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 Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 7:04 pm
" Si... I think perhaps we should..." Malodore tilted its head to one side, then looked up at Sparrow. "Ah, could I perhaps get a lift? The prospect of descending at this scale is more than a little daunting."
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:02 am
It was growing warmer and warmer as the tunnel descended, until the students were greeted by a sharp blast of warm air and sand - not unlike the upper echelons of the Famine isle entrances. The area itself seemed less a large cave and more a tunnel that simply tapered far, far upwards, like a crude skylight, towards the exit.
There was however an unusual smell, a thick texture that was both familiar and unfamiliar. Littered on each side of the tunnel - a hallway - were tiny crammed rooms assembled with crude iron bars. Something shouted from within one of the rooms, a series of agonized shrieks as they extended a dry, bony hand out of the cage bars-
- And fell silent, arm slouching down.
The door quickly swung open from that room with a rusty creak as two Famine Clan members walked out, one slightly more bloodstained than the other. Despite the student's precarious hiding position, the Clan members paid the students no notice.
"We'll need to import a fresh batch of Humans, what a waste." Disdain in their voice, sharp and hissing.
"Tomorrow, we will have enough by the deadline." The other simply followed stride in stride, the two of them taking flight in an array of motley black feathers as they exited from the pinhole ceiling of this strange area.
It was quiet again, though occasionally a strange noise could be heard from within the barred rooms, and a familiar feeling emanating from within, powerful, concentrated. Fear.
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:56 pm
Sparrow held out his hands obligingly and let Malodore climb into his palms.
As they descended down the stairs, he could feel the temperature rising, until it was somewhat uncomfortable, Sparrow's hair sticking to the back of his neck. Still smiling curiously, however, he kept walking until there was a sudden gust of wind, sand pitting against his face. Automatically he lifted his free arm, covering his face, and attempted to shield both himself and tiny Malodore from the onset.
"What is this place?" he whispered, to both him and Aymet.
There was an odd smell in the air now - it tickled at Sparrow's senses, as though he should have known what it was - but he was too preoccupied with looking at the rooms that lined either side of the corridor. They looked...unpleasant somehow, with barred entrances and there was a horrible, painful shrieking sound coming from one of them. And even Sparrow, in his overly cheerful state, hesitated, his smile faltering.
There were footsteps now. Sparrow crouched down with the others, watching the horsemen move about.
...humans? he thought, looking back and forth at the barred rooms. Beneath the lighthearted sensation he was still experiencing, he felt a strange sort of unease, of uncertainty.
"...what's going on?" he whispered to Malodore and Aymet. "What are they talking about?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:14 pm
Malodore sat itself carefully on Sparrow's palm as they descended, though when the wind kicked up it let out a tiny yelp and clamped one hand over its hat while wrapping its other arm around the Reaper's thumb. When the sand cleared, it saw... .. it smelled... ... Anything it was going to say was strangled in its throat as the door swung open, the two Horsemen walking past without noticing the students - and what they were saying was fascinating and terrifying all in one. "Humans," it said, very quietly, once they had gone. "I think... there are humans in there..." Real humans. Not... not Hunters? Just normal humans... It swallowed at the reaching, slumped arm. It saw no white and gold. What the Hunters were doing was profoundly wrong, it knew that much, but this... ... It could almost see, now, the logic of what the representatives of DETH had said, that things like this lead to things like the Hunters. Because were it a human and such things were being done to its friends, it would be angry and violent too. And yet it could feel their Fear, rich and constant. "Captives for generating FEAR..." it said, after a long moment. "Is that what this is?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:59 am
There was no way they were going to pass up an opportunity like this. Aymet followed after Sparrow. He didn't notice the smell - he didn't have much of a sense of smell left as a skeleton. The blast of pollen from the plant was making it hard to concentrate; he was swaying on his feet. But he momentarily woke the hell up when the shrieking stopped and metal began to creak, diving for cover. He remembered what the hunter had said, before Shun had slit his throat. To ask the horseman heir about the destruction of the human world. It looked like they didn't even need to. The bony arm hadn't moved from where it had fallen, and there was an awful lot of blood on the horsemen. "Not if they're dead," he replied flatly. The heavy FEAR in the air was energizing, at least. The last thing Sparrow needed was to carry two students back up the tunnel. "Didn't you say the horsemen were talking about an experiment?" Aymet poked his skull out from behind Sparrow, peering at the barred doors. The questions he'd been asking himself since the SEEDS mission were pushing him to act. "They're up to something. Can we get any closer?"
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