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 Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:54 am
Phibrizzo let out a shout as Lorenna's teeth bit into his tail. It wasn't a cry of pain but of anger and shock. His tail uncoiled from around Carmine's throat twitching slightly as Phibrizzo fixed Lorenna with a furious, icy stare. It seemed he had chosen to attack the wrong head of this snake.
Phibrizzo jerked his tail free from the mare's jaws ignoring the sharp pain as her teeth scraped across his flesh. His wounds would heal. Her's wouldn't get the chance. Moving with the speed that set him above his fellow lords he whipped his tail around to slash the mare downward across the chest and then back up not a second later to bite into the flesh at her shoulder. He grinned as lines of red appeared on her coat and took a few steps backward to better admire his work suppressing the urge to finish her off. He had done enough to keep her from trying anything else stupid and if he was going to kill her he wanted to do this right. He wanted her to suffer.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:45 am
Lorenna stumbled backwards breathing heavily at the sharp pain in her chest. It felt like her wounds were on fire while the rest of her body had grown numb. She hadn't expected a counter-attack for some reason. That was silly of her. Her ghostly eyes locked onto the kalona-flutter. She liked him better when he was foal-sized she thought snorting quietly in dark amusement. She took in a deep breath and steadied herself.
Carmine's vision had begun to blur at the edges when Lorenna launched her attack. Not even a full second later the pressure around her throat vanished and she dropped to the ground landing on her knees. She managed to hiss in pain through a coughing fit as she took deep breaths of air into a raw throat. She tried to work out what had just happened but there were too many thoughts tumbling through her mind to put together a complete picture. All she was certain of was that they had been betrayed and not just by Phibrizzo but by Othelia. She trembled lightly, Othelia was their friend how could she do something like this to them?
Something warm and wet rolled down her cheek. Carmine blinked. Was she crying? That was odd, her eyes weren't watering. Carmine swallowed and turned her head to look at Lorenna. Her eyes went wide in horror as she watched her friend stagger backward with a few beads of crimson dripping off of her coat. Carmine stumbled to her feet to get to Lorenna's side to keep her from falling over. "Renna." She croaked shaking in fear, what had she gotten them into? "Renna it'll be okay. We just need to...uh..." She couldn't find the words she needed. Nothing was right anymore. Everything was falling to pieces around her and once again there was nothing she could do about it.
Lorenna barely registered that Carmine had said anything the first time. The second time she was too close to miss it. Lorenna's eyes never left Phibrizzo as she replied, "Retreat, Carmine. The word you are looking for is retreat." As she said it Lorenna smiled. How very like them, fleeing instead of fighting. It was the better move. "Give the order." She said before focusing her energy to shrink down to the size of a small bug. Then she flew up to land on Carmine's back, they would be able to make a faster get-away if she didn't try flying on her own.
"RETREAT!!!" Carmine shouted as best as she could turning to race away from Phibrizzo. Her voice broke several times and it tore at her throat but she was sure the message was out.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:04 am
Othelia faltered slightly as Beryl came to meet her blow. She hadn't know the flutter to be a fighter, so much for an easy target. Othelia moved to get at a new angle to meet Beryl's attack better. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Wolf taking up a new position as well. Fighting like this was not what she was used to. Othelia snarled and shifted once again only to find something odd this time. When she went to move her hind leg it hit something and Othelia stumbled forward. She glanced behind her to find that Slipsand had entered the fray.
Enraged that she hadn't even seen the nixie she swung her tail about aimlessly hoping to catch anyone of them. This was insanity. She shouldn't have to fight like this for anyone, she hadn't the strength for it so when she heard the first shout of 'retreat' her ears perked up. After only a moment she realized that it was Carmine speaking and that she was no longer under Carmine's orders. If they were retreating should she follow? She didn't want to follow, she couldn't take on the entire Under Ground by herself, that was suicide. She looked away from her opponents to see what Phibrizzo intended to do. Would he take chase or let them go?
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:22 am
Of all the things Wolf had expected to occur during the battle Slipsand tripping Othelia was not one of them. Wolf hadn't even been expecting her to join in but there she was in the middle of the action and the quarter-uni wasn't even sure when she had shown up. It didn't matter, Slipsand had given her an opening. Wolf started a charge only to stop short as Othelia's tail snapped out blindly behind her. Wolf took a few hasty steps backwards to get out of range when Carmine's voice rang out on the air.
Retreat?
Wolf glanced at Othelia who had paused as well. "Don't follow." She said coldly before turning and racing off down the forest path not willing to see exactly why such a sudden retreat after such a short fight was necessary. Whatever it was it couldn't have been good.
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:56 pm
Retreat! Beryl had no complaints there. She'd fight if she was in a corner, but she'd much rather escape than risk injury. Running away was always an option in her book. "Slipsand, get going!" Slipsand was the smallest of them all by far and Beryl didn't want to leave her behind to get murdered by any of their new enemies. It was a rare moment of selflessness for her, but she hesitated from her own retreat to make sure that her smaller friend could get out first.
Unfortunately, her hesitation earned her a sharp hit of Othelia's lashing tail. She exhaled explosively as she was hit in the stomach and immediately lost her large form and shifted back into her normal and smaller size. That was going to hurt all week, if she knew her injuries.
"Slip, let's go!" She absolutely did not want to be hit again!
