Frey's Story

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The air was calm and the Ylissian landscape was a true sight to behold. Beautifully flowing green grass covered the earth as far as the eye could see across rolling hills swaying gently in the evening breeze. Lightly forested areas touched the edge of the horizon and gave way to dense woodland beyond the eyes limit to see. The health and beauty of the land was breathtaking, and the clear blue skies and bright yellow sun descending upon the horizon completed the ensemble. Walking along a small dirt pathway were three individuals who admired the view while keeping a sharp eye out for danger as they were so famous for doing.

"Look at that sky…" The girl said.

"Focus Iris." A tall young man dressed in a light blue and white armor said firmly.

"I am focused Edge!" Iris retorted.

"I can't help it if I enjoy watching and admiring beautiful scenery like this… Sheesh!" She exclaimed.

The third member remained silent as his eyes carefully scanned the surrounding area as they neared the town on the edge of the hill just ahead of them.

"Hey Connor, do you see anything?" Iris asked.

The third member, Connor, shook his head. He was dressed in a pair of tan pants with a deep brown tunic and a deep olive green cape with a red underside. Tucked at his waist was a sword, and attached to his hip was a small pouch within which held a set of three vulnerary doses for small wounds suffered in battle. Edge held a lance in one hand and a small, two foot long shield in the other with a similar pouch attached to his hip. Iris was dressed in a light and thin charcoal grey robe with the hood having been cut off as she didn't like putting things on or over her head. She held a small yellow tome in one hand and the other dangled freely at her side.

As they rose over the hill and beheld the town before them, Edge sighed in relief as Iris smiled and Connor kept scanning the environment around them.

"Well, come on guys!" Edge said cheerfully.

"Right!" Iris responded.

"Got it." Connor said rather flatly.

"Ever the ray of sunshine aren't you Connor?" Iris asked with a giggle as they walked down the hill together.

Connor gave her a glare, which only got her to giggle even more as Edge shook his head with a smile.

"Alright love birds, stay focused. Once we make sure this town is secure we're going to be on the path that is closest to the Plegian border. It's got the worst reputation for bandit raids and muggings, so we need to stay wary." Edge said over his shoulder as they hit ground level.

"We know Edge, we know." Iris said with a sigh.

Connor, ever the serious one, continued his ever present analysis as they walked the streets one at a time. Using a familiar criss cross pattern, they checked each street in the tiny town of two hundred people before making their way to the exit on the northwestern edge as the sun began to set. The skies were turning a deep orange and purple as the sun slowly descended beyond the horizon, and as night fell in full the three of them made their way down the path towards the Plegian border. The pathway they were headed towards was known as the "Red Carpet" after all the blood that had been spilled on it over the past few years.

After the war two hundred years ago, Prince Chrom brought an age of peace between the two nations which had lasted until about a decade ago as descendants of the survivors of the war began gathering and preaching about the wrongs that Ylisse had done them after their victory. These people ushered in a desire for violence and action against Ylisse, and as a result the numbers of bandits, thieves, muggers and rogue mercenaries skyrocketed. The Red Carpet was the first piece of Ylissian ground that saw blood shed, and since that time nearly ten years ago the blood which had stained the earth had only increased.

As they approached the Red Carpet, marked by a sign which said as much, they slowed their pace and kept a single hand on their weapons and one eye on the forest to their side at all times. This area was horrendously popular with bandits and rogue mercenaries, and as such they couldn't afford even a moment's lapse in concentration. Even Iris, usually the carefree one in the group, was dead serious as they walked along the length of the Red Carpet on their way along the edge of the border. The Red Carpet never touched the border, but it came within a few dozen yards of it. Just being here, especially at night, had everyone on edge. Connor especially had one eye glued with absolute prejudice on the forest while he kept one hand wrapped around the handle of his blade.

As they neared the end of the Red Carpet, they came to a stop and took a moment to check their supplies one more time. With the night dragging on, they knew that they either had to go back to the town or the had to set up camp. Setting up camp in this area was suicide in every way, and it was beyond their confidence to do so. The group turned around and began heading back towards the town when they saw a small gathering of men ahead coming out of the trees. Their approach was slow and steady, but just as the group had been doing these men all kept a hand on their weapons as they approached.

"Well, look at what we have here." The man who was obviously the leader said.

"… What do you want?" Edge asked,, giving him a hard glare.

"What brings you here to this neck of the woods?" The man asked.

"We are patrolling the border, keeping an eye out for bandits and the like." Edge responded.

"Aye, and how do you plan to do that?" The man asked, drawing his axe and holding up on his side.

Edge slowly brought his lance up.

"By any means necessary." He said with a slight growl in his voice.

"Ah haha haaa!!" The man laughed.

"Oi lads! This guy says he'll use any means necessary to remove bandits and such from Ylisse!"

There was a groaning and booing sound from behind the man as he smiled at Edge.

"So what's say we show him how utterly stupid that course of action is?" He asked.

A cheer erupted from the forest and the men behind the leader, and Edge began to see just how many of them there were as more of them came pouring out of the trees. Ten, twenty… Thirty… Edge took a step back and took a defensive stance as the others all did the same until the men stopped pouring out of the trees and stood before the group. There were way too many of them for just the three of them to take on, but never the less they were going to do whatever they had to in order to defeat them.

"How many of them are there?" Iris asked in a whisper.

"… About thirty six of them…" Connor responded, having taken he time to actually count all that appeared.

The leader gave a shout and a small group of the men began charging the Grimsbane. Edge twirled his lance around in front of him and brought the tip down in front of the charging enemies and threw up a small cloud of dust into their path. The men, for the most part, came to a halt save for two of them that decided to continue their charge. One of them met the butt end of Edge's lance while the other met Connor's boot in his groin. The men both doubled over in pain as Edge and Connor finished them off, Edge stabbing his opponent through the collar bone towards the lungs and Connor slicing the bandit's throat as he looked up. Iris held back and kept her distance, her frail body being vulnerable to their attacks while charging her lightning magic in her right hand in preparation for her attack.

The dust settled and the results became clear that the Grimsbane were not to be underestimated.

"Aye… So you do have some true fight in you eh?" The leader mocked as he brought up his axe.

Edge and the others all hunkered down and prepared for the biggest fight of their lives as the leader brought his axe down and a much larger group of his bandits began charging the field. Edge split to the left and Connor to the right as Iris stayed back and behind Edge as she let loose her first blast of lightning magic towards the charging group of enemies. The blast struck two of them in the front, but the others all jumped safely aside as they continued to rush the Grimsbane. Connor brought his sword forward and caught the edge of an axe strike and let it slide down the length of his blade before spinning around an using his momentum to slash the man's arm at the joining of his arm and shoulder. The attack slashed all of the muscles in his mid deltoid and completely destroyed his ability to wield his axe any further. Connor ended his misery with a slash to the back of the neck before being suddenly kicked to the ground and just barely missing the edge of another axe to the shoulder.

