Closed [Kabrin Road] Ice Clay and Flesh (Archailist)

[Revy Hiroe]

Theresa was a bit concerned about the attitude of both Revy and Iros to each other. True Revy had all the reasons to hate males, but she should choose her words a bit more wisely. If she kept this kind of attitude for the rest of her life, she'd get stabbed in the back. "Revy, watch your tone. You know I warned you about that before. Don't make me repeat myself again.", she said in a stern tone and continued to chide Iros in the same matter: "And you Ser Iros, I expected better from you. Keep in mind that this woman would most likely trump you in a one on one spar. She has a lot of experience in combat already and she has seen some bad shyke." Revy pulled up straight the moment she heard Sera Stalinsa chide her like that and didn't once retort. All she replied with was: "I... I understand Sera." She knew that retorting was the worst thing she could do right now. Theresa could be really cruel if she determined that Revy had been in the wrong. And if there was one thing Revy wanted to avoid, it was having a very angry Theresa against her. The ex-mercenary decided she'd shift her attention away from the akalak and back to the pycon... thingie whatever he was. His explanation was well... kind of obscure to her. He could change into whatever he wanted? "Well.... I still don't really get what you are.... Archalastor.", she said. She probably totally botched his name, but she wasn't too good wiht difficult names anyway. "Bout that life goal of yours is well, your own business. Got a couple goals myself, but I'll be keepin' them to myself for now." Theresa was staying a bit silent right now. If Revy would get more talkative, maybe she would become a bit more social, something she was severely lacking right now. If that woman was gonna become a knight, she was going to need to become a lot more social then she was right now. Otherwise she might just get ostracized by the rest of the order and that was going to be a major pain in the ass for her.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The Akalak tugged on the reins of his mount and wheeled it around so that he could take a better look at the fellow knight, and her squire too. "Expect better? I'll tell you, I expected better from you, Sera." The crimson man was incredulous. "I keep all things in mind, and if your squire would wish for a one-on-one spar, I'd gladly take it. Only, this is not a one-on-one spar. This is a very dangerous situation where we may open ourselves to anything - from a sudden ambush to an all-out assault by any host of creatures or people!" One fist lifted from the reins and pointed directly at Revy, as if it wasn't obvious already that the knight was insistent on picking out her, and her alone. "No matter how much you've seen, no matter how skilled you may be, many more knights braver and hardier than you have ventured into these woods and never returned."

Finally, he wheeled back and nudged the horse into a faster trot to pull yet farther ahead of the rest. "I'm appalled that you, Sera, would in any way allow or condone such uncooperative behavior, partially or wholly. Eventually, your squire will join a wing of knights, which will be part of a company. She will be surrounded by males, and she will have to work with them. She may have to save the lives of them. She cannot spend the rest of her life not only hating a person, not only hating a race, but hating an entire gender!"

The knight may have taken a little personal offense by the remark. By hating all males, she technically not only hated Ser Iros, but hated Akalaks as a whole, given the fact that they were a race made up of males and nothing else. She hated Riverfall, she hated the Akalaks, and she hated everything they stood up for, by proxy. Even if she didn't actually hate any of these things, it was quite easy to connect the dots and, like Ser Iros, become quite enraged. True enough, Arch felt a little hurt by the whole thing, but he didn't go for as dramatic a push as the Akalak had.

Instead, just before the red knight broke away from the rest, he easily jumped from the backside of the horse and into the tree directly above. A few branches acted more like rungs of a ladder for the squirrel, with the ease that he dove between them - even though his grip wasn't as steady as he would have liked. "Who says that I get what you are either? I've never met one of your kind before." He was still trying to get over that whole Myrian concept - studying her for something that made her different, even though the longer and harder he tried, the less he saw. "I'm made of clay, you're made of flesh." That was about the one true difference that they held between each-other.

