Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Snike]

Norbert's pegasus had flown off to the Raquel-lookalike, which was nice because that meant he might not have to jump into the dark substance once he got around to that entrance. Though, the darkness appeared to have formed a hand, and was beckoning something or someone that he couldn't quite see, as they were further back from the mouth of the ring. Perhaps it was the others? Blake didn't slow down as he rapidly closed the distance between himself and the entrance, and when he got close the swordsman took a left down a set of stairs to the ground level, then corrected his course back by going right at the nearest intersection. By the time he had arrived at the entrance proper, the man was out of breath. That didn't help his surprise at the sight of Raquel, - who was just as she was earlier on that night-, a man in black, and a multi-tailed fox who was being carried by the aforementioned stranger. That seemed familiar... But, that question could wait.

"Hello, Raquel," Blake said, once he took a moment to catch his breath. "Do you have any idea what the black material in the ring is? Or why you have a look-alike running around?"

***

"Alright, then," Grant said, as Synthia took off. Certainly a feisty one, wasn't she? Hopefully whoever was casting was friendly. Before following, the duelist turned to the Kigenese horseman and said, "You should come with us. Safety in numbers, and such."

[roymbrog]

Jumping several steps at a time, Synthia had managed to reach the first floor of the stands and turned to run along the inner ring. By now she was more than close enough to make out the figure in the arena as a girl with a striking resemblance to Raquel. The mage was quite relieved when she saw a pegasus swooping down to meet the girl, and she slowed her pace a bit. She would have stopped too, except that there were other people further down the row on this level. “Hey!” she shouted, jogging up from behind. Exhausted from her sprint, as soon as she got some recognition she was going to collapse against that wall and catch her breath.

[ReformBlade]

"I keep hearing about this purgatory business and I'm still confused what actually happened..." The fact that these people went to purgatory always made her feel a little unnerved when the thought crossed her mind, mainly due to the circumstances. "but if you say it's similar I'll just take your word for it now. Maybe talk about it later?" Taking tentative steps forward was wearing on her patience, so the lady quickened her pace a little, rock raised for battle if it came to it. Hopefully it won't.

Looking down with her friend, she whistled. "Yeah, we are pretty high up. Never noticed, I've been too busy trying to convince a certain someone of a certain something ~!" Grinning to herself and looking up, Aneda noted there were some things flying about. Wyverns? Ghosts? Gods? Maybe some hallucinations? Either way it was hella more interesting than standing about and making out with the unwilling. Taking a hold of Kat's hand, "Come on, if this is that silly exercise, we've gotta get moving. Sucks, but life ain't fair, you gotta do things you don't want to!" Aneda went off, circling towards the flying objectoids.

[GoD]

"Okay then. Forget about the blobs."- the troubadour said as she replied to the man asking weird questions. Then he went out of his way to compliment her, but Chelsea didn't flinch in the slightest. She could honestly not care if people complimented her... well she did, but if it was the stabber she could care less.

"Riiiiight. Well I'm alone and you're alone, and two heads are better than one. Let's see if we can find anyone else here?"- she asked the man, but then added as she searched herself.

"I swear, this dragon thing could at least give us our weapons, but nooooooo. Let's fight with our bare fists!"- Chelsea sarcastically talked about her missing tome and staff.

[roymbrog]

“Yeah, well… There were other ways to do that, ya know…” Katrina said quietly. Then Aneda looked up, causing Kat to follow what she was looking at. There were things flying, and one of them looked suspiciously like Volga. The pegasus knight grabbed her hand to pull her off, but Kat ended up being the one pulling her as she tried to catch up with the wyverns. “I think that’s my wyvern!” she shouted in way of explanation for the hurry.

[Phoenix]

Underleveled

Salvation! The phoenix stopped blasting the area in front of her and leaped onto Rizen. To make sure they weren't pulled out of the air, she turned around as far as she could and used her hand to summon up a massive stream of fire to beat back the hand that had just formed. It was large enough to grab Rizen like a cup and pull her down, but with the combination of speed and being slowed down by the flames, it was unable to take them down. Once they were out of range and the flames stopped, the hand slowed to a stop, snapped its fingers, and then dissolved back into the lake of ooze.

