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 Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 8:16 am
"Looks like she may have found us first."
As he followed after Dris, the hybird had to frown. Rushing after her men was a pure sign indeed, but a very reckless one. They could be rushing straight into a trap as well. The thought made him slow down so that he could take a look around their sides. Was there truly nothing out there? A flash of a shadow seemingly appeared around the right, but even Kian wasn't certain that was right. Even he still had troubles in this area with the way that the trees made shadows and light merge.
"On the bright side she left no bodies." He commented as he emerged after Dris, "Perhaps a warning or she just placed them up somewhere higher?" At the thought he glanced around. Seeing hanging bodies wouldn't be the most pleasant experience....but was there even blood? That had been too quick even for him. "A ground trap perhaps?" Either way they need to step lightly. At the thought he picked up a loose stone from the ground and tossed it forward.
Would it trigger something?
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:11 am
What was happening?!
Three grown mercenaries didn't just disappear! They were large, burly men, and even the smallest weighed nearly twice her size. How could she have gotten rid of them on her own? She isn't...the noble has to be helping her... or that she had met up with friends on the border. In agitation, Dris'rynne snarled and kicked at a rock.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better? She's playing us for fools." Dris'rynne pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to stave off anger she didn't want or need at the moment. Anger wouldn't help her solve this, and it sure wouldn't keep the man at her side from walking away when he was the last set of hands she had.
While her rock hadn't been kicked with enough force to go anywhere, his thrown stone had. There was no noise as it connected with the ground; in the darkness, there was no ground further up and rather than tinkling against stone it landed on something that cursed. To her it sounded like it had connected with someone's head. Looking over to him, Dris'rynne almost appeared impressed. "Nice work, but now how do we get to them and not step in another trap? Or do we even want to?"
What if the alk was waiting for them to get closer?
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:28 am
"Well this is her home turf." Kian replied, "You might have a head's up about this area, but maybe not your men." It would explain how they could easily slip into a trap. Even he was a strange among the trees and it was hard to know what to expect next. This Alk definitely was proving to be a tricky one...she had to be considering her current situation. Whoever she had with her, Kian doubted could put up as much of a fight.
Frowning, Kian glanced around. "How sturdy are the vines?" Moving to the side the male reached up and tugged against one of the heavy vines wrapped around a tree, "Tie this to me, I suppose. Unless you would rather go forward and let me hold the life line? We need to move forward and this will allow one of us to get pulled back before she makes a move. I trust that both of us have good enough reflexes to turn back if an attack is waiting on us...we can carry other vines forward as well for your men if we can reach them."
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:38 am
"Sturdy enough to hold us." Dris'rynne felt much more comfortable being the old to hold the lifeline, as opposed to trusting herself to him. While he was proving to be useful, she still hadn't known him long enough to ascertain whether he was trustworthy or not. Taking hold of the thick, heavy vine she pulled a length of it around his waist, and set about tying it into a firm knot. If need be he could undo it quick enough, but it would hold tight should he fall.
She stepped away from him to pull more, and more vine from the trees before using a dirk strapped to her thigh to cut through the end of it. This way, if they found her, they could also use the vine to tie her up if this alkidike didn't come along willingly, which she highly doubted would happen.
"Just go slow, and keep an eye out." If he make a pun about her singular usage of eye she would punch him.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 5:35 pm
Making certain that his runes were still accessible, Kian allowed the vine to be wrapped around his body. "I suppose this will never become a new fashion." He quipped before tugging at it one last time. It was secure enough and worst case scenario then he would just have to test his climbing skills. Wrapping more vine up the hybrid tucked them under an arm before skirting forward.
"I'll go slow, no worries of that. Just don't let go." He glanced back towards her, "Which eye do you prefer, the silver or the gold? I hear the silver on seems too 'shifty' at times." Wincing a bit at his own attempt to avoid the topic of 'one eye' with bad humor the male hurried forward.
The ground here was surprisingly soft and it looked easy enough to dive into...still he couldn't help but to touch out a foot. He just hoped the girl would be strong enough to pull him and others back up. "Hello down there?" Calling out Kian moved forward.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 5:42 pm
Dris'rynne wrapped the vine once, twice, three times around her forearm loosely and fed him length by pulling on it with the other. This way if need be she would be able to jerk him back without risk of losing the rope. It would give her a nasty burn, but better to have raw skin then lose another man.