There was no point trying to address the rebuffed question, so he didn't. "Besides.. you know something?" He paused for a bit of dramatic effect, but continued on with what he was going to say regardless of the answer. One could question whether he was even listening. "I've been to Sunberth. Hated the place, horrible. But, I don't hate the people that go there. Reason is.. I haven't seen every single person in Sunberth, so I can't hate all of them, can I? There might be one there that was different.. and I just haven't met him yet."

[Revy Hiroe]

The words of that Akalak weren't missing their purpose, if they were meant to piss Revy of more and more. Her entire face went cold and near emotionless. Was that guy really making light of her experience? Was he really talking as if rape was just some experience? She felt ready to explode, but her patron lay her hand on her shoulder. "Revy calm down. You ain't wanting to start a fight here, now would you?, she said. However, she did not stop there. Instead she looked at the Akalak. She too was angry at that guy's words. "Listen up, SER. You're undoing all the work I have been doing with Revy so far. Her hatred towards men stems from a few very bad memories.", her voice was not just angry, it clearly showed how furious she was. "How would you feel if you had MULTIPLE attempted rapes against you? You expect her to just up and forget about that kind of experience? If so, you SER are an ignorant fool that doesn't understand the hearts of squires aspiring to be knights." She too didn't totally understand her squires, but she at least tried to get a rough understanding of them and from there build up their trust. "I've been working on her problem with trust and I was starting to get some progress with her, however you are seriously damaging that." She then turned to Revy and gave her a stern look. "However Revy, you too are a fault of this situation. Now I need you to apologize for your disrespectful behavior. I do not wish to give you a punishment, but if you refuse to apologize, you'll be forcing my hand." The woman clacked her tongue but she didn't have much of a choice. Punishment dealt out by this knight wasn't to be taken lightly. "I.... I am sorry for my disrespectful behavior, ser Iros. I hope you will accept my apologies.", she said trying not to sound angry. She didn't particularly feel sorry, but she did understand why she had to make her apologies. Her tone had been rather disrespectful. Deciding that Ser Iros wasn't worth her time anymore, Revy changed her focus to the little clay... thing. His answer to her answer was rather strainge. He hadn't met a human yet? But Syliras was filled with them, heck almost every city had them. "How can you not have met humans yet? We're everywhere. But to answer to what you said 'bout my shykehole of a hometown. I agree, there were some that were ok... I guess. But I can't help but fear.... eh hate guys." She had a slip of her tongue there. She hadn't meant to let the truth slip out like that, but it just slipped out in the moment. As long as she had a weapon, she could steel her heart against the fear and turn it into hatred. But without weapons, she just felt so vulnerable. That situation had happened back in spring and she wasn't too keen on reliving that memory right now, so she lay her hand on her dagger just to calm herself down. "Calm down, woman. He ain't gunna attack ya 'ere. Jus' be sure to not show yer fear to him", she said to herself inside of her mind.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He wheeled around on the spot and barked a short, harsh laugh at the words thrown at his back. There was no humor on his face. "This isn't a nursing home for the weak and the frail of mind and body, Sera. You'd be wise to remember that. We are all plagued by bad memories and we all push ourselves to move above them. Memories of rape, of death and torture. We push them aside, for the greater good of peace and civilization. There is no peace in hatred." The stare that he gave Revy could have melted stone in its intensity. "If you can't get over your past, you're not prepared for the future." Though he did little more than acknowledge the apology with a nod of his head, the Akalak soon turned back to the female knight.

"Thank you, but the apology wasn't needed.. we were just having a little heated conversation, was all." As harsh as he'd already been to the girl, apparently forcing her to apologize was taking it a little farther than he could bear for the time being. "I know that I was disrespectful as well, but I'm not sorry. Some things need to be said, and they have. I can only hope that your anger does not make you deaf to my advice. I have seen things that make me afraid of these forests. Bad memories, just like you. I push above them. You would do well to do the same." This time, when he turned his horse back and pushed ahead, he didn't turn back for anything else.

