Lost.....

[Gryphon]

Gryphon sees Patham and Sweetcherrie dive through the shadowy door to the tavern and shut the door behind them. Taking advantage of his distraction a troll claws at Gryphon from behind, unnoticed as it's claws turn phantasmal and fade away.

 

From the air around him Gryphon hears Patham's voice in a ghostly echo saying, "If I read this correctly then someone with sufficient control over the flows of energy would be able to achieve quite powerful things simply by thinking strong enough about them, don't you agree?".

 

Thinking back with an almost ill feeling Gryphon realises that the words on the air have an uncomfortable element of truth to them. Ever since the opening of the gates and the magical storm they created, he and Sweetcherrie had been reacting to their environment more than thinking, and apparantly having their environment acting back on them in return.

 

Summoning a small fraction of power from the air around him Gryphon constructs the lightest of shields, to act as a ward and shield of simple thoughts. Moments later there is a shift in the air of the cavern as many of the trolls begin to fade and take on an insubstantial quality. Syllibant whispers arise from the darkness all around and mist seems to rise from the floor to obscure what appear to be very real troll remains while Gryphon waits expectantly to see if there is any reaction from the environment to his shield.

 

When nothing happens he feeds more power into it, bringing his usual defenses back online even as Sweetcherrie brings her will to bear, wishing that the trolls were gone.

 

Movement in the darkest shadows at the caverns edge attracts Gryphons eye and as the mist rises to obscure all he thinks he sees several of the largest trolls from the earlier battle slipping away mostly un-noticed... As he looks around Gryphon sees Gyrfalcon, Mynx and the others cleaning weapons and bandaging minor wounds taken in the heat of battle.

 

The sound of a door opening attracts Gryphon's attention and he sees Patham looking out of the shadows that he and Sweetcherrie vanished into moments earlier. With a grin and a wave Gryphon begins to invite the two to re-enter the cavern, now safe, but the gesture and words die as they exit his mouth as he notices the table, medallions and glowing book in the darkness beyond Patham and Sweetcherrie.

 

With a quick call Gryphon rallies the others in the cavern and they move to join Patham and Sweetcherrie and see what it is that they found...

[Mynx]

Mynx picked up her robe and looked it over, assessing the rips and burns it had achieved in such a short amount of time. With a muttered word she shook the fabric out, its form flickering into a smoky shadow before it solidified once more, all damage repaired.

Wrapping it once more around her shoulders, Mynx latched it at her throat as she joined Gryphon with a tired smile and entered the room with the others.

 

Casting a brief glance at the room of artifacts, Mynx's attention was immediately drawn to the page that had caught Sweetcherrie and Patham's eye.

She read it silently, her ears slowly flattening in annoyance as the full ramifications of the realm made itself known.

 

"It was all in our heads," she murmured, before turning her eyes to her paws. The feline watched bitterly as the darkness faded from her pelt, leaving behind only her stripes as even the soft mutterings in her mind disappeared.

Mynx sighed and closed her eyes, her fist clenching in anger.

 

Gryphon walked up quietly to his mate and watched her silently for a moment.

"Kitten?" he ventured. "It's fine. Everything's over."

Mynx sighed and shook her head. "I thought she was gone..."

Gryphon frowned in confusion. "Who?" Mynx only shook her head.

"But it was all in your head kitten. Only memory."

"That's the thing. I thought she was forgotten."

 

With a sigh, Mynx pulled the robe's hood over her face and stepped back from the table to investigate the darker corners of the room.

[Gyrfalcon]

Daryl crashed into a table, flipping back up and over it as he continued to tumble, his backpack coming undone and landing nearby as the werefox came to a halt in the middle of what had been a troll’s meal.

