Sunrise for the Damned [sraes]

[sraes]

Unconcerned by the hesitance in Daniel's voice, Kade stepped a dozen or so paces forward as he heard the first arrow rush through the air. A quick glance behind him showed one less man in the line coming up behind them and a quick, vicious grin swept across his face before he turned back to the four before him.



Hopefully the remaining two would be a bit more hesitant to approach after their colleague's demise, if Daniel could hold them off for long enough Kade should be able to clear the way for them.



Sword in one hand he waited just long enough for them to come within easy range and then he was off - darting forward before the four got in range with their own weapons, Kade brought his sword down in a deadly arc towards the guard on the far right carefully not telegraphing his movement.



The guards were no amateurs and, despite their surprise at the swift attack, the guard managed to get his own blade up to block in time - it wasn't enough to keep the lighter blade in his hand under the sheer force of the strike, though, and he was quickly disarmed and within Kade's reach.



Knowing backup was no more than a step away the guard quickly tried to backpedal but was grabbed and whipped around - the blade aimed at Kade's back instead caught the guard through the chest.



Shoving the dead weight forward into the second attacker, Kade's own blade darted out like a deadly serpent over top of first guard's back a cut a clean slice through the second's throat while his blade and attention were still caught on his companion. Not waiting to watch the two bodies collapse, Kade jumped to the side - narrowly missing a thrust aimed at his own throat and parrying another - to face the other two guards.

 

[Coward]

Sid tensed at the sound of slaughter behind him but managed not to turn. His breath rattled in his ears. The two remaining guards flinched back as the point of the second arrow leveled at them, but this one went wide, skittering between them off the concrete. The two glanced at each other and started running, rapidly closing. Cursing under his breath Sid nocked and drew again, backing towards the clang of swords behind him.


Focus. Forcing himself to stop he planted both feet, aimed, loosed. The left man let out a sharp exhalation, staring an an arm that was pierced clean through, just above the elbow. Holding it limp at his side he staggered forward again, now holding the saber one-handed. Sid didn't have time to be pleased - the uninjured man had broken into a flat sprint, trying to reach him before he could reload. Shit shit shit. At least aiming wasn't a problem anymore. Numb fingers found a shaft, and the saber flashed even as he let fly from a half-draw.


Choking and hunched over the arrow in his gut, the sprinting guard toppled even as finished the swing. Pain radiated from Sid's shoulder as the blade glanced off, drawing a red line down his arm. With full momentum the body barreled into him, and they both sprawled across the concrete.

 

[sraes]

Hearing the sounds of arrows flying and, occasionally, cursing behind him a ways Kade grimaced but didn't take his eyes off of his opponents - he'd just have to trust that Daniel could keep himself alive long enough for him to finish these two off.


He whipped his sword up in an impatient jab, more a provocation than an attempt to injure, and one guard on his right reacted. Blocking the quick blow brought to two to a standstill, blades locked, and the second guard took that as an opportunity to strike while Kade was preoccupied.


Seeing the twitch of movement from the corner of his eye, Kade kicked out at the first guard - sending him stumbling backwards, caught off guard - and caught the second's blade with his hand. The shock of the blow sent a sharp pain up to his elbow but the metal that coated his hand kept it from injury and, having not expected that move at all, the guard was out of the fight not a second later after a blade to the throat.


The last guard, alone and outmatched, tried to bolt but Kade caught him in the head with the flat of his blade on the back swing and knocked him out.


Panting after that fight he nonetheless immediately made for Daniel, worry on his face as he arrived in time to see the archer go down under the weight of one of the guards.


The last guard, already injured, didn't even slow Kade down.


Kade skidded to a stop beside the two bodies, gently lifting the guard up and away - not sure and not caring if he were dead or not - and immediately began probing for wounds. There was a lot of blood - mostly, he hoped, from the guard who'd been sprawled over him. "Daniel? How badly are you injured?"

