Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Makar…Makar…we need to move!
She shakes his arm to snap him from the trance.
MAKAR COME ON!
She tugs him across the bridge, making for the forest, she turns around to see the girl, her scythe still raised and her innocent childish smile staring back at her. If she had a soul, the small girl’s stare would have pierced it’s depths.
That’s not natural…

Amaja slowly moves out from under Delilah, she looked to Albert with a hopeful expression that he’ll take care of her while she continues to take care of the situation at hand. She ran back towards the bridge, and with the last of the group leaping off the tower. She threw her hands out the sleeves flying out over them, her body and arms shaking vigorously. Staring intently at the earth under the tower, she clenched her fists raising them over her head, slamming her fists into the ground. The earth crackles and shatters beyond her hands coning towards the tower. The ground crumbling beneath the weight of the tower until it slowly begins to sink into the gap between the village and the mainland.

(Sorry I’m late!!)

Needless to say, the paladin was scared as shitless as everyone else. However, he stood frozen longer than everyone else. However, he was bumped by Keith when he fainted, and this was enough to wake him. He quickly ran behind Jasmina’s shield.

“WHAT DO WE DO?! DO WE ATTACK HER? OR DO WE RUN?”

Hearing Lily, he sighs in relief and sprints, making the most of his speed.

While she’s running, Theresa sees the glaive that she gave to Keith lying on the ground. She grabs it and runs across the bridge. “I hope the little guy’s okay…”

Albert nods in understanding to the geomancer, scooping the whimpering dancer up in his arms as she looks back, reaching out weakly towards the geomancer as the tabby turns back towards town. Delilah slowly begins to pass out in Albert’s arms, her eyes closes as her blood trickles down over his hands as he carries the unconscious woman off into the woods, his eyes searching for the white mage he knows went this way.

(AFK for dinner)

Lord Makar slapped his face with a hand, enraged. He turned back for a brief second, placing the holy sword at it’s usual resting place.
Let’s hurry, Lieselotte!! The last thing I want is to see anyone here be murdered like one of those guards!
He held the vampire’s arm and ran even faster.

Paulson finally slows down when his legs can move no more. He falls to the ground in a heap and attempts to catch his breath and sort out his thoughts.

What..was…that?He whispers to no one as he curls in a ball and weeps quietly to his self.

Amaja panted heavily, sweat dripping down her fur as she stared into the now larger chasm. She looked down to the tower collapsing and crumbling as it crashes against the walls of earth. Slowly she sits back onto her feet and looks up at the darkened sky. Closing her eyes she takes one last deep breath of fresh air, her body falling limply to the side unconscious from the over-excursion with tonight’s events.

Sees Keith being carried by Dave. Phew, that’s a load of my mind. Now…god damn, can that playboy run! And…the front of his pants are wet. Great.

(Gotta go, Dave will follow Lieselotte and when Keith wakes up Dave will stop carrying him. Can be controlled by Paulson, Keith, or Lord Makar.)

Of course Hannibal was present for the whole escapade. He was just being so efficient he never spoke or did anything remarkable until he crossed the bridge at a dead sprint away from the monstrosity behind him. Hitting the treeline, his mind is a monologue of a gibbering monotone.

Nonotagainnotbacktherenotthat ANYTHING BUT RAVENHOLM.

Hannibal flings himself down onto the ground, a small distance from Amaja, his body shaking from terror.

[[This is assuming that the chase is over, otherwise disregard the last bit and replace it with me picking up Amaja and continuing to run in terror..]]

After running for a couple minutes, Konar slows down to rest. He looks back at the collapsing bridge for stragglers, noticing Paulson in a ball

Paulson?

Paulson was too terrified to notice Konar carrying him over his shoulders and kept wallowing

Whatever that child was, we were lucky to make it out alive

The White Mage starts to feel guilty for leaving delilah behind and only using a light heal on her

i better go back..

She starts running back and runs into albert and delilah;her face shows relief as she sighs
thank goodness you’re alright,i’m sorry i left you behind,really

The group is more or less scattered as they reach the woods. Hiding within the dense brush from the remaining soldiers, they start to seek each other out so they may make camp and discuss events. Everyone is quite shaken, the appearance of the young girl having terrified them more then anything else.

Albert is looking desperate by this point, his breathing ragged as he looks around for Jasmina. The healing seems to have staunched the flow of blood a bit, but she is looking pretty bad, her ears a bit pale from the blood loss that had already occurred, the dancer lying there with a sad expression on her face. Finally spying the white mage, Albert rushes over to her, his lover in his arms.

Please… help her… what can I do?

The warrior casts about, looking for a place to set her down, eventually finding a mossy patch beneath the shelter of a great tree’s roots, a relatively hidden area as he sets her down carefully against the soft surface.

