Closed Seeking The Truth (Tourmal)

[Kyra]

"You fight nicely Tourmal." Kyra stated, gently lifting the hood and placing it back over her head. Turning away then, she glanced back towards the area where the knights had stood. Those who decided not to witness the rest of the brawl and go back to their evening of drinking. "I suppose we were luckily." she finished as she turned back to face him, the veil of the cloak hanging low, casting hard shadows against her pale cheeks.

Kyra could only glance up at him in confusion. Her actions weren't very odd even for humans. It seemed that he didn't understand that while the fight had started off as a simple brawl, things had turned much worse by the end. Yet for one reason or another, the Drykas had thought that they were finished and would simply go home.

That was not her way, Kyra was a survivor and so far her methods had kept her alive and well. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason to change them now. Standing again, her arm extended as she pointed her dagger at his hammer. She watched him as he moved to the next unconscious man and stood over him, eyes of golden embers peering out through the thick shadows under the cloaks hood. Would he do it? Could he truly push himself to take another life?

Her lips curved upward, and she tilted her head as the man dropped his hammer, and followed it to his knees. It seemed that he didn't have it in him and she would have to take over. By the time he stood again, Kyra was standing at his side looking up at him. "I do it because I have too. You must see it, don't you? They would have killed us both." She glanced away again, and down to the man at their feet. "These men...they're not good people, not like you...." Again she paused reaching for his hand and lifting it up to where she could see the bruises on his fist from the fight. "It's better this way..Tourmal."

She releases his hand then, slowly stepping around to the other side where he had dropped his hammer. Kyra looked down upon it, likely pushing against it with her boot. Her gaze lifted to meet his again and she smiled, her voice soothing and gentle. "Would you prefer that I finish it?"

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Fall 55, 512 AV “Thanks... You too” Clearly an under statement, however he was not in the mood to articulate further on the subject. The girl covered her head with her hood as she was when he first saw her small figure enter the tavern. He could not believe how innocently the night had started and where he was now. “I guess.” He paused for a moment then added “They didn't kill us.” As he looked down at the man laying below his head right next to Tourmal's hammer He knew that she was right. Before she had said anything he knew he needed to do so. He merely could not bring himself to do so. They would have killed the two of them had they not been so drunk and caught off guard by Alessa joining the fray. He could have died multiple times that night. “How am I good? Huh? Tell me! How am I good?!” He looked straight at her fire burning in his eyes hating what he had just done. “I just killed a man! Shyke! And now I am going to kill another just to save myself? Really, how is that good?” He was afraid of what would happen where he would end up if he kept going on the path that he was currently on. He never wanted this. Every other time he had been extremely careful to use the minimum force necessary. But today he slipped and if he didn't finish the job he would have to run for the rest of his life. He didn't want to run, but even less he wanted to kill another man. He could not let her take the remaining two's lives it was a fight that both of them participated in and he needed to share his brunt of the work. Just like at the Iron works. He knew it was his duty to do so. But he needed help. “No I'll handle it” Looking back at the mans face he knelt down and grabbed the hammer then placed one foot on either side of the mans upper torso and stood up staring down at the mess. He thought back to what drove him to beat the poor drunk to the point he was in now. His blood was already pumping from the fight hearing the shrieks of the two men fighting Alessa the one he stood over now had grabbed her and received a headbutt to the lip. Him having man handled the much smaller girl as if he and the others planned on raping her had drove him to tackle the man. Then proceed to beat him senseless. As he thought about it his anger was rekindled. He could not forgive the man. And the other was no better. The man obviously intended on raping and killing her the four of them each as sinister as the next. They were monsters, they could not be allowed to live this man would likely strike again, and has likely done so before. Who knows how many others he and the others had done this to. Thinking about it had driven him into a point of rage to where he no longer saw these men as people but as monstrosities much like the glassbeaks of the sea of grass. He had not even realized that with each thought about the man who lay below him, he lifted his hammer higher and higher readying for a menacing blow. He had a chance to kill a monster before it had a chance to kill another human. And the chance was now. With all his might he brought down his hammer in an arching swing to the side of the head of the beast that lay before him. Crushing the skull blood spattered with the force of the hit and the pressure expelled its eyes from its container. The sight was sickening and Tourmal felt as though he would be ill. His stomach heaved, and his mouth salivated profusely readying him for what was to come. Again it heaved and again it was as if it had a mind of its own. When he could take it no longer he vomited everything he ate earlier that was still in his stomach. Thankfully he had eaten early enough that there was not much left besides his first and only drink of the night and a few bites of bread and cheese. Not a pretty site mind you. Unfortunately his heaving did not stop after the food was expelled. His stomach did not relent until a few chimes had gone by. He had to keep his eyes averted as he righted himself to keep himself from continuing to dry heave. As he stood up he wiped his mouth with his wet sleeve and turned away from his last subject.