For the entire rant, the squirrel was silent. Only after the man was gone for good, did he speak up again. "I've met quite a few humans, but you're not one of them, are you?" She was one of those children of the usurper-queen, hated by Nyka. "You look like them, but you're different." For one thing, she hated men... or... did she? He couldn't be sure whether it was just a little mistake or something important, so he didn't take it to heart.. but didn't forget it either.

There were bigger things nibbling at his head. One of them was almost glaringly obvious. "If you.. hate.. men, then does that mean you hate me? Do you think I'm a man.. can you tell?" Pycons didn't exactly have obvious genders. Their voices were the only thing one could ever use to tell the true difference, and these were marginal differences. The squirrel's body, while completely naked, was pretty much androgynous. Just for a bit of fun, he gripped the branch tight with his legs and simply flopped forwards to hang down in front of her, upside-down but still looking up at her.

[Revy Hiroe]

Sera Stalinsa couldn't believe her ears. That 'knight' actually said that rape was just 'some bad memory'? This guy was the biggest bunghole she had ever met. Never had she met someone this rude, incompassionate and hateful as him. "What... the petch did you just say, you incompetent piece of shyke?", she started, "Rape just some bad memory? You speak as if you are siding with the rapist. If I didn't know any better I'd say I was facing an agent of Rhysol and I would gut you where you stand." It was a first that Revy had seen her patron this angry. She was taken aback so much that she didn't even get angry at that guy. She was just watching her mouth open in surprise. Sera Theresa never let her anger take over her judgement, yet why did it now? However, she tore her attention away from her patron. If she got reinvolved right now, she knew that she'd draw her weapon and something like that was gonna be a major pain in the rear. "I almost suspect that if you always had this attitude, you've never had a woman either. If you did, they would most surely leave you, seeing how you lack any form of compassion for our gender. You accuse Revy of hating your kind, but you yourself aren't much of a good example of men who she shouldn't hate. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if her hatred would be even deeper. Petch even I would start to hate guys if they were even remotely close to what you are.", Theresa continued. She knew that this was gonna lead to problems, but she didn't really care at the moment. This guy should hear what she thought about him and reflect on it. "To be honest, I really hope for your race that you are an exception, because if you aren't you guys will surely die out." Revy had turned her attention to Archailist and just looked straight at him while he hang there upside down. "Can't ye tell I'm human? Myrians are even taller then me. Is just that I got me mark from Myri and if I gotta be honest with ye, I wish I was a myrian. I ain't no big fan of humans, despite being one ye know." Of course Revy didn't hate herself, but she just wished she had been a myrian. In fact, she hoped that if she were to be reborn, she'd be reborn a Myrian. "But about yer gender. I dunno. Can't say that I care. Ye'r just a small thing, made of clay or sort.", she replied, "Is just that men make me feel uncomfortable to the point that I use hate to shield me from them." The woman should really stop being this honest, with a complete stranger even, yet she couldn't keep her mouth shut at all. "It ain't like I wanna hate em, ye know, but I just do. Too many bad memories 'bout em."

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Words slammed against the back of the knight's head as he rode away, but never did he turn back to retort or even show that he acknowledged the harsh tones. It didn't even seem to really hit as deep as he kept it, and yet there was someone else much closer to home who finally broke his conversation with Revy to listen in a little closer. With each thrown insult, his face grew sadder.. it showed, as well. A rare thing to behold, as his face curved down and cheeks sagged in a very human way inside the face of an animal. "How are we to fight the true agents of Rhysol, when all we can do is fight among each-other.." His words were quiet, never intended for anyone else to hear.

After several long ticks of silence, as he listened to the endless rant, he finally turned back to Revy to put a bit more attention into those that actually mattered. "Well, I kinda.. I kinda just assumed, y'know." His words sounded a bit more distant by now; even though he tried his best, the squirrel's mind had slowly drifted beyond his control and sunk itself inwards. "I had expected something.. different, I guess. Never met a Myrian though. The mark fit, though. That and the hatred stuff. All war begins in hatred." By the sound of it, the hatred that Revy harbored was quite a feat as well.

