03-06-2009, 04:54 PM
Somewhere along the line, Sophia lost it.
She didn’t lose it in the typical sense of the phrase. Although she hadn’t gone the foaming-at-the-mouth, eat-your-children kind of crazy, she could feel parts of herself slipping away as she found herself on the wrong end of a life-threatening chase. She couldn’t allow herself to show any outward signs of insanity, due large in part to Sage. The priestess gave into the temptation to look behind her shoulder to spot the azure-haired girl as they ran, and when she started to fall behind, she stopped to put an arm around her. It was the least she could do; the very least.
Her driving factor was fear; fear in several facets. The priestess obviously was afraid for her own life—wasn’t that the point of this game? Hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, were watching purely for the fact to see the panic-stricken faces of the contestants, but that wasn’t everything. She was naturally afraid for Sage’s well-being; as a priestess, she learned to spot out the people who need help the most. And between her frightful demeanor and wheezy gasps for air, she wasn’t hard to notice.
“Come on, we have to keep moving,” she tried her best to reassure her, but it seemed as though she was having a difficult time. Odd—Sophia herself was starting to feel a little bit closed-in and panicked just by touching her.
Sage nodded, and managed to stumble onward without the assistance of the priestess. Still, Sophia thought it best to trail the frightened girl while keeping up a fast pace of her own. The earth below shook with every step they took, and sand exploded into the air as the crawlers surfaced, jabbing at them menacingly with their vices. Sophia never did well with bugs or anything of that sort, so when three scorpions cropped up and surrounded her and Sage as soon as they reached the young tailed man, she let out a small yelp. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice.
They struck out, but surprisingly not at the priestess or the hybrid girl. Sophia allowed just a moment of hope that the scorpions had some sort of problem attacking women—as unrealistic a hope as that was—before one of them swiped at her. Although she had recently undergone some battle training (a rather informal type, when she thought about it), a spar against a not-so-bright monk like Jonathon and a real-life fight against a scorpion whose kin just speared one of her allies through the chest are two completely different things. Sadly bearing that in mind, she stumbled backwards onto the sand instead of drawing something—anything—from her training.
She was under the opinion that her luck could only take her so far, but in the now, her luck allowed a scorpion’s tail to sail harmlessly above her head as she dizzily sat on the ground, all in a blink of an eye. When she opened her eyes, they were met with the scorpion’s own. Those menacingly, beady, gross-looking eyes just started death into her face. Slime and saliva dripped off of its face—or what she thought was its face—as it gurgled at her. Time seemed to slow as the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight and a quiet scream formed from her throat.
She soon came to a realization that her immediate reaction when faced with potential death was to punch it in the face. It was an odd reaction for a priestess, but it first surfaced when she found the bandit locked inside a linen closet at the temple, and again during her first spar. Violet blood spewed from this ensuing punch, and although the blow didn’t kill it by any means, it dazed it long enough for Sophia to scramble to her feet and put up a reasonable defense. That defense was, obviously, a well-placed ki orb right in between the eyes. Surprisingly to everyone in the group—most notably Sophia herself—she had just killed one of those ungracious bastards.
Shaking her head furiously, she looked around for Sage. For some reason, despite all the men practically tripping over themselves to impress her, the priestess feared that something may have happened to the poor woman. Sophia spotted her soon after and ran to her instinctively. The timid girl and the priestess exchanged glances and made a mad dash towards the cave. You’d think that Sophia would have at least a little bit of confidence after slaying one of her tailed adversaries, but the slightest glimpse at her potential salvation was enough to have her running away like…well, a girl.
However, just like any good example of irony, a gigantic scorpion erupted from the sand just as the cave actually seemed within reach. To Sophia’s great surprise, Sage was the first to react. She held out a trembling hand and placed it against the scorpion, as if to summon or conjure something up. Nothing immediately came, however, and the sudden voice of Tempo sounded behind them. “What the hell are you doing!?”
You risked our lives for an iPod, Sophia thought. No talking.
She wanted to say it out loud, but the priestess thought it best to not antagonize herself, not when death was on the line. Regardless, the kid’s comment noticeably altered Sage’s thought process and she withdrew. Luckily for both of them, however, Juno intervened, though Sophia wasn’t paying enough attention to know how.
“We have to keep mov—ahh!” Sophia began to speak, but was halted when Juno grabbed her and Sage by the hand and kept them moving towards the cave. She was a bit slower than the tailed boy, but she hated being treated like a helpless damsel in distress. It didn’t matter if she was helpless, or happened to be a damsel that happened to be in distress—she liked doing things based off of her own merit. She wrestled her arm away from his grasp and ran alongside the pair. Juno glanced backwards with an arched eyebrow, but he kept running. He was apparently more interested in Sage, which was fine by her.
She stopped to turn around, somewhat against her own instincts. Wizard was just finished ripping off the tail of a rather large scorpion, and she couldn’t spot Tempo—maybe he had gone ahead. She had just turned around to enter the cave herself when she heard the old man speaking behind her. He was screaming his defiance into the thick desert air, talking of things like redemption and atonement, as if he had already died. It was a curious thing to the priestess; he most definitely was crazy, but acting like he was dead made him less afraid in the face of danger. It was a strange philosophy indeed, one that she could only ponder on for so long before she made a break for the cave once more.
