[Flashback] Summer fun! (Xalet)

[Bob Barton]

23rd Day of Summer 505 AV

It was a typical Summer day in Syliras nice, hot and energetic. Knights marching and patrolling the city, people in the market place doing business, drunks in the tavern getting drunk and Bob Barton being bored in the midst of it all. A bored Bob is not a good Bob to have around because he would do whatever he wanted to do to relieve the boredom.

Since it was a hot day, Bob thought "Why not?" and went to a street full of busy passerbys. There he took out a scroll he bought from a shop earlier. The shopkeeper was a real jerk, he didn't hear about customer satisfaction? Bob had hell just to get a scroll. Holding it at the shopkeeper at the counter he said "Here, I want this one. How much?" and the shopkeeper looked at Bob and said "Ahhhh, yes we have a promotion for that today. Three for the price of two so we are not selling them individually." Bob looked back at the scroll in his hands in annoyance and shook it in front of the shopkeeper angrily "Look! I only want one. Not three, not two but one and one is all I am going to buy!" The shopkeeper looked at Bob with indifference and crossed his arms saying "Well, you are not getting what you want then because I will not be selling only one to you!" In the end Bob got his one scroll at its market price after telling the shopkeeper "Look...you sell me one now, I get happy. You make me happy and I just might become a future regular customer for you.".

So Bob was at the street with the scroll, it was busy but not too crowded. Perfect. He took the scroll with him to an alley and started drawing on it a glyph that was taught to him a year ago. Bob spoke as he went through the motions "First the circle..." drawing a circle on the scroll, "Then the pictures..." followed by drawing barriers which used as the symbol of the sun. A circle with spikes coming out from it. Along with the sun he also wrote on the glyph the strengthen the barrier at each side "Isn't it such a hot day in the summer?" And finally Bob got to the trigger "Say it out loud, HOT! HOT! HOT!" Bob looked at the finished scroll with satisfaction, it may look like just another game by a child but the structure and formation of the sigils were all there as he was taught to do.

Then at the secluded alley, Bob looked around again to see that he was alone. After getting this far it would be a shame to get caught just because he wan not careful. "Good, I am alone" Bob said to himself as he concentrated, getting some liquid res to appear on the palm of his hand. It got bigger and bigger until the liquid took over his whole hand as a ball then Bob transmuted the surface into water and was left with having a big waterball on his hand. Then with the scroll on the ground, Bob threw the waterball as hard as he could at it and the waterball flew towards it and vanished with a little flash of light.

Bob took the scroll with him out of the alley and back to the busy streets. "Ahhhh, a good victim." Bob grinned mischievously and went up to the blue skinned Akalak which stuck out among all the other people there. Bob handed over to him the scroll and whispered "Psst...someone wants you to read this out loud and he looks like someone you don't want to disappoint." After handing off the scroll Bob started walking down the street and picked up his pace faster and faster until it became a fast walk while looking back over his shoulder every so often to see it the Akalak would fall victim to his prank or not.

[Xalet]

It had been a fairly long day of mounted crossbow training. While not the most Knightly of weapons, the crossbow itself was a strong asset to have in battle, as well as in the defense of others. It was simple to use, and fairly easy to become accomplished with. It's ability to be prepared with a bolt ahead of time was notable, and it's compact size compared to a longbow or other such projectile weapon was a benefit. Now firing it from a horse, even while simply being stationary? That was a different story altogether. As it was, Xalet's back, legs, and arms ached. His back from hiding the steed all morning, his arms from keeping the weight of the crossbow aloft, and his legs from squeezing tightly in the stirrups in order to keep himself from pitching over the side of his practice mount.

He worked on servicing his old, tired heavy crossbow. As with everything else he utilized, the item itself was loaned from the Knighthood, a tool to be practiced with by the squires. As such, you had to come early to get one of the 'good' practice crossbows. Xalet had not come early enough. The trigger stuck, and the line itself seemed to be wearing down. Oh it worked, mostly. Xalet had pulled the string rearward attempting to fix the kinks out of the triggering mechanism as he walked.

Soon enough he was approached by an unassuming human. Being handed a scroll, Xalet raised the visor on his helm and looked down toward the unusual words and markings. "Read this aloud? A strange task." he commented, more to himself than to Bob, whom it seemed was already on his way. Was it some sort of task from his Patron, he wondered? The man that handed it to him certainly didn't seem like a squire himself. "Isn't it such a hot day in summer...?" he began, squinting his eyes slightly, "...say it out loud...hot hot hot?" Thus was the tale of one of the few times Xalet had contact with magery directly. He could tell because he, and his armor, was suddenly dripping with water from some indeterminate object. Was it a water ball?