After all, the list just kept growing and growing. Maybe it was just one of the effects of the mark, he didn't know. He couldn't really judge and at this point, he didn't think any good would come out of it either way. "Suppose there's just no point trying to get you to change your mind with all of this either. No point trying to like you." There wasn't any anger in his tone at all; nothing but sadness. It wasn't that he didn't like her.. she'd shown herself to at least be somewhat sensitive. The fact that she identified with the children of that uncivilized Usurper-Queen though? The fact that she couldn't even bring herself to like the same gender as the squirrel, that she didn't even like her own species in favor of the Myrians?

"I just hope you find someone who can. Otherwise you're going to be very lonely in Syliras." For all the insult and disgusting words that Iros could spew, he was right in at least one thing... that knights had to stay together. He didn't know whether he'd ever be able to get along with Revy for who she was, once he'd probed deep enough to know how she really felt about things. Instead, his tail swung forwards and both paws reached out to take hold of the next branch along, flipping his body around. The tail kept going, the squirrel kept swinging, and after a complete flip around the branch he landed on his feet and turned over to Sera Stalinsa.

"I think I should go and make sure that my patron is alright, Sera. Excuse me." Stalinsa had already proven that she was almost as bad as Iros.. flying off the handle very quickly, for surprisingly little.Stuck in the Bronze Woods with three people that he didn't like.. well, this was already turning into a fantastic little patrol.

[Revy Hiroe]

The woman stayed quiet. She didn't really have an answer for the squirrel. She knew he was right, but how was she not to dislike men when all she had was bad memories? But she wasn't going to start a war over it. She just wanted to avoid as much unneeded interaction with men. Was that too much to ask for? But unfortunately she HAD to work with em, so she better just suck it up and do it. Revy dropped back to her patron and asked: "You ok Sera? You got kinda mad there." Of course the ex-merc didn't think that the woman got angry for her sake. If she had, she wouldn't have been worried about Sera Stalinsa. Right now she thought that that woman also had a similar experience, like Revy has had back in spring. Memories of that day still haunted her. "Nah, everything's okay, Revy. I just can get so angry with ignorant shykes like that. They don't realize how hurtful something like that can be.", she replied. "Anyway, let's focus on the patrol. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can leave him." However, it didn't seem that that could have been the only cause of that outburst. Was there something else that played when she burst out like that? The squire didn't know how long they had been patrolling already, but the longer it went on, the more nasty a feeling she got. Somehow she felt as if they were being watched. As a reaction to it, she took her glaive from her back into her hand, which was of concern to her. "What is it, Revy? You worried 'bout something?", she asked. Revy just couldn't lay her finger on it, just that they were being watched. "I dunno, Sera. Is just that I feel we being watched. Dunno if it's gonna be a problem or not.", she replied. In Myri's name why could she not identify what was watching them? "Argh, why can't I figure out what's watching us....", she cursed herself.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

It didn't take long to find Ser Iros. In the time they'd left him to push ahead, the Akalak had covered considerable ground; however when the squirrel actually caught up, he'd come to a complete standstill and had both shield and spear prepared in either hand. From the trees above, Arch could see the tense in his muscles around the thick plate-mail covering most of his body. Arch, for his part, couldn't feel anything unsettling at all. Perhaps it was just his place high above, looking down on them all. It made him feel oddly superior, even though he was little more than a squire looking down on his mentors and patrons. "What's up, Ser?" He easily slipped down to one of the lower branches and then he felt it. A cold shiver running up the back of his neck - the first one not to be caused by the cold weather of the winter.

"Get back up in the trees. High up." Arch didn't even bother listening; he dropped down from the trees entirely, landing next to the hulking red man while the knight dismounted and rolled both shoulders. "You listening, Squire? I said get up in the trees." He wasn't amused, but the squire stood his ground with a chuckle beginning the back of his non-existent throat.

