[The Northern Pass] Entering Falyndar (Siiri, Revy)

[Revy Hiroe]

The mercenary smiled lightly as the myrian lay her hand on her shoulder. In her eyes it symbolized that at least for now she had accepted her as a companion. She walked right behind the myrian woman, but didn't break out of the foilage. It was better to keep herself hidden at least a little, just in case. Her armor plating still rattling a little against each other even though she had put some cloth between it. "Darnit, it's still rattling. Gotta take it off then.", she thought to herself as she walked back to her backpack. Revy started to loosen the straps of her breastplate when she heard Siiri say that she was supposed to go with Garou and Kai on a hunt. Apparently it was good that she had decided to take off her armor as it wouldn't be helpful then anyway. But she couldn't help but chuckle as the hidden challenge got noticed. Did that woman really think she needed encouragement to train herself for their match? After taking off her breastplate, the woman lay it next to her backpack, getting her regular boots out. "It's probably better that I take off all of my armor except for the leather skirt. That won't be in the way as much or make any noise" Her back was now bare, showing the bandages she used to tie off her breasts. She didn't really care if anyone would see her like this, as she would just -deal- with them if they'd try anything funny. Revy just started taking off her greaves, starting with the right one. Once she had taken off one of them, she'd balance on one foot as she put on the boot. She wasn't stupid enough to walk barefooted on jungle soil.

OOCUgh, Siiri.... if you call that a crap post, all my posts should be garbage.

[Carsten]

“Even Navre will eat his own cats if he starves.” Was all Carsten said to Garou, before they parted, but his words remained with him. Did the Myrians truly eat their victims? He would have to find out, and if it was true there couldn’t be a surplus of food in the region. Why eat other people if there is plenty animals around? It did not make sense, unless it was some sort of macabre sacrifice to Myri. Perhaps he was wrong about Myri, perhaps she really was a raving barbarian who reveled in blood and death as some claimed. Carsten had always thought of her as a sophisticated god, one who thought of battle as an extension of the violent nature of almost all creatures. A look of doubt flashed across his face as Siiri approached him, but it lasted only a moment. Then he turned to her, and regarded her with a flat expression.

As she asked him a question, he was slightly relived. At least she had decided to keep him alive; he would have to spend the evening to make sure she didn’t go back on that. He knew enough Myrian to understand the word “camp”, and it pleased him that they would spend the evening there. “Everything?” he asked Siiri, and thought for a moment. “As I said, my name is Carsten. I am a Pon in the Ano Cult, dedicated to Gnora; the Goddess of Logic, Order and Balance. Along with Gnora, our purpose is to make sure the scales are balanced, by adding or removing weights.” He explained the Cult, before he looked over to Siiri to answer any questions she might have. “Myself, I am Carsten. I was born in Zeltiva, far away. But these days, I travel the world. Most Pons stay in one place to help a local community, but I have decided to see the rest of the world, to try to understand it,” he said about himself. “But why did I seek out Falyndar specifically? I have read as much as I can about Falyndar, Myri and her chosen people, but now I wish to understand your culture and your society.” He said, and looked at Siiri, to see if his words gauged a reaction or question from her. Was this a normal reason to come to Falyndar, he wondered. For some reason he doubted it, in fact he doubted that many people came to Falyndar at all. At least not many that survived long enough to tell their reasons.

That made him think how Siiri would be received when she arrived at their capital with two humans, he doubted Myrian society reacted well to Humans at all. He had barely gotten a glimpse at the other human, but he wondered why she was there. He would have time enough to find out, he assumed, if they both survived.

[Siiri]

"You look relieved, human," Siiri noted at the first bit of expression that creeped into Carsten's face. He was difficult to read for it appeared as if he was wearing an unfeeling mask, never allowing much of what he was feeling to bubble to the surface.

A dangerous man, if I ever saw one, Siiri thought, noting how comprehension seemed to light up the man's eyes after she had passed her order to Garou. Did he understand what I had just said?

