Spider Solitaire
« continued from A Haunted Homecoming
- Location: Marshank: Dao's Weaponsmith
- Participants: Frigg, Sandy, Adyna
Front Room
Squalls such as the one blowing outside didn't bother Sandy all that much. Well, okay, maybe they did. But not too badly. Being indoors gave her peace of mind from the storm outside, and when she realized what kind of building she was in, she felt even more comfortable. She was lucky enough to have even found a candle, but she, unfortunately, had nothing to light it with. She was currently digging around the room for some flint and tinder, or anything to light a fire with.
Frightened even to make the sound of the squirrelmaid's name, Frigg continues her search in the weaponsmith. The place is ornamented thick with cobwebs and the mousemaid has to fend them off with her paws, though she knows she's headed in the wrong direction if she does; Sandy's bigger, and she'd no doubt clear a path before Frigg.
It seemed Sandy was unaware she had walked through anything. She was so focused on finding herself something to arm herself with, in the offhand chance that verminous group decided to turn her into dinner, so she would have a fighting chance to kill. To her delight, she finally found some tools that the blacksmith probably used to light fires for the forge, and looked around. "Right... Should be some wood around here..."
Frigg hears a voice, faintly, through the muffled acoustics of the ancient spider silk, '..wood around...' "Sandy? Sandy are you there? Oh, if it's you, please don't leave me wandering alone!!" She stumbles in the general direction of the voice, finding the path more clear in that direction...
Sandy shuffles around, and gives up on finding wood. Taking a stone slab, she sat the candle on it, and proceeded to try to start a fire. A minute later, the candle was lit, and she was feeling accomplished. Now that she could see, she groaned. What a dump! Of course, she thought she kept hearing voices... "Is someone else in here?" she called out.
"Yes! Yes, it's me, Frigg! Oh, you won't believe the things... I think we may be in danger, Sandy..." she huffs, as she approaches the squirrelmaid. "Are... are you in front of me?" She pats the air, until her paw is on the squirrelmaid's side. "Oh, there..." She lowers her voice considerably, "I think... well, whatever's inside with us may be after you in particular... we saw your name with ours on a pinned up parchment... /yours was crossed out!/ I thought you were no longer..." Her voice sobs a bit, "No longer with us."
Sandy glances around the room, and shivers. It was definitely dank, but at least it wasn't cobweb-infested! And boy, were there weapons... Eventually, she felt Frigg's paw on her, and she looked back to her, smiling. She seemed to not realize there was cobwebs on her. Listening to Frigg's panicing explination, she reached out to pat her on the shoulder. "Hey, I'm fine. I was just looking for some protection... A weapon of sorts. Those bastards want to try to eat this squirrelmaid, they'll wake up with their throats cut."
Back Room
Frigg blinks, and walks with her toward the forge, "Well, we're still missing some of them... I think we should stay together and try to augment our numbers, gives us a better chance against... wait, you mean the others, don't you? Sandy... I think we should set those differences aside, at least for now - this whatever it is isn't being ambiguous in their intentions at all. I only hope we find our entire party before we find /it/." She stops in the next room. "Can you shine the light on that suit of armor, there? I thought something was... um.."
Sandy frowns a little bit, and rubs her head with her free hand. "Well, the fact still stands..." she mutters, until she was requested to shine the light. She held the candle up, and shuddered. "Spiders. Disgusting... This place is a total fixer-upper..." she said with disgust, before setting the candle down on the table remains... Promptly approaching the weapon case. "Wow... I'm impressed. These weapons aren't rusted."
Frigg feels considerably better now that the squirrelmaid has found things with which to protect them, though she herself picks up a small dagger, a short sword by her standards of size, and gives a few jabs. "I suppose one doesn't need any training to be able to wound by chance; I'll take that chance." The mousemaid eeks! at the spider and hurriedly rushes to Sandy. "Don't forget, things like those are liable to /eat/ me, even if they're no threat to you!" It doesn't seem threatened, and climbs out, tap-tapping its legs toward them...
The spider stares coldly at them with an unblinking, alien stare, its fangs twitching ever-so-slightly.
Sandy gives the spider a revolted glance, and looks back to the weapon rack, frowning. Sword, axe, hammer, sword, sword, sword, sword, some kind of blade she never heard of, what looked like a sabre... Aha! She swiped the cutlass off of the rack, and looked to the spider. "Thank you, Dao. I'll pay you later." she sarcastically commented.
