Frozen

[Rynata]

Wrenching free of the vile creature’s hold, Rynata went for her weapon but realized a moment too late that she should have gone to protect her head. Next second, Amaris’ bag swung right into her face, effectively preventing her from following through with the attack. Still, a part of her was grateful for being excused from stabbing someone. What was more, the bag to the face didn’t really hurt, either. Her nose had gone a little tingly from the sudden shock, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding.

The same could not be said for the man they had sprawled on the ground. Mr. Tiddles had finally burst forward, taking a great bite out of the enemy’s leg and was causing a rather bloody scene. Similar results, different delivery, Rynata thought distractedly as she went to secure the man. He looked beat, but she didn’t want to risk him recovering enough to do them any harm. Since she didn’t have any rope (silly Biqaj), Rynata settled on the sash around her waist. Twisting the fabric, she set about trying to coax Tiddles into a calmer state and securing the man’s hands behind his back.

Stepping back from the bloodied ground, Rynata ran her sleeve across her cheek where she had been licked. It would be a while before the horrible sensation left her system. Even so, now that she was well free of the man’s grip, her state of mind switched to a less combative one. It wouldn’t do to let their adversary bleed out. Even after all that, it somehow didn’t seem right. That and the fact that the group was going to need him to explain a few things.

“Does anyone know how to stop...well...that,” she said nodding to the man’s bleeding limb. She could be a little more enthusiastic with finding him treatment, but strangely, she wasn’t in the most compassionate mood.

[Pegasus]

16th Cylus, 718

It had been a strange series of events which had led them here and, once here it was a strange and unusual thing which kept them there, fighting the chappie. Tio had started what would have been an entirely reasonable plan and Rynata and Amaris had played along, too. But then, there were the children and the dog - there was a saying about working with animals and children which really seemed to apply here. Anyhow, Tio remained back and had a sobbing child in his arms (whether he wanted her there or not, really). "I want my mama," she whispered, just loud enough that he could hear her. "Have we lost her now, because I shouted at you?"

Tio had just enough time to answer that particularly awkward question and see Amaris hit Rynata in the face with a bag, before The Dog attacked. Amaris tried to pull said dog off and even spoke in possibly the sternest and most commanding tone Amaris had ever used. Rynata too tried to settle Mr Tiddles, but he had tasted blood and it was tough. He bit the man again, this time in the groin. Right in it, in fact, and the chap screamed. Loudly. High pitched and loud and in a way which was probably best described as blood curdling.

But there was no doubt, Rynata was correct. The high pitch screamer was also a high pressure gusher and blood fountained. Mr Tiddles growled low in his throat but didn't attack him any more, Tio tried to comfort two close-to hysterical girls and the third girl stood, totally still and stared forward at the man with an expression on her face which said, quite simply, that she was going to be traumatized for a long time.

As the man on the floor went about the quite speedy process of dying, they had a very limited timeframe and a very (very very) slim chance of actually saving him.

Getting slimmer by the trill.

[Tio Silver]

"No, no we haven't lost her. Not at all." Tio said in the most quiet, comforting voice he could manage. Guilt was starting to twist at his insides for getting annoyed at Wren earlier when she was having such a bad day. Any other child of her age would have broken down into tears upon finding that their parents were kidnapped long ago, but she'd toughed it out up until this point like a little soldier. He really should try being a little bit nicer. "We'll find her, and your papa, I promise you that. I know I'm not the most... honest person, but I swear I'll do everything in my power to make this the truth. You've done nothing wrong."

Then came the attack of the demonic doggo, and Tio tired his hardest to cover the girl's eyes as Tiddles chomped down hard into the pirate's groin. Ouch, he could practically feel that! And the pirate's scream was nothing short of... hair raising. Now seemed as good a point as any to get involved... and hopefully end up making things better.

"Okay girls, listen closely." Tio said urgently to Wren and Deliah, speaking up so that they could hear him over their screaming. "Keep your eyes closed and call Tiddles over, okay? Keep your eyes closed."

