Yeldrid grabs onto Samson's reins and gives the mule a solemn pat on the back before glancing over to the gangles. He stands silently regarding the group, much like the gangles regard them, before waving towards the one with the bow.
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Yeldrid gives Isamu a thumbs up, and whistles towards Samson. "Come on, mate, no need to be stubborn now. You ain't gonna be a snack for the bloody Wolf." He walks past the Old Wolf's skin, giving it a cautionary glance, smiles widely, and begins laughing as he goes to fetch his mule.
Yeldrid, still determined, lines uo another shot.
And it's a crack of a shot too.
Yeldrid reloads and fires the gun again, a slightly more grim expression on his face.
"Nobody panic, I've got bullets to spare." Yeldrid loads their gun once more and takes aim.
Yeldrid pulls out the junk pistol and levels it at the Old Wolf.
The shot goes wild, smashing into the roof.
Yeldrid starts drawing more bags full of the strange substance, and pours it onto one of Lily's blades. This one doesn't appear to spark, but rather, glow faintly with a cold light. "There. No demon will wanna mess with you, that's for sure."
"Yeah, you're not making two noble sacrifies in a row. We're in this one together, mate." Yeldrid undoes a small knot on the bag and opens it wide. From within, sparks sprout repeatedly, like a sparkler. He then tips the bags contents over Isamu's knife, a gold dust that clings to the knife, continuing to release the harmless sparks.
"I can't do much until you're all over here, so uh....I'll just wait until you get here." Yeldrid unfurls from their pack a small waxed bag tied off with a string. It seems to glow within.
Yeldrid grabs Trin's hand, and smiles. "Don't worry, little fella. Isamu's handling it. Luck is on our side." Yeldrid then points a finger gun towards Cappy, motions firing it with a 'clicking' noise, winking as he does so. The metal in the parties possession begins crackling and buzzing. An odd smell and taste fills the air, hair and fur stands on end, and a feeling of something about to happen envelopes the group.
Yeldrid looks towards Samson, turns back, and says, 'Honestly, if you tempt him with feed Samson would probably leap off a cliff. That's not particularly impressive, demon thing.'
"Remember, no fighting on the bridge. If the wolf wants us, then more than likely we can let the bridge do the work." Yeldrid follows behind Isamu, looking cautiously to ensure there aren't any nasty surprises.
Yeldrid nods. "Sprint, fellas. We've gotta go." As the group is moving forward, Yeldrid asks Isamu, "Hey, I don't suppose you have my knife, do you? Apparently that knifes pretty good at killing certain, weird things. So maybe keep it at the ready." Yeldrid also pulls out of his bag what looks like a small, oddly damp bag. it emits a cool, yellowish light.
Yeldrid lazily waves a hand from the ground. "G'day." Yeldrid sits up to go retrieve his gun parts from Samuel and invite over Trin, who is probably pretty worried right now.
Yeldrid is shoved to ground with a loud 'oof!'. From his position on the ground, he yells after the gangle "Bye." Yeldrid rolls over onto his side to watch the fight, picking and chewing a blade of grass.
Yeldrid resumes his fighting stance, feinting a few times before going for another slug.
Yeldrid strings wide enough to allow the orc to easily duck away.
Yeldrid, seeing the bow wielding orc, decides that she is probably his safest bet of acquiring a decent weapon. He takes a boxers stance and begins bouncing on his toes towards the gangle, launching a jab as he gets close.
He biffs her on the arm, but lets out a yowl and shakes his hand in pain, hurting him more than he definitely didn't hurt her. He's really not good at this.
Yeldrid packs more gunpowder and shot into his pistol and takes aim at the same gangle he just shot.
The gun makes a *pfft* sound, and the entire front half falls apart. It begins releasing a pink smoke. Yeldrid packed it with hair dye. "Nobody panic, but my spare parts are...not on me. Thankfully I have ny kn-" Yeldrid reaches towards their boot, finds their knife is gone, and realises he gave it to Isamu. He doesn't have any weapons.
