Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.27 WormS

[Räv: Lady and four others are staying put for the moment to see if they can bait the Harpies into a quick departure with them. Declan is waiting nearby in case things go south. Tails and eye are waiting in the brush for your signal to move for the ship.] Luca heard the thunder of hooves that suggested that Zeno’s pursuit had started. Then as if summon with a stage cue Luca’s signal, c*m distraction, c*m sight from hell arrived.

[Tails: I officially vote that we never ever this side of hell invite those to be a signal again.]

[Ghost: Lucky bad idea.]

[Räv: Next time those are our choices a vote we just s*******r the tribe.]

[Tails: Seconded.]

[Holly: Thirded.]

[Lucky: Motion carried.] Luca used his two seconds as he flipped across the gabs between two tents to send the message before he continued in his mad sprint across the camp for the ship. When Shade had first described the worms, Luca had thought he’d gotten a clear enough picture on what to expect. However, intellectually, and physically knowing were very different things. It wasn’t till Luca watched the gaping mouth of the eight-metre wide and unknown length worm come down on a group of Centaur that the description sank in.

Luca tracked the worm or rather worms, because that was way too many heads for there to just be one, as he moved. They seemed particularly focused on the Centaurs when they ran.

[Lucky: Pretty sure worms are tremor sense so tread lightly.]

[Räv: Because we were totally stomping around in this stealth operation.]

[Holly: Freed people are free and loaded. Do I need to double back for Declan and the others?] Luca had reached the main area and could see the pens. They were completely undisturbed. Luca jumped to the next shack and rolled to the edge. Luca stuck his head over so he could speak to Declan, “Looks like the more stationary things are not targeted by the worms.” Declan started as Luca spoke but shook his head and responded.

“That makes sense. How long should we wait though.” A cawing screech interrupted Luca’s response.

Five Harpies landed next to the pen one of them having a cuff like the centaurs. They hovered just off the ground as the leader like one waved her hands around before letting out an ear-piercing screech. They opened then pen and the cuffed leader screeched again before they each swooped in and grabbed a person. They lifted into the sky, but their pace was slow. It wasn’t until one of them almost flew into a totem statue that Luca guessed that like eagles, they might have poor night vision. Which did beg the question of why the lot of them wanted to do things at night in the first place. Still if they couldn’t see well in the dark all the better for them.

[Lucky: Harpies have taken the bait.] Luca sent the message before he then reached down and hauled Declan up onto the structure. Declan tested the strength of the roof with a dubious look. Luca worried that he wasn’t going to be able to move fast enough on the roof. Right up until a Centaur raced into the clearing and was promptly swallowed as a worm emerged from the ground right where it passed.

Then Declan was off. He raced across the roof and dove for the next one. He cleared the gap though it was in no way a graceful motion. Luca shrugged and headed off after him meeting up with Ghost along the way. They circled a bit wider and actually managed to overtake the Harpies as they struggled to fly while carrying people and dodging the worms as they shot into the sky. Luca had figured out why the harpies were following the camp paths that the Centaurs were running on beneath them which kept triggering the worms to shoot up. The only reason Luca could think of was that the paths had at least a very dubious sort of lighting.

Still whatever their reason Luca happily took advantage. Overtaking them and swinging up onto the ship where Räv indicated before they all crawled into the maintenance shaft Luca directed the rest to move into the depths of the ship. While he remained near the entrance waiting for Shade.

Moments later the ship lurched and the disorientating sensation of lift off came. The Ship didn’t fly for long just until the screams and sound of breaking earth could no longer be heard. Then it settled back on the ground. The ship had barely stopped rocking in place when the wind started to pick up.

He’d assured Luca that he’d be able to catch the ship even after it had moved with Nano. Luca had put one of his butterflies in Shade’s pocket, so he had a rough idea on where they were. However, he started to worry that it was glitching out because the signal would appear and then vanish before reappearing in another location further ahead. Shade had said he couldn’t teleport but that was what the signal looked like. Short teleporting skips.

Luca waited with his eyes glued to that flickering signal. When it was right next to them Luca risked sticking his head out of the shaft. The deck was deserted. A few stray feather were whipped in the wind. Luca turned on the thermal on his glasses to try and see anything in the pitch-black darkness.

What Luca saw disturbed him though. A heat signal about the size of an adult man was floating about a metre and a half above the deck. It slowly approached Luca’s position. Luca rested a hand on his dagger. The space was too cramped for a sword.

“Ah, there you are.” Shade’s voice came from in front just as the heat source stopped in place. Luca slowly relaxed his grip and then raised his glasses up. He just barely made out Shade’s form as he walked closer. On his shoulder, unconscious in a fireman’s carry was Nano. Luca waved Shade into the tunnel conscientiously taking Nano’s upper body so they could carry him into the depths of the ship.

Luca thought about asking about his movement patterns and his lack of a heat reading but, in the end, decided that might be personal and so refrained. They all had their secrets it wouldn’t be appropriate to pry just because he was from this world.

“You made it and you got him, Nice, but why is he unconscious?” Tails moved from where he had been checking the condition of a Dwarf to look Nano over as Luca and Shade set him down.

“He didn’t handle the shadow skipping.” Shade shrugged as he spoke, and Luca glanced at him for a moment. He assumed that was the movement technique he’d used. It said a great many things about the movement form even if it hadn’t explained the process itself. Räv came over after Tails and did a full examination.

“He’s fine just out.” She waved a hand and turned back to the group at large. Despite not being able to speak properly to everyone she was apparently getting her point across. Though that might have something to do with the large amount of water that was being passed around. They’d been careful to bring as much water as they could since they’d been concerned about dehydration.