Beneath the Shadows Prologue: With a Single Step

[Oersted]

Ernce was beyond bewildered at what he'd just seen. Not only had the mercenary killed the rider, but he'd taken a lance to his arm and hadn't even winced. Not even he was comfortable with the thought of having his arm skewered; even if it would potentially save someone's life. He was still human after all and his will to survive trumped any other instinct he might have. "At least he's okay..." Ernce said despite the pain in his shoulder. He was bleeding and probably needed medical attention but he didn't care at the moment, he could still take some more damage before it'd get dangerous but to be safe he tore part of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound.

Using his left hand he grabbed his lance and helped himself upright with it. Then, using it like a cane, he began to head over to where the white-haired guy was. He deserved some congratulations for what'd he done despite being green to killing. Ernce hoped that he'd get over it soon. If he did that every battle he wouldn't last long. As he walked over Ernce scanned the area for any allied bodies. Thankfully, there were none as far as he could tell and that served to brighten his mood a little. Death was never a good thing, except for bandits of course, because no matter what, there was always, always someone left behind. Someone like him.

By the time Ernce managed to get over to the mercenary there was already a small group forming around him, giving him advice and congratulations. Ernce figured he might as well join in. "You did a pretty good job... uh, you know you never gave me your name. Anyway you did good for your first time on a battlefield. Might want to watch yourself a little better next time though," Ernce said with a weak chuckle. "Uh, you got a spare vulnerary?" Ernce asked as his shoulder flared with pain. "Shoulder's a bit... sore." He didn't necessarily want to say there was a hole through his shoulder.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Oersted

[Vestige]

With the arrival of one of his allies, his sobbing had slowed and turned to mere hiccups and whimpers, but the tears were still streaming down his face. He allowed himself to be pulled upright and realized that the lance was still impaled in his arm. He knew it to be unwise to pull the lance out of his arm, but it was unwieldy to keep it there. He set about sawing at the lance with his now bloodied sword. He was certain he was being spoken to, but as he looked up, he realized the words that were being uttered were unknown to him. He couldn't make sense of anything, but quite frankly, he didn't even care.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he could see another person had joined them and it seemed she too, was trying to speak to him. It wasn't like he had gone deaf or anything, but with everything that he had done and witnessed in the last couple of minutes, it was difficult for him to focus on anything for long. She was saying something about surviving, but he didn't bother to follow up on the rest. And then, yet another joined them in an attempt to no doubt solace him from his piling grief. He recognized him to be the man from earlier, who had been wondering his name.

At this point however, he didn't care what the man had to say to him. He was tired, and afraid. The last thing he wanted was to be spoon fed the perception everyone else had on taking lives so easily. His mind drifted back to the kill he saw earlier, before he had done his own. The mental image of the carnage was enough to set his stomach to work once more. He broke away from the small group of people that had formed around him, and hurriedly walked to a place with some sort of clearance before his stomach caused his to buckle over. The anxiety, the adrenaline, the fear, the bloodless, the guilt, and the grief had all been working together--pulling at him from all directions. He leaned over and started to throw up, the erratic spasms of his clenching stomach sent horrible pangs of pain through his body. Each time he retched, the tears started falling faster and faster. When he had finished, he simply fell over. This day had dragged on for long enough, and he realized now that the only thing he wanted to do was to sleep. Why...what am I even doing in a place like this?

[Bluedoom]

Rimsky watched in awe as Zeff took on the last bandit, getting his arm pierced by the other's lance, but in the process, stabbing the bandit and killing him. So the guy was an amateur after all, just like Rimsky.

But he had guts. He had to give him that.

It didn't matter to Rimsky that Zeff began to cry. Or, rather, Rimsky was too tired and injured enough to try and even console Zeff. He felt like he could fall off his horse any moment. This battle was unlike anything in life Rimsky experienced- thrill, danger, anger and many other things involved. It was too much for Rimsky to understand at one go- although he didn't feel as much sorrow as Zeff was feeling at the very moment, Rimsky was taken aback by his own skill and deed. He was into raising animals, but here he was, fighting bandits, killing people. He had hardened himself for the mercenary life; he lived for 64 years, it wasn't like death was a new thing; and yet there was still a pang of guilt in the middle. Perhaps it was him being new to the mercenary life. In any case, Rimsky kept such thoughts at bay for the moment; his wound was causing him enough pain he was tiring out.

Looking over to the side he saw Caslan with his horse, not far away off. Deciding it'd be a good idea to stick around with him especially since he was the only one over there, he rode his horse till there.

