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Post by Silver on Sept 2, 2012 21:55:53 GMT -5
Shayla nodded at Mika’s words, her spirits rising slightly. Whatever the situation was, it didn’t sound like they were being killed or tortured. She tried to figure out what could be causing such a worry though and her mind came up blank. Well, that was just going to have to wait until Halcy and Xan returned. Hopefully it would be soon. Shayla knew that there was no way she would be able to sleep while they were still out there in the darkness.
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Halcy gave Xan a skeptical look. Scare them off? How were two little cats going to scare anything off. He hated to admit it, but in this form he was totally powerless. There was nothing for him to do but listen to Xan, as much as that killed him to admit.
He realized that Xan had the ground pretty much covered, and in a blink of an eye he had crawled to the upper reaches of the towering oak that he had been sitting at. He would give them a nice surprise when he landed on one of their heads.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 2, 2012 22:58:16 GMT -5
Eyes huge, tail twitching - then with a snarling yowl that sounded too big for his body, Xan sprang out. He blazed his path forward, literally smoldering the ground around him. The man he was aiming for didn't have time to react before Xan was wrapped around his ankle, screeching and setting their pantleg alight. He clung as they tried to fling him off, and his mind raced. How to scare the shit out of two unsuspecting humans... AHA.
"HOW DARE YOU TRESPASS ON THIS LAND!" he howled like a banshee. He just spewed out words as they came to him, hoping it was too dark and too confusing for them to realize it was simply a Min and, well, whatever Halcy was attacking them. "YOU HAVE ANGERED THE SPIRITS AND WE WILL RETALIATE!!" They were yelling back at him now, and Xan had to say, he was pleased. He sprang off the man, racing through some grass and leaving a blazing trail behind him. He might be exhausting his magic, and he'd probably regret it later - but for now, he relished it.
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Post by Silver on Sept 2, 2012 23:31:22 GMT -5
Halcy stared at Xan and the spectacle he was making. ...Wow. He hated to admit it, but that was rather impressive. He didn’t think the little runt had it in him! Well if the plan was to freak those guys out, then Xan had definitely succeeded.
Halcy was about to count this as a success, but then he noticed something strange. The shorter of the two men was running around in a panic, and looked quite ready to get the hell back to Mithras. The other one, however, seemed to have a bit more of a level head on him. “C’mon ye idiot!” He bellowed at his companion, grabbing something sleek and shiny off of the log they had been using as a makeshift table. “Can’t you tell it ain’t no dragon?” He pointed the shiny stick at Xan, squinting one eye as as though he were- oh no! Halcy knew exactly what that was! He had to do something.
After only a moment of hesitation, he jumped down and landed on the man’s head. There was a loud, ringing bang as the man fell backwards and the bullet ricocheted off of the Oak tree and went whizzing off into the forest. That had been way too close... It would take him at least a few minutes to reload, and Halcy had no intention of letting him get the chance.
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Shayla had been dozing off next to her tent, but sat up abruptly when she heard the shot ring out. She would recognize that sound anywhere! “Mika!” She screeched in a panic, forgetting all of the warnings the girl had given her about the mountains. She was having a hard time getting the words out, but she hoped that Mika understood what that noise was as well as she did. In many parts of the world guns were completely unheard of. Even in Mithras they had just recently gained popularity.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 2, 2012 23:54:41 GMT -5
The bang caught Xan completely by surprise, and he lost his footing, tumbling over in a burst of ash and cinders. He hacked once, shaking his head to clear it, and caught sight of Halcy bristling across the grass. Yeah, okay - time to make the exit. His eyes caught sight of something the smaller man had dropped, and zeroed in on it. He flapped his wings, zipping between them and grabbing the papers.
"BEWARE!" he screeched one last time before snagging the papers in his mouth and sprinting away, signalling to Halcy with his tail to follow. He would have pushed himself fast as he could, but he wasn't about to leave Halcy to those crazy men. Sometimes cats had to look out for each other!
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Mika sat up in a shock, unsure as to what that noise had been. Whatever it was, it had been much louder to Xan, that was certain. She rolled over, quickly getting out of the tent and to her feet, grabbing her quiver and bow from the ground. She stared out into the woods, feeling both her own and her Min's panic roll down her spine.
"What was that?" She managed to spit out, eyes wide.
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Post by Silver on Sept 3, 2012 0:07:17 GMT -5
Halcy nodded as Xan finally made a move to leave the wretched camp. He wondered briefly what those papers were... Hopefully they were the coordinates for the explosives. Without them, those men had little chance of being able to find anything in this dense forest.