[Kyra]

Tourmal was having trouble with what he had done, a struggle brewing within him, as he tried to come to terms with what they had done. It was interesting to watch, if not completely amusing. Though he wasn't the strongest human that she had met, he was surly brave enough. Facing off against four men alone wasn't something that just anyone would, or could do. But his resolve was wavering, and if she didn't help him along, he may have posbily lost it all together. "Good or bad, what does it matter?" she said softly as she moved closer to him and gently placed a hand onto his shoulder."You survived."

She slowly circled around him, letting her fingers gently trace about her shoulder, back, and around to the other side. "There is a saying that I heard...Good is a point of view, bad is what the other person at the end of the sword says when they realize they're going to die. But tell me, does any of that really matter now? You're alive, so you get to choose if you must...good or bad?" She wasn't sure how he would take her words, or if he even grasped what she was trying to say. She had also been confused by those words when she first heard of them, though now she figured that she had a better understanding.

Kyra was rather pleased when the Drykas decided to handle it himself. She nodded silently, a somewhat wicked smile forming upon her lips as she watched him standing over his prey. Even though the rain continued, pelting down upon her, keeping her cloak soaked, the shiver that she had felt was almost gone. There was a warming sensation coming over her, excitement, pleasure. It had looked as if early on that the kelvic had been bred to be a killer, and it would seem that she was taking to her role rather well.

The sound that echoed across the land as Tourmal smashed the man's head in, rung in her ears. The sight of the once solid freshly mold, suddenly splattering, sending eyes balls, teeth and chunks of flesh into the air, was very new even for her. Her golden eyes widen as she took it all in, feeling impressed with the rawness of the blacksmith's attack. Brute force wasn't something she relied on much, mostly using stealth, quick attacks, and always going for the vital points in her opponent to make it quick.

However, the display that the man had just shown had left her speechless for a chime. She looked on for a bit, watching as the rain drove into the mess of bloody flesh that used to be a man's head. Her attention was pulled away the moment that Tourmal started to loose his lunch. Kyra stared at him, wondering if he had been injured or become ill for another reason. "Are you alright Tourmal?" she stood for a chime, waiting to see what he would say, or if he would drop into another fit of heaving, before she moved to the man that she had just killed.

"We must move them now, it wouldn't be good to leave them out in the open this way.." She spoke softly yet sternly as she lifted her gaze to focus on him again. Then, without waiting, Kyra began to drag the body by the arm back into the tall grass in a quicken pace.

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Fall 55, 512 AV Survival was that where he was at now. He left Cyprus because he felt that all they were doing was merely attempting to survive. Tourmal wanted more he wanted to thrive, so of course he moved to the safest place he knew Syliras. When she recited a the saying. He could not even begin to comprehend. His mind was not in the right place to think about some type of philisophycal saying. In truth most of the saying he immediately forgot. Save the part about a sword. He was still thinking about his kill. After finishing his duty and the heaving lapsed. Alessa asked if he was alright. “I'm fine I... I am just a little disgusted with myself at the moment. That and his eyes...” The man could not finish the sentence nor did he wish to. While turned away from his most recent mess, the woman suggested they move the corpses. She had not noticed there was still one left that Tourmal had dispatched with a kick to the face, who was not dead yet. He would let it go because he did not want to be the reason that he had to see another killing that night. She would discover the truth anyways. When he turned back around he took extra care to keep from looking at the concave skull that rest atop the bodies neck. And grabbed it by the ankles dragging it into the bushes out of sight. After he was done he walked back out into the artificial clearing made by the road and walked to the larger man who was also dead with a slightly less concave skull. This man being much larger than he, weighed probably twenty pounds more than he did. Evidently fat was much lighter than muscle. He was relieved to find out, considering he was expecting much more of a task while dragging the body off the road.

