[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/eE6lcKb.png[/img]
and
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in
[h2]The Magic Terror Bus[/h2][/center]

Night had fallen on the bare precipice that was the foundation of the siren’s nest. Salamander had, correctly assuming their guest might need a bit more shelter, produced a small lean-to for Eva and shown her how to rig it against the ruined stone walls. Since the lessons were not supposed to start until tomorrow morning anyway, he had left the unlikely pair to their own devices afterwards, and wandered off into the woods in pursuit of his own inscrutable business. Berenice had, upon insistence, gone to bathe herself for the [i]third[/i] time today, then settled down in her nest in the corner, pulling on the dangling lines of her bits and baubles and making them jingle until she fell asleep, wings tucked over her shoulders. If it weren’t for her human head, poking out from them, she would look more like a hawk than a person.

The night was clear, and the rumble of waves was soothing to Sunheart, nestled deep in Berenice’s plumage, and the gentle breeze brought with it the salty scent of the ocean. She too, was asleep, comfortable in the heat the bird-woman’s body put out, and full of the fish they had caught earlier. As for the rest of her tribe, they peeked out occasionally at Eva’s shelter, and made sure that they exited and traversed the area out of view of the intruder. The wisewoman had said that change was coming, so they were packing emergency supplies and gathering foodstuffs in the event of disaster. But after midnight, even their frantic preparations had died down, and all seemed peaceful.

Even with the lean-to the bed Eva had was far from luxurious even a soft mat would be nice camping was quite unfamiliar to her even as rebellious as she was she never ran away unless she had a place to run too like her Grandfather’s. Essentially by herself with only Excalibur at her side since Merlin’s idea of mentorship is spartan training expecting help or even pity from her was laughable. Squeezing into her hoodie to maintain some body heat not knowing heat will be coming soon enough; stepping gently through the forest the men known only as Bloodhounds knew there was something unnatural in the forests, weeks back a hiker had stumbled upon something that truly terrified him to the bone. A genuine monster as he regaled it talking up his bravery as the beast swooped and attacked him with naught but a stick to defend himself stories like that and more greatly interested the Hounds leading them to form a band of experienced hunters longing after the most dangerous game.

Checking the map the man with the lumberjack beard pointed ahead. “Should be a good open spot ahead, right smack in the middle of all this. Ocean to our backs will prevent anything from sneaking up on us too. What say you boys.”

“Looks good, I’ll get some guys and set up the tents get our command station going.”

As another nodded and sat down his hard black case sitting on it as the other three moved forward into the open promontory

Berenice stirred. The rhythm of booted feet had caught her attention, as well as the intruders presence tugging at her subconscious mind’s magical defenses. Her head snapped up and her wings spread. As quietly as she could, she stepped lightly out of her nest and made her painstaking way to the edge of the wall shielding her from view. Sunheart awoke as soon as she began moving, and noting the caution, stayed quiet. The siren tapped twice on the wall to signal the little people, but winced as the sound carried more than she expected on the cool night air.

The little ‘tap tap’ echoed across the clearing. The three men stopped, rifle muzzles raising to point at the ruins. “The hell was that?”

Berenice’s eyes went wide. Swiftly, she thought through her little catalogue of sounds, and mimicked the sound of a rock warbler. A day bird, but these were big humans, and didn’t usually know the difference. A couple more random taps with the claw at the end of her finger and another call.

“Ah, it’s just some dumbshit bird.” The men relaxed, and continued up the glade.

Eva had barely gotten to sleep against the uncomfortable ground but kept hearing some tapping as she assumed it was Bernice trying to wake her; grabbing her sword she casually stepped out of her makeshift tent only to spot men moving into the clearing, stopping they both stared each other down and at first it seemed they might be friendly. [color=00aeef]Uhh, evening? Bit late out for a hunt yeah?”[/color] 

“Suppose, never a bad time for bagging big game.”

Affixing her hood squarely over her bangs she inched out.[color=00aeef]”Anything I should be concerned about, bears or anything? Just uh, wanted a place to get away from things not be mauled in my sleep.”[/color]

“Only the biggest, staying out here would be dangerous indeed.”

One of the other men, having moved closer, to perhaps fifty feet away, motioned behind him and said, “You ladies don’t happen to have seen anything unusual out here tonight, have you?”

