Private Tales Something Amiss

[Lia]

Lia moved fast.

There was nothing preternatural about it, nothing superhuman, but she was still fast. The woman practically launched herself out of the small ditch besides the road and bounded forward. The dirt road wasn't large, but not small enough that she could close the distance without anyone hearing her.

One of the bandits half turned, his head swiveling to face her just as she took her third step. Lia saw his mouth pulling open, his tongue getting ready to scream something.

She paid him no attention and instead charged forward. Her free hand fell onto the hilt of her longsword, gripping the weapon as she took her fourth step and then launched herself into the air. The Lich half turned at the same time, his marred and broken face contorting with a mixture of outrage and confusion.

By that time it was too late.

Lia's sword flickered forward.

The blade sliced from high to low. There was no subtlety to it, nothing that a proper swordsman couldn't have blocked, but the Lich was ill prepared. Before the creature could stop her, Lia's blade sliced down and into his arm, severing the appendage directly above the elbow.

The momentum of her swing carried the blade lower, cutting the Lich's leg and then carrying through to the side of his horse. The beast screamed and neighed, kicking up into the air and beginning to charge forward. At the same time the undead's arm clattered onto the floor, the bracelet going with it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska clattered to the ground, her scream short lived as the pain unclenched from her body. She fought through the fog and pushed herself onto her hands and knees, crawling with single-minded determination for the arm. She reached out for it and pulled it to her, collapsing back to the ground and curling around it, relying on Lia to deal with any threats as she herself recovered with it out of reach.

 

[Lia]

The liches horse went stampeding forward, still in a panic over the gash in it's side. The other bandits seemed to dance around in confusion, some of them drew their swords, the others looked to their master.

"RUN!" She told them as her blade flicked forward and caught the thigh of another of the bandits.

It was not an effective way to fight, and in fact if they gathered themselves together all of them likely could have killed both of them in just a few seconds. Yet panic had set in. The Lich's Horse was still galloping away, his voice not carrying far enough to reach the others as he tried to control his horse.

Lia meanwhile swung her sword wildly, cutting and stabbing at what she could.

Finally, the Bandits ran, and Lia ducked low to grab Kaska by the collar and quite literally drag her off the road.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska uncurled, following her Sergeants lead with no resistance as she fumbled to try and get her footing. She clutched the arm firmly to her, like a kid with its teddy bear, and reached for her horse. With help, she'd be able to get up and hold herself firm, her face clench in determination.

That was nothing. Nothing. She was strong, she would make her muscles obey her.

"Hiya!" She kicked her horse off without a word, her first goal to get the bracelet out of there.

 

[Lia]

Lia was right behind her fellow Ranger.

They had the bracelet. They had what they needed. The Lich didn't matter as far as she was concerned, at least not right now. It would be a concern later but..."JUST KEEP GOING!"

The Sergeant shouted.

She wanted to get out of sight, she wanted to get over the horizon and as far away from all of this as she possibly could. She didn't care if the horses were run ragged, she just didn't want the Lich to turn back.

"Just keep going." The Ranger said quietly to herself.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska rode on. And on. And on. The world blurred out around her, the sleepless night making everything echo and fell hollow as they simply. Kept. Riding. The horse determined when they stopped, growing slower and more sluggish, until the whines of exertion were constant and they just... stopped. They fell to their knees, sweaty and shaky with exertion.

Kaksa blinked in shock, looking around and realizing the situation. She began to unlock her limbs from their cramped position one by one, until she slipped off and sat on the ground with the horse. "We did it," she told Lia hoarsely, holding out the arm with robotic motions.

They did it.

 

[Lia]

Lia smiled, an actual smile this time. The expression was lost for just a second as she looked on the horses, concern crossing her features as she patted it's neck.

They had done it, but barely. "The Bracelet."

The Ranger said with a motion to the arm. Waving that thing around she would very likely throw the bracelet into the woods somewhere and then with their luck they would lose it in the underbrush. Better not risk it. Not when they had just now gotten the thing back.

"Here." Lia said as she tossed Kaska a small pouch. "Put it in there."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska pulled it off the arm, her fingers fumbling as she tucked it into the pouch, then held it close to her chest again.

