Pink Poogle Toy Forum

(Blech. I've been feeling terribly uninspired lately, and I've tried a number of times to backtrack, but my posts have always come out terribly. So... I'm just going to kind of go with what everyone else is doing, me thinks... And yes, Swissy, a palamino is indeed a type of horse. )

Rachelle's appaloosa whinnied, frightened, as a wolf lunged for its leg. Rearing up, it nearly tossed Rachelle off. Gasping, she gripped the horse's mane tightly in her fists and hung on as well as she could-- Which wasn't very well, mind you, considering this was only her second time in her life that she'd ridden a horse.

Trying to back up as Alzi had commanded was not an easy feat. Rachelle's horse, for some odd reason, had gotten the ridiculous idea that she'd be able to escape by leaping over the wolves. After backing up a few steps, she would move foward at a canter and attempt to jump, but only stumbled. A wolf leaped at Rachelle, and she screamed and pulled the horse away. The wolf's fang grazed her leg, and she winced.

This wasn't supposed to happen! Not when we've only just started out! She thought, trying to focus to pull together a plan.

Cid pulled firmly at his horse's mane, whispering in a calm tone that did not betray how he really felt. Although the horse was no less frightened, it no longer bucked. He pulled the reins again and pushed it to move backwards.

The few steps the horse took allowed him to take in more of the situation around him. Elily was on the floor and a couple of wolves looked ready to leap at her. Rachelle was struggling to control her own horse. It was a split second decision, but an easy one at that. Elily was closer and in more danger.

Cursing all things dark, he drew a dagger out of his belt, aimed and threw it neatly at a wolf. It struck the fiend well in the neck. That gave him time.

Cantering over to Elily, much against the will of his mount, he yelled at her. "Get on!"

[Much as I would like Phalan to just sit down and neatly squash all the wolves, I doubt any dragon would do something as uncomfortable as all that.]

Without skipping a beat, Elily jumped onto the horse, using her staff to whack away a wolf who leapt up in hopes of getting a mouthful of flesh. This was chaos. Rachelle seemed like she was also having problems. They all needed to pull themselves together if they wanted to get through this sudden assault alive.

[Such a crappy post.]

Phalan looked at the wolves for a moment, what would drive such ordinary creatures to attack those in the company of a dragon? He did not ponder long, his tail lashed out and with a snap of the tip batted the wolf that was assulting Rachelle. He turned and struck with his right claw, impaling a wolf that was moving in towards Cid. Smoke rose from the dragon's nostrils and he belched a fireball at another wolf that he just jumped from the foliage. He lupines backed off a little, growling with their fangs bared. Others prowled out of the forest to join them. Phalan looked at his comrades.

"Well?" he said, "What are you waiting for, don't tell me that your all useless in a fight!" one of the wolves lunged and he swatted at it, but it leapt deftly to the side and headed straight for Isabella.

(I would sit on them, but somehow I doubt that they'd all just sit still and let me squash them, lol)

[Heh, I guess not.]

The white horse cantered back to the small group of defenders with his two riders. Cid reached out and tried to pull the reins of Rachelle's horse down, all the while trying to soothe it.

"Well," he demanded of Rachelle, "help us fight! You're a warrior, aren't you? Healer Isabella! Why don't you do something instead of yell instructions at us like that?"

So saying, he threw another dagger at an approaching wolf. There seemed to be nothing but grey fur all around. What on earth was happening? Not much time to wonder as another lunged at his horse again. It reared and he had to let go of Rachelle's reins to keep his - and Elily's - balance. He kicked fiercely at the wolf and was bitten nicely in return.

Elily thwacked yet another wolf with her staff. Thank god for her staff. She hit two more wolves on the head as they leaped up to the horse she was riding on. Elily felt a sharp pain on her left shin. Looking down, she realized a wolf had sank its jaws onto her leg. Driven by sudden alarm and fear, she slammed her staff down on its head, again and again, until the wolf fell back down to the ground, bleeding on its head.

Elily almost fell out of the horse again, the pain on her left leg weakening her grip on the horse. She could feel the warm blood flowing slowly out of the wound. Fighting desperately to maintain her position on the horse, and not to drop her staff, yet not get attacked by any of those beasts. She needed to heal herself. Yes, that was it, heal herself. She had to stop the bleeding before it got worst.