She felt the need to keep him on his toes, make him unbalanced and not get too comfortable in the Falyndar Jungle. Complacency led to death after all, and while she had stayed her hand and her people's from killing him, that did not mean the jungle's own denizens would not claim this Carsten for their own. But then she thought it a waste of time to intimidate him; there were other things she needed to learn, and those will determine whether he stayed alive or served as the main course for her fang's evening meal.

As Carsten explained of his religion and his sect, Siiri did her best to absorb what the man was saying to her. She knew that other gods existed of course - she had heard tales of the different deities worshiped by other peoples and cultures across Mizahar - but she never truly familiarized herself with these other (probably weaker) gods. Only Myri, and the rest of the Myrian pantheon, were of any import to her.

Still, she could not help but look at the palm of her left hand, where a single letter of the Shiber alphabet was etched in a beautiful, flowing script. That particulart mark had been granted to her by a human god, and she herself had witnessed his divinity rival that of the Goddess-Queen's...

The man's mention of weights and scaled had Siiri frowning. She understood well enough that he spoke of balance, for Caiyha herself, the Nature Goddess, demanded of such to maintain the never-ending circle of life. Was Gnora another name for Caiyha among the human's then?

"This balance you speak of...this is of the natural order, yes?" the Myrian warrioress asked. She struggled to find the words to which she could better illustrate what she was asking the human. "Like...too many predators and the preys' population will dwindle and not be able to sust...sast...keep those that hunt them well-fed? This is balance. Your Gnora...she is our Caiyha?"

Siiri frowned, frustrated at her inability to better communicate in the Common tongue. She allowed the human to continue, reintroducing himself to her as Carsten, and it was then she realized that 'Pon' was a mere title among the members of his religious order. He spoke of Zeltiva as his how, a faraway city as much as Siiri could tell from the maps she had seen in the Scout's Roost. All she knew was that they were the makers of those large vessels that traveled the waves of the sea.

His explanation for his arrival in the region was less satisfactory for the Myrian, however. He looked like a learned man, so he must certainly have heard about the fearsome reputation of her people. Yet why had he come to Falyndar willingly, risking his life in the process...just to learn?

"Why did you not choose to stay home and learn from books about Myri? About us? Your risk more than our blades and arrows tearing into your flesh by coming here."

While Siiri knew that her people were reclusive to the outside world, as ordered by Myri herself, she hadn't the slightest idea how much the rest of the world knew about them. In truth, very few records existed that spoke of the Myrians and the region which they occupied in great detail, for those who have learned of them first-hand did not get the opportunity to spread the knowledge they had learned. Even those the few the Myrians had allowed to leave their city in peace were devoured by the jungle on their way out of the region.

Falyndar liked to keep its secrets.

OOC NoteI will make a separate post of my reply to Revy.

[Siiri]

Revy

Garou snickered as he motioned for the human woman to follow him. Kai, alighting from the trees to walk beside him, received a nudge from his elbow as well as the sight of the man's trademark annoying grin. The younger Myrian only rolled her eyes at him, but that did not diminish Garou's amusement. What was Siiri thinking in having the deyhan accompany them in their hunt? The woman made noise like a blinded hippo trying to sneak through the foliage! Even a sleepwalking child walking through the jungle made less of a racket that this one!

The Myrian scout understood perfectly that their leader was separating the two humans so that she could fully interrogate the male without this woman within earshot of whatever they would discuss. It was possible that the two could still be in cahoots with one another, no matter how unlikely that could be. The encounter with the male was a chance meeting after all and the human woman wouldn't even know that they were near the Northern Pass until Siiri revealed the route they were taking a few days ago. It all made sense to him, that was true. But that did not mean he could not have a little bit of fun with the woman.

"Bait," he chuckled in Myrian, within the earshot of both Kai and Revy. The former only sighed before climbing back up into the trees while the latter would not likely understand what the word meant. Siiri made him the leader of this little hunt and so he was going to do things his way. Regardless of his own words about Revy being "called" by Myri. One can still be called by the Goddess-Queen after a run in with one if the jungle's many denizens, after all.

"Good to kill wit' that pigsticker o' yers, girlie?" Garou piped in, gesturing at the naked blade secured on Revy's belt. "We be huntin' pigs today. Could be useful."

