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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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<blockquote data-quote="ellinor" data-source="post: 4823496" data-attributes="member: 14561"><p><strong>2x08</strong></p><p></p><p>Twiggy felt a jostling against her arm, and stirred awake, muttering to herself. <em>What was that for?</em> She didn’t need much sleep, but it couldn’t possibly be time for third watch already. The sky was still heavy with dark. The air was cool. </p><p></p><p>Across the camp, Tavi was yelling. “Rose! Mena! Get up!” </p><p></p><p><em>Ah, not me. Five more minutes.</em> <span style="color: brown">No, you. NOOOOOOWWW!</span></p><p></p><p><em>What’s wrong, Acorn?</em></p><p></p><p><span style="color: brown">RAAATS!</span></p><p></p><p>Twiggy sat up and opened her eyes. Rats were streaming in to the camp, over the bluffs, from all directions. Rats, and huge rats, and roiling piles of snarling rats. </p><p></p><p>Tavi and Savina rushed around the camp, waking the others. </p><p></p><p>Twiggy cringed in horror as the rats rushed toward her, their shiny coats and tiny eyes reflecting the dim moonlight. She froze, disgusted, and braced herself. <em>There’s nothing worse than rats.</em> But as she felt their rough fur brush against her ankles and the unnervingly soft flicks of their tails against her shins and knees, she realized that there was something worse. They were rushing past her, straight for Rose. They were <em>all</em> heading straight for Rose. Rose, who was still just barely awake. </p><p></p><p>Savina screamed.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: brown">Nonononononononono . . .</span> came the voice inside Twiggy’s head.</p><p></p><p>Twiggy tried to collect her thoughts. <em>Mama Rossi always kept a light on in the kitchen to keep the rats out. Rats are nocturnal. Rats don’t like light.<em> Learning to make light was one of the first spells she had learned. She cast, and the area lit up, as if the moon hung just above their camp. <em>Easy.</em></em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>But all that did was to make the horror of the scene easier to see. The rats continued to swarm, just as before. Kormick arose next to his bedroll, a crossbow in each hand. Even moments after awakening, he stood with the confident and menacing air of . . . one accustomed to holding a crossbow in each hand. “These are some very strange rats,” he proclaimed, firing two shots at once.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em>As if I didn’t already know that.</em> Twiggy could do nothing but watch as the first rats reached Rose and started to climb her dress, biting and scratching. As Rose beat at her skirts, trying to shake them off, Twiggy thought back to their lifetime together. She had seen Rose in every kind of situation, but had never seen her lose her tight grip on her emotions. <em>I’ve seen Rose at her best and her worst,</em> Twiggy thought, <em>but I’ve never seen Rose look helpless before.</em> It wasn’t a comforting thought. Rose was famously calm and collected. Helpless seemed <em>wrong</em> on her. But it was galvanizing, too. <em>I never want to feel as helpless as Rose looks right now,</em> Twiggy thought.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>A knotted mass of rats was approaching Rose from behind the tent. Twiggy cast about for something that would stop them. <em>Sleep.</em> She concentrated and cast, focusing on the center of the mass. <em>Let’s hope this works on rats.</em> It did, but not as well as she had hoped—A few rats were stilled, but others just climbed over them, undeterred.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Mena was up, and moving to protect Rose. As she strode across the camp, she slashed at the rats with her blade, stabbing, slicing, and batting them away. But she could only hit one rat at a time, and there seemed to be hundreds of them. “Gather up around Rose!” she hollered. “Rose needs our help!”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Tavi was already on his way, wielding his sword with protective rage. Its blade glowed with green flame, scorching every rat he hit. The acrid, ferric smell of burning fur and blood began to surround them. But the rats continued to scratch and bite at Rose, her dress now torn and bloody. They attacked Tavi, too, with claws and teeth, as they struggled to stream past him and attack his sister. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Kormick moved into a protective position and traded his crossbows for warhammers, swinging at the moving ground with both hands. “Young lady!” he hollered at Rose, “don’t just stand there cringing and flailing! Stomp on them! Fight back!” But she did not: Another rat scrambled up Rose’s skirt as she stumbled down on to one knee.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Rose set her jaw in determination as Mena slashed at a huge rat just short of her hem. “I have never killed a living thing in my life,” said Rose. “I will not start now.