[In the guest quarters of the Mayor's house]
D'Tarik awoke in his bed, sitting up quickly. This caused Sprinkles to fall to the floor with a small squeak, but somehow the large Tribble remained asleep. D'Tarik rubbed his eyes and looked around the dark room. Seeing the other two boys asleep on their beds, one on either side of his own, he hopped off his bed and picked up Sprinkles carefully, laying his pet gently down on his pillow.
The somewhat small Romulan heard strange sounds outside the narrow window of their sleeping quarters, and slowy walked over to it. Very carefuly and quietly, he pushed open the shutters to look outside. He saw what looked like a male Romulan, kind of stalking around in the shadows. The lurker stood around 6 feet, and had long hair. D'Tarik noticed that the Romulan's eyes were glowing a bright red. He seemed to be looking for something in the woods.
Suddenly, a tall Romulan woman in a black lather jacket leapt out of the woods with a wooden stake clutched in one hand, and drove it into the lurker's chest. The male slumped to the ground almost soundlessly. His fleshturned to ash, and blew away in the wind.
When the last of the ash had blown away, the female stood, and dusted herself off. She must have sensed that someone had been watching her, because she paused, and scanned the area wearily. Turning her head towards him, her eyes briefly made contact with D'Tarik's own. She looked at him for a moment, then suddenly jumped back into the woods. The brief moment he got to look her was not enough to notice anything more then the fact that she had dyed her hair blond.
D'Tarik looked out the window and saw the sun was going to come up in a few hours. With how odd this trip had gone so far, he really saw no reason to wake up his friends now. But he would be sure to tell them about it in the morning.
"She was hot" he thought to himself, smiling, as he walked back to his bed. He had been so absorbed in the thought of the mysterious blood vision outside his window, that he had almost layed down on Sprinkles. He snapped out of his thoughts just before he had landed on his odd-looking pet, and thought, "Oops....don't want to do that. I will let him have the bed
tonight, I can sleep on the floor."
And with that he lay down on the floor with a yawn, then curled up and fell asleep.
[On the Planet ch'Vania]
Rylan nudges D'Tarik with a boot, "Wake up, man. What are au doing on the floor?" he looks at the boy with a raised brow, then watches Sprinkles jump on D'Tarik's head with a squeak.
D'Tarik sits up out of a sound sleep "AHHHH!" He looks around panicked, until Sprinkles climbs down on D'Tariks shoulder. "Oh! Jolan'tru Rylan." he says sleepily.
Rylan smirks, "Na sleeping well? Bad dreams?"
"Na.....just some girl that came out of the woods and killed a monster. She was hot!"
Rylan looks surprised, then chuckles and turns away, "Ah! Io of *those* dreams then..."
"It wasn't a dream." DT protests, "She was just outside our window....a tall woman, with her hair dyed blond. Killed some kind of monster."
Rylan nods, "Ie?" then picks up his gear, tossing an ISD to D`Tarik. "With blond hair na less. Well, perhaps au will see her when we're out fixing some of their old equipment, eh?" he finishes teasingly, heading for the door.
D`Tarik stands up. He doesn't have to get dressed because oddly enough he slept in his lab coat and clothes, "I'm na fixing some old junk! I have important work to do!"
Rylan comes to a halt and sighs. Storming back, he grabs D'Tarik by the back of the collar, and drags him to the door. "Ie, au do! Au have to pay for ninte host's hospitality....were au na taught manners?"
Trying to walk on his own power, DT answers, "Ie, I was, but what could be more helpful then me and au going into the woods and taking samples?"
"Helping me fix their main power generator for io!!" Rylan says angrily, "These people do na have power of any kind. Candle-light and firewood is all that is currently available to them." he stops and glares at the smaller boy, "Would a power source na be beneficial to au as well, D'Tarik?"
"Ie....but I have more important things to worry about! Can I at least show au the spot where I saw the woman?"
Rylan sighs and drops his head in resignation, "Au can show me where...*if* au help me with the generator after."
"Fine by me." DT agrees, looking very pleased with himself. He walks ahead of Rylan as Sprinkles gives off a very pleased sounding squeak.
