Bad, Bad Captain

[NekoRulers]

Ayano smiled as she approached the market of Scara Brae. It had been a rough journey full of rough weather, bandits, road blocks, and inevitably bland food. It would be nice to get something besides random bits of vegetation to eat. Maybe the food here would be cooked with spices. Her mouth watered just thinking of it. And suddenly she was upon the market place. The cat-girl hesitated for a moment, seeing the dense crowd, but she was hungry enough to go through it.

The neko picked up the pace as she waded through the thickly packed mass of people doing their shopping. Her boots clunked on the cobblestones as she ran. A few of them moved out of the way for her, but most of the time she had to push people to make any progress.

“Ribbons for your hair?” a vender called out as she passed him.

“No thanks!” she yelled over her shoulder, but probably wasn’t heard.

The whole place was ablaze with chatter, vendors calling out their wares, and bartering. There were soldiers posted in different places, leaning against brick walls while pretending to monitor the crowd.

“Hungry, Beako?” the cat-girl asked as her tiny blue companion zoomed about her head in tight circles. “Hold on, we’re almost there.”

Ayano scanned the place for somewhere that offered food. There were people selling iron wares, weaponry, dolls, cloth, dresses, and armor but no food. Then, suddenly she caught the aroma of dumplings. As if reading her mind, Beako grabbed a lock of her black hair and began to frantically pull her in the direction of the dumpling stand.

An old man ran the brightly colored stall. He had wrinkled features and long grey hair pulled back into a ponytail. The man’s beard was trimmed to end just a few inches from his chin. He handed out little dumplings to his customers, just barely keeping up with their orders. Ayano scampered up to the line, gasping from the endless amount of running the day had brought so far.

“Dumplings, please.” the cat-girl panted

“One gold please,” he said with a hand outstretched, teasingly mimicking her pant

Beako was one step ahead of her. He neatly deposited a coin into the man’s hand, and smiled as the vendor tossed him a morsel with a smile. Ayano looked on as the man rolled out the dough, and began to arrange the insides so it sat just in the center of it. He scooped out the soup and added just a tiny spoonful. Then, with a practice made quickness, pinched them shut. They were just being heated up when…

“Come with me please.” said a male voice in her ear

Ayano turned to see a guard standing behind her. He had a clean shaved face with blue eyes. None of his features betrayed a hint of what she was needed for as he grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her from the dumpling stand.

“Let go, mister!” snapped the cat-girl. She really wasn’t in the mood to be dragged away from her meal.

The soldier let her snatch her elbow back, but gestured for her to follow him.

“Sorry about that, it’s official business I assure you. I’m taking you to see the head guard.”

“What?!” Ayano yelped “I haven’t done a thing.”

The man just shrugged, and lead her down a maze of alleys. Eventually they made their way onto a main street. Soon they had turned a number of corners and were standing in front of an official looking building. They went up a flight of the stone building’s stairs and went down a hallway of plush red carpet. After turning a key into the lock of the door at the end of the hallway, the guard pushed the door open. He gestured for Ayano to go in, and closed the door behind her.

Behind a mahogany desk, a large man with a scar ridden face sat reading over what Ayano assumed was reports. The cat-girl coughed loudly to make sure he knew she was there. Beako shifted on her shoulder.

“I know you’re there.” the man snapped “Take a seat.”

The neko looked around at the multitude of straight backed chairs that stood in front of the desk. She slowly sat down, and Beako took his normal position. He sat on her head and got comfortable. Ayano tentatively raised her hand.

“Yes?” he asked without raising his eyes from the papers.

Secretly Ayano wondered how he could have known she raised her hand, but kept the question to herself.

“Why am I here?”

“Wait for the others to arrive.” he said firmly.

[Sifer]

Nymraif had been scurrying around the food stands as he decided what he wanted to eat. He searched and searched until finally he came across a stand overflowing with fruit. No one would notice if he would sneak a small apple or orange into his pocket. He slowly got closer, stopping at every other stand and taking time to look around before finally he made a straight beeline toward the fruit stand. He walked right past the stand and quickly snagged an apple out of a basket. He kept walking with a smirk on his face until after about five and a half steps he heard yelling behind him.

“Hey you! Get back here thief!” The owner of the stand had spotted him stealing and guards started to round up around the stand.

Nymraif broke into a dead sprint as he gained a small amount of ground between himself and the guards. He tucked into several alleys weaving in and out between buildings. Every turn he looked over his shoulder and noticed that the guards were hot on his trail. He turned another corner and saw a door ajar. Nymraif scrambled into the building and shut the door behind him; several guards passed the door in a dead sprint yelling different directions. He turned around as he took a bite out of the apple he had stolen and dropped it as he saw another guard sitting behind a desk. He smiled at his terrible luck as the guard stared him down.

“I think your going to sit over there and Ill forget about that whole ordeal.” The guard said to Nymraif.

Nymraif was dumbstruck. He couldn’t believe that the guard had just told him he would basically pardon his thievery. Why did the guard want him to sit down though? He began walking toward the chair when he noticed another person in the room. Upon closer inspection Nymraif realized it was a half person, it appeared to be some half-cat half-human creature. He sat down and stared at the strange creature, he had never seen one before.

[2-in-1]

Delta was walking around Scara Brae hoping to find an inn when somebody snuck up behind her and put a knife to her neck. Instinctively, she elbowed the man in the ribs and proceeded to beat up on him until he was unconcious, and then continued to beat on him until a guard grabbed her arm.

"Enough!!! You are not the hand of the law." the guard said to Delta calmly.

"He attacked me first, I was just defending myself." Delta replied.

"I know that, and I thank you. This man is a wanted criminal. You know, though, there is something you can help us with. Follow me if you are interested"

Delta followed the guard into a regal looking rom with a catgirl and a wood elf were waiting.

"Wait here." ordered the guard.

After about five minutes, Delta spoke up. "So, does anyone know why we are here?"

[Cassandra]

Cassandra Skye walked at an easy pace through the busy marketplace. She’d just gotten off a ship and was looking for fresh food and place to sleep. Neither of those had presented themselves to her yet and she was beginning to get a little annoyed. The cacophony of raised voices from street vendors as they hawked their wares, children yelling, and mothers scolding was a welcome change of pace from what had been a fairly quiet trip on the ferry.

Where the heck have all the food stalls gone to? I need fresh food, dammit.

The young, green-eyed woman was dressed in her usual outfit of tan pants that tapered to the leg, down to just past the knee, so that her ankles were bare. Her shirt was ivory today and had large, billowy sleeves. A wide leather strap crossed her chest diagonally, holding the dual-bladed weapon she used to her back. In her hand, being used like a walking stick, was a long staff made of oak. It had a steel cap on each end and made a light thunk each time she set it down. The thunk of her staff was the only sound she made as she walked, her leather clad feet made no sound on the road.

The savory aroma of food cooking drifted through the air. Cassandra inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she relished the smell then began to follow it. Her hips swung gently from side to side as she walked, though the view was somewhat obstructed by her newest weapon. Her brown hair was worn loose today and it too, swung gently from side to side as she walked. The aroma grew more delicious as she neared its source, a vender selling little potpies, smiled jovially as he dished up more pies than Cassandra cared to try to keep up with.

“I’ll have one chicken pot pie, please.”

The vendor nodded and went about his work. In just under two minutes, Cassandra was again walking down the street, this time a small pie in one hand and a fork in the other. The chicken was good and moist, the vegetables cooked to perfection, and the gravy was the most delicious thing she’d tasted in quite awhile. All she had left now, was to find an inn.