Narrowing his eyes his fist clenched, crumpling up the scroll as he turned to see this unknown man hastily making his way in the opposite direction. A younger Xalet was a slightly less disciplined Xalet. Starting to run after Bob, Xalet removed one of his bolts from his pouch and loaded it into his rickety crossbow. It was not a normal bolt, indeed it was simply used for training. Hastily crafted with an oversized, blunted tip, it could leave a nasty welt if it made contact, but did no lasting damage. Still it was good for practical practice between squires. Trying to get into a position where he could fire it appropriately he called out immediately around him, "Move move move!" before taking his shot. Indeed, the trigger stuck slightly, but still fired it's bolt which ended up high above Mr. Barton's body, smacking into some brickwork and clamoring to the ground. Slinging the missile firing weapon over his shoulder, Xalet continued after the man. The chase was on.

[Bob Barton]

Bob was still walking down the street as fast as possible to put as much distance between him and the Akalak. When he looked back the scroll suddenly threw out the waterball and left the Akalak soaking wet and Bob said to himself "Hahaha, he read it." as he continued walking. Granted the armour protected him from most of the water but it was still funny and Bob started cackling to himself. At that distance Bob's only regret was that he could not see the Akalak's expression. Was he surprised? Depressed? Enraged even? "Oh well, pranks are still fun, hehe." Bob didn't lie to the Akalak, he was not disappointed with how his prank turned out.

Some of the other passerbys were looking at Bob with strange looks. He was laughing to himself like a maniac after all. Maybe Bob went a little too far with his excitement. Then they suddenly backed away from Bob as he heard someone shouting "Move move move!" He turned back to the sound of the shout just in time to see a crossbow bolt from the Akalak squire fly right above him and hit the wall. Bob yelped "Petch! choose the wrong one." and turned around changing his fast walk into a run.

So Bob started running down the crowded streets. The people were really distracting and annoying giving Bob a hard time to reach the end. Bob ran putting each foot in front of the other but sometimes when there was a person right in front of him, he would have to sidestep putting the foot from side to side which slowed him down a lot. If he was able to catch a glimpse of a person before getting right in front of him, Bob would change his run from straight to diagonal so that his speed won't drop as he ran around the person. Bob resisted the temptation to look behind and see what the Akalak with the crossbow was doing. Thanks to that train of thought, he remembered the crossbow so Bob ducked a little as he ran so that the crowd would conceal and protect him a little as well.

[Xalet]

Xalet had the advantage of being very large. This meant people naturally attempted to avoid him when he passed through an area. The heavy clinking of his armor caught many pedestrians ears as he ran through the streets after Bob, allowing folks time enough to move before he came charging through. Disadvantageous was his armor, however. The encumbering plate mail slowed him down significantly. Even though he had training in wearing and moving within the armor, the thick plates restricted his freedom regardless of how he wore it, or how it was made.

He wasn't even sure what he was going to do if he got his hands on the man. Choking him out seemed appropriate since permanent dismemberment or death wasn't exactly an option. That wasn't to say there wasn't the potential for it, since the last mage that used Reimancy on a squire got very well acquainted with an arrow.

"Don't run! I want to thank you for the soothing bath!" yelled Xalet. He certainly didn't sound thankful. Replacing the word 'thank' with 'punch' sounded more appropriate, given his tone of voice. Reloading his crossbow during a full run was impossible, so he simply slung the weapon back over his shoulder, trying to keep it out of the way as much as possible. Here and there Xalet had to jump over an obstacle laid out before him, but he knew he was losing ground. Xalet knew the streets though, he had grown up in Sylriras. He knew every alley and every corner. Taking a sharp turn he disappeared down one, looking to cut Bob off.

[Bob Barton]

As Bob was running he could hear the voice which shouted for people to move and clear the way wanting to thank him for a bath? So the same Akalak wants him to stop? Bob turned his head back and saw the Akalak "Ohhhhh no, I'm not falling for that one!" and continued on his run. Because he turned back, he was not paying attention to where he was headed and slammed into one of the pedestrians eventhough he tried for another sidestep which was just a little too slow. Bob ignored the angry man who was yelling at him to watch where he was going because the man had no threatening crossbows. Getting himself up hurriedly, he looked back again only to find the Akalak had disappeared.

