Blackmail.
Ridley and the rest of the group were standing as Jereez approached. They were looking out expectantly into the camp in an attempt to decipher exactly what was going on. Damon had resigned himself to leaning against the rear of the prison with an extremely concerned expression on his face. He was pretty certain he knew what was happening, and he didn't like at all. Their heads turned as Jereez came to a halt in front of the door.
She cast a look to the guard that had been assigned to watching the prisoners and it was apparently enough to convince him to leave the cage and run forward, pulling out his weapon ready, to assist his comrades in combat.
It was only just after he'd already departed that Jereez realised she didn't have the keys to open to lock on the cage. She'd have to improvise. Jereez began picking the lock with a combination of small pins she'd pulled from a fine bracelet she wore on her wrist.
"What are you doing?" the human male immediately leapt on her. Someone was feeling a bit threatened.
"Jereez," she replied as though she'd heard a different question, "pleased to meet you. My accomplice there, if he hasn't already introduced himself, is Damon." Damon perked up a little and appeared excited at the prospect of escaping the bars.
"Where are you taking us?" Marina added, watching as Jereez worked the difficult lock, chewing her bottom lip as she did so.
"You got a name Missy?" Jereez shot back immediately, looking up from her work temporarily. If she was going to have to put up with these people for a while, she was at least going to put up with them knowing their names.
"Marina." The mage blinked as though it had never occurred to her that Jereez could want to know her name.
"Well, Marina," Jereez replied, finally popping the lock and looking mightily pleased with herself for a moment, "we've got problem in the DarkVeil forest, and it appears you folks are the ones who are going to help me solve it."
"What makes you think we'll help you?" Ridley asked, not sounding too impressed with Jereez's suggestion. But then, no one she was about to let out of that cage was particularly impressed with it. Jereez contemplated him for a moment as she swung the cage door wide open but stood in the doorway so that no one could pass.
"You're right," she agreed with him, "I can't make you help me, so here's what I propose: I'll give you this, if you promise your support." Everyone's eyes immediately fell upon the object Jereez held up - the dragon's eye. She jiggled it in front of them enticingly.
"Mantonus just gave that to you?" Damon asked skeptically and Jereez cocked her head to the side
"Not exactly," she replied vaguely and quickly changed the subject, "do we have a deal?" Ridley watched the dragon's eye with displeasure. He was being cornered into doing something he didn't really want to become a part of, but there didn't seem to be a lot of choice at this moment in time.
"Alright," he agreed, already regretting it. Jereez immediately cheered.
"Alright then," she told the group, "let's get out of here before we're forced to make anyone eat dirt." She turned away from the cage door to lead them away from the encroaching battle and immediately found herself nose to chest with someone tall wearing a large concealing cloak. Jereez halted and looked up to see whom she'd nearly collided with only to find the stranger's hood was pulled up around their face so that they couldn't be seen.
"Hello?" she attempted in a half friendly, half questioning voice. There was a slight clacking noise and Jereez looked down to see the figure didn't have proper hands, but strange, horrible claws that sent shivers down her spine. She swallowed and looked back up to the invisible face slowly.
Before she could do anything else, the claws were closing around her throat and throwing her unmercifully into the bars of the cage behind her. Jereez groaned and slid painfully to the ground. She was quite certain she was now sprouting a strange rippling effect across her back from the indents the bars had left.
It didn't take Ridley long to recognise the figure.
"You!" he accused as he stood in the entrance to the cage, temporarily refocusing the cloaked figure's attention. Jereez moaned and dragged herself to her feet swaying.
"What do you want?" she interrogated the stranger almost drunkenly. Her eyes rolled around in strange circles for a moment, then righted themselves as the fae dust she'd just consumed kicked in and began healing the imp, and clearing her head, faster than was usual.
"I've brought you a messsssage," the figure sneered, "from your ssssisssster." He was only too pleased that leading an attack on the camp meant he'd have plenty of rebels to please his Mistress with. Heads would roll
"Somebody obviously forgot to inform you what I usually do to most of my sister's messengers," Jereez threatened. It encouraged Elwood to raise his battleaxe in support. The dwarf had been waiting for a good battle.
"I have sssssomething mossssst of thosssse messssengerssss didn't have," the creature replied in a partially amused voice, hissing. It clacked its talons together in excitement.
