11 Chirreb 4385 (5 Chirreb): If There Be Thorns

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

With the battle turning against them, the Cani caster shrieked and teleported out of Purrzhon's claws and through the kitchen wall. From thee she yelled to her fellows, "Fall back! Defend the stronghold!"

The bandits did as she ordered. We pursued them down the corridor, but the mewellicaps were fast and one of them had grabbed their healer and the two khtsoyis were hanging on to mewellicaps so they reached the end of the corridor first. One of them shut the door into the main room and barricaded it with something from the other side. Nightbloom charged to break it down and Trust yelled "No! Thorn Wall! Other way!" So we all turned tail and dashed the opposite direction. Nightbloom went to four legs and snagged me with her truearms as she bolted by. Trust flung open a side door. "In here!" The Wall of Thorns spell finished building just as we ducked into the big pantry. The lashing thorny branches of a ginormous hedge filled the corridor behind us.

Purrzhon snarled and lashed his own tail in counterpoint. Mirhandrax clucked at me from his perch on Trust's shoulder, "Have you enough cley to teleport us past that?" His voice was high-pitched and funny coming from a pocker.

"Um ... everyone has just one bound Change Places left, right?" I asked. Trust, Purrzhon, and Nightbloom nodded. Mirhandrax shook his feathered head because all of his stuff was still in the kitchen. "Is one even enough? How far are we from the main room now?"

"By the near wall, 22 feet. There's a recreation room between us and it," Mirhandrax clucked. Because OF COURSE he had the layout memorized.
"I don't think so then. Let me check the power on those beads." I studied each in turn and I'd gotten lucky enough to break 22 on a couple. "Well ... I've got my own two still. So I could use two short hops for everyone who can't make it in one. And have like three cley left. And just one bound 'port."

"It's only a thorn hedge," Nightbloom said. "I can carve. Through it."

"Those spirited ones can hurt a great deal," Mirhandrax clucked.

Purrzhon was staring at it with his magic sense. "It lasts a few minutes maybe. We wait it out."

Mirhandrax clicked his beak. "That gives the bandits time to regroup."

"Rrai, they are the regrouping already. Better we not waste resources rushing into their trap."

So we spent a few minutes going over our next moves instead. Well, Mirhandrax and Purrzhon and Nightbloom did anyway. Trust bandaged up some holes on the rest of us that he hadn't gotten to during the fight and didn't want to use cley on them now. I kinda zoned out because SO MUCH PLANNING. It's not that I mind having a plan and all it's just you never plan for the things that actually happen like getting trapped in a pantry by a Wall of Thorns.

Eventually the thorn wall melted away as its magic ran out and we stopped planning to charge!