[Kiel]

Pria had warned him that the jungle was too dense for her to land, so she had dropped he and Shane off in Serendipity and flown off for a swim in Thesean Lake to wait for his summons. He was supposed to lure the hydra into some sort of clearing so she had a better shot at it, but the further into the jungle he got and the more time he had to think about their plan, the more he began to realise that, like, “I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm so so so gonna die.”

Shane's tongue was rough and wet in the palm of his hand. They had chosen a moonlit night to do this so she could help and they still had visibility, but he totally hadn't banked on most of Neme's light being blocked by the canopy overhead. “Freaky, it's freaky, man.” The leaves dappled what moonrays filtered through and the soft glow of his shevrock cast weird shadows that, like, totally moved, man. He'd totally be wigging out if Shane weren't completely calm, like, her ears flicking toward noises but not pulling that predatory growl she did when, like, there were monsters trying to eat him.

“Chill, man, chill.” He was a warrior. He was a Rutilus, a Dracovarian, a summoner. Like, he could totally pull this off, right? Hydras weren't even that scary. Right? “Like, right?”

“Wah.” He wouldn't even be in the damn jungle, but he'd seen what that hydra thing could do. Like, it had been months back so he'd sort of kind of forgotten about his misadventures with Kazuma (dude, that vamp was gonna get him killed, man, for sers!), but then he'd heard about another bunch of people getting killed and the hydra had apparently started getting closer to the town. Kids had gone missing, man. Like, kids, you know? And, like, okay, so maybe the hydra wasn't the culprit for all of it, but, like, dude, man. Kids.

So here he was, his entire armoury strapped to his chest (dude, he was so glad to be a Rut', man, for sers) and the hilt of his still-sheathed katana clutched tight in his left hand. Shane's eyes gleamed in the dark as she glanced back at him, and he followed her silhouette as she sniffed after their prey. “A hydra, man. High-drahhhh.” He paused, physically and verbally, to let that sink in. “Zeph's so gonna kill me.” If the hydra didn't get him first.

Spoiler

Starting Location: Serendipity
Style: Adventure
Job Description: I am looking for at least two warriors to vanquish the hydra that is terrorizing the jungle closest to Serendipity. According to the locals, it is still on its early age but I have nevertheless born witness to the massacre that it is capable of and more so the people of Serendipity who has had to endure the pains of anxiety, untimely loss, despair and hopelessness. I am not looking for anyone who is only out there for fame and glory. I and the people would very much prefer someone who has absolute knowledge of what is out there, and what they are doing. I cannot promise you any external help beyond your own capabilities.
Objectives:

• Slay the hydra. A proof of its death would be much appreciated.
  
• Find the hydra's nest and slay more hydras if there is any present. (Optional)
  
• If you find anyone seeking salvation from the hydra and the jungle, bring them back. (Optional but if you actually found one and ignored them, you must be heartless at the very least.)
  
• Give any form of a mangled corpse found in the jungle a proper burial. (Optional)

Reward: The entirety of the hydra/s that you slay will be yours for the taking. The people of Serendipity shall welcome you as friend and 4 kilos of alastis will also be rewarded each.

Starting Location: Corantha
Style: Hunting & Gathering
Job Description: I had to give up some of my contacts when I moved, so I'm looking for a long-term supplier of apothecary items. In the short-term, I need to restock several items.
Objectives:

• Collect and deliver:
  
  • Archon oil
    
  • Tepua pollen & gas
    
  • Hydra venom
    
  • Naga venom

Reward: ζ100 per person per type of item delivered

Each item could be a separate quest or you could combine them. To claim the money, you have to deliver each item to Jericho in person.

[Ionia]

All sorts of creatures hunted at night. The fact put Nia on edge as she sat with her back against the trunk of a large tree and glared into the darkness. Slim threads of moonlight trailed onto patches of ground to aid her in surveillance, though the rest of the light was dimmed by the dense foliage above. If something were to dash by, she'd only see a blur of shadow. To counter that possibility, Nia and Raphael had established strings around the radius of their camp. Set at a foot higher than the jungle floor, tiny bells on the string would ring if the perimeter were breached. It wasn't the perfect detector, but the trigger has served as a useful backup in her prior hunts.

They had doused their campfire long before sunset, so it was easy for Nia to notice when her shevrock glowed brightly and faded five times in steady succession. It indicated one more hour for her Zanaryan friend to sleep. As Nia scanned the area again, she idly tightened the buckles of her armguard. The sun had set a couple of hours ago while Nia had been asleep. She had agreed for Raphael to sleep a few hours after that, before they sought the hydra. Snakes of its kind tended to hunt at night, so the two hunters would have to find it during the night and before it retreated to its nest at dawn.

For all they knew, the hydra might be near town and lying in wait to catch the early risers off-guard. The townspeople certainly thought so as they became warier each day—they hadn't seen the creature for nearly a week, though an herbalist claimed a sighting of the hydra a couple miles north of the Thesean Lake. Nia had been perfectly happy to hear that, since it meant that the snake was satiated for now. With its large bulk and nesting tendencies, an adolescent hydra could easily go without eating for a month if it had glutted enough prior to that. If she was lucky, it might still in the digesting stage of food coma. A morbid idea considering what the hydra had been eating recently, but the loss of those victims would save the lives of their neighbors.

