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(sorry for the bump! My family and I are going to a resort from tomorrow morning till Saturday night so I will not be posting during that time. Sorry guys! )

(bump! I think we need to get this going again, don't you think?)

(Alrighty guys, this is my last post until next thursday, as I am flying up to Montana to visit my uncle tomorrow! I apologize for the inactivity on my part, both before this post and for the next week while I'm away. I'll do my best tonight to get my bro to make his first Oden post, or to do so within the next couple of days. I'll be on his case, no worries Anyway, here it is. )

With a snap the world came back into focus. Anayu's sudden movements shattered Cyrus's half-dazed state, and his crystal charging attempt with it. He stopped directing energy into the crystal but kept it ready in his hands, his heart racing at the unknown presence that his eyes darted about to discover. He saw, (with an unexpected, subtle degree of appreciation,) the hunk of earth hurtle through the air toward Anayu's target, toward a bulky... rodent? He grasped the handles of his swords and whipped the blades out from his hips, holding them at ready.

Despite the upset, any fighting occuring seemed to be of the verbal sort... Cyrus ran and hopped over rocks and roots toward Anayu's, keeping his guard up. "What's going on?" he yelled as he approached, hearing the creature refer to "Waller land". His question was somewhat answered when he heard Akari explain the situation to the "Waller" as the creature called itself. He figured it would be best to back up Akari's statement.

"Oh, yeah! We're just travelling through here. We'll leave if we have to though. We're just trying to get to Desdon." said Cyrus.

(I don't know anything about the Wallers so I'm going with whatever you guys cook up )

(( Small bump. I'm going to post soon, I promise! I just need a day or two. ))

(Hello! Bumpity-bump from me. Is everyone else bogged down with their new loads of college homework, or is it just me? No offense intended, mind you...

Well, anyway, just give this thing a little bump to the front page, and maybe to your e-mail inboxes. :] )

(( Finally! Up, up and AWAY! ))


The Waller-thing sheathed his sword to his back and gave a slight tap on his chest.
"Sah, Desdon, y'say?" he shouted out, louder than necessary. "Aye, y'taek tha' road t'th'reet o'er ther' -" the thing pointed to his right, directing the attention to a pole marking what seemed to be a rock. A bit further in was another rock, but no pole.
"- an' den ye go on yer bessness, sah?"

Anayu lowered her staff, letting herself slip out of the stance. He didn't seem unfriendly at all.

"An befor' y'go: Dem bandit's sah mad, y'kno'? Big buncha 'em summa paces 'way. I'mma set t'taek care o'em. An' -"

And off the Waller went on chatting, until Anayu interrupted.
"That's all good 'n stuff, but..." she began, but she was cut off by the Waller again.
"An' w'er's me mann'rs? I'mma Tob! An' dem bandits put up 'em blocks'n'stuff up th'road. Ye'd 'afta cross 'em t'get t'Desdon, yessee?"

For a moment, the Dhole's face was blank, before her head abruptly hung, a loud and frustrated sigh escaping her. And clearly, this... rodent-thing with a huge tail had little perspective of distance measurements. Surely, if the bandits were a few paces away they would have heard them by now.
Anayu sinking down to the ground with her palm to her face signified that she gave up trying to communicate with Tob.

And Tob himself tilted his head as he observed her rather quickly before turning to the others.

"Sah... Bandits. I'mma go get 'em - if ye'd join, ye'd be welcom'." he said (through Anayu's frustrated growling) and motioned toward the path marked by that pole.

Akari could sense the irritation emanating from Anayu, not just from a mental standpoint but from looking at her. Hoping to end this, Akari stepped forwards.

"You may come along, Tob, but if you become a hinderance, we'll ask you to leave. We could always use some help in dealing with erratic humans armed with guns. Just be careful, and try not to get us all killed. Just try to be quiet on the way there so we don't alert them to our presence," he explained, nudging Anayu's arm as he mentioned the last part, "Just help us fight off any resistance against us at Desdon. Do you know how many of them there are?"

Akari then leaned towards Anayu, "Listen," he whispered, "from a practicality standpoint, we might need that huge sword of his against guys with guns. Besides, we can 'accidentally' lose him in Desdon, if we need to. Just try to play along until we get there, OK?"

While Tob was counting his fingers, Anayu muttered something about accidents and rockslides in response to Akari.

"Sure, after dem bessness' done, I go' plenty'o time. As fer bandits - I'd say... six o' 'em, 'least." Tob finally concluded, running a finger across his blade with casual interest.
"Dey's got a camp set up on th'reet side o'th' road an' scounts treejumpin'. One o'em's gotta fair' big shooter 'swell. Y'know - dem boomsticks."
The creature made a motion and a "pssh" sound, as if though mimicking something.

Anayu, having gathered herself, rose again.
"Right," she began. "Here's the deal: We help you serve those bandits some buttkicking and you escort us to Desdon - and possibly help us fight off any more threats on the road. Sounds fair, right?"
"Reet, ye's got a deal. Bu' we's got comp....com.... trubble."

