Fire [finished]

[Willow]

[OOC: Sorry this has taken so long to put up - I've been ill over Christmas and I'm now making myself do something creative before my brain turns to mush. So yeah, this post may be a bit rubbish.]

Willow nodded easily; she knew her plan was nowhere near the best, but oh well.

“I’m all for the better idea.” She murmured, then paused to listen to Kaye’s orders to her band, at the same time thinking out all the ways they could be attacked. Picked off one by one with arrows and knives from the shadows, surrounded and engaged in battle, illusions to distract them to make killing them easy, numerous other ways...
’Well, fighting back against these should be fun.’ Willow thought sarcastically, glancing around at the dark anticipation in each face of Nightfall present. ’At least I’m not the only crazy person here...’ She noticed, holding back a grin.

That emotion fast disappeared when news arrived of one of the band going missing. Not because Willow cared about the person as such – how could she after less than a day of knowing anyone in this band, never mind specific people? – but because it showed that these riders were at least as good, or bad, as she’d thought they were from other people’s reactions thus far. Killing or abducting a skilled mercenary from the boundaries of their own band without anyone else noticing was tricky, especially when they were already on the alert for an enemy group...

’Which is attacking right now.’ Willow’s thought was practically a silently shouted complaint as she followed the others in dropping to the ground like unstrung marionettes and shifting, thankful of her multi-shaded, grey-black coat.

Shying away from the flames, she bounded out of the camp, jumping automatically over a dark shape on the ground and spinning to face it, blinking as she came eye to shoulder with a wild-eyed cougar; looking far too comfortable this close to albeit-illusionary-fire.

Willow nodded, then turned and continued her search for something to fight as the cougar went in another direction, guiding the flames and probably looking for the same thing as Willow.
Purpose set, Willow tore between the trees, running a wide circle and frequently scenting the air. It wasn’t long before she caught an unfamiliar scent.
She quietly followed it a few metres, nose twitching over the leaves that muffled the steps of her large paws; still vaguely gangly-looking, like a puppy.

She crouched down a few feet away from the figure highlighted by the flames, bow strung and tense, aiming back into the chaos that was camp.
A single bound brought her within snapping distance of his arm; instead she took out his bow, snapping the fragile wood as the string coiled back on itself rapidly, depositing the arrow on the ground as its owner staggered back and drew a dagger.

Willow merely snarled, baring her gums and flicking her tongue between her teeth until he lunged, a little awkwardly, forward.
She leapt aside, knives flipping to her hands as she shifted and pounced onto his back, knocking him to the ground as she sunk the two daggers between his shoulder blades.

’Good archer, not too experienced at close-quarters fighting though,’ She observed, pulling her daggers free and wiping the blood from them on the leg of her trousers.

Only the blur in the corner of her eye warned her of the second fighter hurtling towards her, giving her the time to sharply turn her head before having the breath knocked out of her and landing with a painful-sounding thunk against a tree, her attacker having pulled up a few feet away, probably to avoid landing on her knives.

Suddenly drawing in a breath, she rocked forward to balance on her toes, daggers held ready as she used her newly regained breath to utter a steady stream of curses.

“Why do I always end up being thrown against trees?” She growled, feeling a deep graze on the back of her head smart and drip blood down her neck, clumping her hair.

The man in front of her wore a knuckle duster on one hand and held a sharpened Falcata in the other.
They, however, were no deterrent as Willow carefully swapped her daggers for swords, calmly moving as her opponent watched her warily.
More suitably armed, she rose into a guarded stance and slowly started to circle, mirrored by the other.

At some silent signal, they flipped sideward, bringing their outside foot past their inside, blades crashing together in the middle.

The man stepped forward again, twisting their locked swords awkwardly and making Willow’s arm tremble from maintaining the angle as he swung his free fist towards her head, aiming for her temple. Willow dropped her other sword arm across the first and brought the blade up to intercept his arm, holding the sword steady as his wrist connected with the sharp edge of the sword.
It sank up to the bone before Willow unlocked their swords and pulled his wounded arm aside, dragging him towards her as she plunged her free weapon into his stomach, up to the hilt, freezing his attempt at a slash to her own torso, then dragged it aside as she stepped back away from his falling body and innards.

