Tales of Ovelia: Seeds of Freedom

[Willow Pillow]

(On my phone so I apologize for short posts.)


O'Donovan gave the nod pulling two arrows out of saris quiver. He had seen her fight during their journey and knew she was a better shot than him by far. He just knew enough to survive.


Against the wall he looked through the gate and saw six soldiers. Sari would handle the ones closest...so he shot two arrows into the giant one far back one arrow missing but the other in the man's throat. There was no pause to admire his work as he drew two more arrows and fired at the other one next to the soldier gagging on his own blood. No screams. It had to be quick and done.

 

[Penelope Burns]

After watching him loose his first arrow, Sari ran into the fray, surprising the soldiers who had just watched one of their own die. Using her agility, she ducked an attack made by a man with a giant axe and rammed herself into him, nearly being thrown into the ground by his body alone. While he was disoriented Sari slashed his throat, silencing him forever.


Behind her, the other three soldiers gave up searching for the archer and charged her simultaneously. Without hesitation, Sari pulled out Damien's gun and shot the first woman charging, the bullet slamming into her face, ending her life instantly. Unphased by the death of their comrade, the other two soldiers continued to charge, the male slamming into her at full force.


The force threw her to the ground, and while she was down they didn't hesitate to aim their weapons at her throat.


Of course.

 

[Willow Pillow]

There was six. Until He shot one in the throat.


There were five, both his arrows missed that one. Not until he fired the third did he get another throat kill.


So then there was four. Three went after Sari who eliminated one with an axe. Leaving two left on those attackers. Then another. One died to a gun. Two left.


Except these two seemed to know what they were doing. O'Donovan wasn't a combat fighter. He just wasn't. He stayed his distance and always planned a better strategy than just going in blazes of glory. Except now...Damn it. He felt like growling within himself when Sari was pinned and a sword was ready to cleave her through the throat.


That soldier was shot in the eye. He let out a bellowing scream, swinging at whatever he could, but his blade had cleaved through his comrad's chest as he continued to cry out in agonizing pain.


"The one fucking thing I didn't want." He grumbled to himself rushing over to Sari. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "We have to book it. NOW." The man with an arrow in his head was swinging his sword freely like a madman....O'Donovan drew his blade and ran it through the throat then pulled out. He was serious they needed to run. Now. Didn't even give her time to dispute him, he just grabbed her arm and booked it.


She had amazingly soft skin for a shebeast warrior

 

[Penelope Burns]

Sari didn't argue when Don grabbed her arm. She didn't like it, but screams drew attention, and attention meant death. She eventually made sure he released her and led him around the city, passing buildings that could barely be called houses while trying to find somewhere defensible. After a moment she found it: A small hut about halfway between the tower and the gate. It was perfect.


She ran inside, slamming the door open as she did, and was greeted by nobody. It was completely empty. After Donovan ran inside behind her, she slammed the door shut and began laughing hysterically. How easy was that? That shouldn't have been possible, they should have died a thousand times before making into the city. But they didn't.


They were in.

 

[Willow Pillow]

O'Donovan slammed his hand over her mouth and covered it as she began laughing like a mad woman. "Are you crazy?" He whispered practically hissing. "You're going to get us killed. We were so fucking close to getting caught!"


By his mistake. Fucking....he couldn't apparently get another throat shot. Noooo, he had to shoot an arrow at the man's fucking eye. His body was sweating, but beads of it were more noticeable on his forehead. Taking a deep breath in he let his hand off her mouth exasperating a sigh. Pacing he ran both his hands through his hair. "Now we just have to...figure out the next step...."

 

[Penelope Burns]

Sari realized her mistake when he covered her mouth, and after a moment stopped. She watched him pace, his nervousness obvious. Calming him down had to be the priority. "Look, I understand your fear, but we are more than capable of handling any reinforcements that go through that door. And instead of being cornered on all sides, they will have to pour in through that door. It will be a massacre for them. After that fight, we should just take shifts and get some rest. We can figure things out first thing this morning."

