Quest to Save Estel
 

The first thing Matt noticed when he walked into the city was that the castle's draw bridge was down. From inside he heard faint sounds of fighting, but they were overwhelmed by the sound of feasting and merriment.

Strange. I wouldn't expect royalty to just welcome peasants into the castle.

Matt was a young man, 18 years of age with brown hair that turned blonde when the light shone upon it. His eyes were deep and rich normally, but when he fought they seemed to become electric and full of energy. They were never the same color for more than an hour or two. He was bout 5' 11'' and weighed about 190 lbs. He was muscular, but one wouldn't think it to look at him. He always carried himself like he was afraid of the world, so people always assumed that he was just to weak to assert himself. He was clad now in a brown cloak that covered all his other features and a pair of moccasins on his feet. The hood of the cloak casted a shadow over his eyes as he crossed the bridge making his way to the castle.

What he saw in the castle was not entirely unsuprising. There were two gaurds immediately within the gates.

"Please wait here a moment," spoke one of the gaurds. Just past them Matt could see two warriors fighting. One seemed to be garbed in palace attire, while the other was dressed more in knight fashion with chain mail armor on and such. The palace's warrior was obviously superior. He was merely toying with the night. When he caught a glimpse of Matt, he dodged a coming swing of the knight's sword and stepped behind knocking him out effortlessly with the butt of his own sword.

"Incredible!" cried a nobleman who had been watching from the side. "I never thought I'd see the day when Valish the great would be brought down so easily! Do you think maybe our entrance exam is a little too tough Kregar? I doubt there's a man alive who could beat you!"

"This is his majesty's wish and so I obey," replied Kregar. "They must pass me before they can be allowed to the feast."

Feast! Matt thought as he rubbed his growling stomach. That sounds pretty good.

"Excuse me good sir. Could I challenge?"

"But of course! All are welcome to challenge!" Kregar replied confidentally.

Matt began to walk into the courtyard when one of the gaurds stopped him whispering "I do not reccomend this sir. You saw what just happend to the great Valish."

"I'll take my chances," Matt replied. He stepped in front of Kregar and cast his cloak aside. As Matt stood to his full height, the gaurd kicked himself for the assumptions he had made about him. Under the cloak he wore a white sleeveless shirt and grey pants cut off before the feet to ensure that they would never trip him. A cloth belt secured the pants to his waist and a staff of about 3 feet in length was strapped to his back. Matt took the staff out, unfolded it, and locked it into place. It was now about 6 feet in length. He threw it against the wall and then the strap which fell lightly on the staff, hanging around it. He threw the cloak over to cover the whole pile.

"You may want that weapon," Kregar replied.

"I wouldn't want to hurt you," retorted Matt with a sly grin on his face.

"Insolent peasant! I will not spare your life as I did your superior before you! Prepare yourself!"

Kregar lunged forward and began to swing his sword, but then pivoted around and swung it from Matt's side instead. Matt easily dodged, not even turning to face him. Kregar followed with many more attacks, all of them unsuccessful as Matt faded back. He wasn't even stepping back, just hovering off the ground a bit.

"Stop running!" yelled an enraged Kregar.

Matt then stood still, but Kregar's swings merely met with Matt's chi before they could get to him. All the blows were stopped half a foot from Matt's body. Matt still hadn't lifted a finger.

"Stop playing, fight me!" Kregar continued.

Matt reared back and threw a single lightning quick punch to Kregar's stomach that doubled him over and sent him to the ground as he dropped his sword. Matt picked up the sword and held it to Kregar's head.

"You lose," he said. "I'll keep you conscious though as you will appearantly need to stay here to fight the coming warriors."

Matt dropped the sword next to Kregar and went over to pick up his staff and cloak. Once his staff was secured and his cloak fastened around his chest, he said, "Now, where's that feast!"

"Well fought warrior. I'm sorry I underestimated you so. Follow Slimon here and he will guide you to the feast. Enjoy."

Kregar then stood back in the courtyard, awaiting the arrival of more warriors.

[OOC: Join in! It'll be fun! If we've already started by the time you get here, just say your character just caught up or find your own original way to enter the plot! BTW, for my character's powers and stuff think kid Goku from DB.]

Chewing on a boar's leg, Dreggan watched the stranger easily defeat the guard and make his way in the feasting crowd. He stifled a laugh as he saw the newcomer feel proud of himself for his victory. Walking up behind him, he lay a hand on his shoulder and spun him 'round.

Dreggan wasn't an imposing man. He stood at a mere 5' 7'' and appeared to weigh no more than 130 lbs. He was dressed in simple but durable travel clothes, consisting of basic yet slightly wide-fitting dark grey pants, calf high black leather boots, a light grey cotton shirt and a sleevless dark grey tunic. A black sash secured the tunic to his waist, as well as a pair of sai criss-crossed at the small of his back, just below a small backpack. A pair of black leather forearm bands appeared to hold several long needles.

His salt and pepper hair was cut in a short, practical style and his dark brown eyes looked sharp and alert. As he looked the stranger over, he turned to the guard standing at the gates and said, in a mocking tone:

"Don't be proud of yourself for defeating that fop! He's the fourth guard they've put there, as a few of us seem to be more than a match for whatever passes for security here. This one had only defeated two knights before you came along, and one of them was drunk!

The one I battled was a mercenary they hired to beef up defences in preparation for the feast. He was big, but painfully slow, not only did I dance circles around that guy, but I also managed to put my hand on his coin."

As Dreggan said this, he pulled out a small leather pouch filled with a few dozen silver and copper coins.

"Based on the loot, it would seem that the lug was in desperate need of work!"

A loud bellow was immediately heard near the banquet tables. Apparently, the hapless merc had discovered that his pouch was missing and was berating those closest to him at that time, blaming them for the loss of his money.

"Ah good! The entertainment has begun. Now, pardon my curiosity, but I'd like to know both the name of the style you fight with and the one your mother gave you. I'm Dreggan, of the Grey Fog Thieves' Guild. My dextrous Savate style and sleight of hand skills are legendary where I'm from, which is why I had to leave, you understand..."

"Well met Dreggan. My name is Matt. I fight with the Seichi style. Essentially, I rely on controlling my spiritual energy. I come from a temple far away. I decided that the temple was not where my future lay, so I left to find truth in the world. I'm not quite capable of calling myself a master yet. I still can't fly or anything and there are many other powers I'm still trying to master, but I'm well on my way and training hard. Now, let us go and meet the other adventurers."

edited version
 

As the two great warriors continued their conversation, unannounced to them a new warrior had entered through the gate of the castle.

This new warrior was covered in a brown hooded cloak, which was apparently worn and battered from travel. This cloak hid all of the warrior's features from view, but his status as a warrior was apparent because the bottom of a sheath lsightly petruded from underneath his cloak.

Upon entering the castle gate, the warrior turned to the first gaurd and asked "May I gain entrance to this castle kind sir?"

The guard responded "Only if you can defeat our new champion." nodding his head to the right, drawing the warrior's attention to the new champion standing ready to fight in the courtyard.

The new champion stood nearly seven feet tall, with long disheveled hair and a beard to match. His weapon of choice was a double bladed ax equal in size to his own height, and he sported only heavy armor on his right shoulder and thighs. The rest of his body was covered in elk hides and dark brown leather.

"You challenge me?" the champion asked, laughing, as he pointed at the new warrior. "You is to small to fight Bareth..."

For being so stupid, the champion was partially correct. The new warrior stood only about 5 feet 7 inches tall and the frame he bore underneath his cloak appeared to be frale.

"Very well then.." the new warror said lowering his hood, revealing his face for the first time. "If thats what it takes to gain entrance to this castle, I will fight."

The warrior appeared to be of elvish descent, judging by his facial features. He had slightly pointed ears and a slightly upturned nose. He had red triangular markings at the corners of both of his eyes and slightly above the area between his eyebrows. His hair was dirty blonde color and lay shaggily on his head, covering his forehead and some of his ears. The warrior's most noteable feature though were his soft grey eyes, that eminated warmth and understanding.

Without even removing his cloak the warrior stepped forward to meet his new opponent. Bareth smiled menacingly and took the first move. He lunged towards the elvish warrior and brought his ax down with tremendous force.

The elvish warrior dodged the attack effortlessly and seemed to almost dissapear for a moment, reappearing standing on the hunched over back of his enemy. Drawing his sword, the elvish warrior brought the butt of the sword's handle down on the back of Bareth's neck in one fell swoop. That's all it took.

Bareth fell to the ground like an enormous tree falling in a forest. As he fell, the warrior jumped off his back with ease and landed on the ground near the guard. Sheathing his sword, the warrior looked up at the gaurd with his warm grey eyes and asked "Am I allowed in the castle now?"

The guard looked at the young warrior in utter shock, and could only nod a yes in reply.

"Thank you" the warrior said in a gracious tone with a slight smile.

And with this, he returned the hood of his cloack back over his head, and walked to a nearby wall. Where he leaned his back up against it and slid down until he was seated quietly.

With an amused look, Dreggan noticed how quickly the new guard was dispatched by an elf. Chuckling, he turned to Matt.

"Oh look, another one bites the dust! If this keeps up, they'll have the serving wenches standing a post very soon!"

Following the elf with his eyes, Dreggan decided to find out more about him. Deftly, he removed one of his needles from his left arm guard and threw it with amazing precision. It stuck in the wall with a slight "ping", a mere 2 inches from the elf's head.

Without any display of emotion whatsoever, the fighter removed the needle and inspected it, not even looking up to scan the crowd for the source of this thing.

Slightly irritated by the display of nonchalance, Dreggan made his way to the elf.

"Well, well, aren't we the eye of the storm and all. Sitting there so calm and collected like that. You look almost tranquil, elf. One with the universe and all that? So what brings you here?"

Lowering his hood, the elven warrior smiled and looked up at Dreggan with his warm grey eyes, replying " That was very good aim sir. You are quite skilled as a warrior."

"The name given to me by my clan is Dureredar, but I am no longer with my clan since they banished....I mean....we got separated. So people have just been calling me Vanelee, which is what you can call me."

"I am simply a wandering elf, enjoying the countryside, and looking for work. I have some skill as a warrior, so after hearing about a king's request for worthy warriors, I thought I'd try my hand at the mission."

"But now I am not so sure I am qualified. I saw both of your battles while I watched from outside the gate. I tend to go unnoticed at times. And you two are both worthy warriors."

"It is very nice to meet your acquaintance Dreggan and Matt. I wonder what other warriors will wander there way into this castle."

Slightly taken aback by Vanelee's genuine calm and friendliness, Dreggan actually paused before going on in his usual motormouth banter.

"Um... yeah... well as a thief I must say it's quite an honour to be called a "worthy warrior" by someone who can outlive me by dozens of generations. Ah, thank you? I guess? Anyway, since we're all almost on intimate terms here, why don't we make our way past this rabble and actually find out what it is we're supposed to do... and how much we're going to get for it!"

"Yes Dreggan, I agree." said Vanelee, again lowering his hood. "I must say though that this feast also sounds very appealing. I haven't eaten in sometime, and as you well know long journies do put a strain on a man's stomach. What do you say Matt? Food time?"

With these words, the smiling elf stood to join his fellow warriors.

"I already ate, but please go ahead. I'll hang around and try to get my hands on some more mon...I mean adventurers."

With that, Dreggan made his way into the crowd.

Matt looked up upon hearing his name. He already had a turkey leg in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other. His mouth was grease covered and his cheeks were puffed out like a squirrel's. His cloak had been cast aside by the door.

"Rmf. Rngls fmr frm."

He set the loaf down and grabbed the nearest mug. He drank heavily, beyond the point of washing the food down. When the mug was empty after one chug, he replied more understandibly.

"Yeah, food's good. But we need to find out what this mission is too. It had better involve certain death. It's been so long since I've been condemned to certain death."

He proceeded to stuff his face, sitting at the nearest table. The nobles and warriors alike looked on in awe as he ate enough to feed a family of four for a week.

[OOC: We need a villain if someone wants to play that role. If nobody out there in tf land does though, we'll just make one up.]

