Flight

[Tamaranis]

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It wasn't that Robby was tired. Oh no, he couldn't become tired doing anything so simple as running. It was that he was running as fast as he possibly could. He was at the absolute limit of his speed, no sudden rush of determination or sight of his goal would be able to grant him any more speed. This was it, as fast as he could ever move, and it wasn't fast enough.

 

Branches lashed against him, stinging his face and beginning the work of turning his clothing ragged. The ground was uneven here, and covered in exposed tree roots and low growth. He adjusted his step accordingly without any significant loss in speed, he couldn’t afford to go any slower. He couldn’t even afford to move as slowly as he was now.

 

Most humans would have found matching his pace for even a few seconds to be a difficult task. But his pursuers, imperial soldier golems, were even faster and more tireless than he. They were stronger too. They ran heedlessly through branches and other growth he would have to take care to avoid. At least it meant he could hear where they were.

 

They were close, now. When he looked back he imagined he could see the glint of light of their weapons. They were even with him, too, far off to either side but slowly closing in. They would find him, he would have to face them. It would have been better to turn around, take them by surprise, try to fight through the way he'd come and hope most of them didn't realize he'd changed directions until he was away from them again.

 

But he couldn't do that, so he kept running. It didn't make any sense, they would just tighten the noose, he would still have to face them, all he was doing was postponing the inevitable. But he kept running.

 

This, I think, is appropriate repayment

 

It was more an impression of someone else's thoughts and intentions more than a voice. Not that he had any idea what that was supposed to mean anyway.

 

“Spectress! What the hell!?” His breath still came easily, he didn't need it for running, shouting proved no additional challenge and the imperial golems knew where he was anyway.

 

The spirit didn't answer. It seldom did. So Robby continued to run.

 

But something was different. It was taking too long for the imperials to find him. He should have felt their weapons suddenly tear into his flesh by now, or seen a wall of the determined creatures in his path. But nothing of the sort happened. If anything, the sound of their pursuit was dropping farther away.

 

That shouldn't have been possible. He couldn't outrun a soldier type golem. But the sounds of pursuit were definitely dropping away now, and faster. They were yelling now, in confusion, they had lost track of him. What exactly it was they were saying, Robby couldn't tell, they were suddenly too far off.

 

Suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, he came out of the forest he was running through. He hadn't seen the trees thinning, or any sort of edge to it, he'd just suddenly stepped out into a cleared area. He continued running, though he couldn't hear sounds of pursuit at all anymore. It didn't bother him at all that he was moving uphill now.

 

He finally slowed his pace when he glanced back and saw that the “forest” he’d just exited was, in fact, a small copse of trees that would take him perhaps a minute to run across. Taking a more careful survey of his surroundings, he realized he didn't recognize anything. No landmarks he recognized anywhere. He stopped running.

 

“Where am I?” He wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer.

 

Somewhere the Empire will never find you

Edited November 20, 2005 by Tamaranis

[Sweetcherrie]

Her concentration was off today, and meditation was only possible when she was focused. Dana moaned softly with frustration as Troy popped up next to her. She’d felt him coming, the changes of energy around her when he teleported were easily picked up, even though her focus was less than brilliant at the moment.

 

The bird cooed softly and nudged her arm. Images of what Troy saw as love tried to enter her brain, but her mood was such that she forced them out and sent a thought back to leave her alone for a while. Troy hung his head, but did as she asked and rising up he sent her another comforting image before he glided off into the direction of the Pen Keep.

 

The surroundings she chose for meditating were normally solitary, allowing her to concentrate fully, but now she had sent the phoenix away she suddenly felt lonely and even a bit guilty about the harshness with which she had reacted towards him.

 

Dana pushed the feelings out of the way and for a while she tried to focus on turning her thoughts within when something else broke through the flow. However, this time her sense couldn’t identify who or what it was. She picked up the wrinkle in the normally steady waves and followed it mentally, but already it was fading.

 

After hesitating whether she should go and have a look, she decided that mediation wasn’t happening anyway, so she got up and walked towards where she had felt the disruption. With the ease of habit the trees parted before her, pushed aside casually by the movements she made causing the energy to ripple out around her.

 

Feelings of unease reached her as she approached the edge of the woods. Her sharp senses told her that whatever it was that had come over was standing in the middle of the field that lay ahead of her. Now she wished that she hadn’t sent Troy away, and as if the bird had heard her thinking he popped up in the air above her and shrieked happily as he felt the change of her mood.

 

With a quick thought she told him to be silent. The phoenix circled the sky and expressed curiosity as to why she had silenced him. Dana projected the image of the strange force in the field and asked him to go check it out. Troy rose higher and circled above her once more before he swooped off in the direction she had shown him. Dana followed him with her eyes, curious of what news he would come back with.

