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Post by seraaches on Mar 12, 2008 0:03:49 GMT -5
Over the shores, the faint echoes of Mnem's voice-- though not necessarily the words-- caught the equine's ears and he put on a new burst of speed with an ongoing chant of curse words and threats that drummed its own cadence in the back of his mind. Still, even with his own desperate push, they were their far too late to be of use.
"Mnem!" There was anxiety underlying in his voice as gold and yellow hooves slid to a halt against the ground and he shifted forms effortlessly. The Yarrow Gardens looked fine at a glance and his grey-green gaze shifted to the bloody mess that had once been an avian. He cursed fluently and helplessly at Jada, ears flicking back to listen for Leland's arrival just after his own.
Oh, the stallion had all sorts of not happy words and things planned for whoever had done this. "Wot happened?" Rai's voice sounded slightly strangled as he choked down his rage and the vestiges of his fear.
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Post by Kiki on Mar 12, 2008 21:35:31 GMT -5
Jenn, Bee, and Sera 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!
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Post by Bee on Mar 20, 2008 23:19:14 GMT -5
Mnem settled against a wall of a cave and looked curiously at Jada's rapidly cooling corpse. Her brain didn't register it as disrespectful to stare at the mess, and the sight of blood had never really repulsed her. She only glanced up at Shinrai briefly when he and Leland made it to the cave. She wasn't sure why she was staring at Jada so intently.
"A couple of Lowlander dogs," she said, simply. It was on the tip of her tongue to spit out something acerbic like Thanks for getting here in time to be of use!, but that really wouldn't serve much purpose, and she didn't feel like being snitty for the hell of it at the moment. "They attacked Jada. I flew up and mostly escaped harm. They left. They hadn't seemed terribly interested in me to begin with." She looked at Leland with narrow-eyed curiosity. "What exactly are--were--you two doing?"
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 27, 2008 15:58:43 GMT -5
Leland ran along with Shinrai, his breath panting as he saw the cave and put on an extra burst of speed. What the hell was going on and when had a mercenary job turned into such a hellish nightmare?! They hadn't even confronted their actual quarry yet!
He smelled the blood long before he saw it and had to slow, breathing heavily, as soon as he came into view of the scene. He smelled his dead Jada, the other woman, the equine... and the stench of Lowland rot. His lip slowly curled back as he approached the avian, staring down at her wrecked body, the torn throat that barely resembled itself, beautiful green and cream feathers smeared red. He knew exactly what had happened. He may not have known why, but he knew what. He let out a pained growl and leaned down to rip a bit of skin from her throat, swallowing it seemingly out of instinct. "You'll always be with me," he snarled, then turned with a blood-stained muzzle to the other two.
"We employed a pair of Lowlanders to help us on this hunt, hired temporaries... but apparently they got greedy. And stupid. And it's time for them to die." His eyes gleamed. "I note your region - would you be up for a hunt?"
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Post by seraaches on Mar 27, 2008 19:30:54 GMT -5
Seeing Leeland swallow part of Jada was just a bit creepy, but the stallion watched without a word anyway. He wouldn't let the canine know his thoughts on that particular matter, but cannibalism was. . . unsettling. By a great deal.
Still, as Lee rose from the woman's corpse, Rai's ears came forward and a dark smile pulled at the edges of his lips. "You had only to ask," the Marshdweller replied with an ease, shifting his weight subconsciously in more of a ready stance as though that could bring the rotting filth to them.
The stallion paused for a moment, not entirely certain wot, if anything, he should say about the loss of Jada. It seemed callous to just say nothing, but the less said was probably better. He finally stated firmly, "She will be avenged." He would stake his life on it and gladly.
The dark look came back, a throwback to older times when he and Elias used to cross the border into the Lowlands. "Let's go hunting." He turned and put a hand out to Mnem offering her assistance in standing.
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Post by Bee on Mar 27, 2008 23:53:09 GMT -5
Shinrai, of course, was on board with hunting down Lowlanders. She knew how deep that hatred ran. The stallion would probably grin delightedly if someone suggested dropping a bomb on the region. Mnem had never really given Lowlanders much thought as a group of people--she had only really interacted with one, once, though it had been unpleasant--and tended to be as apathetic about them as she was about Aces and other such people she was not connected with at all, but she was very much aligned with making these two pay for what they had done.
She declined Shinrai's offer of help with a small shake of the head, but muttered out a thanks anyway as she got to her feet and brushed herself off. She felt the sudden desire to take a very long and cleansing bath. After the vengeance, of course. Everything would come after the vengeace. "Well, then; let's get a move on."
