Dorin moved towards the mage,still sobbing for some reason. He went up to Isiseris and tried to communicate. "Whats wrong Isiseris?" he whispers gently in common, "Has something upset you?" He turned towards Edward who was slowly approaching him."Hang on a second Ed, I'm checking to see if Isiseris is ok.
Seeing Dorin is focused on helping the sobbing mage, Edward quietly made his way over to their side. "Can I be of some assistance?" He asked in a hushed voice.
Isiseris answered with "I do appreciate thy expression of concern, but there be matters of which I shalt not speak at present. Worry not; the troubling moment hath passed" Her moment of darkness indeed had seemed to passed, Isiseris refocused her attention to the more immediate task at hand. She’d seen and heard enough to know that lingering much longer would not be safe; all that remained was to decide how to proceed. She had carried on her quest alone to this point, and in many ways preferred the freedom accorded by solitary travel. Still, the events of the past hours had convinced her that, for the moment at least, she was safer among this group than if she set out by herself again. That decision made, she proceeded to check out one of the horses that were tied to the tree. She examined them for wounds that might have been incurred during the battle but were not yet evident at a glance, and settled on a chestnut mare that was not too tall, but appeared both sound and of excellent configuration. She stroked its mane and looked into the eyes. They were clear and alert. “We will travel many leagues together, you and I,” Isiseris intoned gently, “and even with one of the young ones aboard, we will fare quite well together. However thou hast been treated ere we met, you shall be tended to with care from now on.” As Isiseris moved away from them, Dorin turned once again to Edward, "The priest, he disappeared into the bushes over there. I don't know why, but if it was to answer natures call, he's been gone quite a while!". As he spoke he pointed towards the undergrowth on the opposite side of the clearing.
Samuel continued writing onto his parchment, collecting his thoughts into a form which when later read should give him insight into the world around him. A drop of sweat dripped onto the desk from his brow and made him pause. Something was wrong! In this place, he shouldn't sweat, he controlled the temperature. He raised his awareness level, and found that he was actualy feeling a tightness around his chest, his breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. He ran his finger around his collar of his robe, but no, it wasn't caused by that. He started to panic. Something in the real world must be occuring, affecting his body. He could bring himself out of his trance, but he'd loose all of what he'd done so far. However as he'd only been in it a few minutes at the most, he'd not loose much. He bit his lip, thinking about what to do!
The heat and the tightness around his chest worry Samuel. He decided to come out of his trance. Closing his eyes to the the meditation room, he slowly expanded his awareness back into his real body. He felt the familiar heaviness of his own bodyand increased his wareness further. A heavy weight seemed to be enclosing his still kneeling body and as his hearing came back he heard a dry, rasping sound. His sense of smell was next but provided no further clues. He took a deep breath, and could taste nothing out of the ordinary but his sense of smell could detect a slight musty smell over the scent of the grass he was knelt in. He opened his eyes, to be confronted by an arrow shaped,reptilian face looking back at him. He looked down and gulped, the rest of the creature's long sineous body was wrapped around him. It's dark scales gleamed wet like as Samuel watched in fascination as the creatures muscles bunched and prepared to pull it's coils tighter....
Edward thanked Dorin for the information about the priest. A concerned frown furrowing his brow as he watched Isiseris' retreating form walk to the horses. "By the gods, may she be alright. Perhaps some consoling would help her spirit" he commented to himself. But the temptation was fleeting as his eyes darted to the form of the sleeping girl. "Aye, I need to find that priest. We must be away, and quickly; not sleeping off the fright of last night," he said, as he stomped off to the woods were the Dwarf had indicated that Samuel went. He crossed the clearing quickly, noting out of the corner of his eye that the dwarf had followed him.As the duo moved into the underbrush on the other side, Edward was glad he had. For they found the priest, knelt in the grass, held in the dealdy embrace of a large snakes coils...
Isiseris her examination of the horse complete began to check over the other horses in the group, moving closer to the girl-warrior and the gnome, both of whom having untangled the reins of the horses were following her lead and looking over the mounts. She was now close enough to overhear what the two were talking about. "Well, my name is Sh'andra, and my story is much the same actually. I had just come into the city last night and was there only briefly before the commotion began. I hadn't even found lodging for the night. Pretty soon I was beeing swept along until I came to this clearing, and here we all are." Obviously they were in a discussion about how they'd arrived at the predicament they were now in.
As the humans words reached him, Shaq’ils' back still to him, he froze, his anger building fast, the capillaries in his face filling with pumping hot blood, his colour darkening and his body going rigid with tension. Then, just as quickly, he began to relax, his face returning to its normal colour and a big smile beginning to form across his face as he thought to himself, ”Revenge is a dish best served cold…or hot as the case may be…very hot”, and he started to chuckle to himself.
