Ch.2: "Trouble in Paradise" / Volcanic Paradise Island Arcadia

[Legendary Sidekick]

Helix makes a wide berth around the ox, but it charges anyway. The unicorn lets out a panicked whinny, causing the girl to panic, but the ox speeds right by, missing the chief by mere inches! The masked man behind the chief dodges as well—almost!—but the ox gores the rider's knee.

Helix races into the pasture, though he feels a terrible sting at the chief strikes him from behind. The pasture gives the chief more chances to shoot, one dart passing through the girl's flowing hair.

Helix communicates with Kell, but his speech is slurred.

Kell… I think there's… some furrnny stuff in these d-darts… the chierrf keeps blowing into… m-my butt. There's a house… and a… uh… a burrnch of f-fuzzy things… haystacks… should I uh… should I house? Or sh-should I haystack? I should sleerrp…

The ox turns and races after the chief. The leg of his victim is still hanging from the ox's horn. Where's the rest of the victim? Who knows?

((Kell: Have Helix go toward the house or the haystacks.
Give an instruction even though Helix gave no clear visual, and he doesn't seem to be in a mental state to offer clarification.

Leto: Stick with the ox or try connecting with the chief's horse.
Ox Attack = #2d6+1 / "Horse-Whisper" = #2d6-1))

---

Helix KO==== Girl KO=== Ox HP=?

Chief Bonobobonob -=======HP Masked Masochists (R.I.P.)

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell thinks to Helix, Get the girl to the house. Hopefully she can take refuge there. And hopefully the chief will leave you be once you aren't carrying her anymore. We'll have to hope that Leto is able to deal with him more decisively. Once she's safe, then you can find a place to pass out.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Helix replies, Hrrstrrk grrd plrrce trr prrshh rrt… hrrshhe frrshht… drrp rrf grrl…

He hobbles in a zigzag run toward the house…

The chief's horse is gaining—the ox is charging close behind—all Leto can see through the ox's vision are chunks of raw earth and thundering hooves!

((Still awaiting Leto's next move!))

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto decides she'll have better luck sticking with the ox, and urges it to attack the chief's horse to get the man thrown.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The ox butts the chief's horse--who leans into the larger creature with surprising strength! The horse and ox remain locked against each other. The chief gets another shot off, and Helix is so numb he barely feels it hit! He gallops as best he can toward the house sending Kell a panicked jumble of thoughts that may or may not include the word 'window.'

Leto can only see the ground racing beneath her ox as he struggles at full sprint, shoving at his foe! There is a loud crash!

...then Leto finds herself in Bridgette's tired arms. The large woman is running behind Kell and Hess.

Hess says, "Are we there yet?"

Bridgette sees Leto is finally awake and says, "If you don't mind... I'd rather you... walk... from here."

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto blinks up at Bridgette, then nods. "I think I can handle it. Thanks for carrying me."

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell tells Hess, "No, we're not there yet and Helix is in trouble. We need to get to him as quickly as possible."

She's pretty sure she hears Leto's voice somewhere behind her, so she pauses to let the other two women catch up. When they do, she asks Leto, "Are you okay? Did you see if Helix made it to the house OK?"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Though Leto doesn't know what happened, she knows exactly where the house is, having traveled there in the minds of several animals. It takes a few minutes to exit the caverns and a couple more to follow the trail of horses and bodies.

Bridgette says of the man by the fence. "This one's not dead. Do you want him to be?"

The man's left arm is bent the opposite way an elbow allows, and his right arm is bent in two places like the letter Z. His legs look normal, other than a bone protruding through one. You can't see the man's face because of the totem mask he is wearing, but he is bare-bellied. You can tell he is breathing and surely he passed out.

Hess says, "You think he's sleeping. He'll probably be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. If you wake him up, can you do that when I'm not around?"

Bridgette says, "Definitely." To Kell and Leto, she asks, "Will I be waking him? Or will I find a place where he can continue to sleep without pain?" Her tone suggests indifference about killing or sparing the man.

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell says, "I don't want to kill unless it's absolutely necessary. So if you can drag him off somewhere without killing him, I'd prefer we do that."


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Bridgette nods and carries the broken man toward a haystack. There are several haystacks near a farmhouse—and our heroines immediately see that the house is about as broken as the injured man. The ox is staggering away from a hole in the wall. There is a board stuck on one of his horns and a man's lower leg impaled on the other. The horse that the chief rode appears to have a broken leg.

A man in a hat points a long weapon at the horse. (A rifle.) The weapon looks strange to Kell, but Leto is familiar with hunting technology. Hand Cannons are relatively new and Leto has never owned one, but she certainly knows how to fire one.

Next to the man is a girl. She's crying, you miss her words as you approach, but you can make out the man's response.

"I'm sorry, Alexa. Ain't nothin' I can do. The one ya rode in on…"

Alexa cries, "But he's not Sunny! I need Sunny!"

It's safe to assume that Sunny is the injured horse, and he belongs to the girl, not the chief. Leto doesn't have to assume who the girl is. She is the one the men tried to kidnap. She appears to be safe now, though understandably upset.

