Quest [Unforgiving] Take a Walk on the Wild Side

[Alori Sai]

Alori carefully made her way across, taking one step at a time as she did. For once being the smallest in the group seemed to have an advantage. The teen surely didn't have any worries of the bridge cracking under her miniscule weight. Small fingers roamed across the braided rope, one boot in front of the other, she moved along at a set pace.

Phaurd continued to talk, going on about the bridge and the work load to keep it up yearly. It was something Alori hadn't thought about. The idea of taking down the bridge and redoing it seemed so costly. She wondered if it might be better to build a stronger stationary structure that could with stand at least a few winters before needing repair.

"Do you know a lot about Drykas? Have you met many?" Over her short life so far, she had met many foreigners and some from different walks of life. But they had never stuck around long enough to say much about their people, and how they differ from the Inarta. Phaurd went on, now switching to the stream and some strange source that carried gems to be washed up below. Alori smiled at the thought, a gem the size of an eagle eye? That was amazing all on it's own.

Alori paused at the sound of the low clicking and looked ahead to the area beyond the bridge. Hazel eyes darted about the landing, searching for the source before the rarely seen porcupine appeared. The little huntress glanced back towards Kovac and smiled mischievously. It was time to show or go, the two had made a bet before they left camp and this would be their first time to show what they could do. Alori pulled her bow free with one hand, then pulled an arrow from her quiver right after. She intended on taking this shot and showing up Kovac first, before he could.

For some reason she looked back again, the teen wasn't sure why, knowing that this would also give him time to gather his aim for his own shot, but she did. Surprise stretched her eyes and opened her mouth as she turned around completely. There was something else on the bridge, something big. What looked to be a six foot long lizard with red and black scales came crawling up behind them.

"Oh shyke! Kovac, behind you!!"

x

[Kovac]

Kovac concentrated on the trek across the small rope span, ensuring his footing was steady as Phaurd and Alori made their way across ahead of hm. The veteran adventurer at the head of the group seemed much at ease with the crossing, regaling the younger hunters with stories of the area. Alori asked about the Drykas, but Kovac didn't know if she was inquiring of Phaurd or himself, so he kept quiet. Then he saw Alori stop and noted around her that Phaurd had as well. Only after leaning out a bit, did the half-vanthan see the large porcupine snuffling about at the other end.

Kovac too was familiar with the large animal, and its dangers. normally, a shot at this distance would be preferred, and not difficult for the expert archer. But, given that he would have to balance without the aid of his hands to hold on to the braided ropes, the shot was a bit more problematic. Phaurd's gaze was not challenging, but certainly opening the opportunity. Alori, on the other hand, flashed a mischievous grin to her companion, and Kovac knew exactly what she was thinking. He couldn't let her win.

As he saw the teen reach for her bow, Kovac leaned against the bridge to steady himself, and pulled his own bow out. Reaching for an arrow, he looked up again at Alori. She had stopped, arrow still in one hand, bow in the other. Her gaze was no longer on the mongrel, but glaring past him. What disturbed Kovac was the wide-eyed, slack jawed face she was making. Then came the girl's warning.

Kovac spun around as quickly as he could without losing his footing, seeing the creature lurking at the other end of the bridge. They couldn't move forward to the other end of the bridge with the quill-laden porcupine so close. With a glance back to Alori, the Avora tried to steady himself again as he laid the arrow to the bow, drawing it back as he shifted continuously to maintain balance. "Help steady me, Alori." Kovac called behind him, concerned that a strong breeze, or the release of the taut bow, would compromise his balance.

[Harrier]

The beady eyeds lizard lumbered across the ropes with some difficulty but maintained a steady clip nonetheless. Its long claws and digits on each feet gripped mercilessly the threads and the muscled tail swung repeatedly for balance. Were it longer and larger, it could have been a velispar, but this thing was no velispar. It was just another predator of the mountains.

So much had been altered when Ivak had been released, and not just the terrain. Many fauna and flora alike had been morphed into new and altered entities with their own sets of abilities that left many curious or cautious or even both at times! And here came this six foot beast, mouth open and a long forked tongue licking at its chops in hunger, menacing hiss cast to them while the hunters hastened to steady themselves and ready their bows.

