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Post by turkoizdog on Dec 13, 2009 16:23:59 GMT -8
Lana jumped back, slightly surprised at Sam's sudden awakening. She figured the smell of the lasagna had done it, as she had expected, but what she hadn't expected was for him to react to Sidri and herself the way he had. Then again, this was an insane Lonely, so she was never sure what to expect, as she wasn't used to being around Lonelies or insane people. And yet, here she was with an insane Lonely and an insane Twin who pretends to be a Lonely.
Of course, Sidri was able to push Sam off of him. Which was good, because Lana had no clue what to do with Sam in his insane fits. She was just lucky that Sidri was sane, or she would be even more lost. Sam fell to the ground and... stayed there. Good.
Lana giggled at Sam's comment about cheese. "Yes, it's lasagna. It's in the oven right now. Should be almost finished." she told him. "Do you want some? When it's finished, I mean, it'll take a few more minutes..." Based on Sam's reaction to the smell of cheese, he probably liked it. And if he liked cheese, he'd love lasagna. It appeared he was being calm now, and Lana hoped he would stay this way. It would be hard to get him to eat if he was busy trying to strangle people.
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Post by IceCoffin on Dec 15, 2009 19:45:41 GMT -8
~Elveda, Lana's House~
Sam lay on the ground, motionless, but "perfectly" conscious, considering the fact that he was maintaining a series of freshly opened wounds and irritated burns all over his body. His skin felt like flame with each muscle twitch he made, but Sam was a rather resolute fellow, whose ability to feel pain and suffering were dulled by his former life at the Orphanage.
Still, he could sniff the air, and sniff he did. The smell of the cheesy lasagna tantalized and teased his senses, and he smiled dumbly in response to the smell. Lana's voice pierced the quiet that same after Sidri had averted Sam's attack, but Sam didn't really seem to care.
Food. He wanted food... Now.
Sam struggled to pull himself upright, "Ahhh, cheese... sounds yummy, why not...?" He came up to his hands and knees, and caused a sudden pain to flare up in his chest.
Caught by surprise, Sam hugged his abdomen, and violently flopped face-down to the ground, since his arms were no longer holding him up. "Unnngh... it burrrnsssss..."
Luckily, there was an effective way to treat a burn currently at hand: mud. Or rather, given Lana's abilities, mud was most certainly accessible. But, regarding his apparent aversion to dirt and sand, Sam's reaction to mud would be most certainly unwelcome...
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Post by Del on Dec 23, 2009 18:56:05 GMT -8
Parisa :: Underground Observatory
After washing and readying herself for the coming trip, Parisa made her way to the entrance of the cavern. The man was waiting for her, propped up against the cave wall, near the mouth where the bike from the previous day was sitting. As she got closer the man began to move cautiously towards her, eventually handing her a small handful of provisions. He gestured for her to eat and then quietly waited while she did.
Once she had finished, the man signaled for her to come closer towards the bike. As she neared, he squatted down and pointed to an opening in the machine with one hand and lifted his mouthpiece with the other to speak.
"We need light magic to start up the bike, would you be able to do that for me?" He said smoothly. It took a moment for her to process the request, but she nodded eventually and slowly made her way towards the machine. She knelt down on one leg and raised her hand in preparation. Bringing her thumb and middle finger together, Parisa snapped her fingers and caused a small spark of light to appear which brought the hunk of metal to life...
And then a black hand gripped her mind. It tore its way into her head and slashed at her psyche. In the short and unending moments that followed, Parisa saw the faces of all the poor lonely she had tormented for the past decade of her life. All the people she had whipped, beaten, and killed; she saw them all. She saw their screaming, crying faces as they begged for mercy. And she saw herself. She saw her cold, dead eyes as they burned with a dull but powerful hatred... yet it wasn't hatred for the lonely she tormented. It was far stronger than that.
And then realization struck her like an arrow.
It wasn't the lonely she hated; it was herself.
She snapped her fingers.
