|
|
Post by Tigeress on Feb 14, 2008 21:40:27 GMT -5
She couldn't see the nod, but a wash of relief swept over her when she heard his voice. Again, the threads promised more difficult traps like this one, but she really didn't care. She had something she needed to accomplish, and she'd just have to find a way around or out of every single one. As for Lawrence though... damn was she mad that it was him up there and not her. The pack on her back was pulled down, the rope being taken out and secured in a loose lassoo that would tighten when she secured something. She tossed this at the spear which had fallen only about two metres back where Lawrence had been scooped up, hoping to ensnare it and bring it to her, thereofre in the process also hopefully triggering any leftover traps between them. If there was nothing, she'd be able to extend to the spear to the raccoon so he could cut himself down.
When she heard the part about the cabins she paused and considered how close they were. Good thing she had gotten so pissed off at that canine or they might still be going in a dangerous u-turn of time wasting travel. Still... the path they were on was obviously rigged six ways to sunday... she could only assume though, that none of them were fatal. Honestly, who was stupid enough to actually outright kill those who had ties to a Queen of Hearts? From the sounds of things, this stranger liked to play the bully, but played it wisely, which meant she might get banged up a little, but she would be able to make it out alive so long as she and Lawrence played it careful.
She had snagged the spear at last and was starting to pull it in towards herself. "Lawrence? How are you feeling? I need you to reserve your strength. I'm going to pass up your spear in a moment, and I need you to try really hard to use it to cut yourself down. She knew there was no way she was getting inbetween those blades, so he was alone for this one. Luckily, the spear was long and narrow, and would require extremely limited movement and flexibility, much easier than a sword or knife or any other weapon.
...She was really missing her spear the more she thought about it. She only switched to swords because they were more intimidating, honestly.
|
|
|
|
Post by seraaches on Feb 14, 2008 22:07:10 GMT -5
"I'm all right, your Excellence," he answered mostly truthfully. Again, just shallow bleeding, but he did have a lot of cuts. Was it wise for him to just cut himself down? The ground wasn't -that- far away. He was a little bit concerned about heading straight into the mouth of the lion, so to speak, but, well, wot could one do? He wasn't the decision maker here.
Her aim was, fortunately, true, though the spear handle was almost too slick for the rope. The noose tightened and it tugged against the weapon's stance in the ground. The rope slipped up the handle, catching on the decorative bottom and finally giving the woman enough purchase to actuall pull the spear from the ground.
The weapon managed to set off three other noose rope traps like the one that had captured Larry. There was nothing to show whether or not those were the only ones there, but at least a few were sprung.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tigeress on Feb 15, 2008 10:15:42 GMT -5
Holy freaking crap but was this guy ever paranoid about being confronted again for some reason. He was really trying to pull out all the stops as far as stopping them was concerned. "Just g ive me a moment.." She had full intention of being able to sneak over until she was able to catch the raccoon, as he would probably be too disoriented from being hung upside down to be able to land himself without injury. She sheathed the sword on her back as a precaution- if she was caught up in one of these things she didn't want to drop her weapon.
The spear was securely held in her hands, her rope having been put back into the sack and then placed over the sheath on her back. She had noticed a different set to the ground when the other three had been sprung before her, small mounds of dirt had been placed on the rope, just enough to change the colour so that they blended in with the murky brown-black of the soil they sat on. It was hard to see through the grass, but she used the edge of the spear to cut a definite path through. Obviously they didn't need to be too inconspicuous at this point, as they were being expected.
Every step was taken with her breath held, eyes scanning the ground with the clarity of daylight behind them, it seemed that inhaling the bag of dust had done wonders for her eyesight, apparently it was an ability normally given to those of a different suit. Lucky her. As soon as she was close enough, she raised the spear up to the raccoon. "Grab this. Give me a moment and I'll make my way beneath you." She called up, noticing small patters of blood on the ground like a nice 'x marks the spot'. She continued over at a painfully slow pace, now without the spear to poke around in front of her as she had been doing previously. Hopefully having watched those traps spring would prove useful not only on the way to the raccoon, but back across as well.
She glanced up into the trees, noting where the blades were. "We will have to stay out of the shadow of the trees with blades, they're probably rigged completely around the base at every step." She cautioned, trying to get a good look at the raccoon to make sure his assessment was correct and he was all right. Sometimes you couldn't feel really bad wounds until you saw them, she knew that from experience.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kiki on Feb 15, 2008 13:13:49 GMT -5
Sera, Tigs and Trebias receive 1 token each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe.
