Gyrfalcon

The dinner passed quietly, the three of them chatting over excellent food, though Salinye noticed a slight air of strain between the two men, though they did their best to hide it from her. Curious, she thought of pressing one or the other of them after dinner to find out what exactly they had said to each other. With a contented sigh, she pushed her plate away slightly, feeling too stuffed to eat another bite. “Come now, dessert is ready!” Gabriel said, smiling at her. “Don’t tell me that you’re full already, are you?” Salinye laughed. “But I am full, Gabriel, if I eat any more I may burst!” she protested, even as her plate was whisked away and a slice of berry pie was placed in front of her. “Nonsense, my dear princess! Why, if you don’t eat more, you might starve!” Gabriel said, smiling broadly at her. Salinye blushed lightly and mock-glared at Gabriel. “If I eat any more, I’ll become fat, and I don’t want that!” she retorted. “What say you, Gyrfalcon?” Gabriel suddenly said, glancing at the half-elf, who had been sitting back smiling at the banter between Salinye and Gabriel. “Hm? Well, Gabriel is right, Salinye – you’re quite slim and hardly in danger of becoming fat, so there’s no reason to not eat this excellent pie.” he said with a grin, which widened slightly as Salinye’s blush deepened. “Oh, why am I surrounded by men who want to fatten me up?” she sighed, looked at the ceiling before taking a bite from the pie which was, as Gyrfalcon had said, excellent. Gabriel chuckled “Don’t worry Salinye, I’ll tell you if you’re ever getting fat, as would your ranger companion.” Gyrfalcon shook his head, grinning “Far be it for a gentleman to comment upon a lady’s weight... I’d leave that to Daryl, as he’s far from a gentleman.” “Daryl?” Gabriel said, looking a bit puzzled. “He’s a fox, and something of a pet to Salinye.” Gyrfalcon said with a smile. Salinye shook her head fondly. “He’s a bit of a scamp, but his heart is good.” She said. “He’s even taught me to understand Fox!” Gabriel smiled and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Taught you to understand Fox?” he asked. “He’s quite a bit more intelligent then your average fox.” Gyrfalcon said, grinning at the thought of Daryl and all of his tricks. “Speaking of Daryl, where is he?” Salinye smiled. “Oh, I have him securely locked in my room. Not that I don’t trust him, but I don’t think he took to Mother and...” “You don’t trust him to be good.” Gyrfalcon finished with a chuckle. “How much trouble could one small fox cause?” Gabriel asked. Gyrfalcon shook his head. “You have *no* idea.” meanwhile... Daryl was bored. Unimaginably *bored*. He supposed that for a normal fox, being locked in two or three rooms for a few hours would be fine. For a werefox with his raging sense of curiosity, it was torture. Finally, with a sigh, Daryl concluded that he’d have to disobey Salinye. After all, it wasn’t disobedience unless you were caught doing it... She had locked the door, of course. It stood to reason, if you want to keep a fox inside, you lock the door and take the key with you. If you want to keep a thief like Daryl inside, you lock the door and collapse the passage leading to it. Within a minute, Daryl had deftly picked the lock, using one of the lockpicks he kept secreted in his tail for the occasion. The lack of an opposable thumb barely hindered him with the simple lock. Chuckling to himself, Daryl replaced the lockpick in his tail and carefully pressed the handle down and pulled back, swinging the door inward. He peeked out of the crack between the door and the frame and once he was sure that no servants were about, he eased his little form through the door and closed it behind him. With a smug “Yerf.” he trotted along the corridor, retracing the path he and Salinye had taken to the main hall, where he hid behind some hanging drapes to listen to some approaching servants. Unfortunately for his comprehension, they were speaking High Elven rather then the common tongue, but he caught several references to ‘Celestialgrace’, in tones humorous and disparaging. Finally, one of the servants took an armful of bedding and started up the main staircase with it. The other two went their separate ways to complete their own tasks, and Daryl shadowed the servant carrying the bedding, ghosting up the marble steps without even the click of a claw, a little russet shadow. Daryl mentally mapped the place as he followed the servant around, noting locations and landmarks within the building, major themes that would tell him where he was at a glance and good hiding spots for a fox in trouble. They ascended to the third floor and approached a pair of double-doors with the Celestialgrace emblem across the closed center. The servant passed the doors however, but Daryl stopped and hid behind a nearby wall hanging, guessing that this suite would belong to the Lady Celestialgrace, Salinye’s mother. The servant returned and departed down the stairs and Daryl crept out from his cover to carefully open the door and explore the master bedroom, noting the large, soft bed, and the neatly displayed jewelry on the vanity. Taking a closer look, he also found several bottles of perfume as well as all sorts of makeup, everything a high lady would need to look her best. Normally, Daryl would have swept up everything valuable and been on his merry way, but Salinye had stressed to him that he should be on his best behavior and not take anything. And, he supposed, he’d like to stay here for at least a few more days, and all that jewelry disappearing would focus attention on the strangers- and Daryl didn’t think it’d be polite for the jewelry to show up in Salinye’s luggage. His eyes focused on the bottles of perfume, and a nasty little idea began forming in his foxy mind. It wasn’t a nice thing to do... but he sensed that whatever she had been saying to Salinye hadn’t been that nice either. And sometimes, payback came in the form of a mischievous little fox. Grinning, he chose what was to him the least-pleasing scent, a concentrated whiff that caused his eyes to water horribly. Backing away and snorting repeatedly, he pawed at his eyes, and then grinned. Perfect. He changed forms, settling between human and fox in his hybrid form. Stretching the kinks out, he quickly picked up the bottle and removed the cap, placing it where the bottle would normally rest on the vanity before silently stepping to the door. He peeked out for a long moment to ensure that the hall was empty before quickly sliding through the doors and balancing the bottle on the top of the opened door, closing the door until the bottle was precariously balanced, sure to splash all over whoever opened the door. He swiftly changed back to his fox form and scampered away behind some nearby hangings to wait. He knew when Salinye expected to be back from her dinner with this Gabriel, and thus knew how long he had before he would have to return to her room. The vigilant fox did not have to wait long – a half hour at the most. He heard the tapping of stately footsteps and pressed himself against the wall to minimize any bulge in the hanging before carefully peeking out. He grinned to himself as he saw the approaching Lady Celestialgrace, apparently heading to her rooms. As he expected, she pushed open the door.... and the perfume tumbled down, splashing all over her. Her shriek was ear-splitting, and the perfume made his nose itch, even ten feet away, but Daryl had trouble keeping his laughter silent as he enjoyed the results of his prank. She was screaming loudly, and from a few words he recognized, was saying most unladylike things. Daryl carefully turned around and slid away through the hangings as servants rushed past to see what was wrong, and suffered under Sylvia’s whip-like tongue as she demanded to know who had done this. No one was produced, as the last servant inside her quarters had been there hours ago, and she had merely taken away Sylvia’s midday repast. No one ever suspected a certain fox, who snuggled into the nest he had made out of one of the blankets on Salinye’s bed and pretended to be fast asleep, waiting for Salinye’s return. His sides still shook with chuckles.

