[IC] The Adventures of the Greywood Company: A Tale of Heroes and Lost Legends

[Mystyltainn]

“Phew! That’s the last of them!”

A young, lean man with dark-brown hair drew a hand across his forehead as he pinned up the last of his posters, wiping off some sweat with a contented sigh. He took a step back to admire it: a picture of a large, ink-drawn oak tree above big, embossed lettering. 'Greywood Company; join today!', it said, along with a somewhat crudely drawn map of their camp's location on the outskirts of the city. The man sighed again, a tired sigh, this time. It’d been another long day of running around, posting up flyers in every nook, every corner. And, beautiful though Ostia Martin was, it was a lot of damn work.

“Finally finished for the day, Aventus?”

The young man named Aventus turned to see a woman walking up to him in the shadows of the alleyway, adjusting her thin, frameless glasses with delicate fingers.

“Oh, hey Allie. You can just call me Ven, you know. And, hey, you make it sound like I was slacking off or something!” He said with a goofy sort of laugh. ‘Allie’ just scoffed, looking to the empty crate beside him.

“It’s Allietta, sir. And no, but you did take about a full crate’s worth of flyers. I’m surprised you even finished this early, and it’s already sunset.”

Aventus scratched the fuzzy ears hidden underneath his goggles as he looked up to the sky, realizing she was right.

“Huh, whaddya know. The others done yet?”

The shorter woman sighed, brushing her long, black hair over her shoulder.

“I don’t know. I split off from them to check up on you, but it took longer to find you than I thought. I’m sure they’re back at camp, and if not, they’ll return once they’re done with whatever it is they’re doing.” She stated matter-of-factly, gazing in his direction with her usual, unreadable expression. Ven simply nodded, before shrugging his shoulders and breaking into a happy grin.

“Well, might as well head back, then! C’mon, we can get some cinnamon rolls on the way!”

The young man hollered and skipped out of the alley and off down the main street, Allietta rubbing her temples in exasperation as she followed behind.

”Does he even have enough money…?”

---

One Week Earlier…

Allietta stood in the middle of a large tent with the leader of the Greywood Company, a tall, silver haired man that looked to be pushing into his thirties, as he related his latest plan of action to her. He wasn’t too impressive at first glance; that lazy grin and his slumping posture didn’t exactly scream ‘Commander’, after all. Still, she’d seen over the eight or so odd years as his friend (and, most recently, as his advisor) that he could be surprisingly capable when he felt the need to be. Now felt like one of those times, the man radiating a faint, commanding aura even as he kicked back in his chair, feet resting lazily upon his desk. After he had finished speaking, Allietta took a breath, taking in everything he had just told her.

”I know I’m always critical of your plans, sir, but believe me when I say this is the worst idea you’ve had, yet.” She said, bluntly, even more so than she usually was. Though she did have a lot of respect for the man, that didn’t mean she wouldn't speak her mind, and, frankly, when it came to him, she found she had to speak her mind quite often.

“Oh, come on! Why would you say that?” The other man demanded with a playful tone, his grin never subsiding. It was obvious the two were very used to exchanging words in such a manner.

“Well, besides the obvious faults of putting such young people in a position of command, there’s the fact that we simply do not have enough man-power to justify splitting our already dwindling forces.” Allietta countered, rubbing her aching temples.

“We can always recruit more. And as for your concern about their ages, they’re all about the same age as you, no?”

The man's smile grew wider with his answer, while Allietta’s frown only grew deeper.

“You don’t see me calling the shots, here.” She retorted.

“Sometimes I wonder…”

The last comment was barely muttered under his breath, but from the glare Allietta was giving him, the man could tell she heard him all to clearly. He held his hands up in front of him defensively, trying to look as innocent as possible.

“Look, when you find yourself in a bad spot, sometimes you need to take risks to come out on top. A gamble if you will. Sending out these young ones will be a good way to test their mettle in leadership, seeing as they’ll have some seniors there to watch their backs, and we need to expand if we want to have any hope of breaking through this slump.”

Allietta raised an eyebrow in question.

“I’ll admit our situation is looking rather bleak, but with time and patience, we’ll surely get over it. Your idea... could help speed things along, but it could also backfire just as quickly. Do you really think a gamble like this is worth taking?”

Though the man’s eyes seemed to match his lazy smile, in that instant, Allietta could sense just the tiniest hint of trepidation in them; a rare sight, indeed, for the woman who was one of his closest companions.

