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| − | [ST] The return to consciousness comes slowly, gradually. Miruna and Avir find themselves slumped amidst a wreck of wood and rock, moans and groans ringing out around them. They no longer appear to be on deck, as the sky is nowhere to be seen. Instead, shattered benches, upended teacups, and bolts of cloth cover them. The floor is tilted sharply, angled downwards.
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| − | [ST] "Gods... are we alive?" A voice says. Selza. She and Little Adder have fallen atop Miruna in a tangle. Avir finds himself entwined with Rabbit.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna starts to shove himself to his feet before he is fully 'there'. He discovers that this is a mistake, from the pain and the wavering of his vision, but just grunts and continues trying after he stumbles.
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| − | [Avir] A little trickle of blood is warm on Avir's side. He coughs, pushing himself up away from Rabbit. Her legs are hooked against his knee, and he almost falls as he rises. "That, or the Underworld is a good deal less beautiful than the death cults say."
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| − | [ST] When Miruna stands, the entire ship pitches around him, slips, and slides a few feet downward. There is a tremendous groan. The wind howls around the shattered structure.
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| − | [Avir] When Avir is on his feet, he looks,first, automatically, for Ragged Red- the woman tripped all his demon-handling instincts.
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| − | [ST] Avir spots her as the ship shifts alarmingly again. She's crawling, climbing, making her way along the nearly vertical deck with a rope wrapped around her. The ship lurches at her every grueling step.
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| − | [Avir] "Fuck," Avir says, when he staggers and the whole ship sways. Her survival instincts, at least, were impressive.
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| − | [Miruna] "Right. No one fucking falls!" He yells out, hoping that their previous instructors had instilled the proper obidience to yelled orders into them. "You can't stand, you crawl."
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| − | [ST] Little Adder extricates himself with difficulty, treading on Selza's back as he boosts himself up towards the light filtering down from above.
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| − | [Avir] Avir looks upward. He didn't have the same faith in shouting Miruna did. He levers himself gingerly up, lodging himself temporarily in positoin by sticking his arm through a shattered hole in the floor. "Selza. Rabbit. You able?"
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| − | [ST] "Wish I wasn't," Rabbit says, stirring near him. "I think your bony fucking elbow popped my kidney."
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| − | [ST] Selza calls out the affirmative.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna takes a moment to breathe, letting the fatigue and pain wash over him, letting his vision warp with the working of his jaw. A small moment of weakness, enough to despise and get him moving. He stands again, moving slowly this time, making sure that he had his balance.
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| − | [Miruna] Crawling might be the easiest way to go, the way most of them should go, but he preferred to be damned if he couldn't stand.
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| − | [Avir] Avir squints, trying to plot out a route in his mind. "I'll be a gentlemen. I won't say what you've done to me."
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| − | [ST] "Where are the others?" Selza asks, even as she starts to move behind Miruna, slowly and gradually.
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| − | [ST] "You should be so lucky," Rabbit answers back, voice terse.
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| − | [Avir] Where do you think? "Worry about yourself for now," Avir says. He's not too proud to crawl, digging his nails into the grooves between the planks, squeezing himself between bits of lashed cargo and holding onto iron hooks where he can.
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| − | [Miruna] Standing accomplished, he begins to work his way upward - his ankles protesting at how far he had to keep them bent to keep his body upright. Thats the way he had always been told to climb a slope - no matter how tempting it was to lean into it, you had to keep your body over your feet. Not that he didn't grab at a handhold or two to help himself keep steady.
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| − | [Avir] Avir stops now and then. He is woozy from blood loss. He stops for a long time to let Rabbit pass him, and she does, with cheerful selfishness. Miruna and Selza already knew. More or less. He makes a chirping noise, like a birdcall. So he wasn't worried when a mendicant's napsack squirms towards him, sharp spidery legs going thunk-thunk-thunk against the wood.
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| − | [ST] As Miruna and Avir claw their way upwards, they are able to see the sky again - not that this is a good thing, for it seems awfully close. What's left of the airboat lies pinned and impaled amongst a series of sharp rocks, near the top of a mountain. The air is thin but clear. The shattered front half of the boat tilts alarmingly above a precipice, its shattered airback hanging below it like
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| − | [ST] a sloughed off skin. Below - very, very far below, lies the shattered rear half of the vessel, and dozens of unmoving black dots.
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| − | [Avir] The bug was ripping such holes he would have to get out his sewing kit later. He slings the demon over his shoulder and follows after Rabbit.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna isn't together enough to notice more than one thing at a time. For now it is the floor and the sky, alternately. "Anyone seed food in those crates?" He wondered how many of their packs had made it, compared to the number of pack owners.
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| − | [ST] "Truthfully..." a voice says. Jek, climbing above, his face bruised from where something struck it. "Truthfully, Miruna, my mind is on other matters at the moment."
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| − | [ST] An instant later, he clambers over the lip of the ship, dropping on to the rocky earth past it.
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| − | [ST] Bear-Daughter moves up as well, the unconscious Obligatory Sunshine on her shoulder. She grunts softly as she leaves the ship. Little Adder, Selza, and Rabbit are behind her.
