----
3 raises Song: https://orokos.com/roll/809131
2 raises Morin Khuuru: https://orokos.com/roll/809130

2 void spent.

*song adapted from WW1 soldier's ditty*

The wind carried the song out into the clearing to bounce against plants and trees and rocks... but upon reaching the stone monument, the sound doesn't seem to bounce back the way it ought to. Instead, the stone begins to ring, very faintly a small thing at first, like a crystal charm that fell to the ground.

But the sound grew.

And grew.

And grew... higher in pitch and volume, the intensity rising until it reached a crescendo right as the young half ogre finished her song. The pitch, somehow, registered not in her ears, but in her horns, which began to glow faintly.

The vibrations traveled through her skull slowly. When they reached her eyes, she saw a spectral ogre, highlighted in red, singing a mournful song to the stone.

When it reached her ears, she began to hear it.

"Marching, marching, ever on
The legion knows the way
We tread the path and turn the wheel
Between the night and day
The sky strikes down in mortal hands
The heavens ere to fall
We march unto our victory
Lest thousands bear the pall"

And then, just as swiftly as it came, the apparition was gone, leaving a faint after image in her vision, and a strange sensation in her horns.

She was caught up in the music such that she didn't realize the stone was behaving strangely until the finale of the song, when silence did not return.

Gasping, Ryoko slipped back, arms instinctively holding her instrument to her chest to keep it from falling, her own sense of balance betraying her.

Falling back onto her butt, she felt as if she had been vibrated, a tingle passing slowly through her body, from head to toe.

And then there was an apparition. She felt a tingling, painful sensation in nerves she didn't know she had, racing through her body like a poison, and then suddenly.... nothing. The clearing was silent, Ryoko sitting with her butt damp from dew in the grass, holding her morrin khuuru in her arms, the only sign that anything ha happened was the tingling, itching feeling at the base of her horns, under the skin where she couldn't scratch.

Rising shakily, she took a few steps toward the marker and then stopped, seemingly uncertain whether to stay or return to the camp. There she stood for a long time, seemingly lost in thought.

Ninube was just here, but Phi wanted to go, so she left with her. But she did want to check it out.

She saw the ogre girl just standing there. So, she called out. "Hello?"

Ryoko spun, expression somewhat wild, as if shocked someone had called to her.

She didn't have blades to reach for, or the hair trigger reflexes of samurai, and instead she just turned wildly, giving a little gasp of surprise at the sudden call.

Seeing a person there, in the dark, she called out, cautiously, "Eto... hello? Who's there?"

"I'm Ninube of the Spider Clan. You alright?" Ninube checks the area for danger.

Ninube wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 12:31 pm

"I'm Ninube of the Spider Clan. You alright?" Ninube checks the area for danger.

[Nothing but a rock and a very confused ogre girl]

Ryoko nodded, faintly. "I.. nice to meet you, Ninube. I did not see you coming... I hope I didn't interrupt your sleep."

Trying to pull herself together, she added, a little more firmly. "I'm Ongaku no Ryoko. Yoroshiku."

The itching, burning sensation had diminished a little, but did not seem like it would fully fade.

"Nah. I stay up late. Need some people awake in the camp at night." She smiled. "I'm a scout, so don't feel bad about not seeing me coming. Sorry for startling though. I wasn't trying to. I came back here to look at this grave thingie, and heard some music. Then, I became real interested."

"Did you hear... both songs?"

Ryoko wasn't sure if she had been imagining the second, and if not for the ache in her head, could more easily have dismissed it as a trick of a weary mind.

Ninube shakes her head. "No. I just caught the last bit of one." Ninube wasn't sure what kind of species this girl was exactly. "Was it one of your people's song?"

"Yes... and no."

Ryoko sighed.

The tune came to me in the moment, but the words were an old... poem. Told to me by the elders."

Expression troubled, she added, "Yet... you are certain you did not hear a second song?"

"Well, I heard one song. It may have been the second song." Ninube was confused.

A moment of silence.

"Was it my voice?"

"...… Yes?" Ninube looks around. "Were you alone?"

"Yes... I was."

A slow breath.

"Perhaps I was just hearing things."

Glancing at the woman, she sighed.

"So what about the clearing did you want to check? You said you wanted to come back..."

"..... Well, can't be too careful." NInube shakes her head and walks over to the gravestone. "I heard there was a weird gravestone here. I just wanted to see it in case it was interesting."

"Well... I can't say for sure. For a moment I thought it was... echoing my music."

Ryoko sighed. "Now I think I may have imagined it. I don't normally stay up this long after dark."

"Oh." Ninube considered for a moment. "Well, strange things happen. Have you heard about jade? It can protect from some of the strange things we're going to run into?"

"I heard that... I found this glove jewelry."

She held up her left hand, showing off a leather ringlet which wrapped about the fingers and wrist, thin cords holding small bronze settings, each holding chips of jade to create a flower pattern across the back of the hand.

"It was all I could trade for... everyone wanted some."