[center] [h1][color=yellow][b][u]Karamir[/u][/b][/color][/h1] [i]Demigod of Mana[/i] & [h1][u][b]Ami[/b][/u][/h1] [i]Rogue Avatar of Rain[/i] [/center] [hr] [color=yellow]”East until we find a road. Do you know what a road looks like, Fenris?”[/color] Karamir asked as they walked. “I do not,” Fenris answered simply. The wolfman had been quiet ever since Ami and the Forean Hound had joined them. It was clear he didn’t entirely trust their new company, but ever dutiful and loyal, he had not offered much resistance beyond his initial objection. Still, Karamir couldn’t help but notice a tension in the man. There was little that could be done about it, he supposed. Perhaps Fenris would get over it in time. [color=yellow]”What about you, Ami?”[/color] Karamir asked. Ami skipped forward, having fallen behind a few steps due to the pup cutely prancing around her. [i]It is a path. A semi-permanent one at that. The one we’re searching for must be rather wide, so we’ll know when we stumble upon it.[/i] [color=yellow]”Hmm…”[/color] Karamir wondered aloud, and then an idea struck him. [color=yellow]”Wait here. I’ll take flight and see if I can find it.”[/color] Ami merely kept walking as Karamir took off and flew into the distance. The pup followed her closely until for some reason, it ran ahead and kept up with Fenris, bouncily walking beside him with his leafy, wagging tail brushing against his calf every half second. “Stop that,” Fenris ordered in a dismissive tone, not bothering to look down at it. The forean pup’s ears perked up and it looked at Fenris with shiny eyes, not slowing down and wagging his tail even faster, panting happily. “Can this thing not obey commands?” Fenris asked disdainfully, looking to Ami. “Get it away from me.” Ami tilted her head and made her leaves twitch. The pup looked at her and rushed to her side, allowing Ami to pick him up and hold him close to her chest. They stopped walking and at that point Ami noticed how muddy her feet had gotten. When did they step into such wet terrain? [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLTWXbWIK9s]It hadn’t rained lately[/url]… Ami sniffed the air and felt the humidity clinging to her skin and being absorbed by her body. The leaves on the back of her neck prickled. The sky became covered with gray clouds. The air became chilly and a tense breeze scraped against Ami and Fenris’ bodies. The pup growled. It was then that she fully engaged her Soul Sense. A lone dragonfly flew low past the two, until it flew no more and landed on a blade of grass. A barbed tendril of mud snatched it up and dragged it down under the earth. [i]Fenris...[/i] Grass was displaced as a small mound of mud rose with two pearly black orbs sunken slightly into the material at different levels. The mound seemed to stare right at them, even as the remains of a clear insect wing traveled up and down its surface, melting. [i]... We should keep walking.[/i] “We should turn back,” Fenris decided, abruptly turning around and heading back the way they came. Ami hesitated a moment, turning toward Fenris. The pup in her arms suddenly squirmed and broke free and ran off toward the mound of mud, barking. Ami’s leaves prickled and her heart skipped a beat. The pup was small, really small and young. Time slowed down. Ami could see every single clump of mud that the pup’s paws kicked up, she could feel the earth shift, and she saw several mounds of mud pop up around them, all staring from afar. And then she saw a large barbed tendril spring up and wrap itself around the pup. Her eyes widened and without thinking she ran toward it. The world warped around her as she lost some focus, but she jumped as hard as she could and yanked the pup free off the tendril with a tearing sound. It whimpered and cried, but all Ami could do was hold it tight and roll along the mud as she fell back to the ground. Lifting her head she noticed the very ground beneath her shift and morph… Becoming softer, and splitting apart. Dozens of tendrils popped up out of the ground, and the moment her Sight revealed rows of sharp bone fangs reflecting light below the muddy surface, she just ran. With no care for direction, with no thought for anything else other than running and escaping. She stumbled and dodged and crawled through the terrain as tendrils tried to grab a hold of her. She winced and fell on her side as one of the more agile tendrils wrapped itself around her left leg. Its barbs tore her living dress apart and dug into skin. She reached and tried to grab onto anything, but all she could touch was mud. In her panic, she had let go of the pup and it hurried up to her face. She saw sap flowing from its waist and broken leaves all throughout its body. And still, the pup barked at the tendrils approaching, then ran around Ami and bit the tendril holding onto his friend as fiercely as he could. It was mud. Once its hardened exterior was cracked and broken, the tendril holding onto Ami went limp and she jumped up to her feet and picked the pup up again and ran, not looking back. Fenris, meanwhile, had stopped moving. In one smooth motion, he pulled the bow Karamir had given him from his shoulder. In the weeks he had been with his ‘brother’, he had had time to practice, and he knew what the weapon did. He nocked an arrow, the tip setting itself alight with black