A pair of twinkling mischievious eyes peered out from an over-sized green hooded cloak at the robust roaring men devouring the racks of lamb and turkey legs and pouring rich red wine down their thick throats.
Croutched in a darkened corner, surveying the feast with hungry eyes and a watering mouth, a child-like girl waited for the perfect moment to snatch an apple from the plate of an inebriated warrior.

Timid black curls peeked out from the edges of the hood, a slight nose with a healthy smattering of freckles, dancing green eyes, and a ridiculously innocent grin. The age and childish build of the girl hide an acute and curious power, a magic which she has neither learned to understand nor control in her short lifetime.

Her small build made it easy to go unnoticed, however, and that was how she had learned about the quest.

'At last!' A warrior in the middle of the room had fallen asleep on the table and left a whole plate of food nearly untouched. The girl-child crawled quietly under the tables, picking her way through bones, dropped weapons, shields, and large feet. When she reached the spot where the sleeping warrior sat, she peered up through the cracks in the table, noted her surroundings, and let one hand wander up to the plate and snatch down its contents. She sat cross-legged under the large oak table and nearly swallowed an entire turkey leg whole. In her famished state, she didn't notice the young man with the amused look on his face leaning down to watch her devour the food.

Matt looked up with curiosity, a piece of turkey hanging from his lips. He watched a piece of food seem to miraculously disappear from the sleeping warriors plate. The second time, he saw a small hand as the culprit. He looked under the table and smiled at the little girl.

"No need to hide down there miss. Pull up a seat next to me! I'll share!"

Vanelee had followed Matt into a massive dining hall a number of yards from the courtyard. Vanelee surveyed the hall with his warm grey eyes, noting that there were nearly fifty different warriors occupying an extremely long table, which was covered with heaps of food. The food ranged from fresh fruit to racks of turkey legs to cooked boars. Vanelee's mouth watered.

Approaching the table timidly, the young elven warrior took a seat at the very end of the table on a bench tha had been placed there. Looking down at all the food, Vanelee took up a small vine of grapes, and began eating them one at a time, savoring their sweet taste. It had been such a long time that he had a full meal, he could hardly believe this much food could be in one place.

Finishing his grapes, Vanelee reached under the arms of his neighboring warrior and grabbed a turkey leg. As he reached for the turkey leg he noticed one of the warriors had just passed out after having to much ale, leaving an entire plate of food on the table. Vanelee shook his head, cursing the man for wasting the food. However, when he looked back at the man, while returning the turkey leg to his plate, he saw that all the food had vanished, except for a lone turkey leg.

'What in the world?" the elf wondered, as he again looked back at the plate, making sure that his hunger wasn't playing tricks on his eyes. This time there was no food left, but Vanelee caught a glimpse of a small hand retreating underneath the table, the source of the dissapearance. Exchanging glances with Matt, who had just saw the hand to, and become alert. Vanelee dropped his head under the table to investigate.

Upon doing this, he exchanged gazes with a small green eyes girl, wearing an oversized green cloak, devouring the vanished turkey leg. He also saw Matt had decided to investigate to, and chose to remain quiet and let Matt talk to the young girl.

An indecently self-satisfied Dreggan had found his way into the main dining hall, clutching more than a half-dozen pouches of varying sizes in his arms. Surveying the large table, he saw that there was no place left to sit. He then put most of the pouches in his backpack, but left a few big ones out, which he held up high for all to see.

"HEY! DID SOMEBODY DROP THESE?"

A great number of heads whipped in his direction. Smiling, Dreggan tossed the pouch to the far left corner of the hall, sending a dozen warriors in various states of drunkenness lunging for them. Hair was pulled, punches were thrown, threats were bellowed and half the seats were cleared.

"Ahhhhh! Now THAT'S better."

Dreggan than sat down facing Matt, on the other side of the table. He also caught glimpse of Vanelee. Both men seemed to be preoccupied by something under the table. Frowning, Dreggan tried to lauch his most indignant look.

"For the love of god, gentleman! Save your sleazy shenanigans 'till after dinner. Ah mean tha nuuuuurrve!!"

He then proceeded to empty a fine bottle of wine left by the money starved idiots.

Startled at the sudden attention, the girl jumped up, hitting her head on the table, causing several goblets of wine to spill and a grumble to eminate from several disgruntled guests.
She dropped back down, rubbing her head, and did not protest when the young, gentle-looking elf guided her out from under the table to the bench between himself and the young man who had spoken to her.

The elf warrior's warm green eyes soothed her fear momentarily and she accepted the food they offered her ravenously. She began shoveling handfuls of the delicious meats into her mouth and it was only when she came up for air that she realized that both of her hosts were eyeing her curiously. She blushed bright red with embarassment at her lack of manners and stared down at her ransacked plate.

Suddenly, she realized how vulnerable she was out in the open, having drawn so much attention to herself and her eyes darted around anxiously. She began to slip silently back under the table, but was held in place by the young men on either side of her.

'Oh hell,' she thought, 'how can I get out of this one?'

"Dreggan!" Vanelee called, seeing his friend return to the hall as he raised his head up from the table, leading the small girl to sit on the bench with Matt and him. "How nice of you to join us once again, and don't worry we're weren't doing what you thought we were. We have discovered an ever kind young miss amongst us."

Following his greeting, Vanelee leaned back to allow Dreggan a view of his guest. The young girl was thoroughly enjoying her food, and stopped upon being introduced. Realizing her new surroundings, she tried to escape underneath the table again, but this time she was held back by Matt and Vanelee who gently grasped her arms.

"You need not fear young miss." said Vanelee looking down at the girl with his warm grey eyes and smiling. "Please sit and join us for the feast. We are all worthy warriors, and no harm shall come upon you. Especially while you sit with us, for these two warriors next to me are among the strongest that I have seen, and while I can't say that I am at their level, I know that if things get rough we will all fight."

However, Vanelee sensed something different about the girl, a hidden power perhaps. He also sensed that she had been taking care of herself for quite sometime anyways, and a few more troublemakers would be no more problem.

"So sit and eat...um..." Vanelee halted because he didn't know the young girl's name, and did not want to offend her by addressing her incorrectly.

"Um, young miss, may I ask your name, so that I may know how to address my new friend?" Vanelee asked timidly, not wanting to come on to strongly.

He sat staring at the girl, smiling broadly and eyes twinkling, awaiting her reply.

'Her name?' She couldn't remember the last time someone had asked it of her and the boyish good looks and charm of her companion almost made her forget it entirely.

"Nina'...Nina' Templa," she stammered.

It was an elvish name and surprise registered on the face of her host. She must have elfish blood in her, but she was not an elf.

She began to relax a little and, for the first time, was curious about these young warrior's stories. Maybe they could be of assistance to her, maybe she could use their strength to her advantage.

She started to warm up to her hosts, smiling unreservedly and accepting the goblet of wine they offered her, though she had never drank the cursed stuff before.

Vanelee smiled back at Nina now. But in the back of his head he wondered how much elvish blood she had, and what sort of powers a demi-elf would have. He had never met a demi-elf.

"Well Nina, me an my friends would be most happy if you were to join us for dinner, like I said before." Vanelee spoke, his grey eyes twinkling again. "But, before we eat I think it would be fiting for you to meet Matt and Dreggan."

With this, Vanelee opened his arms and motioned to Matt an Dreggan to introduce themselves.

"Serale Nina. My name is Matt. I am what you would typically think of as a monk. I have spent my days training in the art of Seichi. I have recently reached a level of skill so as to be required to leave the temple and train myself out in the world. Obviously, I saw this gathering of warriors as the perfect opportunity."

Matt began eyeing the food. He wished Dreggan would hurry up so that they could get back to the eating.

[OOC: I am about to start the storyline (after Dreggan makes his reply) and I would like to know if anyone has suggestions before I sentence us to a quest nobody else wants to partake in. I'm thinking Through the Ice or Lord of the Rings type thing, y'know. Evil sorcerer threatens safety of the world. We gotta stop him type thing. His tower is a long way off and we encounter many adventures along the way.]

OOC: Quest sounds fine to me, how are we all going to be chosen by the king though??

OOC: i don't have to be chosen cause i'm cool like that. i mean, uh, i'm a stowaway type i think. i'd have to be, what king would choose a scrawny little girl to fight an evil sorcerer? anyway, i'll also note here that my character vaguely resembles edward from cowboy bebop, at least that's what i had in mind, except slightly less on crack.

OOC: Quest sounds fine also. As for the selection process, either have the king send out some discreet psychics to look for the best of the best (meaning us) or have a more formal duel with the guards or champions or whatever, or maybe we just stumble into the "secret meeting" first and are chosen because of that. The possibilities are endless. BTW, good call on Ed, Dixie. I now have a pretty decent picture of what your character is like.

Dreggan eyed the little girl suspiciously at first. His guild often trained children in their thieving crafts, because noone ever suspected children of any serious wrongdoing. However, he quickly relaxed and went about introducing himself when it was his turn.

"I'm Dreggan of the Grey Fog Thieves Guild. I rob from the rich and give to myself. I am an untrustworthy, lying backstabber if there ever was one. I'm very pleased to meet you!

As for my worthiness as a warrior... well, let's just say I fight dirty and to win. My Savate style focuses on kicks and aerial attacks, and my sais and needles pick up where my legs leave off."

Before finishing that last statement, a flash of movement was all that was seen from him by the rest of the group. In the blink of an eye, a needle was imbedded in the mug Nina was just bringing to her lips. A small trickle of red wine started to fall to the table.

"I believe you're waaay too young to be drinking, little miss!"

Chewing on an apple, Dreggan continued.

"So what's the deal with this gathering? To tell you the truth, I just came here for the free food and easy pickings, but I wonder what could prompt so many people to show up here... What do you guys think?"

Nina sat silently, feigning disinterest in the conversation. She acted distracted by averting her eyes and playing with her food, but she was careful to catch every word that was said about the quest.
'These boys know less than I do,' she realized with disappointment.
She considered ditching them for more likely lads, but there was something about Vanelee that amused her, though she couldn't put her finger on it.
As for the others, Matt was a glutton with atrocious manners and Dreggan was nothing but a common scoundrel with an ego the size of a giant's forearm.
Nina loathed men, especially men such as these, lies, all lies.
As she was glancing about in disdain, there was a large eruption of noise by the door. A drunk guard had stumbled in and was now laughing boisterously with a group of his friends, who were all in various stages of intoxication.
"And then he threatened to strike me with a lightning bolt!," the guard roared with laughter, doubling over and slapping his knee. "And the stupid kid tripped on his way to attack me and was knocked unconscious!" Another eruption of laughter. Nina chuckled to herself, she had never seen such a gathering of miscreants.

OOC: hehehe

As Vanelee conversed with Matt and Dreggan, he kept a slose on eye on Nina, who was trying to disguise her easedropping by playing with her food, but she had one major tell. Her ears perked up as she listened, much as an elf's do when listening intently, this was a dead giveaway for Vanelee.

'Why is this girl really here..' Vanelee began to think to himself, but his thoughts and slight suspicions were interrupted by a drunken guard who had just entered the hall and was making a ruckus. With this, his mind was cleared of all thoughts and he returned to his careless demeanor.

Turning to Dreggan, with a smile once again on his face, Vanelee said "Dreggan, you are not nearly as bad as you say you are, I can tell. And as for us being here, I haven't a clue either, but it must be of some importance for all these warriors to be gathered in one place."

Finishing these words, Vanelee turned back to the table and picked up another stem of grapes, eating them in same fashion as before, savoring the sweet taste.

'Mmmmm..' he thought.

"Ever the optimist, aren't you Vanelee? Always trying to see the good in all things, even me? Woah, there pal! You should take a cue from our little sprite here, judging by her face, it took her about 2 seconds to figure out how much of a dreg I am. I mean hey, that's part of my name, isn't it? Dreggan? Anybody?"

Seeing the drunken guards come in, the thief got a ravenous look in his eyes.

"Oh my... pickings don't get easier than this, people... I'll be right back."

With that, Dreggan was on his feet again, flask of wine in his hand, pretending to be just as drunk as the guards and responsive to their stories, just as he was liberating them of their money purses. These wretches were just too easy to pass up.

edited
 

Vanelee only smiled and popped another grape into his mouth in response to Dreggan, who had just ran off to relieve a couple of drunk guards of their money bags.

