Chasing the Phoenix [Quest]

[Magmy105 41]

After all that excitement, Nightshade quickly went to sleep on the grass that was luckily out of the fire’s range. It was far from graceful, with her arms sprawled across the ground and drool coming out from her mouth. Despite how the circumstances would’ve kept her alert, it seems to be that she rarely gets much sleep, and it has finally caught up to her.

[Mickey Flash 5895]

Since the badger was walking around Toad when the badger mentioned 'finishing what you signed up for' Toad didn't know if he was talking about Toad, or about the female with no name.  He was about to huff and puff, his tantrum already fizzling out, when he noticed that the girl decided to roll in the grass and sleep.  He rubbed his eyes, still sensitive from the smoke of the woods that had been on fire.  

"Is the girl with no name really going to sleep in a burning woods?"  He shook his head, and wondered if there might be something wrong with the lass.  Tsking as he worked, he got a few rocks and made a circle on the ground.  Then he placed some of the branches of tree that still had small flame on them in the middle of the rock circle.  He threw more sticks in the pile and made a small camp fire. 

"It's nice to meet ya, Prince Lisandro.  Didn't know Toad was in royal company."  He poked the fire with a stick to get it to keep aflame.  "While she's sleeping, and we can't just leave her here..." he paused as if he was seriously thinking of that option.  Then he continued, "Why don't you tell Toad a story about Your Highness.  It might pass the time.  Toad sure is curious on how you ended up traveling with Toad today.  I must of had more to drink at the Tavern of Legends than I thought, for I can't remember you joining the talon hunting party before the jump through the portal.  Are you hunting for Phoenix talons too?"  

@Phoebe

 

[Phoebe 1739]

"They promised free ale," the badger replied blankly. When pressed to tell a story, Lisandro thought of the one and only story that held any entertainment potential.

"The culling," he began, resting his furry buttocks down against the soft grass, his hammer landing on the ground heavily.

"It was a mournful evening. Man had finally lost his patience with us woodland folk. They came wielding swords and crossbows, whilst we who had nothing but our bare paws were forced to flee. Not very fast, however. Man had the help of a traitorous woodland creature. The horses."

Lisandro recounted how man had hunted animals for decades for game, food, and luxuries such as fur. Eventually however, it all came to an end.

"We adapted," he stated. "As the (Darwinian) Principle states, all beings must adapt or perish. And so we have adapted. And now they cannot kill us, for we kill cry foully and curse at them if they put swords through our bodies. Could you imagine how horrifying it would be if the creature you hunted began speaking to you?"

@Mickey Flash

[Magmy105 41]

Nightshade was dreaming up new potion combinations and possible experiments to run, like using her alchemy to make a loyal spider mount to help her climb those hard-to-reach areas for herbs and roots that grow along cliff walls. She was likely coming up with this because a large spider monster secretly was dragging Nightshade into their cave den, where the flames cannot reach. Nightshade just smiles as she sleeps.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Magmy105
Grammar

[Mickey Flash 5895]

Toad nods as he listens to Prince Lisandro's story.  "This sounds familiar," he says as he takes a stick and pokes the fire with it.  small bits of flame shoot out to disappear in the air.  Toad watches them in fascination for a moment, before he seems to collect himself and come back to the present.  He scratches his knee with the other hand, as he squats beside the fire.  "Toad has heard this tale told.  Many animals or shifters that come from Karmathen tell the same tale.  Toad would ask if you be from Karmathen, but you be a prince, so that don't seem likely."  He pokes the fire again.  There are small popping noises as the wood burns.

Meanwhile he looks over to the sleeping girl.  He wonders when they will be going on the path to the Phoenix birds.  "Maybe you know the miss' name?  Toad asked her, but she didn't speak to Toad."  He shrugged.  "Maybe she has something against goblins, or pixies.  She wouldn't be the first Toad came across who did, nor the last."  He stands up and the pop of his knees as he stood made a louder sound than the popping of the fire.  "Toad knows exactly where the Phoenix birds are.  If she'd wake up we could go right to them."  

