A Kiss of Pistols, and Thunder's Embrace, Closed Thread

[DonMariachi]

Original Thread

-

Chain's attention alternated between sky and ground as the Thunderbird descended. Had it understood her, or was the steady descent merely the result of its obvious exhaustion? Then she felt something from its mind…impossible to tell if it was a response to her message, but it was something. It could be that Keith had understood her, or it could be a big coincidence that he had decided to descend and think something out of place, but the two events gave her reason to think that perhaps trying to communicate with the beast wasn't a waste of time.

She heard the whistling again. Dammit, it was still coming, and the Thunderbird didn't have enough steam to dodge.

But then she heard something else: the sound of rushing water. The rivers in the area were all frozen over, so that could only mean…

"Quickly, head toward water sound!" She thought as loudly and simply as she could at the beast.

The area was fogged and it was difficult to see more than 100 feet in any direction, but Keith would be able to smell water from the direction the sound was coming from. If he decided to go that way, he would notice they were flying up a narrowing valley, with a frozen river cutting through the trees below.

[Keith Denangande]

*The dragon tried to reply to the thoughts but could no longer bring up the strength for projected thought. Not that his first attempt was very successful anyway. His body was too beaten, too battered, too bruised. It was all he could do to stay in the air with a woman chained around his neck.

He continued to descend gradually.

The large blade was coming closer. As was the ground.*


*As Chain's mental thoughts had stated they were near water. Immediately to his right the ground dropped away into a valley below littered with trees and a river. Tilting his ragged feathers, Keith glided in that direction.

And hit the cliff edge rather heavily, falling off it into the valley below. Hitting some trees terribly well on his immediate downward path into the churning waters.*

splash!

[DonMariachi]

As the dragon hit the ice, he might make note of the shrieking sound of tearing metal as the giant flying blade tore into the cliff edge behind them. The blade gave a few labored shrieks as it tried to dig its way through the rock it had clipped, but found its remaining magical impulse insufficient.

The bladey UFO of doom fell silent, now little more than a giant fixture sticking out of the cliff. This would have been a lot more comfort to the dragon and his passenger if they hadn't just broken through a sheet of ice into twenty feet of freezing water.

There wasn't time for Chain to unwind herself from the dragon, and she was having a much harder time doing it in the water, having to contend with liquid drag, the paralyzing temperatures, the difficulty of telling up from down. If Keith was thrashing about, it would only make things more interesting.

-

Isaias's eyes narrowed as the red dot finally winked out. The blue dot had vanished some time ago, having left the detection radius of his spells, but he had been able to roughly track the progress of the Bladehunter as it flew in pursuit. The dot's disappearance on his tracking sphere meant the Blade had crashed, and it was impossible to say if it had caught its target beforehand. The mage stroked his goatee pensively.

There was a knock on his door abruptly, followed by Delilah's muffled voice. "They're here, sir."

Isaias pushed aside the tracking sphere. "Come in." Yes, he had backup plans to make sure the dragon would not be an issue...

[Keith Denangande]

*Keith was thrashing about.

Anyone would normally go numb at such hard temperatures under water. The thunderbird had a layer of downy fluff and feathers to protect him for a while. That did not however mean that he was going to sit by idly and get to a point where he would freeze to death.

He would fight drowning and fight going into shock. If anything the cold water was a wake-up call to his previous fatigue.

His first action was to resurface ~ this was going to be a ways down the river. It was not an easy task as he had to smash his body full force into the sheet of ice twice before it broke. His forehead was bleeding. The dragon huffed and gasped the air like any crazed animal, then tried to scamble up onto the ice unsuccessfully.

And now his energy and adrenalin chose a good time to start leaving him. His thrashing and struggle slowed down. He was barely able to keep his upper half above water.*

[DonMariachi]

The thunderbird could feel the chains wrapped around his trunk loosen as they were swept down the icy river. No doubt the annoying thing strapped to his back wasn't weathering the trip well.

The first sign that Chain was still alive came after the dragon broke through the ice. It could hear her give a sputtering breath, and the chains started unraveling from its trunk. The chains continued unraveling as it tried scrabbling onto the ice. As its thrashings ceased, and its flank stabilized, the chains unwrapped completely. "Hold…still…please…" Came the telepathic voice, and a moment later the human made a clumsy jump onto the ice.

She landed hard, muscles too frozen to control her landing effectively, and for a moment lay helplessly on the ice in front of the dragon.

