Evil... dirt???
It's a fine day in Arden! The birds are chirping merrily in the trees, the woodland creatures scuttle and scurry noisily in the underbrush, and spring annuals peek up through the leaf-litter toward the sky for the first time. Except for that horrible black gash in the forest. That isn't so nice. Birds are silent there, swarm-insects hum ominously in discordant refrains of malice, and shadows lean hungrily against the blasted trees.
Taleyn is there with her platoon, the First of Foot, Defenders of Kolvir, known for being top-notch scouts. But even these elite are being reinforced for this mission by Anae, Arianne, Dinah, and Miranda. Never let it be said that Prince Benedict underestimates the value of motivated volunteers.
Arianne comes walking up, heading towards Taleyn as she glances around at the others who have gathered for the mission. But then she's giving Tally a smile and nod. "Afternoon, Taleyn."
Anae stands off to the side flanked by several of the Gray Harriers under her command. The woman bears no expression, gray eyes impassive as she speaks with one of her men breifly. He nods in return and Anae turns towards Taleyn. Long strides take her in the woman and Arianne's direction.
Dinah is the sort of woman that can appreciate discordiant refrains of malice, more often than not. They -almost- make her smile. Almost. But the twisting darkness of the Road steals that near-smile from her and turns it into something much more close to a sneer.
Miranda's arrived a bit later than the others, perhaps, but in good time; she's greeted Taleyn with a quiet, "Knight-Captain," and those others with equally polite, appropriate honorifics. Thereafter she holds herself a bit off to one side, eyeing the surroundings without expression.
Taleyn smiles a warm welcome to Dinah, Arianne and Miranda. She looks over to Anae as she approaches. "Thank you all for lending your strength to the mission. There have been preliminary reports of new troop movements along the Road, and also rumors of new battle-plans being made by the Enemy. Our job is to follow the Road as far as we can, and report anything pertinent we see. If there's anything small that demands to be stomped, we stomp it. If it's anything huge, however, we withdraw and report! We're not here to engage any Armies." She beams. "Any questions?"
"None," Anae says smoothly.
Arianne considers for a moment before she shakes her head. "Nothing I can think of offhand."
Dinah nods crisply to Taleyn. "No questions," she announces. Fingers brush the hilt of her sword, eagerly.
"No questions, Knight-Captain," Miranda echoes, with a microscopic shake of her head. For the moment she remains unsmiling.
Taleyn grins. "We'll get right to it, then! Anae, will you deploy your Harriers along the left flank of my Defenders; Arianne, please scout in wolf-form in front. Lady Miranda, Captain Discordia, please take the right flank. And let's move out!"
Arianne nods and a moment later she shifts down into an average sized, black wolf. She pads off towards the front as directed, head lifted high so she can scent the air.
The journey stays lovely for a time. As the party leaves the Arden environs, an ill wind blows in an overcast, then wispy tendrils of fog, then a shroud of mist. The twittering birdsong is silenced, and the warbling of marsh-creatures and the droning of insects takes its place. It's impossible to get lost, however, as the utter blackness of the Road remains a voided beacon by the party.
Dinah falls back to cover the right flank. She gives Miranda a nod and a slip of a smile before her business face returns. Her hand stays near her blade, for the sake of convience.
Anae's men and herself follow along the left flank. The horses are well trained.
Miranda is certainly not inclined to do other than she is instructed; she moves to the right along with Dinah, albeit whilst the journey continues she ranges forward, back, and out away from the group in a way that suggests she may not be entirely placid underneath her calm expression.
Taleyn keeps a tight lid on her wide-eyed wonder in favor of being the picture of officerly strength for her men. She mainly lets her soldiers do their jobs, but intermittently her eyes go all grey and foggy, as she steals glances into the Deadlands for signs of trouble.
The mist swirls and eddies and oozes around the scouts like a live thing. But it fails to bite anyone.
Arianne moves just a little ahead of the others, keeping her head up in search of scents that might signal a nearby enemy.
Arianne pauses, head turning slowly one way, then the other. Then she's partially turning, looking back to Taleyn. "Something odd ahead. Not people, the land," she growls.
One of the Harrier's makes a signal to Anae. The woman nods and glances over to Taleyn, voice low but carrying, "We may or may not have movement up ahead."
Dinah's gaze steels as she looks up ahead. She certainly doesn't understand the Weir's growled words, and as such she offers to the party, "We're coming up upon a shadow-boundary. The land is moving...wrong. All wrong for something so near to Arden."
Taleyn was looking at a pretty pattern in the mists, and is roused from her reverie by Arianne's growl. "Right! Full stop, everyone!" She hears Anae's report, then Dinah's. With a glance over the company, she says, "We'll break off a small unit for an advance team to investigate. Arianne, Anae and two of your best Harriers, Miranda and Dinah-- Dinah, you're in Command of the Small Unit. Go up there and find out what we're walking into, then report back here."
