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Post by Anari on Aug 31, 2014 17:25:41 GMT -8
Anari backed up as well - she’d never seen a geyser before, though she’d heard of them from traveling merchants and entertainers who’d entered her town before – and agreed that they should find a different route to take. She followed him around until he’d found the path, then moved to limp beside him again.
“Four hundred and seventy-five?” she echoed, widening her eyes slightly then grinning. “I wouldn’t peg you for a day over 228. Seriously though, you must have a ton of experiences under your belt, as it were. I don’t think I’ve ever met any elf that can claim so many years!”
The area Cain had found did seem more stable that the one they nearly stepped into… namely as it seemed the geyser had sprung up from down in the bottom of a rift in the ground. Where they stood sloped gently down to the bottom of this rift, slightly shrouded in the mists caused by the geyser and holding lush grasses. A few bright, colorful spots were visible from where they stood. Anari eyed them curiously.
“How unstable do you think it could be down there?”
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Post by Tidfe on Aug 31, 2014 18:49:33 GMT -8
"They probably weren't undead either. And you could say that. There are very few things that surprise me, but when they do...I tend to get torn apart in some form or another. Like at the echee picnic. My ribs went one way and my skull went the other." He moved his arms in a criss-cross fashion before letting them hang limply down my his side once more. "Though I do thank you for the compliment! I scrub my bones daily with the tears of Dorth as she cries about how I seem to always end up stuck in some form of muck and come home covered in it." He wore his toothy grin as he gave a slight rib back.
Looking around his surroundings, everything just looked fuzzy to him. Far off there were colored blobs, but they looked mostly like fluff balls themselves. Round. Fuzzy around the edges and to him, tiny. "See anything interesting? My eyesight isn't actual the best under good conditions and the mist...Well, it does not help in the slightest." At her question, he looked down and pressed his foot lightly into the earth, watching it sink a little and feeling the slightly muddy dirt rising between his toe bones.
"I don't honestly know. Sometimes it can hold a human double my size and other times it can barely hold a feather from a sparrow. Not to mention you can't tell the difference on the surface. Though it looks like we are at the edges of the geysers so we should be okay." He did not mention that the key word there was should be and it was still a bit risky. The good news was that he did not see any pools near them so that might work in their favor.
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Post by Anari on Sept 1, 2014 7:58:11 GMT -8
Anari raised an eyebrow at Cain’s comment about his echee-provoked separation. “Really? You got pulled apart? Does that hurt at all?” The macabre part of her mind mused that ability would’ve been useful a few weeks back. Peering through the mists, she tried to make out the colorful shapes. “They look like flowers of some sort, honestly. Very big ones, I think.” A bit timidly she stepped forward, feeling the moist soil squelch beneath her boots, then chuckled. “You know, if we head down there one of two things will happen: you’ll return to Dorth steam-cleaned, or more covered in mud than ever before. Shall we take the risk?” If he gave the affirmative, she’d lead the way in towards the nearest patch of royal purple blooms, finding them looking like large lilies about the size of the head of Anari’s flail on stems as thick as a finger. The perfume would be strong on the misty air, even to Cain’s dimmed senses. “These are beautiful!”
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 1, 2014 17:47:39 GMT -8
"Not really. The further the bones that I claim as my are away from my skull, the less it hurts or that I feel from then. Though echee fingers are very ticklish against bone." Following behind her on the muddy path, he rested a shiver as the surprisingly cold mud slithered between his toes and into his joints. It would have been a slight unpleasant feeling at the best of times and this time? It was almost horrible. His feet took a lot of wear and tear though so they were actually among the least sensitive parts of his body. Lucky him. "Or why can't it be both? Steam cleaned on top and muddy down bottom?" He really did think he was gonna come home half clean and half dirty though he thought that one of her probabilities were a lot more accurate given their surroundings. Stepping up to the flowers, he clacked his teeth in surprise as the smell hit him. "Hmm...And smelly. In the good way. I can actually smell them which just says how strong they are. How are you holding up under the onslaught of it?" he knew some people could not handle it though given her exclamation, she would not be one of them it seems.
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Post by Anari on Sept 1, 2014 22:42:45 GMT -8
She had to raise an eyebrow at his comment about the echee. A skeleton could feel ticklishness? An amusing thought, but she wasn’t the sort to test that theory, at least not until she felt like she knew him better.
“Well, before we leave we could always give you half a coating,” she chuckled, trying to imagine Dorth’s reaction as she knelt to examine the blooms. “They are very strong, but like you said in a good way. Much better than all the herbs in the temple healing rooms. It took me a bit to get used to that; they clashed. This is much nicer.” She reached to pick it, then paused, realizing that with the size of the flowers, they’d quickly become an armful if they wanted to carry enough for the entire nest. It was as the humid warmth of the small vale began to get to her that she came up with an idea. Straightening she unfastened her belt and removed her outer, long-sleeved cloak, moving to drape it flat on the rock. “We can put the flowers we gather in here, and use my coat to carry them. That way they won’t get as badly broken.”
