Eckhart picks flowers and finds a weird bottle (Closed)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Knowing that that explanation made more sense than the word salad he had come up with, Eckhart began to go red in the face. "Oh, uh, um, ok."  Eckhart picked up what few items he had lying around and began putting them in his bag. "It might be a good idea to, uh, leave town. The guards will be looking for us. My name is Eckhart by the way. Eckhart Von Musel."

"Someday I'm going to be the best healer in the world" he added. There was no emotion behind this last statement, as if it was a guaranteed fact that he would, in fact, be the best healer in the world.

"What is your name?"

[Alize]

Unsure of whether or not the "world's greatest healer" remark was a result of the adrenalite, Kino simply took Von Musel's outstretched hand and shook it firmly.

"Well met then, Eckhart. Kino Vandern - alchemist, apothecary and drifter extraordinaire." Withdrawing her hand, she continued. "And agreed. I've seen quite enough alchemy and not quite enough drifting today."

Pride still wounded by the fact that she'd been rescued by someone who looked young enough to be her son, Kino casually added an afterthought. "Sorry about the diarrhea you'll be having," she lied. "Manticore urine does a great job stopping adrenalite gas, but it'll give you a nasty case of the shits. Nasty, I tell you."

It was worth it to see the boy's face go a brighter shade of red as he looked at the scarf he'd been breathing through up until a few moments ago.

"My room's upstairs. I'll be back with my belongings."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart was waiting by the door for Kino to come back down. Outside he could hear the guards in a panic.  Apparently some of them had inhaled the adrenalite and were now fighting among themselves.  "Good. That will provide cover for us to slip out unnoticed."  Eckhart did not want to be known as criminal. He knew that his parents were heartbroken when his sister became a murderer, and he did not want them to have to go through that again.

[Alize]

Kino ignored the distant cries of rage and echoes of steel on steel as she carefully dismantled her makeshift laboratory. Phials, bottles, beakers and flasks went into her traveler's backpack, as did all of the everglass knives, darts and arrowheads holstered in the straps covering her body. She shed her robes and bandoliers, packing them into her bedroll, which she then fastened on top of the backpack.

Now standing in a midnight blue chiffon chemise, cream breeches, tanned leather boots and hook-nosed plague mask, Kino inhaled deeply. Holding her breath, she unfastened her metal facade and gently laid it on the bedside table. Taking a small silk pouch containing the same aromatic herbs and spices as the ones in her mask's beak, she pulled its drawstrings open and gently looped them behind her ears, tying them together beneath her wavy flaxen hair. The open pouch dangled beneath her nose and she began to breathe again. The open air burned at her ravaged lungs, but the pouch made it bearable at the very least.

Looking into the bedside mirror, Kino's gaze was met by a sultry pair of deep violet eyes framed by wavy pale-blonde bangs. High cheekbones, a petite nose, delicate lips and pointed chin rounded out the reflection staring back at her. She smiled contentedly to herself.

"I've still got it."

She pulled a cream-colored scarf to match her breeches out of the traveler's pack, wrapping it around her nose and mouth. The final thing to go in her traveler's backpack was her gasmask. She held it in both hands, fondly gazing into its empty black eyes, for it was just as much a part of herself as her arms or legs were. A second face behind which she could safely and painlessly exist. Without it she was more than naked. Pressing its cold steel forehead to her own for luck, she silently tucked it away and stole down the stairs.

"Eckhart, let's move."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart turned around when he heard Kino's voice, but saw only a woman in a blue shirt. He looked behind the woman, hoping to see Kino's distinctive mask, only for the woman to clear her throat impatiently. Cringing at the painful noise she had just made, Eckhart went red in the face again as he realized Kino had likely been a woman this entire time.  "Uh, after you?" he said as he held the door open for her. Eckhart's parents had always taught him to be chivalrous towards women, but somehow he felt that it was an unnecessary gesture that Kino wasn't likely to appreciate.

[Alize]

Offering only a brusque grunt of affirmation, Kino swept through the door. Beneath her scarf, however, a slight smile of amusement formed at the innocent awkwardness of the gesture.

The streets were desolate, most of the townsfolk having evacuated. Cries of pain and rage echoed from the distance. The green gas had dissipated. Baskets, purses, handbags and other valuables dotted the streets, discarded in the initial panic. The first people to overcome their fears and moral inhibitions would soon have a field day. Eckhart and Kino would be long gone by then.

