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 Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:14 pm
"We'll discover nothing just standing here," F'itz affirmed pragmatically, "it's either go back or go on, and I for one want to solve this puzzle now." If he didn't he wasn't going to be able to silence Brumath's string of negative, outlandish predictions.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:30 pm
Nyosh was taking her time to examine the scene. Just like with Kestril’s the killer should have left clues, and this time there wasn’t riders tromping about to muck it up. Just as she thought that Nyossk and Dinahsk made a small noise and looked back. She looked up to see the riders had managed to catch up to them by whatever tunnels they’d used. Sharding riders! Why hadn’t they just stayed away? She thought irritated.
Her eyes snapped to the goldrider as she spoke up. She frowned with disapproval, “No.” This girl was clearly no gold rider in Nyosh’s mind. “If you had any experience with whers you would know they don’t create wounds like these. You should also know that our whers are trained to kill quickly and efficiently. Whatever did this clearly is not.”
Having the riders around made the usually happy handler very irritated. She had to give a grudging not to N’mol for his observation of their whers. Nyosh rolled her eyes as Kindra continued to blame a wherpair. Perhaps she’d done the same at the wher-meeting, but that had been Kestril’s murderer. Her attention was pulled from the goldrider to F’itz. He had a valid point. “Agreed, I would like to catch it while it is still close.”
Nyossk sounded a greeting to the group of riders as they came into view. Lots of people to give petting and praise to her.
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Rhiannon Chandra rolled 1 100-sided dice:
31
Total: 31 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:04 pm
((And another roll call!))
There was a definite clash of short-tempered personalities among the girls going on this little adventure, and between Kindra and the two wherhandlers they were never going to sneak up on whatever it was they were chasing. He was amazed it didn't know they were there already. N'mol very briefly wondered if every girl in this weyr, rider or wherhandler, was exactly the same: brash and short-tempered.
He glanced behind him as he remembered there were others there, and saw Brynja and Dezima. He blinked, then offered them a smile before he was being pulled on, following F'itz down the hall. He'd forgotten about them, if he'd ever acknowledged Dezima at all, being present (or, in Brynja's case, being a girl). He couldn't remember if he'd even greeted Dezima now. Oh well. If Tyeth thought it was an oversight of their duties, he'd think of someway to make up for it later.
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Revel1984 rolled 1 100-sided dice:
89
Total: 89 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:27 pm
Kindra glared at the wherhandlers but kept her mouth shut, she shuddered and wondered what could have killed the tunnelsnakes, "Wait... don't whers and flits eat tunnelsnakes.... why are these still here then?" she wondered out loud, momentarily forgetting her 'feud' with the wherhandlers.
"Mine, i think the best thing to do is stay with the others, there has been no problems or noises here" commented Suunath to Kindra before adding to Tyeth. "Kindramine tells me she is with Yours, ask him to make sure she comes back in one peice ... i'd rather not have a crippled rider thank you very much" in a short, clipped tone.
Kindra eyed the tunnelsnakes again, trying to work out how big the thing that killed them was. "Maybe it was flitters? lots of them and the snakes are in little peices because they couldn't eat it all or carry it away" she suggested, she knew it was a weak explanation but it was al she could come up with at the moment.
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Kyrieko rolled 1 100-sided dice:
99
Total: 99 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:36 pm
The green pair stayed quiet and close to their roommates while the wher pair defended their wher's from being accused. Dezima couldn't really say either way as she had never seen how a wher kills. Though it didn't surprise her Kindra seemed to jump to this conclusion. The goldrider was doing a mighty fine job at picking on everyone so far.
She's just scared, Dezimine. Microth added in quietly to Hers. It's not nice of her to snap at everyone like she did you, but we can't blame her for being frightened. The green nuzzled Dezima, tilting her head so that one blue eye blinked up at her.
<You're right. She's scared. Like me.> But the difference was, Dezima wasn't one to lash out. Still, Microth was right. And Dezima found she felt a little bad for Kindra.
While she and Microth had been having their small exchange, it seemed that whatever the rest of the group had been saying to the wher pair was resolved. Hopefully. In any case, they all seemed to be moving again. Which was fine by her! Standing around in one place sent creepers down her spine. Just like that scraping sound...oh shards it was close! As her mind connected the loud scraping sound to something really big, Dezima jumped as the sound startled her. She moved closer to the group in an attempt for that whole, 'safety in numbers' thing...and bumped into K'en with Microth right at her side. "I- sorry! Sorry, didn't mean....oh shardit that sound! It has to be big, 'cause it sounded huge. And closer..." Curses. She hoped K'en forgave her for bumping into him like that.
