PlaneShift
Fan Area => Roleplaying (Communitive Storywriting) => Collaborative Stories => Topic started by: Rakeleer on February 08, 2003, 06:14:32 pm
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The figure in the blue-tinted shadows knew what a cliche he was.
Nevertheless, in the shadows he stayed, observing the grand spectacle below him, and rubbing his chin.
How did he get here?
Far below him was a city, but unlike any city he had seen before. Great winged beasts flitted up and down the column of it\'s vast under-sky, illuminated by the glowing blue corona above like aliens moths around an alien flame.
Creatures the likes of which he had never seen (and that was saying a lot, for he was a seasoned traveller into strange places) roamed too and fro, exchanging things and words also foreign to him.
He calculated, he contemplated and he masticated mentally on the situation he was in.
He remembered a strange doorway, and being familair with strange doorways, he remembered poking his head through - just to see.
\"Well, that\'ll teach you, Rake. Keep your nose out of strange glowing doorways,\" he said to himself, half laughing.
There was a noise from the tunnel behind him, and he couched himself further to the wall.
Just in case, he put his hand on his rapier and mentally prepared himself.
Whatever he, she or it was, he\'d be ready to fight, flee or fast talk his way through the encounter.
He hoped....
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The noise grew louder, and could soon be distinguished as a sort of singing in a strange tongue, accompanied by the rhythmic patter of paws upon stone. The echoing sound grew until it was almost right next to Rakeleer, upon which point it ceased abruptly.
The inncoent face of a young bipedal cat-like creature emerged from the shadows, big, round golden eyes gazing inquisitively up at the unfamiliar being before it.
In a light, childish voice it queried, \"Maruko, amak dor letheen?\"
With unblinking eyes, it shifted its gaze from Rakeleers face to the weapon he carried, then back again.
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\"Alright\", Rakeleer thought to himself, \"Either it\'s friendly, or it likes conversation over meals.\".
He straightened up, and moved his hand away from his weapon. The creature must have astounding senses, to catch him unwares so. Best be friendly.
\"Lle quena i\'lambe tel\' Eldalie? \"Ghurat m?nu Khazad? iglishm?k?\"
\"I don\'t suppose you speak the common tongue?\"
Rakeleer tried to like as unimposing as possible. Which wasn\'t too hard, considering he looked like a pale Xacha, and the being across from him in the tunnel was essentially a giant feline.
He self-consciouly brushed stone dust off his vest.
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The creature\'s eyes narrowed with concentration, obviously trying to comprehend what was said.
Unsteadily, it murmurs a few words. \"Quena....amin ai...Eldalie.\" Then, with a sudden look of comprehension, it smiles and utters a more formal greeting in a voice unmistakably female. \"Salutations, traveler. Pray you speak the same type of Common as I do?\"
Stepping forward, she nods and performs a strange sort of bow, crossing one arm diagonally across her chest and placing one foot in front of the other, bending slightly at the waist. The fingers belonging to the hand across her chest were splayed, showing a formidable claws.
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Rakeleer mimics the strange bow perfectly, thinking he likes the style, but wishing he didn\'t lack the claws.
\"Pray tell, beautiful stranger, what is this place called? I\'mm uh..... well... lost.\"
Rakeleer put on his best disarming smile, and hoped it wasn\'t a show of agression or anything. Learning new cultures can be treacherous.
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With a slight side-tip of her head at his well-copied bow, she smiled a knowing smile and moved her arm in a sweeping gesture.
\"You do indeed appear as if you are...not from around here,\" she put delicately. \"This is the outskirts of the Stone Labrynth, not far from the city Ylaikum.\"
Examining the strange man\'s clothing a bit closer, she realized that he really wasn\'t from anywhere near here. There had been rumors of cultures on the Surface, and beyond, but you could never trust what the traveling Ylians and Xacha liked to spin tales about in the local taverns.
Realizing that her mind was wandering, the feline woman blinked and looked up once again. \"Excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Valfaran Gilagar of the House Quelfarn.\"
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\"It\'s a pleasure to meet you, Valfaran. My name is Rakeleer Runerunner, and I suppose I can\'t claim to be from much of anywhere anymore.\"
One of the noises of biology caught his attention, and Rakeleer put his hand on his stomach, \"Say, where\'s a good place to find food? I\'ve been cautious with the local wildlife, not knowing what\'s poisonous and what isn\'t.\"
The question of food that didn\'t have to be hunted brought the question of money to Rake\'s mind, and then he _really_ began to fret. He tended to travel light, and all his fortune had been left with the banker.