*laughs* Gooooo Wyvern! We never did have a script... oh gods, why didn't we have a script... *rocks back and forth*

Happy Birthday, you Zool-ish man!

I think I'll get out of Goodkind's series, though I stuck through eight books. Like most series, the first few were the best, and then it swiftly went downhill. In the previous two books (SPOILERS!) There has been NO plot development of any sort. Even most of the characters introduced in the book before the most recent disappeared, either dead or left behind. I hate it when an author costs sideways rather then continues the story.(END SPOILERS!) Yeah, sorry for the divergence from Middle Earth.

I would note that it's better to see if the problem can be fixed without using the Restore Points, but when all else fails, it does mean less work installing stuff. Basically, you do have to reinstall anything that made changes to Windows or the Registry after the date you restored to, such as any new programs, windows updates, and the like. (The data files will actually still be there, but any folders it added to your programs menu and any entries made in the registry disappear. Also, while it might solve the problem, it'd still be a good idea to reupdate your antivirus software, along with your anti-spyware things and run a full set of scans to make sure that everything's gone. But yeah, I already told Salinye all of that, so this is mostly for the rest of you! *grins*

Oh no, Goodkind isn't dry, in fact he's sort of sticky from all the blood his books wade through. o_O He has an absolute fascination with cutting people into bits and describing what spills out.

Thank you for starting the thread, Xaious, and thank you to Ayshela, Peredhil, Wrenwind, and Vanessa for your birthday well wishes. And most of all, thank you to Salinye for the online birthday party. You are officially cool as heck. *grins*

