NPF Avatars IV, Chapter VII: The Caryatid in the Cave
 

The darkness slowly parted and Arhra found herself slung over Rei's shoulder. The others were arguing about where they were going. Remembering something important, Arhra neatly slid off Rei's shoulder and headed for them.

Syttulg was first in her path. Arhra jabbed a hand at his still musclebound chest, fingers splayed and digging in. A chaotic swirl of madness was in her eyes. Calling Chaos, a corona of flickering shapes of flame danced around her, crying out in ecstatic praise. Syttulg suddenly choked, weird long fingers of something moving beneath his skin. Blood burst on the plant-man's lips as branches erupted out of him, roots questing for soil and the sprouting vines tearing him apart.

Lips curled back into a madman's smile, Arhra drew forth a whip of icy blue flame, sending it curling around Flare, entangling the slime-girl. At its touch the bright, orange ooze of her body boiled off into a foul vapour. Flare, ensnared and trapped, thrashed as she evaporated away to nothing.

Hawk and Inbred charged the crazed being of Chaos as she dropped her whip. Arhra danced off to the side, one arm slicing through the blast of wind Hawk sent at her. the blow followed through and contacted Hawk at the moment he came into reach. The bird exploded, feathers raining down as if someone had turn a pillow open.

Momentum behind her blow, Arhra brought her leg around and slammed it into Inbred's waist. The half chocobo staggered back a few steps and Arhra dove at him. He felt pale, chill hands close around his throat, drinking his life, and then he felt no more.

"Admiral Arhra?" Rei shouted as Arhra casually tossed aside the withered husk, "what are you doing?!" Arhra turned, a fist punching through the android's chest and then, as unstable energy crackled over Rei, Arhra tossed her into the midst of the remaining NPFers. Laughing hysterically now, Arhra shielded her eyes as the resulting blast leveled trees, leaving nothing but charred dust at its centre.

Bursting with energy, Arhra declared herself king. She should have gone with 'queen' but felt king had more of a ring to to it. Then the world tottered, trees melting, shadows running like ink and holes in the world tearing open, showing the timeless madness beyond. There was a feeling of pressure and then rising darkness swallowed her.

* * *

"Guh?!" Arhra said blurrily as the darkness slowly parted. She found herself slung over Rei's shoulder the android having just given her a tight squeeze. The others were arguing about where they were going. Blinking confusedly, she realised what was going on. "Oh, I was having the most interesting dream. You all were in it." she said happily.

Slipping of Rei's shoulder, Arhra tried to regain her bearings. She started with an assessment of herself - it would be plain rude to seek bloody vengeance at this point in time. There was also the joy of delaying gratification. Besides, she felt generally happy right now. It was probably a side affect of that energy overload she'd just been involved in.

She started by checking for any effects of her recent travails. A quick inspection as she poked and prodded her fine physique showed all body parts were in the right place. She felt digustingly fit once more, the withering effect of those accursed fruits seeming to have been more than balanced out by the thrive spell. That brought something else to her attention - the spell did have a side effect. "Woo! I'm taller!" Arhra shouted with glee. She was still short.

Her clothes certainly weren't in good shape - being torn at by vines, partially revived into the plants they had been made from, subjected to the unfriendly environment of the innards of a giant, gelatinous fat guy and then in the middle of an explosion tended to do that. Still, thanks to narrative casuality, although ragged, there was enough to cover the essentials. "My clothes and the universe seem to be racing to see who dies first." Arhra muttered to herself. There was that other set of seemingly indestructable clothing secreted away in the pocket dimension she carried around wherever she went, but she wasn't nearly desperate enough to wear that costume yet.

Rummaging through her pockets, she found something in her pockets and and held it over her head excitedly. You could practically hear a simple fanfare. Arhra got the Title Deed! "Oooo." she said, "I've always wanted a mutant fruit orchard to call my own."

Rolling it up in one hand, she looked at the others, "So, is everyone together? Did I miss anything important while I was out?"