Elily raised her staff to cast a healing spell at herself, and noting that Cid had been bitten, wanted to heal him afterwards, but another wolf leaped up, baring its fangs, wanting to sink a fatal bite in Cid's neck. She whacked it violently, sending it flying towards the opposite direction.

Then, as if wanting to avenge their injured comrade, several other wolves surrounded the horse, their deadly fangs visible. It seemed as if the wolves were enjoying themselves, savouring every bite of human flesh, every smell of blood. One of them flew at Elily's arm, biting it, hoping that Elily would drop her staff, but Elily shook it off, refusing to give up. There was now a deep wound in her right arm.

Elily felt quite weak now, perhaps it was due to the loss of blood. Fear would probably drive her to fight a little more, but she honestly doubted she could go on for much longer, not with such injuries anyway. She cursed the wolves, which were preventing her from tending to her wounds. She needed to heal herself before she could heal others!

As the attack lingered on, dizziness announced its arrival. Oh, dear... Elily steadied her position, clutching her staff tighter. If she let go of it now, it would be impossible to do any healing.

Before she even realized what was happening, Isabella saw a wolf coming for her. She wasn't quite sure what to do in the situation, so she stood her ground. It kept coming closer and closer, and Isabella continued to stand right in it's path. As it got closer, Isabella braced herself to run. When it was within a yard of her, ready to pounce, she dashed quickly to the side, leading the wolf into a slight collision when the tree behind them. Isabella knew she hadn't bought much time, but she did know she had saved her skin for a few minutes at most.

Phalan decided that he had had enough. His claw shot to his belt and drew his mace. With an unearthly roar, he went into battle. His eyes changed from blue to red as the bloodwrath overtook him. Claws jabbed, his tail cracked, jaws snapped and the mace whistled round, smashing any enemy he could see. The wolf that had narrowly missed Isabella met it's end, gored on one of the spikes of the dragon's mace. Phalan's movement were like lightening, and every strike was exact. His attacks seemed to weave in and out of his comrades, coming dangerously close to them, but only hitting the wolves that assulted them. After a moment the lupines drew back, some simply ran, but reinforcements were not far behind. Again they regrouped, and crouched for a second attack.

"Come to me beasts, face my firey wrath!" Phalan roared, having lost all control of himself. He reared his head back, and the air around his mouth shimmered with heat.

The dragon's threat seemed to cause the fiends to think twice. The monsters were not known to understand human speech, but something or other made them turn around and flee.

It was not understandable. They didn't really understand the dragon, did they? And if they did, why go? Fiend wolves were not known to leave their prey alone. The road had been covered by the dark grey of their fur, outnumbering the party by what had seemed a hundred to one. It was as though something had commanded them, or forced them, to leave.

But none of this mattered. They were safe, for now.

Cid paused in the silence that followed the sudden victory. He was shaking from the fear that the onslaught had brought him, but that was beginning to subside. However, he was in great awe of Phalan. There was something terrible about a fighting dragon and he didn't think he could face Phalan in the eye just then.

Sliding down from his horse, he muttered to no one in particular, "I'm going to find Elily's horse." With that, he ran, slipping and sliding over the bloody ground towards where he thought the horse might be, but more importantly, away from the rest of them for a while.

Isabella gasped as the dragon went into action, killing her attacker. She was a bit amazed as the beasts fleed- it just didn't seem likely for such wretched things to just run away. Isabella was silent for a few moments, until gathering her faults. Just before she began to speak, Cid ran off.

My, my... that boy does have behavioral problems, she thought to herself.

"Well, they'll be back soon enough. We best be on our way", Isabella said aloud.

At last. Finally. Thank God.

It was now quiet, except for the occasional soft neighing of the horses, and shuffling of the feet from her companions. Elily slowly slid down from the horse, then collapsed into a sitting position on the ground, breathing heavily. The wolves were gone. Not a single tail in sight. This was probably too good to be true, but she decided it wouldn't be wise to jinx it. The Guardians were probably in no shape to deal with another group assault. That went to show exactly how 'skilled' they probably are in combat.

Elily lifted up her staff, and closed her eyes. She didn't have enough energy in her for a fast and powerful healing spell, so a slower one would have to do. Shiny bits of glittery light flew out of her staff, and surrounded her wounds. She started to heal slowly.