“...If I’m right in what I’d heard from the grapevine, then yes, at the moment, it is.” He stated, simply, closing his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. Allietta was silent for a time, before speaking up again, her tone now much less confrontational.

“You said I’d be going with one of the groups.” She said, more than asked.

“Yes. Go with Aventus, to Ostia Martin, and take Maria and Ziria along with you…”

---

Back in the Present…

“Mmpf… Sho wat happened again?”

The bustling streets of Ostia Martin shone a mellow shade of orange in the light of the setting sun, as Aventus and Allietta made their way towards the outskirts of town. Aventus held a bag full of sweet smelling cinnamon rolls that he munched on as they walked, occasionally stopping to admire the marble-cut buildings all around them.

“Well, the city guard has charged you with 2 counts of obstructing traffic, 5 counts of vandalism, 42 counts of unlawful posting in restricted areas, 3 counts of evading arrest, and 1 count of unruly behaviour.” Allietta listed off in her factual tone. Avvy scratched an ear, looking up thoughtfully as he crunched the numbers in his head.

“Am I gonna have to pay for all that?” He asked. The young woman just sighed, shaking her head and putting the parchment she held in her hands away.

“No. I’ve already talked with the city guard about it, and they’re letting us off with a warning.” She said. At this, her compatriot smiled, humming with content while they continued their walk towards camp. It was a decent ways away from the inner workings of the city, but the scenery was pleasant, and the cool, autumn breeze sent a refreshing chill up Ven’s spine. Had it really been just a week since summer ended?

”A week since I became Commander...” He thought to himself in a daze. Commander of the Greywood Company. Well, a branch of the Greywood Company, but still. Even now, he couldn’t picture himself as a great leader of men and women, and he didn’t know why exactly he was even in this position, in the first place. True, he was the most experienced (combat wise) out of the small group sent to the Jaris Confederation, but he was far from the most responsible; even he knew that.

”Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine!” He hummed out loud, as if proving his own irresponsibility. Allietta shot him a curious, sideways glance, but otherwise said nothing, and together they reached the outer gates of the city without incident. Of course it'd be fine; he'd already spent the last three days with his (small) crew posting up flyers all around town. They were bound to get some new recruits, eventually...

“Man, wish we actually had a place to stay. I’m tired of camping outside.” Aventus complained aloud, as the duo crossed the bridge out of the city and into a wide expanse of plains.

“Maybe once we actually start making money, sir.” Allietta replied. Their campsite was actually situated within a small community of sorts of travelers and merchants who were too poor (or cheap) to get a place to stay in the city, and so formed a grouping of tents and wagons on the city outskirts for the duration of their visit. It was actually quite interesting, though they found many of their ‘neighbors’ changed on the daily.

Cresting a hill, Aventus looked down to see their meagre camp, the brown grass surrounding it swaying lazily in the wind. They only had three tents to their name, and seeing as the group contained four people… Well, Aventus found himself sleeping under the stars with nothing but his sleeping bag, most nights.

”At least I can still use the big one during the day…” He consoled himself, silently. The pair jogged down the hill into camp, Avvy cupping his hands over his mouth to shout out in greetings.

“Hey! We’re back!!!”

[Alkeni Synair]

Ziria came back to the camp after some time in the city and rolled her eyes at their erstwhile leader. What the hell the leadership of the company was thinking putting him in charge of this section, she had no idea. Then again, she was here, under his authority, so what the hell was she thinking. Going over to her pegasus, Ziria already knew the answer, not that it changed how much this whole damn stupid situation frustrated her. Besides, she had no clue what she was going to do once she finally jumped ship from the company. She'd agreed to come here, where Aventus was setting up - and doomed to fail - this new branch of the Company, because it was likely an easy place to duck out of the company and back into the rest of he world. She could go a lot of places from here. Maybe somewhere more interesting than this part of the world. Just a handful of city-states, a bunch of empty wildness dotted by the occasional town, and one country of any real note. That was one of the problems with the company not getting enough work. Mercenaries couldn't expect just to get work fighting bandits and shit. They needed war. Even a cursory reading of history made that clear.

"Signs, Aventus? Really? You couldn't have gone for something even less creative?" Ziria started to brush her steed, which whinned softly in response. she didn't really pay any attention to any response from Aventus. Nothing he could say on the subject would be relevant or interesting. As far as she was concerned, he had the intellectual capacity of a small bug. And the imagination to match, clearly.

