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 Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:16 pm
The alcove Ruelash had found was dry and relatively snow free, something that anyone would be happy for when looking for a place to hide out during the storm. It was large enough to lay down in and not touch either end, and tall enough that an earthling could stand and still have three or more feet above their head. All in all, not too shabby a place to have stumbled into.
The fire Ruelash had lit was quickly doing its job in warming the place and giving some light into the dark space. It seemed that somebody had been here before, as if the supplies wasn't enough of a giveaway, there was a trashed pile of clothing lying at the far corner. It looked soggy. Though with the snow being safely kept away from entering the nook, it was hard to decide what would have caused it to stay wet.
Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the clothes weren't just soggy from the snow outside. There was something familiar about the red spotting the front of the garments lying in a pile. These clothes looked like they couldn't have been in here for more than... a night.
A rustling came from the opening of the alcove, and from the white blanket of snow blocking the entrance, a lumbering form came in, wrapped in snow gear and thick garments.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 10:26 am
Ruelash wasn't usually curious about things like this. Bergchi took but she also gave, and he was just happy to have a nice place to shelter. Happy was a strong word. He was certainly not upset or whiny.
He got the fire going strong enough that he could leave it for a while and, with nothing else to do but think about his situation, he decided to not do that. Instead, he investigated the alcove, hoping to procrastinate on trying to figure out how other people thought and all the annoyance that came with that.
Hmm... That was odd. Of course you would dump wet clothing near a fire- that was just reasonable out here. Wet clothes meant freezing.
But they would be near a fire, otherwise they would never dry. Yet he had found the place dark. Had they already dried?
Well, he hadn't gotten them wet with snow- he'd shaken all that off him near the entrance. Which meant that the clothes hadn't been set out to dry.
Besides, they were covered in blood. Which meant absolutely nothing to Ruelash. He'd been covered in blood before from hunting, and from that time with the bounty hunters and the bandit. It meant nothing to lash that it had been there about a night. Why should it?
The rustling caught his attention and he stood up to see someone lumber in. Well, there was nowhere to hide and he had already lit the fire, so he tensed and eyed the figure warily. If he had to fight, so be it. If not, he could just ignore the other guy surlily and they could both go about their business. It wasn't as if he hadn't had to share a shelter before.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:41 am
The man's disheveled hair was caught in and around his face, seeming to merge with his beard and making him look purely grisly. He began to shake off the snow from his clothes before he noticed something was amiss. ... He hadn't lit a fire...
He looked up from stomping off the snow and his beady eyes caught Ruelash's. He snarled and his mouth grimaced. His eyes darted around the cavern, looking to see if there was an ambush waiting for him. "What're you doing here?" He barked at Ruelash, reaching into his coat as if to pull something out.
He held his hand in place, waiting for an answer and shifting his weight and his glance back and forth, occasionally looking behind him like he was checking to see if more people would come in from behind.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:52 am
Ruelash tensed at the motion. It was looking more and more towards fighting, and he was at a really big disadvantage, what with being unarmed and all. And smaller.
Not that that would stop him, but right now he was actually a bit too preoccupied for a fight.
"'s snowin'" he said simply, pointing to the sheet of white outside, "Real bad."
What, was the other man going to chase him out into the cold? Not even Ruelash would do that, mainly because he normally intimidated any 'guests' into shutting up and being tolerable. And also Veshki had told him it was the right thing to do. And, he thought, maybe mom too.
Well, if the guy wanted to be all territorial and s**t, that was his business. Ruelash happened to like this place and he was just getting comfortable, so he wasn't moving.
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Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:43 am
The man grumbled lightly, letting his hand relax and looking behind him one more time before deciding that this probably wasn't an ambush.
He plunked himself down next to the fire and began to pull off his heavy coat, shaking the snow from it. Apparently, he didn't seem to mind sharing the space with Ruelash. He grumbled and growled as he did it, seeming to be in his own world at this point and pulled off his gloves.
His hands seemed to be chewed up and gnarled and there was dirt caked under his nails and some sort of splattering on the back of his hands. He was obviously not the cleanliest of people and the spotting on his hands was awfully familiar. He moved his hands to be over the fire, warming the chill out of them and still grumbling to himself.
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Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:33 pm
Satisfied that he wasn't going to get into a fight at this moment, Ruelash sat back near the fire, watching it burn steadily and trying to think. How did a murdered woman and a bloody club end up in his room? Well obviously, the murdered woman was.... murdered. And that was where she was killed. Duh.
