Zion: Light of the New Moon Part 2, Ch 1.2 Myre
Zion - Light of the New Moon, Part 2 Chapter 1.2
Myre Tormented
It appears, based on reader votes, that the group will probably be encountering blood beasts. Their decision has not changed the modifiers for this event arc, thus they are still receiving + Danger and - Luck for their choices thus far, but this is still subject to change based on future decisions.
The Blood Beast attack came quickly, and with little warning. The monsters emerged from all around us, charging the group ferociously, forcing us all onto the defensive as they swarmed in for the kill. If I had to guess, I say that there had to have been at least three dozen. We didn't have time to prepare, and scarcely had time to react; it all happened so fast.
The first few seconds were a fury of action. I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but somehow I got my shield up and between myself and the three Blood Beasts that jumped me. I caught one in the neck with my sword, dropping it, and the second I hit with my shield; by some lucky twist of fate it fell to the side and impaled itself on one of the tent stakes we hadn't driven into the ground. The third took advantage of the opening in my defenses, leaping onto me once my shield was out of the way.
Though it knocked me onto the ground and landed atop me, I did manage to get my sword under its gut and let gravity do the rest. Blood Beasts are heavy, Miri, but when a battle's going on around you adrenaline does the rest; with a heave I had it off me and got to my feet. Looking around, I finally had a chance to form up with Liam and Bahrla. Further down the field Keeland and Cornelius were back to back, and Josh was standing there with his walking stick, trying in vain to protect Lady Marion; both of them looked badly injured. Despite the injuries in our party, it was gratifying to see that over a dozen of the creatures had already fallen to our hastily created defenses.
"Keep close." Baharla stated in a confident tone, "They've lost their advantage so they may try to split us apart and go for a straggler."
Keeland, across the camp from me, took a paw off of his sword and held his holy symbol aloft, "Begone!" he demanded.
At the same time, the white shepherd next to him rose a paw, holding the divine heraldry of the half moon as well, "Return to the forest. There is nothing for you here." he spoke quietly, but the tone held an unbelievably strong sense of authority. Between the show of faith from both dogs, the five nearest Blood Beasts turned, tails tucked, and fled off into the brush.
Josh slowly helped Marion to her feet, and both of them prayed. Lady Marion spoke to the Full Moon, praying for protection from the wilds, and her prayers were answered as divine white light encased all of the believers (leaving Bahrla unaffected, of course). The comforting knowledge of the Goddess protecting me helped calm my rapidly beating heart and gave a surreal sense of inner peace; they could not harm us while She watched.
Josh's prayers to the New Moon were answered and as the shadowy, dim glow fused with my body I felt an incredible sense of confidence, almost as if the touch of the Goddess left me invincible; I could see similar expressions of fervor from the rest of our group, except Cornelius, who was busy whispering to himself; the glow that encompassed him was a different kind of light... one that came from within-- he had cast some kind of a spell.
"NOW I'm ready!" I heard the feral, growling voice of Josh's Moon Blessed form; the young lion had grown again into his lager, more imposing body, the wild eyes of his second-head glinting with glee.
"Then talk less and kill more." Bahrla announced, planting her hoof right onto a Blood Beast's head before it had a chance to jump up at her. It let out a yelp, but the sound was cut short as the minotaur woman added more weight to her leg, crushing the bones of the thing's skull. Another jumped at her from the side and she quickly thrust the shaft of her axe into its muzzle to keep it from clamping down on her neck. The creature's razor-sharp claws tore deep grooves into her side, but the Wild Lander casually backhanded the creature away before it could do any lethal damage.
Beside her, Liam quickly moved in and stabbed at a third that meant to jump on her, running it through with his blade. Another Blood Beast came right at him from the shadows, leaping toward his throat, but the fox was too fast, drawing his sword out of the slain creature and leading the way with it, ducking at the last moment and thrusting the blade up into the air to neatly gut the Blood Beast as it sailed over him. It landed in a pile of blood and organs, kicking a few times before it lay still.
