Subj: [ffml] [HD] Oh, bugger Date: 01-01-02 10:44:05 EST From: larathia@mcs.net (Larathia) Reply-to: ffml@egroups.com To: ffml@egroups.com Lia was not feeling very happy. In the few days she'd spent Outside the protected mountain kingdom of NeuVariel, nearly every inhabitant of the Phoenix Star mountain range had tried to eat her, and the migraine from having to continually cast magics to protect herself and defeat her attackers was giving her a near-murderous outlook toward anything that got in her way. Magic in NeuVariel was a choice type of thing, done for fun and pleasure and to keep one's hand in. As a thing absolutely necessary to her survival it was not a comfortable thing to rely on. Especially since she specialized mostly in ice magic, and what do you know? Most monsters of the Phoenix Star mountains had thick furry hides that ice bounced off of or annoyed. Her Thunder magic was much less refined, and it was now in constant employment. The next snow lion that attacked her was going to spend the remainder of its existence as a deep fried furry rug.... It hadn't helped that the Border guards had laughed themselves silly at the idea of her going out alone. But at least they'd reassured her that she had several days yet before she got out of patrol range. She wouldn't have to worry about Moogles attacking her. Monsters were only monsters, something everyone was expected to be able to handle at need - but Moogles were a permanent threat to be on guard against. The House Leaders were quite clear on that. It was a long day...the sun was going down. The next day's travel would take her out of the foothills and into the plains beyond, and hopefully into territory where her ice magic would do some good. With a pounding headache and sore and aching wings, Lia picked a hill at random and swooped in for a landing. Good thing the patrols kept the mountains and several miles of plains clear of moogles. Waking up to a furry creature trying to fuck her would not improve her outlook any. Snow lions were much preferable. Once down, she realized she'd forgotten about hunting. Again. Staring about her in an exhausted daze, she wondered how one went about hunting at ground level - she definitely did not have the energy to get airborne again. Exhausted, she tried to think of a plan through the foggy haze that was her brain. "You're a big target out here you know," chirped a voice. "huh?" Even the energy required to turn around was almost too much. It took some time to realize that what had spoken was a little white dove hiding in the snow. "Target. You're bright green, lady. You see any green around here? You're lunch for sure, take it from me." "Fuck off, bird," said Lia, annoyed. "Suit yourself," the dove chirped. "I owed you bird-elves a favor, I repaid it - gave you fair warning. You don't want to listen, it's your problem." And with that, the dove shook the snow off its wings and whirred away into the dusk. There was something about listening to birds in her head somewhere trying to make itself heard, but Lia couldn't get her concentration together enough to remember. Nor was her concentration up to handling the difficult Thunder magic required to deal with the snow lion that leaped out of the snow at her about ten minutes later. Little daggers in exhausted hands.... Larathia http://www.mcs.net/~larathia ICQ: 22170253 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everything you need to know is in there somewhere, you just maybe haven't been to the right group yet. The golden rules are: crossposting is better than multiple posting, killfiles are better than flaming and long signatures are conceited. -- Simon Travaglia, "Most of what I needed to know about life I learnt from Usenet News" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Final Fantasy Mailing List: Now available in Cherry, Strawberry or Tofu