~A Haunting Fortress on the Horizon~

Kirie's eyes sparked with fear as the Bugbears were closing in on the group. These things were huge! She could feel their nasty, smelly breath bearing down on her and feel the vibrations under her own two feet every time one of them took a step. All the stories she heard at the tavern were true. There are horrific monsters in this world. It wasn't going to be so easy to just get out of here like Serin ordered. Speaking of Serin, where is he? Kirie thought she saw him got hit, but she wasn't exactly all too sure where he landed since she was instantly focused on the beasts in front of her.

Her vision darted past the Bugbears and caught movement. There were Serin, hunched over like he was in pain. She also saw another movement behind him and gasped, temporarily forgetting about her own danger. "Serin! BEHIND YOU!" As soon as her words escaped from her lips, Luna begain to glow around her neck. Small streams of blue light escaped from it and headed for the bugbear. As soon as it made contact with the bugbear's thick skin, the light immersed into its' head. The bugbear would see the forest twisting and moving as though it had too much mead or beer, perhaps throwing off its aim so Serin would have a chance dodging it.

Kirie suddenly felt a shadow fall on her and glanced up. A mace was on its way coming down towards her. Briefly looking to the side, she quickly went in a duck and roll position and dodged rolled out of the way. Dirt and pine needles sprayed on her where she landed, but that didn't matter. She stood up, seeing that the bugbear was trying to see if it got its target. Her heart started to pound faster and faster as she looked around. Another mace was swung in her direction, and she dropped to her stomach and covered her head as she felt the gust of that attack blow over her.

Kirie took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself down and force herself to focus. There was too much chaos happening around her. 'Be calm!'

The faerie pushed up from the ground and stood up to move out of the way, when a grimy hand suddenly shoved against her throat and slammed her into the nearest tree. For a moment, all Kirie could see were stars and the noise of the confusion suddenly disappeared for a moment. Kirie forced her eyes to open, coming back to reality just a bit, but then she winced as the hand started to squeeze harder around her throat. She started to panic, trying to pull away from the foce but she realized she couldn't move. 'Can't... breathe!'

 

OOC: I was going to wait until tomorrow to post, but I like what's happening. So congrats, I'm procrastinating my reading of 100 pages and my paper on said pages just for this post.

BIC: "Damn it to-" Alec didn't have a chance to finish his exclamation because a mace was swung down at him from the side. Fortunately, the shadow caught his eye and he managed to jump back as the mace missed and hit the ground, causing a large hole. "Take this!" Alec let go of Ebony and grabbed Unda, swinging it with all his strength. It hit the Bugbear square on the face. Unfortunately, it was still wrapped up in a pouch and the only effect it had on the Bugbear was moving its face...and pissing it off. It let out a low growl as it raised its mace again. "Oh yeah...you're probably a lot stronger than I am, huh?" He shrugged as the mace flew down at him again. "Uh-" he dodge rolled dove to the side, avoiding it again. "Help me out here, Unda!" He yelled at the spear as he pointed it towards the Bugbear as it started charging at him. Without warning, a large stream of water erupted from Unda's tip, breaking the pouch and hitting the Bugbear square in the chest. The stream was powerful enough to knock it backwards on its rear with a loud thump. "Whoa..." Alec was amazed and held the tip towards his face to study it.


"Neeighhhh," (or whatever sound horses make) neighed Ebony, causing him to look up. The horse was starting to move away from the Bugbears. Even with Unda, Alec didn't think they could handle such a large group of monsters. "Ebony, wait!" He rolled again and grabbed the horse's reins and jumped on him. "Hey, Elaina, girl!" He called to Elaina and Mya, "We gotta get out of here! Serith, or whatever your name is, meet us in the next town!" He had to yell over the Bugbears' grunts, smashing noises, and everyone else's yells. He hoped Serin could hear him as he started to lead Ebony away.

 

OOC: Due to a stupid confused person, I am now on track (lol I'm insulting myself XD)

BIC: Mya gritted her teeth. She didn't like the idea of leaving Serin and the others to the Bugbears, but it seems that she has no other choice and followed Alec. Hope they're safe. She created a shrill whistle and her horse came out of the woods. She jumped onto her horse and followed Alec.