Wrinkling her nose at the smell, she shook the excess blood from her swords and sheathed them, falling into her four legged form and turning to melt into the shelter of the trees, scenting for the next fighter to challenge.

[flippedside]

OOC: Been busy and not had much muse...So I started this post like three times, but didn't go anywhere...So I'm determined I'm finally getting something up this time.


Kaye half-turned in the shadows of a massive pine to glance back at the camp. It was already deserted, everyone having scattered into the brush. Good, they'd made it just in time. False flames roared up pine trees, adding to the confusion. She spun back around, thinking that confusion wasn't going to be enough. She cursed the fact that the enemy had had the chance to sneak up on them and gain a serious advantage.

Crawling forward, carefully, she shook all her thoughts away, focusing on the current moment: the distant sound of steel clanging and the swish of pine branches in the slight wind. Stillness settled heavily around her, and Kaye was aware of every breath, of the adrenaline spiked beat of her heart. She crawled forward, and again lay still, listening. She refused to provide a target to anyone looking. Ahead, the faint cold light of the half-moon glistened on a patch of snow. Avoiding that spot, she circled slowly around in the deep shadows of the trees, trying to keep her frame from providing an outline. She crouched down in the shadows and waited.

The quiet scuff of a boot caused her to freeze. Unfortunately, she didn't know if she was facing friend or foe. Her hands slid into her sleeves, loosening twin wrist knives. Another quiet shift, drawing the other forward. Kaye clenched her jaw in irritation. She hated waiting. Every muscle tensed.

A wolf suddenly lunged out of the bushes towards her, jaws open for her throat. Kaye reated without thinking, dropping and punching out with her legs. The beast twisted in the air, and came back at her other side. For the briefest instant, Kaye wondered why she hadn't taken her own advice and kept with a partner: she could've used having someone to watch her back. The thought was gone as fast as it had come, her body already slamming her knives forward in a cross-block before her to keep the wolf from slamming through the weapons and into her. The wolf collapsed into her block at the same instant that she threw it, knocking her backwards. Ignoring the throw, she scissored her crossed blades across the creatures throat. It leapt back, bloody but not dead.

Kaye cursed the fact the thing wasn't dead. She rolled up, just as a blur caught before her eyes. Her hand automatically blocked it, a rope jerking her back and off-balance. One hand was caught against her body. It was a bad position, since she couldn't slice through a rope in one move: it needed cutting. So Kaye spun and lunged at her second attacker, knife out. The rope helped draw her forward. The man twisted the rope to the side with one hand, and with the other drew a sword. She heard a crunch in the snow behind her and dropped into a deep crouch, subconsciously recognizing it as the wolf. She half turned, unable to get further before the beast crashed into her. But her position was surprisingly stable.

It's teeth bit into her shoulder, but she hardly noticed, her mind completely focused on winning. Twisting in the motion of the wolf, she flung both their bodies sideways, the wolf's hitting the other man in the legs. Both staggered and Kaye lunged at her chance, lashing forward at the wolf with her slim knife.

It snapped at her hand and she kicked sideways with her heel into the shifter's head, snapping it sideways. Her knife cut down directly behind the head. The weapon stuck, and catching movement, Kaye looked up to see the other man dropping his sword down on her head. Bad spot. She blocked awkwardly with the single knife, pushing his sword to the side and away from her. Kaye felt the jar in her hurt shoulder as she did it. Wincing, with her other hand she withdrew her sword and aimed it at the stranger's gut. He spun it away, as Kaye threw her knife at his chest. It flew awkwardly, her shoulder not responding quite right. Still, it grazed his skin, briefly distracting him away from her sword, which flicked a nasty slice along his thigh.

They both backed off quickly, eyeing one another. Kaye slid out a dagger, balancing it lightly in her off hand, her shoulder starting to burn. The pain was distracting, but not bad enough to throw her concentration. Still, she didn't see the shape behind her that slammed into her back, smashing her face into the snow...

[Willow]

[OOC: Ugh...same. I've got a half-written post for reading the signs on word somewhere, but the muse and motivation to finish it have wheezed away cos I've been ill ¬_¬ so yeah, I'll see if I can write this one. No promises it'll be finished, though.]

