Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

Kaska saddled up, spurring her horse into action and riding hard throughout the day.

Their speed gained them distance, but by nightfall it was clear they could push their poor beasts no further, foam specking their mouths as they neighed and protested softly. They had been riding hard since dawn and it was clear they had were catching up to them. But not enough.

"They are riding hard too," Kaska noted, pulling back on her reigns to encourage her horse into a gentle trot. "They'll be camping now, but if we wake before dawn we might be able to close the distance and get them while they still sleep. " Her face was blank. She had had plenty of time to think today. It had not felt good.

 

[Lia]

Lia wanted to keep going. Her chest, her entire being burned with the desire to just keep riding and catch up to her foe. Those men had taken the bracelet, they had point her dreams in jeopardy. Catching them was the singular mission in her head.

Yet she knew that going further would all but kill their horses.

If the two mounts they had died there was no way she and Kaska would be able to catch up to the enemy, and already she had felt her horse beginning to slow. Her lips thinned as Kaska spoke, and although in the back of her mind Lia wanted nothing more than to keep going, she knew it was impossible. "Alright.

It was the first word she had said that day, or at least for several hours.

Kaska was right. The horses needed rest, they needed rest, but if they woke before dawn they would in theory catch up with the enemy. As much as she didn't like it they needed to stop.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska dismounted, leading her horse to grass twenty paces over, but opting to keep the saddle on. She expected no words from the woman, and frankly... she had no words to give back. But at this moment she wanted to scream. Or be punched. Or be heavily drunk. Something, anything to release what was bottled up inside of her.

Inside she went to gather wood for the fire, an idea for how to redeem this situation already forming in her head...

By the time she had the fire set up, she had reached a resolution. But she kept it to herself. It didn't involve Lia. In fact, the exact opposite. It involved her getting the bracelet back without the woman.It was fool hardy but.. what else could she do? She had one shot to return home with a report that didn't paint her utter incompetent.

She glanced at the woman, desperately hoping she wouldn't need to use the spring of lavandula she had gathered moments ago.

*Just sleep naturally,* she pleaded mentally, fully aware of just how off the path her desperation was driving her. Lia wouldn't understand what laid at stake for her.

 

[Lia]

Lia sat upright against a rock.

Her entire body seemed to be utterly wired with energy. Her foot tapped against the hair, her eyes darted from place to place, and it seemed like at any moment she was going to jump up and simply sprint after their targets. For the young Ranger it didn't seem to matter that they could rest, that they needed to rest.

Just like Kaska she had only a singular goal in mind.

Though the mistake had not been her own, she couldn't help but feel that had she not listened to Kaska they wouldn't be in this situation. A voice nagged at her in the back of her head, one telling her that she should not have listened. It was almost painful not to scream at the girl to simply let it be for the time being. She wanted to rage, she wanted to strangle someone.

The thoughts bounced in her head even as she closed her eyes to try and calm them.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska had made the fire close to Lia. An apology and attempt to assure the woman stayed warm? Sure.

She watched Lia's attempts to sleep, her knuckles white inside the pocket as she clutched at the herb. Minutes passed. Then a half an hour. And at the hour mark, if the woman didn't see close to drifting off, she would silently toss it in. And cover her mouth, protecting herself from the toxins that would quickly release, knocking out those that breathed it.

 

[Lia]

Lia's eyes were closed, but sleep evaded her. No matter how much she tried or laid there no rest came to her. Every few seconds she would shift slightly, every minute or so she would kick her leg. It was the small movements that were a key, enough to tell Kaska that her partner was still awake.

When the plant was tossed onto the fire Lia still had her eyes closed. Her nose wrinkled slightly as the scent of it touched her, though just from that she could not tell what it was.

A few moments passed, the world seemed to drift. The Sergeants head began to spin slightly, her eyes snapped open, but it was already too late for that. Her limbs felt heavy, her chest rose and fell, and she was about to speak when she realized that her tongue wouldn't comply. Anger spiked for just a brief second.

Then she fell into a waiting abyss.

Sleep, or perhaps more accurately, unconsciousness fell over her.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska swallowed hard, her heart slamming in her chest.

She had officially crossed the line. There was no turning back, she'd have to succeed or she'd have to run. There was no middle ground here. Her hands shook, disbelief over herself leaving her feeling a touch numb as she tore through her pack and tugged out paper.

I will be back with the bracelet by noon.
You can thank me then.
Kaska.

Ps... I have to do this. Sorry.

She stuck it under a rock by the woman's foot and set off, leaving her pack and anything nonessential behind.

 

[Lia]

Lia slept.

There were no dreams, no images that floated through her mind.

Nothing.

When she awoke she would feel fury akin to that of the fire giant of Molthal, but for the moment she simply slept. Her body lay against the small rock, her chest slowly rising and falling, her face impassive as a Princess in a fairy tale. She simply lay there, while Kaska jumped head first into a tsunami.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska rode hard, cresting the distance in mere hours before the tracks got too fresh and she was forced to abandon her mare and continue on foot. She left a majority of her armor behind, opting for stealth now. There was nothing stealing about shiny, clinking metal.

