Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[scorri]

Marella glanced away from Rook in time to see Aneda start the fire. "Oh! Thank you Aneda. I was going to get Rook's flint, but guess I don't need to now. Why don't you come sit with us until breakfast is figured out?" She patted the ground next to her and smiled. "So I saw you were the current holder of that egg that's been being passed around. What's it like? Can you feel anything from it? Apparently that girl who was around during the dream was the egg or something like that. It's kind of crazy to think about."

[Mercakete]

"You don't have to participate," Norbert replied to Raquel, keeping his gaze fixed pointedly on Kit, "We'd do all the fighting. Besides, there's never a 'too early' or a 'too late' when it comes to running out suspicious creeps. And she's more likely a Fallen than a Dark Avian, but I think she's something else entirely. Avians have wings and don't have tails."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Connor frowned a little. "Well I might not be able to recreate Gemini for you, but Raquel's got a pretty decent weapon selection here and her prices aren't that high. Maybe you'll find something you like?" he offered Gabbie.

Veronika

"Please do, I think we're all in need of a little humor with what's coming ahead," Veronika responded to Gar. Maybe the challenge was about being prepared to watch our allies die...how many could die today I wonder? she thought, looking around the camp with sadness.

Nadya

"Luca knows that most people can't be trusted, so he looks out for me. He'll warm up to ya eventually," Nadya said to Reign, finishing her work on Faatina's leg. "Good as new...well should be anyway. I'd say avoid strenuous activity on the leg for a while, but there's a battle comin' up so...best of luck," she finished, shrugging.

Outside Fort

"I suppose I should be pleased that you're not entirely incompetent. Now open the gate or I'll start reorganizing Sardis' men myself," Layla replied to the sentry, tapping her foot impatiently. Ripper growled.

Inside Fort

Sardis' group had gone to some abandoned fortress- not as cozy a base as the inn and certainly not as cozy as the noble's estate. Clara secretly longed to be back under Layla's command again, instead on whatever espionage mission thing they were on. Except it wasn't really espionage anymore since Layla came and revealed the whole thing, but she and her sisters were still there.

She saw the blonde swordswoman, Silvia, and decided to make some polite conversation. "So...do you think there's going to be a battle today?" she asked her.

[Snowy_One]

As Zach started to speak, Robin looked up from the fire and happened to catch sight of what was going on. She knew Zach well enough to know the face he was making as well as the tell-tail sign of thunder crackling up his arm.

"<What the... Oh no!>" she said, getting upright and rushing over.

"<Zach! What happened? Did someone say something bad about Lia?>" she asked. Though she didn't hear his words, much less Kit's, she knew the look on his face well enough to know what it meant. There was only one thing she could think of, at the moment, that could provoke such a response, and that was an insult to Lia or her memory. Something she, somehow, didn't doubt had just happened.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I'll strive for that then," Gar answered. "We'll put my first goal at seeing how I can make fun of that Sardis' guy's hair and work our way diagonally from there." Gar tapped his chin in fake thought. Though speaking of hair, his was getting a bit too long. He should cut it sometime soon.

[Snike]

Kit was definitely reading his mind, or something, judging by what she had said about Blake and her knowledge of the axe. Norbert jumped in suggesting mind magic, and Zach seemed to be about to attack, because of how the mind reader was talking about Lia. The swordsman himself was about to draw on Kit, out of anger, but then, once again, Raquel stepped in, this time with tears in her eyes. Oh, no, she hadn't found out about that, had she? Oh, this day was just getting off to a great start. Then Robin rushed over, and it sounded like things were going to escalate.

"Bert, Zach, lower your weapons and tomes," Blake said, trying to force himself to think about handwriting lessons. He turned to Kit. "Don't you dare presume you know what choice I had to make. You weren't there : you didn't see the injuries. And get out of my head. If you really want to make use of yourself, you'll leave us well alone for the time being."

Edited April 3, 2013 by Snike

[Ether]

"Raquel has the right idea, I'm a Dark Avian. Any thoughts you think around me come clear to my head, as crisp as if you had shouted them for the heavens to hear. As for my wings, I'll have you know that my father ripped them clean off my body." Kit responded, her own tone and expressing growing notably somber.

"I would say before you jump to conclusions, but I can see it's far too late for that... I am not judging Blake's decision, nor am I questioning it's weight... I am simply telling him what his mind told me. As for my treatment of the girl's memory... I never met her, and none of your thought that I have yet seen tell me much of anything about her... regardless of that I don't think revealing the truth behind her death is an attack on her memory." Kit replied, turning towards Raquel, not saying anything for a moment.