Slowing from her run, Willow shifted back and sat with her back against a tree before putting her hand to the back of her head, wincing as the pain stung fresh again. Her head and neck felt almost saturated in blood; not a good thing, but at present there wasn’t much she could do about it, nor the slightly lightheaded sensation that came with it.
She shook her head then pressed her hand sharply against the injury, both in an attempt to dispel the lightheaded feeling and to see how deep it was. It hadn’t gone near the skull, but it was still bleeding a lot.
’Still, don’t head wounds bleed heavier than injuries on other parts of the body?’ She thought, blinking hard and grasping a handful of her hair, noticing that it wasn’t nearly as blood soaked as it felt.

Dropping her hand, she closed her eyes and just breathed for a moment, ordering her thoughts and blocking out the recurring throb of pain in her head. She was still in a vulnerable position here, with hostile individuals nearby. She had to be ready to fight, despite her injury; else she’d be another fur coat in someone’s wardrobe. Time to move.

Opening her eyes, she breathed out heavily then got up steadily and turned, wrapping her arms around the rough trunk of the pine and pulling herself up, scrabbling up the tree she’d been resting against until she reached the lower branches. She was upwind of the fire, so if anyone did see her, which was unlikely, they probably wouldn’t think much on it. If she’d been in front of the flames, however, then said hypothetical observer might have been suspicious; why would she be sitting so calmly in a tree that would be engulfed in flames in a matter of moments?
Not that she planned on staying there long; just enough time to see if there was anyone nearby to fight then she’d be down again. No need to make herself an easy target for too long.

Balancing there, albeit a little less confidently than she usually would have, she peered around, scanning the flames she was upwind of, then the bases of the trees nearby, watching carefully for movement other than the smoke that wreathed its way around the bushes and trees before winding its way up into the sky.

At first her eyes passed over, only seeing another shadow. Then it moved, shifting in her peripheral vision.
Snapping her attention back to the dark shadows next to a small pool of moonlight through the branches, Willow watched two figures, one human, another lupine, grappling with a third; human.
She couldn’t see from this distance who it was, but she knew that one of the parties in the group must belong to Nightfall – the Riders wouldn’t be trying to kill each other, after all.

Judging it carefully, Willow leapt down from the branch, staggering slightly as she landed, then crept forward in on her hands and knees towards the fight.
She was in time to see Kaye facing off against the human opponent, the wolf felled with Kaye’s knife in the base of the skull.

A blur caught her eye, then Kaye was on the ground, pinned by a fair-sized melanistic jaguar.
’Great,’ Willow thought sarcastically, already knowing the feline was both larger and heavier – and more powerful – than herself.
Still, she shifted as she bounded forwards, tearing out of the brush and leaping at the jaguar, knocking it off balance and onto its side, away from Kaye, where Willow scrabbled to reach it’s throat before she was fully standing herself, ignoring the vicious claw swipes that parted her fur until one hit, knocking her backwards and ripping three gashes down her shoulder and chest as she rolled backwards, yelping sharply as the jaguar slid easily to its paws and circled around her, chancing another slash as the wolf struggled up.
By sheer reflexes, Willow whipped her jaws around and caught the clawed paw in her jaws, sinking her teeth in before shaking free and recoiling, baring her teeth in a pained snarl at the rips in her mouth where the jaguar’s claws had dug in.
By now she was on her feet, her injured leg held up to her chest and her bleeding jaws open in a continuous alternation between a whine and a growl, bright eyes showing only a thin band of green around her dilated pupils as she watched the cat hunched a few metres away, it’s thick fur standing and it’s short muzzle wrinkled up in a throaty hiss.

The noise in Willow’s throat suddenly descended into a growl and stayed there, shaking through her chest before she darted forward and snapped at the cat, aiming for its throat but only catching its muzzle; it had hunched up so that its neck was covered and its throat protected.
The jaguar’s answering paw swipe to Willow’s already injured shoulder created a sickening snapping noise, even as Willow jumped to the side to avoid it and was caught in mid air.