"More are coming. Let's make this quick." Yeldrid steps forward and draws his pistol, aiming at the gangle further back.
Yeldrid looks at his companions, grins, and runs towards the kerfuffle. When he rounds the corner, he yells, Goblin: "Oi, you two. What do you think you're doing?"
Yeldrid nods and packs the teeth into his belt pouch. He goes to find some sticks to roll the skins onto, and when he returns asks, ”Anyone got any salt? Helps preserve it. Not gonna be a problem though since I’m sure we’ll find someone to give it to once we hit the village in the morning. Just that it might stink if it it gets hot...”
Yeldrid leans down from the branch, roused from sleep. He hangs down from his knees, surveys the scene, spots the snake, and leaps down towards it as it convulses in its death throes. He seems oddly preoccupied with the corpse until its movements stop. Seeing things settle, and Rex's wounds tended, Yeldrid looks over the corpse with a keener eye and obvious delight. "Crikey, she is a beaut! Look at the size of her." Yeldrid picks up the severed head and compares it to his own fist with astonishment. "She's gonna be good eats, I reckon. And I can make you a necklace from its teeth, Rex. You'll look pretty spiffy with some snake fangs around ya neck. Maybe we can see about the skins too. Bet they'll go for a good price."
"We'll be at the town in the afternoon I reckon. Hopefully Isamu makes it in time." After helping set up camp for the night, Yeldrid climbs up into the upper branches of one of the mossy trees and sets out their blanket, choosing an advantageous lookout and sightline towards the group. His tail flicks into view every so often, along with the intermediate sound of a clicking noise.
Yeldrid looks at the sign with astonishment. "Bloody hell, that's neat! But that does leave me wondering about why..." Yeldrid presses his ear to the ground just by the post, listening for anything in the ground. "You think this is meant to guide people through this weird, nonsensical forest? Oh what am I sayin', 'course it does. It's a signpost."
"Well, we know the sign has been turned around. I'll just assume that the forest path is the wrong way, and we're meant to go up that path." Yeldrid points towards the left path. "If they're all traps...well. I guess we get caught." Yeldrid lets out a fairly weak laugh. He's...quite tired.
Yeldrid is still not convinced there isn’t something wrong with this. ”I think...this might be glamored. Wouldn’t surprise me given whatever Not Cappy can do.” Yeldrid concentrates on the sign.
Whatever it is, he can’t see past it. He looks to the other two. ”If it’s hiding the truth from me, I need better eyes.” He smirks.
Yeldrid is going to look at the signpost, determining if it had been shifted around at some point.
"I wonder what happened to the fellas who lived here. Reckon they legged it?"
"He made the choice, Rex. He knew what he was doing. We have to look after Trin. If we go back now, we could be handing them over to the gangles." Yeldrid shakes his head, "We just gotta hope he is faster than they are. And get Trin as far along as possible. If Isamu is coming at all, he'll find us eventually."
"Time to go. I hope you can run fast, Isamu..."
Yeldrid keeps up with the same path, following along the ravine. He wonders what happened to the bridge, whether it was the gangles or some other insidious being. Maybe something he should let the guild know about it... The catfolk constantly looks out towards the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of a small fox or the gnarled forms of pursuing gangles. And yet, the night grows more and more silent as he leads the group away from hunting pack. Enough that, finally, Yeldrid can hear the sounds of night birds, night bugs flit around his ears, and he can no longer smell the trails of the orcs in the trees. Home free. For most of them. After a night like this, Yeldrid regrets having not purchased some catsmoke in Barlily. Would help to calm the nerves...
Yeldrid looks about, scratches his chin, and pulls out his rope. He whispers to the group "Hide somewhere in the brush. Rex, take one length of this rope and go over there. Lily, tie it down over there. I'll cling on the edge and call them over. When they come towards us, pull the rope taut. They'll go right over the edge."
