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The Chosen [IC / Not Accepting / PG-16]

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This weasel was a slippery one, she had to give it that much! Its meat would probably make a fine meal later on with proper cooking! The crafty rodent slipped behind Lindow, doing... something. Pyrrha wasn't sure just what it was, but she knew that it was simply something she couldn't take her eyes off of. Such mesmerizing movements... the elf couldn't help but wonder if she'd be able to move like that some day. She kind of just... forgot that this was the enemy that she was supposed to be killing and perhaps making a meal out of. Until it bit Lindow's leg, anyway. That reminded her right quick what was going on.

Right. Killing the weasel. I should help with that.

Luckily, it seemed content to clamp its jaws onto Lindow's leg. That - plus the size of the thing - made the weasel's neck a fairly easy target. Although this wasn't exactly the kind of axe suited for full-on decapitation, it could certainly get into the flesh, and Pyrrha knew that necks were often a good weak point. And so, the elf shook off her brief daze and hurried over to Lindow's side, axe raised, before swinging down at the creature's neck.

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Though Ryia had managed to keep the attention of the Roc momentarily, she watched as Keres moved to divert the attention herself. Ryia couldn't do much but watch at the spectacle, as she had no way of intercepting the large flying creature as it dove towards her. That didn't stop her from moving towards it though, running as fast as she could to attempt to catch up with the bird. What did stop her, however, was the spectacle that followed. What had happened once now had happened twice. With Reinaan, claws ablaze, diving from the top of the rock formation and grabbing onto the creature as it attempted to make its way towards the water chosen. Forcing the Roc to veer off course, Ryia could only watch as the beast made its different aerial maneuvers before finally the duel between the two was over. 

She looked a bit shocked at Reinaan as he fell off the beast, worried if he was alright though assured that he wasn't in immediate peril as he still seemed to be moving around. All that left for her was to defeat the Roc in front of her. It was still a large creature and she wasn't entirely confident in her ability to defeat it on her own. But it was grounded now and certainly wounded, so there was on better time for her to engage the creature then now. Moving to the north of it, Ryia wasn't exactly the stealthiest of people, but she was not actively antagonizing it as she made her way up in an effort to keep herself out of its sights while it recovered. Adding to that, Ackrin trotted over to the south of it, pelting the creature with rocks to act as a diversion. Once she made her way up to the creature and was in striking distance, provided it hadn't moved away yet, the girl went in to strike at its leg with her mace. 

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Keres didn't want to watch. Reinaan's dive was dangerous, as seen with Geoff, and there was no telling if this would go better than that had. However she knew she had to keep an eye on things. She wasn't sure she had enough energy to catch him like she did with Geoff but she had to try.

He fell, fell...and stuck the landing. She let out a gasp, a rare expression of emotion, as the Draken rode the giant bird around. Culminating with the bird, and boy, crash landing into the ground. She winced as she saw him tossed from the roc but was relieved to see he was, relatively, unharmed.

She started to step forward but stopped herself. How she was now she would only cause trouble for the others who would surely have to protect her from the creature's attack. So she could, once again, only watch as Ryia approached the bird.

--

The roc was disoriented from the fall but still ready to fight. It had been injured, its territory invaded, and all it knew was it had to get rid of these creatures so it could have time to heal up for its next hunt.

Ryia's mace went down and collided with the roc's leg. Its bones were hollow but, due to its size, it had developed stronger than normal bones and the mace didn't quite crack it. Due to not having many nerves there the bird didn't seem to really be pained by the attack either. Letting out a screech, louder in Ryia's ears due to proximity, the bird swung its head down to try and peck at her with its large beak.


The weasel had a good hold of Lindow's leg as it bit down. It could taste the blood and that caused its mind to go into a frenzy. All it wanted was more. And all it cared about was getting the meat right in front of it. Thus it didn't move as Pyrrha came down with the axe. Cutting deep into the weasel's neck. Who, unable to react, could only instinctively bite down harder. Attempting to tear the leg off even as its neck was cleaved into and its neck vertebrae cracked.

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Ryia winced in pain as the bird let out an ear piercing shriek next to her, and looked up to see that the bird was beginning to strike at her with its beak. As she was already close enough to the creature, the girl began to ran forward and went under the bird as it moved, hitting its leg with her mace as she did. The hit seemed as solid as the last, and similarly the bird's foot leg was still as solid as it had been, though now the bird's balance seemed to be off. In fact as Ryia looked at the unsteady creature, her eyes went a bit wide as she realized that it wasn't quite standing on two legs anymore and was coming towards her at an increasingly fast rate. 