" Not ter be a bother but, yer a mage, right? I saw what yeh did in battle, it was darn good!..*pant* *pant* Do yer got anythin' ter help my arm? It ain't pretty..." he asked the young elf, showing his arm which had been shot with an arrow.

[Rothene]

Caslan's train of thought was interrupted when one of the mercenaries approached him. Thankfully, it was not enough to cause the mage to lose concentration over his spell, although Joey was almost done with drinking the water.

Turning to face Rimsky, Caslan looked at the dwarf's arm and shook his head, "I may be a mage, but I'm not trained in casting healing magic. Should probably get Sayina to look into it," Caslan then turned to face Joey and made the ball of water shake a bit. Understanding that its rider wanted it to finish the water faster, Joey opened its mouth and swallowed the small orb of water with a satisfied look on its face.

With that out of the way, Caslan continued, "So, lets go look for our healer. Or we could get Leon to look into it if Sayina's too busy." Caslan climbed onto Joey and sat there ready to leave. With activity dying down, Caslan was restless as he had not expended as much energy as he could have in the fight.

[Parrhesia]

"Think it was the water mage. An elf, I think. The one who shouted really loudly about wanting to join?"

Mal winced as Zeff sniffled, threw up, started crying again and collapsed.

"Ah, gods- ahh, damn it. Fuck. Damn it." He decided it might be best if he offered some consolation to the green young warrior. "Well, if it's any bloody consolation, you weren't so bad in the actual fight... and we'll understand if you don't join us in the end. 'Least, I will." The raw-boned archer shrugged, and glanced around in search of a healer. He'd done too much bandagework on himself to have much faith in its effectiveness.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Parrhesia

[eclipse]

"Thanks, man. I owe ya one. . .once I can stand up without fallin' over," Raelyn said weakly. Now, where did the water mage go? He'd stood out earlier, and now was no exception. She inwardly groaned when she saw him on a horse. She did NOT want to stand up and talk, but she felt it would be better to say what was on her mind now than later. "I'll leave the kid in your hands," she mumbled, as she staggered over to Caslan.

"Heh, kid, if you're up and on a horse, that means the front line did their job," she gasped out. She really didn't want to look up at him, lest she fall over again.

[Oersted]

Ernce sighed as the other two mercenaries wandered off without him with the last one telling that the kid was in his hands. "Hopefully he can still walk fine," Ernce thought to himself. He couldn't even hold his lance with his dominant hand at the moment. How was he supposed to carry the guy back if he couldn't walk? Shrugging as he told himself that everything would probably work out in the end he walked over to the collapsed mercenary and extended his left hand to him. "Hey," Ernce said, hoping he was still awake, "you can rest all you want at the inn. However ya gotta get back there first. So how 'bout you stand up and we'll limp back to the inn together? Besides, I don't think you wanna sleep in your upchuck do ya?"

Edited August 3, 2013 by Oersted

[Eail]

Considering everyone else seemed to be busy congratulating Zeff on his kill, and ignoring the dechesting Erebus had just done, the dark mage was in a bit of a pickle. While he might have been healed by the elf, there was still the matter of having an arrow stick out of him and that hurt, quite a lot in fact. Looking around for anyone that might actually be willing to help with his little problem, Erebus could see Chandra was probably the best choice, she at least found him amusing.

Walking over to his fellow practitioner of elder magic, declawed hand being held over his wound "Hey Chandra... could you give me a bit of help with this? Everyone else seems to be a bit preoccupied at the moment.

[Vestige]

The worst of it all had come and gone. His tears had stopped, and his stomach was tranquil at last. He was still in no mood to talk but he realized that Ernce was correct. he didn't want to have any plans on staying the night on the ground next to his stomach fluids and blood. Zeff grabbed Ernce's outstretched hand and slowly, but steadily hoisted himself up. He was bruised and battered and realized he needed medical attention. The bit of the lance from earlier was still embedded in his arm and he was starting to fear he would lose usage of his left arm if the thing stayed in there for any longer. Tugging at Ernce's shirt, he made sure to point out his arm. "I need...help..." he whispered.

[Rothene]

Seeing Raelyn, staggering to his position, Caslan shot Rimsky an alarmed look before dismounting, "Hey, do you think you are in the right condition to sit tight? I can let you ride on Joey, he doesn't mind if anyone sits on him. You don't look like you're in the right condition to walk back to the inn without help."

Then a thought occurred to him, Zeff was struck harder than Raelyn was and even had a lance embedded into his arm, causing the mage to look at Zeff's general direction. What in the world? Weren't there people gathering around him earlier? Caslan had thought the mercenary was in good hands, but apparently that was not the case. But, he had a direct matter to deal with before him.

