A band of Kin (Fan Story)

Hey there kin! Today I'd like to share with you something written by Pixel, they run the Karma Bar on the discord server and made a writeup of a roleplaying session I ran a few months ago. This is a recap from their POV and I wanted to share that with you all as I slowly progress on LQ: Ice.

 ------------------------------------

The village was a bustle, the Kin racing about the worn in streets. The town was nothing special in terms of its size, but the aesthetic was.. Humble. The farm town was accompanied with rustic buildings, the worn in gravel paths only adding to the overall visage. Our two adventurers towered over most others, one of them standing around six foot tall, and the other 8 feet. Their sauntering into town had gone relatively unnoticed by the townsfolk, they weren't heroes, not yet anyway. But, the serenity of a long journey had made them all grow restless, and our heroes, hungry for work, head towards the nearest tavern, **The Ruffled Den**, a place known for both good meals, and fine women. And occasionally, fine men. Our Heroes, an avian named Nathaniel, and a Wolf, Bearing the name Johnny, push through the doors, and into the well lit, and rustically quaint brothel and resting-place.

The Tavern was about as busy as you'd expect at Mid-day, desolate save for a few people eating out at lunch. It was night when the bar really opened up, and that's when people roll in for the brothels more.. Lucrative services. Now that they all stood out in the open, you could get a view of what our heroes were packing. Nathan stood a little over six feet tall, the soft grey plumage coating most of his body, only shifting to a beautifully bright orange upon his muzzle, and a deep charcoal around his thighs, the tips of his wings, and upon his waist, he sported a long, brown whip, the end split into several parts for pain infliction over sheer damage, and the way he bore himself, confident and suave. His stature only matched by the gaze coming from those Silvery blue and grey eyes, cocky, with an extra splash of pride.

Johnny on the other hand, was of stark Contrast. He towered over Nathan, by almost 2 feet, and his stoic and quiet demeanor didn't betray his emotions as Nathans did. He was usually quiet, but not so to be rude, and in fact, he was quite jolly when he opened up. His eyes were of different colors, his left eye a deep and fiery red, and the right a brilliant sapphire blue, giving him a bright and vibrant pallet, accompanied by the dark greys and blacks of his fur, with occasional tan splotches dashed in. His right paw bore old scars, in the shape of a hammer, and another unique scar was hidden under his apparel, right above the location of his heart. His eyes however, masked something dark underneath, it was faint, maybe only the occasional glance, Dark thoughts reaped his mind beneath the surface. 

Its only at this point you would notice a character lurking in the tailwind. She was small, no.. Not just small, minuscule. Standing at just under three feet, she truly was a runt. She had few notable features, soft and pink scales coating most of her body, save for her soft and defenseless underbelly. She held quite impressively long ears, and they seemed to be able to pick up noises from a decent distance away, it had nothing on the hearing abilities of owls or other birds of prey, but when pressed up against a door, it came in handy. Her soft grey eyes stared down to the floor, not looking to other people, seeming nervous or anxious, but never quite betraying her true intentions. Though, appearances were deceiving, they masked the fact that her steps were barely audible, silent, walking in a way that prevented her claws from clicking on the floor, a trained rogue.

With our characters out of the way, all that remains is their adventure. the only problem.. The group seems to lack direction, or motivation. But with that in mind, Johnny walks up to the counter, approaching the relatively large- and apparently busty- woman who works there. She greets us with a smile and begins asking is what we need, as anyone good at food service would do, but her attitude changes as we ask for work, revealing that if we wanted to do work, she had dishes to be done. No-one seems very.. open to the idea, but the kobold is quick to step forward, touting "We are broke, I'll do the dishes!". Johnny seems to nod in agreement but, Nathaniel thinks himself above the labor of ordinary folk, and saunters away from the counter and out the door. What ensues is a truly pitiful sight, Johnny cleaning dish after dish in rapid succession. Our kobold however.. only manages to get two or three. The dishes were as large as she was, but she tried. Tried and failed.

The hilarity inside however is drowned out by the banter of folk upon the street, Nathaniel Resting against one of the pillars supporting the inn and brothel. As he lies in wait for the others to do the work inside, he finds himself being approached by a tall, pink furred woman. Solid grey horns protruded from the back of her head, and at her side, she bore a sword that would it would take a normal man all their strength to even lift. She wore a modified Kimono, a red and black sash tied around the pale blue silk of her robe, and her pants were a soft white, complimented by the white pauldrons upon her shoulders. She towered over, even the bird; and although she practically dripped with confidence and power, her stature was.. unique. Her Gaze was soft and refreshing, and she gave off the feeling that she had something to teach. She begins to address Nathaniel with pleasantries, chattering about this and that before bringing up the topic of her dojo. It suited her.