Moving as fast as she could, Ryia dove out of the way and tumbled across the ground, avoiding being crushed by the massive bird's weight. Getting back on to her hands and knees as she was bringing herself up, the bird as well had the same idea as it stood back up, letting out yet another shriek as it went to grab at her with its beak. Not in any real position to move, the girl knew that the monstrous bird would probably rip through her armor if it bit down on her and there wasn't much way she could get out of its grip once it grabbed onto her. So, trying to think of what she could possibly do, the girl looked down to see the mace in her hand before looking at the bird. Winding her arm back, the girl chucked her mace at the Roc's face, striking the bird dead on and causing it to stumble back, dazed by the sudden ranged bludgeon. 

Now able to stand back up fully, Ryia drew her scimitar. Not confident in her speed to charge it and having no ranged options, sans throwing her only other melee weapon, Ryia awaited the bird's next move. Unsurprisingly, its next move had been similar to its previous ones. Charging the girl with its beak open to clamp down on her, Ryia suddenly had a thought. Even if she saw it coming, she was still not confident in being able to outmaneuver the creature. Wide eyed, the girl opted to go back to where she had just been, falling backwards and avoiding the beak as the Roc thrust it forward. With her blade in hand, and now under the creature's head, Ryia suddenly saw an opportunity present itself. Stabbing upward with her sword, the creature let out a screech as her blade cut deep into its beak, causing the bird to recoil back and away from Ryia if only momentarily. 

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It all happened so quickly. Before he could react, Lindow found himself on the ground with Pyrrha dashing over to his aid. Though the weasel's jaws only seemed to grow tighter by the moment, despite Chosen's strike to the neck. The pain was immense, causing Lindow to growl like an animal himself as he quickly leaned in to plunge his dagger into his attacker's eye. All too aware of the risks of wasting even a moment, the man also used hilt of the Bandit Cleaver to pry at the monster's maw whilst he tried to work the smaller blade up into it's brain. A desperate attempt to end it's life before the creature could take his leg... 

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While Ryia intercepted the now grounded bird, Reinaan struggled to his feet. It took a moment but his head stopped spinning and his vision came back into focus. With balance and orientation back in place he began to test his limbs more thoroughly to check for breaks. Nothing that he could tell. A wicked grin took over his face at the amateur self-assessment as the flames reignited and extended from off his claws. The Earth Chosen had managed to land a solid blow or two to the bird. It wasn't attempting to fly after what Reinaan had done to it, and now it seemed to be struggling on its feet as well. Add to it a well timed mace throw to its face and and a sword stab through its beak and the draken thought he saw his opening. As the roc recoiled from the damage to its beak Reinaan charged at it. It's focus still on Ryia, the bird didn't notice the reptile's approach until Reinaan had managed to get under it. As soon as he could reach the roc's body he plunged in his flame claws and began dragging them through the thing's gut toward the tail. But the bird was not oblivious to sudden searing pain.

With some flaps of its wings the bird managed to hop away from the source of pain, but it still didn't take to the skies. Flying seemed beyond it for the moment and Reinaan was going to capitalize on this fact. He ran after the bird which turned its attention to the Draken this time as it ever seemed to shift attention to the thing to last hurt it that was close by. As it had with Ryia, it now thrust its head and neck forward to peck at the Fire Chosen that was approaching it. Reinaan thought he saw his opening and made a small jump to the side to narrowly evade an embarrassing death of beak to chest before trying to stab at the creature's eye with his flame claws. If he could just drive it into the head, but no he was slammed into the by the rest of the thing's body. The roc's eye was slashed across and effectively rendered useless, but Reinaan was still knocked back and away, left only with the relatively shallow cut to the thing's face. Still, with half the thing's sight gone Reinaan could feel this was coming to a close soon. He began another charge at the beast, moving in an arc to attempt to stay out clear sight of the good eye. The boy looked back to Ryia briefly, hoping she'd join him in the attack. No way this thing could handle multiple angles of assault in its state.

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The roc tried to follow Reinaan's movements. But its size, and the injury to its eye, including blood running down its feathery face, made it difficult. It swung its head far to the side to see the Draken's approach and, hopped to the side to keep in line with the Chosen.

It spread its wings and let out a screech before charging forward on unsteady legs, lowering its head and keeping its beak forward. Without much left to do the roc was now attempting to bowl over the relatively small creature and tear into their body with its sharp beak.

Keres started forward. Moving from the safety of the pillars. She couldn't do much but she could tell that the roc was near its end. So she would do her best to keep from any mistakes on their part from proving fatal while they tried to finish off the creature.


The weasel's eyes were wide and full of rage as it was stabbed by Lindow's blade. It didn't seem to want to let go but, gradually, it lost strength, and it loosened its jaw's grip on the witch hunter.

