Hunting the Mongolian Death Wyrm (Success!)

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The Gobi desert. The young man stared out over the vast emptiness of it. To the dull amber of his eyes, the place seemed lifeless. Jack shuddered, feeling a chill sweep through him, tugging at the garish red jacket he wore tighter about himself and heading back inside the small tent he'd set up. He hadn't been expecting the damn desert to be so cold but had luckily been able to teleport home and grab more appropriate clothing.

    The young man had never felt more lonely. Even though the desert seemed empty, the young man knew it wasn't. Somewhere underneath those sands were the Mongolian Death Worms, legendary monsters known to inhabit the Gobi desert. Reports of increased activity had reached the young man so he'd made his way over as soon as he could, studying up on the worms along the way.

    Most of the information he'd managed to turn up had agreed that the worms hunted in packs, communicating through the use of electrical signals. In addition to using electricity to communicate, they could also use it to hunt, using powerful bursts of electricity to incapacitate or kill. Of more concern to Jack was the powerfully corrosive acid reported to leak from the worms' leathery hides. He'd have to be careful not to touch or get too close to them, which might prove to be easy said than done.

    Many had gone after the creatures but no one had been successful in recent history, to Jack's knowledge. Though he'd been on a roll lately, slaughtering monsters straight out of the nightmares of the world's various mythologies left and right, the young man hadn't managed his hunts by himself, having had a considerable amount of help along the way. Jack had again invited others to join him on the hunt.

    Though he needed all the help he could get, the young man hadn't brought his Akhlut friend this time, knowing Paquito was not particularly suited to desert conditions. Jack had asked much of the Ak recently, and had ultimately come to the decision to leave him out of this adventure, allowing him to rest up with his family back in Alaska.

    So, there he sat outside his tent, waiting for his partner to show up. Jack checked his phone and sighed. It had no bars so he put it away. The young man had sent out the coordinates for where they would be meeting, so he didn't expect them to have too much trouble finding him. With the sun getting low, the light of his tent could probably be seen for quite some distance. Jack checked his watch. They should be arriving soon.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght was riding along shotgun while Aela was driving. She had been slightly silent for a while, pretty depressed and thus slightly wallowing in her depression. She had had to leave Aurora behind to continue to heal. Although Aurora was healing along nicely, all her wounds stitched and clean and just closed she did not want the akhult to push herself to hard. Something that Nyght knew Aurora would do no matter what. So she had to leave her beloved Aurora, which had broken her heart. So here she was, bumping along through the desert in Mongolia with Aela, sullen and depressed over being separated from her companion.

She looked up, glancing out the windshield to see if there was anything to see other then more roaming expanses of sands. She pushed her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose, then sighed deeply and settled back in her seat and crossed her arms. She had a shawl wrapped around her head, trying to block more of the sunlight and stay cooler in the daylight while warmer at night. She glanced behind them at the equipment they had brought. She had brought along ten large steel rods, all about six feet long. She knew what they where hunting this time, and she was going to come prepared. The Mongolian death wyrms where known to create electricity some way to attack people. She also had her sword, although she still was not very proficient at it. She also still had her firearm, that Glock 18c with the carbine skeleton frame set up.

Another bump made her turn around and raised an eyebrow at Aela who was driving beside her. It was sand? How could it possibly be this bump out in the middle of a desert of sand with almost no rocks here? Shew as not entire surely, but apparently there where enough and maybe Aela was attempting to hit them all to keep Nyght awake. She decided to talk to her again. "So...where did you get this vehicle from Aela?" She asked nonchalantly, trying to strike up a conversation despite her depressed state of mind. Maybe a good conversation would get her mind off having to leave Aurora behind.

[Aela Ward]

Aela didn't mind the silent drive as she and Nyght wove deeper into the Mongolian desert, alternative rock seeping through the speakers just loud enough to be heard over the roaring wind outside the car. She noticed there was something off in Nyght's mood, but didn't want to intrude. So she kept to herself, tapping her thumbs on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. In the backseat of the 4x4 pickup the two sat in was Aela's equipment, among Nyght's various things. She'd brought along an semi-auto rifle with three extra clips - she had no idea what it would do to a Wyrm, but she could use it against human obstacles that they came across - and an eight-inch combat knife, which was strapped to her belt.

