The Forest (Anyone)

"Padme, There's no worry. He is a good friend of mine and he won't hurt you."

"Speak for yourself," I said despite my willingness to get along, "if she pisses me off I won't hesitate to break a few bones...then again she doesn't have all that many bones...in any case I'm quick to anger, but quick to calm down too, so careful what you say long ears."

"Well, we're going to have to learn. Let's go get Roon and head to a spot padme knows that is hard to find and easily defended." And with that, we strode off.

Padme didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit. What was this Azerik trying to prove, anyways? Acting like he should be the one calling the shots when he was prowling around her forest! It was the duty of every haschen warrior to protect these woods, and Padme knew them like the back of her paw. How could Azerik speak of pride when he kept grabbing her like she was some sort of rag?

"You follow Padme. She know way back to Roon!" The large rabbit quickly took the lead, using her senses and tracking skill to trace Tarok's path back to the fox. It was only a minute or so before they found the red fox perched on a large fallen log, looking as if he had been deeply contemplating something. She hated that the Azerik person was following behind her, as she didn't trust him, but if Tarok said he was a friend, Padme wouldn't attack. Unless he grabbed her again. Then she'd bite his fingers off.

I followed the rabbit, acknowledging that she probably knew this forest best. When we arrived at the spot where we had abandoned Roon, a thought came to mind. What might be a good and easily defended hiding spot for a rabbit, might not necessarily be so for someone as large as myself and Tarok.

"I'm going ahead," I said ignoring the glares from the long eared devil, "ask Roon or Padme to find my scent if you need to talk to me."

Without further delay, I leaped off into the trees, ignoring the yells of protest from the rabbit like creature. If I stayed around her too long, I might actually be tempted to eat her if she didn't shut up.

When I could just barely hear my companions breathing, and just barely catch their scents on the wind, I stopped jumping, and perched on the highest branch I could reach without snapping it. From here I could roughly make out the image of a large army on the horizon. These guys wanted Tarok bad, and I still had no clue why. My friendship with him was getting in the way of my usual need for information, but I trusted him to tell me when I needed to know.

OoC:Holy shileles. How is this going to work?

OoC: Escape!

BiC:

Padme knashed her teeth together angrily as Azerik just turned and ran off. Could he not smell them? The whole forest held a new tension, the kind of thing only an animal could sense. It was clear that more enemies were near, and a lot of them, too. The whole forest had gone silent, as if it were holding its breath to watch as the humans closed in on their prey. They had to leave now, even if Azerik didn't have the sense to follow them.

"Tarok, come! We must run!" Padme pulled at the hem of Tarok's cloak, her voice full of unhidden urgency. When the boy hesitated, she pulled harder. "Azerik take care of self, you see! Follow Padme, quickly!" The large rabbit ran over to a large tree stump, urging Tarok to follow. Their best escape would be the river, as she had decided before.

I heard the rabbit yelling at Tarok to move, and felt there scents moving farther away, towards a scentless area that could only be a river or pond. I jumped through the trees, towards the spot they were headed, and arrived there a few seconds before them.

"There's an army of at least 1000 men to the north of here," I said ignoring the glares from Padme, "I didn't smell any dogs with them, so they shouldn't have any idea where we are, but if we keep heading for the river they'll eventually find us, since the river is the only kind of path a humanoid could follow in this forest."

"He is right Padme. And they are probably going to torch the forest if they can't find me. Anyone have a plan? Cause I sure as @#%$ don't."

"Sure," I said letting the sarcasm slip into my tone, "I've got tons of plans, only problem is none of them is going to work against an army. All my plans can get around maybe 100 guys, but anything above 500 people and I've got nothing...oh."

The last syllable was an expression of surprise, as I had come up with a plan to get us out of this while I was chewing out our fearless little Nightling.

"I've got an idea," I started off slowly, "it will be a bit risky for me, but I don't think it will be too much of a problem."

