Exiles

[LadyTevar]

The shift was near-instant, Direwolf to wolf, Fluffy shrinking to avoid the neckbite and rolling to away to regain her feet. Blood spiked the fur around her face, yet the wounds were already starting to scab over as she moved defensively, looking for a better opening. Pity ... they'd have been a bare mouthful, but satisfying either way. Look, your master comes, go wag your tail and beg like a Good Doggie.

The irony of the taunt was not lost on her, only making her lupine grin wider.

[Cynical Cat]

White hot flames smashed into the sides of Fluffy and the pack leader, searing flesh and setting fur alight. The pack leader howled in pain and rolled away into the shadows, his body wracked by agony.

The satyr urged his steed forward, but the drake needed little encouragement. The hunter's lance dipped towards Metalmaw and the drake's head reared above Mace, preparing to strike.

[SirNitram]

Metalmaw didn't boast or brag or waste time on gestures of threat. As most of his kind, he moved from 'Stationary' to 'slaughter' in one smooth movement, stepping to a side, grabbing the lance, and rushing forward, lunging for the Drake's throat with his mouth full of lethal pain and suffering.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Shit" Mace cursed himself as "Fluffy" rolled into one of his attacks He shouldnt have used that one, still she was pretty low to the ground and hopefully didnt catch the worse of it. But now was his turn to be in a lot of pain unless he acted very quickly. He closed his eyes and conjured an illusion of a great flash of light to make the drake think he was blinded, then made a whirling motion with his hands that used the wind to throw him bodily ot of the drakes reach, he just hoped it worked

[Cynical Cat]

Metalmaw's hand closed on razor edged steel as the satyr jerked the lance back. Blood spilled from the wound and flesh sizzled under the touch of iron. Then the huntsman stabbed viciously as the redcap lunged for the drake's neck.

The lance head punched through Metalmaw's lung, spilling blood over the moist earth. The huntsman jerked the goblin to the side and then pulled the lance free.

The drake's jaws closed on air, missing Mace by inches.

[Hotfoot]

More fire, more screams, more horrible smells. Faun fought back the urge to vomit. As the hunter appeared, his gut twisted inside his belly. Softly he whispered in frightened tones, "No, no, no, please no." He didn't have time to think why the form terrified him above and beyond everything else he had just seen, but he knew one thing. He had to run.

"We need to leave, we need to get back home, away from this."

Home? Sweet one, we are home...

"No! Away from here! Where we were before! We're not safe here!"

Oh, the place of steel and stone.

"Yes, please, if we stay here, we'll die."

We will help, but please, come back one day.
We all miss you.
We wish we could come.
We wish we could stay.
One day.

In a strange voice that barely seemed like his own, he whispered into the woman's ear, "Come along miss, we have to get moving." The winds around them reached the fury of tempest, no longer constrained around the two forms. The wind howled through the trees, reaching up into the skies, dark clouds forming high in the air, the cracks of thunder soon following. The fires that had yet to go out flickered in the growing blasts of wind, several of the smaller flames being extinguished, the larger ones growing in intensity.

Meanwhile, the shadows around Faun and the woman grew, making their forms harder to see. In the ears of Fluffy, Metalmaw, and Mace, a weak but determined voice spoke softly. "Please, we need to leave, we need to go back."

[LadyTevar]

"YIPEYIPEYIPE!!!"

Fluffy rolled, twisted, wiggled in the dirt, anything to put out the burning in her side. "whinewhinewhine....." this was pain. This was the worst pain she'd felt in her memory. At least, until she smelt blood and saw MetalMaw sliding off the end of the Hunter's spear.

As a storm rose up and the winds blew and parted the mists of Fae, Fluffy ran to Metalmaw's side, transforming as she went from wolf to the large wolf-man hybrid. Singed fur and skin did not register, only getting MetalMaw to the hole now growing between the worlds mattered. She picked up the now-smaller, stout redcap and fled for safety.

[SirNitram]

"I'll bite your damn knees off!" Metalmaw shouted as the massive hybrid of man and wolf pulled him along, waving a brass-knuckled fist at the hunter. "Come back and fight me! How dare you run away!" Redcaps, when losing blood, are actually less sane than normal.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Mace bolted toward the portal between worlds. He hated going back, but had no choice. And he got the feeling that this was not really over... Nope, not really over, that was no portal, just a very interesting storm

He flipped around and touched his eyes, ears and nose in quick succession, speaking words in a cryptic tone not quite his own. Hoping to turn him and his newfound companions in arms undetectable by senses

[Cynical Cat]

The drake stalked forward. "His majesty is not without mercy," said the hunter. "Surrender lady and your life may not be misery."

[Hotfoot]

The storm raged around the huntsman and his allies, errant bolts of lightning springing from cloud to cloud, none yet willing to touch the ground. Around the edges of this shadow, wisps of air searched for a way back to the world of men. They whispered back on a breeze.

Forward lies Faerie, and back and to the sides.
This shade to touch the realm of man is an old and practiced art.
The key to end this within him does lie.
The servant of The Huntsman with the wicked heart.
Stay your fear for but a moment long,
The favor asked we shall grant,
For we all miss our dear, sweet Faun,
His voice, his love, his plants.

Faun felt a moment of peace at the rhyme, even though he could not make sense of this anymore. The sense of detachment from earlier was beginning to fade and the reality of this situation was setting in. The absurdity of it all was battling with urgency and dread. His eyes flickered back and forth as he looked around, wondering what had happened. He heard the Hunter's voice and winced.

