LadyAnnaLee

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin’s relief at seeing Ridahne was almost palpable. She sat straight up on Talbot’s back as the Elf came running up. She was slightly alarmed at the blood almost all over her, but the human soon figured out that it wasn’t her blood. Ridahne appeared uninjured. Darin let out a sigh of relief. She knew the woman had to have been lying.

Darin moved to get off Talbot, “Yeah, there was another woman with the same type of tattoos as Luke. Do you think it means anything?”

Darin was having problems getting off of Talbot. For one thing he really was too big for her to sit on comfortably. She had managed to somehow get astride him in the slight mess of the fight. She needed to get both legs on one side. Then she would need to drop down. Darin didn’t want to think about that at all. He was huge. It would be a long way down. Suddenly Talbot bent his knees. Darin let out a gasp. When he was as close to the ground as he was going to get, he bucked her off. Darin lost her footing for a moment before staggering to right in front of Ridahne.

It sounded like the Elf had figured out that Darin had lied to her. Well, lying was the wrong word. Darin just hadn’t told her the whole truth. Darin wasn’t sure she wanted to tell her the truth now. It was clear that people were looking for her. Mark and his people didn’t think she was The Gardener, but they did think that she had a connection to The Gardener. How they came up with that Darin didn’t have the slightest clue. The important bit was that they were prepared to kill her because of it. The less people who knew the safer The Seed would be. The only problem was Darin wasn’t sure she wanted to lie to Ridahne anymore. Plus, Darin was pretty positive Ridahne had killed for no other reason than Darin said they were evil. Would it be wrong to return that trust?

Darin scowled as she said, “To be fair. Even this morning I knew you wouldn’t die from withering. You’ll probably be stabbed in the back or something.”

To be fair Darin had known nothing about the woman except she claimed to want to help The Gardener. The human was not able to magically detect lies. It would be better to trust no one than to trust the first person that said they wanted to help. Darin was trying to be smart. Okay, smart was the wrong word. Common sense felt like it felt Darin better. She was trying to display common sense.

Darin continued to scowl, “And I’m not the ‘hope of many’ or whatever. I’m so incompetent that Astra might as well be doomed.”

Wasn’t that the crux of it all? Darin had felt woefully unprepared for this role the moment she got it. She was a farmer. She wasn’t a warrior or and adventurer or a hero. She didn’t want to fail but felt that her failure was inevitable. At least she could take steps to avoid being killed. Even then she was failing at that. Mark had one conversation with her before deciding she needed to be taken captive, and Darin didn’t know why. Darin was almost positive that The Gardener made a mistake. She would just never say it out loud.

Darin turned back towards Talbot. He had jumped the fence to help her, so she needed to find a way to get him back into his pasture. He had stood back up but wasn’t making any moves to return to where he belonged. The human looked over at the fence. Luckily there appeared to be a gate. Darin walked over to it to see that the latch was simple. She lifted it and pulled the gate open.

She whistled at Talbot, “Come on Talbot.” She gestured at the open gate, “In you get.”

Talbot shook his head in away similar to a person shaking their head no. Darin scoffed at the absurdity of it all. Odds were she would have to bribe him back in. To that she would need to find the farmer. She had no idea where to look for him, and she couldn’t leave Talbot unsupervised anyways. He might wander off if she did.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin was incredibly alarmed when Talbot suddenly reared away from her one moment and then headbutted her in the next. She went flying towards the ground. She landed on her butt. As she was falling, she watched an arrow fly over her face. Sara had followed her. She landed and, quickly looked over her shoulder. It wasn’t Sara. It was another woman. She had her head shaved like Luke with similar tattoos. Darin had to wondered if that meant something.

She looked at the farmer, “Run! Get inside!” He seemed frozen so she shouted, “NOW!”

She needed to get back to Ridahne. That was the only chance she really had. The woman fired off another arrow. Darin dropped back to the ground. She managed to avoid the second arrow, but now she was stuck. She didn’t think that she would manage to get up before she was fired at again and there was nowhere to go. Darin started crawling to the fence while remaining flat on her stomach. Maybe if she got there she could hide behind the bale of hay. Than again, she didn’t want to make Talbot a target.