Bob rubbed his chin a little dumbfounded, a bad habit he had especially in gambling. It was a pretty straight route on the street he was on and he was not blind enough to miss a big blue person with scary intimidating armour and crossbows on him. Bob looked around the street. All he could see were some of the people who he nearly rammed into staring at him coldly or some space in between where people gave for who knows what reason. He looked back down on the man he smashed into and said "Sorry" before continuing on.

Bob ran a little more down the street before he reached the entrance of one of the taverns he frequented, still dodging the other pedestrian's bodies and arms and glares by ducking, sidestepping and running around. He burst through the doors with a "Slam! and the bartender which was familiar with Bob's shenanigans just sighed with indifference. Before Bob would even say anything the bartender pointed him to the backdoor which Bob ran towards to use the alleyways as his escape route.

Thinking that he was safe for now, Bob just casually walked towards the backdoor and went through it. Then he walked along the alleyway towards the main street where he knew he could just blend in with the other people of the city. With that he just laughed at himself thinking back about his little prank and his narrow escape.

[Xalet]

Xalet would have paused just long enough to help the man that had been send tumbling to the ground a hand to aid him in getting back to his feet, but by now he was down one of the many crossings, his breath moving heavily in and out of his lips. The large akalak rested his hands upon his knees for a moment, actually contemplating giving up. Chastising himself for allowing the as of yet unnamed man to get away, Xalet couldn't help but think what a poor squire he was if he couldn't even catch one man.

That was until he turned his body to head back toward the main traffic of the populous, only to see that Bob had come out a bit ahead of him, apparently from the rear exit of some building. Xalet's body went into overdrive, everything he had starting up in order to get his muscles ready for a straight forward sprint. He began to work up forward momentum, his body leaning forth as his legs propelled him. Those long appendages covered great strides below him, his height aiding in that respect. The ability to see above the general populous was also quite a boon.

His plates began to jangle as his feet kicked below him. His visor was locked in the upright position previously from reading Bob's scroll of arcanic trickery. Xalet's mind had been working, formulating the entire time. Now the akalak knew exactly what he was going to do when he got his hands upon this man. It didn't involve broken bones or bloody lips, no it was much better than that. All that stood between him and his success was distance, he began to reach forward, trying to achieve his goals, looking to get the human within his grasp.

[Bob Barton]

Bob was still laughing merrily that he has dodged the bolt so to speak. So he was still taking his time as he stood on the road wondering where he should head to next. With the fun of the day at the Akalak's expense out of the way maybe he should go and do something constructive? Nope that was not Bob so in the end, he decided to head back to his camp.

Bob started to walk to the main gates but the amount of pedestrians using it was too much that he hardly got that many steps in. The sounds and noise of the city blocked out most of everything else so Bob did not hear the Akalak's advance despite all the racket his armour would make until he was really close. When he was able to hear the clanking sound of the armoured feet on the floor, Bob thought it was some sort of cart and stepped back to make way.

"SHYKE!" Bob shouted when he turned to see the cart he thought was there but only to see the Akalak charging towards him. In his mind Bob saw it as though the Akalak was some iron demon with his armour and would kill any enemy it ran and trampled on, here being him. Bob just wanted to continue on and run back to camp, but there was too many people this time compared to the other street that he would definitely get blocked off no matter how he tried to move. So he screamed "Why can't you big brutes leave us small weaklings alone?!" as he ran back into the alley he came from.

Bob spun in place, using the momentum from the spin to strengthen his first step into the alley. With that he gave his foot a push as hard as possible and propelled himself, each step he took made it easier and easier for him to keep up with the speed and energy he put in. As he ran through, Bob reached his hands out to anything and everything he could in the alley. Rubbish, crates, baskets and the like were held on to and utilizing his run, Bob just dragged them a little bit to make them drop on the pathway behind him. The alleyway was now littered with all these obstacles but for Bob it was not enough as he kept grabbing and dropping until he reached for the wrong crate. Bob never knew what was in there but it was heavy and as he ran past with his hand still holding on, it anchored and jerked Bob back making him fall and stopping his run.

[Xalet]

Xalet scrambled after Bob as fast as his large frame could handle. While he tried to sidestep or jump above the obstacles as best he could, there were simply times when his encumbered frame got caught on something. Having his plated foot go through a crate caused him to kick it off toward a wall, the various wooden planks crashing onto the ground, broken and misshapen.

The squire was prepared for the next crate however. Timing his run appropriately he kicked a foot forward and drove the nailed box up into the air, tumbling against the alley wall with a akalak-foot sized dent in it's side. Stumbling over a tipped stack of rotten fruit contained once prior inside of a large bin, Xalet called forth to Bob, "Place more faith in me, you'll get my 'thanks' one way or another!" Usually talks of thanks weren't said in a tone of voice consistent with 'growling'.

