Private Tales The Sign of the Lindwurm

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
Gerard Montefort

Gerard Montefort

Headmaster of the Brotherhood of the Bow
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Gerard Montefort was doing two things at this moment he normally wouldn't do. First, he was riding a horse through the forests and treacherous mountain paths of The Spine. He hated riding horses; they made too much noise and were too easily seen, two things he'd learned to treat with prejudice since his humble beginnings as a poacher. He rode on a silver mountain horse, his preference for going through such treacherous terrain. Second, he was travelling in some proximity with his second-in-command, Teagan Monroe. They were travelling apart just out of eyeshot of one another, screening for potential threats, and ready to give the warning signal of knocking on a hollow slab of wood 3 times. In extreme danger, Gerard had a horn that he always kept on his person, but had never had the need to actually use.

3 months ago, the Brotherhood of the Bow had accepted a contract to hunt a monster in this area of The Spine. The price was irresistible, and they dispatched a Sergeant along with a detachment of 20 Yeomen Rangers, by all accounts some of the finest scouts and hunters you could find in Alliria. The journey should have taken them a month at most; for them to be missing this long, something had to have gone wrong, or they were merely unlucky and could not find their quarry. In either case, it was Gerard's duty as well as Teagan's to look after the well-being of their men, and he was loathe to send more men to this cause even though investigating himself was far more risky.

Eventually, Gerard reached a break in the treeline, where he discovered something was deeply wrong. Many trees were broken, many of them larger pines that would have taken men a day or a few days to chop themselves. Gerard felt himself suddenly tense, in a way that his battle-hardened heart normally didn't acquiesce to; he'd heard stories of things like this, but never imagined in his life that he might be involved with it. Most of their contracts were near Alliria, and in the flat farmlands and gentle woods near the Allir Reach. Their Rangers were skilled in both stealth and archery, so for a beast to have taken down so many... He dashed the thought. After all, he didn't yet know the fate of his men. This could, after all, be the work of giants.

He dismounted his horse and began to walk into the clearing. He reached into a pouch on his vest and pulled out a small slab of wood, then knocked on it 3 times rhythmically to signal to Teagan that he had found something, then kept himself low beneath one of the fallen trees while awaiting her arrival, and the signal she should send in return. He took a deep breath, and took a drink from his canteen while he waited. As he did so, and as she may have been nearing, he noticed while putting down the canteen half of a skeleton jutting out from the other end of the tree, the lower half having clearly been crushed by the pine. He nearly choked on his water, coughing violently and cursing the wind that he had given his position away.

He'd seen dead bodies before and taken many lives. But to see one of his own soldiers this way still managed to catch him off-guard. He put his hand over his face and tried to calm himself before Teagan arrived; he couldn't let her see him this way. Especially not before they figured out what actually happened.
 
Teagan Monroe had been on pins and needles since Gerard Montefort had approached her about this little trip. 21 of her troops had gone missing and she felt responsible. She had selected the regiment that would go, she had been involved in the training of some of them, she was the reason they were not at home with their families and the guild. They had been gone for 3 months and that was way longer than it should have taken.

Now, she rode a matching mountain horse to Gerard and they slunk through the woods with eyes and ears open. She distantly knew his position from the sheer amounts of time that they had gone out together. They had known each other for at least 14 years and they had fought alongside each other many times.

She broke the treeline around the same time as he did and she knew something was wrong immediately. So many trees were destroyed and Teagan felt the feeling of dread start to pool in her stomach. She could feel the nausea start to creep up her chest and the back of her throat. She dismounted and stood there in terrified awe until she heard the 3 taps of the wood that signaled her.

She kept herself hidden as she moved in Gerards direction. She had been a Ranger before anything else which meant stealth and tracking were two of her strong points. She approached him and crouched down to his level as he looked at her with a look sorrow.

Teagan knew then that they were dead. All of them were gone.
 
Focusing had always been one of Gerard's strong suits; he would argue the art of archery itself was a constant battle of focusing the mind and the body into the shot of the bow. In this moment, he could sense Teagan's distress, for the two of them had indeed worked together for 14 years. As a leader, he felt he couldn't cue her in to the full extent of his own concerns, instead focusing on the task at hand.

He spoke softly, a low hum of his gruff voice you might mistake for the creaking sound of trees in the deep forest.

