With his beloved Chiripine imprisoned, Major Tom's reserve status has suddenly become VERY active, and he is ready to throttle Hissman. He's not alone, as the Prince is now propped on a chaise surrounded by guards, and confronted by a furious Viridia.

"That's the most ridiculous claim I've every heard!" she snarls "She's buying a few plants for potions!"

Hissman idly sharpens one claw on a small scratching stick. "Oh, I beg to differ. As my devoted Meowlivia, Miss Hiss to you, informed me, the pittance she offered was ridiculous, and, when declined, snuck into the royal greenhouse, accompanied by...shudder, a canine!" Hissman fires back. *Can't figure out what happened to him. My troops must have... consumed him. He wouldn't roast well, but he would make a tasty snack."

Grumpus snarls, but Vibrissa restrains him.

"Now, if you would retrieve Alitrill from that despicable pirate AND expedite our destined wedding, I'm sure something could be negotiated. We'd be family, and well, it's all up to you! Otherwise, she stays as Piazza's guest!"

"Guards, escort Prince Hissman to a holding cell, and tell the elite guards to continue to surround that warship in the harbor." Viridia smiles at Barty. "Yes, it was discovered earlier."

Hissman squirms at the turn of events, but holds his ground. "I still have the trump card. Chiripine's fate depends on you!"

"You'll keep her over my dead body!" Viridia screeches as Hissman is led off!"

"I think more than one dead body can be arranged," Hissman purrs in parting.

As Viridia starts to sob over Chiri's fate, Tom steps forward and offers to lead a rescue party.

"I admire your courage," Grumpus speaks up, "but what we need here is diversion. I think the Protectors have enough elite fighters to solve the problem, even with Piazza's considerable armament."

---

And so, a few hours later, Major Tom is hovering in the air above Piazza, accompanied by a small squadron of Balihee troops on ready alert, but making no move to attack. Miss Hiss is waiting for the results of negotiation, without knowing her traitorous Purrie was discovered by Adaysia, blocking Hissman's avenue of communication.

Quietly, a low-flying zeppelin drops a small number of protectors down in parachutes, and the rescue of Chiripine begins.

(OOC: This it the story thread. Please see the OOC for instructions.)

: (I assume we are supposed to post this here...it wasn't clear in the OCC where this was supposed to go...such is the way of )

1)   Kat looked to Zalia for a sign that she was ready to begin their insurrection and whispered, “Looks like we’ve a big mission on our hands, you really think we can handle it?”

Zalia was in the midst of focused breathing and centering her mind on the task, but nodded, "We definitely do," she whispered, "I just hope I won't freeze and forget what the next move is supposed to be.” She took in one last deep breath and closed her eyes in thought, “We can handle anything,” was all she said to no one in particular. "We can handle anything...."

At a nod, they made their way to the massive wall at the edge of the city and were unpleasantly shocked at how tall it actually was. Twenty feet was indeed taller than it sounded.

Kat quickly observed that in and amongst the vines that grew scarcely along the wall that there were some carefully placed ropes coiled up at the top of the wall. Perhaps these were placed there by advance scouts in preparation for their invasion. Those ropes would be rather useful if they could just get to them. It seemed odd that there would be ropes up at the top of the wall when one would have to climb the wall in order to get the ropes to climb the wall… How was that supposed to be an advantage?

The answer didn’t come to Kat right away until she felt something rub against her legs and she looked down at her feet. Kitten sat down and groomed his front paw and clean his claws… Kitten had CLAWS!

Kat kneeled down, “Now Kitten, I know you are a big chicken but you also aren’t afraid of heights! Can you maybe use your claws to climb that wall there and get us a rope?”

Kitten looked up at the wall and shook his head with disdain, “Come on pllleaaaase?” Kat tried her best baby-talk to placate Kitten in to helping out.

Kitten looked up at the wall again, yawned, stretched out his claws and started climbing the wall. Though he would do anything for Kat, he made every effort to demonstrate that it was difficult and painful in the hopes that his reward would be greater upon his success. Perhaps lobster in cream this time…

One paw, then the next, then another. Slowly but surely, Kitten made his way up the wall, his claws barely clinging to the wall and vines. Finally, at the top and waved tail as a sign and pushed the rope over the edge with his nose.

Kat turned to Zalia, gave a satisfied smirk with a thumbs up sign and made her way up the wall.

Zalia looked over her shoulder to Lini, who was in her traveling bag. "Ready Lini?" Lini softly purred and ducked down deeper into the bag. Zalia grabbed the rope and climbed up the wall, which wasn't easy, but she made it.

---

2. Once they had arrived at the top of the wall Kitten hopped up onto Kat’s shoulders as they investigated. Zalia caught her breath after climbing and dropped behind some bushes to where Kat and Kitten were. They all hunkered down against the palace walls inspecting the different greenhouses. One in particular seemed more extravagant than the others. When Kat’s and Zalia’s eyes met, they agreed they had both spotted the correct greenhouse. Now to get to it.

They used the ropes to lower themselves into the compound, being ever so carefully to hide behind some bushes as they did. Slowly but surely, they ducked in and out of the sparse cover until they made their way across the grounds and arrived at their destination. Only once did Zalia fear she made too much noise trying to untangle a horn from a hanging vine, and that they'd have guards on them in no time.  She cursed her horns after getting them free and redoubled her efforts to the task at hand. Sneaking about was exhausting and time consuming.

---

3. As they approached the elaborate greenhouse is was soon apparent that it was guarded. Two sentries blocked the path leading up to the greenhouse garden. Zalia pointed to the canopy of trees above the pathway. These could be climbed as the guards were at the far end of their circuit. As the guards marched under the canopy, the Protectors could drop in and give them an unpleasant visit.

Kat nodded in agreement and sneaked around to carefully get behind her sentry’s sightline. The goal was to not alert the rest of the palace they had to do this effortlessly and quietly. Kat climbed her tree and hid behind the trunk of the tree as she climbed.

She waited till the sentry was just below her and pounced. A perfect knockout! A the force of a full-blown Kat and Kitten on her shoulder landing on top of him was just the ticket to the knockout. That and the impact of his head hitting the ground would keep that guard out of commission for the duration of the adventure.

Kat took a small piece of rope she had kept and bound his paws and stuffed sphagnum moss in his mouth to keep him quiet. Kat looked around for Zalia, and it appeared that she made quick work of her guard as well. Perfect!

When Kat and Kitten had gone up their tree, Zalia and Lini went behind another tree near where the other sentry was. For some reason he had stopped pacing and seemed preoccupied. The unmistakable aroma of burning broom straw…the guard was smoking catnip! Zalia couldn’t believe her luck.

She took Lini out of the bag and asked if she was ready to go. She put Lini down on the ground and gave her a quick head rub and a nudge to get moving since they didn’t have much time. 

Lini pattered off toward the sentry as quietly as possible.  She got within a few inches of the sentry and started to chirp and purr as loud as possible drawing attention away from Zalia. The guard let out a big puff of smoke and looked down as Lini weaved in between the guard’s legs, just as Lini had seen Kitten do to Kat.

Zalia laughed to herself as the catnip-addled guard was soon distracted by the little petal-lure. Zalia moved as stealthily as possible, picked up a good-sized river stone from the garden and smashed it against the base of the guards skull, knocking him out. He wouldn’t know what hit him, a rock or a catnip-smoke. She also bound his paws with a small rope and stuffed his mouth with sphagnum moss as she had seen Kat do.

Zalia gave a short whistle to Kat to signal that their part was done and let Lini know that she had done a wonderful job at being a perfect distraction. She gave Lini a snuggle.

---

4)   Their next task would not be so easy. As Kat and Zalia made their into the greenhouse garden, they encountered a Hiss Elite Corps Sentry guarding the doors to the greenhouse. Kat gulped and Kitten jumped from her shoulders. They were nowhere near this Elite guard’s size. How were they going to take this guard down? Immediately, the guard approached and threw punches and kicks wildly and ferociously with hissing, growling and spitting. A spraying match with a skunk would be more pleasant than fighting this beast.

Kitten ran around franticly trying to avoid the Hiss’s swinging arms. Kat stood back in shock at the size of the guard and froze in place. Kitten also froze in fear and looked back at Kat, his expression almost seemed to say ‘help me mom.’

As Kitten stopped the Hiss Elite guard misjudged where he suspected Kitten would be, simply tripped over him and hit the ground hard. In this instant Kat and Zalia sprang into action, this was going to be their only chance.

Zalia also skidded to halt at size of this Elite guard and gulped. All her training had prepared her for just such a situation, but all her practiced scenarios and techniques suddenly escaped her mind in this instant.  Even Lini ducked down into the bag shaking with fear at the size of this monster guard. 

Zalia saw Kitten leap down and freeze, but something happened where the Elite didn’t see Kitten and tripped over Kitten before he could reach Kat.  The Elite guard crashed to the ground and Zalia imagined she saw stars over the guard's head. In that instant of almost comic relief, all Zalia’s training came back in a flash. Before the Elite guard could regain his senses, Zalia quickly ran up to him and held a foul-smelling cloth over the guard’s nose. After a brief struggle, the guard was fast asleep. 

When Kat give Zalia an inquisitive look she chuckled.  “I have some tricks up my sleeve to where I don’t have to get my hands dirty too much.  Let’s get inside and find Chiri. I have an idea on how to get close to her, let me lead on this one.”

---

Kat, Kitten and Zalia (with Lini hiding in the backpack) entered the greenhouse until they discovered a tied-up Chiri in one of the inner chambers. It was obvious to them that Chiri wasn’t alone. Someone else was there keeping her tied up.

Kat felt Kitten gulp and lick his nose in anticipation. This was going to be an even bigger fight to save their friend than the fight with the Elite guard. Zalia and Kat split up and slowly creeped toward the inner enclosure from opposite directions and there she stood, Miss Hiss, visible through the glass walls.

It was Kat’s turn to gulp upon seeing Miss Hiss’s lithe and muscular body, rippling with pure power. Kat summoned her own source of energy, took her fighting stance and prepared her mind and body to save Chiri. On a signal, both Kat and Zalia entered through the automatic glass doors from either side of the enclosure, flanking Miss Hiss from opposite sides.

