EntQuest, the Battle for Hector.

[klatukatt]

"Mari," said Katt quietly, "there is a problem. There is a poison in Acally's wound that keeps it from healing properly. It keeps bleeding. I don't want to have to resort to drastic measures."

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Hey, you guys okay?" asked Sas as he looked around the cave. "AWESOME!!" Sas yelled when he saw it, a skeleton- in it's hand was a shield and a sword. "Yes!"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

"Could you HUSH????" asked Sis, distractedly. "He's long dead. And we have other problems." Looking at Sas, her eyes narrowed. "Do you have a spare pouch about you? How about scooping up a bit of this sand and carrying it back up the trail...quietly. Let the folk up there know we have suffered a little delay, here. Or you can stay, but the echos hurt my ears when you scream, and I have a bad feeling about this place."

She turned back to Nautipus, "What about it? Do you think we should explore? Nicro? Eliowny?"

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Well, I have TF up there waiting." said Sas while grabbing the sword and shield. "These can still be used!" Sas walked over to the entrance to the cave and started climbing. About three-quarters of the way up he yelled-"TF! Here!" and threw a bag of sand up to TF, "Take this to Mari! And tell her everyone is okay down here!" Sas looked at Nautipus. "Well, how'd you fair in the battle? Got about 43 myself!"

[Grey_Wolf]

"Poison, you say, my dear Katt! Well then I got the remedy." said Sir GW, having lit a small fire before to keep Acally warm - he brought forth a dagger and put the tip of it the flames."This will disinfect it and and the heat will burn the poison away."

He went over to Acally, swabbed the wound with a aneasthetic herb he'd found before, waited a few minutes and then cut open the wound with the knife - the hot blade burning away the poison.

After a while he deemed the work done, he swabbed the wound again with the aneasthetic herb, and brought forth a thin piece of twine and sharp needle and begun to sow the wound shut, and then he put on a fresh bandage.

[Nautipus]

Nautipus fingered his wound absently, and his eyes shone, "Hell yes, I want to explore down here. Who knows what we may find here, beside you lichen that is." He then turned to Sas, "You know, I wasnt counting. After getting speared in the shoulder, numbers lost meaning to me."

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"You know I heard you screaming but I didn't think you got hit!" said Sas walking over to Nauty "Why didn't you tell anyone?! You know, they're healing people up there! You need to go up!"

[Nautipus]

Nautipus waved him away, "Sis took care of it dont worry." He then picked up his helmet and waited for Sis's lead.

[klatukatt]

"Well, Grey Wolf, that is what I was going to call 'drastic measures' but I'm glad you could help."
Katt ran off to see how she could help the others.

[Acalewia]

"It wasn't an ordinary sword. At least one I hadn't seen before," Acally said. "There was so much going on," At that point, GW decided to burn the poison that Katt had found.
"Ahh! Son of a --"
"Whoa! Watch the language!"
"You done now?"
"Sorry, Acally,"
"Wait. There were a few other creatures there as well, but I couldn't ID them. They were nothing I'd seen before,"

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

Sas looked around while clutching his arm. "I was hit too." he said sadly "But not by an orc. The dart wound from that stupid dwarf is infecting me I think."

[klatukatt]

((Deleted for errors))

[tolkienfan]

tf headed toward the cave entrance, greatly relieved at finding everyone more or less okay. She noticed that Acally had been found, and Katt had reappeared. Finding Mari she said, "Sas joined those in the cave, they are in no trouble, but will be delayed. In this bag is some sand from deep in the cave. You would know more about it than I would," handing her the bag.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Everyone in the lower cave was becoming serious. The single torch cast very little light, just enough to send the horses' distorted shadows out into the reach of darkness over the mysterious lake.

In a small alcove, Nautipus divested himself of the remainder of his armour and tested the mobility in his shoulder. Still not good, of course, but the binding helped reduce the rawness of the cut to a throbbing ache. The others listened to the chinks of armor silently. There didn't seem much to say.

He emerged into the light in the tunics and trews appropriate. Those who hadn't seen his shoulder before were shocked at the blood soaking the area, Sis was concerned. She checked it, looking for signs that the wound was still bleeding.

"I don't want to unwrap it if we don't have to', she muttered. I think the pressure is doing it good, and I know it's pretty clean, now, but if you're still bleeding out... Maybe we'd better not try this."

Nautipus shock his head, a trace of his usual twinkle surfacing. "Miss an opportunity to see what's in this water? Not a chance."

Sis rolled her eyes, reassured by his levity. "Here, have something to drink" she suggested, passing him a skin. Naughty drank and his eyes watered. Now he was definitely cheerful. Sis smiled, too. "Old family recipe, good for what ails ya."

The little troop watched as he walked down to the water and waded in. "How's the water?" Sis called quietly. "Warm." Nautipus replied. "Warmer than you'd expect." Sis suddenly suffered a feeling of panic. The small torch he was carrying was receeding further and further into the dark cave. It was clear that they would not be able to see him for long. "Maybe you'd better come back!" she called.

His laugh floated back.

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Hmmm" Sas pondered as to what had happened to Nauty. "Maybye he came in contact with one of his pets or something?"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

The hardy orc band pelted profanely through the forest, bearing their prize.

