From: owner-lostholt-l@murkworks.net on behalf of Wolf031877@aol.com Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 11:42 PM To: lostholt-l@murkworks.net Subject: [lostholt-l] Out of the frying pan, into the fire Synopsis: Not too long after Flashfire encountered Zirek, the Go-Glider returns again, with Isme. The news is not what Flashfire can bear to hear and Bad Things happen, including a trip to the Cage for the poor wolfelf. Players: Flashfire (logger), Zirek, Isme, Generi, Gloomblossom, Rikia. Logged: 6/2/00. =============================== Field before Blue Mountain A single mountain stands almost unnaturally into the air before you, grand and solid. Boulders and uneven, sheer rock faces threaten those who wander too close. Huge cracks split the mountain's roots, down to the assortment of rubble at its feet and up, hundreds of heights toward the mountain's spindly peak. In either the brightness of day or under the light of twin moons, the entire mountain and all the rocks about it have a definite blue tint. The field, dotted with boulders, seems to end at the mountain itself. One of the larger cracks obviously delves in deeper, forming a short, narrowing cave. Obvious exits: Shallow cave South Zirek arrives from Blue Mountain just as the door quietly melts back into place. Isme arrives from Blue Mountain just as the door quietly melts back into place. Isme ducks her head at Zirek's comment, a faint blush staining her cheeks. "Not much of a one... I can't catch anything other than fish, and even them only when they're not expecting me..." She sighs, not noticing the fuzzy elf, and admits in a soft little voice, "I'm also not too good at gliding, nowhere -near- as good as Lhyree." Zirek grins pleasantly to Isme "Well, she's got some years on you yet... I couldn't lift myself for turns and turns..." He looks around and waves to Flashfire. "Sorry I can't bring better news, wolfrider, but Haikari doesn't seem at all interested in coming out to talk." Flashfire's not very good at gliding either, but it's not something he has the ability to do...unless you count dropping from a tree at someone or something. He's pacing again, very close to the mountain's side. When Isme and Zirek come out and he's spoken to, he whirls towards them both, eyes perhaps even wilder with the need to get inside. "You have to take me to her!" he demands, picking right up where he left off the last time. Spear's with him, again. Zirek holds up his hands. "Look, I'm sorry. I'll keep talking to her, but sometimes does have to take their own time to get used to ideas." Not that Woodshadow took more than a few minutes to decide to answer the Recognition between the two of them, but that's another story. Isme gasps at Flashfire's explosion, then stares and gapes at him in shock. ** He's all furry! Is he really an elf? ** Startled out of her Wolfrider manners, she looks him over thoroughly and impersonally, examining him from tip to toe with her eyes. Zirek teases Isme "He's every bit as much an elf as you are." Isme looks down at herself in surprise, then looks up at Zirek (she's small, for a Glider), ** I'm -not- going to grow a lot of hair when I get older... ** glances sidelong at Flashfire, ** Am I? ** Well, yes..he is. Flashfire's got a nice thick layer of fur over his otherwise naked body, save the fur-cloak he's wearing. Zirek just doesn't get it, does he? Trembling again, he nearly curls up into a fetal position as he grimaces. "You.. just don't understand...I can't wait much longer. I -have- to finish it with her!" Isme is at least noted but unresponded to as the wolfelf leaps towards Zirek, trying to grab at his shoulders again. "Let me in there!" Zirek doesn't dodge, considering Flashfire more to be pitied than to be feared. His expression is genuinely sympathetic. "I already told you, there's nothing I can do. If she won't come out here, I'm certainly not going to take you in there..." Isme steps back in reaction to Flashfire's leap, eyes wide with surprise. Still unaware that he can -hear- sending, she wonders, ** Is Recognition like this for /everyone/? I don't remember Leaffall leaping all over the place when she Recognized Midnight... ** Attention diverting back to Zirek, ** Why not? He probably can't glide, so there are places he can't really get to... Isn't her chamber in one of those places? ** Flashfire fumbles at Zirek, hands slipping down to grip at his arms, wrists. "You..you don't understand. She -can't- resist it, and look what's happening to me from not being able to be with her!" He stares at Isme and looks up, indeed understanding her send. If he could climb...but he'd probably fall and kill himself with the way he is right now. Zirek says gently "So what will you do, wolfrider? Force her to answer the call of Recognition?" He shakes his head. "I cannot allow that. I am sworn to protect those in the Mountain and I shall. If she can bear it, surely you can as well..." Isme returns Flashfire's look without hesitation, silvery eyes widening upon catching sight of his amber