Scoutas

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith looked surprised at Nat. His tracking skills were exceptional, and he must have tracked down loads of people. In the mercenary line of work, that's most of what you have to do, really. "And jumping out on the path of dirt would've hurt them. They must have jumped to either side of the path." she said, and looked to the both sides. One side was dense with trees and if they would have jumped to this side - they would've been injured and at the worst case scenario - dead. So this wasn't the side they jumped out, so she glanced to the other side. While it was dense, it wasn't as dense as the other side and it had quite a bit of flora. It would have been much softer landing than landing on the clay path itself. She crouched in front and started staring at this patch of ground, trying to find any indication that it happened here. And to her surprise - it was there. It seemed like someone was lying down there. "Nat! I found it. They jumped off right here. Well, at least that's where they stopped and I take it - waited for Orcs to go past. Their tracks must be..." she took a few steps into the forest. "... here." she noticed four footprints, going in completely different direction, than the orcs searched in. She was rather excited, and looked back at Nat, who didn't seem to be too amused. He did seem out of it to Darlith for a little bit of time now. "Nat? Look, I'm going after the trail, I have to know who were the people they were trying to catch. I don't know if you're interested or not, but I won't hold a grudge if you decide not to follow me." and she stepped deeper into the forest.

It was more difficult that she thought it would have been. Darlith had been following the tracks for good two hours, but it would just become a hundred times more difficult as night was setting. But Darlith was lucky - it was just enough time to cross the forest. "If the Orcs would've found their tracks... Those boys aren't cautious, now are they?" she asked herself. The forest had become rather thin, with just several trees around and then she noticed smoke in the orange horizon. A village. She had to punch a tree and a smile appeared on her face. "Of course, where else they would've went? To the halflings. This village is so well hidden that it's actually scary. But I guess they manage to live by themselves." she scratched her head. "But will the halflings let me inside?" as she wasn't certain, she was hoping to wait for Nat to catch up with her, quite a bit of ways away from the village.

The Gift of the Gods

Anything with a good setting and developed world to explore is good enough for me.

And a map. If it would have a map, it would be too awesome.

The Gift of the Gods

I dunno, I will post from time to time, but Jones is gone off somewhere. No idea where.

If this dies completely, it's yet another decent idea down the drain.

The Gift of the Gods

"The very fact that you're saying that they wouldn't have went here to hide tells me that there's so much more reason to think that they've went through here." Darlith exclaimed, because there was a feeling in her gut she couldn't shake off. She was really intrigued by what she heard and she wanted to find out who was trying to escape the orcs. "And while, yes, it's eastern part of the forest, and the maps do not show anything, here we have a path, that ends abruptly. If this doesn't say that something used to be that way, then I don't know what would. But of course, it haven't been used for longest of times."

Nat asked her to wait here for a little while, as he himself went back the way they had come. Darlith decided to take out the map of the land and check if anything was there. The map was dated and old, yet it had served Darlith well. And just as she remembered it - the eastern part was completely taken over by a forest. And this intrigued her even more. What was the reason for them to come through this road? It must have been a diversion, and if she hadn't heard the orcs, she would've simply accepted the fact that people in the wagon were captured and that's the end of it, but they managed to escape. That means that they must be here, in this forest. Suddenly an idea popped in her head and now she had to wait for Nat.

When Nat came back, Darlith looked a little surprised. He seemed overly happy about something. She listened to him. "You're thinking greatly about Orcs, but you know that they aren't the brightest of beings? They are horrible at tracking, they didn't manage to catch me in two years." she snickered to herself, and then came over to him, giving her hand out. "But I do agree, we won't find anything here. Let's head back."

As they were going back, going past the wagon from earlier "Nat, before we go further, there's one thing I want you to check. That's where the trail would have started." she pointed down into the ditch. "Look, you're way better than me in regards of tracking and let's just take a look. I really need to sate my curiosity." she descended down into the ditch herself, and started to look around for a trail of sorts, even if there were a bit of footprints of orcs.

