[Flashback]Mind over Matter[Open/Training]

[Nil'kayn]

The stalked through the grass in silence for a time, listening for any tell-tale signs of glassbeaks. Suddenly as they walked, Krong tensed and lowered himself to the ground obviously catching sight of something. Kayn followed his teachers example, and lowered himself to the ground crawling forward so he could whisper into his brothers ear. “What is it? What do you see?” Krong simply raised his hand to his lips and pointed to his ears. So he had heard something, not seen something. Kayn closed his eyes listening. He heard…chirping? No more like a chirp breathing. Kayn’s eyes shot open, as he understood what it meant. They were hearing chicks, sleeping chicks, and chicks live at the nest, and the mothers protect the chicks, so the means that they were in great danger. He glanced at Krong, trying to figure out what his teacher had planned. Krong’s eyes where closed probably trying to hear for the mothers, but there wasn’t any other sounds except for the chirping, and breathing. Wait…breathing? He closed his eyes listening, and sure enough he heard the sound of slow rhythmic breathing of a group of very large beasts. The mother’s. He opened his eyes to see Krong’s eyes opened hand in his hand he held his newly forged Lakan. He slowly pointed towards where the sounds where coming from with the lakan, he put a finger to his lips, and made the motion of slitting a throat. Over there. Quiet. Kill. He wants as to sneak up on them, and kill them in their sleep. He nodded slowly, reaching into his pocket he pulled out the scavenged lakan showing it to Krong. His teachers eyes flared as he saw the weapon an odd look on his face, he nodded as he slowly got up and started to creep towards the nest, Kayn followed.

[Nil'kayn]

The soon where crouched on the edge of a large nest, made of patted down grass with three huge, sleeping forms. The mothers. A large amount of smaller sleeping forms. The chicks. And a single large still form. The glassbeak they tracked, it must have died soon after reaching the nest. He stepped out of the grass as Krong did, and the slowly and carefully stepped into the nest. Kayn looked down into the sleeping forms of these small innocent creatures, and his heart went out to them, but he couldn’t wipe the image of the mutilated Akalak from the camp. So he slowly reached down closed his hand around the creatures windpipe so it could not make a noise, and slit the creatures throat. He then moved on to the next chick, and the next. He made his way through the nest creating a bloody silent path aimed straight towards one of the mothers. He glanced up and saw that Krong was doing the same as him. So they continued there bloody path, through the nest until, he and Krong both stood just above one of the mother glassbeaks each, lakan in hand. Kayn looked at the creature he looked over the creatures colourful plumage, its glass beak and talons. This was a monster he must kill it. He then looked up to meet Krongs eyes, as he made the motion that he was going to count to four on his fingers. Four. Kayn raised the lakan above his head his sweaty palms encasing the cold metal. He looked down at the creatures, body his eyes finally resting on the creatures eye. He could feel his whole body tense with anticipation, he was covered in sweat. Three. He could feel a single drop of sweat rolling down from his forehead, and dripped from his chin, falling onto the sleeping creature. Kayn held his breath, hoping the creature had not felt that Two. He raised the weapon even higher, he raised his head to look at the weapon then looked down at the creature, but what he saw when he looked down froze the blood in his veins. He was looking into the eye of a mother glassbeak. One. He heard the wet, squawk of Krong killing the other mother, but he played no attention to that as his full attention was on the creature in front of him. The mother glassbeak rose her head slowly, until her head towered over Kayn. He was frozen in fear, this glassbeak was bigger than he had ever seen or even heard of; she looked to him to be around 9 feet tall.