"Force, huh? Mr. Dragon was right on the mark about that... Raquel. I mean you no ill will... I doubt you'll believe that, but it's still something I want you to know... but I guess it was too much to ask for us to get along with all of your guard dogs." Kit noted, walking past the dauntless, placing a small object leisurely next to Raquel at the front of the Dauntless.

"If you ever feel the need to see me, just use that. I won't be far." Kit told her, before warping off to an undisclosed location.

*********

"Alright, I will. Thanks Nadya." Faatina replied, before noticing that Reign was with her as well... he must have been the one to inform her of the broken leg then...

"So you must have been the one to bring her here then, Reign. Thanks to you as well... would you mind telling me what happened last night... I can't remember a thing." Faatina asked, feeling a bit more comfortable talking to Reign than Nadya... something about that woman seemed... far too opportunistic for her liking.

[ReformBlade]

"Nice to meet you too, sir." She smiled and waved goodbye, waiting for a moment before she was sure he'd be out of earshot, "I don't get it, he seems nice enough. What's with the attitude? Did he do something before that I should know about?" All legit questions in her head but the latter was the only important one to her. Could be a baby eater, could be a saint, she had no idea. Godamn no inbetween on these scales...

Marella talked, invited Aneda to join her, a friendly gesture when it dawned on her at the mention of the egg that aneda had completely forgotten about it. "Ah crap!" she blurted out, looking back to where she woke up, egg sort of just laying there with Hannah sniffing and snorting at it, lightly poking at it with her legs, her curiosity knowing no bounds. Frantically scurrying over to it and shooing the Pegasus away, the rider wiped it as best as she could before picking it up and feeling like a bad parent (which she would be at the moment, all things considered). Joining Marella again, she felt annoyed and dejected. "I can't believe I fucking forgot..." If she were by herself, the woman would have cried, but she held it back and bottled that up for later. "I had one job, couldn't even do it, haha..." Sounding forced, she didn't particularly care.

[scorri]

Marella frowned slightly at Aneda's attitude. She threw an arm around her shoulder. "Aw, it's fine. That thing is apparently indestructible. Besides, maybe now the phoenix will have some of Hannah's attitude. Wouldn't be too bad for her to be as curious as Hannah is. Or stubborn." She grinned. "I seriously doubt that leaving the egg sitting by your pegasus for a few minutes will do any serious damage. Just relax. It'll be fine."

[ReformBlade]

It took the Pegasus rider a lot longer to compose herself than she would have liked, leaving an awkward silence in her wake before finally responding. Shifting her posture here and there, she still wasn't sure how to answer. "It's not just the egg I suppose, it's a lot of things but I ain't gonna get into that. For now i think I'll just not take my errors to heart so fiercely and roll with the punches, see where I go from there. Seems most reasonable to me, then again I wouldn't know reason if it punched me in the face... so who knows, heh."

[scorri]

Marella shrugged. "Well, if you ever want someone to talk to, you can try talking to me. I like to listen. And yeah, don't be so hard on yourself. You can't be expected to carry the egg with you at all times. For instance, you can't be expected to carry it into a fight. It will be ok. Just smile." She smiled gently at the sad pegasus rider next to her.

[GoD]

And then Chelsea awoke with a start. Well not really a start and more screaming, that most everyone could hear. "IMMAGONNAFALLFALLFAAAAAAAAAAAA-" she screamed with no regard to whoever was near to her, but thankfully no one was actually right next to her. The troubadour took a hand to her face, panting, and when she touched her cheek, she realized that sweat was on her flesh.

Shaking her head, Chelsea went to a nearby river to wash her face, and made a mental reminder to never again go for dream training of the end result was falling.

When she returned, she decided to hang around the Dauntless, reading her light tome. She did notice that the air seemed tense, so she decided to ask Raquel what was going on.

"Yo, good morning, Raquel. What seems to be going on here?"

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Interior

"Eh, I've already got the best weapon I could foind but it's not enough. I'm just not as lethal as I used to be and now I'm actually relying on these people ..." Gabbie sighed and then said, "That was ... one thing that dream training showed me. I guess we all can't be Anna ..."

