A Grande Adventure

(I know near diddly-squat about how wood and signs and whittling work, but I'll do my best with what I'm given... ^^; Also shame on you, Jedi, you didn't describe anything about the ground around it like I asked you to in my last post. >:[ )

After inspecting the wood of the sign thoroughly, Taihaku came to the same conclusion that was rather too forwardly described in Jedi's post:

"The wood is too smooth," she said in answer to Gildor's query. "It is as if it were painstakingly and delicately sliced sliver by sliver, but by a blade much too large for it to have been held in the hands of someone akin to our collective height range."

The neko then took a couple of steps backward, moving away from the sign, then knelt down on the ground. Using as little of what magical energy she managed to recuperate during the walk from the camp, she created a tiny cube of ice and set it on the ground and, pouring a little extra magic into it, she pushed it lightly across the ground, sending it toward the sign and past the post, the magic inside the cube causing the ground under it to become ice as well so there would be little to no friction. In doing so, she hoped to uncover some uneven ground where whatever had put the sign here had stepped (or perhaps, slithered).

"Well my love I think its the fact of who left the sign is the main- HRm!" Saen tried to explain before he was kissed passionately by Corveta weak in the knees. "Maybe we should more aware of our...oh sod it!" Saen kissed her back ignoring what the others were saying enjoying the break with Corveta.

"Seconded," said Persephone, having extrapolated the rest of Saen's proposal. "In fact, I suggest we split up." She was speaking in a slightly more hushed voice than usual. It wouldn't do much good to hide them from a predator who was already listening, but it couldn't hurt.
"We can make two or three groups," she continued, drawing from her experiences in space combat, "one to be the 'main group', as it were, or perhaps we split that into two halves. Then we have a different group a short distance away, just close enough to see the main group but hidden from anyone who might be watching - the smaller group being off to the side of the path somewhere." She gesticulated as she spoke, painting an imaginary map of her battle plan not unlike the way a sports coach on Earth might illustrate a play.
She paused, for barely a second, before explaining the point of the formation.
"This way, if anyone's stalking us, they'll focus on the main group, allowing the secondary group to defend the others from behind the enemy. And if worse comes to worst, if we aren't all in the same place it's that much less likely we'll all get caught at once."
In her mind she hoped this kind of cautious tactic wouldn't be necessary. Maybe the sign had just been carved by one of the giants protecting Safe Harbor?

(I didn't mean to criticize you, Nyaha.)

Corveta half listened to the others. It seemed Persephone wanted to split up. 'Well we can cover more ground that way.' She thought. 'Also increases our chances of a predator attack, but I'm not afraid of them anymore.' She took a moment to come up for air leaving Saen mouthing at the empty space between them. "Sounds good to me! But let's be careful. Even without a dangerous predator trying to trap us there are always bandits, man eating plants and even wild animals to worry about without some giant girl tryign to eat us." She then resumed kissing Saen again just as a passionately.

As Taihaku watched the water followed a curve then pooled in a very large potato-shaped hole. If potatoes were the size of her entire body! It wasn't supper deep,pretty shallow in fact, but very large and seemed to leave spikey hair-like filaments around the outside edge if Taihaku looked closely enough. There was even same coarse dark green hair laying around nearby. A few strands half as long as her body and some a lot smaller. What could have left a print like that?

Richard smiled when Persephone said they should split up. She had military training and knew that risking the whole party was foolish. She'd make a great queen if only she had some noble blood. Though a military adviser who was a concubine would be unique. If only he could find time to ask her! Alas. Such was the life of the adventurous nobleman. "I agree. We shall separate into teams. I shall go with Gildor and Taihaku as the main group and Persephone will take Saen and Corveta." He said and without even pausing to ask what she thought of the idea he then picked up Dargo and started off down the way the path indicated. "Better to lose a politician than a Queen." he said over his shoulder to Persephone.

If the others set off up the side path at that moment they'd notice it was thick, but not untraversable and allowed them to keep sight of the main group quite easily. It also seemed not have many forms of carnivorous plants. Not even Doormat Plants or Pod Maws, mostly just overgrowth.

(My idea was just supposed to be an ice cube sliding across the ground to mark any changes in the elevation of the soil, but your interpretation, Jedi, was probably smarter. XD Haha!)