Among the rustling of leaves and the night wind, Nia thought she'd heard a voice. Bracing a knee onto the floor in attention, she grazed a hand over her belt of throwing knives as she looked for the source of noise. Simultaneously, a net of shadows slithered across the ground, intertwining until they formed a wide circular web with her as the base. She would throw the knife if something were to trip the strings or graze over the net.

((For purposes of this thread, GMing is allowed for Emma.))

[Kiel]

OOC: GM permission for Kiel, too. :3

Like, Shane stiffened, dropped and bared her teeth, her ears totally pulling back and a snarl welling up from her gut. Almost before the sound reached his ears, Kiel was, like, reacting to the sudden feeling of wrong that shot down their Chosen bond. His knees totally bent and he pivoted, like, his hand reaching for one of his throwing knives — only to pause when saw a dark-winged woman in totally the same pose. Like, she was surrounded by a scary network of shadows that looked way too dense to be natural.

“Wahahahaha, hey, hey. What's up, man? Like, for sers, man, this jungle is way creepy, you know?” He straightened and relaxed, like, despite the fact that he probably shouldn't. Like, he really didn't think any criminal in their right mind would be here in the jungle doing weird illegal stuff if there was a hydra in the vicinity, you know? Unless they were poachers or something, but would they really be called poachers if the Serendipitians — “Like, dude, is that even a word?” — wanted the beastie gone?

Hand outstretched for shaking, Kiel stepped forward with a gregarious grin. “Hahahaha, I'm Kiel, I'm Kiel! You haven't seen a hydra around here have yo-eeh!” Shane noticed the string; he didn't. He fell flat on his face when she, like, snagged his ankle between her slender jaws, her fangs digging in just a bit too much and a whole bunch of bells ringing in his ears when his head hit the dirt.

Wait, no, those were real bells and, like, “Owwwwwwww.” Man, at this rate, the hydra was gonna eat him for sure. “Gobble gobble.”

[Ionia]

Not far to Nia's left, the familiar shink of metal leaving its scabbard signalled that her zanaryan companion had woken—probably because he'd felt shadows roll over his sleeping bag. Still looking for the intruder, Nia spoke in hushed voice. “I heard a--”

“Wahahahaha, hey hey. What's up, man? Like, for sers, man...”

Xanth was playing games with her, for there was no way under Hel or Neme that she'd meet him again, many months later, in the middle of nowhere within thousands of acres of rainforest! Even with his face all shadowed and lanky figure blended into the trees, the voice was unmistakable. She doubted anybody would forget the chatty 'vari if they were stuck on a ship with him, for over a month, and then led to traipse through some forsaken land in the name of 'adventure'.

As a gust of wind rustled across the ground, Nia said quickly to Raph, “Wait! I know him.” Given how the 'vari was talking and skipping and everything, Nia doubted Raphael would have done anything besides a warning shot. Still, she'd rather makes things clear before they went south. Like the moment Kiel got his foot tangled in Raph's traps, releasing a cacophony of rings into the quiet night.

“Is he for real?” mumbled the zanaryan as both he and Nia watched Kiel gobble and get up from the dirt.

“He's here for a hydra,” replied Nia, suppressing a smile as the zanaryan faced her with what she thought to be a look of disbelief in the dim forest. As the bells jingled again, Raphael muttered something in zanaryan and returned to his sleeping area. “Keep an eye out?” muttered Nia to her friend, then turned toward the blurry figures on the ground. Remembering that the shadowkin was protective of Kiel, Nia sidestepped toward a nearby tree and crouched to undo the system of strings. At the middle of camp, rustling sleeping bags signaled that Raphael was packing. Even as he packed, the zanaryan released a shevrock into the air which made its way toward Nia with an invisible sphere of wind.

Taking the glowing blue rock into one palm, Nia held it out as she tossed the rope to him—so that he could untangle himself faster. “Hey again, Kiel.” As she walked closer to her old shipmate, the glow of the shevrock revealed her amused expression. “You're looking for a hydra too?”

[Kiel]

Like, Kiel probably could have gotten clear of the bell strings pretty easily if he'd focused, dammit on the task at hand. Instead, he gawped at Ionia and her companion, eyes round as saucers and sparking with excitement as he realised he'd stumbled into a real, live, actual and totally awesome hunters' trap.

He scrambled to his butt and picked at the bells wrapped around his ankles, like, batting away Shane's nose every time she came in for a sniff. Her tongue tickled, man, for sers!

“Hey again, Kiel.”

“Wah! It's you! It's you! You're the Skotados from the Artega! Ionia, right?” He spoke as if she wasn't already clear on all that, or his name. “I'm Kiel, I'm Kiel. Wahahaha, I can't believe you're here, man, this is, like, crazy awesome, man.” And totally coincidental, like, what were the chances, you know?

