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[Phoenix]

DAY TWENTY-FIVE

When the group was ready, they had set out and followed after the Major General Selene's forces. The new Dauntless wagon's first debut was a surprising one. With Sandrock and Riley hauling a wagon so light that they could move almost freely over the terrain, they easily kept pace with the other mounts throughout the trip. The intense gust coming from under the wagon would easily dissuade anyone from traveling directly beside it, but Gabbie was one to interpret that in a good way, envisioning a bandit attack easily thwarted simply because of the frustration of trying to assault the moving wagon; never mind the numerous guards hired to protect it. Being forced to travel through the night, had many terribly fatigued by morning, but the enemy couldn't have gotten too far ahead of them. Occasional reports kept them heading east after their short breaks.

Eventually suspicions began to arise. The enemy had gone exactly east, and as Altena and a scout studied a map of the region, a location seemed to overlap with the enemies' retreating path. She suspected that Danton was the enemies' next stop on their way to wherever they were headed. Danton was a small fortress with very little strategic value since the reclamation of Central Sardius. It was long since abandoned. If they ignored all other search routes, they could save some hours and gain precious ground on the enemy. Of course, if the enemy was doing this specifically to make them think that, they might very well be making a mistake by doing so and lose track of them beyond Danton. Eventually she decided that the best course of action would be to keep doing as they were doing, neither gain nor lose ground to them. She took the suggestion to Selene before the scouts were sent out, again.

Gabbie spent much of the trip reflecting endlessly on what Craig had revealed about their primary enemy. "He's very fast ... fast enough to avoid everything the tanks threw at him. The very fact that he survived so many stab wounds is also a testament to his stamina ... he can take a bigger beating than I estimated. He uses both magic and a pair of small blades, so don't think getting in close will make things easier for you ... don't even engage him without a way around that destructive technique of his ..." Craig's words echoed in her head causing her to grimace.

Well fuck, is there anything we CAN do? she wondered. She began imagining numerous comical attempts by the party to overpower Sardis. Over and over they involved several sacrifices and a lot of people being stabbed just to hold him in place. One image had the entire party piling on top of him while stabbing at the center ... a lot of friendly injuries took place in that one ... "Urgh ..." she mumbled. Frustration was setting in deeper and deeper with the prospect of having to do battle with Sardis for Raquel's safe return becoming more and more real.

As the group continued to move along, the unit waited, some anxiously for news about the fortress that was coming up somewhere along their search path. If the enemy had stopped there, then they would be able to close the distance and quickly dispatch them before they could flee. They certainly had enough mounted units for the job. It wouldn't be until almost noon that news came back from the scouts. Still a short while longer ....

[Rothene]

Upon entering the wagon, Mireille's first course of action was to pass her shield to Connor saying, "Here's my shield. I'd like an upgraded Barrier installed into it as soon as possible. I'll pay you when I get my pay if the cost is beyond what I carry right now. You can trust upon my honour as a knight to pay you back."

***

Tired, Ranyin flopped onto Bert's back, hugging the pegasus rider tightly as he slowly drifted off to sleep...hopefully I don't fall, was his last thoughts as fatigue was slowly banished away from him.

Edited by Rothene, 21 November 2011 - 06:51 PM.

[-Cynthia-]

Selene

The Major General kept a close eye on Raquel's mercenaries, the group who had beaten Alastor. Aside from the one man's outburst in Weyland's estate, they did appear more organized than she had anticipated a group of seemingly random travelers thrown together by random chance. There might be a way to make use of them if the organization is indeed hiding in that fortress. Hopefully they'll listen to my orders without much difficulty.

Veronika

Veronika sat in the new wagon, biting her lip as she did so. I wonder if Raquel is even in Ursium anymore? We haven't seen Jethro since Sergio and there's no reason to think Raquel would be any different...bah such thoughts are of no use. If Raquel's not there we'll just extract what information we can from whatever organization members are there.

Nadya

Nadya swayed in her saddle a few times, nearly falling asleep, but steadying herself before having an untimely crash each time. She was beginning to wonder if sleep deprivation hadn't taken a toll on her judgment, chasing after an employer who was captured by some sort of tank destruction mage seemed like a worse ideas with each step.

Connor

"Oh right, sure. You're one of Uncle's employees, so I trust you to pay later if you need to. Upgrading is pretty cost efficient though, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem," he replied to the knight, taking the shield and inspecting it immediately.

Clara

The mission of the sisters to locate the prototype had been fairly fruitless thus far. Clara mostly entertained herself by looking at cloud shapes and imagining what they could be, while Cecily and Simon seemed to entertain themselves by arguing with each other for most of the trip.

"Are we there yet, Simon or Darksider or whoever you are? I didn't really expect to be traveling through Central Sardius for this mission...seems a bit dangerous this time of year," she said to the man on the horse.

