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| − | [ST] Morning dawns cold and bitter as the airboat continues its journey south. Those unfortunate sailors who have drawn the early morning shift emerge from their cabins and a hurried breakfast of salt pork, securing themselves by lines and setting to trimming sails and operating the ship.
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| − | [ST] On deck, Laughing Jek rolls over, groaning. Beside him, Little Adder, Slow Ember, and Ragged Red are also rising, shivering with the cold. Their sleep was broken and fleeting.
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| − | [ST] "Don't know why the fuck... I had to sleep on the OUTSIDE," Jek grumbles, flexing his fingers. "I'm afraid to take off my fucking gloves."
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| − | [ST] "Cause you're not allowed inside," Red grumbles, glaring like she'd like to kill him. She levers herself upright using the Southerner's head as a launching point. He doesn't respond.
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| − | [Avir] Avir walks up the stairs. He looks almost offensively sleepy, rubbing the dreams from his eyes in the manner of one who is well-rested. He is carrying a mug of steaming tea in one hand. "I see everyone made it," he says, saluting them with the mug before downing a gulp.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna drowses restlessly. After hours under the snow, it was warmer than the open air of the deck would be. Damp, and with more elbows shoved into his side, but those didn't seem problems worth waking up for.
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| − | [Avir] Avir nudges him gently with a toe, adding "The galley is on the way with tea and warm bran."
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| − | [ST] "Have a nice night, sweetheart?" Red asks acidly. It might be only her continuing act, but a night in weather like that would piss anyone off. Adder brushes snow from his thighs with an incredulous expression. A few sailors working the sails look over at the group, talking amongst themselves and shaking their heads.
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| − | [ST] After a few moments, Selza and Obligatory climb onto the deck, shivering, but looking surprisingly whole. "Strong medicine you have there, Avir," Selza comments, a touch of curiousity in her voice.
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| − | [Avir] "Quite passable," Avir answers Red mildly, sipping his tea. "Certainly better than the first trip out-" he nods to Selza and Obligatory. "You injuries weren't as bad as all that- can be heard to tell, really, with a fresh wound."
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| − | [ST] "You look cold, Jek," Rabbit says, as she comes up the stairs behind Selza and Obligatory. "You and weasel face there didn't snuggle up?" She nods at Little Adder.
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| − | [ST] Jek shrugs. The darkness of the previous night seems to have fled with the morning. "We tried. It was still cold. It was cold enough I would've considered climbing in bed with you."
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| − | [Avir] "Be nice, children," Avir says, not wihtout some relief. Jek seemed back to a more usual stride. "You know you're not her type." He grins at Obligatory.
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| − | [ST] "The gods help her type," Jek grouses, looking around as he scratches at the back of his neck. "I need to piss, but I'm afraid it'd break off. Where the hell's our painted buddy and the Outwall midget? They're either fucking or they're icicles. Or both." He shrugs again.
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| − | [ST] Obligatory looks uncomfortably between Avir and Rabbit, who waggles her eyebrows at him. THe mention of Miruna discomforts him further. "Is he- is he dead?"
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| − | [Avir] "Miruna? I wouldn't believe it until I saw his tanned hide on some frost hag's porch. Come on, lad, lets roust him." He winks at Rabbit. "Educational experience."
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| − | [Avir] He strolls to a more sheltered portion of the deck. Unless he missed his guess, Miruna would be holed up somewhere improbable yet warm.
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| − | [ST] Rabbit blows a puff of frustrated air out over her upper lip. It clouds in the frigid air as she follows after Avir, shaking her hips the slightest bit for Obligatory's benefit. He is utterly oblivious. After a moment, Jek shouts, "Don't shake something loose."
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| − | [ST] Red even laughs at that, the briefest braying bark.
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| − | [Avir] Avir comments idly on the shape of the clouds with cheerful vulgarity, mainly for Rabbit's benefit , as he mentally divides the ship into two piles: stacks of stuff and heaps of snow.
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| − | [Avir] "How would you find a aging man on an airboat, Obligatory, supposing he was, ah hah, resting with a shapely young woman of his own culture?"
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| − | [ST] "I... er..." He blushes a little, perhaps imagining himself in a similar situation. "I'd look in a bed?"
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| − | [Avir] Himself, he'd spotted something that looked suspiciously like a chimney dug into a pile of snow. "You must remember, Obligatory, that these are not civilized people," Avir says, as he stomps experimentally.
