Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

OOC: I am so sorry, y'all! I've been trying to finish up with school and I've abandoned the RPG...This post is going to be a bit short, but I'm trying to catch up.

BIC:

Shyanne gasped as Susanne fell to the floor. "Micah!"

As Micah helped Susanne, Shyanne scooted around the fire, holding her skirt so the flames wouldn't touch it. With a slight gasp, she stepped to her right and, with the help of someone, Shyanne went through the window.

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Jarien Shoved his way through the others when he heard Adi's voice, and realized that she was also in the cellar. He rounded on of the large supports, and saw her standing there, her knife in hand, glancing between the trapdoor into the main inn, and into the darkness where he stood.

He stepped forward quickly, she gasped and then recognized him. She dashed forward and hugged him, "Jarien!"

"Are you ok, not hurt?" he asked, although he could see she was only frightened.

"Everyone upstairs...they're all dead!" she nearly sobbed, she had seen death before, but not the horror of what the hunters had done.

He wrapped his arms around her and leaned down to kiss her on the, "ok... shh.... we must leave." he paused, and gently spoke. "Someone indeed wants that girl dead... and like it or not, i think we're stuck with them."

Adi nodded against him, "Let's just go..."

Jarien turned led her back to where the others were standing, talking. before he could say a thing, he noticed the fire, leaping at the base of the ladder, licking up the hay.

The others noticed it too, and as the fire began to rapidly spread, the blasksmith dashed over to a window near the ceiling. Jarien was amazed that the fellow was able to withstand the head from the burning ceiling and boards under his hands as he ripped them from the sill and and broke through it. Jarien was glad that they wouldn't have to find another way out.

The younger man turned to him and said something about needing to gather a resistence."

Jarien looked at him, "I don't think now's the time to be thinking of that..."

Then the blacksmith helped the wounded woman out the window, and Jarien waited, slightly impatient, as the others climbed out. Being the last in line, Adi and himself were the last to climb out the window into the air that was now rapidly filling with smoke from the blaze behind them.

Jarien pointed away from the burning inn, "There is a gap in the town wall that is being repaired over there, they havn't finished the work yet, and it should be big enough for us to fit through, since i figure that we aren't staying here."

(OOC: Glad you're back Chloe!)

VAYOND

Edmund looked at the gap Jarien was pointing at. "Do you think we will really fit? It looks small. The Hunters would find us too quickly!"
She saw a few trees and a path of gravel. "Hey," he siad, nodding towards the path, "This way."

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Micah helped Susanne around the blazing fire, and then through the escape window. He brought her a distance away from the smoke pouring out of the window so she could breathe fully. "Don't worry," he said through heavy breaths, "We're almost safe now. We're all going to get through this."

Moments later, all of the others escaped through the window, and Jarien told them about a section of the town wall that was open; their only way of fleeing town. Micah nodded, "Yes, I see it." Then he responded to Edmund, "You're right, we'll have to move quickly. They'll realize we've escaped soon." The group immediately started down the gravel road toward their escape route through the wall.

-------

Rokard stood firm, holding his halberd in both hands, ready to lop off the first head that appeared through the hatch. He could hear the fire blazing below now, and thin tendrils of smoke were beginning to seep through the cracks of the trap door, like fingers of death reaching up from the underworld. Rokard waited patiently for their prey to appear. After a few moments, however, he was beginning to think something may have gone wrong.

VAYOND

Edmund could hear noises getting closer and closer. He quickened his pace, motioning for the others to follow them. Then, he hurried them into hte wall, tell them to be faster.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Simon gazed down at his bag of blood almost lovingly. "If all payments come as speedily and artfully as that, love, I'd kill a whole monastery of monks," he said, biting into the bag and downing the dark red liquid. He then wrapped an arm around Desdemona's waist and pulled her close.

"What do you say, my morbid, malicious maiden?" he asked her.

Katie watched this all from behind Miss Lucinda in fascinated horror (or horrified fascination, she wasn't entirely sure yet).

-----

"Are we even heading the right way?" Hero asked when they'd been walking for almost an hour with no sign of Jack.

"I'm sure Moira knows exactly where she's going," Peter said with a lot more confidence than he felt.

Nikolas sighed, completely and utterly bored out of his mind.

-----

Caeden frowned. "But isn't the Vendar dude on the Counsel? That should give him one heck of an advantage, don't you think? I mean, that other Jedi is just a bully, and not even a good one either."

-----

Of course at that moment another cyborg randomly entered Cordelia's house. The girl stood at a tiny 4'11" and looked deceptively small-boned. She was dressed in normal teenage girl clothes and aside from the impassively blank look on her face no one would suspect she was a cyborg. However, she took one look at the cyborg holding the shoes and crossed over to him.