He was grateful for the light from the shevrock. Detangling himself was gonna take, like, forever otherwise.

“You're looking for a hydra too?”

“No way, no way, you too?!” He giggled up at her when Shane licked his bared ankle again, her rough pink tongue jangling the bells so they tinkled into the night. “Wahhhhh, shhhh, I don't wanna get gobbled up by the hydra, you know?” He gave her silken head a friendly shove so she licked his chin instead, her body positioned beween his and Ionia's and, like, a sense of urgency buzzing down their bond. Kiel didn't exactly ignore it, but he wasn't exactly focused on his fingers, you know?

“Wahahaha! Dude, can you believe this? Like, you heard about this thing killing Serendipitians, right? Like, that's a word, right? Like, I ran into the beastie before with Kazu-man but, like, it nearly ate us!” His facial features danced together in appropriate horror. “I was gonna just ignore it, you know, 'cause my dad's all, like, "You can't take on a hydra alone, you idiot" and Zeph was all "damn it, Kiel" and my sis was all, like, "let the professionals handle it", but then I heard it was taking kids, you know, and I figured I'd come up here and see if I could hook up with any other mercs in the area 'cause you gotta figure a bounty like that's gonna draw in some hardcore hunters, right?” He didn't consider at all that she might take offense to that. He admired those guys almost as much as he admired Zeph.

“But, like, there was nobody in town and the Serendipitians, like, that's a word, right, were all, like, "wahhhhh my baby" and "arghhhh, it got me leg" — ” He really sucked at accents. “— so I was, like, "I'll save you, I'll save you!"” Why did his imitation of himself sound like a girl? “And we picked night time 'cause, like, Shane melts in sunlight, right, but it's not as moonlighty as we thought it would be, and hey, hey, your friend's Zanaryan, right? Can't he be all, like, fires blazing and smoke the hydra out, or something?”

[Ionia]

Under the shevrock's light, both Nia and Kiel appeared a ghostly blue. The light, however, did nothing to the shadowkin's features. Watching as Kiel untangled himself, Nia nodded in quiet assent that yes, it was crazy to see him here. And though she didn't welcome the chatter, she did think that it would be beneficial to have Kiel on her team. Unfortunately, he was just as talkative in a battle, but what Kiel lacked in seriousness, he made up for in getting out alive, and that was the only important thing, right?

As the shadowkin sidled toward its owner and moved the bells, another set of jingles rang in the air. Quickly, Nia shrugged out of her thin cotton jacket and threw it over the bells. The bells chimed among Kiel's chatter as Nia bundled the bells into a ball of cloth and string. As she tied up the remains of the trap, she raised an eyebrow when she heard of Kiel's previous encounter with the hydra. “You've seen it?” and after a pause, “When did this happen? Did you guys injure it?” If Kiel and this 'Kazu-man' had met the hydra recently and attacked it, the wounds might give the hunters an advantage.

She was unfazed as Kiel rambled about finding mercs and 'hardcore hunters'. She wasn't sure about the hardcore part, but she didn't object to being called a mercenary. It was what she was. Name something, and Nia would hunt it for the right amount of xanthos. She'd once nabbed a baby griffin out of its nest just so some foolish rich lady could own and boast about it.

“I'll save you! I'll save you!”

Okay, as much as the chatter was starting to annoy Nia's ears, the last imitation drew a smile to her otherwise aloof demeanor.

“Can't he be all, like, fires blazing and smoke the hydra out, or something?”

A gust of wind shot towards Nia and Kiel, though it was only strong enough to rustle Nia's hair. “What! You think I'm an ifrit?” a laugh sounded from the other side of camp, “Hel no! Those fools have no sense of control. If we bring one, they're like to burn down a whole patch of forest.”

As the zanaryan walked toward Nia and Kiel, he tossed Nia's travelbag at her and he extended his right hand toward Kiel. “I'm Raphael ibn Rajeed al-meurtizek al-Paia,” and with a teasing wink, “Djinni.” Even as he spoke his name, the Zanaryan words were tainted by a heavy Elysian accent. Raphael glanced very briefly toward Nia, who nodded imperceptively, before continuing, “Which way did you come from? We just came from the western side of the forest, no signs of hydra.”

[Kiel]

Kiel's eyes totally crossed when Rafael introduced himself, man, for sers. The words weren't said with the accent Zanaryans usually had, which made him think the guy was Elysian born and bred, but, like, all those words, you know? Waaahhhhh, his head hurt. And then the dude told him the relevant bit, "Djinni", and all was right and well in his world again. If a little bit disappointing.

“Awww, but, like, fire-bending is so cool, you know?” Actually, he pretty much thought any of the elementals were way cool and awesome, but Rafael didn't need to know that, hahaha.

“Which way did you come from?”

Kiel grimaced, twisted his head on his neck to look around dumbly, and then totally shrugged and pointed both hands, criss-crossing each other, in opposite directions. “That way.” He wasn't exactly lost, you know, but, like, he'd planned on using Shane's nose to find their way back to the river road, and then following that back to Serendipity. He'd been taught to navigate by the stars, which he totally couldn't see because of the tree canopy, you know, and hadn't had any search pattern in mind when he came in here. He'd just kinda thought he'd stumble across the nest again by sheer accident.