Shaq’il lowered himself to his haunches, began his search of the corpse and said under his breath, for no one to hear but himself, “You’ll regret saying that, my friend…Oh yes!” He continued to chuckle to himself as he continued his grisly task.
As the second horse staggered to it's feet, Lufka tieds it's reins to the shaft of the spear.
Turning, he saw Shaq'il still rooting through the corpses. He shook his head and addressed Shaq'il with distaste. "I see that your people's old habits are still strong with you. The big fellow is trying to scare any pursuers so we have more time to flee. Samuel is helping one of your fallen comrades. Edward, myself and even the gnome are trying to ensure we have mounts. And you, what do you do to help escape the danger we are in? You help yourself to copper pieces. Tell me, how will your having heavier pockets help us?"
Without turning away from the task at hand, Shaq'il replied. "Just because what I am doing is distasteful to your frail sensibilities, does not mean it is not necessary. These creatures may carry some clue as to why they are here or where they are from. They also may have some item or weapons we can use." He paused as he moved to another corpse, then continued with "Now, I'd appreciate it if you would stop interupting me with your juvenile insults and just get on with doing something useful like rounding up your horses." Shaq'il chuckled to himself some more, "or impaling your self upon one of those spears." he thought to himself.
Sardonicus had reached the spear which had two horses tied to it whilst the human and halfling were sniping at each other. By the time Lufka had the third horse up, a head decorated the top of the pole. He moved over to one of the spears lying on the ground by the last horse. Inverting it and staking it in the ground, he placed the last head on the pole. Nodding at Lufka, he took the reins to the first two and as the last horse got itself to it's rather shaky legs said " ya right, ya know...let's get these to the others. If the short 'un wants to look after his sen, then let him, each to their own". Lufka nodded and without further ado the pair dissapeared from the Shaq's sight, back into the trees.
As the two walked through the trees, back to the clearing, Sardonicus said to Lufka, "So laddie, do ya ken where we're going to go from here. We've a reet rag tag mob we've landed ourselves with too! The city is more than oot t'question and aye'm naw familiar with the lands roond here. W'aboot ya' sen?
Lufka looked at the big northerner before replying ""I don't know, I'm a stranger here myself. Just away would be good, and fast. You have a big group though, I fear it will be difficult to move all those children quickly and quietly."
"Aye," responded Sardonicus, as they entered the clearing, "We cannae just abandon the wee 'uns though, we'll just have ta cope. Us tha' can walk can lead tha moonts...." He stopped and looked around. The two young women and the gnome were all preoccupied with choosing mounts, or so it seemed. The priest, dwarf and other fellow were no-where in sight. "Time to get things moving" Sardonicus thought to himself. Turning to Lufka, he asked him "Could you start waking oop tha wee 'uns, Jimmy and that lassie too. We'd better start getting sorted". Walking over to his pack, he picked up his scabbrord and sheathed his blade. "Alreet, you lot, let's start getting moving." He called to the other three. "Bring the horses over here and we'll get the bairns mounted oop". The others looked around, seeing Sardy and Lufka for the first time. They began to move as ordered when a series of blood curdling yells from the opposite side of the clearing, rent the morning air.
Dorin had followed Edward across the clearing and he was the first to react to the situation the priest was in. "Oh, shit! The priest is in trouble" he exclaimed. Without thinking, he dropped the axe he's carrying and reached for the twin handaxes. One in each hand he launched himself towards the creature wrapped around the Priest yelling something that sounded to Edward like "Gru-YAKKK!! Edward himself found himself rooted to the spot as Edward screamed in terror at the snake, watching as Dorin leapt into action. His first blow knocked the snakes head away from Samuels face, cutting a shallow cut into the scales. He followed up with a blow from the second axe, this time on on the coils wrapping itself tighter around the poor priest. Samuel grimaced as the snake squeezed him tight, but so far, although it was getting more difficult to breathe, it hadn't caused him any damage. His feet frozen in place by terror he stammered to Dorin, "K.. K... Ki... Kill it! Kill it now!" He tried to grab his dagger from its sheath but his arms were firmly pinned to his sides by the snakes coils. "Llew be with me," he muttered to himself as he continued to struggle against the snake. The snake continued to squeeze, it's head darting to and fro, trying to avoid further blows from Dorins axes. The dwarf kept up his series of cries with each swing of his weapons.
Shaq looked around, noticing he was all alone. He looked at all the bodies he hadn't managed to search and the few coppers he'd managed to snaffle from the three he had. Deciding that there was maybe something about safety in numbers, he trotted back towards the clearing, arriving in time to hear the commotion from the opposite side of the clearing.
Sardonicus looked in the direction of the cries. Biting his lip with a frown across his brow, he looked back at the rest of the party, then began barking orders.
