Because Because Because Because Because...!!! (Mint & Winnow)

Winnow will gather and re-sling their things, ready for flight of fight. It only take a moment. He will then see what Mint wants to do while remaining vigilant. He keeps his attention high, expecting something out of the sky again.

At the same time, he uses a blade to lop off a straight branch or sapling, and quickly sharpens the end. He will then tie a bit of leafy vine on the back, making a very makeship throwing-spear.

Never thought much about flying threats...I'll have to start considering tactics.

Mint replaces the muzzle. She then begins to quickly carry her captive under the canopy of trees in order to obscure their presence from aerial pursuit.

To Winnow she says, "Would you please decide that it is unlikely that they will find us right away? Don't leave this place, just buy us a bit of time."

Mint heads with all deliberate speed overland toward a cave system a quarter mile away mostly uphill. If they disappear into that they can re-emerge a few miles away.

Winnow will let the lady carry the quarter-ton reindeer with amusement. Even she can't keep silent with that awkward thing across her shoulders.

As they walk, he will exert his Pattern ability to warp probability, taking care NOT to shift away from their current location in any significant way. He will try to make any interference highly improbable.

If I am not careful we will slide through the paper-thin probabilities and end up in a similar but different shadow...which may not be such a bad thing but Mint says the place is hard to return to...So as they walk, he puts thought to voice: "If we must avoid a confrontation, perhaps I should shift us away and you can magick us back later, at our leisure? Or is time pressing?"

"It is not so much that time is pressing as I resent the idea of being driven from my own land. Sometimes I'm too stubborn for my own good. I'm not worried about our defeating what pursues us, but if something that major disappears Melificent will likely retaliate by obliterating the town and that would irk me. I could simply depose Melificent, but I try to stay out of local politics. One mysterious disappearance, even of an Obersturmführer, will likely result in no more than increased patrols."

Mint's walk, even while carrying the awkward bundle through woods, is inhumanly fast.

Sounds echo from far behind them, the sound of some kind of huge predatory bird. Not close, but if they pay very close attention, they might also hear the flapping of some very large wings.

Roc or Dragon. Winnow could get his chance to fly after all. Good news it won't fit in the cave. Bad news, its a Roc or Dragon.

Mint picks up the pace to a run. She slows only enough to allow Winnow to keep up. Suddenly the cave comes into sight. Mint motions Winnow to go in first while she adjusts her grip on the Reindeer. The entrance will be tight due to the antlers. Carrying the Reindeer crossways would make it impossible.

(OOC- True, but JubJub birds fall outside Mint's limited experience.)

Mint wrote:Roc or Dragon. Winnow could get his chance to fly after all. Good news it won't fit in the cave. Bad news, its a Roc or Dragon.

Mint picks up the pace to a run. She slows only enough to allow Winnow to keep up. Suddenly the cave comes into sight. Mint motions Winnow to go in first while she adjusts her grip on the Reindeer. The entrance will be tight due to the antlers. Carrying the Reindeer crossways would make it impossible.

Winnow easily keeps up. He is far from slow...and in the woods, he is relatively silent. Only the chest slung on his back brushing bushes makes significant noise.

Once inside, seeing Mint's predicament, Winnow grasps the thing by antlers and maneuvers it into the cave. If it brays he will knock it out with a blow to the forehead with his naked fist. In fact, he will do that anyway once it is inside, to stun it and thus not worry about it anymore, unless Mint stops him.

He will take a quick look around the cave and disencumber himself of all but Trump, armor and sarong.

Mint doesn't stop him.

Once Mint disappears into the cave with Winnow she says quietly. "Well done."

Mint gets the three of them back far enough into the cave that the creature cannot see them or reach them even if it breathes flame.

"This land has changed either because of Julian's visit or strangely coincident with it. Melificent never bothered with me before and I left her alone as well. I have made this same transit a half dozen times without incident."

"I'm reconsidering the virtues of fighting that thing. Check my reasoning. I will have to deal with Melificent sooner or later. Our prisoner can carry a message to her arranging a meeting and putting the town under my protection. Even if she wants me dead she likely won't strike the town early to avoid queering the meet. She's ruthless not stupid. Stopping her big boy will establish my bonafides."

"As to tactics, If we do this something this size needs either carving or breakage of vulnerable spots like the neck. That means up close work. One of us can take it down while the other holds open a Trump connection so we don't splat afterwards. Ordinarily I would do the deed myself, but as you're my guest I will offer you the choice of roles. Do you want to fly?"

