Fate - First Reply Bird In Migration

[Cassidy Ackerson]

The streets of Fal'Addas were oddly quiet, even for a town that didn't see all too much violence. The weather was beyond impeccable, and the streets were full of life and chatter. The market was especially bustling, stalls of all sizes and selling all manner of goods were erected in mazes of commerce through the center of the city. It was a congested heart of wealth, something that the greatest city of the Elves had in spades.

Something always found a way to ruin perfect days though, right?

"Get back here you little-"

The distant sound of crashing and people screaming could be heard down one of the many roads that shot off from square, bouncing off of the walls of the buildings. It certainly sounded like a fight, and a messy one at that. The voice had a drawl to it, one that didn't sound like any of the prim and proper elves of Falwood. Indeed, as two figures came barreling towards the square, one was a thin, lanky blond haired elf, hoisting a cloth sack over his shoulder as he fled from his pursuer.

The one chasing him was no elf. He looked to be human, with hair as red as a burning sunset, wearing a duster coat that went down all the way to his ankles and a ragged cloth shirt and a baggy pear of trousers underneath. By all accounts, he looked more poor and underprivileged than the elven thief he was chasing. There was one thing that stood out about the human though: The stunningly beautiful blade he held in his right hand. It was obviously no normal blade. It's metal shone as blue as the sky itself, and silver tendrils ran along it's hilt. On it's underside was a point, almost hook like in nature

The fleeing elf jumped nimbly on top of a stall selling various liquors and spirits, swearing angrily down at the fiery haired man. His chaser didn't seem too fazed by the change in elevation, planting his feet and swinging the sky-blue blade up and through the roof of the stall. The scrawny elf let out a yelp, jumping forward to avoid the swing, over his attacker's head.

Suddenly, a small furry creature appeared from the man's long coat, and jumped up to meet the elf, latching onto his face and clawing his skin. The Elf tumbled to the ground, pulling at what was now clearly a cat on his face.

The red haired man twirled his blade, before resting at his side and strolling leisurely over to his prey. He raises his foot, placing it on the chest of the elf as it struggles to escape. Reaching down, he pulls the sack from the smaller creature's grasp. "Alright Mar, let him go."

The cat detached itself, scurrying back to the human and curling around his neck. He let's out a sigh and takes his foot off the elven thief, who scurries away in a panic. It could have gone much worse, he'd almost cleaved the poor thing in two with that swing, and he was glad it hadn't had to come to that. He's broken from his thoughts by the murmurs of those around him. Turning, he raises his eyebrows at the growing audience looking at him warily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
​

"Well Mar, we're broke. Again." Cassidy Ackerson scratched his feline companion's chin as they rode in the back of a wagon towards the gates of Fal'Addas. He'd gained a small sum from catching that thief, but all of it had to go towards paying for the damaged stall, and the liquors that had been cut through by his blade, Damascus. Maybe the red-head should have been more upset, but for whatever reason he wasn't bothered in the slightest.

After all, this was how he chose to live: Roaming from place to place, gliding across Arethil and lands beyond like a bird in migration. He had all that he needed in Mar and Damascus, and with his own two hands he would bring a little more light to the world. Maybe while he was out there, he'd find a higher purpose or a concrete reason to be. Maybe...

If he didn't though, that was okay. He was living free, and his only thoughts now were what awaited him next.
So when his wagon ground to a halt, and he heard screams in the air, the first thing on his face was a smile. He felt the thumping of his heartbeat quicken in his chest, and his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his blade. When trouble came to find him, Cassidy made it a policy to find that trouble first. If you weren't a bird of prey, you were a predator's meal.

"Sounds like trouble, buddy. How about we go get in it?"

 

[Maranae]

She had no idea why it always had to be this way, why people with weapons always sought her out. She was growing older, and with age came an increasing understanding of the world...but even so, the chimera was far from well versed in the world, her people, and their motivations. She had drifted with a relative lack of purpose from one place to the next, chasing some ephemeral idea that seemed to be forever out of her seemingly limited grasp.