 

[Coward]

Sid groaned, coughing air back into his lungs. His skull filled with ash and flames, though whether it was from smashing into the concrete or the impending hangover he was no longer sure. Kade was talking to someone, gently but firmly checking him for bloody holes. For a long moment he forgot who the hell who Daniel was, squinting in confusion. Oh, right.


"Mmf not bad," he mumbled, gesturing vaguely at his arm. Actually he wasn't sure how bad that was - for all he knew it could be missing. It hurt a fair amount, and his sleeve was sticky and warm with blood.


Now curious he tried moving it. Painful, but it seemed to be working. The fingers flexed automatically in a bow grip. Good.





"Are you alright? Did we escape yet?"


Now able to open his eyes he stared up at Kade, blue eyes narrowed. The warrior seemed mostly uninjured, or at least didn't have any injuries Sid could see in the dark. And he was standing. He let out a quiet sigh of relief.

 

[sraes]

Kade looked down at Daniel with a flicker of worry when it took him a bit to respond - how hard had he hit the ground? Did he have a concussion? - but the trace of confusion vanished as quickly as it had come and Kade followed the gesture to his arm instead.


He couldn't find anything else injured on the man, luckily, so he focused his attentions on the arm as Daniel flexed it experimentally. It seemed to be in working order at least.


Taking out a small belt knife, he opened the sleeve up a bit more around the wound and ran gently testing fingers over the area. He tried not to cause Daniel any undue pain but he also needed to know how bad the injury truly was.


"Haven't escaped yet, no, and i'm fine, nothing that won't heal in a day or so beyond my hand." He commented absently calling up a breath of his magic to hand and letting it flow into the wound beneath his fingers, cleansing it and hopefully speeding along its healing. He wouldn't waste magic truly healing it right now when he may need to magic for something bigger later, they weren't free just yet after all.


"The cut is fairly long, but it's shallow. Shouldn't give you too much trouble." Finally sitting back on his heels, he grinned down at the blonde. "Can you walk or will I need to carry you the rest of the way out?"

 

[Coward]

He let out a hard breath at that, was unreasonably relieved that Kade wasn't injured. Maybe it was because the man himself seemed to care so little, but Sid was feeling increasingly guilty about this whole thing. This kind of undeserved loyalty was making him uncomfortable. He absently decided that he'd make it up to him somehow, work for him, or whatever it was mercs needed.


His face contorted slightly as Kade's fingers ran over the cut, but, as he'd said, it wasn't too bad. Just long and bloody, not deep. If anything he looked more horrified at the next suggestion, staring up with wide eyes.


"I can walk, definitely," he said, rolling hurriedly to his feet. He even managed not to overbalance when his head spun.


The sky was lightening now - pale blue washing out the grey buildings. The lights had gone out in the windows as well, though Sid thought he could see the silhouettes of watching faces. Picking up his bow he looked it over grimacing, but it seemed unharmed. If it had been seriously damaged there was probably no-one alive who could have fixed it. In fact one of the cogs was already slightly fractured already, held together with glue and twine.


"Let's get out of this hellhole," he threw him a pained grin, following him away.

 

[sraes]

Kade had to stifle a laugh at the hasty response. "Don't worry, I don't bite unless the situation calls for it." He grinned, tone betraying his amusement even as he too stood up and looked out over their impromptu battlefield: several dead or incapacitated bodies strewn out over the ground, red blood stark against the grey concrete, and probably a dozen or more witnesses.


It was an unfortunate waste of life.


It would draw a lot of attention but he doubted that it would extend beyond the borders of the Inner Kingdom; they were too insular to share and the Outer Kingdoms were too busy surviving to care about fugitives anyways. It was a good thing they were on their way out - he just hoped Serna and Vox made it back to Neir alright on their own.


