Snippet #1748075

Theron remained silent and still as the young healer explained the situation to him. It wasn’t actually the kind of information he had been hoping for that she provided, but during his years away from the land he had learned to deal with such losses. His old, renegaded self would probably have killed Annie outright by now. Annie eventually took her leave as she seemed to have been summoned by someone else outside the tent.

Lockwood was on his way out when he noticed something laying on the nearby bed; The note Annie had been going through when he had entered her tent. He was not a much of a curios person nor did he want to have anything to do with Annie’s personal life. However, if it had any kind of information vital to him, he would be a fool to give up on this golden opportunity. No one was around to see him, so sneaking was pointless. Lockwood moved up to the bed and picked up the note from the bed and let his eyes fall upon it.

The note simple described a certain patience wounds and although this was nothing important in Lockwood’s books, he noticed that these were some very strange wounds; No animals in all of Valcrest had such large claws, if this note even described the wounds right that is. The assassin started to ponder on the possibility if one of Adrians large track-predators had been sent on its way into Valcrest with a band of scouts. If this was true, it was bad news for all of them indeed. That would mean Adrian was scouring Valcrest, locating its weaknesses and its strengths and plan accordingly to them.

After a short while of thinking, Lockwood felt he was wasting time and decided that he would look into this matter after visiting both Blackpond and Newhaven; he had to know how things looked for the the cities and mark out possible enemies that would stand in the way of his plans. Theron walked out of Annies tent and was just out in time to catch her walking into another tent across camp. The rest of his company were swift to gather around him.

”Report.” Lockwood ordered and looked upon his trusted companions.

”The Leader of these healers, Annie, is currently meeting the leader over the Assassins in this land; A man named Sean. He wants to start a war with the mercenaries out in the desert.” Ace reported as he looked off in the distance towards the actual plains, ”Allison and Sean were at each others throats earlier and I’m certain that this hostility between them can be used to--”

”Leave Allison out of this.” Lockwood commanded swiftly with his usual calm and respectful tone, ”She has nothing to do with this... Yet.” He continued. Ace tried to protest, but his words was silenced by Theron’s hand as his gaze moved over to Akida and Barca. The Orc simple shock his head, stating that he had nothing new to report to his leader. However, Akida seemed more jumpy than usually.

”Master, look what I just discovered!” She almost shouted in pure ecstasy as she all of the sudden disappeared in front of their eyes, leaving leafs from the ground soaring where she had once been standing. Ace took a step backwards in shock while Barca remained still, all white in his face. Theron didn’t move a single muscle at what had just happened. It didn’t take long at all for Akida to finally return in a sweeping move, out of nowhere. However, she had clearly left a trail behind her after traveling through the plains in that kind of speed.

”I can run fast!” She shouted, but quickly lowered her voice when she saw how Ace was looking at her. He gave her the usual ‘people can hear you, you know‘ look. All of the sudden she couldn’t feel her arms anymore. It was as if all the bones in them had turned to liquid and all that was left was her uncontrolled muscles and nerves.

”That’s a side-effect to your new found enlightenment. I knew that there was a slight possibility that one or more of you would receive this, but I wasn’t certain. Until now.”

”What do I do now?! I can’t feel my arms!” She sobbed with teary eyes. Theron grabbed her by her shoulders and began to lead her towards the exit of the camp. He nodded at Ace and Barca before leaving, signaling for them to get the horses. He walked with her for a bit and started to explain to her how alignments worked, how side-effects work and how he could help her improve this new found ability. In the end, she was no longer on the border of crying. More like happier than ever.

”So I can use this whenever I want to?” She asked as Ace and Barca approached them in the distance with their horses.

”Yes and no; You can use it to all your hearts content, but if you use it too much the side-effects will become stronger and more severe. Who knows what will happen to you then?” Theron explained before taking a grip of his horses saddle and mounted it. Akida stopped to ask questions and jumped onto her horse. Her left arm was still not functioning, but her right arm had come back.

”Where are we heading now? Shouldn’t we look for the book?” Barca asked as they began to move out from the healers camp on top of their horses.

”No, it will come to us when the time is right. For now, we ride to Blackpond.” And with that, they rode off in full speed north. Theron could feel that terrible headache returning to him in the back of his head and the words from Lena’s letter came back to him:

”I believe you have been away long enough to be feeling the changes in the energy flow for yourself right now. If not, believe my words, you will feel them shortly. If you feel them, then others will feel it as well, keep your eyes open for those signs, they should become more apparent to you than to others, since you have been out of the Land for so long.”

----------------
[Wolfpack Camp]

Avius had taken a longer nap than usual because of some horrible nightmares before awakening, realizing that it had all been just that; Dreams. After walking down to the lake and taken care of his dirty suit, Avius had made his way across the camp to get something to eat. The food wasn’t good, but at least he wasn’t starving and had enough energy now to deal with all the problems the world would throw at him before this day was over.

Seeing as Sean took charge of most things around camp and only summoned Avius if a decision had to be made for the entire clan or if he needed his second in-commands counsel on some dire matters, Avius had lots of time for himself. He had yet to find a recruit suitable for him, and he guessed he would never do so either since he could be very picky about such things.

After having spent a well earned day in the training grounds, training with his quarterstaff and some new moves he had been working on with his powers, an active disturbed him while he meditated. Even though Sean was away and had moved all responsibility over to Avius, he thought the clan would at least be able to handle itself for one freaking day without turning to him for aid. He had been wrong.

”Avius, Sir!” The active shouted as he rushed into the training grounds. Avius felt calm after such a relaxing session of meditation and so, he remained calm throughout the conversation. ”Relax, Wolf,” He began and waved his hand at the man before him, ”Take a deep breath and then tell me, slowly if you may, what’s going on.”

The active took a few deep breaths and also gave Avius a few weird looks at the same time; What had Avius been smoking or drinking to get him, the infamous punisher as actives and recruits had started to call him, into such a calm state? ”It’s Crystal! Crystal Rivers! The traitor is in the graveyard.” The active explained before being dismissed by Avius.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the graveyard and when he did, he saw Crystal sitting on a grave with her own name on it, playing flute. Avius had always been weak to music, but this wasn’t the time for him to get all emotional and dream about a better world to a couple of beautiful tones from some flute. When Crystal noticed him, the beautiful music ended and it was like Avius had been pulled out from some sort of trance. His attention shifted towards Crystal who sat in front of him and before anything could be done or said between them, Avius casually pulled out his quarterstaff and placed it a bit away from him, yet still close enough for him to reach.

”Crystal Rivers. What brings a woman of your caliber to the Wolfpack’s cemetery, hmm?” He asked with a respectful tone, least he wanted to start trouble for no good reason. He was sure that this would turn into violence if she didn’t have a good explanation for her being there, but Avius wasn’t about to force a confrontation upon her. He didn’t want to be the bad guy here. Not yet anyway. Dusk glittered in the distance as the sun started to say one of its first good byes to the world.