Snippet #2533433

Day 3

The man told the two teenage dragon hunters-to-be that he was going back to his house to see if anything was left, as he hadn't been able to check for the past few days. Unfortunately, he found out that everything had been destroyed by the dragon, and left in low spirits--though he did make sure to thank them again.

But something was still bothering Sylphine...no, not her stomach, even though it still ached like hell. One of the bandits said something about taking the man to the forest "where the others are." What could that mean...? Perhaps they should have left one bandit alone and interrogated him...in any case, there wasn't much for them to do but return to the main street. There wasn't anything left for them in the residential district now.

As if on cue, she heard a groan as one of the bandits started to wake up...one of the axe wielders. This was a good opportunity. Sylphine went right up to the bandit, motioning for Adrian to follow her. "Hey, you!" she called, getting his attention. "What are you guys planning in the forest?"

The bandit looked up, immediately recognized them, and started to panic when he realized he was had neither a weapon nor backup. "W-what would I know?" he lied, backing up. "I don't know what the bosses have in the forest, I swear! I was just a, uh, hired hand from this city! New recruit, ya know?"

"If that's the case, then it'd be even stranger that you wouldn't know what's going on," Sylphine commented, advancing on him. "Quit trying to dodge the question. Tell us what you're doing out there."

Realizing he couldn't play dumb, the bandit changed his tune. "I ain't gonna say anything!" he shouted, sounding more and more desperate. "You can't make me talk!"

This is getting really annoying, Sylphine thought. Guess I have to break Adrian's ideals some more. Her hand flew forwards, and suddenly, the man was suspended in the air by wind currents. "I said," Sylphine repeated slowly, punctuating her sentence multiple times. "Tell us. What. You're doing. In. The Forest. Are we clear?"

"O-okay fine! I give! I'll tell you! Just...don't kill me, please!" the man shouted. He babbled out that the other bandits had taken hostage most of the people who evacuated from the city during the dragon's attack, and were demanding the gold underneath Andril as ransom. Furthermore, they would periodically kill off civilians as time went on until this ransom was paid.

Though Sylphine felt furious over the callous behavior she was being told about, she nodded calmly. "Thank you. You won't die." As soon as she finished saying this, she snapped her fingers, and a hardened air bullet slammed the man in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious. "...come to think of it, we're probably going to have to lug him back to authorities ourselves while he's unconscious," she muttered, scratching the back of her head. This would suck.

More troubling was the bandits' demands for the gold, however. How many people had been killed already? How many were left? "We'd best head back and get the others' opinions on this," Sylphine suggested, picking herself, Adrian, and the unconscious bandit with air currents. "Come on!" The winds picked up, carrying them to two blocks within the main street, where Sylphine put her hood back up and let them all land before she kept running.