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Fire Emblem: Curse of the Goddess [IC / Conditional Acceptance / PG-16]

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Penelope watched Link with a blank, probing, expression. What was he doing down here? Should he not be searching with the others? Had they already searched the upper floor surely he would not have come here alone. Could he possibly...

Gunther couldn't help but relax as Link joined them. He was glad that the soldier had come down here. He must have decided that it would be better to search the lower floors and leave the upper for the rest. He didn't know what Link was thinking exactly but he was sure that he knew what he was doing.

Whatever the case Penelope thought that Hanikap was suitably distracted. She doubted they needed the four of them to handle him if it came down to it but at least he was fully sold on his tour guide job now. The kitchen was....unremarkable. Which made sense as it wasn't a place this puffed up 'noble' would bother entering himself much. Penelope was curious about this Dille girl. She didn't seem to fit in with her idea of that man so she wondered if she perhaps could reveal some important information with the right prompting.

Not that she could ask her right now. But it was something to keep in mind. The door on the right side made her curious but, due to its positioning, could have either been storage or lead to the other room.

Could Catriona perhaps have been stuffed inside a barrel and tucked away here? She couldn't dismiss the possibility.

"Yeah, guess the tour's not that interesting."

"On the contrary!" Penelope said, "you are doing a fine job, a fine job indeed! Your lord is lucky to have someone so willing to show such courtesy in bringing us to even the most minor of places. Which does make me wonder, you didn't mention that door there, is it not a place we're allowed in?"

Gunther didn't know if all this was necessary. Surely they didn't need to examine every room right? But he knew that Penelope wasn't the type to be able to settle if she didn't have the full picture. She would be wondering about every nook and cranny if they simply moved on.

For his part he didn't think he could add anything. He was mostly here as an extra body just in case he reckoned. Though he did feel oddly at ease in this room. It reminded him of his younger days in the castle with his mother. The thought brought a smile to his lips which he directed at the kitchen help, giving a kind nod in greeting to her.


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Cora laughed awkwardly at the girls' antics. She was admittedly unsure how to handle them. Usually it wouldn't be much a problem but they really did need to get going as soon as they could. For a moment, as their attention was on firing off questions to Tsetseg, Cora thought she might be able to slip away and go check on Acantha herself.

However this didn't work well as the two suddenly shifted to hiding behind her in response to Phai. "Ah, yes, you're fun, Phai but that's not really the problem here...and you two, that's rude, don't stick out your tongues she's just being concerned over you...."

Cora sighed. This wasn't going anywhere. They'd be stuck here forever if they continued to let the girls have their way. If she ignored the two and continued on they would likely become even more clingy and she wasn't about to drag them with her. So, though she felt rather embarrassed to do it, Cora decided to call out towards the house herself. "Acantha? Are you there? We have a problem to take care of, er, if...if you're around! If you're not, um, I guess you...can't hear me anyway...." her voice trailed off as she flushed at the awkwardness of it all.

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Getting up the stairs Alois looked around the room that they had found themselves in. It had seemed that this was where the trail of stairs had finally ended, presumably the only place to go up from here being the roof. Unless in some manner to flex how much of a "noble" he was the man of the house had somehow made it more impossibly bigger on the inside then its outside. Alois figured that, since it sounded impossible, it was likely not something one could buy with money but he had seen enough bizarre things to not entirely discredit the possibility. That being said all it was was an, more than likely, impossibility and had nothing to do with the actual sight the boy was seeing. "Well, great, another dead end." 

As Citron brought up this room with high room with beds being the place where guests presumably stayed, Alois lifted a finger ready to make comment on her question before she had realized the obviousness of it. Grinning at her last comment he said, "I'd never do something so boorish," the boy's mocking of Gasotn in his tone was very evident before he started walking downstairs. "Hey Eddy, you know you might be on to something here. Maybe we should check the rooms down here first." 

As he said that, Alois walked over to the door at the east end of the hall. Looking it up and down he said, "let's see if I've got a key for this thing." Lightly kicking the door, it didn't budge much from it though it didn't feel like it was particularly sturdy either. "No, that one didn't work. How about," using his other foot Alois slammed the door harder then before, and the door bent in an gave a little. Yet still it stood. An annoyed expression on his face, Alois let out a sigh. "Well, looks like this door isn't budging any time soon. Guess we should just -" 

The boy threw the full weight of his body at the door, smashing through it and forcing the door open. Wiping the arm that he had used to tackle it with, the boy looked back and said, "hey what do you know, it's open. And what have we - " the boy looked into the room. "Wow. As frugal as ever I see." 

Inside was what Alois presumed to be the bedroom of the lord of the house himself. The walls were ornate, with candelabras and portraits decorating it. The bed in the center, pushed against the wall, was far larger then any one man had any right sleeping in. Add to that the several chairs and small tables in the room and Alois wondered if this was actually even a bedroom at all. Of course, both the cushions of the seat and the covers and sheets on the bed were violet and of a fabric that Alois had never actually seen before but could only assume was more expensive then it was worth. The bed was made nicely and it hadn't looked like anyone had been in here recently, though it was more than likely someone had made the bed this morning. Sighing, the boy said, "another dead end, great. Hey Eddy you want to try seeing what's behind the other mystery door?" The boy pointed to the other door on the north side of the hall. "It's locked but I'm sure a little friendly persuasion will get it open in no time." 

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"well I'm sure the questions don't have to be answered right here and now yes?"

"Ah, actually, would you be able to show us around? I'm most curious, what are those rooms for?"

To be honest, Raki felt conflicted at that. He didn't want to cause problems to those guys, and they didn't seem very satisfied with his move, but he really would have liked for his questions to be, in fact, answered right here and now.

It appeared, however, that he wouldn't have been helping them. He removed his hand form the man while making a step back.

"Sure, we're in no hurry. Ahem."

He resolved to not lose sight of the man. It wasn't just him and Phasia, he remembered himself. He was working with allies now, he couldn't just act on impulse. And said allies were as interested as him in not letting the man away from their sights, the interrogation was just delayed to a more... convenient time.

He made to move away  from the base of the stairs, when a furry blur caught his eye, making him turn towards it.

Descending from above, accompanied by the terrified scream of Hanikap, a... small dog pup? No, the face was different. Was it a wolf? He had yet to see one in flesh and blood, but from what he knew this should have been it, just... tiny. But size didn't matter a lot to this one, since after a good sniff, it decided that it was time to let everyone know of their presence. Loudly. Adorably, but loudly. And focused as he was on the cub, Raki only noticed the new arrival as he hurried to calm down his pet.

“Sorry. He isn’t well-trained… err, yet, that is.”

"Don't worry, it's no issue at all." His mind went back to the stare offs with wyverns of that day. To be honest this was a nice change of pace in perspective.

And besides.

"I'm Raki, I assume you're..." He added waving his finger between Gunther and Penelope and the new arrival. They seemed to have companions scattered across the village, and if what he understood before was correct, one popping out already here wasn't that surprising. Just mildly surprising.

And besides... He couldn't say why, but the way the man looked at him reminded him more of those wyverns than of that pup.

Then he blinked, and the sensation had vanished “Got room for one more?” Raki looked at the other two. If they had any problem, he didn't know them well enough to tell. "I'm basically tagging along, I don't see why not."

Then the tour began, and Raki had to admit, he agreed with Hanikap. The tour was quite the opposite of exciting. Wanting for something to do as the girl talked to their guide, he approached the man with a wolf. He had realized there was something he needed to confirm, before someone else new appeared. "If I can ask... how many are you in your group, exactly?"

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As the two girls seemed to recognize Tsetseg and declare that she was both an archer and hit Phai while they were an animal, the girl had a prideful look on her face and puffed out her chest. "Yep yep, that was me!" Tsetseg seemed to think that she was being praised for her skill and as a result seemed totally oblivious to how bad it sounded. After a short exchange between Phai and the two girls, Mara and Nara, they moved on to ask her questions at a rapid pace. Putting a hand to her chin the girl thought about it for a moment before saying, "see, see, a tribe it's like a big group of people that all live together! And we all move around and help each other and hunt and play games together and it's great. Oh, oh, it's like a family only bigger! Way bigger!" 

As the two declared that Phai was no fun, Tsetseg shook her head. "Phai is tons of fun. I've had lots and loads and tons of fun walking around the town with her and now we're having even more fun doing patrol stuff! Oh! That's a great idea Cora!" The girl's attention seemed about as focused as the young girls as she looked over to Cora and then looked past her. "Acaaaaannntthaaaaa, are you theeeerreeee?!"

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Link nodded at Raki. He had no idea how much the boy knew, or even where he had come from. How had he gotten mixed up into all of this? How much did Princess Penelope trust him? Did he know she was a princess, or that her elder sister was currently missing? Thinking about it made the soldier realize that he really had no idea how much the younger princess herself even knew about what was going on at the moment. He studied “Right. M’name’s Link,” he finally settled on after a bit of awkward staring, deciding to maintain the thick Histian accent he had adopted. “S’good to meet you.”

Then they were led off to the kitchen by Hanikap. Link kept his eyes moving and his ears peeled for any suspicious noise, but he saw and heard nothing out of the ordinary. He thought he faintly heard the sound of splintering wood at one point but it was so soft he decided it was just wishful thinking. 

Link was vaguely familiar with the layout from his snooping around outside. He had been unable to see inside the kitchen, but he had known it was there, and it looked exactly like he thought it might (not that he had seen very many noble kitchens in his day). No, what threw him for a loop was the presence of the cook. He had—foolishly—assumed that the only people inside the house were Gaston and his lackey, Hanikap, but of course there was a servant in the kitchen. Was it at all possible she knew anything? Had she witnessed Catriona arriving? The way she ducked out of the way so quickly had sent alarm bells ringing in his head (ignoring the softer, more logical part of his mind that knew that she may very well have just been frightened). He was tempted to just dart across the room and demand answers, but Princess Penelope struck up a conversation with Hanikap, obviously attempting to keep him distracted but unintentionally assuring that he would be unable to speak with her. It took all of his years of experience to mask the growing frustration on his face. 

Every drop of blood inside his body felt like it was on fire. He had been in the manor for at least half an hour. He had scoured the floor and interrogated Gaston, but he was no closer to finding Catriona. What if she’s already gone? The voice in the back of his head whispered. Link shoved it down further but was unable to stop his stomach from flipping anxiously. The voice was getting louder and louder every minute that passed without him finding her. He was a soldier—a Garou, a Night Wolf, a literal walking-talking myth come straight out of the Great War—but right now he was failing to do anything to help the person he had sworn to protect above all else. Like always.

Rohns suddenly whined and pawed at his boot. Link realized then that he had bit into his tongue so hard that blood was dripping from the corner of his mouth and onto the floor. He wiped all of the evidence away with the back of his glove, just now noticing the flare of pain and copper-tang of blood in his mouth. 

Raki chose that exact moment to approach him and ask about their number. Link buried all of his suspicion under a lazy smile. “Not really sure,” he said. “Not real great with my numbers. More’n a few, but a good few less'n a lot.” It was a circular answer. A solid-sounding response that in actuality revealed nothing. Then Link changed the subject. He raised his voice loud enough to be heard across the room, though he was far from shouting. “Rohns is needin’ ta use the bathroom. I should step out ta take him afore he has an accident on the rug,” he said, and at that moment, Rohns whined again and started to wiggle like before. “Mind steppin’ out with me jus’ a minute, Gunther? Got a question for ya not fit for polite conversation.” Sensing the knight’s hesitation, he added, “won’t be gone long at all.”

