Closed A knight to the rescue! (Garland)

[Morgan]

Day 49 of Fall, 515 AV,
late afternoon - early evening

The sun was low on the slowly darkening sky and it was getting colder too. A small red-haired figure was crouched by a feebly glowing fire, huddled in a worn dark cloak, rubbing her hands over the fire to warm them, her long dark red hair appeared damp. A few broken tree branches were piled up next to the fire.

This was Morgan‘s usual place to camp lately, when the bustle and the noise of the city became too much for her. It was very close to the city, so if anything happened, she could easily return to safety of the city walls. Also, the place where she was now, the Sacred Arch Hotspring, looked beautiful and there was a warm pool of water, that she could sink into, when she was too cold. She didn’t like water much and she couldn’t swim, but this was shallow enough, so she wasn’t afraid.

She stopped rubbing her hands, reached behind her and grabbed her backpack and put it on her lap. She opened it and began fishing for something inside, muttering to herself and frowning. She was in unusually bad mood today.

Morgan closed the backpack, put it aside and looked up at the sky, which was dark grey today and was getting steadily darker. She slept almost all day since the morning, because she was exploring the area surrounding the Hotspring at night in her animal form, only just after noon, rain woke her up. It came very suddenly and before she knew it, she was drenched to the bones. ‘Because I was too stupid not to sleep under some kind of a shelter. I must buy me a tent. Soon.’ She thought grouchily, slightly sour expression showing on her face. She was in no great mood to hunt today, but she was hungry, so catching something was a necessity. After the hunt, she could go back here and catch up on some sleep.

The fire was slowly dying out, there were only a few embers now, so Morgan got up, checked that she had her game knife at her belt, hooked her backpack on one shoulder and plunged deeper into the woods, still scowling.

[Garland]

It seemed that the bandits he had fought and driven off a few days ago weren't the only ones, and what he did didn't deter any other attempts from camping out in the woods.

Garland sighed and looked around the forest, it seemed that he needed to patrol the area today. It was getting darker now, but the sunset made the trees and land glow with a nice orange color, not to mention the orange leaves falling to the ground.

Today had been uneventful, and Garland liked uneventful from time to time, but of course there is uneventful and then there is completely and utterly boring. With the night soon approaching, he would be off duty and someone else would take his patrol.

It was a shame though, boring patrols were still boring patrols. A bit of action would be nice, a Yukmen attack, meeting someone new, heck! A hive of bees trying to sting him would have been a nice break from this monotony.

As he walked through the forest, he could feel someone walking a few paces away from him. He grabbed his sword and tried to sneak behind whoever was walking through the woods, whoever this person was, they were light on her feet, Garland almost didn't notice them.

As he stepped closer, he broke a branch that had fallen on the ground, making a large 'SNAP' and alerted her to Garland presence. Garland looked at the girl, the flaming red hair and brown eyes...

"Morgan!" He called out and quickly hugged the kelvic with a tight bear hug. "It's been a while now! I haven't seen you in almost a year I think! Where have you been?" He asked and let go of her. "What are you doing out here?"

[Morgan]

The forest wasn’t so dense in the area, which she was walking through right now, the trees were spread out from each other quite evenly, and there was always a wide space between each. Morgan, although she liked being able to see the sky, which was a quite nice shade of orange right now, the bad weather already forgotten, saw this as a disadvantage, because if the trees and bushes were closer to each other, she could easily slip out between them in her animal form, if some problem arose and all the green would camouflage her.

She heard rumors while she was in Syliras, that there were bandits outside these days and that people should be careful. She had some worries at first, but quickly forgot about them. She never had any problems, so why worry? Still, she treaded carefully through the forest as silently as she could.

The Kelvic was slowly returning to her normal, cheerful mood, when she heard a loud “crack” somewhere nearby, somewhere right next to her actually. It sounded like someone stepping on a branch. Either it was a person or some bigger animal. She froze on the spot, weighing her options, prepared to hide behind a tree and crouch down and her hand was reaching to her belt when someone shouted her name and before she knew it she was being hugged tightly.

“Mhmmm…” her voice muffled by the person’s body hugging her. When the person released her, she finally had a chance to look who ambushed her. Short brown hair, muscles, sword in hand…

“Garland? Is that you?” she asked incredulously, slight smile appearing on her face. Really, it was her friend, the Squire! She hadn’t met him in a year, but she would recognize him anywhere, he didn’t change much in appearance. What a place to meet!

When they last saw each other, it was during camping together for a night. She disappeared in the morning, when he was still sleeping. The reason for her decision was still unknown to her, she ran away instinctively.

