(Untitled)

[rosereddaughter]

WHO: Hotsuma, Capt America, Amal/Ashe, Bridget, Open
WHAT: Search Party Formation
WHERE: Starting at the park and going from there
WHEN: Shortly after Bridget's post

Comments

[noturbf]

Boba felt bad about leaving Iggy and Nill alone in the house, but this situation seemed like a much more immediate problem. He knew others would be coming to find her, but without knowing their skills there was no way he could trust them to find her in time. He had the experience to track over almost any terrain, and the equipment to make that experience almost unnecessary anyway

[dynast_queen]

Ashe arrived at the scene just in time to see Boba disappear into the undergrowth. She took a moment or two to get her bearings, though left her investigation unfinished in order to catch up with the bounty hunter.

"Boba!" she called, keeping her voice relatively low. "It is I, Amal." She didn't know if he was with someone, so the charade would have to stay up for now. "How long since the attack?"

[noturbf]

The call surprised him, and he had turned and aimed his gun at the source of it before he recognized the disguised Ashelia. Boba wasn't completely happy with her being out here for this. Sure she could handle herself effectively in a fight, but she had also taken damage from smaller animals. Against these beasts that had already torn the arm off of an apparent fighter, it didn't make Boba very comfortable.

He knew nothing he said would make Ashelia turn back however, so he just had to try to make sure nothing happened to her.

"Not even ten minutes ago," he answered. "She was injured severely though, she may not have much time left." Actually, the more Boba thought about it, the less likely it was that she was still alive at all. It was a theory probably better off not said though.

"Let's move," Boba said as he turned and began to follow the trail once again.

[rosereddaughter]

The tracks changed after passing the first line of trees. There was no longer any sign of serious fighting and it seemed more like a rabbit chase than anything. That is, if the rabbit managed to stay just enough of the hunters to dangle the prize just out of reach. The pantheras didn't even get much chance to climb the trees around them in their chase. Bridget's tracks were no longer trackable, but now and then a sharp line cut into the trunk of a tree marked her passing. Flight, perhaps? Bridget was certainly putting distance between the pantheras and the town.

The trail wound in a large curve towards the river.

[sustainthesword]

Deeper into the trail, ahead of Fett and Ashe, they would start finding strange blades embedded into what trees carried Pantheras claw marks. As if someone were confirming they were indeed on the right track.

*

Hotsuma knew this path. It ran parallel with his own road into the jungle, taken whenever Akujiki's hunger demanded satisfaction. Moreover, he'd spotted that hooded monster from last Halloween in this rough vicinity.

It occured to him that he'd never felt as much fear that time as he did now, knowing a friend and housemate was in grave peril. Bridget could take care of herself for the most part, of course, but a severed arm changed everything. Blood loss might triumph where the Pantheras failed.

With that knowledge, he drew Akujiki and followed where the cursed sword pulled him. No time for any wrong turns or backtracking now.

[rosereddaughter]

The tracks led to the river and then turned abruptly downstream. But only for a short distance. Bridget's tracks reappeared, but after a bit of circling the boot prints grew quite a bit deeper for a step or two. Then there were only one set of panthera tracks.

Yay for throwing bad kitties in the swollen river, right?

The tracks separated at last with the female panthera heading downstream and Bridget heading upstream. The woman's tracks were slow and sometimes stumbling now and then, but there was very little blood. It would be easy to catch up with Bridget despite the lead she had gained.

[sustainthesword]

Something like shock and surprise touched that stoic shinobi visage. That she'd managed to fend off one of these giant cats and send the other pursuing her fallen mate was truly a feat. But who knew at what cost?

Akujiki's crimson light illuminated the jungle dark, it's owner's every sense trained on every shifting shadow. The last of his kunai found a tree trunk before he lifted his voice against the rain spattering on the canopy above.

"Bridget, it's Hotsuma. Where are you?"

[rosereddaughter]

Not even two hundred yards away Bridget sagged against the comforting solid mass of an ancient tree. Her hair was soaked and was sticking to the back of her neck and face wherever it had fallen out of her tight braids, and her much-abused gown was plastered to her like a second skin except for where it hung heavily over her legs. The stump that used to be her arm was still raw and ragged, but she had cut off the bleeding within a few moments of losing it. The random scores on her legs, unarmed side, and the deep rake of claws across her back under the sodden fall of hair were just as bothersome at the moment.

But at the feel of someone nearby, ice-blue eyes hardened. Had the female returned? Or was something else taking up the chase? Bridget still had a ways until she could make the safety of the waterfall...

[noturbf]

For a few moments Boba had thought it was all over when the tracks had disappeared, but the blades stuck in the trees put him back on the trail. He wasn't sure whose blades they were, only that it was likely from some 3rd party also following Bridget.

The closer they got to the river, the more worried he became. Tracking someone through the rain was extremely difficult even for experienced trackers. Trying to follow someone through any type of moving water was even harder. Following the tracks of someone in both the rain and a current was nearly impossible.

"Amal, keep a lookout for more of the throwing knives once we reach the river. They may be the only trail we can follow once we get there."