Journey to Lands Far Far Away (RP)

Ezme freezes momentarily as Lille digs at the stinger, still processing the somewhat conflicting warnings and commands the forest woman has barked out in the past ten seconds. Run? Stay to help Albert?? And how dare she snatch her beloved HUNTING KNIFE from her hand!?

As Lille finishes up, the trapper urgently pushes the remaining mashed garlic clove into Albert's free hand. "Smear this on your face," she instructs. With the hand clutched around his wrist, she tugs on him to run with her.

As she they move, she pulls a light blue blanket from the bedroll in her open pack still on her chest, shoving it into former barkeeper's arms. "Cover up rest of you."

Lille was only lightly clothed. This might be problematic, but she at least she was fleet of foot and had good survival instincts. Daryl looked mostly covered. Theo was running. Ezme casts a concerned look Roald's way to check his status.

Albert is completely overwhelmed by the sudden rush of commands by the women. "Heh... Bhu... Whah.... Ur" are the only sounds he manages to make while his eyes dart from Lille to Ezme to the garlic to Roald. And then before he knows what's going on, he's being pulled ahead by Ezme while rubbing a vegetable om his face.

The smell reminds him of his childhood somewhere in the back of his head. Unfortunately there is no time to dwell on it.

A buzzing noise can be heard in the distance. He swats at something near his ear. Could have been a mosquito, he's not sure. But the low hum far off persists.

"Water!" He says, regaining his sense of speech. "We can hide in water, right?"

As Ezme shoves a blanket into Albert’s arms, Lille wordlessly thrusts the handle of the knife back to the trapper’s free hand. She scoops up the garlic from Ezme that she had dropped to remove the stinger. Running beside them, she guides Ezme and Albert in the direction of her gear. "We should split! she calls out, motioning the others away. "I think Albert’s their biggest target. Meet at your campsite later."

Despite her words, she stays relatively close to Ezme and Albert, easily keeping up with their pace. As they near the site, she surges ahead, and stops just long enough to pick up Jordash’s cloak and staff - No, MY cloak and staff now - and her belt with the other weapons. At Albert’s mention of water she points toward the stream. "Beyond those pines is a small stream. Not big enough to hide in, but perhaps we can follow it to a larger pool." Lille sounds a bit doubtful about the possibility, but aims towards the water anyway.

Rushed, but trying to keep her wits about her, Ezme tries to judge which direction the stream is most likely to pool…

After Lille confirms what Roald was thinking/seeing he goes from 'working the land on a nice day' to 'fight or flight mode' real quick.
He sees that the splitting up is not going as it should be, so he grabs Theo and Daryl by the shoulder and nudges them in a different direction.

'' Follow me you two!''
''Try, to keep up, we need to find water, RUN!''

Roald starts running downhill. His agility helps him zig-zag through the trees, jumping over stumps and avoiding exposed roots, soon he has a lead on his friends. He uses the spare time to search for signs of water. Little dried up beds or grooves where rainwater runs down the slope.

'' This way!''

Roald is following what he thinks is an old dried up stream, leading water down after a downpour.

Roald reaches a large open space, some sort of indentation in the landscape.
There is Forest all around him sloping up.

damnit

Theo and Daryl are still following, looking expectingly at him for guidance.

''errrr I think it's that way. ''

Roald chooses a direction which he thinks is opposite from the swarm.

Like Roald, Ezme uses the lay of the land to guide her decision, leading them downhill along the stream and hoping to find a pooling place that direction. Even as she does so, a voice in the back of her mind whispers that this is likely a fruitless endeavor. This was a small stream -- they'd have to get very lucky if they wanted to find a place deep enough to submerse their entire bodies. Her gut tells her that their best bet is to move swiftly (as opposed to stealthily) and simply extract themselves from the bees' territory as quickly as possible. That being the case, she moves with as much haste as she can without abandoning Albert -- she wants to be near him in case he reacts poorly to the sting.

Sure enough, as they continue, the stream offers little in the way of protection. Ezme pauses to catch her breath, checking on Albert and glancing around for the rest of their companions.... She doesn't like being separated from them. Roald was leading them who knows where; they'd likely have to be tracked down and rescued again. Ezme bites her lip worriedly. Hopefully they didn't get themselves killed in the meantime...

Albert manages to gather his thoughts as they move through the forest. The run makes him cough quite a bit as his lungs are not in the best shape, but he pressed on.

