[IC] The Gift of the Gods

[xRobynx]

Neither Chrion nor Rilden would speak an answer. It didn't matter. She slowly stood and looked at them with a small tug on her lips, "We all have different ideas of a happy ending." With that, she walked around them and onwards down the street of the village, not sparing a look back.

In truth, she was a bit upset of their words, but she was sure they didn't mean any harm by it. Jamlamin's actions and words were by far the most concerning. The scene repeated itself over and over in her head as she strolled through the streets with no destination other than to kill time until dusk fell. Some of the children from earlier found her again and insisted she perform some more magic. She was happy to comply with their wishes. With the sun starting to fall down below the horizon it was a much better time for the fire display.

She threw her hand into the air and sent several sparks whistling high in to the air in different directions, a few towards the mountain, and the rest, save one , over towards the sea. They burst with bright colors. This went on for the better part of an hour. One after another she would send bright sparks skyward, hold fire in her hands, and other minor conjuring tricks. As the sun dipped below the horizon it wouldn't be the voice of their matron that would prompt them to return home, but her own.

"It's getting late; you should all be heading home. It's nearly bedtime."

The children groaned as they sulked away. Robyn couldn't help but break a smile as they did. Oh when life was that easy. As for her, the night was still young, and she needed to get to Rilden's meeting. She slowly made her way back towards the barn.

 She couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. After Jamlamin's actions she wasn't comfortable in the growing darkness alone anymore. What did he mean by all that? What was going on in his head? Was he hiding in the shadows now? She turned the corner just a block away from the barn. She seemed to be the first to arrive.

[DELETED324324]

Jamlamin made his way back to the house and grabbed his journal a letter marked his latest entry but instead of reading his latest entry he pulled the letter from between the pages of the book and read it to himself

My dear friend J,

I have found your birth parents, they are alive they are struggling to make anything but they are alive, me and my associates will keep an eye on them and try to keep them safe. Because for you my friend the sky is the limit, I will send my next letter to your Foster Aunt's inn in Silveredge that way our mystery friend won't intercept that letter and use it against you.

Stay safe my friend and keep your eyes peeled ~ T

Jamlamin read this letter every night before bed it gave him peace and easiness and he needed that more and more as of late, these people put him on edge they were constantly expecting him to jam a knife in their ribs or sell them out to Fuso's who Jamlamin hated more than anything, he looked outside wrapped in his thoughts and realized how dark it was getting, they would probably be heading to the barn now so Jamlamin put the letter back in his journal and set the journal down gingerly on the desk and stood. He could of turned into a shadow and traveled to the barn but he didn't want to exhaust himself and he didn't want to rely on his ability that much so he walked, he walked through the streets until he arrived at the barn and found just Robyn standing there alone. She seemed on edge so Jamlamin avoided her and sat down on a bale of hay.

[Scoutas]

Darlith looked surprised at Nat. His tracking skills were exceptional, and he must have tracked down loads of people. In the mercenary line of work, that's most of what you have to do, really. "And jumping out on the path of dirt would've hurt them. They must have jumped to either side of the path." she said, and looked to the both sides. One side was dense with trees and if they would have jumped to this side - they would've been injured and at the worst case scenario - dead. So this wasn't the side they jumped out, so she glanced to the other side. While it was dense, it wasn't as dense as the other side and it had quite a bit of flora. It would have been much softer landing than landing on the clay path itself. She crouched in front and started staring at this patch of ground, trying to find any indication that it happened here. And to her surprise - it was there. It seemed like someone was lying down there. "Nat! I found it. They jumped off right here. Well, at least that's where they stopped and I take it - waited for Orcs to go past. Their tracks must be..." she took a few steps into the forest. "... here." she noticed four footprints, going in completely different direction, than the orcs searched in. She was rather excited, and looked back at Nat, who didn't seem to be too amused. He did seem out of it to Darlith for a little bit of time now. "Nat? Look, I'm going after the trail, I have to know who were the people they were trying to catch. I don't know if you're interested or not, but I won't hold a grudge if you decide not to follow me." and she stepped deeper into the forest.

It was more difficult that she thought it would have been. Darlith had been following the tracks for good two hours, but it would just become a hundred times more difficult as night was setting. But Darlith was lucky - it was just enough time to cross the forest. "If the Orcs would've found their tracks... Those boys aren't cautious, now are they?" she asked herself. The forest had become rather thin, with just several trees around and then she noticed smoke in the orange horizon. A village. She had to punch a tree and a smile appeared on her face. "Of course, where else they would've went? To the halflings. This village is so well hidden that it's actually scary. But I guess they manage to live by themselves." she scratched her head. "But will the halflings let me inside?" as she wasn't certain, she was hoping to wait for Nat to catch up with her, quite a bit of ways away from the village.

[Heinrich]

Nat nodded to Darlith when she found some tracks relying on Nat's assumptions. He was happy with himself, yet at the same time he was not sure whether he wanted to follow them. He barely had any coins or food and those tracks were not going to grant him any of those, or so Nat assumed. Darlith on the other hand seemed like a different person. It seemed to the half-elf that the elf woman was simply obsessed with their recent discoveries. She did have that paranoic hatred for Fusos- Nat thought. She is possibly looking for an ally.

Darlith probably saw the uncertainty in Nat's look, as she even offered him not to follow her, unless the half-elf wanted. "No.. I'll go with you." Nat said even though he did not believe it himself. Why must the only person to have answers I've been looking for years, must be so strange? he thought. Moments later Darlith started going and Nat went after her. He stayed silent as he had many thoughts circling his mind. He would sometimes peek around. The forest was dark and dense. It seemed that evening was almost upon them, yet you couldn't tell if the Sun was simply completely blocked out.

After following the tracks for about an hour, Nat could have sworn that the tracks seemed to disappear, then reappear out of nowhere or take an abrupt turn to one side or another, only to emerge some twenty steps later from a different side. However, Darlith seemed to keep going. It was as if she didn't see those hindrances that would have brought Nat to an immediate stop and further investigation. As these phenomena did not disappear Nat presumed they were caused by something supernatural. "Darlith.. These tracks.. They are not meant to be followed.". Yet the woman seemed so focused she didn't even bother hearing him. Nat could only follow her and hope for the best, as he probably wouldn't have even made it out of the place by now.

To his surprise, the trees became much less dense and eventually they could even see the evening horizon. And there they saw a column of smoke rising, most likely from a village. A halfling village, no doubt Nat thought and quickly caught up with Darlith. "Look.. We can't just go in there. Those tracks.. I don't know how did you follow them here, but they were misleading. They kept zigzaging in my eyes. There's magic involved here." However Nat saw in his companions face that Darlith will not give up and that they already went too far to turn back. The man shook his head and sighed. "We need to look around and get a view of who's in that village to see who are we dealing with. That would be the safest approach. We can only do that by stealthily approaching closer and hiding somewhere afterwards." Nat looked around. He pointed to his right. "Those bushes are a safe spot, yet only a single person can hide in there." He kept scanning the area for non-obvious hiding spots as those were always the best, even though they seemed worst. "There." He waved towards a big rock that had high grasses growing around it. "Pick one, I'll go to the other. When you're there throw a rock to that barn" Nat pointed with his finger to a big building that was the closest to both of their hiding spots. "Then I'll throw another. They should hear it for sure and get outside. Should we encounter someone dangerous, one of us might be able to escape." Nat sighed. He created this plan in a few seconds and hoped he didn't leave out something. "So.. should we do it?"