01-07-2017, 05:01 PM
The minutes where Brandon couldn’t see Veritz or Harley were absolutely nerve-wracking. They moved into the campsite silent as a pair of ghosts, crouched low to the earth with their weapons drawn and eventually disappearing behind the wooden beams lodged into the ground. The fire crackled hungrily in the void they left behind, its smoke slathering the sky in darkness.
No cause for alarm immediately made itself known. The place smelled of pond-stink due to the waters of the shallow mere around them, reminding Brandon of the rice paddies that furrowed the meadows of some of Camelot’s finest provinces. From what little he could see, there were strewn animal carcasses and what appeared to be large rib-bones within the camp, with a hefty mammoth skull mounted atop one of the heaps of lumber.
Yards away, the mammoths plodded and splashed through the wet dirt, their twisted tusks speckled with grime and age. Their munching on the indigenous shrubbery could be clearly heard over the buzzing of midges, and the sun’s rays combined with the light dusting of snowfall caused their pelts to let off an odious stink, like that of cattle on a sleepy, warm summer day.
It was almost relaxing— that is, until the pleasant blue sky above all of a sudden heaved an ear-splitting screech, the clouds buckling as a massive arrow of scaly white ripped down from above.
Several things happened, then. The dragon latched onto one of the mammoths, all four of its limbs digging in and shredding long, jagged chunks out of its flesh as it tried to drag its struggling, bawling prey into the air. The rest of the herd scattered, trumpeting frantically and stampeding over the ground so that it shook and thundered.
A shout of “Oh. My. God!” could be heard plain as day over the ruckus, the tiny form of Amber Veritz barreling outside of the camp in a blur. She immediately spun towards the shrieking beasts, the dragon still experiencing some technical issues with its hunt, jaws slavering and clamping down on the mammoth’s soft trunk to stifle its shrieks. Her eyes widened, first in shock, and then a kind of deranged glee. She took off at a sprint, whooping breathlessly.
Harley sprinted after her, desperately trying to catch onto her shoulders to hold her back and tripping all over the place in the process. She could be overheard as saying, “No, no! Amber, you can’t, it’s too big! It’s a dragon, Amber!”
“I am going to fight that dragon, and fucking win!” Amber yelled back, hurling herself towards the savage skirmish with a bloodthirsty grin on her face. The hidden soldiers could only watch in mild horror as Jade slipped and fell just outside of the camp’s walls, one hand still outstretched towards Amber’s retreating back, the shaking of the earth making it near impossible to keep her footing.
A gigantic bare foot slammed down right beside Jade’s fallen form, its descent sending a mighty shockwave shooting across the tundra. The whole of creation seemed to tremble around them and Jade’s eyes went wide as saucers, darting over to catch Brandon’s. He could see the exact moment she realized just where exactly they had gone wrong and the way her mouth silently formed the words oh, shit.
Slowly, cautiously, her gaze trailed back to the owner of the foot. Then, her eyes ventured upwards a teensy bit more. And up, and up, and up, at last coming to rest on their face.
The owner of the foot glowered down at her from at least ten feet up. He was so unbelievably tall that the light from the sun at the back of his head swathed his face in near-complete shadow, only the extreme pronouncement of his brows and frowning lips visible. Matted strands of dirty, long brown hair rested on his wide shoulders, his hips and nether regions covered by a massive collection of tattered animal skins twined through with bones. A large, humanoid skull hung down from the side of this waistcloth, grinning with teeth the size of tombstones and its empty black eyeholes staring.
At this point, Amber had turned around to see what the matter with Jade was and stopped short upon seeing the giant. Her eyes boggled at him, and she glanced indecisively between the dragon and the giant, as if trying to make a decision. Except, she didn’t have the time to make it.
As Brandon watched, the muscles of the giant’s colossal shoulders flexed as he held a tree trunk-sized club aloft. Fearfully, the astronomer began to move forward for fear that he might decide to flatten poor Jade into a pancake with it, but halted an instant later. Laying the immense weapon against the back of his shoulders with an almost lazy shrug, the giant turned to focus on the scaly brute harassing his herd, the dragon vomiting torrents of bluish-white ice while trying to subdue its kill.
With lengthy, quaking strides and a frankly terrifying scowl, the giant stormed over the plain with surprising speed, club whistling through the air as it met the dragon’s skull with a deafening crack. At last freed from the predator’s clutches, the mammoth sagged bonelessly into the snow, bright scarlet blood weeping from its wounds. Brandon doubted that it would get up again, a pang of pity stirring in his breast.
The reptilian creature was flung backwards a ways, but soon salvaged enough clarity to land on the ground on all fours, claws scraping noisily against the ice. It snarled and faced off against the giant like a dire wolf against a Neanderthal, scaly bat-wings folded across its back and its breath crystallizing between its fangs as pale subzero death.
