Just a Lady-like Excursion [open]

[lorki]

Sleets surprise faded and with it her rage at the otter. The look of anger fell from her features and was replaced with modest worry, her brow lowered- but not in an dangerous way more to signal anxiety. Something in her gut turned- her ears pressed back flat against her skull as her dark eyes looked over the otter and mouse before... No it was not them.

Fluidly she moved, foolishly turning her back towards the armed mouse and placing the handle of her right sword into her left paw along side its twin. Her free paw swiftly brought a knife from her belt and skillfully drew back and threw the blade across the field effectively the knife hit its mark- not a beast but a bowstring, that of a squirrel aiming for her companion Seeing the arrow fall safely from the tree to the snow dusted ground brought her ears back up and took the rigidness from her stance.

It was only then that she realized her back was to the weapon wielding mouse and the otter she had unknowingly trampled over. She turned to face them once more, shifting her sword back into the right paw she pointed it again towards the two of them. Filled with a new anger at the late attempt on her friends life she growled, "put your little sword away, mousy. Nothing begun here unless you wish to start it. Perhaps you should worry more about where your idiot comrades set up to play healer." She spat the last sentence, her black eyes looking over to Tirael.

[Tirael]

Still kneeling by his patient, Tirael watched with a mixture of contempt and curiosity as Sleet threw a knife deftly at a squirrel's bowstring. With aim like that, why didn't she just kill the squirrel? This just didn't add up. While the otter failed to do the math in his head, he also didn't recognize the opportunity to move to safety, and sure enough, the sword was pointing at him again after a second. He glared up the blade toward its owner with palpable contempt.

"Put your little sword away, mousy. Nothing begun here unless you wish to start it. Perhaps you should worry more about where your idiot comrades set up to play healer."

Tirael disregarded the ferret's insult; why should he care what some stupid vermin thought of him anyway? Besides, he wanted to know what was keeping her out of the fight. "Why aren't you fighting? Scared you're going to lose, is that it?" Coward, she can insult and threaten a healer but she won't go after somebeast who'll fight back?

[lorki]

As the otter began to speak a small smile appeared on Sleets face. He had set her up to make the perfect point. As she watched and listened to him she kept careful tabs on the battle to her side. She was already picking out a target as she replied bitterly to him. "Well, otter, I wasn't fighting because I'm neither with you nor with N'tashi. But you are so convincing..."

The warring creature of her interest was a mouse, brandishing it's blade and moving towards a ferret from the N'tashi group. The ferret was not only one of her own kind, but also had its back to the advancing mouse and was locked in battle with some other beast. Cheap moves such as the one the unfortunate mouse was currently preforming were not impressive to Sleetfang, no not at all.

In one fluid movement her paw had another knife drawn from her belt, her eyes narrowed towards the target and she let her wrist flick the blade into trajectory movement. The entire movement was practically immediate and took little effort on her part, considering the mouse was at such a short distance. The knife stuck in the creatures neck and pushed its body sideways, the mouse thudded to the ground, dead.

Although mere seconds had passed since her first words she turned back to Tirael, her other blade had stayed pointed at him and the female mouse through the entire action. She looked at the otter smugly, "Happy?"

[Tirael]

"Well, otter, I wasn't fighting because I'm neither with you nor with N'tashi. But you are so convincing..."

A bad feeling worked its way into Tirael's stomach. He followed Sleet's gaze as it fell on-

No!

"No!" Tirael could only cry out in horror as the knife flew from Sleet's paw and into the mouse's back. The otter's heart stopped; was this his fault? The guilt and shock of it rendered him speechless, and he could only whisper remorsefully. "No..."

"Happy?"

The healer's eyes hardened. He turned slowly, his eyes down. Then he looked up. "You..." Unable to come up with a word quite strong enough to describe his hatred for the ferret, he summed it up by spitting in her face. "...you are a coward." He no longer worried about the sword she had pointed at him, he was too busy hating Sleet. "I hope you rot in Hellfires."

[Treble Tiderunner]

It happened in a few split seconds. Redin captured her footpaw and caught the slicing whip with his paw. Lorna felt her world go topsy-turvy as he let go of her shirt and yanked up on her ankle. This only served to make the vixen angrier, and she yanked hard on her whip, pulling it a few inches through his grip before releasing it in favor of her dagger, which she drew and stabbed at his knee.

At the same time she kicked at him with her free footpaw, hoping to make him release her.

"Having trouble?"

Lorna’s face contorted in a snarl. “No! Now get the troops, we found the woodlanders, and I for one don’t want to let them get away!”