She crept onwards and onwards, until the night was deep and the firelight shone through the trees, beckoning her closer. The many horses were stabled in a clearing to the left of the camp, quiet and peaceful in the night. She saw nothing but makeshift tents and slumbering bodies, nothing lending to who the mage was, or where the bracelet was kept.

So she settled down inside a bush, wide awake and watching for guards that might lend her a clue.

 

[Lia]

"What are you gonna do with your share?"

Though most of the dozen or so men within the band were clearly asleep, three of them were still awake. Two of those three sat on a large log by the flame in the center of the camp, each of them holding a stick with what appeared to be a small sort of mammal upon it. The third stood a way apart, his pants half lowered as he relieved himself in the nearby bushes where Kaska had crawled to.

"I think I'll just be takin' it home to mi family. You know get the wife somethin nice."

The other man nodded.

"You?"

There was a pause.

"Prostitutes."

The man peeing began to laugh uproariously, losing some of his steady aim.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska was not at all amused. She flinched but otherwise, kept still, her jaw set very tight. She resisted the urge to lash out and cut off the man's dick then and there, knowing she needed information before she could plan the extraction. She had to be very careful here. So she listened.


"Oi," said a bandit, his laughter dying down. "What do you think they want with it, anyway? What's such a thing really good for?"

 

[Lia]

"Blowing stuff up I reckon, not that he'd ever tell us. Sitting in his own tent like some high and mighty lord."

The bandit sounded somewhat bitter about the current state of affairs.

"Bastard thinks he's better than all of us but he wearing the same rags!"

One of the other guards grumbled slightly in agreement. The one who had been shaking his lizard finally finished, pulling up his trousers and turning back towards the camp to join his fellows. There was a grim expression on his face, and he spoke a bit more quietly as he returned to the others.

"Dont be too loud mates, he can still hear ya. If'n he's awake."

Their voices dropped to a low murmur.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska sliiiiid backwards, trying to be quiet as she pulled herself out of the bush and hid with her back against the tree. She shook off her arm, droplets of urine flying away as she glaaaared into the night.

She hated her life. She hated her life.

With the information she needed at hand, she continued to crawl away, retreating back into the woods, where the firelight didn't hit her and she could plan.

She watched the camp from afar, quickly picking out the tent the guards had spoke of and deciding that she could slip under the canvas from the back without being seen. Much like had been done to them, she planned on taking back the bracelet while the mage slept and slipping off into the night.

Easy.

The air was crisp and damp, dawn far away.

She crept forward, moving with single minded focus to the back of the tent. Which she slipped inside of.

 

[Lia]

Inside she found not a sleeping mage, but a man sitting cross legged on the floor.

He wore dark robes, so dark that they seemed to draw in the meager light that fluttered into the tent through the gap Kaska had created. His face was shrouded within the dark of his hood, but as Kaska entered she would be able to see just the hint of pale and marred flesh. A scar ran over his chin, reaching up over his hidden face as if it were clawing him for all eternity.

His flesh was far more pale than it had any right to be, as though the very pigment itself had been taken from it.

The figure didn't move, but a voice seemed to echo throughout the tent as Kaska stepped inside.

"Hello, Little Ranger."​

 

[Kaska]

Kaska froze, adrenaline shooting through her body. She swallowed hard and slowly withdrew her sword, hand steady as she held it out as a precaution.

Well this already wasn't going to plan. "You have something that isn't yours," she leveled at him, trying to be diplomatic. "By the order of the Ranger Convention, I order you to return it to me. Now."

This stuff never worked. But she always had to say it. Why?

 

[Lia]

The man let out a laugh, though it was more of a rasping chuckle than anything else. As though humor had escaped this creature for the last decade.

"Do you think you have any power here?"​

His hand came up.

There was something laced across his fingers, an odd sort of black that seemed to etch into his skin and run through the pale color of his flesh. It seemed to pulse and move beneath his skin, ink flowing across a blank piece of paper. Beneath the cuff of his robe Kaska would be able to see the bracelet, the slight flicker of light reflecting off of one of the gleaming red gems set in gold.

"You have no authority here. Not with me."​

As he spoke Kaska would feel a thousand needles suddenly jabbing into her skin.

Magic whipped through the air, lancing towards the Ranger.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska caught sight of the bracelet, a spark of hope erupting in her chest when she did. This wasn't completely hopeless. She hadn't fucked everything up, it was right there, if she could just-

She gasped at the sudden pain, eyes wide with shock yet understanding as the dark magic sprung out for her. She knew she was running out of time. In a moment, she was about to be outnumbered and there was no way to escape without turning her back to that dark magic and becoming a victim to it.

Not that she wanted to run. She needed to prove herself. So she dove forward, into the magic, her arm extended and her sword aimed to go straight through his chest and kill the threat at the source.

Meanwhile, a screamed of tortured pained slipped unaided from her lips.

