Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Snike]

Blake turned his back to Marella for a moment, so as to display the holes in his jacket, before turning back again as he responded. "Do you call this protecting Raquel? I got shot down minutes after the fighting began, and couldn't even get her to the Dauntless, much less stop the lookalike from taking her emblem. It was a miracle she didn't get hit. I don't come up with the battle plans, I help with combat teams, which Reign and the others could easily cover, given how they were doing fine when I joined up with the group. I don't know what's going on half the time, unless you mean on the battlefield, which isn't true given this recent one, not to mention I was put down in the Dragon Head fight, unlike yourself. I mean, if Zach went down once, you're still doing better than me, considering that Raquel got hit with an arrow back in Tremere fighting some cultists, and then at the port she was stabbed by an enemy swordsman. Plus, I wasn't dealing with Sardis at the time. To address buying time, I'm not about to tell someone else to go die, if I can avoid it. And look how well my 'plans' turned out! I nearly got everyone killed that fight because of the 'plan'! And given how we just had a series of incidents before even going into the fortress, my abiltiy to 'help' people work together, which you think I have, evidently isn't very good. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the 'alienating' talk, but I'm pretty sure most people would consider you a boon in battle. And you're blowing my utility out of proportion. I'm replaceable, especially once they make it to Europa. I wasn't, and am not about to send someone to their death if I can help, or go in their stead. My life isn't worth sacrificing others. Your purpose might be to protect people, but then what of your relatives and Zach? You might protect someone by throwing your life away, but they'll be 'injured' by the loss. I don't have that problem. Sure, some of the group might miss me for a little while, but then they'll move on, as they barely know me. It isn't the same as what would happen if you died."

***

Of course, once they were in sight, Lumi went and raced ahead, eventually encountering a woman with red hair. Pete had just arrived at the spot the two were talking at when his companion asked him if they were traveling to anywhere specific.

"Nope," Pete said, crossing his arms. "Unless wherever the wind blows is a set destination."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"From what I know, water magic is often most effective in a combat situation combined with other forms of anima magic. Maybe working with the other mages in the group might be helpful," he chipped in, still inspecting Faatina's lance.

Nadya

"Well, good luck I guess," Nadya said to Robin, unconvinced that a lone hunter would solve their food variety dilemma. "I ain't that hungry yet anyway and somebody needs to set up camp. Reeiiign!" she called out to the man who was nearby. "Help me set up the tents, ya?"

Veronika

There's probably a story there, but it would be rude to pry into it. I can't see Raquel having an issue with these people, so might as well invite them along. "Well, we're heading towards Europa with no current plans to go to Ursentius, though I can't promise we'll never go there. We'll be happy to have you travel with us. I'm Veronika, pleased to make your acquaintance," she said, sticking out a hand for the woman to shake.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

Going back to sleep wasn't going to accomplish much. Raquel considered starting on her workload for about half a second, and then the fact that she was not only hungry but still in a stuffy corner of the Dauntless changed her mind. She wasn't doing anything until she had some fresh air and some food, she decided. With that, she stood up and carefully made for the exit, trying not to disturb Connor and the others on along the way. Once she was outside, she slowly fell to her knees and sat on her heels. Sighing deeply as she looked up at the stars, she moaned--and almost yelled, "This suuuucks!"

Camp

"M-Mushirah?! Err- ..." Shadrak decided that while he didn't want her to just lie right there on the ground, he didn't want to wake her up with some needless yelling. There was one more thing he had to say to Robin though. "Don't go by yourself. I was suggesting a hunting party, remember? If enough people who can hunt go together, you can probably catch something bigger and faster." Looking back to the snoozing Mushirah, Shadrak sighed. What was he supposed to do, pick her up? Was he even strong enough for that? He didn't work out at all, so he had some honest doubts.

