Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can (Open)

[Dreamwolf]

Rage. It pervaded his body, filled his very soul. His sight was tunneled and tinted red as if with blood. His tongue hummed with the taste of the red liquid, that fluid of life. Screams echoed in his ears. He felt the crunch of bones in his jaws,the scent of fear all around him. Fang closed in on another bandit his jaws clamping shut on the back of the man's neck, snapping it with a shake of his head, before moving on to the next target. The poor captured women and children, being carted off to be made slaves watched in horror expecting to be next.

"Go away, leave us alone you beast!" The one yelling was the leader of the nomads who had captured these poor people, the one responsible for all the pain and suffering. Fang approached the tall, heavily muscled woman. She held her sword in a way Fang recognized as the Dragon Stance, one of the four main starting points of Nomadic Swordsmen. He closed in on the woman with his jaws agape, his ears pricked forward to capture the slightest sound of leather armor creaking, his eyes focused on his target, watching for the twitches of muscle that betrayed a strikes at its earliest moment. The wolf had fought many sword fighters of many lands. He knew this would be a challenge. He slowed his breathing, and by that, his heart rate. He felt his body relaxing, but the adrenaline still pumped. He knew this battle was far from over, but if he continued as he had started he would be mortally wounded if not killed.

Fang circled the woman, and she him, both looking for an opening, both finding none. The Slaves watched, unsure of their fate. Finally the woman's body betrayed her, sweat dripped into her left eye making her blink instinctively. Fang lunged clamping jaws down. He struck empty air and barely moved out of the way in time to avoid having his head lopped off. Again they circled. This time it was Fang who was caught off guard, a scream of pain from one of the slaves distracted him. He leapt to the side but the tip of the blade cut a long furrow in his left shoulder. The blood flowed freely, but the wound was minimal, an annoyance at most.

"You don't fight like a wolf. You are a smart one. Join me. We could rule the plains, taking what we want and answering to no being." The woman's voice was cold, heartless. This woman knew only greed and power. Fang wanted no power for it would only make it harder for him to do as he pleased and money had no value to a being who lived in the wild. He growled low in his throat and made a double feint. The woman fell for the second feint and moved to block on her right side, only to feel sharp teeth slice through her left leg at the ankle. Her leg went limp and before she could recover her life was ended by a quick ripping of the throat.

Fang approached the Slaves, slowly his head held high he looked for one among them who would not be afraid of his voice in their mind. 'I am Fang. I have freed you. I cannot open the shackles that bind you but the key is on that woman. One of you must take the key. After we can talk and find the best way to get you all home.'

[DrabberRogue]

It had been an odd week for the young tactician. Jace had been traveling across the plains when he'd had an unfortunate run in with these nomads, and taken as a slave shortly after. As one might imagine, this irked the young and rather prideful man greatly. But he didn't show this discomfort, complying with the slavers to keep himself away from the whip, convince them he was submissive. It gave him a nice amount of time to observe them, learn as much about their little tribe as he could, then start plotting a way to escape. Unfortunately he didn't have many options, it seems these nomads had dealt with such attempts before; not like that would stop him, but it would be difficult, and he didn't quite want to leave without his equipment.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to do anything too risky, as an escape plan much better than his own arrived about a week after his capture. He watched with interest and amusement as the wolf assaulted the slavers' camp, unlike the others around him, he wasn't afraid. Sure he was rather startled, this was an unexpected turn of events, but he could tell the wolf wasn't after them. Since there was no threat to him, he got to enjoy observing the battle that unfolded before him, taking special interest in the face off against the leader...so much feinting. What most certainly surprised him however, was when he heard a voice in his head, the wolf looking right at him.

Jace jumped a little at the voice, tilting his head at the wolf, wondering if he actually heard something. After a bit of thinking he approached the captain, deciding that a telepathic wolf wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen. A couple of prisoners tried to stop him, eyeing the wolf warily, but he waved them off with a confident smile. "Don't worry, he hasn't attacked us, has he?" And with that logic, he walked over to the dead captain, casting a glance at the wolf before kneeling down to acquire the captain's keys. With the keys in hand, he proceeded to unshackle himself before walking over to another prisoner, freeing them and instructing them to free the others. This accomplished, he cast yet another glance at the wolf before going off and rummaging around the camp in search of his equipment. He returned after about a minute with a rather ornate looking sword and a wheellock pistol, accompanied by a small bag of ammunition, and of course a sheathe and holster respectively. He turned his gaze back to the wolf as he strapped on his equipment, equipment that definitely looked as if it belonged to him by the way he handled it. "Impressive work you did there, certainly saved me a lot of trouble...thanks." He smiled a little as a couple of the newly freed slaves cast an odd look to him. "Please tell me I'm not insane for talking to a wolf, you are sentient...right?" I little humor laced his voice in that sentence, he's oddly calm considering what just happened.

[Dreamwolf]

Fang watched the man with interest. He moved with the fluidity of an experienced swordsman, and his eyes missed nothing. Something the wolf found very intriguing as most humans missed quite a lot. He noticed the way the man carried his weapons, the way he ordered the other slaves with an authority one only gets from being used to it starting at a young age. A Noble then. And Connloathian as well. Like the man Fang was hunting. When asked if the man was crazy the wolf projected his words into the minds of all present.

