World of Arcecia

[Genesis]

(Ooc: sorry it took so long, and that it's sloppy. Oh well)


Dred grinned at the little man before him. He had gotten in Dred’s way. No one did that without having to use a pair of crutches for the rest of their life. The man’s face lit up with surprise but didn’t look overly frightened. You first midget, your other pals hiding out there next.

Dred advanced slowly, and let the moon gleam off his teeth. The man hurled the stone with all of his might. Dred shot a hand forward and deflected the speeding projectile. His arm burned from the impact, but he ignored the pain. The man turned and fled with a yelp of terror as Dred leapt forward. With a swift kick, he shattered one of the robber’s knees, then remembering that there was a woman in the general vicinity, he decided not to dismember the coward. The thief collapsed and writhed fitfully, but Dred caught of the flying limbs, the undamaged leg, and wrenched the ankle in a circle. The struggling ceased abruptly as the highwayman succumbed to the pain.

Saliva poured into his mouth at the prospect of devouring the prey before him, but he held back. Leaving the crippled body behind, he dashed back to the other side of the clearing, past the girl, and did a quick glance around the clearing’s borders. He knew there was bound to be others, but he tuned out the whispers in the air, and shelved his hunter’s instincts. He more intrigued by the other person with him.

She had not fled. She didn’t even looked like she knew what to feel or do. She just remained where she had fallen. Staring at him. Dred strode over to her side, struggling to keep his emotions in check. He reached one gloved hand down to her and beckoned, “Come with me m’lady, the woods are no place for a damsel like yourself to wandering alone... Come.”

It all seemed like a dream. A human dream. Something he had not had since… Nothing is yet set in stone nor writ on paper. His mentor’s saying went. The worlds are fluid, but freezing fast. Which side of the ice are you on? Living or dead? Awake or still dreaming? Be careful what you pull through, and even more so, what you assist. He could crush her like a vase. Shatter her to pieces and let no evidence remain of this otherworld being. But, curiosity dominated caution, and alive she remained.

[Axle]

That bloke from the weird town put out a hand to help me up.

He said, “Come with me m’lady, the woods are no place for a damsel like yourself to wandering alone... Come.”

I climbed to my feet unassisted. This guy was just a bit creepy, but honestly I didn't want to be out in this bloody forest by myself.

I answered, "Alright, but don't take me back to that weird town. And don't say m'lady. I'm no damsel and I could have taken that guy by myself."

He just nodded silently, a smirk all over that pale face of his.

We took off into the dark forest, me trying to keep up with his fast pace.

I sighed, "Slow down will ya?"

[Genesis]

"Alright,” she answered, getting to her feet herself, “but don't take me back to that weird town. And don't say m'lady. I'm no damsel and I could have taken that guy by myself."

A smirk tugged at Dred’s lips and he nodded. He was mildly disapointed that the other highwaymen didn't come out to play, but he figured that was best. Sauntering off at a brisk pace, he knew full well that she would follow without much complait. Serious complaint anyway, she didn't look like the type who'd travel much farther than the local foodshop. They remained in silence for a little, well Dred did anyway. He pretended not to notice her somewhat labored breathing as she trailed behind.

“Slow down will ya?” she sighed. Dred complied and settled into a gentler stride so she could catch up.

“Apologies miss, I’m not used to company and I tend to forget my manners,” Dred said once she had caught up a bit, and turned his head towards her. “My name is…” he hesitated for a split second, trying to decide which name to give her. She probably hadn’t been in the area for long so she wouldn’t recognize any of his aliases, so despite the unhappy murmers in the reccesses of his mind, he told the truth. “Dred. Dred Vailice.”

[Axle]

Dred Vailice? I thought to myself, that couldn't be real. Still, I just went with it. I was hungry and tired and too scared of this place to really call him on it.

Still, I politely answered, "They call me Skye, Skye Webster."

From out of the fog that was beginning to settle on the ground emerged the strangest village I'd ever seen. Houses with thatched roofs and wooden walls.

I laughed, "Where are we? The Village?"

