Nostrum: Tales of Valor

Blind Guidance

Awaking to the sound of claws grinding against cobble, Yuler opens her eyes to meet those of Lee, whose panicked state tells of something much greater than her recovery going on around them. With muffled words, he pulls her up into a sitting position and wipes gunk from her face. Though his words remain incomprehensible, she quickly realizes that they are coming from a place of warning. Through blurred vision, she looks about them, where she spots the tail-end of Hael, whose silver fur and tar-colored flesh whip about in a dramatic manner. Her awareness rising, Yuler gasps and gags simultaneously, spitting up dark water and choking on it all the same.

"Good, you're breathing. Get up! We must move!" Lee tugs at Yuler's arm until she is on her feet, then the pair of them face Hael, who continues to mangle the bodies of Nostrum as they dare to approach her. With a bellowing shriek, she shreds each of her contesters in an inhumane act of violence. "We have to help her in any way that we can." Lee states, gripping the hilt of his sword. "Keep clear of her maw and do not present your back to her!" With this, Lee darts off to Hael's right, where he slashes at a man who has made it passed Hael's vicious onslaught.

Yuler looks about the bodies at her feet, then leans forward and picks up a sword that one had dropped in their desperate efforts to live. She then allows herself a moment to cough up more of the harsh fluids before raising the blade, ready to fight yet again. Sticking to Hael's left hind leg, Yuler remains cautious of the beast but sets her focus on two more Nostrum as they approach her from a far corner of the chamber they have found themselves in. Unsure of her ability to truly fight with such an unfamiliar weapon, she gives herself the same stance she would have used with Cronn's ax and slings the blade from overhead. As the first of the Nostrum deflects her attack, the second moves in, plunging their own blade at her. Reacting hastily, she manages to avoid being skewered and swats at them from her left to her right. The blade manages to connect with the second Nostrum's arm and they back off for a moment to recuperate. At this same moment, Hael's matted fur is seen darting downwards from up above, squashing the first Nostrum with ease and batting the second into the shadows. Hael lets out a ghastly roar in the direction of the second, who Yuler is certain must be dead.

"That'd be the last of 'em, Hael! Calm girl! Soothing thoughts!"

Yuler looks to Lee, who has now pressed himself against a wall and placed both hands out in front. Unable to obey his own warning, he is found face-to-face with the beastly woman, who continues to step toward him with a deep rumbling coming from her belly. Yuler, unsure of what to do and what not to, grasps tightly at the hilt of her blade and slowly approaches the beat from behind, but before she finds a reason to strike, Hael raises her snout into the air and sniffs several times. Then, she lowers it and turns away from Lee, who lets out a fearful pant.

"Come Yuler, we must follow her."

Yuler watches Hael squeeze into the same tunnel she had originally entered from, then looks to Lee.

"Is this safe for us? Where is she going?"

"Trust that she means us no harm, girl. She has picked up a trail. Where ever she is headed, it must mean a great deal." Lee pulls the brim of his hat down and his mask up, covering all but his eyes and the bridge of his nose. "Follow her."

Yuler nods and raises her own mask. Ensuring it is snug in place, she takes the tail end and follows Lee up through the tunnel, which remains vacant of Nostrum, unlike before. Assuming Hael had managed to cleanse the place of what vermin there was, Yuler allows her blade to fall to her side, then picks up her pace to keep close to the beast that guides them. Before long the sound of wood cracking can be heard coming from the front of their chain and Lee stops in place, as if to be watching what it is Hael has found herself doing. Yuler does the same, spotting yet another passageway into the dungeons being shredded open by Hael's onyx claws.