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Post by Gabby on Jan 5, 2010 13:53:29 GMT -8
[ Kallias – Desert, en route to Baris ]
An idle lizard stood and blinked at the sight before him: a steambike with three passengers. The first – small and fuzzy – grabbed the front handlebars, eyes squinting against the rushing wind. The second – much larger and apparently human – maneuvered the vehicle, goggles and gasmask shielding his entire face. His bronze shoulders and arms glistened in the blazing sun, because even though their speed generated a decent breeze, it wasn’t enough to combat the powerful heat. And the third – smaller than the second but also human – uneasily wrapped her arms around the second’s waist. She, too, wore goggles, and covering her body was a hooded cloak intended to shield her from the light. She did her best to keep her hood over her head, but it was a difficult task. The lizard’s head jerked as they sped by, watching them quickly shrink in the distance before licking its eye and scurrying off.
Rassus, Kallias, and the Lonely girl had been riding since early that morning. For nearly four hours straight they’d traveled, bodies numb to the constant vibrations of the machine and just about deafened by the sound of the screaming gusts in their ears. Despite this, their ride had thus far been smooth and uneventful. Kallias couldn’t have asked for anything better. Though amid the rumblings of the engine, he did feel a distinctive tremble in his gut, and he knew it would soon be time to stop and refuel. He began to look around for perhaps a shaded area where they could rest for a while. But in every direction was only desolation: hills of scorching sands, totally unfriendly to life. He sighed. They’d just have to keep riding until they found something suitable, or at least until the last drop of water in the tank was used up.
Rassus, displeased and tired, deftly and courageously leapt from Kallias back to the Lonely girl, brusquely scampering underneath her cloak and stealing the hood all for himself, leaving her face to endure the wind and sun. Kallias looked back only once to make sure no trouble was brewing. And when he turned his head back around, he was taken aback at a new development on the horizon. Materializing from within the liquid mirages puddling in the sand was a pillar: tall, strong, weathered. Others appeared after it to count for about six, as if a massive structure had once existed there. If Kallias had ears like Rassus, one would have witnessed them shoot up in attention. His archaeological senses were tingling. Not to mention, a splotch of green emerged from the distance as well.
It took about another twenty minutes before they arrived at the odd oasis surrounded by these even odder pillars. The desert seemed eerily silent after Kallias killed the engine at the oasis’s edge, propping it up with his legs on the sand. When all passengers had stepped off, he brought it over to one of those nearby pillars and rested it up against it. Kallias took with him a few things – their pack, his tool kit, and a light, antique sword he’d decided to bring – before gesturing for the Lonely girl and Rassus to follow him into the brush.
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Post by danime91 on Jan 17, 2010 18:01:29 GMT -8
<[Sidri Kalidsri : Elveda : Lana's House]>
Sidri gazed down in curiosity at this strange individual, currently writhing on the ground in evident pain. Definitely a curious individual. You could not predict what he might do next. In a little corner of his mind, he could hear a familiar voice. I want to play with him! He quickly forced the voice back into silence.
He nudged the figure on the ground with the toe of his boot. "Oi, if it hurts so much, you should probably get it treated."
((Agh, such a crappy post, but nothing to really write about at the moment))
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Post by turkoizdog on Jan 17, 2010 23:24:34 GMT -8
Lana smiled, watching Sam get up... it looked like things were going to be alright... that is, until he flopped back down again. She winced slightly. It burned... and obviously, Sidri wasn't going to be of any help, meaning Lana was, once again, in the mothering position.
She got out of her chair and kneeled alongside Sam. "Where does it burn?" she asked him. Delicately, she rolled him over so that he was facing up, trying to touch as little of his skin as possible in case of making things worse. She knew the most effective way to help would be mud, but considering how badly he'd reacted to the sand, she didn't want to know how he'd react to mud smeared all over him... and yet, there was really nothing else she could think of doing.
She stood quickly. "I'll be right back. I think I have something that might be able to help." she told him. She ran over to the kitchen and took some dirt from a potted plant into a bowl. She them poured water into the bowl, mixed it up, and returned to where Sam was, kneeling beside him once more. "Here, this is nice and cool. I can put it on your skin where it burns and it will feel better. It's a cream of sorts." she told him.
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Post by IceCoffin on Jan 19, 2010 15:49:05 GMT -8
~Elveda, Lana's House~
Luckily for Lana, Sam was totally unaware that she was rubbing what amounted to mud all over his body. He rather quickly dismissed the "cream" as being what she said it was and nothing more.