He looked at me oddly and I asked, "Hello? It's a movie?"

That got me an even weirder stare.

I nodded, "Never mind. No movies, got it."

[Genesis]

“They call me Skye, Skye Webster,” she answered politely. The name wasn’t really out of place, Dred kind of like it actually. Within moments a small town came into view, Dred’s destination, seeing as his den wouldn’t comfortably fit two.

He was confused when Skye abruptly burst into laughter. “Where are we? The Village?” Dred gave her a questioning glance. “Hello, it’s a movie?” when he failed yet again to respond, she continued, “Never mind no movies. Got it.

Dred’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. What on earth is she babbling about? he thought to himself. He shook his head and lead her to a dense copse of trees not to far away. “Well miss Skye, we’ll stay here for tonight.” he monotoned. He really hoped that she wouldn’t question why they didn’t go stay at the inn, because he didn’t really want her to know that he was very nearly broke. There were many questions he wanted to ask her, how she got here, who she was, and where she was from, but that would be rude of him. He definitely didn’t want to intrude on her privacy.

Within the shelter of the trees was a set of makeshift benches, a lean-to, and a underused fire pit. He’d found this place a while ago, he’d assumed it to be a stopping spot for poor travelers who couldn’t afford to stay in town. Travelers like him. “Make yourself comfortable, Skye. I’ll start a fire then try to get us something fresh to eat.”

He didn’t waste time in pulling out his tinderbox and striking sparks against little pieces of tinder and coal that he kept in his satchel. Out of his peripherals he saw her brush off a stool and sit down. Dred let her be, hoping that she would start talking soon. His curiosity was piquing, but at the same time his hunger was growing. He’d need something soon and by the looks of things so would she.

[oracle]

(OoC: I'm going to pull a catch up post here with Rynak. Doing better on the no-godmodding thing. Axle's still got a tiny bit of godmodding, but its very small things that so far don't appear to have bothered Genesis so I'm not worried. Here goes.)

BiC:

After a couple hours of gathering the necessary supplies to chase down the bandits, such as horses and so forth Rynak and his men were fully prepared. They had lost track of Dred a while ago. Rynak wasn't particularily happy about that, he knew full well he could've made good use of Dred's probable talents. If he was lucky maybe they would meet up again soon.

His soldiers flanked him as they trotted out into the city. All the citizens on the street threw cheers and "good luck"s his way. Before he could get out of the city though Phellep, one of his contacts among the merchants, stopped him, "Commander Rynak, why are they sending you on this errand? With you out of the city the theft rate will increase tenfold."

"It is my fault the crown was stolen Phellep, and I will see to it that it is returned." Rynak responded attempting to move his horse around the merchant.

"If it really is just a band of bandits why don't they just send that fool Synra. I seem to recall its only thanks to the crown that he's got that job in the first place." Phellep argued.

Rynak glanced around a few times to see who had heard Phellep's last statement. Only a bunch of commoners, some of whom were actually laughing at Phellep's comment about Synra. Rynak maintaining his professionalism then told the merchant, "It is not my place to question King Rianok's hiring practices. Now step aside." Under the commander's orders the merchant finally stepped aside, and the city gate stood open before them.

Once outside of the city Rynak headed the group southeast, in the direction of the site where the bandits were last sighted. They were about a day and a half ride in that direction with their group.

At sundown Rynak reached a small village where they quickly bought rooms from the innkeeper. Honestly buying the rooms as apposed to forcing the innkeeper to give them quarter had its advantages. As soon as they had their rooms Rynak took the innkeeper aside and asked him, "All the city rummors pass through your ears I'd expect innkeeper. Could you tell me if any odd characters have passed through the village lately."

The innkeeper wanting to cooperate with the authorities thought for a second before replying, "A couple of nights ago some townsfolk thought they saw some monsters in the forest, but it hasn't been mentioned since then. Then there's some pale fellow and a strangely dressed woman staying in the outskirts."

"Pale fellow sir?" One of the other soldiers who had overheard commented, "Could be our mercenary friend."