Yeldrid feels the same oppressive closeness he did when he first entered the forest only a few days ago. The closeness of the trees, looming shadows that could hold hidden dangers. He once found an old, hollowed structure in the middle of the desert. Pillars of metal and rock jutting out of earth to prop up a strange series of bubbles. The metal had rusted and collapsed in places, and there existed corroded metal objects the size of houses forming a net like canopy of rust, a strange metal forest. He remembered the sound his footfalls made in the sand and rock, each step echoing around him. The place, empty of everything but metal and sound, felt like a trap, waiting for something to listen to the foolish catfolk walking in their noisy den. Some predator who knew the value of silence. Here the sound was all around him again, but it isn't his own movements that caused it. He realized that the call somewhat gave away to when and where the gangles moved, and that the howls might be the forward hunting party. By moving the group in the direction away from where the howls seem to be starting up, he believes he is putting gradual distance between the gangles and themselves. He keeps the group quiet, no talking, no sound. Knowing each of the calls and direction was important to ensuring the group move carefully. There are a few moments when he believes he had led them straight into the gangles, a call directly where they were going. In those instances, he pulled them into hollow stumps and behind fallen trees, waiting and watching for any movement. When the howls picked up elsewhere, away from them, they would move once more. He didn't know where he was leading everyone. He just had to hope that it was away from the gangles.
Yeldrid nods towards the brush he heard the cries coming from. "I can smell the trail. She's probably close, out there with the gangles. Knowing her, she's probably fine, but we need to leave. These woods are full of badguys..." Yeldrid collects Samson and leads him over to Trin. "Samson's riding trained. He'll get you out of here in a hurry if need be. Just gotta yell his name three times. He knows what to do." Yeldrid helps Trin up onto the mule and pops his hat and poncho onto him.
"Maybe they won't recognize him at first. Hopefully..."
Yeldrid pulls out his dagger, inspects it and lets Isamu have a look. “Some fella thought I was a ‘rakaha’ or something. Told me this would ‘pierce my evil hide’. Exact words, too. Pretty convinced I was some horrible monster, the poor bugger. Wouldn’t listen to reason. Anyway, that’s not steel. It looks like some kind of strange metal I’ve never seen before. It shines too bright. And it wiggles a bit when people cast magic near it. Kinda freaky. Well made though. I use it for gardening.’
”I told you we should have shot him the moment we walked into the clearing. Now he’s been allowed to monologue, and there are orcs on the way. Bloody waste of my time. We need to end this. Now.“ Yeldrid points his gun at the creature in goblin skin and fires.
Yeldrid cuts a line in the branches past Bad Cappy’s head, the crack of the gun echoing over the sound of the howls. Yeldrid yowls angrily.
“Na. Must have gotten turned around. Which way did she go? I’ll sniff out her trail, over trees or by foot.”
"We have trouble, Isamu. The bloody birds are back, and we've apparently been found. Among other things..." Yeldrid shoots a look towards Cappy but doesn't say anything directly. He does pull out his pistol and scans the brush. "Whereabouts did Lily go? We might be in for a brawl in a sec."
"I guess we should give him the chance to come clean. I'll watch him like a hawk, but you should do the talking if you think you will be more civil about it."
Spoiler: "Thank you, friend fish. You've been most helpful."
Yeldrid motions for Rex to lower the fish. Once done so, Yeldrid says, "Cappy is a spy. And here I was, thinking I had found the first familiar face in some time, and he's a snitch." Yeldrid shakes his head. "Back home, gobkins are honest about their intentions. If he was going to stab us in the back, he'd let us know in advance. Usually through innuendo and snide comments, but you pick that up easy enough. Gobkin way, you see. But this one doesn't know sniff to puff. I reckon we oughta go have a quick talk with our mate Cappy."
”Somehow, I’m not even surprised that you talk. : Yeldrid laughs a bit before realising that they now have an interesting opporunity. ”Actually, could you help us out, by any chance? We’re wondering if you and your friends spied a goblin walk through this creek in the last couple of minutes, or did something around here.”
Yeldrid inspects the water and the fish swimming about. "You think these ones talk?"
Once the group has moved out of sight, Yeldrid leans over to Rex and says 'Let's follow Cappy's trail.'
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