Waldhaxen Channel

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Where did everybody go? To try to get this moving again:]

It took Grope a while, but the Robe finally divulged a racial memory of the strange beings he'd seen below. "Flipper-bird-men," he told his nephew. "There is a Small Ones name for them, something like pinguimho, in a lost Small Ones language, but nothing specific in our own. A Matriarch far in the past knew something about them. I get the sense that they are best avoided, but they stay near the water. We shouldn't have any trouble with them."

Scrobian nodded. "Then let's resume the search." He started to lower the balloon to where it could catch an air current and travel on to the next ridge, but something below caught his eye. "What are those? They don't look like your flipper-bird-men."

Indeed they didn't. Two beings from a different race were emerging from the cabin of the odd ship. They pointed at the balloon, gestured, and one raised what looked like a very large Thundering Metal Thing.

"CRAP!" Grope swore. "Let's get out of here!" But the balloon wasn't capable of rapid movement, and a moment later, a loud PHOOOMM echoed in the chasm, as a large, fast-moving projectile tore through its gas bag.

The trolls swore again as the balloon started to lose altitude, settling directly toward where the man Lucas and the other Small Ones were watching...

[Sareth]

[OOC]The big problem is that it's currently predicated heavily on posts by V-S or posts involving Grope... I hate basically double posting when it comes to "the group." *shrug*[/OOC]

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

"The hell?" I reached for my guns... and came up empty. Dammit! I'd taken them off to change my shirt! They were back with the baby! I raced off to grab them, then noticed a shadow go over me, followed by a loud hissing...

"The hell?" I repeated, just before a blue streak slammed into me, knocking me to the side, and a crunching could be heard.

I tried to roll over, only to realize I was underneath something very heavy, very soft, surprisingly warm...

And that every one of my bruises from earlier was reminding me that they existed by welcoming the new ones.

"Ow."

"I am sorry, Jamie," Ayiee said as she sat up. "There was no time to move you gently."

"Huh?" I glanced over to see the wreckage of a large wicker basket beside me. "The hell?"

"JAMIE PORTER! GER OUT FROM UNDER THAT GIRL AT ONCE!"

"Mom?"

"Or get a room, sheesh!"

"MOM! NOT THE TIME FOR IT!"

[Viking-Sensei]

Lucas, who had been trying to get Grope's attention, witnessed the shot come from further up (or was it down? The currents here were unpredictable at best) stream and clip the balloon. Fortunately, it wasn't badly damaged, nothing that couldn't be sewn up with a needle and a little skill, but it was still enough to end the already-bizarre spectacle of the hot-air-ballooning trolls.

As Lucas crested the hill to rejoin the rest of the party (he'd been out gathering supplies and trying his best to not deal with the rolling family affair-issue-arguement going on with the Porters, he tried to look and see where the shot would've come from... there was something sort of like a boat, though he wasn't familiar with it's design, holding steady further along the waterway. Indistinct figures moved around it... at least one obviously non-human, but he couldn't make out who - or what - it was.

Suddenly feeling an odd chill, he pulled his coat tight... and, from somewhere in the back of Lucas' mind, the word pinguimho floated past, along with a vague sense of warning.

Scrambling down the hill, he assessed the situation. Fortunately, the bag had deflated on the non-fire-side, so only some minimal repairs would be required to fix it. Unfortunately, the basket (and the trolls inside it) were considerably more banged up. Lucas turned to Jamie. "Send your mother and Nera around the base of the hill and then go up the path from behind... I've got a spyglass, see if she can see anything, but tell her to watch out - whoever shot them down has ranged weapons, so she should try and avoid becoming an easy target. Once she's moving out, help Ayiee try and get the trolls unstuck and tended too. Marcus! We're heading that way" he pointed towards the boat "to see if we can figure out what we're dealing."

[Sareth]

"Alright."

Sure, I had authority issues. But then, most of the time it was because those in positions of authority were asses. Lucas had his quirks, but he was no ass. And he certainly seemed to know what he was doing. Which, given the mess that had just fallen on us was so bizarre no one would have believed it if it were in a story, put him well ahead of me as far as plans went. When he offered a suggestion in the wake of such an event, I figured I needed to take it as gospel.

