To Be or Not to Be

[Thoth]

With her role in getting them out of the building they had hidden in done, she decided to simply follow Shanodin's lead, and allow her to lead them to safety. To make things easier on her, Alice put the bag around her neck and shrunk it down, before then transforming into her cat form and hopping up into Shanodin's arms so that she could carry her easily.

After they made it out of the village, and Shanodin then spoke to her, Alice hopped down and transformed back into her human form, looking at her, "Alright, well where should we wait? There's some caves further up the mountain..."

[SilmeriaElemred]

''If they as much have a brain, they will know that is where we would be headed. We could hide in the trees till nightfall, out of the wind. That way if they have hounds they will not smell us. I do not think we can find a really kind dragon or wyvern to aid us either...''

First though the guards needed to notice they had left and where in the forest. But people talked and it would most likely be a matter of time until they spoke with the merchant. They would know what he sold to them as well and maybe put on countermeasures. She started to doubt her descision more and more regarding coming here with Alice.

[Thoth]

Alice nodded to Shanodin's analysis, as likely, the caves would be checked before nightfall came. Alice trusted Shanodin completely, so if she said they should hide in the forest as opposed to the caves, she would trust her, "Well, okay, let's go then."

[SilmeriaElemred]

After going a bit deeper into the forest, Shanodin saw a tree which was large enough to shelter in. She picked Alice up and gently placed her on a high branch. ''We will go as high as we can alright sweety, and then hide between the branches and the leaves.''

[Thoth]

Alice was thinking silently to herself as they walked through the forest, about everything they were about to attempt, and what could possibly happen when they arrived. Finally, when they at last arrived at the tree and Shanodin picked her up, Alice took a moment to register what Shanodin had done, simply sitting there in the branch Shanodin had put her in for a few seconds until snapping out of her contemplative trance, then looking down at her and listening to what she said. Then, nodding, she said, "Okay, here." Alice said, reaching out her hand so that she could help pull Shanodin up into the tree.

[SilmeriaElemred]

Shanodin accepted the bit of help and soon the two were safely in the tree. Even up high the branches were rather thick and the wind would scatter their scent to make it either really hard or impossible to find them if they had hounds.

Shanodin put Alice on her lap after she sat down and slowly started to comb her fingers gently through the girls hair.

''It will be clouded tonight. When the moon is covered, we will fly. I will poison the daggers I have for the guards. They will go quick and silent. I saw you had chloroform as well... I will not ask of you to kill... and I do not think you actually should but... it would most likely be a few to many guards for me alone.''

[Thoth]

Sighing silently to herself, Alice looked out for a moment over the forest that surrounded her as she climbed up the tree along with Shanodin. She had always liked forests, as they to her were the truest expression of untamed nature. This was likely an opinion shared by Shanodin, considering the woman's species. In any case, to make the climbing easier, she transformed down into her nekomata form, which was far better for that task than her human one due to how light it was and the fact that it had claws.

In fact, she was quickly speeding up the side of the tree far better than Shanodin was, and then, once she reached the top, she simply sat there and waited, allowing the cool mountain breeze wash over her face as Shanodin finished scaling the tree, then picking her up and placing her in her lap once she had. Listening to Shanodin's words, Alice simply nodded, still remaining in her nekomata form.

Soon, sure enough, the sounds of dogs barking could be heard carried over to them by the wind. It seemed Midas wanted his favorite slave back now that he knew she had returned, and was pulling out all the stops to find her now that she had.

[SilmeriaElemred]

Shanodin removed her cloak and spun it between some branches. From the bag she took several things she had taken from the apothecary and mixed them together.

''Alice rub this on your skin. It should mask your scent.'' She said as she put some on her own skin as well.

Afterwards though she started to combine some other things, making very potent poisons she could coat her daggers with.

[Thoth]

Looking up at Shanodin as she sat in her arms, Alice silently watched her as she quickly worked, making them a little shelter out of her cloak high up there in the tree as she then took out and began mixing the things they had gotten from the apothecary.

When Shanodin then spoke to her, Alice nodded and transformed back into her human form, taking the mixture and rubbing it on her skin as Shanodin had instructed. Then, remembering back, Alice decided to speak up, "Mommy, there's something I should probably tell you before we go in here. The guy who runs this place, Midas, is from a family line who all possess the ability to manipulate gold with their hands...They can also turn anything they touch to gold as well. Originally it was placed on them as a curse, but over time they learned to control it, so now it is their most powerful weapon.

