500 BCE Scotland

I'll find you somewhere to stay and get you something to eat before we leave you, Adair said to the woman riding behind him before turning his eyes back to the village. He kept his gaze trained on the smoke rising from varied sections of the area, the sources unknown for the moment.

"I think we should get just what is needed and leave, the less time we waste here the better."

Eoin's words expressed what he had already been thinking at seeing the town. Men from whoever had already gotten as far as Cantae, even if who they were exactly was unknown. There could easily be more lingering in this place as well. And if not here already, then surely on their way. He thought silently. Even his sight couldn't foresee what trouble might await them inside the village. "Agreed," Adair said as he turned toward Eoin, "The sooner we're on our way, the sooner I can get rid of you all anyway, right....?" Adair let the jest trail off as he saw the man skirting the horse further away from him.

Eoin's whole demeanor had changed in an instant. The way he was looking at Adair now suggested he was incredibly wary for some reason, and it was obvious Adair was the source of it. Seriously? Is he that upset over a joke? The thought was the most obvious, but there was a sneaking suspicion that the jest wasn't the problem. Nobody could be that ill-humored...

"Is something the matter?" Adair asked him bluntly. There was no point dancing around the issue and apologizing for something he was unsure of. Might as well have the matter out into the open and get past it.

For the first time since they had broken camp earlier in the morning, Adair debated whether or not staying with the group was the right decision or not...

Eoin

It was a small tense sensation that coursed through the air as Adair called Eoin out on his new found act. It was true that Eoin did suspect him of being what he considered tainted, magik being on of the worst things to come into the hands of man in his own opinion. He looked back at the group behind them as the two were still parallel on their path towards the village.
Sure the others were out of ear shout he looks at Adair and speaks. "I would not have thought a man like you would have need of such a.. gift." It was obvious that the last word was easily going to be something else had he not decided to change what he was going to say originally.

He was referring to the power of magik he could sense coming from Adair not long before, but even then he did not know exactly what it was that Adair could really do with his own gift.
"In my experience such men are not worthy of anything but the tip of my blade.." He sheds another look back towards the others "But I find that the same scent drowns out almost the whole group as well.

He doesn't look back at Adair, as if the conversation was disgraceful in some understanding.

He had been following this strange group for some time now, completely undetected, for he had learned long ago how to blend his scent and body into his environment so that not even the horses sitting up wind from him could catch his smell.
Still, even with the precautions he had taken, Galan Erlich stole a paranoid glance over his shoulder, searching for the other Pict's he had escaped two days ago.
He knew they would eventually find him, he could avoid anyone but not his own people, but here, being so close to the Celtic village, he hoped they wouldn't come so close into Tribal lands. One Pict was easier to hide than a dozen.
Again, Galan turned to study the group. All of them smelled of magick, except for the blonde-giant who eyed the others.
The man next to the giant, in the lead was one Galan knew he had to be wary of, for he had the look of a expert traveler, his gaze overattentive and hawk-like. When that man was on watch at night, Galan had to retreat deeper into the shadows of the trees to avoid being spotted.
The two that the Pict found most intriguing was the young, black-haired warrior and the even younger, beautiful flame-haired woman who rode in the saddle with him. The warrior was more of a curiosity, his hair not a natural color for a Celt or a Pict, as well as the cold-blue of his eyes. The woman however, had a smell of powerful magic, and he noticed her pulling out a strange object in the past day or so, but never revealing it among her companions,
What are you hiding?, Galan thought to himself, climbing out of his tree and waiting for the travelers to pass by.
The Spirits had guided him to this group for a reason, and he had a feeling he would find out soon enough.

It was quite obvious Eoin was more than just a little upset now. Magic was rare in this world, but it seemed the man treated it nearly the same as most other people treated anything they didn't rightly see as 'common' or truly understand. But rather than get upset at the thought of not being accepted by those certain individuals, Adair had come to pity them. Not for their lack of skill in any magical arts or even that they would never have the knowledge of what using a gift, as Eoin had called it, such as the one Adair had; but he pitied them because they often became so fixated on the hatred and disdain of magic, that it blinded them to the real truth of the matter.

"In my experience such men are not worthy of anything but the tip of my blade.." Looking back toward Cadeyrn and Sorcha, Eoin added, "But I find that the same scent drowns out almost the whole group as well."

That was interesting. Adair couldn't sense latent magic like Eoin was obviously could, so finding out Cadeyrn or Sorcha, or perhaps both, had the use of magic as well was a piece of information Adair was quite intrigued to know. His guess was that magic only manifested itself in Sorcha though, seeing as how Eoin was here on Cadeyrn's behalf. Adair doubted the man was someone who would tolerate a flaw in one person and not another. Committing the information to memory, Adair turned his thoughts back to Eoin's issue at hand. Him.

Ignoring the comment of being worthy only of the tip of Eoin's blade, Adair continued in a way that was less likely to provoke the big man. "I would agree with you in most cases. But it is also my opinion that our world of men are, in a whole, one giant kettle of ignorance. Yet, that doesn't make everyone ignorant in themselves, just the perception of the whole. Same goes for magic. Many can be used for harm or misdeeds, but that is determined by the individual, wouldn't you agree?" Keeping his tone level as he continued, Adair wondered if Eoin was already too far gone on the subject to listen further. He continued anyway. "A blade could be misused in the wrong hands as well as a great utility in the right hands.

He didn't bother pressing the issue further. Eoin would make up his own mind whether or not to tolerate it. If not, it only gave Adair an excuse to press on alone after the village.

Eoin

The conversation between Adair and Eoin was growing.
Eoin himself was starting to see that the man next to him was more thoughtful then the usual soldier that he encounters in his travels. He had a strong understanding of people and what made them more then me when the time came to it.

Everyone was passing through the threshold of the villages boundaries now, the off look of the entire group was attracting several weary stares from the older folk and none the least were the ones given towards Adair and Eoin's direction. It was easy to see that the village itself didn't get many travelers and that those who were unknown could not shed an uneasy air so easily through the villages boarder.

Eoin looked back at Adair as he finished speaking, he was correct that a blade could misused and very well so. But he knew that his own words had more of an unforeseen essence too the. "When the soldiers came to take my home.. there was a man among them." Eoin spoke softly as he looked on ahead, sure that Adair could still hear him. "Dark plumes of thick ashen smoke flowed out of his hands like water from a great fall.. it turned out the smoke could flay any man it touched within moments."

"That was the night my homeland fell to invasion" He looked back at the young warrior to emphasis how he felt about the subject, the thought itself created an absent stare on his face. He kipped the horse to keep better time with Adair's and began to cast his sight about the village in an effort to get better sight of their surroundings. "No man.. should have power like that." Eoin spoke lastly as he spotted a large communal long house near the villages center.