The wind whistled, bending and blowing everything in sight toward Ernest. Everything, that is, except the barrier that was her destination. Like a purple curtain hanging in the sky, it whirled and eddied with currents unrelated to the wind. It was a haunting sight, but Ernest didn't really mind. Everyone had told her that the land beyond was impossibly dangerous, and she had known she had to enter. An almost unexplored land, bristling with lost secrets… how could she not have come?

She reached the barrier at long last, despite the wind seeming like it wanted to force her in the other direction, and reached out to touch it. It was the strangest feeling, almost like sinking one's hand into a cloud of butterflies. Sudden panic filled her, and she had the urge to turn back. But she would not. No matter what the place tried to do to her, she was going to find its secrets.

She pushed through the barrier, and it seemed like she had slipped through to another world. The wind was gone. The soft, undulating grasses grew at strange intervals, some barely an inch tall, some much higher than her head. And the colours… the colours were too bright to have existed on the other side of the barrier. The grass ranged everywhere from vibrant yellow to turquoise blue. Bushes in the distance were in every colour imaginable - a fiery red one stood feet from where she was. And far, far in the distance, she thought she saw glimpses of towers.

It should have struck her that she saw no animals, but she was so preoccupied with the land about her that she had lost her focus. She kneeled and plucked a few strands of grass to take back with her, wrapping them carefully in fabric and putting them in her bag. She walked over to the bush, still in a state of astonishment, and took a leaf, adding it to her collection. 

There was a sudden, sharp pain in her ankle, and she looked down to see… nothing at all. She looked carefully about her, and spotted a pair of eyes, weaving through the grass. She sighed and tried to run after it, but her ankle buckled beneath her and she was forced to sit down in order to look at the bite. A pair of puncture wounds sat just above her ankle, and she had a sudden surety that she had been bitten by a snake. Cursing, she concentrated to try a healing spell. It would have worked, had the place not been so magically powerful. Her power felt as though it was sucked away into the earth, and she glared at the ground, wondering if her days - and hope of exploration - would be ended by the fact that she had been so careless.

“Oh aye? A young lass – disturbed one of the snakes? Oh great. I’m on it.” Jago said to the jackdaw Sindri. Instantly his body melted away into the wind, he reappeared at the barrier; running through as if there wasn’t a strange wall of magic there. It only took him a moment to find the girl, Sindri Jago’s pet jackdaw had given him very accurate directions. The halfling ran towards her, his incredible cloak sparkled away, the perfect image of the night sky and his large scarlet red wizards hat clung miraculously to his head.

With his slightly smaller than most sword raised he spotted the pair of yellow eyes against a patch of bluish grass. “Got ya! YAH!” Although he was a terrible swordsman, he cleaved off the head of the snake in one swing. The Red Wizard threw down his backpack and started searching around in it. “One moment lass, I’ll have you right as rain.” He pulled a bunch of herbs and a silver dagger from his bag followed by a small clay bowl. Furiously he bit off the herbs flowers and started chewing them like a cow being struck by lightning. With the silver dagger, he stuck the decapitated snakes head and tossed it into the bowl and proceeded to bash its head in with the hilt of his blade.

“Looks gross as hell, but it will stop the poison from killing you.” Jago explained as he spat the chewed, foamy green and purple flowers into the bowl and started to mash them into the snakehead puree. “Where’s the wound? Show me and I’ll apply the paste.”

OOC:| If you don't want to be healed just tell him so! Didn't wanna powerplay it! 

Ernest's mind flickered over a thousand questions, but she couldn't seem to decide which to ask first. Eventually she just pulled off her boot, mentally noting that she would need to fix the holes in it, and indicated the bite on her ankle. "I should have been paying attention," she said. "I guess I wasn't expecting invisible snakes." 

She stared for a minute more at the strange little man before finally deciding what to ask. "What are you doing in this strange place? I didn't expect to see anyone else here." Truthfully, all of the locals had told her that everyone who had gone here died, so the only things she'd expected to see were, maybe, corpses. "Who are you?" she asked, before she could stop herself. She was very curious about this person who had shown up so suddenly.

Something gave a high shriek, and Ernest glanced in that direction to see lightning strike in the distance, with no thunder. "We might want to get out of the way if there's going to be a thunderstorm," she added. "That doesn't seem like any thunderstorm I've ever heard of, but the only thing people agree on about this place is that it's strange, so I don't think many of our assumptions can be trusted."

Jago slapped the paste against the wound and it began to set quickly. Now that the important bit was done, he could start answering questions. First though, he took a gulp of water from his flask. “Those herbs are very bitter.” He explained before washing the residue from his hands and equipment and putting it back into his bag. “I’m studying this place, beyond the barrier. Very interesting magical place.” Jago answered as he continued to look through his bag, eventually he found what he was looking for – his pipe. He lit it and took a long drag.

“I am Jago Fleetfoot, but most know me as the Red Wizard.” Jago liked to think he was a lot more famous than he was. Sure, he had a reputation in a few small towns, but he was hardly breaking news. He tipped his red wizard’s hat to her. “Who are you? Aren’t you a little young to be in such a dangerous place alone?” Jago asked, a note of genuine concern in his voice.

The shriek drew Jago’s gaze as it had Earnest’s. The bolt of lightning struck the floor with fury like no natural lightning he had ever seen. Though the shock of it didn’t reach his booted feet a charge of electric excitement raced through the halflings body. It was days like this that he lived for. “You are half right, that is a storm, but it’s not natural. It’s a magical storm!” Jago checked the horizon and came up with a plan of action. Well, at least the beginnings of a plan.

“Follow me! Those towers are built to resist these storms! We need to take shelter there! Quickly now!” In a flash the halflings short legs were bounding towards the towers in the distance. If they weren’t fast enough the storm would roll in and cut them off. The closer they got towards their goal, the closer the storm got to intercepting them.