Miranda's noticed nothing; /something/ obviously has her preoccupied, and only when she moves back up toward the front of the group does she catch Dinah's words. A grimace flickers its way across her face momentarily, and she nods quickly at Taleyn's instructions.
Arianne glances towards Dinah, then back to Taleyn. There's an odd movement - a shrug, maybe? - then she starts to move, sniffing around as canines tend to do.
"Joseph, Nathan," Anae calls out two of her group. The men and their horses trot over. "My lady," she asks of Dinah, "Do you want us on foot or to stay mounted?"
Dinah salutes Taleyn, then looks over her newly-asigned troops. "Stay mounted, for now. I'll let you know as soon as that changes." Long strides bring her towards the point of the group, but slightly away from Arianne. "Two ear flicks if you smell something unusual. I don't speak fluent wolf," she offers.
Taleyn barks an order to her own platoon. The Defenders form up in two discreet wedges, one in front of the other, then the back one fans out in a holdout pattern. Taleyn positions herself at the leading edge and nods to the scouts, a proud smile on her face for a moment, and then all-business with a nod.
Arianne nods slightly at Dinah's comment, but her focus is, clearly, on what her nose knows. Though for right now it doesn't seem as though she notices anything else out of the ordinary.
Once the advance party enters the Weird Zone, there seems to be a low-pitched droning... or maybe a moaning. It's quiet-- perhaps very far away. Shadows flicker on the Road.
Anae's hand rests gently on the hilt of her sword, gray eyes scanning vigilantly.
Miranda's eyes follow the shadows -- too much, perhaps; there's more going on that she might miss as a result of that distraction. Her face remains composed, but she moves a little too quickly, a little too twitchily, to be other than agitated.
Dinah shoots Miranda a questioning look. At nearly the same time, she draws her scimitar out. Never hurts to be prepared, after all. "On guard," she says softly.
Nothing happens for a good long pace. Long enough, in fact, to put even the most seasoned scouts on edge. Then, a flash of movement! Only not on the Road-- on the ground in front of the party! In a scant eyeblink, a hillock of gray-green earth rises up and scoots away, as if the solid ground beneath them were behaving like a viscous liquid with something breadbox-sized beneath it.
Arianne slows her pace, then stops all together when the earth rises up. For a second anyway, then she's scrambling back and baring her teeth, growling darkly.
That little hillock is headed directly away from the party into the misty, moorish distance.
The soft rasp of a drawn sword is Anae's contribution. She gestures and pulls her horse to the side even as her scouts shift out to the other. No bunching up. Ready to flank if needed.
"What in --" Miranda exclaims when the ground suddenly develops mobility. She stares at the rapidly retreating hillock in blank amazement, and then, with a quick shake of her head, glances to the others. "I have never seen anythng like that," is her only remark.
"I have no idea," Dinah remarks to Miranda. Her free hand moves and with a flick, she sends one wicked-looking dagger towards the movement in the sand.
The dagger neatly THUNKs into the mound, which promptly cavitates into a miniature sinkhole. It makes a sucking sound, overlaid with a squeal.
Arianne cocks her head as she watches the knife impact the ground, and then there's another growl. No sir, she does not like this at all.
At the hillock's-- er, sinkhole's-- squeal, two more little mounds pop up a short distance away from the party. They begin scooting away into the mists, as well.
"Orders?" Anae asks softly, evenly, of Dinah.
"Take them out if you can," Dinah decides. "They don't seem aimed at us but I never discount the chance of spies."
Miranda pulls the heavy blade free of its over-the-shoulder scabbard, weighing it easily in one hand. She measures the distance to the nearest ... whatever it is ... by eye, taking several steps forward; but, lacking any sort of missile weapon, she declines to pursue further for the moment. "What concerns me," she remarks in an undertone, glancing down at the ground, "is how many more of them may be below us."
*pop*
*pop* *pop*
*poppopopopopopopopopp*
Hillocks spring up left and right, in front and behind! Some of them zing off into the mist after the other two... and others... seem to be trying to surround the scouts.
Arianne's growling only continues, perhaps with a more threatening note to it. She looks from one mound to another, and finally down at the ground directly in front of her. And then? Well, dogs dig, and wolves are related to dogs, right? So Ari starts digging, as fast as she can.
"Go after them," Anae orders her men, sharply. "Mark your distance though." She swings down from her saddle with a little bit less than perfect grace, drawing her sword.
Anae's riders take off after the retreating mounds, and soon their retreating forms are engulfed in mist.
No longer messing with daggers, Dinah now makes use of the sword in her hand. "This is not looking good," she says lowly, and with a flourish stabs her blade into the ground. "This is why I spend my time at sea."
Anae throws her cloak over her shoulder, expression varying not in the slightest as the curve of her stomach revealed. Her only concession to that fact is that she will likely not move far from the protection at the horse at her back as her sword starts sweeping out to greet the enemy.
