Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Thank you for your purchase." the grey haired merchant said to his last customer as the began to close his stand for the day. Edlyre counted the remaining coins in his hand before placing them in his money pouch which was getting lighter by the day. Purchasing supplies was starting to get expensive as the frequency of fiend attacks began to grow of late. It seemed many of the villagers and those who made settlements outside were stockpiling their wares and were not so eager to part with them unless you were willing to pay a pretty price for it. Research wasn't cheap and neither was brewing. Of course he could find the components himself, but it was tedious and time consuming. Time he could be using for more productive things. Even the fee he set for his services was not enough to offset the expenses to make them. He could always charge more, but the people who need his help usually have very little when it came to money. Rather they would offer food, lodging, or gratitude at the very least.

He eyed the bag containing his last purchase, opened it and looked at its contents. This would be the third trial to see if his experiment worked. In theory all the components should work, but he knew that was not always the case in the real world. He had made the appropriate measurements and gathered all the necessary ingredients. The last trial was a failure in the end, but had initially worked. Up to a point. Closing the bag he placed it in his leather satchel. Daylight was starting to wane and the villager were lighting their lamps. He pulled the small hooded hand lamp from his belt tassel and lit it with a hand flint and steel set. The journey home would be lonely and dark since he had stayed in the village longer than expected.

There was a growing fear among the villagers about the increased number of fiend attacks, but as of late most of this was without warrant. There had been no reports as of late and the guards usually did a good job in notifying passers about incidents. He had caught word of the growing tension among the political individuals from the gossip he heard in the streets. There was division of how to preserve Darkan's integrity and independence in regards to the increased fiend attacks. He had heard of the Calivert hunter guardian corps. Mostly through word of mouth and reputation. He had never seen them in person nor assessed their abilities in dealing with fiends, but they were well known and were usually spoken in a positive light.

Stepping through the gates, he bade the guard farewell who warned him to be cautious for thieves and possible fiends. Edlyre thanked him for the warning and began his trip back home. It would be relatively short journey should he decide to quicken his pace, but why bother? It was already dusk and nightfall would be upon him. There were also occasional plants he would gather on his way for his potions and a quickened pace with the growing night would cause him to miss it. Instead he decided to leisurely walk and enjoy the evening breeze and changing night sky.

((I'll join into the conversation as well once the group gets closer as well.))

Fidessa groaned loudly while she stretched her arms up high above her head, though holding on to the ends of her sleeves so they didn't fall down.
"I'm not really in a hurry, so I don't mind what we do." Fidessa shrugged.
Often time doesn't matter... All things die eventually, if it was someone's time to die then they're dead. No point in rushing to save someone who was destined to die. Fidessa reflected in her thoughts on the subject.

Jeeves had hopped down off the drivers seat of her wagon and was unhitching her oxen one handed while still looking at her notes with the other and mumbling to herself. Once the oxen were free she hobbled them and disappeared into her wagon via the small door located at the rear. Sounds of things being moved and metallic clangs made their way to those outside. Whatever she was up to was a mystery to all.

Lloyd and Kendt greeted their friend as she arrived. Lloyd was a soldier of the village’s militia; because of this the gate guards hardly batted an eye as the three young Darkaners marched out of the village with their weapons at the ready. The only words spoken to them were a warning from one of the guards to not stir up trouble with the Calivert Hunter Guardian corps if they ever crossed paths with them.

Blada went outside of the village quite often, mostly to hunt and gather food for her family. Although the pathways of the forest were dark and overcrowded with long, twisting tree roots, Blada could have wandered out for several miles in any direction without any fear of getting lost. Her comfort with the forest was mostly thanks to Lloyd – he had accompanied her on almost all of her hunts, and helped her navigate the labyrinth of trees early on before she knew the routes.

“I don’t remember the last time the three of us were out here together. Miss Academia here has been quite busy all year,” Kendt laughed, nudging Blada with his elbow. “Oh, that’s right. You’re an official graduate now. Does this mean we get to see you more?”

“She’s joining the militia too, so maybe Darkan will actually be taken seriously now, with someone like her protecting the village,” Lloyd spoke for Blada, keeping his eyes straight ahead to watch for any sudden movement beyond the trees. Lloyd wore a dark gray tunic, with black pants and rugged, black boots with lots of silver buckles lining from his shins to the tips of his feet. His hair was dark brown and cut very low to his head – from far away it almost looked like he didn’t have hair at all.

“Hah, says you and you only. If you ask me, outsiders are never going to take our village seriously as long as our strongest fighter is a woman,” Kendt joked, his tone condescending as usual. Kendt wore similar clothing as Lloyd, with a gray tunic and black pants, but his boots were light brown and his dark red hair reached his shoulders.

“I am definitely not the strongest,” Blada finally spoke, ignoring Kendt’s comment about her gender. Her words were few, but her comrades could clearly detect the certainty of her statement. “You’re giving me way too much credit, have more faith in your fellow Darkaners.”

“So what made you decide to join the militia anyway? I mean I know your parents used to be fighters before they settled into the council, but what’s that got to do with you?” Kendt asked, picking Blada’s brain with honest curiosity.

Blada thought for a moment, carefully considering her response almost as though there were a correct answer that her comrades were expecting. She then shrugged and answered, “The village needs me. Not much else to it…sorry, were you expecting more than that?”

“It was a ridiculous question. Who wouldn’t want to serve their village, if given the opportunity?” Lloyd chimed in, backing up Blada’s response with what seemed like an obvious explanation.