How could there be so many damned potholes in the middle of the desert? Aela tried to avoid as many as she could, but on the occasion she had to hit at least one to avoid a dozen or so on the other side of the scant dirt road she followed. Jerking the wheel to the left, she barely missed a cluster of the obstructions, but bumped over one as a consequence. Aela hoped that Nyght wasn't too bothered by them.

When Nyght started speaking, Aela reached over and turned down the music so she could hear what she was saying. A laugh bubbled up in her chest at the question. "Well, one of my many - albeit random - skills include jacking a car. This one I stole from a parking lot; hotwired it and got away before anybody could catch the plates. I know," She held up a hand, as if to silence a remark that wasn't said, "It's illegal. But you gotta do what you gotta do, you know?"

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack fiddled with his mask, lifting it just enough so that he could get the ends of a couple twizzlers into his mouth. It occurred to the young man that he looked rather silly sitting there wearing a strange mask and blood red jacket. Well, creepy might be a better word for it. But he liked to think that the two twizzlers sticking out of the bottom of his mask like walrus teeth made creepy more silly. He chewed ponderously, not in very much of a hurry or too particularly hungry.

    The others still hadn't arrived yet, but that was ok. Jack appreciated the time to think. He'd invited Aela. And Nyght. He still wasn't sure how he felt about what had occurred in Luxor, but luckily he didn't have to bring up the issue. The young man had made a habit of ignoring awkward, unpleasant, and unfortunate incidences from his past. It really was all that kept him sane. If calling Jack sane wasn't too much of a stretch. Anyways, one more ignored memory shouldn't be too big of a deal. She probably wouldn't want to bring it up either.

    The young man wished Paquito was with him, and not for the first time. When Jack was on a hunt, whether he was after men or monster, he didn't like the way it made him feel. To do the things he had to do, Jack put up so many barriers between himself and everything else. It left the young man alone, trapped with no one else but Him. He ate away at the parts of Jack that made him want to help people One day there wouldn't be anything left but the part that wanted to hurt.

    But when he had Paquito by his side, Jack didn't feel alone. The Ak gave him the strength and the focus he needed to remember why he had to hurt. That he hurt to help, not just for its own sake.

    Jack exhaled slowly, searching the horizon. Damn. Where are they?

[Nyghtingale]

      Nyght looked out her window and played with the control for a moment, causing the window to open and close repeatedly just a little bit at the top before growing bored with that and finally leaving it closed to keep the majority of the dust and sand out. She reached over and grabbed her seat belt, pulling it slightly tightly to help protect herself from the bumping and the jostling of the drive towards the destination to meant Jack.

     "Why didn't you just have me start the car? Or mess with the plates and change them so that they read something else. I could have done both of those you know." She grinned, looking over at Aela and shrugging. "Would have been a lot quicker and easier. Plus with the plates changed we would not have had to drive so crazy." She stuck her tongue out playfully, then laughed and looked out the windshield again.

     "Sorry I've been so quiet," she suddenly said a bit quietly, "I just miss Aurora and am worried she might get in to trouble and hurt herself even more."

[Aela Ward]

"Well," Aela chuckled, glancing in the rearview mirror momentarily before letting her gaze drift over the terrain ahead. "I'm sorry I didn't consult you before I stole a car. I'll make sure to run it by you next time." At the mention of Aurora, her brow furrowed. "Who's Aurora? Did you meet her on that hunt you went on with Jack?" She shook her head; to think that they were about to set off on another quest to vanquish a beast. Just like a few months ago.

Popping the middle compartment open, Aela rummaged blindly through the contents before bringing something out with a triumphant, "Ha!" Taking both hands off the wheel for a few seconds, she flipped the lid on an Altoids canister and shook a few into her open palm.

With her knees holding the wheel steady, Aela held the mints out to Nyght, grinning. "Want a mint?" She laughed, looking back at the road, waiting for Nyght's answer. Hopefully, they would reach where Jack was soon. He was probably getting annoyed with their absence.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Well. They still hadn't arrived. At this point, Jack was simply lying on his back reading a book. He'd taken a break from Dragonlance, recently. It just wouldn't do for him to jump too far into the setting too fast. He might get bored. So, now he was reading a similar type of book, being that it was fantasy seemed with people running around hacking monsters and each other apart with various forms of medieval weaponry. The sort of main character was human but most of his group was elves. Oh, at this point the guy had already been attacked by some half boar half man thing and had sought help from the elves. So they'd helped him but it was totally like a trap or whatever. Go figures.

