Dreadlords The Hounds and Their Master

[Liliana]

Cortos - Location Unknown.

"MOVE!" Liliana whisper shouted as she grasped the scruff of the Initiate's coat and practically hurled them forward. Letting out a curse as the weaklings knees almost seemed to buckle.

"We don't have time for this." She hissed, offering a swift kick as she continued to drive them forward. They had been running for nearly two hours now, never stopping, never allowed to catch their breath. Despite the ache in her own chest, the thundering of her heart, and the ache within her belly she had kept them going. She had kept them going because she'd needed to. "Go! The cliffs!"

Her boots tracked through the mud, coming to a stop as she let the other Initiate's quickly rush by her.

Golden eyes flickered to the forest behind them.

In the darkness of the night she just barely managed to catch sight of some birds flying, having been disturbed within their roosts. A frown touched her lips, but quickly she turned on her heel and rushed after the others. After another ten minutes of running, and then a short climb that nearly saw all of them fall, the Anirians made it to a small alcove within the cliff.

All of them came crashing down. Either falling to the earth itself as their legs finally gave out, or using the wall as a support as they reached a second of momentary safety.

"What the fuck were those things?!"​

One of them asked, immediatley followed by another one.

"I heard the Priest call them Wardens."​

Liliana's chest heaved up and down, her lips thinning as the boy said the name 'Wardens'. She recognized it, but only because of a report she'd read just before leaving. It explained what those monsters had been, and why none of their magics had managed to touch them.

It seemed the Radiant Church had come up with a new trick. "We need one on watch."

She said with a wave towards the entrance, too tired to scream at them.

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Her heart thrashed against the confines of her ribs, disrupting her lungs from stealing the breath she desperately needed as she leaned against the rock to steady herself. She had been at the front of the group running, her legs crying in protest as she pushed herself forward. There was no real destination for them other than to run away until she felt that pull changing her course to lead the group to this alcove.

She could not stand any longer, sinking to her knees before turning to fall on her back and close her eyes. Surely she could afford this momentary disarmament? Her olivine eyes would open once she felt everything settle, all but the weakness and exhaustion that weighed her body to the ground. There was no stopping the murmurs or whispers passing through them all as they caught their breath.

"We need one on watch."

"I'll go." Livia peeled herself from the dirt and gritted her teeth to stand. She weaved through those still recovering from their retreat, looking at each of them as if to count who made it this far. Adrenaline kept her moving, but she could feel is slipping from her being as she found a spot to keep watch.

Whatever they had encountered, they had been unprepared.

Still attempting to slow her heart rate, she leaned against a tree and allowed her eyes to adjust to the shade of nightfall. Livia could only hope that they got some rest before having to move on again.

 

[Silas Artesto]

Silas wasn't sure what the hell they'd all just encountered, but the fact that even Liliana couldn't put a dent in the damned things had been all the reason he needed to run. In such a large group though, losing any pursuers was hard. They were beaten, bruised, exhausted, and sore.

And then Livia offered to be watch.

"The hell you will." He spoke from behind Livia. Artesto had briefly seated himself against the cave wall as soon as they'd managed to climb that last bitch of a wall, but he didn't seem nearly as weary as the rest of the groups. "You can barely stand. They see you and charge, you won't have enough energy to keep up with the rest of us in the back of the cave." He stated, more as fact than as opinion.

Normally Silas was happy when a mission played to his strengths. After getting stuck with boat-related jobs time after time, something on dry land had seemed just the thing to break his curse. But he wasn't having any fun, not watching everybody else wheeze and struggle to breathe and stand. Yeah, Artesto's powers made him one hell of a runner, with stamina that almost never seemed to end, but they weren't.

Maybe it went against his training, but he felt bad seeing them in the pain they were all in.

"Let me take watch." The dirty-haired Initiate turned towards Liliana, one side of his face marked with dirt from a fall trying to help a smaller Initiate over a creek. "I see anything I can have all of us up and moving in a couple of seconds." He knew Livia was going to be pissed he was pulling this shit on her, but he stepped towards the tree posted just outside the mouth of the cave anyways, reaching out to place a hand, raw and red from climbing up to the cave, on her shoulder.

