Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Kisaik's heart sank when Thysbae, who was being crowded by a veritable army of bunnies, didn't seem to notice him. A little sap leaked from his eyes as he withdrew his arm, down from five feet to about four inches. He was amazed that he'd been able to grow his arm that long. Small tunawa were known for being able to stretch a bit, but normally that took time and for far less length. Perhaps the rush of the dangerous situation had prompted him to superior capabilities?

He'd have time to think about that later. For now, Rabu had joined him up on top of the pedestal. Kisaik knew that Rabu had a fear of heights, and it nearly brought a tear to his eye to know that his perilous situation had prompted his friend to set aside his terror and join him at the top. "Alright! Careful now, it's very wobbly."

So saying, Kisaik took the bell in both arms, wrapping his lengthening arms around it, to where they began to tie together at the hands. Then, Kisaik did as instructed, and pulled as Rabu pushed.

"Hold on! We need to push it forward too! And not enough to knock it over, but get that bell ringing!" So, Kisaik and Rabu held on with all their small might to the bell, and began rocking it, back and forth, back and forth.

Kisaik continued in this effort, until at last the bell would ring, or the bell became too wobbly to manage. In which case he would try and stablize its position on the pedestal. It must ring, but it also must not fall!

The dramatic shift in moods continued. Something was off and it wasn’t immediately apparent to him, so he clutched onto the bunny in his hands as if he were clutching metaphorical pearls. There was something wrong — there always was; even he could notice that — and they wouldn’t outright tell him. Was it because he was crying? Did they think it would make him even more sad? That was nice of them.

In his musings on what they could not be telling him, he missed the answer plain as day. As well as a call for help, to come and be of some use. Much too busy holding the soft rabbits close like a security blanket, but with legs and ears. But — he did look up in time to see Rabu and Kisiak trying to get some sort of bell to ring. Was this what was wrong? The two were only tiny twigs and he was at one point described as a twig himself, but he was a bigger twig wasn’t he? Getting to his feet, he came over to where the tunawa were with only a slight bit of haste.

The bell distracted him with its elegance for but a moment. It seemed as though the two had some sort of control on the situation, and thus he felt perhaps he would be better suited to make sure it remained stable. But how would he do that? Not sure of that, he followed what Kisiak did.

“I’m here! I’m here!”

Speech | Thought

A tittering noise sounded from the Yellow Door upon Rabu’s hesitant response, and then it went silent.

Rabu tried to comfort Thysbae, joining the bunnies around the human mortalborn. Meanwhile, Kisaik took on the shouts and cries of the fairies, and flew up to the crystal hand bell.

But it proved too great of a bell, in size and dimension, even when made of glass-like material. Too great to ring by his lonesome. And though he tried to ask the larger two species for help, Thysbae and Cervantez, he found himself ignored by the tall-folk.

Yet Rabu flew to his aid. Though the height soon made the little Tunawa dizzy, Rabu persisted with great courage. He touched the handle, and felt the same sensations that Kisaik had, but he managed to focus through it.

Together, the Tunawa couple held onto the handle. Their little hands tied together to secure themselves and as Rabu instructed: while Kisaik pulled, Rabu pushed.

The base of the bell screeched along the pedestal surface. Kisaik informed that they had to move forward too and they repeated the motion, in a rhythmic rocking between each other.

Both Rabu and Kisaik felt as if they were swimming rather than flying, a weightlessness to their bodies. Their ears rushed with sounds that they couldn’t rightly recognize. Warmth gathered inside of their cores.

The bell screeched one side to the next, and then… on the fourth attempt, the base lifted ever so slightly. Rabu felt the handle tilt toward him. Another attempt and the handle tilted toward Kisaik instead. It seemed they were going to do it!

They were about to actually ring the bell!