Striding aside Kino, Eckhart's eyes darted from side to side in search of danger. The alchemist kept her eyes forward and her posture composed, though she was no less on guard.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart walked nevously beside Kino, silently praying they did not get cought. A couple times a guard would run past them towards the scene of the explosion, but they never stopped to interrogate them as Eckhart feared. Eckhart noticed that Kino handled fear better then he did, and felt a brief moment of jelousy. Eckhart's nerves had never been good, and he envied those who could handle pressure better than he could. Without any further incidents the two made it to the edge of town.

[Alize]

As they neared a gate in the stone walls that ringed the hamlet, Eckhart was pulled out of his reveries by a sharp and ugly rasping. "Wait!" wheezed Kino.

Standing serenely, she closed her eyes and began to listen. Having lived nigh on two decades in a mask which provided less-than-stellar peripheral vision, Kino Vanden had slowly become accustomed to using her other senses to help navigate. And now, beyond the tall stone barrier, rang the barely audible yet unmistakable clang of armored footsteps. Lots of them.

"City guard? Provencal militia? Serendipity's army...? No no no, that's the wrong question. Not 'who?' but 'why?'" Kino chewed her lower lip as she pondered. "They haven't entered the town yet. They might be waiting for reinforcements. Or perhaps initiating a lockdown? A quarantine? Doesn't matter. What matters is getting past them without getting my pack checked. Whoever they are, they aren't gonna be in a very 'innocent until proven guilty' kinda mood. Not that we exactly fall into the 'innocent' category anyways. Whatever. Time to get to work."

Eckhart watched the strange woman snap to life and immediately set her pack down. She sifted through her belongings, pulling out a recognizable bottle, roughly the size of his thumb. She uncorked it, recorked it, shook it vigorously and then set it on the ground. Oh no.

"What the hell is that!?" he demanded. Kino looked at him quizzically, almost as though she'd forgotten he was there.

"A distraction. What's it look like?"

"It looks like another explosion! It looks like more people going psycho! It looks like a serious... a serious crime! Are you out of your frickin' mind?!?"

"I wasn't the last time I checked. Look, Ecks, the other side of that wall's crawling with the authorities. Some kind of lockdown, most likely. We won't be getting out of here easy."

"How could you possibly know that?!?"

"Close your eyes and listen for yourself."

"But the explosion!"

"See anyone around here to get hurt?"

"And the gas!"

"Wind's picked up. It'll dissipate."

"And if it doesn't!?"

"They'll have air magi."

"But-"

Kino stood up and looked him straight in the eyes. "Eckhart Von Musel, I need your help. I need your trust. Can I trust you?"

The right words momentarily escaped him. She didn't give him time to find them. "I need you to talk to them. To buy us time. If I try to... speak, with them, well, it'll just raise more questions" she croaked out bitterly, then continued.

"From the sound of it they've rounded up the townsfolk. Talk us past the guards. We hide in the crowd. When this explodes, we break for the woods." Kino's eyes intensely locked onto his own. He could almost feel them boring a hole in the back of his skull.

"I'll ask you again, Eckhart Von Musel. Can I trust you?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart had to admit, Kino could be intense when she wanted to be, even without the creepy mask. "Yes... yes, uh, I'll go talk to them." Eckhart walked through the gate to the other side of the wall, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do next.  Eckhart realized that this would look better if he was crying, so he try to think of something upsetting. 
"You may never see your sister again."
No, that was too depressing. It didn't move him to tears, it just made him feel empty inside. Instead, he focused on the fact that he may have killed that man with his warhammer back in the plaza.  Feelings of guilt overwhelmed him, and he could feel tears begin to swell up in his eyes. "Perfect."

Eckhart rushed through the gate, sobbing hysterically. "They're all gone!" he screamed. "All those bodies... the severed limbs... What are we going to do!"  His frantic crying distracted the guards just long enough, and from behind the wall he could hear another explosion, far away from where Kino had been a second ago.  He could screams too, but he desperately tried to ignore those. The guards rushed to the source of the chaos, and Kino slipped through the gate not a moment later.

"Lets go!" she said, and, perhaps against his better judgement, Eckhart followed her.