Something disturbed the leaves above them as Tob finished his sentence, followed by a *click*.

Finally, some actual progress, Rusty thought, making a hidden gesture with his hands towards the rodent as if shooing him away. He couldn't stand how this guy talked. To Rusty, trying to understand him just became a wasted effort. He was glad that he stood back of the conversation when Anayu and Akari took the stage to confront him. If he were the one to confront the Waller, they'd still be standing there looking at each other wide-eyed.

He had to give it to Anayu and Akari for have such patients with this guy. And the way the rodent respond to them by jumping some vocal pitches with in his words, Rusty managed to pick up some of his meanings. One of them being 'boomstick,' which struck a minor worry chord within Rusty. Though he'd come to expect that most of their adversaries would be packing heat. He shivered at the thought.

Rusty gathered himself in preparation to follow the group to wherever they were to go next, but he froze when an anonymous click happened above them. With the thought that just went through him, Rusty could only imaging the worst possible scenario, likely ending in severe injury or death. The adrenalin was release and Rusty's body started making tiny shivers as it rushed through the blood.

The easily released adrenalin within Rusty was something that he though was a personal curse. He hated the taste he got in his mouth and the bodily reaction of fight-or-flight. Before, he had managed to check it because Jollanel was nearby to assist with his experience. Now it was just them, the inexperienced teenagers.

All Rusty could think of was the need of taking whatever was up there out. Rusty did retain a portion of rational thinking, preventing him from doing something rash. If that click was in fact from a rifle, that means it's already aimed and ready to fire. Rusty was sure that any quick movements would persuade it to unload even sooner.
The worst part of it was that Rusty didn't know if anyone else heard the click. Being like a lone soldier stuck in a minefield was just plain torture to Rusty.

"DROP!" hollered Akari, who immediately did so.

"Rusty! Achtolka spraken!" he shouted in the wolfen language, at the same time motioning to a nearby tree. He intended to use it for cover for the time being. Akari drew his throwing knife, ready to use it.

"Get to cover! Now! Try not to expose yourself in the open!"

(Yes, I've been busy I should be able to post more often now though, except for on mondays and wednesdays usually I have late classes then.)

Cyrus darted behind a nearby tree. What crappy cover... but there's nothing else. With his back toward the others, he was hardly hidden by the thin trunk: his arms were poking out from the sides. His heart jumped into his throat, he had no idea where the assailants were. He just waited, painfully, for some sort of noise to suggest their position. For all they knew they could be surrounded, and if so then there was nothing they could do but wait to be jumped.- or was there?

The only way out of this was to escape, and escape couldn't happen in the open. He turned to face the road, still partially hiding in a crouch behind the tree. Calling on his crystal's magical energy, he dropped his swords and extended his hands to the air around him. Suddenly the connection was made, and he began to move the wind as if it was an extention of himself.

Picking two points in the road, he pulled the surrounding air toward them from afar. Once a strong tension was created, he made a motion with his hands to twist the concentrated points, causing two sudden spiraling bursts. He continued stirring air into the whirlwinds, investing more and more power into them until their speed was unstoppable, then he shoved them away from each other and severed the connection, leaving the howling twisters to their paths. The mini-tornadoes kicked up a thick amount of dust, ripping at the overly dry road as they traveled away from each other.

Dust sprayed Cyrus in the eyes as he became engulfed in the sandstorm. He wasn't sure if it was the right move, but it was the best he could come up with for the moment. A smokescreen would help hide them from enemy fire, even though their own visibility was now limited to a few feet. "Fall back! We can't take on their guns!" he bellowed as he scrambled to pick up his swords in the dust. He then stayed low as he made his way toward the next tree alongside the road.

The moment Akari's warning was given, the shot was fired. The bullet hit Anayu's right leg, just above her knee. The second later, she was lying on the ground, writhing in pain, her staff dropping to the ground. Three bandits jumped from their hideout, swords drawn; two of them were human, but the other was an anthro - a female horse (mare), dressed in almost nothing at all (only something covering her chest and a pair of pants). The mare's mane was tied into a neat ponytail, with the exception of a few strings of hair hanging in front of her left shoulder with a feather tied to it. She also wore a ring, gemmed with a glowing sapphire.

At this moment, Cyrus' improvised smokescreen came to existence, blocking the bandits' sight.

"Aran Thul'Nah!" a female voice boomed through the wind. Following that, a second wind began blowing in the area, trying to put an end to the sandstorm.

Tob, who had forgotten all about Anayu (to her great dismay later on), made a run for it the moment Cyrus urged it. And meanwhile, shots were being fired by the sniper with six or seven second intervals into the dust.

Sissmuth had remain passive all the time he's been included in this little excursion -- or at least he tried his best to. He had to admit, the whole endeavor was more of a bore than he thought. Add in these Waller creatures who barely knew how to speak, and the frustrated lizard was ready to bail out on the group himself. As Anayu tried to communicate, his jaws were clamped very tightly in a frown and his left eye began to twitch with an unnerving poison in his gaze. The frills on his back had also begun to spike, flushing a deep red with blood.

