Re: Hide and Seek

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 6:33 pm

"Okay, visualize it, if you will," he began, getting animated, "there I am, and I'm being chased by these marauders. By this time, I owned the mountains. I knew so many little nooks that I was untouchable.

"But there they were, chasing me," he continued. "I scrambled up this rock face and took this little nook that you wouldn't know was there unless you were really looking. But that particular face had a lot of little holes for me crawl through and they didn't know it. So, I kept kicking rocks and dirt down on the guys below them, making it look like the one above them had caused it. By the time they finally get to the top, three of them are about ready to rip out each other's throats!" He cocked his head back and laughed.

"There were three more," he said, still chuckling, "and so I ran and leapt down into this passe, right. Well, they were so determined to get me that they reached out at the first thing that looked human. Turned out to be a baby goat...right in the middle of a herd of wild goats. Let's just say they go the business end of the horns..." His laughter was taking over by the time he got to the end, so he could barely finish his sentence.

by Red 27th August 2012, 6:39 pm

Wow. She never expected him to actually, you know, keep talking.

She drew up her legs and hugged her knees as he talked, listening quietly as he told his story. Unconsciously, she began to relax, just barely, as he got more and more animated.

She was almost smiling as he finished, and caught herself in the short silence that followed, stiffening up again as the smile disappeared.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 6:46 pm

Well, whaddaya know? he thought. Maybe that old geezer was onto something...

She had actually seemed to relax--if only slightly. But once the story ended, the wall was back up. He cast about.

"Have you ever done something so completely stupid that you were so lucky to survive that afterward you figured you'd never see good luck again cause you used it all up?" he asked suddenly.

by Red 27th August 2012, 6:49 pm

Holy hell, he talks fast. "Yes," she said. "Leaving that one cripple alive." Ah, that bastard. She felt a little merciful one night, and next she knew the city was up in arms against her and she was stuck in a nook in the side of a mountain with a man whose powers made him seem not entirely human.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 6:52 pm

His face fell at that. "Oh," was all he said, his full head of steam temporarily halted. "Well...I don't think being merciful is stupidity. It wasn't your fault he was an ungrateful slime..."

by Red 27th August 2012, 6:55 pm

She snorted. "I thought he was a pansy," she said. "I thought I'd never see him again, so it couldn't possibly do any harm. But I fucked up." So here I am.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 6:58 pm

"He is a pansy..." Raziel said. "The only problem was he was a pansy with connections to someone higher on the food chain. And I'm guilty of the same mistake. I could've tracked him and killed him." Probably should have after I saw he'd only bring trouble back the first time...

by Red 27th August 2012, 7:00 pm

She shrugged. "It wasn't your problem," she said shortly. "You did what anyone else would do."

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 7:02 pm

"And you did better," he said cheerfully. "But hey, at least it's been an interesting ride, eh?"

by Red 27th August 2012, 8:06 pm

She shrugged. "I liked it better when things weren't interesting," she said flatly.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 8:33 pm

At that, he chuckled. "Fair enough," he said evenly.

"Well," he said, leaning back, "I ask because of this one time when I was a teen. Keep in mind this was after Arcturus had taken me in..."

by Red 27th August 2012, 8:55 pm

She leaned back against the wall and fell silent, letting him go on.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 9:00 pm

"Well," he began, "Arcturus took me in and began teaching me things, and being young and hotheaded--I was, what, fifteen?--I decided to jump into the middle of a rape gang. The Infidels, to be precise. My plan was to not only free all of their escaped captives, but to steal everything right under their noses..."

by Red 27th August 2012, 9:11 pm

Laura cringed. Yes, she'd heard of the Infidels. "Sounds like a fantastic plan," she said sarcastically.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 9:26 pm

"I told you," he said with a laugh, "dumbest thing you did that you managed to be lucky enough to survive and believe you'd burned up all the good luck you could possibly have in your lifetime.

