Welcome to Gaia! ::

The ranger doubled over in the saddle as her nerves in her back flared with sound and then was gone.

It didn't look like the deliberate cut to the hand was as effective as she thought.

"Not again with the voices," the ranger cursed has she hurriedly dug through the saddlebags with one hand to pull out the stoppered bottle that Michael had passed off to her earlier. Not completely confident in her own belief over the content's abilities, she instead put her faith in Michael's words and belief instead before drinking down half the bottle.




((My bad. I had the thought she had been tricked about the distance and that Dulcimer had covered a lot more ground that she thought to arrive at a place with a ledge.))

As the liquid slipped down her throat, it had felt like she had struck her head on something but minus the usual thudding contact that caused such pain. She scrunched her eyes shuts as the pain shot from her head and traveled to her toes. Her fists clenched around the reigns and the vial though her sudden jerk sent the remainder of the holy water spilling out onto Dulcimer and the ground.

As the pain eased to a dull throb, she looked at the now empty vial and missing stopper. Grumbling about "why such cures had to hurt" she dropped it into a belt pouch and hurried Dulcimer to the next town.

Originally the plan had been to skip over a few towns, but with the way she was aching - arm, head, hand, and whatever else that was still complaining from what happened - the extended travel was out. Not that she trusted the townsfolk to be any better at handling the threat of a vampire should Kiru come around again, but for some reason she felt the need to be surrounded by people for one rare moment.

It was mid day by the time she arrived in town. It didn't take her long to locate a place to stay as long as she shelled out the coin to do so. Leaving Dulcimer in the stable after making sure he was fed and tended to, Jay toted all her bags to her room where she dropped them on the floor, locked the door behind her, and then dropped herself on the bed. Mentally she was exhausted. Also if she rested during the day, she would be away most likely by nightfall. With two vampires on the loose, both who may or may not be searching for her, sleeping at night seemed more dangerous than it had before.

The ranger slept fitfully on the huskfilled bed 'til dusk.

As soon as Jay sat up, a hiss slipped through her teeth. Her elbow hurt more than what she remembered. Probably jarred it unknowingly sometime while her attention was on Kiru. Then again, she hadn't been able to put the salve on it since she wrapped it the first time.

Stumbling around in what little light there was left, she felt about for the saddle bags on the floor. Once she found them, she sat down on the floorboards and began work on tending the swollen joint seriously for once.

After that task was out of the way, the ranger left the room, locking it behind her, and went outside the waystation, stopping outside the threshold. The barkeep would probably be up for some time yet and maybe she could figure out where everything else was in this time, such as a healer and maybe... maybe a holy man or whatever they were called. She still had to talk herself into that second one yet.

Walking the streets fairly close to the buildings with the hand of her usable arm on her hilt, the ranger thought she had just spotted the tavern when she thought she saw something move from the corner of her eye. Stopping in place, she watched the direction quietly, but when she didn't see anything else, she wondered if she was just getting overly cautious...

Shaking her head and moving forward, the ranger's pace picked up as she entered the bar in her slightly disheveled state, barely remembering to mover her hand away from her sword before stepping through the doorway. Only a few heads looked her way as she walked to the counter and purchased a drink before she inquired about the layout of the town. It was only proper after all to make a purchase in exchange though she honestly knew that dull nerves due to fermented liquid was the last thing she needed, though the aches that spoke to her told a different tale.

When her drink was finished and her questions answered, she left the inn and followed the directions to the healer's. There was no "holy man" in this town, which made that decision easier. When she reached the small cottage, she knocked on the door. Knocking a few more times brought no answer.

"Must be away for now," the ranger thought as she turned to leave the doorstep faced back toward the road, trying to decide where to go to next. Back to the waystation? or maybe back to the tavern?

Not wishing to imbibe more drink that she already had that night, she decided to return to the inn, though she did not immediately return to her room. Instead, she sat in the stables near Dulcimer for a good portion of the night just letting her mind try and unwind from the past few days, to let everything just sort itself out. By the time she was ready to leave the stables though, everything felt just the same as before.

Jay passed the rest of the night in her room, straightening out the belongings in her packs after lighting a candle and cleaning her weapons. When she was done with that, she returned to her bed at the physical call of being tired this time.

Having already gotten some sleep from earlier, it was a little later than break of day when she woke again. She made a second stop at the tavern for a meal when she heard something from a nearby table that made her fingers twitch.

"Yup, dead alright. Right in the hutch to. He is runnin' around more angry than when Mullagen was swindled in that game of Widder's Catch last week!"

There was a ruckus of laughter at the table following the last line.

Coincidence?

She walked over to the table, pardoned herself for interupting and asked for the location of the place they had been speaking of, explaining she might be able to help. With some weary eyes, the gave her directions and after she left they had quickly gone back to their happy ruckus.

Stopping back at her room for her weapons and backpack, she headed toward the hen house, not bothering to meet the owner of the property first for any sort of permission and scoured the ground.

And there were the wolf tracks again... and again the ranger followed them off to the woods.

She had lost the track somewhere farther into the woods. The territory had gotten rocky which left little in the way of marks in the ground. Even the drips of blood had tapered off at one point, which left only one thing to do.

That night she sat near cover just within shot range of the hen house, high enough up to be able to have a clear line of sight over the surrounding fence. She had gone up to the farmer and offered to watch the birds for the night for no coin. She told the man that she couldn't guarantee any lost birds, but when she had mentioned she would do it for free, the fellow didn't seem to care.

Just one night, she thought to herself. If it didn't come back this night, she was going to keep to her plan of moving on to the next town.

So from her perch in the tree and bow and arrow in hand, she watched as best she could in the night, the only lights coming from a lantern the farmer had hung next to the bird's hutch and the lit lantern hanging from the front of the man's house.

It was just the wind and the occasional stray cluck of a chicken for the initial period the ranger sat up in her tree. Normally this sort of wait didn't bother her. Patience came naturally when she was left alone, but this time around everything was edgy. The casual sounds of the eve were barely broken by what sounded like a couple dogs from the next plot over. The sounds brought about curiosity in the ranger, but untrained dogs were easily riled up over the littlest things.

No, it was just too dark to go check it out and she didn't feel like dealing with dogs if they just happened to turn on her. Even if...

Her chances were better if she just stayed in place for the moment, she thought as she turned her attention back to the chicken pen nearby.