Ark'kruy'ek and his members began to get closer to the sight of the incident. Ark'kruy'ek barked and his pack members disappeared into the woods. "Forrest isn't safest place. They ambush if we get ambushed." Ark'kruy'ek and the group he led were close to the incident. The present of elvish bodies was the give away. "It happened here. We leave bodies for evidence." Ark'kruy'ek got quiet. "Observe what you need." Ark'kruy'ek began to look at the surroundings. The smell and skin pigment of the bodies showed that the incident was rather recent but some of the evidence was spoiled by time.

"You expect me to back down? You back down." James retorted.
"You called my daughter a brat. Nobody is allowed to scold that girl but me."

"You took a hostage because you're unsure of your skill, right?" he continued. "You know you need a hostage to keep an advantage. But on that same note, you know that if you get rid of her, you're defenseless. You don't expect me to believe you'd just let her go after taking something, right? If you let her go, I'd just kill you then and take it out of spite. If you killed her, I'd have every reason to torture and execute you. You could take her prisoner, but... who knows what I'd do, then. But if you let her go and leave, I give my word I won't kill you. For now."

Anya was really taken by surprise when one of her potential friends grabbed her and stuck a dagger to her neck. She simply stood there, shocked, as her father burst into the room. Who could have expected that this stranger was secretly a bad man? Not Anya, certainly, because the stranger said himself that he was nice. That he was helping mister Elric feel better.

Was mister Elric bad? Was the big squirrel bad? Who else was bad that Anya thought fondly of? Would any of them put a dagger to her neck?

"Papa," she murmured softly, tears beginning to slide down her cold cheek. She looked at her father with frightened, pleading eyes. She knew what he had to do, and she knew what she had to do even though she still didn't want the stranger to get hurt.

Anya blinked a few more tears away, and turned suddenly into a cloud of mist.

James' head lowered, and his blade shot out like a snake, striking at Remington's neck. With a twist, he pulled the body down onto the floor, wrenching the sword free.

"....I'm sorry you had to see that." he said to the mist floating around the room.

Elric's Abode

Remington's eyes shook as the child turned into mist. "Wha-" Then he stabbed in the neck by the knight who was ready for battle. Mimsy... I wish I could blame you old friend. I hope you at least succeeded in your mission. was the thought that ran through his mind as Remington fell to the ground, as his neck was oozing out blood. Remington dropped the dagger, as he held onto his neck trying to keep the blood from rushing out, as it just moved through his fingers. I... I can't die! Not now! He thought, as he squirmed on the ground.

---

Uncovering the Scene.

As they arrived on the scene, Cateline began examining corpses of the Elves. "Pale. ... Some traces of flies, no maggots initially." Randolf walked around, observing it. Although not nearly as close as Cateline, who was squatting just above the bodies, and messing with the corpses. Rihar glanced at Ark with his eyebrow raised in a quizzical expression. "Well... that's certainly one way of marking a location. Can you detail the incident?" Cateline searched the bodies while he asked the question.

"Ooh juicy gossip about our Hawethorn. Shouldn't we be more intrigued about the people trying to kill you Elric?"
Tirarian noticed him clutching that book and box like it meant the world to him, but there was a time and a place for asking these questions

Delvin almost laughed when the girl suggested that he should go to the Astronomer's Guild to seek their help, Feld didn't bother hiding it.

"Go to the Astronomer's Guild? Are you ruddy mad lass? They would sooner take me away from Delvin and stick me on top of a staff than proceed to wave it around their brainless heads sooner than they would help me return to my body! Feld shouted through his pouch. Delvin once again tapped the pouch to silence Feld and then said to Liesal.

"We have some...bad experiences when it comes to seeking help from groups of mages, we don't trust any groups of mages anymore. And we most certainly have no intention to offering you to the church and what's the point anyway? You already have to provide your defense, the only way you can possibly win your defense is by convincing the people of Estemere that you're not a demon, or you could possibly run away from this town. Either option we will help in any way we can in exchange for your abilities.

"Hm..." Sebastian stopped for a second to think too, "If I'm not mistaken, I think you bought us the last round. Yes, I think that was it. I still remember what you were saying that day, about those bloody Niscenii and how they gave you a bad feeling. I remember saying you were overthinking it." the half-elf shook his head, "I'm sure they've got nothing against our little town."

