Ascending Legends

[Dragongal]

"That's good. You may want to get clothes on before Mom comes in here, though. There's some clothes in my pack. Hey... can you cast while a wolf? Or no?" Arryn ran her fingers through his hair, using her magic to slow his heartrate and stop his shaking. She lightly ran her fingers over the cuts on his face, healing them completely.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn reached up and laid his hand on Arryn's before turning into it and kissing her palm. "Gods, I've missed this feeling." He leaned forward and kissed her lips gently before standing up and walking to find some pants. After sliding them on he sat back down next to her and wrapped her in his arms. "I was afraid I had lost you Arryn."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn nuzzled against his chest, nestling into his arms. "Now you know how I feel every time you get hurt." Arryn paused, thinking over how he'd been poisoned because of her, and how the attempt on her life had been carefully aimed; whoever it was knew about Lenza's skills. "Makes me worried that you're at risk, being around me and all. But no matter how worried I got for you, I couldn't ask you to leave. I love you too much to do that. Guess I'm just a selfish girl."

 

[BookWyrm]

"I would face an army by myself if it meant I could be with you. I'm not leaving just because we've have some troubles." Dayn kissed Arryn's head and smiled. "I think we should get some sleep. Tomorrow, what do you say we go look about the markets?"

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled and nodded tiredly. She pulled Dayn close against her then pulled up the blankets over both of them, pressing her head against his chest with a slight grin. She held his hand in hers, gently rubbing his palm with her thumb until she fell asleep very shortly after. That draught had been strong, and removing the dark magic had taken its toll.

 

[BookWyrm]

The night passed peacefully for the two lovers. When the morning came Dayn woke up about an hour before dawn feeling refreshed and renewed. He looked down to Arryn and smiled. "Heeeey love, its the morning. You want to go cook some breakfast or do you want to stay in bed for a little while?"

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn glanced up at him, then pulled the blanket up over her head playfully. "You can make food if you like. Or we can have Mom do it. I don't want to move, but I'm hungry."

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn laughed before moving under the blanket with her. "Although I like the idea of staying in bed with you, I think I might make some breakfast." He kissed her playfully before tickling her, only to slide out from under the covers and heading into the kitchen while she was still laughing. After a few minutes he came back in with spiced oatmeal and fruit and some juice. "Arrrrryn, I've got peeeaaaars."

 

[Dragongal]

"If there is a bite missing I'll kill you." Arryn poked her head out from under the covers, then sat up. "No food for you?" She took the oatmeal and a pear, biting into the pear.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn walked back into the kitchen before coming back into the room with his own bowl of oatmeal. "I've only got two hands love." After breakfast, and a bath, Dayn had dressed in a clean pair of black pants and a comfortable white shirt. He left his sword off his belt, though he always kept his dagger. "Are you ready love?"

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn pulled on her weapons belt. She'd quickly bathed while Dayn had been changing and wore a green shirt with black pants. She tossed her pack over her shoulder and took his hand. "Absolutely."

 

[BookWyrm]

The markets weren't super busy, but Dayn enjoyed it more that way. Sometimes the crowds at Riverbend had just been too much, and especially the crowd of strangers at Ironcrest. They had strolled around for a while before Dayn turned to Arryn with his signature mischievous smile. "How about you stay right here, and I'll be back in a minute." Dayn had an idea, a trinket he wanted to have made for Arryn, and he wanted to surprise her with it. "No peaking, this is going to be a surprise." He kissed her cheek before smiling. "Be back before you know it."





A lone figure stood in an alley way nearby, watching Arryn carefully. He chuckled quietly as he walked back into the alley and unsheathed his knife. He had captured one of the kids that ran around the village and tied them up in the back of the alley. "Time to play your part. Now, cry for me real good, and I might only do this once."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled to Dayn as he walked away, though her smile faded the instant she heard the crying. Her eyes narrowed and her posture straightened, and she unsheathed her dagger as she ran into the alley, letting her fingers run over the cool, hard metal of its scabbard to remind her to keep her temper even.