"If you've come and found me, you must not have seen anything."

He took a moment to pause, looking forward to silently cue her to the skeletal remains at the other end of the tree he was hiding under.

"Take the right, I'll take the left--they would have been in a spread pattern when this happened. Come back when you find 10."

He slipped out the other side of the broken pine and began creeping his way past much of the debris. On his mind more than the body count now was what could have caused this scale of destruction. He thought of Giants first, but some of these trees were larger than what he knew a Giant or Ogre was capable of tearing down-- at least, so he thought. Errant arrow shafts and misplaced shards of the signature Brotherhood shortbows seemed to confirm that yes, these were their men and the contract they had accepted directly led to their deaths. He would have to ask Teagan when they regrouped the name of the Sergeant in charge of this mission, and then track down where this had happened, if only to report that their mission had ended in failure.

It was only atop one of the larger pines that Gerard began to get a better picture of what had happened. There were large semi-tunnels in the ground, passing through trees and dirt alike. Across the clearing, he could see what looked like the opening to a very large burrow. He sat down and spent several minutes contemplating as he scanned the rest of the horizon; he could see Teagan briefly for a moment, and then quickly spotted his 10 skeletons, as their white profiles contrasted well with the dark brown soil of the mountain forest floor.

He then began to head back to Teagan, taking with him a few bows that still seemed to be in good condition. His beginnings as a poacher sometimes presented themselves in unsavory ways, a philosophy of wasting nothing, even the belongings of dead comrades. It was on this thought that he stepped on something hard that gave him pause. He looked down and, perhaps even more startling than the initial skeleton, was something large and green. Rather than go back to their initial meeting spot, he pulled out the wooden slab and knocked 3 times again.

Yes, Teagan would need to see this. Simply speaking it wouldn't suffice. Gerard felt a tightness in his chest, for this object was truly something out of nightmares. He scanned the horizon, as he tried to remember what the name was again, and how the legend went, because if so then Gerard and Teagan's visit was even more foolish than it seemed on the outset.
 
Gerard was right, Teagan had not seen anything from her vantage point. She looked down where he had signaled and the bile that she had already been fighting started to rise in her throat. Fuck, she thought and closed her eyes. This really was her biggest fear coming true.

Gerard, per usual, was no nonsense and she knew he had not meant to sound harsh, but the way he said when you find 10 made her narrow her eyes. When you find 10, like they weren’t talking about the skeletons of 21 of her people.

She moved in the opposite direction of Gerard and started to scan the dirt for the 10 skeletons that she was tasked to find. Her heart ached for them and she knew that she would be notifying more families than she ever had before. They had been lucky in her years as Officer of the Troop so far. That luck was clearly over.

It was not long before she found the bones of her men and cursed again. Teagan was pulled from her gloomy thoughts at the sound of 3 simple knocks on the wood. She turned and scanned the area. She expected to see him where they had split up but he was not there. Her amber eyes fell on him and she headed in his direction with a scowl on her face.

“I found the 10. What did you find?” Her voice may have been quiet but it was as hard as stone.
 
Gerard watched Teagan arrive from a distance, and once she'd finally approached, he said nothing and walked up to the large green object half-buried in the sand, in the shape of a shield or a diamond. For demonstration, he took one of the bows he'd taken from the remains of the battlefield and nocked an arrow.

"We'll come back with our brothers and sisters and give them a proper burial," he said, looking to her for a moment with grim purpose in his eyes. "For now, I want to know who or what made a mockery of us. I trust you recovered whatever was valuable from them."

Then, he drew the bow and fired directly at the green object. The arrow shattered, its splinters scattering here and there.

"What do you think? Dragon?" It was a loaded question--there weren't any scorch marks in the dirt from dragon's breath and if the evidence had been that plain, he knew Teagan would have already figured it out. She was a better tracker than he was, and he thought what he was about to show her might be what she had already seen. Then again, this was probably a lot for her to take in; he was feeling that tightness in his chest more with every passing moment, though he may have suspected something that Teagan didn't yet realize.

He then placed the bow with the others he'd found, then climbed a nearby pine and motioned for Teagan to come with him to the vantage point. Once she arrived, he'd point to the large half-tunnel that was on the surface of the earth, and the large burrow hole at the other end of the clearing of destroyed trees, a hole that was large enough for perhaps 4 or 5 men to walk abreast should they deign to enter.

