[complete] There's only one way up, so your hearts got to go there.; fairy

[Jakub]

His long legs had become lean over the last few months of battle and travel, but still whimpered in the efforts it took to trek the mountains side. The path widened and narrowed in a pattern of concern, but Jakub held calm as he watch jagged rocks tumble at times into the void below. 

Determination crowned his brow as the cool air whisked away the beading of sweat that layered his hide. Dusty dirt clung to his legs and underbelly as he gritted his teeth, pulling himself up a rocky step high enough that he had to stretch his legs to their full capacity.

After the war he knew he needed something to help him defend his home, and the innocents of the land. He did not lust after magic or powers of untold strength. He saw in his Queens eyes how daunting it is to posses that magnitude of power. He simply wanted a physical advantage to those that seek to hurt the innocent, much like the pagasus he had fought on the beach of Tephra that fateful night.

Before he knew it Jakub had reached the mountains peak, clouds pulling close to her breast. As he walked purposely across the weathered stone, he stopped in her center. The air thinner he pulled in a few deep breaths. His mind trailed to his homeland before Beqanna, resting on the face of a giant blackened beast with horns as big as his then yearling body. Beady black eyes starting at him quisickly as he stood nose to nose with it a puff of air escaping the giants nostrils, tossing is forelock back between his ears. 

This had been the giant that had protected the children of his father's heard from a slinking big cat. This is what he was seeking. A protector of the innocent.  

JAKUB

and out he came, holding his brothers heel

@[Officials]

Jakub is seeking minotaur shapeshifting, if this isn't allowed then bull shifting.

[Kyra]

What did you have in mind for minotaur shifting? We may allow it (it'd be a 4 space trait, so you'd need to follow the rules to petition for a 4 space trait if you want it), but we need to know what you were thinking. If you just want to do bull shifting instead, then we can just roll for your quest.

Feel free to PM or catch me on Discord if you want to chat through potential minotaur shifting.

[Wysteria Fairy]

All hail the Queen of the Boards.

They think magic is protection, though it is anything but. It is a tool, yes, but it can be used to hurt just as much as it can be used to protect. Even in protecting others, there is always a cost to magic. There are others hurt in the process, there’s a toll you don’t know until you’ve crossed the bridge and cannot go back. Magic is not all it’s cracked up to be, and she should know, as she is made of magic. It is not a gift.

Still they come, pretending they do not seek power but they do, no matter the form it takes, no matter the reason.

This one doesn’t either bother to state his intentions, which, despite the fact she hardly needs him too, she finds annoying regardless. Perhaps he is patiently waiting, but she hardly has time for conversations given that her job is to keep their land living. Wysteria appears, looking unimpressed as always. “What do you want?” she demands, though she doesn’t actually wait for an answer but roots around in his brain to find it.

“Ah, you must think yourself so noble, but who are you to judge right and wrong?” They only know what they see, only know what they believe is good or bad, but the world is so much more than they will ever truly know. “You first need to understand the cost of your so called protection. To protect some, you must hurt others. Go find three horses that call themselves protectors, and find out what it is like for them to hurt others in the process. Come back once you have learned that information.”

And then, as simply as she came, she is gone.

***
Jakub has rolled a 2 and will receive a quest. You must find 3 other “protectors” (you may use NPC account (x3) or thread with other characters) and discover what it if like for them to hurt others in the name of doing right.

[Jakub]

The climb to the top is just as trying, if not more, than the first and only time he'd climbed to mountains peak. When he had arrived last time the fairy had seemed annoyed or irritated, maybe both, with him. He had not intended on disrupting the natural order of things, but he needed something to change.

His hide was not as cloaked in sweat as richly as it was the last time, but his muscles strained from the recent journeys he'd set out on with the added endeavour of climbing the mountain. Fortunately, the seasons had begun to change and autumn was making a slow approach inward. The air was cooling and the mountain was rich with snow the closer he got to the top.

Finally, he made the final stretch as he came across the flattened peak. This is where it all would change if the fairy's found it in his favour to do so. I have done what you asked. he said calmly, and coolly, as if he were in conversation with a mentor. I have talked to three protectors. All of which had conflicting feelings to associate with their vast array of abilities to protect. It does not seem to be the trait that's possessed that determines the outcome of the situation but the individual themselves. Two made decisions that resulted in a direct consequence of them hurting others. One simply believes that you will always be faced with decisions and you make them to the best of your abilities and move on. The other went against who she was for what she thought was the greater good and she lives with that decision every day. The 3rd made a decision that lead to protecting one individual and the other dying not by his hands but his in capabilities of saving them both, but he would rather take action any time of the day over sitting idly by and watching.

I have learned that every action has a reaction, and at some point we will all find ourselves on both sides. Every decision has consequences, and there will be times that I will have to learn from those consequences. But I would rather be learning from my own decisions then from someone else's. I would rather be able to stand up when everyone else is sitting down.

Last time I was here you asked me who I was to judge wrong from right. I do not seek to judge, I do not seek out power to make the first move, I only wish to help. To be available to those who can not defend themselves good or bad.

I come in hope that you will grant me the ability to do this and to be available to protect those I care about. Jakub ends his speech to the crisp air that tussles his thick, black forelock. He does not know if this is what the Fairies were looking for but they asked him to come back with what he had learned and he hoped that would be enough.

JAKUB

and out he came, holding his brothers heel

@[Wysteria Fairy]

#1
http://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23954
#2
http://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=24068&pid=92225#pid92225
#3
http://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23916

[Wysteria Fairy]

All hail the Queen of the Boards.

”You may not seek to judge,” comes the familiar voice. Wysteria appears not long after she has begun to speak, and she does not make him wait after he’s completed his own little speech. He is more confident this time around, it seems. Or, if nothing else, he appears to have figured out she does not particularly like to be kept waiting. “But there will be times you will be required to judge. Right and wrong are rarely black and white, and I hope what you learned from others will help you understand that when the time comes for you to choose as well.”

She knows, of course, what this is like. Her life is a series of choices that affect an entire land, and she will do what she can to prepare them for their own series of choices. After all, that’s all life is. Choices made by judgment calls with whatever information is present. But the large cat that hunts for foals has its own children to feed – is it right then, to stop her from feeding herself and her babies, to let another go hungry? There are always choices to be made.

“You have done what I asked though, and for that, you will rewarded with the power you seek. Be careful with the choices you make.” And with that, she is gone, leaving behind only the magic that creeps into his veins and transforms him.

***

Jakub has received Equus Taurus. Please remember to post on updates with this change.