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Chapter Three: Vardadraug and the Cosmic Ore

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As the Minotaur thundered toward him, Otiorin braced himself for the beast's attack. But, surprisingly, it ran past him and scooped up the horn that was still gripped in the dead human's hands. The intent of the move was obvious, this one intended to summon yet more trouble and that was something Otiorin would rather not see happen. With a surge of his own, he spun on his heel and swept his magical short sword up and out.


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Otiorin makes a wicked slash at the towering minotaur but his swing arcs out in a path that is stopped by the minotaur's hide armor. A dreadful moment comes to pass as the angered warrior looks about, horn in one hand, large-sized longsword in the other - but his glance is too quick; he fails to notice Otiorin who remains but feet away - still unnoticed.


As the minotaurs continue to charge after Luna, they open themselves to both Kitrin and Powerpaw. Kitrin delivers a painful thump of her enchanted flail on the backside of the greataxe wielding warrior, while grinning Powerpaw comes a'smashing with his magical maul.


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The combination of the Wanderers' powerful strikes sends the minotaur reeling and bleeding, but he is not done yet.


Powerpaw lets out a bestial snarl. The furry killer begins to chase after the minotaur, until he notices a familiar face running along to his south. It is Bria. She is glancing toward Luna and back the way she came, her eyes wide with great concern. Powerpaw peers behind her. Finding no minotaur giving her chase, his own worries mount. The feral warrior has already learned that if Bria has reason to worry, then likely, so does he.


He shouts, "Bria! Wha's wrong?"


"Wolf!" she shrieks. "He's alone in melee!"


"What da face?!" Powerpaw growls savagely. He remembers the curious ranger who so eagerly addressed him when they were both prisoners under Bilal the Rich's cruelty. He also remembers the respect he was given when he had deflected the questions of his own origin. He also knows Bria and how her mind operates. It must be wounding her gentle soul for the Ko healer to have had to make such a decision to leave him in such straits.


Powerpaw roars with great volume across the battlefield, this time to Luna. "Mage-face! Wolf iz in troubles! Where I go? Is it him or you?"
 
Luna points in Wolf's direction. "He is that way! Kitrin and I can deal with these two! Go!" Now that I've said that, lets hope that we CAN deal with them! "We'll take them, one at a time! Ready?"
 
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Powerpaw grins at Luna before turning around and bounding off toward Wolf. The "kitty-face" thought the mage got herself into a considerable amount of trouble somehow here, but as in Bilal's Menagerie, she found herself on top of the situation. With Bria and Kitrin with her, he wasn't very worried. For Wolf, however, he was curious. How was the little ranger faring?


Powerpaw appears every bit the raging, bloodthirsty monster as he charges through the evergreen woods, kicking up great tufts of leaves as his paws tear across the earth. He rounds several trees and soon, Wolf came into view. He wasn't in melee after all! There, on some funny giant rock, stood a minotaur...


...about to blow a horn!


"Oh crap!"


Powerpaw crosses the distance to the minotaur with terrific speed, aided by his magical boots. The branches and shrubs seem to blur past him, raking his fur and horns. Then, with a scary, feline roar that resounds across the woods, he swings his maul with all the force and skill he possesses.


"INNN DAAAA FAAAAAAACE!"


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"OH SHIT!" cries the minotaur as he sees the raging Powerpaw coming his way. Powerpaw scores a brutal smash against the minotaur's chin. Blood flows, but the hardiness of Bloodland minotaurs is something never to be underestimated. The sounds of longsword and maul ring and clang as the minotaur strives with all of his might to blow the horn.


During the ferocious melee, even Otiorin's fellow feline Wanderer fails to notice him...


 
Wolf fires off arrow after arrow at the hulking minotaur and the first of his three flights strike home! There is the feeling that the minotaur would at least offer Wolf some kind of insulting phrase or gesture, were it not for the raging Powerpaw in his face.
 
  • Staggeringly, the Minotaur was still oblivious to Otiorin, despite Moolit Edge clattering uselessly off his armor as he thundered past on his way to the fallen horn. Now his attention was fully engaged with a roaring Powerpaw who had delivered a shattering blow to the face that had pushed the bovine beast back but not down. It also seemed that Powerpaw was unaware of the Half-Elf's presence, as he'd spared not even a sidelong glance as he dueled with the Bloodland creature. Otiorin took a deep swallow and considered his options. He was a sneak thief, a cat burglar, not a fighter like Powerpaw or even Kitrin. His speciality was sneaking into places where he shouldn't be and taking things that weren't his. He wasn't supposed to be in pitched battles against roaring monsters intent on ripping people limb from limb and eating the bits they tore off. But yet, here he was. It was strange how the world turned like that.


