RP:Boneyard Brawl
Dragon Bone Yard
Stalactite sickles adorn the carven roof high above. Brilliant orange and red hues play only a temporary distraction from the litter of bones scattered about well traveled earthen floor. An eerie echo is offered from trickling water hugging the smoothed walls. Small puddles form below creating muddy terrain clinging to the side of large round room. Curious tussle of moving bones offers the facade of life. On closer inspection every bone has been picked clean. Rats can be found feeding on the scraps that the great beast has left behind. The only offered path has been set between the parting seas of bones in front of you; the exit has been carved by unnatural means. Claw marks being evidence of the beast`s plots for expansion. The path is open back to the east, but the only semblance of light resides in the space to the west.
Satoshi's ears twitch and the feline lifts her head from the light nap she'd been taking, her perch upon the gnawed bones of a dragon wing adjusted to face the eastern tunnel entrance. Ears pressing forward she blinks the remnants of sleep from her eyes as the sound of approaching footfalls reaches her. Wariness, and the recollection that a beast frequented these underground paths, has the mage rummaging through her satchel for three vials. Bouncing these items in her hand, she waits until the arriving person, or creature, is on the verge of entering the cavern. At that point, she'd hurl the items as near to their feet as could be possible when you cannot see your visitor, the shattering glass of the vials coming as the only warning before each would burst into a fiercely spiked ball of ice. A warning, only.
Mahri cursed her human eyes for not seeing well in the dark as she stumbles, again. "Stupid, bloody dragon.." she mumbles, groping blindly. She could have conjured a fire, one would suppose, but that was not her area of expertise. So, lighting her own way was not going to happen. It might also be thought that since she was a druid, being under ground and wandering tunnels frequented by dragons wouldn't bother her. They'd be wrong. One foot placed in front of the other drew her along cautiously, until she kicked something. The smell of death, old and new, made the air musty and thick..along with something else that had her tilting her head and venturing further, only to stumble again, one hand reaching out to catch herself and coming into contact with something long and smooth. A bone. This stumble was probably lucky for her when a crash and flash of watery hues might have blinded the lycan. A leap backwards and she was ramming into a wall and staring at a jagged ball of..ice? Peering further into the cavern, Mahri holds up a single finger and whispered an oft used, and even more frequently failed spell to conjure a bit of flame on the tip of the digit. "Is that you, Kitten?"
Satoshi hissed, a low and anxious sound, as she dropped from the wing bone to the ground below, a few older skeletal remains shattering under her boots. And a rat unfortunate enough to be picking around at the worst time made the most unpleasant squelch with the feline's weight descending upon him. The mage spared a moment to make a disgusted groan before turning dilated eyes back to the visitor. Nose upturned, she sniffed at the air but gathered no additional information, death was too strong a scent to allow Mahri's own to reach her. Hand returning to her bag to retrieve another set of the vials, these ones held at the ready, she finally answered back in a quiet voice, "Could be. And tu are? How do you know moi?" As she spoke the temperature in the cavern slowly began to drop, degree by degree, something a druid was likely to notice even before the trickling of water on earthen walls became sluggish and uneven.
Mahri shivered, her breath coming in a foggy vapor just lit up by the flame that flickered uncertainly on the tip of her finger. Picking her way carefully over the bones, the multi-hued walls of the cave seemed to dance in shadows. The point of light would make it easy to tell where the lycan was moving, and that was alright, since she wanted the feline's attention on her. Bones shifted and slid against each other from some sort of disturbance, and she hoped it would be attributed to a rat or other such rodent. Careful not to touch the icy walls, Mahri cast a silvery gaze towards Satoshi, the other's form outlined in the faint light. "I remember you, Kitten. From two ships..and a vague night not so long ago." Perhaps she blamed Satoshi for her little trip down a ravine. Coming up behind the feline, if she wasn't paying attention, was a slithering silver-green vine. Along it's thickening length were buds, each ready to unfurl into fuschia petals, each hiding a rather wicked surprise. Those were their last resort though, as they sought to find an ankle, or possibly a waywardly swaying tail to wrap around and crawl upon.
Satoshi's grip loosened on the vials at the familiar voice, and the equally familiar events, the glass jingling together from the change in hold and as the cat lowered into a crouch. "I remember all three, Loup. But I also remember very differed greetings during two of them." Her focus, as Mahri intended, remained locked on that bud of firelight with narrowed eyes. A single ear flicked back at the sound of shifting bones, but her alarm came in the form of a sudden sharp decrease in the air's warmth. Perhaps she hoped the cold would keep the rats still so that she could focus on the woman. Not that she could hold that focus for much longer, with a vine finding a grip upon her blackened tail. A sharp hiss came from the mage, one of the vials falling harmlessly from her hand as she jerked around to face the vine and send the remaining glass containers at the plant, the two shortly followed by frantically swiping claws exposed beneath freshly torn satin gloves. The wolf was going to pay for those gloves!
