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"What do you think?" Balian asked Leon, who was still draped in the chain mail shirt he'd worn in battle. The guard looked at his old friend with a smirk, examining the blood stained cloth wrapped around the head of one of the beasts as it lay by his feet, tied knotted at the top. He picked up one of the horns that rested on the table, they'd probably sell for something on the side.

"All I know." Leon hesitated, "These could pocket some coin!" He laughed and gestured for Balian to take the other. The ranger smiled, he couldn't help it around his friends' antics, always looking to fill his pocket, it wasn't a desire they shared. Balian took a closer look at the horn that his friend grasped before picking up the one off the table, it was a mystery to him what kind of use these would have and he himself wouldn't have any. "Keep it." Leon's tone had changed, he still held onto the horn but his arm rested on the table his free hand reaching for the tankard in front of him. He was drunk, this was for certain and he'd began to ramble on about coin and nonsense until the conversation swung to the topic of the morning. "Tomorrow, we head out." Leon swayed but he was thinking more coherently it seemed. 

As Leon stood, Balian lurched backwards in his seat, hands splayed to catch the table as it moved. His attention taken as the hand of his host took his shoulder, "Tomorrow, then. Feel free to sleep here." By the time Leon had finished the sentence he was already half way up the stairs. The ranger looked down his tankard and finished it before standing himself, he hadn't been consuming it at as fast a pace as his old friend but was still under it's effects. Gathering his belongings he took one last look at the bundle on the ground before leaving the house, heading up the street to go back to the inn. He would see Leon in the morning.

[hr]

Balian fixed his cloak as the weight and provisions he would carry hanged on his back, bunching the material up awkwardly. Once fixed he left the inn, the streets were no less busy but the atmosphere had completely changed around town. While the people's faith in the men-at-arms positioned in and around the town had been bolstered, none had believed the rumors of raiders this far south, it would lead one to wonder about the hamlets and smaller settlements scattered around nearby that it could take a day or days to get messages to. New rumors and scare rhetoric began to arise about how this was bigger than it seemed, there were people so taken by it was all they could talk about which came across more like preaching.

Up the street, Leon was walking alongside a horse held tight by the reigns, the beasts head in one of the packs that hanged from its saddle. The ranger jogged up beside him, swerving others carrying buckets or traversing the streets in the morning until he reached his friend who almost hadn't heard him coming up behind him. "Today, then." He teased, Leon stared at him blankly, a squint in his eye as if he suffered from a headache and the light made it worse. Balian laughed, quietly and tapped his friend on the shoulder who seemed to lurch forward slightly under his own weight.

As the pair came within sight of the gates Balian noticed one of the other men from last night who'd been around for the fighting and  seemingly agreed to come along. They approached, Leon pulling the head from the satchel still wrapped in cloth before sticking it back in the satchel. This was mostly for the sight of the guard who nodded and greeted them, the ranger gestured to the fellow adventurer with a hand movement as he approached. "You're a good shot with that." He spoke, referring to the crossbow before coming to a halt standing next to the stranger, Leon was stood over talking to one of the men-at-arms on watch. "How come he gets a horse?" He teased, looking over Artemis before staring up the street to see if any of the others were coming.