There was nothing else to do but go forward with the more extreme measures. "Rope out!" he bellowed, turning towards the men. This was an unusual order, but sometimes an effective one where people were likely to disappear. This would both cut down on the runaways and those who would be taken otherwise. Most of the time. The ones who were newer to the force, that had not heard it given in their lives, hesitantly brought out their short pieces of it that were necessary on the battlefield for traps and tricks to escape the enemy. Those who were older began to tie their legnths onto their belts, securing them tightly. Liam did not do so, nor did the rest of the cavalry- their maneuverability would be impeded if they were to do such a thing. However, the older soldiers proceeded to whisper instructions to their companions and the warriors that did not know what they were doing, and within minutes, squadrons had been tied together for their own safety. It was harder to run off when the fumbling to untie the things would attract so much attention, and taking four men was harder than one, if the beasties decided that they wanted more snacks.
It was somwehat awkward and embarassing for the men who were in this, but at the same time Liam could see some relief on their faces. The safety that this gave- or at least the illusion of it- was something that would hearten them when worse things came. Liam wasn't even going to say 'if', at this point, it was 'when'. He turned to the front, and set off, as the whole squadron had been stopped while this had occured. It was not something to do lightly, since even the foot soldiers would be impeded by such a maneuver, but it was the best he had at this moment. The leaves of the trees rutled around them, sending little drifts of ash over them, and sounding as dead as normal ones in the autumn. The dead sound, as mummified whispers of ancestors, sent shivers up the spines of the most hardened. This was not a place to tresspass in. This was not a place to stay. Their paces quickened. There was a bend in the path ahead, and beyond it... the leaders of the soldiers' march called out in startled voices to eachother. Their own mounts halted, and some began to panic and buck, throwing ther riders.
Chaos began to reign, almost as badly as the sudden downpour that beset the large group. Cries were made at the greenish liquid that splattered on clothes and got in eyes. It was unpleasant, with a vague stinging sensation to accompany the mess that it was making. Liam had to call out loudly for his orders to be heard, to keep the men from panicking and bolting as the horses were tempted to do. Did, as he watched one dash off into the grey wilderness, riderless. As it was, two groups had fallen into the muddying ground, some of ther members attempting to flee the strange and horrendous rain. Liam shuddered beneath it. They had to find shelter. "Into the trees! Into hollows! Be in sight of all others, do not go out of sight of everyone, and never untie your ropes! It will mean your death!"
Some of the squads happily obeyesd dashing under the trees and some overgrowth that made some dry places to hide away and watch the others take cover. Liam was surrounded by his men and led to one. They stood surrounding him trying to ensure that he would not be overtaken by the miserable downpour that was covering everything in slime. That was what it felt like- pond scum, moss from the rocks... He rubbed it bentween his fingers and sniffed it, examining the texture and the scent. He was afraid to taste it, though. As it was the skin that it touched- virtaully all of him that was uncovered, and even some of it that it has soaked into- was tingling unpleasantly, like a tickle that had gone on for too long or a brush that was too hard. He shuddered lightly and wiped his hand. When he looked at where it had been on him, his skin was slightly paler than it should have been, and wrinkled to boot. What on earth was this stuff?
Some cried were going out among the men, some who had gotten it in their eyes, or had dared to taste it and were finding it terribly disagreeable with their insides. He wanted to help, but as it was, it was safer to remain beneath the slight cover that the trees gave. From his vantage point, there were five squadrons visible. Liam gave more orders for the numbers to be counted off. Within minutes he had a count back- all were present and accounted for, minus one horse, which was no small relief given the circumstances. Now all that was left to do was wait for the rain to end. The ones who were injured by it would have to wait until then- he wasn't going to risk their healer in this, not when they didn't know what it was or what it would do.
-----
You knows, Rotheryn isn't as safe as thems up power claims it to be. You young 'uns, you'd best be believin' that there's still the Wild Ones... thems Others... that still roam the wilds. We's rarely trespasses on their territory, we's stay in ours own borders, but that doesn't mean that theys aren't out there, watchin' for a chance to get yous. They're tricky like that. Especially afters the King and thems Advisors made the Creeds. Yous all know, the Creeds that- Kuon, sit down and listen!- made the halfies outlaws (why we's all can't rise up through marriage any more) and also made us enemies of them Others. Eh? No, Grier, I don't remembers what exactly it was, but... I'm not tellin tales, you all... Eh! Maire, another ale!