The crowd parted behind her as two townguards moved directly toward her. No one really paid any attention to where the guards were going and a few seconds after they had passed, the guards were forgotten. They caught up quickly with their quarry and one laid a large hand on Cassandra’s shoulder.

Surprised, Cassandra turned around, wondering who on Althanas would be sneaking up behind her like that. Prepared to give the perpetrator the tongue-lashing of their life, the words stuck in her throat as she realized who had stopped her.

“Come with us.”

The words were spoken quickly and sharply. The one with his hand on her shoulder released it as both turned on their heels to lead the way. Cassandra, wanting no trouble and curious as ever, followed along quickly, eating her meal as quickly as she could without burning herself. Somehow, she knew that wherever they were going, she would not be allowed to eat once there.

The guards led the way down several streets and finally to a large building. Cassandra had seen it before, but never had a cause to go inside. She gulped down the last of her pot pie and tried not to look nervous as they led the way inside and to a room with a few other people in it.

The room was quite nice, but Cassandra took no notice of it. Apparently, she was not the only one that had been called upon. Curiosity outweighed any fear she might have felt otherwise as she walked slowly up to where there was a chair and took a seat.

“Ummm, hello?”

[NekoRulers]

((It looks like Minotaur isn't coming, so we'll just move along.))

Ayano sat fidgeting for a while. Beako floated up and sat on her head, between her cat ears. He nestled deep into her long black hair and got comfy. The cat-girl sighed. That meant it was going to be a long wait. Suddenly, the door burst open and a blond elf came running in holding an apple. The neko smiled, but the apple made her stomach growl. She had never gotten those dumplings. Ayano almost laughed at the expression on the elf’s face when he saw that a guard was sitting in the room. Guessing by the shouts of other guards coming from down the hall, she assumed he had committed a crime of sorts. Her mouth dropped open in surprise as Mr. Head Guard said

“think your going to sit over there and Ill forget about that whole ordeal.”

Somehow he just didn’t seem like the type to be so generous. Ayano turned as the elf sat down. He stared at her curiously as though he had never seen her like before. The cat-girl guessed he hadn’t. With a mental shrug, she smiled in his direction.

“My name is-”

“Please be quiet,” said the man at the desk

So, instead she waved in his direction happily. It was only a moment later when another elf, female this time, entered the room. Knowing that talking was futile with Mr. Stiff sitting at the desk she didn’t speak, just waved like before.

“ So, does anyone know why we are here?" the elf asked

“So you can sit here and wait for everyone else to arrive,” the head guard answered, and his quill continued to scratch on the parchment.

Then a knocking came on the door. Ayano tried to twist around so she could see who was coming in this time, but bits of the wooden chair dug into her back. It was obviously built to keep its occupants well focused on whoever was up front. The cat-girl flicked her blond cat ears back so she could hear the man’s speech better.

“Sir, I brought the dumplings.”

It sounded like the man who had brought her here.

“What?” asked the man at the desk

“The lady ordered dumplings before I brought her here and never got to eat them. Sir, I expect that she is very hungry.”

“Well don’t stand there like an idiot, Jonathan.” the man at the desk said, “Give them to her and leave. Get out of my sight as fast as you can.”

“Yes sir!” said Jonathan happily, and flounced into Ayano’s field of vision. “Here you go!”

The guard planted a neatly bundled pack of dumplings into her hands. The scent coming from them made the neko’s mouth water. Those were her dumplings, alright.

“Thank you, Jonathan.” she said with a grin

“Your welcome. What’s your name, because-”

“Get out!” barked the head guard, and Jonathan promptly fled.

The cat-girl began to make motions with her hands to the room’s other occupants, asking if they wanted any lunch. They were briefly cut off by a hard look from the man at the desk. So Ayano ate in silence. When she was done, she began to wipe her hands on a napkin that was tied to the package. On it at the corner, was a hastily drawn caricature of the man at the desk. Jonathan had drawn him really well; hunched over the desk, flying through papers like a madman. Ayano giggled slightly and was about to show the drawing to the blond wood elf at her right when another person walked in. A pleasant looking woman with brown hair and green eyes strolled into the office and sat down.

“Ummm, hello?” she asked

Immediately the man at the desk stood up and walked in front of his desk to pace back and forth in front of them. Ayano sympathized with the way he favored his left leg slightly, but knew that his pacing was supposed to be intimidating.

“Do you know why you are here?” his voice was clipped, without waiting for an answer he continued. “You,” he pointed to the newest arrival “were chosen for a reason that the guard who picked you has yet to tell me. You,” he pointed to the female elf “was chosen for your enthusiasm for taking the law into your own hands. You,” now he pointed to the wood elf “are a very good thief to avoid my guards for so long. And you,” he pointed at Ayano “were chosen for your victory over multiple bandits while on the road. Yes, I do know that blades can spring out of that nicely carved staff at any time.”

Ayano habitually began to run her fingers over the many intricate carvings on her bo staff. She was very protective of it. That bo was her trusted weapon of choice for a long time.

“You are here because I am here.”

“I’m confused, sir.” said Ayano

“The previous captain turned coat and left us. We want him back.” the captain’s voice became angry as he slammed his hand down on the desk, “The vagabond keeps avoiding all my agents, all my guards, even the ones in disguise! It’s because he knew them already! But you, you people he doesn’t know and so you can hunt him down.” The captain seemed to sag as his voice turned weary, “I’ll pay you what you deserve when he is turned into my hands. We would prefer to have him alive, but if you kill him that’s okay as well. My spies have found that he comes into the market to by supplies for his hideout every day right about twenty-minutes from now.” he handed everyone in the room a small black and white drawing of the traitor captain’s likeliness, “he looks like that. You had better get started. Now he’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

[2-in-1]

Delta decided that she would wait for this guy at the town armory. It was the most obvious place to wait since she was pretty sure that the traitorous captain would need supplies from there. After about 10 minutes, Delta started to get bored. Twirling her spetum around like a baton kept her entertained for another 3 minutes, but the shopkeeper finally yelled at her to put her weapon away. Getting rather bored of waiting, Delta started looking around at the other weapons. Suddenly, she heard another customer come in, and sure enough, it was the man she had been ordered to keep an eye out for. However, she could tell right away that taking him on by herself would be stupid, so she decided to go and get the others.

[Cassandra]

Cassandra was quite confused as to why she was to stay here. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but the man at the desk soon cleared up what they were supposed to do. She still didn’t know why she had been selected for this job, but she was willing enough to help out.

Why don’t they talk to a storekeeper at one of his regular stop and set something up there? This seems rather cumbersome…oh well, not my call.

The green-eyed woman looked closely at the picture of the traitorous captain. She hadn’t seen him in the bazaar before, but she wasn’t always here in Scara Brae. That she’d never seen him meant absolutely nothing. She folded the paper up neatly and slipped it into her belt. Nodding cordially to the other people in the room, she rose and went immediately to the bazaar.

She waited amongst the food stands. Everyone had to get food at some point in time, most especially if they had any followers. Followers that were starving did not follow their leader for long. She peered carefully at each male figure that went by her, but none fit the description. The minutes crept slowly by, but still no sign of him.

Now watch, the guard is going to have gone to the trouble of hiring people and he won’t show up to—hello. Could that be him?