I held up my sword, and continued, "I can use my Zanpaktou to create a set of Black Holes, that will lead these guys out of the forest for the time being. I've never tried to make a Black Hole that size before but it shouldn't be a problem. Once I've got them away from the forest for the time being I'll send an energy blast up into the air, and meet you guys back here."

I saw that they wanted to argue and stopped them before they could make a sound, "I'm not arguing this, you guys just keep as far away from the army as long as you can, and I'll take care of the rest. It's only a temporary fix but it's better than nothing."

As soon as I finished, I jumped off into the trees, towards the impending army. In order for this to work I had to get their attention first.

"Hey!" I shouted drawing my katana as I got close to them, "That Nightling you're after already left, you'll have to catch me if you wanna know where he is!"

Is he crazy? I thought to myself. No, this is Azerik Zaraki, Soul Reaper. He always has a plan. Let's just hope it works. Roon, Padme, I'm going to make us invisible, so don't make a sound. Roon, I'm gonna need to borrow some of your magic power ok?

Ooc: I'm going to include my other charac for a little twist

Zildor-> I had been following the army, biding my time for the opportune moment to strike. Suddenly, above my head, a man appeared in the tree above me. Wait, I thought, He's something more... Holy cow! Another werewolf! I was delighted at the chance to see another of my kind. He shouted to the army, and then ran off. I hid behind the tree, and the army passed by. When they were about halfway by, I drew my sword and began beheading men left and right.

The army had been following me, for about two minutes, when I caught the scent of blood behind me. I turned-continuing to jump only backwards now-and saw a man at the very edge of my vision, beheading the soldiers as they appeared before him. I focused my nose on the scent he was giving off, trying with all my might to ignore the cloying smell of blood that permeated the air. When I finally got a good whiff of his scent, I noticed a similarity to a scent I hadn't smelled in a few centuries. It took me a minute to place the scent, but I soon realized it was the smell of a fellow Lycanthropic. The smell was fundamentally different because of the worlds we were born in, and the difference in type, but he was without a doubt, a Lycanthropic of some sort. "I guess I'm going to have to make sure he doesn't end up going on a trans-dimensional trip like the rest of these guys.

As I came to a clearing in the trees, I shouted at the top of my lungs, and let the energy flow through my body, "Howl! Sumasshuyochi!"



As my sword finished its transformation, I fired a black hole into the center of the clearing. As soon as one of the soldiers got close, the lot of them would eventually get pulled it, and spit out where ever I placed the next one. I bunched my legs, then catapulted myself, a good 20 feet into the air using my reiatsu to push myself as high as I could, then fired another black hole, some 5 miles in the opposite direction of the river. As the soldiers piled into the clearing and began getting sucked into my dimensional inconsistency, I spotted the werewolf, in the midst of the crowd, fighting as best he could the pull of the vortex. With a speed only my fellow could have see, I jumped into the crowd, and grabbed him by the arms, and dragged him through the air and into a nearby tree.

"Thanks for the help friend," I said resting my back against the trunk of the tree, "but it really wasn't necessary."

"Come, come! We must go before black holes come!" Padme didn't know what on earth a 'black hole' was, but she certainly didn't want to get sucked into one. She pulled at Tarok until he finally started to go with her, and the fox followed behind at his own pace. Again, she was angry at Azerik for doubting her judgment, but that was just humans. Always thinking everyone else was so much dumber than than they were.

With all the speed she could afford, the brave warrior led Tarok and the fox deeper into the forest, where they came to the river she spoke of. The water was flowing wide and fast, as it was still new into the spring season, but the rabbit wasn't afraid. She knew it would carry them to one of the mountain lakes, where the mountains became steep and treacherous. On one side of the lake, there was a particular cliff that had a hidden path going up it, which only the haschen knew of. There, she knew they would be safe, for without knowing where the trail was, the cliff was almost impossible to climb.

Padme also knew that the cliff trail led to a particularly sacred grove of the haschen. It was said that heavenly lights occasionally appeared there, especially in the winter seasons. It was said that one could talk to the heavens from that point, if one's heart was strong and pure enough. Padme didn't know if her friends were really worthy enough to be in such a place, but their safety was important. If Azerik didn't succeed in getting the EVIL army, then they would need a safe haven to hide at until the army passed through the forest.

