The Warlord and The Priestess

[4Chiri]

"I will always be able to make my way to you, milady." he said. outside the gates was the carriage and horses. In the distance, the Kenwyte was burning.


"Come," he said and motioned towards the carriage, "hurry."

 

[Morigan]

Melia was speechless for a moment, still confused as to how he had found her. She realized it wasn't important and all that mattered was that he did find them, and rescue them once again.


She hurried to the carriage, stepping up quickly and making space for Ithet to follow her. "Is it safe to travel?" she asked before he closed the carriage door.

 

[4Chiri]

He took in a breath and jumped up onto the horse, pulling the carriage and speeding off. Almost immediately, there was a chase. Men in black robes came to the sides of the carriage, riding atop young basilisks ... perhaps the men that had something to do with the desecration of the Temple of Karamina.


The began to attack, slashing at the carriage with swords. Moganthe stood, keeping the horses running. He walked carefully as the high speed chase shook the carriage violently, unsheathing his own sword and trying to fight off the men.


Ithet squealed.


"What's happening!?" she yelped as both ladies were shaken crazily inside the carriage, it hit over a rock and nearly tipped over. One of the doors swung open and a hooded man reached inside and grabbed Ithet. She smacked at him, but in a flash, the man's hand was cut off.


The sound of yelling and clanging was loud, the basilisks attacked the horses and grabbed at the wheels.


The voices began to whisper softly.

 

[Morigan]

Melia grabbed onto the seat, for balance and in case anyone tried to yank her out of the open carriage door. She tried to focus on the voices despite all the shaking and screaming that was surrounding her.


The voices were whispering and Melia was desperate to know what they were trying to tell her.

 

[4Chiri]

There was more yelling and crashing, but the more she focused, the quieter everything else became. The voices whispered louder, desperately with fear and anger and force. Almost like something were trying to free itself from her skull.


Beniritha Beniritha Beniritha Beniritha Beniritha Beniritha


Suddenly the carriage jerked again as one of the wheels broke off, the fighting was terrible, Ithet's screams and all the yells and noise were still muffled.


Karamina's hands...her hands...use her hands...


The voices screamed in her head.

 

[Morigan]

"Beniritha...hands...Karamina's hands..." Melia mumbled the words as the voices finally became clear to her mind. The shouting and jerking of hte carriage sis not seem to penetrate her focus.


The stress of the situation left Melia disoriented for a few moments..."the hands. Use them? How...I don't understand..." she muttered to herself, as if the voices would answer her questions.

 

[4Chiri]

The voices began to quiet down, as if fading away.


Use her hands....use the hands she gave you...


Then they were gone.


One of the robed men opened the opposite door and grabbed Melia's arm, drawing up his sword to stab her.

 

[Morigan]

Melia held her hands out in front of her, between herself and the attacker and prayed to Karamina. She didn't know what to expect but she was out of options as the man brought his sword down at her.

 

[4Chiri]

Just as the sword came towards her, her hands suddenly heated up, there was a blinding flash and in seconds, the man had half a body, nearly melted completely off and he slumped out of the carriage. No sooner than that, the carriage suddenly crashed into a tree, toppling to it's side and everything went silent. All of the attackers were dead. Ithet shivered and slowly sat up, tangled in the capsized carriage. She had a few bruises, but stared at Melia in complete fear and confusion.

 

[Morigan]

Melia stared at her hands in awe. "Well that's new..." she said quietly. Her hands seemed to have returned to normal, no longer hot. Melia turned to look around her at the destruction of the carriage and the bodies of the attackers. "What did they want? I thought the bandits were after the Count..."

 

[4Chiri]

"I dunno...." she shivered "....where's Moganthe?"

 

[Morigan]

Melia stood up on shaky legs and began to look through the wreckage and bodies for Moganthe. "Warlord?" she called loudly.

 

[4Chiri]

After a moment, he pushed from underneath one of the dead horses and slowly crawled to his knees, catching his breath.


