Arthur looks around, and finds a sizable rock. Suddenly hit with an idea, he grins and pulls out a pile of paper, and quickly points at them, and they all fold into each other, forming a life-sized sword, made out of origami paper. He swings it at a nearby rock cleaving it in two. He smiles happily, quite proud of this.
Rayla grins. "Bibliomancy, huh? Interesting choice. Very good sword, by the way. You just made the phrase 'words can hurt' quite literal."
"Bibliomancy. Don't think I've ever actually seen or heard of that before. I get the idea though, book related magic." He separates the sword back into pieces of paper, and puts it back into his pack. "I have an actual weapon now, so that's good! Shall we continue onwards? We've got plenty of walking left!" He grins and continues forward with a bit of pep in his step.
Rayla laughs. "That is good, yes. But we need to train you on the basics of swordplay, along the way of the journey."
"Yeah, we should continue. We need to find a suitable camping site later, too." she grins, following after Arthur
Arthur nods. "Yeah, sounds like a plan!" And walks forward, excited and ready to see what is to come. Less excited for the grueling pain of hiking an entire mountain over a weeks time, but you win some, you lose some.
cue travel montage?
Rayla grins.
Sure lol; making it epic, and I'm stopping when they hit my first landmark XD
Over the course of the next few weeks, Rayla and Arthur make their way to the base of the mountains.
They had looked at each other, then back up at the mountains, before shrugging and climbing them.
It took them nearly a month to get to the top, in which time Rayla had had to cast several spells on Arthur to keep his lungs. . . lung-like.
They now stoop atop a vast, snowy peak, staring down at the world below.
From the mountains directly across from them, they could see mist from multiple huge waterfalls obscuring the bottom portions of the mountain.
Looking up and to the left, there would be a stunning sight.
A giant skeleton, with an even bigger sword throughs its ribcage and piercing into the rock below. (this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/969540626009031781/)
Arthur take sin the view, eyeing it curiously. "So how exactly id that big fella come to be?"
(Oh, I'll be gone for the rest of spring break, just FYI.)
(Alright!)
"How else? War and hatred. The Old Gods. . . well, they aren't as forgiving as the New Light. The Giants are the only race who remembers the Old Gods as anything more than myths and legends, besides the Dragons." Rayla sighs. "I was around to see this particular fellow in his last moments. He was a brave man, and a caring father. A shame he had to be a heretic. . ."
Arthur looked over the remains of the giant for a little longer, imagining it in life. He felt sorry. Someone with dreams and aspirations, so many things to live for, and his life was cut short. and for what reason? The gods simply got defensive, and killed someone who spoke against them. The Gods were as fickle here, as in any legend. Arthur folded his hands, hoped that the giant had a good afterlife. Well, probably a few centuries too late for that. He pulled out a fresh notebook and started to write down a few notes.
Rayla moves on.
"There's a few old, inactive volcanos in the area. Want to go check 'em out?" she asks cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.
"Hmm… Sure? Sounds fun-ish. Just so long as none of my paper catches fire. Paper is quite flammable." With that, he pushes his paper and notebook to the bottom of his bag, and stands up, his melancholy expression replaced with that cheerful adventurous grin. Though this time it seemed a bit forced, trying to ignore the saddening sight of the long dead giant.
Rayla slugs Arthur playfully.
"Cheer up. I know where the corpse is of the bastard that did this to him. We'll go visit it later and hurl insults at it." she grins, pulling him down a hidden path down the side of the mountain.
Arthur chuckles and follows. A moment later, he processes her comment. "Wait, wasn't he killed by an Old God? SO there's just a gods corpse lying around somewhere?"
Rayla shrugs. "I helped put the corpse where it is, so yeah. As for the bit about random Old God corpses. . . there's a few."
"Cooool!" Arthur's face is back in full child-like curiosity. "So are they just rotting sacks of God flesh, or something else? I've read a few legends about how dead gods would become stars, or form the mountains of worlds." He is now folding a piece of paper into a few different shapes as he talks, making a variety of different forms as he does. "Apparently some die in battles between planes, and just drift in the space between worlds, serving as a sort of islands for those that live in that in-between."
"Some of them are preserved. Some of then are merely bones by now. Sometimes the only signs of them are swords impaled in the ground." Rayla chuckles. "In our world, they become landmarks."
"Cool! So is there one near those dormant volcanoes, or was the one you mentioned just in a completely different place?"
"The one I mentioned is up in the far North. However there might be one near the volcanoes, though I can't remember." Rayla chuckles.
Arthur laughs. "Are there so many dead god bods that you forget where they are?"
Rayla takes a moment to consider this and then chuckles.
"You know, I'm not sure. I've been alive long enough that most things I've seen at least once, and then they fade from my memory."
Arthur muses, "Hm. Guess you just are really old. I have learned a lot of things, and I can remember most of them. Of course, I write most things down, and I have never really been anywhere, so it's all theoretical knowledge or stories from books. Never had the chance to remember the geography of a world really."
Rayla snorts.
"There you go again - calling a beautiful lady 'old.'" she teases.
"Well then! I'll show you the world in it's entirety." she smiles.
Arthur chuckles. "I think when you've been alive for that long, I'm allowed to call you old. Besides, I'm a few centuries old too, so I'm in the same range of sorts." He puts away his folding paper, and says in response to that promise, "Looking forward to it!"
"Only a few centuries." Rayla snickers.
She grins. "Good."
She starts to lead him down the path once more.
Arthur follows along, and asks "So we're heading towards some inactive volcanoes next, right?"