James was already getting everything set up. He was trying to knock down logs, dig holes, putting up traps and things for the hunters to fall into or get clotheslined on. He already had an idea about stringing vine across the ground and setting up more at neck height to catch the hunters at the throats.

"Alright... this might do," he said, and started to string up the stones he had. If the vines on the ground were pulled, they'd fall and hopefully smash into the faces of the hunters.

Thankfully, they appeared to not be corporeal, or at least not entirely. If anything, it might slow them down, especially the holes. Perhaps he could set up wisps to look like the deer and send them whizzing through the maze.

The wisp fizzled out and he snorted, "Hey! Now's not the time!"

As if his magic understood.

He got to work digging, pushing logs into place so the hunters would jump and either fall or at the very least, trips. If someone could try and set up walls or even hills, that would be great, he just had to help the quarry get to the other side.

"Excuse me!", he called to it, "Once the hunters come, follow me!"

He hoped it understood.

@Talys @Warrior and to whoever else who wants to join

Talys had dropped back into an awkward sort of all-fours gait when he'd gotten closer, and was already looking at what James had prepared. "Horsie?" he called, his voice small and vaguely Mediterranean -- not that Origin Cave had one of those. He had some sticks tucked under his arm, and crept closer before getting up on two legs and holding them out to James. "Th' bunny needs help?" he asked, looking around what James had created. "M'name's Talys. Want me to make you knots?" He held up his hands and flexed his thumb for emphasis, already grinning as he waited for instruction.

He didn't think he could really make anything helpful himself, but James looked like he knew what he was doing. Talys's tail swished lightly behind him and shooed away an insect buzzing near his pinned ear. He was tiny and unassuming, but the knot that held the loincloth around his waist was sturdy and hadn't come loose in his running after James, so Talys probably knew what he was doing in that department.

@james mostly

He came up at a cautious trot, one ear flicking back and then forward; the float of his gait settled into stillness a few yards away.

"Excuse me--I think you're the one I saw before-? Ahh, back there-..." -Awkward. Fresh start. "My name's Warrior. I live in Hydra, so I'm not too familiar with everything out here; can I ask if, ah, things like this happen often?" Here, he hesitated. "Is there--danger in it?" Warrior was hardly one to shy from danger, but it was always good to know where there was any. Not that he wanted to risk himself, exactly.

Wisp-eyes fell on James' work, and he tried to figure out what the winged horse (and wasn't that strange-? Wings?) was trying to do. "You said something about a--a maze? I may be able to help, if you point out where," he offered. It seemed to be a preemptive payment for answers to his questions.

A moment's concentration and his magicka flared; the earth parted and a spike of stone, not very large or imposing but... a spike a couple feet high, at least, pushed up along the line that James seemed to be building.

He noticed a strange humanoid-thing, too, arriving; and to this he offered a polite, if somewhat uncertain, nod.

Look at what we have here.

A trio of strange creatures setting up traps for the Hunters. Madhukar knew this game. It was like making an obstacle course! Maybe she should've helped with the Quarry if it had meant getting to correct their mistakes and make yet another obstacle course, this time for creatures she didn't mind getting zapped by an electroball. But she was too angry to have even thought about it. In fact, the moment her mind even suggested the thought, something within her felt nauseous with disapproval.

Look out for lightning! She'd warned them. She would make sure it was a threat.

Unfortunately, these three were all too tall to be making traps that could really block smaller gembounds like her. There was a few things she could do here: move through and try to redirect the Quarry, maybe even try to straight up hunt the Quarry with her magic, or try to get them to quit it with the traps.

She liked the first idea best, because she didn't know exactly how the other two would... work.

So she'd start by trying to zip through while the three creatures were busy building.


Think "Speak"

@James (Madhukar rolled to pass the trio and chase after the Quarry)

Her sword was back in its makeshift scabbard by the time she picked towards the gathering surrounding their so-called quarry: a wispy-looking sort of creature that Hargrave questioned the reality of. The Kings had taken so long to call them all back—were they simply orchestrating all of this for amusement? It was a curious thought. Perhaps, as much so as seeing a familiar face in the crowd.

Fiery eyes locked onto the phosphorescence of Warrior's and then skimmed past to the horn of obsidian and pearly coat. "I remember you," she called softly, ears curling forward, "you've changed again." Her head tilted up and down, sizing the stallion up. Nervous, but just as resilient as ever. Hargrave flashed her teeth in a brief grin, "danger—ah, well, I suppose that we will find out. These things happen fairly often, I think. Strange outsiders come to make us... compete, yes?" Tail swaying with each step, she sobered, "no, I don't believe that there is much. Not as much as the Trials." A knowing look spared to the stallion.

Hargrave then paced towards a conspicuously bare patch of ground in the line they were building. She sniffed, but didn't yet catch the scent of cat. The gray hare was far too focused on planting a trap in the maze's break. Any fool that stepped in it should find themselves in at least a brief burst of flame. She made sure, at least, that it was somewhat close to the river.

