[The child seems a little reluctant to turn down that path, but he's apparently even more reluctant to let Sieghart go without him, especially now that they're into the forest a fair way.]
...Okay.
[AWAY THEY GOOO. The plus side is its wear: even though it's narrow and winding, the path is clear-cut through vegetation. Occasionally, they may hear the vegetation ahead and to the sides of them rustling with potential wildlife, but nothing leaps out of the bramble with bloodthirst in its eyes.
Sieghart will, however, catch the sound of a low hiss coming from his left after around ten minutes of travel. At the same time, he'll catch sight of what appears to be a clearing in the trees, just barely illuminated in a passing flicker of moonlight.]
[Being able to traverse smoothly with minimal lighting is a small blessing. Knowing that either path was going to be teeming with something or another, he keeps his ears peeled for all noise and darts his eyes toward the hiss to their left.
He slows to a stop. Wildlife? Perhaps it's a snake. He waits for a brief moment to see if the source of the sound comes closer.]
[The source of the sound does come closer, and though Sieghart can't see it well, the level at which the hiss comes from and the way the foliage rustles makes it seem like it could indeed be a snake. Damn, who would have expected wildlife in these here woods.
The snake is apparently not happy to have two miscreants walking in front of its royal path, though, so it darts forward in a sudden spring, rustling leaves and twigs and aiming to bite.]
[Snakes don't typically attack unless they're provoked. Still, Sieghart is alert enough that he pushes the child behind him as the sound of the snake's movement changes. Although he pivots accordingly, he grits his teeth when sharp fangs dig into his lower leg through fabric.
On the bright side, that tells him where the snake is, so he stomps on the thing with his good foot.]
Well. He smashes that snake with his good foot (goot), and manages to get its noggin beneath his boot, snuffing out its delicate little snake life. Little did that snake know, this would be the last person it could take a little chomp out of... Damn.
The child, who'd made a sound of protest at being pushed away so suddenly, begins to frantically pat at Sieghart's side.]
Si-san?! What happened—?
[The area of the bite burns like, almost instantly. Haha. But on the plus side, it's not some level of venom that immediately snipes his ass!
There are no further rustlings in the forest, so presumably another snake isn't coming to avenge its comrade.]
[This does not assuage the child's worries, sir!! He the hand on his chest, clutching at Sieghart's fingies and also getting brain juice on himself now. Groce.
In a loud whisper:] A snake? Is it gone...?
[It's gone and it's gone to heaven, RIP.
As Sieghart goes to get a better look at the clearing, he'll find that it stretches out quite a ways deeper into the forest itself. Farther in the distance, he'll see what appear to be several torches around the perimeter of a building, though it'll be hard for him to pick up much detail.
[Great. Maybe it'll pour and he can wash some of the venom on the surface off.
And that snake's gone to hell.]
It's gone, so don't worry about it.
[Entering a clearing is risky, but he's racing against time more than before. The rainfall should help. Once he's looked around as much as he can in the darkness, he turns his hand around to hold the child's and makes for the building.]
[Who knows! Also wow don't just send this poor snake to hell IT'S DOING ITS BEST.
The child is, at least, fast like he had claimed. Light on his feet, too. Sieghart won't find him a cumbersome extra to take along, though he will find that the pain at the site of the bite wound is slowly heating up the skin there, and that warmth is spreading slowly but notably in all directions radiating from the bite.
As he heads to the building, he'll find that this one has guards at what seems like the only door. There's a pile of logs stacked up near one of the walls, and several large windows that cast dim light, indicating there's activity inside. A bit further off in the distance, there are what appear to be gallows, set at rest for the time being. There's a pile of something draped in white fabric off to the side of them. Across the clearing, there's more forest, though it appears a little less dense than the side they just came from.]
[Sieghart, who died from poison before, curses the snake to hell again as he walks through the throbbing heat blooming around his foot and leg.
He moves away from the guards and up to the windows, where he positions himself between them in order to steal a glance into one. The initial plan was to avoid encounters; if he can't get anything out of this much, he might just move on without nosing around . . . ]
Sieghart might very well decide it's best to move on in this case, then. Through the window he's currently looking through, he'll be able to see into one room within the building. It's definitely got people in there! There are two armed soldiers, one sitting at a desk and writing paperwork and the other smoking by the door. They both seem either enthralled in their work or pretty damn bored, respectively; neither is particularly on guard.]