Kat waited for the doors to shut so that they wouldn’t alert anybody else who might be prowling nearby. At last she confronted the boss, “Miss Hiss!”

Miss Hiss turned, noticing Kat’s stance and took one of her own. Kat had trained as a fighting a monk, hand to hand combat was her best battle method. She moved forward swiftly as did Miss Hiss, circling each other, assessing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Kat struck first, went in for a punch and landed one squarely on Hiss’s jaw. Miss Hiss immediately countered with a ferocious blow of her own. The battle was now fully engaged.

Blow after blow, kick meet with kick, the fight quickly came to a stalemate, the fight was too closely matched. A punch to the face to Miss Hiss, a punch to Kat’s shoulder. Kitten had joined in and waved his paws in the air with his claws, but he landed no blows. He was no match for Miss Hiss and she was too focused to make a foolish mistake like tripping over him as her guard had.

But Kitten was a distraction that Zalia hoped would give her an advantage. She set her backpack down and fished around inside. “Stay put Lini until I need you. This is going to get real messy.” Zalia donned an odd looking glove that she had retrieved from her backpack and dialed in the correct numbers.

Almost instantly an expertly aimed and forceful water jet shot out from the glove and hit Miss Hiss in the stomach. The water’s impact was so forceful that not only did it get Miss Hiss wet (which she Hated) it pushed her back against the wall of the greenhouse and immobilized her.

Miss Hiss lay crumpled against the glass wall and Zalia rushed forward to use the rest of her rope to tie her up. When Kat give her a quizzical raised-eyebrow expression, Zalia mumbled about training in something called ‘techno-magic.’

Zalia spoke to Lini who came out of the bag pushing a vial with her nose and stopped at Zalia's feet.  Zalia looked down and realized what Lini had brought.  Quickly she took out a piece of cloth and put a few drops of the same foul-smelling liquid on it. Miss Hiss had starting to come around when Zalia muttered, "Oh no you don't Missy Hissy.” She put the cloth under Miss Hiss's nose. Miss Hiss gasped and fell into a sweet slumber, snoring gently. Zalia smirked to herself, “I may not fight much, but I can get meanies to stay down." 

Kat wiped the sweat from her brow, what a whirlwind of a fight. She and Zalia made a great team by using distractions and fighting combat to beat Miss Hiss who was passed out against the wall of the greenhouse. But there was no time for self-congratulations and gloating over their enemies, it was time to escape. Perhaps a smoke bomb to cover their exit? Kat had heard that Zalia had some skills with such things. She motioned to Kitten to cut Chiri’s ropes and to find Scout, Chiri’s canine companion.

Zalia realized what Kat was thinking and quickly rummaged inside her bag and pulled out small metal figure with various metal parts put together. It was round and with one wheel attached to it.  She whispered that she would “wake up” the figure and let it go to cover up their escape.  She was amused at the inquisitive look on Kat’s and Kitten’s faces when she put the little figure up to her mouth. She closed her eyes and whisper-chanted strange words in a language that only another Tiefling or dark techno-magic user would understand. 

The little metal figure’s eyes glowed an eerie green and Zalia set it down.  She gave it an affectionate pat and off it rolled around the greenhouse under its own power. 

Zalia scooped up Lini, deposited her back into her backpack and motioned to Kat, Kitten, Scout, and Chiri to follow her to the exit before the figure stopped. “We have to get clear now, take these cloth masks and put them over your noses and mouths, I’ve got some that will fit Scout, Kitten and Lini. We don’t want to be knocked out by this.” 

The figure rolled towards where Miss Hiss was and bumped into the garden bed next to her like it couldn’t find a way out.  Zalia hoped this would work for theirs and Chiri’s sake.  The metal figure's eyes started flashing and a puff of smoke made its way out and continued to cover the entire greenhouse.  Coughing a bit the Protectors made it to the door and out into the garden towards the wall, leaving the cloud to do its work of obscuring their exit and knocking out any remaining guards that might try to follow them.

Once over the wall, the rescue detail made their way to the pre-arranged rendezvous point and waited to be extracted. Kat peered over Zalia’s shoulder at the backpack. “Do you have any ale or wine in that magic bag of yours?”

Zalia laughed, “Afraid not, although a glass of wine right now sounds like a great idea.”

Kat tried to look disappointed but laughed instead, “Then I guess there’s probably no sandwiches in there either.”

1) In stealth mode, scale through any manual means (no magic unless it's minor, and no Wuxia tricks--that's another adventure) the 20 foot wall surrounding the city.

Chook gazed at the 20 foot wall surrounding the city of Piazza, contemplating what means she could use to scale it and succeed with the rescue of Chiripin. On close examination she notices that there are quite a few crevices in the lime and sand mortar between the stones. She removes the pack from her back and begins searching through it. She takes out what she thinks she needs to get the job done, four of her finest indestructible daggers and a dark coloured assault suit. Walking away from the wall she approaches trees which will give her cover. She removes her clothing and puts on the dark garments placing her normal attire into the rucksack. Donning her backpack she places each of the daggers (in their sheaths of course) into the 2 large pockets on either side of her suit and lays down in the shade awaiting nightfall. As dusk approaches, she arises, shakes off the leaves attached to her clothing and begins approaching the wall. Deciding caution is necessary, she skirts around the wall until she is in the least visible position to be seen (or so she hopes). She nears the wall and taking 2 of her daggers out of her pockets and their sheafs she examines the wall for what she hopes will be the easiest ascent. Deciding where she will begin she places each dagger into 2 gaps either side of her body and her feet into another 2 holes and begins her ascent. Inch by inch, feeling for the gaps she climbs and reaches, carefully removes the blades and inserts them into the next cranny. Then doing the same with her feet. 20 feet is not very tall, only 20 times 12 inches but by the time Chook has reached the top she is exhausted and feels she had scaled 5000 feet not a mere 20. BUT she has done it. She has breached the wall. Taking of her backpack to use as a pillow and laying down on the battlement she begins to plans her next part of the rescue.

2) Locate and reach the Palace Grounds and the Royal Greenhouses. You will want the one that looks to house the most exotic plants, else Chiri would have had the plants already.

After a slight respite Chook gazes around her. Not being able to see anything in the darkness, she curls up on her side, rests her head on her pillow once again on the backpack and attempts to get some proper rest. As dawn approaches Chook does some stretching exercises to get the kinks out of her body. She puts her pack on her back and looks around. She notices a ladder left leaning against the inside wall several yards away and heads towards it and climbs down. She wishes that there had been one on the opposite side as well. Using buildings and trees as cover she cautiously begins her search for the palace grounds. Assuming that the palace would be the most ostentatious building in the city and in a prime location she gazes around and notices a expansive building, towering over the others ahead and to her left and proceeds that way. YES!!!! The palace grounds are just in front. Carefully she arrives at the fenced structure and stealthily walks the outer boundary. She notices a gate with workers entering into the palace yard, and also notes that the gate does not latch properly every time it is closed. There is a large weeping willow close to the opening with long, danging branches that would give her good cover so she goes in that direction and into the greenery. As each new person takes a key from their pocket, unlocks the gate, enters and re-closes the opening, she scurries from concealment and over to the portal to see if it is properly locked.
She notices as she watches the entries that they are all carrying some sort of gardening implement such as a spade, a hoe, shears etc which must mean that the greenhouses are in the close vicinity. After about a dozen checks on the latch she is in luck, the gate is not locked. Entering she quickly heads to a group of shrubs which will provide a hiding spot as she surveys the grounds. Here she finds a straw hat, gardening gloves and a shovel obviously left by someone. She quickly grabs them putting on the hat and glasses. She also hears a soft whine and peering into the shadows, sees a small shape which looks like a dog. Holding out her hand she encourages the dog to her. Giving him some comforting pats she notices a collar upon which a name tag is attached. Scout. She looks at the dog saying 'You are Scout?' The pup gazes into her eyes and nods his head. "I have heard your name before. You are Chiri's companion." Another nod of the head. "Do you want to join me on my adventure? It will be much better than being here." Again the dog inclines his head and off they head. There is a path along which workers are traveling. The path only heads in one direction, to the left. Hoping the disguise is enough to fool anyone she may come across she walks along the track. After 10 minutes or so she has found the royal greenhouses with 4 walkways heading to the north, east, south and west. Stopping and taking a deep breath she inhales the air in each direction, and notices a subtle difference in each. One has the scent of herb and spices, one roses, one fruity and one an aroma she could not quite describe other than exotic. This scent comes from the east, and as dogs have a great scent of smell confers with Scout who agrees and so they goes that way. At the end of the path is a greenhouse filled with wonderful plants, many unknown in Piazza and certainly not native to Balihee. Azalea, Bougainvillea, Brunfelsia, Cycad, Crepe Myrtle, Frangipani, Gardenia, Oleander, Hibiscus to name a few. This certainly has to be what she was looking for and more importantly at the present time it is vacant. "Scout I need your help locating the plants that Chiri needs. Can you go find the ones that she needs. I know you can do it." Bowing his head Scout begins sniffing at each plant, giving each a shake of his body, signifying no. Then he stops and sniffs again giving a small bark. Chook goes and collects the plant that excited him. His enthusiastic bark occurs several times throughout his traversing the greenhouse and each time Chook gathers the appropriate plants.

3) Defeat the sentries as quietly as possible. At least one for each warrior. Consider them to be good, but mot outstanding fighters.

Chook and Scout stood in the shadows of the castle wall and watched the sentries taking up their defensive positions. There was not a many as she thought there would have been, but then the castle was in a strategic location and the sentries had a 360 degree view over the the land. Obviously there were very few attempts on breaching of the wall as some of the sentries were laying down their weapons and doing exercises, some were sitting down on the battlement and dealing cards from a pack. Testing their responses she tossed a stone over the wall. Immediately the guards had picked up their artillery, pointing towards where the stone had landed. 'Not going to be quite as easy as I thought,' she said to Scout. Settling down on the ground, she waited till once again the sentries were relaxed, then studied them in detail. She noticed after a while that a group on the ground seemed more interested in studying the women hanging out the clothes, gathering herbs or taking care of their charges than they were in paying attention to the wall. She and Scout made their way towards them. One of the men left the group and heading towards some shrubbery (to have a pee Chook assumed). Chook headed that way also. As his stream was in full flight, Chook grabbed his head from behind, leant his head back and quickly and silently, slit his throat, from ear to ear, with a dagger. Now to get the others attention so she could scale the wall. She noticed one of the nannies gossiping with another, not having seen that the child in the pram had tossed away its' teddy bear, Chook told Scout to quickly go and get the bear and drop so that the sentries on the wall would see it. This Scout did and returned to Chook, who placed him in her backpack. The child began howling its' lungs out for the bear and the sentries on the battlement just as eager to impress a woman as the ground based ones, descended the closest ladder, all attempting to get to the toy first. This was the chance Chook needed. She waited till the last guard had reached the ground and thrust the dagger into his stomach. Enough to kill him but not until he had screamed for a while. Now there were 2 diversions. Chook quickly reached the ladder and climbed it in double time. On the battlement she glanced around quickly locating some greenery that may break her fall. Seeing a patch of thick shrubs she made her way towards it. Holding her breath and closing her eyes she jumped.

4) Defeat one Hiss Elite. they are burly and aggressive. but you may be able to use that to your advantage.

Little did Chook expect that there would be danger on the other side of the wall but after traversing a few 100 yards she was well aware that her challenges had not passed. Not only was the castle protected from the inside, the battlement but also from the outside. And the outside protectors were Hiss Elite. The crème de la crème. Burly and aggressive. There to stop people getting into the castle, not escaping from it, which may play to her advantage. Watching them she noticed that each Hiss had a set patch of ground to safeguard and they also all had the same pattern of movement. One marched up and one marched down, north and south, both did an about turn and proceeded in the opposite direction, met in the middle then proceeded east and west, about turned, met in the middle and repeated the pattern. Chook weighed up her options. There was only one ... to fight. But which one? It had to be an Elite on the beat ... (I'm a poet but didn't know it) ... going away from the castle to the south. That way she would be closest to safely or so she hoped. She surveyed her surroundings and as luck would have it a small patch of briar was where 2 of the Elite met in the middle. She waited till they were on the east / west trek and ran for the thicket, diving head first into its' midst. 'Not the brightest thing to do' she thought to herself as she began pulling thorns out of her skin. Taking Scout out of her backpack she instructed him on what she wanted him to do after she had given him a drink of water from her bottle. The dog nodded cautiously but bravely. Waiting till the Hiss had passed on the outwards journey and was nearing the end of his track, she gave to nod to Scout, who bravely took off and proceeded to attract the guards attention by yapping, biting at his leg, getting under his feet. While Scout was doing an excellent job of distracting the guard, Chook took her sword from its scabbard and quickly and quietly as she could she approached. But her quietly was not quiet enough. The guard gave a quick kick of his foot and knocked the wind out of Scout. Then turned holding his sword 2 handed and taking up a fighting position, faced Chook. Chook faced the Hiss also with her sword held 2 handed. They both bowed to each other and then the battle began. The warrior feinted to his left and Chook tried a Leap-and-hold but failed. Chook received a nick along the ankle. Chook shook her head to clear her brain and thought I am there to attack, kill, destroy, win. I can do this. But the guard quickly positions his sword behind him, and makes an arc to cut your Chook. Chook moved swiftly to the left and the sword only did minor damage to her arm. This swordsman ship went on. Toing and froing, parrying and feinting. The Hiss closes the distance with sword raised preparing for what appears to be a mighty overhead strike. Chook with sword raised also, directs a hard kick to the warriors groin, her sword raised to intercept the sword if the kick is unsuccessful. WOOSH!!!!!!!!!!! The air goes out of the Hiss's lungs and holding into his testicles down he goes. Chook mercifully holds her sword 2 handed, raises it and beheads the guard. This is much kinder than the torture he would have received back at the castle for failing in his duty. Gathering up Scout, who is slowly returning to consciousness, she rapidly departs the scene.

5) Locate Chiri in the "secret garden" where Meowlivia (Miss Hiss) is holding her. You may have Scout with you, nut make sure to protect him. Consider Miss Hiss to be your most formidable opponent. She is a trained combatant. You may choose swordplay, hand-to-hand, whatever. (Getting your Ninja on is acceptable or you can do Zorro--Miss Hiss will match you.

Chook has decided that Chiri would not be held in the castle grounds but somewhere else on the island. The reason for this ... Scout would have objected majorly had Chiri still been in the grounds at the castle when Chook decides to leave. But where is she being held? That is the question. It would be out of the way of normal traffic and isolated, but at the same time pleasant enough for Chiri. Scout has returned to full consciousnesses and is looking around alertly fully aware that he will soon be reunited with Chiri. Chook removes him from her backpack, gives him a drink of water from her bottle and allows him to freely walk around. She is positive that his instincts will lead in the right direction. After relieving himself, he cocks his head and sniffs the air. He turns his head this way and that and sniffs again. Looking at Chook he gives a bark and sets off. She follows. It is a slow trip with Scout stopping to sniff the ground and then the air every few minutes. Finally they arrive at a beautiful, peaceful glade surrounded by a forest of trees. If Scout had not led the way Chook would have bypassed it as it was virtually invisible to a passerby. Following a path a garden is revealed, full of the most glorious plants imaginable. There in the foreground was Chiri wandering through the greenery and there also was Miss Hiss, watching over her like a hawk. This was an unforeseen problem. She had expected some sort of guard but not the most formidable combatant around. Nothing to do but to suck it up and see what transpires. Having a quiet word to Scout she tells him to stay clear of Miss Hiss but keep within range of Chiri as when she has engaged Meowlivia in battle, Scout should lead Chiri into the forest where hopefully Chook will join them later. Chook points to a large pine towering over the other trees and says that is the meeting place. If she had not joined them by the time the sun is heading towards the horizon, to lead Chiri to safety. Chook takes a deep breath and enters the garden. Scout stays where he is. Deciding on a straight approach Chook walks in a straight line towards the cat who instantly on seeing Chook, draws her sword and takes a defensive stance. Scout sees that Hissie is preoccupied with Chook and bounds straight towards Chiri leading her to the safety of the forest, but not before showing her the exotic plants in Chooks' backpack that is on the ground. Chiri beams, kisses Scout and follows. Chook decides to adopt a The Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu Technique. A Samurai stance of holding both herkatana and wazikashi overhead poised to attack. The swords being coordinated within the technique so that one is always defending while the other is attacking. This worked for a bit but then Miss Hiss changes her attack mode to that of Shurikenjutsu (throwing blades). Chook managed to avoid vital damage but sustained some rather nasty wounds. The change of attacks went on and on, each opponent not bettering the other. Both were getting weary and the sun was setting. Soon it would be to late for the rendezvous at the tree. Chook tried deception as a last option. Hissie goes for a head shot. Chook stumbles and falls, but in her hand is a dagger. As Miss Hiss comes in for the kill, Chook Ninja jumps up to her feet and savagely stabs the dagger into her heart. Weary, dirty and just goddam tired of all the shit that she has gone through, she gathers up her backpack and slowly makes her way towards the pine.

Mischievous Angels Assemble!! As the zeppelin descended to the drop point, Jeice and Torchy could barely contain their excitement. Torchy raised his head and Jeice, sensing what's to come gently put a hand over his muzzle "Shh, easy my friend. We have to be quiet, remember?"

Torchy's tail stopped its anxious swishing, and the dragon nodded in understanding. "I know it's hard my friend, but no shouting, no squealing or roars. Silence is needed right now."

Anna and Storm did not look pleased with this arrangement at all. Anna paid special attention to the instructions for the parachute, in between fidgeting as Storm was securely strapped to her. She took a deep calming breath and let it out in a sigh. "Why are we doing this again?"

"For the adventure, and to save the kit!" Jeice smirked as she was outfitted with her own parachute "Ooh...I'm ready, let's go!"

Torchy growled and all but dove out the door, and Jeice put her hands on Anna's shoulders and rushed her out the door. "Allons-y!" She grinned as they fell out and were whooshing through the air.

"Ooh I don't like this!" Anna said, closing her eyes for a moment as Storm let out an alarmed yip.

Jeice chuckled as Torchy turned one lazy circle around them, then swooshed down to fly close to the ground. "Don't worry, we're almost there! Now pull your cord!"

Anna did so and gasped as her descent was suddenly slowed. Jeice did the same and giggled as they drifted safely to the ground. "That was so much fun!" The ranger stage-whispered.

"Speak for yourself!" Anna whispered back, before trying to untie Storm. "Give me a hand with this bloody tie would you please?" She grumbled as Storm squirmed. The two of them quickly managed to free the wolf and he landed lightly and trotted off, sniffing his way toward a huge wall.

"Hm, now how are we going to get up and over that without being noticed?" Jeice whispered, eyeing the high wall with very few nooks and crags to use for climbing. Torchy gave a soft chuff and rose up on his hind legs. With what could only be described as a self-satisfied smirk the dragon was of course able to dig his claws into the small cracks and climb a few feet. "Showoff," Jeice muttered quietly. "That's just great, but what about the rest of us?" She glanced around and gestured toward Anna and Storm.

Anna pondered for a moment, then set down her bag and started rummaging around. She set what looked like some kind of a harness and muzzle on the ground, then held up a jar of cream-colored powder and a bottle of water. "I've got just the things! But first..." She sighed and picked up the harness and muzzle, walking toward Storm, who hunched his back and growled softly. "I know I know, you hate being carried, but it's the only way."

Torchy bounced over and headbutted Jeice's shoulder, and the ranger shook her head. "No, I don't think he'd like you trying to carry him by the scruff of the neck any better than that harness my friend."

Storm whirled around and seemed to glare at both of them, looking as offended as a wolf possibly could.

"Alright, there's you, and yes," Anna fussed quietly as Storm protested and grumbled over his muzzle. "You always try to nip and bark when you're in the harness, not this time." She put a finger to her lips. "Shhh, quiet, remember?"

"So," Jeice looked from the now trussed-up wolf to the wall. "What about us?"

"I've got it, don't worry." Anna whipped out a small bowl and mixing brush, adding the powder, then the water to the bowl. A strange smell emanated from the bowl. "This will make our hands sticky enough that we can climb that wall like a pair of spiders!"