Meanwhile by the corridor ... "Blake?" She wanted to ask her own questions, but Blake beat her to the punch and she was left explaining things first. Of course she was very quick about it, if not to get to her own questions, to make sure she didn't waste so much time talking that the ooze reached them before they could act. "This guy here says it's either liquid dark energy or living tar ... and honestly I'm not even sure which makes more sense myself at this point. There girl is the vasilus inside the egg, the phoenix Lilith and Griffin left with us. It ended up in this dream too somehow. What I don't know is why she looks so much like me when I never even looked after the egg."

"Also wouldn't a phoenix have wings?" the man in black chimed in curiously. "Well thank goodness for the pegasus, I suppose."

"And that's another thing! Why can't she fly?! None of this makes any sense!" Raquel's mood began to shift rapidly. "Urgh, did you see that hand a minute ago? It's trying to get us to come closer, but ..."

"You know that simply running away won't accomplish anything," the man in black concluded. "It's true, this ... ooze ... it could fill the entire coliseum before too long. We still have some time, but sooner or later, a decision must be made. Or maybe I'm wrong and it won't go beyond the arena grounds. Wouldn't that be convenient? Then you could take all the time you want," he explained, smiling at the end.

"Honestly, I want out of this as soon as humanly possible."

Looking For Group

"No luck," Reign replied. He didn't have a view of the corridor, and leaning over the wall to take a peek only to risk falling into the arena wasn't worth it to him, not when they could still head to the bottom floor and reach the corridor that way. "Let's try to get lower and then find that corridor. There's probably someone else there we can link up with," he suggested.

Gandering Gabbie and Recon Ringo

"Let's just make sure we don't fly close enough to get shot by anything," Gabbie noted before having Ringo descend. Once low enough, she could see a few people in the stands, which she had mixed feelings about. She wasn't exactly in a position to help anyone, barring throwing Ringo at the problem, and she had no intention of putting her wyvern in harms way, not even in a dream. "I see some people ... the rest must be insoide I guess!"

Ringo spotted that pegasus from before and wondered what she was doing down there. Why avoid him and not that black stuff that was literally trying to get a hold of her? Oh well, she wisened up eventually and got out of there, so that made some sense.

Around and Around

"Later? Okay, sure," Shadrak agreed, though he told himself that he didn't much mind discussing anything right now. It's not like making conversation would hinder them too much while they searched for the others. When Mushirah began picking up her pace, it took Shadrak by surprise and he reflexively picked up the pace as well, not quite noticing another piece of rubble on the ground, and stumbling over it. He recovered, managing not to bump into Mushirah or wind up on the ground. "Whew ... man there's got to be a turn toward the center around here somewhere ..."

Chestnut Knight

Luca had no idea where he was going still, but he also didn't care. Sooner or later, they would come across someone and then things would change. Luca would then make a new decision depending on what that change was. Until then, he would trot down the hallway with unyielding confidence for the sake of the poor lost humans.

Sparks

"After you," Colin replied. From there it was just following along casually while taking in the incredible and bizarre sights. Of course he soon got bored and decided to make conversation, for better or worse. "So, how've you been? Haven't seen you since that whole mess at Weyland's." Yeah, he went there, but with other intentions than simply bringing up old wounds.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Phoenix

[GoD]

"He actually went there? Seriously?"- was Chelsea's thought when the boring walk turned to conversation, and not the good kind. Colin had decided to bring up what happened, and Chelsea decided to bring up everything that happened up to this point.

"Well gee Colin, where to start? After our moonlit waltz which ended with you stabbing me-"- Chelsea emphasized the stabbing part before moving on "- my magic circuits decided to fry out for awhile, nice job by the way. Teaches me not to leave my weakpoints exposed like that."- she honestly complimented Colin's sword skills. "Well we tried to recapture Raquel, which sent us to limbo, which sent us to the desert-" Chelsea carefully left out the little tidbit that they had awoken Lilith out in case he didn't know "- then we found this Rex-Avaz place, home to the queen of jerks. Then we left for a port and rode a ship with baby dragons, so just because we found baby dragons I forgive you for stabbing me, that was worth it. But then I got shot, some of my comrades got KIA, and then we're back here. Not a good story. Especially the getting shot part, because getting the bullet out was a pain in the ass."