eyes. ** I think he would upset Ietro. Actually, I think Ietro would have hysterics if.. when they meet. ** That clinical observation made, she looks at Zirek again, expression clearly stating that he's now a 'my hero', after, of course, Vorel. Aloud, she offers, "She'll probably not be able to bear it for very long; the call should be just as strong for her..." Flashfire attempts to actually shake Zirek, then tackle him if he's off-guard. "You..you're mindsick if..if you think we can just bear it!" he snarls, not really able to prevent himself from overreacting like this. He's being denied that which his very -being- requires in order to be well again. "You -can't- stop what the High Ones choose, and I'll..I'll do something bad if you try!" Shakily, a hand releases, the threatening claws on his fingertips curling a bit. Zirek is thrown off-balance, more for his lack of resistance than his lack of awareness. He raises a hand "Hey, now... " Then there is an audible "THUNK" as his head strikes something hard. The Go-Glider sags limply as consciousness slips away and he slumps at the mercy of the snarling wolf-elf. Her eyes widening at and intent upon the threat, Isme glances at Zirek and nods to something silently-shared. Softly, she reminds the wolf-elf in a matter-of-fact tone, "He can fly... and if you throw a spear at him," yes, she did notice that weapon's presence, "the Chosen will descend upon you. That... would not be good for you." Sympathy -- but not much comprehension -- shows through her expression, but is quickly overshadowed with horror and shock. Lunging to Zirek's side, she attempts to catch him, break his fall, ** Zirek! ** The Chosen are probably going to come for him as it is, now. Flashfire shivers again as Zirek goes down, blinkblinking as the taller elf is knocked out. "Timmorn's Blood..?" he mumbles in confusion, backing away a couple steps as he stares at Isme, then at Zirek, then back at the Mountain. "N-need to see her.." he reiterates, hesitantly, stance more wolfen at the moment. Zirek is unconscious. Isme wraps her arms around Zirek's shoulders, calling to him mentally. Tilting her head back to look at Flashfire, her huge, silver eyes are filling with tears, "You hurt him! Can't you control yourself well enough to not hurt somebody? He was trying to -help- you!" "No he wasn't!" Flashfire nearly explodes, forgive him. "He wouldn't let me see Haikari! He made me wait out here, where it hurts!" the wolfrider exclaims, his eyes clouded and flighty, passing over a number of things, yet perhaps seeing nothing clearly, nothing at all. Grimacing, Haikari's soulname throbs in his body again, and he scampers towards the mountain, looking for a handhold here, a foothold there. Climb..get inside. "Got..got to find her." he stammers. Clearly he's not in a good state at all if he's so desperate to get inside this place. Generi flies down from above. Isme watches, wide-eyed, as the furry Wolfrider attempts to play rock-monkey. How will he save himself if he falls? "Calm /down/! You're not going to get Inside unless someone takes you or asks Mother to let you in, and I won't do that right now, because Zirek /can't/!" Determination on her face, she turns her attention back to Zirek, increasing her mental call for him. Generi gestures as his assistant swoops over to secure Isme and Zirek upon the back of one of the unladened birds. He turns his own attentions to the struggling wolfrider. Isme's eyes widen, then go blank with, perhaps, surprise at being on birdback. Flashfire slips and nearly does fall, from only a few feet up. His foot scrapes on the rock, making a faint little gash. "Unnh.." Isme's words are heard, but it's like they're from somewhere else, distant and muffled. He flinches and drops back to the ground as the birds near, eyes widening at Generi. "Wha..?" Generi flicks his talonwhip out to whirl around the wolf-elf. "Our Lord doesn't suffer violent animals injuring her flock..." Flashfire's senses and reactions are off, enough for Generi's talonwhip to succeed in surrounding him, a faintly blank look on his face at the 'animal' comment, which then registers as he struggles in vain to loosen himself from the tight bindings. "L..let me go! I'm not an animal! I just need to see Haikari..!" Generi smirks icily "She'll have to come see you in the Cage! That's where you're going until our Lord has decided what to do with you." But...but Haikari will probably avoid him even more if it's her choice to go to him... "No!" Flashfire balks again, trying to dig his heels into the ground in order to plant himself right there and stay put. "I..won't go in there!" he insists, making the erroneous assumption that he has half a choice. Generi wraps the other end of the talonwhip around the harness of the great bird he rides and lifts off into the air. "Very well. If you manage to free yourself, we'll be scraping wolf guts off the side of our Mountain. I, for one, would rather not do that, so why don't you just come quietly, eh?" Flashfire ends up lifted from his