She immediately answered his many questions:“I…ah…Sorry I disappeared during our last meeting, I don’t know why I did that. I hoped I would meet you someday after that, but I wasn’t lucky.” She said quietly and then looked around. “I’ve been camping at the Hotspring since yesterday evening, you know, to get a rest from the city. I got somewhat hungry and I wanted to pick some fruit or catch something, you know.” She tapped her game knife at her belt with her fingers.

“What about you? How have you been?” she looked at him with interest. She wondered if he had become a Knight already.

[Garland]

Garland smiled when Morgan, he was glad that she remembered him. He couldn't help but pat Morgan's head gently.

"I missed you, furball." He said playfully while he noogied her head. "I'm still a squire, sadly, but I can say I'm happy with my life, it has gotten a bit stagnant though."

He looked over to Morgan, she hasn't changed much over the seasons which he thought was a bit strange, since he thought Kelvics age faster. He shrugged it off and looked around. "You were hunting? Oh, I shouldn't bother you then, I'm not exactly equipped with the proper gear to hunt."

The forest seemed alive with activity, the birds were whistling, and the sounds of leaves on the wind were very calming, still he needed to tell Morgan why he's here. "A few days ago, I was out on patrol during the night, I met a friendly hunter and helped me... apprehend a few bandits, turns out that those weren't all the bandits and a few sneaked off and are causing havoc. It's obvious these guys aren't the smartest bunch, because smart people would have run off by now." He said and crossed his arms and scowled. "I don't mind patrolling, but night patrols after the afternoon patrols are just troublesome, and the annoying thing is that my patron who was suppose to be with me decided to run off, so I don't have anyone to talk to. Hmmm... Maybe I can introduce you to her if we run into her."

"Let's walk for a bit, I've brought a bit of bread to tide me over in the night, it's not a lot but you can have it." He said grinning a bit. His steel boats hit the ground hard with every step, if there was anything nearby, he would stop dead in his tracks and let Morgan do a bit of hunting, maybe help out with chasing whatever she found.

Nearby, three shadows eyed the squire and the Kelvic with a greedy evil look. They were simply watching, waiting for the right moment to strike.

"So Morgan, what have you been up too lately?" He said, trying to strike up a conversation with his furry friend.

[Morgan]

Morgan scowled a bit, when Garland patted her head, swatted his hand away gently. “Don’t do that.” she snapped a little, the foul mood returning again. Even her old friend, couldn’t quite make her laugh today. She sighed and explained what happened. “Sorry. I was rudely woken up by rain today, got soaked and I’m hungry.” She murmured.

She shook her head quickly when Garland said something about disturbing her during hunting. Now she’s done it, she insulted him by snapping at him. She put up a hand and hastily said: “No, you don’t have to go, you’re not bothering me. I’m not in the mood for hunting today anyway. I don’t know…” she looked at a loss and shrugged. She didn’t feel like doing anything today. But she had to. “I will probably just forage for fruit or nuts. Or go to the city. Maybe.”

She looked around while listening to Garland’s story about the bandits and patrolling. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t quite happy today. She nodded, understandingly. “Patrolling seems like a really boring task.” And then she perked up a little when the Squire said ‘bread’, but she shook her head and refused it. He needed it more than her. He was on duty and he couldn’t just leave to buy some food in the city, while she could, but was not willing to. 'Why do I have to be so stubborn?!'

“What I’ve been up to? Nothing much. I’ve been lazy. Going to the forest at night to explore or find food and sleep during the day. Nothing much happened.” She didn’t voice her disappointment at being free and doing what she wanted. Getting out of the orphanage wasn’t what at all easy and what she had expected. But she was not going to admit that to anyone.

The two friends began walking together through the forest, unaware of the danger in the form of three shadows lurking among the trees, so very close to them, watching their every move.

[Garland]

Garland can sense that Morgan was feeling irritated. He smiled softly and opened up his satchel, and pulled out the loaf of bread wrapped in paper. "We can split the bread, I put in some ham and cheese in there."

Garland broke the bread and handed one to Morgan with a smile. He wrapped up the bread with the paper covering and put it back into his bag. He walked with Morgan quietly.

The three shadows followed as silently as they could. One of them pulled out a blow-dart and aimed it Garland, with a deep intake of air, the shadow blew hard, sending a dart to Garland's unarmored neck.

Garland felt something plant itself in his neck and he quickly pulled it out. He drew his sword and looked at the thing that hit him. It was a small dart and by the looks of it, it was now empty. This was bad.