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| − | [Miruna] He steps to the rocks, glad that he'd spent the last nigth outside and so had been in all of his cold weather clothing. "You'll be worrying about food soon enough if we don't find some."
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| − | [ST] "Miruna's right," Mithra calls up from below. Her legs dangle over empty space, but she is determinedly climbing, using a pair of daggers to stab into the deck as she ascends.
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| − | [ST] "We've got to be sure we have enough sup-" And the rotten wood she has plunged her dagger into breaks, and she falls, and falls, and falls. She makes no sound, out of stoic bravery, or simply because she has fainted in terror.
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| − | [ST] One more black dot settles into place below.
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| − | [Miruna] He stills, everyone stills, as he waits for the ship to fall finally. The back of his brain was telling him that it would fall away like thick snow pack over ice.
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| − | [ST] The ship creeeeaks alarmingly, but it doesn't fall. Blood from Miruna's recent wound bubbles out across his skin, making his grip difficult, slippery.
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| − | [Avir] Avir wonders sourly whether this meant Miruna was in charge again. He feels ashamed of himself a moment later. He drags his gaze away from Mithra's black dot, hooks his arm into a railing and hauls himself up another step, grimacing in muted agony. The bottlebug moves uneasily in its napsack.
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| − | [Miruna] He moves again, slowly, respect or fear, whichever. There had to be a more stable place on the rocks. Then someone had to go looking for supplies, but it had better not be all of them - too much weight, too much chance they all bought it instead of just the one.
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| − | [Avir] Avir works his way methodically and painfulling up. He stops to rest now and then- the ship might fall any moment. But what was that to him, if pushed himself too hard and wound up letting go? He half-rolls onto the bare rock at last with a sigh of relief, closing his eyes. A shower of pebbles rolls down the dangling deck.
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| − | [Miruna] He waves everyone too him, the old warning not to yell in the mountains coming back to him. He didn't ahve enough time to see if the snow nearby was unstable, wouldn't trust himself to make the judgement at the moment if he did. "Right, we have to get sorted out. We need clothing, food, weapons. Who has more than they need, who has less?"
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| − | [ST] "None of us have more than we need, you painted ass," Ragged Red shoots back. She sits casually against a snow-shrouded rock, arms curled around her drawn up knees. She's bleeding like a stuck pig, crimson steaming on the snow around her, and doesn't seem to notice it.
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| − | [Avir] Avir opens his eyes, exausted, to look over to where Miruna was calling a meeting. He turns his head, not bothering to stand, or even sit. He hated to agree with Red, but- "I have my medicines. That's it."
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| − | [ST] "None of us have weapons - you don't trust us with them while you're kicking our asses. None of us have food, because we're not allowed to have it. None of us have a damn thing but what we're wearing."
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| − | [Avir] Thankfully the bug's thorax made an adequate pillow.
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| − | [Miruna] He stares at her, and pulls a knife. After a pause, he says "I don't need this, for example."
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| − | [ST] She locks eyes with him, unwavering. "Then give it to me. Hilt first, please." She smiles.
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| − | [Avir] Miruna was a fool not to have anticipated that. Should've given it to Selza or the tribewoman he snugggled with all night.
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| − | [ST] Obligatory Sunshine lies insensate amongst the rocks. Selza tends to him in a perfunctory way, but she's shivering too much to really focus. Near her, Savage Bear-Daugther stares implacably.
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| − | [Miruna] He tosses the knife over. He'd meant what he said - didn't need it, certainly didn't need it to take her. Well, maybe it would make eating awkward, but he'd grown up using his fingers.
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| − | [ST] "Damn, Rabbit, I'm almost cold enough to cuddle with you again," Jek says. "That's twice in one day."
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| − | [ST] Red catches the knife smoothly and expertly, nodding as she tucks it into the front of her leathers. "Well. Now what?"
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| − | [Miruna] "Now I want other people to pony up the spares they have." He glances at Jek. "Once Dead, I know we have enough to outfit twice our number." He could donate his hatchet or crossbow to the cause also. Not that he wanted to. But it was important for them all to be armed.
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| − | [ST] Rabbit throws a dented javelin down into the mix. Jek contributes a short and extremely ugly looking knife.
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| − | [ST] "There's probably lots of stuff down below," Selza mentions.
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| − | [Miruna] "We need the weapons to tackle whatever those things were, whatever is out here. We need food to survive until then." He stands up again. "I'm going back into the ship - some of those crates had to ahve food in them". Or they were probably all dead anyway.
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| − | [ST] "You wanna get it?" Jek returns.
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| − | [ST] "What the hell were those things, anyway?" Rabbit asks, scratching at her face. The cold doesn't seem to bother her at all.
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| − | [Avir] Avir sits up and salutes Miruna with his knife. "Dragon Kings. They wre allies of the Anathema, years and years ago."
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| − | [Avir] He rubs his face. "They're supposed to be extinct."
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| − | [Miruna] He glares at Jek. "Yeah, I said I was going to get it." He walks past them, back to the broken wooden maw of the ship, moving slowly but with purpose. Couldn't ask another of them to do it - first off, they wouldn't do it, and it was never a good idea to give an order that wouldn't be obeyed.
