Termination

And here we have a nice little outing by the river! :)

The woods are alive with activity this day. A warm front has blown through the Mossflower woods and the animals and plant life has decided to take advantage of this brief warm spell. The air still has a bit of chill but comparred to the last few weeks it feels rather pleasent. There is a slight breeze rusling the grass near the river moss. Dispite the lack of leaves on the pine trees the scene is quite surreal with the setting sun reflecting off the river. The sky behind it is painted pink, red, and oranged.

Two young otters have taken advantage of the beautiful day. Kik and Venner are sitting on the bank of the river, chatting it up. Both look rather damp from the frequent romps in the river they've been having since noon, which is when they arrived at their little spot. Next to them is a basket which has long since been emptied of its contents, which consisted of apples, scones and two canisters of hot root soup. Kik is leaning back on her arms while Venner is besides her, lying on his stomach with his head propped up by his paws.

The wind continues to blow down stream but in a pleasent way. The sound of birds through out the forrest can be heard along with the occasional chitter of some insects. Every now and a gaina fish sticks its head out of the water to catch a glimps of the young otters. Little do they know that they are being closely watched by some unsean malavolent force.

There is a lul in the chatter of the otters and Venner smiles up at Kik, seeming to enjoy just looking at her. Kik seems rather oblivious to the fact and looks around at the surrounding woodlands, enjoying the smell of the water and the sound of the wind through the trees. After a moment, however, his gaze becomes hard to ignore. She glances down at him, an eyebrow raises and mischief twinkling behind her eyes, "What, may I ask, are you looking at good sir?"

The sun has set in such a way that the otters features are highlighted by the dimming light. However in the forrest a darkness continues to watch them. It has seen a moment to strike. Come closer and closer still to its prey...

Venner continues to smile, shrugging slightly, "Only the prettiest flower in all the woodlands." Kik nearly chokes, a laugh rising in her throat, "Ha! You flatter me, you great buffoon." To add emphasis she punches him in the shoulder. Her punch, however, was a bit stronger then she thought for Venner loses his balance and on the incline of the river bank, goes rolling towards the water! He lands with a great splash, accompanied by the hoots of laughter coming from Kik. He glares sulkily up at her, muttering darkly as he gets to his feet, "Try to pay a lady a compliment and this is where it lands you!" Suddenly he gets a very mischievous glint in his eye. He rushes over to Kik, picks her up and chucks her into the river, getting in a laugh of his own amid the shrieks of the other otter. Both youngsters are unaware of being watched.

"The time to strike is now! The beast moves closer, and closer towards the swimming otters, murderous intent in its brain. Thirty feet, twenty feet, ten... Then Kacy the bat swoops over the otters towards the basket, grasping it in her foot claws as she flys off with it all the while shouting "BONZI!" The bat takes back up into the air again and lands on a near by tree over looking the river. She leans her back against a tree, grinning deviously at her 'victims.' "Top of the evening to you both!""

Kik sloshes out of the river, glaring with mock severity at Verren, "Now look what you've done! Our basket has been stolen and knowing Kacy, she'll probably eat it." Verren laughs at Kik's statment then turns and nods towards the bat "Hello miss"

Kacy makes a half salute with her wing. The bat sniffs at the basket and is more than a little dissapointed at finding nothing. Her time spent at Camp Willow has been a good one and admittidly made the bat a bit of a glutton from all the food she has eaten. It's starting to show around her middle. "Hey! Wots this! What fun is it to steal food from ya if you have already eaten it!" She chuckles flying down to the shore line and setting the basket down, "Tsk Tsk Kik, it's a little late to fatten up for winter don't you think?"

Kik grins sheepishly, "But you see, I'm fattening up for spring, when everything, including me, starts growing." She chuckles then points at Verren, "He's the one who did most of the eating! Blame him." Verren looks over at her, his face shinning indignantly, "Ha! Says the one who ate four scone and two apples along with her soup! I've always been a bit of a picky eater." Kik rolls her eyes, "Sure, sure, mister six scones and three apples."

Kacy rolls here eyes and shakes her head in mirth, "I can see the balled now. Kik the jolly and fat. THe tale of an otter who sank to the bottom of a river because of her girth." She chuckles again, "Don't worry I'll figure out a way to make it rhyme." The bat crosses her wings and gives Verren a glance, "So is this the otter you were talking about? The way you described him I would have imagined him taller, with more muscle and long flowing head fur that floats in the wind."

"Aye, and her traveling companion, Kacy the bat who couldn't fly because of her gluttony!" She grins jokingly. She seems about to say something to Verren when Kacy so eloquently brings up their previous conversation regarding said otter. She blushes bright red under all her fur and gives Kacy a 'I'll kill you later' glare. Verren on the other hand grins widely and nudges Kik with his elbow, "You /talked/ about me? Since when?" Kik laughs, if not a tad nervously, "Oh it was nothing, really. Kacy's been eating too much!"

Kacy laughs, "OH, it didn't sound like nothing to me." She says with a sly grin. Inwardly she is given a visual image of her self half a season away to laden with girth to fly. Such a wonderfull image. Kacy will be sure to skip desert tonight...

Kik crosses her arms sourly, saying moodily, "Well, it was nothing!" Verren gives her a side long glance, an eyebrow raised curiously, "Was it now....Come on Kik, I'm sure it wasn't anything /that/ terrible." Kik sighs, feeling defeated, "I just.....I just said" she stops, shaking her head resolutely, "It's not important!" She turns and stalks a little ways away down the bank, determined to stew in her juices. Verren glances at Kacy, smiling mildly, "Must have been quite the unimportant stuff for her to storm off like that. Just out of curiosity......what did she say?"

