Goodnight, Travel Well

[Looshi]

It started with rope. Yates struggled to drag the trader off his seat from the cart, he kicked out his legs and scrambled to lock his fingers underneath the rope that was choking him. Yates only tightened his grip. He had been waiting for hours under the cover; masking himself beneath the tarp that draped over it to divert the eyes of any bandit that may steal a glance - more than a glance if they were lucky - of the goods held inside. He was cold, his body was cramping which made for stiff manoeuvres but he couldn't wait any longer.

   The horse bayed, hearing the anguished cries from her master. The reins had long been let go, and the harness holding the animal to the cart snapped free after what felt like mere seconds of being violently knocked side to side and dragged further from the roads. Everything toppled over. Yates landed hard on the cold ground, a searing pain went through his shoulder and then through the rest as the lifeless body of the tradesman fell on top of him, as well as much of what was in the cart.

   He didn't want to kill him. That wasn't the plan. The tradesman was supposed to stop for a rest and then Yates would take the cart and the beloved horse. The man didn't stop. It was the dead of night and they were meandering far off from the protection of the Ora River. It was bandit country from there on out. He should know. He was one of them. And he couldn't risk himself being arrested once found, or more likely, them being discovered by other criminals milking the highway.

   It took a moment before he regained his mind. Clenching his jaw he pulled himself out from the wreckage, ignoring the protests of his shoulder and now his leg where the majority of his victim's weight fell on him. Out in the distance he could hear the mare's hooves beating further and further away. So much for that. The only glimmer of hope he found was in a lantern. At least until he could sort through what was in the cart. And pray to any deity who would heed a criminal, that no others would find him that night.

   "Forgive me for this." He said and the dark hailed him with the sound of crickets and toads. Perhaps it was more to ask than what he was allotted.  The small light he was able to ignite gave him an image of the man whom was marred with rope burns. Terror. He could see it in those glassy eyes staring back at him; seeing him for everything he was worth. And what he wasn't. His mouth hung open, tongue lolling at the side and spittle on his lips. Yates closed both and with pain lacing through him, knelt down beside the body. "If you believe in souls, I hope you find your peace."

   His own wouldn't.

[Anonymous]

Uxia was enjoying her time away from Hatame. The gryphon was off hunting and she had blessed silence. Not quite a true silence, as the sounds of animals and the wind could be heard. But there was no annoying chatter or comments or that need the damned gryphon had for entertainment. He couldn't just...be still.

The bandits didn't bother her on the road. She wore the Orders symbol, which very clearly stated that she would be far more trouble than she was worth. Though as she rounded the corner in the road, there was a wagon on the side of the road, with two men near it.

Moving closer, Uxia went on alert, this didn't look good. "You there. What happened here?"

[Looshi]

Don't panic.

The voice in the dark came as a shock to him. Yates hadn't heard anyone approach, and in a night as dead as this one he should have heard something. Footfalls on the grass, the rustle of clothing. Breathing. Anything that would give him a resounding clue that he was not alone. Instead all he was left with was a great disadvantage. Unless it was a deity listening in on his silent hopes. A god to help the helpless. The tone of the voice said otherwise. It was not kind and sweet. It had force. Not what he had in mind.

He had to do something quickly. React. And not in the way a person would who just had their hands tightening a rope around a man's neck. Yates stood up with haste lacing his every movement, though grace was not bound to him. He wanted to stumble, catch himself on his feet, but not trip over the dead body at them and reach for the sword at his side. It was easier than he thought, his injures at served that much. But the truth of the matter was, he did not know who he was facing and the lantern did not spread it's light far enough to catch a glimmer. It could be a thug like him, readying to steal everything he had. Or rather everything he had planned to steal for himself. Or something else.

Please, please let it not be a bounty hunter. He had business to take care of, he didn't need to be chased.

Yates fumbled to get the sword out of its sheath, that wasn't planned. "Stay away! We don't have anything more for you to steal!" He said, the certain tone on his voice and the way he pronounced words generally gave him some privilege for passing as nobility when he could. If he could make them assume he was one of the merchants, he would have two options available. One, lie his way out of everything and play innocent. And two, take a bandit off guard by thinking they had an easy night. He gave up on the sword and turned to trying to make the lantern appear threatening. Not really where he wanted to go. Sigh. "Don't make me set you on fire! I...I..."

Fire...That wouldn't be a bad idea if push came to shove.

[Anonymous]

Moving into the light of his lantern, Uxia studied the man, standing over the body. There was something very off about this set up, but she wasn't sure what exactly to believe. Her orange eyes flickered around the carnage. There didn't seem to be enough disturbances on the ground for bandits to have attacked, but it was a hard road, which meant tracks where hard to read.

Frowning, Uxia watched the man, standing over his fallen companion, "Does your friend need help? Or is it too late for him?"

[Looshi]

Authority. Shit.

And he recognised the symbols on her uniform, as she stepped into the light, marking her has a knight in the Order of the Moon. She wouldn't be afraid of him or threatened. Not with that experience. They stole after dark things. And that was where his knowledge of them started and stopped. Yates was lucky for having that much. He lowered his lantern and gripped at his injured leg with his free hand.