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| − | [ST] "Miruna-" Selza says quietly. "Your wound. Someone should bind it before you... get the supplies."
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| − | [ST] "And I thought I was crazy," Ragged Red laughs. "We'll all try not to sneeze while you're in there."
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| − | [ST] "Still..." Rabbit chews her lip. She makes the occasional stab at intellectualism. Perhaps the cold brings it out of her. "Why would they attack us? Why now? They didn't even want the airboat. They wanted to destroy the airboat."
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| − | [Miruna] He glances down. "Not much time." But they were right. He sits down. "Avir - your job. Hurry if you want to eat tonight."
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| − | [Avir] "Someone else's catspaws. One of them said there had been a bargain- a promise." He looks at Miruna, protesting even as he reaches into his bag for needle and thread. "I'm wounded myself," he warns, moving slowly.
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| − | [Avir] The bottle bug hands him the needle and he finds the ball of thread himself.
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| − | [Miruna] "Then deal with yourself next, or get someone else to stitch you up." Self pity and moping would get them killed. It was hard to look away from the wooden deck slanting away feet from him. He had to go, he reassured himself.
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| − | [Avir] "That a warning," Avir says mildly, stabbing Miruna viciously with the needle before beginning the sew the slashes shut. His hands shake more than they should.
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| − | [Avir] The path of the stitches run wildly up and down. Avir sits back on his heels after a couple minutes to admire his work. "Beautiful work."
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| − | [ST] "I've seen better stitching done on livestock," Selza says, scrunching up her face. "Even when he was drunk, old Grond-" She stops suddenly, not finishing the thought.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna shrugs. "Shirt off, its too late for them to have second thoughts anyway." He stands up again. "I'm going now." Once he said it, he'd have to do it, or be shamed.
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| − | [ST] "Well, there's a story THERE," Jek says pointedly, laughing. Selza doesn't look at him.
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| − | [ST] "Bring back some tea," Red calls. The wind lashes at the peak wildly, mingled now with snow. It is utterly chill - and this is the warmest part of the day.
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| − | [Miruna] He steps to the leering, slanted, and above all distressingly non-level opening. The longer he waited the more chance that it would drop away and he wouldn't have to do it. But that probably meant a slow cold death. Better to die quicly, probably.
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| − | [Avir] "You do the sewing, woman, if you think you can do better," Avir says, rather grandly. He feels lightheaded already.
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| − | [ST] "I didn't say that." Selza says, a little wounded. The group draws together in a ragged circle almost unconsciously, against the cold.
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| − | [Miruna] He steps onto the deck tentatively, after looking carefully for the closest likely crate or package. Slowly, slowly, he made his way towards it, not trying to stand this time, getting down on his stomache, and creeping down.
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| − | [ST] Miruna picks his way carefully through the chaos, trying not to fall, to stagger - if he were to blunder into one of the walls, he might very well dislodge the listing vessel - and then where would he be? He makes his way through the ruins of what looks like a cargo hold. It was mostly for luxury goods, it looks like - bolts of silk that isn't even good for burning, spices with no
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| − | [ST] nutritionary value, fancy playthings of shells and beads. Perhaps this was meant for Gethamane.
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| − | [ST] One of the crates has ruptured, spilling several wheels of cheese onto the floor of the cabin. Maggots writhe across their surfaces busily.
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| − | [Miruna] He wrinkles his nose. You could probably eat maggots. maybe maggoty cheese too. Make good training for the recruits, he told himself. Least there wa plenty of cloth near so he didn't ahve to touch it himself. A bolt over the mess, then pulled around under and he had a sack of maggots and cheese. He glanced around, hoping there might be something better to bring with. Ships biscuit, or whatever the sailors ate. The galley had probably been on th
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| − | [Miruna] He glanced around, hoping there might be something better to bring with. Ships biscuit, or whatever the sailors ate. The galley had probably been on the other end of the ship, not that he had bothered to find out.
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| − | [Miruna] Well, it was something at least. First thing was, he'd ahve to find some way to secure it on his way - he didn't like the idea of giving up a hand to carry it. He rolled the silt around it a fe w more times, hoping he wouldn't smell so bad as it did when he was done, and then tied it around his neck in a broad loop. Something pulled on it, he'd have a hard time, but it should do a good enough job at keeping it with him while he moved.
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| − | [Miruna] They needed something else. He doubted anyone could keep enough of the cheese down for a meal, no matter what the people willing to pay for it said. He scuttles accross the ship, not going any lower, looking at the storage he crossed as he did.
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| − | [ST] The ship creaks and shifts alarmingly as Miruna moves, but it does not yet fall. Still, it's definitely shifting.
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| − | [ST] Miruna finds a shattered crate hurled from further back in the stores, perhaps. It balances precariously on a shifting structure of hide and bone, ruptured and spilling its contents - reindeer haunches packed in snow, fresh, red, and smelly.
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| − | [ST] As he maneuvers around him, he realizes he is doubly fortunate. The thing of hide and bone against which the tent has fetched up is an aghar, one of the Outwall tents.