While he was preoccupied with the guards, Vanelee looked to his side to see how his new companions were getting along. He saw Matt still filling his mouth with every piece food near enough for him to get his hands on. Upon seeing he was being watched, Matt waved his hand vigorously, still holding a chicken leg, and smiled gleefully, cheeks puffed out like a squirrel's filled with nuts.

When he looked at Nina, Vanelee saw that she was simply swirling the contents of her near emtpy goblet around and looking down at the table. He wondered what was wrong, but a quick look up and a smile from the young girl reassured him.

Vanelee redirected his attention to Dreggan, who had joined the drunken soldiers in an Irish jig. Vanelee noted how quick Dreggan's hands were as he relieved the guards of their money bags. In response to seeing this, Vanelee only shook his head and smiled.

All of a sudden, the doors to the hall burst open, and trupmets sounded, announcing the arrival of royalty. Vanelee looked on with his twinkling eyes open with attention.

'Finally' Nina thought, turning to watch the King's arrival. 'Now we can get down to business.'

The King entered and all the warriors stopped their drunken revelry and stood at attention. He was accompanied by two pages, 5 guards, and what Nina presumed to be the Queen. They were all dressed to impress, as if trying to stress the importance of the gathering. The King's rich red cloak, well-manicured beard, and golden crown gleaming with jewels stood in sharp contrast to the shabby garb of the warriors assembled there. Nina caught Dreggan nearly drooling over the wealth before him and smirked thinking what a lark it would be for him to rob the very King he had come to serve. The King moved to the head of the royal table and lifted the goblet there.

"Welcome to my home, noble warriors! You have been called from near and far to serve the worthiest of purposes. Now, if I have your attention, let me describe to you the dangerous task at hand..."

Stomping down the nearly black hallway, his coal black velvet cape swirling behind him, he was almost to the door at the end. There were no other doors in the crued stone hall, and it was cold and damp, underground.

The black leather boots he wore sounded almost like hooves as he was furiously stamping them with each step. Above the boots were impecable leather pants that were swishing as his steps grew faster and faster, on the left side of his pants there was a fur attached from his hip to nearly his knee, on the left were 2 black pouches, old leather and cracked badly. The belt that held his pants up was also leather and in worse condition than the pouches. Tucked inside his pants he wore a sleeveless leaver tunic to keep his black armor off his bare skin. The armor itself shined like a mirror and had a crest of two dragons intertwined on the chest of it. It was nothing that would protect him from a blow from even the smallest of blades. The cape was the only thing on his shoulders.

A loud crash erupts as he finally makes it to the end of the hall and rips open the door. Two steps into the door he screams in a deep almost inhuman roar "What's the king up to, boy!"

The boy he spoke of was entangled in a metal contraption, he was not human. His skin was extremely pale, but he was not an elf either. He was a Terok. To be born a Terok meant immunity to all weapons except those created of pure silver. They can also see thins that nothing else can see, They are messengers for kings so that they may not be killed before they return with any news.

"If you don't speak then it's you own death fool" in a deeper voice, not at all angered, seemingly melodic. The boy stayed silent.

"fool" the man snickered as he spun a gyroscope near the boys left arm. The contraption squeaked and moved as 6 blades already inside both thighs, shoulders, and eyes, dug deeper.

Body completely tensed from his white matted brown hair down to his cloth slippers, the boy spoke in a cringing, painful voice.

"He has a plan!!" The machine stopped, shaking unstoppably the boy wept. "He is going to send warriors to the castle, I saw it last night, he is going to try to seige your castle. There are many brutal warriors at his meeting, That's all I know I swear it" his voice was uncontrolable and changing tone when a splinter of pain hit him from moving even a little.

"Heh Teroks are good for something"

He turned around and closed the door behind him walking at a normal pace back up the hall.

"Bring what you will, mortals. I recieved this kingdom by murder and I'll keep it by murder. My people fear me for a reason. Yours also fear me. I'll be happy to oblige you if you wish death upon yourself. Lord of Horringrad, Duke Sar, fears nothing..."

[ooc: sooooo... how bout a fight? If this is what you wanted for a villain. :P]

OOC: lovely, welcome to the game darlink.

[OOC: I'm gonna control the actions just a little here. If anyone objects then please say so. I can quick edit if there's something about your behavior that you'd like to change. It's just easier to get us started, y'know? As for you Duke Sar, I don't know about a direct fight yet. I plan on this being very long and I think it might be best of you to send your minions to attempt to thwart us on your way. You can control them though, but they should probably lose without inflicting heavy damage in the beginning. As the story progresses, we might lose a member or something, y'know. I still think that the players should make it to the direct fight though.]

Just as Matt finished his 12th plate of food he moved his chair back from the table slightly, patting his stomach. "Whew! That hit the spot. I feel like I could fight a giant now!" He was startled out of his pleasant feelings by the loud blowing of trumpets that brought pain to his sensitive ears. Every warrior in the hall looked to hear what the king would have to say.

"Welcome to my home, noble warriors! You have been called from near and far to serve the worthiest of purposes. Now, if I have your attention, let me describe to you the dangerous task at hand. There is a great evil building to the north. Most of you have probably already heard of the terrible Duke Sar. He is gathering forces to the north as we speak. We seek an army of the greatest warriors in the land to fight against this evil. We expect he will attempt an invasion of our fair Estel any day now. The journey will be perilous and you will have to march directly into the black lands of Amarth. There will be giants, goblins, orcs, undead, and other horrors that cannot even be comprehended. Many of you may perish. To those that wish to leave now, feel no shame in doing so. This quest is not for the weak of heart."

The king stood silent for a moment, giving the warriors a chance to walk away. A few looked around for a moment, nervously, and then walked out the door. There were still a few hundred left afterwards.

"Thank you for so readily serving your country. The fate of all its inhabitants rests in your hands and so all of its inhabitants thank you for making this decision. Now, we can't allow all of you to go, obviously, though I dare say most of you will be allowed. If you will kindly follow me, the selection process can begin. As you walk through that door, take a coin. If your strength is great enough, the coin remain as it is. However, if you are in the slightest way weak, not to say that those not chosen are not strong anyway, the coin will glow with a golden light."

The warriors all lined up and began walking through the doorway, drawing coins as they went. Matt, Dreggan, and Vanelee stayed together. Nina, however, had disappeared. They were at the end of the line, and when it came their turn to draw the coins, Vanelee went first. The moment he took it into his hands it began to glow brilliantly. There was no disappointment in his eyes, he merely stepped to the side and waited. Then came Dreggan. When he noticed it was glowing he became quite irate.

"I've chosen a faulty one. I demand a redraw!"

"I think you've had plenty of redraws," said Matt. With that, he reached for Dreggan's other hand, pulling it out into the open. At least a dozen coins were held in it, each one glowing.

"Ah, yes, well I just wanted it to be fair is all." Dreggan had a bit of a sheepish grin on his face. He threw the coins back in, but somehow it seemed as though the pot were more empty. Matt merely sighed. Matt drew his and it glew as well. He smiled broadly.

"Does that make me a winner?" Dreggan smacked Matt in the back of the head at this remark. "What?"

"Just follow us," Dreggan said, frustrated. As the group proceeded to walk out they were pulled aside by an elderly old man dressed in an extremely ornate flowing green robe.

"Wait one moment warriors. Your purpose is not complete yet. This way." He walked into a different room, much smaller than the room the warriors were walking into. They could hear the king wrapping up his speech to the army as they went in. There was also a shadowy figure that hid in the corner of the room, unoticed to all but Dreggan and Venelee. They recognized it as Nina instantly, but chose to remain silent. In the room there were three chairs in the front, and two much larger chairs in the back. The three and the two were facing one another. Matt walked to one of the three chairs with his usual huge grin. The other two warriors proceeded to sit in the other chairs.

"Just one moment please," said the sage. They waited for a while. Venelee stood perfectly still with a placid look on his face. Dreggan eyed the room, as if for something he could find value in. Matt fidgeted in his chair, obviously bored, making no attempt to conceal it. After a few minutes, the king walked in.

"Your majesty!" spoke Vanelee and Dreggan. They then stood in reverence. Matt simply sat and looked puzzled. "But weren't you with the good warriors?" Dreggan slapped him again and Matt stood as well.

"Those warriors were not what I was really looking for, though I'll admit they were an added bonus. You are the ones I sought."

Matt looked over at Dreggan with a smug look. "Told ya we won." Dreggan merely shook his head.

"Please be seated. I assure the honor here is mine." This was quite a compliment coming from a king. "You see warriors, there is a prophecy that says the chosen warriors will rise up in times of darkness to save our fair land. What I said earlier was true. Duke Sar is gathering his forces and preparing for an invasion. However, fate has ordained that with our current defenses we can only lose. The coins are ancient magical artifacts made centuries ago by the elves to find the chosen warriors in this exact time. You three may not be the only ones, so we will keep searching and more may join you along your way, but for now we are out of time and we must begin to take action. I will use that army I have gathered as a diversionary frontal assault. It is up to you three to infiltrate his domain as you see fit and put an end to his dark plans. Our trust is in you warriors."

At this point Dreggan stood. "There is a reward right?"

"Of course good soldier. I expect that if you complete this perilous task, nothing in my treasury will be off limits to you. You will live as royalty for the rest of your days."

Dreggan's jaw dropped. He fell back into his chair, eyes glazed as he tried to imagine the amount of wealth in the royal treasury.

"Now warriors, you know your task. I apologize for being so brief, but I don't want to draw any attention to you. All must think you are the outcasts if you are to maintain stealth in your mission. But beware, I am sure a sorcerer as powerful as Duke Sar knows nothing of this prophecy. He will be on the lookout. Now go and save your land. I bid you goodbye now warriors, and you go with all our trust."

As the king and the sage left the room, Matt noticed a few jewels missing from his crown. The three then simply stood and exited the castle. "You can come out now Nina," said Venelee. Matt was astonished to see that she had been eavesdropping.

[OOC: Okay. I'm not gonna write any more. I don't want to control you guys after this. Duke Sar, you could have had a spy there. It's up to you. I made that sage guy a little sketchy on purpose. Now, let the game begin!]

'I knew these three were the ones,' Nina mused as she watched her companions enter the small room. She stayed crouched low in the darkest corner as the King spoke with them, a slight smirk on her face.
When the King had left and Vanelee had called her forth, Nina slipped quickly from the corner to his side and smiled broadly.
"You are the ones I've been looking for," she announced, stepping in front of the warriors, "I will accompany you on this quest and keep you safe as long as I have breath."
Dreggan and Matt seemed slightly amused by this last comment, but Vanelee registered only a complacent look tinged with a slight sadness. Nina knew that to them it must seem ridiculous for a mere child to offer protection to warriors, but they would learn soon enough.

(OOC: Eldaire, my character's name is DREGGAN, with an "A". Thanks!)

As the king and the sage left the room, Dreggan noticed that some jewels were missing from his crown, looking towards Vanelee, he saw a condescending look on his face.

"What? Hey, I didn't do that! Besides, I'm not about to offend someone who just offered us the easy life just for dispatching some merlin. As for the sage, I'm sure he didn't need this, though."

Dreggan then held up an ornate ring that the sage had been wearing on his right middle finger.

"Yep, still got it!"

As Nina emerged from the shadows, Dreggan's smug face was as radiant as ever.

"Awwww! So what are you gonna do to all those mean Orcs? Coo them to death? Punch them in the kneecaps? Ha! I certainly hope whatever skills or powers you might be keeping from us are better than your lurking!

So, everyone, how's about we go equip ourselves a little better before leaving town. I can safely say that I have enough coin here to bankroll our outfitting. And if you're all real nice, maybe I'll even share! How's THAT for commitment? A THIEF! SHARING! I'm sure even Elves never lived long enough to witness that!"

With that, Dreggan waited for his companions' decision, subtly ignoring Nina's scathing glare.

Aspis's coin did not glow, he was very nervous about that, he was quite sure he would not be chosen strong enough, he knew he was merely a servant.

Throwing the coin down, "I can't do it" He walked out of the room, and out of the castle. Looking around very nervously he walked away from the castle, when he was sure nobody was looking he ducked into the brush and began to convulse. About five minutes later a shape took to the sky, completely black and bony with large broad wings.


meanwhile, Duke Sar was sitting atop one of his mid level towers patiently standing starring at the moon, it was hard to see, there were scattered flames across his landscape. Probably from the scavenger orcs. They seemed to like to burn their victims homes after they stole all their belongings and did unspeakable acts upon them.

