| Logs |
2011 May 04
| Neverneverwhere |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Taps Logs |
Sell Your Soul for Mercy
Sova is trembling and looking up at the sky. She moves to pull her vest closer about herself, eyes scanning two different quadrants of a firmament that has gone stark black. "M-maybe we should try to follow on foot? I mean... if it's up there..." Her tail is shifting, moving as if looking for something to hold tight to.
Suraksha smiles at the chameleon-fae, "When do you have to leave, Sova? Soon, you said?" She figures she might as well give the poor woman a face-saving excuse to depart... especially since Sura and Chanticleer need to start searching immediately for both the mara and the mara's defenders.
Sova's eyes both flick toward Suraksha and she ducks her head, "I can stay." There is a marked lack of enthusiasm in her voice.
Suraksha smiles quietly at the frightened woman, "All right. What job do you wish to perform, please? We would not wish to misunderstand your best capabilities, after all." Chanticleer glances to Sova, worried for her -- she's nervous, and he does not want her to so nervous as to put herself at risk. For the moment he lets Suraksha speak with her. Suraksha is carefully and thoroughly scanning the countryside as she speaks with Sova; the tiger-woman expects to see some of Guaire's folks appear and follow, if she and her companions remain patient and quiet long enough. Dashing out instantly will only give Guaire's minions a good chance to attempt shooting them down, after all. She murmurs quietly to Chanticleer, "Eyes on alert, dear -- be ready to shoot at an instant, please."
Chanticleer nods to Suraksha, already alert and wary for any of the helpers of the nightmare. Suraksha murmurs softly to the hesitating Sova, "Can you tell us this, at least? Will Guaire's people be trying to kill us, or just tangle us up?"
Sova hangs her head and whispers, "I'm supposed to keep you here, but I can't. You should go. Now. The nightmare won't chase you. It's after Nuadha." An exceptionally long tongue flicks out nervously and back in, "But... could... could your knight hit me or something? Make it look like I tried to keep you here?"
Chanticleer glances upward, then away, quickly... then grimaces and forces himself to look up in the sky again. "There's... something... in the sky," he murmurs through gritted teeth. "Can't tell what it is... makes me not want to look at it for long...."
Suraksha ahhs softly, unsurprised, "Guaire got to you? I see." To Chanticleer she murmurs, "Likely the mara. Don't shoot it -- use its location to search for its protectors." Chanticleer tries to look 'around' the mara, not directly at it, but trying to see where its protectors might be. It's actually sort of easy; he can let his eyes slide away from looking at the thing.
Sova's bulbous eyes are both closed and she's rocking, "I don't like him. I love the Lady, but he's threatened... he's threatened to turn it on me next."
Suraksha turns back to Sova, casually murmuring, "So, they're suppos-" and with a flashingly quick movement, she pins Sova to the ground with a martial hold. A thin-bladed knife rests lightly under the chameleon-woman's chin as Suraksha adds softly, "Please don't struggle; I would hate to harm you but I will if I must. Now, please answer the questions: you were to keep us here. For an ambush? Also, are his people planning on just catching, or on killing us?" Chanticleer lets out a breath. This is another reason why he never played in the Courts' social games. He doubts the Seelie Court is particularly more gentle with who they rope into their schemes.
Sova goes very, very still except for her eyes. They are flickering here and there in several directions as she says, "B-but I want you to hurt me... because I can say I fought then... they aren't here yet. Please... go."
Suraksha takes a deep breath, then growls softly right next to the woman's ear, "Answer me!"
Sova squeaks, "I-I did!" She looks terrified and her chakras are showing that as well. She's trembling as she whispers, "H-he didn't say if they're to kill or delay you, but he's cruel..." Her chakras are screaming that she's telling the truth and that she's overwhelmed. With the terror running through her, she's not thinking straight.
