Out of the Pot and into the Fire: Part 1

~~Out of the Pot and into the Fire: Part 1~~

The Western Shore

Characters Involved:

Jinora, a fighter in the Long Patrol

Rioko, a bouncer

Atreyu, a musician

Thieves

Mysterious Monitor Lizards

Another day, another patrol. Jinora is nearing the end of the usual trek to Halyard from the Mountain. While the lengthy trudge (in the cold, no less) is nothing to be sneezed at, it is a casual reality of her day to day life, and as such has adopted an ease born of habit. It is just another aspect of her Patrol, and with careful planning the walk is practically a nonentity. As she nears the Village, and the end of her hike, something gives her pause - the doe attributes it to a trick of the wind, but she could have sworn that she heard screaming...

That would be the weasel screaming at the top of his lungs after the quarterstaff connects with his furry body. Rioko would feel bad if the beast had not tried to rob her. Not her fault the beast didn't expect her to aim her staff below the belt!

Coming upon the fox the bandits thought the fleshy, pot bellied grey fox sunning herself on the beach to be an easy target. The trio of weasels hardly expected the vixen to put up such a fight with her quarter staff.

"You stupid little mut..." One weasel spits a loose tooth out after taking a blow to the muzzle, "We just wanted your wallet miss. Now...oh ho ho...now I'm going to gut you like a fish and tan your miserable h-"

TWAK! Goes the weasel as the staff connects again with his head. Realing backward the weasel shouts, "Just kill her! Kill her!"

Crud crud crud. Thinks the fox. She would run but the vixen is already panting for breath and feeling the strain of her battle.

Unable to mistake the sounds of a scuffle as she gets nearer, Jinora's training kicks in. The scene seems simple enough to understand - mostly because Jin /knows/ the fox, and even more-so knows the difference between beasts on the offensive and those on the defensive - and Rioko is most certainly on the defensive. Breaking into a jog in, what she hopes to be, an intimidating advance, Jinora pulls her saber free of the sheath at her side. "Halt!" She shouts at the assailants, though that /never/ seems to work.

The beasts all come to a halt, turning to gaze at this new arival. The weasels instantly reconize the long patrol hare as trouble, Rioko though reconizes her as something completely different.

A rival.

"YOU!" Weasels forgotten she points her quarterstaff at the hare and wags it accusinly, "You lying backstabbing vermin hating glave stealing scoundral! What in the nine blazes are YOU doing here! And where is my glave!"

"Uh..." One weasel begins.

"Quiet you! I'm talkin here!"

Jinora is, understandably, bewildered; as always, she just wants to help and, as always, something is going wrong. "Uh..." She says, in perfect harmony, with the weasel. "Are you...bein'...robbed?" Her gaze flicks, slow and confused, from the fox to the weasels and back again. "Ah'm...well...First, Ah didn' steal y'glave - Ah tried t'get it back bu' -" That is /definitely/ not important right now. "So yer, uh, good, then?" She waves her weapons towards the weasels. "Don' need 'elp?" She's very confused.

"Help? The only help I need is being saved from you mangy lot of hares that seem content to lord it over us at the village!" She pauses, turning to the weasels who have until now, been standing patiently, letting the beasts finish their verbal sparing match.

One of them even waves to Rioko.

"Oh...right." The fox takes a swing at the nearest weasel before back peddling away from them. "Ok...perhaps I spoke a little too soon on that whole 'no help' thing!" The fox retorts as she blocks a saber strike from a weasel bandit.

The trio of weasel are dressed almost like pirates, grungy dirty clothing to cover their scrawny bodies. They are each armed with sabers. While two beasts focus on the fox one stands up boldly to the hare, pointing his saber at her, "Stay out of this cotton tail. This ain't concerning you!"

"Ah'm not - huh? Ah ain't lordin' ovah anybeast." Jinora is still standing bewildered when the scuffle resumes. As requested, she refrains from giving help - that is, until Rioko retracts her earlier statement. Finally! Some action! The weasel who decides to go after the hare is treated to an actual, gleeful giggle as the action-starved Patroller rushes forward, for a frontal attack, and then suddenly twists to the left, slashing out at the vermin's side as she passes. A heavy kick sends sand up at his face, followed immediately by another attack from the hare. Killing is something that she is still growing accustomed to, but the sickening feeling of a blade sliding into the warm, fleshy underside of the weasel still offers her a sick gratification. One down.

