The more sensitive to them such as Mars and Morrigan knew that somewhere the darkness was stirring in the dimming light, but that its attention seemed to be elsewhere.
In a valley, the sun sets before it does on the mountain. So while Ranma was selecting a campsite that was bathed in dusk, the village itself was essentially experiencing night. Which made their current predicament very real.
"Use flaming arrows where you can," ordered Cologne. "Make sure to work in pairs or triads, as the shooter will be night-blinded. Keep the outer ring of torches lit."
The shadows flicked in and out of the torchlight, keeping themselves just out of bowshot.
"There seems to be only two of them," noted Ling.
"Just because there are two of them now doesn't mean others won't show up," said Ping.
"Look, the two of them have merged and formed a ring shape," observed Ling. "Uh oh."
"You feel it too? Like you've dipped your feet in ice melt?" asked Ping. "I don't like... oh Zandru's Hells."
Stepping forth from the circle was something armored like a trilobite, with short stumpy rear legs and long arms. A serrated head with eyes that seemed to glow moved about on a short neck. Oddly, the beast's armor glistened as if covered in some sort of resin or gel.
It moved into the light and lifted its head, making a howling noise that cut through the night air and reminded the warriors of the sound of tortured metal scraping together.
Arrows thunked ineffectually at it as it waddled on the stumpy legs towards the outer wall.
"It's a feint," realized Cologne. "Keep an eye out for the shadow-beings using that as a distraction."
"Aaaa!" one of the warriors cried out, realizing that a shadow that shouldn't have been there had gotten very close to her own position.
The shadow lashed out and Dowel's body swelled up briefly before exploding from within as a ruin of blood and gore and tissues. The shadow fled the others as a boulder was slammed down onto the distraction. It shrugged it off, but seemed uncertain as to what to do about the wall in its way.
The effect of one of their own being lost was not well received by the Amazons. Until then the shadows had been like the ghosts of stories from their youth, and now it was definitely an enemy. One which formed a cariacture of a laughing face as it retreated into the darkness outside the village. The Amazons were not happy at all as they endured their siege.
"It's boring already," said one shadow to the other.
"We could always sneak in and alter a few of their children," said the other shadow. "Maybe some of their elderly?"
"No, let's just infect their water supply and be done with it," said the first shadow as it began questing around.
"Hmmm. Nice choice. What'll it be - energy harvest?" The second shadow began seeping itself into the ground - putting out tendrils.
"Let's go with despair, with them wallowing in hopelessness for a week or two we can come back and have more fun then."
"Better yet, I'm detecting another village this way. These villagers haven't had a chance to warn these others."
"Ah. Let's go then, I've already found their water supply and left a present. We'll leave the rabbit behind too."
(Posted Wed, 01 Sep 2004 10:23)
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