Mountain Pass

[Gamerbug94]

Klein walked along the sunny mountain path staring at the horizon line. The trees swayed lightly in the breeze and Klein smiled. "Next towns only days walk away" he thought to himself as he walked along, his scabbards hitting against his hips. He looked up at the trees to watch the birds and small animals. His stomach started to growl and he reached into the small pack of his provisions removing some dried jerky of some kind. "This is a gamble..." He mumbled biting into it. The taste of the meat washed into his mouth and he smirked. "Got lucky this time, Raccoon, great!" he had a feeling this was the start of a great day, he hastened his pace hoping to make it to the next town by nightfall, he wanted a warm bed to sleep in tonight.

--------Continued in Braiden--------

[Gamerbug94]

-----Continued from Braiden------

Klein shuffled along the pass whistling. He looked at the ground as he walked to ensure that he didnt trip over stray stones or roots. Suddenly he heard a low growl and stopped in his tracks. "What the..." he said aloud looking up. Standing in his path was a rather large pack of wolves, at least 6. "Oh...shit" He said drawing his sword. One wolf lunged at him and he swung upwards, catching it in the chest and sending it flying. He lept forward and stabbed into it before it hit the ground. The remaining wolves rushed and surrounded him. He looked around nervously waiting for one to make a move. One dove at him and he caught it in the mouth with a fist, as another jumped forward and met his blade. The remaining 4 wolves began to growl fiercley. "Im not making it out of this without some wounds am I?..." Klein mumbled as he backed away from the pack.

[zes735]

Suddenly, one of the wolves drops to the ground; sunlight reflects off of a knife sticking out of it's back. A hooded figure, thin and slim, emerges from the trees and jumps by the side of Klein. "I'm on a tight ssschedule, let's make this quick," said the figure with a hint of an accent. The man wears a baggy hood, which prevents any of his head from being seen; dressed in a black trench coat and wearing a belt full of daggers, he definitely sticks out of a crowd.

"You take the one on the left, i'll take the two on the right then?" He chuckles.

[Gamerbug94]

Klein nodded. "Thanks...I owe you." He said sheathing his sword and drawing his Dirks. He ran at the wolf and let loose a flurry of slashes, carving into it. He glanced over at the other two and noticed one was still alive. He simply tosses a dirk into the side of its head and trotted over to retrieve it. "Good thing you showed up" He said cleaning the blood off and sheathing his weapons. "My name is Klein, Klein Ruglia, and you are?" He said offering a hand.

[zes735]

The man pulled his knives out of the bodies and put them back onto his belt, not bothering to clean them. "Pleasssure, Klein." He extended his hand (which was covered by a black glove) and shook back; his hand was very cold, and there wasn't much power to his handshake. "My name?" He hesitates, then lets out a laugh. "Call me Malice for now. If you don't mind me asking, where are you heading?"

[Gamerbug94]

"Strange name..." Klein thought to himself. "And what was that hiss?" he looked at the way he was heading. "Im off to Redna, going to cross the sea by ship if I can find a sailor willing to take a passenger." He said. "you headng the same way for now? Be nice to travel with someone just in case I run into more..." He kicked at one of the dead wolves. "Trouble along the way." He finished, rolling his shoulders and starting to walk towards the town.

[zes735]

"Ah, Redna! I just arrived from there. I'm currently on my way to Braiden to help a friend get out of thisss place. He also planned to cross the sea; one more passenger wouldn't hurt, and i'll let you travel for free." He dusted off his coat. Trusting, isn't he? Malice thought to himself.

"The only catch is that you have to either wait here or follow me back to Braiden, or i'm afraid you won't be able to find my ship...It's not exactly in a legal docking area." He chuckled and walked towards Braiden, not waiting for a reply.

[Gamerbug94]

Klein stopped in his tracks and shook his head. He pondered for a moment. "Do I trust him?" he wondered. He glanced at his pack where the coins he stole were. "No one will know" he thought. He turned and began to follow Malice. "Free is always a good price!" He said grinning. "Lets go find your friend." He walked along with his hands in his pockets.




-----Continued in Braiden-----

[Gamerbug94]

-------------Continued from Braiden----------------

Klein and Blade walked along the pass, straight past the corpses of the wolves from the day before, half picked clean by scavengers. "So Blade..." Klein said lazily. "Hungry at all?" He asked this reaching into his pack and removing 3 pieces of dried meat. "A gambler arn't you?" Klein said. "Try this game, pick a piece, I cant promise what it will be and I cant promise youll enjoy it, but thats the fun." He finished holding the pieces out toward Blade with a half smile. "Plus, the reaction on your face when you get vulture meat or something will be priceless."

[zeidridge]

Blade grabbed a peice, and took a bite. "Hmmm..I can't tell exactly what it is, but it doesn't taste too bad." They continued walking. Blade sounded worried, "I'm feeling like we're being followed...perhaps those shady characters you mentioned arent very happy?"

[Gamerbug94]

Klein simply shrugged. "If they are behind us, the won't catch us." He contunued walking cheerfully. "And if they do, we can fight them or hide. I mean, I'm not too shabby with my blades and you have that weird contraption there." He finished pointing at the thing on Blades hip. "We should be fine." Klein finished with a slight chuckle. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks and pulled Blade to the side of the path. "Wait...do you hear that?" He asked. "Sounds like...wheels?"

[linkin10362]

Narik looked ahead and noticed the two men had disappeared. "Where the hell did they go? Damn horses, going too fast..." Narik jumped out of the carriage and started to walk down the path, but still failed to see the men. "Guess they must be waiting somewhere for me to come by and attack me, might as well give them what they want, no way around it." Narik walked back to his carriage and slowly moved foward down the road, waiting for the men to make their move.

[Gamerbug94]

Klein noticed the carriage coming down the path had bags in it. He recognized them as the ones from the Inn. "Crap...he mustve found out and come after me..." Klein mumbled. "Blade...stay here, if things get hairy you know what to do." He spoke softly. Klein stepped out into the path of the carriage with his hands raised to show he had no intention of drawing his blade. "Here I am, I surrender, I'll give back what I took and you can go on your way." He slowly reached for his supplies to give back the coins.

[linkin10362]

Narik looked surprised. "W..what? When did you even take any of my money?" He looked to see Klein pull out the bag of coins. "Oh, seems like you did take some. Well, not that it matters anyway, go ahead and keep it. Not like I don't have more of it.." Narik pointed to the back of the carriage where all the other bags were kept. "Say...I heard you were headed for Redna, not really sure where the hell that is, but with your direction I could take you there a lot quicker than the pace you are at now. So, why don't you tell your friend to come out the grass over there and hop on."

[zes735]

Not far behind from the carriage was Mille and Malice. They spoke to eachother as they walked down the path, glanced at the carriage as they walked by it, but essentially ignored it and kept walking, speaking in a foriegn tongue. Malice gave a quick wave to Klein as he passed by, but then went back to talking to Mille.