In the distance, the wind plied mischief, throwing stones, sticks, and sounds through the air, designed to confuse the huntsman and his wolves, to make them guess where the hidden friends of Faun had fled, meanwhile masking the sounds of their current movements. Within moments of moving the sounds, a different voice whispered in all of their ears, light and flowing, tickling the lobes. "Stop moving, or you'll ruin the trick. You'll like it, we promise, it's a good one." A flighty giggle followed the crystal clear whisper. "If you want to play, help make them think you went another way. Don't delay."

[Cynical Cat]

The wolves were wounded and bloodied, uninterested in further battle. They slunked back, hiding behind the mighty drake. The Hunter pushed his beast forward. Nothing could hide from him in his shadow.

[LadyTevar]

The voices tinkled in her ears like windchimes.

"Stop moving, or you'll ruin the trick. You'll like it, we promise, it's a good one." A flighty giggle followed the crystal clear whisper. "If you want to play, help make them think you went another way. Don't delay."

So... hide and seek. It was a good ploy... wind to hide the scent, fog to hide the eyes. Whomever the thin young man was, his allies were the sylphs of Air, and powerful indeed.

Fluffy placed one finger over MetalMaw's deadly jaws, a none-too-subtle hint to be silent as she held him carefully, freezing in place like a hunted rabbit. Now, she could only hope that the Wind could hide the scent of blood....

[Comrade Tortoise]

Thw wizard plied his craft, forming an illusion of the lot of them moving off to one direction, into the woods and away from their current locations. If the illusions were followed, they would be safe. If they were not, Mace had another trick up his sleeve... with these winds he could create a Maelstrom of fire that would at the very least cover their escape, if not kill or injure their opponents

[Cynical Cat]

The drake lurched towards the fleeing illusions, only to be rapped in the side of the head by the Hunter's lance. He leveled his lance at the magician. "Kill," ordered the satyr. The drake charged forward, its talons tearing up the soft earth.

[Hotfoot]

Fear gripped Faun as the drake charged, the storm whipping into a frenzy, a last ditch effort of the wind to stop the huntsman. Lightning blasted from the sky, causing a nearby tree to split, the lesser log falling to the ground between the drake and Faun, flames licking at the wood. Faun felt sick as he saw the tree fall, wincing as the wood crashed to the ground.

Meanwhile, winds around Fluffy and Metalmaw grew, whispering again into their ears. "We can carry you to your foe, just promise to save our little Faun."

Faun, meanwhile, was slipping away, his former resoluteness was fading into a dull look of terror and pain.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The wizard had to defend himself, the Drake was charging him specifically and if it reached him, he would be dead. The wind was already strong, there was a burning log between him and the drake. He spoke a few words and clenched his fist. Bringing his fist back and throwing it forward like a punch and releasing his fingers when they reached maximum distance from his body. A blast of fire and pressurized air caused the log to fragment, and go careening toward the Drake and his Huntsman master, behind it was a wall of fire moving at the same speed toward them.

[Cynical Cat]

Mace pushed himself to the limit to blast apart the log. Pieces of burning wood rolled toward the drake, which stopped to brace itself. Chunks of log bounced off its legs. It paused to bat the wood out of its path before a thin line of fire struck it in the chest. The drake roared and pushed forward, unharmed by the flames.

[SirNitram]

Metalmaw felt the winds around him.. And grinned ferally. The wound had stopped leaking quite as badly, and his hands vanished into his jacket. And then he flew through the air, lofted airborne by the strange voice's power. He didn't much care. It gave him a clear shot.

Anyone who didn't kill a Redcap the first chance they got was foolish. Metalmaw's hands suddenly held revolves, one with a long, slender, rapier-blade extending from the grip. Both pumped cold-iron rounds into the mounted hunter as he vaulted up and over, keeping clear of that lance.

[Cynical Cat]

Metalmaw's bullets mostly hit the drake or air, which did little or nothing. One bullet did hit the Hunter in the head and another in the right shoulder. He slumped out of the saddle, lance dropping from his hand. As his master hit the soft earth, the drake spun and lunged at the red cap.

[LadyTevar]

Some lupine instincts can't be surpressed. When MetalMaw shot the satyr out of the saddle and distracted the drake, Fluffy shot forward out of hiding, aiming for the back leg of the drake to hamstring it now that its master was down and hopefully dead.

She planned to make sure of that in a moment.

[Cynical Cat]

The drake's tail lashed like a whip, sending Fluffy flying into a tree trunk.

[LadyTevar]

There wasn't even a yipe as Fluffy hit the tree, only the falling of leaves shaken loose by the impact. The werewolf bitch slid down the trunk and landed at the bottom back in her usual doggy-shape. It would take a moment or two for her to get back up.

[SirNitram]

Fluffy was down. Even with a lung collapsed, Metalmaw could fight. Had fought. Had fought worse than a maddened Drake, actually, but this wasn't a time for war-stories.

This was now Personal.

The Redcap darted forward, slashing at the Drake's claws, but mostly to keep it back. The last rounds in his guns fired, more to distract and annoy than anything else. The lunging Drake met the lunging Redcap, and the Redcap's jaws unhinged, as he was wanting to tear a chunk off that snout.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Mace was exhausted. Leave it to him to forget that fire probably would not directly harm a Drake. But that did not rule out secondary effects. He made an exploding motion with his hands and conjured a flare of white hot fire not more than a few inches from each of the drake's eyes, and kept it there, moving with its head, trying to blind the beast.