The soldiers don't appear familiar enough to warrant staying. Sieghart pulls back before he can be seen, considers the base's importance, then gives the child's hand a light tug before he goes to round a corner away from the guards. It's time to quit this place.]
The child lets himself be tugged along, keeping pace with Sieghart just fine. Sieghart will find that if he puts too much weight onto his bitten leg, he'll feel a jolt of pain in the area of the bite, but there doesn't seem to be any other effects just yet.
He turns the corner away from the guards, and the rain begins to pick up its fall. The gallows still lie to the side, and the rest of the windows remain in various stages of lit, showing activity from within in all but one. The slightly sparser forest lies ahead. Where does he nyoom?]
[The best thing he can do for his leg is to immobilize it; however, that is decidedly unwise for the overall situation. He has Kondo's head in one hand and a child in the other. What's he going to do at the gallows, retrieve a body? No, he's going to the slightly sparser forest and avoid becoming a drowned rat.]
[Who knows what's over by the gallows! Sieghart doesn't and will never know now as he heads out toward the forest. The contents of this base remain a mystery.
The child tightens his grip on Sieghart's hand as they walk. The forest on this side is significantly less dense, which means that even though someone here didn't free up his kid-holding hand to take a lantern and thus still can't see well, he'll likely trip on less vegetation because there is simply less to trip on.
After a little while of walking without incident, though, he'll be able to pick up on two separate sounds. Up ahead, it seems there's the sound of some sort of running water. To the side, there's the crack of some branches out in the distance.
The child looks up at him with fear in his big ol' eyes, which dart off toward the foliage.]
[It wouldn't have been safe to signal their presence with a light, no matter how dim, anyway!
After the incident with the snake, it's probably better that he just make a beeline for the water source. But the child actually speaks up, and that gives him enough pause to stare off into the same spot.
Tch. If it isn't one thing, it's another. Putting himself in the front, he steps cautiously to the side.]
[Nah just kidding. Whatever's coming their way is apparently 1) lorge and also 2) fast, because what sounded like some distant cracking of branches mere seconds ago is rapidly turning into the sort of sound that indicates a Large Thing Is Barreling In Their Direction And Will Get There Extremely Soon. Um. HM!!!
The child does not seem to like this at all and starts to panic, clutching at Sieghart like SHIT WHAT NOW.]
[What now? They do what they should've done ten seconds ago: go to the water. The child is supposed to be fast, so Sieghart breaks into a run while keeping track of their relative position to the barreling thing by the sound of snapping branches, because he isn't keen on just standing there and taking what's coming in the face.]
[The child is fast, but stumbles in his panic. Probably unsurprisingly, between the tension and the speed and the Whatever The Hell Is Behind Them, he begins to cry.
What is behind them? Why, a wholeass bear! An abnormally large bear! Like, wow, that is really just... an abnormally large bear, huh. It's barreling after the two of them like a heat-seeking missile, crashing through foliage - including entire trees - like they're nothing.
Between the poor lighting and his snake leg (sneg), Sieghart might have trouble finding the best footing and may stumble on his dash, but he'll be able to see that there appears to be a break in the foliage up ahead. Continuing to run in that direction will lead the two of them to... a cliff's ledge. Down below, there's the distinctive churning noise of flowing water, though it's hard to tell exactly how far away it is. The cliff edge goes both left and right, so it might be possible to find a safer way down, but that bear sure is gaining fast.
Unfortunately, there isn't the time to comfort the child. Sieghart powers through the darkness and pain to the cliff's edge, where he releases the child's hand and instead grabs him by the scruff of his clothes with the same hand that clutches the bundle. Then he waits until the last second and, when the bear is just about to close in on them, slides off the ledge as if to throw themselves down—but grips the edge with his freed hand in the hopes that the bear will barrel straight over them and into the water below.]
[Unfortunately for Sieghart, this bear is a main character. There are a lot of mysteries to unlock in this bear. A lot of them are bad. It is truly unfortunate to come across it in the wild, for Reasons.