Having finished her venting, Raquel began looking around to see what the others were doing. It didn't look like much, unfortunately. Her outburst had gotten Reign's attention but only for a moment. He was actually quite used to her doing things like that. After a moment, he went back to observing Veronika's talk with the two mysterious newcomers. When she reached to shake the woman's hand, it seemed evident enough that nothing was wrong there. That was when he heard his name being called, in an oddly familiar way, too. Nadya wanted some help with the tents. He wasn't a sentry and really had nothing better to do, so best to go and help out the recipe slash healer lady. "Sure. I'll be over in a second."

"Raquel, are you going to be okay?" he asked her.

Was she? Maybe, she figured, if she could distract herself with food and mending. Letting her gaze fall, she replied, "Yeah ... just have to not think about things too much."

"Right," Reign agreed. "I doubt dinner's going to be ready in the next five minutes, so you should probably find something to do in the meantime," he advised before heading over to Nadya.

[Snowy_One]

"Sure. I'd love to. I tried talking to Zach earlier but he decided to go talk to someone else though and hasn't come back. I'll probably try again later if I don't get a partner, but I'd rather not bother him just for THAT. Is... She going to be okay?" asked Tia as Raquel's cry came in from outside.

---

"That would be great. A flier or two and maybe another archer or a magician to help down the prey would be ideal. If I go a magician would be the most ideal pairing. We only need one bow and a blast of lightning gives us more options while a flier lets us transport and get an arial view."

[Mercakete]

After she stopped the wagon, Gytha leaned back in the driver's seat and rested for a bit. People were going about their business for setting up camp and getting dinner -- rations again, most likely. There were a couple things weighing on her mind for a while now. The first was that she'd missed her appointment with Sylvia. She couldn't very well stay behind when people were relying on her to get out of there, but she felt guilty about setting up the duel only to skip out on it. It also caused her to feel like she'd let Amon down a little bit. That issue was easily reasoned away, however, at least to the back of her mind for now. She'd just have to remedy it at a later date.

The second issue was one she'd have to talk to Raquel about. She thought she heard the merchant yell something a little ways away. Probably behind the wagon. A couple moments later and the mariner had made her way over to the merchant woman. "Raquel? 'R ye a'right?" she asked somewhat tentatively.

[Ether]

With her lance given over to Connor, as well as the payment, Faatina exited the Dauntless, just in time to see more new people seemed to have appeared... not the best time to not have her lance in case things went South... oh well, best to not get involved in that case.

***

Now to find somewhere to change out of these tatters... an open road weaving through an open field... of course. Arietta sighed, why did it seem even the environment was out to stand in her way today?

[Snowy_One]

With the hunting decided, Robin went off to get a flier to assist them. She wasn't sure at first just which of the groups many fliers to ask, but decided that Volga and Kat would probably be a good choice. Calmly she approached the pair, only to see Kat all curled up, her head resting on Volga, as she slept soundly like a baby. For a brief moment Robin wasn't sure if she should wake her or put a blanket over her and sing her a lullaby. That moment quickly passed and Robin approached Kat, gently touching the girls head to wake her up.

"Dobroye utro Kat." she said, trying to smile as best she could. "Sleep well?"

[scorri]

"Here's the thing about the Dragon fight. Sure I was up at the end, but Zach was almost dead. I couldn't protect him there and I couldn't protect him here. So really, out of the two battles I've been "protecting" him in, he's almost died in both. And if it hadn't been Sardis, it probably would have been somewhere else. And excuse me, you wouldn't have been telling me to die. I was volunteering for that. Trust me, I knew what staying behind would have meant. I would have gladly payed the price if it would have meant all of you escaping just a littler more. Also, if you don't plan things as you put it earlier, then you can't blame yourself for the plan going wrong. Either you don't plan in which case the battle wasn't your fault or you do in which case you're needed. From what I recall, things didn't exactly go according to your plan anyways. The so called series of incidents had nothing to do with you and everything to do with people being much to prone to fighting inside the group. Talk to Robin if you want to know about alienating. I'm not blowing your utility out of proportions any more than you are mine. You were facing an entire wall of archers. You protected Raquel with your body. She wasn't injured and there was nothing you could do about the emblem being stolen. There was nothing any of us could have done. You saved her life. She could have died, but instead you shielded her and kept her alive. My relatives don't even know if I'm alive. They don't exactly care either. All they know is that I was dishonorably dismissed from the army and suddenly they don't care anymore. As for Zach, he's only known me for a few weeks and is likely just using me to replace Lia in his life. The rest of the group would barely notice I was gone. You have no right to tell me where I'm allowed to make my sacrifice and where I'm not."

