Quest The Return

[Addis Vrummal]

Addis listened to the two go back and forth about hunting, well content to stay out of the way of that conversation. Then Kaska gestured to him, and he quickly joined her, his mind set on picking up the old skill and making it fresh once more.

"Avoiding stations won't be so hard. We know all of them between here and there. Just the patrols to worry about." Addis remarked as he walked away.

 

[Lia]

Lia nodded her head. "At dawn."

The Lieutenant told both of them as Addis began to walk away.

Their journey of the next few weeks would be grueling, more so than the last time she and Kaska had done this. This time there was no one they could rely upon, no one that in the back of their mind they could go to if things went truly wrong. Her fingers tightened at that thought, eyes wandering across the small outpost.

We're fucked if they get to Alliria first. Neither Kaska nor Addis had voiced that concern, but it was the truth. If the Major decided to take a ship to Alliria and got there first everything they were working for would be for naught. The moment they stepped through the city gate they would be thrown into the Ranger's dungeon.

Sighing, Lia only hoped that wouldn't be the case.

The faster they went the better their chance.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska didn't think that would happen. As it stood, they had never vocalized any dissent with the major, nor expressed any confusion or challenge with the mission. They were perfectly to the books with him ... minus their sudden disappearance. But she was confident it would take a fool of a person to try to bet her to Alliria and get a fellow Commander's offspring incarcerated on what would inevitably come through as insubstantial grounds. A fool, or someone desperate.

Of course, he could have more men working for him than she was aware. Perhaps he could pull a whole story together and get false testimonies against each of the three, but still ... that seemed like a drastic amount of effort when he still didn't even know where they stood against him.

She was confident he wouldn't move against her yet. She was a Commander's daughter after all.

That confidence slowly diminished as they set out for their return the next day, a new set of concerns bracing her. Facing her father after five months away... By the end of the first week on the road, she had became agitated and sharp. Their supplies had been used through, and now they relied on trapping and hunting to keep them moving.

"No, my gods, you're fucking it up," she grumbled at Addis as he tried to set up a trap in the darkness of night. She smacked his hand away, taking it from him.

"Give it me. Go do something more useful," she dismissed.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

The trip was miserable, with a constant pace and dwindling supplies to only add to it. It wasn't as though they could stop in at a ranger outpost and restock now. They kept at it though, and now that the supplies were done for, the traps had come out.

Sadly, Addis had not much improved on his trap making in that time. Kaska shooed him away as he stood and frowned.

"I've said sorry, have at it then." The elf quietly snapped back, knowing Kaska would have it done right the first time. The damned thing looked simple enough, but he had truly become lazy about his other skills, and didn't quite have the touch like she did.

He walked off to check their horses instead, and then decided to find a tree to post up in the branches of to keep an eye out for trouble. Everything was beginning to wear on them, so he couldn't really blame them for being terse and short.

 

[Lia]

Things were not going as well as Lia would have hoped.

All of them were becoming short with one another. Their conversations, if they could even be called that, were swift and bare. None of them were particularly up beat about their circumstances, and as the days dragged on those feelings only got worse and worse.

A part of her had expected this, but that didn't make it any better.

"Should've stolen a boat." Lia said quietly to herself as she stoked the small fire that they had started. Most of the time they had tried to keep things on the low. No fires at night and covering their tracks in the morning. Tonight however they would need something to cook with, and she'd decided a fire would be safe enough.

The canopy would hide most of the smoke anyway.

Still, she needed to think of something to relieve some of these tensions.

 

[Kaska]

"As if you'd steal," Kaska snorted, almost mocking in nature. It wasn't even the hard travel that was getting to her, not truly. It was the distance they were closing, familiar Alliria routes opening up before her as they skirted about to avoid them. They close, too close to home now. Every morning she woke up with her chest constricted a little tighter than the night before.

Did her father deserve this much apprehension? No, not really. But five months away with LIa had given her breathing room she had never encountered before. And now it felt like she was losing it all.

She hissed in frustration then left with the trap, setting it up in a quiet spot around them before coming back. "Unless we hunt we'll have nothing tonight. No animal will touch that trap unless we're still and asleep."

 

[Addis Vrummal]

The tree offered a little cover as he scanned the area for any signs of people trying to sneak up on them. Lia and Kaska bantered for a moment about stealing a boat, Kaska doubting the woman would do it before expressing the need to hunt for food. He eyed the horses and his bow, and with a frown climbed down.

