"Oh man." Shrike began as they started walking again, "So you're protecting the king huh?"
He thought about their current situation for a while. If Nezerus was after her, there's no way they'd let them live if they got caught. He considered ditching the royal but his promise to Henry made his insides squirm. If not a courageous hero, he was still a thief of his word. Shrike looked up at the princess and reassured her, "Don't worry, me and Ruby'll keep you safe. Prince Taarn doesn't stand a chance against us."
He grimaced internally.

She smiled at him. "I'm sure. But, I think we should probably-" as she glanced forward, she spotted a guy laying in the middle of the path. "AHHHH!!" She leapt back, almost knocking over Shrike.

The thief's heart almost jumped out of his throat at the princess' sudden cry. For a moment, he thought the Nezerus troops had found them. He was relieved to find it was only a dead man. Or was it? He inched a little closer to the stranger on the ground in front of them. He was still breathing. "Hey, you ok?"

The man on the ground only responded with a groan. He was wearing a full set of armor, save for a hole in his chainmail under the chestplate where blood was escaping. A helmet lay on the ground near him, and a shield and Claymore were strapped to his back. His face was cut up, and he clutched a rolled up piece of parchment. The Parchment bore the seal of the Talendar Royal Family on it.

"Is he... dead?" She leaned over him, looking down at the wound.

"It looks like he will be soon if we don't do something about that wound." said Shrike as he crouched close to the man. He didn't like the amount of blood draining from the hole in his armor. "What should we do?" he asked the princess.

She studied the wound. "We need to get pressure on that wound, and I need some kind of cloth for a bandage. Here," she took off her cloak and handed it to Shrike, "cut or tear off a piece of that. It needs to be a long enough strip to wrap around him." She shifted the breastplate and pressed against the wound.

"AHH!" The man's eyes shot open, and he glanced around wildly for a moment before passing out.

"Oops. Um, hurry."

Shrike unsheathed his dagger and started cutting the cloak. His blade glided smoothly through the cloth since he always maintained it, making the edges where he cut even and smooth. Before the dagger reached a corner of the cloak, he turned it to follow the side perpendicular to the side he was on to make one long, continuous bandage. He handed one end of the strip to the princess so that she could start wrapping it around the man while he continued to cut the cloak.

"Thanks" she said as she began to wrap the bandage around him. "I wonder who he is? He looks like he's wearing Souel colors, but that note is stamped with the Talendar seal. A Messanger? But then why the armor?" She reached back, swiping at the empty air behind the small of her back, and grimaced. "Oh, right. I left my first aid pack back at the palace when I fled."

[Sorry but I gotta go to sleep now :sweat: Goodnight Darkest :)]

After he finished cutting up the cloak, Shrike took the parchment from the man's hand and looked it over. "Hmm..."
He sliced open the seal without waiting for either the man's or the princess' consent and unfurled the letter. "What's this?" he asked the princess as he showed her the paper.

((k, night! see you later!))

Judith glanced up at it from the bandage. "It looks like a letter. Here, take over with the bandage and let me take a look at it." She shifted slightly to give Shrike some room.

Shrike took the bandage strip and handed Princess Judith the parchment. He wasn't as skilled with bandaging people up as the princess was but he tried his best. He made sure that it was wrapped around tight but not too much and when he finished, he made sure to make a good knot so that the bandages wouldn't unravel easily.

The Princess took it carefully, making sure not to get any blood on it. "It looks like a letter to the garrison commander in Souel's capital, Roake." She read it over. "Sir, The amount of enemy forces hiding in the capital are more then we feared. We should prepare for the possiblity of a hostile Nezerus takeover of Talen as soon as we can. If the army falls to the Nezerans, we would be open to an attack from their border. Please consider reinforcing the Talendar boarder as soon as possible." She looked it over. "It isn't signed, but it has the Talendar royal seal on it." She sat down, looing at the man laying there. "I wonder what happened."

Shrike shrugged his shoulders. He looked at the injured man and wondered if he would be ok. "Should we do something about the wounds on his face? I wonder what got him." The boy looked around the forest, keeping an eye out for any creature that might be lurking within the forest. He only knew how to deal with creatures from Talendar, although hearing stories of foreign creatures from traders helped. He'd have to be a quick study if they came up against any aggressive creatures here.
Ruby stirred slightly, only to cover its head with its wing, and returned to its peaceful nap.

She shook her head. "Not to much we can do right now. We're gonna have to try to get him to somewhere." She pulled out the map. "It looks like this dot might be a lake or something. He's going to need some water before long, and it wouldn't kill us to get a drink. Come on, help me move him." She grabbed his armor by the breastplate shoulder and started to pull hard. It didn't go very far.

Shrike got up and grabbed hold of the man's legs after the princess' initial attempt at moving the man. After coordinating themselves to heave at the same time, they managed to get the man a few inches off the ground. They slowly moved him through the forest's uneven terrain. Wherever the ground was flat, they slid him along on his shield. "How much further?" Shrike grunted as they lifted him over some giant roots.

The Princess strained at his weight. "Should be just past this treeline." She set him down hard as they cleared the roots, then heaved again. The man groaned again as they lifted him again, but othewise he remained still. With one final pull, the broke the treeline. A small lake, hardly five feet deep at the middle, flowed gently into a small stream a little to the left of them. It seemed to flow North. "We made it!"