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith looked around, noticing Nat. Before she tried to cross the road, she kept trying to see, if everything did indeed seem to be as calm as it seemed. She gathered the courage and quickly crossed to where Nat was. Before she said anything she put her fingers on her neck to check on her pulse. It was rather high. Even after all those years of running and hiding it put a lot of pressure on Darlith and her heart was beating fast. She let out a deep sigh. "Rebel lord... so basically that's what they were trying to catch. No wonder they've had an awful lot of troops pursuing them." she scratched her head. "Fusos is like that." she shivered. "And what are we doing now? Shall we still follow the path? I don't think we have a lot to lose."

Darlith kept going down the path, and the trees were getting more and more dense, suddenly the road disappeared. The path further was overgrown with flora. It seemed that every single plant that could grow there - grew there. She looked at the knife that she had and shook her head. Using this knife to cut themselves a path wasn't going to happen. "How much do you usually get, for cutting a path for people, through the forest, Nat? I might just need your help here." she looked at him with a smile.

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith quickly ascended from the ditch, but on her ascent she slipped and slid back down into the ditch. She cursed silently, raising back to her feet, now trying to climb up with more care, but midway through she stopped. "Nat, do you think they would check the wagon again? They checked it the first time, they didn't find anything inside and went off to the forest to sweep it." she slid down back into the ditch herself. "I'm risking it, I'm staying here in the wagon. I don't know about you Nat. You can try running." she crawled into the wagon and tried her best to hide herself using what was left of it. She put the cloth from the top of the wagon on herself, trying to hide inside. It was extremely uncomfortable, lying there, with her bow and quiver, as well as her heavy backpack, but it must have been done. Darlith was so focused on hiding herself, that she didn't notice where Nat was. He could have been in the wagon with her as well, or he might have run off or tried to hide somewhere else. She couldn't tell. But now she started listening and feeling, trying to hear anything.

"Steps! Loads of them!?" she thought to herself, and tried to remain calm and not move a muscle. She could feel that a big crew of beings came this way and they stopped on the road, near the ditch. No one was coming close to the wagon and Darlith celebrated inside, for finding the best place to stay.

"They're gone." said a rather unpleasant voice of an orc in orcish. "We haven't found anything in this direction either.". A punch and a body falling down could be heard. "How can this be?! There has to be someone in here! They ran away and you incompetent trash missed them! What are we going to report now, huh? That we let our petty rebel lord go? When we almost had them in our own hands? Is this what we tell them? WHAT I TELL THEM!?" yet another punch could be heard. "Useless bunch... Everyone pull back, there's no use in trying to find their tracks." the group could be heard packing on and moving. It became silent around, only the sounds of the forest could be heard and it felt eerie. Darlith didn't risk it and waited just a little bit longer, until she was sure that the orcish camp had really moved away. And only then did she decide to peek out.

She got her head out and cautiously ascended, looking if somebody had stayed in the place, yet there weren't anyone present. Darlith sighed deeply, and got up on the road and stretched. It seemed like a few hours has passed when she was inside the wagon, and as she looked at the sky, it seemed that the light was getting rather dim. She looked around, hoping to find Nat, and looked back into the ditch and the wagon, laying there. "Nat?" she asked in rather silent voice. "Nat?" she asked a little louder.

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith face showed her surprise at how good the mercenary was at tracking. As well as distrust. She, herself, has been doing a little bit of tracking in her life and the time it took for Nat to figure everything out didn't connect for Darlith. But she didn't want to start doubting his short-time companion, so she let it slip for now. She decided to get deeper into a forest to see, if they could find any tracks of orcs or anything that has been following the cart, yet there were none. "Could it be, that they tried to cut them off and crossed their roads with the wagon from a different path? If so, I guess they wouldn't be following from their backs. But it still doesn't make sense! Why would they run then, if they don't have anyone trying to catch them?" she scratched her neck and sighed. "I start to doubt that it's the same cart that was followed. We've got little over excited over it... Well, I did. Nevertheless we have to go along the path where the cart goes. We'll see if anything appears here."