"Exactly what I'm thinking soldier. We'll leave him alone, perhaps he's onto something." Rynak responded, and the group headed upstairs for the night.

[Genesis]

Dred had the fire going well in a jiffy and snapped up some branches for Skye to put on while he was away. He scampered off into the woods, foraging for some food. He easily identified bird nests, some of which even had chicks in them still. After he found some berries which he remembered being in this grove, he’d come back for the chicks and any late hatching eggs.

Sure enough, he found some early raspberries and grapes. They weren’t ripe, but they were better than nothing at the moment. In the end, he only had a hand full of the little fruits, and a few eggs that were about to hatch any day now. He was about to bring the scant meal back, but he decided to survey his surroundings. Scampering nimbly up a willow, he checked the road, making sure that no one else was heading to where he was camped. Seeing no one, he turned his head toward the town and spotted a small assembly of soldiers ambling there way along.

Dred still seethed inwardly, but knew that he couldn’t act with Skye with him. Not to mention that there was a town full of superstitious peasants in the area. Dropping from his precarious perch, he snagged a pair of chicks and made his way back to Skye, pondering his best course of action. When he returned, he decided that food was the best way to go. He tossed the berries and eggs near the base of the fire, and started plucking the chicks.

[Axle]

"We're going to eat that?"

He dropped a few berries and eggs by the fire and started to pluck the most pitiful looking baby birds I'd ever seen in my life.

I asked, "Why don't I just go and get us something decent?"

I had a few dollars in my pocket, maybe I could get an order of chips or something.

He didn't look at me, just went about plucking that sad little bird.

I said, "Look, I don't want to be here either. I can tell you don't want me boggin' you down. Still, for the time being, we're stuck."

I gulped hard and added, "I understand that you've got a problem trusting me. My Daddy was on the run from the law for a few years and I know the type. Kinda spoke loud and clear when we passed up the hotel. Still...I'm not gonna tell anyone that you're here."

He still didn't look at me and I finished, "Look, I'm from Brighton, England. It's just me and my Mum. Dad ran off when I was a kid. I just want to get back to my Mum. That's all. I won't do anything to screw with that."

I got up, and for a second he seemed to rise as well. I turned my back and walked, the village wasn't far.

I walked through the darkness. This didn't scare me. I knew I was just a yell away from that chap. I knew he was at least slightly interested by the way he looked at me, like I was the first woman he'd ever seen. It was really kind of freaking me out and that creeper shack out in the woods wasn't helping. Still, I didn't have much of a choice.

I only had a couple bucks in my pockets and there was no way I could get a room for tonight. Still, maybe some decent food for me and Dred.

I entered a little wooden building and pulled my wallet. The chap behind the counter looked at me oddly as I pulled out the money.

I asked, "What could I get for this?"

He laughed, "Nothing, paper? That's worthless."

I answered, "I know the pound's not been strong in the markets as of late, but its gotta be worth something. What? Are you chaps using euros?"

He scoffed, "I'll give you a loaf of bread for your necklace."

I looked at the necklace that hung around my neck, a piece of rubbish I'd gotten from a thrift shop on the Strand.

I nodded, taking it off my neck, "You've got yourself a deal."

He handed me the bread and I deposited the necklace in his hand. I exited the door behind me before he figured out that it was a worthless piece of costume jewelry. I nearly ran into a chap on a tall dark horse. He looked mean so I politely excused myself and disappeared into the forest.

I got back to our shoddy camp a few minutes later and tossed the bread to Dred like an American football.

[Genesis]

Dred listened silently as she rambled on. His ears pricked slightly at the mention of her father, but he struggled to remain still. He hadn’t had a casual conversation with a human being for... It was always either business or pleas for mercy, and quite frankly he was clueless about what he should say. So he contented himself with listening.

He heard her mention England before and this ‘Brighton’ sounded familiar. He worked for a lord who presided over a port called Brightown. Dred was a guard on one of the primary merchant ships that also made berth there. In the end, as all of his stories did, it all ended in violence. He was attacked by several other guards on the ship and was forced to flee for his life. A few weeks later, he helped launch an assault on the port and assassinated the presiding lord and his family. He justified their slaughter by telling himself that the privateers would do worse things to the family if they survived. He mentally shook the memory away, not wanting to remember the taste of her blood.

