....I told you to sleep lightly, but Humans, listen to Thought, noooooooooo....  The sarcastic voice seems to come from the vicinity of your shoulder.  And then you're being shaken awake.

The light is painful, eyelids are crusted, and....

Oddly, you feel your wrists are abraded.

And then you see Silent in front of you with his bronze knife.  And he's cutting you free of constricting vines.

   "Wha...  What happened?"  Was that a dream...  Is this?

"You sleep hard." Silence says. "I catch up this noon."

Something bitter, gritty, and numbing is in your mouth.  You spit out some dry leaves as  Silence cuts your legs free.  Your legs tingle with returning bloodflow.

Silence hands you a bit of bark.  On it is written ar message.

"You have done well. Caught between silver and gold. Your guide and friend."

"The priest of the Forgemaker took your things."

A quick check reveals that you've lost all your weapons except for a knife.  The priest left you everything else.

OOC: 30,000 POSTS!! wAhOOOOOOOO!!

   The realization hit me.  "This wasn't sleep.  I was drugged."   I did a scriff check to get a directional fix on my stuff.  I knew that I was in better shape than Priest.  I also knew that I was a lot more motivated than he was.  "Thank you for everything you've done so far.  I'm going after Priest and my stuff.  I could really use your help, but it is your call if you want to come along."

Your vector to the Scriff leads you right toward the city you were going to already.

You are in better shape, and you're substantially taller which in a foot race matters.  While you probably have the edge in motivation, he's got a boost there too as he's aware you might be really angry.  And he was a high willpower individual to begin with.

He knows the land better.  He probably doesn't realize you can scriff track him forever.

As to what he took, well, like most here, he's smart.  Average IQ is about 130 here, and he's a bit brighter than average, and he's seen you use stuff.

Spare clips, mags, and well on the basis of looking interesting power packs he takes.  Spare ammo....(a good  GE roll) and he leaves that.  He swiped the holsters, but on the basis that he would not want to risk waking you, he left the weapons harness.  As to the snapstick, he took it, and indeed from a few signs on a tree trunk nearby, you think he was able to activate it, and gently test it.

Silence stares at you for ten full seconds, and then says irritably.  "I've been following you for days."  Then he motions for you to get up as he's coming along.  And you realize that the Raven's warning is now complete.  Someone was at your six, and when you slept, you lost out.

You an Silent make  your way down The Mountain and into a jungle from which rises the screeching of monkeys and then the counterbasso roar of something rather large that sounds remarkably like in intent if not words as 'shuddup, I'm trying to sleep', followed by a flock of glittering yellow and blue birds taking to the air.  And then you feel something looking at  you, and turning your head, you see a dark green twenty foot long snake draped over a mangrove branch just staring at you from ten feet away.  It flicks out its tongue.

  "I really don't have time for this."  I channel my anger into a pain spike as I let it fly at the snake.

It falls out of the tree thrashing in the undergrowth beneath it, and then after it recovers a bit, it flees.

It occurs to me that Pteranodons and snakes are not exactly human so +@2 to your pain spike use for new uses.

You go into the shadowed jungle, with every step carefully considered as there are holes from roots, from rotten trunks, from a variety of snakes, and not so small furred varmints.  Branches and ferns and vines all take a swipe at your face.  Thorns, prickers, and some sort of sticky goo on a vine (which thankfully is unique) take a liking to your shirt.

At one point a vista opens up and across a hundred yards of clear space you see something that looks like a Tiger, a Sabertooth, and a Lion got together in test tube, and added lots of steroids.  It looks at you, yawns with its great, big pink tongue, and pads off into the jungle.  Its regal.

A bit further on, and you catch up to Silent who's going about a hundred yards in front of you.  He's at the edge of jungle cliff that drops down about fifty feet straight down over rough stones.  He raises an eyebrow to you in question.

   I looked at the cliff.  "Come on.  Let's go find some vines that aren't trying to eat us.  We can use them to get down this cliff."