"They go on your feet," she said in a robotic tone that was only slightly more human than Sylvia's new boyfriend's. Reaching down, she grabbed the cyborg's ankle and flipped him over onto his back, grabbing the shoes in the process. With his feet up in the air, she then went about attaching the footwear onto the appropriate appendages.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Sirius Telanor, a 13 year old tanner’s apprentice, sat inside his master’s shop scraping a sheet of leather. He heard feet scuffling outside and animals shifting uneasily, and then a man yelled, “Look out!” He felt a bit uneasy, but continued to work. Only about fifty more strokes and I’ll be done. Then I’ll go see what’s going on. He went on working, anxious to find out the cause of all the noise. Then he smelled the smoke, and a woman screamed. Something’s burning! And someone’s in trouble! Before he even knew what he was doing, he was running outside to help. Master’s going to kill me, but I gotta help! Outside, a grim sight met his eyes. The inn was engulfed in flames! People everywhere were running around and panicking. Sirius created a bucket chain to help put out the fire, but to no avail. The inn was lost.

Tears streaked down his face. He didn’t know why; he had never stayed there or particularly liked the owner, but it had been there as long as he could remember, and had become a part of his life. There were still people trapped inside, but there was nothing he could do about it. As he walked back to the shop, he cast one last long look at the building, and happened to see a few people scramble out of a window at ground level. At least some people made it. He was surprised, though, to see the people quickly scramble into some bushes nearby, instead of going into town. Before they got there, however, one of them took a quick look around as if he didn't want anyone to see him, and Sirius got a good look at him. He had a strong, burly build and a narrow face with dark, piercing eyes. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and then the man disappeared.

((OOC: Hi! This is my first post, and I've never RP'ed before, so if I do anything wrong, feel free to PM me and get everything straightened out. I'm completely open to comments and help. ))

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

The group made their way toward the wall as quickly as possible. Micah stayed back just for a moment to make sure they weren’t being followed; as he scanned the area, his eyes happened to meet with those of a young boy who was watching them. Micah didn’t ponder the sight long; he quickly turned and followed after the others.

Soon they reached the place where the wall was breached, only wide enough for them to slip through one at a time. They regrouped on the other side, now outside the town walls, exposed to the nighttime countryside. A thick wood grew only a few hundred yards to the north, while a winding cobblestone road led away from the city to the east, parallel with the woodline. In the distance Micah could see the road leading to a bridge which crossed over a river pouring out of the woods. Micah also noticed a well-trampled path in the grass from the wall breach to the wood: probably the path taken by men working on the wall bringing in new lumber from the wood.

“The woods! We can hide there,” someone suggested, but Micah held up a hand to slow them.

“They’ll expect that,” He said. “Let’s follow the road a ways first, so we leave no tracks, and when we hit the river we can move upstream into the woods. Otherwise, our enemy will just track us.” Micah pointed to the trampled path leading away from the road. “At least that may deter them for a bit, and buy us some time.”

-------

Rokard slipped out of the inn with the others as the entire building was devoured by flames. The spectacle of the burning building lit up the entire segment of town, but everyone was too shocked and busy putting out the fire to notice the Hunters. He lifted his nose a notch and sniffed the air; it was ripe with the smells of smoke, burning wood, and putrid burning flesh. Rokard watched the fire with an emotionless stare. The fire would hide all evidence of what happened that night; fire was good for that.

However, one question plagued his mind; had the targets somehow escaped, or were they killed in the fire? They could always wait until the fire had run its course and then searched for corpses in the basement; but if they had indeed gotten out, waiting for the fire to subside would give them time to escape. He looked expectantly to Dalin. “What now?”

(((OOC: Welcome to Vayond, and RP in general, pickle. )))

Vayond

Edmund hesitated. He did not like being told what to do, especailly by a common blacksmith but he had to obey orders if he wanted himself or the others to be safe. Following the road, he turned to Micah. "Are you sure this is going to work? What if they can see our tracks as we're walking?"

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Micah tensed as Edmund questioned the plan; not because Micah felt the plan was perfect, but because he had doubts as well. Micah shrugged. “We just have to move as quickly as possible, and reach the river before they leave the town. If these enemies really are the mysterious Hunters, they’ll be able to track us in the grass and foliage. At least on this cobblestone road, we don’t leave as much of a trace.” He sighed. “Look, if anyone has a better idea, I would be glad to hear it. But, to me, the river seems our only chance to escape their tracking abilities, so we can hide somewhere for the night, and then think this thing through to see what we should do next. Beyond that, I really don’t know.” We can’t hide forever, he thought, but didn’t say it aloud. We’ll figure it out later, he assured himself, and pressed on toward the river which they were now coming close to.

Vayond
Edmund sighed. "Okay. As long as they don't find us. I really wish there was a way to sneak up on them and kill them all." Once they got to the river, Edmund asked Micah to repeat what they were to do. It wasn't that he didn't remeber it, but he was only half listening and half listening for the Hunters. The last thing he needed was for the Hunters to have caught up with him and his...well...friends. Before Micah answered, Edmund asked, "How can we expect to cross it without a canoe?"