Garland looked behind and saw three figures walk out of the bushes, brandishing short blades and daggers. Judging from what they were wearing, he could only assume that these three were part of the group he culled a few days back.

He was feeling slow now, but he kept his stance up. One of the masked figures stepped forward and pointed his sword at Garland. "You killed our mates, we plan to return the favor. The drug we injected is called pillowsap, in a few minutes you'll be sleeping softly, and we can take pleasure in chopping you up in little bits for the beasts of the forest."

Garland stumbled feeling the effects taking root. "I'll just kill you before I head to bed then. Simple as that." Garland rushed forward, throwing a very sloppy slash, only being evaded easily. "Morgan! Run!"

[Morgan]

The gloomy mood seemed to leave the usually smiling Kelvic, if only a little. She flashed Garland a quick thankful smile, when he handed her half of his bread without hesitation. Such selflessness was admirable. She tore away a piece and tossed it into her mouth, chewing with appetite.

They walked for several moments in companionable silence, Morgan munching on the bread, Garland looking around.

Everything looked so peaceful in the forest and therefore Morgan nearly dropped the bread, when Garland gasped and pulled something from his neck. When he pulled it out, a worried look appeared on his face. Morgan went closer and saw that the thing he was holding was a small, sharp dart. Like the one you put in a tube, blow and it flies.

The Kelvic couldn’t understand the look on the Squire’s face. What happened? It was just a small dart. That couldn’t hurt him that much.

She frowned and opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, when there was a sound behind them. Morgan turned sharply and what she saw made her drop the bread to the ground. Three evil-looking men with swords and daggers were coming out from the bushes. Surely they were hidden there and they had been watching them the whole time.

Bandits!

It cost Morgan a lot of willpower not to run away and leave her friend with three enemies. One of them began talking. They came for a revenge, it seemed. And what’s more, Morgan could finally understand why Garland had looked so worried when he had pulled the dart from his neck. There was a drug in it.
Now that she knew, she glanced at her friend and she could see how slow Garland’s movements seemed. He seemed to barely hold himself up. What were they going to do?!

Garland yelled for her to run and lashed out with his sword, but he was too slow and the bandit blocked his strike easily.

The Kelvic felt as if time stopped. She was torn. She could run away and save herself. The bandits seemed to want to have revenge on Garland only. But then she wouldn’t be able look at herself again if she left him there to die. What a friend she was! Standing frozen on the spot, unable to help him.

“Sorry.” She whispered and dashed forward with a shout, aiming for one of the bandits, who was carrying a dagger, knocking into him with all her strength, hoping at least to knock him over. She didn’t stop and ran past him and away from her friend and the bandits.

The man stumbled as Morgan rammed into him, but didn’t fall. The girl's small figure couldn't do any more harm. An angry look appeared on his face. “You take care of this one. I’ll catch the girl.” He instructed his mates, turned around and ran after the Kelvic.

[Garland]

Of all the directions she could have run off too, she chose the one with the bandit standing in the way. Garland sluggishly rushed forward to try and slow down the bandit that was aiming to follow Morgan.

But in Garland barely conscious state, he couldn't reach the bandit in and instead found a knee to his face that sent him back reeling into a tree. He pushed himself to the side, barely dodging a heavy boot aimed to smash his head in.

"Pathetic." The bandit sneered and drew a blade. He lunged forward, cutting Garland on his cheek, drawing blood, slowly dripping down. Garland threw a feeble attack with his blade, but it only tapped the bandit's side, not even scratching him.

"Though it is quite impressive he's managing to even stay up as long as he can." The other bandit said with a small smirk. "It'll be fun cutting you up into little pieces and selling you in the market as 'mystery meat'. Hahaha!" The bandit held Garland's arm and started twisting it slowly and painfully.

Garland screamed, but soon just gritted his teeth to the pain, still he couldn't help feeling tired, sleepy. The adrenaline was helping him stay up for as long as he could, but his body was starting to give in.

Somewhere in the forest, Sera Catherine heard Garland's scream, but she couldn't quite pinpoint where the scream came from. Though she could heard running close by to her.

The knight ran towards the rustling leaves and saw two people running, one was wearing a dark hood and the other was a girl.

The man yelled. "Ahhhh! I'm gonna kill you! You stupid girl!"

That was all she needed to take action. She rushed forward with a blade in her hand, catching the man by surprise as her blade connected with his neck, relieving his body of the man's head.

Sera Catherine looked over to Morgan with a untrusting gaze. "Who are you, and have you seen a kid wearing full-armor around here? I heard a scream close by, but I couldn't quite pinpoint it."