-
Chain profile

[Keith Denangande]

*The telepathy reached the thunderbird. If he listened was up to debate. There was another garbled static response, this time relaying a great amount of destress. It may have been instinctual to Chain's opening of the mental channel between them.*

*His muscles were tense to a degree of finality when the human released herself from his neck. The large white claws of his front legs had dug a foot deep into the river's icy surface. This was the only thing keeping his back half from sliding any further under the water.

Chain probably now lay in a large puddle on the ice as rivulets of water drained off of Denangande's feathers.

Instead of eating her or even noticing her, Keith started clawing drastically in another run of energy. Slush and shavings would probably bury Chain if she stayed there. The bulk of the rest of the thunderbird started pulling itself out of the water.

His bulk now hung over the woman. The only thing supporting him are his shaking front legs. With a sigh he would collapse onto his side, narrowly avoiding a rather tragic squish. Then he would lay there and pant.*

[DonMariachi]

The Riverbank

The sodden, half-frozen human struggled to move herself. She knew death from exposure or Thunderbird crushing was imminent if she didn't rapidly find…shelter… Her cold-shocked muscles simply seized up, refusing to move for all but the most heroic efforts.

"Cannot…die…here…" The thought bubbled out into the audible psychic spectrum.

Her chains finally started moving as Keith dragged himself up out of the water. They moved her only a foot before the Thunderbird came crashing down on his side, narrowly missing her.

She still had to move. Without a fire how the hell going to make a fire, she had no chance. The white-clad trees loomed above them. Fire required fuel, so that meant getting to the trees. Maybe by the time she got there…she'd have devised a solution.

And so she inched toward the treeline, fueled only by deliriously stubborn determination.

-

The Tower

Erik tried not to stare at the devil woman treating his broken arm outside the mage's study. It was rude to stare at a lady, even if she was a six-inch tall denizen of hell. Instead he tried to direct his focus at the conversation going on inside the study.

"So, Mr…Hardcastle. Would I be able to count on you to undertake one more contract? The escaped beast is too dangerous to be allowed to roam free, and must be dealt with immediately."

"Mmm…" Came the mercenary's telltale grunt. "Only one thing Max hates more than the one that got away…" The loud slam of a fist hitting a desk echoed into the hall. "…And that's not gettin' paid what he's owed."

" Hh hmm…well, ah…" The mage stammered. "I'm sure we can work something out…beyond the fee already agreed upon."

"Please hold still." Came the voice of the devil woman, and Erik turned to look down at her. Her plain secretarial outfit had been replaced by white surgical scrubs, and she had conjured an elaborate floating apparatus of some kind around his arm. Erik stiffened in response, and the demon reached into the discolored flesh around his broken arm. *crack* He winced in pain as the bone was set, and the devil withdrew her arms bloodlessly. Backing up, she snapped her fingers, and the floating apparatus contracted around his broken arm in a very snug, smartly engineered cast.

Erik just stared down at it in shock for a moment, while the conversation between Max and the magus continued.

"Told ya before, old man. Maxie only takes payment in three things: gold, girls, and guns." "Mr. Hardcastle, do you know how much these Ephemeral Emeralds are worth? At least double our original price."
"They look girlie to me. You tryin' to pass off girlie gems on Max?"

The demoness poofed back into her old skirtsuit outfit. "One moment." She said to Erik, and poofed away, leaving him to listen to the haggling.

"You have to understand, gold is a vital alchemical reagent, we simply can't spare any- Oh, Delilah. Yes! I completely forgot about that. Will this do as payment, Mr. Hardcastle? It appears to be a fine specimen…"
"Hmm…The girl or the gun?"
*Bang* Erik thought he heard the sound of a gunpowder-laced cigar exploding.
"Delilah! Please... restrain yourself. I meant the gun, Mr. Hardcastle."
"Mmmph… She's a bit small anyway. Collection could use another Cape Gun."

There was the sounds of heavy boot steps, and the mercenary emerged from the study carrying a scoped double-barreled shotgun in one hand, a large gold bar in the other, and more scorch marks on his face. The beastly man gave Erik a passing glance as he made for the tower stairwell. "Hope ya like girlie gems."

The imp reappeared. Her expression appeared calm and businesslike as normal, but Erik could see an aura of intense heat around her with his pyrokinetic senses. "Did…you…?"

"Answer his question in the most direct manner understandable by his ilk? Yes." She replied crisply. "How is your arm?"

Erik opened his mouth to answer, but then a pink door appeared. Yes, a pink door, standing in midair. The demoness's calm expression vanished, and suddenly she was inches from the human's face. "Don't move, and for heaven's sake don't make a sound."

