RUNE FABLE: Escalation

Overpowered

"Titanika".

The name echoes in the brunette's ears as her eyes open to a swirling mass of color and light. The woman's voice does not sound familiar.

"Titanika. Can you hear me? Give me a sign that you're not going to die on me. Whistle a tune or something."

The kaleidoscope of imagery begins to slow and focus a little. Titanika attempts to sit up, but several hands catch her by the shoulders and lie her back again.

"You're lucky you got her here when you did, my lady. Another hour or two and she would have been beyond even our magic's reach."

The old man's voice doesn't sound familiar either. Titanika manages a weak mumble. "Where am I? Who are you people?"

The woman speaks again. "You're with friends. My healing team will see to you. Rest now."

Titanika feels a warm hand on her forehead. "She is with fever," another old man's voice says. "I'll need the herbs on this list to break it."

"Fine. This won't take me very long". Something about the woman's voice was reassuring and Titanika feels her body begin to relax. "Cut her out of those clothes and get her cleaned up". There is a pause and then the woman's voice is a little more distant, like she's talking to someone else in a different direction. "Be a gentleman and look away for that part, won't you? A woman needs her privacy."

"Of course, doll. I know how to treat a lady". The man's voice is weak, but strangely upbeat. Titanika decides that she likes that voice, even as her world goes black again.

...

Mudflat kingdom is on high alert. Swarms of palace and city guards cover the streets and walls like a hill of ants. Chronicles frowns as she stands near a small group of torch bearers. "What's the hold up?" she murmurs to herself.

A large grin blurs into a stop in front of her. "I've checked the forest in front of the city walls, my lady. They are empty. The enemy is nowhere to be found." Tess tries her best to look upbeat and full of energy as harmless jolts of electricity stab at the ground around her, but the pale, worn look on her face belies how weak she is still.

"Aerial reconnaissance is negative as well," Orville calls out as he descends from the sky. "Did we get the day wrong? The attack was supposed to be today, right?"

Chronicles gives the rune bearers a nod. "Understood. Return to your posts."

Orville and Tess return the nod. "Come on, love - I'll fly you back to the wall," he says as he gently wraps his arms around the blurred woman's tiny waste.

"M'kay," she replies with a big smile and wraps her arms around his neck. Orville's long, crazy hair stands on end as he lifts off with his electrified girlfriend.

Chronicles can only sigh and shake her head as she watches them speed through the air toward the outer wall. "Young love," she mutters.

"You might think about looking into that yourself, my lady. Yes, yes - look into love one day." Chronicles turns to see a grinning Father Atmos slowly hobbling her way.

"Perhaps when the kingdom isn't in immediate peril, wise father. If we survive the Under-realm attack, I will be more inclined to hear your advice."

The old sage coughs several times then begins chuckling to himself. "Not much older than my beautiful Titanika, you're not. No, not too much older. Yes, yes... you'd make a fine man very happy. Yes, very happy."

Chronicles forces a grin to humor the old patriarch of the Atmos clan.

"The runecrafter will return with my beautiful daughter. You'll see. Yes, yes, a man will do many mighty things for a beautiful woman. Yes, many mighty things. Shame about his lovely blonde friend siding with the Under-realm. Yes, she was very beautiful - reminded me of my wife when she was young, yes, yes. So beautiful, and such a large set of..."