OOM: Elysium or Shephard's quest for an arm.

[brave_kreyu]

Even before the Combine came, Shephard's world had few places left that had never known the touch of men. This forest has no name, for no tribe of wanderers has ever dared to settle here, to harvest the mighty oaks that tower far above his head.

It is nearly noon on Midsummer's day, but little light reaches Shephard and Kreyu down here on the forest floor. The only thing of note in the clearing is a large ring of mushrooms, a formation sometimes called a faerie ring.

Comments

[hecu_marine]

"... that ain't all that different from the scopes," Shephard says with some surprise. "Less green, though. Huh. Am I in trouble if somethin' comes 'round a corner with a torch or shit?"

[brave_kreyu]

"It may blind you for a second or two" Kreyu replies after a moment of thought, "but your pupils should adjust relatively quickly."

She grins, "Although you may get a bigger shock if you see your reflection." It got the nickname Cat's eye for more than just the results, Adrian's pupils are a little weird looking right now.

[hecu_marine]

"Won't go lookin' in any mirrors, then," Shephard promises. "I got other things to do. Let's git movin', shall we?"

[brave_kreyu]

"Indeed," Kreyu replies with a grin. It's warmer inside the cavern, especially once they get well away from the opening of the cave. They descend deeper into the cave, twisting and turning with pathways carved by water in days long gone.

All of a sudden, the tunnel opens up and they see a most peculiar sight. The cavern is studded with statues of both man and beast, their forms contorted in expressions of fear, arms raised as if to ward off an attacker or limbs poised to flee. A thick smell of snake musk hangs in the air.

Kreyu freezes, expression wary.

[hecu_marine]

".... thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ain't good."

Truly, a master of the English language.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu uses a few words she's picked up from Shephard. (Sometimes, only foreign profanity will suffice.)

"We've stumbled into a basilisk nest. If you meet their eyes you will be petrified, and they're quite venomous besides."

Wait, that noise there....sounds like a lot of big snake scales moving over rock.

[hecu_marine]

"Oh, I been bit by the best," says Shephard confidently, but that doesn't mean he's not taking the opportunity to awkwardly sheathe that sword and then reach for the front of his fatigues. "They the kind of thing where lookin' at 'em even a little bit'll git you killed, or am I all right so long as it ain't right in the eye? 'Cause if it's the first kind I'mma just make me a blindfold right now, cat eyes or no."

[brave_kreyu]

"A reflection should be safe enough, else you'd best bind your eyes."

Holy crap, that's a big snake! Kreyu calls the shadows, forming them into a violet tinged blade. She shuts her eyes and wades into the fray with a battle cry.

[hecu_marine]

"Right, okay," mutters Shephard, and glances at the shield, which is really a nice shiny bronze-

Who the fuck is he kidding? He's already wielding the sword in his damned off hand, and he's supposed to fight backwards based on a reflection on an irregular surface? Fuck THAT shit. It's undershirt over the face time.

And then it's time to draw that bronze sword and run at the noise as best he can, and start slicing anything that doesn't tell him to point himself the other way.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu stays well out of the way of the wildly whirling blade that is Shephard. (It's helpful that he's the only other biped in the area.)

The angry hissing and the thwacking noises of his sword hitting scales and flesh suggest that he's hitting the enemy at least SOME of the time.

Eventually, all the hissing noises stop and Shephard can hear Kreyu panting a bit. "I think that's the last of them."

[hecu_marine]

"Good," says Shephard, also panting. "Good. I ain't takin' this thing off yet, but... any of 'em got fangs still intact?"

Left to his own devices he'd skin the living daylights out of these things and take the hides home, but he doubts they'll have time.

[brave_kreyu]

"Several of them do, yes. I take it you'd like some of the fangs?"

There's a wrenching, popping sound as Kreyu removes one fang from a particularly large basilisk's skull.

[hecu_marine]

"Sure would," says Shephard. "All's I need for me's one, but I know some trolls who'd take right well to that sort of shit."

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu hmms an affirmative and yanks the other fang out of the skull of the largest basilisk. They're the size of his hand and oddly smooth.

"There are two more whose fangs are nearly as large as these," she remarks, wading through the pile of dead basilisks. "Will 5 more suffice for your troll friends?"

[hecu_marine]

"They'd fuckin' shit themselves over five," says Shephard. "That'll do just fine. 'scuse me, I'mma go fix my shirt'n git some of this blood'n shit offa me while you're doin' that, if you don't mind."

[brave_kreyu]

"Not at all," Kreyu replies, ripping yet another fang out of a basilisk skull. Crap, she's got one hell of a grip.

Nothing tries to eat his face while he's cleaning up.

[hecu_marine]

Good. That would be awkward.

When he returns he says, "I got to say, Kreyu, I owe you a fuckload for all of this. I ain't real sure how I'm even gon' start payin' you back for what you done so far, let alone the hand."

[brave_kreyu]

"It is not a matter of debt," Kreyu replies as she yanks the last fang free from its resting place.

"My brothers would say that I have tried to make all of humanity my brood, and that is....not entirely inaccurate."

"I have taken much from the years I have lived amongst humans, more than I could ever hope to repay." Old sorrow edges into her expression. "I do what I can for humanity, as all too often I am helpless in the face of their mortality."

[hecu_marine]

Shephard thinks about this a while, and eventually nods. "Suppose that makes sense," he murmurs. He does, after all, remember Priam. "Still and all, I got to say- I appreciate all you've done so far. Even if everything else goes to shit. Wanted you to know that."

[brave_kreyu]

"You are most welcome," Kreyu replies with a small smile. The fangs are wrapped up and handed to Shephard.

"The path from here spirals up and out. From the feel of things, I believe we are close to the dwelling of the Master Smith."

[hecu_marine]

Shephard knots what's left of his undershirt around them and tucks them away as best he can. "All righty, then," he says. "Let's go'n see the man about- shit. Is it a man? What'm I s'posed to call this Master Smith, anyways?"

[brave_kreyu]

"'Sir' would work as well as anything," Kreyu replies as they start their climb. "Natives of Elysium are wary of giving their names to mortals and thus favor titles when dealing with them."

"He is one of the Daea, which would make him fae," she explains. "He looks human, though no mortal has ever had irises that change color as his do."

[hecu_marine]

"Sir's fine," says Shephard. "I c'n live with 'sir'."

It's kind of a reflex, considering.

"Anything I ought to know not to do or say around him?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu shakes her head. "So long as you are polite, things should go well. The Smith is no high born Daea with their urges to borrow the elaborate manners of human courts."

They emerge into an oak forest in autumn. In the air, they can hear the baying of hunting hounds that have scented their quarry.

[hecu_marine]

"Good," says Shephard, "because as far as that goes, I'd be dead fuckin' meat."

He pauses to listen to the sound of the hounds, and smiles a little. Not that he doesn't love Mrs. Wilson and her brood, but they're just not the same.