Taking a moment to clean his blade as thoroughly as he could manage in such a short time, Kade nodded his agreement as they headed off in the direction they'd been going. It was long past time they left - if they stuck around much longer they were liable to come across even more guards and honestly not even Kade could keep up this pace indefinitely.


They needed to rest and regroup, but they couldn't do that until they were well clear of the city. "You're right, let's go. Once we've put some distance between us and this place we'll clean and bind that cut of yours too."

 

[Coward]

He nodded, gave a wan smile. The cut would keep. Looking down he was actually impressed with how much worse it looked than it was - shoulder to elbow, a long rake still seeping blood. Before they left Sid turned over the gutshot soldier with the toe of his boot, but found that his arrow had snapped in half under the impact of the fall. Great. Reaching back he touched fletching, counting four arrows left, grimacing.


No time to check the others, he started picking his way over the sprawled bodies. The grey pre-dawn light on the contorted limbs was eerie, as were the dead eyes behind the white masks. Hired sword, no-one important. Sid didn't know a lot of sellswords, but he didn't think most could have taken four armed men at once.


"Listen," he said suddenly, as they walked, "I - Thanks for doing... that."


Gestured vaguely back at the city, voice raw.


"You don't even know me, so. Thank you."


He gave Kade a brief glance, went back to watching his feet. He was walking a straight line now, but the muddy feeling in his mouth and the splinters behind his eyeballs told him he was in for an unpleasant day ahead. Well, nothing more than he deserved. Red light spilled over the horizon as they walked, and slowly the buildings around them were replaced by hills of rubble, interspersed with small fields of wheat, scrubby bushes.

 

[sraes]

Sparing a surprised look Daniel's way, Kade clambered agilely over a broken jut of concrete.


"There's no need to thank me; you needed help, I gave it." He stated, keeping an eye on the blonde for a moment to make sure he was steady enough on his feet. It seemed the worst of the alcohol had been burned off and he wasn't suffering too badly from the fall so he went back to picking his way through the rubble strewn streets winding towards the city border.


The borderlands surrounding the city soon came into view beyond the edge of the last standing buildings, their brothers lay entirely broken along the ground in great heaps. The buildings behind them would eventually join these, no longer stable enough stand the test of time, but for now that towering sentinels marked the end of the city and Kade breathed a sigh of relief at having made it past them.


The city guard would probably not venture further out than this. The chimeras he was less sure about.


They'd left through the eastern edge of the city and would continue that direction for a while yet - distance being a bigger priority than their ultimate destination for the time being - but eventually they would have to decide what their next move was going to be. Kade mostly was just considering where they could get traveling supplies to replace those he'd had to leave behind in their flight from the city, but Daniel had mentioned heading to Roke back in the tavern.

 

[Coward]

"Alright..."


Kade didn't seem to realise how bizarre this response was, so Sid only winced, kept walking for a moment in silence. Turning a blind eye was the cost of survival, and Sid had no idea how the warrior could avoid paying it. In fact, if the tables had been turned and Kade had been the one with a saber at his throat he wasn't even sure he would have helped. That thought was rough, lying in his gut like an iron ball.


"I'm not a traitor," he said eventually, eyes narrowed, "The god-king decided my family were enemies of the Kingdom."


He kicked a piece of old-world trash ahead of him through the dust, a plastic bottle too crumpled and holed to be worth collecting. His fingers closed too tight on the grip of the bow, but he didn't notice. He was squinting against he spears of gold light jutting over the horizon.


"I don't even know why," he seemed to think of something, let out a harsh laugh. "If you try to assassinate the king after he tries to kill you, that doesn't make you a traitor, does it?"

 

[sraes]

Alright. Kade smiled slightly at the bafflement in the word but was content to continue on as they were - he knew his views of the world were vastly different from most everyone else, that they were impractical at times and downright suicidal at others; they made sense to him, though, and they were what he had lived his life by all these years, he could no more give them up then he could cut off his sword hand.