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>“Maybe this is an attempt to make you try!” Savina screamed, moving to stand between the rats and Rose. The rats clawed at her legs and skirt and swarmed around her toward Rose, running through the camp’s fire, covering the sides of the little tent. Determined, Savina focused on the swarm, and prayed for Alirria’s aid. It worked. A shaft of light descended on the swarm, immobilizing some and slowing others. But the rats kept coming, and Savina could not reach Rose to heal her. She said a prayer for Tavi, and his energy rebounded.</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Twiggy had little time to wonder why Arden hadn’t yet joined in the fight. She was too busy casting. But she found it difficult to concentrate, and her spells fizzled on her fingers. <em>Too many surprises,</em> she thought, backing toward the little tent. <em>Remember what Mena said. Block them out. Concentrate.</em></em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Suddenly, a loud ripping sound erupted behind her, and she spun to see the point of a short sword tearing heroically through the tent. The sword skewered a large rat, and then another, pulling back to leave their carcasses to roll down the side. As the sword tore through the other side of the tent, slicing at a swarm, Arden rose through the gaps her sword had left. Arden was, most definitely, awake. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>As Arden moved to complete the circle of allies around Rose, a huge rat bit at her ferociously. Mena pulled Arden into the circle, receiving the wound in Arden’s place. As Arden stared in surprise at her rescuer, Rose pulled a vial from her pack and drank a healing potion. It gave her the energy to remain standing, but not much more. Mena saw Rose’s weakness, and knew the allies could not let many more rats penetrate their circle. But there were too many; soon, they would be overcome. Mena yelled: “Pull it together! This ends now!”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>It was Mena’s version of an <em>inspiring word,</em> and somehow, it helped. Twiggy focused her mind on one swarm after another, pushing waves of psychic energy into the center of each. The rats’ movement changed, becoming disoriented. As the rats scratched and scrambled, Mena slashed at them, cutting them deep, and batting them away with the broadside of her sword. Tavi, with a short incantation, released the hilt of his sword, which swung around in a circle like a boomerang, rats flying in all directions from its impact, before returning to his hand. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>And as Twiggy watched, Kormick held the handles of his warhammers together in front of his face, concentrated, and said softly enough that only Twiggy could hear, “Elizabette.” A burst of force exploded from the space between the hammers, like a lake’s worth of water being pushed through a very small pipe. The force and flame seared at the rat swarms as they climbed atop, around, over each other. It obliterated them, turning the ground to red paste. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Twiggy filed that information away. <em>I guess he really did have powers, back before he was expelled from the Academy.</em> But she couldn’t stop to think about who “Elizabette” might be, she told herself. She had to ready herself for more rats. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>But the rats had stopped coming. And as Twiggy surveyed the area, she saw that this was not because the rats were running away, although a few stragglers did so. It was because the rats were dead. Well, not all of them. One remained incapacitated by Twiggy’s <em>sleep</em> spell, until Mena strode over to it and stepped on it, slowly increasing the pressure under her foot until Twiggy heard a “snap.” </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Then silence. It was night again in the forest. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Night, but with what seemed like hundreds of rat carcasses littering their tiny camp. </em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Twiggy stared at her bedroll, marveling at how little time had passed during the fight, but how different she felt now than she had before they’d laid that bedroll out. <em>It’s just like Mena said. No matter how much training you do</em>—and she had trained, first at the Academy, and then with Mena, whenever her responsibilities allowed—<em>it never really prepares you for what you’ll have to face. </em> She wondered if Tavi felt the same way. <em>If he does,</em> she thought, <em>he’d never admit it.</em></em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>A short investigation revealed that the rats had come from all directions; there was no source to follow. Twiggy thought back to her studies: There were stories of those who could rain down evil, or compel people to do something—at the Sorcerers’ Academy, there was a story about a student who figured out how to make everyone on the campus raise their left hand at once—but nothing about a ritual powerful enough to carry out this sort of large-scale animal control. “Who could have done this?” she mused. “No one even knows we’re here.