Back inside, our dishwashers have finished their task, their hands dripping with water as the take a moment's rest from their ***Awfully*** hard work, and are soon greeted by a.. lynx, of all things. She quickly takes to putting her attractive form to use, as she approaches the tall wolf, her tail brushing against his leg. Johnny however, doesn't seem to pleased by this, his form shakes with the closeness she brings, and his lack of a good response drives her to distance herself. The kobold however, was unsure of who would be paying them, and she quickly acts to try and turn the situation into an advantage, she calls out to the lynx and utters a small thank you, giving a curt bow, before lowering her head. The lynx smiles and gives Pixel a wink, before turning away. Pixel just stands there quietly, flustered at the wink, her cheeks flushed with warmth. After the brief exchange, the kobold and the wolf turn back to the tavern keeper, and receive their measly 12 coins. And leave.

The teacher out front now invites the bird to come to training lessons, for a fee of course, but the peculiar timing invites conflict as Johnny bursts through the door as Nathaniel says "I Accept". "We accept" Johnny states, the unimportant kobold behind him. The Goat smirks at Johnny’s actions. "Fine, You can all go help the Farmer nearby, when you are finished come by my dojo." She says, only to turn tail and leave without another word. We stand there for a moment, each of us thinking about what to do, But inevitably, we decide that our goal lies with the dojo, and the odd teacher we met. Curiosity lingers in the back of our minds as we set of towards the mountains, ready to Begin our Journey. The walk, luckily, was not very long, maybe only a half an hour on foot, before we arrive at a relatively small farm.

The kobold was immediately intrigued as she pawed over towards the herding corral, and a youthful bee seems to be buzzing around the gate quite concerned. Our two Heros (and kobold) step up towards the distraught farmer (Who seemed to have a thing for terrible insect puns mind you) As she begins to explain the situation. Her gate was vandalized, seemingly broken apart from the inside. The hinges were mildly damaged but it really was only the latch that was broken, an easy fix luckily, but the gate wasn't the problem. The corral, which previously contained several Sheep Plantimals, was now wide open, with none of them to be found. She saw a figure running away into the forest earlier, and proceeds to explain how she thinks that they were stolen.. But pixel remarks to the others of the group while examining the gate “Well, let's take a look at the gate, I used to.. Work.. with cattle. And they can kick out gates if they're upset… I don't know what to look for though.” She states, as the Johnny comes over to inspect the gate, he seemed to know what to look for, the broken latch, the hoove marks against the gate, they had indeed broken out on their own, “The sheep had definitely tried to break out on their own.” Johnny says with the confidence of a farmhand. That still doesn’t explain the figure they saw leading away from the farm. With the newfound knowledge, our two heroes (and kobold) set off once more. As we walk away, the Farmer Bee shouts out to us “Bee Careful! The forest is dangerous, Wasp yourselves!” And with those words lingering on our minds, Johnny lifts pixel up, and we disappear through the forest line.

The journey begins with the rustling of leaves, we didn't quite have a trail yet but we were making off in the direction that the figure was seen leaving. After about ten minutes however, Pixels ears begin to twitch, she hears a strange noise in the forest, and as they grow closer, it sounds like.. Sheep! “I hear sheep!” She exclaims, confidently, they were growing louder in her head with each moment as they grew closer. The Hero's perk their ears up, turning towards where I point, but.. They don't hear anything. Nathaniel speaks in a harsh and condescending tone to the kobold “Stay with us. If you wander off, we won't be responsible.” He closes before beginning to search the area. Johnny tightens his grip on the kobold, making sure that she doesn't run off.  After a few moments of wandering, We stumble across exactly what we were looking for. The grass grows thicker in the unkempt woods, and as such, a trail begins to emerge.

The trail was definitely left by a herd of sheep, and as such, our heroes set off in quick pursuit, their fire rekindled by new evidence! The trail is fairly straightforward as they delve deeper into the thicket and ever entangling woods, following the trodden grass and trail left behind by the sheep. But, as we grow ever closer, something starts to change.. The sheep were branching off? No.. they were disappearing. There were 6 sets of hooves initially, but now only three? And even more, further up the trail, two? Eventually, the last set reaches its end as well, leaving only one trail.. Our heroes, now concerned, begin to converse with each other. “They must be splitting up” States johnny, Nathaniel quips back quickly with his attempted lies.”No, we would still see the tracks. They must be getting eaten by the dangers of the forest.” But that was wrong as well, there was no blood, And there would still be other trails, and there's no sign of a struggle. Pixel just quietly looks at the tracks, the only thing she could think of was Magic.. No, there was something she was missing. She squirms her way out of Johnny's arms, falling to the dirt and grass with a quiet thud, and using her claw, she measures the depths of the tracks. The single pair of tracks was deeper than the other sets.. She quickly notifies the other two, meekly attempting to get their attention as they try to figure it out on their own.”The hoof prints get deeper..” She mutters quietly as the too Heroes tower over her, she continues to speak, a little anxious as they look to her “Well if the hoof prints get deeper, that means one of a few things.. When you step in the same spot twice it leaves a deeper track right? Or something weighed down upon them..”

