Where Rabbits Dance And Foxes Die (Crystal Sword)

[Philomel]

Swapping her sword to her left hand the faun matriarch told Veridian mentally to keep going.

Make him more angered, she told, Keep him with you, burn him more and I will get Delath from under the paw.

There was no reply from the enraged Veridian, just a short feeling of affirmation. Philomel took that to mean that he was comfortable with her suggestion, if it was a suggestion. More it was a statement, of what she was going to do. Almost, it was an order, a significant piece of information that was a fact of what both parties were going to do, as Philomel took charge, the heart of the trio, and the improviser in this situation.

Veridian continued to feverishly struggle to find flesh, pulling out now huge chunks of fur, blood beginning to come away as he did so. His body began to become splattered with flecks of it, but the flames surrounding him licked them up before it could touch his body. Also did they fires finally catch the rabbit's own fur. Before, perhaps it had been that the creature had some form of resistance, a flame proof mechanism built up in its keratin. But now, as time had gone on and the magical embers, born from the one tenth of a fire elemental's soul residing in Veridian's body, were catching up with the rabbit's own. It was earth with fire against a darker light, the magic and blessing of Drys apparently against the influence of the forest.

Desperately Philomel pushed at Delath's body, trying to lend him her strength to get back at least onto two paws and crawl away. Wounded, however, he moaned and she quietened him with a quick, "shush." He huffed and nosed at her before using his claws to scratch at the earth as she tried to support him under the heaviness of his upper torso.

He shook with oncoming weakness, and she could feel the drain of energy still leaking from him. Whatever the light had done, it had not been just a temporary thing. With time running out and her own anxiety beginning to settle in for both Delath and Veridian now, she thought quickly about what needed to be done.

[Philomel]

The rabbit had become completely diverted by the fox. As Veridian plundered his victim's pelt and burnt away the layers of his coat, there was great fidgeting and shrieking. With little avail the rabbit tried reaching around to pound at his own back to claw off the thing that was providing him with unwanted pain, and he even tried to concentrate to send a wave of white light at it. But that would have hurt him even more, and started the same process that the dragon was suffering.

Out of the corner of his golden eye Veridian saw Philomel raise her fist and begin the process to of opening up another rift. With it she could give Delath a place of safety, where he could rest and recover in his natural environment and with the grace of Drys be healed, despite the fact his energy, and thus life-force was dripping like a bleeding wound. That was her task, and they all hoped it would work. There was no words that were being said, but all the thoughts and feelings were present nevertheless, a shared set of emotions made them almost as one mind currently.

The plan was easy and simple. Save them all. Kill the rabbit.

He turned his attention back to the form beneath him. Through the smoke building up around him he was getting closer, he could feel it, to the mound of flesh beneath. The hide was much more difficult to get to than he had originally anticipated - rather than being the thin veil of skin like a human or other creature had it seemed that over time the rabbit had built up the flesh of a hippopotamus or a dragon. So it was, then, that it had taken this long to get right into the grime of the beast's body.

Then - suddenly. The unexpected happened. As the trembling of the open earth happened, the rabbit tried one last thing to get Veridian off of his back. With a great scream he threw himself backwards, right onto his spine.

[Philomel]

Agony, utter agony. Falling, then being squashed, losing energy and -

She could hardly breathe for all the wretched feelings racking her body. No sooner had she begun to create the crack in the ground for Delath than Veridian had suffered also. It seemed, now, she was the only one to not actually be in real pain, excepting that of the mentally communicated ones.

And then she could no longer hold it. Doubling over she wretched on the ground, emptying the contents of her stomach as she begged Delath to just get away. The dragon let out a moan of empathy but knew he needed to be within his home of rocks and earth where he to possibly survive. He needed to rest amongst the roots and away from the bitching rabbit beast, to sleep in the peace of Drys where none could harm him.

As he devled into the deep dark the crevice that Philomel had created crumbled at the edges, and then became filled as the dragon ate his way away, digging and gnawing down to the bedrock. Angling up again after watching this and empting out her stomach's contents, Philomel sucked in fresh air and turned back to the matter at hand. Her beloved Veridian being crushed by the weight of a behemoth.

Again the gripe of the agony he was experiencing caught her, but now with the nausea dealt with ... she could go on. Rolling back her shoulders and raising her sword to the sky, Philomel let out a might roar. Catapulting herself forwards she leapt from ground to rabbit's body, twenty feet in all and high up, aiming to bare straight down to where the creature had idiotically exposed its belly.

While it was distracted by the fox again, while it tried to crush him more. Whilst she flew, whilst she was a glorified faun-bird. Whilst she had her strike ready and upraised.

