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Post by notadonkey on Jul 31, 2017 2:31:59 GMT -6
 "Stop!"
The single word had Addeva looking up at an irritated Fox, the mare's eyes never leaving the crumpled colt. She ordered her and Noelle away, but the zonkey looked back to the colt with mixed emotions. Honestly she just wanted to help, but she couldn't disobey a direct order.
Addeva let out a single sigh before slowly getting to her feet as to not to spook the small pegasus. "Yes ma'am" She uttered before trotting away from the group. She wasn't angry, after all Fox was just doing her job. The Valkyrie just hoped that she could get some answers out of the kid, or at least help him if he was hurt. Gods, please don't let it be some sort of a trap.
As she passed by another sunken body, she continued to try not to lose her cool. Long rounded ears listened for the familiar voice of her sister, finally she spotting her with the medic in the town's square, where a wagon was tipped over. They seemed to be observing something.
Addeva picked up her pace, stopping next to Alyshia as she explained the scene before them... What she saw made her heart skip a beat.
There, half sunken into the ground, was their father's friend and former Stone Circle member. Headless. The filly tried her absolute best to hide the fact that she was freaking the hell out. All she could do was stare in slight horror at the open wound, flies buzzing around it.
"Where...where's her head?"
That's when the raider came up, explaining what he found down by the beach. She looked at him, then at Alyshia, then back to the raider. "Whatever came out of the sea...you think they did all of this? What could have done this?? Pirates? Bloody Flanks? Vagabonds? Some sort of weird sick blessing?"
She was filling the silence, continuing to try to suppress her fear and anger as she stood close to Alyshia.
Word count: 328| Post #4
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Post by firebirdfalling on Jul 31, 2017 8:21:41 GMT -6
I have a good heart but this mouth has other ideas... As Ritan listened to Alyshia, her description painting what he was feeling with his teke. There goes my Earth Manipulation theory then, he thought as she described the missing head. If the equine was powerful enough to do this to a whole entire village with little to no problems, why would they need to cut off her head? Maybe sending a message? Wasn't this whole entire endeavor of killing these people enough?
While he was thinking, another mare wandered over to join them. Oh yay. Another one. Well, maybe she can help us find the head.
"Alyshia, mind filling her in? We need to set up a scavenger hunt for this head. I am not exactly equipped to 'searching out' things. I'm getting tired of explaining myself continually."
If this was what he was thinking it was...no, he hoped he was wrong. If he was right, then everyone had a huge problem. Also, steering away from death and doom, I have to examine the 'survivor' that Fox and the others found. Probably suffering from shock most likely, but I have to make sure he's alright. After going on this fucked-up head search of course...
194 words || Ritan | WF Medic || Post #5 |
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Post by tarriedsea on Jul 31, 2017 9:01:41 GMT -6
 "Lost."
The colt said the word with such strained concentration, Fox guessed he was either scared stiff or slow to speech. But regardless, his small voice combined with the word made her heart break a bit.
She waited for him to explain more, but he was quiet. He seemed more receptive with the others gone, his ears pricking up at her. Her heart softened. Fox had a habit of putting the fear of the gods into her comrades, but children didn't need that same treatment.
He slowly stood up, eyeing her the whole time. They were both equally cautious. Gods, he was tiny.
"So you're not from here? This town?" She didn't really expect him to answer at this point. Her heart fell a bit. If he wasn't from here, where did he come from? Did he do this? Was he part of this?
Was he even Onean?
Maybe she should explain herself. Others were more open if you made yourself vulnerable first, she knew. And she didn't trust him, but if he really was lost, even a kind stranger might be more comforting than the wilderness.
"We're Hira's kin, the War-Forged," she said. "We're here to investigate this place. I mean, not at first. At first we were just coming to check up on the town's affairs. But now it seems there are bigger problems at hand..." She trailed off, absently looking off to where the voices of her peers were arguing over something.
"We don't know who did this. But we're trying to find out."
She smiled at him, trying to sound warm and assured despite feeling everything but. What to do with him, though? If he was truly lost, she couldn't leave him here. Whatever happened to Holmsa might happen to him too. Some dark magic was already here, and might be on the prowl for more victims.
But it was still weird to see him here, and she couldn't shake the worry that he might be a plant or bait for something larger to come attack them. He had already burned the mares' noses.
"If you are lost..." she started, carefully. "If you need the safety of a group, you are welcome to follow us as we look around. We won't hurt you. We'll protect you if we find anything menacing. But we have a Raider and Valkyries with us, so if you try to pull any funny business, we're more than capable of taking your hide back to Skeldr Town. Do you understand?"