[Brooke]

Violet flinched as Sleet killed the mouse..

Cooly she said, "There was no need for that, I never accused you of anything. I merely told you to back away from Tirael."

Never turning from Sleet, she said;

"Tir, get the poor creature out of here, as soon as you can, get back to Camp and get reinforcements." turning back to Sleet, "If you're not for N'tashi or us, get your slimy, flea bitten hide out of our battle." she spat before running back to the main battle.

[Maxodis]

Having come into solid possession of his new "toy", Redin was more than happy to release the vixen. Her way of diplomacy helped him significantly in deciding how to best liberate her from his grasp. His face twisted into a disgusted snarl as he unceremoniously dropped her on the ground. Arrogant little creature, at least he got what he'd wanted.

He turned away from her then, and was surprised to see that the empty clearing had sprouted a small force of woodlanders. Armed woodlanders, who did not seem to be very friendly. As his mind caught up to the events that had transpired and as his sanity slowly returned to him, he came to realize that intertwined in the group of woodlanders, doing combat with them, even, was a unit of vermin, presumably of N'Tashi's horde. Well that would explain the vixen. Either way, that he had been completely ignored to this point in combat was slightly ridiculo-

He inhaled sharply as an arrow embedded itself deep in his back, pinging painfully off his shoulder blade. Quietly he berated himself for causing luck to kick him in the face, what were the odds? Transferring the cat-o-nine to his teeth, he withdrew the embedded polearm from his side, deflecting another arrow in the process. He noted that Sleet was absent from his field of vision. The few mice on the woodlander's side that were in the battle could be the reason for that. The weasel grinned wickedly as he pulled the arrow from his back. Two factions doing battle, both of which showed clear dislike of him, his only ally absent from the direct battle. He stood alone. Like he would want it any other way.

With complete disregard for the fallen vixen behind him, Redin charged into the fray, wielding his heavy polearm indiscriminately, with no regard for his own safety. The cries of battle took on a noticeably louder pitch as both woodlander and vermin alike sustained injuries from the wildly swinging blades. Blood flew from the Weasel with every turn and thrust, some of it his own, some of it others'. His grip was less than steady as the polearm became slick with the liquid. His laughter rang out above the dirge, even as a stoat endeavored to slice the tendons in his leg and nearly found success. As much fun as the sadistic weasel was having, it would end soon, either from his death or by the sudden slaughter of anyone within his reach.

[lorki]

Sleet felt a slight pang of guilt as the Otter expressed his still remorse for the death of the mouse. Sleet had -no matter how much she tried to deny it- a soft spot for otters. However this fleeting feeling was quickly squashed as he insulted her. Her unemotional mask of blank rage returned.

"I hope you rot in Hellfires."

Sleet's brow furrowed as she glared down at the otter. "You and everyone else, Otter. If you want to send me there I suggest you get in line." Bitterness plagued her voice, feelings quickly disappeared for this otter, he was just like the rest of them. Pushing her to act as he willed her to and then hating her for it. Life in Mossflower, she thought angrily.

Her ears twitched towards the loud sounds that accompanied Redin wielding his huge weapon. She allowed her blade to drop slightly as she turned her head to look at him. Violet was speaking then, telling her to leave. Sleet turned back to the otter and mouse.

"I would if I could, trust me. Unfortunately my companion seems to be enjoying himself a bit too much and I don't look forward to seeing him end up dead. I'll have to just be in your way." She shrugged and stepped away from the two of them, so that if they attacked she would have time to move defensively. Her other paw rested besides her knives, ready to throw them in Redin's defense should he particularly need it.

Yes, he was quite the idiot. But, she decided wistfully, it was good for him to get cut up every once in awhile. He needed a few weeks to be out of commission- she'd let him get beat up a bit.

[Tirael]

"Tir, get the poor creature out of here, as soon as you can, get back to Camp and get reinforcements."

The otter watched as Violet ran off to rejoin the battle. Quickly checking to make sure the mouse Sleet hadn't killed was out of danger, he helped him up and murmured, "D'you think you can get back to Camp real quick and tell them we need backup?" The mouse considered, and nodded. "Good, hurry then," and with that he ran off to do as he was bid. After all, Tirael could still be needed at the battle scene. Then he realized he was still near Sleet. Shouldering his bag, he leaned against a tree and scanned the fracas below for anybeast needing help, all the while doing his best to ignore her presence. He didn't have long to wait; he said briefly to the ferret, "I'm going now," before heading off. It would feel better to be away from her and thoughts about the mouse, and besides, somebeast needed him.