She can see him quit clearly, watching, waiting. The small girl can feel the huge man getting into her mind and figuring her out. Her fear grows exponentially as each moment passes by, yet he does nothing!
Every one of the warrior girl's muscles shriek at her brain with a fiery rage as she begins to burn out like a dying star. Pushing through the pain Shia strikes out at a nearby rog and sends him flying.
Just do it! She screams at the soldier from the confined quarters of her mind where she has already lost the fight. The small girl can see full well that she is outnumbered as her fellow "comrades" are quickly rendered unconscious. She is well aware that the only chance felacs have against rogs is one on one, once the rogs outnumber you they have the upper hand.
But despite all that she would feel a whole lot better if it weren't for that extremely large, muscular and unnervingly confident officer watching her.
Just as one of the three rogs attacking her comes very close to getting a shot off and putting her out of her physical and mental misery she realizes she could just give up. It wouldn't be hard at all to let one of them hit her and she would be able to rest.
But as she defends herself from three more close calls she knows she could never willingly give up. Never!
Slade has the girl's internal rhythm down and is now simply waiting for the instant to strike.
Frightened and unsure the boy stares at the black broad back. The enormous soldier has positioned himself between Tyc and the girl and the boy knows what's next. Several powerful songs swim through the boy's head. A knot of nervous tension squeezes the teen's stomach as his brain and body threaten to shut down.
Several chy songs swim from the boy's swooning subconscious but only one simple song makes it through into his consciousness as the entire situation around him threatens his very sanity. Unsure of what's real and what's not the boy stares at the man's back as he thinks the anti-song. He can hear his heart pounding in his ears and before he really knows what he's doing...
Green and orange energy streak through the tavern striking the broad back of the rog captain. The frightened teen watches the big black soldier fall to the floor unconscious. A wave of silence washes over the bar.
Nocte is suddenly very alert as his captain goes down. That was a incapacitation ray, from a federation visor. The colonel's own visor highlights the infraction instantly.
Only soldiers are given blessings by the priests that allow them to use those visor’s, and there's an extra layer of security to keep others from using them as a weapon. No one can use the visor's magic weapons without the blessings of a priest, not even the rogue owlwin wizards. They have multi-layered magic security.
What soldier would want to shoot Slade, they all worship him? The colonel says to himself as he looks over in the direction that the magic laser came from. At first he doesn’t see anything, but then his magic visor focuses in on where he's looking and then looks through the wall and air conditioning crystal.
He is confronted with a blurry image of a strange creature moving on the other side of the wall. Nocte thinks his visor to replay what he just saw, he pauses it, and zooms in on the offending creature.
"What in Aries name is that?" The colonel mutters as he stares at the still picture of the small, bald, chubby pink creature wearing a federation soldier’s visor.
Colonel Nocte quickly thinks the command for his troops to go capture the pink creature, as he sends its picture to their visors. The well trained soldiers left standing quickly follow the colonel’s orders. Ten federation soldiers quickly rush to the tavern’s doorway as Nocte follows behind them at a slower pace.
The handful of exhausted felacs still standing, stare after the soldiers in wonder as their enemy suddenly retreats. Rather than following their foe to certainly fail they go to help their fallen friends.
Battle-buzzed and nearly beaten Shia looks around in dazed disbelief, her mind unable to grasp what's going on. The small wild-eyed forest girl looks down at the unconscious mountain of a man lying in front of her. She knew that he was going to be the one who got her, she just knew it. But then he went down instead.
Unable to control her overtaxed muscles any longer Shia collapses down onto the bar. Her whole body crumbles under the extreme exhaustion. Every fiber of her being and body strained beyond its limit, she lies in a quivering mass of pain, as her mind folds in on itself and the shadows of stress surround her.
Peering though the roof using his magic amulet, Wingsong watches what’s transpiring in the Tigris Tail Tavern from a branch overhead. He is amazed as he bares witness to the fantastic feats of the little girl he helped raise. Shia takes out more of the federation soldiers than any of the tribe’s other chee warriors. The old man is plagued by mixed emotions about the success of the young female. He is proud of her, but proud of what? Fighting? As he watches the bar fight, the tired old owlwin wonders if there will ever be a time when the fighting will stop and the people of Aryn can begin living in peace.
The old wizard is absolutely stunned when he watches the small boy from the swamp use the federation visor to knock out the rog captain advancing on Shia. After the felac wars federation technology had security measures built in so no one unauthorized can use them, not even owlwins. The old man watches the boy run when he realizes what he has done. Wingsong takes flight to follow the little pink youth.