She hated being stern when he was just starting to calm down, but he had to understand the situation was serious. |
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Post by Svantanon on Aug 1, 2017 23:46:31 GMT -6
Alyshia shut her eyes, pressing her ears flat against her head as Addeva reacted to the gruesome scene. This wasn’t something she’d wanted her sister to see, but nothing could be done about that, now.
“I don’t know where her head is,” the vanner-mix finally responded, wondering how on earth she’d wound up uttering a sentence like that in her lifetime. “But—”
“Hey! I found something, in the woods!”
She turned to face Greer, who had returned from her forest search and brought with her disturbing revelations of her own. Alyshia’s brow furrowed as the other Valkyrie described her findings—barnacles? Random skeletons strewn about the floor?—but it wasn’t long before the raider also found his way back to the group, informing them of the poor drowned child lying at the shore… and the hoofprints in the sand.
Addeva voiced what Aly was too bewildered to ask outright. "Whatever came out of the sea...you think they did all of this? What could have done this?? Pirates? Bloody Flanks? Vagabonds? Some sort of weird sick blessing?"
"Alyshia, mind filling her in? We need to set up a scavenger hunt for this head. I am not exactly equipped to 'searching out' things. I'm getting tired of explaining myself continually."
The dappled mare briefly gritted her teeth in annoyance. Did Ritan not realize everyone was having to expend energy to explain sh-t, here? They’d be explaining everything they’d found all over again to Fox, anyway, and after that they’d be explaining things to Hira and her council, and after that, perhaps a third explanation just to ensure they were thorough with the whole process. This inconvenience wasn’t unique to him, but sure, get tired of explaining yourself after the one time, Ritan.
But in the end, Alyshia only snorted. There were more important problems at hoof to acknowledge.
“We know that this must have been the doing of one of Kaia’s blessings, nothing else could have left the village in the state that it is, but what I don’t understand is why there are skeletons with barnacles of all things lying all over the woods. If they’re obviously not from here, then why would the invaders-- pirates or deranged hippocampi of some kind, who knows?-- have bothered dragging piles of old bones up onto land with them? What would even be the…”
A memory flashed in her mind’s eye, then; an open book nestled between two scrawny legs under the candlelight. She’d been much younger, then, but with an appetite for knowledge that was never truly sated. She’d been studying the common gifts of the War-Forged’s most revered goddesses, wondering which ones she might be blessed with in her adulthood.
“…point…?”
The book on Onea’s culture was extensive and detailed, listing the most outstanding moments of each blessing’s history. It was the last one that had unnerved her innocent mind and made her father have her sleep in her parents’ bed, that night.
Alyshia was older and stronger, now. But she didn’t forget what she’d read.
“… I... don't...”
That couldn't... really be the answer, here, could it?
“I don’t know what could have possibly dragged everything and everyone here halfway into the ground, but whoever did it had help in the ambush. They must have come from the sea and… called the skeletons right out of the water with them. I don't see how and why else the invaders would have drudged up so much of them if there are as many as Greer said, and necromancy is a gift of Kaia's. They could have used them to block escape routes, possibly... or a show of intimidation, at the least... but why hide them in the forest? I just don't... Maybe I'm wrong... there's no clear answer to any of this.”
A shiver ran down her spine as she stamped a hoof. “Bahar’s head needs to be found. We owe it to her and her family to find out why she was singled out like this. Maybe it was taken further into the town square, if they left it behind at all.”
Word Count: 682 |
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Post by bellasuem on Aug 5, 2017 15:48:47 GMT -6
Thrynn Stallion / Raider / War-Forged
It seemed Kaia's blessed were behind this slaughter, and in more ways than one. As the girls talked it through, he couldn't imagine a scenario that made more sense. Horses... or hippocampi, or something came from the sea, and managed to dredge up the long-dead remains of ancient sailors while they did. Necromancy, Thrynn thought, not even liking the way the word sounded in his head. The dead should remain dead. No one should be paraded around as a soulless puppet, especially not for a purpose as cruel and twisted as what occurred in Holmsa. He couldn't imagine the terror of the townsfolk. They didn't stand a chance; after all, how does one kill the dead? Could it even be done? The thought put Thrynn on edge.
He was only half listening to the others at this point, catching bits and pieces of their suppositions as they mourned and queried the loss of Bahar. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fox still sitting with the foal. It seemed to him that the tiny creature had calmed down at least a hair. It seemed to be talking to Fox, at least. Good. Maybe it could shed some more light on this situation. All they had were guesses at this point. Thrynn pitied the little foal almost more than he could bear. Their group of adults were having a hard enough time stomaching all this.
