Egress Unveiled Event: The Brutes
Draw or write your Reosean partaking in a free-for-all trial of combat. Each contestant is tasked with gathering golden rocks, you may be a warrior to fight tooth and nail for your prizes, or maybe you sneakily take a few from another. The winner will be decided by who has the most golden rocks at the end of the timer.
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Just here for the CP:
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3092 Words
By FourDayz and Renya06
"I- humm..." he hesitated. Should he? She did show herself first, and he'd undoubtedly screamed her name loud enough earlier. The darkness seemed to bore through him, but he plowed on, hoping the aforementioned chaser's interest in him would outweigh his transgression, "Her name's Kinosa. I can't tell you where she is, but know that she means you no harm."
Probably.
He ignored the tiny rumble beneath his paws and turned to the still-cautious male, vowing to achieve at least one proper introduction today. "Nice to meet you, Mendras. I assume you'll be joining us on our quest? We're looking for Ethel's pups and the being causing those wintry scenes."
Mendras cast a glance behind him when. Aros mentioned her “pups”. Ethel rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “I had heard of random snow squalls on the mainland. It makes sense someone would be causing it. The more of us here the better.”
“Well we won’t either of our quarries out here.” Ethel motioned to the tunnel mouth entrance marked with lights. “Shall we?”
She lead the way inside with Mendras close behind her. Naros followed up and although the magicborn chaser called Kinosa couldn’t be seen, Ethel was sure she was nearby.
They entered a cavern with multiple gaps in the wall leading to other tunnels. Only a few were marked with lights. Two creatures on either side of the biggest entrance. They glared at the group as they passed. One even hissed.
“Those are The Forgotten,” Ethel explained keeping her voice low. “They were open to visitors. I heard tell of two vayrons almost starting a war between them and another clan. Now they won’t allow anyone through their territory.
“So, we’ll be taking the long way around.”
“Around to where?” Mendras asked.
“To The Brutes, a more welcoming clan.”
Ethel led them through cavern after cavern, tunnel after twisting tunnel. The path led further underground and the more they travelled, the more Mendras was starting to feel the weight of the earth above his head. If Ethel felt the same, she showed nary a hint on her face or in her posture. Naros wouldn’t let five minutes pass without remarking on their surroundings or asking a question. It seemed the puller’s thought never slowed down. And their mysterious fourth party member, still had yet to show her face to him.
“We must have been walking for almost an hour.” Mendras cut in before Naros had a chance to start another conversation by himself. “How far are we travelling?”
Ethel shrugged. “I haven’t been there myself.” It was then that the group started hearing an assortment of voices echoing towards them. “But if I had to guess, I’d say we’re very close.”
The voices grew louder and so too did the light. They passed from the tunnel to a large, mostly flat cavern. Rambunctious haedians cheered, booed, and laughed heartily near the centre of the cavern.
“A festival?” Mendras said, momentarily forgetting how far underground they were. He glanced back at Naros, hoping to look a bit more friendlier than their initial meeting. “Looks like a good a place as any to start, eh?”
"It sure is!" Naros answered as he trotted ahead, cat-like tail adopting a decidedly canine behavior as it wagged in excitement at the thought of finally meeting those mysterious headians.
"Come on, come on, let's get closer!" he said, glancing back at his companions before promptly getting tangled in his own paws and face-planting with an 'Omph'. He slid several feet forward with his momentum, putting him right at the circle's edge. Wings flapped about as many headians tried to keep their balance as they avoided being rammed into.
'Elegant as always, Whirl.' His shadow whispered, unseen smile leaking through her voice. "Oh shush, you." He breathed back, secretly delighted by the knowledge that she was still here, even if it was only to take pleasure in his misery. Pride long gone from having spent half his life with his face in the dirt, he got up with a bashful smile, "I'm fine!"
