Return of the Emblem Paralogue One: The Travelers

[roymbrog]

“Will do,” Rhoul replied.

Nimoeph had no idea who the guy was, but she was going to look out for suspicious characters regardless. If the mage had the front of the wagon, she was going to have the back and turned around to watch behind them.

-----

A few miles and minutes up the road…

“Hurry up with those runes!” an irritated voice shouted. Matching the mood of its rider, a pegasus stamped impatiently.

The one on the ground was clearly some sort of magic user by their robes and was tinkering with a box shaped object of purposes unknown. He was not in the best of moods either, considering the other had just demanded the same thing for about the fifth time in a row. “I finished them already, dammit! That’s not even what I’m working on now! Be patient already, this takes time.”

“Time is what we don’t have, this is supposed to be giving us time. Look, I can’t stay here any longer to deal with your incompetence. I’m going to see how the others are doing, you finish this, capisce?” The other sighed, which the rider took as a yes, turned his pegasus around and took off.

“Ugh, the things I’m paid to put up with…”

[Eail]

So the sleeping fighter was finally awake, and in a foul mood evidently.

"If you're so determined to talk about the possibility of an ambush, why not assign roles? I'll take Aubrianna and Jamilla, you take care of Erion and Angelica. Circe can go up top to having a vantage point to see if anyone needs healing, while the old man shoots anything that moves. The girl with the dog and her friend can handle the rear. Any objections?"

[scorri]

Erion raised an eyebrow. "Well, that sure would be one thing we could do. But I have a couple of objections here. First off, I don't enjoy your seeming idea of me needing to be protected. See, the way I look at it, I can fight just as well as you, if not better. If you doubt that, we'll have to spar some time." He grinned in a way that could be taken as friendly. If you were half blind. Quickly turning his face back to neutral though, he continued, "Second of all, I get the whole 'White Knight, I must protect these poor innocent girls' thing you've got going on... Well, understand is a strong word but... But, surely even you can see the benefits in giving these two girls two combat ready units each. Send Aubri over here with Wilhelm and I and you take Jam and Angelica. That way, there are the two of you fighting and protecting her, while Wilhelm and I can protect Aubri. Divide and conquer, et cetera. Makes more sense. At least to me. Wouldn't want to risk both of their darling heads if you were to get taken down. This way, they'll each have a back up defender."

[Ether]

"Ahah... I can't really defend anyone... keeping someone else out of danger isn't easy when the way you protect yourself is by not getting hit, hehe." Angelica replied. There wasn't a chance in hell she was getting a little dancer girl strapped to her back if this guy bit it.

[scorri]

Erion rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, but if you're out there stabbing people or setting them on fire or whatever it is type of magic you do, they're more likely to focus on you than the girl standing in the back. My point is, two teams of two main fighters and one... support or whatever it is you two are going to be doing is better than one team of three fighters and one team of two... support and one defender. But, that's just my two cents. If you want to leave those two with you Al, I have no real objection to having Angelica on my team. She seems like fun." He grinned at her.

[Eail]

"It depends on what they want to do, Aubri, Angelica, any preference in particular?" The swordsman asked the other dancer and the newest new addition. As long as he could stick with Jamilla and protect her, Alphonse would be fine with any other choice

[Ether]

"I know that, but still... I won't be able to protect her anyone, so if they are attacked, they'll need to fend for themselves." Angelica replied, looking down at the floor bashfully.

"That's all I meant by it..." The woman continued, with a slight grin.

"I'm glad you think I'll be fun though, hehe~ Err... I don't really know any of you better than anyone else, so it doesn't really matter I guess." She concluded, addressing Alphonse' inquiry as well.

[Toogee]

"Hey, I'm not exactly useless myself," Jam chimed in. "I'm pretty good with light magic. Nothing deters an overzealous fan more than a face full of burning hot sunshine!"

Much as the dancer appreciated the attention, she didn't want to be seen as some damsel in distress that needed two people to keep an eye on her. While no one wished for a bandit attack to happen upon them, she certainly would have appreciated an opportunity to show off what she knew.

"Seriously, me and Alphy got each other's backs." Jam took amoent to fist bump Alphonse before continuing. "If anyone wants to join us, all the better. Then again, maybe this will be just another long boring wagon ride. At least this is fun to talk about."

[Eail]

'Good girl Jam! She wants to stay close... this is excellent! There's no way anything can get to her if we stay together.'

"Indeed we do." Al said, reciprocating said fist bump of righteousness. "But it's always best to prepare for a terrible situation and have it not happen, than assume everything will be perfectly fine and then a disaster shows up when you don't expect it."