This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe.
Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!
|
|
|
|
|
Post by seraaches on Feb 15, 2008 13:49:25 GMT -5
Fortunately for the woman, it seemed that there were only four noose traps on the way to where Larry hung, obviously the fourth being the one that now decorated his ankle like a prisoner's manacle. The raccoon reached way down when the woman told him to, hand outstretched almost blindly until his fingers touched his spear. He got ahold of it and cautiously pulled it up, waiting for the woman's word before he would actually try to saw through the rope.
His eyes flicked to tree when she mentioned it. He didn't see anything at its base. Perhaps, despite the trap that had captured him, there wasn't anything else here? At the woman's call for him to cut himself down, he turned the blade to the rope; he didn't cut at the loop around his foot since he didn't trust his own hand to keep from cutting off said foot. It took a little work-- he was starting to get a little dizzy from all of the blood rushing to his head. However, the remainder of the rope snapped suddenly and Larry crid out involuntarily as he instinctively tossed the weapon off to the side to keep from impaling either himself or Sekhmet.
His chubby bulk certainly wouldn't be easy for the woman to catch, and it certainly wouldn't be surprising if the pair of them hit the ground with the force of the Selkie Lakes man.
Gads, how embarrasing. Still, once he was safely on the ground, he muttered a soft, "Thank you." He cleared his throat uneasily and quickly went to retrieve his spear. If anything would have set off more traps, it was that little retrieval. However, the raccoon didn't make anything to flying by, or dropped him in, or jerked back up into the sky.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tigeress on Feb 15, 2008 14:30:53 GMT -5
She waited patiently for him to cut through the ropes, hoping that he had enough time before the dizzyness really began to set in to cut all the way through. As soon as she heard the soft audible 'snap', she braced herself in place with her hands up and out to catch him. The raccoon was a little chubby so she'd bent her back to prepare for the inevitable fall. She aimed it backwards and ended with a roll that left her sitting in a push-up motion above him, though with her height, the positioning of her body was a little... cruel.
She pushed up and dusted herself off, scanning the trees again. It looked like, however many of these were set up, this was the only one they'd have to worry about right now, and all of the traps around the base area of the tree had probably been sprung entirely. However, this stranger seemed creative, they'd have to be scanning the sky, the shadows, and the ground alike if they wanted to avoid any more of these traps. "You're welcome Lawrence. Here." She motioned over when he grabbed his spear, pulling down her pack and taking out a plastic jar of ointment which had a nice salve-like consistency which meant it wouldn't rub off easily. "I don't have enough bandages to spare for such little cuts, but this should prevent infection so that we don't have anything bigger to deal with on our return." Gah, how she felt angry every time she thought about the paper-cut she'd received on her ankle that had almost cost her the damn thing due to cocky ignorance.
She slid a finger quickly over every bleeding area she could find, and rubbed off the blood in the process. Not that that little bit would draw predators or anything, but it made him look injured and weak, which might draw... the more observant type of predator. After she'd finished, she stuffed it away and threw the pack back on. She took up the lead again, unsheathing her sword and hacking away enough bush to have a better idea of what they were walking on. "To the cabins." There was a lilt of excitement and determination to her voice, she could already start smelling the smoke from this distance.
|
|
|
|
Post by seraaches on Feb 15, 2008 15:23:23 GMT -5
As they neared the cabins-- in fact, as the buildings were coming into sight-- a branch snapped, a rope twanged and a rain of blades came showering down into the area. If the pair didn't dodge, they had the possibility of serious injury or even death.
Larry was far enough back that he could easily step out of the way while Sekhmet was potentially right in the middle of the bladed spray. Her only clear path was straightforward, where a second surprise awaited here.
If she remained behind, she'd be disfigured at the very least, if she leapt out of the way, she'd receive a smack in the face with a thin, bamboo pole. It would likely sting, but litle else, and certainly wouldn't injure or scar her. Just another unpleasant surprise for the pair as they fought to reach the cabins.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tigeress on Feb 15, 2008 16:16:57 GMT -5
Sekhmet heard the unusually audible snap and somehow just knew that a branch should not have been in the grassy area she was travelling in. Glancing up, she saw a sliver of movement and that was all she needed to motivate her to move her ass. She only hoped Lawrence had kept the distance she'd assigned to him, but couldn't chance throwing herself backwards in case he hadn't and she smacked into him, which would probably still leave her under the blades. Throwing herself forward with a gutteral cry of effort, she pulled her wings tight and it seemed she managed to just clear the blades, a small nick on the back of her leg telling her she'd cut it very close.