- Lesson from a Rotheryn elder (human) at a local tavern
Nia could smell the thick, rich loam of the forest. It was both relaxing and made her more nervous, as it was tinged with something sour and rotten. Had some fruit of last year gone uneaten and was spoiling? But these trees were strange. They looked like they didn't give any fruit, or blossoms, or anything for that matter, except for moss. Perhaps that moss was what the trees blossomed with. Even so, it wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to witness. They were covered from canopy to root in thick layers, some adhering to the bark of the trees, others draping over as blankets did people. Some you couldn't see for the veil of greenery that lay over them, as if it were some large room that the tree had claimed for itself, and was determined that no one should approach or steal it from it. It was astonishing to see it, and menacing, since it always felt as though there were something behind the walls, waiting, watching, hoping for a chance to reveal itself, or perhaps take them and hide them away. Never to be seen again, of course.
It was all rather frightening. her heart skittered all over the place, the only comfort she had the quiet company of Kirn, who spoke not to her, and didn't acknowledge anything other than what was going on around them. It was both a relief and an irritating thing, since nothing was happening around them. Nothing that she could sense, at least, but with her senses she guessed that he was picking up on far more than her. That was not a relief. If he could sense it enough to be on guard, that meant there was something sinister. Nia's fingers rubbed together, feeling the scratches that those cruel little sprites had given her. The blood had dried and hardened into scabs fairly quickly, thanks to her elven blood. If only some other of the inheritance of that side were more useful!
Kirn stopped, listening. Nia followed his example, hearing only a soft whistle of the wind through the leaves and branches. It wasn't anything different from what they had been hearing for the last hour, after the Greenies had quit following (though she suspected she still saw them in the trees, their brick-like countenances and loamish hair streaking by at the edge of her sight. The wind actually whistled here. Something about the wood, the trees, made it seem as though a tune were being sung just a bit ahead when the wind was going. It had been going almost this entire time, however, which had put her nerves more and more on edge as time had gone on. It was tuneless and wandered randomly around them, which made it far more frightening than when they had been followed by the Greenies. At least, in her opinion. Those, she knew where they had been and what they were about, but this nothing that seemed to live around them was something else entirely.
Her eyes closed. Nia heard.... nothing but the wind, except the tune seemed a little richer than before. Just as silly and pointless, but there were more notes that went into it. She shook her head and looked at Kirn, waiting for him to say or do... something. She was not about to get herself in trouble over this. What had got him riled up, anyway?
His head twitched slightly, attempting to follow the sounds. Eyes flickered quickly beneath his eyelids, as if he were reading some impossibly fast-unraveling scroll. Her breath caught as she watched him, the pale violet statue that he had become in that moment. It was spoiled in the next as his hand tightened on hers. "This way!" Kirn hissed to her, pulling her along. She stumbled for a moment, unsure of what he was doing and why he was in such a rush. It had to be because they were in danger, and the adrenaline that had worn off from the near-constant worry surged back. She couldn't run as quickly as he could, but she was giving it her all. THey slipped off the path and into the trees. Screetches filled the air behind them, as if a hundred birds were attacking. Except they sounded like birds that thirsted for the blood of someone that had disturbed their nest.
"Greenies? How did you-" She was cutt off with a glare from him, and decided to save her breath for the sudden excercize. The sounds was approaching them. Their run was slowed by the thickening of the loam, soft earth that she nearly sank into up to her ankles. In places it crunched unpleasantly, in others it stung like briars, but she tried to keep up. The trees were creaking and groaning as they passed, as if to warn the creatures that they wer epassing by. Perhaps they were warning them, Nia corrected herself, feeling the soft brush of spider's webs and moss over various parts of her body. At some points it even seemes as though they reached out to them to get them on purpose, but such whispy and etherial things would not hold them back for long. It was the ground and the forest itself that would, given half a chance. She wanted to shudder at the thought of it, since by now it was apparent that the stuff they ran on was no normal soil. It squished once, beneath her toes, and Nia didn't have the courage to look down. Whatever it was could wait until later, when she had the time to scream and fret about such things.
As it was.... She tripped over something that hadn't disintegrated entirely, that clutched about her ankle and was most definitely going to bruise later. She went down, her robes accumulating dirt and turning them a dusty brown as she lifted herself back him. Kirn had dropped her hand in the sudden fall, unwilling to go down with her. His eyes darted towards where the screetches were fast aproaching. It was too late to change course, they were going to die! Nia reached out for his hand, backing away as she listened to the calls and cries of their little pursuers. Beings no bigger than her hand, that snarled and spat sap, that would eat them from the insides out... It turned her stomach. Her back pressed against a wall of moss, pressed into it and through it. She was uncaring of what lay behind as she pulled Kirn with her. Perhaps it would grant a momentary reprieve from the gruesome death. Perhaps... perhaps... she glanced up at the branches that spread above them, the moss hanging over like a blanket. The cries and shrieks had muffled and gained a confused tone, and it was no wonder- the moss had sealed up behind them.