How was he going to eat?!
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Valfaran smiled slyly. \"Pleasure\'s all mine.\"
Looking around and taking a few carefull sniffs with her sensitive, pantherlike nose, she ran a paw across a slightly damp stony ledge. \"Well, what kind of food are you looking for, the fresh kind, the cooked kind, or the homemade kind?\"
Rubbing two fingers together tentatively, she looked beynd him into a dark passage.
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Rakeleer grinned. He\'d known enough rangers to know what that look meant.
\"At this point, I\'d settle for the edible kind. I\'m not squeemish.\"
If all the inhabitants of this new place were as friendly seeming as this one, Rakeleer thought, he should have no problem getting along here. There were bound to be new adventures, and new fortune to be made.
And home was, frankly, beginning to bore him.
This ought to prove interesting, he thought, and images of what the feline was going to suggest for dinner marched theough his head as \"adventure, the first\".
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Distantly, she replied, \"Follow me.\"
Stalking down the dark tunnel with the innate silence of a feline, Valfaran touched a paw to one of the stone walls. Alert and ready for anything, she kept close to the cool stone and out of the center of the passage.
The temperature began to grow cooler, and more damp, but the darkness deepened and seemed to envelop the both of them. Valfaran\'s keen eyes even began to fail her in this darkness so complete.
Soon, however, a strange blue-green glow began to shine up ahead. She followed the tunnel towards it, always keeping one paw to the stone.
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Rakeleer followed, his eyes shining dimly in the low light, and his soft leather boots making no sound on the cave floor.
He wondered if Valfaran\'s hand on the wall was meant to be a means of navigation, or held some other signifigance, and filed the question away for later.
He wondered also if the cat being was leading him to food, or into a trap - but these paranoid sub-messages were a well honed stream in Rakeleer\'s mind; he aknowledged and dismissed them at the same time.
Since, regardless of the destination, it was bound to be fun!
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Up ahead, the passage twisted sharply, and around the corner, the blue-green light shone even brighter. A small, sharp trickling sound echoed off the smooth walls, and dampness could now be felt in the air.
Pausing a moment before rounding the bend, Valfaran crouched with her ears perked forward, listening intently. Beyond the noise of running water were small, sharp croaks, accompanied by the click and burble of something unknown.
Satisfied with what she heard, Valfaran stood from her crouch and stepped \'round the corner.
A fairly large-sized cavern spread out before them, grey ledges jutting from tall rock faces, a trickling stream at the far end. The cavern floor was worn smooth, presumably by a previous flow of water. The most quaint thing about this, however, was that the entire scene was illuminated by the blue-green fungi that grew in prolific numbers along the damp walls and ledges of stone.
\"Say hello to lunch,\" Valfaran murmured happily, and she paced forward to further examine a patch of fungi.
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Rakeleer grinned and stepped into the peaceful tableu.
\"Amazing! Is this whole world underground?\"
He went to one knee and cautiously prodded a patch of fungi with the tip of his dirk.
Taking a piece on the end of it, he examined it carefully.
\"If you eat this, that explains your fetching coloration.\"
He looked up and watched Valfaran, to see what the protocol was in this scenario. No sense in having bad manners. He had been lucky to find someone willing to help him, the last thing he needed to do was offend her.
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Removing a small hidden dagger from her boot, she crouched down and removed a few mushroom-shaped morsels with a careful hand.
\"Well, some say that there is a surface, and it\'s even rumored that this Stone Labrynth, as we call it, leads up to it. My ancestors are believed to come from there. But yes, every place that is known for certainty beneath the Azure Sun is underground.\"
Valfaran stood up and turned the bit of mushroom over, examining the underside of its cap. Before eating it, she held it out in the palm of her hand, then touched two fingers to her forehead, her mouth, crossed them shoulder to shoulder across her chest, then picked up the food with that hand.
With a small smile, Valfaran took a bite of it and chewed, its bitter yet somehow tangy taste filling her mouth.
After swallowing, she sat and began to cut off other mushroom caps. \"Perhaps it runs in the blood. My...my mother was the same hue as I am, and her father, I believe. We\'ve all been fond of the Gru\'nek, the Azure Fungi.\"
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\"Gru\'nek.\"
Rakeleer tried the taste of the word before he attempted to reproduce the ritual with the mushrooms.