Ziria, as usual, wore her black riding gear, as well as robes over them. She was rarely seen in other clothes, except when asleep, and depending on the cirumstances - if they were expecting a fight the next day, or there was a chance of a night attack, she would just sleep in that anyway, rather than waste precious time fumbling around for her equipment, The dagger she never used was at her belt - habits drilled into her by the company died hard, its seemed. While it was impractical for a pegasus rider, she kept her black hair long, not willing to conceed a minor vanity she allowed herself. The greater vanity was her application of makeup to make her appear pale - she had indeed been that pale while studying, but her life as a mercenary had ended up leading to more time in the sunlight than she had had before. She didn't just wear the pale-makeup out of some contrary desire to remain pale, though. She wore it because it tended to keep people away, which was just the way she wanted it, by and large.

Eventually, as other things happened around her that she only paid partial attention to, she was done tending to her steeds needs, feeding it an apple.

[Krauxis]

It had been a long day. What started as an expedition to post up recruitment flyers for the Company had turned into one of Maria's infamous 'adventures' without the girl in question even realizing what was going on.

The Boss had gone off to cover the town in paper, and Maria had volunteered to fly around the outskirts on her Wyvern, Domino, to distribute to a wider area than he could cover on foot. Thus, with a sheaf of paper under each arm, and the leather reins in her hands, she took off towards the farmer's fields in the distance. About three minutes into the journey, however, she relaxed her arms, and the high-speed winds had taken away every last piece of paper. Maria managed to grab a large quantity out of the air with some deft flying, but every time she came close to one that had landed on the ground, the downbursts of air from Domino's wings blew it somewhere else entirely. By the time all was said and done, what was once twenty valuable recruitment flyers became fifteen.

Taking one of the strings that tied her hair back, she tied all of the papers together so they would no longer fly away, and finally set forth once more toward her destination. The next mishap came when she didn't notice the large crowd of people gathered near her landing zone. People who had only rarely seen a wyvern rider, and to whom dragons were grand threats borne from legends. Terrifying creatures, that they had been raised to believe would snatch up bad children and eat them on the spot. With a smile on her face, she dismounted gleefully and approached the crowd of terrified farmers, smiths, and other civilians. Children screamed and ran, and the able-bodied adults grabbed their families and took off toward their houses. Oblivious to all this, Maria approached one of the remaining old ladies, who looked as though she was about to keel over in fear, and after a brief explanation, the woman exclaimed that she would take 'Three of the damned things, just take that monster and begone from here!' Twelve flyers remained.

Her next stop was a fringe market on the edge of town. Being more careful to land outside anybody's comfort zone, she carried the fliers through the stalls and people, pinning them to any lightposts or walls that seemed handy at the time. Half an hour later, she was satisfied, and decided to head back, but after turning around, she panicked. Where was she all of a sudden? Where had she come from? Maria was well and truly lost. A kindly gentleman offered his assistance and thought that he might just follow the trail of paper back to her starting point, but after passing two of the things, there weren't any more to be found. Instead, a few large armed guards awaited them. Apparently it was illegal to post bills in that particular market, and it was considered vandalism. Maria apologized profusely, and they seemed to accept that she hadn't known. For some reason, the guards didn't accept when she offered them a recruitment flyer for their troubles. Four flyers remained.

Maria was eager to set off for her next round, but it seemed her time was up. Somewhere along the line, the time had flown by, and it was time to head back to camp.

"I think today was a good day, don't you, D?"

The crimson-scaled wyvern snorted. Obviously there were too many things wrong with that sentence, and she still didn't like being called 'D'. Maria insisted it was a cute pet name, but it had not yet stuck for the beast herself.

By the time Maria got back to camp and stabled Domino, she could just make out the figure of Aventus rising up over the hill. Not that it mattered that she noticed him, as he was yelling the moment he became visible anyway.

"Hiiiiiiiya Boooooosssssss!!!" she yelled back towards him, waving her arms in the air. Unfortunately, this was the last straw for the remaining flyers, they fell from her hands and into the mud below her feet. She almost caught them before they hit the ground, but her heavy armor didn't allow for that sort of mobility, and she instead lost her balance and fell into the muck herself - right on top of the last flyers. Out of twenty flyers, the result was: Five lost, Three taken by a terrified elderly farmer, Eight taken down by the town guard, and Four covered in mud under her armored rear end.

