The night air is chill, but the wind doesn't blow, leaving clouds to hang low and heavy overhead. Between the blackness are clusters of stars and the occasional beams of the moon that shimmer like beetles crawling over the water. It's high tide now, and as the waves crash and slide gently up the shore they cover what could've been footprints; who, what, and why are lost to the whims of the ocean.
Dotted with globs of seaweed, sand rough and choppy as stormwaters, the beach appears strangely messier than usual. It's also nearly empty. Is it the unfriendly sands, the threat of rain, or is it something else entirely?
Only tenaciousgadabout, Kimbley Kitty, and ImaginationsParadise may post in this growth. Please quote the mule if you need assistance or when you're finished!
tenaciousgadabout
Kimbley Kitty
ImaginationsParadise
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 10:22 pm
Along the road walks a battered man, With tattered jacket and tattered hands, His matters are scattered, oaths will disband, He’ll never go back home again.
His hand is steady, his aim is true, His shot flies quick, it goes straight through, Only words fired, no weapons drew, It’s only their love that he slew.
His blood still flows, though not untouched, His body safe, his mind not such, His soul will gasp, it’s chest will clutch, Never again to speak as much.
No word is uttered to beast or men, Only a thought comes now and then, He thinks only of how and when, He’ll ever get back home again.
The sun had gone down a short time ago. The yellowblood had made his way to the beaches of Civisect with The Spirit from his camp a short distance away. Polair had sent him word about a strange varmint what had been tearin’ up the coastline and more shallow portions of the ocean. He of course took the contract, but given the vague description of the beast he’d called in some back-up to account for the alleged size of it. Leeroi had been a great help during the building of the Space Ladder, and he’d been the first to come to mind in fighting this beast. Buffel waited along the beach at the designated meeting place where it had last been reported that the creature was seen. As the sun’s dim light faded entirely behind the horizon, Buffel noted the stars coming into view. Soon it’d be optimal time to go searching up the beaches for this thing. The Spirit sensed the slight shiver in the boy’s hand and licked it. It wasn’t usual for him to stick so close during a quiet moment, which worried the child a bit. Hopefully they’d get this over with quickly!
Kimbley Kitty
Ready when you are!
ImaginationsParadise
tenaciousgadabout
Offline
zeflamigo
Interstellar Astronaut
Offline
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 9:26 am
Leeroi spotted the yellowblood, and ran up beside him to ruffle his hair. He had to admit he was excited about someone requesting his services, aside from robotics care. This tyke needed extra muscle, and Leeroi was happy to oblige.
"Sup, little dude," Leeroi addressed Buffel. The kid looked worried, so he'd try to calm his nerves. "Thanks for bringing me on board," he smiled, patting Buffel's head. Quickly, he surveyed the empty beach. Was Civisect always a dump like this? Leeroi assumed as much. This city just kept seeing hell no matter how hard the seadwellers tried to gussy it up.
tenaciousGadabout
ImaginationsParadise
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 7:38 pm
Being too curious was a bad thing. Polair didn't acknowledged this, which got her in tight situations most of the times-- One of the reasons she was left blinded. That and emotional responses. Somehow she needed to stop wanting to know the things that happened around her, but how could she stop?
That beast tearing up the peace in Civisect's waters... that was overfeeding her curious nature. Of course the highblood set out to look for it on her own. Herbal lures didn't seem to work on it, and it seemed too smart for her traps. It wasn't until she sent in a drone to check out one of her underwater vivariums that she found herself too vulnerable against it. The drone didn't return, she sent another and got reports that her vivarium had been smashes to bits. The missing drone?
Dead, they were dead as well as the small critters and plant specimens she kept there. Few nights after and their encounter rate increased. More trolls injured, whether in the shore or under the sea. Ocean hives where being attacked a few times. Even her spare hive near the shore had weird teeth marks on the glass... And whatever the ocean currents took possession of, reflected that this situation wasn't pretty. What ever that was, it had to be big and dangerous. The highblood knew Buffel offer his services to everyone, and tracking creatures was one of them. He could help her solve this problem. Though it was harder than it looked. Polair only relied on what she heard. She had no idea how it looked like, or its size, or if it was just one big school of fish devouring everything. She couldn't tell him that, Buffel couldn't find out about that blind factor.
