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Post by stormaf on Sept 18, 2005 13:00:01 GMT -5
"Right men!" The sergeant called out, "Form up! Get your packs! Make a line. We're heading out."
The troop hurried to obey. Morning in the mountains was cold and breakfast had consisted of hard tack and coffee taken around a fire, everyone wrapped in the same blankets they had slept in. They had a fugitive to find and no time to spare. Besides, movement made them warmer.
The boarhounds bayed at their tethers, anxious to be freed to hunt. Their keeper swore at them and threw meat to them to keep them quiet.
Deep in a cave not a mile distant, a man rose from his bedroll. He could have slept in another shape, but fatigue prevented him from shifting. He would need to drink and soon. His hunters would suffer no weakness. They could partake of their rations. He needed to kill, and soon.
Carefully, he stepped outside and sniffed at the air. They were so close, too close for comfort. He needed to put miles between himself and the troop.
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Eli
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Post by Eli on Sept 19, 2005 19:43:58 GMT -5
Rincon walked the mountains, again, searching for the clues from his dreams. He heard the army and snapped to attention, then hiding himself in some bushes. Looking around, he saw a cave and decided that might be the best place to take a stand. He didn't know if they were after him or someone else, but if he was captured and returned to where he just left, all could be lost. He made up his mind to head to the cave, but stopped when he saw someone there. Rincon held his position. He didn't know anything about the man, except it wasn't the person that he, himself, was hunting. Rincon then made a decision and headed toward the cave, ready to fight to survive if need be. He approached the man. "Who are they, and who are they after?" he said, quietly to the man. "There shouldn't be an army out here, so they're on the hunt. But for you? Or are you one of them and going to take me back before my mission is done?"
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Cassiel
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Post by Cassiel on Sept 21, 2005 16:40:06 GMT -5
Kyna was sleeping in a mountain cave, having just been run out of another town after she not-so-accidentally turned the mayor's son. Kyna turned over and grinned with the memory of that delicious boy and his blood that tasted as good as he looked. Suddenly she tensed, sensing many men heading in her direction. She crawled out of the cave and looked over the edge of the rocky cliff. A troop of men were marching about 50 feet below her. Their emotions were running high and Kyna licked her lips. She was hungry. For the past 3 days she had been living off animals and it wasn't going to work anymore. The men looked cold, someone would inevitably fall behind. She waited patiently until the line passed. Sure enough, one man had fallen behind the others. He was shivvering in the cold, but looked healthy otherwise. The whole time she was watching them, Kyna had been moving down the mountain. When the last of the men had turned around the bend, Kyna grabbed the lone straggler and bit his neck, not even giving him a chance to scream. She drank until the man was almost unconscious then threw him aside, licking her lips. The man screamed and stumbled back to the troops, his neck bleeding through his hand.
Kyna climbed back up so that the men would not find her. She started walking in the opposite direction, looking for a cave to hide in. When she got about a mile away she found a cave she could hide in, far enough away from the hunters that she should be safe. As she approached the cafe, she heard a man talking to someone else. Kyna inched closer to the cave until she could see two men inside. As she was not hungry at the moment, she decided she would like some company. She licked her lips again to make sure she didn't have any blood on them, and then stepped just inside the cave. "Hello boys," she said with a seducing grin, "Is this an exclusive party, or may I join you."
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Kaden
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Post by Kaden on Sept 21, 2005 17:17:24 GMT -5
The man took a puff of the cigarette hanging from his lips; the only puff he got before the cold rendered the cigarette useless. Softly cursing, he flicked it to the snow-covered ground. From his position in the mountains, Jacob had been watching the army formation moving. From up there, they all looked like ants. A bunch of ants marching on whatever they were marching on. He had figured this squadron of men had been hired by the same man that hired Jacob himself to find his mistress's rapist.