Jeice tilted her head and chuckled, impressed. "Interesting idea. How long will this..stickiness last?"

"Oh shoot, I almost forgot!" Anna quickly dug into her bag and drew out a small vial of bluish liquid. "Better keep that within easy reach." She hung the vial from her neck with a leather cord and then picked up the straps on one side of the harness. "Okay, let's get ready, shall we?" She dipped her fingertips in the bowl, smeared a bit on the toes of her shoes, then pressed her hands together once, twice, then had to fight them apart the third time with a grunt. "Ready."

Jeice grinned and eagerly did the same, smearing some on the toes of her boots before gathering up her half of the harness straps, then dipping her fingers into the bowl and smearing the concoction over her palms. "Let's go!"

Torchy immediately started scuttling up the wall, sneakily making his way up to the top and looking around to make sure there were no sentries posted close enough to see them, he scooted over and down the other side, waiting for the others.

Jeice and Anna both began climbing. "You," Anna puffed, already feeling the weight of the wolf halfway up the wall. "Are going on a diet when this is over." Storm growled low in response, glaring at her.

Jeice grinned as they neared the top. "That sounds familiar." She whispered, peering up to make sure it was safe before helping Anna and Storm over the top while keeping the harness from tangling. They made it to the ground safely, and, after applying the second liquid to de-sticky their hands and feet, began stealthily making their way through the darkened streets.

"What are we supposed to do again?" Anna asked quietly.

"We need to find the palace grounds and the Royal Gardens where Chrii would have gone to get plants for alchemy," Jeice whispered back. Anna and Storm looked at each other, and then Storm started sniffing around. "No worries, we'll find that garden in no time."

They wound their way carefully and quietly through the streets until they approached what seemed to be the palace grounds. "Big, fancy place, extremely pretty landscaping? I'd say this is it." Jeice murmured, then tensed as she sensed stealthy movement around them. "Seems we've got some company." She growled as she drew her swords and Torchy flexed his claws and spread his wings.

Four armed sentries emerged from the shadows and everyone went to work. Anna quickly drew a couple of small bottles from her bag and uncorked them, rushing around the area, spreading a thick, grey fog that would not only keep the ensuing battle from being seen but dampen sound so they wouldn't attract any more attention.

Jeice and Torchy went to work, Torchy's thrashing tail and flailing wings making quick work of one sentry, while the nimble ranger leaped up and drop-kicked a second in the chest. When he fell back, she darted forward and struck him with the hilt of one sword across the head, knocking him out. The third and fourth decided to chase the alchemist, and Jeice and Torchy scrambled to intercept them.

Anna saw one coming her way and stepped back into the fog. Storm rushed him from behind and hit him in the back of the legs, knocking him onto his back and Anna reached into her bag, taking out a big heavy flashlight. "Think you can sneak up on me, eh?" She smirked, then promptly knocked him out cold with one blow.

Jeice and Torchy tackled the final sentry before Jeice got him in a headlock and held on until he passed out from lack of air. "Whew, that takes care of them!" She got up and dusted herself off as Torchy stretched and yawned. Suddenly Storm and Torchy turned and sniffed the air. "What is it?"

A tiny yip sounded in the fog and a small dog came into view, looking at them nervously.

"Aw, this must be Scout!" Anna cooed at him gently, offering him a small bit of food from her bag. The dog wagged his tail, taking the offering and a few pets, before he started moving away, looking back over his shoulder. "I think he wants us to follow him." She said. "I bet he knows where we can find Chrii." As soon as Anna said her name the small dog started running, but Jeice ran after him and scooped him up quickly. "Oh no you don't." The ranger muttered, handing the tiny dog off to Anna. "We don't need you being eaten by one of those guards."

They started moving again, keeping to the shadows as Storm started to catch the scent of exotic plants. They slunk along one wall quietly, when they heard what sounded like someone sniffing the air. Suddenly at the end of their path, a much larger guard appeared.

This one was much bigger, and with different armor than the others. He also looked a LOT meaner. "Oh boy, I don't like this," Anna whispered.

"I do." Jeice grinned and Torchy let out a low growl. They rushed forward and engaged the large, aggressive elite guard.

Anna watched her friends for a moment, and she winced when the ranger and dragon were thrown in opposite directions after trying to tackle him. Suddenly she had an idea. "I think..." She smirked as she pulled out a small bottle, opened it, and threw its contents at the elite's feet. "We need to pull the rug out from under you." The potion changed some of the stone under his feet to a sticky, viscous goo, and the elite sank up to his knees in the muck.

Just as he was about to let out a shout, or maybe a yowl? Torchy darted forward and headbutted him, knocking him out cold. "Nice one." Jeice grinned, dusting herself off as she rejoined her friends. "Let's go get our rescuee."

They approached several lovely greenhouses, and Jeice sighed. "How are we supposed to know which one she's in?"

Storm darted ahead and began sniffing around each of the greenhouses, his nose well trained to detect rare plants for all Anna's alchemy needs. Suddenly he perked up and trotted ahead. He led them to a greenhouse that, if you didn't know what you were looking for, you might overlook it.
"Oh my gosh, that's it." Anna nodded, looking in through the glass, already able to see several varieties of plants she'd love to grab a few clippings of. "We definitely have to get in there, I need... I mean, we need to rescue Chiri!" She added quickly, ducking her head and looking sheepish for a moment. Storm nudged her leg and gave her a sideways look as if to say 'Uh-huh.'

"I don't see Chiri yet, let's see if there's a side or back entrance," Jeice whispered.

They all crept as quietly as they could around the greenhouse until they came to a semi-hidden door. "This looks good," Jeice said, then frowned when she realized it was tightly locked.

"Hm, let me try," Anna whispered, pulling a couple of slender pins from her hair and deftly picking the lock. "There we go, after you."

Jeice smirked at her. "I see you've done that a few times before."

They crept inside, Torchy and Storm sneaking through the foliage on each side as Jeice silently moved forward, Anna bringing up the rear watching for guards. Suddenly Scout raised his head and whined very softly.

"Oh, that must be her!" Anna whispered as they spotted the kit sitting on a bench looking very worried. Anna let Scout down to run to her and rushed forward herself to see to Chiri's well-being. "Don't worry, we're here to rescue you."

"Oh really?" A smug voice sounded behind them and they both whirled around to face its owner. "This is all they muster up for a rescue party? Pathetic."

Anna ran over to Chiri, and Jeice pulled out her swords with a grin. "I'm going to enjoy making you eat those words." The ranger growled and rushed Miss Hiss.

Thrusts, parries, and a few clangs could be heard, and Jeice found herself impressed with her opponent's skill. Soon enough each of them was down to one sword, and Jeice decided to try a different tactic. She pulled out her expandable bo staff and twirled it around quickly, dropping into a wide stance. Miss Hiss chuckled, then grabbed a long length of wood out of the ground, used for propping up larger plants. A few wooden clacks were heard as they fought, Jeice using anything she could for an advantage, trees, benches, a small brick wall for height but Miss Hiss was very well trained and quite skilled.

Jeice gasped as her bow was knocked from her hand, and she returned the favor by kicking the wood from her opponent's grasp a moment later. They faced each other a moment, both of them winded and a bit sweaty.

"You won't win." Miss Hiss said confidently, straightening her posture and raising her head. "I have an army."

Jeice raised her eyebrows. "And we have a Torchy."

Miss Hiss had just enough time to furrow her brow in confusion before something grabbed her by the ankle and pulled hard, dragging her off her feet before body-slamming her into the soil. Then she was tugged at again, arms flailing in the air before she was again slammed into the dirt. She made a soft, pained noise as Jeice walked by, unable to do anything but stare as the ranger gave her a smirk on the way by.

One Purred-Off Tom and a Stealth Mission: An Archer's Rescue.

 Sophie hiked to the area outside the city and got to the 20 foot wall she had to find a way to get over and sighed. "How am I ever going to do this? I'm just an archer. Wait. I have an idea." She got to a hidden area near the wall where she couldn't be seen and started crafting a grappling hook out of 4 of her arrows. She bent them then reinforced them so they would not break, attached the hook to what she tried to measure as 25 feet of rope,  then tried to throw the hook onto something and tried to make it stick. After what felt like a million tries, she managed to hook it onto one of the parapets along the wall. "Okay, here goes nothing, let's see if I can get over this without being spotted...I am spry enough that I think I can avoid detection." 
 
 As she climbed, she started wondering about what plants she needed to look for in the green house in order to find the most exotic...she couldn't look for plain plants like sunflowers, daisies, and lilacs, rather weird plants like venus flytraps and certain types of cacti were more of the types she needed to find.  However, are cacti exotic? She guessed they could be depending on what type they were. Botany was supposed to be one of her specialties, but right now she had to concentrate on climbing the wall and getting past the sentries.  She couldn't help but wonder how she'd get past them, and if one of them would pull the "answer my question and you may pass" crap that she got a few towns ago. She wasn't the most intelligent archer out there, but she knew that she could outwit these so-called sentries.  
  She made it to the top of the wall and quietly snuck from the path up on the wall and then down a bunch of spiral stairs and finally reached the palace grounds and found herself close to being accosted by a sentry. "Phew, that was close,", she thought. "Hopefully things will keep going this smoothly."  Just as she finished that thought, she got to the Royal Greenhouses and started slowly surveying what she could make out through the greenhouse windows.  The first one she came upon had a bunch of very common fruits and vegetables. It wasn't that one. Next, she came upon a greenhouse with quite ordinary flowers - the ones previously mentioned and quite a few more normal kinds of blooms. It's not that one either. However, the one across from it looked interesting, especially since it seemed to have ivy and other viny plants and such growing on the inside of the windows. Just as she started to head to that greenhouse, she was spotted by a very tall, very muscular and blonde, and sort of nice looking, sentry. "Where do you think you're going?!," he shouted at Sophie. 