"I am," Miranda remarks, "rather beginning to come around to your point of you, my lady Captain." She moves to engage those ... hillocks that appear to be attempting to surround them, and drops down low into a crouch to scythe her blade /beneath/ one of them, lest there be some creature beneath. When there proves no such thing, she lets her momentum carry her back up to her feet and into a complete circle, at the end of which the edge of her weapon crashes down on top of the same hillock.
Growling and digging. These are two things that Arianne is, apparently, very good at. Or maybe she just enjoys them both because she keeps them up, digging into the mound, dirt flying behind her. The growling changes at times, turning into muttered growling.
"No moving-earth strangeness, for example," Dinah remarks, as her blade leaves the earth, swings through the air, and back into a different piece of earth. "And things -bleed-. It's far more rewarding."
"Yes, we are unfortunate indeed," Anae says, shifting forward to cut through one mound and then twisting to impale another, "But, we must count our blessings as they come, my lady. At least none of us are knitting."
The hillock-smashing goes rather well. Dirt flies, and blades get filthy! Many of the mounds cavitate into little sinkholes, making footing treacherous, naturally, because no good deed goes unpunished. But then, as the scouts seem to be getting the upper hand, several of the hillocks begin to smash into each other. *Smash! Smash! SMASH!!* Bit by bit, the moving earthpiles merge and grow into larger mounds. These mounds grow taller and taller, and then lash out at the party, attempting to surround and crush them, burying them alive under their earthen folds!
Oooh, there's a change! Instead of growling, Arianne snarls when the nearest mound tries to crush her. She twists away, mostly avoiding it, and she bats at it with a paw, clawing at the earth. What she says next sounds like, "Bad dirt, bad!"
Miranda sidesteps one oncoming hillock -- she still hasn't quite managed to persuade herself that this is actually happening to her, and so there's a slight touch of bemusement to her. "I should prefer," she says, addressing the nearest mound of earth, "to wait for my burial until /after/ I am dead already, thank you." She steps in toward a pair of them, jabbing first one, then the other with the point of her sword; and, when they both converge on her, she steps back, steps back, and dodges to one side to move past the both of them.
Anae twists, smacking her horse and inciting it to run and thus evade the cascade. She trusts its speed to see it through and avoids getting trampled in the same act. She dodges the other way, grunting as the ground breifly claims up to her knees before she gathers herself to bolt to the side, sword swinging in a low arc behind her.
"I suppose that you have a point," Dinah calls to Anae as she slices through another retreating small mound. As they form into larger mounds, she sneers and then laughs. She sidesteps to the right in doubletime, and three daggers are lef t in the hillock.
The billowing waves of sodden earth roar and cavitate with a seasick-making shudder. No chewy human center for them today! Just at that point, shouts drift backward from the thinning mist, and for a moment, Anae's horsemen become visible-- they seem to be trapped on a HUGE hill, which rises up from the flat marshland beside the Black Road like a moving prison, morphing and shifting to keep them at its top, while little moundlets harry at the horses' feet.
Arianne's head jerks up at the screams, and she growls and darts forward. No pile of dirt is going to gobble up anyone today if she has something to say about it!
"Hold on!" Anae shouts towards her men, still unmoved in expression. However, one could find it telling that she is moving, running after Arianne immediately may speak to how urgently she percieves the situation.
Miranda turns to Dinah, remarking, with just a touch of urbane good humor, "If you wish to accompany them, my lady Captain, I shall certainly be able to manage the remaining difficulties here." She scrambles to the side of one of those roaring earth-mounds, and offers its near surface a hard *thwack* with the flat of her sword to keep its attention.
The mound roars irritably.
Arianne is going straight for the hill, and upon reaching it, she starts to dig and growl and snap at it. So dirt doesn't taste all that good, but she's determined! Rar!
Even the well-trained horses of Anae's best scouts are beginning to freak out a bit at the earth beneath their feet being all wobbly and attacky. They scream and blow, while their riders stab at the peril beneath them, which seems to be sucking them under, inch by inch...
Dinah's steps slow as she draws closer and closer to the Black Road, and a look of anger, no, rage, flashes in her eyes. Her sword at her side, the pirate puts one foot on the Road and grits her teeth. The fabric of reality itself seems to waver with every dragging step that Dinah takes, and the Road starts to peel apart around her. Sweat falls from her brow but she keeps trudging on--leaving a trail of now untainted ground in her wake.
Anae takes a direct route. While Arianne digs and snaps, she's lunging in to impale, slash, pierce.
Arianne would, likely, be in heaven right now if there were just some sort of blood. Biting things should make them bleed! But alas, she just gets to dig and dig and dig, growling and snapping.
Silent and grim, Anae continues to chop and hew and hack and slash. Dirt rasps along her sword edge and hands are soon stained mud and black.
