[table][row][i][b][color=a0410d]Trace Retloth[/color][/b]
Garleton Plaza[/i][/row][cell]

Trace listened without moving for a long moment.  What he wanted was some certainty.  He had no idea how the war was going. There weren't even any rumors worth listening to.  There weren't any refugees either.  It was strange.  The enemy army seemed to have vanished for all the people knew about it.  It made him nervous.  Not knowing what to say to the mage next to him also made him nervous.  It didn't help his nerves that she was actually pretty, a fact that he had missed when he noticed her from a greater distance.  He was reminded that he had never actually had much polite contact with the fairer sex.  After all, most of the ones that mercenaries encountered were either on the battlefield or in disreputable lines of work... and those lines of work reminded Trace too much of his mother for him to have any interest at all.

Since he didn't know anything about the mage that he hoped to work with, he decided to simply speak his mind and hope for the best.  His free hand came up to scratch behind his ear in an unconscious act of nerves as his mouth finally opened.  [color=a0410d]"My name is Trace, Trace Retloth. I just signed up as a mercenary for the Prince's army but I have a bad feeling about things and I've always felt safer with a mage at my back.  I know it's too much to ask you to sign up or anything like that... but this feeling... I don't like the fact that nobody seems to know where the enemy army is.  There aren't any refugees or even rumors."[/color]  Now that he was talking about his concerns his grip on his lance tightened unconsciously.  [color=a0410d]"You look like you're traveling alone.  Normally, a mage could travel alone without much trouble around here.  But, with an invading army in the picture... I think it might be too risky for you to try and travel alone until the war's over."
[/color]
He took a breath to steady himself before he launched into the rest of his socially awkward speech.  [color=a0410d]"I don't know why you're traveling and I don't know whether or not you're actually traveling alone and if I hadn't already signed up for this war I'd just offer my services outright but... I don't take a client's money and then back out.  So, I want to help you travel safer without abandoning my current employer and the only way I can think of to do that would be for you to accompany me and stay close when trouble shows up.  It's weird to ask... but there it is."
[/color]

And, with that, Trace sealed his mouth shut and waited in tense silence.  With his social incompetence and personal concerns practically written on his sleeve, he was certain of little else other than that he might as well sign off on permanent bachelorhood and sporadic unemployment for his future.  Still, he had spoken the truth.  His nerves were winding tighter as time went on.  Silence was the worst thing a fighter could ever hear from any enemy, and the bigger a group the worse the silence was.  For an entire army to have produced no current rumors meant one of two things.  Either they were coming closer, fast, and not allowing anyone to escape... or they had managed some kind of silent retreat without the empire's scouts reporting it.  Trace didn't like the odds of the second option at all.
[/cell]
[cell][img]https://i.imgur.com/QzyCrZx.jpg[/img]
[center]_________________________
Status: [color=lawngreen]Awkward & Well[/color]
[/center][u]Class[/u]: Recruit
[u]Inventory[/u]:[list][*]Iron Lance
[*]Vulnerary[/list][/cell][/table]