By the time the rider who had set them free and blackmailed them into his service departed, the prisoners had all found their way to their feet and almost immediately, differing opinions and tension filled the air. The ginger Imperial cynically stated the shit deal they’d been dealt, to which Cedric simply gestured to the Count’s decapitated and bulging eyed head, the terror and shock of death locked on his homely features. [color=gold]“Better than the one he got.”[/color] he said, turning to return to the prison to gather his belongings. He passed the fretting blue-eyed Imperial who was pondering aloud why their mysterious benefactor didn’t simply hire reliable men, slapping a meaty hand on the short man’s shoulders. 

[color=gold] “Who said anything about reliable, lad? We’re attractive because we’re expendable and obviously not above breaking a few laws to serve our own interests. Damn good resume, if you ask me. And don’t worry, you won’t have to fight, you’ll just have to catch the arrows the gobshites generously donate to me from their own bows. Best part is, you don’t have to a damn thing but stand there.”[/color] Cedric said with a cheeky grin, which faded the moment another Imperial, a scrawny, filthy thing, started stammering in near panic about being betrayed and slaughtered. Cedric rolled his eyes, raising his voice to the complainer. [color=gold]”If you don’t shut yer trap, these bandits won’t have a problem adding you to the corpse pile. I’m not banking on Lord Shitheel to be upstanding, but I am banking on his brother not being a right cunt when we deliver him and letting him know what good little lads and lasses we were in taking care of him. So calm yer prick, get yer shite, and get moving if you want a chance and not fookin’ dying next his goons find you, yeah?”[/color] Cedric said, turning to depart towards the jail, beginning to whistle a folk tune a his feet crunched the frozen earth as he crossed the yard.

Truth be told, the wholesale slaughter of innocents bothered Cedric, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Lords played their shitty little games and peasants paid the price, it was just how things went. The games they played often cost lives, and it was impossible not to be cynical how one wayward little lordling could be balanced against the deaths of dozens of villagers. Granted Count Fuckcunt of Meir fucking Thorvale and his merry band of goons probably earned their deliverance, but the baker? The seamstress? The fucking children? There was no justice in this world, and if they gods cared, they had a funny way of showing it.

Others had already beaten him to the prison, the door left askew and stepping into the room was like stepping into a veil of blackness until his eyes adjusted. Cracking open a couple of the chests until he saw his own gear, including his bow, which hung off of a hook on the wall, Cedric pulled his quiver from the trunk and started counting the arrow shafts. [I][color=gold]I’ll be damned. They didn’t pinch any.[/color][/I] he thought, actually somewhat surprised that the guards actually gave a shit about property rights. He started buckling his gear on, reflecting on what had gotten him into this mess. 

A six point buck, well fed, and too busy with flowers to notice the Reachman creeping above an outcropping and drawing back his bow. The barely audible twang of the string snapping back to its relaxed position didn’t even register in the morning air as the broadhead found its way behind the deer’s shoulder into its heart and lungs. Moments later, after a brief and surprised struggle, the creature had dropped to the snow, its life bleeding out in a steady pool. By the time Cedric had reached the creature, it had already passed on. Even so, he stroked its long neck reassuringly and said the prayer his father had recited all those years in the foothills outside of Northpoint. [I][color=gold]“To Lady Kynareth of the skies and these woods, thank you for this gift and favorable winds so me mark was true and this creature did not suffer. Accept it now into yer embrace so it may find peace, having given its life so I may live.”[/color] After waiting a few moments, both to see if the creature still had signs of life and to mark a moment of respect, he drew his hooked gutting knife and began the process of cleaning the animal, removing its organs in several clean and practiced cuts before leaving them deposited in the snow. Nothing in nature went to waste; although he himself had no use for those parts of the deer, predators would soon find this spot and feast well. The deer’s passing would give life to many others, and the parts that were not edible would be crafted into clothing and alchemy ingredients. A simple, stupid creature such as a deer provided much more in its short life than most people. It wasn’t any mystery why Cedric didn’t like cities; people were utter cunts.

And it was cunts indeed who had confronted Cedric as he brought the carcass into Meir Thorvale, intending to sell the body to the butcher and the head to the local apothecary. The guards approached him, demanding to see the permit issued in the count’s name, and as simple as that, Cedric was slapped in irons and spent three very uncomfortable nights with other prisoners, sharing a shit bucket and questionably safe gruel to dine upon. Pausing in reflection, Cedric searched the guards’ office for keys, finding them hanging off of hooks on the wall. Grabbing the lot of them, Cedric returned to the cell block and immediately was hit once more with the repugnant stench of unclean bodies and bodily waste. Not bothering to check locks, he started tossing keys to the remaining prisoners. [color=gold]”Free yerselves, but wait until it is silent outside or this place catches a blaze, there’s raiders who will kill on sight. Trust me, you do not want to take yer chances.”[/color] he said, nodding to the prisoners, who immediately started scrambling for their locks. It didn’t matter what crimes they committed, if they were left here, they would die a slow death by thirst before anyone found them, and he imagined most were locked up on bullshit charges like the ones he’d suffered. He could only hope the rapists and murderers took their second chance as a shot at redemption, not to continue on their deviant ways.

Regardless, it wasn’t Cedric’s problem. Stepping outside into the brisk morning air, Cedric strolled to the main road where others were already starting to assemble. Resting his bow on his shoulders and his wrists on top of that, he listened to the chatter and how there was a rush to establish a pecking order. The Redguard with the sword and buckler made to pick a fight with one of the bandits, but thought better of it. The bandit had to be held back by his friend, saying something Cedric couldn’t hear. Probably something along the lines of not killing him because explaining to the boss why they slaughtered the prisoners he’d sprung for his plan was not in anyone’s interests. The orc was sneering at the altmer, who huffed back, and the fellow Reachman with the floppy hat couldn’t resist getting his own barbs in, testing the water. When the elf, Cyrendil, made a high-strung and half-assed insistence that he wasn’t a murderer for utterly slaughtering a woman, Cedric snickered. 

[color=gold]”So you murder people for admiring Daedra, do you? You went the wrong way, lad, Morrowind’s [I]East[/I]. Of course, with all your Vigil shite, you’d probably have a hard time making it 50 meters into yer indiscriminate killing spree before you were taken down. Can’t have yer serial killer career cut short, can we Cyrodiil?”[/color] Cedric smirked. [color=gold]“Dunmer sure like their Azura, and this big green bastard probably gets off to carvings of Malacath every night, ain’t that right?”[/color] he asked, looking up at the towering orc with an exaggerated whistle. [color=gold]“By the way, whatever giant happened to be yer parent, I hope it was the fookin’ mother because otherwise… her poor cunt.”[/color]