Natural Dangers

The shuddering vibration sent a bolt of adrenaline through Ibrahime's body, causing her to spring up into a crouched, wary position. Dozens of scenarios and memories similar to their current situation flitted through her mind. Although some were mottled by the creep of time, the driving impulse was to get hidden - sharpish.

Wheeling around, she selected a tree with a number of long, horizontal branches. Curiously, the trunk seemed to be covered in a lot of small bushes, and a number of other specimens seemed to be fused to it at the level of the roots. She ran, light and quiet on her feet, to the tree and almost dived into the mass of roots and bushes it boasted along the ground, jostling only momentarily to make sure she was as concealed as possible before lying as still as she could. From her position she couldn't see back into the clearing, and so had no idea what was coming at all - she hoped by sacrificing her curiousity for concealment she would be able to live to find out just how screwed they were.

(For reference, I based her tree on a dashera tree [although she doesn't know that.] She ran in a roughly 2 o'clock direction away from the path Jimmy and El Sereno went.)

The shaking continued to get worse until a large, dark, humaniod figure could be seen walking past some of the trees to the south of the group. It would appear to be a large person, likely upwards of 30 feet in height, and completely made out of stone. The enormous golem of rock made the ground shake with each step it took. It's limbs were very smooth and well-crafted, however, and it had the appearance of a suit of armor that a knight would use, perhaps. One might also notice that it was carrying a woman, almost as large as it itself was, in its arms. She had long, very dirty and unkempt-looking dark blue hair, which covered most of her face, and a strange, spade-esque horn jutting out from her forehead hidden by hair. She was also nude, though many parts of her body were covered in mud.

The giant woman appeared to be resting in the stone golem's arms as it walked through the clearing where the town had previously been. But just as it was about to finish passing by, the woman raised her hand, and the man of stone stopped dead in his tracks. Its torso turned around, facing its backside, and placed the woman in a standing position on the ground. She turned her head, as if looking around, though her eyes were both covered by her messy hair.

Sayomi looked on to the golem and giant woman in awe, not knowing what to think of the sight before her. She quickly got the thought of conversation out of her mind, thinking it best to avoid the woman, or try to run, not used to tbings being so huge compared to her. "We should hide before she notices us." Sayomi whispered quietly to the group, backing up.

Jimmy gripped both of his balisongs tighter and stared at this mysterious, enormous woman, and her golem companion. He summoned the small metal block in his pocket to fragment into a small cloud of razor particles which he willed to drift down to ground level. The cloud shaped its self to look like a humanoid being concealed in the shadows, and Jimmy made it force its leg down upon branch, breaking it with a loud crack. 'now, lets see how hospitable you are miss horny.' he though to himself, his subconscious chuckling at his pun. He made his own little creation dance around a bit before standing in the darkness, appearing to stare up at her.

The fairy could sense them. Six people around her, all in relatively close proximity. She stood rather still, sort of hunched over. She looked like if she had pockets, her hands would be in them. She took a few quick moments to pinpoint the locations of those around her. All relatively small, probably humans. She licked her lips in anticipation at this fact. One in the trees, one behind her, another to her left, one hiding at the base of a peculiar tree, and two more hiding in other places.

Then she heard the twig snap. She turned her head to apparently look in the direction the sound came from. As she did so, her hair pulled to the side, revealing a bright, orange-coloured eye. She was patient though, or so it seemed. She hadn't sensed any notable movement in that direction, other than one person moving around a tree. She determined her course of action at that point.

She lifted her left leg up, as high as she could get it while still having it bent. As she did so, the strange, carapace shell-like object on her back opened up, revealing a pair of beetle-like wings. She then stomped her foot down on the ground heavily, applying her earth-based magic, and forced columns of earth to rise up quickly underneath Ibrahime, Rux, Sereno, Sayomi, and Shi'Nal, tossing them all up into the air, bringing them all out of hiding, and sending them back towards the open clearing. With her wings still open, the giant woman then knelt down and slammed her hands onto the ground, and the ground in the middle of the clearing began to transform, turning dark and muddy. The pit of mud expanded outwards, reaching almost to the edges of the trees around it, prepared to catch the five people in its sticky, thigh-deep trap.

Jimmy, the only one not on the ground at the time, was left alone.