Then he ran over to the bleeding pirate, pulling a medical kit out of his domain bag. "Okay listen up buddy, because I'm not sure we've got enough time for you to hear this twice. I can stop the bleeding, and I might even be able to keep your... dangly parts... mostly functional. But I'm also kind of a jerk when I want to be, so unless you tell me what the hell is going on here I'm going to decide that I don't feel like it. Sound good?"

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[Rynata]

"Oh for U'frek's sake," Rynata muttered under her breath, stressed from the crimson blood and high pitched screaming of both the girls and the maimed man. It seemed that Tiddles' victim was running out of time. Catching his injured leg, she did her best to elevate it, hoping that it would deter some of the blood flow. Of course, she had no love for the man, but it naturally seemed like the right thing to do. Nodding at Tio's proposal to indicate that she was of the same mind, Rynata added. "Tell us. Where are the people you kidnapped? The most recent was probably a group of 6."

In the meantime, she tugged off her gloves and used them to apply pressure around the gaping wound. She didn't think she had ever seen this much blood before in her life. The closest memory she could recall was when Korim had decided it was a good idea to leap off a tavern roof and had sliced his leg open on a hook, halfway down. There had been a lot of yelling and blood, but thankfully, there had been a healer on hand. Her brother still had a spectacular scar to show for it, but otherwise recovered quite well. As it was, this man would be of no use to them, dead. Not that she wanted him to die, regardless. She had no idea what to do for the man's groin area and really hoped Tio knew what he was doing with that medical kit.

Glancing up from the bloody scene, Rynata alertly scanned the area around the cove for any further threats. It would be bad if they were caught like this by the man's friends. Before chaos swept through, she remembered that he had said something about storing the girls until the next shipment. Was there such a place near the jetty?

"Amaris, could you take care of the girls?" she said, realizing that it might not be a good idea to leave them alone in their shocked state. "Or if you think you can help stop the bleeding, we can switch places."

[Pegasus]

16th Cylus, 718

The girls, perhaps rather too late, did as Tio told them to call Tiddles and to close their eyes. They nodded and they held on to each other and the dog. There was no doubting it, these girls were traumatized beyond the telling of it and so they clung on to each other. Wren had grabbed Tio's hand and squeezed it, gently, and then they got on with following his orders.

So that took care of the girls, and the dog.

Now there was just the screaming and spurting blood chap. He was laying there and as Rynata elevated his leg, it caused a gush of the same to pour out, lower down, where the blood from the leg was rushing down. But that quickly calmed down. She even thought to ask Amaris to look after the girls but it appeared that the children weren't the only ones who were traumatized by all this.

He looked at Tio and Rynata and he snarled at them both. "Screw you, I'm ready to meet..... " hopefully, he was, because his words ended in a gurgle, a final explosion of blood-filled spit over the two of them and then, as his body went into a final, agonized spasm, he died.

For a few moments, there was silence and then, Wren spoke. "What... what does that mean? Is... are we... " There was a sense of growing panic from the children, which the dog picked up on and started to growl slightly. But there was a simply fact to it - the man who was their only lead was dead, and where these children's parents were was, at this point, something which they had no idea of.

Unless anyone had any better ideas, strokes of genius or other such. The children each turned tear-filled eyes to "their" adult. Again, though, it was Wren that spoke. "Is there anything that we can do? Where can we go?"

Then, Emma piped up. "Who's going to look after us?"

And like it was a sign, the three of them started to cry and Mr Tiddles whimpered and looked at the three grown ups as expectantly as a blood soaked crazy dog can.

Off Topic

Hey all, I can't wait for posting to this any longer, it's already so horribly grandfathered. I'm going to post again in one week (26th July) which, depending on what you do might be the end of it. Or.. of course, not!

[Tio Silver]

With a final air of defiance the pirate chose to bleed out rather than bargain for their help, and drew a last gargling breath as the life drained out of him. Tio never could understand why it was that some people prioritised things like loyalty and honour over their own lives, but if this guy would rather die than give away information on what seemed to be some sort of human trafficking ring operation then so be it; he was the one who had to live, or in this case die, with his decision. Still his refusal effectively destroyed their only lead on finding out where the girl's parents were.