Connor's shoulder did catch it though, but the cut was not deep enough to hinder his ability to fight. He kicked the man in the groin and rolled to the side to continue the engagement as Edge muscled his way through the group which had charged him with some help from Iris. Edge's large frame and armor made short work of incoming attacks, as many of the bandits had hand-me-down weaponry, but he did suffer a cut to the thigh from a lucky swing which lifted the armor over the affected area. Like Connor, the cut was not terribly deep, but it was enough to plague Edge's mind and hinder his mobility a little. He'd have to use a vulnerary pretty soon if the damage was to be kept from becoming permanent, but right now there wasn't enough time. Despite their best efforts to hold off their enemies, more just kept coming.

"There's too many…" Iris whispered as she blasted another bandit with her lightning magic in the back while he tried to blindside Edge.

The Grimsbane were good fighters and warriors, but there were far too many enemies for the three of them to take on realistically. If something didn't happen soon to tip the tide of battle in their favor, they were going to die.

Raymond had been roaming the Red Carpet for most of the day, the thief eluding him for some time. He'd been paid in advance, with more on the way if he could take back what the thief stole: an heirloom. Normally, Raymond wouldn't bother with something like this, but the story behind the necklace that had been stolen struck a chord with him. Apparently, this necklace was all that the owner had to remember his daughter by.

So, here Raymond was, risking his life for money and the happiness of another, looking for a face he'd memorized. It was getting dark, he noticed. While he didn't feel right leaving the job unfinished like this, staying in the Red Carpet at night was suicide. Sighing, he turned and began walking back in the direction of town.

Then, he heard something. A faint sound, almost indistinguishable from the wind blowing through the trees. Then it sounded again. A distinct crackle. Lightning magic. Someone was fighting. He followed the sound, and heard more as he drew near. Shrieks of metal on metal. Yells of men as they fought. He broke through a final line of trees, and saw a group of thirty bandits fighting three others: a man in soldier's garb wielding a lance, a swordsman, and a female mage. His resolve to help only increased when he recognized the leader of the bandit troupe as the man he was after.

His mind made up, he charged into the bandits from the rear, his blade out. He cleaved one bandit's head in two with an overhead swing, recovering in time to bash in the face of another with the pommel of his sword. The man went to the ground, screaming an alarm, rewarded with a blade shoved through his chest. Now, the bandits knew that Raymond was here. Now, Raymond was on the defensive as three other bandits charged him. He hefted his blade, deftly parrying their strikes as he worked his way over to the people he'd come to help.

An axe slipped past his guard, a fourth bandit managing to catch Raymond by surprise. He winced as the cold metal cut a line into his upper thigh. He knew immediately that, considering the state of the bandits' weapons, the wound would be infected within the next few hours unless he could apply the vulnerary on his belt in a timely fashion.

His blade flew faster now. One bandit wouldn't have been a problem. Two might have been pushing it, but it was still manageable. Three was around and about his limit. Now, there were four. His blocks became hastened, only barely holding back the storm of axes, the weight of his own weapon meant for quickly ending a fight, not making it drag out like this. He looked over to the three he'd come here to rescue, still a few yards away, and he realized just why they needed rescuing.

Frey strode out of the town, long legs helping his already fast pace be even faster. He always set himself with a fast pace, the road between towns was long. And towns was where he earned money and did the most good. He still had to get through the Red Carpet too, so this pace was slightly faster than usual. The Myrmidon adjusted the sword on his back, as to make sure that it if he ran into trouble the sword didn't get stuck in its sheath. "Speaking of trouble." Frey's military trained ears picked up the sounds of battle from ahead.

Quietly he unsteathed his sword, and took off at a run. He didn't care who is was fighting who at the moment, he'd assess the situation when he saw it. It took him less than a minute to arrive at the battle scene. Taking a moment he scanned the area. It seemed that there were four people fighting a rather large group of bandits. It was obvious which side he would be helping. A second more and he decided who he would help first. A young man with green hair was surrounded by four bandits. Wordlessly he tugged his hood up over his head, and charged. The bandits were facing away from the town so they never saw him coming. He went straight for the young man with green hair.

Frey's sword sank into the first of the four's back. The man let out a strangled cry and dropped to the ground. But that was all he could do to help the green haired man for several bandits surrounded him. He quickly rolled the side as one of them attempted to bring an axe down on his head. As he popped up to his feet he immidiately had to jump back to avoid a horizontal axe swipe. He was fast, but not THAT fast. He jumped back a split second too late, earning himself a long, shallow, cut across his chest. He let out a hiss of pain but kept fighting. His years in the military had taught him to keep fighting through pain. The one who had just hit him fell next. A twist of Frey's hips and a swing of his sword sent the man's head flying.

As he blocked another overhead shot Frey took a quick glance around to see that the other four weren't faring too well either. A small piece of him wished that help would show up. But the rest of him knew he had been in much worse situations and simply kept fighting without another complaining thought.

"Where in the seven hells am I?" Was the thought of Silka Panesse, as she walked around what she hoped was neutral land. She wouldn't admit she was lost, taguel pride, but she did admit she felt a little like a man-spawn in a carrot-eating contest at that moment. One of the many downsides of being blind, zero idea of direction. She was only going off of a small sound she picked up. It was like a town, and she just continued walking in one direction as the sound got louder. As she got closer, each sound became down obvious; wood burning, hearts beating, water running. Everything she had come to expect to hear from a human settlement.

At the time, she was wearing her battle gear, basic chest plate, leg protectors and forearm protectors, all of them red in color, not that she would know by herself. However, as she knew she was heading towards a human settlement, she did have a cloak over her, covering to the ground, past her hands, and when her head was down, didn't show anything. She had managed to block all traces of fur and ears, which depending on where she was, could mean trouble. If Plegia, not bad, as some Warren's had sided with them for Ylisse crimes, however if she was in Ylisse, she could possibly be run out of town with fire. Men-Spawn are very rude towards her people.

She walked towards multiple heartbeats passed a wall, which she hated. Finding doors sucked for her. Half of the time, she walked directly into a building. However, some sounds of bells alerted her of the door. The sounds inside; fire burning, liquid pouring, and music along with smell of ale. She was in a tavern. She walked to the bar, her head still down, and when she heard the heartbeat in front of her she asked her location.

