Getting ahead(ernickle)

[Praetorum]

Date: 27th of Vhalar

Status: Aw fuck

Weapons: None

Armor: Platelike Leather

No Current Magical Effects

After over a season of guarding the kitchens without incident, Prae had to admit they'd all  gotten complacent. Not a single 'headernickle' had appeared in all that time, and there was no sign that any more would. So though Prae still kept an eye on the elements as he watched the rharnians cook, he'd stopped inspecting every flame as it was lit, and the kitchen staff had stopped making sure he was nearby as they cooked. He'd even taken to leaving the kitchen to help them cart ingredients and rations back and forth, though he was never so far away that he couldn't run back at a moment's notice.


Prae had been doing exactly that, trotting back from the storeroom with two sacks of grain under his arms, when he caught a glimpse of a commotion down the hallways, people piling out of the kitchen doors with white faces. He wasted no time at the sight, dropping the sacks in the middle of the hallways and immediately setting off on a dead run towards them. 



As he got closer though, he saw that the paleness he'd glimpsed wasn't fear or pain, but instead a fine sheen of powder that lightly dusted their faces to give them a strange complexion. And it wasn't just on their faces either—there was powdery residue over the hands, aprons, legs and hair of almost everyone emerging from the kitchen, coughing and wiping their faces.



"Everything alright?" Prae asked, peering into the kitchen to find half of it also smeared in that powder, the very air somewhat hazy with it. 



"Peachy." Marius snarled, aggressively dusting off his hands. "Some bloody idiot must have mislabeled a sack, and now there's flour everywhere. Damn lucky it didn't explode on us."



"Explode?" Prae asked, alarmed. Marius just shrugged, and Prae sighed. "Well, at least it's just a mess. For a moment there, I thought it was a—"



"Fire!"


Biting back a swear, Prae whirled around, scanning the kitchen—and saw nothing but a messy kitchen. And then there was another cry from behind him, and he turned back, just in time to see the flame on a nearby torch peel away, its shape twisting unnaturally as it began to take on the visage of a skull. 



Fates be damned.

[Praetorum]

Weapons: None

Armor: Platelike Leather

No Current Magical Effects

"Everybody out!" Prae bellowed—somewhat pointlessly, as everyone was already scrambling for the exits. The headernickle wasted no time, screeching as it turned towards an unfortunate cook who tripped while trying to escape. The thing lunged at her, its cry setting her apron ablaze, and Prae thrust out a hand, water spraying from it to form into a shield between the nickle and the cook.


It tried to go another way, but Prae's watery shield shadowed it closely—it couldn't move fast enough to envelop the thing, but it did force the flame to keep moving or be extinguished. With Prae chasing the flame with defiance, the others were free to escape, and soon it was just the two of them in the hallway. 



Now that he was sure that everyone else was safely out of the way, Prae could focus on capturing the nickle—originally he wouldn't have bothered, simply extinguishing the thing like a candle, but he'd heard that certain people had arrived in Storm's Edge, and had been looking for corpses and specimens. Praetorum wasn't particularly sure what they could even learn from a screaming ball of fire, but more knowledge about these things could only be an advantage—it wouldn't hurt to try. 



Seeming to finally realize that Prae was the source of the water getting in its way, the nickle screamed again, and Prae hissed, gritting his teeth as the sound seemed almost to pierce through his ears and into his brain, making his head pound—he ignored the pain as best he could, carefully separating it from the rest of his awareness and placing it at the back of his mind to deal with later. With a wave of his hand, the watery shield split into streams, and started to shoot towards the flame, which made a surprisingly smart decision for something that probably didn't actually have a brain—it ran. 



With Prae blocking one side of the hallway, and the water shooting at it from the other, the nickel did the only thing it could, and zoomed into the kitchen—Prae followed, eyes already darting around to see what other exits it might try to use. There was a fireplace with a chimney, two shuttered windows, and a half open door that led to a store room. It was this last one that the nickel headed towards; Prae couldn't let that happen. He needed to keep this nickel here, away from everyone else, and so he acted on reflex, throwing out a hand to send a blast of wind towards the door.