Rylan sighs as he adjusts the bag holding his repair equipment and follows. He begins to grumble low to himself, "Why I even bother to talk to au, much less *listen*....." He follows D'Tarik around the perimeter of the Mayor's house, still grumbling to himself as he comes to a halt beside the smaller boy. D'Tarik points matter-of-factly to the spot where he saw the girl during the previous night. Rylan looks at the ground with a bored expression and says sarcastically, "Ie? It's dirt. So what?" D'Tarik, however, doesn't answer his friend, he just heads off blindly into the woods. Rylan watches him for a moment, than calls out confused, "Uhhh... D'Tarik? Au don't have a disruptor! There's *things* in the woods!"
D'Tarik stops but doesn't turn around, "I have a feeling about something. Besides....I always carry a disruptor under my coat."
Rylan smirks, "Au better check again! Vyynd took it for garrison duty!"
D'Tarik reaches under his coat, then admits, "Okay, so I don't. But I have Sprinkles!" he points to the creature on his shoulder, then says, "Sprinkles, activate command, A-715." With a slight whirling sound, Sprinkle's laser activates, and extends roughly four inches in length. The whirling has turned into a low buzzing sound, as the diameter of the barrel widens and the entire shaft begins to glow a bright red. The whole contraption moves slightly up and over the large Tribble, seeming to rest on top of it's head. Rylan watches this in mixed trepidation and admiration, and nods, obviously impressed over D'Tarik's ingeniousness.
Rylan shrugs and asks, "Okay...so what's this hunch of yours?"
Though D'Tarik is surprised that Rylan is not attacking him about his upgrade of Sprinkles' hardware, he forgets about it with a shake of his head. He sighs, wondering if he's going to have to spend the rest of the day explaining his every move. "I believe that this woman I saw last night has to live out here because if she lived in the town we would of met her by now." D'Tarik turns and almost trips over something, but catches himself just in time. Rylan sees the smaller boy's display of clumsiness and stifles a laugh as D'Tarik picks up what he tripped over. "Ah ha! This is what she used to slay the beast!
Rylan peers easily enough over D'Tarik's shoulder, "Ie....I've seen lots of those laying about." he gestures back towards the house, "They have a bloody-big supply of them in there."
D'Tarik's holding a finely craved wooden stake which he now waves under Rylan's nose, "Ie, but not like this....look!" Rylan sees the big, stylized 'B' carved into the widest part of the stake.
Looking at it curiously, Ry shrugs, "Perhaps na....but I didn't look at them well enough to see if they were personalized." he pauses to adjust the equipment bag again. "Well...now what? Au found a pile of dirt and a stick with a carved "B" in it. Big deal?"
"Also, if au will notice, the craftsmanship on this io is much, much better. It's larger... sharper...."
"...*And*?!"
"And....I'm not sure." D`Tarik says weakly, "But look at it! And hey look! There's a clearing over there!"
Rylan peers through the forest, "Ie....hold on, D'Tarik." The taller boys casts a rather long look to Sprinkles, looking as if he's trying to decided something, then shrugs, "Okay." he nods and gestures to the woods, "Go on then."
D'Tarik's obviously caught off guard by this, "Why were au looking at Sprinkles like that?" The Tribble's enlarged laser-gun moves around, seemingly tracing for movement as the boys speak.
Ry shrugs and walks ahead, "It's an animal isn't it? Animals always seem to know if there's danger."
The boys keep walking, and as they near the clearing they suddenly become aware of the rather loud sound of someone eating -- and rather sloppily at that. With a surprised, and rather warning 'Squeak!' from Sprinkles, Rylan comes to a complete halt and gestures back to the smaller boy to be quiet, wincing at the jingling sound from D'Tarik's overstuffed lab coat. Rylan crouches down low, and tries to make out what's causing the sound that had brought such apprehension to the Tribble. Ahead in the clearing, four forms can be seen crouched down. They apparently are huddled around something, but since they are all so close together, Rylan can't make out what it is. He casts a glance back toward D'Tarik to ask if he can make it out, and sees the boy still standing up -- fascinated by the tops of the trees.
Rylan motions him down and whispers angrily, "Au'rh a target! Get down!" But this does nothing to get the smaller boy's attention, and Rylan rolls his eyes in frustration as he creeps back toward D'Tarik. He pulls him down into a crouching position, and whispers again, "Unless au *want* to be noticed by the enemy, I suggest au remember basic training!"
D'Tarik's still looking up at the trees as he's pulled down, "Na....I haven't forgotten. Au have." he points to the tree line he had been watching, revealing a woman with blond hair who's looking right at the boys. "Au always scan the whole area."
Rylan looks up, surprised to see the woman, "Well...she's apparently na an enemy or she would've killed au by now."