 Sophie looked up at him and said "Apparently nowhere fast, since you're in my way. I'd suggest you get out of my way before I put an arrow through your neck." The sentry glared at her and refused to budge. "I'm not going anywhere, and I suggest you plan on staying where you are for awhile too until the help I signaled for arrives. Besides, what could a creature like you do to someone like me anyway? You're tiny compared to me, and besides, you're female. I'm not scared of some wannabe archer woman." Sophie glared at him and started getting incredibly angry. The fire in her eyes was starting to burn her cheeks. "You had best get out of my way or I will have to take you out," she said in a voice that scared even herself quite a bit, one that she had rarely heard in the past unless she was set off in anger like this sentry had just triggered in her. "Forget you," said the sentry. I am NOT afraid of you! Go ahead and try." He held his sword and pointed it at her. She noticed that his equipment was sufficient, but not necessarily the best quality armor and such that someone like him could have. She'd seen much better. 
  Sophie just kept glaring at him, reared up with her bow and pulled out an arrow. She then pulled out a torch and lit it, and then attached the torch to the arrow she was preparing to shoot at the sentry. "Oh, wait, I didn't know you had stuff like that," said the now shaking sentry. "Please don't hurt me, I have a family! I have kids! Please lady!," he pleaded.  "Too late, you jerk," Sophie exclaimed. "You have set me off and there's no way to switch THAT off other than your demise." She shot the arrow and nailed the sentry in the left chest. As his horrible armor burned up and the layers underneath started smoldering, he screamed in agony and she walked past him and moved on to the greenhouse. She had work to do and had no time for this sentry's array of excuses and begging for relief. 

 Once she got to the entrance of the greenhouse that contained the exotic plants, she noticed that the door to the greenhouse was cracked open very slightly.  "Why would they ever leave this cracked open like this? Are they expecting me?" Before she could open the door, she heard a very loud meow and hissing noise behind her. She turned to see this huge cat standing  behind her, again, armored fairly decently but not too awfully well. She wondered for a second why they even bothered to armor these furry soldiers so shoddily. No time for thinking that way though.  Sophie looked up at the burly creature that was now confronting her so rudely. "What exactly can I do for you? What do you want?" The creature that looked like a cat in crude armor responded with a furious look on its face. "Who are you and what the hissssss are you doing here?! You're intruding on Royal property and it'ssssss my job to get you out of her. Meowwwww, I hope you can handle claws if you don't comply with my orders." *HISS*

Sophie laughed. "You're really coming at me with hisses and veiled threats? You're not a very elite Hiss guard if you have to use such lofty language to try to scare me. I have an idea. How about you get out of my way and I won't douse you with water arrows and cause you to run off like a scared kitten." The Hiss Elite looked a bit frightened, but gazed back at her and said "Water doesn't scare me. Don't you know? Not all cats hate water! We of the Hiss Elite corps are trained to deal with water along with most other elements. That does not scare me." Sophie cackled. A cat not afraid of water? Hmmm. She'd have to work around this one.

 All of a sudden, she noticed over near the back of one of the greenhouses, a brook flowed by. She figured it was around to help keep all of the flowers watered. She checked her pack and found she had some fish hanging around in her food stores. She took a couple out and placed them in the brook. Even though they were dead, they could possibly look living enough to fool the Hiss Elite. "Hey Hiss, come here a second. Maybe we can work this out." The Hiss Elite meowed loudly and said "What do youuuu mean work it out?" and wandered over to where she had moved over to near the brook. As they went to speak again, they spotted the fish that Sophie placed into the brook. "Meowwwwww that's my favorite kind of fish, I didn't know those lived in the brook!" and dove in paws and head first into the brook to get the fish. When they did that, Sophie took advantage of their distraction by the fish and smacked the Hiss Elite in the head with a large rock. The Hiss Elite was knocked out, and floated down the brook and away from her. "That takes care of him," she thought. "Now to the Greenhouse, where I can finally help Chiri out of their predicament and take out Miss Hiss." 
 As she walked into the greenhouse, she heard Chiri verbally berating Miss Hiss. "Someone will be along soon to rescue me and they're gonna take you out. You'll be sorry you held me in the first place." Miss Hiss, also known as Meowlivia, was beautiful but not all that smart, according to the intel that Sophie had on her. She was a trained combatant like Sophie, but would she be able to defeat Sophie? To Sophie, it was doubtful because she felt that what Miss Hiss had in combat skills, she lacked in intelligence and logic. Why else would she have captured Chiri? As she moved closer to the back of the greenhouse, the closer the voices she was hearing got. Finally, she saw a hatch in the greenhouse floor. "Hmm. I wonder why they didn't cover this up better. Maybe they wanted me to find it?," Sophie mused. "Let's see if this is really where they are or if a trick is being played on me." 

 As she went down into the underground garden, she had Chiri and Miss Hiss in her sights. She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to defeat Miss Hiss and rescue Chiri, but she was sure going to try. "Miss Hiss!" Sophie yelled. "Get away from Chiri right now, you minx. I said NOW." Miss Hiss laughed at Sophie. "This is what they send to rescue Chiri, a glorified archer with a tiny bit of additional combat talent?! Oh, purr-lease. It'll be cat's play to make easy work of disposing of you. I honestly thought they'd send someone bigger." Sophie scowled at that burning remark from Miss Hiss, who honestly wasn't that much bigger than she was. What Miss Hiss didn't have, however, is the curse of burning anger that once triggered in Sophie, wouldn't let up until her opponent was defeated. "Miss Hiss, LET CHIRI GO NOW or face the consequences. I don't have time for your monologing and cat talk. LET THEM GO." Miss Hiss, now armed with a similar bow and arrow to Sophie's, was ready to fight and apparently finally done trying to sell Sophie on how amazing and good she was at combat. "Who can shoot first, Sophie? A slow archer like you, or a faster pussycat like me? Let's find out --" As Miss Hiss went to prepare her arrow and aim it at Sophie, Sophie had already prepared, aimed, and started to fire at Miss Hiss. Her anger and fire had been triggered by the fact that Miss Hiss called her slow. She was nowhere near slow. Yes, she took her time when she wasn't burning with anger, but now she had no time or ability to take it slowly. As she watched the fire arrow hit Miss Hiss in the right leg, she wondered if one arrow would be enough. "Meowwwwwwwwwchhhhhh, that burnsssss, why did you fire already? That wasn't fair!" Miss Hiss shot back with a regular arrow at Sophie, but completely missed her and hit the floor instead. "I demand to try again, I wasn't ready," whined Miss Hiss. Sophie just glared at her with fire in her eyes. "I don't think so, Miss Hiss. Don't use that against me, I won't fall for it." As she went to fire another arrow, Miss Hiss fired her second arrow, another plain arrow, and barely missed Sophie's foot. Sophie shot back, with a metal arrow and while using her crossbow this time. As the fire continued in Sophie's eyes, she knew that she had to take her second shot, otherwise it might be her last. Sophie took aim and took what might be her last shot. She took Miss Hiss out with a shot to her shooting arm, just above the one that hit her in the leg. "Mewwwwwwwowwwwww that hurt worse than the first one, why did you do that?! This wasn't a fair fight!"  Guards, get me out of here. Take Chiri. They aren't worth me dying."  Sophie laughed as the fire went out in her eyes. "Come on Chiri, let's get out of here. We'll have to a lot of sneaking around, but if my gut is right, we shouldn't have any issue getting out of here the way I came in."  She and Chiri got as far as the wall she climbed up, then she tied Chiri to her side and climbed down the rope for both of them. "Just rest now, dear Chiri," Sophie said. "I've got you."

A Soggy Stealthy Steve Saga

Sorn's lips curled up in a deep satisfied smile as the briefing wrapped up. He'd tuned out whilst someone was droning on about exactly whom they were saving--and whilst he couldn't careless about the actual rescue part, he was delighted about all the other details. The sorcerer slipped his thin nimble fingers into his bag and began pulling out black clothing. He was naked before anyone had a chance to prevent the uninhibited drow from changing in public. After giving everyone a chance to enjoy this "gift," he dressed with such grace and speed that it was as if one moment he was naked and the next he was not. The all black figure hugging attire was nearly seamless with his body, giving the appearance that the clothing had been poured on his onyx coloured skin. Even his boots were slim and formfitting. Next, he slid a dagger inside each of his boots, which were lined with sheaths for stealth. He then fastened another dagger along his left hip, with his crossbow on his right. Yet another dagger was sheathed on his right leg. He placed his bag of holding on his back. His double ended sword then nestled on his spine in a sheath that opened at the side completed the intimidating look.

It was raining by the time the trio arrived at the location. Sorn stepped into the cold wet night as if there was not a single care in the world. He approached the 20 foot wall now facing them. There were many ways to infiltrate compounds with stealth without the aid of magic. Having been a former High Priest of the spider goddess, he had been trained in numerous methods of infiltration, stealth and of course weapons usage. In fact, this was a situation that was completely inline with all of Sorn's training and race born traits. Drows were creatures of the dark after all and thrived in raiding the surface towns, villages and cities under the cloak of night.

Sorn carefully traced his delicate fingers along the wall. Neither his fingers nor his dark vision detected anything nefarious. "I sense no traps," he whispered. "It will be safe to climb." Without further ado, he pulled out two of his daggers and began scaling the wall, pushing the tips of the blades into tiny crevices within the aged mortar. He probably looked like a bizarre tree frog as he took his time finding foot holds before shifting the next blade into its spot and pushing himself forward. He made way up the wall in short order. The rain was now coming down harder. Sorn took one of his knives and jammed it into the bricks at the top of the wall. Then he pulled out a long, thin rope from his bag and lashed it to the knife before throwing the remaining rope down to Alfred. Surely the werewolf would need a hand getting up it, right? Perhaps so would Galena. Even so they could simply use the rope to repel down the other side and into the compound.

Alfred started to rummage through his bag for some items that might come in handy, when he realised Sorn was .... erm.... well.... standing there naked. Alfred didn't come into contact with people (or Drows for that matter) all that often, and still found himself struggling to get to grips with Sorn's uninhibited nature. While Sorn was attracting attention, Alfred took the opportunity to slip out of sight to change. A few minutes later, Alfred reappeared dressed all in black, with a black mask covering his mouth. Scooping up some mud, he added a few drops of something from his bag to it, before smearing it across his face and the blade of the knife he'd tucked into his jacket. "It's a waterproofing just in case it rains," he explained, "non-magical of course, seeing as I don't want to set off any alarms".