Silence nods, and draws his bro nze sword, faint yellow in the jungle lowlight.  You and he began carefully cutting vines.  He shoos you away from one making the universal sign for itchy skin.

Then a moment of pure nerves and you're over the edge, rappelling down. On the way, you step over a medicine sized ball of a hornet's nest, pass through the lower branches and reach the ground after shoving aside some vines.  Silence joins you a moment later.

You pass a creek, and in its clay shoulder, you clearly see the dried footprintof the priest , unless there is someone else out here.

"We're gaining on him, slowly. Ahead is a swamp. He went around it. Safer. Slower. What do we do?"

   I looked at the swamp.  "We go around.  I'd like to catch him before he gets to the city, but the important thing is to be able to catch him.  There are too many unknowns here to risk cutting through the swamp.  There must be a good reason Priest passed this by.  That is good enough for me."

You circle the swamp to the occasional tune of megafauna from inside it sounding off.

On the far side of the swamp, you travel a dozen more miles under double layer jungle, and then you come out on a crest, and catch a glimpse of a blue line in the distance.  And a fire on a far ridge which has a good view ofits back trail.  Nearly ten more miles, but you can see a figure moving about.

Your Multivisor sees the Priest shift from panic to determined motions....

   I replaced the Multivisor in my pack.  Now that I knew where Priest was going, I could get my stuff back, one way or another.  "Once we get near the city, you can take off with my thanks and a pound of gold for all you did.  I can't ask you to go on a one way trip.  My initial goal was to hurt the snake people, and killing their god counts for me.  This is beyond what you signed on for.  If you want to go home, I totally understand."

"I left expecting to die." He says flatly.  After a bit you realize this means he's planning oncoming.

As you cross the land between you and the campfire, you see that the Priest is not leaving his campfire.  Its almost as if he's waiting for you....

   I couldn't help but smile at his response.  "I understand what you mean.  Every day that I wake up, I expect to die.  But on that day, I don't plan to go alone."  I gathered up my all too light equipment.  "Let's do this."

   I was a bit concerned that Priest was waiting for me.  I did a scriff search to see that he still had my weaponry.  If he ditched my firepower, I could go get it back from where he left it.  If he still had my stuff, he was making it easy for me.  The only question was why and there was only one way to find that out.

Your weapons are moving forward and away from the Priest.  So you advance toward him, feeling as if there is something itchy in your eye, as if you're about to hear a fly, or maybe a wasp buzz past your ear, feeling as if you want to jump out of  your skin.

You step and get your first good close look at the Priest from thirty feet away, and its like the popping of a soap bubble.  You're not sure how you ever saw the priest there.

Instead, there sits a man in dark robs, nigh seven feet tall, with a severe expression on his face, and a single circlet of molten gold about his head.  He's not human, but even by the standards you've grown used to over the last few weeks, that is being surrounded by tens and elevens, with the occasional nine, this  guy is astounding.  He's not just handsome, he pretty, no beautiful.

"Darkwing." Silence hisses.  "O Creator..."
"Keep still." And Silence is quiet and still. The sonorous voice still seems to reverbrate in the air even after he has spoken.

   I looked at the pretty man in front of me.  I never seriously considered the really pretty ones as anything but interesting toys.  I was sure that I never wanted to get serious with someone more high maintenance than I am.  He didn't have my stuff, but since he was here...

   The guy was impressive...  Rude, but impressive.  This must have been the Boss to Priest's henchman.  I wondered if henching was part of Priest's job description.  If I ever saw Priest, I made a mental note to ask him.

   When Silence called him Darkwing, I couldn't help but think that he didn't look much like a duck.  I had to think of something snappy and clever to say.  It says so on page 52 of the PI Handbook in the chapter titled 'Meeting The Big Boss'.  "Are you the guy I see to get my belongings back?"  I never really liked page 52 anyway.

He turns his head toward you, as if he's remembering how to move a body.
"I could be, if you were to agree to the Priest's terms.  Terms which I happen to agree with, human. If you will not, then I have been asked to keep you here until the priest reaches his city run by the Third Fool."

