The Water's Edge (Ribitta/Closed)

Ayls watched Orup turn and leave, still uneasy at the idea, before turning to her own task. She began walking back to their campsite, and lifted her hands to cup them around her mouth. "Rua!" she called out, hoping to catch his attention--she doubt he'd have gone far into the forest for his hunt.

"Rua?" she called again after a while, having walked further away from where she and Orup had parted. "Rua! Are you nearby?" Oh, she hoped he hadn't gone far...

The sound of leaves and twigs crumpled underfoot alerted her to movement nearby, and she spun towards the noise, heart jumping, only to feel relieved at the sight of Rua stepped through the foliage towards her. His sword was sheathed and his shield still on his arm, and he was muttering something underneath his breath, but he also had three separate rabbits hanging from his belt, loose cord tied around their necks.

"What's wrong?" he asked as she trotted up to him. "Where's Mepple at?"

She explained it to him. "Orup asked me to help him look at ingredients upstream. We found these really large tadpoles and collected some. Here, look," she said, bringing out the bottle she still had on him. She knew he was about to ask how in the world that was supposed to matter, but she was quick to cut him off. "They're really big, so he went to see where they were coming from. He hasn't been gone long, just for maybe five minutes? He said I could call you and let you know, I didn't think it was too wise to leave without you knowing."

Rua sighed and rubbed at his head with his free hand, looking both annoyed and resigned to his employer's behavior. He took the rabbits from his belt and handed them to her by their ears, and then his knife. "I'll go grab him. Stay near the camp."

She awkwardly took both from him and nodded, saying nothing and only watching as he started back upstream at a quick pace, looking for the alchemist. "The lengths I go through for that man," he muttered.

Orup was quite stealthy, of course, though he occasionally tripped over some large rocks or snapped some small tree limbs lying on the ground with his tremendous weight. Along the banks of the water he found all sorts of plants that he had never seen before. Many of them seemed familiar, but they were different colors or had different patterns in their seeds or leaves, and Orup did his best to scribble down as much as he could about them. He had intentions of being here for a few days more at the very least, but even at this pace he was sure to be stretched for time!

Every once and a while, though, he seemed to catch a glimpse of something in the water. It seemed large, but when he tried to focus on it... well, then it would be gone as quickly as it had come. Orup dismissed that and realized, to his dismay, that he hadn't yet figured out what he had come here for. Those tadpoles... where had they come from? Well, if he continued to pluck along, perhaps he would run into them eventually.

Something pricked his ears though, and he turned to the way he had come from. Had Ayls returned? Or perhaps the boy? He didn't necessarily sense anything foul, but this place's magic could mess with your sense. Feeling a little bad that he had abandoned Rua's commands to stay at the camp, Orup figured it would be best if the mercenary could locate him easily. No need to keep him hunting, after all.

His yell of a call broke the tranquility of the lake, "Is that you, boy? I'm over this way!"

Rua heard the call of his employer and zeroed in on his location, picking up the pace to an easy trot. It wasn't long before the overweight alchemist came into view. "There you are," he said loudly as he approached, slowing a bit. "You're not much for following directions, are you?" he asked, a slight undertone of exasperation apparent in his voice.

He was looking around the area as he came up to Mepple, looking somewhat wearing. "Well, I don't see anything monstrous trying to kill us here," he remarked. "I guess that's an improvement."

Orup grinned a bit at the comment, waving a hand through the air carelessly, "Kill us? Here?" The fat man chuckled a bit, gesturing about randomly, "Why, look at this place! I can't think of anything much more tranquil." He turned his back on Rua for a moment, turning to the water and looking at it intensely. Despite the water being quite serene, it was certainly murky over near the shore, likely because of the mud. After a few feet off the dry land, it was impossible to see how deep the water could be or what might be lurking beneath the surface.

As he was looking at the water, though, something did catch his eye close to the shore. Glancing at Rua quickly, the large alchemist began to slip his shoes off in a few deft motions so he could get into the water itself, speaking to the mercenary as he moved, "I'll just be a minute or two more, boy, I promise. Need to get a good look at this before the day dies entirely, you understand. Just..." his feet, quite little compared to the massive weight they supported, sunk into the mud a bit as he left dry land, "just want to check one last thing."

Walking out a foot or two, the man stooped down as low as he could manage, chuckling slightly under his breath. More tadpoles. Standing up straight with a groan, the alchemist turned to Rua and fumbled for one of the bottles with the oversized tadpoles in it. A moment later, he sent the thing soaring through the air with a terrible lob that didn't seem to bother him too much, speaking all the while, "Say, boy, ever seen anything like this before? Bigger than I could've ever imagined!"