Hastily, she pulled the picture out again and looked quickly from it to the man that was working his way through the crowd toward her. Yes, it was he. As he passed her, she moved out to be a few feet behind him. In such a busy place no one would question if she was traveling in the same direction as he was.

[Sifer]

Hmm the guards have hired us to do their dirty work…

Guards had surprised Nymraif 3 times in one day; he was going for a record. Now they wanted his help to find a traitor and bring him in dead or alive. He didn’t really want to help them but the elf in him was telling him that it was his duty to help those in need of his assistance. So he conceded and followed his heart to the street corner opposite of one of the women that had been picked off for the same job. He mumbled a few words.

“These guards are ignorant, can’t even do their own jobs.”

He watched each face carefully while juggling several of his smoke bombs. There was a good chance that he could easily escape from sight and leave. He needed the money; it was as simple as that. If he had money he wouldn’t have even been in this mess in the first place. Some things had a funny way of correcting themselves.

The place was unusually busy. It was a high-tide sort of thing; the sun was out and the stands were set up. Not a cloud could be seen. It was a perfect day for a stroll through the market to do a small amount of shopping, even for a traitor. Another man who fitted the description of the ex-captain passed by.

Was that him?

Nymraif watched the other woman in his party. Sure enough as soon as the man passed she began walking after him. Nymraif pocketed his smoke bombs and moved out, struggling against he tide of people in order to keep up with the two. Hopefully this would be some easy and quick cash. He had a feeling it was going to take more than a simple chase through the market.

[NekoRulers]

Ayano watched the market from her spot on the roof of a building. From her experience, it was rare that people ever looked up. She had no idea why that was, but it was the truth. The cat-girl leaned on her bo slightly, and Beako perched himself on the top. They scanned the moving crowd with their eyes. Within the mass of people leisurely strolling around the market, one figure seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. The man ran slightly hunched over his bundle, protecting himself from view and his purchases from harm. He was easy to spot, and Ayano homed in on his location near immediately. Also moving differently from the herd of shoppers were the cat-girl’s companions. It seemed that they, too had seen him and were chasing him.

But… Ayano had to squint to see, but she would have sworn there were five other people she didn’t know chasing the man. Ah, she told herself. That makes sense. Why would the captain send one team when he could have two? So it was a competition. From what she could see, the other team were slower than her’s so she didn’t worry. The man was getting farther away.

“Come on, Beako.” Ayano stood back for a moment and then took a running jump.

Because of the building’s compact formation, it was easy for the cat-girl to jump from roof to roof. Beako held on to one of her ears as tightly as he could, unable to travel so fast on his own. One jump after another. Ayano jumped onto one roof, narrowly missing a potted plant. She could hear the house owners shaking their fists at her along with an undecipherable string of insults. The cat-girl ignored them and continued to run.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, you street rat!” yelled one woman as the neko ran by.

Ayano glared at the older woman straight in the eye before ducking under the hanging laundry and jumping to the next roof. So far the man had been running in a straight line, but then he veered sharply to the right; it would seem he was running down a deserted ally. The cat-girl followed from above, keeping very close tabs. She could feel her heart pound as she drew closer. She was gaining on him. Ayano knew that she could hit him if she jumped off the roof right at that instant, that is if she could survive the fall. From this point the neko could definitely see the resemblance between her suspect and the man on her flyer. Suddenly he ran behind a termite ridden inn. The wood seemed to hang off the building’s frame, and the windows were clouded with dust. It was time to get close.

Ayano reached down to grab onto a wall creeper. She tugged on it twice firmly in order to check its stability. Finding she could not uproot it, the girl sat next to it. Flipping herself around, she lowered herself a few feet down the wall while holding onto the vine with one hand. The other hand held her bo tightly. Beako peeped nervously, seeing the floor below. Ayano just dug the toe of her boots into the wall as far as she could, and let herself slide a few more feet. Feeling the window ledge beneath her, the cat-girl jumped off and landed as softly as she could. The whole process only took a couple moments, but as she neared the back of the inn she knew he was not there.

The cobblestones hardly echoed with her quiet footsteps as she paced back and forth in the area that her man disappeared. There was no way she could have missed him leaving. It wasn’t the kind of mistake she would make.

“Shadows take it!” she cursed, and stomped her foot in a very un-Ayano like manner.

Beako squeaked emphatically at the hollow sound this footstep made.

“Huh…” muttered Ayano to herself, and stomped on it again.

She was met with the same sound as before. Running her fingers across a very secret set of carvings on her bo, the cat-girl released the two foot blades on either end. Readying herself in a practiced stance, she jumped high into the air and twist-landed her bo into the questionable area. With a resounding snap, boards broke under the pressure of the blow. From her stand point, Ayano could see the handle she had missed earlier. It was a trap door.

“It’s really dark and dusty in there,” she said after peering in. “I suppose I should wait for my teammates, shouldn’t I?”

Beako nodded.

“They’ll be here soon, anyway.” she assured herself, and sat down with her legs dangling in the hole to wait for her new companions.

[2-in-1]

Delta looked around quickly. Where was she supposed to find the others anyway? She knew that the others were searching for the guy, but in a city this crowded, there was no way to find them. Thinking quickly, she decided to head to the rooftops to see if she could see them from a birds eye view. Just when she had gotten to the rooftop, though, she saw something go rushing past. It took her only a few seconds to realize that it was the cat girl from earlier that had just rushed past.

"That catgirl seems to know where she is going" Delta thought to herself as she decided to chase after her.

After a while, the catgirl finally started to slow down. Good thing too, since the catgirl was nearly twice as fast as Delta. Delta watched as the catgirl climbed down an old rundown building and proceeded to head behind it. After taking a breather, Delta took the stairs down to ground level and headed towards the termite infested building. The cat girl seemed to be patiently waiting for her and the others to meet her there.

Still a bit out of breath, Delta put her hand on the catgirl's shoulder.

"Man, you can run fast." Delta said, and after taking another breather, she continued speaking. "I take it you saw him too?"

Delta stared at the trap door. "So, this must be how he gets in and out of the village. Nice job tracking him down, Miss..." Suddenly, Delta realized that noone on the team had been introduced to each other. "Um, what is your name anyway? Mine is Delta Retla, nice to be working with you."

[NekoRulers]

It was only moments later that one of the team arrived. Ayano smiled as the blue-headed elf came sprinting over. The female seemed to be out of breath, and that made the cat-girl laugh at little. She had forgotten how fast she could run sometimes. The neko quietly accepted the elf's weight on her shoulder.

"Man, you can run fast. I take it you saw him too?" Her voice, too gave away her lack of breath. "So, this must be how he gets in and out of the village. Nice job tracking him down, Miss... Um, what is your name anyway? Mine is Delta Retla, nice to be working with you."

"Mine is Ayano!" the cat-girl said happily, "Nice to meet you. I think we've got him now. All we need is the rest of the team."

Beako peeped investigatively and decided to say hi to the newest arrival. He floated over gently and tried to land in Delta's hair.

"Ignore him," laughed Ayano "If he's being a pain just shake your head. I wonder where everyone else is. Did you happen to see the other team out there? I think we're pitted against about five other people."

Remembering the speed and strategy of the team that she had witnessed from the rooftops, the neko felt in neccesarry to add:

"I'm pretty sure we're gonna win though."

[2-in-1]

"I am afraid that I don't know where the others are either..." Delta said as Ayako's pet floated around her. "By the way, what is your pet's name? Also, how do we know the others will find us? If you ask me, the longer we wait, the more likely he is to get away. If the others don't get here in the next 30 minutes, I think we should go ahead without them."