Ernest shook her head slightly. If she had an Adelunan Crescent for every time someone had asked if she was too young to be adventuring, she'd be rich. "I suppose I'm kind of young," she said out loud. "But I can handle myself, usually. Although, invisible snakes were not what I was expecting." She decided not to mention to him that she'd never actually heard of the Red Wizard. Then again, she hadn't heard of much.

Magical storms. Wonderful. On the other hand, that was kind of what she had signed up for, coming here. She had known full well that this was a dangerous area.

The halfling was up and running before the thought of moving had even occurred to Ernest. Luckily, she managed to catch up to Jago within a few seconds. She'd had plenty of practice running, and, anyway, her legs were longer than his. As the two of them raced toward the tower, she could hear the lightning crackle behind her. They were so close. The high shriek echoed again, and Ernest begged to every god she knew of that they would make it in time.

“We all have to start some time I guess.” Jago replied as he skidded through the door behind Ernest. He spun on his heel in a flamboyant spin of starry cloak and slammed the door shut behind them as a bolt of pure power struck just outside. After jumping back, Jago tried to cover his surprise by turning his sharp eyes to the room they had just barged into. At first glance it was an old and abandoned guard tower. Without a word the wizard tapped a few bricks with his staff, and studied a wooden post by biting it softly. Even with his thorough investigation complete – they appeared to be in an old and abandoned guard tower.

“Seems to be an old guard tower – sentry post to whatever lies deeper.” Jago reasoned out aloud. With a simple animation spell and a lot more effort than usual Jago caused fragments of wood scattered around the floor to jump up and form them a simple but effective table and chairs. Jago sat down and pulled a parchment covered package from his seemingly bottomless backpack. “Let’s take a moment to share information, and share a quick meal.” Food was never far from Jago’s immediate thoughts, and today was no different; although he had a bad feeling he was going to miss at least two meals today. (Out of the grand total of nine meals all halflings with Jago’s adventurous lifestyle could fit into a busy day of exploring.)

“Do you have magic?” Jago asked as he unwrapped the parchment package to reveal more than enough cured meat sandwiches. “Do you feel the magic being drawn from you? Feeding the storms? They have a name but it’s been lost to time.” Jago pulled another wrapped bundle of food from his bag – this time several varieties of cheese, a decent chunk of butter and a whole tin of Adeluna’s finest salt and pepper crackers. “There are myths about a race of unimaginable intelligence that came long before recorded times that used to harness pure magic from the storm clouds in teardrop shaped airships – but that’s just a story. What do you know about this place?” Jago asked, as he tucked into his first sandwich.

OOC:| Sorry about the delay! Been a bit of a hectic week. Hope this is okay! Let me know. :)

The lightning struck just outside the guard tower, and Ernest instinctively flattened herself against the opposite wall before realizing that the tower would, of course, be impervious to the storms. She sighed and pulled herself off the wall, trying to act natural. It would have been nice to look in some of the dark corners, but she had no lantern, and with magic being as difficult as it was, she doubted she could do anything with that.

A guard tower seemed a likely enough origin of this place, although she didn't like the idea of it guarding whatever was inside the circle. She watched in amazement as he made the wood form into a pair of chairs and a table. That would be a useful spell to learn, she decided.

She was even more shocked to see him pull out a giant spread of food. It was a little embarrassing to add what little she had to his pile. She had jerky with her, and dried vegetables, and obviously biscuits, but nowhere near the amount of food Jago had brought. She decided to focus on his questions. "I don't know very much about this land," she said. "I've heard the stories, that it's a magical wasteland full of danger. I know no one has lived long after returning from here." She shrugged and took a sandwich. "Not that I care. If I'm going to die, I'd rather do it exploring." Trying not to be impolite, she ate her sandwich relatively slowly. With a smile, she added, "I know there are invisible snakes, now."

The storm seemed fascinating as well. "I know what you mean about the magic," she said. "I couldn't do a heal spell earlier today, and I've never had that problem before. It's the storm, then? I thought it was just the area."

As the pair of them ate the sandwiches and cheese they swapped the little information they had. Since deciding to venture out and explore the lands of Revaliir Jago had met and shared food with a surprising number of people willing to help. It filled him with hope, maybe this fractured world could be healed after all. As the halfling finally stopped eating the storm started to move over them, and so did Jago’s secret wish to see a mythical teardrop airship.

“The storm is moving on, I plan to venture deeper. I want to see what lies in the centre.” Jago explained to his newest companion. As he did he started to pack away his things and begun preparations for the hike ahead. Normally the wizard wouldn’t carry a sword – he’d summon it when required, but with his magical abilities being fizzled in and out with the storms he couldn’t rely on it.

“I’m not sure if it’s the storms alone or if it’s something to do with the barrier holding the storms at bay as well. I’m confident however that we’ll find something in the centre.” the wizard said with a grin on his face as he opened the door.

The lightning flashes slowly became less frequent as they ate. Ernest was glad. She didn't care for the magical storms; no matter how fascinating they were, they were exceedingly dangerous. Jago got up and began to pack, and Ernest scanned through her bag, making sure nothing was missing. She was known to be very suspicious that her things might have vanished.

"I was planning to see how close I could get to the centre," Ernest said. "Perhaps we could travel together for a little way." It would be nice to have someone to travel with who just wanted to explore like she did. Normally, she only got to see people for a short while before she left wherever they were willing to be.

The little wizard seemed to be convinced that whatever was in the centre of this land was very important, and Ernest wasn't about to doubt him. He knew a lot more about this land than she did. "I would hope we'll find something," she said. "I'm really hoping to find something new here."

She walked out the door and held it open for the wizard to follow. "Let's go, then."