[Phoenix]

Darksider: The Series

"Hmph, we can't be losing ground. The man travels on foot, after all." he replied to Clara. "Besides, my sources point east, so that's where we should be heading!" he added confidently ... and loudly.

"What are these 'sources' you keep referring to? Please don't tell me they're a bunch of creepy shut-ins, as well ..." Cecily cut in. It's bad enough having to travel with him, but if it turns out that he doesn't even have valid information to begin with ... I ... I refuse to keep wasting my time like this. I need to know that he's not just trying to see the world with a couple of people around to protect him or something. she thought to herself for a brief moment. "Alright, listen, SIMON-" "Hssssss!" came a hissing interruption from the man. "Listen, you. Don't waste our time here or you're going to regret it." she told him in as threateningly a tone as she could manage.

"Remember, Red Hot Tempered One, I wish to find him as much--if not more so--than the two of you. My sources will point us in the right direction. We must simply keep moving."

Clara's right, though. We're getting dangerously close to the war zone. At this pace we'll be at Urcenter before long. That is not where we want to be, and why would the man we're looking for be there at all?

[Acacia Sgt]

The speed of the new wagon was certainly impressive. <I guess there was nothing to worry there after all.> John thought. And so they went, pass the night and into the next day.

<Now I wonder just how much far we must travel.> He was thinking now. They couldn't possibly be wanting to reach Neviskotia now do they? That would certainly make difficult to impossible for the Ursium military to give chase. Hopefully we can follow without them, or just catch up to them before they do.>

-----

After looking for a space to occupy in the inside of the wagon, Sophia had gone to sleep not that soon after departing. She certainly wasn't envious of the mounted ones, who would most likely be forced to stay awake for the duration of the night. It would certainly not be good for us when we do catch up with that group. She had thought. On the other hand, the same could be said for them. Just to keep escaping, they will not be sleeping tonight either.

And even by next morning, she was still sleeping.

[Snowy_One]

As the group had left, Robin had managed to still adhire to her second desire of lighting a candle to honor the fallen wyverns. Procuring one from Connor as the group has started to set out, she had lit it on fire that night before making up a small prayer on the spot to honor the fallen. It wasn't much, but the chance to show respect for the fallen beasts was all she had. With the wagon fully stocked, she did not need to hunt after all, and compared to the rest of the group, her talents were near worthless for keeping everything going. Instead, she focused on her own combat record. Four battles so far, of which only one she had not been put in a critical condition. Clearly she was having problems in the heat of the melee, but what exactly she didn't know. This had caused her to sit in the back of the wagon, clearly mopey and seemingly unwilling to talk to others as she tried to figure out just what it was that she was doing wrong.

[Psych]

Sirocco stood, above the embers of the fire from the previous night. Her vigilance had proved fruitless, but the remaining time was short. There had seemed to be the roar of flying beasts above Sirocco during the night, but they were not the group she was looking for, and besides, they did not seem close at all.

Yes, any time now. Sirocco closed her eyes, trying to sense where the destined ones were. A gentle breeze flowed past, rustling the trees, and hawk cried from the mountains.

Soon.

[Mercakete]

Very much like Sophia, Gytha had taken the opportunity to sleep, beeing a passenger on the wagon, though unlike Sophia, she was actually on the wagon, rather than inside of it. She figured she'd be awoken if she had to fight. And, much like Sophia, she was still asleep by morning.

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

It seemed that the group was actually able to keep up with the military and Norbert was quite glad for what naps he'd taken throughout the previous day, seeing as the rest of the night was spent travelling. Though those naps were not at all enough to make up for the rest of the previous day's activity, not to mention having to keep alert while flying. Whenever the group stopped to rest, Norbert would land Rizen and sleep for as long as he could before having to move again, alternating between the pegasus' use of legs and use of wings.

Now that it was morning, Norbert was exhausted but continued along with the group. They were almost to the military group, who had stopped for some reason. Maybe they were resting their mounts. He'd long since gotten used to Ranyin's sleeping efforts to not fall off of Rizen, so that wasn't bothering him. Actually, he'd been careful not to wake the little mage as he'd directed Rizen. For the moment, all he wanted was sleep or food or food then sleep or sleep then food. He was hungry and tired, after all.

[roymbrog]

Synthia was exhausted. A few hours into the trip she had let Krystal drive briefly while she took a nap, but she had still driven the wagon the majority of the night. The few breaks they had were helpful, but not nearly enough. As they stopped with the military again she used the opportunity to stretch, yawn, and attempt a coherent thought. She really would be useless when they arrived. It would be best to find someone else to drive for the moment.

