The Three Kingdoms

[Night Walker]

Cal looked at Masako, a little concerned about the idea of concentrating her sexual aura. ”Just try to stay out of sight and away from people. We don’t have to stay long, but I need to speak to some people there.”

The Golden Goose was a tall narrow building flush against Seranto’s outermost wall just right of the city’s north gate. Wagonloads of trade supplies towed by horses and oxen moved through in both directions, occasionally making room for the odd ornate carriage or a wealthy merchant or landowner to roll by. The Goose’s plaster façade had crumbled away over the years, exposing the rough hewn stonework beneath. The cracking wooden door hung ajar, its frame bent slightly so that it could no longer shut all the way. As the two entered, they could see a dark room full of darker figures. The proprietor stood behind a bar at the back of the room. He was a stocky man with shoulder-length grey hair, an eye patch, and a large beer belly under his stained apron. A handful of women, in brightly coloured, ill-fitting, attire and layers of makeup to cover the affects of a hard life, served food and drinks to the shifty patrons. A shabby wooden staircase started near the bar and rose up along one wall to the floor above. A small arched passage under the staircase led away from the main room, likely to the tavern’s storehouse, kitchen, and back entrance.

Cal found a small vacant table in the corner nearest the bar, opposite the staircase. The four legs were uneven, causing it to wobble on the hay covered floor. It was coated in scratches and the heads of a few rusting nails protruded from the top where the table had obviously once been broken and then mended. Around it were two stools and a chair with a crooked back and one loose leg. He turned to Masako. ”Wait here, I won’t be gone long.” He drew one of his swords and placed it on the table. ”If you have to, use this.” With that he headed for the stairs. They creaked and groaned as he hurried to the second floor.

It wasn’t long before six men approached the table. Three wore armour and pale blue and white tabards, the other three were the ones who Cal had scared off in the street. One of the non-armoured men came closer to her. ”What’s this? We follow you to this hovel only to find your owner left you alone? Well, that will make this easier than we expected.” The other laughed menacingly. ”You owe us girl. Your master killed our friend and took our money, and all we wanted was a little time with his slave. We’ve come to get repayment for what he did.”

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”I’m going to investigate the rumours, same as you.” Melaina looked up at the sky. [color=#804080”Would be best to make camp at the tree line. The forest is much more dangerous at night.”[/color] She looked back to Nall. ”Hey, you mind if we travel together awhile?” She flashed him a sweet smile and batted her long lashes. “We’ll be safer that way and have a better chance of finding the boy, if he really exists.”

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Sean could see Lynise was getting weaker. She needed to return to her tree, or at least find a safe place to rest near the sapling. Sean gathered the dryad into his arms and started to walk towards the forest edge. Between the foiled merger into the tree and the drain of moving strange trees that were centuries old, Lynise was in no shape to protest. A moment or two passed before she was unconscious completely.

When she awoke, the sun was nearly touching the tall Vaskaan Mountains in the west. Lynise was in a large rectangular garden surrounded by a tall, solid, wood fence. Beds of purple, red, and white flowers lined a center of soft green grass. At one end was a small stone building. In the middle of the grass, next to Lynise, was her sapling, planted in the ground. The only shade-giving plant was a giant apple tree growing close to the building between a simple wooden door on a low porch and the entrance to a root cellar.

Sean sat under the tree eating a bright red apple as he watched Lynise stir on the grass. ”You’re awake. Good. I was starting to worry that sapling might not have been your tree after all.”

 

[Raiden]

Masako nodded and leaned back in the chair, taking the sword and holding it low so it was under the table and not visible unless you looked from a certain angle. When she saw the men approaching she just groaned and produced the spearhead and seemed to hold it negligently. â??Youâ??re the idiots that pushed his buttons and your little buddy got what he had coming for it.â? She said coolly. â??You didnâ??t pay for crap, you all wet yourselves and dropped your money, he just happened to claim it before you remembered to come back for it. The way I see it, you donated it to our travelling fund.â? Masako said, her eyes are hard as agates and adjusted how she was sitting and tugged a bit on the silver collar.

â??Youâ??re not getting crap from me, Iâ??d advise you to turn around and leave before I decide to kill you and cut out your livers for a travel snack.â? She said in a growl, hoping the threat of cannibalism would frighten them off. â??Your armor doesnâ??t matter to me either, Iâ??ve killed men scarier than all of you combined.â? She said charging up quickly before the collar kicked in to shut her down and pointed her dagger at leaderâ??s face and detonated an extremely bright flash of light meant to blind them all.

It was the most magic she could manage before the collar shocked her with a mild zap of electricity, just enough to break concentration. But Sheâ??d be up on her feet in an instant and vaulted up and sprinted out the backdoor past a blinded bartender. Now sheâ??d just try to find somewhere to hide and deftly got up on an awning and laid down on it to hide out of direct sight.