Kirn looked as bewildered as she felt, and must have looked too. This was unexpected! A smile reached her lips as she felt a sparkle of hope ignite in her breast. Her moved backwards, taking in the tree, seeing it reach above her as she neared the trunk and then... feeling darkness engulf her. There was no sound oher than her own hearbeat and breathing.
The shock of this after the near escape overwhelmed her, and Nia passed out, wondering if she would wake up at all.
Kirn turned towards Nia as she kept backing up, seemingly in a trance. Some sort of euphoria, perhaps, at work? She couldn't make a sound, it was too dangerous, and if she kept up lie this... he started for her, seeing that she was going to hit her head on the tree. Her back slipped against it, and into it, and she just kept going, swallowed in an instant. Kirn could hardly believe his eyes. He paused for a moment, hoping it was just his imagination. A hallucination. He was not so lucky. With a shout- one that renewed the furious calls nearby, he ran for where she had disappeared... and also vanished into the darkness that had taken Nia.
It was no small shock to have that darkness, that emptiness, engulf him. If he had not known that this was no dream, he would have thought himself either asleep or dead. Had he not felt the weight of his weapons upon him and the clear memory of what had happened before, he would have imagined himself to be insane or perhaps have gone blind, Though there was no guarantee of the latter, was there? It nearly made him chuckle. The ways of the creature forests were strange and filled with dangers untold, magics that were as old as time. It was no wonder he should happen to stumble into one of them at some point- he just wished that he was going to live the encounter. He could feel nothing around him, and even as he groped with his hands, felt no surface beneath his feet and no solid thing to give him an idea of where he was. All he could do was fold his hands into themselves and wait. Wait for what, he didn't know, but what else were his choices? It made him shudder to think that he had to stay like this for an unknown period of time.
But wait he did, unsure of whether his ees were open or closed, and wondering if he would see Nia- or anything else- ever again.
He must have fallen asleep at some point, for it was with a yawn that he opened his eyes to light. It stung his eyes for a moment, and he had to turn away from the source. It was wak, flickering unsteadily, and barely enough to illuminate three feet around it. The darkness that he turned to seemed so much more welcoming after the time he had spent in it. How long that had been, he didn't know, but that was unimportant at the moment. After a few seconds, when his eyes had adjusted to it, he slowly let his gaze find the source. It was a hanging lamp of some sort, and as Kirn approached, he found it to be filled with a number of twinklebugs. They shone like weak stars in the night, but were decently bright enough that they could be used for such things if it was so desired. It wasn't often, though, except in the most desperate of circumstances, as they died easily and dimmed even sooner than that. He grasped it from the hook in the ceiling that it dangled from.
With it down about eye level, Kirn made his way cautiously forward. He could see nothing ahead of him, and had no desire to bump into anything that was lower than that with his shins. Some would say he was overly so, but a broken nose would mean blood, and who knew what would be attracted to that? He didn't want to think about it. He edged a little more forward, and from the darkness emerged a groteque face from a person that was larger than him. He let out a startled cry, unsure of what to make of it and frightened that his death had come at last. The lamp dropped, as did he, cowering and shivering with fright. It was all he could do to not scream more than he had, though tears threatened to escape.
It was more than a few minutes before he had the courage to glance up once more. No sword was emerging from the darkness to join the face, killing him. No movement was made by the feet that were now showing. But the feet weren't really feet. They looked... odd. Still. Like something that had never really been.... His hand reached out gently, and discovered he was right. THey had never really been (in real life, that was). They were painted onto a wall, and as he grasped the handle of the lanp again- which had gone dangerously low- he crawled upwards onto his knees and then up to where the face had been, looking up since it had been taller than he. The grotesque face was no longer so, merely sharper, with eyes that were deeply sunken into their sockets, and hollow cheeks besides a gaunt and stringy body. It was a sylph. A painting of one, at least. His eyes glanced at the lamp, then back at the painting. Who made these anymore? They were uncommon, as the sylphs themselves had gone to being as cruel as the greenies.
His hand against the wall, he started moving along it to the left, hoping that it would lead him to an exit of some sort. There was little else to hope for, since he had no idea where Nia was, and whatever this place was, he had no idea how to escape it.
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