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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Feb 28, 2011 20:38:02 GMT -6
"No," Cade said softly, touching the frozen streams of blood in the horse's mane and sniffing his fingers, "they don't take prisoners. Often. And when they do, it's not for long. They're moving these people for a reason and that can't be good." He glanced back again at the tracks and stood up. His steps seemed confident but the hardened snow crust caused him to stumble a few times. He headed toward a cleft in the mountains ahead where the tracks seemed to lead, vanishing and reappearing depending on whether they passed beneath the trees or the sky and which way the wind was blowing. "Come on, kid, they're waiting for us."
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Ziako
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Posts: 52
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Post by Ziako on Mar 2, 2011 9:49:33 GMT -6
He followed him in to the cleft in the mountains it was long, narrow, and steep perfect for an ambush if anyone had it in their mind to set one. She was scanning constantly hoping that the Drow did not have enough patience or forsight to place a scout or worse along the path. She walked as quietly as she could manage in the deep snow. "I really don't like this canyon" She whispered hoping her voice didn't reverberate off the walls.
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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Mar 10, 2011 23:05:28 GMT -6
"Don't have a choice, do we?" Cade murmured, casting his teal eyes up and around at the rocks that loomed overhead. Then he flashed a quick smile to draw a little of the doom from the situation. He kept a firm ear out for movement from anywhere around them; the angle of the mountain jutting in around them created a million different hide-y holes for lookouts. The howl of the woodland wolf resounded in the canyon in ways that made it impossible to determine its origin. It could have been behind them from the woods they'd walked through or perhaps from the rocks around and above them; they simply could not be sure. Cade slipped his sword from his belt and held it before him, keeping his left hand slightly behind. The canyon was long and narrowed all the time until it ended firmly in a patch of pine trees and a seemingly dead end.
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Ziako
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Posts: 52
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Post by Ziako on Mar 23, 2011 9:33:05 GMT -6
"Crap..." Ziako whispered nervousness evident in her whispered voice. "This is where the tracks go so this is where they must have headed." She didn't mind stating the obvious it made her feel better just to talk. She grasped her daggers tightly whitening her knuckles on the hilts. She turned her back to the end of the canyon scanning the walls for movement and hoping that Cade saw something she did not in the dead end passage.
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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Sept 6, 2011 20:51:35 GMT -6
Cade took the needles of the shortest tree, running them through his gloved fingers. Another wolf call echoed around the rocks of the canyon, but nothing moved. Turning his head enough to see the canyon head in his periphery, he dug his hand deeper into the trees. They grew right up against the roots of the mountains, where there was a crack between the floor and the walls. He leaned his ear toward the stand of pines, listening. Perhaps he heard something? "Here," he murmured, switching his eyes onto Ziako for a moment, then plunging boot-first into the patch. The trees made sighing sounds as he forced his way between them, but beneath that was a rumbling, a bone-deep sound he didn't hear as much as felt. "Oceanjumper, here!"
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Ziako
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Posts: 52
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Post by Ziako on Sept 13, 2011 22:59:48 GMT -6
Ziako was disturbed by the sounds coming from the ground and more disturbed to have Kade yell at her in the middle of enemy territory. She trusted Kade enough not to question anything he told her to do when in potentially dangerous situations. She sprinted to Kade's side and ducked behind some of the pines nearest him, hiding herself and looking toward the area Kade had been searching. She still heard, well more so felt, the rumblings from the earth and as she looked it seemed to her that the canyon wall was moving... to reveal a cave mouth, "Those sneaky little bastards." she murmured to no one in particular and crouched down lower attempting to press herself as close to the tree as possible when she saw the unmistakable form of a Drow silhouetted in the cave's mouth. The normally stoic girl locked her eyes on the drow, grasped the hilts of her long daggers and sent a silent prayer to any god who would listen, Please I'll give up gambling, alcohol and boxing if you just don't let him see us
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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Sept 24, 2011 23:35:27 GMT -6
Cade's back, pressed firmly to the frozen rock wall behind, started sweating. The Drow stood not a hundred paces from them in the mouth of the newly revealed cave, silhouetted, sure, black and formidable, but unmistakably familiar to him. He was half tempted to leap out and challenge the Drow right then, to run at him, screaming curses in the four languages he knew, throwing snow to blind him, ice chunks to stun him, knives to kill him. He would have rather boxed all the bears in the forest before having to see that Drow again. His fists, still buried in the pine trees' needles, clenched as images of the dead soldiers from the last patrol that had left Ziako Oceanjumper alone in Snowhaven fell in his mind. She would have no idea that Gnarlbranch, standing so serenely at the gate, sniffing the air and searching for something, had been the one to lead the attack on her brother's patrol; how could she? She'd been in the city at the time. Cade, on the other hand.... He carefully unwrapped his hands and proceeded to absent-mindedly pick pine needles from his palms, keeping his eyes firmly rooted on the Drow. Yes, the cleft in his nose and the lean to one side put Cade in no doubt of who it was. But why had he come out? Had he heard them? Cade shook his head slowly, no, he didn't think so. The Drow was looking for someone. Cade let his eyes wander to the mouth of the canyon where they'd entered and saw another Drow some darting in, low to the ground, fast as a wolf. The two stood for a moment, conversing in low undercommon before turning back into the cave. "Come on," he whispered, easing his way from behind the trees. "Before it closes and I have to sacrifice you to get in," said Cade, an ease in his voice that hid the mix of feelings behind it.