[Patrick]

Nine feet from the small stream and another twenty five from the deer. Adding to that the about one foot difference in height, she had a pretty easy shot. Gently she placed the arrow on the bowstring, careful not to make the slightest sound. The deer was grazing peacefully in the small clearing, unaware of the mortal danger it faced. For Ming, this was the first time in three days, that she had found some food. Hunting in these parts wasn't easy, and the game scarce.

 

It had been seven years since she had run away from home, then an eleven year old child. Ever since she had wandered the world, fleeing the dark secret in her past. She had stepped off the ship two weeks ago in this strange land. She hoped that her secret was unknown here, and that she hadn't been followed.

 

Silently she watched the leaves on the tree behind which she was hiding, calculating wind speed, making small adjustments to her shot. The bowstring made only a small twang as the arrow was released. Her eyes did not leave the suddenly alert target as she reached to the ground and placed a second arrow on the bow, in case the first one missed. There was no need. The first arrow had found its mark, burying itself deep in the deer's neck. The deer took a staggering step, then fell to the ground.

 

When Ming got there, it was still breathing, albeit in gasps. With her knife, she put the beast out of its misery, then set to the task of skinning it. Two hours later she had a small fire going and one of the deer's legs roasting on it. Most of the rest of the edible meat had been stowed away in her pack, along with some of the precious salt she was carrying. It had been a sailor four years ago, who had taught her this method of preserving meat.

 

Finally she was able to satisfy her hunger. While she ate, she tended to the fire, so that it gave off only a very small amount of smoke. She had learned to be the least detectable in the times, when most of the company she received had come to kill her. Many had paid with their lives when they had tried to kill her, falling either to her precise bowshots, or her knife.

 

She hoped that here, her weapons would need be used for peaceful means only. When she finished her meal, she put out the fire and placed some rocks and dirt on the fireplace. She knew that to the trained eye it would be visible that there had been a fire here, but she made a decent attempt at hiding her traces.

 

She placed her pack and bow on her back, and was just about to reenter the cover of the trees, when towards the North, in the distance, she spotted a strange bird. She was completely unfamiliar with the fauna and flora of these parts, yet the shape and colour of the bird were not unknown to her. She squinted her eyes and could just make out a strange phenomenon around the bird. It seemed to be flaming. She remembered what this bird was from the bedtime stories her mother had told her while she was still young. Yet she had never believed that they existed, but now here was proof. She moved under the canopy of the trees, in case the bird spotted her, while she tried remembering every detail she had heard about its kind.

 

She was relieved when she remembered that the birds were good. She set off at a rapid, yet silent pace towards where she had seen the bird. She was determined to find out whether the bird had a human along with it. She needed to find out at least a bit about this strange land. The sailors on the ship, which had brought her here, were of her own land, and did not know about this one.

Edited November 20, 2005 by Patrick Durham

[Tamaranis]

Robby was at a complete loss. He was used to his thoughts being dominated by who might be pursuing him and how best to avoid them, and he hadn’t had a lot of time for other questions, like what he would do if he wasn’t running for his life. But so far as he could tell he really was in a place where the empire would never find him.

 

There was a mild elation at the idea that he’d never again have to face the prospect of fighting imperials, but that didn’t give him any ideas on what he should do now. He was going to have to build some kind of a life, and he’d rather do it without upsetting whoever the local power was. If he really was done running he wasn’t keen on starting again. He’d spotted a few tree stumps that looked like the work of human hands, so there somebody around here.

 

He was distracted from these pressing thoughts by a ball of fire hurtling in his direction, thirty or forty feet above the ground. It’s course seemed level, and he couldn’t see any sign of where it might have come from, so all he could do was watch it and try to get out of its path if it should suddenly plunge toward him.

 

It didn’t plunge toward him, though, and when it passed overhead he saw that it was no simple fiery enchantment, but a bird with feathers of flame. He was wary that there might still be some malice behind the appearance of the burning bird, it had the look of a distraction about it, but he couldn’t help but follow the path of its flight as it slowly curved around toward him again.

 

Then, in a very startling flash of light and fire, the bird appeared almost directly overhead. Between its impressive wingspan and the fact it was on fire, Robby retreated a few steps before he realized it wasn’t attacking him. The bird hovered there for a moment, then made an extremely non-threatening “coo” noise, and descended to the ground.

 

“Cooie?” It seemed to ask. Unfortunately, Robby didn’t know giant flaming bird.