Bored but never leaving his position, he continued watching the squad. Hopefully they had a better lead on this guy than he did. All he got was a crudely drawn sketch and no idea where this guy would be. Then something caught his eye. Snapping to attention, Jacob stood up and saw a female making her way down the mountain, seemingly headed toward the small army. "Well, this is interesting..." He said to himself.
Quickly glancing back at the group, he immediately saw what he assumed to be her target: A lone soldier, unaccustomed to the harsh cold, straggling behind the rest of his group. Sighing in pity for the unfortunate man, Jacob merely watched as the female attacked the man, feeding on him, then casting him aside as trash. "A vampire? Out here in the mountains?" He thought. He wasn't given much time to think, however, as she quickly retreated back into the mountains and disappeared into a cave. Jacob weighed his options and decided to follow her, if only to check the cave for his quarry. Drawing his short sword, he proceeded after her toward the cave.
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Post by stormaf on Sept 22, 2005 21:29:22 GMT -5
Karis dropped into a wary fighting stance when the man strode from scrub at the foot of the small rise. When the fellow did no more than question him about why he was there, Karis relaxed only slightly. Betrayal had been his close companion for quite a while.
"I'm not sure who they're after," he said slowly, as if speaking aloud was foreign to him, "But I am staying out of their way."
Feeling not too pleased at the lie, he led the way back into the cave, trying to hide his presence from the marching troopers, and thinking desperately of a way to get rid of this person so that he could be on his way. The voice of a woman surprised him so much that he jumped.
Muttering to himself, Karis said, "Great. Now there's two."
Addressing the pair in front of him, his chest raised in a heavy sigh, "I'm afraid that as a host, I'm sadly lacking. And, my word, I must be off."
He strode to the cave's mouth, surreptuously checking for the troop. Looking back over his shoulder, he quipped, "You can keep the cave. I'm leaving. Excuse me."
Karis stepped just out of sight around the edge of the entrance and concentrated hard on an old family pet. Within a moment's time, a huge, shaggy grey wolfhound stood in his place; long of leg, lank of body and deep of chest. He licked his powerful jaws and shook himself from his head to his hock-length tail.
Parnassus had been a wonderful childhood friend and Karis had run with the gigantic hound on many an occasion. He was as familiar with this body as he was with his human one. If he had to run, this great beast was his best bet.
The wolfhound paced by the cave mouth, his back higher than a pony's.
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Kaden
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Post by Kaden on Sept 22, 2005 21:48:52 GMT -5
Reaching about 15 feet from the entrance of the cave just as the man exited it, Jacob ducked instantly and made no moves. Sheathing his blade, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a rather crumpled piece of parchment. Unfolding it while the man was occupied with talking to who Jacob assumed was the vampire female, he looked at the sketch then back up at Karis, then back down at the drawing again.
"It does look a bit like him..." He said to himself, shoving the paper back into the depths of his pocket. Getting up to one knee as silently as possible in the snow, he pulled his bow off his back and was about to notch an arrow in it, when the man suddenly transformed.
"...The hell? He's a shifter?" Jacob wondered in disbelief. Softly sighing and shaking his head to clear it, he continued notching the arrow in the bow and aimed it at the wolfhound that now stood in Karis's place.
Aiming for the left hind leg of the beast just in case this was the wrong target, Jacob let his arrow fly.
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Post by stormaf on Sept 22, 2005 22:11:52 GMT -5
The sound of air whipping through the feathers of the arrow caused the giant dog to swing around. The deadly projectile missed him by mere inches and the hound raised his nose into the air to track his assailant. Ears twitched about, trying to pick up any sound at all. Finally the tiniest breeze brought him the smell of... a man.
With a low growl, the wolfhound lunged into a trot across the slope following his keen nose. He kept the scrubby brush that clung to the hillside between himself and his prey.
Although the giant dogs were used by the gentry for hunting, they made the perfect guards as well. Their sheer size deterred most thieves and their shaggy bear-like look made assailants back away. The hounds were gentle giants, peacable and kind. However, only a dead fool riled them. One hundred and fourty pounds of wolf killing power was not to be goaded into a fight.