    Anyways, it was all very exciting and was totally keeping the young man occupied while he waited. Briefly, Jack set the book aside just long enough to get a drink of water and stuff his face with a mixture of twizzlers and skittles before returning to his reading. Oo, another action scene.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght grimaced as Aela took her hands off the wheel to get out a mint. With as bumpy as the road had been, she was terrified that Aela might hit one and loose control of the vehicle. She quickly took the mints away from her, eyes wide hoping that with the mints out of her hand, she would put both her hands back upon the wheel. She took a mint from the can, closing it and putting the mint between her teeth then pulling it in to her mouth while putting the can back where Aela had gotten it from.

Nyght twirled the mint around her mouth, smiling at the cool feeling spreading through her mouth. She then finally decided to answer Aela, know that she was busy concentrating upon the road again and had both hands upon the wheel. Nyght was not sure how well she would have been able to focus while getting a mint, driving a vehicle AND listening to Nyght explain Aurora.

"I met her on that hunt we all went upon? The one with you, Jack, and myself in Alaska. She's an akhult prime, which means she was the leader of her pack. She can swim, fly, and run around and can project streams of acid which she typically does from like right in front of her mouth when she opens it. I think it makes her feel like she's big and bad and powerful like a dragon." She laughed, thinking of her prideful, arrogant but completely loyal and amazing Aurora. "She's a total sweetheart, and protects me like I am her own offspring but she listens to what I say. You will have to meet her some times. Sadly I had to leave her behind for this trip because she got pretty tore up when we hunted down and killed a sphinx. She got some pretty nasty lacerations to her shoulders and throat when she saved me from the sphinx."

[Aela Ward]

With both hands back on the wheel, Aela listened to Nyght's explanation of Aurora. The last thing she expected it to be was an Akhult, but so it went. "She sounds like a pretty loyal companion," Aela said, avoiding the word 'pet'. "Maybe she'll be able to come with you on the next hunt for whatever bizarre creature we go after." Her hands gripped tighter to the wheel as the truck jostled over yet another stone or hole or whatever the hell was out in the middle of the desert.

The road ahead was becoming littered with obstacles; rocks, indentations in the dirt... They became more prominent with every passing second. If Aela had stolen anything other than the four-wheel drive pickup they were in, they would have flipped a long time ago. Especially with the speed that the truck was travelling at; around one hundred and ten miles per hour.

Figuring it would be smart to slow down with so many obstructions ahead, Aela dropped the speed of the truck to about eighty, not wanting to flip the vehicle and possibly hurt Nyght and herself before the hunt even started. "Where the blazes is he?" She hissed under her breath, scanning the horizon for any sign of movement. Hopefully Jack would see the dust cloud that the truck was undoubtedly kicking up behind it, and wave them down.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Oh no! The boar person had, like, eviscerated the cool centaur bro! Jack frowned. He didn't like that very much. He'd actually kind of liked the centaur guy. The young man was of the opinion that the centaur guy hadn't been nearly as stuck up as all the elves running around were. And the way he'd died had been pretty unfortunate. What was up with that?

    Anyways, in the distance the young man could the sound of a truck engine. He climbed to his feet and peered in the direction it was coming from. It was probably Nyght and Aela. "Took them long enough," Jack grumbled to himself, brushing dirt or sand or whatever off his pants. He thought of ways to draw them toward his position. He could shoot a flare gun or whatever, but that didn't sound too appealing. He could wave a torch around, but that sounded like work. The young man was hesitant to demonstrate his electrical abilities, but that did seem like the best way to let them know where he was.

    In the end, Jack decided to jump up and down and wave some, too. Hopefully they'd notice and make their way over.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght laughed as Aela grumbled softly to herself. "It is Jack. I think he forgets that it is  not as easy for us then it is for him. He just teleports here and teleports there, popping up all over the place. Speaking of...I think should say something to him. He teleports so often, and keeps eating all those sweets...he's gonna start putting on weight. In fact I think he has since I first saw him." 