 

He didn’t really know what to make of it. It was obviously magical, but also definitely not of the Empire. The way it was staring at him made him think it must be intelligent, but whether it was the intelligent in the way a crow was intelligent, intelligent like a human, or intelligent like a dragon, he could only guess.

 

He decided to assume like a human, and held his arms out to either side, displaying his empty palms to the bird. He couldn’t help grinning a little at how foolish he suddenly felt, first for being afraid of the bird and now for trying to speak with it, “Uhh... Hi?”

Edited November 20, 2005 by Tamaranis

[Sweetcherrie]

Circling high above, Troy had felt two presences below, and had looked to find both, but had only been able to see one. He was certain however that there were two, and fairly sure that neither had bad intentions. He wondered on what Dana would want him to do next and what Sweetcherrie would do, and decided that he might as well go down and have a look. If they did turn out to be mean-spirited he could always take off again.

 

Caught by the excitement of meeting possible new friends he almost forgot to send out a thought to Dana that it was probably all alright, but remembered just in time. When he got her reply that she was coming his way, he cooed happily and started descending. The phoenix managed to land quite elegantly in front of the stranger and sent him an image, asking who he was.

 

The only reply that got back to him were images of confused feelings, but seeing that he still felt no threat, he hopped forward and nudged the outstretched hand with his beak. Troy made sure to be careful and not set the boy on fire; being almost sure that neither Dana nor Sweetcherrie would like it if he did.

 

…

 

Dana had started running the moment she had received the images of the phoenix and the information that he would go over to make new friends. She had tried to warn him that not everybody was friendly, but the bird had ignored her and she had seen him descend.

 

During her run she had summoned a whip from the Keep, and had attached it loosely to her knife belt. The adrenaline pumping through her body heightened her senses and she picked up the energy of the second person Troy had mentioned. The energy was ahead of her, but was heading towards her, and it felt as if they were both going towards Troy now.

 

'This will be funny, two strangers in the Pen Keep and Troy trying to make friends with them.'

 

The thought crossed her mind and as she slowed down she slipped a knife into her hand, wanting to be able to react fast if needed. Approaching with care now, her internal ‘radar’ set on sharp, Dana was ready for whatever she would find.

 

The phoenix totally blew whatever cover the landscape and the unexpected approach might have given her, by letting out a happy cry. Troy moved to come towards her and, as she saw the boy stumble backwards at the rash moves of the bird, she told him to stay put. The phoenix protested but stayed where he was, and she now addressed the stranger.

 

“Who are you, and where did you come from?”

 

The knife loosely held in one hand she shut out the images of reassurance from Troy that the boy meant no harm. You could never be too careful.

[Tamaranis]

Robby felt his eyes being drawn to the knife in the woman’s hand. It seemed to be just a knife, he didn’t exactly feel physically threatened by that in itself, but the fact that she felt like she needed to have a knife bothered him. Plus it might always be more than just a knife.

 

“Well,” he said carefully, “my name is Robby. As for where I come from...” he couldn’t properly explain where he had come from if he didn’t no where he was. He didn’t want to mention the empire incase they were known but not particularly loved, here. “...I’m at a bit of a loss to explain that.” He smiled despite the fact he really didn’t like that knife.

 

He looked about as harmless as anyone with all their limbs intact could. It was hard to say exactly how old he was, young, but not a child. A little on the short side, too. He could have been anywhere in his teenage years, perhaps even his early twenties, but the lack of facial hair suggested something toward the younger end of the spectrum.

 

He clothing was simple, like a peasant might wear, and it was a little ragged. He somehow seemed to give the impression this must be a result of playing in the dirt. His arms were still easily visible at his sides, and there were no weapons or armor of any sort visible anywhere on him, not even anything as simple as a sling or small knife on his simple rope-belt.

 

His difficulty in explaining where he’d come from carried what was almost embarrassment with it. Between all this and the insistence of Troy that he was harmless, it was difficult for Dana to keep her guard up. But when she was close like this she noticed something she’d missed before.

 

It was very subtle, the way the mana flows were twisted by his presence. The typical mage would never notice it unless they were looking for it. Even as closely tied to the mana as she was, she had hardly seen it. If she hadn’t been on such high alert she’d have missed it entirely. The effect reached a few hundred feet in every direction, down into the earth as easily as upward into the sky.

 

It wasn’t particularly strong, nothing strong could be so difficult to perceive, but it was definitely there. The purpose of the distortion, it seemed, was to generate energy in the surrounding space and funnel it into him. It covered enough area that despite the weakness of it, the entirety of the effect must have been significant. Only by following the flow back into him was she able to see the mana coursing through his body, more of it and far more fluid than in a normal human. Even actively casting mages didn’t have manaflows that looked like that.