"They...They were hiding in the back." He said, visibly shaking, it was not from shock but from pain. He was never terribly good at tolerating it, but the aches from crouching and the injures on top of the constant burn of the tattoos marring his body was making him near his threshold. He gritted his teeth. And with a wavering voice, continued. "Oh gods...Oh gods...What am I going to tell his family?"

[Anonymous]

Eyes narrowing, Uxia didn't like the man. There was something off about him, something she didn't trust. But she couldn't figure out exactly what it was and he did seem scared. "Bandits were hiding in the back of your cart? Really? When exactly did they get into it?"

[Looshi]

"They..." He was about to answer, but caught himself just in time. As a merchant, he wouldn't know. If he knew bandits had snuck aboard their cart before this came into fruition it could have been stopped. He wouldn't have a body beside him on the ground growing cold and he wouldn't have a Knight from the Order of the Moon interrogate him while he stood shaking and injured. Obviously not believing a word he was sputtering out. But Merchant Yates didn't. He had been tired from the journey and was yearning for home. The thought didn't occur to him that lowlife thieves would try and steal from a such a modest traveling cart.

"I don't know!" He placed a hand to his forehead, "we...We were headed to Arca! Please, please can you help me? What should I do..."

[Anonymous]

"Prove it." Uxia wasn't a guard, wasn't a solider of the people. Her job wasn't to protect merchants or peasants, it was to hunt down the things that stalked the shadows. And Yates was tickling her instincts. Something about him didn't ring true.

[Looshi]

Prove it? Prove what? It was easy to see he wasn't getting out of this with lies that one couldn't even hand-feed a chicken with. This would be simpler if he hadn't had an honest upbringing. But, he did. And he had to deal his hand despite knowing he was going to lose. Sweat started to bead on his forehead.

It was awfully warm.

Like he was on fire.

It happened to help that he was, in fact, on fire. That made sense.

The flames in the lantern had grown to lick out of the top where his hand was holding onto the handle. He didn't know how it happened. And he was too busy trying to put out the fire that was crawling onto his clothing, not dropping the lantern either mind you, smart move on his part, to realise that the lantern had been damage by the crash.

"Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods!" He said. And couldn't really manage to say anything else.

[Anonymous]

That was really not what Uxia had been expecting. It took her a moment to realize that the man was even on fire. Batting the lantern away, Uxia grabbed Yates and threw the man to the ground, "Roll! Now!"

[Looshi]

Some deity might be looking out for him, if Yates considered his clothing catching alight an act of divine intervention. He would almost believe it too, considering it was conveniently placed, however there was the fact that he was now the one burning that drew him away from that leap of faith. The lantern was grappled from his hand. Yates would count his lucky stars later, after he stopped being on fire, that the woman took far more initiative than he. Well, if all of this didn't come back and bite him further in the backside. There was always a chance.

   The light that he had found comforting in the menacing night, now spilled over on the grass. It's poor tiny body couldn't take another hit and Yates wasn't sure his own could take many more. He was grabbed and thrown to the ground, this was something he definitely knew how to do. Him and the ground had grown to be good partners in the time that they've spent together. Despite the little warning he had, Yates rolled, jerking himself away from the dry grass catching fire itself from the lantern thrown astray. Yes, that might be the bite he was anticipating. Quickly, he was able to coax dirt matted with plants onto his clothing where it had been burning. It stung. The flame had decimated a good portion of his sleeve from what he could see and the cloth bandages he wrapped around his arms were charred leaving the night air to painfully kiss the tender tattoos and the slight burnt flesh.

Yates scrambled to his feet. Instinct told him to run and his body told him that he couldn't. It didn't take much for the flames spreading across the ground to find themselves drawing closer and closer to the overturned caravan. The caravan! He cursed loudly and lunged as well as he could with his injuries towards the merchandise. He had to save something! He needed the money!

[Anonymous]

Uxia kept moving as Yates flailed, grabbing him as he tried to get to the caravan, "No. It's gone."

There were no tools to fight the flames, no way to halt them. Her own magic was useless and at best she could hope to minimize the damage, "If you want to save anything, help me try and smother it."

If they got lucky, the hard dirt road and the surrounding area wouldn't feed the flames too fast. Uxia moved forward quickly and used her thick boots to kick dirt over the burning oil. There was a lot of fire though and she worried it was too late to stop.

[Looshi]

Yates was jerked back by the woman grabbing him, though this time it was not to throw him to the earth but to keep himself from being set on fire, again, as he seemed all too determined to make it happen. She was right. It was gone. He started to cough. The smoke was drifting towards him, teased by the light breeze. Yates held an arm to his face and watched her attempt to kick dirt on the increasing girth of the fire. He didn't move to help, his limbs felt like stones and each movement he made only seemed to aggravate his injures. The adrenaline was wearing off from when he held the rope in his hands and caused this whole mess.

A real big mess.

