nowbound

Part Three - Nowhere To Hide

Jodotha looked about him cursing first the skyship pilot for being so pig-headed, then Trimus for not staying on board the Phoenix then Darkhawk for dropping him off in the snow so far from everyone else. "Assuming they got off before it crashed." He sighed out loud as he watched a greasy streak of smoke discolour the pale blue sky. "No point in hanging around, I stand out like a cleric in a whorehouse." He scanned the sky for predators before turning his attention to the landscape around him.
He headed towards the nearest outcrop, as much to get to shadows as to get some shelter from the thin wind that whipped his cloak about his ankles. His long leather boots kept out the snow but were not designed for walking long distances over snow and rocks and before long he was cursing them as well.
"They could be anywhere." He said crouching in the shadows atop the nearest of numerous boulder-strewn ridges. "If they are on the far side of one of these they will never see me and I will never see them. This is a god-forsaken place, nothing but snow and rock, give me a smoke filled tavern or a misty street any day. Now what can I do to attract their attention? Fire? But there is nothing to burn. No wood nothing." He took off his pack and had a rummage around. He pulled out a sack and tore it into thin strips and tied a few to each of half a dozen crossbow bolts. Sheltering his precious tinder from the elements he lit the sacking on one of the bolts and fired it into the air.
"It isn't much but it is better than nothing." He said as the bolt curved through the air, the sacking giving off more smoke than light. It took him a minute or so to get each flaming bolt lit and after the sixth he stopped to conserve what little tinder he had.

Looking back across the snow Jodotha thought for a moment he saw something or someone moving across the snow towards a ridge to the north. "Now who or what is that." He mused. "Whatever it is, I'm going to find out." He shrugged back into his pack and scrambled down the rocks and back onto the snow. He felt naked out there with no cover but he ploughed on through the snow towards the same ridge where he had seen the movement.

As he approached the rocky ridge Jodotha drew his sword and climbed, taking care not to dislodge any of the loose rocks as he did so. He reached the top and looked about him. "Damn. Nothing my eyes must be playing tricks with me." He was about to sit down and eat some of the meagre ration left in his pack when he saw another dot move across the snow towards the next ridge.
"I hope someone is not leading me a merry dance." He growled and set out across the snow once more. "Cain? Trimus? Darkhawk? Ako?" shouted Jodotha heedless of the danger from avalanches or wandering beasts. He was about to move on when a snarling creature all grimy white fur and sharp claws reared up out of the rocks behind him. Jodotha was bowled over by the initial onslaught but still managed to get in a vicious blow with his sword. The creature backed off badly wounded allowing the rogue to regain his feat. The beast slashed out with a claw but Jodotha severed the arm with his blade before plunging the blood soaked metal into the creature's throat.
Casually Jodotha wiped his blade on the creature's fur before continuing across the snow, this time keeping quiet and watching carefully for more of the snow beasts. "Perhaps that is what I am seeing, the others may have fallen pray to them already, though I can't see Ako or Darkhawk being beaten by such as these. Cain is too wary and Trimus. Well Trimus may be safe if he still has some magic left."
His reverie was interrupted when he glimpsed a familiar figure silhouetted against the skyline. "I will have to have a word with Cain." He chuckled. Drawing his sword he angled it so it caught the sun and flashed out a signal towards the figure on the rocks. "Shame he doesn't understand our secret languages, but then again they wouldn't be secret then would they." Not sure if the mystic had seen him Jodotha trudged on towards the rocks.

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