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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3381944" data-attributes="member: 11760">Pine branches whip at Hazel as she jumps to her feet."He's what? Emmerson? How?" Frustrated, she snaps branches off left and right as she bats them away, forgetting her desire to not leave signs of her presence. "Kat, where? Show me."She snags her pack strap with a boot and drags it out from under the pines, tossing the bag onto her back, ignoring the needles and sap smeared across the surface. The waterskin gets dropped inside, but the axe she keeps in her hand.Hazel gestures for the young wizard to lead, her head full of questions.* * *In life, Emmerson was mild-spoken, quick to attempt to break up an argument, the first to dry a child's tears and sometimes a figure of fun for Tock Chandler and Renraw Kem for his tendency to help others by beating rugs, carrying water or gathering firewood for near-strangers.In death, though, Emmerson is anything but peaceful.One hand still holds his sword. His shield, caked with mud and freezing slush, is still held in the other. Crossbow bolts jut from his body and the raw open wounds in his thigh no longer steam in the crisp air. Soon, frost will form on them.And his face is locked in an expression of rage, as though still fighting that last battle.* * *Katadid's mumblings are essentially inaudible as he accompanies Hazel toward the clearing.He's mistaken, that's all, she thinks. Just Kat being Kat. He means something like dead, but not.They pass a tree with more shredded rope lying near its trunk, but the wizard doesn't stop, and Hazel gives it only a passing glance.Wormy got out of the rope, but what about Tucker's manacles? Is Renraw in kobold claws now, too? How did Wormy get past Tuck?Hazel steps up her pace, slightly outdistancing the wizard. She breaks into a run at the first sight of blood on snow. The bones and viscera splashed across the ground look nothing like a hunter's kill; they're too messy, too wild and wasteful. Even in the cold, the smell is enough to make her gorge rise. And the bodies ...The paladin, pale and still. Not a mistake, then. The dwarf, that was a surprise.He wasn't even with us!But it's Bufer that sends Hazel hurtling over shattered kobold bodies. She drops to her knees in the bloody snow at his side, noting the bandages hastily applied to his neck and the crossbow bolts rising and falling ever so slightly as he breathes.Breathing. He's still breathing. Keep breathing, Bufer. I'll fix this, I promise.She clasps his wrist, hoping to find a steady pulse. A boot appears in her peripheral vision, and her eyes track upward, finding not the wizard she expected but the deputy."What happened? Is Renraw their captive? How did Wormy get loose? Where were you?" Anger brings her voice to a near-shout, but it's not Tucker she blames."I don't know what happened. We were headed to the orchard when Kat and Renraw heard the sound of fighting. Katadid took off, and I unlocked Kem, who ran behind. I tied Wormy in a tree -- fat lot of good that did -- and followed. By the time I got here, Kat had patched these two up, Kem was nowhere to be seen and Emmerson," he kneels next to the fallen paladin and looks at his friend's seemingly enraged face. "Emmerson was already dead."He stands up and kicks a kobold in frustration, flipping it from the awkward position in which it had been laying and onto its back, then spits on it and turns back toward Hazel, reacting to her angry tone."Of course, I can't follow the damn things. Maybe if someone who knew the woods had been more interested in keeping an eye on Bufer than laying in the mud all afternoon, this could have been prevented! And unless Tiberius showed up before you came over here, then you've really failed at two things this afternoon, haven't you?""And maybe if someone had disarmed those kobolds back at the cairn, your friend wouldn't be -" Hazel stops in mid-shout, shaking her head. "This isn't useful."She shrugs out of her pack and unclasps her cloak, spreading it on the ground beside the gnome. With an arm under his knees and one cradling his neck and shoulders, she lifts him cautiously onto the thick fabric. The whistling of his breath seems unchanged, and she quickly tucks the cloak around his body, taking care not to jostle the bolts in his chest."Wait here." She doesn't bother to see if Tucker is listening. "I'll send someone back to help you bring Emus and ... and the body."Leaving her pack in a heap beside the bloody snow, Hazel lifts the gnome and rises to her feet. She can't see the wizard, but assumes he's somewhere within shouting distance."Kat! I'm taking Bufer to town. You can come with me or stay here with Tucker, but don't wander off." Quietly, her voice grim, she adds, "We don't know who's still out here."She moves off toward Maidensbridge at a hustle.Katadid, hidden in the shadow of the trees, watches her go, mumbling in assent. He flips the kobold goggles over and over in his hands, staring out across the snow at the bodies, his entire demeanor one of profound disappointment.</blockquote>

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