|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:11 pm
Taxus found himself utterly alone as the gunshot rang out. Faili was gone. The other groups were out of sight. If he ran, he'd be an easy target for whatever made that noise, and he could run into a trap. He felt tharn tickling his body and shook it off. If he remained under the cabbage leaf, he'd be found eventually. There was the field with the beast, but it looked like it was on the rampage, scared by that gunshot. He had to pick something. The grain...the grain would be helpful, but worse elil could be inside it.
He had to think....think clearly. The shot was loud, but far. If he ran, he might make it! He bounded from hiding, weaving and keeping as low as he could. He looked out for any traps that might have been about, eyes darting left and right. He made it to the edge of the radish patch and came to a dead halt beside the fence.
He paused, seeing Crow and Faili. He had never seen a snare before, but this must have been it. He looked over his shoulder. "You....kitten. Not Faili." he didn't know his name. "Get out of here. NOW! I'll....I'll get her home safe. I promise."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:17 pm
The striped owsla nodded. "I have a feeling that he's perfectly fine. Just the same, I think we should all go together to find where he wandered off to. He can't have gotten far, like you said." Bramblebur moved to where Zelkova was, standing up on his hind legs, looking around for any of the thousand. "We must move quickly."
With that he turned and followed after the direction Ginkgo had gone to hide. His movements were cautious and determined, pausing to look to the two bucks assigned to his group and around for elil, snares, and the human. Bram sniffed the air and turned his ears this way and that. He made a point to trace the way they had come over and a few potential ways that they could escape.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:17 pm
Finally, he saw them!
Faili was... Oh Frith above! Faili was in a snare and there Crow was, standing over her! If it couldn't get any worse, both were sitting ducks to the man with the gun! Then Taxus was there. The buck seemed loyal enough.
"CROW! LISTEN TO HIM AND TAKE COVER!" He made no move to leave the safety of the bush he currently called his own.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:17 pm
Running in circles around her, he was lost until she berated him with the old kitten-hood nickname. He snapped out of the tharn and looked down at her twisting body. Suddenly he knew what this was. He hadn't paid much attention to his marli at the time, not caring much for the Owsla and never planning on being on a farm, but this was one of those trap things. Dig. Right, right, he'd have to dig the peg out.
"Hang on Burrbut, hang on!"
He found the wire, pulled tight, and followed it to the ground. He could hear someone calling to him, but only looked up for a moment before starting to dig around the thing holding the wire down. He just had to dig. He could do that. Ignoring all of the calls from the others, he pushed the dirt away from the wooden thing in the ground, biting it, clawing at it, trying to dislodge it from the earth.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:21 pm
Faili was digging frantically still, dispite her dizziness driving her practically blind and death to everything around her. It was all starting to echo in her head. She just wanted this thing off her, if she could just loosen the wire, she could tear it off, like the real thlayli once did in the founders tales.
She wasn't even aware of Taxus yelling at her brother.
"Dig.. must dig.. must.. chew.. through.. thing.." She heaved, scrabbling frantically, as if she was going insane, the only thing in her world the peg she was digging at.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:22 pm
She never once moved from her spot, not even after the hawk had disappeared from sight. And it was a wise decision to stay put, for shortly after the shadow of the hawk had gone away, a load baying sounded at the other end of the field, toward the farmer's house. Someone had set the creature off. Hopefully whoever this was had the sense not to run straight at the rabbits still in the garden. Of course, it didn't matter much as a shot rang through the air, causing the doe to shrink farther down, her eyes close with the sudden burst of energy. Her breath silenced once more as she listened to the man approaching. Others had gotten up and started to run. Was she to do the same? Inle'arn couldn't stay at the farm forever, certainly she'd be discovered. She made up her mind.
