The Preserve, Late Thursday Morning
Arthur
In most other circumstances, he would never have done this.
If it hadn't been this long. If their departure hadn't failed so spectacularily. If-- if any number of things over the past year and a half hadn't happened.
But they were a lot of ifs, dismissed: Arthur was here now, his sword at his side and a spear in his hands, his eyes narrowed to the ground. It could not be much further. It could not be more than a few feet.
There wasn't a goddamn thing in this world he was sure of, but he was sure of this - the beast was there, and it had to be slain.
That was good enough for Arthur. He saw a flash of fur between the foilage.
Merlin
Which was all well and good for the person who had nearly been killed by the first bloody one. But not for the person who had to bail his ass out of that situation and this one and--Merlin was too angry to come up with proper insults!
"What the hell are you doing!" Merlin asked, flushed from the running. Just be glad he was too angry to keel over.
Arthur
The furred entity within the leaves stirred suddenly, its tail smacking against a tree. And then it moved--
Out of sight.
"Merlin," Arthur snarled, "You idiot, you've sent it running!"
Merlin
And so, the only logical reaction to that was to punch him. Right in his stupid, frustration making face.
Sure, Merlin wasn't the most coordinated or skilled, but he managed that.
"Good! Are you insane?!"
...now his hand hurt, damn it.
Arthur
And Arthur's face... did not.
If Arthur reacted at all to the punch itself, it was mostly in surprise, considering how crap Merlin was at throwing it.
Did Merlin just punch him?
Congratulations. You had just managed to stun Arthur into silence.
And then the Questing Beast roared.
Merlin
Merlin looked over in it's direction with a 'Not now' expression before turning back to Arthur. "That thing nearly killed you last time."
Arthur
Of course Merlin would try to tell the giant deadly chimaera to wait until they were well done arguing.
"And this time, I'm going to kill it before it gets anywhere near the school," Arthur shot back. His eyes were a little wild. "It also got us stuck here."
Or rather Uther's intervention after the wound it caused did, but Arthur was not exactly firing on all cylinders this week.
Merlin
"You didn't kill it the last time!" Merlin replied, also with making the crazy eyes. Only more from anger than, you know, crazy. "Are you insane?"
Arthur
>"I know," Arthur shot back, "That's why I'm going to kill it this time--"
When the Questing Beast roared the second time, it was a hell of a lot closer.
Katchoo
Also a hell of a lot closer, and running/tripping/stumbling closer yet, were three girls.
The short, stormy-faced blonde blundering along with a hand on the arm of one of the taller brunettes, for one, at least appreciated that all the noise had (like Morgana had said) made it easier to track down their errant blockheaded idiots, though there wasn't much breath to spare to say so.
She did look like, once she caught her breath, she'd be happy to do a little roaring of her own, but --
Frabcube Francine
"Hey, dumbasses! MONSTER BEHIND YOU!"
Blame Emmett. He made her say ass too many times yesterday. It broke both her patience and her vocabulary filters.
Morgana
"If they don't get themselves killed, I'm going to kill them myself," Morgana muttered she saw where Arthur and Merlin were. "Look out!" she yelled louder.
Merlin
"What?" Look, he'd been very distracted here!
Merlin turned around to find the same creature he remembered from last time. Only less pinned to a wall by a sword, of course.
"Oh."
Arthur
Arthur made a noise that could be best identified as a snarl, and gripped his spear.
"Right," he said, "I need a clear shot!"
Merlin
Merlin turned his attention away once more for a flaily, "Are you simple?!"
And reached for the damned spear himself.
Arthur
"Merlin, you barely have the strength to fling a twig," he snapped, and... well, darted to the left, and gave Merlin a tug as he went, because: beast.
Merlin
And Merlin tugged back. "I did just fine last time!"
Katchoo
There was a smartass joke that could be made here. There were a whole host of smartass jokes that could be made here, were one feeling twelve-years-old enough to do it. Ordinarily Katchoo would have the wherewithal to do just that except for the whole matter of jesusfrikkin'christ what the $@()*!@ is that #(*)! thing, because really, she hadn't expected that.
"Idiots!" was what she settled for instead. "Now you choose to do this? Frikkin' tug-of-war now?"
And her without a gun. Geez.
Francine
"I know, here's an idea: BOTH OF YOU get the heck away from that thing!"
Francine was helpful like that.
Morgana
"NOW!" Morgana yelled, because she was helpful too and they were going to get eaten and she couldn't let her nightmare come true, not when they were so close.
Arthur
Arthur, at least, took that to heart. "Merlin," he hissed, "You are not going to start fighting all of my battles for me."
-- well, after throwing in another bit of lover's tiff, there.
"But this is not the time!" More tugging. And not on the spear this time; they really did need to get the hell out of the way, because that creature looked ready to gore one of them and Arthur hadn't had his shot yet.
Merlin
Merlin went tumbling on with him, holding up a hand to hold off the creature for a few more seconds.
It worked with the dragon's fire, after all.
Merlin
The creature roared back; wonder above wonders, Merlin's momentary measure was succesful.
"What did you do last time that I didn't," Arthur asked, grabbing a firmer hold of the spear. He had his shot now. Or close to it.
Merlin
"Didn't get bitten?" Merlin suggested, holding his hand out toward it.
Arthur
"I didn't get bitten this time, did I?"
Arthur adjusted his position. There. A clear shot at the head. If it would hold still for another second...
Merlin
That... wasn't exactly necessary. "Throw it."
Arthur
And the spear was thrown, Arthur's muscles flexing with the motion. Finally.
Merlin
Merlin muttered something under his breath, pushing it along so it would hit true and center of the beast's chest.... area.
It worked the last time, alright!
Katchoo
One second she'd been cursing both of their names in a steady stream under her breath, the next --
The next, Katchoo was holding her breath, watching that damn spear fly like it was in slow motion, maybe mentally urging it on.
Jesus frikkin' --
Francine
Katchoo didn't actually need feeling in that shoulder for the next few hours, did she?
Francine, alongside the clutching, was wishing she had brought a weed-eater, just so it would give her something to throw.
Morgana
Morgana was staring as well, but she was doing so as she ran towards Arthur and Merlin, no longer content to simply stand and yell at them. She had to make sure they were all right.
Questing Beast
The spear struck true, burying itself in the Questing Beast's torso like it belonged there.
The creature let go of one more loud, unearthly noise, and then crashed into the ground, bleeding heavily. Its heart thumped once...
...twice...
Camelot Three
...
And then it didn't thump at all.
There was no bright flash. No clap of thunder. Nothing out of the ordinary at all--
-- except that the two boys, the lady and the beast were no longer there at all.
Katchoo
There should have been a flash or a clap of thunder, something other than just that sudden, eerie blinking out of goddamned existence. She would have had something to latch onto.
Katchoo, who'd however-the-hell-long-ago it was stopped caring about the feeling in her shoulder, wished she couldn't hear her breath rasping that loudly in her ears in the silence.
Until she broke it.
"Son of -- God fucking DAMMIT, NO!"
Francine
Francine didn't say anything at all; she'd have to have air in her lungs to do that.
It was really too bad she didn't bring anything to throw. Punching the tree was, she would probably admit later, a poor and rather stupid substitute -- though at least she kept her thumb on the outside of her fist this time.
[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, and waaah. also, with thanks to nevertobequeen, thismaskiwear, thatsamilkshake and bigdamndestiny. Fair warning: I will be clingy today. ]]