Ira's Story

Ira sat in the wagon that reminded her so much of the ones that she was so familiar with as a gypsy. Only this one was gutted out and empty. There was a small satchel near the door with basic things in it such as a couple canteens water, a few days worth of food that wouldn't easily go bad. The guards driving the wagon had the map of the neighboring country to the Empire of Navarre with them.

Solemnly, she sat with her hands in her lap, waiting for the wagon ride to end and her exile to begin. She knew they had been following the road that went through Allest Woods that led to the neighboring country but she was sure they had long passed into the new country's land. They didn't want her to be able to find her way back. Judging by the occasional branches that scratched the side of the windowless wagon, they were in another wood she was unfamiliar with. If recent changes to the world were anything to go by, this wasn't a safe idea. Even Allest Woods had become more dangerous to frequent without knowledge of a blade or weaponry. At one point she could remember the most lethal thing in the woods had been an occasional bear. Now the world had started to succumb to the poison that had slowly caused everything to become rotten and deadly.

The wagon stopped and she heard the guards talking through the wooden wall behind her. She didn't understand what they were saying but they sounded frightened.

"Stupid soldiers..." she muttered hearing them argue - probably about where they were. She thought about trying magic to melt through the manacles around her wrist chaining her to the wall of the wagon but she'd done that before and given herself severe burns. If her guards had any kind of sympathy they would have at east given her one of the canteens so she wouldn't be so dehydrated. As her captors' arguing became more urgent, she quietly spoke words in the druid language urging molecules of water out of the air into her hands which she held cupped in front of her. She carefully drank the little handful of water trying to keep her chains from clinking around as she moved. It was futile and her captors heard her like they always did.

The fighting stopped and she heard one come around the wagon, his armor making clinking noise as he walked. He unlocked the door and looked inside. By no Ira had dropped her hands back into her lap and sat looking uninterested at the guard as he looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze.

"What?" she asked with an irritable edge to her voice. "I'm not going anywhere." To Emphasize her point she held up her arms showing that she was still manacled to the wagon. Seeming satisfied with this, the guard shut the door and locked it. There wasn't even a scream before she heard blood splatter against the outside of the wagon. The other guard shouted in fear, calling whatever had caused the death of his comrade a monster in an accent that belonged to the Nation-State of Tannon. It wasn't more than a moment before she heard a sickening ripping noise and then silence. She heard movement outside the cart and a noise that could only be whatever it was dragging one of the bodies away. Then more silence.

Ira dared not move and even kept her breathing shallow for fear that it would come back. But she heard nothing else. Then it dawned on her that she was still chained to the wall of the wagon with the satchel of food and water completely out of her reach.

'And the trip gets better and better...' she thought contemplating whether it was better to die of starvation or brutal death by a monster living in the forest.

Delivery-Lady Rebecca noticed some sort of commotion was beginning to bubble to the band of humans she hastily began sprinting away from, hearing another pair of voices, one human, one who's eerie childish tones seemed very much non human, but enjoyed being in the form of one. For some reason the latter of the additional strangers gave Rebecca a great feeling of nervousness, and decided to pick up the pace, bounding through the forest in an uneasy mood, carefully keeping two of her palms atop her sack of post to avoid losing any precious deliverable items of the good public, happily oblivious of the humans and super humans having been given their mission of saving Tera.

After having gained some surprising amount of distance from the 'possible enemy's of the postal service', the lumbering, multi-limbed, lady lessened her pace to, once again, a relaxed stroll. Though she thought she had managed to avoid walking away from contact with humans, her nostrils were suddenly assaulted with the thick and pungent stench of death, the path ahead of her reeking of the smell, to which she sighed in slight frustration.
She followed after the fragrance of lost life when she came upon the mutilated corpses of a pair of guardsmen, it appeared, as well as seeming they weren't local either. The dead bodies surrounded by their own blood, seeming to have been torn to tatters from whatever beast, or monster, came through here, some having splattered against a wooden, windowless wagon. One looked as if he was sliced entirely in half. These two recently deceased foreign guards were not of much interest to Rebecca however. She saw plenty of corpses on her travels, sometimes being the cause of them herself if need be. After all, neither of them were carrying post.