Shane chuffed and grabbed a bell in her mouth, dragging the rest of the trap free of his legs, and Kiel hopped to his feet to brush the dirt and moss off his butt. Remembering Ionia's earlier question, Kiel scrunched up his face and thought back. “When? Ummmmm, like, forever ago, man.” Shrugging his backpack onto his shoulder, he stuck his tongue out to think. “Like, back in, like, Telominas, I think. I was here for some herbs and stuff 'cause my neighbour's kids were, like, sick and miserable, you know, but when I came out of the jungle, Kazu-man was broken down on the side of the road. Like, he's a merchant, right, and his carriage broke a wheel, you know, so we went to Serendipity for help and when we got back the driver who stayed behind was just, like, gone, you know? It was creepy, man, way creepy!”

To reinforce the creepiness of it all, he clutched at Rafael's biceps and shook the guy a bit. Only then did he realise he'd accidentally ignored the offer to shake hands. “Wah! I'm Kiel.” Latching on to the Zanaryan's hand with both of his, he shook it vigorously to make up for his earlier rudeness. “Taskel. Like, Kiel Taskel. And that's Shane. And, wah!” He didn't think Ionia would know this yet, 'cause he hadn't bonded with Pria until after the expedition, so he let go of her companion to clutch at her hands instead and practically split his head open with a huge grin. “I got a dragon, wahahahahaha! Her name's Pria, how awesome is that? She can totally help with the hydra if we get, like, find a clearing or something.”

[Ionia]

When Raphael asked which way Kiel'd come from, to which the 'vari pretty much failed to give an answer, Nia chuckled derisively and secured the last bits of string into her backpack. If Kiel had been anybody else, Nia would have thought he was playing her and Raphael, and she would have flipped. Instead, she merely strapped on her backpack as her djinni friend edged beside her. As the 'vari started rambling about herbs and a merchant, the zanaryan muttered, “taroch dung. Do we really want him along?” This was said with an emphasized scan of his surroundings. All this chatter was going to attract attention soon.

“He can be bait,” Nia responded sweetly, and just as quietly, “Beside, Kiel has the most dumb luck out of anybody I've ever met.” At this point, Kiel had grabbed her friend to shake hands, and Nia tried to step back before he could grab her hand, but then it was too late and he was grinning too widely at her like a kid on his birthday.

...and she realized he had a dragon. Hel yes.

“Dragons are great,” she agreed, and not without a sideways smile at her hunter friend. See? Kiel could be useful. Pulling her hand from the 'vari's grip, Nia asked, “Where is she? Is she willing to fight?” Many 'varis lacked control over their dragons, and what good was a dragon if you had to wheedle and bargain every time you wanted its help. They'd sooner be dead in battle.

“Does she breathe fire?” laughed Raphael, who was rotating life back into his wrists after Kiel's enthusiastic handshake. After glancing at Nia and then eyeing the skies (or what could be seen of it through the trees), he turned and walked purposefully away from the campsite. “Let's move. Hydra's not gonna help us find itself.”

[Kiel]

Like, Kiel wasn't deaf, you know, and what he didn't catch Shane did. The Chosen bond wouldn't let her speak to him directly but, like, her emotional reaction was enough to clue him in at least a little bit to their disapproval. His enthusiasm dulled for a second, even as he continued to talk over them, but he was totally used to it. The guys at the dojo had all gradually warmed up to him but, like, the first time Zeph took him there, he almost got into a fight with them 'cause they thought he was, like, some lame-ass kid brother faking his eye colour or something. These guys were no different, he guessed.

“Hahahahaha, she does, she does! She's way cool, man, but, like, it's kind of a tight squeeze in here, you know, so she's gone swimming for a bit. She said to call her back if I found the hydra and got it to someplace she could get at it, you know? Like a clearing or something,” he repeated, already following after Rafael with Shane right on his heels.

In the next few minutes, he'd managed to tell them all about his part in the trip to Dionica and several incidents at work since then, until Shane paused with one foot in the air and her head turned to what Kiel thought was probably the east. Her ears twitched, her face tipping up slightly and her nostrils flaring. “Uh, guys? Like, I think we should go that way, you know?”

[Ionia]

Once they started following Raphael, Kiel started going on about what he did in Dionica, the temple, his work in some smithery. Nia wasn't one to talk much, so she was fine with letting him do the talking...but the forests at night were just not the place for all that noise. On the other hand, perhaps they did want attention, and the hydra might come to hunt them—and later be hunted.

It was difficult to pay attention to her surroundings though, because as much as she'd hate to admit it, the trip to Dionica sounded exciting. She no longer prayed to Xanth and had no interest in protecting a priest, but she would have liked to be there for the rare sights and treasure.