--

Thankful for the waterproofing he'd added to his muddy camouflage, Alfred's heart sank as he looked up at the seemingly never-ending wall in front of them. Watching Sorn deftly climbing the wall, Alfred wondered just how much of a prat he'd look when he tried - he was definitely more at home with his feet on the ground. As Sorn reached the top, Alfred was seriously considering using some of his alchemy ingredients to blast a small hole in the wall so he could climb through, although he knew it would draw far too much attention to them if he did. Sighing with relief as a rope came snaking down the wall, Alfred looked over at Galena and tried to look more confident than he was feeling, "do you want to go first, or shall I?"

Coda noticed what Sorn was doing and smirked internally as she was perceiving some of his surface thoughts boiling out into the public realm. 'He's so cocky,' she thought to herself. It amused her and purred while she sat watching Sorn undress, dress and prepare for infiltration. Meanwhile, Galena was basically covering herself with a thick cloak that she pulled out of her bag. It was the only waterproof item she had. She was already mostly wet soggy and angry because of being wet and cold. She pushed her anger down and watched Sorn climb the wall. 'How in the world am I going to do that?' she thought.

She gave Alfred a scowl as she realised she was going to have use the rope to ascend the edifice. Grumbling she secured Coda and like a grumpy cat began climbing her way up the wall while muttering under her breath.

Once her feet touched the ground on the other side of the wall, Galena shook her cloak of the water that had been accumulating along the shoulders and hunkered down into it deeper. She glared over at Sorn and Alfred and then the entire compound. She was pretty upset at being cold and wet out in the middle of the night in a rain storm on a dirty, wet, muddy mission. Coda, on the other hand, seemed perfectly dry and extremely happy with herself. She pranced through the rain as if having a promenade on a perfectly clear sunny day. The rain to never quite touch her.

With her arms folded underneath her cloak across her chest holding in what warmth she could, she muttered to whoever was listening, "so now what?"

Sorn was the last to descend the wall. He touched down with his perfectly dry hair billowing around him. The drow laughed softly. The sound held deep amusement in it. "How are you going to be much help if you're cowering in your cloak like a drown cat the entire time?" he asked as he placed a hand on her sodden body. Suddenly there was a faint glow and water was no longer touching her, just rolling off mere centimetres before touching her. Then he quickly dried her with a minor spell. "The water enchantment and drying spells are very low magic. It won't be enough to trigger their magic detectors. Do you need it too Alfred?" he asked the werewolf. Sorn was scanning the area. "We make our way to the palace gardens," he whispered, "locate the Royal greenhouse and take out guards on the way." He sounded like it was as mundane as buying fruit in the market. "Just follow my lead, stay low to the ground, keep in the shadows and be as quiet as possible as we progress."

Alfred wondered why Galena seemed to be in such a bad mood, but was impressed that she'd scaled the wall much easier than he felt he would be able to. Taking a deep breath he grabbed onto the rope and hauled himself up, feeling like a sack of potatoes dangling from the rope as a slight gust of wind caught him half way up the wall. Reaching the top, he tried to not look like that had been one of the most tortuous experience he'd had for a while, and concentrated on rappelling down the other side.

Alfred wasn't surprised that Sorn knew a suitably low magic way of keeping the water off. "Thanks for the offer" he replied, taking care to make his voice sound suitably grateful for the offer lest he offend Sorn accidentally, "but as long as the rain doesn't get any harder, I should be fine." He was used to being out in all weathers, and as long as the rain didn't soak into his clothing, he could cope without too much difficulty.

"Yeah that sounds easy," he muttered with just a tiny hint of sarcasm as Sorn laid out their plans.

The drow's smile of gratitude crossed her lips. "Thank you, Sorn," she whispered. "I didn't really enjoy being wet and cold. I was not prepared for it to be raining." She waited for a moment and assessed the situation. "I see your outline," she said half heartedly. She looked around again. "Well, this compound does not seem very well guarded. So let's head over there. What are you waiting for?" She giggled softly and wait at Alfred and Sorn. As she spoke she removed her cloak and put it in her bag. It was just a heavy cloak that would slow her down so she decided since Sorn had warmed her as well to protect her from the rain she did not need it anymore.

It seemed as if the sour mood was contagious though because as soon as Galena was happy it made Coda upset. She hissed at Sorn in an angry sounding mind voice, "Now why did you have to get her all dry? I was rather enjoying seeing her be slowly tortured by the cold rain. Do you know how much she hates being wet?' Coda puffed her tail and let the irritation slide off her. She was in for tirade but mostly the sarcastic banter with Sorn.

Sorn gave a slight nod to Alfred. He wasn't one to try to insist on anyone accepting a gracious offer. The werewolf knew his body and what he wanted. The drow rolled his eyes at Galena and put an arm out to block her from heading in the wrong direction. "You might be the only drow I've heard of that would need glasses," he said scoffing in a low voice. "Firstly, you are headed towards the wrong part of the compound. Look again." He pointed towards a tower. "There are guard towers fifty yards away that span the area. There's a large mass of heat sources in the form of that dense red blob in your new night vision. It is located in a large building. That's the palace grounds, I am sure of it. Now, there's another slightly less dense blob of red closer, which is likely the servant housing given that it is a significantly smaller building. Yet they are of no concern of ours. If I am right, and I am sure I am, the gardens will be behind the palace so the royals can view them and not the servant's housing. You don't look at lesser beings when you have such opulence in abundance." Sorn took a few steps in the shadows towards the large structure.

Sorn heard Coda's mind voice and was immediately annoyed. "This is neither the time nor the place in which to be joking," he hissed out loud an angry tone. "You are being petty, Coda. What good is Galena dying today going to serve?" The drow was clearly not having any of it. "I would think given that you were the one who chose to bond with her, you'd be a bit more serious when in life or death situations. Are you or are you not supposed to be tasked with protecting her? Annoy her all you wish, but do so at the appropriate times. Now shut the hell up and focus."

He would have shut Coda out of his mind, but he was opting not to simply in case she saw something he didn't. Sorn had no problem dressing the silvox down with both Alfred and Galena knowing what he said either. It was at that moment that three sentries came running up to their location. Sorn swore as he pulled out his sword from it's sheath. He was regretting bringing any of them as each of them had a sentry to deal with.

Alfred was about to say something when he saw the sentries running towards them. Ducking into the shadows a little more, he quickly eyed up the sentries, trying to estimate their fighting prowess before wading in. Sorn of course had dived straight into his fight, and Alfred had no idea how confident Galena was in fighting although he had a suspicion that she could easily hold her own in a fight. Picking a small vial from his bag, he lobbed it to the other side of the approaching sentries; the vial broke silently as it hit the ground, emitting a small flash of green light. The sentry closest to him looked round, momentarily distracted by the flash of light.

The fact that the sentry was distracted so easily gave Alfred an idea. He didn't mind fighting a competent foe, but these sentries weren't as experienced as he'd anticipated - they might be good at brute force, but they weren't overly skilled beyond that. Alfred made his move, running from the shadows brandishing his knife, although that wasn't necessarily the weapon he would be using.

The sentry was caught off-guard from his momentary distraction, and Alfred was within arm's reach by the time the sentry realised what was happening, but there was more than one way to defeat an aggressive foe. Pulling a small bottle from his pocket, Alfred took a deep breath and removed the cork from the neck of the bottle. He feinted with his knife to make the sentry think he was going to attack, then pushed the bottle under the sentry's neck armour on the opposite side so it was wedged in tight. The potion would take effect in a minute or two, but Alfred couldn't risk letting down his guard. He ducked the sentry's punch, realising at the last minute that the sentry was also shoving a knife towards his face. Ramming his fists towards the sentry's legs, the sentry stumbled backwards slightly - the potion hadn't taken effect as quickly as it would normally do.

A nagging thought in the back of Alfred's head made him wonder if he'd got the right blend of ingredients, but there would be time for speculation later. The sentry lunged again with his knife, and Alfred quickly raised his arm to block and deflect the attack. This time the sentry stumbled further, clearly struggling with the amount of effort it was taking to stand upright. Alfred ducked and weaved a little more, feeling it was more like a ballet dance than a battle with his almost graceful moves contrasting the sentry's blundering stumbles as the potion finally took effect. One final push to the sentry's shoulders was all it took to send him stumbling backwards into the wall. Alfred made sure to sit the sentry upright so it would look less suspicious if anyone did come across him - the sentry would just look like he'd dozed off.

Looking round, he watched Galena finish her battle - she could definitely hold her own when it came to fighting. "It's a knock out potion - purely alchemic, no magic involved," Alfred whispered, "he should be out for the count for at least 36 hours, although I've never tested it on someone who was quite as beefy as this guy, so it could be a little less time than that. It should still give us time to complete our mission before he realises what's happened."

The fur between Coda's shoulder blades stood up and she glared at Sorn and hissed softly. She ignored his comment and sundered off and set to watch as they met the attackers. She had her own reasons to be grumpy and was perfectly capable of watching over Galena who had put herself in danger yet again for no reason. She was going to hold this against Galena for a while because she kept doing this sort of thing--for no reason. At least no reason that she could figure out. Galena was in a mood for venturing out. Though Coda had to admit even to herself that Galena had changed in very immense ways even for the better ever since knowing Sorn. She had become more capable of taking care of herself. Perhaps that's also why Coda was feeling less useful. She shrugged it off and just watched as the three of them took on the sentries.

Galena's eyebrows rose when she heard Sorn's comment but didn't say anything. She figured whatever it was Cota deserved it. Coda had been acting rather strange lately anyways. When the sentries started attacking, Galena took three sidesteps, dropped to one knee and pulled out a hidden dagger that was sheathed in her boot and threw it at the sentry running towards her. She had been aiming for his crotch but instead hit his fly.

Galena was trying to remember the things that Sorn had taught her. She knew she was extremely weak at hand to hand combat and wasn't very well trained with that so she was trying to keep the sentry who was attacking her out of arms reach. The sentry was bleeding from the leg and limping towards her screaming profanities at her cursing her very existence. The sentry had pulled the knife out and tossed it aside. Galena smiled pleased because now there was another weapon in play. She still had plenty more where that came from. She had two more throwing knives in her hands and quickly threw them towards the attacker one hit him in the shoulder. The other bounced harmlessly off his armoured chest plate.

