Home again

Acacia followed Petra outside. She was glad that she had her knives, strapped to her thighs as usual, but she would feel better having the knife that Xeos gave her. Better to have a back up weapon, especially with a monster they did not know where it was hiding.
Outside it was hot. The sun hung in the middle of the sky, telling us it was mid-day. Her stomach growled quietly. She wished she had brought her snack bag. Especially when it had her camera in it. Even though she could have taken some good shots she felt to awe-struck to capture the scene.
As she walked a plan began to unfold in her mind. They had to make sure that the monster doesn't hurt her tribe and they also needed to get her stuff and - of course - kill the Manticore. Hopefully they could do all this without being spotted by another monster.

"Okay, so manticores almost never stay alone. There's almost always 2 or 3 more. We need to find them and get them as far away as possible-otherwise known as Tartarus." Petra said as they reached the village. Acacia's bag was still there, along with all their other things in the guest hut.

They had reached the hut and Acacia immediately grabbed her snack bag and pulled out a piece of white chocolate and macadamia biscuit. She smiled before quickly pulling out her spare knife. They needed to find the Manticore now and with the information Petra just gave her she knew this was going to be much harder.
Acacia looked to the ground, searching for any clue of where the monster had headed. After a minute or so she discovered faint tracks in the dry dirt. They headed east (well, she thought it was east) and towards the more wilder part. She sighed a sigh of relief, at least it wasn't further into the village. But she knew that there were also more dangers out there.
"Petra." She said, trying to get her attention. She hoped that she would see what she has.

"Yeah what is it?" Petra asked and came over to where acacia was looking at the ground. "Manticore tracks." She said. "Should we follow them or not?" She asked. She already knew the answer.

"Following them would be better." Acacia replied. She took another bite of her biscuit. She probably shouldn't be eating, but the biscuit was too damn good.
OOC: sorry for the short post.

Petra's world suddenly slowed down. She turned her head, and standing on the ground was a statue of her mother, Harmonia. Petra had never seen her mother before, but she knew that the statue was correct, as if made by herself. Then she had an idea. Petra pulled out a premade PB&J sandwich and threw it at the statue as hard as she could, then stopped in her tracks. "Uh oh" Petra said and looked worried. "Apparently not a good idea to throw a sandwich at your mom's statue......" She said as a beam of white life flashed into the sky seven times. She could hear growls coming their way. "Climb a tree" Petra whispered, but when she realized that acacia couldn't hear her, she shouted:"Climb a tree! We need to get where they can't eat us!"

Acacia was shocked before quickly following Petras commands. She placed her hands and feets in crevices. She eventually madeher way to the second lowest bbranch. Acacia was about to ask her why Petra did that, before she noticed it could be to get help.

Petra dug through her bag to try and find one thing-rope. She found it and pulled it out. "Acacia, can you make a. Lasso by any chance?" She asked. Petra had never learned how.

Acacia looked at her. "Of course, my mother is Athena, goddess of useful arts." She said to her before grabbing the rope out of her hands. Her hands tied the rope the way she was taught. Soon it was a lasso. Acacia held it over to Petra.

Petra, being unskilled in throwing a lasso entirely, failed many times before getting the rope around the statue. There were growls headed towards them, and she guessed that more manticores were here. She slowly pulled in the statue and as the rope tightened she pulled it up the tree and placed it into her backpack.

Acacia know had no idea what Petra was planning, she just hoped that she didn't die. Petra had finally gotten the statue; how it came here, Acacia had no idea. Growling could be heard from nearly every direction now. She gripped her knives. She desperately tried to think of a back up plan - in case this one back fired.

Suddenly a manticore emerged from the tall grass. It was about the height of her, almost twice the size of the first one. More circled in from the grass. And Petra whispered to Acacia. "Okay. Two options. Cower in fear and die of dehydration or kill 'em and get to the tribe."

Acacia nodded. "Killing them is better." She said. She looked at the manticore, eyeing them up and down. The manticore took aim. It fired but Acacia dodged and hung from the branch above her. It took aim again but Acacia dodged again. She used her upper body strength to lift herself up a branch. She had a plan. She carefully made her way to the trunk. She sheathed her knives. Her body stood on the opposite side of the manticore. She hoped that Petra was fine.
Acacia made her way down, quickly greeted by another manticore. She guessed that meant the other one didn't notice her. She aimed her knife before throwing it at the beast. It was pierced in the front left paw. It growled. Another dart flew towards her and pierced her arm. A scream escaped her mouth. She quickly grabbed the poisonous dart and pulled it out. She suddenly felt light-headed as she dodged a dart.

Petra dove out of the tree and rolled on the ground. She took a note of all her surroundings.
-20 to 30 manticores around her. Bad.
-Acacia about to faint. Bad.
-I'm extremely outnumbered. Bad.

She got to action. She scooped up acacia in her arms and tried to climb the tree with no success. She flung her over her shoulder in fear and dashed over to a manticore's side. She jumped on it's back and strapped herself on with a piece of rope. For safety precautions she cut off the stinger with her hidden blade. Awesome. She rode around on the manticore, slicing off heads and feet, and by the time that she was exhausted and about to fall over, there was only one left-the one she was riding on. She flicked out her hidden blades and chink! the blade sliced into the monster's neck as it disintegrated slowly into yellow dust.

