The gesticulation had been a trap, of course. If the owl had been genuine, it would have seen little threat in Yrudit waving his hands at it. Whereas had it been more than it seemed, it most certainly would have given itself away. As it was, he now had his answer. He evinced the reptalian equivalent of a perplexed frown. Shapeshifter or mage? He slammed down his own mental barrier, though if the stranger was well-versed in mind domination he should have only medium difficulty finding a gap.

Instead of using his own powers of telepathy Yrudit decided to speak aloud to clue his nearby companions that something was amiss. "What are you?"

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Simurg eyed quickly the companions of the lizard before jumping into the air and quickly landing 7 feet away from them, his form began to change and grow. The feathers shrinked and disappeared only to be replaced by a greyish skin, the bird turned into a slim elf-human like humanoid with long black hair. He wore brown clothing, his shirt missed sleeves, his black cape was ragged and dirty from months of survival in the wilderness. He quietly streched his hands and fingers as, if to check that they were still functional after the long time of being an owl.

Finally he quietly sighed expressing his relief that he did not have to wander around as a bird to find someone to chat with.

"I believe that answers your question lizard"

He said quietly and smirked at the rest of the group.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

((Sorry - yes, he is))

"One of them," said Silvryn curtly, slyly probing mentally towards the strange hybrid while she spoke. "I believe a more relevant question now is who are you...and whose side do you serve?" Really, this question was a dead end in several ways. If he said their side, the chances of his lying to protect himself or attempting to infiltrate their company were significantly highed than the probability that he was actually telling the truth. And if he said an enemy side - well, Silvryn was inclined to think only an ogre would be that idiotic.

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Simurh hmphed loudly at the question as he was not aware of what sides she spoke of and if there were any sides fighting against each others then he did not care. Simurg scrathed his neck and looked around at the forest.

"Side? Such a trivial question... I believe that I am on my side as long as I am concerned, but do forgive me my lack of knowledge for I rarely hear any great news in these wilds. Travellers never mention it in their conversations and tend to be so dull when I play mind games with them, not to mention living as an animal for months at a time shapes your targets of appriciations..."

Simurg answered truthfully as he saw no reason to lie for nothing he told could put him in danger and it seemed that they were more eager on knowing things rather than fighting. Fine by him as he had a question of his own and he gazed at the lizard as it`s earlie acting had made him concerned.

"Does any of you happen to be a gifted or are there more than one?"

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

Tal gave the owl an interested glance. What was such a creature doing in such a place? When it shifted form into an elf-like creature, he had his answer. Loosening his saif in its scabbard, he casually turned to face the....whatever it was. He certainly had never seen anything like it in the Desert. They had never even had any owls there--he had seen his first one after he set out to be trained, some thirty years ago.

With an air of curiosity, tinged with the caution that he had only increased since the start of their quest, Tal spoke.

"All of us are Gifted or Exalted, yes," he said, "but what--and who--are you? I have not seen your like before."

Truly, he had not. Shapeshifting was not a common skill, even among Exalted, and yet the unconcern with which the creature spoke implied that it was not the only trick up his sleeve.

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Simurg ceased scrathing his neck and chuckled quietly to himself as they claimed to be of the gifted and exalted, but it was actually no laughing matter as were telling the truth he reasoned to himself. Then the question of what he was did come across coonfusing for he had thought that the gifted would have known better of different races. Simurg quickly turned into a human, then into an elf and then back to his greyish humanoid form.

"I am a Doppelgänger, it is my natural ability and advantage to take whatever form I wish to.... or well... even we have our limitations for obvious reasons. If we did not then our race would all be in the form of dragons or some other great beings yet our secrecy is assured by blending in....

Yet those are all boring details that you should not bother with and I believe as a fair trade I am entitled to a few questions of my own. What brings the gifted and exalted here to the desolate wild?"

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Did you ever type up a biography, Curunír?

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Tal blinked. The creature--whatever it was--seemed intent on making his power even more blatantly obvious. What the point of it was, the desertborne failed to understand, but obviously the creature had misunderstood his question.

"I understand that you are a shapeshifter, yes," he said, "but what is your natural form?"

After all, the creature had to have a natural form--whatever form it was first was the one that would be called "natural." Other shapeshifters that Tal had met never seemed to enjoy retaining their natural shape, either. By the stars, they made too much of their Gift. Shapeshifting could prove useful from time to time, but to use it unendingly seemed....wasteful.

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Yes you can find it on page 2 of this thread

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Simurg raised his eyebrown in obvious confusion and grinned slightly.

"Eh?"

He muttered between his teeth until he sighed and raised his hands before him to show it to them.

"Your lack of knowledge is confusing yet slightly amusing stranger, this is my true form to be honest unless you expected something grander? I am not a mere human that can shapeshift, but we doppelgängers are a race in our own right...

In that light your lack of knowledge is disturbingly offending for I would have thought that the gifted had greater knowledge within your order or at least it might have been when I was there..."

He spoke with a calm yet slightly uncertain voice and his last words turned into a muttering that could not be heard farther away like a curse that he swore under his breath.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Among our Order, there are many thousands of documents containing knowledge that grows greater every day. Maybe among them there is a large number that bear information on your people," Tal said, "but I have never looked through them, nor have I come across you people before."

He wrinkled his nose as some new smell wafted across it. There were many smells that were unpleasant in this Wasteland, and few of them had existed in the Desert. Truly, he preferred his homeland to this desolate place, even though most would say that they would take the forests over either.

Deciding that it was still better to follow the first rule of survival--being cautious--Tal asked another question.

"Why are you here in Duzakha, Doppelgänger?" he asked. The question might seem hostile, which was not Tal's intent, but he did not want to take the time to think of a way to ask it politely enough that the shapeshifter would not be offended, and yet still feel obligated to answer it.

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(Typical..I leave for one night, and get far behind. -.-)

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Lol, Raven--just do what I do, and never leave.

Well, okay. I do leave....sometimes. When I have to. I hate it.

What's your banner from?

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(Last night, I had to leave, went somewhere..MEH. And which banner are you talking about? Top one, or bottom?)

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The bottom one. I do not recognise it.

You had to leave? *scoffs* oh, like that's an excuse....

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(It's from Final Fantasy XII..I'm not surprised you didn't recognize it, not too many people do.

And yes, I had to leave. And now I get to catch up again.)

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Thanks. I've never played any Final Fantasy games (I've seen screenies, though), but I wondered if maybe it was from it--he has the look that others from that game have.

Lol...isn't catching up just so much fun? [/sarcasm]

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