"Hurry!" Padme motioned towards the river, urging Tarok and the fox to jump in. She went into the water herself, shuddering when the cold water soaked her yellow fur. Almost immediately, the current began to pull at her, and she looked back to see if the others would follow.

"Thanks for the help friend," the werewolf said resting my back against the trunk of the tree, "but it really wasn't necessary."

"It's no problem, and I've been following them for some time, trying to bring down their numbers. Oh, my name is Zildor, how about you?"

"Azerik," I said hastily as the scent of Tarok and the others, began to move farther down the river, "if you want you can come with me or stay here, but I gotta go catch up to some people."

I leaped off the branch that was supporting us, and landed on another one ahead, and continued this again and again until I had caught up with my 3 companions. I followed them from above in the trees for a few minutes then let myself fall in front of their path.

"I thought I said, we'd meet back where I left you," I said slightly angry at the rabbits mistrust of me, "running off without waiting isn't very polite you know."

With that Azerik, as he called himself, began to jump from branch to branch seemingly with a purpose unknown to me. I followed him, and saw as he met up with a nightling, a haschen, and a fox. I reckonized the fox as Roon. I strode into sight, and the nightling and the rabbit jumped, but the fox just gazed at me.
How ya been? I heard a voice intrude in my head. Pretty good, what's going on? Roon explained to me what was happening as I was introduced.

Running off without waiting isn't very polite? What had the arrogant human himself do? Run off and say bizzare things about black holes, that's what! At least Padme had the good sense not to leave her life in the hands of a...what had he called himself again? Oh yes, a lycan! Whatever ridiculous creature that was Padme didn't know, but she didn't know what a nightling really was, either, but Tarok was nice enough. The large rabbit could only hope there weren't more mean lycan creaturey thingies like Azerik in the world.

At least Azerik had done one good thing so far. She could no longer catch the scent of the EVIL ones, who really did have a distinct smell that was different from humans. It was more mental than physical, but Padme guessed that was because Tarok and his pursuers were just that: humans with weird mental abilites. Now that they were safe, the large rabbit paddled out of the stream, shaking her fur violently to get the water off. There were a few protests as the water splashed against some of her new companions, but she figured it was harmless. A little water never hurt anyone.

But who was this new person? Why were all these strange creatures coming to her woods, anyways? This was a very bad sign, and after seeing that Azerik could eliminate an entire army, she was very concerned for her own tribe. She needed to get these weirdos out of here.

With a suspicious glance at the blue eyed intruder, Padme hit her staff against the rocky shore of the river to get everyone's attention. "Lookie here, woods not be good place to stay. Tarok need better protection. Go, go, we must!" The brave warrior thrust her staff in an eastward direction, which she knew to be the quickest way out of the woods. Just beyond them was a small village, and there they could discuss what to do about Tarok's pursuers.

OoC: Please don't take Padme's antics too close to heart...

OoC: It's all good.

BiC: We saw the village and I shrunk back. There was a power in this place that was.... different. But it was not nightling power. But I was going to be the last one to enter. When they entered, someone grabbed me and dragged me off into the darkness. No one noticed, not even Azerik, until we were very far off.

OoC: Here's a nice little twist for ya.

For some reason I was still following the annoying little rabbit-like creature called Padme. Roon had remained silent, and Zildor was still following us. This had to be the second weirdest day of my life. What was more I had a nagging sense that something was wrong with the picture I was seeing. It had been bugging me for about an hour now, but I couldn't quite place it...oh.

"Hey guys," I said stopping in mid-step, "where did Tarok go?"

When they all gave me blank looks in return, I swore loudly, cursing myself for ignoring the guy we were supposed to be protecting.

"First things first then," I said calming down as quickly as I had lost it, "I want to meet whoever is in charge of this village, and get a search party organized."