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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1940660" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #296] Clearing the Air[/PLAIN]"The business I keep be my own, tracker!" Karak snorted and stomped close to Grisham - well within arm's reach - before planting his feet. The barbarian looked up at the dwarf and grinned."Woah, there, hairface," Grisham chuckled. "You're getting a little up-close-and-personal, aren't you? Like I told you on watch: I'm not really into-""And like I told you before, wild one: do nae be calling any of this group names!" Karak interrupted, leaning in toward the human closer still. "If I be hearin' you call Ledare 'Wood Baby' one more time, you and me are gonna have a tussle, barbarian-style.""Ooh, a tussle!" Grisham gave a mock shiver. "Sure you can manage that in those tin-plated pants of yours?" Karak sneered and thrust his squat and powerful finger into Grisham's chest."Nae armour. Nae weapons. Just you and me and my dwarven fists a'hammerin' your body like a score of dwarven blacksmiths before a battle." Karak poked the man again and then curled his fingers into a fist that itself bore a strong resemblance to a hammer. He glowered down at Grisham, the light of rage burning behind his stone-gray eyes. "You get me?""Oh, I think I get you clear enough," Grisham said with a curt nod."An' yer backin' down from my challenge?" the dwarf asked, somewhat surprised by the man's self-possessed nature."No, I'm not backin' down. I'm just not gettin' up," Grisham said and laced his hands behind his head once more as he relaxed against the side of Tarrawyn's hut. "I've got nothing to prove to you, Karak. If you've got something to prove to me... well, I guess you'll just have to kick me while I'm lying here."Karak's face seethed and for a moment it looked like he might well do just that.Elsewhere, Ledare walked a bit further into the woods away from Ixin and her questions - questions for which the half-elf felt she had only inadequate answers. Certainly not enough of a response to stop the questions that the others would surely heap upon her again and again. She sank limply to her knees on the soft loam, the weight of her own thoughts bowing her down amidst a tangle of roots. She sat that way for a time, trapped within the narrow confines of her guilt and staring at the forest floor until the perpetual twilight had deepened to full night. Then in the dimness she noted a tiny flicker of movement and an ice water rush of fear washed through her body: spider! She started to recoil before her brain even registered what she had seen, but when she did apprehend fully, she welcomed the raw edge of her fear. She invited it into her heart, but grimly refused to give in and flee. Instead she stared intently at the tiny arachnid - no bigger than her thumbnail, really. No threat at all, despite what her nerves were telling her.But there were others here, she knew - spiders that made Ledare look insignificant by comparison.She clenched her teeth and forced herself to look up at the web-shrouded canopy far overhead. "If there are spiders here, let them come," she called to the night, her voice sounding small and raw with emotion. "I wouldn't resist this time.""You got anything to add, points," Grisham asked Morier. "Or have you decided that now that you brought it up, you might just have to let me in on the little secret you all've been keepin' since the day we met?" The eldritch warrior was strangely silent, but Karak spoke up at once."I'm nae done speakin' my mind. The white elf'll get his chance to speak up soon enough," the dwarf said to Morierier before turning on Grisham once more. "I've said before your sword arm and your ability to track have been helpful up to now. But now that I put my mind to it, we 'ave found Polonius or what remains of him. Why you still be here? Hmm? We found the Hound, and yet you still stalk with us?""His killer's still walkin' around! Or did that little fact escape your keen powers of observation?" Grisham snarled, the thin patina of humor that masked his rage beginning to show more than a few cracks under Karak's persistent verbal battering. "I was in this to find the man who dishonored Plonius' name, and that man is still out there. I had hoped that you all might have been some help in finding him. Only now it doesn't look like can you can help me after all." The barbarian spat onto the druid's doorstep. "You can't even help yourselves!""I'm sick of your pompous attitude," Ledare's voice cut unexpectedly through the air like a sword as she advanced out of the trees. "You're so quick to criticize everyone around you.""Well look who's back," Grisham grinned. "All finished moping, are we?""The fact is, you're still with us because we allow you to be," Ledare said, ignoring the barbarian's obvious attempt to bait her."The fact is, kitten, without me you wouldn't've ever have made it this far," Grisham countered, finally deigning to get to his feet. "It was following me that got everybody here. Not you. Me.""You're the last person we should be following; you know nothing about our mission!" the half-elf argued, turning away with a disgusted curl of her lip."Oh, I know enough to know that Feln isn't the first person you've lead to their death," Grisham spat. "I've heard the way you all talk about Ruze and Draelond and Fin-""You arrogant bastard!" Ledare roared as she spun back to stare up at the barbarian who stood a good half-a-foot taller than her. "You have no right to weigh in on my past!""I have every right!" Grisham bellowed back. "I don't want to be the next name added to your body count."It was at that point that Ledare punched him. Or tried to at least. Ledare was an accomplished warrior, but Grisham had spent a good number of years in the alleys and taverns of Battle City and he knew a thing or two about brawling. The favorite lesson he'd learned was that nobody's very tough lying flat on their back. So, as soon as Ledare's fist came up, he stepped in and knocked her feet out from under her. She went down on her back with a clank and a loud cough as the air violently exited her lungs.Karak moved in at once, and Morier's greatsword hissed menacingly from its scabbard. Grisham stepped back, his hands hovering near his weapons as his eyes flicked back and forth between the dwarf and the elf. "This isn't what I wanted," he said as he backed away."If Ledare's leadership