Epsir

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

He'd still been looking down when Adrian blew by him on his way, turning up large puffs of snow as he charged. Johnathon flinched in surprise, his head shooting up as he spun on his heel in the snow, looking towards where Adrian was going. The look on his face hadn't been a happy one from what little he had seen, but even with only a fluttering cloak to look at his intentions were clear. Instinctively, Johnathon put his hand out to try and reel back the fighter, but Adrian was long gone and he couldn't have gotten between those two if he tried, at this distance. Crom took the words directly from his mouth, and a disbelieving "The hell?" slipped from his mouth as he watched the developing brawl. He looked over towards Crom, unsure of what to do, and saw that the other man was also opting to simply watch. A glance towards Griff yielded much the same. Letting the poor kid get hurt was definitely out of the question but in all honesty he deserved a shot at Soah for that comment. John took a hesitant step forward, unable to do anything and strangely content with that. "Shouldn't we stop this?" He asked the remainder of the group, a little nervous about his own inaction and their apparent disinterest.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

He started unsure of where the boy was going with his story, but just the tone of his voice put an anxiety in Johnathon and intuitively he knew that he would not like how the story ended. He walked on in silence, listening in rapt attention and coming to understand what Adrian meant by telling this by degrees. A sad frown overcame his face little by little. What a terrible thing for a family to experience, a little boy especially. "Sorry," he muttered, looking to the ground. Once more he'd gone and said something without thinking about it. He did feel sorry for the boy, but the apology was spurred by a sense that he'd just been reprimanded. The other group members spoke up in response. As the banter between Soah and Crom continued, sadness changed to discontent on his face. The wild looking man they'd recently picked up certainly had a nerve about him, in the tavern that would have started a fight straight out. But this was the road, and they had a great distance to go before they could start squabbling without great risk. The snow was slowly thickening, the group's loud, crunching footsteps were no longer reaching the soil. Ahead, even the passes were now looming above them. At the largest, most open and lowest pass a silhouette could occasionally be made out crossing the apex, the dark-clothed travelers stood out against the white slope in places. The others seemed far more sparsely populated.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

He was glad to hear that Griff had stories of his own, but John's smile drooped into a slight frown as the topic of the conversation immediately took a turn for the worse. Now that he thought about it, it was almost a certainty that Crom had killed before but that had never been amongst the criteria he judged the man on when they met in a tavern. He was salty, big, and frankly the only candidate. Hearing him admit it so simply was unnerving, to say the least of it. The shiver that ran down his back might have just been the cold though. Death was something he didn't have much experience with, hardship and violence sure but Wenigsten was a man who knew well enough to cut out before people starting getting cut up. He looked around the group, casting glances and wondering what the others were thinking. Of course, there were killers among them; there weren't too many people who made it out on the road. People with clean slates grew rarer by the day but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. He walked along, thinking for a moment rather than speaking. He didn't want to agree with Griff, that violence had won out in the world, but it wasn't as if a man who'd just weeks ago been let out of stockade could argue against that truth. Walking in silence didn't suit him, however. "Hopefully... we can get over these mountains without having to kill anyone, eh?" He said, looking around and trying to smile.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Johnathon had to stop and simply look at the mountains they were about to tackle. He'd seen them from Aldrun, of course, you couldn't look inland from Aldrun and not see one, but up close the snow covered peaks seemed menacing, even. Of course, that wasn't where they were going, his gaze shifted downwards towards the passes and he counted his blessings with every meter removed from the summit the passable areas were. By the time he looked back towards the group, he'd been left behind some and Adrian was down in the snow. Protesting legs ignored, he rushed forward to see what hat happened but by the time he closed the gap the boy was already on his feet and continuing the march. What luck, a group that started chases with guards and wouldn't stop marching even if you knocked them down. A wanderer from the south wasn't cut out for this line of work, but that was why he was paying Crom and tagging along with Griff and Adrian. "Easy there, no need to rush on such treacherous ground," He said meekly from the back, half concerned for Adrian and half concerned for his shins. His interest and his talkativeness had been piqued by Crom's question, and he added to the man's speech. "Yeah, let's share some stories, that'll pass the time." He had a few stories himself, although he'd have to fish them out of his bag. By his estimation of the group, Crom and Griff seemed less likely to want to talk about their life, one was obviously a hardened mercenary of some sort, but maybe they'd be lucky and have enough conversation to see them through their journey.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

