Someone needs to be taught a lesson (Clyde, Ahilya)

[Clyde Sullins]

The scene as he approached, was a bit confused. Clyde let out a groan, seeing the state that they were in, one man dragging away another who was burned, and a girl. She at least, was coming to him, not trying to escape. He had at least a little respect for the one man, who was dragging the other off. He had not given up on him, and was willing to risk being captured to save him. As the one flopped in front of him, coughing and gasping for air, Clyde noticed her hand she was holding up. At least this slave knew her place, as she showed her mark of ownership, and servitude. "Good. Stay were you are, and get some air in you. Perhaps you can help me corral these ones who don't listen, back to some shackles." Just as he finished saying this, he lost what little respect he had for the man, as he released the other one. Petch... Spiking out a bit of the res, and carrying along with it a chunk of the air attracted through reimancy, Clyde shot off a bit of the pressurized air, to a cracking sound alike to thunder, aiming for a foot to the right and ahead of the man who was trying to escape. Hopefully this warning shot would be enough for him to get the gist of things, as a geyser of water would shoot up as the blast of pressured air struck it, probably also knocking the slave who was trying to escape, about. "The next one is aimed at your head. And you wont get another warning. Now help me with this man!" Having said that, and hoping the man had not been deafened by the blast, though perhaps he had been stunned by its proximity, he dropped his staff and cloak, kicked off his boots, and jumped into the water to go after the sinking burn victim. He made the rest of the prepared magic, the pressurized air sucked into the cone of res, float a few feet over his head and the water. If the other slave did not listen, he could shoot off another blast at him, this time at his head. And if not, and he assisted, the res and air would simply hang there harmlessly, swirling. After all, using his hands for motions just made things simpler. He could easily do them hands free, with just his will. Though he was hoping the man would do as asked, and return, to help with the man. He knew the basics of how to swim, and could do so decently, but was not fast, and he was not sure how well he could carry him alone.

[Ahilya]

The man's voice sounded far off, not like she was sitting right at his feet. Her had no idea who he was, from what she'd glimpsed of him one her way toward him from her hands and knees, he wasn't a person she'd seen at the market before. She did understand Stay... Or well, it sounded familiar in her ears even if it didn't sound right. As he pulled away, she let her body slump down to the ground, head tilted downward as she continued to cough and refill her lungs. The pain of not being able to breathe was unbelievable, and it was something she never wanted to experience again. Feeling water slash up to where she was, she weakly lifted her head up only to see the man's boots and staff left above the water's surface. Her head rested against her arm as she just focused on her breathing, her fingers reaching up to pull at the collar that was locked around her neck. For the first time in a long while, she was feeling way too vulnerable in this human form and she longed to be in her larger feline shape. Claws, fangs and strength.... oocSoooooo sorry for taking so long, had some RL stuff that's been just draining me, already told Clyde about it in a PM, sorry for holding us up. >.< Also being at an almost complete lost as to what to post kinda made my post short, sorry.

[Persona]