    He braced himself and swept up behind the Minotaur, swinging his magical Elven blade low in a cut to the back of his ankles. Perhaps he'd be lucky and hamstring the brute.
 
  • Otiorin has faced many foes. Most of them have ankles around the same height from the ground as his own. Not so with the Bloodland Minotaur whose ankles are about knee-height to the stealthy half-elf. Still, the brave rogue slashes brutally at them - only to have the blade miss its mark and smack hard against that enormous hoof.


    And this time, the warrior notices.


    "What the- Who the fu- You're dead, shrimp!"


    As Powerpaw races off to help Wolf, Bria's eyes follow him along with a quick heartfelt prayer for his safety. Then Bria has little choice but to fully focus herself on the two minotaurs facing Luna and Kitrin. Bria stays to the cover of the trees. It is only a matter of time, the healer believes, until someone dear to her here is harmed by this brutish evil - and she stands ready for action when it happens.
 



  • Luna continues to maneuver around the field of battle, trying to keep the wicked blades away from her bare skin. She calls out, "Kit! I'll drop the one with the greatsword, then we'll double team the one with the axes! Keep your head up!" The young mage turns to target her foe, and then lets fly with one of her more powerful spells. "Lightning Bolt!" But this is no regular spell; this bolt of energy is interwoven with streams of fire, intended to burn her enemies down and teach them the folly of facing an angry mage.


 
With a combination of wrath and desperation, the Bloodland Minotaur slashes at Luna as she leaves herself open to attack.


"Die, damn you!"


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The Bloodland Minotaur swings at Luna with all of his considerable fury. He comes down on her, or rather, where he thinks she is thanks to her Displacement spell, with a blow that would cleave her from top to bottom. He believes, however, that she is standing on a wide flat stone. In fact, she is displaced two feet away.


So when the minotaur's axe comes crashing down, instead of soft flesh, he encounters hard, forest stone. The blade strikes the stone with all of his might. The terrific sound of his great-axe blade breaking upon the stone is only outdone by his awful cry of surprise and grief!


"AAAAAAGH!"
 
Luna's silvery laughter can be heard as she looks at the anguish in the face of the minotaur. "Nyah nyah! Missed me!"
 
Not only hers, but... have you ever heard an old pseudo-dragon just cackle her head off, wings fluttering, legs kicking, threatening to fall off of her familiar?


"Bwaaahahaahahahahhaaaaaa!!"


You have now. =)
 
Storyteller Note: With this post, we move out of combat time.


With the minotaur unable to stop her, Luna lets go using her special ability to alter the Lightning Bolt into a Fire Bolt filled with searing heat unknown to the likes of most mortal creatures. The bolt sprouts from her fingertips and launches at both minotaurs. Their screams echo through the forest but are strangely joined by the sound of a small canine creature elsewhere howling painfully with them.


The broken-great-axe wielder gets very lucky and backs out of the way of the full fury of the bolt, but this still does not save him as his wounds catch up with him. He falls with a horrible moan to the forest floor and lies dying. His cohort does not see the Fire Bolt coming at all. He takes full damage as the terrific blast, made even more powerful by Luna's special advantage with fire, bathes him in blinding flame. This leaves Luna, Kitrin, and Bria with only one wounded Bloodland Minotaur to contend with.


However...


...the Fire Bolt spell has a completely unintended side effect as it continues to its full length through brush, leaves, and trees. All combustible things in the Fire Bolt's path burst and catch fire as the terrific orange flames burn everything they come into contact with. In seconds, thick gray smoke begins to rise from the 120-foot path of flaming destruction. Trees and branches crackle, brushes go up in flames - and in the thick of the forest, the fires slowly begin to spread in every direction.


The Wanderers are now among the terrible beginnings of a true forest fire. They have time to stop it if they choose - for the moment.


Other creatures take notice and react...


Vardradraug erupts from the brush near Wolf, not twenty feet away from the ranger. It was his cry of surprise that mingled with the minotaurs'. He is frantic and crying. "No, no, no! Not the wood!" He sprints to the fires and with his little puppy paws, he is hurriedly trying to bury the flames with the dirt hidden below the leaves. Due to his tiny size and the size of the growing flames, he may as well be trying to drink an ocean.


