[quote=@Mokley]
The bloodrats screeched and skittered away to avoid being crushed by Talan's efforts; they scattered, and a few of them returned for a few more nibbles before they darted away again. He caught one under him, and it hissed and bit him deeply in the arm before it darted away with a crippled tail.

The woman watched this mildly. She didn't answer nor move until she was sure Talan had exhausted his efforts. "You're making them mad," she pointed out. But any Kith would know better: she had no choice but to believe him.

"Calm down and stay still," she sighed, grabbing his wrist -- and she carefully undid the knot that bound his hands. "You're stupid if you think you can get by on your own, especially wearing the skulls of vanquished primates. They're not even runed. It's miraculous you're alive." Once his hands were free, she turned his palms upward, in the process revealing a black tattoo of an eye on her right palm. "We've just lost a few of our own. Who were your friends?"[/quote]

The bloodrats' bites left bruises and small punctures all about his arms and torso with some trickling blood down his body. Instead of lowering his morale as would be expected, this only fueled a greater anger within him. This forest was evil, everything within wanted him dead and he felt the same way towards its denizens. As the woman released him from his bindings Tala suddenly felt empowered, his life was in his hands once more and he was going to make this forest, and any who opposed him, feel his wrath.

[quote]
At the edge of the hill, the archer hissed in frustration and the man behind her growled. "You missed! It's looking this way!"

The purple light below the hill suddenly flashed bright, illuminating them all for a moment.

Behind them, a green light flashed among the dark trees.

For a flicker of a moment, a man all in black, with a black mask, appeared in the lantern light and then was gone.

"Move!" someone screamed.

The trees began to shudder and twist; their roots rumbled and cracked and thundered angrily in the ground beneath them, and the hill shook and swayed like an earthquake.

The woman took an iron pendant from around her neck and slipped it over Talan's head, with only a glance that warned him to trust her.
[/quote]

Upon showing her hands Talan pulled his back from the woman,[color=fff200][b]"I have no friends"[/b][/color] he said coldly. Before he could say more however, another voice broke the momentary silence. What came after was chaos, a flash of purple light illuminated the group before fading out, not long after a green light began to flash behind them with a black silhouette of a man nearby. The ground began to shake violently as the tree roots began to writhe about in the underground. With all this going on Talan didn't notice the woman put around his neck until it was resting around his neck. He jumped slightly in surprise but quickly understood the look she gave him. He'd play along for now, at least until the current crises is ended.