 

[Willow Pillow]

"Do you understand my fear?" he retorted back. "Do you even understand the seriousness of all this bullshit?! Because from this end this is coming off like a fucking suicidal mission!"


He was more mad about his own blunder. His own mistake. The eye. He put an arrow in the eye. "And no. You're wrong. We're cornered rats. Take a little bit of gun powder," He pulled it out of his bag, "Put it in a hankerchief bag," He did so, "Throw it as you light it and you have a frikken bomb. All they have to know is where we are and just one half brained commander that's smart enough to just burn down the hiding hole instead of sending soldiers in one by one."


How the fuck was he supposed to out think all of this. All those numbers...with a widow that was grieving and had no value of her own life anymore but the cause....and him...a coward who had no god damn fucking aim.

 

[Penelope Burns]

"Now look who's yelling." Sari said, not even bothering to calm him down. "I've been with a trained military organization for years. Gunpowder is a relatively recent discovery, and it's still seen as impractical and unstable. Blowing us up would be problematic, to say the least." She lied against the wall furthest from the door, letting the relaxation flow through her. "If we die we die, if we don't, we don't. It's pretty simple."

 

[Willow Pillow]

"I am yelling in a whisper like tone!" he snapped. None of this was helping. None of this was calming him down.


If we die, we die....we live we live. This just proved his point he was traveling with a mad woman with no reguard for her life at all.


He wanted a pillow so he could scream into it. That's what he wanted. "Well I just hope maybe one day I can share your calm serenity," he sarcastically spat. But he let out a breath dropping her bow and quiver on the ground next to her. "Thanks....I guess...for letting me use these."


He leaned his back against the wall closest to the door, letting it slide until his butt hit the ground. covering his face he tried to plan and think what would be the best steps of action right now.


"Can you run through everything you know about this magistrate...if you happen to know the building lay out and the exact objectives we need to do?" he needed exact...as much detail as possible and for her to speak to him as if he was a retarded toddler so he could create a plan.

 

[Penelope Burns]

"Well first off, they are called Magisters. I don't know what the hell a magistrate is, but a MThiagister is one of the leaders of our country." Sari said, slowly. She didn't want to overwhelm his tiny brain with information, of course.


"I don't know much about the Towers, I never found a book about the inside or function of them. I can tell you that they've existed for only a few hundred years, they haven't been around for as long as magic has. Or at least, every book I've read about the Old Age never mentioned Towers." Sari slowly sped up as she was describing the history of the country, her insane interest in the topic making her almost forget the fact that Donovan was listening.


"Keval, the Magister of this section of the country, is known as the Magister of economics. His tactics and efficiency with his slave use makes his lands the richest, despite the fact that real currency has no known value in Ovelia. This lead most of the Outcasts to believe that Keval hordes most of his riches, so plans like a raid on his Tower have been around for decades." Sari continued to explain, thinking back to a day five years earlier when her own squad was almost sent on such a mission. It was cancelled due to lack of information, but the idea still had existed.


"The first target would obviously be everything gold. Gold is the most valuable, it could get you out of the country. The second is books. Whatever books we find could be insanely valuable to the right people, especially if they are about Towers." Sari didn't mention the third target, the Magister himself. Donovan didn't need to get involved with that, that was her fight.

 

[Willow Pillow]

So incredibly useful. Let me tell you! All this told him the amount of guards stationed at the tower. Their shifts. The actual lay out of the tower. All of it just incredibly useful.


O'Donovan rubbed the his forehead with his by his eyes, two on each side of his head. "You're not here for gold or for information...so lets just cut the bullshit Sari." If she had been here for gold...after losing the party their first course of action would have been recruiting.


Also a thief who knew what they were doing would plan to keep themselves out of danger and get meat shields. It seemed that way at first hiring the crew that they got but her and her husband were too into jumping into battle for glory and honor for that to be a real possibility.


