The Scorpion of Shan'Gai Chah [closed]

[Naunet]

Thal hit the ground with a grunt and rolled for several more malms across the mud. He came to rest halfway in the shallow water of the stream, and the water stained almost instantly with blood. For several seconds he just blinked at reflections of rocks above him in the ripples and the weird, wet, empty sensation across his chest. Then he grimaced, rolling onto his back and pushing himself up in the mud. The first thing he noticed was his mask lay a good malm away from him, face up in the mud, apparently having been jostled free in the combat. Then he looked down and immediately regretted it.

 

"... okay, we're just gonna pretend that isn't there," he muttered to himself, shoving the gory image into one corner of his mind. "I guess maybe I should be thankful." With another grunt, he pushed himself to his feet. His left arm felt weaker than the other but impossibly functioning, and as he stood he called out to the Amal'jaa, "How about we call this a truce?"

[Twinflame]

Baoht Zuqqa Roh watched the child of man moving, acting as though he did not feel pain. The bloodless did not bother him. The man did not even seem to pale. He spoke without wheezing. He did not plead. Baoht Zuqqa Roh watched through the torn skin as the man's muscled twitched helplessly, and yet the limb that required those muscles moved undeterred. Flexing his claws and eying the bow he cast aside, Baoht Zuqqa Roh growled, "There is an honor in being the prey of the Amal'jaa. An honor which you mock by resorting to unspeakable magic. You should have allowed yourself to die."

[Naunet]

Lifting his gaze to the hunter, Thal winced, though not out of any pain. "Believe me, if I'd had a choice... I probably would've preferred to long before this." He rolled his still intact shoulder, a bit weirded out by the sensations his other arm was sending him. Letting out a sigh, he tried to ignore the way he could feel air pushing through one side of his chest and lifted both arms to either side of him. "So, I can respect your honor, but... sorry. Can't we just go our merry ways? There's plenty of other stuff to hunt out here... though you chased away the orobon."

[Twinflame]

Baoht Zuqqa Roh paced over to his discarded bow, pulling it out of the water and eying the bowstring. Then he cast a glare at the child of Man. "Shan'Gai Chah has commissioned your death. It appears that you are dead, so my mandate is fulfilled. There is no honor in hunting that which has already been caught and killed. However." The Amal'jaa snapped his teeth. "You slew one of my drakes, a thing which I do not think that you can repay."

[Naunet]

As the Amal'jaa spoke, Thal felt himself relaxing little by little, enough at least that he felt comfortable enough to chance a glance towards where he'd seen K'aijeen run. His jaw tightened at the sight of her, and he quickly shifted his gaze back to the giant, black, lizard-man. He tensed at the hunter's last sentence. "Okay... well. They did kind of attack me - you can't really blame me for defending myself. I don't think that counts as a debt?"

[Twinflame]

"Child of man, you are dead. You had no life to defend. My drake's life purchased nothing, and its loss has left a great debt in me." Shaking out the bow, watching water droplets fall from it, he set one of the great black arrows against the string. He lifted it and pointed it at the man.

[Naunet]

"Woah, woah," Thal's hands came up in front of him, one of them bloodied. "I think we already established shooting me isn't gonna make a difference, so let's just... maybe there's something else I can do to help you, eh? Get you a new drake maybe? And... besides!" Blue eyes frowned, eyeing the bow warily. His toes shifted in the mud. "I may not be... well, y'know. But I still exist. I was defending my existence. That counts."

[Twinflame]

"No, child of man. It does not. And new drakes have little value to a hunter. No, no. But, perhaps, you can help me with something." He lowers his bow and works his jaw. His dry tongue moves around his teeth as though he is choking on something, and his claws curl and close. Then he bites out. "The one who sent me to kill you: Shan'Gai Chah. He must die."