As she applied the substance to his burn-injured chest, the "cream" felt cool to the touch, and a little bit shocking, as it was much colder than the warm environment created by Lana's cooking. Sam jumped a little at first, but his muscles relaxed as the burning sensation weakened.
"Ahhhh... that feels goooood..." Sam said, as he smiled somewhat absentmindedly.
He turned his head lazily at Sidri, and looked up at the man's face. "Oy," he groaned, "It hurts a lot, but I guess there's worse. It's just that being babied when far away from Them is what makes it worse, maybe..." He grinned a wide toothy grin up at the tall man, and closed his eyes.
"The pain's gone, though..." Sam let his strangely calm voice trail off, before a familiar delightful gleam returned to his eyes, "Ooooh, I need to make a new sticky after this, don't I?! There's no such thing as too many, you know."
Sam continued to grin, and held this delightful expression on his face for a total of two minutes, with an unnerving inability to blink. Then he shook his head quickly, and burst out, "Oh yeah! Names! Names, names, naaames... I forgot to give you strangelies my name!"
Sam forced himself to sit upright, against any sane individual's better judgment, and began to rub the cream all over his right hand. Once satisfied, he offered his cream-covered hand out to Lana, "I am Sam!"
(EDIT:Spell check, tense check. Also, pronounce "strangelies" as "strange" + "lees".)
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Post by danime91 on Jan 21, 2010 8:43:33 GMT -8
<[Sidri Kalidsri : Elveda : Lana's House]>
Sidri watched as the woman coated the crazy's burns with what more or less amounted to mud. "Hey, I don't claim to know much of city folk ways, but if you're actually paying good money for that 'cream' then I could make a fortune, considering that the stuff is just lying around on the streets and all I have to do is add a bit of water." He leaned toward the man on the ground and whispered conspiratorially, a not-all-too-sane gleam in his eyes, "The secret ingredient is dirt. Hee hee!"
He leaned back in his chair, considered for a moment, then figured that no harm or benefit would come of people knowing his name. "My name is Sidri Kalidsri, though I do not care if you remember it or not."
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Post by turkoizdog on Jan 21, 2010 10:18:16 GMT -8
Lana smiled as Sam became significantly more relaxed. He had bought that it was cream and now he was getting excited about stickies. She noticed he had bandages on, so she figured that's what she meant. "Well I have some somewhere if you want to use them." she offered Sam. "It's good that the pain's gone though... just relax... we wouldn't want it to come back."
Lana waited until the other two gave their names before giving her own. "I'm Lana." she said simply. She didn't bother to give a last name. Other than her twin -- who was off somewhere with his own family -- she didn't have a family, so what did it matter?
When Sidri pointed out what the ingredients in her cream were, she shot a glare at him. Why did he seem to take pleasure in things like this? Kicking Sam across the sand, and now this? She supposed she was lucky he was willing to carry Sam all this way. She really hoped that Sidri's words hadn't sunk in for Sam, but in all likelihood, they had.
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Post by Del on Jan 29, 2010 0:13:38 GMT -8
Parisa :: Desert Oasis
The three travelers stepped into the oasis' boundaries, the man in front with Parisa and the scrunt trailing closely behind; the silence here was odd and little unsettling. Still, the oasis looked normal enough...
Making her way through the lush and bountiful ferns, Parisa came to the waters edge. Here the man sat down and began to refill his water canister while the scrunt nervously darted to and fro, delivery a few lines of nervous chatter here and there. Parisa took this time to look around: The sun shown brightly, it being slightly past high noon, and the trees gently swayed in the desert breeze. The pools of water had a lazy, sluggish feeling to them, and the light reflecting off of them was almost mesmerizing. This place and the feeling it gave…. It was strange.
And then there were those pillars. They themselves seemed to have movement, or so it seemed; Parisa couldn't quite tell. It was as if, each time she looked, they were in a slightly different position; almost like they moved when she wasn't looking. Yet Parisa was tired from the day’s journey and a little dehydrated; it must have been her imagination. Still, something compelled her to inspect them further, so she made her way towards the nearest one, which was about a hundred or so feet away. The closer and closer she became, the stranger the pillar appeared. Soon she was face to face with it, but this made her very uncomfortable. She took a step back.
