A Lonely Little Crow (Open)

[Cazaria]

TimeStamp
Ash 40, 121

Somewhere in the vast forests, roughly halfway between Zaichaer and Kalzasi...

A pair of crimson eyes peered out from behind the fir tree, shielded by the long hanging branches. A set of thin fingers gripped the shaft of a spear of dark wood and the tooth of some ferocious creature. The eyes, peering through the oily, stringy hair, could see shadows moving inside her hut. Something was in there. A sneer grew upon the dirty face. That was her mama's hut. That was her hut. And something was defiling her territory.

The being set her spear against the tree, pulling her bow from her back, and plucking one of the few arrows she had left. The ones she made were nowhere near as good as those mama had made, but they'd have to do. She stood proudly, taking the stance her mother had taught her, left foot forward, right back and turned, back straight. She focused on her breathing as she strained to pull the heavy draw of the longbow. She brought it up to aim, arms shaking from the strain.

She doubled down, knowing her mama would tell her to find her moment and breathe. One breath, and for one moment, her arms stopped shaking. She loosed the poorly crafted arrow, watching it fly across the clearing and through the open window of her home, having guessed roughly that the creature might be standing there.

But even as the arrows was loosed, she was already moving, bow back over her torso, spear in one hand, and the brace of rabbits she'd killed in the other. She ran along the deer path that circled her territory, huffing and trying to move silent. The path was clear of brush and leaves, so it wasn't as difficult as with other areas, and so there was only the light tap tap of her feet on compact dirt.

And soon, she was behind another tree, on the opposite side of her home, spear in hand, watching, waiting, seeing if anything was still moving within her hut. And if it was, preparing herself to kill it.

[Yshvold]

Way to far. Yshvold was way to far from home and he knew it. It should have been a left and a days walk away but a day turned into two, and then three, maybe a fourth but he knew in his heart that the truth was staring him in the face. He was lost but knew he could find his way back eventually.

The beasts that called this forest home did not scare him and some even fell and became dinner. It was a farcry from the Middens and Yshvold could say he felt quite comfortable sneaking around in the underbrush for an extended period of time, but Lady Petra must be worried. For now he must find his way back through the thick brush and woods, while still avoiding the dangers within.

At this time Yshvold had slowly been prowling through bushes and between trees as he looked for his way back, but the sound of a bowstring being pulled back caught his ear and the boy held his place. It was close, too close, and the presence of some other hunter was felt before he could figure out exactly where they were. If they were intending to kill him, he would already be dead, or they haven't found him yet so he must remain hidden.

Then the arrow was loosed and footsteps ran across a trail behind Yshvold. They ran past and he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw someone small move with a hunters grace, he couldn't stop his curiosity from guiding his next movements as he followed at a respectable distance.

Then they stopped and moved into cover again, staring down some hut nearby. Something was inside and this person did not seem happy about it, he must know more. Whatever it was he could handle it,but he wanted to interact with this new person, this child of the woods.

He crept out of the brush at a decent distance from them, with daggers drawn, quietly but made sure he would be within eye shot of the stranger. His hood had been left behind in the brush and mask off, being so far away from civiliaztion, the strange person could see his pale white skin and almost glowing white hair from where they were. Yshvold did a quiet gesture of him pointing his dagger towards the house and back towards himself to try and get the message across as he steadied his footing to prepare for a sprint should he need to move in quickly, hoping against hope that this person would not shoot him on sight.

[Nnerka]

When she had set out, given permission to hunt — permission; ha! — before the trip, Nnerka had been certain to tell them that she knew not how far she would go. That she would be following the tracks of her prey, or waiting for them to come to her. Any look of protest had been silenced with a smile and a promise that she could always hunt in their backyard. What did she know; she was just a spider who didn’t understand boundaries. Harada’s men seemed a touch more eager to let her go after that. Further arrangements had been handled.