The man cackled then, not waiting for a reply, before running headlong into the thick vegetation of the jungle. Should Revy decide to run after him, she would be hard-pressed to find where the man had disappeared to, though his calls of "Keep up, girlie!" would drift towards her from the west - a ninety degree turn away from the direction where he ran to, which had been to the south. The foliage towards the west were not as thick as those in the south, however, and Revy would find that it was easier to traverse the jungle towards that direction.

A slight rustle of leaves, its exact location too difficult to pinpoint because of how sound traveled in the heavily wooden area, would tell the human mercenary that she was not alone. She could not tell the exact location where it came from, but if she listened hard enough, she would realize that the sound drifted from slightly above her. Perhaps Kai was shadowing her, keeping track of where she was going and making sure she did not get lost in the jungle?

[Revy Hiroe]

Revy had just put on her black vest as Garou mentioned her to follow, the ring she wore around a necklace hidden beneath the vest. This was going to be fun, but probably not for her. She just needed to prove herself... at least, she hoped that. She was alot more agile after removing her armor, but she could only hope that it would be enough. Hearing the first remark of the myrian, the mercenary knew that it was probably meant to insult her. All she could do was sigh and hope it was going to end well. She grinned as Garou gestured at her sword. "Want to taste it yourself? I'm sure that you'll love it.", she simply replied. As he ran off, Revy's first reaction was to follow him straight away, but after diving into the brush, she stopped. She wouldn't find him in here anyway. Hearing his first comment about keeping up, she turned on her heels in a split second and pushed through the thick foliage, getting into something that was easier to travel in. "Petching leaves, I'll make sure he'll regret this later on.", she thought a little annoyed to herself. Rustling leaves had caught her ears and she pretended to not hear them untill she could at least tell that the sound was coming from above. She gave it only a quick glance as she chased after Garou. Her footsteps were alot lighter and as the mercenary had taken off all of her armor, she didn't make much sound anymore as she moved.

[Siiri]

Revy:

It was a foolish thing to do, to run off into the jungle without any surety in one's direction or destination, but Revy did exactly that in her pursuit of the elusive Garou. She had not taken more than five steps when the sound of a panicked squeal ripped through the air, the sound made by a frightened pig. The Myrian scout had been serious then, when he had said they would be hunting the porcine creatures. How Garou knew there would be a number of them nearby, the human mercenary could only imagine.

The cry was one long shriek of the poor animal's terror, punctuated only by its grunts as it struggled to inhale as it fled from those that pursued it for its meat. The creature broke through the underbrush in front of Revy, giving her a good glimpse of what it looked like. It was a feral pig, and a good sized one too, looking to be close to a hundred pounds perhaps. It charged straight at her, its mouth mouth agape as it continued to scream. Or perhaps it was preparing to bite at the human that blocked the path to its escape route.

"Get 'er, girlie!" Revy would hear Garou shout from the direction where the pig had come from. There was a lot of rustling of leaves and vegetation where Revy surmised the Myrian to be now, as if Garou was trying to break through the foliage that blocked his way - a strange occurrence if she had been more observant of event, as the man had easily slipped from her sight earlier, and through a much denser section of the jungle.

An arrow zipped by, narrowly missing the pig in its charge. The projectile buried itself deep into the soft earth behind the charging creature. At least Kai was still watching her, or so Revy would think. But that would not help her now, with the pig charging straight at her and looking to reach her in a few short seconds. No doubt the Myrian archer would hold her shot to avoid injuring her human companion.

Wouldn't she?