The escaping slave was stunned momentarily from the blast, which slowed him down considerably, but did not deter him. Even if he had understood the words shouted at him, he would not have heeded them; he had chosen to fight for his own freedom, and nothing would change his mind now. Still, the blast had disoriented him, and it took him a few crucial ticks to start swimming again. The man Clyde had burned roused slightly at becoming aware of Clyde's presence. He was barely conscious, but some lingering survival instinct caused him to accept Clyde's help. Clyde was able to pull the thief out of the water just in time to see two large burly men wrestle the still-struggling Svefra back to dry land. Before Clyde would have time to become confused, Samara approached the men long enough to clap the slave in irons. She leaned over to whisper something in the Svefra's ear, but it was too quite for anyone else to hear. Whatever it was induced a look of pure fury, but Samara merely laughed and turned toward Clyde and the other two participants in tonight's incident. Raising an eyebrow at the scene, she said, "Was that it? I was under the impression there were more of them." At which point the boy from earlier helpfully pointed out that another boat had escaped. Samara's grin turned icy. "I see." Her eyes went from the scarred and barely-alive man to the collared girl on the floor as she calculated. With deceptive sweetness, she said, "I'll take care of things here while you go catch the rest of those... troublemakers." She grinned slyly. She would, of course, be taking all the credit for recovering the lost slaves, and for capturing at least one of the thieves. If she could not coax information out of him, she certainly had contacts who could...provided she could keep him alive. Samara wondered if there was any way to keep Clyde from torching the next boat. His magic was impressive, but imagine if he torched the other thief, or worse, one of the slaves! He did not appear to have any useful skills beyond his magic... maybe he could benefit from a bit of...mundane assistance. "You may take a slave or two with you to capture the others, provided you bring all of the property back...undamaged. Though, if you choose to take the Kelvic, I'd recommend taking its collar off. They tend to be more useful in their animal forms." With that, Samara instructed the two men to take the burnt one away from Clyde, freeing him up to finish the task she had given him. It would be curious to see how he chose to proceed. Would he take the Kelvic, or try to break the free-spirited one? How would he search for the escaped slaves? Would he be able to pull off recovering the other missing slaves without damaging them? Samara would wait and see.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had managed with his deplorable swimming skills, to pull the burnt man back to land... He really hoped that man had been one of the thieves... Did not want to have damaged merchandise. But it seemed Samara had caught up, with some burly friends, and they had taken care of the other man, the one he had shot a spell at. At least he did not have to waste another, since they got him. Clyde nearly smiled, at her obvious choice in what to do. She would choose to let him go after, while she took care of the ones he had already captured? How nice of her... Of course it was the preferable choice for her to make... The easy way. While he had taken on all those people, taken out the thief and rescued him, brought back several slaves... One of which he had a little help with, but another blast of air reimancy would have had him out. Given the choice, Clyde would take the one that had proved to be a good listener. The girl. Though was he saying she was a kelvic? She did have the collar. He supposed that meant she was. He went over to her, and putting a hand under each of her armpits, lifted her up off the ground, and onto her feet. Then he went about finding her key for her collar, and unlocking and taking it off. Then he brought his face in close to the kelvic woman's. "Now, your gonna do as I say, and no funny business right? Or you get the same as that burnt guy over there. He didn't listen to my orders, and see what he got. I took off your collar, so you can change. Now, do you know which way the others thieves went? Do you have there... Scent or whatever? Can you help track them? If so, lead the way, and lets be after them."

[Ahilya]

The ringing in her ears was finally starting to fade away as she rubbed at her ears, working the water away from her eardrums. Her senses were slowly coming back to her and now that she wasn't being forced away from her pole, she could focus on what was happening around her. The man was out of the water again, pulling the thief that had undone her shackles. She blamed him for all this so she didn't feel bad at his crispy condition. Farther off down the docks, she saw a woman and a few other men subdue the Svefra and put him back in shackles. These were the good guys, they were going to make everything right again. Her hearing wasn't back enough for her to fully understand what the woman had told Clyde, but she didn't resist as she felt arms lifting her to her feet. She wobbled a bit but kept her ground as she kept her eyes down at his chest. He had wanted her off the ground for some reason and when he left to go hunt for the key to her collar, she didn't move. Was she going to get punished for what happened? She hadn't wanted to go. Her body started to tremble as she worried then flinched a little when she felt the press of the key against her collar before it dropped from her neck. His face was right in front of her's then, and seeing as he was purposely putting his face before her's, he wanted her to look at him. Her slitted eyes locked with his, taking in all the features of his face as she listened. He was much easier to understand now that she could follow the movements of his mouth to help understand what he was saying. Her eyes did shift to the side to glance at the charred thief when he was mentioned, and she shivered a little before locking her eyes with Clyde again. He didn't own her, but he had the key to her collar. Her eyes glanced down to it and the collar in his hands. Was she allowed to listen to him? So far she'd only worked with the slavers. Her eyes glanced to the burnt thief again and she gave a small nod. "F... Fear... The slave that got away..." She said, her elongated canines peeking out from behind her lips as she knits her brows trying to force herself to talk while hoping this wouldn't get her in trouble. "He won't want to come back, the scent of fear will be on him..." It also helped that she knew the slave, or well, as well as one slave could know another in the market before they were sold. Glancing to the collar again then up to him, she took a deep swallow. She could follow the scent, true, and she had seen the direction the boat had been heading when her and the other two had finally reached the docks. Her arm lifted and pointed down the channel. "They started that way... In the water. Once they are on foot, I will be able to follow... his... his scent better, but..." She looks around a bit before focusing her gaze on his chin. "I've never left here before... I don't know where they would get off the water at."

