A Game of Skill

[Fraze]

The two trees fell in the woods, but it seemed that no one was around to hear them. The wolf paused and listened--he was certain that he had seen his pursuers closing in, had they somehow lost him?

Either way, at least he could have his lunch in private now. He looked down at the girl, who looked to be in shock, and swallowed her in a gulp.

There was still the issue of the granny. He had planned to leave her for later--actually, he didn't think he would get to her at all given the situation he found himself in, but this wasn't turning out quite as expected. Still wary of catching the attention of his pursuers, who he was certain were still searching for him, he slunk back to the cabin, employing every trick of stealth he knew to keep quiet.

As he neared the clearing that the house was built in, he noticed the smells of two people other than the granny. One of them was the human he had run past to get out of the window. They appeared to be searching for the granny.

The wolf was beginning to get a bit bored, and despite his every instinct telling him that he should stay away from these people, he felt something tugging him toward them. If he was lucky, he would have more food, if not...well, hopefully that wouldn't happen.

The granny poked her head out of the closet door and looked at Amneiger and Tiger. "Oh, is that you, Jessica? My, but you've grown, and it's so nice of you to come see me. Why don't you help your old granny clean the house a bit?" She dug around the closet for a few moments, and pulled out a battleaxe and a pair of nunchuks, and held them out. "Here you go, if you can mop the floor then I'll dust off the dishes. If you do a good job, I'll give you some cookies. Oh look, here's that nice huntsman who helps me with the with the yardwork!"

The wolf walked in, crouched down, and growled at Amneiger and Tiger. "That's my dinner," he said, and pounced.

[♥ Azzie]

Azalea roamed around, now quite lost. She'd lost track of where the others were and, perhaps more importantly, the wolf and girl. She took to the air, flying just over the trees, and saw something strange.

"Guys!" she yelled as she landed next to the fallen trees. "I think I found something!"

[Kristykimmy]

Kristy was wandering, following the others, who she was beginning to think knew about as much as she did about tracking. Well, maybe that wasn't exactly fair, they weren't all blonde, some of them had to know what they were doing.

Just then there was a shout from a ways up ahead.

"Hey, guys! That was Azalea, wasn't it?" Kristy said. "Let's go see!"

Without waiting to see if anyone had paid attention to her, she rushed off in the direction of Azalea's voice. Arriving there, she found her, staring at a couple of downed trees.

"If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" she asked as she came over to look at the trees. She wasn't sure what this meant, but she was bored and the trees didn't seem important to her.

"Hey, guys, wanna go back to the grandmother's cabin? I'll bet she's got cookies, grandmas always have cookies. Or, at least, mine always did."

Totally forgetting about why she was in the woods in the first place, Kristy skipped off back to the Grandmother's cottage.

[PFA]

((Sorry, I've been way busy this week x_o))

Jernath got lost. How the blazes did he get lost? He was supposed to be good at navigating through forests. It must have been something about these wacky illusions throwing him off. Magic was too confusing. He wished things would just stay as they were supposed to be...

"Guys! I think I found something!"

Oh, good, Jernath thought, running in the direction of the voice. When he got there, he found two downed trees. They looked like they had been brought down just recently. Almost definitely the doing of the wolf.

"It might be a good idea for some of us to check back at the cabin, actually," Jernath said in response to Kristy's suggestion. "Me, I'm going to see if I can find that wolf."

He carefully observed the area, looking for any signs of tracks, wolf fur, disturbed foliage, anything else he might be able to use to figure out where the wolf went. Surely it had to be around here somewhere...

[Tiger]

Tiger nodded at Amneiger's offer. "Be careful," she warned, though it was probably unnecessary. What guild was he from? And...what was his name? Tiger searched her memory, but found it fuzzy, as if she were a roleplay character and her author couldn't decide whether or not she should skip the roleplaying-into-the-guilds thing.

Tiger was surprised to see the grandmother uneaten and in fact surprisingly calm, after being locked in her closet by an anthropomorphic wolf. Maybe that was part of the illusion. As well as her ability to hold up a battle axe. Tiger hesitantly took the axe, testing its weight even as she said, "We really ought to get you out of - "

A growl made her whip around, reflexively raising the axe as if it were a sword...or a stocky baseball bat. The wolf pounced and Tiger swung the axe, twisting it to the side so the wolf would be struck with the flat of the blade. She was less concerned with protecting the carnivore's life than not hurting either the grandmother or guildmate with her lack of axe-wielding skill.

[♥ Azzie]

Azalea nodded, watching Kristy dart away. "Good idea," she said. "I wonder if everyone else already made their way back." Aside from Kristy and Jernath, she hadn't seen anyone around.
She sat on one of the fallen trees, deciding to wait a while just in case anybody else showed up.

[Amneiger]

Amneiger wondered why an old grandmother would have a battle axe and nunchucks, of all things. What could she possibly use them for? She lived all by herself in the middle of the woods far from help and surrounded by dangerous carnivores and...

Or maybe he did know what she needed them for.

He spun around as he heard something speaking behind them, just in time to see the wolf slam into Tiger.

Amneiger grabbed the only other weapon the grandmother was holding out as his mind raced through his options. He could try to get the grandmother hide back in the closet door, but that would mean leaving Tiger alone. He could try to attack the wolf, but he didn't know a thing about fighting and would probably hit Tiger (or himself) instead.

He gripped both ends of the nunchuks in both hand and swung hard at the wolf's head.

