Going on a Journey [Aleph's Introduction; Open]

The fact that the bird was corrupted was the least of Aleph's worries. But at least Aspen was alright. The only problem would be actually getting rid of the crow. Using a sword was out of the question, because had anyone really tried to stab a bird? It was not easy.

Anyways, Aleph held his glowing hand towards one of the tree branches, moving it around in a sharp motion and aiming to swat the crow out of the air.

Distracted by Aspen's arrows, the corrupted bird did not see the branches stretching in its direction. It was promptly swatted downwards, but then caught itself up again. This time, the bird's red eyes glowed and flapped its wings in order to deliver a strong gust of wind.

Aspen shielded her eyes as leaves and twigs and dust blew in their direction and yanked out her flute. Playing a quick five notes repeatedly which caused several Cartic marks to form a glowing pentagram in front of her to form some sort of shield from the wind. The crow darted downwards and aimed for Aleph, it's talons open and ready to clutch him.

Aleph smiled as the branches managed to swat the bird down, but grimaced as he saw that it only managed to anger the bird even more. Aspen's spell managed to protect herself from the wind, but the bird was now heading for Aleph head on.

Aleph braced himself as the bird darted towards him, talons out. He quickly took the silver feather in his other hand and channeled some magic through it, transforming it into a sword. Now, with both a sword and a shield, Aleph took the sword and slashed at the bird as it flew towards him.

The sword connecting with the talons would feel like clashing against metal, but the bird did manage to get grazed on its lower torso. it screeched and was about to swat a sharp wing at Aleph only to have feel a strong gust of wind blow it towards the left. The sound of the flute came along with this. Aspen had her eyes closed and was channeling a Cartic-powered wind. This caused the bird to flap its wings as it tried to fly against the current, making it's torso open for more attack.

While the bird did manage to parry Aleph's sword with its talons, at least it had now left itself open to attack. Even more so, now that Aspen was blowing it away with wind magic. That was good because getting hit by the bird's wing probably would've made this end a whole lot worse.

Anyways, Aleph quickly took the chance and lunged at the bird, aiming a stab at its torso.

The sword pierced through the torso like a hot knife into a candle. The bird tried to struggle free, but it's head slumped over its shoulders and it slid oaff onto the ground. Aspen closed her eyes and raised a hand. A Cartic mark of burning tossed itself over the bird and it slowly began to light into an ember.

"Sadly corrupted meat doesn't taste good," she said. "It's horribly rotten and will only make you hungrier."

She tossed her hair behind her and sighed.

"What a hassle. I would have preferred a wild boar."

Aleph winced as the now dead bird was set aflame. Even if it did try to kill him, it always broke Aleph's heart to see animals die like that. And people too. Life being snuffed out always brought tears to his eyes. Plus, there was no way he was eating that.

After the bird was burned, Aleph sighed sadly before turning to Aspen. "It's a shame we couldn't find a way to uncorrupt it, you know?" He said. "Like, maybe we could've helped it, and make it normal again."

Aspen shook her head firmly.

"You can't change something that's corrupted," she said. "The general constitution of a physical form is altered beyond repairing. Think of it as cooking food. You can never uncook it. Or perhaps if you were to tear fabric, remove the middle piece and be left with the two. You can't connect them anymore because the fabric's lost. And that fabric would be the very nature of the creature. It's lost to darkness and insanity."

Aspen hid her bow again and looked at Aleph.

"So, why don't we head inside and talk about how we're going to Eisleyn?" she offered.

Aleph frowned when Aspen explained how corruption worked. He couldn't help but feel as though she was right. Was there really no hope in healing a corrupted animal? Guess it couldn't be helped, he thought.

"I see." He said, sadly. He then smiled. "Yeah, why don't we head inside? Ladies first, by the way!"

"Well, aren't you the gentleman," Aspen muttered as she walked past him.

She lazily kicked the door open with her left boot and stepped in. The inn itself was pretty abandoned. In fact, the couple of people at the tables were either asleep or downright knocked out from one too many tankards. She would wait for Aleph to follow her and then take a seat at one near a window. The sunlight pouring through it made obvious the millions of dust particles dancing in the atmosphere and in the air they breathed.

She'd gesture for Aleph to sit down. A tavern girl would come by and ask for their drinks.

"Ale, plain and simple," she said.

Her sharp green eyes would stare at Aleph to hear his order, and once the tankard girl was out of earshot, she leaned closer and spoke.

"Tell me, pink-cap," she said. "You're planning on journeying literally across the entire continent of Esterelf. Have you made for yourself enough provisions to get you by? And do you plan to travel on foot? Are there any specific pathways you want to take? Boat, horseride, carriage? You must have a plan, right?"

As she asked questions, she began using her index finger to draw on the surface table. It came back up thickly coated in dust.