Firekeeper's World: Tiniel and Isende's Cottage
[continued from here, here and directly following here.]
"We've been spotted," Harjeedian told them. "A man came out of one of the buildings up the hillside, stared this way for a while, and then hurried down the hillside towards where many of the dwellings lie."
"Then we need to get back to gate and hold it," Firekeeper decided quickly, glancing at her companions to see if they agreed.
"Let's go then," Merlin said, moving to stand by Francine. Arthur was more than capable of handling himself unless a convenient tree branch was needed to drop on people.
Or a sword was needed to kill magical beasts.
Arthur
Well, it was reassuring that Merlin was recognising that fact. Arthur just nodded, looking back in that particular direction, and turned. "No point in waiting. They might already be moving, adn we need time to fortify our position."
Francine
Francine found herself reaching for Merlin's hand again, but stopped short, partly from that same returning need not to look helpless in a scary situation, and partly because if someone came after them, he might need that hand. Instead she just looked at him and gave a weak smile. "Getting the heck out of here, party of nine?"
Firekeeper
The 'getting the heck out of here' might prove even more difficult than they'd originally thought, as the group arrived back at 'their' gate building to find a crowd of yarimaimalom milling about. They ranged in size from foxes to bears, but all were underfed and generally in bad physical shape. Firekeeper caught sight of Derian, leaning against Eshinarvash's flank and looking as if he might be ill.
She was curious as to what happened here, but again pushed curiosity away in favor of getting things done. She turned to ask Isende how many fighters they were likely to find ranged against them, only to find... "Twins is gone!" she cried in dismay.
Harjeedian
Harjeedian lifted his head to look mistrustfully back the way they'd come. "Could they have gone to warn the Once Dead that we know of the attack?"
Plik
"There were some among the Once and Twice Dead who were kind to them," Plik said softly. "Perhaps they felt they owed some duty, but I wonder. I wonder."
What he wondered, he kept to himself for the moment.
Derian
"Duty to those people?" Derian turned from where he leaned against the piebald horse. "They've been keeping the Wise Beasts prisoner who disappeared into that copse. Experimenting on them. We found pelts."
Truth
Truth gave a low growl, and Plik flicked his dark, shiny eyes to the jaguar before translating for her. "They used sorcery to make the yarimaimalom give life to the bracken beasts. It was them we were fighting all along, under the Once Dead's control."
Harjeedian
Which explained the crowd of animals and their condition, but did nothing to solve the problem.
Harjeedian gave a curt nod, looking almost as disgusted. "Regardless, we need those two. Our prisoners will never let us back through the gates now, not with their fellows here to back them up. Tiniel and Isende got themselves here; they may be the only ones who can get us out. We need them back."
Firekeeper
"You and Derian and Plik remain here," Firekeeper instructed Harjeedian. "These yarimaimalom is needing your help, and Plik can translate. We shall go bring twins back, whether they want to come or no."
Francine
"I should..." Stay here, Francine started to say. Like it or not, she would be in the way, and the fighters' attention should be on getting things done, not making sure she didn't trip over a rock and fall straight onto somebody's sword.
Truth
Truth lifted her head and gave Francine another one of those eerie stares, then a sharp growl that was almost a bark.
Plik
The raccoon-man frowned once, then turned to Francine. "Truth says that you -- " he seemed a bit apologetic to relay the next part. "--give her a headache. If she's to help hold this gate without distraction, you should go as well."
Francine
"Oh...kay." Whatever the heck that meant. Though admittedly it wasn't the first time anyone had ever said that to Francine. Just never an intelligent, psychic jaguar. "Guess I'm with you guys, then." She cast a last nervous look over her shoulder, then followed after the others.
A little Bit Later, and Closer to the Center of Town
Firekeeper and Blind Seer
They were close enough now to hear the murmur of human voices.
"Can you make out what they're saying?" Firekeeper asked Blind Seer, knowing the wolf's hearing was far better than her own.
"I can make out words, but not the sense of them. It is another language than the ones we know. And Tiniel and Isende are among the ones who carry the lanterns."
Firekeeper quickly relayed this information to the others. "I have idea on how to slow them," she added, fitting arrow to bowstring. "Even bravest of humans become very cautious without light."