As it dropped to the ground, with a rather impressive thud that caused a cloud of dirt to puff up into the air, Lindow would feel intense pain as the air hit his wound. His leg hadn't been ripped off as the animal had attempted but there were still a multitude of teeth marks that were oozing blood. Combined with his excess use of magic and having spent the day marching and fighting Lindow's endurance was waning.

He would find it hard to even stay standing as the blood loss increased.

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The Roc had adjusted to Reinaan's movements, attempting to keep the Draken in sight with its one good eye. Acknowledging he wouldn't be able to run fast enough to keep in the blindspot, the hunter met his prey head on and began charging straight forward even as the bird lowered its head and did the same, looking to skewer him with its beak no doubt. The draken made no motion to the left or right and collision seemed imminent before he leaped up into the air and allowed the beak to slide in under him. With the maneuver he latched onto the front of the bird's face, a move that clearly annoyed the creature. Before it could protest much more Reinaan readied the flame claws and plunged them in lengthwise to the bird's forehead, hoping he had successfully picked its brain. At least for now the creature seemed to have no intention of stopping and instead kept running.

"Don't tell me even this big they have nuts for brains." Reinaan muttered as he withdrew his claws and picked a different spot in the face to plunge them in again. This he continued while the bird kept running forward. It wasn't slowing in the slightest and yet looking behind him Reinaan saw they were fast approaching the central tower in the easter row. A ramming maneuver. Not the dumbest bird he'd ever encountered by a wide margin. Reinaan continued stabbing and restabbing different parts of the bird's face with his claws until the last momement, diving off to west right before the impact. Another less than graceful landing saw the draken boy rolling a bit more, this time with a face full of dirt as his rear end lifted up some, his tail pointing straight to the heaven's above.

The bird was clearly dazed from ramming its own head into the stone structure before it. It moved very little and what it did seemed uncoordinated. Now was the time to finish it before they had to play another game like that. Yet Reinaan had barely moved from his position. Ziiyol materialized at his side, ever excited as her usual response from the merging and separating process. This left the boy a bit dazed himself as he struggled to his knees and spat out the dirt that had found its way to his mouth. He wasn't far from where he'd dropped his Halberd and crossbow however and the shine of the metal blade of his new weapon was what first caught his eye and refocused his vision. The Roc was behind him, the weapons before him. Attempting to merge with Ziiyol again so soon would likely be a fairly explosive process so he had to hope he'd be fast enough or that one of the others could fell the beast as it was sooner. It took a minute but he eventually stood and began making his way toward his weapons.

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Getting up slowly from the ground, the girl watched on as Reinaan had jumped on top of it and had his tussle with the beast. The draken had continued to brutally assault the beast, literally, head on with his flaming claws as the beast seemed to thrash about to get him off. The girl slowly approached it as it charged away from her, and into the pillar in an attempt to get Reinaan off. As Reinaan was now recovering and the bird was dazed, Ryia saw it as her best chance to move in and finish the creature off for good. So, rushing around it, the bird didn't seem to mind her presence much as it was attempting to get its bearings back once more. Running over to the neck of the beast, scimitar drawn, Ryia slashed downward at it and had her blade cut deep into the neck of the beast. 

Letting out a pain, if not exhausted screech, the bird seemed to fully register that Ryia was there and was none too pleased about this. Swinging its head towards her, trying to bowl the girl over, Ryia ducked under the head. Now on the opposite side of the creature, the other part of its neck was exposed and so Ryia took the initiative to slash her blade deep into it once again. Now bleeding out from both sides of its neck, the creature simply reeled its head back. In one last desperate attempt to fell its attackers, the creature thrust it forward to bowl Ryia over. Though, as it was heavily weakened by this point, the attack was slow enough for Ryia to step to the side fast enough before its head came down. As it did, the girl brought her blade up and swung in time with the thrust of the head. As she pulled the blade through, using the birds own momentum to help, she cut a massive gash through the head and neck of the Roc before finally swinging her blade out of it. There was a brief moment of stillness as the bird just stood motionless, before finally collapsing in front of the girl, slightly worrying Ryia that she was about to be slammed, but just stopping short of her. Letting out a sigh of relief, the girl flicked the blood off of her blade, as she seemed to have dealt the fatal blow to the Roc. 

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Whilst dust settled around the corpse of the weasel, Lindow found himself sitting beside the creature with his wounded leg clutched tightly. The witch hunter's breathing was ragged.

Peering down at his own blood, Lindow tried his beast to steady his breathing but found little success. His body felt heavy, and even the process of freeing his blade from the weasel's eye nearly required more strength than he could muster. "Looks like we caught dinner..." He glanced to Pyrrha and flashed the girl a grim smile as shifted to put some pressure on his injury to stop the bleeding.