On the next motion, the base of the bell slid out from under the Tunawa. The crystal clapper freely swung fast and created unexpected momentum. Rabu felt the handle rush down to pin him against the pedestal and Kisaik found himself pulled along in a forward fall. Instead of ringing, other than a scrape of the clapper against the interior, the bell flipped over. Its base went up into the air.

Now, it no longer followed any known rules of Idalosian gravity. Or if it did, it meant that the ringed base had been much heavier than either Tunawa had realized. It flipped upside down, falling off the pedestal surface. Though this was a good thing, as in the next trill, the root network of the earthy pedestal slammed flat with no space left between it and the ceiling.

Thysbae could see from his spot at the pedestal as the bell, with both Tunawa held tight around the handle, started to plummet toward the ground.

It flipped around and around and around, in a downward dive. Light glinted off the crystal, sending bright colors across the great hall. Some of the fairies screamed, and they all went flying in escape, back to flee through the doors.

There was less than a bit of time before the crystal bell might crash upon the ground…

As he was accustomed to do, Thysbae felt that perhaps he might have made a bit of a mistake. It would not be a strange thing if he did. But for the moment, it would not be a good thing. And so he let go, marveling for just a moment at the pretty colors of the crystal bell as they reflected off the surface. But it was lost as something else inside him stirred and he was reminded of his duties. His important actions he must take. Like not letting the bell break. And so he lunged forward to attempt to catch it, letting his end go. This was more than just a vase that his mother had left out carelessly, and he was to care for it as such.

The mortal born anticipated failure but hoped for success. Eyes plate wide as he went, he reached out his arm to catch the heavy thing -- or what had previously been heavy for his tiny tree friends and the fairies. If he could at least cushion the blow, perhaps the crystal would not break at all. Brows furrowed and determined the trill passed as he dove and his fingers tapped the edge of the bell. Just enough to swing it further and keep it from touching the ground -- so he hoped. His eyes shut the moment the bell made contact with his fingers, fearing the worst of what might happen.

His belly hit the ground, the impact forcing out a sharp gasp from the mortal born and his eyes did indeed fly open to see what aftermath might come of his actions. He sought the tunawa first, to gauge their reaction, then the fairies. He couldn't bear to see how the fairies would respond first. It had seemed like a very important bell and it would be partly his fault that it broke if it did. A prized possession. Maybe something that held more symbolic importance to them; he couldn't think of the details aside from how absolutely panicked they had been.

"Did I do it? Did I save the bell?" It was tossed up to anyone to answer, hopeful that the answer would be a resounding yes and that they could go back to some sort of festivity. Maybe then he could sort out the mess that was the decorations after his carelessness with the bunnies. He might also need to apologize to one of the said creatures for having cried into her fur. She must have been very uncomfortable with him doing that. "Please say yes."

His eyes watered, fighting the urge to look at the bell. Fighting the urge to even cry -- yet again -- lest he look far more incompetent than he already did. He swallowed, blinking tears away. And not a moment too soon, as one slid down his cheek and he turned his head to see what had become of his actions.

Speech | Thought

Less than a bit of time…

Several trills…

It was all the time that the mortals had, to make a difference, to keep the bell from crashing upon the ground and shattering into crystal pieces, to save the fairy court…

…and Thysbae lunged forward to catch it. With all the fears in his heart and yet, the hope that overlaid them. He found, as it drew closer, that though the bell was large compared to the Tunawa, it was only medium-sized for him…

…but oh, was the bell ever so heavy.

Thysbae felt glass press down into his fingers. A rush of fiery heat caused his face to flush and his skin to sweat. His palms grew slick with the sweat. The bell tipped over and swung from the bare touch that didn’t manage to fully catch it.

While the bell swung through the air, direction changed by Thysbae’s attempt, the sweaty mortalborn belly-flopped on the floor. He looked to the tunawa…

Kisaik held on for dear life to the handle of the bell’s handle. He tugged at it, in attempt to keep it from crashing dreadfully into pieces on the floor, sent in a different direction entirely. His grip slipped slightly, but he managed to keep hold like the stalwart knight he was.