Daryl growled as he slapped back another tottering zombie, conscious of the closing ring around the magic users. Launching a skeleton’s skull flying with a roundhouse punch, the werefox noticed to his amazement that many of the undead turned away, and the rest looked confused, hesitating. The effect quickly passed, and a pair of ghouls hurled themselves at Daryl, hungry for his warm blood. Behind Daryl, a single pure voice rose into majestic song, and he paused in the act of grappling with the ghouls, amazed by the beauty and purity of Yui-chan’s voice and her song. The ghouls had stopped as well, but while they listened in rapt attention as did the werefox, they moaned in pain and seemed to struggle to turn away. The song rose to empyrean reaches as voice after ghostly voice joined with Yui-chan, building a complex harmony that hinted to Daryl of a greater truth, one that the song guided him too as it grew. With a start, he marveled at the simple subtleness, feeling close to the gods for one of the few times in his life. And threaded throughout the song was a word- no, not just any word, but a Word, the embodiment of this truth. But it teased just at the edges of his consciousness, and as the song ended, it faded, taking with it the truth he yearned towards. Daryl blinked as he came back to himself, sifting ash draining from between his fingers, and no sign of the undead. Daryl snuffled and wiped his eyes with a forearm, regretting the loss of his understanding. He sighed and slumped wearily, drained by his exertions. Then his ears perked up, drawn by an almost mad laughter behind him. He turned to see the flaxen-haired wizardess huddle with her arms around her legs, laughing with abandon. The fire elf, Merelas, approached her to rest his hand on her shoulder. “Lady Salinye?” he asked in question. Her laughter cut off abruptly, and she stared at him sightlessly. Without any warning, she punched him hard in the face, screaming at him in a tongue Daryl didn’t know. He scrambled to his feet and bounded towards the two as she stood over him, screaming in fury and raising her arm to punch at him again. With little finesse, Daryl tackled Salinye, bearing her to the ground beneath him. She screamed in rage and struggled, punching, kicking, and clawing. But as suddenly as she had hit Merelas, she began to sob, clutching at Daryl’s shirt as she pressed her face against his shoulder. After a few minutes, her sobs stilled as she fell unconscious. “What’s going on?” Merelas asked, standing again and touching his swollen and bloody nose gingerly. “Anyone know what that was about?” Daryl asked in confusion, looking from an exhausted Gyrfalcon, resting Yui-chan’s head on his thigh, to Merelas, who had just asked the same question. Gyrfalcon sighed wearily and gently lifted Yui-chan. “I don’t know, you two, I really don’t. Let’s get down off the roof and get her to the druid down there, he may be able to help her... and I think the rest of us need rest.” Daryl nodded his agreement and gently picked up Salinye, looking around to Jirah standing by the ropes leading back down. Working between them, they quickly fashioned a sort of sling to carefully lower their unconscious companions to the garden below, where Ayshela was helping a sick-looking Ozymandias. Once everyone was on the ground, Daryl looked around at the scattered weapons and the layer of ash covering everything, and the damaged exterior of the Hostel. “I hope Salinye doesn’t make us clean up after ourselves.” he remarked.

But it's so funny! Recite it in a deadpan monotone... Or maybe I'm the only one who can do it right, but "I like monkeys" still cracks my family up.

Actually, I prefer to keep my Ramen noodles drier. If you heat the water for five minutes, dump into the noodle block and cook for 3 1/2 more minutes, then drain the water, it turns out pretty good. Good poem, I just felt like sharing that. ;

Happy Belated Birthday, Canid, and I hope you enjoy the right to vote. =D

I said it on IRC, and I'll say it again: Happy Eighteenth, my friend.

http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/details.ph...yNet&point=days Though the log is disappearing, all of Galaxynet's servers were down for about 18 hours. Like Zadown and others, I thought it was something to do with me until I found that link. And Valdar, it was pretty strange, but all of their servers were down. *shrugs* I doubt without a lot of serious investigation that I don't really want to perform that I'll ever find out what caused this.

Gyrfalcon sighed as he closed the door to his room and walked toward the bathroom, stripping his shirt off as he did so and using it to towel off his arms and torso. He knew he’d have to apologize to Salinye later, or at least make up for his distance in the hallway, but it was hard to know that her own mother was manipulating her and yet be unable to tell her that. He sighed as he washed his face, enjoying the cool water on his skin. He could tell her, and she would likely believe him... but what good would it do either of them? He supposed that she would benefit from knowing her mother’s plans, but... With another sigh, Gyrfalcon put off his decision. Let Salinye have a few days to get reacquainted with her home and Lord Attaway. Perhaps she might truly like him, in which case it would all be a moot point anyway. If not... then Gyrfalcon might tell Salinye about her mother’s plans. Pulling on a fresh tunic, Gyrfalcon quickly brushed his hair into some semblance of order and paused to consider Salinye’s mother’s co-conspirator, and the one who gained Salinye a month to choose where her heart lay... Gabriel. He was a high elf, a noble, and a paladin to boot. Three things that normally set the half-elven ranger’s teeth on edge. “What’s not to like?” Gyrfalcon muttered to himself in amusement. Yet there was something about him... a nobility that few nobles possessed, a conviction of faith without the blindness of self-righteousness. Gyrfalcon knew that Gabriel would be one to watch, no matter how events turned. In other circumstances then these, the ranger thought that they might even become friends, though that appeared to be a remote chance now. Maybe an apology would be in order. The gods know, he needed more then one friend in this city if he had any chance of competing against Garon Attaway. Nodding to himself, Gyrfalcon closed the door to his quarters and started towards where the dining room was located.

