Blackberry's Gambit - Printable Version

The mouse didn't take the bait, but that wasn't surprising since it didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Blackberry sighed and leaned down, taking a few mouthfuls of the food instead, taking one last drink of the water, before bounding after the mouse, still holding as much of the leaves as she could carry.

The golden trail was getting harder to see in the brightening light, but Blackberry kept her eyes on it, following the mouse down towards the marshes, every so often casting a nervous glance at the sky in case one of the vultures thought it would be a good idea to dive at her.

The trail wound down, until the way grew steep: smooth, steep rocky banks sweeping downward, the water gathering and rushing in a narrower flow between. It was perhaps an intimidating path, but for a cautious traveller, not a particularly dangerous one.

On a ledge below the mouse had stopped, turned, and was irritably trying--and failing--to chew and pull away the stick now tangled in its chain.

The Eye of the amulet stared at Blackberry, seeming to watch her, waiting.

Carefully, Blackberry made her way down the path, controlling her agitation as the travelling got a little tougher again. But in her agitation and impatience, she went too fast, stumbling forward and skidding down the trail. Some of the leaves were dislodged from her beak, but she held onto as much as she could as she went. Her wings banged against rock and dust and grit scraped against her skin until she came to a painful halt, scratched, bruised, but still alive and still clutching a good portion of the bait.

She took a moment on the ground to recover from the shock and internally beat herself for being so careless before pushing herself to her feet and stumbling forward towards where the quillmouse had stopped. As she approached once again, limping, she slowed down, lowering her beak to set the food on the ground, pushing it just a little to let the contents spill out in front of the mouse. She stepped to the side and out of the quillmouse's way, praying that it would take the bait and cringing from her new injuries.

The Quillmouse, turned, starting and nearly bolting, but the only way it could have run would have been into the rushing river that culminated in a waterfall just below.

Thankfully, it did not do this.

Instead it turned, whiskers trembling rapidly as it turned, sitting up and staring at the goose. After a moment it settled, and went sniffing among the leaves; it seemed to hold no interest in these. Perhaps another form of bait might attract it more solidly, but for now, at least it wasn't fleeing.

Blackberry flinched when the quillmouse started, ready to go running after it if it decided to go jumping in the river like an idiot. Thankfully, it didn't and only began to nose around in the leaves she had supplied. She waited for a moment and released an angry huff when it didn't take the bait. She'd have to come up with something even better, then.

She stepped away from the mouse and began to nose around in the plants at the river's edge, but all she pulled up was more of the same. More leaves and grass and little bugs. She added these things to the pile just for the hell of it, but it wasn't like the quillmouse was very interested in them. She'd have to search elsewhere.

Blackberry drifted farther from the quillmouse this time, digging around, this time, into the dirt near the base of some of the vegetation. She picked a few ferns to carry what she found and eventually managed to dig up some small nuts and roots, placing them in the fern she'd found. She caught a couple of beetles for good measure, in case the mouse decided to snack on those as well.

She pulled the fern back, with a small pile of her new bait sitting on top, and pushed it next to the old pile, stepping away again to see if this bait would catch the quillmouse's attention.

The goose would indeed have to range back along the river, away from the rock and back to wet soil, to dig up the roots of other plants.

But the roots and dead beetles, combined, seemed more interesting to the Quillmouse; it skittered away but quickly returned, starting in at once with sharp cracking noises on the carapaces of the insects.

And this time, the mouse seemed to like the bugs she'd caught for it, picking them up to crack their shells. She had it now...hopefully. It was now or never.

Carefully, she reached forward and picked up the stick still tangled in the mouse's quills, gently pulling and tugging at it, but she couldn't get it to move. Well, it was moving, but it was...really stuck there. How had this mouse gotten this thing tangled so horribly around it? She assumed that it had been living like this for a while, though. It most likely just got worse with time.

She worked on it while the mouse continued to crack away at the beetles she had supplied, tugging and twisting this way and that, but never enough to startle the mouse too much. It was more difficult with the stick, but she wasn't risking reaching forward and taking it with her claws. Her poor feet had suffered enough and she still had to get back.

At long last, she finally realized that the chain was giving way and, with one last pull, it came free of the quills, dangling from the stick in front of her. At first it didn't register that she'd done it, a sense of anxiety and unease falling over her for some reason, but then relief flooded through her.

She had the amulet. She could see the end.

There was a brief moment of silence.

In that moment, two things happened. First, the golden glow faded from the Quillmouse, and it turned, sitting up, stopping its eating--looking this way and that, bewildered. It looked strangely... lost.

But perhaps Blackberry wouldn't notice--because the second change was in her. A swathe of golden light surrounded her, like a beacon, and she felt a sudden anxiety--a hyper-awareness, enchanted by magicka, of the dangers in the world around her.

And oh were there dangers. Out of sight over the rim of the canyon high above, six Eyehook Vultures--not yet having seen her--were waking for the day. She could sense them--not in a direct way; but she would know there was something lurking there, a sense of dread, unsettling, clinging to her.

And there was something up ahead, too, something lurking farther on along the waterway, on Blackberry's side of the flow.

She had a choice, now, as to what to do next. She could rest, perhaps, until night came again, though the glow would surely attract attention. Or she could press on through the Marshes, very visible to predators--or go all the way back through the Crucible, and the Dunes beyond, back the way she'd come. Or there might be another way, should she think of one; Hydra was open to her, for now.