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| The Sandy Road | |
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| Topic Started: Wed Jan 4, 2012 1:09 am (183 Views) | |
| Akala | Wed Jan 4, 2012 1:09 am Post #1 |
 
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The Istan Desert - one of the most hopelessly barren places on Imythess. It's so hot here that you could bake bread in the open air. The sun is like a hammer in its intensity. Yet life manages to survive, regardless. Animals can be found in the open desert if you know what you're looking for. Or if you are unfortunate. The rocky outcropping tilted upward like a sinking ship. On its leeward side there was an oasis, if you wanted to be generous with the term. It was a muddy spring welling up in a large puddle that was very shallow and a vine-like cacti that looked dried up and struggling. Sitting on the top of a fallen piece of stone, concentrating on the watering hole, was a female half-dragon. She hadn't moved in a while. But every time she did, so did the snake in the watering hole. It was a large snake, about the width of her calf and twice as long as she was tall. It sat coiled in the shallow water, waiting to strike. It had cornered her up on the rock and kept her there for the better part of an hour. She had drawn the longsword from her back and had kept it ready, but she could see no way to attack the creature without getting bit first. So she waited. Every once in a while, she would detach her attention from the snake just long enough to check that the bundle of leather, fur, and fabric was still next to her. It was all of her possessions - she's stripped down to her linen tunic and a belt to make the weather more bearable. She'd even torn the sleeves off her shirt. In the center of the bundle was her journal, and she'd die before she'd lose that. She carefully started to lower one clawed foot. The snake hissed and lash out at her. She jerked her foot away and hissed back. There was one other reason she was out there, facing down a snake. She hadn't eaten in several days. She was intensely hungry and, as she was a carnivore by nature, snake meat sounded so tasty. |
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| Ausir | Wed Jan 4, 2012 2:08 am Post #2 |
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The shrill cry of the eagle pierced the desert sky, and with an urgency, the serpent that antagonized Akala coiled back in shock, finally going to strike. The venomous beast, however, would never enjoy the satisfaction of sinking its fangs into the half-dragon's pelt, scooped from its perch in the oasis without further fuss by the talons of the mighty ave. The enormous eagle took to the skies once more, flying circles of victory as he greedily squeezed the life from the struggling snake as it writhed and snapped, trying to free itself or sting its captor. The serpent's struggles were to no avail, as the great golden bird had no trouble crushing the beast's powerful ribs. With a self-satisfied sort of squawk, the eagle landed only meters away from the place the snake had been sitting moments earlier, dropping his meal into the sand and beginning to peck at it, carefully picking it apart. All the while, as if to add insult to injury, the giant eagle seemed to ignore the hungry half-dragon whose meal he had obliviously robbed. While the eagle caught and scarfed down his stolen feast, his master struggled to keep up, watching the bird proudly swim through the skies as Assim, the blue hawk, scanned the desert from above, searching for trouble. With excellent timing, as the elf's worn bones were finally tiring out from chasing his birds around Istan for the past several days, he watched Heru finally come to rest at a sort of muddy oasis. Perhaps he would finally let his master rest. |
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| Leyanni[Staff] | Wed Jan 4, 2012 3:09 am Post #3 |
 
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An animal after a drink was a painful thing to watch. Rahi's wild eyes focused entirely on the speck of greenery nestled at the foot of an outcropping of ancient stone. Leyanni stumbled behind the horse, pain swelling from her feet with each step. The bandit could not bring herself to stop, however, the love of her horse keeping her close behind. It sent lances into her heart watching a brilliant beast turn into a blind follower of its needs. The shock had come when the stream she had stopped by overnight had simply dried up. A few insignificant trickles, but not enough to keep an equine alive. The pair wandered first to the source of the water and found it led to the Arjah Mountains. The horse promptly turned the moment Leyanni stopped leading her, nostrils flared. Leyanni stumbled forward and slowed the horse, her hand on the horse's neck. Her other hand jutted out, pointing at at a large bird and what appeared to be a sitting humanoid. Rahi raised her head, peering out straight ahead. The horse snorted and began a trot. Leyanni seized the saddle of the thirsty animal, trying to slow it. She cooed at the beast, and Rahi settled on a quick walk. They approached the outcropping together. Leyanni drew her bow from her back and quickly knocked an arrow. Rahi broke into a gallop without warning, crashing through the underbrush. The dark bay Istani horse nearly submerged its face in its need for water. Leyanni trained her bow on the humanoid. "Get down, now," Leyanni barked, trying to sound as commanding as parched woman could. Robbing could wait until she was sure Rahi would be safe drinking. |
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| Akala | Wed Jan 4, 2012 3:37 am Post #4 |