Heading out along the shore for a stroll on his day off is Atreyu. He has his guitar slung over one shoulder and a backpack over the other. As he spies the scuffle in the distance, he grins widely. Nice. Dinner /and/ a show. That is until he sees that Jinora is involved as well. The long ears of the buck perk upwards and he calls out "Jin!" He picks up a steam now, running towards them at full pace.

The weasel let's out a gasp of shock as his belly spills into the sand. The second slash merely puts him further out of his missery.

THe other bandits are too focused on fighting the fox to even notice their friends departure from this world. Rioko keeps blocking and parrying their sabers, a small nick made in the wood of her staff with each blow. "Any time now." Rioko shouts as is forced further down the beach.

Jinora, however, seems to be anything but 'in trouble'. As Atreyu is calling out to her, she is grinning like a beast possessed and rushing from the fallen weasel towards the two trying to batter Rioko into the sand. She taps one of them on the shoulder, and then punches out in full force as he turns. "Howdy, Trey!" She calls, brightly, and kicks at the would-be thief, before bringing the saber down with both paws. And here she wanted a challenge.

The backpack is dropped behind Atreyu as he runs headlong towards them, followed by the guitar which slips into his paws by the neck. Barreling down upon the other bad guy, he leaps forward and looks to slam his instrument overhead upon the other weasel's head from behind. He doesn't see how Jinora can look so cool and all together. She could die out here!

Meanwhile, cold eyes watch the petty scuffle from afar. Hidden among the nearby dunes, the lizards hiss quietly to one another, waiting for the dust to settle...

More likely the buck! As the weasel turns to block the guitar with one paw and thrust his blade into Atreyus belly with the other. Before he can a quarterstaff meet's the back of his head...and then his knee, his gut, chest, shoulder Rioko really is having a field day battering the poor weasel until he falls unconcious before them.

Breathing deeply the fox's fur is frazzled, her eyes wide and teeth bared. Slowly she calms down, leaning on her staff to support her weight. She gives each hare a thumbs up sign with her free paw.

"Nice hit." Jinora compliments Atreyu as he joins the fray, simultaneously yanking her weapon free of the thief at her feet. "Rioko, righ'? Alrigh' there?" The hare wipes the blood from her saber and flashes them both a grin. Nothing strengthens bonds quite like a good, ol' fashioned brawl. "Ah'll take this one to th'jail, if you'd like t'-" The doe, however, doesn't finish her sentence. Her paw goes, blearily, to her neck, and plucks something from it. A dart? That doesn't make sense. That just...doesn't...As she crumples to the sand, two more darts shoot from the dunes, towards the remaining two.

"Uh... I didn't even hit him." Atreyu says with wide eyes as he stares down at the fallen weasel, then takes a few steps away from the fox. Plucking his guitar upwards, he hears a loud 'thunk' and a dart sticking out of it. "Th' heck?" He says, then watches Jinora hit the ground. "Jin!?" He flops down next to her and gives her a few shakes, then plucks the dart out from her with a squint of his eyes, then looks over towards the source from where they came from.

"The bleedin..." The fox unfortunetly proves to be a much easier target, given her size. "Ah bloody h-" She collapses to her knees, trying to stay awake through sheer will power.

Finally she too collapses face first in the sand.

Jinora is dead weight in Atreyu's paws, head lolling limply to one side. Her eyes are half-lidded, rolling back into her skull. Their invisible assailants don't waste time, however, and a quick reload is succeeded by another procession of darts aimed at the buck. "Lucky long-earsssss, your luck won't lassssst..."

"W... Who's there?" Atreyu calls out as he watches the fox fall, then pulls his guitar a bit closer to try and hide behind it. Thunkity-thunk-thunk! The darts hit the guitar, one-two-three! He peers around down to it, then takes off running, trying to drag Jinora behind him by the paw despite her weight. "HELP! HELP US!" He hollers out. Thunk! He gets shot right in the butt with a dart. "HEerrrrllprrrrr uuuuuusss..." Thud.

Slowly, the victorious emerge from their hiding places. The Monitor Lizards hiss and mutter to each other as they inspect their winnings. "Thisss one isss ssstill alive." A curved claw traces the nape of the one unconscious weasel. There are five of them, in all, and they normally do not venture this far from the swamp - and certainly not this close to the village nor the Mountain, but a necessity driven by hunger and scarcity has chased them to more dangerous areas of the shore. "Bring them." Their leader hisses, bending to shove the female hare into a patched sack. Three of his companions are doing the same with the remaining beasts, one of which calls for help in lifting Rioko - who is notably heftier.

To be Continued...