[Bronze Woods] Looks Aren't Everything.

by **Archailist** on January 13th, 2015, 7:44 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel soon brought back the Py-Pole from where it'd lodged into place at his shoulder, rearing it back in both paws to prepare for the next to try their luck. Apparently it wasn't going to be that easy. An arrow streaked through the air and slammed straight into the squirrel's leg, burying deep into the soil on the opposite side. Shyke, it hurt - a lot. "Petching!" He couldn't finish his sentence as cold air sucked through his teeth, the squirrel struggling to stop himself from straining against the shaft and cause more pain.. but at the same time, he needed to get it free. The woman was already notching up another arrow - this one wasn't aimed to finish off the squirrel. Much worse. The tip was pointed square at Clemens, ready to strike him right in the ribcage.

Neither was his attacker retreating any time soon. He twisted and rammed the shield against the shaft of the halberd like he wanted to punch it, trying to force Clemens down into submission with brute force while preparing the tip of the sword just behind it for a final, finishing stab right through the head or chest - whichever he preferred. For now, it was just finishing off Clemens and moving on. One still stood to the side, watching patiently and making not an ounce of noise. "Suppose I've got to finish everything. Sylir be good, you can't even get rid of him without being all dramatic about it," the woman said from a distance.

Perhaps what neither of them expected was the sudden swing that threw the balance of the shield, tossing it down to one side and dragging the man with it. The side of his head was exposed for just an instant - a gap between the spot at the bottom of his jaw, where the crude metal helmet ended, and at the shoulder where the leather straps of the steel shoulder-guards began. The fact that a sudden jarring shove had thrown the skilled combatant off in his moment of egotist showmanship wasn't even the truly surprising part. That came when, to Arch's horror, the arrow released and flew through the air as though a fish through water, straight for Clemens.

Yet it buried itself straight through the back of the assailant. In a bizarre turn that could not have been predicted, the shove had pushed the sword-and-shield attacker right in the path of the arrow - it'd sunk straight through one of the patches of unprotected armor and buried itself deep. He screamed in pain and dropped down to his knees, both sword and shield falling from his hands and landing flat on the floor. It was oddly satisfying to see a man crippled in the same way that Arch was. Satisfying and saddening at the same time, if he was completely honest with himself.

The archer lowered her bow, staring in shock with her mouth hung wide open, unabashedly. The other assailant stood next to her mimicked the shock exactly. Even the attacker, amid his immense pain, was surprised. All of them didn't even notice the snapping of trees and crush of soft snow until its maker, a hulking red Akalak, had stepped in behind her and literally slapped her with his tower-shield as tall as a man. She fell, unable to catch herself and slammed face-first into the ground just as 'Jordan' had done. The other raised his hands immediately in submission, but still got a good punch with the side of the shield that knocked him backwards and slammed his back into the ground as well for all the trouble he'd caused.

"Well shyke." Iros' eyes looked over the scene slowly, before finally back up to Clemens and down to the little impaled squirrel in that order. "This mean I'm going to need a new squire or something?"

by **Clemens Kos** on January 14th, 2015, 9:39 pm

Clemens' heroic strike was met with brutal resistance. As he felt the shield bash against the wooden shaft of his halberd, the resonating vibrations that followed almost made him drop his weapon. He was unable to even react, as the man simply overpowered him, and his knees gave in. Unable to do anything more, he dropped his weapon, which fell with a thud between him and the armed attacker, who was already rising his sword to finish the job with one clear jab. Clemens was on his knees, hands lifelessly hanging to his sides, with his head tilted in the air, watching the leviated sword with wide eyes. A tear gathered up in the corner of his eye, as he was unable to do a thing against it. He was simply too weak to even defend himself. His hands were aching due to the slam that made him drop his weapon, his heart was beating against the leather armor he wore. Nothing helped. Before he would be able to try and punch anywhere, he'd feel the cold steel digging it's way into his flesh, and his still warm blood would be there to thaw the snow. His eye that was hidden underneath the messy bundle of his black hair found even more more threat. If he was to somehow dodge the point blank swing of the sword, there was still the archer to take care off. His fighting companion appeared to have fallen also, so all there was left to do was to give up.