You'll need to fight him from a distance, and while you may initially think that would be easy with your archery...this guy won't be above using his slaves as shields, not to mention much of his palace is made out of gold, and he can just form shields to protect himself by touching anything around him and pulling it up and in front of himself...What will you do?"

[SilmeriaElemred]

''Hoping he will not see us as a threat. He will most likely not see you as one. But the gold he makes and bends, is unnatural. Maybe with Natsumi I can counter his magic since it contains the very soul of a forest...'' knowing this now actually wondered if it had not been better to get other trinkets. Despite expensive there were some that actually granted magic immunity.

''If we can get one of the magic blocking collars on him then we perhaps have a chance. Since I do not think saying that I took you in as my adorable daughter who wanted answers for what happened to her family will make him let us go.. I lived in the Elanesse household for so long but I do not think I will make a convincing lady of the house who is more wealthier in coin then he can get with selling me...''

[Thoth]

Alice just sat there in Shanodin's arms and listened to her. She seemed so sure of herself, that it couldn't help but instill confidence in Alice that this would work out as well. Before she had been so worried that they would fail, but the more she listened to Shanodin talk, the better she felt about their chances. They had faced Gradius and gotten out alive, and Alice of course knew this enemy inside and out. She knew how he thought, she knew how he operated. She knew the layout of his compound, and so she couldn't help but feel that maybe indeed they could succeed at this.

Nodding to Shanodin, Alice finally replied, "Alright Mommy, well then I guess there's nothing for us to do now but wait...Do you want to hang the bag on one of these branches and go inside to prepare? I believe there's an armory in the palace. Perhaps we could find something in there to help us?"

[SilmeriaElemred]

Truth be told, Shanodin was not confident at all. She was frightened. Forest spirits neutralising unnatural magic however was something she had heard off and witnessed before. She hoped that it was possible to do that through Natsumi and the arrows from the same wood. Those were scarce but hopefully enough.

If they would not succeed and both were captured, she knew Alice would most likely suffer the most. Shanodin had been raped countless of times and was a broken shell of what once had been a really joyfull person. She had smiled for Alice a lot but there were rarely moments where she did not think back about what Gradius and others had done to her. But right now, she could banish these thoughts with ease. And hoped that Alice would keep her word and escape when things would turn bad.

She looked at Alice when the girl spoke. With the hounds so close, she was not sure if it was a good idea that they both went. Their scents were masked and due to stepping lightly and being elven she left as good as no trails behind.

''It perhaps is wise you go in first and mommy stands watch just to be sure alright?'' she said as she caressed Alice's cheek.

[Thoth]

Alice wanted Shanodin to be confidant, and wished only the very best for her. Therefore, her earlier request for Alice to abandon her if things got bad was absolutely unthinkable to her. She would stay and fight by Shanodin's side, and would not give up until the very last breath had left her body. That was the amount of resolve she had in her absolute commitment to protect her mother, the person she loved more than anyone else. She knew she couldn't tell Shanodin that, or else she would never allow her to go in to face Midas, but it was the truth all the same.

In all honesty, she didn't expect her parents to even still be alive. In her heart, she knew that in all likelihood, the chances they were still out there somewhere were very slim. She just had to actually hear it definitively from his mouth. She had to hear him say it.

Nodding to Shanodin, Alice opened up the bag's mouth and crawled inside, then having a rope wrap around her waist, she ordered it to pull her directly towards the palace, which she entered, making her way to the armory. Upon reaching it, she found herself standing in front of a very large door with a complex combination lock. She had memorized it, and so entered it in, and upon doing so, the door's complex mechanism's steamed and whirred, the door slowly opening, revealing a room completely filled with weapons of all sorts.

Alice looked around inside, and began collecting some of them into her arms, including bombs of various kinds, a rifle which she took in one of her tails, and a magical dagger with the ability to drain blood from whoever it cut, storing it as energy that it could then channel into its user, empowering their physical abilities. It was therefore fittingly called "The Vampire Fang". Finally she gathered up both of the magic sealing collars.

[SilmeriaElemred]

Outside Shanodin was waiting for Alice to get back. Below she heard the guards and the dogs. She could finish them now. Maybe, dogs included. No. To riskfull. The dogs and guards passed them however, since the animals did not pick up her scent.

At the least that was a relief.

