Taking the Initiative [Dark]

[Dark]

From a relatively safe distance of fifty-yards, Minh and Monty watched with the stunned silence of the impressed as the cottage finished collapsing in on itself, pillars and shingles flying as the entire building sunk into the gaping chasm that had opened up underneath it. It let out one final, creaking groan and seemed to sag. The dust flurried, unwilling to settle just yet.

"I never considered that the cellar would be under the house..."

Monty chittered in agreement, sitting back on its haunches and scratching at its ear in puzzlement.

What an odd way to end the day...

Minh turned to Mnem, feeling tired and dirty, "I suppose we should sort through the rubble--see if we can salvage any supplies. The majority of it will have to wait till tomorrow, though. It's getting dark. Shall we find somewhere to bunker down for the night?"

[Bee]

"I think," said Mnem, "that we should be able to sleep right here. Some of the beams and larger stones have made a few little caves that look more or less safe to sleep in." Though after being knocked out and locked in some batty woman's cellar, sleeping in a vat of acid surrounded by venomous snakes sounded safe.

Mnem shifted through some of the rubble where the kitchen used to be, and managed to dredge up some sweets, cookies and cupcakes and nutrition-free sugar. It would have have to do until morning. Hopefully they could dig themselves back into the cellar and find some un-crushed meat to eat.

Food consumed, Mnem found a spot near the edge of the rubble that looked like a nice little cave. A coffee table for a roof, supported by wood and stone and what looked to be a music box. She said goodnight to Minh, but didn't sleep well.

[Dark]

Minh spent a miserable few hours curled up under an overturned bathtub, constantly almost on the brink of sleep before something would rustle or groan and send her flying bolt upright again--and consequently banging her head rather hard on the bottom of the tub. Sometime after the moon set, she finally slipped into fitful sleep, plagued by dreams of frying pans and flying, flammable gofers.

At the first hint of dawn, Minh gave up the pretense of sleep and crawled from her brass-shelter, shivering at the chill morning air. Monty watched her progress through slitted blue eyes, and refused to move.

Shifting through the rubble should have been rather strenuous, but Minh had always had the rather handy knack of being able to handle heavy objects without too much strain, if she ever felt so inclined--and she didn't, under normal circumstances.

As it was, it wasn't hard moving the debris to the cellar--it was much harder making sure what she was removing wouldn't cause the rest of it to collapse down around her.

[Bee]

Backbreaking labor had never been Mnem's strong suit, and when the moving of collapsed house became too much, she stepped back and let Minh finish the dig to the cellar. There was a reason Clubs were often employed as manual labor--little bastards could lift and carry heavy objects like ants.

There was more than meat. They had managed to salvage some dried fruit, some rice. Most everything else had been crushed. The built a fire to cook some of the meat they had hauled out, and packed the rest of it away. It was cured, some of it dried to jerky; it would keep for the rest of their journey. Provided Monty didn't decide to get lazy and give up hunting in order to feast on readily-available prey. Mnem had to smack her out of the way constantly as their protein-filled breakfast cooked, growling back when Monty shrieked indignantly at being tossed aside and tried to bite off her fingers.

"I have half a mind to explore the rubble for more...valuables," Mnem said, eying her bracelet. "But I'm almost too tired to move. Let's gather the last of the food and get moving."

After all, they still had a long way to go till they reached the Marsh.

[Dark]

Minh admired the glint of gold lazily from across the fire, nodding in agreement. There probably wasn't anything else of interest, anyway--and if there was, it really wasn't worth the effort required to dig for it.

She fed her last bit of gristle to Monty, stretching long and hard before standing to survey their booty. They'd actually managed to acquire a rather substantial little pile of non-perishables, though they still had to sort out the issue of storage.

Wondering through the rubble, she tried to remember where exactly she'd seen the storage closet, hoping to maybe extrapolate where it had taken up residence post-chasm.

She eventually found their haversacks--or, she supposed more technically, the bandits' bags--when she tripped over the dirt-encased carcasses, and nearly went careening to her death.

Monty squealed in the bander-equivalent of a laugh. Minh ignored hir with what little dignity she managed to salvage, and went about packing their supplies.

