The Tavern }{ Anyone for a drink?

[Kaine]

Kaine ran and eventually saw a small fire. Two beings stayed close to the flame. Kaine's golden wolf eyes glowed in the element, her white fur inflamed by the fire. Kaine was entranced by the dancing lights. She crept up slowly, the pads on her feet barely making noise on the soft mulched leaves. She was finally within leaping distance of the man. She lowered the front of her bodice and raised her haunches. Baring her fangs she leapt and started to rip apart the one who stole lady Jada from her.

//Feathers?\\

Kaine stopped, millions of feathers fluttered about. Taking a closer look at the "bodies", she came to see nothing but sown up bags of feathers.

//That....that man is....GAH!!\\

And with that thought in mind, the elven shifter ran back down the path and started on the correct one.**dances to "I like to Move it"** lol -

[Omio]

There was persuits. killings. Plots. Manipulation. Struggles of power. Enough to make Ipsen intervene. But, he decided to make it ever so slight. A wolf went by. ...That's a person - that's no wolf. Well, let's make the irregular more irregular. He then focussed his power - making a time magic weave through his mind until he let it form. It was a quickening spell - guaranteed to fasten anyone up. He cast that spell at the wolf, basically buffing its speed. He then cast a wind whispering spell to give the effect of a voice in the winds. "Go now. Haste is your ally."

[Kaine]

Kaine ran. She ran as if her own life depended on it, which in her mind it did. If she could not save Lady Jada, then she was a failure to herself, her people, her honor, but most of all a failure to Lady Jada.

The white wolf ran until her legs seemd to almost give up. Her breath was fading, soon she would be in total exhaustion.

"Go now. Haste is your ally."

Then her leg muscle's pumped faster, her heart beat clearer, her breathing became even as if this was her casual jogging pace.

///I thank you, oh spirit of time and wind. May luck grace your path!\\\

[jada]

"Well Cad. It seems I remeber some of what happened now." Jada said keeping her eyes on him.

"Really and what do you remeber?"

"That I was shot with an arrow. YOU happen to be an archer, in the area and you 'saved' me. I don't believe your story now. And you will let me go, or I will kill you."

"I don't think so. You see that arrow that you were shot with made you weak. You have a strong tounge, but it's all just talk. You have hardly any stength and probably will pass out again within the hour." Cadmus smiled at her triumphantly.

Jada glarred at him. Then she had a change of mind. "You weren't with those men at the Tavern. Who are you and what do you want with me?"

[Omio]

After a second or two, his curiousity sparked once again. Investigating would be easy to do, along with keeping hidden - Doing both at the same time took some effort, but not too much. He had teleportation scrolls ready - and loads of them - If he didn't have those on the go at any time, he'd be the most well-known person. He'd have to use a large number of those scrolls to investigate, but this time, it was going to be worth it. First one - he vanished and appeared at another tree, this time ahead of Kaine - He had to wait about 5 seconds after Kaine passed once again before using another one to warp ahead. he repeated this process, covering a fair bit of ground each time, and minimizing the # of scrolls needed. Had he done anything more or less, he would've been noticed as an enemy.This accidentally had Kiba's name in it. Sorry! -

[Kaine]

Kaine continued to run, her life may have not depended on it, but another's did. And that is all that ever truly matters. Her fore and back paws never stopped, they almost blurred together as she ran. Farther and farther she sped until she re-reached the dividing paths. This time she took the opposite one from before and hurtled down the beaten foliage.

[Omio]

Ipsen's teleportation down the path lead him to a split. However, this was easy to decide, since the decision wasn't his. But there was one thing that would go wrong if he let it. That was his haste spell, it should be wearing out soon, and so, with that, he charged it up, and used it again on Kayne, refreshing the Haste spell. Now it wouldn't wear out so easily. Kayne chose the path, so he had to follow. Warp. Wait... Warp again. He was done about ¼ of all the scrolls he had, which as just over a dozen of them used in total now. I hope this doesn't go for too long. I'd rather not use up all of the scrolls I have...Sorry, crap post. -

[HoudiniDerek]

Guang awoke next to a small fire. There was a pain throbbing in his back behind his left shoulder blade. His eyes cleared and he struggled to sit up. Across the fire was a man, almost feral-like at times, watching him slowly and assuredly.

Guang moved and pain racked his body. He gasped and closed his eyes. Slowly, he sat up. As he did, the images from the last few moments of consciousness came back to him. He remembered Jada and being shot down. Kaine and Jada had been taken. He had risen up to see a man and he had yelled for the lycan. The last thing he remembered was falling to the ground.

Carefully, Guang felt his shoulder and chest. The arrow wound was deep but apparently superficial. Guang looked at the young man across the fire again. "Thank you," Guang said. "Why did you help me?"

"Because we must save the women." The thought came to him and Guang realized that the young man across from him was the lycan. Perplexed, Guang slowly stood and looked at the man as he rose too.

"How far behind are we?"

