Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Aug 2, 2010 9:55:21 GMT -5
Marina felt oddly ill. Oddly because it wasn't her stomach that had been cut and yet it desperately wanted to empty itself. She hadn't felt like this since the Arena. Gritting her teeth, she held back a shudder, having commanded herself to never act like how she did then. She'd worked extremely hard to get used to stuff like that, forcing herself to watch the clips over and over and over again in her mind. She watched in silent breath as Monkuta bandaged her leg, her face scruntched in pain as he did so. Wanting to appear stronger, she struggled to hide it. This will not hinder my training, she vowed. It will not.~ * ~ The man had a point. Dirk did have information on Joseph, but he didn't know him. He just knew stuff about him. And he opened his mouth to say so before he caught the anger in Monkuta's eyes and wisely held that back. Instead he gritted his teeth against the pain and struggled to dismiss it like he'd been taught. The only thing he managed was reducing it to a dull throb. "He was hired by someone, botched up the job, and this is how they're dealt with. It's common knowledge around these parts and no one intervenes. They know the price if they do." The last part was an eyed threat, but nothing further. He wasn't stupid; he knew when he wasn't in any position to bargain...but how much to tell them? If it was discovered that he was the one that leaked the secrets? A death, even a slow one, would be a mercy. "Look, that's all I know. I took the job of clean-up because I needed the money. That's it, I swear."
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Post by JezusBagels on Aug 2, 2010 22:15:15 GMT -5
"That's it, I swear."
Monkuta scratched his chin. He knew that much was a lie. There was more, and he wanted it. Holding back the impulse to break the man's other hand, he continued the interrogation. "Well, it's not your name, but it's a start. What was Joseph's job? And as long as you're talking, how were you planning to receive your payment?" he asked, glancing behind him to check on Marina.
Always the little trooper, she was doing her best to pretend she wasn't sick to her stomach. Not that he minded, really. It was good practice for resisting interrogation, something that this new friend obviously wasn't so prepared for.
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Sept 26, 2010 23:12:03 GMT -5
"What was Joseph's job?"
Dirk paused in consideration, speaking slowly as he thought his words through.
"And as long as you're talking, how were you planning to receive your payment?"
"He delivered stuff. What, I don't know." He shook his head and lifted his shoulders as he spoke the last sentence, making his body language match his words. Truth always revealed itself in such small gestures. "He was my assignment and I didn't ask for details. Look, it's my first job. I didn't want to -"
He stopped. So much for not botching his job up like he'd planned. His cheeks took on a slight tinge of embarassment as he realized just how bad he had messed it up...and then whitened in fear as the consequences to his actions. His master was not someone who cared for failed assignments.
"As for my payment, the rest of it would've been delivered to my house. I don't know how it works, but one day it was just in there with a note saying the rest would be given upon completion. I wasn't given a time frame."
He was however, given knowledge of what would happen if it wasn't completed...and of what would happen if he got caught.
His eyes focused back on his capturer, but this time with a different meaning.
He didn't outright say it, but his eyes begged for death. The man looked like one who would recognize it and though Dirk was young, he was not innocent to the harsh reality of the world. There were far worse things than death. Of that, he was certain.
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Post by JezusBagels on Sept 27, 2010 15:10:59 GMT -5
"As for my payment, the rest of it would've been delivered to my house. I don't know how it works, but one day it was just in there with a note saying the rest would be given upon completion. I wasn't given a time frame."
Monkuta swallowed, scratched his left cheek and mused quietly for a moment: "Your house, eh..." Then he smiled, noting the horrific fear in the man's trembling features. "Alright. I'm going to strike you a deal. Give you a way to redeem yourself, if you so choose, so listen closely. You've got two major wounds right now. I could torture the location of your home out of you and then leave you to die from blood loss. That's option number one," he explained.
He got up and moseyed over to Marina, lifting her up in his arms and sitting her onto her pony in preparation for their departure. As he went about this business, he continued speaking to the stranger. "Now here's option number two. I fix you up as best I can. You go home and I follow you. You wait for your pay and I ambush whoever it is that comes for you. So... What'll it be?"
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Oct 14, 2010 7:59:19 GMT -5
Dirk's throat closed tightly. Either way he was a dead man. His only options were to either die now or at a slightly later date...and if he chose later, he might have a chance to escape - if he was extremely lucky...but he would never stop being hunted. Did he want to live such a life?
His eyes flickered to the ranger.
Did he have a choice?
He swallowed a few times, trying to wet his throat enough to speak. There was no use, he could only nod to the second before passing out in fear.