Just above the forest, Pecker lets out several piercing cries. "FIRE! Fly, Wolf, fly!" The loyal falcon, from his vantage point shrouded by forest canopy, cannot know what caused the flames - he only knows that the one human being he trusts is down there among the danger.


At that moment, as the flames lick the forest in its ever-changing touch, the great stone that Otoirin, Powerpaw, and the minotaur archer are fighting on takes on a sudden and incredible change.


The etched runes all along its massive surface light with soft magical glows of greens, yellows, and oranges. Each comes to life like a beam of sunlight peering through a bank of clouds. The great stone and all the earth around it trembles and shivers like a small earthquake. The trees shake as the forest is violently throttled. Then the stone erupts in a deafening blast. Dirt, pebbles, and other stray forest debris explode in every direction as the great runed stone...


...comes alive.

earth_elemental_by_loztvampir3-d3h373b.png



(Image provided by velinov.deviantart.com)


This, but 32 feet in height and taking up 20 feet by 20 feet of space all by itself.


Unable to react to the sudden eruption in time, Powerpaw and the Bloodland Minotaur are blown high into the air, through the forest canopy, and out of your sight. Otiorin may or may not have joined them. Such is the shower of rocks, leaves, and dirt that you cannot tell. Then a new voice carries across the battlefield. It is that of the great-stone-come-alive. The words come slow, powerfully, and with great resolve.


"Burn the homes of the wild, will you? Set fire to the beauty of the land, dare you? Whatever you are, wherever you be, I am Skaagenrackner - and you shall answer to me!!"


Skaagenrackner peers about, his wrath growing like the bright smoky flames, and his eyes take notice of Wolf. He peers at the ranger and slowly adds, "Forest-friend! Help me track down the cause of these flames so we can destroy the source together!" The Elder Earth Elemental cannot know that the source is Wolf's fellow Wanderer, Luna...


Meanwhile, the last minotaur that you see begins running for his life....


You can spend time chasing and killing him or do other things as you please.
 



  • Wish I could, Pecker... Wolf thought to himself glancing skywards. Vardadraug's reappearance came as relief; he seemed to be unharmed as well.


    And then the earth exploded, and among the settling dust rose the earth elemental. The ranger held him in awe, having never actually seen one in person. What a story this would make, he pondered. But the gravity of the situation did not leave him. The forest was on fire, albeit still a hopefully reversible one. That would be the card to play with Skaagenrackner to keep both Nature and the girl close to his heart.


    Deliberately avoiding Luna, Wolf spares one meaningful look to Vardadraug before locking his gaze with that of Skaagenrackner. "Great Elder, the creatures responsible for this fire were destroyed mere moments ago! I implore you to replace just rage with wisdom - neither you nor I are friends to the forest if we are found chasing the guilty while the wilds burn! Instead let us avert this disaster while it can still be undone!"


 
  • Kitrin shrieks as the fiery bolt zips over her head. "Oi, watch the aiming! Glad I ain't taller..." Reflexively turning her head to watch the great bolt's progress, she pales as the forest is set on fire around them. One minotaur down, the other running away, the little fighter turns to face the current threat - the potential wildfire, with the party at its center. She grumbles to herself as she races to her own firefighting efforts, "Not enough t' charge into melee so's your party has to run off without armor t' save you, then ya gotta light up everything on the hill...us not included I hope..." Words and action come to a complete halt when the stone explodes from under Wolf and Otiorin. Speechless, she is spurred back into action as Wolf asks for the elemental's help in putting out the fire. Right, she thinks, play the blame game later, and preferably when this big rock isn't around to squish Luna for it! Not that she don't need a good talkin' to for this little trick, but that's for us to do. With an unusual quiet, she springs back into firefighting duties.
 
Luna's warm glow of pleasure at the sight of the roasted minotaurs quickly fades as the flames begin to spread. At least I didn't throw a Fireball. That would have been messier. Then, there is the gigantic rock-monster, demanding to know who started the fire. Oh, crap! That's all I need. "Sparkle, I have got to help put this fire out! Take to the air and help me spot the places of the worst flames so I can focus on them!" She raises up her hand and uses the only spell in her arsenal that will help; "Ray of Frost!"
 