Whilst she came as a sword of judgement.

[Philomel]

If only it were that easy. Not that it had been at all, so far.

With Delath gone and Veridian losing health rapidly, there was little Philomel could do to save them all. As she came down, her mithril blade in the dimness like a second beam of light - except this time more unforgiving, the beast half-twisted onto its side. In that moment it saw Philomel in its wide, scoping vision, pinpointing her with a stare. There was a pause, and then she collided heavily with a foreleg, not the belly. Down went her blade, jamming into the shoulder. Blood poured, the rabbit roared in agony.

As the rapid liquid oozed from the wound, Philomel knew she had seconds to end this. Though it was not a death blow as she had hoped, it was at least something which was gaining to a victory. This, combined with the burning coat from Veridian had doen severe damage to the beast, and it could not be long until they ended him - or he ended them.

Sucking in her breath she pulled out the sword and aimed to leap over to its neck and do a more serious blow.

Her aim was a little off, however, as she went to hit hard against the shoulderblade instead. The rabbit tossed its head, moaning about the agony he was suffering. The fire on his back, at least, was put out mostly when he had fallen back against Veridian and the ground, and all that remained were small embers sparkling like crystals. They did little but slowly burn out. He hissed through his great incisors, trying to find a point to either swat her with a paw or strike her with his horn - be it condemning to himself also. It was this desperate now.

Philomel, if she could understand the creature, wouldn't have agreed less. As she thrust down, she realised she had forgotten about Veridian. But her eyes couldn't be taken off her target. A large clawed hind paw began to be raised, to brush her off as if she were no more than a dog-sized mite on the back of this twenty-five foot long beasty, yet she was faster.

[Philomel]

After a moment's look she found the point she had been looking for. There, exposed by the shearing and burning of the fur and flesh that Veridian had spent so long trying to do. As she felt his mental cries of pain, and heard his deathly howling, she stabbed down, hard. Blade flashed in the light, already coated in blood, and it sank deep, again. Right to the point of intersection of bone and nerve, right where the spinal cord would snap so easily under the might of a faun, blessed by Drys.

The rabbit goliath let out one last, stunned groan, then paused before its great eyes rolled closed and finally it tettered. The leg that had been raised fell back to the earth as its entire body began to collapse under foot. Philomel grimaced and began to ran, dragging out her blade before she took a jumo off the side.

Crash, the thunder sent an earthquake through the ground and shook the trees nearby. Crows caws in displeasure, tiny birds that had still been there, flinched and flittered away. The crack in the earth opened ever so slightly more as a paw landed into it, dangling from the giant corpse.

Slowly, slowly, she let out a breath as she landed on the root of a tree. Dragging in fresh air she felt a weight being pulled off her, like that of a guulty conscience. And finally she turned back to see what had become of her beloved.

There he lay, back in small form, shivering, quaking. She swallowed as she sheathed her dirty and bloody sword and leant down to pick him up in his arms. Veridian weakly opened a single eye, his body not more than able to do just that. He fixed her with a ghostly gaze before shaking once more -

Shaking, then lying still. Eye still opened. Body going limp. And cold.

Gone.

[Philomel]

Gone ...

Gone ...

The seconds last like long life ages of the earth.

Gone ... gone ...

She breathed in and out, staring at the limp corpse, eyes growing wider with each moment as they passed, waiting for it, waiting ...

Her teeth ran across her lip, tugging at it. What was going on? Why was he just - just -

Come on, she hissed.

It was inexorably slow.

A noise behind her caught her off guard. First it was a rustling, then there was the almightiest of crashes. Birds that had settled back down shrieked and took wing again, critters who had deemed it right to sneak back out rushed away. Leaves shook with anxiety and the very earth trembled slightly at the feeling of what was close to an avalanche noise came from behidn her.

Her hands dropped the limp form of her beloved, getting rid of him for now. Oh yes, she felt empty, there was an angry pitless feeling in her stomach, a sense of absolute despair - but if she was honest she had gotten used to it after the first time Veridian had sacrificed himself for her. Mayhap it was dangerous as a habit, but it was dangerous to business and she couldn't go feeling depression every time death happened to her friends and allies. If not, then she would be an absolute wreck and where she was now. Veridian, at least, was the one creature in her life who she knew would come back.

Finally her eyes travelled away from him and back to where the chaos sound had occurred. Her lips parted to see the entirity of the carcass - for it was a carcass now - of the rabbit beast falling to pieces. In a matter of seconds it had gone from a hulking corpse to a decayed and ruined meaty skeleton. Flesh barely clung to what was an exposed giant ribcage, the remainder of what had been the torso. Legs, still partly clothed in bristle and sinews, but all fur melted away stuck out at odd angles. Some organs, stinking of a foul stench and glistening with a red glow that seemed to be eating them nestled in the heart of the creature. And a great skull lay exposed, apart from the rest, complete with holes for the ears and a bottom jaw still with some meat burning in a hot red fire, rapidly incinerating away.