[Mercakete]

When the black mass turned its attention to her, Rizen was seriously regretting her decision to help the female who was allegedly supposed to help her find the missing things. She'd rescued her rider from danger surrounding him before, but this was something else entirely! The female, however, shot fire at it as she flew for their lives and they managed to escape whatever that stuff was! Yes! It would be a good, long while before she got near that stuff again, but she, presently, felt incredibly proud of her accomplishment. She was far faster than that black goop! Just like she thought. She was a legendary pegasus, no doubt, for braving and conquering the black stuff.

Speaking of stuff, though, there was still stuff missing and she still had to get it back to regain her status as a good, reliable pegasus. So, flying in wide circles above the stone place with the black stuff in it, Rizen waited for some direction from the female she'd picked up so she could reclaim the missing things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Norbert grimaced. He didn't like the idea of not having his maces with him in this dream place, but Valter did have a point. There wasn't any evidence that they would find their weapons at all while in the shared dream. "I guess you're right," Norbert grudgingly replied as he followed his fellow Ursian, "I don't like it, though."

[ReformBlade]

Looking back whence they had come and then forward again, she shook her head. "That was the idea, yeah, but the lighting gives me the feeling that this could go on forever." Cursing under her breath at the lack of a tome, "I am not comfortable like this, not at all... Probably just testing us, but that doesn't mean I can shake that feeling of being vulnerable. What's your take on this? Have you ever had to go without a tome before? Got any tips for a newbie like me?" Please don't say 'don't miss!'

Not expecting the little lady to suddenly pull her, Aneda tripped, almost tumbling but she rolled a saving throw and kept on running though she lost her grip on Kat's hand. "You sure? Could be any big ol lizard up there!"

[Phoenix]

High Apple Pie In the Sky Hopes

The phoenix kept her eyes on the arena a little longer to make sure another hand didn't spring up. The range of those things was still in question and she wasn't taking any chances. Once she was sure that they would have attacked by now if they could, she righted herself in the saddle, took Chip from off of her neck, and sat him snugly in front of her. Unfortunately, she didn't know Rizen was waiting on her for guidance, and so scanned the area curiously in the meantime. Once she spotted the two other flyers, she began waving to them excitedly with both arms.

Please Teacher, Don't Kill Me

"Yeah, and it was awful each time. My teacher would never let me take my tome into the wilderness with me, even though that's when and where I needed it most. It taught me two very important things. One, to not make 'kill it with darkness' my first response to any given danger. And two, my teacher has a wicked sense of humor ... since like ... some of her own animals would track me down and try to eat me ... luckily just the slow ones," Shadrak explained. "But don't worry, we'll make it through this. I've survived giant brainwashed crocodiles, so I know the both of us working together can survive some abandoned arena." No specific tactics were mentioned because Shadrak really didn't have any he was willing to bring up. When faced with Chie's predatory animals, he simply ran like hell.

Small Talk ... Long Walk

"Whoa, you guys have been busy. Really busy. Well I'm glad you weren't among the deceased, for what it's worth, heheh. And don't worry, I won't stab you again, even after I get my sword back. Might have hesitated the first time, but it was dark and my blood was boiling. So, what were you up to before signing on with Raquel? You don't seem to have it in for my boss or associates as a whole."

[Script]

Gar of Gar's Gar

"Looks like we got a fan over here," Gar yelled out once he spotted the person on a pegasus waving at them.

[Eail]

Zach quickly spun around when he heard someone call out in their direction. It was Synthia that was bounding down to catch up with them, hunched over and trying to catch her breath at the wall to the arena. Looking down at the other mage Zach could tell that she didn't seem to have any type of weapon on her either, so things were at least being consistent in the madness. Glancing back towards the Raquel look alike to see that the Pegasus had successfully rescued her from the expanding black ooze, Zach payed attention to where it was headed.

"We're following that thing to those Wyverns. I want answers and to meet up with the others, and it looks like this should solve at least one of those problems" thumbing in the direction of the creatures he was talking about "Are you gonna follow or am I going to have to deal with snarky shit for everything I say because I am really not in the damn mood right now."

[roymbrog]

Synthia, leaning heavily on the wall, held up one finger. “One.. one moment, please,” she managed to gasp out. That last statement deserved a response and the mage was planning to give one. She was just out of breath.

After regaining her powers of speech, she walked over to the group proper to join them. Safety in numbers and all that. “Yes, I am coming. And, you know, I would have less ‘snarky shit’ to say if you didn’t make statements like that. I wasn’t planning on saying anything," she told Zach. "Anyway, if you guys are willing to wait a moment Grant should be catching up.”