[Revy Hiroe]

The moment the mercenary heard the pig sequeal, she drew her blade. The sound alone meant that the guy had probably meant to do this the moment he went into the brush. "I'll kill that bastard, I'll make sure of that, but first gotta handle with.... Holy petch.", she thought to herself as she saw the pig breaking out of the foilage. Revy had only a split second to react to the imminent danger and was so preoccupied with it that she didn't even notice the arrow burrying itself just behind the pig. All that was on her mind right now was dealing with it without getting hurt to much. Diving to the left, she leveled her blade at the pigs legs and made a wide swing, cutting off it's right legs. The pig went crashing against the ground, squealing loud. At that, Revy stood back up, keeping an eye on the bush in front of her as it ruffled. "Garou, got any more surprises for me? I'll deal with them all, so give me your worst.", she yelled angered. At the very least, she'd prove herself to him that she could hold her ground against this type of game. Feral pigs usually charged straight and couldn't easily turn. And when they were taken by fear, they'd only charge straight away, not looking for whatever might be in the way. It was basic hunting knowledge and her previous experiences proved handy this time... even though these were a bit bigger and heavier.

[Siiri]

Revy:

Revy delivered the cut perfectly, neatly slicing off the legs on one side of the feral pig's body. The creature crashed to the ground, squealing even more loudly this time. Several times it tried to get up, but with legs on only one side of its body, it went toppling back down into the earth. Bright red blood sprayed out of its two gory stumps, its lifeblood being pumped out of its body even more quickly because of the rapid beating of its panicked heart.

The human mercenary, perhaps caught up in the sudden excitement of downing the beast and likely passing another of the Myrians' tests, turn to shout a challenge at the still-hidden Garou. It was a costly mistake on her part, for those easily distracted by the jungle usually ended up becoming victims of those creatures that counted on such inattention.

Another predator had been on the hunt that day, and it just happened to be very near the spot where Revy and the two Myrians had trapped, cornered and eventually took down the feral pig. This one was well camouflaged, easily avoiding being detected by the more experienced Myrian pair. No doubt it looked like part of the unfamiliar surroundings t Revy herself, if her eyes had passed over where it lay poised for a strike earlier.

The downed pig was too much for this creature to pass up, and even the presence of the Myrians and the human mercenary wasn't enough to deter it from trying to make a meal out of the helpless pig. It lashed out, dropping down from its hiding spot upon the trees' thick branches - for truly, it had been the movements of this creature that caused the rustling of leaves which Revy's ears had picked up earlier. It was a python, of the reticulated variety that had dizzying patterns of earthen colors for its scales, allowing it slither about mostly undetected. Its jaws were parted eagerly to bite at the pig, rows of sharp, backward-pointing fangs just waiting to bury themselves into the soft, porcine flesh.

Unfortunately, Revy's ill-timed turn to yell at Garou placed her in an intercept path with the falling serpent. Unable to avoid the human, the python fell on her, the creature positioning itself so that its bulk would fall over or at least near Revy's limbs. It may have missed the pig, but the soft human would serve as a fair replacement. It was near twenty feet long, and likely weight twice as much as the human mercenary herself. Unless Revy's posture was properly braced, it would be a fair bet that the snake's mass would cause her to fall to the ground.

Quickly, before Revy could react, the snake's head darted forward, latching its fang-filled mouth on the wrist of her weapon hand. While not poisonous, due to the many sharp teeth it had, its bite would be painful. Enough, perhaps, to cause Revy to drop her sword.

With its head now secured, the python began to wrap its thick coils around Revy's upper limbs and torso. Inexperienced as she may be with the killing method of this creature, even she would know that it would spell her doom once the creature wrapped its body around her neck, for it would only take mere seconds before she passed out from asphyxiation, and a few short minutes for her to die from lack of oxygen in the brain. Revy still had time to ward off the powerful coils with her free hand, and if she had a dagger within reach, she could even try to use it to wound the creature to prevent it from using its deadly coils on her or pry the creature's head from her hand. Strong as she was, however, even the prideful Revy should realize that even she could not stave off this powerful beast by herself.

Where was Garou and Kai? Would Revy even want to call out to them, when she may be thinking that she had been set up to fall prey to this python?

