Isiseris' found herself hesitating a bit as she approached the treeline and it's view of the field of battle below. It wasn't a weakness of stomach for carnage - she'd seen her share of death and destruction already in her young life. It was ... something else. A feeling of unease. A sense of dread that made no sense.
She reached the edge of the treeline and involuntarily held her breath as she surveyed the scene. There were other figures scattered about the hillside, but her full attention was focused on a human figure - bending over someone or something while wielding a sword in a threatning manner. The faceplate of the victim - to - be was raised just enough for her to see the orange - red tint of the skin, and Isiseris' hand had shot to the hilt of her dagger with the speed of thought. She had already done the necessary calculations to know she could deliver her weapon into the beast's eye and deep into it's brain without endangering the man standing there. But just as quickly, her higher nature took over and pulled her hand back from the sheath. So she wouldn't do the deed herself, but she could encourage the one with the sword. The words " KILL HIM NOW " came screaming out of her mouth. She then had to turn away as a flood of memories overwhelmed her...
Edward called to Lufka as he's threatened the hobgoblin with a sword, "Eh... Lufka, I don't think the thing speaks common. Why don't you just kill it, and help us with the rest of the horses?" As he said the latter, he pointrd to the four horses still on the ground.
"You're right," admitted Lufka, "but I'm disappointed it doesn't understand common. Something has it scared, and I very much doubt it's me. Lufka sprangs to his feet, took a step backward an plunged his sword into the throat of the creature lying struggling at his feet. After wiping his blade clean against it's cloak he sheathed his sword and followed Edward.
Edward responded, "Do you think you can rouse the four horses that are still laying on the ground. Sardicus here thinks we may have enough, for all of use, with the addition of those four."
"Can you two see to the horses? I've just had an idea, it might slow down any further pursuit, it might not" said Sardonicus. As he strode over to the body by Lufka, the latter replied "I can try, but I have no talent with horses". With that Lufka strolls over to the nearest horse and gingerly starts stroking it's neck.
Sardy meanwhil, swung his sword in a two handed grip, neatly severing the head from the torso. He then bent over, picking up the head by it's hair and walked over to the other unconcious form. As he walked, his macabre trophy swung at his side and trails of scarlet flowed from the severed neck. It bounced a couple of times as Sardy tossed it next to the body. Bending over the unconcious form, Sardy flipped open the face plate of the helm.Grunting with satisfaction, he prepared to cut this ones head off too when he was distracted by shouting coming from the woods and a familiar shrill voice yelling behind him!
Shaq’il moved back out of the embrace of the young human female, wiped the tears from her eyes, smiled and said, “Are you alright now?”
Giving her time to compose herself, Shaq’il rose to his feet and said, “We better get a move on. One of those riders managed to escape, and he, or should I say it, is bound to bring more of its kind down upon us. If you’re up to it, let’s do the dirty work of searching these bodies for anything that might be of use to us and get the hell out of here.”
"ye.. yes i think i'm ok. Thank you." She seemed to speak like she wasn't all there and ignored the rest of what Shaq had said. Sh'andra shakily got to her feet and carefully cleaned her blade with the cloak of her fallen enemy. She began to numbly make her way to the clearing, trying to make sense of what happened. Turning away from the retreating female, Shaq'il turned his mind, and his nimble fingers, to the task of searching the body of the fallen warrior before him.
Sh'andra passed the others, not even noticing them, but Isisersis' shout cut throught her numbness, bringing her rudely back to the world.
Humming an ancient gnomic thieving Ballard (well one that he'd just written himself!) that went along the lines of:
"My name is Ulf da da da da,
and I nick stuff,
and I kill things,
then nick their rings!"
and feeling thoughly pleased with himself, Ulf noticed that the rest of the party (or at least his big mate) seem ready to leave. Leaving his search (with some regret) he bounded over towards the group. "Hey, don't leave without us!" he squeaks "I can kill some more ov these things but not on me own." He walks towards Sardonicus and said "Who are these lads Sardo? Can I ride on your 'oss with ya?" and with that he tries to clamber aboard one of the horses held by Edward. He looked quite comical, as Edward had already set off moving them towards the trees. He had jumped for the creatures back and was now dangling from the saddle with his little legs kicked furiously at the air as the horses followed their guide quite sedately.