There was no way that he'd be able to use the Light Spirit's magic to heal himself in this state... A raspy sigh escaped the man's lips as it occurred to him that the others still hadn't returned yet either. Had the encountered trouble? Not that he was in any position to do anything about it if they had.

Pushing the thoughts of the other Chosen far away, Lindow tuned back in to his own last than ideal facticity. He was busted up pretty badly, and as far as he was concerned the pair was doomed if it were up to solely the Wind Chosen to defend them both. The best he could do for anyone at the moment was get himself in stable condition before another creature decided to try it's luck- because today would be the day it hit jackpot. With solemn, focused expression he shakily used free hand to reach into his pouch. Producing one of the three healing potions that had been growing dust in there, Lindow hastily yanked the cork free with his teeth before bringing the bottle to his lips and chugging its contents. 

Edited by Hollow

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With a final decisive blow from Lindow, the weasel - after some aggressive trying his best - finally fell to the ground, well and truly dead. But Lindow's leg certainly didn't look much better! In fact, Pyrrha could almost make the argument that his leg was looking worse than his prey!

"Looks like we caught dinner..."

"We did, but your leg!" Pyrrha reached into whatever pockets, nooks, and crannies she could find on her person. Nothing here, nothing there... the only real sort of treatment she could provide for Lindow with the stuff on her was to just amputate his leg with her axe. That sounded like a bad idea, so of course she wouldn't be doing that! So instead, after some hesitation, the elf girl removed her cloak. Thinking more about it, first aid wasn't exactly a field in which she was knowledgable. She'd have to leave the treatment to Lindow, wouldn't she?

...well, she could at least get to figuring out what to do with this weasel. Pyrrha handed her cloak over, giving Lindow a nod and a "Use it for your leg. I shouldn't have much trouble finding another one like it." Now then, the weasel. First thing was first. Checking the arrow she'd shot at the weasel earlier. Still usable. So there was that! Pyrrha loaded the arrow back up into her quiver, thinking about how to skin this thing so she could get to the meat. Her axe wasn't exactly a precision tool, after all, no matter how helpful it would be chopping up the meat later...

"Have you got a knife on you I can skin this thing with?" Pyrrha asked.

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With the roc dead Keres decided now would be a good time to get Geoff back on his feet. So she spent some time working to revive him and, as soon as he was able, he leapt up to his feet.

He pointed at the creature and declared. "You were defeated the moment you dared to challenge us! The power of the Chosen is so great, it almost brings a tear to my eye, but I cannot afford to weep until the land is safe for all!"

Even as he said this they could see, manly surely, tears rolling down his proud face.

Keres side-stepped away from the man as he stood with his hands on his hips and chest puffed out.

Though she paused when she heard him say, "Hey, what's that strange orb there?"

Keres looked to the roc. And sure enough, a small glowing orb was floating above the body of the creature. She recognized it as one of the Souls that the spirits told them about. Evidently this monster had been strong enough to contain one. Soon she felt the power flow into her body, leaving Geoff scratching his head in confusion.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked the others. Then, "We should check its nest while we're here."

With some care the group managed to make their way to the top of the largest pillar, where Reinaan had jumped from. He had been too focused to notice the surroundings but once there they found it was a nest mostly made from grass and dirt.

And it was filled with bones. Most animal but some human. Several that Keres identified as horses as well. Sifting through it they would find various scraps of clothing, items that were mostly useless for anything but selling, and two objects.

One was a thin dagger. The blade of which seemed cold to the touch and gave off a slight glow when waved around. The other was a pendant. In fact it was the very necklace that the woman had told them about. "I suppose we know what happened to him." She said flatly. It was unfortunate. Even if expected. And she didn't look forward to telling the wife that she was now a widow. A few moments later, with a tired sigh, she followed it with "I wonder if the others are okay."

Spoiler

Yes indeed, you have earned a Small Boss Soul from the roc! I debated not letting the other two get it but it'd be unfair....to Lindow ?
As for the items

1 Spectral Dagger: Can't harm living beings but causes great damage to the undead
1 Pendant: Side-Quest item
and knickknacks and gems worth 1200 gold

 

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Ryia steadied her breathing as the fight had seemed to finally be over, punctuated by both Geoff's declaration of victory and the appearance of the roc's soul. The girl closed her eyes as the power of the soul flowed through her, and she took yet another deep breath as the feeling subsided. Looking at the scimitar in her hand, the girl seemed to suddenly be more aware of something off about it. Slowly swinging it around, the girl slightly adjusted her grip as she did so, feeling as though the blade was now more comfortable in her hand then it was before. After the brief moment had passed, the girl sheathed her blade and went to go pick back up her mace. 

