Justice Is Best Served Cold || 1x1 w/ Mai-Ling

[ticked tabby]

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[JK341]

Sunpaw smiles cheerfully at Miriam. "Oh yes I'm more than happy to help out to the best of my ability!" Nelly lets out a small sigh under her breath. "Aye, you heard right, my friend. Not really looking forward to the trip, myself, but it's for our best interersts." "There are quite a few expensive repairs that need to be made back at the lodge, and the treasure would easily cover it. Not to mention the added bonus of returning the queen's lost keepsakes to her." "Well, I suppose that's enough chit-chat, that steed isn't going to get any better with us sitting here flapping our lips."

They all follow the dusty old road together that leads back to Oakdell and they take the left path just before reaching the village, towards Miriam's camp. Upon arriving, they are led by Miriam to the poor creature, who was in grave condition. It was Miriam's favorite pegasus, Andromeda, who was lying on the ground, too tired to stand up. The majestic creature makes a very low nicker, beckoning them over to her, recognizing the three paladins from their last experience together. "Oh, she's so beautiful, and it looks like we arrived just in time." Nelly said. "Well, Sunpaw, do your thing, lass." She gently approaches Andromeda, who gives Sunpaw a soft nuzzle on the cheek. "Heheh, hello, it's good to see you again, too. Are you ready?" She gently places both paws on the ceaturess back, but pauses for a moment, mesmerized by the pattern of dazzling stars that seem to fade in and out from the steeds inky black coat. It was as if she was looking up at the midnight sky, this was the first time she was able to be this close and actually have the time to appreciate it's majestic beauty. "Ok, girl, here we go." Sunpaw began uttering the words to a spell under her breath and her paws started glowing with a soft golden light that then spread all throughout Andromeda's body, and the creature slowly began to get up. "Oh, thank goodness." Sunpaw thought, relieved to see that her spell worked on animals just as well as it does her fellow citizens. "She should be fine enough to fly by some time this evening, until then I would make sure she stays on the ground." Courage said.

Back in the mountains, Toby had just barely worked up enough space under all of the snow to help himself breathe for at least a little longer, not that it mattered much at this point, he thought. "Ugh.....can't, feel my...front legs..." He was quickly giving up hope and assuming this to be where he meets his fate. About ten or fiften minutes later, he could swear that he can hear a voice coming from somewhere at the surface. "Hello?" the voice calls out, heavily muffled as it passed through all that snow that was overhead. Could someone really have heard him calling for help all this time? He makes one desperate final attempt and lets out a loud drawn out howl before collapsing. A few moments later he hears what seems to be a scraping or digging kind of sound from above, and a bright light suddenly shines in that temporarily blinds him. He looks up to see the silhouette of what appears to be another dog looking down at him. With his eyes barely opened, Toby tries calling out to the mysterious figure. "Please........help...." he says in a barely audible whisper before falling unconscious.

[ticked tabby]

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[JK341]

"I mean, sure, i guess you could, but why would you want to go to such a dangerous place like that?" Nelly asks. "It's definitely not an adventure for the faint of heart, even seasoned travelers have had a really tough time up there." Courage adds. Sunpaw looks at Miriam's facial expression as her gaze fixes towards the towering mountains to the north, and with the way her happy tone of voice suddenly faded out, Sunpaw can tell right away that Miriam is making an attempt to hide whatever feelings she has bottled up inside. "Miriam, is there something that you need to share with us? It's ok, you can tell us anything, we are your friends, after all."

Rowan's sharp call pulls Toby back into a state of consciousness, barely able to crack his eyes back open to find that he is no longer under the dense snow, but now lying on the ground at the surface. Still too weak to move, he looks up to see the stranger that he assumed had pulled him out from what he was sure would have been his icy tomb below, he had turned his back to him and was muttering something, all Toby was able to catch of that was: "they just die".

"N....not...dead...." Toby says, just barely able to gather enough strength to even speak. "My...my legs...my back...they...." he pauses and pulls in a gasp of air and lets out a wracking cough, "can't.....feel......", he fails to complete what he was trying to say before falling unconscious again.

[ticked tabby]

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[JK341]

Sunpaw couldnt be tricked that easily, however she wasn't really in the mood to debate it (not to mention she absolutely hates to argue about anything), so she just let Miriam's story rest at that. "Alrighty, just don't forget your archery set, might need it up there for something." Nelly says. They all gather thier things and set off for Wolf's Ridge. "Well I suppose we should get onto the main trail then." She shudders ever so slightly again at the realization that they are actually on their way up to those mountain peaks. And so they begin the long journey up the sloping path as the sun is setting to the west, the shadows from the trees and rocks stretching far across the landscape. "If my memeory serves me right, there should be a cave that we can shelter in overnight once we get up there." The cold air was already chilling their noses as they made the climb up, with the fading daylight beginning to exasperate the dropping temperatures. "Brr, gosh it's getting cold fast!" Sunpaw mutters as she begins shivering. "Aye, that's for sure, time to bring out that winter garb that we bought back in Fernbury."