She didn’t lose it in the typical sense of the phrase. Although she hadn’t gone the foaming-at-the-mouth, eat-your-children kind of crazy, she could feel parts of herself slipping away as she found herself on the wrong end of a life-threatening chase. She couldn’t allow herself to show any outward signs of insanity, due large in part to Sage. The priestess gave into the temptation to look behind her shoulder to spot the azure-haired girl as they ran, and when she started to fall behind, she stopped to put an arm around her. It was the least she could do; the very least.
Her driving factor was fear; fear in several facets. The priestess obviously was afraid for her own life—wasn’t that the point of this game? Hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, were watching purely for the fact to see the panic-stricken faces of the contestants, but that wasn’t everything. She was naturally afraid for Sage’s well-being; as a priestess, she learned to spot out the people who need help the most. And between her frightful demeanor and wheezy gasps for air, she wasn’t hard to notice.
“Come on, we have to keep moving,” she tried her best to reassure her, but it seemed as though she was having a difficult time. Odd—Sophia herself was starting to feel a little bit closed-in and panicked just by touching her.
Sage nodded, and managed to stumble onward without the assistance of the priestess. Still, Sophia thought it best to trail the frightened girl while keeping up a fast pace of her own. The earth below shook with every step they took, and sand exploded into the air as the crawlers surfaced, jabbing at them menacingly with their vices. Sophia never did well with bugs or anything of that sort, so when three scorpions cropped up and surrounded her and Sage as soon as they reached the young tailed man, she let out a small yelp. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice.
They struck out, but surprisingly not at the priestess or the hybrid girl. Sophia allowed just a moment of hope that the scorpions had some sort of problem attacking women—as unrealistic a hope as that was—before one of them swiped at her. Although she had recently undergone some battle training (a rather informal type, when she thought about it), a spar against a not-so-bright monk like Jonathon and a real-life fight against a scorpion whose kin just speared one of her allies through the chest are two completely different things. Sadly bearing that in mind, she stumbled backwards onto the sand instead of drawing something—anything—from her training.
She was under the opinion that her luck could only take her so far, but in the now, her luck allowed a scorpion’s tail to sail harmlessly above her head as she dizzily sat on the ground, all in a blink of an eye. When she opened her eyes, they were met with the scorpion’s own. Those menacingly, beady, gross-looking eyes just started death into her face. Slime and saliva dripped off of its face—or what she thought was its face—as it gurgled at her. Time seemed to slow as the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight and a quiet scream formed from her throat.
She soon came to a realization that her immediate reaction when faced with potential death was to punch it in the face. It was an odd reaction for a priestess, but it first surfaced when she found the bandit locked inside a linen closet at the temple, and again during her first spar. Violet blood spewed from this ensuing punch, and although the blow didn’t kill it by any means, it dazed it long enough for Sophia to scramble to her feet and put up a reasonable defense. That defense was, obviously, a well-placed ki orb right in between the eyes. Surprisingly to everyone in the group—most notably Sophia herself—she had just killed one of those ungracious bastards.
Shaking her head furiously, she looked around for Sage. For some reason, despite all the men practically tripping over themselves to impress her, the priestess feared that something may have happened to the poor woman. Sophia spotted her soon after and ran to her instinctively. The timid girl and the priestess exchanged glances and made a mad dash towards the cave. You’d think that Sophia would have at least a little bit of confidence after slaying one of her tailed adversaries, but the slightest glimpse at her potential salvation was enough to have her running away like…well, a girl.
However, just like any good example of irony, a gigantic scorpion erupted from the sand just as the cave actually seemed within reach. To Sophia’s great surprise, Sage was the first to react. She held out a trembling hand and placed it against the scorpion, as if to summon or conjure something up. Nothing immediately came, however, and the sudden voice of Tempo sounded behind them. “What the hell are you doing!?”
You risked our lives for an iPod, Sophia thought. No talking.
She wanted to say it out loud, but the priestess thought it best to not antagonize herself, not when death was on the line. Regardless, the kid’s comment noticeably altered Sage’s thought process and she withdrew. Luckily for both of them, however, Juno intervened, though Sophia wasn’t paying enough attention to know how.
“We have to keep mov—ahh!” Sophia began to speak, but was halted when Juno grabbed her and Sage by the hand and kept them moving towards the cave. She was a bit slower than the tailed boy, but she hated being treated like a helpless damsel in distress. It didn’t matter if she was helpless, or happened to be a damsel that happened to be in distress—she liked doing things based off of her own merit. She wrestled her arm away from his grasp and ran alongside the pair. Juno glanced backwards with an arched eyebrow, but he kept running. He was apparently more interested in Sage, which was fine by her.
She stopped to turn around, somewhat against her own instincts. Wizard was just finished ripping off the tail of a rather large scorpion, and she couldn’t spot Tempo—maybe he had gone ahead. She had just turned around to enter the cave herself when she heard the old man speaking behind her. He was screaming his defiance into the thick desert air, talking of things like redemption and atonement, as if he had already died. It was a curious thing to the priestess; he most definitely was crazy, but acting like he was dead made him less afraid in the face of danger. It was a strange philosophy indeed, one that she could only ponder on for so long before she made a break for the cave once more.