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| − | [Miruna] He grinned wide. The tent'd be a bit bloody, but if thats all they had to bitch about, it was a right proper camping trip. The only worry was getting it up the deck to the top.
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| − | [Miruna] He started by lifting away the mess on top of the useful pile, the shattered crate and trade goods that were by comparrison worthless. He set them aside carefully, heaping them in front of a crate that still seemed to be roped down.
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| − | [Miruna] If one of the others stuck a head over the lip to see how he was doing, he could wave him down. BUt he didn't want to yell up. He was already taking enough chances.
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| − | [Miruna] The mess cleared away, he started pulling at the tent sides, trying to form it into one large sack he could haul up, with all the food inside. He dropped the cheese in, light compared to the rest of it, so he might as well ahve it anyway. He just checked to make sure it was wrapped proper first - didn't want the maggots getting at the meat before he did.
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| − | [Miruna] Then the work was done and he was left with the task of actually trying to haul it up. He gave the air above one last look, but none of them were man enough to be there at the moment. Well enough. He slowly got under the leading end of the tent/sack, and grabbed the harness/knot with both hands, pulling up to set himself into it. He'd just ahve to hope that nothing he brushed aside with the wide sack fell hard enough to cause problems.
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| − | [Miruna] He trudged up teh slope slowly, taking care that each foot was set with grip before he put full weight on it - if he started sliding, he doubted he'd be able to stop, and certainly not without losing the tent.
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| − | [ST] The deck creaks alarmingly under Miruna as he goes, his footing sure, the ground itself shaky.
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| − | [Miruna] He flinched slightly every time he heard something go scraping down, but he was able to wind around the biggest thigns that would ahve caught at his cargo.
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| − | [Miruna] It was a long walk, longer than it looked, longer than the time it took. But finally he was near the lip, close enough to heave the tent up and over, so taht he could handle the harder part of getting out himself without all the dead weight.
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| − | [ST] "You don't look so good," Red comments almost casually to Avir.
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| − | [Avir] "I don't feel so good," he agrees in much the same tone.
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| − | [ST] "Are you going to slow us down?" She asks softly, her voice betraying false concern. She leans forward to look at him atavistically.
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| − | [Avir] He grins at her. "We'll have to see, won't we?" His hand strays, almost unconsciously, to touch the short sword at his side.
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| − | [ST] "Lay off him for a while, why don't you?" Selza says. "We've got enough problems as it is."
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| − | [ST] As if to make this point apparent, the sack of food Miruna has lands on Red at that very moment - perhaps not entirely accidentally. She gives a sharp grunt.
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| − | [ST] Jek can't resist a bray of laughter, and Rabbit joins in. Savage Bear Daughter squats near Avir, her intense eyes fixed on his pale face.
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| − | [Avir] "Fewer than we had five seconds ago."
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| − | [Miruna] Soon after his head appears over the edge of the deck, and he carefully crawls over, grinning. "I hear someone not paying enough attention?"
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| − | [Avir] "Well done, man, well done..." Avir says enthusiastically. "Ah...the maggot cheese... we dine on classic Haslanti cuisine tonight!"
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| − | [ST] Bear Daughter scrunches up her face, reaching an arm out to Avir. She feels his forehead with the back of her hand, giving her head a short, savage shake.
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| − | [Avir] "...classic Haltan cuisine tonight!"
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| − | [ST] "I dallied with a woman who liked that tripe once," Jek complains. "I think I'd rather eat the rocks."
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| − | [Avir] "By all means. Rocks are plentiful." He glances at Bear Daughter.
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| − | [ST] She doesn't say anything in return. A woman of few words, it seems.
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| − | [Miruna] On solid, proper, rock and snow now, he stands, stretching. "Found us a tent too, and some meat. Just keep it from the maggots, yeah?" He is grinning, very pleased with himself.
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| − | [ST] "Not bad, Miruna," Jek says. "Got a pair of wings? Maybe you could-"
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| − | [ST] Behind Miruna, there is a loud, wrenching creak as the airboat breaks free at last. A few seconds later, a tremedous crash drifts up from below.
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| − | [Avir] Avir winces at the sound. He levers himself to his feet by grabbing onto a rock, pulling his satchel automatically up with him. "I suggest we seek lower ground. Preferably with something to burn, yeah?"
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| − | [ST] From somewhere above comes the screeching of the dragon kings. They aren't in sight yet, but they can't be far- and the screeching is getting louder.
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| − | [Avir] "We need cover- trees, a cave, something- or those things will pick us off on the rocks."
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| − | [Miruna] He nods, previous thoughts of rest and sloth disappearing. "Grab everything that needs moving, anyone who doesn't know how to move fast over bad footing best learn how to fall pretty."
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| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter rises without a word, throwing the insensate Obligatory Sunshine over one shoulder. Her small frame should not be able to bear him, but it does. The rest rise as quickly as they are able, terror giving haste to their injured bodies.
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| − | [Avir] Avir points. "That trail- it curls back into the mountains. There has to be a defile at the end of it." Well, there might be, anyway. "Run!"
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| − | [Miruna] He follows the man's word. He hadn't spotted it, but it seemed like as good a chance as they had.
