Sheylan
12-25-2006, 09:42 PM
<span class="postbody"> Ceekra scrambled out of the den and stretched under the moon. Feeling the presence she whirled to see a very amused robed Dark Elf female looking down at her. "Do you have hands?" the voice asked serenly, if coldly. Ceekra held up her paw like hands. "Kind of?" She asked back in as simple of human as she knew. She'd tried to learn it, planning on leaving the warrens for the human world, but there weren't a lot who knew it down below. The female grasped Ceekra's wrist and held it up, hurting Ceekra at the shoulder from the angle. Ceekra wrenched her arm free and grabbed one of her axes from her belt. The beat up bronze axe was dented and abused, but it held a very carefully sharpened blade. The female dark elf sighed, "Not a hand." she declared with disappointment and looked away over Ceekra's head. Elves were very strange creatures, Ceekra knew from legend and lore. "Why you need hand?" She asked, tucking the axe back in her belt and rubbing her arm. The lavender eyes looked down at her again. "That is my business ra-" she changed from saying rat, to ratonga at the last moment, "-tonga." She suddenly smiled and crouched down to look Ceekra in the eyes. "Do you know your way through the pits to the battlegrounds, little one?" she asked sweetly. Ceekra eyed her warily, she was small even for a Rotonga, and didn't much appreciate being reminded of it. Of course, barely coming to this elf's waist she could understand why the pointy-eared furless would think her small. "Yes." she finally answered simply. The Dark Elf straightened and brushed non-existant debris off her robes. "Will you guide me?" she asked, wondering what the little furball would want in return. Ceekra held still, not even her tail twitching. While chances were the elf would try to kill her at some point throughout the night, she had the key to what she wanted. "You take me into city?" she asked. A raised eyebrow as the price was weighed. It wasn't as if there weren't enough of the little rats running around the city, but she wouldn't imagine anyone of rank would be happy with another being added to their ranks. "I will get you within the gates." was the compromise. Ceekra nodded. "I Ceekra of Kitash warren." "And I am Meena Le'Dre of seventh house." She gestured for Ceekra to lead on. Titles of home equally meaningless to each, Ceekra nodded and scurried off to the west. While much more nimble than the mage behind her, Meena's vastly longer legs made up the difference. Only the burning Luclin was up in the night sky, though the stars seemed to shine more brightly once the hills hide the majority of Freeport's lights from direct view. "Why battlefields?" Ceekra asked, sniffing the wind. "The graveyards have been picked clean already." Meena responded with a distasteful wrinkle of her delicate nose. "And no one has had the good taste to die recently." Ceekra decided, since she'd already been disqualified, "Why not take life hand?" Meena sighed, "Because maiming citizens of Freeport would get me maimed in return." "Buy?" Ceekra asked, darting to check some bushes for spies before leading the mage on. The mage seemed to have no thought about enemies outside the gates, either she was very powerful or very new. Meena shook her head, "I do not have that kind of money. I'm still an apprentice." Ceekra had heard that mages were trained for great lengths of time, being mostly self-taught she couldn't really sympathize. But then, she'd never had two coppers to rub together either. Her armour and weapons were scavenged from the garbage pits and fallen enemy. "I smell fruit." Ceekra declared as they came to the valley that lead to the site of the last great battle between Freeport and the Tunarean forces. "Fruit?" Meena echoed quietly, confused. It was early spring, the fruit trees were barely blooming. She sniffed, but whatever the sensitive rat nose was smelling was beyond her. She scanned the hills for warm spots but saw nothing. Ceekra shrugged but pulled her axes out just in case, one in each hand she continued down the pass. She could only see shadows and shades of grey, but she trusted her companion's red-reflecting eyes to spot life before it appeared. She'd been to the battlefield many times to scavange, but never this late; dawn or dusk was the safest time. It wasn't long before they were picking their way between the half buried bones and bodies. Meena apparently needed a whole hand, because she would peer at bits, or dig for a moment and sigh. The two meandered their way farther and farther from the safety of the city. A flash of yellow and red was the only warning Meena got to hit the ground as an archer broke cover and fired arrows at them. Ceekra found her tail yanked and herself hauled down. "Yeeeerp!" she squeeled and got her ear cuffed. She shot Meena a dirty look and rubbed her skull. "We lie here till we get hit?" she asked with only slight sarcasm. "The grass gives heat as well, it will blur our forms." She sneered, "Assuming that's a leaf eater up there." "Who else fire in dark?" Ceekra asked with logic. Night blind humans, barbarians, gnomes.. maybe a Dwarf could, but they weren't known for their great ability with regular bows, and it wasn't a bolt sticking out of the ground a few feet from her head. "Good point." Meena muttered, nudging her opinion of Ceekra's IQ up several points. "Can we get to that rock cluster?" she gestured off to their right, away from the archer. "Don't know." Ceekra couldn't even see the rocks, she could only trust the elf's superior vision. "I go, you