D'Tarik rises an eye brow at that, "Don't au mean kill 'us'?"
"She would've gotten au first. The sounds of au dying would've warned me." Ry smirks.
"Jeee, Hann'yyo..." DT says sarcastically. Sprinkle's gun lowers from the woman it had targeted, and comes to bear on the forms in the clearing.
Rylan nods towards the clearing, dismissing the woman as no threat, and whispers, "What about those others then?" D'Tarik is too busy staring at the woman to answer, much less hear his friend's question, and watches as the girl jumps down to the ground, landing just behind them with the kind of stealth that would put the Tal'Shiar to shame. She returns D'Tarik's curious stare, waiting for one of the boys to speak first.
Rylan had been so focused on the group in the clearing, however that he hadn't noticed the party's new arrival at all. He had been trying to creep a little closer to the clearing to get a better look at the four mysterious figures; staying low so that Sprinkles would have a clean shot with his laser if it came to that. D'Tarik whispers to the retreating figure of his friend, "Hey Rylan...maybe we can ask her who those guys are."
Rylan glances back and sees the girl. He shrugs, indicting for D'Tarik to ask, as he continues to creep a little closer to the clearing. D'Tarik casts a nervous glance to the new arrival -- who only watches the boys with mixed curiosity and annoyance -- and he begins to crawl over to Rylan. Rylan stops and waits for the smaller boy to near, when he does D'Tarik whispers sheepishly, "I can't talk to her...she might think I'm a dork."
Rylan raises a brow at this declaration, and looks from the blond to the smaller boy. He just doesn't have the heart to mention that by *not* talking to the girl, she might very well think that of D'Tarik anyway. Sighing, Rylan creeps back over to the girl and whispers, "All right...since au obviously have been here longer than us, and seem to know what au'rh doing...what the Areinnye are they?" He gestures towards the figures in the clearing.
Vyynd, who had been wandering the forest with the garrison, hears some kind of hushed commotion off in the near distance. Ordering the men around him to quiet down and stay relatively hidden, he creeps closer.
The blond turns around at hearing the approaching garrison, "Oh, great! Au might as well get a whole hoard of them over here! What are au doing bringing an army into the woods?!" she angrily points behind her to Vyynd and his troops.
Ry spots the garrison coming closer and shrugs, "Ie...well, they're part of the Dae'hfir's garrison, technically na with us." he glances back to D'Tarik, "We were supposed to be working on the power generators...but that one," he points to the smaller boy who was creeping closer to the whispering pair, "wanted to find au instead."
Leaving the garrison in command of another, Vyynd rolls over closer to the two familiar Rihannsu as the blond looks over to DT, "Ie, I saw him last night. By the way, au can stand up. They won't attack unless they catch ninte scent, and there's na enough wind for that. They're busy feeding." She indicates the figures in the clearing.
Vyynd assesses the nearby situation, glancing at the woman, the four figures, and then Sprinkles. Rylan catches Vyynd playing 'The Agent' and smirks, holding back a laugh. DT just shakes his head at Vyynd and mumbles something about 'showoffs'.
Noticing the other two's expressions, Vyynd asks the blond, "So they do not hear nor see us at all?" then catches sight of the large laser on Sprinkle's head and nudges his rifle in DT's general direction, "I may be here to protect au, but injuries are na my matter." he grins solemnly and adds, "Enough of these antics..."
Rylan raises a brow, still smirking, and says offhand to the agent, "I think Sprink is protecting us more at this point than au are."
Vyynd glares at him, "Ie, and I think 'Sprink' is also a tad less sentient as well..."
"So, what are au going to do?" DT asks Vyynd, "Go over there and just shoot them all down?"
"Hold up now...." Rylan interjects, "we don't even know what they are." He turns to the girl and adds, "Au havent' told us that yet."
Still keeping with the previous string of banter, Vyynd says to Ry, "It does na surprise me that such a tactic is the best au can devise..."
Ry only smirks again, "Whoever said au were sentient, Vyynd? Au'rh barely civilized." The blond listens to the two, shaking her head with a faint grin. DT, as if hypnotized, just stares at her like a love-sick puppy.
Vyynd glares at Rylan again, "I only find civility necessary in suitable conditions. Sulking around a forest against mutants that na io shares information on, is na time for such civility."
Ry raises another brow, seeing the 'agent' get himself all worked up over nothing. "Elements Vyynd, lighten up. Au were much more fun at the Academy."