Frigg looks at her dagger.. the thing wouldn't be its own length's distance from the spider and the legs would be able to reach the mousemaid - it wouldn't do much good unless she was willing to risk it pouncing upon her. She looks desperately around for a longer-range weapon!
Sandy quietly stepped in front of Frigg, frowning. "Let me." she said with a little smile. With the kind of weapon she knew ever so well from her past, things didn't take long. Of course, the fact that it was just a spider didn't, either; one fast, hard swipe took it out, but just to make sure, she stabbed it a few times.
Frigg phews! "Too many bugs creeping about, but unfortunately bugs can't read and write out our names. I think our would-be assailant would have to be one of those awful foxes..." Suddenly, there's a sound from deeper inside the building. "There's somebeast through there..."
Sandy looks at the slightly stained blade in distaste, and now looks for a cloth to clean it off with - up until she heard more noises. "Just stay where you are. You're safe with me, as long as I have this..." she commented, before glancing to the weapons case. "You should take a short sword or something..."
There's another faint noise from the back room, just on the edge of hearing.
Frigg hears it, being in the heightened state she is... perhaps her fear causes it to be magnified somewhat. "Wh... who? 's that?" She turns, her dagger protruded out awkwardly.
Sandy frowns, and looks towards the door to the back room, cutlass at the ready. "Whoever it is, if they try anything funny..." she said, making a little cutting motion with her hand across her own neck. She meant business.
"It could be one of ours; please, let's confirm their identity. I hate this... feel like it's some awful sort of /game/." Frigg calls out, mustering some nerve, "Who is it?! Identify yourself or come at us; we are prepared for you!"
There's no answer. The doorway is dark, the further room deathly still. A beast listening spectacularly closely would hear a faint, shallow breathing, and nothing more.
Sandy looks over to Frigg, and gives her a gentle pat on the arm. Without a word though, she started for the door, weapon in a defensive position.
"Okay, well maybe... Oh gosh, are we ready for this? Just the two of us? Against one of those... tribal... drumming..." She hears the drumming of the beasts in her head, at her own execution. She sees them all, being led to their own slaughter. "We should have.. we should have accepted their help, Sandy... they seemed cooperative enough!"
Sandy was close to the door, but now she was distracted by Frigg. She even turned back to the mousemaid, frowning. "Accepted who's help, Frigg? Stubb and his little band of verminous crew who would kill us off the first chance they get? That fox who seemed to take pleasure in the idea of you being pulled miles under the sand, away from life? Those nutjobs that tried to burn us to death?"
"No, not the latter... that was... I thought that was really the end for me, Sandy. I wouldn't ever suggest that... oh, I don't know what I'm saying." She vows not to let her fear become irrational, and sighs, her determination renewed, "Let's stop saying things, then, and get this through with!"
A dark, muddy figure appears in the doorway to stumble against the squirrel, hooking an arm around her neck and pressing a rust-tinged dagger to the maid's throat. "Don' yae move noo! Don' yae bludy move!" it growls, its voice hoarse and mangled.
Sandy folds her arms and smiles at Frigg a little bit. "You're one odd lady, Frigg..." she said. She was about to add something else, but to her surprise, she was suddenly grabbed, with something, presumably sharp, at her throat. She went wide-eyed, but didn't move, biting her lip. She even seemed a bit scared... Too scared to say anything.
Frigg jumps backward in her surprise, tripping over the dead spider and screaming at its gruesome, crusty texture, clambering over it and kicking it back away from her. "Wh... what do you want?!" The light in Sandy's paw shines on Adyna's face, but she doesn't recognize it, "We weren't looking to harm anybeast that doesn't want harm upon us! Please!"
"Neim an' allijence," the figure snarls, leaning heavily against the doorway and favoring one leg. It's not hard to see she's in bad shape, though her voice and attitude tries vainly to hide it. "Or yae'll be so wet wi' blod yae'll go /ootside/ t' be dry."
With the dark thoughts that this... thing, she had no idea what was holding her was, was dead serious, Sandy so no other alternative. "S-sandy... I, I... I work f-for nobeast anymore..." she said, with a hint of fear and worriedness in her voice.
