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Beauty and the Beasts
[Odette, Ganyma, Reemus 27/25]

The path back to the Mother Grub was quiet and meaningful. As she came into sight, Ganyma felt a lump in his throat. He pushed it down. Milieu’s influence was still strong. He could handle this. He turned to her and gestured to the front of the grub’s path. “I’ll forge ahead to see if they need help clearing, and then come back to protect her from attackers.” He told her softly. Ganyma tied his hair up once again on top of his head and gave Milieu’s hands a quick squeeze. “I will make sure to find you before I go.”

It was a promise he intended to keep. Ganyma took a deep breath and rushed through the underbrush to find some companions to assist. In no time at all, he spotted a familiar redblood hovering above the soiled ground. Next to her, Reemus! Ganyma clenched his jaw. He was a royalist, but with his lack of direction perhaps he had defected. Either way, he would make sure to see if Odette needed his help. Moving a rock out of the way, or this bloke. Either way he’d be taking care of a large piece of business.

Chiara
Recently attacked, covered in mud

Chiara was back in the mud, and more sore than ever. And look at this, the escaping troll couldn't even fight her own battles! Had to have some lackey do it for her. "You s**t blooded coward!" Chiara yelled after the girl.

In the meantime, Chiara had a new adversary. She stared down the little kid. Chiara was squatting in the mud, still a little shaky from both a shield to the head and being pushed repeatedly. She did what she could tho, and sought out a rock from beneath the mud. Buying time she taunted, "So, that big one is so pathetic shes sending a kid to deal with me..." Chiara spat out a mouthful of mud. At least this way she had a fair chance, maybe. She threw the prized rock at the boy, splashing up lots more mud in the process.

Etsali half wished she'd gone with the other Tunnel Snakes to be a runner. She would have been good at it, she thought, had spent more than enough of her life keeping out of reach of people who would want to hurt her that she could have done it for this easily. Maybe the running would have taken her mind off of the environment. As it was the Mother Grub's wagon could only go so fast over the wet ground, and the extra time it took meant more time to think about the trees closing them off from the sky as well as any tunnel had, the vines hanging down, the eyes on them from whatever creatures called this place home.

Being chased by the military was enough to make any troll feel vulnerable, but walking through an environment that reminded her of her worst daymares only multiplied the feeling. God she hated plants. Shuddering, the thief rubbed her fingers together, just for the reassurance that her gloves were intact, and then curled her hands into fists. Sticking close to the wagon wasn't enough of a distraction, it was like just waiting for an attack to come, and she'd strayed from Ephias because she'd been a bit embarrassed by how uneasy she was, so talking wasn't an option.

She finally let out a long breath and reached for one of her remaining knives, breaking from the group with a quick, even stride. If Keeper was here, she would have scouted out the area for immediate threats. Someone should check to make sure no royalists were sneaking up on the side. She almost hoped she'd find one. At least then she wouldn't just be waiting.

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Katanari

quite uneventful

leon_a_darkangel

Keionx Rutace
Rescuing Miache with Zariah and Alexin

If the little blueblood continued to be problematic, Keionx knew, she would have to turn to things she would rather not do. She turned, ready to kick them away, when she saw a sight that she never thought she would see:

Zariah, stepping into the fray!

Keionx turned to join him, concerned. Her brother couldn't fight! He wasn't a fighter! He was a... a... princess?

No. She had left behind those delusions. Those had been the false roles of stories. Here, was a truer role. She nodded, deciding to trust him as she crashed into the forest and the impenetrable murk beyond with her burden. She felt, suddenly, both intensely sad and incredibly proud: Her brother was breaking free of the role she had imprisoned him in for so long, showing bravery for her and for the cause he had so secretly worked for. He was growing up, becoming a hero like her, and she had to let him.

She slowed, becoming more stealthy as she sought to rejoin the group. Whatever Miache's reason for being captured, whatever the reason for his current... state... she would make sure that whatever was done...

Was right.



]

Etsali whirled at the sound of a voice, hand rising in preparation of a throw even before it registered that it was her name being spoken. She froze, eyes wide, and for the small space of second she couldn't place the face looking back at her. Then it was if all the details hit her all at once, every little thing about him that screamed Zindel. He'd only gotten taller, and he'd been wounded somewhere along the way, and- And she hadn't expected him to be here. Why was he here?