"I'll hunt." He informed them as he hit the ground. Without waiting for either of them to respond, he was grabbing his bow and quiver and heading into the woods. Traps weren't going well for him at the moment, but he would be damned if he would sit by when something needed to be hunted up.

 

[Lia]

Lia shrugged. "It's not stealing in a situation like this. More long term borrowing."

The way she said the words meant even she didn't quite believe that.

Generally speaking Lia didn't believe in anything that took away from someone else, especially if it was something they needed. Kaska knew that of course, it was why she'd laughed. A frown touched her face for a moment as she looked at the other woman, then her gaze followed after Addis.

"Are you going to let him show you up?" She asked innocently, knowing that she probably shouldn't have.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska glanced up, giving Lia a sharp look. Played like a fiddle, Kaska tossed down the trap and reached for her bow. She scrambled up, grumbling down at Lia, "Oh, you finish it then."

With barely a dismissive gesture at the trap, she left.

Addis would hear the soft pad of her footsteps as she ran to catch up ... then slow to a creep as she fell in to his distant right to scan for tracks. She said nothing, as if it was totally normal that she just abandoned the task she had chastised him on not doing correctly only moments before.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

He didn't pay attention at first when the woman could be heard behind him. May have been that she wanted to say something about the traps but he had wandered off before she had gotten the chance too. When her steps turned into a creeping sound, his gaze fell on her for a brief moment.

Like hell Addis thought to himself.

She could run traps all she wanted, but he would be damned if he would come back from this empty handed. He silently moved forward and away from her, hoping to put some brush between them. He was being petty, but on this part of their trip, it seemed like they all were being that way to him. His free hand ran over the ground, his eyes searching for any signs of tracks that he could find.

 

[Kaska]

She let him, content in knowing that she was on the closer side to the river. Therefore she had more of a chance catching an animal grazing around it than him.

They walked onward into the night, footsteps soft and eyes sharp. And that was when she saw it-- a clearing up ahead, sitting between the two. And in it, the occasional glowing eyes of a grazing dear pack taking a rest for the night. She crouched lower, notching an arrow and taking very careful steps forward.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

He heard the pack before seeing it as they traveled into the night. The sound of water and grazing by more than one beast. He stalked a bit closer, still a ways behind Kaska as he knocked an arrow. There was a decent amount of brush between him and the herd, but he could hear her drawing up close to the pack.

Well within her firing range at that pace. He cleared away from her as quietly as he could, he may have been miffed with her, but he wasn't about to chance hitting her with a bad shot. His eyes rolled at the thought of making a bad shot, a small bit of his pride coming through on the last thought.

He found a spot to his liking, being able to see a few of the does at the waters edge. No sense taking a buck when the wanted nothing more than meat after all. Drawing as quietly as he could, he exhaled through his nose as he lined up the shot.

The arrow sang through the air for a brief second, the rustle of leaves on a bush the only sign that something was amiss as the arrow found its mark. Passing through the doe's heart, the poor thing flailed for a moment as it jumped away.

He listened to her stride away before stumbling and falling backwards over herself. It was a quick death as the rest of the herd darted away. He was far more pleased that the kill had been clean and quick rather than proud that he had beaten Kaska.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska's arrow went flying after them, but with time to properly aim it was a panic shot that went wide. The rest of the herd darted away unmarred. She stood up with a curse, thoroughly disgruntled. She had half a mind to turn and leave him with the work of bringing in the kill, but... Lia's sharp and disapproving gaze popped up into her like a clown out of a story book. She grumbled and stayed, half stomping her feet on brush as she went to the felled doe.

"A lucky shot," she said at the sight of the well-delivered death. Stupid elves and their keener eyesight. She could make a kill like that too if she had been given a chance!

 

[Addis Vrummal]

"Lucky." Was all the more the elf said, standing and retrieving the arrow before collecting the doe. He had her help him drag it into the trees away from the water before field dressing the beast. Making quick work with a small hooked dagger kept in his boot.

Once cleaned, he hacked off a decent tree limb that was fairly straight and fashioned it into a pole. With the doe dangling between them, the trip would be a lot easier than having to drag it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska worked with wordless efficiency, seeing no point in dwindling or dragging her feet. The quicker it was done, the sooner she could rest. And in the end, they'd both have to carry its weight on their shoulders, she even more so, being shorter than him.