She landed a few feet away, agonised howl falling into a whine as she struggled to stand, her front left leg hanging limp while the other scrabbled for purchase on the cold ground.
Seeing the wolf’s sudden vulnerability, the jaguar leapt in to deliver the killing strike, pinning Willow awkwardly on her back and lunging for her throat, aiming to closed her jaws through it and suffocate her to death.
Its head jerked to a stop a few centimetres from the ground, amber eyes wide in surprise as its life drained away with the blood pulsing out of its jugular, staining Willow’s jaws crimson and running into her leaf-green orbs as she held the jaguar’s throat in a death-bite, breathing through her nose as she waited to the feline to die.

As it fell limp, all of its two-hundred and ten pounds resting on Willow as she opened her maw and tried to push the dead cat off her with her good legs, eventually resorting to shifting to shove the heavy animal off her. Luck, she knew, played a large part in her fights. Surely hers must be running out by now...

Freed, she cradled her limp arm, gently examining her upper arm and shoulder to find the injury; definitely a break.
Eventually she found it was her collarbone that had snapped, very close to her shoulder joint. Moving it slightly brought on a wave of nausea-inducing pain.

Not even caring to see if it still continued, she crawled on her knees to the relative safety of the nearest tree, out of the way of Kaye’s battle. There she sank to the ground, exhausted with shock and pain as she gave up completely on concentrating as her mind shut her body down for a moment, leaving her to slump in a faint for a second before blinking awake, the pain of all her wounds fading strangely.

’My brain recognises that it’s in too much danger to be hampered by injury, so it’s cutting off the pain signals,’ Willow realised, mentally examining the strange sensation of moving her arm and experiencing no pain when she should. ’Weird.’ She thought, casting a quick glance over at Kaye to see how she was coping. Not that she’d be much help in a fight now.

[OOC: if you want me to change any of that, like if you had your own idea for what knocked Kaye over or whatever, just tell me and I’ll edit. It won’t take much change to turn this into a completely separate fight.]

[flippedside]

OOC: Works great. I left it open-ended in case you wanted to do something with it. Sorry this post is so short...Wasn't really sure where I was going with it.


Kaye's mouth tasted snow, even as she automatically shifted, bracing heavily furred paws against the ground. She hunched her shoulders to protect against a killing bite, assuming that whatever it was that had hit her was a shifter in animal form.

Lashing her tail, she prepared to expend all her energy in twisting, when the creature was suddenly thrown off of her back. Kaye twisted about, seeing a wolf bowl into a massive jaguar. It looked male, so she guessed it was probably much heavier in weight--let alone size--then she was. She didn't have a chance to pause and recognize the wolf: already she was shifting back to human to grab her dropped sword and balance forward. Her shoulder was screaming now from being smashed into the ground, but she purposely set the pain aside, ignoring it in favor of her second enemy, who was swiftly advancing on her.

She just had time to balance herself and block her sword above her head from the swift downward strike. The other spun his sword to the side, and Kaye staggered back, blocking and riposting swiftly. They were well-matched and Kaye was unhappily aware that swords were not her best weapon. She backed swiftly, looking for an opening. Thinking on her feet, she drew a stiletto, learned from her time as an assassin, and faked a side slash. He blocked half-heartedly, knocking the weapon aside, focused on her sword.

Kaye thought a trick was in order. He wasn't taking her wounded left hand in much consideration. She dropped low, feigned a strike with her sword, and then moved sideways and slammed her other hand out. He was taken by surprise, twisting to block with his sword. Perfect. Her sword flicked a deadly arc and slammed into the side of his neck. Blood spurted in an ugly mess across the steel weapon and over her hand. Jerking back, Kaye shook off the blood from her blade as best she could, and then crouched and examined everything around her.

The jaguar was dead, it's lifeblood staining the ground and snow red. The wolf was also dead, and now the man with the sword. Kaye realized her arm was a dead weight, her numb fingers barely holding the slim stiletto. She slid it back into its sheath against her thigh, her head suddenly spinning slightly with pain. There were no enemies in direct sight, and she wondered briefly how the others were fairing. For herself, she was stunned that she had lasted as long as she had. Luck, she thought vaguely.

Willow, apparently the wolf that had driven off the jaguar, was not fairing so well. Kaye slipped forward, her eyes wary and dilated with both pain and adrenaline. Her chest heaved with exertion, but the edge of adrenaline and fear kept her moving easily.

