Welcome to Gaia! ::

Evelyn raised and eyebrow at the suddeness of the departure. Seeing the pendent Sauri packed away reminded her of the amulet around her neck. She grabbed the stone and clasped it in her hand, feeling the metal designs around the stone and the smooth surface of the stone. One day, she told herself, I'll get this thing off.

WIthout making a sound, or barely any movement, the drow/elf swung to her feet. She placed her hands in the large pockets of her oversized trench-style coat. Then she followed Sauri out of the tent, five feet behind her. As much as they seemed to have an understanding, her personality drove her to stay away from anyone and everyone.

I jumped around laughing hystericly, until he hit the right spot on the armor. Shaking my fist in the air angrily I huffed and sat down with my arms crossed. His voice rumbled shaking the armour. I covered my ears though that did little to protect me from it.

"Yes Master" I answered sweetly.

Quietly making a note to catch Wulf in the act of his wrong doing against the Master. The rock of his walking threw me to his feet. I tumbled down out of his armor. Landing on the ground I screamed as he almost crushed me. Growing back to normal I dusted myself off. A few soldiars watched in suprise, I faced them and winked. It was fun to mess with those idiots. I noticed that my Cumi gown was up. Blushing I pulled it down and covered my bare bottom. I enjoyed wearing this. It was all I had left from the Valey. The gown was a forest green and it was layered. The longest layer tended to get stuck in the others. Damn it. I ran to catch up with master.
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Sauri didn't bother entering the tent. She mounted a horse and waited for Evelyn. Leaning back she listened around the camp rolling her eyes as she heard her father yell at, her Nanny? But she was dead. That lying b*****d! She fumed quietly. Trying to calm herself she was reminded that she would be spending a while with Wulf. Sauri unconsiously snarled and her horse reared in suprise. She delt it shudder and whispered elvin to it to calm the horse.

The minotaur didn't go down easy, not before breaking a few of her ribs. He finally went down from the paralyzing and deep stab in the chest. With a groaning moo the great beast falls to his knees, falling over on his side with a dull thud. Panting heavily and sweating the rogue raises her shaking hands to her shoulders gently, warming up her meager magick.
"M-mother's Kiss." she repeats this three more times quickly, healing her broken bones and feeling them being weakly put back into place.
They aren't fully healed though. In fact, they still hurt! Finch carefully unstraps her studded armor and sets it down. Slowly lifting her shirt a bit she looks at her sides. The skin is swollen with dark red bruises outlined by purple. There is also a shallow cut across her six-pack abdomen, must've been when the minotaur tossed his head. With a soft groan she gets her armor on again. Rothun nickers softly, her new armor thankfully protected the mare during her barreling attacks. Now Rothun stands nearby her rider and is alert in case of more danger. Gritting her teeth the muscled woman stands. Reaching into the pack given to her she pulls out its bulk, the lengths of rope. Her arms are still shaking slightly from the throbbing in her bruised torso as she ties up the minotaur's wrists to his hooves, attaching him to the grand gypsy vanner's saddle. With a grunt she walks to Rothun's front, holding the reins weakly and starting to walk out of the hot desert. Finch knows she'll regret mounting Rothun. She figures the mare also deserves a break from riding. By now it is getting dark thankfully, a cool breeze presses her sweat-dampened clothes against her skin where it is not covered by armor. The cuts on the back of her legs were luckily above her knees. They have stopped bleeding but have sand within them and cause her a burning sensation in her thighs. As though sensing her rider's discomfort, Rothun burrs and lowers her head as she nudges Finch. With a slight snicker she waves the horse away.
"Nay, my gentle lady...I could use the stretch and you already have a heavy load."
Leading the mare up the blanch hill into an open valley of brown grass and sand. It is the area before the desert and into Yip territory. Her panting has stopped now as she begins to admire the scenery. The setting sun makes the ground seem bronze, the grass gold. Above the sky has melted into a glorious mixture of dark blue, red and purple. A single star dots the sky for now as various nocturnal creatures begin to sing and waken.