[Keith Denangande]

*The dragon failed to move outside of panting and soaking the ice. He therefore made no attempt to devour Chain as she squirmed to the line of trees. His mind shot out multiple messages of incoherency in his shock and adrenalin.*

Keith: ....___..-. --- . .... ________.

*It probably was more than enough distracting than helpful. Chain would not be able to tell if he replied to her or could even hear her.*

*All at once the dragon opened his eyes. Pupils were dilated in panic. A groan came out of him. Followed by a surge of energy. His tail, neck, and wings started to spasm. A bulge formed deep in the bowels of his throat and abruptly came out in a crippling roar that tore through the sky. Ice around him cracked a the sound. Claws limply tore shards of white underneath. And as wings started to move in a flying rhythm a callous rumble in the clouds sounded all around.

Lightning tore through a tree mere feet from Chain. Other bolts tore across the clouds. Static cascaded off of Denangande's feathers.

He did not get far in such an exhausted state. Though it was clear after a point that he had more than enough intentions to try and escape further.*

[DonMariachi]

The pink door opened, and out skipped a little girl in a pink, frilly dress, with voluminous, spring-like pigtails that bounced in tandem with her. She began singing as she skipped merrily into the mage's office.

"Double Bubble
Chocolate Truffle
Kitty purrs for me to cuddle-"

The voice of the mage cut into her song. "Unh, princess darling…" The man sounded like he was trying to keep from gagging on the words. "Have you been…cuddling the Dire Razorcat again?"

"Uhhhh Huhh!" There was a long period of silence.

"Looks like she ruined another prototype." The devil woman mused quietly. "Took six months to grow. He'll be in a bad mood after this." Her head tilted towards Erik. "Word of warning."

The mage cleared his throat loudly, uttering what may have been curses in another language under his breath. "Paracelsa, I'm afraid there are things which have far more need of your…affection, at the moment."

"Weeaally?"

"Yes…A particular thunderbird, to be precise."

"Weeeeaaaally?" She practically squealed. "A fwuffy Funderbird? But they're awmost exstinct!"

"Mmm, yes… And very lonely because of it."

"Awww, it needs a biiiiig hug!"

"Yes, that it does. You see, it was locked in a cell by cold-hearted mages and it has just managed to escape its mistreatment…"

"Awwww, that's so… saaaad." Her voice wavered in pitch, like she was about to start crying.

"Well, you know what you have to do, then."

"Yep! I'm gonna huggle, then I'm gonna cuddle, then I'm gonna feed him allllll the candy he can eat. When I'm done, he won't cry eeeever again."

The mage gave a low chuckle. "Of course you will, darling. Oh, and princess, should you run into anyone else while giving out hugs… It's a very cold night, and you might think of sparing them a hug…or two."

"Mm-hm! Hugs and cuddles for one and all!"

The door vanished abruptly, and all was silent. The demon exhaled. "She's gone…"

-

Chain felt her hair follicles stand on end as lightning crashed around them. …Fire… Crawling toward a tree in a thunderstorm would have been considered foolish in any other circumstance but the one she found herself in now. If she could get to that burning tree, maybe she could warm up and have a fighting chance.

Her crawl quickened.

[Keith Denangande]

*A bolt of electricity struck the ice between Chain and the flailing thunderbird. It lit the area. It danced across the frozen water. Then in a rather spectacular arc it cascaded into the depths and was abruptly conducted into oblivion.

Other small fires shocked into life around the forest. Warmth was no longer an issue. Heat was gradually becoming a danger.

In the growing light of chaos, Keith started to take to the air again. A kick of adrenalin pushed him clumsily forward. That or sheer terror. He was no longer aware of Chain and more interested of fleeing further. However the wounds and fatigue gradually took hold once again.

A few yards down the ice on a bank of snow he crashed again.*

[DonMariachi]

Ouch, that crash had to hurt. As the thunderbird's head spun, a range of odd sounds and smells assailed his senses. The air smelled faintly of…roses, but not really, like someone had taken the complex scent and stripped out everything but the cloyingly sweet part.

"Duhhh, fuzzy dwaggy fall down…" Came a low, dopey voice.

"S..s.s..so sad….s.s.s.sooo cold?" A higher, more childlike voice chattered.

"I do declare, I can hardly begin to fathom how many kisses it will take to make this better!"

"Not so fast you thwee." Came a final, girlish voice. "Dere is more to this than meets the eye." A moment later, and the voice sounded closer to Keith's ear. "Powahful thapethifting magic at work here…" The voice drifted further away. "And undaneath these wough cwothes izza woman! Hmm…" Keith could here the hmm sounds travelling in a circle. "I hav it! A twagic pair of star-cwossed wovers!"

