VRDET-OP: Destination Marraketh
Seg #5: o/~ ... Down in the valley o/~
Shadur t'Kharn

******
Clearing in the mountain forest, Chi-Lin side
Early morning, next day
******

	Shadur slowly and reluctantly drifted back to awareness, 
wanting to sleep on but inexorably nagged into full consciousness 
by the twittering of a forest bird. Rens was still dozing 
blissfully, apparently not bothered by the sound, but Shad 
decided to take safe before sorry and fry the bird.
	He carefully lined up a nostril and started to take in 
air. *short, controlled blast. It'll be Kentucky Fried songbird 
before it realizes it's getting warm.*
	Just before he was about to let fly, he spotted a small 
black cat stalking the same bird. Recognizing Nexx's feline form, 
he held off and merely watched as Nexx pounced, catching the 
surprised bird neatly in a death grip around its neck. Shifting 
back to human form with the still-struggling bird in her mouth, 
she reached up and cracked its vertebrae, silencing its 
terrified squawks.
	"Good catch," he murmured.
	Nexx turned around. "Thanks. A rather tasty catch as 
well, albeit a noisy one."
	{*chuckle*}
	*When'd you wake up?*
	{When that scwewy boid bit the bullet}
	Shad grinned, then got up and stretched elaborately.
	"The bird didn't wake you up, did it?" Nexx inquired. "I 
was trying to shut it up before it woke everyone."
	"I wasn't asleep." Shad answered.
	Nexx looked at him strangely. "Then what were you doing? 
Pretending to be asleep?"
	"No, *I* was asleep," Rens put in, amusement tinging his 
voice.
	Nexx raised an eyebrow. "You weren't asleep, you were 
sleeping.... You're not going senile on me, are you?"
	Shad grinned. "Rens was asleep. I was not."
	Now both eyebrows shot up and stayed there. "Waitaminit, 
I thought *you* were Rens..." her stance shifted to an aggressive 
one. "Where'd Rens go? And who are you?"
	{*cackle* I'll take that call} "Oh, I'm here, no fear... 
And that was Shad."
	Nexx stared at him for almost a minute before shrugging. 
"Suit yourself. Anyways, it's almost 7 AM. Think we should wake 
the others? We really need to get moving..."
	Rens's mindform grinned like a maniac. So did Shad. 
"Sure, but you might want to plug your ears, as in *rrrrright 
nowwwwww*....."
	Nexxus was sharp, alright; the moment he started taking 
in air she got the picture and clenched her hands over her ears.
	{Okay, that one in the foyer really sucked. Let's do it 
again and this time get the volume right...}
	* * * R R O O O A A A R R R R R ! ! ! * * *
	The bellow seemed to shake the very mountain and knocked 
over the shelter in which the currently human members of the 
party were sleeping, turning it into a chaotic jumble of 
struggling silhouettes and collapsing poles as three people tried 
to scramble to the exit in three different directions. Nexx 
stifled a snigger as Selvane leapt out, clad in his underwear 
and his gun in his hands, followed by a slightly pissed-off-
looking Aris and a woozy Phoenix.
	"What the hell was that?" Selvane asked, looking around 
for the source of the attack.
	Aris, slightly more awake and pondering being it, shot 
Shad a dirty look. "That was the sound of one dwagon roaring." 
she replied with a glance that added, "and if you even think of 
doing that again I'll personally rip your scales off one by 
one," although the yawn kind of ruined the effect.
	Phoenix yawned as well. "What time is it?"
	"7 AM, and high time we got moving," Nexx replied. "I 
caught breakfast if anyone feels like noisy bird."
	"What?" Selv asked.
	"Bird. If you want it, go ahead. I don't eat things I 
kill if I can help it. I can pack the shelter while you eat." 
Nexx answered.
	"I'll help." Shad volunteered.
	Within ten minutes the shelter was reduced to a small 
cubic package that Nexx fitted into her backpack. Nobody 
apparently was really hungry since the bird was still untouched 
when Nexx straightened up and clapped her hands.
        "Okay, let's move out!"