"...ah....p-priestess...are you alright?" he called back

 

[Morigan]

Melia rushed over to him, pushing debris away as he crawled forward. "I'm fine. You should be more worried about yourself," she said looking at him.

 

[4Chiri]

One of his shoulders had been dislocated, but he stood up, held it and pulled it back in place with a crack. He sighed heavily with the pain in his chest and stood up, a bit unstable. One of the horses had fallen and broken it's neck, the other had run off somewhere.


"...I think we're near Walchwood Glade." he said and looked around. Scattered pines, a creek and hills of green for miles. "Looks like we need to walk and find the road.." he sighed. "we can't take anything with us."

 

[Morigan]

"Very well," Melia said, wincing as he popped his shoulder back into place. "I believe Ithet is a bit shaken," she added softly. "Which way do you suggest we walk in search of the road? I take it we should not be wandering the woods in the dark."

 

[4Chiri]

"Well," he said and looked around again.


"...the sun sets in the south, which means this way is north," he sighed pointing towards the horizon where mountains reached high and were frigid.


"That's the direction of the city." he mumbled.


Ithet took in a few deep breaths.."but...what will we do for nighttime?"


All of their clothes were tattered and dirty, and being wet and cold was dangerous.


"we will stop, make a fire and dry our clothes and wash if we follow this creek. should lead to a lake."


he started slowly walking, "come on."


"But who were those men? they didn't look like normal bandits.." Ithet worried.


"I think...they were rogue students...of the school for prophets" he huffed

 

[Morigan]

"That group has been very determined to thwart our progress," Melia said thoughtfully as they headed north along the creek. "I wonder why they are so aggressive suddenly, right after I became Priestess. I think it's very strange."


She fell silent as they continued to walk, hoping to see the lake come into view soon.

 

[4Chiri]

"Maybe...maybe they're intimidated?" he thought. "You have a more powerful position than you think Priestess," he started.


Ithet shuddered. The thought of it was almost too much to bear. People were clearly trying to kill the priestess...the reason why however, wasn't so clear.


After a few hours of exhausting trekking, the small trio came upon a small lake in a clearing, some of it had ice around the edges, but at least it was fresh water.


"We'll stop here for the night." Moganthe said. "I'll survey the area, you two can stay here and ....try to get comfortable I guess." he shrugged and walked further into the trees.


Ithet glanced at the lake for a moment and gave a sad sigh.


"Well...at least we can wash and get this mud off of us. Perhaps after Moganthe goes to sleep yes?"

 

[Morigan]

"Do you think he will? He always stays up on watch when we're traveling. I do want to get clean though." She looked around uncertainly. "Do you think he'll be gone a while now?"

 

[4Chiri]

"I don't know..." she looked around. "Well...he's never that far away...and I can hold up your robes to cover you just in case." she said.


"If you want to wash now that is."

 

[Morigan]

"I would. But maybe we should wait, like you suggested. At least until we have a fire," she said glancing at the icy water. "Other wise we may catch a chill."

 

[4Chiri]

She nodded. After a few minutes Moganthe came back with a small grin.


"...I saw Yuffa tracks," he said. The native, numerous sheep-like animals often wandered the plains grazing or brainlessly standing around. though they were small, they were bred for their wool.


"If I can find it, we won't starve on the way to the city." he stated then began to clear a small area near the lake for a fire.


"Aren't we close to the Lanloden border?" Ithet asked, "perhaps there's a farm nearby."


"if so, I didn't see it...." he sighed and collected some sticks.

 

[Morigan]

"Well, perhaps we will get lucky and it will wander back this way," Melia said to Moganthe. She also started collecting some dry branches for a fire, setting them in the space he had cleared out. "How far away are we? More than a day?" she asked.

 

[4Chiri]

He saw her collecting the sticks, but didn't stop her...


"Well, if I were alone, I could probably reach the city tomorrow night, as I wouldn't stop but....in order to take care of you," he said and glanced to Melia's eyes, "perhaps two days..."


Ithet sighed.


"...Unless we can hitch a wagon once we reach the highway."


"If we're lucky." he mumbled and looked for something to smash together for sparks.