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Post by JezusBagels on Oct 23, 2010 20:13:29 GMT -5
Monkuta clapped with glee and said, "Fantastic! No time to waste then. Marina! We're going home!" He looked over to his crumpled apprentice, expecting a response, then frowned. "Ah.. yes. Well, I'll take care of it then." He wasted no time calling for their ponies, strapping both victims to Marina's, then mounting Jaeado and making his way through the woods to the cabin.
By the time they reached their destination, it was dark out. Monkuta carried Marina to bed and pulled the sheets over her. "Sleep well, princess," he joked quietly. "Tomorrow, we do the hard part."
Then he went outside and retrieved their prisoner and took him inside. He was heavier than Monkuta expected, but it wasn't too difficult to carry him up the stairs and drop him on the table that they ate off of. He went to work cleaning and sewing shut the open wounds and setting his bones. It was a good thing that the man was unconscious because if he wasn't, it would have all hurt like hell. He let the man sleep on the table for the night. Well, no. Not the whole night. When he looked out the window, he could tell sunrise would come soon. Odd. He didn't feel tired at all.
He went outside and sat on the porch to watch the sky turn its many shades of red and yellow, planning the day's events in the back of his mind.
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Nov 24, 2010 13:25:40 GMT -5
Dirk woke a few hours after being laid on the table and jerked into a sitting position, his eyes searching the faint darkness in fear. How had they k- but no, this place was too homely, not twisted in the dark settings it preferred. Still, he needed to get away from here. If his dealings with them were discovered...
His skin covered in a beaded sweat, he swung his legs off the table and onto the dirt floor. He grabbed a knife from the silverware as an afterthought and crept through the house, hopefully heading for the front door. The adrenaline triggered by his fear masked the pain from his wounds, his lurch of hope as he spotted the front door hid it even deeper.
He ran the last three steps, yanked open the door, and ran for freedom.
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Post by JezusBagels on Nov 25, 2010 1:32:18 GMT -5
Monkuta heard everything that his captive patient did inside. Both front windows were open and it wasn't hard to decipher the sounds of a deeply wounded fellow lumbering off of a table, ravaging the recently-made-orderly silverware drawer for a knife and sneaking towards the exit. Credit where it was due, the man certainly would receive an E for effort. It took chutzpa to get up and walk a day after receiving a blade to the leg. Unfortunately, E is only one letter before F which was reason enough for Monkuta to stand up and stand beside the wall adjacent to the front door to his shack. He then extended one leg out into the doorway and waited as the man's labored footsteps grew closer. Pity, he probably thought he was being so sneaky.
Victims of intense and prolonged pain can be so delusional at times... he waxed sardonically. He contemplated sharing this thought with Marina later on when the door flew back into the house and the man made his short-lived escape attempt. Digging his heel into the wooden planks of the porch, Monkuta watched the fool fall face-first to the floor. Then he took his leg back and kneeled down beside him, whispering into his ear, "And here I was, thinking to myself how great today would be with your cooperation and our success. For a moment, I thought we might come out of this as friends. Well, not really. But still, my previously found optimism has been crushed by this turn of events. Now we're going to have to tie you up to make sure you don't try anything else and, really? That just means more work for me. So, well done, you moron."
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Dec 24, 2010 11:59:20 GMT -5
Dirk screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, reopening many of his wounds. He fought to stifle the sound, gritting his teeth and turning it into a moan. "... So, well done, you moron." Those were the only words he managed to hear in his agony and he couldn't help but agree. His eyes watered from the pain and he foolishly tried to rise. Forget the pain, move on.Those words. That voice. He had to obey. Still swaying from the pain, he looked as if he wasn't any of kind of threat. He moaned, he gritted his teeth, he kicked out with his right leg at the ranger's side, then jumped and spun, bringing his left leg to collide with the ranger's head. He moved with the precision, the balance, and the speed of a well trained fighter despite his wounds. His mind was a craze, that voice controlling his actions, training him like it'd done before. He had to obey. He was not given a choice. ~ * ~ Marina woke to the sound of a scream. Opened her eyes halfway, and then fell back asleep. "Unicorns..."
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Jan 4, 2012 18:43:49 GMT -5
He was about to fire from the shadows when his package came racing out of the house like a madman. Quickly changing his plans, he eased the arrow free, lowered the bow, and quickly dug through his backpack. He removed the necessary oil and flint and quickly set it on fire before sending it through one of the windows of the hut. He watched as his package rose to the ground seconds after the arrow entered, seemingly unaware of the new danger, and tried charging his opponent.