C'mon Liv..." He muttered, quiet enough that the others wouldn't hear. "You saw those fuckin' things. I don't want anything to happen to you. Let me do this."

Silas angled his head down to look into her eyes.

"Please?"

 

[Thraah]

"Pfft. Yeah *Liv* let blondie take watch. He can cut em up...*gasp* with his square jaw if the get close. Hehehe!"
On the floor, not far from them lay Thraah. Clearly as tired as any of them and true to her form using humour to help still the crippling fear that threatened to seize her mind.
The laugh was short and hurt her gasping lungs. Her hair stuck to her forehead with sweat and her left hand was smeared with her own blood.
That smile, the one she used to piss people off was wide as ever on her thin lips.
"WOOOOH! What a rush!"
She cried rolling over and doing her best to try and get up.
"Fucked if I know what that thing was, but shit my bed it nearly got me. Hehehe!"
It was too much and she flopped onto her front uncomfortably.
"Oof!"

 

[Dahlia Hawthorne]

Just. Keep. Running.​

Dahlia wasn’t sure what was chasing the group, but she knew she needed to make sure all the Initiates made it back alive. Whatever it was stalking them with ease through the encroaching darkness of the night. The moon's glow shows nothing of merit. She was the rear guard as Liliana had rushed the Initiates upward and away from whatever was coming. A groan escaped her lips as her back ached from the rushing between the trees, ducking and weaving beneath thick brush and limb alike. She had ensured the last of the initiates had caught up with Liliana, but she wanted to hope she could cause a distraction, a disturbance to ensure they could increase the distance between them. Dahlia needed a wounded animal.

Feathering an arrow with her right hand she allowed her focus to draw to the fluttering of birds in the sky before lowering and blindly firing deep into the thicket of the woods. Seconds later she would hear a yelp and a grunt as her bolt struck an animal that was now rushing in the opposite direction to her. She hoped that would be enough to keep the distance between them. Turning her back to the forest she took off into a paced jog following not the tree lines but the deep muddy boot marks of the running Initiates. They were headed towards the cliffs.

“Heh…”

Dahlia heaved out from her lips as she grunted. Her ribs heaved with every deep breath she took; her upper body shook from exertion and her heart thrummed loudly in her ears, but she would not stop. She would continue to jog, boots finding mud giving way to gravel and stone as she began to ascend to the cliff. With a tense of her jaw, Dahlia would make the last push up the cliff edge where she could hear the murmurings of hushed voices and the sound of boots on stone. She had found them.

Stepping through and into the small alcove, her dark emerald eyes would drift towards each of the Initiates. Silently counting them to ensure she had completed her goal of ensuring that none were left behind. Slowly dropping to one knee, her eyes drifted towards Liliana and her voice carried across it coldly.

“What were those… things? I tried to throw them off our trail. We should be safe for a while.”

Bringing her left hand up she would messily brush her platinum white hair back away from her face removing refuse and twigs from her hair from the dash through the forest. In doing so, however, she had allowed them to see the grotesque carvings of her ear. What should have been a clearly human shape of ear cartilage had been shredded and carved into a point. Scars detail the brutality in which it was done. Absent-mindedly she would let her hair drop over it once again.

“What are you three bickering about?”

Dahlia would ask in a blunt tone, eyes moving coldly across each one of the Initiates that seemed to be bickering. Shaking her head, Dahlia wouldn’t let herself get caught up in the whims of the Initiates, and with a flick of her coat she allowed the fabric of her hood to cover her head and with the twist of her left wrist, she would check her bow for any damage. “I’ll keep watch. One of you can join me or whatever but make sure you all rest.”

Her commentary was blunt, her eyes returning to Liliana before throwing her a half-filled waterskin. “You look like dirt.”

 

[Liliana]

"We don't need anyone to range out, just watch at the door." Liliana insisted, motioning towards the blonde. "Quinnick."

Arteso might have been better to run, but that wasn't what they needed right now. The other blonde would just about be the only other one that would be in a fit fighting state if the Church came crashing down upon them. Livia's magic was better for throwing out a few arrows before the enemy actually reached them.

The back and forth between the Initiate's grated against her nerves, and as Dahlia appeared once more Liliana found herself pushed over the top!

"Sit down and shut up!" Liliana commanded, catching the waterskin with a bitterness in her words. "Let me think."