On the pillar, a strange moss seemed to grow... it was black and gray with some darker blues and greens. It was also very thick. She reached out to touch it, but just before the tips of her fingers brushed the moss she thought better of it. After a few more moments of rigorous staring, the lonely woman slowly backed away from the pillar. She had a strange feeling. Almost as if she was being watched…
Satisfied with the distance she had put between herself the pillar, Parisa turned back around. The man was still sitting where she had left him, though now he was watching her (though due to his mask she couldn’t really tell). From across the oasis he gave her the thumbs up. She furrowed her brow in response and turned away.
And then she noticed something else, an object that she had not seen before. It was towards the north side of the oasis, the opposite side from which they had entered, and the sight of it made her stomach turn. It looked similar to a group of large rocks, though it was clear that they were not naturally placed as they were in a sort of pattern and stuck out only slightly above ground level... almost like the lens of a magnifying glass. It was as if her body moved of its own accord towards it.
Being a few hundred feet away, it took her a minute or so to get there, and upon arrival Parisa bent down for a closer look... They too were covered in the strange, black moss, and the rocks were of varying size; a few were very large, yet most were medium or fairly small in size...
The rock nearest her twitched. Though it had happened quickly (almost violently), there was no denying that the rock had in fact moved. Taken aback, Parisa leaped to her feet and scurried backwards. After a few moments of shock, the lonely girl looked around. The man was still at the waters edge on the other side of the oasis, though he had stopped watching her, and the scrunt was no where to be found. On the horizon the sun had begun to set. She turned her head back to the rock formation, and, although her instincts told her not to, Parisa's hand reached out to touch the mossy surface. Breath held and eyes locked, Parisa brushed its surface ever so slightly...
Nothing happened. Breathing a sigh of relief, Parisa closed her eyes as she relaxed and sat back. After taking her a few deep breaths to slow her beating heart, Parisa opened her eyes once more; yet something was different this time; terribly different.
Like a great eye, the rock opened and stared back at her; it was monstrous, black and beady, and it shined horribly.
Parisa then realized that this thing was not a rock at all; it was an eye. And then, one by one, each eye opened, some blinking, some not, yet all eventually fixed their gaze on her. For a moment, the lonely girl could do nothing but stare back in horror. She began hyperventilating. Parisa stood, stumbling backwards in an attempt to get away, her body refusing to move correctly, her eyes unable to tear themselves away.
And then she screamed, again and again; she could not stop or move; all she could do was scream.
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Post by IceCoffin on Jan 31, 2010 14:47:10 GMT -8
~Elveda, Lana's House~
Sam was not pleased about the sudden revelation regarding what the cream was. It felt good, yes, it was creamy and un-dirtlike, but... it was still dirt.
Dirt. Dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt. Sam sat there in the chair, upright, unsure as to how to respond. It was as if his normally explosive split-second reactions to the world had suddenly been numbed. He sat, and stared blankly, letting Lana's introduction roll by. To him, his pause felt like an eternity, and that time itself had slowed to a crawl.
Was it a conspiracy? That this "Lana" woman would treat his wounds with dirt -no, mud- of all things, and that this "Sidri" fellow would then reveal the ruse? What was up with that? What was... What was... And then, it clicked.
Sam suddenly, and swiftly, stood up from his seat with a deranged look in his eyes. He grinned a wide, maniacal grin, and allowed the mud to slowly drip down his wounds. His arms swayed loosely at his sides in an almost rhythmic fashion.
He didn't shout, and he didn't scream. Still wearing this twisted smile, Sam instead whispered, in a low voice, "So, it looks like They are always watching..." He breathed heavily, and stared at Lana. Then, his eyes glanced at Sidri, then back at Lana, his gaze now focused on her hands.
"I don't let Them get away with these things," he sneered poisonously, "Ever. I don't like not having protection. So, I must get... my protection... Back!"
Then Sam cocked his head, his wide grin still present, and waved his muddy hand.
"Axsaminiz, Twinnies!"
And with that, Sam practically galloped out of the house, returning to the harsh streets of Elveda. His mind was absolutely fixated on finding his way home, as other, less-important, jumbled thoughts flew about his mind.
What did he plan on doing to Sidri and Lana...? Even he didn't know. All he knew was that they betrayed him once- just once, and so they must be Twins.
