Grim Ranger story arc: Episode 2-lost and found

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Grim Ranger story arc: Episode 2-lost and found

Postby Wadeywade on Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:36 pm

Wade woke up soaking wet. Why was he wet? Sitting up the single tailed vulpine looked around. Diana was nowhere in sight. Wade blinked, he had no idea where he was or how he got here.. looking around his eyes adjusted to the semi-dark, it was a tent apparently. Wade slid off the bed or tried to, he discovered he was cuffed to the framework. "Crap." He croaked, trying to reach for the water jug by the door. Sadly his chains were too short but even if he had, he would have found it empty; it had just been emptied onto him a few minutes prior. Wade waited until finally a man in dark clothing came in. "So the prisoner is awake." Flipping back the hood wade could see a coal-colored full blooded vulpine staring back at him. "Where is Diana?" Wade spat, straining against his chains; the two guards moved in and with a synchronized strike first to the knee then to the head, they subdued Wade. "Being kept safe. We are debating to sell her or eat her, she would make one rather big meal. " the man taunted the prone, bleeding silvertail.

"No wonder you were drummed out of the very order you refounded. You are as thick as you are ugly. A disappointment." He kicked Wade again, the vulpine simply bounced against the bed with a grunt. The man scoffed, and walked out. Standing just outside the tent they talked and Wade was able to overhear part of the conversation; an order to continue searching 'before the shift' (whatever that meant) for Wades' gear, which told the ranger his gear was buried in the desert still, both gokd and bad news. Looking around he noticed the tent was bare save the water bucket, the bed, and his shackles. Feeling around under the bed he felt for any loose nails and finally managed to find one. Working it a little he had to stop when the door opened and the men returned, this time with various mechanical tools of torture. "Oh, party favors." Wade quipped to which the swift response was a punch to the face then a boot to the chest. The men moved in pinning him down then cuffing him fully to the bed.
Then the pain began.

It stretched on for an eternity it seemed, but really only lasted an hour. After that the captors took a break, leaving the bloody, moaning air mage behind to confab alone. Wade reached under and tugged at the nail, every fiber of his being was on fire and in agony, which only spurred him harder to escape. It was a put halfway through the torture session he figured out who they were, when they began to grill him on the Zosh'Rota. They were Run'ya Najaka. And they had seized the Lost Oasis.
Wade got the nail free and managed to cup it in his hand as the men moved back into the room. "You're pretty tough, by now most people would be spilling every secret they knew. And we know, you know alot." Wade shrugged, it was painful as hell but worth it to draw a rise out of these boneheads. "A year ago my memory got scrambled so my brains are like eggs. But I get the feeling you guys are rank amatuers and. I've felt worse." Wade retorted. His back hurt, though they hadn't done a thing to it, yet. He shrugged it off, it was the least of his worries. Two fingers were broken on one hand, two missing on the other with two other broken fingers, his left hand was mangled.

"Tell you what, " the one man said, the apparent leader of the group, "I'm gonna send in my healer, and he is gonna fix you up a little. Not too much, those fingers don't look so good.." the man grabbed them, Wade called out in a sharp angry cry of pain as the man gripped his right hand and twisted. "But being a pro with a lockpick and spells, its good they are.. damaged. " he took the nail from Wades hand, having to stretch across Wade to do it. A few more punches to the face and body subdued Wade and then, finally the man exited. The healer came in and reset his fingers and bandaged the stumps of the missing ones and during this Wade played opossum, faking like he passed out. When the healer left, Wade spit a mithril pin he had stolen from the leaders cloak pin onto the bed; grabbing it with his last good hand he picked the lock on one hand, then fumbled with the other. Waiting behind the door he simply had to wait until the guard came in to check on him; grabbing the man from behind Wade broke his neck and dragged him inside, shutting the door.

