Escaping The Empire - The Nonhuman Chronicles

Kerri had to wonder the same thing. She wasn't much bigger than Taila, but she still debated the odds of how easily Ariel would be able to carry her around for. Maybe for a bit, but...the wolf shook her head. "Mountains...slipping and falling would be bad. Might just make more people tired that way..."

Kerri's eyes slowly started to widen, a sudden spark of inspiration just coming through her brain now, taking a look at the Minotaur who had been tagging along. "Bull is strong, right? He can carry a bit. Alternate." This felt like a lot of work to Kerri for someone who wasn't able to contribute much, but much to her surprise none of them had suggested just leaving Taila behind. Kerri had to mentally question why she was the only who realized it would be much easier without the faun slowing things down...but....but what? Kerri couldn't think of any particular reason to keep her around...still...all she did was just stare at Talia looking annoyed, keeping her thoughts to herself.

 

Minotaur hooves were best suited on grasslands, fields, meadows and other relatively flat surfaces. Rocky paths and mountains were not ideal, but Axel made due; thus when the faun stopped and complained about needing time to rest Axel was happy. He could go on for a bit longer, but the more uneven the terrain got the more difficult of a time he would have, so he was glad for the brief reprieve.

The wolf girl, Kerri, was talking all kinds of sense to the hulking minotaur, and he took note to keep his eyes open for loose boulders that he could muscle to the path behind them. But as the group continued to discuss how best to have Talia keep up, Axel simply walked over to her and picked her up, intent on carrying her until they needed to stop.

"Keep move." He snorted and made to move further along the increasingly difficult path.

 

Wilhelmina nods at the faun. "Your choice. I've heard that it's quite delectable." She heads to the front. "I'm ready to help shift the rocks when necessary."

 

Taking a step back, Kerri chose to let them to get to work while choosing not to bother with it herself. She was strong for her size, but throwing rocks was probably better left to giant monsters or magic users. Besides, she saw it as a way to give them something to do as she began to make the climb ahead, slowly, deciding to scope out an easier path for the hooved followers so they could cross before the impending avalanche.

 

"H-Hey!" Talia yelps in surprise at suddenly being grasped and lifted up onto Axel's shoulders. You find the girl surprisingly light for her size and she takes a few moments to squirm and wriggle on your shoulders before she settles with straddling your thick neck. Her legs hang down over your chest. She looks around a bit awkwardly. "Is this fine? I'm not too heavy or anything?"

Finding a proper boulder to cover the path turns out to be more difficult than one would expect. Larger boulders proved too heavy to move even with a concentrated effort or threatened to cause a rockslide when shifted and smaller boulders weren't enough to cut the path off completely. Thus it became pretty clear that the best that could be done was to just make the path as difficult to traverse as possible behind you.

The path that they took proved not difficult to track. the Minotaur's prints, in particular, were extremely easy to follow even after you arrived at the rocky parts of the mountainside and as you begin to traverse upwards you hear a girly yelp echo down the mountainside.

Taking a lookup, you can see several figures about a third of the way up the mountain and a bit to your north. They're just barely visible and look like they're about to enter onto the northern face of the mountain. It appears as if they're taking a brief breather.

 

Kerri saw the attempts of their group struggle. This looked hard. But a thought occurred to her, approaching Ariel and the vampire, shaking her head. “Not gonna work...can you make ice instead?”

 

Gerid's eyes narrow as he spots the group. That had to be them, but their overall status was unclear. He had to get closer.

Keeping his distance and to the shadows, Gerid looked around for something he could use for cover that was at least close enough that he could get a good headcount and possibly listen in on whatever they might be planning as well.

 

Ariel gave the beast girl a questioning look. “What do you mean by 'make ice'? I know a few ice spells, even if that is not my specialty. Maybe one of them can do what you have in mind...”

 

"Can't block the path...so freeze over the tough parts. Night fall comes...not a good combination for anyone who wants to climb...also if you can make ice...we can melt ice..extract water. Not enough for everyone at this rate." She pointed to the flask she had handed the faun, aware that if they couldn't do something to properly sustain themselves, the five were probably going to be leaving the mountain as four.

 

“Well, I can't create water from nothing – that is a little beyond my current skill. But as long as there's enough water in the area it should be fine. Since we are not in a desert or another such very dry area I should have no trouble freezing parts of the path – the ice should last at least until morning, possibly longer, depending on how cold it will be.” Ariel explained. “And yes, it should be possible to melt ice for water.”

The angel stopped talking and examined the path, trying to find the best spots where she could freeze the ground to hinder any pursuit.

 

The group of non-humans were still a few thousand feet up the path, but a few large rock formations lead to decent enough cover to start the approach. Unfortunately you get stuck hiding behind one of these large boulders when one of the members of the party begins to backtrack to do something farther down the trail. You can't tell exactly what's happening from this distance, but the faint glow of magic from her hands becomes apparent as she kneels down to do something to the path.

You find your way back the trail a short way and manage to freeze sections of the path that would make it difficult to traverse. With your level of magic, you wouldn't be able to turn the path into a frosty winter wonderland, but such gravitas is unnecessisary as all that really needs done is the strategic use of Black Ice. A thin layer of ice that's perfectly slick, but simply looks wet to the naked eye.

 

Ariel examined the results of her spell to make sure everything was as she wanted and nodded to herself, satisfied. Then she made her way back to the rest of the group.