Frigg feels helpless to stay silent, even though the question wasn't directed at her, "She and I... we're allied with vermin; we aren't poor and helpless like you would think. So if... if your intent is to rob us, we have angry stoats and lizards.. and cats.. who would track you down. Their allegiance, though, is to nobeast as far as I'm aware, though." She points her dagger out toward the muddied stoatmaid.
The figure's wild, savage eyes turn towards Frigg and it freezes, staring at her. "...Stoots an' leizards an' cats.. who?" it manages through clenched teeth, swallowing. "/Who?/"
Sandy was, clearly, too damn afraid to talk by this point. She had a knife at her neck, after all...
Frigg gulps, shaking her head and stepping forward into the light. "Um... please don't rely upon my answer as a determination of life or death for my friend... I will tell you, but know that there is tension between us and them, being.. well, being woodlanders--"
"/Tell me!/" the mud-coated beast says in a feral snarl; its grip tightens against Sandy's throat, all but drawing blood.
Sandy goes even more wide-eyed, and gives a scared whimper. She was pretty damn close to being reduced to tears...
Frigg takes a desperate step forward, "No! Please! Okay... the stoat is Stubb, of Halyard, he walks with Angus and Amos, the lizard and cat, and who also call their company Dangeon, a haremaid. They mean to take no side, though, and I swear if they have crossed you it was not of our choosing!"
Another pause, before the grip on Sandy's neck loosens -- but it doesn't quite relax. "Stubb o' Haly'rd," it repeats, mostly to itself. "An' ye, yae're th'un they call.." Another pause, for brain-wracking. "..Frigg?"
Frigg gasps. She doesn't say anything to that. She nods, though.
Sandy closes her eyes, now noticably beginning to tremble. Frigg was doing it... But Sandy was almost at the end of her own rope, ready to break down and cry.
The beast shifts slightly, with a painful hiss sucked through gritted teeth. "An' yae noo where t' fin' 'em?" it asks. "They be /'ere?/"
Frigg swallows and nods again. "But ho... how did you kn... you know them, then?" She looks at Sandy, "Can you please let her go, if we drop our weapons, at least?"
Sandy was intending to let hers go anyhow. She could run back in and grab it before they left Marshank, if she didn't get her throat slit... So, without waiting for the reply, she dropped the cutlass, whimpering softly.
The squirrel is soon released with a slight shove towards Frigg, and the beast -- now recognizable as a stoat jill, filthy, battered and weary -- holds the blade protectively between herself and the two woodlanders.
Frigg goes to the squirrelmaid and grasps her arm, then hugging her, "So..." She directs to the stoat jill, "Do you wish harm upon our small group, or mean to meet them on more benevolent terms? Right now we have more than our share of enemies..."
Sandy squeaks out in surprise when she was FINALLY released, and then shoved. Being hugged by Frigg, all she could do was return the hug, sobbing quietly. That was a change from her usual surly demeanor and anger towards the verminous crew they grouped with.
"My bezness's non'ah yair'n," the jill snaps. The dagger trembles a touch in her paw -- the whole stoat trembles a touch, for that matter. She seems almost ready to collapse; it's as if the knife is holding the rest of the stoat up, instead.
Frigg seems to sense the stoatmaid's trouble, and offers her help, "I will take you to them... but we must first find them. I know there are some back at the longhouse, but perhaps we should keep moving foward through this building before venturing back out into the rain... you... you seem to have had terrible experiences with it, wherever you've been..." She tries not to stare!
Sandy quietly pulls herself away from Frigg, and, quite obviously nervously, reaches to grab her cutlass and withdraw, behind Frigg. Apparently, the potential of nearly being killed was enough to humble her once again...
Adyna grunts, staring back at Frigg. "Longhoose," she mutters, stepping -- or hopping, keeping weight entirely from one leg -- halfway from the doorway. "Where?"
Frigg keeps her eyes on the stoat's weapon, pleading with her, "Please, there were awful things in there, set up by whomever is stalking us, if not you... I would rather stay in here and perhaps find those you're looking for..."
Adyna frowns, curling her lip. "Qui' yair snivvelin'," she spits back at Frigg. "Yae're scared o' /shadows/, then?"
"More than shadows... there are deadbeasts sat in the mess hall, slumped over plates, half a body wedged in a door, and a parchment with our names, in blood! It's a threat, set for us by something malicious..." Frigg looks at Sandy, "We will do whatever you wish, though."
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