What did seem to catch her eye however was the obvious wagon, with no way of peering into to discover it's contents. A sign of wanted privacy, and perhaps, because of it being post that is kept from the eyes of anyone other than it's recipient. Rebecca's maw filled with molars twisted into a hopeful grin, as she tried to open the door to the wagon, but felt some amount of resistance against her, to which the mutated postal worker grumbled; "Someone locked it. Must of been important post indeed. Though truly, all post is important. Anyways, time to break in."
Rebecca lifted the post box she carried up in the air, clasping it with both hands as if it was a mighty hammer, and struck down at the door, using her inhuman strength to repeatedly smash it into splintered planks, before clumsily stumbling into the carriage to find a lone blonde human woman, chained down to restrain her from escaping.
This puzzled Rebecca immensely, and also making her greatly disappointed that there was not even a scrap of a letter for her to deliver.
She leaned over to the chained woman curiously though with hints of suspicion, and asked; "Who the hell are you then, dearie?"

Ira was trying to reach for the bag near the door of the wagon. Even stretching her arms above her head and stretching her legs out, the bag was still feet away from her. She was considering dealing with the pain and melting through at least one of the cuffs when heard something moving around outside the wagon and froze.

She cautiously moved to the back of the wagon again and sat on the bench. She listened to the movements outside the wagon and then heard a voice. She bleakly wondered if there was 2 somethings or someones out there before the door was smashed in and splinters flew everywhere.

Ira threw up her hands to block herself from the splinters throwing up a glyph to shield her body. She dropped the glyph when everything settled and looked at the mutated individual who'd broken open the door.

"Ira," she said shakily as she took in the individual. By the voice, Ira determined it was a woman, though her appearance did not make Ira feel safe. "I'm a prisoner being exiled from the country Navarre. Who are you?" she asked with more sureness in her voice than she felt.

Rebecca's eyes narrowed in suspicion for a few moments, unfamiliar with the country she spoke of and was wondering if it was a real place. She certainly was a prisoner though, Rebecca had no doubt about that as she took a look at the chain that held Ira, running her fingers across it cautiously. She then noticed out of the corner of her eye a bag that was knocked aside from her noisy entrance to the wagon, to which she carefully edged backwards towards, until she picked up gently, as if one slight tremor would cause it to shatter into pieces.

"Ira you say? Hmmmm don't think I have any post for you i'm afraid. I am just Delivery-lady Rebecca, nothing more, nothing less," the mutant replied; "Merely your run of the mill postal worker, delivery parcels and letters to their destination. Don't suppose you have anything to be delivered, dearie?"
Half way through her words, Rebecca had already begun rummaging through the bag, pushing objects aside with her fingers while she searched for any post, before adding to her conversation with Ira; "How is this country of Navarre? The name sounds familiar. Might need to send a parcel there." She then grunted in frustration as she was unable to find a single letter, and grumpily plonked the bag in front of Iris, as if she was an infant sulking, her many fingers drumming restlessly one the wooden floor of the carriage.

"Navarre is being torn apart by war," she said solemnly. "There are eight Kingdoms. Three are desperate to stay neutral while the other five are fighting with each other trying to claim one another and erradicate magic users... I was a gypsy living in the Kingdom of Sardisia - which was supposed to be neutral!" Ira jerked on her chains and stopped talking, catching herself before she started ranting about how terrible her life had been since then. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Do you have a way to free me? The men who were transporting me were killed. I don't know what happened to the keys," said Ira holding one of her manacles in her hand and rotating her wrist in it to alleviate the pain that was building up from being chained for so long.