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| − | [ST] THe path is treacherous, threatening to spill the injured off at more than one moment. There is barely room for them to walk side by side in most places, and a fall here would quickly end one on the sharp rocks below. Some say the Crag Mountains were raised by the anger of the Anathema in a lost age, and it might be true, for surely nature would not shape something so cruel and senseless.
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| − | [ST] At last, Avir's desperate gambit leads the group into a small defile, where a few hardy evergreens cling just below the treeline. Their branches may shelter them enough. May.
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| − | [Miruna] "Huddle up to the stumps, yeah? Stand on shadows and rocks, not snow, they won't be over us long, so lets get tucked in."
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| − | [Avir] Avir doesn't waste any time getting beneath them, leaning against the bark of one of trees. He shivers, remembering the taste of....fire the Dragon King had given him. The very memory still pains him, like a hand pressed against a burn.
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| − | [Avir] He watches the horizon unwaveringly.
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| − | [ST] The others move at his word, all defiance gone for a moment. Jek crams himself down into the hollow of a scraggly trunk like it's his favorite lover.
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| − | [ST] Avir's vigiliance is rewarded - or punished. He sees the Dragon Kings, distant now, sweeping by in the distance, calling out to each other. And then, they are gone, the cries fading away. Perhaps they are satisfied.
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| − | [ST] "Whatever those are, they should've died with the Anathema," Selza says vehemently. She clutches the spear she took from the airboat with frantic intensity.
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| − | [Miruna] "Stay down for the moment, nows a good time for a rest, and we don't know if they are looping back." Or if they were trailing a watcher - what he'd do.
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| − | [ST] "The Anathema aren't dead either," Jek shoots back. "Let me tell you about this time we were at Madame Pearl's. Avir, Miruna, and Rabbit could tell you too - well, maybe not Rabbit."
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| − | [ST] "I recall her hauling ass at first opportunity."
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| − | [Avir] "Lower your voices," Avir says softly.
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| − | [Avir] "We dont know how well they hear."
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| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter nods emphatically. She even places a dark hand over the unconscious Obligatory's mouth, muffling his groans.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] An hour passes, and most of another, as the Once Dead wait. The sun drops lower in the sky, and the wind blows colder. Limbs begin to stiffen in the cold, hands and faces to grow numb. After a while, the Once Dead huddle together automatically, sharing what warmth that they can. The close-knit circle of bodies smells of sweat, and blood.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] No one talks much. The Dragon Kings do not return.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] As the time draws on, Avir begins to stamp his boots and rub his hands. In spite of the cold, a thin film of sweat glimmers on his forehead. His eyes are glazed. He moves stiffly, mechanically. "We need to get further down the slope," he says slowly. "The Dragon Kings- have to f-find out who they wanted to kill. Or w-what they didn't want the Dead to find."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You don't look up to it," Red says, her eyes watching him, bright. "Maybe you better just rest, give this over to those of us who know what we're doing."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. "Enoguh light to make it a short ways before we set camp." They'd have to all cram in the tent, but that was well enough, for heat. Make it as flat as possible and heap snow over it too, to make it less visible to the air and warm.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "One-Eye is dead. The training's over." Red looks between Avir and Miruna. "I'm wondering why we're still listening to you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I know what I'm doing," Avir almost snarls at her. The tone is unlike him. As if to prove he's well, he staggers to his feet, swaying a little.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He gives her a cold, cocky look. "'Cause we know what we're doing. And trainings not over, not while we're around to guide you. You survive us getting taken out, you ahve permission to go piss yourself however you want."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Oh, I don't think we'll have a problem," Red says. Little Adder locks eyes with her briefly. "Fine. We'll do as you say. Just don't expect to live through it." She rises, kicking the fallen Obligatory Sunshine in the side. He wakes with a cry of alarm. "Get up."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "And don't make fucking noise," he adds, levering himself up.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Where...?" He manages, staggering to his feet. He looks around. "Wh-where are we?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Lets go," Avir says. He stumps down the slope.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A shove in the back keeps him moving, and the Once Dead set out. THe going is brutal, draining. Even healthy and learned men would have a difficult time, and the Once Dead are wounded, tired, and completely without direction. As they stagger down rocky paths and valleys, wind screaming in their ears, they tire, and weaken, and night draws on.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] That's when it first becomes visible, on the distant horizon, near where they're descending. A light that flashes among the close-crowded peaks. If there were any clouds above, they would capture it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir breathes in short, pained gasps, all the while smelling the familiar stomach-churning stench that told him it wasn't necessary. He pauses to watch the light.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "That's where...whatever it is. Is. We should go there. After." He wheezes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "It looks like it's happening in one of the valleys," Selza says. "Maybe we could see it from up here."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He should have thought of that. "Right. Right." He looks vaguely around for a path. Damnit. He needed to be under the demon's knife-hands himself.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Well. No time like the present to see what we're up against." He hobbles in the direction she had indicated.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He turns without saying anything. Avir was right, and he didn't want to open his mouth just to let cold air in.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I'll pass," Jek says. "Tell us if it's anything interesting." Rabbit nods agreement, and their charges remain with them. Selza and Savage Bear-Daughter press forward with Miruna and Avir.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] After a few moments the four of them arrive atop the ridge, moving down the reverse side carefully to reduce their silhouette. Below, in a rocky and thinly-forested valley, fires burn. Hundreds of them. The one closest to the mountain where the Once Dead watch is the largest, and before it has been built a crude wooden platform.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] It is dark, and the flickering fires obscure as much as they illuminate, but there are figures below. Hundreds. Thousands. Some are human, but most have the distinctive profile and the flickering ears of wolf-men.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Raiders," Selza whispers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Know how to start an avalanche?" He knew vaguely that one could, mostly by mistake. But he had never spent much time in the mountains, and they'd been foothills to these.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Fuck..." Avir sighs so quietly. He looks at Savage Bear Daughter, watches her reaction.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter shakes her head sharply at Selza's remark. Her eyes are flat and unreadable, her mouth firmly turned down. She's obviously failing to hold back her fear.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Army?" Avir says, still watching Bear-Daughter.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A terse nod. It's true; this is an invasion force. Not as large as the Haslanti army, certainly, but...