Cid found Elily's horse a short way from the place of attack. It was not injured, thank the Light, only very much frightened. Soothing the terrified animal, he thought hard.

Wolves didn't just appear. It was a surprise that they were so close to the city of Ashling at all. They had only just got out of the gates and had already been attacked, almost as though someone had been waiting for them. More likely it was the loss of magic in the World, though.

Realising that he could not stay away from the group too long, he returned to it a little reluctantly. He had no idea what Phalan would look like.

"Here," he said to Elily, watching her heal herself. When had she got injured? He wasn't sure, but he suddenly felt terrible. She was only a white mage who wasn't supposed to attack anyone. They were meant to protect the white mage ... or more correctly, the warriors were. He sighed. "Your horse seems to be better now."

Turning to Isabella, he queried, "Where are we heading to?"

[I'll chuck in a speedie once the destination we're heading to is decided. *wrinkles nose* Could range from a day to three days in speed size.]

(We need some speedies. yar.)

Alzi yanked her halberd out of a wolf's belly, and imediatly wrinkled her nose. The wolf's body emited a stench that Alzi couldn't remember ever smelling in her life (And I'd like to keep it that way too!).

Covering her nose Alze stepped closer to the wolf,and her eyes widdened...

"By the light!"

After some time, the last of her wounds closed up, with no traces remaining. Elily smiled slightly. Her lessons had not gone to waste. Cid had returned to the group, bringing her horse. Elily's smile widened, more on the grateful note.

'Thank you,' the two words were all she could offer as a token of her gratitude. Getting up slowly, then brushing herself, Elily looked about the group.

'Does anybody need me to heal them? We should continue our journey in full health,' she said, trying to force a little cheerfulness in her voice. A little liveliness would certainly help. Right now everyone looked drained, even though their journey had just begun.

Elily kept quiet at Cid's query about where they were headed, though a look of thoughtfullness crossed her face. She was no good at geography, and if they left her in a forest even with a map and a compass, it was highly likely she would get stuck and lost there. So it was probably best to remain quiet about things she did not know.

Little was said as the group moved on north. Isabella had not answered Cid's question and he was not happy with that. Searching his memory for a map of the surrounding country, he reflected that up north was a forest where fiends reigned. It had been called "high north" and he did not think he wanted to go there. The forests were dark and dense, there the fiends were stronger than anywhere else in the country and no one ever went there. Although he liked to break rules, this was one rule he understood and abided by with good reason. Little was known about the high north since no one went there and rumours about it were abundant, none pleasant rumours.

After the initial scare of the fiend wolf attack, the horses were progressing well. The morning wore into the afternoon. There was a furious wind going along. It seemed that rumours about the winds gone wild were not far off. Baskets and belongings had to be strapped all the more firmly onto the horses and on themselves to avoid them flying off. The lighter, smaller personages of the party looked like they were going to be whisked off at any moment.

The winds died down enough for lunch to be eaten in safety, then the journey north recommenced. As the afternoon wore away, the winds returned with greater gusto than before. Cid was too much lost in his own thoughts and fears about the high north and his irritation at a specific high-and-mighty young healer to pay any attention to anyone else, although he didn't think anyone else was speaking, the struggle not to lose anything to the wind was so great. He was thankful he had short hair; those girls with long hair looked like haystacks.

Twilight approached and camp had to be thought of. The guides seemed not to think of it at all, Cid thought. Some use they are. It was a perplexing question. The winds were huge and if they even attempted to sleep out-of-doors, he was quite sure they would have missing members by the next day. However, there was no shelter to be found at all.

Up ahead the outline of some people on ponies appeared. He sat straighter. Travellers had always been a source of interest to him. If they were foe though, he had to be ready. When the travellers did come closer though, he realised they were obviously incapable of being foe. It was a bestraggled, exhausted, hassled-looking group of people who had come, riding on equally bestraggled, exhuasted, hassled-looking ponies.

"Wherefore art thou going?" the leader of the group queried the Guardians in the traditional greeting. He looked expectantly and warily at them. It was a mixed, strange group, no less strange because a dragon was following them. And who was the leader? Cid wondered. One of the guides, perhaps.