The Sun Sets

"Then I am left to make the introductions. This is my assistant, Firespines. He took up residence and work here not long ago, but the strike has marred his efforts quite a bit. He can still make coffee, though, and hold an injured leg in place." Zulam sounds vaguely appreciative of his assistant, but does not make an effort to show it. "And as we speak, a leg to be held- miss Emerald seeks treatment. Please lay down, I will work quickly."

Emerald does as instructed.

Storm floats over to a good vantage point to look at the 'action'.

OOC:Perception of the Zebra's healing techniques.
Roll(1d20)+7:
11,+7
Total:18

Bronymous wrote:"And as we speak, a leg to be held- miss Emerald seeks treatment. Please lay down, I will work quickly."

"Oh my!" I exclaimed, seeing the injured unicorn. "Is that what it's about? Right then," I downed the last of my coffee before coming and gingerly holding the injured leg, awaiting Zulam's instructions on which way it ought to be turned...

Healing Assistance Check:

Well it certainly is "quick". Another word to describe the process might be "excruciating", or "attempted murder"- from Emerald's perspective anyway. Watching intently, Storm manages to note the whole procedure and a few of the details as so:

Emerald lays down on the cot, extending her broken leg. Spines removes the cast, and gingerly takes hold of the hoof, holding it still. Meanwhile, Zulam appears to be mumbling some kind of chant, as he retrieves a small cup containing a yellow paste, and a small slat of wood with leather wrapped around it. He gives Emerald the wood slat to bite down on. The paste is thick and rough, and smells like pine needles and honeysuckles (so at least it doesn't smell bad). Zulam takes a generous amount, working it onto his hooves. Then he turns and faces the prone Emerald and then says, "Pull."

Spines pulls the leg straight out, nearly dislocating it from the socket- and it's painful. And it doesn't end there. Zulam then places his hooves at the top of the leg, clamping it between them, and works them from base to hoof in small twisting motions. It is reasonable to believe it is the most painful thing Emerald has ever experienced, with the only exception possibly being what gave her the broken leg in the first place. Once he reaches her hoof, he then shifts his hooves and does the same thing going back the other way. Finally, once he has completed this, he begins to massage in the yellow paste along her leg. It seems to soothe the pain as he goes. Once he's done, he speaks again, "Push". Spines pushes the leg, taking care not to let it bend at the joints. One more jolt of pain, and then nothing. It feels fine. "We are finished. If you like, give it a try." He says to Emerald.

Satisfied in his work, he cleans his hooves off at a washbasin. "One trouble you have been spared from, but many more still press. A missing mare and missing wood, of course. But other things torment you too. What," he turns, so the question is asked to everyone, "do you do of the one following you?"

Throughout the procedure Dodger was wincing and looking away as best he could, even though he wasn't being operated on. He never had much of a stomach for pain.

---

I'm not quite sure what Zulam's asking. Is he asking if we know about anyone following us, is he asking what we know about someone following us, is he asking what we plan to do about that someone following us, or am I just a derp?

Bronymous wrote:Satisfied in his work, he cleans his hooves off at a washbasin. "One trouble you have been spared from, but many more still press. A missing mare and missing wood, of course. But other things torment you too. What," he turns, so the question is asked to everyone, "do you do of the one following you?"

"Who's following them? Better yet, where too? Let's go get that red wood, I bet we'll find out," I suggested, despite not being sure if I had correctly interpreted Zulam's words. He was kind of confusing sometimes, and I wondered if it was intentional on his part. "Because, y'know, they'll... follow us..."

I trailed off as a small, sudden feeling of paranoia overcame me. I decided to listen to it, and stuck my head outside the tent to look around...

Checks:

Spines looks outside the tent. Apart from the crowd of protesters shouting at each other, and two familiar looking ponies walking nearby, there is nothing of note. He is seen by one of the nearby ponies, who doesn't react. He is not noticed by anyone else that he can see.

"Perhaps it was only obvious to me. Some things I see and do not recognize, some I recognize to well. Perhaps a friend, perhaps not, he follows you from the Forest. He was not there when miss Emerald first came seeking Oak, and now he watches, the nature of a hunter." Zulam has kept eerily still while speaking, and then sits on the ground. "That is mostly what I wished to speak with you about. Anything else I fear will cause disbelief or mistrust. Spines is free to accompany you, he has no obligation to remain here. He may assist you if you wish to search the Forest for your tree again- though a better guide may soon present himself. Is there anything else I may help you with?" He cocks his head, looking at Emerald, "I hope I have sufficiently proven my intent?"

Bronymous wrote:Spines looks outside the tent. Apart from the crowd of protesters shouting at each other, and two familiar looking ponies walking nearby, there is nothing of note. He is seen by one of the nearby ponies, who doesn't react. He is not noticed by anyone else that he can see.

"Hmph..." This was odd. I could've sworn...

Ah well. The ponies were talking, and now was a good time to listen.

Bronymous wrote:"...Spines is free to accompany you, he has no obligation to remain here. He may assist you if you wish to search the Forest for your tree again- though a better guide may soon present himself."

"Whoohoo!" I shouted with glee. "My ticket out of here, finally! Lemmejustgetmysatchelpackedupandthen..." I stopped. Breath, Spines, I heard the voice of my older sister in my head. I took a deep breath before finishing, and decided against it, electing to get my stuff packed.

First, the satchel itself (duh) under the sleeping mat. Then my blanket, and the sleeping mat. Next the cayenne pepper. I stopped and checked Zulam. He was still talking. I grabbed a packet of coffee grounds. Then my water bottle, and my special steel mug. I donned my wool jacket, checking it over to make sure my knives and fire-crackers were all in the proper pockets. Then I looped the satchel over my shoulder, and I was...