((I hope you don't mind, she isn't going to just roll over and let them do it))

 

[Reipuru]

Lynise sat up slowly, the edges of her vision were dark blurs that were rapidly clearing with growing awareness. "My tree?" She says slowly and looks around. She twitches, looking at the garden in disgust, it was so artificial to her. While a human would declare the garden as appealing to the eye, through the eyes of a dryad the planned positioning of the foliage was like a slap in the face, and a part of it now was the only thing keeping her alive. "It is my tree!" She cries out as she frantically tries to dig her fingers in the dirt to remove it from the landscape and back into her possession.

 

[shadowseraph]

He glanced up at the sky himself, as the sun was beginning its descent to the horizon. "I had planned to do that." he says absently looking back at the deep forest they even now approached. It was difficult to discern anything past the first row of trees as the thick foliage blocked light from reaching the overgrown forest floor. He for one wouldn't care to tangle with the forest inhabitants at night, when he wouldn't be able to see well enough for a well placed spell. When she asked to accompany him he glanced briefly over at her, trying to read her expression for any ulterior motive. Nothing came to the fore though, and it would be both safer and less... boring to travel with a companion. Normally for these trips he hired on a few mercenaries and thus had some company but this mission WAS supposed to be secret.

"That sounds like a decent enough plan, two sets of eyes will be more effective than one." The trees are close now enough so that he begins to veer slightly from the road to approach them, already mentally going over the necessary items to pull from his pack needed to make camp. "You do have camping supplies right?" he asks idly, as he begins rummaging in his pack, finding the various items stored in his pack, which incidently was enchanted to hold far more than its external appearance would indicate.

 

[Night Walker]

((sorry, only got 2/3 of my post done in time.))

The collar suppressed all of Masako’s spell-like abilities, so the blinding burst of light she hoped for never came. What did happen was the evening sun pouring through the small window at the front of the bar reflected off the spearhead and into the eyes of the nearest assailant, temporarily blinding him. By the time Masako was out the backdoor, the six men were close behind her.

Seranto’s alleys were more twisted and winding than its streets. The narrow lane behind the Golden Goose was barely wide enough for three average size men to stand across shoulder to shoulder. One of the men told the others to pair off and go find where the slave had gone. Masako could hear the footsteps running off down the stone paved paths.

A minute passed, and then suddenly there was a ripping sound and Masako fell through the cloth she had been laying on and landed hard on the ground. One of the armoured guards stood with the man she had blinded in the tavern. The guard was holding a five foot long zweihander, and it was clear he had cut the awning. The other man bent down and picked Masako up. He held her wrists behind her back. ”You put up a good fight, I like that in a girl, but it’s over for you now. No more running, and you don’t got that barbarian here to save you.”

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Sean walked over to where Lynise was trying to recover her sapling from the ground. He stood over her, apple still in hand. ”I don’t understand you. You were too weak to move and I bring you here where you’re safe, but do you thank me at all? No.” He finished the apple and tossed the core into the garden. ”While you were unconscious, I got thinking. Most people would probably keep a dryad for a slave or pet or something, or maybe sell you to someone else who is looking for that sort of thing. But I’m not going to keep you. As I see it, someone like me could do well to have someone like you for a friend.” He squatted next to her, a trowel in his hand. ”What say we make a deal. I’ll give you your tree and take you back to the forest if you’ll help me when I’m out hunting. Also, I want to see the wood elf city. I know that nymphs are friends with the elves.” He watched the frantic nymph closely. ”How does that deal sound?”

 

[Raiden]

Masako grumbled some and looked back at the guy and smirked some and dropped her weight snapped a kick back aiming to shatter the manâ??s knee and force him to release her. Either he let her go or got a thoroughly broken knee were his only options. â??You forget, Iâ??m not some regular slave; I can still fight and kill you without a weaponâ? she said. â??Oh and Iâ??m also going to remember all of you so I can yank your guts out and kick you into the river.â? Masako snickered and rolled to her feet as the guy let her go to avoid having his knees broken. â??See yaâ? she said and slipped past the guards and took off running to get into the field of view of everyone else. And would find somewhere else to hide by climbing up a ladder braced against a building and scampered up it and kicked it over so they couldnâ??t pursue and watched.

 

[Reipuru]

Lynise stops a moment..... maybe she was too hasty. If she were to befriend a human, it would truly be a unique thing. "I-I'm sorry." She pulls her hands out of the soil. "I can help with hunting, but cannot promise to take you to wood elf city, it might be a bad thing. I would like to be a friend too." She sat in the dirt looking up at him, soil covering her arms up to her wrists.