The captain edges his sled closer to Cervin, and takes a swing with his longsword, while trying to avoid the branches.
He swings and hits Cervin, but the blow is blunted by Cervin's chain shirt, and the captain is forced to pull away to avoid a tree.
Meanwhile, the guards behind try to gain ground, following the trails of the other sleds.
Falling toward the back of the group, and seeing the guards gaining, Nadya focuses on avoiding the trees and following the trail.
Arkady does his best to duck the trees while continuing to harry the oncoming sleds with acid.
Arkady dodges the branch and stays focused long enough to send off some acid, but the orb hits a tree before it can reach the captain's sled.
Realizing that firing a bow would leave no hands to guide the sled, he snaps the reigns and tries to get through the forest.
Yagello finds himself in the same predicament as Cervin. He would like nothing better than to attack the guards, but his two-handed weapons likewise leave no hands to grasp the reigns. He pushes those thoughts out of his mind, concentrating on maneuvering through the tricky passages.
Yagello avoids most of the branches, but while looking back at the guards a moment too long he takes a face full of soft needles. The guards slow down, and the leader loses ground after his attack. He and another guard find themselves surrounding Arkady and Nadya. "Dere utlendinger vil snart føle vreden til Blek Tårnet!"
Despite his threat, his guards are beginning to fall further back. At the front of the pack, the trees come to an abrupt end at an icy crevasse, where the trail turns sharply to the left. One look down is all it takes to see the fall here would be treacherous.
The captain manages to slash at Nadya's arm, but he has to maneuver too close to the edge, and is forced to pull his dogs to control them enough, and then leads them back onto the path.
As the leader of the guards attacks Nadya, Arkady draws his own rapier and jabs back.
The sudden turn disorients the Varisian, and his attack goes wide.
The guards further back try to catch up to the rest of the party. Seeing the other sleds slow at the crevasse to turn, they slow well before the turn to accelerate along the treeline.
White-faced from adrenaline, Cervin lets out a shout as he pulls the dogs up sharply. However, he's unable to maintain his composure, and the sled skids out wildly forcing him to slow up and return back to the track.
Yagello's face goes white at the site of the approaching crevice, and he pulls hard on the bridles shouting, "WHOA!!! HOLD ON NEVINIA!!
Nevinia tucks in tight to avoid branches, and holds herself in tight to Yagello. "Spirits protect him," she intones.
Nadya whips the reins of the sled, trying to maintain control along the edge.
Nadya panics and the sled comes lurching to a stop near Cervin, but Nadya does not recover as quickly.
As the sleds follow the thin trail between the tree line on the left and the steep slope on the right, Yagello has a moment to look back from the lead position.
Behind Nevinia and Yagello's sled, one of the guards is following close behind, but just out of range. Behind him is Cervin, trying to catch up, and beyond Cervin is the guard captain and Nadya's sled, with the captain still threatening with his blade. The other guards are falling further and further behind, their dogs nearing the point of exhaustion.
Looking back at the path ahead, Yagello sees a series of rocks on the road, making the narrow path even more difficult to navigate. He can see only two options: risk going over the rocks, praying that the sled will hold; or guide the dogs right up against the edge of the trail, avoiding the worst rocks but coming close to sliding down into whatever lies below.
Seeing the rocks ahead, Arkady asks Nadya, "Over or around?"
She looks back at the closing sled, and with a blatant disregard for her safety, scoops up a handful of passing snow, scraping her hand on a rock. She regards the driver, then the lead dog, and blows the snow at the canine.
Cervin looks around wildly and then shrugs, shouting at the dogs.
"Go! Go! I... don't know what words make you run faster but do it!"
Old Deadeye be with me Old Deadeye be with me...
In the midst of all this chaos, Yagello suddenly notices that Nevinia is drawn very close to him, and a nervous beat of sweat trickles down his forehead. He calls backs to the comely witch, "Be careful, it may get a little bumpy ahead. I don't want to lose you over that ravine!"
He doesn't quite trust his ability to maneuver the sled so close to the edge, so he pushes forward over the rocks.
Nadya looks at the rocks ahead, and sees Yagello and Cervins sleds bump over the rocks. "Over, OVER!" She steers after them, hoping the guards are not as lucky.
She stays to the sled, but slows for a moment to allow Arkady to get seated again. She looks back to see where the other guards are.
The snow blown by Nevinia moves in a hypnotic pattern, as if barely moving among the chaos of the chase, and as the lead dog passes though the fine mist, he collapses in a heap. The other dogs get tangled up in the reins, and the guard curses in Skald as he gets stopped in the rocks.
The guard captain realizes he is falling behind, and grabs hold of the reins again, whipping his dogs into a rush, while trying to stay on over the rocks.
Behind, the remaining guards try to stay not far behind, hoping that the others will tire eventually.
One guard going through hits a rock funny but whips his dogs to catch up. The other two guards race to go over the rocks as well, but end up colliding with the sled that was stopped by Nevinia, and although they try to continue forwards they would only catch up if the other sleds stopped.
Yagello give himself a moment to look back. He is far ahead of his allies, who are still contending with the captain and one of the guards. The three remaining guards after that are far behind now, and could be outrun at this point.
The trail ends at the end of a long slope to the floor of a snow-covered valley, and the dogs are finally beginning to tire.
"Yagello!" Nevinia exclaims. "Did we make it? I think we made it!"
Looking around, she adds, "Wait, where's everyone else?"