"You at the Shucked Pig at the Red Carpet." She barkeep answered her. So, Ylisse. She thought. The man offered her something to drink, to which she declined. She began to walk out of the bar when sh heard a heartbeat behind her, soft, like a childs, and felt something pull on her hood. It was off, and she could hear the heart rates pick up, muscles tensing. She even heard a couple of people murmur, 'cony'. She continued her walk, and when she hear muscles tensing behind her in a throwing motion, she leaned over for something to avoid her.

She made her way out of the bar, and decided this wasn't a friendly place for her alone. Too many chances for someone to strike, so she had best continue walking, she hood off, and head up, looking at nothing. A distance off, she heard around 40 heartbeats in one direction. Then sound of metal clashing and some of the hearts had stopped, while the others had picked up. A fight. she knew, and she debated if she really wanted to help after being kicked out of a town. She knew she had to help, so she dropped the cloak, it only impeded her movement.

A ways off, she decided this was the spot to transform. She slammed her hands on the ground, and then a dome of earth surrounded her. The magic of transforming was something no man-spawn would ever figure out. It was like becoming whole again. She broke out of her prison as a ten foot in length rabbit with black fur. Her hearing was improved majorly in this state, so she could see each and every heartbeat. It looked to be around three on thirty, but then another one came from behind the lines and began to swing, himself getting trapped. She never understood how men-spawn got themselves like that.

She decided on a fast charge to confuse a mob before striking the fourths assailants. However, another heartbeat, one apparently against the bandits came in and started killing them. She decided she wasn’t needed there, so she went for a confusion and kill tactic. She started to run, tucked her ears behind here, and used her head like a ram to cut through the mob. It did confuse them, as she knocked down at least seven of them. She then heard some of them yelling, “It’s a cony! Kill it!” And this made her angry.

Four heartbeats charged towards her, and judging the distance she began to charge as well. She leapt into the air, turned her head, and got a good hold on one’s neck before continuing the dive and taking his head clean off. Spitting that out, she again charged at the confused ones and used her right front claw to get a hold on one’s stomach before disemboweling him. That one was a tad more painful. The two left at her were behind her and at her side. She used her back paw to kick the one behind her, not fatally, just knocked over, while the one at her side took this chance and used an axe to slice into her ribcage.

It was a shallow cut, but she would need to rest it afterwards. She ran back a bit and then charged again at the heartbeat, and curled into a ball before she hit him. It knocked him into the ground, and she stood above him, her paw crushing his axe arm. She then screeched as she tore into his neck. She was a true taguel fighter, always having to shed blood.

Once done with him, she yelled at the others, who were trying to figure out how to take on this new group, “A cony will be the last thing any of the damnable man-spawn bandits will ever see!”

Edge blocked a dual attack by a pair of axe wielding bandits and shoved them back and to the ground as Iris blasted them both with her lightning magic. At the same time, Edge lunged as best he could to the side and rammed his shoulder into the chest of another charging bandit, but took a small nick to the cheek by the edge of his axe as he fell backwards. Once he was down Edge ran him through with his lance and pulled it free to prepare for another round. He could see that a few new faces had shown up, two humans and... was that a Taguel?!

"What the..." He asked in shock as he watched the giant rabbit creature begin tearing into the bandits.

He was horrified and mystified at the same time. It was beautiful, but frightening to watch. He was brought back to his senses when another bandit came right into this field of view, but simultaneously he heard a scream from behind him. Iris was under attack and trying to gain some distance, but Edge was too far away to help. He knocked the charging bandit in the chest with the butt end of his lance before spinning it around and slashing his throat along the way. He turned towards Iris and ran towards her as fast as he could, but his armor slowed him down and she ended up suffering a rather grievous wound to her stomach as she jumped away from an axe attack. The cut was at least an inch deep and would undoubtedly put her out of action for a few days if he couldn't save her.

Edge was then stopped in his tracks, however, as he saw Connor rushing to save her as well and he was much faster than Edge was. He made it to Iris's side and slammed his body into the bandit which knocked him to the ground before he could finish Iris off. Edge decided it was better to watch Connor's back and intercepted the bandits who'd been chasing him. Somewhere along the way Connor had cut down two more before heading over to help Iris, and Edge made sure to block them off before they could reach Connor.

Connor himself got up as quickly as he could and ran the bandit he'd knocked to the ground through just below the ribcage where the bones would not interfere with his thrust. As he pulled the blade through he knelt down next to Iris who was bleeding profusely and gasping for breath. He tore part of the robe to get a better view of her wound and pulled his vulnerary out on instinct. He used two full doses to dress her wound and applied a series of bandages over the wound and told her to lie still and play dead for the time being. Faking death was better than fighting with such a wound, as the vulnerary didn't seal wounds very well as opposed to stopping infection. She'd need stitches before long, but for now her wound would be alright until proper treatment was found. Connor got to his feet and turned back towards the battlefield and heaved a sigh as he tried to get his breathing under control.

One of the bandits dropped as a sword pierced his chest. Raymond looked to see another man had entered the battle, a myrmidon. With one foe down, and two others distracted, Ray fended one blow away, and delivered a sweeping horizontal strike to the pair of brigands who'd turned his back to strike at Raymond's savior. The blade blew through one brigand's side, slowed as it snapped his spine, and continued out the other side. The other was killed by the myrmidon's sword before Ray's weapon cleaved halfway into his side as well.

Raymond tore the blade out and turned to face his final foe, another brigand. Then, his eyes widened as he saw a taguel ram her way through a few of the bandits. He focused on the man before him in time to block his axe, then smashed his face in with the pommel of his blade, sending the brigand to the ground where Ray's blade pinned him through his heart, the heavy blade breaking through the man's ribs with little difficulty.

Raymond wrenched his weapon from the scabbard of flesh it had been embedded in. That was when he heard the scream, looked to see a group of the bandits bearing down on the mage. Ray's body moved without input from his mind. He blew past a pair of brigands, reaching the girl and the swordsman who'd saved her in time to block the axe of a brigand who'd slipped past the lancer, intercepting the axe above the head of the swordsman as he administered a vulnerary to the girl's wounds. Raymond heaved the axe away, and then used his momentum to spin into a horizontal strike, forcing the brigand to block. The bandit retreated, and Raymond paused.

The wound on his thigh flared. He winced, and decided it was a good a time as he'd get to administer his vulnerary. He did it quickly, in the practiced manner that he'd drilled into himself. Grab the container, remove the stopper/brush, and apply liberally. He barely winced as the tell-tale sting of the medicine registered. He replaced the stopped, and looked up in time to block an axe that would've lopped off an arm, the bandit having returned to finish the job.

He just couldn't catch a break, could he?

