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Post by Nadia on Oct 10, 2020 0:05:28 GMT -6
The spectres observe. One looks at the outstretched hand, and then... a long, serpentine tongue lolls out to lick it. Eww. Still, they look to be easily won over, for ghosts...
[Congratulations, you have successfully tamed the creatures!]
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Post by Alma on Oct 10, 2020 15:38:18 GMT -6
Losing her calm means losing a hand. It is hard to remember this as the thing's tongue worms through the air, the cold emanating from it bringing to mind more solid creatures. But the tongue passes through her hand without issue, other than the bitter cold, and slips back inside the mouth of the ghost a second later. Both stare at her, and the nearest, the licker, began to wag it's smoke tail. The second joins it, then leaps upon the first, both ghosts promptly ignoring the ssashirk and her prey as they tumble over one another.
She waits until they have rolled a small distance away, noting that the more solid of the two appears to be winning their play fight, before edging over to the small hoard. The pocket pets burrowed deeper into the leaves as she looked over them, wondering once more about the cost of the earth-ripper, and how much she could truly expect for catching a custom. The bit of fabric poking out from beneath the hoard decided her, and she hunched over to let the weight of the custom slide onto her neck as she released it. With both hands now free, and a furtive glance at the spirits, she slowly gathered the torn edges of the fabric until she had a sack with which to hold the hoard.
Still hunched, for the sack of cursed items and struggling beasts was too heavy to risk lifting it one handed, she snuck out the door, then out the front, finally leaving the hellish mansion behind. She did not hear the two specters following her, not as their paws passed silently through the leaves, only noticing them and their lolling tongues as they sat beside her, the gate to the mansion swinging shut. 63 (End of trip.)
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:18:07 GMT -6
She had heard new rumors about the hell-mansion. Soft-skins had spoken, not with the hushed whispers such a terrible place deserved, but brazenly of the supposed gifts to be found there, and many a treasure hunter bragged of the wares they had scooped up by the bagful. But now a new set of rumors had been racing from soft-skins like a pandemic, claims that the house rewarded those who trained beasts on the property, that it craved any manner of attention and would allow trainers and their beasts to teach what they could in return for things born of it.
She had little faith in such rumors, but the house had rewarded her with many a cursed, but valuable, object whenever she had wandered onto the property. Of those times, she did not bring trained beasts, but the house had never sought to steal the beasts away from her. And now she would risk the small, chubby creature beside her. 64 [Self note-Coin start.]
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:19:17 GMT -6
It was one of three that she owned, and unlike the other living one, she had no intention of skinning the small female to complete her armor. No, she intended to study this one, to learn as much as she could about these creatures that the labs had claimed made wonderful trackers, to figure out if there was any obvious weakness she might take advantage of when the time came to hunt the stoneskin. Considering that the beast’s hide would dull even the sharpest of her blades when it came to skin it, she needed to find out what weaknesses the species had.
And that was where little Coin came in, the beast named for the manner in which she had been purchased. The dead one was a horror of bones and ice, with the loyalty befitting a crafted creature linking it to her. Coin had no such crafted loyalty to bind her. 65
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:19:59 GMT -6
It also helped that the beast was still small, her pudgy body doing little to aid her when she decided to snap at Haix’s legs, the latter more than quick enough to dance away from the hatchling’s clumsy attack. The rope tightened quickly enough under the chelcauda’s hood, the choking rope and Haix’s longer reach convincing the hungry beast that there was little chance of a meal taken from the ssashirk’s legs. At least said convincing usually lasted a minute or two, until the beasts rumbling stomach convinced her to close with Haix and try again.
The cooler of fish meat never drew a single glance from the chelcauda, it’s scents locked away under its bleached white lid. While Haix dodged the inquisitive snaps from the little Coin, trying to keep her away from her favorite food while avoiding her attacks would have been mildly more difficult. It was hard enough for Haix to keep her grip on the heavy tub when dodging. 66
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:20:30 GMT -6
Reaching the mansion had been a pain, the chelcauda just strong enough to make her arms begin to quiver as she held the beast away from her at the gate, trying to follow the same ritual she had done upon her previous entry. Read the sign and watch for any new warnings or promises of riches, alongside resisting the urge to test the beat’s hide to see if it was as strong as the stoneskins as Coin’s jaws slammed shut an inch away from her legs.
Starving a new beast that was to be trained was always a risky proposition, but she needed to be sure that Coin would be quick to learn once they entered the mansion’s grounds. She wanted to be sure that, even if the mansion was less tolerant about training than the soft-skin rumors had led her to believe, the beast would not be easily distracted by some rustling leaves. 67
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:20:59 GMT -6
It would not matter too much if the beast failed to learn anything, or if the mansion decided for her carefully cut strips of fish meat were to band together and flail like a newly caught bass. In the case of the latter, she would let the chelcauda eat to her stomach’s content, and wait just long enough to see if the fish strips could tear their way free. She might even be able to write a warning of her own then, and discover if the notes on the sign were allowed to be changed from what they were, or if the mansion could reach its outermost grounds.
In the case of training the little thing, she had no need for a new tracker, especially not one that would smash any subtle tracks beneath clumsy feet and scare any prey miles away with every swing of its tail against a tree. 68
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:21:34 GMT -6
Eventually, the little beast stopped straining at the end of the noose, panting as she took a step back from Haix to loosen the strain around her neck. When Haix began to lower her arm to reach for the gate, Coin charged her again. With a hissed curse, she straightened up her arm again, choking the beast as Coin tried to feed herself on the lean lizard in front of her.