"Youse women, get the wee'uns saddled up as best yer can. Lufka you help 'em. Ulf, come with me, let's get this next interruption over with as quickly as possible.... And someone wake up that girlie, for the gods sake!"
Dropping his pack and unsheathing his sword, he strides across the clearing, not looking back, expecting his orders to be followed.....
Startled by the fierce battle-cry emanating from the trees, Sh'andra quickly moved to the nearest child and gently lifted him into the saddle. 'Come child, up with you now. Do you know how to ride? If not just hug his neck and hold tight ok?'
Sh'andra loosened her axe from its sling at her side and hefted it as she jogged towards the commotion. As she moved she caught the attention of the eldest of the children saying, 'Help the other little ones into other mounts, I shall return shortly'. The youngster, quite alert by now, nodded at her.
'By Gorvan I truly tire of these incessant interruptions' she muttered to herself, quickly gaining speed as the urgency of the yells grew. However, as the young girl trotted past Sardy, he gave an indignant bellow and made to grab her arm, saying as he did, "OI! Woman! Are you deaf or just Stupid? I said for you to help with the bairns!! If people would just work togather instead of running aroond dooing tha' own thing, we may get oot of here in one piece! Thanks fer ya help 'n all but...fer the Gods Sake.... I'm sure the gnome and me sen can cope with what ever's going on over tha!! If not then you'll be the only protection this lot will have!!"He pointed back at the others, who were all busy scrabbling for horses, then realising how harsh he sounded, he looked imploringly at her, hoping she'd understand what he meant and the frustration he was feeling.
Sh'andra stopped dead in her tracks and stared hard back at Sardy, barely choking back a vehement retort but, she could not fault the warrior's logic. With a tert nod, she ran back to the clearing and helped the remaining children into mounts, attempting to calm the horses as she worked.
Sardy nodded in appreciation of the girls compliance. Looking round he noted the gnome was still faffing around. "Ulf" he bellowed, "Get yer runty wee arse over here, NOW!" He turned back round and disappeared into the trees on that side of the clearing.
Looking up from his faff Ulf drew Kill Stick and scampered after Sardonicus mumbling, "Alright.....Alright, Keep yas skirt on ya big get, I'm a coming, don't get ya knickers in a twist not that ya wear any!" With this he followed Sardonicus through the trees, his hungry blade held in front of him ready to feed.
A sheen of sweat covered Edwards face as he watched the brave dwarf try to kill the snake whilst not harming the priest. The half-elf's trembling hands fumbled towards the hilt of his sword. He held the shaking sword before him, still a full man's length away from the snake. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he pleaded, "You have to kill it Dorin. I... I just... can't!"
The concentration shows on Dorin's face as he ducks under the swinging head and follows up with a blow from his right hand axe.
"I'm trying" he grunts at Edward, "Nearly there!"
And with that he aims a blow with the axe in his left hand. The blade bites deep, a fountain of blood spraying from the wound.
The snake gives a shudder and it's coils go slack around the priest. Giving a loud hiss it lunges at Dorin, making him move backwards to avoid it. Instead of following up it's attack, the reptile makes a dash into the undergrowth, it's large body moving suprisingly quickly. Dorin mades another lunge with one of his axes but missed.
At that point Sardonicus, closely followed by the Gnome strode into view.
"Ah, I see we're too late" he said, taking in the scene quickly "Reet, them that's coming with us had better haul tha sorry backsides into the clearing, pretty quickly. We can't afford to waste any more time than has been so far" He reversed direction and went back towards the clearing.
Noting that the children had already been assisted onto their mounts, Shaq’il walked over to the group and asked, “Does any one know what’s going on over there? It’s not more of those creatures is it?” whilst indicating, with a nod of his head, the other side of the clearing from where the loud battle cry had emitted. He noticed it had all gone quiet now.
With the departure of the snake Edward slumped. His arms fell to his side, the short sword in his hand useless, like he felt. As he sheathed the sword he said to Dorin, "Sorry I froze up like that. I just can't stomach scaly things... they are just... evil." Sheathing the sword, Edward walks to Samuel's side. Offering a hand to help him up the half-elf asked, "Do you need help getting back to the clearing? It's the least I can do after..." He leaves the sentence unfinished as he looks down, shame faced.
Samuel took Edward's hand, and stood. "No apology is needed." To Dorin he added, "I thank you. I am used to meditating in private. Perhaps I should consider meditatating with the group until we arrive at safer environments." The priest dusted himself off. "Shall we go back to the clearing? We can make a plan there.
Dorin gruntd an affirmative. "That big fella, he seemed a little worked up over something, best we go see what, i think." He sheathed his axes and turned to head for the clearing. |