"Zin?" She realized she was still holding her weapon at the ready and dropped it to her side. "What are you doing here? Ephias didn't tell me you-" Oh. Oh. Ephias hadn't told her because Ephias hadn't been the one to bring him here. The thief paused, swallowing hard, and then continued on with a level voice. "You came with the other side. Of course you did." He only wanted to talk, so...so he didn't think they were enemies, did he? She tried to think of something to say, not sure how to feel about being the one going to the other side this time, but nothing worthwhile came up.

Her eyes slid back to the scar across his nose, and that was a good start. "Are you okay?"

Karrem had been sitting back to give susus time to recuperate- she was holding onto a desperate hope that susus had only suffered minor injuries and would be fully recovered in no time, but alas, things could never be so simple. No matter, she was finished holding herself back in an attempt to let time fulfill her petty wishes. Devoted by her own mental encouragement, Karrem stood, equipped susus, and started in the direction the other trolls had gone. At least the rest she had allowed susus hadn’t turned out to be a total waste- she utilized the time to survey the scene and mentally scrutinize all of the events that had happened thus far in the attempted rebel annihilation. There were many holes in the data she had collected, so she felt it necessary to probe the others for what they had surveyed during all of this. Karrem decided to blame the lack of information on the hectic behavior of the other trolls and her devoted work encouraging drones. It certainly couldn’t have been a lack of attentiveness or height- Karrem believed herself to be gifted with an amazing attention span and the perfect stature. If height was an issue, it was everyone else’s fault for being so tall!

There was a sudden air of humidity as Karrem got closer to her destination and she pondered what environment she could be approaching. When it reared into her vision, she was filled with dread. Of all environments it had to be a swamp. Out of all of the diverse habitats Alternia had to offer, this was the one she hated the most. One of the most horrible design flaws ever conducted by nature, swamps were nothing but a disgusting pool of sludge, bacteria, finbeasts… the pinnacle of all things filthy and horrible. She paced around the outer edge for a bit and searched desperately for an alternate route, but to no avail. There was no other choice- she had to trudge through the swamp. Though her legs wouldn’t survive, she could at least give her shoes a chance. After a solemn removal and farewell, she set her loafers aside with the hopes that another troll with a somewhat similar amount of tact (naturally, no troll can match her) would find them and wear them with pride. Then, after she repositioned susus atop her head to keep it better away from the muck and finally stepped her first near-unbearable squishy step into the swamp. She had to be strong for Alternia! Granted, the more things like this she ran into, the less this fight seemed worth it, but those feelings were a thing to analyze in a different time.

Odette bounded back towards the wagon, traveling as swiftly as she could without using her powers. She had certainly exhausted herself at this point, and mentally, a way that Vremea could not magically fix. She could hardly think of a time where she had stressed herself so hard with her powers. She could feel herself getting stronger, but she certainly didn't want to be stressing herself as hard for a long time. For now she blamed it on her foot. If she wasn't lame, she could have been more agile and able without the use of her powers. She laughed in her thoughts. How funny that she used her powers like a crutch.

Finally reaching up to the other scouts, Odette let out a pant, bending over to recover her breath. "A drone... Up ahead... He's unconcsious... Ganyma, Reemus..." She spoke quickly between breaths, trying to warn them of their oncoming road block.

As soon as Etsali realized their respective standing, Zindel's pump biscuit sunk, watching her put the pieces together, shoulders sinking. "Yeah. They called us over telling us it was the tri-quarterly physicals or something." He analyzed her, checking to see if she was hurt, but other than some bruises and her obvious anxiety, she seemed fine. "As it turned out, it was all a plan to trap you guys." Thankful she looked okay, the redblood shuffled closer to the smaller troll, looking down at her while his eyebrows lifted tiredly. "I should be asking you that. I'm fine. That big battle really did a number on me, though." Dimly he thought of the large gash he had on his back and the scars that reached down his chest. He was a little thankful no one could actually see them, really. Less panic. "How about you? Are Vos and Eph alright? I saw them, uh, earlier, during the..." He gestured to his face, eyebrows lifting somewhat. "Didn't see them afterwards, though. Glad to see you're all alive."