"I am Fang, Warrior of the Wolf God. You are not Crazy human, simply more courteous than most. I must ask you a question though." At this the wolf centered his words on the young man alone, keeping the conversation between the two of them. "You are of Connlaoth, yes?  Do you know of a man named Damien Anson? He leads a group of humans that travel about killing people with magic abilities. If you know where to find him I would be much obliged."

[DrabberRogue]

Jace tilted his head a little at the question, looking away as he thought on that for a moment. He'd met quite a few people in his travels, but he'd definitely remember a man like that. "No...I don't believe I have, sorry." He said thoughtfully, looking back at Fang. "I'd advise you to be careful in your search though, men like him are truly dangerous, you can't reason with a fanatic." His tone finally turned a little serious as he issued his caution, he'd seen far too many anti-magic fanatics in his homeland, seen how far they're willing to go for their 'faith'. However, this quickly changed as an amusing thought occurred to him, his smile returning as he realized- "I'm sorry, I don't believe I've introduced myself. I'm Jace, Rose tactician." He gives a little bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

[Dreamwolf]

Fang flisked an ear when the man admitted to knowing nothing of Damien. It was the same with everyone he manage to talk to. Soon he would have to enter Connlaoth to try and find this treacherous human but for now he would continue help those in need.

"I thank you, Jace Rose. You are a very unusual human. Most would not stay around me any longer than necessary to escape. And I can tell from watching you that you are of some skill with that sword of yours." The wolf turned to look at one of the Bandits that he thought he had killed. When the man moved the wolf calmly walked over and placed a heavy paw on the bandits hand and growled. The bandit had been reaching for a sword. "I will not kill him. He is wounded and unable to fight effectively. However, he cannot be allowed to go free either."

The wolf looked at the bandit who let out a whimper of fear. The wolf was not without compassion but he detested cowardice. He placed his paw on the bandits face and growled again. The bandit began begging the Gods for mercy.

[DrabberRogue]

Jace's smile grew a bit at the wolf's comment on him, taking note of how observant he was. "Unusual beings like yourself have always been rather interesting to me, more so considering I haven't met many."

The feeling of a threat hit the young tactician at about the same time the wolf turned his head, seems one of the bandits intended on continuing the fight. Jace turned his own gaze to the bandit as the wolf placed a paw upon his hand, arching an eyebrow at what ensued. "It's rather difficult to imprison a man so far away from society, what would you do with him?" He asked as he slowly approached the two of them, his smile gone as he observed the wolf's actions. As he came to a stop near them he caught wind of the bandit's pleas, casting his gaze down to the man in question. "One has to wonder with men like him, did they even participate voluntarily? Or where they just following like sheep?"

[Dreamwolf]

The wolf had never considered that the bandits might be unwilling, or too afraid to speak out against what was being done. The big animal ahd always assumed that bandits and other humans who participated in the slave trade were so greedy that they never considered another's life before.

"We could chain him, use the shackles used on the captives. I am quite sure someone among these freed people would be willing to take him to justice. Of course it is also possible they will wait for me to leave and then kill him. Perhaps we could play off his fear of the gods and get him to make an oath to end his evil ways." The wolf knew that many humans kept to such oaths, particularly if they were made with blood.

[DrabberRogue]

Jace tilts his head a little, bringing his hand up to rest his head on it contemplatively. He'd always believed, at least from the point he was old enough to form his own opinions, that people choose their own paths of their own accord. Of course, this was assuming they weren't influenced by their society or affected by social pressure, but the intensely competitive young man was far too ambitious to ever believe that people's paths were ever scripted. That said, humans are like sheep; give them a leader, and more often than not they will follow that person without question. A fact that he's seen splayed out in front of him far too many times.

"Some people only pray to god when they're in trouble, and the same people are most likely to break such vows." He muttered in a bit of an absentminded tone, considering their options. "If no one else is willing to take him to jail, I'll do it myself, we can take him to the nearest city along with anyone else heading there..."

[Dreamwolf]

Fang nodded his head. Although he did not speak, he radiated respect on a sub telepathic wave, most humans could detect such waves, when they walked into a room and felt the tension of a fight about to break out, or when they faced off with a wild animal that was not afraid of them, but weren't quite ready to attack for no reason.

"You are a very unusual human. Most would have simply said to kill him." The wolf looked again at the babbling bandit. He then caught a scent on the man that made the wolf feel better for not having killed the man. "This one has a child. I can smell the child's scent on him an the scent of a woman who is not among the people here. I am going to reach into his mind and find the location of his family. That way I can find them and tell them what has happened. Perhaps he will be given work in the mines or forced into military service in regard to his child." The wolf reached into the man's mind and extracted said information.

"They live in the nearest town. He was going to take his share of the profits and take his child to  a healer. The boy is ill in the mind. I would have to meet the child to be sure, but I believe it is a delusional illness."


(don't mind the compassion and the sob story. I figured it would give us a little more to do and keep the thread going.)