He finally released the air that was building up in his chest, as he seemingly forgotten to breath during the fighting. As the air left him, he suddenly felt a lot weaker than previously. The adrenaline seemingly dying down, which left him to face his imminent death without any sort of natural steroids. Good thing he was wearing a mask, then his widely open mouth was leaking salvia from the corners, staining the leather. 'That's how I am going to end? Disapointing...Still had so much I wanted to do.' His mind wasn't panicing, or raging around the place. It seemed that he already gave into the fate that was about to happen to it. So much for a fighting spirit he thought he had. So much for the courage he faked. This is who he was. A scared, weak and lonely human. Stripped from everything he ever held dear. But at this time, mostly his already lacking dignity and hopes. At least let him watch the last stroke that was going to end him.

As his eyes rose up to see the attacker, he at first thought he was already dead. For what he saw was something out of the world. The man was thrown off guard, and in the second moment, it seemed like it floated around, being run through with the arrow that the archer released. It all happened way too quick for him to understand, and his head was already spinning. Something was beginning to press against his chest, simply as if he was getting sick. The fear and shock, together with the last amount of adrenaline left his body, and his body shuddered. His hands going to wrap around his stomach, and Clemens simply fell to the side, bringing his knees up, curling himself into a pitiful display of a ball.

But he was still breathing. His raging heart was still beating. The pain in his body was still there. The last jab never came to be. He didn't even realize what, or who saved him, but at that moment it was simply not important enough to bother with it. He heard Iros speak out, something about a squire. Was Archailist okay? He heard him curse before, so he guessed he got hurt. Trying to force himself to look slightly up, gazing upon the squirel with pierced legs. That looked bad. His own feet began to ache as he looked at that, but at least no one died. Finally, his mouth closed, and his teeth sunk into the lip he already bit through.

He needed a moment for the shock to pass, his hands still shaking. But he was able to pull himself up a sitting position. His left hand was brought up, running his snow covered sleeve to wipe the tears off his face, and trying to wake himself up with pressing the cold against his face. He had no words, nor he had any actions remaining. He simply sat there, looking at the knight that just saved his life.

by **Archailist** on January 17th, 2015, 7:52 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The assailant wasn't dead. The arrow was lodged in the side of his back, just underneath one of the shoulder-blades. As he squirmed and struggled to reach back far enough to remove it, he inadvertently strained and tugged the arrowhead around inside the wound and made it even harder. He was stuck in limbo; no immediate threat and even less so as Ser Iros walked over and slowly pressed one heavy foot down against the back of the man's skull - pushing it down, before Clemens very eyes, into the ground and holding it there for just long enough that the man understood the message. "Come on, Clemens. Get up already." The knight had better things to do than physically drag the human to his feet. At least Clemens still had the needed limbs to do so.

Arch was less fortunate. Pinned in place, he couldn't move without stressing the agony that was the arrow slicing straight through his leg and into the ground on the other side. It stuck out taller than the squirrel, and trying to pull the barbed tip back out again.. well, that was better left not thought of. When Iros approached and clasped a single hand around the base of the shaft, the squirrel immediately stopped him with a hand raised, prompting the knight to release the wooden shaft again and crouch down onto one knee. "No no.. it won't come out like that.." Iros looked skeptical but wasn't about to try and rip the thing out either. He had no clue how a Pycon's body worked.

".. Alright then, what do you suggest then." Eventually the Akalak leaned back and reached down with both paws to gently pull the Pycon back up from the ground, arrow and all, into the cup between both paws so that he could get a better look. That and potentially for the other knight emerging from the same place that Iros had, just a moment ago. He, too, was covered nearly head-to-toe in thick plate-mail but held a much smaller kite shield in one hand; the other was empty, but there was a sword sheathed at the hip, not to mention the bow stretched over the back and the leather quiver filled with arrows poking out over one shoulder. Beside him stood another squire, in half-plate and with a bastard sword strapped to his back.