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Post by The Jenn on Apr 9, 2008 14:42:13 GMT -5
"She will be," Leland grimly agreed, ears pinned back against his head. With a forced motion, he pushed them upright. Couldn't afford to have the senses impaired, not now when they had prey to hunt. And kill. And eat. "The scum aren't going to get away with this. Not as long as I draw breath."
With both of them having given their assent to the hunt, he turned and lowered his head to the ground, sniffing around briefly to make sure he had the stink of the pair firmly set in his mind before bounding off in the direction they'd gone.
It curved around, mostly over the more open ground so that they could have used their canine speed. That gave their pursuers an advantage as well - two canines and a horse? Yes, they had speed on their side as well, with no rot to worry about.
By the time they'd run for fifteen minutes, they were nearing the lakeshore again, this time from a different angle. The shore was lined with rocks that gradually grew smaller and smoother the closer they were to shore. By the time the actual water had been reached, they were little more than a collection of tiny pebbles masquerading as sand that shifted with every step. Eyes scanning the area, the Villa growled and his hackles rose.
"They're close, somewhere around here. I can't see them, so they must have slipped into something somewhere around here. This coastline is full of crags and holes. Beneath this lake there's actually subterranean tunnels, which is where we figured the monster lives and travels when it's not aboveground." The area they were in was featureless on the lake, but the shore rose sharply a few yards off into a small, steep cliff area. They were at the bottom of it; climbing to the top would have been impossible without walking back they way they'd come and giong around.
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Post by seraaches on Apr 9, 2008 15:17:49 GMT -5
The stallion had his own head up working through the different tastes of the breeze. He was used to the scents of the Marsh and even the City; the overwhelming smell of wetness was exactly that. He wasn't yet used to sorting it out as he tracked. He had to trust Leeland's skills for now, which was just as well since the bounty hunter had been doing this for weeks, not a single day like the Marshdweller.
"I do not suggest that we split up," the stallion said wryly. Two against two weren't good odds, but two against one would be worse. The three of them had a better chance if they all stuck together.
"You've been working with them for weeks," the man pointed out to Leeland. "Wot best follows their patterns of action?" Surely the other canine had been paying attention to his cohorts.
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Post by The Jenn on Apr 15, 2008 9:42:45 GMT -5
The canine's lip curled as he glanced around, hackles never having settled. "The rats would have scuttled away into one of the caverns, I'm sure. It's just a matter of picking the right one and going in after them. There's only so far they'll be able to go before they run into water and can choose to face me or drown. I'm curious to see which they'll pick."
He sniffed around, nose working to overcome the powerful scent of the lake water and everything it washed in. And away. After maybe five minutes of following a faint trail through the rocky pebbles, he stopped outside of a crevice. "This one," he growled, then slipped inside. They had said they were hunting with him, so he trusted them to follow. Or, more like, he wasn't thinking enough to contemplate their betrayal. Besides, a Josiggy siding with Lowlanders? It didn't seem very likely.
The small lakeside cave was dark after the first small bend, but the walls were close enough that there wasn't much chance of getting lost. It seemed to be sloping down and around, parallel with the lake but for some reason not filled with water despite the fact that they were below the surface of the water and going slightly deeper with each step. Eventually the small crack began to widen and, if they chose, they could probably have walked two-abrest.
Another minute and they reached... a cavern? It felt a lot wider and there was even a little bit of light from a few torches set on one wall. It was a bizarre thing to run into. The canine paused, his entire body stuff and his nose high. "This... smells like the creature we've been hunting," he said in an almost inaudible voice, low so as not to cast echoes.
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Post by Bee on Apr 19, 2008 2:32:28 GMT -5
Mnem was not quite sure she liked the looks of this. The last time she had found herself at a peaceful open expanse, she and Minh had come face to face with a giant fucking marlin and it had nearly been the death of them. Which, if she recalled correctly, marked roughly the fourteenth near-death experience of the journey.
She cast her gaze about the area. The torches were an interesting touch. People went down here, or had gone down here, for some reason. She was not sure whether that boded well or ill for them. (Though her brain took the liberty of supplying her with vivid images of human sacrifice and related acts of pain and bloodshed and death, which was charming, but entirely unhelpful.) In any event, best to proceed cautiously.
She kept her own voice low, as well. She wan't to attract attention until it was due. "How do we approach it, then?" Other than quietly. She hoped Leland had a good plan of attack.
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