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 Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:32 pm
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Hard Shell, Soft Inside
Confidence is a quality that many people find admirable, a trait to be sought after. And while it may serve as a powerful weapon in the right hands…sometimes it can be unintentionally lethal. After what horrors had been witnessed at the meeting in Juahar, a sensible person would have heeded the advice of the experienced leaders of the land: to stay in groups and not wander. Unfortunately, Nyxamora was a girl with more confidence than she could handle, and as a result, she did the exact opposite of what was urged of her.
She wandered off.
Alone.
In a land not her own.
It really was a stupid impulse, but she’d be damned if she was going to go back to her boring home back in Tale without at least exploring Juahar a bit first. And none of her spineless cousins would agree to come along, preferring to instead stick together near the comfort of their wagon in town. So that left only one option: she had to go by herself.
And things had been going rather well thus far as she padded along the gloom of the hard forest floor, dimly lit by the strange glowing mushrooms that grew in the many crevices of the trees. She was starting to see why the bug mages reportedly came from this part of the world, with how many huge creepy-crawlies she’d seen thus far. Giant moths. Wriggling worms. Jagged insects. It was amazing to see so many different varieties; in fact, she hadn’t seen a single furry beast the entire time she had been there. The whole place was actually rather…pretty. In an eerie sort of way.
But just as soon as you start to get comfortable in a dangerous place, that’s when stupid mistakes are made.
Nyx had been looking at one of the strangely twisted insects on a tree when she put her foot down and the ground itself rose up in rebellion. Suddenly a massive Wadana burst up from the soil in front of her and clamped its sharp pincers around her torso, dragging her down to the ground before she even knew what was happening. The clacking of its mandibles as it tried to pinch her flesh along with the profuse swearing Nyx hollered at the beast, combined together to made a hell-of-a racket.
But the luck of the Gods must have been smiling on her that day, because the creature had missed her arms, allowing Nyx the opportunity to grab the knife at her hip. Struggling against its great weight even as it ripped at the skin on her abdomen, she stabbed the blade anywhere she could pierce its carapace as she screamed repeatedly in protest against it, “DIE YOU DISGUSTING OVERSIDED SONOVABITCH!!”
[1/10] |
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:32 am
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If it wasn't for the fact that Lixes felt as though he was dying from boredom since he'd been left unable to leave the village he likely wouldn't have noticed the odd girl that was wandering away from Andile. She was a member of the Leaf Tribe if he had to guess. Something he had some knowledge of given that he was a member of that tribe. At least part of him was from that tribe.
At a glance, at least from where he was hanging upside down in a tree, she looked to be rather interesting. It almost looked like some of the crystals she bore were horns! Now how cool must it be to have horns? He bet that she had to be a master when it came to giving people headbutts.
Pulling himself up slowly he watched as the girl headed toward the edge of the village, making him wonder if she was as bored as he was. Instead of stopping at the edge of the village though she just... kept going. Blinking a couple times he found himself starring, mouth a little agape. Didn't she know what was going on? Didn't she know about those bug mages? What if she ran into one of them while she was out there in the jungle? Hopping down out of the branches of the tree he'd been lazing in he grabbed up his hammer, which was on the ground waiting for him, and hurried after her.
He didn't know her, it wasn't really his business that she was leaving, but it still worried him. He should at least make sure that she was alright? Make sure that she was... going to meet up with friends or something else safe. Of course even as he thought that he found himself falling behind her a bit. He'd let her get a bit of a head start on him while he got out of the tree and grabbed his hammer. As he walked he found himself wondering if he'd messed up, if they'd already grabbed her...
Just as he started to worry for the horned girl he heard... screaming? His mismatched eyes got huge before he started to run forward towards the sounds. He saw her there, struggling with a rather nasty looking bug... though it was far from being a Dretch. That fact alone was enough to spur him forward. Rushing toward the girl and her attacker her lifted his hammer high, bring it down on the wadana in hopes of either crushing it or chasing it off. It was dependent on how tough its hide turned out to be. |
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:03 am
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Suddenly a huge hammer came swinging from out of nowhere to strike the insect, fracturing its tough carapace like a thunder crack in the night. Nyx couldn’t comprehend where it came from or who was holding it, but all that mattered was that with the hard shell cracked open, her dagger was able to reach its soft insides, which she took ample advantage of as she plunged it all the way to the hilt.
