I'm not gonna bleed anything but me for my magic, Meric, so shove that idea right back where it came from. That'd be fuckin' vile.
But we'll compromise or something, later, huh? I'll learn how to use a bow instead, cut out the magic crap.
[ He'd decided for himself there would be a next time, and he mimed a two-fingered salute, with a lingering look over his shoulder at the elf. And then turned away, murmured something incomprehensible, and vanished in a twisting tongue of flame.
Only to reappear again not far, beneath the still-smouldering eave of a smoking outbuilding, and clearly winded with the effort. Cain's hands braced over his knees so that he could suck in a few breaths, and lifted a thumbs-up without looking. Overhead, the creature cried out again... and as if plucked up again by a thread of magic, the fires which had begun burning low roared up again, lept across blackened beams of the collapsed roof of the larger building toward the branches of nearby trees, and ran down the trunk with the speed and grace of a snake gliding over water. It began to arc in a loose thread, curving along the back of the thicket near which Aymeric still stood.
Beginning to pen off escape, while Cain settled into a slow walk away from the protection of the building and its eaves, covering his eyes again as he looked up, trying to gauge the right moment to really run.
The hunting-cry came again, and this time, the smoke thinned out enough, the great shadow of the circling bird rippled over him. Gargantuan, stretching across the whole of the scorched clearing. The smaller man would be nothing, like a lizard to an eagle.
He seemed to realize it, froze just a beat as the outline of shadow flowed over him, a ghost of coolness where before there'd been only heat. Overhead, the bird had already folded its wings, was falling like a comet, and he jolted into a sprint that by comparison was slow, miles too slow to be survived across the hundred yards he'd need to cross. He shouted something, too indistinct against the noise of the fire to be made out. ]
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But we'll compromise or something, later, huh? I'll learn how to use a bow instead, cut out the magic crap.
[ He'd decided for himself there would be a next time, and he mimed a two-fingered salute, with a lingering look over his shoulder at the elf. And then turned away, murmured something incomprehensible, and vanished in a twisting tongue of flame.
Only to reappear again not far, beneath the still-smouldering eave of a smoking outbuilding, and clearly winded with the effort. Cain's hands braced over his knees so that he could suck in a few breaths, and lifted a thumbs-up without looking. Overhead, the creature cried out again... and as if plucked up again by a thread of magic, the fires which had begun burning low roared up again, lept across blackened beams of the collapsed roof of the larger building toward the branches of nearby trees, and ran down the trunk with the speed and grace of a snake gliding over water. It began to arc in a loose thread, curving along the back of the thicket near which Aymeric still stood.
Beginning to pen off escape, while Cain settled into a slow walk away from the protection of the building and its eaves, covering his eyes again as he looked up, trying to gauge the right moment to really run.
The hunting-cry came again, and this time, the smoke thinned out enough, the great shadow of the circling bird rippled over him. Gargantuan, stretching across the whole of the scorched clearing. The smaller man would be nothing, like a lizard to an eagle.
He seemed to realize it, froze just a beat as the outline of shadow flowed over him, a ghost of coolness where before there'd been only heat. Overhead, the bird had already folded its wings, was falling like a comet, and he jolted into a sprint that by comparison was slow, miles too slow to be survived across the hundred yards he'd need to cross. He shouted something, too indistinct against the noise of the fire to be made out. ]