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Jarien and Adi remained silent as the group cleared the wall, and began following the road down toward the river that ran out of the woods. This was familiar ground, since both of them had hunted the woods for many miles around.

It was the blacksmith's idea to travel down to the river, then follow it up, into the woods, until they were well on their way. It was a good plan, for starters. It of course didn't say where they would go after that, but that wasn't important at that point. Jarien held onto Adi's hand, not wanting to let her go again after their near brush with death back at the inn.

He kept glancing back over his shoulder, keeping an eye out for any sign of their pursuers, but saw nothing. "Hurry" he insisted, "They didn't seem like they would waste any time once they know we have escaped..."

The river that they were heading for emerged from the forest, under a dark tangle of vines and intertwining branches, and, after crossing under a stone bridge, wound around the wall of the small town, and on into the countryside. Jarien had an Idea, he pulled Adi ahead, up next to the blacksmith, "When we reach the river, we should go into it as if we are heading back toward the town, then once in the middle, turn and go the other direction, it may help to deter them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jaegar dashes out of the burning building with the rest of them, and hid in the flickering shadowes with the others. He glanced about, taking in all that he could. The burning smell of wood and flesh reached his nose, the frantic cries as the people of the town began to try and organize a bucket line from the well, but the structure was too far gone.

As he stood there watching the crowd, he saw a young boy looking in their direction, he nudged Dalin, "Boss, that kid may have seen us"

Vayond

Edmund hesistated, then agreed. "Okay, let's go. " As they rushed to teh river, Edmund went into he river as Jaegar said. Once he got to the Middle, he turned the other direction and hoped the peasant's plan would work.

Vayond: The Shadowed Hunters

Dalin's sharp retort to Jaegar's questions was, "Then kill him!" his dark eyes flashed cold anger, and he barely could contain a snarl. He had fled like the other hunters from the burning Inn, which was now being reduced to ashes. Unpleasant smells filled his nostrils and he motioned for his group to move ahead and mount their horses. He was angry because he had a suspicion, that the ones they had been hunting had not perished. The thought, not only angering and irritating was perplexing, unless they had slipped up. And we don't 'slip up'

Sheathing Akar, he swiftly swung aboard his horse keeping the black stallion under his command. He had left Rokard's question un-answered until now. "We'll head from the city, and search the surrounding woods." he hated to admit it, but it was a strong possibility their prey had escaped "I don't even trust the tongues of fire. Until I can see their bodies I won't believe their dead. We can return later to see if their corpses are indeed below in the inn. But for now...Ha!" he spurred his horse and slipped from the under brush and out the town gate, the light from the raging fire illuminating his black figure, causing him to look more like a demon than any mortal being. The towns people are so naive they will not care to suspect us... his horse flew down the cobbled path, its hooves echoing in the ebbing twilight. He reigned in as they approached the small river that ran under the road, by way of a stone bridge. It then wound around the city wall, and went into the thick forest. He contemplated for a minute, thinking of what his fleeing quarry would do. If there still alive....where would they run? How would they hide? he wheeled his horse about and faced his others comrades. "Rokard! Zorack! Take your horses and ride down the river....when you flush prey they tend to run for water. Search once, if you don't find anything meet us back farther up the road." he then turned back around and rode off down the path.

*******

Susanne found herself being drug from place to place, down a path through a hole in the wall and toward a river. She hesitated at seeing the fast running water, shallowing rolling over smooth slick stones in bottom of the riverbed. Her feet were guided into the water and she winced at the icy, shooting cold. The water ran over the tops of her feet, causing chills to run up and down her spine. She was then aware of hand, latching onto her forearm and guiding her through the water. She didn't understand anything that was happening. Her tired mind tried to comprehend her situation but found only empty thoughts and unanswered questions. Her voice was hoarse, like a whisper, as she spoke. "Where are we going?" she protested to walking, the soles of her feet hurting inside her shoes. She'd been on her feet for days, no sleep, no food, no water. Her one chance of rest had been shattered, and now they were again moving at a swift pace away from the lights of the city. "I don't want to go on anymore. I have to rest." She tried to pull her arm away from the fingers that gripped her, but was to weak. Her torn skirts ruffled as she moved her legs. "Please!"

((OCC: Welcome to Vayond Pickle! I hope you have alot of fun with us)))

Vayond
Edmund noticed the poor girl suffering, begging not to go on. He took Suzanne in his amrs and said, "THat's why you're lucky I'm here. I'll carry you as far as I can."
He turned to the others. "In fact we could all take turns carrying her. THat way she can be well rested."
He gave Micah a challenging glance, letting him know it was Edmund's turn to plan.