"Okay, so picture it," he began his narrative. "A huge chunk of the Infidel faction were holed up in this manor. They'd turned it to shit, of course, which worked in my favor. They kept captives in the basement, so I started with them." A twinkle was in his eye. "The challenge would be how to get them out without the Infidels noticing. That was simple enough: I spiked their drinks. It didn't take long, and I got every last woman and child out of that place..."

by Red 27th August 2012, 9:34 pm

Laura raised her eyebrows, a little impressed, but stayed silent, allowing him to continue.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 9:51 pm

"Now," he said with a grin, "all of them free, I charged back in to loot that place dry and spoil every last bit of food and drink they had. I spoiled all of their food first, the pricks. Buuuuut, with all of them knocked out...I got a little cocky. and took way longer than I meant to..."

"The fuck?! The fucking bitches are gone!"

"What the fuck is up with the food?!"

"All our shit's gone!"

It was a hornet's nest. No, it was forest of hornet's nests, and he'd kicked the lot of them. As he made it into the main foyer, he was spotted.

by Red 27th August 2012, 10:01 pm

She nodded, starting to unconsciously relax as he kept talking, taking her focus off of the tiny nook they were crammed together in.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 10:28 pm

"So, picture it," he said, "I'm holding the very last bag of shit, and I'm surrounded by over forty of the ugliest, slovenly, murderous sacks of shit that walked the earth..."

He immediately dropped the bag and took two of them apart as he went down the nearest corridor. They had not apparently expected that, and the shock bought him a few extra seconds as an angry roar lit up like a cacophony behind him.

What followed was a series of events that seemed more improbable than the next that spanned the next two days as he was trapped in the house trying to get away. In the dining room, they had come across him and slung the dining table aside in their bid to get at him. He fought them, but there were too many and he was too new. Right when they had him, the overlarge chandelier fell on the group, caused by the table they had thrown having hit another smaller table that flipped an axe that had severed the rope holding up the chandelier.

In the kitchens, piles of waste had littered the room to the ceiling like small mountains. He had been cornered again when one of the men had tripped, causing a domino effect that had caused the mountains of waste to fall on the men and secure his escape.

From there, he had been cornered in the grand hall...the table got flipped on them; in one of the guest rooms, a wall had fallen over; in the basement, a section of the roof collapsed; and many more impossibly improbable events until he managed to get out of the house with them in hot pursuit. The hunt lasted for four days.

"In the end," he said, "starved, dehydrated, and just plain exhausted, they had me dead to rights on a cliffside...until it collapsed all around us. The ones immediately on it died and I somehow survived. But by the time the others could get down where I was...Arcturus had found me and took me home. He. was. pissed. He had been the last thing I had seen before I passed out."

by Red 27th August 2012, 10:39 pm

Laura smirked. "You are one lucky son of a bitch," she finally said, with a short laugh. "Damn."

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 10:44 pm

He laughed. "I know, right!" he said. "Like I said, after that I figured I should never expect a good thing to happen again." He grimaced. "And after I recovered, that old bastard made my next two months a living hell...further cementing that belief..."

He wanted to jump for joy. Not only had she smiled, she actually had laughed. He had almost pointed it out, but that would've been a surefire way to get her to wall up. As it stood, he was sure she'd be back to normal soon enough...

by Red 27th August 2012, 10:50 pm

Laura suddenly realized how close he still was to her, and her smile faded. Had he been trying to distract her? For what reason? Was he just being nice, or did he just want her to lower her guard?

She hugged her knees tighter, staring out towards the hide covering the entrance to their little nook.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 10:56 pm

And there's the wall... he thought, sighing inwardly.

He yawned and leaned his head against the wall. "Yeah..." he said aloud, "it's a wonder I made it as long as I had..."

Laura said nothing, only nodded. He nudged her playfully.

"Hey!" he protested jovially. "Don't be so quick to agree!"

by Red 27th August 2012, 11:05 pm

She instinctively pulled away as he nudged her, stiffening and looking at him warily from the corner of her eye. Not knowing what to say, she only shrugged.

by **EphPhoenix** 27th August 2012, 11:08 pm

He sighed. "It was a...never mind," he said.

He turned toward his side and closed his eyes. Sleep came almost instantly.

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