Polair swam through the shallow waters, and onto the shore as cautious as she could be. There was no way she would attract that thing on her own and she couldn't let it know just how scared she was at the moment. Polair clutched oh her bag as she swam as quick as she could, hiding behind reefs occasionally when she felt something approach her. She had her weapon, few sharp objects, chemicals, and bottled animals to serve as lures on her, just in case they needed something... meatier to attract it. Reaching the surface, she used her echolocation bracelets to navigate her way to their meet up location. Feeling the rough sand on her feet made her hypothesize it had made its way to the shoreline once more to feed. The very thought of it made her skin crawl.
She had to stop thinking about it. She had to calm down and-- There he was! Probably. There was someone else there, and that small figure the metal picked up had to be her yellowblooded friend. The seadweller approached the pair with her hands on her back. No smile and thick bangs covering her eyes, as always. "Greetings, and thank you for your patience." She reverenced. "Had to take the long route to get here. I hope you didn't have any problems getting here, it's not really safe." Even if they all tried their best to cover it up.
"I assume you are well informed about the task at hand, if not I'll be happy to remind you." This was serious business after all, so she made it clear with her tone and body language. Though after they defeated the thing and she obtained her prize, they'd definitely had to catch up. "Buffel, do you have everything you need? I'm assuming you do as I did specify this was no easy task."
Maybe Polair was being a bit rough to her friend. "Sorry, I'm being..." She sighed not really knowing what to say. "...I'm just..." Scared. She tried to shake off the feeling for now, it was a useless emotional response by her part. But why was it so hard to admit that?
"I'm glad you're willing to help me out. Rest assure that you will get your pay." Every beetle, and even more if they managed to capture it alive."Who's this?" She said, directing her "gaze" at Leeroi.
Buffel laughed as he fixed his hair from Leeroi’s mussin’. He tried to put on a brave face but wasn’t sure if it was working. Still, Leeroi’s presence definitely put him more at ease. He may have gotten a bit taller, but he had a long way to go before reaching Leeroi’s level. But the boy was lucky, and he knew it. This’d be quite literally a day at the beach, right? ”Any time Leeroi, I’m glad to have ya here for the muscle! From the sounds of it this thing’s gonna be massive!” Buffel looked around at the shoreline now. Some beachfront hives had seen better days and the sand had dips and hills that were very uncharacteristic next to the gentle waves. Amphibious, huh?, the yellowblood mused. He counted it a blessing that Pol could help out on that front. And speaking of, she’d breached the top of the water just then, wading closer to the duo.”Howdy, Pol! Pleasure to see ya!” he yelled. As she exchanged pleasures and asked about his prep work, Buffel knelt down and began rifling through his pack. ”Don’t think nothin’ of it, anybody’d be shook withall what’s been happenin’ ‘round here. I’m sure prepped though, don’t worry! Got some reinforced rope fer a bigg’n like this critter seems to be, full stock of ammo ‘n’ powder, got supplies for a fire bottle and a torch too if this thing don’t take to fire too well.” Hopefully she bought his brave face at least. Upon her questioning of Leeroi, he stood up quickly. ”Oh that’s right! Where are my manners? This fine gentleman here is Leeroi, he worked with me in the space tower and he’s lendin’ a helping hand to us on this fine day on account o’ his bein’ built like an oxenbeast.”
Kimbley Kitty
Introduce yerself, ya big lug!
ImaginationsParadise
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 12:50 pm
A seadweller. Leeroi looked over Polair with stern eyes, making no attempt to hide his stony frown. Even if this seadweller was a friend of Buffel's, and by all means acting very kind, Leeroi couldn't shake his judgement. He continued to regard Polair with a careful watch, folding his arms as the other two spoke.
Leeroi wasn’t the smartest troll, but he quickly understood this wasn’t just some professional gig. Buffel and Polair seemed to already have some sort of friendly relationship, though Leeroi couldn’t put a finger on it. Either way, this seadweller wasn’t talking down to Buffel in any sense. This was a luxury even Leeroi, as a blueblood, was hardly afforded.