He was long past trying to explain his reasoning to others, though, as few cared enough to ask and even fewer agreed.


The silence of the trek was eventually interrupted by Daniel and Kade glanced over with undisguised curiosity at his fierce statement. He was angry, tense - judging by the white-knuckled grip he had on his weapon - but he was still talking.


Kade felt a jolt of pleasure that the man had decided to trust him with this knowledge, but quickly stifled his smile. It didn't feel appropriate given the subject matter at hand.


"If Ysanus was just another man probably not, but as king he wouldn't be able to see it like that. Any sign of defiance would have to be severely punished or how could he be viewed as a 'god' when a mere mortal so easily went against him?"

 

[Coward]

Sid grinned at this, an expression that didn't reach his eyes.


"I suppose you're right. Gods play by different rules than the rest of us, otherwise what would be the point of being one? Actually I'm an apostate as well as a traitor, now that I think about it."


That was a strange thought, actually. Up until a few years ago Sid had believed in Ysanus' godhood just as much as any other good citizen. He still wasn't sure that the king wasn't one, in fact, though most people in the Outer Kingdom didn't buy it. How else could he have so much power? The bottle was stuck under a piece of rubble, so he bent to fish it out, absently examining the faded label - loopy white on red. It's script could have revealed the secrets of the ancients for all he knew. After a second he threw it back over his shoulder.


"You said there was another way to kill him, do you know how?"


He tried and failed to keep the sudden desperation out of his voice, staring fixedly ahead. They were making good progress - the country was getting slowly worse. Soon they'd have to worry about the wild cousins of the city chimera, and worse things, but for now they were still in a kind of neutral zone between territories.

 

[sraes]

"An apostate too?" Kade grinned, a quick flicker of amusement. "We'll make an Outer Kingdom man of you yet."


Like most of his people, Kade had never bought into Ysanus' godly reputation - if he was so all powerful why would he leave them and all their land out to rot along the edges of the irradiated wastes? If he really was a god he was a shitty one and the Outer Kingdom people had too many issues to deal with of their own to fruitlessly worship at an altar that cast them aside so easily.


Personally Kade suspected he was just a man - powerful in his magic, he'd felt that much from the rooftop the night before - but a man like any other.


He supposed that the growing up in the Inner Kingdom might make it a bit harder to dismiss the notion while under Ysanus' constant watch, though. He didn't care if the Outer Kingdoms believed in him - they were of no influence to his reign, too busy struggling just to survive to threaten him - but that wouldn't be the case for those in his seat of power.


"No," he responded quietly, hearing the desperation in the mans voice but unable to give a solid answer. "No man - god-king or no - is invincible though. We'll find a way if that's truly what you want." He didn't even hesitate to include himself in the plans; Kade had no love for Ysanus and someone would have to keep Daniel from simply rushing in where angels feared to tread and getting himself killed.

 

[Coward]

He laughed at that, a real laugh, but stopped quickly as the sound rang in his ears. Wincing he rubbed at his face, scraping off some of the sweat and caked blood.


At the answer to his question he only grimaced. He hadn't really expected anything more, but still the air seeped slowly out of his lungs as the vague hope faded. Then something about what he'd said sunk in. We. Abruptly he turned, staring at the other's face with hard eyes.


"No, Kade, not you. It's not your problem."


He was aware of how harsh his voice sounded but couldn't stop. His shoulders tensed, sending a ray of pain down his wounded arm.


"I'll follow you until I think of a better plan, and then we can part ways."


Cursing under his breath he stalked on ahead, unsure of the source or direction of his anger. Logically he should want Kade's help - they man was obviously extremely competent, but he couldn't stomach any more. The rising heat of the day seeped into his throbbing skull.

 

[sraes]

Kade met the grim kook with a neutral expression of his own, letting Daniel speak his piece then stomp off ahead and carefully tucked away the objections he wished to voice for another time.