Suraksha nods in quiet relief, "All right. Chanti, let the mara go -- keep watch for the ambush here." Chanticleer pauses, then nods to Sura, turning his attention to the approaches to their position -- and paying particular attention to above them. To the terrified Sova, Suraksha at first intends to command her to sleep -- but then suddenly realizes that won't be such a good idea with a nightmare around. Instead the tiger-woman sighs softly, looping her arm about Sova's neck to cut off her air and knock her out that way. Suraksha is unwilling to experiment with striking an entity that isn't attacking and whom she's never fought with, after all. As she does so she whistles softly to the ravens circling overhead, calling one down to her.
Suraksha swiftly binds Sova's hands behind her, gagging the entity as well as she murmurs a quick explanation of the foiled betrayal to the raven. She adds quietly, "Please tell her majesty to send someone to retrieve her liegewoman from us. I have no intention of leaving Sova for Guaire's bullyboys, but carrying her along will hamper us." The bird that Suraksha chooses tips its head from side to side as she speaks and then launches itself into the air with a silence that is downright eerie from a raven. Suraksha adds to Chanti, "Go warn the gryphons too -- all our gear is on them."
Chanticleer nods, starting to move towards the gryphons. "Should I try to bring them here? The gryphons, I mean."
Suraksha glances up at Chanticleer, "No, we're going to make ambush on their ambush, I think. Get a few blankets so we can make dummies of ourselves here -- then we'll lurk in the higher ground near the gryphons to try and get a good shot at our attackers." She slings the limp Sova over her shoulder when she's done, adding, "Hurry, please! We likely don't have much time, and this is just too good an opportunity to waste." She asks the remaining ravens to keep an eye out for attackers for them as well, please? -then smiles at the unconscious woman's limp form over her shoulder as she murmurs, "You know far too much about our plans for us to let Guaire have you -- and for all we know they'll just kill you for failing them. I don't think you deserve that, little one."
Chanticleer blinks, then smirks a little. "Perfect," he says, as he moves quickly to the gryphons. "A rather elegant idea." There's no sign of an ambush, but the feeling of the mara's presence is fading. There is, however, some rustling and clucking from the direction of the gryphons.
Suraksha grins at the rooster sidhe's comment, her voice low, "Why, thank you!" She follows more slowly behind Chanticleer -- she's more heavily burdened, and doesn't want to mess up his stealth. Chanticleer pauses as he hears the sounds from the direction of the gryphons, then moves stealthily towards them. The sidhe will spare a moment to sooth them if they appear ruffled -- but it may perhaps be too late, and he needs to see who is clucking at their gryphons.
As they arrive at the place where they left their mounts, the sky begins to clear, stars peeking out one at a time from behind the earlier blackness. There's a little gasp at the sound of voices and a scurry of movement. Chanticleer sweeps forward quickly at the sound of the gasp, ready to draw back the bowstring or to draw his sword, depending on how close he appears to whomever was messing with the gryphons. He also listens to whatever sounds the gryphons or ravens are making -- what they're saying when he comes close to the gryphons -- to get some idea of what might be going on.
The gryphons seem unharmed when he gets closer, but their harnesses have been loosened. The loosening is obvious, but not dangerous; they would still likely be able to be ridden safely. The ravens are chattering about a child and the gryphons themselves are almost lolling, the way cats do when they've been petted into somnolence. Triumph blinks his large eyes and clacks his beak lazily. Chanticleer frowns and checks the harnesses, as well as underneath them, and the blankets. Perhaps whomever did this didn't have time to do more?
There's nothing beneath the harnesses that would cause trouble and the ravens are still chattering about a little boy. Chanticleer realizes they don't have time for this. He does one quick check around to see if the gryphons have been drugged or poisoned -- food, vials, pouches, traces of powder -- then if he finds none, he gathers the gear and rushes back to Suraksha to let her know what happened. Meanwhile, he asks the ravens what happened and if they can find the boy again. The ravens are happy enough to tell him. One of them takes to the air and lets him know the child is hiding behind one of the boulders not far from the gryphons. The gryphons themselves seem utterly unbothered by any of this.
Suraksha listens and nods to Chanti's report, then sends the sidhe with a watch-raven back to where they were initially observing Nuadha depart. If the sidhe can lay out the ambush quickly, they still have a chance to pull this off. Chanticleer goes back to the original posting, wishing Suraksha luck, and keeps alert for any of the minions -- or at least, more minions if the 'child' turns out to be one of them. He rather hopes not -- and it's possible the child isn't -- but with glamour one can never be certain of... well, anything, really.