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magnadearel rolled 1 100-sided dice:
68
Total: 68 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:46 pm
Nyosh tapped her lips as she thought. “They can eat tunnel snakes, but there’s enough food here I doubt they have to. Another reason could be because whatever killed them wasn’t wher or firelizard.” Privately the handler didn’t suspect either known critter. That large a group of flits would probably all be bonded to someone. That person should have let others know about the snakes. Besides flits seemed to have a second sense for free food. She shook her head slightly.
She had barely caught the sound that Dezima had clearly heard. “Which direction was it?!” Nyossk weaved her head back and forth. She was unable to pinpoint the sound! It was here and it was close!
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:53 pm
"Oh" Brynja looked more then a little disappointed, before brightening up again, the fourteen-turn-old already forgetting the little incident. "Hey, they're gorgeous creatures though. I bet they would have killed the tunnelsnakes if they'd seen them"
Larth questioned dryly, still a little sulky.
Brynja promised, rubbing her fingers between the blades of his furled wings. Alright, it was a blatant bit of flattery to soothe him back into quiescence which he was far too puffed up to notice, but that was besides the point ...although now the question remained, what did? Were they hurt? Maybe there was a drudge wandering around right now scraping something against the floor because they couldn't walk properly and moaning because they were hurt and oh dear.
Dezima's comment didn't make her any happier, and she said - in a complete non sequitur if you didn't have a little hatch to the inside of her mind - "D'we have any milk?" Before following it up with something a little more helpful. "We should press on. Someone might've got themselves hurt, 'nd I'm not a healer but those could've really hurt someone. Uhm. Don't whers have a good sense of smell? Could they track the blood if someone was bleeding or something?"
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Concinnity Blaise rolled 1 100-sided dice:
69
Total: 69 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:54 pm
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elfgurl1234 rolled 1 100-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:22 pm
Yes, moving on seemed the most sensical course of action at this point. Turning back now would do no one any good if whatever killed these tunnel snakes then abandoned them as such was still on the loose. He was with F'itz on this one.
Stromath gave a small hum of acknowledgement to the green wher who greeted their group. She may not have been a dragon, but that didn't mean that they couldn't be polite. In any case, having whers with them in these dark hallways could be helpful.
K'en, meanwhile, half-wondered why Kindra was so adamant in trying to figure out what had finished off the tunnel snakes before they found it (and the flitter theory sounded just a bit ridiculous to him). If those moans were indicative of pain from a hard battle, then surely it couldn't be far--
His train of thought was interrupted as Dezima bumped into him. "Ah, it's fine," he assured her, but now that she mentioned it... Shards, that did sound rather large. Did anyone aside from Kindra happen to have a knife on them...?
If it is injured as you suspect then there is less to worry about, Stromath pointed out calmly.
... True. "I suppose this means we are going the right way then," K'en remarked quietly, to no one in particular. This would be so much less creepy if it were daytime...
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:41 pm
K'en nearly stepped on the next clue, having to perform some rather fancy footwork around the relatively small object to keep from disturbing it. It lay off to the side of the hallway, missed by several of the group members walking ahead of him, who had been looking ahead for the source of the sound. His footwork may have attracted some attention, though, or perhaps his reaction after he realized what he had almost stepped on was a knife, a small dagger about the length of his hand.
The metal reflected the light faintly, but the edge of the blade glittered grimly in the dim light of the glows. A small amount of the liquid gleaming along the edge of the blade had spattered across the floor when it had fallen from the hand of whoever had been holding it. The whers, perhaps, would be able to tell that the blood was that of the tunnel snakes-- and mingled with it was the faint scent of human blood as well.
Another moan, startlingly loud, swelled in the hallway, and droned on for a moment, much as the original moan that had drawn the searchers from their beds. It was a sound of utter despair... but it was no further away than before. The group was obviously either keeping the same pace, or was gaining on, whatever it was that was making that noise.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:07 pm
Kindra spotted what had K'en doing some strange footwork and she gasped, "Someone was here with a knife!" she whispered, suddenly feeling as cold, if not colder, than she had been on the trip Between to the weyr, a knife on the floor near sliced up tunnelsnakes.... had the person been hoping for someone to come along ... she didn't know but a knife and dead tunnelsnakes added up to someone lurking with a knife and the thought sent a cold shudder down her spine.
