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In the hedge, it's also just after noon, but nothing at all is lovely. Not in the harmless, benign sense which lovely is often used to connote. No, it's the sort of lovely that is used to advertise its venomous nature and likelihood that coming into contact with it will kill you. So there's that.
Fortunately, a Trod has been forged, wide and strong. Running from Cape May west through Philadelphia and all the way up to the Lehigh Valley and beyond. It's a superhighway for lost and Hobs alike, dotted with likely places to do one's foraging in the thorns. Of course, one can always go off the trod and look for goodies. Greater risks, greater rewards and the like.
This time around, Laura has bought Fang along and sits astride the Fae Beast, working on getting them both more comfortable with that state of affairs. Lightning crackles over her fur and between her claws and teeth, casting a faint glow from her eyes. Dressed in practical clothing for the journey ahead, she's strapped a bag of possessions to Fang's side and ensured it's within reach if needed, A battered and leather bound book is tied tightly to her belt and is kept even closer in protective fashion. She takes a breath, patting Fang's back and looking to the Trod ahead.
Rosalyn was mounted on Elio, the unicorn looking particularly glamorous today as he wore what appeared to be a section of some great beast's spine around his horn like a ring. Rosalyn was ready to go, armored up and metallic golden hair tied back in a loose braid beneath a hood pinned in place so the sun glinting off it wouldn't attract attention. She had a rough map sketched out on a paper- The Plan she'd worked out with them before coming out here, marking the way they were going to go, stay together, and return safely.
Vorpal has ever been Autumn but that factor has deepened in recent days, leaving them truly suffused with its essence. That sense of witchy strangeness is palpable even now, in Springs ascendancy, even among its fellows. She's wearing her leather duster, armed with Sigknifr and a slender blade of shadows, the leather strands of her Hedgespun standing out in impressive fashion as such items are wont to do.
"Was there any particular fruit we're hunting down, per se?"
Among the gathered Autumns stood the lone Silent Arrow, without mount and only a set of throwing knives to his name; admittedly one of said knives had been pulled from the shadows, the obsidian-like blade gleaming in the light. Asbolus gave the other a nod, waiting to see where this particulr run would be going.
"I think any of rare value, and you've got a sense of how to lead us?" Laura nods at Rosalyn. "I can ask the Wryd for guidance on what fruits might be nearby and where, if need be." She pats the book lightly that rests on her belt.
Rosalyn and Elio led the way steadily down the trod, keeping sharp eyes and ears out for hobs and other obstacles. The path was deceptive this afternoon with tall hedgewalls on the side of the path and sharply curving ways that hid what was coming as well as where the proper branches to take were. At times the path even formed over and underpasses in a knot of byways without any signage to help.
Laura is less, ah, steady. As the Hedge contests their presence and vines and plants try to impede them, she just leans over slightly, lightning tipped claws slashing through them and ripping others away to toss them aside with challenging growls. She's mindful enough to keep Rosalyn and Elio in sight, along with the rest of the group.
Following Rosalyn's lead, Vorpal adds some fresh-fallen Hedge Leaves to the fallen leaves scattered around her feet by her Mantle. The Hedge isn't as willing to let her pass, but neither is it particularly well equipped to say anything about it. She proceeds rather lazily, pausing frequently to make sure the entire group is still together, and stopping entirely to keep an eye on Asbolus as he works his way through the thorns. It's easy- SO easy- to get separated here, even on a Trod, and she's putting active work into ensuring that doesn't happen to any of them.
"Sound off immediately if you lose sight of the others. Don't wait to be noticed, speak up. Even if it looks like it's just a bend in the trail."
A lingering familiarity with the endless sidewalks of the Eternal City had aided in Asbolus' passage through the Hedge, following the pathways cut through the thorns close in Rosalyn's wake. He nodded to Vorpal at her comment, taking a close look around as they made it through the first patch. "Roger that."
With Vines of Bacchus on the mind, the group travels north out of the Shackamaxon freehold's hollow. Time is largely meaningless in the hedge, and distance warps and distends with thought and emotion. So who can say, really, how long it truly took to span the distance through the hedge. Whatever the truth of it, most of them arrive at a widening point in the trod, with Absolus arriving after an apparent delay.