Acacia probably never felt so weak and pathetic. She lay where Petra had placed her, watching her fight all the monsters herself. There was no possible way that she would make the fight out a live. She wanted to help but she couldn't create the energy to even move a limb. Her vision began to blur. She tried to find her knives before she blacked out. Her finger twitched above the surface. Another dart pierced her arm. Acacia couldn't even scream. Instead she blacked out.

Petra saw another dart sprout from Acacia's arm. Then another. Then another. She was suddenly filled with that adrenaline rush. Though the world was blurred, she jumped high and ran fast. She grabbed a low branch on the tree and swung herself up from there. She went higher and higher to the highest branch. She set down acacia and jumped out of the tree, spinning in midair. She flicked her blades out and began slicing she heard cries and shouts but nothing mattered except for right here, right now. But her adrenaline was fading once more. In desperation, she pulled out her Mother's statue and slammed it on the ground as a beam of light erupted from its top again. She pointed it at the monsters and they screamed with fear and disintegrated. But the light dug into the ground and sent dirt flying everywhere, Soave didn't realize the ginormous dart that sprouted from her shoulder and the king of the manticores that was coming her way. She blacked out.

Acacia dreamt of her old life.
It was the last day of school. Acacia was walking home. Even though she could have token the bus or call her dad to pick up, she wanted to walk home. The song She Looks so Perfect by 5sos was blaring through her headphones. She wore her uniform with chuck taylors, even if that was against the school rules. She had her bag was slung over her shoulder.
She was thinking about what she was going to do during the holidays. Maybe go to France with her dad like last year. She was crossing the road when a hand touched her shoulder. She turned to see Detroit, a boy that was in her class. She took off her headphones. "What?" Acacia asked him. He had a nervous look on his face. He stumbled on his words.

Acacia felt her eyelids slightly flutter open. She could just see her surroundings. She was lying on the ground - a very uncomfortable ground. There wasn't much light. Petra was lying near her. Her whole body felt numb. She tried to speak but it only came out as a croak. She look for her knives. She desperately needed to think of a plan.

Petra woke up in a dimly lit cave next to acacia. There were piles and piles of bones next to her and she feared for her life. She lifted her head up and was about to stand, but she heard a low growl from behind her. She turned around and saw the huge, snarling, drooling manticore behind her and she slowly turned around as if she had seen a ghost. She pulled out her statue of her mother and hoped for the beam of light to come out again, but it refused, as if powering up.

The growl sent shivers up her spine. Acacia noticed that Petra had started to moving. She still didn't know what her statue did. She sat up groggily. Her head felt slightly light-headed. She looked around and noticed more details. The walls were jagged and there were bones scattered on the ground. She tried to search for manticores. Her head spun around and she saw one monster crouched right behind. There was dried blood around its mouth and you could see its ribs. It was obviously very hungry, why didn't it kill them? She searched desperately for her knives. When she couldn't see them she started to panic.

Petra panicked and stood up. She began to start backward but The manticore growled and she stumbled and fell on her butt, helpless. She whimpered. She had never really told anyone, but being helpless was a large fear of hers. She flicked her wrists but as the blades came out, the tips bent on the walls of the small cave. Tears streamed her face and she backed against the wall.

Acacia didn't dare stand. She could notice that Petra was panicking and crying. She wanted to reassure her but Acacias mind was already to busy trying to think of an escape. She could throw a bone at the manticore, but there was a big chance of being shot again with a poison dart. She needed to find her knives fast.

Petra pushed hard against the wall, hopelessly trying to find a chink in the armor that trapped her with the manticore, all while damaging her hidden blades even more. She unstrapped the leather bonds that connected her to her blades and shoved them into her backpack. She focused on the statue in her hands and prayed as the manticore growled a low sound that sounded like laughter.

The growling grew louder. Acacia shuffled slowly towards a big pile of bones. Her eyes skimmed the surface; looking for a strong bone. Her hand moved slowly above the ground and she felt her fingertips touch the bone surface. Her back was against the wall and she kept her eyes on the manticore. Her hand gripped around the object. She moved it out its place and tried to keep it out of sight. Acacia hoped that there weren't any more monsters lurking in the shadows, remaining unhidden. She needed a distraction. Her plan will most likely work if she had a distraction. She looked at Petra who was still playing with her statue. Acacia coughed. She hoped it would get her attention. When it didn't she tried again. Cough, cough. She could have been mistaken for an asthmatic.

Petra looked over to Acacia with a wild look in her eyes. She understood-make a racket. She dug through her bag and found-Tada!-a cinnamon bun. She threw it past the manticore and it turned around slowly.

As soon as the manticore turned Acacia quickly got into action. She ran at it and stabbed it - with all her strength - in the back of its head. It didn't even have a chance to react as it instantly disintegrated to yellow dust. She looked at Petra as she heard another low growl coming from behind her. She turned around, holding the bone tightly in her hands. She slowly backed away step by step until she was standing next to Petra.