His brow wrinkles.

"Most Human females find me irresistable.  And their children are Giants, mighty in the land."

He looks puzzled. He stands, and black wings snap out from both sides, wings like that of a  swan, but larger.

   "When your priest buddy stole my stuff like a beggar swipes a loaf of bread and ran off, he didn't stop to try to make any deals.  He just ran like the low life pusball he proved himself to be.  What are his supposed terms?"

   This guy is just here to waste my time.  Boost!  I take off running towards the city, the priest, and my stuff.

His jaw drops open as you bolt past him, and out of the clearing.

Silence follows you as fast as he can.

Simultaneously you hear a roaring voice like the voice of a wildfire....

"H...U...M...A...N....!!!"

And the ground shakes under your feet, and the trees sway.

A flick of fire falls out of the sky to your right, and then as you continue on, to your left, and they began to speak as they catch trees or brush or grass, whatever they land upon on fire, rather like the Burma Shave signs as you pass them.

"You will burn for this insolence.Do you not know what I am?  How dare you pit your pitiful might against the Lord of the Wild Flame? I helped hold the molten core of this planet in my hands before your kind were even made."

He's definitely ticked off.

   I ran as I had never run before.  My feet barely touched the ground as the surreal scenery flew past me at an incredible rate.  I heard shouting behind me, but it didn't matter.

   A long time ago on a ship called the Connecticut Yankee, I was given a set of implants.  They almost killed me the first time that they came on line.  I've used them during my travels, just another tool to help me solve problems.  Over time, my body had become accustomed to these bio-mechanical boosters.  Now, for the first time, they felt as much a part of me as my heart or my lungs.  I couldn't say if it was the hyper-oxygenated air or what.  All I knew was that at this moment, I was born to run.

   A pure joy welled up from my soul as I ran.  I ran free.  I ran strong.  I could run forever.  Everything important was in front of me.  Nothing important was behind me.  All that mattered was right now.  All that mattered was The Run.

OOC: I'll take that. Pluses to Use Booster, Run, and some sort of Mental Focus skill that you probably have.

You're morally certain that you're beating a four minute mile, but then even that thought is gone.

You are outrunning a raging wildfire created by ...well, not a duck.

Let's get out the GE Rolls and skill rolls for the next ten miles to the next serious river....

You run, keeping the pace, a bloodied leg from a slasher vine not a problem (yet), fleeing as you've never run before, and outpacing the fire, finding a deer path that leads in the way you need to go...

Next mile....It just goes by, you're in the zone, so far that you don't see the triceratops you sprint right past within arms reach of....

Third mile...You hit a 'gift' left behind by an elephant, and suddenly you're airborne, and going downhill, trying to get your feet underneath you, bushes smacking in your face, leaves blotting out your vision, vines entangling you so that your're like a comet skidding down a slope of muddy mess....

If you survive, you're going to have lots of bruises, but for now  you feel no pain...

..."I wonder if Jim Fixx had days like this"...

Fourth mile, you're back on your feet, trailing several  yards of vines, and running well....

So far, you're outpacing the wildfire....

Fifth mile....Hunh? There's that Priest, ahead of you.  He sees you, and starts rummaging in his pack.  He's clearly been running, but not with the joy you have...still, he's kept a respectable pace. But guilt seems to be weighing him down...

   I lower my left shoulder and go at this guy like a Chicago Bear lineman going after a quarterback.

Force equals Mass times Speed.

You'd have to slow down a little bit so thirty miles per hour.  He tries to dodge but fails but this weakens the attack a bit.

Doing this to a large adult male would be a bad idea.  Doing it to a two and half foot tall, if well muscled local....not so bad an idea.

You're amped up on adrenaline.

He yanks out the plasma blaster and tries to fire it at you....good thing he failed as he was aiming it at himself....

You hit him, and he goes airborne.  He lands fifteen feet away, unconscious.  He's got a bag of your stuff and the plasma gun is loose.

Plus at one to relevant skill.