 

[Phoebe 1739]

The badger shrugged.

"Not a clue."

Lisandro had failed to notice the spider monster that was dragging Nightshade away into its cave. His large black eyes were awfully tunnel visioned, the unfortunate malady of age.

"Maybe we should take a rest first? The girl seems tired. Actually- maybe we should just go without her. . . ? It seems like bringing her would just put us all in more danger."

@Mickey Flash

[Magmy105 41]

Gently down the cave goes the little alchemist on the back of the spider. Softly and gently as she rocks side to side on the spider’s back, having sweet, alchemical dreams. The spider crawls down a tunnel until it meets up with other spiders. Turns out, it’s an entire spider citadel. Cobwebs littered the place as spiders caught fish and bugs by a waterfall. The moss around the rocks glowed like grass in a sunny day. The crystals glowing like dim suns. Ruins of an ancient temple lie there, abandoned for a long time. There were mushrooms and purple-leafed plants from a time long forgotten. It would be said that no man has ever tread upon this soil, if it weren’t for the bones and decaying skin of many powerful sorcerers and adventurers, all wearing the iconic garb of someone who dabbles in the forbidden arts. 
The spider tossed nightshade in a web within the temple while some slightly larger and older spiders wrapped the silk around nightshade, taking her inside the damp, forgotten ruins. 
Eventually, she woke up, yet she couldn’t see anything.

”What the heck? Is it still nighttime? Wait, if it is then the moon should be providing light and there should be stars out.”

As soon as she turned around, she saw eight red eyes, all glowing and looking down on her. Nightshade screamed in response to seeing them, which caused her scream to echo around the cave walls and outside.

[Mickey Flash 5895]

On 5/27/2020 at 4:14 AM, Phoebe said:

"Maybe we should take a rest first? The girl seems tired. Actually- maybe we should just go without her. . . ? It seems like bringing her would just put us all in more danger."

Toad smacked his thigh with his open palm, "Toad had the same thoughts running through my head!"  He cackled.  "Not the part where we rest, 'cause Toad's not sleepy, but the part where we just kind of leave her here, get the talons and come back and give 'em to her.  Then Toad seen how much danger she got in just jumpin' from the portal, and changed my mind."  He grabbed a piece of dried grass and put the end between his sharp teeth.  "If her's hurt and Toad can't give her the talons, Toad probably won't be gettin' any ALE.  Need me some of dat ALE."  He smacked his lips together and rubbed his slightly protruding pot belly.  

After patting his stomach, a faint scream could be heard in the distance.  Toad looked toward where the girl had been sleeping before.  She was gone.  "Uh oh.  Looks like Toad is going to be workin' for his ALE."  He hoped up, almost the same as his namesake, and hurried in the direction of the scream.  

 

[Phoebe 1739]

The badger got to his feet clumsily and picked up his hammer.

"Bugger. . . Stupid girl can't keep herself from getting into trouble even when she's asleep. . ."

Grumbling beneath his breath, Lisandro trailed behind the more excitable and mobile Toad, prepared to have to bail both of them out of trouble if the situation demanded.

@Magmy105

[Magmy105 41]

The screams stopped echoing out of the cave, very abruptly. Meanwhile outside the cave, a couple of the spiders brought in a big haul of food from outside the cave. Most of the food consisted of phoenix eggs and the phoenix that laid them, all alive with the mother phoenix asleep. Whoever found these guys is likely to get promoted in whatever spider hierarchy they have down below. That is, unless they are a husband, which in that case, the wife better be well fed or then he’s not gonna have that promotion for very long.

[Mickey Flash 5895]

Toad was pretty good with forests.  He'd lived there for centuries, many different types of forests.  He knew about the plants, and creatures, and dangers and serene moments.  He was more fond of the serene times, because danger could really stress a Toad out.  Now was not one of the calm moments.  He was quickly making his way through the foliage.  He was careful though, since a forest trap could be around any corner.  A bull, or a sand pit, or even a sharply broken branch could trip someone up while running barefoot into the forest.  