“How did I fall behind this far behind? Damn it all!” Raven was jogging down the path of the red carpet in his fully armored state. This was a dangerous place something he was fully aware of, and he no intention of getting run through because he was unprepared. His fire tomb hung down on a chain that was attached to a belt and hung loosely from his left side. The chain was long enough so that he could easily grab the book and read it with easy. Right below the chain was the scabbard of his sword a simple Iron sword but it did its job just the same. He was getting a bit winded from the distance he had been running which was something he was very unhappy about. He wasn’t lightly geared, far from it and given enough time, special for a long jog, it became more and more apparent.

During the groups last stop Raven had found himself exploring more than per usual. He had never been this far from home before and everything was new and interesting to him. When the time to leave came around, he of course said he would catch up after looking around a bit more. Something he had already been starting to regret, catching up in full armor on foot what was he insane? He felt that way with how badly he wanted to just fall down and take a nap. Raven came to a halt as the sounds of battle rang out through the air. He listened closely only for a moment to gage were the sound was coming from. After only a moment he nodded to himself and took back off in a jog towards the battle field.

As he approached the area he was relieved to see his allies still alive giving him a quick moment or relief. As he approached he took in the situation. Edge and the others were alright, well alive at least, though Edge was staring down two bandits on his own. There were dead bodies all over the floor as well and three other individuals fighting against the bandits. The two males seemed to be struggling yet still holding their own, with any luck he could make it to them after he saw to Edge. The other individual was… a bunny? He questioned the very thought of something like that. Oddly enough this…bunny was fairing much better than the other two. She was closer and would be more likely to aid the two struggling while he attended to the others, at least in theory.

Raven approached Edge and the others and quickly busted into a sprint using what little energy he actually had left to throw himself into the fray. He quickly drew his blade as he approached the two from the side and threw his whole weight into a single stab piercing right through the bandit’s rib cage and out the other side. The weight of his strike sent both Raven and the new corpse falling to the ground. Raven let go of his weapon and rolled across the space between the bandit he had killed and the other engaging Edge and got to his feet. He lifted up his tomb with his left hand and let it fall open as the magical energy of it emanated into his right hand. Before the bandit even had a chance to peace to gather what was happening, a hand filled with an orb of fire came flying right into the man’s head bursting him into flames. Raven once more came tumbling down his legs giving out from underneath him as he fell only a moment after the second man became a corpse. He hit the ground with a thud, his tomb thumping around against his side as it fell from his grasp. His head turned to check on the rest of the field seeing not much had changed. He pushed his arms down to the ground as he began to slowly raise his exhausted body from the ground and motioned to Edge. “Go help the others.” His voice was calm but clearly exhausted by the deep and rapid breathes he was taking. His legs were done and he didn’t expect to be much more help up close. He use his arm strength to get himself up on his knees at least as he returned his tomb to his hand and the fire to his other hoping he could at least get a couple of pot shots off on what remained.

Frey was in a battle of strength with a bandit, definitely not a place he wanted to be in. He decided it was time to end it, using his natural speed, he ducked underneath the bandit's axe. Getting in close to the man where he couldn't be hit by such a bulky weapon. Then he proceded to disembowl him. He took another look around to see who needed help next. The green haired man seemed to be faring all right. Out of the three who had been staying close the whole time, one was injured, but they were doing a good job protecting her so he wasn't worried.

A giant bunny seemed to have join the fight. It took Frey's adrenaline filled brain a moment to understand what it was. A taguel. He gave a respectful nod in the taguel's direction. Unlike many people, Frey had a great deal of respect for the taguel. One more seemed to join the fight but he soon dropped to his knees. Frey knew who he was going to help next. A axe swing came at him low, intending to severe his legs at the knee. He bent low and sprang up, actually landing on the axe. Within moments another severed head joined the other ones. Frey used the falling, headless, corpse as a spring board and leaped at the newcomer. He landed and rolled, ending up right in front of him.

If this was a group of military trained people, Frey would have been barking out orders to making things easier. They needed to get the wounded together and make a circle around them. Both injured were mages it seemed, or at least could use magic, so they could attack from inside the circle while the rest defended. Frey was face to face with the newcomer. With a start he recognized him. He served under the same general as Frey for a little while, before leaving to pursue another passion. "It is good to see you again, Raven. I'll watch your back if you watch mine." As if to prove himself, Frey disarmed a man who was coming up behind Raven. Literally, he cut his arm off. The man howled it pain and Frey ended his misery by shoving his sword up through the man's ribcage and piercing his heart.

Frey hoped that Raven would recognize him with his hood up, though didn't have much doubt that he would. His voice, sword style, and clothing gave him away automatically.

Silka kept her position on waiting for more bandits to attack her. Along the way, she began to count the heart beats, "12, no 10. Ok, now it's 8 or 9" She found herself thinking as yet another heartbeat came into the fray, this one on her side it appeared. By the sound of heartbeats and muscles, they seemed to have the bandits matched on man power at the moment. She smiled to herself, killing these maw-spawn did give her a sense of joy.

When she heard the scream, she turned her ear to one heart beat, soft, most likely female. Rate was up, muscles were not acting normally, getting harder to control, she had taken a hit. Silka almost ran to her newly found ally, but others seemed to beat her to it. If they had it under control, the best thing she could do is stay the course and kill more. Besides, she didn't even have an elixir or any other man-spawn healing item. The best thing her kind could use was Olivi Grass, if rubbed into a wound, worked wonders. Although she didn't have that either, and her wound would most likely need something.

Upon noticing three heart beats coming towards her, she smiled and stood on her hind paws. This seemed to slow their advance; a ten foot tall rabbit. She used this opportunity to jump using her hind legs and land on one of them, crushing his entire ribcage. He was around six feet in front of the others, she already had a new plan. She slashed her left paw at one, slashes his arm, and causing him to drop to the ground in pain. She didn't envy him, their claws were razor sharp, and she was good with them.

The last of her attack squad seemed to have some brains and tried to hit her with an axe. She, however, could hear him from a mile away and had time to dodge. He swung again, and she toyed with him. After the fifth swing, his breathing was labored, and she could tell he wasn't exactly the most fit bandit in the world. Had it been different, she might have let him go, but she wanted blood.

She ran around to his back side, stood with her hind paws behind him and kicked, harder than she did with the other bandit, and tore threw his stomach, all the way threw. This kind of of attack wasn't likely to work, but he was still trying to catch his breath, and she had always wanted to do that. She took her paws out and then for good measure, she, still using her pack paw, kicked him in the back of legs, most likely breaking his femurs. Should he survive the attack, which was around a zero percent chance seeing how his heart beat was slowed to almost nothing, he would need to stay in bed for the rest of his life, a short one because of the infections, but still.