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

Lumi shook the other's hand with a grin. "My name is Calumeina Valli, but please, call me Lumi. My parents gave me that name because it means dove and they hoped it would result in a peaceful daughter or something. All I know is I hate it. It's too... flowery. Not at all me. And yay! Thank you for letting us travel with you. Uhm, could you introduce me to some of the other pegasus riders? I want to see how they treat their pegasi and see if they have any useful tips for me!"

[Rothene]

Mireille sighed and responded to Tia's enthusiasm, "I am afraid you have it mistaken mage. I did not enroll at the university. Instead I was assigned to keep guard of Weyland, which gave me the opportunity to access some of the university's facilities, namely the library, and attend some of the lectures."

"About combining elements, well, I never considered using that option alone, but I have read military texts of past generals who successfully won skirmishes or even decisive battles by using a mixture of different mage elemental divisions to maximise the destruction wrought," the Ursian knight added to her companion's suggestion, "For example, in the autumn of the year forty seven hundred and ninety five, Lieutenant Colonel Fendel Baxter of Lorton utilised two mage divisions, both water and ice to create quick bridges in the canyon fighting during the battle over Urdver fortress to flank a Neviskotian ground strike force, due to lack of earth mages or pegasus knights, resulting in his colonel's decisive victory."

[roymbrog]

Katrina opened her eyes slowly and yawned. “Hey,” she said sleepily. “Um, uh… I dunno, how long have I been out?" Looking up, the sky was dark, but it had been when they got there so no news there. “Oh… did you need something maybe?”

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Are you planning to enter the military Mireille? Or is military history just a hobby of yours?" he asked her out of curiosity.

Veronika

"Aneda is the green haired woman, Norbert's the blue haired man. The pink-haired boy Luka also has one, but he's probably not in the mood to be bothered right now," she explained to Lumi. Maybe Aneda or Bert don't want to be bothered either but...someone should welcome the newcomer.

Nadya

Nadya grabbed the tent parts out of the Dauntless and began clearing sticks out of a nearby area before setting the tarp down."Do ya wanna start stakin' down the tent poles? We got a lotta tents to set up," she noted to Reign. And not enough people settin' things up...

[Snowy_One]

"I do not know how long you were sleeping, but you looked nice while you were. I would like your help hunting again. And... Ummm... Kat? Friends?"

---

"I know! That was such an intelligent and inventive use. I tried to study a lot of those things. That's... actually why I am how I am. I read all these cool and bizarre stories from history, learn how they were done, and then try to live up to them. I still have a long way to go. But yea. Do you plan on joining the military? I'd hate to see someone smart like you die."

[Rothene]

Grinning moodily, Mireille gently tapped her lips before answering Connor's question that reminded her of the topic that always ate at her, but also was something she could never leave hidden, "I come from the Authine line, and for the past five generations, my family had never failed to produce a son to be a leader among...soldiers."

Gripping the tome in hand tightly, the knight continued with a bitter tinge to her tone, "Thus my father had expected his firstborn to be a son. A warrior to be precise. So here I am, a fully trained knight and hopefully one day in command over entire divisions of military units, something so far away."