Please… tell me we’re not too late…

Tears are shining in his eyes as he holds onto one of her hands with his own much larger, trembling fingers.

Tired from the escape, Konar calls out in the forest for the group several times. Hearing no responce, he heads off further into the woods until he reaches a clearing. The area was clear of trees and brush, so he lays Paulson down as the two rests up need a large rock. As he closes his eyes, Konar can hear a faint noise. Is that Albert?

Feeling slightly safier, thinking that they weren’t being pursuited by that child necromancer anymore, the knight released Lieselotte’s hand. Panting, he started to talk with her.
Lieselotte… we… made it… He recovered himself and started to turn back. I’m glad you’re- -
He closed his mouth shut while facing the vampire covered in blood, eyes wide-open while staring straight at her’s, bright red like fresh blood. He instatly turned back and nervously took slow steps away. Altough he already saw her soaked in blood like that before many times, this is the first time he sees her as a monster people used to call her. That demon cursed me, I can’t believe I saw what I just saw!!
After a brief panic, he turned back once more. The vampire seemed normal for him once again, just soaked in blood. He calmed down and apologized, getting closer to her.

Now then. A camp fire? Not the greatest idea while hiding! But as the group becomes distant from the city it isn’t hard for them all to be herded together. It wasn’t so cold that they’d freeze in the night and their eyes were adjusting well enough. Though Lily is sure to put some effort into making sure the wounded and exhausted are taken care of; a blanket being spread over the napping orange tabby as Jasmina gets to making the dancers wounds vanish I’d hope. Though healing magic did little for fatigue, or blood already lost. Lily naturally giving her concerned look, and Albert a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

She stood up straight, taking a few casual steps towards the others as the note from earlier was pulled out from her robe glancing it over with a frown “… utter complete non-sense.” she muttered aloud.

Hannibal walks into the clearing where the others are making camp, carrying the unconscious Amaja and setting her down on a soft patch of earth.

Ladies, gentlemen, things have just gotten a bit interesting.

She looks at albert and then focuses her attention on delilah
You’re already doing what you’re supposed to do a new confidence in her voice

She’ll be fine,but she’s lost alot of blood she’ll need to rest quite a bit(How helpful)


She pulls out a small crimson crystal and cups her hands around it,after a few seconds she opens her hands and the crystal is gone her hands now glowing a light crimson.She raises her hands over the dancers wound and within a few seconds the wound starts healing and sealing itself up.She quirks her brow up a little

this is strange..the healing isnt done yet..i think there’s another life force inside her body She says to herself

Albert,i think you’re dancer is pregnant..

landing with little grace he runs to the site of the others not daring to look back.

Paulson slowly starts breathing normally and suddenly stands up with out looking at Konar. Come on let’s go. He says quickly while standing up. We need to find the others.

((DOCTOR GET BEHIND ME! YAVULL! AHH AHHH UHNN UHNNN OHH OHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I’M COMING! i’M COMING! AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!))

I hear some activity nearby, it might be the others.

Konar follows Paulson as they make their way to the campsite. He notices Delilah’s wound as Albert and Jasmine try to treat her

Delilah begins to breathe easier as the magic from the white-furred feline flows into her body, shuddering slightly as it flows through her, slowly sealing the wound, the arrow set aside, a small amount of blood dripping off the tip, reddening the moss beneath it, but the wound is noticeably slower to heal than it should have been.

Albert sits there, watching anxiously as the healer works on his love, his fingers gripping his fur. When he hears the mage mutter something about the healing not being done yet he stands up and starts pacing, his eyes shining. But her second words make him fall down to the ground.

What? What do you mean? She’s…

The knight looks over at the wounded woman as her chest rises and falls slowly.

Icarus, still holding residual fear from Mollith, crawls away from the group. Tis was more than just fear for his life, but also for the lives of his companions. Hell, he wasn’t sure that life in general could exist with that… thing out in the open. It just wasn’t possible. It was all over. His life, gone, kaput, no more. Living became a lost cause.

His thoughts drifted for a while before something jolted him out of it. He awoke to find his face soaked with tears and someone by his side, appearing to be trying to comfort him. Now, this person was a complete stranger to him, but he doesn’t notice him or her at first. in fact, his first thought was “She was the reason for the strange vibe. She made me fear betrayal from the others. It was her!”

But he then notices the stranger and jumps to attention, drawing his sword and shield.

“Wh-who are you?”

He takes a shaky step back and nearly trips on a rock.

“S-s-stay away! Who are you?!”

“Hello, there… Wanna play? MY SCYTHE WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!”