-----

Volga continued following Ringo, which resulted in her flying over the stands in the arena. Forget Ringo and the pegasus, Kat was down there! Completely disregarding those on her back, the wyvern dove down towards the stands. She slowed enough to not splatter on the stonework but still hit the ground with quite a bit of force. It was probably not a pleasant ride for anyone not expecting it.

Kat had been running along with Aneda when she saw the wyvern start to dive, and shouted back to the girl, “No, it’s my big lizard!” Silly Aneda, thinking she couldn’t recognize her other best friend. When Volga had landed and the rider was close enough she jumped up and hugged the wyvern around the neck. “Hey, you fat lizard.” There were people on her wyvern, yes, but at the moment she was ignoring them.

[Ether]

"Yeah, let's go." Faatina replied, following Reign's lead.

*********

And so they began diving towards the stands at a hurdling pac- wait a minute why the fuck were they doing that?!

The landing wasn't any better than one would have thought it would be, Arietta herself thrown off of the wyvern's back, luckily... I guess, slamming hard into one of the stone seats rather than falling into the pool of black shit.

"Nrgh... bloody fuckin' deficient wyvern..." She muttered, before seeing a nearby girl run up and hug the beast.

"For fuck's sake..."

*********

"Well, looks like she made it~" Kit added, beckoning the man in black to continue his massage. Turning her head towards the swordsman, she added.

"Hehe, hi Blake, glad to see you could make it~"

Edited March 20, 2013 by Ether

[Snowy_One]

"Nice to see you Synthia." said Robin, keeping her tone polite. "And I am more than willing to wait for Grant. The more the merrier."

"So you're another one of the mages here?" asked Tia, almost literally bouncing over as she seemed to almost float off the ground in happiness. "Cool! My name is Tia! You're Cynthia? Or is it 'Synthia' with an 'S'?"

[Script]

A Gar of Dreamin

Instead of anything Gar expected, his temporary mount dove into the stands and let some girl around her neck. "Well she'll certainly be big after all I fed her," Gar commented as he slid off the wyvern's back. "Or not since this is all a dream and stuff." He shrugged. Now the part where Gar knew no one's names was going to bite him in the ass. The other lance-woman was here though, so that at least cleared some up. "Lance-woman and the pink-boy are up on the other one, along with someone else on a pegasus. That makes seven from my perspective. No one has any weapons either." Gar finished with tracing one of his scars.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Script

[Snike]

"... Well, it has at least stopped growing so fast for now, since the way it was going, this whole floor would be covered," Blake noted, absorbing the information Raquel had disclosed. Apparently some people who hadn't been intentionally participating were sucked in as well, if that girl was actually the phoenix. Also, if that was the case that the phoenix actually was who the man in black said, then appearances could be deceiving, so the dragon head could very easily be the tar-like substance on the arena floor. Or one of the party members in disguise. Or, he could be...

The man was interrupted from that thought by the man in black's fox addressing him in an all-too familiar voice. Kit was apparently now a literal animal, which lent credence to people's forms not being necessarily the same as in the real world. Furthermore, if Kit was turned into a fox, and the dragon head implied he would take care of her, that meant.. Oh, so that's how this game was being played.

"...We're in a dream session. Sense doesn't necessarily apply. Case in point: Kit here. Not that I mind that she doesn't have the potential as much havoc," Blake said, evenly, before crafting his next response. " No offense intended. Anyways, I think our next move should probably be to either regroup with anyone else in this dream, or just go find the dragon head, since he's the one who's controlling the ooze. Though, I think we have the latter covered," he said, before falling silent for the moment. Time to gauge reactions.

***

Further down the stands, it appeared that Synthia had met up with a group of people, and judging by her reaction, they were allies. Grant sped up his descent, only to slow it when he realized that one of the newcomers was Zachary Fairweather. Right, this would be interesting. The duelist stopped a few steps away from his antagonistic ally, but said nothing.

[roymbrog]

Ok, cool. At least Robin was being civil. “Thanks,” she told the archer.

And then there was Tia again. She should know she was a mage, they met earlier by the campfire. “Yes, and… why does it matter how my name is spelt? It sounds the same either way. You literally just said the same word twice.”

Then Grant appeared, which meant they could leave now, and Synthia looked at the others expectantly.