"Ahhh, its about time." Looking off to the right of the moon it was pitch black but somehow he saw the dark figure swooping toward his castle from above the clouds. About 10 feet from the tower its wings swung open and slightly angled backwards, and started beating intenstly. The white hair on the duke was pushed back behind his head about a foot. Then came at ease when the creature landed on the side of the tower.

Again, the creature convulsed. Getting impatient the duke stood and watched, tapping his finger on his elbow. Standing naked was the "weakling" from the castle.

"Sir, my apologies for the delay. It is true the king knows of what your doing. He called forth many of the warriors from around his kingdom. He used these glowing coins to chose who was strong enough to go on the attack. I have no idea how the way he chose the warriors is of any importance to their skill, but I do know, at least 4 of the ones that I saw destroy the guard at the door of the castle, were told they are not wanted. Strangely enough." He took a bow after he had finished his report.

"Well then, perhaps I shouldn't worry about the king as much as I have, apparently his primitive knowledge is going to be his own fall. Using a petty little magicians trick of illuminating an object to determine the power of his army, hah! I will enjoy this immensely."

Laughing in his deep voice seemed to make the nude shapeshifter's body vibrate along with it.

"Aspis, Go to the top of the peak you see in the moonlight to the east. You know the Orc Champion awaits there in a cave. Tell him that I want him to send 20 of his orcs to the Kings castle. I'll send 2 of my gargoyles to carry them to the castle. I want them there by daybreak, if they are not. You'll end up back with the king for good, and your identity will not be hidden this time."

Without a word the shapeshifter performed another change, this time it did not take nearly as long, but it was much more painful.

He took off into the night...

With a slight look of sadness on his face Vanelee looked at Nina and thought to himself 'Child...while your powers may be great great...unawakened but great...I fear the trials we will endure on this trip may be grave. However, it is your decision and you seem able, so I will only smile for now and lend what little help I can in lessening the burden you have placed upon your own shoulders.'

Forgetting his saddened thoughts, Vanelee quickly threw on his typical smile and turned to Dreggan, saying.."Dreggan, if you are gracious enough to share your booty, stolen though it may be, I will gladly accept your assiatance. Thank you. And as for elves never seeing the day when a thief shares, I hope that this is not the last noble deed we see from the likes of you, though I'm sure it's not."

Then turning to a glaring Nina, warm grey eyes twinkling, Vanelee cast her a soothing smile while saying "Thank you for your assistance Nina. I'm most sure that you are quite capable of helping us on our journey, that I am."

These words seemed to lighten the young girl's mood, as she smiled slightly. Vanelee's grey eyes tinkled a little more upon seeing her positive reaction.

"Matt? Are you going to outfit yourself with Dreggan's assitance?"
Vanelee asked turning to the pieous warrior. "Though I must say that I'm not sure what you would require to become outfitted. Your Sechi style of fighting requires no weapons, but you do have quite an appetite. Perhaps some food for the journey?"

"Food for the journey? Heck yeah! Though, I doubt we will be able to carry more than a light snack. You are correct about my garb though. I require no armor, for my Seichi style is its own armor. I already have a weapon that I will not part with. As for clothing, I have trained my body to handle all types of climates from the coldest mountains to the hottest deserts. As for you Dreggan, do not be so hard on Nina. She can come if she likes. The more the merrier! Regardless of how powerful she is, she will be fine for at least the first part of the journey, for it will be largely in our home territory and there will be no enemies the likes of us wouldn't be able to protect even an infant from. By the time the journey becomes more perilous, we will know whether she has what it takes. Welcome aboard Nina!"

Matt turned then to face the north woods. "Shall we be off then? Our journey is great and our time is little!" Suddenly, a dark figure above the woods caught Matt's eye. Was it his imagination, or was something big flying their way?

Noticing that Matt's eyes had suddenly darted to the skyline above the north woods and that his ora had suddenly become active, Vanelee looked to the same location, just in time to catch a dark figure flying out of sight.

Looking around at his companions to see if they had noticed this new form, Vanelee thought to himself 'Seems as Duke has made the first move, I must be on alert. For mine and....own safety. This quest has many hardships ahead, I didn't think we would come upon them this fast."

"Easy there, folks. We'll have plenty of time to catch up with that... thing once we get equipped. I'm heading for the alchemist's and food shop. I need snacks and potions. Matt, are you coming? Nina? Vanelee? "

Dreggan then headed for the shops, counting his available money with an almost saddened look on his face, since he was about to... to... BUY something. The very thought...

"Food! Food! Food!" Matt continually sang as he bounced behind Dreggan.

'Pure bliss..' Vanelee said looking at Matt. 'How I miss the days when I could experience that.'

Then, turning to look at Nina, Vanelee said "And what about you young miss? What are you going ot need to be outfitted with?"

Vanelee thought that perhaps she would like some new clothes for the journey, as most girls her age did. But he immediately dispelled this idea from his head, thinking that he might be decieved by her young appearance, she might be older, and she most assuredly not a normal girl.

Thinking again about her age, Vanelee asked. "Young miss? If I am not being to brash, may I ask your age?"

Vanelee smiled warmly and waited for Nina's reply.

Nina was deep in thought and didn't hear Vanelee's question. 'Hmmm, it's time to prepare...alone,' Nina thought, looking back over her shoulder at the winged creature above the treeline.

Vanelee heard Nina's voice in his head, 'I will find you at dawn,' a friendly giggle and then she was gone. Vanelee turned and called to her. Dreggan and Matt looked around in wonder. The girl-child had simply disappeared into thin air. A broad grin spread across Vanelee's face. 'A mage,' he thought, 'that's handy.'

Nina opened her eyes to find herself standing in a dark, stuffy room. "Anca," she called softly and the bright-eyed wolf stood at her side, "I have found him," she whispered into the animal's attentive ear. She grasped her staff firmly in one hand and stroked the beast with the other. She sat deep in thought as the day faded into night.

"Oooookaaaaayy. She'll have to teach me that trick at some point. Ah well, on to the buying."

Dreggan then entered the food store first, since Matt's uninterrupted jumping made the need for provisions a tad more urgent. Shaking his head, the thief just tossed him a few money pouches almost as a master would toss his favored hound a treat. He also gave Vanelee a couple, almost relunctantly.

As Matt was busy making his copious selection, Dreggan simply opted for strips of jerked beef, dried nuts and berries, a water skin and a quart of mild liquor, all of which would procure strength without spoiling quickly. Smiling, he noticed that the elf also chose wisely.

Watching Matt buy fresh fruit, meat, fish and sweets, Dreggan just shook his head.

"Matt, at least TRY to pick something that will last more than a few days here, will you?"

The sudden pouty look on his companion's face brought a weird feeling to Dreggan's mind. Why should he care what the man bought, it's not like he was family. Wait. Ah, that's it: he didn't want his hard earned money wasted. There you go.

After they had settled up with the owner, they made their way to the alchemist shop. It was so easily recognizable as to be almost offensive. A small building with shuttered windows, a thatch roof and with odd smells emanating from every fissure... a myriad of oddities hanging from the door frame, as if to ward off practically every negative thing on the planet, from flies to mimes... and lastly, the ever so charming sign hanging from a metal spike, eerily depicting a sorceror's ubiquitous pointy hat, magic wand and grimoire. How quaint.

Making their way inside, the group was greeted brusquely by an ancient human, bent at an almost right angle. Without any further chit-chat, he returned to his inventory, letting Dreggan almost wish he could rob the man for his inattention. However, he was always wary of pilfering from wizards, as they had their ways to maintain security that even this seasoned thief was loathe to contemplate.

Scanning the shelves, Dreggan opted for the easier task of simply requesting what he wanted.

"Kind sir, my friends and I are about to embark on a most epic quest and require the following:

In the potion category: 3 healing, 2 weightless, 2 sleep and 3 poison. In the amulet category: 3 protection from undead. In the "miscellaneous" category: 3 eggshell bombs, 3 smoke bombs and 2 "screechers". To go please. Quickly please. I trust this is enough."

Dreggan then dumped all the pouches he had "acquired" on the counter. Unphased the alchemist simply reached under the counter and pulled out the items the thief had requested, as if he had known what the order would have been in advance, minus one for each, and started removing the money bags.

Stunned, Dreggan was about to protest when the alchemist silently pointed at the price list on the far end of the counter. Reading it, the thief noticed that every item had two prices, one of them significantly higher than the other. Seeing Dreggan's puzzled face, the old man actually said something:

"Thief tax."

Sighing, Dreggan then collected his purchases and waited to see if anybody else wanted to buy anything, this time from their own pocket.

"I bought these for all of us, but if you guys want anything else, be my guest and go ahead. As for Nina, since she's so independant and all, I'm sure she already has all the equipment she needs..."

"What's a screecher?" Matt enquired.

"It's a nifty little sub-demon trapped in a crystal. When you throw it on the ground, it shatters and the creature starts running in the opposite direction (away from the thrower), yelling and screaming in THE most harrowing way. It'll chase down anyone it sees, but doesn't do any harm, just freaks them out. I use these things occasionally to cover an escape or just cause confusion and panic."

After equipping himself with a new cloak, since his was so travel worn, and a number of "snacks" for the long journey ahead, Vanelee made his way to the back of the sop where the women's section was. He thougt that Nina would like a new traveling cloak also, since hers was so worn to. He bought her a green hooded cloak to replace the similar one she had before.

'I think she'll like that." Vanelee thought to himself, as he stashed the cloak in his traveling bag. The cloak was accompanied by a few healing potion, a pair of dragon hide gloves, and an undershirt that was woven from the hairs of a unicorn, giving it magical propeties.

Joining the rest of his group in the courtyard Vanelee wondered where the young miss had gone. While he wondered, he saw a semi-distraught looking Dreggan patting his half empty bag, which had previously been teaming with bags of stolen gold. His gaze also fell upon Matt, who was eyeing his newly bought bag of food with hungry eyes.

Adjusting his new cloak, Vanelee walked towards the duo and said, "I think that we should either go to the armory, if any of us feel the need for weapons, or else move out and start tracking that winged creature, so that it's claws do not fall upon any innocent inhabitants."

"I vote follow the winged one!"

After saying this, Matt began to bounce off towards the woods. On his back he had a food pack the size of a small boulder. Judging by the way he carried himself, bounding light as a feather towards the woods, noone would ever know it wasn't completely empty. He stopped 10 ft away from the party.

"You guys coming?"

"Orc kill!!" "Argg!" "ahaha!" "hmmphhhrunt!" the silly mindless orcs rambled on in the bushes 'attempting' to be silent.

Interupted by an inhumanly deep voice, "Shut up you imbiciles! Be silent or the duke will have your hides hanging in his halls!" It didnt take much more than that to shut the ignorant brutes up. The gargoyle had dealt with the mindless muscles before.

"Listen up, we're down to 13 of you and of course the two of us." Boasted the gargoyle, as if they were better than the orcs. Obviously they were. "Tos is up there flying luring some of the warriors to here, with your silly clubs you should be able to annihilate them"

A funny look covered the eyes of the orcs..

The gargoyle sighed, "Bash, Crush skulls!".

The orcs burst out into yells and grunts once again. After a few minutes they calmed down and listened to the gargoyle.

One last sentence came from the gargoyle, "Remember you fools, I, Kos, am the mage. Tos is the brutal slasher. Don't get us confused or you won't be getting your healing." What a waste of my spirit to heal these meat shields it thought.

"I'm set to go, but first, who wants the spare amulet for "protection against the undead"? I'll keep the eggshell and smoke bombs, as well as the "screecher". I'll also keep the potions, so basically, aside from the amulet, either of you can have a healing or poison potion. Any takers? You won't be hearing offers like this again!"

Seeing that Vanelee had already bought some healing potions, Dreggan decided to give him the amulet, but leave the potions to Matt, in a rare spirit of fairness.

"Well, hope you are all ready. I'm fine weapon-wise, so I guess it's off into the forest for us."

With that, the thief jumped the branches of a tree in order to progress at a higher level, which would lessen the risks of an ambush.

