Climb to the top of your world

[arkbound]

Who: Dominic De Luca and Loki
Universe: post-Carvaka
What: another encounter
Warning: none yet

Dominic’s fingers flexed around the knife he’d drawn as soon as he’d wound up in this place. The trees grew tall around him, but the underbrush was thick enough to obscure easy vision of what might be present.

This wasn’t Between, it was like nothing he had seen from the place, and no matter how much he tried to lie to himself, nothing appeared in his other hand, so he was left with just the knife and all the other weapons that he had on him at the time (somewhere between fifteen and thirty).

He heard a rustling in one of the bushes and pivoted towards it. “Identify yourself.”

Comments

[mischiefandice]

Loki woke up in a tree, precariously perched on a low-hanging branch. He stretched his legs carefully, inspected the ground and his surroundings, before jumping down into the brush.

His magic was dulled again, he realized soon enough, an uneasy feeling he was starting to get used to after so long spent in the Between. But this was not it. This was another realm entirely, he could feel it, with a seemingly endless forest and an almost suspiciously blue sky.

He'd started walking, looking for a clearing, or a source of water and food, and finding nothing but the thick underbrush for what seemed to be miles. He paused when he heard a rustle to his left, another creature creeping through the brush. Not big, as far as he could tell, but big enough to be a threat. The words, spoken plainly but in a very recognisable voice, made him grin.

"Of course," he answered, his voice low and amused. "Who else would I meet in the unending forest of an unknown realm?"

[arkbound]

The answer wasn’t really an identification, but it could still serve as one. Loki’s voice and tone were both distinctive, and the way he spoke implied he hadn’t known it to be Dominic before Dominic had broken the silence with his query himself.

Dominic tucked the knife back away and moved towards the sound of the voice.

“Loki? Do you know where we are? Are you hurt?”

None of this made any sense, but Dominic would start with the basics, if he could.

[mischiefandice]

"Indeed," Loki answered, making way towards Dominic as well, pushing through the thick underbrush. And there Dominic was, half-hidden by the lush foliage, looking serious as ever even though his hair was full of twigs.

"I do not," Loki confirmed, stepping closer and looking up towards the unknown sky. "I woke up in a tree. This is not he Between anymore." He glanced back to Dominic at the question, arching an eyebrow at him. "I am unharmed."

[arkbound]

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dominic said, and his focus now was more on making sure that no one jumped himself or Loki than it was on trying to anticipate what Loki would do. It was amazing sometimes, how he’d come to trust the other man.

“We should keep looking around. Maybe we fell through a portal or something.”

[mischiefandice]

Loki spared a few seconds to make sure Dominic was unharmed as well, his magic humming quietly around them, weaker than the usual.

"Perhaps," he allowed, though he did not seem convinced. "We should look for a place to make camp, as well." He arched his eyebrows at Dominic. "We know not what this realm holds, especially at night."

[arkbound]

"If we can't find some broader civilization by nightfall, yes. We can take turns keeping watch if it comes to that."

Loki might not be entirely trustworthy, but he's fundamentally a good man, and Dominic would trust him easily to watch over them while he slept, when Dominic had to take a break.

[mischiefandice]

"Agreed," Loki states, meeting Dominic's eyes briefly. "No sign of the others?" he inquires, tilting his head curiously. If Dominic is there with him, perhaps so are some of the other dwellers of their previous realm.

Loki would not be pleased to be called a good man (and he certainly does not consider himself to be one) but Dominic is right to think he would watch over his sleep if needed.

[arkbound]

“Not that I’ve seen yet. But I haven’t been here very long myself.” While Dominic would like to see other people from their settlement — not least to know that they’re all still alive — he has a feeling that Loki will be easier to get along with as long as it’s just the two of them.

“Which directions have you already explored?” Though it may not matter, if people are still appearing.

[mischiefandice]

"Assuming the sun rises in the east on this realm too, this is the direction I've gone," Loki answers, thoughtfully. His magic hums a little as it spreads around them, looking for something else but plant and insect lives. "There seem to be very little here, except an endless forest," he states. His magic is weak still, and can only stretch for a few hundreds of yards before it collapses.

[arkbound]

“Then we either pick a direction and head in it, or make camp here to see if there’s anyone else who appears.” Dominic considers it all, considers just being stuck here with only Loki and wonders what it means. “If there’s a way out, we need to find where it leads.”

[mischiefandice]

Loki considers it. "Let us make way eastward, then, and set camp when the sun starts setting." Who knows what the night will bring, after all. He watches Dominic closely. "What were you doing, when this realm caught you?"

[arkbound]

"Training. Inside my room. What about yourself?"

It can't be any kind of gap in space, although gaps in reality are something that Dominic has had to become more familiar with.

[mischiefandice]

"Reading in my garden," Loki answers. There seems to be no pattern here, then.

"The feeling of being taken here was entirely different from what I experienced before, when unrealities overflowed from people's minds," he adds, arching his eyebrows.

[arkbound]

"This is too broad, without enough of a focus. I suppose either of us could have created this, but it's hardly...a nightmare or a dream, for either one of us, I would suspect."

[mischiefandice]

Loki thinks about it for a few seconds, and he has to agree. The Between has always sought to torment them, and this reality is not particularly trying, so far. "Let us walk, then, and see what we may find on the way," he offers.

[arkbound]

"To see if the world comes to an end in any particular direction." A weird thing to say, but an even weirder thing to know is an actual possibility.