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| − | [ST] "Some of them are, in the cities," Obligatory says uncertainly. "Many of the Haslanti who employ my people have expensive tastes..." He watches, fascinated, as Avir stomps.
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| − | [Miruna] He heard the footsteps, and the voices as well once he was awake enough to listen. He shifted slightly to clamp a hand over his companion's mouth, whispering "quiet, pray about" in her ear.
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| − | [ST] Miruna feels, rather than sees, the woman nod. A violent, snorting exhalation warms the back of his hand.
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| − | [Miruna] He lets her go - if she really wanted to not cooperate, she could kick out and ruin the surprise by breaking the shelter. The snow was crunching close - someone into the snow pile on the wrong side of it. He tenses, then picks his moment between the hard steps, hoping to catch whoever it was with his foot in the air. Whoever it was, it was worth teaching a lesson.
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| − | [Avir] Avir explores the area around the air chimney, still sipping his tea. "Expensive," Avir agrees. "Esepcially the old men - when they start needing to prove themselves again."
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| − | [Miruna] He jumps off the snow under them with all extremities, trying to break up and out of the snow as fast as he can. Great chunks of it fly off a few feet to clomp onto the deck. He is grinning - more as he sees Obligatory looking up with surprise, and leaps onto him, driving him down into the deck. "Think I wouldn't be here in the morning?" he snarls after pushing the kid's head about in the snow a bit.
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| − | [ST] "Mmphh," Obligatory answers through a faceful of snow. Savage Bear-Daughter rises out of the mound of snow behind them, shaking white clumps from her long dark hair, stretching. She ambles off without comment.
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| − | [Miruna] "Morning," he grins up at Avir. "Had a good night?" He'd seen Red outside, although he hadn't been paying attention to how the otehrs were managing their charges.
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| − | [Miruna] He let's up a bit on Obligatory, letting him catch his breath with his head thrust into the snow sideways - cold but not blocking the air.
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| − | [Avir] Avir takes another swallow of his tea. "A warm night." He glances back where the others had been. He supposed he should return to her. He was, theoretically, her teacher. And if he couldn't break her spirit, then who?
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| − | [Avir] "May you propser in your educational enterprises," he sighs, turning to trudge back to her.
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| − | [Miruna] He stands up and pulls Obligatory to his feet with him. "You're not only gutless, you can't keep your eyes open" he growls at him, before shoving him away.
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| − | [ST] Red appears to be talking to Adder, giving him the occasional encouraging pat on the shoulder. She's obviously treating him as a toady, but something in his nature seems to accept it readily enough.
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| − | [ST] Obligatory stumbles forward, wiping the snow from his face and blinking in confusion.
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| − | [ST] Mithra completes the picture. She emerges at the top of the stairs with a tray in her hands, on which eight squat mugs steam with scalding hot contents. A wineskin lies draped behind them. The effect is almost matronly, until one looks at her stony face and missing eye. All business this morning.
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| − | [ST] "Recruits, this is breakfast. Enjoy it. The rest of you, come to my cabin. We have matters to discuss."
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| − | [Miruna] He strides up, and accepts his mug with a nod, mulling over his problem student.
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| − | [ST] She hands the tray off to Selza, who carefully sits it on deck before taking her steaming mug from its surface. The others rush to jostle for their own warm cup.
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| − | [Avir] "Ma'am." He smiles at Red and Little Adder on his way inside. Perhaps there would be a time to make the snake wormfood as well.
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| − | [ST] After Jek and Rabbit take their own mugs, and the others fall upon them, there is nothing remaining for the late arriving Obligatory Sunshine or Bear-Daughter. They accept this reality stoically, if for different reasons.
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| − | [Miruna] He follows her belowdecks. His only lever for now was keeping the kid believing that he would run him out of the Once Dead by the end of the week - not hard since he would try if Obligatory didn't learn how to harm - and to make sure he equated that with the death of his sisters. He hoped that he had planted that firmly enough.
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| − | [ST] Were this a seagoing vessel, the furniture and loose objects littered about Mithra's small but well-appointed private cabin would be hazards. As it is, the gentle passage of the air does not so much as stir them. Mithra sits at the head of a table, inviting the others to take a seat. Before they have finished, she's already speaking.
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| − | [ST] "I note some of you were successful. Some of you failed. Tell me about your recruits. What worth do you see in them, if at all?"