Gunther seemed confused at first, but complied, saying, "Er...oh! Yes I'll, uh, be right there."

Link led him out of the room and into the parlor with Rohns on his heels. They didn’t go far; just enough to be out of earshot of the kitchen if they were quiet. They would still be within range of rushing back should they hear a commotion. Link turned to face Gunther with a surprisingly tired expression.  “We won’t be long. I was hoping to speak with the Princess, but…” he trailed off. His voice sounded drained even to his own ears. He had seen the way she looked at him as he came down the stairs. This was probably for the better. “Catriona may be in trouble.”

Gunther took a moment to watch Link before responding. He seemed to be unsure how to phrase his next words but finally, "That's, well, sort of...why we're here."

Link shifted uncomfortably. “I searched the second floor before you got here. She isn’t there,” he said. Then, “Spoke with Gaston…not that he knows it. Someone sent him out here and supplied all of his wealth. In exchange for what, I don’t know either, but…Catriona has a lot of enemies.” His mind unwillingly conjured up images of black-cloaked cultists and Lord Sebastian, his coffers filled to bursting with gold coins. “I sent the others upstairs to check the third floor. Gaston said Catriona was sleeping up there. Figured I’d come get you all up to speed and then keep looking.” Tell him. Tell him how likely it is that she is already gone. Tell him how bad a job you’re doing. TELL HIM. Link tried to speak but nothing came out but a dry rasp at first. Then on his second try, he managed, “There’s--there’s a cellar outside. Just to the side of the kitchen. Hopefully the others have already found her but… I’m gonna check. Just in case.”

Gunther mumbled something in response. Link thought he looked worried. “Just keep Princess Penelope safe. We’ll find Catriona,” he said, trying his best to be comforting. Then he turned on his heel and headed for the front door. 

Day would be changing to night soon. Link could tell as soon as he opened the door. The breeze was cool and the smell of the outdoors—rich soil and trees, manure and the overpowering musk of horses—wrapped around him like a comfy blanket. He hated being trapped indoors, he hated rich houses and the maze of hallways and doors that led to rooms with seemingly no purpose. It irritated him to no end. Rohns darted past him and made a beeline for Peaches, the familiar pink wyvern he now associated with Citron, playfully nipping at her. The horse that he had mistaken for Epona when he first arrived stomped and gave him a sideways look, but was mostly focused on munching on the hay it had been given at some point. Link almost felt like he could relax, but the knowledge that Catriona could be in grave danger was more than enough to keep the flames of anxiety in his belly stoked. 

A quiet, almost warning, or annoyed growl escaped from the Wyvern's mouth as she brushed the wolf-pup aside with one of her legs; staring intently at the house in the meanwhile. Peaches' eyes briefly darted from the house to Lincoln as he emerged from the house, pausing as she regarded him for a moment. In the moment that followed, she flicked her tongue quickly from her mouth, taking in his and Rohns scent, as if to confirm it was really him, but that was all she did. Her growl dissipated as quickly as it had come, the Wyvern's eyes trailing back to the house as she returned to the duty she had given; she would have to play with Rohns later to make up for snubbing him now.


Rohns whined and his ears and tail fell. Link whistled softly and the wolf cub came bounding to his side like nothing had happened. The soldier not for the first time wished he bounced back as quickly as a dog did. 

Link started toward where he knew the cellar was. He approached it quietly, knowing that he would have to stay silent if he planned to avoid drawing attention to himself. Rohns walked up to the door and began to sniff it. Link brushed him to the side and drew his Slag Blade, wedged it into the door, and attempted to (as quietly possible) force it open. 

It didn’t budge at first. Link put his full weight into it, and with a crack, the doors splintered open and gave way. Link sucked in a breath and glanced at the door that he knew led to the kitchen only a few feet away.

No time to delay. He shoved Rohns into the cellar and climbed down himself, shutting the doors behind him as best he could… not that it was exactly subtle.

Edited by Cheshire Toon

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Penelope, Gunther, and Raki

Dille did not look up again. She kept at her task with quiet diligence and did not see the nod directed her way.

However, the group, Penelope in particular, had fully captured Hanikap's attention. "A fine job?" The man smiled shyly. "D'you really mean it?" His eyes twinkled, and he looked quite handsome—the sort of earthy attractiveness found hand in hand with laughter and grins. Then the twinkle dimmed, and he was just a slumping, dough-faced man again. "Gaston always says I make a right ass of myself." He almost didn't seem to hear Penelope's following words, but then he straightened, shaking his head. "As for the door, it just leads to the dining room. I can take you through it if it pleases you."

Without waiting for a reply, he trotted to the door with pathetic fervor and opened it. It showed a bare space with another door that he opened, revealing a wider room that was a study in contrast to the kitchen. The walls were a dark-paneled wood lit by glittering chandeliers hanging from the ceiling like golden bouquets. An intricate woolen rug covered most of the floor. Large windows showed off a view of the surrounding village under the gloom of twilight. Another door remained on the right wall. In the middle stood a long, wine-colored table balanced on claw-footed legs, with a row of high-backed chairs down each side. A marble bust of Pylauses rested atop a small countertop next to the door. He stared not at the dining table, but slightly above it, as if it lay beneath his notice. His prominent nose tilted toward the ceiling, and his lips and brow wrinkled into a proud sneer.

"And this is the dining room!" Hanikap bowed. "You can stay here if you want. I'll ask Dille to bring some food out for Lord Gaston's guests!" He made to hurry back to the kitchen.

Team Country

On the third floor, Alois—and anybody else with him—would hear a noise. It wasn't a house noise—the creak of boards underfoot or the wheezing in the walls that comes with age. No, it was a human noise. A gasp of breath, followed by several brief grunts, and then a dull scrape. They came from the northern door. The door they had yet to open.

Link

Compared to the rest of the house, the cellar seemed cramped. A couple of small torches lined the brick walls. Wooden kegs cast long shadows that swooped toward the arched ceiling. Long shelves with dark bottles took up most of the wall space. The cool air smelled of dirt and spiced wine.

Nobody appeared to be here.

Tsetseg

As if summoned by their shouts, a familiar-looking redhead exited the building. She stomped to the group before stopping in front of them, annoyance written across her face. "What's all the commotion?! Can't a girl make dinner without getting interrupted? And you," she turned to the twins. "Are you bothering people again? Didn't I ask you to help set the table?"

Mara spoke first. "B-But Sissy 'Cantha, we saw Cora! And Cuzzy Phai and archer!" She pointed at Tsetseg accusingly.

Her sister Nara did not echo her words for once, beaming up at the archer. "Big famiwy? Wike ouws?"

Phai seemed to have forgotten her brief grudge with the twins at Acantha's arrival. "Guess what, Acantha! There are bad people in the village! Really bad!" she spread her arms wide as if to emphasize the issue. "We need your help against the bad people!"

The redhead smacked her face. "Wait, let me get the twins back inside first." She turned to them. "We're going to talk militia matters, so you better go inside now, okay?"

"Can we stay? Please?!"

"Pwease?"

"No!"

The two flinched at her glare before returning it with pouty lips. Eventually, they broke into sighs of "fiiine," and began the short walk back to the house. The two stopped and turned to glance behind every few steps. A "get going!" from their older sister had them breaking into a giggling run.

Acantha watched the twins till they entered the house. "Okay, they're gone now." She sighed. "Phai, you should know better than to bring up stuff like that around them. Especially after they followed us to the river. I'm only glad that Gunther ended up being a nice guy and didn't hurt them." She muttered the last sentence under her breath.

"Sorry, Acantha. I got excited there. I'm just really, really hoping you can help us against the bad people."

"Can't you be any more specific than just 'bad people?' You're not a kid anymore." The redhead turned to Cora and Tsetseg. "Can either of you tell me anything more?" She gazed at the archer. "Since you're here, I take it the 'bad people' aren't from your group, right?" She crossed her arms. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if they were, with how suspicious you all are."


OOC

Spoiler

The main group is seeing things, Team Country is hearing things, Link is smelling things, and Tsetseg just talked to Thing One and Thing Two. Post and stuff.

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Penelope watched Raki with some amusement. It seemed he was a bit down about having been stopped in his questioning. He proved to be quite the inquisitive sort as he began to ask Link questions right away as well. Questions that Link deflected all too naturally. It wasn't long before Link was dragging Gunther off to presumably go over whatever he had found. That he didn't ask her was of no issue with Penelope. She wanted to keep an eye on this man just a while longer.

Though it seemed he truly was nothing more than a praise-starved lackey.

"As for the door, it just leads to the dining room. I can take you through it if it pleases you."

"It would indeed, thank you so much." Penelope said with a smile. Not waiting for Gunther to return before following the man into the room. It was indeed as he said, a dining room. And as expected it was much more lavish of a room. Clearly of the sort that the owner of the house would love to bring people to show off.

Hanikap soon rambled off about getting food for them and began to go to the kitchen. Penelope could hear movement from the kitchen side of the hall between the rooms and assumed Gunther was returning. So, she called out to the man before he got to the other side. "One moment, please, I believe my...friend here had some things to ask you."

She looked towards Raki. "Now would be the perfect time for your questions." After all Hanikap couldn't easily scamper off with both ends blocked.


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Gunther hadn't understood what it was Link wanted. He was speaking in a rather strange way as well which made Gunther wonder if there was some code he was missing. Finally he realized that Link wanted to tell him something away from that man's stooge. Trusting that Link knew best Gunther left Penelope for a brief moment to see what it was that Link had to tell him.

Honestly he wasn't quite sure what to make of his words. They had known there was a potential risk but it felt as though Link wasn't giving him everything. Why that might be Gunther couldn't be sure but Link followed it with an assurance that Catriona would be fine. "Of course, I know you wouldn't let anything happen on your watch...and I will do my best to do the same."

Overall the conversation left Gunther uncertain. Should he be doing more? Was Link just regulating him to staying down here because he thought he would mess something up were he to search as well?

It took him a second to realize that the others were no longer in the kitchen. A moment of panic set in until he heard voices from beyond a door in the back. Moving there with perhaps a bit more swiftness than necessary he arrived at the doorway in time to hear Penelope speak. "One moment, please, I believe my...friend here had some things to ask you."

He saw Hanikap on his way out and, after Penelope's words, found himself naturally positioning in the doorway to make it hard for the man to simply slip past, trying to not make it seem he was intentionally blocking him.


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Cora felt herself relax when Acantha made an appearance. If anyone could settle things down it would be her. And, true to her expectations, the girl quickly stopped the children's antics for the moment.

She gave the girls a smile and wave, deciding in her head to come back to play with them when this was all done, before turning full attention back on Acantha.

"Can either of you tell me anything more?"

"Well, truthfully, we don't know all too much. But, ya see..." Cora then explained to the girl what she had just learned herself. Trying to avoid repeating it the way that Tsetseg had told her lest Acantha accuse her of being childish as well.

Once she finished she frowned and looked over to Tsetseg. "Er, don't worry about the suspicious part, we all know you're not bad folk even if she doesn't admit it. A-anyway!" She continued hastily in the hopes Acantha wouldn't protest. "As you can see we really outta get going soon as we can."