Delta shook her head quickly as if to toss the thought out of her mind. "What was I thinking? We need all the help we can get, right?"

After waiting for a while, Delta pulled out her Spetum. "So, want to spar a bit to get ready for the dangers ahead while we wait?"

[NekoRulers]

((I say that we give the other's three days to reply, and then we move on without them. For three days we can just spar or something.))

"His name is Beako," the cat-girl replied, then "bring it."

In an instant blades shot out of either end of the cat-girl's bo. She swung it in a rapid figure eight to warm up. Sparring, what a great idea she thought to herself.

"Don't worry, I won't cut you with the blades. This is just practice, right?" quickly, she knelt on the ground and took two handy pieces of cloth from her pocket. She wrapped each blade with the dulling leather so she wouldn't hurt her new companion. As she tied them up, her invisible chain mail made a small chinking sound. And then the neko stood up.

She readied herself into a stance that could instantly become an offensive or defensive. Facing forward, she allowed her gold eyes to flit over her opponent, taking in whatever she could find. Satisfied, she lifted her bo over her head, and spun it in a small but quick downward spiral. A well practiced twist of muscles at the end sent one dulled blade into a downward strike aimed at the elf's legs. This move had worked multiple times on other opponents, but Ayano doubted this woman was as ignorant as the other people she had fought. So, instead of letting the move go through she decided to suddenly switch it. Why not throw the elf off guard?

Ayano relaxed her grip on the carved wood ever so slightly, so that a small length of her bo slipped through her closed hands. Letting go with her left hand, she whipped the bo up and over her head with the right. It was easy to let the long end go flying towards the elf's head. Easy and unpredictable.

[2-in-1]

(Sounds good to me.)

Delta jumped back. Her reflexes had gotten a lot better recently, but they were not quite good enough yet. She still had gotten hit in the head by the sneak attack, but just barely. She had seen the attack coming, but was unable to do anything about it in time. In truth, all jumping back did was lessen the damage, but she was still proud that she was able to even do that. Delta was not about to let it go to her head, though. She was better than that. Instead, Delta looked for an opening, but couldn't find one right away. After couple seconds, though, she saw what she was looking for. It was just too obvious to overlook the fact that Ayano had just let go of her bo with one hand, making it extremely easy to disarm her. Delta stepped in and grabbed the bo by it's wooden handle with one hand and purposefully dropped her spetum for the time being so that she could move in and grab the bo with her other hand. Delta then attempted to spin Ayano around via the staff until Ayano's grip slipped. Of course, all this took some time to pull off, and Delta was pretty sure that in that time, Ayano would have enough time to grab onto her bo with the other hand, but if worse came to worse, Delta could always let go herself and hopefully toss Ayano against a wall, giving her enough time to pick her spetum back up. Delta was also ready to dodge any counterattack this feline had ready for her, but was she fast enough to do so? Probably not. There were two things bothering her as she attempted to spin Ayano around. Ayano's claws were one and the other was reflexes.

"Hey Ayano," Delta said when she made her move "Do you have cat-like reflexes?"

[Cassandra]

Cassy moved quickly through the crowd, keeping her eye on her target. He disappeared down a side alley and she followed after him quickly. However, he managed to get away from her. Just as she was rounding the corner, she heard the thud of someone landing on the ground. Ever cautious, she came to a halt to listen. When it became obvious that it was not her target waiting for her, she rounded the corner and walked slowly down the alley, looking for where the man might have gotten to.

“Umm, what the heck are you two doing? We’re not supposed to be fighting each other and we don’t have time for practice games.”

She stood there, staff in hand trying to figure out why they were wasting their time on what she figured was sparring. She had used a staff for many years now, so she could see from the way the one girl swung her bo, that this was not a serious fight. Even so, she still did not think that they should be spending their time sparring when their target was getting further and further away.

“You should be saving your energy anyway. We don’t know what’s down there.”

Cassy indicated the open trapdoor with her staff as she walked over toward it. She knelt down beside it, trying to see how deep it went. She could only see a few feet and there were no torches.

“I don’t suppose anyone has a way of making light for us to see by?”

[NekoRulers]

Ayano smiled a little grimly when her attack knocked her opponent on the head. She just realized what she had left open. And Delta took complete advantage of that. Rushing in, the elf dropped her weapon and grabbed Ayano’s. She tried to pull it away from the cat-girl, but the cat-girl wasn’t going to let go that easy.

"Hey Ayano," Delta said "Do you have cat-like reflexes?"

“The question is, whether or not you’ll see them coming.” she replied and deftly stepped into her next move.

With all the cat like agility she could muster, the neko slammed her feet into the ground. Pushing off, she jumped into the air. While in mid jump she twisted her spine, and allowed the rest of her body to follow. This carried her up and over the elvin woman. Ayano knew that if she let herself land behind Delta, she would have a pretty good chance of getting her weapon back. Unless the elf knew how to bend her arms backwards, the only way she could escape that Ayano could see was having foreseen the move. And then there was a slight interruption.

“Umm, what the heck are you two doing? We’re not supposed to be fighting each other and we don’t have time for practice games. You should be saving your energy anyway. We don’t know what’s down there.”

The neko didn’t know who had spoken, but they were right. If this move somehow managed to wrench Delta’s arms then that would take a little off their fighting edge. But she was already so close to landing… With a mental sigh the cat-girl knew what she had to do, and she didn’t like it. Letting go of her bo, she allowed herself to fly off at an angle so that she landed on the stone floor behind and to the right of her opponent. She tried to break her fall as much as she could, but there was not stopping the impact of stone. Ayano landed with the wind knocked out of her, but no worse for the ware. Panting slightly, she stood up and walked back over to Delta.

“Good fight, but you know whoever spoke was right. We should be saving it.”

Suddenly she turned, realizing it could be a member of the other team. But no, it was just the brunet lady. The neko turned on her heel and joined the woman at the trap door. It was just as ominously black as before.

“I don’t suppose anyone has a way of making light for us to see by?” she said

“We could rub two sticks together…” muttered Ayano, until she heard some peeping.

Beako landed on her shoulder with what seemed to be an ember in his beak and some shredded paper in his feet. The cat-girl smiled. It was very like him to be so resourceful while she was busy. Taking the items, she set the paper ablaze by contact with the ember. Then, she settled the flaming mass on a piece of wood that she had broken when bursting through the trap door’s roof.

“Now we do.” she said happily.

[Sifer]

Nymraif quickly lost sight of his other teammate in the oncoming flood of travelers and shoppers. It was slowly getting darker and the sun continued to glide underneath the horizon. As he watched the sun go down in his peripheral vision he saw a cat-like woman jump from the rooftops behind a small, ugly inn. Nymraif made a sharp right and ran down an alley.

Damn they're quick.

He ventured further down the alley, no sign of any of his team yet. The small corridor led to an opening in which two people were standing, Nymraif was unable to identify them at that moment. After several cautious and stealthy steps he realized that it was actually two members of his team. This troubled him, as he could not see the remaining member, the woman he had been following.

“Has the other lady been through here yet?”

She came into view then and he wasn’t as worried. He didn’t think they would need her for this and a three way split is a lot better than a four way split but there was a chance that she would come in handy. The three of his companions were standing around a trap door with their weapons drawn. The trap door had already been opened, maybe someone had come through while his companions had been standing around it.