[Kyra]

Kyra watched, somewhat pleased as Tourmal began dragging the bodies into the tall grass to hide them. He didn't seem content with what they had done, or her way of thinking, yet he continued to do as she asked. Perhaps he knew that she was right, or possibly couldn't think of a better solution and so he copped to whatever she wanted. Either way, the draykas went about his task, and before long he had moved two bodies out of the clearing.

She watched him work from beneath the shade of the tree. The sudden halting of rain as it fell upon the branches and leaves, gave her a small reprieve from being soaked again. A wild night it had been, with surprises at every turn. She hadn't expected to find herself in a brawl, nor had she expected him to stand up for her. While his actions had been gallant, his resolve wavered violently, leaving Kyra to wonder if she could trust him.

He wasn't blood thirsty, and to the contrary seemed guilt written about what he had just done. If he went back into town and started confessing to anyone who would listen, she realized it could be trouble for her. Such a mess they had made and she was hesitate of thinking to do more, but was it worth it to let him go?

Suddenly she was pulled from her thoughts when a body started to moved around out in the grass. One of the men were still alive, and was now slowly awaking while trying to get to his feet. "We missed one.." she said softly and uttering little emotion in her tone. taking up her dagger again, Kyra raced forward, dashing past Tourmal as she ran back out into the rain. The man was groggy, his sluggish movement taking ticks just to raise him back to his knees.

The young kelvic dived onto his back, taking her blade and jamming it into the side of his throat, then pulling it back out. A splatter of dark ink poured from the wound, a look of shock, pain, and sadness stretched across his face as his body slammed back onto the ground. The man clutched at the wound, trying his hardest to stop the blood from spilling out as she glared up at her. Within moments he stopped moving, his eyes glazed over frozen in time and his limbs twitched a final time before he was gone. Standing up again, she looked toward Tourmal and sighed. "I suppose that was the last one?"

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Fall 55, 512 AV When the rain finished, the man was relieved he would likely catch cold and need to rest for a few days. He knew the longer he spent outside the worse he would get and if he got too bad he would be forced to miss work. The temporary distraction helped him if only for a tick to take his mind off his recent actions. It was something he now needed to learn to live with. He knew that to be true but he like so many more before him was not ready to embark on the voyage he had just taken part of. His future was dim. He knew not where this would lead however this woman in front of him seemed to know plenty of getting past guilt. In fact it seemed she had done so well she had none. He didn't want to be come that at ease however he did need help. And she and his friend Orion were the only two that he could confide in he could trust. When the last of the men started to stir, Tourmal knew what that meant. She was seemingly awoken from a trance and rushed toward the man. He ignored her comment for he knew what was next, and looked away as the woman jabbed her dagger into the side of his neck. The sound was squishy like stabbing something that was both solid and liquid at the same time. And the sound of the man falling made the drykas flinch. He knew the man was dying, and he did not care to watch. As far as he felt he had witnessed far to much death this night and hoped to leave it at that. After the sounds stopped he turned back and saw the man laying down with a pool of blood which had stemmed from a wound found in his neck. “The last one? Oh. Yeah.” The man responded somberly. He walked up to her and nodded his head toward the fresh corpse, and proceeded to grab a leg and waited for her to grab the other then with her help dragged the last of the men into the thicket. The man knew that there was no going back and he was stuck with his new companion whether he liked it or not. He figured he should be amicable and inquired about something he noticed earlier. “You looked at me earlier.” He paused “Are you concerned about something?” The man looked into the fierce golden eyes of the woman before him. He waited for her response. “You obviously know what you are doing, and I don't.”Another pause. “Would you mind teaching me.” The man knew that the world was dangerous he had grown up in the Sea of Grass. He wasn't oblivious, however he did leave the sea to get away from that same danger that took his brothers life. Now, years later he was the source of danger he had so longed to get away from. He knew that his life had changed and would never be the same. His only hope was that he could learn to live with it. And this woman had the answers he needed. There she was standing in front of him. The answer to his largest problem. Once she was just an object of lust, now she was the person who would guide him through his next great journey.

