[Sanctuary] Black Clouds and Blood Red Rain (Private)

[Vahn Gremio]

Vahn had been out for a simple run, excersizing his muscular legs in his magnificent horse form. He loved living in the Sanctuary, but at times he missed the wide, open plains that made for the best places to get exercise. He would have to work this in as a weekly run, to keep his legs fresh and his body in shape. A horse that sat around in a stable all day would just grow fat and slow, two things he refused to become, especially if Kavala wanted him to breed with the bloodmares to create a new breed of horse.

He had come back to the gate of Sanctuary, staying in horse form for the moment, when he spotted a rather large gathering of people. Sanctuary was indeed often busy with visitors here to purchase horses, food, medicine, and the like, so it was not too strange to see people here now. Making no big deal of the gathering, the kelvic trotted up closer to the stables.

His hooves stopped the moment he heard the exclamations of surprise and anger. Turning his head to the group, which was a good many feet away by now, he saw everyone watching Kavala and one of the strangers nearby. Was there possibly a haggle gone bad? Surely Kavala and the others had it under control. After all, she was always telling him to stop babying her and being over protective, something he had tried to work on for a while. She was the leader of Sanctuary, or so he was lead to believe. Even if he wanted to protect her, he was not necessarily the alpha male in these grounds.

He trotted to the stable he had made his own, grabbing a bite to eat, when he heard yet another series of shouts, some of surprise, others anger, and...was that last one of pain? Haggles should not go this badly to warrant such noises. Something bad must have happened. Remaining in his animal form, Vahn galloped back to the group to see Kavala land a sweep kick upon someone. It was then that he saw the dagger in the man's hand, and the blood upon her stomach.

Vahn was pissed.

Running full speed at the strangers, he planned on kicking the man with the dagger hard enough to cave in his skull the moment he came in range. His loud whinny of rage rand clear throughout the grounds, his hooves striking hard against the ground, sending dirt flying up behind him.

He barely noticed the others, even kavala. All he saw in his sudden fury was that one man with the blood-covered dagger. He had threatened this herd, an act that would not be forgiven...

((Sorry for joining late. If it's too late to join in, let me know and I will delete the post. ))

[Seth]

As Kavala made her bold move, "dagger guy" opened his eyes wide in surprise. Apparently he hadn't calculated that he would actually recieve some sort of fight from the pregnant bitch. All in all, her plan went fairly well. Even if he was trained, he hadn't been ready for this kind of reaction, and that would end up being his downfall. She grabbed his wrist, and fell backwards, twisting to keep her child out of his way. Painfully, she would feel the tip of the dagger dragging along the side of her skin as she twisted. He had been close enough to still cut her. The cut wasn't at all deep, simply a long crimson scratch that also shredded a line in her layer of clothing... but it would serve as a reminder, if everyone did indeed survive all of this. As he fell, once again, everyone around him would get a glimpse of something strange. It would be obvious now. As his cloak flew up around him, his naked body would be revealed. He wore nothing underneath that cloak. His tanned and lithe body was defined and muscled, with a patterned black tattoo covering most of his front half. Drykas? Kavala and the Dagger Guy were the first sparks in a roaring fire. The one with the shaking hands moved quickly as Riki attempted to draw an arrow and nock it, closing the distance between them in just a few steps. As he managed to get the bow nocked, the shaking man leapt upon him, trembling limbs crashing down around Riki in a violent attack. He was like a spider, with a thin bony body and long limbs... and he was trying to kill Riki with his web. Almost faster than Riki would be able to react, the man was readily attempting to draw his rope around his neck, to viciously strangle the life out of him. Mizuriel was perhaps the worst off of all of them. As the unskilled Human attempted to put to use fighting skills he didn't even have... he managed to screw up even the simplist of punches. The wild swing and over-dedicated movement was enough to send him topping forward in a tackle. Out from underneath the cloak, arms with scars slashed across them managed to catch his flailing fist, and the top of his head. Stepping back as Mizuriel continued on in his accidental tackle, the man almost casually flung him down, slamming him face first into the floor. A boot would soon follow, crushing into the back of Mizuriel's skull if he wasn't quick enough to recover. Vahn would be the last on the scene, his quick gallop still not aiding him in getting there before the first rounds of action had already finished. It was obvious that he and his untrained companions were up against skilled fighters... or perhaps just veteran murderers. All of their tactics and fighting styles had been rough and crude so far... but effective. He chose to defend the most important of the bunch, the one that held a child. His first skull crushing kick flew wild, as Kavala had pulled the man down on the ground with her. What was he to do now that the man was entangled with the one he was trying to protect? The Dagger guy growled angrily, twisting his wrist and yanking it free almost instantly. He was quickly recovering from such a surprise attack. The group had managed to get past the hostage situation. Would they manage to get past all of this? OOCI was waiting for Lakara, but failed to notice she had said she was going to be away. Sorry for the wait, folks! Hope you return to us soon, Lakara! <333

[Vahn Gremio]

With the first kick missing entirely due to Kavala's sudden movements, Vahn whirled about in a blood rage, seeking out the man with the dagger. His hooves constantly beat upon the ground, trying to step carefully around Kavala, but also trying to keep the man pinned down onto the ground, hopefully breaking a few of his bones in the process.