However, before Dirk could land a blow an iron arrow raced past him, nicking his shoulder and veering slightlt off course. The shot may not now be fatal but combined with the burning home, he doubted the Ranger would stay to finish Dirk off, especially with his apprentice inside. Now his only concern would be whether his package would be dumb enough to stick around; he whistled twice - one high note and the other the cry of a crow.
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Mri
Apprentice Scribe
:)
Posts: 207
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Post by Mri on Jan 4, 2012 19:30:03 GMT -5
Ice shivers shot through Dirk's body as he recognized the call. Eyes widening in fear, but knowing it would be foolish to dismiss, he turned tail and ran...straight into the path of two more flaming arrows. He dropped to the ground with a yelp, his arms automatically going up to protect his head, as they flew over him and through the door of the hut. However, instead of running away from the destination of their origins, he ran towards it and almost as soon as he stepped into the foilage, he was knocked into unconsciousness. ~ * ~ Marina faintly heard another scream in her land of make believe, causing her to flop over onto her stomach and cover her ears with her arms. She snuggled back into the bed before finally smelling the smoke. She rolled over and shot up with wild eyes, wondering how the heavens did it spread so fast...and then she remembered all the straw she had to put down the night before to help soke up the water from the dirt floor. Fear tight in her throat she swung her legs off the bed, coughing as the smoke quickly filled her lungs. In her panic she got turned around from the front entrance and accidentally walked into the wrong room. The house wasn't this big; she shouldn't be having this much trouble. Drenched with dread, she tried calling out to Monkuta only to collapse to her knees with the lack of air. The flames licked at her body and she screamed in agony as they graced her legs, quickly moving to enwrap her entire body. She tried to scream again, but instead of air going out, fire raced down the opening of her lips. Burning from both the inside and out, her passing into the other world was more painful than she ever believed possible.
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Post by JezusBagels on Jul 2, 2012 22:21:29 GMT -5
Monkuta was taken aback, to say the least, when his seemingly helpless captive landed two suspiciously powerful kicks against his ribs and skull, sending him rolling through the dirt with a disorienting pounding echoing through his brain. When the Ranger was finally able to regain his footing and brace himself for another attack, it took a fraction of a second for him to register a few ideas. Firstly, his mystery captive had escaped. Secondly, there were greater powers at work here that he hadn't anticipated. Lastly and most importantly, he realized that his house was on fire with Marina inside. Eyes wide with shock and fear for his apprentice's safety, he began a mad dash back toward the burning shack when, all of the sudden, the rising flames consumed the last of the oxygen inside and small explosion sent him hurdling backwards through the dirt once again.
"NO!" he screamed, watching the oak cabin collapse in on itself. Monkuta managed to raise himself only to his knees before the sight of the deadly flames left him too drained and disturbed to stand. So there he kneeled for minutes, hours, passing in and out of consciousness. Time passed unnoticed, wantonly washing over the Ranger as he watched the oak and pine he'd spent days securing burned to the ground with Marina's body decaying somewhere inside, he knew. Eventually, perhaps through sheer luck or divine mercy, it began to rain. A torrential downpour soaked the small clearing and everything in it. The fire was quenched before it could cause any major damage to the surrounding forest and all that remained of Monkuta's shack was ruin and ash.
It was dark when the lone Ranger finally stood up and took a deep breathe of the destruction before him. His home was gone, his apprentice was dead and his only lead was long since gone. Stepping into the broken home, he looked around and saw only black death where his safest place had once been. Were he not suffering from terrible dehydration, tears surely would have fallen from his eyes. He turned to face the remnants of the room where he'd left his apprentice earlier and saw the charred remains of a mostly-burned skeleton. Rage flew through his veins, filling Monkuta with not only new-found determination, but also bloodlust. Lungs at capacity, he let loose a mighty roar into the night sky that caused many a woodland creature to shudder and flee from its resting place. His scream lasted until he was out of air with which to make sound. Gasping for air, he fled the house and fell into the mud, cursing himself for being so careless, so foolish, so--
It didn't matter. There would be justice. If it took him the rest of his life, Monkuta would find his apprentice's killer, avenge Marina's death and slaughter anyone who got in his way. He heard a familiar whinny and at that moment knew that he would never return to this clearing again. Covered in mud, the Ranger stood up, slowly walked over Jaeado and mounted up. The two were motionless for a few seconds but for the Ranger's hand stroking the pony's mane. He couldn't do this alone. His only lead was gone. That just left Joseph. The man was dead, but at least other Rangers knew who he was. Maybe other members of the corps had information that he did not. Just a hunch, a hope... Not much, but it was something.
A mission in mind and a memory to honor, Monkuta set off into the dark woods and never looked back.
[CLOSED]
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