The weapon though. Why his floor? How hadn't he woken up to someone in his room? Someone had put it there, cause if they had dropped it it would have left a trail of blood. Put it there. Deliberately.
Which meant... what? Why would someone do that? It was absolutely perplexing.
With Veshki, they had just latched onto the idea that he had killed him. This was different. It was like someone wanted them to think he had killed that woman. Why would someone want to do that? It just made no sense.
Ugh. Thinking about how these people might think was giving him a headache. Did they even think, or did they just whine? He bet the latter. But even for him the idea of a club coincidentally appearing in his room was hard to swallow. Nah. It had gotten there intentionally.
His stomach was hurting too. Great. Now they're makin' me all sick. he thought to himself, I hate people. An' thinking about people. I hate that too he grumbled something unintelligable at the fire.
But, on closer inspection, it wasn't sick-annoying-people hurt.
Oh. Hey. He was hungry.
"... got any meat?" he asked gruffly, still staring at the fire. Clearly the man had been out hunting, if the blood on his hands and clothes was any indicator. Dirt didn't bother 'lash. He wasn't exactly the cleanest prentice around.
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Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:16 am
The man rubbed his hands together over the fire, still grumbling to himself. His eyes were looking past the fire and past the alcove, past everything, dazed out in his own mind it seemed.
He snapped back at Ruelash's request and started to pull on his wild beard. His eyes burrowed into Ruelash as if he had forgotten that he was even there and answered with a gruff "Naw." The man clenched his jaw and looked back and forth once more, as if unsure of where he was or why he was there.
He stood up brusquely and swung his coat back on as if he had had an epiphany - an angry one at that. His face twisted and contorted into rage and he kicked at the fire, smothering most of it. "I know why yer here, ya good for nuthin!" He spat at the floor by Ruelash's feet and swung out with his fist. "Yer not gonna take me back!"
The lumbering man made one last swing, connecting with Ruelash's jaw before rushing for the exit and into the blanket of snow still falling.
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Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:09 am
That wasn't the answer that Ruelash had been expecting exactly, and he had no idea what the man was talking about, but if it was a fight he wanted... Ruelash rubbed his jaw in annoyance- it would be a fight he got! He pounced as if to tackle the man down- not because he wanted him to stay, or because of what he had been called- He'd been called worse- but because damn it he wasn't going to let a good hit to the jaw- ow- like that slide!
"th'hell ya talkin' about? Back where?" he snapped, attacking with his fists. He was confused, but hey. Fighting.
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:55 am
The big burly man was way too large to go down from Ruelash's size alone. While Ruelash clung to the man, attempting to strike with his fists, the man grabbed Ruelash by the scruff of his coat and flipped him over, heaving him into the snow. The man meant business, and he was going to get away.
The snow was already starting to slow, turning from a fierce pounding to a light, quaint flurry. The sun was coming out through the blanket of clouds over head and making the snow glisten white. It covered most of the tracks of anyone who had been through this pass before the snow and covered most rocks and materials on the ground.
The man charged to Ruelash and nailed him with his body, slamming against him once more. He was going to make sure that Ruelash couldn't follow him.
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Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 5:53 am
Ruelash, if he had had time to think, would have been suitably impressed. Heck, this would have been his perfect fight, up against someone who clearly knew what they were doing and was also bigger than him. Damn, was this man big. He looked like he was part mammu or something. He'd also have noted that the weather was better now, which meant he could get moving again.
He did not, however, have time to think because he was too busy trying to right himself before that mountain of a man could smush him into tiny bits. He managed to get off of his back when the body slam hit.
"Ugh...!" he grunted as air rushed from his lungs. He fell back, the snow cusioning his fall. Not that it helped much. He was still knocked breathless, his stomach and chest muscles, for the moment, too busy being in pain and trying to breathe to help him get up and keep fighting. He groaned as he tried anyway.
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Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 7:17 am
Hulking over Ruelash, the bearded guy was about to come down on him with both fists when a sudden yelling appeared from behind them both.
The man barely had time to look behind him when he was being tackled to the floor by some of the village men, the large man from the beginning seemed to be leading the charge.
Ruelash's attacker fell to the floor with a thud, and squirmed under the weight of the four men. He yelled and grumbled and spat curses at them all while the others tied his hands behind his back and the large, also bearded man reared back his fist to knock him unconscious. The attacker's head fell forward with a thud; he was out cold.
Three of the men continued to hold the large guy down, holding him in place in case the hit wasn't quite as strong as it should have been, while the man who had held Ruelash in place earlier in the day stood and brushed himself off.