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>“Perhaps this is a warning,” Savina offered, “telling us to stay out of the Ketkath.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>Kormick chuckled, wryly. “Or Kettenek’s version of a hug.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>“If it is a warning,” Mena announced, “it is one we cannot heed. Let us finish our rest there,” she pointed to a bluff, about a hundred feet away, “and set out again in the morning.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>“If we are fortunate,” Kormick offered, “the stench won’t follow us that far.”</em></em></p><p><em><em></em></em></p><p><em><em>They were not so fortunate.</em></em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ellinor, post: 4823496, member: 14561"] [b]2x08[/b] Twiggy felt a jostling against her arm, and stirred awake, muttering to herself. [i]What was that for?[/i] She didn’t need much sleep, but it couldn’t possibly be time for third watch already. The sky was still heavy with dark. The air was cool. Across the camp, Tavi was yelling. “Rose! Mena! Get up!” [i]Ah, not me. Five more minutes.[/i] [color="brown"]No, you. NOOOOOOWWW![/color] [i]What’s wrong, Acorn?[/i] [color="brown"]RAAATS![/color] Twiggy sat up and opened her eyes. Rats were streaming in to the camp, over the bluffs, from all directions. Rats, and huge rats, and roiling piles of snarling rats. Tavi and Savina rushed around the camp, waking the others. Twiggy cringed in horror as the rats rushed toward her, their shiny coats and tiny eyes reflecting the dim moonlight. She froze, disgusted, and braced herself. [i]There’s nothing worse than rats.[/i] But as she felt their rough fur brush against her ankles and the unnervingly soft flicks of their tails against her shins and knees, she realized that there was something worse. They were rushing past her, straight for Rose. They were [i]all[/i] heading straight for Rose. Rose, who was still just barely awake. Savina screamed. [color="brown"]Nonononononononono . . .[/color] came the voice inside Twiggy’s head. Twiggy tried to collect her thoughts. [i]Mama Rossi always kept a light on in the kitchen to keep the rats out. Rats are nocturnal. Rats don’t like light.[i] Learning to make light was one of the first spells she had learned. She cast, and the area lit up, as if the moon hung just above their camp. [i]Easy.[/i] But all that did was to make the horror of the scene easier to see. The rats continued to swarm, just as before. Kormick arose next to his bedroll, a crossbow in each hand. Even moments after awakening, he stood with the confident and menacing air of . . . one accustomed to holding a crossbow in each hand. “These are some very strange rats,” he proclaimed, firing two shots at once. [i]As if I didn’t already know that.[/i] Twiggy could do nothing but watch as the first rats reached Rose and started to climb her dress, biting and scratching. As Rose beat at her skirts, trying to shake them off, Twiggy thought back to their lifetime together. She had seen Rose in every kind of situation, but had never seen her lose her tight grip on her emotions. [i]I’ve seen Rose at her best and her worst,[/i] Twiggy thought, [i]but I’ve never seen Rose look helpless before.[/i] It wasn’t a comforting thought. Rose was famously calm and collected. Helpless seemed [i]wrong[/i] on her. But it was galvanizing, too. [i]I never want to feel as helpless as Rose looks right now,[/i] Twiggy thought. A knotted mass of rats was approaching Rose from behind the tent. Twiggy cast about for something that would stop them. [i]Sleep.[/i] She concentrated and cast, focusing on the center of the mass. [i]Let’s hope this works on rats.[/i] It did, but not as well as she had hoped—A few rats were stilled, but others just climbed over them, undeterred. Mena was up, and moving to protect Rose. As she strode across the camp, she slashed at the rats with her blade, stabbing, slicing, and batting them away. But she could only hit one rat at a time, and there seemed to be hundreds of them. “Gather up around Rose!” she hollered. “Rose needs our help!” Tavi was already on his way, wielding his sword with protective rage. Its blade glowed with green flame, scorching every rat he hit. The acrid, ferric smell of burning fur and blood began to surround them. But the rats continued to scratch and bite at Rose, her dress now torn and bloody. They attacked Tavi, too, with claws and teeth, as they struggled to stream past him and attack his sister. Kormick moved into a protective position and traded his crossbows for warhammers, swinging at the moving ground with both hands. “Young lady!” he hollered at Rose, “don’t just stand there cringing and flailing! Stomp on them! Fight back!” But she did not: Another rat scrambled up Rose’s skirt as she stumbled down on to one knee. Rose set her jaw in determination as Mena slashed at a huge rat just short of her hem. “I have never killed a living thing in my life,” said Rose. “I will not start now.” “Maybe this is an attempt to make you try!” Savina screamed, moving to stand between the rats and Rose. The rats clawed at her legs and skirt and swarmed around her toward Rose, running through the camp’s fire, covering the sides of the little tent. Determined, Savina focused on the swarm, and prayed for Alirria’s aid. It worked. A shaft of light descended on the swarm, immobilizing some and slowing others. But the rats kept coming, and Savina could not reach Rose to heal her. She said a prayer for Tavi, and his energy rebounded. Twiggy had little time to wonder why Arden hadn’t yet joined in the fight. She was too busy casting. But she found it difficult to concentrate, and her spells fizzled on her fingers. [i]Too many surprises,[/i] she thought, backing toward the little tent. [i]Remember what Mena said. Block them out. Concentrate.