He scanned the horizon again, looking for other signs. Maybe he'd missed something on the scale as well that might help. He too was distracted by the situation, as much as he might try to hide it. Something was very, very wrong.
 
Teagan crouched down and studied the green object before Gerard could destroy it. She touched it and her skin went cold. No, it can’t be, she thought with trepidation. She slowly stood back up, using her thighs as leverage. She watched him nock an arrow and held her breath, hoping it was not what she was thinking it was. Praying, really, to whatever gods would listen.

“I could not bring myself to gather their items, I leave that nasty work to you.” She never understood how he could be so savage when it came to taking belongings from the dead. Well, she did, but she could not bring herself to do it.

Teagan watched him draw the bow and she watched the arrow shattered. “No, not a dragon,” she looked around quickly and was satisfied with the quiet wind through the trees.

Before she could say anything else, he was atop a pine and summoning her. She climbed the tree and cursed for the third time in as many minutes. “We need to go, now. Forget the bows, forget the bones, we need to go. If it wakes up, we are dead.”

Teagan quickly returned herself to the hard ground and looked up at Gerard, “it is a lindwurm and I do not want to die.” She was not scared of much and she was certainly not afraid of a fight, but she had heard the stories. She had seen the drawings. She knew that they would not defeat even one of them.
 
Gerard did not turn when Teagan pleaded with him to leave; he could hear the panic in her voice, and when she revealed the nature of their predicament, he simply stared off into the vast forests and mountains of the Spine around them, taking a moment to soak in the size of it all before responding. When she spoke its foul name, he remember at once, although it wasn't much; a Lindwurm was the stuff of legends, nightmares, and fables, the kind of creature you told children about to get them to stay in bed. He'd heard of it while travelling through an inn near the Spine, where he'd heard a bard tell of the beast. He didn't remember much, though, except for a single verse, which he spoke solemnly:


"In mountains strong, and forests old
it lives only where fools will go
If Earth trembles, in midday Sun
Beware, Beware, the Lindwurm comes."

He paused again, giving the horizon and the tunnel one last glance. Then, he turned and looked at Teagan for the first time since they had arrived.

"Today, the Brotherhood has been dealt its most stinging defeat, and its most tragic. I did not know these men personally, and that is my shame."

He took a deep breath. That tightness in his chest wouldn't go away.

"We owe our Brothers and Sisters a debt of blood. It is our failure that led them to this place. I will not leave this place until we find this foul creature. I know that you and I cannot slay it, but the Guild will be wanting revenge, and I will not go back to them empty-handed. We must locate its lair, then bring the full force of the Brotherhood to bear on its foul form. I will not rest until it is so."

He gave her one last look.

"Don't be afraid, Teagan. Our brothers and sisters have already paid that price."
 
“They were good people, all of them. I personally trained some of them so this loss is greater for me as a person.” Her face was drawn and she held a far away look in her eyes. Teagan had always taken pride in her work yet she had lost 21 people. They never stood a chance though, no one did. They were doomed as soon as the contract had been accepted and they had no idea.

“Gerard,” she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Perhaps whatever grief spell he was under would be broken by her touch. Her voice was soft with an accidental patronizing tone attached to it. “If we find its liar, it is too late. We will be dead. If it finds us out here, we will be dead. Us being dead will do nothing for our fallen soldiers or our living ones.”

Teagan was not usually the rationale one, but she also was not a fan of dying. Not that she had done it before, but she imagined it was unpleasant. She had never disobeyed a direct order, but today she may have to or she would have to go try to save Gerard’s ass.
 
There had been many times on the battlefield where Gerard had contemplated his own mortality. He'd been there when the company had lost hundreds in petty squabbles between lordlings, and watched men die unspeakable deaths to other creatures the Brotherhood had encountered prior to now. Perhaps it was this foreknowledge and fear that propelled him to seek the Lindwurm. Perhaps it was a misguided sense of justice or retribution that he'd felt, for the unfairness of the world that made him a poacher and put his father in prison for most of his life.

He did feel comforted by Teagan's sudden touch; despite their 14 year working relationship, this was an uncommon occurrence between the two of them and its significance was not wasted on Gerard. He even knew this level of compassion was uncommon. He figured the deaths of their men might be weighing heavily on her mind, but he also trusted that she was not a slave to her grief and that her reasoning was sound. Which made this already difficult situation even more untenable.