"Ready to go!"

Stealth:

Dodger's thief senses tingle. He makes a quick glance in the baby dragon's direction, noticing him grabbing the coffee while the zebra was distracted. He held back a chuckle. Snatching things should be left to the experts. Still, he opted to say nothing until and unless the zebra said something about noticing the stolen coffee.

---

Spoiler:

OOC:Perception on Firespines
Roll(1d20)+7:
3,+7
Total:10
Nope. Storm is as blind as bat here.

"Alright, lets go."

"If I ever need information from a captive, I know where to go..." Emerald grumbles as she flexes her leg. She'd suffered worse, she was sure, but usually while under the influence of something severely mind-altering that she wouldn't really acknowledge it as happening. The wood block managed to get some good tooth impressions into it, so at least she dished out like she got this time, even if it was to a piece of wood. The suddenness of the feeling's absence made it hard to conceptualize. Remembering exactly was pain feels like, even recent pain, was hard for the best memoried of ponies, the unpleasantness was gone, and the leg seemed to support her weight, that was what was important.

"Trust is a fickle and transient thing, though I will thank you for services rendered. Sometimes the deepest game is the one seeming most shallow, I trust you play your part in what it might be, if not then now you are a piece at peace with us, but I do not yet know the board let alone where the stones lay. I acknowledge the warning, but my friend is still in danger." The last clause was said as she turned away from her healer. She made an enemy of the deer, she knew that much, but they seemed too xenophobic to pursue her to this mass of ponies, so it must be an assassin who felt they knew too much.

"The path hasn't gone cold yet, we still need to find Star." Emerald states with conviction.

Zulam (who either didn't notice Spines take the coffee, or didn't care) holds open the tent flap for you. "One more bit of cryptic wording then, to stir your thoughts: A melancholy moon risen by a silver flash, the deepest dark of night tempered under eternal sunshine." He allows those words to take effect for a moment. "I... do not know what that means. But perhaps it will come to mean something to you."

RavenscroftRaven wrote:"Trust is a fickle and transient thing, though I will thank you for services rendered. Sometimes the deepest game is the one seeming most shallow, I trust you play your part in what it might be, if not then now you are a piece at peace with us, but I do not yet know the board let alone where the stones lay. I acknowledge the warning, but my friend is still in danger."

"...Wait, what? Is that pieces at peace? Or peace in pieces? Or a piece of peace? Or peaceful pieces? Gah!" I exclaimed, being rather confuzzled. Unicorns did that to me sometimes. I think it comes from going to so much more school than everyone else. "Never mind. Let's just go."

"A very generic prophecy, but one I shall keep in mind should more pieces come to light." Emerald notes as she heads out, a thanking nod once more to her onetime doctor and still completely suspicious zigra. A silver flash bringing melancholy moon has already happened: The flash of a blade, symbolic for assassination, made Luna sad. Deepest dark of night tempered by eternal sunshine means that Luna was at risk of relapse to Nightmare Moon, there was no "complete recovery" as the Daily reported, but that now that she's taken responsibility, she's keeping sane.

Or it could mean any number of other things that only make sense once they happen. Such was the nature of uselessly vague predictions.

Storm follows Emerald out of the tent. "Where to next?" What do your senses tell you?"

"It's been confusing, I think they were moving... But it was this way." Emerald points out the prior direction of her spell before its dispersion, and confidently begins making her way through the crowd. A crowded place could be great for would-be assassins, but also very hard for them, the movement could make non-magical tracking difficult even as it hides their movements. Either way, the best spot to confront the follower would be in an open area free of bystanders, so two goals with one movement.

Dodger followed his comrade through the crowd, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be following them. In an area this crowded, though, it was very, very difficult.

Storm makes his way through the crowd with Firespines, Emerald, and Dodger, looking for anypony tailing them.

OOC:Perception check to see if any are following them.
Roll(1d20)+7:
3,+7
Total:10
Yup. Blind as a bat.

I followed along behind my new companions with a renewed purpose. Finally, somewhere I could feel useful! A chance to get on the move! I glanced around me as that feeling of paranoia returned. I noticed one of my former coworkers sitting on the ground quietly. I remembered that, like me, he had been against the strike, and now had nowhere to go. The party was moving and he was too far away to go talk to; all I could do was wave at him as we passed by...

...And see him nod back, giving me a weak smile.

Don't worry, I silently promised him. I'm gonna make this right.

The group, following Emerald's Found It spell (which she notices has gotten much weaker. It won't be long before it wears off altogether), continues out of and away from the crowd of ponies, and the lumberyard altogether. Despite keeping a watchful eye out for their supposed follower, several minutes pass without incident. The roar of the river and falls, still far ahead, are just barely audible, when Dodger manages to catch something moving in the corner of his eye. When he turns to look, though, he seems to barely miss whatever it was, and now sees nothing. However, he does notice the gentle rises and falls of the hills, and that combined with the knee high grass may make for a decent attempt at hiding.

Dodger is now certain someone is following them, but doesn't know who, what, or where.

"If anyone doubted the zebra, we ARE being followed," whispered Dodger, careful to make his voice just loud enough so that few, if any, ponies beyond his party hear.

"Well! Let's find out who then," I whispered back, sliding a pair of knives into my claws. "You go to the left, I'll head to right, and we'll catch him between us. M'kay?"

"Great. And we can continue to be bait. Oh well." Storm continues to follow after Emerald.