Samuel pictured the building of the foundations, cellars and then the walls, rooms and finally the roof of his Meditation House. When he'd finished, there stood in front of him a single story building, white walled with a red slated roof, in the style the Empire used to build centuries ago. Samuel walked up the path to the door. Opening it he walked into a light filled and airy room. Windows, glassless, filled two of the walls to either side of him. The ones on the left looking out to his gardens, the ones to his right looking out to the courtyard. Straight ahead was another door, towards this he moved, passing through it an into another room. This one too had a large window looking out on to the courtyard. The walls to his left was full of shelves, each shelf divided into compartments. A few of these compartments had scrolls, but not many. Samuel walked to the desk in the center of room and pulled out the chair. Sitting in the chair he pulled a piece a parchment from the pile on the desk, picked up the quill, dipped that in the ink pot and began to write...
As Dorin glanced around the clearing, he was wondering whether he should leave the kids and Rebecca to rest and go and find the others or he should stay and guard them. He finally decided to keep watch on the kids and Rebecca in case anything threatening did turn up. At the moment there wasn’t a sound Dorin could hear after that last shout, so he decided to patrol the clearing. Dorin began to get to his feet and started to walk towards the tree where Isiseris had disapeared. He decided to stay out of the forest for the meantime. The terrain was quite bumpy and he often stumbled on pieces of logs. Every now and again Dorin glanced back at the kids and Rebecca to see if they were alright. He had just completed his first circuit when the mage ran back into the clearing, sobbing wildly. Dorin was amazed at this, until now her whole attitude had been one of someone in control, but her she was, shaking uncontrollably, almost hysterical. He moved towards her.
Edward called to the gnome hanging from a saddle of one of the horses he is leading, "Er, I'd give you hand there friend, but they're kind of full right now." Ed helds up his two fist-fulls of reins. "How about you give me a hand getting the horses to the clearing, and tied up. And then I'll give you a hand mounting one of the horses." Ed suggested to the gnome.
"I can help with the 'osses if ya want" squeaked Ulf as he leapt from the saddle, "Give us some of them leads! My names Ulf but who the heck are you?!"
"My names Ed" replied the human leading the horses. He held out a hand to shake, only to realize it was full of reins. Shrugging he hands the reins to Ulf, saying "Nice to meet you Ulf. Thanks for the help."
Moving through the trees, leading the horses, the duo came into the clearing. Looping the reins over a suitable tree branch, Edward left the securing of the horses to Ulf as he'd noticed that although the dwarf and mage were present, the priest was no where in sight. The mage looked distraught and the dwarf was moving towards her. Edward moved too calling out "Hello again. Did the cleric come find you?"
Sh'andra was trapped in a melancholy haze as she wandered aimlessly toward the clearing. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind a tiny voice was screaming, shrieking in horror at the carnage she had wrought. A sudden, vehement shout 'KILL HIM NOW!' snapped her out of the fog and she looked up in time to see the provocatively clad woman turn and rush away. Suddenly the scenes of the battle came rushing back and Sh'andra took a closer look at one of the fallen, the one she had killed with her arrows! Lifting the faceplate of a helmet, she was shocked to discover that it wasn't even human! The foul-smelling beast stared blankly at Sh'andra and she didn't even flinch. Sh'andra felt relieved to know that she hadn't killed a human, but then embarrased as she remembered her breakdown earlier. Feeling her cheeks flush, she looked around to be sure that no one had seen her humiliated visage, then moved into the trees, coming to the clearing where the gnome was trying to gallantly tie horses to tree branches, successfully entwining himself in the process. She set to helping first free himself, then resecure the mounts.
Sardonicus continued swinging his sword at his next victim, despite the distraction of the shout. This meant his decapatation wasn't as clean as the last, he cut through some of the jaw, which also sent the hemet spinning off the head. He shrugged, it would still serve his purpose. He moved over to the third body, the one the axe bearing girl had just left and prepared to cut the head from that one.
The horse Lufka had been stroking began to stir. Lufka tightened his grip on it's reins and moved from a kneeling position to a crouch. Gently patting it's neck he continued "Come on beauty, up you get". He stood clear as the horse lurched to it's feet. As it rose he called to Shaq'il "Hey boy! Halfling! Come here, hold this horse!" His voice rang with the confident indifference of one used to obedience from the lower orders.