[Persona]

Samara couldn't resist meddling one last time. With her authority as one of the Ebonstryfe, she commandeered one of the boats owned by the slavers. It was pure chance that the boat she selected happened to belong to Ahilya's masters. "You can't very well expect to catch them without a boat. Unless you can fly. Have you managed that trick, sir Mage?" she taunted Clyde. If they took the boat, they would be able to follow the direction the other slaves had gone long enough for Ahilya to pick up the scent. The trail would lead them to the far shore of the lake, where they would be able to find the boat, left behind by the other three. The boat had been deserted recently, and if they hurried, they could find the escapees before the got too far.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde only half noticed the Styfe woman's taunt, answering her litterally, and not realizing it was a taunt. Though later, perhaps in a day or two, he might. "Not yet. But maybe one of these days. Though that is not totally in conjunction with my magics." He did indeed take the boat, along with the kelvic, and set off in the direction he had been indicated. Once they got onto open space, it was up to rowing, and he did his part, setting down his staff, to get them along. He honestly did not have that much experience with such things, and was not that well muscled, but he still pushed along, wanting to get them there as fast as possible. Once they got close enough, he would leave it to the kelvic to lead, and get them after them. To track them down. And if all went well, and they made it to shore and to the other boat, Clyde would gesture for the kelvic to find them. "Well, it looks like we are on the right trail, there is their boat. Can you sniff them down? Warn me if we get close."

[Ahilya]

OOC : Sorry about it being so long lol I felt inspired getting to play her in her shifted form Ahilya stood there fidgeting a bit longer as she watched the two talk only to then settle her eyes on the mage. Could he really fly? Her eyes drifted upward as she pondered what that would be like as the woman went about providing them with a boat. She wasn't exactly happy that they were going to be getting in the water again, but hopefully this time she wouldn't go under. When the mage motioned for her to get into the boat, she took a step closer to it then stopped and curled her fingers into fists. Claws would be better at digging into the wood to insure she didn't fall out. Not waisting a moment, she lifted her rags they called clothing up off her head, leaving her completely naked, and folded it up neatly before tossing it into the boat. The rags and the collar were the only things she really had, well, except for the chest of clothes that the slavers had gotten for her. Even though they were clothes for her, she wasn't allowed to wear them unless they dressed her in them and that wasn't very often. Only really when they wanted to try and show her off to potential buyers. Perhaps she was still a little to young for most people? Standing back up again, she looked down at her naked skin, eyes glancing over all the bruises that she had acquired during that days training and smiled. Maybe she would be able to show this mage what she had learned, even if it wasn't much. She tilted her head a little then pushed the thought from her mind, she was going to be shifted, she wouldn't need to use those skills. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath and a moment later her whole form was engulfed in an orb of light. A second later, Ahilya reappeared in her shifted form, a beautiful smooth furred snow leopard with a long, thick bushy tail. She took a moment to stretch her limps, as she turned her head to look up at the mage with her dark golden/light green eyes. This whole process, undressing, looking over herself, shifting and stretching all only took about 30 seconds and once that was done, she moved the rest of the way to the boat and eased herself in, trying to limit the amount of rocking it did at the added weight as she crawled in. Once square in the middle of the boat, she extended her claws and dug them into the bottom as she lifted her head and started trying to pick up the scent. The area here was still thick with smoke, but she'd seen what direction they'd went and hopefully as soon as they got out more on the water she would be able to catch a scent. As Clyde climbed in and rocked the boat a little, her tail started to flick a little as the boat rocked some more, then they were moving, drifting away from the dock. It didn't take long for them to leave the smoke filled area and she caught a faint trail. That was good, it was leading still in the direction she'd seen them go. After a few minutes of Clyde rowing and Ahilya looking from side to side as they neared the other side of the lake, Ahilya spotted the abandoned boat just about the same time Clyde called out that he saw it as well. Ahilya's tail started flicking a little more as her ears went from being flat against her head to perked up straight, filtering all the sounds she could hear. Despite being on the water and not liking it, her animal side was starting to take more control. She'd never once been aloud to hunt anything down before and her animal instincts were making her excited. Leaving the center of the boat, she crawled up to the head end and stood with her front paws right on the edge as she watched the shore get closer and closer. When front of the boat was about 10 feet away, Ahilya got tired of waiting and sprung into the water, her fear of not being able to breath leaving her mind momentarily, only to return once her head went under. Her paws started kicking at the water and after a moment, her feral instincts kicked in and the webbing that was between her paws made it easier to keep her head above the surface once she got going. She made strong strokes toward the shore and once there, she shook herself from head to toe before moving to the abandoned boat. She had been right, the unique scent of fear was still strong on the boat, the small group hadn't gotten far. Flattening her ears and flicking her tail a little, she made a wide half circle around the boat with her nose lifted to the air as Clyde brought the boat the rest of the way to shore. Once he was on land and had his staff in hand again, Ahilya had the scent and started off in the direction the scent lead her, alternating between running and walking at a brisk pace, each step bringing them closer and closer until she figured they were close enough to the source of the scent and she stopped in her tracks and looked back at the mage as he caught up to her. She gave him a small growling sound from her throat, but made sure it wasn't too loud to alert their prey. Looking forward again, she started on again, this time slower and actually creeping closer to the ground. Yay for stalking!