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Ziako
Junior Member
Posts: 52
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Post by Ziako on Sept 25, 2011 9:29:31 GMT -6
I don't care what I said I'm only giving up drinkingLetting go of the breath that she didn't know she was holding, Ziako darted into the cave mouth after Cade slipping in just before it closed. The immediate chamber was large. Lit with sparse torches that barely allowed them to distinguish shapes. Fortunately, there was enough light to tell that the previously spotted Drow had already left the chamber through one of the six tunnels carved into the far wall. The tunnels were grouped in three's, three led east and three led west. The cave floor was covered with rock particles fine enough to distinguish tracks that had occurred in the last few days. The barely visable fresh tracks of two Drow moved off into the first tunnel leading west. "Great," she whispered to Cade, "If we can distinguish their tracks then they can spot ours from a..." A distinct impression caught her eyes moving through the second tunnel leading west. The mouth of this tunnel was larger than the others and wide enough to allow two horses to ride abreast down the tunnel. "I didn't think the Drow liked using wagons." She whispered turning to Cade as she looked up from the wagon treads on the cave floor.
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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Sept 25, 2011 23:29:07 GMT -6
Cade kept to the shadows once inside the cave, spending a few moments allowing his eyes to adjust to the rapid decrease in light. He'd known it would be dark: the Drow are not a people fond of sun. The tunnels were extensive, he saw, running through the mountains like the sewer systems under Wing-Over-Sea. He'd been lost in those tunnels once, the pipes tall enough to stand comfortably in, even jump if he'd liked. These were about the same dimensions, though somewhat wider. His hand stayed on his sword hilt. This was enemy territory from here on out. He felt prickly with sweat though the cave was chill, and it wasn't because he was worried. Nervous, as any soldier would be, but tense and angry, ready for anything, ready for this to be over. "They don't, really," said Cade, squatting to look at the markings. "They'll use them if they have no other choice, but they much prefer just taking what they can carry themselves." He trailed a finger along the tracks, pointing off to the tunnel they entered. "Must be the wagon that the captives were traveling with. We could start there, see what of them we can find," he said, weighing their options, "or we can head down the first tunnel after the two Drow we know of. 'Course, problem with both of them is we have no idea what we'll find down either one. Got a preference?"
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Ziako
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Post by Ziako on Sept 27, 2011 7:59:24 GMT -6
She quirked an eyebrow at Cade. It wasn't like him not to consider the most likely chance of success as the only option and the most likely chance of finding the captives was following the wagon treads. She glanced at the Drow tracks and the tunnel they had gone down. It confused her, why would Cade want to chase Drow around a maze? It was very un-Cade like. "We follow the wagon treads." she replied "because that's what you would normally say immediately... not getting into a fight with an entire garrison of Drow seems like a good decision. Get in get out" She stood and began to creep into the mouth of the larger tunnel knowing Cade would not hesitate to follow.
