The Race for the Shield

"Just walking sounds good." Jake agreed. He just sort of started walking along the canyon wall. "You think a metal detector would help?" He asked, thinking aloud. He didn't happen to have one on him, of course...

"A metal detector would be nice..." Kris looked around at all the possible places these dogs could be hiding. "Wait do you guys think that if we found a way to call the dog things, that they might take us to the shield?"

Wes gave Kris a skeptical look, "Do you speak dog? No, you speak horse. For some reason, I don't feel like the dogs will just hand it over to either side, they've been guarding it for centuries, and they're apparently vicious." She gave the idea a little more thought, then added, "We could maybe lure one here, though. Maybe one of the young naive ones would come for some meat or something and we could stalk it back to their cave?"

(I almost had Jake say: I'm not a dog person... then I remembered on his he has both a dog at home and a hellhound... lol, that'd be quite something...)

"I doubt they're just randomly patrolling the area. They'd stay rather close to the hideout." Jake pointed out. He thought for a moment. "And what makes you think it's a cave? For all we know, the stuff could be buried in some hidden cache, or they made this elaborate underground bunker with high-tech security." He said, starting to list some of the more interesting imaginings he was thinking of. "With lasers!"

"Jake... I don't think dogs are gonna have lasers..." Kris shook her head and continued looking around the area as they walked.

((That was a very lame post of mine... I think we need to bring Mark in soon))

"Well, pardon my stereotype," Wes started at Jake, "But 'elaborate underground bunker with high-tech security' didn't seem to fit in the sentence. And even still, dogs don't have thumbs, so I don't think they could build anything like that. If they did have thumbs, well, I think we'd all be screwed."

Jake frowned. "I thought you said a whole clan owned the dogs." He said, stopping. "Now why would a wild pack of dogs just hang around one spot of land- in a canyon by a highway, nonetheless, with hardly anything to hunt?"

(Should I bring Mark in now?)

((Yes and I will set the scene for you ))

"Because they are bored... that's why." Kris laughed and then suddenly stop mid-step. She heard a rustling in the bushes somewhere. "Stop..." she said holding her hand up to halt the groups movement. "Listen, do you guys hear that?"

"Didn't you listen to our stream of logic at the hotel?" Wes asked Jake, "We hypothesized that the clan left the dogs to stay and guard the shield. They would have stayed because they're dogs, that's, like, their nature." She stopped at Kris's alarm. She gave Kris a look, like she was about to say something along the lines of, 'Congratulations, you've heard a rustling in some bushes, now beware the cuddawy bunny wabbits.' She didn't though; she knew that with their luck, that could hardly be the case.

"What kind of dogs do you know that rank some hunk of metal over-" Jake's full complaint was cut off by Kris's sudden stop. He quickly reached for his pocket watch, ready for a fight.

Sure enough, further down the canyon, Mark was scouting out for himself the location of the cache of legendaryness. (Anyone's guess as to why he didn't hear our crew...) He hadn't had any luck yet, but he did have a hunch it was somewhere in the area. Of course, here in Montana, the 'area' covered several square miles...

Kris listened for the direction of the sound. She held her ring between her fingers in view of her friends as a sign to ready their weapons. She pointed at Jake and then at one side of the sound, and then the same to Wes. On me, slowly, she mouthed. She listened carefully and gripped her ring to have her sword at the ready. She held up her hand and motioned for them to move forward. She felt a little silly being cautious how she was. For all she knew, it could just be a rabbit or something. But hey, three demi-gods... the odds it was just a rabbit were quite low.

Wes nodded that she'd gotten the message, and laid her hand upon her wrist, ready to twist her bracelets. Even though they've been in near constant battle through most of the quest so far, she was ready to see action. Action meant danger, and danger meant they were in the right place.

Jake eased forward, ready to activate his shield and draw his sword. He focused on the area, deciding not to let his mind get distracted with the millions of possiblities.

Mark stepped forward towards the river, unbeknownst to him, stepping past the brush that had hidden him from our heroes. He scanned the ground for any signs of a hidden cache.

Being on the defensive, Kris acted fast when she saw the person step into the open. She didn't think really look and acted on impulse. She manipulated the water in the river to slam into the boy and knock him on the ground.

Seeing the huge wall of water sent the impulse through Wes, and she instinctively twisted her bracelets. The moment her bow materialized, she had it at the ready, arrow drawn, ready to kill. She looked down the shaft of the arrow at the target, a young man now drenched in river water.