OOC: How better to start a chapter than violently killing everyone eh? Since there was a tiny bit to get wrapped up here, I thought it would be jarring to jump straight to the Caryatid. Still, there's walking and things to get straightened out for now!

As Thog got hit by the fruit, bafflement spread across his face. Well, it was there already, but now moreso. Then, a grin broke his face as he tasted his much-beloved fruit. In his absolute joy, he ate twelve of them, and shoved a further six down the throat of the musclebound plantman. Or possibly he was trying to choke Syttulg and failing miserably. Either way, Syttulg's nannites used the energy obtained from the fruit to heal his massively damaged body from the abuse Thog had put it through.

Syttulg wandered over to Skyshot and stood dumbly beside him, vaguely understanding that he owed Skyshot something but not quite sure what it was.

"Hey, ya'll go on ahead...I'll catch up." I said, gesturing to Mauve. After all, I had to rest a bit to recover my strength, and to regenerate myself after being exploded.

"You sure?" Mauve asked doubtfully. "Will you be able to find the others again once you're healed?"

Absently she tossed a healing spell Tarrin's way-- She wasn't sure what powers of recovery the guy had, but being squashed into the ground by a bazillion-point lardball couldn't be good for one's constitution.

"Well, I guess if you're sure about it..." Mauve continued with a shrug. "We'll save some caryatid for you. Or... y'know... whatever we happen to run into en route to said caryatid." She shoved her hands into her pockets and turned towards the whispering forest once more. At least Ahrha was awake now, meaning they might actually have an idea about where to go next. She still refused to put too much faith in Lumaes' sense of direction-- Never ask a hallucinating skeleton for directions, that's how the old saying goes.

"Do you ever get the feeling the world only exists to hurt you?" Steel called down to the NPFers. Or called up. He was upside down, his foot tangled in his cape, which had gotten caught in a tree branch. He wasn't to clear how he had gotten up there, but he did remember picking Arhra up, following after the very few people who seemed to know where they were going, then some powerful force grabbing Arhra and slinging him into the air in the process.
Grumbling about hating the world in general, Steel tried to reach up and untangle himself. Unfortunatly moving put to much pressure on his cape, which was pretty wornout as it was. With a loud ripping sound it tore away from the branch, sending Steel plumeting to the ground.

The ground shook as Steel impacted with the floor, face first. Mauve shrugged.

"Oh yeah," she said dismissively, waving a hand. "I've known that for ages. Long enough for Fate to make a running gag out of it. The trick is not to die."

Having had his request ignored, Hawk was now in a slightly bitter mood and so was grumbling to himself about the unfortunate direction his life had taken when this damn curse had been put upon him.

"Sodding curses! Never-ending grief and misery...." *Incoherent mumbling* "...and damned immortality to-boot!" *Yet more mumbling* ".. I USED to command armies! I USED to command RESPECT!

And so Hawk thought back to better times as a strange inaudible "vvvvvvvvvmmmmmmmm", sound was heard coming from nowhere as...

Lost style flashback one begins...

It was a grim day. A light rain had begun falling a short while ago, an ominous sign. The then human form of he who would one day be known as The Hawk of Battle, sat upon a great black horse as he surveyed the opposing force accross the field. At his back, nothing less than an army was assembled. They weren't the best trained men, but they were battle hardened and eager for blood, and sometimes that in itself was better than simple training. Only war could prepare a man for war and these men had seen more war than most.

A man rode up to Hawk, and faced him;

"Commander Hawk, they will wish to Parlay before the battle. To deliver their ultimatum.."

"There will be no Parlay", Hawk said, not turning from the army in front of him, "it is not neccesary, and besides..." He turned towards the soldier, a grim smile crossing his face, "they may notice our surprise!"

"Then I guess we must begin the battle, Sir."

"Indeed we must." Hawk turned and surveyed his archers. "Archers... Ready!!!" A row of archers a hundred men strong prepared their weapons. FIRE!!!

