Waldron and Emmalia IC

The mercenaries slugged through the forest at a slower pace, most of them out of breath at this point. One of the lead men, a man armed with a long axe and a long green coat thrown over his armor peered into the misty woods "Can't see shit..." He mumbled. Another man, armed with a crossbow stopped when he heard the other's frustration and looked back into the column "Sir! We lost 'em, what now?" A figure adorned in black armor with a pointed black helmet along with black dragon horns spiraling out of it and many other sections of the upper armor stepped out of the shade of a tree. The various trinkets he wore jingled almost gleefully as he stepped forward "Welp. One of them is in full plate, so the fact that we managed to lose him astonishes me. And the other is apparently a vampire, and vampire's pay good money, lads. Something the 'Ash Hand' hasn't gotten for a while. So, the way I see it, we take that one fuckers armor and sell it because that is probably worth a fortune, or we kill the vampire. Hell, maybe both." He shrugged with his two open hands, having a large curved sword across his belt and a shield on his back, he clearly wasn't from around here. Or maybe he had traveled so much and gathered so much that that was what gave him his extremely taboo appearance
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"So...What do you suggest we do..Sir?" The oddly armored man leaned on a tree towards the field, thinking "Standard routine, grab the rest of the men and encircle the town and it's surrounding area, someone with armor that unique and imposing doesn't just fucking disappear."
 

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Emmalia and Waldron had heard the entire thing. They could even see the mercenaries, too. But as she had said before, they couldn't move at all, they couldn't speak to each other, they just had to wait. They had to wait a long time in fact, as a few men were left to patrol the area in case Waldron and Emmalia circled back. Emmalia actually began falling asleep on the dirt, they waited so long before the men were dismissed and only one man was left to patrol the entire stretch of road. So between the few and far-between patrols that were sent to backtrack that far, Waldron and Emmalia crawled to the worn old farm house. They didn't dare to stand, as they could easily be caught by anyone within a reasonable distance.

Emmalia was the one, being smaller, to creep out and open the barn doors. They were old and heavy and creaky, but they hid nothing but an empty barn and some old hay bales. The farm house was a bit of a walk that she wasn't willing to risk - if it was still occupied and the barn had merely been allowed to dilapidate, they might end up in dire straights. She cleared the place out relatively well and hung up her glowing crystal so Waldron could see, as it was dark in the barn, and getting late in the day. Then she signaled Waldron that everything was safe.

Once both were inside, Emmalia sat down on a hay bale. "You should remove your armor and hide it. If they come here and find us, with your armor, we're screwed. We need to plan, and we can stay here tonight." She looked around and shook her head. "Sorry I dragged you into this."
 
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Waldron sighed, looking out the doors for a brief moment before removing his helmet, taking a deep breath. "Their commander's voice...It sounded familiar, damned if I remembered where I heard it...But i've heard it before." He walked over to a fairly large hay bale, beginning to dismantle his fairly large armor.after setting his sword down against a support beam. "Y'know Emmalia, you sure do apologize for this a whole lot." He removed his chest plate, looking at it "When in reality, if I didn't want to be here, why would I still be here? This may seem strange, but I enjoy adventuring, and this whole conundrum is just another step in, well, adventuring." He looked up at her, as he took off a shoulder plate.
 
"Yes, well, in this whole conundrum, our odds just shifted. I don't like the sounds of that 'Ash hand' group. I don't think they'll take our escape lightly. And besides..." Emmalia shook her head a little and took off her pack. "As much as I behaved like a heartless bitch for the majority of the time we've known each other, I'm sure you've figured out that I'm not." Her idea was that by being cold and rude, nobody would grow attached to her and miss her when she inevitably moved on. So far, it had worked well. Now the situation had changed, though. Her fever was still annoying her, but it wasn't as bad as the day before. Soon, though, she would need to feed. So far she had survived off hunting for the both of them and draining the animals before bringing them back, and the wyvern had kept her fed for a while, but with her body healing she needed more.
 