Vyynd looks over at the blonde hared woman, sizing her up, but continues to address Rylan, "That's because the only things I'm uncertain of at the Academy are D'Tarik's 'children'." The sounds of loud moaning spring up all around the party, making Vyynd and Rylan bring their banter to a complete halt. Vyynd takes a step closer to the female and demands, "Now *what* are those?"
"They're bad."
Rylan looks to her surprised, "Bad?" he repeats, "Bad how?"
Vyynd rubs his ridged forehead, telling her, "I'm glad au have such a fantastic evaluation." then turns to Rylan, dismissing the girl completely, "*Who* is she?!"
"I'm guessing that the sound is those things." DT finally snaps out of it, and indicates the figures from the clearing that are now coming towards them. The others, apparently, don't pay much attention to him.
Ry shrugs and answers Vyynd's question, glancing around the forest, "Apparently, she's D'Tarik's dream girl."
"Those damned things are coming out of the woods because of this little trek of yours!" The girl tells the two angrily.
This gets Rylan's attention and he turns to the girl again and says in a warning tone, "Alright now, I've asked before...what *are* they?"
Vyynd groans along with the ambient moans that have grown louder around them as the blond answers, "They're the walking dead that feed off the flesh of the living."
D'Tarik interjects cheerfully, hoping to impress her, "I made something like that once!"
"Ok, Rylan...a word with au?" Vyynd pulls Rylan off to the side as Rylan angrily glares at DT.
Rylan angrily glares at D'Tarik, "Ie...that's how we got in this mess!" He feels Vyynd tug on his arm and follows, letting the matter drop.
Vyynd whispers, low enough so that the other two wouldn't hear, "What has happened since this morning? Unknown to the pair, dozens of zombies start walking into the woods, and slowly shamble towards them, fencing them in.
Rylan sighs in exasperation as he answers, "I woke D'Tarik up to help me begin work on the power generators. But he'd have none of it. He wanted to find her." He gestures to the blond a few steps away, "Now we're here, and....." he notices the zombies that have shambled closer, and finishes shakily "We're na alone...."
Vyynd however, has not noticed the immanent danger as yet. He nods at Rylan's words, contemplating and answers back, "Ah, I see...hann'yyo." The girl draws a long, curved dagger out of her boot, and takes on a fighting stance, as Vyynd turns back to address D'Tarik. He stops and stares at the Zombies approaching.
Rylan nervously whispers to Vyynd, pulling his frightened eyes away from the approaching danger long enough to look at his friend, "And the weapon au relieved me of, tr'Khaine? I would appreciate it back now I believe."
Sprinkles starts to randomly blast at the zombies with a huge green plasma blast, as Vyynd grabs his rifle in both hands and joins Sprinkles in shooting down several nearing zombies. "Fvadt! The garrison!" He exclaims tapping his com-link. No sooner had he given the command, then the other members of Vyynd's garrison team jump into the fight; spearing and chopping down any zombies they come to.
Vyynd grabs the distruptors from the garrison members that held them, knowing that his friends would prove better at targeting, and tosses one each to D'Tarik and Rylan. tr'Tuhmek gladly takes his returned weapon back, and begins blasting away. D'Tarik only holds his own weapon uselessly at his side, preferring to let his pet target with it's laser. The mysterious blond girl shakes her head at the skirmish, knowing that the garrison team isn't really having any effect. The zombies that are cut down by the team's bladed weapons or spears don't seem to be effected in the least. Their fallen body parts still twitch and move, still seeking prey to feast upon.
With a zealous battle-cry, Vyynd jumps onto the back of one of the zombies, knocking the thing down to the ground. Pushing the barrel of the rifle against it's head, he pulls the trigger several times. Only the first shot was needed however, as the zombie vaporizes almost instantly. With a blood-lust driven glee, Vyynd continues fragging zombies all around himself. As the sounds of the rustling of trees and louder moans approach them all, Vyynd spies what looks to be a small army of the creatures coming towards them. Breathing heavily he exclaims, "Fvadt!! How many are there?!?!" He spins around and cleaves a zombie that had been creeping up behind him into five gory pieces, and continues, "Alright...let's get the Areinnye out of here!"
The woman watches the strange looking Tribble as it fries a zombie that was coming a little too close to it's creator, and mutters, "Good thing au guys are here, or we'd really be screwed." She notices for the first time that D'Tarik is holding a weapon, and grabs it away from him, firing away at zombies left and right, joining in the fight.