Had there been some sort of fight here?

"Well what are you guys waiting for? Lets get down there!"

Nymraif walked toward the small opening in the earth and slowly began stepping down a ladder. It was incredibly dark inside the small tunnel and it reaked as if something had died, then risen, and then died again. Finally he had solid earth under his feet, it seemed as if he had climbed one hundred steps to get down there. He wanted to yell back up to his partners but he couldn't because someone else might hear him.

[2-in-1]

Delta had to admit, the human was correct.

After the fight, Delta watched as the last of the group got together. The wood elf decided to head through the trapdoor first, as Delta followed (after picking up her Spetum), she whispered to the group. "As soon as possible, we should introduce ourselves to each other."

Due to the fact that even her whispers seemed to echo, Delta was extremely glad she had kept it to just a whisper.

[NekoRulers]

Ayano watched as the wood elf and her sparring partner hopped down into the hole. It was her turn. She, in no way, was going to be last. Hoisting her bo onto one shoulder and putting Beako on the other, she stepped over the edge. Bending her knees as she landed, the cat-girl noted how squishy the land felt her clunky boots. If she wasn't mistaken, this was mud and earth underneath them right now. The second thing she noted was the smell. Not really noted, actually. More like knocked out. The tunnel reaked of death, and a few other things she cared not to name.

"It smells like a necromancer and all of his cousins had some fun here." she muttered to herself.

Turning around with her torch in hand, she took into account how little of the dark her fire dispelled. At least it was something. Taking a few steps, the light revealed a grey stone wall. Every crack was pounded full with dirt. Then, the neko knelt slightly and held the torch close to the ground. There were multiple foot prints going back and forth. However, they were all from the same boot so she could guess that it was all from their prey's mulitple trips. This was going to be like chasing glow in the dark yarn. That was actually fun, she thought to herself, the memories cheering her up.

Turning to the tunnels other occupants she leaned her head close to theirs so that her voice wouldn't carry. It was neccesarry that silence be maintained as often as possible. Here, with so many echoes, she wouldn't be suprised if ones stray yelp gave them away. Then the criminal would be on them with who knows what in seconds.

"Let's wait for number four to get down here, and then we can follow the tracks." she whispered, gesturing to the foot prints "I'm Ayano by the way."

[Cassandra]

"Heads up," Cassy whispered before dropping her staff down the hole. She scrambled down the ladder and rejoined her associates, staff in hand. "I'm right here, Ayano. My name is Cassandra, but you can all just call me Cassy."

The tunnel was darker than Cassy had expected. Even though they had a torch, its light did not reach far enough to make Cassy at all comfortable with being underground. It was also not as big as she had hoped. Nervously, she looked at the faces around her. In any other situation, she would have laughed at the way the torch made the shadows dance across their faces, but right now they needed to get moving.

"All right, we're all here so let's get moving."

Cassy did not like the idea of being underground in such a small tunnel. She liked the idea of pressing ahead by herself even less. Having other people may have made it seem even smaller than it really was, but having other people around also made it easier to accept. As long as the tunnel didn't get any smaller in any way, she would be able to tolerate it. She fervently hoped that they would not have to crawl through any small openings to find this traitor captain, it was already hard enough to stand here so near the entrance.

[Sifer]

He could barely see anything until the cat-woman had come down with the torch. It didn’t seem to help very much though and he could only see about ten feet ahead of himself. He noticed several footprints leading back and forth that all appeared to be the exact same foot. He must have been coming back and forth between the village for several weeks.

He knew it was extremely important to remain silent and he was pretty good at it so he wasn’t very worried about himself. The others however, besides the cat-woman, did not appear as stealthy. She leaned in to tell the group something and making Nymraif realize that she also knew how important it was to stay quiet.


“Most people call me Nymraif. I think we should follow these footsteps with as much caution as we can. I’m worried that this guy has set traps for us.”

It was a very obvious statement; of course the traitor set traps for them to run into. If he hadn’t they would have caught him ages ago. Regardless, it had to be said so that everyone would understand. Nymraif didn’t want to lead the way without the light so he stepped out of Ayano’s way so she could lead.

“If you want I can take the torch and lead.”

[2-in-1]

"And my name is Delta Retla." Delta whispered in her quietest voice "Now that we all know each other, we should probably get moving."

Delta looked around. She knew there had to be some kind of traps somewhere, and she wanted to make sure she didn't set any off. She wanted to find those traps, or at least figure out where they were. Finally, she decided that the traps had to be in the muddy walkway or the walls. just to be on the safe side though, she decided to hang back and be the rear guard.

[NekoRulers]

Ayano nodded slightly before stepping forward. Her feet were silent, set aside a really tiny squishing sound from the mud. With her bo in her right hand and the torch in her left, the cat-girl began to walk. She already was in her instant reaction stance. If anything popped up in front of them she was tuned to make a pass with him/her/it with the torch and bring in the bo from above in a sweep. She had her invisible chain mail, so she wasn't too worried about herself. It was the others. She had no idea what kind of protection they had and if it was good or not. The neko just couldn't remember, and very well would not look back to check.

Beako floated up onto her head, and burrowed deep within it. Ayano could feel him quivering in fear. So, she thought with a mental giggle, Beako is scared of the dark. In a moment she would learn that she should be as well.

Suddenly the footprints illuminated by her torch changed. The marks became deeper in the back as though the wearer had lent over backwards to duck something. Before she could open her mouth to warn everyone behind her, the attack started. Three huge thick arrows shot right at her head. Perhaps Beako's choice perch wasn't the best. A snapping wave of the bo staff stopped one, but she couldn't stop the other two. And as soon as she thought that, a floor level scythe like blade began to spin towards them.

"Jump!" she yelled as quietly as possible, and jumped.

[2-in-1]

Delta jumped as soon as she was told to. She successfully made it over the floor scythe, but one of the arrows hit her in the arm. Now, for most people, this would have resulted in a terrible wound, but because of Delta's "condition", It instead resulted in an extremely bright flash of light emanating from her body, followed by her other self, Venus Dimone, appearing where Delta Retla used to be.

Because Venus had no memory of what had happened when Delta Retla was out, she didn't know exactly what was going on, nor, unfortunately did she realize she needed to stay quiet. In fact, She didn't remember anybody's name or the mission she was on.

At the moment, though, she decided to keep her voice down anyway. She walked over to the Catgirl and whispered so that only she could hear, "Hey, Miss Kitty, Like, where are we?"

[Cassandra]

Cassy ducked at the whistle of the arrows, wincing lightly as she heard the slight thud of one hitting someone else. The warning to jump came just in time as the young woman reacted without thinking to the instruction. When she came down again, she looked around quickly.

“Is everyone okay?”

Though she made her voice as steady as she could, she was still very nervous about being in such small quarters. She waited anxiously to hear of the others were unharmed. Their presence was one of the things that was helping her to remain calm.

Dang it all...if I had known that I was going to be going underground, I don’t think I’d have taken this job. How much longer will we be under here?

The young woman’s skin crawled as a little bit of dirt trickled from the ceiling onto her neck. She moved over to one side, pretending she was just shifting her weight. In reality, she was becoming more and more nervous about the ceiling caving in on them.

[NekoRulers]

Ayano basically jumped a foot when she turned around to realize a complete stranger was addressing her. This elf was older than Delta, and had silver eyes that contrasted starkly with her black hair. Peeking around her slightly, to the cat-girl's confusion Delta was not there.