As soon as Tyc shoots the black warrior he knows that he has made a big mistake. He feels physically sick as he realizes that somehow his one action has brought order to the chaotic battle inside the building. All the fighting instantly stops as soon as the large warrior falls. Everyone looks down at the fallen man, except the heavy one who was sitting with the soldier he just shot. To Tyc’s horror he sees the chubby soldier looking right at him. Frightened out of his mind the teen looks around frantically. He sees the stairs, and as he gets up he feels almost overwhelming nausea and a dizziness that threatens to knock him back down. Frightened beyond belief he is amazed when the sickness and dizziness suddenly leave him and he gets almost a little burst of energy. Must be the adrenaline is all the boy can figure as he runs towards the steep steps. Luckily for him a soldiers visor is always helping him to stay pain free and clear headed.
Flabby, and weakened the boy's body seems to move in slow motion as he looks back at the closest door to the building and hears footsteps coming quickly. Reaching the stairs Tyc can hear voices getting close as he begins to stumble down as fast as he can. Oh shit! Oh shit! Is all the terrified teen can think as he descends the large winding stairway in a painful controlled fall. Rapid heavy footsteps get closer and closer.
Finally, Tyc can see the rocky ground below, he jumps down the last four steps and lands right on top of the black warrior whose glasses he is wearing. The boy scrambles to his feet, dazed by the fall. He starts to run toward the forest hoping to take cover in the darkness of it’s vegetation. He can see clearly as he runs around the large trunk and approaches the jungle. But it hits him as he enters the tall tree’s that since he can see every tree and vine and plant perfectly, They're also wearing these glasses! They' can see me! Tyc thinks as he enters the jungle.
He can hear the black warriors following him closely as he whips around the trunk of the tree, trying not to trip over any rocks or roots. The tree is so big it seems to take forever. Tyc knows full well the large soldiers are quickly gaining on him but he is afraid to look back. Frazzled with fear the boy is almost knocked down by a low lying vine, which he notices just in the nick of time. If he had hit the thick vine in his exhausted state, he would have not been able to get up. But the vine suddenly gives him an idea. Tyc quickly grabs hold of the vine and starts to climb.
The flabby boy’s strengthless muscles scream at him in protest as he heaves his heavy body up a few feet onto the strong vine. Tyc sees the vine drapes over a low lying branch of a nearby tree. Motivated by shear terror created by the closeness of the sounds of the soldiers, the weak tired teen is able to hoist himself up into the big branch. Following the vine he finds it connects to another sightly higher branch up the tree. He decides to keep climbing until he can longer move. I hope they can't climb!
Struggling to pull up his flabby bodies weight the boy does not get far before he completely runs out of strength. The exhausted boy slumps close to the large trunk and tries not to breath to loudly.
The soldiers make their way into the jungle, their visors highlighting the fresh trail of their prey. Colonel Nocte leads the handful of soldiers into the forest when the trail on the ground disappears. The big man looks around when he suddenly picks up a sign of a different kind of trail he was also using to track the intruder. The odd scent that identifies the stranger to the rog colonel more than anything else is very close by. The six foot five rog sticks his large broad nose into the air, his wide nostrils flare and he instantly locates the strange pink intruder a few feet up in a nearby tree. Nocte looks beyond the visor, deep into the brown eyes of the pink petrified boy and smiles.
Terrified to the tips of his toenails the boy watches as the black clad warriors make their way into the jungle. The fat one seems to know exactly where I've been. The terrified teen thinks as he watches the man follow his trail. Tyc is horrified as he sees the large leader of the dark soldiers follow his trail exactly. But worst off all the boy realizes that he is only a few feet above the tall man's eye level!
Holding his breath, trying not to make the slightest noise as he hugs the tree close, Tyc watches the black warrior stop directly in front of him. Too scared to look away he watches the big man look around and then the large man does something that is very strange indeed. Stupefied the boy watches as the black warrior sniffs at the air.
What the hell!? Tyc thinks, but as he is forming the question in his mind the black soldier cocks his head to the side and up a little and looks directly into the teen’s frightened eyes.
Tyc is so startled that he nearly pees his tunic. Luckily he is too dehydrated for such nonsense. The man just stares at the boy for an infinite instant until his lips curl up into a smile exposing his long, sharp canines. A tide of red hot terror washes through the boy's body.
As the initial fear weakens Tyc’s adrenal glands dump adrenaline into his system and he feels the urge to run... But where? Another heat wave of terror crashes over Tyc as he realizes that the only thing climbing has achieved is that he has managed to literally tree himself.
The frightened boy tries to get to his feet in a futile attempt to climb even higher.
But Nocte has already thought the command that will bring the powerful wizard down hard.
Tyc clumsily scrambles to his feet as the red energy beam shoots from the soldier’s visor. He watches helplessly as the black figure’s eyes flash red and green.
He feels a stab of white-hot electric pain pulse throughout his whole body. There is so much energy behind the blast that the boy is raised up and smashes against the tree trunk. Allowed only one thought before he passes out. I Hope the girl is okay?! Tyc thinks before the pain leaves as the darkness envelopes him. All he's aware of is that he's falling. Tyc seems to fall forever descending deeper and deeper into the blackness. But then everything stops, and the boy is no longer aware.
