And Phalomir expected that shooting the thing was going to be enough to stop it?

"I would have thought you'd have a better plan than that," Aaron said through gritted teeth even as the tuk'ata prepared to charge, its fangs exposed and deadly.

Now he wished he had gone through the doorway or whatever. Could it be much worse than this?

Not knowing what else to do, Aaron set his blaster to stun, thinking that the lesser precision required to stun would immoblize the creature faster than making a shot to a vital organ. Then he let loose a barrage of stun bolts towards the tuk'ata's now charging body.

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Panthar stepped through the portal and stood beside Aelvedaar.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here,” he said. “Cripes, I forgot how wild this place is. They could be anywhere, couldn’t they? How do you suppose we’ll find them?”

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Which is what Phalomir was hoping for.

The beast turned its head mid-leap to look at Aaron, hate and fire blasting from its eyes. Phalomir at that moment caught a large chunk of rubble with his magick. It lay between the group and the charging animal, and in an instant it was slinging across the space between the floor and the tuk’ata’s head, smacking the animal squarely between the eyes. The tuk’ata’s trajectory altered just enough to send it flailing to the side and into the wall, where it lay, momentarily dazed.

Phalomir quickly waved his hands before him in a circular motion and the air around the tuk’ata began to swirl. Dust clamored about the animal’s head in a mass of movement, until a small tornado seemed to whirl around the whole front of the tuk’ata. Phalomir continued this for several seconds, draining the air from around the beast so it could not breath.

“Quickly,” he said, “There is no telling how many other tuk’ata are waiting in here, let us go back to the entrance and rejoin my bloodhunt companion! Go, now!”

Phalomir held his magick, waiting for the others to move.

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As Shayla stepped through the portal, she stretched out to sense the wild tuk'ata which she had connected with and sent to attack Phalomir. Not knowing if the beast would recognize her after the Darkness was removed from her, nor if it could even "hear" her call from their possible distance from it, she knew she had to try regardless.

"I sent a wild tuk'ata after Phalomir and the others," she explained to those who had already stepped through the portal. "I'm attempting to call off the attack...

...but the tuk'ata is wild, and I don't know how far we are from its location," she admitted, worry flitting through her greeny-blue eyes.

Shayla tapped in to her link with the creature as best she could, sensing some distance from it but not too much to miss the hunting sense in its thoughts.

Prey is not prey, she thought to the beast. Prey is friend. No attack. [b]No attack.[/b}}

she pulled back slightly on the link, and looked once more to the others. "I've done what I can," she said. "We should hurry."

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I then turn to the young Adept.

"Did you blood-bond with this tuk'ata in a Blood-Hunt ritual?" I ask quickly. The confusion in her eyes confirms my suspicion about her link with this wild and dangerous beast.

"I thought not; hence, we can only presume it was the Darkness within you that had. Therefore we must also assume that the animal is yet predisposed to attack Lord Phalomir and the others as it was formerly directed--"

I truncate the remainder, now turning slightly toward a somewhat anxious-looking Panthar Dantares.

"Indeed, we must hasten, and this is how we shall find them."

I point in one direction, one showing us nothing but leaves and branches and greenery and swamp.

"The Temple of the Armorers is that way; as a Dark Lord of the Sith, you must trust that I simply know this to be true. And to get to it quickly--"

Once more I reach out with one hand, first and fourth fingers extended like horns, the remaining curled against the palm of my hand, snug against my thumb. I twist the hand at the wrist; once again the writhing mystery of a Portal opens through the All, one I have made to take us directly to the steps of the Temple of the Armorers.

"Come," I state as I move toward the Portal.

"We must indeed hasten, for it is not only against raging tuk'ata that we must beware."

I let them analyze that cryptic remark as they see fit, and step through the Portal, coming immediately out upon the heavily jungled pathway which leads to the front entrance to the Temple. Before me I see the Dark Lord we have come to find, along with others of his party, who is standing with arm raised in apparent defense against a charging tuk'ata.

I immediately join the battle, reaching out with the splendor of the All to further manipulate the molecules of air by which he holds the flailing animal. Obedient to the glue which binds all, they move, removing themselves from the topside of the creature to cluster beneath it. Now buoyed by a denser layer of air and given momentum via Phalomir's magicks, the thrashing beast rises upward, slowly but inexorably. Up and up it goes, until after attaining an altitude of perhaps twenty meters I withdraw my influence.

The tuk'ata drops like a veritable stone, crashing down upon the living stone upon which the others stand. There it lays motionless, alive but unconscious from the impact.