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As Alois had prompted Edrick to break down the next door, his own destructive urges were piqued yet again as he heard scraping from behind the room that he was looking to. "What the...?" The boy walked past the other two in the room and looked at the door. The sound of gasps and grunts could be heard accompanying the scrapes, and Alois couldn't help but wonder if their missing person was indeed behind the final door. "Cat, is that you?" The boy asked the door and was only greeted with more scraping. Curiously, though, it didn't sound as if it were scraping against the door or anything, just against something in general in the room.

Raising an eyebrow at this, he looked back to the others saying, "surprise of surprises their seems to be something weird, strange even, going on behind that door. So, just leave it to the lockpicking master here." With that, Alois kicked the door as he had the previous one. Finding it to be roughly as sturdy as the door he had previously smashed off its hinges. Pulling his foot back, he nodded knowingly saying, "yep, I think I've got this lock all figured out. You just want to shift the weight a little in the metal part and then, just like that," Alois then went to charge the door, again breaking open the door. Rolling his shoulder, his arm a little sore from having just be used as an impromptu battering ram, he announced, "we're in." 

With the door now no longer obstructing his vision, Alois could clearly see that the interior of this room was not so much different then the last. The bed was certainly smaller but the decor around it and the sheets that lined it didn't seem any less garish. Nor did the rest of the room for that matter, similarly having paintings and lavishly decorated walls any which way one turned. And as Alois did turn, out the window in the room he saw something of a flash of maroon pass by it. "Alright, anyone want to check what that was?" 

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Tsetseg smiled and nodded at Nara as she asked, "yup yup, everyone in this village is alll part of your tribe!" As Acantha had responded to their calls, Tsetseg beamed up, excited to have another member of the town patrol ready to help them out. Giving a wave to the littler girls as they were dismissed back to their home, Tsetseg looked to Acantha as she was awaiting an explanation. The archer opened up her mouth, yet ready once more to explain the current situation but Cora had seemed to get in the topic first. Tsetseg didn't seem to understand what Acantha had meant by calling them suspicious in the first place, considering herself to be one of the most trustworthy people she knew, and thus was only confused by Cora trying to cover for her. All the same, the girl smiled and nodded saying, "yeah, yeah! So there's bad people here that need stopping! Mhm."

 

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Citron’s disappointment at the contents of the room were… Palpable, to say the least, her expression turning to one of distaste as she shook her head. “Why is he like this?” She murmured, frowning at the sheer excess of the room that had to belong to the ‘lord’. Scratching at the side of her sling with her free-hand, she found herself taking a step back almost as quickly as she had stepped in to look, her hand quickly moving from its scratching-position as she brought a hand to the bridge of her nose. “I’m beginning to think that the Princess just up and left before we got here, what with how… Tacky, everything is. You’d think the rooms themselves would cry out in annoya-”

She was cut off, as the loud gasp, and grunts sounded out from behind the final door, as she winced. She wanted to make a joke to Edrick and Alois, about maybe that was the house uttering its dismay at how it had been decorated-- but now hardly seemed the time, she reasoned. Luckily, she didn’t have to goad either of the others into opening the door, as Alois was already gung-ho about doing it himself, despite having previously asked Edrick to handle it. “Good job taking initiative,” Citron grinned, placing a hand on her hip. “Just be sure not to break your ‘pick’, yeah?” She smiled, nodding a head towards his shoulder.

The smashing of the door was, of course, cathartic, to say the least. It was exactly the danger, and destruction she had been hoping for; the splintering as it crashed off the hinges, just as the last one had. She followed closely behind as they entered into the room, glancing around the… Lavish (derogatory), Citron couldn’t help but feel the same twinge of disgust; but it was followed faster by a feeling of concern and distress, as she realized that… There was nothing for that noise to have come from; Alois’ motioning towards the window only deepening the pit of concern in her stomach. “Got it,” she nodded, practically sprinting over to the open window as she tried, first, to look out the window.

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the ‘lord’ himself, having just landed with… Something, over his shoulder. It was a bag, that much she was sure, but she couldn’t tell what was in his other hand. He was certainly stronger than she had expected, if that bag and fall was anything to think about. “No-- He’s getting away with something,” she murmured, heart racing as she leaned further out of the window… And yelled.

---

It was a long day. It was an eventful day. But it was, once again, a dull night, so far. Citron had commanded her to wait outside, and though she had the company of the healer and her horse - both of which were looking tastier by the moment, to be honest - Peaches couldn’t help but feel as if she wasn’t exactly… Needed. Humans tended to overreact to the wrong things; people who dressed funnily, but were as harmless as harmless could be. Humans who were dumber than them, who hadn’t trained a wyvern or any other sort of animals in their life.

Humans were strange, especially humans like Citron, and her grandfather before her.

But, she had been given a command, and so she waited. The dull night stretched on as the humans one by one filed into the house, as they had, and seemed they might continue, given that she didn’t see… All of their number go in yet. She smelled some of them on the wind, too, she thought; though, she was happy that the Isaurian had left. He smelled too much of other wyverns. Much too much like them. She didn’t like the idea of having to deal with another Wyvern very much at all, and so she would simply hope he remained gone.

Peaches was thankful, or at least as much as she could have been, that the night had an opportunity to be slightly less dull earlier, as one of the nice humans Citron had met, and his wolf cub, came by earlier on their own hunt. She could hear the faint whine of disappointment from the cub as she had bat him away, but… Well, again, she didn’t have time to play now-- So she would have to do that later. “Rrrr…” she let her growl drop off, as the two of them left, the and her eyes narrowed on the house, once again letting her focus steady itself; letting the dullness of a night take her...

Until she heard something.

“PEACHES! HE’S GETTING AWAY! SIC ‘EM!"

Citron’s voice.

The wyvern took to the air in an instinctive manner, rising with a heavy flap of her wings as she steadied herself, before hurtling herself with practiced grace, or lack thereof, as she shot in the direction that the soldier and cub and gone, towards the sound of the cry, stopping abruptly over a figure who had just landed in the ground. She flicked her tongue out as she took in his scent, even from the air: distinctly different from everyone else, he was lacking something that made the others similar, an inherently… Human smell, an odor maybe, but it defined them as human in her experience. In its place, there was a strong scent of flowers, woods, and other scents that despite seeming in place with the environment, were too strong to be natural.

Sic ‘Em!

Another particularly heavy flap of her wings sent her forwards again, angled downwards as she opened her claws for a sudden landing. Talon-like claws dug into the dirt with sharp, decisive stabbing motions as she came to a sudden stop, rending the ground as she came to her stop… Directly in between the path of the figure and, well, most other places, really. To accentuate this fact, she extended her wings to either side mid-turn, eyes narrowing on the portly figure as she took a step forward, and leaned forwards to roar. Jaws splayed apart as she flicked her tongue outwards mid-roar, rattling her skull to either side as the terrible noise echoed out, snapping them shut as she filled the silence entirely with an array of growls, the eyes of a predator ever-trained on her quarry.

Edited by Tiamat's Circus

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Edrick really wasn't feeling all that good by this point. Sure he was going to refuse at any point that he could that he was feeling off, but his two compatriots in "Team Country" could probably tell he was feeling tired and sluggish. He should have been resting, but with one of their number being missing it only seemed appropriate to go along and look for her. Especially considering Catriona was the ultimate reason for all of them coming together like this. So he was sluggish in his responses to the questions they asked him as he stopped at the top of more stairs to breathe and catch himself. Yeah, Citron, excessive was the word for it. If the boy could get some adrenalin pumping then maybe things would be different, but that was neither here nor there.

"Right... opening doors... no keys. If Cat's actually okay and we wake her up in the middle of her nap or something y'all know she's gonna be pissed, right?" At least his words weren't slurring. Much. And when the noise of Alois actually smashing open a door with his shoulder rang out he stood up a lot straighter. Yeah. Yeah that certainly woke him up. But his hopes were dashed when they looked in and found that no, Catriona was not laying in there, and doubly no she was not now awake and angry with them for having woken her up like this. Though at Alois's suggestion the farmboy nodded and heavily stomped his way back out into the hall on the third floor. "Okay. One lockpicking coming right up." Except he didn't have picks. Unless his shoulder counted as a pick.

And then he stopped as he heard the sound of someone breathing. Just enough hesitation that Alois kicked the door down before he could get himself back together. Maybe he was hurt worse than he thought he was. Either way, the room also seemed to be open at the moment. Well if Catriona wasn't here then where- what was that? A quick look out the window showed him what Citron had seen, and while she was yelling he was running back across the floor to the master bedroom. No time to explain, just go. Feet beating the wooden floor hard enough that the others could probably hear him running all the way on the ground floor.

He tried to tear open the first window he reached, and when it refused to budge he considered breaking it- only to notice that there was a simple latch to open it up. Just this once, don't be like Link he thought to himself as he first dropped his lance out the window and then dropped himself out to land on the outside stairs. He landed hard, and he felt his bandages slipping on his chest under his... badly torn shirt. Ruined, really. Not a concern now! Grabbing his lance in one hand and flipping it around to have the tip back up, he got back to running after the man. And somewhere along the line his fine, noble shirt finally gave out. The shredded fabric tore under all of this and left him running after the man in naught but his boots, trousers, and the bandages over his now freshly bleeding wound.

"Come back here!" He shouted out in a voice that was starting to grow hoarse between the strenuous activity and lack of drink and blood, but even so he ran after the figure with the sack over his shoulder. The boy didn't register that he had help in stopping this one until he heard the telltale whistle of wings on the air, and caught sight of Peaches swooping in ahead of him and trying to pen the figure in from the front. Well, time to run up and try to get this one from behind. A bit of that madness he felt take him when he fought started to seep in, but he restrained himself from simply striking. Even so, it seeped into his tone this time. A desperate worry and anger that promised he was on the verge of making some truly foolish decisions.

"Alright. If you've got my friend in that sack, let her go. Hell if you've got anybody in that sack, let 'em go you Krampus-wannabe!"

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The cellar was cramped and musty and it was hard to see anything. Link blinked several times to help his eyes adjust to the dark, but he was disappointed by what he saw. The room was packed with swollen wooden kegs and dusty bottles of booze in racks along the wall. The smell from the sheer amount of alcohol stored in one place was almost overpowering, burning his nose, and he felt terribly guilty when Rohns buried his snout in the dirt. He couldn’t begin to imagine what the stench was like for a dog. Sorry bud, he thought, crouching down and rubbing his neck, I’ll try to hurry. Just gotta be thorough.

Link was almost certain the Princess was not in the cellar. In fact, he was shocked by how plain it was compared to the rest of the house. He was tempted to dismiss it and rush back to search on the upper floors with the others…but he had seen firsthand how quickly carelessness could put a person in hot water. 

With that in mind he swept through the basement. He pressed up against stones that looked out of place and any corners that might reveal a hidden entrance. He cracked open every single one of the kegs and checked by taste (a tiny drop on his finger) and scent that each one was full of nothing but spiced wine. He started to do the same with every bottle of what he discovered was liquor on the wall. These bottles had strange covers he didn’t recognize, and though he was by no means an expert, he knew that whatever was inside them was a very expensive liquor. Not the sort of thing the average person would be able to get ahold of, especially such a huge stock, because all the bottles seemed to be filled with the same thing. Link stuffed a few bottles in his backpack—wrapped up with a spare tunic to keep them from jostling—and made a mental note to ask Catriona if she knew anything about them. She had always been fond of her drink.

