On the trail the Star-child, the hound, and peaceful war-chief walk briskly.
What kind of name is Varci? Xolante breaks the silence suddenly. Being taken back, and some-what insulted, Varci jumps to the defensive, its elven. What kind of name is Xolante? And arent we supposed to be finding water soon?
There is a spring just up here. I didnt mean to offend Xolante is a good name, it means The one who runs towards
The one who runs towards? Varci said, hardly paying attention.
As opposed to running away. It means brave. Xolante responds as a small brook comes into view, Ok, now we have water. Talk.
Before he can finish his command, Varci is face-first in the stream and gulping down the cold water, so rapidly that it made her feel sick, but she ignored it.
Slow down! Xolante once again commands. His words fall on deaf ears. This selective hearing is exactly why Varci doesnt hear the danger that is approaching. As Varcis face leaves the water and she gasps for air, she hears a twig break very close. Due to her time spent hunting, her keen elf ears know all to-well the difference between predator and prey. Whatever made this noise was very big, and it was predator; she was prey.
Before she can turn her head she is knocked into the water by a very big, very fast creature. She clumsily bounds around in the water to see her attacker. Pinned to a tree is her Jaguaren counterpart, held off of his feet by the gangly front two arms of a Manara, the largest of the Shadowmoor spiders, and the most vicious. Varci has never seen anything like the beast, but wonder gives way to action as she springs to her feet to help her knew friend. Without her swayves or bow, she is unsure what she can do.
With the bravery of a mother bear protecting its young, she runs at the creature and jumps on its thorax. Unsure of her next move she reaches around the face of the fiend grabbing its monstrous fangs and pulls back, to keep their poisonous embrace, from caressing Xolontes flesh. As the agile cat warrior escapes, the monster stumbles backward, only to be stunned by a pain in one of her left legs. The pain is Mekh. His hard jaws chomp down on the beasts leg, and he attempts to shake the heavy monster with all the tenacity of an angry badger.
His grip causes the monster to lose her balance. As she stumbles more so, the quick thinking Xolante removes his club from his belt and with a swift strong blow, coming from behind his screaming head, he strikes another leg on the left side of the monster. He strikes so hard that he shatters the exoskeleton and the club goes through, hitting the ground and dismembering the leg.
The monster no longer has any footing, and falls down heavily on a shaking Varci. The fall hurts Varci almost as bad as the time she fell from the tallest tree on her uncles farm. The memory of her uncle consumes her, and though all of the wind has left her body, she closes her eyes, bites down and pulls even harder on the spiders slippery fangs. A combination of her immense rage induced strength and the motion of the spider wildly trying to stand cause her to rip two large fangs from the beasts mouth. The monster manages to escape Varcis grasp as well as Mekhs, but not before another of its left legs it pulled from its place.
The monster, now leaking a fowl glowing teal liquid, circles around for a second attack. It charges toward Varci, clumsily with what energy it has left, its front two legs ready to strike her. Varci closes her eyes and braces for impact but instead hears a crunching noise. Xolantes club has found another target; the rear left leg of the spider is removed causing it to roll onto its back.
Varci instinctively and compulsively jumps for a final strike; a kill shot. She pounces on the vulnerable spider, plunging its own fangs deep into its soft underbelly, and is thrown immediately by its thrashing. The spider squirms and fights death for a few moments but succumbs to its fate as it makes an indescribably horrible noise, almost like a whispered scream of many different pitches at the same time.
