the groon

Trees snapped like kindling all around him. He made a running leap off the top of a boulder, and the beast's great claws -- capable of striking his head clean off -- fwiffed harmlessly over his scalp. Just missed. He splashed down into a ravine and took off at a stumbling sprint through the mud. Behind him, the dumb brutish groon smacked its lips and tore trees up by their roots, enraged at the loss of its prey.

It yowled a slimy, acidic howl -- and then it caught a whiff of Alphonse Brennan. Its gleamy eyes sparked. Like a freight train the beast crashed through the smaller trees, tossed the boulder aside with a thunderous thwunk, slapped its taloned feet in the mud, and loped along at a crouch to better see the sprinting man.

Alphonse could see the blue shimmer of the lake beyond this last scraggle of trees. Almost there. He dodged an incoming boulder -- the groon had begun chucking projectiles -- ducked behind a tree and slammed his foot down on a lever. High above, a high-pitched screech whizzed and echoed among the treetops, level with the groon's ugly head.

EEEooooEEEoooEEEoooEEEoooEEEooo

The beast whined and thrashed and scratched its own ears bloody trying to get the sound out of its head. Trees snapped and crashed among its spasms. And then, the groon set its bloodshot eyes on the little man. Its roar rose to a terrible pitch and its limbs propelled it forward at a speed built of nightmares.

Alphonse stood directly in its path, panting, watching the murderous monstrosity come at him, with the lake shining behind him and a clay bottle clutched in his fist.

The soft rustling of the leaves, an occasional chirp from a bird, the clicking from insects, and the sound of her own breathing. All this and the smell of flowers and grass made Din smile to herself.

She sat at the edge of a near crystal clear lake. Her legs crossed and hands in her lap. She slowly took a breath in... and let the breath out. Her pack of clothes and food were a few feet away, along with her spear and bedroll. Smoke and and ash were all that were left of the fire she had had the night before.

Another deep breath in, and she heard a roar from miles off into the woods. She jumped, but beyond that did nothing. She realized that the creature sounded incredibly far away, and though it would take something pretty big to make that sort of noise it would take anything that far away a while to get to her. She would be fine.

Din exhales. This time she hears a loud crash from across the lake. Then trees snapping crashing and earth shaking thumps in the earth.

She stands up quickly, her meditation for the moment over. Grabbing her spear from the grass Din begins to walk around the lake.

A man comes flying out from the trees, and Din notices towering above the forest is a monster she has has never seen. While her attention is taken up by what to do about the beast, she suddenly hears a high pitched screech that makes her cover her ears. Lucky for her since the Groon's roars followed soon after.

Din looks to see the monster charging at the stranger at a deadly speed. As far as she could see the person had no intention of moving, overcome with fright more than likely. So she does what any good person would do and runs at him herself.

If it were a fair race the Groon would have beaten Din without question. But lucky for the stranger she was closer to them than the Groon was. So she would make it just in time for both of them to get out of the way.

As she ran towards them Din yells, "Move!" She then jumps to tackle Alphonse out of the way.

His attention had been solely focused on the groon barreling toward him -- so when another voice yelled, Alphonse looked over in shock and alarm just as Din smashed into him, tackling him down into a ditch. They slammed and rolled among the rocks and bramble and stopped against a tree with a short urk! from Alphonse.

He looked up blearily in time to see the groon skid to a halt at the edge of the lake, swing its head back and forth with a huffing whiff of its nostrils, then lumber off in the opposite direction, crashing trees in its wake.

The siren in the treetops wound down and died pitifully: oooEEEEeee. . . ooo . . . u u u u

Alphonse shoved his assailant off him and clambered to his feet, using the tree for balance. "I had him!" he griped aloud. What's more, the glass bottle was smashed on a rock a few feet away, oozing blue liquid into the grass. Perfect.

Success!..... Sort of.

Din slammed Alphonse down into the ditch. As she rolled down the rocky and bumpy terrain she thought to herself that the bruises would be worth it. So long as the fear addled person was safe.

She finally stopped when she slammed into Alphonse's chest. She heard an audible groan from him as they both jerked to a stop. Hopefully he wasn't too hurt.

"Are you oka-" Din was interrupted when he shoved her away from him and into the dirt rather harshly. He got up like a drunk and and yelled at her, "I had him!"