 

It was totally out of synch with his physical appearance, which suggested nothing even remotely dangerous or even out of the ordinary.

[Patrick]

The sharp ears of a fox made out the sounds of her passage, and Ming heard the soft footfalls of the animal running away. It was nature's way. Neither of them had seen the other, yet they both knew that there was no need for them to meet.

 

Smiling at the thought she waded through the forest, careful not to step on dry branches or leaves, painstakingly watching every step, so that her passage is not noticed. She does not know that Dana's magical capabilities have already detected her, but even if she did, she would not change her method of approach. This was a lesson, life had taught her well.

 

Her ears constantly pick up the strange sounds of birds, she has never heard before. Every hour, every minute even, she is more and more fascinated by nature's ability to be so diversified. A small blackbird's flight crosses her path, the bird not even noticing her.

 

Her steps were gradually taking her towards the spot above which she had spotted the mythical bird. As the ground sloped upwards, she reduced her speed, and brought out her bow, ever alert for any signs of danger. Although she was pretty sure that the bird was good, she had no idea who else would be in the clearing.

[Sweetcherrie]

Her senses were sending signals out from all sides now, and the second person was barely noticeable in the distance, but still she had picked up the unfamiliar energy. However, Robby’s mana was heavily disturbing her internal radar, and with Troy still trying to tell her how much he liked the ‘kid’ she had no idea how to respond.

 

His reactions weren’t hostile in any way, and this place somehow seemed to attract either the strange or the weird, so she slowly lowered her knife and stuck it back in her belt.

 

“You’re a mage.”

 

It wasn’t a question. It was merely stating an assumed fact, and it gave her something to say. She walked over to Troy and scratched him on his head; the phoenix nudged her and uttered a sound that sounded more as if he was a big purring cat instead of a flaming bird.

[Tamaranis]

Robby sighed and allowed his arms to fall to his side. Then he laughed. Apparently mage was an acceptable profession here. In fact, it seemed mages were held in enough esteem that being a mage could instantly diffuse a situation like this one.

 

“I’d like to agree with you,” he said, “but you’d be very disappointed in me when you discovered I was lying.”

 

“I can see you mana flows.” Dana told him.

 

Robby frowned a little. “You’re not supposed to be able to. Well, not you specifically,” he added hastily, “just... not anybody at all.”

 

“Doesn’t matter, I guess.” he made a gesture as if he were warding off insects, or physically brushing his concern aside, “Just surprised me a little, that you can see the spell matrix.”

 

He took a couple of steps to close the distance to Troy and knelt beside the phoenix. “It’s not really for casting spells, though. It’s more like...” he couldn’t quite decide how to describe it, “...I guess what it really does is protect me in small ways.”

 

He reached out toward the phoenix and hesitated, then scratched its head in imitation of the way Dana had done it. “Nothing so powerful that I normally stick my hand into fires though.” He chuckled at that, a little nervously because he could see the flames curling around his fingers.

 

Troy gave a delighted squawk at everyone finally deciding to be friends and stumbled into Robby. The bird was large enough that with Robby kneeling it was taller than him, and he winced a little but didn’t actually fall back or retreat, even when it nuzzled its burning head against his face. Troy nearly knocked him over through sheer enthusiasm, however.

 

When the phoenix switched targets and assailed Dana instead Robby stood up. “I’m more than a little lost, though. Where am I exactly?”

Edited November 27, 2005 by Tamaranis

[Sweetcherrie]

As Troy launched for her, Dana glared at him, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

 

“We are at the land of the Pen Keep…but I haven’t arrived so long-“

 

Dana had caught sight of the second energy she had felt. At the edge of the field the figure moved with the utmost care. She followed it with her senses and eyes, and resumed talking to Robby.

 

“I’ve not been here too long myself, but the people are welcoming enough, and there is enough mana to work with.”

 

Robby followed her line of sight, and caught what she was looking at.

 

“You know her?”

 

Without taking her eyes off the moving figure in the distance she answered the question.

 

“I don’t know her energy, but her energy is not hostile, maybe we should go and meet her…would save her the trouble of sneaking around like she is now.”

 

The last words had come on a very dry tone, and they made Robby chuckle. Troy peeked up with the happy sound, but when Dana looked at him he sort of hmpfed and took flight before teleporting away.

[Patrick]

As soon as she saw the two figures notice her, she hastily ducked behind a tree. She pressed herself against the hard bark in an effort to become less visible, all the while listening to what was being said. Not surprisingly she didn't understand a single word of what the two, a man and a woman were talking. The language here was so different from the one spoken at home. She wondered, should it come to it, whether she would manage to be understood by them. She had a basic knowledge of the sign language associated to her own culture, but she wasn't sure whether it would work her.