She took the bow in her hands and placed an arrow on it made of Natsumi's wood. ''I should use you for good shouldn't I...'' she thought to herself.
Then again she was curious to the power Natsumi held. In the end she resisted temptation strengthened by her inner anger.

[Thoth]

With the items she had gathered in tow, Alice called for one of the ropes, which wrapped around her waist and then pulled her along, taking her towards the exit, and then out of the palace, and finally up and out of the bag's mouth, setting her down next to Shanodin.

Looking at Shanodin, Alice tilted her head, "Mommy, I got some stuff for us." the young girl said, handing some of the bombs to Shanodin, as well as the dagger. Shanodin would notice that quite unlike Natsumi, which was a weapon of good, the dagger was filled with dark energy and a murderous bloodlust. It was a pretty safe bet that this weapon was designed for evil, not good, but nonetheless, Alice gave it to Shanodin to use.

[SilmeriaElemred]

Shanodin accepted the dagger although felt a tight grip in her chest as she took it. The feeling did not last long and she stowed it away somewhere in her boot. Easy for her to reach but out of sight. The bombs however. ''How do these work?'' she asked softly.

She never had seen these kind of things in her life and with the running she had not exactly paid attention to what Alice did.

[Thoth]

Looking down at the men looking for them on the forest floor, Alice watched them for a few seconds before turning to Shanodin and whispering to her, "Well, we still have quite a bit of time before the sun sets. What should we do while we wait?"

OOC: We should probably do a time skip to the time when the sun has set and its night, since it was still midday when they arrived.

[SilmeriaElemred]

((Yea time skip is fine ;) ))

While waiting, Shanodin did a few quiet games to relax herself and Alice. By the time they left, most of her weapons had been poisoned. The guards would die without a doubt. Silently, quickly. She did not like however she needed to ask the same from Alice since she could not take them all out on her own.

The night was dark which worked in their favor and they reached the palace soon. Shanodin made sure not to be spotted. She wondered if they should take all the dead guards into the bag. That way nobody would see corpses and minimum blood.

[Thoth]

Midas' palace was a rather ostentatious looking affair, set high overlooking the rest of the village a bit further up the mountainside. What's more, it was made entirely out of gold that had been turned so by means of MIdas' magic. Alice had warned Shanodin of this, that because of this, the entire battleground they were now walking into was one giant weapon for Midas, who could mold it like putty. It was certainly a formidable defense system, which guaranteed he would pretty much always have the environmental advantage.

To Alice's knowledge, Shanodin wasn't yet proficient enough in her transformations to be able to only do so partially, and since she couldn't wield her bow in her griffon form, and her elf form couldn't fly, something that would likely be essential to offset Midas' ability to manipulate the very ground itself since it was made entirely out of gold here, Alice was somewhat worried. To her knowledge, her griffon form had no means of long range combat, which was essentially what this fight was going to come down to when they finally reached him. If he managed to get a hold of them, he would just use his power to turn them to gold, so it would be essential that they maintain their distance. Still, Midas could just manipulate the ground so that they would sink into it and become stuck if they couldn't remain airborne, in which case it would be quite easy for him to simply walk up to them and turn them to gold.

The only chance they would have would likely lie in Alice's ability to keep them both intangible, which would save them from both problems, that is as long as she could maintain it. The intangibility ability wasn't perfect however. It requires an enormous amount of concentration as well as just stamina to maintain, and using it for long periods drained her reserves of energy. They would essentially be running on what time her intangibility could buy them for as long as it would hold out. They would have to defeat him before then.

The guy might have been a disgusting monster, but his magic was formidable, every bit as much as Gradius, and he certainly knew how to make full advantage of it. Alice had informed Shanodin of all of this, and was quite interested as to how exactly she planned to defeat him. As they neared the palace, Alice turned to Shanodin, "So, what's the plan for when we actually face Midas."

[SilmeriaElemred]

''We need to try to get the blocking collar around him as soon as we can. Not giving him a chance to cast magic. Or at least not a lot of it. If the hallways are wide enough I could fly. I do not want you to strain your energy to much. Although you can use it to your advantage. I do not mind distracting him. With your magic and swiftness you can get the collar on him more easily then I can.''

''I hope for stealth but if that is out of the question, maybe making a ruckus here can be fun. If we can draw all of them out.''

She paused and sighed briefly. ''One thing. If he ends up or threatens to rape me do not interfere with his actions. It has happened so many times I do not think I will care about another.