The seven Duchies of Central Rynmere and their respective baronies, cities, towns, villages, and landmarks each overseen by a Duke of one of the seven noble families and ultimately controlled by the King of Rynmere.
Alexa was little more than instincts just then. Allowing her unexplainable Prey Sense to be her guide, the Mixed Blood flit through the forest with her black wolf familiar at her heels. This way, that way, there seemed to be little rhyme of reason the woman seemed to move in the directions she did. All that existed was the knowing. It was absolute, unwavering even. Logic defied it, and yet Karem was yet to steer her wrong. Closer and closer she could feel herself coming to the place where quarry was sure to be found. An arrow waited patiently notched on her bowstring while she followed her senses. The cave Sky had deemed to be his captives' new home had long since faded away.
Wait," Tala bid without warning, the wolf's black form skidding to a halt upon the snow frosted earth. Alexa's brow tightened and she slowed herself to a stop as well, golden eyes fixated on her familiar with a questioning stare. The canine's snout flared soft white vapor while she took in the scents in the air. Her tail was up, ears perked with alertness. Alexa pursed her lips before questioning the inevitable. "What is it?" The wolf ignored her whisper for a few more trills while she sniffed. That's when the intense rustling began.
Both wolf and Burhan girl snapped their heads toward the direction of the sound. It wasn't gentle like a grazing deer breaking brush nor so sharp as a rabbit fleeing the scent of a nearby predator. It was violent and loud. There was no ignoring the feelings of urgency that seemed to accompany it. Without a suggestion from either end, Alexa and Tala both darted daringly toward the noise. A short jog brought them deeper into the dark twilight wood, and a bit later the discovery was made. The scene sent the Mixed Blood's golden eyes wide and her breath caught. Tala's ears flattened and an involuntary whine escaped her nervously bared teeth.
Thrashing against the rope trap tightened about its neck was a grey wolf. Its eyes were panicked and wide. Somewhere along with its head-shaking it spotted the pair and fearfully bared its teeth. The more it struggled the tighter its noose became. Alexa threw down her bow and procured her axe from her belt as she raced forward without a second thought. "Don't bite me, I'm here to help, please don't bite me," she rushed the plea before she managed to arrive at the far side of the tree. The wolf spun around while it continued its losing battle, a medley of whines and snarls ripping from its constricted throat. Alexa swung her axe against the low branch with a shout, once, twice before it cracked and dropped to the ground.
The grey wolf twisted just barely out of the way before the branch dropped upon its back. Immediately the noose loosened. Tala wasted no time taking a stance between her companion and the strange canine with tail out and ears flattened. Her lips pulled back to expose her teeth. Alexa made one final strike, this time upon the rope itself to free it from the branch. The grey wolf shook its head with the noose still loosely hanging from its neck. It turned frightfully toward the black wolf with a growl, but rather than dare oppose the far larger beast, it counted its blessings and sprinted off.
Last edited by Alexa on Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:43 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 588
"We didn't set that trap," Tala pointed out the obvious ominously. Alexa slipped her hand-axe back into her belt and crouched beside the fallen tree. The noose had been well-placed and cleverly baited. When she glanced about she could see rabbit bait strung up nearby. The loop seemed to have hung between a thick bunch of mangled brush, effectively bottle-necking a carnivore returning from the clearing and capturing it before it managed to get to the bait. "No, we didn't," Alexa confirmed absently as she continued to take in the scene. She pursed her lips. "We're the only one's that are supposed to be able to hunt in Sky's lands, and this isn't really his style. He likes to attack things head on even when trapping would be the smarter thing to do. This wasn't any of us."
The black wolf placed her nose down toward the ground and began sniffing about. She wandered first toward where the wolf's prints wrecked patterns in the snow, meandered toward the branch, and settled upon tattered pieces of rope left behind. "Got something?" she asked hopefully of her familiar. For several trills Tala didn't respond, but lingered where she stood with her nostrils flaring like mad. "Not fresh, but not old. Maybe a few breaks." Alexa jogged back to scoop up her bow and arrow. Her golden eyes glanced about. "Human?" "This way." The wolf took off after the scent with tail wagging and head hunkered low. This time it was the Burhan girl that trailed along for the hunt.
They must've moved for a half break or a break before the great black wolf slowed her advance. "Where?" Alexa inquired dumbly, her head swiveling about. "Quiet. Listen," Tala instructed. She willed herself to remain perfectly still for a few trills. With a bit of focus, she finally heard the voices. They were more like echoes, really, but close enough that there was little question over which direction they were coming from. The pair moved cautiously toward it. Deep voices grew in volume and the crackling of a large fire began to break sound in the twilight the closer they got. "Oi! Got 'em there didn't ya!" someone boomed with drunken slur. Nerves began to come alive throughout her body, electrifying her senses as her heartbeat increased. She gestured for Tala to follow her before she crouched behind a tree trunk far from the campfire's light.