That was assuming, of course, that they found her. The thought brought him crashing down to reality. Despite all of his hard work Link had learned nothing useful in the past ten minutes. He had learned that Gaston was associated with some very wealthy people…which they had already guessed. He had discovered Catriona wasn’t in the cellar…which was next to no help in the grand scheme of things. The liquor might have been a hint of who was sponsoring Gaston…but it relied on the expertise of the one person who was currently missing. 

“Damn it!” Link screamed and slammed the bottle he was holding against the wall. Rohns jumped away to avoid the glass, yelping, and Link would have gone further if his attention hadn’t been captured by the fact that a parchment of paper tumbled from the shattered bottle to rest at his feet. “...” He sighed and bent down to pick the parchment up, then carefully stretched it out so that he could read it.

“Prune the shoot once you've partaken of the bitter fruit.” 

The soldier blinked once. Twice. A tiny cut above his eye was trickling blood now, a small drop of it landing on the paper. That broke him from his reverie and Link shoved the note into his pocket and wiped at his head. What could that have meant? Prune the shoot? Partaken in the bitter fruit of what? Link had heard talk of partaking in the “forbidden fruit” a few times at the border, but it was extremely unlikely that the two were related. For the first time in a very long time Link had a sinking feeling that he was in over his head. 

Rohns’ ears suddenly twitched. Link looked over at him and the wolf cub tasted the air a handful of times before suddenly making a beeline for the stairs. What? What’s going on? Link moved his hand to his sword and slowly followed the pup, but a second later a very familiar roar shook him so deeply he was sure he felt his rib cage rattle, and Link darted for the exit. He took the steps two at a time. Had they found Catriona? Was there a fight? What had caused the seemingly docile wyvern to make such a noise? Link was sure that he was going to find out soon because it sounded like it was just outside.

He reached the top and lowered his shoulder to use it to throw open the cellar doors to keep his sword hand free, but that was far from what happened. The doors bowed but refused to lift up, and all of his momentum caused Link to bounce off them and tumble back down the stairs. “. . . Hnngh… W..What?” His ears were ringing and it took him a few seconds to gather his wits about him. Peaches roared again and that cleared the fog from his mind, and with that he realized that something was wrong. The door was nowhere near heavy enough to cause him problems and he was certain he hadn’t tripped. No, someone had locked him in, and considering what he had done to the lock to get into the cellar, he was sure that someone must have used something to bar the door.

Link grit his teeth. How had he not noticed someone locking him inside? They must have snuck up during his temper tantrum, he realized, but he was at a loss for who it could have been. Had Princess Penelope let someone slip away? Had there been more people inside the house he had missed? No matter how you hacked it, someone had slipped past him. He had failed yet again.

Frustrated, he charged up the stairs and threw himself against the door again. He was more careful this time. The doors bowed under his strength but held firm. Link threw himself into them again, and again, and again. His shoulder throbbed and his vision swam but he kept throwing himself against the door. He thought for a moment he heard Edrick talking outside but he sounded delirious, which fueled his anger anew, and Link threw himself against the door even harder. Wood splintered above him. Blood dripped from the sleeve of his tunic, and Rohns was pitching a terrible fit behind him.

Link ignored it all and threw all of his weight and strength up into the door again. “Hiyagh!”

Edited by Cheshire Toon

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"Now would be the perfect time for your questions."

The invitation wasn't met with an immediate answer. Not because Raki's interest in questioning the man had wanted. Quite the contrary, in fact. Simply, the boy was paying so little attention to the conversation, that it took a few seconds for the meaning of the girl's words to cause a reaction.

In the meantime, Raki had been met with a disappointingly vague answer from the new arrival, who did not seem to share his archer companion propensity for long, perhaps exceedingly so, explanations. And before he could ask for clarifications, he had already called the armor knight to talk in private, while the improvised tourist trip made to proceed in another room. He hesitated for a moment, but then his priorities prevailed. He cared more about the reason he had come here, than to intrude in someone else's private conversation. Not to mention, it would have been quite rude.

Thus, as he followed into the dining hall, his goal was on his mind, but not the possibility of a chance coming so soon. It was a... nice dining hall, he guessed? As gaudy as the rest of the place, sure, but outside of the questionable bust it was almost restrained. Then again, Raki hardly had any experience in judging this kind of things. 'That bust however', Raki thought as he focused on that particular detail, 'How does it manage to be so unsettling'.

While so focused, as Penelope's invitation came, Raki did not react for a few seconds. Perhaps for the best, as it gave Gunther time to reappear in the door frame, sparing Raki the need to do it himself. He gave the two a grateful look before turning towards Hanikap.

What to start with? A problem to the unexpected start of the interrogation was the Raki suddenly found himself without a plan on how to approach things, nor did he have Penelope's seemingly hypnotic ability to drag the man into a conversation.
"Right, so." He approached the man. If nothing else, he wanted to make sure he had his attention. "I have a couple of things that I really need you to tell me."
 
Hanikap turned to Raki hesitantly. He broke into a nervous grin. "Er, questions, good sir? What sort of, uhh, questions?"
 
"Well, first" Raki opened "I'd like to know what business you have in the forest near the village."
 
Perhaps, someone more skilled with words would have been taken a subtler approach, but Raki wasn't that someone. Besides, he didn't want to lose time when he didn't know how much he had, and he didn't intend to play games when he had seen him with his own eyes there.
 
"B-B-Business, sir? I d-don't know what you mean."
 
As one could expect, the man was even less enthused about the situation, than he had been about his capabilities as a tour guide, moments before. His eyes were shifting between the three, staring nervously as he saw that any escape route was blocked. Hanikap began to gnaw on his lip.
 
Raki did not appreciate the answer. This... this person, was lying to his very face. He... he had to know that Raki knew he was lying... right? He had to, why did he think Raki would be asking such a thing otherwise? Did Hanikap think he was bluffing? Did he hope to convince Raki he was wrong, somehow? Or, more simply, he was just doing his best to lose time?
 
"I saw you. I was there and I saw you with my own eyes."
 
Whatever was the reason, the heart of the matter was that Hanikap wasn't answering. Someone he owed his life to had been, quite literally, thrown into a ditch, and the one who did it refused to even talk about it. Raki closed the distance, speaking again with a note of rage in his voice, before the man could try to answer again.
 
"I found Timmy trapped in a pit, and you threw him in."
 
Now Hanikap was well and truly panicking. "Y-you sure it was me?"
 
Raki had enough. "Yes!" he clawed at the man, grabbing Hanikap and dragging each other as close as the size of the servant allowed, hands clenched in rage on the fabric. "Yes, I'm sure!"
 
Hanikap's eyes widened, expressing every ounce of panic the man felt in an instant. For a moment, it looked as if he was going to tear himself away from Raki's clutches by fright alone. Then, he slumped, looking down.
 
Perhaps it was the sudden bout of aggression, perhaps not, but as the man spoke again, he appeared to have given up on trying to play ignorant.
 
"Sorry. Yer right, ah did--I mean, I did shove poor Timmy down the pit." Hanikap looked back up with a beseeching expression. "But, but it were the only choice. You gotta believe me! Honest!"
 
Admission, at last.
 
"And in what world throwing a boy into a hole is your only choice?" Still incensed, Raki lessened his grip, but still maintained a less than comfortable distance from the man.
 
"I panicked. Wasn't thinking straight. Lord Gaston was fixing to hurt the boy otherwise! Said he didn't want no word to be getting back on what he had--!" Hankap's own hand raised to shut his mouth, cutting short his panicked rumbling. His eyes somehow even wider than before. Raki could've sworn he was able to see his reflection head to toe in those.
 
"Lord Gaston?" 'Oh, that's much easier than Plaia-something' "Of what did he want no word? And were would he be now?"
 
As far as Raki knew, Hanikap could've been still lying. Timmy had told him that If had been Hanikap that had found him,making no mention of the other... but it was true that the owner of this house had been there too. He should have asked Timmy. That didn't change that fact that this... this individual had thrown him into the quarry but...
 
"I shouldn't say, shouldn't say."
 
The momentum of the interrogation had stopped. Hanikap was shaking his head, seemingly more worried about talking than anything else.
 
Raki made a step back, looking at Penelope and Gunther. Exhausted the direct approach, he didn't really know how, and had not been able, to get more answers from the man, if that was even possible.
Edited by Arkars

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Penelope, Gunther, and Raki

"Shouldn't say, shouldn't say…" Hanikap repeated himself in a low mumble.

The group might have been able to press the man for more information. But before they could, a familiar roar shook the walls, followed by the clatter of metal pans falling to the floor in the kitchen. Hanikap tore himself free and bolted under the table. "It's that flying thing again!" he shouted. "It's gonna eat us all!"

Alois and Citron

The roar reached all the way to the open window in the guest bedroom. Anybody still watching could see Peaches, wings outstretched to bar the way, while a maroon-clad figure glanced between her and the bleeding form of Edrick. They would also bear witness to the following scene.

Edrick (and Peaches)

Edrick would not recognize the man in front of him, however, he would recognize the expression he wore well enough. Arrogance and contempt. An amusing sight on one who looked a little worse for wear himself. Flyaway strands had escaped his neatly slicked-back ponytail, and dirt had smudged his otherwise spotless silks. "Pah! As if I would hand my lady over to a Pontic rapscallion!" He sniffed, seemingly unconcerned about his situation. But another glance told why.

By the time the lancer arrived, the man had already dropped the human-sized sack beside him. Leaving both hands free to aim a large hunting bow straight at Peaches. Edrick was too late to stop the arrow that flew toward the wyvern and embedded itself in her chest.

"Were I less abstracted, I could have aspired for the eye." The man sighed and scooped up the sack. Then, without hesitation, he bull rushed the wyvern.

Link

Belowground, Link would hear most of the goings-on outside. However, with the cellar doors barred, he could not leave and join the activity himself.

Tsetseg

Acantha rolled her eyes at Cora's "not bad folk" but didn't protest, an action which Cora would know to mean reluctant agreement. Phai giggled.

The redhead sent her cousin a withering look before turning back to Cora and Tsetseg. "Okay, so Pylauses and Hanikap. Gotcha." She frowned. Unlike Phai, she didn't seem surprised, just concerned. "I suppose you're right. We need to move." She sighed, then looked at Phai. "How much good do you expect to be without your horse?" Cora was next. "You too. Remember, as cavaliers, our horses are half of our fighting power. Phai, meet back up with Frey. We'll grab Abel on the way. Right now, I'm going to go get Cain."

Phai nodded and mouthed a "Be back soon" to Tsetseg before haring off down the street.

Acantha hurried to the house, leaving the door open, and soon enough both Cora and Tsetseg could hear whining from inside.

"We wanna go wiv ya!"

"Wiv ya."

"Oh, be quiet! Just sit still and behave, okay? I'll be right back."

"No way! Us too!"

"Way!"

"Argh! Stop tackling me! No, you're not allowed to come, okay?! Dinner's already made, so just eat and then go to bed."

It seemed like it would take Acantha a little longer than expected to get ready.


OOC

Spoiler

Things are starting to boil over. Whoever this man is, it doesn't look like he'll go down without a fight. Meanwhile, Hanikap's parted with some information, but maybe not as much information as we wanted. Link is trapped in the cellar, and Tsetseg is waiting on her allies to get their butts in gear.