The moan sounded again and Kinda got angry, someone with a KNIFE ... in the halls where there were weyrlings and adult riders.. her hand twitched and she drew her blade close to her, she removed her arm from N'mol's and stepped forwards as if to go towards where the moan had come from. She was going to get even...... no matter that she didn't know what she wanted to get even ... for.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:12 pm
It was only the faint reflection of the metal from his own glow that alerted K'en to the fact that there was something on the floor where he was about to step. He tried to stop mid-step so as to avoid whatever it was, but given that he had already shifted his weight forward such a task did not come easy. The result was an odd sort of unbalanced hopping that he only barely managed to recover from without actually falling on his face. ... Yeah, very smooth, bronzerider.
I don't believe bonding to a dragon affords one any sort of extra grace, regardless of color, Stromath remarked, amused.
K'en rolled his eyes at the remark. Yes, yes, I know...
What is it you were so carefully trying to avoid, Mine?
Yes, that was the real question, wasn't it. K'en turned his glow to shine on the object... and almost wished that he hadn't. "Um, guys, I don't quite think we're following a wher..." he remarked, eyeing the bloody knife uneasily.
Stromath gave the blade a small sniff. It smells like the tunnel snakes from before.
And then came the moan again. If that sound was coming from a man... "We should probably hurry." Those tunnelsnakes had been huge, and that moan did not sound indicative of someone who was in good shape.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 5:04 pm
Dezima murmured another small apology to K'en before stepping out of his way. No need to crowd him! She could stick close to her own dragon instead of clinging to other people that probably would get annoyed by it. She kept glancing back over her shoulder as well, some small part of her worried that it would sneak up behind them. It was hard to discern which direction the moan was coming from when it was all around them. But the scrapping had sounded like it was in front of them....right?
It sounds like it's in front of us. Or at the very least we seem to be going in the right direction, like Stromath's says. Microth informed hers, nudging her bonded closer to the group. It felt right to her, being closer to the others.
She nodded at Microth in agreement. "I think you're right." Dezima added to K'en...just in time to see him do some fancy foot shoveling. What the shards? Was he alright? And...oh shaffit. That was a knife! A knife with...with blood on it. Of course just to add on to this discovery, there was another moan that sent a chill down her spine. Maybe she should have stayed back in bed? This was definitely turning into one adventure Dezima wasn't so thrilled about.
"Are...are you alright, K'en?" He hadn't stepped on the knife, had he?
Microth regarded the knife, and the fact that it smelled of the tunnelsnakes. Could a human have wielded the knife and done that damage? Perhaps a strong human. And that moan. Was it possible a human could make such a noise? The green didn't know but she brewed over these thoughts quietly while they stuck close to the group, wary of whatever was making that sound.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:39 pm
Nyosh happened to look at the group of rider just has one decided to put on a dance. What had that been all about? She moved slightly closer to look. Oh they found a bloody knife. If she had to place a bet, Nyosh figured that was what killed the snakes. Another moan filled the hall and she frowned. It was close. They needed to get after it.
Nyossk urrred at her handler. She had gone to investigate the item. Most obviously was the smell of tunnel snake blood. The green leaned closer and took a deep breath. Mingled with the snake was something else. She urrred again urgently. Nyosh was surprised when Nyossk called her back. She moved past the riders to kneel by her wher’s side. For several long minutes she stared into the urgently whirling eyes. “I think Nyossk smells human blood. It’s very faint.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:51 am
A knife. With possible human blood on it. Ugh. Inside his mind Brumath rattled off yet more unpleasant theories, each more gory and disturbing than the last. he sent with a shake of his head, crouching to inspect the blade more carefully.
Usually there was a lot to be said for Brumath’s mind as open as the sky, but right now the only thing to be said was far too rude for F’tiz to utter aloud. “Steady there gold rider,” F’itz said softly as he noticed Kindra moving forward, “it’s not your role to lead the charge.” He’d already said that she needed to be kept safe; was she so reckless as to rush off ahead, she, one of two Queenriders Benden still had?... She was young though, and with youth came impetuosity. “You and K’en have the right idea though,” he added, softening his statement somewhat, “we can’t hang about now and let it get away.” Still holding the glow in one hand F’itz picked up the blade with the other and stepped past Kindra; he didn’t know how to use a knife in a fight beyond the basic of ‘pointy end goes in the other guy’, but it made him feel better all the same. Whatever was making that sound was up ahead. There would be a perfectly sensible explanation for all of this, and then he could go back to bed....
“Handlers,” the brownrider said quietly, “would you care to take point? If there is anything dangerous up there your whers will be far more use than any of us, and we can hold the glows up behind them so they’re not dazzled.” When in doubt – and being bombarded by some really disturbing thoughts and images – it was always best to fall back on a bit of common sense.
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