Din was silent for a moment while she sat in the ditch, her jaw ajar. She then gave a scowl and with an audible and somewhat pouty huff got up. As she dusted the dirt off her clothes and pulled a small twig out of her hair she said, "A 'thank you' would be nice.. You were about to be smeared all over the grass."

She looked the stranger up and down and continued, "And where I'm standing you seem a bit small to, 'have him'. Whatever 'he' is.."

Alphonse stood with his back to her, peering up at the shifting tops of trees that marked the passage of the beast that had escaped him. He brushed a few small leaves out of his hair.

"A groon," he informed her impatiently. "It's been eating livestock for months. Last week it swiped a kid from the lakeside. I was called in to get rid of it." He turned toward her again, an arm against the tree. "I was about to stun it into the lake, where it would've drowned and dissolved -- but now I'll have to go to Plan B, which is a hell of a lot harder. How do you not know what's going on? This thing's been terrorizing all the surrounding settlements. You're lucky I was already distracting this thing, else you'd be lunch by now, traipsing through the woods where you have no business being."

"A Groon." He answered rather rudely. Din felt like she would have heard the name at least once, anything more than that she was unaware of.

When he mentioned the child the scowl she had been cooking at Aplhonse broke and her expression dropped. She stood silent while he continued to explain. Feeling a bit sick at the sight of the shifting trees in the distance.

"You're lucky I was already distracting this thing, else you'd be lunch by now, traipsing through the woods where you have no business being."

And once again Din's face scrunched up in offense. She let out a quick scoff. "I"m quite capable of protecting myself, I'm am no one's 'lunch'."

She spots a fallen branch lying in the dirt next to her foot and picks it up with a huff. She brings it to her face makes a show to look at it, after a second saying, "I don't see how it's your job to tell me where I can 'traips'. And, I actually do have business in this wood." She holds the branch up for Alphonse to see and continues, "And I don't see your name anywhere. So you have about as much right as me."

Din turns and shoves it into the slope of the ditch, using it to balance herself as she climbs out. Once at the type she looks around the clearing and they says down to him, "Nope, still don't see it."

She then starts walking towards her campsite and calls out, "I suppose I'll be taking care of that beast then!"

"What?" His voice heightened slightly in pitch, he grimaced, and he clambered after her with a graceful stumble. "You have no idea what you're talking about." He scowled deeply, which looked more like he was scolding a puppy. "Everyone in a ten mile radius knows to keep out of the woods. It's not that my name's on it, I'm just the only one insane enough to walk around without full plate armor -- even moreso now that all my traps are completely useless because the Groon's a bit smarter than you might think, what with its flailing like a babboon and did you notice its eyes don't exactly point in the same direction --" He was in the middle of demonstrating the Groon's odd eyesight with his fingers when he saw where she was headed: a small camp set up in a clearing, ripe for any beast or monstrosity to plunder.

"That explains it," he said flatly. "You're new to the area and you have no idea what's going on. Whatever your business is, it can wait til the Groon's gone. Why don't you stay in the village?" He flung an arm in the direction of the nearest civilization -- a quaint little village full of quaint little people frightened of a monster in the woods. "Plenty of hospitable people would lend you a bed and a meal. That's the way normal people travel, at least. Come back after I've taken care of the monster. That means stay out of my way for awhile, stay where it's safe."

He stood at the edge of her camp with his arms folded, fully expecting her to ask him to help carry her stuff into the village. Of course, he'd heard her say she would take care of the beast herself -- but of course she was joking.

"What?"

Din turned her head and grinned at the objection. He climbed out of the ditch with the grace of an ox. She hardly knew the man, but she had to admit it was fun annoying him.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Din gave a shrug. He was right, but that wasn't going to stop her. She missed the degrading glare when she bent over to grab her spear from the ground. She had dropped it when she went to save Alphonse. But in hindsight perhaps a small stabbing would've done him good.

"Everyone in a ten mile radius knows to keep out of the woods. It's not that my name's on it, I'm just the only one insane enough to walk around without full plate armor -- even moreso now that all my traps are completely useless because the Groon's a bit smarter than you might think, what with its flailing like a babboon and did you notice its eyes don't exactly point in the same direction --"

As she continued towards her camp she raised an eyebrow at the man's rambling about the Groon's eyes. She gives a roll of her eyes and says, "Make that two insane people then, yeah?" Setting upon her camp she grabs her modest bag from the grass and hefts it over her shoulder. "And the beast may be smart, but I'm fairly certain even a child could still out think it." Din begins to give a few more stomps to the smoldering remains of her fire.