Nina sat silently in the dark. She had told Vanelee she would wait until dawn to rejoin them, but she sensed that danger may be near to her companions.
'They can probably handle themselves just fine without me, but just in case...'
She gathered Anca in her arms as best she could considering the wolf's weight, closed her eyes and focused on finding the location of the warriors. She was somewhat amazed to discover that she had no trouble at all locating Vanelee, it was as if they shared some connection. 'That's interesting...' she thought, wrapping herself in the night, clutching Anca and her staff in her arms somewhat clumsily.
She closed her eyes and was transported instantaneously to a spot some 50 yards from where Vanelee, Dreggan, and Matt were beginning to advance. They were tracking the winged creature and Nina could feel its presence somewhere in the distant night sky, but there was another, more powerful presence lurking just a few feet from where Vanelee and Matt stood. She quickly noted Dreggan's position in the tree and wondered that he had not spotted the evil presence she felt. 'Another mage?' She croutched and whispered into the wolf's ear, comforting it with her words before she began to follow in Vanelee and Matt's steps cautiously.

Matt ran effortlessly across the forest floor, almost floating over it. The party heard the orcs some 20 yards before they were upon them. Matt stopped and set his food pack down.

"Well, let's get to fightin'! After that meal, I feel like I could take on an orc army!"

[OOC: Matt does not even think about ambushing the group because it is not in his character to do so. Dreggan on the other hand...]

Kos stood at the bottom of a tree that was about three foot wide, he knew they were coming, but he meditated to get the last bit of spirit he could muster up. When the group of adventerers were about twenty five feet from them he felt the sudden appearance of a abnormally strong character. Out of no where it hit him. He knew that was the warrior he would fight himself. In the back of his mind he wondered how many of the orcs had fallen asleep and didnt even realize they were upon a battle...

Vanelee sighed as Matt and Dreggan prepared for battle, he really didn't want to fight now, especially with orcs. 'Why'd it have to be orcs?' the elf thought to himself ' It's always orcs...always'

About this time, Vanelee sensed a familiar presence appear behind him. 'Nina' he thought. He turned around with a smile now on his face, but his gaze only came upon a wolf standing some 10 yards away. 'A wolf? How strange.'

The group was now fast approaching the waiting orcs, and baatle was imminent. Vanelee sighed again , and as he took a step forward, following about 10 feet behind Matt and Dreggan, he was met by s sudden sense of a powerful magic force ahead of them.

'That power can't belong to an orc...it's to powerful, and it seems...magical...it couldn't be a...' Vanelee thought to himself, but his thoughts were interrupted by a large form crashing through the bushes next to him. He looked over at the form right before it made contact with him, his gaze coming upon a gruseome face.

An orc had lunged from the bushed and tackled Vanelee into a nearby tree. The elf felt a blow being delivered to his exposed side, and a rushing pain afterward. Using his speed, Vanelee ducked the orc's next blow and appeared behind him, sword drawn. A quick slash from the elven sword across the orc's back ended the battle.

Falling to one knee with an excruciating pain eminating in his side, Vanelee yelled to his fellow companions, "They're here!"

He was then back on his feet, running to catch up to his companions, who now had nearly 6 orcs bearing down upon them.

'I guess now the battle commences.' the elf thought.

"Alright! These guys are strong. I'm getting excited!"

With that, Matt began frolicing through the battle like a child in a candy store. He moved fluidly through, placing blows where he saw fit. The whole time, a smile covered his face. At some point, the orcs realized it was foolish to continue a head on onslaught, so the encircled him. Matt merely looked around, and smiled. The bravest of the orcs charged him, but in a flash Matt's staff was out and extended, knocking the orc blade into a nearby tree. A continuation of the same motion brought the other end of the staff into the orc's head, flooring him. After that, all of the orcs charged at once. Matt brought himself into the air with an easy jump, and turned upside down. The orcs merely watched with a dumbfounded expression. [OOC: I'm just flowing with my writing here, so my expression matches the orcs. Wait! I've got it!] He planted one end of the staff in the ground and seemingly ran across the circle of orcs, delivering kicks as he went. The circle flew back, all of them injured or out. Matt's melee abilities were indeed great, and these foolish orcs did not have the intelligence to attack in any way other than hand to hand. Matt had given himself some breathing room now, so he looked over to see how his companions were doing.

After Vanelee had slain the orc that had attacked him, he had counted 12 more of the vile creatures, four a piece for the warriors. Matt had easily taken care of 3 of his 4 and was moving on quickly to the 4th. However, the orcs were not smart enough to distribute themselves in a way necessary to order to battle the group of warriors equally, so 5 had gone after Dreggan and 3 after Vanelee.

'Orcs, it had to be orcs.' Vanelee thought to himself as he squared off against the trio of menacing orcs.

The first one charged in head on, violently swinging his club. Vanelee jumped to dodge the attack, and sent his enemy flying when he landed on it's back with a kick. Taking no time to aloow the others to attack, Vanelee drew his sword from under his cloak, which he was still wearing, and charged. He dodged the closests orc's counter assault and immediately followed up with a quick blow to his back, killing him instantly.

Wasting no time, the elven warrior charged the other, confused, orc with a jumping sword attack, bringing his sleak sword down upon the point where the orcs neck and shoulder met, again killing him instantly.

With a look back in the diretcion of where the first orc was sent flying, Vanelee saw the thing lying in a crumpled heap. It had run head long into a tree, breaking it's own neck.

'Damn I hate orcs...' Vanelee thought, as he sheathed his sword. He didn't sport his usual smile, but rather a grimace, and his eyes no longer twinkled their warm grey, but rather were as grey as thunderclouds. There was no twinkle present either, only a slight glisten of malice, perhaps hate even.

Vanelee looked up the path to see how the rest of the group was doing, while in the back of his head he wondered wherther he really had sensed Nina earlier, and if he was correct, where was she?

Nina watched the battle ensue sheathed in invisibility. She knew there was something stronger than just orcs here, but what was it? Neither animal, nor human. She darted through the trees in search of the thing, all the time sensing its presence around her.

She rubbed her side, a dull ache had begun throbbing in it immediately after an orc had delivered a blow to Vanelee's side. What was this connection she shared with him?

She had left Anca with a command to help any of her companions if they needed it, but it seemed unlikely.

Focusing her energy on the location of her opponent, Nina closed in on a small hedge which radiated with the power of the beast she was sure lurked just behind it...

Having spotted a few orcs before their undisciplined, unfocused attacks against Matt and Vanelee, Dreggan had decided against warning them, out of a morbid sense of curiosity as to how they could handle themselves in real battle. Vanelee was efficient, yet a bit sloppy; Matt's enthusiasm, along with his acrobatics, easily confused the hapless orcs, but how would he fend against a smarter opponent? As for Nina, yes he had seen her dart here and there, but it seems she was searching for something, but what?

As he was pondering these things, standing on a branch and leaning against the tree, he felt it jerk suddenly. Regaining his balance, he saw that 5 of the lugs had managed to spot him (not that he was making any special efforts to hide) and were in the process of trying to knock him down from his vantage point, albeit crudely. Seeing that their attempts were futile, one of them bellowed, in that seductively sweet voice of his:

"You squishy human! Come down! Come face Tarakk! You small squishy coward, we will bash you good!"

His companions quickly screamed their approval and started to laugh at Dreggan's apparent cowardice. Suddenly, one of them paused, as if suddenly aware of something. Another paused, too, then a third. As the last laughing pair turned to see why the merriment had ceased from their brethren, they understood. Each of them had a needle firmly planted in the throat. As small trickles of blood started to flow from their neck wounds, they simply fell back, their death almost instantaneous.

As they whipped their gazes back to the branch, Tarakk and the other orc saw that the "squishy" had disappeared. Enraged, they turned to alert the rest of their comrades, only to find Dreggan standing right behind them.

In the blink of an eye, it was over. Using his Savate style, the thief jumped and delivered a kick to both orcs' fat head simultaneously. As he was coming down, a quick and graceful sweep with both legs (OOC: Olympic pommel horse style) was all it took to take them to the ground. As soon as they hit the dirt, Dreggan finished his sweep in a handstand, performed a slight somersault, unsheated his sais in mid-air and planted them firmly in the brutes' chest. As life was leaving them, all they could hear was his soft chuckle.

"Oh dear, you orcs really ARE stupid, aren't you?"

Removing his sais and wiping them on his victims crude vestments, the thief casually turned to see how the others were doing.

Vanelee held his side that had been hit by the orc, as he watched. He was quite impressed by the "thief", and couldn't help but smile knowing that he was on his side.

The pain continued in his side, but Vanelee chose to ignore it. But, what he couldn't help ignoring was the fact that he sensed someone else shared his pain. Someone...close..someone...

'Nina?' he thought to himself, and smiled as his question was answered by a light blur darting towards a bush. 'What happened to dawn Nina? Did you miss us?'

However his thoughts were cut short as he remebered the other magical force he had sensed before the orcs attacked, Where had it gone? Fled? Or was it still nearby?

Tos, the warrior of the gargoyle duo, was completely unaware of the squirmish just 200 feet below him. He had no seen the people enter the woods, and he could not sense them he had no magic abilities at all. He was brute strength, three times that of the rock hard orcs. He was also quite a bit smarter than the orcs.

Just then he heard Kos' voice in his mind. "Get down here brother! I'm not sure I can relinquish this magi or whatever the hell it is by myself!."

"What magi?" He thought to himself, unable to communicate back he swooped down toward the woods, just before he got to the tops of the trees he arced his descent to just slice the tops of the tree's making them shake violently, branches cracked, his largest talon sliced off a quite long 6 inch wide branch and sent it swooping to the bottom of the forest. Then performing a quick flip and finishing it with a head long dive toward the glow he knew well that was his brother....

Back at the castle the Duke sat in front of his furtune telling boy-slave, listening to each move that was performed at the battle going on. Quite unhappy..

Sar had raised up the gargoyles since before he murdered the former king of his reign and turned his land into a spiral of death and theivary. He knew of their power, how could these few nameless wanderers dispatch them?! The real threat was probably the people the king had chosen to sent to his castle, not some peasants and theives whom are having a stroll into the wood for hunting or adventuring.

Somehow his keen intuition told him something was amiss, he just didnt know what.

Nina darted through the trees embracing a keen sense of awareness. Suddenly she found herself in a large clearing. She could not hear the voices of her companions fighting the orcs and the darkness was penetrated only by the light of the full moon overhead.
Suddenly, she saw two figures approaching across the clearing. Their gait was strong but jerky as a result of the large wings protruding from their backs.
'Gargoyles...ugh...I hate gargoyles,' Nina mumbled.
The one on the right was larger and more muscular by far, but the one on the left had a strange aura that reeked of evil magic.
She closed the distance between them only slightly and then stood, poised for battle, staff in hand, awaiting their approach. They seemed to be speaking to eachother, their sardonic laughter made her cringe. She couldn't help but remember the last time she had fought a gargoyle. It had ended in the death of the creature, but also the loss of her only friend in the world. She felt a stab of regret and tried to force it from her mind. This was no way to enter into a battle, she had to forget the past. 'And anyway, Vanelee will take care of me...' This thought jolted her, why should a self-possessed elf who knew nothing of her care anything about her survival? No matter, Kos and Tos were a mere 15 feet away now. It was time to fight.

Alerted by the sudden movement above the trees, Dreggan went back up the tree.

"Hey guys, I believe that the real threat wasn't those dumb orcs, but whoever was leading them. I'll do a quick sweep and look for Nina. I have a feeling she tends to get herself into trouble."

Not waiting for confirmation from his companions, the thief jumped from branch to branch until he reached some kind of clearing. A huge flying creature had just landed and joined another like it. It looked like... gargoyles? What the hell were those things doing here, in the middle of a forest, no less. Didn't these freaks stay in the mountains? Oh well, more battle.

Heading back to Matt and Vanelee, Dreggan got their attention and motioned for them to follow him. As he lead them to the clearing. He pointed to where Nina was hiding and tried to formulate some kind of strategy. Just like a... soldier. Ugh.

'Gargoyles?' Vanelee questioned himself 'This could present some problems.'

Looking over his surroundings very quickly to get a guage of the battlefield, Vanelee began to think of ways to attack.