Which was what lead to her being...all the way out here now. The familiar gait of six legs was a welcome return. Two was simply annoying and three was a hassle of trying to maneuver. Perhaps she was being picky, but it was what had served her thus far. Six legs lined with hairs that raised now, giving her pause. Something loud, but not loud. Small?

The hut she’d encountered hadn’t seemed deserted. Good; she didn’t mind the idea of turning some hermit into a meal. Probably tasted better with a diet fresher than those in the city. Untainted by the complacency of civilization. Her traps were not entirely set when the air flew. A poor shot; it missed. Knicked several of her threads and snapped their connection to the trees outside. But it was enough to know that whoever this hut belonged to had come back.

There was no reason to hide. She had already been spotted, or well — they knew she was here. But she could just as easily catch them off guard with her appearance. Poking her head out of the entrance, her eyes slid over the area before her.

“Has someone come home?”

[Cazaria]

TimeStamp

The child saw that the arrow did not slay whatever was in Mama's hut. There was still movement within. Across the way, more movement, this time from the brush. Her crimson, almond shaped eyes narrowed. What was this pale, ugly creature? She could see its two sharp claws. And it was staring at her, much like a predator would a prey. The child's upper lip pulled back in a snarl. How dare this creature think she is prey? She watched the creature point to the hut, then back to itself, and the child knew instantly what it was saying.

'This hut is mine now.'

Rage filled the child, and he gripped her spear tight, pulling it out from the cover of the tree, her small feet carrying her into the light, charging toward the two clawed, pale, ugly creature. Her black, stringy hair, with black feathers, some tinged blue or green in sheen, ruffled out from her hair that whipped back in the wind as she moved. Her skin was dark, and she wore a chest wrap of hide with a matching loin cloth. There were small adornments of bone woven into her hair, hanging from her ears, and bracelets of the same on her wrists and ankles. Her body was small, skinny, dirty, and it was obvious that the girl was just that, a child.

However, the way her spear sliced through the air, the way it moved with confidence, showed that she was at least competent in the wielding of this weapon, raised like the tail of a scorpion as she charged the pale creature. And then the girl stopped.

There was a monster, some beautiful, mighty beast standing there in the doorway of her Mama's hut. It stood taller than Mama. It stood taller than any creature the girl had ever seen before. It looked similar to the spiders of the wilds, but far bigger and mightier. And this beast had been trespassing on her territory, and now was saying words the girl did not understand beyond "home".

The girl knew now that the pale creature and the mighty spider must be together, trying to steal Mama's hut. A tightening on her spear as the girl spun on heel, no longer facing the pale creature, but instead, charging toward the hut. Her feet slapped the compacted dirt hard, and she carried the spear in a single arm carry, as though she meant to throw it. Her left foot struck the surface of the ramp up to the raised hut, and the girl dipped the spear down low, slapping it into her free hand, point heading down. With the added control, she leaned into her leading leg, dropping her body's height as she pressed against her thigh, and thrusting upward at the bottom of the might spider, a vicious snarl on her face as she did.

[Yshvold]

The way this small thing snarled and charge at him made Yshvold think he might have said the wrong thing, or perhaps the little thing was stupid. Either way it became his problem quickly, along with the voice of someone very familiar. With Nnerka revealing herself from the hut and the child in front of him charging him with a spear it felt time to become scarce for the moment and feel the situation out.

Yshvold ducked back into the brush and weaved out of sight again to get another chance to get the upper hand against the annoyance and the aggressive feathery thing. Small little taps of his feet grew quieter as he took an unbeaten path back to the front of the house to observe the little thing changing its direction and running straight at the spider.

"Maybe they'll kill each other? Hmm, maybe I should prevent this." Yshvold whispered to himself as the little things shouting would drown out any noise he could make. It obviously didn't know how to sneak around, which is a shame, and he was hoping to be able to play some sort of game with them to test himself.

Her movements were impressive, she obviously knew what she was doing in open combat, but how would she fare against something many times her size? Yshvold didn't like her chances and picked up a nearby rock. If she couldn't do something immediately, then maybe he could level the playing field for just a couple seconds.