[Persona]

OOCNever apologize for inspiration. The trail wound narrowly through the forest, but the three fugitives had passed by recently enough that Ahilya could followed their scent easily enough. It wasn't until they heard the sound of voices that Clyde and the Kelvic realized they were almost upon them. It sounded like the group had only just made camp; they hadn't even gotten a fire going yet. "Why are we stopping?" a highly nervous voice was asking. "What if they catch up? We have to keep moving! You're supposed to keep me safe!" "We have to rest," a calm, measured voice replied. "The girl can't keep going at this pace. We'll be safe enough until Pilfer catches up to us with the others." "Then leave her behind! Your friend probably got captured by the guards already. Let's just cut our losses and escape while we can!" The calm man's reply was too quiet to be heard. It was difficult to tell how much longer the group would be staying in this clearing. Would Clyde have to act quickly, or could he bide his time and come up with a plan?

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde was not certain how many people they were after. Clearly, at least one of them, were the thief trying to abscond with the slaves, and he had likely taken off with a slave or two. As they walked, he spoke to the kelvic, a quick word. "Don't kill the slaves. If you have to injure them a bit okay, but nothing to bad, and don't kill them. Once we get in there, I will do my bit, and you try to round any up if they try to escape." Likely the first one captured would live to tell the tale, or to be tortured till he did... Which meant it was not essential to get the next one alive... Though they likely would prefer him alive... Which meant if he had to, he could kill off the other thief. As long as he dragged back the slaves more or less unscathed, he would be fine... And he was boiling to let loose a bit, to show his mighty mage powers, to put some fear into these worthless masses of meat, who thought it was okay to run away from their duties, or to try and steal in this town, Ravok's town. Not on his watch. The voice pestering in his head was not helping the matter, and was certainly getting him pumped up... The small taste of magic he had done earlier was really nothing... He could do so much more... It would be so easy, and so pleasurable, to do so know... He was keeping from blasting the forest apart for know, but would likely not do as well once there prey was in sight... As he heard voices though, Clyde had hit his mental limit or restraint, and was ready to go in djed a blazing raining down fire and death. He began to issue out his res, as a liquid letting it run off his body and seep into the ground, dribbling down his face and neck, down his body, to roll down his legs and into the dirt and earth at there feet... A bit of earth attraction, would make this ground here into deadly weapons... He listened as they spoke... It after a moment, it was clear who was who... The nervous man was likely a slave... Or else he would not be speaking of being kept safe... A coward would not have set out and expected others to protect him... So likely a slave... The girl, well she also might be a slave, since she was also being spoken of as someone to be protected... Which meant the calm man, the one speaking so coolly, was likely the thief... He could not be certain, but that seemed the most logical to be true, from what he had observed. His plan, if it could be called that, was simple. Attack the thief, and cripple him. Kill him if need be. And intimidate the others by threat of bodily harm to come along as he said. Working up his djed in his res, he could feel a bit of himself in the ground, flowing and soaking into it, spreading out down below his feet... A part of him, but separate... He made a movement of his empty hand, lifting it up suddenly, and pulling out a chunk of res infused ground, with a turn of his hand shaping it and rotating it, flexing his fingers to stretch it out and lengthen it into a long pointed spike several feet long... Soaked with res, it was easy to control... Though once he attacked, they would be spotted... He would try and catch the man he believed was a thief off guard, and send the spike into his hip or leg, trying to cripple him. At this distance, he could likely guide it right in, using the res to speed it up and angle it. And if there was enough res in it left, he could yank it back out, and send it again lancing in. Though he was also focusing on the res below him. If he had to, he could rip up a chunk of ground in front of him defensively, should the thief try to attack him, or as another attack send up another spike of earth. He was totally focused on his res, his targets... Once the weapon struck whatever it did, he would shout out at them, the element of surprise lost by his first attack anyways, "Stay put and don't run off, or the next one is through your head!" By then the kelvic would be doing whatever it decided, and he would see if the people would run off, or stay put and give up. His next reaction depended upon what they did. He might have to stop one of the slaves, if he did he would aim for something no critical. Maybe aim for winging them in the shoulder if they ran. Or if the thief attacked, he would have to defend himself, and possibly finish him off with a spike to the head as he had said. Though only if he had to... But at this point, he was so excited by his magic, and the prospect of casting more, he was not exactly completely logical, and might do a bit of overkill, and perhaps overreact to a threat from the thief. Maybe a shot at the slaves knee or ankle, with a blunt tipped spike, would also do well...