"You don't look too good," Kaye commented. "You're pale even for you." Of course, the darkness cut off color, but Willow still didn't look well. Kaye circled warily, watching the darkness, before returning to Willow. She was afraid of being attacked by something while she wasn't watching. That had already happened twice so far, and she wasn't sure how she'd managed to survive both attacks.

[Willow]

Willow gave a single, humourless laugh.
“Yeah, nearly getting killed by a manic jaguar tends to do that to me,” She said sarcastically, her breathing uneven as she clenched her jaw and stood, biting back a moan of pain as she almost involuntarily squeezed her eyes shut as she hissed through her teeth.

Opening her eyes, she gave another laugh, shaking her head slowly.
“Look at us – wounded, with two severely injured left arms in the middle of a battlefield,” It seemed likely that only Willow would find the funny side of this. “This ought to be a life lesson – if in a fight, don’t break or otherwise damage yourself to the point your brain shuts part of your body down,” Her voice had turned towards bitterness by the time she finished talking, although it seemed more like she was frustrated at how she’d not been able to avoid the injury, rather than that the wound had been inflicted.

Sighing, she shook her head again and looked up, stepping slowly from the support of the tree as she scanned the area again, then closed her eyes and listened instead.
A quiet breeze through the branches, rustling the leaves.....A night bird high in a nearby tree, landing on a branch, its talons nicking the wood.....the angry shriek of a fox.

“Any foxes in your group?” Willow asked without opening her eyes, still mainly concentrating on the fox, which continued to yap and scream. It sounded as if it were fighting.
’Normal fox scrap, or a shifter?’ She wondered, widening her scope from just the fox to the rest of the surrounding area, yet she heard nothing that suggested an attack.

Eventually, she almost reluctantly opened her eyes, glancing around to verify her assessment.
“So, now what? Keep looking for fights, or try to find the rest of Nightfall?” She paused, revising her question. “Or is that just the same thing?” She asked, her voice hinting at a non-existent grin.

[OOC: Okay, no idea what that was...my ideas are going up in smoke at the moment.]

[flippedside]

{Heh. So, two years later I'm finally replying...lol.}


"Where did you come from?" Jarad asked, shocked to see Fynn.

Fynn looked puzzled. "Been wandering around a bit. Heard some noises and I slid off into the brush, where I met some nasty folks. Got a horrible hit on the head." He paused to retrieve his dagger from the man's back. "Had to hide out a while, so I couldn't report back. I think I passed out briefly, and when I came to there was a wall of flames rushing off through the trees..." He shook his head. "Anyway, I was just crawling around and came across you."

"We thought the Riders had dragged you off," Jarad told him.

"Who?"

Jarad gave him a quick explanation of recent events, ending with, "And they've got the advantage of surprise. Don't know we're going to get out of this one..."

"Huh." Fynn paused a moment, rubbing at the blood now matting his hair. His head wound seemed to have stopped bleeding, but he was painfully light-headed. He tried to think. "Could just run, I guess."

"We'll be hunted down one by one," Jarad growled.

"Kind of like street fighting," Fynn muttered vaguely. "Either we're hunting them out or they're hunting us while we hide out..."

"Street fighting," Jarad repeated, considering. He knew something of that, having spent most of his life fighting on the streets. Later, it was aboard ships, but the close quarters remained. But there was some truth to Fynn's words. Street fighting was often a house by house close quarter fight, where you had to carefully track down your opponent...A crazy idea came to him. It was insanity, but then again, it might work.

"Fynn," Jarad asked, his tight control over his growing excitement making his words almost casual, "how good are you at climbing trees?" Wasn't that how Willow had caught the first Rider? Maybe they could make it work again in a slightly different way.

"One of the best," Fynn said, grinning through the throbbing pain in his head.

Quickly, Jarad outlined his plan. He was going for the element of surprise as turning things in their favor. If he lost the gamble...Well, they wouldn't be able to run fast enough. But if they could pull it off...It just might turn things into their favor. Unfortunately, time wasn't on their side.

Fynn just stared at him, his expression clearly saying, What, are you in insane? After a moment, he finally managed, "I think you need a squirrel shifter."

