h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

<I WILL kill the ...this is one of the few times Elandra's been beaten!>

*Elandra suddenly regains consciousness, choking and coughing*

*she tries to get to her hands and knees but she's too weak, she collapses and rolls over onto her side, coughing up water*

*she lies there, curled up into a ball, shivering and trying not to make any noises*

*the lion appears, and Elandra looks even weaker than before*

*the lion lies down by her side and nuzzles her, protecting her from windchill and keeping her awake*

*After a while, Elandra gains enough energy to fumble at a pouch on her side*

*she takes out three small vials of liquid and opens one, and tries to swallow it's contents*

*she chokes, her throat bruised black and red with rawness; in all likelihood it may scar*

*slowly, she manages to drink some of the liquid, but then she retches*

*she manages to keep it down, and determinedly drinks the other two*

*the potions give her strength, and after a minute she's able to stand without wobbling. The sight is quixotic and contradictory - from her appearance, it looks by all rights that she should be barely conscious, but she is very awake and very angry.*

*Nick's voice floats through her head, full of laughing malice*

~~Little bladewoman, you will be mine~~

~~~Elandra, I have to report Syian killed two guards and injured two more whilst being restrained, she is on the run and not to be trusted, I have given the guards orders to bring her in dead or alive, Lady she is not to be trusted, she may be trying to regroup with her father, do not tackle her alone, be careful Elandra~~~

*Nick steps put of a small copse of trees; his clothes are ragged and he is deathly pale but his wounds are healed. He looks over at Elandra and curses her in a foul tongue before putting a shielding spell around himself making him invisible*

*Syian gallops a large bay mare into the clearing at top speed, she is riding bareback and lying flat over its neck to increase the speed. She stops the horse just as it falls to the floor exhausted and unable to go on*

*Syian immediately crouches low, she is still terrified of her father but the thought of him bonding with Lumien and infecting her with the filth that he made Syian do makes her go beyond frightened into livid and deadly. She holds her sword at the ready and is thinking longingly of the time she could have held both bell and sword, she turns a glance to the stump of her arm....that will teach her to underestimate her father*

*Nick cannot believe his luck that his daughter should walk so willingly into his grasp again, he is so full of glee that he fails to recognise the hunter's stealth or predator's stance. He allows his shield to drop, uncaring for the moment about Elandra*

*Syian stops dead on seeing Nick so close to her, memories of him close to her, taunting her, making her do things she never wanted to do rise in her mind. Nausea and the paralysing fear threaten to overwhelm her but she pushes them down ruthlessly and manages to look calm and unruffled*

[Syian] Father, always you have pushed at me confident of your hold over my life. You have pushed too hard this time and you will pay the price.

*Nick's mind whirls, his daughter had always had too much fear of him to barely look at him let alone speak in this way to him....and the one time she had...*

[Nick] Do you not remember, daughter, how you lost you arm and mother? Be careful how you speak to me.

*an image of herself battling Nick at the last gate of death appears in Syian's mind. He slit her mother's throat there and while Syian had wept for her he had sliced her arm off...she stands for a moment, letting the fury fill her until she can feel nothing but white-hot rage*

[Syian] You took my mother, you will not take my friend

*the thought that Lumien is no longer her friend crosses her mind and she almost falters, but she will do this for the friendship she still feels and for the friendship she killed*

*she walks forward slowly and deliberately swinging her sword to show she is not scared; Nick's confident demenour diminishes a little and he draws his flaming sword to counter her*

*they meet in a clang of steel on steel and white hot spraks fill the air...they parry blow upon blow equally matched for at least an hour, by now both are showing signs of weariness and are sporting minor injuries*

*Nick suddenly whips out a smaller sword and thrusts it into Syian's ribs as she parries a stroke from his larger sword. She cries out in intense pain and falls to her knees, by this time the wound on her back has reopened and the blood is streaming down her sides and legs making her slippery*

[Nick] I have won again, child. Choose your batltes more carefully

*as she begins to fade Syian catches sight of the light glinting off the water behind Nick...she smiles through the pain and reaches out for the water...she can feel it in fill her mind*

[Syian] ~~Come to me...I implore you my friend...my servant~~

*the waters raise up in a huge upwards waterfall and suspend in mid-air over Nick, they are forming beautiful patterns and seem to be bowing to the diminuitive dying woman; she releases them and they fall on Nick, cascading in tons at once....Syian gather her strength for one last attempt, through the water she thrusts unable to see or think or hear anything*

*slowly the water rush subsides, Syian is lying over the body of her father, he is burnt almost black and her sword is piercing his heart*

*she raises herself to her hands and knees and breaks into peals of laughter mingled with tears, she throws her head back and screams....a scream filled with the pain and terror of all the years she lost*

*with that she is spent, she lets the blackness claim her and sinks into a pool of her own blood*

<, well done>

*looks at Nick's blackened body, and kicks it*

*ash flies from her foot, and she smiles cruelly*

*then she staggers over to Syian, checks for a pulse, and sets her mouth in a grim line*

~~~Shaylar...Nick is dead. Syian too.~~~

~~~Leave Nick to the crows, Bring Syian here, she's too powerful a Necromancer she may have a trick up her sleeve~~~

~~~I hear and obey. I'll be there soon~~~

*Ninian lands near her, and Elandra nods towards him*

*she carefully picks up Syian's body and climbs on top of Ninian*



Come on Ninian, take us back to Imardin.*they lift off and fly down the road to Imardin*

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