Shaq'il was still crouched over the slain carcass of the beast, carefull searching it for anything of value. His search had so far yielded a few gold and silver coins from a pouch hidden around it's neck and a half eaten bar of chocolate it must have swiped from the festival. It had nuts in it! He was just tugging of the creatures left boot when he heard the guy who'd been doing something to the felled horses shout out. He looked up.
Shaq'il looked up and over at the human, narrowed his eyes and said coldly and calmly, "Hold your own bloody horse, ya lanky twat!" He then prompty returned to the task of searching for booty. He tried to continue his search of the corpse, but this human’s comments had vexed him enough that he couldn't concentrate on his actions.
"How dare he call me boy! And worse of all, that name these humans use for my people" he thought to himself.
Shaq'il rose to his feet, picking up the spear of the fallen creature, holding it's massive length in the middle of the shaft and holding it as if a tightrope walker would hold a balance, turned toward this man and his precious horses and walked purposefully toward him.
Stopping before him, Shaq'il looked up directly into his eyes and vented his frustration, in a cold hard voice, "You seem to need a lesson in manners, human. First off, I am no boy, and looking at you, human, I am a fair few years older than you, child. Secondly, my people find the name Halfling highly offensive, it is a name you humans have given us which insinuates that we are less than a whole person, which we are definitely not. In fact it is a human bastardization of our name for our people "Hafan’khan’in", which roughly translated into your language means ‘One Of The People’. So I would appreciate it if when you address me or my kind, you either call us by our given name’s, mine being Shaq'il al Meida, or by our racial name. Now, as to your horses…”
Shaq’il gripped the spear in both hands, inverted it, raised his body weight onto the ball of his feet, so that he was almost jumping in the air, giving the human the barest chance to move his feet out of the way, planted the spear shaft firmly into the ground with all his strength.
While it was still vibrating in the ground, Shaq’il turned around, started walking toward another of the corpses, and said, “You can tie their reins off wherever you please…”
"…you condescending little prick!" he thought to himself.
Lufka steadied the spear with one hand, before looping the reins of the standing horse around it. He watched the departing figure of Shaq'il and waited until he has returned to the corpse, before answering.
"Well," he said, with an an audible exhalation, "thank you for your help Sh, Ch, Sh, Chuckle?" He paused before continuing with an audible note of disdain, "But can you ignore the urges of 'the people' and think of something other than how many copper pieces you can steal?"
With more than a flavour of self righteousness he continued. "There are some here who want to move the weaker members of your group before more of these creatures arrive. Will you help? Or do you plan to stay here?"
He smiled to himself as he again continued. "Now is not the time for petty arguments." A new vigour was heard in Lufka's voice, to many it would sound like anger, "Especially when you insult me by not using the true name of my people. I would prefer it if you would call my people by our true name in future:" he switched to the human language, "tall-erth-an-me."
Sardonicus lopped off the head of his third victim, the one with the arrows sticking out of it. As the head fell onto the ground, Sardy noticed a gleam of silver fall with it. Ignoring the head for a second, he reached down and snagged a silver coloured chain with a pendant attached to it, with his fingers. He examined the pendant closely. It was a flat, oval disk with some sort of stylised design etched into it. Sardy didn't recognise the design as anything of significance and with a shrug stuck it into his pouch. He glanced up, Lufka and the Halfling loked to be embroiled in an earnest discussion, but everyone else seemed to have gone back into the trees, probably to the clearing. Sardy decided he'd better hurry up and finish what he was about. He grabbed one of the Long spears lying nearby and stuck his latest head on the butt of the weapon. He then stuck the blade of the spear into the ground, pushing the blade in firmly so the haft of the weapon stood up straight, it's grisly trophy staring out above Sardy's head. He looked around again and saw the Halfling storming off away from Lufka, another spear stuck in to the ground. "Glas to see some-ones helping" Sardy thought, and after picking up his other two heads, strode towards Lufka and the other spear.
Sh'andra moved to help the gnome, getting him untangled was no easy task. The horses stood patiantly while she did her best, giving an occassional snort. As she worked, she asked "Ulf, was it? How did you come to being chased by those beasts?" Ulf, who'd decided he was best standing still answered in his usual tone, "I dunno I just got caught up with things, just minding me own biznuzz when all this comotion washed me a long. The next thing I know is I'm out of the city gates and running for my life up here where I bump into my big pal Sardy over there." He pointed back through the tree in the general direction of where Sardonicus was chopping heads. "What about you?" |