The chaos surrounding Vahn was of little importance to him right now. He would fight them all, if he had to, but he would start with the one who threatened an unborn child. Protect the herd...it had been Kavala's wish along with breeding with her bloodmares to form her new horse breed. He was not certain if she had meant to only protect the horses, but he considered everyone in Sanctuary a part of his herd.

Looking down at the ground, the horse's heavy stomps aimed at the man's legs, arms, groin, chest, anywhere that could cause pain or cripple the man. Vahn was no longer a tame horse, but a wild stallion, the kind that killed first and asked questions later. Already there were multiple hoofprints shown in the mood, some dangerously close to Kavala. Vahn tried to target just the instigator, but in his anger his judgement was becoming a bit cloudy...

[Mizuriel]

OOCSorry, I failed to post when expected. The laptop battery gave out on me. As Mizuriel was plummeting face first into the ground, he barely had any time to react. Before he knew it, the other man’s timely intervention got him pinned to the floor with no hopes of getting up in time to change anything, little less protect Samantha. His whole body was aching in pain, as his eyes closed reflexively. The watery pair opened just in time to notice a boot that seemed to be raining down quickly, its point – his head. Using whatever strength he could, he tried his best to push away from the ground, using one of his hands as his head was drawing backwards in hopes of dodging the blow. If he died now, sure Sam would be heartbroken, the Sanctuary would be one healer short and he would be mourned for a while. Even with that in mind, he still did not want to part with anything in the world; not his daughter, not his new friends, not even with Beldred the pony. All the anger and resentment for the intruders wasn’t going anywhere, as he couldn’t do anything to retaliate, just cry; but crying wasn’t going to solve anything. Fear was the last thing he felt, as he prayed for something to happen, for his little chance to stand back up and for the blow that would surely end him miss.

[Kavala]

Kavala went down hard, crying out. The problem with being pregnant - and near term - was that going down was fairly easy especially kicking butt on the way, but once down getting back up was near impossible. She rolled, but even floundered doing that, tucking her legs in and covering her head with her arms to curl into as small of a ball as she could as Vahn came charging in. Hooves flashed all around her as blood smeared across the stone floor. There was absolutely nothing she could do, Kavala knew, to right herself or climb to her feet. Even in the most peaceful of moments she'd had to have Raiha help haul her out of the tub or pick her up off the floor more than once when she simply couldn't get up.

In the middle of combat, that wasn't going to happen. Raiha wasn't going to appear like a hero out of a novel and offer her a hand, complain about how fat she was, and yank her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. No... not at all.

She thought about grabbing Vahn's tail, but the stallion appeared to be in a killing rage and best left alone. Floundering on her side curled up, she coudln't even reach her beltpouch to put together her blow gun nor reach any of her daggers. Blood smeared across the floor beneath her from the shallow cut in her stomach.

The bottom line was she was a sitting duck until she could get back on her feet and she couldn't do that alone.

[Hatot]

It was at about that time that Heather rounded the corner, breathing a little heavily as she had ran over the eight hundred yards to Sanctuary from Hatot’s school. Her eyes widened at the site of the struggle, the tension on faces, the violence in voices. More specifically, she gasped slightly, despite being winded, from the knife being forced away from Kavala’s stomach.

Her teeth ground against each other for a moment, taking a step back as her gasps of air were drawn in more heavily now. Suddenly, after taking a deep breath of air, her body twisted, facing towards Hatot’s school. “Master Hatot!” she yelled, her voice echoing in the open air as she began running once again, back towards the school. “Someone’s attacking Sanctuary!” Heather continued, yelling as she ran, her lungs burning from the exertion as she raced back.

In the school proper, Hatot’s ears filled with the shouts of his students, facing off against the sparring dolls, his arms folded over his chest. His ear then twitched slightly as the faint echo of another voice managed to creep in through the open windows. His head turned slightly, facing his right ear more towards that sound. “Hold.” Hatot then called out to his students, raising his hand as all practice ceased for a moment.

