Hunting Death- Binding a Beast
#7 of Hunting Death
In short, a rooshou is basically a tool that serves as an equivalent to a wand for creatures that have no hands. It comes with two parts, the first is a sort of mouth-guard shaped apparatus designed to be how they hold it, the other is the stick/wand part. Making a symbol using this can be done by either moving the entire head, or using thetongue to nudge it around.
Binding a Beast
The beast collapses onto the ground in a heap of muscle and fur. After poking it a few times more with the back of my scythe to make sure it is truly out for the time being I sit down and try to come up with an idea of what to do with it.
"What are you, anyway?" I ask the unconscious beast.
Not getting a response I weigh my options. It obviously was trying to kill me, that much is certain. And it is extremely fast and given how many strikes it took to take down I'm not entirely sure how long it might stay unconscious. The Walking Sleep spell is out of the question. I was lucky to have seen the motion. If I had had my magic I could have sensed it approach a long ways away. And I don't really want to do that again. On top of that since I don't know how long it'll stay asleep it could wake up and hunt me down again while I'm still under that spell and I'm pretty sure that that spell won't protect me well enough. On top of that I'd still want to get at least some answers.
The beast twitches a bit in its sleep which makes me strike at it again just in case. If I can make it so that it cannot attack me when I am asleep then that should do well enough to keep me alive until morning and then if it still cannot be reasoned with I can simply knock it out once more and move on with my wits about me and my magic still at my call. I walk over to my pack and pull out a rooshou, a thin, stick-like object.
I walk over to the beast again and pull my head out of the cord connecting me to my weapon. For this spell I'd need to have all my concentration and thus can't have some of it being diverted to my Anaelin. I take a few deep breaths and close my eyes, imagining in my mind's eye a stream of energy coming through my body and through my mouth to the rooshou and concentrating itself on its tip. After another breath or two of this I open my mouth and then slowly back away, making sure to have no side to side motion of my head while doing so. Once I feel I've stepped back far enough I open my eyes and see the rooshou still floating in the air with a bright yellow aura coming from it. Similarly I can tell from the part of my muzzle that I can see that my eyes have started to glow a deep blue. But no time to distract myself on that. Any distraction would make the bindings weaker and thus potentially too weak to give me time to defend myself if it struggles.
My shoulders begin to feel as if on fire as I wrap my magic around myself, focusing it on the still floating stick and my positioning. I begin to chant the words to the spell, willing the rooshou to move this way and that and slowly begin to walk around the sleeping beast in a circle. I make a point of not thinking about the words coming from my mouth. To think about words spoken invites a mistake and so I trust in my training that the words will come without my dwelling on them. To help ensure that the spell goes as well as possible I let my mind and body become devoted to the spell while I push the part of my conscious mind that cannot be turned off to focus on observing. I watch the rooshou make its motions. I watch the little specks of glowing light coming off my back when the wind blows them towards me. I watch how the grass seems to grow quickly beneath my feet with every step. Anything but pay attention to the particulars of the spell.
When the spell has been finished the lines drawn by the stick glow yellow as well and shoot across the surface of the beast, wrapping around him as it forms a sort of rope-like bindings around his entire body. With the spell completed the rooshou loses its glow and falls to the ground. I move over to it and gingerly pick it up with my mouth as it bring it back to my pack, a moment of dizziness passing over me as I am not used to having to use this much magic in one sitting. After the rooshou is returned to its location I look back at the beast, yawning. I shake my head of the sleep coming in, needing to stay alert at least until everything is ready. It is certainly an odd sight, a large hulking brute bound in yellow and surrounded by a ring of fairly thick grass. Satisfied that it isn't going anywhere anytime soon I decide to play it safe and grab my scythe again and nick the beast in the leg with the blade, being especially careful not to touch any of the bindings. With that done I move a little bit away and slip my head back into the loop connecting to the scythe before curling up and going to sleep.