"Well, how long do you think we can avoid these mercenaries? I mean, we killed a wyvern and a pack of lycanthropes. Avoiding, well, normal men can't be so hard compared to what we've done." Waldron felt odd saying this, as he was also one of those 'normal men', just subject to unusual circumstances. He sighed, standing up again and pushing the door open just a bit to show that the mercenary team had left the area, obviously thinking that the two had gone past the farm. Waldron crossed his arms, thinking "I doubt this is the last line of them, if we want to get past we'll have to fight or sneak at some point. Any idea what lies between us and them geographically besides...Well. More forest?" Waldron started pacing in his normal outfit, his sword wrapped in basic cloth. "Or we could try to get back into the town to get back to work...The mercenaries probably don't know our faces, or at least mine." He shrugged.
 
"There's a lot of them, though, and they've poisoned people against us." Emmalia sighed and shrugged. "To take them down, one by one, I could do that, with time. But I don't think that's the best idea for us. Let's think, though. Neither of us know the area. The next village will already be biased against any adventurers at all - they'll assume they're us. They won't trust anyone. Hell, the mercenary group might even be checking amongst any visitors for vampirism. We're not welcome there for a job." Where else was there to go? It seemed like there wasn't anywhere else. They had no map... but maybe they could get one. "The towns behind us and ahead of us are against any newcomers at all. The town behind us knows my face and your voice The town ahead doesn't. We could go ahead in disguises and get a map. I have a dress in my bag, I can put my hair up with some pearl pins, they wouldn't suspect me. Your clothing is odd, it's neither wool nor cotton, we could pose as merchants who got lost. Then we'd know what's North, West, or East of the town. It's a place to start."
 
Waldron thought as she spoke, what she said was probable and viable. "Well, are we going to start trekking now or?" He stood up, opening the door again and walking outside, surveying the surrounding area to see exactly how they were going to get to the next town. Her plan made sense, pose as simple lost merchants, get a map, and then get to exactly where the hell they needed to go. His armor was hidden, for now, and hopefully until he could get back to it, it would stay that way. "Ah fuck it, i'll probably need to toss the sword too." He set down his massive sword, wrapped up, near his stashed armor. He took another swig from the small canteen he had. "Welp, you're the one with this genius plan to get a...a fucking map- wait couldn't we just search the farm house?" He pointed to the building a few hundred meters away, that looked relatively empty and quiet.
 
Emmalia paused and looked out at the farm house. "Do you think it's deserted? I mean I don't know if anyone random would simply have a map lying around their house, but we could check." If someone had merely left, they probably would have taken a map with them. But perhaps it was worth taking a look.

Together they crept to the farm house. It seemed unoccupied for the most part, so Emmalia went by the way of the front door. Inside, two of the mercenaries were looting the house. Both turned to look at the pair. Knowing that Waldron was unarmed, Emmalia took her shortsword and handed it back to him. Immediately after this, the shock wore off of the mercenaries, who now rushed toward the two. To prevent them from running and telling others, Emmalia rushed in and threw herself on one of the mercs, who had a sword. The other had a mace and was focused on Waldron.
 
Waldron sidestepped into a swing from the mace, blocking it with the shortsword and allowing him to get close enough to slam into him, throwing him into a nearby wall. He used a shortsword once, but it was a damn long time ago. He twirled the blade, allowing the familiarity to set in as the mercenary recovered from the toss and swung downward. Waldron, not having heavy armor this time, dodged the blow and sweeped around the man, driving the blade into the mans side and yanking it out, before also yanking the mace out of his hand and delivering a swift headbutt to the side of the man's head, leaving him sprawled on the floor, yet not dead. He then looked over at Emmalia's fight, sure as hell she would've had an easier time than him, she wasn't the one fighting completely out of the norm.
 
Emmalia's fight was much simpler. While the man was down, she merely gained the upper hand and clawed his throat out with her gauntlet. In her style of fighting, all she needed was to get close to the person. And on top of them was more than close enough. With her enemy dealt with, Emmalia moved off of him and stood up. The scent of blood was nearly overwhelming to her, since she was very hungry.

