Ch.4: "The Endless Hunt" / Sardis Forest

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn sneaks around behind the bear-ass, wanting a clear shot at its back. The sooner she gets him out of the way, the sooner she can free the nymph and handle the monsters outside.

((Daaang. I assume Rolz doesn't like my joke. XD))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Sigrlinn surprises herself and the bear-ass as she steps on a creaking board. She may as well have overturned a tub full of pots and pans.

The beast-man wheels around, facing the huntress. There is a line of blood on the nymph's throat. She whimpers and the blood isn't spraying. Sigrlinn can see the cut is only skin deep, and the fairy remains calm, apparently realizing that as well.

The only one who panics over the nymph's safety is the creature who just sliced her throat. "Don't die!" he yells in a panic. "Don't you dare die!"

* * *

Outside, Kell and Dawn can hear a male voice, loud and panicky. The bear-asses both look at each other. One says, "Oh shit!" As they run toward the shack, the other drawls, "Cletus, you asshole!"

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn faces the panicky bear-ass, her bow out, but no arrow nocked. She pulls one from her quiver as she speaks. "Why do you have her tied and threatened with a knife if you don't want her to die?"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

"I don't care about her! I care about me!" The bear-ass glances down at the wound. He quickly slides the gag over the wound, apparently trying to stop the bleeding.

The nymph says, "Let me die. Amber and Eve will be saved as soon as one of us—"

"Shut up!" The bear-ass shouts. "You should worry about you! Why aren't you more worried about you than I am?!"

The nymph scoffs, "Death will separate me from my body, but not from my goddess. You should be worried about Her."

The bear-ass certainly looks worried.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

"If you value your life, you will free your captive without harming her further, leave this place, and never harm a woman again." Sigrlinn's voice is even as she nocks the arrow to her bow. "Nor will you aid others who wish harm on women of any sort. Especially nymphs." She's not sure if this is the smart thing to do, but she'd rather not have to fight this bear-ass alongside the two she knows are outside, and probably getting closer to the shack every second.

"Five seconds. Choose. Leave or die."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Though the hostage-taker is nearly impossible to hit without hitting the hostage, Sigrlinn chances the bear really is afraid to kill the nymph whose life he's threatening.

He stammers, "If I let her go—"

The nymph interrupts, "Three… two…"

The bear-ass drops the knife, "I won't harm a nymph!" He runs, shouting, "I SWEEEEEEEAAAAARRR!!!!" as he leaps through a boarded window.

…or tries to. ((Rolled a 4.)) His head makes it through the board but his belly does not. His jackass legs wiggle about as he tries to free himself.

"Thanks," says the nymph. Turning to the fairy, she adds, "Thank you both." She remains standing with her ankles tied together and hands tied behind her back, and is surprisingly calm enough to introduce herself. "I'm Candy." She points to the nymph who is also tied, still gagged, not calm. "That's Beach. We work for Artemis and these… men… have no place here."

Beach says, "Mmmmmhhhmhmhmmhmmmmmhmmhmhmhmhhmm."

"Exactly," says Candice. "But the question is, who made them that way?"

Sapphire raises her hand. "I have a question…"

"Oh," Candy says. "Beach was saying that the men in their beast forms were able to travel Sardis without Artemis knowing something's amiss. If one of us were to lose her life, Arty would know."

"MMMmmmmMMmMMMMM!!!!!" Beatrice says, glaring at Candy.

"Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!" She says to Sigrlinn, "I was trying to get that bear-ass to kill me. It would have alerted Artemis, but I am glad my plan failed."



* * *



Kell notices bursting boards following the yell. A large bear-head is protruding to the wall. He looks at the bear-ass who called him an asshole. "Enos! Rosco! We gotta split!"

The bear-asses with the fish-spears look at each other. They still haven't noticed Kell and Dawn…

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

"Oh." Sigrlinn looks between the nymphs, a hint of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. "Sorry to disrupt your plan, I guess. I'm glad you're not dead, though. My name's Sigrlinn, and this is Sapphire."

She looks at the struggling bear-ass in the window, then replaces her arrow in the quiver before drawing her carving knife to cut the nymphs' bonds one at a time. She keeps an eye on the bear-ass and an ear out for those outside, knowing they probably don't have much time before a fight breaks out.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

For some reason, the attack from other bear-asses is not as impending as Sigrlinn thought. ((No harm keeping a little RP going until tbgg gets a chance to post.)) She has time to free the nymphs.

Beatrice thanks her and says, "Candy's willing to sacrifice herself for the team, I kept begging her not to."

Candy says, "It's a spell we were using to communicate." She points to her lips, which are very red. "This ain't make up, it's Beach's blood."

Beatrice has red lips to. "Candy's blood," she explains. "It's a creepy spell, but a great way to communicate when you're on a hunt and need to maintain silence."

"Unfortunately, we used each other's blood and not Amber's. If those creeps took her out of Sardis already..." Candy sighs. "I don't want to even think about it."

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

"Amber's fine. My friends and I saved her, Dawn and Eve from three werewolves. They should be on their way here. Our friends, I mean, not the wolves. The wolves are dead. Amber lent me her quiver and arrows for now."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

"Oh...!" Beatrice shoots a look at Candice.

Candice says, "Now I'm really glad my plan didn't work." Jerking her thumb toward the bear-ass stuck in the wall, she says, "Since he refused to kill me, I'm okay returning the favor. But.." Looking at the fairy and then the huntress she says, "He's your prey, not mine. If either of you wants to shoot him or ram a flaming sword up his butt, I won't stop you."