Rua moved to follow Mepple, and snatched the thrown bottle out of the air with ease before glancing at it. The same tadpoles Ayls had shown him earlier. "Not until Ayls showed me a little while ago, no," he told the alchemist as he approached the bank and handed the bottle back. "There's things like them deeper in the forest, I think, but those are supposed to be bigger."

His boots squelched as they stepped into the mud, and frowned as he looked down at the water, spotting more of the creatures. He knelt down to get a better look at them in the water, then looked back up at Mepple. "Can't imagine this place would be able support more than a couple of them, if that's what they are," he said to his employer. Rua stood back up. "Let's head back and get supper started. If we find some of those faerie brats running around, you can ask them about the tadpoles. They'll probably know what they are, if anyone does."

Orup nodded slowly, rubbing his belly tenderly as he thought about the possibility of supper. "That sounds like a splendid idea, boy," he murmured, realizing he had already pulled out his journal to take some notes about the mud. Instead, the heavy man tossed the precious book that held most of his life's work back toward the bank, letting it land by his shoes. The prospect of tripping into the lake while holding that little journal discomforted him much more with his recent advances in his own craft.

Glancing back at the large pond reluctantly, Orup took one last look at the thing before he prepared to leave it. Ah well, no use working on an empty stomach! Before he could completely turn away, though, something caught his eyes.

What seemed like small bubbles were surfacing not far from them, though it was definitely a deeper part of the lake, and when Orup squinted he thought he might be able to see a shape under the water. Could there actually be something out there? Entranced, the alchemist took a small step, trying to get a better look at what might be under the murky surface.

A moment later, his world seemed to explode.

From beneath the water, a massive creature appeared, breaking through the surface in what seemed like a tremendous jump. Out from the water it came, soaring through the air with jaws wide open, a tongue as thick as a tree hanging between lips wider than his old Aunt Betty. The fat man tried to scream, he tried to move, but his feet seemed cemented to the mud beneath him, and no words could be found. In hardly a blink of an eye, the creature was only a hair's breath away from him, and that massive tongue lolled out, catching Orup between the legs and lifting him off his feet. His world went dark as he was consumed.

The Degu Toad slammed into the ground about ten feet from Rua, on dry land now. The creature was all sorts of brilliant shades of blue and green, but it could hardly be called majestic. Large and lumpy with beady little eyes and fat lips, the large amphibian belched loudly, turning to look at Rua blandly. The creature was a mess, in all reality, with cuts and scratches all along its watery hide and about thirty feet of chain trailing off one of its hind legs, as if something or someone had tried to capture it a while back.

But it seemed satisfied with its meal, and those small but powerful hind legs kicked again, sending the large monster toward the water, past Rua, in what looked like a very ungraceful dive, the chain slapping in the mud behind it.

It was the explosion of water that caught Rua's attention first, causing him to spin about on his boot towards the noise. Everything seemed to move in slow motion--the torrent of water hurling up into the air, the ugly, massive amphibian shooting up from the depths, its girth arcing down to slam into the ground with a wet slap. The force of its landing came with a whump of air that knocked the mercenary back. The beast's maw was opening as Rua's back hit the ground with a bounce, and time resumed.

"MEPPLE!" Rua roared as the beast swallowed the alchemist up in one gulp. Cursing, the merc shoved himself up onto his knees and then to his feet, his hand quickly going for his sword and drawing it out in a swift motion, but by then, the giant toad had already turned around and was shoving ungainly into the water, the chain on its foot rattling the entire way.

That chain was his only chance at getting Mepple back alive. Or at least getting revenge for his employer's death. He cursed under his breath. He wasn't paid enough for this crap. How in the world did that man keep finding these bloody creatures? He dropped his shield on the ground--it would only weigh him down, and he needed a way to let Ayls know something was wrong. He hoped that she'd be okay for a little while. With a snarl, Rua ran and dove into the water. Startlingly cold water shocked his skin and soaked through his clothing instantly, and it was a few panicky moments that he shoved his hand around until he found the chain moving through the sludge beneath the water. He grabbed onto it and opened his eyes. The water was murky and he couldn't see very far, but he knew where to go now. With his sword still secure on his back, he started pulling himself deeper into the water a span at a time with the chain.