feet to dangle from the end of the cord below the large bond-bird, closing his eyes tightly as a sudden sense of nausea takes hold of him. "Unnnh.." he groans, stiffening as the wind picks up around him the higher they go. Well..he wanted inside. [Flashfire is taken inside to be deposited into...] The Cage Shadows, dark and dank and cold, flicker in the dim torch light that sheds faint light in the place beyond you. Twisted, thorn-laced bars keep you from that, and keep you locked in a small cavern which gives you no place to hide. All you do is visible, though you are probably so broken by now that you do not care. Contents: Generi Obvious exits: Out You cannot leave the Cage IC unless someone lets you out. Generi waits for the bars to shape themselves away, then stalks out. Flashfire shakes his head in confusion as the bars shape and reform, just him left inside. "No.." he starts, getting up to come closer to the thorny things that keep him inside, on display. High Ones, this is not how it was supposed to go...cursed, cursed Recognition... >From outside the cage, Gloomblossom arrives from the Rock Garden. >From outside the cage, Gloomblossom flits in with the sound of leathery wings. >From outside the cage, Generi crosses his arms, smirking faintly "You should have considered the consequences before you harmed a glider." Flashfire backs away from the Cage's bars, holding his head carefully, gingerly. "He..was harming me more by keeping me away from her...you don't understand, either." he insists, voice low and shaky. >From outside the cage, Generi snorts softly. "The day I understand you beastbloods is the day my bondbird lays an egg." One might, from that, assume that his bond is male. "Do you even know what Recognition is..?" Flashfire answers, leaning against the far wall in this..prison. He snarls at the insults, for some reason more affected by them than he normally is. "I -have- to finish what the High Ones started." >From outside the cage, Generi laughs. "Of course I know what Recognition is. But most of US finished with that nonsense while your kind was still mating with the other beasts outside. We don't need anymore squawling babies. Especially not more of them whelped by you Outsiders' impure seed." So then, where does that place Haikari, since the Glider has Recognized a 'filthy animal?' Flashfire grimaces again at the harsh words, hackles actually raising. "You..you take that back." Hasn't yet grasped the trouble he's gotten himself into, has he? >From outside the cage, Generi laughs again, wickedly "Or what, you'll bite me?" >From outside the cage, Generi says "Or perhaps just give me fleas." Flashfire snarls again, much the appearance of said animals this and other Gliders so despise. "I don't have fleas." But he might very well bite Generi in the state he's in right now. He yawns, but still cannot sleep. And there's Winnowill in here somewhere, too. >From outside the cage, Gloomblossom flits over to Generi ~~Furrygrowler go still quiet? Want wrapstuff?~~ Flashfire huhs? Wrapstuff? "No.." Flashfire presses back against the wall a bit further. With his luck, there'll be a rockshaper around to bind him to it somehow. >From outside the cage, Generi chuckles. "Leave it be, Gloomblossom. I'm sure our Lord will want to speak with it soon enough." 'It?' The wolfelf presses a clawed hand to his forehead again, things spinning inside. "I'm an elf.." he informs the haughty, stuffy Glider. He's just got fur, that's all. Okay, and he's acting decidedly wolfish and desperate. >From outside the cage, Generi guffaws "Sure you are. And I'm a High One." He's tall enough to resemble one..how's that? "Your..your Lord did this to me." Flashfire notes, gesturing to his appearance. So there. "Didn't..used to be like this." Again he falters as the tugging intensifies, perhaps sensing Haikari up to something? Dropping to a knee, he groans. >From outside the cage, Generi turns to stride away, disgusted at the very idea. Flashfire does nothing to stop Generi, for what -can- he do from inside the Cage? >From outside the cage, Generi heads down the stairs. >From outside the cage, Gloomblossom tilts its head and has an almost sympathetic. ~~ Poor growler-highthing. Looks terrible.~~ Flashfire turns his head away from Generi as the elf departs, seeking to curl up against the wall again. Then he hears the bug. "..go 'way." he mumbles softly. >From outside the cage, Gloomblossom says ~~Won't!