"A speech impediment?" Jereez suggested mockingly.
"No," the creature replied and immediately reached into its coat. Jereez, anticipating the creature was reaching for a weapon, immediately pulled a knife into each hand and readied herself for combat. Instead, the cloaked creature drew out a small, sleek black feline that mewed pitifully. Jereez's eyes widened in shock and a crackling stillness filled the air between the imp and her opponent.
"It's a cat," Ridley commented, trying to figure out why Jereez was apparently taking it as a legitimate threat, "has anyone else noticed it's a cat?!" The cloaked figure enclosed its hands around the small animal's neck as though to crush it cruelly.
"You'll want to drop that," Jereez suggested darkly and glared furiously but the cloaked figure appeared unconcerned.
"It's a cat!" Ridley repeated incredulously.
"It's her familiar," Damon barked hastily in a tone that suggested the thief shut his trap and do it quickly. Jereez and the cloaked figure were engaged in the beginnings of a show down, either that, or a rather long staring contest.
"We can't stand here forever," Jereez suggested after several minutes of nothing happening. The sounds of battle in the background where beginning to get closer.
"I can be very pattttient," the creature replied in a tone that begged to differ. Jereez's eyes flashed golden in anger and in that moment she took a quick glance across to the human mage, hoping the woman would get the idea. Jereez barralled forward towards the cloaked figure.
The stranger's claws tightened across the neck of the cat, squeezing another mew from it, but before it could do anymore to the poor feline, the black cat flew out from its enclosed talons talons and hovered a few metres away in mid-air. This was enough to distract Lauthal's messenger temporarily as Jereez threw herself into it, slamming her tiny frame against it and striking forward with her knives.
The metal blades rebounded forcefully, sending Jereez's arms jarring backwards as both imp and messenger went sprawling to the ground. Immediately Jereez leapt back to her feet in one swift moment, rubbing her swore elbows with a pained expression. She hadn't even scratched the creature.
As she looked down, she realized the cloak had fallen away from its face as they'd tumbled backwards, revealing cruel snake-like features. It was gray and scaly with a blunted nose and reptilian eyes. The creature hissed angrily, rose to its feet and began walking towards Jereez hungrily.
In fear, the imp stumbled backwards and began tapping into the multitude of knives she always kept hidden across her body, throwing them vigorously at any available part of the creature. Her effort seemed in vain, however, as those knives that hit its body bounced away harmlessly and it nimbly swayed to avoid those directed at its head as it encroached. Jereez was too concerned with her own problems to wonder what the rest of her party was doing.
Reaching for her last two knives in desperation, Jereez suddenly realized they were still lying somewhere around the tree she had pinned Ridley to earlier. For the first time in a while, she began to fear for her life.
Lauthal's messenger looked out victoriously and dropped its cloak to the ground revealing a horrible, thick scaly hide. It dragged its talons across each other sending a ringing sound that reverberated through the bars of the metal cage that Jereez was slowly being cornered against.
"This is sssilly," she said desperately, unintentionally adopting the messenger's hiss in her dread. If anything, it only made the creature believe Jereez was mocking it which it didn't really like. It glowered and its eyes vibrated a hypnotizing red, temporarily mesmerizing Jereez.
In that moment there was a loud thunk and the snake creature shrieked in pain. A whole row of similar thumping noises immediately followed, sending the messenger stumbling sideways, crashing violently into the bars of the prison cage and hanging on to it desperately as its body began to slide downwards.
Shaken from the hypnosis, Jereez looked up to see the elf lowering her bow and the human mage lowering her hands. Whilst Jereez had been preoccupied with the creature, the rest of the group had been retrieving their weapons.
From the back of the shuddering snake creature sprouted an arrow followed by a collection of Jereez's knives. The mage must have levitated them from their fallen position on the ground and directed them towards the creature. Apparently its belly was thick and protective, but it was still vulnerable from the back.
The creature shuddered and hissed out its last breath slowly. Elwood stepped forward and, with all his might, brought down his axe beheading the vile creature. The snake head rolled and dead eyes stared up to the sky. The dwarf turned and grunted at the glances from the rest of the group.
"Just making sure," he explained, lowering the weapon. Jereez blinked, still washing away the mesmerizing effects of the thing's eyes. She was suddenly extremely glad to see a small black cat weaving around the legs of the female mage, Marina.
