From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
In spite of certain people's opinions of him, Tal was neither a fool nor completely reckless. He'd sent a raven-note back to the Guild board that he needed help for a tiger hunt and where to meet, and then he'd packed his Bag very carefully in Torchline with chunks of rhampire meat tightly wrapped in waxed paper, a shovel, a net made of tough metal wires, multiple stakes, and a full dozen throwing axes and knives to complement his glaive.
He also had his Goggles and Vest.
And his dragon, of course, who caught his excitement and anxiety and paced restlessly while crooning to calm him down until they got on the road again.
There was, at least, plenty of time to steel himself and let the nerve jitters work out as they hiked back to the Oerwoud and waited at the meeting place he'd specified at an opening to the Undergrove. He was fussing with Boreal's horns, much to her pleasure, while he waited to see who would come. He definitely wasn't starting before he had backup ready!
When Sah saw the notice that Tal was going off to hunt a molten tiger, he'd considered smacking his head into the notice board. Why was it that he was the one who kept seeing these things? Did no one else in the guild check this damn board?
Regardless, seeing as the courier had already set out, the hunter quickly got his bag together and headed out with Lilly. In his bag he held rations and his normal hunting gear, including a waterskin and some knives.
As the duo approached, Lilly gave a quiet yip in greeting before racing forward to touch noses with Boreal. "Hunting tigers now are we? Who's stealing whose job, was it?"
Sah paused as a thought occured, What kind of tiger by the way?" He only knew of regular ones and molten, but his was Caido. Surely there were others.
The Hunters were all busy elsewhere, or else they were waiting for natural selection to finally catch up with Tal. It was a good thing that Sah had such sharp eyes, or that day might come sooner rather than later.
But it wouldn't be today! ... probably. As the hunter approached Tal looked up at the yip and there was only a slight wrinkle to his nose (and maybe a little relief in his eyes) as he waved at Sah while Boreal tugged free to go rumble a happy hello to Lilly, licking her nose.
"More of a 'catch'n'release a tiger' than a proper hunt. I'm not aimin' for your job. Yet." Tal grinned and stood up, dusting off his pants. "An' it's a molten tiger I'm after today. Need some of it's stripe drippin's. An' to study it's eyes. I did some research in the Guild notes and I figure the best way is to try and trap it for a little while." He started down into the Undergrove, pulling his Goggles over his eyes to help him see through the shadows that might hide... well, anything, in the dappled light. "I've got a wire net, or was thinkin' maybe a pit trap? But I'm open to suggestions from the professional." And the way he drawled the word was more a jibe than a term of respect.
But there was some respect there, too, even if he hid most of it in teasing.
Sah nodded, hummin in thought as Tal explained his goals. The small jibe just pulled a small snort of laughter from him. "Well, in my professional opinion, I have the start of an idea."
They'd need to trap it to get the drippings. But having it fall into a pit would make it dangerous to extract from it. A combination of both traps was their best bet. and if Tall needed to watch its eyes, then he'd need to be on the other side of any bait.
"How about this for the start of a plan? We set a wire trap in-between those two trees there. We place meat right behind it so that tiger goes through it to grab the meat. And we hide behind the bait or up in a tree behind it. That way you can watch its eyes from a hopefully safe distance." That way Tal could study the eyes as the tiger approached.
"But the tiger will likely melt the wire, so we place a pit trap just beneath the meat. The tiger gets trapped in the net where it melts it. And once it gets past, it falls into the pit and out of our way. We rush in to collect the drippings left on the net while the tiger eats the meat that's fallen into the pit. We can also put extra meat down there when we digit. Then we leave before the tiger finishes it's snack and climbs out. We'll have to work quickly to say the least." That was the safest plan to extract the drippings that he could think of. Molten tigers seemed tricky enough to be thorough.
"What do you think? Any additions?" The question was genuine. It was always best to get a second opinion on any plan that could have dangerous consequences.
The undergrove was lit with its own strange glow so the Goggles weren't really necessary, but they helped with the weird shadows down there and the uncertain lighting. As they slipped from the tunnel into the subterranean forest he glanced back at Sah in cautious curiosity at the immediate mention of an idea. Not entirely a plan... but a start of one.
It... wasn't half bad, truth to tell. Tal nodded slowly, reluctantly admitting: "I was hopin' the net would last longer since it's made o' metal." He grimaced and headed over to the trees (giant roots?) Sah had indicated to study them. "I'll probably need to knock out some of the glowin' stuff so it's darker around here. That'll maybe help with it runnin' into the net. Might want to make a wooden lid or somethin' that we can drop on top of the pit to slow it down a little more. Otherwise it might jump out right away, if it's madder at us than it is hungry." It wouldn't stop a determined tiger, but all they really needed was to slow it down.