 

As their voices slowly drew closer, Ming's breathing got faster, and her fingers tensed in preparation for an eventual combat. She did not know who these people were, and despite her childhood memories of that strange bird, not being evil, sudden doubts assailed her.

 

With fluid grace she moved out from behind the tree, her hand at her hips, ready to draw her dagger if the need came to it. Since she was unable to adress the two, she now had to wait for them to talk to her first.

[Tamaranis]

“No, no… I’ve lost her again.” Robby admitted, “She’s very good at disappearing.”

 

“She’s fast,” Dana agreed, then pointed, “right there, see her?”

 

“…maybe.”

 

Dana’s extra senses didn’t have any trouble following Ming’s movements. Tracking the mana of living things, and how a human’s differed from that of plants and animals was relatively easy. Relative to trying to keep track of her with just one’s eyes and ears. Robby, being stuck with only his eyes and ears, wasn’t having such an easy time keeping track of exactly where she was.

 

“All that magic, and you really can’t sense anything?” Dana asked.

 

“Oh, I can sense things from time to time,” they were speaking conversationally, at a normal volume, “mostly things I’ve been able to see or hear for the last five minutes. I never pick up on anything like other people.”

 

“She’s right in front of us.” Dana warned.

 

“Oh, I was looking the wrong way again. How did-“

 

Robby stopped speaking as Ming stepped out from her hiding place, threw his arms over his head, ducked, and returned to a normal standing position with remarkable speed and dignity. “Does everyone here just appear out of nowhere like that?”

 

Dana spared Robby and his reaction a brief glance before saying, "There's really no need for you to hide from us."

 

Ming didn't respond in any way, and an awkward silence quickly developed. It occured to Robby that she looked like she was from a different region than Dana, and he so he asked in Old Ksol, "This one is pretty widely spoken, you don't happen to know it, do you?"

 

Ming shrugged helplessly.

 

"How about Rhaab? You look kind of like a Rhaab..." Ming responded with a precise gesture made with one hand.

 

Robby looked questioningly at Dana, who guessed his question "Well it wasn't magic," she said.

 

"The language of the empire?" he ventured tentatively in Imperial. Again, Ming didn't respond.

 

Robby switched back to Eldoorian. "Well, that's every language I know."

 

Ming placed one open hand, palm downward, under her chin and against her throat. She moved it down to her collarbone, as if shoving something back toward her chest. Robby didn't have any real experience with unspoken language or "hand-talk" but given the context he was able to piece together what that gesture meant.

 

"Sorry, I didn't realize... you don't understand me anyway..." Robby trailed off, slightly embarassed.

Edited January 12, 2006 by Tamaranis

[Patrick]

Ming hadn't understood a single word of what the strange man had said. She frowned deep in thought, then with a sudden movement broke off a large chunk of bark from the tree next to her. She took out her knife and etched a drawing into the bark's inner surface.

 

She divided the piece of bark into three parts, in the first part she drew a crude picture where she was arriving on ship to the shores of this land. On the second she drew herself seeing Troy from afar, and finally in the third part she drew a very rough, albeit recognizable sketch of herself, and next to it her name written down. The whole process took but ten minutes.

 

She handed the piece of bark to Robby, and tried explaining at the same time with gestures the message she was trying to transmit with the piece of bark.

[Sweetcherrie]

Dana looked at the bark, but had no idea what the girl was talking about. She could see that it was some sort of city the girl had drawn, and a boat of kinds, but after having established that neither was a threat she longed for a hot bath.

 

Would the people in the Pen mind if she would take strangers to the Keep? She didn’t think they would, after all they had welcomed her with open arms.

 

“Would the both of you like to come for a drink?”

 

She tried gesturing it to Ming, and only hoped that those signs were similar on all planes.

[Tamaranis]

Robby watched intently, not saying anything as Ming drew her bark sketches. He watched even more intently, trying to lock everything she did into memory, when she attempted to explain their meaning in hand-talk. There just wasn’t enough to go on to understand her. He was fairly certain he picked up the gesture for “boat,” and there was a gesture she used in reference to herself twice, but whether it referred to her personally, her people, or it described some quality she possessed… he didn’t even recognize the alphabet she’d to write her name.

 

Well, he could make out easily enough that she’d sailed across an ocean to get here.

 

Then Dana offered them a drink.

 

“Well, I don’t really drink,” Robby answered, “but it beats standing around in the middle of nowhere waiting for nothing.”

 

“C’mon, I’m sure I can find someone to translate for us at the Keep.” Dana gestured for Ming to follow and started walking away.