Taihaku took note of the hole revealed by her little ice and water trick, as well as the other evidence around it, as she listened to Richard's instructions and rose back up to her feet. "It doesn't appear to be human," the neko thought silently as she reclaimed her thick coat from the rock upon which Dargo had rested up until a moment ago. "But the hair around the print means it could still be mammalian, and the size of it all suggests that it may be very large." As she passed by the print to follow Richard, Taihaku bent down to pick up one of the smaller hairs. It's colour, straightness and coarseness reminded her of a person she met once, of a species known as a shakala, who had hair very similar to this kind. She also remembered that that person once rolled up into a spiky hair-ball, which could explain the oddly-shaped imprint in the soil. Taihaku hoped this assessment would prove correct - the shakala she'd met was a fierce combat specialist, great for sparring, which was an activity she had wanted to try with Ibashi. Plus, they did not come in a giant variety, or not so far as she knew, which would be much better news for the group.

She let out a noticeable sigh as her mind was once again dragged back to thoughts of her elven crush...

Saen was not paying attention at all. His complete thoughts were on Corveta and how much he didn't really want to stop the hero in him surpressed by the man in him.

(Won't be here for about five days sorry =( )

Persephone had thought she was following everything Richard said perfectly, right up until that last bit. "Better to lose a politician than a queen," or so she had heard. Could he possibly mean her? She cocked her head ever so slightly and blinked two or three times in confusion, hopefully too subtly for him to notice. In any case, that wasn't the important part. She followed the plan and directed Saen and Corveta to flanking positions hidden in the underbrush.
Now all that was left to do was wait and see whether they discovered what had left all those hairs or reached Safe Harbor first. As the suns approached the zenith, the shadows of the treetops growing across the forest floor seemed to amount to a foreboding omen.

(XD I did? Ha ha ha! That was totally accidental I assure you. I just thought that she was trying to see where the water would pool after it melted. By the way video game character who uses water and I never thought about it but that'd make  of a interesting puzzle solving ability. Mind if I borrow it? Also Saen it's okay. We'll continue with you on auto mod for four days or so and I or somebody else can brief you of what happened.)

Richard waited for Taihaku's report thoughtfully. The prints were clearly a mammal. He made a list of possibilities.There weren't too many. Sphinxes, Centuars, Inus and Nekos. He could rule out Centaurs. They didn't like the thicker forested regions much due to the fact they loved to run for long distances without stopping. Usually while chasing down a Caravan of travelers and licking them up like grass blades. Sphinxes were a possibility but the track would have to be differently shaped he was sure and giant nekos and Inu's were a rarity so perhaps it was one of Felarya's curious wonders that sometimes popped up. If so Richard made a note to take time to record it in his journal then get a tuft of fur or better yet a hide to decorate his foyer at home. In the meantime he kept watched vigilantly ahead and his eyes scanning the tree tops above. As he took point wishing his pride would have allowed him to shed the heavy cloak, some of his armor and those highly gilded, but painfully cumbersome boots.

Corveta skipped along dragging Saen behind her. Apparently all the kissing had fried his brain since he didn't move or speak hardly and has this happy, but distant look on his face.

Atlanta however was less than happy. For one thing Richard forgot her in his line up, not that it mattered as she could travel with either group in her smaller five inch state, but the fact he had also forgotten she could shrink cumbersome burdens to smaller sizes than that. For example Dargo. She shrunk down and landed on Persephone's shoulder and stat there quite easily. "Hello there. Mind if I come with you guys? That way I can cast spells with sniper's accuracy and not be seen." She said giving her wings a flutter. "It'll also keep me from being taken out too easily if something should try and rip my rings off."

(Jedi, the quotes in italic are thought quotes, you guys can't hear her. >.>)

Nyaha wrote:

(Jedi, the quotes in italic are thought quotes, you guys can't hear her. >.>)

(*Facepalm* Dangit I KNEW I my post went too smoothly. TT_TT Edited so it's just Richard's observations. )

"Sure, you can come along if you like!" Persephone obliged, raising her hand to pet the adorable little fairy's head.
"Oh!" she suddenly blurted out in a whisper, "Richard totally forgot about you, didn't he? No worries, I'll make sure not to. In fact, if there's anything you need don't hesitate to ask me, okay?"