The woman shouted, “Just surrender boy. My companions are taking care of the Elf as we speak. I don’t want to kill or injure you. I will do both if I have too.”

While her boyishness irked her mother, her mouth was the bane of the village elders, “I’ve never had an arrow wound before. It would be a learning experience.”

The woman scoffed, “So be it.”

Darin held the wiz that meant she had loosed another arrow. Darin shut her eyes tight only to roll away. When she opened her eyes, she saw an arrow on the ground where her neck had been. She reached out with a hand to feel the fence. She hurriedly used it to get to a standing position. She looked to see that Talbot was watching her. He was too close to the action. Darin looked to see the framer was nowhere to be seen.

She yelled at Talbot, “Go home!”

Most horses knew that meant they were supposed to return to their stable. Darin was relieved to see that Talbot turned and took off towards the stable. She turned to face the woman. She did not look happy. Darin couldn’t blame her. Darin was clearly not a warrior, yet this woman already had to use three arrows on her. Darin for fairly positive that her luck was just about to run out.

The woman pointed an arrow straight at Darin’s face, “Mark says you have a connection to the Gardener. Tell me what you know, and this arrow goes back in the quiver.”

Darin let out a laugh, “Me? Connected to the Gardener? You must be joking.” She gestured at herself, “I mean look at me. The Tree, and by extension The Seed, is the most important part of Astra. I am so incompetent that it’s not even funny.”

The woman scoffed, “Then what are you doing with an Azurei warrior?”

Maybe honesty would be better than a lie at this point, “She found me stuck. I’m just on a journey for my mother. She’s the one who decided I was her apprentice.”

The woman screamed, “You lie!”

The arrow went flying. Darin prepared to fall. Her knees hit the ground. The arrow grazed her shoulder. She let out a shout of pain as her hand flew towards the injury. Darin looked up when she heard another sound of alarm. Talbot had jumped the fence and was currently racing towards the woman. He may not have been trained for battle, but he was still over 1000 pounds of muscle. Darin knew that if she saw veteran plow horse racing towards her would scream as well. The woman tried to fit another arrow to her bow, but she was too late. Talbot reared up. Then he came down. Only the woman’s quick instincts saved her skull. Like Darin she fell. Talbot’s hoofs hit her arm and her bow. Both had to be shattered. Talbot looked ready to rear again.

Darin moved quickly to throw her arms around his neck, “Talbot! That’s enough!”

The woman saw her chance, “You idiot.”

She had grabbed a knife with her good hand and lunged at Darin’s abdomen. Talbot reared again. Darin increase her grip. This time the horse’s goal was to get Darin out of the way. The momentum swung Darin on to his back. The woman missed and went failing towards the ground. She had to drop the knife so she could break her fall. Darin let go of Talbot’s neck to sit up straight.

Darin was surprised at how cold her voice was, “I won’t stop him again.”

There was promise in that voice. The woman couldn’t use her broken bow with a broken arm. If she lunged for the knife Talbot would react. Darin could feel that. She wrapped her hands in her mane to avoid falling when he reared again. The woman looked at Darin’s eyes and Talbot’s stance. She scurried to her feet and hurried away. Darin watched her go. She couldn’t relax until she was sure she was gone.

She was unaware just how ridiculous she looked. She was sitting astride a horse that was much too big for her with her back ramrod straight. She was covered in dirt from her multiple falls. Her shoulder was still bleeding even though she couldn’t currently feel the pain. One hand was bloody from when she had reacted early. She was breathing hard from a mix of adrenaline and exertion. She may have looked ridiculous on the massive beast, but she also looked like, well, like a warrior’s apprentice that survived their first encounter.

That look ended when the woman was out of sight. Darin let out a breath as she fell backwards so her head landed on Talbot’s rump. She supposed that she should get down and find Ridahne. She didn’t think Mark and his crew and bested her, but Darin figured she best check. That could wait just a moment until her heart calmed down.