One reason: it's abnormally intelligent for a bear! What is up with the weirdly smart animals in this world? Who knows. As Sieghart slides off the ledge, gripping the child and bag with one hand and holding onto the ledge itself with the other, the bear does not comically keep running into thin air and then drop down into the water below. It actually stops short, swinging its head from side to side. From this close, Sieghart will be able to see that its eyes appear completely scarred over. Rather than looking, it seems to be sniffing the air.
Whatever the hell it's smelling, its senses guide it to "look" directly toward where Sieghart's dangling, though. With its mighty paws and hellacious claws, it moves over to try stomping on Sieghart's hand before trying to lean over the edge to get in a swipe. All the while, that child is absolutely wailing. He, too, will need ye olde therapy when this is over.]
[So it's blind. What about its hearing? The child is wailing, and the bear continues to sniff. The animals of this place are all wrong in the head.
He has a feeling Kondo's head is to blame for this. But he can't use it as bait, and he can't send the child down alone with it when he doesn't know the depth of the fall. Outrunning the bear was never an option, though, and it seems to decide for all of them when it stomps on his hand, which he would normally endure if not for the claws that slash his back and the arm holding their collective weight as he twists to shield the child and bundle.
He grunts, then shouts over the wailing:]
. . . Hang on, kid!
[As soon as that bear moves and stops pressing down on his hand, he's falling. Please be a short fall; his heart won't be able to take it otherwise.]
[Sieghart looking at these animals like ALL OF YOU GO TO THERAPY.
He'll be able to feel the child reaching out to cling onto his side like a koala, still wailing and crying and now using poor sweet Sieghart as a giant stressball just moments before they drop.
It's... not a short fall, unfortunately! It's about a fifty foot drop from the cliff into the water below, roughly three and a half stories, which is doable for people with good dive form. Unfortunately this is a dude holding a head and a kid plummeting into the water free-fall style after getting stomped on by a bear, so Sieghart hits with enough force that he'll break at least a couple of bones.
Also unfortunately, they land in a part of the river that's particularly volatile. If Sieghart hasn't passed out on the way down, he'll almost immediately start to feel himself be tugged under the surface by a strong current, the head and child in his other hand threatening to be ripped away. The bank on either side of the river seems like a decent swim away. While the water itself isn't brackish, it's full of rocks: both a good and bad thing! Plenty of things to grab hold of, and plenty of things to bash into.]
[His heart beats rapidly and harshly against his chest. The worst part of this is the free fall. Nothing induces terror as much as the sensation of falling with no means of purchase to stop it. Worse, he has a child with him.
On the other hand, the fifty-foot drop gives him just enough time to brace himself that he doesn't lose consciousness on impact. The arm holding onto the child and bundle definitely breaks, and his ribs have something to say about the fall. His leg also smarts where the stupid snake bit him. Pain isn't new to Sieghart, however; he holds his breath and pushes himself up in the direction of the current—just in time to avoid bashing his head against a rock.
That honor goes to his shoulder, the impact of which turns Sieghart around enough to snap his unoccupied arm out and grab onto the next rock down the river. Gasping for breath, he lifts himself enough to ensure that the child is able to surface while he maintains an iron grip, bolstered by the rush of adrenaline.]
Don't let go!
[All but barking the words at the child, he allows a moment for a breath while the water crashes against them before swimming diagonally with the current toward the bank.]
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...Okay.
[AWAY THEY GOOO. The plus side is its wear: even though it's narrow and winding, the path is clear-cut through vegetation. Occasionally, they may hear the vegetation ahead and to the sides of them rustling with potential wildlife, but nothing leaps out of the bramble with bloodthirst in its eyes.
Sieghart will, however, catch the sound of a low hiss coming from his left after around ten minutes of travel. At the same time, he'll catch sight of what appears to be a clearing in the trees, just barely illuminated in a passing flicker of moonlight.]
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He slows to a stop. Wildlife? Perhaps it's a snake. He waits for a brief moment to see if the source of the sound comes closer.]
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The snake is apparently not happy to have two miscreants walking in front of its royal path, though, so it darts forward in a sudden spring, rustling leaves and twigs and aiming to bite.]
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On the bright side, that tells him where the snake is, so he stomps on the thing with his good foot.]