follow." Ceekra scurried off at a surprising rate. "Right!" Meena hissed and scrambled after her, realizing how poor the rat's vision truly was. "Left a bit!" Ceekra found the rocks with her head as she barely batted an arrow from hitting Meena in the rump. "Son of Cazic!" she cursed, her head was going to be very abused by the end of the night! "What now?" Meena grumbled, pulling out a short staff from her pack and extending it out into a more formadible weapon. "We fight." Ceekra said standing in front of the elf, "You do finger wiggle?" Meena didn't look too confident "I need to see them all to get them all. Too much death and life here to get a proper grasp of them." Black was white, green was red, and blah blah blah, was what Ceekra understood of the answer. Wouldn't 'No' have been easier? She guessed it was up to her, the mage couldn't be much of a warrior, she wasn't wearing any sort of armour. Ceekra deflected several more arrows out of the air with the flats of her axe blades before the enemy gave up and started to approach. Ceekra wasn't surprised to see the blonde hair, angry eyes and war paint of the Tunarean scouts. She'd never seen one before, but she'd heard plenty of stories from maimed kin. She trilled and waved her axes. "Come and get it!" was the clear message. Meena had to *see* to kill, well, she'd get them all out already. The light elves weren't as stupid as she hoped, they fanned out and looked ready to take prisoners rather than just come in for a clean kill. Probably could care less about a Ratonga, but a Dark Elf would probably make a good prize, no matter how low in rank. Oh well, one axe and a point was better than two axes. With surprising ease Ceekra reached back and flung one of her battle axes into the forehaed of the archer. He went down without a scream, just a sickening thud and a crumple. Well, sickening to the Tunareans, the two Freeportians guessed from the reactions, it was nothing new to citizens of the Overlord. The elves rushed forward with their strange war cries and Ceekra ducked under a curved blade to take it on her backplate, while she bit one elf on the side of the leg and smashed the flat of her blade into the mid-section of another. The latter reacted predicatbly with a yelp and jumped back. She could feel her fur standing up, a sure sign of Meena gathering mystical energies. Surely she was a death mage and there was certainly enough death energy in this place! Especially with one of the wood elves bleeding brain matter into the ground. One of the elves said something in his slippery language and gestured towards where Meena was, two advanced on Ceekra while the gesturer tried to go around her to the mage. Not a chance, Ceekra wasn't going to let her ticket to the city bite it, especially since she could smell more fruit out there. These four were probably only part of the force out there. Ceekra launched onto the back of the sneaky elf and whirled his head around so he stumbled into the female tree elf, who cursed and managed not to stick him with her sword. Ceekra cackled and used the elf as a spring board to launch herself at the third elf who had turned to see what the scrambled and squeeking was all about. The Freeportian warrior buried her remaining axe into the throat of the third elf and barely managed to yank it free as she tumbled past. Twirling around to face the two remaining elves she thought she may actually have a chance, right up until six more stepped out of the shadows. "Cazic in a dress!" she cursed in Ratonga. But Meena's spell had finished and she yelled something in Dark Elf that made the Light Elves turn to run. Hands thrust out, green mist rose from the ground and Ceekra decided it was now a good time to get close to the caster. Bits of bone, debris and luminous green rose from the ground and surrounded the elves, causing them to clutch at their throats and fall to the ground coughing as sores broke out over their skin. Meena half-fell to her knees, clutching at a rock for support. Ceekra rushed out to grab her thrown axe, carved the dead elf and then headed back to the mage. Shoving axes in belt, booty in pack, she grabbed Meena and half-carried the elf away from the battlefields and back towards the safety of the city. After stumbling through the darkness and shadows for as long as it took the moon to pass a constellation, Meena called a stop. She crumpled to the ground and held her head in her hands as if those dainty digits were all that were holding it together. Cykreea crooned concern and fished through the elf's pack. The warren shamans had bars and drinks for times like this, and while the elf's smelled more like nuts and honey than half-spoiled meat, it was obviously for the same purpose. She pressed the bar into the elf's hand while she tried to locate the beaker of drink. She finally decieded the fruity-alcohol was the drink after opening several wine skins. Meena drank a quarter of the skin without pause. The mage fell backwards on the grass and panted. "Oh, Innurok, that hurt." she panted. She then scowled, "And I still don't have my hand!" Ceekra grinned and pulled the bloody hand she hacked off the wood elf out of her pack. She danced it to wave a hello. Meena laughed, "My hand, and a report of spies to gain prestige, my dear little Ceekra-warrior, I think this is the start of a BEAUTIFUL friendship!"-Meena* * *My EQ2 Epic fan-fiction : http://www.shadowydreamer.com/everquest/board/viewtopic.php?t=336My EQ1 in Progress fan-fiction : http://www.shadowydreamer.com/everquest/board/viewtopic.php?t=347</span><div></div>