The conversation abruptly ended once the group came in view of what appeared to be a traveling brigade of warriors, complete with wagons and various animals including oxen and an Auroch mounted by a massive soldier who from a distance appeared larger than every other figure surrounding him. Blada could not discern any symbol or insignia on their clothing due to the distance and thick branches between them, but her guess was that they were travelers from another village.

“Looks like…merchants maybe?” Kendt wondered aloud.

Lloyd grinned to himself and put his arms around his comrades’ shoulders.

“No, fool—we have found ourselves in the company of the Calivert Hunter Guardian corps.”

Blada’s face twisted with slight annoyance at the thought of running into the corps so close to Darkan; she expected to encounter them at some point, but not so early in her trek from the village. She darted out in a brisk walk toward them; she wasn’t yet sure what she would do once she reached them – simply glare at them? Ask them what they were up to? Demand that they return to their headquarters? Blada’s uncertainty was shared by her comrades, who quickly rushed to follow her in anticipation of her making a reckless decision, which certainly was not very characteristic of Blada.

(( Alrighty, the ball is in you all's court. I'll use the normal text color from here on. ))

Edlyre shuffled through the high underbrush trying to make his way to the main road. Although he had traveled this area for a while now, it was certainly a much more difficult task to navigate when one was in the dark. Despite sufficient light from his lamp,most of his surroundings were similar no matter where he looked. He sighed scolding himself for getting so off task that this could force him to spend the night outside. He was not one who was terribly excited when it came to sleeping out at this season. The number of rain storms were increasing and catching a cold was more common. Plus all of his ingredients would get wet or spoiled from the dampness. He needed to get back home so he could place them in their appropriate containers.

As he finally trekked for a time, he heard voices in the distance. He wasn't sure if they were friendly or not, but voices meant a group and that usually meant a road. He quickly headed in their direction and finally came upon the main road. To his surprise there was a large group of them and he wondered if he had stumbled upon a caravan or the like. However looking at the trio and recognizing their uniforms, he concluded that they were from the village. Why there were out this far he wasn't sure. The other group, he could not tell and had never seen them before. He heard from one of the unknown party a hail. Perhaps trying to make themselves known to the three and hoping to verify they were not thieves or mercenaries. Of course it could have been a front, but the guard were pretty well trained from what he heard and did a pretty good job in keeping their people safe. He waited for what the guards would say and tried not to act too conspicuous.

"Yes." Dimitri said. "Rare metals there. Expensive too. I didn't realise we were getting so close to Darkan."
"Only three of you." Roger said. "Are you aware that there is a very large pack of fiends roaming the area?"
Roger had sensed the confrontation barely leashed in the young woman's voice. He wasn't sure what reason she had to be hostile to the Corps. or perhaps just to them. It really didn't matter though. The important thing was that there were only three of them. They all had the stance of people who knew how to fight. He didn't know how well, but they all clearly knew which end of a sword went into the enemy. But if those three ran across the pack of fiends the group from the Corps. was hunting he had no doubt they'd be ripped apart. Even a warrior as skilled and powerful as Raegar had wanted greater than their current numbers for the upcoming hunt.
"What my socially awkward friend here means," Dimitri said, jumping in to dull the blow of Roger's blunt words. "Is that we know that Darkan is not the largest village. We just became aware of a large pack of fiends in the area and came to offer our assistance in taking care of them. Depending on how coordinated this pack operates it could be a hell of a fight. Every extra blade out there could be another life saved in the village, no?"

Blada raised an eyebrow at the blunt words of one of the other men. His appearance was not as distinctive as some of the other travelers in the crowd, and his frank demeanor did not help to ease Blada’s growing annoyance at the situation. She quickly caught herself and smiled, making sure these strangers had no reason to become defensive with her.

“Haha…your socially awkward friend has a way with words, I see,” Blada joked with a shrug as the more handsome man spoke. “To address your concerns however, as you said, Darkan is indeed a small village.”

At that moment, Blada gestured to the sword hoisted on her back. As she fell silent in her pause, there was a soft, barely audible buzz and crack of static in the air. Blada readjusted the Whimzerst from over her shoulder and the static buzzing abruptly stopped.

“But I assure you, our soldiers are certainly capable of fighting off any number of fiends. If the three of us are not strong enough, we’ll alert the village for reinforcements.”

“More specifically, we’re hunting for scragglers,” Lloyd chimed in. “Fiends that might be straying too far from Mama Goose and the rest of the ducklings.”

“And while we’re on the subject of combat capabilities,” Blada continued, scanning the rest of the traveling party with a curious gaze. She made eye contact with a woman who had long brown hair and kind, sky blue eyes. The woman looked far too thin for serious combat. Blada herself was also a bit thin, but unlike Blada, this woman didn’t seem to be armed with a powerful weapon like the Whimzerst. “May I ask, who are you all to be lending such generous assistance to villages of the northern woodlands? What organization do you represent?”

Blada was surprised to discover that the woman’s voice matched the softness of her appearance. Admittedly, she had been expecting to hear a gruff or almost manly voice – any sign of toughness to make her fit in with the rest of the travelers in some possible way. Alas, the woman continued to perplex Blada with her gentle demeanor. Although it was nice to see another woman join the fray alongside other men, Blada couldn’t help but feel like this woman was a bit out of her element.

“Ahh…as I figured,” Blada said, lowering the aggression in her tone a fair bit. “May I ask, what brings you all the way out here? Has someone sent out a formal help request to take out the fiends?”

Blada was certain that there had to have been a plea for help from one of the villages in the woodlands, but there was a slight suspicion within her that her father might have been somehow involved. She awaited a response from anyone in the party, hoping that it was not her father who had summoned assistance of the hunters behind the backs of the rest of Darkan.