He furrowed his brow, thinking for a moment.

"We cannot go back to the guild with nothing but the news that their comrades have fallen, and their bodies lie in the territory of an ancient beast most won't be inclined to believe even exists. What will we tell their families, Teagan? Our Chapter Houses are spread far and wide now. We would shame them."

He looked over to the closest mountain, tracing a path with his eyes through the trees.

"I think this Lindwurm may be a beast like any other. From the base of the mountain we may catch a better glimpse of its patterns, and even get a sense of where it lives. Maybe we can see it as it tunnels through the earth from the high ground. If we can just learn that, then we can in good faith gather the guild and allies to avenge our fallen. Do we not owe them that much, Teagan? When Granger stood with his 30 men against 200, they must have seemed very much like a Lindwurm. If we let fear control us, we have accepted that the way of the bow is insufficient, even in the face of a beast so terrible. And I cannot abide that as the Brotherhood's Headmaster."

He'd hoped his words would sway Teagan, but he knew she was ever the pragmatist and there was a cutting truth to the reality of what she was suggesting. Gerard wasn't normally valorous or idealistic, and in any other situation he would have agreed with Teagan. But the site of the massacre loomed over his thoughts, and he was loathe to come back to the guild with nothing more than bad news. He grappled with the sudden fear that he might be scouting for the Lindwurm alone, and these mountains were known to be inhabited by other unsavory creatures as well--orcs, giants, and more--and while he was perhaps the greatest archer in the realm, he was but one man with one magical bow, and even his considerable prowess was subject to the same mortality every other human faced.
 
As Gerard went off on his soliloquy, Teagan just closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her left hand. He was not wrong, of course. Neither of them was. They both had good points and if it was any other creature, she would be by his side. She had been by his side many times and they had defeated many together with the help of their men.

She stopped rubbing her nose and opened her eyes when he mentioned Grander and his 30 men. She narrowed her eyes. He knew full well that she would not do anything to let her ancestor down so the mention of them was definitely meant to be a motivator. It did.

“Fine, we will scout but we are not attacking it. Trust me, I want it dead. I need it to die. I am not going to become a martyr for the Brotherhood.” Her voice was flat and she just had her eyes locked on his.
 
Gerard was relieved at Teagan's acceptance, yet he was simultaneously surprised.

"Thank you, Teagan. Consider this a favor, that you may call on me to return at any time. For the Brotherhood."

He hopped off the fallen pine tree, then retrieved the bows he had collected and began making his way back to his horse. He turned back to look at her, briefly.

"I fear you may have grown soft on me, and I soft on you. Even now, I wish that our first outing together in many months had been under better circumstances. Let's speak more on the way to the base of the mountain; it's been months since the beast has visited this place, and given the circumstances I think I'd prefer your company."

He then began to slowly walk back to where he had stationed his mountain horse, eventually finding it and slinging the shortbows he'd found to its saddle. He pondered the fallen pines and the true scale of the devastation one last time before crossing the large clearing again, making his way to the other side where he would look for Teagan. Along the way, he found a quiver of mithril-tipped arrows, which he gathered as well before finally regrouping with Teagan on the other side. He motioned for them to begin their journey.

"Teagan, do you remember when we fought on the slopes in The Reach? You saved my life that day, as I recall."
 
Teagan would remember his promise of a favor. In truth, they would usually give into the other, but she did like having a blanket favor he could not argue with her one. That favor did not keep her from cursing him back to the horse. She had indeed grown soft on him and their relationship was completely different when they were alone versus when they were around the other other Officers or the troops.

Once she had mounted the borrowed horse, she walked the horse besides his and let her eyes scan as they rode. She was not going to let them be caught unawares if anything decided to attack them.

"I have saved your life a few times, Gerard. I believe that's the real reason you promoted me. You knew no one else would keep your ass from dying." She knew the real reason because she was the second best archer in the organization and she had unmatched leadership skills. She could still give him a healthy dose of shit though.
 
"Quite frankly Teagan, I don't think there's anyone else I can count on."

Gerard remembered that day clearly; it was when he knew for sure Teagan would need to be his second in command.

"Gnolls, I think it was. We were convinced their crossbows couldn't reach us up those slopes, but there was that small path behind the ridge where they crept us behind us. One of them would have gotten me in the back of the head if you hadn't noticed..."