The clearing would allow the gargoyles to fly, so that meant the group had to draw them to where they stood, under the cover of the trees.

Looking at the two vey different gargoyles, Vanelee began making some quick judgements. 'OK,the one on the left is strong, REAL strong, and the one of the left is some sort of mage. Damnit, a real problem for us. They make a formidle duo. But let's think now..'

Dispelling his doubts, Vanelee stepped forward and turned back to look at his two companions.

"Guys, I have a plan, but you guys don't have to listen if you don't want. But, I think it might be in all of our best interests. Any objections?"

[AS ELDAIRE (THEY BANNED ME)]

"No plan! Nina in trouble! Fight time!"

[OOC: I would attack the one on the left but...]

Eldaire darted through the woods, using his chi to power his movements. He came around behind the gargoyles and began charging the strong one. He figured he didn't stand much chance against a powerful mage and thought his companions could take care of that. When he got within five feet he extended his right hand and delivered a powerful invisible chi attack that had the force of 10 punches from a mighty warrior. Even the mighty gargoyle reacted with great pain. He turned to see his attacker and was met with a staff across the face, sending him flying about 10 feet away into the dirt. Matt took this opportunity to dart around to the other side of the downed gargoyle to get away from the mage. The whole thing had happened before the mage even had time to look over. Matt took a fighting stance, staff in hand. He was a bit suprised to see the gargoyle get up, but was then very excited. Alright. It's been so long since I've had a real battle.

The gargoyle looked at Matt with a terrible rage in his eyes. "That wasn't very smart," he said.

Nina groaned. Why did they have to interfere? It was easy enough for them to assume that the weak little girl would be in trouble, but actually she had been handling herself fine without their assistance.
No matter. Swinging her staff up over her head, she encased herself and the gargoyle mage in a shielded vacuum, where they could not be seen by the others and could battle without interruption.
The gargoyle laughed maliciously and lifted himself into the air. Nina focused on his chest, feeling the pumping heart beneath it. She raised one closed fist to the level of her face. When she opened her trembling hand, a blast of brilliant red energy erupted from her palm and swept over the beast. It cried out in pain and dove toward her. She dodged it effortlessly, clutched her staff, and gained control of the gargoyle for a moment, sending it crashing to the earth. The creature was almost too strong for her telekinetic capabilities and it knew that one blow had weakened her. Shaking off the blow, it began gathering energy and power from within, preparing to attack.

"Nina!" Vanelee yelled taking a few steps toward the shielded vacumn, but he was stopped by a voice that seemed to be whispering in his ear.

'Vanelee, don't worry...I'll be fine...'

'Telepathic?' Vanelee questioned himself 'Is Nina telepathic? I igured she had telekentic powers being a demi-elf, but telepathic? If so...has she been reading my thoughts...'

Reassured that Nina would be just fine fighting the one gargoyle by herself, Vanelee turned to see how Matt was fairing against the larger of the two gargoyles.

Seeing that Matt's Sechi style was clearly dominating the fight, Vanelee thought to himself 'Has Nina read my thoughts...my feelings..?'

Vanelee regained focus and watched as Matt dismantled the strongest gargoyle.

[As Eldaire (forever more)]

The gargoyle moved with incredible speed in an attempt to leave the warriors from the battle and gain some breathing room to maybe recover from the incredible pain, but Eldaire easily followed him. They ran parallel to one another, trading blows. The gargoyle struck hard, but Eldaire's chi absorbed much of the blow. One of his strikes was too fast for Eldaire though, and there was no chi there to block it. Eldaire was sent careening through the air. The gargoyle chased after him and came down through Matt's after image hard with a kick. A look of suprise came over his face just as Matt brought his staff down hard from behind, planting the gargoyle face down in the earth. He then stood over the gargoyle hands outstretched. Screaming, he sent wave after wave of chi at the Gargoyle. The gargoyle dug deeper and deeper into the earth with the force of the attack. He made no attempt to get back up.

"Whew! I'm exhausted," his stomach growled, "and hungry. I'm gonna go get my food pack."

Vanelee spoke up, "What about Nina?"

"Is she here?"

"She's fighting the gargoyle in a shielded area right now."

"So there's nothing we can do?"

"No."

"I'm going to get my food pack."

Matt ran off in the direction of his food.

(OOC: Great, which post do we use here?)


(OOC: Nevermind, Eldaire's attacks pretty much follow Dreggan's.)

Nina showered the gargoyle with several powerful blasts of fiery energy, knocking it on its back and temporarily blinding it. The mage gargoyle flew up in the air and hurled several bullets of fire and ice back at Nina, who attempted to dodge them all but was struck across the face by one.

She felt something roll down her cheek like a tear. She wiped her hand across her face, looked down at her mortal blood and back up at the gargoyle, rage gleaming in her eyes. An intense wind whipped through the realm they battled in, nearly spinning the gargoyle out of the sky, but only slightly stirring Nina's hair and cloak.

'Enough,' she whispered, gripping her staff with both hands and raising it vertically above her head. Her eyes glazed over with the power that overtoke her as she brought the staff down and buried its tip in the ground. The earth shook and a hole opened up where her staff had penetrated it. A fiery wind lept up from the crevice, swallowed the gargoyle, dropped back to the earth, and the hole closed again. Nina stood motionless, slightly charred from the explosion, a tiny flame consuming one forlorn strand of her hair. The wind died down and the vacuum evaporated.

Vanelee looked up just in time to see Nina collapse from exhaustion, having defeated the mage beast.

Matt came strolling back, still chewing on some of his remaining food. His pack was on his back, but it was now the size of a small backpack. Only the potions Dreggan had given him remained. "That was good!" He looked to see Nina collapsed on the ground. "Should I toss her the healing potion?"

[I]The battle had been won, but the newly reappeared Nina looked exhausted. Dreggan worried about this, as the group was only at the beginning of their mission, but what could he do. Each individual was very independant, some even more so than others, so there was no stopping whatever actions any of them might want to take.

Taking a piece of jerky from his pack, the thief started chewing on it, as Matt went off to gorge himself and Vanelee tended to Nina. Daydreaming, Dreggan thought back to his youth...

[OOC: Flashback follows]

"Dreggan! Get out of here! The house is surro..."

A sharp "twack" silenced the middle-aged man, who fell to the ground, a throwing blade stuck in his lower back. He couldn't get up, the thrower was skilled. The weapon was lodged low enough to prevent shock, while paralysing the lower body.

"UNCLE! I don't want to go! Please get up!"

Suddenly, the shadows came alive. Out of them emerged 4 figures, each dressed completely in black. Even their faces were covered, save for a slit for the eyes. Eyeing the fallen man, they stood immobile, until finally one of them spoke.

"You had your chance to leave, thief, but you chose to face your death. How generous it was of you to save us the bother of tracking you down! I am genuinely thankful. However, I am not so merciful."

A blur of movement from one of the men sent another blade deep into the thief's shoulder. He didn't scream, but still grimaced and groaned, cursing his would be killers.

- "Such a foul tongue you have, Mano."

- "Damn your eyes, Sekine. Why do you have to ply your disgusting trade in this realm. I know of your contracts, you murder the weak and defenseless for the rich and powerful, so that they may rule more brutally than ever!"

- "And you steal from the rich and give back to those wretches. You see our conflict, no?"

- "Thieving is harmless. The Gray Cloud Guild does not hurt anyone except for defense and steals only from those would hoard their belongings or flaunt them like the superficial fops they are. You people kill. You terminate life, whoever it might belong to. You do not contribute anything in this world! "

- "Tsk. Tsk. Such misguided word from someone who profits from loss. Life and wealth are the same. Who are you to judge their worth? We are a business. Businesses exist to make profit. It just so happens that certain people can brings us prosperity more easily."

- "You are evil, Sekine. You and the rest of your souless horde. Go. To. Hell."

- "You first, Mano."

The other three assassins who had simply watched suddenly sprang into action and buried their narrow, yet extremely sharp short swords into Mano. Their attacks were aimed to cause maximum pain, while keeping the victim alive.

The boy watched all of this, too paralysed to act. The hired killers had not even glanced at him... did they even know he was there? The question was quickly answered when he felt a cold blade press up against his neck. Only then did he realise that the man known as Sekine had disappeared from the carnage before him, only to reappear behind the boy. Beads of sweat slowly trickled down from the young lad's brow, as he struggled to swallow his fear. Sekine whispered in his ear.

"Watch, young one. Watch how thieves are dealt with. This is what he wanted you to be. Do you want to die like this? Like filthy vermin who exists only to rut, scavenge and be exterminated by those superior than they?"

[OOC: End of Flashback]

Dreggan's thoughts snapped back to reality. He looked around sharply to get his bearings, and remembered where he was. Looking at his hand, he saw that he had crushed the piece of jerky beyond recognition. Sighing deeply, he let it drop to the ground and took out another one, along with some water. His throat was parched. He took a long swig from the water skin and swallowed with great difficulty, some of the liquid trickling down his mouth.

He got back up, put on his facade once again and walked towards the rest of the group, chewing his jerky nonchalantly.

Vanelee watched the vacumn shield disperse as quickly as it had been summoned by Nina, and Nina drop to her knees from the exhaustion of the fight.

Seeing this, Vanelee ran to her side and caught her before she hit the ground. Her hair was slightly singed at the ends, and bits of ash were smeared across her face. It looked as if she had traveled through the brimstone of Hell and back.

Laying her small frame down on the ground gently, Vanelee looked up upon hearing Matt's question.

He answered, "Yes please Matt. If you'd be so kind. I think she could use it."

Matt tossed the elf the red potion and Vanelee fumbled as he caught it. It appeared that Matt had regained his strength quickly, because the potion was thrown with a bit of muster.

Tilting Nina's chin back ever so slightly so that her mouth opened, Vanelee poured the healing potion into her mouth. Taking care not to spill any.

"I think she will be fine in the morning, which is only a few hours away. I think we should just go ahead and set up camp here, to get some rest before continuing the journey." Vanelee suggested.

After seeing his other companions shake their heads in agreeance, Vanelee set about preparing his place to sleep. He removed a small sleeping mat he wore slung over his back under his cloak and set it on the ground. He positioned himself on the ground, not to close to Nina, but close enough so that he could see to it she slept peacefully.

Before he laid down to go to sleep, Vanelee removed Nina's old cloak, folding it in thirds so that he could use as a pillow for her. He then removed the new cloak he had boughten for her and laid it over top of her like a blanket. As he did this, he heard a slight growl from a wolf who had appeared from the woods, and joined Nina at her side. He never attacked Vanelee, just growled lowly and watched his every movement.

After seeing to it that Nina was fast asleep, Vanelee turned to his other companions. Matt was searching his bag for any left over morsel of food, and Dreggan was searching the clearing to see if the gargoyles had dropped anything of value during their battle.

Sensing that they were being watched, they both looked up to see Vanelee smiling sheepishly at them.

"Great fighting you two. I am sorry that I wasn't much help. I was going to step in, but you two seemed to have no touble dispatching of our enemies."

With this, Vanelee turned on his side away from his companions and began to drift to sleep, but only into a light sleep. His senses were still on alert, ready if they came under attack.

"Damn fools" the duke said calmly. Walking away from his precious power mind locked away under his castle. "Those guys had trouble with those gargoyles, merely my first pawn in this match."

The duke walked through his enormous castle, looking into a room now and again, one room had a huge room, all the walls lined up with shelves of dusty books. Another, a dining hall, had a 20 foot table with 10 chairs on each side with a large master chair on the end.

When he finally made it to his destination, a large door sealed with 3 steel shackles and a glowing glyph in the center of it. Uttering a few quiet words the glyph shined red and white, then faded away. Quickly unlatching the shackles he walked outside, there was he shapeshifter Aspin outside in the center of his castle in a small courtyard area.

When the door opened Aspin dropped to one knee and lowered his head to the Duke's calf level. "No need." spoke Sar. "There is no time. The gargoyles are dead. As are the orcs, as I expected from them."

"Sir, if I may, We have plenty of time they still have to cross the mountains, they will either have to summit the mountain, which is where the gargoyles live, or they will have to travel through the caves. Then after that, well then its your territory, you'll have no problem with them here. You may not even have to do anything, the damned heathens living here would slit their throats for a dime."