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| − | [ST] "Adder's a little fucking weasel," Rabbit says casually as she sits down. "He's not the type you'd trust to hold the gate while the rest of you escape. But he can take a punch, I guess. And I heard he orchestrated the ambush that almost killed Kekkonen and Otter, so it's not like he's all bad."
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| − | [ST] "Pragmatic as always," Jek says, chuckling. "Selza whatever's tough enough, I guess. She wouldn't cave, and you know how women are so rarely immune to my wiles." He shrugs, as if he's talkin about something besides the brutal beating he administered. "I've served with a lot worse."
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| − | [ST] "Slow Ember has all the problems of a foreigner with few of the advantages," Mithra says. "He crumbled almost immediately. The Bear-Daughter is tougher, but undisciplined. Given half the chance I think she'd have my throat out with her teeth. That's a good instinct to cultivate, but it has to be controlled. Avir? Miruna?"
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| − | [Avir] "Red's a vicious beast. And a leader. If she can be broken and made to run in harness, she could be a valuable asset to the Once Dead, so long as we don't care about casualties. If not, well, I can forsee a time five years down the road when she mutinies, takes half a wing with her, and sets up as a mercenary operation working for Gethemane. If she were a kitten, I'd drown her."
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| − | [ST] "I was against her even joining, given her past. But there is steel there, and we've done better with worse. Let her go for now, but keep the leash short."
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| − | [Avir] "Leash. Short. Right."
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna sees everyones eyes on him and sighs. "Sunshine is useless for now. He refuses to ahrm things - wouldn't give in once I told him I'd throw a crewman out with him if he gave up. Tough enough to hold out, but useless."
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| − | [ST] "He..." Mithra stops, shaking her head. A hand reaches up absently to scratch at her eyepatch. "...utterly? Even in self-defense? This is a serious problem."
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| − | [Avir] Avir toys with his belt knife. "He's one of the Quiet. There's rumors they've made treaties- with the Dead, with the Fair Folk...." He shrugs. A blood libel Thunder Wisdom had called it, but he'd avoided their communities all the same.
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| − | [Avir] "Tell you what Miruna. I'll trade. YOU can have the evil bitch, I'll take the little lamb."
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| − | [Miruna] He nods. "I told him his sisters would die too, and I'm pretty sure he believed me, or at least believed that I meant to do what I said." He scowls.
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| − | [Miruna] He gunts a laugh. "She got you scared?"
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| − | [Miruna] *grunts
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| − | [Avir] "She volunteered to stay the night outside. That's inhuman." He smiles slowly. "Of course, you've hardly gotten far with Obligatory, either."
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| − | [Miruna] "He volunteered before I'd even started - didn't want me to suffer." He scowls fiercly enough for his pride - to show the others what he thought of that idea.
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| − | [ST] Mithra shrugs. "Like I said, we've taken in worse than bandits or the Quiet. There was a time, they say, twenty years ago, where one of the Fair Ones served in the Once Dead. Ate the emotions of desperation from the Princes. Fucking disaster, whoever allowed that wasn't worthy of the skull." She flicks her eyes between Miruna and Avir. "Switch them if you desire, so long as you get results,
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| − | [ST] and let us not see the mistakes of the past repeated."
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| − | [Miruna] He shakes his head. "I've started building his personal hatred of me, best not to waste that. I get him to try and kill me, then he's accepted taht he has to kill things sometimes."
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| − | [ST] "Gotta watch the quiet types, Miruna," Rabbit says. "They're the dangerous ones when they snap." She snaps with her fingers to demonstrate. "Why, I remember this one pup, couldn't have been a day older than twenty, big brown eyes, as quiet as you could imagine..."
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| − | [Avir] "See, that's exactly the kind of fellow-feeling we need to be inculcating in the recruits."
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| − | [Avir] Avir grins. "That was a nice night."
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| − | [ST] "In any case," Mithra resumes. "Their training will be put to the test. We should reach the Crag mountains in a few hours. This boat's on a supply run to the Spike, and it's dropping us there at night. We'll be walking back, at least as far as the nearest Emerald. We'll be depending on each other to survive in some of the worst country in the Haslanti League.
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| − | [ST] As Rabbit rolls her eyes at Avir, she continues. "That's not a place where you want your dog to bite."
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| − | [Avir] "She couldn't walk straight for a week," he adds generally to the room, as an aside. "Should we expect any surprises?" he asks Mithra.
