The road is paved of risk and riches. Tribble had spoken those fateful words. Little did she know, those very words would change the life of a humble warrior in a profound way.
Coiling, leuceous locks cascaded down Avai's back as her gaze became drawn toward the azure heavens. Champagne tendrils were swept away from her delicate, feminine features by a gentle gust of wind that was very welcome but unusual for the arid climate she had forced herself to become accustomed to. The skies revealed no signs of rain, not even a cloud to give her some mercy from the boiling heat of the sun. Her gaze seemed forever transfixed upon the the massive, firey eye glaring down upon her, her comrades.
"Er...is she stricken with blindness, you think?" The rogue, small in stature, quipped in a voice that was unpleasantly grating to her listeners. She received no answer, slumping back against a fallen bough with a pout clearly displayed upon her face. As the towheaded leader finally tore her attention from the sky, she observed Tribble displeasedly before speaking to the party of ill-equipped adventurers. "It is too hot to traverse this unfamiliar territory now. We will have to wait for nightfall, or surely will will drop like flies." Tribble's dark mane swept across her shoulders as she shook her head. "But we have nothing to eat, nothing to quench our parched throats! And, I don't know how long I can stand the rather...insufficient shelter we have.
This cave reeks like rotting corpses! She removed herself from the undesireable atmosphere, but her nostrils couldn't seem to escape the scent of decomposition. "And..my hair is plastered to my face and neck!" She tried to wring out her hair, pouting and making sure that her suffering was obvious to everyone. "We're all suffering. I don't see how complaining will solve anything." Revlis shot an angry look at the rogue, baring his teeth. His mousey hewed facial hair glistened with sweat. "We must not turn upon one another, surely we can wait a while longer. I think there's a town up ahead somewhere..." Avai unfolded a crude map for all to see.
"How are we going to get there?" Tribble spoke, having been riled up by the warrior's harsh tone. "Our horses were killed...by those things.." She cocked her head toward the meat pile that laid at the opposite wall of the cave. "I've never seen anything like them!" Revlis nodded in agreement. "Aye, neither have I. I'm almost certain that none of us individually had encountered these creatures in our travels." His hair matched Tribble's in length, blanketing the nape of his neck in sweat and dirt.
Hellinka sat in silence, brooding. She usually only commented when adrressed, otherwise wasting not a breath to speak to her companions. "Well, our armor is in need of some serious repair, and I doubt it will offer no protection at all until then. " Tribble's laugh was cut short by her own interruption. "You look like a dinged up tin can, Revlis!" Her pointed finger quickly retreated when he looked upon her, as if to size her up for a fight. Avai's eyes rolled, as she was losing patience with the petty squabbling. "Yes, we are all in need of baths, a decent meal in our stomachs, bed rest. Our weapons and armor alike have taken much damage, and we are out of most supplies. "
Her scalemail seemed held together only by the grace of the deities, Hellinka was clad in tattered pieces of cloth, remnants of a once luxurious garment that docked at her ankles. Tribble was going on about her leather, how it had been split here and there, how it smelled like sweating bovine. She only fell silent when the loud rumblings of someone's stomach had made her lose train of thought, which she spent the next few moments desperately trying to grasp at floating nonsense in her mind, to make an attempt to again become the center of attention. "The sun is setting, and we must be on our way." Avai turned away from the fingers of purple and pinks that now that unfurled across the sky. Arsenic's words carried them into the first signs of nightfall.
As everyone exited the small hovel of a cave and started their trek toward Hearthforge, a rather icy rain began to fall upon the party, making them endure another they were unexpecting. It did not impede their journey, falling upon them in small droplets, but Tribble and the mage were shivering with every step. They came upon a speck of a village, seeing the burning torches at the entrance of Hearthforge in the distance.
Hellinka had knowledge of spells that would most likely dissipate th rain, but offered no help for a more desired climate. Her own discomfort would not be in vain if those around her also suffered. She smiled on the inside. They were taken aback by the sound of bellowing laughter, and the mage reeled out of her reverie. "I smell girl..." Spoke an uneducated brute, but it was too dark to distinguish any figures lurking about under the shroud of night. It laughed again, this time Hellinka's silken voice echoed in incantation. Tiny orbs of white light dotted the air around them like stars. "Boo!"
