From: "His Dark Lordship" To: "ffml" ; "Hillion Dynasty" Subject: [ffml] [HD] "We've died and gone to hell." Date: Friday, July 13, 2001 8:14 PM Most of them had not slept a wink since they arrived. Lia and the two felines were paticularly scorched from the hot sun. In Lia's case, much to her own objections, she had removed as much articles of clothing as she could with having Blackthorne CONSTANTLY oggling her. Blackthorne chuckled. They were in constant debate on whether to give away their position with ice spells, or to continue their stealth run through the forests. The humidity was horrid. Blackthorne too, found that his time in the northern, cooler areas had softened his skin a bit, but he found the head quite livable. THe others seemed to be wishing that some of those raptors that everyone talks about would show up and tear them to shreds. Blackthorne chuckled. These people were enjoying one bonus about Sornos, they had not been attacked by anything besides a group of punk Reptites. This went against every prediction they had. Humanoids were goofy creatures, constantly believing that the creatures around here would have something to gain from attacking a band of armed fighters, especially since the meat yielded would be fairly piddy-assed. Then again, humans always did have a habit of being in the wrong places for the absolute wrong reasons. So enthralled in his thought, Blackthorne didn't notice the drop to the stream. He fell with a grunt. Normally, a stunt like that would have caused his comrades to burst into laughter. Today, however, instead all he heard was shouts of "Water!" and people leaping into the shallow creek. "Geeze people." he muttered "It's not like it's not wet enough in the air or anything." He looked at them. Staring at them with great intensity were two different figures. On one end, a dripping, fuzzy... human? With white fur... odd. The other was a small tyrannosaurid, that, in their desperation to cool off, no one had seen drinking from the stream. The white thing and his comrades seemed to be having a reunion. Arcanis, who claimed he had solved his own problems with the heat by adjusting his mana flow or some majickal mombo jombo, walked up beside him. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked. "It's a Bonesnapper." said Blackthorne. "Averages 20 feet in length when fully grown. This thing looks pretty mature." "Are they a threat?" asked Arcanis inqusitively. "Only if they're desperate for food, their young is threatened, or if you serve yourself up on a silver platter." Almost on cue they both looked at their comrades playing in the water. "Um... guys?" they both uttered in unison. -- The eternal lord of darkness... How in the hell could a forest be so hot? Gray panted heavily, wondering that to himself. The sun beat heavily down upon the forest canopy the party traveled under, the heat somehow making the shade of the trees seem nearly as hot as if they were out in the open. Gray, for once, envied his furless companions for their ability to sweat. Even more, he envied Arcanis and Blackthorne, who both just casually strolled along, apparently completely unbothered by the oven-like heat. He surpressed an annoyed growl, trying to keep his exasperation under control. The humidity didn't help things either. The party had already broken into several arguments already. Arcanis, having used some sort of internal magic esper stuff, wasn't bothered by the himself, but still felt that they should use some magic to help the others cool down. Blackthorne of course was against the idea, saying that magic would give away their position. To what, no-one knew, but Arcanis had detected earlier in the day that scrying magic had passed through the area, searching for something. Because of that, and the fact that Blackthorne was their temporary guide in this dangerous land, the argument basically ended there. But Gray was afraid he'd collapse any moment now without somehow cooling off, and both Gooshaki and Lia looked to be in similar condition. Suddenly, and idea struck Gray. Hadn't Arcanis said that geomancy couldn't be detected? Maybe he could create some water... or better yet, ice. Just as he was about to ask Arcanis about it, the party rounded a turn in the path, and Gray was distracted by Blackthorne dissapearing into a cloud of steam, followed by a surprised grunt. Peering down through the cloud of mist, Gray saw that the draconian had apparently fallen down the side of a shallow ravine. Before Gray could begin to laugh, his eyes led up to something that made him forget about Blackthorne's plight. Water! Water! Everyone cried happily. Gray found himself diving into the shallow brook, greedily gulping down the muddy, but cool water. Blackthorne muttered something from the banks of the brook, but no-one seemed to hear him. A spray of water struck him, and Gray, laughing, joined in the splashfight that the others had apparently engaged in. It was all very fun, and the tension that had built up during the sweltering trip melted quickly away from everyone playing in the brooke. Which is why, at first, no-one heard Arcanis and Blackthorne shouting from the waterbank. Most just sat in the water, shocked. Luckily, Blackthorne and Arcanis had already spring into action. The massive, scaled body of Blackthorne slammed into the side of the beast, knocking it slightly to the side, and keeping it from snapping up anyone of the rest of the frozen party members. As the beast trained to regain it's balance, Arcanis, literally, materialized in front of it. Arms out stretched, a powerful, concussive shockwave blossomed from the esper's hands, slamming into the the giant reptile and