His hooves were itching to move, his mind was running a mile a minute and if he didn't tear his gaze away from the headless mare now he thought he might scream out of frustration. They knew nothing. Less than nothing, even. They had all the clues, but gods be damned if they could put them together into something more believable than a child's nightmare. The War Lord wouldn't be pleased if all they came back with were guesses and news of an entire town slaughtered and mutilated. The peach stallion broke into a trot, doing his best to avoid looking at the sunken bodies he passed as he threaded in between what was left of the houses.
When he finally came to an abrupt halt, he wasn't even sure what he was seeing. A small pile of bodies lumped together in a tiny plaza, but at their center...
The mare. Or, her head, at least. Stuck on top of a on old wooden pike, leaning sickly to the side with a trail of dried blood and gore painted onto the worn wood. A ragged red piece of cloth tied below the head waved listlessly as the ocean breeze passed through the square.
Bahar.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Everyone! This way!" he continued, "I found... I found her!"
Desperately, Thrynn tore his eyes away from the wretched scene and looked around the plaza, expecting to see sentient bodies of long-dead horses appearing from behind the corners of every building. But nothing appeared. None of the bodies here moved, not anymore.
An after thought suddenly tore through Thrynn, sharper than any blade, and he could hear the hoof beats of his herd mates approaching. "Don't bring that foal!"
Post #5
WC: 524 |
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Post by notadonkey on Aug 6, 2017 2:44:22 GMT -6
Addeva stood almost perfectly still as Aly and Ritan spoke, her eyes fixated on the headless mare. Her sister was always the more intelligent one out of the two of them. She remembered even as a young filly how much Alyshia loved a good book, seeming to always thirst for knowledge. Even now she'd catch her rereading one of dad's old books.
Necromancy would make sense, as much as it churned her stomach. She absolutely hated the idea of the undead walking the earth. How could someone disrespect the dead by making them rise from their resting state only to terrorize a small village such as this one? Addeva clenched her teeth, her anger slowly burning a hole into the ground as she stared down at her hooves. If it was as many skeletons as Greer said...there must be dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of horses that rose from the sea. The zonkey couldn't even imagine...all these helpless folk are dead because of whoever did this disgusting act.
Her ear flicked as she heard the raider, Thrynn, leave the small party. She continued to mull over the clues they found before the stallion could be heard shouting off into the distance. He...he found her?! The valkyrie shot up her head before turning and trotting briskly towards the direction of his voice, hoping that her sister wasn't too far behind.
Stopping beside Thyrnn, her eyes widened as they landed on the scene before her. There, like some sick trophy, was indeed the missing piece surrounded by other bodies.
Her nose curled up in a snarl. All Addeva could think about in her fury...was why? Why was Bahar singled out? Why this village? Why with the undead? Why-
The red fabric caught her eye as it waved in the breeze. Addeva couldn't help but letting out a small gasp as her mind immediately flashed back to trudging in the snow and ice in the summer, the hundreds of tiny lights, the docks in the distance...the markers. The freaking markers of body-less decomposing heads on stakes with a flash of torn up red fabric exactly like the one before her.
Of course. Alyshia and Fox must recognize it too, they were there with her that damn day.
"Bloody Flanks" Addeva growled lowly. She turned, facing her patrol-mates with fire in her eyes. "Bloody Flanks! This...is their marker. They were here. They did this to her, they did this to them." She gestured to the dead bodies around the group. "We have to report this to Hira immediately. With someone who can do all this on their side, who knows what they can do to bigger towns." She stood as tall as she could when addressing the small group, hoping that they all took her seriously. Fox especially.
Word count: 470 | Post #5
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Post by Svantanon on Aug 8, 2017 14:08:09 GMT -6
They scarcely had time to absorb the situation in full, to discuss the clues or what actions to take, when Thrynn—who had gone on ahead—called out to them from the town square. Addeva was the first to respond to his call, but the others weren’t far behind. Alyshia followed after her at a brisk pace, her snow leopard doing the same.
Nothing could have prepared her for what was waiting there.
They had made a shrine out of the carnage, Bahar’s severed head overlooking the bodies curled around her and the needless, senseless massacre that had destroyed her home. The dappled mare couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move.
She could only stand there as the Bloody Flanks’ wretched cloth rippled in the wind.