(And now the moment we have literally waiting years for:)

Mark suddenly found himself completely drenched with river water. He sputtered and shook the water out of his face after the initial shock and quickly grabbed his sword. He looked around to see the culprit.
Then he froze in uncharacteristic surprise.
"Kris?" He said, straightening up. Most every intelligent thought left him on seeing her. It was Kris! He stood there stupidly for a moment, until it dawned on him. It was Kris.

((FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The excitement coursing through my veins cannot be described. After years in the making, this idea is finally coming true.))

Kris had taken a defensive stance right after her initial attack. The glint of a sword made her extremely cautious. She waited for a counterstrike but then she saw the boy's face. "Mark..." she uttered. "But Mark's dead..." She looked at Mark with bewilderment in her eyes. This has to be a trick, she thought. That was when she shook her head and offensively charged the boy. She knocked him to the ground and straddled him with her sword pressed to his throat. "Who are you and why do look like Mark?" She asked with anger in her voice.

Wes's face scrunched up a bit. She hardly remembered what Mark looked like. She was really young the last time she'd seen him. The only image she'd carried in her mind all those years was of one of the photographs Kris had kept after he died. This guy was much older than the kid she knew from the photo. Wes didn't see much resemblance. But maybe it was the familiarity of him being drenched in a river, courtesy of Kris, that almost made her believe it. Nonetheless, she did not lower the arrow.

"Umm. Random stranger in the woods and that's really the first question you ask?" Jake demanded, rolling eyes. He didn't know who Mark was other than some hot guy who died years ago and apparently wasn't dead. So his ignorance was justified... even if his lack of sympathy wasn't.

Mark didn't quite know what to reply. So he hesitated for a while. This was the one thing he hadn't planned for. Then he decided his hesitation spoke volumes enough and just said it.
"I would guess that it's because I am Mark."

"But Mark died years ago, there is no way you could be him." Kris' eyes showed confusion. The logic in her brain confirmed what she said but her heart confirmed what he had said. She didn't know which to believe. She was so confused, though, that she didn't stop to think that there really wasn't any proof that Mark had died all those years ago, only that he never returned from his quest. She pressed the flat side of her blade into his throat waiting for him to prove why she should believe him.

Wes exhaled and lowered her bow, something telling her this was something Kris had to face herself. She watched closely, and she could feel her blood pumping through her as the adrenaline repressed itself, waiting for one false move to release fury. She was focused on the situation in a dangerous way, anything could come and catch her off guard.

"So, I guess asking him why he's out in the middle of nowhere in the same area that we're in is out of the question?" Jake asked, almost whining now. He honestly didn't care about Maybe-Mark. However, will probably be ignored for the sake of drama.

Mark calmly pushed the blade away from his throat.
"Isn't threatening someone over their appearance a bit extreme?" He said with a bit of a nervous laugh. Kris always was rather extreme when it came to... well, everything.
Well, if she didn't even believe he was alive... but then again. Part of him wanted...

Kris sighed in anger. "If you can prove to me that you are Mark, I just might believe you. Keyword being might..." At this point, Kris was probably just looking for a fight and trying to keep her emotions at bay. She hated showing weakness and Mark was definitely one of her weaknesses. She hoped that this was all a trick and this boy was just trying to mess with her. But at the same time, she really hoped he was Mark, that way her life could go back to the way it was years ago. She missed her best friend.

Jake's blatant lack of sensitivity ripped Wes out of her near predatory state. She looked over to him like it was him whom she wanted to put the arrow through. She instead sighed and looked up at the sky in frustration. She noticed a jet in the distance and followed its path until it was in line with the sun, then she looked down, blinking. Being the child of the sun god didn't make looking directly at the sun any less painful.

Jake returned Wes with a 'what'd I do?' look. They weren't exactly speeding ahead in their race for the shield...

Mark couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head a bit.
"Eh, evidence is just a trick of framing. Proof is in the belief." He said smartly.

Honestly, it was probably better that she didn't know. He could try to leave now. Though the much-older Wes might shoot him in the back if he just blatantly ran. That wouldn't be a very fun experience. He foresaw that things wouldn't end well if he stayed. The plan required secrecy... but he couldn't quite manage to leave yet. Even with Kris on edge and might try to kill him.