"Thanks for that, Rowan. I'll definitely pay it off if she needs."

Corinne grinned up at Benjamin with those bright blue eyes and grabbed him by the hand, "That's amazing." She looked behind him over at Rowan with a thankful expression, "Thank you, Rowan! I promise I won't get your boy into too much trouble."
She got on her tip-toes to give the youth's cheek a little kiss before leaving his grasp to get the bread. It was difficult to find a decent, clean cloth in the entire place but finally she did find one, and wrapped up the almond bread loaf, pressing it into the boy's hands before smiling as she stood at the entrance of the forge, beckoning for him to join her after a little word to his father, "Rowan, Ben and I are going off to the forest for a picnic. That's okay with you, isn't it?"
She barely waited for an answer before she was out the door, with the boy in check, and met with a loving nuzzle from Lysander, whom she pulled herself up on while the boy chose to walk alongside her. She left Sebastian at the forge, or to do whatever he wanted with his time until she'd get back. She knew he'd take care of himself. And he was very well capable.

On their way out, they stopped over by to see Ben's mother, who rather gladly made a pot of tea for the two of them, which they thanked her heartily for. The pot was wrapped in more cloth and carefully balanced on Lysander's saddle, at least for the time they were walking in the city. Corinne would hand it over to Ben when or if she needed to run.
On the way to the closest exit out into the forest, Corinne spotted an interesting duo making their way through the streets. It was almost at the edge of that side of town, but the two could not have been mistaken for anyone else.
"Elric...?" she squinted a little, "Miss Tirarian, is that you?!"
Noticing the man hobbling, she drove the horse into a little trot, with Ben following as best as he could on the cobblestone. "Elric, miss Tirarian. Fancy seeing you out here, and..."
Her voice drifted. Something didn't seem truly right about the situation. He looked exhausted. She turned to the gnome, whose size she stood at least three times as tall as while on horseback, though she didn't dismount just yet.
"Miss Tirarian, is he alright? You look...anxious, and he looks even worse than the night before. I told him to stay at home and rest right after he'd gone and treated to those at the tavern last night...did you know what happened last night?" she blinked at the gnome, "It was horrid, it was. They broke right into his house, they did."
She sighed a little, with Benjamin holding the pot a little tighter. He seemed just as worried, though much less vocal about it.
"...where are you two headed to? I'm sure Cherry wouldn't mind giving Elric a lift, and you can tell me on the way. In fact, allow me to. It's the very least I can do when he's like...that."

"And how, pray tell, do you propose doing that?" Liesel burst out, exasperated. "A man with a living talking skull does not help convince s jury, esolpecially a biased jury, that the defendant at hand is not a necromancer! And I can't run away, not again. Estermere is my home now. I can't let a bunch of ignorant bigots tell me what and who I am!"
Liesel was positively furious. It was not a good situation to be in - she knew, somwhere in her heart, that this man and his skull just wanted to help, but she knew they couldn't.
"If you can come up with a way to get these superstitious halfwits off my back, I swear, I will be in your debt for ever."

Somewhere in Forest Mither, an hour’s ride from Estermere

“Ach, we’re not so lucky today.”
Two dark-skinned wood elves with bows slung over their backs and distinctive green cloaks bounded over pine trees and mires. They seemed to be searching for something: game, namely. But any local elf would instantly recognize the cloaks: the pair were Knights of the Leaf, a secondary defense force to Estermere besides the official guard and the safekeepers of Forest MIther. They spoke in hastened Wood-Elven, an even more secretive version of the elven they used to communicate with their ‘high’ brothers. Pff. Pompous idiots.
“Shh.”
“Hey, wait. What’s that?”
The pair had suddenly stopped, both on opposing branches of two pine trees. Directly in front of them was a simple campsite, but with a military touch: the campers were clad in iron armor, some with red tunics, and wielded mostly longswords and halberds. They seemed to be eagerly awaiting something.

“Remington should be here now.” One guard was getting restless, and he began fiddling with his halberd.

