Gursch in the flats

Gursch had everything he had salvaged from the ruined city with him as he proceeded into the plains. As he looked out across the flatlands, it was all very familiar, this is typically where he did his hunting while his parents were alive. He could survive in the plains, yes, but Gursch did not have any knowledge regarding what lay beyond them.

Off in the distance was two things: A winding road surrounded by minor foliage, with a sign. And a billowing pillar of smoke from the opposite direction. Either way will undoubtedly lead to some form of adventure. The choice was yours.

Gursch saw his options, and elected to head in the direction of the smoke. He had tools with which to defend himself if there were bandits, and things he needed to buy or sell if it was a merchant camp. He knew where the sign pointed, and did not currently have a desire to make that kind of trek.

Upon emergence of the camp you noticed several of the Prince's men taking rifles from a cart that they were thereafter burning. It looked like the "Merchants" were now captive. You can only guess the reason all this has transpired. Fortunately you are still unnoticed.

Gursch emerged from the tall grasses, "What's going on here?! Who are you people?!" Assuming the men raiding the caravan to be bandits, he drew his blade and prepared to aid the caravan against its attackers. (he grew up outside of civilized society and thus does not recognize soldiers of the royal family)

The knights alerted and readied for combat. "He must be one of the smugglers! Capture him in the name of the Prince!" A Heavily armored knight bearing a two-handed axe loomed over Gursch. "You... Drop your weapon... Or me smash."

Not wanting to directly fight the giant of a man before him, Gursch retreated into the tall grass of the plains, keeping his head low to avoid being easily tracked.

You've successfully retreated to a safe distance, although you can still hear them calling out to one another. The other option still remains available if you find that the current challenge is too difficult.

Unable to contend against a squad of fully armed soldiers, Gursch was forced to abandon that situation and flee through the grasses. He ran for some time before looking around to find where he had ended up.

After a few minutes of walking through the tall grass, you come across a small clearing, a family of mareep have been killed here, three dead carcasses lay about the ground and cotton lay thrown everywhere among the clearing. On the other side of the clearing, you almost fail to notice two brown heads staring at you from the comoflauge of weeds. Brown Poochyena, one of them was covered in blood from the muzzle down his neck. The other had cotton in it's mouth.

Gursch had seen this sort of thing before, he never quite understood why the beasts of the plains tended to be so wasteful as to leave large amounts of their hunted meat to rot in the open. He looked up and saw that there were two Poochyena in the grass nearby, poochyena were typically cowardly in nature so Gursch pretended not to notice them while keeping one hand close to his makeshift sword as he began making motions as if picking at the meat they had left.

'if it's a trap, then they'll find themselves in trouble, if not, then at the least I'll have some rations of this fresh mareep meat...'

The two heads dissapeared, thinking you had not noticed them, and they circled around the side of the clearing in opposite directions. Now, cotton-mouth stood to your right and the blood-stained one to your left, peeking through the bushes. You could see the one with blood in it's jaws was a little larger than the other now. The two poochyena leaped forwards at you, from both sides.

Knowing he was going to be attacked, Gursch drew out the scyther arm he had been using as a weapon to block an attack from one of the poochyena. He had been somewhat sloppy, however, as he failed to predict the usual pack strategy of attacking from both sides and took the other attack to his back.

"Urgh! That was nothing!" He rushed at the larger of the poochyena with his blade to make a counter attack!

You sliced upwards, cutting through the chest of the larger Poochyena, blood sprayed on your clothing as you hit an artery, fatally wounding it. It howled in pain, the blade still partially embedded in it's chest. The other Poochyena had tackled you in the side, giving you a bruise beneath your armor. It backed off for a moment, seeing its comrade bleeding.

Gursch disregarded the large amount of blood spilled on himself as he turned to look at the poochyena which had struck him from behind. "Lost your nerve? I thought for sure that there'd be more of a fight than this!" If he didn't need to defend himself, he didn't really have anything to lose from letting a single poochyena escape. In an attempt to intimidate it, Gursch simply readied his blade and stood as if he was ready to strike at the other attacker should it come close enough.

The Poochyena had backed away, terrified that you had slain it's brother, which lay bleeding onto the ground among the Mareep. It didn't want to die, and had only agreed upon this since his brother asked him to. "I-I don't want to fight anymore." Poochyena said, still trembling. "B-But I can't seem to move my legs." The Poochyena was paralyzed with fear, and it was your choice what to do with him.

Gursch couldn't help but feel sorry for the thing, he hated it when pokemon that he was killing reminded him that they had feelings. He'd strike down twenty poochyena without another thought as long as he didn't have to make eye contact or none of them spoke to him.

He closed his eyes and put the Scyther Arm away, trying to ignore the bruise on his back, "*sigh* I won't hurt you if you don't try to hurt me again, you can leave as soon as your legs let you. I'm sorry, but I needed food and I had to defend myself, the least I can do is let you say goodbye to your brother and get back into the grass before I get the food I need..."

Explaining that he killed this poochyena's brother for food. . . not really any way to do that without sounding like a monster, but he at least made an attempt.