Buffel’s compliments just barely snapped him out of his thoughts. Back at attention, he grinned at Polair, all teeth, hands confidently posed at his sides. “Leeroi Furore, at your service!” he introduced himself. His robot arm made a definite clang as he offered a half-salute to the seadweller.
“I’m not like the rest, you know this. I don't get scared, I’m not frightened of a loose creature and I’m certainly not worried. You're here and I trust you and your decisions. Give me an order and I will follow it without hesitation, therefore there’s nothing I should be concerned about.” Polair reassured. Of course the seadweller tried her best to look as she wasn’t anxious. She didn’t want to worry Buffel to the point of him letting her out of the action. There was no way, she wouldn't allow it.
“Just making it clear that I want resolve the issue as soon as possible and wish to get the chance to study it. After all, we know how all these wild interspecies must be observed-- for the sake of science of course.” At least he seemed well prepared for whatever it was to come. Which guaranteed she would capture the beast. That eased the pressure slightly, both supplies combined and having three trolls tracking down the beast, would be easier. It seemed like a smart move to bring Leeroi along, it meant the blueblood was competent enough and like she said before, she trusted his decisions. The seadweller slightly bowed at Leeroi and placed her hands on her back.
"Pleasure to meet--" Polair tensed up as the robotic arm's clang was heard. The seadweller felt a sudden, unbearable headache and brought her hand up to the side of her head. She breathed out and tried her best to regain her composure.
The downside of her bracelets was the constant interference of sound waves. Was it because they were small pellets encrusted into a precious metal or was the metal itself unstable? Whatever the reason was, it tortured her. Every now and then certain sounds clashed with the echoes they produced, making the sound waves combine with each other as they underwent constructive interference. The sounds raised their amplitude, becoming much larger than the amplitude of each individual waves, which resulted on having both waves reverberate inside her system. It wasn't until they slowly faded out that she would stop feeling slight pain or discomfort, depending on the frequency.
She cleared her throat, ran her fingers through her hair as the headache ceased. Remain calm, remain calm… Became her mantra these days. "I-it's a pleasure to meet you Leeroi. Polair Rision, glad to have you here as well." She nodded.
“Let’s get to business, I have tracked down beasts in the past but this one… seems to over-smart those with high cognitive processes. Therefore only a troll who has dealt with beasts more, should be able to over-smart it.” Polair wasn’t at all interested in leading, she just wanted her new specimen. “We could split up to cover more ground, but by the thing's I've heard about, it’s dangerous to encounter it one on one. It’d be a risk.” She said as a matter of fact.
“We know this was the last place the beast had been seen. There are three possible ways it could have wandered off to. I have a map that you can use in case you think it could've gone somewhere else.” She rummaged through her bag and handed it over to Leeroi-- presumably.
“I think it could’ve gone west from here as avians, aquatic craniate, and amphibians often prefer to breed on the west side. That applies if it’s still looking for a meal of course. It could’ve also gone east to rest, that’s deduction number two. Last but not least, it could’ve gone back to the water.” There, she gave her contributions to the team.
“What do you think we should do Buffel?” Polair asked her friend. “You’re skillful at this, are you not?”
tenaciousgadabout
no pressure buffel you can find it in a lickety-split absolutely no pressure
Kimbley Kitty
she talks too much im sorry
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:40 pm
”Hmmm… Well, I got a mind to do a lot o’ things, but let’s take stock o’ yer options first.” The Spirit had wandered during introductions, now pawing at the lapping waves of the seafront. Buffel took a brief survey of the beach. Not the beast’s tracks, but a firm lay o’ the land itself. High tide, sky somewhat cloudy. The boy didn’t need to lick his finger to feel the somewhat rough winds. The air was bustlin’ by now, and comin’ from out at sea up towards the direction of the land. Just lookin’ out at the horizon had the yellowblood’s hair blowin’ back. Nodding thoughtfully, he grabbed Polair to come over to the map by Leeroi. She’d been growing her hair out, and her eyes weren’t visible anymore. He wondered how in the heck she could see through ‘em. He missed ‘em a bit.