[Rethel34]

"Greywood Company; join today!"
That was what the measly parchment said. It wasn't anything from anyone in a higher-class, that was certain. Shivian thought for a moment, realizing that he had spent most of his time training under higher-class swordsmen. People who had retired from services in the armed forces and merely taught what they knew. Too many of them taught similarly. It was the few middle-class teachers Shivian had learned from that showed the most diversity. Now was a chance to learn from a low-class group. The fighting style would certainly be raw and unclean, but powerful. This could prove for an interesting experience.

"Blasted Greywood Company," a town guard said, walking up to the poster. "Vandalizing our town like this . . . what nerve!" The man tore down the poster in a swift motion adding it to a small bundle of similar swatches of parchment. It didn't matter much to Shivian, as he had been convinced and gathered all the information he needed, but the Company wasn't going to earn many more members with guards taking down every poster they put up.

Shivian simply started making his way toward the camp, imagining the styles of swordplay he would learn while among them. Then he remembered that swords tended to be more expensive than other weapons. "What if there are no swordsmen there?" he mumbled to himself. But he quickly reconsidered. "Surely there must be at least one. They may be running thin, but they've got to have at least one in order to be a diverse company."

The camp wasn't any fancier than the poster. In fact, it was less attractive, if anything. It was a rather small and run-down place, and Shivian wondered if there were any rewards to joining. The best thing to do, though, was ask around. He heard a woman shout something, and as he neared, he saw her drop a number of fliers similar to the one he had seen earlier, and she fell backwards into the mud, on top of the small few posters.

Shivian kept his look of entertainment to a simple smile as he approached, offering a hand to help her get to her feet. "Would you know who I should speak to about joining up with this Greywood Company?" he asked, hoping she could give him directions.

[Venom]

"Wait! I promise I am no spiri....Annnnd their gone."

Glenn sighs before thinking aloud. "Moving hair and floating is all it takes to spook these people! Do they know how much effort it takes to walk...Perhaps that is a bad comparison. More How much it takes to not not walk!"

Glenn spins about in place as he uses his expert navigational skills to decide where to head next. Suddenly he stops looking at the fresh foot prints of the children he had just encountered. "Small mammals run back to their parents! SO I can follow them back to their parents!" He floats a little higher pleased with his reasoning!
Sure enough he finds a small cottage not 1534 steps away! Quite adorable how children seem to run with such reckless abandon, they each feel twice on the way home. Twins? Fascinating honestly! Perhaps one feels the others pain! He must ask them! *Knock Knock* A younger woman answers the door. "Salutations! I am in search of" The door promptly closes in his face. He feels the slight stinging as his fore head seemed a tad close. "adolescent, misjudged based on appearance. I would think I had more in common with a elemental than a ghost. Must be the pale skin tone along with blue ethereal hair." His thoughts are interrupted by the interjection of a rather burly fellow. "Its more the 3 feet off the ground bit. I would be tempted to apologize for my children but yur' kind isn't exactly one that they shouldn't be fearin'."
Glenn smiles,at least he didn't attempt to shoo him with a torch.
"Well I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me, I am simply looking for a town. As I am in need of a purpose. Not that their is no meaning to my existence its more their is lack of means to an end!"
The man blinks rapidly as he tries to even begin to make sense of the Dreamers words. "Well there is one about a days...hike? Walk...Float, in that direction."
Glenn didn't waste any time, he began heading the direction the man had indicated.
The man shouted from his door, "Goodbye then!" Shutting his door and muttering about the strangeness of the world.

---

Glenn found himself in a camp, rather than a town. Looking about he was perplexed by the nature of the facilities. The numerous people he had seen had various ages and objectives, they all had this smell though. Like bathing was a secondary objective, oh and the lack luster attires as well. "I know what this is, its a bandits camp! Clearly with all the rather smelly people about, and the lack of nationalism, I bet if I look around enough I will find a treasure room!"

With that he began poking around inside the tents and structures.

[Mystyltainn]

Aventus half-smiled, half-grimaced at his ‘warm’ welcome back to camp, looking between Ziria and Maria with a mixture of mirth and quiet resignation. Maria’s enthusiasm was always encouraging, even if she was still as clumsy as ever, and Ziria… well, Ziria’s response was pretty much as expected.

“Glad to see you’re both doing okay!” He called out with a teasing grin, slowly clambering down the hill. He didn’t bother to respond to Ziria’s little jive, knowing she probably wouldn’t answer him, anyways, but he did take note of what she’d said; true enough, it’d been three days without even so much as an inquiry of interest, and Aventus did indeed think he’d have to ramp up his efforts, soon.

”Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem…” The young commander thought to himself, watching as Ziria returned to grooming her steed. He was well aware of the pegasus knight’s disdain for him (and for most people, in general). He knew she didn’t approve of his style of leadership, and, admittedly, he couldn’t blame her. But what she thought of him on a personal level wasn’t all that important, at least not for Ven; what concerned him more was the fact that if she didn’t approve of him, that could very well lead to her desertion in the long run, and right now they couldn’t afford to lose anybody. Maybe he’d talk to her about it, later - the only issue was, what would he say?

However, before he could get too far down that train of thought, the sight of a stylishly robed man with gorgeous, black hair striding into camp broke him out of his reverie, and he watched as the man offered a hand to the youngest member of the crew.

“Would you know who I should speak to about joining up with this ‘Greywood Company’?” The robed man asked, helping Maria up. Aventus wasted no time, though, bounding up to the man and giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder.

“That’d be me, good sir!” He said with a grin. His first new recruit, lucky! “You’re lookin’ to join, then? If you’ll just follow me into my tent, we can go through the whole process of getting you signed up and ready for action!”

He knew he was taking things a bit too quickly, but this was the only bite they’d had, so far, and he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. Pointing to the big tent in the middle of their campgrounds, he motioned for the man to follow him, fuzzy ears twitching in excitement.

“Maria, you think you could fetch our guest here some refreshments? I think we still have some ale lying in a barrel around here, somewhere.” The zenka said as he went, looking to the plucky wyvern rider covered in mud. He suddenly turned back to the potential new recruit, though, as he realized he’d forgotten to introduce himself.

“Name’s Aventus, by the way. Commander of the Greywood Company, Jaris Branch!”

[Rethel34]

Shivian was startled by the sudden slap on the shoulder, and was glad that he had already finished helping the girl up. He spun around, and hadn't even been looking at the man who had used the brutish method of grabbing his attention for two seconds when the guy started talking faster than a repeating crossbow could fire.

“That’d be me, good sir! You’re lookin’ to join, then? If you’ll just follow me into my tent, we can go through the whole process of getting you signed up and ready for action!" The man seemed to say the whole thing in a single, energetic breath, leaving Shivian no room to reply. He was about to speak up after the man quickly pointed to a tent and motioned for him to follow, but he found that the eccentric man was not through speaking. “Maria, you think you could fetch our guest here some refreshments? I think we still have some ale lying in a barrel around here, somewhere,” he said to the girl Shivian had just helped to stand.

So her name's Maria. I've got to remember that, Shivian thought before the man with the fluffy ears spoke up once again.

“Name’s Aventus, by the way. Commander of the Greywood Company, Jaris Branch!” the man exclaimed, seeming, to Shivian, to get more excited each time he spoke.

"Uh . . . " Shivian stuttered as they reached the tent. He was trying to process everything the man had said. It was such fluent, yet rapid speech, Shivian was afraid that for a moment he would have to ask the man to repeat everything, but then he began to process it all. "I'm Shivian Edgebolt, wandering swordsman," Shivian said softly. "Er . . . Glad to meet you."

[Krauxis]

Maria blushed sheepishly as the long-haired man helped her to her feet, and was about to stammer out a response when Aventus burst in to claim the potential recruit.

'Maria, do you think you could fetch our guest here some refreshments?'

She was a little sad to be away from the newcomer so soon, but Aventus seemed to have the situation under control. She hadn't caught the man's name, but hopefully he would stick around, at least until she came back to the tent.

Brushing her rear end free of dirt clumps, she made off toward the last place she thought she had seen the barrel of ale, which was near the stables. This was convenient, since she wanted to check up on Domino, to make sure the wyvern wasn't causing too much trouble. She passed the regular familiar sights on the way: people travelling, working, or even just exploring the area, which was always rich in things to see and do. In such a poor area of town, everything was always bustling. While Ostia Martin proper was a giant city with grand architecture, Maria loved the outskirts just as much. She had lived in a lot of cities throughout her military and mercenary career, and this was one of her favourite spots in the country. The bustle of the city with the fresh air and hard-working aura of the peasantry. And of course, this was where her home was.

The ale barrel sat right where she remembered, outside the rickety stable. Whoever cleaned and stocked the place (usually Maria herself) would sometimes sneak a bit of the stuff, but other than that, it had laid untouched for a while. After a quick check up on her friend, who was sleeping peacefully, Maria returned to her work.