The Poochyena was still cowering as you gathered meat from the slain mareep. Moments later, dozens of heads pop out from above the tall grass, and small boys riding Rhyhorn step into the glade. "You!" One of them pointed, this one was wearing a large hat covered with pointed feathers. The young boys were staring down at you, apparently you had found a tribe of children indians! "What have you done!?" The boy spoke in a hoarse voice to make him seem strong. "He killed my brother.." the Poochyena said. "Alright, take him!" the boy said, and three boys approached with nets, throwing them over you and tackling you, pinning you to the ground. "Secure the meat, aswell." the boy commanded again. There was no way you could fight against the children as they tied you and began to drag you through the tall grass towards their village. Poochyena was following, tears streaming down it's eyes.

Gursch cursed to himself for letting his compassion get him in this situation, "urgh... I hate it when they talk to me... What's wrong with you people?! Those poochyena attacked me first! Cowards tried to ambush me!" He had to settle for shouting at them, since the nets had him in a position where it was impossible to draw his weapon. In the mood he was in, killing these children wouldn't take even a moment's consideration after fate had betrayed him in such a way.

Your yells had gone unheard-of by the boys as they continued to drag you towards the village, after what seemed like hours, but was actually ten minutes, you arrived at the village, whch had a dozen huts, and a large fire pit in the middle. At this point, the boys took your weapon and patted you down, searching your pockets. You had three young ones only six years of age searching your pockets for valuables, and anything that might seem fun. They had found your absol horn, and the three boys giggled in delight as one of them swatted the others with it. They then ran off with it. After a few moments and talking, the lead boy returned, he looked to be around ten to twelve years old. "The elder will speak to you now, murderous swine!" The boy said with a snarl. You were carried to the largest hut and taken out of the hut after your hands had been properly bound. As two young men finished dragging you inside, you saw a young man sitting on a chair made of stone and hides, he was covered with adornments such as bone bracelets, necklaces and other tribal things. This young man was fifteen of age. "What crimes have you commited to the spirits?" He said, waving the other children off who had than left the hut except for Poochyena and the boy who had been giving orders earlier. The boy whispered into the chieftan's ear, and he nodded. "You murdered this Poochyena's brother to steal the two's hard-earned kills, did you not?" The young man said.

Gursch looked at the "elder" of this tribe, a boy that was still younger than he was. He was visibly upset. "All due respect, elder, but those two poochyena were nowhere to be seen when I came upon the bodies of the mareep. Thankful for my good fortune, I crouched down to take some for my own needs when they jumped at me from the sides with intent to kill me! I turned to kill the larger of the two, assuming it to be the greater threat; the other hit my back then cried for mercy, which I gave it since you see it here now. I've lived on the plains even longer than you have, I believe I have some claim to hunt and defend myself! I have nothing I haven't fought for, I earned the horn and the arm of a scyther by staking my life in a battle of honor. I know little of your spirits, but you children know nothing if you question my honor!" Bound as he was, Gursch seemed almost as if he could break free right there and take back his possessions by force.

The boy stood up, "Enough!" The chieftan waved his hand, beckoning silence from you. "You are an old one, you will be sacrificed by our tradition. Either way, the Poochyena had slain their pray, and your blunder had allowed them to hide before you stumbled upon their catch. Now, you will be out of my sights!" He sat back down, and the other boy went behind you and called some servants into the tent. This time, they had spears and were pointing them at you, jabbing you in the back to get up and follow them into another tent for 'sacrifice.'

The very same day that he discovered his parents had been slaughtered, he was kidnapped and forced to fight for his life in an arena. The next day, he's chased by bandits into an ambush by poochyena that were backed by some tribe of infantile spiritualists who intend to sacrifice him... Gursch couldn't help but hate his life, he never had much, he never asked for much, but fate would just never stop kicking him.

Gursch muttered as he was led outside, "Sheesh, call me a murderer and then spill my guts all over the ground, too bad you kids can't tell how wrong you are... I tell ya, you'd better do a good job killing me or you won't even begin to understand how bad a mood I'll be in..."

One of the children infront of you giggled from your words, and the one behind you poked his spear into your back to keep you moving. When you made it into the tent, there was hay everywhere, save for a wooden beam that held the tent up. "Sacrifice is tonight, to the moon goddess." the boys said. They then took a wooden club and hit you over the head, knocking you out instantly. They tied both your hands to the beam.

---

When you woke up, it was dark outside, and you could hear a loud chanting that sounded like howling. Outside, the children were dancing around a large fire, high in the sky is a full moon. Four boys with spears about ten years old each walk into the tent with spears. "Come, the sacrifice begins!" they said, one of them untied you from the pole, your hands were still bound, and your head was aching from the pain. While you were asleep, they had drugged you from the taste of bitterness in your mouth. You were in a state of daze, and felt like you were going to throw up. You had trouble standing as the boys began to prod you to walk outside with them.

Gursch was starving, and drugged, that made him about as sick as he could get at the present time. Unable to stand it, he collapses on the ground despite the prodding, whatever, if these kids are gonna kill me for stupid reasons, I'm not gonna do all the work... he closed his eyes and waited for what was gonna happen to get itself over with, he was too sick and tired and sore to deal with anything life was giving him right now.