She patted the part of the horse she could reach, “Thank you Talbot. You saved my life.”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Okay. Sounds like a plan. Thank you.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

I thought I did post. Did I not? You can play Mark for more than the battle if you want to do more chit chat. I figured Ridahne would kill the three of them in your next post and then in my next post I would have another one of Mark's flunkies try to kidnap Darin and have the horse save her.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Yep. If Ridahne does leave him alive he'll just go report to the ultimate bad. That could be fun. But if he does it's not a big deal.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

I am no good at combat RPing. You are more than welcome to write the fight between Mark and Ridahne yourself. I don't care about that.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Darin gave what she was a respectful nod, “Thank you for the reminder.” She put the cup back down, “I’ll be going now.”

With that she left the tavern. She didn’t like having her back to Mark and his partners. She couldn’t very well walk out backwards though. If there was alcohol in that drink Darin would be waking up with a headache. She didn’t drink for a reason; that reason being that she was the lightweight champion back home. Even the other girls could drink more than she did. Darin hated the fact that she hadn’t recognized the taste. She imagined it was because it was a different recipe. She would have to be on guard in the future.

Once outside the tavern she looked around for a moment to see if she could spot the stable. That was something she could do. She could spot a stable out of any building as long as it was in her line a sight. Once she saw it, she made her way over there. She may not have been used to riding, but she could take care of a horse. She had to know how to do that. She had been a farmer before that all had started.

She was almost there when she found herself stopping to stare at the horse in a fenced off pasture. This was not a horse meant for riding. This was a plow horse. He was beautiful. It was easy to see that his gender; he was clearly a stallion. HE must be in the pasture for breeding reasons. It was almost the season for that. He would make a fine sire. Darin inveterately got closer to the fence. He wasn’t colored for show. He was a dusky tan with darker brown splotches and only one white sock on his left hind leg. His mane was a tangled mess. He didn’t prance; he was too big for that. Instead he marched around the field; surveying his domain the way Darin looked at her fields at the beginning of planting season. This was his land. He needed to decide how to use it best. He wasn’t traditionally a fine-looking horse, but the young farm girl could see the power in his muscles. As such, he was simply gorgeous.

Darin whispered to the wind, “You’re spectacular.”

The voice near her caused her to jump, “Isn’t he? Too bad he’s got a nasty temper.”

Darin turned to see a regular man. He looked like a farmer, like she had been, like she was supposed to be. His skin was tan and wrinkled from working the field all his life. He had kind eyes and a hunched back. More importantly he gave her a very different feeling than Mark had. Darin felt not urge to run in terror.

So, she asked, “Is that why he’s not stabled?”

The man nodded, “We can work him with a plow, but when’s he’s not working he’s mean to everyone. If he were human, I would just call him anti-social. He’s a hard working. He just doesn’t like people.”

The horse must have smelt the apples the farmer had because he had come over to investigate. However, instead of going to the human he knew, he snuffed at Darin’s hair. She let out a shriek of laughter. This horse could literally crush her, but he was just wondering about the person he had never meet before. It was nice in a way. The farmer held out one of the apples to Darin with a smile on his face.

Darin laughed again, “Thank you.” Then she held out the treat, “There you go.”

The horse snatched the apple from her hand without using teeth. As Darin felt safe enough to reach out and stroke his flank. He allowed it as he pressed his nose against her chest. Darin knew he was looking for more apples. She laughed at his seeking. He wasn’t hurting her at all.

The farmer stared in amazement, “Well I’ll be. He seems to like you lad.”

Darin was sure it had nothing to do with her specifically, “I’m new and apples are good.” She asked, “What’s his name?”

The answer was simple, “Talbot. It doesn’t mean much. I just thought it was a good name for a horse.”

Darin had acquired another apple, “Sometimes those are the best names. Aren’t they Talbot?”

The horse whinnied in response as he ate the second apple. He truly was magnificent.