 

Julie gasped when the wall of fire had separated her and Raphael from Varil. She had never seen such a thing so she couldn't help but to be amazed. Her grip on Tempest tightened when she heard Raphael call towards her. She had to fight, she had no other choice but to. Her eyes fluttered when the wall of fire Raphael had brought up disappeared, soon seeing Varil back on her gaze. Who exactly is this guy? A quiet squeal escaped her mouth when she felt Raphael suddenly grab her hand and pull her along with him. Forcing her feet to move, she ran just a few inches behind Raphael, briefly looking over her shoulder to see if Varil was following them. He was after their Veritas Magus, so she was expecting him to follow.

 

On the path outside of Murex, Nox walked on foot carrying his Veritas Magus on his back as it was of a large size. He considered this part of his 'eternal training' so that he would never loose his touch with the powers granted to him, as well as to be able to wield it effectively as a sword and a force of magic. The snow added to his 'training' as it would impede his speed and increase his walking weight granting him more strength gradually in his lower body, but soon he would need to add to his upper body training to maintain his system. You could say he was obsessed with the power he wielded, but he was more obsessed with the duty and honour that came with it. He idolised the former wielder so much so that he wanted to make sure he would not tarnish the honour of those before him by foolishly letting his become none.
In any case, he continued forwards through the high up snowy path.

 

Lyn took in what was happening. Bugbears. Big, nasty things. She flew up in the air to get a better look at the surroundings. As soon as she did so she saw Serin get hit, with another Bugbear right behind him. Not even a moment passed and she saw blue light come at the Bugbear, she looked over to the direction it came from, seeing Kirie.

First she was on the ground, then a moment later she was up against a tree. Lyn had to act fast, she summoned Arcus, stretching out her left arm and pulling back on the bow string with her right, an arrow appeared, she aimed at the hand that was around Kirie's neck. She let go of the bow string and the arrow took off.

OOC: Not aiming at Kirie, just making that clear.

 

As soon as the bugbear realize its hold on Kirie, Kirie collasped to the ground and sputtered for air. She felt something come by her side and looked up to see that Serin had brought her horse. Where was the bugbear that was holding her? She couldn't see where it was, and she kind of didn't want to know.

Kirie, although still dizzy, forced herself to stand up on shakey legs and pulled herself on her horse. Her back was seering with pain were the bugbear slammed her against the tree, but the fear was stronger. She took the reins in her hands and started to move her horse away from the chaos. But first, wasn't there someone else with them. She turned her head and saw Lyn with her bow out. She connected two and two together. 'She's the one who saved me. I'll have to thank her later....'

Hearing footsteps coming towards them, Kirie saw that some bugbears were making their way over to them. "Let's go! Let's go!" Kirie kicked her horse in the flanks and forced it to move away from the bugbears. Her aching throat reminded her how deadly they could be, and she didn't want to get in anoter tight situation.

 

Seeing that Kirie was safe now Lyn flew over to where her horse had gone to and landed on it's back. "Come on!" She said to it, kicking a bit. She guided the horse back to Serin and Kirie and took off away from the bugbears.

OOC: Short post is short. *failure*

 

Kirie kept silent as they rode along, still getting over the shock of seeing dangerous monsters up close. She clutched Lunar as her hand was still shaking from the adrenalin rush and her whole body shivered from fear. But she was starting to calm down now as she saw that they were growing distant from the hideous creatures. I will be having nightmares for weeks, she thought. Dropping Lunar from her hand so it was hanging around her neck again, Kirie reached a hand up to her throat and gently prodded at it. Even if she barely poked at it, she winced in pain. 'Yup, I'll have a bruise for sure,' she thought.

Hearing Serin coughing ahead of her, Kirie looked up just in time to see a spray of crimson glimmering in the sunlight before it disappeared in the shadows. She knew this meant trouble. Her little bruises were nothing compared to what they had on hand. Kirie nudged her horse to come along side of Serin's, and then she grabbed the reigns and stopped the horses. She watched Serin carefully, seeing that he was looking a little on the gray side. "If you continue in this condition, you'll die." Kirie looked up at the sky, seeing that it was starting getting dark. "Besides, if we continue on now, we won't be able to see where we're going. I think we lost the bugbears for now." The faerie gradually let go of the reigns, letting them fall softly to the side. She then reached over and touched Serin's arm, trying to show that she was just trying to help. "Let's see how much damage you have."