Down, down, down went the Degu Toad, the slack on the chain it had left behind quickly coming in behind it. The thing shook itself a bit when it felt Rua's added weight on the end of the line, tugging on its old wounds, but it did not mind it too much. All the creature had in mind was returning to its home and curling up for a nice long rest while it digested its meal. Further down it went, into the murky depths, until finally the thing made a sloping turn, headed towards the mud it might seem. Though Rua wouldn't be able to see, and Orup certainly wouldn't know, the creature passed through an entrance of sorts in the lake. This entrance became a tunnel, and a moment later later that tunnel became a cave--a cave filled with air and not water. Dark, damp, and cozy for the creature, the massive amphibian got about a dozen feet out of the water before collapsing in peaceful rest. For the time being.

Orup, on the other hand, found his fate not quite so comfortable. Trapped in the belly of this thing, he was constricted to say the least. It took him a long moment to realize exactly what had happened, his immediate loss of vision not helping at all, but once he knew his situation he realized what had to be done. Unfortunately, though, on the move as it was, the creature jostled him back and forth, pinning his legs in all the wrong places and dismantling any proper sense of direction he really had. The alchemist struggled for breath, spitting out mouthfuls of stomach acid for every drop of air he managed to receive, but finally he managed to get his hands on the handle of his knife.

As his fingers closed around the thing, the man, for once, bothered to pause and think. Pulling the blade out while the creature was still moving could be suicide. One wrong bump and he would gut himself or simply lose the knife. No, as dangerous as it was, the man had to wait until the creature settled. He had to pray that it would, really.

Slowly, by the goddesses' own grace, it came to be, and, after a moment, Orup was sure the creature was finally lying still. Even as the movement stopped, though, the man could hear--he could feel--the stomach acids beginning to pump, prepping him for digestion, for liquidation. Without another thought, the heavy-set man plunged at the inside of the creature, hoping he could kill it before he lost a grip on his blade.

He couldn't hear anything, and knew that even if he exited the water he wouldn't be able to hear much at this point, not with the water now trapped in his ears. His arms felt like they were burning as he rapidly used his what oxygen in his lungs, trying to pull himself through the water while weighed down by his clothes, his boots, and his sword, but he grimaced under the water and kept pulling himself. The ambient light around him dimmed the farther he went, and not all of it was from the depth.

A cove? he soon realized. Was this pond deep enough to hide a bloody cove underneath the water? One big enough to house that gigantic creature? It was absurd. But no more absurd than that monstrosity hidden deep underneath the Western Caves, or that poisonous region he rescued the alchemist and that lunatic sand thief. He saw shimmering above him, saw the chain he was holding onto arching upwards towards it, and knew his destination was near. He let go and started to swim towards it--no point in letting the damn thing know he was coming to kill it--and despite wanting to gasp out, suck in air, he did his damnedest to keep silent upon breaking the surface, and try to breathe normally to refill his lungs full of the precious air he needed.

The cavern wasn't as roomy as he thought, and most of it was taken up by the girth of the massive toad as it lay prone against the ground. Rua knew he needed a plan to take on such a dangerous creature. He also knew he was completely out of time. He had to strike fast and strike. Taking hold of the rocky edge, bracing one boot against the submerged wall, Rua sucked in a gasp of air and launched himself out of the water. He made no other noise--no roar of rage, no snarl of battle--and merely drew his sword mid-charge.

Orup knew his target. He could feel it, even from here, pumping in the chest cavity of this enormous creature that had swallowed him whole. He thought he felt the creature move, but it was too hard to tell, and it didn't matter anymore. His knife tore through the wall of the stomach, carving its way deeper, and a moment later it punctured the heart of the creature. The creature lurched at that, though it seemed it would take a moment before the thing realized what had happened.

Something thudded into the outside of the creature that made Orup pause. Could it be? Could Rua have managed to stay near all this way? The Degu Toad was certainly dead, now, the blow to its heart a killing strike, but that did not leave Orup any less trapped. With this creature seemingly on its belly, Orup's only real way out was being blocked by the floor. He would have to risk it. Opening his mouth, the man cried out "Tip it over!" before the most foul tasting stomach acid filled his throat. He would have to hope Rua could manage the rest.

Rua was surprised--the monster was quick, even after having settled down for a meal and looking severely obese, and had quickly turned to attack the intruder within its den. Rua was quicker, though, and had easily crossed the distance before it could aim its tongue at the mercenary. There was a brief shudder that he was unsure what meant, but then moments later his sword slammed right through the creature's skin and fat, causing blood to spurt from the wound.