 

“Mind if I hang on to these?” Robby picked up the two pieces of tree bark Ming had given him before following Dana, hoping he might learn some greater detail from them.

 

Ming hesitated. Robby and Dana were walking in the open, no cover, nowhere to hide if an enemy appeared. They seemed friendly enough, but she didn’t understand a single word either of them had said, she had no basis to trust them.

 

But she would have to take a chance sometime, she couldn’t live as a wild hunter forever, and she would never just happen upon anyone she shared a language with in this land. She followed a few steps and stopped again, not knowing what to do.

 

She felt the loss of her tongue very keenly for a moment. The young man seemed to have been some sort of linguist, maybe she could have effectively communicated with him if only she could speak. That would make everything so much easier.

 

…but it wouldn’t really have made her any safer, it just would have provided a sense of security. Instinct said not to walk so boldly, the arrogance that made people move about without any sort of protection killed them.

 

Every sense was on full alert, surveying the surroundings with nearly the same precision Dana could manage. She spotted a possible hiding place for enemies every second, but Ming slowly walked toward Robby and Dana, fell into step with them, and began travelling with them.

 

“I wonder why I’m not as jumpy as she is.” Robby mused out loud, “I guess talking helps…”

 

***

 

Robby made as much conversation as he could as the three of them walked, focussing on musings on the things around them and picking out images in the clouds. He tried to involve Ming in this as much as possible, and endeavoured to make note of whatever hand gestures she made. Eventually enough mutual exposure to each other’s languages would surely allow some sort of communication. Further, he was hoping to put Ming more at ease.

 

“…of course back home we don’t have a lot of trees like that because, well, it’s complicated. I think you two wouldn‘t believe me.”

[Sweetcherrie]

They walked along, and the usually not so talkative Dana simply listened to the very bouncy Robbie. It seemed to her that the boy was affraid that his tongue would rust stuck in his mouth if he were to stop talking, but it was pleasant to listen to him talking.

 

The path they had taken led them back into the forest, and it was nice to just walk along. After a while she automatically shut out the meaning of Robbie's words and his voice turned into a hum that made a fair melange with the other sounds in the forest.

 

Then her ears picked up a sound that wasn't supposed to be there. She reached out with the energy and tried to tune in to what had been making the sound. Its energy was weak and it was fading as they spoke, it might just be an animal dying deep in the forest, but somehow she had a feeling that this was more.

 

Dana put a hand on Robbie's arm, and he silenced for a moment. She tried to listen intensely if she could rediscover the sound, and attempted to locate the energy.

 

"What's hap-"

 

"Shhh...I heard something."

 

There! She heard it again. Dana started walking into the direction where she thought she had heard the sound. It wasn't too far out of their own direction, and if someone or something was in need, they could always have a look if they could help.

[Patrick]

Ming had her bow in her hand and an arrow on the string of it, as soon as she saw the first indication of possible danger from Dana. At first she thought that the danger was going to come from Dana herself, but then from Dana's and Robbie's body language she understood that this was not the case.

 

She noticed Dana staring fixedly in one direction, and indeed when she strained her hearing she could hear some movement in that direction. From this distance she could not make out what she was hearing, but given that Dana was moving in that direction she would find out soon enough. She loosened several arrows in her quiver, preparing for any possibility and moved to follow Dana.

 

Careful not to step on any dry leaves or branches and making the least amount of noise she could. Even thus, through many years of experience in the wild, Ming moved faster among the trees than Dana.

Edited February 8, 2006 by Patrick Durham

[Tamaranis]

Knowing that he couldn’t trust his eyes to pick out the subtle signs a well-chosen ambush point would leave, Robby closed them, took a deep breath to help focus his mind, and listened very carefully. Nothing. No magic strong enough to sense it, no sound loud enough he could hear.

 

After opening his eyes again he quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to move as quietly as either of his companions. Going with them would only give away their position if a fight broke out, but he didn’t want to just abandon them in a potentially dangerous situation. Instead he decided to move into the forest quite separately from them and try to find the source of this sound on his own. If it was something that meant to hunt them it would most definitely perceive him, and with its attention thus diverted, the two women could easily take it by surprise.

 

Of course, if they could hear whatever made the sound, it could likely hear them, so Robby wouldn’t be able to articulate his clever plan without giving it away. He settled for waving to Ming and Dana, hoping they would understand his intent, and wishing he knew that hand-talk.

 

Then he moved off on his own. Robby made a deliberate effort to be quiet, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough to prevent an even remotely alert being from hearing his approach. And if it was going to hear him coming, sounding like a decoy wouldn’t do him any good.