Waiting for the others to finish scaling the structure and show the findings to the rest of the group. Ryia frowned a bit as they found the pendant. She had hoped that they would be able to save him, if anyone really. But, at the end of the day all they could take solace in was preventing that no one else would be hunted by the beast. Looking up towards where the nest was, Ryia couldn't help but wonder what had suddenly caused it to attack the settlement, but the only conclusion she came to was needing to find a way to stop the demon gate. With the idea of their being a giant bird snapping people away, Ryia couldn't help but share Keres's worries, but simply said, "well, they were resting so...I'm sure they'd be able to handle uh, any trouble that came their way. Yeah." 

Feeling the need to get a move on back to where they were and calm her own worries, the girl began to make her way towards the grass and shouted out, "um, Mule. Klo...kah? You uh, you can come out now." After going to check up on them, and confirming that they were in fact still fine, the girl motioned for everyone else to follow on their long trek back. 

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Reinaan reached his weapons before long and readied his halberd in particular as he turned himself about. He was grateful to see not an ongoing fight, but rather Ryia delivering the final blow to the Roc. A sense of relief set in as the body ceased moving and a now somewhat familiar sphere of light emerged. Once again the boy could feel power flowing into his being from the monster they'd felled. And despite the rush of energy that came with it, he couldn't entirely fight off the fatigue of the battle, the confusion from separating from Ziiyol, and the rattling his brain and body had taken while being tossed from the bird after his big jump. With a deep sigh the draken fell back onto the earth to rest a moment and gather himself. The fire spirit hovered ever nearby and began running her hands along the boy's body in an attempt to check him over. There was little she could immediately do, but something about the warm sensation moving up and down his body was relaxing so for once Reinaan humored her. Geoff of all people declared victory while Keres began checking on the group.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." the draken responded as he returned to his feet. The Water Chosen spoke of the nest. It would make sense that the central pillar held it. He hadn't exactly been looking for it in his earlier maneuver but it seemed like the only platform big enough for a bird this size. The boy managed the series of jumps again, this time with the others, to investigate the nest. While sifting through scraps of cloth and bones both animal and human they came across several oddities. A cold, softly glowing dagger, jewels and other fine things, and the pendant they had been sent in search of. Without saying specifics Keres expressed what they were all thinking. Reinaan's eyes focused back to the bones though. The focus shifted as his gaze seemed to go beyond the things physically in front of him. How many people had this bird killed? To carry this news to the woman, to anyone. It was almost more than he could take as his thoughts flowed ever back to his past in the village. The boy shook himself alert again just as the image of a Draken's face draining of life returned to him.

"Not here..." he muttered as he finished rummaging through the nest. With their objective complete, the group descended and moved to retrieve the mounts. Thankfully, the grass had indeed been tall enough. The Roc had ignored the animals as they had not immediately been in sight. At Ryia's call Kloqah emerged from the grass. Reinaan went forward to meet her and secured his weapons into their place. Once everyone was ready, Reinaan mounted the lizard before extending a hand to help Keres up to sit behind him on the mount again. He wasn't about to take any chances with anymore snake run ins. And so the boy stayed vigilant despite only wanting to rest as the group began their return trip of several hours. Eventually a pair of familiar figures would come back into view. Lindow and Pyrrha who had stayed behind. At least from this distance they seemed to be doing well enough.

"Heeeey!" Reinaan shouted to the two while yet a ways off. Best to let them know they were coming, assuming neither were keeping watch for them.

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Staring at the girl’s cloak for a minute, Lindow sighed before using his dagger to sheer off a few lengths of fabric. It was crude, but luckily this wasn’t the first time he was forced to improvise when it came to this sort of thing....

"Have you got a knife on you I can skin this thing with?" Pyrrha’s inquiry caused his brow to furrow slightly. It hadn’t even occurred to him that they had just caught a meal for themselves, and perhaps the others, should they ever return. 

“One or two...” Lindow grunted before reaching back and pulling a second dagger from his belt. 

After downing another potion and tending to his leg, Lindow spent the next couple hours or so helping Pyrrha prepare the weasel beside a small fire. The state that his body was in made the work slow and grueling. But by the time the  other Chosen arrived, they would find Lindow staring into the fire with an exhausted air about him. 

“Yo,” Lindow studied the returning group for a moment from his seat by the fire. It only took a few glances to confirm the suspicion that had suddenly bloomed about an hour prior their arrival. “I felt something familiar on the wind. You guys met a strong opponent out there didn’t ya?”

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Keres was starting to get used to riding the large lizard. It wasn't as difficult as it seemed at first and, after that fight, she felt like her body had strengthened up which also aided her.

While on the way back she started taking more notes. Describing everything that she could remember about the roc. Occasionally asking the other two brief questions about their own experience, and avoiding writing down Geoff's rather exaggerated statements.