She smiled, and after the third bandit, seeing what she did, ran off, she decided to get closer to the group. The hearts at the moment, the wounded female had a male around her, two more were closer together, muscle showed her that one was offering to help the other up, and the final two were separate from each other. She heard one of them yell at another to help the others, and so she decided to go towards the one at whom she assumed to be ‘Edge’.

She ran to his left side, facing the few bandits left, and said to him, “Fight Man-Spawn! Fight like the Taguel!” And she smirked at the prospect. ‘Only 7 left. One is knocked out from my kick, another is weaponless for the moment, and the leader is still standing.’ She would have gone after him, but she knew Mam-Spawn, as well as her people, killed the leader to exact revenge, and she had nothing to want revenge for, at least from this man.

Raymond blocked another strike of his foe's axe, and moved to strike before his foe could recover. A heavy chop, and his foe's arm was severed. Another swing, and the head rolled. He looked around, noticing for the first time that the battlefield had thinned considerably. He scanned the faces of the remaining bandits, looking for his man.

He found him, those greedy eyes now wide with fear and fury. Raymond pushed forwards towards the leader. "You!" Raymond called out. "You've got something that doesn't belong to you!" Ray brandished his blade, holding the gore-splattered weapon in front of him. "Now, will you give it back, or will you insist on my prying it from your 'cold dead hands'?"
The bandit leader snarled. "You think fast, boy. And you're not a bad fighter either. But I took this medallion fair 'n' square, an' I'm not givin' it back any time soon!"

Raymond had figured the bandit leader wouldn't just cut his losses and run. Not with his posse dead and his pride wounded as it was. "Fine then." Raymond said. "Dead it is."
The bandit leader blinked, roared, and charged. Raymond immediately realized that he'd underestimated this man. Not only was he not tired from having simply standing back and watching his men fight, but his weapon was in fairly decent condition as well, and he knew how to use it. Raymond was on the defensive from the start, matching strike for block, jab for parry, smash for dodge. Raymond's blade felt heavy in his hands as if flew about, the sound of metal on metal filling the clearing. Rivulets of sweat ran down Raymond's face, down the face and bare, scarred chest of the bandit leader. The stolen medallion that he was wearing jumped and jerked as he fought with Raymond.

With each impact of axe and blade, Raymond's arms ached more and more. This man was too good for Raymond to fight alone. He hated to admit it, but he was out of his league to begin with, and Raymond was growing tired, his breath coming in gasps. He couldn't do it...

The medallion caught the rays of the setting sun. Raymond remembered why he was fighting. He felt the cool metal of his own necklace against his skin. Purpose filled his body with energy. He went on the offensive, forcing the bandit leader back, his foe wearing a worried look on his face. The axe's motions became more and more frantic. Raymond saw an opening, and took it. He batted away the axe of his foe one final time, and sank his blade into the chest of his foe, smashing bone and tearing flesh. Then, in one quick move, while the bandit leader was still stunned by his injury, Raymond took hold of his sword in both hands, crouched so that his back was to the bandit, and heaved, tossing the leader's frame bodily onto his back, his sword leaving a horrific gash along his body. Blood poured from the massive wound. The adrenaline faded.

"He got the boss!" One of the surviving bandits yelled. "Get 'im!" Raymond stood up, and pain shot through his upper back and his right arm, making him drop his sword. He looked at the leader's axe. Blood dripped from the blade, and Raymond felt the warm trail on his back from the place that the axe had struck while Raymond was tossing the impaled brigand. His sword arm hung at his side, not disabled, but in no condition to lift the heavy weapon. Ray picked up the blade in his left hand, trying to support it with his weakened right. He couldn't handle more than one, not in the state he was in. He hoped he didn't have to.

Edge felt the weight of the battle sinking in as he managed to finally get rid of the enemies before him. One enemy was killed by someone else while the last one was left for him to deal with. Using the edge of his lance, he stuck the bandit in the leg as he charged at him and stopped his advance in its tracks. The bandit yelled in pain and dropped his weapon as he tried to pull the lance free, but Edge instead pulled the lance to one side which shredded the muscle quite poorly on its way out. The shredding of the tissue and the spray of blood told him he'd hit the femoral artery and that this man was dead regardless of what happened next. Still, he ended the man's misery by stabbing him in the chest. At first his lance struck bone and stopped, but a slight adjustment found the gap between the bones and allowed the lance through as it cleaved the man's heart.

Once he'd stopped twitching, Edge pulled the lance free and looked back towards Connor's position to check on his friend and to check on Iris. Iris was still down, but looking a bit more relaxed while Connor dealt with two more enemies who were advancing on him. Edge rushed over as best he could with all his armor on as Connor managed to dispatch one of the two before being rammed to the ground. Given his exhausted state, Connor couldn't rise in time to stop to man from trying to bring the axe down. Connor was still able to roll and evade, but he couldn't lift his sword in time to deal with the bandit. Edge finally made it over and rammed the bandit to the ground, falling on top of him in the process as he couldn't stop the momentum he'd built up. As Edge went down, he dropped his lance and wrestled with the bandit before pinning him down and wrapping his arms around his neck and squeezing for all his worth. After a few moments the bandit went limp, but that wasn't good enough for Edge. He wrenched to the side until he heard a loud "CRACK" before dropping the now dead bandit to the ground and sprawling on the ground exhausted.

Connor made it to his feet and dragged the still sprawled Edge over towards Iris, and then sat down on the ground himself as they looked out at the battlefield. With the number of dead bandits lying about and the pools of blood everywhere, it was easy to see why this was called the Red Carpet. The three of them sat there (or laid there in Edge's case) and watched as the last of the bandits were brought down before they all sprawled on the ground and caught their breath.

"That was rough..." Connor remarked.

"Eh, nothing!" Edge retorted.

"You two just can't agree on anything can you?" Iris commented.

The three of them began chuckling, as they were too weak to laugh out loud.

Raven remained on his knees as the battle went on. His eyes scanned quickly from place to place over the remaining battle, things were coming to a close quickly. He let out a soft sigh of relief as he turned back towards Edge and the others just in time to see them finish up and a bandit running towards Raven. He heard a failure voice but couldn’t really make it out, as he was bringing his hand up to unleash the fire at the bandit he was beaten to it as the voice came forward and struck down the man. He seemed rather familiar and the man clearly knew who he was. He wasn’t sure from memory who this man was but he would figure it out later when things were so busy. He didn’t give him an answer as he turned back to the field.