The archer was wrong that this was not his problem, not his fight. If anything it might be his more than the other mans. Daniels family had been wrongfully accused and, supposedly, executed if he understood correctly and Kade truly felt for his loss. Losing your loved ones was never easy and he understood why the man would want to exact vengeance on Ysanus. Kade didn't want vengeance, though, and helping Daniel was only part of the reason behind his offer of assistance.


What Kade wanted was change.


Since Ysanus wrested power over these lands, too many people had suffered and starved. Kade had witnessed deaths as long as he'd lived and his family, his town, his people had had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap they had while those in their 'kings' power were infinitely better off.


It was wrong and Kade wanted change.


He could tell that Daniel considered the matter closed, though, so he said nothing. A warm smile crossed his face as he kept an eye on the man ahead of him. He was patient and he had the time to convince him otherwise.

 

[Coward]

If he'd expected some sort of reaction he was disappointed, and slowly his anger faded under the numbing force of the hangover. The brilliance of the sun was agonising now, and his tongue had turned to sandpaper. The cut had stopped seeping, but dried blood had welded his sleeve to his arm - it was deep red from shoulder to wrist. They tramped on in silence while he thought, mulling over the narrow escape, the shot he should have taken the day before. Kade had been right, of course. There was probably no way he could have hit the god-king, not with his magic. And those people would have died for nothing. Why am I such a moron?


Around them farmland turned to low scrub, then a kind of crawling, towering forest filled with the drone of insects. The plants grew less recognisable, impure by Inner Kingdom standards. Sagging, limp trees curled around and climbed each other in their search for light, bracketed by waist high black grass. Somewhere close a creek was running, and Sid perked up. He hadn't realised how desperately thirsty he was.


After a moment of embarassed hesitation he turned around and gave Kade a half-smile, slightly apologetic. A hand went up to scratch the back of his head.


"What do you think, too soon to stop?"

 

[sraes]

Kade let Daniel set the pace, following along silently and letting the man stew in his churning thoughts as they traveled. They were making fairly good progress - steadily making their way out of sight of even the tallest building left in the God-King's city - and the sun was arcing up into the sky.


He was comfortable, despite the heat of the day, and fairly used to marching about for hours on end so he wasn't overly bothered by the constant walking.


He caught himself humming under his breath a few times and, after a moment, was amused to place the song as one Serna had been singing the night before.


He couldn't tell how Daniel was holding up - unsure just how much travel of this sort the man was used to on top of being hungover and injured - so he kept an eye on him as they walked but otherwise kept alert for any signs of danger. This far from the Wastes there shouldn't be anything too incredibly dangerous but it never hurt to be cautious.


When the archer abruptly turned around, Kade acknowledged the apologetic look with a slightly amused smile. Hearing the water as well - and thinking of the wound still unbound on the man's arm - he nodded slightly. "I think we've gone far enough for now, a break would be welcome."


Pausing for a second to listen he turned and ventured further into the trees where the sound was louder.

 

[Coward]

His smile widened briefly before he looked away again, following through the gnarled scrub. In some places it was possible to step over a trunk coiled snakelike along the ground, but in other they detoured around knots of dense wood.


Finally they found the creek - a deep groove in the forest floor almost invisible from a distance. Sid forced himself to examine it, noting the clear, fast water, the stone bottom. It was as good as they could expect, so he knelt and unceremoniously dunked his whole head, coming up gasping. The water was actually cold - maybe it was an groundspring rather than a river feeder. Moving more hesitantly now he started washing away the blood from his arm, erupting curls of red that quickly whipped away downstream. The cold stung on the cut, but quickly became pleasurably numbing. Blue eyes fixed briefly on Kade's face.


"Do you still want to go to Lyaeth? I'll come with you... I swear I'm not actually as bad a shot as I was last night."


Looked down again. Sid still hadn't told Kade about the plan to repay him - wasn't even sure how to bring it up. In fact Kade himself probably wouldn't want him to try, now that he thought of it. No need to thank him, sure. He smiled to himself, shook his head slightly.