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An eagle - an eagle the size of a horse - swooped down and plucked Akala's snake out of the water and took off with it. "Hey!" she jumped to her feet. "Bring that back! That's DINNER!" Then a horse plunged through the scrub and right up to the shallow pool, surprising Akala. She nearly fell off her perch. "Get down, now," a woman's voice ordered. Akala looked up to see a brown-haired, one-eyed woman pointing a bow at her. She glared at her, but carefully set down her sword. Then she raised her hands in the air and slid slowly off the rock. To add insult to injury, the eagle that had stole her meal had landed nearby and was obviously enjoying it. Akala wanted to howl in frustration and burst into tears, but she settled for gritting her teeth and wondering what raw eagle tasted like. |
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| Ausir | Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:13 am Post #5 |
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A squawk from Assim startled the white elf, turning his eyes to the sky. The bird had noticed something that Ausir had not, and already, the blue hawk was diving towards the oasis that was still hardly more than a humanoid blob and the outline of Heru in the distance to the weary ex-mage. At the scene of the action, the eagle dropped his snake altogether, his clever red eyes suddenly losing a bit of their intellect as he squawked, ruffling his feathers and hopping further away from the half-dragon still. An horse, a creature easily rivaling and surpassing the eagle's size, had appeared and now lapped madly at the mud puddle that seemed to qualify as an oasis in the water-starved desert. Ausir's feet couldn't keep up with the soaring wings of the blue hawk, but he could now see the danger Assim had sensed already: a wild-looking woman had entered the scene, following a stampeding horse. The stranger had a bow drawn, an arrow knocked, and appeared to be aiming directly at Heru. A poacher, she must have been, planning to take Heru's corpse for herself and sell his parts to the greedy humans of Istan. "Lower your bow, coward. You couldn't kill such a majestic creature!" Ausir shouted at the woman from behind, instinctively drawing his wand and aiming it, before he had come near enough to realize that her bow was in fact pointed at the draconic figure that stood between the woman and the eagle. |
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| Leyanni[Staff] | Wed Jan 4, 2012 5:45 am Post #6 |
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Leyanni decided to ignore the massive eagle between her and the woman. She stepped around it a few times, making sure she had a clear shot. She wasn't entirely sure what to do in this situation, but the woman was staring at the eagle and not at her. A pang of guilt struck her. Ley had plenty of food in her saddlebags, she had packed enough for a week. Ideas swarmed her head, reminding her that robbing this woman and then sinking an arrow into her was simply evil. Then came a shout, ordering her to not shoot the majestic creature. The green woman was majestic? Leyanni immediately moved to the side, her legs weaving about one another. She twisted fully to aim at the man who had bothered her. Any worries about robbing someone poor drifted away when she saw the man's sceptre. Whatever it was, it could probably be fenced for a price that could get her a business. "Sir, drop your weapon before I put this shaft into your chest!" Leyanni shouted. Her gaze carried past him and to Rahi behind him. The mare was mostly oblivious, but Leyanni was deathly afraid of two possible outcomes. The man turns and attacks Rahi, injuring her far away from proper medical help. The second was friendly fire, Leyanni missing with her shot and striking Rahi instead. |
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| Akala | Thu Jan 5, 2012 4:39 am Post #7 |
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Taking the opportunity of a ruffled eagle and a distracted archer, Akala leapt forward, grabbed the snake, and yanked it further away from the giant bird. Well, she had her dinner now, at least. The civilized thing to do would be take her sword and cut the thing into moderately sized chunks and then roast them, but Akala a) did not have the patience to make a fire and watch the thing cook and b) was smart enough not to reach for her sword with the one-eyed bandit standing right there. So she took her talons and tore off a chunk of flesh as neatly as possible (which wasn't very) and began to eat it raw, scraping it off the inside of the skin with her teeth and fingers. She tried to be as neat as possible, but the teeth of a carnivore did not make for tidy eating and she had to throw her head back to get the food far enough back in her mouth so she could chew it. The end effect was something like watching a wolf eat. There was soon blood on her face and shirt. No doubt it would draw flies later. She was aware she looked absolutely barbaric, but was too hungry to really care. Despite appearances, she was paying attention to the conversation between the bandit and the distant figure. It wasn't as though they were trying to keep it quiet. She was also aware that it possibly involved her. She cared, but in a distant sort of way. There was certainly nothing she could do. If either of them wanted to kill her, at least she wouldn't die with an empty stomach. If they wanted to do anything else - say, sell her into slavery - at least that meant she'd stop being lost. Edited by Akala, Thu Jan 5, 2012 4:44 am.
