Out of the Pot and into the Fire: Part 2

~~Out of the Pot and into the Fire: Part 2~~

Part One: http://rwmuck.limitless.org/rwmuck/content/out-pot-and-fire-part-1

Characters Involved:

Jinora, a fighter in the Long Patrol

Atreyu, a musician

Rioko, a bouncer

The Swamplands

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The smell of stagnant water fills the air, leaving the atmosphere of the swamp thick and humid. The short spindly trees which surround the area rising like crooked fingers from the mudflats.

Weaving pathways of earth coated in dark grass and algae promise what may be pathways of safety through the swamplands. In most places the mud of the swamp can reach as far as a beasts waist whilst at other points it is barely ankle height.

Still it would be treacherous and deadly to attempt crossing the larger expanse of swamp for sinkholes and pits wait to lure the unwary to their death whilst in other places the mud itself will suck a beast down to their doom.

Stick to the pathways, backtrack and work your way slowly through the swamps and try another path, you risk your life if you stray into the wide, deep expanses of mud and water that form this cheerless swampland.

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The world takes a long time to finally bring itself, blearily, into focus and, when it does, nothing really makes a lot of sense. Sounds - strange, sinister voices, a good deal of bustle, and some indistinguishable...bubbling all seem foreign and out of place, muffled as if someone stuffed cotton in her ears. Jinora is slowly coming to, and it takes her a moment to realize that she is slumped in a rather ungraceful position, her head lolling on someone's shoulder. She tries to push herself upright, but her body is still trying to sort itself out, so she just...sits there a minute, crumpled. Atreyu comes into focus across from her, and the doe realizes that she is currently using Rioko for a pillow. Rioko, whom, to put it lightly, hates her guts. Why...Oh. OH. Things snap back into her head, understanding gradually dawning on her - collapsing in the sand, hissing, foreign sensations and now...They're in a cage. A wooden, crudely constructed - but study - cage. There is movement all around them, hissing, raspy voices and unfriendly exchanges. They're in a cage, they're surrounded by monitor lizards, and things are looking very, very bad.

As the world begins to slowly warble back to life, Atreyu's ears give a prick upwards and he creeps his eyes open slowly. He stares at the pair of beasts across from him slumped over, then slurs out. ".. Now ah' see why ya' won't go 'out with me." He mutters as he rubs a hand along his face, then gives a glance around. He takes in a deep breath, then leans forward to grab his knees, holding back a mouthful of vomit that threatens to chug up his throat.

To be fair, Rioko makes one heck of a pillow. She may not be a marbled fox but the vixen is certainly well marbled. She slowly flutters each eye open, first one then the other. "But mamma...I don't want to wear the green pants..." The fox struggles to get onto her feet. Failing that she rolls onto her rump, paw clutching her head. One eye still covered by her paw, her uncovered eye widens as she realizes that she is, unfortunetly, NOT dreaming. "Uh...guys?" She says in a low whisper.

Next to her the weasel begins to stir, "But mama, I don't want to go to school today. I want to rob and pillage with papa..." Unlike the others his revival comes quickly, and with panic. The weasel sits strait up letting out a terrified scream as he clutches and holds Rioko's tail for comfort, as one would a security blanket. "What's going on? Where are we? What have you done!"

Oh, good heavens, the screaming. Jinora clasps her paws over her ears, slowly rolling forward and just sort of flopping to the floor of their cage as she loses her grip on balance. "SsssSSSSSsssh..." She slurs out. Of the four of them trapped within, she is the slightest of build, and is having a little bit more trouble regaining total use of herself. Finally managing, by sheer force of will, to haul herself into a seated position, she clutches at her head, and even offers a weak, half-smile to Atreyu. Clever. "Oooookay..." She breathes deeply, trying to pull the swamp - for they are, apparently, in a swamp - into focus. A thin-set Monitor Lizard slinks to them and peers, critically, through the bars. "Y-You half-sacked excuse for a-" But then she urps and has to stifle the possibility of an upchuck with a tightly shut muzzle. The lizard just smirks before he moves away. They're in a small, more or less, primitive little village. Huts with thatched roofs, no real organization, and a good deal of loin cloths offer a tip off. They are, at least, in one of the huts, though it only has three walls, and they have a wonderful view of the ongoing construction of a large fire pit. "Ugggh what a cliche." Jinora moans, burying her face against her knees. She assumes that they will be hog-tied to a stick as well, just to complete the dynamic.