“Oi! Be careful where you point that thing.” His comrade narrowly dodged the restless halberd from his friend. “Anyway, Remington IS a senior member of their guard. Might be doin’ some paperwork or something.”
“Eh, you may be right.”
“Aren’t I? Now QUIET.”
One of the wood-elves was unfazed. “Eh, they seem to be Estermerean guards themselves.”
“Are you off your head? Estermere-men wear BLUE. Red is someone... else. Maybe a foreign power. Anyway, they were speaking of Remington.” The elf’s eyes narrowed under his hood. “Remington is a traitor.”
“What? He can’t be. As you said, he’s a senior membe-”
“Go. Go back and report to Ironmaw. I will keep watch.”
His comrade reluctantly agreed and bounded off into the trees.

To Elric's House

Elric stuck out his tongue, "Kill me? Now why would anyone want to kill me? ... Besides Baxter the Bull, but that isn't the point. No it was more around the lines of, someone wanted me for some other reason. I could only hope that it was some woman who desired me for some reason or another." Elric chuckled for a bit, before his face contorted into a nasty grin. "...Note to self." he muttered under his breath. "Laughing hurts."

---

Smith's Smithy.

"Ye-" Before Rowan could even finish the statement of approval he headed off. Rowan shook his head and chuckled, "Ah kids." Rowan glanced back at the sword and retrieved it. "Time to make more coin."

---

To Elric's House.

Then the trot of horse-hooves drew Elric's attention away from the pain he felt. "Oh, I'm still in one single piece.... May feel pain breathing, walking may also be painful... In general." Elric paused as he wheezed out. "Painful things are occurring. But I am at least above the ground, and not buried within it.'

As Anya reformed, she glanced at Remington's flailing, bloody body on the ground before violently turning away. Only minutes ago she was talking to this man, and couldn't for the world ever imagine that he would do something bad to her. Now he was as good as dead, on the floor after bringing a dagger to her throat. She understood that he was bad and that her papa had to do what he did, but she still didn't like it.

"...It's fine, papa," Anya replied, as she lumbered towards the door. She didn't want to be in there any more, and it wasn't just the body. She was beginning to feel hungry, and being around the intense smell of blood might make her lose control. She imagined sticking her fangs into Remington and feeding on him, which made her feel ashamed and nauseous. It was OK when her papa was letting her do it, holding her and smiling, but the thought of attacking someone near death in cold blood like that made her queasy.

Anya stumbled out the door, and walked a few feet before collapsing in tears on the opposite wall.

"Anya..." James crept forward, shutting the office door behind him, leaving the heavily bleeding man inside. He felt the weight of shame start to bear down on his shoulders. He'd acted in the moment; a different attack could have subdued the attacker.
No, he decided. He'd just have to play through.

"Anya, c'mere." James knelt down, and drew the girl into a hug.
"I'm sorry."

Anya put her arms around her father and continued to cry, shaking her head.

"I know you had to do it," she blubbered through the tears, "I'm not angry at you, I-"

Anya's words were interrupted by more uncontrollable bawling and heaving. She couldn't seem to finish the thought without choking on her tears even more, and resorted to a sort of mantra whenever she could get her words out.

"I'm trying my best," she repeated over and over through the tears, "I'm trying my best..."

Julia watched the confrontation, horror written all over her face. It isn't that she hadn't seen such gore before, but to be stuck in a place with no disguises, her sword at the smithy, she prayed to the gods that confrontation wouldn't find her otherwise she’d have to get very creative. Slinking deeper into her seat, Julia pulled her hood farther over her head, hoping not to be noticed by anyone. She slowly ate her stew, her eyes wandering around the busy tavern. She eyed the targets that lined the walls. This would be a rather decent place for her, if she could ensure her own safety. But she just didn't feel right without her sword. It made her look intimidating to say the least, or so she thought. She was missing a piece of her and stuck inside this hole of a rowdy tavern.

Blood splattered her way as the human smashed the glass into the elf’s eye. Apparently she wasn't far enough from conflict. She mixed the stew slowly with her spoon, only to find a few droplets of blood. A hand rising to her mouth, holding in what she could, she used the other hand to push the bowl away from her.

The room suddenly got very quiet as the tavern wench yelled “Tha’s enuff” … “Well, just like home I suppose” the words never escaped her mouth but certainly did cross her mind. She chugged down the rest of her whiskey. Time for her to move on.

Subtly, she reached down and grabbed the dagger from her boot. Moving her hand, she concealed it somewhere inside her shirt. She didn't feel like crossing through the tavern without easy access to a blade.

