#baronyofthesilverwolf

"Briar, Thistle" A firm tone "Answer me. Let me know you're alive"

Thistle hears motion behind her. Footsteps. Warm air touches the back of her neck.

Ivan spins, looking for a target, but he is blinded by the dark.

Briar exclaims, "What the-"

"Hello?" Thistle turns, scowling.

"It's a thallian trick. Boggies I think. they spew darkness. Nasty shit"

Thistle sees nothing. But there's that lingering sense of someone behind her, and now, something trails down the back of her neck, drawing a cold line like ice-cold water sliding across her skin.

A snarl from Ivan!

Briar shouts, a little too loudly, "I AIN'T AFRAID OF THE DARK!"

Danica calls, "Come towards my voice, and the sound of the siren." The sound of a gun cocking.

She scowls and squints, clicking on her maglite again.

"Try your wisp towards Dancia, Thistle"

"Don't furkin' touch me, weirdo..."

A cackle, and Ivan snarls and snaps at the air, his jaws clicking audibly, empty.

"Ivan, close to me"

And she takes steps

She looks for Danica, for the lights, feeling disoriented.

Suddenly, a ringing sound, somewhere just outside of the field of darkness. BRRRRING! BRRRRRRRRING! Is that a bike bell? A tinny, cheap sound, high pitched. Answered by two excited voices. Chime? CHIME! CHIME!"

Briar is cursing up a storm, more than fit to print...

Gwen feels Ivan press against her leg, his body rumbling with snarls.

"It's all right, boy" she assures

"But keep your guard up"

Thistle is bristled, sharp-elbowed and tense.

Thistle might recognize the bike bell, she was there was it was purchased, the cheapest one at the bike shop. But it left enough pocket money for a helmet as well, which she insisted for her friend, even when he wanted to protest. It took her pulling up videos on her phone of accidents...

Either way, they all recognize the voice that pipes up next. "You're not being very sporting over there. It's not fair at all!" Art calls, his voice bright with false bravado.

"Art, you idjit."

"Oh sweet gods I don't even know the names to" Gwen says and tries to understand the darkness, is it smoke like? gas like? Can it be moved by the wind?

The darkness is not tangible or palpable, it just... IS. Then, a CLICK, and Danica succeeds in turning on the floodlights on her patrol car. Two beams shine through, cutting swaths through the darkness, not bright, not clear, but shapes can be seen moving in what is now murky instead of solid black.

A snarl is heard, deep and gutteral, not from Ivan... a hissing complaint, and a curse. "Get him, GET HIM! NOT YOU... Go!" Argumentative, not in sync, shoving and tripping as they push to follow the sidhe. Ivan lunges forward, and there is a shriek as he latches onto something!

Art rings the bell a few more times, and then the sound of pedaling. Frantic pedaling! As he draws further away. The miasma of darkness follows him, like a cloud scuttling across the sky.

Gwen can see bodies moving in the darkness as it rolls like a fogbank down the sidewalk.

"No!"

"Bike like hell, Arty! " She gesutres "Winds before the foe, make them hindered, make them slow..."

Thistle feels a sharp prick in the small of her back and then a crack, and a thud - a figure slumps to the ground behind her. It's just normal darkness now, but they practically fell onto her FEET...

Danica curses, "I can't shoot into that - I could hit the boy!"

A curse erupts at the prick, and more at the dropped figure.

She... stomps at it, reflexively.

Thane Danica starts running after them, gun shoves back into holster, and hand axes drawn.

Thistle's boot crunches down on a face, a satisfying CRUNCH. They aren't moving.

A larger shape lurks a few feet away, watching Thistle - and then turns, and tromps off into the night.

Winds whip up, thrashing through the still summer air, not a cooling breeze but a hot lash, confounding and tripping those who chase after art...

Thistle backs away from the figure. Art's gaining distance, there's.. she's not sure where to go or what to do. There's the lights from Danica's car...

Thistle does not recognize the figure underfoot. Long and thin, gaunt and terrible, skin barely stretched over skull - with it's head twisted around unnaturaaly, and now with a boot print making the face unrecognizable.

Ivan is snarling and rolling around with the creature he attacked! Is that.. is that a WOLF? But they've never seen a wolf with SPIKES, and legs twisted backward...

Briar - thank Goodness, that WASN'T Briar underfoot, is staring around, trying to get her bearings - when she sees that Ivan is pinned by a beast, she dives in and tackles it as well, howling a battle cry!

GWEN sees her wind whip through the darkness, and then two figure emerge, with trouble, out the far end of the cloud, chasing after Art still - both the cloud is no longer moving, and Danica dives into it - there is a blood-curdling scream! It doesn't sound like the Thane.

Thistle backs up against the police car. She could... no, that wouldn't work. She... no, she'd get in the way.... Maybe if...

"YOu got this, Thistle" She yells and charges the nearest enemy with her spear

Briar and Ivan are battling a monstrous... wolf creature.

The patrol car car is idling, engine still running, lights shining to brighten the scene.

Danica is sinking axes into a figure within a cloud of darkness that is starting to fade, even as the shrieks die.

Art realizes that he's coming up on a long stretch, and that he has left his backup behind. He turns, wobbling with inexpert grace on the bicycle, and pumps his legs to head back towards the Gwen and Thistle, two figures still chasing him - gaunt and thin, with fingers long and sharp as knives - they are not especially fast, but they are in a frenzy, and Art is not especially fast either. He pants, not in the best shape, and they are starting to gain on him.

She swallows. She's done this to herself, so... maybe?

"Dooo doooooooo do-do-do-do-do" She starts singing the flight theme from ET.

A hopscotch on Art, to fling him forward.

Gladiola steps forward towards the two after Art, even as Art.. launches?

The cantrip cast, she starts to slump back against the patrol... the patrol car....

The nocker grabs the door handle, flinging herself into the driver's seat.

"WHAAHAHHAAAaaaaaa!" Art is flung free from his bike, just before Slenderman can sink talon fingers into the back of his shirt that was whipping in the breeze. He goes flying forward! Slenderman trips as the bike suddenly stops having the push of pedal momentum, and is tangled in the bike.

Slenderfellow, the other one, is chasing a few steps behind, as Gwen lunges...

The spear was aimed for a vital point, which is misses, but she slices a gouge out of his side! A shriek - they're so THIN, it makes a terrible target!

"Yippee-kay-yay, motherfuckers." She shifts the car into drive, and FLOORS it towards the creatures.