Phaurd, meanwhile, was trying to help steady the bridge as well while keeping an eye on the porcupine behind them. It had raised its head when the commotion reached it and the quills were raised in alarm, daring a threat to come at it. "Careful, you two!" He shouted, grabbing Alori's waistband to help her stay on the bridge so she could keep the other hunter steady. And on the beast came.

The closer it got, the more they would see. The scales of the creature were thick and pebbled, giving its body the rough texture of sandstone while its eyes were a sickly orange. The heavily muscled tail was striped vertically on the underside, hints of black visible in the red and yellow coloring. It stopped, halfway between them and the start of the bridge, claws tearing some of the ropes where it gripped precariously. The head of the creature was broad, the snouts long, with a pair of thick muscles and thicker scales over the ridge of its eyes. With mouth open, all three would be able to see the long, inward-curved teeth of the reptile, the stench of rot clear even from here.

At the start of the bridge, something else had appeared: it was long and lean, a white throat blaring in the dark stone and green shades behind it. The head was spade-shaped, meant for going through small holes in the ground and other narrow spaces as was the body, long and lean and flexible. Its legs were short, though the three inch long tail had been dipped in black. It looked like some kind of weasel, one Kovac had actually been told about by Lavira last season. And as experienced as the hunters were, they should have recognized it immediately given the black feet and masked face. There were even a few hunters in the city who used them alongside their birds if they were falconers!

x

[Alori Sai]

Alori had thought they would escape the bridge first before trying to attack the giant lizard. She knew of the porcupine at the other end, but it looked like an easier target. If they could have wounded the spike-haired animal it might see the need to move a bit faster and let them off the bridge. But Kovac turned to fire upon the lizard and Phaurd stood his ground behind her, which left her to take the stand with them.

"Hurry! Before it crosses the bridge."

The tiny Endal still held tightly onto the rope, as she hugged Kovac with her free arm to help steady him. A hand grabbed the back of her waistband, and Phaurd issued a warning to them both. There was nothing she could do now, except hold on and hope that Kovac was as good a shot as he had claimed. Alori peeked out from under the Avora's raised arm seeing the sandy colored scales of the creature and the inwardly curved teeth in it's opened mouth.

"Shyke, it's a mutant. It has to be. Oh..eww that smell."

She quickly turned her head away, blinking hazel eyes caught sight of Phaurd, before she turned to look at the creature again. Suddenly there was something else there at the start of the bridge and unless she was mistaken it was a White-throated kyper. It looked so cute and Alori would love to have one, but at the moment she had bigger problems than trying to catch it.

x

[Kovac]

Kovac leveled the arrow head at the approaching beast, a creature the likes of which he had never seen, nor even heard. That made it even more dangerous, for he had no idea of what it was capable of doing. It was certain that it was a predator, that much he surmised. There was no escape route, and the Avora had no desire to discover close up what the thing could do to a man.

Knees stayed bent, trying to compensate for movement of the rope bridge, now aided by Phaurd's efforts and Alori's steadying grip. Still, they all swayed somewhat. So much to calculate, movement of the bridge, the wind, updrafts from the gorge, the motion of the beast itself. As Kovac guaged all of this gazing down the shaft of the arrow, lining the razor-sharp barbed head on what he hoped would be a successful trajectory, the flutter of white at the end of the bridge caught his eye. A darting gaze spotted the kyper, his first sighting of such. Petch, what next?

His focus resumed quickly, forcing his tight shoulders to relax, his grip on the bow to loosen. Then, a measure of confidence, Kovac flexed ever so slightly the fingers holding the bowstring taut, the twang sounding the release of the arrow.

[Harrier]

The shot struck clean enough to make the creature stop, hissing and throat bulging with air and swelling muscles. It had hit its eye but did not go deep enough to pierce its skull. The creature broke the arrow from its eye (taking said orb with it in the process) and continued rubbing at the place of impact.

