Challenges

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira let out a sigh of releif as len awoke, putting on the other mask. He seemed to recover rather quickly, thankfully. She nodded as he handed her the pouch, peering inside, not particularly wanting to know what it did. As len disappeared into the trees, she took a deep breath. Now, just to get their attention.

She stepped out from behind the trees, keeping one hand hovering over the two knives sheathed at her side. She scooped up a rock and hurled it at one, smiling as it struck one square in the head.
"Hey, you ugly things! Is it me who you're looking for? Come on, then. I killed your friends, I can do away with you, too!" She shouted, trying her best to seem afraid and vulnerable. All of them, seven that she counted, turned to her, swords drawn and murderous scowls on their faces. She fought the urge to look up, to see if she could see len, but that would give away his position. They advanced upon her quickly, one of them shouting to the others in a language she didn't understand. They came in a sort of V- shaped formation, resembling some structure, but at the same time looking like just a bunch of people who didn't know what they were doing. They stopped a few feet from her, not moving another step forewards but doing a fair bit of moving any other direction.
"What's wrong?" She taunted. "Scared-"

A thick arm wrapped around her neck from behind, cutting her off. She fought for breath, then took some of the stuff len had given her and tossed it behind her, where she assumed the assailent's face would be. The hand released immediately, and she drew the knife, not looking at the presumable dying or dead man behind her as they, as one, began to advanced the last ten feet.

[Omio]

He saw as she tossed the dust back at the failing assassin, and watching him burn. That was his queue to jump down, stabbing the one in the lead, and ducking as he sliced the other two with his dirk, jumping up and to the one side at the back to take out another one - confusing the hell of them as Len managed to dispose of two more. The other two could be easily taken by Saira, now that their attention was mainly on Len. "Where there's someone weak, there's someone strong."

Then one of the two realized who it was precisely, turning on the other groupie, and slicing him. "Len, it's been a long time. Heard you caused a bit of a ruckus back at town."
"Yeah, I did. Spilt a little Firedust."
He seemed to flinch, knowing what precisely he meant. "That kind of thing happens even to the professionals."
"You seriously would call me a professional?"
Considering that the first two Len sliced with the poisoned edge are turning to stone, and two others are writhing on the ground with their skin turning red as they screamed the oddball thing now and again, the other seemed to reply. "Yeah. Now I'll pretend I didn't see you or that pretty lady."
"What was that now?"
"Exactly."
And Len laughed, having heard that reply. He turned to Saira. "One of my childhood co-workers. The other one I've helped along rather heavily."
"Dude, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be alive."
Len turned to face the other man. "Same applies here, you know."
"Yeah, that's true."
"Who was the moron that decided to attack her, by the way?"
"Oh, you mean Tokunaga?"
"Yeah, him. What was he up to?"
"Hired by authorities to catch you."
"And he hired you?"
"Yeah, I heard of the hiring, and decided to come along, and see what came of the result. Guess I lucked out."
"Not really. I've got others things to get to."
"Right, right. Just don't take your mask off for the next half-mile. There's more gas traps."
"Goes to figure."
And Len sighed. "See you sometime later, Evan."
"You too, Len."
And he turned to Saira. "Shall we get going?"

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira watched, somewhat horrified, as len easily disposed of most of the men in a matter of seconds. She was ready to take the other two, but hesitated.
One of them called Len by his name. As it turned out, they all knew each other. She stared, dumfounded as they talked like old friends, even as there were others dying at her feet. She made a face, glaring at the two who were still conversing. Friend or foe, he had tried to kill her.

The conversation was over shortly, and she nodded to Len when he asked if they should go. She retrived her cloak from where it was left, and, seeing it covered in dirt anyways, used it to mop off he blood from her arm and neck. Both wounds had mostly stopped bleeding at least, but once they got to town she'd need to get new clothes.

They left the bloody scene behind, much o her relief, but she was still bothered. People were sent after Len? What were they going to do once they caught him? And why go through all of the trouble to set gas traps, especally more than one?
She tucked her cloak under one arm, not particularly wanting to wear it covered in dirt and blood.

"Who were they? Not the one who you knew, but the others?" She asked. He seemed unfazed with leaving the group thay had just killed out in the open, but it concerned her. Would more come, and see the bodies?

[Omio]

(( Just so you know, it was only one. The one he knew sliced the other in halves. ))

"They were all hired through black-market streams, usually as a last resort before heading off to jail, or something else that's almost as bad in the law's eyes. They're probably after me, and I wouldn't be surprised at all. I've been gone from town for a bit over a day. And with the way the soldiers back at that other town like to tweak out, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they smashed rats with war hammers. Then again, that would explain the walls being in a bad shape..."