He saw opportunity to strike as she came down with her spear and threw a rock at Nnerka to see if he could distract her. If she dies then her boasts were really nothing, otherwise she should be able to handle herself in this situation and he could gather more information on this target.

[Nnerka]

Well — this certainly wasn’t an old hermit man.

The creature that approached the hut, speed gaining as it came barreling forward. But it knew what it was doing; there was a sort of skill that could be gleaned to the untrained eye, even if it did appear almost clumsy and pointless. Nnerka’s brows rose as she stepped back just enough to miss being nicked entirely by the tip of the spear. It slid just under her, cutting through flesh slightly but nothing fatal. Nothing she was unused to. This was a confrontation like any other struggling prey.

Somewhat like the one in the bush. Which, she probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to if not for the fact that they’d thrown a rock at her — and missed. She might have been amused if she didn’t assume the assault was meant to put her at a disadvantage of some sort. The spider hissed. Countless times she’d slowed the process of the push of her mandibles past the flesh of her mouth to scare, but now she was too annoyed to delight in the fear it might of produced. Instead, the mask of a pretty woman fell away with any congeniality she may have had to spare for the child.

Her lower arms rubbed against her abdomen, flicking off the hairs there. While they wouldn’t do much in the way of damage, they would be irritating enough to the child to keep her busy while Nnerka tugged at the threads she’d laid down. They’d stick to skin and hair, fingers twisting to weave them together to be stronger. From her abdomen to the spearhead, her lower hands shot down, coated in the sticky solution of half-formed webbing that nearly cemented her hands to the weapon, locking it in her grip.

One thing dealt with, another to handle. Several eyes turned in the direction the rock might have come from. From her came a slightly deeper, firm: “No.”

[Yshvold]

Thus the true hunt was on. Who the hunter or the hunted was Yshvold couldn't say right now, but he wasn't going to take this laying down.

Head on was out of the question. Foliage around them afforded him some cover to remain unseen but the spider might be able to see him move through them seeing as this was not his usual haunt but it seemed to be the smartest of his remaining choices to get one up on Nnerka.

Hissing in defiance Yshvold retreated out of the bushes he was residing in and beat a quick path along the footways the young bird girl took. He prepared himself to jump into the foliage again should Nnerka pursue and try to shake her off like that. Taking up several rocks in his hands as he ran and tossing them between the bushes to disturb the leaves and make her think there might be more than one pursuer on her trail, or maybe just one erratically moving about in a messy way. Either assumption would work for him and hopefully buy him time to get into a better position to sneak up on her.

With no source of aether to siphon away leaving Yshvold very little avenues of attack, he thought of using more rocks to distract her. Maybe her sight was not as good as he thought it was, it was all very experimental as he explored how to tackle a spider woman in nature.

How he wished this was in the city, or down in the sewers. He hated the dirt and bugs, and everything nature brought with it. Even the ammunition that came naturally on the ground was ill suited for his needs as the ground did not echo stone on stone that he was accustomed to. Damnable nature and its soft ground.

[Cazaria]

The child was assaulted by a swarm of something that was biting and stinging her. Her attack had managed to cut some flesh but not enough to put down the creature. She withdrew her weapon to attack once more, when she felt the sticky strings tugged, grabbing at her body. And shortly after, her hands were covered in the same substance. The girl let out a feral scream as she tugged and yanked and pulled trying to free herself backwards, to separate her from this creature. Scream after scream was uttered as the creature looked at the one in the woods.

The child's mind was racing, trying to determine a way out of this. Her mother had always taught her to keep fighting, to not stop, and she would make her mama proud. Struggling in the grip of this creature, she realized she still had hold of her weapon, which was flailing about uselessly between her and the monster. The child snarled, taking in a deep breath as she braced herself. Then she began flooding aether into her rune, strengthening the connecting she had with her Pact Spear.

