Re: Pitched Combat [Round 5: Garden of Shades]
08-18-2010, 03:09 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
A large group of people appeared where there wasn't one before, crowded around the tree and separating the Manikin from the straw doll. It was a little startling to say the least, and Rong, who had previously had a good clear shot of the Manikin, gulped back a fireball in alarm when a bunch of monochrome fruit-people obscured her vision. The two dragons felt just about as confused as the crowd that had materialized up and Eemp tried to make its way out before something happened and it ended up getting trampled or something.
The Manikin watched this recently-formed crowd in slight awe, and if it had even known about it, it might have thought it were in heaven. All these beings, crowded around it, confused, wondering where they were, all looking quite vulnerable and quite tasty...
The crowd of pseudo-grand battlers and shades of the past stopped speculating once the Manikin started rampaging. As it shoved a few luckless beings into its mouth, many started fleeing. Most did, really. Eemp, despite its best efforts to shove its way out of the crowd, was still made of merely straw and was easily pushed around in the general direction where everybody was now fleeing towards. Some stayed rather valiantly to try to beat back the ravenous monstrosity, but the draconic mannequin was rather strong, not to mention that it grew every time it swallowed somebody. And it was getting to be quite huge.
Eemp, Right and Rong managed to get out of the panicked rush when the dragons started snapping at the people that pressed against them. As nobody wanted to be near snippy dragon maws, everybody started giving them a wide berth. They broke free of the crowd just in time to see the Manikin gulp down something that sort of looked like a large bird wing.
Done with this snack, the Manikin turned to face the dragons. It was rather large now. Previously only the size of an average person, it had eaten possibly six fruit-people now and was currently a bit of a giant. It's pseudo-dragon form hadn't been threatening before, but when it was over ten feet tall, it started to be a little intimidating.
The huge Manikin stared them down. Rong eyed its blue scales that were modeled after her own. Its blue and undoubtedly fireproof scales. "I...don't have a plan for this," she admitted to Right who was honestly not too surprised.
"It's not too smart," Right replied, glaring warily at the hungry beast. "It shouldn't be too difficult to outwit it....though I can't say I know exactly what to do right now either..." They were interrupted by someone tapping Eemp politely on the head.
It was Sir Pellinore. Apparently, he hadn't been one of those who had been eaten. Shame.
The knight shuffled around and anxiously pushed up his visor. Right was not exactly sure how one could push up a visor in an anxious way, but it happened nevertheless. "There are, um, some people," he said, looking over his shoulder. Right and Rong looked with him to see the crowd standing, frozen, in front of a line of tall, scraggly beings. These, Right reasoned, must be the garden keepers mentioned before.
The garden keepers did not have a lot of detail to them. Right couldn't make out their faces, even when they didn't hang their head low and actually looked up. They wore sunhats, which added a bit of levity to the situation. They carried around long, sharp, dangerous-looking garden shears, which didn't. They seemed to have appeared with several large machines that whirred loudly and spat out smoke. It was hard to tell what it was for.
Looking around, Right quickly saw that they were indeed surrounded by these garden keepers. This situation wasn't exactly ideal. The fruit-people stood, tense, some looking like they would rather run, some looking as though they were ready for a fight. Even the Manikin paused in its gluttony, somehow realizing the gravity of the atmosphere.
As the machines nearby continued to whir, one monochrome, armored and heavily muscled man raised a large gun.
-----------------------------------------
They had been hiding behind almost every tree they could find and no matter how well they hid themselves, that hideously skinny human-ish thing seemed to follow them everywhere. They had seen that it was holding some sort of little PDA-like thing that it seemed to check every so often as it searched for something. Behind it, a large, cube-ish machine thing whirred worryingly. It followed the humanoid apparently of its own will, as neither Jordan nor Maxwell could see any way for the humanoid to pull it along.
