[Aiden]

Smelling the mixture of dank and sour water as they descended, Aiden scrunched his nose slightly and focused instead on what he heard about the guy from the Purifier's office. He has been through creepier and smellier situations, but that didn't make him feel any better about venturing into the sewers. “I think he's part of the Siblnghood...of the group that attacked me, with Thornestone...”

With an encouraging nod, Aiden tilted his head toward the dark and said, “Then let's go in and confirm it.” If Nicolay thought he recognized the guy, then he was probably right. The attack to Gabel's Glasses had been in the dark, but therians recognized scents even better than faces.

But once again, who was this Finnbar and why would Maaike 'use' him? Seeing the flash of a silver on Maaike's finger, Aiden's expression took one of those perplexed 'oh Hel no' looks as he briefly wondered if she was married and had she always worn that ring because he could've sworn she didn't and if she was married, did that make him the other guy or something. But that would have be answered later. They were already walking away from the light and deeper into the tunnels. “I can't use any of my forms in these sewers, but I might borrow parts of the leopard. Worse case scenario, we can use a freeze bomb to borrow a few seconds.” The bomb looked more like a potion vial cushioned and secured at the side of Aiden's belt. “I'd rather not use it though. It's not standard issue and I don't know how far the blast will spread.” Xanth hadn't been very specific when she'd given the potion to him.

He halted as Maaike reached for his arm. Her voice was quiet and tickled softly, but not unpleasantly. “Is your buddy there up for this?”

Nicolay had taken down Thornestone singlehandedly, so Aiden's immediate response was “He's got this,” before remembering that a kumo was different. And suddenly, the guard realized that Nicolay might not actually want to go back into the sewers to save someone who'd attacked him and Azul. In his rush, Aiden had charged into the sewers and just assumed the others would follow. He felt guilty, and he felt worse that he'd had to realize this from someone else. After a wary glance into the darkness, Aiden turned toward Nicolay to smile with encouragement. “You know, I'm not supposed to pull a non-hunter into a kumo battle....” Aiden was giving Nic a way out, and he wouldn't judge if Nic took it. Nicolay would have to decide soon though. Already, Aiden was shifting his ears and eyes to better accommodate the dark.

[Nicolay]

He wasn't. Nicolay thanked all the deities he could conjure in his mind for that!

So why was it suddenly difficult for him to step back out into the light and leave them to certain death while he sat quietly and happily in a shade? Was it because of how this female Therian saw him? Was it Aiden's eyes and ears? Was it what Aiden had said? That he's got this? For a guard he had barely met beyond a rough situation, that was a lot coming from him. In fact, that was a lot coming out of anyone. Nicolay rather doubted that he's got anything, if he could be honest...

In a way, this made Aiden special -- and maybe that was it. If the female Therian had been the one who asked him to come down with her (which she did), he'd sooner condemn her to a gruesome end than join her. But Aiden was someone he knew he could trust and now that he's here, it made him feel a little better about...things in general. Even himself. Besides, wasn't this Aiden's business, as well? This whole thing about the Siblinghood? Nicolay was the one who found the nyad.

And there could be just about any number of nyads down there. But only one with a scent that he knew when he fought with them in the shop...

Perhaps he owes it to Aiden to step down with him...nightmares be damned. If he didn't close his eyes, maybe the memory wouldn't come...and maybe the kumo was dead for all he knew!

“Just...” he hissed weakly, “...just don't let it eat me.” And don't let it get me again, he wanted to say. But he was soon on his palms and all the sounds that surrounded him exploded in his ears as a warm quilt spread all over his body and he became surer of his awkward position when he stroked the cold steps with his paws and swished his tail to make sure it was in top working condition. One never knew when one needed it to run...

In fact, Nicolay was surprised that being in the form of a cheetah had made him feel so much better about this stupid adventure. It reminded him as he looked up to the faces in blue and green that if the going got tough, no one ran faster than him.

But ugh, the scent! Why animals needed the nose of a god, Nicolay couldn't begin to imagine. Balking and moving like a puppet, he sidled his slender way closer to Aiden's legs (as if he was stealing him from the female Therian but whatever) and gagged at his feet.

