Blackberry's Gambit - Printable Version

She started tugging and pulling at the stick, trying to unloop the chain from the quills, but it was a lot more stuck then she thought and she was being as gentle as she could to not startle the thing, but it wasn't going well. The chain wasn't untangling and, eventually, the stick came free from the chain and she stepped back, internally groaning with frustration.

The quillmouse turned and scampered away, though not particularly far. Instead it slowed some yards off and veered back to the water, again, once more searching out food among the reeds.

The chain remained tightly tangled, wound around dozens of the mouse's deadly quills.

Blackberry followed the mouse as it scampered away - it didn't really seem to be running away from her too fast, so she didn't alarm it then. She might as well try again, now that she knew how difficult it would be. She picked a different link and carefully began poking forward with the sick.

However, as she brushed forward, she missed the link completely and stumbled a bit to the side as she momentarily lost her balance. Hissing to herself, she turned around to try again.

She tried again, poking forward with the stick to try and pull if off the quillmouse's back, but, again, she missed. She was starting to grow agitated with herself but was careful to keep her mind on the task. She'd rather not go running after the mouse some more.

She carefully tried to loop the stick into the chain again, agitated in her failings. She couldn't believe that she had suffered so much and come so far only to be foiled over and over by a mouse.

For someone of Blackberry's personality, perhaps frustration was the hardest test of all.

As she grew agitated, poking with the stick, this time it did get caught--and stuck. The quillmouse squeaked, turning and flailing at the stick--then turned and bounded off, again, now with the stick trailing off behind it. This seemed to frighten it further and it only ran faster, and faster, downriver along the shore, until it was out of sight...

The orb-lights were growing brighter, and the first cries of the Eyehooks could be heard high above.

Blackberry quickly lost her hold on her stick and hissed with anger when the mouse took off down the river. She quickly gave chase, but it was a lot faster then her and she quickly lost sight of it.

And she didn't notice that it was becoming light again until the cries of the vultures above startled her. Shit this was taking too much time! She needed to come up with a better idea and fast!

She started after the mouse again, but the vultures had caught her off guard and she found that she was a lot farther behind then she would have liked. It would take longer then she would have liked to catch up again.

Blackberry hurried forward, following where the mouse had disappeared, following the faint golden trail it left behind until it was in sight again, panting as she approached. She needed to find a better way of doing this and fast. She looked around at the vegetation and had an idea.

Quickly, she began ripping out leaves and grasses and piling them together, stomping down on some bugs and throwing them in the pile as well. Perhaps if she could bait the mouse, then it would be easier to pull the amulet off of its quills. It would stay still enough for her to pull it away.

Blackberry continued to collect leaves and plants and bugs until she had a decent pile that she pulled over to where the quillmouse was scuttling around, pushing it forward until it was definitely in sight of the rodent. She stepped back a little, waiting, hoping that it would take her bait.

Baiting it would likely be an excellent idea--and certainly something to keep in mind, in case the mouse stopped. Given its foraging for food, earlier, and its lack of fear of the goose, it was likely the perfect plan.

But it hadn't stopped running, yet; the stick, still bouncing along behind it, was driving it in a panicked, sprinting bound directly downriver and toward the Marshes. Blackberry was very unlikely to be able to catch up with its speed, though she could track it...

Perhaps, if it eventually stopped, bait might be a better approach indeed.

For now, however, it scuttled off out of sight. Should Blackberry follow its trail--fainter, now, in the rising light of day--she would find it leading down to the mouth of the canyon, where the ravine walls sloped down into crumbled nothing, and where the first haze of the marsh was beginning to thicken the air.