They had a very pleasant taste, something like morels, with a citris tone.
\"Have your people been in the Stone Labyrinth, or under the Azure Sun for a very long time? That city looked quite bustling.\"
He chewed thoughtfully.
\"My people are called Demi`Dhal, where I come from. Though really that essentially means \"child who shouldn\'t have been born\" \".
Rakeleer laughed ruefully.
\"But I suppose I will need a better explanation than that, unless there are others of my kind here?\"
\"What are your people called, Valfaran Gilagar of the House Quelfarn?\"
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Valfaran did not repeat the small rite as she continued to eat other mushrooms, but grinned slightly as Rakeleer mimicked her actions. \"You have quite the talent for cultural adaptation, have you not?\"
After contemplating his question a moment, she said, \"Not that I am so old, but we have for as long as I can remember. From how I hear others of my village speak, I assume our kind have been here for an epoch at least. None truly know how we came to be, but it is widely believed we are a summons or creation of the god Talad.\"
Standing and brushing her rough homespun trousers off, Valfaran padded over to the small stream. Bending over, she cupped her paws to scoop up some of the cool, crystal-clear water. \"My people are called the Enkidukai. I am not certain what that translates to in any language, but I do not believe it means anything so foreboding as yours.\" She brought the water to her mouth and drank, the sweet liquid a welcome to her parched throat.
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\"Being adaptable is what I\'m alla bout.\" He grinned and took note that the ritual was only done before the first taste. Then laughed at himself.
\"Really, I\'m what they call a half-breed, which of course carries a stigmata back home. Hopefully,\" he grew less jovial, but only a little, \"that won\'t translate here, either.\"
\"So, do the Enkidukai do the bidding of Talad? I\'ve always found religion to be a bit tricky, so please tell me if I offend with my questions.\"
As he was talking, Rakeleer noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Some type of local fauna, perhaps, but just in case, his muscles slowly tensed into ptential energy they were trained to unleash.
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Turning back around and sitting on a small ledge, Valfaran closed her eyes and breathed in the moist air. \"The people here are used to oddities. I am sure you will get no more than an empathetic shake of the head from some. The Ynnwn are halfbreeds, and they are respected for it, in fact.\"
Touching a small, glassy-smooth stone on a leather strap around her neck, the Enkidukai female sighed pensively. \"Not all choose to follow Talad. Nor do all choose to follow Laanx. I, for one, believe they are present, but do not worship them. I am a believer more of virtue and some of fate, the same as many of those in my village. Your questions are welcome, though; it is refreshing to be able to explain all of this to someone willing to listen.\"
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\"Well, best to know what I\'m about here.\"
There was that movement again. He searched Valfaran\'s face for a sign that she knew of the disturbance.
\"Tell me about Talad and Laanx. Are these the only gods in the world? And how are they regarded by, for example, the Enkidukai? Where I come from there are dozens of gods.\"
Rakeleer nonchalantly sat up against the cavern wall, his eyes only momentarily attempting to scan the darkness in its recesses.
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With a slight nod, Valfaran slid off the ledge and nonchalantly walked across the cavern, sticking to the wall. \"Laanx and Talad are the most commonly worshiped. It is said that there are other gods, ones who helped Laanx and Talad use the Crystal to create life, such as Vodul.\"
She paused a moment, finally seeming to acknowledge the movement in the darkness. Despite, she continued, \"They say that many who came through portals worshiped other gods. However, in witnessing the power of the Gods of the Glyphs, as they are called, many gave up their old faiths.\"
Her clawed fingers drummed against the side of her leg. The Enkidukai seemed torn, as if she could, for the moment, not decide what to do. Her keen eyes locked on the spot where she had last seen the movement. Oddly enough, she continued speaking as if nothing were amiss.
\"Laanx and Talad are somewhat of enemies. We Enkidukai tend to worship Talad, as he is the kinder and more balanced of the gods. Thus, Laanx is somewhat regarded by the Cat-People...distastefully.\"
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Mentally filing the information away for use, Rakeleer was relieved when he saw that the Enkidukai was aware of the presence of other life.