Sliding a paw down the front of his pants, Atreyu sticks the tip of his tongue out as he shifts his wrist left to right, left to right, wiggle, wiggle, then pops it back out with a couple of pins between his fingers. He gives another glance out the bars of the cage, then slowly begins to shift on his rump towards the door. He kicks a foot out to catch Jinora's attention, then says, "Shhh." He murmurs to her. "... I'm gonna break us out, soon as.. I can walk again.. and not puke on myself."

How the vermin manage to hold in their stomach contents will forever remain a mystery. Perhaps they are too groggy to throw up. Rio knows she is. She also knows that she is quite afraid. Monitor lizards? Bon fire? Prisoners? It doesn't take a beast who can count beyond their own fingers to figure out what is going to happen next!

And Rioko is by far the fattest of the bunch.

The weasel is a close second due simply to excessive bear drinking. "No...I can't die like this...I can't die like this..." The weasel nervously wrings the fox's tail until she rips it away from him.

"Gimmie that." The fox tries to half craw, half drag her portly self to the beasts. Everything is so NUMB. Well, at least it won't hurt as much when they eat her...right? Right?

"Before our fellow Bard get's us all...get's us all killed. Is there a plan for...for what happens after we get out of here?"

As Atreyu's paw goes down his pants, Jinora's eyebrows shoot waaaaay up. "Ah'm not sure tha' now is th'time for -" Oh riiiiight, alright, that's much better. Their scaly friend returns, this time with a few friends for backup. They are all grinning at them with terrible, sharp, pointy smirks. "Thisss one." He points at the weasel and, as terrifying as their situation is, Jinora can't help but breathe a small sigh of relief. The weasel, on the other hand, is probably not going to handle things as well. While two of the lizards menace at the captives with spears, driving them to the back of the cage, the leader pushes his way inside. "But that one isss fatter." One of them complains, tongue flicking out at Rioko. "Yessss." His companion agrees. "Hissska wantsss hisss pelt." The first growls, making things much worse for the poor thief. Jinora, to her credit, tries to fight back - but her body just isn't letting her. As her legs turn to jelly beneath her, a spear butt shoves her back against the wooden bars of the back of the cage as the other two begin wrestling the weasel free. There are more standing guard just outside the cage, shooting menacing glares, daring them to try anything.

"You don't want that fox, good sir!" Atreyu blurts out as the pins were tucked into the back of one of his socks. "I've seen her naked before! We 'ad a really hot and steamy weekend aftah' ah'd ta' much ta' drink. She is /covered/ in sores and all types of itchy looking scabs. Trust me, yah' don't want 'er pelt. It won't do yah' any good. Ah' think she' got th' worms. In fact, ah' was trying ta' break up with 'er when yeh' decided to shoot us with yah' sleepy darts." The bard weaves his story with confidence as he points a finger at the fox. "Yah' definitely don't want ta' be eating 'er. Not unless yah' like tainted meat."

The fox opens her mouth to reply, but her jaw simply drops. Eye's twitching as she bores a hole through the hare's head with pure will power. "You...what...WhAaAaAaT?!" She is shoved aside just as easily as jinora, landing on her fluffy backside.

Hares.

She had one more to add to The List...

The weasel can only scream as he is dragged away, "NoooOOooOOo! I don't want to die! Someone save me! Noooo! Nooo! Noo-o-o-o." He clutches at the bars for dear life but even then is dragged away, "Mommy!" He shouts with out any dignity.

"Aye, an' Ah watched!" Jinora pipes in. The lizards, however, do not seem as amused. "Sssshut your mouthsss fur beastsss and wait your turn." The door is slammed, and they slink off, dragging their prize, kicking and screaming, out of sight. His cries are still audible, changing pitch and intensity before becoming an ear-splitting screech - and then he runs past the opening to the hut. The strange thing is that he isn't alone: four or five lizards are hot on his tail, but bearing wide-eyed horror writ across their features. This isn't looking good. The panic is slowly gripping the rest of the villagers, and the fire pit is abandoned as lizards scatter. "What th'ell?" The adrenaline is doing its best to bring Jinora back up to speed internally, but she is still wobbly. "Atreyu, now may be th'time t'pick the -" And then it's the weasel screaming again - but it's a horrible, strangled sound, and it ends abruptly. Oh dear.