Paulson sits down heavily in the group and stairs intently at the ground. He is numb, so unbearably numb. He can barely function as he finally says.

What the hell was she?

her hands stop glowing and she looks back up to albert

Yes,she’s pregnant i believe that’s why healing her took slightly longer

She stands up once more

Yeah that little announcement has Lily eyes go wide for a moment as well. The lady quite annoyed when she raises her jug to find it empty at this point, and our little gang much to far away for her to hope for any sort of refill, being quick to curse in her native tongue.

“Oh damn it all…..I’m getting my pipe back when we’re done with this”

A shake of her head as she shrugs “… take it as a blessing Sir knight. She’s alive, and you’ll have other things to look forward to once this is all over…. speaking of…”

She tosses the note to Albert, hoping to get his mind off the present issues, and for the sake of telling the others as they arrive, pulling out a sheet or two start the process of cleaning off all the blood of our wounded/unconscious comrades, nodding to Jasmine to do the same. Unaware of Icarus’s little encounter just yet.

“Having trouble making some of it out I assume? More or less it has orders from the ‘Emperor’ to kill us all. Now… while I dare say my brother is still a tad vexed with me over that time I pored a bucket of pond scum on his head before his date with the Lady of scarlet winds… I’d like to think he isn’t so bitter about it he’d send people to KILL his sister.”

“It’s clear enough. Someone else is now calling the shots… my brother is likely locked away somewhere while his adviser’s run about doing things in ‘his name’. At the very least….. the note does tell us where to go though…”

She turns around again folding her hands into her arms as she paces about “As I mentioned to a few of you this forest is a magical place…. and it’s strongest in a spot we call the ‘resting place’… They’re trying to use the magic there to cast some dark spell they’re calling ‘he preservation of the people of Siilitie’. Complete and utter bull of course, I don’t know what that spell does, but it’s pretty obvious it has nothing to do with saving our people.”

It was……horrible.

Hannibal looks off into the middle distance.

A thing not of this world. An entity, wrong in every sense of the word.

She unconsciously curled closer into his chest as Hannibal carried her to the rest of the party. When he set her to the ground she curled into a ball wrapping her tail around herself, shivering and whimpering as her mind ran rampant against her control. Flashing through the last several minutes with their experience as tears stream from her clinched eyes reliving everything. All she could see was darkness and blood, carelessly being splashed painting the darkness in red. The little girl with the scythe and doll bounding lightly and happily through it all. The girl stops before Amaja and smiles cutely up at her and asks in a voice echoing off of everything and nothing at the same time.

“Would you like to play a game with me?”

She looked down at the girl and with a soft gentle smile she nodded to her. The little girl clapped enthusiastically at her answer.

“It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to play, you’ve made me very happy…”

At the end of her echoing words she brought her hands before her a scythe materializing in her grip, bringing the scythe over her head as her face was filled with glee before bringing it down and into Amaja’s chest. With that last act in her dream she sprung up from her curled state with her hands clutching furiously to her chest as she let out a blood curdling scream of pure terror in her heart. She stays there clutching her hands to her chest, her eyes sullen and fearful. Her breath fevered and panicked as she strained to regain her composure, breathing in stuttered gasps and chokes, her eyes flooded with tears unable to bring herself back from the overwhelming fear.

Hannibal, oddly detached, oddly silent, still looks off into space, placing a comforting hand on Amaja’s head.

(I know what that links to even without clicking it.)

Recognizing the voice, his eyes go wide and he screams.>

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He starts to run away, not caring where “away” was, stumbling over branches, rocks, roots, and the like, running, just running away in the dark. Hearing Amaja’s scream, he decides not to run in that direction, but instead attempt to circle it, calling out the whole time.

“GUYS!! HEEELP!!!

He takes a sharp turn towards the group subconsciously and soon passes out due to fear and exhaustion. Shortly before that, one last terrified murmur for help can be heard by Makar, who happened to be closest and having incredible hearing, was the only one capable of such.

Sir Albert reads over the note, starting to crinkle it up in anger before he remembers himself, his fingers trembling against the note, making a rustling sound.

Damn it! Why can’t things ever go smoothly for us?

At the scream, Albert jerks suddenly, going for his sword before realizing that Amaja was just having a dream, his motion tearing the note he was offered a little. Delilah moans a little at his feet, and this makes the knight forget all else, the note falling from his nerveless fingers as he falls to his knees next to her, hoping she has woken up, but she only stirs a little in her sleep, whimpering. Albert stands vigil over her, all else forgotten as he rests his head against her belly, his long ears twitching slightly.

((I’m probably going to be gone until Jacob comes back unless someone really wants Delilah to wake up for some reason before then.))