[ReformBlade]

"Well you're confident in the face of the unknown, that's always a plus." Twas better than acting like a defeatist against such odds. Hmm... He seems to do fine when it's just one person, or maybe it's just with me? Nah, I doubt it. Just a really defensive guy with some minor attitude problems, not that complicated I guess, heehee. With the hallway seemingly never ending, just going round and round, Mushirah was getting a little impatient. "Ugh... I know it'll sound stupid, but I wish something would happen already. This whole setting has me on edge, and even if it's just a dream I'm still feeling like I'm totally awake. Though now that I think about it, is time progressing at the same rate while we're in here? Or is this really gonna be like a free training exercise? Either way, if it.. he or whatever is capable of doing this, i wonder how much he'd be willing to do it. Or how variable the environments can be..." It was all intriguing to the magician, instead focusing on a bunch of what-ifs as opposed to freaking out and adding needless amounts of stress to her person.

"Yes, he is quite a fat but a lovable lizard isn't she?" Aneda agreed with Kat, giving Volga a pat. There was a person who seemed to be flung from the wyvern, and it looked to be painful, or at the least irritating. Making her way over to Arietta, Aneda gave a somewhat concerned look to the woman. "You alright?" News of others doing alright, or so she assumed, made her feel a little better. Not that she was feeling bad to begin with but whatever.

[Eail]

Zach

"Perfect, people are here and being civil now lets go because as far as I know, time is a factor and one that I'm not willing to waste." Zach was already walking off in the direction that one of the Wyvern's had now landed. It was fairly obvious that the sage was in a foul mood and ready to get this over with. And if a particular ice user decided to be a smartass today, well, Mr. Fairweather knew how to beat the crap out of someone even without a staff in his hands. He was also wondering if his continuing problem could be solved with magic out in the real world

Man, whoever said violence couldn't solve your problems really wasn't that good of a fighter

Luka

Thankful that he'd been able to go with the pretty lady instead of Gar, Luka had been concerned about the person that was down in the arena. Happy that the Pegasus had managed to save the girl for a moment he'd actually hoped that it had been Rika below. But upon further inspection he could see that it wasn't his mount. Suddenly however out of nowhere the other Wyvern in the sky dived towards the ground, and before anything could be done it crashed into the ground.

"Arietta!" He shouted in concern for the girl. She might have not exactly been his greatest friend but Luka didn't want anything bad to happen to her, even in the dream world! "Gabbie, we have to go check to see if she's all right!" The pinky said with concern in his voice

Edited March 20, 2013 by Eail

[roymbrog]

“Oh, um…” Why was Gar shirtless? Kat also wanted to ask what he’d been feeding her wyvern, but neither question popped out of her mouth. Instead, “Who and who? There’s like, at least four girls who use lances. Granted one of them is right here, but…” And as Katrina looked over at the lance-woman that was here she noticed Arietta on the ground. “Oh my gods, did you fall off Volga? Watch what you do, careless lizard,” she said, flicking the wyvern on the nose. Volga looked affronted.

“Well anyway, since you guys don’t have weapons you can stay with us. I don’t have my axe either, but if worse comes to worst my wyvern can fight.”

-----

“Right, so…” And Synthia followed after Zach.

[Ether]

"Fell off ain't the words I'd use..." Arietta replied, as she pulled herself up from the remnants of the stone chair she had been indiscriminately flung at. The first thing she noticed when she moved was the stone shard that had stuck with her when she stood, having lodged itself firmly into her side, a steady stream of blood flowing from the wound.

"Fucking damn it..." Arietta cursed, trying to staunch the blood flow, though being mostly unsuccessful at it.

[Script]

Gar of the Dream Gar

"Lance-woman who wore kinda a skimpy outfit? Found me in a clothing store in port? I really need to learn names," Gar cleared up some things better. The other passenger on the wyvern was now cursing loud with a blood seeping outta her side. Gar didn't have anything to help with that, so he didn't give any vocal concern. "Kinda had a half-assed idea of keeping the fliers in air so anyone wandering around can see'em."

[Phoenix]

Light Landing

Katrina's wyvern didn't seem to know the first thing about proper landings, but seeing as this was a dream, at least no one was in danger of dying. Of course judging by Luka's reaction, he didn't think so. "Wait ... exactly what are we supposed to do? We have no staves and my vulneraries are all gone, just loike everything else I was carrying. Seriously look, Ringo's saddlebags are here but they're freaking empty," she explained. Despite what she was telling Luka, she was still guiding Ringo into a descent so they could land relatively close by. The girl on the pegasus would have to wait for the moment.