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| Ausir | Thu Jan 5, 2012 11:37 pm Post #8 |
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Without hesitation, the bow was away from Heru and aimed directly at Ausir. The bandit hollered a threat, one which the white elf took very seriously; there was no doubt in his mind that a desert poacher might abandon all morals to capture a riding eagle, especially a tamed one. However powerless Ausir was to defend himself from the poacher, though, the woman couldn't possibly be aware of his defenselessness. His eyes were wild and desperate, but he did his best to keep calm as he held his wand out before him at breast-level, its tip aimed directly at the woman's face. -- That lizard had stolen his dinner, and the eagle was not pleased. He had gone through a lot of trouble to catch such a large and promising meal after so many hours of flying without rest, so naturally, he was in no mood to have his meal snatched from under his beak by some walking reptile. As Akala scurried away with the serpent in her hands, the eagle cried in frustration, flapping his mighty wings and rearing up at the half-dragon before charging her, razor-sharp beak snapping at her face, talons ready to gut the thief if they had to. -- "If your hand so much as twitches to loose your arrow, I swe-" Ausir began, but before his sentence could be finished, it was interupted by the furious call of Heru, and the white elf dropped his wand at once, diving to his right, scanning the scene for cover that didn't exist. If he could flee quickly enough to get himself behind the boulder, he could escape the bandit woman's arrows, but could he reach the boulder before one of those arrows found his heart? |
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| Leyanni[Staff] | Fri Jan 6, 2012 2:53 am Post #9 |
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The man continued to threaten her with his wand. It wasn't particularly threatening. Unless he was a master mage, she'd see his gestures or hear his incantation. If he was a master mage, he could kill her without much difficulty. It was overall a safer bet to simply watch the environment. The woman had scales, she realized, and had also reclaimed the snake. Starving to death wasn't pretty. Rahi had finally stopped drinking and deigned to act like she was surprised by the situation, snorting indignantly. The man began a threat, but Leyanni's eyes snapped to the bird. For a moment Leyanni considered shooting the dangerous creature, but quickly checked on the wanded target. He dropped the wand and his body, and was quickly hunting around the area. The bandit removed the arrow from her bow and sprinted to Rahi. She crashed through the brush, her leather boots splashing through the small oasis. She quickly mounted the invigorated horse, and took aim from her new position atop the beast. "I want that bird away from the half dragon, boy!" Leyanni shouted, motioning to the bird. She gently nudged Rahi, sending the horse forward at a trot. If the man didn't split them up, she'd have to intervene with Rahi's bulk and an arrow. |
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| Akala | Fri Jan 6, 2012 4:42 am Post #10 |
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The giant eagle was almost on top of her before Akala could do anything about it. And even then, there was really only one thing she could do. She swallowed, held up a palm toward the eagle, and said, "Create Water," with the full force of her will behind the words. A jet of water hit the eagle smack in the face. It didn't injure it (it barely had enough water pressure to injure a fly), but it did surprise the eagle and get water up its beak. The creature reared back, allowing Akala an instant to dash around the boulder and out of immediate line of sight. She crashed into the sand and stayed on her knees for a moment, waiting for the world to stop spinning. She'd been using that spell constantly for the past several days just to stay alive. Between that and the lack of food, her abilities had been completely drained. She couldn't have done that spell again if she had wanted to. |
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| Ausir | Fri Jan 6, 2012 7:57 am Post #11 |
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Heru cried out again, only becoming more frustrated with the tiny reptile, as cold water splashed into his face, getting in his eyes and messing up his feathers. All around him, there were shouts and shrieks, movement and excitement, and the braying of an agitated horse. The eagle backed away from the lizard-woman. Irritated by the handful of water he'd been splashed with, and anxious from all the action around him, he allowed her to flee. -- Ausir hit the ground hard, rough pebbles and stones scraping his skin and opening thin cuts along his shoulder and arm when he landed, blood rushing to the surface of the skin and pouring out, dying his wrappings. He bit back the pain, his mind working wildly, looking for an escape from the wild woman, already rushing for her horse, her bow still in one hand, her arrow in the other. In desperation, Ausir's hand went to the golden feather that hung around his neck like a pendant, tearing the cord that held it there from his neck and pulling his body into a crouching position. With all the strength in his legs, the white elf pushed his body off the surface of the desert floor, throwing himself fifteen feet into the sky, towards his flustered bird. As his feet left the earth, the elf brought the feather whistle to his lips and blew loudly, trilling two notes rapidly as he flew. As if the whistle was a summons for the eagle, Heru immediately forgot about the snake, kicking off from the dirt and leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. Assim, already in the sky, began circling near the