 

“Ugh... what wonderful repast.” Daryl said with a grimace as he picked himself out of the mashed... whatever... and lurched to the side as the troll stabbed him with its knife. Daryl looked down, unimpressed as the pinprick healed immediately. “Want to try again?” He said with a cocky grin, ducking as the troll slashed with its knife before bounding forward, burying his claws in the troll’s neck and raking towards himself, leaving the troll spurting blood several feet in either direction. “Have a nice nap.” Daryl said as he bounced away, the troll unsuccessfully trying to stem the loss of blood. Within a few moments, the troll pitched forward, losing consciousness as its brain shut down from the loss of blood.

 

Daryl dropped from the table and bent to retrieve his pack, allowing a troll to miss its swipe with a chair that instead broke apart against the table. The troll howled in frustration, and then howled louder as Daryl straightened and brought his leg up between the trolls. “I bet that hurt, didn’t it.” Daryl said with a grin as he pulled what looked to be the arrow off a game of Twister... if someone set a rather incompetent maker to the task, who’s idea of correcting the idea was to recast the arrow each time, and each larger arrow points off in a new direction, forming a large knobby mace.

 

The troll eeped and eyed Daryl as he hefted the large mace. Daryl grinned as he hurled it across the room, nearly clipping a troll or two as it thudded into the wall next to Anna. “Hey Anna! Wyv said to give that to you!” Daryl called out, ducking as the troll swung at him again. He grinned in satisfaction as Anna grabbed the unintentional mace and smacked the troll she was facing.

 

A roar from behind Daryl brought him around quickly, but not as quick as the troll picked him up in its massive hands and raised him above its head, roaring and shaking the werefox wildly.

 

“I’m no-ot a pi-n-at-a y-ou fr-eak!” Daryl stuttered out, lashing out with one clawed foot as the troll tried to stuff him into its mouth. “Stop that!” he shouted forcefully, hoping that the troll understood. It seemed to, as it stopped trying to eat him, focusing instead beyond him... where Bubble was ripping another troll to pieces and snacking on the choicer bits. The trolls arms went back, and Daryl sighed as he figured out what the troll was going to do. “This is going to hurt.” Daryl said, before screaming as the troll whipped forward, hurling his werefox missile at Bubble’s back.

 

“This is going to hurt!” Daryl yelped as he flew over Gyrfalcon’s head, causing the half-elf to stare up in shock as Daryl headed straight for Valdar, hoping the little planewalker’s wards wouldn’t hurt too much.

 

Daryl forgot that Valdar had worked his wards in such a way that Daryl could always pass through them, the better to let Daryl be hugged.

 

With a crash, Daryl cannonballed into Valdar, wrapping his arms around him to keep the little boy safe as they caromed off Bubble’s back and crashed to the floor, rolling to a stop several feet away. Daryl peeked an eye open and watched in surprise as the trolls wavered and disappeared like mirages.

 

In his arms, Valdar stirred and blinked his eyes open, looking around quizically before noticing something in his line of sight. With a happy shout of “Puppy!” he latched onto Daryl’s bushy tail before frowning and following the trail to Daryl’s back... and then up.

 

“Yay! Giant puppy!” Valdar shouted happily as he threw his arms around Daryl’s head and hugged tightly.

 

Gyrfalcon chuckled as he leaned against a table nearby, whispering a quiet prayer to Mielikki as he cast a healing spell on his nicks and cuts. “I think it’ll take a few minutes to get Valdar off of you, Daryl.” Gyrfalcon said wryly.

 

Daryl nodded breathlessly, barely able to breath at the moment.

[Valdar and Astralis]

The trolls never noticed as the others vanished one by one into the side room. They had larger problems.

 

The battlefield was strangeley quiet without the groans of the injured and dying. Another scream split the silence, suddenly cut off as Bubble brought it's massive jaws down on the skull of the Troll it had just tore apart at the waist. Seeing the demon distracted, one of the less bright creatures leaped at the apparently undefended child standing on it's shoulder. Bubble did not even bother to turn from it's meal, swiping the troll out of the air as one would a bothersome insect. It splattered against the wall and slid down in a mess of blood and organs.