Her goal was to protect the Quarry, but never to intentionally harm. ("Watch your step, here.") She wouldn't dream of it, unless it was her life on the line.

Kitty had trailed after Madhukar, like she was usually inclined to do -- and then had looped broadly around, to come up from behind the black-and-winged creature's little game (he reminded her, distantly, of Madhukar's funny-looking mushroom friend, although much taller). She peered at them from the trees, her black underside and reddish fur disguising her in the autumnal shadows of Pegasus's forests. Her ears twitched forward and she eyed the lengths of vines, catching a flash of cream as Madhukar slipped inside the boundary.

She tilted her head slightly, and began to form a plan, knitting together in her mind. These vines were meant to hamstring the hunters, she guessed...? Or, rather, those who were helping the hunters. So she needed to get rid of them. Her teeth were probably sharp enough to bite through one of them quickly -- her claws almost certainly sharp enough, though that would probably take more effort. So she needed to make a distraction, one way or the other.

Kitty, still hidden within the trees, focused on a spot near the winged one's foot -- and nothing happened. She frowned, and stayed as still as a board -- the wind rustled her fur, and she quietly thanked her camouflage. This was a wonderful place to be -- maybe she'd ask Sunny if she'd consider a move.

Cryogen


Cryogen had kept pace more than a few lengths behind the two older horses, but had drawn even when Warrior had added to the line- and they stared at his life-giver for a split second, the eerie glow of his eyes making his shoulders twitch in agitation before they're able to cover the unease prickling their coat.

"A maze?"

They take another step forward, but then pause, before swinging their head around and facing the open fields they had all left behind.

"Should... I keep watch? In case of hunters or any sort?"

All the talk about given Quests and Trials makes them side eye Hargrave. curious but unwilling to seem annoying in front of strangers- at least not yet.

With a soft flare of magic, Cryogen decides to check the nearby forest as well, keeping a magical eye out for things that shouldn't be moving when it resonates against the magic humming around their mental eye.


@James
@Warrior
@Hargrave

All else was forgotten when Cryogen arrived, just after Warrior had spoken--he did not even notice Madhukar, the little cat racing past. Instead, blinking eyes found his child, one he hadn't seen in quite some time--and why was Cryogen looking at him that way-? Warrior was baffled, for a moment--surely the change of white coat to slightly grayer coat, the light to his eyes, hadn't been enough-..? He still was the same shape, a similar color--hell, the horn or voice should have been a giveaway unless... What if their memory is damaged, somehow? Fear spiked, and Warrior hastened to speak, pushing toward Cryogen at once.

"Cryo-?" he asked, bewildered. "Are you all right? It's--been a long time--you do recognize me?" Confusion. Worry. "Did something happen to you?" The 'where have you been' was left unsaid--not a demanding thought, but a worried one. The child had left half-grown to explore the caves, and Warrior had hardly seen them since.

THE WILD HUNT

THE CHASE

Vines and logs were prepared, and for a moment it seemed like it might work perfectly; the distant, ghostly Quarry lifted a fox-like head to peer at James as he called out. It had started their way when Madhukar raced through, briefly entangling herself in all the vines before breaking free and streaking away.

The fire trap, however, was quickly placed and it was then that the Quarry streaked past, a blur of icy mist: and a few moments later the Hounds. The wispy fog-forms of canines, of bones and teeth and dimly-glowing eyes, raced into the maze-shape.

For the most part they merely slowed, turning this way and that before leaping over--and through--the obstacles; the fire trap triggered and a blast of flame seemed to give several of them a start. Soon the Huntsmen had caught up with them: towering figures, the snorts of the spectral steeds sending unnatural shivers down the spines of those nearby, frightened or not.

Then the chase was on again, the Huntsmen slowed, but hardly stopped. Perhaps the Hunt would come back this way; perhaps it wouldn't. The Gembound might choose to try to get ahead of it again, or herd it back around...

_____________

The Gembound will have one more round to make any further attempts at affecting the outcome of the Pegasus leg of the Wild Hunt before it moves on. See the main quest thread for more information.

@James @Talys @Warrior @Madhukar @Hargrave @Kitty @Cryogen

James offered Talys a soft smile and brought a wing down to touch their arm, "Yes, I am."

He looked up at Warrior and seemed relieved, watching more and more people appear- and the quarry rush by, the hunters and the hounds descending upon them.

And a cat, one that had been described by his own daughter as trying to kill her.

One thing at a time, quarry first, yeeting a cat later. Soon, though.

He readied his spell and looked behind him as he took flight- not literally, but he felt like he was running so fast that it was similar. He narrowed his eyes, perhaps a shield could stop them, or at least slow them down.

"FORM TRENCHES AND MAKE MAGICAL SHIELDS!", he cried out, noting how physical things like obstacles were barely anything to them.

They'd need to get tricky.

James slammed the shield down and locked it in place behind him, forming a half-dome around the back of himself, stretching out as far as he could before leaving it be. If anything, he'd just make himself a moving barrier. And well, if he trampled a cat on the way to defend the quarry, then... oops, he supposed.

Roll was noted as a 15 and successful!