[Bee]

When they were once again loaded up with as much food as they could gather, they set off again to try to find their way back to the path. The only hitch in that problem was that they had no idea where they were going, and after a couple of hours wandering deeper through the woods, Mnem had the sinking feeling that they were just wandering farther and farther from their destination.

She set her pack down, abruptly. "I'm going to try to fly again," she told Minh. "And see if I can see anything. Take a break. I won't be gone long."

She had no idea how long she could stay in the air, or whether she would even be able to lift off the ground at all, but the second question answered itself when Mnem pushed off the ground and floated effortlessly in the air. She sailed smoothly upward, through the top of the canopy to just above.

It really was a breathtaking sight. Unfortunately, all it was was...woods. They were so far in that she could see nothing else. She tried flying out in different directions, trying to see if anything came into focus, but all she could see was an endless sea of green against a blue sky. She could have screamed in frustration. She even tried flying a bit higher up, though she didn't want to test yet how much altitude she could get before she spontaneously combusted or something.

About twenty minutes after she had left the ground, she was back on it, simmering with low-grade rage.

"Nothing," she said. "I saw nothing. Just more bloody woods."

[Dark]

Minh had settled down in a large clearing to wait for Mnem, while Monty snuffled around in the dead leaves for mushrooms or...something. The idea had been that Mnem would be able to find them easier, if she could, like, see them--and Minh supported the logic in it, considering how different everything must look for an aerial view.

When Mnem landed with the bad news--big surprise there--Minh just grunted and continued to sculpt topiary out of the long grass she'd situated herself in. So far, she'd created a frying pan, a deranged looking rabbit, and a rather startling alikeness to the badger they'd clobbered to death.

It was kind of relaxing, really.

"So, now what?"

Too bad they didn't have a compass, or something, because that would be so unbelievably helpful at this point...

"Mnem...did you pack that sewing kit?"

[Bee]

Mnem looked at her curiously for a moment, wondering what the hell Minh was planning on doing with a sewing kit. Now was not the time to be making tea cozies--not that Minh had ever struck Mnem as the type to do anything domestic; Minh didn't create, for the most part; she destroyed. Now was the time to be figuring out where the hell they were going to go, because at present all paths seemed to lead to nowhere. Actually, no paths lead to nowhere. There were no paths.

With luck there was some kind of actual reasoning behind needing a sewing kit. Perhaps she was going to sew Monty's mouth shut, which would bode well for the future attachment of their digits.

She dug around in her pack for a moment and tossed the medium-sized box at Minh.

"Have at," she said. "What exactly do you want to do?"

[Dark]

Minh let out a delighted cackle as she began to rift through the kit, tossing scraps of fabric and trim and lace with very little regard to continued pristine, hoping that the deranged badger had thought enough of herself to invest in some higher quality fabrics--and from the look of the lace she was rifting through, the woman's taste were delightfully horrendous and practically guaranteed success.

She found the needle kit, carding through her choices before settling on a medium sized needle and setting it carefully aside. The silk she found at the very bottom of the kit, carefully wrapped in paper.

Placing the needle in the swath of cloth, she rubbed vigorously, not caring when she felt the needle snag and tear. If this worked, it wouldn't matter what condition the silk was in after the fact.

"Monty, canteen."

She grabbed her travel cup, placing it on a level patch of ground before filling it carefully to the brim with water. Dropping the needle in, she watched breathlessly as it hung. And started to spin.

[Bee]

Mnem realized with admiration what Minh was doing with the silk, needle and water. She was making a compass. An extremely crude, one, true, but it should do the job nicely. Finally, they would have something to give them a little bit of direction, and lead them out of these godforsaken woods.

The needle stopped. That way was North, then. It was the exact opposite from the direction they had been going, which was annoying and unfortunate.

"The path runs Northwest from Capital City," Mnem said. "If we head that way it should put us back on the path at some point."

The Marsh was actually due North from the City, and Mnem supposed if they kept going straight through the woods they would reach its borders eventually, but it was a lot of dangerous woods, and Mnem did not feel keen on being in them longer than was absolutely necessary. But she supposed getting arrowed, getting lost, getting clubbed over the head with a frying pan, and having a house collapse around her might have biased her against the area.

Just a little.