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Surprise could make this bad." An understatement. The Dragon Kings had been hired to make sure no airboats flew over the camp and saw...this.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "We have to get news of this back to Icehome."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. "Pity we didn't crash onto them."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "But how do we get back there?" Selza says. "They're not even expecting us for weeks."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A sudden roar rises from the crowd below.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir flattens himself instinctively.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Miruna stays stock still - better not to move, hopefully none of them could see that well in the dark to make him out from a rock.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Several figures are moving on the wooden platform - from this distance, they're quite indistinct, although thre of them seem to be human women, and the fourth some... bigger, shaggier thing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His face hardens slightly. This did not bode well. Hopefully they were about to hear a speech, maybe even learn something fo the army's plan. But it rather looked like a spectacle set up for the troops, and he didn't like the noise they were making.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The larger figure steps forward - the smaller ones bow to it slightly. Then the figure raises its hands to the sky, and it blazes with a sudden silvery light, a column that springs thirty feet into the air, crackling and shifting into the form of a one eyed wolf.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter gives a soft moan of horror.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The roar grows louder, becoming deafening.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The weakling Haslanti think us beaten!" the Lunar roars, and the other voices fall away. From this distance, there is no way the Once Dead should be able to hear the words, but they are carried forward by some strange magic to all in earshot. It is a female voice, one realizes, if deep in timbre.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Anathema. The wolf monster of old.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "They think me dead, and you a forgotten remnant. But the Twisted Hills People are strong. The Twisted Hills people are toughened. The Twisted Hills people shall reap their vengeance, and the Emeralds will run red, and the greenfields will burn, and the hundred tribes will swear loyalty or die!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "They think us alone. They do not know we have allies, friends. The cold-people from the city of unquiet stone march with us! The people of Shanarinara march alongside us. You consider them weak, as the Haslanti do, but they have been wounded! They have grown angry! They hunger for Haslanti blood! They shall have it, my children! But only when we are finished with the carcass!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] About half of his armor still showed wolves hunting over the snow - everywhere that the painting hadn't been scraped off by events. He hadn't really mean this by it. It made his skin itch.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] They had to warn the Haslanti League. Fear trickles like ice through his fevered mind. If it cost all their lives, they had to warn the League. Nothing was more important.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "My daughters and I will be with you. Kill in our name! Rend in our name! Revenge, in our name! In the name of all the fallen!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A deafening roar rises.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "We have to send a message, somehow..." Avir says, so softly his lips barely move. Even if he had to flay Selza alive.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The Emeralds..." Selza says. "They can't stand up to a force like this..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He nods. They were safe for the moment, safe enough to move that much. The wolves were absorbed, they all were. Far worse than he had feared. This wasn't even the only army coming.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The speech suddenly stops, a fist is thrown up. Silence falls. And impossibly, IMPOSSIBLY, the Lunar's head turns to face the mountain where the Once Dead watch.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Now he freezes. Too late, too late. Nothing human could ahve made it out - and by all the small gods who knew if it would have seen them anyway. But it was his fault.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The figure crouches, and then springs into the air, flying yards into the sky. There is a flash of silvery light, and where the figure was, a hawk beats its wings, soaring upward and closer.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I should have fed you to the thing in the basement," Avir says, as Death approaches. "Both of you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Scatter! Make it work for it."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza looks at Avir, shocked at his words, or merely frozen with horror at the THING that is coming. Bear-Daughter is already running.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's mouth stretches into a mirthless grin. No question who was slowest and clumsiest now. "Run!" he yelps as he stumbles down the slope.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] As the Once Dead run back down the slope, the others, still waiting, look up, alarm appearing on their faces. "What the hells?" Jek calls out as he sees the others approaching, rising unsteadily.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "The wolf bitch is back, with an army, and the assholes from Shanarinara and the unquiet stones are with them. She saw us. RUN!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "The Fellai?" Rabbit asks, her voice clearly full of confusion. "Why would they- WHAT?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] And the hawk wings over the clearing, wings closing in on its body as it dives.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Stomp! Fogblades! Attack her!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Miruna jumps feetfirst down a snow-slope, hoping there wouldn't be a cliff - a face or a drop, deadlyeither way - at the bottom. But they needed to get away fast.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] They manifest together, a blood ape, it's grin hinging wide and open, hooting with joy at the thought of confronting the Lunar. The other rises from the mist fog, blades whirling and clashing in endless tumult within.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The hawk shifts in midair, warping, changing, and there is the crunch of ice covered snow as the wolf-anathema lands amongst the Once Dead, returned to its form. It rises, a figure at least nine feet tall, coated with grayish white fur, a prominent scar winding down its muzzle. It howls, revealing silver fangs six inches long. Talons of Moonsilver glimmer at the end of brawny arms. It