Fleeting images of something she could almost - but not quite - remember. A place, a face, an idea that so many took for granted. Had she known what it was, she would have known that the feeling was home, something that most in the world took for granted else lamented the loss thereof.

Which was rather aside from the current point, which was the singular figure chasing her through the wide avenues of Fal'adas. She had never been to this place before, not necessarily avoiding the forest or this bastion of elf kind, so much as feeling no real drive to come here. This was not the place where here home was, and she had known that even when she made the trip here. If not consciously, then on some level below that. It would have surprised her that anyone would have been looking for her here, of all places in Arethil, except that there had always been someone out to collect the coin offered for capturing her and returning her to Elbion.

Whatever might be said of her intent, returning to Elbion was not one of those things. She did not want to go back there, because it was not very far from that place where she had been born and held as a captive for....for a long time. Time was a meaningless thing to the girl, beyond the rise and fall of the sun and the moons.

She ducked down a side street, moving with remarkable speed. She was lithe, as tall as most men were by this point with a body in that state between girl and womanhood, the awkward phase where things were happening to her body that - had she even noticed them - would have confused her further. Fiery hair, tangled and knotted all along its length, flew behind her as she pelted down the narrow lane. Jade eyes were as wide as they would go. Her pursuer was behind her, a tall fellow with a grim face and a blade on his back, light leather armor his only nod to protection.

There was something wrong with her as she moved, if you watched closely. She clearly looked human, except...sometimes, she was not. Bare feet ending in toes sometime ended in cruelly hooked claws; fingers sometimes ended in feline claws as well. Those remarkable, lovely eyes were not always the same, either; from time to time they shifted from jade green to catseye yellow, with vertical slits for pupils to match. It was probably best not to think of her teeth, either; they looked as though they belonged to a jungle cat, and not a girl.

The overall effect was sometimes eye-wrenching; her form shimmered ever so slightly here and there, as though unsure what shape it was supposed to be in. If her pursuit noticed, he did not care. Likely, even if he did notice, he still wouldn't care; the money he could claim by capturing her alive would be enough to live comfortably off of for years.

The way she had chosen to evade the fellow ended abruptly in front of her, and she scrabbled to come to a stop before she ran face first into the cold stone at the back. She turned to face her pursuer, who had slowed and hung back, watching her warily from the relative safety of out of her reach.

"Now now, girl," he said slowly and precisely in accented common as he reached over his back slowly. "If you just come with me quietly, we can take you back home." She backed away as his fingers wrapped round the leather wrapped hilt of the short blade, slowly drawing it free. "I hope it can understand me," he muttered under his breath. He would really rather capture her alive than dead; the reward was far better for the former than the latter.

Cassidy Ackerson

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

The red-haired drifter certainly preferred Fal'Addas over some of the more undesirable cities outside of Falwood, but they certainly didn't make the place easy to navigate for tourists. It's roads were interwoven with the forests of Falwood, pathways and buildings weaving in and out of tree cover as though the trees grew around the city. It wasn't as simple as following the sound of commotion, he had to plan his route out ahead of time, or he'd lose whatever it was that he'd heard.

That wasn't Ackerson's only problem though; the streets were teeming with life. Elves of all creeds and statuses filled the inroads, and the air was full of chatter and bustling with life. It was out of the question to push through the masses like a fleeing street urchin. Cassidy needed to get creative.

There was a bridge over head, connecting the rooftops of two taller buildings. From the looks of it, the elves had grown trees specifically to overlook this little landmark. That worked perfectly for our rugged young self proclaimed hero. Hoisting Damascus' over his shoulder, he scooped up Mar in his other arm and set her at the base of the tree. "Get up there, Girl. I'll be right behind ya' alright?" The cat offers a mewl and claws her way nimbly up one of the trees beside the bridge, darting across the branches and leaping onto the overlook.

Now it was Cassidy's turn. Of course, he was a couple pounds heavier than his feline companion. And he didn't have... you know... claws. He couldn't afford to stall though. Whoever had shouted needed help. Even in Falwood, safety was a façade. He'd seen firsthand what happened to prey when fighting was no longer an option. Hell, Cassidy had been that prey at once point. But now was different.