With an angry primal hiss, the insect struggled against the sudden onslaught, but it was too late: the damage had been done. Its body and mandibles twitched as it was wracked with the throes of death, until eventually falling still, the huge pincers loosening their hold on the Leafling. She gasped and shook under its massive weight, adrenaline making her hands clumsy as she tried to push the thing off of her, blood from the wounds on her chest mixing with ooze that leaked out of the felled creature. Nyx blinked as her eyes tried to focus on the face of the stranger who had come to her aid, attempting to make words form in her winded lungs, “s**t, could’ja…g-get this thing off―it’s c-crushin’ me…”
[2/10]
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:50 am
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As soon as the huge insect was dragged off of Nyx she began raggedly coughing, lungs immensely grateful for the opportunity to suck in air as they normally would. “That massive thing…was normal?” She asked after she’d gotten a better handle on her breathing. She was starting to think that perhaps going at it alone in this place might not have been the brightest choice she’d ever made if things that huge were considered ordinary.
Not that she’d ever admit that out loud, obviously.
Nyx scooted back further from the carcass, inspecting the damage it had done, “Well…I look like a butcher’s block and it hurts like hell, but I don’t think it’ll be fatal? Gotta’ stop the bleeding though…” She looked up again at Lixes as she stood shakily to her feet, wincing from the pain, “I’m sure I woulda’ been fine if it hadn’t gotten the jump on me…but I don’t know if I’d be walking out of here if you hadn’t shown up. So yeah, thanks for the assist, stranger.” He certainly was a colorful looking fellow; even under the gloom of the trees his hair shined a golden hue. There had to be quite the heavy mixing of bloodlines going on in there.
But her pride was already properly ruffled, so in order to forego having to grovel any longer, she realigned her damaged shirt as best she could as she bid him farewell, “But this isn’t gonna fix itself, so I guess this is where we part. I’ll take it from here.” She crouched to pry her dagger out of the messy corpse, audibly gasping from the sting of pain as she stood to beat a hasty retreat away from the other guy.
[3/10]
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:15 pm
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With a grimace Nyx looked over her shoulder at the stranger following her, picking up her pace a bit. Was he deaf? She thought she’d made it pretty clear that she was done needing his help, but here he was anyways, rambling on with a smile on his face. He was one of those people. The kind that just wanted to help everyone everywhere, all the time, without even knowing who they were or what their intentions were.
Nyx turned to face him again as she continued walking, “Look, I get it. You like to help people. But I don’t need help anymore, okay? So you can, ya know…go. Home? Wherever that may be? I can make it back to the village on my own; you don’t need to stick arou―”
Whatever else she had intended to say got cut off as her foot snagged on a root jutting out of the dirt, sending the small Leafling into a sudden tumble as she tripped over her feet. With one hand to brace her fall and the other wrapped around her damaged waist she rolled across the dirt as her momentum carried her forward, tossing out more curse words into the ether. Thankfully enough, her skid forward came to halt as she was tossed against something soft and flexible on the ground near the trunk of a huge tree.
Groaning achingly she tried to move her hand to push back up off the ground again; but to her surprise, it wouldn’t move. She couldn’t move. Everything was stuck where it had landed, on some white padded thing coating the dirt. “What the hell…?” she muttered as she tried to free her hand from the mess.
But just as soon as realization of what exactly she was caught in struck, that’s when the creature did, a huge crystalline Menzuri bolting out of the funnel it was hiding in to sink its fangs into the exposed flesh of Nyxamora’s ankle.
[4/10]
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:49 pm
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Lixes gave a smile as the girl rounded on him, face to face with him, but still walking along in a manner that was pretty daring given all the roots that were twisted around the jungle floor. He tilted his head to one side as the young woman told him in so many words that he could go home, that she could make it home on her own, and that he didn't to stick around... and anything that might have come after that was cut off when she tripped.
He couldn't say he was too surprised by that result but he was still more then worried as he went chasing after the girl that was seemingly stumbling end over end for a distance. Giving a bit of a gasp he called out, "By Aisha... wow! Are you alright?" He hurried toward her, his mismatched eyes wide, as she finally gave to a stop... and seemed to be stuck? He watched her flailing and found himself pausing right before the decorative white mess. He felt his heart starting to race in his chest, eyes going from side to side, seeking out the owner of the webbing.
"Oh... geez... this is bad, this really bad, Horn Girl." He said, giving a cry of surprise when the crystal spider appeared, charging toward the girl. He looked around, panicking for a moment, before grabbing at a some nearby plant life, throwing them on the webbing first so he could try to close the distance between himself and the girl before the menzuri did. A race he failed at given the creature had so many more legs then he did. Two versus eight meant he was more then likely going to lose. The menzuri was able to sink its fangs in by the time that he got to it but it at least gave him a chance to smash it with his hammer... which seemed to anger it more then anything.