Kirie then pulled her arm away, and without waiting for Serin's reply, swung off her horse (wincing slightly since her back was sore) and pulled her horse to a nearby fallen log. There, she tied the horse's reins to a secure branch. She then walked over to Serin and stood there, waiting for him to get off his horse. Meanwhile, she looked over her shoulder to see where Lyn was. 'I hope she didn't receive any wounds...'

 

Raphael ran with Julie. He still wasn't anywhere near the guess and could still see the man who was chasing them through the crowd. But just barely. He stopped abruptly. He whipped around and snapped his fingers. Instead of shooting a blast of flame he lit Varil on fire. The flame was white hot. But he was sure this man was strong enough to simply brush it off. At least that would buy a little more time. "C'mon." he said to Julie and began running again.

 

Lyn had kept to herself as the three had rode away from danger. She was still in a bit of shock, and was thinking what had just happened, could happen again at any second. She was still clutching Arcus in one of hands along with the horse reigns. She wasn't hurt, thanks to her wings and for that she was very grateful.

She was deep in thought but was brought back to reality when she heard a cough from up ahead. She hadn't been paying attention, so she wasn't sure which of the two it had came from. She looked up, just in time to see Kirie getting off her horse.

Lyn rode up to where Kirie had just tied her horse and did the same. The scene had made her curious and she wanted to find out exactly what was wrong.

 

Julie had stopped the moment Raphael had stopped, panting and wondering why he even came to a halt. Opening her mouth to speak, her heard the boy snap his fingers, causing her to turn towards the direction he was facing. Her eyes suddenly grew wide when Varil had bursted into flames. She quickly turned her head Raphael when she heard him speaking, forcing herself to move her legs once more. "H-He's not dead, is he?" she asked Raphael as they ran.

 

"Of course not. He's not a normal guy thats for sure." Raphael kept running. His legs felt like jelly. Still, he kept on until he could fully see the city gates. After running a bit farther and stopped and looked around for Varil. This strange man was something he didn't want to deal with. And with all this world-saving business, he guessed there wasn't time for this either.

 

Raphael felt a odd pulsing feeling. He dropped to his knees but quickly scrambled back up. Why is this happening now, of all times? He was extremely pale and he was sweating. His muscles felt like stone. He began to walk, slowly but surely, to the gates. He motioned to come to his side but immediately fell to his knees again. "Ahg... Julie, I need a little help walking, if you don't mind." This has never happened to him before. He needed a trump card.

 

"Because you're the one who started this quest, didn't you? You're the one that has to finish it all the way through. Otherwise, Lyn and I sacrificed our lives and time for nothing." It was like she knew something that he didn't know, but truthfully she was just saying what ever came to her mind. She didn't know what was the meaning behind all that she was saying, but she figured it was something important. Maybe. She brushed off what Serin said about healing herself smiled a bit. "It's really not that bad. It'll go away soon." Then her smile faded as she looked at the boy.

Kirie kept a steady gaze, watching Serin's emotions through his eyes. She could tell he was a little scared, and maybe he was starting to be a little suspicious of her. "You asked for my trust when you first told me that I needed to go with you and the others to team up. Now I ask you to trust Lyn and I as well. You could of just as well hurt me from the beginning and deceived me, but I knew something is right about this. And I'm still trusting you. I have no way of defending myself, except with Luna's help. Without it, I'm helpless as a young robin without wings to take me back to my nest."

Sighing, she finally broke her gaze from Serin, suddenly feeling a bit tired and overwhelmed. "Serin, just promise us to take it easy for this one night..." Kirie rubbed her forehead, feeling a small headache beginning to take over. She turned away from the boy, seeing that he didn't need women to fuss over him right now. "Lyn, what do we have exactly? I mean in supplies." She then turned her attention to the two and looked back and forth from them. "Did you both bring your own things then? And sleeping bags? Anything I can do to help set up camp?" She had a little experience when it came to sleeping in the outdoors. She spent time with the farmers and their families, and helped with what ever she could even after she did a healing service for them. She figured that sleeping out in the wild was probably much different, but then again it probably was almost the same.

 

OOC: Ugh where's LilBueno? D8

 

OOC: I didn't see your post >> I was waiting for you lol
BIC:

Alec kept Ebony's speedy pace until they were well out of Etha. He wanted to make sure all Bugbears were well behind them. After several minutes of silence, he tugged at the reins slightly, slowing the pace. "So...where to?" He asked Mya. "The next town over, right?"