As Taihaku marched behind Richard, she managed to get her thoughts off of Ibashi once more and onto the task at hand. As she contemplated her options should the group be accosted by a predator. She still hadn't recovered her mana fully, and that meant that the storage ring on her tail was probably not at full capacity either. If she had to guess, she'd estimate her spellcasting ability to be around fifty percent of its optimum. She'd still be able to summon her icicle spear or use her Gunner Shard spell, depending on the situation, but Freeze Blast and Nature's Bitterness would require too much energy. If she could get the opportunity to meditate, she might be able to pull in some of the ambient magic energy in the plants and soil to replenish herself, but it would take at least a good five minutes to do so, during which she'd be a sitting target. She wondered if she might be more effective working in tandem with Dargo as she had earlier in the journey, but at the moment he was catching up on his rest. Taihaku sighed as she looked to him.

"Lucky little bastard..."

Atlanta looked at Persephone curiously. "Thank you very much, Persephone." She said graciously with a cute flutter of her wings then she turned back to the main party advancing up the trail.

As the main party wondered along the path. Nothing seemed to happen for good long while. Then suddenly a form leaped out and onto the path. The figure was wild haired, with a long spiky mane of pale blonde with darker chocolate streaks. His eyes were a burning light orange and his skin was toned, tan and had some strange symbols of tribal nature on his arms and just under his left eye. The creature's height was humanoid size on the larger scale, of six feet eight inches. He was dressed only in leather pants that had been died green and had been adorned with various flora to make them blend in with the local fauna. "Raaaaaaaaaaagh! Bazza!Baaaazzzzaaa!" Yelled the Shakala in challenging tone holding a huge pole made of a dark wood that looked quite sturdy and had a large sharpened rock tied to each end over his head.

Richard stopped and took a light idle stance where his hands could rest at his sides close to, but not on his weapons. "What is a...Bazza?" He asked it questioningly raising an eyebrow.

The creature grinned with sharp fangs so bright and pointy even an Inu would have cowered at the sight of them. "I is Bazza!" He said pounding his chest with one arm over and over again. "Bazza has been challenged! This delights him!" It said taking it's weapon and spinning it into a loose position and blowi9ng a gust at Taihaku,Richard and Gildor. Not too feirce though their hair might have been ruffled a bit from the speed of it.

Atlanta watched the creature Bazza carefully. He had appeared so fast leaping into sight as if by magic. "What IS he?" She asked Persephone curiously. She had never seen such strange creature. The humanoid in her was curious. The Fairy in her was curious about how it tasted. "Should I shrink it down?" She asked.

Corveta responded to the fairy by waving her hands 'no' "Wait! Let's see if he's the one who made the sign first. I mean...He doesn't look like a craftsman and I doubt that so called "blade" on his weapon could cut finely and precisely. It more looked suited to cause uneven gashes." She said with hint of disdain. She hated it when people made weapons to deliberately injure or maim even more than they were intended to.

Taihaku reacted first, after the gust given off by the shakala's weapon blew back her long, golden blond hair. She forcefully handed her coat off to Richard as she stepped out from behind him. Anyone who was looking might notice the faint smile on the neko's face as she pressed her hands together, creating two magic circles between them, and slowly pulled them apart, once again forging her icicle spear, complete with the multiple-bladed, two-dimensional snowflake-shaped head.

"This, everyone, is a shakala. Judging by the colour of his hair and his mannerisms, he is most likely native to the tribe living in the mountains of Lamina far to the west. Be warned - they are known to be extremely fierce and combat-oriented even amongst other shakala tribes. If you wish not to get cut up too badly, I ask that you please keep your distance until such times as I indicate I require assistance."

With that done, she gave her own weapon an elegant, less forceful twirl and pointed it toward their assailant, taking a sideways stance to him, waiting for him to make the first offensive move.

"Oh, and one more thing: Do not touch his hair."

Richard smiled. Taihaku would have made a Grande Knight. Literally a Knight in the service of his house would be lucky if he was half as resourceful as she was and Knights with Magic would be far more useful in skirmishes. Even if it was only in pure non kinitic ways like how Taihaku formed her frosty weapons.

Meanwhile as Richard watched Bazza wasted no time with testing Taihaku's defenses and swung the weapon up and then down vicisouly trying to smash the head of the fragile, to his eye anyway,-looking spear. Taihaku would, if she payed attention to his body and not his weapon for moment, that his tail curved back at the same time and several quills extended to a slightly longer length. It seemed he was gettng ready to lunch them or use his tail as a piercing weapon, but which? A piercing weapon was only dangerous to her, but if he threw those needles, as it was rumored some Shakala could, he could fire in wide spray and hit Richard and Gildor. Likely their armor would protect them, but perhaps not.