"Well, here it is, although... Did Ven say he wanted some ale for himself...? Or was it for the both of them? Maybe Ziria wanted some too?" The poor girl flustered easily and was naturally terrible at making decisions.

"Ooooh, I don't know.... This is too hard. I'll just bring the whole thing!" Dejectedly, and to the complete surprise of the people passing by and watching her, Maria grabbed the keg with both hands and with a small grunt, hoisted it above her head and behind her, carrying it on her back. It was an impressive... no, a ridiculous feat of strength for such a small girl, but it didn't seem to be giving Maria much trouble at all as she hummed a chipper tune and walked steadily back to the tents.

[Alkeni Synair]

"You're better off finding work somewhere else, Edgebolt." Ziria commented, not looking away from her pegasus. "At least as long as Aventus here is running the show. If you lined up every member of the Greywood Company and searched for the most likely to drive a branch of the company into the dirt, Aventus here would stand out with a red blinking light." Did she need to be so scathing and unhelpful? Not in the least. Did she care? Even less.

Of course, her aggravation - something she always had, surrounded by all these people she could usually only variably stand - only grew when she heard Maria approaching humming a chipper tune. Good gods, why the hell is she so happy all the bleeding time! Hell, for that matter, why was everyone so bloody happy all the damn time? Its not that Ziria was never happy - on the contrary, she could be, when the situation merited it, quite happy - but most of the time she wasn't. Happiness, as it should be, should require exceptional circumstances. Happiness should be no one's baseline, and yet most people she met were either happy or faking it (she could never tell).

"You have absolutely no reason to be happy, so shut up." Ziria called over to the wyvern rider.

[Escher Ardack]

Escher weaved his way through the city's many alley ways, stepping over trash and debris as he made his way to the city gates. The alleys were infinitely quicker than the clunky road outlined by the map on the flyer, as the main roads would be full of traffic this time of day. He wondered whether or not his ragged leather armor would be suitable for the company he was joining; there were many tales of the Greywood Company now that he thought back on it, and they had quite the reputation from what he's heard. Father Jerimiah was big on outside news, and he was always the first to have info on anything happening outside the city walls. Escher paused to eye his clothes, wrinkling his nose in disgust; he didn't smell too great either. He peeked around the corner of the street he stopped at, looking for any out of the way shops or stalls with some fabric to swipe. There wasn't much for easy picking when it came to clothes, though, so he supposed this would have to do. Shrugging inwardly, he began walking through the crowd. He was reaching the gates when he saw a few of his friends ducking into the alley that lead to the market. Abelial and Tavreth, two of the best pick pockets he knew from the Blight.

"Oh shit, the Blight"!

Escher had totally forgotten that he was about to ditch one of the biggest gangs in Ostia Martin. The duo saw Escher standing in the middle of the street and beckoned him to join them, probably for a round of pocket picking at the market. He glanced at the flyer in his hand, and then back to his friends. He'd known Abby and Tav since he was just a kid... but, right now, he had bigger plans in mind. He'd probably never be able to safely set foot in Ostia Martin again, but so be it; he was leaving with the intentions of starting life fresh. So an entire gang wanted to hang him by his loins and beat him savagely? No big deal right? He turned back to show his ex-compatriots his, as his friends would put it, "about to do something insanely stupid face", before he turned back and ran for the gates.

Running through the city gates was, at that moment, one of the greatest feelings Escher ever had. All sense of responsibility and stress slid off his shoulders in the wake of the breeze that blew against his face, and he felt truly alive for the first time in his life. Well, as alive as any boy who just ditched a dangerous gang can be; they'd begin hunting him in a few days, but hey. As he trudged through the grass outside the city, he thought to himself: "What if they dont need me? I've never even held a sword." These worries weighed him down for about 3 seconds before his regular demeanor perked him back up. However, his worries still nagged at the back of his head, causing him to stop in his tracks, head bowed, as he thought good and hard about his choice to leave the city.

"Ack, why am I so indecisive?!" He tousled his hair letting it fall into his face.

Just as before, he looked up with his tell tale smile and before he could have any second thoughts, he dashed foward through the rest of the grass and foilage. As it finally cleared away he was at the top of a hill, down below him was the camp. Taking long strides, he made his way down the hill to make it to the camp as fast as possible. This seemed like a good idea until he stepped on a shoe lace that came undone while he was running through the thicket behind him. His only warning was the sudden feeling of vertigo, then he began his descent.