"the fuck!" Jimmy instantly clapped his mouth shut, hoping she hadn't heard his muttered exclamation. Brian was an earth mage and he had been studying for years, he couldn't even get close to this! He dragged his fragment golem back up level with him and began fragmenting the tree behind him, effectively creating several splinter grenades, now the important question, should he try to save the others, or save his own ass. The answer came rather easily, he would probably be dead flesh out on his own, but they had already proven themselves problematic. He would try to save them, but not go to any great length. he narrowed his eyes as an idea came to himd, and he began to attempt to violently splinter the stone golem, trying to turn him into an enormous cloud of pebbles, or if nothing else, take a few chunks out of him. A grin passed over Jimmies face when he imagined what her face would look like when her creation burst, and he began to crawl back, preparing to make a quick escape should she be pissed enough to make a grab at him.

Sayomi squealed she was tossed into the air, looking down at the trap they were heading towards, death, she thought in her mind. Sayomi closed her eyes, mummering softly to herself, focusing on a tree she had spotted before, her body vanishing from sight and reappearing on a tree branch as she sighed in relief, running had always been what she was best at, she decidied not to cloak herself, that giant knew where they were without seeing them the first time, so it would be pointless. She just looked on, hoping her allies would have some life saving skills, like her very own teleportation.

(I'm a little disappointed that the supposedly vague predator sense has once again become hypersensitive prey radar, but hey, you're the boss! )

An entirely new sensation befell Ibrahime as the very earth seemed to turn against her. Boiling up like seething column of steam it caught her by surprise, throwing her up and out of the bush. As the bush's branches whipped painfully past they slowed her writhing body somewhat, allowing her frantically outstretched palms to catch upon a vine wrapped around one of the mighty bows of the tree she was just hiding by.

The vine was too long to prevent her from falling in the mud entirely, but pulled taut at a point so that she fell into the very edge of the mire. Lying nearly sprawled across the edge of the mud, hands still tight on the vine but with her boots resolutely belonging to the bog, she turned her head around to catch her very first terrified glimpse of what may well be the death of her.

(Sorry. D: I kind of posted on the fly, as usual. If it's any consolation, it does sort of describe that she had to focus on it more to locate the characters, but I'll try to avoid that kind of thing in the future if that's not how it's meant to work. Thank you for pointing it out.)

Da'Shi'Nal's mind was temporarily caught out of gear. It finally caught about the time he went flying towards the trap. Fuck! What the fucking hell just happened? Oh shit! Need a move...Fuck it, going for broke! He went with the only thing he could think of and do so quickly. He swung his right arm up and away from the trap, and, as he did, a fairly large, flat rock launched itself through the air, slammed into him, and threw him to the sides, at which point he made a mad dash into a hole at the base of tree and opened his book of magic, using it to create a trap of his own. Should that woman reach in or move the tree, some friendly lightning and wind gusts would greet her.

(Waiting on Qwuillin. I'm glad to see at least a few of you were brave enough to let your characters fall into the trap. ;D)

((Sorry, my thoughts have been elsewhere with revision, as the subject I have been revising is critically important for the career I wish to do. My last exam is on the 20th June, so I should have more time after that))

Rux had been hiding behind a tree to the right to where the large woman had been standing, but after being thrown abruptly he now found himself groaning on his back, a few feet closer to her. He struggled to try and get onto his feet, but he ended up with his whole back and limbs sucked into the boggy earth. He sighed, thinking through in his limited options.

He decided on trying to act as a distraction: "madam, if this is how you like to make a first impression, it isn't very friendly. It is hard to gauge exactly what you are as well. The fact you have elytra, points only to the order of beetles. The single, vertical horn narrows the possible family to bess, scarab, hercules or rhinoceros beetles, although from size it is most likely the last two. You are an odd mixture of humanoid and vermin, no?"

(Sorry, Sparky, I'm going to have to mess with you a little and cut your last post off in the middle to give Mir time to react. I can't make it that easy for you. ;3)

The first thing Mir did next was twist her head to the side, her wings still open, and force a rock of similar proportions as the one Da'Shi'Nal used to launch itself from the ground in the opposite direction, attempting to slam him back the other way and into the mud pit.

Then she heard the human who'd landed closest to her start talking. She didn't really pay attention at first, so she only caught the last sentence he said. "Yeah. I am pretty messed up," the fairy responded despondently. "Not sure myself what the hell I'm supposed to be."

After that, the golem who had so valiantly carried her that far, and allowed her to keep up her lazy streak, which, in her books, deserved some kind of reward for that alone, suddenly burst into a large cloud of dust and pebbles. The fairy lazily turned her head to the side to see what had happened, and after doing so, simply ignored it. If she needed another golem she'd just make another golem. It wasn't a big deal to her.