[Maaike]

Maaike gave a haughty sniff meant to make Nicolay very aware of her disapproval because he was clearly green at the whole hunting thing and could have gotten himself killed but had somehow convinced Aiden otherwise. It was also meant to tell him in no uncertain terms that if he got himself killed or maimed, it was his own skin and she wouldn't give a damn. She regretted the sniff, either way, when it dragged in the stench of sewage and filled her throat with the urge to vomit.

And then she saw him 'shift and eyed the beast with both eyebrows reaching for her hairline. “What under Hel is that?” It was reminiscent of desert lions or blue panthers, but white with blue splotches. The golden eyes didn't match at all. “Did anyone actually teach him how to 'shift? Because—”

She didn't finish, partly because she thought better of it (how could she judge anyone as a parent when she had dumped Sammy's upbringing and education on his grandparents?) but mostly because, even without wolf ears, she heard a scrape in the tunnel to her right. When her head whipped around in that direction, she caught a glimpse of a spindly shadow disappearing around the far corner and immediately sloshed in that direction. She didn't think Aiden would need the gesture, but for Nicolay's benefit she held a finger up to her lips. New muscles erupted along her arms in a ripple that shot through her body and turned her legs into a long, sinewy tail. Fins burst from her spine and shoulders and her eyes became onyx orbs. The finger pressed to her lips turned into a claw that she pointed in the direction she had spotted the shadow. A moment later, her tail was causing ripples in the sewage water as she followed her own command, forked tongue flicking out to taste the air.

[Aiden]

As Nicolay shrank into a skinny cat and stopped beside his legs, Aiden grinned as if to say 'welcome aboard', though his expression changed in sympathy when Nicolay seemed to get a much stronger whiff of their whereabouts. This was exactly the reason why Aiden wasn't keen on shifting fully. The cat that Nicolay had turned into was much paler than any cat that Aiden had seen. Aiden was about to comment on it when his ears twitched in response to the skittering of footsteps along one of the passageways. The kumo was getting close so quickly that Maaike turned in warning.

Already quiet as his pointy ears swiveled toward the noise, Aiden widened his eyes to take in the light from the deep end of the tunnels...and spotted many sets of green eyes upon a dark fuzzy spider as it slipped from one end of the tunnel to the other side of the crossways. In an explosion of movement, the woman beside him grew taller and scalier, and the naga that was Maaike quickly launched itself after the kumo.

Boots splashing in water, Aiden tried not to stomp as he ran, but neither did he try to hard to be discreet. Spiders couldn't hear sound, but what they lacked in their sense of hearing, they more than made up for in their sense of touch. The kumo knew this, and it was leading them deeper into the tunnels where there was more water on the ground. They twisted down a tunnel in the left, then continued up a path that curved right, and suddenly the kumo was turning and Aiden instinctively yelled “Duck!” as a thick stream of grey shot alongside the left side of the wall. They'd be stuck and dead in seconds if they were caught in the silk. As fast as the web shot out, the kumo turned and charged down the tunnels again as if it were fleeing.

[Nicolay]

The moment the sound of skittering claws connected with his ears, a flash of his nightmare appeared before Nicolay's eyes and he was off, hurrying up the steps of the sewer until he was out of the water and closer to the sun. He bent close to the steps, his paws, his tail swishing silently as he watched and listened to the naga (disgusting!) and Aiden's half-form chase the kumo.

And then they were gone. And then he was alone.

Nicolay panicked. If they left, where would he go?! How would he know where to go?!

Wait for me! he cried but it came out in a chirp -- a strong, piercing sound straight from his throat that bounced against the walls of the sewers. And then, he was off, dashing straight into the murky waters and twisting towards where he could hear Aiden had shouted something. The sewers were too dark for comfort but he could see just enough and compensate for everything else by his ears and fur.

Just when he had worried that he had lost them, Aiden and the naga appeared in his sight and he chirped again -- it was such a therapeutic thing to do, this chirping -- as he dashed behind the humanoid, slinking away instinctively from the gray thing over his left and the naga because really, she was closer to creepy than awesome.

[Maaike]

Maaike was aware when the cheetah left her senses but thought nothing of it. If he wanted to be a coward, that was his business. She'd make damned sure he didn't get a xanthos of the standing bounty for taking out the kumo. If the other man escaped, that was on him too.