Edited by Sethera

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Citron’s heart sunk as she watched the scene unfold. Even as Peaches arrived to help, something had seemed off; most cowered at a wyvern of any size before a bone-chilling roar, and yet… The ‘lord’ below had stayed strong. She felt her frozen blood begin to flow with the need for action however, as her suspicions were proven right, and he dropped the sack to heft a hunting bow. “Peaches!” she shouted, eyes going wide as she found herself moving without thinking--

And climbing out the window.

It started with one leg, and then both as she began to slide out from the window, using her good arm to catch the window-sill and hang for a moment, getting her bearings before releasing. The roof below was close enough that her legs only rattled a bit, wincing as she took a deep breath and used the momentum from the fall to slide downward from the sloped roof. At the last moment, she found herself jumping and bracing herself as she hurtled towards the ground, using her good shoulder to tuck into a roll rather than force the full brunt of this fall onto her leg, even if it triggered another array of pain from her sling-bound shoulder.

Still, she had to move.

While her first reaction would have been to run the man down as soon as she came to her feet, she was caught off guard as the sickening piercing noise of an arrow, lodging itself in its prey echoed out - followed by a pained screech that she knew all too well. “Peaches!” She found herself repeating, heart sinking as she rose to glance towards Wyvern, staggering from the arrow in its chest--

And fear took hold, as she glanced at the man who hefted the bag with little care began to move again.

He was much stronger than she had thought. Glancing around, she looked for something-- Any way to be of use, as a thrashing noise brought her attention towards the cellar door. “C’mon, c’mon, please--” she murmured to herself, voice stricken with panic as she rushed towards the Cellar-door. It was jammed shut with a wooden board as a familiar voice, Lincoln’s, she thought, struggled to escape. With a quick grab, and heavy pull, she yanked the door open as she pulled herself quickly to the side, panting as she looked up towards the Soldier who had come practically flying out.

“Y-You! You gotta help-- You have to stop him! He-He shot Peaches! She’s hurt and he’s--! I can’t--” she’d point, tears forming at the corner of her eyes as the futility of her own actions came crashing down around her. “Please,” she paused, voice stammering as she glanced up towards the soldier again, even as he seemed nothing like she had known him to be prior.

Up until now, she had regarded Lincoln as a a clean, proper soldier, someone who was… Controlled, neutral. It reminded her of her grandfather, in a way, that he never seemed angry or annoyed. Worried maybe, like in the house, but not angry, seething; something he… Most certainly was here. A ‘mess’ only really began to describe what she saw, eyes flickering from the blood on his forehead, to the splinters in his shoulder. All signs of neutrality had flaked away too, as a sword had flicked away from its sheathe in an instant, and was pointed at… Her.

But still, this was her only hope, and so she stared down the blade with tears beginning to fall from her eyes. “Please-- Stop him,” she pleaded, panicked eyes for an instant meeting his own violent eyes, before he took off--

A single set of words being the only hope she had to cling to, at this point.

"I'll handle it."

---

Of all the stupid things humans did, Peaches had seen… Well, more than her fair-share, since she had fought alongside Citron’s Grandfather. And yet, every time, the wyvern found herself surprised as humans continually pushed their luck against creatures magnitudes larger than themselves. Still, the knowledge of how stupid an idea it was to test her did nothing to absolve the pain her chest as an arrow parted scales, wrenching a pained screech from her as she staggered back, and the portly man made for some comment she couldn’t understand.

His bull-rush however, she understood perfectly.

Angered by the blow, she once again opened her jaws even as blood leaked from around the arrow in her chest, lumbering forward as she lunged towards the rushing man with her jaws splayed wide in an attempt to bite him… Only to fail, as the top of his skull met the bottom of her jaw, snapping her jaws shut with a crack of teeth on teeth as she was sent stumbling backwards. The wyvern’s head buzzed with pain, and yet as her vision focused she watched as he attempted to move on unbothered, attempting to run past even now.

Sic ‘Em!

The command echoed again in her mind as she turned her neck to glance towards the fiend, entire body shaking with a mixture of pain and rage… As she swung her entire body to the side in a heavy motion, a single wing flapping with a heavy-beat as she threw her entire body towards him like a battering ram in a single, sobering moment, as she ever tried to fulfill the command she was given.

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BGM

 

“I’ll handle it.”

Link had learned to avoid platitudes and pointless reassurances. Especially the kind that he knew he might not be able to follow through on. But Citron had seemed so fearful for the safety of her wyvern and it had evoked such painful memories of Epona that he offered her comforting words without realizing what he was doing. 

Save Peaches. Save Catriona. Save Edrick and then buy him a damn shirt. Be the soldier they all think you are. Link knew the moment to make good on all the promises he made to himself was upon him. He pushed his worries and fears away and donned the familiar mask of the soldier; he let the burning hot anger overtake him and he charged at Gaston. Darius would have scolded me for letting him live before. Mercy just gave someone a chance to come back for revenge. None of this would have happened if I had just ended him up there in that stupid room full of birds. All of this could have been prevented.

“GASTON!” His voice sounded foreign to his own ears. It was harsh and powerful and seemed to hang in the air and fill the space like a peal of thunder. He drew the Iron Sword back and sprang toward the man; he was aiming to slice the arm that was holding the bag completely off. Gaston was surprisingly nimble. He plucked Link out of the air by the collar and threw him into the path of the wyvern who had lunged at him. 

Link tucked and rolled out of the way. Peaches just barely sailed past him without separating his head from his shoulders. Link narrowed his eyes and glared at the man. His face was clearly full of hatred and his eyes could have been mistaken for two frozen daggers, the way he seemed to be trying to stab them into Gaston. “I told you what would happen if you touched her. I warned you not to try anything.” Link closed the distance between them. He was holding his sword with both hands now, his grip on the hilt so tight that his knuckles turned white. Without any warning he stepped forward and jabbed the razor-sharp tip of his sword at the other man’s throat. It was a well-aimed strike and would surely have ended the fight then and there if Gaston had been an honorable man.

But he was certainly anything but that. He immediately shielded himself with his bag. Link barely managed to stop his sword before he would have pierced it. Shit. Shit. I really just almost killed Catriona. His hand imperceptibly started to shake. Calm down. I need to calm down. I can’t get emotional right now. They need me here. They need my best. I’ll never be able to catch him as long as he has her hostage. Think…

Link drew his lips back in a snarl that revealed his canines. He was beginning to look more wolf than man. "I was right about you. I should have killed you up in that room. So scared and unimportant that you have to hide behind a girl instead of facing me like a man. Pathetic."

Gaston sniffed. "You're the commiserable one. You can't outfight me, so you're resorting to words. But," he backs away. "Whether it be in colloquy, or bouts, I am superincumbent."

Link shifted to block his path. “Can’t outfight you?” He reached down for the Slag Blade on his hip and threw it onto the ground between the two of them. “Prove it. I’m Garou. Put down the bag and beat me in a duel and they’ll whisper your name far and wide. I’ll even give you one of my swords…unless you were bluffing.”  Link had him. He could see it in his eyes. The man looked between Link and the slag blade several times, sizing his opponent up and weighing his options. It was just like before. His pride was more important than anything else. All he had to do was put the bag down and it would all be over. Link had no intention of honoring the duel—in fact, he hated duels—but once Gaston and Catriona were separated they could overwhelm the man and free the princess and everything would be over. 

Gaston loosened his grip on the bag and stepped forward to reach for the Slag Blade. Link very carefully hid his excitement. If they had been left to their own devices, the whole situation might very well have ended then and there…but it seemed certain people had other plans.

Link saw a glint of light out of the corner of his eye. Most would have dismissed it as nothing but he knew it well. The glint of the sun shining on metal. A hail of what took him a minute to realize were kitchen knives rained down between them. Link shielded his face but a few of them hit him in the stomach and chest. They were hardly sharp enough to pierce through his mail, but he felt every impact and knew that in the morning he would be terribly sore. Gaston on the other hand was miraculously fine. Not a single knife had struck him and, aside from looking very angry for a split second, he seemed unharmed. 

Then he turned and ran. Link darted after him. Gaston was the taller of the two but with such a heavy bag slung over his shoulder the distance between them was rapidly closing. Link reached out—Just a little more. Hang on Cat!—and his fingers grazed the bag, but Gaston turned in a very sharp manner and sprinted straight for Peaches. Link stumbled and was left behind.

Despair almost overwhelmed him. He had failed to protect his friend. Link almost dropped to his knees on the spot. They had a competent assassin. Someone who could throw a volley of knives silently and accurately. Who could sneak up on him. And Gaston himself had proven much more competent than Link had ever given him credit for. His hubris and his incompetence had resulted in Catriona being taken and he had stood there and failed to do anything. 

Then he saw Edrick. Delirious from blood loss, completely shirtless, but very obviously still trying to fight. And Citron. Crippled and watching what she thought was the death of her oldest friend, but still fighting to free him and find help. Relying on him. How could he give up when the others were still fighting?

So many thoughts in just a split second. But it had been enough to save him from spiraling down into the darkness again. 

Link surged forward and chased after Gaston. He was careful to avoid being baited into running into Peaches again, this time, and he called over his shoulder, “Find the others Citron! Get help! And get your ass over here Edrick! I’ll keep whoever threw those knives off you but I can’t catch up to him!” The boy had once told him he had walked across a whole country in the Winter. Link wasn’t sure if that was true but what he was certain of was that Edrick was much faster than he was, and now they needed him to put that speed to good use.

---------------------

Rohns struggled to climb out of the basement. The way out was steep and Green Wolf had lifted him into it the first time. When he finally did manage to climb out, which he was quite proud of himself for, Green Wolf had run off. The person outside was one of the new wolves to the pack. Rohns wasn't really sure who she was but his nose told him that she was female and she had been the one to let them out. And now she was crying!

Then he heard Green Wolf shouting at them. Telling them to find the others. Rohns grabbed ahold of the hem of the lady's skirt and pulled as hard as he could, trying to drag her to his feet. Then he bounded towards the door on the side of the building. He knew! He knew where the rest of the pack was! He could take her like Green Wolf wanted! And that would make her stop smelling so salty and sad. 

Edited by Cheshire Toon

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Penelope hadn't expected the young man to be so aggressive. But she couldn't help but approve in this situation. She didn't like violence particularly but, as he hadn't actually hurt him, she figured he could get a pass. Plus it had worked to loosen the man up decently well. He had been close to spilling some secrets it felt. Right before she was about to press for more she heard the noise.

A wyvern. As far as she knew the only wyverns belonged to her new companions so this almost certainly boded ill for them.

"It's that flying thing again!" he shouted. "It's gonna eat us all!"

Hanikap seemed to not react well to the noise and at first Penelope thought any further questioning would be in vain but then a thought came to mind and she almost smiled.

"We should see what's the matter, this could be trouble." Gunther said suddenly and she glanced back at him. He wore a worried expression which Penelope wasn't sure was for them or for the wyvern itself.

-

Gunther hadn't expected the young man to be so aggressive. But he couldn't help but disapprove in this situation. He didn't think that being so violent with the clearly weak-willed man was, well, fair. As silly as that might sound as he knew that the man had been ready to hurt a child....

His conflict ended suddenly as he heard the wyvern. He realized almost immediately it was Peaches and could only imagine it meant there was something going on out there. It was possible someone was attacking the wyvern. In which case....