The fire was going to draw attention. Wildlife may creep out from whence they once hid to follow the scents of the burning wreckage. There was food in there, he knew, and the smell of the dead body of the merchant would bring scavengers. Although Yates was worried about the other sorts of creatures crawling in the dark. The ones like him who take whatever advantage a flaming wreckage could offer.

"Leave it." He said, his voice muffled and wavering in the wake of the pain from his injuries. He didn't know if it was his own sheer will that kept him standing or it was the magic in the markings the Witch gave him which didn't allow him to admit defeat. He was tired, regardless. Yates lowered his arm from his face, smelling the full onslaught of what the fire was burning.

"The more time and energy we expend to this fire, the less likely we will be able to walk away without trouble." He placed his sword hand on hilt of his weapon and directed a nod towards the dark not reached by the flames. He regretted every single word. Yates did not want to leave the wreckage, some part of him believed there was something to be saved. Anything. That was the motivation that drove him to near diving into the fire. But he knew better. For the moment. He couldn't count on the next one to be reasonable too.

 "You can stay but I'm leaving before more bandits threaten my life...At the very least..." he said, attempting to keep up his act "...maybe..Maybe I can get back. Tell his family..."

[Anonymous]

Uxia just looked at Yates, giving up the wagon for a lost cause. She wasn't really sure if she believed him or not, but honestly, he didn't seem to have any demonic taint. And she had no way to tell if he was lying or not.

Her eyes slid back to the burning wagon, then back to Yates, "Who was his family?"

[Looshi]

Like wounds blossoming on the palms of his hands, Yates recalled, without any urging want to, the way the coarse threads of the rope and the resistance he felt when the merchant began to fight for his life. And there it would stay until he could purge it in some weak attempt at redemption.

"Harold Runemaker." He said and broke into a coughing fit before the words fully left his mouth. It wasn't a lie, either. Another would muddle up things more than they were. Yates had been careful enough to garner some information about the man if he ever found himself in a situation where it called for it. It was better than assigning the merchant a number, or a foul nickname. When he stoped coughing, the smoke stinging his eyes and nose, "I...I mean, that's his name. I think he said he had a family back in Arca. He wasn't much of a talker for personal matters." He continued, "And I never bothered to ask for more than what he told. It's...It's not much to go on, I know! But..."

[Anonymous]

Uxia nodded, leading Yates farther away from the wreckage, "I'm sorry. There wasn't anything you could do." There didn't seem to be any reason to doubt the man. He was nervous, but he was also under a lot of stress and there was no taint of demon about him.

[Looshi]

Yates let himself be led away from the spreading fire. Not that he could have fought back, he no longer had the energy to even attempt such a struggle. And it was waning by the second, quicker than it would have been if his spirits weren't downtrodden as they were. He nodded to the woman, knowing that he could have done something. Or what he shouldn't have done. The tension in the air had lessened from the earlier hostility, and for that he was relieved. It would be a terrible thing if he made an enemy out of a Order of the Moon hand.

"I'm...Not a demon." He said, "If you're wondering that." Yates could argue in ways he was worse than one. It was self-depreciation nonsense and he figured his acquaintance wouldn't at all care for it. He felt he was stating the obvious, and albeit it was a belated comment. No doubt she would have cut him down on the spot, or allowed for him to fling himself full force into the fire. Her generic words of comfort sounded a tad hollow to him, but she was more reasonable than he first thought.

[Anonymous]

"Why mention that?" Uxia cocked her head, watching him. There was something odd about the man and she wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was just stress, but he seemed false. She crossed her arms, "You seem suspicious."

[Looshi]

"You're not exactly anonymous." He said, the idea that she may be posing as a member of the Order of the Moon was quick to jump into his mind. Even in the dim lighting(though growing with each passing minute) he could see the emblem crafted on her clothing as he did before. Did she forget that it was there, or figure he would recognise it?

   When she let him go and crossed her arms, Yates slouched from the pain of standing straight. Please let it just be exhaustion, he consoled himself, he couldn't afford to be more injured than he first thought. And not when the woman still displayed the unease of not believing a word that fell out of his mouth.

   "I'm suspicious?" He didn't attempt to bite back the bubbling irritation in his voice. It was a wrong thing to assume she was reasonable; a person who went out of their way stop him from diving into a fire, when she could have just let him burn if she had deemed him dangerous. But she didn't. It was a tough lesson for Yates to learn, and it never did seem to stick in his head, don't trust anyone even for one lingering moment.  It always bites you in the ass. Always. "I...I haven't given you any reason to be! I thought at first, you're reluctance to help me was because I could be a demon, that's what the Order of the Moon goes after, right? But I'm not a demon, I swear!"

[Anonymous]

Uxia frowned, then gave a shrug, "I can tell that. Demon's leave a taint. I can sense that." This seemed to be headed to those awkward places, where Uxia's poor social skills came to the forefront and tended to make a mess of things. When he winced, Uxia moved her arms back to supporting him, "I'm sorry. You're injured. I can heal that for you."