But there was something he could do, "Erm...dwarf, I didn't quite catch your name but that white haired guy over there," Caslan pointed in Zeff's direction, "He looks like he needs a healer's attention more than any of us do, maybe you should look for Sayina or Leon quickly."

[Toogee]

And soon, the battle was over. The fledgling mercenaries were quite a bit worse for wear. Many of them had holes in their appendages. Zeff in particular was very much wounded. Luckily the others were helping him out, but their healing department appeared understaffed (no pun intended). Chandra did have training in healing magic from her childhood, but it wouldn't mean much without a staff to implement it with. The mage would make sure to have one on hand from now on. For now however, Erebus had approached her with an arrow to the knee shoulder.

"Oh my," she said as Erebus showed the grievous wound. "I certainly can't treat this here. We'll need to head back to the inn. Do you think you can manage the walk?"

[Oersted]

"You're not the only one," Ernce said as he untied his shirt-bandage, showing the white-haired guy the hole in his shoulder. "Got that saving you," Ernce said somewhat proudly even as he winced in pain as he put the makeshift bandage back on. As he did that Ernce took a good look at Zeff's arm. The rider's lance had been sawed of so that the white-haired guy could walk it seemed but it'd also be tougher to remove now. "You should've left some of the lance left sticking out," Ernce said. "It'll be tougher to remove it now." Turning away from him, but still making sure the white-haired guy was steady, Ernce scanned the area for one of the two healers. He spotted Sayina near the other lancer and called out to him. "Sir, he needs medical attention!" Ernce waved his left arm in the air to hopefully get his attention; he would've moved his right arm too but that would probably worsen his wound.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Oersted

[eclipse]

"You're really nice, and that's something this world needs more of," Raelyn said through gritted teeth. "However, I'd be real mad if I wound up dead, and saw you standing next to me in the afterlife, 'cause you decided that my well-being was more important than the battle around you," she added. "I'm just one person in this group, so pay more attention to battle!" Her statement caused her to wince, partially because it came out stronger than intended, and partially because her head hurt. "Ah, sorry. What I meant to say was. . .thanks. And don't get yourself killed out there. I don't think I'd forgive you if you did that." She looked at the horse. "I think I'm better off on the ground, but thanks for the offer. A few days of bed rest ought to make me right as rain," she said as lightly as her condition would let her.

[Eail]

"Yeah... I can manage to walk, this just really hurts. Getting shot never feels great from what I've been told, and after this I'm inclined to agree with that statement." He replied to her question.

As the mercenaries were licking their wounds and starting to make their way back to the inn, Erebus decided to keep talking. "I was right, you are pretty good. Having claws like the ones you made requires a lot of precision and control, while my techniques are more about power and causing more damaged to someone. May not have gotten to release all I wanted back there.... but it should be good enough to hold me over for a while." The dark mage muttered.

[Rothene]

Joey's hair bristled slightly as Caslan got off it and offered to let Raelyn ride it. Although the horse did not understand all the words spoken by the people around it, it certainly understood gestures from its rider that gave a clear indication of his intentions. Joey started snorting more loudly, take a few tiny steps away from the duo. Its rider was capable of understanding its wants, but so far, the elf had proven incompetent at knowing what Joey did not want.

Joey was fine with Caslan riding it because the elf was extremely light weight compared to other humans Joey had let ridden it before. Adding another human into the mix would require more effort, and Caslan had yet to start paying Joey in carrots or apples. Until the horse get an appropriate compensation for all its suffering and boredom, it contemplated starting an act of protest for anything more than the unwritten contract that exists between the rider and its mount.

Hoping that this time, its rider understood the message it wanted to give, Joey was equally relieved when Raelyn declined the offer. Or at least, Joey thought she did which put her in its list of decent people.

With the crisis clearly averted, Joey stood still and calmly looked around, wondering about the meaning of life and why nothing special ever happens. It had not even kicked any of those bandits.

***

"Oh, alright then. You take care. I'm Caslan Song by the way," Caslan said not offering his hand to shake as he thought it might be unnecessary effort on Raelyn's part. Then he noticed Ernce calling up and contemplated summoning those orbs of water to draw Sayina's attention again. But they also had another healer. Just where is Leon? That elf is so hard to track down in battle. I must learn his tricks one day.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Rothene

[Toogee]

"Yeah... I can manage to walk, this just really hurts. Getting shot never feels great from what I've been told, and after this I'm inclined to agree with that statement." He replied to her question.

As the mercenaries were licking their wounds and starting to make their way back to the inn, Erebus decided to keep talking. "I was right, you are pretty good. Having claws like the ones you made requires a lot of precision and control, while my techniques are more about power and causing more damaged to someone. May not have gotten to release all I wanted back there.... but it should be good enough to hold me over for a while." The dark mage muttered.