"We should see what's the matter, this could be trouble."

Penelope looked at him and he realized what she was about to say before she said it. "You two go on then. I...wish to remain here for a bit. I'll be fine on my own don't worry."

There was no way that Gunther would leave the younger princess in the home of the man who may have already harmed the elder. While he wanted to see what was happening he even more wanted to be sure no harm came to her. Especially after that conversation with Link. He wasn't about to let both of them be endangered in the same day. "I won't leave you here on your own."

-

Penelope had expected Gunther to protest and protest he did. "I won't leave you here on your own."

She wasn't about to leave when she was so close to learning the truth of the situation. Yet she also knew that whatever was happening out there must be important. So she was about to insist that he go but one look at the grim expression that Gunther very likely didn't know he was even wearing stopped her. "Very well then, I'll try and make this quick."

She turned back to Hanikap and followed him to the kitchen. Crouching down to get closer to his level she said, "no no don't you worry, I'm sure it won't get inside. And it's not like we would, say, toss you out to it just because you didn't answer our question. On another note, are you sure you can't tell us?"

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Raki was just slightly less startled than Hanikap as the roar echoed inside the dining hall, even if his reaction was much more subdued in comparison. Less of a "we'll all die" run and more a "who in Inera's name let a new arrival out" turn of the head. Not that he was very happy about being nearby an angry wyvern, especially after what had happened that day, but at the very least the scream wasn't Garinphasia's. Of that much, he was sure.

On the other hand, he thought while Hanikap darted away beyond his ability to react, 'I know of only another wyvern in the area.'

Worse yet, the roar had sounded... pained.

"We should see what's the matter, this could be trouble."

Raki was inclined to agree, but...

His eyes fixated on the trembling figure of Hanikap, under the kitchen's table. Between Raki's own assault before, and then this, it made for quite the pitiful spectacle. And yet.

Raki felt his anger swell again, after the shock of Peaches roar. And yet, this same frightened man was the one responsible fro putting Timmy in danger. By his own admission, and by his own hand. He couldn't just leave.

"You two go on then. I...wish to remain here for a bit. I'll be fine on my own don't worry."

"I won't leave you here on your own."

Raki made to open his mouth. He couldn't go, he had to... to...

What did he mean to do? Sure, he had obtained a confession... and that was it. Even without the man hiding under a table, he had not known how to proceed from there. But still, that didn't feel right... there had to be something he could do.

What had he come here for? In the end, his plan had begun and ended with confronting the one who hurt Timmy. What then? Tell others? Tell Timmy? Arrest him, somehow?

"Very well then, I'll try and make this quick."

He wasn't alone in thinking things weren't yet over. He looked at the girl, now going towards the table, and followed behind her knight. One planned to keep up the questioning, and judging from her calm tone and gentle words, she had much clearer ideas on how to go about it, compared to Raki's emotion-driven attempt. The knight, for his part, had no intention of leaving his companion alone. Raki... Raki had little to do in there, but to listen.

And he wanted to listen. Looking at the bizarre scene, a young girl talking to a man hidden under a table, it felt wrong to simply leave. He wanted to hear what was said, even though he didn't really know what he wanted, just that he was furious with the man.

But even Raki knew that he could only contribute in scaring the man more. He had personally attacked him. Not very helpful with what was being attempted at the moment.

"I'll..." He lowered his voice as the turned to Gunther. "I'll go check out what's happening"

He then proceeded to see if there was a window in the kitchen, from which he could get a good view of what was outside, before he moved out of the house. The roars seemed to have come from this side of the house, and he wasn't very keen on getting a surprise greeting from the same wyvern, twice in a day.

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Things moved fast, a little faster than Edrick had been prepared to deal with. He was expecting the man to do the sensible thing and surrender when he was caught between an armed man and a Wyvern, and yet... well even if this Gaston figure wasn't much of a noble he was certainly tasty in a fight. A shot to the Wyvern's chest, a headbutt to the underside of her jaw, and apparently he had help from somewhere. Someone throwing kitchen knives after them before the "noble" started running. Well at least this was something he could act on!

Before Link had even finished shouting for him he was running. Boot-clad feet pounding against the ground as all the complications of the past week melted away from his mind. The fresh wounds on his chest? He might as well not have had them. The stress over being far from home? He forgot it in the moment. Questions about his faith and his place in it? None of that mattered in the face of what was happening right now. He'd been too slow to keep a thief from stealing Elba off his farm. He was not going to be too slow to stop Catriona being kidnapped.

"Rapscallion, huh?!" He shouted afterwards as he bolted down the street after the maroon-clad bastard. "I guess you're as bad at judging character as you are with language!" He didn't think that was going to do much, but even the slightest distraction one way or another was hopefully enough for him. And as soon as he managed to get in reach of the older man? Well then he was just going to keep things simple. No stabbing, no sweeping, nothing with the lance at all actually. He just planned to run up and tackle him to the ground.

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Penelope and Gunther

“Y-you really won’t toss me outside?” Hanikap whimpered. “It’s so scary out there. Lord Gaston, the scary flying thing, the wolfydog…” He held his head. “I just… Just wanted to be better, is all. In a better situation. I thought, if I followed Lord Gaston, some of what he had would rub off on me.” He licked his lips, slipping back into his accent. “I ain’t meant for things to get this bad. And now I… I just…” The man sniffled. “I jes’ wanna forget this e’er happened!” He glanced between both Penelope and Gunther. “If’n you can promise to protect me afterward, ‘specially from that angry-lookin’ boy just now. I’ll tell ye everyfing I know. But it ain’t much, I tells ya.”

 

Alois

First, Edrick ran out of the room and entered the master bedroom to climb down the window there. Then Citron clambered out of the window in the smaller bedroom they stood in, landing on the roof of the dovecote below and leaving Alois alone up top.

Edrick’s way was safer. Citron’s way was faster. It did not take a sage to guess which way Alois would choose. He vaulted out of the window to drop directly onto the roof below. Before the fighter could finish the leap to the ground; he saw another person near the roof he stood on.

An unfamiliar young woman with her hair tied up in a bonnet climbed up the side of the wall, arms and legs spread wide like a spider. She held up a hand with several kitchen knives fanning out like silver claws before she threw them all at once down on the ground. A brief flash of satisfaction crossed her face when Link shielded his own face, but she spared no further time to gloat. Instead, she took that opportunity to climb directly below where Alois was standing. The woman cast the boy a quick glance but said nothing, swinging into the window like a trapeze artist and closing the door.

 

Raki

The first thing Raki saw upon entering the kitchen was the notable lack of the woman, Dille, who was here before. Next was the knife rack lying on its side, empty of knives. Lastly was the window to his left, swung ajar and shaking slightly from the vibrations caused by the motions outside. Were he to look out and up, he might glimpse the same woman Alois had seen, and perhaps recognize her. But the kerfuffle outside the window was more likely to seize his attention.

 

Edrick, Link, and Citron

Miscreant (Intro) - Fire Emblem Awakening

Edrick was fast catching up with Pylauses Gaston, but the man did not have the look of a wounded deer fleeing from the hounds. He did not snort in fear, his eyes did not roll backward, he did not even gasp for breath. No, instead his eyes were dark and glittering with anticipation. He was the hound.

Perhaps that should have been the first sign that something was off. But his blustery demeanor had thrown everybody off. A fool is a fool, and not to be taken seriously. That is what everybody says.

He reached Peaches, but instead of balking, he pivoted to let her stand between him and his pursuers, dropping both bow and sack. And then, he grabbed each of her legs, one giant hand per leg, and lifted.

Miscreant - Fire Emblem Awakening

For a second, the man stopped. It looked as if the weight of the wyvern would be too much. But then he clenched his teeth, his muscles bulging with the effort. Peaches ascended into the air outside of her own volition. Pylauses’s eyes turned bloodshot from the effort as, with one last roar, he held the wyvern above his head, shirt ripping open and falling from his torso in tatters. The group then beheld the full extent of Gaston's strength. He was built like a boulder, his waist showing off a six-pack. The man’s body shook from the effort of holding Peaches up. He roared again, spittle flying from his mouth as his muscles bunched in anticipation. And then, with a savage heave, he threw the wyvern at both Link and Edrick.

Even if the two avoided the throw, they would lose precious time in doing so. Time enough for Pylauses to surge forward in this game of hunter and hunted.

Gaston did not stop to look and see if Peaches smashed into either of the two. The man, now gasping for breath, picked up both bow and sack and continued to run.

It didn’t take long before he reached one of his horses—the lighter, cream-colored one. The silver bay snorted and stepped away as soon as it saw its owner, hoof kicking out. The man growled and bound the sack to the other horse. He vaulted over the side and clumsily planted himself in the saddle. Pylauses backed the horse out of the open stable and whipped the reins forward with one hand, the other still holding the bow. The horse whinnied and raced forward like the wind given physical form.

Gaston was getting away.

 

Tsetseg (and Cora)

Acantha hurried into her house, and for a long, tense minute, it was just Cora and Tsetseg standing outside. And then the girl exited, a scowl on her face, before hurrying to the back. A few minutes later, she returned atop a handsome chestnut stallion. “Let’s go. Phai will catch up soon.”

The redhead matched the others’ speed, and her hands loosely gripped the reins, but the crease in her brows bespoke her impatience.

Eventually, Cora’s house came into view again. Only her father, Posostro, stood in front of them now. “Heyo, I see you found Acantha!” He smiled. “The missus went off to gather the rest of the militia. They’ll be guardin’ the other way, in case this is a ruse or summat. So you can have no worries. The village’ll be well-protected.”

“Well, I suppose that’s the least she could do, as head of the militia,” Acantha muttered.

Posostro laughed. “As sharp-tongued as ever. Yer mother chose well in namin’ ye.”

Acantha flushed. “That’s…” She glared. “Never mind. Just hurry and get Abel!”

The man chuckled and left, returning soon after with Abel in hand. “Here,” he held her reins out to Cora. “He’s all yours.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get going already,” Acantha snapped, then turned to Tsetseg. “You’ll slow us down if you remain on foot for much longer. Get on a horse with one of us. Pick whichever!”


OOC

I'm back!

Edited by Sethera

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Link was a few feet behind both Gaston and Edrick when everyone suddenly stopped. He caught up to them a second later to discover the cause—Gaston had grabbed Peaches’ legs and lifted her above his head. The bag! Gaston had dropped it when he had grabbed the wyvern. It was the perfect opportunity to grab it. Yet Link thought of Citron, teary-eyed and begging him to do something to help the wyvern, and he hesitated, torn between darting for the bag and helping Peaches.

The moment of indecision meant the choice was made for him. Gaston strained, frothing at the mouth, and launched the wyvern.

Link was not sure what Edrick was thinking. The boy could have been attempting to catch Peaches, or cushion her fall, or maybe he was just too stunned by the herculean display of strength to move. The end result was that he was about to be crushed by several hundred pounds of scales.

The soldier threw himself forward and sent them both sprawling to the ground with only seconds to spare. Peaches flew over their prone bodies and landed a few feet behind them. 

Link groaned and rolled off of Edrick. His head throbbed painfully. His shoulder ached. When he pressed his hand to it to relieve the pain, the skin felt more like ground beef than flesh. Even the spots where the knives had bounced off of his mail were starting to hurt. Gotta... get up... Gotta... help Cat... He could see Gaston trying to mount a horse—Epona?—in the distance, but his vision was swimming. The horse kicked at him and snorted and Gaston gave up and jumped on the back of the smaller horse, throwing the sack up into the saddle with him.

