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At the knight's mention of the dragon, she absentmindedly glanced in it's direction, only to see a lack of struggling that had been there earlier.

"Right. The tabard. Good point," Jay said, getting back on track after pulling the knight onto the main of the cot. With little waisted effort, she slipped out a knife and sliced through the emblem-marked cloth at the shoulders before pulling the front half away. "We'll have to make do with a blanket covering you for the rest. I'm not going to chance moving you that much for the other half. Gotta keep the chill off you anyways."

With half a tabard in hand, Jay walked back to Dulcimer and stuffed it in the nearest saddlebag while grabbing her camping blanket. On the way back, she was reminded of the pieces of removed armor scattered about the ground.

A frown crossed her face. Though leaving the dead knight and the armor pieces in the open didn't feel right, the living were first priority. That and she also wanted avoid running into any 'dragon chasers' that might arrive though she had heard of none in the area lately. Without the right connections, times were tough and that meant more people were daring to scavenge the aftermath of such dragon attacks - many of them desperate and not to be trifled with.

"So, sounds like we both didn't find what we were looking for here," the ranger said, first covering the knight with the brownish green wrap before moving on to rigging the head of the cot to hang from Dulcimer's saddle. After accomplishing that, Jay took a quick breather before speaking up again.

"Hey, Lynx! Don't spook the horse in the process, but get your dragon over here. The foot end of the cot is ready for her to carry if you want to help out at least part of the way. Closer to town I'll have to take over or let it drag 'cause the knight has one thing right, dragon anything and the towns don't mix. It just not safe," the ranger said as she moved toward the knight's feet, pointing out the horizontal wrap of rope worked like a handle that could be grabbed onto or bit in order to carry.

Stopping by Vastina and doubling over somewhat to try and catch his breath, Blade too looked back to see that they didn't have any persuers at all. All he saw were just some smoke and flames in the distant, where the dragons razed the abandoned village.

"That man.. I think he's trying to fight the fallen.." mentioned Astalder when he noticed some of the others' gaze towards the back, "He looks tough but I wouldn't be surprised if he was already killed back there.. or something."

Only when she felt Lynx's young dragon had a stable enough hold on the foot end of the cot did the ranger step away and look over her temporary contraption. Everything looked like it was holding though she hadn't been expecting anything to fall apart. With that all done and ready to go, that left one last thing the ranger had to quiet in her mind.

Wordlessly, Jay stepped toward the purple-colored dragon with a hand going for her sword. The bleeding mass was unknown, almost as if it had randomly appeared out of the abyss, and so far today, anything that had followed that pattern had been nothing but trouble.

As she closed in on it, she noticed the lack of wings and wondered how it had managed to reach this area. A lone dragon walking this close to a town without a Bound? Unlikely... or stupid. Looking closer, the bloody back marks seemed to suggest that wings had once been present recently; the wounds were in the right location at least. Was this dragon Feathered or Fallen though? Gleaning from secondhand knowledge, she couldn't see why a Feathered would attack the Dragon Knights. Fallen it had to be then she decided as she tightened her grip on the hilt, ready to pull the sword free.

Once at the dragon's side, Jay's hand slid from her sword as she let out the breath she had been holding in. Like the knight and the girl before, it looked like the mysterious dragon would have no words to answer her question either. With that, the ranger turned around and on foot was soon taking Dulcimer by the reigns, leading the small troupe back to the town she had just earlier come from that day.


---24 Hour Time Jump---
Reaching the city boarder, Lynx and Midori part ways with the group leaving Jay alone to get Hammand to a resting place in town. After leaving the knight in the care of an inn, Jay rides out for a healer with magic skills from a town half a day out. Jay returns with her healer and is now waiting for the results, tired after almost finishing Day Two without sleep.


With droopy eyes and a mug of warm mead to her lips, the ranger sat at a table near the unused fireplace while the coals in her mind sputtered and fought to stay burning. Too much had happened in the last two days leaving too much unanswered. Rubbing her eyes, Jay looked into her half empty mug as she swirled the remaining contents around.

Maybe I should have gotten that second room, she thought to herself as she fought off the fatigue. After already spending enough on extra supplies and shelling out on the room for the knight and the healer's magic talents, her coin pouch was a little too light to her liking to give in to buying out a second room. With that, she remained in her dissatisfied state while she waited the time out at her table, watching the inn keeper start to light up the lamps in preparation for the coming evening.

More time passed until a knock on the table board in front of her brought her to attention. Unable to sleep and unable to stay awake, the ranger had fallen into half a doze which the knock had brought her out of. Looking up she saw the stick-figure frame of a man draped in fairly decent material belonging to the middle-aged healer she had brought back with her after a day's ride.

"Oh, it's you, Kintallus. What's the news? He'll make it, right?" she asked the healer about the health of the knight, hoping that the efforts of the last day would not be wasted. If they had been, she would have to go shoot something, even if it was that dead dragon that had been left lying out in the middle of the road outside of town. Good thing that Lynx girl and her dragon weren't around in case that were to happen. They probably wouldn't take to that idea very well. They would be a day's walk away from this place after parting ways at the city's edge, choosing to avoid the scorn of the villagers inside.

"Best you see for yourself. You'll do so anyways, I'm sure," the healer said condescendingly, motioning for the ranger to follow him. He had not been exceedingly thrilled with what he had considered her pushy nature at his domicile. Once at the door to the room, the healer stepped aside and let the impatient lady pass who opened the door with click of the handle and a harsh shove.

There was the knight lying on the bed looking less disheveled than when she has seen him earlier that day. She had to give the healer credit for at least taking the time to redress the man and give him a little bit of his dignity - assuming this wasn't some preparation for his passing.