Sura asks another raven to watch over Sova while the bound and unconscious entity is hidden near to the placid gryphons. After that she whispers a warning to the gryphons to be wary -- then slinks into the underbrush to try and ambush the small boy.
It's simple enough for Chanti to set up what looks like a campsite of sleeping people. The ravens are chipper enough and one of them asks him why the little rooster doesn't talk. Chanticleer blinks in surprise, looking to the raven. "I... I don't know. I don't even know if he can talk!"
One of the ravens lands on Chanti's shoulder and peers across the back of his neck as if trying to look at something on his other shoulder. It asks him glibly if the rooster is a slave. Almost immediately the raven startles and caws, dancing as far away as it can on Chanti's shoulder -- as if it had been indignantly pecked at! Chanticleer blinks a bit, glancing over his shoulder at where he imagines the rooster ordinarily sits. "Ah... no. No, he's not."
On Chanticleer's shoulder there is a ghost of motion, but mostly a sense of immense satisfaction. Chanticleer half glances at that shoulder, then huhs and shakes his head. "You choose the oddest ways to show yourself," he says pleasantly. There's a ghost of a clucking chuckle from that shoulder, and a sense of affection. The raven on the other shoulder doesn't make any more inquisitive remarks.
Up near the gryphons there's not much place to actually hide Sova, but Sura does her best. Once she seems to have left the gryphons and the chameleon-sidhe alone, several minutes pass... and then there's the sound of rustling wings as a small figure moves toward the bound Sova. Suraksha smiles grimly, waiting as patiently as her alternate shape for the small figure to move close enough for her to catch it. Once it does -- she'll pounce!
The figure settles to earth near Sova and starts tugging on the bindings. He seems to be whispering to Sova, but his voice is so soft as to be unintelligible. Suraksha leaps, pressing firmly down on the entity's back; she grabs its wings at the root with one hand, and has a slim blade in the other. Her voice is soft and coldly furious, "I think you should remain very, very quiet, little one -- and touch Sova no more!"
The figure turns out to be, as the ravens said, a little boy. He's also a flyer, though his hair and wings are darker than Nuadha's. At Suraksha's command he freezes with a squeak that sounds very much like a small, frightened mouse that's just discovered there's a very large and hungry tomcat in the house. Suraksha carefully draws the boy back, away from Sova and into shelter. As she scans his chakras she whispers, "Why do you aid Guaire against your fellow flyer?" She sniffs carefully, checking to see if his scent says he's something other than a flyer. She realizes almost instantly this entity is indeed at least winged -- she wouldn't have been able to grab wings otherwise, glamoured or not.
The child is lighter than a human the same size would be, though the wings make him somewhat more awkward to move with when they're being held that way. His voice is fluting and pleasant to the ears, "I'm not helping Guaire! I'm trying to help that poor woman!"
Suraksha whispers to the boy, "Little one, that does not explain why you loosened our gryphons' tack. What were you trying to do?"
The child is obviously frightened, as would be anyone who's been pounced upon from the dark, after something terrifying flew overhead. "I didn't want them to be uncomfortable! They had been sitting up here all alone with those ravens."
Suraksha sighs in quiet amusement, "Oh, dear. Listen, little one, we're trying to help Nuadha. Please don't mess with our gear... and please, stay away from both us, and anyone else who isn't a flyer, for the next month. It would be far, far too easy for someone to use you to harm either yourself or Nuadha. Do you understand?"
The boy doesn't nod, but he does ask, with a little choking sound in his voice, "Is my uncle going to be okay?"
Suraksha sighs softly and answers honestly, "I don't know, little one. We're going to do our best to help him, though. I need you to help him by promising to go home and not doing any favors for anyone for the next month, all right? I don't want someone to use glamour to fool you into thinking you're helping your uncle Nuadha... and actually using you to harm him. Does that make sense, little one? Do you understand?"
The boy is quiet for a moment and then asks, as if he's not entirely sure he should be asking, "Why should I believe you? You tied up this woman and you were spying."