[Revy Hiroe]

It was already too late when the mercenary realised her mistake. The weight of the python crushing down on her shoulders and body caused her knees to buckle. And it's fangs burned in her wrist as it bit into it. "Petch! Got to get that creature off me or I'll be dead meat.", she thought to herself as she noticed the raw power used by the snake. Wether or not Revy wanted it, the bite of the snake had forced her to let go of her longsword, dropping it just beside her out of reach of her left hand. The coils of the snake wrapped around her right arm, torso and legs. For now she had managed to keep them away from her throat using her free left hand. But now she was in a bind as the snake would just keep squeezing out the air out of her lungs slowly, each time she'd exhale. The pressure from the snake's muscles started crushing the womans body already. Her right arm wasn't able to move at all anymore and it soon felt that it was going to break if the pressure kept up like this. "For petch sake! Help!", she begged, still trying to get out of the coils. Her head started to get red from the blood that couldn't flow out of it properly anymore. It was then that she felt her arm snap, getting two fractures in her upper arm and one in each of her lower arm's bones. She yelled out in pain as her arm bent in a way it shouldn't bend at all. Her breath becoming shallower with the minute as her lungs had less and less space with each exhale. Her resist became weaker as well and if she wouldn't be helped soon, even her legs would break.

[Siiri]

Revy:

Garou emerged from the same spot where the pig had burst out from, a smaller version of the same animal hugged close to his chest, his daggers buried down to the hilt in what used to be the creature's neck. The flesh around that part of the dead piglet's body had been ripped open, likely to drain its blood, which now stained the majority of the Myrian's body. He had a smug look on his face as he ducked under a low hanging branch, but it quickly changed to one of shock as he beheld the sight of Revy struggling with a massive python.

It left the man stunned momentarily, but the human's cry for assistance, and the subsequent sound of one of her limbs snapping from the pressure exerted by the serpent's coils, had him immediately dumping his catch to the ground and pulling another knife from his belt. Garou rushed to Revy's side to help her pry the python off her body, whistling a shrill bird-like sound over his shoulder as he did so.

"Snake!" he hissed in Myrian to no one in particular, though if Revy still had her wits about her she would realize that it was not directed at her, but for Kai, who just then showed herself as she skipped to the thick branch of one of the nearby trees. The woman had her short bow nocked and cocked with an arrow, her sights trained on Revy, but she dared not fire, not wanting to risk further injury on the human. Siiri hadn't sent them out to execute her, after all.

"Ye leave for a chime, an' what do ye fin'?" Garou was muttering under his breath as struggled to unwind the snake's coils from Revy's body. He had managed to release their hold on the human's legs and torso, though he would have preferred to saw his blade through the serpent's neck. Revy's continued writhing against the beast's hold prevented him from doing that very thing, however.

Unexpectedly, the python suddenly released its hold on the human, dropping to the ground to slither under the detritus that littered the jungle floor. Kai fired off an arrow, but it came a little too late, missing the snake's body by a good half foot or so. They could hear the rustling of dried leaves and the cracking of fallen twigs from where it disappeared to. Garou paid it no mind as he pulled the human to her feet. Kai was there to watch over them, her sharp eyes roving the jungle floor to check if the python would return.

"Ye a'right?" Garou kept asking Revy repeatedly. He grabbed the human's bitten hand and pulled out a flask, pouring its contents on the wound. He squeezed at the flesh just it, causing it to bleed profusely. Still, the way he handled the human's arm made it seem as if he was unmindful of the fact it was broken. "Only water, but better'n nothin'. Onna ought be the one t'treat shyke like this..."

A sudden shriek from Kai gave him pause and he turned just in time to see the Myrian archer fall from her perch, apparently hit from behind by a good-sized log. The younger woman fell to the ground and stayed there, unmoving.

"Skurak," Garou muttered under his breath.

When the large reptilian form of a Dhani, with its snake-like head lower body, emerged from the foliage, Revy would hear the Myrian mouth the same curse again. He appeared visibly shaken as he pulled another dagger from his belt. It was easily fifteen feet long from its snout to the tip of its tail - a young one, but still heavily muscled enough around the arms and torso to pose a very lethal thread to both of them. From the pattern of the Dhani's scales, it was obvious that it had been the same serpent that had attacked Revy.

"Get yer sword, human," he whispered to Revy. "We gonna be needin' a lot o' luck to take this one out.

"Or we gonna die."