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| − | [ST] Jek bursts out in laughter. Mithra has to glare him silent before answering Avir's question.
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| − | [ST] "None that I know of, but it's not a safe place in the best of times, especially not in winter. Mountain bears, they say. Occasionally Ice Hollows come out of the underground rivers. And wolfmen are known to inhabit the area. The leftovers of whatever didn't get burned to ash along with Magdala in the Wolf War."
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| − | [Avir] "What happens if we lose one of the cubs?" Avir asks, leaning back. "Accidents and such."
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| − | [Miruna] He hadn't been out on one of these expeditions before, "are we travelling in a group, or in pairs?"
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| − | [Miruna] He would prefer to isolate the kid as much as possible, although he also wanted to keep an eye on Avir. Either way, it wasn't his choice.
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| − | [ST] "We'll be sticking together most of the time, but you'll still be responsible for your charge. And if we lose one..." She looks at Avir, her gaze hawkish and penetrating. "Well. It wouldn't be the first time. But it wouldn't be the best idea. Not with me in command. Are we clear?"
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| − | [Avir] "As crystal."
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| − | [ST] "Then let's see what our cubs are up to."
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| − | [ST] When the three return to the main deck, more sailors are out in the brightening light, and below, leagues of snow-covered ground sweep by. A herd of elk, watched by an outwall tribesman, move across the hilly country below. Ahead, the spiky, dangerous form of the Crag mountain range rises to the south.
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| − | [ST] ANd on deck, Slow Ember has placed a hand full of snow to his swollen jaw. Savage Bear-Daughter has a split knuckle from punching him.
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| − | [ST] "She wanted to have a dream-telling," Selza explains, unprompted. "He made a jest about skin wearing savages."
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| − | [Avir] "Everyone been getting along?" Avir says cheerfully. He leans against a railing beside Red.
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| − | [ST] "Like fish in a clear stream," Red answers. "The smelly one has been talking about her dreams of flying kings, and the earnest one has been staring over the railing, and the Southerner has been getting punched in his foolish face, and Little Adder has been staring at my ass like I wouldn't kill him for touching it." She leans over beside him, looking at the mountainous landscape below. "Yourself?"
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| − | [Avir] "How unwise of him." He turns to thoughtfully regard the mountains. Even now, a harsh wind blows from the Crags, spinning flecks of snow from the railing to his cheeks. He listens.
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| − | [Avir] "Oh, the same tired jokes down below."
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| − | [ST] "This whole damn thing is a joke. It's just not funny." Despite that, her red, red lips curl up in a smile.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna spits towards Ember casually as he walks past, and takes charge of Obligatory again, pulling him off to the side, more to isolate him tahn to say anything important.
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| − | [Avir] "Oh, I think you'll find ways to entertain yourself, eh?" he nudges her shoulder companionably with an elbow.
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| − | [ST] "All right," Mithra says, looking between Slow Ember and Bear-Daughter. "If you want to fight, then you'll fight. It'll warm you up. Ember, Bear-Daughter. Adder, you and Selza. Red and the Quiet One. Pair off, talk your partner through it."
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| − | [ST] Red jerks her head back at Mithra's remark. "Well, I will now."
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| − | [Avir] Avir looks at her. "Keep in mind that, one day or another, your life is going to be in poor Obligatory's hands," he says softly. "Keep it well in mind."
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| − | [ST] "If I ever get that pathetic," she says softly. "I'd rather be dead."
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| − | [Miruna] He half throws Obligatory towards Red, "Go get beat, since you won't raise your hands."
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| − | [Avir] "I'm sure that option will always be available to you."
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| − | [ST] "Does it have to be her?" Obligatory asks Miruna, hesitant. "She's... a violent woman. Blood-soaked. I can sense it."
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| − | [Avir] "Still, I would appreciate it if you didn't break the boy too badly."
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| − | [ST] "Only as bad as he forces me to," Red says, moving past him, to where Miruna and Obligatory wait. "If he asks very nicely, I won't break any pieces off."
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| − | [Miruna] HE scowls down at him. "Orders. 'sides, they're all violent, mostly." He wasn't too sure about Adder yet.
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| − | [Avir] "Ask nice!" Avir calls out to Obligatory, leaning against the railing with his arms folded in front of him.
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| − | [ST] "Fists ONLY!" Mithra calls out. Red cracks her knuckles, moving steadily towards Obligatory. He raises his own hands hesitantly.
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| − | [ST] "I can find," he tells Miruna. "When I must."