With the doe properly dealt with, she grunted and lifted up its front end by the stick. Once it hung between them she started out, relying on him to keep pace with her least this become a very jerky walk.

She walked in silence for some time, the air around her filled with her strain breathes and footsteps.

"Bet you're regretting sticking your nose into out shit now, huh," she grunted back at him.

 

[Lia]

While Kaska and Addis were headed back to Camp, Lia had made the small fire somewhat bigger.

She figured the cover of the trees was enough to obscure the smoke, and anyone looking for them would be headed to the city directly anyway. No point in searching these woods really, particularly when there was better ways of capturing them.

While she tended to her own tasks Lia thought about the future.

Just what they were going to do when they arrived in Alliria was still somewhat unclear. There was no telling if they would be able to persuade Kaska's father, and even if they did...things might go more awry than well. A ranger civil war would be devastating, and just what the person behind all of this wanted.

Grumbling quietly to herself Lia poked the fire, churning the coals with an absent mind.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

He kept his pace matched to hers, trying his best not to jostle her to badly with the difference in height being what it was. A small laugh came from him at her comment as he thought on his previous travels. This trip had not been pleasant by any means, and it had certainly been a strain on them all, but it hadn't been the worst journey he had made.

"Not yet, no. Hasn't been fun by any means with all this riding but certainly not regretting it." he replied sincerely.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska rolled her eyes, unseen to the elf. "Will be hard to act so unaffected once you return to find your name being dragged through mud," she jabbed pointedly, almost... feeling him out.

She didn't really know him. Therefor, she absolutely didn't trust him. If the ship was going down, what exactly would he do?

 

[Addis Vrummal]

"I can live with that if it means stopping someone from using others like pawns." He wanted to shrug with the words but thought better of it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska pursed her lips, falling silent for a full minute.

"Are you saying that's why you're here? Because you care about us? You hardly know us." There was a heavy insinuation in her tone, suspected motivations that she hadn't written him off of yet.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

A small sigh escaped him as she spoke, scratching his head as he thought on his wording.

"I don't know either of you very well, no. I care about all of my fellow rangers, and I'm not helping you two because of anything more than a sense of duty. If I didn't feel like you two were onto something, I would have likely blown this off as paranoia." He stated.

"I'm also helping because others might fall victim to this same problem later. Stem it now, and less people get used, or hurt." He finished.

 

[Kaska]

How she wished she could eye him in that moment. Instead she was forced to toss her words bluntly over her shoulder.

"I think you're just a bored elf looking for a thrill." And every bit of her was tense as she listened for his reaction. Because something like that would not only make a lot of sense for this moment, but it would be incredibly dangerous for them when things heated up. Someone looking for a thrill was usually only willing to go as far as would get their rocks off. But this wasn't some small adventure here. The more the rode, they more Kaska was beginning to comprehend how much of their necks was being placed on the line by their actions.

She still didn't think they were returning to immediate prosecution, she still didn't believe he had gone out of his way to tarnish their names without any indication of their intentions.

But that didn't mean they weren't returning to a dangerous game of politics. One that could very easily get them killed.

You can't have loose pieces like a thrill seeker in that.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

Humans could be frustrating beings when they wanted to be. Addis had realized this early in his dealings with them, but the reminder that they could be was always something he needed.

"The most thrill seeking I have ever done in my long life was deciding to leave the Falwood." Addis informed her quietly. It was a decision he had made as a youth, and he had yet to regret it.

"I have worked with a lot of good rangers, and I don't like the idea of someone using them for their own ends. What you both have told me leads me to believe trouble is brewing, and that means trouble for every ranger. Not just you two." Addis shot back to her. If someone was truly using the rangers as pawns, how many others could be used to an end and then disposed of? His concern was for the whole of the association at the moment, and the people that made up it's ranks.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska pursed her lips, letting out a tight breath. "How noble," she returned skeptically. Though if his words had been heard or had done anything to sway her, it remained unclear.

She fell silent again and walked, stewing, her mind racing a million different ways a minute as she tried to remain a closed book.

 

[Addis Vrummal]

"Hardly noble, a bit selfish really." He mused. After all, a long life got lonely after the first generation of humans you knew passed away. The small smirk on his face couldn't be seen, but it was there.

"Let's get this back to camp and eat before we stir up more than deer. I'd hate to find a miffed hog like we are." The words weren't hurried, but the way they hit Kaska, she could likely tell he was looking around them.