“It is done,” she announced once she had rejoined them “anyone who tries following us up the path better have wings, or enjoy slipping and falling down again and again.” she made a brief pause and looked at each one of the other ex-prisoners. “We should probably go, unless there's anything else we need to do first?”

 

Kerri gave a nod of assent, still setting the pace and advancing for a few feet, listening to the sounds of wildlife and wind blowing in her ears, much to her annoyance. She kept walking ahead, trying to keep a somewhat more mindful pace for other people, but really more or less just getting bored. As savage as she was, even the wolf still had moments where she felt like making conversation with other people. As rare as they were. Besides there was a fairly important question.

"Prisoners...because why?" It was only in three words, but carried an actual point. The empire did have a grudge against non humans, but that didn't mean the captured party was by any means innocent. Letting one of her claws out as she stared at it, the light coming down from the sun starting to set captured it well. The long sharp nail that could qualify as a weapon in it's own right. Not that they've seen her actually use it on living things, but memories came flooding back into Kerri's mind.

"Did all my stuff. Took lot's of stuff and beat people up. Bandit things, they said....seven of those. Got caught...ran away. Got caught again....sold to a wizard school for a bit. That was fun...then it got boring. So...quit that. Ran again...stole more things...caught again...sold...bit that guy's faces....caught again...ummm...you get the idea."

 

Once the party member that had backtracked returned to the group, Gerid slowly tried to find a way to circle around the area the unknown person had been pointing their hands at. He was torn between investigating whatever trap had been set so he could leave a warning behind and just letting the others eventual attempt to follow end with them stumbling into it. The latter won out because he could justify he had no time to do so when he was busy keeping the targets in sight.

 

Axel shook his head as gently as he could with the faun resting on his shoulders. "No." He replied simply and then moved to catch up to the others.

The pace was slower, which he was grateful for but said nothing and eventually, the wolf girl asked about their histories. The minotaur gave a huff and tried to keep up.

"Fight war. Lose. Run and cuh-caugh-t."

 

Talia frowned and leaned against Axel's head. "I ah...was a bard in the Elven city of Elel Serin when it fell. Obviously I was captured and held prisoner for awhile until being sent away in the caravan where we all were. I'd rather not talk about what happened during that time..." The girl's cheeks flushed a little and she looked away as your little party scales the mountainside. However, it's not too much longer before it gets too dark for everyone to traverse safely and you have to find a location to hole up for the night. You end up finding a somewhat spacious area underneath an enormous rock to provide some "safety" away from the edges of the mountainside. It's not much and Axel takes up a lot of space, but it's probably manageable for the night.

Unfortunately, the best path to take to keep them in sight was the most direct path and barring that, you have to work around with an extra-long detour that makes losing sight of them inevitable. However, there's only really one way for them to go at this point and as the sun sets it's likely that they'll be hunkering down somewhere for the night.

 

Gerid clicked his teeth lightly in annoyance and decided to let the group get a little further ahead and out of direct sight. Since there was clearly only one path they could take, it was probably better to find a spot to hunker down for a few hours and take a brief nap. He did not need as much sleep as most humans did and was used to taking the late night watch at times, so he considered waiting to see what the situation was when the midnight hour came and if he had any chance of approaching them in the dark.

 

Letting out a loud yawn, Kerri's arms going up above her head she stared at the possible place to hold up taking a look at Ariel...then noticing they were one member missing. The vampire must have figured the odds of survival were better on her own...or possibly just fell off the mountain. Whatever the reason, Kerri was too tired to think of it. Not really from the journey. She could probably have ran the distance already if it weren't for waiting for other people. And that was the problem. This much social interaction with people exhausted her mentally. Taking a look at the angel, she made some vague gesture.

"Hey, do magic stuff and make it look different. Tired. Getting cranky. Bad for everyone here."

 

As they came to their resting place, Axel gently lifted Talia off of his shoulders and set her down. While his hooves were somewhat sore, he wasn't physically tired and looking back down the path he figured that if anyone was following, someone in their group had better stay awake and alert. He also rationalized that if he got tired he could always wake someone else to switch shifts.

"Me stay up." He said and settled in near the back of the path, trying to take up as little space as possible.

 

Ariel tried not to let the memories of what had happened bother her as she attempted to answer the question. “In my case I think it's just because they could capture someone as exotic as me. I was living rather isolated and trying not to cause trouble for other people, but... well, to cut a long story short, among the people living with me was a certain elf girl. Her mother was not happy that the arranged marriage she had worked so hard on fell apart because of me, so when Saveneas was invaded she betrayed me to the humans. They paid her back by betraying her in turn and killing her, so I'd say the old hag got what she deserved. I'll leave it at that for now.”

“If by 'make it look different' you are asking me to create an illusion to hide us, I'll have to decline. That sort of thing is difficult and can backfire if someone who knows the area is sent after us – such a person is likely to notice any changes I make. But there is something else I can do. I can use my mastery over darkness and shadows to hide us, so that from a distance we'll seem like a bunch of shadows, nothing more. The greater the distance – the greater the spell's effect. Enemies that get close will likely manage to see through it, but hopefully not before we have seen them.” Ariel explained and immediately started casting the spell. It wasn't particularly difficult, especially at night – at least not for someone with her skills – but rather slow, as she had to cover not just herself, but the other ex-prisoners as well.

(OOC: Sorry this took so long – I knew what I wanted to write, but I could not find the right words.)