\"So... Beneath the Azure Sun we have Enkidukai and.... was it Ynnwn? And the other god is called Laanx and is not entirely respected by the Enkidukai.\"
He speaking just to make noise, now. To maintain the rhythm of the conversation, so as not to throw off whatever was stalking, or nosing about the cavern.
He straightened one of his arms, and let the throwing knife in it\'s holster fall into his hand, a reassuring weight.
But Valfaran seemed torn, so perhaps this was not pray, or foe, but another of the Azure Sun\'s thinking beings.
He continued to summarize Valfarn\'s teachings while he waited to see...
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Hesitantly, Valfaran opened her mouth to speak, but did just the opposite. Holding up a paw to indicate silence from Rakeleer, she cast an ear towards the entrance of the cavern.
Above the sound of trickling water rose the clatter of claws upon stone. The noise grew, and it was apparent that the creature it was originating from was advancing quickly.
In one swift movement, Valfaran drew the two short swords (http://valfaran.tripod.com/Pictures/valsword.jpg) sheathed on each of her knee-high boots. Their gilded blades glowed an eerie blue-green shade as they reflected the light from the fungi. She stood in a defensive stance, prepared for whatever might burst through the tunnel mouth.
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In the instant Valfaran\'s speech failed, Rakeleer ducked low and flipped back the throwing dagger in his hand.
From the darkness of the passageway an enourmous beast charged. It had many legs, more than Rakeleer could count, and it\'s head sported huge, hard black eyes - like stones in a river.
It\'s mandibles clacked with what Rake presumed was hunger as it charged into the light.
As it threw it\'s body around the room, Rakeleer felt the air move like a great wind.
One, two, three daggers sought the eyes of the beast, and for a split second Rakeleer thought it was finished, as its millipede-like form crashed to the earth, juicing the phosphorescant fungi beneath it.
But a breath later it was up, it was angry, and it was coming for him.
\"Uh oh\"
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Blades singing through the damp air, Valfaran leapt between the creature and Rakeleer and took a double-strike at what one could only guess was its head. The keen edges only scratched the surface of its exoskeleton, and the Enkidukai searched frantically for a soft spot.
With a quick flick of her wrists, Valfaran severed two of its appendages, which landed with a juicy thud across the cave. Moving again into her defensive stance, she backed up and motioned for Rakeleer to do the same, until the water of the shallow stream flowed around her boots.
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Rakeleer rolled across the floor, inches away from the thrashing beast that was now quite obviously enraged.
\"I forgot to ask about dangerous creatures,\" he yelled over the screeching of the giant crawly.
As he came up, soaked and dripping, he drew his rapier in his right hand and a thick glowing dirk in his left.
I hope these things still work, he thought.
I hope Miss Kitty knows how to stop this thing from mulching us, he thought.
The thing, missing two limbs and bleeding some kind of orange ichor, lurched toward the duo in the water, intent on taking its revenge for what was taken from it.
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Valfaran\'s gaze shifted sharply from the floor to the wall, then to her sword, then back to the floor again, as if she were searching the depths of her memory for something.
\"Marun rathim nae-o, madur taka takim,\" she began to sing hurredly in a low voice. It sounded like some sort of children\'s rhyme, the sort parents often tought to their offspring. After mumbling the next few lines quickly, she finished, \"Alina mahjik dae-o!\"
With a cry of delight, Valfaran leapt forward, then again up, landing on the back of the great beast. Catching her balance, she began to use all her force to lop off the creature\'s legs. In pain, the creature let out a keening screech, but seemed to be more irritated than inhibited.
\"Go for the mouth!\" she cried frantically to Rakeleer, \"Quickly!\"
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\"Right, the mouth.\"
Rakeleer shifted and adjusted his balance, the balls of his feet finding sure purchase, even in the water of the stream.
\"Right.\"
He watched the beast thrash for a moment. It wasn\'t very intelligent. If it were me, Rakeleer thought, I\'d just bash her against the wall.
Luckily the creature wasn\'t Rakeleer and it\'s head snapped back and forth in it\'s futile attempts to dislodge the Enkidukai.
Rakeleer gauged the timing, and dashed forward.
His right arm drive the rapier deep into the mandible-covered orifice.
Rakeleer felt soft tissue, and then a sudden resistance.
He pushed hard and simultaneously drove his dirk into the bottom of the head.
The dirk barely penetrated the creature\'s hard chitin, but Rake felt the resistance in the rapier\'s thrust suddenly give.