Wade took the mans wrist crossbow and hand-axe, which seemd to be the common weapons the henchmen carried. Taking the axe wade slit the rear of the tent and carefully opened it, peeking out. Once he was sure it was clear he slides out of the tent and nearly into the back of a sentry who had just passed. Wade grips the axe next to the blade and uses the handle to crack the man in the throat, causing him to fly into the slit Wade made, spitting blood before passing out. Wade slipped in and relieved him of his wrist crossbow as well and his axe. Wade also took a bullwhip the man had, figuring it could be useful. Slipping back out, Wade slipped to the edge of the camp where he found another tent. Sliding in, there he found Diana, alive but trussed up. Drawing both axes Wade cut her free quickly. "Lets go." Wade says hugging her briefly before cutting an exit out the back, using it the same way as before slipping out and motioning Diana to follow. As soon as she was out, an alarm was sounded, they had discovered Wades' escape and probably were om their way. "Diana, can you fly?" When she nodded to him he motioned. "Then fly, you fool, fly north to Nanalthion, warn Tallinna and Brian. Go!" He said, and after a short running start, Diana took off.

"There he is!" One of the guards shouted, and a bolt whizzed by his ear, maybe. Turning, ignoring the searing pain in that ear he fired putting a bolt through the eye of a guard before he ran past, grabbing the bolt and reloading. He barely finished when a man rushed him with a scimitar, Wade barely managed to move his body burned and ached but adrenaline and faith drove him to not get killed. Drawing his axe he buried it in the mans' skull as his oppnent overswung, pulling it out quickly he kept going. He ran around a corner.. and the ground swallowed him. He tumbled down, down.. when he landed it was in water, cool, clear.. surfacing wade took a breath then swam to the side. He could see.. forever, it seemed, the water was so clear it seemed barely there. Deep below a light glimmered, an arcway in the stone but Wade concentrated on the ledge of stone that sloped up, allowing him to get out of the water.

Standing, he looked around in the semi-dark. Were those.. stairs? Wade drew both axes now that he could use both hands, and proceeded upwards. Whe he arrived topside he truly was relieved but moved cautiously, only to find the camp.. gone. A few remnants remained, Wade had no idea how long he was passed out either. But the oasis was his. A moment later a large form thumped behind Wade, he whirled his bloodlust rising.. only to see Diana, who curled around him joyfully. "I told you to fly away home." He said, immensely glad she didn't. He hugged her, then looked around. "Looks like we have it to ourselves." Wade says, noting they had left going southwards by the tracks. "Hang on.." he said, looking around, "The.. Sun it in the wrong place. It was there. " Wade pointed to what should have been west, only it was north, instead. Almost like the oasis had, moved. "Hmm." Giving a shrug Wade discovered the bandits left little behind, he was able to cobble together some cover when the occasional sandstorm blew in but for some reason those storms never really reached inside the bowl of the oasis. The trees would stir, but that would be the full measure of what they would feel, no matter how terrible the storm.

And of course that was when Wade noticed something odd, Wade could swear one second it was there and the next.. perfectly normal, hot, sunny desert weather with no trace of the storm. Another time, it changed direction 137 degrees without warning which given the kind of sandstorm, was impossible. But after a few times of this including the sun rising, then it returning to twilight half an hour before sunrise Wade figured out; the oasis was under some sort of magic, because it kept moving.
Now, Wade and Diana had everything they needed, but when they stepped out they would have little or no idea where they were if they stepped out at the wrong place; so wade had to throw a stone with a number painted on it outside every time he was sure it shifted. After six shifts he thought he had them all including the one he was sure was his way back through the desert the way he had come, then came the revelation when it shifted again mid-night time. When Wade expected to be one stop away from home he was presented with desert.., and no marker stone.

"Sonofabitch!" Wade said, stamping the sand inside the oasis. He growled and found another stone. He painted another number, threw it and waited.. to be greeted by no marker, or one out of sequence. Eventually, after three months of hunting quail, drinking spring water he finally discovered there were thirteen locations it appeared in, vanishing and reappearing evey six hours..

(To be continued)

To part three!: viewtopic.php?f=190&t=21899
"There are no strings on me." Leonard Snart
-
“it gladdens me to know Odin prepares for a feast, soon I will be drinking ale from curved horns! I will not enter Odins Hall with fear, I shall wait for my sons to join me.. and when they do, I shall bask in their tales of triumph! the Aesir shall welcome me. my death comes without apology! I welcome the Valkeries, to SUMMON ME HOME!”-Ragnar Lodbrok
Wadeywade
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