Welcome, to the Barkhills

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Despite lack of expectations, Phlame was still surprised when that same mouse from last night was the first to respond, with quite the easy-going question too... But he was not one for easy answers, "Who am I? Well now, that's a toughie, do you want the who or the what? I'm really an it sometimes too, though thing seems to work fer somebeasts." The mouse never had a chance to reply, because Karn lumbered up at the end of the squirrel's confusing "answer."

"You said something about an otter: Where? Which way did they go? Speak, squirrel."

       "Which one? The one that was living a day back or the one that froze into an icicle roughly 6 years ago?... Oh, right, the one that ole wolf tromped off with back to 'is big ole excuse for a fort. Guess you must be after 'im seein' as he had your uh, your.... What was it again? Your Kink or somethin' like that? Best be after em' right quick if you're a fixin' to get those two back considrin' that he'll be 'ome afore too long heh heh!...... Oh! By the way, I thought you might want to get yerselves outta the snow and go visit those ah, friends of yours. Quite the big beautiful blaze going on in town! I was headed there myself, though I'd get kicked out soon as all the scared little soldiers left with their big ole pet." Phlame's head went this way and that, when it wasn't hanging off to the side like it so often was, when he spoke of the fire his eyes visibly lit up, burning with his passion for flames. His eyes were already known for their burning, but when he got excited, or entranced, they shone so bright you could see it, even in the dark.

       

[Jasper]

Trillo had been tired from the march the day before, and he had completely missed Phlame's shocking statement. Upon Karn's desperate questioning, and Phlame's happy and carefree answer, Trillo's eyes misted over. He stared towards the distant location that Karn had told them the Muskalids were located with a faraway expression in his eyes. A faint line of smoke that he had attributed to mist or clouds, now seemed to be a blatantly obvious sign of destruction. His mouth lowered slightly and then closed again with the sick realization of what had happened. His jaw began tightening until his teeth hurt from the pressure.

He grabbed his pack and took off at a dead sprint, yelling back as he went:

"We're going. Right... Now..."

[The Skarzs]

As soon as Karn put the cracked pieces of Phlame's story together, along with the young mouse going off with great determination in the direction he knew as the where the mustelid clans were, he began roaring out orders. "Break camp! Form lines as quickly as you can and get to the clans! Captain, you take command for now; we're going after Trillo."
The cougar snagged Phlame by the end of his tail. "You're coming with us," he growled, putting the head of his axe nearly touching the squirrel's face.

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Phlame's head turned slowly toward the Cougar, his eyes reaching their second brightest state, anger, "Watch your paws cat fire burns!" The squirrels arms grabbed the beasts chest, he used them to spin himself quickly, loosening what hold this infidel had on his tail. His arms now free again, he reached into the folds of his garments and threw them back out again, each hand let out a series of sizzling pops, easily encompassing both beasts. The stint of smoke cleared within a moment, but Phlame was already two paces away... Sporting a fresh-cut tail tip and graze to the cheek bleeding into the snow. His face was scrunched into a terrifying snarl, "You'd best watch yourself, I've killed larger than you with far less than I'm carrying right now. I may be off me rocker, but you start a fight with me 'en you're gonna realize pretty quick that insanity isn't always a dis-advantage! I goes where I please, lucky fer you, I was heading that way anyway.... Now, if you'll be so kind, I'd prefer to start movin', so you put away yer weapon, and I'll put away mine... Deal?" His staff was held cross-bar in front of him, but his short sword was held menacingly straight behind his back. On top of all that, his paws were still smoking.

[The Skarzs]

OOC: What could he have possibly killed that's larger than Karn?

BIC: Though Karn was surprised at the unsuspected reaction and actions of the squirrel, he was far from being frightened from the crazed beast. "Better watch yourself," he growled, passing Phlame at a run. "You're not my worry right now."
The cougar forced himself not to test the squirrel, only concentrating on pushing toward the mustelid clans; he dreaded to think of what Vrungin might have done to the secluded group.

[Dannflower Reguba]

OOC: A larger Cougar?  BIC:

       Phlame's, ahem "personality" completely changed. The flare in his eyes died down, and he put his weapons away as he dashed towards the burning town. He got there first, attracted by the sight and smell of the smokey inferno. Upon arriving, his reaction was simple.... he knelt. Of to the side he knelt and closed his eyes, seemingly fueled by the carnage and destruction, the wrath wrought by the savage force he lived with, "Is é seo an chumhacht, is é seo a bhfuil mé, seo ..... tine."

       After a short while his curiosity overtook him, and he observed the other beasts... They seemed to put so much importance on getting here, but what would beasts so different from he want here? The ideas of caring had been lost on Phlame, he knew nothing outside of what he himself decided.

OOC: I'm gonna be sitting here awhile.  A bit short, but I feel it's fitting.

[Izeroth]

 Ashtail stared at the carnage before him. Buildings had been torn to pieces, leaving broken piles of stone and wood. The original inhabitants of the place-- all mustelids, lay where they had fallen. Small fires still burned in some homes, probably the remnant any of a much larger fire.

Ashtail spoke to Karn, who was behind him with the main group. "No fire alone could have caused this devastation. A fire would not have torn stone structures to pieces, nor would it have left deadbeasts in such gruesome positions. A fire has indeed happened here, of course, but I fear that it was a side-effect of something worse. I'm not one to give you orders, sir, but I suggest we get away from this place as quickly as possible. Who knows what could be lurking in the shadows?"

[The Skarzs]

OOC: @Dan: @Izeroth: Correct. Let's say it was an hour of travel.

Bodies littered the ground, halted in macabre death, with blood much in apparent where there was not destruction and fire.
Karn's face was filled with rage at what lay before him, and he didn't look at Ashtail when he spoke. "No; there might still be survivors. There's a small cave near here that they use for storage. Maybe. . ." He went off to his left, searching desperately for any signs of living beasts while he made his way toward where he knew the cave to be.