Suddenly, without aplomb, the beast collapsed, all animation stopped.
Rake removed his rapier, and examined the point of his dirk.
Breathing hard, he looked up to see the fate of his newfound friend.
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Half-hidden behind the bulk of the enormous beast, Valfaran lay haphazardly against one of its now-limp legs. The Enkidukai?s head lolled to one side, eyes closed, and a large red welt was beginning to form just below her left ear.
One of her blades was lodged between two of the creature?s body segments; the other was nowhere in plain sight. Juices, a mixture of the crushed fungi and the monster?s fluids, began to trickle slowly out from the carcass.
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\"Lovely.... First person I meet here, and I manage to get them mauled.\"
Rakeleer stowed his weapons and leapt over the corpse of the beast.
\"Valfaran? Valfaran, can you hear me?\"
He attempted to shove the carcass off the cat person, but could only shift it a few inches before it rolled back into place.
He cursed. In several languages.
\"I hope these work, here.\"
From his belt rakeleer unwound a length of gauzy fabric.
Medicinal smells wafted off the solky material, and he began to bind the cat person\'s wounds, desperately trying to come up with a plan.
There WERE other people here... in this world.
But he didn\'t suppose he would be so lucky that one of them would just step into the cavern and offer to help.
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Mumbling something low, Valfaran\'s head lolled to the other side, and her eyelids flickered. She seemed as if she were about to wake up, but did not.
Her speech quickly became more pronounced, but it was obvious she was, in her own mind, no longer underneath the carcass of a cave-creature in the dimming light of so many crushed luminescent mushrooms.
\"Mrrgmmsar, ragmmall grrshhtop mommrmma, whhat are they doing here?\" The Enkiduaki\'s voice grew to a shout. \"No! No, I won\'t go without you!\" She then began to jerk violently beneath the weight of the monster. Suddenly, she quieted. A small, rough song began to rise from her throat, in another tongue. Her voice was nervous, frightened, and she twitched for a brief period once more before letting out a pitiful cry.
With one long, shuddering sigh, Valfaran went limp, and tears spilled unchecked from her eyes, staining her furred cheeks and then dripping down onto her leather vest.
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Rakeleer cursed and cursed again.
After rummaging through the rest of the equipment in his belt, desperately searching for something to save the day, or inspire him to save the day, Rakeleer came up with:
A shuriken of some strange ghostly metal
Two otterhide belts
A half eaten meat pie
A spool of yarn
and several other odds and ends.
Panicking now, Rakeleer tied one end of the yarn to the beasts corpse, and tore down the caves.
In moments he was in near darkness, running with one hand on the wall and one loosley holding the spool.
He ran until his breath was ragged and his muscles burning, and it only got darker.
Then he stopped, arms flailing. Something suspiciously like spider web were binding his arms and legs. Looping the yarn into his belt, and acutely aware of the sklittering screeching coming from somehwere in the darkness, Rakeleer drew his rapier and gave the command word to activate it\'s enchantment.
\"Redeemed!\"
The metal began to crawl with wispy blue flames.
\"Odd. What happened to the red glow?\"
But no matter. He could now see the giant spider\'s web, or what he thought were spider webs that were entangling him.
From the darkness, Rakeleer watched as the strange green creatures that he supposed might be the web spinners crawled back into the shadows.
\"Yes...\" He examined the webbing. It was quite thick. And he only managed to free himself with the edge of his blade.
After gathering as much of the subtsance as he could, he race dback along the yarns path, one hand on the wall.
\"Hold on, lady. Hold on!\"
He cut a small length of the webbing and set it aside. The rest he quickly (over the course of the next half hour) braided into a very crude rope.
That done, he threw one end around a jutting stalagtite, and the other he cinched around the end of the beast that pointed toward the water.
Several running starts and an extremely tired rogue later, the beast was moved, and Valfaran\'s unmoving body was revealed.
He checked her form for obvious injury, and found little that would cause her condition.
\"Head wound\" he guessed. Perhaps from the fall.
But she was alive.
He gathered some of the water in his skin and trickled some on her feline lips.
\"Well if help won\'t come to us, we\'ll go to help.\"
Taking the length of webbing he had set aside, and two of the now-rigid dismembered legs of the beast, Rakeleer crafted a rough gurney.
It took almost as long to get Valfaran\'s body onto the gurney as it did to move the monster\'s.
