Those Who Hunt in the Night (Plague, Neek)

[Archon]

Season of Spring, Day 50, 511 AV Syna had given her place in the sky over to Leth a few bells ago, and so the forest of the Wildlands were fully in the grip of the faint light of night, the moon being little more than a pale crescent in the sky, as the two Zith began their hunt. The air was cool and moist, and several large clouds moved about the sky hinting at the possibility of rain coming soon. A little high flying and looking around revealed three things of interest this night, and at least two definite possibilities for their hunt. On the nearby North Kabrin Road were two of the points of interest, the lights of fires easily noticed by the Zith against the darkness of night. The closest firelight seemed to be stationary, possibly a camp, and the one further south on the road was slowly advancing northward along the road. It would likely be well over a bell, but eventually it seemed the two groups would meet. The third activity that drew their attention was deeper in the forest, to the east of the road. There was no light of fire, but something caused a sudden disturbance among the local wildlife, a veritable cloud of birds flying up from their perches in a tree and away, and their sharp ears could very faintly make out what sounded like a human crying out in pain. OOCAdditional information can be gained by investigating each interesting thing, but only one may be looked at at a time unless you split up. Good luck.

[Plague]

Plague As Plague flew through the night sky he had thought about the significance of the dark in hunting. How it cloaked the hunter and hid him from sight, he thought about how the ability to fly gave the Zith great power over their earthbound prey, and he thought about the blood that he would spill tonight. He was hungry, and with that hunger came the desire to overthrow his prey, and then feast upon it's flesh. However his thoughts were broken when Plague spotted several different points of light. There seemed to be a form of campsite to the north, and another series of lights that seemed to move slowly towards the camp. But just as his eyes turned towards these lights, a sharp cry pierced the night. Someone was wounded, and whoever that may be seemed to be close to the Zith's current position. All of these points could be a good position for a hunt, however a decision must be made on which opportunity to take. Plague immediately knew that at least one of them would need to look at the wounded traveler. However the possibilities of the camp interested him greatly. As much as he would hate to admit the fact that his brother could fulfill something that he could not, Plague saw that his brother would be best fit to search for the wounded traveler. He had better hunting skills, and where it could take plague hours to find the person, it might only take Neek a few minutes. So in a way that he was quite familiar with Plague barked out a command to his younger brother. "Go check out that noise, after your done with that meet up with me near the campsite on the road. I want to see what's there." If they were to stay together the brothers might go home empty handed, and in the mind of Plague that was unacceptable.

[Neek]

Neek followed his brother through the night sky and even though leth's light was to faint to let human's and most other races look through the dark there was more then enough light to let the pair of zith fly through the nightsky see what was happening down below. Neek however was a bit more concerned about what was happening in the sky, the threatening dark clouds where slowly but surely rolling towards them. Before he could warn his brother of them however, plague barked some orders towards him, demanding that he should go and check out the noise that frightened the birds. Knowing better then to go against his brothers orders Neek just nodded. “Will do brother.” Quickly taking a sharp turn towards the noise, trying his best to make not to much noise with his wings before just gliding the last few hundred meters towards the place where the noise came from, landing as silently on a thick branch first carefully listening to get an idea of what it was, before carefully climbing downwards, doing his best to keep silent, the night and his dark fur did all to keep him blended into the environment.

[Archon]