”Alright, here’s what I reckon. On the west side,” he began, pointing at the western portion of the map. ”I believe that yer correct on the breedin’ ground bein’ a viable option it’d go to. However, we gotta take into account the affect o’ the tides on the sealife below. The whole reason that miscreant showed up here was likely on account o’ high tide. Fish ain’t fightin’ the current s’ much, they go where the water goes unless somethin’ otherwise spooks ‘em some, say some rampagin’ beastie. And even if that were the case, the incomin’ seabreeze’d prevent ‘em from makin’ much headway in any direction other ‘n beachin’ themselves with the incomin’ tides.”
Buffel moved his finger over to the east, pointing towards the cove over yonder. The Spirit took the opportunity to interrupt his deductions with some growling at the clawbeasts and nettles in the brush. The sea-wingbeasts also cawed and squawked as they flew overhead. Buffel pressed on through the distractions.
”The east is ruled out for similar reasons. Fishin’ taught me fish either swim high with the current, or low with the undercurrent. If it were tired, it’d likely not be in a state to wanna be fightin’ no wind curls.” Buffel paused. He’d just given himself a thought.
”Somethin’ just occured to me that hadn’t occured afore my comment about the undercurrent. This creature, large though it may be, is likely not altogether in the habit of beachin’ itself so voraciously. So that leads to the question of why it’s doin’ so now.” Buffel looked up at the sky, watching the clouds roll over.
”I agree with your third assertion, Pol. I think the beast did go out to sea, and I think it took the undercurrent to do so. But I also reckon- !!” Buffel was cut off again by The Spirit now upgrading to outright barking. A tremor had started, and the water was growing choppier than before. The wingbeasts had vacated the area by now. Emerging from the water was a mass of coarse, mangled, white fur with two bumped, sloping horns. As water poured off the creature, The Spirit stood before it, teeth bared. Large purple eyes grew from the sides of its face, both aimed squarely in the tricksy howlbeast's direction.
”-I also reckon that it’s been doin’ that to swing back on the high tide current ‘n’ get beached!!” Buffel flung his sarape high with a quick draw of his gun and made to charge the beast.
”No time for plannin’ now, let’s git the varmint before we get got!”
Kimbley Kitty
TAAAAAG! Sorry for springing all this on ya, trying to get this boy grown quick!
2 2d6. hits with +1 to accuracy to each on this attack, 1x per battle*. *roll 4d6, first two numbers are the 'hit or miss' determiners, second two are the damage done.
The tremors and the squawking wingbeasts messed up with her sonar bracelets giving the highblood a sharp pain in the head. Upon the beast's sudden arrival Polair tensed up, feeling rather small and insignificant compared to the large beast. Her breathing pattern quickened as she slowly realized that one wrong move could result in a disastrous result. She was still developing her senses to confront a creature such as this, but she was sure she wasn't going to end up as its meal for the night-- neither of them were. So, after hearing Buffel charge into battle, she immediately thought he could be done for. She needed to prevent this. "NO!"
Was he out of his mind or wanted a sure death? They needed a plan, he needed to stay safe or else he'd get hurt and that was the last thing she wanted. She reached for her staff strapped on her back. One palm up, one palm down, but with only a fist length of space in between her two hands, Polair spun her staff before running towards the beast-- all in hopes she would approach it first.
"GET AWAY!" The highblood screamed. With a leap, she brought up her front knee. Polair drew back the bo staff all the way in a straight line behind her, then stepped out into a deep long front stance and promptly thrusted the tip of the staff into her target.
tenaciousgadabout
boops
Kimbley Kitty
boops
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:25 pm
Leeroi played third wheel between Buffel and Polair just fine. He grumbled about it, sure, but he took the map and didn't hog it. It seemed like the other two had a better grasp on hunting beach monsters anyways. Up in Busthind you could stumble around and happen upon a monster. It was remote like that. No fancy fish houses to worry about. He liked that about his hometown.
The tremors pulled Leeroi's attention away from the map. His attention quickly fell over the massive beast pulling itself out of the water.
"Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Look at that ******** beauty!" Leeroi yelled, absolutely giddy, pumping his fists in the air before reaching back for his shotgun. He cocked it back to shoot, just as Buffel rushed in front of him.
"Kid, what the ******** are you doing! You've got a gun!" Leeroi barked at Buffel. He ran forward, trying to grab him by the nape of his poncho.
The yellowblood charged the beast, sprinting full-tilt towards The Spirit. His mind went back to the moment with the scientist in the Space Tower. The night The Spirit lost his eye. Running against the sand was not an easy feat, but the boy had to go with the hand he was dealt. He heard Polair scream as he charged forward. He didn’t register the sound though, as The Spirit was currently strafing around the menacing thrashes of the beasts cloven hooves, pounding the surf with terrifyingly impactful blows. Polair was already upon the beast, giving it a powerful thrust with her staff. Buffel focused less on his pace and steadied his run as he drew his pistol. Behind him, Leeroi shouted some admonishments, not too keen on the idea of him runnin’ into the thick of it when he was mostly a long-range fighter, specifically the need to when he had his gun at the ready. He brought up his firearm as he responded,”I know I got a gun, but-”
The bullet fired. Soaring through the kicked up surf and sand, the bullet just narrowly grazed the beast’s side. Barely a mark, but blood still began to trickle from it and it’s eyes turned to him for just a moment.
”I can’t do much if I’m too far away to hit it!”
He pulled his lasso from his hip, prepped to gain a leg-up (literally) on the monstrosity. The Spirit of the West darted back as the beast reared upwards, slipping under it in the opposite direction, evidently intent on tripping it up. As he did so, his head swivelled towards Buffel and his loud barks of dismissiveness were aimed at the boy. But they fell on deaf ears. The gunslinger waited for a moment to reach the lasso to the creature’s leg. He’d given it a wide enough birth to loop one, as there was no conceivable way he could throw it high enough to nab the head of the varmint. As the creature reared, he gave it a firm toss, waiting for it to go as far up it’s leg as it seemed it would. It smashed the hoof to the ground and he pulled as hard as he could, giving it a firm tug to secure it. He saw it’s head arch backward again to pull the legs up and kicked off the ground, set to climb up on top of the thing and really get some damage in before anyone got hurt.
The Spirit’s movement pattern was more erratic than before, now circling just under where Buffel had begun climbing up and barking loudly in distress after his charge.
2 2d6. hits with +1 to accuracy to each on this attack, 1x per battle*. *roll 4d6, first two numbers are the 'hit or miss' determiners, second two are the damage done.
Polair continued to bash her staff on the beast as hard as she could, trying her best not to lose her calm demeanor in this situation. Creatures like these smelled fear, as was hypothesized by her lusus, and he was a predator. The seadweller couldn’t let it know that she hadn’t had a clue of what to do, which led her to a panicking state of mind. The shot, the barking, the yelling and screeching… it all made her heart pound faster, her head spin. It wouldn’t take long for the situation to get the best of her.
“DON’T COME CLOSER.” Her voice was stern. This wasn’t a joking matter, they couldn’t possibly take on it head on. The best she could do, was fend it off to sea, even if it took her with it. “JUST GO.”
Honestly, she wasn’t expecting Buffel to climb his way up the beast, nor she could witness it with blinded eyes. The purpleblood hoped he just did what she said. Though his strong sense of helping out gave her a sinking feeling. Using her sonar bracelets to make sure, she hadn't been pounding on the sandy terrain for a while. Just then, an unidentified climbing object was registered. “What is tha-”
That let her in the open, as the beast took the opportunity to slam its tail at the distracted highblood. Her body impacted roughly against the sand. Feeling something lunge towards her, Polair rolled quickly to the side to avoid being trampled to death by the beast’s hooves. Where was her staff? Not far away. But again, being blinded made it harder. She scrambled across the ground searching for her weapon frantically. “Where is it, where is it?!”
Leeroi pressed a hand to his brow, brushing back his hair with a wide eyed, tight-lipped expression. Just what the ******** was this kid planning? What kind of help was he supposed to be if he couldn't shoot this monster with a kid on its back? And the purpleblood, whatever she was trying to accomplish looked like a mess as well. A whole plan gone to s**t, and Leeroi could only watch through gritted teeth.