He managed to make his way to the caves though, and they creep Toad out.  There were thick webs around the entrance, and Toad knew what this meant.  There were spiders.  Either there were many spiders, or big spiders.... or many big spiders.  He did a shiver, which did nothing to alleviate the creepy feeling he had.  It was a good thing he was such a small fellow, with skin that was semi slippery, and a good set of muscles.  He would need them to get past the webs.  

He started out slowly, at first, trying to weave his way past the webs without getting caught in them.  When one would attach itself to him, he would gently remove it.  He knew some webs could be like alarms, letting the spiders know there was something caught in them.  He didn't plan to set off any alarms if he could help it.  Then he tried to bend over and get past a particularly tricky web and the web brushed up against his back and stuck there.  He squalled and tried to pull away, but that didn't help.  He put his hand up to get it off, but his hand was now stuck.  Toad began to panic.  He struggled and squawked but it only got him more entangled.  

"Help me," he called.  He hoped the badger wasn't far behind.  

@Phoebe

[Phoebe 1739]

The cave entrance was just barely large enough for the badger to fit in. Upon noticing the webs, he immediately opted to leave his warhammer outside.

"What?!" he cried incredulously at Toad's request. "How?!"

Scrambling forward, Lisandro flashed a palm with five deceptively sharp claws sticking out through the fingertips of his gauntlets. With a fierce slash, he dug his claws into the side of the webs which restrained Toad. It was unlikely that he would get the web off, but it would at the very least disconnect him from the wall, preventing further entanglement.

"What now?"

@Mickey Flash

[Mickey Flash 5895]

When the badger asked, "What now?" Toad shook his head.  

"Toad just plans to try to get to the girl without getting caught in da webs."  He slowly began to make his way, trying his best not to let the same thing happen to him that did before.  

In the cave, where the Phoenix and the eggs lay, the bird was just beginning to regain consciousness.  It groggily looked over and could see it's babies entwined in a nest of webs.  The spiders were all around, crouching as if getting ready to suck the blood out of the soft eggs.  The Phoenix let out a loud "CAW!" which echoed through the walls of the cave, out the tunnels, past Toad and the badger, and into the forest.  The call could be heard by many Phoenix birds that suddenly took flight.  The birds flew as quickly as possible to the cave entrance, blew past the webs, and entered the cave where the spiders were hovering over their own kind.  That is when the fight began.  Sharp beaks and talons skewered the hairy legs of the spiders.  Some of the birds plucked out the many eyes of the creatures blinding them.  The spiders fought back, throwing webs around, and trying to grab the birds to sink their large fangs into.  They weren't as successful as the pluck and retreat tactic that the Phoenix birds were taking.  Some of both parties went down in the fight.  The eggs and the girl were forgotten in the carnage.  

Toad came into the cave to see what was going on.  He had gotten out of the way when the birds had flown by, and as he watched them killing the spiders he was glad he'd gotten out of their way.  He could see the girl tied up in the webs. He ran to her, dodging the swoop of a bird, or a flying spider leg.  There wasn't much he could do to help the girl get out of the thick web. He turned to the badger, "Hey, you're pretty good with the webs.  Can you help me get her out of this mess?" 

[Phoebe 1739]

Lisandro uttered something about young people being self-entitled and disrespectful before lumbering down the cave system grumpily.

"Young people these days. . ."

With a firm swipe of his claw, the webs around Nightshade came loose, sending the child tumbling to the floor.

"Come on now, let's get out of here!"

@Mickey Flash

[Magmy105 41]

Nightshade fell to the floor, unconscious but alive. The spiders took notice but couldn’t stop them as they were preoccupied with the Phoenixes, where despite the numbers the spiders had, it was still taking a while to take down all the phoenixes. As they made their way to the exit, Nightshade regained consciousness and got up to follow, but since she wasn’t distracted with the fight, she noticed the eggs and decided to take them. Afterward she then saw some egg sacks and decided to take those too for experimentation and because she liked the idea of having a pet spider. She used the excess silk around the place to keep them together, but that also got her hands stuck. It would be a bad thing but since she wants to keep the stuff she is holding, it’s not much of an issue yet.