There are 2 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. [DL-W] Horses, Lions, and Pigs
From: Bianca Payne <biancaknox@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
2. Escape!
From: "Mr. WiL" <mrwil@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 13:20:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Bianca Payne <biancaknox@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Subject: [DL-W] Horses, Lions, and Pigs
<snip, Following the Rejected> He knew that feeling, all too well.
Ash moved through the crowd, trying to catch
her, but the girl had simply vanished. Where had she gone?
"Avid... go find that girl," he said, adding a mental command to go
with it. He
pointed and touched the ground where she had run, and saw the lion pick
up
her scent immediately. He followed as Avid bound ahead.
<end snip>
Jilly took the long back route and made her way to the stables.
Hiding in the straw of an unused stall in the far back end, she buried
her face in the hem of her shirt and wept as quietly as she could.
The nervous snorting, stomping, and neighing of the horses finally
pulled her from her misery. Rolling forward onto her knees, she
crawled through the hay towards the metal gate to her stall. Through
the bars she looked out to see a huge mountain lion padding towards
her. She was too surprised to move. The giant cat nudged at the
barred door the stall, which swung open.
"Well aren't you a smart one." Her voice sounded funny, and her nose
was all stopped up. She sniffed a couple of times to try and clear it.
"You've gone and scared all these poor horses, being in here." She
crept forward, her hand out, her palm up. The lion shifted his eyes
and glanced at the big blond girl with her hand out. There was no drop
of malice in her, just appreciation for the beautiful big cat.
The mountain lion took a step forward and butted his nose into the
palm of her hand.
She was happily scratching behind his ear when the man came up to
them. She didn't recognize him, but there were lots of people in the
warren she still didn't recognize. For some reason, she knew the lion
was his. Maybe because the beast lifted his head to blink back at the
man before returning to the kneeling girl with the magic hands.
She smiled up at the big fellow, blinking her damp eyes, then glanced
down at the mountain lion and whispered loudly to the cat. "He's
yours. He looks nice. You shouldn't let him in the stables. He
scares the horses the same way you do." She sniffed again and
reluctantly gave a final scratch to the thick silky fur behind the ear.
Standing up, she offered another smile to the man.
"Don't worry. I'll survive. There's a man here looking to hire a
cook for the Pig & Whistle Inn up North of here. I'm a fair hand in
the kitchen, if they don't need nothin' too complicated. You should
take your lion here and get on out before the stablemen find you
scaring the horses."
Jilly clamped down on the dull ache of her recent rejection and
politely shooed the man out of the stables.
Respectfully submitted by,
Bianca Payne
aka Jilly
summary:
Jilly hides in the stable for a good cry but is distracted from her
rejection by the appearance of the lion and his friend. she shooes the
two out of the stables after assuring the rider that she can get a job
up north at the Pig & Whistle.
---------------------------------
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[This message contained attachments]
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:02:32 -0500
From: "Mr. WiL" <mrwil@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Subject: Escape!
Day 11/12 Midnightish
Time had passed slowly over the many weeks.
His regular visits had become boring and repetitive. He grew quiet and
listless and his visitors grew fewer and fewer.
Captivity was taking its toll on Ka'Laren. The tattooed man tossed off
his covers and stood up from his bed. He began pacing his cell
agitatedly. Ka'Laren needed to do something. The last few months of
captivity were the worst. Norwall fell around him, and he could do
nothing. Nothing to prove that he was indeed a new man. And with all
the
crisis, no one had time to think of their long time captive.
The lithe man let out a long sigh and slumped his shoulders in despair.
He dragged himself over to the narrow window that looked down into the
courtyard and propped himself against it as best he could. Overhead,
his
dragon brother flickered into appearance briefly. Thoughts of
encouragement and strength drifted over the hunter, strengthening and
pushing him to despair at the same time.
Then, without warning the med center exploded. A geyser of flame ripped
out the doorway, searing the ground below. Ka'Laren pressed himself
against the window trying to see what was happening. The inhabitants of
Norwall quickly emerged from their sleeping quarters to deal with the
latest disaster.