Rebecca listened to Ira with mixed interest, and seemed to be making conversation more out of politeness than anything, and commented in reply; "I see, how unfortunate, seems you country is greatly in trouble, i'm sorry to hear that. Not to mention deliveries are always trickier in times of war. You also have my condolence son your kingdom too dearie, terrible stuff has been happening around you it seems, bless."

She then took a few moments of deep though when Ira asked to be freed from her shackles, still not entirely free from suspicion of the woman, but she seemed pretty defenseless and harmless overall. Could all be a trick however, though if it was, Rebecca had no idea how it could be. Rebecca then placed two of her palms on her sack of postage once again before speaking.
"Well, I don't see the harm in freeing you dearie, and those guards you mentioned are certainly dead. One was even sliced in half! My oh my, the world is getting more and more violent. Anyways Ira, I don't think I can break those shackles without hurting you, but I can do the next best thing, get that chain free.", Rebecca babbled conversationally, but it was obvious she beginning to have her mind wonder, mostly to wanting to continue with her delivery work. Nonetheless she placed another pair of hands on the chains that confined her newly found acquaintance, and gripped it firmly, beginning to attempt to pull them from the wood it was connected to, the very same wood groaning in protests of Rebecca's struggles.

Ira watched as the wood began to splinter around the bolt that was hammered into the wall of the wagon. When the wood finally gave way, Ira threw up the same shield glyph she'd thrown up before when Rebecca had broken through the door - only this time she threw it up in front of Rebecca too.

She was glad she did as the chain snapped back and would have hit Rebecca as it flew back from where it had been secured. Instead, it hit the strange lighted circle and dropped to the floor without injuring either of them.

Ira dropped the glyph and looked at Rebecca to assess how her reaction to her easy use of magic. She was prepared for a negative reaction like the ones she has received back in Navarre.

As the wood of the carriage finally teared away, allowing the chain to whip out into freedom, Rebecca was met with the puzzling sight of it striking what seemed to be shield of light in midair, thankfully avoiding causing injury to herself and making the chain bounced off harmlessly and slump uselessly to the location it was ripped from, but left the sudden new discovery a baffling one, and one that raised Rebecca's suspicions much higher.

She saw the human woman, though now apparent she was not an ordinary one, look at her to see her reaction, as if calculating on how things would unfold via the mutant postal worker's reaction. Rebecca turned to Ira from her befuddled state for a few moments, and simply told her; "One of them super humans are you? Well guess some less than friendly human folks probably was the ones to drive you out then? Nuisance they are, driving you out when your trying to hand them a parcel from their great auntie. Honestly, it's as if they want to hurt the post. Seem a lot quieter when you pin them down and force them to accept their delivery. Thank you kindly for protecting my deliverable items, oh and me of-course."
She gave a quick careful curtsy, grabbing lightly at the edges of her jacket as she bent her knees, before turning to leave the carriage, it was time to get back to work.
"Nice meeting you Ira, but unless you have a parcel or a letter to send, I have some work left to do. So busy, and the post never rests for long!", she told the woman in a cheery farewell, clambering out of the carriage before adding; "It's a bit of a way to walk to Hemingway after-all.", and gave a curt wave of goodbye with one of her further back arms.

Ira bent down and collected the loose chains hanging off of her wrists into her arms. She went over to the knapsack by the door and opened it up. Rebecca had disorganized everything looking through it earlier but Ira sorted it and then repacked it.

After that was settled, she sat down in the doorway of the back of the wagon and laid the chains out. A few links out from the manacles, she summoned fire and melted an opening in the link. She repeated it for the other side. Now she had only a few links on each side instead of several feet.

Standing up she looked around trying to determine where to go... She looked up through the canopy of the trees but the branches were too dense for her to try and navigate that way. Consigning herself to finding a more clear area to get her bearings, she set off down a little deer trail. Deer liked sleeping in fields so hopefully, she would find a small clearing that she could orient herself in.