Arthur
"Never mind making it hard to see in the first place," Arthur returned, a note of approval to his voice as he loaded up a bolt on his own crossbow. "Without light, and given enough arrows on our part, we might confuse them as well. Maybe take a few of them out."
Which Arthur was all in favour of, yes.
Firekeeper
"Merlin, Francine," Firekeeper directed. "Approach from side. See if you can spot our strayed pups and perhaps bring one away." She drew back the bowstring and aimed at what seemed to be the nearest lantern. The breaking of glass and a yellow-orange flare told her that she'd hit her mark.
Merlin
"All right," Merlin said, shooting Arthur a quick look of 'if you die, I will be more than simply cross' before snagging Francine's hand.
Francine
Francine had to wonder how they were going to spot Tiniel and Isende in the darkness that Firekeeper was creating, but there was still enough light to see where they were moving as she followed Merlin around the edges of the open courtyard area where the Once Dead and their lanterns were gathered.
Arthur
Arthur was not going to roll his eyes at the look he'd been granted - he was just going to think it. And then focus on his aim, rather than casting any looks after Merlin that might have communicated the same thing.
Well, past the first one he threw, anyway.
He aimed. He pulled. He hit true, the lantern smashing apart, raining small amounts of debris onto the people below. Without even pausing to think about it, he shoved another bolt into his crossbow, squinted, took aim for a random man's chest - a bare shadow in the new darkness ...
Firekeeper
Which was even darker now that their attackers realized what made them targets, dropping the remaining lanterns.
"To me, to me!" Firekeeper howled in the language of Beasts. She heard answering howls, and knew that within moments, her 'pack' would have backup in the form of several angry yarimaimalom, eager to do damage to those who had kept them prisoner.
"We have come for the twins!" Firekeeper called out, readying another arrow. "Give them to us and you go on your way unharmed." Though really, if it came to it, they only needed one of them...
Tiniel
A male voice answered in a language unrecognizable to any of them.
Shortly after, there was another voice, this time in Pellish. "You will not have them."
The oddness was not in the argument, but that the speaker was Tiniel. That he was translating for the first man explained the strangeness in how he referred to himself, but not the curiously flat timbre of his voice.
Firekeeper
"What will stop us from taking them?" Firekeeper asked defiantly.
Isende
"We'll kill them," Isende's voice came, flat and inflectionless as her brother's, speaking on the heels of a stiff female voice. "We'd prefer to keep them alive. They're interesting, and a true font of knowledge, but rather than give them to you, we will kill them."
Lovable
Firekeeper's shoulder was suddenly heavier, and Lovable spoke. "She tells the truth. One of the men has a knife to the one's back, another holds a blade to the other."
Firekeeper
"If you kill them, what stops us from killing you?" Firekeeper demanded. "Be wise. Give us the twins, and walk away with your lives."
Isende
Isende spoke again, prefacing her comments with a dry, harsh laugh. "We have done some spying on you in a fashion you could only begin to comprehend. We know how you came through the gate, and I do not think that key will work again. We only need to keep you here for a day or so more. Then you will be too ill to do anything to resist us. As I said before, we would prefer to keep the twins alive, but to seal you here, well..."
Tiniel
It was strange to hear someone talk about her own death so casually -- but the cry of pain that came from Tiniel at that moment was in the youth's own voice.
Lovable
"They've cut him," Lovable reported. "The one who did so is holding a cloth to the wound, but I do not think it is a gesture of compassion. He has a hungry look about him. He likes what he has done and longs to do more."
Firekeeper
Something in Firekeeper snapped. She was tired of being clever and patient. They needed the twins -- either that or she was going to have to hurt Ynamynet or Lachen until one or the other would do the spell. And given the choice between that and an honest fight... She glanced over at Arthur and flicked her eyes to his crossbow, then back to his face, and nodded.
Arthur
He caught her gaze just once, a shadow of something passing over his eyes; an intake of breath, and then he'd fired, burying one bolt in a man's chest, reloading with quick, experienced fingers, picking his next target-- a kneecap-- and firing accordingly.
Arthur reached back for another bolt. Wondering, for a moment, what would happen if these were his people. Knowing that it didn't really matter, because whatever this was that those people were doing down there, it wasn't right, wasn't just.
"Will you listen?" he snapped to the crowd, and took aim again. Where was Merlin? His eyes flicked around in the darkness.