Suddenly, the shadowcat looked intently toward their side. Nodding in agreement with Kiel, Nia pushed aside a low branch and trudged in the direction. As she walked briskly, she tentatively spiraled her shadows forward to feel the environment. At the same time, she felt minor breezes from all sorts of directions, indicating that Raphael was most likely doing the same.

The pattern continued for a while until her shadows suddenly hit something heavy. The thing on the ground was many meters away and she couldn't see it from where they were, but she instinctively dug her shadows into the flesh. When it didn't budge, Nia hissed and retracted her shadows. “Something's up ahead.”

Raphael pulled an arm inward, and a rank breeze flowed toward their group. “Smells something awful.”

[Kiel]

“Ew. Ew, like, ew. What is that?” Kiel wished he was wearing sleeves instead of the vest he'd decided was a good idea in the heat. Like, he wanted to cover his mouth and nose with the fabric, you know, but all he had was his hand and that totally wasn't enough.

Approaching the smelly thing slowly (more from a reluctance to get nearer to the smell than any caution), Kiel, like, nudged it with his foot. He squealed and jumped back when it rolled over to reveal a gaping skull stripped of most of its flesh by, well, like, whatever had eaten it. And insects. “Ewwwwwwww.” The thing was riddled with insects. “I'm gonna puke. Ergh.”

He had dealt with corpses before, but, like, that guy he and Maaike found on the edge of the lake near Hesia hadn't been in nearly this bad a condition. “H... How old do you think... Like, how long do you think he's been dead?” He couldn't imagine the corpse staying even as intact as this for long in this humidity and heat. Like, jungle predators and scavengers could strip a body in just, like, a matter of hours. “Erh, I'm really gonna puke. Like, it's gross, it's gross.”

Shane agreed. Her ears were flat to her head and her top lip pulled back in, like, a frightened snarl. Kiel scruffed a hand around her ears to, like, chill her out or something 'cause she was beginning to freak him out. Her lip lowered but her ears stayed flat. Kiel butted the side of her face with an elbow and, like, tittered. “It's cool, it's cool.” Ruffling her fur again, he nudged the corpse with the toe of his boot again, looking for any, like, form of identification or something that would tell him who the poor guy was.

“You think he's a villager? Like, a Serendipitian or something? One of the guys who went missing?” Something clunked and his foot nosed around a bloody dagger. His face pulled into a frown and he bent closer to lift it gingerly. “Um. Like, maybe somebody will recognise this back at Serendipity. I guess, like, maybe we should take it with us or something, okay?” He didn't want to carry it around with him, covered in blood and gooey stuff like that, but it might be all the guy's family had left of him. “And, like, we should build a funeral pyre or something. Take the body with us?” He scratched his head as Shane sniffed at the bloody blade, not sure what to do but, like, determined they weren't going to leave the poor guy here.

[Ionia]

“Send it away,” she hissed at Raphael as another focused breeze of odor floated in their direction. She raised an arm as she covered her mouth and nose with her hand, but that really didn't help much. The Zanaryan looked equally disgusted, and as he nodded, air pushed forth from behind them to drive the smell away. However, the odor kept returning, and it grew stronger as they found the source of it.

She was only grateful that the night was dark enough and that the darkness spared her from most of the color and detail. Gagging, Nia concurred with Kiel as they saw the skinned carcass that was half-entrenched in dirt. Nia might have laughed at Kiel's squeal, but she was too busy suppressing a yelp of her own. She'd seen plenty corpses on the battlefields, but none so mutilated, and dismembered like this one. “Errngh--what in Neme's shadows...”

As they examined the body and Kiel threatened to puke, Nia speculated. “Decay hits faster in this warm weather. Can't see well enough, but from the smell? More than a day.” Ugh, let her stop smelling this. Eyes widening pointedly at Raphael, she waved an arm until he came closer as well. Corresponding with the azat's proximity, a welcome breeze arrived with Raphael to recirculate the air. Pulling out her glowing shevrock, Nia handed it to Raphael before crouching toward the ground. With the air smelling cleaner from the constant breeze, Ionia was more comfortable with getting closer to the fallen being. Shadows peeling away from the ground to form a snake-like figure, she used it to poke at the collar and under the sleeves for signs of a tag or other form of identification. Finding none, she stood to take the knife from Kiel. Nia felt the handle and found it without inscriptions. Stupid—this was why all seasoned anyeli marked their belongings. Otherwise a solder may never be found.

Hearing Kiel's suggestion, she shook her head. “No. We're not taking the body.” The idea was ridiculous.

“Ain't right to leave a person lying how we found him,” said the Zanaryan.

With a huff, Nia responded, “We'll have to. We'll waste the night otherwise.”

“We'll build a quick pyre.”

Nia dropped the dagger to the ground. “Helfire, the thing's been here for over a day and the hydra's gonna disappear if it hasn't already!”

The air turned murkier as Raphael crossed his arms and the breezes stopped circling. “A person is not a thing, Nia!”

“Oh-kay,” she grit her teeth. By now she was glaring at her companion. “But we're still leaving. Now.”

Raphael swore in Zanaryan, and then, “Kiel agrees. Right?”

