Scamper

[Lucian]

The kick to the back was somewhat expected, even as it drove him to the ground. It hurt, but again, it was an accustomed hurt, and he had immediately started to get up again.

Then came the driving knee in his back, forcing him to the ground with a hissed grimace through his teeth, while at the same instant [to his comprehension] a hand grasped his hair and yanked it back, pulling up his head and arching his spine. Even this, though extremely painful, was not over-taxing of Lucian. He was far more flexible than she guessed and could have bent a few degrees further before that caused him serious suffering.

This was real. She was changing tactics, actually trying to beat the fight out of him.

He gritted his teeth at the challenge.

But then that hand crashed into the side of his face, just as it had wrapped around his throat before. In the split second before his world erupted in a supernova of agony quite unlike any he had ever experienced before, he knew that she was about to manipulate his mind.

That knowledge was entirely lost in the instant he felt a hundred steel spines stab through his eyes and skull and go shooting down his ear canal.

He had no comprehension outside of the flaring red lights behind his eyes and the empty ringing he could not hear. Perhaps he was screaming. Perhaps his mouth was wide in silent torment that sounds and human expression did not possess the ability to convey. He did not know. All that existed was the pure, unadulterated agony as his mind began to lose its hold on sanity.

It is a curious thing, when the mind is caused to lose touch with the body. Reason, thought, sensation- they are backdrops in the quiet space where the mind exists beyond the influence of mortal touch. For an instantaneous eternity, Lucian floated there, watching himself undergo a pain greater than what many humans would ever feel in their entire existences.

And watched as his body, beyond any conscious control or thought of his own, began thrashing and wrenching around in a violent spasm of muscular seizure, his blood stream flooded with adrenaline and endorphins as his body made a last ditch effort to save his life from what was undoubtedly about to kill him.

His strength in that brief moment was the strength that let a mother lift a tree from her child and father kill a bear with his bare hands when it threatened his family. The strength of complete and total desperation.

[Camulous Smithson]

Camulous walked to where he hoped his horse would be at a brisk pace, using the palm of his glove to push leaves and branches away from his face. The rest slapped wetly against his armor and the witch, like dirty fingers leaving muddy streaks. His hair pasted wet against his head in a wavy mess.

The horse was trained not to run away in even the worst of conditions, but it was still an animal and the odds that it would stay with the woods reaching out for it and whispering gods know what into its mind, with the sound of a fight and a burning tree, with Camulous not being the greatest of a friend, was quite slim. It had run back to the path, out of sight of the fight, but to wait there for him to return was a blessing indeed. More than he could have hoped for on this cursed mission. It meant that he could get back to the headquarters and out of the rain sooner.

It meant that the witch might not die.

Camulous was not in a state of mind to question his luck. There was no time to thank the gods, and the horse was just an animal to him. He grabbed its reigns before it could even think of protesting or running off, shoved his foot into a stirrup, and grunted loudly as he pulled himself, armor, witch and all, into the saddle in one go.

It was exhausting but he kept the girl on his shoulder while he kicked the horse into action and made for the city. Bailing on Ryxa is something he would never do to one of his men or even to most strangers he was assigned to work with. He felt odd doing so. Such an act of defiance would be cowardly under most circumstances. Again he was starting to think, and again he pushed it to the back of his mind. If he were fighting, thinking wouldn't be such a problem.

As the horse started moving he heard Lucian's screams, muffled and swallowed up by the gathering branches. He left them both behind to torture each other, like Orpheus never looking back to his beloved Eurydice. It made him feel sick...

[Blood Ravenous]

The scream echoed through the forest, filling her with a satisfaction of a job well done. She smirked, still watching the blood run down his face. Total control of him was now hers.

That was shattered in the next moment. He thrashed around, throwing off her balance. With gritted teeth she kept her hand in his hair as well as she could but, between being held tightly and being yanked away, his chestnut locks both ripped off in and slipped out of her fist. At the same time she tried to keep her other hand on him somehow, but lost her grip as his body bucked. When she lost contact the illusion that she had persuaded herself into seeing faded and the blood disappeared. Shocked, Ryxa found herself being thrown backwards onto the forest's bed of rotting leaves and the clumps of grass that had managed to grow in the clearing.

She landed ungracefully with a loud whump onto her back. Her armor protected her from being hurt from anything on the ground and from the impact, and she had stiffened so much as she was falling her head hardly hit the ground. Groaning shortly the battlemage lay on the ground for a moment before she pushed herself up. Brown hairs were still held her in her fist, but she opened her hand to let them float to the ground as her legs pulled in. He was only a yard in front of her. Her speed would allow her to get to him and beat him back into submission within moments.