Firekeeper
"Grab the twins!" Firekeeper yelled in Merlin and Francine's direction. Feeling Lovable launch from her shoulder, she dropped her bow to the ground and sprang forward, intent on her goal.
Francine
Right, because Francine was an expert at grabbing people being held at knifepoint.
Except when the raven flew from Firekeeper's shoulder, she wasn't alone. The darkness was filled with snarls and howls as the summoned Wise Beasts went with focused intensity after those who had held them prisoner.
In that confusion, Francine spotted Isende, free of her captor but standing still, staring dreamily into the fray. That, she could maybe do something about, like running forward to grab the girl's arm and tug her back toward Merlin at the edge of the fight.
Merlin
Coming up behind her, Merlin grabbed Isende's other arm and tugged without much care for her safety. "Francine, run."
There were more important people here than a rather loony sorceress, after all.
Tiniel
Most of the Once Dead and their allies were down, now, perhaps not dead but certainly not doing anything that would attract the attention of the prowling beasts or Firekeeper and Arthur's arrows.
A small group remained standing, centered on Tiniel and the man who held him. Spears made a porcupine's screen around the edges of a cluster at whose center stood Tiniel and two other people, presumably Once Dead. Tiniel remained unresisting as a short, fat, snaggletoothed man busily etched an elaborate pattern onto Tiniel's face with the edge of his knife.
Alongside the pair, a skeletally thin woman with very dark skin had just begun to sing. Her voice was shrill and piercing, enough to make the throats of those around her ache just from listening.
Blood streamed from a slice down Tiniel's arm. Every few notes, the singing woman would dip her hand into the red flood. When the blood touched her fingertips, it stuck there, and when she raised her fingers to within a few inches of her mouth, the blood steamed.
Arthur
Arthur had been advancing. He had been worried the moment Firekeeper had ordered Francine into battle, and eager to put an end to it. Didn't know where Merlin was right now, but the little idiot had best be safe. He had stopped with the bolts in favour of his sword - dispersing a few on the way there with well-placed blows.
At least they had calmed. There would not have to be many more casualties--
--which was when he heard the voice. His head shot up. He knew magic when he heard it, and not just because he'd had enough experience with Merlin now. His hand still firmly clenched around his sword, he shot forward towards the source of the noise. "FIREKEEPER!" he yelled - forgetting her other name for a moment - "ANYONE ELSE! HAVE MY BACK!"
Firekeeper
Firekeeper shook her head, trying to clear the sound of the woman's singing from her ears, and shifted her grip on her Fang as she moved closer.
The 'anyone else' in this case would be the Wise Beasts, also advancing on the circle of spear-holders. Should any of the weapons be turned on their new allies, they'd make sure those weapons were never brought into play.
Arthur
As for Arthur himself... well. He thought about spears. Spears. Spears were lovely. At least up until you snipped some with your sword, stomped the man in front of you in the chest and sent him crashing to the ground, into the mud. Arthur barged on in before anyone fully well realised what was going on.
This was potentially a very stupid move, but Arthur didn't see anyone else coming close enough to do it, and they didn't have much time. Something in his mind was starting to fuzz at the noise.
How to take down a sorceress in one easy step, by Arthur Pendragon...
He snatched hold of the collective confusion and the beasts at his back-- pulled his fist back-- and punched the singing woman squarely in the jaw.
It'd been a long time since he'd gotten to cold-cock anyone. Hopefully, it would work before any ravening hordes descended upon them.
Firekeeper
The sense of pent-up force in the air did not diminish, but at least it was quieter now. And also there was a nice clear path to the center of the circle. Convenient, that.
Firekeeper grabbed at the snaggletoothed man's arm, meaning to get the knife away from Tiniel's face. Instead of encountering her target, she came up against something as hard as ice. Flecks of light resembling those from a fire, if sparks could be violet, danced in front of her face. One of them hit the exposed skin of her arm and burned like salt in an open wound.
Tiniel
As if Firekeeper's blow had triggered something, the blood in the elaborate pattern on Tiniel's face began to move, writhing and hissing and then rising in a column of violet steam that coalesced into light.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper had learned the danger of lightning at a young age, and she sensed that same danger now. "Down!" she screamed. "Down and away, but down!" Then she flung herself forward, knocking Tiniel flat beneath her. In that same motion, she kicked out and back with all the strength in her legs. Her feet impacted both of the flesh carver's knees. She twisted up and back, readying another kick in his direction.