Ears flat against his skull, Atreyu had already rushed the lock when Jinora started to speak and he is working the pins into the lock. He wiggles it about, then pops it free. Wiggling it off the door, he gives it a nudge open, then creeps out of it. "/Come on/." He hisses to the two of them, then starts for the entrance as he peeks out of it. "To be honest, these huts are made pretty bad, we could go through the back wall and sneak out that way, no one would see us."

"Old fox proverb. Why bother trying for an exit when one is already open to you." The fox however doesn't try to leave though, not yet. Not when there were other people perfectly capable of stepping out first and getting themselves killed by what ever would make monitor lizards wet their pants. Or loin cloths in this case. Then again the hare might be using the same tactic.

"Enough of this, out, out out!" The fox tries to push / pull the bard outside with her, using the buddy system to escape, that way she could easily push him into danger if it arises!

The danger, whatever it is, seems to be much more keen on the village than it is on the prisoners. And the villagers are, luckily, of a similar mindset. Legs still wobbling beneath her weight, Jinora follows Atreyu and Rioko out of the cage and pushes her paws against the back wall of the hut. It would be easier if they had something sharp, or their weapons - but there's no time to worry about that right now. The fighter wobbles a few steps back before bodily throwing herself against the back wall of the hut, crashing through to the other side and landing in a heap. The coast, though, looks clear - and she has a beautiful view of a treacherous and unfamiliar swamp land stretching in all directions. "Where /are/ we?" She mutters to the other two, picking herself up and hunching low, creeping towards the cover of vegetation. She can't see what is causing such a stir in the village, but most of its inhabitants have fled into the swamp like the three of them are. Distant shouts of surprise, fear, and general mayhem sound off every now and again. The Mountain is visible behind them, but it's also in the direction of the large majority of panicked screaming. Hide first, home later.

"Don't know, don't care. Come on, get a move on." Atreyu says as he swats at the fox's paws. "This is why I dumped you! You're so pushy!" As he lurches forward into the swamp, he reaches out to snag Jinora by the paw, then reaches out to grab a fallen branch from the ground to use as a weapon. "We should try and get into a tree with thick coverage. That way they can't track us and lizards can't climb trees that good."

"Don't flatter yourself hare, I broke up with you LONG before that." She doesn't understand why she is tossing these replies back to the bard. Perhaps its the toxins working their way out of her system. She glances back to see that Jin isn't doing so good, stumbling about like she is. Rioko has more than half a mind to leave her but...

"Come 'ere." She moves close, wrapping an arm under the hare and trying to help her walk. "If any of you two mention this to anyone, your both dead..."

Between Atreyu and Rioko, Jinora is now able to jelly her way along just fine. "Ah dunno, this sounds like some good material for Trey t'use against you in th'breakup." She smirks, winces, and stumbles onwards. Suddenly, her foot sinks into the mud and, as anybeast with an imagination knows: swamp mud is death. "Get back!" The doe hisses, yanking Atreyu back towards her and Rio (even half-drugged, the lithe little doe is pretty solid). "Th'swamp is gonna try t'swallow us - " But /how/ the swamp is going to swallow them, they may never know. Because it, literally, swallows them. With a sudden creaking, the ground beneath their feet crumbles away, dropping them unceremoniously at the bottom of a pit. A very deliberate looking pit. Rubbing at her rump, Jin pinches at some of the ground cover that collapsed beneath them - it was placed there to cover the hole. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. "Crap."

"Hey, I only broke up with you because you're a lousy kisssrrrraaahh!!!" Atreyu calls out as he falls down along with Jinora into the pit, landing on his face with his back end up in the air. ".. Ow." He rolls to his back and stares upwards, then lets out a heavy sigh. "What the heck? This is a terrible day." He rubs at his eyes, then glances to Jinora. "I don't have any other tricks in my pants to get us out. Suppose we could stand on each other's shoulders and try and reach the top?"

Landing head over foot with her tail drapped over her eyes Rioko slowly pulls herself together. "WhyYYYYyYYyYyyYy?" She whines. "I will NEVER complain about being at work again. I just want to go home to my nice warm bed and have a nice hot bath and have a nice hot meal. Is that too much to ask for?" She turns to point a claw accusinly at Jinora, "You! This is...this is all your fault! I don't know how, but it is! You ruin EVERYTHING!"

