Knights of the Lily

[Wulf Ritter]

Cyrus glanced at the group, noting the strained exhaustion on all their faces. Cyrus' own lungs and muscles still ached hotly with the constant exertion of the previous night. Age is catching up with you, old man, he thought ruefully.

"Very well, I agree that we should rest. But we should take turns keeping watch - who knows what else might be loose in the forests." Looking again at the others - particularly Laurence and Addy - Cyrus added, "I'll take the first watch and the others may rest."

[ladybella]

Kyra nodded agreeing with everything said. She headed for the tree.
"Wake me when you're tired," She said to Cyrus. She then climbed into the tree and rested, belly down on the lowest branch. She rested her head on her hands and crossed her ankles. She listened to the group for a while before sleep took her.
She dreamt breifly of her father, then of a man she met in a tiny town and then of a large wurm rising out of the ground and snatching her out of the tree.

[Sorayah]

Addy arched a surprised eyebrow at Cyrus's unexpected welcoming of the woman' assistance, but she supposed beggars couldn't be choosers. And, as was becoming rapidly apparent, her companions were all on the run from the Inquisition for one reason or another, and were therefore essentially beggars. She sighed in relief when Cyrus and the old woman agreed to rest awhile before moving on, and promptly lay back down on the grass next to the poisoned man, scooting away a bit in order to avoid being too close to the skeleton as it ministered to him. She was asleep almost before she closed her eyes, and knew nothing else until someone woke her.

[Chamomile]

Skeleton couldn't sleep. Not in the sense that she was having difficulty getting to sleep but in that she was now literally incapable of sleeping. She desperately wanted to rest. Now she was out of danger, she was more keenly aware of the perpetual sense of fatigue that clouded her body and mind. She wanted to lie down and wake up feeling refreshed, but she couldn't. She could tell, naturally, that she would never sleep again, and though she tried anyways in spite of things, it hadn't worked.

While awake, she had noticed that Caeca had apparently vanished. Skeleton couldn't see her anywhere. She wondered briefly if Cyrus or Kyra had seen where she'd gone to, but couldn't ask. Either way, a few hours later, as noon approached, she emerged from the woods again, so near that Skeleton wondered if perhaps she'd slept beneath the foliage of the forest, so well hidden as to be impossible for Skeleton to detect. Her senses were shot, anyway.

Laurence was stirring, now, and seemed much healthier than he had before. "Where...What's going on?" he asked groggily, "where am I, and...Who are all you people?"

"You should learn to observe first," Caeca said, "and ask questions only after you are certain of safety. We need to head through the forest, we'll skirt Glenden and make for the coast. We must avoid the roads, better by far to deal with bandits than the Inquisition."

[Wulf Ritter]

As he unwrapped his cloak from about himself, Cyrus felt his muscles protest like fire beneath his skin. The sun dangling above them and streaming through the trees, Cyrus hoped that they would get moving soon so that he could get his limbs moving before his muscles cramped up entirely. As he absently massaged the back of his leg, he looked out into the forest for signs of life, constantly vigilant lest something untoward ambush them in the forest solitude. To his relief, it seemed he and his companions - including the elusive Caeca - were the only ones present.

He heard Caeca explaining their course of travel to a rather groggy Laurence. Cutting across the country through the forest would be hard going, but it was the course that Cyrus would have insisted upon, as well. Still . . .

"The Inquisition often patrols the forests," he said, rising to his feet with more struggle than he had thought necessary. "Many bandits take to their profession to supplement an illicit interest in necromancy - or because a bandit that controls the undead can command a great deal of fear and respect. But I agree it is the wisest course: we can hide from them as easily as they can hide from us."

The old warrior adjusted his pack and sheathed his sword. "Well, I suppose no time like the present. Let's get away from here before the Inquisition begins beating the bushes."

[Chamomile]

The past few days hadn't been easy on Skeleton's nerves. As they made their way north towards the hills near Glenden, they'd several times had to duck and hide from large forces of soldiers moving through the countryside, heading towards Loronum. The King must have been assembling an army for some reason, but that reason wasn't something Skeleton had bothered to guess at. Over the last few days she had gathered from overheard conversation that it wasn't too long since her death, which meant the tensions between Lyrynwen and neighboring kingdoms would still be high. There had been growing rumors of war, so perhaps now it had finally happened.

Either way, with so many soldiers moving through the area, there hadn't been much in the way of bandits. Occasionally someone who could actually see would mention that there were signs of them in the area, and they'd move in some other direction to avoid them. Sometimes she wished they wouldn't. Nothing but travel and eight hours a night of doing nothing but staring into nothing while her companions slept, coupled with the inability to speak and constant fatigue, was slowly driving her insane with boredom and a relentless desire for something that she couldn't put her finger on, and if the fights with the kobolds had taught her anything, it was that ripping apart a few murderous bastards would prove a good distraction. Besides, she was hauling around a polearm and she wanted a chance to use it eventually.