When people aren't looking, the walls of thorns and twisting vines seem to look like distorted, laughing faces. Or is that agony? It's so difficult to tell the difference sometimes. Any direct glances have the thorns looking merely... thorny. The typical menace native to the hedge. The vines they're after should be nearby, clearly.
Laura mutters to herself. Fear's her element, but still, the Hedge does frighten her. Fear's an old friend and it's right to warn her to be cautious here. "Always so welcoming." She drawls to the others, investigating the flora until she finds one of the vines they're hunting, carefully separating it from the foliage around it with a claw.
"Nice little patch," Rosalyn muttered. "Elio, do not go eating any now. Stop! The last thing I need is for your head to be in the clouds while we're out in the Hedge." Ros and Elio scowled at each other, and she confiscated the Vine that Elio had been about to eat, carefully detangling it from the thorns and cutting it from the stalk with her machete- but leaving the roots and a few stubby leaves so it might grow again.
The sensation of unseen eyes watching was an unfortunately familiar one to the Darkling, leading to Asbolus sparing the Thorns a sideway glance now and again a he went about harvesting one of the vines.
"It really doesn't taste anything like meat, my friend," Vorpal reassures Elio as she goes about using Sigknifr to trim off a promising section of Vine. "Looks like we all found a viable clipping? Are we settled, as far as these lovely vines go?"
Elio snorted in agreement, and then gave Vorpal a sidelong, hungry look. Vorpal was made of meat...
Laura narrowed her eyes at Elio. "You're not the only one with sharp teeth." She warned the unicorn quietly. "I'm sure there's something else in here you can find to eat."
Vines of Bacchus are one thing. Amaranthine is quite another. With the bounty here harvested, the plan in Rosalyn's possession makes the very obvious point: They will need to go off the trod for this. Amaranthine grows best in areas rife with despair, and there's despair aplenty in the world, never mind in the hedge. You've got your fresh despair, your old, mouldered despair, or the ever present despairing dread of truly lost hope. So much despair to choose from, here in the thorns.
"We should also probably decide what manner of plot we're looking for," Vorpal says, crouching to start carving a sigil into the ground, reminiscent of an occult compass. "We could aim for a fresh patch of despair that would likely be unguarded, or something more mature- if it's really old, it's most liable to have fruits, but might well have ghosts accompanying- and if it's truly lost hope, then it's likeliest to have the MOST fruits... and also probably hob cultivars. Which would, of course, be rude. What say we?"
Laura had been flipping through the book she'd bought, pages scrawled in odd symbols, building plans and other oddities. Unable to find what she was looking for she closed it with a sigh, nodding at Jackie. "Likely best to not upset our neighbours, mm?"
Rosalyn shrugged, and swung back into the saddle. Elio pranced in place with excitement. "It doesn't particularly matter to me, but more is better, yes? But stealing from a cultivated plot wouldn't be right either."
"Agreed. The middle path may be the best option in this case."
Vorpal nods to the others before standing and focusing- and then stabs her blade down into that arcane compass with astonishing brutality. Light flares through the markings, jutting out from the compass and marking one, two juncture, traveling quite some distance from the mark itself. "Egh. If we go for the nearest patch of old despair, we end up halfway to the Iron Freehold. In the Thorns. We'd probably do better to check for fresher despair." Her tone says she'd really rather not. "What say we?"
"I'm fine either way," Ros said. "I brought my camping gear if we get stuck out here for a while. But really, for me this expedition is more about spending time with you than actually needing those fruit. So I'll abstain from the vote."
Laura cants her head, patting Fang's broad neck. "I think we can have the tools to find the older despair, and harvest fruit from it. But at the same time, it might be a risk we don't need to take, and I'd rather see everyone back to the Freehold intact." She flashes a toothy grin to Rosalyn. "Fair point. A lot of this was teambuilding for the Court and getting to know each other."
"I'm here more to assist than anything, so I leave it to you."
