Nuru-Dryos laid his back lethargically against a thick, mossy sequoia
branch, nearly a thousand feet in the air. His balance was perfect, but
the branch was misshapen. Even if he fell, he could easily catch himself
in the flood of vines hanging from the canopy. A long, purple snake
crept toward him menacingly, flashing its pronged tongue. Nuru did not
move, he continued to lay back with his eyes half closed, allowing the
sun to warm his skin. The snake slithered closer, now coiling itself
around the branch. Still, Nuru remained quiet, undisturbed. The snake
now wrapped itself around Nuru's torso, meeting the half-demon's head
with its flickering tongue.
Nuru opened his eyes gently, and smiled at the snake, "What does your tongue taste, Ebo?"
The snake lifted its head up toward the sky, then coiled tightly about
the branch and let its head dip toward the ground, leaning toward the
South. "And I was having such a good rest," Nuru groaned to himself,
grasping a small wooden whistle hanging from his neck. The whistle
conjured a high pitched squeal, and moments later a raven landed on his
branch to greet him.
"Ireliskus," Nuru acknowledged the Raven, "I am going south to scout the
intruders. Tell my tribe. I may need assistance." The raven took off to
the North, and Nuru offered a bit of flesh to the snake before taking
off south. He traveled using vines to swing himself, occasionally
running along a branch when a moss-free patch presented itself in
grasping range. It seemed he'd gone a mile in 5 minutes when, without
warning, he dropped haphazardly from his vine and fell a hundred feet,
catching himself by flinging his kama into a branch and swinging from
the cord it was knotted to.
That was a close one, he thought to himself as the vine he was
swinging from shifted against a line of tripwire before rocking back
into equilibrium. The Forest knows what the trap would trigger. Nuru unstuck his kama from the branch and cross-wrapped it around his torso. It's safe to assume they have eyes on me... serves me right for being so hasty.
Now that Nuru was really observing, he counted 17 clues in the vicinity
that intruders had been in the area. He was still sleepy, he
admitted... he was being lazy. But he would change this immediately. Any
more mistakes now and a poison dart was likely to find his neck.
Keeping his senses trained on his surroundings, Nuru began to hoist a
vine up in order to tie it to his leg and free-fall. A shadow shifted
behind him, somewhere in the distance. He didn't see it, but somehow he
could feel it was there. Before him, several football fields away, a
cluster of leaves floated through the air
Strange, Nuru thought, for he didn't hear a rustle. In an instant the leaves flickered and disappeared.
"Illusionists!" Nuru grunted audibly. His ankle cried in stinging pain
as a dart pierced it and he slid from his branch, free-falling another
few hundred feet. A net caught him, and he found himself swinging back
and forth harmlessly. He attempted to grasp his knife or kama so he
could cut himself free but the net tightened until he could barely
writhe. Hunters began to pop up every where around him, so many he could
scarcely believe he hadn't seen more clues on his way over. Or had the
illusionists hid those, as well? How many were there? That sort of
wrinkling would take dozens. One of the hunters cut him down from his
netting and several more helped lower him the next few hundred feet
toward the forest floor. Judging by the fur they donned themselves with,
he assumed they were Bear Slayers.
A maze in its own right, the forest floor was a web of interconnected
roots, some three times taller than a man. Nuru bumped uncomfortably
against the roots as a hunter held him up by the net's cording while
swing along the lowest hanging vines. When finally a clearing presented
itself, the hunter dropped Nuru mercilessly, and he tumbled through the
thick foliage before stopping at the feet of a halfdemon with a long
staff; the mark of an Illusionist.
"I apologize for the treatment," the illusionist spoke softly. "I did not mean for harm to come to you."
"Bear Slayer," Nuru spat. "Why do you come so far North? Why with such a
great hunting party? These are peaceful times. We of the Shallow Pond
have just had many children, we are too busy for your war games now."
"We have had many children as well," the illusionist responded, "And our
people grow hungry. The Dire Deer have migrated north, as have the
hogs. And your people, living upriver, catch all our fish. We do not
seek wargames, we seek expansion."
"If you cannot feed your people, you should have less of them," Nuru
shot back. "We do not eat all the fish, the pond is plentiful and many
escape. And the dire deer have migrated beyond our borders as well, Bear
Slayer."
"We shall see which of us should have less people, tracker. It may be
us, it may be you," the illusionist answered solemnly as hunters and
warriors began to surround Nuru menacingly.
"Allow the Nest of Fate to deliberate over the matter," Nuru pleaded,
"Perhaps one of our tribes is especially plentiful and wouldn't mind
sharing."
"Deliberation makes a people soft, tracker. We shall test our worth in
the forest with the blood we can spill. That is our right. May the
Forest grow strong from your remains." A particularly brutal looking
warrior approached from the folds of the Bear Slayers, clutching a club
arrayed with three inch long teeth. As he prepared to crush Nuru's
skull, he suddenly looked surprised, shooting a glance to the left
before life faded from his eyes. The Bear Slayer fell, blood still
leaking from his back.
War cries filled the air and the warriors surrounding Nuru all charged
to the left. The illusionist waved his arms about in a controlled
motion, disappearing into thin air while blood streaked the trees.
Because the blood spatter left a gap, the illusionist could not hide his
location for long. He howled as a blade found his side and tore his
belly open. Intestines spilled out as the illusionist fell to his knees.
To Adun-Hal battle was ballet. With his off-hand, he carried his
heirloom, his father's sword, stolen from an outsider many generations
ago. With his on-hand, a knife knotted to a rope swung above his head.
He flicked the knife forward, stabbing a Bear Slayer in the chest, then
pulled it back and sliced the throat of another before slinging it
horizontally and sticking a third in the head. Blood continued to squirt
from the first enemy's torn artery and the second enemy's jugular as
the third one dropped. While this happened, it seemed Adun-Hal used an
entirely separate brain to parry the spear of a warrior charging
straight for him. He leaned his sword upon the spear and, putting his
body weight into it, planted the spear into the dirt before kicking the
foe in the head and impaling his belly.
It was not Adun-Hal's ability to kill which earned him the title
"Bleeding Wind," but the way in which he preferred to make cuts. This
way revealed itself as he removed his blade from the foe's belly in a
shredding motion, causing blood to gush out like an eruption. By now,
the remaining Bear Slayers had all fled back South, and Adun-Hal did not
bother to chase them. Instead, he walked calmly over to Nuru and cut
open the net that imprisoned him.
"Well done, my friend," Nuru smiled. They were both painted in blood,
which covered the ground so heavily it leaked into the nearby stream.
"Thank Ireliskus for such good directions," Adun-Hal acknowledged. Upon
hearing its name, the raven drifted in from above and cawed happily,
taking bits of flesh from the fallen Bear Slayers.
"I was a fool for walking into this trap," Nuru muttered and he rose to his feet.
"Nonsense," Adun-Hall comforted him, "The Bear Slayer's Illusionist was a disciple of Morimon-Elden."
"Was he? A poor student if that's the case, he attempted to conceal
leaves as they fell," the two approached the mortally wounded
Illusionist, who was still attempting to hold his guts in. "Still I
acted arrogantly."
"A typical death sentence for a Master Tracker. Illusionists can be
clever," Adun-Hal admitted, kicking the Illusionist to the ground. More
intestines leaked from his belly. "Would you like to do the honors?"
"Your wound, your offering," Nuru proposed.
"Very well," Adun-Hal acknowledged, pulling the Illusionist up by his
pony-tail and positioning his sword at the back of his head between his
skull and spine.
"May the Forest grow strong from your remains."