They were able to make it back to the road without encountering anything more. Only to find that it seemed there had been some sort of fight here too. As shown by the large animal corpse and an injury on Lindow's leg.

“I felt something familiar on the wind. You guys met a strong opponent out there didn’t ya?”

So those souls could even effect a Chosen from this far away it seemed. They were certainly a marvel, Keres thought, and rather mysterious.  As she pondered she noticed that Pyrrha seemed to be preparing to make a meal out of the beast they had killed. So she slipped off of Kloqah and headed towards the elf. "I can help. With the food." She stated.

Geoff had taken upon himself to answer Lindow's question. He stood up on his buffalo and nodded. "Aye, there was a mighty flying beast. It was practically the size of a castle I'd wager. It tried to take us to its nest and tear us apart but we bested the thing with bravery and boldness! It was a sight to behold. If only you could have been there."

Spoiler

For now the group shall rest a bit, feel free to post more than once a week if you can, but otherwise just carry on a bit.

 

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With a piece of her cloak taken for Lindow's wound, the Chosen of Wind and Lightning took to getting the dire weasel ready to eat. Pyrrha wasn't really sure how to pick the conversation back up in that situation though, and as a result it mostly wound up being quiet work, until the rest of the party returned. There was this feeling she had. It wasn't really something she could put into words, but it seemed like Lindow sure could. His gut feeling was that the others had met a powerful enemy out there. As much as she hoped everyone came out okay, the other Chosen seemed well off enough with that in mind, and while Geoff was probably exaggerating, it did sound like quite a battle!

Back to her own business, an offer came to help with the weasel.

"I can help. With the food."

From that one. Pyrrha paused for a bit, thinking the offer over. After she thought about it, the elf shook her head. "No thanks. I can handle this much by myself, no problem. And you're probably tired from fighting whatever you found out there, right? You might as well stop to take a breather. Lindow's leg got bitten pretty badly by this weasel earlier, too, so maybe you should see if he needs any help with that instead." Some salt wouldn't be a bad idea for cooked weasel. Just a little bit. There was no way the party here was carrying salt with them though. Right? Better to operate under the assumption that they weren't. Note to self: Find some easy-to-carry things to help with cooking out in the wild when we get back to town.

"Welcome back, by the way," Pyrrha added, voiced raised just a bit to address all of the returning Chosen. "Hope you like weasel."

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Reinaan dismounted Kloqah not long after Keres did so, letting the lizard take her rest from the long walk back she had done for them. The boy was staying vigilant for the moment, keeping his eyes moving about, looking for any more hostile creatures. Though he had left his weapons on Kloqah's back so what all he intended to do if he spotted something with only the protection amulet about his neck was anyone's guess. He would begin to relax soon as the buffalo man took to recounting the tale of the battle against the roc, though would no doubt add all sorts of half true flairs to it to attempt to impress. The Draken huffed briefly in a mixture of amusement and disbelief that the man had lasted this long as a fake Chosen. But then he couldn't outright deny Geoff's abilities in battle after all this. At Pyrrha's comment Reinaan naturally wandered over to the corpse of the animal the elf and Lindow had fought together while the group had been away. He looked it over for a minute before crouching down to attempt to get a good smell of it.

"That's a new one." he commented after his inspection. "Meat's meat though." Reinaan concluded, figuring he'd enjoy it well enough regardless. He wasn't known to be particularly picky, so long as plants weren't the food at hand. The boy looked back to LIndow before turning to Pyrrha and looking the elf over for injuries. "Looks like the thing left you alone for the most part. Lucky break after that big pack." he observed with some playfulness to his voice. "So how'd ya kill it?" he continued, a bit more excited at the idea of hearing their story. It wasn't a very grandiose fight but if he was about to eat this weasel he wanted to hear the story of how they hunted it.

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Ryia was glad that their trek back was more on the uneventful side. She had taken to using the mule as her steed again as the fight itself had worn her out, more mentally than physically really. Though she certainly felt bad for causing the mule to take on even more wait than normal. All the same, when they had met up with everyone once again, the girl couldn't help but squint at the sight to try and focus on the scene more. Worry crossed her face as it seemed that there had been some sort of situation, though it seemed to soften when she could tell things were mostly under control. Waving at the others, the girl dismounted the mule, petting it and apologizing once more before walking over to regroup fully. 

As Geoff had given the short of their fight against the Roc, Ryia couldn't help but chuckle awkwardly at it saying, "well...it was certainly big. And the fight was definitely, um..." The girl paused as she thought back to not one, but two of her companions leaping off of the pillars to attack. "Eventful." Scratching the back of her head as she said this, the girl sat herself down as Pyrrha had gone to inform them about why Lindow looked the way he did, only to inform them about then using the weasel they had fought to eat. Ryia shrugged at the elf's question, having been very limited in the differing types of meat she had in her life. All the same, the girl began to twiddle her fingers about as she looked nervously between Pyrrha and Keres, before saying, "if uh...if you're going to be cooking though, um, there's uh some stuff. On the mule that might help. And stuff. Yeah." 