Ros laughed. "So we're all just here to help. Does anyone need anything from the Hedge?"
A quick grin to Vorpal. "Let's get the more potent supply then? You know the way, and I think we've the capability for it."
Vorpal looks down the trod, then sighs. "...no. I disagree. There would be three legs to this journey, and we started to separate on one, on a trod. This would be three times as long with at least one segment in the Thorns themselves. I'd hesitate to invite Direct Action on a trip like that. The longer we go, the better the Hedge gets at driving us towards Arcadia and Her servants. I'll check for fresh despair, but if we don't find some nearby, we go back. That's one thing I've learned- we can't Do for others while we travel. We have to select journeys we can all complete. And I don't think that's one we can."
Laura nods, patting Fang and getting back on his back. "After you. It might be best to get ourselves moving, just in case we're not the only ones about here."
This time the light on the mark goes a much shorter distance. "... okay," Vorpal murmurs. "We can just head that way, then," she days, pointing along the light.
"Let's get moving, then."
Rosalyn oriented herself and took the lead as they plunged into the thorns. With a machete in one hand and Elio's armor, they trampled and cleared a path as best they could for the others to follow. "Stay close!" Ros called back. "These fuckers feel sharp today."
It's a bit more of a struggle this time, at least at first. Laura fights off grasping vines, letting out an enraged howl as they try to obscure her path and tearing at them with crackles of electricity. Finally she and Fang pushed through, her eyes narrowed angrily. "Fucker..we're all here?"
Vorpal glides through the Thorns, letting Ros lead and attempting, herself, to stay at the rear. She's doing her best, as they go, to keep them together, to keep eyes on everyone- and still, they arrive without Laura and Asbolus. She turns back the way they came, and soon, Laura comes through- but after that...
"Godsdammit. Stay here, guys. I can get back here easily but I need to go get Asbolus and make sure he gets here."
In the fullness of time, which seems both impossibly brief and somehow inordinately drawn out, the column of lost make their way, bit by bit, through the clinging, scratching thorns. They can feel the encroachment of despair before they reach the end of their trek. It seeps in through the skin, drags the heart down to the feet, and leaves it there.
The clearing they come upon is dark, almost oily. All the surfaces, including the thorns are covered in a fine powder. Like soot, or perhaps fungal spores. It has the feel of a burned out church that's been abandoned for several years. And, of course, Asbolus is nowhere to be found.
For him, the hedge enshrouded him, crafting mockeries out of the hedge walls. Jeering faces, agonized wails that resolve into the calls of alien birds, and the ever present prick and scrape of the briars themselves. Only too late, perhaps, does he become aware that the despair he's following might just be his own. He's thoroughly lost, the paths of his friends no longer evident, with only his own mantle showing in the thorns around him.
With a flutter of wings that sound a bit like mocking laughter, the bird that had been shadowing him takes flight.
Following in the wake of the others sadly proved to not be all that helpful as the Thorns wove around Asbolus, removing the few landmarks he had been able to discern and leaving him rather turned around. A quietly-muttered "damn it..." hit the air as he looked about to try and regain his bearings, taking the shadow-forged blade from its sheathe just in case.
Laura bit off a series of curses at the loss of Asbolus, nodding at Jackie as she stated she'd recover him and pulling Fang in next to Elio and Rosalyn. "We'll keep ourselves here until you're both back."
Ros breathed out looking concerned but trying not to get too worked up in this place of despair. Elio nudged Fang shoulder to shoulder. "They will be alright," she said, as if saying it aloud would make it so.
"They will, Jackie'll get him back." She nods to Rosalyn, glancing about. "Got your bow ready, just in case?"
"Just in case," she agreed, and pulled a trio of arrows from the quiver on her hip so she could fire them rapidly if necessary.
Wyrd starts to permeate the Thorns around Asbolus. The sound of falling foliage, sliced free and settling approaches, but it isn't until Autumn leaves sneak across the detritus that its clear who's coming. So when the half-dozen shadows cut into his segment of the Hedge, he already knows who is going to March through them to greet him. "Oh, good! You just got off track. You alright? Soul still intact, no hobs on your tail?"
