Centaurs were not something Cedric had encountered very often around Rivenspire, and it was always at a distance, well away from one another. Seeing a group such as this acting as a raiding party, for reasons Cedric could only guess at, was somewhat jarring. Still, he reckoned that there were two sets of vital organs, or the usual targets were worth aiming for; behind the front legs or in the human upper torso. Stepping out into the street, Cedric joined the fight, bow drawn.

His companions were regrouping as the skirmish unfolded with various degrees of success. Cedric was just in time to see Faruq’s arm become mangled from the full on strike of one of the centaur’s cudgel, which struck with inhuman force against his shield, and Fiona was dealing with an arrow pierced into her abdomen. The entire scene was chaos, and this was not going the way Cedric had imagined the first couple of days of traveling going. Predictably, Maulakanth was nowhere to be seen in the fight, ineffective with his dependency on strength potions. It was moments like this the big green orc would have been valuable in his prime.

A guard screamed in surprise as an arrow skimmed his helm, startling him enough to fall on his ass as he came to terms with the fact that the arrow had not buried itself in his skull. As the centaur wheeled to fire another shot at the fallen man, Cedric loosed an arrow at the beastman’s flank, the sudden shock of the arrow burying itself in his equine ribs causing the centaur to lose his footing, lungs pierced and he collapsed on the ground in a heap. The guardsman wasted no time in rising to his feet to hack away at the centaur that nearly killed him. 

Brynn began to rally the others, and Cedric didn’t argue with the follow Reachman’s take-charge disposition and the group moved as a unit, more of a mob really, through the streets of burning homes, crumpled bodies, and pissed off horsemen who were intent to cut down anyone caught in their path. One of the centaurs noticed their stealthy maneuvers and made to call to his comrades, but before he could utter a centurian grunt, Cedric loosed another arrow which buried itself through his mouth and back through the rear of his neck. The stunned looked on the centaur’s face went rigid as if his body finally realized what was happening and after a few agonizing seconds, the centaur collapsed to the ground. 

When they arrived at the stables, which was already a tense situation giving that thundering hooves that evening meant the threat of very real death, but the group worked quickly in securing mounts. Cedric picked a strong looking one, white with black spots not unlike a cow’s, and quickly mounted a saddle to the creature and helped the others do the same. He stroked his horse’s long and proud neck reassuringly and soon, he was mounted and joining the others in their procession to get the fuck out of King’s Guard. Cedric took up the rear, confident in his riding ability and his ability to fire a bow even from horseback. There’d been a number of times he’d ridden in his youth, and while his father and him never owned a horse, they borrowed one on occasion to help move supplies. Riding was a necessity, even if it wasn’t something bred into him like a knight. 

Brynn’s continued plan gave Cedric pause. Normally, he frowned upon thieving, but at this point, he wasn’t above doing whatever it took to get out of town alive. Before Brynn went to pound on the door, Cedric rode astride of Brynn before he approached the house and grabbed him by the sleeve. [color=gold]”Don’t hurt them, you hear me? Do what you must, but leave them in the state you found them.”[/color] he pleaded, although there was a hard edge on his voice. Pulling his muffler over his mouth and nose to conceal his features and block out the acrid smoke fumes,  He moved back to his position, keeping an eye out for danger, not wishing to look the people Brynn was robbing in the eyes. 
 
When the man of the house uttered Brynn’s name, Cedric turned, suddenly interested. His companion had a reputation he knew, but out here? From the way the man looked about ready to piss himself, Cedric knew immediately Brynn had done some truly awful shit in his days. It made the Reachman more tense for how the situation would play out. Fortunately, it was resolved without bloodshed. Satisfied that at least the family parted with some coin for their forced troubles, Cedric rode away with a clear conscious and more than a lingering curiosity of exactly who the fuck Brynn really was. Even that night around the fire where words weren’t quick to anyone’s throat, Brynn’s revelation that he wanted to be a bard just made him stranger yet. He didn’t turn in for rest right away, and instead sat by the fire, trying to connect it with something peaceful and relaxing instead of a burning village they’d left behind.

~ ~ ~

Guard Captain Renault stared down at the gathered bodies of the fallen, including a number of his guards, his fists clenched tightly within his gauntlets. King’s Guard had been ransacked under his watch, and he suspected he knew why. The logging expeditions were getting closer and closer to the forests that the centaurs had claimed, and he had wondered what had happened when one of the logging groups never returned that week as they usually did, successful or not. 

It wasn’t hard to imagine their mangled bodies quartered and left for the boars and bears that shared the forests, and seeing the fruits of their labour laid out before him brought out a simmering anger that was made all the more intense when he’d discovered that the strangers in the inn had been responsible for the murder of more than a few of his guards. Pulling a rider aside, he ordered the man to deliver a message to the Camlorn garrison with the descriptions that anyone could remember to keep them from having entry in the city gates and to arrest them on sight – or kill them, it mattered little to Captain Renault. 

Unfortunately, witness accounts left them with only a few details for each of them. A man with short red hair and tattoos across his face, an unnaturally huge orc, a rough red-haired warrior women among others… the captain pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and ordered the centaur bodies, at least the horse parts, to be cut up and saved for the hounds and the truly desperate. Meat was scarce enough, and after the hard harvest, times were lean. He also really wanted to disgrace the monsters who’s nearly murdered his wife while cutting down a significant number of innocents and guards, and those bloody travelers got away unscathed. It made his blood boil. 

The report that several horses were missing from the stables was simply more than Renault wanted to hear for the day. Ordering his men to search for a suitable horse for the rider, he returned to his duties, deciding who he wanted dead more.

~ ~ ~

[color=gold]“Say, might be that it would be worth our time to become bounty hunters if that’s what the city’s paying for…”[/color] Cedric rode closer to read the signs hanging from the corpses, dangling like macabre ornaments for the worst holiday imaginable. [color=gold]“Who the fook is Sev’Ahmet? I’d claw me own eye out if I looked like a manky shite, too.”[/color] he said, grinning at the crude approximation of the khajiit’s portrait. 

Around the table in some grungy looking highway in that could best be described as “You must be truly desperate to come here”, Cedric was rolling around the smallest and saddest tomato he’d ever seen with the tip of the provided knife. He shook his head in disagreement with the prospect of bribing the guards. [color=gold]“Coin’s got to last, lad. Besides, it doesn’t guarantee any guard we pay off doesn’t immediately report our likeliness and get us all trapped. It’s like the forest; we have to get a lay of the land. Maybe one of our mages knows some illusion spells that can either let them sneak past guards or make them think they’re supposed to be there? If we could get a hold of some uniforms, we’d likely be able to walk the castle walls at night without too much scrutiny. Until we know for sure where lord cuntlips’ brother is squirrelled away, we shouldn’t do anything too bold, aye?”[/color]