The Great War

={Chapter 9: Bonding}=

={WARNING: MENTION OF ANIMAL CORPSE}=

Several hours had passed now, the sun was almost at it's midway point in the sky, and Molten was once again skinning a rabbit for Bryan and Davis, who were now sitting next to each other on the ground with their hands and feet tied. Lefty was sitting next to Molten, and Foxy was sitting in front of their tent, so they could be apart of the group while keeping an eye on Jon, who was still laying unconscious in Foxy's tent. Molten tied the rabbit by it's four feet to the stick set up above the campfire, and quickly used a match to start a fire so the rabbit could cook, and as Molten stood up to go throw the rabbit's head and pelt out into the forest again, Foxy waved their hand to catch his attention, and Molten gave Foxy a curious expression. "While you're out there, would you mind grabbing a bunch of poison ivy? But it needs to have the roots still attached when you grab it," Foxy asked as they reached into their tent and pulled out a glass jar that was a little less than halfway filled with water and held it in the air. Molten gave Foxy a confused nod, and Foxy tossed the jar to Molten, before Molten walked off to the forest, Funtime Foxy definitely had some weird obsession with using nature as a weapon, but Molten wasn't complaining, he just found it odd, because Foxy still carries around normal weapons, like knives and daggers. It didn't take long for Molten to find the spot he had thrown the first rabbit head and pelt, and he ended up startling off a red fox that was gnawing on the first rabbit head, and Molten tossed down the second rabbit head and pelt before looking around for some poison ivy, which was quite easy to find, and he carefully pulled two handfuls of the plant out of the ground without damaging the roots and placed it in the jar, before walking back to the camp.

Molten handed Foxy the closed jar of poison ivy and water, who took it with a grateful nod and smile, before quickly placing it in their satchel in their tent. Molten sat back down next to Lefty with a tired sigh, and Lefty gave Molten a friendly nudge with his elbow, quickly earning a small smile from Molten.

It was almost sunset now, Molten and Foxy went patrolling around the area a few times, every few hours, while Lefty stayed in camp to watch the three hostages. Molten and Foxy were getting the campfire going for the night while Lefty was talking with Davis and Bryan, although Davis barely spoke. Molten let out a sigh as he and Foxy got the fire started, and Foxy walked off into their tent, Molten was thankful the day was finally coming to an end, it was another day closer until he could return to the kingdom, but the relief didn't last long, Molten's head jerked to the side in alarm as he heard what sounded like something walking in the tall grass, but nothing was there when he looked around, and for a moment he thought he had somehow imagined it, because nobody else seemed to have noticed, until Foxy poked their head out of their tent and looked around with a confused expression. Molten and Foxy both silently decided to ignore it, and Foxy went back into their tent without a word while Molten zoned out as he stared at the fire, it was probably just a small animal rummaging in the tall grass. Molten snapped back into reality as he heard a yell, and he looked over to see that an arrow had struck Lefty in the side of his shoulder, and Foxy was practically dragging Bryan and Davis into their tent, since they were still tied up and couldn't really walk, before they ushered Lefty inside behind them, and quickly came back out with a sword. Molten stood and ran to his tent and grabbed his throwing knives and an axe, and then carefully exited his tent and hid behind Foxy's tent, whoever was attacking their camp was somewhere in the direction behind Foxy's tent, but neither Foxy or Molten knew exactly where. Molten heard some rustling, and he hesitated for a moment before he stepped out from behind the tent and threw one of his throwing knives, which pierced right into the middle of a random women's forehead and the women fell limp to the ground almost immediately, and the second two more humans stood up from behind a small boulder, Foxy appeared next to Molten and threw a dagger at one of the humans, and it pierced into the human's chest, the man grasped at his chest for a moment before he fell to the ground. Molten moved to throw another knife at the second man, the last one standing, as the man aimed a crossbow at Molten and Foxy, Molten would've made the hit, he would've hit the human before he could pull the trigger on the crossbow, but he froze as Bryan suddenly appeared in front of him and Foxy, putting his arms out and shouting frantically for the man to stop, which the man did, he stopped and slightly lowered the crossbow, but only for a moment. The man quickly raised the crossbow again and pulled the trigger, it was flying straight toward Bryan's chest, but Molten quickly dropped the axe and his other three throwing knives and grabbed a hold of Bryan's arm, and pulled himself harshly toward Bryan, and placed himself in between the oncoming arrow and Bryan with his back turned towards the enemy, and Molten let out a hiss-like sound as the shocking pain rocked his body as the arrow pierced into his back. Foxy quickly picked up Molten's axe and hurled it at the man before he could reload the crossbow, and the axe hit the man's chest with a sickening crunch as his ribcage broke at the impact and he fell to the ground. Molten leaned forward due to the pain in his back, and Bryan struggled to support Molten, but he still tried his best to support Molten as he leaned forward onto Bryan nonetheless. Foxy and Bryan supported Molten over to a spot next to the campfire and helped him to sit down, and Molten let out a growl at the pain of sitting down with an arrow in his back.