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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3850467" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 8: Recovery“I’ve noticed something,” Rennai spoke up in a voice that announced to the world that she was about to speak a great truth and everyone should listen or she’d stab them.    The three others, though, were used to this voice of epiphany and weren’t impressed. Finally, though, Aylana was the one who said quietly, “And what is that?”    The Elf woman gave Falen a rather rough kick in the back, “Your brother here. He’s always advocating we run away.”    Falen rolled his eyes, ignoring the kick and simply looking over his shoulder to her, “Could we, perhaps, have one day where you aren’t a complete pain?”    “No,” Rennai snapped at him.    No one said anything else. They had moved to a hill off of the road just west of Eschilar, still close enough to clearly see the tiny village. It had been a few hours, and the fires had mostly died down. Cor’s bird had arrived not long after they’d set up camp, and after a short rest, he sent his familiar to check the burnt village for survivors or anything interesting. Of course, the bird still hadn’t come back yet. On the bright side, there had been no more Orcs or Ogres or Dragons or Demons or evil Gods or zombies or...well, there hadn’t been anything else.    Aylana had been silent since they’d made camp. She wasn’t happy with simply retreating like they had, despite realizing it was necessary. Both she and Rennai had been in very bad shape, and had there been any other Orcs within the buildings they would have searched, it would not have gone well. Still sore from the fighting and the burns that had gotten through her armour, Aylana was contemplating heading back into the town to at least find out what they could. It was likely too late for survivors, and that, alone, caused her a great deal of conflict.    It was her duty to protect them...but where was the line? She’d give her life in a second to protect others, especially innocents like the townspeople were. But if she died protecting no one, saving no one, what good was that? She sighed heavily and lowered her head into her hands. Doing the right thing was not nearly as easy as it should have been.    A moment later, Aylana felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. Though it was on the armour she wore, she could still feel the change in weight and glanced up to see Falen managing the best smile he could, “We did all we could.”    Aylana was a warrior in the service of Heironeous. She was strong, a good fighter, and was everything she was supposed to be. And yet...underneath all of the heavy, plate armour, the simple clothes worn under to keep her from getting too bruised, and then that strong, extremely devoted exterior, was Falen’s younger sister. The little girl who had, like all younger sisters, idolized her older brother as a child and had always run to him before anyone else to protect her. And he always did.    Slowly, Aylana leaned over to rest her head on Falen’s shoulder, though she said nothing at all. Falen tried to ignore the fact that the armour Aylana wore probably weighed as much as she did, and simply did his best to comfort his sister. He never thought he was any good at that, but she’d never once complained so he must have always done something right.    It was a testament to the fact that Rennai didn’t completely despise Aylana that she said nothing at all. In fact, all of them remained quiet. Even Convel simply lay on the other side of Falen, idly watching the small town like the rest of them. For a wolf, he was rather tame most of the time.    A screech filled the air a few minutes later, and all of them simply looked up, knowing the origin of that sound. Even the wolf simply glanced upwards, though his ears raised a bit at the sound. In the sky, flying not far above the ground, was a brown coloured hawk, which circled them for a moment before descending and landing expertly on Cor’s left shoulder. The large hawk shifted slightly to position itself on the padded section of Cor’s cloak, then turned and looked at him and began to make some very odd caws and screeches.    Soon, they stopped, and Cor said softly to the bird, “You have done well, friend,” he then raised his voice and spoke to the others, who were now all looking intently at him, “Suryl found nothing alive beyond rodents and other small animals.”    Fittingly, Rennai rolled her eyes and leaned back to rest on her elbows while staring up blankly at the cloud-dotted sky above, “Did your bird find anything useful that we weren’t already sure about?”    “Yes,” Cor answered in a tone that suggested he didn’t even hear her sarcasm anymore, “About a mile to the east of town is an encampment. Tents and other crude structures walled up against a rock wall just across the river.”    “Probably where those Orcs came from,” Falen suggested, thinking out loud and stating what all of them were thinking.    Aylana sat up straight again, then turned to look to the two Elves, “We must go there...find out why they would attack this town so mercilessly. Even for such beasts as Orcs and Ogres, this is...unlike them. We need to send word to Besol and let them know what happened, also.”    Cor nodded and retrieved a small quill and piece of parchment from his pack. After jotting down a short and simple note in Common, he rolled it up and very gently tied the note to Suryl’s left leg, “Take this as quickly as you can, my friend.”    The hawk made an odd sound that was almost a word, spread its wings, and in another few moments, took to the sky.    They all watched the hawk fly off, with Convel very intently focused on the creature before it disappeared. As he watched the bird fly away, a thought appeared in Falen’s mind.    And, as he usually did when something important came to mind, Falen spoke up, “Weren’t we supposed to look for this cult thing?”    Eyes shifted to him, and at his shoulder, Aylana’s head turned slightly so she could look at him and answer, “You would have us leave a settlement of aggressive monsters so close to Besol?”    “You act like those priests aren’t ready for a fight,” Rennai grumbled, and when a sharp look from Aylana was leveled on her, the Elf shrugged in response, “Its true and you know it.”    