As a hunter stalks... (Somewhat mature)

[Ashen Rain]

[To Chronos and Swix. Soooo looong... u.u]

Allan was trying very hard to keep from crying. Seventeen year old boys were not supposed to cry, no matter how bad a situation was, as it was considered girly. In this case however, Allan wasn't worried about someone thinking that he was a pansy if he started bawling at how much his missing fingers hurt, or how much he was scared that he would die.

He only wanted to keep from crying because if he did start, his vision would be blurry. And if his vision was blurry, he wouldn't be able to dodge the roots flailing about him.

He had been lucky this far. Somehow he had kept from having the roots hit him (or much worse, puncture him), but just as the thought crossed his mind, he tripped.

Sprawled out on the ground, Allan covered his head to protect it from the vines he knew would be wailing on him soon enough. But when the blows did not fall, he dared a chance to look up.

Around him he could see nothing more frightening than the face that the ground behind him had been torn apart in his predators chase. He swallowed, sitting up and looking quite confused as the creature burst from the soil directly in front of him, covering with clods of grass and blinding him with sand. There was no hope for him now, he realized in agony. With a tight grip on the handles of the shears now slippery in his own blood, Allan bent his head and stinging eyes, holding the makeshift weapon out in front of himself. There was little good it would do, he knew as he suddenly felt himself grabbed by the shoulders and lifted into the air.

He hung there for a while, feeling a strong wind whip his hair about. Blinking painfully, he glanced about him, only to find that he was several feet up in the air- and quite a ways away from the thrashing plant that had attacked him.

Confused, yes somewhat grateful, Allan turned his attentions upward to see what was holding him- only to realize that the half furred, and half feathered underbelly of the beast had back legs with a pair of very sharp claws. He was sure his quickly beating heart had stopped by now as he stared in horror at the belly of a griffin- he had not been saved. He had just been taken by another beast for a different meal.

At the thought of having his organs ripped out by the sharp beak of the creature, Allan promptly fainted.

Behind the griffin it's mountain cousin still followed. The elf riding on it's cat like shoulders cursed quietly in a dialect similar to elfish as he watched the brown griffin dive. Barking a command to his flying mount, the mountian griffin screeched loudly and dived after her, with his elfish rider clinging to it's fur.

Mere seconds later however, and the Snow Elf upon the back of the mountain griffin appeared confused. As the female griffin had come out of her descent, he noticed that she was now carrying something in her talons- something that appeared to be a human boy. The elf did not care for humans- he had only attacked the griffin because he was young and ambitious, and wanted her head for a trophy. Now that she had taken a hostage, matters here were different. Perhaps if he rescued the boy, the young elf would be rewarded by the child's parents. Even if the Snow Elf found human treasures crude, gold was still gold, and could be melted into something much more beautiful.

With an evil grin planted on his face, the Snow Elf spurred his mount to fly faster. From his shoulder he pulled a bow, and from a quiver at his hip an arrow. Though the spear might have been more effective in taking down the magnificent golden brown griffin, he had lost it already. But a few well guided arrows might well do the trick...

Below, the root monster was left without her feast- but not without more exercise.

From within the town, a huge man had heard the boy's scream. Standing at seven and a half feet tall, he was thickly bearded and covered in furs from many animals, which were only held in place by leather belts and straps. Beneath his hood, made from the skinned head of a dire wolf, the hunter's tiny black eyes glistened. Without a word he had barreled toward the sound of the shriek, and now stood not too far away from the root monster.

This man would be quite the feast for Mortracta, if she were able to get past the two foot long blade of the man's sharpened stone ax.

“Hey!” The half giant roared, hefting his weapon and holding it as though a wood cutter might.”Where's tha boy? Wha' have ya done with em'?”

Not expecting an answer, the half breed posed to in preparation for the battle ahead. As he did so, his eyes caught the sight of something he hadn't noticed before- a small trail of blood leading quite close to where the root beast now stood.

“By tha' strands o' my beard,” the giant murmured. He had not witnessed Allan being carried off by the griffin, and so had assumed that Mortracta had devoured him whole. This enraged the half giant, which was not good for the root creature in the least. Many hunters searched out beasts to destroy to make trophies and money- they were bigots who were always looking for something that looked frightening to destroy that would make them seem more brave. Others did it for a living, as simple as that. Few others (like Ashen) did it for the pure joy of the hunt.

And then there were those such as this man, who did it to help people, and rid the lands of evil beasts.

“Ye'll pay for yer misdeeds,” the half breed roared angrily, lifting his ax and slamming it a foot and a half into the ground before ripping it back out. “Mark my words! Ye'll die at tha' hands o' Mourik Beasthewn this night!”

[Chronos]

Mortracta felt cheated. That boy was fun. Now she had wasted her energy and not succeeded in consuming her prey. Mortracta was angry. Suddenly, a massive vibration similar to a voice, but larger and more fierce, reached Mortracta.
Thunk.