[Naunet]

Thal's expression went slack for several seconds in surprised bemusement. "That... uh... what? Okay... Wait, hold up--" His tail swung in time to the asking waving of his hands. "Hold on a sec. I was taking care of... well, I mean, I've got some responsibility to that kid. Y'know. I mean, I guess I could help you... I'm not an assassin, y'know. And, uh, I need to get her some place safe." With a grimace, he gestured towards where K'aijeen lay.

[Twinflame]

Baoht Zuqqa Roh growled, idly pulling the metal shaft out of his side and washing his dark blood from it in the water. "I am not in a mood to be patient with my captured prey, child of Man." Nonetheless, he remained, glaring. His sand drakes idled in the pool near the corpse of the one that had died. For a time, they simply stared at it, nudged it, waiting for it to move. Then the hungriest among them took a bite, and the rest joined in.

 

In the dirt near the water, K'aijeen lay on her back with her arms crossed over her. The black metal shaft had pierced through both forearms before embedding in her head, and her crossed limbs were pressed hard over her face, obscuring the view of her eyes or any wound. No fluid flowed from the injures. The holes that had been driven through her arms were dry and ragged.

[Naunet]

"Right..." One ear twitched. "Let me just.. I'm gonna check on her." He sidestepped away from the river, keeping his eyes on the Amal'jaa but heading towards K'aijeen. When he got closer, he spoke to her and tried to keep his voice light, "Kid, can you hear me?"

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen sat up, the movement rigid and top-heavy. Her legs popped up and her tail shot forward to try and keep balance, and she almost fell back again, but remained upright. Her arms were pinned to her forehead, and she strained visibly against the arrow, but made no progress. She exhaled a long, high-pitched sound that might have indicated pain.

[Twinflame]

((oops. douple-post))

[Naunet]

"Ah, okay, okay, stop moving around," Thal broke his cautious movement to hurry towards the girl and dropped down to one knee next to her. He grimaced at the gruesome vision. The arrow had shattered bone and tore through muscle such that he was surprised her hands were still attached. Pulling in a deep breath - one that he stopped almost immediately at the uncomfortable sensation of air pushing out from a hole in his chest - Thal worked past a wall of mental nausea to rest a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing. "Lay back down and, uh, we'll get that out, okay?"

 

He urged her down and gripped the arrow's shaft, moving his other hand to press down on her arms over her face as he pulled.

[Twinflame]

Kicking her legs and making a small, but very emphatic squelch of pain, K'aijeen writhed while Thal pulled at the arrow. When it come free, it did not come out smoothly. Her skull seemed to bulged outward with it and her hands sagged unnaturally at the ends of her arms. If she could have screamed,she would have, but the sound she made came out more a ragged cough that last a long time. As soon as that arrow was free she rolled away from Thal, keeping her arms crossed over her head, her hands limp as though they were loosely tied with string.

 

Baoht Zuqqa Roh turned his gaze away from the pair and growled at nothing. Whatever magic this was, he cursed the children of Man for even possessing it.

[Naunet]

Thal tossed the arrow to one side forcefully, not bothering it with a second glance as he crouched near the girl. "Sorry, kid," he muttered. "I kinda botched the whole protecting you thing. Think you can forgive me?"

[Twinflame]

She curled up, and her tail swung tight between her legs, ears down, face hidden beneath her arms. K'aijeen did not answer verbally. She might not have been able to. Ragged sounds continued to slide out of her throat and she shook. She might have been crying.

 

Baoht Zuqqa Roh shifted impatiently. He spoke over the sound of the feasting drakes. "Child of Man."

[Naunet]

Thal let out a faint groan and scrubbed at his face. When he returned his eyes to K'aijeen, they were sad. "Okay, kid. I know it isn't... look, for this guy to leave us alone, I need to help him with something, okay? It shouldn't take long." His ears shifted. "So... I'm gonna take care of it. Real quick. I'm gonna find you some place safe along the way, and then when I'm done, I'll come back. Okay?" Shuffling forward, he moved to try and lift her off the ground.