"The what?" Momentarily confused, the shifter kept feeding him vine and thought on it. She hadn't seen his other eye, only the silver one, but supposed it wasn't that strange that he should have heterochromia. Seemed a little odd that the only other person she had seen with it was a fellow ice /shifter hybrid...though...
No. No way.
First of all, he was supposed to be dead, so this couldn't be who she was thinking of, and second...just no. There was no way they could even be related, and yet...
"We're down here!" Dris'rynne's second in command wave his arms. "Everyone's alright, but you have to get out of here - it's a tra-!"
No more than the words came out of his mouth than an alkidike burst from the brush and hurled a spear straight for Kian.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 5:55 pm
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Cursing, Kian realized he was in no position to truly dodge. The weight of the vines and the awkward position of his body over the hole hindered his own movement. He only had one option and as much as he loathed a sight show it was his best bet. With his decision the whole world seemed to slow down as ice engulfed the spear. A split second later Kian dropped from the vine and landed in the hole with the men.
"I suppose there's no need to do this so anti-dramatically now." Opening his hands so that the runes could glow the hybrid made incisions into the earth allowing them hand and footholds, "Hope you boys are good at climbing." That stated he gripped the rocks with his hands and quickly popped out.
He just hoped that while he had his fun mini-vacation with the boys in the pit that their leader was getting after the Alk. After all she would have a bit of a problem running with that ice layer he had given the ground around her feet.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:15 pm
"Sorry!" Dris'rynne could see the tops of the mans arms as he shrugged.
She could only watch with baited breath as time began to still. In an instant she was sure that this man was going to be twice dead, but instead, he managed to slip away, leaving...a frozen weapon in his wake. Dris'rynne didn't even bother trying to hide her gaping jaw. What was...when...if he'd been able to do that from the start then why...?!
Meanwhile in the pit, the Oban clapped Kian on the shoulder and flashed him a thumbs up while the others quickly took to the footholds. "We've got your back!" He called up, evidently taking it upon himself to be the last one out.
Dris'rynne, however, didn't have time to gape for long; no more than the spear had frozen had the alk tried to take off. Thankfully the mage had thought ahead. As she rushed towards the alk, Dris'rynne avoided the ice patch and raised the flat of her sword to slam into the other woman...
...only for it to connect into a Janarim's face instead. The beast roared at Dris'rynne, and used their closeness to body slam her into the ground with it's shoulder.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:31 pm
Sorry doesn't save lives. Kian sighed as he finished climbing out of the pit. The last thing he wanted was to trust these goons with watching his back. Still, the hybrid managed to get back onto the ground just in time to watch as their leader got body slammed by a Janarim. Well that was not expected. His gaze sharpened as he watched an Oban male grab the Alkidike and pull her back away.
His ice hearing heard the faintest hissed whispers, "I told you we should have just left them in the pit. They would have burned time to rescue the others!" A clicked tongue, "Now we really are in a pinch." Was that a tinge of desperation in the voice?
This definitely wasn't a child that had been kidnapped then. Gritting his teeth, Kian ran forward. It was better to just focus on saving the shifter now than trying to ruin a lover's dispute. Already they had backed through the trees and out of sight. "Sorry, brute. No free meat for you today." Different from a typical mage the male still opted to use his own physical strength as he bashed his own shoulder into the Janarim's side. However, there was a hint of difference in his stance as a subtle glow in his eyes correlated with the sudden electric shock that he left the beast with.
Reaching out a hand, Kian tugged the shifter woman towards him. "Not a good time to lay down on the job, you know." He backed them both away as the janarim snarled in protest at the theft of its prey.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:41 pm
Dris'rynne couldn't hear the alkidike saying something along the lines of 'covering their bases' with snapping jaws in her face. It was only by holding her sword up between them that she was keeping the beast away from her, and that took all of her energy! She wouldn't have been able to catch the worried, vulnerable, look to the alk, not while trying to dislodge the Janarim.
The larger, armored beast may not have been moved under normal circumstances, but the electrical shock must have been enough to get to it. With a snarling roar it fell away from Dris'rynne, stumbling a few steps to the side before falling over entirely. She didn't think it would be enough to take it down permanently, just enough for the creature to be dazzed.