The giantess was beyond anything Ibrahime had even dared to imagine. Huge, adorned with the features of an insect and seemingly entirely hell-bent on causing them all some serious problems. She felt a surge of empathy when she saw the chef from earlier lying prone in the mud, with El Sereno stuck close by oddly throwing bits of paper around. The priorities she learnt long ago floated back to her - help yourself first, then see if you can help others.

She pulled hard on the vine, attempting to drag herself out of the mud and back to the tree where she could escape the miry clay. However, her limited strength and the sheer stickiness of the mud meant that with each tug she was only fractionally closer to safety than before. She felt one of her boots start to come loose - she wiggled her toes, trying to sacrifice the footwear in hopes of a quicker escape.

Sayomi saw Ibrahime stuck in the mud, at least her feet, and trying desperatly to escape, and the weird giant seemed to be distracted by the others. Sayomi quickly traced the vine to its source, leaping over as she tore more of it off the tree and gripped it tightly in her hands, attemping to pull Ibrahime safely into the tree.

She kept a close eye on the giant, her mind in doubt whether she should really stay to help her. But regardless she would at least try this, in hopes of having someone besides herself to rely on.

Jimmy grinned as the golem split apart and he began to shape the fragments. El sereno seemed to have lost his mind, so that left Da'shi'nal' as priority one. Half of the fragments swirled over him, burrowing beneath him, and sluggishly pressing him up out of the mud, then they began to pull him towards solid ground. The other half collected in a cloud around the fairy's head, each of the rough fragments throwing themselves at her face and eyes and grating against each other, producing an obnoxious rasping buzz. Maybe if this cloud could keep her distracted long enough, he pull El sereno out as well, his knowledge seemed like it would be useful here.

Regardless of the form of the fairy's deceased golem, the fact remained it was still earth, and that meant she could still control it. Most of the fragments that had attempted to make physical contact with her face got caught up in her hair, or had their shock at least dulled by it, but that noise was still just fucking annoying. She brought her hands up near her head and applied her magic, this time not opening her wings because it was such a small amount of earth, and countered whatever force Jimmy was applying to them, making them stop. She didn't notice the fragments trying to rescue Da'Shi'Nal however.

Just then, her wings opened again, and she swiftly tiled her head to the side. A thin, wide, sharp slab of stone shot out from the ground and headed right for the vine Ibrahime was grabbing onto, aiming to cut it.

All this work was starting to be a bother. She contemplated just trapping as many of them as she could and coming back later after she checked on her naggy neighbour and made sure she wasn't cleaning her pumpkin again.

Sayomi saw the rock hurling towards the vine, placing her hand out as she erected a barrier in the rocks path, glaring at the fairy with a determined expression, showing her she didn't intend to back down.

"Give it your A-Game if you want to get her from me!" She yelled, feeling quite good about her self as she pulled on the rope with her free hand, looking down to Ibrahime. "Climb girl climb!"

Teeth clenched and eyes scrunched tightly shut with the effort of pulling, Ibrahime was barely aware of anything going on around her. The mud seemed almost impossibly sticky - her left boot had been sacrificed to the mire. Feeling a tremor from the vine, she looked up to see the neko from earlier now doing her best to help her. She flashed a grin of utter relief to the altruistic girl, happy to have found favour in her eyes. She would be sure to thank her if she ever got out of this situation.

Buoyed by her words, with one last resounding squelch, she wriggled free of the mud. Although exhausted to her core, she knew from the fairy's attempted attack that she wasn't safe yet - not when she controlled the very ground she stood on. She wrapped the vine tightly around her wrist, moved swiftly to the far side of the tree and started to climb, hoping the plant would act as a sort of harness until she reached the branch where the neko was.

"Ughh, I am so done standing around!" the fairy said, more than a little miffed at all the resistance she was getting. Her wings opened once more, and she brought her right arm down with an open hand, then back upwards slowly, closing her hand as she raised it. The mud around El Sereno began to move around, and it soon formed a large hand shape around him, and attempted to grasp him in its clutch while still keeping him stuck in the stickiness. The fairy would at least leave with a light snack after all that wasted effort. In fact...

She repeated the movements with her left arm, and another muddy hand rose up under Da'Shi'Nal, attempting to take him for herself as well.