The sounds of the rhythmic of steel, hammer, and anvil fills Bronzes ears. The sound of the forge causing a form of mediation, and focus for the mind. The ease of the work, flows, work the steel, shape the steel, make it flow, quench, temper, set aside, work more. Over time the small items of forks, knives, and spoons fill a small space, the harder work of the pots and pans will take a little longer but always in the rhythm, the passage of time goes unnoticed. With such focus, and joy of the work, the simple items become works of art. With the glow of yellow hot steel, gives Bronzes eyes a glow, and makes him feel happy. There is a smile. One of simple niceness, and warm fluffy feelings, the steel sings, the smith answers.
 



  • Sparkle leaps off of Luna's shoulder and wings between the trees and about. A few moments later, she sends a telepathic to her familiar. Here, Pyri! This copse of trees is burning badly and threatens much near it. How in the world are we to put this great fire out?!





    Luna's Ray of Frost has to be very carefully used as the cantrip can destroy the very trees she is trying to save. Still, it appears to be the best option at hand for the harried fire mage. Progress is slowly made among the gray clouds of smoke, one ray at a time.


    Peering into huge earth-brown eyes that appear as old as time itself, Wolf is dwarfed by more than Skaagenrackner's size. "Not friends of the forest if we chase the guilty, are we? Bold words, sapling," he shrugs and dust falls from many places on his person. "Your words have two meanings. I would know them both..." he pulls his gaze away and toward the hungry flames, "...afterward."


    Those ancient eyes fall upon a near-panicking wolf the size of a house-cat. His little paws are kicking up dirt as he digs in an attempt to smother the flames with dirt. Skaagenrackner seems to grin. "Vardadraug," he calls without hurry, "is that you? Let me help you, forest-friend."


    With that, the rocky giant reaches far into the earth at his feet with both his hands. He pulls up a great mound of soil and dirt, lifting hundreds of pounds of weight effortlessly. He holds a humongous mound of brown and gray against his chest. Then he carefully walks across the earth, but his is no normal stride, for the earth does not tremble as his great feet make their way, and his wake leaves not destruction, but loveliness. Flowers and new greenery sprout behind him. As he leaves the gaping hole that he once dwelt upon, the pit sprouts a new field of shining grass. At his every step, Skaagenrackner brings life to what was so recently a bloody battlefield.


    He stands over the flames and smoke, stepping upon the fires with his massive feet. He begins to pour. But soon after, he gives pause.


    "Forest friend," he calls to Wolf. "The smoke clouds mine eyes. You are lower to the earth than I. Direct me so that we may douse these fires?"


    Bria gasps in horror as the shrubs, grass, and trees ignite. She thinks for but a moment. Then she brushes her evergreen battle robes thrice. There is a shimmer as the robes transform into a heavy, hooded cloak. This Bria doffs and uses to pound out the smaller flames. What she lacks in physical strength, she is definitely trying to make for with smarts, attacking only the flames she has a chance to extinguish.


    But then a frightful thought embraces her as she listens to the Elder Earth Elemental's voice ring across the forest. Was there not a melee on top of him before he suddenly exploded upward? Bria pauses and looks to the branches and leaves above where the melee took place. There, a great hole is present - a hole likely created by two large creatures and one smaller than they. Reality dawns upon her beautiful features.


    Leaving the crackling, orange fires behind as her worry mounts, she races to that hole in the forest canopy. It is the only spot where sunlight easily streams through. It is only when she is close enough to see that it reaches through does understanding take hold.


    "Otiorin?" she calls out weakly, her soft eyes seeking desperately among the high branches. Then she sees scratch-marks on the trees - like those made by claws. The scratch-marks lead skyward.


    "POWERPAW?!"


    There is no reply.
 
Luna is preparing to cast another carefully aimed Ray of Frost when the massive earth elemental scoops up a giant handful of earth in preparation of dumping it on the fire. The comparatively tiny spellcaster quickly backs up to avoid being buried alive by an avalanche of dirt.
 
"Flight of the Half-elf" - a related side-tale by Dannigan. =)


Otiorin does not precisely recall the explosion that blew him out of the forest. He definitely recalls the battle, the sudden roar of long fire, the screams of minotaurs (which were certainly preferable to hearing the screams of his fellow Wanderers). He clearly remembers the hectic attempts by half the party to stop that brutish minotaur archer from blowing that damned horn. That little piece of bone had the possibility of changing everything for the worse... Otiorin even recalls the ground suddenly shaking beneath their feet as if a thousand Powerpaws were having a "Moar-fest."


But the explosion? Not at all.