Incidentally, Sam had pretty much made the correct assumption. And hopefully, perhaps his spotty mental state would cause him to forget the encounter. And although Sam's forgetfulness tended to come at random, a good distraction would do the trick just as well.
But, that distraction have to not come from Lana or Sidri...
(EDIT: Grammar corrections, tense check.)
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Post by CO on Jan 31, 2010 16:46:55 GMT -8
~Desert Outskirts of Elveda~
It took far longer for Dante to reach Elveda than it had to leave. Every step he took his regret for giving up his bike to Kallias grew, but he knew that what he had done was the right thing. He'll find another way to reunite with Kallias, the girl, and his bike.
"It's too bad I'm not a twin or I could... disappear into the winds or something silly like that. Ugh, whatever. Not much I can do about it." Dante said to himself. He had been talking to himself quite a bit this past trip, no real reason why, and it wasn't too important. Just a way to vent.
Elveda was still a bit of a ways away, even though he could see it. Having walked all night, Dante finally decided to collapse in the sand for a bit and rest. Well it wasn't a decision so much as what happened...
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Post by Gabby on Feb 3, 2010 8:30:10 GMT -8
[ Kallias – Desert Oasis, en route to Baris ]
Kallias cocked his head confusedly as Rassus planted his feet firmly on the scalding sand, preferring that over the soft greenery of the oasis. He waved a few times, trying to convince his brother to come with him, to enjoy the momentary comfort; but the scrunt would not be swayed. He argued and chattered, pacing around in circles, kicking and throwing sand in Kallias’s direction. Finally the desert wanderer gave up and walked away, rolling his eyes beneath his tinted goggles. He wasn’t too upset. Glancing to his left, he saw the Lonely girl following him instead. Though she seemed a little less agitated than Rassus, there were still signs of anxiety. He searched the area, wondering if he could pinpoint the cause of such nervousness; but he was unsuccessful.
He soon stumbled across a small pool of water, and immediately he began to unbuckle the various vials on the belt crossing his chest. Taking an empty one, he filled it with the water in question and held it up to the light, swirling it around, shaking it. He even pulled down his mask and smelled it, just to be sure. Though there was no way to be absolutely sure, it seemed okay. He refilled the rest of the vacant vials, a few times turning to look at the Lonely girl who passively explored the place. They met eyes once, and he hoped to reassure her with a harmless thumbs-up… to no avail. Like with Rassus, Kallias gave up trying soon after, instead focusing on getting the steambike refueled, which took no less than five minutes. When all the housekeeping was complete, Kallias stretched and smirked, eyes darting to and fro, attempting to locate his first outlet of observation.
While nothing immediately sprang into his view, Kallias decided to wander. One hand resting on the hilt of the antique sword, the other on his tool back on his belt, he strolled leisurely and curiously through the oasis. He came across a few suspicious-looking stones, pearly and grey in color, so he put those in his pocket to take a better look at later. He didn’t want to waste too much time here, though he didn’t want to waste the experience either. Though, he did find it strangely nagging – in the back of his mind – that he’d never encountered this place… he’d wandered a good expanse of the desert, both known and unknown, and he’d never been to an oasis quite like this one…
He shrugged it off. He began to hum, adding a certain rhythm to his step. Casually Kallias would bend over and get a closer look at something, or prod something with his finger or the tip of his sword; but the archaeological expedition became less and less of that as time dragged on. Not much time passed, though, before I ran across a grove of rather odd trees, a sort of moss hanging from its branches. It appeared spongy almost. Kallias’s brow lifted at this discovery, and without much thought, he delved deeper into the grove, dodging the curtains hanging from the otherwise skeletal branches.
Kallias wasn’t afraid to admit that where he found himself now was a tad eerie. There was no breeze this far inside the trees, and the mossy drapes hung limply and thickly around him. Intrigued, he even lifted up his goggles to get a more accurate look of the things around him. Gradually unsheathing his sword, Kallias gently brought the sharp tip of it to the nearest patch of moss, only to be interrupted by a shrill, horrified scream.