She stepped in the back to see who was awake and tried to be quiet as not to wake anyone else up. No use ruining other people's sleep. “Anyone else wanna take over for a while?" she asked. "I feel like I’m going to fall asleep up here if I continue much longer. I’m exhausted."

-----
Valter had tried his best to stay awake all night. He really had. However, all-nighters were something he wasn't used to and it was no more than two or three hours before he dozed off. Phyllis knew enough to follow the other horses and managed to keep up, so he hadn't been left behind, but now his horse was tired too. A few times when they stopped he woke up, but he would soon fall asleep again flopped over Phyll's neck. That was the position he was in currently and he didn’t look like he was going to awaken anytime soon.

[Zsword]

Zel

Sleeping in the saddle, after assigning Sliep to leasurely keep up with the wagon, that's what Zel did. He didn't even lean over, his body propped in a vertical sitting position by his armor alone.

Krystal

She got what sleep she could, taking over for Synthia when needed.... she was probably the least tired of anyone in the party... because she was the least active. "I'll take over again Synthia, go get some rest." She said to the mage, already making her way to the front of the cart.

Shadrak

Passed, out. He was still feeling the kick back of overextending his energies during the fight, and he needed sleep. He could be found in the back of the wagon, in the closest thing he could find to a corner, wrapped up in his cloak, asleep.

[roymbrog]

“Thank you, Krystal,” was all Synthia said before she fumbled her way through the back of the wagon. With passengers and equipment everywhere it was kind of hard to find a good place to lie down, but she eventually did. She curled up using her cloak as a blanket and tried to get whatever rest she could.

[Snowy_One]

As Synthia came into the back of the caravan, Robin decided it was starting to become a bit crowded. Already, Shadrak was lying down not to far off sleeping and now... with the addition of Synthia, it was starting to become too... cluttered. Maybe she was just a stinker for personal space. It would make sense, used to being alone and all, but she really didn't know. Getting up and stepping out, she sat down near the front of the carriage, her eyes scanning over the horizon.

"Raquel? Где вы?" she asked, letting the wind take her question to whoever wanted to hear it. "Krystal... Forgive me, but... I am curious." she started to ask. She had noticed that the girl was... not exactly normal... a long time ago. She hadn't questioned it before when she had been in the carriage after Gytha had been Gytha, eager just to have someone not shooting her and actually trying to comfort her. Now, she was curious though. "It is obvious that you are not... well... I am interested in finding out..."

As she looked up into the noon sky, she started to notice something. Down upon the horizon, lined by trees, a faint wisp of what seemed to be mist rose from the trees.. She squinted, trying to focus more on it. Was it smoke? Was there a fire? If so, was it a camp fire? Or the smoke of someone else? "More... about... you..." she finished, the distraction in her voice.

OOC: If you want that to be Psych's fire, so be it.

Edited by Snowy_One, 21 November 2011 - 11:47 PM.

[-Cynthia-]

Clara

"What is your business with the prototype anyway? Or is that one of those secret informant things we're not really supposed to ask about?" Clara asked Simon, her curiosity piqued, forgetting about going to a warzone for the moment.

[Acacia Sgt]

Hm? Something was rising in the distance. <What is that? Is it smoke?> Unfortunately, the distance and trees made it impossible to tell it's origin, but it certainly was smoke. <It isn't big, doubt it's a forest fire. Probably a campfire?> John guessed. Whatever it was, it probably was nothing important enough to sidetrack to.

-----

It didn't took long before Sophia had finally awoken. Not to her surprise she noticed they were still moving, as it was to be expected. I guess it will still take a while. She thought.

[Phoenix]

Darksider: The motive

Simon's ears twitched somehow at Clara's question. "Would you not want to meet the man capable of so many feats?" he asked her with a fist held high. "Inspirational figures are so rare in this world, and had you two not come into my life, I would never have had the courage to leave my lair and go in search of him."

We gave him courage? Does he think we're highly skilled or something like that? Well I guess that's a compliment of sorts. Cecily thought to herself as they traveled along.

"When we find him, I want to ask him so many things. Perhaps even a friendly game of chess-yes, I decided to bring the gameboard after all--and maybe he'll turn out to be a fan of the Dark Goddess, as well~"

"Just don't take all day ..." ... or Layla's going to swat you aside like a fly whenever she catches up. That makes me wonder ... is she following us or something? If we sent word to her it would be quite some time before she would reach us. I don't care how quick footed you are, that's a very long trip.

[Phoenix]

OoC: Okay, y'all had your chances to do miscellaneous stuff. Time for plot.

Scouts' Return

When the scouts returned, Altena anxiously awaited their reports. "Lieutenant!" one of them spoke up with a salute.

"Did you find anything?" she asked simply.