The forest had become dense, and the road seemed to get even thinner. "Whoever tried to go anywhere down this path must have been committed. I can barely imagine a wagon fitting to go through here." she looked back at Nat and remember what he said. "Why do you say don't know her goals? She is probably running from the past, I take it. She did seem to act that way when I had helped her..." just with these words, she noticed a body of an orc, lying down by a tree. She ran up to the body to examine. It's chest was sliced open, and he probably died of blood loss. She looked further along the path and started running, seeing a few more of the bodies of orcs lying down and footprints of orcs all around, where at one point she found a track of the wagon skidding off the road and the wagon, lying on it's side in a ditch.

"Our friends didn't make it, it seems. If it was a distraction, they did a great job, if it wasn't, well... I don't even know what happens then." she slowly descended into that ditch to see what was inside the wagon and seemed to find nothing interesting in particular. "The wagon is empty Nat. Is there anything around that caught your eye?"

The Gift of the Gods

"I..." Darlith slowed down her pace and stopped. She put her fingers on her temples and rubbed them. "I might have done that... I apologize. I've rarely travel with anyone, so this might seem strange to you, but I think..." she sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I think that this is why I managed to avoid Fusos and his men. I don't know if he's still searching for me or not, but I just can't take my chances." she looked at Nat, and then she moved her head and continued walking. "Let's continue along the road anyway, because if by any chance I didn't mislook - we've got someone on our backs."

She smiled under her hood, thinking what a fool she's made of herself. "Nat, how much do you know of your mother, yourself?" she asked him, out of the blue and kept strolling along the path, looking over her shoulder from time to time. Eventually, they've got to an intersection and immediately noticed wagon tracks coming from another path, joining theirs. She looked at the direction where the tracks would have come from... "Doesn't this road lead to Damascus as well? How likely do you think that this is the same wagon that was in the city?"

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith looked at Nat, at first taking what he said as a joke, yet the second she understood he was serious she started sniggering at him. "Should we? Well, first of all, you know that I'm on the run from Fusos, so you know, I'm more or less involved with him already. As for you - no-one knows who is this woman you're hanging out with, so they won't be able to tie you up with me. You're safe from this and if you want, you can go on yourself, this could be the place where our paths separates. It's your decision, Nat, because I..." she peeked at the roof and it seemed that their friend was still on the roof. "... don't exactly have a choice."

"I think he... or they are scavengers themselves. The house I was in was completely stripped of everything, apart a body of an Orc. I wouldn't mind checking through their bags to see if they've got anything worth taking." she said as she was taking out an arrow from the quiver and pulling bowstring down, but hesitated. "On the other hand... let's not do this in the city. That doesn't sound like a good idea. Let's do as you said and take the road east. If he still follows us there, we can take him down in the forest. Not very many eyes inside there." while still alert, she started moving.

The Gift of the Gods

Darlith tried to be cautious when checking around the house she entered, for that was a perfect spot for an ambush. She actually took off her bow and was prepared to shoot at any movement. And as she turned a corner there laid a man, with a battleaxe stuck deep in his back. "Now there, who might you be." she mumbled under her nose and she pushed him on the side with her feet. He didn't have anything on himself, but his clothing. And that axe stuck in his back, which started to make Darlith really uncomfortable. Who would loot a body and leave a fine weapon like this? She heard Nat outside and she bolted out of that house as quick as possible, looking over her shoulder, should and arrow come her way.

She nodded to what Nat said and went inside after him. She still felt paranoid about what she saw, so all she did was lean inside the doorway, and look at Nat thinking out-loud. "So you're saying they just left? We could try search the nearby roads for tracks and follow them, but I think that's rather futile. It's a wagon and we would never be able to catch up to it, especially if they're on a run." she looked back over to the house she was in and noticed a glitter on the roof of the house and a twing and she lunged inside and hid behind the wall. "We've got company. On the roof of the house I was in. I have no idea who that was... so no rash decisions." she peeked outside through the window, trying to see who it is, on that roof, yet she couldn't make anything out. "Is there any other way out? Look around, I'm going to keep an eye on our friend for now."