The new knight and Iros both had a front-row seat for the squirrel reaching down to the shaft of the arrow, pinching just where the shaft sunk into the clay of his leg and twisting it right out. A lovely new gap was left in its place, but it'd heal over time.. it wasn't that bad. Stung like shyke; if the squirrel had any teeth that couldn't be squished under the immense pressure in his jaw, they surely wouldn't have lasted very long. Still, he could limp.

"Oh, right." Iros had a lot of explaining to do, apparently. "I'll tell you everything on the way back." They weren't going to leave without Clemens though. Already the young squire was hopping over to the masked man with the one able leg to offer a hand and a shoulder to steady himself while tugging the man back up to his feet. The criminal was less fortunate - he got the unrelenting mail grip of the knight that didn't even bother to look down at the man while dragging him up from his knees forcefully - no matter how many times he shouted and writhed, as the arrow-wound wept blood around the shaft. Whatever he gets from the Council.. he deserves so much more.

Now wasn't the time for hate to fester. He'd almost completely neglected the poor man they'd practically dragged along with them on this journey. "You alright there, Clemens..? Still holding up?"

by **Clemens Kos** on January 18th, 2015, 9:48 am

Felt like laughing. No, not because someone made a funny joke, or because something silly had of just happened. He found no other response. He watched the man that was moments away from stabbing his chest clean with a sword, litelary pushed to the ground so he'd eat the dirt. His chest was still pumping, but he was saved. He sat there, watching the man grasping and groaning due to the lodged arrow in his body, yet unable to do much. He was ordered to get up by the knight, whom he thought died. Even though honestly speaking he was filled with joy the massive armored man didn't. But still, he felt like laughing. His one eye scanned the man over, from heads to toe. The mismatched armor, the now bleeding shoulderblade, the dropped sword. Something caught his attention, however. There was a pouch on the assailant's waist. The masked man didn't know what, if anything was inside. But he felt like doing it, anyways. He waited for the knight to walk away, going to check on the pycon that got his legs pierced. Clemens stood up, delivering a kick on the downed man, aimed purely to get his anger out of the system, even though the tip of his boot wrapped around the thin string the pouch used to stay attached. He pulled his leg back, afterwords, mouthing out a curse or two aimed to the bandit, and with that ripping the sting in two, and freeing the pouch for him to take. Simply to make sure the downed man wouldn't lash at him, he stepped out of reach before bending over, and tucking the little puch in one of his pockets.

Not really long afterwords, the man began to scream even louder. He just now realized there were two more armored men that emerged from the woods, and from the looks of it they were also knights. Pushing the man Clemens just revealed of his posession on on his feet, and beginning to push him to walk on the road. He rememebred the arrow, and the way the knight held him. He'd feel some pitty for the man, if he didn't try and kill him just now. He had to try his hardest not to simply grin at how quickly the tides of battle can actually turn. One moment, he and Archailist were surrounded. The next, everyone's on the ground, shaking in pain. He just realized why the knights are so deadly at what they do. He'd be too, if he had the backing of such a skilled force. He did shake his head, however.

His thoughts were quite quickly broken as he was approached by the now familiar squire, being nice enough to ask how he was doing. He felt somewhat bad answering that, because an arrow through both of the legs seem a lot more painful that a scare like that. He nodded, though, trying to carefully pick up the pycon and set him down on his shoulder. He now knew they're made out of clay, but still walking like that seemed like a horrible experience. Besides, he already acted as a personal transport before, so finishing the deed didn't really seem like that much of a big deal. The squire was, after all, quite light. "I'm alright, yeah. Just...Shaken, a bit. Did not expect to almost die." He replied, trying his best to control the volume of his voice. His knees did feel weak, after all, but as he reached down to pick up his halberd once more, he didn't even bother sheeting it. He simply held it close, with one hand holding the shaft, while pressed to his stomach, and the other arm being used to hook the shaft with his elbow, holding it in a straight line. He simply needed something to feel safe, even though he was now in protection of not just two, but four from the knighthood of Syliras. He almost felt special.