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Well. He smashes that snake with his good foot (goot), and manages to get its noggin beneath his boot, snuffing out its delicate little snake life. Little did that snake know, this would be the last person it could take a little chomp out of... Damn.
The child, who'd made a sound of protest at being pushed away so suddenly, begins to frantically pat at Sieghart's side.]
Si-san?! What happened—?
[The area of the bite burns like, almost instantly. Haha. But on the plus side, it's not some level of venom that immediately snipes his ass!
There are no further rustlings in the forest, so presumably another snake isn't coming to avenge its comrade.]
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It was just a snake. Keep your voice low.
[They've delayed enough. Bundle still in hand, he presses against the outermost tree to get a better look at the clearing.]
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In a loud whisper:] A snake? Is it gone...?
[It's gone and it's gone to heaven, RIP.
As Sieghart goes to get a better look at the clearing, he'll find that it stretches out quite a ways deeper into the forest itself. Farther in the distance, he'll see what appear to be several torches around the perimeter of a building, though it'll be hard for him to pick up much detail.
A few scattered raindrops finally begin to fall.]
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And that snake's gone to hell.]
It's gone, so don't worry about it.
[Entering a clearing is risky, but he's racing against time more than before. The rainfall should help. Once he's looked around as much as he can in the darkness, he turns his hand around to hold the child's and makes for the building.]
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The child is, at least, fast like he had claimed. Light on his feet, too. Sieghart won't find him a cumbersome extra to take along, though he will find that the pain at the site of the bite wound is slowly heating up the skin there, and that warmth is spreading slowly but notably in all directions radiating from the bite.
As he heads to the building, he'll find that this one has guards at what seems like the only door. There's a pile of logs stacked up near one of the walls, and several large windows that cast dim light, indicating there's activity inside. A bit further off in the distance, there are what appear to be gallows, set at rest for the time being. There's a pile of something draped in white fabric off to the side of them. Across the clearing, there's more forest, though it appears a little less dense than the side they just came from.]
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He moves away from the guards and up to the windows, where he positions himself between them in order to steal a glance into one. The initial plan was to avoid encounters; if he can't get anything out of this much, he might just move on without nosing around . . . ]
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Sieghart might very well decide it's best to move on in this case, then. Through the window he's currently looking through, he'll be able to see into one room within the building. It's definitely got people in there! There are two armed soldiers, one sitting at a desk and writing paperwork and the other smoking by the door. They both seem either enthralled in their work or pretty damn bored, respectively; neither is particularly on guard.]
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The soldiers don't appear familiar enough to warrant staying. Sieghart pulls back before he can be seen, considers the base's importance, then gives the child's hand a light tug before he goes to round a corner away from the guards. It's time to quit this place.]
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The child lets himself be tugged along, keeping pace with Sieghart just fine. Sieghart will find that if he puts too much weight onto his bitten leg, he'll feel a jolt of pain in the area of the bite, but there doesn't seem to be any other effects just yet.
He turns the corner away from the guards, and the rain begins to pick up its fall. The gallows still lie to the side, and the rest of the windows remain in various stages of lit, showing activity from within in all but one. The slightly sparser forest lies ahead. Where does he nyoom?]
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The child tightens his grip on Sieghart's hand as they walk. The forest on this side is significantly less dense, which means that even though someone here didn't free up his kid-holding hand to take a lantern and thus still can't see well, he'll likely trip on less vegetation because there is simply less to trip on.
After a little while of walking without incident, though, he'll be able to pick up on two separate sounds. Up ahead, it seems there's the sound of some sort of running water. To the side, there's the crack of some branches out in the distance.
The child looks up at him with fear in his big ol' eyes, which dart off toward the foliage.]
Did you hear that...?
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After the incident with the snake, it's probably better that he just make a beeline for the water source. But the child actually speaks up, and that gives him enough pause to stare off into the same spot.
Tch. If it isn't one thing, it's another. Putting himself in the front, he steps cautiously to the side.]
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The child does not seem to like this at all and starts to panic, clutching at Sieghart like SHIT WHAT NOW.]