She closed her eyes, letting out a shuddering breath of relief, then held it out for Lia to take possession of.

"You did a good job," she told Lia, her throat scratchy and desperate for water. Once released of the bracelet, she went for her water skin, taking a hearty daft before holding some to her horses mouth. He lapped at it, foam on his mouth, nickering in simple pain.

"Are they onto us?"

 

[Lia]

"The Lich still has his master." Lia commented quietly, thinking for a second as she sat herself down and drew the blade from her scabbard. There was blood caked to it, though most of it was from the horse that she had cut while...disarming the Lich.

She thought for a moment more, then continued.

"He might turn around." The Ranger admitted. "So perhaps no fire tonight."

They could make their way back far more quietly than the party of twelve men who had practically stomped their way across the countryside. The horses would need to rest for a day or so, but they could still move far more quietly, and far more quickly than whoever might chase them.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska nodded in agreement, falling backwards with a groan and stretching out her limbs. "Straight west then. No inns," she concluded grimly. She pulled her pack from her saddle, which she left on her horse in cause of an emergency. She fluffed it at her head and already reached to undo her blanket, braced for a cold one.

"I can't believe it worked," she whispered to herself, spreading the blanket over her and resisting the urge to lay down then and there.

 

[Lia]

Their plan had been a slim one. The margins for victory smaller than she would have liked.

If the Lich had more trained soldiers, a better horse, half a dozen things different...things might have ended up far more grim. For now at least they had the bracelet back and they knew where they were going, but there was a fact that still clung to her mind. One that plagued her in a way she couldn't quite explain.

It was a rankling of suspicion, or perhaps just simple fear. Where had the lich come from?

The question was one that scared her, an answer further away than anything else. Neither she or Kaska knew, and they had few clues. Both of them had guessed the creature had a Master, but who was that? What did they want?

Anyone who could summon a lich was more of a threat than Lia was comfortable with.

 

[Kaska]

Soon Kaska surrendered to sleep, Lia's same fears on her mind. She woke up feeling no better rested, those fears lending to unsettling dreams that kept startling her awake. The cold did no better to help them. But the sun rose so so did she, grim and quiet as she set about tending to the horses and breaking apart breakfast for them to share.

She had no words to say, nothing to share. Both woman were naturally tight lipped with each other, and the pressure to get this bracelet back properly was weighing heavily on Kaska's mind. They had done it, but they weren't done yet.

"That path you planned out," she finally said to Lia, clearing out her throat. "It nearby?"

 

[Lia]

"Close enough." This was where her own skills truly came into being.

She could lead them back to the fortress practically with her eyes closed. The Allir Reaches were her domain, what she had studied and where she lived. A small smile touched her face for just a brief second, and then she began to stretch.

A day in the saddle would be unpleasant otherwise.

"We'll make it back quick enough." She assured Kaska. "Take the back paths and lead through the White Forest."

The Lich wouldn't follow. Couldn't follow. At least she hoped not.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska nodded, surprisingly reassured by her reassurance. To some degree, it was a relief to have Lia take back control of things. Kaska had had her hand at their success, and now she was content to step back, the stress of it all starting to show in the corners of her eyes.

She was not as natural a leader as her father would have liked.

"You know these trails well then?" She noted softly, curious.

 

[Lia]

Lia nodded in response. "I know the Reaches."

In her opinion every Ranger should. Though technically speaking the Order worked on both sides of Alliria, The Reaches were really where most of them were based and actually operated out of.

Though the Rangers really had only four outposts, three of them were located within the Reaches. The fourth was in Alliria itself. To the west they had no real base of operations, mostly because they had never wanted to encroach upon the Falwood and the elves that lived there.

"Once we get into the white wood we can go a bit slower." She told Kaska. "And start having fires again."

Until then it would be cold nights.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska shivered at the reminder. "Aye." She patted across her horses back, trying to encourage him to feel better all that faster. It wouldn't be right to push them just yet. Another hour or two, she knew, then they would make the push back towards the trail.