[Kyra]

Kyra waited for Tourmal to take a leg and then she grabbed the other so that they could pull the body into the brush along with the rest. Being a leopard kelvic, she was strong, and had dragged corpses of the same size and a bit larger across the ground alone. She could have handled it herself, but if he wanted to aid her, she wouldn't turn him away. He did seem less hesitant with the last body, but she knew that it still weighted on his mind. She wasn't exactly disappointed, but she had thought after the fight, and the rawness in his attack that he might feel a sort of pride in what he did. It wasn't a foreign concept and she had seen men do so in the past, even when they weren't fighting for their lives.

Once they were finished, the two found themselves staring at each other again. Unknown to Kyra the drykas had saw the look in her eyes and decided to ask if she was worried. The young kelvic watched him closely, and spoke in her usual tone with something of a mischievous jest, and bordering on a serious interrogation. "Should I be worried?" She was concerned about him, about what he would do or say once they returned to the city. She could have simply left him to face the drunken men alone and went about her own way. But she had saw something in him, adding to the fact that she didn't like drunk men, and decided to stay. It would have been all pointless to save him if he went off and did something stupid.

She simply stared back into his eyes as his gaze fell upon hers, and something he must have felt that only she could give him. Though for Kyra it would certainly be a task, and probably a bit nerve racking for them both. She didn't speak when he first asked her the question, choosing instead to study him more. The rain had finally stopped, and leaving her moist skin with a pale, somewhat haunting glow. "What ever could you want me to teach you Tourmal?" she asked curiously as she began to move. Taking slowly measured steps around him and back around again.

"You obviously don't like fighting, what good would it do you to learn that from me..that is what you meant, yes?" Kyra fell silent then, with her back to the much taller drykas, she moved her feet around, testing the moistness in her boots, water drenched soles from the puddles that she stepped in while fighting. What she wanted now was a warm place to rest while her clothing could dry. Unfortunately, in her hast to find shelter she hadn't looked for proper lodging. She sighed, her gaze turning back towards the path that they had taken to get out of the city. "Perhaps we should head back, we can continue talking at your place?"

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Fall 55, 512 AV Her look grew serious as she questioned him if she could trust him or not. He gave no hints to his emotion besides his tone of voice. When he followed up with his request for her to help him he figured that would tell her what she wanted to hear. She was hesitant to agree to terms that she didn't know. He thought this to be a good trait. She had likely been in a few sticky situations before and had learned not to agree to requests before you know the details. When her back was turned on the man. He replied in a low tone showing signs of frustration. “It's not that I don't like fighting, it's the killing I have a problem with.” When she suggested they go back to his place he obliged, and led the way to his quarters. Once there he readied a fire to warm the cold room. It didn't take too long using the torch outside his door to ignite the kindling which fed on the tinder. He had a line that ran across the room close enough to the fire to hang clothing on it, to be dried, but not too close that it would shrink or burn the clothing if it was hung for too long. It was after he placed his own cloak onto the line that he asked for Allessa's to do the same with. She was soaked and so was he. Her clothes needed to be dried and they wouldn't do so without help. He figured if he had to dry the blanket later he didn't mind. Before wrapping himself up he took off his shirt and wrung it over a bucket he had. Then hung it on the line also. He then pulled the bed closer to the hearth so the two could sit down comfortably while warming up. After sitting he spoke “I'm sorry for my actions earlier. I haven't told many people this but... I lost my twin brother when I was younger. Instead of dealing with it I ran away, and came here the safest place I knew.” He looked at the fire, its flames dancing along the wood. “Every one told me to deal with it and move on, but I couldn't, So I tried to run away from my problem.” He paused for a second holding back a sneeze. “I didn't think that here of all places I would find myself in the situation I am in now.” Tourmal shook his head. “It's obvious now that I can't run away from death, and I... I just need some help learning to deal with it.” He looked at her as he sat there hunched over in front of the fire. “You are obviously used to killing, at least for the sake of necessity, and I need to be able to do the same... Can you help me?”