[Morgan]

Morgan sprinted through the forest, not caring in which direction she was running, trying to put as much distance between the men and herself as she could. Trees were whizzing past her on both sides. She hoped that by barging into that man she managed to at least distract those bandits and give Garland a moment of surprise and a chance to strike.

Her feet and arms felt like lead, she didn’t feel at all light and agile as she had always felt while running outside. Maybe it was the guilt of leaving Garland behind that was weighing her down. Soon, she was panting and felt a painful stitch burning in her side.

But still she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Her mind was blank. The only thing she concentrated on was her survival.

A fallen tree appeared in front of her and she managed to jump over it in the last moment, falling forward in the process, only stopping the fall with her hands, that she put forward. Stumbling up back on her feet, she continued her mad dash.

After a while, she managed to sneak a look behind her. What she saw made her speed up. Or at least, she tried to, because her legs felt numb and she was almost out of breath, the stitch in her side throbbing. The bandit that she had bumped into before was running after her. He had a livid expression on his face. He shouted after her: “Ahhhh! I'm gonna kill you! You stupid girl!”

‘Petch!’ The Kelvic didn’t expect the bandit to run after her. Apparently, her “attack” angered him so much and so he took off after her, believing that two of his companions would finish the job. Small part of her cheered, because it meant that Garland had “only” two bandits to care for. Could he disable those attackers? In his normal state, Morgan was convinced that he could. But in his current condition… She didn’t know the drug that they had injected him. Morgan hoped that it wasn’t a deathly poison.

The red-head got completely thrown off when suddenly with no warning a figure of a woman in armor burst from the trees on the side, ran to the man, who was probably as surprised as Morgan was and was unable to react, and swung her sword, taking the bandit’s head.

Morgan halted in shock and watched, gasping from the effort, as the body and the severed head fell to the ground. The sight was not pretty at all. The Kelvic, although quite used to blood, felt a bit sick.

The armored woman then turned to Morgan, apparently undisturbed by what had happened, and began asking for “a kid wearing full-armor”. Hope ignited in Morgan, who finally tore her eyes away from the body on the ground.

“Y-you mean Garland?” Asked the Kelvic, eyes wide. She didn’t wait for a reply and began explaining urgently. “He’s back this way. You have to help him! We were ambushed and they did something to him...!”

Then the young woman started jogging back to the direction of the ambush, turning only briefly at the armored woman and gesturing frantically, hoping the woman would follow quickly. She didn't care whether the woman really was looking for Garland. She would do anything to get help. After a moment she turned back and began running back from where she had initially run off, hoping and uncharacteristically praying to all gods, that her friend was still alive.

[Garland]

Catherine listened to the girl intently to the strange red head. She tightened her grip on her sword and looked around, she had hoped that Garland could have handled himself, though she should have prepared for the worst.

She followed the strange girl, ready to spring into action in a moment's notice. Judging from what the girl said, it seemed that these assassins didn't seem to want to kill Garland just yet, they wanted to play with him a bit, break him, heck maybe not kill him at all and possibly just sell him as a slave.

Catherine knew there were other patrols in the woods, a few other knights but mostly squires, hopefully one of them could have heard the scream and could provide reinforcements if things get hairy.

Though she should be fine, she is a seasoned knight after all.

Garland was getting no headway in terms of fending off his attackers, he tried pushing them off, but in his weakened state, the best he could do was try to raise his sword and at least cut them in their exposed parts.

He was bloodied and bruised, his face was covered in cuts and bluish black bruises. The armor was not helping with their kicks and such aimed at his body.

They kicked him when he was down and only let him get up just to knock him down again. It was taking all his strength just to hold on to his sword, they had tried prying the blade from him, but he just held on tighter and feebly tried to push them off of him.

Catherine heard laughing, not the kind of laughter when people were having fun, enjoying a good time with family and friends, but a kind of malicious laughter, the kind of laughter one would heard in a torture room with a sadistic torturer.

She hurried now, seeing the path where the girl had ran, and then seeing figures in the distance, and someone leaning on a tree with his sword feebly held out in front of him. It was Garland, still fighting by the looks of it, and losing.

Catherine burst through the trees and attacked one of the bandits, the bandit barely dodged the attack, grazing his clothes, it didn't seem like he was wearing any type of armor.

The other bandit rush forward to Garland and quickly went behind him and grabbed him by the neck and placed a dagger firmly on the soft spot on the squire's throat.

They were holding him hostage, it seemed. Catherine gritted her teeth and eyed the two bandits with a wrathful glare.