Miranda tries her best to keep out of the, er, grasp of the hillocks. She dodges, weaves, and jumps aside; at one point, she even leaps *on top* of one of the attacking mounds of earth and runs lightly across it to the other side, in order to escape a tight spot. But one can only run for so long. Numbers will eventually tell. An ankle caught in animate muck is all it takes to slow her to a stop, and, whilst she hammers relentlessly away at the attackers, the earth steadily oozes up toward certain suffocation.
At Dinah's effort, there is a wobble in the /fabric of reality/, which counters the wobbly currents of spiteful dirt. The Black Road is fighting her, but Dinah's pure rage proves stronger! A path of-- still kind of disgusting, but UNTAINTED, marsh-ground now stretches across the Black Road. The completion of this land-bridge disrupts whatever vile force is holding the life in the surrounding dirt hills, but they do not go down easy. They use the last of their energies trying to take the heroes down with them!
The formerly-living earth begins to cavitate. There is a horrible, unthinkably loud SUCKING sound. Then the ground falls from beneath their feet.
"Harriers, move!" Anae's yelled order is one she tries to follow herself, struggling to free herself of the dirt and panting by the time she tears free. She looks towards the last place she saw Miranda and Arianne, as if to ensure they are capable of getting free and running as well.
The last step completed, Dinah looks behind her, across the gross but no longer horridly and obviously Black Road piece of land behind her. A confident swagger is in her steps as she walks back across that spot, and looks to see how the others are fairing. She allows herself to look triumphant, and might even preen if she didn't suddenly sink down to her knees, collapsing. The effort of it all overcomes her, and she passes out. Leaving Taleyn, surely, to explain to Cyrus what happened to his wife.
Arianne twists in the dirt, her fur covered by dirt and mud. Her paws sink a bit in the earth, and she has to fight to get traction, but she does manage to get away and not, you know, fall into the big HOLE.
Miranda's as much surprised as pleased to see the earth suddenly willing to relinquish its grasp on her. Well ... sort of. Muddied and bruised, she wrenches one arm free with sheer strength, then one leg, and, finally, pulls her foot free with a vile-sounding sucking *POP*, giving her just enough freedom of movement to escape being entombed.
The horsemen MOVE, per Anae's orders! Meanwhile, Dinah collapses, and so does the earth, but Anae, her scouts, Miranda, and Arianne are moving away to safety.
Anae catches sight of the fallen Dinah and, for a moment, indecision tears on her face. She won't make it to Dinah's side, and there's no denying that. She instinctively shouts the name of the fastest person she knows to be in the group, "Arianne! Dinah!"
Arianne skids to a stop upon hearing her name, glancing in that direction, then around for Dinah. There's a low growl, then she turns to head towards the woman, as fast as her four little feet can carry her.
What Anae expected may be hard to guess. Perhaps she thought Arianne would shift. But, whatever her initial thought she realizes that dragging someone out of a pit is likely to be a two person job. If Miranda is unable to jump forward, the slower Anae will lend her self to help.
Arianne is doing her best to drag Dinah away, honest she is. Though she's growling unhappily while she does. She knows she's slow! Where's one of the big burly Weir when you need them? Huh? HUH?!?
Let's be honest. Anae is a bit too round in the belly to be doing leaning down to pick something up with perfect grace. Sad to say, but true. The fact itself causes the first in that stone expression, a flash of anger quickly buried. But she's dropping to her knees and insiunating herself under one of Dinah's arms and moving to get up and start hurrying to safety.
The moment Anae arrives Arianne shifts, but she's still growling as she gets Dinah's other side to help get her away from the sinkhole.
Dinah Discordia is pushed, pulled, dragged, muddied, bitten, and wrestled to safety, as are the other brave heroes! Stumbling back through the Shadow boundary, they rendezvous with the Defenders. "Di-- er, Anae! Report?" says Taleyn.
Anae gives Arianne a nod of thanks as they both rescue Dinah. By the time they've met up with Taleyn, the gray-eyed woman has regained both cloak and horse. "We encountered beasts of the Black Road, my lady. The earth was animated and attacked us. Lady Discordia was doing something with the Black Road itself. I did not see that part. But it seems to have exhausted her." She looks to both Miranda and Arianne to see if they had more to add.
Arianne nods to Anae's account of things. "The mounds of earth seemed to die or lose whatever animated them when attacked, but they didn't bleed or anything like that."
Taleyn's eyes flash with worry, and she orders a medic to see to Dinah. "Everyone else all right?"
Miranda shakes her head, looking rather bedraggled but mostly unhurt. "I do not think anyone else is seriously injured, Knight-Captain."
Taleyn says, "Any further foes over there to clean up?"
Anae shakes her head fractionally, "Not that I saw. It would not hurt to send scouts. Are we pressing onward?"
"I didn't see or smell any others either. Though, admitedly, I was a bit distracted," Arianne replies.
Taleyn shakes her head. "We'll secure the perimeter here and set camp for the night. Right! Let's get you fed and rested." She beams with respect at the scouting party. Mock-sternly, she adds, "I thought I told you lot not to take on any armies." With a flash of a grin, she attends to her duties.