And then something happened. Something that made all the other anthros flip to the defensive. His head snapped up at the overhead trees, and a figure escaped his sight. From somewhere nearby, Akari shouted something and before he knew it, there was a raging sandstorm brewing all around them. Sissmuth's cloak flapped out from behind him, and just then, the lizard's slitted eyes contracted and the corners of his mouth upturned in a dragonish smirk. He was used to such buffeting sandstorm back in Valter -- and he seemed to operate better with their cover guiding him.

Despite the obvious distractions, Sissmuth closed his eyes and concentrated. There were at least two of them -- no, three. If there were more, they were probably hiding in the trees, safe from his Earth Feel sense. A spike in movement caught his attention as he felt a body hit the ground. Anayu's, by the sound of it. And the three unknown bodies he sensed were closeby. He hissed callously as the frills on his back extended outward, the blood flowing through them causing them to stiffen into threatening spikes.

Sleek as a shadow, and with his eyes still closed, he slipped through the sandstorm and made his way over to Anayu. He knew she'd been shot, but judging from the way she writhed around so much and almost punched him in the snout when he crept up on her, he figured the wound wasn't anything serious. After making himself known to her, he pulled one of her arms around his neck and lifted her to her feet. One of the three bodies he sensed was coming forward. He spun off to the side as he heard the whistle of metal slice down on the spot he was moments before and brought the tip of his staff in a wide arc up to trip whoever it was to the ground. After a quick gesture of his fingers, the earth nearest to them lurched up and securely buried the victim's feet in solid bricks of stone, effectively immobilizing them as Sissmuth grabbed back ANayu and hobbled her to the edge of the sandstorm.

After hearing the shot fired, Anayu's cries of pain, and seeing the smokescreen created and at nearly the same time being dissipated by this anonymous female anthro, Akari dove for the same tree Cyrus was using for cover. As Cyrus tried to get the group out of there, Akari, adrenaline pumping, quickly put his throwing knife to good use as the three bandits emerged from hiding. With a terrible spinning sound, he threw the knife at one of the bandits, hitting one of the humans smack in the chest, and after a loud cry of pain, he dropped his weapon and fell over. The other human went for Sissmuth, who was helping Anayu up, but his blow was blocked by Sissmuth's staff at the last minute, and was immediately rendered immobile through some method Akari did not pay attention to, given the life-threatening situation at hand.

"Rusty!" he called out, "I'll take care of the mare, you and Cyrus try to find the sniper or run for it!"

Akari turned towards the mare, who became more visible through the sandstorm, as her apparent air powers were succeeding at dissipating their only source of cover from the sniper. Akari drew his swords, stepped out from behind the cover (it was still just enough for him to not be able to see the trees from which the sniper was shooting), and called out, "You know, you could have at least told us what you wanted! Then we would've had a chance at negotiations!" Akari shrugged his shoulders, "But then again, you've made it clear that you aren't the negotiating types," he finished up, readying himself in his sideways battle stance, his swords held by his head, the left one pointed horizontally, the right one pointed up, his left side facing the mare anthro, bent knees, ready to jump or move in almost any direction.

Rusty could barely make out what Akari said through the two raging winds trying to cancel each other out and over the gunshots of the rifle, but he nodded to Akari, wherever he was. To Rusty it almost seemed unreal how easy Akari made keeping a level head seemed, while he was struggling with staying afloat of his adrenalin and not let natural instincts blind him.

Rusty crouched down against a tree as a strong gust of wind and dust made its way over where he was. Shielding his eyes with his jacket sleeve, he realized that if he were to do anything to fight back he wouldn't be able to us his bow. He would not be able to hold aim long enough with his dirt flying around to fire an arrow. Even if he'd manage to pull it off, the wind would throw the arrow off its course, likely missing the intended target. Even risking accidentally hitting someone on his side. Next to that fact, this wind would strain Rusty if he tried to keep a flame going.

Rusty winced as a loud crash rang near him and a chunk of bark from the tree he was next to blew off. It seems like that gunner was foolishly shooting into the dust, not even worried if he hit one of his comrades.

Rusty cowered further behind the tree. Then he felt something warm and wet running down his neck. He reached back and stared at his hand when he brought it forward. His fingers shimmered from the blood they collected from a cut behind his ear. Seeing his own blood triggered something within Rusty. Flight wasn't an option anymore. High on adrenalin, fighting back was the only way.

Still close to the tree, Rusty got up and peered around to see if the dust had thinned enough to see anything. It hadn't. Rolling back around, Rusty heard a small cling from his belt. He reached under his jacket and unsheathed his dagger and a small grin appeared on Rusty's face; he wasn't yet out of options. He eyed the branches above him and, using his dagger as a grip, climbed the tree. For all the gunsman knows, all his intended targets are below him, even in this dust. He wouldn't expect a counter attack from his level.