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| − | [Miruna] He raises an eyebrow.
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| − | [Miruna] "Then show me."
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| − | [ST] *FIGHT*
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| − | [ST] Setting his mouth in a distasteful line, Obligatory does just that. As Red moves towards him, he darts forward, fist hooking towards her side. She slips aside from the blow like it is the easiest thing in the world and slams her elbow into Obligatory's face. He staggers back, blood drizzling from his nose.
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| − | [ST] "Well, he can thow a punch," Red says, giving a braying laugh. "Like a six year old girl."
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| − | [ST] Obligatory backs off, and the pair circle each other around the deck. A sailor stops swabbing the deck to watch as Obligatory backpedals, stepping into, and then out of, a coil of rope.
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| − | [Avir] Avir is silent and intent, looking for weaknesses in her technique. The perfection was so far was...unnerving. He smiles absently at her. "Well, you were six once yourself, weren't you?"
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| − | [Miruna] He stands, folded arms and a scowl, forming the defacto other side of the arena opposite of Avir and the rail, watching.
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| − | [ST] Red follows him and grunts, swinging again. This time, Obligatory bobs, and her fist only tags him lightly on the side of the head.
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| − | [ST] "I was never that young, surely," Red says, as Obligatory staggers anew. "Tore my way out of the womb full grown, dagger in my teeth."
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| − | [ST] The Quiet One lunges at her, fist sweeping by her face in a vicious hook that would've snapped her head back - if it had actually connected.
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| − | [ST] "You're a little slow, too," Red observes.
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| − | [Avir] "You're an orphan? No one you don't know how to make friends."
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| − | [ST] She backs off, studing his movements, and then steps inside his guard, kicking at the side of Obligatory's knee. There is a brittle crunch, and Obligatory staggers, giving a grunt of pain.
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| − | [Miruna] "You only fight when forced to, you don't learn how to fight proper."
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| − | [ST] "I feel like I'm strangling a kitten," Red says, chuckling. "Paintjob over there is right, you know. You don't really understand violence. This job is going to eat you alive."
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| − | [ST] And then the wind is expelled from her in a brief grunt as Obligatory comes around, hammering a fist into the woman's gut. She staggers back a few paces, momentarily stunned.
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| − | [ST] "When you only fight when you have to," Obligatory says. "You know it really matters."
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| − | [ST] A jab rocks his face back. Blood trickles from a cut over his eye, blinding him.
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| − | [ST] "It really bleeds when you get cut there," Red points out, recovering her breath. "Ask Avir."
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| − | [ST] He lurches towards her, lashing out with an uppercut blindly. Red backpedals easily, laughing.
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| − | [Avir] Avir shrugs. "She's right. You've lost the fight."
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| − | [ST] A knee slams into Obligatory's midsection. He staggers, wheezing, blinded by blood and tears of pain.
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| − | [ST] "I won't... give up!" He shouts defiantly, turning his body tightly, launching a roundhouse kick at her throat.
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| − | [ST] "Your mistake," Red says, avoiding the kick. She sweeps his feet out from under him, and he crashes to the deck, nearly senseless.
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| − | [Miruna] "That worked last night, when you needed to not do something. Not now."
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| − | [Avir] "What are you accomplishing?" Avir asks the Quiet One curiously. "Violence for its own sake?"
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| − | [ST] "Not the last mistake you'll make, I promise," Red says softly, dangerously. She crouches over him, straddling his chest.
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| − | [ST] Oblivious to the situation, Obligatory gasps. "She is... a dishonorable opponent. She would harm me, or others. I had to stop her."
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| − | [Avir] "You're done, Red," Avir says suddenly, rising from his noncholant lean. "So's he."
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| − | [ST] "Oh, he's not done yet," Red says. "Are you, Quiet One? Someone should tell you the story of the ten wives."
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| − | [ST] Obligatory only groans, senseless.
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| − | [Miruna] He walks over a few paces to squat by Obligatory's head. "Trying to win me over? That wasn't smart, and besides, you shouldn't talk when you can't back it up."
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| − | [Avir] "I don't think you quite heard me, Red," Avir says from behind her. The tip of his blade pricks at the back of her neck. "We're done here."
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| − | [Miruna] "Oh? You tell yourself that. Course she would've harmed you, but you hadn't fought back, she wouldn't have done any worse to you, wouldn't have done any worse to any of us. No, you fought her cause we asked you too, cause you know you need to be what we need to get in."
