"Shit... they're really the empire dogs, and they've noticed us..." Rammus tensed up against the situation that he faced, and that armor guy, gives him a weird vibe. He emerged to the 3 of them, saying with his eyes faced away from them (which obviously indicates a lie), "Just an innocent bystander living in the treetop village, meant no harm against the Empire~~" He's not a good speaker though, and a horrible liar.

To Wolf the stranger seemed... slightly honorable, it was in the way he spoke, the things he chose to say. Oblivious to who Edge was, the boy remained just.

("you don't know me either")

The things we choose to say Wolf thought, all are but words away from becoming hostile, or peaceful. A skilled speaker could surely talk his way out of a situation but, passion and the way you say things besides WHAT you say also makes a difference. The kid was passively aggressive towards Wolf. Usually someone who saw him would either run and hide, or fight and die on the spot. Smart kid, almost.

"Whether you go or stay isn't my decision. This woman wishes to speak to you about Imperial business, as well as the rebels.-"

He went on, still holding his zweihander over his shoulder.

"Now... I assume you are honorable, there is honor in allowing the brains of an operation to converse, and rather smart as a tactic; See, we on the frontlines, in the fields. We bleed for our countries, our nations and armies. But also, at a moments notice we can stop and become brothers, we are the same with differing colors, and weaponry. Believe me I would want nothing more but to kill you where you stand, and believe me if I truly was going to kill you, you would have died when you attacked those bandits up the road a ways."

"You will speak to the Empire through her, I take orders from higher ups, But if you stand in my way you will be stricken down."

The girl dropped her knife on the ground when she saw the two approach. "Okay, lets be reasonable here"

The truth was, she had no business with neither, but the treetop boy looked a bit more sympathetic than the sickle user, specially because he wouldn't stop frowning at her with murderous eyes, plus, he was the one farthest from the wolf

"Ha, its you, you are surely the one who I must talk with it. Do you mind if I get closer? I'm just a girl and I have no weapon" she decided to get bold and looked to the other one, the one who clearly hated her "There are a lot of people in the empire, most suffer horrors and are forced into the army. I do not know why you hate me, but I have never done anything to you"

"The Empire wiped out my village 10 years ago and now they're speaking diplomacy, sounds like a pile of bull O_O ..." Rammus replied rather sarcastically to that woman, still with a bit of hostility. "Soo... let me put it straight, its all the emperor's fault and I should go straight to him instead?" Rammus hissed. ('Still that woman's sounds kinda reasonable') He thought.

-----

"Arghh... that loud gunshot, I thought I only hear that in Swyn." A white-haired guy who looked around in his 20s whined, digging his ears.

"Don't forget our objective of getting here in the first place, master. Interrogated the villagers of payon but there's still no info about the black dragon..." A younger girl, was short and seemingly in her early teens, stated in a formal manner.

Both of them, were strolling nearby Jacque, close enough to see & hear each other. "I knew I should've slept in the castle, this job is sooo boring, I wish to get demoted right away mann" The white-haired guy sighed.
@MonsieurShade

He stayed to listen in on the conversation that the two people had. "So they wiped out your village too?" he asked the boy. Normally nobody survived when the empire attacked, so it was quite interesting to find another young survivor. "How long was it since your village was attacked?" Irita asked.

"10 or 12 years ago, I didn't remember when exactly was that," Rammus responded rather directly to the boy, out of the people here, that boy was the one who seemed the least hostile.

He nodded slowly. It was before he had lost his own town, but only by a few years. "I lost mine 8 years ago. The empire came and completely exterminated everyone. I'm lucky that I managed to escape, but I'm not sure if I'm happy that I did..." he slowly spoke. He had been though a lot of pain and suffering and sometimes he wished he could just fall over and die, but that would only make his family's efforts to keep him alive useless.

The Wolf stared at the two.

"So, where were your villages located, Perhaps I was there."

He chuckled.

"But, perhaps not. I usually assassinated higher up rebel targets. Or kill peons for fun."

Now that she had managed to get enough steps away from the wolf she felt even more bold to speak. Her main worry was being slashed in two before being able to end her phrase, her little glass barrier was good against blades but that sword had enough blunt force to pierce it.

"Probably not. I would know if you were, since I tracked down most of the exterminations for the report that caused me to join the army." she sighed, such a waste of good land "I have yet to understand the logic behind such brutality, the fight is one sided and brings no joy, they won no coin, the land they won meant nothing since its unsettled, its such a waste"

This was the main reason why she wanted to escape the empire, everything had to have a logic behind it, and she wanted to know why the empire seeking to dominate the world on such a wasteful way.

"Krrstrians probably think its because we are really evil, I think, is that right? And you wolf? Do you know why the empire kill and why you kill for the empire?"

The wolf sat up, high now. And attentive

"I kill to avoid death"
He stood up, his voice harsher now.

"You sound as thought you are switching sides, The Empire offers freedom. Blopdshed is a minor issue, on both sides. Both are equally good and evil, our cause however, outweighs any other."

"Why I am not changing sides, see if I am aligned to the empire its my duty to see that it's on its best shape, and if this wave of raiding and killing goes on our whole economy will be in danger" she sighed "the point is simple, the empire is not fighting for itself but for a completely unknow reason. And don't imply I'm using childish concepts of good and evil hete. And you sir, should know that to the clows who are in command you are only a sharp sword and your whole survival ordeal is directly related to how long the fighting goes on. Not suggesting that you leave the empire's side, that would be silly, but you know, if this war goes on for longer it would be the best for you"

"I'll not turn on the ones that saved me"

He gripped his handle and brushed his cape aside.

