OOC: Memory Crystal (Touch, Hearing)
It was battle. Cara felt her breath catching in her throat, her muscles burning as she lifted the spear. Heat surrounded her, dry and stifling. Too hot--she felt in her mind as though she ought to faint at any moment, yet her body seemed sturdy as an oak.
Someone shouted her name, a rough voice that was both masculine and feminine, but Cara couldn't hear it. It came out as "--Jump the bugger!" She felt herself crouch and then leap--the heat became a refreshing breeze as she soared upwards, higher and higher. How high could she go? Human beings generally didn't jump like grasshoppers, but it seemed she could, almost as though she was flying...
The snarls of the monsters and clash of weapons below sounded distant, and Cara knew that if she could see, her companions would be about the size of mice. She felt herself slow, and flipped her spear around. It just barely brushed a ceiling. Then she plummeted--and her fear was swallowed up by certainty. She knew how to do this.
Wind roared past her ears and then her boots landed hard on a slippery back, her armor clanked, and her spear drove deep into the creature. Instinctively she jumped again, freeing her spear with ease and leaping back to join the others. "Good hit!" shouted Bartz, to Cara's delight. She could do this; she was good as they were--
A roar and then a clawed paw smacked into her, throwing her into the wall not with a thud but with a squish. A feeling of unspeakable horror filled her as she felt it pulsing beneath her and she jumped forward with an undignified squawk. A voice, clearly female and concerned, asked if she was all right, but Cara only answered with an embarrassed nod before rushing forward again. Hot breath and snarling, claws raking across her arm. She felt every hit, but somehow they seemed to soak into her five-foot, eighty-eight pound body. Mostly.
"Hey!" said the rough voice, as Cara hefted her spear to rush forward again despite pain and weariness and a burning desire to lie down and sleep. She heard rushing footsteps quickly crossing her path and darting forward to make the attack. "You're about to keel over! Don't--" the voice cut off in a grunt, replaced by hacking noises and a gurgling deathrattle from the monster. Sagging to her knees, Cara chanted quietly under her breath, pulling out--something from within herself. The pain lessened and her energy returned, and she scrambled back upright. A swift chopping noise and the sound of shattering ice marked the end of the other monster at the hands of Bartz and the woman.
"If you're hurt, heal yourself, or give a shout so that one of us can. Got that?" said the rough voice, and Cara felt herself nod.
"Let's keep going," said Bartz. "We're not to the top of this castle yet!"
[OOC: Part of the price for this memory crystal was Cara getting a bubblegum-colored cloud raining candy on her head until noon, so the Hatchery / guard break room now has a large bowl of Reese's Pieces for Blood anyone to raid eat.
The other, quite less pleasant part, she'll be posting about once she gets home from work.]