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| − | [ST] "You see..." Red continues, didactically, "Once there was a chief who counted himself the wealthiest and bravest of all. He was so well-respected, he took ten wives. But his wives were good for nothing at all." With both her hands, she lifts his left, holding it between them as if she trusted him, as if he were her lover. "The first one was lazy, and never did her chores at camp. So, he
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| − | [ST] killed her." And she bends his index finger back, almost casually, until it breaks. Miruna's lecture is interrupted by a sharp scream of pain.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Then, there was his second wife. She was a liar. And so..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir grabs her by her hair and yanks her backwards, not fast enough. He heaves, sending her sprawling. "We're going to have to have a talk," he says, still in his urbane manner. He kicks her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grabs at her wrist - the hand that was doing the breaking, not the one easier to catch.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Found your guts somewhere in all that whelp's blood?" Red asks, looking up at Avir. She doesn't seem to have felt his kick at all.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He glares at her for a moment and spits, before turning back to the groaning Obligaory. "See, other people don't like your attitude either." He yanks the man's hand around, to look at the finger. Was it dislocated, or really broken?
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Broken. Very.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "You see, I am for the moment in charge of you," he continues as if she hadn't spoken. He kicks her again in the side. She hardly notices that either. "Your actions...reflect on me. And you are starting. to. piss. me .off. "
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "She may not be... the best guide for behavior," Obligatory manages, clearly in agony.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Why?" She smiles up at him. "Because I'm such a good storyteller? Someone was going to do it to that brat if not me. He's weak, and the weak don't survive in this world."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He crouches down beside her, the point of his short sword tapping her cheek. "You think I give a shit about that? I don't care about him. I sure as hell don't give a damn about you. You don't scare me, Red." But she did. "I've seen worse." And he had.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Don't lie, now," She spits on him. The glob strikes his forehead, and runs down between his eyes. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't hit me."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The spittle drips down his cheek. His smile grows fixed. " I gave you an ORDER." He stands, raises a boot, and stomps on her hand. "If there's one thing we do in the Once Dead, it's obey ORDERS." He stomps on her hand again. "That's the reason you're not flying - out- the bloody- airship." Again, again, again.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] She smiles up at him. Bones clearly crack in her hand. Anyone mortal - and many things that aren't - should be screaming. She isn't. She doesn't feel a damn thing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He doesn't pay much attention to Avir'
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "So you do care," she says softly.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] s discipline. "She's a piece of work, sure, but she's useful. There are otehr places to look if you want to survive this, but don't hold yourself so high."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You should be happy," Obligatory says, swiftly losing consciousness. "After all... I... fought..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] As he lectures, he binds the kid's finger to mostly straight wooden spoon with a bit of cloth. "That'll do for now. Want it to look pretty later, you better speak to someone else."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "I care that you do as I say," he says, stony, fighting a sinking sensation that she had..won somehow. The sessujlia that covers every inch of skin opens its eye under Avir's shirt and blinks nervously.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] There's blood on his boots.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Suddenly, something in Red's face changes. "The fuck?" She says, pointing with her unbroken hand behind Avir.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He snorts. "You fought with your fists - would you have killed her?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "If I had to..." Obligatory says thickly. "It would not have been my choice. But Creation would not miss her overmuch, I think. It has enough cruel things."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He looks automatically, before he has time to check the impulse. Falling for a juvenile-
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He doesn't really notice their conversation, focusing on Obligatory.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Just as Avir looks, a sailor cries out in alarm, and others echo the cry. Things are moving across the sky. Five or six of them, beating leathering wings several hundred yards off the starboard side of the airboat. They look like... flying lizards? Membraneous flesh makes up their wings, and their striped heads are elongated, cone-shaped. Some wear extremely primitive armor, little more
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] than steel plates lashed to their forms with rope.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "What the fuck are those things?" a sailor cries out.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Fairies-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Something from the Wyld-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Some progress at least. "But only after you'd judged her, not because we ordered you to it."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] The larger commotion makes him look around, finally.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "No..." Avir says slowly. "No- they died, all of them, thousands and thousands of years ago. They're DEAD."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The creatures swoop left, drawing closer to the ship, their heads turning to regard its passengers. The largest of them, wearing a suit of armor and holding a strange club in one elongated claw, has red paint splattered across its head crest. The leader, then. The rest carry crude stone javelins.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] "What the hell are they?" If the man could deny that they existed, then he damn well knew what they were.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Get to your crossbows!" The captain shouts, storming on deck. Mithra drags Savage Bear-Daughter off the fallen Slow Ember and shoves them both towards the railing, shouting in alarm.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "Dragon-Kings! The ancient Dragon Kings, who ruled Creation in the time before the age of men..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He had only seen a handful of illustrations. He'd though them myths, like snow butterflies or icicle-teeth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Bullshit," Red laughs. "They don't look like any kings I've ever seen. Kings of the junk heap, maybe. Kings of shit mountain." She laughs. Clearly, Avir's stomping of her hand has filled her with a kind of vital, manic energy.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] "They're supposed to be intelligent!" he yells to the captain. He glares down at Red, because it gave him something to do. "As for you, shut it."