hurling it backward. By now, the rest of the party had regained their feet. An ice spell swirled around Lia's hands, and Gooshaki was already charging after the fallen tyranosaur with blinding speed. Gray actually felt at a loss for what to do, but quickly collected his thoughts and calmed himself, focusing on tapping into his skill as he had in the past. In a few moments, the water of the brooke writhed and swirled in response to Gray's geomancy, building into a small wave that slammed against the reptile, knocking it again before it had completely regained its footing. Distant from the action was a distraught half-moogle, drenched with water. Junior was rather surprised to see the group he had met at the AGSOSA here, nearly half a world away, on Sornos. It seemed that they had the situation under control, but still, Junior would prefer not to just stand by while they fought... --- Take over, Space. Time is the best teacher; unfortunatly it kills all its students. Following the directions of the Reptite thugs, Junior traveled in search of Azala's castle. Beyond the dark inner-city of the port town he had arrived in, he was surprised to find a sweltering forest. This continent was definitely a place of extremes. The more he traveled, the more his doubts grew. Was he even still going in the same direction he had started going in? Since he had been traveling so long, and all the trees obscured his view, he wasn't sure. Had the gang-bangers lied to him about the whereabouts of Azala in revenge for humiliating their leader? That was entirely possible. But since he had gone this far, he decided that he might as well keep going. This forest was bound to end some time, and as fatigued as he felt, it was not as if it was very likely for him to die out here. Then he heard something. It sounded like... water splashing? He ran in the direction of the sound and leaped into the water. It felt so good, even if it was warm and kind of muddy. It was wet! He swam about and drank some. Then he noticed that he was not the only one there. About 15 feet away, there was medium sized dinosaur. It was not wearing clothes, and was not humanoid, so Junior judged it to be one of the lower reptites. The dinosaur and the moogle/human stared at each other for a minute before there was a splash and they had even more company. The source of the splash was a large lizard man who Junior did not recognize. He did however recognise the lizard man's companions. It was Arcanis and the other harem members who Junior had parted with previously. "Arcanis!" said Junior, "It's good to see you. What are you doing here in this hot forest?" "The forest? It's not that bad. I'm able to use my internal mana to keep myself cool." "Really? Could you lay some of that on me?" "No, sorry, that would give away our position." "Oh, okay. Anyway, what brings you to Sornos?" Arcanis held up his staff. "This compelled me to come here. But I think it is for a good reason. What are you doing here?" "I am seeking out Azala, an old ally of my father. I'm hoping he can tell me why my father is alive again, or at least what the cause of the recent chaos is." Junior was interrupted by a splash of water from Gray. At first he was slightly peeved about it, but when he saw the good-natured expression on the guy's face, all was forgiven. Junior returned the playful splash with another, and soon there was an all-out splash war that even Lia got involved in. But before Junior knew what was happening, there was some real violence going on. Arcanis and his lizard friend were fighting with the dinosaur that Junior had spotted earlier. Junior was not sure who had started the fight, but it didn't matter now anyway, since this thing might kill his friends if he didn't help stop it. Junior ran to where the altercation was happening, and contributed his bare-hands fighting to the battle. This, combined with the efforts of the others successfully overpowered the beast. When the fight was over, Junior and Arcanis conversed, and decided to travel together, since they were going the same direction anyway. As they took their leave of the site, Junior heard something behind them. It was the whimpering of the dinosaur. It was not dead yet. Junior stopped and turned around. "What are you doing?" said Blackthorne. "It's still alive," said Junior, "We can't just leave it here like this." "Of course we can," said Arcanis, "It tried to kill us!" "No creature is all bad," said Junior, who approached this disabled beast. He convinced the party to let him use some of their supplies to make bandages for the dinosaur's wounds, and a turnicate for it's broken leg. After putting these things on the reluctant dinosaur, Junior moved it right next to the water so it could get a drink when it needed to. "Alright," said Junior, "I'm ready to go." "I can't believe you did that," chuckled Blackthorne, "He didn't even want you to. He could have killed you while you were trying to help him." "I doubt it," said Junior, "I have lived through much greater dangers than that." "Sure, whatever floats your boat..." Aaron Ackerson ----------- My original music: http://www.mp3.com/Aaron_Ackerson The Snowbank Seven: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/266/the_snowbank_seven.html Radio Free Spacecat, with live broadcasts every saturday night and over 170 of my favorite tracks streaming all week: http://www.live365.com/stations/42602 Spacecat's Moogle War Homepage: http://spacecat2.tripod.com "The things we touch have no permanence...there is nothing we can hold onto in this world. Only by letting go can we truly possess what is real." -Li Mu Bai, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon