He glided, flew, ran—he did everything without pause straight to Canis, blood freshly streaking from his face from fresh wounds the sprite had given him, striking him with the arrows in an attempt to free herself him his jaws. Nemean stabbed and gouged at his cheek and lips, but he was a relentless creature.

If he returned to Canis and Jupiter was not there—if these were Jupiter's arrows and this sprite had done something to Jupiter—his mind would be confused. It was already confused.


"PUT ME DOWN YOU INSOLENT DISGRACE," she snarled, seeking purchase with another fistful of arrows to his flesh. Nothing seemed to phase him. She burned hot, and he still flew onward. She could not blind him in a normal sense, and even if she exploded sounds into his ears, he still ran, still flew. He knew the course to his destination well. Even deafened, he would make it.

Nemean was most disgusted by his determination. She hadn't asked to be taken anywhere and certainly not like this—she had been taken hostage! Those Gembounds had better be coming to her rescue!

She grabbed onto his fur as they entered the Chambers, vanishing into the darkness and the endless rooms of bones and grit. Of course Jupiter would live in a place of death and destruction, horrible creature she was. They weaved through a maze of corridors before Batcat stopped. Nemean grunted, gently trying to turn and twist her body to see where they had stopped. It was too dimly lit for her to see anything and she was in a terrible position.

Suddenly, the sound of the centaur's voice came grimly and accusingly, "What have you done?"

"WHAT, WHO?" Nemean barked, her hand slapping against the maw of the thing that held her prisoner still. "I WAS KIDNAPPED, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE—"

"He grabbed you gently, despite his fear of what may have happened to me because of the arrows you hold; and you ravaged his face, Nemean."

It was then the sprite realized that no harm had come to her, and the only blood that stained her was from the wounds she had given Jupiter's lapdog. Her lip curled. What did she care! It shouldn't grab others like that! She dropped the arrows in a fit and crossed her arms against her chest, dangling upside-down from the jaws of creature still. "Hmph," she squeaked. "I did offer them as a gift and asked politely for him to bring you to me, before he snatched me. I panicked."

Jupiter said nothing else and it made Nemean nervous. "Can you at least tell it to put me down?" Still, silence. Well, some strange noise. Her tail lashed. "EXCUSE ME??" Nothing.

The centaur was busy with her back turned, crushing plants into a salve.

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed. (Note: This takes place before "The Singing Crystals")

Participants:

Glory had thought he would have a peaceful day of collecting shiny things and scrap metal to add to Dread's hoard, as he had been doing the last few days wandering the caves. But then a screaming and yelling had made him look up from his work and just caught a glimpse of a strange creature flying by with an equally strange creature clutched in his jaws. For a moment, he watched them, his beak cracked with surprise before they suddenly disappeared and he shot into action, fluttering furiously to follow them.

Whatever that thing was, obviously the thing in its mouth was in trouble! It must have attacked them and was taking it back to eat it or worse! Or perhaps it was an enemy that was being taken for interrogation or torture or something else! Glory didn't know which he would prefer it to be, but there was a definite way of finding out!

He quickly fell behind, being smaller and easily stumbling on the bones in Canis, but it was better then the last time he had been there, at least able to fly enough to get him over the worst. His wings were still sore from Monoceros and he was saving his energy for emergencies, but he let himself at least chase after the two things easily enough.

Finally, he stopped in front of the scene before him. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, who these people were, or what they were doing. However, his sense of superiority and usefulness overrode every other sense and he stood tall, his chest fluffed out importantly. "What is going on here?! Why do you carry this tiny thing in your jaws? What do you want with it?" He noticed the scratches on the flying thing's face and wondered if that little thing was as harmless as it looked.

_______________________________________________________

"I speak!"
I think.

tags:
notes:

The hybrid hadn't at all been present for any of the other events that had occurred with Nemean at their core. Hell, he had only barely spotted the other bat-creature as it passed him in the tunnel--a streak of batting black. It had been Nemean's own shrieking voice that had turned him, caused him to drop from the ceiling and turn, wings beating as he followed after as fast as he could, mischief glinting in his dark eyes.

He knew who she was.

He'd never seen her, of course, but his father had described her well, described her clearly, and warned him of the threat she posed. He'd just... never really cared. He wasn't sure he cared now; but he was curious, and a troublemaker, so he followed.

As the bat came to a stop in Canis, so did Imp, flapping to the top of a nearby bone building. As they spoke he landed, his clawed hind legs sending a few scattered bones clattering away. He'd always wondered, vaguely, just what the hell these things were--but right now, his attention was on the centaur, on the black bat, and on Nemean.

As the eagle spouted its tirade of questions, Imp--ever the mischief-maker--added his own loud question onto the end.

"And can I eat it?" he asked, half-joking, half-hopeful. He didn't expect them to say yes, but he knew it'd probably save a lot of trouble in the long run if Nemean just... got eaten. He wouldn't mind earning some praise from his far-too-stoic father, either.

What was that?

The young reptile looked up from where she'd been gnawing on a bone. She was hungry, and the thing inside of the bone tasted good. And this room was filled with bones, and so she had decided to stick around for a time.

But now the air tasted of blood, and there was an awful jabbering assaulting her ears. So, curiosity overtaking the little beast, so shattered the bone in her sharp jaw, and began to make her way to the source of the sound.

What she found, confused her. Neither of the creatures had feathers, although both had wings. They looked soft and fuzzy, but had a funny build she'd never seen before. To her relief, Glory was here, and so she 'creeled' curiously, and approached to see what was going on.

Canis had a certain… allure to it.

It seemed odd, at first glance, that such a gentle creature had become so fascinated with such a macabre establishment. But as the fawn grew, she could never quite shake that burning hunger, curiosity that at times bordered on obsession. It was the presence of gems on those old bones that drew her interest in particular. Where had they come from? What had happened to them? And perhaps most importantly, could they live again?

Questions of her own origins began too to plague the girl, creeping into her thoughts and dreams like a thief in the night. It robbed her of other thoughts, implanted ideas here and there into unrelated tasks. She tried to shake the feeling, from time to time, but it seemed the only thing that really alleviated anything was allowing herself to continue at this folly. She’d hidden a small stack of particularly interesting looking gem shards and bones, tucked away in a dark corner of the chambers, hopeful that they wouldn’t be stolen or destroyed by the others skulking around Canis. Karma may have built some sort of comradery with the dead here (at least, she liked to think so), but she had no such hope for some of the living residents. Instead, she clung to shadows, her size proving helpful in avoiding contact.

But today as she entered the chambers, ready to add a new bone to her stash (amethyst, on some sort of long limb bone), she is greeted by the shrill echoes of the ongoing meeting. Karma froze, wishing to return to her scavenging, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. After all, the voices were unfamiliar, which hopefully meant strangers that weren’t terrifying. Sighing softly, she picked her way through the stone labyrinth, eventually greeted by the strange scene. Glancing around the room, her eyes locked on the distressed sprite, covered in blood. Karma wasn’t sure why nobody seemed to bothered with helping the thing, which was very clearly not a lesser gembound.

Frustrated with the lack of action, the young deer stepped forward, off to the side of the other three strangers. Focusing on the furry black creature, Karma inhaled, concentrating on the creature’s jaws, trying to gently pry them apart. Nothing. Unsure if her magic had failed her or the creature was simply immune, she stepped forward, reaching a tentative muzzle out to nudge the hindquarters of the thing.