"I've been thinking a little," Maxwell said slowly as they huddled behind another tree while the strange being poked around nearby. Jordan bit back a sarcastic remark about tea. "About what keepers of an orchard would actually do, you know?" Jordan remained silent, having learned that it was best not to interrupt. "It's really simple, actually. I mean, there's not much you do with an orchard besides take care of it and...um, well, collect the fruit..."
Jordan stayed silent, this time because he was carefully reaching some unwanted conclusions of his own.
"So, well...they're supposed to...uh, harvest us," Maxwell continued, obviously not very fond of this train of thought either. Jordan clutched his sword tightly. The scrawny thing out there was starting to look a little more monstrous. "I'm thinking that, uh, what they do to ripe fruit...it has something to do with that noisy machine over there." He was looking a little nervous and excited but somehow managed to keep his voice down. "I think that fellow's looking for me. I guess somehow they know when the fruit drop or something...I still don't know what he's going to do, but considering things, I...don't really think I'm going to like it." Maxwell paused and glanced thoughtfully at Jordan.
"...And if he finds you, an intruder...I don't think you'll like it either..."
"So what are you saying?" Jordan whispered back. He chanced a peek around the tree. The garden's keeper seemed to be watching a tree that wasn't too near. It was probably a good chance to sneak away again.
Maxwell hesitated before continuing. "Well...it's no coincidence that he's been following us rather closely, you know? He knows I'm around here somewhere, I think...maybe that thing in his hand is helping him look, I dunno...but he probably can't tell that you're arou--" He was cut off as Jordan signaled him to stop talking. Back where the thing was waiting, a fruit had fallen. It grew and shaped itself into...a high school boy.
"...Do you know him?" Maxwell asked, noticing Jordan's sharp breath.
The pyrokinetic stared wide-eyed at this boy as he asked, a little frightened, who the lanky figure in front of him was. The hunched keeper clutched his neck with a thin, but strong, clawed hand and started dragging him over to the whirring machine, which seemed to whir faster the closer they got, like a dog eager for a treat.
Jordan was very sure that he was the bully that he had accidentally killed all those years ago.
A large group of people appeared where there wasn't one before, crowded around the tree and separating the Manikin from the straw doll. It was a little startling to say the least, and Rong, who had previously had a good clear shot of the Manikin, gulped back a fireball in alarm when a bunch of monochrome fruit-people obscured her vision. The two dragons felt just about as confused as the crowd that had materialized up and Eemp tried to make its way out before something happened and it ended up getting trampled or something.
The Manikin watched this recently-formed crowd in slight awe, and if it had even known about it, it might have thought it were in heaven. All these beings, crowded around it, confused, wondering where they were, all looking quite vulnerable and quite tasty...
The crowd of pseudo-grand battlers and shades of the past stopped speculating once the Manikin started rampaging. As it shoved a few luckless beings into its mouth, many started fleeing. Most did, really. Eemp, despite its best efforts to shove its way out of the crowd, was still made of merely straw and was easily pushed around in the general direction where everybody was now fleeing towards. Some stayed rather valiantly to try to beat back the ravenous monstrosity, but the draconic mannequin was rather strong, not to mention that it grew every time it swallowed somebody. And it was getting to be quite huge.
Eemp, Right and Rong managed to get out of the panicked rush when the dragons started snapping at the people that pressed against them. As nobody wanted to be near snippy dragon maws, everybody started giving them a wide berth. They broke free of the crowd just in time to see the Manikin gulp down something that sort of looked like a large bird wing.
Done with this snack, the Manikin turned to face the dragons. It was rather large now. Previously only the size of an average person, it had eaten possibly six fruit-people now and was currently a bit of a giant. It's pseudo-dragon form hadn't been threatening before, but when it was over ten feet tall, it started to be a little intimidating.
The huge Manikin stared them down. Rong eyed its blue scales that were modeled after her own. Its blue and undoubtedly fireproof scales. "I...don't have a plan for this," she admitted to Right who was honestly not too surprised.