He had to make it up one of the trees, and he had just the thing for it. Pulling his blade from his shoulder, he unsheathes Damascus, several of the passing elves stopping to eye the outsider warily as the shine of the sun against the strange blue metal blade glimmers against their eyes. Giving it a test swing, he charges towards one of the trees, jumping up and swinging Damascus at the tree backwards. The underside of the sword sported a small hook like point that dug into the wood, offering Cassidy the leverage he needed to hoist himself up and secure a grip. When he was certain he had a safe spot, he would withdraw the sword and swing it again, making his way up the tree to the roof using Damascus as a tether.

With a final leap, he lands rather ungracefully on the bridge connecting the two roofs with a loud thud. The vagabond lets out a groan, using his sword to get back to his feet, before sliding it into it's sheath once again and hanging it around his shoulder once again. He squats down and scoops Mar back up into his arms. "Yeah, I think you still have me beat in the acrobatics department, my friend." He smiles and scratches under the creatures chin, before taking a small look around. While the streets of Fal'Addas were congested and noisy, the rooftops were quite the opposite; Most of the buildings were of a similar height, and those that weren't could still be accessed by climbing the forest vegetation that littered every inch of the city.

There was no time to admire it all though, he rushes forward in the direction he'd heard all that commotion. Many of the rooftops were at least somewhat connected by either branch or bridge, so aside from hopping across a few gaps here and there, he could focus on navigation.

It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for: There was what looked from this height to be a young human woman, cornered in a dead end alley by a male figure. Dropping to a knee on a roof ledge adjacent to the scene, he sets Mar down intending on drawing a plan of action.

Any time he thought he had to plan goes out the window when the male draws a weapon. Cassidy's eyes narrow into slits. No, there was no time. He had to act now!

The building that made up the right side of the alleyway they were in had it's walls overgrown with vegetation, and Ackerson gathered a handful of it in his grasp. He wraps a good bit of it around his arms, making sure not to fully free it from the wall. Swinging his legs around, his boots press against the side of the structure as he slides down quickly, tugging on the vines to control the speed of his descent.

He pushes off a good while before he reaches the floor below where the two of them waited. He didn't want to kill the man, at least now without knowing his reasoning behind his actions. Instead, he aimed to land on top of him, his boot aimed squarely at the man's shoulder as he fell.

Maranae

 

[Maranae]

The trouble with some people is that they get rather too focused on the task at hand and fail to keep their surroundings in mind. The bounty hunter here had as much of a chance of actually capturing Maranae as he did at defeating a Ascended demon on his own. That was to say, none. He did not hear the newcomer to this particular street battle until it was far too late.

Maranae, on the other hand, had. She had exceptional hearing and eyesight and, more importantly, was used to being chased by multiple individuals at a time. She was not, by her very nature, a combatant. She hated fighting, hated hurting people any more than was required. Cassidy dropping in on her pursuer was, then, a welcome distraction. There was no way to know if this new one was after her as well or not; often, those that chased after her fought among themselves.

The concept of money was still strange to her. She had no conceptualization of the value that so many people put in cold metal stamped with faces, or with paper, or with any of the other mediums of trade. She was quite young but, more importantly, never taught any of these things.

Mara was supposed to be a weapon. A living weapon to strike fear into the hearts of her masters' enemies; the simple fact that she struck fear into no ones heart was merely one proof that their design was flawed.

Cassidy connected with the assailant, who cried out in pain at the blow as he was sent flying forward, hand slipping away from his weapon which, partially drawn, clattered to the ground. No sooner had Cassidy struck, though, had Mara moved. She was remarkably fast, moving with the speed of a lioness, fiery red hair flailing behind her as she deftly skipped past the man that had just been knocked down and out of reach of the other. Her claws were clearly of some unnatural material; they left gouges in the stone wherever her feet connected.