fire, then took aim at the mass of tentacles, drew the string back, and loosed. The arrow flew forward, disappearing into the mass. The tentacles closest to where the arrow had struck collapsed back into the mud. But there were many more where that came from. As the tentacles shifted their attention to him, Fenris drew another arrow, and loosed it. With their size and his weapon’s enhancement, he barely needed to aim; simply touching the creature was enough. In only a few seconds he had drawn a third arrow and loosed it as well, scoring another kill. Yet the creatures continued to approach, and Fenris realized he was surrounded. There was no time to transform. Armed with only the bow, he had to create an opening, and fast. He concentrated on one particular section of tentacles, in the direction from whence he had came, where they were fewest in number. Arrow after he shot, but when he did make a gap, that gap would swiftly close as the beasts inched closer and closer. He was running out of time. Then a bright stream of orange rained from above, bathing half the tentacles in fire. Made out of mud, they immediately hardened under the heat, then began to crack and crumble. The rest of the tentacles, evidently realizing the tide had turned, began to inch away as they receded back into the mud. Karamir lowered himself so that he was only a few inches above the ground. He was breathing heavily. [color=yellow]“What happened?”[/color] he asked. [color=yellow]“Where is she?”[/color] “I don’t know,” Fenris answered with a shrug. “She ran. That way, I think.” He pointed. With a sigh, Karamir seized Fenris by the hand, pulled him away from the mud, and back onto dry ground. Wasting no further time, he flew off into the direction Fenris had pointed toward. He maneuvered his way around trees and branches, and although he moved quickly, he could not see her. [color=yellow]”Ami!”[/color] he called out. [color=yellow]”Ami!”[/color] There was no response. Perhaps Fenris had pointed him in the wrong direction, or perhaps she was much faster than she had led either of them to believe. Either way, despite much searching, even with his divinely enhanced senses he could not locate her, much to his astonishment. If he flew above the trees, his vision was obstructed by the canopy. If he flew below, the need to avoid trunks and branches slowed him down. He searched for a long time, but it soon became apparent that he wasn’t going to find her. Perhaps she had already made her way back, and had found Fenris. But when he returned to the spot, he found that she was not there. Only the massive form of Fenris, who had changed back into his wolf form and eyed the mud warily. Karamir suddenly regretted the decision not to have Fenris show her his true form earlier, for if she saw him as he was now without knowing who he was, he would surely scare her away from the area. Cursing angrily, he ordered Fenris to change back, and the wolf immediately complied. He decided to wait, to see if she would return on her own, but she did not. He looked up at the sky and realized that nearly half the day had passed since he first set off looking for her. If she had not returned, she had likely put as much distance between herself and this location as possible. He was not entirely sure which direction she had gone in. The texture and colour of her skin gave her a natural camouflage. And although he could move swiftly, he would need to slow down in order to see clearly. He was no fool. The chances of finding her were almost non-existent. He had told her where they were heading. Perhaps she had continued in that direction. Or perhaps she had gone back to the tree. Either way, they were more likely to find her there than by aimlessly searching the woods. He clenched his fists in anger. The one time he left them alone… [color=yellow]”I found the damn road…”[/color] he muttered angrily. [color=yellow]”Let’s find this ‘capital.’”[/color] [hr] [hider=Post Summary] Karamir, Ami, and Fenris are walking. Karamir decides to fly ahead and scout for the road he was told about. While he is gone, the Forean Hound begins harassing Fenris. Ami calls it away from him and picks it up. She then realizes they are standing in a large body of mud, which is rather odd, because it hadn’t rained recently. Turns out the mud is home to these bizarre tentacled creatures, who immediately attempt to grab Ami and her puppy. Ami runs, leaving Fenris to die. Fenris meanwhile stands his ground and begins shooting them with Kalmar’s Bow, which received an upgrade when Roog burninated it. It instantly kills the muddy beasts, but there are too many, and Fenris is about to be overwhelmed. Then Karamir appears. Using his abilities, he converts raw mana into flame, and then bathes the creatures in fire. Because they are made out of mud, this is super effective. He kills half of them, and the rest retreat. He then goes off to find Ami, but is unable to. He decides it might be easier to wait and see if she returns on her own, but she doesn’t. After many hours, it soon becomes apparent that too much time has passed for him to stand a reasonable chance at finding her. He decides that either she returned to the Eternal Tree or continued toward their destination, and assumes she can probably be found at one of those locations. He and Fenris continue onward. [/hider]