Tal thought about it for a few more minutes, brow furrowed and scowl in full force as he glared at the trees before he nodded sharply. "Yeah. I think that'll work. Worst case, we'll just have t'fight it. But hopefully it won't come to that." He had faith in Sah's lightning and this was what his glaive was practically made for, but he didn't want to kill the cat except as a last resort.
"Good thing I brought a shovel!" He grinned smugly and pulled it out of his Bag, tossing it to Sah as he reached in and began fishing the coiled net out next; the thick metal strands were bulky and not very flexible as he began unrolling it on the ground in front of the tree prior to hanging it up. "Have y'hunted one o' these before?"
"It very well might, but we should be prepared for the chance of it failing." Sah noted, nodding his head at Tal's additions. "Both of those sound good. What do you suppose we make the lid out of? Woven roots?" That was the only thing that the Outlander could think of. He certainly hadn't brought a massive thing of wood.
Another idea occurred and he added uncertainly, "Maybe a log hoisted above with some rope that one of us could drop?" That also seemed like an inefficient lid concept.
Sah caught the shovel with a chuckle, "Nice." He started digging a Tal placed the net, "No, actually. But I think we'll manage." Their plan wasn't that bad, and he was confident that they'd be able to get out alive at the very least. Tal had improved greatly in the past seasons after all. Enough so that Sah felt comfortable enough relying on the courier to watch his back.
"Backups, backups, I know," Tal groaned, but it was half-hearted at best and his hands paused for a moment in their work. He swallowed hard and then shook his head, forcing himself to focus on making sure the netting was undamaged as he began to wrap one end around one massive root-tree.
"Hmm..." Roots seemed to flimsy and the log seemed like a lot could go wrong. Tal's brow furrowed as he secured the net to itself and the wood with heavy iron staples. "I could make a really rough wooden grating in a couple hours," he mused. If Deimos were there he could--
No. They - he - couldn't rely on Deimos always being there. Tal shook his head as if to chase away the cobwebs and scowled. "How long are you gonna be diggin'? Probably need to make it pretty deep so it doesn't just hop out." Stretching the net between the trees he started securing the other side.
"Then, you're welcome," he piped up as an afterthought. "For helpin' y'pad your huntin' resume!" His grin was entirely too pleased as he finished securing the netting and went to retrieve his axe.
Sah continued digging as Tal spoke, "Sounds good. It'll take a few hours for me to dig this deep enough anyway." At the second question he specified, "I read somewhere that a determined tiger can jump as far as 20 feet, though I'm not sure how much that correlates to a running start or jumping up from standing still."
It was intimidating to even picture. Sah shrugged and added, "I'm just going to dig it as deep as I can. The roots down here will ensure that it can climb out if it can't jump."
They wanted to temporarily trap the tiger after all, not imprison it forever. Tal then had to open his mouth again and Sah groaned and rolled his eyes, "You're welcome for helping you not get eaten." With that said, he kept digging.
"Huh. Glad we don't have any in Halo," Tal opined fervently as he finished securing the net as firmly as he could. The upper staples were only loosely attached so that when the cat hit them the net would fold over it. Hopefully. "Don't think we need t'be worried about the cat." It didn't sound like anything they could construct in a couple of hours would be sufficient to do more than inconvenience such a creature.
But they needed to really inconvenience it, at least for a little while.
"Even if it does get trapped, we can always come back after it calms down an' you can... I dunno. Use your magic t'lift it out or somethin'." He'd seen Deimos hold a(n admittedly small) landshark helpless in the air for quite a while once. He didn't expect Sah to be able to replicate such a feat, but being able to remove the grate from a distance would certainly make it safer to let the cat out if by some miracle it really did get trapped.
The courier grinned at the comeback as he headed over towards some root-trees as thick around as Remi's thigh. "Y'don't get thanks for that until after we survive this!" And he hopped up on a large rock and heaved to with the axe, chopping at the top of the 'tree' with a will.
Sah snorted, "Very true. Though I think tigers can handle the cold. Thank fuck none have decided to move too far north." If they had to deal with tigers and ursurs, hunting would certainly become a far less common profession to say the least. After checking the depth of the pit he'd dug, the Outlander slowly climbed his way out.
Getting to his feet dusting the dirt off from his clothes, Sah considered the courier's words. Tal did have a point and it relieved him a bit. "Good point. I'm not sure if I could flat out lift it, but I could certainly give it the boost needed to get out."
"Fine, fine. But you better give me some alcohol in thanks." Sah snickered, "I accept cookies too." He was easy to please. Lucky Tal.
Sah watched as Tal worked, "You about done there? I can start preparing the bait."