Hatot heard it more clearly now. His name being shouted, and the voice familiar. He stepped slowly towards the door, his arms falling at his sides before a single hand reached out, pulling the door open. In the distance and getting closer, Hatot could see Heather running in a panic back towards the school. His eyes narrowed as he listened more intently, stepping outside. Two words managed to reach his ear then. “Sancturary” and “attacking”.

His breath was stolen for a moment, his muscles tensing up as hue colors in his eyes began to shift between golden yellow, red and orange. His head turned slightly, looking back to the other students. “Stay in the school.” Hatot bellowed in a serious tone before his upper body leaned forward, his legs bending at the knees slightly.

With a push off that left a patch of the grass and earth at his feet torn free, Hatot and Radris were off, racing towards Sanctuary as fast and as hard as their long legs could carry them. Radris’ rage seemed to explode within them at the thought someone could be attacking Sanctuary, and for the first time in a long while, a hint of Hatot’s own rage added to that fire as pupils narrowed and teeth were bore when he rushed past heather. Hatot and Radris would be among them in less than a chime.

[Riki Stormheart]

Riki had never been known to be a fighter. He preferred to stand on the sidelines and offer help when he could. He was faced with a situation that fought his peaceful nature but in the same regard, he was a protective man. He would not want harm to come to his new home. Not with all the new life on it's way. Kavala was due to have her baby and the horses were too as well. He needed to fight for them. For now he would need to save himself. The shaking man was faster than him and was now on his chest. "The babies are coming soon. I cannot let them be in danger." He had to think quickly. He was not skilled in fighting and the spider-like man was too close to shoot with an arrow. He had no skill in fighting but he would have to try. He thought about an art that his father had spoken about very vaguely years ago back in Endrykas. It was about pressure points in the body. They could relax and immobilize people. He had always wanted to learn about them and his father had said he was going to show him how to utilize them but he never got around to it. Riki shot a hand out at the man's jaw hoping it would give him enough time to clamber away from the imposing stranger who was trying to strangle him. He had no idea if it would work. Possibly a swift punch to the stomach would have been a better route. He knew he would not have enough power behind his hits to do much damage on the man though. Beside him Riki could see Kavala laying on the ground bleeding. He felt the overwhelming need to help her. Not just to save her but to save her child. Even to save the Sanctuary. Without her leading it he had no idea what would happen. "I will help you." He mouthed the words, hoping to Rak'keli he could make them true.

[Raiha]

It had been mucky. Still was. But Raiha was just glad that the worst of the frigid, icy, snowy season was over, and the skies threatened to dump wave after wave of water down on them and turn Sanctuary and everywhere else into an utter mess. Diallo had accompanied her to town, and he was at her side now as they made their way back. She had cleared her morning chores and headed off to the Academy to see a bit more about Reimancy. It had been a good day. Until, of course, it turned out that all hell was breaking loose at Sanctuary. Anyone coming up the road could hear the horses, and the shadows, at their most expansive in the cloudy day, were everywhere.

She looped around Sanctuary rather than going directly – years of listening to Kanikra’s whispers and demands and tirades had taught her that when she didn’t know the situation, only fools rushed in. The Akontak didn’t count herself as one as she went around towards where the main cacophony seemed to be. “Good afternoon to you all. I’m sorry to bother you, but can one of you please tell me what’s going on?” she asked the shadows on her way in as she swept around past the stalls on her way to the gardens. From there she could get at the stairs. So close, it seemed, and yet so far. Diallo’s ears were pricked forward, the hair all along his spine standing straight up at right angles.

The shadowspeaker comes! She heard some of the almost demented giggles that never failed to make her skin crawl when she had first come upon them, feeling them coming along behind her. People, beasts, all together… The Akontak tried to piece together the conflicting contributions from all of the voices that whispered or cried at her, and build a portrait of some semblance of what was going on as her mind and long legs raced. The most she could get out of it was that people were here and there was trouble, and the dogs and the horses were going mad. Where was Asim? Even if Hatot was teaching classes, she had figured Asim would be around here somewhere. The bear certainly didn’t hibernate, though he could well be sleeping in the mews while she was at class.

Madness does not always howl. Sometimes, it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘Hey, is there room in your head for one more?’ Kanikra gave her twin a mental pinch. Sharply, Raiha, sharply. Put emotion out of the picture and focus only on your instincts right now. Or else I’ll do it. Even as they reached the gardens, she heard Kavala cry out, and the leggy Akontak took the steps three at a time. Oh, for… Calm down. I can do it or you can do it, and you’ll never learn if I have to do it this time. When your emotions are clouded, it becomes difficult to see. Focus!