"What the hell is the big idea!" the man that Cassidy struck said as he got slowly to his hands and knees. Blood dripped from his face where he had struck the ground. "You're letting it get away! If you cost me that bounty, I swear I will take it out of your hide," he growled getting to his knees, working his fingers into the shoulder that tall fellow had landed on. Nothing appeared to be broken, other than his pride.

Mara, meanwhile, was pounding along at a ridiculous speed back the way she had come. She had already managed to get a hundred meters on down the way in that short time.

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

The hit was every bit as solid as he'd been hoping, and the assailant toppled to the ground in a heap. Cassidy landed gingerly on his back foot, swinging the leg he'd kicked with back to plant himself down safely. His face twisted into a grimace when the poor bastard didn't react in time to catch his fall, going face first into the ground. That had to smart.

He heard the quick pattering of feet behind him, and turned his head to watch the girl as she fled light lighting bolting back the ways she'd come. Damn, he was hoping to get a word with her, but she was safe, and that had been the objective, hadn't it? He takes a couple steps back from his rather angry landing pad, and draws Damascus from his shoulder, pointing it's gleaming blue point at the man.

"Oh, there's a bounty on her? Thanks for spilling the beans so easily. Here I thought I'd have to pry a little bit more." They were close enough that the man standing across from him wouldn't be able to make much of a move without the threat of being skewered. Cassidy tilted his head to the side and grinned a little. "See, what I saw was some brainless muscle threatening a young lady. Mistaken or not, I'd say said brainless muscle isn't in any position to be threatening me."

The revelation worried Cassidy though. If that girl was charging through a crowded city with a bounty on her head, somebody else was bound to pick her out. She didn't need to run, she needed shelter. The moment of time he takes to look off in the direction she'd ran once again gave his opponent an opening.

It was an intentional one.

Pursing his lips into a sharp whistle, a blurry ball of fur seems to come out of nowhere, latching to the man's face with a hiss. Cassidy takes off, trusting his furry friend to take care of herself. He had to catch that girl and get her somewhere safe. He wasn't really sure why it mattered so much to him, but maybe it just felt like the right thing to do?

It was cliche, but Cassidy thought it true.

Maranae

 

[Maranae]

"Hmph," was all the man said as he got back to his feet, turning to face the unknown figure even as he called the cat. Even as the cat hit, he was already muttering something under his breath, and even as the claws sank in, the nonsense syllables changed.

Behind Cassidy, heat suddenly flared to life, brilliant crimson light bathing the alleyway in lurid shadows. Flames, yellow-white, had sprouted in a sphere round the bounty hunter, with him at its core. Him and the cat, clinging to his face.

Maranae did not run very far down the alley before someone else cut off her escape. The fellow in the back had not been operating alone; a woman stepped into her line of retreat, hands on her hips and a cold light burning in her eyes. Her claws seemed to carve tracks in the ground as she skidded to a halt, looking forward and backward and seeing no easy escape.

"Time to stop running, kitten, and come home," the woman said. There was no smug smile, no cruelty...only determination in her eyes,

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

The moment Cassidy felt the distinct change in the temperature of the air around the two of them, a swear spilled from his lips. There he'd gone again, giving his enemies a chance to pull one over on him with his showboating. He raises Damascus to cut the man down, but it's already too late. He couldn't risk unleashing his blade against an unknown spell, and he couldn't risk cutting down Mar either. Magic, bah... Cassidy was never any good with it.

"Damned coward!" He spat out at the man. He didn't know whether this was a purely defensive technique, or if an attack was coming. Either way he wasn't about to stick around to find out. Mar would be okay, she was the smartest little ball of fur that Cassidy had ever known. She'd escaped from an entire brigade of road bandits before; he trusted her to handle herself here.

Swinging the heavy blue blade to his side, he makes tracks away from the man as fast as he's able. Right now the flames only surrounded the bounty hunter, but Ackerson knew that could change if he didn't get out of range fast. Plus, as silly as it was he was still worried about that girl. He'd been on his own long enough to know that where there was one hunter, there was usually two. A silent prayer was offered to his dear feline friend.