After what seemed to him like an eternity of bizarre target practice, Rylan suddenly winds down, noticing that all of the zombies have now either been cut up into enough pieces that they can't do much damage, or they've been vaporized. And those few that remained would be easily disposed of shortly. He spies Vyynd sling his rifle over his shoulder, and sheath the gore-caked kaleh, before the Tal'Shiar student climbs up near the top of a tree to have a look around.
Rylan smirks and calls out after the climbing figure, "Hold up 'Mr. Agent', they're just pieces now. Vaporize them and they're gone." he blasts an arm that had been crawling closer to him to demonstrate.
"Au know the punishments for such tones toward commanding officers, Rylan!" Vyynd grins back, and continues looking around the landscape.
Now that most of the danger was over, D'Tarik stands up takes a step forward, heading for the blond girl that had held him so enthralled earlier. With a huge, unexpected splash of leaves, D'Tarik falls into a hole. A second later, they all hear a sickening 'snap!' simultaneously with D'Tarik's own "OW!!"
Ignoring Vyynd's last remark, Rylan runs over to where D'Tarik had disappeared, and looks down the hole, but he can't see the bottom. "Au alright?" he calls down into the blackness, and waits, noticing that the blond is now peering down the hole as well, but no answer came back from D'Tarik. With the beginnings of fear grabbing him, Rylan calls out as friendly as he could manage, "Sprink?! I don't suppose D'Tarik gave au a rope or something we can use to haul him up here with?" and waits quietly for the resounding 'squeak' from the creature that he hoped would come. But still no answer.
Vyynd looks down from his perch, "Nice hole." then jumps down from the tree and lands next to it then shouts down the hole, "tr'Rekkohan?!"
The blond looks from the hole, to Vyynd, then Rylan. "This kind of stuff happen to you often?"
Vyynd answers for Ry, "Too often."
Rylan, worried about DT and not even hearing the girl,hits the ground with a fist, "Fvadt!" then shouts down the hole, "Au idiot!!" Sitting back, he looks to the trees and spots a sturdy looking vine. Grabbing the girl's kalen he climbs the tree and cuts a suitable length off the vine.
Catching onto Rylan's train of thought, Vyynd mumbles, "Ie..." and catches the vine as Rylan drops it before climbing back down again. Vyynd ties one end around the trunk of the tree as Rylan hits the ground again, and picks up the other end, dropping it into the hole. Ry drops his bag of equipment and opens it to pull out a glow-rod or two. Vyynd follows after Ry, stopping before he enters the hole and addresses the blond, "Au coming?"
The girl kicks a rock into the pit, but no sound is heard. "Hmmm... From Zombies to bottomless pits....This is a busy day, even for me."
Seeing what the girl just did, Ry turns on her in anger and pushes her back, "What the Areinnye are au doing?! Au threw a *rock* down there!! Au might've hit him!"
The blond looks worried about that, "Sorry! That is not what I meant..."
Handing off a glow-rod to Vyynd he continues to the girl, interrupting her, "Au know anything about medicine? Field first aid?" he looks to Vyynd, "Hold up a sec...don't go down just yet."
"Nope." the girl shrugs, "I know nothing of that. All I know is about monsters. So, we going to go down there?"
Vyynd laughs a bit, "What's the hold up Rylan?"
Rylan nods at the girl, "Ie...au and I will." he looks to Vyynd, "I need au up here. Ninte stronger than I am, or her." he gestures to the female, then continues, "And frankly...I don't know her anyway. I trust au."
Vyynd laughs a little more as he climbs himself out, "Suit ninte-self."
"Jee, hann`yyo...Rylan is it?" the girl asks sarcastically.
Ry glares at the girl, still angry that she threw the rock down the hole. "Ie." he grabs her arm and moves her toward the vine. "Au first."
Vyynd grins smugly, "What's the matter Rylan? Making the woman go first?"
Ry turns that seething glare on Vyynd, not in the mood for friendly banter now. "Ie. I though I may throw a rock at her as well."
The girl - stronger then Rylan would've thought to look at her - pushes him away, "Don't touch me!" then looks from one boy to the next and starts to climb down the hole.
Ry says quietly, but with just a touch of amusement, "Lose the attitude sister...or I'll help au lose it."
"Bite me Academy-boy!"
Rylan smirks at this, waiting for the girl to clear a little further down, before he began his own decent. But Vyynd pushes the boy closer towards the vine, "Just helping au along!"
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