The enormous deerstalker beat Raiha to the top of the stairs first, baying like Dira was coming for them all. She ducked away from the plunging horse, twisting to avoid the flying hooves that were attempting to stomp on the man on the ground, and on Kavala herself. Stupid, useless horse, Kanikra muttered. Should have been a gelding. Forget the suvai. By the time that connects... Raiha didn't even wait, having drawn the Kontinese weapon from her belt, the suvai out and tight in her grip, sticking towards the horse's side and away from the plunging hooves. Her fingers found the position behind the handle and prongs as she raked the longest prong of the whalebone blades at the horse's hindquarters of her position of relative safety. It might take a bit, if she hit him, to even slow him down, at any rate. She backed up again to pull out the long-handled flanged mace, more of her twin's weapon than hers, but something Raiha was getting comfortable. With the mace, she could swing from the sides, swing up, or swing downwards, and it was from the side she swung, aimed it at the stallion's hindquarters closest to the pregnant turt...Konti.

Mindful of the spazzing equine, she reached for Kavala with her free hand, suvai between her teeth, snatching at the tunic she wore and dragging her back towards her, almost flattening herself to avoid Vahn and protect her friend. Pregnant women always reminded the twin souls of turtles. Once overturned, without some freak accident, they never got up on their own, taking in the thin line of blood even as Kanikra pointed it out to her. She could deal with that. But so could Riki. It didn’t look deep, certainly not enough to be of any danger to the child she was carrying. Only once Kavala was safely away did Raiha set the mace aside and get both hands under Kavala's arms and lifting her quickly to her feet once more, as easily as one would lift a toddler, even as she felt the healing power of Rak'keli's Gnosis being pushed at the scratch, trying to disinfect and close it. She didn't let go until she felt Kavala was steady on her feet, and she grabbed the mace again, spitting out the suvai and putting it back in her belt. “What are they after?" she asked Kavala, even as Diallo took up a defensive stance on Kavala's other side.It may have been a silly question to ask in the middle of a brawl, but understanding their motives would certainly help clear a few things up and establish priorities. And in strategy, priorities were everything.

[Seth]

The sound of thunder rang out as Hatot and his apprentice made their way up to the Sanctuary. Obviously something was incredibly wrong, and the oncoming rain was only a bad omen. Within a matter of moments, lightning would rage and the heavens would open, pouring rain down onto the earth beneath. It was a torrent, a deluge, a steady onslaught of ice cold sheets, ones that would easily manage to soak Hatot to the bone. Dark clouds swarmed overhead, lightning crackled through the air... it was all like a dramatic scene in a play, building up to the grand finale. --- Riki managed to effect his attacker a bit, the wild blow to the chin causing the head of the spider-like man to snap back, a loud pop echoing out across the room. For as painful as the blow sounded, the man quickly showed Riki what a lack of muscle and a lack of skill would do to his punch. The man's head paused mid-snapback, and with a sadistic grin, he lunged his head forward, violently head butting his skull right into the face of the young Riki. If anything, the rope did loosen, though the man still had some hands on it. Riki wasn't choking to death any more. Even as he barely managed to dodge the stomp to the back of his head, Mizuriel would find himself being eaten from the inside out. Not by his opponent. By himself. "Worthless! Useless! You think you can protect these people? Fool!" As if to encourage the voices in his head, the scarred man struck out with his boot, catching the man in the stomach, sending him skidding across the floor, the breath knocked out of him, a rib perhaps broken by the sharp kick. The scarred man looked around, and took a step in a different direction, his attention pulled from Mizuriel. He didn't seem interested in anything going on around him, instead, he had focused onto a different target, his attentions almost trance-like in their intensity. The Dagger Guy, however, was doing horribly. He had rolled over onto his back, keeping close to Kavala, only to face a raging stallion. His eyes widened in fear and his body tightened, and he quickly curled, unable to do anything else. What else was he supposed to do, with the mass of weight and muscle raining down upon him? Vahn stomped like a mad-man, his hooves smashing onto the dirt, his reckless blows aimed at the dagger guy, but endangering Kavala as well. He likely wouldn't notice as his stomps smashed a hoof into Kavala's leg, a large snap echoing out as he struck the curled-up tur- Konti. At the same time though, two of his stomps managed to catch the dagger guy. One in the side, one in the arm, each blow signaling out two different broken bones. Perhaps more. Maybe he had managed to snap a couple of ribs, instead of just one. The horse would be bearing his teeth, raising his hooves to smash down the finishing blows... too enthralled by his success to even consider that he had injured Kavala. It would only be a slight sting across his hindquarters that would cause him a small pause. What was that? Had perhaps a fly bitten into him? It was a such a small little pain that he likely wouldn't even take too much notice. Perhaps he wouldn't even slow down. But then, the next blow came, and that was something that was impossible to notice. So blinded was he in his red hot fury, that he did not even have a chance of dodging the oncoming mace. The metal weapon was swung with little skill, but still bit deep within his flesh, smashing through the skin to lodge into the bone and muscle. Raiha would have no time to yank the weapon out, for as the horse crumpled, mid-flail, the woman would only have a fleeting window in which to dart in. She did, quickly so, and practically had to drag Kavala out of the way. The dagger man staggered up, one arm hanging useless, the other holding the bloodied dagger. The spider-like man had just head-butted Riki. Hatot would be flying up the staircase, his loud footsteps alerting everyone to his presence. Vahn would be dealing with his injury, and Raiha would be dealing with the poor Kavala. And the scarred man... ...Hatot would reach the top of the staircase just in time to see all of the scene before him, but for once, Kavala wouldn't be of the most concern. Everyone would likely be focused on the cloaked and hooded scarred man, who now held the forgotten Samantha by the hair, her head drawn back to expose her throat, which had a shining steel dagger held to it, drawing the faintest bit of blood. The girl was smart enough to fall in line when her life was on the line, quickly going with the man when he backed toward one of the other staircases in the room, the one that led downstairs to the kennels and temple. They had another hostage. He didn't demand anything, though. Provided that they didn't immediately attempt to attack him, he would simply vanish down the staircase, the girl in tow, leaving his companions behind. The voice in Mizuriel's head rang out again. "Useless fool!