He'd called him fiery as a joke but Adrian was rapidly living up to the accolade. Johnathon fell in without protest behind the column of travelers. The march pace set by Adrian was a little bit faster than his usual walk, as if the running through down and the hiking through the forest hadn't worn him enough. A fast pace, however, would keep them warm and he found himself playing along trying to march in time with Adrian. It kept him from starting a ramble about the locale, too, which his traveling partners might not have had an ear for. As the group marched on, the scenery changed slowly around them. The pines began to thin away as they climbed, giving way to larger and larger clearings of snow and rocks. The winds picked up from a gentle whispering among the evergreen boughs to a shrill cry that tore against the exposed sides of the mountain. Steadily, the incline steepened, though they had hardly even begun their climb. Far ahead, a few distinct paths among the rocks stood out, leading far up and up into the summits of the ring of mountains surrounding Aldrun. It seemed to John that at least they would have a choice on their path. All of them had clearly been worn down long ago by travelers like themselves, but a few were marred by fresh footprints. Of course they weren't the first to come here, more ambitious or at least motivated groups had set out into the mountains to do as they pleased at the first sign of a possible war.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Johnathon eyed Soah warily when the man claimed the blood wasn't his. If that was true then where had it come from other than some kind of fight? Whoever their stranger was, he didn't look very violent or threatening. Again, more people for the mountaineering. He followed up on Crom's question, "Yeah, we're bringing on all the help we can get to scale these mountains and travel out west. The weather out there is much better, I hear." He wasn't even sure if they'd be keeping together outside of Aldrun yet. They'd all agreed on going west but there was a lot of space between here and the next mountain range, a far more civilized one they'd no doubt find a well traveled pass through. The range which marked the end of fast-held Arcarti territory and the beginning of the regions directly bordering the small nations composing the League. The heartlands were, if you believed all the nonsense told by travelers, a dangerous enough place without a war brewing. He was pulled from his musing by the arrival of a familiar voice, one that he couldn't quite remember the face to until he turned around. Griff, alive and well. "Welcome back," John said, waving to the returning party member. "This," he turned back towards Soah, "is hopefully our newest member on the trail west."

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Introductions had gone a lot smoother than Johnathon had anticipated, and the man even recognized them. That was unfortunate because John had no idea who he was looking at. Clearly, however, he wasn't used to being shirtless in this cold and that struck away all chances of him being a northerner come to Aldrun in his mind. He still didn't know if he trusted a stranger covered in blood in the wilderness, but he at least had the decency to reply to them. Tension had bled away, and without thinking much of it John unraveled his scarf from around his neck and was about to offer it to the man when Adrian put a hand out in front of him. He shrugged, unperturbed at being unable to answer the request for some clothing, meager as his contribution was. Crom asked the man about his wounds, and Johnathon piped up after, hoping to bring the newcomer to trusting them. He wanted to help the man, partly because it was a nice thing to do but behind all that it got him another hand over the mountains, which meant an easier life ahead. "We're not doctors but I can suture."

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Just when he'd been appreciating his lungs, they had started up slopes. He didn't have the shoes for this kind of activity although he was used to plenty of walking down lazy southern streets. Everything about this place hated him. John trudged on though, maybe he didn't want to be outdone by the kid playing their leader. He froze, not that he wasn't already freezing, at a sudden sound nearby. Adrian had also caught on and they were both looking at a bare chested cloaked man covered in, yes, that looked exactly like blood. At least he was laying down. It was unnerving to see the boy in front of him immediately go for his dagger but given the savage appearance of the man John didn't give it much more thought. "Just what we needed," he said quietly, stooping down near a tree and hoping the man didn't leap up and charge them. It came as a surprise when Adrian asked his opinion, of all present, for what to do, and at first he simply looked down and suddenly felt very self-conscious about his patchwork covered attire. "Do with him? I don't know, walk away?" He glanced at the man laying on the ground and, recalling how much noise he'd made laying there, realized that wasn't much an option. "Hold on to that dagger let me try something," John whispered with a grimace. He stood away from the tree and yelled to the man. "Hoy there! Are you in need of assistance, sir?" What a dumb thing to do, his blood ran cold waiting for the snarling and the battleaxes and the pillaging that would follow.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Johnathon looked back and forth between the crowd and Adrian as the boy began to lead off into the hills. He would have liked to have made sure they had everyone but it's not like they'd get far before they were seen by Griff. With a few unsure looks, he finally turned and walked off after Adrian. The woods only grew denser ahead, and all around him he felt he could see various shadows and shapes moving within the brush. At least there were a few beaten in roads to follow, but all were eventually swallowed in the woods; no pave layers would ever see this far north in his lifetime. The assumption that the woods were teeming with movement was in all probability not a false one. Multiple groups of rough men were scattering in various directions, their destinations already set and plans made. Their group had no such like: they had a road going west to follow. In Johnathon's experience, however, the open road was the more entertaining route. Slowly, he unfolded the patch of cloth he'd been tightly gripping since walking up to the group in the tavern. He wasn't going to start needling it while walking but picturing how he was going to sew in a picture of this new group gave him something to do on the path to... wherever Adrian thought he was going. He couldn't go wrong pointed west, in John's eyes.

Fire in the West (Freeroam)

Johnathon had finally caught his breath, now that he was free of the city and the guards clearly had bigger issue to deal with he was a liberated man. He wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen to incriminate himself by running off with the group of strangers but it did, in fact, prove an effective way of keeping with his guide. Until now, at least. Crom has disappeared to him somewhere back in crowd, and finding even a man like Crom in this mess was going to be a nightmare. As luck would have it, finding Adrian was not. The common folk gave the sick boy a wide berth, with no desire to get his puke on them. As Crom emerged from the crowd he was in plain view of Johnathon, and he immediately made his way over to his two traveling partners. "Hey friends. Quite the ride, huh?" He turned to look at the crowd once more, watching them thin and looking for Griff among them. "We need to find Griff and all, but I don't know if sticking around here too long is going to be safe." He motioned to the woods, and worried about the werewolf currently running free within them. Perhaps it would have been wiser to agree upon a meeting location outside the walls; but he hadn't set foot outside Aldrun since his arrival and they'd ran out on the short notice of a monster jumping the gates. The one thing he knew for certain was that he did not want to deal with what the guards could not.