Jarad grinned. "Maybe. But we used to do something like that in the city when I was kid--dropping down on unsuspecting victims. So the stakes are upped, but...It might work."

"For you. If I miss...I'll have a long drop to the ground."

"True." Jarad shrugged. "Well, do whatever you think works," he said, scrambling swiftly up a thick pine trunk. The lowest branches were well off the ground, and he had to strain to bring himself up. Swarming up higher into the tree, he sprang from branch to branch, balancing carefully.

He had an unexpected bit of luck when a kite suddenly circled above. Jarad growled softly, knowing that he couldn't hit the bird with a dagger from this distance, and he would be at a considerable disadvantage if he shifted and flew at it. Climbing higher, the thin branches whipped about under his weight. The kite swooped down towards him. Jarad saw it coming and guessed its path of travel. He tugged a branch back...And then released it at the last instant. The bird didn't stand a chance. There was an audible THUD and then it fell to the earth, neck snapped. Jarad smiled tightly to himself.

He hunted through the branches below, using his ability to shift to carry him short distances as he watched the ground below closely. His vigilance was rewarded twice. The first time allowed him to drop down in hawk form on a stranger crouched in dark shadows. At the last instant to flipped out his wings to catch himself, shifting in the air and landing hard on the man's back. A thin knife ended the man's life. He flew back up into the trees, moving cautiously, wary of arrows.

He was surprised to find two familiar figures below him.

The hawk dropped swiftly out of the sky, flaring his wings at the last instant to catch himself before shifting. Kaye was already lunging forward, intent on gutting him. Jarad leaped back, calling, "It's me! Don't kill me."

Kaye pulled herself up and looked at him curiously.

"Found Fynn." He nodded briefly to Willow, surprised to find himself panting. "Don't know about anyone else. But Fynn thought there might only be about 30 of 'em."

"Well, we just took out three," Kaye told him.

"Hmm. I think I've gotten three myself. That only leaves, what, 24 to go?" He grinned wolfishly.

OOC: So...I kind of feel like this thread has been well-played. Do you want to bring it to some sort of close? (In more than one post, if needed.) I'm sort of out of ideas on it...

[Willow]

As soon as it was clear the hawk wasn't attacking, Willow withdrew the sword she'd extended towards the bird, snapping the blade into its scabbard and nodding back to Jarad, listening intently as he explained what had happened.

"Make that twenty two; I took out two before I ran into Kaye. Along with the others and however many they've taken out...there's a good possibility there's less than twenty left." She added, daring to sound vaguely hopeful. The odds of there being less than twenty seemed quite good, anyway, which would greatly improve their own chances of either fighting or escaping.

“So, based on that, what now? Fight or flight?” She asked, a tad sarcastically. She didn’t much like the idea of running, but she wasn’t so proud she’d chose fighting over escaping if the odds were stacked too high against her. Besides, if these Riders had been following Nightfall specifically, and with the intent of wiping them out, Willow was pretty certain they’d get into another confrontation with them eventually. Whether Willow would be with them or not when it happened was another matter, but that she couldn’t help. She wasn’t about to tie herself to a band simply to get revenge on the Riders for making her run before.

“Also, do you know if this thirty are the whole of the Stone Riders, or if they’re merely a small part of the whole?” She said, curiosity masking the slight worry. If they were just a regiment of the Riders, then the ones killed could be replaced, then added to. If so, Nightfall could be in serious trouble – next time it could be forty or fifty attacking them. They’d reach their limit eventually.
’So what? Do I care about them now, this bunch of mercenaries I’ve known for less than a day?’ She thought, mocking but also wondering. Did she care if they died or not? Why should she? She respected them, yes; but cared?
Willow didn’t know.

Brusquely, she shoved away the turmoil, mask showing nothing as she waited for answers, instead concentrating on standing, locking her teeth together as her body complained viciously. She stood, good hand resting lightly on her injured shoulder, trying not to jostle it even though she wouldn’t feel much of it if she did.

She glanced between the two shifters, waiting for some course of action or plan of sorts.

[flippedside]

"The Stone Riders are essentially a small cult that the emperor makes use of. As far as how many of them there are, I have no idea. I can't imagine too many, but I'm sure there's quite a few more than thirty," Jarad replied. He paused frowning, then added, "Not sure if Fynn saw--" his words were cut short by a low boom. "What was that?"