The sentry screamed angrily. He ran at her with his sword flashing in the rain. She stood and prepared to meet his blow. But at the last moment ducked and rolled and scissor kicked his legs out from underneath him. When she stood she had her knife in her hand and threw it swiftly at the man who was still lying on the ground. His weapon had fallen out of his grasp. The knife now was plunged deep in his throat. When she looked down, she saw the dagger quivering in his neck as blood throbbed out from around the wound. The sentry gasped before his eyes glazed over and rained pelted his body. She looked up breathlessly full of a surge adrenaline. She watched as Alfred and Soren took care of their own attacking centuries.

As she watched she quickly gathered her throwing knives and cleaned them as she received them. She could see that Sorn was easily going to take his down and Alfred had already finished. "These sentries must not have been very highly trained," she mind that towards Coda. Coda remain silent just watching, not even responding to Galena.

Sorn smiled as he pressed the button to extend the sword to it's full length. He twirled the weapon as he blocked the sentry's parry. He was going to have some fun. For the first several minutes of his battle, he merely defended. The reason was two fold. First it gave him insights to the female's thinking. He saw weaknesses in her fighting which would easily allow him to take the opponent out. Secondly, he wanted to blow off some steam. Finally he knew he could delay no longer, and disarmed her--literally. The arm flew free causing a lot of blood which was immediately diluted with the rain. Seconds after he removed her arm, he slit her throat before cutting off any chance to scream. With the task done, Sorn looked over and was a little disappointed that the other sentries had already been dispatched. He cleaned his blades and stowed the weapon in its sheath on his back.

Wordlessly he signalled for Alfred and Galena to follow him. With a crouching walk and keeping to the shadows, he made his way towards the royal greenhouses. And judging by the tall burly warrior was guarding largest of the green houses that was likely the one they wanted. He pulled out his Nunchaku from the bag. He twirled the weapon as he approached. As soon as the big burly guy saw Sorn he approached as did a sentry on either side. "Perfect," he said. "One each again." Then Sorn turned his attention back to the larger man.

Alfred was willing to let Sorn have fun with the Hiss Elite, planning on checking over his potions before they encounter Miss Hiss... he hadn't anticipated a further two sentries heading for them, especially not where they were meant to be. Waiting for a second or two, while Galena picked which sentry she wanted to fight, Alfred turned towards the other one, brandishing his knife.

Before Galena could even react, Coda had sprinted up to the nearest sentry and pounced on his face. The sentry looked extremely shocked. He let out a yell as Coda let her claws raked down his face. She mind called to Galena, 'clearly he didn't have any intent upon being scratched by a cat or he would've been wearing a better helmet.' She sent a mind laugh as she let clear of the man's flailing arms. Galena took the moment of panic and rushed in towards the sentry and tossed the knives she had at him.

She wasn't really trying to aim for anything in particular except his neck and face, her real intent was to run past him and get him to follow her even if just his guys followed her. She continued running until she leapt over a low lying shrub, tucked into a role and turned. As she turned she quickly pulled out her bow and placed an arrow and lined up ready to shoot. Meanwhile, the sentry had turned to look at her wondering what this crazy drow was doing apparently. His face was a mask of curiosity and anger. At the moment he was about to yell, he lift his arm and pointed at her but he had an arrow protruding out his chest.

Coda followed behind Galena about 10 paces while she skirted the entrance staying in the shadows holding her bow ready with another arrow in case anyone else would need a hand. She watched as Alfred and Soren took on their own battle. She would not fire an arrow unless it was desperately needed and there was a clear opening. She knew their risk.

The burly guard was far more skilled, Sorn noted, than the sentries. Sorn ducked avoiding the man's sword which swished at empty air and flung rain drops. "You know if you weren't so aggressive," he said with a laugh, "you'd be better."

"Bring your cocky face closer and I'll show you aggressive," burly replied. He twirled his sword and beckoned the drow closer.

Sorn obliged and they battled evenly for ten minutes in the ever increasing storm. Then Sorn's nunchaku wrapped around his opponent's sword. With a yank Sorn disarmed the big guy. They danced a bit longer as Burly tried to catch Sorn. But the drow was too quick. He swung his leg out and tripped the guy. Then Sorn jumped on the man's back and wrapped his nunchaku around the man's neck. He tugged hard until the big guy gasped his last breath.

As the sentry lunged towards Alfred, he realised this one was a little more experienced than the first - his knock-out potion wasn't going to be much help as a more seasoned fighter would just naturally fight against the potion's effect and be awake again within minutes. Ducking and spinning to try and disorientate his opponent, Alfred tripped over his shoe and neatly tucked into a forward roll before half-standing and turning to face the sentry. Maybe that was a little too much spinning... Crouching with his knife in hand, Alfred waited for the sentry to rush towards him again, and dived off to the side while purposefully sticking his foot out in the sentry's path. As he hoped, the sentry tripped and fell flat on his face.

Working quickly before the sentry could get back up, Alfred plunging his knife into the exact location necessary for a quick death. He didn't take any pride or pleasure in killing people, but he knew it was what had to be done to complete their mission. Of course his reactions to killing were different on a full moon - the werewolf had its own ideas about what constituted "fun." Alfred hurried over to where Galena was lurking in the shadows, ready to help on the very slight chance that Sorn needed any assistance. Alfred knew that would never be likely to happen, but thinking it made him feel helpful.

Now that the sentries and the burly guy had been dispatched it was time to get this thing finished. Not that Sorn hadn't enjoyed the mission, on the contrary he loved having a challenge. He was, however, wishing he could use more magic. Magic gave him different tools to use and added protection for his friends. At least they were all holding their own and if necessary he would risk detection by using magic to keep them safe.

Sorn slid his nunchaku back in his bag and once again removed his double bladed sword from his bag. There was no reason to assume that there wasn't someone guarding Chiri when they did find her. Sorn stood in front of the door and checked for traps before swinging the door open. It was hot and humid inside. The air held so much moisture in it that Sorn felt like he was going to choke on the initial breath he took inside. It reminded him of the caverns with lava rivers in the Underdark. Despite how used to those conditions, he despised them. There was also an overwhelming smell of a corpse inside. In the middle of the greenhouse was Chiri bound to a chair with a tall feline standing beside her looking ready for a fight. That must be Miss Hiss from the briefing.

"Get Chiri," Sorn said as he headed towards Miss Hiss. The feline was ready for him and brandished her sword. Sorn immediately began blocking her and they began a dance. It didn't take long before Sorn noticed how skilled she was. This was not going to be an easy fight. Miss Hiss had the upper hand as she began forcing Sorn backwards. He collided with a water fountain. The stone hurt his shin as he fell into it. Lying on his back in the frigid water, Sorn saw Miss Hiss lunging for a killing blow, but he kicked her hard in her chest. Then as she was pushed away, he jumped out of the fountain. The smell of rotting flesh was stronger as they crossed blades working their way in the greenhouse to an 8 foot tall exotic flower. Judging from the strength, the titan arum seemed to be giving off the pungent smell. It was Sorn's turn to get the upper hand as he backed Miss Hiss into a corner near some potted orchids. Suddenly she lobbed one of the plants at Sorn nearly knocking him out as the porcelain shattered on his skull. He staggered for a few moments. As soon as his vision returned he ran after the feline who was attempting to make her escape.

They were now back over to the chair where Chiri had been held captive. Sorn did a back flip onto the chair, narrowly avoiding another parry. He jumped and then rolled off the chair, landing in a crouch swinging his leg out and tripping her. She crashed into a shelving unit of ferns. The ferns and Miss Hiss hit the ground. Soil spilt out all over the floor but the feline rolled out of the way when Sorn went to finish her off. A trickle of blood rolled down Sorn's face as he continued his battle. Then Miss Hiss pulled out a bottle that was immiting a bright light. Sorn, a creature of darkness, was rendered blind with stabbing pain. He screamed but was unable to move or do anything. Suddenly there was a slicing pain in his upper arm as he was shoved down. Sorn laid on the ground immobile and in pain. His arm was bleeding from a deep sword gash. In his incapacity Miss Hiss made her way out of the greenhouse and disappeared into the stormy night.

Alfred noticed a repulsive smell before Sorn opened the greenhouse, and held his breath as Sorn swung open the door. Watching Sorn's reaction, Alfred quickly pulled a couple of cloths from his bag. Handing one to Galena he lobbed one towards Sorn hoping the Drow would catch it, then tied the other cloth around his face to cover his nose and mouth. The cloths were marginally magical - hardly anything for a magical society, but a human would be transfixed by the cloth's ability to prevent the worst of smells from reaching their nose. Alfred wasn't too sure how well it would work for Drows, but as a werewolf has such a keen sense of smell, it was going to be a necessity for him to wear - the wearer would still notice the smell, but not be affected by it.

He paused before entering the greenhouse, "don't suppose you have any rope?" he asked Galena. “Well," she nodded as she rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a good sturdy length of rope, "Here you go. I don't need it back so do whatever you want to it. I have more where that came from." The rope was identical to the rope Sorn had used to help them both scale the wall and repel down it.

Alfred took the rope, looping it around and tying various knots. "It's not fool proof," he whispered, "but this design of snare has been reasonably reliable. I'm hoping it'll stop either any oncoming enemies, or even Miss Hiss if she tries to escape. If someone or something gets caught in there, they'd be dangling upside-down by the ankle, which should give us a chance to deal with them before they can wriggle free."

As they entered the greenhouse, Galena realised that this greenhouse had been extremely well kept. It was difficult to get the the jungle's death flower to bloom at all, let alone in a greenhouse. She would have marvelled in awe had they not been about to be slaughtered by Miss Hiss…

Upon hearing Sorn's command, she quickly snuck off in the shadows behind a pile of dirt that was clearly meant to be put into pots and started making her way to the chair where Chiri was held. She watched as the fight between Sorn and Miss Hiss. Galena wanted to pull her arrows out and shoot them to help Sorn but decided she might miss. She wasn't very good after all.

Alfred had his knife ready to undo the ties holding Chiri to the chair, but scanned the greenhouse first to make sure there were no other fighters. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" he asked Galena, "maybe we should help Sorn with Miss Hiss first, as once Chiri is untied, that could set off any booby traps."