She said, biting back a curse as she chewed over their situation.

They were still several miles behind enemy lines. The Solar Choire was coming after them, and apparently the 'Warden's' she had read about as a rumor were apparently very much real. Creatures made to kill mages, made to kill dreadlords.

Fuck.

A long breath filled her lungs, and Liliana began to explain to her gathered simpletons.

"They're called Wardens." Liliana said pushing herself off from the wall as she glanced at them. "They're...made somehow, I don't know. Rumors of them only reached the Guard a few weeks ago."

That was a lie. Liliana knew about the creatures from her families, and her own network of informants. She had no idea if the Guard yet knew of the creatures existence, but they most certainly would after this. "They'll keep hunting us. Dahlia might have thrown them off, but they can scent magic."

Meaning, they could scent the group even here in the caves. "We need to kill their handler."

All of them had seen the man, a few had even tried to kill him to no avail. The warden's had protected him with a zealousness that could only have come from compulsion.

Silas Artesto Livia Quinnick Thraah Dahlia Hawthorne

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Her eyes lit up with absolute fury once Silas' hand warmed her shoulder, the sleeve ripped off and used as a tourniquet for another Initiate's wounded arm. She glared up at him, angry that he would suggest such a thing and Thraah of all people agreeing with him. "Liliana is right. I am here to watch and find anything before they reach us." She tore her shoulder from out under his hand and moved a step away, joining Dahlia as they looked to the grounds below.

"Besides," She continued, not looking at him anymore as she too nocks an arrow into place. "I think I am a much better shot than you. At least I will be able to find them before they break through that treeline." She had three left, the quiver slung lazily on her left shoulder with her bow after the buckle her brother made her fastening the strap broke before their retreat. Her gear was in worse shape than she felt, but at least she could recover and keep watch with Dahlia joining too. "And please, stop trying to be my hero." She would not say it to him ever, or even admit it truly to herself. If he was watching her back and that got him in strife, Livia would feel guilty. I am not useless. She reminded herself, now quietening to listen to Liliana think out loud.

"If they can scent magic, then we need to keep moving. Otherwise... we allow a small group to remain and allow the others to continue on ahead. Create a distraction with magic..." She dared to tear her eyes away from the trees below, looking back at those still recovering from their exhaustion. They were all in a sorry state. "Anyone else have any bright ideas?" Livia still had her magic, but the corruption made her hesitant to rely on it. She had been working on it in the secret task force she was a part of, but this was moment was real, and their chance at surviving the night.

Silas Artesto Thraah Dahlia Hawthorne Liliana

 

[Silas Artesto]

Silas wasn't too popular for volunteering.

Between Liliana's orders, Livia's reprimands, and Thraah... being Thraah, it seemed what everybody wanted him to do was the one thing he loathed doing: jack shit. Briefly, his head turned to the Dreadlord who'd ordered him to stand down with a flare of defiance in his eyes as though he might try and protest. It passed, and the Initate merely shook his head, stepping aside to let Dreadlord Dahlia into the cave with a grumble. "Yeah. Alright."

He didn't like it, but he knew better than to argue with Dahlia and Liliana. It was a battle he wouldn't win, and it was starting to look like they might all already be in one of those, to begin with. Once Dahlia had moved past him, Silas gave Qunnick a brief, dubiously apologetic nod before stepping away, back to where he'd sat against the rough, rocky wall. He'd allowed the complicated emotions he held for Livia to obliviate him from the fact that she wasn't exactly fond of him.

But, she was right. She didn't need a hero, and Silas would never claim to be one.

Instead, he turned his attention to Liliana as she began to explain what little she knew about the ones hunting them. Really, it was little more than a name and a fun fact, nothing he couldn't have figured out himself. It was a leader's way of telling her soldiers she had no idea what the hell they were going to do, or how they were going to do it.

Artesto appreciated the sugarcoating.

"So if we kill the master, the puppets fall apart, right?" It stood to reason that these 'Wardens' wouldn't hold without somebody keeping a focus on them. Silas leaned back, clicking his tongue idly against the roof of his mouth as he thought. "I could take one of us and zip around to flank 'em from behind, but they'd probably smell us coming, the wardens, wouldn't they?" A little grumble sounded his disapproval before he tilted his head, a brow raising at another idea.

