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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 17:15:04 GMT -5
Lea saw them throw the ranger into a cage and threw him a very dark look. If this turned out badly, he would end up paying for it one way or another, she vowed. She managed to draw a breath in finally as the guy took his foot off her chest and yanked her upwards by her arm, squeezing the dagger out of her hand. (Damn, she liked that dagger too, now she probably wouldn't get it back.)
Her stomach burned where his foot had started the previous cut bleeding again, but she tried to play along as the wimpering, slow-witted housewife. She started to shriek, mostly just to get on all the men's nerves, including Monkuta's and the man clubbed her across the face with the back of his hand. She stopped screeching then and whimpered instead, inside seething the whole time. So easy to just stick a knife in him...she resisted the temptation.
The man dragged her over and threw her in another cage, not bothering to look for any weapons at all, since he had disarmed her of the obvious one. Stupid man. He would pay for putting her in a cage. She couldn't stand to be locked up. She clawed at the door and the man shoved her back by one massive hand through the bars. She fell backwards and landed on her butt and curled up in a ball, pretending to cry as he threatend to beat her if she didn't shut up.
When they turned away she muttered under her breath to Monkuta, "you better know what you are doing or -" she didn't have a chance to finish her threat as one of the men turned back towards them, smiling a wicked grin of triumph. Lea pretended to cringe away from him and scooted back farther in the cage.
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Post by JezusBagels on Jul 2, 2009 17:27:48 GMT -5
The men packed up and started walking through the tunnels, dragging the cage behind them. It was a very bumpy ride. He shot a glance at Lea. "Good show," he whispered. "Very convincing." He actually thought she'd overdone it, but now was no time to argue. He slipped his throwing dagger out from behind his neck and cut through his bonds with relative ease. Now they just had to wait until they got to the Arena to make their escape.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 17:34:29 GMT -5
"Who said I was acting?" Lea scowled at him. "You got a plan?" She whispered. "Or you going to let them wheel us right into a high security area? I doubt the people running this show are complete idiots like these guys, or they would have been shut down a long time ago."
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Post by JezusBagels on Jul 2, 2009 17:41:31 GMT -5
Monkuta shook his head. "We're getting out of here the moment we see signs of civilization. He tapped on the bars of the cage. They were made of strong wood. A normal person would indeed be trapped inside this box, but for a ranger with years of muscle-building training behind him, a minute or two with his dagger would see them safely out.
He started whittling away at the bars. One they'd been weakened a little, he could probably just charge his way out... he hoped. He looked over to Lea and said, "Make yourself useful and keep watch."
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 17:59:26 GMT -5
Lea scowled even more at him. It was the look that her compatriots in the SWC had learned to fear, or at least have a healthy respect for. Apparently Monkuta was totally clueless. She wondered if he was always so rude and figured he probably was.
She glanced at the men towing them and then pulled out two fine picks from a hidden pocket on the inside of her belt and reached through the bars, keeping her eyes on their captors. She worked the lock on the cage door and after only a minute or so it clicked open. She froze, making sure the sound wasn't heard by the men, but they were laughing and talking about their good fortune in capturing two slaves and the money they would have.
She pulled the padlock down, disengaging one side and then placed it back so it looked like it was still locked. A simple pull and twist would have the door free in seconds.
She put her picks back in her belt and turned back to Monkuta with her arms crossed, a wicked smile on her face, though her eyes still glared at him.
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Post by JezusBagels on Jul 2, 2009 19:07:37 GMT -5
Monkuta shrugged complacently, having finished preparation for his escape plan as well. He sat, leaning against the bars and reached into his pant leg, pulling out four hollow bark segments and a small pouch. He screwed the four segments together, forming his home-crafted blow gun, then opened the pouch, loading a dart into the tube. He lay the weapon across his lap and waited for them to reach... wherever it was they were heading.
One shot with his poison darts and they would be knocked out for a few hours. He would have liked to avoid unnecessary blood shed, but with Lea nearby, he doubted he would achieve that goal. But that was the cost of working with non-rangers. They had their own protocols.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 3, 2009 6:38:47 GMT -5
Despite her being irked at Monkuta, she watched with interest as he assembled his dart gun. "That is an interesting gadget." she commented, moving closer to his cage so she could see it, but that drew the attention of one of the men as the cage shifted under her weight.
"Hold still, Woman!" he grunted at her and Lea shot him a glare, but stopped moving around.
She grew bored quickly as they were pulled through the caves and wished they would hurry up and reach their destination. She didn't really want to fight a whole bunch of seasoned warriors, so she hoped Monkuta really did have a plan to deal with things when they got to "civilization". She would bide her time and follow his lead, see how things panned out.
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Post by Brandwyn on Jul 6, 2009 8:27:28 GMT -5
Lea settled down into the cage and pretended to go to sleep. She did actually doze slightly, but she didn't fall all the way asleep in spite of the fact she had not slept well in the last 48 hours.
Her goal was to make the men think she was weak and no threat. It seemed to be working.