Ira was walking for a while but found that the forest didn't seem to get any thicker nor thinner, just constant foliage coverage. Thankfully, she knew how to move without making much more noise than the noise a small animal might make, having learned to do that at a young age. She sighed as she came to the end of the deer trail that led to an area of the woods occupied by a small thicket of berry bushes. Seeing the berries reminded her that she was hungry and she put her hand to her stomach as it made a gurgle in protest to the lack of food. Not recognizing the berries, she couldn't trust them to eat so she circled the edge of the thicket and found a low hanging tree branch. Thankfully, it wasn't a type of evergreen oozing sap and she lithely hopped up to reach the branch and climbed up further above it until she found a comfortable fork to sit on.

She sat straddling the branch and crossed her legs underneath it so she wouldn't slip off and pulled the backpack off and set it in front of her. She held her hand out and summoned a small orb of light then slowly pulled her hand away so it floated, a small dim light hovering in front of her over the backpack. It allowed her to look in the pack and pull out a canteen. Parched, she unscrewed the lid off the round metal container and drank a few mouthfulls of water. She screwed the lid back on and slung the canteen over her shoulder by the strap attached to it then went back to searching the pack.

She found another canteen that was at the bottom, a large wedge of cheese, a map of Navarre - 'No use here...' she thought upon seeing it - two small pouches: one filled with assorted dried fruits and the other filled with sticks of smoked venison - a large knife that looked more suitable for hunting than anything else and a half a loaf of bread that smelled like it was starting to go stale, wrapped in a cloth.

She pulled out the cheese and cut off a piece for herself with the almost too large knife, along with a piece of bread. She folded the cheese into the bread and ate that a little too quickly. Ira smiled to herself after eating and made sure everything was replaced in the pack in a way that the crushable items - like the bread and cheese - wouldn't be smooshed. There was a small pocket on the front of the pack that she had initially assumed was empty but as she pushed things around, she felt something through the canvas material.

Gently touching the light and moving it closer to the pack so she could see better, she opened the front pocket and frowned as she pulled out a small envelope with 'Courtesy of: Regal Withernorth' written on the front with the name of a town or city she didn't recognize underneath. It was sealed with Navarre's country postmark.

Curious as to it's contents, she felt it with her fingers, not feeing more than paper inside except for a small bump in the bottom corner. She toyed with the idea of opening it a moment then jumped at the sound of something moving around in the woods nearby. As the sounds of night died to silence, she tucked the envelope back into it's pocket silently. She heard the sound again and willed her little floating light to go out as fear enveloped her. She looked around almost blindly in the dark with wide eyes while she silently tried to reassure herself that whatever it was wouldn't get to her where she was in the tree. Still, her heart felt like it was going to pound it's way out of her chest.

Having recently gone through the wondrous events of knocking over a tree due to being convinced there was a spy inside it, having killed an aggressive stag with hoofed ape hands and dual heads for a spot of dinner, scared off a lost pair of twins in leaderhosen, and finally questioned a rather suspicious looking rabbit, Rebecca realized she getting close to what seemed to be another stray human.
At first the post-apocalypse, pungent, permanently mutated, postal worker was about to simply try to avoid contact yet again, but she realized this one seemed pretty familiar. In fact was that-? No, it surely was- My goodness it was! Rebecca was astounded that she somehow managed to run into the carriage girl, Ira wasn't it?, once again! Had Rebecca gotten lost and ended up circling round? Hmmm, nope the carriage wasn't there but something that was caught Rebecca's eye. She saw a letter in Ira's hand, seeming to have been originally come from the very same small bag that was in the carriage earlier, judging from the fact it was on Ira's lap.