sailing body of his master. The eagle, as if familiar with catching bodies in mid-air, dove beneath Ausir as he peaked in the air, on the cusp of his descent. The elf felt his stomach drop as he grasped wildly for the harness around the birds neck, scrambling to keep himself from falling from the saddle. His heart was racing, his vision swimming. Miraculously, he wasn't dropped. He wasn't sniped out of the sky by the bandit's arrows. He was alive. He was on his bird. He wanted to scream and holler and cheer, but he hadn't gotten out alive quite yet. Squeezing his legs around the eagle, he urged the great bird to make haste, steering him erratically as he watched over his shoulder for the arrows the bandit woman would no doubt soon let fly after him. Assim flapped excitedly along behind them, fighting to keep up with the powerful wings of the eagle. Looking back over his shoulder, Ausir caught sight of something colorful lying in the dirt near the place he had been made the hostage of the wild Istani. His wand, the invaluable djed, lay in the dirt, abandoned and forgotten in the elf's desperation. It was foolish, perhaps suicide, but he had to reclaim the wand. |
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| Leyanni[Staff] | Sun Jan 8, 2012 2:47 am Post #12 |
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The eagle and the strange man hurtled into the skies together, leaving Leyanni to follow after the odd girl. Rahi trotted along, letting her master keep her eyes on the bird-man. The horse stopped when she was bidden, just a few horse lengths from the odd girl. "Are you injured? Sorry about the earlier threatening you with a bow thing. Can't be too careful near an oasis, that's where the bandits lurk. Our bird-boy is one of the more...interesting examples of this phenomenon." Leyanni said, carefully observing the massive bird circling overhead. Was he really being a bird-bandit? Rahi's eyes stayed locked on the half-dragon. (OOC: Sorry about the short post, but I don't have much to do until Taz does his thing) |
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| Akala | Sun Jan 8, 2012 3:31 pm Post #13 |
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"Sorry about the bow-thing indeed," Akala thought as she got shakily to her feet, brushing the sand off her knees. What she said was, "It's fine. I understand." She looked up at the bird circling overhead. "What's he still hanging around for anyway?" The question was more rhetorical than directed at the woman. Akala scanned the hills and saw, trapped in the dirt, something gold and glittering. "What's that?" she asked. She almost started over to see what it was, but she glanced up at the bird again. She'd nearly picked a fight with the creature once, over something more important than gold, and she wasn't keen on trying it again. She'd never make it to the object before the eagle attacked her, if that was indeed what it was going to do. It was certainly circling up there for a reason. She shifted her weight back and forth, torn between curiosity and caution. Caution finally won out, because it had exhaustion on its side, and Akala leaned against the rock again. |
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| Ausir | Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:15 pm Post #14 |
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OOC The white elf's eyes narrowed as the two strangers conspired together. The green-skinned lizard woman and the bandit were speaking, and he could only think that they were planning to go after him, or to pick up the invaluable artifact he had carelessly left in the dirt. When Akala began watching the glinting object, Ausir understood that she was planning to snatch the wand. Had she not learned to fear his eagle enough yet? He didn't want to hurt her or frighten her any more, but he could not take a chance and allow the djed to fall into unfit hands. Steering his bird in a circle, he reversed his direction, lowering Heru's altitude so that he was only seven or eight feet off the ground. With the eagle's great wings spread, flying straight towards them, it may have looked to the two women as if Ausir were attacking. The elf's body shook, a rush of excitement and nervousness coursing through him. His face wore a mask of concentration as he forced himself to wait for his opportunity to drop from the bird, careful not to let the eagle beneath him get carried away, but also to monitor the stony ground for a safe spot to land. If Heru was flying too quickly, or if the ground was too rough, Ausir's landing could be his death. Furthermore, he would be swift if he would avoid the danger of assault. If the women did plan to attack, he didn't know how safe he would be without his eagle protecting him. OOC
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| Leyanni[Staff] | Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:12 am Post #15 |
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Leyanni reached out to stay the woman, but the woman decided not to do something intensely silly. Walking out into the open with such a big bird was dangerous. Leyanni didn't feel particularly safe on Rahi, but at least the horse had a few advantages in her favor. "Ah, our bandit friend has been circling around that wand he dropped. May as well let him have it, I don't want to skewer such a rare beast with arrows. No need to risk a fight, either, still a good few days from a town." The bandit explained. She kept her bow low, but her arrow was still knocked on the string. "You must be pretty hungry to be eating a raw snake. Just looking at you I can guess the answer is no, but do you eat vegetables or bread? I have a fair amount in my pack." Leyanni offered. Even as she spoke, she kept her focus mostly on the diving eagle. |
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6:47 PM May 22