be of such concern for ye, than here be your chance to leave," Karak snarled, his voice low. "You may even keep the magic armour and sword of Polonius that you took off his body. Go now."Grisham eyed them up and down and then turned, pausing to add, "Follow the path out that we took in. It should leave you near Flavonshire." He gathered his meager gear and said again, "This isn't what I wanted." Then he was gone. And Ledare couldn't help but think of Plonius' abrupt departure from her company all those moonsdances ago."Ixin, what did she say when you found her?" Karak asked later as he conferred out of Ledare's earshot. "Has she decided to take a back chair?""I don't think that Ledare's in any condition to lead herself in the right direction, let alone us," the drakeling answered with a sigh. "She said she was finished with decision-making.""She might have kept that in mind before deciding to attack Grisham," Morier said archly and Karak harrumphed."Bah! I had half-a-mind to do the same thing, meself," he admitted and looked over at Ledare who was sitting against a tree and staring off into the darkness. "Well that lass, she been through it that be for sure. She can take a rest. I do nae see the problem in that. But I see no reason to lose a sword. Is she able to travel?""As far as I know," the mage shrugged. "She said she would fight as long as she could.""Well, this is how I see it, then. I agree with the white elf: when we fight together we are stronger," Karak told Ixin. "I do nae think I have all the answers, but I do say this: evil is about this land. My chalak spoke of it, and he sought to stop it. He be taken to Shaharizod by that evil and the puss that follows it. If I can stand in Chaos' way, then I shall do so with my axe and shield.""Standing in its way might be a bit of a challenge. This Chaos seems to come at us from every side," Ixin confessed. "And yet it slips away each time we try to grasp it. What do we even do next?""I say it is off to Redwood next," the dwarf told her. "That be the charge of the Great Oak: to find the followers of Flor. I say we find them. Maybe by then Ledare will have gathered her wits enough to decide the next step. What say you both? Is it off to Redwood?""That sounds like a good plan," Ixin nodded, adding, "Let us send word to the Great Oak through Great Root that we are on our way to carry out his instructions. I do not believe we should say more in case our message is intercepted."Morier nodded once in agreement and Vade called out from the trees overhead, "I want to go to Thumble." Everyone else rolled their eyes and Karak pressed on without comment."An' lastly, I be thinkin'. We do not know how Tarrawyn escaped," Karak said, casting his gaze once more at Ledare. "Could Ledare be possessed by the Black Bishop now? Maybe we should have Ixin, 'ere, cast her spell that detects where one has been on us all?" The dwarf looked hopefully at Ixin, but the mage scowled doubtfully."I will not cast anything on any of you without your express permission. But I am happy to cast Recent Occupant on Ledare, if she agrees," Ixin said. "I do not think it will tell us anything, though. I do not believe Ledare is possessed by anything but her own troubled soul.""Right then. Let's bed down and we'll head out in the morning," the dwarf said, clapping his gauntleted hands together once. Morier and Ixin headed back toward their camp and Karak looked up at the branches above. "Vade, if I may speak to you a moment?"Sheepishly, the halfling tumbled out of the tree. It was clear that he had been crying and equally clear that he had been eavesdropping, but Karak faulted him for neither. "I know the loss of your friend be cuttin ye deep, lad," he said, clasping Vade's slim shoulders with his huge gauntlets. "You halflings seem to have your heart in your hands, you do. I know you feel the loss deep. It seems that Ledare be feeling it too. It may be all the death of her companions be draggin' her down. See what you can do to cheer her up. We will need her head back in this in a moment, I can feel it in my feet."Vade gave Karak a big hug, burying his snot-soaked face in the dwarf's singed beard. "I will do it," the halfling said. "Fighting is so bad. First Ruze, now Feln... who is next? I want to go home."Karak pried the rogue's arms off his waist and then waved toward camp. "For now, why don't ye go get some rest," he said. "I'll wake you later to take watch."It was darker than it should have been. Ledare had to blink to determine that her eyes were indeed open. She struggled to sit up quickly, and as she moved she became conscious of the fact that she was bound. Or perhaps not so much bound as entangled in something. And immediately her mind relapsed to that fateful night. But, forcing herself to breathe, she realized that this was not Chagmat webbing. With a bit of a cry she fought her way out of her bedroll and reached for her sword. It was just another dream.There was no sound and no light; so that even her half-elven vision could barely discern the others asleep on the forest floor nearby. She took a moment to register that the silent mounds could have been anyone from her past: Mynnah or Terrel - her first Janissary comrades, Finian, Soriah, Kirnoth, Del. Her mind strayed to this last and then, angrily, she forced that image back into the myriad of such thoughts she kept locked away inside her. Thoughts that served no purpose but to make mockery of choices and events which had led her to this place.From not far to her left there came a subtle clearing of the throat and she knew it to be Vade keeping watch. At least she didn't have to contend with Grisham. Without explanation, she moved a small distance away from the group and slumped down, with her back against a tree. She eyed the darkness for a few more moments and welcomed the damp air as it crept up her backbone. Perched just this way she might be able to hold the nightmares at bay for a few more hours until dawn's welcomed light set forth.Of course, by dawn, Vade had begun to feel the first symptoms of the vile disease with which the beast they had all fought below had infected them. His normally pale complexion had grown red and puffy throughout the evening and by morning had deepened to a swollen crimson. His fingers were like sausages and an aching weakness had settled into his body."I don't feel so good," he whined.</blockquote>

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