A flicker of something that may very well be relief crosses Anae's face. She nods, "Duly noted, my lady." She turns towards her men, "Down time."
Taleyn is there with her platoon, the First of Foot, Defenders of Kolvir, known for being top-notch scouts. But even these elite are being reinforced for this mission by Anae, Arianne, Dinah, and Miranda. Never let it be said that Prince Benedict underestimates the value of motivated volunteers.
Arianne comes walking up, heading towards Taleyn as she glances around at the others who have gathered for the mission. But then she's giving Tally a smile and nod. "Afternoon, Taleyn."
Anae stands off to the side flanked by several of the Gray Harriers under her command. The woman bears no expression, gray eyes impassive as she speaks with one of her men breifly. He nods in return and Anae turns towards Taleyn. Long strides take her in the woman and Arianne's direction.
Dinah is the sort of woman that can appreciate discordiant refrains of malice, more often than not. They -almost- make her smile. Almost. But the twisting darkness of the Road steals that near-smile from her and turns it into something much more close to a sneer.
Miranda's arrived a bit later than the others, perhaps, but in good time; she's greeted Taleyn with a quiet, "Knight-Captain," and those others with equally polite, appropriate honorifics. Thereafter she holds herself a bit off to one side, eyeing the surroundings without expression.
Taleyn smiles a warm welcome to Dinah, Arianne and Miranda. She looks over to Anae as she approaches. "Thank you all for lending your strength to the mission. There have been preliminary reports of new troop movements along the Road, and also rumors of new battle-plans being made by the Enemy. Our job is to follow the Road as far as we can, and report anything pertinent we see. If there's anything small that demands to be stomped, we stomp it. If it's anything huge, however, we withdraw and report! We're not here to engage any Armies." She beams. "Any questions?"
"None," Anae says smoothly.
Arianne considers for a moment before she shakes her head. "Nothing I can think of offhand."
Dinah nods crisply to Taleyn. "No questions," she announces. Fingers brush the hilt of her sword, eagerly.
"No questions, Knight-Captain," Miranda echoes, with a microscopic shake of her head. For the moment she remains unsmiling.
Taleyn grins. "We'll get right to it, then! Anae, will you deploy your Harriers along the left flank of my Defenders; Arianne, please scout in wolf-form in front. Lady Miranda, Captain Discordia, please take the right flank. And let's move out!"
Arianne nods and a moment later she shifts down into an average sized, black wolf. She pads off towards the front as directed, head lifted high so she can scent the air.
The journey stays lovely for a time. As the party leaves the Arden environs, an ill wind blows in an overcast, then wispy tendrils of fog, then a shroud of mist. The twittering birdsong is silenced, and the warbling of marsh-creatures and the droning of insects takes its place. It's impossible to get lost, however, as the utter blackness of the Road remains a voided beacon by the party.
Dinah falls back to cover the right flank. She gives Miranda a nod and a slip of a smile before her business face returns. Her hand stays near her blade, for the sake of convience.
Anae's men and herself follow along the left flank. The horses are well trained.
Miranda is certainly not inclined to do other than she is instructed; she moves to the right along with Dinah, albeit whilst the journey continues she ranges forward, back, and out away from the group in a way that suggests she may not be entirely placid underneath her calm expression.
Taleyn keeps a tight lid on her wide-eyed wonder in favor of being the picture of officerly strength for her men. She mainly lets her soldiers do their jobs, but intermittently her eyes go all grey and foggy, as she steals glances into the Deadlands for signs of trouble.
The mist swirls and eddies and oozes around the scouts like a live thing. But it fails to bite anyone.
Arianne moves just a little ahead of the others, keeping her head up in search of scents that might signal a nearby enemy.
Arianne pauses, head turning slowly one way, then the other. Then she's partially turning, looking back to Taleyn. "Something odd ahead. Not people, the land," she growls.
One of the Harrier's makes a signal to Anae. The woman nods and glances over to Taleyn, voice low but carrying, "We may or may not have movement up ahead."
Dinah's gaze steels as she looks up ahead. She certainly doesn't understand the Weir's growled words, and as such she offers to the party, "We're coming up upon a shadow-boundary. The land is moving...wrong. All wrong for something so near to Arden."
Taleyn was looking at a pretty pattern in the mists, and is roused from her reverie by Arianne's growl. "Right! Full stop, everyone!" She hears Anae's report, then Dinah's. With a glance over the company, she says, "We'll break off a small unit for an advance team to investigate. Arianne, Anae and two of your best Harriers, Miranda and Dinah-- Dinah, you're in Command of the Small Unit. Go up there and find out what we're walking into, then report back here."
Miranda's noticed nothing; /something/ obviously has her preoccupied, and only when she moves back up toward the front of the group does she catch Dinah's words. A grimace flickers its way across her face momentarily, and she nods quickly at Taleyn's instructions.