Across the camp, Keeland and Cornelus remained back to back, rotating slowly as four Blood Beasts prowled around them in a circle. The moment the first creature charged, so too did the rest. Keeland and Cornelius each struck at exactly the same time, thrusting forward and lowering their heads, each impaling their target and nimbly evading the remaining two.
A cry from the tents drew my focus back to Josh, who was repeatedly bashing the already-crumpled skull of a Blood Beast that lay next to Lady Marion. The priestess had fallen, blood pouring out of a wound in her upper chest; it was obvious which beast was responsible for it based on the fact that Josh was still attacking it long after it stopped moving. He didn't notice the one moving up behind him.
"JOSH!" I shouted, and my warning called enough of his attention away from the target of his wrath that he was able to move to the side at the last moment. Though he hadn't evaded fast enough, the claws that raked down his ribs found much less purchase than if he wouldn't have moved at all.
I wanted to go to his aid, but I suddenly had my own problem; my shout called the attention of two Blood Beasts who had a mind to make me their next meal. As you can imagine, Miri, that plan didn't sit well with me. Between my sword and shield, one Blood Beast fell with a hole through one eye, and the other was shaking off a really bad headache; I still have to remember to get the dent out of my shield... GODDESSS, those things have thick heads!
"Gather up on Marion!" Bahrla shouted, moving toward the fallen priestess, "Don't let them drag her off!" Cornelius and Keeland broke from their remaining foes and quickly came to the priestess' aid. Liam followed after Bahrla as I repeated my shield-bash, stunning the last Blood Beast near us so I could disengage and play my part in the plan. I judged my timing wrong, however-- those things don't stun easily. Thankfully, Keeland had his holy symbol out again.
"BACK!" he ordered, the single word carrying with it the command of the Goddess. The Blood Beast, frothing at the muzzle, nose bloody, had no choice but to flee.
"Away, creatures!" Cornelius demanded as he approached Josh, forcing the two Blood Beasts still flanking the cub to turn tail and run.
"Goddess damn them." the Moon Blessed lion announced, kneeling down to look at the unmoving Lady Marion. He rested a paw on his chest, closing some of his lesser wounds with a simple prayer so he could focus more completely on the fallen priestess, "Keep them off us." he directed.
"Be okay..." I heard Josh's normal head speak from behind his moon blessed one, "Goddess... please be okay." the effect left me shivering and squeamish.
Liam patted me on the shoulder, passing me his blade, and held his paws out toward one of the remaining half-dozen Blood Beasts that stalked towards us. I felt a moment of freezing cold from him, and a thin, black beam blasted the distance between his paws and the creature. The Blood Beast slumped, stumbled, and collapsed, all but falling unconscious; I didn't miss the fact that the fox looked immediately refreshed. He accepted his blade back with a smile and a wink.
"I can't concentrate with all this noise!" Josh's Moon Blessed head growled, and he stood up.
"We need to help Lady Marion!" Josh's cub head argued.
"We will... quiet." announced the growling, dark-furred one, and Josh thrust his paws out, "BAD DOGS!" he roared, and a jagged webbing of black and purple lightning cascaded into the remaining Blood Beasts. The lightning crackled and jumped, arcing through the creatures as their bodies popped and sizzled, the electricity going so far as to make them glow... at least... until they exploded.
At that point, the last of the Blood Beast pack didn't bother staying anywhere nearby, and they all fled, their otherworldly, cackling, whining, hissing calls slowly carrying off into the distance before disappearing altogether.
"Can you help her?" I asked, looking up to Josh while kneeling down next to Lady Marion.
"No." the feral, Moon Blessed head noted simply and, while everyone watched, it slowly shrank back, enveloped in the folds of fur and flesh of Josh's throat as his normal head and face supplanted it on his normal-sized body's shoulders, "But I can." his young, smooth, white-furred face noted with confidence.
"Leave him to his work." Bahrla noted, standing once the cub began his prayers, "We have too much to do to spend our time looking over his shoulder."
"Great campsite." Liam noted, putting his blade away as he crossed his arms, "We're in the middle of a hunting trail, aren't we?"
"No." Bahrla answered simply, "We're in the middle of a hunting ground."