The work went faster with someone to banter with, even if Tal wouldn't admit it out loud. He chopped down the root trees that were approximately the size he wanted and used the strange ropey vines of this underground jungle to tie them into a very rough grate, finishing around the same time that Sah did.
"Great, but before you lift the tiger, how about you help lift this?" He grunted as he struggled to lift their pit's 'lid' so they could prop it up with a log from behind. He'd been smart enough to construct it beside the pit so they didn't have to carry it, but his intention was clear: if it was already up on its edge, either one of them could tip it over the pit in a pinch.
"Yeah, yeah, booze and sugar," he snorted, rolling his eyes above his grin. "Y'ever had rum cookies before?"
With their trap constructed, he went rummaging in his Bag to pull out the rhampire meat bait, tossing a couple of hunks into the pit and setting the largest on the edge of the pit behind the net.
"Boreal's gonna scout around an' see if there are any tigers in the area. It'll be night soon..." He looked around and frowned thoughtfully. "Can y'clear some of the glowin' crap away the area so the net isn't so obvious?" And so he could study the tiger's night vision more effectively.
Sah snorted but walked over to give Tal a hand. With a combination of strength and telekinesis, he helped Tal get the lid in place. The Abandoned inspected the contraption for a moment, "I fucking hope this works, Errand Boy. I'd rather not have to kill a tiger." He could of course make use of the fur and teeth, but it wasn't necessary, so he'd rather not.
Whatever comeback he was about to give died in his throat as Sah froze. His head snapped over to stare at Tal in bewilderment, "You can make cookies out of alcohol?!?" He whisper-shouted (no need to attract the tiger too soon), with about the same amount of awe and confusion as if Tal had just said that he was secretly a Demi-god.
Still reeling from this revelation, Sah nodded and set about removing most of the glowing plants in the general vicinity with a dagger. Soon he had a good-sized pile of them and with a shrug, he shoved them into the hollow part of a tree. They were out of sight and their glow had faded as they were picked. But it felt wrong to just leave the pile sitting out.
"Sounds good, Lilly can go with her. Best to stay in pairs." Sah nodded to his companion who gave a quiet yip before following the dragon. Once the two had vanished, the Abandoned turned and eyed their surroundings. "I'm thinking a tree might be the best place to hide. But it's also not the most convenient for quickly coming down from and harvesting the drips before the tiger leaves. What do you think?"
Sah probably could just jump from the tree and sprint over, but he wasn't sure if Tal could. And this stunt was probably best done together just in case something went wrong.
Of course Tal snorted right back at the hunter, rolling his eyes. "Better hope th'tiger feels the same way about us, Jester!" Better the cat than the Halovians, after all! The courier was, admittedly, rather biased.
But he also didn't want to kill the critter if they didn't have to.
Though if it came down to it, he'd back the meat back to Halo as readily as any ursur's bounty.
Whatever comeback Tal had been expecting to his culinary question, it wasn't that, and the courier's grin widened with mischief - and a bit of smugness. "O' course! Cake, too. Next time Mal bakes 'em I'll drop some off." And he'd stick around to see Sah's expression when the cookies blew the other man's mind.
The companions went hunting and Tal also helped clear some of the glowing vegetation (fungi?) away from the area so that the net and pit were both shrouded in gloom that hid them as effectively as they men could manage without more elaborate camouflage.
"Hmm... I need t'be able to get close enough t'see it in action," Tal mused. "A tree'd be safest, but too far away. Uh..." He looked around, brow furrowed as he searched for inspiration - and found it, pale eyes lighting up. "What if we hide in the trees the net's attached to? Soon as the tiger goes through it an' hopefully stumbles into th'pit, you can knock the grate over it with your magic an' I'll scoop up the drippin's." And that way Tal would be close enough to use his goggles to see the cat's eyes as it fought with the net.
While he was saying this, the courier went to place some smaller gobs of meat in a loose trail back to the Undergrove entrance they'd used. The last thing he wanted was for the companions to end up as accidental bait.
Sah nodded firmly, "Do so." If Tal didn't come bring the promised cookies or cake, the Abandoned would absolutely come find him. The courier better deliver. This Outlander holds grudges over food till death. And then some.
The Abandoned hummed at Tal's idea. "Sounds good." Once the courier had placed the meat, Sah motioned to the trees. "We better hurry. I imagine the tiger has a good enough sense of smell to find us quickly. Sure enough, just moments after both men and their companions were safely in their hiding places, there was a rustle in the trees.
In-between the foliage, glints of glowing magma, and dark stripes were just barely visible. The molten tiger sniffed the air as it emerged from the trees, eyes narrowing in on the bait.