And something I do not desire. All I want is to keep reading and master magecraft.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar finished digging his plot hole--literally he dug a hole wrote "plot" on some paper and threw it in there. And went and settled near the fire. Or he made one if there wasn't one. Actually he made his own because he was a rebel and kind of a jackass. "Hey anyone at my super-cool fire reject to me playing my shiny new flute? No? Well spiffy," Gar talked to himself and let out a little something on his new instrument.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Script

[Phoenix]

Camp

"Are you seriously asking me that right now, Gytha? How can I possibly be even remotely 'alright' after what happened today? The only reason I'm not gibbering to myself like a traumatized little kid in some dark corner of the Dauntless right now is because I'm already used to this ... to this ... crap," Raquel replied. Then she sighed, letting her gaze fall back to the ground and added, "I'm starting to think I'll never have a normal life again no matter how this plays out."

Is that really such a bad thing?

Oh let's see, if I have to choose between being some nobody merchant traveling to and fro or being an emblem wielder being chased across the continent by sadistic monsters and messed with by LILITH all the time, then I choose the former. This is stupid!

Perhaps a fair point concerning Lilith ... still, it makes me a little sad to hear it. I hope you'll reconsider once this day isn't so fresh in your mind, Discovery. There's so much more you can accomplish as you are now.

Is he ...? Are you trying to turn me into some kind of humanitarian? ... and is someone playing a flute?

"Great, what is it about camping that makes people want to whip out their instruments and show off?" Shadrak mused, still trying to decide how best to deal with Mushirah. He was also a little disappointed to hear that Robin only planned on taking 'vehicles' and one extra hunter with her. That was hardly a hunting party at all. He doubted they would be able to bring back enough of anything to feed the whole group. While he fully acknowledged to himself that while he knew nothing about hunting and that maybe bringing a bunch of people along might make things even more difficult, he still felt a team of two was probably only going to manage an average kill and that's what he was worried about. How were they going to feed everyone? A little secret; what Shadrak was really worried about was who would be eating the cooked meal and who would be stuck with rations for the evening~

Since there was already music playing, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try to wake Mushirah up. If he tried to carry her, he was only going to end up either embarrassing himself, hurting her, or ending up in a very awkward moment when she woke up in his arms. "Uh, Mushirah? You shouldn't sleep here; there's probably some bugs around." Oh damn, some people are terrified of bugs, I probably shouldn't have just thrown that out there. Whatever ... I'll be mindful next time.

When Gar spoke up, Reign was shocked to see a fire up already, though it wasn't where he imagined it would be. He started playing in short order and Reign began to wonder if music at camp was going to become common practice, or if it already had been before he ever showed up. He stood by for a moment, gathering up any relevant memories to what he was about to start doing. Not surprisingly, tent settings were few and far between. "Tents tonight, huh? Alright. We have a hammer I can use, or ...? Ah, there we go." He spotted what he was looking for and so didn't have to finish that question. Time to work and then eat ... and pray to the gods that the eating was good and not just rations.

[Snike]

"Yes, and the strain of that battle apparently nearly killed Raquel, at least from what she said this morning. Then there was whatever happened in the meeting, and as I said, you're still doing better than myself. And as I said, I wasn't facing Sardis or the dragon head either of those times beforehand, so I don't have any excuse. And yes, it would have been asking you to go die, especially because I didn't know about this 'willingness' at the time, I didn't explicitly tell anyone what I was doing with regards to that, and I was intending on doing it myself. That's why I handed this," Blake said, producing his insignia, "over to Reign before I left. That way the others could've used whatever's left of my possessions. And I can blame myself because I helped with the teams and evidently they weren't good enough! I mean, before I joined, from what I heard, they evidently had better success since they beat the organization and even a bloody artificial dragon without much difficulty! Whoever set teams up there would obviously be a better choice than me, so I'm obviously getting in the way. And yeah, the initial thing before we were told 3 escorts didn't pan out, but the other one was a collaboration which probably would've went better had I kept my mouth shut. And the arguments go against my 'getting people to work together' thing, regardless of whether we're at odds or not. As for Robin, I get the impression from what I've heard that she alienated herself for the most part. And you are useful compared to me, given that you did survive an encounter with Sardis, who destroyed at least one ship and and multiple tanks. As I said, I took a few arrows, fell down, and it was a miracle Raquel didn't get hit and killed after that, seeing as I think that the arrows kept coming and she was exposed. Not to mention the chain sword her look-alike had. Had I been faster, she'd be in the Dauntless, and then from there we could've stopped the emblem theft. Instead, this happened. And I'm pretty sure your relatives would care if you're alive, dishonorable discharge or not. Your whole family wouldn't just abandon you like that. I'm going to stay out of yours and Zach's business, but what about your archer companion, Rook? I doubt he'd take it well. Anyways, that's funny that you think I'm telling you where to sacrifice yourself or not, because you've been telling me as much."