In a few trills she dared look around from her hiding place to study the other set of hunters, if that was truly what they could be called. There were five of them, all men and two huddled about the bonfire. Food was held upon skewers over the open flames and tankards sat beside them upon the snow. Close by them was a gathering of three settled around some sort of cage. One of the men, evidently drunk by the way he awkwardly flailed his body about, frequently sent a red-hot poker into the cage to elicit a squeal from a pup. His compatriots laughed along with his sadism. Alexa's gaze drifted down where she'd opened her palm. The long red scar from where Sky burned her was still a bright mark upon her flesh. That hand clenched into a fist.
"Still up for a hunt, Tala?" Alexa conveyed her message darkly and without words to her familiar, who turned her icy blue stare toward her face. The wolf blinked and showed her long fangs. The Burhan girl nodded and exhaled. Then she set her sights back upon the small camp. She and Tala were outnumbered. Her advantages were slim but not to be taken lightly. Most of the men were unarmed as they enjoyed themselves after a long, hard trial. At least half of them were piss drunk, too. To attack them would be incredibly idiotic...and yet for their disrespect and sadism she was willing to trade her well-being if it meant hunting evil men down. In this endeavor, surviving the difficult situation would not be easy.
Last edited by Alexa on Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:51 am, edited 3 times in total. word count: 691
"Plant yourself in the camp. That one sitting by the fire has his sword in his sheath. After I loose my first arrow, he'll have to fall first. Take him only if he unsheaths that sword," Alexa silently commanded her familiar while they remained in hiding. The black wolf hunkered low to eye the group one last time before turning her head back to her companion. "Killing the one with the poker first?" Tala guessed smartly but the Burhan girl shook her head. Her golden eyes locked on one of the other men by the cage with his crossbow sitting in his lap. "No. I want him saved for last." Without a qualm Tala disappeared from her side, presumably having stopped manifesting herself to the world so she could seamlessly enter the camp unseen by even Alexa. The Mixed Blood had every intention of ensuring her wolf was exactly where she needed to be by the time the first arrow flew.
About two bits later Alexa finally sullied herself to the task. She took a few deep breaths and found the focus of her hunt settled her impatience as though the occurrence was supernatural. For a couple trills she settled on her target before she lifted her bow and pulled the arrow back on the string. Only then did she lean outwards, aim, and exhale with the loosing of the arrow. It whizzed through the air toward its target while the deeply intoxicated man prodded the wolf pup again. In the midst of laughter the man toting the crossbow felt the arrowhead sink deep into his right, exposed shoulder. He cried out and dropped off his stump with eyes clenched shut and expression contorted with pain. Almost immediately after there was another cry, this one as Tala manifested and launched herself into the man Alexa designated sitting by the fire. The Burhan girl's breathing turned rapid and the obvious sensation her quarry had caught onto her was evident in her head.
Another arrow was notched on the string while the drunkards began to comprehend what was unfolding around them. One of the other men stumbled and crouched beside his wounded friend to inspect the arrow. When his head lifted to search for the archer, a second arrow was loosed into his back. Three down, two to go, Alexa reminded herself. She thought to take yet another arrow from her quiver. The drunk standing incredulously with the red poker in his hand spotted her and any ideas of sitting back left her consciousness. Meanwhile Tala was enacting revenge on behalf of her canine conspecifics with a snarling ferociousness. The last man besides the drunkard fell beneath the wolf's weight and flailed uselessly in a struggle against the jaws that sunk greedily into flesh. Alexa slipped her bow over her shoulder and stepped out from the darkness.
"Wolves are not hunted in this forest," she dared to voice aloud. The man whipped around to catch sight of his second friend succumb to Tala's vengeance, and he held the poker out before him as though he believed it to be a true weapon. "What have you done?!" the man slurred with upset. He licked his lips and kept spinning around with the poker, sense and logic having become foreign concepts in the presence of alcohol and shock that failed to sober him. The Mixed Blood began to approach him. "Put down the poker please," Alexa coaxed him with brow raised. His hands shook as he seized his poker's handle with two hands. He shook his head fiercely. "Nuh uh!" He seemed to deem the archer the most immediate threat while the wolf was occupied with the bloodshed behind him. He squared to Alexa with a wavering, glazed stare. She frowned and slipped her hand-axe from her belt. "It doesn't need to be this way," she tried to reason with him. He huffed and looked toward his companions where laid groaning and clutching at their wounds. "It do!"