As she moved to get up, however, she found she moved like normal. She cursed loudly and thought, That wasn't five minutes! But it probably was. She could cast it again, but perhaps it was time to try a new tactic. Yet in the meantime, [Lucian] had probably recovered.

[Frug]

(( Camulous and Lanya continue here: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?t=838 ))

[Lucian]

And like the wind wisks away smoke, the madness lifted from his mind as the pain vanished. His eye was whole and saw the dirt in front of his face. He reached up a hand and touched his cheek, which no blood was flowing from. For a moment he lay there, his heartbeat thudding against his chest, feeling his senses come back into order and leftover addrenaline itching through his veins.

I was reminded of when as a small boy he fell victim to another tormentor. One different in form, but not in nature.

But again, the agony inflicted by that tormenter had left him scarred all across his body. His scalp burned where she had ripped out some of his hair, but that was an annoyance.

Lucian's body trembled slightly as he got up on his hands and knees. He had only been partly right before, he realized. The agony he felt was all in his head, yes. She had been manipulating his mind and there was no actual injury to his physical form, yes. But his mind was convincing his body of how badly hurt the latter was, and the body was using all of his resources to fight an attack that wasn't there. The addrenaline and endorphins were wearing off and it left him feeling tired and drained.

Evening was well upon them. Shadows shot everywhere through the grove, enhanced by the flashing orange and red light from the grandfather, still engulfed in flames. Lucian briefly let his consciousness touch the grove's again- and immediately pulled back, the intense pain and dispair coming from the ring of grandfathers too great for Lucian to experience. The one on fire was not dead. Not yet. It was experiencing death, though, of a most agonizing nature.

He had to make it stop.

But he couldn't. He didn't have the ability.

And then a thought sparked in his mind. A trade. A bargain. With the tormentor. It made him grind his teeth and curse the very notion of it, but he knew it was the only way. He had brought this death to the grove- he must do what was necessary to remove it.

Lucian rose to his feet and turned to face her in a fluid motion, showing no further sign of weakness or fatigue. She was watching him, her eyes as full of death and torment as they were when she entered the grove, but now too some frustration, perhaps even the smallest shreds of doubt.

So he spoke in his lowest rasping voice,

"Make the fire stop." It wasn't a plea or a cry. It was voiced as an option- a potential for her to consider. "Put it out, and I'll surrender now."

He pressed his wrists together and held them out in front of him, offering.

"Or you can try to make me beg, break down my resistance- because that has been working so far." There was no emotion or sarcasm in his voice; his damaged vocal cords didn't allow such range. But his meaning was clear-

She was not in control. She could kill him, maybe. But she couldn't make him do what she wanted him to do. He would never beg. He would never let her break him.

[Blood Ravenous]

Ryxa's eyebrows shifted into a quizzical expression after Lucian made his request. Her body relaxed as she watched him submit. Even Pain Touch clicked off. This was unexpected: the prey asking for a 'trade' with the predator. The idea was strange to her, and yet...

She hated to compromise, but he was right whether she would admit it openly or not. This wasn't working.

Why? Was she weak? This was the second person she had encountered that was only defeated because they gave themselves up. It made her so angry. She needed to get stronger.

Her fists flexed, showing how she still clung onto the thought of breaking him, ripping him apart in her mind for suggesting she couldn't break him. She struggled to control herself and only barely succeeded, the urge still sticking tenaciously to her chest and burning through.

A cold smile gripped her face. "You value a tree more than your own life? Very well," she said, her voice like ice.

Her blue-black eyes rested on the burnt tree. Ash was flying through the air on the light wind and the smell of the smoke choked the whole forest. It was magnificent. However, the time for it to stop had come. She stared at the tree and focused on a lack of fire, on draining away the raw power. Slowly the fire ebbed, shrinking in size until even the orange cinders dimmed and disappeared. Left behind was a ruined life, a corpse scarred forever by the flames.

The woman's apathetic gaze then returned to [Lucian]. It didn't last long, however; she turned and walked away. The corpse of the dead horse was still in the clearing, bloody and attracting flies. Soon there would be scavengers. Its dead eyes stared ahead, so void of life that she couldn't remember when it was alive. Beside this she knelt and went into the saddlebags. Luckily she found what she was looking for: rope. With it in hand she walked back over to her new toy.

His hands were still held out in submission, though limp as he watched her. She snatched his wrists with both of her gloved hands and pulled all in one quick movement, making him stumble forward a step. "I hope it was worth it," she said, smirking. She met his eyes with mocking smile as she tightened the rope harshly around his wrists. "You're under arrest for aiding a magic-user." What a pretense... But he would find that out soon enough.