He chanced a glance over his shoulder as he darted after Xan, partially to make sure no one was aiming at them. Luckily, both of the men seemed quite terrified at this point. Even the one that had held the gun before was speaking frantically and waving his arms at his companion. If he were a betting cat, he would bet they were back to Mithras before morning. Hopefully they never returned.
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Shayla forced her racing heart to quiet. She needed to answer Mika’s question, no matter how hard it would be. “It was- I mean... I think it was- well... I think it was a gun.” She waited for a moment, as though Mika would automatically have an ah ha’ moment and that would be everything. Well, the look that the girl gave her told her she definitely wouldn’t have that much luck.
“Well, it is a new invention.” She began, teeth chattering from the cold and from her nerves. “It is actually really amazing! The mechanics are awe-inspiring and- okay, sorry. Anyways, it is a mechanical device that uses black powder to propel a hard metal sphere, often called a shot or a round, at extremely high speeds. I know that sounds harmless, but the speed that it shoots it makes it so it can rip through flesh and bone in less time than can even be counted. They are incredibly dangerous, and almost impossible to avoid. The only saving grace is that they have terrible accuracy at long distances. Speaking of which- I was actually doing some research and think I may have found a- oh sorry!” She winced visibly. Now was not the time for this! “Anyways, it is really really bad if one gets shot at you!”
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 4, 2012 1:03:16 GMT -5
Xan's heart raced, and his wings whistled through the air, wings flapping to keep adrift on the forest currents. He glanced down, watching Halcy bound through the undergrowth only feet below. He owned his life to that fuzzball... He shook his head, concentrating on getting back to the camp. Hopefully no one would follow. He paused, ceasing flapping and simply gliding for a few seconds. His bat-like ears swiveled backwards, trying to catch any noise that was following. He heard only his own heartbeat and Halcy's rapid pawsteps below.
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Mika's eyes went from squinty and confused to wide and afraid in a short matter of time. She didn't need to hear anymore - she knew how bad it was already. She was raring to go, now - nothing was going to hurt her Min while she had breath in her body.
"Xan doesn't have any idea what he's dealing with," she realized, and her eyes zipped to the treeline, then back to Shayla. She was the more knowledgeable about the opponent, but honestly Mika wasn't sure how well she'd do in a fight, if that was what would come. "..you can come, or you can stay behind, but if you follow me you better follow me, okay? And be quiet - surprise is your greatest weapon in a fight, if it comes to that."
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Post by Silver on Sept 4, 2012 11:57:38 GMT -5
Halcy continued to follow Xan deeper into the forest. He was in too much of a panic now to really know where they were going, so he hoped that Xan had a clue. He may not have been very familiar with these mountains, but he knew enough to know that getting lost in them was probably a very bad thing indeed.
Xan’s wings made it easier for him to traverse the dense forest because he could completely bypass the fall logs and rocks that blocked Halcy’s path and had to either be jumped or gone around. Still, he noticed that the other cat was making a real effort to go a bit slower so that he didn’t completely lose track of him. He couldn’t hear the telltale clumsy barrage of human feet trying to make their way through the forest, or any more guns being fired. Hopefully those two humans had ran all the way back to Mithras in a hurry. Even better, hopefully they ran right into a Dragon’s nest. That would teach them to come up here with explosives.
Just when he thought he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore, he knew he was close. He would recognize the telltale scent of flowers and iron anywhere. That was definitely Shayla. They had finally made it back! Good thing, too. If Shayla had gone into that forest to look for him, there was a good chance she wouldn’t come back out again. ….Not that he cared, honestly.
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Shayla nodded, a look of grim determination replacing her previous look of fear and indecision. She was scared, that was undebatable, but she wasn’t going to let that get in the way of her duty to Halcy. He had been around since before anyone could remember, if he died on her watched it would be unbearable.
“I’ll go with you.” She nodded, holding her backpack close to her. She had a bit of a surprise in there of her own, if the occasion called for it. Then again, that gunshot had probably already attracted every Dragon in the vicinity to investigate. She knew it was still dark, but they might need to move on as soon as they found Halcy and Xan to avoid detection.
She was about to take her first step into the forest when a silver flash flew through the air and landed right on her shoulder with eerie grace. It took her brain a few moments to register what had just happened, but when she did she couldn’t have been more relieved.
“Halcy!” She cried, scooping the fluffball off her shoulder and cradling him against her chest. He yowled in protest and tried to push away, but that only made her hold him even tighter. He considered flinging a profanity her way, but realized that Mika still didn’t know he was anything other than a regular cat. Probably better to try and keep it that way, at least for now. Besides, Shayla wouldn’t be too pleased about him blowing his cover.
