by Doc 42 » Wed May 30, 2012 3:15 am
Flaming Dogs, Nightshade barracks roost
Midnight perched relaxed in the common room, idly listening to the conversations of the other warriors. "Then I swooped down and scored my raptor claw down his back" There were impressed coos from the crowd. "Then, the f**ker reaches around and grabs hold of my thigh just here, my claw still lodged in his hip" The excited harpy gestured to where the troll had apparently held her, the rest of the harpies drawing in their breath. "At first I thought it was just a last ditch attempt before he fell, when suddenly the crazed beast releases the most horrible laugh you've ever heard, deep and insane. Then he unleashed his elbow into my shoulder like a bolt from a ballistae."
The story teller waited, examining the expressions of her listeners. Midnight sat quietly, smirking to herself. The harpy went on "The force of the blow knocked me round, so that I was clinging to his back. I thought I was done for, all it would have taken for him to snap me in half was to yank my leg around in front of him, but my claw was still snagged in his hip. I knew I couldn't die yet, not there, not to some troll smelling like a cesspit, so I pulled my knife free and then unhooked the raptor claw, the only thing keeping me safely away from his other arm..." She waited one last time to let the suspense sink in, and then delivered the final act "It was me or him. He went to yank me around, still laughing, ready to rip me apart, but I stabbed my knife into his throat. Furious, he pulled me off his back, causing the knife to cut all the way around his throat, ripping open the arteries in his neck. Blood spilled out, and with a final gutteral scream, the beast toppled around off balance, I barely managing to leap out from underneath his mass."
The listening harpies cheered. Midnight merely sat there smirking to herself. She already knew that story, she had been there, and she knew it had been nothing like that. The story teller, Moonswipe, had indeed dived down onto the troll's back, scoring a vicious strike with her raptor claw, much to the troll's amusement, but she didn't valiantly slay it with a knife, she panicked and lost her footing. She would have been crushed into a ball had Blackwind not swooped in and sent an arrow through the troll's eye. Midnight's expression fell. Blackwind took an arrow to the shoulder herself soon after, but there was no swooping guardian angel, instead, she fell into the hands of a troll rider, whose mount wasted no time in pouncing upon the downed harpy, ripping her limb from limb.
Moonswipe was about to launch into another tale of glory, just beginning to set the scene, when Blacktalon appeared at the window, everyone knew what she was about to say, just by her expression. "Another harpy."
They gathered out on the top of the roost, watching the procession through the streets of flaming dogs. Several armed Bada warriors with a troll pulling an open wagon, collecting the latest victims of the plague ravishing the land. Normally, a handful of Badai would succumb each day, but occasionally a harpy would fall to madness as well. She was barely large enough for the wagon, her faded wings draped over it's edges. It was a stark reminder that everybody living in the city had magic in their blood, magic which needed to be controlled.

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**** off TT"-Doc 42
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