As they began to climb up another slope, this time to one of the lower mountains of The Spine, he could see the landscape in its full beauty; snow tipped mountains and lush, green pine forests laid out before them like a sea of green, with mountains acting like islands. Somewhere in that sea of green, the Lindwurm lurked. But how would they find it?

"Even so, our bows took their toll on the most of the gnolls that tried to get up to us. I counted seventeen that day."

Perhaps it was the residual trauma from seeing his fallen comrades, or perhaps it was the vista that lay before them, or even just that Teagan was his only real friend in this world who could keep up with his archery and thereby understood him, but he began to feel more introspective and pensive.

"Teagan, if you don't mind me asking--what is your plan with the Brotherhood? Do you want my position someday? Do you ever plan on anything else?"

He asked, of course, because he was in his mid-30's and had no family to speak of, and no real legacy other than some of the changes he'd made to the guild. Despite being in a position of relative importance, something about all this was putting his life in a new perspective, and he wondered if Teagan was experiencing something similar.
 
Teagan stopped her constant scanning to look at Gerard. She narrowed her eyes. Had he lost his mind? It was a possibility, she supposed, he was acting a little strange today. It could all be related to losing so many people in one contract.

"No, I do not want your job. You have too much paperwork and being nice to people. I like where I am," her voice held a hint of amusement. "As for my future, I plan to have kids someday maybe. Raise them within the halls to carry on the legacy of the Monroes."

She had no prospects though. She would need someone who understood her life and accepted that their children would be in the Brotherhood. Also, that they would take her last name. It was tradition to pass the Monroe name down despite the gender of the last Monroe.

"Where is this coming from, Gerard?"
 
He chuckled a bit at her oversimplification of his role as Headmaster.
"It's not all paperwork and being a kiss-ass," he said. "Most days I'm free of obligations, except when the guild is called to fight in a war. I spend most of the days you don't see me practicing my shot. I've been working on a book, too, maybe something that will be of use in helping future generations, a sort of treatise on the art of archery itself. But I'm not much of a writer, and I feel like I can't quite get out what I want our future Brothers and Sisters to know about the way of the bow."

He had listened to her speak about wanting children. It was something he'd wondered about his own life, but his high position kept him awake at night sometimes wondering if something so simple as having children was appropriate for someone like him, the living legend of the "greatest human archer who ever lived." His children might forever live in the shadow of his own accomplishments, and that didn't seem fair to Gerard.

"Legacy... what is our legacy, Teagan? Some call me the greatest archer among men. I don't know that that's even true, and I think the elves are better still than I am. Maybe they will remember me, but what does the memory of a great archer do, exactly? I can't see past the barrier of my own death."

He gave her a smile, a real one, if a gentle one.

"I am glad to hear that you are content with your station. Thank you for indulging me. I feel you are the only one in this world I can share these thoughts with, and not be seen as lesser for the weakness it may imply. I am but a man, who can shoot a bow well, and I think the Brotherhood should always welcome such individuals."
 
"Well, shit, I might take your job after all. No one said it was that cushy. I don't get enough time to practice and I do get tired of dealing with people most days." She chuckled. She did love her position and the training she got to do everyday with her men and women.

"They say men because you aren't better than me," she teased. He was the only person she ever relaxed around and let her personality shine through with. She trusted him with every fiber of her being, even if she was the one who saved his life.

"I may be the end of the Monroe legacy. I doubt anyone would want to live this life or let their kids live it unless they were in the Brotherhood already." She shrugged. She did not need kids, she had her troops.
 
Gerard thought for a moment before replying.

"You are right, of course. Most people aren't a mercenary by choice. I think the Brotherhood was meant to be something more than that, but we've never really made that step before. Members come and members go, and most retire by the time they're as old as we are. But you and I have duties, and our brothers and sisters count on us to fulfill them. Which, is why we're here in the first place."

He was about to say more, but they broke through the treeline and were approaching the mountain now. Before them they could see the sea of trees more clearly, with a small mist rolling over parts of the treetops. It was truly a breathtaking sight, and one even Gerard was hard-pressed to ignore, so he didn't, until finally he turned back to Teagan.