The mercenary facing Waldron took his chance and grabbed onto Waldron's leg and pulled him down.
 
Waldron, having thought his enemy defeated, completely fell for the grab and hit the ground hard, slamming his head on a table along the way. As he actually hit the ground, he slammed his boot into the mans nose and stood up, stabbing the blade down onto his chest. This time he evaluated, making sure the man wouldn't move anymore and attack him again. After he was sure, he yanked the blade out and tossed it to Emmalia. He held his head with his right hand for a few moments before bringing it back down to observe blood. "Ah hell...Well if this place really is abandoned then I don't think anyone will mind me taking something to help with this god damn headache. Gotta be some herbs or medicine in here, this place doesn't look that old and decrepit."
 
Emmalia had merely been able to watch the scuffle; there'd been no time to react. Not that it mattered much, since in the end he was more-or-less okay. Her mind was a bit preoccupied with the smell of human blood for her to really be able to focus much anyway. "I have some bandages and herbs in my pack, but we may as well look around here. I'll search these guys too. They won't be needing their belongings anymore, after all."

Their search comes up with a few basic potions - one of invisibility, one of minor healing, and one of water breathing - as well as nonperishable foods. Emmalia's search of the corpses gives them both a little spending money and little else. Finished with the house, they head back to their setup in the barn.
 
Waldron looked at his bloody hand, then at the bodies behind him. "Shit, if this group is anything like a normal military unit they'll be expecting these guys back soon. Although we don't know if they told the others where they were going...Which could be a bit of a problem." Waldron followed back into the barn, grabbing some bandages from his own pack and tying them around his head, and sitting down, pondering the moment "We have to go into town, although the mercenaries will be damn sure to ask questions if they see either of us. We'll have to be quick on finding a map, which actually may be harder than it seems...:
 
"Look, if we hide our stuff well, they'll assume we just ran. Maybe they'll even move on." She shifted on her feet a bit, then said, "With those bandages on your head... it might be suspicious to go into town. If we can get the bleeding to stop, we can remove the bandages and put them back on after." The bleeding might take a while to stop, though. Which only reminded her, "I need to hunt."

She looked up at him and made eye contact. He was bleeding and she was starving. He ought to understand. "I'll only be a few minutes...." There was a supply of fresh blood next door, but she didn't drink human blood, no matter how terribly tempting it was. Which meant she'd have to hunt.
 
Waldron leaned back, nodding, he took another swing from the canteen he had "I can hold my own even with this wound. You... take care of yourself. I'll treat the wound with whatever I have lying around, won't be too bad." He assured her it wouldn't be hard to take care of his head, but he was already feeling off and dizzy. Of course he wouldn't tell her this, and he just slumped against a hay bale to rest, seeing that as the best way to start recovering.

Meanwhile, in the mercenary camp, set up in the heart of the forest, it was relatively empty, except for the captain, a few of his men, and a stranger. The black armored man slumped against a tree, listening to incessant bickering from his 'payer', a man in white robes with a golden engraved mask, "I payed you to slay a vampire, and you tell me you have nothing!?" The mercenary captain raised his finger "You, specifically, did not pay me jack shit. You told me there was a vampire accompanied by a man in black armor and that vampire heads pay well. So, in hindsight, you just gave me information." He looked over at the robed man, he was accompanied by two guards wearing similar robes, armed with short-swords. The lead man sighed, crossing his arms "Odrek, do you understand the gravity of this situation, there is a bloodthirsty killer on the loose accompanied by a highly trained warrior. And here you sit around with one of the most numerous mercenary companies in the region, doing nothing! With the magic i've been using, it's not hard to sense that they're close, one is a damn vampire, and the other's armor...It radiates death magic, so it shouldn't be hard to find these two individuals with a company your damned size" Odrek sighed, looking at a small flask in his hands. "You want results? Fine, i'll give you fucking results." He stood up, waving the cloaked man off, who seemed to disappear rather rapidly in a flash of light. He then walked over to one of his men, handing him the flask, and he leaned in close. "Scorch the woods with whatever remaining gunpowder we have and question everyone you see. The soldiers and the duke, or whoever owns this land, won't stop us and don't let them intimidate you. We have to smoke these two out and force them onto our playing field." The soldier nodded, and the mercenary camp began packing up, as this area was about to go to hell in a few moments.
 