Skye sighed and left rather promptly, and Dred started to rise but thought better of it. She wouldn’t go far. And if she did run into trouble at the village, the soldiers there would likely assist her. Likely.

He growled at himself and slouched against a stump, morosely picking down off the chicks. One of them squirmed as it wasn’t dead yet, and he tossed it in his mouth. He severed off the feet with his teeth and spat them into the fire, while he chewed the rest. It wasn’t exactly the highest food on the menu, but consuming an entire life force at least sharpened his thoughts slightly, causing the whispering serenade to fade away.

While Skye was away, he thought of Fisk wondering if the fool had done as he commanded. Probably not. Dred pulled the black orb that he had obtained there. Rolling the cat’s eye gem around in his palm, he mulled over what could have been inside the skull, and knew it wasn’t good. Probably a specter of sorts, seeing as a poltergeist would shatter the cell without any effort at all. The downside was that if a specter did escape out of it, that meant it would seek him out. As long as he remained alert, he would spot it and hopefully destroy it without causing too much of a racket.

Dred chuckled grimly and lowered his hood as he remembered a failed attempt on his life, in which the assassin tried using a specter. The specter as it turned out, could not infest his mind or body, while Dred was able to devour it. Most of it anyway. He had little recollection of the event, as the specter must have caused some sort of spiritual indigestion.

He waited in silence, rolling the ball around in his hand and waiting for Skye to return. She soon did with a good size loaf in hand which she tossed to him. It wasn’t a bad throw either. He tore off a small portion of the heel and tossed it back to her. “It’s yours, seeing as you purchased it.” He allowed a faint smile to spread. A smile that quickly faded as shriek of fear reached his ears. His eyes widened and was about to spring into action when he recognized what it was. Skye obviously had heard nothing, so he deduced that his thinking about Brightown had brought long hidden memories to the surface. He composed himself quickly, retrieved the berries, and tossed half to Skye. He would eat a small section of the bread to be polite, but he hoped that the berries would make it more palatable.

He hoped she would speak a little more, but she didn't look ready to divulge anything mor about herself. Any sort of dialogue would be greatly appreciated in his opinion, but she look about ready to drop, seeing as the moon was rising and peeking through the swiftly building fog.

[Axle]

I woke that morning, thinking that all of this rubbish might have been a bad dream. I looked around me...nope, it was real.

That chap sat a few feet away, propped up against a tree. I wasn't sure if he was asleep or awake. He seemed somewhere in the middle really.

I took the half loaf of bread from my purse and sat it by the dying fire. It hadn't been all that cold last night, just a little chill drifted on the breeze.

Something else drifted on the breeze as well, sounds of people coming. Horses, the clank of metal, blimey we were in a tight spot. The thought of running entered my mind, but... No, I wouldn't run this time. It hadn't been my Dad who'd run from me, but rather I ran from him when the bobbies came callin'. I'd been young at the time, five or six, and I'd been terrified. He'd taken me to Spain as a young girl on Holiday and never brought me back. When I finally did return, Mum was mad from the strain of losing her only daughter.

I didn't like to think about that time. I'd loved my father, he'd been all I'd known. Now I hated him, more than anything I hated him.

[Genesis]

Dred dreamed little to his delight. He fell into more of a doze than a slumber, on the alert. He was content for the moment, listening to Skye’s peaceful breathing. It was a swell addition to the chirping insects. Out here was far more comfortable than at some backwater inn infested with lice, not to mention that it was quieter out here. Until the sounds of clanging metal in the early hours of the mourning. Mounted horsemen were quickly surrounding the area.

Skye seemed to notice too as she tensed and stood. It was too late to escape, and they probably couldn’t have in the first place anyway. They’d have been spotted and easily caught by whomever it was. So Dred remained cool. They’d have to dismount to enter the grove, the birches underbrush was a little tight for a horse to maneuver through.