This simply must be investigated further, a letter that was hidden from Rebecca? She simply would not let such a thing slide! Unless Ira had merely found the letter just now, then, fair enough to be honest. Either way, a letter was not being delivered, and it almost made Rebecca physically ill at the thought of it. She decided to approach the girl.
Rebecca began to creep quietly through the bushes as she could, but naturally due to her immense girth, it caused quite a stirring, alarming Ira to place the letter back into the bag, to which Rebecca merely shrugged and stood upright, walking out in the open, declaring and chattering to Ira; "Why hello again dearie! My, my what a funny old twist of fate bumping into you again! Still out in the woods are you? Deary me, you certainly should be getting somewhere safer. By the way, that was a nice looking little letter you were holding just then. Funny, I don't remember you mentioning you had one. Oh well, best hand it here then Ira, only right for your local friendly delivery-lady to have a peep to see if everything is in order. After all, i'm going to deliver it for you."
Rebecca outstretched one of her palms to the young woman, the last spoken sentence seeming more like a firm, decisive fact than a polite suggestion, with one of her eye lids twitching with hinted stress. Rebecca really wanted the letter.

Ira relaxed slightly at the sight of Rebecca being the source of the sizable rustling in the forest. Carefully, she summoned the small glowing light back and climbed down the tree, the light following her and bobbing slightly like a small, baseball sized balloon.

"I'm a gypsy and very used to being in the woods," she said simply. She did not retrieve the letter from the pocket she'd replaced it in though. "I would like to deliver the letter as well, but I also would like to find a way out of the woods. Perhaps we could strike a deal?"

She saw the desperate want to claim the letter and deliver it in Rebecca's eyes. She knew she'd have to be cautious so she didn't tip the scale and get attacked by the only nice individual she'd met since passing over the border.

"If you would like to deliver the letter, I shall carry it and you can show me how to get out of the wood. Then, once we locate the individual it's meant for, I shall hand it to you and you may deliver it. Does that sound reasonable?" she asked. She also prepared the shield spell again in her mind prepared for an unsavory response from Rebecca.

Rebecca grunted in discomfort at the sudden appearance of the strange floating orb of light, rubbing her eyes for a few moments, and leaving her to hear Ira's words, which she admittedly wasn't ecstatic about. The gypsy woman asked to lead her out of the forest, and into the next settlement, which coincidentally was Hemingway, the town she was aiming for nonetheless, and then pay her in rewards with the letter, somewhat. Although this was blatant obstruction of the post, something that Rebecca didn't take kindly to whatsoever, she had protected her deliverables before, and with the hints of desperation in her voice, though in truth it could be the mutant postal worker playing favoritism, she digressed and decided to give the young lady a chance, perhaps even ending up grooming her to also work in the glorious postal service and see the error in her ways. The grinding of her teeth and the clenching fists weren't exactly showing her confidence in that however.

"Well, although it is thoroughly against the law to obstruct postal workers from their duty, I will make a single exception in this case, i'll help you wonder over to Hemmingway dearie, that's probably the nearest settlement. Your lucky I was going to head their anyways Ira, I might have said no otherwise!" She replied, with obvious strain for politeness in her voice.
"So where is this letter addressed to my dear? Anywhere nice? It would be funny if it was to somewhere in Hemmingway wouldn't it?", she added curiously, waiting for Ira to get down from the tree, eager to get moving.

After what seemed like hours of walking, the bear heard a noise coming from his right. The bear gave a rough snort, and then it was gone. Standing in it's place was D'Varius, cloak pulled tight over his face, and he edged toward the noise. As he got closer, he ducked behind a tree, and saw who was talking. It was a young woman, who looked remarkably like some sort of runaway, and a monstrous being that loomed over her. The smaller of the two demonstrated some sort of power, and he overheard they were going to be accompanying one another on a trip to the next settlement.

"Go with them, you fool! It will get us closer to our targets."

D'Varius shuddered for a moment, but then stepped out and approached the two women. He held out one hand before hailing them. "Er, excuse me? Did you say you were going to the next settlement? I'm awfully lost..." He took his hood down to reveal his face, his shaggy brown hair hanging down to his eyebrows, and his blind eye widening and gazing from left to right, while his crimson red eye stayed focused on the two of them.