Ryxa yanked him with her as she looked around for the horse. It was then that she noticed that the Captain and the witch were gone. She huffed, also not seeing the horse. Being left behind made her even more pissed. A hopeful glance around through the thick brush turned up nothing. The horse was most likely gone by this point; not that the captain would allow her to commandeer it for herself, anyway. Looks like they were walking.

[Lucian]

Lucian ignored her first question and watched as the fire shrank away from the ashen tree. No answer was required, and even had there been he would not have given it. It was beyond her understanding to comprehend what existed here, what he was in fact saving. She saw another green plant, without meaning or purpose.

He saw the legacy of a creature ancient beyond human years.

As the last flicker of ember grew cold and gray, he swallowed hard and took in the old grandfather. All but the very, very highest boughs were completely charred and burnt, and what leaves that had survived were wilted and soon to be dead.

Was it too late? Could it recover, this ancient father of the wood? With the help of its kinsmen, could it rejuvenate and survive in the years to come?

The gypsy didn't know. All he could do was silently pray.

He looked back and saw that the woman had retrieved a length of rope from the slain horse's saddlebag and she was smirking wickedly as she approached him with it. The jerk on his wrists to make him stutter-step forward and the violent emphasis as she tightened the rope to cut into his skin made him wince ever so slightly, but it was expected. He looked in her eyes and knew it was intimidation and fear that she was trying to evoke out of him, so he displayed neither. Only the placid look of one without either worry or doubt.

"I hope it was worth it. You're under arrest for aiding a magic-user."

It took him just a moment to process her words. A magic-user? Was that their excuse for hunting Lanya like this? Speaking of, he glanced around for the first time and saw that the solider and the other horse were gone, as was Miss Caliope. A slight bit of alarm went through him as he processed she must have been captured already, but subconsciously he had expected this as well. There was no way she could have run.

Lucian looked at the woman again as she again jerked on his bound wrists, forcing him to take a few steps after her. He took the opportunity to speak in his rasping, emotionless voice.

"I hope that you can find your way out of here," he said, glancing around them. "In the dark, the wilderness can be very confusing."

Let her ponder that, he mused to himself. Evening was well gone, the shadows deepening by the minute. He took in her appearance, and slightly muddied as she was, she was still possessed of a raw, cold beauty that appealed to all fleshly yearnings. Undoubtedly she did much to keep herself looking so. And Lucian guessed that as such, she was not much for tracking and understanding the ways of the open wilderness, even one so close to civilization as this.

He allowed himself the smallest of half-smiles. She had not won yet, perhaps.

[Blood Ravenous]

Ryxa cast him a glare when he dared say such a thing, no matter how true—she probably wouldn't be able to find her way out. It was already dark within the partial shade of trees ahead. Not that it scared her, but now she was worried they wouldn't make it out. There were all sorts of evil creatures in the woods, especially at nighttime.

Pushing away her inward doubt she strode over in the direction she assumed the Captain and her had come in, using the horse's carcass as a guide. She directed another glare back at [Lucian] before entering between the shadowed trees, daring him to say another word.

They walked slow, Ryxa keeping a careful eye on the ground and their surroundings, being careful of obstructions. If she tripped and fell she would not only get angry but dirtier. She already felt the filth on her armor from both of her falls in the slightly muddy grass. Oh, he was going to pay for that, too.

The smug thought almost brought a smile to her face. She stepped over a log and looked back at her captive as he was about to go over, then yanked on the rope. "My name is Ryxa. Don't forget it. However, when we reach the city you'll address me as 'Miss Liorysei' or 'Miss Ryxa'. Got it?"

She kept walking, expecting an answer, glancing back at him occasionally. Hopefully the forest wasn't as long as she remembered it on horseback. Any time spent here was too long.

[Lucian]

Lucian nearly tripped over the log as she yanked hard on the rope, but his uncanny sense of balance and timing saved him and he semi-gracefully stumbled out of it, glancing up as he did so only to catch her forming the end of a sentence-

"... address me as 'Miss Liorysei' or 'Miss Ryxa'. Got it?"

She was immediately walking again and he fell into step behind her, although were she made her way through the underbrush like any city-dwelling person would, with little observation and less tact, Lucian moved with utter finesse, seeing the small growing things that were coming up from the forest floor and neatly avoiding them without appearing to expend any effort at all to do so, seeing the branches and knowing where the spiderwebs would be, gently weaving his body around them, leaving almost no trace of his passage other than the soft impressions his bare feet made in the damp earth.

She glanced back at him several times, her cruel, beautiful face wearing a strange look of expectency that he utterly failed to interpret at first, until Lucian put together that she was anticipating some response from him.

