Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-31986068-20160429231407/@comment-26510374-20170516051427

ty fr ur patiensse, sorry it's cut a bit short

CHAPTER EIGHT

A fox leapt at Rain as she frantically searched for an animal she knew to tell about the vision. Barely pausing to think, she raised her sword and slashed it across the creature’s face. It howled in pain, blood spurting from the large wound, and disappeared back into the screeching crowd.

She ended up bumping into Milo, who was in a panic. “Where is she?” he demanded Rain.

“What?”

“I can’t find her! She came out the Nursery an--”

“Listen, Milo, I uh, need to tell you something. The Shadowbringers are planning on ambushing us from behind and they’ll defeat us if we don’t take action--”

Milo ran screaming into the crowd at this news.

Rain sighed. “So much for that.” She turned to look for someone else when a small tiger wielding a sword appeared in front of her. “The Shadowbringers are going to ambush us from behind? You learned that? By spying?!” he cried.

“Er,” Rain stuttered, “not exactly--”

The tiger bowed. “I’m Ryusei,” he said, his eyes shining. “I’m a Spy too. If you don’t mind...” his voice trailed off. Rain waited, feeling embarrassed but also amused.

Ryusei looked up suddenly. “Can I help you stop them?” he blurted.

Rain found herself grinning. “Of course you can. I need all the help I can get. But I haven’t formulated a plan yet.”

Milo appeared again, dragging with him a black fox with goat horns. “Why did you bring me here again?” he snarled. Milo struggled to catch his breath but replied, “Bellde, Rain says that the Shadowbringers are going to ambush us!”

The moth started to panic once more but Rain pulled them all aside by the trees where they wouldn’t be detected (she was surprised nobody had attacked them while they were talking in the first place).

Ryusei told them he was going to get “Terra” and that she would be able to help them come up with a plan. He also promised he might manage to pull Maxim away from the battlefield.

Rain explained to Bellde and Milo the vision. Bellde, though still looking very surly, nodded quietly. “By the looks of this ‘vision’, there isn’t all that much of them, they’re relying on surprise instead of numbers. And Sombra, the snake... I’ve heard of him before. He’s a monster. Don’t go near him.”

Rain protested. “But we have to stop him too!”

“Bad idea,” Bellde snapped. “As long as we stop the rest of them they won’t kill as many folk. The ones Sombra gets are out of luck.”

Ryusei reappeared with an iguana and the same huge bear from before. Maxim was howling in panic but Terra, the iguana, seemed calm and collected.

“What is the meaning of this?” Terra asked. She had silver scales and a green gem atop her head.

Rain explained to them.

Maxim howled. “Ve arre gone! Dey vipe us all out! No hope for future!”

“Calm down!” Rain yelled. She grabbed Maxim’s arms and stared straight into his eyes. “It’s going...to be....okay.”

Maxim’s breathing started to slow down. He sat with a thump on the ground, defeated.

Bellde asked about his plan. Terra grew angry when he mentioned not doing anything about Sombra. Her gem flashed dark green.

“You can’t just leave those poor souls!” she yelled. “I’m getting Ferris! She can shapeshift into a snake and she’s a match for that low-down rotten monster!”

“Snake has отрава,” Maxim muttered. “He has отрава and отрава keel. Ven keel, all overr and dun.”

Terra returned quickly with Ferris.

Bellde started to argue his plan would work and it was fine. Terra and Ferris argued back.

“Stop!” Rain shouted. “There’s no time! They’re coming! I have a plan. Ferris will shapeshift into a snake, and wait hidden for Sombra. You will overtake him and fight. And when the others come in, we all will sneak up on them and attack. If reinforcements come through the same way, we will yell and alert everyone else.”

Everyone thought this was a good idea and Ferris transformed into her snake form, which was white with jade green spots. They snuck off to the trees, Ferris laying in wait curled up on a tree branch for Sombra.

Eventually a long, dark shadow, seeming to flicker in and out of existence, slithered past the tree Ferris was in. She lunged instantly downwards on top of the shadow and sunk her fangs into him. Sombra seemed stunned by this but regained control quickly and fought back. They grappled for quite a while, but then the rest of the Shadowbringers came. Sombra started to dart towards them and alert them to the Guardians in the trees, but Ferris grabbed him by the neck and threw him against one of the old oaks.

They followed the sneaking group of Shadowbringers without being detected, thanks to the battle noise.

“Do you hear something?” Aquilo muttered.

“Shut up!” Reaper snarled.

The wolf fell silent.

They slunk on. The Guardians followed.