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 2, 2014 15:49:19 GMT -8
Cain had to give a chuckle at that before moving to examine the flowers for any sorts of thorns or anything like that. While he might not feel too much pain from getting stabbed, he doubted that Anari would be the same way. While something was going into his bone, it usually did not hurt once it broke past the first layer of bone. Which was a good thing given how many times he had actually been stabbed his long life. Not seeing anything too dangerous, he looked up just as Anari was spreading her cloak down on the muddy ground. He had to wonder at the wisdom of such a decision until she explained her plan for getting the great big smelly flowers back to the nest of the dragon. "Good idea. Plus we could probably carry more that way too. Just so long as we are careful not to pick them all. After all, got to leave some here to make more of these giant things!"
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Post by Anari on Sept 2, 2014 20:17:07 GMT -8
Anari nodded at the wisdom of Cain’s words, moving around and picking one or two from each bundle, leaving far more than she took. It felt a little strange, wrapping her fingers around such a large stem when she was used to it being so easy before. Sometimes she found she had to tug a bit! But slowly their pile of blooms grew.
After a few minutes, Anari found herself thoroughly enjoying herself, her past pushed from her mind and her fears and worries vaporized like the moisture from the geysers. She wasn’t a wanted ‘traitor’ with a high bounty on her head, she wasn’t a virtual slave for the Highlords, she wasn’t a prisoner or rebel or lieutenant. She was just a normal person, out having fun with a friend and doing something nice for someone else.
It was a rather good feeling to have.
Noticing the scent of the flowers seemed to be slightly stronger from one direction, Anari moved towards it, thinking that she could find quite a concentration of blooms at its source! And boy was she right! Next to a slight impression in the vale – and she was certain to make sure there was no geyser nearby! – were clustered several dozen flowers all in a bunch. Smiling happily, she began gathering one or two of each type, amazed by their exotic nature and scent, pausing only to twist her hair up into a tail to take some of the heat off of her neck.
She hadn’t seen or heard any signs of life in this warm, wet rift as of yet, this it was with great surprise when the impression suddenly shifted, revealing its truth as loosely packed sand covered by a thin layer of loose grass, and what looked to her like a giant scorpion emerged, claws snapping at her and missing by inches. But its face was feline, rather than normal for it’s type, the entire creature mottled green and tan to camouflage it against the environment. It growled at her, rather than hissed, and its stinger-tipped tail arced down with near-blinding speed. Anari’s only recourse, half-crouched as she was, was to dive to the side. She landed painfully on her right leg, causing her to cry out, but continued the twisting to put some distance between herself and the creature.
“Cain! We’ve got company here!” She was torn between drawing her flail and fighting, or running as best she could out of there!
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 2, 2014 21:38:12 GMT -8
Cain moved about, tugging flowers and laying them beside Anari's. He was careful to keep away from the area she was picking from just so that they did not actually take more than needed. Just as he reached down for another one, he heard a cry and turned around to Anari. His warrior brain was already leaping into action even as the more logical part of him started to analyze and feed more information to the brain. Anari was not hurt. There was something that looked like a giant spider with a tail. Oh wait. That was a scorpion and not a spider! He had gotten the legs confused for a second there. Skidding to a stop just in front of Anari, he eyed the creature. "I think company would be the wrong term for this guy. Manners aren't his strong suit. Attacking a lady. How rude!" Moving his shoulder just slightly out of socket, he offered a hand to help Anari to help her stand up while still facing the creature.
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Post by Anari on Sept 3, 2014 2:33:05 GMT -8
Anari gratefully accepted the help to her feet - her leg wasn't quite supporting her full weight at the moment, and the slick ground wasn't helping either. Once she stood again, she eyed their opponent critically. It's carapace looked solid, and she'd experienced it's speed first hand. While she couldn't speak for it's toxicity, scorpions where she came from were generally poisonous, oftentimes deadly so. As it growled at them, she carefully inched a hand towards her flail.
"Do we run, or fight?"
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 4, 2014 15:46:25 GMT -8
Cain study the scropion like creature and barely shrugged his shoulders in answer to Anari's question. "It wouldn't do too much damage to me. I'm a smaller target. That being said, I don't look forward to being gripped by those claws. Think if we run away, it would leave us alone? As much as I would hate to fight it, I would hate it more to turn my back to the thing." Cain felt his heels sink into the mud and could have cursed. It would not be easy to fight this thing. The ground worked against them in the fact that any good stance needed to swing anything with great force would cause them to sink and affect their dodging ability. Pros and cons. Everything had them. Even if Cain wish they didn't.
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Post by Anari on Sept 5, 2014 4:43:23 GMT -8
Anari sized up the big creature with a wary eye. She too felt the unstable terrain, and on top of that the geysers would be an unpredictable factor, as well as the mists hindering visibility.