To shoot his shotgun surely meant getting the kid caught up in crossfire. He supposed he could still hit it with brute force. Charging in, Leeroi tried to find a good angle to hit this monster. Really, he wanted to find a good spot to catch this yellowblood when he inevitably got bucked off the thing's back.
The yellowblood clung tightly to the sopping wet fur of the beast. He used all his might to get higher up the creature. No more, he thought to himself. No more people gettin’ hurt protectin’ me. He reached the rough, boney spine of the creature and looked out. Leeroi seemed frustrated. He couldn’t aim at the creature with Buffel on its back. What a stupid idea of his to get within the highblood’s line of fire, what was he thinking?! Trying to act quickly, he yelled down, ”Pol, get back fer a moment so Leeroi can have a shot!!” He gave an overconfident thumbs up as he slid back to the opposite side of the beast, facing the ocean.
Ain’t no way this thing’s not tough enough for bullets to go straight through both sides of it. He could feel the tough hide under the creature’s fur as he clambered up its long neck. It knew he was there, trashing left and right in an attempt to get him off. It was stamping wildly now, jerking left and right. Down below, The Spirit was in practical hysterics, jumping back and forth. His barking continued still, growing hoarse and ending with distressed whimpers. Seeing that his child couldn’t hear him any longer, he decided to find other methods of helping him. Waiting for a chance, The Spirit watch as the next leg came down. Positioning himself behind the creature’s leg, The Spirit waited for the impact and then leapt onto the creature’s ankle, sinking his teeth deep into the thick hide. An ear-splitting noise erupted from the mouth of the creature.
Buffel pulled one arm to his ear and positioned his head against the arm still clinging to the beast, trying to drown out the noise. If he could just get closer to its eyes, he was sure he wouldn’t miss at point blank range. He wouldn’t miss this time. As the scream died down, he made his way further up the neck. The sopping wet fur became more of an issue as he climbed and the ability to maintain grasp grew more arduous as he grasped further and further towards the thrashing head.
Spirit was latched on tightly to the creature as it stamped up and down. It’s shriek subsided, it began to move downward, towards the source of the pain. Teeth clamped, Spirit’s eyes, one damaged and one whole, looked up at the monster. It bared its enormous fangs at him. A mixture of rain and saliva beaded down on the howlbeast, but he held firm.
Buffel was nearing the head now, excited at the prospect of destroying the creature and putting an end to its terror. The creature then lunged down suddenly, towards its feet.
”What in th-!?”
Buffel was knocked up ‘n’ over where his grip held him, flipping onto his back and disorienting him. He tried to gain his composure over the haze and figure out what just happened. The creature suddenly reared back again. From his current placement, the flip backwards through the yellowblood violent back to his stomach again, knocking the wind out of him. As he wheezed hard and opened his eyes and looked upwards, the dark shadowed silhouette of the creature’s head above him and...something else. Suddenly, his whole world stopped.
In the air, flung high above the gnashing maw of the beast, a blood seeping from a now massive gash in his torso, his lusus’ limp body kissed the sky before beginning to drop directly into the fanged shrieking mouth beneath him.
”NOOOOOOOOOooooo!!!! NO NO NO DON’T YOU DARE!!!” The boy let out a shrill cry, his voice cracking from the force behind it. He drew his pistol immediately, aiming the but into the creature’s hide. He knew it was worthless, but he still pulled the trigger several times. An empty clicking was the only response. The gunpowder was soaked by now, there was no point. Not even thinking, he tossed his gun aside. It fell into the ocean below, disappearing into the waves. He stood, wobbling as he could, and ran haphazardly up the creature’s now descending neck. He slipped as he reached the base of it’s skull, landing on his back with a painful thud in between its horns. With no foothold, he began slipping down the brow of the creature. He reached in his boot, grasping for his knife. It was in the hold made for it on the inner side of the right boot. Still there. Pulling it out, he made a violent stab as close to its eye as he could to stop his descent. It collided with a lighter part of the hide and sunk in. He gripped the handle and turned himself around, now facing its eye. The eye couldn’t quite affix on him, but he could tell he was in its peripheral.
”YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM, I WON’T LET YOU!!!”
Tears gushing from the boys eyes, he pulled the knife out and stabbed violently at the hide as he moved closer to its left eye. The same one The Spirit had lost. It was only fair.
”LET HIM OUT, DROP HIM YOU MONSTER!! LET HIM GO RIGHT NOW!!”
His throat was hoarse and every word caused him to wince in pain. His hand was bleeding, though he didn’t know how or for how long. He was now next to the eye, the pupil dilating as it focused on the yellowblood so close to it. He brought the dagger up and shoved it into the black void of the pupil with all the strength he could muster. The wet gushing sound he heard next was quickly overwhelmed by another deafening screech.
The creature’s head thrashed wildly, bucking the boy backwards from where he stood and he tumbled towards its mouth. He tumbled over its now upward facing nose and slammed hard on it’s sharp, slippery fangs. The creature swung its head downward, trying to flip him in. Buffel helplessly flopped in, grabbing a fang as best he could with his left arm. His palm stung and he knew he was still cut there. He’d give anything to stop that pain that was weakening his grip. He looked below to what was surely his tomb and the one of his lusus as well. To his surprise, clamped with all his might on the inner cheek of the beast was The Spirit of the West. The boy’s eyes blurred as he reached his arm down towards him, his voice a shrill, grated whine at this point.
”S-Spirit, come on!! We gotta get out of here, let’s go!! We can make it!!”
The Spirit looked intently at his charge, their eyes locked as both whipped side to side, clinging for dear life. Spirit released his sharp grip on the cheek of the beast and nodded to Buffel. He pushed off from the side and jumped to the tongue of the beast, clawing and biting wildly as it thrashed in abject torment. The boy was flung upward, still grabbing tightly to the teeth he had been. The Spirit barked towards his charge as the boy looked over the edge, desperate to see the howlbeast charging up out of the creature. Instead, the tongue thrashed side to side and the teeth gnashed furiously.
The Spirit’s bark was cut short.The boy screamed.
He begged and pleaded and sobbed, furiously punching the creature’s gums and mouth and face.
He yelled and cursed and when he saw a flash of white fur in the black void below, he reached his arm helplessly down into the creature again. It’s teeth clamped down, and the boy could no longer feel below his elbow.
He saw a stream of yellow burst forth as his vision grew hazy. His grip was loosened in his right hand and he felt himself be thrown violently through the air. He thought he heard screaming, and an image of Polair flickered in his mind. The dark tan blur grew bigger as he soared towards the ground. He smashed into sand at an incredible speed, immediately losing consciousness. His last thought before impact was his own voice, a soft whisper.
Spirit...
…
…
…
He heard buzzing noise. They sounded familiar. They sounded like the ones in Flydra’s lab. Like the ones he heard in the tent where he and Polair fell asleep holding hands, right after the Space Tower incident. He was blinking, he thought, and slowly a bright light from the ceiling met his eyes. He shielded his face with his arm.
What rose up to block the light was not his arm, but it did look very similar.
ImaginationsParadise
Phew, this was a big one! We're closing up this tag soon enough!!
Kimbley Kitty
Battle itself is over, yuo guys can decide what happened after Buffel went lights out or talk to me about what went down after! Thanks so much for hleping me with this important part of his story, we're almost at the finish line!!
Polair scrambled on wet sand searching for her weapon frantically. This couldn't be happening, this wasn't even within her possible hypothesized variables. She didn't know what was happening, the highblood couldn't even think of what to do with all the noise. How much times did she try to prevent the storm from coming— even when she knew she couldn't? Claud had said it, she couldn't face off with a beast this dangerous because she didn't even know what she would deal with in the first place. She wasted time and energy hoping their mission would end with the most possible results they could manage to obtain, because Polair couldn't admit how she doubted on her ability to deal with hardships.
From a distance she heard Buffel's request, her sonars picked up his location and immediately felt panic. What. Was. He. Doing? What was he thinking? Was he even thinking? Finally getting her hands on her staff, Polair quickly approached the creature in hopes to hit it again.