"Even better." the fox scowled, "And you still think this is the safest place to be right now, do you?"
"I do." Cornelius interjected, "Look." he motioned to the north. Even in the dusk light the faintly glowing magenta cloud was visible.
"What is THAT thing?" Liam asked, attention focused on the otherworldly cloud.
"One of the manifestations of a Torment." Cornelius noted calmly.
"That's a little too close for my comfort." I offered.
"We will not encounter it." Cornelius said confidently, glancing toward me, "We are safe here."
Liam let out a single, sardonic "HA!" as he gazed around the carnage in the campsite, dozens of Blood Beast corpses littering the ground, "You have a pretty damn sick sense of 'safety', Captain."
"We are in the Wild Lands, Liam Mail." Cornelius said, turning to look directly at him, "safety is relative."
Josh continued trying to cure Lady Marion. Liam offered to help, but more than one knowledgeable voice explained that her wounds were too severe to be helped by a conventional healer; if Josh couldn't save her then no one could. It was a frightening prospect to lose our Priestess and, even though we had a number of faithful who could carry the Divine Shield, Lady Marion's calm demeanor was not something that we would be able to recover from losing. There was nothing any of us could do-- we were forced to find other activities to keep from worrying.
So, with no other options, the rest of us continued making camp. Bahrla spent her time cutting down medium-sized trees and using them to erect an almost serviceable waist-high wall. It wasn't going to keep anything from jumping over or protect us from anything flying, but it still felt a lot better than having nothing. Keeland got the fire started, and that helped ease my fears a lot more. Despite my distrust for the Moon Pelted shepherd, the wards he raised magically went even further to give me a semi balance of comfort. Regardless, my fears weren't gone.
It wasn't until Liam joined me in my tent until he laid down with me and wrapped his arms around me that I felt better. He whispered softly that everything was going to be alright and at that moment I finally believed it. Do you know the funny thing, Miri? Out of all the protection we had, hearing those words come out of his muzzle was the one that probably meant the least, but it somehow comforted me the most.
Despite our still dwindling supply, I injected the fox with Grace that night... after the combat, with all the stress of the day, it was something he needed... it was something I needed. He made love to me; Grace finds its way to all parts of a user's body, and he gave me everything I could have asked for without having to resort to his blood. I squirmed in his grasp, my back to the floor of our tent as I wrapped my legs around his hips, ankles meeting above his tail. My lover was caught in the midst of the moment, awash with euphoria from the half dose of Grace but his high slowly started to wane even as he reached his climax... but that is when mine just started.
Liam shuddered, lowering himself atop me even as I felt his body shake from the much-needed release. The feel of him inside me, and the new feel of Grace spreading to all parts of my being was too much. I pushed him aside as he quivered in euphoria. He laid back as I rolled over atop him and had no objection as I took over; I didn't stop until we both had a chance to speak the Prayer of Unity we both missed during our first orgasm. It seemed like a silly prayer in the middle of the Wild Lands, a stone's throw from a Torment with Goddesss-only-knows-what lurking in the shadows, but, at the same time, hips joined to his as his paws cupped my breasts, as I arched my back, no other prayer could have meant more.
* * * * *
The Myrenese Party is set upon by Blood Beasts in this, the second post of Chapter 1.
Jumping right into things, the party is forced to defend themselves as a huge pack of the monsters tries to kill them, and succeeds in inflicting three lethal wounds on Lady Marion. At this point, non-Contributing readers will have to decide:
1) Use a Luck Point and let her be saved. 2) Save the Luck Point and allow Lady Marion to meet her Goddess. Based on where Leijh's journal ended, something bad is obviously on its way.
Contributing readers also get a vote. Take a look and choose from the options below:
1) Stay at camp until the immediate threat of Torments pass. (++ Delay) 2) Get moving quickly and trust in Cornelius to get the party past the Torments. (+ Danger, - Luck) 3) Get moving quickly and trust in Bahrla to get the party past the Torments. (+ Delay, + Danger)
Readers have until Thursday, November 10th at midnight to vote.