One moment, he was trying to keep his balance. The next, he was hurtling through the forest as if he had been drop-kicked by Koshianth herself. The deep greens and rich browns of the trees blurred past him as he sped through the air with the unstoppable velocity of a giant-thrown boulder. There were several branches in his way too, not that they failed to cease his skyward ascent. Otiorin was half-clobbbered, partly-pummeled, and badly beaten by the woods as he shot out of them and into that bright and dreamy Sharseyan sky.


Otiorin discovered quickly that he was not alone for the ride. An equally surprised Powerpaw and Bloodland Minotaur were on their way up there with him. At the moment of the explosion, all three of them went from fighting for their lives to madly scrambling in desperate attempts to reach out and grab something, anything, that would provide some pause in their flight. Their minds and bodies seemed to know - if going up was bad, coming back down was going to be hell. So their self-preservation instincts took over.


It didn't help, of course.


Meanwhile, Otiorin heard something quite strange beyond the rushing wind. What was that crazy, yelling sound? Was it Powerpaw? Was it the minotaur? Perhaps it was all three of them as they flailed helplessly through the air together. There was something logical - and heart-stopping - about the idea.


As they neared the apex of their flight, Powerpaw stopped flailing, glared at the minotaur, and with his teeth, he viciously snapped at the warrior's face as if attempting to take it right off of his skull. He missed. His terrible fangs instead tore a good chunk of flesh out of the bovine warrior's shoulder.


With an infuriated roar the minotaur replied with a smashing right hook to Powerpaw's already-bloody chin. This punch was given with such force that it spun Powerpaw around, and when the feline opened his eyes, he found himself directly facing Otiorin. Right then, a realization then illuminated in those energetic ruby eyes - a realization Otioirin could read with ease. Powerpaw's expressions seemed to say, "I might survive this fall back into the forest below us, but you?"





That is when the three of them began to fall in separate paths back down towards the ground.


The minotaur kicked Powerpaw in the back with one big hoof. Though painful, the kick propelled the cunning "kitty-face" closer to Otiorin. As they fell, Powerpaw looked at Otiorin, gripped his maul, and swung on his fellow Wanderer. That two-handed maul, swung with one paw, came unerringly at Otiorin, but instead of crashing into the half-elf's chest the great hammer scooped him up. Before Otiorin knew it, he was pretty well pinned, his back against Powerpaw's chest while the maul was firmly braced about Otiorin's body. Now Otiorin could not have fallen away from Powerpaw if he tried.


About that time, the world was racing all about them as Powerpaw put his back to the oncoming woods. Gravity was now greedily pulling them down and down until the forest swallowed them. Then the rapid cracking and snapping sounds could easily be heard followed by the big cat's grunts of pain. Without warning, there came one very big and loud crash and half-elf and "kitty-face" both came to an immediate stop.


"Uhhhh," Powerpaw moaned. Silence followed as his grip on his maul loosened and went limp.


The impact shook Otiorin's world, but when his senses finally returned to something resembling normal, he discovered a few things:


The first was, he was not dead! Injured? Definitely . His shoulder, ribs, ankle, and hand - all on the right side - were together signalling their separate messages of great pain to the rogue/sorcerer's already-excited brain. They were, at least, still attached.


Secondly, his brown and purple right hand still somehow gripped the magnificent Moonlit Edge. That mysterious heirloom had not flown away during his brutal flight.


Thirdly, Powerpaw was knocked cold, but also alive. Otiorin could tell by the slow rise and fall of his naked, furry chest. Head back, tongue lolling through a mass of sharp fangs and teeth, his head lay on the base of a fat branch, two more of which supported his body, and therefore also, Otiorin's.


Fourthly, the half-elf smelled smoke. Wood smoke. It came from below them.


But finally, Otiorin noticed that both his hands occupied some item, whereas only had had before. Certainly, one might think at a time like this that the gods have an incredible sense of humor, for as Otiorin stared down his bruised arm and at the item in his left hand, there was the very same black bone horn he was trying to stop the minotaur from blowing all along.


Certainly, somewhere, the gods were having a damned good time at the expense of the Wanderers...


 
"A moment in the mind of a Bloodland Minotaur." - another related side-tale by Dannigan. =)


His leader was down. His fellows were next, but they were only a horn-blow away from calling the Wizard. When the Wizard arrived, sweet, sweet revenge upon these little nuisances was assured. If only he could blow the damned horn!


He put the horn to his lips and took a deep breath...


..only to lose it when some elf-looking fool came out of nowhere with an expensive-looking elfy pig-sticker and hacked at his hooves! How irritating!