[Kavala]

It happened so suddenly, so violently, that Kavala couldn't have later recounted the events which seem to collide in a chaotic whirlwind of violence on the very front steps of Sanctuary. Later, she'd be proud of her reaction, initially fighting the threat rather than caving to the reality of a dagger threatening her and Hatot's child. But once she was down, other things crowded in. There was a feeling of weakness, hopelessness, and the outright blatant violence took her back to an ugly place.

It was a place she'd thought she'd left behind. It was a place where abuse came fast and swift and there was very little control over what happened. Laying on the floor, something in Kavala snapped. It was something ugly, buried, and wearing the guise of a wounded cornered animal that would rather die than succumb to a lifestyle that had once been familiar to her.

Vahn charging in and defending her and the facility comforted her in an odd way. Kavala admired the stallion, trusted him, and felt grateful he was so vigillant. He was everything she coveted in a stallion and more. Kavala wasn't scared of him at all and though it might have been foolish, she completely trusted him to not stomp her while he was dealing damage to everyone else. It saddened her that they hadn't bonded. None of the kelvics at Sanctuary seemed inclined to do so. Often, the Konti thought something was amiss with her that prevented such things.

Odd what the mind thought of when in its greatest peril. She was curled about her son or daughter, in as tight of a ball as she could get. There was no protecting herself otherwise, and she had no weapons on her that she could fight with. Her belt had long since stopped fitting, and even the extra weight of a belt pouch of weapons harness was a bit much these days. So she waited, mind drifting in seeming timelessness, the world passing her by in slow motion.

Each blow the stallion dealt was like a minor victory that brought her closer to being able to crawl free and make it to her feet. But so much happened so quickly, and it confused Kavala for a moment that Raiha charged in and attacked the stallion. What in the world was she doing? Daggerman was persistent and not easily dissuaded. Even Kavala, who knew horses and how to act around them, wouldn't charge into the fray on a stallion as big as Vahn was, but the man seemed unphased. So too did Raiha. Enemies and friends twisted in her mind. An oversized hoof landed badly on top of her and snapped her leg.

Kavala screamed.

Something in her mind snapped brought on by the pain and violence, brought on by the chemicals in her blood from being so close to term. Kavala screamed again, a mixture of pain and rage, and began flailing. Her left leg was useless, but her right leg more than made up for it. Twisting, writhing, her arms throwing punches, she clamped her eyes shut and shrieked again, the sound she made almost echoing Vahn's warhorse challenge.

She saw Vahn go down and that was the last straw. From her intimate-with-the-stone position she didn't see who nailed Vahn, nor did she recognize any longer that Raiha was a friend. They were all enemies. Pain and rage and the need to get free tore through her. So much adrenaline hit her system that she almost climbed to her feet using Raiha as handholds but her broken leg wouldn't hold her weight and she went down again, still fighting. Blue skin took blows, though not well placed or sane ones. White konti teeth flashed and would bite into anything that came near her face. Each movement was agony, but her awareness retreated somewhere deep inside of her, and she became an animal - fighting as if tangled in a net - choosing death over capture as an easy and feasible choice.