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:06 pm
Slipsand squeaked in surprise to see Beryl hit. Run! They had to run! "Going now!" She streaked away before she had mentally even caught up with the situation. Everything had gone so incredibly wrong! She wanted to take back everything that had happened during that meeting and rewrite it with something new. She didn't want to believe that they could have been so wrong about the kalona/flutter... or that one of their closest friends could have betrayed them like that.
Carmine wasn't the only one with damp eyes. Slipsand's vision blurred, but she forced herself to focus. Now wasn't the time to go running into a tree. Beryl followed behind her. She was grateful at least that they both had managed to make it out.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:54 am
So, they had decided to make a hasty retreat. It was a smart move. Phibrizzo watched as they fled trying to decide if he should follow after them and finish what he had started. His wings flickered as he beat them slowly sending wisps of shadow out to vanish in the air. After a lengthy period of time he smirked and let his wings rest. They would be permitted to make their escape. He already had what he was after and Carmine’s little gang would no longer be a threat to them, not after they had Lord Ruby Eyes back. His time would be better spent getting back to Xellas and Xelloss now. Which brought his attention back to an interesting point.
Phibrizzo turned his head to look at Xelloss’s companion who seemed to watching him for orders like a good little servant. He surveyed her briefly before giving a shrug of his head, what could it hurt? “You’ll find Xelloss in the jungle.” He said as he walked off. “Come when you’re able.” It might be useful to have another kalona servant around even if she did have unusable wings.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:06 am
Othelia's ears twitched as Phibrizzo addressed her. Go to the jungle? That wasn't exactly what Othelia had been expecting to hear but at least she didn't have to hunt down her former comrades. She watched as the dark stallion vanished before heading back into the brush where she had come from. She would gather up her sons and then she would take them to the jungle to be with their father. Her tail twitched slightly as she corrected herself. They would be with their father and his clan. For as strange as everything was about the mazoku it was reassuring to think that her children would not be raised alone as she had been. They would know a real life. It would be a strange life but it would be real all the same.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:15 am
Carmine didn't bother to look over her shoulder to see who was racing along behind her, she know the sounds of her friends' hoof-steps better than she knew her own. She took comfort in hearing those sounds and those alone, unless Othelia had suddenly learned how to run on the wind they were safe. Just to be extra sure that Phibrizzo hadn't decided to leave Othelia behind and come alone, though, Carmine glanced behind her. The coast really was clear and she gradually came to a stop to look at the faces of all of her friends.
Slipsand looked close to tears and the others looked as rattled as she felt. She didn't even need to see Lorenna to know that she was probably trying to fight back the pain. "I am..." Carmine looked to the ground. This was her fault. She had lead them all straight into a trap from the very beginning. "I am...so...sorry." She choked out as her tears started to fall. She'd nearly gone and gotten all of them killed.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:33 am
Lorenna took in a deep rattling breath at Carmine's apology and let it out in a long sigh feeling her tremble with emotion. How very like her. The mare never took responsibility for anything so naturally when she took it for anything she took it for everything. The flutter mare stood and braced her miniaturized legs on the back of Carmine's neck before leaning to speak as clearly as she could into Carmine's ear. "There is blame to share, Carmine. Any one of us could have raised the alarm and left before any of this happened. Let's face facts though...there was never going to be a clean way out of this." Lorenna took in another long breath, standing like this was making her dizzy, or was that from the loss of blood? "Right now, we need a healer. Send your bird." She backed off of Carmines neck and lay back down on her back. "Follow Khaa so there's less need for the healer to travel. I need to rest now." Being in her smaller sizes took energy that she did not have to spare.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:50 am
Wolf stepped forward after watching Lorenna speak to Carmine. She could not hear the exchange but that didn't matter. "Fly her to help, Carmine." Wolf said calmly. "Use Khaa to help keep her on. One lives in the woods near the humans. Go quick. We're okay." She looked to Beryl and Slipsand asking them silently to back up her claims that they would be fine. They would be fine. They were upset and a little winded but they were in good enough shape to keep on going.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:41 pm
"We're fine. Go on, Carmine!" Beryl was quick to reassure her two friends, and supposed that it was even the truth. She was physically a little sore from the slap, but nothing permanent. Mentally, she was so rattled that she had no idea what emotional state she might be in when it all finally caught up with her. The whole encounter had been a whirlwind of revelations and surprises. She felt that she could probably work up her anger again with the proper focus, but she just didn't have the energy to bother being anything but numb. She didn't even feel terribly worried about Lorenna now, callous as it seemed. The injury wasn't fatal. Lorenna would be healed, and then they'd have to figure out how to pick of the pieces.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:45 pm
"Yeah, fine fine." Slipsand was much less convincing in her assertions, but she made them nonetheless. Seeing her blood-stained companions, she felt a new wave of dizzy sorrow come over her. She turned away from everyone and sank to the ground. Her legs were limp and useless now that the adrenaline was starting to fade out of her system.
"Just go and get healed, ok?" Her voice broke and she fell silent. Her heart was broken, and she had no words left to her.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:33 pm
Carmine's throat tightened, she wanted to go lay down with Slipsand and have a good long cry but she knew that the others were right. Lorenna needed healing as quickly as possible. "Get back to the cave whenever you guys feel ready." She said clearly worried over them despite their assurances. "We'll be back as soon as we can. C'mon Khaa, let's make this quick." Once her bird took off Carmine spread her wings and followed keeping as steady as possible to avoid jostling her miniaturized friend.
"Everything will be okay. You'll see." She said once they were flying steady though for the life of her she didn't know if she was talking to Lorenna or herself.
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