"Just wait until I get a hold of you," the minotaur seethed. "Asshole!"


He inhaled again and brought the horn up. Right then, an arrow thudded into this body while two more zipped past his head. Who?


Oh, it was that little pussy Ranger motherfucker with the bow! How he wanted to grind that weak and teeny-little bunny-hugger under his hooves!


"Fuck you and your bow!"


He took a quick breath and raised the horn again. Right then, this big-ass crazy-looking cat-dude comes running and swinging and snarling with a two-handed hammer at his face! From what drunk-ass, doped-up, monster-creating Wizard motherfucker with the lotus-tainted nightmare-ridden brain did this scary son of a bitch spring forth from?!"


"Get back!" he slashed, "I'll carve your ass!"


But even he noted the tremble of his own voice as that maul passed at his head.


He swiftly ducked down to the horn and sucked in a fast breath. Finally! Now was his chance to-


Suddenly, the world around and under him shook and shivered and a tremendous blast hurled him high through the trees and into the air. Battered and bruised, the minotaur saw the forest and bright sky taking turns twirling in his vision. His anger and irritation rose higher and higher until he had become frustration incarnate. Then all throughout the forest, every creature heard his rage-filled scream which escalated with every syllable in the Giant tongue:


"What the fuck does a guy have to do to blow this damned HOOOOOOOOORN?!"
 
Afterward is fine by me, Wolf thinks to himself. He briefly distracts himself with Vardadraug and Luna but snaps back to attention at Skaagenrackner's request. He studies the surrounding area and tries to discern where the most immediate attention is required.


"Over yonder, Elder! Look to your right! There does the flame burn strongest!" he shouts, staring impressed at the might of the earth elemental.
 
So this is the freedom Charmsring feels, Otiorin thought to himself as he sailed through the air, Draconic heritage certainly has interesting boons. Then he snapped back to himself. Draconic heritage was one thing, but he did not have his grandfather's or his great-grandfather's wings, and the flight was rapidly becoming a plummet. He turned to see Powerpaw staring him eye to eye and things started to slow down. The huge cat-person snatched him out of the air and pinned him to his own back before their descent slammed them into the ground. Otiorin blacked out. When he came too, his body screamed in agony. It felt like several major bones were broken and there was the strong taste of blood in his mouth.


"I don't think I like flying.", he winced, then passed out.
 
"As you say, sapling." The great Earth Elemental looms to his right and nods to Wolf as those Wanderers still able fight the forest blaze. "Look out below!"


Luna is wise to step back as Skaagenrackner gently looses a fantastic torrent of heavy dirt, soil, and roots upon the raging flames. Great clouds of brown dust burst forth threatening anyone nearby. Before the dust clears, Skaagenrackner is moving off toward the nearest hill. He reaches down again, his hands scoop into the earth like powerful shovels, and again the process of smothering the chaotic conflagration takes place under Wolf's direction. The going is slow, but worthwhile, and it becomes clear that the hungry fires will lose this battle soon, though they leave these enchanting trees and land blackened and scarred.


Vardadraug bounds around the freshly-fallen dirt mounds. In the language of animals, he barks. "What a mess! This is the worst trial ever!"


"Are you sure this sapling is worthy?" Skaagenrackner rumbles.


"Yes, I am sure!"


"Why?"


"Because even now he chooses between two things he appears to care about more than himself!"


Skaagenrackner's eyes slowly widen as he regards Wolf with new interest. "Two things? One is the forest, I gather, and not just the soil beneath his feet, but all of it, near and far, high and low. But I cannot guess... what is this other thing?"


Vardadraug pauses and looks about. As Sparkle lands back onto the fire mage's shoulder, Luna sees Vardadraug atop his mound. He is staring straight at Luna, his eyes narrowed, his tail low.


"Her."


"Otioriiiin! Powerpaaaaw!" Bria of the Ko calls out across the woods, meandering about in search of her friends. The worry in her face and voice cannot be hidden as she half-stumbles about in confusion. The rising smoke impedes her vision and threatens to choke her, yet still she looks high and low for signs of life.


She finds some.


A fire of a different kind is slowly dying. Bria finds her way to the place where the battle ended. A great-axe longer than a knight's lance lies in two pieces against an old flat rock. At her feet, its master gasps, his body fighting for life. Bria kneels by the charred, hacked Bloodland Minotaur, a soft gasp of her own escaping her lips.


No words pass between them. Their facial expressions and movements become conversation of the deepest kind...

