[center][@Inertia] [b]Skillcheck[/b][/center] Despite the heaviness of your limbs you rise to the challenge and raise your bow. You're a Longear, after all - this is what you [i]do[/i], magical ailment or no. You hold the string taunt and aim, straight and true. No doubt if you were fully battle-ready this would of been the perfect shot, an arrow that lands between the eyes of your enemy during battle. As it is you account for your slowed reactions, factoring in wind speed and distance as you shoot. The arrow whistles through the air and embeds into the target, a highly respectable shot that draws the attention of clanmen not used to witnissing Longear archery. and this is you on a [i]bad[/i] day. The newer Longear recruits seem both impressed and a little daunted by the prospect of having to match your skill. [hr][hr] [center][@RedXCross] Numas[/center] You leap forward into action, but the wolf is a wiley one, and it's shaking Rimguage's leg like he plans to rip it off. You misjudge the leap and, seeing the ground rising up to meet you instead of your intended target, land into a light roll - you didn't want to risk tumbling down the ridge, off-kilter, with your daggers out, at risk of hurting yourself. You land beside the creature, but it seems to only have eyes for Rimguage's delicious leg. [hr][hr] [center][@Write][@Melo] Persephone and Narcissa[/center] Persephone threw the torch, but her hands were shaky and she misjudged the distance in her desperate desire to get Nissa to safety. What happened next could only put her in harms way further. The torch fell and rolled towards Narcissa's beautiful dress, catching it alight. Licks of flame curled up the fabric, starting from her feet where the hem had caught. The fire had yet to brush her skin, but she could feel the heat radiating off of it, granting her brain control once more of her body - this time, permanently, for the creature had other concerns. The arrow whistled past both the goblet, Nissa and the beast, missing all targets - for good and ill. A thorny branch shot forth and ripped the bottom half of her dress off below the thigh, sweeping up the material and tossing it into the dirt. Narcissa was pulled close to his barky mass, a large curve of wood pressing against her back and pulling her towards him like a huge hand. A huge wooden mass crushed the fire into the ground, and now both humans could see the magical beast was exceptionally annoyed. It's bark distorted into long drawn, frozen screaming faces as the bark cracked and groaned. It stretched upwards, growing taller and taller, it's shoulders stretching across the clearing until it blocked off half the canopy above, towering over the sacred circle and all within. [color=Lightslategray]"[b]Intruder[/b]!"[/color] it bellowed, Narcissa standing at the foot of the giant creature, unnoticed as it turned it's attention to Phe's hiding place. [color=Lightslategray]"[b]Do you think I don't see you, cowering there? Do you wish to kill my wife so much, foul assassin[/b]?"[/color] It prepared a huge wooden fist and plummetted it towards Persephone's location. [hr][hr] [center] [@Write]Fæla[/center] A small ball of orange light, about the size of your palm, rises lazily into the air beside you, illuminating your path. It is silent and a little slow, but you find you have some control over moving it - willing it one way or another moves the orb to either side of you, though the magic seems to have a mind of it's own sometimes. A simple rune, but perfect for your use. The forest is filled with magic and magical creatures, and you catch a flash of green in the forest to the far right of where you are above the treetops. Luckily whatever magical creature was inhabiting the enchanted forest today was nowhere near Xena and her lover, though you can't deny the strong sense of magic in the air. Magic and malicious intent, that is. You see two forms nearby and call out as you make your way towards them. As you approach, gale force winds push you back, and you hold your arm up to your eyes for a moment. You look up to see the area wrapped up in a snowy cacoon, the wind gone. You could reach out and brush your hands against it, touch it, and it is cold to the touch like a blocked doorway in a snowstorm. The sound from within is muffled and near inaudible. A flash of a moment and you feel the strange, normally-invisible barrier dissolving. Whatever creature put this here intended to keep you from interfering. You see a flash of white dissapearing into the forest, but that doesn't concern you as much as the scene you see before you. The clearing is covered in thick ice and snow. Vadik is holding his arm, but more importantly, Xena is thrown to the floor behind him. [hr][hr] [center][@RedDusk][@HowlsofWinter][/center] The temperature is cooling and the stars glitter above your head as you dissapear into the forest, unaware of the dangers affecting other Clan heirs this night. The leaves rustle quietly in the evening breeze, a light chill in the air. The wind whistles through the branches, touching them with white. It tips the leaves and dusts across the cracks thin icy trails. [center][img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ItExLA5yFY/TqUkEmu46UI/AAAAAAAAAVg/ul9Rx1jVOfE/s1600/Air_elemental_by_Iriloth.jpg[/img][/center] Ice begins to crack and curl around the trunks of trees, slithers of it snaking across the ground towards you in huge swaithes of frost and snow. Soon even the ground beneath your feet is as white as if it were winter. Before you have a chance to react, you are suddenly buffetted by an icy, gale-force winds. The wind origionates from the path back to camp, pushing you back, denying your exit to safety. A cackle on the wind and you see her - [i]them[/i] - the girls of ice, darting between the trees in their long, white dresses. You wouldn't have even noticed they brought the sudden winter gale, if it hadn't been for Vadik's battlehardened sense of danger and Xena's intuition. A sense of dread fills Xena, suddenly hit by an image of getting hit by an icicle. She turned to the side quickly as a wicked looking thing zipped past where she had just been standing, embedding in the tree behind her, narrowly missing her and Vadik both. For a minute there's a sense of relief - but another sling of cackles on the wind bodes ill. She turns to Vadik just as the second icicle, hidden in a flurry of wind and snow, slices itself through and deep into his left forearm. Something felt off. Dark blood splatters the white snow beneath their feet. But Xena did not have time to attend to Vadik, for the creatures had other plans. The icy winds buffetted her, knocking her off her feet, such a small, lithe girl - but that was not their intention. For the temperature had dropped substantially, and the fingers of frost now curled around her body, her skin growing paler then usual as they wandered up her spine and caused her to shiver. You were suddenly very cold, as if the innermost part of your being had been replaced by an iceberg... [center][b]Xena has a mysterious sickness.[/b] [/center]