One of the wyverns dove onto the ground like a penguin missing the ocean, and the other flew away to land too, which was nothing if not disappointing. Wanting to follow them, the girl pointed in that direction hoping Rizen would understand. Chip meanwhile began messing around with the reins once he got his hands on them.

Once Ringo touched down in the stands, Gabbie let Luka down, but stayed put herself for the time being.

Running Rexians

When Volga came down, Reign slowed his pace and grimaced. "Well that was the least graceful landing I've ever seen, but chances are we'll meet up with some others there, so ..." He began to pick up the pace again, minding his surroundings so as not to trip over anything. It was still a little too far off to tell who each individual was, but that would be cleared up soon enough.

Dreary Dream

"If I had to guess, I'd say time's moving at the same rate as usual. I mean time moving faster than normal wouldn't make much sense in my opinion, and if it was moving slower than normal here, you'd think this would all be over in just about an hour or so ... and at the rate we're going, this is a useless training session," Shadrak replied. Commenting on the environments, he said, "Well Raquel said the places usually bear a strong resemblance to Purgatory. I'm starting to see what she means. I doubt the dreams will be changing from this crazy theme much, but I guess a little extra training here and there would be good for us ... though maybe not in such a large place. I'm pretty sure most of the others are here too, but since we can't find them, that really lends to the size of this place." In other words, it's too damn big!

Steely Stallion

Luca still didn't have a clue where he was headed, but he was starting to get the sense that they were going in a rather large circle. That wasn't good. His navigation skills would come into question if they somehow ended up right back where they started, but these strange walls wanted to keep on curving for some reason. Luca decided to defy them and their strange whims and turn right during his trot, heading down another hall that led out to the stands.

Confusion Corridor

"Huh ...?" Raquel was confused at first by what Blake said. Was he talking about the pool of dark energy or someone else? "Wait, you don't mean ..." She glanced at the man in black and remembered something important. "You never told me your name. When I asked, you dodged it!"

"Oh, sorry. Well my name isn't 'Dragon Head' if that's what you're wondering ..."

"Well what is your name?" Raquel quickly followed up.

"Hypnos," he answered before going back to massaging Kit's ears.

"... oh." Somehow that revelation was far less impactful than she'd expected or hoped. "Well, how do we know you're not the dragon head in disguise?"

"You don't, but assuming I am, what are you going to do about it?" he asked with a playful grin.

This could be difficult. Raquel wasn't sure if she was really dealing with the dragon head or not, and she didn't have much of an answer to his question. She didn't have the power, physical, magical, political, or intellectual to force him to confess one way or another.

Meanwhile just outside the corridor, the ooze began to come closer at a quicker rate, and another hand spawned, joining the other one. Both began to coordinate for the next gesture, which was a much larger beckon with both hands practically taunting the four of them.

"Persistent stuff, isn't it ..." Hypnos noted with a slight grimace on his face.

[Mercakete]

Rizen was beginning to feel uncomfortable. As she circled, she could see a couple predators in the same airspace. At first, she just kept a good distance between herself and them -- which turned into 'it' as one of them landed. She still wasn't getting any sort of guidance from her passenger, though. Had all this been a fluke? Did she just risk life and limb for no reward?

The pegasus began to think she'd been cheated, but just then, her passenger began to do something. It wasn't much of something, but she could feel...something. Her reigns were moving, which wasn't that big a deal what with the little amount that was. It was strange how they moved, though. Still, she couldn't see what was going on on her back, so she decided to wait for clearer instructions. This thing she'd picked up was probably broken, but maybe it she just waited a bit more, it would lead her to the missing things after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they followed Luca, a stretch of silence had begun and lasted for a while between the two swordswomen. It was fine at first, but after a while, Gytha decided to break it.

"So," she began, "What was life like fer ye back home?"

Whether it was unfortunate or not that the horse guiding them suddenly changed direction, Gytha didn't know, but she figured she'd decided to try small talk a bit too late, instead just following the horse again. Looks like a way out...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Uneventful travel seemed to abound after his meeting with Nadya and Valter, but he continued to follow the latter while keeping an eye out for any missing weaponry they might come across. "Some training..." he muttered before asking the two, "Do you think there's anyone else here? Where are we anyway?"