Plague After ordering Neek off Plague's journey to the stationary point of light was calm and relatively quiet. As he got closer he started to hear soft sounds, which eventually he identified as the sound of music on the wind. As he moved closer he was able to start to make out what appeared to be a camp through the trees. From what the older Zith could see through the trees there was a circle of six covered wagons, lit from inside the circle by a large fire, and there were eight people he could see from his vantage point. Four men were gathered around the roaring fire, sitting on logs, and one of them was holding a gleaming metal flute. There was a pair that looked to have recently left the fire, a man and woman stumbling off towards one of the wagons as they kissed passionately. Finally there was a pair of men, wearing brigadine armor, walking around outside the circle of the wagons. One of the apparent guards was holding a bow, and the other held a long spear in both his hands. Neek Quietly descending towards the initial noise Neek's sharp ears picked up more cries of pain, and the sound of voices talking. As he softly landed on the tree branch the scene on the ground came into focus, and so did the voices speaking. "Stupid vagik!" cursed a tall and muscular man as he stood over a cowering woman in chains, "I told ya what'd happen if ya tried to escape! Now keep quiet and take your beatin', or do ya want me to petch ya again?" the man accentuated his statement with a kick to the woman's side, causing her to cry out in pain. "I think she does want it," said a tall and lanky man standing next to the first man, "Why don't you have your fun? Me and fingers can keep an eye on the merchandise," the man gave a rather lecherous chuckle "Ya hear that?" the muscled man said as he hauled the woman up by her torn and dirty shirt, "We're gonna have us some fun." The woman started to sob as the muscled man dragged her off. The lanky man chuckled and walked over to the group of people huddled in the small clearing. There were 3 other chained individuals sitting in the dirt, barely moving, and a slightly shorter man covered from head to toe in faintly gleaming plate armor. As Neek tried to climb quietly down the tree he slipped falling several feet and breaking several branches in the process. He managed to catch himself on a large branch before he fell to the ground, but he had still drawn some attention his direction. "What the petch was that?" the muscled man hissed, stopping in his movement, "Nose, ya see anythin'?" The lanky man, apparently called nose, had withdrawn a pair of daggers from somewhere on his person as he looked around, trying to see what had caused the noise, "I don't know, but get the shyke back here Bruiser."

[Plague]

Plague Without any real opportunity to strike on the group, Plague found a good tree to sit in and waited for an good time to strike. He figured that he would likely learn something if he could manage to stay and listen long enough to let the people began to speak. He hoped that this would give him enough edge on the group for an attack to work. Though in the back of his mind ran thoughts of Neek, and what he might have found in those trees.

[Neek]

Neek let out a frightened yelp as suddenly the branch he was holding on to broke of, sending him plummeting towards the ground, desperately trying to catch another branch to avoid falling onto to ground and most likely breaking something, when he barely managed to catch a thick branch, clutching on to it like a drowning man would cling to a piece of driftwood, clambering up on the branch, cursing under his breath in zith when he overheard the men, they had noticed him, he would better bail out, there where 3 humans that weren't in chains and he doubted he could take them on, especially if they knew he was there, not to mention that one of those guy's was completely covered in steel. Slowly and carefully climbing to the top of the tree, taking his time to keep the sounds to a minimum, though his claws splintering the bark of the tree made him whince everytime he heard it. If he reached the top of the tree he would spring into the sky and would try to make his way towards the light his brother went to check out. However if any of the three men noticed where he was neek would just drop trying to be stealthy and just race towards the top of the tree, using his wings to provide some extra speed, and take of as fast as he could and try to blend into the nightsky first before going to find his brother.

[Archon]

Plague From his perch on the tree Plague watched and listened to the group of people beneath him. Those around the campfire spoke softly for the most part, their words hidden to Plague's ears by the playing of the flute apart from the occasional louder laugh or relatively meaningless comment. The pair that had gone to the wagon proved to be just as uninteresting, if much easier to hear. Between the moans and cries of pleasure that reached Plague's ears it was quite clear what the two inside were doing. After a few chimes the pair of guards circling the wagons came back around, and finally Plague was rewarded for his patience. "I've never understood why the boss has us out patrolling when we're this close to Syliras," said one of them, possibly the man with the spear judging by his movements. "Because it's not like the Knights can be everywhere in the woods, and you know Trevor doesn't trust much anyone anyways. We're lucky he trusts us enough to pay us to guard him," replied the second voice, surprisingly feminine. "I just can't wait till our shift is up in two bells," there was a brief pause, "Hey Bren, when we're off do ya want to," the spear wielding figure gave a jerk of his head towards the wagon with the amorous couple. The feminine voice gave a chuckle, and the archer shook her head, "Not tonight Trev, you know I've got point tomorrow. I don't want to be all saddle sore before I even get on the horse." The two continued on in silence, though the spear wielder seemed to be fidgeting a bit. Neek Bruiser hauled the crying woman back, and, along with Fingers and Nose, they formed a rough circle around the group of people chained on the ground as Neek clambered up the tree. An uneasy silence settled over the small clearing, only broken by the sound of the woman softly sobbing and Neek's claws against the tree. Fortunately, it seemed the humans did not possess nearly the sight our hearing of a Zith. Neek made it to the top of the tree and off into the air without hearing another word from the gathered men. Turning towards the light Plague had gone towards it didn't take him long to spot his fellow Zith sitting upon a sturdy branch, looking down at the circle of wagons on the edge of the road.