Many hours later Toby wakes up again, this time to find himself in a cave with a campfire inside. "Well, at least it's warmer this time." He thought. "Ugh, my gosh, what a headache....and so sore." He says while holding his forehead, but something didn't feel right, why was his paws so cold and hard? They made a metallic clanking noise that echoed through the cave as he let his paws rest on the rocky floor again, which got the attention of the stranger that had saved him, who had been sitting by the fire heating up some rations that he had packed. "Wait a minute, I don't remember wearing any metal gauntlets on my trip up here." Upon inspecting his paws further, he was in shock to realize that they were not gauntlets, but his actual paws, and that his entire front legs were made of this same metal as well. "What the heck?!" He shouts, then looks over at the mysterious stranger, his eyes narrowing into a hard glare. "What...did you...do to me?"

[ticked tabby]

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[JK341]

Deep within the peaks of wolf's ridge, all is calm for the moment, the biting cold wind drifting across the snow capped mountain range. Within a thick grove of evergreen shrubs a dog as white as the pure snow around her, adorned in a heavy fur cloak with crystals infused into the design sits and waits, watching a nearby hare lazily hop across the icy clearing in front of her, completely unaware of her presence. When the moment was just right she quietly withdrew her bow and arrow and focused her aim so that it's as steady and true as the harsh conditions would allow for it, she pulls the arrow back tightly against the string, then releases....success! She jumps out from the thicket and trots over to her latest catch, filled with a sense of relief. "Good to see that my aim is still pretty decent. Looks like we won't be sleeping hungry tonight, after all." As she was gathering her things to head back to her cabin, the welcoming glow of the full moon finally rose above the tall mountains, covering everything in a pale blue light, the snow around her sparking as if it were made of diamonds.



As the moonlight brightened up the landscape, Sunpaw and Nelly stopped for a moment, both for a quick rest, and because they were both taken by surprise at how beautiful the mountain range looked against the light of the moon, the frozen peaks resembling an endless army of luminous glistening phantoms. "How can something so gorgeous be so deadly?" Nelly utters under her breath. "Come on, you three, we need to keep moving!" Courage says in between labored breathing, the mountain climb was starting to tire him out, as well. "The sooner we can get up to that cave that Sunpaw was talking about, the sooner we can get out of these frigid conditions!" "Aye, I suppose you're right about that, moving around does help to keep the old bones warmer."



"Well I guess I can't argue with that, now can I?" Toby says, as he attempts to sit up, wincing from the leftover soreness from Rowan's handiwork as his metallic paws come in contact with the floor. "The name's Toby, I suppose you're up here for the same reason that I came up here for, huh? That treasure that everyone's been talking about?" He couldn't help but notice the rations that Rowan had been cooking, his stomach started making quite a loud grumbling.

[ticked tabby]

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[JK341]

The pure white dog finally arrived at her cabin, she paused just outside the door for a moment to brush off the extra ice and snow that had accumilated on her cloak before opening the door and walking inside, the warm air greeting her like an old friend. "Now, to get this catch cleaned up and ready for the stew pot." "Avalon, is that you, sister?" A voice called out from another room, a pale blue dog wearing a rich periwinkle colored cloak stepped into the room, she had been dusting Avalon's cabin for her while she was out hunting. "Hello, Vallerie, yes it's me. Thank you for cleaning the place up for me, you really didn't have to, you know." "Oh it's no trouble at all, dear sister." Vallerie replied with a smile. "Well, I'm heading out now to gather a few more things for us for the evening while you prepare dinner." "Don't stay out there too long, sister, the cold is particularly brutal tonight!" Avalon calls out to her sister as she is leaving the cabin.

Courage looks up in the direction that Miriam points out, his eyes stinging as a bitter gust of wind hits him in the face. "There's only one way to find out, let's get over there." The four of them reach the darkened area of the mountainside and are glad to see that it is indeed a cave entrance, maybe not the exact one that Sunpaw was talking about, but any one of them would do at this point to get them out of that harsh wind. "Oh, thank goodness." Nelly said with a big sigh of relief in her voice. As she looked around the cave, she noticed that there was a faint orange glow coming from deeper inside. "Good eye there, Miriam, this cave should at least keep--" "Shh! Quiet." Nelly said in a hushed voice, she motions toward the back of the cave where the light is coming from. "You hear that, lads?" She paused for a moment. "Sounds like we're not the only ones in here." Faint voices could be heard echoing from deep within the cave, in the direction that the orange glow was coming from, the scent of smoke from a campfire started teasing their noses as they crept closer.

Toby and Rowan had been talking with each other for quite a while, sharing their ideas of what each would do with thier share of the treasure when Tobys ears twitched, picking up the sounds of the paladin's voices from the other side of the cave, he suddenly interrupted the conversation. "Hey wait a second, I hear something."