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Post by Lavinia Lionsgrave on Oct 7, 2011 11:41:40 GMT -6
He could feel the flush creeping up his neck as she spoke, even in the dimness. Silly, silly, he thought. You're giving her every reason to suspect something. Just shut up and do the job. If you kill Gnarlbranch, so much the better, but don't go picking fights. That's not your job. He shook his head to clear it, touching the bandages wrapped around his arm from the interrogation. "Right," he said. "Then let's do this. Come on, carefully." Keeping his hand on the scabbard of his sword, he drew it without a sound, sliding it to glint in the gloom of the cave. He held it loosely, at the ready, and crept on his toes across the dirt floor and down the tunnel with the wagon tracks. Stay alive, stay alive, he thought, not entirely certain whether he meant the captives or himself.
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Ziako
Junior Member
Posts: 52
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Post by Ziako on Oct 11, 2011 10:41:47 GMT -6
She moved quietly down the tunnel beside Cade. She gripped the hilt of her long daggers tightly but kept them sheathed. If they did stumble upon some drow her daggers were twice as fast drawn from the sheath. She scanned the area and tried not to glance at Cade who looked nervous? maybe scared? or was this something else? She didn't know she had never seen Cade anyway except completely relaxed, frustrated and every once in a while deadly serious. His, what appeared to be, tenseness was completely foreign to her as long as she had known Cade which was since he had come to Snowhaven. His arms was still steady, his sword held perfectly, but something was off. Datalis had pretty much worshiped the ground he walked on even when Cade first arrived in Snowhaven. Though Datalis and Krell had told her that Cade was a completely different person in battle. Datalis had described him as a wolf without fear who always knew the correct decision to make to save as many as possible. That was why she had never held Datalis' death against Cade, he may have been in command when Datalis died but every other man came home safe that day. Datalis would have called it a sacrifice for his fellow soldiers. But if his quick thinking was so renowned, why had he hesitated earlier? She didn't understand this new Cade that she was seeing for the first time...
She shook her head and redirected her thoughts at the tunnel peaking around bends for Drow and openings and traps. They had proceeded a significant way down the tunnel and had seen minor tunnels break off from this main one, but they continued to follow the wheel treads which appeared to be keeping a constant depth which meant the wagon's load had not been lightened into any of the minor tunnels. The tunnel was downward sloping and she was convinced that if they continued much deeper that they would end up in the demonic realm. Finally around another bend in the tunnel, a large cavern was visible. On the left hand wall of the cavern was a single wagon with a bed of hay, It was ramshackle and remarkable it wasn't broken down. But her gaze was drawn away from the wagon by what appeared to be a Drow, his back turned away from them, poking a stick into a crate were several of the boards were removed. The kind of crate used to transport animals. She however couldn't see inside the crate because the drow was obstructing her vision. She did however hear a slight whimpering like that of a wounded animal coming from the crate. She had heard that sound when a particularly viscous little boy had kicked a stray puppy. The puppy had limped away and hid under a stall and made that sound for hours. She spotted no other Drow in the room, so her curiosity was drawn back to whatever had the drow so interested. She watched as the drow poked at whatever was whimpering in the grate. He shifted to the side enough for her to spot a girl in the crate that was maybe six or seven that was covered in either dirt or dried blood that had been making that whimpering noise. Ziako felt rage overcome any logic as she took off across the room in a dead sprint towards the drow.The drow heard and quickly turned toward the sound, but it was still too slow as Ziako drew her right short dagger and plunged it deeply into the drow's throat. The speed of her crashing into the body of the drow threw them both over the crate hitting the floor on the other side with a crash. She had not let go of her hold on the dagger and with the drow now momentarily stunned by the impact with the floor or already dead from the impact with her knife; she yanked her dagger out of the drow's neck and jammed it downward into the eye socket. The drow was undoubtedly dead now. She heard the hysterical crying from the crate as she turned toward the tiny girl in the crate. Ziako reflected that she must have been quite frightening to the child covered in a combination of dirt and drow blood. She stood, well more like attempted to stand, as an unexpected pain sent her to her right knee. The drow had moved faster then she thought as she observed a short dagger jammed into her skin that covered the outside of the right hip. She pulled out the dagger and placed it to the side. The wound was not bad but a few inches to the left would have meant a slow and painful death. She placed her pack on the ground to withdraw some of the cotton strips she knew were inside as the girl continued to cry hysterically.
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