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell steps forward and says to the man, "Excuse me, but are you this girl's father? And is this your home? I'm Kell the nymph, and my two companions are Leto the huntress and Bridgette the Barbierien." She gestures to each as she says their name.

She asks the girl, "Are you OK, Alexa? I'm the one who sent the bats in to help when you were kidnapped and the unicorn you rode is an emissary of Aphrodite and my companion. I was able to talk to him while you rode him. His name is Helix, and I think the chief of the men who took you shot some kind of dart at him that made him pass out."

She wants to ask if the girl knows where Helix is, but she knows she needs to make a good impression, so instead she says, "I'm very sorry about Sunny."

She tells the man, "We have a healing kit with us. Do you know if Sunny would respond to that?"


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[Legendary Sidekick]

The farmer and his daughter are clearly confused by Kell's words, but the man lowers his weapon. He looks relieved, despite a thick beard that looks as if it should render his face expressionless.

"I'm Daryl, this is mah li'l princess Alexa and her trusty steed, Sunny. Sunny's been with us since Alexa was five--her first and only horse. If you got a kit can keep Sunny around to a ripe ole age, that'll me much 'preciated, ma'am."

Alexa isn't sure if the healing will work, but she understands the unicorn and bats saved her life. "Thank you," she says. "Um... if you're going to drink my blood, can I pour some into a cup? I'm grateful for your bats saving me, but I don't want to be a vampire if that's okay with you."

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto shudders at the idea of drinking the girl's blood. "No, we're not going to drink anyone's blood. I'm pretty sure those bats eat insects. I only ordered them to attack the men for your sake."

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell lets out a laugh at the girl's mistaken assumption. "Oh heights of Olympus, Alexa, we aren't vampires, I just happen to be able to call nearby animals and request simple aid from them, and in that cavern, bats were what happened to be nearby."

"Now, as for Sunny here, Alexa, I need you to stand by her head, or his, if he's a boy, and help us keep the animal calm. Your dad and I are going to have to reset the broken bone so that it will heal properly, and that's going to hurt Sunny a bit. Having a friend nearby will help make that easier. Leto, If you feel up to it, it would also help, I think, if you were to beast-speak Sunny and help her (?) understand that what we are going to do will hurt at first, then with luck, her leg will feel better. Once you both have done your parts, Daryl and I will reset the leg, and when that's done, I'll apply the bandage."


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[Ireth]

Leto

Leto nods, kneeling down beside Sunny before attempting to speak to him and keep him calm.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Leto successfully connects with Sunny (a female horse).

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto immediately realizes her mistake about Sunny's gender, and speaks soothingly to her. What a pretty lady you are. Don't be afraid, we're all here to help you. The pain will stop soon.

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell reaches down to the broken leg and feels the horse's leg, recognizing the break and inflammation immediately. She sends Daryl for some ice and a cloth, and when he returns with it, she packs that around Sunny's leg and they all wait for the swelling to go down. When it finally does, she and Daryl guide the bones back into place. When she's satisfied that the break has been reset as well as it possibly can be, she pulls out one of the bandages from their healing kit and wraps it around Sunny's leg.

"I'm not sure how well this is going to work, so watch her leg really closely over the next, oh, 2 weeks maybe, then if all goes well, regularly but not as closely for another 6 weeks after that. If it swells up, ice it down like we just did. And if you know any animal doctors or people doctors willing to try their hand at treating an animal, I'd have them over as soon as possible to look at her. I'm by no means an expert at this, but I remember something similar being done for one of the unicorns who work for Aphrodite - not Helix."

She tells Alexa, "Don't go thinking she's out of the woods yet. Only time will tell for sure whether Sunny will heal and how much if any of her current abilities she'll have. She may need to do some exercises to get used to walking on the leg again. But hopefully a doctor can help with that."


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Sunny is doing as well as Kell expects, if not better. Leto's calming words prove helpful, as the horse is already spooked from the encounter, and setting the bone isn't exactly painless. Once Sunny is comfortable enough to move, Daryl carefully hand-walks the injured horse to her stable.

Alexa is still shaken by all that happened, but certainly is grateful.

"Sorry I called you vampires. It's just that I saw all the bats and I read about vampires all the time. You don't sparkle like the ones in the books, but I thought you wanted…" She sighs. "Those guys were really creepy. I was just was just looking for a quiet place to write in my diary, and one of the men started flipping through it. I told him what's in there's none of his business, and he said he'd show my parents. My mom's dead, but I didn't tell him that. I told him go ahead, show my dad! I guess that made them angry, and they wanted my blood. I guess they were gonna boil it or something."

She gestures toward her house. Next to the front door is a broken window with hoof prints leading up to it. "Your unicorn took my in through the window, but you can come in the door."

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell wants to go to Helix, but Alexa's words capture her attention. She asks her, "What did they say specifically? About wanting your blood, I mean?" Kell wonders if the men just meant they were going to kill Alexa, or maybe something more sinister, like summoning a demon. She hopes the girl doesn't understand the distinction.


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