Alyshia almost flinched at Addeva’s growl, not knowing what to make of her younger sister’s burning eyes. Was it better for the zonkey to be angry rather than traumatized? Or should she still mourn for how much faster Addy was going to have to grow after what she’d seen, and for what may be coming next?
“We have to report this to Hira immediately. With someone who can do all this on their side, who knows what they can do to bigger towns.”
Skeldr flashed in her mind’s eye, again—the townsfolk she’d come to know, the friends she’d made there, her father’s quiet cottage looking over the mountainside… Ales, Lad, Addy…
A rage she hadn’t expected and hadn’t braced herself for suddenly coursed through her veins, making the mare tense up where she stood, teeth clenching, ears pressing flat against her skull. No. No, this would not happen to Skeldr, or any other town. It couldn’t happen to anyone again. She would make sure of it or she would die trying.
But they had to get home first.
“I think that’s the best we could do,” Alyshia’s voice was surprisingly quiet. It didn’t even feel like she was the one saying those words, but Holmsa felt far away, distant, with her thoughts taken up so strongly by the fear she felt for her home—everyone’s home. “Every town in Onea will have to be warned about what has happened, so their own families don't fall to the same fate. As… as many people as possible.”
She briefly debated describing the scene to Ritan for his benefit, but shook her head after a pause. He had likely heard enough, there was no need to get into any more details than the obvious.
The Bloody Flanks were waging war.
Word Count: 412 |
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Post by mule-guts on Aug 11, 2017 23:55:55 GMT -6
| hey, young loney is it all okay? Vitali | Wanderer
WC | 210 |
The small colt’s fear and anxiety began to completely diminish as Fox began to soften up to his presence. He, however, still kept his distance for now. Her words rattled his small and fragile mind as he tried his best to keep up.
Kin?
Investigate?
Her Big vocabulary confused Vitali but by the fewer, smaller words that he understood and context clues, he gathered that she was not the evil who did this and that she meant him no harm.
He responded to her smile with a small one of his own, taking a tiny step forward at the mare’s gentle start to her statement. Then, she became stern. It scared the colt. He listened closely with now fallen ears, picking bits and pieces from the warning. With his anxiety rising again, he nodded, as if to say, “Ok, I understand.” The company sounded reassuring right now despite the awful circumstances. Having affirmation that the group would not harm him unless need be was good enough for him. Maybe, he could even make some friends out of it. He stayed planted where he was, however, waiting for Fox to get up and move along. With that warning in place, he at least knew better than to make any grand movements.
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Post by tarriedsea on Aug 14, 2017 14:49:16 GMT -6
When the colt nodded his understanding, Fox stood, lifting her rump behind her with a groan. Her knees audibly cracked. Now i remember why I don't sit like that for very long.
He didn't offer any more words, and she wondered if he even understood what she said, but his large eyes looked assured and she decided to hold off on her suspicions for now.
She opened her mouth to make a joke, trying to ease the tension her last directive caused, when Thrynn's far-away voice floated into their space. Her ears shot straight up in his direction. She couldn't see him, but he was in the village somewhere. There was trepidation in his tone. Her stomach slowly dropped. He found something.
"You can come," she said again to the colt. "If you want." She shook her mane, trying to shake off her nerves to keep the colt relatively calm as well, and began walking through the tall grasses toward the village.
When she reached the square (which was harder than it should have been, she thought; for a small town the streets were not planned with geometry in mind, not to mention the raw corpses littering the pathways) she immediately noticed she was the last to arrive, but no one was looking at her. They were clustered around something in the middle.
"What-" she started, but then she saw.
A large, bloody head punched through a stake. A red flag fluttered lifelessly.
Red flag.
Her mouth went dry. She immediately glanced at Aly and Addeva. Their voices seemed to echo around her, and her vision grew blurry. Nausea roiled in her stomach. She took a shaky step forward to take a sniff of the flag, trying to not get too close to the blood.
Same metallic-and-salt smell the three of them had inhaled on that dark night they found the traitors' habitat on Onean soil.
This was the magnum opus, the crusade's icon, the threat that would consume them. Suddenly, the air seemed to go still. A seagull squawked from somewhere above.
"Okay." she said, voice only slightly trembling. It was a ghastly image but they couldn't gawk at it forever. "What else have we found. What do we know."
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Post by firebirdfalling on Aug 15, 2017 15:44:45 GMT -6
I have a good heart but this mouth has other ideas... Ritan was examining the remains of Bahar when the others started to wander towards the square. Supposedly, they had found her head. He meandered over that way, looking for anything that might help figure out what drug these bodies under the earth. Any possibly evidence on the way to the square was destroyed by the hooves of his compatriots, in their hurry to inspect the head.