Moments later, Rakeleer started down the passage, back toward the civilization he had met the Enkidukai near, but this time dragging his guide behind him.
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As she was pulled along in the crude vessel, Valfaran continued to have more of what seemed to be flashbacks. Sometimes the Enkidukai would shiver, wracked with sobs; other times she would cry out and convulse with anger. Very seldom, however, did the sounds of laughter or contentment pass her parched lips.
The space between these relived memories was often filled with low whimpering, like some small creature in pain. However, it was soon apparent that this condition was not a creation of her mental state; a thin trail of blood stained the grey-blue passage floor.
In a sudden fit of what seemed like panic, Valfaran grasped at the open air, searching for something. Her eyes were open, but looked to something much more distant than the cave walls or the passage in front of them. \"Kith\'nek! Kith\'nao!\" she cried out, and rolled to one side, nearly off the gurney.
On her now-exposed back, a blood stain began to spread across the rough leather vest that was her simple garb, as well as the tattered white shirt she wore beneath it.
In a blind fit, the Enkidukai reached backwards to grasp the hilt of her once-missing blade, previously unnoticable, half-wedged and half-sliced into the leather. As her paw clutched the hilt, she cried out and drew her arm away from it. The keen blade cut into her flesh at an angle just to the side of her shoulder blade.
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\"Well, no wonder.\"
Had turned at the Enkidukai\'s fit.
\"How did I miss that? Sorry, Valfaran... hush a minute, let me see that.\"
Rakeleer knelt and examined the wound. She had lost some blood, but the cut was clean, and what bleeding there was now was from the wound being disurbed.
\"I think you\'ll live.\"
He was smiling, but he felt abashed. How had he missed a sword sticking out the cat person\'s back?
He put one hand on the short sword as gently and deftly as only a master pickpocket could - he hoped this wouldn\'t hurt for long.
\"Alright... I\'m going to count to three.\" It was an old trick. Maybe it would help.
\"One....\" He wrested the sword out of the wound, dodged several potenetially deadly swipes of claw, and immedietly applied pressure with the remainder of his salve-treated bandages.
When Valfaran\'s form grew still, and Rakeleer was fairly certain mortal danger was abated (until she woke up) he bound the bloodied bandages around her chest and across the wound on her back.
And then he sat down, back against the wall, in almost the same position Valfarn had found him in, and quietly went to sleep with one eye open.
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When Valfaran woke clear-headed for the first time, she grasped instinctively for her twin short swords. The same as when she was delirious, Valfaran sat up and spoke, \"Kith\'nek, Kith\'nao!\"
Wincing at the sharp pain at her back, she seemed to be aware of her injuries for the first time. Glancing around frantically at the drastically different surroundings, the Enkidukai\'s gaze fell on her new friend. As if he would understand, she queried, \"Kith\'nek, Kith\'neo?\"
Patting at the worn spots near the tops of her boots, Valfaran looked, obviously distressed, to the empty blade sheaths stitched cleverly at their sides. The Enkidukai leaned sideways and clutched at the floor, spotting the blade stained with her own blood.
Hilt firmly in her grasp, Valfaran kissed the golden pommel of her short sword, wiping it clean on a corner of her tattered shirt. Sheathing her blade at her right paw, the Enkidukai heaved a shuddering sigh of exhaustion at these seemingly vital actions, then collapsed backwards once again.
It was at this time she finally found herself able to speak, and her words were blunt. \"How long?\"
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After some quick mental arithmetic, \"perhaps 5 hours\" Rakeleer said.
\"Would have been less, but your sword was cleverly disguised as part of your shoulder.\"
Rakeleer opened his other eye.
\"And I needed my beauty sleep.\"
He stopped smirking long enough to look concerned.
\"I wasn\'t sure... How bad is it?\"
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Valfaran mustered her strength and sat up once again, smiling an odd smile, as if the expression were unfamiliar to her. \"I see. Disguised, eh? Must\'ve been the charm that was put on it. Didn\'t think it would still work. I suppose you didn\'t see it right off?\"
Rolling her shoulders a bit, the Enkidukai tested her strength. \"I should be all right,\" she murmured, standing up, \"and you needn\'t carry me in this thing anymore.\" With a chuckle, she motioned to the crude but cleverly built gurney. \"My legs are a bit stiff, but I think I can walk it off.\"
Crouching down slowly, Valfaran touched one of the creature\'s legs that part of the craft had been built from. \"This stuff is quite useful, usually. The chitin, I mean. It has medicinal value, though I don\'t believe I\'ve seen one of those types of critters in a long while. Could\'ve sworn they were driven out of the near passages years ago.\"
Taking a length of te spider\'s web, she wrapped a leg tightly, covering the more spiney portions of it and then leaving a loop of the crude rope to sling over her shoulder.