No, no thoughts like that, Jay told herself as she forced her feet to move herself closer to the man's bedside to find out for sure how the knight had fared.

There was little work for someone like Brigeet in the Northern Boarderlands. She was able to hunt for food though and now that she was with Domitia it was important to keep from hostile villages. The dark woman didn't understand what had started the whole feud between dragon and human nor did she wish to understand it. She only had to look at Domitia to know that she would never harm any dragon unless it was trying to kill her.

Today they walked along in the forested area. It seemed peaceful. Maybe too peaceful. It had the woman on her toes.

The arrival of the young girl took Brigeet by surprise and Domitia watched curiously at the young dragon that came with the human child. "What ya doin' out ere' lone, Child? It be might dangerious." Brigeet said in her broken speech. The slightly odd looking dragon looked at the dark woman and shook her head before moving a little closer to these new beings. "Are you lost? Can we help you?"

"Ask?" Tarketh roared, "Ask me not to burn the village?! You do not understand what you deal with, human! I will break your will so that the only words that come out of your mouth are pleas for blessed death!"

And the Fallen leapt at the man, like a wolf spring for his prey, his forearms tight against his chest with the hands turned inward so that the poisoned anklets faced the man, his wings spread out to give him momentum, and his head lowered with the tipped horns aimed like a spear.

It was at that moment that a bull's horn sounded and a cry came from the Fallen as they scattered, trying to take to the air and not be caught off-guard and on the ground. For a contingent of armored dragons had swooped out of the sky, diving for them, and at their head was none other than Master Lierce.

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The path stretched before Risen, glowing stones suspending in a void of emptiness. It was not alone, however, as something floated out there, just beyond his reach.

"Those are the possible futures," a voice said. Sain. The man appeared before Risen, floating a few inches above the path itself. "You'll learn to read them and watch them change... and learn when to change them as you have already done. See?"

He waved and for a moment Risen saw a future now dead. The prophetess kneeling with her hands bound behind her back, her veil gone and her face bruised while a haughty, proud woman stood before her. Under Sain's guidance, the future proceeded and shifted forwards, chasing that path forwards, branching here and there but Sain chose one future in particular.

The same woman, older now by a few years, with the very dragon that had killed Risen bowing before her, agony in his expression, while his rider lay to the side, torn apart by his own claws.

Further. Dragons fighting against dragons, humans against humans. The ground soaked in blood. Then it vanished and Sain turned to face Risen.

"That possibility still exists," he said, "That is why I had you save the unwillingly Blessed from the clutches of the Hounds. She must remain free. Blessed cannot be bound against their will."

He blinked his glowing eyes, a deliberate and unnecessary gesture.

"So," he whispered, "You have shed your mortal flesh. You have taken a life and seen your life taken in turn... the experiences of a mortal existence are yours. And the Blessed path is willing to take you into its service, if you are not content with just a mortal life. It holds life and death and it alone can grant life to those that have perished. All else is an abomination, for they are not sworn to guard the powers that shaped them." He pointed, onward down the path. "Go then. Reality is yours to shape. I will guide you no further.... go, and restore your form to this world."

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Hammand's eyes fluttered open at Jay's approach. For a moment he studied her in silence, trying to find the right words to say. He'd always been awkward around women and found that it was best to just let Lierce speak and stay quiet himself. But this one was strong... determined... he fixed this in his mind, mentally picturing her wearing the tabard of the Dragon Knights. It made him relax a little, for he knew how to deal with the women under his command.

'Just don't issue orders,' he mentally told himself.

"Thank you," he said, glancing about the room, "I'll recover quickly now." He lowered his voice. "My dragon opened the link between us up again a few hours ago. I'll be able to draw off his strength now." Then he coughed and reached for a cup of water on a nearby table.

"My companions are going to be a while yet in coming," he said, "They were... detained by urgent business. Until then, I want you to stay in town. My... dear friend... will wish to reward you for your care."

He was giving orders again. Mentally, he pictured himself getting out of bed and slamming his head against the wall a couple times.

A large inner sigh was released when the knight showed signs of life, but with that release, languor quickly replaced the apprehension that had been holding her up much of the day as she quietly tried to listen to what the knight had to say.

"I'll stay at least until the rest of the Knights arrive for you," she answered, obviously in thought about something. "If trouble were to come looking for you between now and then, it wouldn't do for you to be fighting in that shape. This isn't ..."

There was a knock on the door. Jay motioned for silence before stepping out. When she returned, she locked the door behind her.

"Kintallus, the healer, is taking his leave, but dang him. He always charged me for these," she said while setting a small pouch of funky smelling herbs on the table by the knight. "It's a poultice for later when the bruising really starts to show."

"But as I was saying," the ranger continued, slipping off her cloak and bundling it up into a floor cushion for her to sit on with her back against the door. "This isn't one of my usual stops so my trust is in my blades here. While the tavern keeper is currently paid to keep his mouth shut about me having literally dragged a guest up here, I can't count on that lasting too long with the town already in a buzz about yesterday's action outside their gates."

That reminded her of something else she wanted to attend to soon.

Looking out the window, even if she had the energy, Jay could tell that there wasn't going to be enough daylight to attend to the fallen knight that had been left behind. That chore would have to wait until tomorrow.

"How long do you think it will be until the rest of the Knights will come pick you up?" the ranger asked, sitting back against the door while closing her eyes.

Hearing the little dragon remark about loosing light Domitia looked up at the sky. "Even if you kept moving you wouldn't reach that one by night time. I think he moves around at times as well." She didn't sound positive about it but at least it was some information. The dark woman crossed her arms and then sighed. "De be right tho. Day be movin fast. Brigeet be tinking get sum food n set camp. Maybe litl ones be willing to help? Brigeet not be wantin bad tings to happen to dem."