She opened her mouth to scream at the yellowblood to climb down, to get away as far as possible from the beast but was cut short when a loud shrill rang in her spongeclots. The seadweller was stunned in place, her body shook as she screamed with all her might, pulling on her hair as the painful frequency was the only thing she could hear. The high intensity sound disturbed her stimulus system and brain. Polair felt very dizzy and nauseous, and finally lost her balance when the loud cries became stronger. What was all that noise?
Polair managed to yank off one of her sonars and tried to do the same with the others. They only kept the loud noise in her system this long, even after it had died down slightly. She couldn’t process anything, her brain felt overloaded with sensory data and didn’t allow her to think clearly. Polair covered her ears to close out the sounds, the voices… Everything bothered.
Another dreadful and stress-filled scream reached Polair. The screams would echo through her body and reverberate against her eardrums until her mind would fracture. The purpleblood’s hands remained in place as her skin crawl. She could only heard and saw nothing, she couldn't interpret what was even happening. She was pushed to the side with force. The highblood rolled through the sand-- only to assumed the creature had done that.
“STOP IT.” She yelled, contributing more to her headache, hoping and only hoping the sounds would be drowned soon. “STOP IT NOW.” She yelled, louder this time. Again the highblood attempted to hit the creature, only relying on more primal instincts than anything else. It was going to kill them- it was going to kill Buffel and she wasn’t allowing it, no. Water splashed, hits and blows landed partially as she swam after it. There was just no way it’d get away. Even if she wasn’t thinking straight.
I'll protect you. I'll stand by you if anything happens…
The highblood heard a loud thud. Something collided with the ground near her. The creature had been fended off but she couldn’t understand what had dropped. She had the urge to swim after the creature but her curious mind wanted to know what was left. A pulse was sent through the direction the beast took off. Nothing… But it sure smelled like blood nearby. With a shaky and cut covered hand Polair used her sonar. Only to receive more pain and static? How was that even possible? Whatever was near her seemed somewhat immobile but she couldn’t help but think why did her sonars seem to produce some visual snow.
With heavy breaths, she approached the immobile object and reached out to it and gasped when she noticed who this was.
More than a few moments after, Polair came back to reality, noticing she had dozed off after they took Buffel for medical treatment. The how they got there was a blur to the highblood, as she was overwhelmed the whole time. The highblood didn’t utter a word as she couldn’t stop her racing mind. She could still remember how she clutched the limp body that was thrown by the beast, how she did her best not to cry-- thinking how this was all her fault. She could have prevented this if she could still see. Polair didn’t want to know about the injuries. She only cared to know the probabilities of Buffel waking up.
The seadweller didn’t have her sonars on, thinking if they picked up the beeping, it would drive her mad-- it was starting to. How many times had she promised herself she wouldn’t hear that annoying noise again? Plenty of time during the aftermath of the Space Race. There she was, sitting in total silence next to him waiting… not sure for what. Was she waiting for Leeroi to come back and break it to her that he’d never wake from his slumber? Maybe… she was mentally preparing herself for it. Both hands rested on her knees while she breathed in, paused, and breathed out.
One... two... one... two… She whispered, calming herself down. Repeating that pattern over again stopped her mind from thinking about past moments and possible future outcomes. The silence was becoming painful, but if she endured it long enough, she’d be herself again. Right? Polair looked to her left, wondering how was he-- trying to picture his current state to no avail.
“Please be ok.” She sighed out softly. “I'll be here for you, for as long as it takes; you know this already, so please…”
One... two... Inhale... Exhale... She whispered again, this time waving out of her mantra and pondering whether or not to hold his hand. Was it rude? She didn’t really know and she wasn’t in the position to ask. While she had debated to do so Buffel had begun to regain some consciousness. Even so ,she cautiously poked his right hand before placing her hand over his. Polair shifted to a comfortable position in her seat before holding his hand, expecting a tug at least-- some form of resistance.
That was something she’d do, better yet-- something she’s done. She caressed her thumb lightly against the back of his hand while attempting to go back to that silent state of mind.