Dauntless: Exterior

It was all over before Raquel knew what to say or how to respond. Taking the object Kit left behind, she looked at it closely. "Well ... I guess that's fair. As long as she doesn't pop in during the meeting, we should probably be fine." Her father ... tore off her wings? Why? I'm sure there's more to the story but ... well ... I guess I'm just not used to hearing about fathers treating their daughters so cruelly. She's annoying but doesn't seem like a bad person.

Chelsea seemed to have missed Kit's departure. "Kit just left, but she brought up Lia before she did and we didn't ... all handle that very well," Raquel explained to her while putting the object away for the time being.

Campfire

Shadrak glanced in the direction Colin had left in to see if he was out of earshot, and then leaned in and lowered his voice to make sure the pest wouldn't catch a word of what he was about to say. "Well for one, the ornery bastard stabbed Chelsea. I mean I 'might' be able to forgive that if he threw out more than just a casual 'oh sorry about that'. He treats violence like it's no big deal; people like that are infuriating."

Outdoor Infirmary

"Last night?" Reign repeated with an awkward expression on his face. "Mostly just you fondling me, I guess. Though I did get into an argument with Shadrak. I almost shut him up too, but you interrupted me with a kiss, heheh."

Fortress of Foreboding

"Alright, alright, I can't just snap my fingers here. We need a minute," the sentry replied. "Hey!" He called up to the others. "General, incoming!"

Within about ten seconds the gate was opening and the sentry stood aside for Layla and Ripper.

Meanwhile inside the barracks, Silvia was sitting on a chair with her legs crossed and over a table, leaning back just enough to balance on the chair's hind legs and rock herself back and forth with her heel. She looked extremely bored. That was until Clara approached and asked her for her thoughts. "A battle? No. I mean anything's possible but ... we're kind of prepared this time, so ..."

[Mercakete]

Gytha was kind of surprised when Robin suddenly up and bolted saying something in what Gytha hoped was another language. By Leviathan, did she just snap and start jabberin' gibberish? Er... Hope that was Neviskotian 'r somethin'...

Well, that conversation seemed to be over regardless. So, the mariner got up and thought about what to do next. Breakfast wasn't ready yet, so she decided to talk to some more people. Who next, though? Suddenly, she remembered that one guy from the dream battle with the pistol and began looking around for him. Wonder if he's around here.

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

Norbert didn't relax his stance in the least bit until Kit was gone, having completely ignored Blake's orders in addition to Raquel's previous suggestion. He couldn't quite call them orders given how she said it, after all. Once she was gone, he belted his maces again, though he still was doubtful she'd really left. Probably still watching us.

Letting that stop his morning wouldn't do, though. There were other things to do, after all. Chelsea went up to talk to Raquel, so that had to wait again. It wasn't an issue, though, since he still had other things to do and Blake seemed free, so he could take advantage of that. So, he instead decided to look around for the wyvern girl. She didn't seem to be in the main camp area, so he decided to try the inside of the Dauntless. Sure enough, she was talking to Connor.

"Good morning," he greeted them as he entered the wagon.

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

Well, Sandrock seemed tired, but that was all that was wrong from what she could tell. So, Rizen asked her fellow mare if she got a good sleep or not. She hoped the horse hadn't had the same sort of dreams she'd had. That'd just been unnatural...

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"I don't even know what Sardis' hair looks like really. For all the worrying we do about our enemy, we hardly know anything about him...which makes him extremely dangerous," Veronika said, narrowing her eyes.

Connor

"Anna relies on people too, she's just good at hiding it. It's not the worst thing to be a little dependent on others- I depend on everyone else to use what I make," Connor said, attempting to be cheerful. I really need to talk with Uncle about that lance...or find a way to make it myself.

"Morning," he replied to Bert.

Nadya

"Yep, ya were a real drunken hussy. Hence my point about not drinkin' the unknown beverages," Nadya chimed in. Reign does seem to be enjoyin' this a bit too much..maybe Synthia had a point.

Fortress

Layla stepped inside the fortress, Ripper glowering beside her. "Give me Sardis' location and quickly. I have important matters to attend to," she said to the first person she encountered. All this cannon fodder looks the same to me anyway.

"That's good- part of me hopes the girl gets her father back, we get the artifact thing, and everyone goes home happy," Clara said to Silvia. "Uh, don't tell Sardis I said that," she corrected quickly. Maybe Sardis wants a fight...I don't know him too well really.

Edited April 3, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Ether]

"W-w-w-w-what?!" Faatina replied, her face turning a delightful shade of red. Not only had the armoured fellow been telling the truth, apparently, but she had to go and ask the 'victim' about it directly.