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Post by JezusBagels on Aug 24, 2009 20:51:54 GMT -5
Monkuta sat up in admiration at the sight of their destination. It really was an underground civilization. A giant town, built out of the main cavern of these tunnels. At the other end of the town, he spied a pair of giant metal doors that no doubt led somewhere important. He looked around. They weren't that close yet. Now was as good a time as any.
He lifted the blow gun to his lips with one hand, using the other to hold more darts. The men were asleep on the ground before they realized what had happened. He smirked in satisfaction. "Excellent," he whispered and kicked out the the bars he had weakened in the back of the cage. Jumping out of the cage and onto the cave floor, he held out a hand to assist Lea out as well. Being in the midst of a covert rescue mission was no reason to abandon all manners of chivalry.
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Post by Brandwyn on Aug 24, 2009 22:10:41 GMT -5
Lea almost missed Monkuta's rapid attack on their captors because she had allowed the rocking motion to lull her into a near sleep state. But she recovered quickly and pushed her cage door open.
Though she didn't need his help, she took Monkuta's hand and let him assist her out of the cage. Better to stroke his ego and she didn't want to alienate him. They were going to have to work together if they wanted to get out of this place intact.
She hadn't been paying attention to where they were going - well she had been paying attention to their route - but she hadn't been looking around her, so the sight of the massive cavern made her eyes go round and she sucked in her breath in wonder for a split second before following Monkuta's lead.
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Post by JezusBagels on Aug 24, 2009 23:20:50 GMT -5
Monkuta disassembled his blowgun and returned it to its resting place against his thigh. Then he walked to the wagon that held their former captors' belongings, retrieving his bag and supplies. He looked towards the large town. They were at the top of a large incline that led down to the settlement's edge. It would be impossible to sneak into town. He doubted that they hadn't already been spotted by one person or another. However, if this was a bandit settlement, perhaps incapacitation and killing other citizens wasn't uncommon.
He turned to Lea and said, "Well, unless you've got a surprise for me, we're both out of our elements here. Our best bet is to fit in as well as possible until we get the information we need. Ever pretended to be a stupid, bloodthirsty murderer?" As he asked the question, he couldn't resist a grin. The thought occurred to him that if she answered yes, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised... Well, maybe a little.
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Post by Brandwyn on Aug 25, 2009 5:16:32 GMT -5
Lea grinned back at him. Maybe he had a sense of humor afterall, she thought.
"Bloodthirsty? Yes. Murderer? That's debateable..." Lea answered as she retrieved the only knife they had taken from her. "But stupid? Never!" She laughed, then ammended her last statement, "well, unless you count playing the bubble-headed blond barmaid." Which is exactly what she had been playing when she first ran into Monkuta.
Then she looked around them again, trying to decide upon what would be their best move. "Perhaps we can find a tavern that the gladiators frequent and get some information from them."
She was quickly slipping out of the stupid dress and pulled out her "fighting gear" from her sack, still marvelling that they hadn't bothered to even look it, let alone take it away from her. In a matter of two minutes she was wearing her tight fitting shirt and breeches and bristling with knives. Some were in plain view, but most of her arsenal was hidden. She slipped a coil of lightweight rope out of the bag and over her shoulder, settling it around her hips. One side she clipped onto her belt to hold it up and adjusted the other side so it wouldn't interfere with drawing any of her knives.
"So, standard operating proceedure?" She asked innocently, scanning the underground city for a likely source of information.
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Post by JezusBagels on Aug 25, 2009 10:21:17 GMT -5
Monkuta nodded and they started walking towards the town at the bottom of the incline. It was a good natural defense. Any enemy would have no cover on this flat hill--unless that enemy was a ranger of course--and they would have to just charge across, leaving them tired and worn out when they reached the first building. Fortunately, it seemed that if anyone noticed their escape, that person didn't much care.
It was a long, quiet walk to the town and the moment they reached it, the atmosphere changes completely. What they saw was far from what he expected out of a bunch of fighters and killers. This town was a bustling surplus of not only large, iron-clad men, but women going about the day's work and children playing in the narrow streets. He turned his head to Lea, wondering if she shared in his disbelief.
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Post by Brandwyn on Aug 25, 2009 11:36:33 GMT -5
Lea looked around in wonder. "This is quite a settlement. How on earth have they kept it so secret?" Lea said softly to Monkuta, but tried to appear on the outside as if she had seen it all a dozen times.
As they got closer a knot of street kids ran up towards them. Lea scowled at them like she was going to try to dissembowel them right there in the street and they swerved away from her and Monkuta and kept going. A couple of them glanced over their shoulders at her and she shot them another dark look.
Having lived on the streets as a teenager, she knew what they had been angling to do and she did't want to have her pockets picked and her knives lifted. She stuck a finger between her breasts and pulled out a couple copper coins and flicked them back over her shoulder without looking and kept on walking.
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Post by JezusBagels on Aug 25, 2009 11:40:05 GMT -5
Monkuta smirked at Lea as they walked. "Well, aren't you generous," he said with a sly inflection.
They'd yet to see any sight of a tavern of any sort and he had no idea where they were going. It didn't help that they were getting funny looks from everyone who passed. At last, they came to a large inn with a hanging sign that marked it as, "The Wild Flagon." He half opened the door before turning back to Lea and saying, "Try to stay inconspicuous."
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