"Who the heck are you?" the neko asked right back

Normally she wasn't so rude but being scared out of your socks, missing a teammate, and being in hostile territory can really change someone's mood. At least Cassandra was still there.

"We're fine," the cat-girl called back quietly to the uneasy looking woman, "It's just that this complete stranger is behind me and I have no idea how she got there. Delta is also missing."

Ayano held up the torch closer to the knew elf and beckoned for Cassandra and the wood elf to come closer. The cat-girl pointed her bo blade at the new girl's neck, why not be intimidating? "Who are you working for and what have you done with Delta? Give her back and I'll let you live." she whispered maliciously. No other team was going to have their way with a member of her team. Ayano winced as a dribble of muddy water landed on the tip of her nose. She wrinkled it and then sneezed. That wasn't the best way to keep cover. And causing the ceiling to cave in was also not a good tactic.

It may not have been Ayano's fault, but in the ceiling came. With a woosh of air that swept the fire from her torch, the mud began to drop in little clumps. The area instantly became pitch black with the torch's absence, but a dull roar soon filled the cat-girl's ears.

"Come on!" she shouted

Running forward as fast as she could, Ayano held on tight to Beako and her bo staff. Moments later the roaring stopped, signaling that the cave in was over. "Hello?" Ayano asked, "Anybody alive? If you are, I suggest that we continue to move. We're going to have to find our way by keeping one hand on the wall." As much as the neko hated the idea of putting her hand on probably the dirtiest surface in Althanas, she wanted to get out of there as fast as she could.

[2-in-1]

Venus still hadn't recieved an answer to her question, but something the cat had said had caught her attention.

"Did you, like, mention Delta?" Venus said with a start. "If you are, like, talking about my friend, Delta Retla, she died 11 days ago. I should know, I was there. I was lucky to survive that adventure myself. As for my name, I am, like, her adventuring partner of old, Venus Dimone. But you never answered my question, where are we and what are we doing here?"

Just then, the cat-girl sneezed and caused a cave-in.

Venus jumped back, barely dodging the falling boulders and when the cat-girl asked, she replied. "I am, like, right here, miss kitty."

[NekoRulers]

"The names Ayano, and why should I believe you? Delta was right behind me! I wasn't born yesterday, and even if I have cat ears and a tail that doesn't mean I have an inferior brain." Ayano snapped into the darkness, guessing Venus was right in front of her or something. "Tell me what you did with her."

The cat-girl's tail has lost its happy sway, and she was ready for a fight.

"Hey, Cassandra! You alright? Its dark but I think we can find our way."

So, the last bit was a lie. The neko's eyes were not as good as that. There was not a bit of light. But what was those two little green glowy specks coming closer? She couldn't recall when they had appeared. They looked animalistic, and unfriendly. Ayano stepped closer, and her bo made a grating sound against the sound and produced sparks. The cat-girl said some very unlady like words just then. The light had been brief, but had revealed a huge wolf.

"Bad puppy," she said sternly, "Sit?"

The green eyes seemed to get lower, and stopped moving. If Ayano's cat-ears were picking up the sounds right, she heard a tail happily thumping the ground.

"Uh, good girl." Ayano said, trying to reward the good behavior so the wolf wouldn't get mad again.

Then, the eyes gained height and a growling came from the darkness. THe wolf didn't sound happy and she didn't need her cat-ears to tell her that.

"Boy, I completely meant boy!" Ayano yelped, dodging as the wolf lunged.

It was too late, and it looked as if they were going to have to fight the thing.

[Cassandra]

Cassy ran blindly forward as the ceiling came down on them. When she came to a stop, she was breathing heavily, much more so than she would for such a short run in normal circumstances. Reaching a hand out, she felt around for a wall and leaned against it, using it as a support of reality. She couldn’t see behind them clearly, but she was certain that there would be no going back now.

“Umm, yeah…I…I’m fine…” her voice was shaky, but she tried to sound sure of herself. The sound of the others’ voices reassured her somewhat, but she could still feel the vestiges of panic starting to creep at the outer edges of her mind.

What was that!?

Even though she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face, she tried to find the source of footsteps. They were very light, padded and above where they seemed to come from, she could see a single set of eyes. She listened cautiously as Ayano started trying to talk to the creature, she didn’t see what it was when the spark briefly lit up the tunnel, but she was sure it was large.

That’s good, nice and slow. What is it anyway?

Cassy had no more time to wonder about things that didn’t matter as she heard the growl start and sensed, more than heard the creature start its attack. Crouching low to the ground, she waited till she heard it land again before standing and trying to concentrate on the teaching she had received about fighting blind.

Nothing.

She was too nervous about being underground in total darkness to remember much of anything. Damnit, this isn’t good. This isn’t good at all. I wish we had some decent light to see by! Closing her eyes, though it made no difference for sight, helped her concentrate. Slowly, she was picking up the sense of the beast moving slowly, stalking its prey. Next, she could feel Ayano and the other two that were nearby.

Slow, deep breaths…concentrate. The beast is large, but not too large. A canine, but not tame. A wolf? In a city? Okay, okay, Ayano is over there…Delta is right beside her. The other guy, is on my other side. So that means the wolf is right….there!

Bringing her own weapon into play, Cassy struck swiftly. The steel tipped, oak staff thudded into the wolf. She was rewarded by a short yelp and a deeper growl.

“I missed anything vital. Can anyone produce any kind of light? I really hate fighting blind!”

She ducked low again as thought the wolf might be swiping out at her. She had never been able to explain how she was now able to sense where living things were. Ever since the time she had spent with Luther, if she concentrated hard enough, she could sense, dimly that things were alive. So far, she could only tell dimly where they were located and sometimes whether it was an animal or a person. Most of the time however, all she could tell was that it was a living creature and not a plant.

[2-in-1]

Venus looked at the cat-girl funny for a few seconds before replying.

"Stop joking with me. For a second there, you almost had me convinced that Delta was, like, still alive. To tell the truth, though, I have no idea about how I got here, so maybe if this was, like an alternate dimension, she might still be alive, but I am like, pretty sure that Delta perished. I would have gladly given up my life to save hers, though."

Suddenly, the wolf lunged at Venus tearing through her armor.

And, as if in reply to Cassandra asking if anyone could produce any kind of light, Venus transformed back into Delta in the same type of blinding light as when Delta had transformed into Venus.

Delta held her arm in pain where the arrow hit her right before she had changed into Venus. Suddenly, she noticed the wolf that seemed to be attempting to claw it's way through her chain mail.

"Hey, get off of me you stupid mutt!!!!! I ain't your dinner!!!" Delta yelled at the wolf as she knocked it off of herself with her spetum.

[NekoRulers]

Ayano’s mouth opened wide as a brilliant burst of light unveiled a newly appeared Delta taking her turn at handling the fearsome wolf-mutt thing. All too suddenly the cat-girl felt that some of the ceiling must have whacked her on the head during the cave in. Venus was gone and Delta was back. Could it be that they switched places during the light flashes? Maybe she was just going crazy. Somehow the crazy idea sounded even more sane than the elf-fusion idea. Ayano took a step closer to the dueling duo so she could join the fray. She stood back for a moment to assess the situation before hopping right in.

There was something about the beast that made her quite sure she didn’t want to hurt it. Not that, of course, she wanted Delta to get hurt in its stead. The look the wolf had had in its eyes when it sat and wagged its tail seemed friendly and maybe human if she dared to hope. Something had definitely whacked her in the head. Even so, she was completely against harming the thing.