He held out his hand to Ruelash to help lift him out of the snow and with a stern face, introduced himself. "Sorry kid, name's Biilem. You ok?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:46 am
Ruelash had about enough time to think Oh crap and brace himself before the yelling started and things stopped making sense again.
Suddenly, there were more people about, and they were attacking the other man, who was being tumbled to the ground under the might of their numbers. Ruelash hurt, but he was impressed. Well what did you know. Villagers could be good at something.
Why were the villagers here? Didn't they think he killed that woman? He looked at the man's hand warily, as if it might bite him. He hesitated a moment too long to be polite, though not so long that it wasn't excusable from being bashed against a wall, before taking the offered hand and stumbling to his feet, slightly bent over holding his stomach. Damn, that man could hit hard. He watched Biilem warily, grunting an affirmative. Yeah. He was okay. His gaze shifted back to the large man, then the villagers, then back to Biilem. Was he going to find out what was going on?
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Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:50 pm
Ruelash grunted his affirmative, and Biilem nodded to him. "Good." He turned back to the large hulking mass of unconsciousness on the floor and rubbed at his nose, sneering slightly. "Well, we got him. We can haul him back now and get this whole thing done with." He called out to the others. On cue, the three others got off of the man on the floor and dragged him over to a cart that a couple of other men had dragged along with them, as if they had hoped that it would turn out exactly like this with Ruelash's attacker unable to move.
Biilem turned back to Ruelash and addressed him once more, his arms crossed against his chest. "That worthless sack of bones is Beimh. My brother. He went missing about a month ago and we had called off the search just last week, thinking that if he wasn't back by now, he must have been dead. Guess he was hiding out, probably waiting." He motioned behind him with disgust at the mention of Beimh. He sighed and his shoulders drooped slightly. "After you ran off, we found his ring in the girl's hand. The b*****d upped and killed her." He shook his head. "Good thing you found him. All your noise making led us straight to him. I guess we should be thanking you." His face turned slightly sour, eyeballing Ruelash as if he had something to hide. "Unless you were in on this?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:28 pm
O...kay. Ruelash rubbed at his jaw. Well that resolved the question of whodunit. And obviously the crazy b*****d hadn't set him up, considering as he hadn't recognized him or anything.
The rest of the stuff, Ruelash couldn't care less about, cept for the ring bit. If she had grabbed something, that meant she had fought back. Good for her! His opinion of the dead woman went from 'of-little-importance' to a more neutral 'eh'. Shame she still ended up dead, but hey, thats life.
"Dunno why you'd thank me." he muttered, looking at the big man. If only he'd been the one to knock him out. That would have been a great fight, but he'd probably been outmatched.
At the suspicious tone in the man's voice, he bristled slightly. "Huh?" in on it? Like... he'd planned to kill the girl or something? "No." he said, annoyed. He could feel his jaw stinging... He'd have a nasty bruise later.
"Just met 'im. In there." he pointed to the alcove, "Figured he was a hunter or somethin', since 'e had blood on 'im. Was mindin' my own business. Then 'e went and punched me." Ruelash shook his head, as much in confusion as to get everything back in its right place, watching as they hauled the man off.
"uh... so..." it was an odd question to ask, but... "Why'd he kill the lady, anyway?" since he didn't know either woman or hulking man, he had no idea, and hey. He was kinda curious.
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:40 am
Biilem followed Ruelash's brief recount with a nod, looking towards the alcove. He scratched at his beard and eyeballed Ruelash, deciding whether or not he believed if Ruelash was in on it or not before seeming to decide for himself. He believed Ruelash; knowing what it was that had set his brother running off a month prior, he couldn't really imagine Beimh having accomplices.
He sighed again before starting on the story. "Beimh came down with a fever a couple of weeks before he disappeared. It was pretty bad and he was hallucinating something fierce. We tried to keep him in bed, but he up and left without a word." He crossed his arms and his face looked pained. "I don't think he knew her, but my guess was he was still in his fever; what without any healers to help him in the wilderness and the cold, it probably only got worse."
He rubbed under his nose and sighed one last time. "I have to get back to the others. No doubt the hulk that is my brother is going to wake up soon enough and they'll need me there for that." He began to jog away from Ruelash to join the others before he stopped and turned one last time. "I saw some of your swings back there, by the way. My guess is you'll be hard to take on in a fair fight with a little more work." He turned and continued to trot off back towards the village.
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