Berenice utterly forgot that her gift from Carrie, the tiara for making her look human, was currently looped into the belt of her bits of clothing, and not on. Boldly, she stepped out into full view, muttering slightly before saying, [color=82ca9d]”Nooo, nothing unusual. Just the ruins!”[/color]

The men immediately shouted to each other, two going for the cover of the gangling shrubs and one chambering a high velocity round into his Winchester rifle. Berenice balked for just a second, then, realising her mistake, did the only thing she could think of. She opened her mouth wide, and as the man’s rifle went up to crack a shot off at Eva, she began screaming. Eva, to the side of her, was outside of the blast radius, though the noise was still incredible. The hapless assailant, however, was flung backwards by the wind, and his screams were lost in the force of magic pouring out of the siren’s mouth. His rifle fired once as he tumbled backwards.

Plugging her ears she could still feel the intense force and ringing as she drew Excalibur.[color=00aeef]”Bloody hell in a handbasket, thought they were friendly. Who the hell are these guys shooting like mad men.”[/color]

“We’re the Hounds of Humanity! And your demise monsters!”

[color=00aeef]”Right, these nutters. Why can’t you all just bugger off?”[/color] With a clear disadvantage Eva knew that the only way to win was to bridge the gap, if she had thought ahead and brought Dickens, or even that crossbow she got from Guinevere she might have a better chance at dealing with these kooks, but she wasn’t exactly practiced with it. [color=00aeef]”How good are you at directing that sound blast? Thinking I go in under it, you do that?”[/color] Eva said asking Bernice.

Berenice, for her part, had ducked down and was arguing with her waist. Probably not a sane thing to do in normal circumstances, but in combat it was even odder. Without a word, she pointed Eva’s attention at the dirt in front of her, which was torn apart in a widening arc for more than two hundred feet. While Eva glanced at that, she took several awkward steps and one great beat of her fully spread wings and launched over the girl and up into the night sky, banking around and over the treetops before circling back and aiming a dive, with reaching talons and another scream, at the man who had ducked left.

In the meantime, as she had passed over, Sunheart had taken a brave leap from her companion, and with some effort, landed on Eva’s shoulder, then immediately swiped at the girl’s ear to get her attention.

With a weird automatic reaction Eva reeled back and yelled.[color=00aeef]”Anything but the eyes!”[/color] Eva said as he mind flashed back to the painful memories of tiny playing cards with toothpick sized swords stabbing over and over into her flesh.


Desperate to stay on her new charge, Sunheart reached out and threw her tiny arm around the length of chain hanging from the girl’s ear lobe, yelling as she did, [color=FFFACD]”Calm down stupid! Eyes forward and get out and away! I could not stay on the raptor, and she does not need my help!”[/color]

Shifting her grip down to the collar of Eva’s clothes, she brandished her fishbone spear towards the flanking man the Siren had not assaulted, and was about to yell something inspirational when the ground shook like a bomb had just detonated.

Sounds of crunching stone were followed by the wind whipping the horrific smell of necromancy and rotting corpses across the promontory. Huge talons, those of a bear but far larger, slammed up onto the cliff’s edge. The flesh had peeled away from the claw roots, leaving exposed and greying sinew. And as the monstrosity rose further, all sounds of combat ceased. Even Berenice sat, slack jawed in amazement with her talons buried in a man’s throat.

Over the edge of the cliff came an amalgamation of animal parts. Some were sized much larger than they should be, but all were in various stages of decomposition. The thing seemed to mostly lead with the massive head of a great white shark, using half of the beast’s body as a neck. Studded along the top near the dorsal fin of the shark was the massive section of carapace from a spider, eyes facing outwards. Behind the neck was a bear’s body, nearly skeletal, pulling itself along on the eight legs of what was probably the same spider. But beyond the bear’s torso came [i]more[/i]. Sticking out of the flanks were two snapping wolf’s heads, dripping rotting gore from their jaws. And after them came greatly outsized cricket’s hindlegs and a triple set of swinging crocodile’s tails. The whole of the creature was the size of a city bus. The thing paused on the top of the cliff, shark body swinging back and forth, before making a horrible grinding scream, revealing that every single tooth had been replaced with a human arm.