"For what it's worth, I think you have done your family name honor, and the member of The Thirty I know you are descended from. You have surpassed all of them. If you were to retire tomorrow, barring the Wurm, it would be in honor, and you could live that other life. What's keeping you in the Brotherhood, Teagan? I ask myself that question more and more lately, making small promises to myself that something like my book will be that "one last thing" before I can go. I had a life before the Brotherhood, of course, but then again... It's hard to think of a life without it."

He hadn't forgotten her comment about being a better shot than him, of course, but it was a dark day and he was still unsettled from what they had seen, and was feeling quite sincere. In his questioning, of course, he was thinking about what Teagan wanted and felt her words exactly; after all, the Guild had perhaps not only gotten in the way of their own independent pursuit of a "normal" life, but he'd known that it would be so convenient if he had wanted her, and she him. She wouldn't have to leave the Brotherhood that way, and she could continue her family's history. But there were years of battle experience between them, and the natural separation that came with him being his direct superior, or previously, her equal in rank. Convenient didn't always mean that it was actionable, and Gerard had always been cautious about indulging easier feelings. Perhaps too cautious.

They were alone now, perhaps now more than ever in the isolated part of the Spine they had traversed to. It was perhaps the only time they might get to speak so freely to one another.
 
Teagan was enjoying the breathtaking view. She liked being outside and in nature. She liked not being attacked as she enjoyed the view. It was welcomed.

She looked at Gerard and thought for a second. She didn't really need to think because the answer was easy. "It's the only life I know, Gerard. I was born in the chapter house, raised there, learned to fight there, rose through the ranks there. I don't know anything else..." Her voice trailed off as she turned her face away from him. Emotions she didn't like to show had started to etch her face.

"I have no family except my father. I have no friends except you. I was created for one thing and this is it." Her voice betrayed her emotions as slight bitterness crept out. It was hard to think of what her life could have been when she didn't know anything else.
 
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Gerard at once saw that she was feeling the same existential crisis he had been perhaps for years; perhaps she had felt it sooner, but this was the first time they had discussed it.

"I think that if the Brotherhood didn't exist, that you would still have found a way to greatness, Teagan. You are not the Brotherhood, nor is the Brotherhood you. You've earned your position, just as I have..."

"...For me, perfecting the shot is happiness. Every moment I am not shooting, it must be for a good reason, I should think. What is your happiness, Teagan?"

He spotted a small outcropping on the mountainside they could make their way to, in order to set up camp. He pointed to it, and urged his horse to move there.

"Your worth is clear to all who meet you, I think. No one else could lead the Brotherhood like you do, and even if they could, they wouldn't be, well, you."

He had perhaps exhausted his more eloquent phrasing, an eloquence which was rare for him anyway, and he could tell some kind of doubt clouded her mind. He'd known her for long enough now that he could sometimes pick up on those kinds of things, the small expressions she'd make for different feelings, the kinds of details only someone as detail-oriented as an archer might pick up.
 
What was her happiness? Teagan urged her horse towards the outcropping that Gerard had pointed out. "I enjoy training the new people, especially the young ones. They are so eager and so hopeful. It makes me think of myself."

She shrugged as they rode on. Once they arrived at their camping area, she dismounted the horse. She pulled two sugar cubes from her saddlebag and held one to her horse, who eagerly ate it. She then went and held the other out to Gerards horse who did the same.

She began pulling her pack off of the mare and she paused to look at Gerard. "Thank you for your kind words. I needed them today. I feel like I have failed so many."
 
He could tell the grief from earlier was probably starting to settle in, judging by her expression and her shift in tone from concerned to worried. Gerard had some experience in comforting new recruits, but with Teagan it was different; he knew better than to patronize her about these things. He hatched a plan he thought might help take her mind off of things.

"You couldn't have predicted what happened here. I don't think any of us could." He paused, looking at her and offering a gentle smile. "I'm going to gather some firewood--it gets cold and dark in the mountains, and we will need that heat."

He took off down the slope again, and made his way to the treeline, giving a quick look back to Teagan before entering the forest properly. He noted some firewood here and there, but then pulled out his knife and began looking for trees that they could have a decent line of sight to from the ridge. On such trees he carved out a simple large "X", big enough he hoped that they could see it from the ridge. He then gathered the firewood he set out to and returned to the ridge, wondering what Teagan was thinking.
 
"I know that I couldn't predict it and that I couldn't have changed anything but it still hurts knowing they're gone."

