Private Tales On The Hunt

[Myrdin]

"There is a certain sort of peace to the sea." Of course Isla wouldn't quite be able to recognize that off the bat given the fact that she wanted to violently vomit every time she was on the ocean, but for Myr it was certainly true.

He loved his home, the oceans, the ships that his people had built.

There was a part of him that ached for it even now, a part of him that yearned to return to where he had spent so much of his youth. It would have been hard to put that yearning into words, hard to explain to someone else. Even Isla.

Myr smiled, opening his mouth to speak when suddenly an odd rumble ran through the floor. His head whirled immediately as the ground shook.

Lips thinned and he looked to Isla. "Earthquake?"

 

[Skyler]

Her fingers tugged away from his shoulders as the ground finished shaking. She frowned. It had felt different to the dryad. Unnatural. She began moving to the kitchen doorway. A shake of her head as she looked back to Myr.

"No. This feels...different. It is not the earth sighing its tension out."

Isla couldn't explain further than that, she just knew. She left Myr and began striding toward the front door to see if she could get a better view of outside.

 

[Myrdin]

Myr followed after in quick steps, grabbing some of his clothes off a bench where they had been thrown to yesterday. There was the snap of a cloak, and then quickly the garb was tossed on over his body. He did not have either of his swords, and only three marks remained on his body.

He made a mental note that if something came for them he would have to be careful.

Fingers tightened for a brief moment and he took in a slight breath as he considered just how vulnerable he suddenly felt without the marrs on his flesh. Not having them were a blessing when Isla touched him, but when it came to a fight?

Myr suddenly felt ill-equipped.

The doors of the manor fell open in front of them, and the Sea-Elf stepped up behind Isla. "What do you feel?"

He asked curiously.

 

[Skyler]

She glanced back quickly, glad he'd had a chance to...dress.

Didn't need to get distracted while fighting. If they had to fight. If she had to use magic. She turned, casting her forest green eyes out before them. Back outside.

Searching for what might've caused that rumble.

"It's not like my magic. Not like the connection to the earth. It feels...forced. Controlled. Not wild and warm." She frowned and began taking the steps downward.

 

[Myrdin]

Myr put up a hand to reach out and stop Isla, but before he could he spotted something in the distance.

It was the flicker of smoke beyond the trees, the slight shifting of air that came from heat. A frown touched his features, head cocking slightly to the side as he took a few steps forward and realize what might be going on. "Isla."

He said as he pointed towards the distant smoke.

There was no saying for sure what lay beyond those trees, but Myr knew that they had to be careful. If his guess was right, then they would not find hunters or even anyone after her, but rather someone after the riches of the Wilds themselves. Mining and logging camps were not all too uncommon in this area.

The shaking earth and the flames in the distance could be from someone attempting to dig out ores, either through magic or alchemy. Fingers tightened for a second and he beckonned her quietly.

"We approach slowly." It would be some ways from the Manor, but close enough they could find it within the next hour or so.

 

[Skyler]

She gave him a nod. If they discovered the place she and Myr were staying in, there was no doubt that they would come to plunder it. She wondered at the wisdom of seeking out the disturbance at all. Then again, it was better to know what was coming.

Any potential threat - even if it wasn't directly related to them.

"Quietly too," she suggested as her feet left the steps of their hiding spot and back to the forest floor. To prove she was listening to the man and not running head first into danger, she deferred him to take the lead. There was another rumble of the ground and she winced.

Feeling the pain of the forest as it was wrenched apart.

She swayed and her palm pushed out, catching herself on the rough bark of a tree.

 

[Myrdin]

As they crept closer Myr's suspicions were quickly confirmed.

There had been little doubt when he'd first caught the wisp of smoke, but as the stench of alchemy filled his nose the Sea-Elf knew for sure that he had been right in his assumptions. The sound of hacking wood and falling axes filled the air as they neared the camp, Myr's stomach dropping slightly as he heard half a dozen different voices.

His hand came up to gently stop Isla in her tracks as they reached the edge of a clearing. Myr crouched down low, holding himself within a small cut of underbrush and watching quietly.

The camp was laid out in a massive semi-circle all arrayed around a small cave inlet on the other side from where the two intruders watched. Three dozen or so men were making their way around the camp, some cutting wood, others carrying barrels, and still others just pacing as they waited for something. Carts of ore lay scattered around, and a smelter was located on the eastern side of the encampment.

"Shit." Myr said in a quiet curse.

 

[Skyler]

Fingers pressed against her forehead as she knelt next to Myr's crouching form. Her skin looked paler. Her eyes dimmer.

Hand dropped and wrapped around her stomach as she felt feverish.

"I can feel the earth screaming, Myr. Its pain is mine. There are too many of them." She could feel the jungles of her ancestral home demand she do something. Demand her energy. And she wished she could. She sagged against the sea elf, her skin hot to the touch.

"I need to get out of here or I don't know if I can control what will happen next."

 

[Myrdin]

For a few seconds Myr didn't move, only felt Isla press her weight gently against him.

His people did not love nature in the same way as his kin. There was a respect for it, but the Forest was not as sacred to Myr as it might have been to one from the Falwood.or course though, his own thoughts hardly mattered.

It was Isla's reaction that concerned him.

Fingers tightened and in an instant he wrapped his arms around the half dryad and scooped her off the ground. With only the slightest rustle of the bushes around him Myr pulled both himself and Isla away from the camp as quickly as he could. His steps were quiet, but they were both lucky the men inside the camp were not trained soldier.

"Hang on." He whispered to Isla quietly, stepping fast and heading back towards the Manor.

The camp simply had too many people to move against now. If they tried it would have been utter suicide, even with Isla's magic readily available

 

[Skyler]

Arms that felt weak and numb wrapped around Myr's neck. Her face pressed into his shoulder as she groaned against him. But with each step he took her away, the better she felt. And as his feet hit the steps of the manor, she began to stop trembling. Her skin was still feverish but she didn't feel like she was going to pass out anymore.

"Myr," she whispered. "They're killing the woods and its affecting me. I don't know how long I can stay here." Her head still rested against his shoulders as he carried her up the stairs.

 

[Myrdin]

So the manor was not so perfect after all.

There had, of course, been no way for them to know that such a thing would happen, but out in the Wilds one hardly thought men would be the greatest worry. Out here one had to be more concerned with Monsters more than anything else.

Fingers tightened. "I'm sorry."

It seemed that their little vacation would have to be cut short.

"I don't think we'll be able to stop them." There was simply too many of them for just the two of them to kill. "Unless."

He frowned. "Unless we do something stupid."

 

[Skyler]

She felt safe in his arms. Well cared for. She trusted him. It was a little surprising how quickly that happened. But she did.

And that was saying a lot.

She squeezed his shoulder with her hand.

"We'll need to leave then. Or," she looked up at him and smiled tiredly. Perhaps a little impishly. "do something stupid like you said."

Head lifted further.

"I think I can walk now," she said quietly.

"Maybe we should just move on. Fighting them might alert hunters to our presence." She frowned. She didn't have to like it. All their work against the land really felt like they were killing a part of her.

 

[Myrdin]

He nodded his head slowly. "That is..."

Well, that was his plan.

"That's what we need." Myr didn't exactly know how many Hunters were nearby, but he did know that if things were done right they could lure enough in to practically do the job for them. At least, if they did things correctly.

It wouldn't exactly be easy.

"You and I can't handle that many by ourselves." Myr explained. "But the two of us could easily enough lure the some of the Hunters, and if we did it right..."

The sea-elf shrugged. "We might not have to do much at all."

Especially if the right Hunter showed up.