Mahri took that moment of distraction to scramble over the piles of bones, leaping over sliding debri on her way to Satoshi. Given the distance, Mahri begins her shift midstride, extenquishing the flame in favor of lycan eyes. The sound of bones snapping out of place and rearranging themselves is lost in the crash and clatter of dragon bits falling under saucer sized paws, her claws clicking over them. A growl is the only warning before the wolf gathers her hind legs beneath her and, going by scent, bounds towards Satoshi, her jaw opening wide to catch the cat's arm between her teeth. If she caught even a small amount of flesh, she'd latch on, shaking her head violently to rend meat from the bones beneath, or at the most, remove the arm from its socket.
Satoshi heard Mahri rushing toward her. How could she not? A deaf man would have heard that chaotic symphony of bones. Prior run-ins with the woman, good and bad, had taught the feline just how quickly she could shift into a more lupine form. Claws abandoning their task of shredding the vine, she turned sharply to face the uncoming wolf, a fleeting smirk crossing her features as she'd fall backwards into the temporary cushioning embrace of the tattered plant that still held to her tail. With feline celerity knees curled up tight to her chest with the soles of her boots aimed at an angle with the cavern ceiling. The lycan's final bound toward the cat, if not done with extreme caution, would result in a harsh two-legged kick carrying the force of well-used muscles uncoiling rapidly. Any luck and she'd cacth Mahri in her chest or throat and send her tumbling away. And even if not, the kick would hopefully provide enough force to stall most of the druid's momentum, leaving only a thickly armored sleeve--arm held over the mage's throat--to chew on. A free hand, equipped with claws, would be awaiting the wolf's face if so.
Mahri 's breath rushes out of her lungs with a grunt. Instead of sinking her teeth into flesh and bone, she found herself being propelled backwards, hitting the cavern wall and landing hard onto the ribcage of some long dead dragon, the bones snapping into pieces. Some of them with jagged ends and spear-like points. If she had thought about it, she might have changed back and grabbed one as a make-shift weapon, but the wolf was furious at being detered from her goal yet again. A visious growl rumbles, lip curling in a snarl as she shakes off the buzzing in her head. Narrowing her eyes, she gets to her feet. She, however..doesn't move. What came next was not so subtle as the first vine. This one burst through the bones, sending a shower of them spraying towards the feline, some needle like as they fly towards Satoshi. The vine, thick with flowers, sways towards the cathedral like ceiling, swaying in a nonexistant breeze while those lovely flowers openend to reveal yellow spikes held within. As soon as the last petal opened, those many darts, at least two dozen in all, are expelled, flying towards the mage as well, their tips dripping with clear liquid, a poison that could render Satoshi immobile within minutes of entering her.
Satoshi is in the process of disentangling herself from the vine she'd sprawled upon when Mahri's snarl reaches her ears. "Oh, do shu-!" The mage's words are cut off mid-insult as the new vine erupts into view and offers up a wave of jagged bone-needles as a welcoming gift. Instinctively, the cat curls in on herself to reduce the amount of area presented as a target. A ragged, agonized hiss is forced from clenched teeth as her side is peppered with the fragments, a fair number of them penetrating the thick winter coat to pierce flesh beneath. The mage stumbles sideways as she straightens up to face the swaying vine. "Hellfire..." came as a quiet curse, her small form diving toward the tunnel wall. Or, rather the half-frozen puddle of water pooling against the wall. A heavy splash and a sharply growled word provided the wounded mage with a layer of ice playing shield between her and those laced darts. She remain there, panting, in the mud as the ice collapsed with the two dozen darts held firm. One of these poisonous items was seized upon, held tightly and waved threateningly--if a hint weakly--should the wolf decide to take another shot at her.
Satoshi said to Mahri, "Call it even, madamoiselle?"
Mahri snorts at the feline, satisfied she'd gotten her point across. Whatever that point might be. Not worried about the tip of the dart being waved her direction, Mahri picked her way delicately over the bone pile, stopping just long enough to peer down at the ice shielded feline. Her eyes were surprisingly intelligent, not in the way an exceptionally smart animal's might be, but in the way that said she would remember this encounter. Black ears perk forward, her tongue lolling out in a wolfish grin before she turns suddenly, and bounds out of the cavern, the vines sinking back into the ground.
Satoshi is going to go curl up in a corner to lick her wounds now. Grumble, grumble.