Sapphire says, "Up to you, Sigrlinn."



* * *



Outside, the bear-asses are looking at each other. The two standing seem to be pondering their next move. Sigrlinn has reason to suspect they are outside and aware of their friend.

Kell and Dawn can see all three, two with spears (which still have fish skewered on them) and one stuck in a boarded window. They don't notice the nymphs. This is advantageous, but also a sign these beast men are likely immune to the 'nymph effect.'

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell orders her bear to growl menacingly, then once it does so, calls out in as intimidating a tone as she can manage, "I'm willing to help your friend free himself if you promise to leave this place and not come back. But pull any funny business and my bear and my friends and I will shoot to kill. What do you say?"

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn hears Kell's voice outside, and looks from the struggling bear-ass to the two nymphs. "Looks like Kell and I have similar ideas." To the bear-ass she says, "You can tell your friends to promise what you promised me. Artemis will hear, and she'll hold you to your word."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

When Kell first speaks, the armed bears don't seem ready to back down.

"That one doesn't work for Artemis," says Enos. "Too pretty."

Dawn says "What?!" in a sharp tone.

Rosco points at her. "That one definitely works for Artemis."

Dawn crosses her arms.

When Sigrlinn extends her offer to the other bear-asses, three words in particular resonate with all three man-beasts. "Artemis will hear," Cletus repeats.

Rosco and Enos panic. "We're going!" they say. They bolt, leaving Cletus stuck in the window.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Cletus shouts, but the others keep running, shouting to the moon that they never even touched her nymphs.

Boards crack as Cletus struggles. Sapphire 'helps' him by literally lighting a fire under his ass with her flameblade.

Cletus lets out a yelp as he falls face first out the window. He springs up and follows his friends, shouting promises to Artemis and threats to Rosco and Enos.

Kell's summoned bear follows, but doesn't stray far from the shack. He looks back at Kell, awaiting her command.

Meanwhile, Helix trots over with Amber on his back and Phoebe on his mane. Eve rides alongside on Hoser's back.

Hoser looks up nervously as a cloud passes over the moon. It does little to impede our heroine's vision, however. The campfire and fairies provide ample light.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn sighs and looks in the direction the bear-asses fled, then up at the moon. "I hope we did the right thing, letting them go free. Promise or no promise."

When Helix arrives with Amber and Eve, Sigrlinn hands Amber back the borrowed quiver and arrows. "Thanks for these, they came in handy."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

"My pleasure," she says. "But keep the silver arrows. Artemis keeps Team Alpha well provisioned."

Beatrice looks up at the moon. Though covered by the gathering clouds, there is a faint glow barely shining through. "I can't believe the Flower Rangers took a double shift."

Candy says, "We owe them breakfast."

Dawn and Eve nod and head into the shack. It seems all of their hunting gear is there, including additional silver arrows and a trident with spearheads made of three shades of gold. Dawn tells Kell that one is white gold, one is yellow gold, one is pink gold.

Eve gives Sigrlinn something that looks like a black pancake. "I can't get this to do anything. It's a trap, but I don't know how to set traps effectively. All the huntress' I meet don't know magic. If you can use any magic at all, this is yours."

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn thanks Amber for the arrows, and looks curiously at the flat black thing Eve gives her. "I know a bit of magic, but I'm not sure what that has to do with trapping. I guess I'll have to find out what this does for myself." She smiles. "Thank you."

No one seems to have an answer on whether letting the bear-asses go free was the right thing to do, but then again, no one has raised an objection to it. Maybe that'll be between Sigrlinn and Artemis.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Sigrlinn finds the black thing easy to store. If she folds it, the material is so impossibly thin that folding it several times doesn't seem to add to the thickness. It is also impossibly dark. Even if held closer to the flame, it is still pitch black. Light seems to have no effect on it.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn

Sigrlinn experiments with folding and rolling up the trap for a while before tucking it into her pouch. Then she looks at her companions. "It occurs to me that I was hunting for supper before all this happened. Maybe the six of us can bring something down together?" She smiles at Team Alpha.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

"A huntress and six nymphs is how Artemis likes to hunt," Amber says.

Eve replies, "Speaking of six, I sure miss Faye."

Dawn sighs. She says to Kell, "Faye's our little amazon friend. The beast-men have nothing to do with her disappearance. She might've just run off or something."

As Dawn speaks, she and the others are gathering their hunting gear. Kell and Sigrlinn each have a total of 20 silver arrows, in addition to the trident and trap—both of which are magic, apparently, though the nymphs haven't mentioned what these items do.

From atop Helix's mane, Phœbe says to Kell, "You think that's an amazon weapon? Maybe it belongs to this Faye?"


((Added Faye to Sardis post.))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Clouds continue to build overhead. The moon is now obscured completely.

The world suddenly becomes a blinding pale pink as a white-hot streak thicker than an oak crashes beyond the trees. The booming thunder comes in the same instance, and could be the sound of the world exploding as far as our heroines can tell.

The lightning was close—striking near the waterfront where the bear-asses were fishing among a dozen or two others of their kind.

Heat lightning persists, flashing in the clouds four or five times per second, causing the entire forest to flicker between light and darkness as if one of the gods is playing with a light switch (not that our heroines ever heard of one)...