"This land has changed either because of Julian's visit or strangely coincident with it. Melificent never bothered with me before and I left her alone as well. I have made this same transit a half dozen times without incident."

"Perhaps someone has co-opted her to become your enemy. Some malignant force that schemes against Amber, that has take Prince Julian hostage or prisoner...or worse."

"If you think taking down her monstrous servant will advance our cause, I shall be most happy to oblige. As long as we show ourselves to be a force equal to whatever drives her to malificence," *wink,* we can perhaps get her 'off our backs,' as they say. No need for this verbal dancing, I seem more suited," he gestures at the armor with a grin, "for the close-in work. So let me close with the thing and do what I do, and you cover and support me from nearby."

"Flying," he says as the armor extends to cover most of him, "is decidedly optional. Do we kill or subdue?"

Mint raises a barely visible eyebrow in the dark of the cave at the thought that Winnow is more suited for close in work. She has the experience after all.

"Use your discretion. As you said before Shadows are notoriously fragile. If you see anything like a control collar or spell feel free to break it with force of arms or Pattern. I wouldn't mind another ally. Mint pulls a torch, a signal horn, a book of matches, and Winnow's Trump out and prepares them.

"If you decide to tag out, simply reach for me and I will pull you through."

Mint passes the horn to Winnow.

"This ought to get its attention."

Mint lights the match and touches it to the torch which catches rather quickly. The light while useful in the cave should not carry quite to the outside.

Mint focuses on Winnow's Trump and he feels a tickle in the back of his mind that quickly becomes an itch.

"Just let your mind focus on that sensation and we shall have contact."

I shall have to make sure he knows how to refuse a Trump call later.

[Apparently Mint did not get the "suited" pun - suit of armor, get it?]

"I will not be able to concentrate on Pattern while fighting. Were that necessary I would call for you to take over. The Trump avenue is a good idea...I confess I have little experience in fighting aside my peers..."

He looks at the horn curiously. They made signal-horns of shell on Tagaloa...hopefully the principle is the same.

At the Trump call and advice he says, "Of course." Teach your grandmother to suck eggs. "Gerard taught me many ways to deal with Trump, wanted or unwanted. Drilled me incessantly, actually, since he felt it was a weakness of his own. You needn't wory about that."

He settles the call in his secondary consciousness and calms his mind for the coming battle, drawing his energy into his Heart Self. Courage, energy, fortitude, strength are more important than tactics, when fighting a beast who thinks itself a monster. Break its bones, break its spirit.

After a moment of meditation, he hefts the horn and says, "Ready."

When the pun finally sinks in Mint gets a look on her face that fades to a smile.

The horn should work the same as what Winnow is used to. Just pucker up your lips and blow. If he has ever seen a Manticore he will recognize the material.

"Though I doubt you need it, good fortune to you." Mint says through their contact.

Winnow can easily tell that she is eager to see how well he fights.

Winnow can easily tell through the contact that Mint has a powerful will. (Psyche Amber or better)

Mint wrote:Winnow can easily tell through the contact that Mint has a powerful will. (Psyche Amber or better)

Ditto.

She doesn't give very clear instructions, does she?

Only afterward does he realize with some embarrassment that Mint may catch this thought through the link. He clamps down on his musings, deciding she must mean him to exit the cave and try to attract the thing without her...he had thought she would accompany him out under the open sky but perhaps she means the cave to be a refuge against the thing in case it goes wrong. Fair enough, and probably prudent.

Winnow is not given to prudence in battle.

He exits the cave swiftly and as stealthily as he can, looking around for whatever it is, intending to scurry swiftly away from the cave mouth so as not to point to their hiding place. He will search for a small hilltiop or high point of rock, where he can see and be seen in all directions, and keep a constantly-swiveling watch, including overhead.

As soon as he is an hundred yards off or more, if he is not already involved, he will lift the horn to his lips and begin blowing for sound, his lips vibrating together in a tremendous nasty bleat.

As soon as it looks as if trouble is on its way and has sighted him, he will hand the horn back through the contact, so as not to lose or damage it, and armor up fully, nothing but eye slits and a breathing grille, and ready to seal up in case of firey blasts or other gaseous emissions. Good thing I can hold my breath for some minutes, a legacy of diving for the treasures of the deep on Tagaloa. He raises the contrast and brightness of his armor until is blazes in the light, cerulean and snow in alternating colors.