Given Xalet's armor, Bob had nearly four hundred pounds of retribution coming toward him. It was enough weight to ignore some of the obstacles except for the occasional stumble. Squashed foods creating some slickness upon the roadway caused more trouble for the akalak it seemed. It was enough for him to pick up one of the trash bins and send it hurling toward Bob, the canister just missing as the man fell backward from his ill-timed grip upon the heavy crate. Now was the time to gain distance though! Xalet just had to push through, despite the burning in his muscles. He had to get just a bit further!

[Bob Barton]

There were sounds Bob has heard as he ran. "Blam! Crash! Slam! Skid! Screech!" among others but the one which really got his attention was the "Smash!" from the trash bin which flew and his the ground in front of him. The danger of the situation was still not lost on Bob as he hurriedly got up to try and continue outrunning the Akalak. But as luck would have had it, the bin hit some crates which fell and blocked Bob's path off. He could try and climb over it but pulling all those junk behind him to try and slow down the Akalak made his arms slightly tired and the crate pile was just sooooooo big.

Bob turned back and looked around but there was no other escape route. There was a few doors in the middle though but Bob saw how fast the Akalak was charging. Counting it down in his head, he concluded that by the time he got to one of them, opened it and went through he would already be tackled long before. That and when he considered that he wouldn't even know which doors are locked or not, the odds were stacked against him.

Running out of options, Bob hastily drew his sword. He knew in a straight on fight he would not be able to beat the Akalak but maybe he can get him to run away? Bob extended his arm and pointed the sword "Hold it right there!" Then Bob swung his sword around to try and display his skills. He swung and swung at the junk lying around the alley. As he swung his sword, he purposely missed his "targets" by keeping as far a distance from them with the blade while trying to make it as convincing as possible to the Akalak that those same misses were done with little margin for error.

"Beware that my sword only strikes my enemies for I have been trained to protect traders by the best!" Bob was lying then but he knew that all lies can be believable when they have some truthful facts in them. And Syliras was a big city so no doubt traders flock to it. Bob continued using a story he overheard from a caravan guard in a tavern the other day "Why just two weeks ago, I fought off bandits in the wildlands. They circled around our group like a flock of vultures, outnumbering us three to one and we left the spot littered with their bodies. With my sword, I hacked their bodies into half and shattered their weapons into pieces. Back off or I will consider you one!" and with that, Bob raised his sword and brought it down swiftly. Slashing one of the bigger fruits in front of him into half and splattering its juices all over to deliver the image into the Akalak's mind.

[Xalet]

If it was what Bob had intended, it seemed to work. Xalet came to a resounding halt from his otherwise hasty forward charge. His knees bent slightly as his body lurched forward, the effort from trying to stop that many pounds of momentum charged akalak. Inside of his armor, sweat dripped down the akalak's body. Right about now that waterball would have felt quite refreshing. It was ironic really, this much effort for such a small show of magery. It was the principle of the matter now.

Xalet followed the sword for a moment, tracking it's movements with his eyes. All the while he was observing Bob's movements. His stance, his slash, his thrust. He appeared to have some skill with a sword, that much was certain. Of course Xalet was utilizing an old beat up training weapon sheathed at his side, not exactly the best item for forging ahead into mortal combat with. His shield and armor were functional enough, but something still didn't make sense. Why the running, why the drawing of the sword now?

The akalak wasn't good with long winded stories, part of it came from the basics behind the language of his people. Every word took so long to express that things were sometimes truncated for the sake of time. Still he appreciated the theory behind theatrics, as well as someone possessing a silver tongue. "I see. You have training in the sword. Magery as well, it seems." he responded.

"But..." Xalet said after an unintentional dramatic pause, as he drew his training short sword, "There were a few things that were curious to me, that didn't make sense until you starting swinging your weapon around. There's subtle differences, but as I tend to get thrashed by weapon experts on a daily basis, I think I've noticed enough of them to believe only half of what you're saying. I'm quite interested now though..." he continued, removing his crossbow and laying it down on the ground so that he could unstrap the shield beneath it before sliding it upon his forearm. "...to see if I'm right or wrong." Of course Xalet had never killed anyone, and he wasn't planning on such a thing. His blade was so dull that he couldn't cut a person even if he wanted to. Still, his Patron had always advised him not to pass up an opportunity to see and discover new techniques. Thus, Xalet began to approach Bob, short bladed training sword ready.