Link grabbed one of his cheeks and pinched. Hard. The sharp pain cut through the mental fog and he managed to gather his wits and stumble to his feet. 

BGM

"GASTON!" he roared. His anger was back and with it the adrenaline that kept him going. Link stopped only long enough to snatch his sword from the ground where it had fallen and sprinted to where the other horse was still tied up.

It regarded him with a snort. Link was once again struck by the resemblance it bore to his Epona. The same distinctly beautiful coloring and the same regal bearing, the same intelligent shine behind the eyes. Link pinched his thigh this time to push down the memories that threatened to sweep him away. "Can you help me catch him?" he said plainly.

The horse stared at the soldier and blew his lips. Spittle landed on Link’s face. It wasn’t a no. "I'll give you anything. Apples. Carrots. Sugar cubes." The horse seemed to perk up at one of the words. Link couldn’t tell which. Epona had loved carrots; maybe they shared that too.

Unfortunately, the silver bay was not wearing a saddle. Fortunately, Link knew how to ride without one. He reached for the horse’s neck slowly and without any sudden movements. 

The bay seemed hesitant at first but then lowered his head and allowed Link to pat his neck. Link steeled himself, took a deep breath, and with a grunt of effort, pulled himself onto the silver bay’s back. The reaction was immediate. The bay whinnied and reared back on his hind legs. Link held on for dear life, careful to not pull any hair and mostly relying on the strength of his thighs to keep him mounted, keeping the hand holding his sword well away from the horse. It was a skill he had spent a decade practicing. "Hii-ya!"

The horse kicked his front legs in the air for what felt like an eternity but could only have been a few seconds. Link’s thigh muscles burned and his wrist felt like it was going to break off from the strain that he was putting them through after so long, but just when he was going to slip, the horse landed. 

And then they were off. Link would have whooped with joy if it weren’t for the situation. Instead, he leaned forward and urged the horse to go faster.

I won't be too slow. Not this time. 

Edited by Cheshire Toon

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The words - or rather instructions - that had been shouted at her echoed around her as she stood, stock-still, watching events unfold in front of her. Despite everything, despite everything, as Citron had turned around to watch Lincoln surge into action-- as she had watched him take knives to the arm, as she had watched Edrick give chase with him, and Peaches continue to try and uphold her duty… She felt powerless, unable to get her legs moving beneath her, unable to move from her spot as she watched everything go wrong; even as the wolf-pup tugged and tore at her dress, trying to bring her to move. “N-No…” she murmured, voice catching in her throat as she brought a shaking hand to her mouth--

As she watched the man they had been chasing lift the Wyvern over his head, tearing his shirt to shreds in the process, as he began to foam at the mouth. For a second, she had hoped this would finally be what did him in; that, in some way, she and Peaches had been helpful, that they would have stopped him. But that second was over far too quickly, as with a strength she couldn’t even begin to fathom, he… Threw Peaches. In one fell swoop, in one motion, hurled the Wyvern forwards, and towards Edrick and Lincoln, as if she was no more than a heavy rock.

Citron’s legs began to move before she was even aware of it, breaking from the wolf-pup's hold as the Wyvern soared through the air and over the two men, only to land, hard, on her side behind them with a loud and painful screech. “No!” Citron repeated as what had been a few unsteady steps, turned to a sprint past the two men as they moved, and to the Wyvern’s side, running a hand over the pained lizard’s side. “It’s- It’s okay,” she tried to comfort the Wyvern through her own tears, patting the side of her scales as she tried not to look at the arrow in her chest, blood oozing out from around the scales as she traced a hand over the Wyvern’s side. “It’s going to be okay, they’ll-- I’m sure someone can help me treat you, you’re going to be-”

She was cut off, as the Wyvern began to thrash, scales contorting around muscle as the Wyvern began to thrash the wing that was against the ground outwards; trying to push herself into a roll, as she struggled to get up. “Scr… Ree…!” The Wyvern shrieked as loud as she could manage, as she tried to get back to her haunches-- to get back to her feet, as she sought to complete her goal still; heedless of the way the world spun around her, heedless of the way her chest ached, heedless of her own safety, as she had still failed to complete the task given to her-

“Stop,” Citron managed to bark out, voice a mix of hoarse from tears, and firm; knowing it was the only way. “You’re done, alright? You- You did well,” she tried to force a smile to her face as she knelt down, and brought both hands to wrap around the Wyvern’s head, as she tried to restrain them. “You’ve done so well-- You just… I just need you to stop, and stay still,” she murmured. “I need you to be okay.”

It took a moment.

It took a few moments, even.

But Peaches followed the order she was given, thrashing body coming to a slow, but steady, stop, as she laid on her side. The pain was clearer to the Wyvern now, as the Adrenaline began to wear off; as Citron did her best to soothe her, and as the pain of defeat sunk into the Wyvern’s pride. Citron could say she had won all she wanted; Citron could say a lot of things, and Peaches would generally understand their meaning. But here… All Peaches could truly understand was that she had failed-- That she was hurt, and to try and help while hurt, would cause Citron more trouble.

And that was enough for her to settle for defeat this time, as she closed her eyes, and listened to the girl’s platitudes.

Edited by Tiamat's Circus

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Penelope didn't let it show but she was starting to feel bad for this pitiful creature. She glanced over at Gunther and almost sighed. He, it seemed, didn't have any qualms about letting it show.

Gunther started to step closer, to perhaps put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and Penelope shook her head to stop him.

He was scared and he needed to be scared. If he wasn't then he might realize that were they going to actually harm him they'd have done it already.

"Go on then, tell me whatever you can."

"G-Gaston, he ain't be trustin' me much. Jes' has me doing the odd jobs around." Hanikap sniveled. "I did so much fer 'im, an' he always took me fer granted!"

The man sighed. "But I can tells ya what I do be knowin'. 'Specially now that he's left me behind."

"He was sent here cuz of some 'Lord' or other nobleman. Said 'e was distantly related to him which made 'im a lord too. I jes' said yes cuz it made 'im happy. He never told me what the lord wanted him t'do, but I'm not stoopid. He kept askin' me t'watch the mayor. Said he wanted t'know if'n there was aught there. Well I was snuck into the house all stealthlike, but then I got turned into a rat. Followed y'all when ya found the secret tunnel, an' saw the fight with that stone wyvern." He shivered. "That thing was right scary. I told Pylauses 'bout it, an' he got all excited, sayin' he knew it! That the mayor was hidin' something all along. See, Lord Pylauses ain't never been invited to the secret meetings the mayor holds, an' me neither, though I've been born and bred here in Phar. I guess the mayor never trusted the likes of me." The man drooped.

So there was, at least according to Gaston, some noble involved with this. Meaning they wanted something that this village was keeping hidden? She already had some idea what it could be but, if that was the case, then why would they resort to an idiot like Gaston of all things?

"Pylauses, he said tha' the plans could move forward now, and he'd go sendin' off a bird as soon as he could t'report to that lord o' his. He also said he'd report 'bout some princess or other. Er, I think he meant your sister? Wait, does that make you a princess?"

Penelope gave a tiny smile. Why yes being sister to a princess meant you were a princess well done. She didn't say anything and Hanikap began to stammer even more and ramble,

"Er, beggin' yer pardon, yer Royal Tallness, er, no, Royal High Knees?"

Despite the situation Penelope couldn't help herself. She let the man ramble on for a while, coming up with increasingly odd, and unintentionally rude at times, titles for her. Finally Gunther gently tapped her "Er, Penelope...perhaps we should stop him? I worry he'll fall completely apart before he's told us everything at this rate."

"Ah, yes, I suppose you're right. Too much fun can be a bad thing. Excuse me, but, you can stop that now. Please continue."

"Er, if'n it's all right, then, uhh, well, yer Royalness, er, where was I?" He held his chin while squinting his eyes in thought. "Hmm, oh! Right! So Pylauses was goin' off about how he'd soon be able to end his stint 'ere and go off to bigger an' better things. That the lord would 'commend him to the king fer a knightship--no, lordship. Which I don't get, since he keeps callin' himself a lord an' all. An' then he was singing fer a while, goin' 'Mine, mine, mine!' I jes' let him sing. But then that's when Timmy came by. Pylauses wouldn't 'ear of lettin' him off, said he'd hafta kill the boy. Not sure if'n it was cuz he heard about the plans or heard Gaston's singing. So's I panicked and pushed 'im in the hole." He sighed. "Timmy's always been nice t'me. I didn't want 'im to die. I just did what I thought best. Told Lord Gaston that he weren't able to tell nobody now. An' Gaston were in a hurry anyhow so we just left him behind."

Gunther stiffened at the mention of the boy. So this man truly would have killed a child just to prevent even a risk of being found out. It seemed that he wasn't just a fool but also a true villain. Gunther became more and more anxious about Catriona but he knew he couldn't afford to leave Penelope even if the only other person here was perhaps the least threatening person he had ever seen.

Penelope for her part was more curious about the 'commend him to the king' part. It seemed ridiculous to think that his actions would be in any way commendable. Perhaps it was just Gaston's foolishness or...

"Well, we got back an' Lord Pylauses sent off a bird to the lord. I don't think he expected yer sister t'come here but he was--er, static? He was static 'bout her. Said he'd get a good reward fer sure fer bringin' her to the lord. Sounded like she was e'en more important than his original job or whatnot. So right 'bout now, he's pro'lly plannin' to take her to the lord." Hanikap sniffled. "I asked 'im earlier if'n he was bringin' me too. All that talk o' gold an' riches, but ain't none fer me, I guess. An' here I worked me back off fer 'im too." Hanikap began to grumble which prompted Penelope to ask if that was everything, and if was absolutely certain.

"Yeah, 'tis all!" he nodded frantically. "Swear on me mum's grave, an' that's a serious swear." He held his hand up to his heart. "Naow please don't be lettin' tha' scary man at me! He's... scary!"

Penelope sighed. "One last thing and I'll be sure to, uh, keep the scary man away. That woman earlier, what does she have to do with all this?" Gunther looked over at Penelope, confused what involvement a simple maid might have in this situation.

"What woman? Ya mean Dille?" Hanikap scratched his head. "I ain't be knowin' much 'bout her. She came wiv Pylauses. Guess she was 'is maid or summat? She ain't one fer talkin' though. I tried sayin' hello a few times, but she usually jes' ignored me. Feel bad fer her. She's always workin', always got her head down, never talks to nobody. Some o' the villagers gossip 'bout her. Say it ain't right fer a girl to live alone wiv a man, but I ain't never seen her do nothin' like that. She's a good girl. Jes' 'ere t'do her job."

Gunther shook his head, "People do like to talk...If only they could just try and understand..." The answer brought a feeling of sympathy to Gunther. He knew well how rumors like this could spread and how they could affect someone.

However Penelope seemed to get something else from it. She straightened suddenly. "Thank you for your help, I'll be sure to let my father know that you did what you could for me. Gunther, come."

Gunther was startled by the suddenness. He turned towards Hanikap and gave him a shaky smile. "Just be sure to be careful...who you give your loyalty to, in the future." He then followed Penelope into the hallway. "Did you get what you needed?"

"Not entirely. There are some...implications I have to think on. But more importantly, if that woman is someone that that man brought with him..."