"Yes, all the power in the world won't do you much again if you can't hit the broadside of a barn," Chandra replied. "Or so one of my teachers taught. That being said, that last attack of yours required quite a bit of power. Once we get out of Celisa, perhaps you can show me your own techniques."

[eclipse]

"Heh. I'm Raelyn. Nice to meet you," she said. "Sorry if I'm not really sociable right now. Blame the bandit for knocking the sunshine out of me." She managed a weak smile. "I think I'll recover with bed rest. The others look like they could use the healer's attention. I'd attend to them, but I don't trust my hands to be steady enough. That horse of yours looks like it could be useful. I'm not sure how good you are with healing arts, but perhaps you can ferry those that are able to ride to the inn?" she suggested.

Edited August 4, 2013 by eclipse

[Bluedoom]

"The name's Rimsky. Guess ye're right, I better go and find-" he was cut off by one of their folk calling out to Sayina. " Guess we found one of 'em." chuckled. He was slumping to the front, starting to lose focus. T'was a better idea to head over to Sayina real quick.

"Well met Caslan. Guess we should head o'er there ter help. Well, you anyway. I've got ter get some healin' done." he said to Caslan. Looking over to Raelyn, he said, " Guess yeh know what ye're doin'. Careful now, yeh don't look like ye'll be walkin' steady fer a bit." And with that, he rode slowly to the place where Zeff and co were. He'd maybe talk more after he was healed, but right now this iwas all the strength he could muster up.

[Rothene]

"Right, good idea," Caslan nodded at Raelyn's suggestion. Just as he tugged at the reins to lead Joey to follow Rimsky, Caslan felt as if he was pulling on a boulder. Turning, Caslan noticed Joey had not moved and inch. It was in fact gazing lazily into the horizon, and probably whistling if it knew how to.

"Hey, come on Joey, got some injured people to ferry!" Caslan ordered his mount tugging at the reins even harder. It was then Joey looked at Caslan and snorted before moving...towards the inn dragging Caslan who had refused to let go of the reins. "Joey, what's wrong? Hey why are you...? HEY!"

Caslan could only continue following his mount, confused with its behavior. In all of five months he had traveled with the supposedly well trained gelding, this was the first time the elf saw it act so disobediently.

Desperate, Caslan let go of the reins and yelled at Joey, "Fine! If you don't want to help others, go back to the inn yourself! If you get stolen I'll be angry and not look for you! Hmmph!" The mage then turned around to seek out those too injured to walk back to the inn on their own.

***

Well, that escalated quickly, Joey thought as it slowly plodded away from Caslan. It did not understand what the elf had been yelling, but it was fully aware at the anger in his voice. It neither made the horse feel any more or less worried. It knew how much its rider depended on it and would find it later anyway. With some luck, Caslan would even offer it some treats to get back on its good side. Some of the past temporary riders it had did so.

The horse made a slight chuckle in a manner a horse can as it picked up its pace on its journey to the stables imagining what sort of treat it might earn itself this time for its protest. It felt refreshing to be true to itself again, unlike the past five months acting all obedient just so that the new rider did not send it back to the breeder before the refund time period ended. Nasty breeder, always beating and starving me when some unsatisfied rider sends me back due to dissatisfaction. Did any of them not consider for a moment that I was unsatisfied with them? Hopefully an elf was a better care taker than a human.

[scorri]

Lone Ranger

Adari frowned as she collected her arrows. She'd actually been slow enough to get hit by one of the bandits. Inspecting her leg, she frowned at the new shiny scratch on her armor. Ah well. At least it meant that she'd protected Moondancer from the idiot who'd thought he'd have an easier time killing her if she didn't have a horse. With a sigh, she yanked her last arrow out of the first bandit who'd been underestimating her, and quickly pulled herself back onto her horse. Nudging her, she turned back towards the inn. Hopefully the others had fared as well as her.

Half-dwyvern Rider

Toqua grunted as the made the final tally. He was one kill off from winning. "Ah well. At least Ah did not lose. Brader, yer buyin when we get back to tha inn. I'mma go check on tha others." Whistling to Serath, the pair jumped into the skies and soared off, hoping to find their group well and alive.

