[center][h1][color=teal]Jerod[/color][/h1][/center]

[color=teal]"Ye damn'd prancin ninnies, ne'er ambus' ah Feroxian..."[/color] Jerod was not too far away from Yllistol. It had been quite some time since he had ever been near the capitol of Yllise, and while the bandit numbers had dropped like a damn rock since he had last passed through all those years ago, they still seemed to enjoy skulking around the less travelled roads. They were dead now, of course, and he was wiping blood off his axe while he considered the situation at hand, especially the near abandoned road he was using. Which was precisely the kind of road that Jerod preferred these days. He never risked the big, public roads that had all sorts of folks traversing them. For all he knew someone would recognize him, and he couldn't be having that at all. Not with his current standing in Regna Ferox, he had no intention of going back there without damn good reason. Word was, of course, spreading about this Crusade that the Church of Naga had gone and declared, and the first thought in Jerod's mind when he caught wind of the plan was simple. Where could he plant himself in the way of these zealous idiots? By himself, he seriously doubted that there was any chance of him seriously being able to do much more than annoy their forces. So, that meant seeking out likely candidates that would be standing in the way of the Crusade.

Ferox? Out of the question in Jerod's mind, for reasons he had already covered. Plegia might, due to their connection to the dragon 'god' Grima, despite its defeat all those years ago at the hand of the Ylissean Shepards. That brought him to the most likely candidate on this continent, or any that he had ever walked on, Yllise. One of their tactician academy lads had been declared the Champion of Naga, according to a bounty sheet he had stumbled across on the lad. He had long since disposed of it, that kind of thing was stupid dangerous to walk around with in territory hostile to the Champion, let alone in places that would openly support him. But it had given some rather odd information that he doubted was true. He wasn't there, but word spread fast from that meeting, that the Church was hunting their own champion? Rather, the champion some ancient Manakate had gone and appointed. Whether Jerod agreed that these ancient dragon beings like Naga and Grima were truly gods or not was irrelevant, since looking at the situation made it apparent that their existence made things more complicated on their normal plane of existence. And the manakate, which as a species seemed to have a more heightened bond with this Naga (which did not surprise him at all, really), had called out this lad as the Champion of Naga before she vanished.

Typical dictatorial actions, really, Jerod sighed as he began walking again. He rested the axe on his shoulder, almost like a lumberjack would, letting his mind continue to wander as he continued along the forest path and left the dead bandits unburied and a warning against other bandits. They preyed on the weak, and deserved no mercy or respectful burials. Let the wilds claim their rotten corpses and turn them to something useful, better than they had been in life at least. These divine and accursed dragon 'gods' seemed to spend more time playing mortals against each other with their blessings and goals than they did being beneficial deity figures. Not to say all gods were good, Jerod mentally conceded to his own argument, but a group of deity like figures that none did any good for, as far as the Feroxian was concerned? Not worth giving the time of day, let alone worshiping. Jerod had yet to find a reason that these dragon 'gods' deserved any worship, so while he believed in a higher power than any of them, he refused to swear fealty to them. He also never asked or cried out to them for help, he was no hypocrite. Even if it meant finally dying.

Jerod saw Yllistol within a short, brisk walk as he broke out of the forest's dense nature, almost shielding his eyes from the abrupt shift of light. Slinging the axe onto his back proper, he let his arms rest at his sides as he made his way into Yllistol proper. It was a rather impressive city, alive with energy despite the looming war, and people carrying on with their normal lives. Rumors of the Shepards was spreading rapidly, it seemed, and while no one seemed to agree on the how and why, the general idea was that they were coming back. Some sort of independent force from the Yllise army. Going off after high value places, Jerod suspected, and that sounded just perfect for him. Throwing himself into death's gate again would do the most good there, but the only information he could really gather was there was an old building on the castle grounds that the Shepard's used to use before they were disbanded. That might work best as a place to start, but he was still on the outskirts so it took him a decent amount of walking to even get within sight of the castle.

Jerod made his way onto the grounds, he seriously doubted that he was supposed to be here but curiosity drove him so he found a way onto the grounds, finding the tower folks had been talking about. Seems like repairs had already begun, by some fellow with a sword who seemed to be resting. If he had done all the work himself, than the break was warranted the Feroxian fighter reckoned. But he approached, an easy grin on his face as his greeting boomed readily across the distance between the two of them as it steadily closed. [color=teal]"G'fternoon t' ye, lad. Seems I ain' t'e only one ferretin' out ol' legends, eh?"[/color]

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[center][h2][color=orange]Nori[/color][/h2][/center]

[color=orange]"Brother, you really are making this difficult..."[/color] A tall, lithe looking woman in light armor and with a bow slung over her shoulder was walking down the biggest road leading towards the capitol of Yllise, muttering to herself as she looked for that familiar armor and Feroxian gait that she remembered her brother having before he vanished. She refused to say died, as no body was ever found, and rumors of a man matching how he would likely look at this point in his life had been taking her farther and farther away from major civilization. And then, just as she caught wind of the Church of Naga declaring a crusade, his trail went cold. It was only by blind luck that a traveling merchant had spotted the man matching the description she provided, and a few gold had loosened his tongue and set her on the path to the center of peaceful civilization. And here she was, walking in a progression of visitors, merchants, and mercenaries seeking to aid the kingdom as word spread of the coming Crusade. It would make sense, knowing Jerod as she did, that he would seek out a course like this. But even so, why under the banner of Yllise and not Ferox, which was his homeland!

Nori was confused by her brother's actions as she grew more able in tracking down her dear brother and figuring out why he had run after faking his own death. After all these years away from home, he had missed both parents passing on and leaving her as the only living blood relative he had. And Jerod was the only kin that Nori had left, and she was going to figure out why he had faked his death and ran. But Yllistol was a huge place, from what she could see already, which left her one plain question. Where in Naga's name would she begin her search? Nori doubted that he would be hanging around long, so she pretty much went about her business as usual in places like this. Asking after her brother, and the Shepards when she realized that rumor was going around. It sounded like the perfect place to track her brother down. Nori wouldn't even know the Champion or Exalt by appearance, so she very well might end up asking them about both her brother, and the Shepards for that matter. So the young woman would walk around, asking for the same information on two questions. [color=orange]"Excuse me, have you seen a Feroxian man a few hands taller than I, wearing a special set of armor that has seen many years wandering? And what do you know of this whole Shepard rumor going around?"[/color]