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He unclips the crossbow he'd bought for the trip from the back of his belt. Just hunting larger game than he'd planned. Besides, they'd board at some point, and then he could get at them properly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The group of creatures turns smoothly, their wings drawing close to their bodies, and then they dive towards the airship as one. Javelins come flying from their bundled form, tearing murderously onto the deck.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Miruna is caught aiming when they execute the maneuver, one of the javelins putting a long gash down the outside of his left leg.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Another hammers through Mithra's foot, pinning her to the deck in a spurt of blood, while a third punches through the meaty part of Red's shoulder but seems to do her utterly no harm.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir raises his sword as the javelins come whistling past; one glances past this knuckles, tearing open a shallow jag.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Red-Headed Dragon King, if that is what it is, stops, beating its leathery wings as it hangs suspended for a moment. It grimaces, moving its limbs strangely, deliberately, and flows of Essence appear and coalese around it, shrouding it in Ethereal Wind.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Stomp snuffles curiously, and the smell of rotting meat is heavy in the air as he mashes his teeth eagerly, waiting for the command to join the fight. He doesn't get it- yet. Avir casts around for some kind of ranged weapon, and fingers close on one of the dragon king's own javelins.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Lips curled back in a feral grin, Avir flings it a him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The grin falters as the shaft flies wide.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The dragon king flattens its wings, easily evading the shaft. The creatures shriek, a deafening screech that rolls over the ship, causing several sailors to stagger.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] They couldn't be carrying too many javelins, but he would be dead long before they ran out standing in the open like this. He squints slightly and snaps off a shot before dashign towards some cover. He was glad the ship was full of enough cargo that they had stored some of it on the deck - there was some cover about. On the other hand, it meant that he had to keep an eye on the deck as he moved as well as an eye above.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] As Miruna sprints for cover, his hastily aimed shot fails. The red-crested Dragon King swoops closer, screeching and hissing, a series of pops and clicks following. The others fan out slightly, and it becomes clear that this creature is actually giving orders. Black, featureless eyes fix on Avir, and the thing extends a webbed arm towards him, pointing the strange club his way.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is a crackle as Essence begins to coalesce at the tip of the club, slowly, painstakingly, almost clumsily. But it is collecting, and something is forming there, a shimmering bolt of golden fire. With an audible grunt, the Dragon King shakes its arm at Avir, and the essence bolt flies at him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] The red ruby on Avir's ear winks as he throws himself to the side, slashing at the bolt frantically with his pitiful weapon of iron.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The bolt of flame parts around Avir's armor and explodes around him, burrowing deep through the seams of his armor. The flying creature points at him with its other claw, screeching, and the flame burns hotter, stranger. Avir can smell sizzling flesh - his own, and the terrible burned-hair smell of the Peronelle. It burbles and seethes against his flesh.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir screams.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The other reptilian creatures chatter as the solar bolt strikes home, swooping alongside the ship and releasing another flight of javelins towards the passengers. Screams rise - a javelin grows from the side of a sailor's neck, blood bubbling up around the wound as he falls.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He snatches up a javelin and flings at a creature, tears running hot down his cheek.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] It doesn't even have to dodge.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Spread out!" Mithra cries, wrenching the javelin from her foot in a font of blood. "Fuck's sake, we're Once Dead. We can't lose to these... lizards!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Anotehr splatter of javelins comes down around him, two burying themselves into the crate he was aiming behind, and one passing just over his head. It took him a moment to notice that one javelin ahd dug straight through the crate and into his side. The thing must ahve been unevenly packed - the otehr javelin has been stopped.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Twisting her body, she hurls the javelin into their midst with a snarl.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] One of the smaller creatures screams in pain as the javelin impales its throat. It claws at the shaft wildly for a moment before plummeting out of sight.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Not bad for somebody with one eye!" Rabbit yells encouraging, hurling her own javelin. Savage Bear-Daughter growls at her side and does likewise. Both the projectiles miss their targets. Rabbit swears loudly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] His skin is still hot to the touch, crackled with pain. He reaches down, trembling like an old man, and picks up another javelin.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Fucking. Monsters." he hisses, aims at the nearest one, and lets loose.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] He doesn't bother to see if it hits, ducking behind a stack of crates.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The red-crested dragon king hisses again, and then lets out a screaming cry. What follows are worse - they are words, in an incredibly butchered version of Skytongue.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Ssssss Shrik the Red paint the rocks with your blood... sss... bargain made, promissse kept."
