The Endless Hunt: Season 2, An Explosive Island

[Legendary Sidekick]

From Heverik's direction, Sigrelyn hears a crack...

Three masked men ready their blow guns...

The demon head turns toward Reaver and Hanna, who is just beginning to stir...

(Awaiting Reaver's reply...)

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The Lava Demon and Chief Torashishi, part III

The three masked men fire their blow darts--not at their chief, but in the general direction of Rose.

They miss their intended target--not Rose, but the Red-Maned Liger behind her.

The beast charges past Rose--past all of the Huntresses--darting between Susan and Sigrelyn, leaping into the black smoke where Prince Heverik and Chief Torashishi are locked in battle.

All that is heard is a roar and two men screaming.

* * *​

Reaver helps Hanna to her feet. He looks the demon head right in the eye. He sees the contraption is about to fire. He stands in front of Hanna. "Give me your best shot, demon!"

Manimus and Lily each charge the demon's horns, hammers raised. Both strike their targets simultaneously, blasting both horns from the demon head. The stone shell of the Laval Demon crumbles, temporarily revealing gears, tracks and pulleys collapsing into a rattling heap before the entire machine tumbles into the lava below.

The masked men who are able to get up bow to Reaver. Those who are too dazed to make such a gesture look to the place where their chief once stood. Where he still stands. His feet do, anyway. The rest of him was apparently taken by the Red-Maned Liger.

* * *​

Heverik waits patiently as Rose shakes Ivy awake so she can use her climbing skills to help Heverik safely descend the plateau.

He proudly displays the chief's broken staff--proof that those childhood fencing lessons paid off.



(The final battle has now come to an end. Feel free to write your character's version of his/her success story, or the triumphant return to Hanna's Tavern, where the Roku-Roku will announce the closing of the Hunting Season.)

 

[Ravana]

SIGRELYN and HEVERIK

"Well, it isn't the keepsake a red mane would be, but I suppose it will do," the prince says, toying with the former high priest's former staff, and expounding on the adventure back in the tavern. "I think I would feel a bit guilty about hunting one of those delightful creatures just at the moment."

Sigrelyn nods, looking far too sober for someone on her fourth mojito of the evening. Especially someone her body weight. Doubly so considering the number of bandages about her person. All of which are, however, small. And all of which are held in place by neatly-tied ribbons of some bright color or other.

Note to self: more practice on intimidation technique required. She'd have to speak with her mother on the topic… something she dreaded doing. Which was why she had to speak to her mother about it.

She hadn't been aware her husband possessed such faculty in dressing wounds. She had, after all, had plenty of occasion to witness his faculty in dressing himself, which would hardly lead one toward confidence in that realm. And while she wouldn't have minded looking a bit less like a maypole, she didn't feel it her place to comment. Besides, they'd had to stretch her medical supplies quite a bit, as there was almost no one from their party who didn't require at least a patch or two.

Neither did she feel it appropriate to comment on the new headgear he was sporting… no more than she already had. Several of the smallest cobrathons now dangled from where they were skillfully braided into his hair (with the assistance of some carefully concealed twine), their heads dangling down variably between his waist and ankles. He proposed to call his invention "dread locks." Her sole question had been regarding whether the placement of small pastel bows just behind their hoods would detract from the effect. He had looked at her innocently and said "Why? Don't you think it makes them look more dreadful?"

As that was one of those questions there could be no possible good response to, she let it pass.

Apart from the snakes, Heverik's clothing that evening was remarkably subdued—for him, at least. Part of which could be ascribed to the limited amount thereof which had accompanied them to the island. Though she's fairly certain that isn't the entire reason.

After he finishes his tale, one of the locals opines "Now there's a story that ought to win you a few drinks when you reach home!"

"Oh, goodness, no. I'll have to come up with something completely different to tell people back in the Empire. That I bought it as part of a consignment or some such."

The crowd looks perplexed. "But, dude?" one of the other hunters—Manimus, Sigrelyn thinks, though she hadn't really paid all that much attention when postmortem introductions were being made—"That's, like, an awesome story! Why not just totally tell them the truth, dude?"

