Blackberry's Gambit - Printable Version

She traveled for most of the day, keeping her eyes open, walking carefully, but no glowing quillmouse presented itself to her. Gradually, the lights began to dim and the heat dissipated into the air as night fell on Hydra. Blackberry breathed out with relief as a chill permeated the air. Her skin and feathers were no longer burning and the sandy stone under her feet no longer scorched the underside of her claws.

She was starting to feel a little hopeless, however, after multiple hours of searching with no trace of any glowing mouse anywhere. However, she wasn't dumb enough to go storming out into the open. She continued to stay undercover, trying to stay undetected from the creatures that lurked in Hydra's darkness.

There were a number of times, as she searched, that she seriously considered just giving up. Letting go of this and returning empty-clawed. Because this was impossible. A single mouse in all of these ravines? There was no way. Besides, the pain in her leg hadn't gone away that much and the occasional cramping made her stumble and cringe.

And that wasn't even speaking of all of the other dangers she couldn't see. The spiders that the Collector spoke about and the vultures that drifted far above. She had, at least, remembered that the quillmouse would most likely be in nook and crannies so she'd taken to searching through those, looking for anything that could help her - nests, droppings, quills, or even the mouse itself.

As darkness fell, a chill filled the air. Not only was it a drastic fall from the heat of the day, but the desert grew outright cold. The wind howled through the ravines for an hour at dusk, heat struggling to dissipate against the deep chill that settled beneaeth.

High above, the constant background chattering and flapping of the Eyehook vultures at last fell silent.

The canyons, instead--dark, now, and cold, and quiet--began to fill with the skittering of smaller things. And for hours, Blackberry--though there was no sign of gold in the darkness, yet--avoided the whatever it was shifting unseen all around her.

It was some time in the middle of the night when something finally made itself seen: nothing golden, but something steely black and blue, crawling out into the open just before the goose. It seemed unaware of her exact presence, but uneasy: a thickly-bristled tarantula turning this way and that, its abdomen lifting to catch the dim light in hypnotic glints.

Should Blackberry glance at this, and fail to look away quickly enough, she would find herself entranced by its movements: the shimmering pattern of blue and black that ran down its back. It was beautiful, and there was no denying that, at least; should she fail badly enough, she might even be drawn out to meet it.

Should the spider briefly catch Blackberry's eye, she must roll to avoid hypnosis. A failure will result in hypnosis; a roll of under 5 will draw her out to meet it.

As she carried on with her search, the cold at first felt nice against her hot, blistered skin, rapidly cooling the heat still lingering on her feathers. It was a lot easier to stand this then it was the heat. She was built for colder climates after all, but the numerous scarred bald patches and the thinning feathers had deteriorated even that and she quickly found herself shivering, stomach claws wrapping tightly around the exposed flesh on her belly to keep the cold from permeating too much.

Movement in front of her caused her to pause. She narrowed her eyes and tensed, preparing for whatever danger was presenting itself to her next. A glint of blue caught her eye and her heart sped up when the Collector's voice rang through her ear. Avoid looking at the blue ones. Immediately, she turned her head away, determined to not stare at the giant spider before her and went silent and still, pressed into cover so that it couldn't find her.

The spider remained, at first turning its abdomen this way and that, uncertain and prepared to defend itself against the foe it sensed close by. But when nothing happened, it eventually lowered itself down to thorax-level and began foraging, here and there, pushing into underbrush and seeking smaller prey.

Another passed by, then: the night alive with predators, and even a couple quillmouse that shot by, though--should Blackberry look--neither glowed with gold.

It was clear that Hydra's cold, dark nights were every bit as dangerous as its searing days.

Blackberry gritted her teeth. This wasn't good. There were more spiders around now, more then just one, and she had a bad feeling that those fangs would hurt just as bad as the scorpion's sting had. She couldn't afford to take a hit like that, not now.

But they seemed to be coming out of their hiding spots at least. She wondered if it would be more safe to be creeping through the shadows now with many of their inhabitants out wandering, searching for food. She spotted a couple of quillmice as well, which was a good sign, even if there wasn't any sign of a golden glow.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She'd have to sneak again. She steeled herself and started forward, keeping under cover and as close to the edge of the ravine as possible, staying silent, staying hidden, poking her beak into crevices wherever she could, eyes open for any sign of gold as she went.

Over the course of the night, as the spiders came and went and the goose searched for the mouse, choices made and the results of luck would both have their consequences.

Blackberry's leg would deteriorate badly in this time, necrosis taking hold. The cramping, having been tended by the first surge of Recovery magic, would not have improved further, and the wound itself was still present. The cold was bitter, and Blackberry had chosen to seek the Golden Quillmouse rather than food or drink, undoubtedly leading to intense dehydration from the heat of the day before--and intense hunger.

When the first glint of faint golden glow appeared, then, could she be certain it was real? Did she have the strength to pursue? To even walk?

The shimmer came only briefly: visible in a crevice, then vanishing into a canyon, out of sight around a corner.

She was exhausted. Tired, hungry, thirsty...she felt like she'd keel over at any moment but she was still determined to keep searching, to find that damn mouse before she went crazy or before something found her. The wound was hurting more and more as she went, but the pain had become so woven into her consciousness that she barely noticed it. She limped and dragged her foot behind her, and she was surprised when she looked down and found that the skin around the sting was starting to turn black.

She needed to find the quillmouse. Now.

So when that first flash of gold appeared...Blackberry started forward. She didn't think. Mental desperation and physical pain urged her to be fast about this, to pursue and end this now, but her leg suddenly seized, sending her sprawling in the dirt. The world was starting to spin around her and she found that she could barely move at all.

She couldn't go on like this.

She'd planned on eating once she'd caught the mouse - after all, why would she hunt and kill a mouse just to leave its meat rotting? But now she realized that that wasn't a great idea. She'd lost sight of the golden glow already - she could find it again. She will find it again. Right now, though, she needed to find some food before she starved to death.

She hauled herself to her feet again, however painful each step was, and began searching for something to eat along the edges of the canyons. Anything would do - berries, leaves, grasses, anything edible.

Hydra wasn't exactly a bastion of teeming life; the canyon held only thorny, scraggly bushes from which a goose would take little or no sustenence, should she be able even to break their branches--and thin, dry, sharp-edged grasses.

The grasses, at least, she could eat; but they were not very nutritious, and they were bone-dry. Undoubtedly the Dead Marshes, at least, would have held some swampy, goose-appropriate plant life, but the Crucible was not so kind.