Books...information. still a thieving trait. It led to other traits too, information was very powerful, and it lent you a great bargaining chip or the tools you needed to complete something. That was possible...the latter part for her...but he wasn't buying it. If that was the case she would have kept that hidden instead of holding it out like a carrot for him to hop right after.


So it was a third thing, something she wasn't sharing. He looked up at her as she laid there. "I'm not an idiot. I look like one, probably even act like one...but I'm not foolish. You have something else planned...and if we have any hope of coming out of this alive, we need to work together....as a team...on every front and every situation. You might have this whole laid back philosophical approach about life and death, but I don't want to die today. Or tomorrow. Whatever your real mission is....I need to know it."


He rubbed his head again in thought. "Do you know the entire population size of this place?"

 

[Penelope Burns]

"My mission is to make the tower burn." Sari was only half lying. That tower needed to be nothing but rubble, but that wasn't her true plan. If the Magister was there, he died, no matter what. But Donovan didn't need to know that. At best, he wouldn't trust her alone, at worst he'd offer to help her kill him. But she couldn't let that happen, it was too dangerous.


"No, I don't. It could be a few hundred, it could be thousands." She said, not offering much help. "I know that previous scout teams saw at least 3 dozen guards on the gates alone during noon. But that's the extent of practical information I have."

 

[Willow Pillow]

"Anyone ever tell you that you're a wealth of information and just a pleasure to be around? They really should."


None of this helped. Along side the fact that she was continuing to lie to him. He could burn the tower. It was made of stone, but he could get rid of it. Gun powder baggies, surround the inside lining of them with it...light that fucker, explosion, foundation crumbles and boom your tower is gone. Simple.


She wanted something else. Not an item, crazy bitch wanted an assassination. How to sneak in without any information to let you...O'Donovan stopped rubbing his head and looked up.


"You sleep. I'll take first shift."

 

[Penelope Burns]

Sari didn't argue. His sarcasm was getting on her nerves, and she needed her sleep. She was used to sleeping on the floor, but sleeping alone... That was something she had barely done since marrying Damien.


When she finally did sleep, even her dreams wouldn't let her escape memories of her friends. She dreamt of her wedding to him, the quiet, private affair saved for just the people she loved. It felt like so long ago, so terrible far away.


When she woke three hours later, she grabbed her bow and sat next to him. "My turn." She said without another word.

 

[Willow Pillow]

Those three hours, O'Donovan didn't sleep. First he waited twenty minutes, just watching her making sure she was sound asleep. And then the lunacy came out.


When she woke, she would probably kill him. He would too. The amount of variables that could go wrong with this step of idiocy were unsurmountable. She was entrusting her life in his hands as he left their small little building. But she wasn't entirely being honest with him. So Fuck It. FUCK IT TO SHIT.


Despite all that, he had complete confidence in his abiity to walk in the dark undetected. He became one with the shadows as he slipped and slinked away. He needed information, and if he couldn't get it from her...he was on a recon. Not too far...again, he was supposed to be on watch to protect her, and their hide out...


but he had more pressing matters to attend to.


There were four posts surrounding the city, the tower was guarded itself in the middle. Guarded. More guards were along the tower. There was commotion and a large amount of guards by the two posts he and Sari caused a commotion with. In the silence of the night he slipped in an alley and was able to pull one soldier in, slamming his staff (stole from a dead comrad) against the head. No screaming, just dropped like a ton of bricks. Pull him in the alley, strip him nude. Drop off armor back at hide out, scan hide out.


Repeat.


He had just slipped in folding the second set of soldier uniform he had stolen as Sari woke up. It startled him as his body tensed, caught red handed at what he had done. She didn't seem to notice...yet as she said it was her turn. "This...is for the morning..." he whispered knowing her groggy eyes would catch it and she might very well beat the shit out of him for leaving her alone....unprotected.


But it turned out all right....right?