"How are you?" He asked afterwords, tipping his head back to the squire on his shoulder, if he remained there. "That looks...Painful. Will you be alright?" He didn't really know the pycon all that well, but he still felt a little bit worried. This little journey, after all, shook up a few things. Maybe he wouldn't be so quick to bother otherwise, but without Archialist, if he would be jumped alone, he'd now already be dead. Or worse, dragged in chains once again. He sighed at the thought. "I really need more practice with this thing." He muttered out, though loud enough to be heard.

by **Archailist** on February 8th, 2015, 9:02 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

It was good to see that Clemens wasn't too injured. Apparently he could still walk, at least.. not to mention steal and kick. Though the squirrel saw both while the other knights were busy wondering what to do about the big arrow sticking out of his leg, he said nothing; it was the least that the squirrel could do for Clemens. The man was essentially dragged into a hostile and deadly situation.. it could have been avoided so easily. He could have died that day, though judging by the laughter he was the last person to understand that. Such a shame.. the squirrel could only sit there and wonder what the future would hold for him as well.

After all, he was a sweet lad. The squirrel certainly wouldn't be able to limp all the way back to Stormhold from the middle of the Bronze Woods. He gladly took a place on Clemens' shoulder while the other knights began to move off back towards the edges of sight - the same direction that the second group had appeared from. Iros lagged behind to strap his shield and spear against the backplate of his heavy armour, not to mention gesture for Clemens to follow, before disappearing as well. Even though they were all out of sight, their voices still echoed around the trees quite clearly; what they said had the squirrel perked up in an instant, too. "We caught the brunt force of the group. Another four or five more of them that must have split into two when they caught sight of people further ahead. One moved as far away as possible.. into us."

That's not right. Why would someone try and avoid knights? The only thing he could think of that would facilitate it, would be avoiding Syliras altogether.If they'd come as far as the Bronze Woods.. what were they thinking? Well.. good thing that they actually had one at hand that they could try talking with. The groans of pain that came from him as the knight physically dragged him off after Iros and the other knights led the Pycon to believe that he wouldn't be around for long.. but seriously injured would be better than dead, at the very least. Not the same that he could say for some of the others, unfortunately.

"We also managed to collect whatever it was they were trying to deliver. Some vials of stuff.. we don't know what it is and we're not going to try and open any of it. Could be philtered stuff, goodness-knows. We need to figure out what to do with the remaining men that they had stationed around the cart transporting it.. and what we're going to do with the cart itself."

by **Clemens Kos** on February 8th, 2015, 9:31 pm

Kos slowly dug his hands into his pockets, leaning his elbow against the wooden shaft of his weapon. His laughter died down quite quickly, as reality came back to him. He was cooling off as he followed the akalak knight, not really feeling like looking at any knights. After all, stealing could get you in quite some problem. So his head had the bright idea to act like nothing's wrong by acting differently. Not his smartest of choise, but no one was really to blame him. He could still picture the sharp blade of a sword infront of him. Besides, the man wasn't really needing his posessions where he was going. He tried to debate himself into thinking that he'll use the money better than he. And that was enough to get his tired mind out of the gutter. As he saw the knight vanish in the woods, Kos decided to step it up a notch, not really feeling like being left alone after all that had happened. Be it as it is, he could finally think about something other than surviving. His head turned slightly, looking at the squire seated on his shoulder. Even though wearing a mask, and probably unknown to him, Kos offered him a smile. A non-faked, and quite genuine smile.

Thinking back on what happened, he realized that size didn't matter at all. Where Kos couldn't even stand his own ground, the pycon downed a man with a stick. Even though small, he packed a punch. Earlier, he thought of him with a small being with big words, but what he found now was new found respect. Not for the knights in general, but the squire Archailist. Maybe when the clay-man heals up, they could even get to that sparring practice he offered. Be it as it might of been, he was able to think about non-important things on their walk, because he needed something to relax. If he tried and get the image of that one bandit infront of him, it would just end up bad for his health. And thus, he thought about different topics entirely. However, they were interupted by the knights beginning to have their conversation. Kos didn't really think much about eavesdropping, but he simply wanted to know what happened. If there would be reports of more bandits in the area, maybe getting a job inside the city could work wonders.