With a powerful burst of her hind legs, she sprang from her cover, heading toward the fence where she had previously seen Crow and some of the others. It was upon making her way over this direction that her eyes locked once more with the dark fellow, this time with another. Another Outskirter...a relative perhaps? It only took her a second to realize something was off, her condition evident as she lay against the ground. Why was it always the young ones? By the time she reached the pair a male had appeared, telling Crow to make off. She agreed. Looking back, she heard Ginkgo. It seemed he agreed as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:23 pm
Taxus looked over his shoulder. Elil was coming. It would be there soon. "YOU IDIOT KITTEN! MOVE YOUR EMBLEER BUTT! I'M BIGGER. I'LL GET HER OUT!" He charged, clamping his teeth down on Crow, shoving him away with brute force.
He then started digging where the little one started, his huge paws throwing the earth around. "GET UNDER A BUSH, YOU STUPID KITTEN!! GET!" he screamed, using his bulk to keep crow away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:24 pm
Foxtail followed swiftly behind Bramblebur, staying low to the ground and only looking up from time to time to see if he could see Ginkgo around. “Oh Frith I just don’t like it. This whole raid, it feels wrong now somehow”. Foxtail’s excitement had all but diminished, though his tail still twitched from the bursting amount of energy that remained, “It was so exciting before, but now I’m just filled with dread” he wasn’t used to feeling such negative emotions, but was finding it too difficult to push them to the back of his mind any longer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:29 pm
Ah! There! He heard Ginkgo call out to young Crow from a bush up ahead. "You two, stay close. Don't let yourself fixate on one thing." Bramblebur tread lightly, listening to the commotion of the dog, the farmer, the panic, but also for rustling that was out of the ordinary, screeching of the hawk, growling, anything.
Bramblebur nodded at Foxtail's words. "I didn't fancy the idea of a raid in the first place. I agree. This is all wrong." His warm brown eyes went from scanning the area, to the bush that Ginkgo was in, and back to the pair of bucks. "We can all get out of this if we work together. Don't let that dread cause you to freeze. Use it. It can drive you if you think of home, friends, family, a warm burrow."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:32 pm
Something sharp was in his back and before he could protest Crow was forcibly moved from his position. Startled, he fought at the buck as he was kept away.
"No! She's my sister, she's my sister!"
He cried out, frantic, racing around them and the peg, trying to get at it any way he could.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:33 pm
"We need to retreat! Taxus, get her free! Crow, come with me. We need to head back to the down! Our lives are more important than some flay-rah for the chief!" Ginkgo called loudly, stamping his foot in attempt to gather the attention of those around.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:37 pm
Scratching, Scratching. Had the air always been this cold?
She kept at it, dragging her body closer to the peg, heaving herself up to dig properly. She needed to be free. To be free.
Her head was spinning from the movement, but she refused to stop. She'd dig until her last breath, if she needed, which was quickly growing closer, she could feel it, that light headed-ness as she slowly suffocated.
Her mouth slowly swelled with foam and blood, which she spat out as she kept at it with insanity in her eyes.
If only she would notice that by getting her head closer to the peg, the wire was no longer taught, she could pull it off if she hadn't been so obsessed with digging free.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:41 pm
Inle'arn suddenly grabbed Crow, pushing him once more as she had already done several times before, but now with a force. Taxus had just attempted to drive him off but the restless youth was forward again. Not finding herself being all that productive standing there looking in on the trapped little one, she moved forward, pushing Crow. Her eyes were dark, her brows furrowed. "He said he'll take care of her. Trust him. She'll come back. If she doesn't, you can blame me," she said, pushing him still. Ginkgo's call for a retreat was enough for her. She would ensure they'd get away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:41 pm
Bramblebur moved into Ginkgo's bush. "Well, loyalty abounds," the large striped buck quipped. "'Bout time we get out of here." He was none too happy with the whole messy situation. More than likely, their number would be fewer than what it had been when they came. From the place where they were, he could see an outskirter in a snare, a few working to free her, there was some commotion about a Pfeffa, the dog, the farmer. Oh, Frith. The Black Rabbit, it would seem, had intentions of keeping busy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