I approach Lord Phalomir now, pausing before him and bowing my head in acknowledgment.

"Greetings, Brother; it is good to see you all alive."

[ 08-29-2007 12:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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"Greetings, Brother; it is good to see you all alive."

I had heard that silken voice far too many times in the past not to recognize it, and came about the corner at a slower pace, not letting any weariness show.

"Well, it seems you brought friends." I commented, Lotus pointed to the ground in hand, raising my eyebrows.

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"Perhaps you are of a mind that there are enemies present," I say, nodding once in the direction of the lowered weapon in his hand.

[ 08-29-2007 09:01 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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“I am glad to see you made it to us in time,” he said. “But if you want to come with us then you must put that away and behave yourself. There is no need for violence or dark thoughts here, we must escape this place together.”

Phalomir looked at Aelvedaar, gratefully.

“It is indeed very good to see you,” he said quietly, “but I suggest we make haste from here. There are things I must tell you, about Jharmeen and Shayla, there is a darkness within them and I fear they cannot be trusted. But let us worry upon this later, I believe the boy is somehow redeemable.”

Phalomir’s eyes caught another person stepping through the portal, and his face lit up when he saw who it was.

“Panthar, my boon companion!” he exclaimed. “Welcome to my clan’s homeland! Now let us make a hasty exit.”

“Will you comply with my request?” he called to Rykounagin. “Display no weapon and hold no hostile action, and escape here with us? If not, there is a wild tuk'ata within the temple who would love to have you stay for dinner.”

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"If you will all please go now..."

I step to one side of the portal, desiring to be the final one through, in order to make certain no other wild beasts try to follow us.

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I finished, desiring to leave this place likely more than other, feeling a quiet shiver run through me as I walked through the portal to the other side.

((OOC: Rykounagin progresses to Silence of the Lambs in the Jedi Praxeum & Sith Temple, thankyou.))

[ 08-30-2007 08:49 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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Jah-mees? Jammies? He wants to go to bed?

Phalomir shook his head slightly, wishing that Panthar would at least whisper so that Phalomir’s keen hearing could catch the word. But instead Panthar just smiled.

Phalomir turned as he walked into the room beyond the portal. He stopped when he saw the face of the woman he loved more than anything else in his life, his heart leaping out to her but his mind still wary of the darkness within her, for that was what he last knew.

Yet something was different, very different. He gazed into her eyes, and could see clearly what that difference was. They were her eyes….

“Jharmeen?” he asked. “My lady?”

((OOC: Phalomir returns to Silence of the Lambs in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 08-31-2007 11:06 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"Hey wait a minute," he said at Phalomir's departing back, then turning to Lord Aelvedaar. "What about Yaoksi and Link? They stepped through some sort of portal or something and just disappeared. We can't just leave them, the Fates only know where they went."

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This world, placed here to keep it from the reality of others, seems not as aloof as a certain Being of my fresh acquaintance undoubtedly would like it. I find it troubling as well that during this group's time here nothing untoward has occurred to anyone, not necessarily meaning any of those in this party, but in the Universe in general. Well do I recall those terrifying images which depicted Time freezing completely -- as do I remember my own actual and shivering gut reaction after it had resumed; I now know normalcy recurred only after the placement of this tiny and seeming unobtrusive system here in the Elseness... where it was meant to be left alone.

"I shall be able to locate your missing people," I finally respond, keeping my voice calm and freed of any indication of the troubling thoughts which plague me.

"It would be to their best interests if we hasten from this place as quickly as we can, if only the faster to find and retrieve them, don't you agree?"

I remain silent by the Portal I have opened, quietly urging the others to hasten their steps. A small smile flicks at the corners of my mouth as the chattering Verpine waits no longer, but follows my suggestion with surprising alacrity.

[ 09-02-2007 11:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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...the better."

He paused, frowning once more. "Gods only know where they ended up."

With that final observation, Aaron stepped obligingly through the Portal and to the other side.

(((OCC: Follow Aaron into Silence of the Lambs in this forum, thank you.)))

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She knew he knew differently, for her heart was angered by the inescapable presence of one Rykounagin. She held her feelings at bay, however...

...at least for the moment, and stepped the rest of the way through the Portal.

(((OCC Follow Shayla into Silence of the Lambs in this Forum.)))

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I sigh and wait no longer, but slip through the portal, returning to my temple on Khar Delba where the others are safely waiting.

((OOC: Lord Aelvedaar returns to Silence of the Lambs in the "Sith/Jedi" forums, thank you.))

[ 09-09-2007 10:30 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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