"That explains it, You're new to the area and you have no idea what's going on. Whatever your business is, it can wait til the Groon's gone. Why don't you stay in the village?" He flung an arm in the direction of the nearest civilization. "Plenty of hospitable people would lend you a bed and a meal. That's the way normal people travel, at least. Come back after I've taken care of the monster. That means stay out of my way for awhile, stay where it's safe."

Din feigned an obvious face of seriousness, as though she was actually agreeing with what the man was saying. This guy loved to jump to assumptions it seemed. And while a few were true it still annoyed her.

Once he finished telling her what to do she smiled and turned towards the path the Groon had forged. "Actually it is my business!" She shouted back at Alphonse. She could still hear the beast traipsing through the wood. Din was sure this was a fitting challenge, but yet, she did question her odds a bit.

But she continued on anyways.

"No." It was final, a command, calling a puppy back from biting a porcupine. Alphonse marched after her, and as he went he tugged on a string that hung from a branch, which caused a clatter of shells and noise to crash to the ground. He scooped them up and carried them over his shoulder.

"I know for a fact it's not your business. It's my business. Literally. This is not a game! Hey! Get back here!" A part of him wanted to just let her decide her own fate -- but her sudden ambition to track down the monster on her own was more than alarming. She was crazy, surely. "You didn't know what it was called a minute ago!"

This was getting nowhere. He followed her with a stormy look on his face, until he stopped beside a tree and looked up, calculating, as the groon turned around.

The monster had heard their shouting, and it turned around where it stood, squinting with dim off-eyes to find something to chase down and torture. It finally spotted Din; with a happy rope of drool dangling from its chin, the groon crashed toward her.

Alphonse watched carefully, and he curled his fingers around another string that hung from the branch of a tree.

"No!"

At this point she had decided to just ignore him. He whined worse than a child deprived of their sweets. She was wondering how much longer he would keep this up when, from behind, she heard a loud clatter and crash. Din nearly jumped out of her boots at the sound. She whirled back around to Alphonse, spear at the ready, when she noticed he was now carrying a handful of shells and other fragile items. She let out a quiet scoff and turned back on the trail.

He was louder than a child also.

"I know for a fact it's not your business. It's my business!"

For a fact eh? Din suppressed a laugh. In all but three minutes she had figured out that Alphonse had quite the ego. No doubt the only business he would ever see is the business end of her spear, if he keeps prattling at her like this.

Once he shouted at her to slow down Din started making a list in her head of all the ways the man acted like a child. It was already pretty long.

"You didn't know what it was called a minute ago!" Fair point. So far he was one for five.

She smiled and said back in a tone as sweet as poisoned honey, "Perhaps not! But you did not know what an Agicae Monk looked like until now. But now you do! See? We're learning together, feels good doesn't it?"

She turned her head to watch for Alphonse's inevitable response, the man just had to have the last word it seemed. However he had stopped following her and was hid behind a tree. Din saw he was looking past her and turned to see-

The Groon.

It was bigger than she remembered, and it seemed more feral than before. She stood motionless as the beast focused its eyes on what she guessed was its next prey. For a second all was silent minus Alphonse's shells, and then the Groon was charging with a hideous roar.

Once it charged Din snapped out of it and dodged out of it's crazed crash. The Groon slammed into a tree behind her. It was fast and strong, but it seemed it wasn't very nimble.

With a yell and a charge of her own Din attacked the Groon's leg with her spear. Trying to cut a tendon quickly and precisely to slow it down. She brought it slashing down several times, but with each hit the spearhead glanced the beast harmlessly, unable to pierce its strong hide.

It swung around with a quick slash of arm and claws. Din managed to dodge it by a hair's width, and retreated back a few more feet for safety. She gave a halfhearted lunge with her spear at its arm, but once again it bounced off harmlessly.

Frowning deeply, Din yelled to the childish coward that, as far as she could tell, was still hiding behind the freaking tree!

"Alright fine! I could use some hel-" While her attention was diverted the Groon got in what Din would consider a lucky shot. Its claws managing a hit across her chest. The swipe knocking her off her feet and into the grass.