Facing Jamilla he spoke a bit softer "Remind me when we stop for a while to show you a few things. That training stuff you mentioned earlier might not be a bad idea depending on how we handle it..."

[Parrhesia]

"Hey! I'm not exactly useless myself!"

Wilhelm snorts loudly.

[Phoenix]

Eastward

Greta kept the wagon on course and at a brisk pace until they finally reached the fork in the road. Behind them, Urden village was barely in sight. Greta stopped the wagon about thirty feet from the turn and looked at Rhoul one last time. She gave him a stare mixed with uncertainty, agitation and hopefulness before eventually sighing and saying, "This is gonna be a looong trip ..." Once she got the wagon moving again, she had the horses turn right, and they began making their way along the road heading east toward Ursaea.

Shaun had fallen asleep on the roof by that point and so didn't notice the stop or the turn, while the aging old man with the rifle, their father, remained ever vigilant, though he looked pretty tired too.

[roymbrog]

The box was prepared, trap buried, and shaman hiding behind a convenient bit of shrubbery. And it wasn’t a moment too soon, as he heard the tell-tale rumble of a wagon approaching the cluster of trees.

---

When they stopped at the turn and Greta looked at him, Rhoul responded with a nervous smile. He had no idea how this day was going to turn out, but for his sake he hoped it didn’t get any worse. As they traveled a few more minutes the mage started to make out a scattering of trees in the distance. They weren't close enough together to provide any significant cover to an ambush, but probably not best to take any chances regardless. "Hey Nim," he called back. "You think we could go around those?"

From her spot on the roof Nimoeph had a slightly better view of what was up ahead, and it really wasn't possible to go around all of them unless they went an absurd distance off the road and around. "Depends on how well the wagon does off-road, and if Greta wants to waste the extra time." Narrowing her eyes, she continued, "Aren't you being a bit paranoid? No one's supposed to be here."

"Well, yeah, I just know if something goes wrong it's gonna get blamed on me. Better safe than sorry, and all that," he replied.

[Toogee]

Wilhelm seemed to have stifled a laugh as Jam was talking about her magic skills. He told her to act like a professional. Well, he was definitely a professional something. The dancer turned to the Wilhelm, but refrained from saying anything. Instead, Jam ignored him and addressed the suggestion from her bodyguard.

"I'm holding you to that," Jam replied to Alphonse. It wasn't long ago that he told her to run and hide at the sight of danger. The dancer was glad to have his word in case he backed out.

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm feels a twinge in his leg.

He ain't as young as he used to be.

[Blue]

Aubri shrugged, barely managing a response of "That would be really cool! But it sounds pretty difficult, without practicing...", before the idea of copycat dances was forced out of her head as the group discussed battle strategies. She wasn't exactly a strategist herself, but she did well in a group, spending a lot of her time healing or channeling magic to her team. "I'll just go wherever you'll put me. I can heal, so if someone's going to be doing some kind of heroic protecting, I might want to help them out, yeah?"

[Eail]

Aubrianna didn't seem to have any requests in particular for placement. The decision seemed to be up to him for the moment now as the senior combatant that actually cared. "I'll take Jamilla and Angelica, I can do most of the fighting while they chip in at anything with magic. Wilhelm can take the lead of the other group, anything he hits isn't getting back up easily, Erion can provide support slipping around, and Aubri can heal either if they take a bad hit, though I might need you too at some point. So keep an open ear."

Sitting back after laying out his plan, Alphonse was done thinking about it for the moment. He just hoped that these plans wouldn't be needed.

[scorri]

Erion muttered under his breath, "Slipping around. Slipping around? Lets see how you do after I slip a blade into you..." Shaking his head, he stared at the swordsman and reminded him again, "I can fight. And trust me. Anyone I hit with one of these," he flourished his poisoned daggers, "won't be getting up too easily either."

[Blue]

"Well, sure, if you like blondes that much!" Aubri playfully jabbed at Alphonse with a shrug. "But if you come crying to me across the battlefield because you jumped in front of an axe for someone, I won't be able to help as well as if you'd kept me close." She nodded, trying to wear her best wise look without looking overly smug. Truthfully, she looked quite silly, until she turned to Jam and the other blonde, tilting her head with a wink. "'Course, I can dodge a blade, too, but it doesn't look like any of us ladies are going to have a problem with that, hm~?"

[Eail]

"I don't plan on getting hit at all. My father taught me well, if anything I'll be shoving my sword in their gut before the axe can even come down." Al commented to the healer "Besides, I think Wilhelm will need you more than me, seems like the kinda guy to take a hit then give it right back." Glancing at the other mercenary, he didn't exactly seem like the fast type, or very defensive. Stick Aubrianna with him would probably be the best bet.