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] looks somehow lithe and bulky, delicate and vicious all at once. It may be the most terrifying thing most of them have seen in their lives.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Yet they are not terrified.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His hand works on the grip of his mace. Death was staring at him, at them, sniffing rather daintily, as if their smell offended her. Better to die facing death than running for it. Perhaps he could buy the otehrs time. One of them had to make it back, but there was no reason it had to be him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "Run! I'll hold her." Or at least die trying. Die succeeding, hopefully.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Stow that, Miruna," Jek says, stepping up beside him. His chopping sword looks barely fit for pawning, much less crossing blades with a demigod, but he has drawn it. "This isn't the first bitch I've dealt with."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Savage Bear-Daughter has gathered the dented javelin that Rabbit threw onto the pile. She wordlessly stands on the other side of Miruna. Next to her is Selza, her eyes set, and spear held firmly before her. It is not the first time she's faced a thing beyond mortal means.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory Sunshine flanks them. He is still wounded, his finger still bound, and he can barely see, but he can see enough. He holds a scuffed knife of Jek's. He has no choice but to fight - what is this thing but pure evil given shape?
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He glances back, then wordlessly tosses his backup hatchet to Bear-Daughter. She held herself well, no need for her to die with castoffs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Ragged Red welcomes the conflict, laughing, tossing Miruna's knife from hand to hand. She is reckless, dangerous, uncaring of her own death, and her viciousness is enough to inspire Adder to stand beside her armed with nothing but a discarded branch. A branch against a god.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Fuck all of you," Rabbit says softly, her voice catching. "D-damned if I'm going to be shown up by you. You've broken the hearts of every boy in Icehome."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] For a moment, they stand united, and most of them, in this moment of intensity, don't even notice Avir's demons materializing behind them, horrors only eclipsed by the thing in front.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "So..." the Lunar speaks, looking them over. "You mean to stand, and fight me? Your puny weapons against Magdala, the winter wolf eternal, who has seen more sunsets than all of you combined?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "How else could we defeat you? If not with a mace- a sword- javelin, hatchet...knife and branch?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir's eyes glitter, bright with fever and madness. He has not drawn a weapon.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He spits at the thing, meaning to be defiant to the end. "Thats what we should fear? Your age?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The thing gives a low, rumbling laugh. "There is some honor to you, then. I will give you a worthy death."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His lips draw back. "Yes." They were all standing? Fools. Someone had to run, had to get away, had to warn the Haslanti. Someone had to give up their honorable death, and run like a coward. But the Once Dead didn't take people of that mettle.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is a whirring behind them, a frantic chittering, and then a howl of terror and fear. It is said that at the moment of its creation, every Tomescu sees how it will die, and the memory of this sight makes them scream for the rest of their lives. The creature summoned and so loosely bound by Avir stirs forward now, singing its own death, and the Lunar waits for it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A hooked, mantis-like limb, tipped with a claw shaped like an axe, rakes over the Lunar's face, tracing a bloody line across it. Magdala falls back a step, snarling, and then springs at the tomescu, moonsilver claws flashing wildly as she tears into the creature.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Tomescu howls again, pain spiking as turquoise blood flies from it in a torrent. Magdala seizes two of its limbs in massive claws and hurls it back to crash against the trunk of an evergreen, where it writhes in an indistinct, foggy mass.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Stomp, were he a smarter beast, would hesitate at this display. He is not, however. He is a Blood Ape, and conflict and violence are in his nature. He lowers his shoulder and charges, screaming, at the Lunar, pausing for a moment before he flickers, suddenly seeming to appear in several places at once as he attacks.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] His filthy claws find purchase in the beast's flank, tearing, rending. Blood steams on the snow as the Lunar staggers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] The demons were dying, blood flying everywhere. Well, he could hardly complain of Avir's habits now. "Surround the bastard, one of us can slip a blade in!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] It felt good to be yelling again. He steps forwards, slamming his mace into the edge of his shield, in a slow, steady rhythm. Timing was important.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Once Dead nod, surrounding the Lunar, fanning out like they are pack hunters themselves. Magdala's yellowed eyes flicker between them, seeking, and then she springs towards Selza and Savage Bear-Daughter, who stand side by side, lashing out at them in a flurry of strikes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Both women go flying, senseless, motionless, their blood spraying out onto the snow around the Lunar. Selza lands on her own spear hard enough to break it in half, eyes rolled back in her head. Bear-Daugther tumbles over three times before coming to a stop.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Tomescu mindlessly returns to the attack, stabbing wildly at the Lunar's unprotected back. Strikes hit, but do not connect. Stomp retreats, flaring brightly as he gathers essence about him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Selza!" Avir shouts hoarsely, then is surprised by his raw cry of grief. The wolf demon's eyes flicker to his briefly, then away, dismissing him. No matter. Her death had bought him a few more seconds.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir will play the part of the coward. He will be the one to run.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He turns his back to the battle and his comrades and flings himself into the undergrowth, skidding down a snow bank in his haste. He flings his satchel away. "Help them!" he yells at it, and runs, runs runs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Good," Magdala rumbles as the Once Dead move to surround her. "Good." She flares with silvery light, and suddenly seems to blur, flickering in place, as if she's not QUITE there.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He drops a beat, letting the absence of the rhythm be the signal - he was too busy charging, bringing the mace over his head and screaming with all of the frustration of the day - all the dead, all the fears for himself and his people. He was lucky - the thing had turned its back to him to kill the two women, arrogant, possibly justifiably so. But he slammed his mace down as hard as he could all the same.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A flurry of weapons come flying in. Red's knife caroms off Jek's forearm as the Lunar dodges out of the way, but Jek's own blade bites into the creature's calf, and Rabbit's hurled javelin catches it in the shoulder. It is wounding, it is bleeding!