The bat begins to laugh, until the otter walks away, "Wait Kik! Wait up!" The water here is flowing gently down stream. The bushes and shrubberies move with the wind bring with it a rather strange smell from down stream.

Kik has walked far enough away to be lost to sight around the next bend in the river. She sighs and sits down on the bank, dangling her foot paws in the water. She lays down sulkily to look up and the stars far above, sparkling much like the mischievous glint of Verren's eyes. She scowls to herself and rolls over on her side. Who needed them anyway? She hasn't yet noticed the smell, too caught up in her own thoughts.

There is a loud snap of a twig in the forrest behind her followed by the rustle of bushes and grass. A head appears from the forrest followed by its neck and body. The snake is impossibly large, even for a whiptail. Its dark green scales are peirced with an array of broken weapons ranging from spears to battle axes. It's middle seems to bulge out slightly, the final resting place of the snakes last prey. Ageless scans the area with his single blind eye looking almost directly at Kik. He moves closer, and closer, and then around her as he heads for the river where he begins to lap up water.

Kik continues to lay there in brooding silence, until the crack of the twig. At this sound she tenses visibly, but other than then doesn't move. No sense in bringing attention her way, though her efforts seem fruitless as the snake glides into view. Her eyes widen in horror and it takes quite a lot of self-control not to leap up and start running. She holds perfectly still, hoping that maybe, just maybe the snake would leave without noticing her.

The snake laps up water for a long while. Smaking his lips Ageless raises his head up to its full hieght. He towers over the tiny otter as he sniffs the air then begins to turn, as if turning for the forrest. The snake pauses again though with his one dead eye on Kik. His face cracks into a wide tooth grin. "You have sssuch a pretty color..."

Kik bites her lip hopefully as the snake turns, only to have her expectations dashed as Ageless turns back to her. She gulps and shakily props herself up on one arm, "T-thanks...I think. Y-you're pretty t-too." She frowns on the inside. Is that what you say to snakes?! She starts attempting to edge towards the water. Maybe, once she's there she'll have a chance of escape!

Ageless tilts his head to the side and blinks. "That isssss...different." The snake begins to slowly slither forward. Ageless is blind, but not /completely/ blind. He can sense blury forms of movement and it seems the (sniff) yes otter is just...laying there. "Thisss is the part where mossst ssstart ssscreaming in terror..."

Kik continues to edge towards the water, a tense strain of laughter escaping her lips, "Oh, I dunno. I've done a lot of screaming in the past few days. I thought I'd try to break the habit." After a moment more of inching towards the water, she shoves her arms against the bank of the river, vaulting herself towards the water.

The otter gets no farther than her hands submerged in the water when the snakes tail wraps around her legs and pulls her back towards land. "Young people. Alwaysss off in sssome hurry..." The snake's smile fades as he says, "I commend you for effort...but you were a little too slow..." The snake opens his maw wide, showing off his fangs as he drags the otter closer and closer to her doom.

Kik's front paws scrabble on the rocky bank of the river as she tries to get a hold on the soil, anything to keep her from that gaping cave of death. Her breath starts coming it short gasps and her heart is pounding wildly. She tries to use her rudder as a club to hit the snake

The snake has no final jibes, no final quips. Just death. He coils for a strike...and is distracted as brown blur lands on his head biting at his snout and clawing at his eyes, or rather, eye, "RUN KIK! RUN!" Kacy screams at the top of her lungs. The snakes grasp releases for a moment on the otter.

Kik tightly closes her eyes, finding that she'd rather not see the deadly embrace she's about to be welcomed to. She has to think on how ironic it is that she's escaped death once already this week and now she's back to generally the same spot. Her eyes pop open with surprise when the snake lets her go and she scrabbles to her feet. It takes her a moment to recover from her confusion, but the moment she sees Kacy her heart falls, "KACY!" She turns and starts to run a few paces away, then she draws out her sling and loads it. She takes a few more paces before turning and flinging the stone towards Ageless. By now, she's hardly calm and composed and there are tears squeezing themselves from her eyes. Verren is nowhere to be seen.

The snake hisses in frustration and then uses his tail to strike the bat away from him. Kacy chirps as she is flung into the river with a loud splash. Ageless then snaps his head in the direction the stone came from and lunges. Because of the size of his head compared to the otter the first tooth merely crazes Kik's side as she is knocked off her feet...the second takes her in the abdomin, sinking deep into her belly. Statisfied that he struck something meaty and living Agless leans back and seems to look around to see if the otter will get up again.

Kik's head snaps to watch where Kacy is flung and she sighs in relief to see her friend is safe. But it only lasts for a moment as the snakes's teeth sink into her body. Kik screams in pain and fear of what's to come. Death would be at the top of the list. Her breathing becomes heavy as her life drains from her. So this is what it felt like to die. Verren comes around the bend of the river, a limp in his right leg. He stares in horror at the scene in front of him, "Kik..." He murmurers, a sob forming in his throat. However, he doesn't rush in, but instead ducks behind a nearby bush to watch the snake.

The snake tilts his head to the left then to the right. "Poor creature...I do appologize if that were painfull." He leans forward his maw opening once again, "Do not worry...you won't feel anything ssssoon..." Kacy resurfaces across the bank of the river coughing up water. She looks back and her eyes widen with fear as the snake licks at his chops. Humming a sweet melody Ageless retreats back into the forrest, a thick bulge has formed on his stomach.

Kik has descended into blissful darkness by the time the snake gets around to eating her and so she doesn’t feel a thing as her life slips away. Verren stumbles out of the protection of the bush, and starts to limp towards Camp Willow, his eyes brimming with tears, but the rest of his face set in a determined grimace. He would find the snake one day, and that day would be filled with sorrow.

Hope you enjoyed!