Last edited by Alexa on Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:55 am, edited 3 times in total. word count: 671
Alexa pursed her lips and then looked toward the pup whining in the cage. She adjusted her grip on her weapon and continued onward. Ready to make his stand, the drunk stumbled forward with his arms outstretched to wield his poker. Alexa's eyes went wide, partly from disbelief and partly from the new surge of adrenaline. She backed away from his swipe with brow tight and pivoted. He sailed past her and nearly sent himself to the ground with his forward momentum. He shook his head like a disoriented bull and veered back around.
However, in the midst of his second charge, Tala's voice echoed in her head. "Alexa, move!" The Burhan girl blinked and pivoted away from the man curiously to spy the meaning of the warning before she was struck. The first man she'd hit with an arrow had lunged onto his stomach and shot at her. The bolt grazed her body, opening a shallow slice upon the outside of her left arm. Blood leaked through her furs and the pain momentarily distracted her from the incoming threat. Tala punished that man, too, lunging upon him with a newfound viciousness that elicited a symphony of screams both from him and the witness sitting beside him.
Alexa wheeled back and swung her axe to beat away the poker just in time. His arm having been swung away, the drunk's whole body turned with it off course. It was then the Burhan girl launched her foot quite literally into his ass. He tumbled onto the snow and Alexa knew enough to drop onto his back before he could regather himself. The shrieks in the background came to a close. Then the wolf turned toward its next victim. "My wolf is a killer but I'm not," she hissed between clenched teeth while he squirmed. He reached out toward the poker he lost and the Burhan girl rewarded him with a slam from the poll of her weapon. While he yowled and retracted his hand she tucked her axe back in her belt, exchanging it for the hot poker. Despite herself she was doing things without real thought. Nothing existed for the next few trills but raw, unbridled emotional and indignation.
She wrenched his head back by his hair and pressed the double-tonged poker against his forehead. The red-hot metal bore into his flesh, searing into it with such ease and eagerness that the smell of his skin burning wafted sickeningly toward her nostrils. She held it long enough to ensure it made its mark before she peeled it from his face. Then she chucked the tool and shoved herself off his back to create distance. Her rational mind seemed to return to her then, and she had to swallow a bitter pill of self-horror in order to get the next words out. "Now you have a brand of your own. Go. Run before my wolf has other plans for you." The man whimpered and scrambled to his drunken feet. He turned to stare at her with wide eyes, then turned to find his dead mates. "Fu-uuck!" he yowled, nearly tripping over himself as he swiveled and ran aimlessly into the woods at her suggestion.
Alexa - 10/15 (solo)
The points may not be used for magic.
Knowledge
Blades (Axe): Swing with Confidence
Hunting: Following a Familiar on a Scent
Hunting: Don't Forget to Listen (For Prey)
Trap Making: Wolf Snares
Stealth: Foliage Provides Adequate Covering
Tactics: How to Identify Weak Targets
Sky: Prefers Open Attacks vs Subtle Ones
Endurance: Getting Grazed by An Arrow
Unarmed Combat: Don't Wait For Your Opponent to Recover
Torture: How to Brand the Face
Intimidation: Inflict Pain Before Giving Demands
Loot:
A cut on the left arm from getting grazed from an arrow. Will heal fully in 10 trials, and will need adequate medical attention to prevent infection.
Fame:
-1 for branding someone (even if he deserved it)
Devotion
Immortal
Reason
+5
Karem
Hunt an Evil Person
+3
Karem
Cutting free a captured wolf
Because Alexa technically only freed the wolf and didn't give it medical attention, I was on the fence. I thought you deserved some devotion for it, so I used my discretion. I do believe in the future, these actions have to specifically for Karem. Since the devotion system is being tweaked and has a lot of faults, I did what I could. Just PM me if you want clarification or to talk about the review.
Notes:
I wanted to award more knowledge, since I saw that you were going for ranged combat. My only issue was that Alexa didn't seem to be learning anything new using her bow, but maybe I missed something. I did find a few things you didn't specifically ask for, so I hope that makes up for it. As for the fame, I awarded negative fame because you injured someone and let them live (aka: they're gonna go and tell stories of the crazy woman in Krome forest). Since the only person who would see Alexa's actions as good would be her familiar, since it wasn't a person, I didn't award any positive. I hope that makes sense.
Overall a good thread. It had a nice pace, the only confusing part being when Alexa was talking to the man at the end of post three. I did enjoy this thread and I liked how straight forward it was. I enjoy your style and hope to read more of your stuff. Truth be told, I've been wanting to write with your pc for awhile now, so getting to see her in action was very cool. Great job.
Last but not least, feel free to edit your queue request with my awesome stamp.