Good luck, Deg, in all the endevours you turn your hand to. I'll hope to see you around someday soon, but I'll keep you in my thoughts even should that not prove true.

Told you it wouldn't be bad.

Gyrfalcon winces as he comes across the pancake-like form of ntraveler, then glances upwards to a window several stories up, where Alaeha looks slightly apologetic as she ducks back into the room she had pushed ntraveler out of. The half-elf sighed and pulled out a Rod of Resurrection, glad he had found one at a wizard's bargin sale a few weeks ago- the result of the wizard summoning a creature he wasn't quite prepared for, and his apprentice selling what he didn't need anymore. For some things, Resurrection wasn't really an option... Wonder of wonders around here, the Rod still had a few charges left. A few moments later, ntraveler opened his eyes to the world and gasped in a large breath to fill lungs that had been rather flat moments before. "What was that for?" he asked in bewilderment. Gyrfalcon shrugged as he stashed away the Rod of Resurrection. "That's something you'll have to ask Alaeha, I believe." he said before nodding and continuing on his way. OOC: I agree, it's pretty sad when they reduce a classical work of literature to 24 words of messenger-speak.

Good to see you Justin, hope you make it back soon to write more.

Happy Birthday, X-Sabre, hope you enjoy it, as I'm sure you will.

*also publically signs on the dotted line* Whee!

Heh, such violent thoughts Stick! Oh, what the heck, I'll help you if you coral one.

Actually, Alaeha, Sasser exploits a flaw in Windows that has nothing to do with Outlook Express or Internet Explorer. *grins* Welcome back Stick, here's to a safe and healthy BUNNY-COMP 1.2

*laughs* Happy Birthday, Ozymandias. May the fire of your shoes never go out. I'd check the tag just to make sure they aren't Almost Draconic issue, though. It's safer that way!

Gyrfalcon considered the flyer he had found nailed to his bed with slowly mounting horror. It was a party, which were always hectic, but this one... This one was hosted by Wyvern. Gyrfalcon shivered as repressed memories of previous parties hosted by Wyvern tried to crawl their way out of the deep pits he had put them in. He firmly stomped on their fingers and bolted down the covers over those pits before rereading the flyer. As he had suspected, it hadn’t gotten any better. With a sigh, the ranger tossed the flyer on the table in front of him and stretched. It was going to be a long day, and most of it spent visiting every insurance broker within a hundred miles extending disaster policies or buying new ones. He’d have to be careful, one mention of Wyvern and rates would increase by a magnitude of ten... at least. With a sigh, Gyrfalcon stood and shrugged his cloak around his shoulders before striding out, collecting Daryl on his way to the transportation chamber. Many hours later Night fell, and the Pen came alight as anticipation and terror grew. Many of the new members had never been to a party hosted by Wyvern, and felt anticipation. Most of the older members had been to a Wyvern party, and felt terror. Gyrfalcon grinned and clapped Finnius on the shoulder as they approached the doorway. “Don’t worry, Finnius, it won’t be that bad.” “Says you.” the blue mage muttered softly. He was proven right scant minutes later as the door trolls divested him of his undergarments. Gyrfalcon sighed. “I really wished I was right about these things, just once.” He’d have to apologize to Finnius soon. Finally reaching Melba, Gyrfalcon tried to step past, only to be stopped with a hand to the chest. “You know the rules, undies or we take them.” Gyrfalcon sighed and dug into his bag of holding, then pulled forth... The Chainmail Underwear of Sir Naysmith the Chaffed! Gyrfalcon grinned and dumped the rustling undergarment into Melba’s hands, causing her to stagger under the sudden weight of what was probably the heaviest set of undergarments she had ever touched. “I’m almost afraid to ask how this thing ever came about.” Melba said. Gyrfalcon shrugged. “According to the local legends where I picked that up, Naysmith lost a bet with some female fighters. If he won, they had to wear chainmail bikinis for a year. If they won, he had to wear chainmail briefs for a year. They won, and he learned exactly how cold and chaffing chainmail could be on the more... sensitive... parts. I understand he never did recover fully from the experience.” Gyrfalcon touched his brow and entered the party, Daryl stealthily tagging along under the hem of his cloak in his fox form.

*grins and laughs* An interesting experience to be sure... though I think I'll always check to make sure which one of you is Appy before I start talking. *grins* One thing I would note is that you don't have any set style with this poem, though in most of the sections, the second and forth lines rhyme, while the first and third do not. I congratulate you on giving your poem a nice flow. Despite the lack of rhyming at the end of every pair of lines, you maintain a good rhythm that allows the poem to flow naturally, not disjointedly.