Sylaerel glided out of the shadows. "Oops. I think it's time to go."

Kaye looked at her, puzzled. "I take it that boom had something to do with you?"

"Maybe..." she played unsuccessfully at being innocent for a moment. "OK, it did." Syaerel's normally cool and distant eyes lit up with sudden glee. "Triana and I found a way to make a few of my fire charms explode. I'd forgotten about it...I think we may have burnt a few holes into the ground, but...Should have taken out half of those left, at least." Sylaerel glanced back over her shoulder. "I couldn't remember how to make it work, otherwise I would have done it earlier."

Jarad looked at her with interest. "Explosions?"

An arrow hissed through the air, slamming into Sylaerel's back before she could reply. She was slammed forward into the ground by the force of it.

Kaye and Jarad were instantaneous in responding, lunging forward into the three attackers who emerged from the shadows. A flicker shivered to Kaye's left and she spun, but pulled up in time to see Triana and her mate Braen appear. They finished off the riders.

Kaye returned to Sylaerel, but she was already dead, her charms hissing steam into the cold air. Several turned to ash. Kaye sat back, swearing softly. She could see several smaller wounds on Sylaerel's form, but nothing major. It seemed so strange to see her dead after nearly wiping out and escaping the Riders...Kaye was used to seeing companions die, but it still left a strange aching numbness in her chest. She shook it off, knowing that it was more important to save those that were still alive.

"Right. Is anyone else still alive? Besides the five of us, I mean."

"Cameron and Fynn last I saw." Jarad shrugged. "I'll check." He shifted and flew off.

Kaye glanced blankly at the others, the pain in shoulder starting to become more than a nuisance with the loss of immediate danger.

Triana had put away her weapons and pulled out a small pack. "Here," she said, approaching Willow. She pulled out some poppy seeds and other simple healing tools.

Kaye brought her focus away from her pain, and carefully stalked around the trees. There was a shout somewhere in the distance that was cut short, and then a continuance of the silence. Her feet were trained to make no sound, and she moved with a natural cat-like grace and precision, every movement made to count.

Fynn appeared amongst their group next, supporting a wounded Ryss. Kaye stepped into their view and he nodded to her. "Jarad sent us this way. Found Ryss and Evan facing five of 'em." He grinned. "I think Ryss put paid to three by himself..."

"Where's--" Kaye started, but Evan appeared then, flowing out of the shadows.

"Here." He looked grim and tired, and a make-shift bandage was wrapped around his arm. Blood still seeped through in places, but he looked otherwise unharmed. Secretly relieved, Kaye gestured behind herself.

"Triana's got a healing kit with her."

Fynn and Ryss trudged away and Evan added softly, "I'll do what I can, too." He nodded to Kaye, and she smiled slightly back. It was good to see that most of her band was still intact.

Jarad came back last with Cameron. Apparently, the wolf-shifter had taken out another Stone Rider and nearly lost his life in the process. Jarad filled her in quickly, then added, "And I saw Shret. He was dead with a couple arrows. Looks like he took out two or three before dying."

"Where's Kane?" Kaye asked.

Jarad shrugged and shook his head. "No idea. I saw some tracks, but that's all. Didn't see his body. In fact, I didn't see anymore of the Riders. I think the reminder pulled out after Sylaerel's explosion." He looked suitably impressed by the fact that she'd managed an explosion. Kaye wondered if he was wondering how to use such a thing for his own use. She narrowed her eyes. Whatever the trick, it had died with Sylaerel. "Maybe Triana knows," Jarad muttered, turning back to the others.

Then again, maybe not...Kaye grinned to herself. Some thing's never changed...


OOC: Well, someone needed to die...And it has Rainbow Colors! Like crayons. And Skittles. So, I think that ends the problem of taking care of those nasty Riders. Not my best writing, but whatever. Ugh. My cat's terrorizing me. Better go.

[Willow]

[OOC: Aww. Even though they attack us left, right and centre, or constantly demand food, what would we do without our cats? ;D And yay for colours!
Um...I think I'm slightly hyper today. Dunno why, I haven't had much sugar...not that that's what makes you hyper, but hey.]

