Dog Days of Summer (Open)

[Lakas]

Summer 20, 511 AV Location: Sea of Grass just outside of Riverfall Who: Lakas and any other If there was a curious Drykas in the grasses watching the megalith grass highways would see hear first, then see a most unusual sight. They would hear a loud, bellowing roar, a deep, fearful sound. That would then be followed by the sound of thundering hooves. Following the hooves, were barks and padded feet. A massive bi-horned beast could be seen racing over the grass. His hooves were rising and falling rapidly. His massive shoulders could be seen bulging and stretching. Behind him were two large wild dogs in hot pursuit, yips and barks escaping their maws. Two more were matching his pace on his left, a fifth on his right. These dogs were large, and smart, and had been hounding him for ten chimes now. If he had been in Falyndar, him and his companions would've dispatched them, but here was alone. One of the dogs behind him nipped at his tail. The pain was minor, but he let out a bellowing roar in response. He sped up, lowering his head, with it's massive horns, and his speed increased a bit. His legs were beginning to tire, and he couldn't even see Riverfall yet. His final destination on his long journey. He couldn't die now, not to these hungry mutts. One from the left closed in, perhaps to steer him away from the highways. Lakas swung his head, his horn catching the dog, lifting it with a yelp and tossed it away. His breathing was ragged and his limbs burning, his sight beginning to fade. His hooves carried him over a small knoll, when a walled city came into view. Riverfall! He was still far enough away that the guards wouldn't be of help. His hope ignited he continued muscling forward, but failed to pay attention to his surroundings. The dog on his right, moved in and nipped at his front right leg. It's jaws closed on it and Lakas bellowed loudly enough that even those on the walls would be able to hear. His leg injured, he began to fall, his huge weight and momentum turning him into a destructive force. He fell toward the offending dog, and with a sickening crunch, the dog was snuffed out of existence. But Lakas was down on his right side, continuing to bellow. The three dogs circled him, he struggled to rise, but any town he did, those jaws drove him back down. They intended to tire him out until he was easier to deal with. The fourth dog would likely show up soon after having been thrown from pursuit. Lakas roared one last time, as his horns thrashed about, not having much effect. This felt like the end, mere moments from his final goal. But he would die as the proud beast he was, not the human he could be.

[Raiha]

Summer. Raiha had to admit that she loved it. Not quite as much as she enjoyed autumn, but summer had to rank second in terms of how she valued the seasons of Riverfall. She could claim over a year's worth of time there now, too - it had been a year ago last season, almost to the day, since she had arrived there, and she had grown more thankful that she had with every passing day. They, her sister and her, had grown a lot over that time, and far more than she had ever expected to be possible had been made possible in Riverfall.

With the sun out, the Akontak had been working outside of Sanctuary's fences with Diallo and Uzima, hunting for the burrowing critters. They had been infiltrating the perimeter, and no matter how much Raiha worked with Uzima and Diallo, the little bastards kept on coming. But it gave her time to run Chuki, too. If she couldn't fly her male goshawk, and he wasn't a successful hunter in his own right, there was no way she would be pairing him up with Uzima. Bloodlines, even in birds, were important. But being outside of Sanctuary's fences and walls meant a body needed protection, and as such, Raiha was carrying one of Kanikra's flanged maces and the suvai... but blunt trauma was the best trauma. She had to admit a certain liking for the things that came from their utility. If you could pound the shyke out of something... it would eventually break. Her experience with the suvai meant you needed a lot of openings and lucky scratches.

