Forum Story 3: '.....................'

[esn]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

Well done my little irish puppet

Thanks - although, Im not Irish.

[The Wizard]

Yes I know, but since when has that mattered in our roleplays?

[esn]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

Yes I know, but since when has that mattered in our roleplays?

True, true

[Kiowa Warrior]

Great chapter Wiz I'm shocked that people could have been turned against our beloved leader! (And I have a feeling I know who Vinny and Aurora may be...)

Love the scene with us Big Guns coming out to smooth the path for Dr. Rock's confrontation with them! And I really can imagine Roco with black hair in real life too, lol.

[The Wizard]

Originally Posted by Kiowa Warrior

Great chapter Wiz I'm shocked that people could have been turned against our beloved leader! (And I have a feeling I know who Vinny and Aurora may be...)

Love the scene with us Big Guns coming out to smooth the path for Dr. Rock's confrontation with them! And I really can imagine Roco with black hair in real life too, lol.

Thanks babe Oh I don't think you do know who Vinny and Aurora may be, it's my best kept secret!

If Roco doesn't have black hair then the whole world will end...

[Kiowa Warrior]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

Thanks babe Oh I don't think you do know who Vinny and Aurora may be, it's my best kept secret!

If Roco doesn't have black hair then the whole world will end...

Any time my sweetheart
Oh I probably have got their identity wrong, but I did have two people I immediately thought of when I read it!

...he could always dye it...

[The Wizard]

Originally Posted by Kiowa Warrior

Oh I probably have got their identity wrong, but I did have two people I immediately thought of when I read it!

No it's the people you think it is

[The Wizard]

Chapter 3

4th July 2013

Kiowa’s pace slowed to a brisk walk as she left the forest and came within sight of her camp. She glanced anxiously back into the midst of the wood one last time as she descended the rocky flats which led down to the camp from the forest. The camp lay invisible far below as the white tents blended into the dense white blanket of snow. On the other side of the valley, a range of snow covered mountains rose steeply into the anonymous blue sky.

Kiowa slipped into the camp with her hood up, attempting to remain unnoticed, and hurried towards her tent. But she was unsuccessful and was spotted by a fellow member of the camp.
“Ki!” called the Wizard, somehow recognising her through the side of her hood. Ki turned her head to the left reluctantly to reveal her solemn face. The Wizard’s expression changed from one of happiness to one of glum confusion as he wondered what was troubling Kiowa.
“What’s wrong?” he asked concernedly, approaching his companion, his feet crunching through the snow.
“Nothing… nothing’s wrong,” replied Ki.
“Are you sure?” checked the Wizard, placing his hand on Kiowa’s shoulder. Kiowa looked down at the Wizard’s hand, no hint of a smile coming across her face.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, leaving the Wizard and walking towards her tent.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” called the Wizard after her, suspecting that she was hiding something. Kiowa stopped and bowed her head.
“No,” she replied, before pushing open the flap of her tent and disappearing within. The Wizard gazed at the entrance to the tent thoughtfully, as the wind blew forcefully across the camp. Then he turned and departed, thinking of nothing more he could do.

The snow began to fall gently as the Wizard strode meaningfully through the camp. He knew exactly where he was going for he had only just left the place to which he now returned. It was a large tent at the far side of the valley, close to the foot of the mountains. As the Wizard entered, he felt the cold leave him as the warmth of the inside engulfed his body. There were three large tables inside, two of them empty, but the one in the centre had four people seated around it.
“Back so soon?” said Espee as she noticed that the Wizard had returned.
“I’ve just seen Kiowa,” replied the Wizard.
“Good for you,” said Godzy sarcastically, as if this was no big deal, whilst tucking in to the food she had been eating.
“I think something is wrong,” the Wizard continued, causing everyone to sit up and take notice.
“What is it?” asked Sandy, the golden beauty, standing up from her chair.
“I don’t know,” replied the Wizard, “But she is not herself.”
“She seemed fine this morning,” said Orson, lifting his eyes from his book.
“That’s just it,” said the Wizard, “She went out this morning and was fine, she came back this evening and is a changed person. Whatever happened out there in the forest… it wasn’t good.”
“Well if it was something terrible, surely she would have told you,” Sandy theorised, beginning to think that the problem was not major.
“Unless it is something so terrible, she cannot bring herself to say it out loud,” said Espee gloomily. The Wizard nodded his head in agreement with this.
“So… what do we do?” asked Godzy. Everyone was silent for a few moments, until Orson closed his book and placed it on the table.
“I’m sure she will tell us, when she is ready,” he stated.
“Yes… I suppose,” agreed the Wizard, “I guess we just sit tight then.”
Sandy sighed and the others nodded sympathetically in agreement with the Wizard.
“Fine by me,” said Godzy, picking up a rib and devouring it.

On the other side of the camp, as night set in, Kiowa sat in her tent shivering, clutching herself tightly to stop the fear from getting in.