When he catches up to Ezme he notices the worried look and senses her tension. "Hey" He says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "The others will be fine. Daryl is persistent and Roald knows how to handle all kinds of situations. Theo has the brains to figure out what to do." He smiles reassuringly. Somehow he had ended up with a more than competent group of friends each complementing each other's skills. "Please, focus on our own safety so we can get back. Which way now?"

His arms was starting to hurt more, but there was no point in mentioning that. He'll bite through it until this garlic kicked in.

Back in the forest, Albert's hand on her shoulder takes her aback. With a flash, she wonders how long it has been since she has experienced genuine physical affection of such nature? No time to ponder it. Grabbing Albert's arm again, she presses on, experiencing a glimmer of hope at a glimpse of light through the trees ahead... a hope which is very suddenly dashed over a very steep precipice.

"Frack!" There on the cliff edge, Ezme turns swiftly to face the others. "Can you swim?!?"

She looks urgently at Albert as he huffs and wheezes. No.. that wouldn't do. He'd never make it. Gods, they were high enough up, she's not sure she wanted to risk the fall...

She shakes her head, dismissing that proposal before the others can even respond. Noting that Lille already has a cloak in her arms, the trapper extracts only one other blanket from her bedroll.

"Duck down and cover up your head..." she instructs as she throws the blanket over her own head and kneels to the ground. "...and pray to the gods the bees lose interest..."

She thought she had heard somewhere that bees prefer darker targets. With any luck the lighter hue of Albert's blanket would throw them off.... Or maybe the cold ocean breeze would deter them?

When Ezme stops in the woods to check on Albert, Lille takes the chance to look behind them. Sure enough, there are the shadow insects, still chasing them. Before she can mention that fact, Ezme gets them moving again.

As they burst out at the cliff edge, Lille is prepared to check behind them, once she brings her bounding strides to a hasty stop. She squints at the shadows, gauging their motion. Yes, they are definitely seeking Albert. She thinks about swimming and dismisses the thought as quickly as Ezme can voice the idea and reject it.

But instead of hiding under her cloak, she throws it over Albert and ducks her head in to Ezme’s blanket. "I need your flint and steel," she says urgently. "I don’t know if a fire or smoke will deter them but it’s worth a try." Without waiting for an answer, she starts scooping together dry leaf litter and small branches into a pile at the forest’s edge. She makes sure to clear the biggest space downwind of her impromptu campfire.

Let’s dodge some shadow stingers.

Lille makes some unconventional use of her staff as she uses it to sweep dry leaves into her pile, leaving the ground mostly bare. She scrambles about on all fours, using her hands and feet to tidy up the edges. When she can’t wait any longer, she casts the staff inland a few paces for safety, and reaches for the flint and steel.

It is just then that she gets the first sting, on her outstretched left forearm. Lille ignores the pain in silence, and squats over the pile to kindle it with the ease of much practice. As she leans to blow on the first glowing sparks, a sharp pain in her left calf lets her know that there’s one more sting to attend. Thankfully, the first small billows of smoke drift past her just then, increasing quickly as the bigger pieces catch the flame.

With a sigh that comes out as more a grunt, she settles low under the haze to tend her wounds. She uses her knife to first dig out the stinger on her arm, then ties off her upper arm with her sling. Next, she removes the one from her leg and uses her belt to tie her upper thigh, hoping she’s getting some big blood vessels.

When Lille first pops her head under Ezme's blanket and makes her request, the trapper's first thought is... "There is no way we could make fire before they get here!" but there's no time to argue, and she sees the wood nymph is determined. So, from underneath the blanket, she paws through her pack for the flint and steel. When she produces her head to hand over the tools, she's shocked to see a suitable pile of kindling already arranged. With one strike from Lille, a fire quickly ignites, despite the cool ocean breeze.

Impressive....

It seems the girl has the matter handled. Ezme tucks her head back under the blanket to shield herself as the billowing smoke begins to sting her eyes. Her brow furrows as she listens to Albert's coughing. Was it the smoke bothering him, or was he having a strong reaction to the sting? Ezme had heard of children in town who had mysteriously passed way from a simple bee sting, but she had no idea how to treat such a problem...

The trapper emerges from under her blanket to check on Albert, only then noticing the odd bands Lille had applied to her own arm and leg. "You, too?" Ezme comments with concern. She pokes under Albert's blanket to see how he looks. "How are you doing?" she asks him.