He bowed slightly. "My apologies, allow me to introduce myself, my name is...Mik'ael, it is a pleasure to meet the two of you." He continued to eye the two of them, a single bead of sweat rolling from his brow down the ridge of his nose. "I won't slow you down, I promise, in fact, I can be of some assistance if we run into any trouble. Your kindness would be most appreciated. What do you say?"

"The letter is addressed to a 'Regal Winternorth' with only 'The Troll Bar' written under his name," said Ira, frowning. She could only assume that the bar was reasonably well known otherwise the sender would have at least written the name of the town.

She was about to say something else to Rebecca when a man stepped out of the shadows of the trees. Taken completely off guard, she took step so she was standing in a way that she could easily run or throw up her glyph shield.

"Er, excuse me? Did you say you were going to the next settlement? I'm awfully lost..." he said before lowering his hood. Ira was taken aback by his appearance - the eye that didn't seem to focus on anything making her wonder if he could see out of it. His irises were red though which disturbed her but she tried not to show how she felt or that she could tell her could wield magic, though she could not tell how or in what capacity.

He bowed and introduced himself before promising to be more of an assistance in any potential trouble than a burden to them if they would allow him to accompany them to the town.

Ira didn't trust him, but she didn't trust almost anyone anymore. She put her hand on her chest and bowed her head slightly, a common formal gesture used by her clan. "I am Ira of the Crying Bird Clan," she said. She didn't know how well known her people might be in this country. In her country, almost all the nation-states surrounding hers had heard of her clan's history in the knowledge and use of Druidic Blood Magic. It used to cause fear in those who were ignorant of the knowledge that it hadn't been used in almost ten generations. She hoped, that if it was something someone in this country might know it would come across as she intended it to: as a warning. She tried to hide her mistrust and use of a tone that was a bit cold with a smile. She was used to acting like she was happy or enjoying herself and fell into the practice easily. "You would need to ask Rebecca if she would be willing to guide another traveler," she said gesturing to the laden postworker. "I'm a stranger to this country and also quite lost."

"The Troll Bar? Hmmmmm sounds familiar, but no idea where that is, i'm afraid. Not much time off since there isn't may of us posties about these days dearie. All work and no play i'm afraid.", the mutated delivery lady muttered to Ira conversationally, before turning her attention to a rustling in the bushes, seeming on edge.
Rebecca was at first startled, and then quickly defensive and suspicious of the newly arrived stranger, readying her post box to be used in a quick bludgeoning, her arm raised ready to strike while another pair clutched her delivery sack for protection.
Her eyes narrowed in distrust, as the tall, cloaked and robed man, focusing more on his face, the scalp of which was decorated with shaggy hair, after he pulled down the hood than his wishes to follow along to the next settlement, her eye's focusing on is single red eye, ignoring his other blind one.

She internally swore when Ira addressed the man that said he was called Mik'ael, saying it was her decision to choose if he was allowed to follow. Taking an angry sigh, Rebecca bellowed out; "Well how the hell could you help us Mr. Mik'ael? Or should I say enemy of the post? Trying to take my letters and parcels are you? Well, not as long as I live! You better prove your a friend of the postal service if you want to trudge along otherwise I got half a mind to smack you round the bonce!", baring her teeth viciously, giving clear signals she was highly disliking the strange,r mostly for the fact he was a mysterious stranger. She took a defensive pose, waiting as if Mik'ael would suddenly strike out.

He continued to give the two of them a warm smile, even as the big mutant readied to swing at him with some sort of weapon? "I can offer protection from anything we might run into in this forest. You see, I am affected by this land just as you are. Though my gift has not changed me as much, I still hold power that would come in handy for the likes of you." He took a step back, not wanting to see if she was really going to swing at him with her readied weapon. "I would have never come from my hiding if I had not wished to accompany you on good intentions. I could pay you for your escort, if money is what you seek."

He removed a small pouch from within his cloak and jingled it softly, the sound of many gold coins rattling inside. He held it outward to the two women. "I'll even pay you in advance. Please, it has been many days since I have gotten lost, and to be honest, I don't wish to trifle around in this god-forsaken forest much longer. You'd be doing an innocent man a great kindness."