 

[sraes]

They wove through the underbrush for several minutes but the creek was fairly easy to find, the sound of the running water was as good as a map through the trees. The water looked clear and clean when they reached it and Kade couldn't detect any unexpected levels of radiation - the vegetation around it looked healthy and normal for this area - so he had no misgivings about following Daniel's lead and drinking his fill.


The water was refreshing after a long day of walking in the sun and an even longer night of running and violence.


Once satisfied, he glanced over to where Daniel was cleaning off his wound and met the archer's look. "It's still the only plan I have at the moment, so yes. And since you managed to take out a few people even while blind drunk last night, I'll believe you." There was laughter in his eyes at the mention even as he moved closer to inspect the wound more carefully.


"I think we'll need to cut off that sleeve and use it to bind the wound - we don't really have much else in the way of supplies right now and we don't want it to get infected. Should probably get as clean as possible while we can too."


Kade scouted around as he was talking until his found a jet of rock sticking out into the water that blocked the worst of the current on one side; it would do for a washing rock to get the worst of the blood and ichor out of their - mostly his - clothes. The water was cold but the sun would dry it all quickly enough once they were clean.

 

[Coward]

He laughed at this, debating whether to tell Kade that the people he hit were not the ones he'd been aiming at. May as well keep that one to myself. Looking down at the wound he nodded, though grimacing slightly at the loss of the sleeve. There may not have been much of it left, but this was the only clothing he had.


"Fair enough."


Reflexively he groped at his leg for the hilt of his knife, before remembering it was still on the floor of the tavern where he'd dropped it. With a sigh he reached up instead, tearing at the already worn seam until it split. Then he had to almost peel the sleeve off like a second skin, it was so welded to the wound beneath. As fresh blood erupted he swore under his breath, dunking his arm back in the clear water.


"I can't even dodge a dead man," he muttered, watching as red wisped away from his pale arm under the surface. "So, what's the job there?"


After setting down his bow and quiver he peeled off the remainder of the shirt, scrubbing some of the crusted blood off his chest.

 

[sraes]

Seeing the grimace and guessing the cause Kade though longingly of the decently stocked injury kit he had in his supplies back in the room he'd rented in the city - he'd had clean bandages, needle and silk thread, and several other odds and ends he'd gathered.


It would be a pain to replace it all but it was invaluable at times like this. He wished he'd had the time to retrieve it, but nothing could be done about that now.


He watched Daniel rip the sleeve off, wincing in sympathy as the cloth tore free of the wound, then plucked the unattached sleeve from him as he submerged his arm, taking the discarded shirt as well a moment later. He settled next to the jutting rock a few feet away and stuck the sleeve under the water for a moment, then went to work scrubbing out the worst of the mess from it before answering.


"I'm not completely sure - I heard it was an acquisition job, probably a supply run. If it's not too dangerous someone will probably already have signed on, there may be no jobs there at all but it's a place to start at least." Wadding the cloth on the rock he kept his hands working it clean with as much magic as muscle - it was something he'd grown used to doing on the road, magic getting the stains out much easier than force alone.


After a final rinse he set the cloth on top of the rock to dry a bit and repeated the process with the shirt, then - after setting his weapons and small pack aside and stripping down himself - did the same to his own clothing.

 

[Coward]

He murmured thanks, not even protesting Kade doing his laundry for him. His head hurt too much. He only watched out of the corner of his eye as he stripped, noting the metal scrawling across his body. Eventually he realised he was staring and looked down again, self conscious.


The mutation was an interesting one - most involved contortions of flesh, not some other element. He wondered briefly what it was like to touch something with the metal hand, whether it felt the same as normal skin.


"Sounds alright," he said, though all this merc talk didn't mean too much to him.