The knight was really disturbed to stand besides Lieselotte any longer, so he got up without saying a word. He got Sir Icarus up and looked over the wounded ones, breathing with dificult. Remembering they would need to sleep, he took out his holy sword.
No way I’m going to sleep after what I just saw!!
Everyone please try to recover yourselves from your wounds, okay? I’ll stay awake during night and keep vigilance. The last thing I want is to let anyone here die. He spoke, serious.
If I could help the wounded, of course I would help instead…
He left Icarus close to the othes and kept walking around the site, unable to take the concern out of his mind while looking at his surroundings carefully.

Icarus wakes up and looks around. The maniac girl is nowhere in sight. It turns out it was all a hallucination. Icarus then drags himself shakily back to the group, nearly puking from fear.

Paulson finally looked up and around the makeshift camp. His eyes were tired and his head hung heavily.

So what are we going to do now?

Konar jumps as the forest is filled with screams for a brief second. He turns to see Amaja, who he assumed had a terrible nightmare. He supports his forehand with his hand as he tries to recollect himself
Man… this is turning out to be more than I bargained for.
Alright, we need to get some rest. It’s been a tough day, so let’s plan our next move tomorrow morning. I’ll stand guard for a few hours, hopefully no one followed us.

Lily looks a little depressed now, glancing around at those present, and then speaking to Makar “…. I’m…. Sorry but. They’re not going to get a chance for much. They’re almost finished casting that spell if the note is right… and given the effort they put into making sure it would be cast… It can -not- be anything good. We’re going to have to head to the resting grounds as soon as possible…..”

She looked Towards Delilah again keeping that melancholy Look “We can split into two groups if need be…leaving some here to guard our wounded…but I don’t think we can risk waiting the entire night”

Looks at Lily slack jaw You want us to get moving now? After everything we’ve been through? Did you see the same little girl that I did, did you see what she did to those guards?!

His anger was rising as he stood up and shouted. You want us to go on after that?! With her out there we’re all fucked! There is no way out of this, who cares about that dumb little spell when compared to her?!

Theresa sat on the ground near Dave and Keith. She set the guan dao that she picked up down next to him. I have a feeling you’re gonna need this bad boy more than me. “Hey Dave! Keep an eye on the shrimp, will ya? I gotta check on the playboy.” With that, she walks off in search of him

Having time to recover and catch his breath he resumes his normal temperment.

Lily, I believe that we all just had a terrfyinh experience, but we need to figure out what to do next. Obviously we are not wanted here by the empire and we can’t turn back to… That. Lily you know the land, where do we go?

As much as I would like to move, we are in no condition to travel.
She stands in the middle of the group, watching the frightened stares of everyone. She can clearly see their frames tremble in the dark as she speaks with what confidence she can spare.
What we saw tonight…no words can describe. Be thankful whatever happened happened. We would be dead without it. If this is the cost of survival then so be it, I can only hope you all can live with it as I can. We need to prepare for tomorrow. That is why we came so near death today, was lack of preparation. We need to learn of this magic in the resting grounds, whatever is going on has to do with that. If they sent so many to take us from the town, imagine the forces there. We need to be well rested, and better prepared.

She walks over to the middle of campsite and sits on a stump

Makar turned his atention to Paulson for a brief moment.
Calm yourself down, Paulson. He turned back. Altought I’m more than afraid of that necromancer child, I have to agree with Lily. The time is more than crucial now. He rubs his tired eyes while turning back to Lily. I guess your plan is the best option so far, no mather how much I fear that demon kid…

Keith regains consciousness minutes after he had been set on the ground. He opens his eyes.

Did I faint? Anyways… it’s pitch black in here… and silent. Where am I? Where are the others?

He tries to move, but he is too tired to do so. The ground feels moist and soft under him, he decides to just rest for now. He closes his eyes again.

(I am going to autoplay. Anyone can autoplay me, but for now, Icarus will be asleep, scared shitless, and likely half-crazy for a while.)

Amaja slowly regained her composure with Hannibal petting the top of her head, she lifted her arms up and rubbed her eyes in her sleeves to soak the tears up. She looked up to see who was comforting her, a stunned expression flashes across her face. Jerking her head away from his hand she takes her leg and kicks at him to knock him over and away from her. Clambering up to her feet as quickly as she could she stamped away from him to the opposite end of camp. Dropping back down beside Jasmina covering her legs with her shirt and wrapping her arms around her legs glaring over at Hannibal from her new perch.

I suppose I could help protect the wounded.
Konar stands up and looks around the dark woods. He turns to Lily.
But our first priority is supplies. Lieseotte has a point, we have to be prepared.
Konar jumps a little as he hears a quick struggle from Amaja. Konar grins a bit as he said Looks like someone is feeling a little better.