 

[BookWyrm]

The child looked up at Arryn and cried, their voice muffled as they tried to warm Arryn. A strong hand gripped Arryn's wrist and twisted, wrenching the knife out of her hand before a second wrapped under her arm and covered her mouth and nose with a sponge smelling of some strange herbal mix. "Shhh, just breath. Don't fight it, it won't end well if you do." The man coiled his arms around her tighter, restricting her from moving as he waited for the anesthesia to take affect.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn knew when she was in trouble. If she flipped the man, it'd break her arm or dislocate her shoulder. Kicking him wasn't much of an option either, and she could already feel the anesthetic working on her.. While he had one of her wrists and had his other arm restricting her shoulder movement, one hand was free - all she needed was elbow movement. Using the corner of her scabbard, she cut into her palm, letting the blood hit the ground so Dayn could track her, before the anesthetic became too strong to fight any more and her body went limp.

 

[BookWyrm]

The man carefully checked her pulse before laying Arryn down and tying her arms and legs before throwing her over his shoulder. He looked down at the kid before moving a finger to his lips and disappearing.


Dayn returned to where he left Arryn, surprised not to see her. "Arryn?" The smell of blood wafted out from an alley way nearby. "Oh Arryn, not again." But when he found only the blood and no Arryn, and a child tied up in the alleyway, Dayn suddenly began to worry. He cut the child free and pulled down the gag. "It was horrible! He took her!" Dayn's heart began to pound. "He snuck up behind her and put that sponge on her face, then she went limp and he carried her away." Dayn picked up the sponge and sniffed it, only to regret the decision a moment later when his senses whacked out for a second. No time to lose, need to track her. Dayn took off trying his best to follow the blood trail, only to stop in the middle of town. What about the others? No, I've drug them into too much here recently.





If Dayn had only known what was waiting for him.


Back at the bard the man had strung up Arryn in the back using several chains and thick hemp rope. He knew that Arryn would wake up soon, so he had made sure to use more of the opium and hemlock to keep her senses dulled once she woke. He finished checking over his gear, smiling behind his mask as he heard Arryn stirring behind him. "Just in time. I know you're going to be groggy, but you can at least hear me. You are serving a good purpose. The best way to hunt wolves is with a baited trap, and you're the bait. I have to thank you though, that little move with your hand will work better than my own plan. He can track blood easier than most things. Speaking of, he should be here any time now, so I'll prepare the welcome party."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn looked at the masked man, saying, "There... there's no good... in hurting Dayn. You... hurt him... I'll fucking slaughter you... slowly. I've tortured someone once... I will do it again." The tone of her voice made it clear she wasn't joking, and really, she wasn't joking at all. She focused as well as she could and formed a shield around him. "You're not... hurting... Dayn."

 

[BookWyrm]

The man laughed. "So the wolf has a name? Don't tell me, are you two lovers? Ah, that explains it." He tilted his head slightly before chuckling. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I have something that might make your shield null." The man reached into his pouch and pulled out a ward. "I keep these around just encase I get a job on a mage." He slid the ward around his neck and walked out of the shield. "I'd prefer not to harm such a pretty face as your own, but I can be convinced if I need to be." The man walked over to Arryn before flicking his wrist, throwing flash powder out to momentarily blind her so that he could tie a blindfold and gag around her. "There, that way you can't bother me, but you can listen to everything."


Dayn stormed through the woods, having shifted when he knew it was safe to cover the ground quicker. To his surprise the trail led him back to the hidden barn from the other night. Dayn could faintly see Arryn tied up in the back of the barn. Dayn ran across the open ground, slowing down when he got close enough to the barn. <Arryn, its me Dayn.> The sudden sound of Dayn crying out in pain echoed through the old barn. Dayn fell over as the shaft of a bolt lodged into his back, but the pain radiated out from the wound and spread through his body. Dayn cried out and thrashed, biting at the shaft as he tried to remove it from his body. A second bolt stuck in him, releasing more of the burning liquid into his blood stream.


"You see, I like those. They are my own design for wolf hunting. Hollow bolts filled with fluid and silver flecks have a nasty way of doing massive internal damage once they spread some." The hunter was taunting both to demoralize Dayn and torment Arryn, who he knew was listening as Dayn cried and whimpered as the silver flecks flowed in his blood stream. "Shame that they vial only holds enough for two bolts, but that is where I can get creative." A silver coated bolt shot through Dayn's paw. The bolt head was barbed and a chain ran through it that connected back to the hunter, who tied it off to one of the support poles. Dayn howled and snarled as he thrashed about in utter agony only for a second bolt to pierce through his other hand before being tied off on the opposite side.