The creature quickly shuddered once and died. He wasure sure why; he doubted he landed a killing blow. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Rua berated himself. He still had to carve his employer out of its gut... somehow. How in the world was he going to tip this bloody thing over? He cursed. He did not want to put that kind of strain on his personal weapon. However he jammed the blade of his sword between the ground and the creature's belly, and started to pull upward and shoving his back into the side of the dead toad. He needed all the leverage he could get to try and tip the corpse over onto its side.

It took several moments of grunts and cursing and pushing before the creature finally rolled over enough for him to try and cut Mepple out. Picking his sword up off the ground again, Rua picked a corner of the beast's gut and slammed his sword. Rapidly he worked, ignoring the burn in his muscles, as he sawed down and to the side through the creature's flesh until finally it gave way--blood and innards quickly spilled out of the corpse, tearing open the belly further and forcing the mercenary to step away from the flow of gore.

The alchemist spared a brief moment to be thankful that the sword hadn't taken a piece out of him, but that moment passed all but immediately. Gasping for breath, the man spilled out of the not-so-proverbial belly of the beast. With a sickening squelch, Orup hit the cool stone floor of wherever he was, the gear he had been carrying falling haphazardly all over the place. His world was spinning, upside down and sickeningly dark, but that was the least of his problems. He had no knowledge of this creature that had eaten him. Did it rely on size alone? Might it have been poisonous? His skin, clothes, and gear had all been soaked in that awful acid, which stank like you might not believe, and the alchemist had not the faintest of clues what effects it might have on him.

His choices were limited.

Flipping over, the man raised himself to all fours, emptying his own belly all over the floor, cringing as it burned again on the way back out. Well, step one was over at least. Orup looked up at Rua, realizing that, surprisingly, he could actually see the man. There seemed to be faint amount of light, even in this dark, underground place, though the alchemist could not yet pinpoint where it came from. Regardless, it would be helpful for him.

"I'm going to need your help, boy," Orup Mepple managed to get out, finally. He fumbled at his belt before realizing that what he was looking for had been detached at some point. Turning around ungracefully, he fumbled through the guts and gore until he found a large flask made of reinforced glass, sufficiently covered and filled with all the lovely liquids that had composed the toad. With a grunt, he offered the thing to Rua.

"Wipe this clean, then fill it up with water. Try not to contaminate the water supply," said Orup, still breathing heavily. A cough struck the man a moment after speaking, and he leaned over to the side and spat something else out. For once, the alchemist realized he was about to appreciate that his mercenary friend preferred to act and not chatter.

Wordlessly, Rua set his sword down--there wasn't a moment he could spare to wipe it clean yet--and accepted the bottle that Mepple handed him. Pulling a soaked-through ragged cloth from his satchel, he started wiping away the entrails and blood from it as he was instructed to do. Once he felt it was sufficiently clean, he returned to the water and filled it.

"You alright?" he asked over his shoulder as he submerged the flask into the water. He could berate the man for his ignoring his instructions later. After he'd gotten over having been swallowed whole by a giant frog.

"I don't know yet," the alchemist admitted, quickly accepting the container with mostly uncontaminated water. He took a quick swig of the stuff, rinsing his mouth but not swallowing, and spat the water onto the stone floor. He could feel the acidic substance all over his skin, trying to sink in to do heaven only knew what. It burned, it stank, but it was the unknown beyond that for which he worried. Reaching into a pocket, he extracted a handkerchief that, thankfully, wasn't too disgusting at this point. He poured a little water onto it to rinse it off, and then a bit more to make sure it was adequately damp.

Tearing open his vest and pulling down his shirt, the man used the soaked and mostly clean cloth to rinse the skin above his chest, specifically the portion above his heart. Almost at once, he felt the burning in that area subside, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Turning to Rua, he spoke again finally, "Look, boy, I'm going to need a fire down here--it has to be down here if its at all possible, you understand? Maybe this creature ate a raft, at some point, or maybe the cave goes back to the surface down that way a bit. It would explain a couple of things, anyway.

"I'll be fine on my own for now, but that fire is important. Can you do that for me?" As he talked, the man washed his neck and face, ringing the cloth out and soaking it with water again. While Rua was away, he was going to need to wash himself bit by bit.

Wordlessly, the mercenary nodded at the request and began to search. He wasn't hopeful, though, and soon he knew that feeling to be right. There was very little other than rock and corpse within the cavern they were inhabiting. He gathered what little wood he could find--enough to gather it all up in one arm--and dropped it on the floor near the alchemist.

"There's not going to be much of a fire with this," he said flatly. "Unless you've got some potion we can set on fire or something. Otherwise we're better off heading back to the surface."