Before leaving, Emmalia gave Waldron what herbs and salves she had, and promised to return soon. The forest was quiet for the most part, and she was too. Animals couldn't run away when they didn't know she was approaching. But for some reason, all she could find was a small squirrel. In her desperation, she was willing to shoot it with a bolt from her crossbow, but she knew that the tiny creature wouldn't be near enough to sate her.

She had just finished draining the squirrel when she smelled a fire. Curious, and expecting a campfire, she approached. There was that acrid smell again. Now, though, she knew it as gunpowder. It became clear when she saw that it wasn't a camlfire, but a part of the forest ablaze. They were being smoked out.

Immediately Emmalia ran as fast as she could back to the barn, returning to Waldron a half hour after she'd left. Starving or not they needed to leave. "Waldron, the forest's on fire and I smelled gunpowder. They must have set it. We need to go, now."
 
"Oh, why don't you stay? We just want to have a chat." Odrek rounded the corner, a dagger around Waldron's throat, backed up by 4 more mercenaries armed with halberds, two more followed Emmalia in, armed with swords and round shields. Waldron was grumbling and trying to shove out of the mans grasp, but he just snickered "Vampire, you didn't tell me you had my long lost best friend in your possession! Me and him have a lot of catching up to do!" Waldron looked down at the floor with a sudden realization. This was his sergeant...Or was. "Odrek... How did you.." The black armored man tightened his grip "We'll save the talk for later, old friend." Two of the soldiers armed with halberds grabbed Waldron's gear, going out the backdoor with it, away from the fire.
"Anyhow, vampire, you're in a bad situation, aren't you?" Odrek didn't want to kill Waldron...now, at least. He had questions for him and he needed to get back at him, of course if this vampire did make a move, He could just speed past the revenge and kill him now, although that wasn't his plan.
 
Emmalia looked around for a few seconds and thought. Her expression was completely impassive - she wasn't yet sure how she ought to act this off. Evidently, he had plans for Waldron. But that didnt mean he wasnt expendable, relatively. At the moment she figured it was just easiest to go along with it and try to prove herself worth more alive than dead.

"Odrek, is it? I've been in worse, I'm afraid. I could play around, say I'm not a vampire. I could rip out the throat of the men behind me and run before you knew what had happened - their steel swords won't hurt me. But let's be rational about all this. I'm more valuable to you alive than dead. You take your knife away from his throat and I'll explain." She remembered hearing him say that their group needed money. If he was smart, he'd listen. Because she wasn't lying.
 
He tightened his grip on his knife "You think I'd let you get the high ground in this? Explain yourself now, then I might lower my blade." Odrek wasn't about to let her speak him into lowering his defenses before she even did anything, it would give her the upper hand, something he'd rather not have with a vampire. Odrek became suspicious of the vampire, what would she say that could possibly make it worth not killing her? Besides, these damn creatures were known for scheming and deceiving, so he kept his guard up, staring intently at the vampire in front of him
 
To give in would show that she would back down. If she told him everything, she had no advantages. Perhaps she could compromise. Her eyes met Waldron's, then she looked up at Odrek. "My name is Emmalia LaFaren. If you've been anywhere near the West, that's more than enough for you to know." The LaFaren scandal had become well known in most hunting circles. The LaFaren were Lords of a massive part of the Western swamps. Their eldest, and their only, running away had been a shock to many. The family had sent out a hunting party to search for her, and supposedly she had killed more than half of them. Yet her family still wanted her back alive. For what fate, even she didn't know.
 