 

[Lia]

"Fool Girl!"​

Another broken rasp of a laugh echoed out from the hobbled man. Power erupted from him and the bracelet clasped around his wrist. The blade stabbed towards him, but the man didn't make a move. Instead he simply sat there, his power echoing out.

The magic whipped forward and enveloped the girl, biting, grasping, and then suddenly surging to pull her to the floor and pin her there.

 

[Kaska]

The blade embedded into him, the jolt knocking her hilt out of her hands as she was reduced to thrashing rag doll tossed to the ground.

The magic didn't cease. He didn't die.

She knew fear in that moment, control over her body stripped away and her senses replaced by a swath of pain. She had failed. Any moment now, she expected death. She couldn't even regret it. She couldn't even process it. She had miss-steeped and overestimated in every moment of this mission, and she understood that that meant she was dead.

That was the way of the Rangers.

 

[Lia]

The blade had sunk deep into the mans chest but he did not seem to care. Instead that same rasping laugh echoed from his lips.

"You tried little fool. You tried."​

Slowly the man reached up and pulled back the hood of his robe.

Within an instant Kaska would be able to see the macabre horror that was the man's face. Marring his flesh was the deep scar that ran from his face up across his eye. Long knife leak ears sprang from the side of his head, but the true horror came from the left side of his face. The flesh, muscle, and tendons seemed to have been utterly stripped, bare bone and an eyeless socket sat there instead. An almost ethereal abyss seemed go hang within the emptiness, staring, watching as Kaska writhed upon the ground.

"You have no idea what you're involved in, and neither does your friend."​

He laughed, louder and louder.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

She couldn't look away. She couldn't stop biting her tongue. Her bodily functions gave way to the torture. Her face was contorted in horror and her eyes pleaded for a release. It finally came in the form of sudden unconsciousness, her eyes rolling back. Her body remained twitching,but that was all the liche would get from her until she came back to.

 

[Lia]

Lia jumped awake. Her eyes snapped open, her lips thinned, and a scowl spread across her face almost instantly. Rage boiled inside of her even worse than before. The anger seemed to overcome any sort of grogginess that should have clung to her body. She pulled herself up from the ground, her fingers grasping the dirt in order to push herself up.

She spotted the small scrap of paper on the ground.

For a brief second she thought about just ignoring it, but after a moment leaned down and snatched it up. Her eyes darted across the letters, lips twisting in a sneer as she did so. Her fingers crunched around the paper and balled it up, tossing it into the fire as she scooped up her sword and slipped it onto her back. "Fool girl."

Lia said as she rushed over to her horse and scrambled up into the saddle.

She left her things where they were, taking only her weapons and a meager amount of supplies. She would be back or she wouldn't, either way she didn't need her things.

"She's probably dead already. " Lia swore at herself as she broke into a gallop, the moon still high above.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska woke with a groan, her mouth thick with the taste of her own blood. Her tongue was swollen and aching. She let her eyes close and tried to steady herself, deeply surprised to have woken up at all. Why wasn't she dead yet? The answer came to her uncomfortably quick. She bit back another groan, knowing the best bet to forestall any further harassment was to pretend to remain out as she game planed.

She would be used as a tool for something, likely. There was never any other reason to keep an enemy alive. What time was it? She tried to peek through her lashes and glance at the sky, but she only saw treeline. She took a deep breath then started to subtly twitch and test out her limbs, feeling for where there was bindings and where there was not. Perhaps she could simply run when no one was looking.

It wasn't like anyone was going to come rescue her.

"Oi," called out a guard. "She's moving."

She curse, snapping to and trying to stand and free her hands from her ties. Her sword! Where was it?

 

[Lia]

Lia galloped as fast as the horse could go.

In that moment she wished she knew magic, any sort of magic that could have helped. She needed the beast to go faster, run further. She needed to get there. She felt anger, such boiling seething rage, but there was nothing she could do save to push the animal ever own-wards.

The sound of hoof-beats thundered loudly the moon hanging over head still as Lia traced the exact same steps that Kaska had taken only a few hours earlier. She got closer and closer, her fingers tightening on the reigns.

She wanted that bracelet, she wanted that fool girl to live.

She needed them to.

Her fingers tightened one more time, lashing the reigns forward in an effort to press further. She had no idea how much time passed, no idea how long it was, but it all still seemed too long. Eventually though she found what she was looking for, Kaska's horse, hitched and quietly remaining in place, the stack of her armor besides it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska felt a foot go into the back over her knee, one of the twelve bandits doing their job and keeping her down. She cried out, falling down without her hands free to catch her. It didn't take more than a foot to the small of her back to keep her disabled, her body stiff and weak from the magic.

The men erupted in laughter, giving the one who got her back down a hearty pat on the back.

"You ever see a ranger in a pitiful state?" One mocked.

"Never the stomach, always the knees," another joked crudely, which renewed Kaska's struggles and cursing. "Go tell 'im the ranger is awake. Won't be long till the other gets here. Never long off, ye?"

Kaska grimaced, praying Lia didn't actually come. It would be suicide. She saw that now. "I don't have a partner," she gritted.