Now it is fully dark and Finch has wearily trudged within the small valley. The Yip tribe's actual location is still many leagues away from her. Behind Finch is the hills leading into the desert, for now she is thankful to leave the arid place. Rothun sighs heavily which makes the rogue smirk. Patting the mare she unbuckles the saddle and slides it off along with the reins, but leaves the armor set on in case of an attack. She is sure to unlatch the hefty corpse from her mount though. Neither have ever spent a day in the desert and so do not know what possible danger might pop out at them. And in case of any other minotaurs tracking her down she'd like to make a quick getaway. Looking around there is a tiny pond not too far off, perfect to bathe in and rid her thigh cuts of the sand. Something stomping causes the woman to halt. Near her Rothun gives a shrill whinny and suddenly charges at the middle of the valley, towards their next destination. Finch frowns as she stands from untangling ropes from the minotaur's horns. A dark figure with a bigger one on top is charging straight for her. Is it Seth? She growls and takes out her sword, seeing Rothun's larger form knock over the running horse. It is Seth. And from the high pitched neighing his horse has a broken leg now. Setting her jaw and running after Rothun, Finch is glad to see the dim outline of her mare saunter away from the man as he struggles to get up. The rogue must act quickly, it is very unlikely she can stand up to a war hammer just now. Dropping her Falchion she withdraws her morningstar and drops down to slam it upon Seth. The head hunter growls, snapping out a strong arm and grabbing her wrist.
"Not that easy, she-devil!"
With an equal growl Finch darts back, sheathing the mace and grabbing her sword as the man gets up with his hammer, "It's She-Bear."
He takes his time though, circling her with his hammer positioned. Rothun stands off to the side near the minotaur corpse, she knows that's what this is about and she also knows to keep out of her rider's fights unless called. With her aching body stepping about quickly the rogue thinks of something. They've both been in the dark fro awhile, so...
Finch tosses aside her sword and raises her open palms inward to her chest. Seeing her sudden move Seth raises his hammer with a mighty cry.
"Starlight!"
A bright blue light sears around Finch in a ten foot perimeter. The head hunter is surprised by the sudden light and hesitates before slamming his weapon down, giving her barely enough time to roll to the side. It takes all her will power not to scream. Pressure forced upon her stiff joints and battered body nearly knocks Finch out, good thing she's determined to win this. Getting to her feet she jumps sideways behind Seth and takes out her mace, smashing it into the back of his head. Blood sputters out at her along with the cranial juice from his skull, a few bits fall to the ground as Seth makes a strange gurgling sound. Eyes rolling back he falls forth with his hammer falling beside him. Rothun neighs as she stomps the life out of Seth's dying mount, pleased of the win. Panting heavily Finch leaves everything as it is and marches to the pond to bathe and rest. Everything will be safe under her mount's watch, both have deserved a rest.

Sauri gagged, this time the smell of wine was...was over powering. She covered her nose, as if that helped. She noticed the Drow acting a little strange. Rolling her eyes, Sauri jumped off the horse and hissed at Wulf's wolf. The damn thing looked like it was having an anger attack of some kind. When it lunged at her Sauri punched it on the side of its head. The wolf tumbled over.

Pushing the tent flap open she saw Kiva standing in front of wolf. The corner of her lip lifted in a snarl. Kiva is no alli. Looking around the tent she saw traces of magic. She looked around once more then walked up to Kiva.

"Alena con`e? Tar ishe mut`ana al un quem." Sweet isn't it? When a common whore comes maskerading as an exotic. Sauri threw her head back and laughed. Turning around she stormed out and mounted the horse again. She waited for Kiva and Wulf to come out.

Kiva smiled politely at Wulf for his compliments, but inwardly, she was rather pleased with herself for pulling it off and enticing this orc. Her joy was short lived when Wulf snarled slightly as Sauri entered the tent.

As Sauri hissed some unkind words to Kiva, all she could do was politely back. It was not the first time she had been insulted, for in her ‘profession’, there were many women who despised her. Although the words did not affect her, Kiva was quite disappointed that Gruugash’s offspring, a half elf like herself, disliked her so much. And for what reason? Kiva did not know. Nor did she think she would ever know. Once an enemy, always an enemy.