Heverik hands the staff to his wife, then dashes off the remainder of his drink. "Because they'd never believe the truth."

And if they did, they might stop underestimating you some day. Sigrelyn contemplates the black-and-white striped staff in her hand. It's remarkably soft, really, this li… Oh. Right.

She rises. "Excuse me, I have to go, uhm.…" She gestures doorward. Heverik's near-subliminal wink confirms her worst suspicions.

"So, do you plan on returning to Roku-Roku some day?" another of the locals asks.

"Oh, yes, I daresay we shall return eventually. We shall return in.…" Sigrelyn hastens her pace. He drawls out the final word just long enough for her reach the doorframe.

"…in The Liger, the Winch, and My Wardrobe"!

The noises from the room behind her attest to the success of his gambit.

She couldn't even imagine anybody else in the world using drinking occasions to arrange "impromptu redyeing in traditional folk patterns and colors" for his garments. She still had trouble imagining it of him.

And she hadn't a clue where he came up with his titles.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Rose, Chiefette of the Roku-Roku

​"Chiefette? Why, um... thank you, Manimus, but the title is not necessary. The girls and I have been running things around here for the past seven years. It is a shame Torashishi could not see it that way."

Rose rises from the table. She waits patiently for Sigrelyn to return. Poor woman... I suppose she can normally hold her liquor better than that.

"I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for my island. I had no idea Torashishi would be able to assemble such an army. Judging by the number of white men in warpaint, I can only assume that he force fed the pirates and their male captives some sort of concoction made of baneberries and..."

Sigrelyn looks like she needs to excuse herself again, but Heverik is quick to hand her the hot herbal tea he had ordered in her absence.

"...probably something a little stronger than what we serve here."

The small bespectacled man who spent that past three days bragging about how it was his idea to throw the barstools to the drowning hunters examines the red streaks that do more to cover his flesh than his banana leaf thong.

"That would explain why I'm wearing this," he says.

"But, dude... how do you explain, like, why you're still dressed like that?" Manimus asks.

The man shrugs. "It's a free island."

"Is it a free island," Rose says, "thanks to you!"

"You're welcome." The little man snorts.

"I meant everyone at the table but you." To Heverik, Sigrelyn, Reaver and Manimus, she goes on, "I cannot repay you enough. However, as gold is of little use here on the island, I hope you will accept these as a parting gift."

Lily and Bouldergut carry a large crate into the room. Susan, Ivy, Violet and Heather reach inside, each removing solid gold statues of young women. Hair of white-gold flows down the length of the two-foot-tall yellow-gold bodies, clad in pink-gold floral wear.

"They are from the altar of the Lava Demon. We kept three for ourselves, which will be displayed in a museum so we can never forget the horrible tradition that ended so many innocent lives. But we do not need seven statues to tell the tale. Better that you each take one home and have your own story to tell.

"Of course, I am not urging you to leave so hastily, hunters." To Sigrelyn, she adds, "Huntress.

"Roku-Roku Island is a resort, so by all means enjoy your stay as long as you wish."

Hanna adds, "And don't worry about paying for any accommodations."

"Yes," Rose agrees, "make yourself at home. The only restriction I will insist upon, now that the hunting season is over is..."

A low growl interrupts Rose. Hunters and tourists quickly part, leaving a wide berth for the intruder. The Red-Maned Liger casually enters the tavern.

"Dammit, Lily!" Rose scolds, "He followed us again! How many times must I tell you not to pet the ligers!"

"But you didn't..." Lily protests.

"That is because I did not think you were serious." Rose turns sharply to "Heather!" who is still answering Heverik's questions regarding the possibility of male floral attire. "Help Lily escort the liger back to his pride before I really do have to ask hunters to kill him!"

Heather whispers to Heverik, "If you're not turned off by the though of having every hair removed from your body, make an appointment with Ivy. We'll need five hours."

As the liger is escorted from the building, Rose collapses into her chair. She looks at Sigrelyn, then says to Hanna, "I shall have whatever she was having."

SEE YOU NEXT SEASON.
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