The scream was muffled by a short distance, and Kallias quickly aligned his body to face the direction from whence it came. In doing so, however, he brushed up against one of the curtains. Needless to say, it didn’t want to let go. Kallias glanced to his bare shoulder where the “moss” now clung to his skin, and even when he pulled and jerked, it went along with him, elastic and sticky. To make matters worse, the ground beneath him began to tremble. And not just vibrate, but quake. Kallias had the mind to grab onto the moss for balance, but quickly realized that was a bad idea. The concept of balancing quickly disappeared, though, when the ground literally lifted up from beneath him, causing Kallias to fall on his bottom. The sky grew closer. He could hear the ripping of earth and the cascading of sand.
Getting to his feet as quickly and as steadily as he could, Kallias haphazardly dodged the now-threatening moss hanging all around him. He used his sword whenever possible to cut off whatever managed to snag his body. That worked for the first few times, but even the moss began to stick to the blade, dulling it instantly. Kallias wanted to yell for the Lonely girl, whose screams could still be heard even over the earthquake, but, of course, he didn’t know her name. He had just pulled down his mask to yell the word “girl” out of desperation when he nearly ran off the edge. The edge of what?
After scrambling back to ensure his safety, Kallias peeked over and saw the real ground below. From side to side he looked, noticing those pillars from before now arranged around the oasis like… legs. With wide eyes he witnessed the legs move in unison, taking steps forward and back, rocking the oasis where Kallias knelt. But soon the rocking became more severe. It was as if whatever this was, it was shaking the sand from its back. This, of course, wasn’t ideal for Kallias, who was already dangerously close to the edge. With a sudden jolt, Kallias was thrown forward, saved only by the remaining strands of “moss” on his body. It was a task pulling himself up, but when he did finally, he made it his priority to find the girl, whose screams became more and more devastated.
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Post by Del on Feb 6, 2010 18:46:28 GMT -8
Parisa :: Trick Oasis
Only moments after the great eyes of the oasis has opened had the ground begun to shift and rise. The process was violent, flinging the lonely woman to the ground as she continued to scream and hang on for dear life. In the chaos, Parisa saw the pillars of the oasis suddenly shift downwards and prop the land itself up. Then there came a great roar, ghastly and terrifying. The now hovering land shook and from the sand beneath eyes arose the head of a great spider; this area, unfortunately, was were Parisa was located.
She was flung forward, sailing in the air, near the edge of the spiders head. Just before she slid off, she grabbed a chunk of the spider's thick hair. Looking up, she realized she was hanging in between two of the large, black eyes; as she felt the numerous eyes focusing on her she felt something brush her feet.
Knowing she would greatly regret it, Parisa looked down; below her a whirlwind of jowls, fangs, and legs greeted her. Working furiously, the legs Parisa had once mistaken for pillars were carrying the giant spider at breakneck speeds through the desert; a miniature sandstorm brewed beneath as it raced forward. Appendages used by the spider to draw prey in closer its mouth reached upwards in an attempt to grasp her and pull her into its jagged mouth. As she managed to dodge the barrage of sweeps by the spider, Parisa's screams became more and more desperate. When the spider realized its reach was not great enough, it gave its head a mighty shake in order to knock her down. Her hands slipped and she could feel the sickening moment of suspension in her stomach.
Survival instincts taking over, Parisa attempted to call forth the power of flight. Light washed over her body and radiated from her pores as she felt her body rise a few inches. Soon, however, she felt a familiar black hand grip her mind once again. Eyes widening as she fell backwards, Parisa saw once again the tutored faces of her lonely victims; they flashed before her eyes in rapid succession. In a blinding flash, the light disappeared.
Parisa fell.
She tumbled downwards, meters and meters, before her desperate hands managed to latch onto something. Now, she hung just in between the two large, tree sized jowls of the spider. Dangling hundreds of meters above the ground, Parisa stared into the salivating jaws of the spider. She was unable to sceam. There was no hope. She was dead. In moments, the beast would grasp her with its appendages and feed her into its mouth. There was no escaping this fate...
And yet, miraculously, she remained alive. The spider shrieked, showering her in its saliva, yet nothing past that occurred. The spider had been so intent on eating her only moments ago... She looked up and found her answer. When her attempt to fly away had failed, the flash of light that followed had blinded the spider; its eyes were now glazed over and confused. It seemed her life would not end just yet. Now, adrenaline flooded her body and Parisa pulled herself up the face of the spider by using its hair as her hold.
Five meters!