11th July 2013

Kiowa awoke to screams emanating from the eastern end of the camp in the early morning light. She took a few seconds to get her mind together, staring at the tent ceiling above her, before jumping up from her bed and running outside. The cold hit her as soon as she set foot outside the tent, and it felt like the life had been sucked right out of her. But after a few moments she had composed herself once again and was ready to find out what was going on. There was no one around but the screams continued to the east. As Kiowa ran desperately towards them, a number of people tore past in the opposite direction, like the devil was chasing them. The screams got louder and louder until eventually Kiowa was right on top of them. They were coming from a tent to her left. She burst in and was immediately taken aback by what she saw. Revol was pinned behind her bed, trying desperately to protect herself from the saber-toothed tiger which growled and clawed at her ferociously. Before Kiowa had time to think, the big cat had turned on her, to the relief of Revol. She backed away slowly and cautiously out of the tent, as the tiger stalked after her, its yellow eyes trained on her every movement. There was nowhere for her to go except further backwards. She was at the eastern extremity of the camp and backed away towards where a gap in the mountains led away into the wilderness. It seemed like the tiger was trying to lead her there. She grew more and more anxious as the tiger closed in on her position. She thought this might be her end. But just as she thought that all hope was lost, she noticed a spear planted in the snow some ten metres behind her and to the left. If she could just get to that, maybe she could fight this beast off. Gradually, she edged backwards, not wanting to alert the tiger to the danger it would soon be in. It snarled at her as if to say, ‘There is nothing you can do now,’ and prowled towards her still. In just a few more steps, Kiowa had reached the spear. The tiger was now no more than three metres away from her and could make an attack at any moment. Kiowa reached out and could feel the spear with her left hand. For a brief moment, she took her eyes off of the cat so that she could get a good grip on her weapon. When she looked back, there was a look of sadness on the face of the tiger, its eyes had turned black and they seemed cold and lifeless. Its sharp carnivorous teeth were now hidden behind its sad lips. In this short moment, Ki felt like this tiger represented the dark times which had come over the world in the past few years. As she fell into a trance, admiring the tiger’s facial features, it snapped back into attack mode and leapt at her bloodthirstily, its jaws wide open showing its jagged set of teeth and its claws out in front. Immediately, Kiowa ripped the spear out of the snow and impaled it into the chest of the airborne beast with two hands. She dropped it at once, not being able to hold the weight of the tiger, and fell to the floor in mental and physical exhaustion. As she lay there, contemplating what had just happened, she could have sworn she saw a second saber-toothed tiger running through the snow in the direction of the gap in the mountains. She would learn later that there had indeed been a second unwelcome visitor in the camp. It had raided the food storage tent and devoured much of what was inside. It had been discovered by the Wizard and Espee, and subsequently scared off. It would seem that the beast Kiowa had encountered had been the braver of the two. Revol rushed over to Kiowa and helped her up, eyeing the tiger’s carcass with suspicion.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Just about,” replied Kiowa.

12th July 2013

As she pondered the previous day’s events, the horrible thought came into Kiowa’s mind that they had been caused by her lack of action upon the Box Man’s words. Terrible depression overcame her at the thought of what she might have caused to happen to her people and she refused to talk to anyone for many days, staying in her tent and eating and drinking very little. The people became worried about what was going in with their leader, none more so than the Wizard and the select few he had told about the events of the 4th July. As Kiowa sat alone in her tent, it began to snow.

31st July 2013

Kiowa sat huddled beneath her cloak as the blizzard which had begun nineteen days ago continued relentlessly. The snow level outside had risen considerably and it was now incredibly treacherous to as much as set foot outside. The majority of Kiowa’s tent had caved in due to the immense weight of the snow, except for the one corner in which she now sat shivering. She had no idea what was happening outside of her little cocoon as she did not have the willpower to try and go outside. Nineteen days of continuous snow was enough to convince her that her refusal to act upon the Box Man’s words was a mistake. She was sure that she had caused this. She knew there was only one thing to do but she could not bring herself to do it. Ten more seconds… that’s all she would give herself. Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Zero. She suddenly leapt into action, ripping the ceiling of the tent above her and crawling out into the whiteness. Snow flew into her face immediately so she flicked her hood up in defiance, but this made little difference. The level of the snow now came up to her neck and it was nigh on impossible to move. But Ki struggled through it, inching forwards towards her destination, spitting out any snow which found its way into her mouth. The vastness of the blizzard made it almost impossible to see anything in front of you, just endless whiteness.

She battled through the snow for what seemed like hours until finally she arrived. She burrowed into the snow to find the entrance to the tent and pushed her way inside. Remarkably, she found that this tent had remained upright and the inside relatively free from excess snow. The Wizard awoke from his slumber upon Kiowa’s entrance and arose from his bed. From the look upon her face and the fact that she had trawled through the blizzard to get there, he knew that she had something important to say.
“We have to go back Wiz,” she declared, bowing her head.
“What?” he asked, not believing what he was hearing.
“WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!” Kiowa screamed.
At once, the blizzard ceased, the sun shone once again, and the snow began to melt. Kiowa walked to the entrance of the tent and peered out. A tear escaped from her eye.

[Kiowa Warrior]

Wiz we have to go back!!

I'm not sure where or why, but we have to...

Great update as always, even though it's not good that I'm sat freezing myself into a cold depression...but is good that I snapped out of it at the end, as well as giving that naughty tiger a good spearing! Let's just hope that the Box Man isn't upset too much more now...

[The Wizard]

Thanks Ki, at least somebody cares

All will become clear in time Maybe