SEE ME! I AM HERE!

The horn blows over and over, and his blood sings.









[None of these are exactly what I want, but you get the picture.]

If Mint picks up Winnow's thought, she gives no sign of it.

Mint does indeed remain inside the cave. Between the overhang of dirt that shields it from the skies and the distance that Winnow travelled she has no concern their foe will find it.

Mint takes the horn from Winnow, but does not pack it away. If Winnow tags out or worse falls unconscious she wants it ready to hand.

The screeching call of a ROUS (raptor-of-unusual-size) echoes in the woods, growing closer. Winnow sees through the canopy of trees a green shape soaring above the woods. It apparently has wings, and each wing at least three times as long as he himself is tall. When it becomes visible, its birdlike nature stands (or flies) revealed. The head resembles some bizarre cross between a parrot and a vulture, although the beak's shape resembles that of a hawk. More, this thing moves quickly, with great agility. Much faster than any horse. A ugly creature, the bird's movements themselves show a kind of regal, albeit dangerous, beauty.

Below, Winnow notes the two gigantic sets of claws, each easily a size capable of holding someone his size.

Carrying, perhaps. Holding? Not me it won't.

He will blow the horn until the thing sees him, then hand the horn through. He will hold up armored hands and form them into saucers a foot across, convex polished lenses that will catch the light and direct reflections at the beast, irritating it and hopefully goading it to attack.

If it strikes like a raptor, it will lead with its claws, and seek to grasp me, holding for the beak. Be careful what you wish for, birdie birdie bird, for you will surely get it.

As soon as it stoops, he will dull the color of the armor to a mottled darkness of checks, the better to confuse its sight, and he will bristle with razor-sharp planes, edged ridges that follow the outer surfaces of his body, razor-wire personified. The thing will get a surprise when it grasps him.

That aside, as soon as it does so, Winnow will seek to get in close. He will grow quills, and bare his palms to grasp; he will peel back claws, climb up legs, grasp feathers, beak or neck, whatever it takes to get close in. His goal is to make this a test of Strength, not Warfare, and subdue the thing, perhaps by choking.

If there is some sort of control device, he will shift his attention to taking or breaking it, as Mint advised.

As the creature hove into Winnow's view, Mint became somewhat abstractly aware of it through the link. Once she has an idea what Winnow faces she relaxes a bit. Her thoughts stay calm because she refuses to distract Winnow unnecessarily while he fights

The huge bird has a problem when it comes to attacking in this location. Trees. Quite simply, it lacks the space to swoop down on Winnow or anyone else under the forest canopy. In a field or other relatively clear space, it makes for a formidable opponent but here...?

Still, it isn't going away. Its vast wings continue to make a powerful sound as it soars overhead, circling around, keeping Winnow in sight.

[Well, Winnow's intent was to find a clear high spot. Now let's take care of that.]

Seeing the bird-thing unwilling to descend due to the trees, Winnow extrudes a monster single-bitted axe, a larger replica of a woodman's tool. While no expert on lumberjacking, his massive strength should allow him to rival Paul Bunyan, and he starts to clear the trees from his hillock, largest first.

With one eye on the bird, he takes his heavy tool in both hands and starts whacking.

He will fell the trees so they fall away from the hillock, pushing them down, creating a clear space, incidentally making a rough abatis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatis to slow down a ground assault.

His goal is still to get the thing to attack prematurely. He will do all he can to sucker it in - for example, reconfigure the armor to appear he has turned his back when he hasn't, fall down and fake weakness and injury...

The creature certainly swoops lower but does not attack.

It is almost as if it has orders to keep its target in sight and hopefully pinned down until some other forces arrive.

"Need a crossbow cousin?"

Mint has hers to hand locked, loaded and ready to pass through. She also has the quiver of bolts ready to follow.

"Absolutely." He reaches for the crossbow and the bolts. Like everything to do with warfare, he is solidly familiar and trained, though no William Tell. Winnow Tell. Well, he's no Prince Benedict, who he has seen pin a bat by its wing to a branch at night from a hundred yards.

Load. Fire, aiming for its body, nothing fancy. Load, much faster than an ordinary soldier would, since he doesn't bother to brace and use the stirrup. He just grabs the cable with one armored hand, smooth rounded metal across his palm and fingers, the stirrup with the other, and draws it into its trigger catch, fire, reload. Fire, reload, until something happens.