[color=00aeef]”Can I say.”[/color] Eva said ignoring the little creature on her shoulder. [color=00aeef]”That is the most terrifying thing I’ve seen yet, and I have a alien for a pet. New plan. Um uh, let’s introduce this guy to our new friends. Don’t got time for introductions just tell me what you’re good for, Mrs I really hope you’re good with magic.”[/color]


[color=FFFACD]”I am afraid not, Big One! I am a hunter and a sneak! I advise running very quickly from that! Maybe through the other Big Ones?”[/color] Berenice had already taken off, winging hard and low towards the edge of the woods.

[color=00aeef]”I hope I can outrun it, though I might need to grab its attention first. Hold tight.”[/color] Taking a wide step backwards Eva pulled back her right arm and slung Excalibur as hard as she could muster towards the beast even if it didn’t penetrate it would likely gain its attention.

[color=FFFACD]”Try not to get us both killed in the process, woman!”[/color]

As the sword struck the beast it did little to anger it, it simply dragged onwards to Bernice inching forward as Eva stopped and acknowledged she needed to come up with a new plan. [color=00aeef]”Bloody hell, it took that and completely ignored it. If striking it did nothing what do I do?”[/color] Eva said as she looked at Sunheart. [color=00aeef]”Any brilliant ideas?”[/color] While Excalibur returned to her open palm and she got ready to duck for whatever cover she could find.

[color=FFFACD]”Well, the [i]dumbest[/i] thing you could do is grab its attention. After that, I dunno. My people need to- Who is that?”[/color]

Salamander had appeared on the field, drawing his sturdy if plain blade and pointing directly at Eva. “Get your silly arse out of here!” he yelled as bullets winged past him into the creature, which noticed them as much as it had the sword. Berenice glanced up, and, realising the danger she was in, winged up into the air and took off towards what was left of the hunters that had came after the ‘monster’ she was. The beast’s shark head, which [i]seemed[/i] to be it’s sensory organ, tracked her as it hauled its multiple carcasses along the turf.

While no one was paying attention to them, a multitude of three inch tall people poured out of the ruined wall of the cottage and into the grass, making their way towards the woods. Sunheart tugged on Eva’s ear as hard as she could, pointing towards the direction her people were vanishing. [color=FFFACD]”I need you to do something heroic, lady, if you’re the type to do it!”[/color]

Eva lowered her head on reflex as her ear was tugged.[color=00aeef]”Hells bells, just ask next time. Fine what do you need doing?”[/color]

[color=FFFACD]”I [i]need[/i] you to save my people. Get to the edge of the woods and try not to be too delicious looking!”[/color]

[color=00aeef]”No promises, I have a habit of things wanting to eat me. Happened twice already.”[/color] Digging her feet into the earth Eva ran kicking up clumps of dirt as she reached the woods.

An explosive [i]whump[/i] sounded across the clearing, and smoke poured from a gaping wound in the creature’s shoulder as a forty millimetre round impacted it. The leader of the Bloodhounds set down the grenade rifle and motioned to one of his other surviving men, who obligingly passed him an odd looking assault rifle as the creature finally seemed to notice that there were things other than the Siren in the area. It opened its unholy mouth and roared at them, switching directions and flexing its shoulder experimentally. A massive crater had opened at the grenade wound, exposing rotting flesh and bone, but not nearly as much as they had hoped. It seemed that underneath the surface, the thing was reinforced with some sort of plating, which glowed from the fires currently consuming patches of skin, though even those were quickly extinguishing themselves.

The rifle barked, spitting glowing rounds that left strange lines through the air and carving out chunks of flesh and plate. The assembly attached to the bottom of it hissed and steamed as it fired. The thing shook its head, then angled directly at them and the giant cricket legs flexed. The leap produced carried it soaring over the clearing nearly fifteen feet overhead, and it impacted the ground with a terrible crunch, then skidded and rolled twice over its side. It had obviously not been balanced for such maneuvers, even though it had the ability. The hunters scattered before it hit their location, though one of them was too hesitant and his leg was caught by one of the outsized wolf heads. The bile and gore that it spewed seemed to be extremely caustic, and the man died screaming.