"It's not too smart," Right replied, glaring warily at the hungry beast. "It shouldn't be too difficult to outwit it....though I can't say I know exactly what to do right now either..." They were interrupted by someone tapping Eemp politely on the head.
It was Sir Pellinore. Apparently, he hadn't been one of those who had been eaten. Shame.
The knight shuffled around and anxiously pushed up his visor. Right was not exactly sure how one could push up a visor in an anxious way, but it happened nevertheless. "There are, um, some people," he said, looking over his shoulder. Right and Rong looked with him to see the crowd standing, frozen, in front of a line of tall, scraggly beings. These, Right reasoned, must be the garden keepers mentioned before.
The garden keepers did not have a lot of detail to them. Right couldn't make out their faces, even when they didn't hang their head low and actually looked up. They wore sunhats, which added a bit of levity to the situation. They carried around long, sharp, dangerous-looking garden shears, which didn't. They seemed to have appeared with several large machines that whirred loudly and spat out smoke. It was hard to tell what it was for.
Looking around, Right quickly saw that they were indeed surrounded by these garden keepers. This situation wasn't exactly ideal. The fruit-people stood, tense, some looking like they would rather run, some looking as though they were ready for a fight. Even the Manikin paused in its gluttony, somehow realizing the gravity of the atmosphere.
As the machines nearby continued to whir, one monochrome, armored and heavily muscled man raised a large gun.
-----------------------------------------
They had been hiding behind almost every tree they could find and no matter how well they hid themselves, that hideously skinny human-ish thing seemed to follow them everywhere. They had seen that it was holding some sort of little PDA-like thing that it seemed to check every so often as it searched for something. Behind it, a large, cube-ish machine thing whirred worryingly. It followed the humanoid apparently of its own will, as neither Jordan nor Maxwell could see any way for the humanoid to pull it along.
"I've been thinking a little," Maxwell said slowly as they huddled behind another tree while the strange being poked around nearby. Jordan bit back a sarcastic remark about tea. "About what keepers of an orchard would actually do, you know?" Jordan remained silent, having learned that it was best not to interrupt. "It's really simple, actually. I mean, there's not much you do with an orchard besides take care of it and...um, well, collect the fruit..."
Jordan stayed silent, this time because he was carefully reaching some unwanted conclusions of his own.
"So, well...they're supposed to...uh, harvest us," Maxwell continued, obviously not very fond of this train of thought either. Jordan clutched his sword tightly. The scrawny thing out there was starting to look a little more monstrous. "I'm thinking that, uh, what they do to ripe fruit...it has something to do with that noisy machine over there." He was looking a little nervous and excited but somehow managed to keep his voice down. "I think that fellow's looking for me. I guess somehow they know when the fruit drop or something...I still don't know what he's going to do, but considering things, I...don't really think I'm going to like it." Maxwell paused and glanced thoughtfully at Jordan.
"...And if he finds you, an intruder...I don't think you'll like it either..."
"So what are you saying?" Jordan whispered back. He chanced a peek around the tree. The garden's keeper seemed to be watching a tree that wasn't too near. It was probably a good chance to sneak away again.
Maxwell hesitated before continuing. "Well...it's no coincidence that he's been following us rather closely, you know? He knows I'm around here somewhere, I think...maybe that thing in his hand is helping him look, I dunno...but he probably can't tell that you're arou--" He was cut off as Jordan signaled him to stop talking. Back where the thing was waiting, a fruit had fallen. It grew and shaped itself into...a high school boy.
"...Do you know him?" Maxwell asked, noticing Jordan's sharp breath.
The pyrokinetic stared wide-eyed at this boy as he asked, a little frightened, who the lanky figure in front of him was. The hunched keeper clutched his neck with a thin, but strong, clawed hand and started dragging him over to the whirring machine, which seemed to whir faster the closer they got, like a dog eager for a treat.
Jordan was very sure that he was the bully that he had accidentally killed all those years ago.