Bring me the Horizon Post 1

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."