Avai was greeted with the visage of an Orc, the creature having to stoop down to be at eye level with an average sized human. She stared unblinkingly for a moment, not knowing if she should consider it hostile and act first, or stay reserved and watch it's actions. "Me Ara...um...Ara." It pointed to itself, smiling proudly that it was able to pronounce part of it's monicker. "Hi! I'm Tribble En Lace, sinster to the great Rogue, Arsenic!" The rogue manuveured through the group, pushing Avai out of the way in the process. "I've never seen an Orc before.." Straining against the darkness, she viewed Ara's sillhouette. "I never knew Orcs came in female versions!" She breathed, clearly astonished by this.
Avai's metallic nails drummed against the tabletop, her sad gaze seeking the barmaid. Perhaps she wished to drown her sorrows in a stiff imbibement, for it would be too sad to drudge up fresh memories, and wallow through the bog of despair sober minded. She could still hear the screams which were torn from them as they were ambushed by Darklings, creatures which seemed to manifest of the residues produced by fear, interwoven with the darkness itself.
As she did dwell upon the subject of the fatality which befell her team, her mind's eye had once again captured the moment in an all too vivid detail. The snarling specters ripping at their bodies, flesh falling everywhere. Tribble's voice would abrade the ears of all as she perished, having been impaled by a shadowy claw. The one known as Avail would stand in the midst of fallen comrades, ready to fend off any opposition which may approach her.
They all seemed to recede then, what she had assumed to be the lead would paint a message upon the thick atmosphere which seemed to encumber her greatly. "Our Master wishes you to find her, but most likely you will slump like a holey sack of flour upon the cold, unforgiving soil. Carrion and worms shall feed upon your flesh, rendering your lifeless form in tatters!" Their rasping words seemed to infiltrate every crevasse of her mind, unearthing secrets which were hidden even to her knowledge.
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Avai shot a look to the woman who barged into the tavern, commanding the audience of all which occupied it. What was she going on about? Didn't she realize that this establishment was one in which most came to brood upon their troubles, and numb their pain away with a series of drink? The head which intruded upon her quiet time had left a trail of blood upon the dusty floorboards, gathering the momentum needed of an unlevel foundation as to carry it toward the bar.
"I feel sorry for the barmaid." She would mumble under her breath, searching for the face usually brightened by a smile as to reflect a look of pity to her. "Perhaps I shall ask her if she wishes me to mop away the scum. I am more accustomed to blood than she, and it would probably unsettle her stomach if she tried. " The steel clawed woman rose from the booth, the spurs of her boots making a clang with each step as she encroached upon the space of this woman.
"Is there a problem here?" Her pale blue gaze traveled downward from the woman's face. "Why do you question the integrity of these people? Why do you sully their reputations? She caught a stray glance of Morbidia out the window, the fiendish flora resembling the bony structures of which an infant's face would sit upon.
The newcomer didn't give her an answer, instead she rushed upon young Avail, exposing fiendish weapons as she lunged at the warrior's supple form. "I see you've exceeded your welcome..." Spoke Avai, in hurried spurts of breath. The brawl caught the eye of all the patrons which still loosely clung to the tattered shreds of coherence, causing them to root for the good doer. The opposing force was thrown threw the window, glass fragments seemed to tumble freely of the pane they were connected to upon the impact. The woman, battered and bleeding from many lacerations, took off through the crowd.
Einhellika stared at Mitsusawa, seemingly unfazed by her words. After several moments of holding the gaze of this woman, her attention was shifted to the sound of breaking glass, which she assumed had been the product of a brawl at the tavern. "Why do you bother a simple shoppekeep then? Mercenaries can be hired next door." She suddenly regretted voicing those words aloud, for to accompany this woman on her adventure would give Einhellika the opportunity to see her curses brought to life, give her the chance to bear witness to these unfortunate events which were to unfold.
"I'll ...help, then." Admitted the witch with a sigh of resignation. She knew not what a Chimera was, but she imagined a foul creature rising from the sulpurous pits to thwart them at every turn of the journey they were to embark on. "I shall gather some of my belongings, and meet you outside of the tavern."