 

He worked his way out away from where Dana and Ming had gone for a few minutes before moving toward where Dana had indicated she heard a noise. Then fear hit him with almost physical force. Robby immediately dropped to the ground for fear of being seen. It took several seconds of trying to figure out just what had frightened him for Robby to realize it was nothing. He hadn’t heard anything, seen anything, or otherwise perceived anything that should have alarmed him. All the same, he felt incredibly exposed just where he was and he crawled as quietly as possible into some low bush for added cover.

 

This didn’t help his feelings of unease any, though. He was harder to see now, but he also couldn’t see anything around him either. Someone could approach silently and he would never know it. A full fledged war golem, he would hear of course, but some of the regular soldier class golems were very stealthy and…

 

And they were all at least a thousand miles away. Robby spent a few seconds reminding himself there were no golems hunting him. He’d escaped the Empire’s golems and he would not succumb to fear of them now. This situation was very similar to his last encounter with them, but he had to leave that behind.

 

He stood back up. No golems. Just a forest with an unknown creature in it probably stalking him. A very bad time to be paralyzed by irrational fear, really. It would simply be too ironic to escape the empire only to be eaten by some random monster waiting for him in a forest, and besides he wasn’t the only person potentially in danger here.

 

Then he heard what it must have been that tipped Dana off. He must have been close now, because it was definitely a cry of pain, but it was quiet. Still wary that whatever caused the trouble in the first place might still be around, Robby moved quickly toward the source of the noise.

 

The assumption that someone had been in trouble was correct, apparently. There was a shallow pit, about twenty feet across, decorated with skulls and other gruesome bits of bone. It was also ringed with runes etched into the dirt around it, and a woman was tied to a stake at the centre, a ksol by the look of her. There was a lot of blood on her clothing and on the ground, and she looked far gone.

 

This was exactly the sort of place that any number of unsavoury characters would hang around, but Robby couldn’t see any of them, and lacking evidence of immediate danger, the woman obviously needed help. Nothing appeared to attack him as he approached, even when he stumbled slightly stepping into the pit. He reached her without incident but the whole illusion began fading the second he touched it.

 

Robby immediately went into a state of highest alertness possible, and so when something hit him in the back, he rolled forward and escaped most of the impact. He immediately rolled away from where he had landed, escaping a second pounce by some great cat. It charged toward him and caught his foot in its head as he sat up.

 

The cat had probably been expecting him dead by now, hadn’t appreciated the kick to the head, and was re-evaluating its decision to kill him. Robby wasn’t familiar with exactly what sort of cat it was, and wouldn’t have been able to say for certain the difference between a leopard and a panther under the best of conditions, but he was fairly certain neither typically conjured up hallucinatory damsels in distress so as to lure in victims.

 

“A little help here…” He called up not too loudly, hoping not to provoke the cat into a new attack. It faked a lunge and he stood while stumbling backward. The cat then decided on an actual pounce. This time Robby caught the cat’s outstretched claws on his forearms and thrust his closed fists toward its head. The cat’s claws cut flesh but Robby offered far more resistance than anticipated and despite having the advantage of the momentum of its pounce and being the heavier of the two the cat staggered back from the collision.

 

It’s spots turned to stripes or it’s stripes turned to spots… which did it have in the first place anway? The cat displayed impressive fangs as it roared then faded from view altogether.

 

“Ah… Dana?” Robby called.

[Patrick]

The sounds of the skirmish not far away were unmistakable. Ming stepped over a dry branch as she quickly sped towards the sounds of disturbance. Once she got there however she saw only Robby in the middle of a clearing, clutching a minor wound. Ming glanced questioningly at him, then suddenly ducked down, a mysterious fear sweeping over her. Strangely there was nothing to be seen, or heard, only Robby looking as confused as Ming was. Could it be that she was fearing for him? What had wounded him in this clearing?

 

Ming couldn't help feeling hopeless. She was used to enemies she could see and hear, those which were invisible, she did not know how to fight. She could not realistically have a chance against someone, or some creature, who could strike from anywhere, without warning. She frantically turned left and right, her hands tense on her bowstring. At the slightest suspicious sound she was ready to release an arrow. She caught movement in her peripheral vision, and almost immediately released an arrow towards it. The arrow slammed into the bark of a tree on the other side of the clearing.

 

Had there been anything moving there, or had she just imagined it all? Ming drew another arrow, still extremely tense. She knew that she would have to calm down, but how could she do that if there was an unknown creature prowling around, hungry for their blood?

[Sweetcherrie]

Dana felt the change in energy, and it didn’t feel like something good. On top of that the weather had been changing slightly, and in the distance she could hear a thunderstorm rumble through the sky, coming closer fast. The enormous amount of electrical energy in the air would interfere with her sense of detection and if she would want to be of any use she would have to move fast.