Reaper came to the very back of the crowd. He slowly prepared to lunge forward at an occupied human.

“Now!” Rain yelled. Maxim bellowed, drawing his sword in an instant, and charged. The other animals ran yelling behind them. Astonished, the Shadowbringers were completely taken by surprise.

“There are Shadowbringers trying to ambush us!” Rain shouted to the crowd. Some Guardians whipped around and helped fight.

Sparrow came into view. She was busy chasing a tanuki about with a large stick.

Sombra and Terra tumbled into sight as well. Sombra was struggling to escape and Terra would not give up. Finally, he thwacked Terra on the head with his own and slithered away, only to freeze in terror at the sight of the Guardians easily beating up the ambush party.

Rain disregarded him and began to fight Aquilo, who seemed more vicious than before after recognizing her.

She had just driven him into the crowd when she felt the slightest sensation about her ankles of something cold and wormlike. Rain whipped about and saw a flash of black and a hint of red speeding towards her.

Then everything went dark.

Rain awoke later to a pig’s face and water being sprinkled on her eyes.

She flinched away.

“Oh good,” the pig muttered. “I thought you would never wake up.”

“What happened?” Rain muttered.

“The Shadowbringers lost,” she replied. “Thanks to you, Maxim and Ryusei told me. But I’ve seen the way Maxim looks at you and Ryusei admires anyone.”

“Sombra bit me.”

“Not exactly... Bellde jumped in front of you just in time and crushed the dreadful thing’s head with his metal paw. I’m hoping that’s the end of him but Bellde says he turned into shadow and slid away after he heard his skull crack and that sort of thing’s happened before, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing him.”

“Bellde!” Rain cried. “Where is he? Is he okay?”

“He’s...recovering,” Fireblaze grunted. “We have antidotes for snake venom, but we don’t know what snake Sombra is. We’re going to find out, The Naturalist ought to know.”

“What if they don’t?”

“Phoenix is very trustworthy, considering he’s a human,” the pig dismissed. “Oh, and you can rest up here if you want, but you’re well enough to get up and walk around.”

She exited the room.

Rain sat up. She heard talking outside the door.

“...the Shadowbringers’ hostage...It’s Brendan, isn’t it?” rasped a voice Rain didn’t know.

“Yes, Zilverwerk,” rumbled another. Rain recognized it as Gratil’s. “It does not matter who he is. The hostage is a hostage and a hostage is not someone you should leave to die.”

“No,” said a third voice. Roe. “Brendan is something else. He shot La Niña, didn’t he? Because she was just scouting to see what he was doing. Don’t save him or else he’ll just take the girls away with him and the prophecy will never be fulfilled.”

“He is a living thing!” Gratil argued. “All living things have lives that matter, regardless of who they are!”

“Nanna?” Roe asked. “What do you think?”

“I agree with Gratil,” said a softer voice with a distinct Icelandic accent. “He is a living thing who matters, and even if he wiped out an entire island of animals it would still be completely unethical to let him suffer and die.”

“So it is decided,” Zilverwerk muttered. “We shall rescue him after all. But, Gratil, it would be best if Rain and Sparrow started their training first before informing them, in case they follow the rescue party unprepared and end up killing themselves.”

There was the sound of pawsteps padding away in different directions.

The door to the room Rain was in creaked. Rain quickly pretended to be asleep.

“Rain,” said Gratil. She sat up in bed a little too fast.

“We will begin your training tomorrow,” he growled. “You and your sister will take the normal lessons of a Guardian, at least for the day, until I decide if you are to be a Healer, a Guardian, or a Purger. Remember that Guardians have lots of classes within them that are diverse, so if you are a Guardian you won’t necessarily be fighting all the time.”

“Purgers?” Rain demanded. “Nobody ever told me about Purgers.”

“I’ll explain later,” said Gratil, “but now you should get up and eat if you are feeling better.”

Rain jumped out of bed. “I’m well,” she said quickly.

Gratil seemed to smile a little. “I know you are eager. You will make a fine Deltean.”

The lion padded out of the room. Rain scurried after him.

She was so eager, she forgot about what Zilverwerk, Roe, Gratil and Nanna had been discussing.

PART TWO - Finding

CHAPTER NINE

The next day, Rain and Sparrow awoke quickly and hurried to dress themselves- an unknown animal or human had supplied the room with fresh clothes that fit them.

They were met at the door by Roe. “Your first class is History,” he said excitedly, as if he was about to begin his training for the first time. “Branch is teaching it...I would question, but I trust Gratil’s judgment.”