It seemed like an eternity as the tattooed man watched helplessly.
<snip>
With a second ground rocking explosion, the lower warren administration
offices exploded outward, raining more rock into the sky as well as
bits
of paper, a wild scattering of tithing account records, the
historical
scrolls of the warren, even the ancient scrolls from the whispering
cave, the archive records were fluttering like flaming flutterbys on
the
night sky, riding the fire heated currents, as they drifted slowly to
the ground as bits of curled ash.
A horrid rumble followed the second explosion, a sound the older riders
knew too well, the sound of collapsing rock, as several apartments
above
the offices collapsed.
</snip>
Ka'Laren was thrown to the ground as the cataclysmic eruption shook the
entire warren. He staggered back to his feet after a handful of minutes
and made his way back to the narrow window. He drew the back of his
hand
across his mouth, wiping away a trickle of blood from where his tooth
had split his lip. But suddenly he stopped midstride. The bars that had
for so long stood against his view of the warren grounds were gone.
He rushed to the window and could see that a section of the outer wall
had broken free in the aftershock and had knocked away the grill. For a
moment, he hesitated. Then, Ka'Laren, possibly the greatest threat
Norwall had ever faced, squeezed his narrow frame through the ruined
window.
***
The dust had settled but the air was growing thick with smoke. A
section
of the ceiling had collapsed in the apartments, either from the force
of
the initial blast, or the continued stress from the last few days, it
didn't really matter to Kaymann. His leg was pinned under a cross-seam,
which in turn was pinned under countless chunks of concrete.
He had been stuck there for the better part of an hour. His leg wasn't
broken. At least, he didn't think it was broken. But what difference
did
it make if he couldn't move. He growled in frustration, "This sucks."
After a moment, he tried to lift the stubborn timber again. He groaned
and grunted, but couldn't budge the stubborn wood beam. Dismayed and
annoyed, Kaymann flopped back onto the floor, throwing his arms over
his
head.
"Cat! Can you hear me!?" He yelled out, expecting no answer. "Damn.
This
sucks."
He put his right forearm across his eyes and sat in silence for a
moment. Then, he heard the unmistakable scuffle of footsteps.
"HEY!" He called out, "Help! I'm pinned down! HELP!"
And in the dim lighting, he saw the form of Ka'Laren coming towards him
from the smoke and shadows. In his hands was a long spear and on his
face, a focused cold look.
"Oh crap." He squeaked out as he shuffled back to a sitting position.
The lean hunter stopped and regarded the man who once flew under his
banner, now helplessly pinned to the ground.
"Hey, uh, Ka'Laren... How's it going? Uh, busting out of jail, huh?" He
swallowed hard. "How's that working for you?"
Wordlessly, the dark tattooed man raised the spear and jammed it down.
Kaymann opened his eyes sheepishly, and surprisedly. He didn't even
feel
the spear go in him. Then he looked down and saw the spear bent and
prying away the timber. Ka'Laren steadied his weapon with his shoulder
and grabbed Kaymann's arm, helping the young man drag himself free of
the debris. Once Kaymann was clear, the hunter released the timber,
sending a fresh cloud of dust and soot into the air.
He turned and quickly examined the shocked young rider's leg. "Can you
walk, Kaymann?"
"Uh... yeah. Yeah, I think so." Kaymann stiffly pushed himself up and
steadied himself against the wall. "Uh... thanks?"
"I know we once rode together, Kaymann." Ka'Laren said slowly backing
towards the shadows. "I ask you now, to tell the people of Norwall how
I
helped you tonight." And he quickly disappeared. For a long moment,
Kaymann stood against the wall. He was breathing a little shortly,
quite
aware how that situation could have gone differently.
"I gotta' find Cat." He finally managed to raggedly blurt out and
Kaymann staggered out to the open air of the Warren greens.
<Tag All>
NRPG: Hell yeah.
Summary: Explosions rock Norwall, loosing debris near the jail and
freeing Ka'Laren. Kaymann was pinned under debris that fell on him
during the explosions and was freed by Ka'Laren before he disappeared
into the shadows.
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