Uzima was in the sky while Raiha and Diallo worked the ground, and Raiha's first indication that something was wrong was in the way that Uzima stopped hunting. She was no longer focused on finding that rabbit that they had chased out here. Her attention was far off in the distance. Diallo raised his head, his body language stiffening, as he too stopped, the hair all along his back going up, and Raiha couldn't quite get either goshawk or dog working again after that. She hefted her mace warily, activating her Auristics out of instinct. She concentrated on her own Djed, focusing it on her eyes, and stared at the overlapping auras that changed everything as she saw it. That was when she could really see and hear the terrible roar in the distance... and it sounded like nothing she had ever heard before. It felt like a Gods-damned olidosopaux charging, so it did, and it sounded like one too. The fur all along Diallo's back was straight up, from his neck to the tip of his tail, and his lips drew up as he left his trails and practically galloped over the tall grass back to the Akontak's side, and Raiha's grip tightened on the mace. Uzima winged overhead, as silent as a mouse in the grass. Get going, Kanikra encouraged. Hit something. Who knows? Sanctuary could eat for the season with something that big.

The beast, whatever it was, went down, and Raiha could hear the dogs, see the dogs, and they didn't look that big. She wasn't sure how many of them there were, but they didn't look like they were as big as Diallo... but what did from a distance? Still... she took off running towards it, the deerstalker at her side as she let out a whoop, her long white braid flying behind her as she covered the ground, Diallo's baying likely not helping poor Lakas' state of mind. More dogs. And Myri-knew-what shouting at the newest dog, a big white one, that latched onto one of his assailants as a blue-skinned female in leathers hefted her mace with both hands and swung it at the dog that was hanging onto Lakas' leg. If its mouth was busy... It let go with a startled yelp, though, as the heavy head of the flanged mace crashed into its pelvis and down its hind end went. Watch the head, watch--- Kanikra warned as the dog bit at her boot, and Raiha had to club it with the mace again. The white dog was engaged in his own bloody battle, and she was going to have to help him out. Up this close, Raiha realized it was a bull, and it was not like any bull she had ever seen before in her life. She doubted it was Drykas-owned, because else it would have been saved a long time ago - those dogs never would have had a chance.

[Lakas]

Lakas was in a frenzied state of pain, fear, and confusion. One dog was digging into his leg despite him kicking fervently. The teeth sunk into the flesh but the sturdy bone held strong. The other two were biting and barking at him. Then he heard a loud baying. He knew he was done for. Surely that was the fourth dog coming to help finish him off. Lakas kicked harder and managed to get his two hind legs beneath him. He got his good foreleg up and tried to shake off the offending animal, it just out of reach of his horn. One of the other dogs was charging at his neck, the other now nipping at his tail and hind legs. The knew baying sound belonged to a different canine. A large white beast that crashed into the one approaching him from the front. Then he felt the pain in his right foreleg lessen. He saw a very blue creature bash the hind end with a sickening thud. However the creature was crippled, but not dead. It pulled it's way on it's fore legs and began snapping at the boots of the blue thing, hoping to latch on to something. Lakas say that the creature appeared feminine, and immediately assumed she was okay. A foolish byproduct of his having lived among the cranky matriarchs in Taloba. He half limped, turned away to face the opponent at his rear, who by now had successfully landed a few chomps in his super sensitive tail. His eyes passed over the two dogs fighting. The large white monster had his jaws clamped tight on the other's shoulder, while his victim's claws dug into his chest. The white dog manage to get his foot on the offering beast's head, pinning it to the ground while he snapped his jaws downward. The dog kept wriggling avoiding the bites by bare margins. As Lakas managed to turn fully, he heard the white dogs jaws clamp on the other's throat, ending it's struggle. Lakas was now facing the other dog. He roared loudly in it's face, hoping it would back down. After all, it's three companions were dead or crippled, and one missing. The odds had shifted slightly. He roared one more time, hoping to intimidate further. The dog, however, rushed in, looking to get a hold of his good front leg. Lakas was ready though. He lowered his head, and right when the dog was beneath his chin, he swung his massive horn in a cyclical motion. The horn caught the dog in the ribs, knocking it to Lakas' left. He then followed throug by lowering his horn beneath the dog and with a swift movement upwards, sent it airborn over his head and to the right. The dog landed hard and didn't get back up. Lakas was tired, his injured leg straining to hold up his massive weight. He turned back to see how the blue woman fared. However, he saw behind her the fourth dog who had apparently snuck up on the group. He saw it preparing to leap at her, to take her down, maul her at the neck perhaps. Lakas charged forward to her, his leg screaming in pain. A bright shimmer of light flashed moments before impact with her as the dog leapt. He stepped forward on a stronger, although still injured, leg. He was a hairs breath away from her skinny, lithe body, as his own filled the space as a massive, tall wall of muscle. His powerful left arm shot past her side, grasping the dog mid air by the throat, his other arm wrapping around her waist to her back to keep her from falling as his body pushed into hers. His massive left forearm and bicep flexed hard as he crushed the dogs neck, and tossed it away. His exhaustion however was evident, he didn't even notice if she had finished with her own dog, or where her mace was. For all he knew it was imbedded in his thigh. His body slumped against hers, his head wearily resting on her shoulder, a whisper escaping his mouth... "Riverfall... Gates..."