To Rennai’s surprise, Aylana didn’t argue this. Instead, she simply inclined her head as best she could while still resting on Falen’s shoulder. When she spoke, though, Aylana completely avoided that point and returned to her brother’s original question, “If there is a camp of more creatures so aggressive nearby, we must deal with that before anything else.”    “And, slim as it may be, there is a chance the two are related,” Cor cut in, with a casual shrug as he pulled himself to his feet. Taking a moment to dust himself off, the elf narrowed his eyes as he looked across the horizon towards the east, “I can see the river from here, it does not look to be too far.”    “Here’s hoping there’s a bridge,” Aylana’s comment was accented by the loud noises caused by her armour as she, too, got to her feet.    Rennai grinned devilishly, “If there isn’t, we can just see how long you can hold your breath for.”    This was dutifully ignored as the four of them gathered their things, strapping weapons back to belts and collapsing the tent they had set up in case they decided to spend the night at the relatively calm spot. It took a good half an hour before they were all ready to leave and by then, both Rennai and Convel were getting antsy.    The sun was beginning to set in the sky, but that was usually a slow enough process that they had another few hours of passable light before torches were necessary...well, for the humans. They had returned to the road, which did head west from one of the breaks in the now-destroyed village of Eschilar. The hope was that it in, generally, the right direction and thankfully that seemed to prove correct. In a rather short time, considering the distance, they reached the small river that Cor’s bird had, apparently, told him about. Not only that, but there was, indeed, a bridge...though it was old looking, wooden, and probably on its last legs.    Very carefully, and with Aylana going first with Falen ready to help if necessary, they crossed the bridge. It creaked and almost gave at certain points, but held. However, on the other side of the bridge, they all noticed the grass that should have been there was no where to be found...only dead, brown dirt. Some patches of the ground even looked burnt. And then there the bodies...    “It is likely this is...the rest of the town guard...” Cor spoke softly, his eyes taking in the scene around them.    There were so many bodies, some in armour like the others and some not. There were weapons everywhere, too, some still stuck in bodies while others were just off to the side, fallen like their wielders. And amongst the human bodies, there were others...orcs, definitely, and even small green-skinned creatures that looked to be goblins of some sort. There was even a large dead Ogre off to the side of the road, pocketed with multiple arrows and at least one very large spear.    “This was before the town was burned,” Falen said, having already moved to one of the nearby bodies, kneeling next to it and doing whatever it was he did. Aylana was caught up in her own thoughts, Cor was checking the area to make sure it was safe, and while Rennai was watching him...she didn’t like to think about what he might be doing that close to a rotting corpse.    “You are sure?” Cor asked, still looking off another direction. He trusted Falen’s judgement on those kinds of things, but he felt the need to check anyway. The timing on the fight that had caused all of this carnage could tell a great deal about what had really happened to Eschilar.    Falen nodded, though only Rennai saw it, “Very sure. These ones are already decaying and it looks as if some of the local wildlife has had a taste...”    Immediately, Rennai looked down to Convel, who was pacing near her and making her nervous. The wolf caught the glance, barred its teeth at her, and made an almost-threatening noise before padding over to Falen and sniffing the human’s cloak idly.    That was enough.    “Weren’t we looking for a camp, not a decaying pile of bodies?” Rennai grumbled, still keeping her distance. She never liked dead bodies...they had a habit of rising and causing trouble.    “I believe I see the camp,” Cor said in his usual aloof voice, staring off towards a very faint light near the horizon.    There was a shifting of metal that signaled Aylana was moving, “Lets keep moving. If there are more creatures still alive then they are obviously aggressive. The more time we stand here, the more chance they will kill like this again.”    And then she started walking. Cor glanced to Falen as the two shrugged and then started after her, moving through the bodies and after the surprisingly quiet Aylana. The scene seemed to cause her to close off again, getting that determined focus she always did when she was sure something bad had happened and the wrong had to be righted.    Rennai, however, was still standing and watching the bodies. After the others had passed through the largest group of them, she took a deep breath, and sprinted through them, making sure to barely touch the ground so that, should any of them rise to life, she would be extremely difficult to catch. In a short few moments, Rennai had caught up, was walking perfectly normally behind Cor and Falen, and had made the run quietly enough that neither of them even turned around.    Perfect.    “Cor,” Falen had stopped completely, causing Rennai to nearly run into him and Aylana to get a few steps ahead before stopping when she heard the very serious tone of his voice.    The elf next to Falen turned and looked to him curiously, “Yes?”    “Your eyes are better than mine are, especially in this light,” the fact that Falen was speaking in a tone rather unusual for him was worrying, “What is that?”    He pointed up towards the sky, not far in front of them but high enough in the air that all of them could, at the very least, see a small blur moving. Cor took a few steps forward and tried to look more closely. After only a few seconds, Cor spoke, “It is far too large to be a bird...and very fast.”    “And you’ll get a closer look in a few moments!” Rennai growled, drawing her daggers already, her eyes just as good as Cor’s, though she was never asked to actually look for things, “It is coming straight for us and those looks like very large claws.”</blockquote>

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