Solo Ball versus Giant Woodland Monster

[Ball]

79th of Fall 513AV
Mid-day Bell
Bronze Woods

Ball had found himself in a tight predicament. Before him was the giant beast of the woods, below... Several long feet done to the solid ground, large wooden obstructions that would make the squire’s descent rather painful. The three inch squire had lost his rapier within ticks of the encounter, Thorn and Imass were far below, useless... How did he get in this mess? Let’s back up a few bells and find out.

---

Four Bells Prior...

Ball and Imass were out patrolling the nearby outskirts of the Syliran Fortress of Peace. The small squire found himself resting below a large tree, somewhere further in the woods was the mother tree of this whole forest, yet this squire had no want nor care in the whole world to go out venturing that far today. It was already getting close to food time and Ball didn’t want to miss out on his hearty fill of yummy clay. Strapped to his dog’s being today were the usually things: Blue Pycon’s standard and Thorn. Tied to Ball was his newly crafted rapier. One never knew just what they were going to need in this situation, Ball could recall the Yukmen he had fought days prior and he would be damned if he came out here unprepared by himself.

It was foolish enough to come out here without a group as it is. Ball had to admit that to himself. Turning to judge his place from the large Bronze Watchtower he could see peeking above the tree lines, it was harder to see for Ball than it would be for most people, he had to literally shift his whole body away from it’s resting spot against the tree and lay flat on the ground to spot it. The tower was a good six bells trot on Imass, if the three inch clayman was lucky that is. Today, he felt lucky he might be able to beat it in five, but not right now... Oh no... Right now he was about to be rained upon... And not the liquid rain either.

Echoing from several branches above came skittering feet, barely noticeable, and the loose bark flakes that accompanied it. The squire was showered in the wooden decay. Sitting up he coughed and sputtered, ignoring the indecency at first. Standing up he took the time to wipe off any grass or bark bits that decided he was a far better place to remain and probably grow from than the ground he stood on.

Unfortunately, he found himself once more being disrespected upon as more of those lovely bark bits came down and found themselves spots within his bald crown. Brushing them out Ball motioned for Imass to lay down and stay. Luckily his dog was lazy and flopped to the ground with a sigh of relief, obviously he wasn’t in any huge rush for supper. A grimace on the squire’s face said it all though. He was going to teach that disrespecting fool above to watch what they are doing!

Created goes to Euthisa

[Ball]

Ball stood by the trunk of the massive tree he was sought rest against. Now though he had a disrespectful being above him that kept tossing wood shavings upon his clay being. No more. Ball reached his hands forward, feeling the roughness of the trunk's bark beneath extended clay fingers. A grimace on his face showed he was a bit reluctant in climbing this formidable obstacle, but Ball was determined to show justice.

And thus he found himself gripping the bark tightly and pulling his body off the ground. Feet finding rough terrain underneath them as the three inch squire planted one foot after the other firmly against the trunk. Feet spread themselves out, forming into the gaps and using the rough bark to his best advantage, if his hands gave way Ball was at least going to stay attached, and he could push his form around himself to reposition himself to once again climb ever upward.

First his left hand reached up, finding a gap that he could cram the clay of his hand into to grip a hold of. It was a tight fit and Ball grimaced as the feel of the wood's internal wetness slicking his hand. It was a sticky residue that Ball could feel, his fingers would already be sticky due to a wet substance coming into contact with his being, but this stuff was like glue. It reminded Ball of the tar pitch they fired at the sea monster right before he lost track of his liege lord. Enough thinking of the past squire Ball. Time to think of the here and now!

The mental reprimand re-steeled his core and Ball reached up with his other hand, dragging feet upward slowly so that he could reset their outspread gap filling forms and thus giving the three inch pycon a ‘safety net’ of sorts. His second hand once more found a gap in the bark of the tree and again forced his way into the hole.

This second hole was as kind to him as the first, it still continued that lovely sticky mess he encountered the first time, but this time it came with a second surprise. Something was crawling on his hand, it was an erriee feeling and Ball yanked his hand out from the hole. The resin on his hand was a clear woody color, it smelled faintly of the tree itself and crawling all over it were a dozen or more of these tiny creatures with odd pinchers at one end of their body.

It was these odd pinchers that realized that Ball had angered some denizen of the tree. As if in unison each of the little creatures started to chew on his resin coated hand. It was painful and Ball could not imagine pain that hurt so badly. Screaming out loudly, startling whatever was above him to scurry around some, coating him and his sticky hands with more wood shavings.

The pycon shook his hand, it wasn’t doing him any good, instead it was angering the little creatures more. With each shake of his hand the squire gave them yet another reason to latch those evil little pinchers of theirs into his hand. Enough of this! Growling loudly Ball pushed a set of four small versions of his attacked hand out of the stump just above his hand.

The look of concentration on this reforming of his arm was amazing, the eyeless pycon appeared to be staring intently on his arm as the four mini appendages pushed their way out of his arm. Panting heavily once they formed Ball had to work fast, he could see that once he stopped concentrating that the arms were slowly pulling back into his main arm. Grabbing at the resin free part of his arm Ball pushed the fingers of the four arms into his own being.

Ball was wrong, he can feel pain worse than the little pinchers on his hand. Digging into one’s own being was insanely painful! The numbing techniques he used earlier in the season wouldn’t be useful here because he had to keep concentration on his four mini-arms otherwise the task he was trying to accomplish would never be completed.

It took half a chime for Ball to perform a self-inflicted amputation on his own arm. The last mini-hand pulled at the bit of clay keeping his hand attached free, the tearing of clay was unnervingly painful. The pycon had to force himself to stay conscious the entire time he did this. It was a task he didn’t enjoy one bit.

