Zaphary: Onto the Hellhound [Forest Fairy 2]

The woods had erupted into chaos, and it was all Lefty could do to keep her head about her. The noise alone was almost overwhelming: the monstrous shouts of humans and the growling of their dogs, along with the constant battle cries and orders of the refugee fighters. It was hard to hear at first, but at last, the sound that Lefty had been waiting for came: the whimpering and the heavy footfalls of retreating dogs, finally driven off by Zaphary forces -- and towards the refugees waiting in the undergrowth for their chance.

This was Lefty's chance.

Lefty poked her head out of the grass just in time to see her target approaching -- a Houndoom, a few arrows embedded in its flanks and fear in its eyes. She had been hoping for a Growlithe, but this creature would have to do. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, knowing she would have to be precise. First, Miracle Eye, to make it impossible to miss -- her mind lashed out at the Houndoom, and her eyes snapped open again in time to watch the beast freeze as a rainbow aura surrounded it, making it impossible to miss. Yes. Now, Lefty thought, a Psybeam to put it off-balance, and the power of her mind lanced out again, hitting the Houndoom in the side and provoking a loud cry of confusion and pain from it. The Houndoom staggered, fear propelling it to move but far too disoriented to go far --

And Lefty leapt. Her telekinetic projection latched onto the Houndoom before her hand could, tethering her to the beast as it began to move, and she pulled herself up into a position parallel to and just under one of the creature's external back-ribs. By now the disorientation was beginning to wear off, and the Houndoom was running again, in the direction that Lefty could only hope was towards the Zarrox lab. She was in no position to change its path, though, even if she knew the proper way; she could only hang on and hope.

After what could only have been minutes of riding but felt like hours, the woods around Lefty began to thin, and a cacophonous barking went up as the Houndoom merged with a pack of other retreating dogs; she could just barely make out her fellow refugees here and there, clinging for dear life, and she hoped desperately they could all figure out the dismount. They didn't have much time, though, as the massive shape of a human building loomed before them. It wasn't the lab Lefty had come from, but it was close enough to it that she knew it was their intended destination. She was fairly sure she was close enough, so she dismounted the only way she knew how. Lefty closed her eyes, concentrated...

... and Teleported.

--

When Lefty's vision cleared again, she was standing on what she quickly realized was a shelf in a human storage room. There were jars to either side of her, and jars and boxes of supplies dominated her field of vision save for the monolithic shape of a door on the far wall. At first, the variety seemed both overwhelming and disappointing. If they were trying to figure out secrets, what good would a storeroom do? It took Lefty a moment to realize the truth -- the materials that were stored in here were part of the research, of course. When she'd been experimented on, they'd given her strange pills, strange food, powders that discolored her water... she didn't necessarily know what the chemicals stored here were, but she could read the names, and perhaps someone in the village might know better just what these things were.

Lefty opened up her satchel and took out a piece of scrap paper and a pencil. She sat down on her shelf, using telekinetic force to hold the paper in place as she began to carefully write down the names and descriptions -- powder, pill, or object? In a box or in a jar? What color? She worked methodically, filling one side and then the other, until her paper was nearly full of cryptic names and information. Hopefully someone would be able to make head or tail of this, she thought as she filed her information away.

There wasn't much else to do here, but there was no way she could get to the floor of the room, let alone open the door. The only thing she could do was risk another Teleport, and privately, she was worried where one might land her. Would she end up deeper into the lab, where she could gather more data, or would she just end up lost in the woods? There really were no other options, though, so Lefty closed her eyes and concentrated on teleportation. With any luck... well, with any luck she'd done something of value, and soon there could be peace again.