Staring at this last part her jaw dropped, still in a manner respective of her attitude and position, as she looked towards the point where the horn had been. For the horn had gone. Or what had been the horn remained, and what had given the rabbit beast power remained, the horror melted away as it had died. Burnt away by the very red darkness that had consumed it. Leaving the secret truth now, naked for all to see.

A single sword, the blade ivory and with a golden hilt, shining in the light.

[Philomel]

What did I miss?

Philomel sighed with a final sigh of relief as she heard the voice. She looked back over to where she had dropped Veridian's corpse and saw it had gone, leaving only a sprinkling of white flowers.

Turning back to the rabbit corpse she saw it had melted away even more, the red flames eating up the flesh and leaving only bones. Gathering up her wits and strength she purposefully strode over to the creature, right to the sword.

You took your time, she muttered back to the voice in her head.

She felt him, where he was, rise to his white-socked feet and shake his body. His eyes blinked and he glanced around, looking upwards, left and right. He sent her an image of a giant ash tree with silk-like leaves.

It seems I am back at our home, he said with a quiet voice.

Under her breath Philomel cursed. Many times now, too many than she wished to know and admit, Veridian had died. Sometimes it was in defence of her, other times it was because they knew he could and he would come back, whereas it was not certain if she would. The times between his death and revival had gotten faster over the years, reducing from something like half an hour to now five minutes. Everytime, though, his old body would decay, leaving in its wake flowers or some other vegetative symbol before he was reborn. The fact was, however, he was reborn underneath the tree where they had first met, where he had come into existence, and that was far back in Corone forest. Secretly, this time, Philomel had been hoping that Drys would finally bless him with the ability to be birthed that where he had last been - or at least close to her.

But it seemed that was not to be.

Putting her hand onto the hilt of the sword, and then dragging it out with a hoof braced against the main skull, Philomel heaved the ivory straight blade, complete with cross piece and glowing crystal at its pommel.

You helped. I managed to finish off the beast, she said, But he offered no answers. Just ...

She sent him a mental image of the sword in his hand.

[Philomel]

Running his tongue over a paw he battered his ears and jaw, cleaning off any dirt that might be there. Pretty thing, he grunted, Might be useful.

It seems to be the answer to the beam of white light, she agreed, twisting the blade in the dull light, Which I am keeping for victory sake.

Veridian nodded, stretching out his body. How is Delath? he asked, changing the subject quickly.

Philomel looked over to the crack, where she had last seen the flightless dragon. Her mind searched and she discovered him, wriggling through the earth, gathering back his strength as he ate creatures of the underground. Moles, rats and their brethren became his food, and the energy loos that he had been suffering no longer seemed to be there. She eyed the corpse - now skeleton - she stood on and figured that with the rabbit's death his life was now saved also.

Fiercely she shoved the sword into the leather belt at her waist. Yes, it would be exposed, but it would do for now as she carried it back into a safe harbour.

He is fine, better, she said, turning right around and starting her way backwards from the corpse. He and I will meet you in Beinost.

Veridian murmured something vocally to himself, but agreed with her, knowing it was stupid to argue. He had tried it before with Philomel, suggesting that she come to him before after a death, but that had been a failed story. Shaking his body he bounded limbs, and headed straight to a place he knew, right in the direction of the hidden Gilded Lily fortress, where he could gather his wits and make preparations for a journey back to Raiaera.

It took a moment for Philomel to pause, and then to turn back and tug a giant molar from the mouth of the beast. It was about the size of a fist. Pulling it, she found she could hold the thing quite easily, and she shoved it into the endless fabric pouches at her waist, something more to carry and another prize. Glancing over to the torso also she considered getting some organ material, but found them to be completely burnt now.

Her lips pursed. The tooth would have to do.

Nodding to herself she turned and started away.

Away, finally, from this place, and to another place where she might find answers.

[Philomel]

Fin.

requested spoils:

The rabbit crystal sword. Should be 150 gp.

And a giant evil rabbit's molar.

[Rayleigh]

Thread: Where Rabbits Dance And Foxes Die (Crystal Sword)
Author: Philomel
Type: Workshop

Congratulations!

Philomel receives 2,800 EXP and 45 GP.
She also receives the Rabbit Crystal Sword (valued at 150 GP) and a rabbit molar (valued at 25 GP).