The Once Dead
The look of concentration had left the man's features, replaced by a wordless scream as a violet sphere of sparkling energy formed around the hand where the knife had been. Desperately, he tried to shake it loose, and when that didn't work, to shape it into some form he could control. He writhed, twisted and screamed as it resisted his efforts to control it, instead snaking down his arm and over his torso, seeking the blood it had been promised and subsequently denied.
Then he exploded in a burst of eye-searing purple light. All around them, the remaining Once Dead shuddered, then stilled, dropping to the ground.
Merlin
"Arthur!" Why yes, that would be Merlin, letting go of the girl's arm in order to rush forward as though the warning hadn't been issued.
Eyes wide and looking a bit wild, he held up his hand as if to shade from the sun, letting the explosion flow over and around him.
Francine
Francine stumbled as Isende sagged against her, whatever fugue state the girl had been in abruptly cut off when the Once Dead started dropping like flies. That was fine, though; it helped Francine to follow orders and get the heck down, taking Isende with her, and doing her best to shield the unconscious girl's body from the wave of violet light.
Arthur
Arthur could take a warning when issued. As soon as the words had left Firekeeper's mouth, he'd thrown himself as far as he could, considering the army - or what little army it really was - surrounding him, hitting the dirt with a snarl marring his features.
He could distantly make out the sound of someone screaming his name - Merlin screaming his name - in the blaze of light that followed, it was the only point that made sense.
"MERLIN!"
Idiot!
Firekeeper
When the lightstorm passed, though, they -- meaning Firekeeper's strange Pack, Merlin included -- were all still standing. Or at least getting up from the ground.
Thankfully, the explosion seemed to have taken the heart out of any of the locals left alive who hadn't already been subdued by the Wise Beasts. Which meant that all there was left to do was the gathering of prisoners.
"We've won," Firekeeper reported some time later as she led the others back to the twins' cottage, their 'prizes' in tow. Depositing Tiniel in a rather unceremonious heap on the floor, she continued: "Now, someone tell me what we have won?"
"We've been spotted," Harjeedian told them. "A man came out of one of the buildings up the hillside, stared this way for a while, and then hurried down the hillside towards where many of the dwellings lie."
"Then we need to get back to gate and hold it," Firekeeper decided quickly, glancing at her companions to see if they agreed.
"Let's go then," Merlin said, moving to stand by Francine. Arthur was more than capable of handling himself unless a convenient tree branch was needed to drop on people.
Or a sword was needed to kill magical beasts.
Arthur
Well, it was reassuring that Merlin was recognising that fact. Arthur just nodded, looking back in that particular direction, and turned. "No point in waiting. They might already be moving, adn we need time to fortify our position."
Francine
Francine found herself reaching for Merlin's hand again, but stopped short, partly from that same returning need not to look helpless in a scary situation, and partly because if someone came after them, he might need that hand. Instead she just looked at him and gave a weak smile. "Getting the heck out of here, party of nine?"
Firekeeper
The 'getting the heck out of here' might prove even more difficult than they'd originally thought, as the group arrived back at 'their' gate building to find a crowd of yarimaimalom milling about. They ranged in size from foxes to bears, but all were underfed and generally in bad physical shape. Firekeeper caught sight of Derian, leaning against Eshinarvash's flank and looking as if he might be ill.
She was curious as to what happened here, but again pushed curiosity away in favor of getting things done. She turned to ask Isende how many fighters they were likely to find ranged against them, only to find... "Twins is gone!" she cried in dismay.
Harjeedian
Harjeedian lifted his head to look mistrustfully back the way they'd come. "Could they have gone to warn the Once Dead that we know of the attack?"
Plik
"There were some among the Once and Twice Dead who were kind to them," Plik said softly. "Perhaps they felt they owed some duty, but I wonder. I wonder."
What he wondered, he kept to himself for the moment.
Derian
"Duty to those people?" Derian turned from where he leaned against the piebald horse. "They've been keeping the Wise Beasts prisoner who disappeared into that copse. Experimenting on them. We found pelts."