Something large had penetrated the ground and ripped itself back out. Another one of those confounded hunters? Mortracta thought a moment. She had lost her prey. She needed to eat.

Novus preda! ((New prey!))

Mortracta dove beneath the soil once again. This creature was sweaty. It was not fear, but arrogance she tasted. Not surrender, but rage. Most importantly, not personal gain, but... chivalry. A good creature? There was no such thing, was there?

Mortracta still could pinpoint the location of the giant creature. Illi! ((There!)) Mortracta worked three roots to just below the surface. She poked her rootcaps above ground. Nothing softer than a diamond would be able to damage her rootcaps. She was not afraid. Slowly, she attempted to reach the perfect angle to kill.

[Mitsukai]

((I looked back on my previous post and realized that I made no reference to all the "swearing"... so it would be unfair of me to suddenly recall that Eve did hear something. So, I guess, Eve didn't hear him. And sorry for the waiting everyone... >>; I'm here now though. ))

Eve nodded as she processed all the information in her head. She had expected as much, and her thoughts about the spell had been confirmed.

T'would not be an easy thing to do.

Though Ashen's change was not exactly something that you would see every day, her shifting did not face Eve. In fact, Eve barely noticed the change for she was listening closely to Ashen's explanation.

The same could be said for Ashen's sudden disappearance as she translocated to the farm. Not even blinking an eye at the occurance, Eve anxiously bit her lower lip as was her habit.

I wonder how well this shall turn out...

After quickly running though all of Ashen's instructions in her head and commiting the image of the farm into her mind's eye, she copied the huntress's previous actions. Eyes closed though not squeezed shut. Both hands on the strap of her bag since she had nothing else to hold onto. Pure concentration and a lack of awareness to her surroundings.

Nothing.

Frowning, Eve was about to open her eyes when... it happened.

Wind rushing by her as if she was on the bow of a ship, sailing across an ocean. It whipped at the hems of her clothing, her hair, and she had to focus hard to refrain from tucking the stray ends behind her ear.

For what seemed like a long while, she traveled without moving her feet. Traveled through what, she did not know. Nor did she care when she her eyes popped open and she found herself... in mid-air.

Gasping, out of shock and out of breath, she landed on what seemed to be a roof. Hard.

Almost to the point of hyperventilating, she tried to raise her head and found she could not. The clouds in the sky seemed to swirl and, unfortunately for her, it only added to her sense of nausea. The smell of rotting fish didn't exactly help either.

A last thought managed to make itself known it her head before her world became black.

Ashen's unintentional prediction came true...

[Swix]

'Well, this worked out less well than I thought it would'. The female griffin thought as she flew as quickly as she can with the added weight of a human boy in her front talons. She had originally intended to draw the elf down with her and then fly off once he saw the boy. She was rather unfamiliar with the relationship between the two species but she had at least thought he'd try to help him and attack the plant creature rather than her.

But once she'd gotten close she'd seen that even if the elf had decided that then the boy would no longer be alive and her dive would have been totally fruitless. So instead, she'd done the first thing that had occurred to her: she'd grabbed the boy, and was now berating herself for it.

If she was on the ground, his weight wouldn't have been much of a problem for her to carry. But as she was in the air, not only was he starting to weigh her down he was also decreasing her ability to move through the air in as streamlined a way as she had been. So she was slowing, and her wings were beginning to struggle.

She nearly jumped out of her furry, feathery body when an arrow whizzed past her head, startling her into veering the other way. The damn elf was still trying to take her down, even with her 'hostage'! Didn't he have any idea of the fragility of these creatures?

The female griffin veered again, as another arrow whizzed past. She hadn't counted on a volley shot in all directions however, and one of the elfs weapons lodged itself in her left wing, near the joint attached to her body.

The 'monster' screeched loudly in pain as blood spurted from the wound, unable to keep her rhythm going she began to go on a one-way trip towards the ground. She attempted to keep herself as steady as possible with her right, but she was still unable to stay in a straight line on the way down. Many more arrows shot past her, making small 'whuff' noises as they moved through the air. At least three found their mark on her, two in her back and another in the thigh of her right back leg, making her screech even more.

~ Kid, wake up! We're going to crash! ~

She yelled to the boy as loudly as she could in thought form, as the ground rushed up to meet them.

[TheBlackSoul]

Beneath the grass heads, Lunagon looked very much like he was some sort of cat trying to stalk a bird. In truth, he had no idea what the heck he was doing in this pose. If he was trying to stay below the grass tops, he might was well lie down like he was going to bed.

However, it was about time he check on those women again. Slowly enough not to attract attention to himself, yet fast enough for his tastes, he stood up. Then he noticed both people were out of his sights. They weren't in clear view either.

That screws everything up. he thought. Without anything else better to do, he sat back down and absentmindedly started picking dirt out from underneath his claws.