Metal Madness [Waldor, Kura, Matches]

Deeply affected through the loss of her shinies in the trade, though she would receive equal payment in the end, Kura Nobuhide had set out to the mines on a solo journey to the Metal Mines in hopes of gaining precious metals and more gemstones. Admittedly, she was wary if anything of being in the mines for the first time on her own, as all times previous she had been with the warhammer woman, and the time last she'd fallen unconscious, so.....Anyway, she found herself mildly prepared at least with a staff she'd acquired. The day was long and hot and she was glad to be reaching a destination cooler and underground on top of it all. Her usual confidence and uncaring filled her to the brim on her way like the true jewel hunter she was, doubled by greedy thoughts of what she were to find if she had good fortune on this day.

The creation of his alchemical sands had depleted Waldor's gem stash. that coupled with the stones used in his other projects-not limited to the talon caps, amulet that hung about his neck or the cow teeth necklace he was crafting for one small obnoxious child-he required more materials and as such packed up his satchel, grabbed his waraxe trophy and headed out towards the mines. The area was not unfamiliar to him as he'd somehow managed to wander into it on his second day on the island, so he was internally as calm and collected as he appeared on the outside. That was until he heard the overly chipper greeting of one blue covered matchgirl behind him. Waldor hissed and walked faster into the mines, hoping to avoid the girl before she could latch on to him again.

When Kura's blue eyes gazed upon the two traveling in front of her, she nearly grinned in triumph already. With two people to follow after, she was sure to be more successful in her endeavors of plundering this fine day. She picked up the pace gently as she recognized them, one the giant winged man, the other the cold woman she'd encountered on her first run. Great. At least she'd had trade with one before, so she was at least on some sort of terms with one of them. It was only a few moments until she was into an easy pace right behind the blue covered matchgirl herself, hoping she'd stayed quiet enough she still wouldn't notice as she wasn't one to normally draw attention to herself. The mines were as cool as she'd hoped when they entered, and she was glad to feel the reassuring chill and smell of metals in the air--or...maybe that was just the woman before her. Either way, she hoped that while she was endeavoring on her journey behind them she would still get her chance at riches and spoils. She had a feeling she couldn't rely on chests left behind forever, and as such she planned to at least embrace in a little bit of conflict in hopes of learning the ways of fighting more than the slim things she already knew from growing up in a life of self defense. Still, she planned heavily to remain in the background and let them do most of the work at the same time.

Undeterred by the big owls cold demenour, Matches ran up to his side and started prattling a mile a minute like they were old friends. She started by asking questions then just continued past into nonsensical prattle when the man didn’t answer. She didn’t really care that he was quiet, Matches just enjoyed company on a basic level. When he slowed she looked up with a smile then followed his gaze back to the woman who had appeared beside them at some point. Matches gasped and held out her hands for the girl to come closer. “Hello! Oh, come walk with us! This gentleman can’t see so we should help him carry his things and make sure he doesn’t walk into something!” She recognized the girl from before…kind of. The only time Matches had seen her was when the matchgirl was enraged and well…rampaging. “What’s your name?! I’m Matches and this is…um. Actually I don’t know his name but he’s nice.”

Waldor ignored them both and continued onwards, heading deeper into the mines.

The much quieter woman was amused watching the unlikely duo of ice and bird. When spoken to, she turned politely towards Matches and marked her happy tone as odd since the first time they'd met. "Hello." She spoke as graceful as her sneaking though you could tell she wasn't concerned with particular mannerisms in the face of the metals surrounding them. "That sounds fine. I'm Kura, that is Mister Vonbartok if he doesn't mind my saying so. Have you been well, sir?"

“Von….Bartok? That is a pretty name!” Matches bounced on her feet and smiled brightly at Kura. “It is very nice to meet you!” She looked between the two as the owl sighed upon being called out.

Waldor turned to the pair and ‘stared’ at them for along moment before answering, “Well enough.” With that he turned back and started to walk on, having nothing further to say to the women, especially since the one beside his trade partner couldn’t seem to shut her yap for even two minutes.

As the trio headed deeper into the mines a ruhnin slipped out from a rocky crevasse and lunged for the owl at the lead. Fortunately for Waldor he was able to evade the blow, but the creature then turned its attentions on his companions.

"Nice to meet you as well." Kura replied, much more calmly, though she noted the owl's sigh. Despite wanting to get more experience in the field, Kura's immediate response was to move to the side and wait for the charged being to be taken care of patiently. She was curious to see the reactions of the girl now that she seemed so much more pleasant and energetic. Her eyes automatically scanned the surroundings for things to harvest as she could despite the situation the others were facing, her own concerns being a natural worry more than others.

As the beast darted towards the women, Waldor swung his axe down and took the creatures head off in one powerful swing.

Matches cheered for the owl then smiled brightly at Kura before unstrapping her spare staff-a basic one- from her hip and passing it to the other woman. “Here! You should have something in case we find another one of those here. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

The weight of the staff in her hand was noted quickly as she took it, humming very quietly to herself and nodding a thank you until she thought to voice her nods as well. "That's very kind of you, thank you." With that, she turned it over in her wrist and adjusted herself to the weapon, watching amusedly at the blood pouring out of the creature. It was a simple weapon for sure but it would do the trick for now and swinging until she learned to get a handle on things or acquired a blade.

Matches smiled and nodded to the girl, “You’re welcome! Miss Thumby gave me a new staff anyway so I don’t need that one anymore! It makes me happy that someone can make use of it!” The girl bounced over the corpse and kept going, just happy to be nice people. The trio didn’t make it far however, before a metallic fox rushed at them.