Julia crossed by the big man with no shirt as she passed through to the wench. She paid close attention to the elf, his features, the amount of blood he lost and the beating he got. She had no idea the details of the conflict, or even why it was started, but she hated bullies. She endured enough of her own share, being a half blood. Her gaze drifted to the human who had pummeled the elf nearly to death, the cowardly kicks he dealt to the elf, he would soon suffer, she would make sure of that. Her eyes were fixed on the human male as she made her way over to pay for her meal, pale blue swirls of death focused on the man for a long moment, even as she counted out what she had owed. The mental picture was made, every scar, every curvature of his features, his nose, his eyes, his lips .. And with that, she made her way upstairs to her room, securing the locks behind her.

The room was dimly lit, a wash basin near the far corner, a small bed against the adjacent wall. The next few hours seemed to fly by for her. During that time, Julia had bathed, groomed, organized her few belongings. Night met her as she wrote in her small black, leather bound journal. She looked up from her writing and glanced to the door. The noise from down below radiated all the way to her room, she could tell the tavern was still full of its drunk and rowdy patrons. This would be her test, how far can she go to get work in this town. She donned a change of clothes, black and dark grey leathers from head to toe. She laced up her boots which reached to her knees and pulled her hood over her head, tucking her hair out of sight. Her attire was finished with a cloak to conceal her figure, and a mask to complete her outfit, which was that of a wolf of dark grey fur.

Walking through her own door would have been too obvious, so carefully she crept out through the window. Trailing down the stone exterior of the tavern nearly ended in her own death. Her foot missed a spot within the stones and she slipped down a bit before catching herself on a nearby tree. “If only I stayed for more training” she thought quietly. She held onto the tree tightly, and for a moment longer until she caught her breath again. Once on the ground, she began to case the surrounding area and the entrance of the tavern. She needed to find her target once more, and there he was, sitting as his booth, ale in hand. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, then moved into the shadows. The act of killing him, she knew, would be an easy way to attract attention, enemies, allies, future employers. But she needed the coin, and this was the only way she knew how to get it discretely. Her hands clenched firmly into the dirt as she pulled up a chunk and rubbed it over her, hiding any scents, she had to be very careful, for who knows who was watching. The tavern was crowded, there was barely room to walk, let alone sneak by. But she was good at moving quietly. Any time someone would look in her direction, it wasn't very long before she was gone.

Finally, she made her way close enough to the man. Eye contact was all that she needed, to show him her beautiful, mesmerizing blue eyes which would have been the only feature to show through the mask. Success! He put down his ale and rose from his booth, saying not one word to anyone else at his table. She lured him to the back end of the tavern. With all the noise and chattering, shouting and drinking in the tavern, the sound of breaking a glass was the least of her worries. It was getting the deed done that would be the difficult part. She knew nothing about this man, not of his strengths nor weaknesses, or if he would be stupid enough to follow an alluring figure alone. But there he was, slobbering drunk and enraged with passion. Sultry in her moves, seduction in her eyes, she sauntered over to the man, the broken glass hidden behind her back. Her free hand moved to caress his face, fingers tenderly tracing over the gash on his forehead. She had him right where she wanted him.

In a quick dash, she moved, plunging the broken glass into his left eye. Her left foot stepped behind her as she reached for her dagger, quickly stabbing the man, several quick successions in the chest. The man gasped for air, one hand on his eye, the other reached to grab her. She evaded his grasp, but in doing so, managed to knock over a few barrels, causing several to look her way. They might have caught a glimpse, but she was already on the run. All they would've seen was a small figure, drab in dark colors, dashing out of the tavern.

She couldn't stick around to revel in her accomplishment. They’d find her. Outside the tavern, there was plenty of shade to shelter her. Quickly making her way back to her room through the window, she changed her clothes and took to the comfort of her bed, the knowledge of what she had done leaving a smile on her face as she rested her head back on the pillow. “Tomorrow will be a brand new day” she whispered softly to herself.