     Nyght grimaced, her right hand reaching up to grab the oh bollocks handle above her head will her left pressed down on the center console to sorta wedge herself in to place as Aela drove like a crazy bat out of the proverbial hell. She finally slowed down when the road became increasingly rough and Nyght breathed a sigh of relief. They where still going far to fast for her own comfort, but this was much better despite the bumpiness of the road. She released the handle above her head, but kept her hand on the center console to help even out the bumps from the road.

     "Yea, Aurora's pretty awesome. Keeps me safe and out of trouble. Also, with her around I never have to worry about how to get anywhere. Aurora just flies me where ever I need to go if it is going to take to long to walk. She is like, the best ever and I love her like a sister. Thought not as much as I love you."

     She blushed, then looked out the windshield and began to look around. She figured they should be pretty close to where Jack was by now. If Jack was sitting down, or sitting in some shade or something or behind a sand dune they may not ever see him. They could accidentally drive right past and never even know it. Suddenly she spotted a bit of movement, and she pointed towards it. It seemed to be a person shaped blob in the desert and seemed to be bouncing up and down as if jumping.

     "There he is, I think!"

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man stopped jumping up and down once he noticed the truck changing course to head toward him. Finally, they'd noticed. Jack was actually a little out of breath from that physical exertion. Maybe he'd overdone it a bit. Or maybe he just needed to do more cardio. Nah. He was in great shape. Even if some people didn't seem to think so.

    He took a brief few minutes to pack up his stuff and teleport it back where it wouldn't get in the way, making sure to put a piece of paper in his book so that he wouldn't lose his place. Jack could probably find it again anyways, but who has that kind of time? It would probably take minutes. Whole minutes!

    Jack stood with his hands on his hips, watching the truck pull up. He remembered to take off his mask so they wouldn't mistake him for someone else when he lifted his other hand to scratch his jaw. That done, the young man waved and waited for Nyght to get out. "Took you long enough."

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght watched as they pulled alongside Jack, and when she climbed out the window instead of opening the door she landed upon the sand and hand her hands up along her cheeks and pushed her hair behind her ears to make sure it was out of the way. She then waved at Jack, and walked around behind the vehicle and opened the back. She began to pull stuff out of the vehicle, settling the bags upon the ground along with the two separate bundles of metal rods. Once she had pulled everything out, she picked them up, one under each arm and walked over to Jack.

"Hey Jack, how is it going? I brought some cool stuff to try and use on this little endeavor. Figured these things could come in useful in attracting the electricity that supposedly these things attack with. That or maybe we can just use them to beat these things to death with." She laughed, sticking her tongue out at Jack showing she was clearly joking around with him before dropping them on the ground beside him.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man watched Nyght exit the vehicle, his heart beating just a little faster when she pushed her hair back. This isn’t the time for silly thoughts, Jack scolded himself. Realizing he might have been staring, the young man forced his eyes to look at the beautiful desertness of the Mongolian desert rather than his friend.

    “I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding me,” Jack nudged one of the metal rods with his foot, feeling pretty awkward all of a sudden. He wasn’t terribly worried about the electrical attacks the worms supposedly liked to use, considering that both he and Nyght could manipulate electricity and probably avoid the brunt of any such attacks. “I made the coordinates as exact as I could.”

    A greater concern of his was how they would get the worms above ground and dead without being injured themselves. It wasn’t a huge concern, but it was a nuisance to be taken care of. If the metal rods didn’t work for their intended purpose, then at least they’d be good for serving as a sort of makeshift harpoon in that case, to supplement what he’d already brought.

    “That’s a good idea. Did you bring Aurora along this time?” He asked, searching the sky as if expecting Nyght’s akhlut companion to show up any second now.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght shook her head, frowning as she replied. "No, Aurora did not come along this time. She is still healing up after the sphinx tore her up. So I left her home to finish healing, because I would not want her to rip her stitches out and have to spend all that time healing up again. As to finding you, it was not all that hard just slightly annoying. Not much out here for distinguishing features to guide. Anyways, the good new is that we found you and that's all that matters. Also, there are some weapons in the truck and stuff. What did you bring along?"

     Nyght noticed the strange look Jack gave her, but decided it was nothing seeing as he looked away and did not say anything that might hint at what he had been thinking about. She began to unstrap the rods, laying them out along the sand side by side. "Any ideas how to draw the worms out? I tried to read as much as I could but I have not found anything about what they prefer. Camels maybe? Cause like...are those not common around here?"