Galena smiled and looked at the prisoner, "Yes, we should release her. There’s not much we can do to help Sorn at the moment." She watched as Alfred cut Chiri's bonds and then ran back into the corner to watch the battle.

"Fair point," he replied, grateful that Galena sounded confident about untying Chiri first. He carefully wedged his knife in between the ropes binding Chiri's legs and cut the ropes free, while still trying to keep one eye on the battle between Sorn and Miss Hiss.

...

What the? Miss Hiss had brandished something he'd only read about in history books - Alfred hadn't realised that Angel Light was even still being created. It was also known as Holy Light, Divine Light, Angel Tears and Radiant Rays. Alfred nearly dashed after her, but the sight of Sorn lying immobilised on the greenhouse floor was more urgent to attend to.

"I can sort out that gash on his arm, but head injuries are beyond my skills," he whispered to Galena, hoping she would have suitable skills. Rummaging again in his bag which held a lot more than it appeared, Alfred finally pulled out a roll of bandage and a jar of paste. He knew that under normal circumstances Sorn would refuse any treatment point blank, but if there was an advantage to the Drow being immobilised, then being able to treat his wounds would be it. Spreading a thick layer of the paste on the bandage, Alfred wrapped it around Sorn's arm, tying it just snug enough for the bandage to stay in place through any further fighting.

When Miss Hiss brought out the holy light, Galena hiss and shrieked. She covered her eyes but was already blinded. Coda reacted instinctively and tried to shield Galena, but it was too late. Being a drow, Galena was extremely sensitive to bright lights. Though, thankfully, this blindness would not be permanent. Coda casted a guard over the child and Galena and watched Alfred and Sorn. She knew she could protect Sorn if Miss Hiss decided to kill him, though it looked like Sorn wasn't on the menu.

Sorn screamed as his arm was manipulated. Whatever was being done hurt like hell. It sounded like Alfred and Galena were there but he still attempted to get away from the werewolf's tender care. He tried to speak but no words came out as the pain from the bright light was crippling him.

With Coda's shielding, Galena’s vision had cleared to the point she could see some, but not fully. The light would have to be neutralized first. In a whisper, Galena said, "No, I am not a healer. Though it looks as though it's not anything too dangerous. Maybe a concussion. Sorn, can you hear me?" Galena asked him to see if he was responsive. If he did not respond, then she would have to shove a healing potion down him and make him drink it by force. Coda decided to pipe in at that moment and sent a mind message to Alfred. 'I can heal him, but it would take a lot of magic and I'm not sure that would be wise.'

Galena waited but Sorn didn't do anything other than mumble and seemed to be incoherently moaning in pain. "Alright, it looks as though it's a concussion with a gash. I will have to give him a healing potion." She mentioned this to Alfred while rummaging in her bag and pulling out a healing potion. She uncorked it and shoved the bottle in his mouth. Then she forced him to swallow, even though he tried to protest.

While Galena was force-feeding Sorn the healing potion, Alfred's attention turned back to the angel light. It obviously wasn't going to be extinguished by simply pouring water over it, but somehow it needed to be covered at the very least. Sifting through the items in his bag, Alfred's heart sank - nothing seemed to be suitable to cover it. Just as he was about to give up, he had a sudden flash of inspiration. Tipping everything out of the bag and wrapping it in the cloth that Sorn clearly hadn't needed, Alfred put his bag over the holy light, hoping that would be enough to block the light from affecting Sorn.

'How did that stupid cat even get a hold of Angel Light?' wondered Sorn. A light created by the forces of pure good was in his opinion just wrong. Not that he could do much about it other than lie on his back in pain. He tried to tell Galena that he was fine and did not have a concussion but that didn’t stop her, apparently. A bottle was violently plunged into his mouth and Sorn nearly choked on the accursed potion. Coughing and gasping, he suddenly had bursts of intense pain and light. It was a healing potion created by holy people and the potion was reacting to the presence of the radiant light making the pain of the healing potion working on him an even more arduous affair. Writhing in increased pain, he wanted nothing more than to have the light extinguished. Suddenly, his wish was granted and the pain levels began to subside. Even though it took a good ten minutes for his vision to clear enough for him to make out images. Ill-tempered he stood, collected his fallen sword and began leaving. Surely the other two would follow and bring their rescued victim along. As he stormed out of the greenhouse, he ripped off the bandage on his arm and tossed it to the ground. His water proof spell had worn off and cold drops of water pelted his onyx skin. Then he suddenly laughed coldly. There sopping wet was a growling, hissing cat hanging upside down from her leg. “Alfred, for this you’ve earned a bone.” His rich laughter coincided with a clap of thunder and flash of lightning. "Come on, let’s get the hell out of here.” They were right to administer healing to him…which of course made him angrier. A warm bath, piping hot steak dinner and bed—now that’s what the healer ordered. Not that wretched potion. He let the anger go with the deluge that seemed to be brewing. Best let it all wash away. They had rescued the girl and were all safe—hard to be mad at that.

Alfred was relieved that Sorn didn't seem to be suffering any lingering after-effects from the light, but made a mental note to read up more on the supposedly 'extinct' creations like that before any future adventures.

He wasn't surprised to see the bandage tossed aside, but unless Sorn washed his arm within the next hour, the paste would still work on healing his arm, even without the bandage. Resisting the temptation to poke his tongue out at Sorn, he chuckled to himself as the drow had almost read his mind, although Alfred's preference would be a steak bone that was covered in meat.

Upon exiting the greenhouse, Galena started to get extremely cold and wet again. She looked down at Coda and mind sent an image of her being an angry cat and asked, 'is there anything you can do?" Coda looked up at her and purred happily. 'Of course. All you had to do was ask,' she replied with a very happy sounding mind voice. Suddenly Galena found herself dry and warming up. Then the pair of them glanced up at the upside down Miss Hiss and laughed.

Aodh dealing with the Challenges

The bard had made sure that his flute was working as intended and had polished his memory of the different battle songs he knew. Aodh also carried a small dagger, just in case it came to hand-to-hand combat. Though he had planned to venture out with Tea, she had needed to permanently return home from this mission, so he set off to Piazza ready to save Chiri alone. Spring had insisted he take every healing potion and plant mage protection she could find, just in case he needed a backup plan.

1. The city wall was the first obstacle in his way. A disguise would not help to get through the gate and he knew it. With a sigh the bard armed himself with small little hooks, ready to use them on the nooks and cracks of the stones in the city wall. Aodh flashed a dare-devilish smile. "Time to get this started, eh? Let's see how well I remember my climbing as a child", he added and climbed higher and finally crested the large wall. Nimble as cats he dropped down on a few crates that were sitting on the other side and carefully used them to scale down and reach the floor on the other side.

~

Now in the city, the next mission was to find the Royal Grounds and then the greenhouse. Going with the obvious logic, he decided to look in the middle of the city, for surely a royal family would not be so stupid as to have their domicile too close to the wall. Aodh immediately mingled with travelers headed in the direction that he hoped the Royal Grounds would be,

2. The Palace Grounds lay in front of him in all their vastness. "Quick, this way!" Aodh muttered to himself, jumping behind cover immediately. Luckily too, for a guard was making his rounds and would have seen the intrude. Aodh then used the bushes as cover and located a path he could follow that would lead directly to the greenhouses. Eagerly he set out. He knew that he had to find the one greenhouse that held the most exotic plants, after all, it would have to be something that Chiri was interested in. After a few false tries, they finally came upon the building they were looking for, a bit off the path with the other ones, smaller in width, but it made it up in height. "Impressive..." Aodh murmured to himself as he crept closer.

~

Upon getting close enough to see the entrance, he could also see two burly wardens keeping guard, His luck had run out and they would have to actually engage with the enemy now. Aodh decided to first deal with the left, and then the right. Hoping that somehow he'd be quick enough to pull this off since he was solo.

3. Using a stone and throwing it at a nearby bush, Aodh distracted the left guard by the resulting noise. As soon as the man went to investigate, he jumped at the man, pushing a large pill of cat nip down his throat. Their aim was only to incapacitate the two, there was no reason to use lethal force and a while of catnip-induced bliss would surely serve well enough for that purpose. Even when it wore off eventually, the man would still be dazed for a long time.

~

The one on the right was just about to investigate when Adoh popped up from behind and used a sleep-inducing herb spritzed into his face to send him into a nice long catnap. Time to go. He entered and had only taken a few steps when a Hiss Elite noticed him.

4. Feeling that now he should be able to use his flute, Aodh put the instrument to his lips, imitating songbirds and using the tune to keep the foe fixed on himself, as he darted out of the way of swings and kicks. He sure could have used Tea on this one. She was the better-suited fighter of the pair, and it was hard to play the flute and also get any significant knocks in. But it seemed that nature itself was on his side in this moment, because a large nut, cut no doubt by a squirrel hit the elite on the head and caused him to whip around, giving Adoh just seconds to bring his arm across the man's head. Tying him securely under the shade of the tree, he thanked the squirrel, who clearly had no intention of helping at all, and hurried on.

~

The secret garden was a maze. Nothing however that the bard was not used to dealing with and making up for his lacking battle prowess, he was able to navigate through the little pathways and across small bridges as fast as possible. Chiri had to be here somewhere.

5. Eventually they came upon a small, almost clearing-like space, in the center of the maze. Chiri was there, but also Miss Hiss. This challenge was complicated enough for two, and he wasn't sure how he'd pull it off alone. Gently playing a soothing birdsong with just enough magic to help disguse his movements, he stretched a trap cord in the bushes and then circled around to the otherside, where he could hopefully trigger it to fall on miss hiss at the right time, if he could get her to move into place. This time Aodh did not just resort to bird calls but began to play a full-fledged battle song, inspiring confidence in himself and hopefully doubt in Miss Hiss. Knowing he would need as much magic as he could muster, he poured it into his music and danced around the pair, causing Miss Hiss to spin and snarl. "You can't possibly think you can do anything by yourself." She spat. She followed him, and he ducked and spun, slowly leading her to the trap he'd set earlier. She lunged for him, But Aodh held his dagger in his sleeve and threw it to cut the cord above them, jumping back as miss Hiss tripped and fell right into the trap.

Aodh certainly hoped that after all this, Tea would send him a good drink and he could have a long nap before the next part of the adventure.