Truth
Truth gave a low growl, and Plik flicked his dark, shiny eyes to the jaguar before translating for her. "They used sorcery to make the yarimaimalom give life to the bracken beasts. It was them we were fighting all along, under the Once Dead's control."
Harjeedian
Which explained the crowd of animals and their condition, but did nothing to solve the problem.
Harjeedian gave a curt nod, looking almost as disgusted. "Regardless, we need those two. Our prisoners will never let us back through the gates now, not with their fellows here to back them up. Tiniel and Isende got themselves here; they may be the only ones who can get us out. We need them back."
Firekeeper
"You and Derian and Plik remain here," Firekeeper instructed Harjeedian. "These yarimaimalom is needing your help, and Plik can translate. We shall go bring twins back, whether they want to come or no."
Francine
"I should..." Stay here, Francine started to say. Like it or not, she would be in the way, and the fighters' attention should be on getting things done, not making sure she didn't trip over a rock and fall straight onto somebody's sword.
Truth
Truth lifted her head and gave Francine another one of those eerie stares, then a sharp growl that was almost a bark.
Plik
The raccoon-man frowned once, then turned to Francine. "Truth says that you -- " he seemed a bit apologetic to relay the next part. "--give her a headache. If she's to help hold this gate without distraction, you should go as well."
Francine
"Oh...kay." Whatever the heck that meant. Though admittedly it wasn't the first time anyone had ever said that to Francine. Just never an intelligent, psychic jaguar. "Guess I'm with you guys, then." She cast a last nervous look over her shoulder, then followed after the others.
A little Bit Later, and Closer to the Center of Town
Firekeeper and Blind Seer
They were close enough now to hear the murmur of human voices.
"Can you make out what they're saying?" Firekeeper asked Blind Seer, knowing the wolf's hearing was far better than her own.
"I can make out words, but not the sense of them. It is another language than the ones we know. And Tiniel and Isende are among the ones who carry the lanterns."
Firekeeper quickly relayed this information to the others. "I have idea on how to slow them," she added, fitting arrow to bowstring. "Even bravest of humans become very cautious without light."
Arthur
"Never mind making it hard to see in the first place," Arthur returned, a note of approval to his voice as he loaded up a bolt on his own crossbow. "Without light, and given enough arrows on our part, we might confuse them as well. Maybe take a few of them out."
Which Arthur was all in favour of, yes.
Firekeeper
"Merlin, Francine," Firekeeper directed. "Approach from side. See if you can spot our strayed pups and perhaps bring one away." She drew back the bowstring and aimed at what seemed to be the nearest lantern. The breaking of glass and a yellow-orange flare told her that she'd hit her mark.
Merlin
"All right," Merlin said, shooting Arthur a quick look of 'if you die, I will be more than simply cross' before snagging Francine's hand.
Francine
Francine had to wonder how they were going to spot Tiniel and Isende in the darkness that Firekeeper was creating, but there was still enough light to see where they were moving as she followed Merlin around the edges of the open courtyard area where the Once Dead and their lanterns were gathered.
Arthur
Arthur was not going to roll his eyes at the look he'd been granted - he was just going to think it. And then focus on his aim, rather than casting any looks after Merlin that might have communicated the same thing.
Well, past the first one he threw, anyway.
He aimed. He pulled. He hit true, the lantern smashing apart, raining small amounts of debris onto the people below. Without even pausing to think about it, he shoved another bolt into his crossbow, squinted, took aim for a random man's chest - a bare shadow in the new darkness ...
Firekeeper
Which was even darker now that their attackers realized what made them targets, dropping the remaining lanterns.
"To me, to me!" Firekeeper howled in the language of Beasts. She heard answering howls, and knew that within moments, her 'pack' would have backup in the form of several angry yarimaimalom, eager to do damage to those who had kept them prisoner.
"We have come for the twins!" Firekeeper called out, readying another arrow. "Give them to us and you go on your way unharmed." Though really, if it came to it, they only needed one of them...
Tiniel
A male voice answered in a language unrecognizable to any of them.
Shortly after, there was another voice, this time in Pellish. "You will not have them."
The oddness was not in the argument, but that the speaker was Tiniel. That he was translating for the first man explained the strangeness in how he referred to himself, but not the curiously flat timbre of his voice.
Firekeeper
"What will stop us from taking them?" Firekeeper asked defiantly.
