Fate - First Reply A Pile of Corpses

[Oraya Urahil]

Just before they reached the middle, the water was just beneath her stone-nose. Steady-feet continued to move them forward. A small frown creasing rocky-features. She couldn't really feel Edric hanging onto her. Nor the water rushing against her. She knew it was there but it was as if she was in a glass cocoon dropped beneath the waters. She couldn't feel the pull, or push of liquid but knew it was there all the same.

"Hang on," voice like cracking and falling stones called out one last time as she took a shuddering and craggy breath just before the water washed over her nose and face. Then the top of her head. Edric would still be able to hang on as she submerged. She didn't know if he'd get on her shoulders or was already there. Or perhaps he'd just hang onto her rocky-head. Or perhaps hook his feet beneath her arms. She just hoped the river would rise again soon. Before she ran out of breath.

 

[Edric]

Edric's grip was like a vice on Perseus' shoulder.

Fingers tightened against iron-hard skin. Grasping, holding on.

A part of him considered how ludicrous this must have looked. A person of steel and stone carrying him through the river as though he were nothing more than a kite. It was silly, but...well, it worked. Who could complain about a solution like that?

In the world of Dreadlords there was nothing like humiliation.

Nothing like embarrassment. Not if the solution got you through what it needed to. Everything was just as it needed to be, as long as it got them to the other side.

Slowly they trudged through the river, step by step, until the rush of cold water faded and the sun touched them once again.

 

[Oraya Urahil]

As soon as her stony-head resurfaced, she sputtered and took a deep lungful of air. And then another. And another. Her steps didn't falter or slow. With more determination the cold, rushing waters fell down to her chest. Then her hips. and finally her knees. Once she was sure she and Edric were no longer in danger of being swept away, her stony-exterior shifted back to normal dark skin yet dry clothes - besides what was currently in the water.

Once Edric released her, she'd step faster than before until her boots crunched onto the shore of the opposite riverbank. Then dropped one knee as she caught her breath. A brief moment of rest to recover from the magic she'd just used.

"The tracks," she breathed, head still bowed. "Do you see them anywhere?"

 

[Edric]

Fingers unfurled from around Perseus' form. A slow, long breath dragging into his lungs as he once again composed himself.

He'd never much liked being beneath the waves. He was a strong swimmer, but water? Water was a force he couldn't really control. Fingers tightened as he stepped up onto the bank besides her, his head tilting around them as she searched for the track.

"There." Edric nodded. "Looks like they head further south."

Lips thinned. "Where...where are we anyway?"

Another detail he couldn't remember, but Perseus had found him. She would know at least better than him.

 

[Oraya Urahil]

She took a moment longer to catch her breath before pushing off from the ground. A quiet study to where he pointed out the tracks. They had definitely used the river to try and cover up their re-entry onto dry earth. But why?

"We're on the outskirts of the farming community of Vel Anir, close to the Cortosi Coast." THe tracks were heading toward the coast. "What's the last thing you remember?"

 

[Edric]

For a few seconds Edric stood there, lips thin, watching the land that was surrounding them. "I remember a troll putting his sword through my throat."

A hand came up, touching his neck wearily.

"There's something..." Lips thinned. "There was a woman with them."

He said suddenly. "She was tall, A tiefling I think."

Edric had never met one before, but he knew of them well enough. Most people did. Their demonic appearance making them infamous in most human lands. "She was...she was in charge of them, or at least ordering them around."

 

[Oraya Urahil]

Perci tugged at her lip, moving around an iron piercing that poked through the soft flesh. Picking up the tracks, she began to follow them as they walked further away from the river. She turned to Edric. "If she and the trolls bested you, I don't think it's wise for the two of us to try to face them. Perhaps we should just scout the area if and once we find them. Then go back to Vel Anir for reinforcements. What do you think?"

She gave her lip ring was last tug before her hand dropped to her side.

Thinking of anyone or thing besting Edric was more disturbing than watching Kalix pine for Proctor D'Amour.

 

[Edric]

Edric was one of the strongest Initiates in their class. A fact which not many would dispute. Perseus had a point.

He had already lost to this group once, who was to say that a second round would go any better? Lips thinned for a brief moment, and he wanted to object, but at the end of the day he knew that she was probably right. Even he couldn't slaughter his way through an army.

Eventually he would end up dead, waking in another pile of corpses.

This time with a fellow Dreadlord at his side. "Yes."

Edric agreed, though the hesitation on his face was more than clear. He did not like the idea of leaving a threat like this in the wild, less so he liked leaving the gaps within his memory. They were slowly filling, but if they left now he doubted they would ever come back.

"We scout a bit more." He said, looking towards her. "Then get reinforcements."