As Eva looked back towards the creature being shot at by the quite rude hunters she was further disgusted by how the flesh hung off it, something wholly unnatural. [color=00aeef]God save the fucking Queen, that’s. I’m swearing off meat for the next week.”[/color] Drawing her hand across her face she swept aside the horror movie shenanigans and spoke to the little thing on her shoulder. [color=00aeef]”Right, you needed help. We need to get Bernice and go, I’d rather not be in this mess against something I can’t hack and slash; I mean I could but that thing has arms for teeth.”[/color]

Sunheart shook her head. [color=FFFACD]”That would be very brave and very foolish. Hold still, warrior.”[/color] She held a hand to her tiny face and blew a surprisingly loud whistle. Dozens of other tiny people suddenly sprang into view, and at the same time, Berenice landed quite close to Eva and immediately looked hard at the swordswoman.

Flinching at the sight of them popping out Eva stopped and composed herself. [color=00aeef]”Not a fan of little things surprising me, no offense. Ran afoul of living playing cards with swords. Round your size so I’m a bit on edge, that and well. That.”[/color] She motioned back towards the monster beast. 

[color=FFFACD]”Well, we’re not really fans of people your size, either, but we’ll just have to make do,”[/color] Sunheart said as she clambered down from Eva and moved back to Berenice.

[color=82ca9d]”You keep the secret?”[/color] Berry asked, not bothering to clarify. Behind them, the roars of the creature and gunfire still sounded too close for comfort.

[color=00aeef]”Um. I don’t wanna even know right now, there’s a beast to our backs, future tech guns to our right and tiny people at my feet. I just want a bath, with bubbles. If I had Dickens or a crossbow this would be a different fight. But I do not do well against guns. Better we back out now then defend a lost cause, sorry bout your home but unless you have a better idea to counter attack we should run.”[/color]

[color=FFFACD]”Which is why we need your help, warrior. Berenice cannot fly with all of us, and we need to get to the Big Folk houses rising-ward from here. Rather swiftly.”[/color] Berenice was already adjusting her scant clothing to allow for almost two dozen of the miniscule people to cling to her. [color=FFFACD]”We ask only that you not tell of us to the rest of your kind.”[/color]

Eva sat down a cloth bag and emptied her hoodie pockets of any trash.[color=00aeef]”I’m supposed to be a Champion for things like you, a protector of sorts. Not quite there yet but I’ve seen enough weird shit to know when to keep my mouth shut. That and I like living through life without a straight jacket. Which is a bad thing. Anyways I got a place no one goes to anymore. It does mean a lot to me but if you need a place you can stay there, a bit of magicy bull to get there but it’s a short distance. Just don’t tear it up or anything.”[/color]

One of the men was already organising, and looked up at Eva. He had to shout to be heard over the din of combat. [color=BDB76B]“We are entrusting our old and young with you. They are not strong enough to fly. Three of my best warriors will go with you to protect them.”[/color] He pointed at Berenice next. [color=BDB76B]”Those without a spoken name go with you. They are young and can ride safely.”[/color] Turning to the rest of his tribe, he gestured widely. [color=BDB76B]“Hunters and warriors, you brave souls will make the journey yourselves to the Big Folks homes. Three days hence, we will organise a watch group to find you and bring you back to the new clanhome. Now, scatter!”[/color]

Berenice watched for a moment as those who would make the journey without assistance disappeared into the grass like wraiths, then turned to look at Eva. [color=82ca9d]”I don’t know how you travel. I fly. We are going to my friends house in the city. You would be welcome to stay.”[/color] An muffled explosion sounded behind them. [color=82ca9d]”But whatever happens, be careful, and bring them through safely.”[/color]

[color=00aeef]”I run, well. Clearly nowhere near fast as you, but I’ll do all I can. We should go while they’re distracted with their new pet. I’ll meet up somehow.”[/color]

Berenice nodded, and without another word, launched herself into the air as carefully as she could and winged off over the treetops. Those of the clan who were riding with Eva were being shepherded into her hoodie pockets by their three warders, a pair of older blackhaired men and a stony eyed woman with a shock of bright orange hair. They all looked capable, if they were normal sized, of extreme violence, though for the moment they were only trying to get the children and elders sorted out as quickly as possible. One of the elders, with white-streaked black hair, glanced up at Eva as she ‘boarded’, and said, “The others may not trust ye, but I see your heart is good, child. I thank ye, on behalf of everyone.”