Isende
"We'll kill them," Isende's voice came, flat and inflectionless as her brother's, speaking on the heels of a stiff female voice. "We'd prefer to keep them alive. They're interesting, and a true font of knowledge, but rather than give them to you, we will kill them."
Lovable
Firekeeper's shoulder was suddenly heavier, and Lovable spoke. "She tells the truth. One of the men has a knife to the one's back, another holds a blade to the other."
Firekeeper
"If you kill them, what stops us from killing you?" Firekeeper demanded. "Be wise. Give us the twins, and walk away with your lives."
Isende
Isende spoke again, prefacing her comments with a dry, harsh laugh. "We have done some spying on you in a fashion you could only begin to comprehend. We know how you came through the gate, and I do not think that key will work again. We only need to keep you here for a day or so more. Then you will be too ill to do anything to resist us. As I said before, we would prefer to keep the twins alive, but to seal you here, well..."
Tiniel
It was strange to hear someone talk about her own death so casually -- but the cry of pain that came from Tiniel at that moment was in the youth's own voice.
Lovable
"They've cut him," Lovable reported. "The one who did so is holding a cloth to the wound, but I do not think it is a gesture of compassion. He has a hungry look about him. He likes what he has done and longs to do more."
Firekeeper
Something in Firekeeper snapped. She was tired of being clever and patient. They needed the twins -- either that or she was going to have to hurt Ynamynet or Lachen until one or the other would do the spell. And given the choice between that and an honest fight... She glanced over at Arthur and flicked her eyes to his crossbow, then back to his face, and nodded.
Arthur
He caught her gaze just once, a shadow of something passing over his eyes; an intake of breath, and then he'd fired, burying one bolt in a man's chest, reloading with quick, experienced fingers, picking his next target-- a kneecap-- and firing accordingly.
Arthur reached back for another bolt. Wondering, for a moment, what would happen if these were his people. Knowing that it didn't really matter, because whatever this was that those people were doing down there, it wasn't right, wasn't just.
"Will you listen?" he snapped to the crowd, and took aim again. Where was Merlin? His eyes flicked around in the darkness.
Firekeeper
"Grab the twins!" Firekeeper yelled in Merlin and Francine's direction. Feeling Lovable launch from her shoulder, she dropped her bow to the ground and sprang forward, intent on her goal.
Francine
Right, because Francine was an expert at grabbing people being held at knifepoint.
Except when the raven flew from Firekeeper's shoulder, she wasn't alone. The darkness was filled with snarls and howls as the summoned Wise Beasts went with focused intensity after those who had held them prisoner.
In that confusion, Francine spotted Isende, free of her captor but standing still, staring dreamily into the fray. That, she could maybe do something about, like running forward to grab the girl's arm and tug her back toward Merlin at the edge of the fight.
Merlin
Coming up behind her, Merlin grabbed Isende's other arm and tugged without much care for her safety. "Francine, run."
There were more important people here than a rather loony sorceress, after all.
Tiniel
Most of the Once Dead and their allies were down, now, perhaps not dead but certainly not doing anything that would attract the attention of the prowling beasts or Firekeeper and Arthur's arrows.
A small group remained standing, centered on Tiniel and the man who held him. Spears made a porcupine's screen around the edges of a cluster at whose center stood Tiniel and two other people, presumably Once Dead. Tiniel remained unresisting as a short, fat, snaggletoothed man busily etched an elaborate pattern onto Tiniel's face with the edge of his knife.
Alongside the pair, a skeletally thin woman with very dark skin had just begun to sing. Her voice was shrill and piercing, enough to make the throats of those around her ache just from listening.
Blood streamed from a slice down Tiniel's arm. Every few notes, the singing woman would dip her hand into the red flood. When the blood touched her fingertips, it stuck there, and when she raised her fingers to within a few inches of her mouth, the blood steamed.
Arthur
Arthur had been advancing. He had been worried the moment Firekeeper had ordered Francine into battle, and eager to put an end to it. Didn't know where Merlin was right now, but the little idiot had best be safe. He had stopped with the bolts in favour of his sword - dispersing a few on the way there with well-placed blows.