Such as it was... the captive hector struggled and used language unbecoming to an elected official, himself. They paid him no mind.

Reaching their evil destination was all their concern.

[Grey_Wolf]

"So, Acally, that's it!" said Gw, and swabbed the wound with another batch of herbs, one with disenfectant abilities.

(and btw, didnt u read that I had aneasthetized (that is saw to it that the area of ur wound was numb and non-feeling) before I began the op. )

[Nautipus]

Nautipus waded farther and looked back. He could see the small group huddling together, valueing the torch's light. He smiled. The drink Sis had given him was working its way through his system, worming its warm fingers into his wound. The water was warm and pleasent, enhancing his blissful attitude. He could feel a slight, very slight current running its silken length between the chinks in his armor. He breathed deeply, inhaling the fresh scent of the minerals in the water. Not like home, but similar. He turned back and continued wading into the lake.

It was like a living thing, water. It breathed, in a volume comparable to the life held in its bosom. The lake had seemed life-filled from the shore, but now Nautipus could feel the life all around him, breathing deeply, exhaling thunderously. The power of it's great bellows-lungs thrilled him. He smiled wider.

The beach had been covered in gold dust, and the ground here was covered as well, but mostly by sand. Another sign of life. He knew lakes like this. Here, a shelf, stretching as far as a mile out into the waters, but maybe not here. He continued walking, sensing the subtle slopeing of the shelf. Animals would live here, afraid or too small to venture deeper. Nautipus began to worry, and slowed his pace. He ventured straight into the lake. As long as they didnt venture to near the Deep, they would be fine, but he needed to discern its distance.

He had left his sword on the beach, but had sheathed the detachable dagger into a hilt at his side. He always went armed now. The battle above had taught him that small lesson. Long ago, he would have weilded the sword like a Herculean hero, but he had atrophied, tired of his fight, waiting turned to apathy. His smile dropped.

In a thing like Nautipus, his life force is sensed by water, as water's is by him. The trick in feral environments like this is to be constant. Whatever predator had been near, sensed his change in attitude, but did not change its own. It was a creature of one thought: hunger, the lake provides. It hungered now. When Nautipus continued thinking about the battle overhead, the loss of Sane and her Banditos, his spirits fell quickly, equating to a flailing fish. It struck.

It knocked his legs from under him, extinguishing his torch, and putting him on the bottom. Nautipus didnt need the torch here. Not here. His home. The creature came from behind, obove his prostrae head, and slammed his head into the lake floor. His head was hard. He laughed. He felt a familiar power coarse through him. He grabbed his adversary, and pulled it close.

Here, he thought at it, come closer.

He could sense the creature now. The Kraken King was flowing back into his element. This thing, arthropodan, was terrible. But beautiful to him. To primitive to use, though. He stretched his mind out, senseing. Then he started. He threw the creature from him, pushing its Eurypterid body away.

He scrabled up, but lost his sight out of the water. He didnt care. The Deep was close, he had sensed the super-predator there, as it him. He could feel it's spirit churn. He turned back where he had come and begen swiming, haltingly. He couldnt do this, his shoulder wouldnt let him. He walked then, keeping his movements smooth. When he got close enough to shore, he spoke, not above a loud conversation voice. "Sis. Hurry. Find what you need, we have to leave, ASAP." He turned back to the Deep again. It was close. He communed.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Sis had seen the torch extinquished, and the sudden ripples on the shore. Her torch sparkled on the first few yards of the water, but wouldn't show where Nautipus had gone. Yet, she hesitated to cry out, afraid to disturb the heavy quiet of the cave. She strained forward, but it was the change in the ripples that warned her first of Naughty's return.

He was barely visible, when he hoarsely spoke his message and turned again into the darkness.

She didn't ask about the torch.

[Nautipus]

Nautipus stared out into the lake. The thing out there, it seemed alone. Nautipus could feel something not the water rolling down his face, warmer: tears. His. He licked them away. He wept for this place. It's silence, darkness, all beautiful to him. It stirred him. But now was the time to concentrate.

An old practice, and he performed it just as he had learned. He spoke to the spirit of the thing. It was the only one of its kind around, but it was not lonely. However, it hadnt spokedn in a while, and welcomed his inquisitions, his interest, his appreciation, and more than anything, his awe. The thing was intelligent, old, and healthy. But there was something more to it than that. He left it for a moment, and lived through another, an animal in the benthos, hugging the bottom. He walked it out and looked up, through the water collumn. In the water-sight, he could see a portion of the thing, but not enough, it towered above the bottom, hovering, but moving. Its undulations, speaking of its vast respiratory network, spoke to him. He could feel the thing. Its monstrous mind, terrible intelligence. And he knew. He continued his conversation. It began to show him things. None of its prey had been able to talk back, but this was a monster of great mind. It was showing him. What it was going to do. Filled with titanic arrogance, the beast was going to crush him, and the party. Nautipus continued, drawing it down roads of conversation, buying Sis time, he could hear the group behind him, quietly going about their duty.

The surface is a myth to the deep. It lies in shrouds of handed down memories and racial reckoning. Nautipus let slip a thought, a thought of sunshine, and the beast used it. It dug into his thoughts, dredging up more, it yearned for release, and Nautipus showed it the way. Nautipus kept it fascinated.