There are a lot of snakes. Giri doesn't even have a good metaphor for a wave. She didn't visit the ocean much, it was far away from the mountains and dangerous, Dominion vessels and pirate vessels. Later she was just busy. Maybe this was an avalanche of snakes then. If it was an avalanche, you waited it out, found a safe place, let the dust settle, tried to move past it. You had to be careful, an avalanche might stop and leave everything still loose, more motion could set it off again, so it was better to find a way around it and past it. 

The jungle's so hot, and sweat is beading on Giriel's forehead and around her arms. It's tense work catching the demon snakes. She could have made herself an island, but that wasn't good enough. No, it wasn't even just her and Uusha, there was a whole party, scattered now. And Han and the waitress, Piripiri was it, and that noblewoman? And that little priestess, where'd she get off to? A bead of sweat drips off Giriel's forehead and plops against a long frond of a fern as she steps forward, her vine lasso ready for the next snake. Everybody always wanted a witch's services. Knowing about things made you so valuable, you'd think they'd be more respectful. 

Well, Uusha had been at least. She breathed, once twice and snared another snake. Had that been shame on the knight's face when she came back down? No way she was embarrassed at the thought of Giriel's touch, but maybe...she'd at least realized she overreacted. That was probably it. But still, but still, she was cute when she...when she glanced her eyes down like that, and her face forgot about its scowl. And those strong muscles.

It made Giri want to do something more. And she could. She could! She hadn't tested it yet but, she'd been thinking about how they'd gone through the hells and, well that wasn't the only way to travel, there was the astral and the elsewhere where the rakshasa came from as well. If she managed the trick right, she could move them through faster. 

She just needed a minute here. She wanted to show Uusha and the others and getting Han to his little priestess sooner, that would be good too. Haven't you ever imagined that you'd see an avalanche and just be able to pop! right to the other side of it and look down from above it? Well, the snakes were coming from somewhere and that meant they were going the right way, so she just had to speed things up a little bit. 

There was a flash in the dark, moonlight gleaming off knives. Both girls had come off Han's shoulders and, that was the waitress wasn't it? Explained a lot about how she'd gotten out of a demon castle in the first place. She didn't have Giri's training, but her store of magic was quite a bit stronger, moving like that. You could tell, she was someone who had reserves and a lot more even than she was letting on here. Well, that made for a couple of dragons in the group. All the better really. Maybe Han would like her. 

Giri stepped around the snakes and she pulled her sword out and started dancing with it. She waved it in the air, undulating her hips, sweat trickling down her face now. Every few steps, she let the sword lower and drag a line along the ground. That was the key to making the travel quick, she thought. Carve out the route and make the motion first. She thought it should be a dance, it just felt right that it should be a dance and with magic that was half the game: symbolism and power. Lean into the motion, exert the effort, and cut the route through the earth and then she could move them somewhere else that would take it and speed them along. Uusha would probably think her a fool even if it worked though. Not like Peregrine with her mind going at warp speed just making things happen. No, Giri was the one who took her time. She'd never get Uusha that way though, not when the Dominion was here already, not when Uusha wanted her to commit to something Giri didn't believe. Not when she was already marked for Red Wolf for that matter. She didn't want to think too hard about that conflict at all. So she danced, her feet stepping carefully as her sword swung up and over her head and then down again to cut another line in the earth as snakes broke around her. 

Just a little longer now.

[Giri is setting up for an astral dance. She is also smitten with Uusha, who gets a string on her. The what will Uusha dislike is in the body post.]