[Kyra]

"You say that as if there was a choice. Perhaps there..inside the city walls you feel safe. But where I come from, even at home one is never safe. There is always someone looking to take things from you...always." she finished, giving him a harder glare. "It's very different out here than it is inside your city. If you want to survive you'll need to become stronger." she paused then, being sure that she held his attention before finishing. "Or never leave the city again."

Once he agreed to take her to his place, she followed as he led the way. She stayed close to him, but kept her distance for the time. She still wasn't sure if she could trust him and if he wasn't trying to turn her over to the Knights for what they had just done. When they arrived to his room, she stood silent, waiting as he made a fire to warm them. Kyra looked around the room for a bit, noticing that it wasn't much bigger than her own back in Ravok.

Kyra nodded then to what Tourmal asked, and removed her cloak and placed it on the line to dry. The shreds of her blouse hung loose on her back and shoulders, while leaving her chest and stomach mostly bare. She took the towel that he offered and wrapped it around herself, then leaned down to remove her boots and placed them close to the fire to dry as well.

With the bed moved closer to the fire, Kyra sat down beside him to warm up. Her hair was still damp, and the blondish strains clung to her head and face. The young kelvic shivered beneath the blanket and pulled it closer to her body, as she looked down at her bare feet lightly pressing against the floor. Tourmal started to speak, telling her about his past and his reasons for coming to Syliras. It was a touching story, but it also proved to her more of what she already knew.

The world was dangerous, viscous, and cold. It was a world completely different from what her mother spoke of. There was danger everywhere and pain and suffering for as long as one's eyes could see. Kyra glanced up from her feet and stared off into the fire as Tourmal did. "You make it seem as if it's hard...It is not. People hunt you, people enjoy..hurting you." Her words trailed off and she fell silent as she stared into the dancing flames. The fire burned brightly causing the golden orbs that focused into it to glow even brighter. "It's not a life that I chose, nor one that I can control."

She sighed, lowering her gaze from the fire and back down to her feet, before lifting her eyes again to focus on Tourmal. "I'm leaving here soon...and I won't be coming back. But until that time I will help you."

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Fall 55, 512 AV The woman was blunt, but truthful. It was a dangerous world out there, and he just realized that it could be just as dangerous in the city. He had seen a bit in the caves when the djed storms hit. But he never thought that his hand would be forced to kill. It was a reality he would have to live with. Despite the large number of people who never have to kill. There was probably an equally large number who had to. He was now part of that number and coming to grips with it would be a journey. His hair like hers was soaked, and after a few moments he realized this. He walked over to where his towels were near his wash tub, leaving his blanket on the bed, and grabbed two that were clean. Then he tossed one on the bed next to Allessa for her to use, and dried his hair with the other. Afterward he patted down his pants with the towel and after he was happy with how dry they were he discarded his towel and returned to sitting next to the woman. When he sat down he removed his boots like she, and set them near the fire as she had done. Her statement told him that she lived a hard life, much like those of the Sea of Grass. Those of whom were also subject to attacks from Zith or some of the dangerous fauna of the plains. You were not safe in Cyphrus no matter how much you thought so. His brother was proof of that. His life would have been much more different had he not run and stayed with his pavilion. “Leaving huh.” He thought to himself, seeing his predicament growing worse. Without guidance or even someone to watch what can I do? How can I grow stronger? “I would like to join you. I don't care where you are going. It's like you said I need to become stronger, and I can't do that inside the city.” He needed to travel he needed to be exposed to more violence. His life was too calm and safe for him to strengthen himself. He was a smithy despite his physical strength, he was still weak minded, he was still a child easily wavered. He lacked fortitude. A trip in the wilds would do just that. “What do you say?”