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen didn't resist Thal. She curled up when he lifted her, laying her head against his chest. Her arms remained over her head, hiding her wound. She continued to shake.

 

A roar shook over the water. The sand drakes looked up at Baoht Zuqqa Roh's command, were still for a moment, and then moved to his side. The abandoned they half-eaten corpse of their fellow. Most of the heavy meat had been eaten away, allowing it to float, and it bobbed lazily in a mess of pink and brown gore. Blood and tendrils of flesh hung from the maws of the survivors as they followed Baoht Zuqqa Roh, who paced around the pool fishing out discarded discarded metal shafts and slipping them back into the massive quiver on his back. "You should leave her. If I were weak enough to be so easily defeated, my drakes would not drag me to safety. They would eat me and return to their feral ways. They would be right to do so."

[Naunet]

"Yeah, well, I'm not a drake, and neither is she. We can't all be... whatever you are." Thal shrugged as he stood, and then turned to move towards the Amal'jaa. Part way he paused, shifting K'aijeen in his arms so he could bend to pick up his mask from the ground. For a moment he just stared at its empty face and the strange lines drawn across it. Then his tail twisted in frustration, and he set the object on his own face, covering his features save for now shadowed blue eyes.

 

Turning to once more step towards the black hunter, though keeping a healthy distance between them, Thal called out, "Let's just get this over with."

[Twinflame]

Baoht Zuqqa Roh found something distasteful in the demeanor of the child of Man. Every few moments it found a new way to disgust him. As long as he could tolerate it, however, it didn't matter. If the man succeeded in killing Shan'Gai Chah, he would not succeed in escaping afterward, and ash could have neither life nor unlife. "We will travel south so that I may hunt in Zanr'ak. It will not be as far or long as you think, for the Amal'jaa have desert roads that your people never use. They would die of exposure to heat if they did, but I sense this will not be a problem for you. Once I find Shan'Gai Chah, I will sick you upon him like one of my drakes. Then you will either kill him or... cease to be. I will not help you."

[Naunet]

"You're a real pleasant guy. Mind telling me what he did to get you so riled up? I don't really like killing people, y'know." Nevermind the fact that he actually had never done so at all. The thought of it made his stomach churn, but he didn't trust himself to be able to outrun this hunter in an escape attempt. He let out an inward groan. What had he done to deserve all this crap, really?

[Twinflame]

"Shan'Gai Chah is not like the rest of us at Zunr'ak." Baoht Zuqqa Roh turned to walk out of the water, back southward. Dark fluid glistened around the wound that Thal had given him, but he did not react to it. He was beginning to feel the pain more, but that did not mean he needed to respect it. The wound did not deserve his consideration. "The Amal'jaa of Zunr'ak are chosen by the fires of Lord Ifrit. We are untempered metal until he hardens us. Shan'Gai Chah came to us untempered, begging for the grace of Ifrit without having earned it." He huffed, and then growled, and the drakes that followed him ran ahead. "That is not why I am angry. He will be tempered soon, but has not been tempered yet. He should be a servant, but declares hunts. He declared a hunt for you, and look at you! Unworthy prey."

[Naunet]

"Eh?" Red ears shifted uneasily as he made to follow the Amal'jaa. "I've never met the guy. How the heck would he know to, uh... hunt me?" The talk of tempering disturbed him as well, but strangely not as much as the former. He made a face behind the mask and shifted his grip to hold K'aijeen a bit closer, absently petting her hair with a few fingers.

[Twinflame]

Bahot Zuqqa Roh walked around one group of large stones and then began to climb the next. He made his way up into the dusty mesas and crags of Thanalan, the blistering highways of peists, carrion-feeders, drakes and beastmen. "If you manage to kill him slowly, be sure to ask him. Though, child of man, it is not difficult to imagine why one would desire the destruction of one not meant to exist."