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 9, 2012 14:50:39 GMT -5
Mika was ready to go, griping the shoulder strap of her bow, when the two cats came flying back into the scene. As Halcy landed on Shayla's shoulder, Xan came skidding to a stop at the ground. He folded his wings, spitting out the papers on the ground next to Shayla's feet and giving himself a moment to pant. Phew! They were safe...
"Xan!" Mika said, a little harsher than she meant to. The little cat flicked his ear, looking up at her before he was scooped up into her arms as well. "Don't EVER scare me like that again, you stupid little furball!" He purred a little, and she sighed, both of them relieved. She pulled him back and he squirmed out of her arms, spreading his wings and fluttering in the air beside her. "What happened?" Xan hesitated for a second, glancing towards Halcy.
"...there were these two humans!" He blurted, unable to keep it in. "They were talking about how they were hired to somehow blowing up part of the mountain!" Mika's eyes widened again, and she opened her mouth to say something. Xan cut her off again. "I couldn't just let them do that! So me and Halcy showed them who was boss." He puffed out his chest proudly, looking over at the silver cat.
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Post by Silver on Sept 10, 2012 0:10:17 GMT -5
Halcy recoiled instantly and Shayla gave him a strange look. He glanced at Xan for a moment, a look of uncertainty and anger in his eyes. Wasn’t it obvious he didn’t want anyone to know about him? Not many regular cats would just risk their necks to try and stop some lowlifes from blowing a mountain up.
“Halcy?” Shayla laughed nervously, obviously trying to salvage the situation. “No way, he was probably just hunting or something and scared them.”
Halcy decided that the best course of action was to play dumb. He rolled over on his back and started licking his paws, making random meowing noises occasionally. Hopefully that would convince the girl that there was nothing special about him. They really needed to be careful, especially since she was practically a stranger.
“So...” Shayla finally started, trying to shift the subject away from him. “What should we do? Do you think there is a chance those guys might come back?” She leaned against a tree near her tent, looking up at the sky in contemplation. “No matter, I’m going to keep moving forward. If you think it is too dangerous though, I understand.”
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Post by Kitten King on Sept 10, 2012 0:47:29 GMT -5
Mika made a squinted face at Halcy, but sensed only amusement from Xan.. so she let it go. She wasn't concerned about the cat and if he was normal or not - they had more important things to deal with.
"I don't think those guys are what we need to worry about now," Mika admitted, eyes scanning the sky. She didn't see anything yet, but... she crouched by her tent, lifting her small lantern and blowing out the flame. "The locals will have heard that, they've got ears like panthers. We need to keep a low profile for the rest of the night. If we can go completely undetected, that'd be best..." Her eyes went up again, tracing the ridge-line of the mountains. "I don't think we'd be in harm's way staying here if we left early enough, but we can move if you're uncomfortable."
"As for continuing on..." She paused, sighing. "We'll be okay. We just might need to take an alternate route than I was planning, if they're on the watch." She'd have to figure out which way was going to be safe, and it'd be a hassle, but getting harassed by an aggressive guard was not on her list of things to do.
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Post by Silver on Sept 10, 2012 1:08:32 GMT -5
Shayla nodded as Mika spoke, secretly pleased that she was willing to continue the journey. It may have been reckless, but she simply couldn’t wait any longer. She feared she had already waited too long. “In that case, we should probably get some sleep.” There was no doubt that it had been a tough night. She noticed the papers that Xan had dropped, and grabbed them to take a closer look. Hm... It looked like a map with coordinates marked. Well, without these those guys weren’t going to be able to find anything in these mountains. There was a reason that she had needed a guide. “Goodnight!” Halcy followed Shayla into the tent, meowing very loudly and obnoxiously as he passed Mika. He didn’t want there to be any doubt in her mind that he was just a regular everyday cat. Nothing special about him, nope! “What happened?” Shayla whispered sharply as soon as they had settled into the small shelter. “How could you have given yourself away like that?” “It isn’t like I had much of a choice!” Halcy hissed, claws flexing and retracting as he glowered at her. “We would have all been blown to pieces if we hadn’t done something.” “I know- I just...” She ran her hand through her hair anxiously while pulling her tunic up over her head and setting her glasses on her bag. “We have to be careful, okay?” “Geez, warn me next time!” Halcy hissed, immediately hiding his head under the small sleeping roll she had laid out. Shayla laughed and flopped down onto the makeshift bed, yawning and closing her eyes. “You better get some sleep. We are going to need it.”
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