Ark'kruy'ek looked at the dwarf when he was told to describe the scene. "We were hunting a deer. It was shot but not killed. Rosie was chasing it and bit it in the leg." Ark'kruy'ek then walked to a spot and pointed at it. "They fell here and had a short fight. Hyena won. Then arrow struck Rosie. Five elves jumped out." He then pointed to five others spots. "They landed there. Fight broke out. We won but lost two pack members. There were four of us." Ark'kruy'ek looked around. "We took out dead back."

The Scene of the Incident

Rihar was stroking his beard the entire time as the Gnoll told the brief story. "Any dialogue you can remember?" Cateline continued her observation of the corpses, "Tears on the lower leggings of one of the corpses. Probably lost something in the brush." Randolf quickly spoke up, "Yes, someone should investigate that. I nominate myself." And as such Randolf headed into the brush near the scene, as he delved his hands in searching for something out of place.

Rihar glanced at Ark'kruy'ek, "Which dead? The Elven dead, or the Gnoll dead? And out back do you mean to your village or back somewhere else?"

Estermere guardhouse

“They were wearing WHAT?!”
Captain Ironmaw of the Estermerean guard was not happy. Ever since a wood elf barged into his ‘naptime’ telling of a random camp which had established itself WITHOUT HIM KNOWING, he was not very happy indeed.
“Yes, Captain. Red.”
“RED?!” The captain stood up, upturning his chair in the process, and began pacing around the room. “You do know what RED means in Daiar, don’t you?”
“Uh, no, Captain.”
“They are NISCENI!” The captain stopped in front of his desk and brought a mighty claw down onto the table, jolting the ranger back. “The NISCENI are a bunch of corrupt, cunning, power-hungry, imperialistic SHITS!”
“Captain, calm down-”
“What do you mean, CALM DOWN, soldier?!” The captain was in a blind rage, and none knew better in Estermere than to disturb Captain Ironmaw’s rantings in one of his blind rages. “They sneaked into Rostguard, our beautiful country, UNDETECTED! No sense of alertness, the border guard boys!”
“Captain, I suggest you send some men over there right n-”

“And you bet I WILL!” The captain grumbled, turned to a nearby dragonborn aide, and screamed something in Draconic that neither aide nor wood elf would have wanted to fully comprehend. “HALF of this goddamn garrison!” Ironmaw lowered his voice to a threatening, cold tone - worse, way worse than his usual hollering. “And you know what, treehugger? Those Nisceni are in for a bad time.”

"I know you are." James answered the girl, hugging her tightly. It was foolish of him not to cover her eyes, to do something else. She's have nightmares for weeks on end after that. This would be a terrible problem to fix.
Gently, the knight scooped Anya into his arms, and carried her back to the bedroom. He sat her down on the bed, and sat next to her, covering her shoulders with a blanket. James didn't actually know whether the blanket would be good at comforting Anya or not. Nora would know. James wished Nora was here.

After a minute, James worked up his stomach, and decided to ask Anya something, before he lost the chance to.
"Anya, are you hungry?" he said, in a cautious voice.

Trafalgar listened to the two half-orcs talking about their upbringing and about their gods, opting to stay out of the conversation himself. In his travels, Trafalgar had met a few half-orcs who he befriended but they never really talked about their culture, it may be that he never really thought to ask them about it, but they didn't nonetheless. So, he patiently waited until they finished with what they were discussing and when Rovtar asked them to follow him inside the Guild, Trafalgar nodded in agreement.

As if the building wasn't in itself plenty impressive, the interior was a first in the eyes of Trafalgar. He knew about some of the things that one could do with magic, such as manipulating the elements to his advantage and levitating objects, albeit the latter being a much more advanced technique than the other, what surprised him the most though was the magical tapestry on the interior walls of the building. It was littered with starry formations that seemed so realistic that one would think he just stepped into a different dimension when walking through the front door; nothing far from the truth though. Estermere itself was like every other normal town but the Guild was definitely what picked it apart from all the other towns.

Trafalgar remained silent as they walked towards the courtyard, following Rovtar. When they went outside, Trafalgar waited for Rovtar to get Ashera's attention before he said anything. When she came over, he introduced himself, "Hello, my name is Trafalgar Hurris" he said with a slight bow. "All those lessons on proper etiquette that dad forced on me have finally payed off..." he thought as he raised his head to look at the elderly woman. "I've come here to learn more about the arcane arts. I just met Rovtar here who told me that you are the one who teaches this class and I couldn't wait to meet you."