Behind it, the kyper had made a sudden dash onto the bridge, sliding under the reptile and nipping at one of its flanks. The reptile jerked and tilted, twisting the whole bridge in the process. Phaurd gave a shout to hang on and wrapped his arms around one of the rope railings, entangling his feet in the other end to keep from being knocked loose. The bridge continued to twist and eventually, the twist did manage to go against the reptile and send it falling into the ravine with a loud splash in the frothing waters below.

The kyper, in all of this, had darted towards the three hunters and sought to scurry up Kovac's bryda, scrambling for a safer perch where it rightly did not belong. It wasn't trying to bite him, though, only chattering in a ferrety way. During all of this commotion, though, the big porcupine had only winced a bit before moseying off towards the brush again, snorting the entire way.

x

[Alori Sai]

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, the animal was crossing the bridge and they were cornered on both sides. Kovac was the senior hunter and chose which animal he wanted to attack. Alori did what she could and tried to hold him and herself steady on the shaky bridge. The shot went out, but it was hard for her to see what happened from her position behind the taller Avora. Suddenly she felt the weight of the struggle as the bridge twisted below them.

Phaurd yelled to hang on and Alori screamed as she was slammed against the ropes. Her leg swept out, locking awkwardly into the ropes as she held on with one hand. With the sudden hard shift she lost contact with Kovac and the little huntress found herself tangled in the ropes.

"Help! I'm gonna fall!" she cried, one arm waving wildly as she tried to force herself into balance and find her footing on the bridge again. "Oh petch!" she was scared, but the teen didn't give up, and after another moment of struggling, she was able to push herself back upright and on her feet again.

x

[Kovac]

That he had hit the beast at all amazed Kovac, for he had only his wobbling legs and Alori's arm around him to lessen the effects of the swaying bridge. The shot was not a kill, unfortunately, though it did slow the creature. The situation went from precarious to chaotic as the lizard's shifting increased the bridge's movement, causing Phaurd to yell out, Alori to cry out, and Kovac to swear. On top of it all, the kyper raced across the bridge, unsettling the monster and charging at the hunters.

Kovac felt the security of Alori's arm slip away as she struggled to keep from falling as the lizard slid from the bridge and plummeted to the water below. The backlash of the creature's exit sent the bridge wobbling more fiercely and Kovac managed to hang the bow around his neck so he could use both hands to grasp for the ropes, entangling one arm in the cords. But the kyper had chosen him as his safety perch and Kovac danced and yipped as the weasel-thing scurried up his body. The half-breed had no idea if it was going to start gnawing on his ears or claw out his eyes. He darted a wide-eyed glance to the huntress behind him, Alori preoccupied with her own attempt to save herself. Kovac tried to swipe at the thing with a free hand, but when his feet slid out from under him, he quickly gripped the side ropes with his free hand as well. So he hung on, the kyper left to do what it would.

"Petch, Alori, get this thing off of me!"" Kovac muttered under his breath.

[Memento]

"Calm down everyone!" Phaurd commanded, his hands still tightly holding the bridge. "It's just a white-throated kyper, it won't bite." the man informed Kovac, hearing the hunter's plead and trying to get him to calm down. They needed to stop moving, otherwise the bridge would keep shaking, and they wouldn't be able to stand still to get out of it. The kyper sniffed around Kovac's neck, still chattering all along, but made no movement to bite the hunter. "We need to quiet down, so we can get to the other side and take this little guy out of you." for now the kyper was inoffensive, but it was clear that Kovac wasn't very comfortable with the animal perched in his shoulder.

It took a while, but the bridge finally stopped moving, and Phaud freed his feet so he could stand straight again. He checked to see if both Alori and Kovac had managed to recover their balance again, before turning.

The porcupine had moved out of the bridge, freeing their way, although it was still visible, lazily eating something from the ground. Its big quills were now lowered, as if the animal had forgotten they were there. Phaurd then began to walk towards the end of the bridge once again, slowly and carefully. The porcupine might not consider them a threat, but any sudden movement and they would be the target of the dangerous quills once again.

"If you two want to shoot it, let's get on firm ground first."