Len decided to change the topic. "Enough of that. Time to teach you how to detect gas traps... ...when we find o--" And he cut himself off, flinging an arm out as if to stop Saira from going any further. "Might want to step back a little, so I have some working room."

[WolfEnchantress]

She listened to the short explanation. Alchemy, the more she learned of it, the more it seemed like a dangerous pasttime. And she thought running from a horde of angry ice dragons was bad. at least there were no gas traps in that.

He offered to teach more about gas traps, which would be handy. She didn't even know one had been tripped before until Len hd told her, and then didn't realy know what a gas trap even was. It didn't take long to find out, of course.

Then he stpped her abruptly.
"What is it? Is there one near us? Did we set it off?" She glanced around, seeing nothing, then looked over everyhting once more, paying attention this time. Again, she saw nothing. But, then, she didn't know what to look for.

Then again, maybe they weren't anywhere near one, and he would just tell her about them. Shrugging, she stopped, waiting.

((I noticed today after re-reading- I was in a bit of a hurry yesterday. Sorry ))

[Omio]

"No, but we came damn close to setting it off." And then he removed two vials, raising one, and tilting it, dropping its contents onto the ground - at least, so it seemed until it was interrupted by a fine string. The string changed colour where the drop had landed, and the rope could be clearly be seen as there was a small levitating thread of dark red. "This is a reknown type of trigger. Not too common, though - this kind of thread's expensive." And he looked to Saira. "The one we set off earlier was of this kind. Whoever the ruffians were, they were well-supplied." And then he pointed to the two ends - here is was more obvious as it needed two places to be wrapped around, and a container of sorts to create the combination so that the gas would be new, not old. "And they knew precisely how to rig things. Unless..."

He checked the ground on the other side of the wire. Too soft. "Ah, so they double-layered a couple of them; in case someone with a bit of experience came by... Seems as if the effort they're going to just to get me is really on the rise. Why the hell do those bastards want me so badly? I'm not vile, or anything like that, and the potions I make are only forbidden because of their potential; which needs a user of some sort."

And then he stopped, realizing he was talking a bit much. "My, I seem to be really be a jabbermouth today..." This was when he took two steps aside, searching for a rather long stick as he stepped over the fine wire, going to let Saira dispose of it; "You might as well set that one off, these gas masks can cover us for a day easily." And he found a long stick, picking it up knowing that he'd have to use it to detect pitfalls and springboard traps.

Let's just see exactly how far they went about trapping the area...

[WolfEnchantress]

She watched the drop fall ,and figured it would lnd on the leaves, but it was interuppted by a fine thread. She knelt next to it, amazed-she could barely see the areas where the colour didn't touch. Why were they trying so hard to catch him? All he did was practice Alchemy...Right?

When Len abruptly cut off, he told her to set off the trap, and with one finger easily snapped the thread, glad for the mask as the gas filed the air.

She watched him pick up the stick and lok around.

"Are there more gas traps around?" She asked. "Or other traps?" She knew the kind of trap set for animals, and now about gas traps, but none else unless it was one of the Ice Dragon's creations. Ice was really quite handy in trap-making, but she knew nothing of human made traps.

[Omio]

"Probably. Not that many, though - you might want to pick up a stick and use it to kinda club the ground in front of you so if you're about to hit a pitfall, you'll spot it before you fall face-first into it." They're probably after my book. "Just in case, anyways. It might slow us down now, but at least it isn't a possible grinding halt later on. But still, why the hell are they going through all of thi--" And then he cut himself off, dawning upon something.

Someone must've squealed. Great, just great. "...Only way this could be is if someone squealed back at town, and if so, that means I've got to really watch myself."
And then he narrowed his eyes. He regretted what he was going to say next, but he saw it as potentially necessary. "I'll probably have to keep to the branches and put some distance between us... Possibly even leave to go a different direction... No need to get an innocent one dragged into a mess like this..." Happens every time I like someone...

[WolfEnchantress]

She obediently picked up a branch and began jabbing it into the earth around her, half-expecting the earth to give way any second or spring some other deadly trap.

"Squeal? What about? To who?" She asked, not really sure if it was her territory to wander into, bt it seemed the more he said, the more lost she was. She nodded when he said the bit about staying to the branches, but stopped at the next part.