"Mother," I said.

"I'm way ahead of you," mom replied. She was gathering up Nera with one hand, in spite of the fact Nera seemed determined to squirm to freedom, and Lucas' spyglass with the other hand.

"Over here." I began to lead her to the hill, when her hand stopped me.

"I can find the hill and watch those people fine on my own. You go help that blue girl with those poor unfortunates."

"Mom..."

"I know. I love you too."

"That wasn't what I was going to say."

"But it's what you would have meant. Now shoo! Go do heroic things!"

Sometimes there was no arguing with a mother. Especially when she was right, dammit.

[AdamZero]

I looked around as everyone started going this way and that, feeling rather tired, myself.

"I'm going for seconds." As Lucas and Jamie both ran off I made for the stew pot, which was still, blessedly, intact. "They seem to not like trolls at least! We're humans so we should be fine... provided they're not full on xenopbobes..." my tone was relatively calm, as I continued for my stew pot. I pulled out a heavy skin that had a wide top, and ladled as much stew as I could into it.

I looked to Aiyee, who was standing next to, in the shadow of really, two very large trolls, one larger and more familiar than the other.

"Hello again!" I waved at Grope, before looking between Lucas's back advancing toward danger, and Jamie's arse retreating from it.

"Decisions, decisions." I tapped my chin, looking between my two possible options. If anything I could stay right there, unless the guys who shot down the balloon could scale sheer cliff, I'd be fine.

[Graybeard]

Grope extracted himself from the damaged gondola, checking himself for injuries and finding nothing significant. Then he turned his attention to Scrobian, who'd taken a knock on the head as he brought the crippled balloon in as softly as he could. The younger troll groaned and started to come around; he'd be okay too, at least nothing appeared to be broken.

Thus reassured, Grope took in the crowd of Small Ones gathering around the balloon. Diplomacy and social niceties didn't come easily to a troll, but he'd lived close to humans for long enough to know what had to be done.

"Greetings, Friends of Lucas," he rumbled. "I see that I must make some ... is your word 'introductions'?"

[Sareth]

Marcus, it seemed, was less interested in Lucas' plan than I was. Why did that not surprise me? Men...

"Yes," I replied to the troll, who evidently was the same one we'd met before. "That's the word for it. Do you need help moving..."

Just then Ayiee slipped her hands under the stirring troll's shoulders and dragged him free of the basket.

"I guess you don't."

[AdamZero]

I noticed Jamie's scowl and sighed, getting up and heading in the direction Lucas ran towards. Boris laughed, miming a whip crack and making the whi-pash sound effect with his voice. I shot a look at the trolls over my shoulder.

"You guys need any stew; there it is." I pointed at the point. "You're welcome to it." I took off at a sprint, intent to close the gap before Lucas got his head into whatever pile of madness Destiny plopped out for us this round.

[Graybeard]

Scrobian didn't speak the Small Ones' languages, other than a very few words of Tsuirakuan, so it took Grope a few minutes (and some very odd strains to the vocal cords) to explain what was going on and translate between the trollish and human tongues. It looked like Lucas and his friends had heard the Thundering Metal Thing that took down the balloon and were trying to figure out where it came from and who had fired it. Good; that meant they were allies. (Of course, he'd never had any doubts about Lucas, but the others were ... hard to understand.)

"We saw man-like things on the boat down in the ... I think you say 'channel'," Grope rumbled. "There were two that swim in the water like fish, or like birds with fins. But there were others. We do not know their kind. I think they come from the land across the water. Do you know them?" He paused to translate for his nephew, who'd regained consciousness but was understandably confused about what was going on.

With all the commotion and distractions, Grope didn't notice that in addition to the humans he knew about, another Small One was listening to his narrative from well up the ridge (trolls' voices carry like thunder, after all) and getting an idea.

Well, now I know where I am, Wilbur Hamael thought. And if I can just get my hands on that balloon...

[Sareth]

"No..." I replied. "They don't sound familiar to me." The identification of the various races was not exactly my strong suit. What was important was the other part he'd said. "From the land on the other side of the channel you said?"

I could hear my mother slap her hand into her face from down here.