The dogs are nearing the point of exhaustion after having run at full speed for so long. Ahead, the flat valley offers no further obstacles or delays.
The guard captain sees another opportunity and attempts to attack Nadya.
The guard hits Nadya's leg, and Arkady can hear Nadya wince as she tries to maintain control of the sled.
The other guards try to gain ground, while the guard still up on the hill wakes his dogs.
Nadya tries to focus on the dogs, ignoring the growing pain in her leg as she focuses on trying to stay ahead of the guards.
"You have any more magic to help?" she asks Arkady.
Arkady tries once again to foul the leader's sled with acid.
"YEAAAAA!" shouts Cervin as his sled flies over the rocks. He lands with a thud and seeing flat ground ahead, snaps his reins,t rying to get the last he can out of the dogs.
Arkday manages to keep a steady eye long enough to hit the captain's sled, but it merely leaves another small hole in the runner, and does not appear to slow him.
Yagello takes his eyes off the trail for a moment and replies back to Navinia with a satisfied sigh, "Yes, I think the worst's over. I'll take us down into that valley, and maybe we'll be able to see the others from there. Because honestly, I don't really know where I'm going!"
Yagello looks back as the dogs begin to slow from exhaustion, and relaxes a bit when he sees he has a couple hundred feet lead on any of the sleds. However, Nadya only has a slight lead on the others. The only thing for certain is that the dogs are nearing the point of exhaustion, and will not be able to run at top speed much longer. Ahead, the valley trail ends at another rise up a long, slowly sloping hill. The dogs begin to balk at running much further.
"Hiya!" Nadya whips the reins, trying to push the dogs to stay ahead of the guards.
The dogs begin to yelp, though, and the sled begins to slow.
The guards try to push their dogs to catch up to Nadya's sled.
The captain manages to get one last push from his dogs, even getting ahead of Nadya and Arkady as his dogs begin to slow as well. One of his men's sleds manages to keep with the group, but the three other guards far behind remain out of reach.
Cervin valiantly tries to get the last out of his dogs.
Yagello sees the others away in the distance and hesitates for a moment. He exhales deeply and says to Nevinia, "The dogs are starting to get tired, but let's continue for a little bit. I'll follow the trail up that next rise, and see if the others can catch up..."
Yagello reaches the next rise, and looks back again. Now Nadya is leading the pack, with Cervin caught between the captain and one of his guards. The other guards are far behind, and if it weren't for the two sleds with Cervin, his companions could probably keep at a slower pace and get away.
The guards try to keep up with the action. The captain sees Cervin's sled slow, and takes the opportunity to steer his dogs alongside and swing his sword.
The captain misses Cervin aboard the slowing sled and yells in anger, as the other guards dogs are tiring and slowing down.
Nadya looks back, and then look at Arkady. "Friend will be caught, we must help fight!"
Nadya draws her blade as her dogs slow.
Arkady nods. He pulls out his crossbow and loads it as Nadya slows the sled.
Cervin ducks as a sword slash nearly cleaves his head from his neck.
"They've caught us! I'm just going to get some range so I can use my bow!"
Cervin snaps his reins in attempt to get beyond the guards.
Hopefully pulling away a bit, Cervin drops the reins as the sled slows and aims his bow at the captain.
"Old Deadeye guide my arrows and strike down this snivelling servant of a tyrant!"
Yagello shakes his head in frustration, "Uh-oh, it looks like the others are in trouble! I had a feeling this would happen which is why I wanted to fight back at the village!"
He begins turning the sled around to rendezvous with his companions, coaxing the dogs with soft commands.
"Nevinia, if combat breaks out, do you think we could change positions on this sled and you could take the reigns for a moment? If I touch you inappropriately by accident while we're shifting, I apologize deeply in advance. A woman should only be touched certain ways by her husband, and I mean no disrespect..."
Cervin's arrow sinks into the captain's arm, between two of the sheets of his chainmail and he yells in pain, moving along side Cervin's sled to retaliate. One of his guards pulls up along the side to box Cervin in.
Cervin manages to duck to evade one swing, and skirts his sled to the side to avoid another, narrowly missing the second guard's blade.
Arkady braces himself and aims his crossbow. As soon as Nadya brings them close enough, he fires.
Nadya whips the reins to get any speed she can out of the dogs, and whoops as Arkady lets a bolt fly. It hits the leg of the guard menancing Cervin, although it appears to only graze before ricocheting off into the snow.
Cervin keeps riding and turns to fire off another arrow at the guard captain.
Cervin's drops the reins of the sled to draw his arrow, and it flies straight and true, nearly hitting the captain in the same arm, and the captain kneels down on his sled in obvious pain, dropping his sword on his pack.
Yagello continues to urge his dogs onward, circling back as quickly as possible to aid his friends.
The captain of the guards drops the reins and begins going through his pack and pulls out what looks like a small compact case. Meanwhile, his companion pulls in front of Nadya's sled and attempts to slice at the woman.
The guard misses and he snarls in frustration as his dogs pull him past Nadya and Arkady.
Yagello sees Nadya's and Cervin's sleds tussling with the guards, and he tries to close as quickly as possible.
As Cervin's sled slows, he raises his bow, whispers a prayer, and fires off two arrows at the captain.
Cervin misses with the first arrow, and his second arrow hits the sled.
Nadya swings at the guard as he passes, then begins to steer the sled around to go back towards Yagello.
"Bah!" Nadya exclaims in disgust as she misses her chance.
As Nadya pulls past the guard, Arkady reloads his crossbow and takes another shot.