In the short space of time between Sylaerel speaking and the arrow, Willow wondered if there was some ingrained love of violence and destruction in every warrior, as she felt a grin tugging at her lips as the explosion was explained.

Then the arrow hit, and Willow jerked a dagger out with her good hand, but the Riders were already being finished off.

Glancing down at Sylaerel, Willow reflected again at how easily humans died. All it took, really, was a sharpened twig with enough force behind it.
Then she remembered Sylaerel’s question, hours ago. ’Do I know you?’
Willow wondered for the second time if she did know Sylaerel, or had seen her before today. A vague memory niggled in her mind, there but out of reach, refusing to be reviewed.

Shaking her head, she quickly focussed herself again, not quite trusting those Riders to be the last, even if the main force had withdrawn.
Slipping the dagger away, she accepted Triana’s help with a quiet ‘thanks’, glancing down at her arm, still strangely numb.

’That is going to absolutely wreck when I’m definitely out of danger,’ She thought unhappily, mentally cursing the nearby dead jaguar as she spoke to Triana.
“I’ll be okay; you’d best see to the others.” She said, sounding a touch tired. “There’s a few who’re in worse shape than me. Thank you, though.”

Sighing wearily, she leaned against the tree she’d sat against earlier, waiting for the poppy seeds to kick in, watching the small group in front of her. They’d probably be moving soon, once everyone could. After that, Willow would leave; she hadn’t intended to get caught up in all this, nor did she plan on staying caught up for a while. And by now, she was pretty certain Nightfall would let her go when she wanted to leave – she doubted they were as suspicious of her now was they had been.
But where to go? She could always head up into the mountains, and see if there was anything up there that could help her search.

Well, for now she was going nowhere until she was sure the Riders had actually fallen back and wouldn’t be trying anything in the near future.

Remembering Nightfall’s reason for being here, she crossed the grass to Kaye, a question already forming on her lips.
“Considering everything that’s gone on tonight, will you still be going ahead with the caravan raid?” She asked curiously. Personally, she wouldn’t be if she were in Kaye’s position, instead taking the time to heal the injured and bury the dead, and get as far away from the Riders as possible. But, she didn’t know how Nightfall operated in situations like this. In any case, Willow wanted to know when she could leave. She wanted a few days or weeks of running wild again, while she healed.

[OOC: okay, not too sure what that was, I'm both hyper and half asleep, and the internet just had a fit. Joy.]

[flippedside]

"Caravan raid?" Kaye made a face. "I think not. We're all too much of a mess. I'm thinking it's best to clear out...Get the hell out of here as fast as we can." She quickly made that into an order, picking out the few who were still in some sort of acceptable condition to gather their belongings.

"Evan, keep healing the others as you can. Jarad, Braen, Triana, and I will get our stuff back to here. I want to leave this place as soon as possible. No need to hang about for a second attack while we're still weak."

She huffed softly, frustrated with the turn of events. And where to travel to? The nearest place was Ashata, but there was no way she was heading there now. That would be to step into danger again. Jarad and Braen slipped out to bring some of their things back while Triana finished up with what she could do. Kaye circled her band, making sure everyone was in good enough order to travel. They couldn't go far, but a mile or two would be enough...and then rest for a few days while she decided where to go.

"I think that's it," Triana told her. "Mostly just time and letting the body do it's own natural healing, now."

Kaye nodded. Time. "Let's grab what we can. We can leave the non-essentials. Better to travel light..." She sighed. Things had not gone as she wanted.

Triana touched her arm. "We paid them well, took down more than our worth."

Kaye nodded. "I know, it's not that--I'm a merc to the core. I wanted something out of this deal and didn't get anything..." She allowed a slight smile to curve her lips. Triana shared it as they slipped back to the prior camp, pulling out essentials. It didn't take long, as Nightfall traveled light, anyway.

The others were waiting and ready to leave. Kaye knew they would help each other as needed until they found a new site. There, they would sleep off the exhaustion and let their bodies heal. She dropped Willow's bag at the wolf-girl's feet. "Here's your things. You're free to go as you wish." Kaye nodded and then left her to return to her own band.


OOC: Well, there we go. End of "Fire" thread, I think, unless you want to add one last post for Willow.