World Of Darkness

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The elven courtesan pursed her ebony stained lips. Trapped between a feral child with clear bloodlust issues and a mentally deficient, obviously inebriated, ultra-loyal retainer she found herself devoid of any real choices. It looked like she was going to have to help this orc and hope that whoever it was that she needed to help was appreciative of her aid.

While the orc, who apparently was named Malcan, interacted with Umbra Assallya grasped the brass pole down the side of her carriage and carefully shimmied down to the forest floor from her perch atop the vardo wagon. Malcan, she thought to herself as she made her way to the back of the wagon, another interesting name, derived from the word "malcontent" obviously. That also did not bode well. She quietly pulled out a key the size of her hand and turned it in the lock and slid the bolt. Entering she quickly gathered the books she needed off of the shelf and pulled a canvas satchel bag from a peg by the door and shoved them in.

"I am ready," she said, descending the small steps at the back of the wagon, "Wherefore is this person that needs aid?"
 
Larysia slowed down, moving with caution. She didn't want to walk into a potential fight unready. She moved back to the edge of the trees, but found that dead leaves and crackling twigs prevented it from being any stealthier. So she came out into the road again and dug around in one of the many small pouches hanging from her belt. The one she wanted was nearly gone, but she emptied the remnants of a silvery powder into her hand, and tossed it in the air, muttering a charm.

It wasn't a very complex spell, or a powerful one. It just made her less noticeable; people who weren't actively looking for her would see her as someone else's problem, not bother with her. Thus protected she advanced towards the noise.

The next thing she noticed was the smell of blood. That gave her pause. Had there been some kind of fight? It sounded like a discussion now, at least. This might be worse than she'd suspected.
 
Malcan froze, he hadn't prepared for Umbra not to clasp his hand. Sweat formed on the back of his neck. What now? Did he move his hand back or grab her's or... or... But Umbra explained she didn't know what the gesture meant moments before the half orc faced mental collapse. "Means deal." He quickly explained before moving his hand back, not bothering to remove the spit.

Malcan turned to the elf lady who seemed ready to go. "This way." He pointed down the road opposite of where the carriage was going. The barbarian retrieved his ax from the carriage and began to make his way down the path. He passed by the hidden Larysia and, while he caught her unusual sent, didn't seem to notice her.
 
Larysia watched the huge, green, armored man stomp past, recovering from her surprise at his appearance enough to guess that he was flustered or thrown off guard or something. At least, he wasn't likely to start swinging that axe any time soon. She kept going, giving a wide berth to the wagon and what she now realized was a dead horse. She averted her gaze and stifled the urge to gag. Had the orc done that? Yech. Waste of a perfectly good horse. Or maybe a terrible horse, but it had gotten that huge wagon this far out on its own so it must have been a decent animal.
 
Umbra blinked a few times in surprise before she looked down at her hand thoughtfully as she mulled over the meaning of the gesture that the orc explained to her. She almost didn't notice when the orc had started to stomp off with the elf woman in tow, "M-Malcan wait for Umbra!" She went scrambling after the orc with wide-eyes and a slightly panicked purse to her lips, but soon enough she quickly caught up to the group faintly huffing. Her mind was far too preoccupied to register the strange scent that had begun to permeate the air as she reached out to catch the orc's hand, "Malcan is Umbra's friend? Right?"
 
Either her mind was playing tricks on her, or what she heard was real. Either way, Selene stopped and held her arm out to block Kaia's path. "Selene, what ar-" She was cut off by the sound of voices nearby. They both look at each and nodded once. Quickly, they climbed two different trees and traveled above ground. They barely moved the leaves, giving people the impression it was merely the wind. They were fast through the trees, no surprise there though. Suddenly, they stopped and saw a wagon being pulled by a dead horse. With it was an orc, elf, and something else. The friends looked at each other from under the cover of the trees, then back at the wagon. The scent of them came to Selene and Kaia but one smelled different. It was slightly stale yet it carried along with everyone else's. Selene knew immediately. Where she came from, magic was everywhere. Even a certain type of magic that could hide oneself and made their scent seem stale. But they were there alright. By the smell of it, it was a female. Other than, Selene and Kaia knew nothing.

Instead of lingering on the question, Selene followed the wagon through the trees with Kaia right behind her. They made sure to be silent and stealthy as most cats were, merely watching and nothing more.​
 
Now they were talking about friendship? This group was turning out dangerously interesting. Larysia decided to see if they were going to abandon the wagon; maybe they might leave something that could be useful to her. The horse itself could be pretty useful, if she managed not to throw up. She drew back to the treeline and waited to see what this little party of strangers would do next.
 
Great... the giant orc and the feral girl were trying to make friends. The blonde elven girl rolled her eyes. Still, it wouldn't do to alienate either of them by being rude or antagonistic. So instead she just adjusted the strap or her bag, settling the weight of the two heavy books on her shoulder.

Would they just shake their filthy mittens and get it over with?

The blonde woman continued leading, not that she needed directions when she could follow the wide swathe of destruction the orc made. She didn't need to be a ranger to follow that path with the bowed and broken foliage. Her bare feet slipped across the soft earth of the Kingswood, stepping between broken branches and carried her uphill. That made sense to her. Caves meant rock and that usually meant mountains and mountains were uphill. At least so far he appeared to have been telling the truth.
 
Malcan looked down at Umbra with a look of surprise followed by one of deep thought. After a solid minute he came to a conclusion. "Yes." He clasped her hand, shook it, and managed a smile before continuing down the path of flattened earth he had made.

Soon a voice faded in to Assallya's mind. It was only her who heard it. It said this:

"What are you doing? Your allowing these, neanderthals order you around? What have they done for you? None but chop your horse in half and threaten your life that's what."
 
Assallya was well trained in not reacting to surprises but e mysterious voice inside her mind was too much even for her. Still, she hid it well, only pausing mid-step for a the briefest of moments. The voice did seem to be making sense but it wasn't taking into account just how dangerous these two were. One was slow and cumbersome but powerful. The other was darting quick. If they turned on her she wouldn't stand a chance. It was bad enough that she had to replace her horse. She really didn't want to have deal with an axe buried in her torso in addition to that. It could put a damper on the rest of her life.

The question was, how did one reply to this whisper and more importantly, what would one say to it? What was its agenda? Disembodied voices were rare, either the result of spirits or some wizard's spell. Maybe the voice, whatever it was, just wanted to stymie the orc warrior for some reason?
 
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