"S-s-sorry..."

[Snike]

Blake didn't move until Kit was gone, but once she had left, he let out a sigh. That had ruined the morning.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that, Raquel," Blake said, looking away. "I should've just stayed silent."

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Interior

"Oh ... hey, Bert," Gabbie greeted, her mood not having improved much sense ten seconds prior. That wasn't lost on her though and she soon followed up with, "Don't moind me, had something of a noightmare last noight." Making a joke of the whole thing may have been a clumsy cover for her insecurities, but the maneuver itself was amusing enough to lift her spirits a little bit.

Dauntless: Exterior

Raquel wasn't sure what to say to Blake. Kit's revelation was still fresh in her mind and she felt more like apologizing herself than accepting apologies from him. "Umm. It's okay." She shook her head. "It's over now so don't worry about it." She wanted to follow up by apologizing, but her gut told her she'd have her same words repeated back to her in some form, 'it's over now so don't worry about it'. But knowing just how serious the situation was back then felt awful and she wished she hadn't heard it.

Outdoor Infirmary

"Don't worry about it, Faatina. I can count the number of arguably 'good' things that have happened to me in the past six months on one hand, so in a sense, 'thanks'. Anyway, you heard Nadya. Make sure you stay off that leg ... again." He shook his head at that, looking genuinely puzzled and wondering if someone out there had something against her leg.

Ranch Without Boundaries

Sleep well? Definitely. Sandrock was a little drowsy from 'oversleeping', but other than that, she felt fine. She was suddenly feeling peckish though and noted that to Riley and Rizen. Riley looked down and noticed that they just happened to be on a patch of land that was more dirt than grass. He snorted at the ground and waited to see if Sandrock would get off of him and walk the ten feet to better grazing land.

Le Forteresse

"Uhhh ... follow me," the unfortunate grunt said, intending to escort Layla to their leader rather than just give her directions.

Meanwhile in the barracks ... "I doubt Jethro's going to just up and leave. Hopefully Sardis can just convince her to work with us. Then everyone wins."

Edited April 3, 2013 by Phoenix

[Ether]

"Y-y-y-y-yeah..." Faatina squeaked out, her face reddening further as she looked away from Reign sheepishly.

'Good...? Why is he saying good...? What happened that's good?! He gave vague details but... what did I do?!'

Her mind racing and her heartbeat rising to a panicked heat, Faatina wasn't quite sure what to do.

[ReformBlade]

"I know I can't keep it everywhere but it's... it's the principle of the matter I guess." She shrugged, not sure how else to go about it. "If it were any other day, literally hours ago, i'd be smiling like an idiot, but now I guess I'm just... me. Dunno why. I appreciate your willingness to listen but I'm not sure I'm very comfortable with divulging private thoughts to a person I've really only talked to once. No offense, but I honest to God don't even know your name... Sorry." she finished with a sigh.

"Oh... I didn't know..." Well that certainly changed her perception, just a bit. "But" She leaned in too. "Aren't we sort of the same thing? I mean aren't you guys hired for... violence? What about people caught up against your struggle? Look, i'm not trying to defend him but it's like... It's not so black and white I guess." Looking around to check again, "Well let me ask this if you don't mind, what would you prefer he'd do? Realistically, if you don't mind." She added with a smirk.

[Mercakete]

"I didn't really like the ending to my dream last night myself," Norbert commented, playing along before adding, "Though I actually came in here to see if you still wanted to talk to Blake about the idea you had yesterday. He looked pretty free the last time I saw him." Off-handedly he figured maybe talking about tactics would help perk the wyvern girl back up some.

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

Rizen thought that was a good idea. She'd nibbled at the grass some already, but could definitely stand for more. So, she cheerily suggested they all graze together.

[Snike]

Raquel told him not to worry about it. Were it so easy.

"Right...," Blake said, before moving to a different subject. "Before... that happened, I was here to see how you were holding up, after last night. And, I guess, ask if you made a decision, but that can wait. Are you alright? I wasn't able to check before that scenario ended."

[GoD]

Chelsea winced audibly at Raquel's explanation, and frowned at nothing in particular. Then she said with a low tone in her voice "That was a bad topic to bring up. Not cool."

And then apparently, Blake apologized for some reason, leaving a very confused Chelsea asking Blake "Why are you apologizing?"

Was it something that happened with Kit? Was she able to tick the stoic swordsman off? If so Chelsea needed to take notes from her, as it would prove most amusing for her to be able to constantly tease him.