[Kiel]

“Wah! Yeah, man, no way we can leave the poor guy here, okay? Whew, that's better. Thanks, man. Like, but maybe we can leave him here 'til we get the hydra and then, like, come back and take him to the village. 'Cause, like, you know. Like, right?” He'd been raised to respect the dead. This guy might have been from one of the folk snatched from Serendipity, or he could have been, like, a hunter like them,, trying to defend the locals against the hydra. “Like, at least he wasn't a kid. Like, I'm pretty sure he wasn't a kid.” The corpse was too big for that, thank Xanth.

Ruffling Shane's ears, Kiel shot the 'kin a weak smile. “You can remember the scent and bring us back here later, right?” Even now, he wasn't sure shadowkins could actually understand, like, words and stuff, but he was pretty sure she understood what he wanted anyway. They just had to hope the remains were still here when they smooshed the hydra.

Turning away, reluctant to leave still, Kiel drew in a sharp breath and clicked his tongue. Recognising that they were, like, done with the corpse or whatever, Shane stuck her nose back to the ground and sniffed her way to what Kiel decided he would call "north", just because it was forwards from his current position. “Hey, hey, let's go that way, okay? Like, I think she caught another scent or something.”

OOC: Not sure how long a quest you want to aim for? We could find the nest next?

[Ionia]

If Nia had her way, they wouldn't backtrack to the body at all. However, if agreeing with Kiel meant that they could walk away for now, then she would do it. “Yes, wonderful. We can come back later.” With luck, the shadowkin might not know how to return to this place. Glancing toward Raphael, Nia caught the suspicious look that he was sending at her, and she decided not to look at him anymore. The shadowkin's nose was stuck close to the ground again and she seemed to have caught a scent.

Boots crunching over a fallen tree branch, Nia picked up her pace as the shadow-creature sped up its hunt. Simultaneously, small traces of a breeze came in their direction to rustle Nia's hair as Raphael 'tasted' the air for signs of things out of place.

They had been walking for at least a half-mile when abruptly, the slope of the ground decended. With a gasp, Nia skidded a few inches before re-gaining traction over the gravel. Squinting into the dark, she hesitated before continuing to follow the shadowkin. As her own shadows slithered over the sloping ground, Nia placed a hand upon a tree for balance. One of the extdensions bumped against a patchy place of ground, and she paused uncertainly. A few inches more and she realized that her shadows had stretched over the rib of an animal. Small deer, she thought as the shadows traveled north and felt horns.

“Place smells like death,” said Raph, and Nia was momentarily confused until they wandered some more and found that their new location was tainted with musk and rot. “There's a cave up ahead.” said the Zanaryan, and Nia heard the slide of steel as he pushed the sword out of the scabbard.

Hydras were too bulky to move quietly, but they were damn fast. Branches cracked and leaves flew into the air as the hydra shot out of the foliage and toward the smallest target. Just one snap would have split Shane in two. Grinning viciously, Nia lashed a whip of shadows toward the hydra head to deflect it from Kiel's pet. The head hissed and jerked backward, but the others remained persistent. One...two...three...four... Just how many heads had this hydra grown!?

[Kiel]

Kiel missed the by-play between Nia and Rafael this time 'cause he was too busy trying to keep up with Shane. Like, the 'kin was moving fast so she'd caught some serious scent. Which, like, kinda ew, now that he thought about it.

Kiel managed to keep quiet, like, most of the way, but when they discovered the cave, his spidey senses tingled. “Like, dude. So this isn't creepy at all, you know? Does anyone else think-- Wah!” Shane snarled and knocked him aside. Kiel landed flat on his backpack with something digging into his kidney and, like, rolled over by instinct. “Shane!” Like, for a second, he thought she was a goner and there was, like, nothing he could do to stop it! But then a shadow whipped across the hydra's head and it stopped shy of snapping those sharp little teeth around the 'kin, who, with, like, lightning reflexes phased into the same shadow to come out at Nia's feet.

“Dude, Nia, you're awesome!” He owed the Skotadi way more than she'd ever know just because of that one act. Like, Shane was his Chosen, you know? If she'd died... But then the number of heads sparked a response in his brain and his jaw dropped. “Like, dude, I thought this thing would be a baby! Not, like, the megazoid of all hydras!” It was an exaggeration because adults had way more heads than this, but, like, dude! He was so totally unprepared for five heads. “Wah!”

Rolling again as one of the heads lunged at him, Kiel automatically sank one of his throwing knives into the eye and then was just, like, “Too close, too close, too close!” The head screamed and jerked back, flicking blood as it twisted this way and that. Kiel used the opening to lunge to his feet and tossed three more knives at the throat. Didn't stop it squalling, or really hurt it, but, like, the head pulled back against the body so it was out of commission for a second.

“Shane, go for the tail, okay? Like, nomnom!” The 'kin phased along Nia's shadows to pounce on the hydra's rear end, claws scratching and, like, fangs scraping. Whenever a head came for her, she phased back, in and out, and, like, Kiel tried to distract the monster with his knives. “Wah, I only have ten left! Like, wah!”

