Playing Games with the Game.

by **Medhozic** on March 31st, 2014, 8:01 pm

He was forced, much against his better judgement, to abandon the lost arrows that lay strewn over the floor as a memorial to the day that he and the girl both cheated death and a fair pack of wolves from their meals. The girl was already coming up at the back.. which would make her the first to be caught should the wolves attempt to stalk them far out to the edges of the woods. Naturally, he reached back and tried to guide her ahead - he'd take the back instead, with his bow still drawn and prepared. He had to make sure that she didn't kill herself for a second time. Or.. a third time? He wasn't counting any more - all he knew was that there was a lot the girl needed to learn about not dying. Then again, the same could be said for all the living. Or mortal. Whichever way someone wanted to put it, there really was no difference.

"Hurry. Quickly now." He relied on nothing but the echoing footsteps of the girl ahead - the moonlight could not penetrate the thick canopy of leaves overhead, leaving little but shadows to see amongst the dirt beneath their feet. Not even a silhouette in the night to follow - his bow was as good as useless if he couldn't even see the wolves that he was supposed to be shooting down. Stubbornly, he didn't replace it with his kopis. He'd have a better chance with an arrow through the heart than a measly curved blade that was never meant for combat, he told himself.

Neither would happen tonight, though. He could hear more than one set of footsteps, and he was excluding his own. The wolves hadn't given up, through most odds. Winter was always a terrible time for the hunters - he could relate, after all. He was glad that he had money to buy meat from the merchants when needed, but when there was little else but what one could find.. well, then desperation would make them take down anything they could manage for a single scrap of food. He'd done it once.

"Damnit. FASTER!" He was getting desperate too. He wouldn't waste an arrow and be forced to reload it, but he wouldn't wait idly by when the wolves crept up on them. They hadn't hesitated to try and take a bite out of them before and there wouldn't be any mercy here either. Wrought with worry and indecisiveness, the only thing that could have made it worse would have been to trip over some kind of root. And mercifully, that was exactly what didn't happen. Instead, a familiar glow began somewhere off to the left of the forest, growing ever-stronger. He couldn't actually focus on it because it pierced the shrouded woods with such ferocity.. but he could see the outlines of several dark shapes that had emerged, at some point, through the thin remnants of the bushes around them in a semi-circle, prowling silently.

The light advanced though, brighter still, and the wolves were quick to disperse. All fell deathly silent, the hunter and the squire forgotten completely by everything.. invisible under the watchful eyes of the forest.

And then they broke out, as if a door had suddenly been opened, onto the safe, forgiving dim of the North Kabrin Road. "Keep running. Don't stop. All the way there. Don't turn around." He wasn't about to tempt fate for the seventh time that day. First the deer, then the girl, then the hunt, then the wolves, and now this. Goodness knew what else could possibly go wrong for that day.. even though it wasn't technically day any longer. Which meant...

Now that he was in the open.. his horns were gone. His skin was pink. He was human. Petch.

by **Oriah** on April 8th, 2014, 3:45 am

Thwack! Snap!

She held up her arm as a low hanging branch whipped by. Part of the bough went spinning into the air upon contact and landed somewhere in the mass of darkness around them. Sparing not even a backward glance after having narrowly avoided taking a direct blow to the face, Oriah pressed on with single minded determination, drawing more than enough motivation from both their hungry pursuers and Medhozic's increasingly desperate directives.

On and on they ran, pelting like the frenzied prey they had become, all but blind without Leth's guidance. The entire thing felt rather mad to the newly recruited squire, who hadn't expected her dances with death to begin quite so soon. Funny, that her greatest regret in facing the prospect of being eaten alive was not being proficient enough in Common to send a lett--

There, just beyond those trees! She could see it!

With a wild burst of will singing through her veins, Oriah surged forward toward the familiar light as if her very life depended on it. And it did, along with that of the Eth's as well. Together they plowed through the last stretch of wilderness before they exploded into the clearing in a rain of leaves and other, foresty debris, uninhibited alarm screaming through every detail of their visages.