Atlanta glared at Corveta. "You should not have stopped me. Now I'll jhave hard time aiming and may hit Taihaku! I'll need to wait for a better shot." She said annoyed at the human.

(Part of me thanks you for helping me get insight into his movements, and part of me thinks you should leave it to me to interpret what his movements mean instead of telling me outright what his next plans of attack might be. I'm not sure which part of me is right. ^^; )

Performing a graceful twirl, Taihaku swiftly sidestepped both of the shakala's vertical attacks. Her keen eye caught the movement of his tail (something which she was not aware shakala even possessed), and as she returned to her neutral stance, she held her spear up horizontally in front of her body, forecasting another attack.

Gildor followed Taihaku's advice and stepped out of range from the fight. However, he would still pull out his bow and notch an arrow, read to fire at the shakala in case Tai needed assistance. He marveled a bit at how graceful the Neko's movements were and mumbled. "As graceful as any Elf I've seen...she'd make a beautiful bladesinger..."

"Actually I think those three have it pretty much under control. Unless that thing pulls out some kind of hidden superpowers, it's far from the toughest thing we've encountered so far," whispered Persephone to the fairy on her shoulder. "So we might as well wait to blow our cover."

A fairy on her shoulder... an odd thought, Persephone was all too aware. It sounded so whimsical at first, but she'd been living in Felarya long enough (read: more than five minutes) to be well-informed that fairies here weren't the same as they were in fairy tales. A little disconcerting, therefore, that she should be carrying one around like no big deal. That wasn't anything she didn't already know, though, so she intended to continue being exactly as cautious as she'd been the whole time - plenty, from her perspective, but probably very little from anyone else's. That was just the way she tended to like these sort of situations.

I AM RAMBLING ABOUT THOUGHTS BECAUSE I AM UNCREATIVE AND CAN'T COME UP WITH AWESOME STUFF TO DOOO xP

Saen was staring at Corveta when he realized that he was not where he was previously. He shook his head confused and looked around taking in all that was occuring. He scratched his head, trying to piece the little bit of memory he had to piece together. "Was I hexed or something? When did this fight start? Is it a duel? Is that why we are not helping? If it is a duel why are some of us pointing weapons?"

(I always thought the Shakala had tails. o.O Mabye I should go re-read, but either way he'll still have one now.)

The Shakala's heavy weapon buried itself int he ground with a crash sending up a little dirt. For half a second he looked at it confusedly a second before growling and pulling the blade from the dirt bringing it around behind his head then flicking his tail and sending a few spikes her way. Assuming she dodged them he would then bring the weapon around in whirling arc and try to slash high at her head then spin around and slash again lower as the momentum of his attack made him spin like a top. There was one disadvantage to his attack that Taihaku,one of of the ranged weapon users in the party, could turn to an advantage: For a breif second he would be open if Taihaku dodged the first attack and his back would be to the party. He would be helpless for a few seconds as he came around to deliver another blow.

As they were contemplating this. Another creature was similarly considering her own options. She looked down at the party off the beaten trail. Particularly at Corveta and Persephone. It crept closser, assured that it would not be seen. It had learned many ways of staying unseen and unheard. This came from it's study of the dridder master of surprise "Un-Delinia" who was called by humans "the dridder ninja" Though Shala was not a "dridder ninja" or a dridder in any sense of the word. She was just an observer. For now. She would be till the time was right. Then, if she was fast, she'd nab two prizes.

Rather than dodging, Taihaku gave her spear a couple speedy twirls, parrying the unforeseen projectiles launched at her. This gave her the perfect opportunity to see what he was doing with his spin attack. Seeing an opportunity for attack, but knowing that her ranged Gunner Shard spell would be just a bit too slow to hit, she lunged forward low, evading his high attack, and attempted to kick his feet out from under him with a leg sweep while he was still spinning.

(I got that move from fighting Duramboros in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Though their spin attack is about two to five tonnes more menacing. ;])

(Ooops! I just now realized I forgot to reply to everyone else's comments XD Sorry guys. ^_^;

Bazza had not expected Taihaku to take his feet out from under him. Normally he could have leaped up or even side stepped and brought the heavy stone blade-like end of his weapon smashing into her. Alas this wasn't one of those times for his momentum had already caused him to turn and he had zero evasion chance and hundred and ten percent chance of being toppled, aided by his own weapon to boot! For as he feet left the ground his weapon continued to carry him spinning into the air until he spun three times and landed with hard fall on the dirt and vegetation. "Unnga!" He said as the air was forced from his lungs. "Raggh...darn you...Neko!" He cursed trying to get up but he was still too winded to speak. "Ragh!...Huff....puff....I will wish a rematch, little one." He said growling. "Unless you wish to ...huff...huff...end me now?" He asked smiling that fanged smile of defiance.