"Not a solution, but I think I can slow them down a little bit once they get a little closer. I can make little decoys of myself through magic-- 'echoes' I call them. They won't do anything but stand there until they hit 'em, but those wardens might not know the difference between the decoy and me. I could probably draw them off for a bit."

 

[Thraah]

Thraah had rolled onto her back again. It was marginally less uncomfortable than being face down.
"I like Blondie's plan. We can escape while he dies, heroically."
She fought herself into a sitting position and faced Silas.
"Anything specific you want on your statue? Hero of the Republic maybe?"
Truth was she was just as stuck as the rest of them and her mind wasn't coming up with any bright ideas. She looked back into the cave and stood up. Her hips hurt from running.
She would happily have made fire for light but if those things could smell magic and were looking for them she'd rather not advertise their location.
The gloom stretched on to where there was no light. The cave dipping into the wet darkness.
"Yo, How far back do you think this cave goes?"

Livia Quinnick Silas Artesto Dahlia Hawthorne Liliana

 

[Dahlia Hawthorne]

Dahlia listened to the bickering amongst the trio of initiates while Lilliana took a moment to contemplate their next move. A sigh would escape her lips as she turned to look towards the three Initiates that spoke to see the female of the trio pulled away from the golden-haired boy’s touch. That same young woman would come to stand beside her, drawing forth one of her remaining arrows and notching it should she need to fire. She was turning back around to face the encroaching forest that flowed out like an endless sea of emeralds in the darkness. Occasionally she could make out the minuscule movements of trees in the distance.

As Lilianna rattled out her comments about her intelligence Dahlia knew that she was sugarcoating the position they were in. She said nothing. They were clearly in an unfathomably dangerous predicament and time was counting down before they had to fight the wardens again. Dahlia, however, intended to metaphorically turn the clock in their favor for a few precious more minutes. Lowering herself onto one knee, she would remove the archery glove on her right hand and placed it neatly on her knee. Taking a deep breath and holding it before exhaling through her nose she could begin to feel the natural thrum of life in the cave they inhabited before spreading outward to encompass the cliffs.

Focusing her attention on the trails and churned soil that revealed their tracks, she would begin to move her mouth in silent words until soil and stone answered her call. Ever so slightly the soil would churn smooth and bring about stone to the surface, large boulders and stone alike would let go of their purchase on the side and tumble down over their old path. Ever so gentle it would feel more like a mudslide of natural causes than magical inclination. More importantly, it would not smell of strong magical use, incredibly faint. The action took a minute or two of her time before she would open her eyes. If they were to try and follow their trails it would be impossible to continue how they came. Not without intervention. She hoped that would be enough to give them the precious minutes they needed.

“If the master of these dogs makes a visible appearance, I can get them from a distance. I just need time and the right angle.”

Dahlia said confidently as she rose to her feet and returned the glove to her hand after brushing free the dust and lose stones that embedded lightly in her flesh. Taking a moment, she counted twelve arrows left. She took six of them and placed them in Quinnick’s quiver. She did note that they were slightly longer than the initiates’ arrow shafts to account for her pull strength, but they shouldn’t be too tricky for Quinnick to use should she need them.

“At least it wouldn’t be ‘insufferable and annoying’ like yours will say Thraah.”

Dahlia quips back idly before looking towards the back of the cave. She wasn’t sure of how far deep the cave was, but it was an option—turning her attention towards Lilliana. Silently she was waiting for Lilliana to make a motion for the group and declare her possible intentions.

Thraah Livia Quinnick Silas Artesto Liliana

 

[Liliana]

God these kids made so much fucking noise.

It was like they didn't realize she had all the solutions they would ever need, if they would only give her a second to think. Liliana closed her eyes, faced scrunched together and index and thumb gently pinched and massaged at the bridge of her nose.

After a moment she let out a loud sigh, realizing that even her powers of mental fortitude couldn't keep these particular voices out. "Artesto and Thraah will bait the creatures, and their Master, out into the open."

She declared suddenly, deciding that perhaps...it might behoove her to take everyone's suggestions after all.

Just this once.

"Quinnick will sight them." Liliana declared. "Dahlia kills them."