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"A flying beast, huh?" Lindow's hand moved up to his chin whilst Ryia and Geoff recounted their battle against the Roc. Embers of interest that were almost childlike flickered in is eye as the man pictured a mighty foe descending from the sky to test his might. Clearly the chosen of buffalo was an unreliable storyteller at best, but regardless the beast must have been impressive, judging from the power he had felt flow into him earlier. "Next time someone else is staying behind..." He grumbled with a pout. 

Hearing Pyrrha tell Keres about his injury, the witch hunter turned to face the water chosen with smile whilst patting the ground next to him, "My body seemed to have failed me when tried to harness thunder earlier. I don't think I'll be able to heal myself for a bit... care to teach me any tricks to get the juices flowing again, little Keres?" Whilst Lindow spoke, Reinaan moved over to sniff around the corpse of the weasel. After a moment of study, the boy keenly observed that the creature and barely touched the elf at all, causing Lindow to sigh. 

"Looks like the thing left you alone for the most part. Lucky break after that big pack. So how'd ya kill it?" 

Barely. "The wild life here is cheeky. The thing just shot out of the grass and had a go at making a meal out of us..." He did his best to tell the story without sounding resentful about Pyrrha's hesitation, making it seem like there wasn't much to the battle. A brief sideways glance towards the elf was the only indication of he feelings. "Evidently it found me to be the more appetizing of the two, so I repaid the compliment by aquatinting it's brain with one of my daggers." Lindow punctuated his sentence by thrusting is index finger toward the dead weasel's face with a sneer.

"Was there any sign of the woman's husband out there?"

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Keres wasn't put off by the girl refusing her help. She simply nodded to her and backed away to give her some space. She didn't think that weasel had any toxins or anything specific to worry about when preparing. So it should be fine to leave Pyrrha to her own devices.

Geoff overheard Ryia saying that the fight was eventful and bound his way over to her. "Oh she's being modest. It was incredible! You should have seen her face off against the beast. Why I was sure it was going to swallow her whole but she stood her ground and delivered mighty blows! For an ordinary adventurer it was impressive. Even my spirit was amazed, isn't that right?"

He turned towards the buffalo who responded with a simple grunt. "See?" Geoff said, nodding confidently.

"My body seemed to have failed me when tried to harness thunder earlier. I don't think I'll be able to heal myself for a bit... care to teach me any tricks to get the juices flowing again, little Keres?"

Keres tensed up as Lindow approached her. But the statement caused some thoughts to stir in her head about the usage of magic. Before she got into that, however, he had another question.

"Was there any sign of the woman's husband out there?"

"Pendant." Keres said in response. "Husband likely dead. But this was in the roc's nest." She took out the pendant they had found which matched the description that the woman had given them.

After she reconsidered Lindow's words. He had mentioned a failure in his body after using magic which was actually quite a serious issue. She felt like she had to talk to him about it. So she approached the man and waited for him to acknowledge her before speaking.

"Magic puts a strain on the body." She began. "It's like a muscle. Misuse. Overuse. Causes damage. It's like...eating something you're not meant to eat. Body rejects it over time...If too far it can...backfire."

---

As it turns out weasel was a rather gamey meat. The creature has very little in the way of fat and its body, while lean, is muscular. And as Keres noted eating meat from an animal that was just fighting for its life generally tastes worse than one caught by surprise. Nonetheless it seemed safe and didn't taste horrible.

"Alligator is better." Keres mentioned partway through.

Geoff, as it turned out, was not a meat eater. He instead was eating some vegetables that he had stored away in a pouch that had been hidden under the buffalo's fur.

Spoiler

So slight jump but feel free to do interactions anyway, just figured we should at least move to a point where we're eating.

 

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Reinaan was at once energized and relieved to hear Lindow explain the encounter with the large weasel. It was fun imagining his friend's swift movements in dispatching the beast before it could hurt him more or shift focus to Pyrrha. And at the same time it was nice to have his feelings from when the group split that he would keep whoever he was left with safe. On the whole it affirmed his impression of the man and it was nice to feel like he was actually correctly understanding a person after the council's deceits. Keres explained their side's findings, showing the pendant of the man they had been sent out in search of. That added something of a somber note to the proceedings as the boy thought of the message they'd have to bear to the poor woman back in town. In any case, the Draken returned to Kloqah's side, and spent the remainder of the food's preparation and cook time restoring the newfound shine to his scales after all the tumbling around in the dirt. He was feeling sore and could tell he'd likely wake up pretty stiff all over for the battering he'd received. Though oddly the soreness was setting into his legs too which he had felt hadn't taken too much of an impact.