He could see another figure up ahead, Maybe another hunter, or maybe a local elf. Either way, he was barreling right towards them with a large sword, so decisions were going to need to be made. He bellows towards what was now obviously a woman. "Outta the way!" If she was just a civilian they'd probably listen to what looked like a crazed sword wielding human. If they didn't move... Well, he'd know to be ready for a fight.

Maranae

 

[Maranae]

Trapped. She was trapped again, this time between three. She slowed to a stop, finally, with the human woman in front of her and the two men behind, breathing hard from her exertion but by no means winded. She kept casting a look backward and forward, eyes darting this way and that for any escape route.

She didn't want to fight. She never wanted to fight, ever; that was what they had wanted of her. They had beat her, hurt her, poked and prodded her. Everything they could try to do to get her to fight, to unleash the creature within. But that beast terrified her. skulking about in the shadows of her mind. A wild animal. A monster given flesh, that only needed to slip on her body like a glove and unleash the horror she knew she was capable of.

"Back off, boy; this one is me and my brothers. Go find another mark!" She stood her ground, and her hands went to the hilts of daggers. This close, Maranae could see the bow slung over her shoulder and the quiver of arrows on her back. She wore a severe expression, eyes darting back and forth between Cassidy and Maranae and further on down the alley where her brother Cade had snuffed the flames from around him. He was unharmed by his own magic, of course; the purpose of it had been to get the damned feline off his face, which would have bled except the purifying flames had cauterized what wounds he had taken.

Behind Cassidy, Cade moved, heavy bladed knives in hand now and a murderous expression on his face. "Watch out for this one, sis," he growled. "He in't part of this, but I am sorely tempted to carve him up a bit for that bit of bullshit back there," she added.

Alyse laughed, a pure note, but it did not decrease the seriousness of her face. "Well, girl, time to stop running. Your buddy back there can back the fuck off, or he can get a knife in his gizzard. You, though, are going back to Vel Anir. Back home," she said.

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

He slid to a stop behind Maranae, his grip tightening on Damascus' hilt as swore under his breath at the woman's words. "Another damned Merc. If I'd known this place with so lousy with you types, I wouldn't have stopped by." He spat. That probably meant that the other man was with her, and they took him as competition for the girl.

He looked down at Maranae briefly, his brow arching in a bit of concern for her. He knew that look in her eyes all too well. It was the last look he'd given Ariella before he'd ran away, and she'd been killed. Damn it! This was bullshit! "Would you shut up for a damned minute, you crazy bitch? I'm not hunting her! I'm just stopping you from doing it!" He swings Damascus forward, pointing the blue blade at the lady in front of Maranae. "I usually don't condone killing needlessly, but I'm not a fan of wolves who pick on prey who they know won't fight back. I could be tempted to have a go with you."

He wasn't sure what tricks this lady could have up her sleeve, but Damascus hadn't failed him yet. It didn't matter why they wanted this girl, he wasn't about to let this little abduction go down without blood. He could probably take her...

Of course, then he heard footsteps running up from behind. Shit. He couldn't afford to turn to look at the other man, lest his sister take the opportunity and strike. He was between a rock and a hard place, and if the man was good with magic, Cassidy was an even worse spot. He pivots to the side, so that he could watch the both of them, but he didn't make a move. He probably beat them in raw strength, and his blade was no doubt the mightier one, but the numbers game was powerful.

"Hey you."

He turned his attention to the girl. He didn't know why he bothered, but if things kept up like this he was going to get flayed because he felt the need to help her. "I'm trying to get you out of here, are you just gonna stand there and do nothing? Help me fight!" She looked like a wounded animal, cowering between oppressors without making a single move. Cassidy was going to go down swinging with or without her, but he'd prefer the option that gave them both a chance.

"Maybe you're scared, but have you fled this far just to lie down and take it? If they wanna be a pack of wolves, be a hunter and fight back!"

Not waiting for any response, he pivots towards the already somewhat injured male of the two, and side swipes at the man's torso with Damascus, aiming it's tip towards his wounded shoulder.

Maranae