She focused on chasing down the giant spider, following Aiden when she lost sight of the spindle-legged creature so he could track it with his cat ears and then taking the lead so her bulk and speed would protect the partially-shifted guard. At some point, she became aware of Nicolay's odd chirping and realised he had found his courage after all, but it wasn't a moment later that a string of sticky spider silk shot towards them. Aiden's yell reverberated down the tunnel and vibrated through Maaike-naga's body where she was plastered against the wall. She spared a glance behind her to make sure the two men hadn't been stuck and then shot after the kumo, her serpentine body zig-zagging through the water.

They had to be smart about this. The kumo was on its home turf so it had the advantage. Nagas may be just as comfortable in the sewers as them, but Maaike wasn't. It was fast, agile and capable of squeezing into tiny nooks without losing its manoeuvrability. If the chase lasted another minute or two, Finnbar would be recharged, but she would have to time its use perfectly. And they were wading through a good foot of water now, so the flamethrower's usefulness was questionable anyway.

Another shot of webbing forced her to duck to the side. She gave a wordless yell as warning and lowered her body flat to the sewage for a burst of speed. Her tail thrashed, the water frothing around her and rippling the water in all directions. Somehow, it seemed to confuse the kumo: the giant spider paused, its rear legs twitching at the surface of the murky water and allowing them to close the gap.

[Aiden]

In the moments after he shouted the warning and hunched toward the ground, Aiden glanced ahead toward Maaike, then behind at Nicolay to check that both had avoided the web. Nicolay had been chirping and that worried Aiden, but there wasn't time to stop and rethink their approach. Cat ears picked up another sound of hissing, and Aiden pressed flat against the edge of the tunnels again as a second thick strand of silk shot down the tunnels. The walls felt grimy and damp to his skin, but it was the least of his worries.

A raspy voice echoed ahead, and Aiden was startled by the new noise until he realized that it was the naga, who was tensed as if ready to spring. As Maaike scattered water in all directions, Aiden went the opposite way so they could attack the kumo from both sides. On top of the kumo's body, green eyes glittered only a foot below Aiden's eye-level. Narrowly avoiding the mouthpieces as the spider rotated toward the naga, Aiden weaved in between the appendages at the kumo's side just as the spider lunged at Maaike. One of the legs slammed against his torso, and with a huff, Aiden wrapped a hand around it. The spider sensed Aiden immediately, and as it flailed its trapped leg and tried to tackle him, Aiden tried to push back with his own weight. When it tackled him a second time, it crushed him against the wall. Crap he thought, but he tried to hold on for a few more seconds before he let go.

[Nicolay]

Aiden!! Nicolay chirped.

Oh, what sorcery gave Nicolay the idea that he could actually be courageous and not sit this one out? Now he was trapped between a dilemma of running away or actually contributing something that hopefully has nothing to do with chirping! He looked around the dim place, seeking through the wet rocks, the disgusting water, the shadows, the web, anything he could use as a form of weapon or projectile! Sadly, treasure chests do not exist randomly in the realm and if he had a weapon, he had to rely on his teeth.

Teeth!

...Teeth?!

The thought disgusted him and a familiar taste and sensation from the night of his arrival to Elysia returned to him. But Aiden was trapped and if he didn't do anything to free him, the kumo could very well crush him, mutilate the naga and then it will all be on his legs and his will to survive.

Before he knew it, he was already halfway through the space between he and that kumo and then, he felt its shell upon his teeth as the strong jaws of a cheetah locked in around it.

[Maaike]

So the kid was useful for something, after all. Between the two of them, it didn't know which way to turn and staggered back from Aiden to jab at them all with spindly legs and those horrific pincers. Thank Xanth I'm not scared of spiders. Although she would be at this rate.

Muscular arms grabbed two of the spider's legs as a sinewy tail lanced across its eyes. Maaike pulled and twisted, sharp movements that elicited a high-pitched squeal that shrieked through her skull like the howl of a wraith. Maaike flinched but continued to pull, using the strange feline's toothy grip on the kumo's torso as leverage to rip the legs clean away, and tossed them into the sewage where they twitched and rippled the water. Ugh.

The kumo jerked, lining up its pincers with Maaike's tail. Its abdomen twitched and it hawked up a shot of webbing. The sound was distinct, but she was slow to react and barely got her tail out of the way. The web splattered against the wall instead, and the kumo used her distraction to lunge forward, tearing free of the feline's fangs. It jabbed at Aiden with its pincers and lashed backwards with its rear legs at Nicolay, slamming her into the opposite wall with a blow to the gut.