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What is behind them? Why, a wholeass bear! An abnormally large bear! Like, wow, that is really just... an abnormally large bear, huh. It's barreling after the two of them like a heat-seeking missile, crashing through foliage - including entire trees - like they're nothing.
Between the poor lighting and his snake leg (sneg), Sieghart might have trouble finding the best footing and may stumble on his dash, but he'll be able to see that there appears to be a break in the foliage up ahead. Continuing to run in that direction will lead the two of them to... a cliff's ledge. Down below, there's the distinctive churning noise of flowing water, though it's hard to tell exactly how far away it is. The cliff edge goes both left and right, so it might be possible to find a safer way down, but that bear sure is gaining fast.
What's up buttercup, what's the choice.]
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[That's an enormous bear.
Unfortunately, there isn't the time to comfort the child. Sieghart powers through the darkness and pain to the cliff's edge, where he releases the child's hand and instead grabs him by the scruff of his clothes with the same hand that clutches the bundle. Then he waits until the last second and, when the bear is just about to close in on them, slides off the ledge as if to throw themselves down—but grips the edge with his freed hand in the hopes that the bear will barrel straight over them and into the water below.]
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One reason: it's abnormally intelligent for a bear! What is up with the weirdly smart animals in this world? Who knows. As Sieghart slides off the ledge, gripping the child and bag with one hand and holding onto the ledge itself with the other, the bear does not comically keep running into thin air and then drop down into the water below. It actually stops short, swinging its head from side to side. From this close, Sieghart will be able to see that its eyes appear completely scarred over. Rather than looking, it seems to be sniffing the air.
Whatever the hell it's smelling, its senses guide it to "look" directly toward where Sieghart's dangling, though. With its mighty paws and hellacious claws, it moves over to try stomping on Sieghart's hand before trying to lean over the edge to get in a swipe. All the while, that child is absolutely wailing. He, too, will need ye olde therapy when this is over.]
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Are you serious?
[So it's blind. What about its hearing? The child is wailing, and the bear continues to sniff. The animals of this place are all wrong in the head.
He has a feeling Kondo's head is to blame for this. But he can't use it as bait, and he can't send the child down alone with it when he doesn't know the depth of the fall. Outrunning the bear was never an option, though, and it seems to decide for all of them when it stomps on his hand, which he would normally endure if not for the claws that slash his back and the arm holding their collective weight as he twists to shield the child and bundle.
He grunts, then shouts over the wailing:]
. . . Hang on, kid!
[As soon as that bear moves and stops pressing down on his hand, he's falling. Please be a short fall; his heart won't be able to take it otherwise.]
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He'll be able to feel the child reaching out to cling onto his side like a koala, still wailing and crying and now using poor sweet Sieghart as a giant stressball just moments before they drop.
It's... not a short fall, unfortunately! It's about a fifty foot drop from the cliff into the water below, roughly three and a half stories, which is doable for people with good dive form. Unfortunately this is a dude holding a head and a kid plummeting into the water free-fall style after getting stomped on by a bear, so Sieghart hits with enough force that he'll break at least a couple of bones.
Also unfortunately, they land in a part of the river that's particularly volatile. If Sieghart hasn't passed out on the way down, he'll almost immediately start to feel himself be tugged under the surface by a strong current, the head and child in his other hand threatening to be ripped away. The bank on either side of the river seems like a decent swim away. While the water itself isn't brackish, it's full of rocks: both a good and bad thing! Plenty of things to grab hold of, and plenty of things to bash into.]
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On the other hand, the fifty-foot drop gives him just enough time to brace himself that he doesn't lose consciousness on impact. The arm holding onto the child and bundle definitely breaks, and his ribs have something to say about the fall. His leg also smarts where the stupid snake bit him. Pain isn't new to Sieghart, however; he holds his breath and pushes himself up in the direction of the current—just in time to avoid bashing his head against a rock.
That honor goes to his shoulder, the impact of which turns Sieghart around enough to snap his unoccupied arm out and grab onto the next rock down the river. Gasping for breath, he lifts himself enough to ensure that the child is able to surface while he maintains an iron grip, bolstered by the rush of adrenaline.]
Don't let go!
[All but barking the words at the child, he allows a moment for a breath while the water crashes against them before swimming diagonally with the current toward the bank.]
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