[Ionia]

Five heads! This was even better than what Nia had expected! Dirt and leaves scattered in the air as the five hydra heads attacked the hunters. Kiel's compliment flew unnoticed by Nia as she concentrated on the shadows at her disposal. Yanking her initial shadow loose from the hydra heads, the skotadi crouched and lunged out of the way as another hydra head attacked the shadowkin that had re-materialized beside her. As the hydra's head sank into the dirt and withdrew, Nia bat its neck with a thick pillar of shadow. Drawing her dagger, she swiped at the fangs of another head that had swerved at her from the side. She tucked her wings flat against her back. In this close fight, they were more of a liability than anything else.

Through the chaos of hydra screams and Raph's battlecries, Nia heard Kiel shout about having only ten knives. “Aim for the eyes then!” she yelled as she parried another bite from the hydra. She wasn't going to share any of her weapons unless absolutely necessary. Rutilus 'vari did not travel with just one type of weapon anyway, so she assumed that Kiel would switch to something else once his knives were gone.

“Nia!” Without warning, the third head struck from behind her. She had only a thin barrier of shadows for protection when it collided and the impact slapped her into the heavy trunk of the first head. Grunting as her breath burst out of her lungs, she stabbed at the hydra's neck and ducked under as the neck recoiled and rose from the ground. Neck dripping blood, the hydra thrashed its tail with a roar that was followed by a heavy thunk that resounded meters away away. “Mother of kelpies!” cursed the muffled voice of the Zanaryan as he climbed away from the tree he'd crashed into.

As the two other heads swerved toward Kiel and the hydra struck its tail at Raphael again, Nia pulled out her second dagger. Slicing at the screeching snake-head that launched at her from below, she used the momentum to flip and avoid the other head that attacked her side. As she flipped, she used her weight to bury the daggers deeper into the hydra's neck, and when her feet touched the ground, she managed to pull only one of her weapons out. Eyes glittering as her target flailed from the steel in its flesh, Nia spotted the shadowkin nearby and she extended a web of shadows into their mutual vicinity. Shane could use it for only a short time frame. The webs shot up as Nia lunged at the wounded hydra head.

Strings of shadows pulled the dripping hydra-head closer to Nia as she drove her remaining dagger upward and through the leathery skin of the hydra's jaw. Grasping the dagger that was already in the hydra's neck, she twisted and pulled both daggers until they came loose with sprays of warm liquid. With a laugh of triumph, Nia disentegrated her shadows. “That's all you've got!?” Vengefully, the other head shot forward to wrap a long neck around Nia's body.

Dying but not dead yet, the-wounded-one readied to strike as the walls constricted around Nia. The skotadi growled, and shadows blossomed out of her wings before spiking downward to stab the neck that trapped her. Simultaneously, the bulky djinn descended from above to slice a broadsword clean through the neck of the wounded-one, and the second neck weakened from shock of the first one's decapitation. After Nia slipped free and fell to the ground, she was clobbered in the side by a flailing tail. The anyeli rolled on the ground a few times before her arm crunched over the skeleton of a decaying rabbit. “Ugh!”

[Kiel]

One head down, fifty billion to go and, like, Kiel was out of knives. When Nia told him to aim for the knives, he'd already been doing it, and, like, he told her as much. “I am, I am! I am aiming for the eyes but they keep moving!” He was a pretty good shot, like, in theory. He actually wasn't too bad in practise, either, but, like, there were a lot of obstacles in the jungle, okay? And, like, they were getting their butts kicked and bitten and, like, swatted, okay? Ah, he hoped he didn't get bitten. He didn't wanna be hydra food, okay? And, like, they were poisonous, too! That could probably, like, explain why the body back there was so quickly dessicated, like, maybe.

“Nia!” When the hydra wrapped around the Skotadi and started to be all, like, mighty crushing machine, Kiel sliced through flesh with his katana. He wasn't causing much damage, though, and flipped back to distract the other heads while Rafe cut clean through the neck. “Like, dude, guys, we gotta get it to a clearing or something, okay? Pria can be all, like, eat the thing, okay?” Even with the four of them going at it, it totally had the advantage. “Nia, you okay?” Like, he didn't want it to be just the three of them, you know?

But how to get the thing to follow them? He cast a glance about the jungle, searching, ducking, searching some more... “There! Up there, guys, okay? Rarrrrr!” Blasting at the hydra's belly with his katana and, like, every ounce of strength he had, he tormented and rolled back, tormented and rolled back. Shane picked up on what he was trying to do, using the shadows cast by trees and Nia to phase in and out. Like, guerrilla tactics, you know? The hydra slowly but surely began to follow, but there were still, like, too many heads to keep it up.

“Nia, can you, like, block the vision of, like, all but one of the heads? Like, maybe we can focus our attacks, you know?” If she could, like, take the other heads out of the equation, he and Rafe could be all, like, "rawr" and stuff and take them out one by one. Like, hopefully before it ate them.