[Aiden]

Even when he let go of the sewer-smelling kumo, it tackled him again and the force of its weight knocked the wind out of his chest. Grunting, Aiden dodged the next tackle as a streak of white zipped toward the kumo's shell. The cheetah had appeared so quickly that it even startled the kumo into moving a few steps away, although it recovered very soon and flailed with its free legs at everyone around it. When dealing with any heavy-shelled insectoid, the trick was to take it apart piece-by piece. Pausing to regain his breath, Aiden watched as the naga pulled one way and the cheetah the other. With a 'pop' that was accompanied by an unnatural scream from the kumo, the naga tossed the jointed leg away.

Furious, the overgrown spider attacked more ferociously than ever. It sprayed webbing haphazardly and it kicked and headbutted and bit at all of its attackers. As one of the pincers came toward Aiden, he leapt back and braced an arm on each of its legs so that it couldn't come closer. “Woah!” The pincer nearly clamped around his boot as he raised a leg to kick at the kumo. As one of its legs jabbed at Aiden, he snatched it from the air and swerved toward its flank. The spider released more of the sticky web, but Aiden was well out of its range. Dragging the fighting and flailing creature away from the walls, Aiden took a blow on the shoulder from one of its other limbs, grunted, braced a leg against its shell, and kept pulling until he staggered back with the detached limb in his arms. Wincing from the spider's keening wail, he immediately dropped it and grabbed for another leg. He, Nicolay, and Maaike were attacking the kumo from different sides, the kumo had trouble focusing on only one target, and in response, it bit and tackled whoever came into its line of vision.

[Nicolay]

If anyone could even call Nicolay's movements "attacking" that is.

Normally, when a fighter hears their victim's yowl of pain, a phenomenon called "battle fever" overtakes their better reasons and sets them on a rampage, this much Nicolay knew from his very short years of being alive. But with him, it was the complete opposite. The sound and feel of the shell in-between his teeth had sickened him and as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he dropped whatever it was he bit and gagged. He could almost feel his fingers growing back, his form shivering but he held on long enough to understand that he'd be more vulnerable as a human.

But the kumo gave him no choice. Somewhere in the hysteria, he felt something like a log slam against his side as the kumo flailed and the sound that he produced was nowhere near happy. Nicolay didn't quite understand what happened to him either but all he knew was that his body burned like hell and even more when his spine slammed against the wall and he dropped to the shallow waters, shuddering as he lost his paw and tail in favor of hands and feet.

[Maaike]

The kid was down and out, at least for the minute. The damn kumo was proving tougher than she'd imagined, and it made her wonder how they had managed to take on a full nest of the things so easily when the three of them were struggling with just one.

Of course, they'd had two Nymphs then who had done some spectacular work with fire, but it wasn't like they could barbeque this one. Finnbar must be ready for another shot by now, but if she missed... No, they couldn't afford to stay down here all the damned day.

“Aiden!” Her morph back to human form was clumsy and rushed, leaving her sore and aching. She could have set off her flamethrower ring without turning back but Aiden and Nicolay were too close and she couldn't warn them with a naga's hiss. “Get clear!” Flattening herself against the wall, she flinched her head to the side to avoid a shot of webbing and reached down with her left hand to grope for Nicolay's elbow. She lifted her other hand, the ring glinting in the dim light, and aimed it at the kumo.

“Yah!” Fresh lacerations opened along her forearm under the slash of a leg, knocking her arm away, but she lifted it right back and took aim again. A whoosh of flame burst over the giant spider's body and Maaike flung herself over Nicolay to shield him, hoping the sewage water that covered them all would deflect some of the heat.

[Aiden]

“Nic!” Aiden yelled immediately when he saw the cheetah crash into the wall. He still pulled and strugged with his grip on the kumo leg, but when he saw the younger therian land in the water and revert to human form, he called again, “You okay?” If Nic didn't respond quickly, Aiden would forget the kumo and go to his side.

“Get clear!”