The fox claps a paw over her own muzzle, then runs them over her head and ears. "Sorry, thought I might put that out there before we all die. Head and shoulders? Y-yeah, sounds like...like a good idea." THe fox says in embarrassment.

Does this sort of thing always happen to her? Jinora certainly is starting to feel that way. No matter what they do, here, things just seem to get worse - and there is something about this hole that doesn't inspire any confidence that they will get better anytime soon. At the vixen's outburst, Jin's temper frays. "/My/ fault?" The doe ruffles, but she really can't focus on that right now. Head and shoulders - right. She casts a look to Rioko, shifting her gaze between the fox and Atreyu. She's pretty sure that she knows who should be going on the bottom, but /she/ certainly doesn't want to be the one to say it - the fox hates her enough already.

Of course the buck will say it. "You're on the bottom, fox. You're the biggest. I'm up next. Jin, you hop on my shoulders. If you can get out, yank me up, and then we will yank .. uh ... I don't even know your name." Atreyu says as he gives a flex of his body and a swivel of the hips, then gives the fox a sharp nod. "Alright! You ready? We can do this. We're gonna get out of here."

"Rioko." The fox narrows her eyes for a moment then laughs, "I'm going to die out here...and no one going to care..." The fox chuckles bitterly at the thought. It's funny where the mind goes when adrenoline kicks in.

"And you bet your long ears I'm at the bottom. I don't want your wimpy lanky hare legs holding me up. But you lot better pull me up after ward." She steadies herself, feet apart, cupping her paws together like she has done this before.

Interupting their rescue the fox points at them both with one paw, wagging her claw at them, "And you lot better pull me up. I'm serious now. And if... If I die you better write me one heck of a balled bard. A good one!" She cups her paws together. "Right. Do it."

Rioko, then Atreyu, and then - clamoring over all them - goes Jinora. However, their combined height is just shy of the top. The doe swears, softly. "Ah'm goin' t'try an' give it a little jump -" She wiggles, steadies herself, and then - just as she is going to leap for it - their situation gets /even worse/. "It issssss helplesssss, little onesssss..." Jin feels her blood run ice cold, and with a muffled scream falls backwards as she pushes away from their new company. It is a snake - a thick-bodied, cold-eyed /snake/. His body, bloated and slow from his feast in the Village, loops lazily about the rim of their hole. Looking down upon them, he lets out a soft laugh. "You will do nicccely, yessss." He nods, tongue flicking lazily in and out. "Do not worry, my petssss - I will not eat you...Yet. I will take care of you...You will be sssssafe with me." The great reptile sways, slowly, back and forth - looming over them, grinning, gloating. Stuffed as he is from his attack on the village, he will not have need for another meal for some time - at least a week - but having his snacks on stand by will save him oh so much trouble when that time comes...

Eyes bugging out and staring up at the snake, Atreyu says, "... So.. I got these ... uh ... sores and scabs all over my body that ... this fox gave me after a wild, drunken night at the tavern. You uh.. don't wanna eat me... or her.... or the other girl either, because I totally hooked up with her last night, which means .. scab city! We all got the scabs. Nasty stuff those scabs, wot?" Atreyu says as he lets out a nervous chuckle, then wilts his ears backwards.

Slapping her own forehead the vixen groans, "Our hero. Remind me to dip your tongue in an extra coat of silver. The current one is waring off /bard/." This is all of course after thrusting her back against the wall in terror. Trapped! Trapped like rats! They were doomed and once again the portly creature knew who was doomed first!

"He-hello good sir...or madam. I really can't tell with snakes, ya know?" She tentitivly taps her paws together. "This is usually the part where your victim tells you that they are too scrawny and sickly to eat but, obviously," The fox pats her swollen gut, "That's not true. But I will ruin your diet! You don't want to carrying around all those un needed calories! You won't fit into your own cave! Or hole...assuming you live in a hole..."

"Scabs." Jinora takes a deep breath and, against every instinct in her body, pushes off the wall to address the snake. "S-See you next week then?" The snake laughs, leaning into the hole. The reptiles are pure muscle, demonstrating a degree of control that most beasts can only dream of - and he practically hovers about them, inspecting them. "I ssssee no ssscabss. Your ssssssilly mating habitssss are of no conccccern." He withdraws, smirking at them. "Do not fret, honored guessstsss..." And he slips out of view. "I'll be back." Jinora falls to her knees, feeling as if she had been drugged all over again. How are they going to get out of this one?

To Be Continued...