As he did, a joyful shout rang near them. "Ahah! Those are mine now!" Said a bulky haedian that easily towered over Naros, their clawed hands barely managing to hold onto a pile of what appeared to be gold nuggets.
He gaped at the creature, taking his first good look at them—so similar yet so different from what he was used to. *'They're really here,' Kinosa said, still blended into the darkness beneath him. Her voice held a never-before-heard sense of wonder, and he would bet she hadn't meant to say anything out loud.
There was some cheering and angry shouts from the crowd. The bulky haedian carefully arranged her golden stones, then looked down at Naros.
"Oi, Topsider! If you're gonna compete, get in the circle already!" She grabbed Naros's tail and easily pulled him into the circle. "We ain't waitin' all day for you to pick your nose off the floor. Ref! Get 'im some rocks!"
Mendras rushed forward to cut in. "Now, hold on a minute! I don't think he meant to enter your, uh..." Mendras looked around. Another haedian across from them was slinking off into the crowd with a large frown on his face. "Is this a competition?"
"Yeah. You joining too? Ref!" The bulky haedian turned to another, who was just setting up a pile of gold stones. He looked up in annoyance. "Another set for the skinny one here!"
Mendras could hear Ethel giggling behind him. "Wait, I'm not joining either!"
"Zarod, come on I was next!" Another haedian emerged from the crowd.
"You'll get your turn Rachet!" Zarod said and waved her paw dismissively. She leaned down and brought her face close to the three vayrons and the unusually dark shadow. "I wanna test these topsiders first. Hope you got more spunk than the last few."
Naros looked nervously at the brawl, "Humm, yes, of course?" He was still trying to grasp what was happening when the headian -the Ref?- came back and silently thrusted him a pawful of gold. He did the same with Mendras, before slicking back to his perch to watch the match.
The second they were handed the shiny nuggets, eyes turned to them.
They were targets now.
Zarod gave a hearty laugh as she attempted to shove Naros aside. He squeaked as he lost his balance, and most of his spoils went sailing every which way. He managed to keep hold of a few, and by the suspicious lack of clatter by his paws, he figured someone else had also managed to nab a few for her collection. That girl wasn't a chaser; she was a magpie, and shiny things would always be her weakness.
Clutching his remaining gold, he maneuvered himself out of the way and lost sight of Mendras in the crowd after watching the other vay avoid Zarod's follow-up shove with more agility than he did. Naros' golden markings meant his attempt at being inconspicuous and observing the situation from afar was bound to fail.
And fail it did.
Wings spread as headians set their sights on the puller. The second he was out of Zarod's reach, they launched themselves at him. As luck would have it, they ended up getting tangled in the process, and crashed unceremoniously to the ground. Naros remained safe and sound beside the angry, screeching pile of limbs. He blinked owlishly at the weird turn of events while more dropped nuggets disappeared in the shadows.
"That boy is... something." Mendras uttered in awe after watching Naros escape being crushed by the pile of haedians. He was ushering Ethel along, trying to find somewhere safe in this chaotic ring, though that was looking less and less likely the further they moved into the mess. He hoped he could at least count on a few of them taking themselves out after that dog pile Naros was somehow responsible for.
There was a muffled shout from Ethel, who was carrying both of their golden stones. A haedian rose up in front of them, wings flared. Mendras hopped over Ethel's head and threw himself at the haedian. The two tumbled to the ground.
"Ethel, go! I'll be behind you!" Mendras shouted.
He watched her hesitate, then drop their load and run back to help him. Three haedians swooped in and scrambled for the unguarded rocks.
With two against one and no rocks to fight for, the haedian hissed and ran off. Mendras pressed himself against Ethel's side, preparing to defend her against any other attackers.
"You should have ran! Now we have to start from scratch." He said.
"I would have been tackled. They have no mercy for the crippled. Besides, you wouldn't leave me even if I ordered you to." She shrugged and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Well we should find somewhere to defend ourselves then," Mendras said, then began herding her off somewhere to the edge of the arena.