Gerard departed to get firewood and she pulled his pack from his horse as well. She brought them both over to where over hung would cover them. She started to pull out the bed rolls and spread them out.

She enjoyed camping and this was the first time in a long time that she was going to do it alone with Gerard. She wondered fleetingly if he would let her cuddle up to him if she got cold during the night.

She shook herself out of her thoughts. No, they had been down that path once before and it had not gone any further than one night. He was her superior after all.

As Gerard returned to camp, she smiled warmly at him. "Enough firewood for dinner and through the night?"
 
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As he returned, Gerard nodded upon seeing that Teagan had set up their campsite for them. He returned her smile--she seemed to be calmer than before. But they both had a warrior's composure, where they might show confidence, but inside they were feeling something much worse. This was a strange situation, though; Gerard felt the horror of that darkly scene loom over him again, and his countenance shrunk for a moment.

He almost forgot to reply. "Yes, this should be enough. I think we prepared enough with other supplies for a few days' stay here until we need to head back... hopefully enough time to find the Wurm."

Trying not to let the mood hang on that last part, he quickly followed up: "Do you like the cold? It's been a while since we've been out like this. I can get more firewood if you need." He glanced back to the forest. "Fancy a shooting contest, by the way? I've marked 10 trees we should be able to shoot. Winner gets to sleep closer to the fire?"

He smiled, this time genuinely. As he did so, he was reminded of that night--not that he could forget, of course--so many years ago now that it almost seemed like a dream more than a memory. It was similarly cold, and they had been on a scouting mission together not too dissimilar from this one, minus the massacre of course... He'd still look at her sometimes and think about that night all the same. It was hard not to, and it wasn't hard to see why--she was his equal in marksmanship, if not better. She impressed him and that admiration is why he immediately promoted her as soon as he became Headmaster. But even back then, it was hard to expand upon their feelings, for they were in the business of killing and that didn't lend itself too well to what they may have been feeling.

Maybe it was just a passing thing. Maybe. He grabbed one of the shortbows he'd taken from their fallen comrades, not wanting to use the Everbow for a simple shooting contest.

"This is how I will honor them," he said.
 
Teagan glared over Gerard, he knew damn well that she did not like the cold one single iota. "The cold is terrible and you know I hate it!" She laughed out. Maybe he had forgotten how much she hate the cold after all. She had already planned on getting their bedrolls as close together as she could for warmth.

"You know how to treat a woman," she smiled and grabbed her bow and quiver. She was always down for a shooting contest and she knew that he would let her sleep closer to the fire no matter who won, but she enjoyed any chance to best him. Greatest human archer her ass, she thought.

She sobered when he picked up one of the shortbows and she nodded. She put her bow back down gently and grabbed one of the other shortbows. She ran her fingers along the wood, thinking about the last time it was held. The last time it was shot in a panic to save a humans life from a monster. One of her soldiers had held this bow as he laid there dying.

Everything hit her at once and slowly lowered herself to the ground. She couldn't do it. She couldn't be strong anymore. Sobs rocked through her body as she pulled her knees up to her chest. She had not cried in so long and she had never cried in front of anyone before.
 
  • Cry
Reactions: Gerard Montefort
At first Gerard was quite eager for the contest; he hadn't seen Teagan shoot in quite a while, and he wanted to know if he was beginning to slip. This notion of competition evaporated, however, as he watched the stalwart commander of the Brotherhood slip to the ground and curl into a ball. Not once had he ever seen her like this, not for any failure, and not even when her mother died.

"Oh, Teagan..." he said, frowning. This wasn't his area of expertise at all; the shooting competition was supposed to be what helped in the first place. So, instead, he simply sat next to her, his eyes roaming across the horizon as he gently set his own bow on the ground. Without thinking, he then pulled her close to him, her head in his chest and his arms wrapped securely around her waist and shoulders. He said nothing, and simply held her firmly, but not too tightly.

He felt that pain, too. It was the pain they all felt when their comrades died, no matter how noble or pointless the death. It was too much to bear at times, and he knew Teagan was just showing she had reached that limit, too.

He thought that she felt so much more delicate like this; her normally strong and confident attitude starkly contrasted how she looked now. Of all the members of the guild Gerard had failed before, he hoped he could at least provide Teagan with some small comfort in the face of the terrible happening they had stumbled upon today.
 
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