Thread: ATM II RPG
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Old 01-10-2007, 08:19 PM   #293
Formendacil
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"Maybe we should head back to the Palace and come up with another plan, before we begin our search again," Maika kindly suggested.

Hyarmenwë sighed. "Maybe you're right."

Elrogorn was not pleased. However anakronistic, improbable, and recklessly good looking he may have been (very, on all counts), he knew a lot about Wereducks.

However, before the handsome half-Elf could berate the two more serious companions with the need to depart post-haste, the sound of webbed feet padding down the tunnel behind them.

"What's that?" said Hyarmenwë, his agéd face aghast with fear. Not fear of Wereducks, so much as fear of the idea of Wereducks. Beside him, Maika stepped slightly closer to the old Gondorian.

"Flee!" hissed Elrogorn, drawing his shining blade. "Leave them to me."

Rather than bravely protesting, or fleeing immediately, Hyarmenwë edged further down the tunnel.

"Faster!" insisted Elrogorn.

Hyarmenwë, terrified and yet fascinated, glanced down the tunnel behind them, and then shuddered in horror. He grabbed Maika's arm to steady himself.

"Come, my dear," he said. "For once I completely agree with him."

Maika looked past Elrogorn, and could only agree. The sight that met her eyes was not pleasant. There were ducks. Hundreds of ducks. But they were more than just mere ducks; they were were-ducks. Their feathers were ruffled and a deep black, their eyes were a blazing red, and their bills a bright orange. And poking out of their bills were long, sharp fangs.

Maika and Hyarmenwë tore down the tunnel as fast as they could. Hyarmenwë had not moved so fast in years. He could feel his heart pounding, and wondered if he might not be wiser to face the mercy of the Wereducks than to keel over with exhaustion, but prudence said otherwise.

"Up there!" Maika shouted at him. Hyarmenwë suspected the young woman was not running as fast as possible, since she stayed close by him, and not far ahead, as she ought to have been capable. Behind them, he could heard the raucous sounds of Elrogorn and the Wereducks battling it out.

Looking up, Hyarmenwë saw that Maika was pointing at a trapdoor closed over a hole in the tunnel. Maika had already started to climb a ladder of metal rungs set in the wall, shoving open the trapdoor. Behind them, Hyarmenwë heard Elrogorn shouting at them.

"Faster! I can't hold them off!"

"It's stuck!" Maika shoved at the trapdoor unsuccessfully.

"Watch out!" shouted Elrogorn. "I'm coming too!"

Maika struggled desperately, and the trapdoor opened upwards. Shoving it out of the way, she climbed out of sight. Behind them, Elrogorn tore into sight. Hyarmenwë started to climb, feeling painfully slow.

Hyarmenwë had just climbed out of sight when Elrogorn grabbed the rungs and started climbing, the Wereducks right behind him. Hyarmenwë gave him and hand, and as soon as he was clear, Maika slammed the trapdoor shut right above the Wereducks, standing solidly on the thick wood.

"Where are we?" asked Hyarmenwë, looking around. They seemed to be outdoors, from the feel of the chill, fresh breeze, but night had fallen and there was nary a star to be seen, nor was the moon visible.

"A graveyard," said Maika, looking around at all the headstones and forboding insciptions of R.I.P (Rots In Pieces). Hyarmenwë, whose idea of a graveyard of Rath Dínen looked around queasily, wondering if this was an anakronistic place to be, but since Tolkien had not gone into detail about graveyards or tombs in The Lord of the Rings, no one offered him an answer to his unspoken question.

"Not just any graveyard," said Elrogorn darkly. "This graveyard has a long history of association with forces of evil."
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