“Don’t hurt it!” she called out before doing something quite stupid

The cat-girl shook a frightened Beako out of her hair and turned to face the bruised canine as it turned its ugly head towards her. The neko bit her lip as the wolf leaped right at her. In response she held the bo straight out horizontally in front of her, her hands well spaced out across the wood, and tackled it in mid jump. Her bo kept the wolf just far enough away from her but close enough to transfer the momentum of what she had done. The wolf yipped a little as they fell. She guessed that she had the advantage of surprise (judging from the confused look in her target’s eyes). That or sheer luck, either way they were headed towards the ground with her on top.

Ayano hissed as they touched down on the ground. The light from Delta’s appearance had faded so she was struggling in the dark. She heard the wolf’s grunt before she slammed against his body. The cat-girl blinked a few times to clear her head, then proceeded to press her bo down on what she thought was the wolf’s neck in order to immobilize it. She also pressed her body against it, trying to keep it flat on the floor. It writhed underneath her, and for a moment her face was buried in its thick fur coat. The smell was disgusting. The odor of black magic used sloppily: strong magic from cheap market books.

“It’s a human, I think. He reeks of cheap magic.” she grunted while struggling with what was under her, “A hand would be great right now.”

[2-in-1]

Delta looked down at the wolf and looked over at Ayano.

"Well, it certainly reeks of something, but I doubt that anything down here doesn't smell." Delta joked as she went over and helped Ayano hold the wolf down.

Suddenly she looked around.

"Hey, has anyone seen Nymraif around? I haven't seen him since the tunnel collapsed. I hope he is ok."

[Cassandra]

Cassy winced at the sudden flash of light and tried to readjust her eyes as quickly as she could. Guided by Ayano’s voice, Cassy moved over to stand in front and rested the tip of her staff on the wolf’s forehead, “One move wolf and I’ll pound this into your head so hard you won’t even feel it. I can’t do anything about magic, Ayano. It’s all I can do to make a little rainstorm. Can we please hurry up and get to some light, I really hate being in such a small tunnel with no light.”

Though she tried to make her voice as steady as she could, inside she wanted to curl up into a little ball. No matter how hard she tried to ignore and remind herself that she had plenty of space down here, she felt like the walls were barely far enough apart for her to pass through them without touching them. The recent cave in didn’t help her fear any either. She had thought she sensed their other partner, but he had made no moves or sounds that she knew of since before the cave in.

“I don’t know about Nymraif either. I think he might have gotten trapped on the other side of the,” she paused and swallowed, reassuring herself that she was okay once again then continued, “of the cave in. I haven’t heard him at all since we ran after the ceiling started falling. I’m sur he’s okay though. What are we going to do with the wolf?”

Talking and making a plan seemed to help for the moment. Anything that kept her mind too busy to dwell on the dirt walls, floor, and ceiling that was obviously not entirely stable, was good and helped to keep panic from welling up within her. If she had known from the outset that this would involve going underground, she probably wouldn’t have taken the officials up on it. However, once started she didn’t often back down from a job no matter how much it frightened her.

((Sorry I took so long guys...))

[Camella]

Camella had been part of the second group. Problem was that for some reason or another all 3 of her other group members had met an untimely death. The first of the three had died because he wanted all the money for himself and therefore decided to take on the captain himself, the second one was just unfortunate enough to get on Camella's bad side, the third one was ripped apart by a wolf creature. It wasn't her fault she was teamed up with three idiotic group members, but she vowed to get revenge for the death of the two group members she DIDN'T kill. She knew there was another group and decided to look for them. It didn't take long for her to find them either, after all, how hard can it be to miss the loud sound of a cave-in. Camella hurried down into the tunnels and climbed over the rocks.

"Um......" She said in a quiet tone of voice, "Mind if I tag along for a while?"

Suddenly Camella noticed the wolf.

"So, are you gonna kill that thing or torture it to death.... Either way is fine by me."

[NekoRulers]

((sorry for the delay))
The neko waited until the others had helped her subdue the wolf to get up. Ayano stood up gratefully, and brushed some dirt off of her clothes. She noticed that planning calmed her apparently claustrophobic companion. It would be best if I can keep Cassandra calm, she thought to herself. Now all she had to do was keep Cassandra busy. It saddened the cat-girl that Nymraif had fallen behind. She didn’t know what had happened to him but she assumed that he was alive just for the sake of a positive attitude.

Now what to do about the wolf? The question had numerous answers but Ayano decided that she wanted to solve it as peacefully as possible. Now that she knew the bad captain was an amateur wizard, it changed things a bit. Actually it changed things a great deal because she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life as a wolf because she hadn’t dodged his spell fast enough because the wolf had chewed her leg off while she tried to kill it. That was a bad scenario.

All of a sudden a voice came out of nowhere, making Ayano jump about two feet into the air in surprise.

"Umm..."

The cat-girl twirled around to see where the new voice was coming from. She could tell it wasn’t Cassandra or Delta. Unfortunately it also wasn’t Nymraif. She could, however, assume it was female. Fur bristling, she examined the stranger in the scarce light there was. It seemed vaguely humanoid. Not that she could be sure of anything down there.

"Mind if I tag along for a while? So, are you gonna kill that thing or torture it to death.... Either way is fine by me."

Ayano’s ears pricked up. She had no idea who the stranger was, and for all she knew it could be a minion of the captain. However, the way the humanoid treated the dangerous creature on the ground, with such indifference, made her guess that it was safe to say something back. Any enemy of theirs would have already struck while they were blind or at least freed the wolf monster.

“Yeah, you can come if you want to. By the way how did you even get down here?” while waiting for the stranger to answer, Ayano knelt down next to the captive wolf.

The cat-girl poked around a bit until her hands found the top of the wolf’s head, and she began to pet him softly. The point of this was to calm him down so they could talk. She realized that maybe the large group had scared him the first time and maybe if they got him to trust the party a little, they could communicate better. At first the creature struggled a little in protest to the touch, but eventually relaxed.

“Sweetheart, we know you’re in a bit of a predicament right now.” She began, keeping her voice slow and clear in case the cheap magic was affecting his ears. “We’ll try and turn you back as soon as we can, but we need a little help first. You see we were sent to capture the captain, probably the man who did this to you. However, we can’t see in the dark. Do you think you could sniff him out, or show us where he lives?”

The wolf made a little snuffing sound, and wiggled its head in an up and down motion. Ayano took that to be a yes, and stood up. She watched it whimper a bit, assumabley asking for release.

“Does this plan work for all of you?” the cat-girl asked her companions? Now for Cassandra. “Cassandra, would you like to help come up with a plan for what we should do when we spot the captain? We can talk as we walk.”

[Cassandra]

Cassy warily pulled her staff away from the wolf’s face and looked at Ayano. “Anything that gets us out of here is good enough for me. I have no idea for what to do once we find this guy though. If he did this to a person, it probably will do no good to attempt to rush him. We’ll probably have to be sneaky and I’ve never been good at coming up with stealth plans.”

She followed the wolf as it started leading the way through the tunnel, going entirely by the sense she had discovered. She could not see the wolf at all, it was too dark for her human eyes, but as she concentrated on the wolf, she found it slowly became easier to sense the wolf and the others. All she could sense was that they were there, humanoid and female, but that was enough. Concentrating on expanding her new found skill also kept her mind off her surroundings.