This hit did not glance harmlessly, as evidenced as the blood now dripping from the Groon's claws.

The monk put up a useless fight and was knocked bloodily aside in the process, and Alphonse didn't give a whit. Whatever happened to her was her own damn fault. Instead of panicking -- instead of feeling sorry or hateful -- Al kept a close eye on the groon's movements.

It just so happened that just as the groon tore open the violent monk, it achieved the proper placement.

A slow, smug grin grew on Al's face, and he yanked on the string.

High above, a wasp nest exploded with a splintery pop and a billowing dark cloud of spiked wasps dropped directly onto the groon's head. The groon howled and smashed itself in the face with its own paws, spinning and stomping and flailing in a confused rage. The wasps were driven mad by the noise and the pungent stench of the groon; their stingers were merciless.

Alphonse leaped forward, smashed the bottle at the groon's feet, and dashed away just as a cloud of hissing green smoke engulfed the groon. The wasps shriveled and fell to the ground while the groon's roar turned into a pitiful whine. Its eyes drooped, and then the great beast toppled unconscious into the trees, snapping limbs on its way.

Alphonse clambered atop a boulder to see whether the groon was indeed knocked out completely -- then he dragged a stick closer to Din and poked her with it. "Still alive?"

She felt a multitude of things when the Groon swatted her like a gnat.

Shame for putting up such a pathetic fight, fear for what would happen next, and.. yes, of course she felt pain also.

Din flew into the side of a tree. The aged oak barking at her as it snapped and bent. She saw the Groon still wasn't on her, and that was all she wanted to know then. She numbed herself to her surroundings and felt her abdomen. Blood. Of course. Prodding the wound more she found that it wasn't too deep, painful yes, and she was happy to stop poking at it. But she hoped she would be fine.

She grabbed the backpack at her side and grabbed around inside. One of Din's incredibly few faults was that she, at times, could be incredibly unorganized. All her teachers warnings that her clutter would be the end of her had fell on deft ears at the time. Now she could just imagine them shaking their heads at her.

After shoving aside her map, her extra pair of clothes cleverly stored in a wad, and a pine cone.. no clue how that got in there, she finally felt the scratchy cloth wrap she was looking for. With a yank and the sound of her possessions shifting around even more, Din gave a relived smile to her first aid kit.

Thinking caution wise at the time Din scanned to see where the Groon and Alphonse were. She had hoped the man could at least distract the beast with his pile of shells and bottles. That way she could dress her wound. But, if the man had managed to kill himself already or was fatally wounded she was prepared to chug her vial and keep going.

But her worries were for naught! Up on a rock stood Al, apparently, victorious. With the Groon lying in the brush and trees. She was almost happy to see him. Feeling a fair bit safer she unwrapped her clothe wrap to reveal a few vials of oils. Not as strong as some of those fancy potions, but they would speed things up.

Then the idiot hit her arm with a twig. Causing her to lose one of her vials. The little thing hitting a rock and losing its cap. Flooding her precious oils all over the dirt. Making the area smell faintly of mint.

"Still Alive?"

And back to square one.

Din wanted to like Alphonse. She really did. To his credit, he did help her with the Groon. But it was like the man wanted to be a thorn in her side. Telling her what to do at every turn, making jokes at her expense and acting like she was some foolish ditz. She desperately wanted to strangle the man at this point. But, Din liked to think she was the master of her emotions, and they not the master of her.

So if she ever has to explain why she threw a rock at the fool just now, she'll say she was showing restraint.

Alphonse didn't move an inch.

The rock thunked against his skull and left a scrape of red in its wake.

For awhile he just crouched atop the rock, spinning the stick in one hand and staring at her. At the same time he listened to the heavy breathing of the groon behind him -- it would only stay asleep for so long.

"What've you got to prove?" he asked her in a low voice. He'd noticed that whatever she'd been carrying was now leaking on the ground, but she wouldn't have dropped it if she hadn't been so jumpy. "Who're you going to impress? I'm the only person around, and you obviously don't care what I think. Do you often go running at your own death just to prove you can?"

Now that he'd done his job, his demeanor had changed. He was a tired sort of angry, and not at all amused by the pain in his temple. Alphonse dropped the stick and left her, instead turning his attention to tying a rope around the groon's chest so that it could be dragged to the water.