The soldiers stood, shocked and stunned at what she had said. If she really was telling the truth, killing her would be one of the most damning actions the mercenary company would ever take. And Odrek's blade was lowering, but he twisted Waldron's arm behind his back, keeping a hold on him. "You've got my attention. But I have two questions. One, how do I know you're telling the truth? Two, why the hell would you give yourself away like that?" Odrek was in a sense of half belief, on one hand, why would someone with that large of a reputation just give themselves away, on the other, he noticed that people that do have large reputations do that a lot, they like to talk about it. The soldiers armed with halberds and swords began to lower their weapons as well, yet the tension remained. She may just use this to escape, or to free Waldron. Odrek couldn't let that happen.
 
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Emmalia smiled wryly. She knew that she had them caught now. "I'm sure you have a mage among your merry band of mercenaries, try a truth-spell. Or, if that's not enough, the piercings in my ear mark me as an heir. You can try to cut the wire. I've even tried cutting off my ear. It doesn't work." Now she could lay out her hand - well, not quite all of it, but most of it. "And I'm telling you this to bargain with you. You keep Waldron alive, I'll cooperate. You kill him, I will kill myself. And you can't stop me." She shrugged and smirked. "You really want to lose your chance at 5,000 gold? That's more than enough to set all of your boys up for life."
 
Odrek nodded, to his men, then waved to Emmalia. He turned around, pushing Waldron out of the back of the barnhouse. He then shoved Waldron onto a wagon with more mercenaries on it, just as the field was catching fire. "Well, looks like we picked the right time to go, lads." He took a step onto the wagon, then looked back at the Emmalia, he stared at her intently. If she was going to make a hostile move, now was the time. "You can get on, but i'm not enough of an idiot to start going to LaFaren lands now, or any time soon." He cautiously extended a hand towards her, watching as the darkening sky blazed with the fire in the background. The narrow thought slipped into Odrek's mind. If these two joined him, they'd be extremely valuable that way too. So, either way, profit for him. Yet he still needed to get revenge on Waldron.
 
Emmalia shrugged and jumped up onto the cart without touching Odrek's hand. She had no desire to touch that man. Even his blood wasn't likely to tempt her. "I don't care. I hate my family. They can all go burn in Hell. I'm in no rush to see them." Not to mention,t he longer they stalled from going there, the longer she had to escape. And in about a week's time, there was no chance of their keeping her captive. She moved by Waldron and growled at one of the mercenaries until he was unsettled enough to move, then she sat down. Though she was technically their captive, she wasn't about to be bullied about. She looked over at Waldron and quietly asked, "Are you okay?"
 
Waldron said nothing. He looked at the floor, wide eyed with a fearful expression on his face. He wasn't an imposing dark knight any more, he was just a man, a scared man, and he pitied himself and despised himself inside for it. He needed to say something to Odrek...He wronged him so long ago and now here he was, somehow still living despite what Waldron thought for all those years "Odrek I'm sorry for what happ-" Odrek stood up and punched Waldron across the jaw, leaving him to cough up blood out the back of the wagon "You have no right to speak about what you did back in Wight Valley, you hear me!? You were a damn coward and a bastard and to be completely honest, the only reason you're alive is because of you're new found fighting skill Waldron, I would've thought if I ever found you again you'd be hiding in a hole somewhere from something else, but no, looks like you've changed, huh?" Waldron looked back at him, breathing in heavily as if he was about to say something, but Odrek nailed him again "People died because of you Waldron, good people, they were your brothers!" After hitting him again, Odrek was grabbed by two of his soldiers, who began to whisper about keeping him alive and how now wasn't the time. Waldron just looked at the floor and accepted what Odrek delivered as revenge. He deserved it, what he did 7 years ago, that was the most shameful stain on his life. And it still haunted him. Waldron looked over at Emmalia "I-I'm sorry, I really- I didn't say anything and I should've." He looked back at the floor, not wanting to cross eyes with Emmalia, with the enraged Odrek, or any of the probably confused mercenaries
 
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