Missing

[Rhonya]

Blood and gore splattered over the wall as a loud roar of anger brought dust coming down from the damp, dark cave system, the thing that had formerly been a head and body now an unrecognizable mess on the floor.
“Youu sssaay what?!” The voice was clearly angry, the spiderlike mandibles making his speech a combination of hisses and clicks as it spoke in the Nerubian tongue to those standing cowering in front of him, apart from the one who’s destroyed body was still sliding and dripping off the wall in pieces.

“B-but maaassterrr.. We couldn’tt heeeelp ittt. Ttheey weresss with too manyyyss!”
“I ssshaall have no exxcuuuses! You ussseeeless bunchss of idiotss! We nearly had that keeeep.. We neeeedsss that keeep! “ More rumbling, dust coming down from the rocks, some even fell down from cracks in the stone.
“Then we ssshaall get itsss, masssterrr.. You’ll sseeee.. We kill them allsss..”
The angry voice suddenly grew softer, almost dangerously sweet. “Noo, no.. I haave a bettterrr idea. Yessss, yess… Lureee them heresss inssstead! Thosssee greenssskins are foolsss, they will follooww..”
The small spiderlike creature bowed his upper body and head, bending the two most front of his thin legs, the shadow of his master putting him in near darkness as he loomed over the smaller creature.
“Itsss sshall be dooone, my massster.”



It had taken her some time to reach the tower, sitting on wolfback as Rhonya moved through the mess around the keep. There were still frequent attacks now and then, but this evening seemed particularly quiet. Everyone else was out scouting, but she had volunteered to stay behind. She never made a good scout anyway, and this gave her an excuse and some time to spend on her training. Seeing Rhonya wanted to keep it out of sight a little, she had decided the tower would be a good spot.
Kozgugore had adviced them not to go out alone, but she wasn’t alone. Not really… Softly she patted the wolf on it’s flank in a caring gesture and got a quiet grumble as thanks. Rhonya smiled, leading the animal through the dooropening in the tower before sliding off her back, looking up at the stairs.

“You stay here, Keren. I’ll be upstairs a while.” With those words she started her slow and careful walk up the stairs. Her ankle still bothered her, so it wasn’t going fast, but eventually after a while she made it up to the empty room in the watchtower. The female sat down, crossing her legs under her and took a small knife from her belt, making a small cut on her palm, some drops of the red blood dripping on the wood she was sitting on. Getting used to cutting herself, he’d called it. Well, that wasn’t so hard. The hard part, she’d figured, was actually manipulating the liquid, moving it to where she wanted it to go seeing it worked quite different than with natural water.

After a while of mostly failures and some small successes, something suddenly spooked her. A sound from outside, still vague, but she could clearly hear it. It was almost like some ticking, a skittering of something against stone. And it was coming closer…
Rhonya stood up quickly, peering down the only window in the tower. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of nearly twenty spider like nerubians climbing up the side of the tower, sticking to the rock. Without hesitating, Rhonya called out silently to her connection with the spirit of fire, pleading for its help. The familiar heat filled her, the rage and an amusement that urged her on to burn things, to feed the fire, let it free.. She obeyed and within moments fireballs started to rain down the tower, hitting some of the creatures directly. They fell off, burning, screaming.

Though for every one falling, another took its place. She was alone, and they were with too many. She’d never stand a chance.  Sounds coming from the stairs notified her Keren was trying to run up, but the steps were way too steep for the huge worg.
“No, Keren, stay down! Stay down!!”

She didn’t want the worg hurt, or worse, killed… Stepping back from the window, knowing she didn’t stand a chance, she noticed an odd shimmer starting to surround the walls. The rage started to fade, the inner heat disappearing even though she desperately tried to cling onto it. Something was disrupting her…
As a last resort, she tried the spirit link. Too late though, Rhonya couldn’t feel it anymore, whatever kind of magic these nerubians were using, they completely cut off her connection to anything.
“Damn! I can’t go anywhere..” She started to panic as the spiderlike creatures suddenly entered the window and started to corner her, ganging up on the female. The last thing she saw was a larger one entering the tower, before it spoke and flung something her way, knocking her over and making her drop her bag, spilling the contents of bandages, jars and prepared herbs over the tower floor. She felt herself falling… and then it all went black.



“Masssterr, we haaave one of ttheem. Ittt ssseeemss weak, but ittt throwsss wittth fiiire. Fiiire!”
The odd clicking voice answered, the large shadow moving as it turned towards the smaller nerubian.
“Goood… Ssssomeone ssspecial then. Now all we haave to do.. issss wait.”

[Grekthar]

((

“Damn! I can’t go anywhere..”

Without being kidnapped? No, seems you can't... god damn it Rhonya ))

[Sadok]

((Looks like somebody is trying to eclipse Sadok's 'Most Times Captured' record. We can't have that!

Good story, nonetheless. I liked the Nerubian accents!))

[Rhonya]

Cold… It was so cold… Darkness was all she could see, her eyelids too heavy to lift. Every breath came with a rasping sound, her throat so dry she couldn’t even yell for help, couldn’t even lift her head… The thought of water made the female almost desperate. They’d only given her some small occasional sips when someone thought of it.

Her tongue moved over her cracked, dry lips. Without a warning, pain flared up inside her and her body started to shake and convulse heavily, while she snarled and tried to remain quiet, even though it felt like her limbs were pulled out one by one. She’d learned, if she would make any noise, they would come and only hurt her more. It was so cold… Slowly the trembling stopped again, her energy was gone…

Rhonya opened her eyes only a tiny amount, but she couldn’t see much anyway. Caves. Dark and cold caves, the sounds of the moving Nerubians always present, walking past her, but not giving her a second glance. She couldn’t move, and they knew it. One of them had also put some sort of ward around her, she couldn’t feel any of her normal connections. Her mind was empty, cold, dark…The elements gone. The Tribe gone…

The female didn’t even know why she was here, no one was talking to her. Only to each other in the hissing and clicking noises she couldn’t understand. Slowly her eyes closed again as she gave herself back to the darkness and the emptiness of her own mind. She tried to block out the pain of her frozen body, her dry throat and everything else. Think of happier times, fire, warmth, Therak holding her, Rargnasha giving her the soft brotherly head-butt and ruffling her hair, her children laughing in her arms.

Rhonya didn’t know how long she could keep going. But she would try. Breathe in, breathe out, keep that blood flowing, the heart thumping… But it was so cold…