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The creature barely has to concentrate to fly - the wind that wreathes it seems to propel it of its own accord. It points its club at the concealed Miruna, and once more a small bolt of fire springs there. The creature grimaces - this attack is obviously coming at an immense effort.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] His eyes widen as he sees the thing take aim at him. He squeezes the trigger, taking the shot he had before trying to duck out of the way. Not panicking cost him - he didn't get behind the crate in time.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] As the five remaining Dragon Kings draw near him, preparing for another pass, Shrik the Red hisses something to them. As one, they sweep, launching their javelins upward at the ship's gas bag.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He falls to the deck, burying his face in the snow to put his beard out. He was damn glad that it had snowed overnight.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "NO!" Obligatory screams, rising out of his numbness as five javelins tear through the bag overhead, puncturing it. The airboat lurches dangerously as more screams bloom. The craft jerks wildly, and a sailor goes flying over the side into oblivion. The jagged peaks of the Crag mountains on either side suddenly seem very close.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grabs the rope securing his cover/crate to the deck, holding on for dear life.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir clutches the ropes anchored to the ship as it throws itself this way and that across the sky. He looks wildly around for Selza, Red...
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Red reaches out wildly as she tumbles, her good hand tightening around the grappling hook at the end of a rope. Tines punch through her flesh, but she doesn't even seem to feel them. As she skids backwards across the deck, rope spooling behind her, Avir realizes that she is laughing. Laughing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Mithra lunges at her, grabbing onto a leg, and Savage Bear-Daughter leaps around the nearest mast, curling her short legs around it in a death grip. Jek and Rabbit join hands, springing for, and making, the nearest railing, their arms looping around it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Obligatory Sunshine, groping wildly in his miserable state, manages to catch Red's other leg. She laughs, but doesn't kick him off.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Slow Ember isn't fast enough - as he tumbles, he clutches wildly for the railing, but his fingernails slip, tearing free, and he is gone over the side, screaming. A half dozen sailors go with him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Chaos reigns on the deck of the airboat. The Dragon Kings beat their wings and sail away. The tattered gasbag flaps against the sky like loose, dead flesh.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Little Adder goes tumbling across the deck like a flyblown piece of trash, but luck or serendipity saves him. As he kicks out, his foot wedges between a pair of lashed down casks, and he hangs suspended by one ankle, shouting in fear.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir is flung violently against a crate as he holds grimly onto his rope anchor, his hands scraped raw by the friction.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] Selza hangs some distance above him, hanging on to her spear, which she has embedded in the deck.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] The ship rolls wildly, but his one handed grip holds, even as the rope does not. The crate breaks free, sending Miruna whipping out on a dangling end of rope.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] The Crag Mountains loom on every side, as sharp and as deadly as knives. The airboat barrels between them, rapidly losing altitude.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "COME ON YOU BITCH!" the airboat captain screams, the cords on his neck standing out as he wrestles uselessly with the wheel, fighting to stay upright as his men go flying, tumbling from the deck on either side of him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Avir] Avir can see Stomp out of the corne rof his eyes, through the red gleam of the stone in his ear; he chomps contentedly on a dead sailor. The cloud of mist and metal waits patiently beside it. Avir closes his eyes, anticipating the impact.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He yells out wildly as the airship swerves around, just hoping that he woudl survive or that the airship would land on him and end it quick.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Come on," the captain says, trying to keep the vessel on an even keel. "Come on, Come on, Come-"
| |
| − | | |
| − | [ST] And the airboat crashes into the peaks of the Crag mountains with a sound like the end of the world.
| |