He was the last to arrive, besides the foal they had found and Fox whom was nowhere to be found, but it didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on, listening as everyone was throwing their ideas around like candy. The only definite thing he could figure out was that this was done by the Bloody Hooves.
A memory surfaced, one where a pair from the clan was in town, earlier in the year. A bolt shot into a shopkeeper... He started with a realization. How could he forget that? She had survived obviously, but he hadn't realized that it was the same mare who was here, now a Valkyrie, in this very town. What were the odds? Especially for something so gruesome as this?
Fox had appeared out of nowhere while he was buried in his thoughts, asking everyone to share what they had learned.
Ritan decided to go first, since everyone seemed to still be reeling from the head. "Well, we found Bahar's head. And it looks like Bloody Flanks. The only thing I don't understand is why and how they killed them. Not how they died, obviously dehydration and being half-buried, but how did they get the people, alive, like that."
He hoped one of the others would pipe up with something useful in this regard because so far, this has been one of the oddest things he had ever come across, and he was a medic. He had seen a ton of odd things but this topped the cake. 323 words || Ritan | WF Medic || Post #6 |
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Post by catac0rny on Aug 15, 2017 17:17:06 GMT -6
Greer  | [ post # 4 || word count: 250 ] |
Bahar. Greer looked up at her head, staring down at her with disdain. For a moment, Greer wasn't even convinced she was actual dead. Still, her eyes had no glint and her mouth hung open in a sickly manner. She shivered, every hair standing on end. She turned to the others, sympathizing with their horrified expressions.
Her eye was caught by the red banner flying high in the slight wind. Bloody-Flank. Her shoulder ached and she looked down at the scarred flesh from the last time those brutes had paid a visit. They had shot her with an poison arrow. Thankfully it hadnt spread down her leg but it had been kind enough to give her a horrific scar. She glanced at Ritan, who had been there when it happened. She had just been a shop keeper, taking care of the small bar and resturaunt she owned. The event that day had changed her, and brought her here.
Greer took one last look at the head. "No doubt this is bloody flank. Still, the skeletons baffle me. I suppose perhaps...perhaps the bloody flank had killed them somewhere else and stored them somewhere barnacles could reach them and they...decided to dump them in the woods? Its all very strange but its all i can imagine would lead them to end up there." She proposed. Still, things just did not add up just like the rest of this bloody mess.
"We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love." |
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Post by mule-guts on Aug 16, 2017 1:47:46 GMT -6
| hey, young loney is it all okay? Vitali | Wanderer
WC | 236 |
Vitali quickly trailed after the large mare like the lost puppy he was, humming nervously. His small hooves carried him effortlessly up the hill to the square. He was careful not to disturb any of the corpses that spotted the village. He was not about to have a repeat of the events earlier. Upon reaching the square where the group of Forged gathered, the air got heavy. It seemed as if they all fell sick, pale and stomachs dropped. The colt hadn’t quite noticed the spiked head until Fox began to speak and then immediately stopped.
His ears fell flat yet again, it was horrific sight but at this point it was by no mean surprising. Semi-unconsciously, he scooted behind Fox glancing around the group, as well as, the warning. Vitali had no idea the meaning of the head or flag but he could sense it wasn’t a homecoming present. Ears listened as everyone conversed, not really understanding but curious nonetheless. Words like “Bahar” and “Bloody Flanks” made no sense, however, in his little mind they sounded rather odd.
The sense of worry and flee filled his gut. He now knew he should really not be here, and that this was an issue the ones sent to investigate need to handle, without him. With his head lowered, inconspicuously, he ambled away, trying to keep as quiet as possible as not to alert anyone of his departure.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 18:36:39 GMT -6
congratulations! Vitali slipped away into the woods, his absence not noted until too late. A search of the immediate area is called off when sunset threatens to fall, but the child isn't found. Deciding he has probably returned to whatever family he'd wandered away from, the scouts pack up to depart. Having gathered everything they could from the scene --including some huge, unanswerable questions-- the team leaves Holmsa with a shared sense of unease. A team of Earth Manipulation users is later sent to Holmsa to bury the dead in a blanket of earth, and turn the town into an elaborate mass grave. The village sits in silence, its buildings to be reclaimed by the forest after the scouts return to Skeldr with terrible news for the War Lord: Onea's greatest enemy has returned, stamping the nation with a gruesome message to Hira. The Bloody Flanks are back, and they are taking no prisoners. All participants receive 20 AP and 20 CS! |
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