A High Fantasy Adventure

[Corinthian]

Kadis snorted, but he was hardly in a position to tell the de facto commanders to pike off and jump off a cliff.

 

"Sure, why not. I'd hate to see you get carved up."

 

Under his breath, he added "...where I couldn't watch."

 

He pulled his leathers and ringmail back on, grimacing at the feel of boiled leather scraping against the still-raw flesh of his wound. The pain was irritating - he wasn't accustomed to losing, but then again, he had screwed up. Pain was the price of Pride, and he had altogether too much.

 

The tracks were peculiar. They became suddenly slightly deeper, then significantly shallower. As though they'd been moving off the cart, unloading the crates that were supposedly loaded with Mythril.

 

"Alright, let me see if this makes any sense. They just made off with a load of the most expensive metal in existence and they're fleeing through the forest, so rather than just move as fast as they possibly can, they stop and unload the cart so they can move the metal on foot? Does that make sense to any of you? Because I've got this sneaking suspicion that we're walking into something nasty."

 

He shook his head. There was something not quite right about this whole situation. Logical reactions were out. The bandits weren't making any sense. They weren't moving quickly, nor were they trying to steal away. There were certainly a number of ways they could have killed the group, not least of which being a crossfire of arrows. So, assuming these bandits had any wits, they'd have kept the cart or killed the pursuit.

 

"Keep your eyes open. In this light, it's hard to tell if you're looking at the earth or a pit covered in rushes and leaves." Kadis pulled his cloak over his head and brought it around. Rings were inferior to Chain in most respects, but they were much quieter. A decade of skulking around in shadows and meeting with shady clients had taught him a few things.

 

"Any of you get this weird feeling we're being manipulated?"

[Master_Archon]

((Tell me if you don' like the idea of the bandits having horses Keno, and I'll change my post.))

 

"Well," Icarian said, following the tracks with his nose literally to the ground. "They did unload the cart and use it to distract us, but they weren't stupid in the sense of speed, they met up with a smaller group..." Icarian paused, moving farther away and then stopping. "Here. This group had horses waiting for the raiding party, and from the looks of it, the horses are quite the burly kind, Clydesdale's, maybe even War-Horses. Clydesdale's aren't uncommon amongst bandits, they're good for hauling, carrying, and when in a tight spot, they make for sturdy steeds in combat," Icarian pointed out trying to make his point rather clear.

 

"As for the Black Forest, I have no problems there, I'm at home, literally, in the Black Forest; Hm, which reminds me, I haven't seen my friends and sisters in quite some time," Icarian said, scratching his noggin.

 

"As for traps, let's say that I'm no numskull when it comes to tiger pits and rope tied logs, and spike pads, and banzai stakes, and..." But Icarian was cut short by 'Seth', who held his hand over the Fey's mouth.

 

"Icarian, they don't want to know the entire trap repertoire, they want to know whether it'd be practical to follow the rather obvious path. As the human said, this does feel a bit like manipulation, but then again, what doesn't when it comes down to following someone?" 'Seth' asked rather rhetorically. "I just want to get this over with so I can get to Port Jasper," 'Seth' continued, removing his hand from over Icarian's mouth.

 

"Yeah, I agree, none of this is all that savvy, but you do what you have to, especially if you want to get payed," Icarian said, shrugging his shoulders and moving farther down the trail of footprints the bandits and their horses had left.

 

((Meh, it was the best post I could come up with.))