 

There was a ring of gore nearly four feet high around the demon. This did not stop Appy as she bounced neatly over the slippery pile and ran between Bubble's legs untouched. The Troll who followed was not as lucky.

 

***

 

Sailing towards a rampaging demon was not an sport for the faint hearted. It was impossible to tell if Daryl went pale under all that fur, though Bubble noted a definate expression of relief on his face as he sailed past with Valdar in tow. The demon's eyes narrowed for a moment, decided his master would be safe enough with the mortal, then turned back to it's still twitching meal.

 

It vanished, quite literally, from under it's nose, as did the remains of at least twenty other trolls. The demon bit into empty air, and roared in rage.

 

"Hihi Puppy! What'cha doing here? Shush, Bubble!"

 

The demon shut up immedetly, and sat down with a crash.

 

"Uncle Gyr!" Valdar cried, distangling himself from Daryl and running over to hug the half-elf. Then he turned to look at the others emerging from the room in amazement.

 

"Hihi! Wow, you found an rescued them! What happened to the room?"

 

"Er -" Gyrfalcon paused for a moment and thought very carefully. "That was Bubble."

 

The little elf immedetly rounded on his demonic pet. "Bad Bubble! You had to go make a big mess, didn't you?"

 

Gyrfalcon and Sweetcherrie shared a slightly alarmed look.

 

"Valdar, do you remember what happened?"

 

The little elf gave his uncle a curious look, before answering. "I think I was playing hide'n'seek with Appy (Hi Appy!), then I fell asleep. Bubble must have brought me here an messed everything up. Bad Bubble!"

[Gryphon]

Lost... and found

 

 

With a raised eyebrow Sweetcherrie decided that it would probably be better not to inform lilValdar about how it had been him that had given Bubble the command 'feed'. The room did indeed looked chaotic, but what was most important was that everybody was still alive. Well, alive…

 

As she looked around the group she noticed that they all looked hurt one way or the other, some of Patham's feathers were still slowly floating towards the floor, and she herself was aching all over as well.

 

"Gryph, those amulets back there seem to be some sort of key to the portals of this plane, think we should attempt using them?"

 

 

Nodding agreement to Sweetcherrie Gryphon calls out to those standing around motioning them to come together and join Sweetcherrie and himself in the cavern with the table. Curiousity serves to bring together the Pennites fairly quickly and Gryphon directs them towards where Sweetcherrie and Patham are standing over by the table, following along behind the last to enter the cavern.

 

 

Slowly, one by one everyone comes to gather around the table and a pulsating glow starts to eminate from the table and the air surrounding it.

 

A silent question pulses though the minds of the Pennites present and many step silently forward to take up a golden medallion that has their name appear on it in a flowing script. Some few step away from the table and strangely fade away as the light leaves them and they find themselves transported back to the Keep outside the shield wall surrounding the AVV.

 

Deep within the minds of those that remain words echo:

Welcome to the inner circle, you have chosen to take up membership in the Alliance of Vagabonds and Vanguards. The amulet is your key into and out of the AVV halls, do not fear losing it, for it shall find you always and respond to you and you alone. Go now, your journey back to the Pen Keep will be unimpeded for such is the magic of the amulet. Be mindful of your responsibilities, and listen for the Amulet's call then come as quickly as you can, for the need of your support from your fellow guild members may well be dire.

 

With that the voice falls silent and the amulets take on a slightly insubstantial look as they adapt themselves to their chosen bearers.

 

~~~

OOC: Thanks for participating in lost and thank you to those that saw it through to the end. Welcome to all those who have decided to take up AVV guild membership. Keep your eye on the guild area as there will be something new for you to try appearing there very soon.

[Jechum]

Jechum floats into Vincent's haunted dreams...

 

Oh the way things use to be...

 

These types of stories scream create me!

 

Jechum floats out...