The death of the pirate seemed to be too much for the children, and like a bursting dam all their worries and fears started to pour forth. They'd done remarkably well to make it this far, and for a moment Tio considering giving up the search. Where were they supposed to go from here anyway? But the though of quitting when they'd already come so far didn't sit well in his stomach. Idalos was a harsh world to live in, especially for orphans. Unless they had relatives to care for them there was a good chance they'd end up on the streets. Besides he had promised that they'd find their parents, and while he usually never cared about honouring his word this time he'd actually meant it. It was still too soon to give in! Maybe there was a clue around the docks somewhere?!

He didn't feel like smiling, but when Wren asked him if there was anything they could do he called upon all his acting skill to force his best reassuring smile upon his face and ruffled her hair. "Of course there is. We can look around this jetty and see if there are any records left behind that might tell us where the ship went. If not we wait here for the next shipment that guy mentioned to arrive, and then we find out from them what's going on." He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out the Star tarot card the fortune teller had given him. "You see this card? Well I'll let you in on a little secret: it's magical. It represents hope, and someone gave it to me long ago to remind me that nothing's ever over until you give up hoping. As long as I hold this Xiur himself will watch over me, and will help those who keep on hoping even when things look bleak." That was a lie, but they didn't need to know that. What mattered was that it would give them faith. "So you see as long as we have this there's no possible way we can fail, right? We've got an Immortal on our side. Now let's go look around for clues."

Tio walked over to the side of the jetty and looked down into the water beneath it, pretending to search for something on the side. He fed ether into the spark of defiance in his soul and connected with the ocean, politely asking it if it could tell him anything about a ship that'd been docked here a little while ago.

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[Rynata]

Rynata let the man's leg back onto the ground and exhaled slowly to steady herself. Regardless of the man's character, she wasn't overjoyed to be witness to such a gruesome death. Looking around, neither were the girls or Amaris. Requiring at little less acting than Tio to brighten up, she nodded in agreement. She didn't fancy another meet up with the rest of the kidnapping crew, but Rynata did her best to reassure the teary eyed children, looking curiously at the card Tio pulled out.

"Well, that plan was botched, but there's still many things we can do. I'm sure your parents wouldn't rest until they found you, and with us doing the same, it should be a matter of time."

While Tio stepped away to seemingly investigate the jetty, Rynata left the children under the charge of Mr. Tiddles and Amaris. Kneeling by the dead man with her back to the traumatized party, so as they could not clearly see what she was doing, Rynata searched his person for any clues. The man's coat pockets were alright, but the rest was somewhat bloodied. There was also the creeping fear that he might start moving again. It wasn't glorious work, but she tried to think of it as picking through a shipwreck. It wasn't pleasant either, but sometimes there was treasure. Taking whatever she found as well as the sword at his side, she turned back to the group.

"By the way, next time we should have a signal for that sort of stunt," Rynata cracked the first smile in what seemed like a long while. "For a moment I thought we'd walked into a trap. Next time you get to be the damsel in distress," she nodded to Tio. "Though I think it might lower the credibility."

Having been whacked in the head already, Rynata was a little hesitant to hand a more lethal weapon to Amaris, but raised it with the rest of the group.

"I suppose if nobody wants it, we could just...sell it?"

As usual, her un-wasteful or perhaps simply stingy nature didn't want to consider just leaving it behind. Besides, it could fall into the hands of their enemies, lying around near their base. If they had managed to avoided confrontation with it once, Rynata was perfectly happy to keep it that way.

[Pegasus]

16th Cylus, 718

There were times when optimism, hope and all that stuff is good to have. There are times when it is a lie. Which sort of time this one was grew more and more clear as the trial wore on.