A handful of seconds passed, and the chelcaude relaxed once more, eyes lingering on the arm held above her. This time, Haix counted out several breaths before she began to lower her arm, glaring at the beast, daring her to lunge at her again so that Haix might show Coin the strength of the rope. Coin made no move to attack as the rope gradually became slack, doing little more than panting as Haix watched. A breath later, and Haix reached for the gate, trying to watch the cursed house from the corner of her eye as she continued glaring at Coin. 69
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:22:14 GMT -6
Her hand found the latch easily enough, and she slipped the gate open with its signature screech of metal that no amount of care seemed to be able to avoid. Finally the chelcauda looked away at that, redirecting her gaze to the gate even as Haix kept staring at her, meeting Haix’s gaze a second later as the ssashirk stepped onto the property. The leash of coarse rope was lifted high into the air before Haix tugged the small beast after her, the latter taking the pull as an invitation to charge.
Coin stood on her hind legs for the span of several breaths, noose digging deep into the fat around her neck as her forelegs pawed the air, then staggered back one step as she began to cough. A few more back steps were taken before her front legs met the ground, another pair before the hacking cough turned into pained whuffs of air as she breathed heavily. 70
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:22:57 GMT -6
Rather than let the chelcauda take a moment to regain her breath, and likely ready herself to launch another time-wasting attack on her legs or tail, Haix quickly dragged the cooler and chelcauda into the eternal night that cloaked the mansion. The small beast failed to register the sudden change in temperature as she wheezed, stubby legs doing little more than fighting to keep herself upright as she was dragged into a sea of leaves that flowed around and over her shoulders.
The flatter trail left behind the cooler was noted a few seconds into the drag, then her feet caught on something broad and firm beneath the crackling ocean, and she plunged beneath the surface. Or she would have done so if the rope around her neck had allowed it, the leash instead tightening as her entire weight was thrown against it. She could not so much as chirp as it held her throat in its implacable grip. 71
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:23:27 GMT -6
Before this point, the hunger gnawing at her belly had been the most important thing to her, the need to find some form of meat to satisfy her growling stomach and restore strength to her already fatigued limbs. Now the tiredness was even more pronounced as the hunger faded, stubby limbs kicking up a storm of crackling leaves as she tried to stand up and take a breath.
But there was no relief to be found. Whenever a few limbs found their way under her, pushing up to relieve a fraction of the pressure, something below the leaves would spring up and knock her legs out from underneath her. Her struggles became less pronounced, the storm or leaves lapsing into soft waves as she began to enter some kind of tunnel, heat rushing to her head as what was not hidden by the dark shadows grew oddly bright and sharp, looking faintly unreal. 72
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:23:58 GMT -6
Haix did not trust the trees.
It had been days ago since she had last been to the mansion, the hunt still fresh in her mind, and the way the trees had moved was not something she believed she would ever be able to forget. Now they were feigning innocence, their bare branches rustling only when the chill breeze passed through them, their bark looking as rough and dead as one might expect from a tree before the freezing winter. It was all the more reason not to trust them, and she dragged the beast and cooler to the rear of the house, not stopping until the last lone brown leaf had been left behind.
The cooler was released to stand a few feet away from a slender tooth of stone, and it was about that time that she finally looked back at the nearly limp chelcauda, meeting its half-closed eyes as she slipped the rope off of her arm. 73
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:24:31 GMT -6
She let the young chelcauda lay on the ground beside the loose length of rope as she tied the rest of it to the tooth of stone, watching the female’s sides heave as she pulley the knot tight before risking to approach the limp beast. When Coin made no mode to jump upright and snap at her, the chelcauda’s tongue protruding from its mouth in a distinctly nonthreating manner as one leg drew a short line through the dirt, Haix crouched down next to it.
One hand was pressed to the creature’s throat gently, fingers wrapping around the weaker front, then both lifted to pull at the noose and loosen it. Within a breath, there was enough space for several fingers to slip between the rope and the young chelcauda’s hide, and she leaned back to rest on the balls of her feet. The moment the noose had loosened, air exploded from the creatures mouth, and it began to wheeze as it drew in great, shuddering breaths. 74
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:25:17 GMT -6
She lingered next to the beast until it's eyelids began to twitch, blinking several times as its yellow eyes seemed to focus on hers. Satisfied now that the beast began to move its legs, random little kicks as it continued to inhale and exhale with somewhat less force than it had the first time, Haix stood up. She looked at the rope, the loose length laying in the dirt alongside the chelcauda, the noose certainly not wider than the hood that dominated the majority of its neck, and stepped to the fish cooler.
Coin was left to recover on her own time, the young chelucauda doing so with perhaps a fraction less speed than one might have expected of such a young creature. Haix took the time to look over the immediate area, of which any distance greater than a few feet beyond the tooth of stone seemed to be nothing more than shadow. 75
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:25:47 GMT -6
The mansion, dark and decrepit, seemed to be lavished with light from the staring moon, and she did not know whether to be grateful she could see it and the way to escape, or annoyed that the house would be watching. How would it judge her training of the chelcauda? In need of more violent scares than it had thrown at her when she had entered it, annoyed that she dared to use it’s profane land as little more than a place to train the tubby beast wallowing in front of her? Or would it toss gifts and annoyances her way, tripping up any training she intended but making up for it with credits to be earned?
They would find out soon. At the very least, the chelcauda looked nothing like the ghosts that had hounded her earlier, nor the skeletal false hatchlings she had encountered a year ago. She doubted the mansion would mistake Coin for its own, nor claim the little one. 76
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