“Maybe escape might be our best option,” she replied, taking a few careful steps back while still facing the thing. She clenched her teeth as her right leg shuddered beneath her – of all the horrid times! – but made herself take a few more steps backwards. The scorpion-thing snarled at them, snapping its claws in the air.. then suddenly lunged, one going for each of them! With a shout, Anari brought out her flail on pure instinct and struck herself, bashing the claw aside though it knocked her back a good foot or so across the slick ground. At the moment she really wished she still had her shield! She tried to spare a glance towards Cain to see how he was faring, but was forced to only offer a quick one as the claw came in for a second strike, which she had to dive away from.
Seems the choice of whether to flee or fight, for the moment, had been made for them.
((OOC: Feel free to powerplay the creature some if you want, sending some attacks Anari's way as it were. We could both take turns controlling it.))
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 11, 2014 15:10:49 GMT -8
Cain saw the claws coming at him in slow motion and attempted to dive out of the way. The ground was squishy beneath his feet and his ribs as he launched himself forward and to the side. His skull barely grazed the surface before he was being pulled back and up into the air, a painful ring of fire surrounding his ankle bone. Looking up, he cursed under his breath seeing that the claw had managed to grab ahold of him tight and was pulling him in. Digging in his hands, he ignored the pain in his fingers as he tried to be the biggest dead weight the creature ever got ahold of. Which would have been easier if he was say...100 pounds heavier.
"Escape may have been our best option, but I doubt this thing will give up easily." He sent out a call to Dorth, but it was weak. Almost like she was betweening or far away. Cursing, he hoped she would come investigate soon. He knew of so few things that weren't scared of the dragons that called this place home. As he neared the things jaws, Cain sent out a powerful kick with his free leg, feeling bone crash against flesh covered bone. The thing howled in pain, releasing Cain as it tried to bring the claw crashing down on the skeleton's skull. Quickly rolling away, he watched as that tail started to go wild, attacking both him and Anari with random flicks. Poison dripped from the tip of its tail as the thing from when the thing missed and hit the earth. It was a sickly pink color and Cain couldn't help the shudder that ran through him as he tried to circle around the beast, feeling the ground with his feet to find anything hard to hurl at the things body.
"How fast can you run?"
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Post by Anari on Sept 13, 2014 1:49:38 GMT -8
Anari slammed her flail down on the thing’s legs, hoping they were weaker than the rest of him and finding out that was hardly the case. Its other claw kept her from assisting Cain as he was dragged in, though thankfully he seemed to get himself free of the monster. She cursed loudly as the tail lashed out, once more dearly wishing for her shield, and was forced to throw herself to the ground to avoid being hit. As Cain had thus far been the only one to really hurt the thing, it turned to follow him more than worry about her, and she took the chance to dart in and bash away at its flanks.
“I can manage! Just say when!” Anari wasn’t about to say that her ‘running’ was more a hobbling leaping, or that her leg was already aching her and it probably would be painful to walk after this, but it really didn’t matter that much when the alternative was death. She brought her flail low, clipping a leg and doing some damage as the thing screeched and curled that leg up, and then she knocked a piece of its carapace off of its tail base, waiting for Can’s signal.
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Post by Tidfe on Sept 13, 2014 18:29:29 GMT -8
Seeing that leg crumple up, Cain heaved the next stone directly at two of the joints. Not even bothering to run himself, he signaled for Anari to do so. "Get out of here Anari! I'll be fine. Poison has a hard time spreading through bone. I'll distract it until you are a safe distance away and then follow." He thought it was a good plan. Until the stinger grazed his leg and he hissed in pain. Okay. Maybe not as good of an idea as he thought, but it was worth a try. "Trust me on this. First off, we would both fight better on firmer ground...Which this is not. Secondly...Maybe this thing just wants us out of its territory?" Scrambling back, he made taunting noises at the creature as he picked up some heated mud this time, and ignoring the pain in his own hands, tossed it at the thing's face.
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Post by Anari on Sept 15, 2014 22:50:47 GMT -8
Anari nodded in response. Although she hated the thought of leaving him behind, he had a valid point. And besides, if he got into trouble she would just come back for him! She whirled her flail, taking another couple of shots at its carapace and making a few cracks, before she spotted an opening and ran. Well, perhaps ‘ran’ was a bit of a stretch. Her leg was really starting to bother her, and it showed. But she pushed herself as hard as she could, until she felt more solid ground beneath her boots. There she turned and called out.
“Cain! Get out of there!”
The scorpion-lion snarled, snapping its tail downwards at the fleeing woman but missing as the thrown stones crashed painfully into its legs. Already it had to protect one where her flail had hammered into it, and now this other prey was throwing rocks! Its claws snapped from seemingly random directions, trying to get another grip on Cain as it had felt he wasn’t as heavy, their loud clacks echoing off of the stone walls.
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