A human intelligence drove the wolfhound Karis was, and he was out to protect himself from harm.
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Kaden
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Post by Kaden on Sept 22, 2005 22:20:13 GMT -5
Mentally cursing himself for missing, he turned and ducked behind a large part of rock which jutted out from the cave wall. Readying another arrow, he sat behind the rock and waited.
How the hell did I miss? Surely the beast didn't HEAR the arrow coming...No, of course not. Just a slight miscalculation on your part, Jake. He assured himself as he waited for his next opportunity to fire.
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Eli
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Post by Eli on Sept 23, 2005 14:07:00 GMT -5
Rincon watched the arrow land and followed it's path back. He stood at the ready, watching the area he figured the arrow came from. He didn't see anyone, but that didn't mean the person was still there. Rincon knew that the person meant business if they were shooting at the other man. He didn't want to be the next target.
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Cassiel
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Post by Cassiel on Sept 24, 2005 23:05:12 GMT -5
Kyna watched the path of the arrow, and caught a glimpse of the man who shot it. She had a slightly amused look on her face as she turned to the other man in the cave. "Looks like your friend has made an enemy." She said, moving closer to him. "That's too bad, he was kinda cute. But you are cuter." Kyna giggled.
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Post by stormaf on Sept 25, 2005 9:26:59 GMT -5
Not fifteen feet from the rock his assailant hid behind, Karis jinked to the left and slunk into the brush. As grey as fog, with darker black brindling, the wolfhound blended into the shadows made by rock and shrub.
On silent feet, the dog slipped through the brush, ending up directly behind the archer. Karis pushed his long head through the branches and let his breath feather the man's hair. A low growl rumbled out of the animal's deep chest.
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Kaden
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Post by Kaden on Sept 25, 2005 18:27:20 GMT -5
Sh*t. Jacob mentally cursed, feeling the creature's breath in his hair. He was still fully aware that he held a loaded bow, and showed it as he dived forward, rolled, spun around and fired his second arrow right under where the animal's head protruded from the branches.
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Post by stormaf on Sept 26, 2005 10:53:46 GMT -5
The dog wasn't there. Karis had anticipated the only move the archer had left to him. The arrow sailed past his shifting bulk by mere inches. This one was good, Karis mused.
Without a second thought, the dog launched his long body out of the brush, jaws agape and something that could have passed for a canine roar exploding out of him. He landed astraddle the downed man, slender legs on the ground at his shoulders and feet.
A deep growl bubbled up from somewhere inside the huge dog and he hung his head down to the man's face, skinning his lips back from some very big teeth.
Despite his vicious mein, the dog never made a move to capitalize on his position. In fact, his long tail moved slowly from hock to hock and his deep brown eyes held a spark of merriment.
Karis was more than willing to let it go, if the man did likewise. If the archer showed any inclination to continue the fight, Karis would finish it the same way he'd seen his own pet kill a man; by taking the man's entire head in his great jaws and closing them, cracking the fellow's skull as if it was an eggshell.
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Kaden
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Post by Kaden on Sept 26, 2005 13:08:45 GMT -5
Not stupid in the slightest, Jacob sighed in defeat and chose not to draw his sword. He wasn't exactly proficient with it anyway, and would probably only further anger the beast. "Alright, Karis..." He began, using his target's real name. "...You win this one."
All sorts of thoughts ran through his head even as he conceded. He dodged my arrow twice? No one's ever dodged them even once...What the hell is this thing?
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Eli
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Post by Eli on Sept 27, 2005 10:01:50 GMT -5
Rincon watched the scene, unamused. "Wow, hatred," he said slowly. He looked at the girl. "I may be cuter, but I'm more dangerous than anyone here." Rincon looked at a tree and it swelled until it starting leaking water from it. Then, without warning, the tree burst open and let loose a torent of water.
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