Meanwhile Mark was answering Ridahne’s question, “We’re just traveling Astra. We’re looking for this new Gardener. Any adventurer with a lick of sense is looking for them. Nothing like this has ever happened in Astra. Everyone once to be the one to go down in history as having help them. We just came over to chit chat with you because it can be lonesome on the road.” He smirked, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

He clearly thought he had the upper hand. It was three against one after all, and to an outside party it might look like the Elf was the aggressor. After all she had drawn her weapon first. Sometimes it didn’t matter who won the fight. All that mattered was who the locals had wanted to win the fight. He was hoping that it would be him. He was human after all and had been nothing but charming. This Elf didn’t seem to know that meaning of the word.

He continued, “Your boy seems a little jumpy. You don’t think he’s hiding something, do you?”

That was the other question. Did this elf know that her apprentice had some connection to The Gardener? Mark didn’t think the lad had The Seed. The Seed had to be in the care of someone who knew how to take care of it. That boy didn’t seem to know his left from his right and seemed much to soft. Mark was half tempted to say he was actually a girl, but that seemed unlikely. Girls didn’t leave home unless they were warriors.

In the end though it didn’t matter. He had more friends waiting to take the boy captive as soon as he was alone. He would be made to talk about what he knew. Mark had ways of making everyone talk, and this boy would be easy to break.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Apprentice? That was almost worse than the truth. Darin had already told this man she wasn’t used to riding, and it was obvious what kind of apprentice Ridahne would take. Darin looked to be the furthest thing from a warrior. If it did come to a fight Darin’s two biggest hopes were to not get in the way and not die. How was she supposed to make it seem like she could be Ridahne’s apprentice?

Mark dropped his hand, “I wasn’t aware that the Azurei took human apprentices; much less ones that don’t seem accustom to riding.” Without asking Mark sat down across from them, “May I ask how that happened?”

Darin wanted to scream at him. She wanted to shout at him to leave them alone. However, she didn’t want to draw attention that didn’t need to be drawn. So, she simply brought her cup up to her lips to hide her face. She was prepared this time, so she didn’t sputter. That was one good thing. She didn’t want to let Mark think she was even more incompetent than she already let him know. Her mind jumped from point to point in order to find a way to answer the question. She didn’t know enough about Ridahne’s culture to answer that question. She might have to leave it to her.

She was in danger and she knew it. Mentally she was kicking herself. Darin had known that this day was coming. People were going to want her dead. Naïvely she had assumed that it wouldn’t happen until her mission became public knowledge. It was possible that Mark had guessed that she had The Seed, but how had he done that. It was just as possible that he marked her as an easy target. Darin didn’t think Ridahne’s presence affected Mark’s plans, whatever they were. He had sat right down without even asking for permission. It was slightly alarming how comfortable he was making himself.

Darin looked up at Luke and Sara. They had not sat down. In fact, it looked like Luke was trying to circle around them. He wasn’t doing it quickly, but even Darin’s untrained eye could tell that he wanted to behind them. This was not looking good at all. Sara looked extremely uninterested in the events. Darin couldn’t tell if that was a ruse or not, but she had most of her attention focused on the entrance. Darin hoped that they weren’t expecting more friends. Darin didn’t like the odds now. Ridahne might count as two, but the human was sure she counted as a detriment. So, it was one against three. Granted Darin wasn’t sure what use a bow would be inside, but Sara might have hidden weapons. So, could Mark.

They were surrounding them, and Darin knew that couldn’t be allowed. She quickly finished her drink. She didn’t like it at all. She stood as smoothly as she could. Maybe getting some more would at least keep her out of the way should Ridahne decide she needed to fight them.

She held out her free hand towards the Elf, “I’m getting some more. Would you like some?”

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Nothing? There weren’t doing anything? Darin didn’t like that at all. She didn’t know who the man was, but she knew that whatever was planning could not be good. It needed to be stopped. Then again, she didn’t know much about fighting or tactics. She was a farmer and the most strategy she ever had was deciding what crops to put where. Darin might not like it, bur Ridahne had a better idea of what strategies would be best. Besides, the human wasn’t quite sure what to make of the look on the Elf’s face. She decided not to push any more than she already had. So, instead she grabbed the mug and plate handed to her and followed Ridahne to sit down.