"Just give me my pole already and cut the shyke. I'm not going up there, neither are you making me. Gimme the pole." This wasn't the time, nor the place for arguing and the squirrel knew it. Despite the fact that Arch wasn't a knight yet, he still had all the skills of one - whatever bold threats Iros could make, they wouldn't hold up physically. The large man could order Arch around with meaningless and monotonous tasks, but that was all he got any way - anything worse, like scrubbing the floors or other nonsense was just as boring, if not less so.

"Your arrogance is going to get you killed, squire." Iros held a dark stare but nevertheless reached into one of the folds of the saddle to pull out the squirrel's weapon - a small amber pole with a spiked metal cap on one side. His beloved Py-Pole, that he took almost everywhere, one way or another. The knight carelessly tossed it in the squirrel's general direction, but Arch caught it with both paws and stabbed the uncapped butt into the snow-encrusted soil with a small smile of victory on his mouth - even though they'd not even seen what, if anything, there was to be worried about.

"Wait, shouldn't we warn the others?" He suddenly realized that Sera Stalinsa was still farther back with another few chimes before she caught up along with her squire. He could feel it now - even hear the cracking of branches and crushing of soft snow under thick boots, masked underneath the soft shadows of the distance and the spindly trees above. Something was definitely getting closer - maybe even multiple somethings. He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn that he heard footsteps and muffled conversation from just behind the thickets.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. We'll have to worry about ourselves for now, I'm afraid." The knight braced his shoulder against the shield, spear at the ready.. just in time for a man to spread the branches ahead and stepped forwards rather casually. Masked from head-to-toe in thicker coats of fur than he'd ever seen before, mismatched but strung together in a professional manner, not even his eyes could be seen under the thick hood and mask that covered his face and came down over his head as well. Hands covered in moleskin gloves and equipment strewn over his back, he looked like one might expect travelers from Avanthal to be, from the stories. This one was better-armed though. Without hesitation, a spear was drawn from somewhere amid the mass of material and clenched in both hands.

Behind him, the others masked in similar outfits drew their weapons in a matter of ticks. Two of them had bows and quivers overflowing with metal-tipped arrows. Two held spears, and one of them had a sword in one gloved hand, a dagger in the other. Though they were talking, almost shouting, the words sounded alien and muffled underneath the thick garments. They didn't even give any time to react before the archers had notched, strung and released arrows faster than anyone else wearing such thick and restrictive clothing should be able to. Iros grunted with the effort to suddenly jerk the heavy tower shield around in front of his body and the squirrel's, protecting them from the dull thud of arrows bouncing off harmlessly. "Hey!"

[Revy Hiroe]

Revy's nerves proved her right as four people came out of the woods. The squire was almost certain that this wasn't the extent of their numbers. They had to have been with more, because travel during winter was rough and even more dangerous then travel during summer. But she was rather concerned about the other two. Did they also run into them? And if so, were they going to be able to handle themselves? Whispering to her patron: "Sera, should we make a break for Ser Iros? Or should we take care of these guys first?" She didn't have her sword and shield with her and seeing that guy with the crossbow close made her rather nervous. A weapon like that could easily punch through her armor. The other three were equipped with spears. A quick getaway from these guys would be close to impossible. Those spears would make mincemeat out of the horses. Theresa drew one of her only two javelins. And she made a move to answer Revy, but before she could the guy with the crossbow had already nooked his bolt, aimed and pulled the trigger on Revy's back. "Revy, watch out!", she shouted as she threw her javelin at the guy with the crossbow, which took that javelin to his shoulder. Revy turned to her left, to look at the crossbow guy as she heard her patron shout and took the bolt to the shoulder. The force of the impact knocked her clean off Rosa. She grunted in pain, feeling how the bolt had punched halfway into her shoulder. However, she didn't have the time to break off the bolt, nor pull it out. She had to fight these guys with that bolt still stuck in her arm. "Revy, you ok?", her patron asked. Though she was sweating from the pain, she still stood up. "Rosa, run over that guy on the ground and get outta here. Ain't want you to get hurt.", she told Rosa and to Sera she said: "Yeah, I can manage. Gonna be a hard fight, eh?" A joke here or there would always be good. It made her less nervous.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