***

Lumi shook hands with the woman - Veronika was her name, and her accent suggested she was Skotian- and was then informed of the names of a few pegasus riders. Good for her. Pete decided to wait until his compantion went off, before speaking to Veronika. He had a few questions he needed answered, for safety's sake.

[Mercakete]

Gytha frowned. "Sorry... Thought ye hurt yerself 'r somethin..." she replied a bit dejectedly. It was so hard to tell if she was messing up again or not. Pushing past the temptation to just leave her be, Gytha tentatively went on, "I know yer upset... It's no wonder. N' I...have somethin' t' say r'gardin' what happened. I'd rather talk in private, though... Come talk t' me when yer reada. It's not much, but...I thought ye'd like t' know. It's why I've been helpin' out all this time."

The mariner really had no idea if she was putting her foot in her mouth saying all this or not, so she decided to leave it at that. The merchant probably wanted to be left alone, so she began to withdraw.

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

There was plenty of grass, so when they stopped for the night, Norbert simply dismounted Rizen and allowed the two pegasi under his charge graze while he sat down and quietly watched. Luka hadn't come by to take Rika back yet, so he was still keeping an eye on her. There was a list in his head of things to do. One was to water the pegasi, another was to talk to Faatina... It was the end of the day, though, so for now he just relaxed.

[scorri]

Marella stared at the man and shook her head. "Rook would get it. He knows how I feel and why I do what I do. But you... You don't get it. But it doesn't look like you're going to get it. So fine. I'm done here. But just a suggestion? Next time you plan on giving up your life? Don't bring me along." She stalked off in the opposite direction of the camp, wanting some time to cool down before facing the rest of the group again.

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

Lumi's face lit up at the women's information. "Thank you! Pete, I'm going to go talk to them! I'll be back later." Rushing over to the green haired woman Veronika had pointed out, Lumi reached out her hand. "Hi! I'm Lumi. Veronika said that your name was Aneda? I see you have a pegasus. I used to train pegasi with my family and I was wondering about how you take care of yours. Wait... that sounded like I don't trust you. What I meant was, I was wondering if you had any useful things you could share with me. See, Star Hunter and I have been traveling for a while now and I want to make sure that I'm treating him the best that I can and --- Star! What are you doing?"

The black pegasus had followed his master as she rushed over to one of the other pegasus riders. However, he quickly got distracted by the pegasus. Wow! What a beauty. Prancing up to her, he spread his wings wide in a show of how powerful they were, followed by a quick prance in place. Clearly he was a perfect specimen of male pegasus that any female pegasus, such as herself, would be lucky to have.

[Parrhesia]

Rook glanced at Marella as she stormed off, began to rise, then thought better of it, sighing as he fletched a few more arrows.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Connor puzzled over what Mireille had said. "Your father shouldn't be upset he had a daughter- the Ursian military has high ranking female officers. Aren't you old enough to decide what to do with your life at this point anyway?" he asked her pointedly. She didn't seem too thrilled about entering the military.

Nadya

"We could just lay out bedrolls, but some people could probably use some privacy this evenin'," Nadya said, noting Raquel's little outburst. She was pleased to note someone got a fire going as she began the troublesome task of finding out which tent poles fit together.