Just as Prae had planned, the sharp, heavy wind blast was faster than the nickle, and slammed the door shut before the living flame could get to it. 



What he hadn't anticipated though, was that the gust of wind racing down the length of the kitchen lifted all the spilled flour into the air, and sent it shooting directly towards the nickle. 


This was, Prae decided, an extremely bad time for him to learn that flour was very, very flammable. 



Almost all the powder Prae had inadvertently flung into the air ignited at once with a bright flash, and once Prae had blinked away the stars from his eyes, he saw, with some dismay, that the nickle had gone from being the size of a human fist, to the size of a Thiussum's fist. 


Whether because its escape route had just been cut off, or because it was larger now, the nickle turned back to Prae, eyes somehow glowing in an already flaming face. 



Sap, he thought, rousing the spirit from its rest.



With a quick instruction from Prae, his Diri set down a trap on top of of the nickle, to drain its speed. Except...


Tastes wrong. Sap whined at him. Can't eat this.


Now that brought up some questions; Prae had been able to drain the magnim, so he'd hoped.... well, he'd have to catch the damn thing first.


The problem was, how? Prae had originally wanted to envelop it in a hollow orb of water, but it was now bigger, would that plan still work?



Before he could ponder any more, the creature screamed again, and Prae roared back, hoping to drown it out. If it worked, the effect was almost unnoticeable—the sharp stab of pain in his head was just as bad this time as it was last. 



The creature flew directly towards him, and Prae raised his hand, calling every drop of water in the room to him for protection. Rising from pots and pans and bowls, the water combined into a long, swirling serpent that soared through the air, and started chasing the flame around the kitchen. To Prae's surprise, it was able to brush against the flames a few times, and each time, both flame and water shrank in size as steam sizzled out where they touched. But ultimately, Prae's water wasn't quite fast enough to catch up; he needed to corner it somehow.... 



Well, sometimes the simplest plans were the best. Snatching up a small pot and its lid, Prae split the snake into three, and activated Serpent's hood. "You already know I'm controlling them." He growled, not even sure if it understood what he was saying. "So come and get me you dumb nickel." 



Even with Serpents Hood activated, the creature seemed reluctant to approach Prae, but with three water serpents hounding it, herding it towards him, eventually, it gave in, and lunged towards Praetorum. Prae waited, watching as it came closer, and closer, until he could feel its heat on his face, making his eyes water—and bleed, though he didn't notice that in the moment—then slammed the pot and lid together as soon as it was in arms reach. Almost immediately, the creature screamed again, but this time, with the pot muffling the noise, the pain in Prae's head was muted as well, a throb rather than a spike. 



Prae had expected the creature to start throwing itself against the pot, but to his surprise, he felt nothing. 


Well that wasn't correct. Prae could feel nothing pushing against the lid of the pot—what he could feel, though, was the heat rapidly spreading through the ceramic. 



Quickly calling the water to him, Prae hurriedly surrounded the pot with it, the water swirling in constantly changing streams over its surface, then made his way back into the hallway. A few cooks were hovering by one of the entrances, keeping a healthy distance away from the kitchen, and Prae raised his voice in a sharp command.



"Someone find me Faith Augustin."

[Pig Boy]

Praetorum

Experience: 10 no magic xp

Knowledge:

3x Endurance
3x Tactics

Renown: 5

Skill Usage: Appropriate to level.

Loot/Losses: One captured headernickel. 1 wp commission for capturing a nickle.

Injuries/Conditions: Bleeding from the eyes, a severe migrane

Consequences: Random Quest: Hearing of his knack for taking on elemental enemies, Praetorum receives a missive from someone late in Zi'da, a long time after this incident. It's a contract proposal, to seek out and destroy a rogue elementalist said to be roaming to the east of Lake Lovalus. The contract's terms are simple, seek them out in Cylus of 721, and after defeating them, bring their scalp to the client. He will be rewarded handsomely for his efforts.

Comments: A pretty action packed sequence. Easy to follow and really nice flow established throughout the piece. It cut off a little abruptly with Prae calling for Faith Augustin, but it is a solo.

I am glad he managed to save the entire kitchen crew. Nice save Prae!

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