The two gently placed the man down under a tree near the lake. Shrike bent backwards in an attempt to fix his aching back. 'Maybe we should have removed his armor and sword first...' he thought as he looked down on the unconscious man. He turned towards the lake and squatted down by the edge. He watched in awe as many little fish swam around within the clear, crystal blue waters. He had seen live fish before but they were usually in fishbowls in rich peoples' homes. This was his first time seeing wild ones, his tail slowly swishing from side to side.

She shook her head. "I haven't the faintest idea how to take off armor. One of us is going to have to go find some help, and one of us is going to need to stay with him incase his condition worsens." She walked over next to him and sat down next to the lake. "But first, I need a break." She glanced at him. "What's up?" She followed his view to the fish. "Hungry?"

"No..well, yeah but I just haven't seen this many fish before." he said with a grin as he stuck his hand in the water. The fish swam away from the boy's hand, but he merely started playing with the water. "If we're gonna catch these fish, we'll probably need a net. They look too small to stab with a stick." He looked around the lake to see if there were any fish bigger than these. "Do you think these fish are poisonous?" he asked, remembering a bad case of food poisoning when he ate an unknown fish at one of Talendar's city markets. He didn't know the stomach of the spine tailed puffer shark was toxic to dwarves, and was lucky to have only eaten a little of it.

((Sorry I keep being busy guys! :gonk: It's just with Thanksgiving coming up, we've been really busy...))
When Fallon heard the noise rushing through the forest, she drew her katana and readied herself. She saw Era had done the same. But then when Lyle burst out, she tried her hardest to avoid eye contact.

"Come on, we should get back to the safety of the city before they send the whole army this way."

Fallon was happy up to this point about not being the topic of conversation. No one had said "and you! Why did you leave?" But now he said we were heading back. Something she did not want to do. Should she just stand there and hoped they walked off without her? Or should she say she was not going? Or maybe she should just run in the opposite direction... Fallon sighed silently. She decided to stand and wait, but was coming up with words to say if they question what she was doing.

((AH! I feel like such an idiot. I started this this morning, lost track of time and had to run off to a rehearsal, and didn't realize I left my computer on until now... -.- Longest time to post ever. :P))

((FALLON! YAY! Don't worry about it. and LOL, I've had that happen, though not on Menewsha. Still, hope all that work is worth it in the end :D))

She shook her head as she kicked off her shoes and dipped her feet into the lake. "I don't think so. I bet I could get us a couple, but it would take a little while. Probably faster to head towards that town and see if someone can help us." She glanced over at him. "Though the question then becomes how long should we stay here before we head into town?" She looked back at the Knight. "I mean, he needs attention, but he should be stable for a while." She looked back at him. "Would you rather stay and watch him or go and try to find the town?"

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As he finished pointing over his shoulder, he glanced over at Fallon. However, he said nothing to her yet.

((He won't say anything till Fading responds again.))

"I can't just leave you alone." Shrike said as he turned to the princess. "Besides, I got a better idea."
With a grin he grabbed a nearby bug and pulled hard at the whiskers of his sleeping pet, one of the few ways he had discovered to wake Ruby up. "Hey Ruby, wake up!"
The red dragon's tail uncoiled from the princess' neck as it angrily cried out a mini dragon like roar. The mischievous boy quickly stuffed the bug into the dragon's open mouth to pacify it. The dragon calmed down as it chewed on the meal.
"We need you to do a scouting mission." the boy began. He wasn't the least bit sorry for waking the dragon in the rudest possible way, considering it payback for biting him that morning. "Look for nearby towns and tell us how far they are."
After swallowing the bug offering and shaking itself a little, the dragon took to the skies and flew off in search of human settlements.
"I taught Ruby how to look for stuff and tell me where they were." he smiled at the princess. "I still don't know how it learned to understand me though." His blue eyes looked up towards the direction Ruby flew in.

((Daw, I was hoping I wouldn't have to be the icebreaker...:lol:))

Eramthgin wondered why everyone was talking about the necromanced products like some kind of rarity. Last he remembered, they had been fairly active in the outside world and not all...disappeared? like they were now. Why else would everyone be gaping at his skeletons whenever they stood up? The urge to check on the guild at the first chance was getting stronger.

At the Commander's words, he nodded, "Of course. You'll have to lead the way though, I'm afraid I'm quite horrible at discerning directions." He completely left out Fallon, not even glancing at her. He figured that since she wasn't coming along, there was no sense to talk to her anymore and draw further attention to her. If Lyle wanted to pursue the subject, he can do it, but Eramthgin was staying out of this one.

"Well, they say Dragons have the Innate abbility to understand any language through exposure. A Dragon raised by Dragons understands Dragons. A Dragon raised by Elves understands Elves. It can also learn other languages over time. They are much wiser then most living creatures, after all." She smiled as well. "He must be a heck of a traveling companion." She glanced back at the Lake. "How long do you think he will take?"

((I'll get to Ruby's progress soon.))

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Lyle nodded. "Sure, I think I know where to go from here." He took a few steps back the way he came, then turned back to Fallon. "Are you coming?"

[All right :)]

"That's pretty cool." Shrike removed his gaze from the sky that mirrored the color of his eyes and turned to the princess. "I'm not sure how long Ruby'll take but its a pretty fast flier." He sat down and let himself fall backwards. "I never really found out if Ruby's a boy or a girl. When I called it a boy, Ruby just kept ignoring me. But when I called it a girl, it bit me. So now I just call it Ruby and refer to it as an...it!" He looked up at the princess. "Is there anyway to tell if a dragon's a boy or a girl? I know some kinds have different colors but I don't know what kind Ruby is."

[Sorry, but I gotta go now. Goodnight :D]