A hundred arrows flew high into the air, arched high over the battlefield and pelted into the enemy, who had already raised their shields to protect themselves. Most were unharmed, but it didn't matter, they were not intended to kill, merely to get a message accross: The battle has begun, the next move is yours.
------------------------------
On the other side of the field, the enemy commander got the message. "Fine, if he will not Parley, then he will be killed", he said to his second-in-command. "They have no Cavalry, send in the horse!"

"Yes sir!", His second replied. A few shouted commands later and the enemy cavalry was bearing down on Hawk and his army...
------------------------------
Hawk saw the enemy cavalry and smiled. He turned back to his archers. "Light it!" A line of fire was struck across the front line of archers. "Light 'em up!" As one, the archers obeyed and lit the ends of their arrows. "Fire!" With a great many twangs, the archers let rip, a hundred flaming arrows aimed at the fast approaching cavalry. Unfortunately for the cavalry, the field had been specially prepared beforehand. Oil had been soaked into the ground and as the arrows struck it, it burst into flames, engulfing and surrounding the suddenly surprised horse.

Now for phase two, Hawk thought. He turned to the young soldier again. "Sound it" The soldier nodded, raised a horn to his lips, and blew.

The enemy general was wrong. Hawk DID indeed have cavalry, but not on the field. Instead, they had been waiting in ambush on either side of their foe. Hidden in the woods, they had moved silently till they were almost behind the enemy. At the sound of the horn the ambush was sprung! Fire to their front and charging cavalry to their rear, all their cavalry already dead and their general dead within minutes the battle did not last long.

Hawk watched silently till the fires died down before advancing the rest of the army.

The entire enemy force was soon dead. Dead to the last man...

Another vvvvvmmmmmmmmm and...

Lost style flashback one ends...

Back in the present, Hawk flew off ahead of the others, still grumbling.

"I shall try to keep that in mind" Steel groaned, laying face down in the mud where he'd fallen, his voice muffled by the ground. He slowly rolled over, facing the sky. "I think I'll just stay here and catch my breath. You guys go save the world without me."
It was then he became aware of a familiar whispering.
"On second thought" He said brightly, trying to drag himself to his feet "I'm sure you'd be completely helpless without me to help you, and it is saving the world after all, not to mention the poisonings, why don't we just get moving along and not stay here now?" He managed to haul himself to his feet and stood swaying slightly, as if he'd had just a liiitttle to much to drink. "Now where'd that healer guy get to? I do believe I have some sort of cild moncusion." He said, looking around for Skyshot.

Mauves healing energies rippled thru Tarrins body, the rhino form had stoped him from being crushed but he had taken damage and the offhand spell gave him back his vigor again.
"Thanks Mauve" he thanked the mage and started to feel himself to ensure eveything was where it should be, satisfied that it was he smiled and began to follow the majority of the Npfer's.

One eye twitched with irritation, skeletal mouth twisting into a frown.
Lumaes was not very happy... He pinched the slimey thing sharply between his fingers, then, before it could ooze away from his grip he tossed it roughly into a clean jar that, from the fading label, could be seen to have once held guava jam. He screwed the lid on tightly, not bothering to punch any air holes - if the slime couldn't survive being trapped in an airtight container than it shouldn't have allowed itself to be put in one.
He frowned again, sniffing huffily.
"The trick is not not to die, its to die with such style and panache that the Grim Reaper" his eyes blaze gleefully, "is enamoured to the death so allows you to have another... and another... and another as long as you keep doing it with style"
He decided to give up coercing them to follow him, he knew the way and he supposed he would have to set up for their eventual arrival - though from the look of them that could take years. The tile flickered underneath him as if from bad reception before dissapearing completely, sentencing him to a drop to the floor as more of the poisonous toxins dissapeared from his body. With a whistle he dusted himself off, it would be much less draining to walk now. Still keeping that joyous, yet somehow strangely melancholy, tune going he strode off into the forest.