"Your probably right, friend." said Sar, "You keep your act straight and you'll be by my side in no time, I can see you becoming powerful." At this time the Duke was sitting on a rock, he stared at it for a few minutes saying nothing. "I'll be back, wait here, I have a task for you."

Standing up his armor clanked a bit on the rock he was sitting on. He headed into the castle and to the room across the hall. Inside were hundreds of vials and vats of bubbling liquids, it was foul smelling in here. Heading straight to a small table with a vat and behind it small vials laying on the table. He picked up three small vials and headed back out to find his companion.

"Turn into something less threatening this time and head out to the mountains, at the base I want you to pour these three vials onto three seperate rocks. Do it quickly and get out quickly. I have seen what happens to people who act slow."

Without asking what they were for the shapeshifter grabbed the vials and stuck them into a pouch he carried around his right shoulder down around his left hip. tucked the pack around his back and began to change, slowly as to not pain himself much. He changed into a large condor, quite a rare sight around the world but when seen its accounted to being lucky, not threatening. Spreading his wings out he began to take flight, almost nightfall he had a hard time to make it to the mounts before daybreak but he could do it.

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

When the morning came he was just arriving at the base of the mountains, he had pondered all night what these vials were for. He was about to find out, swooping his wings out as he was about to land he quickly made a lot of dust, but he saw 4 rocks sitting near where he landed, slowly changing back into a human form he layed on his side. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye but his vision was heavily distorted from the transformation. When he regained his composure he saw there was nothing where he thought he was looking. Reaching into the bag he pulled out the vials, setting one on each of the rocks he was going to pour them on, so he could get it done quicker.

The first vial went smoothly, reaching for the second and pouring it over the second boulder, which was a bit larger then the first.

His hand went for the third but he smacked his hand off the rock and knocked the vial into the second boulder smashing it and the liquid oozed down the side of it. "Damnit!" angered by his own clumsiness he ran up the hill about 50 yard and transformed quickly, moaning at the pain of it all. After he was back in the shape of the condor he watched the rocks. The liquid had seemingly multiplied itself and had enveloped the entire rock in the color red. They started to move a bit, and crack the crackes were in the same exact spots on the two rocks, as they split and moved the condor at the top watched them without blinking. After a minute they came to rest...

What the.. thought Aspin. Taking to the air, should I go back? Yes, I can't disappoint the master. Swooping past the rocks one of them busted apart and stood up, senseing the vibrations off of the birds large wings, standing 7 feet tall and completely faceless one of the animated bodies took one step, the other rock felt the vibrating earth near him and stood up also, this one with two vials splashed on it was slower even. The bird noticed what had happened because of his mistake, this one had two complete arms on the side the vial smashed and the other side had one arm that was the size of two arms grown together. Sighing, he could do nothing but head back to the castle.

Both creatures standing beside each other not moving whatsoever. A minute later they returned to large boulders on the ground, but still they had the crackes in them. They were also blood red not like the brownish tan ones around them.

Nina awoke from her sleep, shaken by harrowing dreams, dreams that blinked quickly into history, telling stories, broken and distorted by time. Some of the images were from her memory, things she had forgotten and things she could not forget, but others were images she did not know or understand. The past lives of her companions had been revealed to her in dreams, but the events were so fragmented she could not piece them together.

She found she had been covered by something, a cloak, and her companions were sleeping close by. Anca was at her side, breathing heavily and nudging her with his nose.

She remembered all that had happened and knew that Vanelee had taken care of her, after all. She crept silently to where he slept fitfully near her. She knelt beside him and watched his chest rise and fall as he breathed. She reached out with one trembling hand to touch his face, but withdrew it quickly, realizing the folly in this. She did not believe in love, not anymore.

As she drifted back to sleep, she felt an aching in her stomach that spread through her chest. The journey had not even begun and already she felt doubt creeping in. She had vowed to take this risk, she was born to take it, but maybe she truly wasn't ready for it.

Vanelee had fallen asleep one or two hours before sunrise, and had waken with a start as soon as the sky over top the mountains began to glow with the rising sun.

Kicking himself for falling into such a deep sleep, Vanelee sat up and looked around. Everything appeared to be fine, all of his companions were still asleep. Matt had fallen asleep leaning his back against the tree, Dreggan was in a smiliar position, but was some 8 feet up the tree on a branch, and Nina was still lying on the ground, but the cloak that Vanelee had laid over her had been cast off to the side. Had she woken up in the night?

Seeing all was well, Vanelee thought he'd gather some fruit for his companions and he, to make their departure that much quicker. Gathering his sleeping mat, Vanelee returned it to its place under his cloak. He then headed off into the woods where he had seen some berry bushes before the battle commenced.

As he entered the woods though, Vanelee took one more look back at the camp, his gaze falling upon Nina. Her face seemed to glow as it was illuminated by a beam of sunlight. Vanelee was awestruck for a moment, for he had never realized just how beautiful the young miss was.

However, he quickly snapped himself back into focus, shaking his head to break his staring gaze.

'Breakfast' he thought ' I am going to get fruit for breakfast....'

(OOC: FLASHBACK)

[I]The boy stood there helpless, as he watched his uncle writhe in agony. That and the soft chuckle of the man behind him, was all he could hear. The assassins went about their work with a frightening lack of passion, as if they were doctors operating on some unknow patient, stabbing here, cutting there...

When it was finished, Mano was reduced to a whimpering mass of mangled flesh. Never before had Dreggan seen such carnage, but there it was, and he would never forget it.

The nameless assassins then turned their gazes towards the boy for the first time, but were looking at their leader instead. Mano, despite the unspeakable things done to his body, managed to turn his ruined face towards his nephew.

- "Don't let the... demons take you, Dreggan. Re... Remember this... day..."

- "Do you really think we will let that happen?"

- "..."

- "Do it."

As soon as Sekine had spoken this command, 3 blades found their way into Mano's heart. His eyes widened, only to close slowly. His body shook violently, only to subside.

As life departed his uncle's body, Dreggan simply stood mute, unable to cry or speak. Sekine had let him go and joined his underlings, facing the now totally orphaned boy.

- "Tell me, Dreggan. How would you like your death? Quick and painless or slow and agonizing?

The boy's gaze lifted slowly from the cooling corpse lying at his feet to the dead eyes looking down at him. His face was calm, his grey eyes piercing the inner pain and sorrow he felt to even give the assassins pause.

- "Slow and agonizing. So that I may remember what it was like to be alive."

- "..."

- "I'm waiting."

- "Heh. You are very brave, boy. Braver than most men I've seen in such conditions. However, I still have a purpose for you. Since you were not in our contract, I can do with you as I wish.

Sekine snapped his fingers and his henchmen went into action. Dreggan didn't even see them move, but felt the sharp blow to the neck and the sack pulled over him. Before losing himself to blessed unconsciousness, he did manage to hear a few words.

- "I always did want a son..."

(OOC: BACK TO THE REAL WORLD)

The thief woke with a start, but noticed something odd. He was moving. Rapidly. Downward. A loud thud and a pain on his side reminded him to avoid sleeping on narrow branches again and he cursed under his breath as he got back up.

His dreams were coming to him more frequently and he did not care for it. Especially now, when his demeanor had so thoroughly convinced the others of his aloofness. Why must he torment himself so? Climbing back up the tree to get his pack, he saw something that made his blood freeze. A steel needle, just like the ones he used, was lodged in the tree trunk near where he had slept. A thin strip of cloth with something written on it hung from the weapon, slightly flowing in the morning breeze. Slowly reaching for it, he dreaded what it could mean, but in the back of his mind, he knew what the intent was.

Dislodging the needle, he read the message: "Remember." Tears welled up in his eyes, but he wiped them away angrily. They had found him, but had not taken him... why? Why must they torment him still? Discarding the needle, Dreggan dropped down from the tree and composed himself. Vanelee was gathering fruit, ever the consumate "good-guy", so he most likely heard him fall the first time. Putting on his game face, the thief walked to him, smiling.

"So, I see someone's up early! And productive as well! My, my... I can tell she'll fall for you hard."

Vanelee's ubiquitous smile slowly dropped; a huge question mark floating above his head.

- "What do you mean?"

- "Whatever you think I do, mister!"

With that, Dreggan snatched a few berries from Vanelee's hand and stuffed them into his mouth. Smiling the whole time.

Matt slept against the tree, but fitfully. He fell from it and his head bounced off the rock. This didn't even come close to waking him up though. He threw stray punches in his sleep. One of them hit the tree and almost felled it. His dreams were of his past.

[OOC: I want a flashback too!]

The house was quaint and far from town, but it did the job. Matt and his father spent little time actually in the house anyway, and Matt's mother had died giving him birth. Out back, the yard was littered with staves, bows and arrows, knives, swords, chucks, sais, and every other type of weapon imaginable. That was where all their time was spent. All they did was eat, train, and sleep. When Matt's father was at work, Matt trained alone. When he got home, they trained together, except for today. There was no training today.

Matt sobbed terribly as he watched his father get taken away by the sentinels. One of them spoke to his father, "Sorry to do this to you old buddy, but the law's the law." Amarth spoke only to his son, repeating over and over again "I'm sorry bud, but this is the way it has to be." Amarth put up no resistance to the sentinels. As they loaded him up on one of the horses, he spoke to the one who was his friend, "Take good care of my boy okay?"

"Of course old friend." All of the other sentinels rode off and the only people left were Matt and the sentinel. "Let's go Matt."

"Go away Emyn. I'm waiting right here till my dad get's back." Matt was only five years of age. He could not understand the situation. He did not understand why his dad had to leave. He did not know where he was going. He only knew that he could not imagine life without his dad. He sat in the doorway stubbornly.

"I wish he were coming back kiddo, but he's not. Now, let's go." He put a hand on Matt's shoulder and attempted to force him along, but Matt threw him hard on the ground and put him out cold.

When Emyn awoke, he sat up and spoke to Eldaire. "I'm sorry to do this to you Matt, but you leave me no choice." Emyn went to punch him, but Matt dodged and countered with a kick that doubled Emyn over, gasping for breath. Emyn's anger began to get the better of him. "Why you!"

At that moment, a strange bald man in red robes stepped forward and spoke. "Just a moment good sir. I have been observing this prediciment for a while now, and I would like to adopt this boy if it suits you, and the boy."

"Do what you like with him!" With that, Emyn began to walk away, but, remembering his promise to Amarth, he sighed and turned around. "You'll give him a good home right?"

"Of course sir. He will be very happy in our monestary I promise." The man's voice was so kind and gentle that Emyn was convinced at that. He nodded and walked away. The man then turned to Matt. "Hello there Matt. My name is Alda. I know it's hard for you to understand, but your father will be very busy for a long time and he won't be coming back. We'll leave him a note if you like. I'm sure he'll come for you when he's finished." Matt looked at the man curiously. He felt he had known him forever. He approached the man cautiously at first, but he ran to him, throwing his arms around him and sobbing heavily into his robes.

FLASH

Eldaire woke with a start. His stomach growled furiously. The sun was already high in the sky. "Huh. I woke up pretty early today." He ran off into the woods to find himself and his group breakfast."

Nina found that she had outslept all of her companions. Embarassed, she doned her new cloak and darted off into the woods to dine alone. She caught a woodland rabbit easily, built a fire and roasted it in no time, as she had been subsisting in that manner all her life. She and Anca enjoyed the tough meat together and as she ate she tried to refocus on her purpose.

(OOC: I guess if everyone else is revealing their past, maybe I should, too. Not. Heh heh.)

She had to reach the Duke somehow, if that meant the death of her companions, then so be it. She could not let her feelings for Vanelee distract her from her mission. She had struggled for too long to give in to such a weakness now.

Feeling slightly more resolute, Nina made her way back to the camp, where she found Dreggan and Vanelee finishing breakfast and preparing to leave. Not wanting to abandon courtesy all together, she thanked Vanelee curtly for the cloak and his attentiveness the night before.

Dreggan seemed troubled by something. Curious, Nina darted through his mind quickly, scooping up prominent information. What she found shocked her. Such loss, such pain. He had shown such a carefree exterior, she hadn't bothered to enter his mind, convinced she would be bored with what she found there. How wrong she had been to judge him! Vanelee, on the other hand, seemed capable of shielding his thoughts from her and she could only divulge superficial feelings and emotions from him. Perhaps Matt was more than he seemed as well. She would find out soon enough, she sensed him approaching from the woods.