Suraksha doesn't keep the dagger at the boy's throat, although she does hold onto his wings -- she doesn't want him to dash out into a potential ambush, and get killed. She smiles at his question, "Good boy! That's the right attitude to take. Let me think. Do you know anything of Guaire? If you do, then perhaps you'd know Sova there would already be dead if we weren't who we said we were. Also, those are Morganna's ravens... and we want you to get home safely and unharmed." She smiles, adding, "If that doesn't convince you, I don't know how to do so -- but I also don't have time. We think there may be an incoming ambush very soon, and you need to be clear and home before that happens."
The boy catches his breath and shivers all over, "I can't get home quickly, but I'll head down the mountain into the trees. I know places to hide there."
Suraksha adds firmly, "And you need to tell no one of what you've seen. Never give any information to the enemy, little one -- especially if you're not sure who your friends are." She releases the boy's wings, patting his shoulder lightly, "Be very, very careful, boy -- and if you cannot make it home, come back to us and I'll try to drop you off at your cave. Guaire's people will as soon kill or cripple you as not, from what I've heard."
The boy nods and then asks hesitantly, "Will you let go my wings?"
Suraksha grins as she murmurs quietly, "Already have, little one. Go quick! Careful and silent, all right? Blessings on you." The child settles his wings and then moves off. He doesn't scamper -- it's too graceful for scampering -- but he moves quickly and quietly, using his wings to glide short distances down the slope. Suraksha sighs and sends a silent prayer after the courageously foolish little boy -- then widens her observation, keeping an eye out for the ambush Sova thought was coming. She glances up to see how the ravens are doing, and takes a moment to check the chameleon-woman's bindings, pulling Sova into better cover as well. Down below a bit, Chanticleer finds a place to cover the more obvious camp that should attract the attention of whomever is ambushing them.
It's quite a wait. Suraksha has silently shifted to tiger form by now, in order to both stay warm, and to let the gryphons get used to her change. Her senses are better in this form too, and she neatly tucks her cloak around Sova so the bound woman doesn't come to harm. The big tiger finds herself wondering just how long Guaire's folks expected the poor chameleon woman to keep them here! A couple of hours pass before there's any more movement, and it comes from below the cave. Suraksha raises a thoughtful eyebrow to herself -- due to the time lapsed, could this be one of Morganna's people? She sighs softly and silently, sniffing the wind to test for who it is -- and to see if the scent doesn't match the look, since that's a sure sign of glamour.
At first the sounds are easy to mistake for simply the sound of settling snow, but then they get a little louder -- but only a little. Whoever is coming is good at staying quiet; good, but not perfect. Chanticleer narrows his eyes, but does not draw his bow yet; the sound of the tense bowstring would give them away. The former sidhe knight's sharp eyes, as well as those of the ravens that are being high watch for him, catch sight of the approaching party well before Suraksha. They start out as shadows along the uneven surface of the snow, and then resolve into four figures wearing white clothes with white tassels all over them. As they get close, one of them hisses at the others, "That deadfall better not have slowed us down too much."
Chanticleer narrows his eyes, and readies the bow. He -- briefly -- wishes he had his mentor's bow, and that it had not been lost in one of the interminable competitions the Court organized to keep their knights busy. That bow had been magnificent. Still, he will make do with this, and it's no poor quality bow at that. He readies an arrow, glancing to one of the ravens. "Morganna's?" he asks it softly, readying to strike when Suraksha pounces. He sees they don't have a raven with them, so he doubts they are Morganna's.
Another voice shushes the first and says, "The path was clear when I scouted it before. That deadfall was new." Yet a third voice growls, "If you don't shut up, I'll strangle you both myself and go do this with just me and Locknock!"
Chanticleer is about to draw and fire when he sees there are four of them. [Blast. That's a lot. Let's let them get a little closer to the Lady before I shoot one; that way we can all join in when the flag goes up. Yes... the one telling them to 'shut up.' I think I'll fletch him first....] Up the mountainside, Suraksha rises carefully to her wide, velvety paws, slinking through the jumble of boulders and rocks as she follows the scents. When one of the ravens wings down and croaks in quiet urgency at her, she nods in understanding: not Morganna's. She continues to her pre-plotted pouncing point and settles into a crouch, waiting for the entities to appear.