A bandit quickly approached the green haired man an axe raised to strike. Raven had range and him had the full intention to use it at this point. He pulled his arm back and flung it forward, tomb open in his other hand, as he sent a fire ball flying at the approaching man smacking right into his back. The man went falling forward as a second bandit approached Raven in a sprint from there right side. None the less he had enough time to fling a second fire ball at the man from before, this one hitting dead on into the man’s chest once more as he attempted to scatter to his feet and busted him into flames. His body hitting the floor in a charred corpse.

Raven quickly gather energy into another spell as the bandit came swinging his axe down towards him. Raven rolled to the side dropping hold of his tomb only for a moment. The bandit how ever took no time to wait as he came at him again axe raised. Raven took no time to prepare a spell but instead dug his feet into the ground and launched himself into the bandit’s chest taking them both down to the ground. The bandits axe went flying out of his hand and into the dirt as they hit the ground with a thud. Raven quickly mounted onto the bandit and brought his right fist hammering down into the bandits face, A metal gantlet was never something you wanted to be hit by. The bandit became dazed from the strike and Raven took out his tomb once more taking the moment to send one final fire ball right into the bandits head, a quick flash of flames, then darkness as the bandits finally moments came to an end.

Raven was out of breath and was about done with just moving for that matter. He rolled off the bandit and onto the ground just looking up at the sky with a heavy breath. “good.” He sputtered out with quick and rapid breath. “Everyone seems all right.” He took a moment to catch his breath and sat up using his arms for support. First he double cheeked on edge and the others who seemed just fine if not winded as well. He then turned to the man who spoke to him. “Frey right?” he spoke out as a name came to match the face he saw. “Thanks for helping out those three, don’t know where they would be right now if you and the others hadn’t come ahead of time.” His whole body was acing and his armor never weighed down on him like this before. Even so he managed onto his feet as he gave Frey a light nod and hobbled over to Edge and the others giving them a light wave. “Sorry I’m late.” He spoke out with a light chuckled.

Silka stood as she heard the scene in front of her. It appeared that the bandits were no more, and that even their leader had been taken out, and the man who did it had something to get back from him. She knew, someone always has a beef against any given bandit leader. She smiled at the fighting she had done. It had felt like an eternity sense she last fought anyone to the death. Hells, it felt like an eternity sense the last time she had shifted. She couldn’t risk man-spawn catching her and killing her. She could fight back and probably take out a few of them, but she didn’t feel like hurting those whom she had abandoned her Warren for.

She once again smiled and decided that she didn’t need to be shifted any longer. She was a distance away from anyone, so they wouldn’t be hurt, so she curled up in a ball, the same one she used for attacking, and laid on the ground. After a second, the same earth dome appeared around her. Man-Spawn didn’t know, but the glow of the dome help the key to transforming, and when turning back, the symbols were simply written backwards.

The dome suddenly broke open, shooting a few pieces and a white light. It was small, and it faded quickly, and left standing was SIlka in her human form. She was bloodied up, her feet and legs along with her hands had blood on them, remnants of her battles. She also had a small wound of her left side ribcage. Nothing too bad, but it would need to be rested and cleaned before she would battle again. The pain was dull, and it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.

Her hearing was decreased, but she could defiantly make out the groups heartbeat, and thus location. The groups seemed to have convened to celebrate, and she couldn’t really find a good way to go up to any of them. Three of them were together around the wounded one, and that left two others, one of whom was after some medallion.

She wished to check on the wounded girl, and she began to walk, her fur lying flat, and her head up, although she didn’t see anything. Her movement was careful, she couldn’t hear dead bodies or where their swords dropped, so she had to go off the smell of blood, which wasn’t much better. She shuffled over to the group, and stood near them, and the one with the strongest heart rate (Connor), as she found the one with the strongest heart rate was usually the leader of any group.

“You fought bandits to protect this settlement without regard to your own safety; you have earned the respect of Silka of The Pan Warren of Ylisse, Man-Spawn.” She said and bowed her head slightly, as she remembered her parents saying this was a sign of respect to man-spawn. “If your mission is to continue to fight off the Plegian Dogs, I wish to join your cause, man-spawn.” She said rather flatly. In her culture, if someone offered their assistance, you had to accept it if, unless they gave reason to not be trusted. Noticing that she still had on her battle face, she forced herself to give a small smile to assure she was friendly.

Raymond breathed easy now that the battle was over. He hadn't expected to make it out without a scratch, of course, but the injuries that he had sustained were not going to make his job any easier. He tested his leg, making sure that it could hold his weight. Satisfied, he knelt beside the bandit leader's corpse, took hold of the medallion, and rolled him over, the blood pouring more freely now that it had gravity to help. He unclasped the item, and pocketed it before standing, and sheathed his blade.

He looked about, seeing each figure that had fought here and survived, now taking in as much as he could. The spearman, wearing light blue armor, the swordsman in olive drab, their female mage friend, now standing. The myrmidon that had saved his life, face covered by a hood. The tactician that had arrived late, wearing an impressive suit of armor. The Taguel... didn't really need anything to help cement herself into his mind, as he caught a glimpse of her as she broke out of the earthen dome that the Taguel transformed in. She looked like shit, but held herself high. Hell, after fighting like that, she deserved to.

He walked over to the group, hearing the taguel offer her services. 'Man-spawn'. He'd never liked that word. It was just as derogatory as cony was.

"Unless anyone here's got a mend staff on them, " Raymond said, "I know a Cleric back in town who can take a look at our wounds." He paused, then added, "Besides, the stench of blood and death'll drawing looters and animals. This place'll be crawling with 'em before long."

“Sorry I’m late.” Raven said to Edge.

"Eh, it's all good. You showed up and we're all still alive to I'd call that a good day." Edge responded.

Connor looked over at Raven and nodded his head before letting out a breath of exhaustion and looking at the ground.

“You fought bandits to protect this settlement without regard to your own safety; you have earned the respect of Silka of The Pan Warren of Ylisse, Man-Spawn.”

Connor looked up to see a young woman with white eyes and severely abnormally long ears. His first thought was that they were some kind of strange and exotic accessory on her head, but he saw that they were in fact a part of her and he came to realize after a quick memory struck him from his younger days that she was a Taguel.

She bowed her head slightly.

“If your mission is to continue to fight off the Plegian Dogs, I wish to join your cause, man-spawn.”

Connor looked up and then stood up slowly, his muscles aching and his body not wanting to follow the order he gave it. Never the less, he made himself stand up and gave her a nod in return.

"Thanks, I guess." He said.

"Well, if you want to join I think it'd be great but it's actually not up to me." He said as he looked over to Edge who was still sprawled on the ground.

"Edge, what do you think?" He asked.

Edge brought his head up, but didn't get up completely because he was too tired with all the armor he was wearing to do so. Still, he gave a thumbs up.

"Sure thing. We could use all the help we can get." He said as he pushed himself up on his elbows.