And..............




And poor Rabu…

…poor, poor Rabu…

As the bell hit Thysbae’s fingers. As it bounced off and went arching in a different direction. Poor Rabu disappeared from either Kisaik or Thysbae’s sight.

But for Rabu, it seemed as if he were still there, still speaking with them, and everything had gone so successful and perfect and well. Rabu didn’t seem to notice that the Thysbae he thanked was mirrored and glittered in rainbow hues, and cried tears of quartz not water. The little Tunawa comforted his friend, unaware that he no longer was with the others.

Well, not all the others.

Rabu could see the Lotharro, Cervantez, chattering away and commanding what appeared to be leaves floating through the air. The little tunawa mentioned to the silent and motionless Kisaik and Thysbae crystal clones, that the bell still had to be rung.

And to the side, Rabu could see that the bell which had landed so neatly in Thysbae’s outstretched hands and remained there, had gotten a crack somehow in the skirt.

Rabu got in position anyway. Crystal Kisaik remained with arms tightly held around the handle.

Rabu changed his mind and asked Crystal Thysbae if he wanted to have the honors of ringing the bell with a smile and lots of supportive gestures. Slowly… gradually… poor Rabu’s mind started to grasp that maybe these weren’t his friends like he thought they were. Something about them seemed different. His friends could talk and move, and this Thysbae and Kisaik weren’t doing either of those things.

Only Cervantez moved and talked in the Great Hall, even if only to the leaves falling down around him as the Lotharro seemed to believe with all his heart that these were fairies.




In one moment, Kisaik saw Rabu smile at him while they flew through the air. And in the next moment, Kisaik saw that Rabu was gone.

As the bell swung through the air in an arc, with the sudden disappearance of Rabu’s weight and the pull of Kisaik’s body against the handle…

A resounding ring echoed through the Great Hall as the crystalline clapper hit the side of the bell, only to swing and hit the other side… before it landed with a thud on the ground. It didn’t shatter, but Kisaik could feel anguish like a million tortured souls in sorrow, a million innocents drowned under the weight of merciless nature, and a heavy crack marred the crystalline skirt of the bell.

Thysbae looked at the fairies, what remained of them, and he saw only three fairies. A blue fairy, a red fairy, a yellow fairy. They hovered, and stared with wide eyes and slack jaws, as if paralyzed by their shock of witnessing what was occurring within that mere bit of time.

It was only then that Thysbae realized, the Lotharro had disappeared as well. But where? Where had he gone? For that matter, where had the bunnies gone?

Both Kisaik and Thysbae asked if the bell was safe, and comforted each other, though they both could look themselves at the cracked fissure that ran along the crystal skirt of the bell.

Intact, but… damaged.

And yet, it had rang before hitting the ground.

~Rabu~ stepped beside Kisaik, as if he’d never disappeared at all, and the Tunawa smiled cheerfully at the other, took his hand and said, “ᵢ 𝒹ᵢₙₖ ᵧₒᵤ 𝒹ₒ ₐ 𝓌ₒₙ𝒹ₑᵣ𝒻ᵤₗ ⱼₒᵦ! Yₒᵤ 𝒹ₒ 𝓰ₒₒ𝒹 ⱼₒᵦ ₜₒₒ, ₜₕᵧₛᵦₐₑ!”

From around the Great Hall, Kisaik and Thysbae heard the blare of trumpets and the steady march of feet... no, not feet. Wings in flight. The three fairies closed their mouths, turned, and promptly saluted.

Through the red door, three rows of vibrant crimson fairies poured out in militaristic formation. Spears in hand, armored helmets pointy, and wings fluttering while they made their way into the hall and took posts along the perimeter. With them, the bunnies returned in hopping lines to create a corridor that led to the main throne seats that remained in the Great Hall.