Dris'rynne took the offered hand readily and allowed herself to be pulled up close to the hybrid. "You'll have to tell my boss about that in the performance review." She whistled at her men and pointed at the Janarim, "Don't kill it; just tie it up and when you're done I want two to stay with it, and the others follow us!" Slipping her swords into her sheaths, Dris'rynne motioned after the pair with a quick nod before taking off at a jog. "Come on! We can't let them get away."
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:47 pm
Kian raised an eyebrow, "I suppose I might have put a little too much into it." Still, it was nice to have the beast out of the way. The thought of summoning his own flickered through his mind, but the hybrid shoved it away. Akemi would make more of a mess in these trees than anything else. She still was adapting to Jauhar after all. At the sass from the shifter, Kian chuckled. "Duly noted."
His gaze flickering forward, Kian just nodded as she motioned them forward. "I have the feeling it'll be mostly us." He commented quietly before stretching out his long legs to keep in pace with her, "Are you really planning on fighting this out? Might be simpler to just say that they had their way with each other before giving up on life together. Isnt' that how romantic tales like this normally end?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:55 pm
Dris'rynne jumped over a fallen log, already feeling the burn of a fresh gasp on her thigh. The janarim had scraped her good when he'd pinned her, and fighting against him had sapped a lot of strength from her arms. She hoped she could hold out to see this through. Thinking about the worst case scenario was never good, and more importantly, she had a string of questions to ask before she kicked it.
"I don't want to fight them at all; but I want to make sure with my own eyes that if there is a child it's unharmed and not kidnapped." Letting them go was tempting, and likely what she would do if it were just the two of them, but ever since the thought of a babe being involved had burrowed into her mind Dris'rynne couldn't let it go. She HAD to know.
"There! I see them! Just ahead! Use your magic to slow them down or paralyze them or whatever it is you can do."
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:47 pm
"That's all?" Kian rose an eyebrow before nodding. Gliding over a root the male just continued to move. He was making certain to keep an eye on his comrade though. It seemed unfortunate, but he doubted he would get to fight with her tonight. Not like it would be fun at this point...the chase was much more thrilling.
"Alright let's find this child then." At her comment he nearly stumbled, "You want me to what?" Just because he had magic didn't mean he could do as he pleased! Sending a sharp glare of annoyance towards the shifter, Kian sighed before tossing his runes up in the air. A sharp light emitted from them as the ground beneath their feet began to shift. Ahead the large roots of the trees began to whip out forming a barricade that laced before the runners. If they had their hands full then climbing would not be the best option...they truly were stuck.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:02 pm
"You know-" Dris'rynne made vague, mage-ish twitches with her fingers as if she were casting a spell or some other such nonsense. What was he waiting for?! At his glare she simply rolled her eyes with an exasperated snorted, and moved forward. If he was going to do it anyway, why did he he have to make such a fuss about it?
You are nothing like your sister.
If. IF he was who she thought he could be.
The alkidike pulled up short. Dris'rynne couldn't see what she held so closely at this angle, but something dark had it's arms around her shoulders. It wasn't hard to decipher the toddler's fingers against her lighter skin, not with the pair of large, bug like crimson eyes that turned her way when she turned around. "You're not taking him!" She cried out. "I don't care what his father says, my husband and my son belong home with me!"
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:11 pm
Yes, yes because magic is so simple. That was why he hated displaying his powers, once someone saw it they made certain to utilize it...over and over. He preferred the physical feelings of battle to simply zapping his way to things. Yet, the situation did call for it and so the mage provided. Hopefully, his intervention would save some bloodshed. Something he only bothered to worry about since a child was involved.
The Oban male took a few steps forward as if to shield his wife and child, "My father can go rot for all I care. If he thinks sending some thugs after us will work then he better think twice!" Yet, his gaze darted around for his familiar. Kian could recognize the worry resting there. What man would want his lover and child to be subjected to brute use?
"Perhaps we don't want to take him." Kian called out, "Care to call a truce so we can talk this over?" The hybrid glanced towards the shifter at his side, "I promise that she won't bite...as long as you behave."
The Oban seemed wary as he glanced towards his lover with indecision. But was it like they had much of a choice?
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