[RP] Vacation! Part 4 [PG-13 for VIOLENCE!]

Ysani moved even faster now that she was on the firmly-packed earth of the jungle trail, and soon she was out of sight along the meandering path. Hammaryn stomped up the trail behind her. "Ysani! Don't run ahead like that." There was no answer. "Ysani?" Hammaryn started running up the trail, ditching her sandals along the path. Eventually the trail opened up into a small clearing.

"Check it out! There's a cave over here!" Ysani called out from the mouth of said cave, one hand on the stone as she peered into the darkness beyond. Her voice echoed off the mossy limestone walls and made her laugh. A chorus of giggles bubbled back at her as she started to head inside. "Awesome."

"Be careful!" Hammaryn yelled, stumbling up the path to Ysani. "You don't know what could be in there." She reached the top of the path and promptly grabbed Ysani by the ponytail, yanking her back from the cave mouth and halting her launch directly into the unknown.

"HRRK," went Ysani.

Hammaryn put her hands on her hips. "Ysani, if you ever run off like that again, by the Light I will..." She was almost visibly fuming. "Something terrible could have happened to you! We're on a strange island in the middle of nowhere, you can't just go wandering off into random caves!"

Ysani's head drooped and she toed the dirt with a glum expression on her face. "Yes, ma'am."

"Now let's head back down to the beach."

"Awww, c'mon. It could be a really neat cave, and it doesn't smell like there've been animals in it or anything. If it's clear we could set up a camp here and make a bonfire tonight." Ysani smiled at Hammaryn and tugged on her sleeve. "C'mon c'mon!"

Hammaryn's lip turned up in what looked like a snarl. She took a very large swig from her bottle of rum. "Fine."

"Yay!" Ysani dropped her stick and actually clapped, utterly delighted. "Do you wanna go first, or should I?"

"I'll go first. You stay right here. DON'T. MOVE." Hammaryn glared at Ysani for emphasis, set her almost empty bottle of rum on the ground, and staggered off into the cave. She reached a hand out along the wall, taking small steps down into the darkness. "Ysani, I can't see a thing in here," she called back. She touched something wet on the cave wall. "Disgusting!"

"Is it clean? I mean if it's got mold or whatever in it we obviously shouldn't be hanging out here but..."

A glint of light flashed in the darkness ahead of Hammaryn. "Well, this is kind of interesting. Looks like there might be crystals in here or something. Stalagmites...whatever they're called." She tip toed a few feet further, and could see over a bend in the path an entire room that appeared to be full of the shiny things. "Ysani, you're gonna like this." There was silence. "Ysani? Damnit, I told you not to move!" She turned back around, going back up and out of the cave slightly faster than she had made her way in. "Ysani!"

The afternoon sun was dazzling and it blinded Hammaryn as she stomped out of the cave to look for her errant friend. "Ysani? Where the hell are you?" she called out, unable to see as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. She took a step forward... into something unyielding, warm and smelly and that chuckled as she bounced off of it.

"Yarr, lass. Yer late t'the party."

* * * * *

The scruffy man's language was foreign to Hammaryn's ears, but his tone was pretty clear: he was awfully sure of himself, and he was up to no good. He snatched her wrist as she blinked the sun out of her eyes and began to pull her out of the cave toward the clearing, where two other pirates stood over Ysani's trussed body, leering at the brunette their boss was attempting to haul over to them. One of the men was squat and burly, the other tall and wiry, and all three were armed in some fashion, with daggers, swords or crude maces hanging from their belts.

Ysani looked up at Hammaryn, eyes wide and apologetic. There was a dirty rag stuffed in her mouth, but she tried to talk anyway. It almost sounded sorta like a muffled 'oops'.

Hammaryn scowled and yanked her wrist out of the man's grasp. He pulled a sword from the sheath at his side, a notched and extremely dirty weapon hardly fit for chopping vines, let alone fierce combat. Hammaryn held up her index finger. "One moment." The scruffy man raised an eyebrow in amusement, humoring her. Hammaryn bent down slowly, grabbing the almost empty bottom of rum she'd set down near the cave entrance. She raised it to her lips and chugged until it was empty. The tip of the ruffian's sword dropped to the ground as he let out a loud belly laugh. His cronies followed suit. Hammaryn smiled as nice as could be.

In the next instant, she brought the rum bottle up over her head and smashed it on the scruffy man's head. Shards of glass sprayed out from the point of impact, and she backhanded him in the face with the remains of the bottle. Dark gashes appeared all over his face and he screamed in rage, dropping his dirty sword on the ground. Hammaryn hurled the broken bottle at the squat and burly man, where it smacked him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. She bent down, grabbed the sword and assumed a fighting stance. "Come on, fuckers. Let's do this."

The bleeding man howled and blindly swung at her as the others began to shout and come to his aid. There was no way in hell they were about to get beaten up by a girl who thought she could swing a weapon. She ducked out of the way of his fist, wrapped her hands around the sword's leather-wrapped hilt, and hit him in the back with it. He fell face-first onto the ground, groaning and clutching his side. Hammaryn reared back and kicked him in the ribs, the top of her foot connecting solidly with his chest. There was a sickening crunch. "Who's pretty now?!"