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] The mace crunches down, a cruelly flanged ellipsoid burying deep into the meat of the Lunar's back, crushing bone and slicing bundles of muscle. And he pulls it back to strike again, landing as her muscles tense instinctively from the damage, leaving a second lascerated gouge into her matted fur. Let all their blood flow.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He can feel the feedback of her ribs snapping through the hilt of the mace, and smiles with bright glee, blood flying from the wound staining his teeth three feet away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Lunar rounds on Miruna, howling in fury... a howl which turns into delighted laughter as blood flows from its wounds - wounds which, to his horror, he sees are already beginning to close.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Never... in all my years... has an ant dared strike me thus..." Bloody foam rises at the Lunar's jowls. "A worthy opponent, indeed!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Then, there is a flash of silvery light as the thing bulls forward, descending on Miruna in a flurry of vicious blows that move too fast for the eye to follow.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Her paw catches his, midcry, throwing him sideways. He would have been flying through the air if her other hand handn't come slashing in faster than an arrow for a human's bow, to bat him the other way. She swatted him again, and then again, a final time, this time with an upward swing, sending his body into a nearby pine tree, hard enough to crack the trunk.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Miruna! NO!" Jek cries. The organization that existed a moment before breaks apart.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] The body flops down, crunching into the snow pack, unmoving. Still holding it's mace.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Stomp and the Tomescu throw themselves mindlessly back into the fray against the Lunar, but neither can breach her defenses. Stomp in particular scrabbles wildy, leaping atop her back, biting her neck and raking with his talons, but nothing seems to actually do damage.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Tomescu lurches wildly, keening, more blood dripping from the rents in its flesh as the Lunar presses the attack. Red and Little Adder hesitate, as does Obligatory Sunshine. With Miruna fallen, they're not sure what to do next.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Time..." Sunshine manages. "Avir needs more time!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Tomescu closes, howling as its death races upon it, and Magdala grabs its two largest limbs, wrenching them apart. A massive limb ending in a club like a sledge unfurls from the thing's center, flying towards her head, but then she spreads her arms wide, rippin the Tomescu's off in founts of blood. It falls, screaming, and then the screams stop as it puffs into green nothingness. Stomp
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] lowers his shoulders and waits.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Once Dead charge, shouting, their blades seeking the Lunar anathema's flesh. Their attacks are batted away with contemptuous ease. As he watches Little Adder and Ragged Red knocked aside, Obligatory Sunshine feels his head grow light, fuzzy, and he faints dead on the spot.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Stomp springs back at the Lunar, biting, driven beyond madness by his situation. But he's losing composure, losing focus, unable to even break past the Lunar's defenses now.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Stomp is hurled back, kicking up a massive roostertail of snow as the Lunar hurls him away contemptuously. He writhes, struggling to rise, lunging for her throat one last time.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] His fangs sink deep into the Lunar's flesh, drawing forth a strangled cry... and then Magdala reaches down with talons of pure moonsilver and tears Stomp's head off.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The demon falls back, flickering, collapsing into a horde of blood-colored cockroaches.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Magdala rises, turning to the two Once Dead who still face her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "And now, for you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A few moments later, and they lie at her feet like the others.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] A woman steps up onto the ridge behind Magdala. She is tall, with a hard, angular face. A dress of doeskin and bone hugs her body tightly, but there is nothing warm, inviting, or erotic in her. She is a blade, barely covered by a hilt. A dark braid winds down her back, and she carries a scythe in one slim hand.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "This is all of them, mother?" She asks.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "No," Magdala responds. "One still eludes me. Perhaps I shall give him to your sister to hunt. Now, take these. Secure them."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "I want to question them when they awaken."
| |