[Raiha]

When the wild dog landed after Lakas' throwing it, Raiha brought her mace down on it, swinging it overhand to bring the flanged metal head down on the creature's skull. She wasn't taking a chance of it getting back up. Diallo had managed to get his own down and worried the target a little more, much to her satisfaction. But she'd have time to thank him later, because while she wasn't sure how many dogs there were to start with, and her Auristics wasn't picking up any more, not that she could see, sneaking through the undulating auras of the long blades of grass. She stretched out as much awareness as she could looking for more predators. While their fur hid them, their auras would not.

And then the massive bull was coming her way, charging on unsteady legs. "Steady, steady, steady," Raiha cautioned the creature, hoping against all hope that he would not, in fact, crash into her, or gore her with those horns. Even though she had been putting on weight and muscle, Raiha knew that if he had a mind to put one of those horns through her, he was going to do that, short of her doing something with her mace to club his forehead. Which probably wouldn't work all that well, either.

Get ready, get ready, Kanikra coached, let his momentum... and then they didn't need to drop downwards to miss those horns as the bull became human. Kelvic. Kanikra realized what he was going for - there was no advantage, after all, to shifting. Behind you, she barked at her twin as the mountain of muscle squished against her as Diallo threw the smaller dog aside and started growling at Lakas now that the immediate threat was over, and the strange human was squishing his partner.

"Calm," Raiha told the dog, shutting him up as if by magic. "Okay," she told Lakas, "okay. Calm," she spoke in Common, since he spoke to her in that language. "At the gates, they would just send you to Sanctuary. Or put you into servitude. So come with me," she glanced over Diallo's wounds. Not too bad. She was seriously going to have to see about getting him something made from leather, some chest and neck gear, to protect him while they were out here. It would have paid off. Fortunately, what he had wasn't too deep - red but not particularly bloody, plenty of welts but no deep cuts. That worked for her. "Shift your weight," she told him. "It's not too far. Kavala, she is a better healer than I am." Even now, as she hefted his weight as best as she could, she was applying what she could from Rak'keli's Mark to his injuries. It wouldn't do much with the deeper wounds, but it might help clean out the bacteria and the pain. "My name is Raiha."

[Gossamer]

. Character: Raiha Experience: 2xp Mace, 1 xp Observation, 1 xp Construction, 1 xp Auristics, 1 xp Medicine Lore: How To Safely Saving People From Wild Dogs, How to Approach Dangerous Situations with Caution Additional Note: In desperation to find something to comment on, I have to say the last few threads of yours I read you started out saying how much you loved each season/time of day/activity. I’m glad your PC is so happy! Once more watch the passiveness of Auristics. You need to concentrate to use it and not just say you concentrated but SHOW US you did by taking some time to clear your head etc. Also, when healing, Mizahar’s medical level doesn’t know about ‘bacteria’. I think you just said it as an afterthought on your last line, but you can say dirt or contaminants and be more true to Mizahar’s tech level. .