((Fun fact: I really did have to look up whether a "pair of nunchuks" was actually one of the things that are two metal bars connected with a chain, or two of the things.))

[Fraze]

The axe hit the wolf on the side of the chest, dazing and knocking the wind out of him. Suddenly unable to control where he was going, the force of the nunchuks against the side of his head knocked him out cold.

The grandmother took a few steps closer. "Why, that isn't the huntsman, it's that wolf who keeps stalking around here! I wondered why he wanted me to go on a trip to the beach, though the weather was very nice." She peered up at Amneiger and Tiger. "Say young men, where did you find my collection of weapons? Why, I haven't seen them since I was expelled from the assassin's guild for poisoning the guild patriarch. I accidentally fed him some nightshade muffins--such a shame, he was a very nice man."
The grandmother looked about ready to continue her story, but was interrupted by her granddaughter climbing out of the wolf's mouth--a sight that, hopefully, will never need to be duplicated.

"Oh Jessica, there you are!" The grandmother smiled. "What have I told you about running off with strange men?"
"Grandma, is it really you this time? I think it must be, you don't look at all like a wolf." She turned to the other two in the house, and blushed. "You must have been the ones who saved me. Thank you very much, I couldn't have survived without you." She paused and shifted nervously, with her hands behind her back. "Also, I had a very nice talk with these when I was in the wolf's belly..." she held out some damp and terrified-looking weasels. "They said there was someone they wanted to find. Do you know who it is?

Euripides spoke through the heavens. "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF." The girl and her grandmother both seemed to ignore it.

The grandmother tottered to the kitchen and took something from the counter. "I think you boys deserve some cookies. Here you go, you've earned them." She handed her kitchen scales to Amneiger. "Take them home with you, dearie, but don't spoil your appetite for dinner."

Once again, Euripides' voice boomed across the entire forest. "WHAT A SHOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WITH THAT, THE STAGE IS COMPLETE. WILL THE PARTICIPANTS PLEASE MEET MISS JENSEN AT THE CABIN, SHE WILL LEAD THEM BACK TO THE ENTRANCE."

Sure enough, the petite form of Euripides' assistant entered into the cottage clearing. She looked around for the other participants, before finally seeing Tiger and Amneiger in the cabin. "Come with me."

[Celestial]

Celestial cursed herself for getting lost in the forest and missing out the whole shebang with fighting the wolf. She really wanted to get her claws into that creature fr being so stubborn. Nevertheless, she flew back to the cottage and gave the grandmother a bow.

"Apologies for being late. There are too many things in this world which keep you away from the more important things in life," she said cryptically, hoping that she wouldn't get asked exactly what things. The metaphysics of the fourth wall were difficult to discuss. With that said, she waited for everyone to get here so that they could move on to the next stage. Hopefully she won't be as distracted by things beyond the fourth wall and actually do something useful.

[Tiger]

"That...was surprisingly easy." Tiger lowered the axe, frowning at the wolf sprawled on the floor. The grandmother rambled about weapons and muffins and Tiger had just realized she'd mentioned an Assassin's guild when the profoundly disturbing sight of a girl climbing out of the wolf's mouth. Tiger's brain did cartwheels over the 'impossible' physics on display.

The girl seemed no worse for wear, however. When she held out the weasels, Tiger said, "Yes, I know who they want," and took them from the girl. She didn't really want to think about how a conversation had happened in a stomach, or what the weasels were covered in. A pity magical cleaning wasn't in her repertoire.

Amneiger was offered kitchen scales, and Tiger started to ask if the old woman wanted her axe back. Instead, Euripides' voice boomed over the forest declaring they had earned an achievement, and his assistant appeared in the doorway. Tiger glanced at Amneiger, and with an weasels tucked in one arm and the axe in her other hand, she headed out the door to meet Jensen.

[Kristykimmy]

Kristy heard the announcement just as she was skipping into the glade where the Grandmother's cottage was located. Celestial was just landing. Amneiger and Tiger were exiting the Grandmother's cottage, carrying weapons and weasels.

"That sounds like a nursery rhyme in the making," she mused to herself.

Spotting Miss Jensen standing in the clearing she waved wildly. "Hey, I'm here!"

Kristy decided to see if the weasels were petable while she waited for the others to arrive.

[Amneiger]

"Um...thanks," Amneiger said as he accepted the kitchen scales. "Those look, uh, delicious." He decided not to comment on how the grandmother thought that Tiger was male, and followed Euripides's assistant while holding on to the scale and nunchuks. He held up the scale as he walked, taking a closer look at it.

((I'm imagining the scale as the kind with a bowl on top and a round face on the bottom, like this but kind of old and beat up. Is that right?))

[PFA]

Jernath was startled out of his searching by the loud voice booming across the forest. But it sounded like this particular test, or game, or whatever it was exactly was over already. I guess someone else found the wolf? he realized.

He was just a little bit disappointed that he didn't get to do anything against the wolf, but he was mostly relieved that this was over. He turned and started backtracking toward the cabin, trying to make especially sure not to get lost this time. Might as well wrap this thing up.

Thankfully, the trip back was easier, perhaps because he was paying better attention to where he was going that time. It seemed that some of the others were already there, gathered by the cabin door. He went over to join them, looking around to try and get a feel for what had happened while he was gone.

[Huntress]

[Celestial]

((Oh please tell me that the drop bears aren't going to get granny. Not after she had been saved from the wolf...))