No introduction, no warning, no demands. They weren't trying to rob anything, they weren't interested in taking money or belongings. Perhaps they could ask.. once they'd been taken down to boot level and given some good scars to refresh their memory if they should forget their place. "Archailist, trees. Take the archers." As much as the two disliked one-another, they both understood one thing - that when their lives were at stake, it was time to put aside everything else. The knight dropped down onto one knee with the shield raised and propped against one knee to give the squirrel a wrist to grab onto and cut the distance he needed to climb up to the shoulder. From there, when the Akalak stood up, it was barely a jump to make it to the lower, snow-dusted branches of the nearest trees and swing his way carefully up.

The two archers, who'd since stopped their assault to preserve their arrows, didn't even bother firing anything at Archailist. Why waste it on a squirrel.. clay or not? They'd soon learn from their mistakes. The squirrel easily skittered along the extremely-narrow branches with both arms out to either side for balance - even a tail, which seemed to make the whole thing a little too easy. To think, I'd miss all of this if I were human. It only lingered for a moment; soon afterwards came the sounds of wood on metal as the attacks began. He could barely catch a glimpse over one shoulder, but out of his peripheral vision he could see Iros falling under attack from not one, but two assailants - one with a spear, another with a sword. Both struggling to slide around the insurmountable wall of flesh and steel while the archers struggled to pick off an unarmored spot.

That wouldn't last for much longer. Within moments, he was above, ready to strike down right onto their heads and take them down easily. He launched himself into the air, half-flipped and dived down head first with arms stretched out for the assailants head. He had plenty of time to plan out exactly what he wanted to do - he had the element of surprise and they didn't even know he was there.. they weren't even expecting. Didn't bother looking up. Just before landing, his tail lashed down between his legs and twisted around in a second half-flip, slamming both of his heels against the man's hooded head and throwing it to the side in a sudden, overly-jerky motion.

He was already dropping to the floor. All that was left was the other archer and they'd be done for. He threw all his weight back into the tumbling man and leapt forwards, arms outstretched to grapple onto the side of his face and punch him into submission, same as always.. when the back of a hand slammed into the side of his body. Hard. What... what in Sylir's name...

He wasn't slow. He was heavy, sure. Twenty-three pounds slamming into someone, let alone if he was charging up a punch during his airtime, was going to hurt like Hai; he wasn't slow though. For someone to catch him out so suddenly, without the squirrel even noticing. Suddenly the gravity of the situation sank in deep, just as he flew across the forest and sunk deep into the snow and some of the earth underneath it too, struck in a daze from the hard blow. From his blurred vision he could just about see the same man he'd just struck being brought back to his feet with the help of the others. I didn't hit hard enough. Either they've got some armour underneath all that fur.. or it's too thickly padded to land a decent hit on.

The archer he'd hit was drawing up close, looking down at the squirrel who was still struggling to get a hold on himself. The others were there too, mumbling something beyond his fractured hearing. Then a thump; he could just about feel it. They were stomping on his body, slamming into it with the blunt of their feet. It wasn't particularly hard.. there was a lot of clay in his body and the snow cushioned a lot of the actual weight slamming down into his lower body, just about below the chest. It still hurt. Scratch that - it was agony.

He could just about see Iros in the distance, struggling with the assailants as well. He thrust his spear forwards but another's spear easily deflected it, almost lazily, and twisted it around in short circles before snatching it free and leaving him with nothing but a shield as they danced around behind and slammed the flat sides of their blades against his helmet and back, taunting him between sharp jabs to the unprotected areas - the backs of his knees, the gaps between the thick metal plates. Blood ran down his legs. No...