Miss Thumby was a familiar sounding name, but Kura couldn't entirely place it as she listened to the bluer woman. The fox made her smile a little wider actually, looking the beast up and down. It was actually pretty cute. The first thing to slip from her mouth was "Are these things domestacatable?" Before she swung away anyhow.

The blow missed and the fox charged at Matches. It bounced harmlessly off the barrier the matchgirl cast on herself and was cut down in another mighty swing from Waldor. “Some are! But there’s a lot of mean ones. I have a really pretty white one and a black one and a dragon too! But they’re nice and the others aren’t as much…”

The bird's fighting power was intense and Kura barely ceased to be impressed with each blow despite her own missing. "You have a dragon?" Admittedly, she sputtered a smidge at the thought, excited thinking of the possibilities of this place she had found herself in. She'd never thought of taming a beast before, for sure-Those jewel beasts! She could try to tame those jewel beasts! Jewels to the nines, what a dream!

“A baby one! Ivan has two! We also have a puppy and a whoooole bunch of foxes!” Matches squeaked when another ruhnin appeared accompanied by two gemhide wargs. The matchgirl cast an ice barrier on her owl friend to protect him as she saw the man move to swing again at one of the beasts. His first blow left the warg roaring in pain but still standing and the matchgirl took the beast out with a swing of her ice coated staff.

Seeing the gem beasts once more after she'd just been thinking about them caused her to wait back rather than attack again, watching her companions movements like a professional. "How did you acquire them?" She had to learn this domesticating secret, it was essential to her personal satisfaction. What's more fitting than the greed of a dragon to accompany her own? What a trip. When the beast fell before the matchgirl, Kura watched in amusement as it fell, wondering if the spoils would be left for her or the skin for her own harvesting if she could manage it for further trading. Though, she supposed it going straight to Mister Von Bartok would be a faster process, though that would deny another trading oppertunity. She really needed to go gathering elsewhere if she wanted to expand her business faster. The mines were the only convenient place thus far, though. What a shame.

Waldor followed up Matches swing with one of his own at the remaining warg and the icechild spun on his heels and brained the ruhnin with her staff.

Matches bounced happily back to Kura, “They just followed me home!”

Welp. That sealed it, she'd have to be a likeable person like this peppy one to get animals to follow her home. What a shame. It was a nice idea at first at least. "How good for you then. I hope they're friendly." She watched calmly as Waldor took care of another fox.

After pealing the furr from the fox the owl continued on through the mines. He hadn't come across much of use and was getting mildly annoyed with this journey. From behind him the matchgirl gasped and rushed forward to tug on a bright piece of something that looked like jade....but actually turned out to be a hummerby!

A quick instinct of her first run caused Kura to lean forward casually and swing the end of her staff into the hummerby. And she wondered why things didn't follow her home-

Waldor took a swing at the creature but it didn't seem to notice the wound. Matches followed up with a swing of her staff and whined when the creature continued to stand.

Kura was actually...amused to an extent to see the hummerby unphased by Waldor's attack of all things. She took a step back to let the others have room for fighting it, waiting out this round and peering around their room curiously in the meantime.

Waldor frowned and shook himself a moment then swung again, putting enough power behind the movement it should hopefully stun the thing. The hummerby stood even after the blow, and Matches summoned a fireball and launched it at the thing.

Still the hummerby lived.

As Kura turned back to the frey she noted particuarly that for one hummerby it was extremely resiliant and, though she was sure it wouldn't make much of a difference as it wasn't her forte, she swung her new staff hard into the creature, slight annoyance clear on her face. She'd much rather continue, thank you.

Matches huffed indignantly and swung again with her staff. It was right about then that she began to see the shadow that clung to the hummerby's movements. As Waldor attacked she watched closer and indeed, it wasn't one hummerby, but many in a mass that were attacking them! And attack they did, chipping away pieces of the barrier matches had worked so hard to cast!

Kura stepped forward once again to crack the hummerby over the head with her staff. The creature still lived though and swung back at her.

Matches exhaled slowly and prepared herself to cast more magic. She reinforced the barrier on Waldor, seeming as he was managing to crush the most beasts in this dark place. And as the bird stepped forward he did indeed crush the final hummerby and the lot of them fell to the ground in a broken heap.

With a hiss the owl stomped through the carcasses and continued on, taking the lull in the fighting to mine a bit. Not long after that was the group rushed by another ruhnin and pair of  gemhide guards!

The first warg fell to Waldor who had swung at it with an enraged screech-he was very tired of this place. The second was taken down by matches who swung hard at the stony thing and crushed it.

Kura watched her companions and swung at the less dangerous of the three, the ruhnin. A first her swing didn’t seem to do anything, but with a second blow she brought the beast low and the trio were alone again in the mines.

“I…think it may be time to leave this place.” And so the owl stepped over yet another pile of corpses and headed to the exit, assuming the women would follow him…or not. He didn’t particularly care if they chose to stay and get brained to death by some massive giant.

Matches laughed and grabbed Kura’s hand, pulling the girl along with her. She had just started to prattle about going swimming when another mass of wargs stepped out of the darkness into the path of the group.

The thief responded the fastest, swining her staff at one of the beasts and the blow was followed up by one from Waldor. The combination managed to drop the first warg but one of it’s companions, enraged by their attack, swung heavily at Kura, shattering her barrier and knocking her to the ground, bleeding.

Matches squeaked and cast an ice heal on her new friend which seemed to help, but right after another of the wargs attacked, slamming Kura into the wall and rendering her unconscious.

In return Waldor lopped the things head off with his axe and Matches followed his strike with one of her own at the remaining warg. Between the two of them they battled through the last of the horde, the matchgirl leaning on the birdman by the end.

Waldor covered Matches’ mouth when she started to speak and pointed at Kura’s body. “Take her home, “ was all he said before he pulled his wings around himself and walked away.