Soon, with the wolf’s leadership, the dirt ended and stone pavement began. The ceiling sloped upward slowly and the walls expanded, relieving Cassandra immensely. “I think we’re getting pretty close now, girls,” she whispered to her companions. She stopped and pressed herself against a wall as they neared the first actual corner she’d seen yet. “Any bright ideas?”

[Camella]

Camella looked the catgirl up and down. The catgirl looked strong and speedy. Camella turned to look at the elven woman next. It looked like she had seen quite a few battles. Camella then turned to the human. The human reminded her of herself before she had undergone the transformation. Finally, Camella turned back to the catgirl, who had just finished talking to the wolf.

"The name is Camella, I was sent after the captain too. I crawled through a hole near the top of the boulders from the cave-in. That hole is still there in case you want to head back." Camella hoped that noone would want to, but she thought that she should present the option, just in case.

Next she decided to address the problem at hand. Deciding to check around the corner herself, Camella noticed 2 guards. "Let me take care of this problem for you. I am pretty sure that after this, you will understand why I am here"

Camella went straight to work. After turning invisible, she ran at the first guard and slashed his head off. She couldn't remain invisible after that, but she turned her skin as black as the darkness she was in and slashed the other one's throat. feeling pleased with herself, she turned her skin to a light green and started to walk back.

"If you can't handle a little blood, you don't belong here." Camella said as she walked back to the group.

[2-in-1]

Delta looked at the newbie in disbelief. She had never seen anything like this before. She was not sure which was more intrigueing, the fact that this Camella person was able to turn invisible or the fact that she called decapitation of two soldiers 'a little blood'. It made Delta start wondering what type of profession the newbie was in. Thing was, she was afraid to ask.

"Nice job." Delta finally said to the new girl. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

[NekoRulers]

The cat-girl accepted the humanoid stranger’s explanation without waiting around to think about it for too long. They really needed to get a move on.

“No I think we all pretty much just want to finish the quest. If we wanted to leave we would be trying to do so.”

Ayano followed the wolf, matching its rapid pace. With one hand she held onto its tail. She could see a little bit with her cat eyes, but not well enough to prevent her from worrying that they would all get lost. Eventually she felt the ground under her feet harden into pavement, and the dark ease ever so slightly. The cat-girl almost attacked Cassandra accidentally when she finally spoke, they had been quiet for so long. Instead, she just nodded and looked around the corner. Because of the new developments she assumed they were getting close to the Captain’s hide out spot. Peeking around the corner, she realized that there were two guards in the way.

Before she could say anything at all, Camella faded into the dark. Her cat-ears picked up the sound of dropping bodies. Ayano couldn’t say she was pleased that the guards had gotten killed, but it was a good solution to the problem.

"Nice job. Remind me never to get on your bad side." She heard Delta joke

The neko nodded her approval at the move, and motioned for the group to follow her lead. She hoped that they could see the signals in the just barely lightened area. Now that she knew there were guards, there was no way she wanted to risk speaking aloud. Slowly she crept around the next corner. Suddenly, the wolf barked and howled deafeningly and ran out of her grasp.

“Wait!” Ayano called out and ran right after it. They couldn’t afford to loose their guide.

The cat-girl focused on making her footsteps as silent as possible, as she ran. There was no sense in alerting everyone within hearing distance of their approach. Rounding about three more corners, she realized that such silence wasn’t completely needed.

She gasped in pain as light blinded her momentarily, but then her eyes adjusted to the new setting. She neko found herself in a small white room on the surface. On the floor, asleep was the Captain. She recognized his profile from the flyer. Carefully, she pressed the blade of her bo against his throat but didn’t wake him up.

“Wanna tie this kid up and get out of here?” she whispered to her companions

[Camella]

Camella nodded.

"Yeah, I would like to." She whispered. "But I doubt it will be that easy. First off, do we even have the rope to tie him up with? Second, what do we do if he wakes up before we finish tying him up. If it was me, I would kill him on the spot and drag him back for a reward."

Camella looked around to the others in case they had any objections or other ideas.

[Cassandra]

Cassy looked questioningly at the man lying on the ground. Surely this could not be it. This was too easy. True, they’d faced some interesting trials in the tunnels, but to find him here like this? The green-eyed girl was certain this was a trap of some sort, but for the moment, she just wanted to get the job done and get back to the surface.

“I don’t have any rope, but I can’t condone just killing him in cold blood like you did those guards. A little blood is one thing, but killing someone is usually not necessary.”

While Cassy was not so naive as to think she could go through the world and never see people killed, she still did not like how Camella had dispatched the guards. To her mind, the guards had been murdered. It would have been better to just knock them out rather than kill them without giving them a chance to defend themselves. In her lifetime, she had only ever killed one person and she still regretted it. Every time she thought about it, she wished she could have that minute back. She hated the idea of one person taking the life of another, even if she knew that it would happen regardless of what she thought or felt about the matter.

She stood over the Captain, her staff at the ready to knock him senseless. She was at a loss for what they were going to do now. She had been quite happy to let the others take the lead and her be back up. She had never liked leading missions such as these and thus had not thought about getting rope or anything else to tie a person up with.

“So, what are we gonna do if we don’t have any rope?”

[NekoRulers]

The cat-girl looked at the other humaniod in suprise. No, there would be no avoidable killing on her watch. She could tell that Camella felt the same way from her body language.

"No killing. Yeah I think there's rope over in that corner there..."

Ayano left the end hanging, because she just realized what she was seeing. A man who apparently hadn't noticed them yet was sitting at an oak desk (his back to them), opening as many jars as he could. A sack of jars that was almost overflowing leant against the side of his chair. From each jar he was taking out a glowing orb, and activated them by dipping them in some black fluid that he had in a bowl beside him. The cat-girl nearly groaned. She had seen those in the market place. Cheap magic was generally popular with normal humans. The captain, apparently, planned to throw them at whoever came near the fake version of himself at their feet. She quickly asked herself how he could have possibly planned to know they were there.

The answer came to her as a small sparkle appeared in the corner of her eye. She almost missed it. The neko looked around, and now that she knew what to look for, it all became very clear. There was near invisible thread strung all around the entrance to the room hooked up to little bells in random places. It was only by chance that they hadn't set on off this far.

If they wanted to get to the captain without letting him know they were there, they would have to work very carefully on getting to him. Hell, they'd have to be contortionists almost. Ayano was very unhappy about this latest unveilment. She decided to alert her teammates.

"Guys," she whispered, "There's clear thread all over this place, don't move until you're sure you know where you're going."

It was best to see if they could catch him by suprise. Bought magic, although cheap and weak, could be very painful.

[2-in-1]

Delta gave Camella a stern look.

"Is that all you ever think about? Killing others? Don't kill him. At least not yet."

Suddenly Delta was alerted to the fact that there was clear thread all over the room.

"So, does anyone have any Ideas on how to get through this web?"

[Camella]

Camella looked the threads over carefully. It looked impossible to walk through without setting some of them off.

Being careful to not set any of the bells off she slowly moved in and cut the threads connected to a few of the bells while holding those bells in such a way that she would mute any sound they made.

After a little while she came back to the group.

"I disarmed as many as I could. The rest we will just have to deal with."

[Taskmienster]

This thread has been sitting for a full year. Since no response has been made to create activity I am going to be moving this. If you would like it to be reopened please feel free to PM myself or another admin and they will be able to move it for you back to Scara Brae.