Inside his blood was boiling. He had never groveled for anyone other then his master, and yet here he was begging these two girls if he could accompany them. He had half a mind to tear the two of them limb from limb, and it almost made him lick his lips in anticipation. As he awaited there response, he kept the bag of gold outstretched, closing his eyes and offering the warmest smile he could muster. "I know I may not look like much, but looks can be deceiving, as I am sure you both know."

Ira looked at the defensive stance Rebecca put on and decided to ease the building tension she could feel and stepped forward, dropping her defenses, even her glyph shield.

She looked at Rebecca. she was beginning to realize that almost nothing meant anything to this individual except for the mail. Although it was strange, it meant that she could use it to her advantage if need be. "I don't think he's an enemy of the post. There are very few people who really want to interrupt the mail, I assure you." She looked back to D'Varius. "I have no need for money, just to get to the nearest town." She glanced back at Rebecca realizing she'd become the mediator between them trying to keep a two person bloodbath from occurring. "How about you show us both the way to Hemingway and when we get there, I will not only give you the letter I have in the knapsack but I will post something myself. You get two parcels to deliver for the job of leading two people to the town. Does that sound feasible?"

Although the man that referred to himself as Mik'ael offered gold and insisted he had no ill intentions and merely desperately wanted to leave the forest, Rebecca's mood barely softened, after also hearing him say he had powers to 'protect' them from trouble, and that he mentioned appearances can be deceiving, and was merely glaring at the bag of coins.
Before the mutant could continue her aggressive behavior however, Ira stepped between the two, becoming a mediator of sorts, announcing she didn't believe he would cause harm towards the post, and refused the man's money.

She then turned back to Rebecca and came up with a proposition; to hand her something to deliver. It was a rather unusual deal, but one that made Rebecca decide she was starting to warm to the young lady, lowering her post box and relaxing her posture more, before giving in and saying; "Alright, alright then, i'll guide him along too, but unless he's posting those coins too, keep them in your pocket Mr. Mik'ael! I'm also keeping an eye on you, so no tomfoolery and keep your grubby mitts off my post! Right then, if were going to get to Hemmingway we can't stand around chatting all day, lets get a move on!" And with that, she turned to begin the journey to the aforementioned town, making a quick brisk walk through the trees, fully expecting the others to follow behind, to the extent of not even checking.

D'Varius stuffed the coins back into his pocket as the smaller girl seemed to have come to his rescue. A flicker went through his mind of what she may look like as a mangled corpse, and a smile played across his lips. Again, he resisted the urge to drag his tongue across his upper lip. "Thank you. It is most...appreciated." As the bigger woman began to trudge off into the forest, he pulled his hood tightly over his head once more, it was much more comfortable this way, and began to follow.

"Good...GOOD! Rip them apart! Tear the flesh from their BONES!!"

D'Varius shook his head violently, then looked up to Ira. "Er..sorry, I have this twitch, you see. I hope it won't be a bother to you." What he was really doing was trying to ward off Kaine for a while longer. The last thing he wanted was him getting loose and killing these two before he even had a chance to make it to the larger group he had been following earlier. He balled up both his fists until his knuckles turned white, gritting his teeth and almost biting through his lip.

"You can't keep me in here forever and you know it! I will be free! I WILL take control! And I WILL feast upon their blood!!

Again he shook his head, though this time not as violent. He thought of a way to pass the time as they marched through the woods, for the silence would surely drive him to the brink of insanity. "So...what brings the two of you into these parts? Must be quite a way from home to stumble out into these woods." He tried to maintain a calm demeanor, but his voice nearly cracked as he bit his tongue, and he kept quiet for a moment. "This accursed twitch!" He growled, rubbing his fingers on his temples. He seemed like some sort of madman, which would either drive pity or concern from the two, and he hoped it was pity, for his sake.