 

[Penelope Burns]

"I'm too drowsy to kill you tonight." Sari said calmly, speaking the truth. Had it been even five minutes later she would have given him hell, and that was an understatement. She needed to know how he did what he did, but she was still far too exhausted to do anything about it.


As soon as he left her line of sight, Sari punched a wall, leaving a notable dent in it. How dare that bastard, not only did he leave her alone, he risked capture and torture, or at best execution, all for armor that they would barely need! What if the armor didn't get them into the tower? What if they were expected to know patrol routes for the city? Passing as a regular slave would have been a thousand times easier, but of course simplicity is lost on the foolish.


She sat, her bow at the ready, facing the door for the remainder of her shift, hoping someone could walk through the door so she could relieve some stress.

 

[Willow Pillow]

(You're right, being a slave would be easier.....aaaaand i didn't think of that xD )


The point was, he succeeded and did it effectively and efficiently. For now. He was exhausted. His body ached from all the walking and fighting. It didn't take long for him to drift to a dreamless sleep.

 

[Willow Pillow]

O'Donovan woke up in a cold sweat catching himself about to scream a name ... One that he had tried to forget ever existed.


It was barely sunrise but early the riser, the better chance to steal the worm. He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. Looked at his body betraying him once again before turning to see Sari by the door staring at him.


"Morning sweetheart, enjoy the view?" He winked.

 

[Penelope Burns]

About five minutes after he fell unconscious, Sari stood up, feeling the drowsiness wear off. If she were a murderer Donovan would have died at that moment of complete helplessness. But she wasn't, not to mention she still needed him around if she wanted any hope of getting into the Tower alive.


After about an hour of sitting still and staring at the door, Sari heard footsteps grow gradually louder. She tensed up and aimed her bow at the door, ready for a fight, when the footsteps continued on their way. Curiosity overtook her, and when she felt it was safe to investigate, she opened the door and snuck outside, looking for the noise.


After a minute she found the footsteps, catching up to them just in time to watch a young man open a hatch, leading where she had no idea. she felt like that was more than enough information and risk, so she headed back to their hideout, doing her best to make no noise.


Within 3 hours Donovan was awake, looking terrible. Of course, he still was in the mood to open his damn mouth and say something annoying.


"I found somewhere we may want to go today." She said, ignoring his comment. "Put on your new uniform and I'll put on mine, we're going exploring."

 

[Willow Pillow]

"So someone did go exploring last night." He said, his pride too high to realize that Now was probably the worst time to poke a stick into the bear.


He was a brilliant idiot.


Giving her a mocking salute, all meant in a friendly way to see if snaggletooth could bare a smile for once in her life "aye aye captain. Ready to serve and report."


No. Nothing. Dry crowd tonight folks. The laughs are fee and the meals are dagger like expressions.


He slipped into his uniform stripping down to his bare underpants with no regard that she was in the room. She could look. He didn't mind. Lucky for her he was a lanky son of a bitch with no set if abs what so ever. Whatever muscle it looked like he had came from his legs....a little upper arms (climbing and shit). When the uniform was on he still slung his bag over his shoulder that had his tools and other knick knacks he carried.


Taking a bow, "lead the way, my lady."


Nothing....really dry crowd tonight folks.

 

[Penelope Burns]

Sari didn't react to Donovan's antics. If he wanted to joke around, that was up to him. They had a mission to do, and that was that.


When Donovan began undressing right in front of her, Sari was disgusted. He had a fine enough body, but they were still almost strangers. Then again, they didn't have much of a choice in where to change, the hut wasn't very large.


She wanted him to turn around so she could change as well, but in reality she didn't have much of a choice. They were in a hurry, she couldn't let her unease at a creep staring at her get in the way of that.


Quickly she undressed and redressed, not giving him the chance to see more than a few seconds of her extraordinarily well toned body. As soon as the uniform was on she shoved her daggers into her boots and sheathed her husband's sword, hoping nobody would notice the slight difference in blades.


