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 Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:30 am
Quote: Prompt 10 (Runaway Reindeer): Someone thought it would be a good idea to get real reindeer to pet while visiting Santa, and someone should have considered that might be a bad idea. No one knows how they snuck out, but one by one they disappeared–and now they’re wreaking havoc on Destiny City. Or, so the reports say. The reindeer have been spotted eating everything, running in front of cars, chasing people down. It’s strange, almost as if they are possessed. They’re aggressive and hostile and not having any of this holiday nonsense. Are all reindeer like this? …Or have you run into a very aggressive youma masquerading as one?
Note: If you use this for a powered battle prompt, it does not count for the ‘one youma battle per growth’ ; this is a special prompt where the creature will attack anyone. It can only be used as a battle if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered to count this for a battle. The reindeer will not respond to any commands and cannot be destroyed; it will always run away before it can be defeated.
However, she was learning very rapidly that not everything on Earth was quite so friendly. In fact, some creatures were downright hostile, and there was one of those creatures staring her down. Her heart pounded in her chest, as the absolutely massive creature with its huge rack of antlers stared at her.
She was pretty sure it was a herbivore, given the position of its eyes in its skull. She was also pretty sure that didn't matter, because it was looking at her with what she could only describe as murder in its eyes. Unfortunately for it, Caelyna was not a fan of being murdered, and she stared back at it, holding her baton between it and her with narrowed eyes and grit teeth.
"Go away," she said, voice sharp and commanding. It was a tone she had heard from Velyria when she expected to be obeyed, and she deployed it now to make the beastie back down.
Unfortunately, it was not a Cadet that needed to be nudged into line, it was an angry wild animal, and instead of cooperatively stopping, it snorted and charged at her.
Oh. Oh, deer.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:42 am
Fangnyl was having a pretty darned good day. He'd completed loads more research at one of the local branches of the library, as Peregrine, of course, and the lovely librarians had been more than happy to help him learn to navigate the difficult and primitive technology that the humans of Earth had. They'd seemed delighted by his eagerness to learn and quickness on the uptake, as he learned how to use one of their computers and reserve interesting books for him to pick up another time. Real books! With paper and everything! He'd learned quite a lot today, and was very satisfied with how he'd spent it. However, it was getting quite late now, and he needed to head back home. Hearing someone say "go away", however, made him pause and cross through an alley to the next street over. If someone was in trouble, he had to help, even if he'd already dispelled his glamour. Seeing it was Caelyna, at least, assuaged that tiny worry in the back of his mind, but seeing the reindeer charge at her made his other worries shoot up into the sky. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he chanted at himself as he ran and launched himself at the reindeer as it passed by, grabbing it by the antlers and swinging himself up on its back in a manner similar to what he'd seen in those cowboy (shouldn't they be called horseboys?) movies. "Run, Caelyna!" he shouted as it thrashed and bucked. He was barely clinging on, but at least he'd distracted it from charging Caelyna.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:57 am
Caelyna was not expecting the timely intervention of someone else in the Vanguard. It was a lucky thing; she hadn't known anyone else was around here, but there Fangnyl was, charging at the thing.
Her heart dropped into her boots, watching him swing up onto its back. That was so incredibly reckless--! The very thought of it made her heart race even faster than it already was. However, the adrenaline was sort of good for her, she had to admit; she could focus, strangely enough, in a way that she wasn't used to.
"Run? And leave you behind? No!" She said, and she moved to get out of its direct charging path, quickly daring in and smacking ti with her baton. Hopefully the electric tingle might scare it, or at least make it stop bucking. "Now get off that thing before it throws you!"
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 1:07 am
The reindeer bellowed in anger and pain as the weak shock went through its body. Taking the opportunity, like Caelyna had said, he jumped off the damned thing and then grabbed her hand. "Okay, I saved you, you saved me, now let's save each other at the same time and book it out of here!" he shouted, using one of the cool new metaphors he'd learned during his time at the library today as he tugged gently at her and moved to dart back down the alleyway he'd appeared from. He really, really hoped it was too narrow for the freaky reindeer to chase them down it, but he couldn't be sure. It could go either way.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 1:53 am
Now, yes, it seemed like exactly the right time to start running. The strange creature seemed confused, and Caelyna gave it one last whap with her baton just for good measure, before letting Fangnyl grab her hand and haul her off. She heard the reindeer bellowing behind them, but when she heard it run off, it seemed to be in the opposite direction--so apparently it couldn't track them.
She let out a relieved breath, letting go of Fangnyl's hand and slumping against the alley wall.
"Thank you," she said, now that they were out of danger. "I'm lucky you were nearby. But," she gently whapped his arm with her hand, "never do anything that reckless again! Surely there were better ways to distract it than climbing on its back!"
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:01 am
Fangnyl didn't dare to let himself feel any relief until they were both stopped and could no longer hear the reindeer. It had left them alone, perhaps not by choice, but no matter what, it couldn't follow them and seemed to be going out to find someone else to pick on. Which Fangnyl was grateful for, when they could both catch their breaths. He started to smile at Caelyna, happy that they'd both made it, then she gave him a gentle whack and he gaped at her, stunned. "I—well, I—okay," he said, defeated. "Yeah, I, uh, probably shouldn't have done that. I had my dagger, I could've stabbed it or something, but I didn't think... I don't like hurting things. But it did work!" He smiled. "We both got out safely, and that's what matters, right?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:33 am
Caelyna exhaled, and nodded. "Yes, we're both safe." He was right, that was what was important. So, she dusted off her uniform, and leaned out of the alley to check, one last time, that the beast wasn't lying in wait--but it was long gone.
"Let's go home," she said. They would be safest once they were back at the Vanguard's house.
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