[Rothene]

"Perhaps, maybe that is why I still spend the time to study magic. Father disapproves, but since I still perform well enough as a warrior, he never stopped me," leaning back Mireille added softly, "And father is not the only reason why I stuck to the military..."

[Snowy_One]

"Well, if you want to learn, you just have to ask. I'm sure Connor and I would be more than glad to at least try!" said Tia with a smile before quickly putting the book she was shelving down, hurrying over, and hugging Mireille. "We can become good friends!"

[Rothene]

Mireille returned Tia's hug for it would be a slight against the mage's effort if she did not do so, feeling slightly awkward in the act, "I am sure we can. Your offer to help is more than enough, the hug was not necessary. I suppose we should resume with our task at hand or we might not finish in time for sleep."

[ReformBlade]

She never actually reached a full sleep, so Mushirah still felt tired after being forcefully awoken. There was mention of bugs, and while it didn't freak her out in and of itself, it certainly prompted her to actually sit up and pay some more attention. Bugs were creepy fuckers, no matter how you look at em. Her system rebooting, scanning the immediate surroundings proved vital. "Oh um..." she started like she was going to say something but quite clearly didn't actually say something until she finally did say something a good few long moments later, "Tent. Tent sounds good... ooooeeech, stomach, shut uuuup." the sound said it all, really, the low rumble making her finally realize just how famished she was. Mushirah didn't want to complain further though, feeling quite lucky she wasn't one of the few that was physically harmed to any great extent.

After a quick testing to see if her legs would work, Mushirah stood up with great effort and a small stumble, arms held out to balance herself before she finally got it down. "Well... Since I'm up, is there anything I need to to? I feel like I'm freeloading right now, weird as it sounds."

Aneda, on the other hand, got bombarded by some blue haired lady and her finagling questions. "Where to start!" she said, trying to match enthusiasms with this so called Lumi. "Yes, I'm Aneda, Aneda Welnon to be exact, but you seem more interested in Hannah here. She's all well and good under my wing, metaphorically speaking of course. Can't say I'm really a pro at taking care of her, but it's probably a massive case of us two oddballs syncing up well. Hell, she takes care of me as well as I take care of her. Speaking of care, I think I should probably get her some treats, she's been doing some heavy lifting lately, in battle and off... Right, Hannah? Hannah...?"

She looked over to her partner to find out that there was another pegasus flapping his wings at Hannah. Perhaps a display of some sort? Hannah had to admire the man's magnificent coat, that much she had to admit. However, his wings were doing nothing for her, Hannah giving her own counter display, not as powerful but mostly in a 'yeah I got wings too, bud' way, neighing and snorting playfully, maybe a bit challenging.

[scorri]

"Oh, uhm, right. I'm Calumeina Valli, but please, just call me Lumi," she said with a slight grimace. "She seems to be well taken care of. Though... battle? I... I see. Star here doesn't really fight. I uhm... well, lets just say that he narrowly avoided service in the Ursian army and since then hasn't fought when I've had to deal with bandits. But, uhm, that's not to say that you're wrong for fighting with Hannah, I just... I couldn't stand to see Star get hurt. I raised him and trained him from when he was little and... well... Plus I don't think I'd be very good at fighting from his back. Too many angles and possibilities. Do you guys see lots of battles here? I can help if you do! Also Pete can. Right Pete?" Looking around, she noticed that Pete had hung back, presumably to talk to Veronika. Oh, well, that's Pete over there. He and I have been traveling together lately. Also, Star, that is quite enough of that. Leave poor Hannah alone. I'm really sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him."

Star snorted back at Hannah. Hmmph, ignore his wings, huh? Well fine. Star lightly headbutted Hannah and neighed out a challenge to any other male that might think he was better than the great Star Hunter. Friend-rider-feeder-Lumi just didn't get it. He needed to prove that he was strong.