He quickly complied by bracing his feet on the ground and shoving the kumo's body away from him. Sliding away, Aiden saw a glow of orange sprout from the glint of silver on Maaike's hand. The ring, Aiden remembered, and suddenly felt stupid about the whole Finnbar thing. As fire shot toward the kumo and fanned over its furry shell, Aiden dropped to the ground. While the heat of the flames ghosted over his body, the effect was dampened by the sewage water. Inhuman shrieks pierced the air as the kumo writhed from its burns. Aiden pushed himself up and watched the kumo shriek and scamper without direction. It ran unbalanced into the walls, and with few limbs to support it, it crashed into the water. As patches of fire on the kumo fizzled out, Aiden walked warily toward the spider. By now it had shriveled up and was twitching weakly. Lifting one of the torn spider-limbs from the ground, Aiden raised it over a burnt and exposed area of the kumo. With a grunt, he drove the leg-plate into the monster.

[Nicolay]

Nicolay must have puked. He couldn't be sure, there was water everywhere and over his head but he understood that something foul just passed through his mouth.

The stronger form of the humanized naga was a relief for him and he clung onto her battle-hardened arms as if she was the embodiment of reality and consciousness. The slosh of the water wasn't helping him concentrate on not fainting and he was desperate to both rise from it or stay under.

Shaking and aching, it was going to take a long time to get him back to his feet, and Nicolay is going to take all of it that he wanted!

[Maaike]

“Ergh. Something stinks.” Actually, a lot of things stank and Maaike would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. That didn't stop her from flicking sewage water from her now-human hand as she wedged the other against the wall so she could lever herself to her feet. She wrinkled her nose at the stench of barbequed spider flesh, watched Aiden's prodding until she was satisfied the thing was dead, and then offered her dirty hand to his friend, Nicolay.

She probably should have had more sympathy, but she was born and raised in the forest where kumos were far from being the worst danger, so she couldn't figure out why Nicolay was having such a hard time. The callous part of her wanted to scoop up the remains and get out of here as soon as her jellied legs would carry her, while the part of her that had been working with Aiden for months decided she probably ought to help him with his buddy.

Since there was no way under Hel she was going to carry the carcass out of here by herself, she settled for helping Aiden's buddy instead. Offering the guardsman a saccharine smile completely at odds with the sewage sloughing off her in spades, she jerked a thumb at the dead kumo. “You can drag that thing out of here, right? I can lend your buddy here a shoulder.” Hmm, but maybe she shouldn't mention that someone else had come down here before them, too...

[Aiden]

The charred spider spasmed when Aiden stabbed it and dug in. Its squeal soon withered into nothing as it finished its last breaths. Grimacing, Aiden left the leg where it was and wiped his hands on the front of his shirt uniform. The difficult part was finished. Remembering that Maaike had briefly mentioned a missing person over their phone call, Aiden worried if a body was all they'd find.

As he turned to check on the other two therians, his brows furrowed as he saw that Nicolay was still on the ground—mostly. Feet sloshing in the water as he strode to his friends, Aiden reached for the shaking glassmaker to help steady him on his feet. “I can help you with that later,” he spoke to Maaike of the kumo's carcass. Normally, he'd leave it for the purifiers. Protecting the city was his job, so he wasn't qualified to collect the kumo bounty. Maaike was, though. “Can you wait here? I'll go find your missing person,” he said to Nicolay, who was clearly exhausted from the fight. “We'll confirm if he's one of the Siblinghood.”

He let Maaike deal with Nicolay, and instead went back toward the direction of the kumo. Feline eyes searching in the dark, Aiden reached for his side and pulled out a small rectangular box. Flipping the top off of the box, he pointed the inside further down the tunnels. The shevrock glowed only slightly within the box, but the light was further focused by a configuration of mirrors. Hurrying down the tunnels with the aid of the torch and his night vision, Aiden soon encountered a network of webs. The kumo wasn't just running in any direction---it had wanted to trap them in its lair. As his light hit a portion of webbing on the wall, it wriggled.

“I found someone!” he called back into the tunnels. As he tucked the box into his shirt pocket, the light shone through the fabric to aid Aiden as he took the Guard knife from his belt. “I'm a Guard—I'm here to help,” he said to the distressed nyad on the wall. As the nyad muttered a shaky 'oh praise Xanth', Aiden sawed at the webs with the serrated steel. Some of the web was still fresh and clung to the steel, and when it became too difficult to cut further, Aiden pulled the nyad free from the loosened trap. Leaving the knife in the webs, he supported the nymph as they walked back up the tunnel. “Follow me.”

((Feel free to fast-forward to wherever. ))