Hammaryn saw a long shadow fall over the scruffy man's body, and she whirled around to find herself face to face with the gangly pirate. He snickered and twirled a dagger, drawling something in common-speech that Hammaryn was fairly sure meant he felt he would fare much, much better than his groaning companion. Hammaryn backed up, stepping neatly over the scruffy man's body. The tall and wiry man was over his comrade with a lightning-quick step, closing the gap between them. She brought up the leader's sword and swung it into his side, but it narrowly missed and tore through his shirt instead. The tall man laughed and lunged with his dagger.

Easily dodging the blow, Hammaryn raised her sword, hilt up, and sunk the blade deep into his left foot, pinning him to the ground. He howled and lost his balance, falling onto the scruffy man, who was still clutching his torso and moaning loudly.

Hammaryn twisted the sword as she jerked it out of his foot. Blood welled up from the gaping hole, and he howled in anguish, grasping his wounded limb with both hands. The dirt crackled as the searing power of the Light scorched the ground beneath her and engulfed her victims. Breathing heavily, Hammaryn scanned the scene. The short man had backed off at the first sign of blood and was attempting to make a getaway. She glared at him. "Don't you even DARE try to run away from me," she screamed. Kicking the tall man in the head, she picked up his dagger and hurled it into the bushes. He sagged over the scruffy man, unconscious.

The squat pirate didn't bother to look behind him as he tore down the path to try and escape the psycho brunette. Hammaryn dashed after him, snatching a dead branch as she ran, cracking it right off the tree. The sword in her other hand trailed blood down the path behind her. He was barely ten feet in front of her now, and Hammaryn paused on the path, flinging the tree limb at him. It hit the back of his head with a resounding thunk and he fell forward onto the sand. Hammaryn jogged up to him, and bent down to roll him onto his back. She wanted him to see her, see her damn well. He blinked stupidly up at her, attempting to shield his eyes from the glaring sun with one hand.

"You're too slow, you stupid son of a bitch."

Standing up, Hammaryn planted one foot squarely on his chest and plunged the sword into his right shoulder. He screamed in agony. She yanked it out and a gout of blood sprayed over them both. "Now you can run away." She spat in his face, and jogged back up the path to Ysani, sweaty and covered in blood that wasn't hers.

* * * * *

The redhead had inched her way toward the incapacitated men and was in the process of sawing through her bonds with a hunk of glass from Hammar's shattered rum bottle. For all their battle incompetence, they could could sure tie a mean knot, and her fingers were twisted behind her back at the most awkward angle imaginable as she hacked at the tough rope fibers. As Hammaryn walked up, one of the men twitched and Ysani delivered a kick to his belly with both feet, which were still bound together at the ankle. Her heels drove into his soft abdomen and he rolled away, heaving and whimpering.

Hammaryn ran up to Ysani and knelt down behind her. "Hold still, I'll get these off. Hold your hands as far apart as they'll go." Hammaryn sawed through the ropes in three quick strokes. Ysani yanked the gag out of her mouth and spit into the dirt, shook her half-numb hands and started to rub at her wrists. She looked up at her friend with an expression of awe and delight.

"That was amazing! Holy crap!"

Hammaryn got to her feet, flinging the bloody sword to the ground. A scowl spread across her face. "Dammit Ysani, what the hell is your problem?! We are soldiers of the Sin'dorei, you should never let anyone sneak up on you like that!"

Ysani picked up the discarded sword and used it to cut the ropes tied around her ankles, then got to her feet and launched forward to give Hammaryn a huge, crushing hug. The brunette staggered back two full paces with the force of it. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou," said Ysani.

Hammaryn blinked, holding her arms out at her sides, completely stunned by the display of affection. "Ysani. It's fine. We'll just...I don't know, we can kill them or let them run off. I think they're scared, you're safe." She took a deep breath. "Please stop touching me."

Ysani immediately relinquished her hold on the other girl and grinned cheerfully up at her. "Seriously, I was cheering for you the whole time. You're the best." She looked down at the heap of struggling bodies and pulled her bathing suit out of her crack. "We should probably just leave them. They'll think twice about attacking poor defenseless girls after all that, I imagine."

"They deserve worse than that." Hammaryn's eyes burned. "We should kill them."

Ysani peered at the fallen swashbucklers. They whimpered with fear, unable to understand the girls and their elven speech. "I dunno. I think they just took the worst beating of their lives, and they're going to be stuck out here licking their wounds for weeks. Plus you know what they say, the Light loves forgiveness."

Hammaryn sighed, clearly disappointed that she wouldn't be allowed to deliver ULTIMATE JUSTICE. "Yes. Yes it does. Fine. We will leave them."

Ysani patted Hammar's arm and wandered over to the cave, where her bag sat in an untidy heap next to the abandoned walking stick. Scooping it up, she hung it over her shoulder and beckoned for Hammaryn to join her where the footpath met the clearing. "Let's head back. I'll buy you another drink, and a sandwich. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."