He nodded with enough conviction to get everyone who saw him on their feet. They might need to be heading out, soon. "I couldn't get close due to the risk of being attacked or captured, but fortress Danton is most certainly occupied. There were enough wyverns there to assume at least some of the estate attackers are present there. I cannot confirm whether all of them are present, though, and there's no sign of the kidnapped girl." he explained.

"Did either of you two find any traces of them along your routes?" she asked the other scouts. Both replied in unison saying "Negative, ma'am."

"This might be it .... Major General! Did you catch all of that?!"

[Zsword]

Krystal

The avian turned to Robin, looking highly confused at the whole, suddeness, of the girl coming to talk to her. "Er, oookaaay.... um, what about me are you wanting to know more of?" She asked nervously... cause this was just wierd.

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked worriedly at the fire on the horizon. It wasn't big enough now to be of a issue and they might pass it by, but for now... She had just asked a question after all. She turned her gaze back to Krystal, trying to think about how to word it. 'I noticed you are a winged woman' was a bit frontal and... and what did she care?

"I did not question this before. I was more interested in someone showing a bit of caring towards me and Gytha's actions have been forefront in my mind of late, but... You are not human. I can see that plain as day. You are a bird-woman, avian, goddess, angel, demon, or something else from the campfire stories?"

[-Cynthia-]

Clara

"Hmm, I was expecting more of a long standing grudge than a personal admirer sort of deal. Our mission isn't to kill him, just to find him, so you two can play chess and talk about your...Dark Goddess thing if you want. Not sure if our employer will spoil your game once she catches up to him though," Clara said to Simon, shrugging.

Selene

"Yes I heard," Selene replied, before furrowing her brow in thought. Well some is better than none, but what if this is just a distraction so that they can escape with Raquel and the emblem? I would not want to commit fully to taking some run-down fortress if it is a trap, but I cannot risk any unnecessary losses either... "Let's stop here and formulate a strategy for this mission. Make sure Weyland's people stop here as well. We will have an advantage if they do not know we are coming, or at least have only a vague idea of our numbers," Selene commanded the troops.

[Phoenix]

Fetching The Weyland Mercenaries

Like it or not, the wagon was forced to stop when its way was blocked by the halting battalion. A lone soldier came up beside the wagon and waved up to the driver. "We're stopping here. The enemy may be close by, so make sure your people are ready."

Gabbie came swooping down and landed close by the wagon when she saw the large group come to a stop. She hopped down and jogged over to the soldier. "Tell me you found a trail of piss or somethin' that led you roight to their lair." she half joked.

"Probably." he replied shrugging. "You can speak with the Lieutenant or someone for more details. I'm just relaying the message."

Not gonna complain about the red shirts doing all the work, but it sure is boring in the meantime. "Okay then, toime to start rudely awakening everyone~" Her first stop was the sleeping cavalier. She reached up and tapped his helmet a few times with the tip of her finger making a small banging noise on the inside. "Sir knoight, duty calls ... probably."

Following The Prototype

"You see? It is fate that has brought us together for this mission. I need a little extra protection to find this man, and you need my knowledge of his whereabouts in order to find him~"

"I need a vacation ..." Cecily muttered under her breathe.

"Now onward! East! He was last seen heading in that direction."

"Oh my gods, by WHO? WHO saw him? WHERE are you getting these reports from?" Cecily raised her voice. She'd let the matter be long enough she felt.

"That would be telling, red hot tempered one." Darksider replied crossing his arms. "I can't compromise my sources, not even for you two. You must simply trust that I am telling the truth and come along."

"Fine, I'll just beat it out of you later ... let's go." Cecily conceded. The Darksider couldn't tell if she was serious or not, so the thought of one of his escorts pummeling him didn't leave his mind for quite some time ...

Urcenter: Aftermath

Cecily stared out at the distance city with a bit of a grimace. "... I know this damage is almost a day old, but the Neviskotians really didn't cause as much collateral damage as I was expecting. I mean only half the city is in ruins and only a quarter of it is on fire. Is the man actually in there or did he just pass on through?"

"I'm ... not sure if any of my sources are still in the city. I know one who might be but ... this destruction is ... quite extensive." the shaman replied while cowering somewhat at the scene.

"Are you kidding? This is tame compared to what they'd do if Urcenter wasn't a historical landmark. They've reduced other places to nothing but ashes. They can rebuild things pretty fast so it's usually a good excuse for them to just pave over the enemy's settlements and start over from nothing." she explained with a bit of agitation in her voice. "I guess they might have also held back if the city wasn't completely evacuated ... but who would stick around for this war ...?"

"I-I feel I must ask before we risk an expedition into the city ... ... are either of you 'in good' with the Neviskotian military? Any old chums within their ranks you could perhaps convince to not have us devoured by dragons?"

"Err ..."