Weary beyond words, the girl felt the maddening desire to rest, now that the wolves had seemed to halt their pursuit. But the hunter gave her no such option and insisted they press on. And so they did. Oriah felt like she might drop to the ground at any moment in sheer exhaustion, but she ignored the ice cold fire in her lungs and forced her leaden limbs to keep moving. One after another. Not stopping. Mustn't look back. Keep going, keep running!

She was so absorbed in the task--their single barrier between life and death--that the Benshira almost plowed straight into the armored guards manning the gates.

"I said," one of the knights repeated for the who-knew-how-many-eth time, "halt! Stop, or you shall be--" He reached out a gauntleted hand to stop Oriah's headlong momentum, though it wasn't much by then, sadly. She had all but run out of steam and her running had turned to something more of a pathetic shambling.

"--stopped."

"We..." the girl wheezed, "...the wolves...run...don't....stop......"

"Woah there, lass," the knight hushed, peering at her face questioningly to make sure she wasn't mad. "Take it easy, you're safe now. You and your friend."

The second guard chimed in, his concern more sincere. "Aye, take a breather now, you're in good hands. Are you two citizens of the city? What are your names? Take your time now, lass, no rush."

At their first mention of her companion, Oriah almost collapsed right then and there in relief. She had been relying solely on the sounds of running footsteps behind her to ensure the Eth was still alive. Several times during their mad escape she had to resist the fierce desire to look behind her, just to be certain he hadn't somehow fallen behind or been whisked away as the wolves' next big meal.

The Benshira turned around with every intent to thank him for keeping his end of the bargain. Medhozic had gotten them both back alive, as promised, and even surprised her in their moment of greatest danger by putting himself at the rear. It was an act of consideration she had not expected, and one worthy of a devout worshiper of Yahal's deepest respect.

But, what she saw stole the breath right from her lungs.

"Something the matter, lass?" one of the knights inquired.

Oriah fought against panic. If she gave the guards any reason not to let them in, they were done for. She needed to play it safe, and smooth. Coughing to cover her naked surprise at the sight of Medhozic's mortal transformation, the squire turned back to face the knights.

"N-no!" she replied, smiling as disarmingly as she could manage in her fatigue. "Just happy to have returned in one piece."

The girl straightened herself up, prepared to present herself as one of the Order. "I am Squire Oriah Azari, under the patronage of Sera Mora. And this," she shifted to reveal the now very human looking Eth, "is my good friend, Medhozic. We were out for a little bit of hunting and practice with our bows, but met some trouble along the way."

The two guards traded a look. Oriah swallowed, hoping her story held enough truth to cover any obvious vagueness. She chose not to mention her companion's background or profession, unsure if either would provoke more scrutiny. Technically, they had done nothing wrong, but they were both dead tired and unwilling to wait a single tick more for some real rest. The deer meat needed to be taken care of--the sooner the better, she assumed--and for once, she was looking forward to having walls looming over her in every direction.

Fortunately, both the knights gave her a curt nod and pat on the shoulder for having survived thus far as a squire and allowed them both entrance. With a rush of relief, Oriah thanked them both, remembering to address them both formally as her superiors, and passed through alongside the hunter.

"Blessed Yahal," she blurted as soon as they were safely inside. Then the girl turned to Medhozic and gave him a weary smile. "Thank you."

by **Medhozic** on April 12th, 2014, 6:21 pm

With his arrow still notched, pulled taut under the watchful glare of the bow, he followed her as fast as he could - while constantly looking back over his shoulder, anyway. It seemed that he could.. well, almost always rely on friends to help. After all, he could be pretty assured in his mind that any longer and one of them would be leaving the Bronze Woods with a chunk of their leg missing. Then again, going through all of this had been Oriah's fault in the first place. If he'd never met her, if he'd never retrieved his deer, he would have never spent all that time cooking the food, talking, dragging it back through the entire forest, spreading its scent over half of the woods to attract some hungry wolves in the first place. He could have avoided all of this, if he hadn't met her. It was slightly depressing when he thought it over, because he'd grown fond of the girl in the brief time that they'd met. Even if it was entirely her fault that they'd both nearly died - in fact, it was only the small glint of humanity left in whatever mortal body that he now owned, that had kept the girl alive for this long alone. He could have easily not wasted an arrow shooting down those wolves.. could have not instructed her to climb the trees and escape. Heck, he could have left her for the wolves.. to slow them down while he made an escape. It wasn't cowardly - that's what the shadowed corner of his mind kept rationalizing. It was.. making use of what he had.