Once Sauri had stormed out, Kiva noticed slight tension from Wulf, as if he was trying hard to restrain himself from attacking Gruugash’s offspring. All the better. Kiva thought to herself. If I need him on my side, then I must hate the people he hates. With that, Kiva picked herself up from the ground, concealed the spikes on her fans and placed them under her sash. She knew she had to calm the orc down somehow; it wouldn’t do her any good if she couldn’t control him. As she had learned in the brothel, ‘the most powerful woman is one who can control a man with a simple smile’. Kiva still had work to do if she were to make that credo true with Wulf.

Heading towards Wulf, Kiva gently placed one elegant hand on his cheek and slowly turned his head to face her. It was a daring move for her, because if she upsetted the orc any further by this gesture, he could easily swing his battleaxe at her. She looked up at him, staring deep into his eyes to take advantage of the calming effect she had with her eyes. “The warchief Gruugash has made the wisest choice by sending me out to do this,” her voice lowering to a whisper so that only the orc could hear. “for if it were not him,” she paused momentarily making sure Wulf would strain to hear her next words. “I would not been able to entertain you, my dear chieftain.” She let out a heavy breath as if a woman would when she whispered sweet nothings to a man in her bed.

There was a moment of silence as Kiva tried to scan his face trying to decipher his reaction. Perhaps she was too pleased with herself before that she may have overdone it now. Praying and hoping that wasn’t the case, as she would pay heavily if Wulf was unhappy with her, she quickly broke the silence. “Shall we?” She asked hiding any sign of fear as she casually motioned to the exit.

When Gruugash came into eyesight of the Corollian border forest he couldn't help but feel slightly surprised at the trolls' progress. Where once their stood great trees, now there only remained stump, and trails in order to transport the lumber north to the goblins. As Gruugash passed by the mighty troll lumberjacks, they only stared at him for a moment before returning to their jobs. However, a few of them cocked their heads slightly as they looked at Chu and mumbled towards each other before shrugging their shoulders and returning to work. Paying as much heed to the trolls as the trolls paid to him, Gruugash continued west until the sound of axeheads striking wood was deafened by the surrounding trees. Then making completly sure they were not being spied on, Gruugash turned right, and started heading north.

As Gruugash strode through the trees, he couldn't help but wonder if he made the right choice sending Wulf to guard his daughter and the gift. There was no doubt in his mind that Wulf was loyal to him, but was the loyalty second to Wulf's hatred of Sauri? He also had to consider the fact that Wulf seemed to be attracted to women of other races for some reason or another, and if Feldar had sent Kiva as a gift, she was probably considered beautiful in the eyes of other pinkskins. Still, Gruugash knew that nobody could ensure the task's safety as much as Wulf, and there was even a little chance that Wulf and his daughter would overcome their hate. Gruugash couldn't help but snort at this idea, reminding himself that the day his offspring and his old friend threw away their hatred was the day a pinkskin could defeat an orc in battle.

After a while, Gruugash looked down at Chu, though without stopping and asked, "For a moment, imagine I'm not your master, now tell me, is there anything I did not take in to account when I made my plan to take Silf?" Gruugash wasn't sure how mentally capable Chu was, but he figured that since she was close to being a pinkskin, she might have a good idea of what the humans would think when they received the fake proposal. He doubted there was time to stop the original plan from being put into motion, but if there was doubt, he could always start the second plan in motion.

((To Finch))
"Your skills are impressive, miss. Not only in fighting, but also with your horse." A voice echoed throughout the small open area with the pool of water. And even though it could have come from anywhere it seemed to be coming from close by. Not more than a dozen feet or so. Alesia had been watching the entire fight between both the minotaur and the orc. Even though she wasn't able to see the sounds and movement she had sensed had been quite interesting. "I suspect you're looking for a place to rest and maybe heal and clean your wounds. Something I could be of assistance with." With these words an image of Alesia slowly started to appear in the middle of the pond, standing on top of the water like it wasn't even there. A quarterstaff held in one hand like a walking stick, and some sort of small dagger in the other. Her eyes were covered by a grey blindfold. "Of course, I have to make sure that you won't attack me like those two, first." Now the voice seemed to come from the image standing on the pond. "So, what will it be ?" A slight grin appeared on Alesia's lips. Even though her techniques were for combat, they were also sometimes fun to play a little with people.