And then she Dematerialized it, the weapon shooting back into her body as an intense pain flooded through her. She fought through the pain, to keep her hands in the exact same hold as her spear left them. She put everything into it, knowing she needed the gap. She snarled loudly, the pained cry of a wounded animal, her senses overwhelming as she did. It felt as though she had stabbed herself, and in a way, it was sort of that way, at least in the method that her mother taught her. As the girl began to recover from the shock and pain of it, she continued to fight and wriggle, and keeping a mental image of where her weapon would be if she still held it.

And once she had it lined up with the monster's ugly bug face, another snarl escaped her lips. And once more her aether flushed her rune, and she Materialized her weapon once more, intending for it to stab itself through her face as she did. The weapon was forming at a magical, incredible speed, and the girl hoped it would be enough.

[Nnerka]

When she was younger, Nnerka used to play-fight her sisters. Mama had been adamant about them learning these skills. Those moments, though they’d dissolved into fits of giggles from the victors and whines from the losers, had proven to be useful once before. And it would seem that they would prove to be useful yet again. Of course, she had never doubted the wisdom of her Mama.

Bushes rustled, but she paid them no mind. Yshvold was not one to come with friends — she was pretty sure he didn’t have any. He’d not struck her as being terrible sociable. And the hut had been empty when she’d arrived, and the girl hadn’t wasted time throwing herself at Nnerka.

She was alone.

The spear vanished, leaving Nnerka to close her fingers around nothing but the sticky cementing form of the webbing. She let her nails shred through them. She should have snapped the spear. Maybe that would have put a majority of this struggle to an end. A mistake she would have to deal with, probably. The girl staggered for a moment as if in pain, before her struggle continued anew. And as she did, Nnerka lifted a hand and swatted at her head. Not enough to do any serious damage, but hopefully enough to disorient.

As she did so, the spear reappeared, aimed for her face. Nnerka barely had time to avoid it. It grazed her cheek, the drip of warm blood coming quick as several strands of hair fell to her shoulder. She scooped the girl up quick — one set of arms bringing her in close and the other hefting her up to eye level for the spider to lean back and slam her forehead down onto the girl’s.

Nnerka blinked, grip tighter on the girl to hold her in place. “Enough! Gods, what a handful you are.” She tried, for a moment, not to think of how similar this seemed to her first meeting with her wolf pup. The only difference is that there likely wouldn’t be her Mama coming through the trees to inquire on what manner of creature she’d managed to pick up this time. It didn’t change the fact, though, that she assumed this small girl was out here by herself. Caring for herself. She sniffed, was slightly more gentle in her hold of the other.

“Name? What is your name?”

[Yshvold]

Loneliness

60th Ash 121

How disappointing. Yshvold had gotten to a better position in the brush, closer to Nnerka, and watched the strange little bird use everything she had to pierce the spider woman. Failing miserably it seems.

Failing but allowing for opportunity. Nnerka has the girl trapped and brought her attention to her, asking her questions, and humiliating it in a way that only a superior predator can. He is not capable enough to fight head on, but he know's how to slit a throat when someone takes their eyes off of him.

The ground is soft but full of the debris of fallen leaves and sticks. Yshvold kept his eyes on the ground as he snuck closer and closer towards the two. Slowing his breathing to almost a standstill as he made silent steps towards the spider.

She claimed to be stronger, stronger than him, and he is going to correct that. Strength is not the only thing that matters when it came to fighting, only the end of combat decides the true power behind ones abilities.

He isn't sure if she is able to hear him and kept his faith in his skills as the gap between them only got shorter. The girl is the only thing that would be able to warn her, and if she was smart she would keep her mouth shut. Yshvold had no faith in the girl to use her brain, she displayed her stupidity the moment they met and tried to attack him when he offered help. She only has herself to blame for her predicament.

Yshvold quietly brings his knives up as he creeps towards Nnerka, accidentally letting his malicious intent explode out when he imagines how his plan is going to go. He will prove his worth with one hit.