then again, what those knights were talking seemed kinda odd. If you were planning on not getting involved with knights, why would one run into knights. Kos hummed slightly in thought, not really finding any answer to that. He could only use his imagination and try to think of a reason. Probably wolves, he thought. Giant, dire, man-eating wo-... He quickly shook his head afterwords, desperatly trying to get the image out of his head. Bandits AND wolves on the same day would be a sign. A sign to drop his weapon and go on the strees drawing or whatever it was people did there. With his artistic genius mastermind, he could maybe draw a stick figure and sell them to kids saying they were knights of the highest calliber. "We're not that far now...We'll be home soon." He dropped a comment, after seeing the squire ignore his previous attempts at a conversation. It seemed however the squirrel himself heard the knights talking, and decided to drop the talking for the time being. After all, he would probably be more interested in what they had to say, than Kos himself. All he could do, was speed up just a wee bit more, to catch up with the knights.

He however did hear the word vial, which got him thinking. Hopefully, he didn't manage to get some odd vial with something or the other inside from the man's pouch. Because that would be almost imposible to use. Part of him would be really disapointed his crime got no results, but he wasn't really going to complain out loud. Not with those law-keepers around.

by **Archailist** on February 13th, 2015, 8:10 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Arch was embroiled. Unfortunately it wouldn't last much longer. The knights were moving off farther into the distance, intentionally gaining ground so that they could share a little more privacy. "Might have been intentional.. distracting you while they got the stuff through to the main gates. Don't know why they were so eager.. not sure I want to find out though." Nothing else followed, though the squirrel was still locked in on deep thought. They were intentionally attacking knights.. so that they could get whatever they held to the main doors. There would be more knights there too, though. It doesn't add up. Why doesn't it add up?

More to-the-point, why did it matter. They were alive to talk and laugh another day. "Hah, back in the safety of the walls for another day. Now we don't have to worry about wolves biting our legs off while we sleep, eh'." A pretty rubbish joke, considering what they'd already gone through, but the Pycon threw it out anyway with a good-natured nudge on Clemens' cheek using one of his unnaturally-sharp elbows. "Tomorrow you get to go back to.. failing to hunt stupid rabbits with a damn halberd, hahaha." He'd not forgotten that. He doubted that he ever would. Not even the squirrel, with all his might, could hunt down a rabbit successfully. The things were just too damn fast for him to sneak up on, unless he tried to sneak through the trees far above and jump on it while it wasn't looking.

Fighting face-to-ankle was always preferable to trying his luck with the strange beings lurking beyond the walls. "Perhaps the day after that, you and I can finally try a fight or two. Fighter's Pits. Midday or afterwards. I'll be there, but if you ain't, it won't take me very long to find you." Another light-hearted joke, though a tad more serious - he wasn't going to stand around all day if the masked man was going to play chicken. That wasn't how the game was played. Then again, he needed to get some decent practice with some of his lesser-used weapons with Fist soon. Punching people and whacking them with long sticks was good enough most of the time, but it would be nice to have something to fall back on if everything turned inside-out.. like today.

Speaking of turning things inside-out. Arch's mind was pretty much doing just that as the knights disappeared altogether, passing through a thick hedge-like patch of bushes that expanded to reveal a large wooden caravan. Hooded with thick cloth and with four horses at the reigns, it looked pretty damn sturdy regardless of the arrows stuck in its sides. A human boy, barely fourteen by the looks of his face and tangled locks, was busily pulling the arrows from it and resheathing them inside a leather quiver while a small huddle of men a short distance away walked aimlessly in little circles, hands on their hilts. "About time." Apparently those left holding the caravan were eager to get moving.

Iros kept walking right past. The other knights steadily moved off, chattering and taking their new 'hostage' with them. Likely they'd see him in the Tank tomorrow, if they bothered to look. There were better places to watch now though.. like the slowly-approaching outline of Stormhold Castle in the distance.

by **Nivel** on March 3rd, 2015, 5:48 pm

Arch :

Clemens :

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Open [Bronze Woods] Looks Aren't Everything.