'I knew she was telepathic' Vanelee thought to himself, as he watched Nina closing her eyes , trying to hide the fact. 'Well young miss, you can read somethings in my mind no problem, but other things must main hidden from you....'

Seeing that everyone around him seemed to be in quite a somber mood, Vanelee decided he'd say something to distract thier thougts.

"I know I've said it already, but phenomenal fighting yesterday. Not even the elves in my clan..." with these words, Vanelee's smile faded, and his twinkling eyes lost nearly all their shine. "Yes well...um..my clan..they couldn't have even dealt with those foes as easily as you all did."

Thoughts came racing into Vanelee's mind after mentioning his clan, and he joined his companions in their feelings of somberness, but only for a moment. With a quick shake of his head, Vanelee focused his thoughts on something else and raised his head back up to look at his fellow companions, dorning his usual smile now.

"Let's say we move on now, unless...Matt are you still hungry? Matt?"

Looking around Vanelee did not see Matt. He could have sworn that he was still amongst the group, but he was obviously mistaken. Vanelee's thoughts wandered to the words Dreggan had spoken earlier, as he awaited Matt's return. "I can tell, she'll fall for you hard."

'She isn't falling for me...' Vanelee reassured himself. 'She hasn't given any of the usual signs, but then again she isn't your usual girl...she's much more...she's...WAIT! She could be reading my mind!'

With this, Vanelee looked up at Nina, who had her cloak's hood pulled over top of her head, hiding her face from view.

'Was she reading my thoughts? Man, I have to be a little more careful. Especially if she doesn't have any feelings for me and I'm the only one who...'

Vanelee's thoughts were broken as his ears perked up. He had heard something moving in the woods directly behind him. What was it?

Matt came stomping back from the woods, a dead bear over his shoulder.

"Hi gu...."

A needle flew in his direction with great speed and accuracy. Matt ducked just in time to have the needle plant itself in the dead bear. It went so deep that you never would have known it was thrown in the first place.

"What was that for?"

"Sorry about that..." responded Dreggan, one hand on the back of his head.

"Anyway, like I was saying... Hi guys! I got us some breakfast! Just let me start a fire really quick and we'll be feasting on bear meat."

Matt started a fire with some sticks and straw. He had done this plenty of times in his time as a journeyman and liked to think he was getting pretty good at it. While the fire was building, he prepared the bear for roasting. He jumped into the air and knocked two branches from a tree with each arm. He then broke one of them in half and shoved the two halves on either side of the fire. He put the third one through the bear meat and began to roast it. He reached into his pack and pulled out some salts and oils. He turned to Dreggan smiling [OOC: Think ^.^], "See, I thought in advance. I got some for now and some for making it good later!" When he was finished, the meat looked fit for a king. It was a tender brown and the greasy aroma drifted across the woods. He slapped his head as he remembered somthing. "Be right back!" He ran into the woods in his usual speedy fashion, leaves flying up on either side of hiim as he ran. When he came back, he was carrying a large boulder which he threw into the air. He concentrated on it's motion a moment, and then jumped, punching it and sending debris flying away from the group and the meat, towards the woods. He then used his legs to jump off towards the debris. He grabbed four large flat pieces from the debris. He carried them back and tore the meat into four pieces. Three about 2 lbs in size and he other had the rest of the meat. He ran over to his companions with the first three. He handed one to nina who toppled a bit, being suprised by the weight of the stone. He then ran over to Vanelee and did the same. He set the third under Dreggan's tree. When he was done, he ran back to his and began to devour his share of the meat. About half way through he looked up and noticed his companions' food was untouched. "You guys eatin' or what?"

Dropping down from the tree, Dreggan eyed the makeshift plate and its contents warily.

"Never had bear meat before. I guess there's a first time for everything!"

He then proceded to eat his share slowly, as it was new to him and he also didn't want to cramp up, especially if there was more fighting to be had that day. While eating, he did some basic hand work with his sais.

Aspin returned to the castle very late. He found Sar studying in his library (which i tried to describe earlier but had a very misunderstandting mistype).

"Your late..."

"I know sir, I stopped at the top of the peak to tell the orcs what happened to their companions, the Orc Champion was furious and he sent out 2 groups of 20 orcs. But thats not all, he sent one group consisting of a orc magus and orc overlord warrior." Aspin smiled.

So did the Duke.

"It may take awhile for them to track down the heathens that slew their companions but when they do... " Aspin smiled again.

The Duke did not... "The orcs are just killing themselves, perhaps the Orc Magus and Overlord can harm them but they'll never defeat them. That girl with them, something she did blocked the Tarok from seeing what she was doing."

"We'll see, they have many treaturous things to pass before their even 5 miles within my castle. "

Nina realized that the rabbit she had shared with Anca earlier had not been altogether filling, as there was little good meat on such an animal. She was relieved to see Dreggan begin eating the meat and reached for her own hungrily. It was well-cooked, tender, and juicy. She hadn't had such a meal in awhile. Anca eagerly accepted the pieces she tossed to him occasionally.

As she ate, she scanned Matt's thoughts. Telepathy was a strange power. Those who didn't have it assumed that those who did just went around reading everybody's mind all the time. Nina had found that it was much more conducive to her own survival to not know everyone's thoughts. She only used her power when it was absolutely necessary, or when her curiosity overcame her. She was also careful not to delve too deep, the demons one could uncover deep in someone's mind could be traumatizing.

She found that Matt's childhood had been one of some confusion, terrible loss, but also love and happiness. 'Hmm, these warriors seem to have motives other than money for taking this quest...Interesting.'

Accepting Matt's food with a gracious smile, Vanelee began to take small bites out of the bear meat. The meat was extremely juicey, so bits of juice spilled out of the corner of his mouth on to his chin.

Not wanting to appear a slob, Vanelee took the end of his cloak and discretely wiped his chin, but as he did this his eyes met with Nina's, who had apparently seen the whole thing. She smiled as she tried to stifle a laugh, and her actions were met by a warm smile from Vanelee.

After the group had finished what they could of the bear meat, they packaged the rest in some spare cloth to be eaten later. Vanelee stood with a resolute look on his face and turned to the others.

"I think it's time we move on now. We have a mission, and we are lagging behind right now. I think we should move swiftly and try to reach the base of the mountains by night fall."

Vanelee waited for his companions to show their agreeance.

[AS AMARTH, OR ELDAIRE, OR WHOEVER, MATT!]

Matt finshed consuming his meat with a satisfied sigh. He stood and nodded in agreement with Vanelee.

"Yeah, I agree. Let's go!"

(as herself...grrr...)

Snapping back from her brief exchange with Vanelee, Nina quickly agreed with his suggestion to move on and began gathering her things.

Dreggan was already set to go and was waiting for the others. From his vantage point in the tree, he could see that the fotrest they were in had several clearings, with low mountains beyond about 10-15 miles away.

"We should move fast and avoid the clearings. The mountains are reasonably far away, but if we take only one more break to eat in the late afternoon, we should be there by nightfall. Let's move."

With that, the thief started hopping from one branch to the next with amazing speed and grace.

Nina stuck close to Vanelee as they moved through the trees, unable to resist her desire to be near him. She felt as though she were falling under some kind of spell, a wickedly clever one that she could not shake nor counter. Still, she heard the voice of a man from her past echoing through her head. "You must travel to the edge of everything you have ever known and then step into the unknown before you will find what you are looking for..." She knew she would never be happy unless she found it, the wise mage's words would haunt her forever if she failed. Why, then, did she feel as if Vanelee's love was all she would ever need, as if his heart beat within her own chest? Surely this was some mistake! She wasn't meant to fall in love, especially not with a rogue elf!

[AS AMARTH]

Matt frolicked across the forest floor, bounding along, smilling broadly. His pack bounced on his back as he went. Hmm. A mage, a thief, a rogue, and a monk. This is the stuff legends are made of. This is SO COOL! He jumped up into the trees with Dreggan and continued his travelling. "Watcha doin' up here?" As soon as he asked, he hit his head on a branch and fell back to the forest floor. "OUCH!"

Matt was starting to pull ahead of the group when he came to a sudden halt.

"Hey guys, check this out. These rocks are different than the rest."

More importantly, they seem to be emitting chi...

Vanelee halted at Matt's warning, with Nina close to his side. The sudden alarm had slightly startled him, but something seemed to ease his weariness right away. Something close. Something warm. Something ever so beautiful....

"Do you sense the force being emitted by these rocks you guys?" Vanelee asked turning to his companions.

Turning back to the rocks, Vanelee looked upon them with a confused smile upon his facE.

'What on Earth could the Duke have up his sleeve?'

Nina nearly stumbled into Vanelee when he stopped, but checked herself quickly and scolded herself for walking too close to him. She had been so wrapped up in his every move that she hadn't noticed the rocks until they were a few feet away.
'What in the world?' she thought. The presence emitted by these rocks felt animate and living, as if they weren't rocks at all, as if they had some kind of spell placed on them. 'A spell placed on rocks! Ofcourse!' Realizing the danger that was ahead of them, Nina grabbed Vanelee's arm.
"Wait, these rocks are dangerous, I think it would be best to formulate a plan first."

"Dangerous?" Vanelee questioned Nina with his warm grey eyes. "Do you know what the Duke is up to?"

Seeing a look of slight despair on his young miss' face, Vanelee stopped talking and agreed with her that they needed a plan.

'HIS young miss?' Vanelee thought t himself as he turned to consult with the others. "When did I start thinking of Nina as belonging to me? I'm sure she wouldn't like that, not one bit. But it's different with her I suppose...she wouldn't be mine..she'd just be...'

Vanelee meant to turn back around to whisper something to Nina, but decided against it at the last moment. Wrenching to brain to disenage the thought. 'Best to just smile and be silent.'

Again turning back to the others, Vanelee spoke. "So are we all in agreeance that THIS time we'll plan before acting."

Vanelee kept a close eye on Matt for his response.

Matt eyed the rocks wearily.

"I don't see what's so dangerous about rocks, but if everyone thinks we need a plan then I suppose we can develop one."

With an amused look on his face and a look of slight surprise due to Matt's response, Vanelee spoke. "Well, here's what I was thinking. Matt and Nina have the best sensing abilities, and apprarently the best melee skills, so I think they should engage whatever these things are first."

Turning to Nina, Vanelee said "Maybe you can use some sort of shielding spell to guard Matt and yourself until we are certain what our enemy is.'

"Dreggan and I can stay back a bit to cover you two, sinc we both have ranged attacks. Dreggan with his needles and I with my..."

With this, Vanelee finally removed his cloak and set it on the ground next to him. The elf had apparently been hiding himself since the beginning of the journey. He was not frale as he appeared, but rather built with lean muscle. Not bulky muscle, but oviously present.

He wore a typical elvish outift, but the true stroy was what he wore on his back. Slinged across his back along with his sleeping mat was an elvish bow and a quiver of arrows.

Removig the bow, Vanelee strung it, and tested the taught string. The bow was white as snow, and it's surface smooth and sleek. Taking an arrow from the quiver, Vanelee placed it on the bows string. The arrows had white fletches, and the points seemed to gleamed. Obviously enchanted with elven magic.

Looking up his companions with his warm grey eyes twinkling, Vanelee said " So are we agreed then?"

Nina nearly swooned as Vanelee threw off his cloak. She had been attracted to him before she had any idea what he might be hiding under the cloak, now...
Well, it was going to be tough.
Nina gaped for a moment before stammering in agreement with Vanelee's plan.
Looking to Matt in an attempt to regain composure, Nina smiled. "Shall we?"

"So long as I get to punch stuff! I still don't understand what we're fighting against though..."

"I believe these rocks have the ability to move and think similarly to living creatures. However, they are still rocks, so they're virtually indestructible unless attacked at a point of weakness. If we can move in closer, I can assess where their weaknesses lie."

"Oh. Okay! Leave it to me!"

Matt began to move towards the rocks when suddenly they transformed into huge golems. One of them swung at Matt, but he did a back hand spring and dodged.

"Woah!"