The hand was completely severed from his body. Ball could feel it leave his body permanently. As if in slow motion the squire watched it roll away from his arm, turning into a grayish hard lump of stone. A hand shaped stone. A frown of lost etched his face as he watched the stone-hand of his bounce against the tree trunk, small fragments drifting away from it before the speck of a hand vanished beyond his sight’s limitations.

The four mini-arms had done their job and as such Ball had already released his concentration on them. Condensation ‘sweat’ had beaded up all over his body and rolled profusely from his porous being, he was clay and clay contained a normal amount of moisture, it was what kept his body nimble and flexible. With the small arms folded back into his actual arm Ball left it up. Where there was once a hand was nothing. A stump of clay was all that remained.

Disheartened at what he had done to himself Ball flattened himself against the tree’s trunk and gasped for breathe and the courage to continue...

Created goes to Euthisa

[Ball]

Ball stared at the upper folliage of the tree he was climbing gritting teeth he fought with his arm and reformed a resemblence of his hand once and used it with all his might to finish the climb upward, mindful of where he placed his hands and feet no the squire was in no hurry to exact righteuous justice. Yet Ball knew he was going to exact revenge, it was his honor that was being tarnished and the squire wasn’t going to allow that to remain tarnished with humilation.

So with each hand over hand and foot over foot Ball inched his way towards the monster above, every few pulls and pushes up the pycon had to stop and catch his breathe, it was a long process of moving and yet Ball was going to do it! He had to, determination was his motivation and his honor was at stake.

Sadly it took the Pycon over three bells to reach his destination and was then he saw his advasary. A gray furred beast with a bushy tail and beady eyes. The tail swished in annoyance, the chittering sound that the creature sent Ball’s way went ignored by the Pycon as he stared at it. It had small clawed hands and big feet with similiar claws on them. The digits appeared to be fairly flexible and infinitely capable of keeping the beast on the round and cragged surface of the tree’s branch. Luckily Ball was able to conform his feet to the surface of the branch so he wouldn’t fall, but he knew he couldn’t adapt himself in the fullness of this monster.

The chittering beast coiled back in terror as Ball watched it, waiting for some semblence of fleeing. Why would it flee though? Ball had just invaded it’s territory! When there was no attempt to run the pycon squire unsheathed his rapier and tilted the blade towards the gray beastie.

And sadly that was the only time Ball had any weapon made of metal in his grasp. The chittering beast lurched towards Ball when threatened and the startled pycon dropped his blade in the process of falling backwards. Landing with a thud Ball released his breathe and laid there as the chittering creature’s vocalization grew louder. It was getting closer, starting to tower over Ball and the squire could do nothing. No! I will not allow this beast to best me!

A growl ripped through Ball as he kicked out at the monster, flinging his body off the branch and back onto his feet, however it was far faster than he and Ball didn’t land his double kick on the creature. At least he provided some distance between him and the monster though.

It didn’t last long though as the threatened creature stretched outward with a screeching noise and clawed out at Ball. Yanking his body mass backwards The claws missed Ball’s face but they landed their pointy tips in his chest releasing a hiss of pain as Ball stumbled backwards and found himself kneeling in shock.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Ball]

The petching beast cut me open. Standing the Pycon held one arm against his chest, fingers clumsily felt at the rendered wounds and repositioned his body so his torso was turned from the creature, his injured arm came up in front in a block formation and his other arm dropped by his waist. Legs were spread about to provide the balance and stability the pycon needed on the branch.

Chittering loudly the creature lunged at the squire, it was only an attempt to startle Ball so he’d lose balance but it failed. The lunge put the woodland assailant right in Ball’s grasp. Hands reached out from their respective places and latched themselves into place on the ears and neck of the creature’s head. My turn. The three inch squire pulled his grip tighter on the creature’s ear, twisting the beast’s head to that side as he stepped forward.

The chittering of annoyance quickly became a yowling scream of pain and fright. It’s paws tried to in scrambling defeat to remove the clay appendages from it’s face. Releasing his neck hold Ball pulled his arm back and then brough it forward, a bone crunching sound emerged as clay fist met squirrel arm. The small woodland rodent’s arm was shattered on impact.

A twist more of his other hand and Ball released the squirrel into a spiralling twirl of fur and screeching. It came to a stop and Ball jumped at it again. This time he didn’t stop as both his hands connected with the squirrel’s face and both fur and clay tumbled backwards and smashed into the trunk of the tree. Luckily for the squirrel the trunk stunned the Pycon and left the squirrel free to run off.

Frightened of it’s life the squirrel did just that. Ball sat up, watching the disrespectful rodent scamper off, favoring it’s busted arm as it went. Hissing at his chest wounds the Pycon looked down, they weren’t pretty but a day’s worth of rest and he felt it’d be okay.

The trip down was a bit easier, He allowed his body to take it’s time to the ground where his hand was sitting there. Grabbing a hold of it he could feel life was still in it, just barely. It’s grayed coloration showed signs of drying out, but it still held some pliability. A sigh of relief released from the Ball as he started back towards Imass, cramming his severed hand back into place and pushing his arm mass around it. Sealing the old hand into place Ball flexed it, it would need some work.

Rest and sleep... Food too.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Orion Michaels]

Ball +3 Climbing +1 Observation +2 Py-ken lore : The Feeling of Disrespect Sap helps keep things sticky Squirrels: Horrible Furry Beasts Note Fun thread, Ball. Let me know if you have any questions and please edit your request in the grade queue.