She glanced at Lia, unable to help note that smile that kept flickering into her features. She looked around skeptically, then looked back to Lia. "Are you from around here?"

 

[Lia]

"I was born in Alliria." She answered.

Lia had never been ashamed of where she came from, there was no need to. Most Rangers of course did not come from the affluent class. Generally speaking recruits who joined the Order were from the poor.

They sought a better life or wanted something more fulfilling than simply slaving away as a cobbler or something of the like. "My father was a Merchant in the city."

Wealthy enough that she could easily have chosen another life.

Any sort of life, really.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska raised a brow, understanding even less about the woman now. "And you chose to be a ranger," she stated, at a loss. "Your parents?" She inquired, driven to know about the person whose hands she kept placing her life in. All the time they had spent together and she couldn't tell you Lia's last name. It was starting to feel wrong. Like getting through this would require more than just passing tolerance.

She couldn't shake the sense that things were't done messing up yet.

 

[Lia]

"Mierin and Valreth Kahl." Her parents were not famous. Neither her father nor mother were on the Merchant Council and although they contributed to the Rangers they were far from the richest people in Alliria.

They had a manor in the Inner-City, and her father owned a dozen merchant ships, but he was a far cry from being truly influential within Alliria. Had he twice the ships and four times the homes he might have been, but Valreth Kahl had never been so ambitions.

"They're good people." She commented. "Supportive, at least my father. My mother would have preferred I married some Noble from Vel Anir."

Lia did not sound enthused about the idea.

The thought had been floated by her mother more than once in her childhood, and she'd always firmly rejected it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska laughed at the suggestion. "You? Kneeling at a husband's side at state affairs?" She laughed again, the mirth not cruel or mocking. It was a funny thought.

"I see she didn't get her way."

 

[Lia]

"Supposedly, being state affairs in Vel Anir are nearly as dangerous as being a Ranger." That was what her mother had always said.

Mierin Kahl was of course an Anirian, not from one of the Great Houses, but a noble nonetheless. She had told Lia stories of what the Court back home was like, and they were in no small part why she had left to join her father in Alliria in the first place.

Politics in the Merchant Council was dirty, but in Vel Anir they were deadly. "I have no interest in that sort of thing though."

She rolled her shoulders.

"I like being a Ranger." It suited her.

 

[Kaska]

"If you had played your cards right you could have done both. Ranger spy to some Nobel in Vel Anir," she teased.

"At least then you could had daggers in your breasts."

Something she had always wanted a hand at, truth be told.

 

[Lia]

She perked an eyebrow. "We're at peace with Vel Anir."

The two cities had fought a war in the past, more than once actually.

Though the histories were somewhat unclear, she had read that Allira and Vel Anir had fought more than a dozen naval battles over the century. Usually it was about trade, though once it had been about a woman. As silly as that sounded.

"There's no need for spies." That probably sounded naive. "Besides. I prefer armor to dresses."

More comfortable really.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska gave her a "oh honey" look.

"You really are an odd one," she commented dryly, picking up the blanket and tucking back around her lap. While she didn't necessarily want to be in skirts at some man's side either, Kaska yearned to have the options. She struggled to grasp what could have possibly made a wealthy merchant girl go so cold and wish for nothing more than to track things out in the blistering cold, but here the evidence was before her-- Such a girl existed.

She wondered where the bad man touched her.

 

[Lia]

No one had touched Lia, no one would have dared. From a young age she'd always been a fighter, a warrior. It was something she'd admired about the Anirians in fact.

Though The Rangers were progressive in most manners and even had Female Commanders, most of her home city was not like that. The Allirian Guard was mostly men, as were the highest ranks in the Rangers and of course the Merchant Council itself. Though some powerful women were around, those roles fell mostly into the laps of men.

It was something that had always rankled her about her home.

Lia's mother had always told her that in Vel Anir it was not so. Power came to those who seized it, whether male or female. One of the greatest generals the Anirian's had was a woman, apparently so fierce that most Dreadlords refused to meet her eye to eye.

That was what Lia wanted to be.

She wanted to even the odds. She wanted to take command of the Rangers, be the first woman to do so, and stare anyone who would dare her in the eye.