"Silka, was it?" He asked.

"Welcome to the Grimsbane. My name is Edge and within the group I normally function as the brute force, though it looks like you'll give me a serious run for my money in that department... Among others." He joked.

"You've already become acquainted with Connor, and he's our point man and usually the first to engage enemies. I think the two of you will do well together on the front lines if you're not opposed to the idea. The one lying down next to me is Iris who's our magic expert, and Raven here is the tactician of the group. He's good with magic and the sword arts and is usually the one who plans our routes and strategies for enemy engagements."

Edge let his head fall back to the ground for a moment.

"Judging from your wound, Silka, I think we should take up the other guy on his offer to see a healer. We could all use the effects of a staff right now anyway. Those things work wonders on fatigue levels and for closing wounds enough to continue functioning in battle."

With that, Edge forced himself up to his feet with Raven helping him up as he looked to Silka and gave her a nod.

"I hate to ask, but could you carry Iris? She's in no condition to walk with the wound she suffered to her stomach and I am too exhausted to carry her myself. Do you mind?" He asked.

Along a dirt trail on the Ylissean side of the Ylisse/Plegia border walked a young man in simple peasant clothes and a mage's robe. Despite the natural beauty of his surroundings and pleasant weather, he was in less than high spirits. After defending a village from marauding bandits for over a week, he had been driven out at the ends of torches and pitchforks after the mark of Grima had been discovered on his back. This young man was Cedric Blackmore: ex-Grimleal and dark mage.

The events of two days prior still weighed heavily on his mind, and amplified by the lack of sleep he had managed to achieve due to a burn on his right arm he had sustained from being clouted with a torch, and spending two nights sleeping on the ground; constantly waking up in the night after nightmares of being found by muggers, angry peasants, or worst of all: the Grimleal. He felt like screaming at the sky, like tearing down a tree with his magic, like hexing every idiot who had raised a pitchfork against him, but he knew that none of those would help him in the slightest. The only thing that would help him would be the removal of his brand, and that was impossible unless he peeled all the skin on his back off. At least it wasn't too far to the next village, and with any luck its inhabitants would be rather more hospitable.

Cedric continued to walk, whistling to himself in an attempt to raise his spirits, but to little avail. Still, he was beginning to appreciate his surroundings more; everything looked so alive and green; why was this place known as "the Red Carpet"?

Suddenly, Cedric felt something nudge against his boot. He looked down to see the head of a grizzled man in his thirties against his boot. It lacked body, but what it did have was a trail of blood behind it leading up the hill. This was probably why it was called "the Red Carpet". It was clear that the man had been killed recently, as his blood hadn't even started to separate yet. It was also clear that he had not been killed by a human, but by and animal. His head appeared to have been ripped off, most likely by fangs. Cedric would have to advance with caution, lest whatever was up the hill did the same to him. In one fluid movement, he tossed the head up in the air, pulled his Flux tome from his satchel, opened it, and with his free hand directed power from the tome into the airborne head. The space around the head shined a mixture of black and purple and then suddenly pulled itself in, causing the head to explode. The explosion was rather more forceful than Cedric had anticipated, causing a decent amount of blood to spatter over his clothes and face. He wiped the specks of blood from his face and looked around; there were bits of exploded head everywhere. While he felt that his power had increased, he also felt that he needed to take more care in directing it. With his Flux tome in hand, he advanced up the hill.

At the top of the hill was not the pack of ravenous wolves he was expecting, but a group of seven people, and almost forty corpses. Just as he was about to ready a spell, he noticed that the corpses were of bandits, almost certainly from Plegia. Cedric's fear was replaced with annoyance; had he arrived earlier he would have been able to assist the group in fighting off the bandits. How much use he would have been in such close combat, especially with his burn, was up for debate. Still, these were all people, none of them had gaping maws filled with razor-sharp fangs. Except for maybe one. Cedric quickly realised that one was a Taguel, and had probably been the one who had sent him the head.

It suddenly dawned on Cedric that he had been standing there for a while now, with blood-spattered clothes and a dark magic tome in hand; he hardly looked like a harmless commoner. They'd all noticed him by now, so it would make sense to make an introduction.
"Um... Hello?" was all that came out of his mouth.

Raven let out a sigh as he helped Edge onto his feet. A bit heavy considering how tired he himself was but he managed just fine. So the Bunny wanted to join them? The idea was rather… interesting, yet Edge seemed to agree so who was he to complain. The idea of having to find a way to keep food up for another member sounded more like a chore if anything. None the less he have her a welcoming smile, a new way to strike against their enemies if anything. She seemed to be a bit bigheaded in the fight which could prove to be an issue when working with others. Though thinking back Edge was always the bigger issue to deal with considering his hot headed nature. If he could work around that he could work around this as well. Though in all honesty thinking of a good role for a… bunny, would require some thought. None the less he would have plenty of time to do that on the walk back to town.

Raven pulled out a map of the surrounding area, as he often did, and began planning out a route back. Normally he would say just go back the way they came but this was different. There were allot more of them than per usual, and there were more bandits this time than he was used to. It had him a bit on edge and he was worried about running into another group. He looked over the map silently as the rest of the group began to converse. Heading threw the forest a short and keeping the road to their left shoulder at all times would get them home, going by a zig zag pattern would slow progress but they would be harder to find. He was worried about Iris though, he wanted to get her back to normal as quickly as he could, He knew she should be fine but it was in his nature to worry and assume things are worse than they were, it was his job after all. It was unlikely they would run into much resistance once they hit the trees, or at least any opposition a group of this size couldn’t deal with even with the injured. A straight path threw the trees would have to do.

He folded up the map and let out a sigh, It was obvious troop movement, very predictable to anyone with a mind for this sort of thing, but these were bandits things were different. A new voice was then heard. He looked over to see a new person rather lean with dark blond hair. A large group of people they seemed to be gathering. He didn’t have time for more introductions; they were at the red carpet hardly the place to have a friendly chat. “All right every one routes planned out. Conor will take the lead fallowed by my as navigator. Frey will take the third spot, followed by Silka in the middle carrying Iris green hair over there should take fifth spot and Edge as rear guard.” He spoke out with an oddly loud and Confident voice. He turned his attention to the new man who appeared. “You’re welcome to join us but you stay in the back with Edge.” He put the map away and walked over to Conor awaiting the rest of the group to prepare to move.

Silka turned her attention to the man who was actually in charge, a man named edge, 'Odd.' She thought as she turned to face the new man. She honestly thought the heart beat would be correct again, it almost always was. She listened to him say that she was welcomed and that her wound should be checked on as well. She didn't like the idea of willing accepting man-spawn help, but she knew she had to trust these people if she was to help Ylisse. She almost lashed out when he suggested she carry Iris, 'A proud Taguel carrying a mage like a horse!?' She yelled in her head. Another lesson put on by her parents, never let them ride you, it is demeaning.