				****

	About four hours later they hit upon the trail Nexx had 
mentioned and started up it, grateful for the slightly easier way 
up.
	Even so, by mid afternoon most of the humans were pretty 
much exhausted with apparently half the mountain still to go. 
Nexx stopped in midstride, threw her pack down, sat on the ground 
beside it and pulled out her canteen.
	"I need a break. We're not going to get there any faster 
by walking ourselves to death, and we're not going to be able to 
stage much of a rescue when we're all about to fall over." Aris 
and Phoe muttered agreement and plopped down as well. Shad padded 
over to a sunny spot and basked. Selvane apparently didn't feel 
much of the lighter air or the chill, and remained standing. 
"I'm not tired. I'll scout up ahead while you take your break." 
Stalking off, he continued "I'll yell if I spot anything."
	Everyone enjoyed the break, but it was short-lived as 
Selv returned after less than five minutes, excited and slightly 
out of breath.
	"Nexxus, did you run across a ghost town last time you 
were here? Because the trail leads into one less than thirty 
yards ahead."
	Nexx looked into the distance while she searches her 
memories. "No, there was only a trail last time I was here. It's 
probably a different trail..." She shrugged. "We might as well 
check it out. We need to get going anyways." A chorus of minor 
groans greeted this statement, but everyone duly got up and 
followed her.
	A few minutes later the Rangers were standing outside the 
remains that had once been a human settlement, now overgrown with 
moss and plants. It was still plain to see that the trees had 
been forcefully removed from a large clearing at the opening to a 
valley, but it been abandoned for aeons and the forest was slowly 
reclaiming its own.
	The only "road" through the town was the trail they stood 
on, and they could see it snaking out on the other side. The 
utter silence only added to the sense of total desolation 
pervading the clearing.
	"What was this place?" Phoenix wondered aloud
	"It looks more like a military outpost than a 
settlement," Shad observed, pointing out the remains of a Roman 
encampment-style ditch-and-wall. "A normal settlement would've 
had more roads through it. And look at the way it's situated- 
it's effectively a plug in the crack that valley makes in the 
mountains. Nexx, were Marraketh and Chi-lin ever at war?"
	"Not really, but way back when they were one nation they 
split up because of a massive dispute... That kinda cooled 
relations a lot... I guess this was one of the army posts built 
in that time just in case it would ever come to a war."
	"... but instead Marraketh became a fairy tale, and the 
post was abandoned just like the war..." Shad mused.
	His train of thought was interrupted by a loud meowing 
coming from Nexx' backpack.
	Everyone turned almost at once, but Aris was the first to 
ask the question."What in the world do you have in there, Nexx?"
	Nexxus looked puzzled for a second. "Just my 'Linker," 
she replied as she started rummaging in her pack, "but it's 
supposed to be broken....." She pulled it out and opened it, 
frowning.
	Phoenix opened his mouth to make an amused comment about 
the meowing when Nexx yelped.
	"Oh Hell! It's from Mal, or at least it's got his initial 
at the bottom. Look at this!" She said, turning it to face the 
others.
	Shad read the message and muttered a curse as his blood 
ran cold. Mal was in position already, which was good. He 
apparently had found some way to influence the situation, which 
was better.
	The situation was rapidly plummeting beyond even Mal's 
normally Machiavellian control, which was bad. Very bad.
	*At the rate we're going we'll be lucky to get there in a 
couple of days.*
	{So we move faster.}
	*We can't leave the others behind!*
	{We won't.} With that, Shad yelled "Hang on!" as he 
reached out telekinetically and pulled everyone on to his back. 
Not pausing to check if everyone had found handholds already, he 
sprinted away to the shouts and yells of alarm and surprise, 
leaving the former army post behind him in seconds.
	Shad bounded ahead, faster than an attacking lion, 
leaping six-meter-wide crevasses, clambering up rock formations 
and dodging around trees. The few animals that lacked the sense 
to get out of the way ended as brief, flat squeaks. After less 
than half an hour, during which the others had all found 
someplace to sit or hold on more or less comfortably, Shad 
clambered up over the edge of a plateau and saw the other side of 
the mountains stretched out below him. Instead of slowing down 
however, he accelerated, spreading his wings and leaping off the 
other edge, causing a renewed chorus of panicked yells in the few 
seconds of free fall before the wind caught beneath his wings.
	Shad spotted the nearest convenient thermal and went for 
it, wings beating furiously for altitude. Upon reaching it he 
leveled off, going for pure speed. As his minds settled into the 
Zen-like state of flying he was vaguely aware of the screaming 
from his back quieting down. It took him a while to remember why.
	{Oh yeah... Air up here too thin.}
	*So get lower. We need to do some groundhugging anyways 
just in case someone is paying attention to the skies..*
	{Good point. Suggestions?}
	*Down there. That canyon winds all the way through the
mountainside.*
	Shad looked down to where a jagged crack marred the 
smooth slopes, looking for all the world as if a titan had 
slammed his fist down on the ground to crack it. Narrow, winding 
and utterly concealing from anywhere not directly above. 
Excellent. He folded his wings and dove sharply towards it, 
gaining even more speed and engendering a renewed series of 
screams from the ones on his back who still had their eyes open 
as the canyon seemed to rush at them like an opening maw.
	At the last possible moment Shad opened his wings again 
and with a tremendous lurching flap leveled off horizontally 
again, the walls of the canyon rushing past but a few metres from 
the tips of his wing talons. Ahead of him he saw the canyon walls 
curve left in the first leg of a long series of winding turns. 
And again, there was no conscious thought. Just Rens pulling out 
a top-view image of the entire canyon and their place in it, and 
Shadur taking that map and flying with it, never missing a turn 
or taking a wrong path. Neither noticed the screaming stopping 
and ceding place to a breathless silence.
	15 minutes of high-speed flight later, they shot out of 
the canyon like a cork from a bottle of champagne in an 
earthquake and Shad slowly became consciously aware of the world 
again.
	{First ones, what a rush....}
	*Quite a flight, I'll grant... Hey, is that Cal?*
	Shadur looked more closely in the direction his bondmate 
indicated. Sure enough, one of the five humans standing at a 
crossroads oblivious to his approach as they were engaged in 
conversation, was slightly built and carried what appeared to be 
a keyboard under his arm.
	{Either you're right or whatever deity created this 
dimension has to die horribly.} With the sweep of a wing, Shad 
brought them around, circling to land near the group.

TBC....