Four meters!
Three, two, one!
Two feet!
Just as she was nearing the glorious end of her trek upwards, Parisa felt something brush her foot; she knew what it was before she looked. Parisa screamed as one of the spiders arms grabbed her and attempted to drag her back down; the spider had regained its sight.
Desperately, Parisa tried to shake her leg free, yet the adrenaline which had brought her this far was not enough to save her this time. Slowly, Parisa felt the long and thick hairs slip through her fingers.
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Post by Gabby on Mar 15, 2010 12:22:32 GMT -8
[ Kallias – Desert Oasis, en route to Baris ]
Kallias always beat himself up over his lack of timing; but in this one, singular moment, luck seemed to be on his side. If he hadn’t been wearing a glove, the poor Lonely girl’s sweating and trembling hand might have been lost to him.
They both dangled now over the side of the gargantuan monster, the only thing keeping them attached Kallias’s old sword. It was impaled into the creature’s hide, bending against Kallias’s and the girl’s collective weight, along with the thrashes and jerks the spider dished their way. Managing to gain some sort of grip with his feet, he struggled to lift the girl to his shoulders with only one arm. Regardless of her light frame, gravity and other external obstacles made the process that much more difficult. He however got it so that she could wrap his arms around his neck, legs desperately wrapping around his waist.
No time was wasted. Kallias took a deep breath. With all the strength his legs could muster, he propelled himself – with help from his blade – upwards, traveling a few good feet before slipping. Though the fall was harsh, nearly knocking the wind out of him completely, Kallias snagged some more of the beast’s bristly hair, and it was then he knew all that time lugging around the drill paid off. He might’ve been mistaken for a primate as he scaled and swung, adrenaline making his muscles seldom tire. Before they both knew it, “level ground” was in sight. Kallias gestured for the Lonely girl to climb up him to the flat. She obeyed, offering her hand to him and pulling him up. He figured then he could take a short break, but when the monster rocked once more, he nearly fell back off. The girl caught his shirt in time, though, and soon the two were sprinting hand-in-hand to the back end of the beast.
Kallias led the way. He knew their only chance would be to get back to the bike. Using his free arm to slice at the suspicious branches, mosses, and whatever else stood in their way, he navigated the tumultuous, rugged territory with a decent amount of skill. He was used to complicated terrain. He’d traversed the deserts, mountains, hills, cliffs, ruins, riverbeds, and nearly anything else available on this wasteland of a planet.
They fell on multiple occasions, resulting in their fair share of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. But with sheer terror fueling their resolve, they eventually made it to their destination. And since Kallias pretty much made this all up as they went along, he gawked down the steep fall from the creature’s back to the ground and froze. His thoughts raced. They couldn’t just jump; they needed a gradual way down to prevent their bodies from, well, splintering into many, tiny pieces. The spider’s abdomen luckily dipped down lower than the rest of its body. And if he knew anything about spiders, this one should have a web-producing spinneret towards the tip. He had a feeling, though, that his idea wouldn’t be as he imagined it.
He had little more time to think on it, because the giant spider did something unexpected. The roar of upturned earth filled the air, the creature’s body diving forward, spewing sand on either side of it at an incredible pace. Kallias only had to look back once to realize it was burrowing. This was both good and bad news. The two of them both tumbled back violently at the thing’s abdomen rose into the sky. Although Kallias could confirm that at least one rib had been fractured, the tree that broke his fall gave him enough leeway to straddle it desperately, almost like a buoy. Dragging the girl up in front of him, he urged her forward. Each of them crawled and climbed, trying to beat a race against a sinking ship. The sandy abyss encroached on them, each “tree” and “monolith” eventually consumed by it. At this point, both of them ran low on emergency energy. Muscles and bones ached. Lungs struggled to deliver enough air to them. Kallias especially struggled, his chest aching not only from his ribs but from his laborious breathing. He began to feel light-headed, things getting blurry.
He hung back, trying to regain his breath. He knew he couldn’t sacrifice the time, couldn’t waste it; but he couldn’t help it. Exhaustion crept up on him just like the sand. Oblivious, the girl continued to climb with her own difficulties. He knew she still had a ways to go… and he realized then they’d both be submerged in sand regardless of how fast they scaled the beast’s behind.
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