"You do as you please, but know this. If you choose this path sometime or later, I may ne tasked with hunting you down. And tearing those Imperial colors from your skin."

"Buddy, I have no idea what the hell you're eating, but you need to eat less of it. Seriously, how can someone look scrawny but feel this heavy?" Jacque grunted as he trotted along the dirt road with his quarry hung securely on his shoulders like some sort of prize belt. The horse thief offered no sort of retort of course, as he was still very much unconscious. As Jacque was almost clueless when it came to how "dead weight" worked, he simply passed off the man's heft as an abundance of eating, and began to grumble about how people outside of Swyn had it easy.

His grumbling was quickly cut short as he saw several figures up ahead, far enough to where he couldn't hear them, but close enough to make out how many there were. Now, Jacque wasn't the most clever man on the planet, but he was smart enough to know that him trying to stroll through a group of people with a gun on his back and an obviously shot man on his shoulder would be a very poor idea. With that in mind, Jacque stepped off of the path and a few yards into the woods, hoping that he might be able to sneak past the group unmolested. He began to creep forward, trying to keep an idea both on the group and where he placed his feet at the same time. This of course didn't work out quite the way he wanted it to, as the dry leaf litter, nuts and twigs that covered the forest floor made things quite tricky. Still, Jacque did his best to keep noise to a minimum as he advanced towards the group.

"Hah, you too?" Rammus continued on to his sarcastic reply. "Suit yourselves then, from what I heard, its better to-" He closed his mouth when he realized that if he continue his words, it would mean imminent death. ("Was planning to say 'kill the emperor', and how long is this chatter going to take ") He thought.

-----

"I'm hungry..." The white haired man stated.

"There're fruits nearby, grab a bite or so?" The young girl replied in her usual emotionless tone.

"I don't eat food that aren't cooked medium rare~" The man replied with a yawn, then continued,"Back at Payon, the magic weapons that the old man forges are pretty useless, I expect a bit more from this country, enough to at least stand against us, at this rate this war would be damn boring >.< . Ah, the rebels are pretty fun to get along with ^_^"

"And you should know that you know too much about the Empire's secrets, the only demotion is death, Atticus." The girl stated, reading her book in whilst hearing her master's words rather nonchalantly. Both of them, fortunately, doesn't notice Jacque tailing them.

"When I head back, I'm going to tell the emperor to stop that stupid dragon pursue mission, its damn impossible to find, who knows, that dragon may be taking a dump in the moon >.< ..." Atticus complained again.
@MonsieurShade

She turned in to the direction of the boy, smirking since she noticed what he was implying

Either way, are you still scared of me? Because I'm getting a little tired, it was a long journey to arrive at Krrstria, and I need to know if I will have help here or if I will have to keep wandering around

Now that she looked closer they were probably about the same age, she was a bit taller, but it was quite interesting to see how different he was from the other boys in her land

"If I said I don't, I would be lying." Rammus stated, then continued, "And, what brings you all here? Don't tell me you're all planning for another invasion?"

"What brings me here is that this place is not the empire. My judgement was being way too clouded there. I have to think a lot, research a lot and maybe see some new places" she looked to see if wolf was still even paying attention "Plus, I was made into a high official despite my wish to not join the army, I don't want to take part in the wars"

The Wolf, sitting, focussed on the three characters. Attentive as ever and ready to shift into gear at any moment as he always was.
He was feeling odd about his new "friend" Kalio was beginning to feel as though she could turn on him in his mind. He wasn't ready to confront her or the others. He wished not to fight unless he absoluetly needed to, but he was itching for combat since it had been some days since his sword tasted the blood of his enemies.

Thus far things appeared to be going well for Jacque once more; He was actually making a good pace through the forest, and he was being quite enough that he hadn't been noticed by anyone thus far. The bounty hunter frowned a bit as he wondered just what this group was doing and if any of them had anything to do with the bodies he'd spotted earlier, however he ultimately decided that it was not his problem and continued on his way. A set of voices that most definitely didn't sound as though they came from the path caused Jacque to freeze in place. He crouched a bit and swiveled his head to find the source before he spotted two people ahead of him whom had also appeared to opt for an alternate route. They appeared to be talking about something and hadn't noticed him, which was good, but it didn't change the fact that he'd failed to notice them.

Jacque felt like slapping himself, he knew his father definitely would have done it. He'd been so focused on walking lightly and looking at the group on the road that he'd neglected to make sure there was no one in the woods with him. He shook his head disgustedly as he mentally lambasted his naïveté before he pushed off again, this time taking slower and more deliberate steps, and remaining crouched so as to make himself a bit more inconspicuous.

"Well, if you'd teach me magic, that would be great, but I should say I've a sheer difficulty learning it~" Rammus continued on his sarcastic tone, then said,"I'm heading to Payon, I don't feel safe when there're alot of people from the Empire scouting around here >_>, and I will report to them about this situation~~" He stated.

-----

Jacque tailed the two to a close distance without much problems, the two stopped talking as they continued strolling along the forest, seemingly heading to the direction of Swyn. However, both of them took out umbrellas, opening them despite the clear & nice weather.
@MonsieurShade