\"If you\'re quite rested, we should get a-moving by now. Believe me, we haven\'t seen the worst of the creatures here. They only come out during certain times.\" As steadily as she could manage, Valfaran began to hobble down the passage.
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Rakeleer sighed in relief. The Enkidukai seemed to be doing well enough.
\"We should find someone that can do a better job of patching you up.\"
Despite the cat\'s wounds, Rakeleer was pressed to keep up with her.
Oh sure, he thought, she\'s had a nice lie-down.
\"And I\'m somewhere to rest.\"
\"How do you tell time down here, anyway? I\'ve been trying to gauge by the blue light, but it\'s patterns are recognizable to me.\"
Rakeleer felt, for the first time since leaving his adopted homeland, like he was in a truly alien place.
He had visited the homeworlds of gods, and not felt the same sense of.... otherness that this place brought him.
Maybe it would grow on him.
His grin reappeared, and his pace picked up.
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As she walked, Valfaran seemed to debate mentally on where they should be headed. A familiar azure glow began to grow up ahead, and faint noises bounced gently down the stone corridor to reach their ears.
\"Usually time is told by the changes in the Azure Sun\'s brightness, as it can still be seen in the more shallow reigons of the Stone Labyrinth. When you get deeper,\" she grinned, \"I suppose the best way to tell is by your stomach.\"
The Enkidukai\'s grin turned to something more of a wry smile. \"Though it\'s not as if my meals are at any specific time of day anymore.\"
Valfaran continued on in silence as they approached the Bronze Gate, blinking as the light grew ever stronger.
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Resting in the shadows beside the Bronze Gate, Sharaz was seriously considering his options. Though it seemed like a good idea at the time, facing the unknown dangers of the Stone Labyrinth all by himself to prove his bravery, seemed more like the dumbest thing he\'d ever thought of.....
It wasn\'t as if he hadn\'t faced the dangers of the labyrinth before, and with success! He\'d always been a welcome edition to any questing party, because of his skill in the martial arts and his slowly growing knowledge of shaman medicine and magic. But today he got the distinct feeling that all this had gone to his head. Better to go back and forget this foolish idea, instead of being gloriously killed by one of the many monsters in the labyrinth.
Just as he\'d decided to return home, he heard two beings approach. One was clearly a fellow Enkidukai, the gracefull movements left no chance for mistake, but the other being was wholly unknown to him. Should he approach them or keep hidden?
Remaining in the shadows, Sharaz decided to leave the decision to the two strangers. The Enkidukai would surely notice his presence, so it would be up to her to decide wether to approach him or simply ignore him and let him go home by himself.
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\"30...40...50 Tria!,\" thought Runesoul the Master Magician as he counted yesterdays profit inside of the Stone Labyrinth. He made a living by preying of off the warriors and adventurers that attempted to explore the Labyrinth and find the supposed path to the Surface. Some might call him a thief, but he prefered to think of himself as redistrubting the resources to more worthy pursuits. These bumbling fools that entered the Labyrinth only to be overwhelmed by monsters that they can not even begin to match up to dont deserve to have money. Runesoul knew every nook and cranny of the Labyrinth up to the Golden Door. He supposed this door led to the Surface, but he was never bothered by these things. Runesoul was a business man, out for money and money alone. He waited, hidden in the shadows for an unsuspecting party or adventurer to emerge into the Stone Labyrinth
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Valfaran\'s pointed ears twitched as she sensed the presence of others close by in the tunnel. Although the Labyrinth was like a second home to her, she longed to return to her village once more, despite what foul memories were held there.
Besides, the Enkidukai thought as she hobbled along painfully, there are healers there who could do better for my wounds than I ever could. As she drew nearer to the other creatures hidden then in shadow, Valfaran paused to draw her one blade from its sheath at her boot.
A feeling of sickliness, one that could not be cured by a healer, crep into her stomach. She was obligated to return and retrieve her other blade, the sooner, the better.