Arianne glances towards Dinah, then back to Taleyn. There's an odd movement - a shrug, maybe? - then she starts to move, sniffing around as canines tend to do.
"Joseph, Nathan," Anae calls out two of her group. The men and their horses trot over. "My lady," she asks of Dinah, "Do you want us on foot or to stay mounted?"
Dinah salutes Taleyn, then looks over her newly-asigned troops. "Stay mounted, for now. I'll let you know as soon as that changes." Long strides bring her towards the point of the group, but slightly away from Arianne. "Two ear flicks if you smell something unusual. I don't speak fluent wolf," she offers.
Taleyn barks an order to her own platoon. The Defenders form up in two discreet wedges, one in front of the other, then the back one fans out in a holdout pattern. Taleyn positions herself at the leading edge and nods to the scouts, a proud smile on her face for a moment, and then all-business with a nod.
Arianne nods slightly at Dinah's comment, but her focus is, clearly, on what her nose knows. Though for right now it doesn't seem as though she notices anything else out of the ordinary.
Once the advance party enters the Weird Zone, there seems to be a low-pitched droning... or maybe a moaning. It's quiet-- perhaps very far away. Shadows flicker on the Road.
Anae's hand rests gently on the hilt of her sword, gray eyes scanning vigilantly.
Miranda's eyes follow the shadows -- too much, perhaps; there's more going on that she might miss as a result of that distraction. Her face remains composed, but she moves a little too quickly, a little too twitchily, to be other than agitated.
Dinah shoots Miranda a questioning look. At nearly the same time, she draws her scimitar out. Never hurts to be prepared, after all. "On guard," she says softly.
Nothing happens for a good long pace. Long enough, in fact, to put even the most seasoned scouts on edge. Then, a flash of movement! Only not on the Road-- on the ground in front of the party! In a scant eyeblink, a hillock of gray-green earth rises up and scoots away, as if the solid ground beneath them were behaving like a viscous liquid with something breadbox-sized beneath it.
Arianne slows her pace, then stops all together when the earth rises up. For a second anyway, then she's scrambling back and baring her teeth, growling darkly.
That little hillock is headed directly away from the party into the misty, moorish distance.
The soft rasp of a drawn sword is Anae's contribution. She gestures and pulls her horse to the side even as her scouts shift out to the other. No bunching up. Ready to flank if needed.
"What in --" Miranda exclaims when the ground suddenly develops mobility. She stares at the rapidly retreating hillock in blank amazement, and then, with a quick shake of her head, glances to the others. "I have never seen anythng like that," is her only remark.
"I have no idea," Dinah remarks to Miranda. Her free hand moves and with a flick, she sends one wicked-looking dagger towards the movement in the sand.
The dagger neatly THUNKs into the mound, which promptly cavitates into a miniature sinkhole. It makes a sucking sound, overlaid with a squeal.
Arianne cocks her head as she watches the knife impact the ground, and then there's another growl. No sir, she does not like this at all.
At the hillock's-- er, sinkhole's-- squeal, two more little mounds pop up a short distance away from the party. They begin scooting away into the mists, as well.
"Orders?" Anae asks softly, evenly, of Dinah.
"Take them out if you can," Dinah decides. "They don't seem aimed at us but I never discount the chance of spies."
Miranda pulls the heavy blade free of its over-the-shoulder scabbard, weighing it easily in one hand. She measures the distance to the nearest ... whatever it is ... by eye, taking several steps forward; but, lacking any sort of missile weapon, she declines to pursue further for the moment. "What concerns me," she remarks in an undertone, glancing down at the ground, "is how many more of them may be below us."
*pop*
*pop* *pop*
*poppopopopopopopopopp*
Hillocks spring up left and right, in front and behind! Some of them zing off into the mist after the other two... and others... seem to be trying to surround the scouts.
Arianne's growling only continues, perhaps with a more threatening note to it. She looks from one mound to another, and finally down at the ground directly in front of her. And then? Well, dogs dig, and wolves are related to dogs, right? So Ari starts digging, as fast as she can.
"Go after them," Anae orders her men, sharply. "Mark your distance though." She swings down from her saddle with a little bit less than perfect grace, drawing her sword.
Anae's riders take off after the retreating mounds, and soon their retreating forms are engulfed in mist.
No longer messing with daggers, Dinah now makes use of the sword in her hand. "This is not looking good," she says lowly, and with a flourish stabs her blade into the ground. "This is why I spend my time at sea."
Anae throws her cloak over her shoulder, expression varying not in the slightest as the curve of her stomach revealed. Her only concession to that fact is that she will likely not move far from the protection at the horse at her back as her sword starts sweeping out to greet the enemy.
"I am," Miranda remarks, "rather beginning to come around to your point of you, my lady Captain." She moves to engage those ... hillocks that appear to be attempting to surround them, and drops down low into a crouch to scythe her blade /beneath/ one of them, lest there be some creature beneath. When there proves no such thing, she lets her momentum carry her back up to her feet and into a complete circle, at the end of which the edge of her weapon crashes down on top of the same hillock.