The girls mostly calmed down, there were still sniffles and so on and, at one point Tio and Rynata noticed that Amaris had wandered off. To go and get help one of the girls said, but they didn't look like they believed it. Mr Tiddles, the violent and vicious killer, was the source of many cuddles for them, but equally he was a dog, covered in blood. It wasn't a pretty sight, not at all.

They looked around, they searched. Nothing. They waited for the next boat to arrive and it didn't. Not at all. It was like, maybe... they were given a signal that it was unsafe, or not given one to say it was. But either way, the girls held on to the card, and the dog and looked more and more despairing. And cold. Not to mention, of course, that everyone grew hungry and it started to grow dark.

From Rynata's point of view, there was absolutely nothing in this man's pockets or about his person which gave any clues. There was a stub end of a pencil, a scrap of paper, that kind of thing. Nothing that surmounted to any kind of clue to what was going on here.

And darkness began to fall. Wren looked at Tio and asked what they were all thinking. "What... what shall we do now? We're... what do we do?" There was a quiet and sad desperation in her voice. They looked at the two remaining adults and there was very little hope left in their eyes.

Off Topic

As this is the third round missed, I've written Amaris out here

[Tio Silver]

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No clues about the jetty, no signs of another ship coming, not even a whisper of help from the ocean. Things were really not looking promising on the clues front, which was a problem because Tio was infinitely more comfortable swimming out blindly into the ocean than getting stuck with crying, recently orphaned children who had nowhere to go and that he'd lied to. Somehow he needed to find a way to salvage this situation for the better, but how? How did you find a ship that'd disappeared?

The first thing to come to mind was to do what almost every mortal did when stuck in a situation they couldn't handle: pray to the gods. Under the pretext of searching around for clues Tio ducked away behind a rock where the others couldn't see him and sat down, lacing his fingers between each other and bowing his head in prayer. Who exactly did one pray to in a time like this? He couldn't see Delroth or Syroa playing the savior of children somehow, nor any of the other fun Immortals. Who might listen in a time like this?

"Umm... Xiur... can you here me?" He began awkwardly. "I can't say I'm too familiar with how this prayer stuff works but... if you can, I'm in need of some help here. Three young girls have had their parents kidnapped by pirates, and I'm trying to keep their hopes up here but things are looking pretty bleak here. See the things is... I may have already told them that you're going to help find them, and that thought is pretty much the only thing keeping them from breaking into despair. So, think you could lend us a hand here? Point us in the right direction? Send us a shooting star in the direction the ship went or something?"

As much as he hoped that would work, Tio had to admit to himself that trying to guilt trip a god probably wouldn't end up doing much. Was there something else he could do to find out where the ship had gone? Something he'd overlooked perhaps? Perhaps there might be clues on the body of the pirate; something that could only be found in another city? Ignoring the puddles of blood that'd formed around it Tio stepped over to the body of the pirate and began searching through his pockets.

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[Rynata]

Rynata's eyes lost a little vibrancy as they waited and waited but no new lead would reveal itself to them. What was more discouraging was the mist of despair swirling heavier and heavier around the girls. Amaris had gone to get help which they definitely needed, but at the moment it felt like abandonment.

Tio seemed to be praying to an Immortal, and Rynata sent a silent one of her own, looking out towards the cold sea.

We're lost and would appreciate some guidance, U'frek. There are kidnappers and traffickers treading in your domain. If you cannot help us, then I can only do my best, but I'm afraid it won't be enough for those who need the help.

Taking out unappetizing but heavy rations, Rynata offered it to the girls along with a water skin. It wasn't the best meal, but if they accepted, perhaps it would be enough to keep their spirits up for the journey back to town. An empty stomach was always a bad recipe for moral.

"What we do now?" she said somberly. "We can head back to town and regroup. Soon, it will be too dark to continue the search, at any rate. We'll need to find a good place for you three to stay and then Mr. Silver and I can track down this trafficking operation. We're not giving up, but we're not getting anywhere out here. Agreed?"

It was small comfort for Rynata, but having some sort of direction and plan again was a relief. However, since she wasn't a child who had just lost their family, she didn't know how reassuring the current situation was.