[Nil'kayn]

He then plunged his weapon towards the mother unexposed neck, but the creature simply caught it in her beak. He let go of the lakan and stumbled backwards, and fell over a chick who let out a chirp that woke the rest of the nest in a flash. Kayn and Krong had killed around majority of the chicks, so the creatures aoke to find there brothers and sisters dead. They started to chirp and cry. The other mother, was already up and was raceing towards Krong who stood over the body of the dead mother. He saw the beast coming, and sheathed his lakan drawing his sword he roared and rushed towards the beast. Kayn payed no attention to this as he stared upwards into the eyes of a large glassbeak. The creature raised its leg and stomped downward with its talons bared, Kayn raised his arms in a clumsy effort to defend himself. The birds claws closed around his arms and tore long gashes across his arms and shoulders and even one across his face. Get up you coward face this beast like a man. He felt a boiling rage bubble up from inside him, his mind started to become hazy and clouded with rage. The creature pulled back its leg, readying for another strike. He reached behind him and drew his sword, which compared to his body was the size of a hand-and-a-half sword. He jumped up and roared, and rushed towards the glassbeak, the bird swiped with its claws where Kayn had just been but Kayn was faster as he hacked at the birds legs, drawing blood and causing pain, but no serious injury. The bird squawked, what could be considered a roar, and turned and drew back his head to strike at the akalak, Kayn raised his sword and braced his arm against the broad side as the bird came to strike its beak crashed into steel, shocking the bird, and Kayn, who shrugged it off. The bird shook its head and reared back its head to try again, but Kayn knew what to expect so ad the creatures head darted forward, Kayn darted to the side, and holding the sword in a two hand vice like grip he chopped downward with all his might. The blade cut through flash and bone, severing the creatures head from its body. He…He had won… He smiled as the haze slowly covered his mind, as his mind went dark to the world.

[Nil'kayn]

… He awoke some days later in a bed with his father standing over him, his whole body covered in bandages. He looked up into his father’s loving eyes, “You did well my son.” He placed a hand on Kayn’s forehead, as the boy fell back to the world of dreams. “I love you.” He slept well that night.

[Baku]

Thou has written, and thou has completed, so I award thee the following.... Nilkayn: +2 Running, +2 Body Building, +1 Singing, +5 Observation, +1 Wrestling, +1 Boxing, +1 Wilderness Survival, +1 Rhetoric, +2 Composite Longbow, +1 Camouflage, +1 Hunting, +2 Lakan, +2 Tracking, +1 Stealth, +1 Bastard Sword, Lore: Body Training Weights, The Results of Training, Running the Course, Singing Through Fatigue, Refereeing a Spar, The Basics of Wrestling, The Basics of Boxing, The Differences of Survival Based on Nature, Wilderness Survival Basics: Shelter, Cyphrus Region(basic), Wilderness Survival Basics: Food and Water Sources, Wilderness Survival Basics: Fire, Glassbeak Attacks, The Intensity of Battle, The Sight of Fallen Brothers, Preparing for a Hunt, Baiting, Signs of Traveled Ground, Glassbeak Nesting Grounds, The Rage of the Dark Brother, Returning Home for Rest, Additional Notes: Not a bad flashback. Just a couple of exceptions and one nitpick I wanted to make. This is just more of personal preference for me, but if you intend to use pics in your posts, I would appreciate them being a bit smaller. The eagle pic at the beginning was a little too large and made the post a little difficult for me to read considering my resolution and I had to scroll to the side to read it. My one grievance with the thread was that you underplayed how dangerous Glassbeak are a bit. True enough, with the number of Akalak you had in your party, they would have been defeated, but a lot more Akalak would have died in the process. As well, you don’t have the skill level to jump up and land on a the back of a Glassbeak charging you. Glassbeaks are very fast (faster than any Akalak save for those possibly using high levels of Flux), very strong, and very lethal. They're one of the most feared predators in the Cyphrus Region. If you wanted to compare them to something, consider a Velociraptor, only with feathers and a razor beak instead of a mouth full of teeth. You did give yourself some injuries, which I like to see other than a player writing out that they dominated without a scratch, so I’ll forgo any further injuries from the encounter this time. Based on your skill level though, there would have been risk to at least losing a finger. Other than that, a pretty nice thread.