He shouldn't have thought such things. Mentally, some invisible hand representing his conscience slapped him. He wouldn't have found a deer, wouldn't have gotten food if it wasn't for her. She'd offered him help, damn it.. even though she had absolutely no obligation, other than a need to get back to Syliras. The meat - and her friendship - had been worth it. And, if he could still remember correctly, friends don't kill other friends. That was called betrayal.

And it was betrayal that had killed him, all those years ago. Did he dare stoop so low, as to take on the same mind as his killers?

His thoughts were snapped rudely from the forefront of his mind by the loud yelling of a man, clad in silver, illuminated by the early moon - bathed in Leth's light. "Halt!" He didn't. He wasn't going to stop running away from a whole pack of wolves just because some knight told him to. Neither was Oriah, apparently, because she just kept on running until the knight had to physically stop her with an outstretched hand. There were the Syliran Knights, after all - too proud, too stubborn or simply too stupid to not notice when there was a serious emergency on hand. Heck, it was a miracle that they held any kind of order in this city, the way they strolled about it like they actually owned the place, rather than protected it.

"Wolves attacked." His lungs were still burning, so his voice came out slightly more choked than he would have liked.. but at least he could stand straight. Unlike Oriah. He was about to go on, but from nowhere, the girl found her voice again, leaving him to stand there, looking quite a dullard, as she explained everything out for them. His bow was quietly sneaked around, behind his back, although the arrow by now had been removed at least. They'd believe him if he said he was a hunter, wouldn't he? Well, they'd have to, now.. he was in his damnable mortal form. The one that wouldn't show his true identity. And the one that no-one had ever seen, including the guards, including every damn citizen in the entire city.

Once again, something for her to blame.

Still, thanks mostly to her explanations, they were allowed through. The bow was carefully latched around his shoulder, and the guards only gave a thankfully-small glance over the weapon before standing aside and letting him pass. Phew. If he still had horns, they probably wouldn't have let him inside, even if he was carrying nothing but an eating knife. "You're welcome. Next time, run faster." Yes, she needed to work on that. Though he made no notice of the fact that he'd been running quite a bit slower.. "Though I must leave, before anyone else sees me." Now that was going to be awkward indeed.

by **Nightmare** on May 3rd, 2014, 3:35 am

Oriah :

Medhozic :

Additional Comments: Very entertaining thread! Enjoy the plethora of assorted skills, you guys definitely earned them.

Please PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

Credit Lenz

Skills	Amount
Endurance	+4
Observation	+4
Climbing	+3
Foraging	+3
Land Navigation	+3
Weapon: Short Bow	+3
Running	+3
Acrobatics	+ 2
Detection	+ 2
Wilderness survival	+2
Socilization	+2
Tactics	+1
Rhetoric	+1
Negotiation	+1
Buthcery	+1
Story telling	+1
Weapon: Tamos	+1
Stealth	+1
Knot tying	+1
Swimming	+1
Body building	+1
Leadership	+1
Food preservation	+1

Shield Points	Amount
Shield points (assisting a hunter)	+4

Skills	Amount
Hunting	+2
Observation	+4
Planning	+3
Tactics	+1
Stealth	+2
Weapon: Short Bow	+3
Socialization	+3
Rhetoric	+1
Leadership	+2
Skinning	+1
Running	+2
Climbing	+2
Storytelling	+ 1
Acrobatics	+2
Weapon: Kopis	+2
Body building	1
Endurance	+3
Wilderness Survival	+2
Butchery	+1
Food Preservation	+2
Cooking	+ 2
Land Navigation	+2

Closed Playing Games with the Game.