Asbolus' gaze snapped towards that section of the hedge as it opened, the grip on the blade in his hand relaxing as he sw who emerged. "So far so good. Reminded why I don't come out here all that often..."
"No kidding. Come on. Should be able to follow the path I hacked here. Still gotta get home, though. Let's rejoin the others, yeah?"
Barring surprising changes of mind, its not long before Jackie marches back into view with Asbolus in tow. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalright, I forgot how gross it was here. Yikes. Uh... okay! Who's up for digging through spores to find fruit?"
Breathing out a relieved breath as they both returned, Laura hopped down from Fang. "Never minded getting my claws dirty. Let's get the bounty and get gone before the Hedge decides to throw some nasties at us?"
Ros's bow was aimed at the pair when they emerged from the thorns but she quickly relaxed and broke into a wide smile. "Glad you could make it to the party."
Ros dug into her saddlebags and pulled out a handkerchief to tie around her mouth and nose. "It probably isn't desirable to breath those spores in," she said. "No doubt there's something else in there too, so keep your guard up."
"Indeed...eyes peeled and all that." Asbolus pulled a handkerchief of his own from his pocket and followed suit with Rosalyn, keeping a close eye on the cloud all the while.
"Point taken." Laura produces some cloth herself, wrapping it around her muzzle with a little fumbling. "Stay here Fang." She pats the grumbling Hedge Beast. "We should keep in a tight group in case it decides to make a run at us."
"Hm. You know, you're right, it probably isn't a great idea to suck down spores." Vorpal muses, plucking up a fallen leaf cut during her hunt for Asbolus. "I don't believe I will."
She tosses the leaf up and catches it- and discorporates into whirling Autumn leaves which drift and flow in the wake of her companions, lingering in their shadows where she can.
Elio whinnied and Ros nodded at him. "Yeah you shouldn't either. Your feed bag's the closest thing to a mask I have for you." She hopped off to quickly buckle the bag over his nose, and got back up. "In and out quick then? Just like a skirmish."
"I'd almost call that cheating..." Asbolus said with a small smirk as he watched Vorpal take on that most Vernal of forms. After a moment he took a deep breath and held it before venturing into the cloud himself.
Dropping into a crouch and preparing herself, Laura darted into the spore cloud herself, taking a deep breath prior and holding it.
Ros and Elio charged into the spores after the swirl of Autumnal leaves, Ros doing her best to hold her breath. She stood up in the saddle, snatching at one of the higher fruits that she could spot, and they were out again a moment later. Elio high stepped, prancing for everyone's admiration at his skill.
Asbolus, for his part, made it a few steps into the cloud before he quickly backpedaled, wide eye darting around as he took on that 'overstimulated cat' look. "Bloody hell..."
Rosalyn went slowly, making sure Asbolus was in the center of the group as they carefully navigated through the thorns while staying in sight of one another. "Well that was a fun way to stretch our legs this afternoon," she said lightly once they broke through the last tangle to find the winding trod home again.
"And a good way to see how we work together." She nods, padding along on Fang. "Plus, the fruit's gonna be good. And yes it was good to get out and about."
"For a certain definition of fun, I suppose..." The Darkling still looked a little rattled, shaking his head as they emerged onto the trod once again. "Apologies for dragging things down for you all."
Johnnie stays on Asbolus's heels. She knows a trip when she sees one and she knows better than to leave him exposed. "Naw, you did fine! This ain't your purview and you didn't die or go mad or bring down enemy hordes upon our tender heads. All a success, id say."
"Nonsense! I'm relieved you're back with us and alright but it's just something to be expected when you're travelling with a group of any size.
"The Hedge is dangerous and full of tricks." She notes to Asbolus. "Any of us could have ended up in that position, key thing is to rally with it and learn. Do you feel you did both those things?"
He nodded at the encouragement from Ros and Vorpal before looking to Laura, thinking a moment before giving another small nod in response. "I'd say so. Good lesson on what not to do next time, at least."
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