Leaving her to act as backup. Her magics would not work on the Wardens, that much she was sure of, but there were other tricks she could use. Besides, one of them needed to be able to be a bit more fluid, and it might be best that it was her.

...Mostly because it meant she could still run if everything went wrong.

Her life was the most valuable, after all.

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Livia chewed at her cheek, turning back to the treeline and adjusting her grip on her weapon of choice. With more arrows in her quiver, Liv was feeling a little more at ease in doing her part. Her heart slowed, back to the steady rhythm she knew as her chest rose and fell with a deep breath. She could feel them out there, a disturbance that weighed on her lungs like weight she could not push away. It was constant. It was inevitable. They knew where the Initiates and Dreadlords were, could sense such magic gathered in one place.

"Those that can run should go now, should they not?" She murmured loud enough for Dahlia to hear. Their training sessions were seeing a definite improvement in Livia's abilities under the tutelage of the Dreadlord with carved ears, but she was still hindered by the corrupted block to her overall magic. "Those things were not slow. They are taking their time... I can feel them moving." Quinnick did not need to spread her power outwards to catch that information. It was as if the forest itself was whispering this to her, or perhaps she could overhear those whispers reaching Dahlia.

"We should bait them straight to us. It would make picking them off easier if they are grouped together and not spread out." Much like they were all now. "Think you two could do that?" Liv chanced a glance back over her shoulder, first meeting the eyes of Thraah, ready to demonstrate her inferno, and then settling her olivine gaze onto Silas. Would he see the slight wrinkle above her brow, the one that only appeared when Livia was worried?

 

[Silas Artesto]

Maybe Thraah's question was aimed to bother him, but Silas couldn't help but smirk at the brash woman who'd sat in front of him with grand visions of his forthcoming epitaph. "Gee, I dunno T." Artesto leaned back against the rocky cave wall and brought a hand to his chin in feigned thought. "I was thinking something more like a flaming skull wrapped in chains. Gives the impression I was real hardcore, you know?" A chuckle follows his words, and then he leans forward and cups a hand to the side of his face as if telling a secret. "I would have said put down how good-looking I was, but I don't want to sound like a Urahil."

Bullshitting with Thraah was a better option than bickering with her, or putting forth more ideas to Dahlia and Liliana. They were in charge, so he'd let them figure out how they were going to get the group out of this mess. If they needed him, they'd tell him so. As dire as the circumstances appeared to be, Silas couldn't pretend to be very concerned. Those bizarre creatures were fast, just as Livia said.

But they weren't as fast as him.

After a few minutes of deliberation, Liliana seemed to make up her mind on how they were proceeding. Ultimately she opted to go with some of their suggestions, and Silas made no attempt to hide the satisfaction on his face at getting to go out and make fools out of those 'Wardens'. It seemed like it'd been forever since he'd gotten some decent exercise.

Of course, it looked like he wasn't going alone. Thraah was instructed to help him, and slowly Silas' hazel stare slid back towards the girl sitting in front of him. That probably meant... Did Thraah bite? She seemed the type who might try... the idea of ferrying her in any capacity made the hairs on his arms stand up, just a smidgen.

Alright. You heard her, we get the first taste of the action." A hand rested on his knee as he pushed himself up to stand, arching his back and outstretching his arms to limber up. "I dunno how fast you are, T, but if you hold onto me I can make sure we don't get caught. Or you can try to keep up." He shrugs. "Either way is fine with me."

Livia Quinnick Dahlia Hawthorne Thraah Liliana

 

[Thraah]

"Heh, Urahils are dumb."
She scoffed a laugh and wiped her nose. Silas got another giggle when she heard they'd be working together.
His suggestion made her smile.
"You want me to ride you or something? Won't Stuttershy get jealous?"
She elbowed him in the gut playfully.
"I'm ready to go when you are just hold this and don't yank my arm off eh?"
Thraah undid a bit of her fighting chain. It was more tactical than it looked at times like this.
"Will this work or eh, do I need to get closer Blondie?"
She was blatantly teasing him now. But only because she knew what they were walking in to and that was scary beyond her ability to function. So jokes and japes it was.

Silas Artesto Livia Quinnick Dahlia Hawthorne Liliana