Growling and digging. These are two things that Arianne is, apparently, very good at. Or maybe she just enjoys them both because she keeps them up, digging into the mound, dirt flying behind her. The growling changes at times, turning into muttered growling.
"No moving-earth strangeness, for example," Dinah remarks, as her blade leaves the earth, swings through the air, and back into a different piece of earth. "And things -bleed-. It's far more rewarding."
"Yes, we are unfortunate indeed," Anae says, shifting forward to cut through one mound and then twisting to impale another, "But, we must count our blessings as they come, my lady. At least none of us are knitting."
The hillock-smashing goes rather well. Dirt flies, and blades get filthy! Many of the mounds cavitate into little sinkholes, making footing treacherous, naturally, because no good deed goes unpunished. But then, as the scouts seem to be getting the upper hand, several of the hillocks begin to smash into each other. *Smash! Smash! SMASH!!* Bit by bit, the moving earthpiles merge and grow into larger mounds. These mounds grow taller and taller, and then lash out at the party, attempting to surround and crush them, burying them alive under their earthen folds!
Oooh, there's a change! Instead of growling, Arianne snarls when the nearest mound tries to crush her. She twists away, mostly avoiding it, and she bats at it with a paw, clawing at the earth. What she says next sounds like, "Bad dirt, bad!"
Miranda sidesteps one oncoming hillock -- she still hasn't quite managed to persuade herself that this is actually happening to her, and so there's a slight touch of bemusement to her. "I should prefer," she says, addressing the nearest mound of earth, "to wait for my burial until /after/ I am dead already, thank you." She steps in toward a pair of them, jabbing first one, then the other with the point of her sword; and, when they both converge on her, she steps back, steps back, and dodges to one side to move past the both of them.
Anae twists, smacking her horse and inciting it to run and thus evade the cascade. She trusts its speed to see it through and avoids getting trampled in the same act. She dodges the other way, grunting as the ground breifly claims up to her knees before she gathers herself to bolt to the side, sword swinging in a low arc behind her.
"I suppose that you have a point," Dinah calls to Anae as she slices through another retreating small mound. As they form into larger mounds, she sneers and then laughs. She sidesteps to the right in doubletime, and three daggers are lef t in the hillock.
The billowing waves of sodden earth roar and cavitate with a seasick-making shudder. No chewy human center for them today! Just at that point, shouts drift backward from the thinning mist, and for a moment, Anae's horsemen become visible-- they seem to be trapped on a HUGE hill, which rises up from the flat marshland beside the Black Road like a moving prison, morphing and shifting to keep them at its top, while little moundlets harry at the horses' feet.
Arianne's head jerks up at the screams, and she growls and darts forward. No pile of dirt is going to gobble up anyone today if she has something to say about it!
"Hold on!" Anae shouts towards her men, still unmoved in expression. However, one could find it telling that she is moving, running after Arianne immediately may speak to how urgently she percieves the situation.
Miranda turns to Dinah, remarking, with just a touch of urbane good humor, "If you wish to accompany them, my lady Captain, I shall certainly be able to manage the remaining difficulties here." She scrambles to the side of one of those roaring earth-mounds, and offers its near surface a hard *thwack* with the flat of her sword to keep its attention.
The mound roars irritably.
Arianne is going straight for the hill, and upon reaching it, she starts to dig and growl and snap at it. So dirt doesn't taste all that good, but she's determined! Rar!
Even the well-trained horses of Anae's best scouts are beginning to freak out a bit at the earth beneath their feet being all wobbly and attacky. They scream and blow, while their riders stab at the peril beneath them, which seems to be sucking them under, inch by inch...
Dinah's steps slow as she draws closer and closer to the Black Road, and a look of anger, no, rage, flashes in her eyes. Her sword at her side, the pirate puts one foot on the Road and grits her teeth. The fabric of reality itself seems to waver with every dragging step that Dinah takes, and the Road starts to peel apart around her. Sweat falls from her brow but she keeps trudging on--leaving a trail of now untainted ground in her wake.
Anae takes a direct route. While Arianne digs and snaps, she's lunging in to impale, slash, pierce.
Arianne would, likely, be in heaven right now if there were just some sort of blood. Biting things should make them bleed! But alas, she just gets to dig and dig and dig, growling and snapping.
Silent and grim, Anae continues to chop and hew and hack and slash. Dirt rasps along her sword edge and hands are soon stained mud and black.
Miranda tries her best to keep out of the, er, grasp of the hillocks. She dodges, weaves, and jumps aside; at one point, she even leaps *on top* of one of the attacking mounds of earth and runs lightly across it to the other side, in order to escape a tight spot. But one can only run for so long. Numbers will eventually tell. An ankle caught in animate muck is all it takes to slow her to a stop, and, whilst she hammers relentlessly away at the attackers, the earth steadily oozes up toward certain suffocation.