Healing the Wounds

Sayina frowned to himself as he patched up his last few wounds. There were others injured, but he needed to stop the bleeding on himself before he could treat those others, else he might run out of energy much sooner than desired. Glancing up at Jacob's question, he nodded. "I do, but this will be better for you." Muttering a simple spell under his breath, he waved the staff over Jacob's wounds and smiled as they quickly patched up. His wounds and Jacob's wounds seen to, he rode over to the nearest wounder mercenary he could find, the white haired swordsman as well as a few others who were accompanying him. Frowning at the wounds, he nodded to himself and then spoke loudly so that all the mercs could hear him. "If you are wounded, come over here. I will take care of the most serious wounds and give you a salve to place on the others. If you still have the weapon that gave you the wound in your body, do not remove it until you are about to be healed. I do not want any of you to die of blood loss while waiting to be healed. Let those most seriously injured get healed first." After he was done, he reached over and took Zeff's hand. Taking a quick breath, he suddenly pushed the spear through the man's hand without any warning. Quickly placing his staff over the wounded area, he chanted a complex spell under his breath and concentrated hard on the area he was repairing. Seeing muscles knit up and then skin grow over the muscles, he sighed in relief. "Your hand will be tender for a while, but that is the only issue you should have with it."

Meanwhile, something completely different...

Captain Skelyos pulled his horse to a stop on the ridge overlooking the small village of Iene. "Hmmph. Looks like we just missed a bandit attack. I do hope they left some for us. This'll be too boring otherwise. If you men are ready?" The squads behind him nodded silently as they stood ready to move out. "Alrighty then. Lets go make sure the welcome party is all in place..."

Edited August 4, 2013 by scorri

[eclipse]

Raelyn looked over the others. Being knocked over the head wasn't exactly minor, but she wasn't in any danger of bleeding out. I hope he gives us a couple of days to recuperate. . .or another healer. At this rate, Sayina's going to overwork himself. Rather than sit around outside, she slowly made her way back to the inn. The sooner she could lie down somewhere safe, the better.

[Psych]

Leon sighed deeply. He was still a bit anxious after the fight, and the adrenaline still had him shaking. He got out his watersack, and took a sip, before heading over to Sayina. "I can help with wounds, but I'm not sure how strong it'll be. I'm not used to battle wounds like this and the most I did back there was clot things." He might have been hiding during the fight, but when the alternative was a healer getting hurt, it was acceptable.

[Snike]

"Thanks," Jacob said, before backing off as the white-haired man who had been speared was being healed. The recruit began to make his way to the inn like most of the others, since, well, the job was done, and he didn't really want to look at the carnage any longer than he had to.

***

"Dammit!," Brader said, yanking his axe out of the skull of one of the bandits. That bloke was his lone kill, thanks to Charlie and his light magic. Speaking of the monk, he had just approached the axeman.

"Better luck next time," Charlie said, as he picked up a bandit's coin pouch and tossed it over to Brader. "There. That'll help ease the sting on your wallet a bit. Anyways, see you at the inn."

And with that, the light magic user walked away.

***

Andre wiped the blood off of his sword and onto a dead ruffian's clothing, as he drank the last of his ale. The bandits had been trivial, in the sense that it only took about one blow on average to kill each of them. Numbers were a bit high, but oh well. Time to see how the newbies were doing. In no apparent hurry, the mercenary leader began to walk towards the north part of town. Odds were the bandits were already dead, judging by the silence, but if not, he'd correct that.

[Vestige]

Out of reflex, he winced and let out a yelp as Sayina dislodged the spear, but in truth he still couldn't feel the pain. He surmised however, that after he was given some time to rest, he would feel the full force of the injuries he had incurred in battle. But he was glad, (as much as he could be anyway,l given all that had happened to him) that he wouldn't lose the usage of his arm. He gave Sayina a polite nod to indicate his thanks and laid down a short distance from his previous spot so as to give the healer and the rest of the company some space.

He knew if he headed off to the inn by himself, he would collapse midway through. All of his energy had been spent, and he had nothing left in the reserves. The way he was now, there was no getting up off the ground without external support. Sleep had begun to overtake him, and he wasn't trying very hard to ward it off. Slipping between the two states of mind, he waited for Ernce to help him off the ground so that he might finally be given the chance to get some proper sleep.

[Oersted]

Ernce sighed as he saw the white-haired guy go lay down on the ground that had moments ago, been a battlefield where the white-haired guy had almost died. He didn't look like he'd be getting up by himself so that meant that he'd have to go pull him up again. Well, after there wasn't a hole in his shoulder anymore. Ernce may not have been making a very big deal out of his injury but that didn't mean it didn't hurt or wasn't dangerous. He was starting to think he may lose his arm if he wasn't healed quickly enough and he was starting to feel a bit tipsy from blood loss. "Sir," he said somewhat weakly to Sayina as he reached for his makeshift bandage. "Please heal... my shoulder next," he said as he yanked out the knot. He was starting to regret not seeking medical aid immediately.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Oersted