[Jasper]

Trillo coughed in the smoke kicked up from seeping through the wreckage.

"What on earth could have done this? See this stone house here? Fire didn't tear it apart stone by stone! Look at these deep gouges in the stone! Something grabbed ripped into solid stone! What kind of creature could do that?... Karn?"

He allowed them to go look for survivors in the cave, but he knew that those survivors would have escaped the carnage, and would be fine. He had to find any injured ones trapped under rubble or unable to move! He noticed Phlame just sitting at the edge of the scene, looking around in silence.

"Hey! C'mon you! We gotta help out anyone that's still alive!"

[The Skarzs]

Karn was silent to Trillo's first question, only continuing his search. "Don't bother asking that squirrel; he doesn't care about-" The cougar was suddenly met with a spear pressed against his chest plate, and looked to see a ferret holding it. "Sglink!"
The ferret recognized the cougar, and held back his spear. "Karn! Thank goodness; I thought you were somebeast else, nyuk nyuk!" ((OOC: The mustelids chuckle like that.))
Karn smiled grimly, then looked behind Sglink into the cave. "How many more survived?"
The other sighed. "A little less than half of us; we didn't stand a chance in the dark, and we didn't know who or what was attacking! We got as many as we could in here, but it was too late for the others. . ."

[Conrad the Painless]

(Currently)

Norton, with his new horde of a hundred stoats, weasels, rats, and white foxes. Just moons before, he had been a mere captain of a tiny ship. But now, I command an army!He thought to himself, as he clasped and unclasped his greedy paws. Behind him, he now had more vermin to carry his armor, vittles, and weapons. Of course, Norton did not carry anything, he respected his horde as much as he respected his mother. Not at all. Around him, he heard the ceaseless trudging and churning of fresh snow. In the north and south lands, Norton nor his captains had not seen tail or hide of any sort of goodbeast. This did not bother Norton, although he was quite surprised. Here, in this new frozen land, the vermin (with a notable accent) was plentiful, and the food was just as common. After meeting back at the cliffs with his captains who had stricken southwards, they all agreed to head west. Currently, they were doing so, until Norton told them to stop. It had taken four moons to trek across mountains, forests, and frozen wastelands. But now, something solid and dark shone through the trees. Norton yelled to stop the march, holding one cold paw up. His vermin sat gratefully in the nearly frozen snow, worn-out and hungry. Norton's head looks upwards, trying to see if it was some sort of wall. Dark clouds framed the stone of what seemed to be a fort.

[Jetthebinturong]

At the back of the cave, two polecats sat side by side. Selwyn Mabon, the taller of the two, handed his younger brother Alwyn a skin of water
"Diolch" the younger muttered, taking the skin and drinking deeply
"Rydych yn croeso" replied Selwyn
"So, when do we leave?"
Selwyn rubbed his eyes "Soon, I hope. I would like to forget this bloodbath as quickly as possible"
"Yr wyf yn cymryd na fyddwn yn cael eich talu"
"You should be more respectful Cariad" Selwyn's voice was soft "these people have experienced a great tragedy"
Alwyn snorted "Cariad, seriously?"
"What's wrong with showing affection?"
"Well it's not very you is it?"
"Yr wyf yn anghytuno"
Alwyn said nothing
"You did not use to mind"
"I was young, that is what you would be expected to call a child. We are older now, we are mercenaries, we cannot afford to give in to sentimentality, it will be our downfall"
"I disagree, if I had no 'sentimentality' then the battle at Gaer Garreg Du would not have been won"
Alwyn was silent
"When did you develop such a cynical world view?"
"There's something going on over there" Alwyn said, pointing "See? At the mouth of the cave"
Selwyn sighed "Does that interest you?"
"Yes"
"Yna gadewch i ni edrych"
They got to their feet and began to make their way to the front of the cave

[Gwen A. Mouse]

((Wow, super activity pick-up! By the way, loving the use of Irish and Welsh, guys. ))

When they reached the town, Ginny could only stand and stare at the destruction. After a moment she closed her eyes and turned away, old memories pulling at her.

Smoke obscured the stars and turned the moon to blood, making the night as black as pitch... beasts screamed all around, fleeing, fighting, and dying on the streets...

"Hey! C'mon you! We gotta help out anyone that's still alive!"

Ginny's head snapped up in surprise at Trillo's shout, but found that he was calling to the squirrel, Phlame. She trotted over to the mouse, arms folded tightly as if she were cold. Tears glistened on her cheeks, but she didn't notice. "It doesn't look like they left many survivors here," she said gently. "But I can help search."

[Izeroth]

 A wave of relief washed over Ashtail when he saw that some of the mustelids had survived. The thought of beasts being killed with such savagery disturbed him, but the thought of an entire group of beasts being wiped out in such a savage way disturbed him even more. More practically, the fact that there were witnesses would make it much easier to figure out what had happened here.

Ashtail, who had walked into the cave by this time, called to the ferret that was, apparently, the leader of the group. "Glad to see some of you fellows survived! Would you mind, perhaps, coming out of the cave with a few others, and helping me figure out what happened here. It's very important that we understand what happened, in order that we might prevent it from occurring again."

[The Skarzs]

"There's not much to tell," sighed Sglink. "We woke during the night with some beast. . . or beasts, attacking the whole place. In the dark and the confusion, we could not see what was going on for sure except that we were dying and that for those that were not put into this cave it was too late." He motioned to the creatures behind him to come out. "Let us bury our dead."
Karn bowed solemnly. "I'm sorry for your losses; we will return to help after we chase down whoever killed your creatures."