At Dinah's effort, there is a wobble in the /fabric of reality/, which counters the wobbly currents of spiteful dirt. The Black Road is fighting her, but Dinah's pure rage proves stronger! A path of-- still kind of disgusting, but UNTAINTED, marsh-ground now stretches across the Black Road. The completion of this land-bridge disrupts whatever vile force is holding the life in the surrounding dirt hills, but they do not go down easy. They use the last of their energies trying to take the heroes down with them!
The formerly-living earth begins to cavitate. There is a horrible, unthinkably loud SUCKING sound. Then the ground falls from beneath their feet.
"Harriers, move!" Anae's yelled order is one she tries to follow herself, struggling to free herself of the dirt and panting by the time she tears free. She looks towards the last place she saw Miranda and Arianne, as if to ensure they are capable of getting free and running as well.
The last step completed, Dinah looks behind her, across the gross but no longer horridly and obviously Black Road piece of land behind her. A confident swagger is in her steps as she walks back across that spot, and looks to see how the others are fairing. She allows herself to look triumphant, and might even preen if she didn't suddenly sink down to her knees, collapsing. The effort of it all overcomes her, and she passes out. Leaving Taleyn, surely, to explain to Cyrus what happened to his wife.
Arianne twists in the dirt, her fur covered by dirt and mud. Her paws sink a bit in the earth, and she has to fight to get traction, but she does manage to get away and not, you know, fall into the big HOLE.
Miranda's as much surprised as pleased to see the earth suddenly willing to relinquish its grasp on her. Well ... sort of. Muddied and bruised, she wrenches one arm free with sheer strength, then one leg, and, finally, pulls her foot free with a vile-sounding sucking *POP*, giving her just enough freedom of movement to escape being entombed.
The horsemen MOVE, per Anae's orders! Meanwhile, Dinah collapses, and so does the earth, but Anae, her scouts, Miranda, and Arianne are moving away to safety.
Anae catches sight of the fallen Dinah and, for a moment, indecision tears on her face. She won't make it to Dinah's side, and there's no denying that. She instinctively shouts the name of the fastest person she knows to be in the group, "Arianne! Dinah!"
Arianne skids to a stop upon hearing her name, glancing in that direction, then around for Dinah. There's a low growl, then she turns to head towards the woman, as fast as her four little feet can carry her.
What Anae expected may be hard to guess. Perhaps she thought Arianne would shift. But, whatever her initial thought she realizes that dragging someone out of a pit is likely to be a two person job. If Miranda is unable to jump forward, the slower Anae will lend her self to help.
Arianne is doing her best to drag Dinah away, honest she is. Though she's growling unhappily while she does. She knows she's slow! Where's one of the big burly Weir when you need them? Huh? HUH?!?
Let's be honest. Anae is a bit too round in the belly to be doing leaning down to pick something up with perfect grace. Sad to say, but true. The fact itself causes the first in that stone expression, a flash of anger quickly buried. But she's dropping to her knees and insiunating herself under one of Dinah's arms and moving to get up and start hurrying to safety.
The moment Anae arrives Arianne shifts, but she's still growling as she gets Dinah's other side to help get her away from the sinkhole.
Dinah Discordia is pushed, pulled, dragged, muddied, bitten, and wrestled to safety, as are the other brave heroes! Stumbling back through the Shadow boundary, they rendezvous with the Defenders. "Di-- er, Anae! Report?" says Taleyn.
Anae gives Arianne a nod of thanks as they both rescue Dinah. By the time they've met up with Taleyn, the gray-eyed woman has regained both cloak and horse. "We encountered beasts of the Black Road, my lady. The earth was animated and attacked us. Lady Discordia was doing something with the Black Road itself. I did not see that part. But it seems to have exhausted her." She looks to both Miranda and Arianne to see if they had more to add.
Arianne nods to Anae's account of things. "The mounds of earth seemed to die or lose whatever animated them when attacked, but they didn't bleed or anything like that."
Taleyn's eyes flash with worry, and she orders a medic to see to Dinah. "Everyone else all right?"
Miranda shakes her head, looking rather bedraggled but mostly unhurt. "I do not think anyone else is seriously injured, Knight-Captain."
Taleyn says, "Any further foes over there to clean up?"
Anae shakes her head fractionally, "Not that I saw. It would not hurt to send scouts. Are we pressing onward?"
"I didn't see or smell any others either. Though, admitedly, I was a bit distracted," Arianne replies.
Taleyn shakes her head. "We'll secure the perimeter here and set camp for the night. Right! Let's get you fed and rested." She beams with respect at the scouting party. Mock-sternly, she adds, "I thought I told you lot not to take on any armies." With a flash of a grin, she attends to her duties.
A flicker of something that may very well be relief crosses Anae's face. She nods, "Duly noted, my lady." She turns towards her men, "Down time."