"Leave?! You cant!" She said, panicked, then glanced at the ground again. The woods were huge, bigger than she could ever find her way out in, and there could be more traps or hunters. Not to mention that there was next to no chance of finding another person in the next week who she enjoyd being with and talking to.

"I don't mind being caught up in anything...Really, I can handle it." She looked at him pleadingly, not quite knowing what to do if he refused. "Please stay?"

[Omio]

Now he was in a hefty emotional pain. Not only was he drawn to her, the opposite had come true, and now it's become an attachment. Then the pang of her situation hit him rather harshly, as eye eyes perked open rather suddenly. "I hope you can; if things turn ugly, it'll be worse than that little skirmish back there. Hopefully, though - that doesn't happen. But hear me on this; be careful heading into the town we're going to; news might spread, though I wouldn't be too sure of it."

He couldn't refuse after showing her all that; sure, she didn't know his real name, but she knew where he had been, and where he was now. Not to mention a nice chunk of his capability. "I've little choice but to take you along. Leaving you here would only put you through a hell you have no idea how to get of, and knowing your luck, you'd probably end up hanging up-side down for a day or two."

[WolfEnchantress]

She watched his indecision for a moment, before he finlly agreed to stay. She grinned broadly and hugged him tightly in thanks before pulling back in slight embarrassment.

"You're right, I probably would," She confirmed his statement. Many times Sarora had suffered the spikes, poisons, and ropes of trps set in the Ridge, among other places, for hunting, and even a few set for snow-bears. As if to make a point of the statement, the next thrust of her stick set off a rope that snapped it our of her hands and jerked it into a tree, dangling it far above their heads. She laughed at the irony.

Don't worry, I can hold my own against a lot of scenarios," She said again, picking up a new stick. "I wont run at the sight of a fight or anything." She prodded ahead of her before taking another few steps the general direction of the town, glad she wouldn't have to forge on alone.

[Omio]

First, the hug. He actually blushed when Saira did this, despite understanding why. Then his eyes widened slightly as the stick went up into a snare, and chuckled slightly. "See what I mean by using a stick to poke at the ground with? Now then, since my lesson's over, and you've seen most of the traps we need to worry about, we'd better get our buttocks movin' out of the half-mile so we can get to real travel." P-toing. Voovp. There went his own stick into another snare. "And if one wasn't bad enough, there had to be two... Go figure." And then he looked around for another long stick, though not finding out outright yet.

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira laughed as his stick also went up into the trees and handed him hers, picking up one that lay nearby.

"Okay," She agreed. "So, in theory, we should get into town by today, but our delay might cost us a few hours, so maybe it'd be tomorrow," She thought for a moment as they carefully but quickly picked their way through the forest, prodding with sticks for any other traps. She hoped there would be no more, they had gone pretty far from the site of the first gas trap.

Then again, the ones who had set them had done a fairly good job, according to Len. Perhaps they'd set more out farther.

"What do you think? Will we be there by day's end? You seem to be the one who knows the forest best."

[Omio]

He shrugged. "Doubt it, at this rate. But, considering the number of them, and how large an area they covered, we could probably go about dropping the sticks now." And then he turned around, hucking his stick at thetrapped area - which didn't even spring one, which was a sure enough sign of being clear. "Chuck yours back. If a trap springs, we're pickin' up new ones. If not, we can forget about all of that mess."

[WolfEnchantress]

Saira turned and threw her stick behind her. It stuck in the dirt harmlessly, and she let out a sigh of relief, taking off her mask and offering it back to Len.

"That's good," She said. "I didn't exactly want to go the whole way through the forest prodding a stick in front of me."
They moved on in silence for a few moments. Saira was formulating a thought. Len had been into towns before. He would be used to them, or at least know about them. All she could remember from her single trip into town a few years back was the stands lining the streets, with the merchants selling their wares. She'd been gone in an hour. But this time, she'd have to stay a few days. She made a face-it was extremely rare, even for those in the ridge, to survive off of the wilderness alone. Everyone had to mke trips sometimes to the cities and vilager for supplies. But with a dragon, the situation was different completely.

"Len, what is a town like?" She asked finally, making it painfully obvious how little she'd been civilized in the ridge. "I was in one once. But I don't remember it much. And I had Sarora guiding my every movement from the sky." She remembered the jeers she'd recieved for her accent and clothing, the laughs and pointed fingers from how she didn't know where to go, or how to do simple things like read or count money. She'd learned a little about the reading part, Sarora had made sure of that. But after remembering what she could, she wasn't so sure that she'd like the town as much as she thought she would. Frankly, the thought of going back scared her.