 

She listened, and sprinted off into the direction of Ming and Robby to help them. While running towards where she heard Robby scream, and Dana drew up a shield of energy around her. If this creature, whatever it was, would exist solely of energy the shield wouldn’t help, but it was pure instinctive that she wanted to protect herself with whatever she had.

 

She picked up energy from behind her, and without stopping in her run she pulled her knifes out her belt, and took a roll forward. Whatever it was missed her by and inch and was now in front of her. Dana saw nothing, but the hairs on her skin stood up straight and she felt that the creature in front of her was weighing its chances. Then it seemed to decide to take its chances with Robby and Ming, and Dana could feel how it stormed into the direction of her friends.

 

With her knifes at hand she spurted forward, following the energy of the creature now, becoming the hunter instead of the hunted. The thunderstorm was pulling closer and she felt how she started losing the trail of energy the creature had left, and ran even faster. Then the storm was there.

 

All sense of where to go was gone, and on top of that the shower of rain that was now pouring down drowned out any sound. Darkness pulled over the forest and, where it had already been dark under the trees, it now became pitch black. In a desperate attempt to reach the others, Dana kept running forward, but the rain made her movements slower. Her leather clothes were soaked to the last thread, and hindered her as she ran.

 

As she nearly missed a tree for the third time, she decided that she had to slow down. She could only hope that the creatures that had been attacking experienced the same difficulties through the storm as she was.

 

After about half an hour of walking through the shady forest, desperately trying to listen if she could detect the others, Dana realized she was lost. Now she could only hope that Ming and Robby would be ok.

Edited May 27, 2006 by Sweetcherrie

[Tamaranis]

Robby and Ming both held perfectly still, struggling to tell between signs of where their enemy was and phantoms conjured up by the fear of it. Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. Without a mage to cut through its power of illusion, they could do nothing but wait for the cat to strike. Minutes passed with no sign of the thing.

 

“It’s just an animal, and I cuffed it pretty good…” Robby reasoned, “Maybe it ran off to find easier prey?”

 

A few more seconds dragged on before he added, “No, I don‘t believe it and you can‘t understand me to start with”

 

Then the storm that had seemed distant minutes ago struck. The sudden, heavy rain briefly outlined the shape of a predator only a few feet in front of Ming. The illusion adapted quickly, and the rain seemed to close like a curtain, leaving no trace that anything had ever been amiss. But even as it did Ming loosed an arrow.

 

It stopped mid-way to the earth, apparently hanging in midair before it made a slight bobbing motion and disappeared. By instinct or a lucky guess Ming twisted out of the way of the cat’s lunge. Armed with a bow and a knife against an invisible cat that was already only a few feet away she would have been at a distinct disadvantage, but Robby demanded its attention by colliding with it.

 

He’d actually meant to deliver a running kick, but he had no way to accurately gauge its position, and instead he hit it with his knees and lost his balance. As he fell claws struck the back of his knee and rebounded, leaving odd, short cuts. As he hit the ground he made a grab for the offending paw and felt his fingertips brush against fur in a near miss.

 

Another arrow missed its mark but kept the beast weary enough for Robby to regain his feet.

 

The cat waited, not immediately making another move. Another long, tense period of silence drew out, this time with a chilling rain pouring down. Then a slight distortion appeared in the air, dropping toward Robby. He drove his fists into it and struck only air, nearly managing to catch an arrow through his hand.

 

Two more vaguely cat-shaped distortions appeared, and leaped at each of them. Ming moved to evade the one leaping toward her, Robby put himself off balance to kick at the same one. Once again, both were only air and illusion.

 

Finally, Dana arrived.

 

“Dana! Invisible monster cat!” Robby warned

 

Too late. She cried out in alarm and fell forward, the cat appearing as it bore her to the ground. Robby and Ming both rushed toward her. The cat’s jaws closed around her neck. A shell of light appeared around Dana and held against the jaws. The cat’s claws raked against the shell and it flickered. A weight struck Robby in the back, pulling him to the ground. He rolled, easily escaping out from under it, and saw the cat writhing on the ground beside him.

 

In confusion Robby looked back to where the cat had attacked Dana and saw nothing at all. The real thing, lying beside him, had an arrow through its throat. Another one appeared behind its shoulder as it rose. Images of the surrounding plants and grasses danced madly across its body as it struggled away, letting out several sharp yowls as it went. When it fell again it did not rise.

 

Robby looked back toward where the false attack on Dana had occurred, to Ming, to where the cat had fallen, and back to Ming. “…I hope those things are solitary.”