[/i] Suddenly, a loud ripping sound erupted behind her, and she spun to see the point of a short sword tearing heroically through the tent. The sword skewered a large rat, and then another, pulling back to leave their carcasses to roll down the side. As the sword tore through the other side of the tent, slicing at a swarm, Arden rose through the gaps her sword had left. Arden was, most definitely, awake. As Arden moved to complete the circle of allies around Rose, a huge rat bit at her ferociously. Mena pulled Arden into the circle, receiving the wound in Arden’s place. As Arden stared in surprise at her rescuer, Rose pulled a vial from her pack and drank a healing potion. It gave her the energy to remain standing, but not much more. Mena saw Rose’s weakness, and knew the allies could not let many more rats penetrate their circle. But there were too many; soon, they would be overcome. Mena yelled: “Pull it together! This ends now!” It was Mena’s version of an [i]inspiring word,[/i] and somehow, it helped. Twiggy focused her mind on one swarm after another, pushing waves of psychic energy into the center of each. The rats’ movement changed, becoming disoriented. As the rats scratched and scrambled, Mena slashed at them, cutting them deep, and batting them away with the broadside of her sword. Tavi, with a short incantation, released the hilt of his sword, which swung around in a circle like a boomerang, rats flying in all directions from its impact, before returning to his hand. And as Twiggy watched, Kormick held the handles of his warhammers together in front of his face, concentrated, and said softly enough that only Twiggy could hear, “Elizabette.” A burst of force exploded from the space between the hammers, like a lake’s worth of water being pushed through a very small pipe. The force and flame seared at the rat swarms as they climbed atop, around, over each other. It obliterated them, turning the ground to red paste. Twiggy filed that information away. [i]I guess he really did have powers, back before he was expelled from the Academy.[/i] But she couldn’t stop to think about who “Elizabette” might be, she told herself. She had to ready herself for more rats. But the rats had stopped coming. And as Twiggy surveyed the area, she saw that this was not because the rats were running away, although a few stragglers did so. It was because the rats were dead. Well, not all of them. One remained incapacitated by Twiggy’s [i]sleep[/i] spell, until Mena strode over to it and stepped on it, slowly increasing the pressure under her foot until Twiggy heard a “snap.” Then silence. It was night again in the forest. Night, but with what seemed like hundreds of rat carcasses littering their tiny camp. Twiggy stared at her bedroll, marveling at how little time had passed during the fight, but how different she felt now than she had before they’d laid that bedroll out. [i]It’s just like Mena said. No matter how much training you do[/i]—and she had trained, first at the Academy, and then with Mena, whenever her responsibilities allowed—[i]it never really prepares you for what you’ll have to face. [/i] She wondered if Tavi felt the same way. [i]If he does,[/i] she thought, [i]he’d never admit it.[/i] A short investigation revealed that the rats had come from all directions; there was no source to follow. Twiggy thought back to her studies: There were stories of those who could rain down evil, or compel people to do something—at the Sorcerers’ Academy, there was a story about a student who figured out how to make everyone on the campus raise their left hand at once—but nothing about a ritual powerful enough to carry out this sort of large-scale animal control. “Who could have done this?” she mused. “No one even knows we’re here.” “Perhaps this is a warning,” Savina offered, “telling us to stay out of the Ketkath.” Kormick chuckled, wryly. “Or Kettenek’s version of a hug.” “If it is a warning,” Mena announced, “it is one we cannot heed. Let us finish our rest there,” she pointed to a bluff, about a hundred feet away, “and set out again in the morning.” “If we are fortunate,” Kormick offered, “the stench won’t follow us that far.” They were not so fortunate.[/i][/i] [/QUOTE]
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A Rose In The Wind: A Saga of the Halmae -- Updated June 19, 2014
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