Does acquisition mean stealing something? Under the water he watched the weird bending and wavering of his arm, using his free hand to scrub the blood from his skin. Eventually it was as clean as it was going to get, so he sighed, climbed dripping back onto the bank.


"I'll level with you, I know nothing about this stuff. I'll follow you wherever, so just tell me what to shoot."


He flashed him a brief smile, scratching the back of his head.

 

[sraes]

Now that the clothes were clean and drying, Kade took a moment to inspect his sword. He'd cleaned it as best he could after the fights the night before but it had been rushed and cursory at best.


By necessity, but that didn't mean he had to like it - a warrior had to care for his weapon if he wanted it to last.


There was no noticeable damage, as he tried to keep from too many blade to blade hits, but blood had dried on it so he set about cleaning it off more thoroughly. He felt Daniel's eyes on him after a moment.


Fighting back an amused expression, he kept his focus on the blade and let the man look his fill - he had an idea of where his attention was, the metal was unusual enough to draw attention at the best of times and the old scars and new bruises littering the skin in between could draw a second look all their own.


Feeling the attention shift away, Kade lay the blade down - now satisfactorily clean - near the bank of the creek within easy reach and braced himself for a shock of cold before plunging into the water on the leeward side of the washing rock.


Even prepared the rush of cold left him gasping for a moment after he broke the surface. "Fuck," he growled out before giving himself a rough shake and working to scrub the blood, dirt, ichor, and general grime from his body as quickly as possible while he talked. "Sorry, sometimes I forget not everyone if a merc. Usually an acquisition job is just being sent out to fetch something for someone - usually materials from an Old World cache the person had found or something."

 

[Coward]

He snorted at the reaction the water, trying not to watch as the accumulated filth of a night of fighting men and chimera flowed off Kade's dark skin. It was hard not to notice the bruises, now that he was clean, but it was a relief to see none were too bad.


"Right. What do you do if someone else is trying to... acquire it at the same time?" raised his eyebrows, though he could already guess the answer.


Absently he started tugging at a bush next to them, which had narrow branches of a decent length. He wasn't well supplied for making new arrows at the moment, but it didn't hurt to look. In the quiver bottom he had a few good barbed heads, and a couple of lousy ones he'd made himself from scrap. Although he'd have to borrow Kade's knife for it if he wanted to achieve anything. Carefully he snapped off a couple of good branches, then, with nowhere else to put them, stuck them in his quiver next to the four sad fletched tails. If worst came to worst he could technically fire a sharpened stick, but it wouldn't be pretty. That was roughly a drunk-shooting level tactic.


Now thinking about how good an ale would be to solve the problems of the last ale, he gulped some more water from the creek, scrubbing the last of the guard's blood from his hair at the same time.

 

[sraes]

"Are you trying to imply something there?" Kade laughed, the sound ringing across the water. "Honestly most of the time we'll just split the cache - we're not barbarians. Well, not all of us at least. Sometimes it comes to a fight - especially if Wastelanders are involved - but not as often as you'd think."


Scrubbed down and feeling better for the quick dip, cold as it was, Kade quickly clambered back out of the water and ran his hands over his skin in quick passes - both to slough off some of the water and to take stock of his injuries.


Most of the bruises he'd felt coming up, though there were a few he didn't remember getting, but the majority were too small to cause any grief. The only particularly nasty one was the dark, slightly abraded one spanning his left shoulder from busting the tavern door down. Even that was fairly harmless though it ached when he worked the shoulder.


His hand - the metal one - also had a long scratch down the palm from the sword strike he'd blocked, but while he could touch and even feel pain from the organic metal, the sensation was muted and the cut felt no worse then his bruised shoulder.


Pleased that he'd come out so lightly, he ventured back over to their clothes: still wet, but the disconnected sleeve was dry enough to work with. His knife made quick work of the fabric, cutting a large portion off for padding and several smaller strips to hold it all together. "You ready to bind that arm up?"