With that, it clicks together, something strange was going on.. But we had an explanation, at least, they were either walking together, or climbing on top of each other somehow. Johnny lifts the kobold up again (at this point it seems he just likes carrying her around), and Nathaniel and Johnny set off once more.  Marching in step with the trail, the heroes begin to grow a bit peckish, and they begin to eat a small meal while treading onwards, consisting of their favorite foods. After a bit longer however, the forest seems to have taken on a different atmosphere.. The leaves, once a vivid emerald green shining in the sunlight are now a dull, pale green, deep, the bark of the trees is far darker, and no more sunlight shines down on the forest, a misty haze muddles it from the dense fog, this was our heroes first trip into the deep forest. No-one seems to take note of the change of setting.

Soon after entering the deep forest, our are reaching the end of the trail. Up ahead, light glows ominously from a misty clearing. As we approach the clearing, the sounds of a dark chorus greet our collective ears. Ringing through the air, the archaic verses of magic, twisted and cryptic. Only Johnny can really understand them, being versed in magic as he was, but.. It still didn't make sense, not entirely, it was like listening to a child, not full able to make sentences. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn't very smart. But.. we couldn't see them, it was too hard to tell. All we got was a robed figure, dancing about, singing these broken magical hymns. The two heroes (and kobold) think about what to do, one of them suggests attempting to electrocute them, but there isn't really a way to do that from this distance, so.. Their eyes turn to pixel, who tenses up “Maybe i can, sneak up.. I'm a rogue after all, I'll let you know what's going on..” Pixel says, and is quickly shoved forward. She moves forwards deftly and quietly, peeking out from behind a nearby tree, watching the dancer in the clearing. As she grows closer, she starts to get peaks at whoever is hiding under the hood, and as to what she saw, it was not what she expected. After gazing out and around the clearing for a bit, she returns to the two heroes and begins to speak to them. “Its them, the sheep.” She says softly, what was under the robe was a monstrous mix of the six sheep, having merged together to form.. Something else. “I don't think they mean any harm, so it might be better to just-”

Before she can finish talking, Johnny gets up and races out to the field, interrupting the sheep’s, or.. Sheeps’? The dance. He quickly begins talking at them, Saying that he needs one of their hooves to prove the sheep are dead Nathaniel quickly follows behind Johnny, trying to interject his statement, and they begin to try and work out what is going on. The sheep.. Person.. Thing, is quickly confused as to what is happening. Pixel seems to be very distressed at this point, she tries to get everyone's attention, needing to explain anything, but this goes on as she grows more and more uncomfortable. After Nathaniel and Johnny begin to start bickering, this is about to escalate. “We don't want to go ba-a-ack!” Exclaim the sheeps, but Johnny insists on getting a hoof to prove the sheep are dead. He had good intentions but was going about it the wrong way. And everything begins to spiral into chaos. Before the first punch is thrown though, Pixel attempts to get the sheeps attention by gently tugging on the cloak, not in a rude manner, just softly, and she quietly begins to explain to the sheep what is going on, though this clearly makes her quite uncomfortable. But, the sheep (luckily) listen.She says that we won’t make them come back, and that we can lie to the farmhand so that the sheep aren’t killed or used as livestock anymore. They quickly say thanks to the small kobold before very quickly running away, deeper into the forest, and away from the small group of still developing heroes.. We, had a lot to learn.

After the exchange with the Sheep Plant People mage thing, we quickly scan over the area for anything of note. Johnny finds some hoof trimmings and Nathaniel finds bits of paper with illegible and crudely drawn words and sketches on, supposedly done by the sheep people. Both things are pocketed by the adventurers, and they begin to head back (but not before Johnny grabs Pixel once more and carries her on his shoulder). They are soon greeted by the bee farmer once more, and she looks over them, a twinkle of hope in her eye. Sadly, it fades as Nathaniel begins to lie to her about the missing sheep, how we couldn't find them, and johnny produces the hoof clippings, showing that they seem to have disappeared. The bee, after hearing the news that her sheep are gone, looks quite pitiful, you can see it hits her hard, and that she is quite upset. Everyone (Except Nathaniel) seems to feel quite bad for her, but in the midst of her anxiety, Pixel Speaks out, quietly. “Don't worry, everything will Bee Okay, i’m sure of it.”

The sweet lady responds immediately, she seems very happy by the pun that pixel said, Johnny, on the other hand, had different ideas. He raises his arm, the one that he was holding the small and light kobold in, and he slams her into the ground with a thud. The slam rattles her body as the wind is knocked out of her, but the wide smile on her face shows that making the pun was worth it. The lady asks why the kobold is hanging out with these two, to which Pixel has no answer, but as johnny is picking her up, Pixel says again “It's okay, i'll buzz off if they ever hurt me too bad.” To which the bee lets out a happy little noise, and the whole mood seems much lighter than before.

Finally, the sun begins to set overhead, the day, albeit uneventful, was definitely rough for our Two heros (and kobold). Nathaniel and Johnny and Pixel still had difficulties dealing with each other, and not being rewarded for doing the right thing was hard but, it was the right thing to do. With that in mind and their actions lying on their shoulders, the heros tap into the inn, and rent a room for the night. 

-----------------------------

Thank you for your time and if you enjoyed this kind of story, feel free to drop by the discord server and offer Pixel your thanks or compliments!