[Ionia]

There was rabbit gunk on her arm, and it smeared even more as Nia half-rolled, half-leapt out of the way of another hydra head. “Which way?” she called to Kiel as the 'vari spoke about his dragon. The crush of the hydra's grip still echoed in Nia's wings, and as she shook her wings out, Nia quickly reversed her grip on one of her daggers. Shadows struck out at the persistent hydra head, and she followed-through with a swipe of her dagger.

Understanding where Kiel was going, Nia planted her feet flat on the ground and punched her shadows toward the nearest hydra head. When the shadows wrapped thickly over the snake, it connected with the next before breaking the link. A third shadow loomed upward from the underbelly of the hydra before circling over the snake's eyes and nose. The manipulation had taken the brunt of her focus, and by the time she could spare any movement, the hydra was already towering over her. One of the blinded heads reared and lashed aimlessly. “Raph?”

A strong blash of wind caught at Nia's open wings and sent her high into the air. Flipping over, she tucked her wings in and landed in a ready stance behind Kiel as the red-eyed Elysian tackled the hydra with sight. “Hanging on?” said the voice of the wind-bearer, and Nia felt a hand on her shoulder before Raph ran toward Kiel and the battling hydra.

Feet side-stepping backward, Nia steadied her eyes upon the covered hydra heads. She couldn't see the shadowy blindfolds since they blended so well in the dark, but years of training and execution had granted her a sort-of-sense of where her shadows moved. With the blindfolds in place, she rejoined the fight by lashing out with her shadows whenever she saw an opening between Kiel and Raph's attacks. There were moments when she lost her hold after Kiel or Raph sliced extra-violently at the hydra, or when the hydra heads attacked blindly. But if any of the shadows dissolved, another quickly resumed its place around the hydra's eyes and muzzle. “There!” Raph pointed at a brighter spot of the jungle. He attacked the hydra brazenly, and when the heads and body lunged collectively toward Raph, the zanaryan ran toward what was most likely a clearing.

With the other eyes blinded, the hydra's attacks quickly became focused. As Kiel launched forward again, the other three honed in on the 'vari, and the four heads attacked all at once. A chain of shadows pulled one of the heads away from Kiel while another head was deflected as Raphael blocked with his sword.

[Kiel]

“Oh, crap, like, wah!” Blinkering the heads to focus their attacks totally had the opposite effect. Like, dude, at this rate they'd all be dead before they even got close to a place where Pria could come in and be all, like, save the day.

“Dude! Like, dude, that's great, okay, but, like, maybe we should—waaaah!” As he dodged one head, another swiped him right in the gut, like, booming him back off his feet and blasting him into the trunk of a tree. He felt something schick into the small of his back, like, a tree branch poking into him as he slid down the rough bark to land on his butt. Which was a totally awesome thing to do because, like, he narrowly missed a third head launching at where his chest had just been.

He had to, like, shake his head to clear out the stars and rolled away. “Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” He found himself looking up at the underside of a ridged jaw and reacted totally without thinking about it. Blood dripped like an avalanche on top of him as his katana sliced through the vulnerable flesh there. The head reared back, blood still cascading from the deep slice, and the beast tripped sideways. A tree cracked and groaned under the weight and for, like, a second or two, Kiel totally thought they'd won.

But they hadn't because, like, the hydra steadied. Dragging the two heads they'd already taken out of play and Shane gnawing on its ankle, the thing lunged at the three of them with its remaining heads simultaneously. Kiel rolled again, punched the head with the butt of his katana, and raced toward the clearing with a “Rawrrrrr!” that swiftly turned into another “Wahhhh!”

[Ionia]

Admittedly, Nia worried briefly for Kiel when she saw the 'vari sandwiched between the hydra and a tree. However, a flash of silver caught the snakehead, and she felt her shadows give out from the impact when the hydra collided int the wrong side of Kiel's katana. For a moment, all Nia wanted to do was stare as the dark rain that poured over the 'vari and spread an arc in the air. Between the blood-smeared 'vari and the stumbling hydra that was now two heads shorter, the sight was an artistic sort of macabre. “Such a mess,” muttered Nia in her own language as she parried an attacking head. If she wanted to retrieve the venom, she'd have to go through that mess too and no doubt become just as blood-smeared as Kiel.

Raph shouted and beckoned at them from the opening of the clearing. Hearing her friend, Nia yanked at some invisible strings, and with a jerk, the shadowy muzzles fell off and dissolved from two of the hydra heads. Tucking her wings in, the skotadi sprinted toward the zanaryan, keeping her distance as Kiel joined them as well.

“Where is she?” she spoke of the dragon as a sharp crack resounded from behind them. As a low branch crashed to the jungle floor and the hydra clambered through the undergrowth, Nia raised her left arm defensively and readied her dagger hand. When the hydra head lunged toward her, Nia shot shadows out from her wings. One tendril wrapped around the head to blind it while a heavier shadow punched to deflect the hydra's attack. Using the momentum to open a few meters of distance between herself and the creature, Nia landed on her feet and glanced warily at the skies. There was promise of dragonfire, and she had best not be caught in it.