Dred glided to his feet and leaned against the tree. He exuded calmness and a certain amount of boredom at the same time, which Skye seemed to feel. He was surprised that she remained quiet, and didn’t attempt to flee. Either she’d been in the situation before, or she was as cool minded as he was.

Dred decided not to think about such matters as Skye, and to rather focus on the issue at hand. If those people were guards, he might be able to bribe them. Might. If they were peasants and other angry townsfolk, then blood would flow easily. Dred could probably outmaneuver a mob and escape, but he doubted that Skye could follow.

Dred reached into a pocket on the inside of his cloak and pulled out his bronze knuckles, almost impatiently waiting for their ‘pursuers’ to catch them.

[oracle]

Rynak was up at dawn as always, and he and his soldiers were suited up shortly after. They were intending to continue on the route until Rynak decided to check on their mercenary friend. Of all the rotten luck, the town militia had decided they were a threat. Rynak supposed that was logical on the militia's part, after all the mercenary gave off some aura of troublemaking, and he had heard the lady was dressed funny.

One way or another they were part of Rynak's team now, and he called to the troop and turned their horses in the direction of the grove. They arrived as the militia finished surrounding the grove, but typical militia they didn't realize they would have to actually fight. Sometimes Rynak wondered if militias on Naost knew which end of the sword they were supposed to hold. Still he would have to convince them to let the others go.

As he reached the circle Rynak immediately began acting, "What's going on here! Back it off! Back off!" Rynak and his troops shoved apart several of the militia members, and working their way into their perimeter. "What do you think you're doing! You've completely ruined our cover. Biggest gang bust in the history of Naost, and here you've boxed in the people who were supposed to cover their exit. We won't get another chance like that until who knows when!"

The militia members looked around confused for a few seconds before one stammered, "But- when- they looked-."

"I don't bloody care!" Rynak shouted over the militia member, "Get out of my sight before I see to it you're all fined out of house and home for infringement of justice!" The militia members paused and thought for a second before Rynak shouted, "Go on! Get out!" As the militia retreated Rynak turned to Dred.

Still in his acting voice just slightly Rynak shouted, "We're going to have to work on our cover ups from now on." As the militia left hearing range Rynak breathed out and explained to the pair, "Especially you Mr. Ryloth, from Havenport. You're awful lucky General Synra has the intelligence of your average fish carcass. I couldn't care less where you're from or what your background is, so long as you get the job done, I'm fine with you." Rynak gave a grin, indicating he was fully aware that Dred had competely lied about his identity earlier.

"So what do you say? You and your lady friend there want to help us? We're gonna need you."

[Genesis]

Dred was thankful for Rynak’s swift arrival, which he wasn’t even sure would come. The militia members had captured him and Skye within a few moments, none of them had visibly been injured… or found. If Rynak hadn’t arrived when he did, blood would have flown. In one aspect Dred was thankful but, in another he was disappointed.

Dred bared his teeth in a near ferile grin that reflected his present state of mind, which was deteriorating in the blazing sunlight. Rynak was Dred’s type of partner, practical, intelligent, and powerful, but hopefully not controlling.

“With a reward of solid specie, and a good hunt I’ll be more than happy to help,” Dred replied, fingering his dirk, anxious to finally be on the job. “But I can only speak for myself,” he finished turning to Skye. “What d’ya say?”

[Axle]

He asked Dred, "So what do you say? You and your lady friend there want to help us? We're gonna need you."

I started to answer when Dred added, "With a reward of solid specie, and a good hunt I’ll be more than happy to help. But I can only speak for myself. What d’ya say?”

I answered, "Fine. I've nothing better to do, and I can't stay here. Just promise me you'll take me to Brighton after all of this."

[Genesis]

Dred chuckled hartily, "After this I'll try to figure out the way to your home." He would try yes, but he knew he'd probably fail. There was little doubt to that. He raised his hood to shelter his face from the wretched light that so cursed this island.

Dred turned back to Rynak and held out his hand, "Do we have an accord captain?"