No cause for alarm immediately made itself known. The place smelled of pond-stink due to the waters of the shallow mere around them, reminding Brandon of the rice paddies that furrowed the meadows of some of Camelot’s finest provinces. From what little he could see, there were strewn animal carcasses and what appeared to be large rib-bones within the camp, with a hefty mammoth skull mounted atop one of the heaps of lumber.
Yards away, the mammoths plodded and splashed through the wet dirt, their twisted tusks speckled with grime and age. Their munching on the indigenous shrubbery could be clearly heard over the buzzing of midges, and the sun’s rays combined with the light dusting of snowfall caused their pelts to let off an odious stink, like that of cattle on a sleepy, warm summer day.
It was almost relaxing— that is, until the pleasant blue sky above all of a sudden heaved an ear-splitting screech, the clouds buckling as a massive arrow of scaly white ripped down from above.
Several things happened, then. The dragon latched onto one of the mammoths, all four of its limbs digging in and shredding long, jagged chunks out of its flesh as it tried to drag its struggling, bawling prey into the air. The rest of the herd scattered, trumpeting frantically and stampeding over the ground so that it shook and thundered.
A shout of “Oh. My. God!” could be heard plain as day over the ruckus, the tiny form of Amber Veritz barreling outside of the camp in a blur. She immediately spun towards the shrieking beasts, the dragon still experiencing some technical issues with its hunt, jaws slavering and clamping down on the mammoth’s soft trunk to stifle its shrieks. Her eyes widened, first in shock, and then a kind of deranged glee. She took off at a sprint, whooping breathlessly.
Harley sprinted after her, desperately trying to catch onto her shoulders to hold her back and tripping all over the place in the process. She could be overheard as saying, “No, no! Amber, you can’t, it’s too big! It’s a dragon, Amber!”
“I am going to fight that dragon, and fucking win!” Amber yelled back, hurling herself towards the savage skirmish with a bloodthirsty grin on her face. The hidden soldiers could only watch in mild horror as Jade slipped and fell just outside of the camp’s walls, one hand still outstretched towards Amber’s retreating back, the shaking of the earth making it near impossible to keep her footing.
A gigantic bare foot slammed down right beside Jade’s fallen form, its descent sending a mighty shockwave shooting across the tundra. The whole of creation seemed to tremble around them and Jade’s eyes went wide as saucers, darting over to catch Brandon’s. He could see the exact moment she realized just where exactly they had gone wrong and the way her mouth silently formed the words oh, shit.
Slowly, cautiously, her gaze trailed back to the owner of the foot. Then, her eyes ventured upwards a teensy bit more. And up, and up, and up, at last coming to rest on their face.
The owner of the foot glowered down at her from at least ten feet up. He was so unbelievably tall that the light from the sun at the back of his head swathed his face in near-complete shadow, only the extreme pronouncement of his brows and frowning lips visible. Matted strands of dirty, long brown hair rested on his wide shoulders, his hips and nether regions covered by a massive collection of tattered animal skins twined through with bones. A large, humanoid skull hung down from the side of this waistcloth, grinning with teeth the size of tombstones and its empty black eyeholes staring.
At this point, Amber had turned around to see what the matter with Jade was and stopped short upon seeing the giant. Her eyes boggled at him, and she glanced indecisively between the dragon and the giant, as if trying to make a decision. Except, she didn’t have the time to make it.
As Brandon watched, the muscles of the giant’s colossal shoulders flexed as he held a tree trunk-sized club aloft. Fearfully, the astronomer began to move forward for fear that he might decide to flatten poor Jade into a pancake with it, but halted an instant later. Laying the immense weapon against the back of his shoulders with an almost lazy shrug, the giant turned to focus on the scaly brute harassing his herd, the dragon vomiting torrents of bluish-white ice while trying to subdue its kill.
With lengthy, quaking strides and a frankly terrifying scowl, the giant stormed over the plain with surprising speed, club whistling through the air as it met the dragon’s skull with a deafening crack. At last freed from the predator’s clutches, the mammoth sagged bonelessly into the snow, bright scarlet blood weeping from its wounds. Brandon doubted that it would get up again, a pang of pity stirring in his breast.
The reptilian creature was flung backwards a ways, but soon salvaged enough clarity to land on the ground on all fours, claws scraping noisily against the ice. It snarled and faced off against the giant like a dire wolf against a Neanderthal, scaly bat-wings folded across its back and its breath crystallizing between its fangs as pale subzero death.
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Gamzee Makara Wrote:S’aight. After all, dogs have a tendency to motherfuckin’ bite.