[Kaine]

Edward stood, his eyes never left the man named Guang as he rose painfully it seemed. The lycan's ears scanned the forest around them, the nearest movement was well over several hundred yards away. They were safe for now. Edward responded to Guang by simply saying,

"About three or more hours, I'm afraid. We must move quickly. I'm sure Kaine is hot on Lady Jada's trail. If I can follow her sent....then maybe....

Edward crept over to the side of the larger man and checked his wound. It was deep looking, but judging by the way the other man handled it, it wasn't life threatening, he would be fine.

The only way Edward had ever known to actually heal any wound was by licking it clean. This would have been very awkward if the man had been awake during that process, but thankfully he was sleeping, so no shame nor embarrassment came to Edward.

[jada]

"I don't want you. My boss does. And you would be correct. I wasn't with the men at the Tavern. They were just a bunch of drunken lunatics. I am mearly a servant obeying his masters wishes. For what my master wants you, I couldn't exactly tell you, but he does. My dear I know you're angry with me, but come now, I did help save you from those nasty men." Cadmus said.

"You may have saved me, but you've also kidnapped me. I want my friends and I want to be let go."

"You are not in the position to be demanding anything my dear. I know you are weak. Just sleep now. You need some of your strength back."

Jada wanted to argue to fight back, but Cadmus was right. She didn't have the energy. She was too weak, and so she let herself be taken over by a world of darkness and comfort.

[HoudiniDerek]

Guang swayed on his feet and realized the lycan must have cleaned his wound. He was lucky to be alive. Had he not been able to pull out the arrow and get the blood to stop, he would be dead. Unfortunately, losing all that blood would slow him down...and he needed to make up some time.

"We won't find them in the dark. I know you can probably smell them, but I need to be able to see better. Tell you what. You wait here until morning. I am headed back to town to get a horse at the very least. We can travel that way and the paths are few. Wasting a couple of hours now might save us a lot of problems in the morning."

The lycan just looked at Guang, but Guang did not hear a thought. He wasn't sure if that was agreement or not. "Lycan?" Guang asked, needing an answer so he could get started one way or the other. Slowly, the lycan shook his head.

"Why not?" Guang asked in exasperation. His questions was answered seconds later as lightning flashed and thunder roared. A storm was coming.

[Kaine]

The wind happened once again. It rushed around her and lightened her greatly. Her paws pounded forward faster without any feelings of the harsh ground hindering her. She sped down the path, stirring leaves in small branches from their still slumber. She could smell Jada and some other scent.

//A man? He better be on her side for his sake\\

///Can you hear me spirit? You who have helped me for no reasons. Be you man or beast? If either one, I may need your help. My Lady, Lady Jada is in need of assistance!!!\\\

With the speed of a wolf and the aided help of the mysterious "Creature", Kaine continued on down the path, hearing distant voices.



*********



A storm had been on the tip of Edward's senses since they first met. But Edward hadn't counted on any of this to have happened. With a look in his eyes that screamed fear for Kaine, the boy stood up and walked to the edge of their little "encampment" to stare into the woods beyond. This was his way of deeply thinking. He opened his lips and sighed, letting a cursing word flutter out. Turning back, he glanced at the man and gave a look that seemed to say, ""What now?""

[Omio]

Ipsen heard the thoughts of the wolf. barely. He was more worried about running out of scrolls. Now he had to reply to the wind once again. "My aid is thine." The wind was crisper that time, and a little faster, so that message was quite clear. His curiousity would make him an unknown saviour. Now, with the fact of more teleportation, he began to think of the possibilities he would have to consider. Which spells should he prepare for instant use later? How many people were at jeopardy already? How many will be placed in jeopardy? And he used yet one more haste spell on the wolf, this time actually boosting the speed of the wolf. What was running is basically walking pace. Anyone within the spell's effect saw the world around them slow to something close to a crawl.

[HoudiniDerek]

Guang and the lycan trudged along down the path as fast as Guang could go. Guang knew that the lycan was getting tired of having to wait, but he refused to follow the scent alone. It was almost as if he had lost the confidence in wihich he had killed men in the natural form.

Guang rested at a break in the path, breathing heavily. His wound had opened again and was bleeding, but they did not have time to stop and rebandage it. The lycan looked both ways several times and seemed unsure what to do.

"What is it, lycan?" Guang asked, propped up awkwardly against a tree to keep from falling.

"The scents go in both directions. The women have gone down both paths. I cannot distinguish one from the other," the lycan thought back to Guang. Surprised, Guang struggled up and over to the lycan's humped form.

"Let me see what I can do." Guang kneeled and looked at the paths. Both had three sets of footprints. One was a wolf and from the stride, probably Kaine. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lycan nod. The other smaller set were Jada's. The third must be the captor that had shot him with the arrow.

"I can't wait to see him again," Guang muttered, memorizing the tread of the track. After a few more minutes, Guang realized the lycan was right. The tracks were IDENTICAL on both paths. They were the same level of recent too. Not being trained in magic, Guang had no idea which way to go or how to overcome the deception.

"We either have to split up or take one." Guang managed to stand again and looked to the lycan for his thoughts. As though to punctuate the urgency of the situation, the wind rose in a massive gust and thunder pealed again. The storm was almost there.