~~ Flashfire simply covers his ears, in that case. Of course, the noise in his head is enough to drown out most anything else right now. No idea how much longer he'll be able to go without fulfilling the Rec. No idea what might even -happen- if too much time passes, but it can't be healthy. [A little time passes.] >From outside the cage, Rikia arrives from the Rock Garden. Flashfire's head lifts slightly from his huddled-up spot inside the Cage, against the wall. He can sense someone around, but not much past that just yet. >From outside the cage, Rikia drifts slowly by. He stops, hearing the wrestling. He turns slowly, looking into the cage. He moves back a little at the sight, but looks wonderingly into the cage. No wrestling..just a troubled and desperate wolfrider in fur, imprisoned in the Cage. His amber eyes dart towards Rikia, then away again to look unfocusedly at the bars. "Go..away.." he 'suggests' in a low growl. >From outside the cage, Rikia drifts back a little more. He was never one for conflict. "Y.. You're the outsider?" He asks in a quiet voice. The 'outsider?' Well, yes, he would be with that fur, wouldn't he? Flashfire manages not to say something demeaning, given his compromised spot in here. Maybe if he just turned away and ignored the glider, he'd be left alone. So, he tries it. Does tremble, though. >From outside the cage, Rikia blinks wonderingly at the outsider. He straightens up and drifts a little closer, just a little though. "Why would you come here?" He asks this one a little stronger, again though, not too much, he's usually kept his distance from outsiders. A low growl is the first answer from the troubled wolfelf, hackles raising again, like they had with Generi. "Recognition." he mumbles, as if that one word should be all the answer needed. It makes an elf do strange things when the demand isn't satisfied. >From outside the cage, Rikia doesn't really move this time. When the word is uttered, he seems to run it over a few times in his head. "Who?" This question seems to slips out of his mouth, as if half involuntary, almost like a stray thought. Flashfire frowns in spite of his own state of affairs. Thought he asked this one to go away. "Just..leave me alone." he answers, not the kind Rikia's looking for of course. One would think there'd be some other evidence around that would point to the other one in this. >From outside the cage, Rikia doesn't get around much. He brushes it off seeming not to hear your response, and even his own question. "Lord Winnowill will not let you see her?" Flashfire has no clue what Winnowill knows of him and his situation yet, but chances are whatever the case, it's not good. "Why don't you go ask her yourself?" he retorts, a moment of clarity to his words before he curls up again. >From outside the cage, Rikia tilts his head. "I'd wish not to... I hope you can fulfill your recognition...." He pauses. He holds in his place, staring into the bars. He closes his eyes. "Me too," Flashfire answers flatly, in what can only be described best as a 'well, duh' tone of voice. Obviously, if he doesn't, he'll never get any better, and he's only getting worse for the time being. Kept in the Cage, he still cannot do what he needs. >From outside the cage, Rikia keeps his eyes closed and runs his finger through the air, outlining a shape from his mind. He opens his eyes again. Flashfire eyes Rikia disinterestedly, then shakes his head and looks away from him again. This encounter isn't getting him any further. >From outside the cage, Rikia drifts up a little. He drifts around a little. He looks around the bars, studying it. It almost looks as though he is observing you too. "So interesting." he says to himself aloud... Flashfire lifts his head again as his senses suggest to him that Rikia is still here. He doesn't like being stared at...not now, in any event. It results in him doing something that he is comfortable with right now, though it's always possible it could come back to bite him later - he springs up and darts towards the thorny bars, snarling and looking, for all intents and purposes, like a rabid wolf about to attack if not for the fact he'd probably impale himself on those bars. "Leave me alone!" he hisses, stumbling to stop just short of the bars, dizzy as he steadies himself with a hand on the floor. >From outside the cage, Rikia gasps and drifts back again. He's jarred from his thoughts. His face begins to display an angry expression, but as he sees you stop short, dizzied, his expression turns out a little gentle. He shakes his head slowly. "If you wish, but you won't get very far like that, outsider." Thing is, Flashfire just can't find it in himself to -care- right now. How can he, when there's only one thing on his mind - reaching Haikari and doing what must be done to relieve his pain, his sickness? Why hasn't she come running to him by now, either? How could she stand to be apart from him if what she feels is anything even remotely close to what he does? Panting, he slinks back to the spot he'd just left, totally ignoring Rikia now. If he would just go away, perhaps he could at least get a spot of rest. Oh Timmorn, he's -so- tired and sore. "Just go.." he nearly pleads. >From outside the cage, Rikia nods. "If thats what you want." He drifts away from the cage slowly, attempting to regain the image he had before. It is, and that's why Flashfire asked for it. No further reply issues forth from within the unfriendly confines of the Cage, but the wolfelf inside can't shake the trapped feeling that has settled heavily over him. It's as if it's a case of 'What else can go wrong?' Surely he'll find out.