"Dur…wha?" "Gawsh!" "Dearest me!" Came the chorus of voices.

A long moment of silence passed.

"W.w.w.well, whaddawe do?"

"Hmm…" The girlish voice mused . "We mutht deal with this delicatewy. We mutht be…judithious in our…dithpenthation of wuv, as dese star-cwossed womances all too easiwy end in twagedy."

Another long moment of silence. " Duh…that was too many big words, princess. I'm confused."

"Aw, don't wowwy about it, I'll expwain on the way. We can start by bwinging them in from the cold."

"Dur…Dwagon's too big ta get through da door, I think."

"Not to wowwy,. A widdle twansmogwification appears to be in ordah."

And Keith felt the all-to-familiar sensation of change, even as he faded out of consciousness.

-

Grass… That was the first thing he smelled. Ah, and roses. Keith had a vague sensation of laying on something soft, warm, and comfortable…at least compared to the cold hard cell he'd been chained in for so many months. Were those birds he could hear singing?

As he drifted into consciousness, the first definite sensation he'd feel was…tickling? Whether or not Keith could be effectively tickled through his feathers, the first thing he'd see when awakening was a fine coat of feathery grass that was fluttering back and forth seemingly of its own accord.

Once Keith got his beak out of the grass, he'd notice a few things. First, he was in his anthro form. Second, he was dressed in what looked to be a tuxedo. Third, he was surrounded by a square expanse of hedges, eight feet high and peppered with red flowers that looked like…lips? Fourth, the sky was blue… flat, unnatural blue, with a dim, unnatural yellow 'sun' (was that a smily face on it?).

Well, this was a strange place to be confined in. But wait, there looked to be a crack in the hedges; not big enough to squeeze through, but it might warrant a look. Of course, he could always try flying or climbing out. The hedges were only about eight feet high…

Of course, those lip-roses started looking real interested the moment he ventured close to them.

[Keith Denangande]

*The last thing Denangande remembered was the sheer urge to escape. The mind-numbing drench of freezing cold water. The shock of snow as it creeped in through his downy fluff. And the hard crack as he threw himself into some trees and fell helplessly into an endless turmoil of darkness.*

*He did not expect to wake up in a half form in the grass. In a tuxedo no less.*

*The thunderbird anthropomorph examined his scenery as he got up slowly and dusted himself off.*

Keith: ... Colorful.

*Non the less the urge to flee still chattered deep in his bones. Near instinctively he flexed out his wings and decided on a whim that he needed to get over that hedge and out of here.

That is what he plans and is going to attempt to do.

It has not yet occured to him that Chain is probably not in the area, nor half of what has happened to him as a dragon.*

[DonMariachi]

Lifting up off the ground Keith could see a number of things. A giant hedge maze stretched in all directions, as far as the eye could see. A 15 foot high h bear wearing a peaked hat stood snoozing in the middle of a nearby hedge. A garish castle decorated in candy hues stood off in the distance. There was another clearing in front of Keith as he flew over the hedge, in which there was someone dressed in.... A wedding gown?

"Glom?" A high pitched voice raised in question behind him. If the Thunderbird was able to turn and look, he'd see a white shape that seemed to consist of nothing more than a simplified face ( 0.0 ) with two oversized arm/wings splayed to the side.

Eyes glued to Keith, it let out an elated "Glom!" (^o^) before launching itself at the Thunderbird.

[Keith Denangande]

*Denangande observed his scenery with a wedge of trepedation and a touch of humor.*

Keith: This. . was not where I was before.

*He was use to strange bouts of torture, malformations, and testings. This was so far to the cute and colorful side that it made his head hurt.

The bear was an interest. His attention however went to the person in the gown. So far that when he was about to land he only had miliseconds to notice the glomming white space of strangeness.*

Keith: What in the -

*He will not have enough time to avoid the attack.*

[DonMariachi]

The thing's arms stretched out wider and wider as it careened toward the flying Keith. When it hit, it had matched the anthro thunderbird's wingspan, and then some. It hit his upper torso with only a slight bit of force (suggesting the thing was pretty light), but then he felt its arms clamp around his wings with a grip of rubbery iron. "Glom!" It chirped happily, compressing his wings shut to send his body into a dive. Essentially, Keith had enough control left to pick his landing spot. He could crash on top of the hedge (with its attentive lip-roses), the ground, or the figure in the wedding gown (figures in wedding gowns are softer than the cold hard ground, right?).