"It's a short trip, but if we run into anyone let me do the talking." Sari said, emanating a commanding air around her. Neither of them could afford to screw things up. "If they ask questions and you think we can handle them in a fight, attack. I'll follow your lead in that regard."


*****


After only a minute of walking, Sari found the hatch hidden under a strangely placed rug, making the hatch's location far too obvious. She took the lead, being the first to jump down the hatch.


Jumping before looking for a ladder could have been suicidal, had there been a long drop from the hatch. Lucky for Sari, however, there was only a drop of about 8 feet. Her feet were a bit irritated, but she wasn't hurt.


Torch after torch lead the way of the passage as far as Sari could see. Their dim lights made the passage feel gloomy, like a funeral that never ended. She was surprised they hadn't run into anybody yet, but glad no one was there to question the fact that she had so many weapons.


Sari waited a moment for Donovan, she wasn't going to continue through the cavern without him.

 

[Penelope Burns]

((Cosmiccccccccc ))

 

[Willow Pillow]

Oh, he definitely had a problem. This woman lost her husband brutally....not even twenty four hours ago, had always been rough around the edges. And by rough....you knew if you engaged conversation with her it was like poking a wild animal with a stick and waiting for the response. And yet he caught himself lingering at the curves of her body. The curves every natural woman in the world had, but hers were more defined, chisled with muscle and ware and tear....from someone that had seen a lot and was a survivor.


Women generally had soft skin, but rough....rough meant you were a survivor. Clearly he had a problem, he turned his head to maybe....control his urges of just....window shopping?


If it helped, and it clearly didn't...he didn't WANT to have this problem...not now. Not when they had their lives dangling and his partner was on a suicide mission.


--


Jumping down the hatch, O'Donovan felt the vibration from the impact hit his heels, going straight up the head. Quick, not bad....but if it had been a good 5 more feet the two of them would be in more trouble. (Benefits from....falling off walls and landing....i remember the impact so well xD i digress)


He was tempted to take a torch. An itching fear that soon they would walk down and there would be no more torches to guide them in the narrow...why did it have to be narrow....dark underground hallway.


SHe could lead the way. Shield if anything were to surprise them....He could book it too. He was fast and...he almost gulped. "Would you like me to take point?"


No...stupid...stupid...point was always first blow....but it was already said.

 

[Penelope Burns]

Sari looked back to Donovan, shocked at his outburst. Did he actually want to take point? His expression said no. But it was a moment of pure bravery from the man, a moment she had never witnessed before. "Go ahead." Sari said, ignoring his discomfort.


The cave was vast, most of it was evenly carved out, showing intricate patterns throughout it. It wasn't too long, but the door wasn't just a short walk away. The duo would be walking for a good 15 minutes, and when they reached the end they would be greeted by a wooden door, guarded by two drowsy men in guard uniforms.

 

[Willow Pillow]

Shit.


He closed his eyes and let out a breath, clearly he had been hoping she would say no. She called the bluff. (Or was it?) Ok. Time to pony up. O'Donovan took the first few steps, pivoting his body in the narrow dank hallway to lead the way down the path. He felt the urge to take the torch again, but decided not to.


He felt claustrophobic, as if the walls were closing in on him, but he continued down the way until two men half asleep at their posts. Alright then, simple easy. He was in their uniforms it was hard to make a step without a sound resulting as an effect. He picked up a torch up against the wall and muffled it out in the dirt beneath their feet.


He handed it back to Sari. You didn't have to kill these men, just knock them out, quickly and right now you could catch them off guard. He took the torch on the other side of the wall and muffed it out in the dirt.


The visual of the door and the men grew just a little bit darker, the torches that lit the way between the two that were just put out was enough to darken it. Especially if a man was nodding on and off, on the cusp of sleep, it would help them doze off more without picking up the suble difference.


Even with the heavy armor, he was able to move with barely a sound Taking the torch handle, he used it as a club and hit one of them at the nape of the neck, below the helmet to knock him out.


He just hoped he was strong enough.