Zalra Cascading sheets of ice hung suspended against crystalline structures like curtains in a chilled window pane. The frosted forestry, home to exotic fauna, welcomed those that dare traverse its paths. The region had become a newfound comfort for the hunter. Offering creatures to hunt and tame alike. Despite the new conditions of the area, many of the animals in the area had adapted and learned to live within the crystallized environment. This notion alone compelled the Atheos to learn and live in the area himself. A frosted breath swirled from the lone hooded figure perched within the canopy of the ivory frosted trees. Hanging vine like leaves, dipped in the soft collection of snow, offered camouflage for the white-haired man as he observed his prey below. Soft blue eyes surveyed the deer below. A small herd, three or four at the most, sat nestled together at the nearly frozen pond. His finger laced and arrow from his quiver, slowly and methodically notching the thin wooden dart and drawing the bow to its max length. Another soft wisp of cool air escaped him. His focus unwavering as the deer perked up. No doubt they could smell something unpleasant in the wind; however, the heads up did them no good as the arrow snapped through the frigid air, cutting through leaf then flesh as one of the deer buckled over. Leaping down from his perch, Atheos didn't bother with the other deer. They were merely target practice, and he'd quickly pick up their trail again. Turning to face his victim, the ranger retrieved his arrow from the throat of the deer. "Tch, too short." The man still had trouble with truly flawless aim. Though the shot worked in his favor this time around. Wiping the arrow clean, he placed it back into his quiver and began tracking the herd once more. Their trail rather fresh, given the small downfall of snow earlier that morning. Following their prints, he stopped short as another set of prints surprised him, though these veered off left. Peering into underbrush, a figure moved through the thicket of white and green. Curious he followed. I wonder who else could be in this neck of the woods? @Vanilla @Luna Avalbane
A young girl - well wrapped in a thick, hooded winter coat - wandered through the forest of frozen, crystallized trees. It was just plain freakish to see an otherwise normal forest totally screwed up… or perhaps it could be considered an improvement? It was actually kinda beautiful in its own unique way. In fact, it was sights like this that really drew Vanilla to keep coming back to Terrasphere. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was on some kinda drug…” Vanilla mumbled to herself, crunching a few ferns under her feet that might have once been a little more malleable. “There’s bound to be something interesting around here though. Of the ‘tamable’ sort, hopefully.” If she was crazy lucky, maybe there’d be a crystal beastie somewhere to tame. Or those were totally common… she’d find out soon enough. Having wandered around for a whopping half an hour without finding anything, Vanilla finally took a seat on a fallen log made - go figure - of crystal. She promptly took out a basic ham sandwich and began to munch on it, taking a gander at the small clearing she’d found. It looked like this - at one point or another - had been a campsite. There was a small spot of black ground in front of her which implied a campfire belonged there. Shame there was no wood nearby to make use of it. Suddenly, Vanilla noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to glance at it, tensing up. It was a dark-skinned man, or maybe it was one of those… what were they called? Yuhlidians? Something like that. Vanilla took another bite of sandwich and called out through the limitations of a mouth full of food, relaxing herself again, “You seen any interesting beasties around here?” She didn’t seem concerned at all with being a young girl alone in the woods. If anything, she looked more amused than scared at the situation. @Atheos @Luna Avalbane
An entire crystalline forest was a crazy sight, when you stopped to think about it. At least, Luna thought so as she wandered aimlessly through it, typing out another message to her friend Angel, half tempted to ask for help finding her way out. She'd definitely gotten lost about an hour ago and now finding her way out was proving to be a challenge, especially considering that some of the creatures here weren't exactly friendly. She'd heard rumors about some sort of crystal versions of ordinary creatures that could turn others into crystal, or something along those lines. NPC's were almost intentionally vague, it seemed, so useful information was sometimes particularly difficult to come by, especially when you still struggled to talk to them. She eventually decided against asking for help, for now at least, figuring that she couldn't be too far from the outskirts of the forest by now. She'd been walking for so long, after all, so her feet were starting to hurt a little. She hadn't even seen any animals yet, though she'd seen a lot of footprints that were probably fresh. She wasn't an expert tracker or anything, but footprints after snow had to be sort of fresh, right? Other wise the snow would have covered them or something. At least, one of the games she'd once played before had led her to believe something similar, though as with most games besides this one, the realism often left something to be desired. And hey, there was even a set of people footprints that followed the deer prints! There was another person in this forest somewhere, following or moving with the deer herd or something along those lines. She hadn't really expected to see another person around, considering how large this forest was, but maybe if she followed them, she could find either the person or the way out of the forest. At some point her own footprints probably stopped, having been in the forest whilst it was snowing, taking shelter beneath some crystal tree. She huffed, pulling the simple fur cloak she'd brought closer to her body as she set about following the prints. She couldn't be too far behind, maybe ten minutes behind at most, though eventually she found the feet they came from, which were connected to quite a tall, dark skinned man with a bow. She came up behind him, rather loudly and somewhat clumsily, spotting a second figure that could probably pass as either her younger sister or very nearly her daughter, with similar white hair and facial features. She stopped still, glancing around awkwardly. "U-u-u-um, e-e-excuse me?" It was pretty much all she could manage to say. She just hoped she hadn't interrupted a conversation. @Atheos @Vanilla