At least they had calmed. There would not have to be many more casualties--
--which was when he heard the voice. His head shot up. He knew magic when he heard it, and not just because he'd had enough experience with Merlin now. His hand still firmly clenched around his sword, he shot forward towards the source of the noise. "FIREKEEPER!" he yelled - forgetting her other name for a moment - "ANYONE ELSE! HAVE MY BACK!"
Firekeeper
Firekeeper shook her head, trying to clear the sound of the woman's singing from her ears, and shifted her grip on her Fang as she moved closer.
The 'anyone else' in this case would be the Wise Beasts, also advancing on the circle of spear-holders. Should any of the weapons be turned on their new allies, they'd make sure those weapons were never brought into play.
Arthur
As for Arthur himself... well. He thought about spears. Spears. Spears were lovely. At least up until you snipped some with your sword, stomped the man in front of you in the chest and sent him crashing to the ground, into the mud. Arthur barged on in before anyone fully well realised what was going on.
This was potentially a very stupid move, but Arthur didn't see anyone else coming close enough to do it, and they didn't have much time. Something in his mind was starting to fuzz at the noise.
How to take down a sorceress in one easy step, by Arthur Pendragon...
He snatched hold of the collective confusion and the beasts at his back-- pulled his fist back-- and punched the singing woman squarely in the jaw.
It'd been a long time since he'd gotten to cold-cock anyone. Hopefully, it would work before any ravening hordes descended upon them.
Firekeeper
The sense of pent-up force in the air did not diminish, but at least it was quieter now. And also there was a nice clear path to the center of the circle. Convenient, that.
Firekeeper grabbed at the snaggletoothed man's arm, meaning to get the knife away from Tiniel's face. Instead of encountering her target, she came up against something as hard as ice. Flecks of light resembling those from a fire, if sparks could be violet, danced in front of her face. One of them hit the exposed skin of her arm and burned like salt in an open wound.
Tiniel
As if Firekeeper's blow had triggered something, the blood in the elaborate pattern on Tiniel's face began to move, writhing and hissing and then rising in a column of violet steam that coalesced into light.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper had learned the danger of lightning at a young age, and she sensed that same danger now. "Down!" she screamed. "Down and away, but down!" Then she flung herself forward, knocking Tiniel flat beneath her. In that same motion, she kicked out and back with all the strength in her legs. Her feet impacted both of the flesh carver's knees. She twisted up and back, readying another kick in his direction.
The Once Dead
The look of concentration had left the man's features, replaced by a wordless scream as a violet sphere of sparkling energy formed around the hand where the knife had been. Desperately, he tried to shake it loose, and when that didn't work, to shape it into some form he could control. He writhed, twisted and screamed as it resisted his efforts to control it, instead snaking down his arm and over his torso, seeking the blood it had been promised and subsequently denied.
Then he exploded in a burst of eye-searing purple light. All around them, the remaining Once Dead shuddered, then stilled, dropping to the ground.
Merlin
"Arthur!" Why yes, that would be Merlin, letting go of the girl's arm in order to rush forward as though the warning hadn't been issued.
Eyes wide and looking a bit wild, he held up his hand as if to shade from the sun, letting the explosion flow over and around him.
Francine
Francine stumbled as Isende sagged against her, whatever fugue state the girl had been in abruptly cut off when the Once Dead started dropping like flies. That was fine, though; it helped Francine to follow orders and get the heck down, taking Isende with her, and doing her best to shield the unconscious girl's body from the wave of violet light.
Arthur
Arthur could take a warning when issued. As soon as the words had left Firekeeper's mouth, he'd thrown himself as far as he could, considering the army - or what little army it really was - surrounding him, hitting the dirt with a snarl marring his features.
He could distantly make out the sound of someone screaming his name - Merlin screaming his name - in the blaze of light that followed, it was the only point that made sense.
"MERLIN!"
Idiot!
Firekeeper
When the lightstorm passed, though, they -- meaning Firekeeper's strange Pack, Merlin included -- were all still standing. Or at least getting up from the ground.
Thankfully, the explosion seemed to have taken the heart out of any of the locals left alive who hadn't already been subdued by the Wise Beasts. Which meant that all there was left to do was the gathering of prisoners.
"We've won," Firekeeper reported some time later as she led the others back to the twins' cottage, their 'prizes' in tow. Depositing Tiniel in a rather unceremonious heap on the floor, she continued: "Now, someone tell me what we have won?"