Although, she had let some of her human friends when she was younger ride her, and they found it fun as well as her, but that was a long time ago. She let out a deep breath and began walking towards the heartbeat of the woman. However, a misplaced corpse had caught her foot, and she tripped, feel flat on her face. She got a huge case of embarrassment very quickly, and she got up just as quickly and started to kick the corpse, "Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! No heartbeat, no way to tell if it's around!" She yelled at the body and then turned back to her comrades, who would most likely be looking at her now. "Oh yea, I'm blind as a bat." She said coolly, as she was used to this. "Also, I doubt that city wants me around, so if you can find my cloak, I dropped it rushing into the battle. I can take Iris, but I'll have to be quick." She said and then transformed into the rabbit form.

She got up close to the woman and sniffed her. She seemed friendly, if somewhat weak, but Silka could respect her still. Instead of waiting for her to get on, Silka took her left paw and grabbed the girl and tossed her onto her back, sattle style. She laid her ears back, "Hold them, unless you wish to fall, Iris." She said flatly.

Once ready she noticed the heartbeat of a new member, 'Do all men-spawn find them like this?' She pondered to herself, before saying. "I am ready to travel, are you alright, Iris?" She made a note to herself to actually try and use the names of people she was traveling with. Most taguel she knew liked being called by their names, as did her few human friends, but any human she didn't like or know fell into the category of Man-Spawn. She already decided she didn't like Raven, too uptight, and his heartbeat was also the slowest in the group, and that was always a sign of underhandedness.

“All right every one routes planned out. Conor will take the lead fallowed by my as navigator. Frey will take the third spot, followed by Silka in the middle carrying Iris green hair over there should take fifth spot and Edge as rear guard... You’re welcome to join us but you stay in the back with Edge.”

Iris looked over at Edge and gave him a weak nod as Silka came over to her and suddenly flipped her onto her back. Iris cringed at the pain across her stomach, but put it to the side in favor of grabbing hold of Silka's ears as per her warning.

"Th-thank you Silka... I'm so sorry about all of this. If the cut had been vertical I could stand and walk on my own, but it's horizontal and cuts perpendicularly across my muscles rather than down their length which makes it hard to hold my body upright so I can't walk on my own." She said.

Edge walked up and patted Iris's shoulder as reassurance before turning to Raven.

"Alright guys, let's get out of here." He yelled out.

Connor took his position at the head of the group as he began walking back towards the nearby village. If there was a healer waiting for them, their talents would be much appreciated. Connor walked slowly enough for everyone to keep pace, but fast enough to allow them a decent clip. It was night and the grounds were bloody and littered with corpses. Along his route he called out stray bodies and other obstacles so that Silka would be able to judge where they were in relation to herself and be ready to step over them or kick them out of the way. It was not only for Silka's benefit though, it was for everyone's. With nightfall upon them and clouds in the skies blocking the moon the bodies were hard to see so Connor made sure everyone knew when he had found one.

Before long they were out of the area with bodies and on their way back to the village. It took about twenty to thirty minutes of walking, but they managed to make it back without further bandit encounters and Connor looked back to the others as he raised his sword to the sky.

"Alright everyone, we're here!" He called back.

Edge looked around and found the one who'd said he knew a healer and patted his shoulder.

"Alright, it's all you buddy. If you could, please take us to your healer friend. We could all use it." He said with a smile.

Raymond winced as the Taguel tripped over a corpse. Being blind made sense, and the fall must've been embarrassing, but seeing it kick at the corpse made him glad that he was on their side. He didn't mind the addition of the Dark Mage into their group, though he was sure to keep an eye on him until they began marching. Then, he kept an eye on each side of their path, and a hand on his blade. It helped that Connor, the man at the head of their column, called out obstacles in their path.

Finally they reached town. Raymond felt a pat on his bad shoulder. He breathed sharply, and turned to see Edge. "Alright, it's all you buddy. If you could, please take us to your healer friend. We could all use it." Raymond nodded, and turned around, leading the group through the town, keeping one eye on the path, and one eye on the steeple of the church.

They passed through the town, and on the outskirts was the monastery. It was a moderately sized compound, with the gathering space empty. No mass was being held today, which was fortunate for them. He walked up to a collection of nuns tending to a garden under the light of some torches.

"Excuse me, sisters." He said politely. "Do you know where Sister Alexandria is?"
The nuns looked up to him, and smiled. "Ah, mister Raymond. Yes, she's with Father Armand, working on tomorrow night's sermon."
Raymond nodded. "Thank you, sister." He began moving again, this time heading for a small building attached to the main church building. He knocked on the door, and a voice called out from inside.
"Just a moment!" There was a scraping of a chair's legs against a wood floor, and the shuffle of footsteps. The sound of a bolt being released was soon followed by the opening of the door. Standing in the frame was a brown-haired, blue-eyed cleric. She was standing just an inch taller than Raymond, her hair down past her shoulders. She was wearing her normal attire: Brown leather pants, leather work-boots, and a simple white textile shirt. She wore a look of confusion for a moment, then Raymond's face registered in her mind.

"Ray!" She said, hugging the mercenary, throwing her arms over his shoulders, eliciting a sharp breath as pain registered in his mind. She broke the hug quickly. "Are you alright?" It was then that she noticed the people behind Raymond. She paled. "Father!" She called. "Get the staves! We've got injured!"
There was another sound of scraping, and another face, this one older, wrinkled, chin covered in stubble and head grey and sparse, appeared. "Raymond! Come in, bring your friends and come in!" He and Lexi moved aside, and Raymond motioned for the group to follow. He moved to the table where sermon notes were laid out, and Lexi and her father sat across from him.
"How-" The priest began.
"Most of us are fine." Raymond said. "A few injuries here and there. The girl mage needs attention first, the Taguel afterwards. We'll go from there."
Lexi nodded, and went off to grab a staff. The Father Armand remained for a moment.
"Did you... did you find it?" He asked.
Raymond reached into his pocket, and produced the medallion. "This what you were looking for?" He asked.
Armand took it carefully, and released a hidden latch on the side. The front of the medallion swung open, and the man's eyes lit up. "Th-thank you." He said, tears coming to his eyes. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"Believe me, I do." Raymond said, pulling out his mother's ring on the necklace he wore. "This is all I have left of my mother."

The man nodded, stood up, and went to help his granddaughter with the healing. Raymond put the necklace back under his shirt, and waited his turn for healing.