'I've got a few tricks up my sleeves anyways... really glad Jam never pressed the trigger on the sword earlier... else I'd be a real mess right now.'

"Not just blondes anyways, I'm more of a personality kind of guy.... except for cute things, my one true weakness." He said in a joking manner accompanied by a shrug.

[Parrhesia]

"My one weakness is a whore on each arm and a barrel of gin."

[Parrhesia]

"We oughta just go through the roads, I think. Don't trust this thing t' keep together if we leave th' path." Content with this logic, Greta spurred the horses onwards.

Then the earth shattered beneath the horses' hooves, and the ground belched fire.

The horses reared and shied away from the massive explosion from underneath, Wilhelm instinctively grabbed his mace and Greta attempted to regain her footing, shouting "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I was worried about bandits, not minefields!"

[roymbrog]

As the wagon passed his hiding place the shaman estimated its speed, pulling the trigger to detonate the mine right before the horses reached it. The mixture was designed to be flashy, not destructive (no need to ruin the merchandise), and the resulting explosion sent the horses skittering backwards into the wagon, instead of their only other option of running forwards into the flames. With trees on either side it was impossible to go around. The box in the ground periodically sent up more flames, ensuring that the horses wouldn’t be moving forward any time soon.

The explosion and panic of the horses almost knocked Rhoul out of his seat, but he turned the fall into a dive and landed in a roll on the ground before hitting a tree. He was up immediately though, and ran back to do what he could to blow away the flames. One gust of wind removed the fire enough to see the contraption in the scattered earth, and that was all he needed to see to know what was going on. “Uh, Nimoeph! Problem over here!” He knew some shit like this going to happen. He would have run off too, if he wasn't sure he would end up dead either way.

Already on the ground, the dark mage proceeded to walk over and shove Rhoul out of the way. “You, get in the wagon. Someone else check the trees! I have this,” she said, expression grave. She began creating a dark sphere in preparation to obliterate the thing in the road, but even in the best case scenario it would still take some time to calm the horses to get out of there.

[Eail]

Alphonse was just starting to get comfortable in the back of the wagon, nearly about to kick back to try to take a nap while they traveled down the road. Maybe a nice dream would come for once, considering that he'd found some sort of peace with Jamilla. Things can just never be that simple though can they?

The explosion coming from the front of the wagon sent the swordsman his feet in haste. A quick gaze around the interior showed that everyone appeared to be okay at the very least. 'Time to go to work...'

Strapping his sword to his waist he was already barking out orders, ones they likely wouldn't follow, but it needed to be done anyways. "Wilhelm, Erion, Angelica, we secure a perimeter! Aubrianna, Jamilla, and Circe, wait a minute before you follow us outside." Pausing at the door frame for a moment to look over the group before swinging outside "Let's move damn it!"

[Ether]

"W-what the-?!" Angelica exclaimed, her mind immediately firing into speculative mode. The explosion seemed to be based beneath their position, so it was likely placed beforehand... if that was the case, it would need to be detonated remotely... but it shouldn't have much range behind it... if it was a just cast spell, then attacking from such a position, again precluded that the caster be nearby, atleast for something of that magnitude. If that was the case...

Exiting the wagon, actually ahead of Alphonse as the man took the time to look back at them, the sage swung herself from the frame up to the roof, the higher vantage point would help to find anyone lurking nearby, eyes already scanning the area for abnormalities. Nothing stuck out, but... if the perpetrator was still nearby then...

Gathering wind units about her, Angelica soon let them fly, the gusting winds blowing through the surrounding brush and forestry... anyone hiding within the trees would be swiftly thrown from their perch, and the foliage would not veil them for long under the winds... neither would the sanctity of her skirt retain it's veil, it would seem, but that was of no real consequence. Scouting the area as it was opened up to her, Angelica found her likely mark... still, going for a fatal strike at this point was likely premature...

"Found you!" She called out, to gain the attention of the others, before several of the knives hidden on her person were let loose, marking the area where the shaman had been hiding with the glistening of metal against that source of light... none of the projectiles scoring more than a glancing blow on the target at best, but from her vantage point, it would be no issue to throw more if they tried to flee.

***

"Tch... who made him leader all of the sudden?" Circe noted with a scowl, but since staying within cover was fine and dandy with her, she decided to comply anyway.

[scorri]

Erion darted out of the wagon and quickly ducked into the surrounding trees. Pulling out his daggers, he settled into a crouch, waiting for someone unfriendly to appear.