When the food was finally prepared Reinaan, once again as shiny as ever, excitedly retrieved his portion of the weasel and enjoyed consuming a new type of meat. The weasel was gamey and a bit tough, though perhaps more to humans than one with as many sharp teeth as a Draken. The boy almost visibly shuddered to discover Geoff didn't eat meat and was going to subsist only on vegetables he'd been keeping with him. That sounded like true torture. Thankfully Keres' comment of alligator tasting better took his focus.

"Aw man!" he exclaimed in dismay as a sudden realization occurred to him. "We should have carved some stuff off the bird. Giant bird's quite the taste. Well, dunno about the ones here but I'm sure I coulda pulled my village's specialty off with it anyway." Reinaan declared. It didn't diminish the enjoyment he had of eating now, but it was still sad to think they'd left that whole thing out there. At least local animal life would no doubt make use of it. "Guess we'll have to find another one." he continued with a laugh. Of course, the last thing he wanted to fight right now was more giant birds. He didn't want to fight anything right now, he just wanted to get back to town and sleep for a while.

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Sitting down with the others, Ryia had kept quiet a bit as the food was served. As she tried it, she noted that it wasn't all that good though it was certainly different from what she was used to. All in all though, she was fairly certain that it wasn't something she'd ever go and seek out to make herself - which was fine because Ryia didn't know much about finding weasels to begin with, nor did she want to make a habit of killing giant ones. Hearing the comments from the others Ryia chuckled, albeit somewhat nervously, at Reinaan's joke about finding another bird to slay so they could eat it. 

Thinking back on it, and all of the things they had fought so far, Ryia said, "well, uh, I'm sure that we'll have many more things to try and uh, eat. On our journey." Taking another bite, thinking a bit more the girl said, "back home I um, only ever really had chicken for meat. So, I wouldn't mind trying any, um, new things we find. Or uh, hunt, I think?"

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"I see... so I did over do it." Lindow took a moment to process the information Keres had presented. The fact their client's husband was dead hadn't been a very surprising revelation at all, but he'd be sure to remember the girl's explanation for what had happened during his battle with the weasel. "It's important to know our limits. I guess this was a good experiment if we think about it like that..." He said whilst studying the water chosen. Peering into the plain looking girl's blank expression, Lindow's felt his lips curl into playful smile. "are you going to write about me in your notes?"

Having spent the most of his youth picking through trash, Lindow was far from picky eater. So whilst the rest of the group chatted amongst themselves about food and hunting, the Thunder Chosen went about dutifully stuffing his face full the charred weasel meat. Those who ventured too close would risk also joining the weasel as calories to fuel his agile movements.

"Speaking of our journey..." He finally chimed in after Ryia between one of his bites. "unless I'm missing something, It looks like we're still none closer to finding the Gate."

 

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Not the best work Pyrrha had ever done preparing a wild animal's meat. Not by a long shot. But hey, this was still perfectly fine food! A bit tough, which wasn't quite up the elf's alley, but she wasn't about to help kill this animal then cook it just to not have some for herself!

"Alligator is better."

"Aw man! We should have carved some stuff off the bird. Giant bird's quite the taste. Well, dunno about the ones here but I'm sure I coulda pulled my village's specialty off with it anyway. Guess we'll have to find another one."

Bird meat? Now that was more like it! Those were what she worked best with anyway, not to mention her favorite meats all came from birds. "A village specialty? We definitely have to keep our eyes peeled for more giant birds then! That sounds exciting!" Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder what draken cuisine was like. Aside from Reinaan and those stiff silent templars, she'd never even met one, let alone learned anything about the food they ate or things like that.

"Well, uh, I'm sure that we'll have many more things to try and uh, eat. On our journey. Back home I um, only ever really had chicken for meat. So, I wouldn't mind trying any, um, new things we find. Or uh, hunt, I think?"

"Speaking of our journey... unless I'm missing something, it looks like we're still none closer to finding the Gate."

The Gates. Right. Those were important. Kind of the reason this whole Chosen thing was happening in the first place. Today had been such an eventful day that Pyrrha totally forgot about it! What with finally meeting everyone else, being whisked away to Bresa, fighting giant bees and then gnolls and then a weasel, not to mention the quest they'd been given in town. While it gave her a sense of relief that the pendant had been found, she didn't like that the woman who had handed out the quest was now a widow. The most she could say as a positive is that the bird responsible for it was dead now.

"What are they like, by the way?" Pyrrha asked between bites of weasel. "I'm sure I'll know it when I see it, but getting word about them from people who've seen them up close seems smart."

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