His first instinct then was to not speak, and let her be angry with him. Hot, unchecked anger like her's muddled thoughts, made it harder for her to think clearly, whether she realized it or not.

But Lucian was still angry himself. More smouldering, under the surface anger, but still there. Still threatening. And his anger riled him to speak, though none of it came through in his flat, emotionless rasp,

"I am your captive. Not your slave, Ryxa Liorysei." He spoke her name a little awkwardly, not being entirely sure of the enunciation. But that wasn't the point. In this way, it was killing two birds with one stone. She would become angry- he would get some of his anger out.

He knew what was coming. He didn't care overly much.

[Blood Ravenous]

Ryxa was getting impatient as she trudged along, waiting for his answer. And when it came it made her even angrier. She made a final step over a stick then stopped and pivoted on her foot to face him.

"And is there a difference?" she said with evil humor. His disrespect made her want to give him pain touch, but by this point she was getting very tired. Riding the horse, casting spells, and hardly any rest since before she searched for Chrishton was a potent mix for fainting. Instead she wanted to get him to prison and have some fun...after sleep.

The battlemage didn't expect an answer. She again turned back and trudged off with much less than her usual grace. Only a few steps away and she wondered if she was going the right way. Every step made her doubt it more. It was possible that Lucian knew and was laughing at her silently, and that thought made her fume.

She paused in walking to pull him forward and then push him in front of her. His hands tied in the front made this awkward and uncomfortable for him, a small revenge from her that made her smug. "Alright, you think you know everything, little man? Then you find your way out of this hellhole," she sounded as high-and-mighty as possible, masking her real reason for this. She had no idea where to go.

[Lucian]

The difference, he thought to himself, is the spirit. A slave is reliant, subservient, fearful. A captive does not have to be any of those.

The walked a little further before she abruptly yanked on the rope again, and Lucian stumbled a little as she pushed him ahead of her. But he regained his balance quickly and ignored the slight ache in his left wrist, turning in time to see her completing the words, "-you find your way out of this hellhole."

He paused, considering. He knew exactly were they were, in a very real sense, despite having never been in this spot before. The wood seemed more alive to him as the walked than it ever had before, at any point in his life. When he breathed in it was like he was breathing in the thoughts of the invisible life around them. He knew which way to head to get back to the road.

But then, he also knew which way to go to lead them into the wilderness. Into a place from which she could never find her way again. I would be beyond simple. A subtle course alteration as the stepped over a log, dodged a low-hanging branch.

But what would that mean for him? His hands were tied, and what other dark arts she held, he could not guess. Perhaps this was a test itself, to see what he would do? Perhaps she did know the way, and this was a facade?

Lucian considered for a moment more, then rasped, "If I lead you to the road, what guarantees will you give?"

Not that he trusted anything she might guarantee him at all. But he locked eyes with her, and he would know if she lied.

[Blood Ravenous]

"If I lead you to the road, what guarantees will you give?"

Laughter bubbled up in Ryxa's throat, but did not escape her mouth. She stared at him a moment, wondering how he could even think of asking his captor what guarantees she'd give! A bemused expression on her face, Ryxa said, a sense of laughter in her voice, "What, you think I will promise to help save your weak little witch friend, or let you go eventually?" She stepped forward until she was quite close to him. Her hand was harshly massaging the rope that held him, her fist flexing subconsciously. She glared into his eyes, ignoring that he was just a tad taller than she. "I don't give guarantees," she hissed.

Then she raised an eyebrow. Her voice got softer. "Well, maybe I'll leave your most sensitive parts alone while I torture you. That's better than what most of my toys get." She smirked. "You should get a move on."

[Lucian]

She attempted no lies. Whatever else he felt, Lucian noted that. She was up-front about her evil, which was more than could be said for most.

He loathed her all the same, but still. It was something.

At the comment regarding torture, he felt a small trace of humor, but his gut hardened, as did the lines around his eyes. She wanted control, wanted him to give. He saw it as typical weakness. Even now, she was annoyed in some small way that he was not yet on his hands and knees, begging for mercy.

"Do you still think you can make me afraid?" His voice rasped and creaked, not moving an inch despite her proximity. His eyes, clear and focused as ever, did not waver. "My body is a frail thing. You can burn it to ash and break its bones, and draw screams and all manner of sounds from it. But what does that show except that I am human like the rest?"

He took a half step away, and then turned and began walking, leading her toward the road.

"All you can do is make my body die. That does not frighten me."

He did not look back at her, in case she said something to answer, because he did not care to exchange anymore words. He had said all he planned to say, and had no intention of speaking again, whatever the provocation.

Without any waver or variation in his step, Lucian led his captor through the foliage, making a true path toward the road.

[Jenica Sabiny]

Both storylines continued: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=838