Lixes shifted in place, half regretting taking the swing... but followed it up with another. Maybe he'd get lucky and could chase it off long enough to figure out how to save her? Again. Two saves in one day, that might be a record he though to himself as he prepared a third strike against the hissing arachnid. |
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:45 am
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With everything that had happened already, Nyx was more than fed up with being randomly attacked by strange creatures she did not know how to handle. She was bruised, battered, bleeding, and by-god, she wasn’t going to let herself die in this damned forest. So with her free hand that hadn’t been ensnared she grasped one of the crystallized legs of the arachnid, twisting and pulling it with all of her hyped-up on adrenaline strength as she snarled inhumanly at it.
The thing hissed at her again as it was pummeled on two fronts, unsure where to divert its energy and efforts with multiple enemies attacking at once. The menzuri was off balance enough already; when a cracking sound mingled with the panicked growls coming from its prey, the thing knew it was time to beat a hasty retreat. Arachnids were built for ambush, not fights. But as it tried to scuttle back into its burrow, Nyx held on with all her might, and in the struggle that ensued, she was torn partially off the sticky webbing just as a segment of the leg ripped off as well. Now freed from its would be lunch, the creature beat a hasty retreat back into the depths of its hole.
With the threat suddenly gone, Nyx was left with a detached leg in one hand and a mind again sent reeling, waiting for one more thing to go wrong. But when nothing came back to attack her, she began stabbing the pointy end of the segmented limb into the webbing, attempting to cut herself free from its grasp, all the while hissing angrily at nothing at all, “Are you bloody kiddin me this is the worst day of my life so help me I will KILL whatever comes at me next I am so done with all this bullshit…”
[5/10]
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 1:18 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 1:33 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 1:48 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 2:22 am
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With a firm nod of her head she clamped onto the other’s arms as she was hoisted up into a standing position again, looking a little worse for wear. She hadn’t gotten this beat up since she’d tried to sneak into that kinfa nest a few years back; that hadn’t exactly gone as planned either. Nature was just full of a bunch of pricks.
But pain aside, she still had a shred of pride to hold onto and preserve at all costs, brushing her dusty rear end off as she looked at the stranger, “I am certain; I’ve had worse than this before. This is nothing. Just gonna slow me down a bit is all.” She drew her mouth into a thin line as she took a step forward, then another, then a few more, making a good show of it all.
But as she stepped onto one of the roots coming out of the ground, the uneven pressure on her foot sent a surge of electric pain up her body, sending her careening down to the dirt again as her leg stopped responding to her demands. With a yelp she found herself lying face down on the jungle floor, nails scraping against soil as she waited for the hurting to pass. Then she turned her cheek to look up at the other guy, face flush in equal parts fury and embarrassment as she mumbled, “…maybe…I need some help. An arm to lean on…” She squinted, turning her gaze back to the dirt beneath her nose, “…what’s your name?”
[7/10]
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 2:41 am
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:11 am
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Her cheeks grew scarlet again as Nyx glared at the dirt beneath her nose, slowly getting onto her hands and knees, “Nyx. Just call me Nyx. And I’d…” She grit her teeth, casting a glance up at Lixes as she took hold of his arm again, “…appreciate…if you kept this to yourself.” She hated having to rely on a total stranger like this, and even more so feeling indebted to him. She must look like such a weak idiot.
So she leaned against him with his help, walking away from the gristly scene at a slow pace. At least the cuts on her torso had started to scab up now, thanks no doubt to all the dirt that had wound up in there from her falling over so many times. But her ankle was really starting to hurt and swell up, pain moving further up her leg. Was it because she’d insisted on walking on it?
Probably.
Another side effect of her stubbornness was one far more severe, an odd bluish fog rolling in that seemed to cover more and more of their path, until it had created a thick layer they waded through. Nyx blinked her eyes, trying to figure out where it had come from, and why it seemed to make moving her feet even harder. She was gonna get stuck at this rate. Maybe she just needed to lie down for a bit? It looked so soft down there, like a cloud…
“Hey…” she stopped in her tracks, eyes glazed over as she said, “…can we stop? I’m tired.” Looking up at Lixes, she squinted, reaching up to touch his face softly, “When did you shave your beard, Dad? You know mom likes you with some scruff. Says it makes you look like a real warrior…” Then confusion crossed her face, attempting to kneel down to touch the dirt, “Where is mom anyways? Is she down here? Help me look, there’s too much fog…”
[8/10]
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