As she sat down, she told the Elf, “I don’t think it was either.”

Darin couldn’t imagine the person she met was actually a man. Being a man implied some wort of decency. She didn’t think he had any. Being a beast meant he should be more concerned for basic things like food, water, and other things for survival. He seemed to calculating for that. Darin almost wanted to call him a monster. Something that did evil for evil’s sake and evil’s sake only. That didn’t seem right either. He wanted something. What that something was the girl could only guess at.

Darin told her companion that, “I think he’s a monster. I’m not sure.”

With that sure turned her attention to her meal. When she took a swallow of her drink, she almost coughed it back up. Only sheer force of will made her swallow it. That had not been water. Darin was not sure what it was, but it didn’t taste very good. Luckily her mother had taught her good manners. Ridahne was buying her supper. It would be rude to complain about it. She was not looking forward to it. Oh well. She could be falling off another cliff.

Darin started on the plate of stew. That was the best thing Darin had ever tasted. That was probably a little bit of exaggeration. She had been surviving on increasing stale crackers and dried beef. The vegetables were over cooked, and the beef was a little tough. It could have used less salt. It still fabulous. Most likely she ate it too fast. She didn’t care. She didn’t want to waste time and let it get cold. She then choked on the last bite of it. The feeling that had come from the man with the teal eyes was back.

Darin looked up from her food. She did her best to make look like she had just finished her meal and was reevaluating her situation. As causally as possible she grabbed the mug to bring it to her lips. Her eyes went wide as she saw who had just walked in. The extreme desire to scream had returned.

Instead she softly nudged Ridahne with her toe. (It may have been more of a kick. She wasn’t sure.) Her whisper sounded hoarse, “Ridahne!” She jerked her head towards the door, “There.”

It was the man with the teal eyes. This time he was joined by two other people. Both were human. One was male. The other was female. The male was armed with two thin knifes strapped to each side of his waist. They were almost as long as Ridahne’s sword. He was bald and his head sported a number of blood red tattoos. The female was about Darin’s height but looked denser. Her bow was unstrung, but the quiver on her back was full of arrows. The teal eyed man did not appear to be armed.

The man looked around. When he saw Darin he smiled what she supposed was supposed to be a charming smile. He came over and with a laugh said, “I told you I would be seeing you again. I’m Mark.” He pointed at the man, “This is Luke.” He moved to the woman, “And Sara.” He held out his hand to Darin, “I didn’t get your name?”

The lie came out so easily it shocked Darin, “Martin Lively.”

Darin was not accustomed to flat out lying. Hopefully Ridahne wouldn’t call her on it. For a brief moment she needed it to be true. She knew how she had picked that name even if she had picked it as she was saying it. Martin was her father; the one that had left without given any reason why. She had her mother hadn’t used that name since. He was always “that man.” It was still a name Darin thought of everyday. Lively was the name of town closest to her village. Hopefully it made an acceptable surname, Darin had never bothered with one of those before.

She took his hand for the briefest of moments before he turned his attention to Ridahne, “Now what is a beauty like you traveling with a scamp like him for?”

Darin didn’t know what Ridahne was planning to tell him but knew that they needed to tell this man anything, but the truth. She wished she had a way to tell Ridahne that. She hoped the Elf got that. The Seed had burned while she was touching him again. She needed to look to see how the band was holding up. She didn’t think she could lose The Seed; she felt it in the back of her mind at all times. That didn’t mean she wanted to misplace it either. She couldn’t do it now though. Not while Mark was here. She almost hoped that Ridahne just ran him threw. That would at least get rid of the nasty feeling. The problem was that Mark hadn’t done anything yet. Darin only had her instincts to go on. Unfortunately, that was not a good enough reason to skewer someone.

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

Thank you.