She burst into the kitchen, where Raki was, and saw that the maid was nowhere to be found. "Where did she go? I believe she may be more dangerous than I had assumed."


oZcRBQt.jpeg

"How much good do you expect to be without your horse?"

Cora's eyes widened at the realization. "O-oh dear, oh gosh, y-yes that...that would be a problem." How had she even walked all this way without thinking about it? As soon as Acantha returned Cora nodded and took off as fast as she could. By the time they reached the house she was breathing heavy and stumbling a bit.

She barely registered what her father had said, responding back with a "Oh, good, that's....good." before stumbling her way forward so that when her father brought Abel out she was able to take the reigns. Immediately upon touching them she seemed to relax. She brought a hand to the horse's face and said, "Alright, we got a job to do. Gonna really put ya through it so get ready to go all out." The horse seemed to understand and, as it snorted and stomped its hoof on the ground, Cora could tell he was ready.

Upon getting up she looked to Tsetseg. "Come on, we've got a bad guy to catch."

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Had Raki made a list of all the things he could have expected to see as he neared the window, the spectacle he witnessed would have been as far as possible from qualifying for it, not even if someone had warned him in advance. In fact, even after seeing it with his own eyes, it probably wouldn't have made the cut.

When he had entered the kitchen, the woman that had been so focused on her work moments before was nowhere to be found. This didn't catch his attention for more than a few moments. The missing knives, even less so. After all, who was he to know what nobles did with their cutlery.  As for the missing woman, even if his... "questioning" from before hadn't been enough of an incentive to move into another room, then it was still no surprise that she had fled after a wyvern roared right out of the kitchen's window.

Said window, so carelessly swung open, was much more interesting. It helped that Raki was already approaching it. Despite what some of the stories the people shared around at his uncle's village told, a wyvern's cry wasn't nearly enough to throw open doors and the like. Not even Garinphasia's.

But wherever that train of thought was going, it ceased to be an issue as soon as he came close enough to peer down towards the street below.

"Impossible..."

Raki flinched back as if he had just seen Peaches open maws come in from the window, but even that would have made more sense.

People... There was no way for a human to be able to do that, was there?

He clenched the window frame, leaning forward as he stared in disbelief, blissfully unaware of the presence of the woman right above him. He had met many a wyvern in his young life. He had met many people who handled said wyverns daily, he himself had been one of them.

He had yet to see someone capable of lifting one of those scaly beasts by muscle alone.

Let alone throw them after that.

Raki remained frozen on the window as the scene unfolded, as Edrick and Link dodged the throw, and the man who performed the deed took a bag near him and rushed towards a couple of horses. His muscles remained unwilling to move when the swordsman who he had met a few minutes before struggled to his feet, while the man made his escape with the sack on horseback.

His focus was on the wyvern that he had almost been attacked by, thrashing on the ground in pain after having been made to fly against her will, and the crying rider that had rushed to her partner's side. His mind, however, was on Garinphasia.

She is...

Well outside the village

Just as he had asked her

Raki didn't want to assume it would have been impossible for her to come to him had he called. She had done it before. But by sheer distance, it functionally was. He would have had no aid were he to find himself in need.

That... that was probably for the best. There was an arrow stuck in Peaches chest. Likely to also be that man's doing. An arrow, with that kind of strength behind it...

Garinphasia would have not backed down against such an opponent. She just wasn't the type. Would that man be able to juggle her like that too?

Surely... Surely not...

"GASTON!"

That single scream, as Link launched himself in pursuit, shook Raki out of his paralysis. Gaston. Lord Gaston, Hanikap said. He hadn't paid attention, distracted as he was by the event itself, but if that man who had escaped was the one...

Raki's hand went to the handle of his axe. This was no time to be lost in thoughts. The man most responsible for what had happened to Timmy was escaping. that was all that he needed to know.

"Where did she go? I believe she may be more dangerous than I had assumed."

Almost all that he needed to know.

The rest of the interrogation had finished while he was busy doing nothing, it seemed. Raki turned towards Gunther and Penelope.

"Who?"

It took a moment of watching the girl searching the kitchen with her eyes before Raki could guess of whom she may be talking about

"If you're talking about the maid, she wasn't here when I arrived."

He turned towards the window

"However, That Gaston guy just threw a wyvern at your companions, so I think I'm going to go out."

With that said, he jumped out the window, onto the street below. Now that he noticed, there was a conspicuous amount of knives on said street. A wild neigh caught his attention. Link was taming one of the horses, or about to be thrown off by it.

It was the first one. The swordsman charged in hot pursuit, Raki did not need to guess of whom. Near him, the rider had finally calmed her wyvern, but she seemed to be in a sorry state herself. Raki could understand. If Garinphasia had been wounded beyond his abilities, he doubted he'd have felt much different. Raki made to pursue Link's trail

He looked back to the wyvern. Calm as she was, he dared not to approach one that had already found reason to be hostile on the same day, and now she was wounded to boot.

The wyvern didn't seem to have any broken bones, as far as he could tell. No part of the wings was bent the wrong way, and she didn't seem to be avoiding putting her weight on any limb. The only doubt was on the chest, but that was probably the arrow shaft still lodged inside.

Besides, the rider was another Isaurian. She seemed a nice girl, and she had saved his behind when he had been so careless with peaches before, but the less he had to do with her the better it would have been for him.

The arrow didn't look like it had hit a vital organ, but it went in pretty deep. How was it that they treated the fresh arrivals with arrow wounds again? His recent experience was mostly with wounds caused by Isaurian dark magic.

He looked back to where the horses once stood. Gaston had long since left. Link was no longer in sight either. Raki really wanted to catch that guy. That guy on a horse.

Raki picked up a knife. Clean knife, do not try to shake out the shaft, enlarge the edges...

"She's a wyvern, she'll handle it."

Raki closed his eyes, trying to recall the other handlers at work, and his few own works on the more surface-level wounds. How deep was it that one had to go? If the heart is...

No, before that, how did you prepare a knife properly? He opened his eyes and looked at the blade, dirtied by the fall on the road. Water, fire... was he forgetting something?

"We only need to take out that arrow properly."

Still, even if he recalled how to perform the operation, one issue remained he may have not been able to solve. He could try what techniques he knew, but... Unless the wyvern decides to allow someone else to do it, he looked at Citron There is only one person who can get close enough to actually operate.

Edited by Arkars

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Alois had done one of the few things he did very well. Stare dumbfounded for a brief moment, both as both Citron and Edrick had partook in self defenestration and that Gaston seemed to be far more competent at fighting then he did speaking. He supposed that everyone had to compensate for their incompetence somewhere else he just wished it was in less combat oriented endeavors. All the same, this dumbfoundedness lasted for only a few moments as the situation was most certainly not under control, least of all as knives seemed to fly out towards Link, and he had opted to be a little stupid himself. Paying no heed to the dangers of jumping out a third story window nor any of the group's poor prior experiences with such things, he leaped out of the third story window on the roof of the floor below. 

Alois paused, again, locking eyes with the assailant that had attacked Link moments ago. "Really?" The boy couldn't help but voice his thoughts seeing the otherwise innocuous maid who, as it turned out, seemed to be something of a trained killer. Before Alois could say anything more about this the woman, in quite the acrobatic feat, had leaped from the roof to the floor down below. Letting out a sigh the boy said, "of course, why wouldn't she be able to do that. Can't just be good at cooking and cleaning no." Alois had never seen the maid before, so for all he knew she was actually terrible at maid duties and was compensating with assassin skills. Shaking his head, the boy then ran over to the edge of the roof, looking down to see that the window that the woman had jump into was already closed. "Tsk." Clicking his tongue at the woman's exceptional speed, while he would've been inclined to go help everyone else he thought a knife tossing maid was something of a hazard to everyone involved. 

Drawing his axe - pausing for a bit as he heard an unfamiliar yell that belonged to a familiar voice, and seeing a wyvern on the ground when he was pretty sure it was charging when last he looked - Alois decided that his life of crime in this town was phar from over. Bringing the axe down, Alois committed an increasingly familiar act of breaking to then do the usual follow up of entering, clumsily going from the roof through the window below into the room. When he looked up, he saw that there was no maid to be seen. In fact, "oh, for the love of- " 

The sound of cooing that seemed to be more akin to screeching, followed by wings flapping and the chaos of feathers surrounding the boy. "Who has this many birds?!" 

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Tsetseg had continued following along the members of the militia, feeling a sense of restlessness as she wanted to be sure that they were able to bring the bad man that would push people into a hole were brought to justice. Eventually, though, it had seemed the wait had finally come to an end. While Phai was currently not with them, based on nothing at all Tsetseg had every bit of confidence that the Phar Patrol girl would be able to catch up with them. While both Cora and Acantha had horses they were getting on, Tsetseg was getting ready to take off into a full blown sprint - she thought herself quick on her feet at least. However, at the idea of being able to get a ride on a horse was brought up, both due to a mixture of common sense and the thrill of being on horseback brought Tsetseg to believe that that was the much better idea. "Yeah, yeah! Let's go catch that bad guy!" Tsetseg scrambled onto Cora's horse, a determined look on her face that seemed to be slightly mismatched with the excitement in her voice. 

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As it happened, faced with what looked like an impossible feat of strength on the part of the man they were chasing, the man who it seemed for all the world was kidnapping their friend, Edrick had decided to try the impossible himself. How many times had this group of theirs overcome nonsense beyond nonsense in order to achieve some kind of victory here? If this bastard was strong enough to throw a wyvern, why couldn't he be strong enough to catch her? He owed Peaches that much at least, she was hurt worse than he was or at least he believed she was. He could do this. He could help-

And then he received two important reminders. The first was that the people around him cared about him, delivered in the form of Link diving on him from behind and taking him to the ground before he could be smashed by several hundred pounds of flying lizard. The second was that he was hurt... a whole lot worse than he was giving himself credit for. Oh he could hear his mother and sister chiding him now about going off and trying to get into another fight when he should have been resting and letting one of them heal him! So while Link got up off his back he spent a few more moments there laying facedown in the dirt, dazed from the pain and meekly bleeding in the street while he tried to remember how to move.

An assortment of noises and voices helped wake him from this temporary stupor he'd found himself in, and while the world spun around him he slowly got up to his hands and knees, bright blonde hair already dirty again from the day's excitement and starting to look a little closer to that black it had been when the others met. Come to think of it, Penelope still hadn't tried to get him to properly wash it yet. Advantages of getting hurt, he thought as he waited until the ground stopped spinning before his eyes and he could make out voices properly again.

“You’ve done so well-- You just… I just need you to stop, and stay still. I need you to be okay.” That was Citron... and it didn't sound like Peaches was doing all that well. He could... maybe help tend to her again after this, but there were other things that needed-

"She's a wyvern, she'll handle it." That was the new boy... Raju? Raykee? One of those, he couldn't remember right now. But that boy also had a Wyvern... and now he had an idea on how he could help continue the fight. He wasn't catching a horse on foot, he'd tried that for years now and had plenty of proof that wouldn't work, but if he was flying?

"H-hey," he managed to all but cough out as he made his way towards the two riders, one arm clutching at his freshly re-bloodied chest and the other holding the lance he'd been using to keep himself up, "I don't think I can help here, and I can't catch Gaston on foot, so... can one of you fly me after him and drop me like a rock on his horse?"

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