[IC] The Narrow Path

[Skinner35]

"Oh. Okay. Wait, there are more of these? We could make an army." He said with slight excitement as he heard Eve. "What's your personal best?"

[Gardevoiran]

"... two. It's been a while, though." Eve lays back down beside you as she continues sunbathing as the snake looks at you, shaking it's head. It's not long before Brock walks out and stands over you, a mug of what you assume is coffee being held over you.

"Hold off that assumption, Toby. It took me days to recover after making Charlie, and something like that isn't gonna take a hit from much of anything. I'm still withdrawing from making it, but I should be fine by the end of the day." You see Brock tip his mug into his gullet, only to see steam rising from his shirt as it exits his collar. Brock begins to speak, still drinking. "Though, you can get that one to grow if you feed it the right stuff."

[Skinner35]

"So, what exactly do these things eat and what can they do?" He asks as hot coffee is splattered on his back, which is surprisingly soothing.

[Gardevoiran]

"Dirt. Small rodents. Sunlight. It's like a plant and snake hybrid. Whatever either thing can eat, it probably can too." Brock steps away as he notices the hot coffee and the now coffee-covered-bird basking in the heat of the liquid as the skeleton looks off towards the mountain range in the distance. "We get there, we stop Yashar. Remember that," Brock says as he points to what you can barely make out as an ancient temple atop of the mountain range. It's very distant, but it's definitely there.

[Skinner35]

"Only thing I have to say about that. Once we kill Yashar, we parade that shit to everyone he worked with. I want his people to know that we killed him." He said, feeling a slight ting of bottled rage. Once he kills Yashar, he may finally be at peace.

[Gardevoiran]

"I... I think we shouldn't parade it. Yashar knows a lot of people, and they're all really powerful. If we parade it, who knows what'll happen." Brock says as he starts walking back inside.

"... sneak!" Eve sneaks into your lap and grips your metal arm. You can seriously feel the heat radiating off of her. It's almost tiring.

While all that is going on, your snake stares off towards the distance at a figure. You have no idea who the hell it is, but you can tell it's blindfolded.

[Skinner35]

As he is rushed by Eve, he sees the figure. "Brock... We may have a visitor." Toby says as he stands up, holding Eve. "They're blindfolded... I think someone's sending us a message."

[Gardevoiran]

Brock turns around and looks at the figure in the distance. "I don't recognize it... might just be a random person. Are they holding anything threatening?" Brock draws his sword as you both look.

You see long tassels along the figures wrists, drooping down to their thighs with their arms at their side. At least, they look like tassels. You can't tell easily from this range what they are.

Though they're blindfolded, you can see them walking towards you as if they knew the land and could see it.

[Skinner35]

"I don't see anything threatening, but don't let your guard down." He said as he gently put Eve down on the rock, and gripped his pistol. He began to walk towards the figure.

[Gardevoiran]

Upon closer inspection, as you approach the figure, you notice it being decorated in martial arts robes. It's also walking backwards towards you. It doesn't look like a human, rather it looks like a wolfy bear person. You can see it's tail is wagging, but you have no idea what it's about. Eve follows behind you closely as Brock stands near the house, possibly to make sure whoever the person is doesn't get farther if he's hostile.

You're pretty close now, and you're fairly sure you can talk to him if you raised your voice to do so.

[Skinner35]

"Who are you?" He yelled to the figure, fully drawing his pistol, while keeping Eve behind him. "If you don't speak soon, I will not hesitate to kill you."

[Gardevoiran]

"That's quite rude, isn't it?" the figure turns around to reveal a furry body. He's more akin to a humanoid dog rather than anything else, but not like those people you know from the various magical gatherings of the world. The man is what's more widely known as a furry kobold, and he's standing in front of you with his eyes completely obscured by a blindfold. Similarly, you see the various wrappings on his arms and legs indicative of serious physical strength. Despite his eyes being covered, he turns to look directly at you with a smile as he raises his arm to wave. "Hello! I'm Caretan, a simple nomad."

[Skinner35]

"To be frank, I don't care who you are. I care about why you're here." He said sternly. He hated furries. He didn't let his pistol down, he didn't trust many people any more.

[Gardevoiran]

"I go where the wind takes me. I'm a man of the land," Caretan comments as he begins walking towards a random direction, surprisingly towards the mountains that you need to go to in the future. You might run into him again.

Eve pokes out from behind you as she watches with a puzzled face. "... a-are the winds calling him that way?"

[Skinner35]

"Then go with the winds. Wherever they call you." He said, waiting for him to leave. He then looked back to Eve. "I hope so."

[Gardevoiran]

You see the man walk off into the trees as you hear a bit of ambient noise behind you. Jen's leaving her tent with a brand new sword. It's made of the same material you recall wielding in Hell alongside the friends (and foes) that helped you escape. You see Brock about ten feet away from her, standing beside a training dummy.

Within an instant, Jen rushes the dummy and unleashes a hefty slash, but Brock responds by unsheathing his own sword and taking a position beside her, swinging his sword in a way as if he's teaching her. Maybe this is for the best with Jen.

Eve hugs you while you watch. It's really comforting, almost drowsily so.

[Skinner35]

He stands there confused, as many things happened so quickly. He then hugs Eve back, and looks towards the mountains. "What if we go that way?" He then looked to Jen and Brock. She needed to release anger, so this was good for her. The material of the sword didn't surprise him. He just hoped that the metal was the only thing that came back from hell.

[Gardevoiran]

"We might see him a-" Eve stops talking as the world around you dims, all the colors of the people around you getting hit with a gray tint. Everything seems to stop as well, as if you are frozen in time.

Standing between you and the only other moving person, Brock, is the cloaked figure of a woman.

Hello once again, my children. The sultry voice of a familiar deity speaks to you, Brock, and one other as it stands there between you two. I trust everything is going well?

[Skinner35]

As everything froze, he looked around, then to the woman. "Wait... Death? What brings you here?" He asked, wondering if she needed something, or if she had a specific task for them. "All is well, but there have been a few... Distractions." He says, as he shoots Brock a glance, hoping that he caught the message.

"Wait... If you're here..." He said as he realized... Maggie.
He immediately sprinted into Brock's house and up the stairs to her room. "MAGGIE!" He yelled, then realizing that no one could hear him except for Brock and Death. From what he could tell, she was still alive, but just barely hanging on. "Death... I will not let you take her. What will you accept in her place?"

[Gardevoiran]

Death shrugs as she appears in front of you. She had always been standing there, at least she had been from your memory. Brock was beside Westley in the hallway as Death began to speak to you directly.

Magdalene is alive, but only for a few minutes at best. I am here to take her soul into the ether. If you really wish to keep her here, I do make bargains. Specifically, there is quite the old soul here that I desire to make my knight and pet. Let's see if you can figure it out.

You have... four minutes, Skinner. Figure out who it is, and I'll be willing to give you the deal.

With that, Death vanishes, but the time is still halted. Brock and Westley stand behind you, both kind of indifferent to the situation.