When they're a little closer, one of the first two voices hisses sneeringly, "I think I see them... stupid to sleep at night when there's a mara about."
Chanticleer smirks a little. [Stupid to assume we're sleeping.] Suraksha's whiskers twitch slightly in amusement at the voice as well, and she waits for them to come into her view. She's guessing they'll shoot first, ask questions later... unless they're the type of fae who get off on very personal killing. The voice Chanti recognizes as the third says, "Don't bloody assume..." They're well within bow-range now and they've slowed down.
As the unknown supernaturals get closer they spread out from one another, moving as if to encircle the false campsite. Chanti's sharp eyes can see the two larger forms have swords. The other two seem to be unwinding something from their wrists. Chanticleer keeps himself from spitting in disgust. Garrotes. The honorless assassins are going to garrote at least two of them. He thinks he'll instead fletch the one closest to him who is about to use the garrote -- that would be fitting. Suraksha grins to herself, waiting for one of the larger ones to circle to a point she can land on. She doesn't want to leap a long distance, as that will offer more opportunities for the opponents to shoot at her.
By luck alone, the figure who threatened to strangle two of them is the largest, and carrying a nastily serrated blade, as it moves up and around to a flanking position. It's also the one that gets closest to Sura first... just as one of the ones wielding a garrote comes within good range of Chanti's bow. Chanticleer thinks that's close enough, and draws and fires at the same moment Suraksha decides to attack. Suraksha drops silently, with all her weight and her claws out, on the head of the largest entity. She doesn't make a sound -- just does her best to crush him and break his neck. She's already planning the leap onto the other sword-wielder, her fanged mouth open in a silent snarl.
The body under Suraksha is large, heavy-boned and with heavily-padded clothing. He shouts in strangled surprise as she lands on him, alerting the others -- but not soon enough to stop the first strangler from sprouting black and crimson feathers from the base of his throat. Chanticleer immediately pulls and draws back a second arrow, hoping to catch the other sword-armed man before he can turn on Suraksha. The other garrote-armed man can wait; a garrote against a tiger is not a recommended weapon.
Suraksha growls softly, faintly irritated the big-boned troll managed to wheeze off a shout before she crushed him, and springs immediately for her next intended target: the other sword-wielder. She's not sure if those things are garrotes or slings, after all, and she'd already intended to take out the swords-person... -thing... whatever.
The second swordsperson had swung around at the shout, raising the weapon high in attack. They heavy winter camouflage makes the movement clumsy and the gesture opens up all sorts of opportunities. Chanti and Suraksha, having fought together before, time their attacks well without even having to truly try. The arrow hits home under the raised arm, sliding through cloth and flesh to the chest cavity in the very instant before the tiger lands with crushing force. Suraksha grins as the arrow effectively leads her in, using the inertia from the falling body to turn her attack -- and leap directly at the remaining entity, her jaws agape!
The fourth and last would-be ambusher is, as Chanti thought, something of a coward. When all three of his compatriots go down in a matter of seconds, the fae turns tail -- literally, as there seems to be one protruding from his clothing -- and tries to run away. Unfortunately for him, Suraksha is swift and sees quite well in the dark... and is not in the least bit surprised. He goes down fast, hard, and with finality. There are dark splashes here and there on the snow, blood looking black in the night.
Suraksha glances around as she drags the body back to the others. She wishes they could ask one of the flyers to create a little snow or wind to cover the blood. Well... she and Chanti will try a cover-up once they've gotten the bodies well hidden. After that they need to check what the ambushers are carrying -- that will give some hint as to what the enemy expected to find, which by extension may hint as to whether anyone knows what precisely Morganna has hired. Chanticleer does a thorough search of the area, quickly but efficiently seeking any sign these four might have had backup. Finding none, however, he returns to Suraksha and lets her know. She grins as she pads by with the body, to tuck it under a huge and sheltering boulder. "Well done!"
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