[Balcerzak]

Sinbad had finished splashing some water his face, getting the sleep out from his eyes, and was on the way back to camp when he passed perhaps the person he least expected. If it wasn't the little healer girl with the long blonde hair and white dress he'd gunned down in cold blood... As a sort of awkward twisting sensation took him by the gut, he stepped well aside, and remained silent. Apparently she was focused enough on her destination that she'd passed him by without comment. And perhaps even if she'd noticed him, maybe she wouldn't have said a thing anyway? he tried to reassure himself. After all, it was the dragon's double, and maybe she hadn't even seen him shoot her... or whatever. After a moments more chiding about how he needed to just step up and get over it, he broke that train of thought with a somehow humorous non-sequitur. If she's planning on using the same stream I was, then it's a damn good thing I wasn't taking a full and proper bath...

Shaking his head, the cowboy continued back to camp. He had hoped to have a final few chats before breakfast, considering they'd likely be parting ways when it was over. After all, he'd tracked the flares, made sure there hadn't been no trouble, and didn't even have to go much out of his way to do so. Sure, they wasn't bad company, but if they have their business, well, gods knew he had his own that needed taking care of. It weren't too likely they'd continue to intersect. The people most on his mind to bid farewell to were Reign, Raquel, the arrow boy, and the two mages he'd been teamed up with. He wasn't rightly sure which would be the best to start off with, but if he remembered anything from the time aboard the ship, it was that Raquel always seemed to draw a crowd, and he weren't particularly in the mood to fight for attention to just say his goodbyes. Reign... was probably keeping close to the pink-haired filly, and he had no real reason to have any good guesses as to where the others might have bedded down, or gone to after awakening. Seems the best destination would just be round the campfire, then if he saw one of his persons of interest, he'd probably try to flag 'em down, see what happens. It's not like there weren't things he could do in the spare time. Check the working condition of his pistol for instance, make sure it was well oiled, all the moving parts were in good working order, things like that.

So decided, when he returned to camp he gave a quick glance around the fire, now restarted as it'd died down to bare embers if anything over the course of the night. He couldn't see the folk he was looking for in the obvious nearby groups, so it's possible they were either at that monster of a wagon, or tending to their own morning affairs. Fair enough. He took a seat on a convenient stump, and started going through some routine gun maintenance, looking up from his work every so often.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Interior

"Okay, sure." And who knows, it might lead to a solution to my problem here ... She stood up and turned back toward Connor for a moment. "I'll be back in a bit. Don't forget to eat breakfast. Have someone bring it to you if you get caught up with your work." With that, she was ready to follow Bert out to wherever Blake was.

Dauntless: Exterior

Deciding to let Blake answer Chelsea's question himself rather than give her version of events, she explained, "Well physically I feel fine, but the way that dream ended ... I felt the worst magic strain of my life and then it all just ... stopped. I'm not sure what happened, but I felt like my head was about to get crushed and then instead of that, I woke up. I'm actually surprised now that I've had a few minutes to think back on all of this. The dragon head said I don't control the emblem, I only 'persuade' it or something like that ... so there shouldn't be any magical strain involved at all when I use the emblem, especially not in a dream. I'm wondering if something about that world we were in was causing the strain." Raquel coming up with emblem inquiries and coming up with theories on her own, without Shadrak involved? Remember this moment.

Campfire

"I'd prefer him to take this seriously. A casual apology for nearly killing her and that's it? Come on ... sure we're all 'in the business of killing' or whatever, but that doesn't mean we should just be casual about everything. That doesn't make a person cool or interesting," Shadrak quietly explained. "And don't even get me started on his flirting. You'd have been next if I hadn't convinced him to go away, I bet."

Ranch Without Boundaries

Sandrock liked that idea and actually put forth some effort to do so. Maybe eating would help her recover some of her strength. She stopped lying her head on Riley's back and came closer to Rizen to graze with her. Riley spent the first couple of minutes watching for any signs of trouble and then joined them.

Outdoor Infirmary

Reign could tell Faatina wasn't at peace with the matter just yet and sighed with a pitying smile on his face. Now he had an idea, but it would require him foregoing the water he'd wanted earlier. Just as well, he supposed. His head would clear on its own eventually. "Mind if I stay for a minute?"

Luca wasn't sure what was happening now but no one was offering Nadya anything. This was all kinds of ridiculous in his eyes.