Angel at the gateyard (private thread for Jenara)

[Stik]

(Angel wanted to talk to Salia)

After dinner, as the group beds down for the night, Angel finds Salia and Egg packing away the cooking gear. Egg gladly steps away when Angel asks to speak to the girl in private.

[Jenara]

Angel sits down, her armor creaking as she lowers herself onto the hard earth, adjusting her blade as she does so.

"Thank you for talking with me, I know this whole experience must be very strange for you, nothing like the life you know." Patting the ground beside her she looks up, but not directly at the girl. "Did anything strange happen in Paulding Depot? I only ask because it was a strange experience for us all.." She doesn't look at Salia, just focuses on her voice.

[Stik]

"You're right, this whole trip has been strange. But Paulding Depot was just a town. The only strange thing to happen there was when Bastian healed my cuts. It was amazing." She opens her hand and holds it out. "Look at...oh, well, if there were more light you could see. There's only a faint scar, like a scratch."

[Jenara]

"The gods touch us all.. Emdalus watches over us." Angel comments in a reverent tone, the gods had to be watching.. "Being healed made you feel different? Was it the feeling of amazement or did you feel something deeper?" Was that the connection, had being healed done something to her?

"As for you being hurt, as of tomorrow I am going to teach you how to use that dagger, the one I assume you have somewhere on your person?" She grins, daring for a moment to look at the girl, had anything changed?

[Stik]

"While the cuts were closing I felt...special. Like when I was sick and mother took care of me. Then the cuts closed good as new and it was done."

"Of course I have my dagger. Hiric isn't happy about it, but I have it." Salia pulls the dagger from its sheath, which is fastened at the back of her belt. her draw is awkward, but she manages to get it out fairly quickly, and with the right end in her hand. She strikes a pose, dagger held high, point forward, like a legionnaire about to thrust with a gladius. "Just like Dorita, right?"
Angel glances up at the girl, framed by the stars, and is struck by the awkwardness of her pose. In a real fight she's be a disaster, but her enthusiasm is touching. But without a shield, the position of her left hand is useless, and a dagger is not a gladius, and a gladius is the foundation of the Legions, responsible for most legion victories, although the humble spade is the legion's second greatest weapon.Who had said that? Severus, it was, who taught logistics and siegecraft.
"...this right, am I?" Salia asks.

[Jenara]

"Its a start, a foundation to work on." Angel says as relaxed as she can. She had expected that to happen, whatever was surrounding her was still there. "We have to work on your stance, the dagger is for close quarter fighting." Giving a little sigh she draws the second dagger from her boot.

"Hiric is torn, he wants his sister to live, but not have the darkness surround you." Had it already? "You hurt yourself last time because the blade you were using didnt protect your hand. The dagger does." She taps the cross guard. "Hold it loosely, a too rigid grasp leaves you too rigid inside.. An old solider once told me to hold your blade like you'd hold a lover, whatever that means." She shrugs.

"Keep your feet apart, your movements light, we need to move the sheaf, id suggest putting it on the left side, you can get it easier, as for hiruc.. He will get over it." She keeps her tone light, not letting it worry her, she needed the mage or maybe Bastian would have an idea.

[Stik]

"Can I tell you something? Between us? You have to promise." Salia puts all the emphasis that a teenage girl can muster into that last word. Then she plunges on as if she might lose her nerve if she doesn't: "My brother is scared. He tries not to show it, but he is. He has protected me since mother died, and now he is afraid he can't.
"Master Fraso is afraid, too. Of those people."

[Jenara]

"The people who attacked us? Who took the body?" Angel asks trying to stay calm and relaxed, as if the conversation was nothing out of the ordinary. "Master Fraso is scared, I see that." She agrees accented with a small nod.

"Understand something my dear, I am here to protect him, it is my duty, you are tied to him, thus you are under my protection too." With a weak smile she glances at the camp. "Why would you have anything to fear by them?" Pausing she adds. "I will hold that secret, do not worry." Hands shaking she sheaves the dagger once more.

[Stik]

Angel arrives at the gateyard to find it abandoned, save for the legionnaires guarding the gate.

The wagon is there, the horses still hitched to it, but it is empty. A corpse is sprawled across the driver's bench, a civilian, pierced through with a spear, and with half his head hacked away.

[Jenara]

Angel keeps her blade drawn cursing herself in elven and moves to the wagon, firstly checking the body, then if the strong box is still present

[Stik]

The strongbox is in the wagon bed.
The spear through the corpse is Egg's.
Hiric's axe is lodged in the corpse's ribs.
There is a lot of blood on and around the wagon.

[Jenara]

Angel pauses to think... Fraso wouldn't have left without the strongbox. Thus he is most likely taken by force. Egg would have fought to protect them, as would Hiric..

Focusing on not looking for Salia she scans the wagon before jumping into the drivers seat, taking it to the others. Praesul following.

[Stik]

Angel sees no sign of Salia or any of the others she left behind. There is blood scattered around the wagon on the ground, but no clear trail to follow.

The corpse is sprawled across the driver's bench. Angel has to move it get onto the bench, which is covered in gore.
As she drags the corpse out, she sees that its arms are chewed up, with the bone showing in some places, and the corpse's tunic is covered with bloodstains. This is another of the risen dead, probably a townsman killed in the initial attack.

[OOC] Is Angel going to retrieve the axe or spear, or leave them in the corpse when she leaves? [/OOC]

[Jenara]

She'll take the weapons, but not before she removes the mans head, just in case..

Using the mans tunic she wipes the seat and moves the wagon slowly, intending on meeting up with the others.. This was her mistake.. Another.

[Stik]

There's no real need to decapitate the thing. It's head has already been hacked up. But there's no reason for Angel not to do so.
In removing the tunic, Angel sees more wounds on the body - obvious bite marks. The body is fresh, showing no obvious signs of decay. And its clothes are dry, so it couldn't have been part of the group that walked out of the lake.

Angel wipes the bench as best she can, and drives the wagon through the streets towards the ruined house.

[OOC] Jen - please rejoin the main thread. [/OOC]