Richard would watch Tai very carefully. He knew her emotions were buried and she'd be cold and logical about this. So he waited for her to pin him by the throat and interrogate him as was proper procedure. While waiting for the inevitable he turned to Gildor and raised a brow questioningly. "'Bladeslinger'"? He asked him. "I have not heard that term in elvish before." Said Richard.

As the main party dealt with the funny big spiky thing. Shala glided along closer and closer to the two women and took something from her pouch it was a rolled up leaf of grey-green design though that was not important. What was important was that when unrolled one would discover two things. One: it had been coated in a sticky honey, Miaxi honey in fact, and two: It was large enough to contain two small humanoids with no great difficulty and in fact this was it's sole function. She did so carefully and quietly taking only slight breath before lowing the other twenty feet of her body of her body till she was directly overhead before bringing the sticky leaf behind two unsuspecting humans.

Corveta was turning to Saen and smiling not even seeing what was behind her and explained to Saen. "Well you passed out for some reason I'm still not sure off. Then some weird Shakala, those are porcupine-like people, came and challenged Richard's party and Taihaku." She said smiling at him even as the huge hands started to fold the leaf the sticky edges about to come together and trap Persephone and Corveta between them like a girl sandwich! There was only seconds to to act. But how? Yell for help or try to grab Corveta and pull her away before the the roll closed. Either way he couldn't save both likely.

Persephone's mood hadn't exactly been "calm" before, but quite suddenly she felt on edge about something, some kind of sense of impending doom. Perhaps it was a subtle scent, or sound, that she hadn't noticed consciously, but it was enough that when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to tickle from a faint but abrupt breeze, she had spun around and whipped out a utility knife within a fraction of a second. To anyone watching it would have seemed a blur, but to her, in the heat of the moment, time seemed to slow down and her movements didn't seem anywhere near fast enough. Her outstretched fist landed in a sticky substance, and she saw the blade just beyond it cutting a short slit through a leathery green shroud before being halted by friction.
Everything faded to a dim green as a surprisingly tasty goo smeared itself all over her face and body and the giant leaf enveloped her. She of course did her best to struggle desperately, but it was little use. The goo was far too thick for her to reach back and pull out anything else, not that she had brought anything that would be much good in this situation. Her thoughts raced - could this be the mouth of some mysterious predator? If so, maybe it was better to go limp and play dead - she'd heard that predators got disappointed if their food didn't struggle. And whatever had happened to Atlanta? She couldn't tell if the fairy was stuck inside the leaf with her or had escaped.

Taihaku gave her spear a quick, triumphant twirl and thrust it into the dirt with a faint sigh. She gave the shakala a stern glare as she caught heavy breaths through her mouth.

"If that is all you have to offer me, then begone. We have more important things to deal with."

In her mind, this man couldn't possibly have been the one who had forged the signboard from earlier. Sure, it could have been his handwriting, assuming he even knew how to read or write, but beyond that, it didn't appear he had any tool on his person that could have been used to cut the sign's wood such as it had been. This shakala wasn't important to their mission, and hadn't even provided a very satisfying workout. Altogether, his presence was more trouble than it was worth.

Recovering her breath after her dialogue, she inhaled through her nose, and caught a sharp whiff of something sweet. Alarmed at having not noticed it before, she stepped back and took a quick glance around with her sharp vision. Around the bushes nearby, she spotted the secondary party, behind which appeared to be a giant arm. Without hesitation, she pulled her spear from the ground and took a stance with it aimed toward the Corveta and the others.

"Richard, we have company!"

(I did forget about Atlanta. Thanks for reminding me, Para.)

Atlanta, who had been totally over looked by the universe, was so focused on the fight she didn't even notice she had been captured until; the honey touched her wing. "Aaah! Hey! *She said trying to pull free and then whimpering when she nearly tore her own wings. 'There's only one way out of this.' She thought. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" She yelled out loud to the party just before Persephone's corner of the leaf was rolled up muffling her shout.

(I'll wait anotehr day and see if Saen reacts. If not Corveta is forfeit! XD)