In-country with Fiona -- procuring weapons

[song_tra_bong]

They haven't been walking for too long when the rain finally begins to lessen. Mary Anne doesn't wait for it to stop, just yanks the suffocating poncho off and stuffs it halfway into her bag. She'd rather be slightly wet than spend any more time in that oversized garbage bag.

She sighs in relief and pauses to reorient herself. She thinks there may be something off to the north-east, but with the rain still falling it's hard to tell. Could just be water in the leaves. Maybe something else.

She puts it to the back of her mind, turning instead to face Fiona. "How do you like it so far?"

Comments

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

"Different from Amber. And Maghrib. But..." she looks up, and opens her mouth to the rain, letting it fall on her tongue.

"I'm having fun."

[song_tra_bong]

"Good to hear."

Another glance to the sky to check their position. "Now let's see if we can't go get you some guns, hm?"

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Likewise taking off her poncho, Fiona nods.

"That'll be good."

[song_tra_bong]

She hears it again--a noise that might be people, might be water.

"This way."

She heads northeast, steps almost overly cautious and ears attuned for any sound.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Fiona nods again, and follows. Her footsteps are silent. After all, her favourite brother is Julian, and his haunt is the Forest of Arden.

And after thousands of years of hunting and moving through trees, you learn how to walk silently.

[song_tra_bong]

It is like hunting with Julian in a way, and yet not. There isn't the underlying sense of tension, the need to prove something and the utter uncertainty at how they'd gotten there.

This is substantially more relaxed; as relaxed as working in Vietnam ever gets.

Mary Anne pauses, tilts her head, and adjusts their course. They're getting warmer, she thinks.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Her eyes aren't still - they constantly move and, almost absently, she checks that her axe is in reach at her hip.

[song_tra_bong]

She loosens her hunting knife in its sheath. Definitely getting closer--

Her boot catches in the soft earth and she falls to her knees, tumbling through a patch of undergrowth. When she finally looks up, she's staring at five very surprised Viet Cong soldiers who seem to be finishing a meal.

Closer than she thought.

"Fi, we've got company!" she calls out, drawing her knife and scrambling to her feet.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

There is no answer.

Well, not verbally.

The fact that one of the soldiers is falling to his knees with a knife in his chest suggests another kind of answer.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne grins and lunges for the man nearest to her. He was halfway to standing before he's falling again with her knife in his throat.

She doesn't bother to retrieve it now; instead she spins, drawing the machete from the sheath on her back and looking for her next target.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Two down, three to go, and Fiona lets her pack slide off her back. She takes a step back, two forward and jumps down to where the soldiers and Mary Anne are - landing on her feet, of course, almost like a cat, with her axe in one hand.

Springing to her feet, the little princess moves quickly into the fight. Fiona can use a sword, all the girls in her family can and could, but she's the short one in a family of tall brothers who all use swords.

She had to do something a little different, and get very, very good at it.

[song_tra_bong]

Her own bag slips from her shoulder with an ominous thud.

There.

She lunges, closing the distance with her blade before man number three can raise his rifle. One low strike catches him across the belly. As his arms try to keep his insides in, she opens his throat with a flourish that would have done Miho proud.

She scrubs blood out of one eye with the back of her hand and looks for the last two.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

One of them is in the process of going down, folding over Fi's axe in his stomach even as she moves the handle up and away to wrench it out of his body. Even as the soldier's body falls, she's spun around to try and find the last.

She's using an axe, hardly the most graceful of weapons, with her hair in a sensible braid, but she still moves as if in a dance.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne smiles watching Fiona at work. It's something she doesn't get to see very often--someone else's style, they way they move.

She doesn't have time to appreciate it for long though, as a sound catches her attention.

The fifth man, bolting for a cluster of trees some yards off, trying to gain some cover.

"We've got a runner!"

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

With a whispered, "Oh, no you don't," in Thari, she changes her grip on the axe, half-turns to get some momentum, and then lets it go spinning into his back.

It makes quite a nice thud! really.

[song_tra_bong]

It does!

Mary Anne seems to think so anyway, judging by the grin on her face.

She looks around at what had been a make-shift campsite, at the bodies and supplies strewn about. There is blood still flecking her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.


"That went well."

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Fiona has blood on her hands, most literally. Blood on her delicate litte hands, and blood staining her mother-of-pearl skin from where she spun the axe.

And her green eyes are bright and she's grinning.

"That, Mary Anne? Was fun."

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne laughs. She looks at the blood under her nails and she laughs.

"Glad you think so. See if I can't stumble onto some more fun for us, these next couple days."

Yes, she's aware of the terrible pun, but she's too giddy right now to care.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

"That? Was a terrible pun." Fiona points out, still bright and alive as she moves to pull her knife out of a soldier's chest. Wiping the blood absently off on her thigh, she picks up his gun and checks it over.

"You know, an ambush would be fun, too. That was short and sweet, yes, but an ambush..." Raising an eyebrow, she slants a look over at the laughing Mary Anne.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne nods, the grin returning to her face.

"Of course." She wanders back to the first corpse, retrieving the knife she left in his throat. She wipes it off on his clothes before sheathing it, then begins cleaning the machete.

"See if we can't set up a spot a little ways from here. These guys had friends and they'll come looking eventually."

A glance at the sky to check the light. The smile gets a little wider. "By that point, it should be dark, or nearly. More fun for us."

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

Fitting the gun strap over her head and shoulder and moving it onto her back, she lighting walks over the undergrowth to get her axe.

"Mmm, exactly. How is your night-vision?"

[song_tra_bong]

With the machete clean, she starts searching the man's pockets and gear.

"Pretty decent. What I can't see, I can usually hear."

The senses learn to compensate when you like working at night.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

A little smile, and she brushes a lock of her hair away from her face (leaving some more blood on her face, not that she notices).

"Excellent."

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne stuffs a little cash and three pistol magazines into her bag.

She stands, shouldering her gear and looking around for anything interesting she may have missed.

"Shall we go get a spot picked out now, or do you want to wander a bit?"

She's fairly oblivious to the blood on her own face. It'll be noticed later and cleaned, but it's not high on her list of priorities.

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

"Wander for bit, I think, and cool off - I stop still now, I'll start to cramp."

[song_tra_bong]

"And the last thing we need is to be out of commission."

She stretches, machete still in hand.

"So...I guess only thing left to ask is which way? Long as we don't go too far, it doesn't really matter; we can double back and pick a spot for ambush somewhere in this neighborhood."

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm...north for a bit?"

[song_tra_bong]

She nods.

"Sounds good to me. You can take point, if you'd like."

[scion-of-amber.livejournal.com]

That small little smile coming back, Fi nods and, silently, starts to walk north in the jungle.