"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush


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The foul-hearted minotaur's eyes open wide as he feels her gentle fingers upon the back of his smoking hand. His eyes, still alight with hatred and malice turn toward the source. He sees her. She makes no move to avoid him.


He lacks the power to kill her. He cannot move or speak. He can only grimace at her. That is, until his dying eyes take notice of her expression.


The brown-haired human girl holds his hand with a pained face. She looks over his body and shakes her head to him as if to say, "I don't want it to end like this! Let me save you!" She raises her hand in a graceful, magical gesture.


"Do it and I'll kill you," his face seems to reply. "I will not owe my life to the likes of you!"


Her features become more pained. "You don't know what you're doing! There is still time!"


"Never!"


Bria reaches over and touches his huge cheek. Her fingers are tender and warm and completely without malice. She is gasping, trying not to cry. Her eyes plead with him. "I don't want it to end like this! I don't want you to go."


The evil warrior cannot believe it at first, yet as his body fights for life, for breath, he glares at her in one last attempt to scare her into nightmares. He does not get his wish, for her eyes hold only peacefulness, mercy, and deepest, unconditional love.


"All is forgiven. Just change your course! Please! Before it's too late!"





The warrior sees her expression and believes. She holds no hate for him. Only forgiveness. Only love. She really does not want him to go where he is going. It is as if she knows of another place.


Now his face is full of fear and doubt. These are his last moments. What could she want out of him? He cannot fight her. Why doesn't she kill him? He cannot resist her. Why is she not ransacking his possessions. Could she be serious?


His hard eyes soften and look back into hers. "Impossible! No one has ever... cared about me! Me! No one can love someone like me!"


Bria grits her teeth as a tear forms, rolling down her cheek. She grasps his hand with both of her own. "I can! You are loved!!"


The warrior's eyes change. They slowly lose their hate. Their passion for anger and destruction and evil begins to die. There is a new look blossoming - one of the dimmest hope.


Bria sees the change and quickly, desperately weaves her gentle, compassionate magic, but the minotaur suddenly shudders. He writhes in final pain. His entire body becomes rigid and his eyes glaze over, holding her gaze as the life leaves his body. His time has passed.


But the moment does not stop there. Bria continues to watch his face. Then her gaze slowly rises. She carefully stands and looks up as if seeing someone far taller than she. Her hands clasp something that does not appear to be there. It is as if she is still holding his hand.


She looks up at him, her expression so very sad. "I tried to stop it! You didn't have to go where you're going!"


If there is a reply, she does not see it.


Then there is a small explosion of leaves about her as if something powerful were suddenly traveling down... Straight down. Down deep into realms best left untrodden by the living and the good. Bria's hands fly back as if suddenly releasing whatever it was they were holding. She knows now that whatever the warrior was when he died is gone now. Fallen down.


Then she stands alone in that little spot of forest.


"Please!"


She falls to her knees, her hands upon the empty shell that was once a living creature. She raises her face to the sky, looking past the trees, past the clouds, past the very stars that circle the world and into the heavens beyond. She silently releases one heartfelt plea to all the good that is out there.


"Please! Forgive him!"


New tears drip down her wet cheeks. She places her face in her hands and her tears pour forth. Unstoppable.


Her sobbing is quiet, somehow unobtrusive, as they flow from the depths of her soul and onto the minotaur corpse.
 
A scream, a cry.


Otiorin's senses returned to sounds unusual and disturbing. The first thing was the slow, faltering thud of a heartbeat, sometimes quickening, others skipping a beat or two. The next was a constant sound. Crying, the sound of someone experiencing heart-rending emotional pain. He'd heard it before, after he'd passed through a town that had suffered from a flashfire. A woman had lost her whole family when their house had caught fire in the night and he'd seen her the next morning, stood inconsolable as her friends and neighbors ventured into the crumbling ruins with linen sheets to return, each carrying a carefully wrapped body. Some had been terribly small. Each return and the sight of each body had brought on a new wail, but the woman refused to leave the scene, not until her whole family was recovered.


Now that same cry, or one of equal intensity, drew him from the comfortable void of painless fugue to a sensual world filled with pain. He gritted his teeth and dragged himself across Powerpaw's massive chest til he could see down below them. His eyes were instantly drawn to the equally massive corpse of the minotaur archer, splayed out on the forest floor. His flight had obviously been far more painful. But there, crouched on the floor beside him. The source of the crying, Bria. Her tears energised him, her emotional agony pushed his pain down as surely as any analgesic. He pulled himself across to the trunk of the tree, then slowly and carefully began to descend.


