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Joshua Halfhand's thick lips turn upward in the glabro parody of the
smile. ~I'd rather talk about some of the creatures we soundly
defeated on Thunder Claws's challenge. I think there are things in
this recent fight that I still do not understand.~ The Get pauses,
thoughtfully, ~Though perhaps you will have ideas on what that pack of
Dancers was actually doing, and what we stopped as we hunted under the
gibbous moon.~
Joshua Halfhand shrugs his massive shoulders, ~She said she wanted to
get experience fighting before her rite of passage. Hell, I can't
blame her for that. For a little bit, she has some guts to want to go
hunting with some Get of our rank. Still, we wouldn't take her without
her tribe's okay. I mean, we'd look over her if we could, but fights
happen fast. Hard to see what could happen. So Thunder's Claws came
along, both to fight and to watch over his tribe's cub.~
Joshua Halfhand rubs his wounded left arm thoughtfully, the murmuring of
other conversations around him. He ignores them, absorbed in the
memories of his own story. ~We ran a long way, to a place I'd seen to
the southwest. It was a place that needed a pack, but not so tough I
thought we'd lose the cub. It needed tending. In the realm, soldiers
gather there to practice the arts of human war.~ The Get grimaces,
~Maybe because humans are open to the Corrupter, such places are often
ugly in the Umbra, despite the glory of fighting. This place was no
exception.~
Joshua Halfhand continues his story for his listeners. ~When we got
there, the Wyrm spirits I had seen there before were just...gone. We
sniffed around, but we couldn't even get a hint of them. Just an empty
scarred patch with holes blown in the ground. We crept out, being
cautious. The cub and all.~
Anne leans forward a little, the better to minimize the distractions of
the other conversations while she listens to Halfhand.
Joshua Halfhand looks from face to face, his expression grim. ~That's
when we saw it. Tastes-Ashes saw it first, but it wasn't hard to spot
when we got far enough out. A...cauldron, with five twisted figures
dancing around it. There was something in the cauldron...silver, it
looked like, though how anyone would get /that/ much silver in the
Umbra, I have no idea. The closer we got, the more it blocked us from
Gaia.~
Joshua Halfhand doesn't seem to notice Mac's question as he continues.
~Tastes-Ashes warned us to crouch down, and screamed. I'd never heard
that gift up close, though I'd heard tales. Even prepared, we were
nearly knocked to the ground. Four of the dancing figures were, though
one managed to keep to his feet. He ignored us, and the other didn't
seem to want to leave their prize to come to us. So I called them to
us, using the voice of the Enemy. Three came to my call.~
Anne looks down at one of her hands, closed into a fist; she flicks out
one finger, then another, then a third, and then looks back up at
Halfhand with a tight smile.
Joshua Halfhand's hands tighten as he remembers. ~I called as long as I
could, to draw them in. Tastes-Ashes took the one closest to her,
Black Ice and Thunder's Claws attacked another. The third met my claws
as it dove in.~ He shakes his head, ~You can make pretty stories about
combats, but it happens so quickly you only get the full picture
afterwards. I knew when Tastes-Ashes's prey exploded, knocking me and
my combatant to the ground. It wasn't until later, though, that I
found out about the Lords's battle with a weapon they couldn't get to
directly: electricity. The fucker they were fighting, with tooth and
silver knife, kept shocking them with some sort of charge, but he
carried no weapon to the eye.~
Joshua Halfhand thinks about that, then shakes his head. ~They were both
fighting it. Black Ice had her jaws sunk in its leg, so she was
touching it. I guess Thunder's Claws was, with the knife. I didn't get
shocked that I noticed, and Tastes-Ashes didn't say she felt anything
either.~
Joshua Halfhand shakes his head again, ~Fought Dancers before, but these
were some of the most warped I'd ever seen. The one I was against was
all blubbery and lumpish, and had green foam dripping from its mouth.
It bit Tastes-Ashes before it died, and she said it felt like a full
moon, three times over. We killed them off, though, and then turned to
the other two. The one not dancing took a while; we had to get close
to the cauldron, which made it tough to use a lot of gifts.~ He
snorts, ~It didn't seem to have any problems.~
Joshua Halfhand shakes his head, ~We took a lot of damage from him.
Black Ice fell back, too smart to want to get her ass wiped out on a
learning experience. Finally, Tastes-Ashes blood felled him, flung
into its eyes. So we turned to the final Dancer, the one /still/
dancing around the cauldron.~
Joshua Halfhand glances to the north. ~Huh. Well, let me wrap this up,
so we can go do something about that. Not much left.~ The big galliard
stares into the fire. ~Thunder's Claws knocked it down, managing to
get that gift off. It stumbled, then noticed its pack was dead. So
it...~ His face twitches. ~It /shifted./ Into a green dragon. It
picked that Gaia-be-damned cauldron up in its fucking claws and flew
off.~ The big Get shivers aat the memory.
Joshua Halfhand shakes his head and stands. ~That's it. When we got past
the fear it invoked with its final scream, it was too far away to
attack. We came home.~
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