The hunter jumped down, triggering a trap he'd rigged above the barn entrance. Several barbed tips chains fell down and hooked into Dayn's back before recoiling, pulling Dayn off the ground. Dayn howled in pain, blood running out from his mouth as the flecks began to cause internal damage. "Yes wolf, cry. I was paid to make it hurt. But we're not done yet. No, the flecks haven't reached your heart. I can wait though."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn had formed a small shield in the air and rubbed against it, catching the blindfold and dragging it off in that awkward fashion. She got to watch as Dayn was shot repeatedly, trying not to lose it. However, when she saw the chains hook onto Dayn and hold him up, she couldn't control the burning rage in her chest. It wasn't fair.


The next sound that could be heard was her chains breaking and the rope snapping. Arryn took off the gag without breakign eye contac iwth the hunter. "What did I tell you would happen?" She said with a distinct growl in her voice. Her eyes were a pure, blazing green as she picked up two chain segments. "I give you one last chance. Undo what you did, or I will slaughter you."

 

[BookWyrm]

The hunter turned around and laughed. "I like your girl wolf, she has fire. Even if you kill me though, the flecks will get to his heart. What will you do then?" The hunter grabbed his axe, the bottom of which had a long chain with a sharp hook attached to it. He spun the hook slowly at first before increasing in speed. "Come on then love, make my day." He hurled the hooked chain at Arryn....

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled darkly and put up a shield, reflecting the hook back toward him. "I haven't lost it in a long time. Let me tell you, then," she paused as she cracked one of her improvised whips against the floor, moving toward him, "what I plan to do." Arryn flicked her right whip back and then lashed it forward with incredible speed. A whip, at half of its maximum speed, can crack a bone in two. Her whip hit the hand the man was holding the axe with at well past that speed. "I will cripple you. Then, I will injure you repeatedly, effectively torturing you. Then I will string you up to hang by your own hook. Then I shall heal Dayn, and you will be naught but a nasty memory."

 

[BookWyrm]

The hunter laughed as he looked down at his hand before forcing it into a fist. "I like it. Now, can you actually follow through with it?" He reached up onto his armor and unsheathed two daggers, his left hand shaking some from the injury. "Come on, make it hurt. I want to feel pain for once in my life!" He dashed forward, cutting with one dagger after the other.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn leaned back wrapping the ends of the chains around her fists as she dodged. "Then so it shall be." Arryn put up a shield wiht the consistency of ice, so when he swung, his force carried him past her, leaving his flank exposed. She took the shot, punching him just before the ribs. She stepped to the side and brought up her whip before cracking it down across his legs.

 

[BookWyrm]

The hunter forced himself up in time to catch Arryn across her cheek with his knife. He stood up despite a shaky leg and difficulty breathing. He coughed, unknowingly spitting blood into his mask before he laughed. "Come on now. Make me feel it!" He charged again, albeit with some difficulty, but he anytime he struck something he hit with two times the force of any normal person. "Come on! Make me bleed! I want to see if you can!"

 

[Dragongal]

"You are a blind fool." Arryn stepped back and made a shield, forcing him to run past her, then brought her whip against his other leg, forcing him to kneel. She formed shields around his shoulders, keeping him down, then walked around the front of him, whipping the knives from both of his hands, breaking any bones that had remained in tact and removing a few fingers. She moved behind him, and took off his mask. "I won't kill you yet."





Wrapped one chain around his neck, pulling it tight but allowing him to breathe. She put one hand on his head. Using her healing magic, she allowed the pain to skip the faulty nerves and go straight to his brain. "This is what you have been doing to others. I give you a glimpse of humanity, before I take your life." Arryn took one of the knives off the ground and put it through his chest, before twisting it, still allowing him to feel the pain. She did this two more times, then wrapped the chain around his neck, climbed to the loft, and pulled, hanging him by his neck before tying the chain in place.


That done, she went about getting Dayn down and removing all of the hooks as gently as possible. She knelt next to him, and gently ran her hand through his fur. "I admit now, I have never tried this technique. But it will work." Arryn focused, finding the silver particles in his blood and using every method she could to "guide" the particles out of the open wounds. She tore a piece off of her shirt, wiping all silver blood off of him to prevent further injury. When the last of the silver was out of him, she healed his internal injuries and external injuries until she was sure he was stable. Moments after that, she collapsed, completely unconscious.