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Despite his pain and injuries, he managed to get to the ground without mishap, even though the effort left him sweating and panting. His unsteady legs carried him to the sobbing Ko monk and he fell to his knees beside her, laying a gentle hand on her back.


"I know you, Bria of the Ko. You weep for all life lost, whether it be the greatest of heroes, the basest of villains or even the commonest of men. You can't help it.", he said, stroking her back, "Perhaps your tears will move the hearts of the Gods themselves and they might be compelled to give his soul succor in the next world, if only for your compassion."


He reached down and lifted her chin to look her eye to red-rimmed eye, "But right now, you have to attend to those who need you. Powerpaw needs you."


He then pointed upward at the still-unconscious feline warrior above them.
 
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When Vardadraug points out Luna to Skaagenrackner, she is uncertain what to do. A part of her wanted desperately to run away; far, far away, and hope that the giant earth elemental doesn't decide to squish her. But reason and intellect once more overcomes her more primitive instincts, and the fire mage gathers herself up and walks calmly to stand next to Wolf. She places a gentle hand upon the ranger's shoulder. "Are you all right, my friend?" With his nod, she feel as if a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders and she can once more breathe freely. Or, as free as someone in the middle of a former forrest fire that was just extinguished by a giant earth elemental can.


Bowing deep at the waist, Luna offers her greeting to Skaagenrackner. "Oh, great one, I am Luna Kaftan, and I am truly humbled at your presence. I am a teammate of this one, and I have the great honor to call him my friend and boon companion. He was not responsible for this fire, and I implore you, no, I beg you, that if your anger demands that a life be taken in response to this, I freely offer up myself in his place." She kneels down on the ground, with a little voice inside her head screaming at her of what on Sharseya she is doing. "Please, mighty Skaagenrackner, do not harm him."
 
At first glad to see Luna approach and even make physical contact, Wolf is driven to disbelief by her following actions. Speechless he watches as she kneels and implores Skaagenrackner.


"Luna, what the hell are you -" he says after she was done speaking. "We are all friends of the forest here," he says with emphasis, making sure Skaagenrackner gets that part, "And if an explanation is in order it will be I who delivers it, as I have given my word to the Elder. Now please, get up."


He reaches down to her and attempts to pull her up, adding just loud enough for her to hear: "I'd prefer it if you stayed alive." And he gave her an encouraging smile.
 
"Him?" Skaagenrackner replies to Luna as he looses the last pile of earth on the remainder of the flames, quenching them. "Why would I wish to harm him? I gather he did not start this destruction. As I look around, I see many tracks. Look there. An arrow resting upon the forest floor, blood droplets painting the leaves as if from a hammer, and two corpses of small creatures about. Minotaurs from the Bloodlands, by the look of them. And here, near where I rose, the equally-sorry corpse of a ragged, weather-worn human. And what is this I spy? Another arrow This one buried in his neck below his dashed brains."


Skaagenrackner turns to Wolf, or rather, Wolf's quiver. "Might these arrows be brethren to the wood you carry, sapling? For while I disagree that all present are forest-friends - a deserved title held only by the worthy - I can agree that something needs be done about the cause of the fire."


The Elder Elemental quietly moves between the trees, disturbing as little as possible by his passing. He notes the passage of the Fire Bolt and the now 120-foot long line of dirt and blackened, sometimes leaf-less trees. Skaagenrackner folds his huge rocky arms. "This looks to have been something like a lightning bolt, but magical in nature, and twice as fiery." He nudges the corpse of the minotaur leader. "There has never been, to my knowledge, a minotaur who could throw such elements at his will. There are javelins in the world that hold that power, but I see no minotaurs with javelins, nor upon any of you." He nods as he regards Bria and a badly-battered Otiorin, a short distance away.


Skaagenrackner then turns to Luna. "And here you kneel... awaiting your death by my hand as if perhaps deserving of it." He raises that terrible hand high and clenches it into a fist. Then he slowly marches over to Luna and Wolf, towering over them. "I would make it quick."


Vardadraug runs up beside Skaagenrackner, his head shaking, "No, no!"


But then an evergreen twinkle seems to shine in the Elder Elemental's eye as he regards the young mage. He pauses. His rocky eyebrows lift in interest and there is the hint of a grin across those ancient features as he asks...


"Is there... something you want to tell me, Luna Kaftan?"
 
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