However, just as she barely touched ground, a long object came sailing at her too quickly for her to duck under, mostly because she hadn't even fully landed yet. Luckily for her, the worst it did was slap her across the face, leaving a stinging line where it had hit, but not enough to break the skin. What an interesting sense of humour this stranger must have had. She turned around in place, her eyes being drawn to the... unusually impressive field of blades lying down and straight up and to every direction.
She looked Lawrence over carefully, he was standing, breathing, and apparently all was well. "Be careful walking around." She said before taking a moment to catch her breath and slow her heart which was pulsing full of adrenaline. Some of the knives were probably hidden by the grass around the immediate area of impact, but the raccoon had impressed her enough so far that she knew she didn't need to caution him about it. That particular trap had left her stomach a little unsetlled. That could have killed them both, whoever this stranger was, he was either very confident, or very stupid. Or both. She was willing to believe both at this point.
Idly she found herself wondering why exactly she was here, the Queen hadn't told her really what to say, or what to demand of the stranger, or anything to do with him really. She wasn't supposed to punish him, was she supposed to apprehend him? "Lawrence... did His Majesty tell you what to do with this stranger, by any off chance?" She asked thoughtfully, hoping he held some sort of mental message that she hadn't been allowed to access herself. The cabins were drawing ever nearer, and she didn't like the feeling of entering into a dangerous situation completely unprepared. With any luck, perhaps the stranger would spill the beans of his own accord, one of those 'I know why you're here' speeches that accidentally revealed the whole story behind his and the Queen's... disagreement. He seemed like the cocky type, anyway.
|
|
|
|
Post by seraaches on Feb 15, 2008 16:47:53 GMT -5
"Yes, your Excellence." His nerves were obvious in his voice, but he was game to do wotever the woman told him to. He carefully inched around the embedded blades, only stubbing his toe once on a partially submerged tree root rather than on any of the shrapnel.
"Uhm..." the raccoon said as he made his way cautiously to the woman, unknowingly just missing another trap in the woods. Oblivious, he continued on, "Ah, I thought he wanted this man to come back to the Court for something...?" It was a question even as he reached the Jack's side and they turned to face wot was before them.
But now, now! They had finally reached the clearing. Cautioned by their experiences, Larry was looking worriedly and carefully for traps in the clearing as well.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tigeress on Feb 15, 2008 16:59:00 GMT -5
She listened to him thoughtfully, so she had assumed correctly, the Queen wanted to deal with this man himself. How very admirable, though after all this, she really wanted a chunk out of him. Well, anything for her Queen, and the satisfaction of being chosen as one of his Kings would be reward enough. Although the itch was still there, but she just wouldn't scratch it. Honour and all that. "I see." She said casually, waiting until the raccoon had come up next to her before continuing on. The clearing emerged before her, and she found herself shrinking back with the sudden... wideness of it all.
It was so.. open and barren. The lack of cover meant it would be SO much harder to spring traps, but it also meant... a lack of cover. She obviously still had the hardset mentality that she was sneaking up on this man, though she might have been, unless he had sensors implanted in the traps, how was he to know they'd been sprung? Though that tattling canine had probably been stalking them again and had surely informed the man of their progress. Being around so many people that irked her was bad for Sekhmet's blood pressure, she was not looking forward to the confrontation. Might as well play it off pleasant until someone really did something to earn some nastyness. You caught more flies with boobs- err- honey, than vinegar, after all.
The doe carefully inched out into the clearing, taking a few seconds to get used to the bright direct light that now came through the lack of trees and bush. Ouch did that ever sting for the first few seconds. She strategically placed a few whisps of mane about her eyes to shield them, she'd have to invest in some sort of daywear glasses after this. She hadn't been expecting these effects from the powder. "Stay back again a ways." She warned as she continued out into the clearing. So far it had done them well. "Which cabin do you think it is?" She looked across the row of cabins, trying to judge by size and decoration which one their leading man would be in.
|
|
