Gold Ain't So Sweet [Jackiecat]

[Jounin64]

"Run! Run like the worthless dogs you are!" Nezhir yells as he hunts down two runaway slaves. To gain distance on them he whips out his pistol and fires a shot into one of their ankles. The slave collapses writhing in agony. The other slaves stops frozen by fear as he witnesses his friend get injured.

Nezhir walks up to him grasping the scruff of his neck and putting his foot down on the injured slave. "You two should've known better...always prepare for bounty hunters after running. If you weren't already fighting in the coliseum I bet you will be now."

[JackieCat]

Kirl and the hyena Oax were walking along a path on the outskirts of Essyrn when they heard a shout, and then a cry of pain.  The young woman's daggers were immediately in her hands, and Oax stiffened, her fur up.

then they darted forwards towards the noise.  Kirl and Oax rushed around a corner to find a tall tan-skinned man standing over two other people, a man and a woman.  The woman's ankle was bloodied and she had been the one to cry out.

Kirl assumed that the two of them were slaves, and the tall man a bounty hunter, and a ruthless one at that.

Kirl sheathed her daggers, but her bow was immediately in her hand, knocked and ready.  She was about fifteen yards from the man and the slaves.

"Stop!" she said loudly and firmly, her arrow leveled at the man. "Step away from them or I will be forced to kill you."

To accentuate her statement, Oax growled loudly.  It was deep and threatening, clearly saying she was going to fight if the man did not cooperate.

[Jounin64]

"Awww isn't that cute, the little girl wants to play hero. Well wake up kid this is real life there are no heroes, only the strong and the weak." Nezhir places the man infront of him creating a human shield. Quickly slipping the pistol under the slaves underarm aiming it right at the girl.

"I have no bounty on you so there's no point in killing you but that doesn't  mean I can't make sure you never shoot an arrow again." He stares into the girls eyes while applying more pressure on the woman.

[JackieCat]

"Well then," Kirl said. "If there are no heroes, only the weak and strong, I'd be one of the strong.  Whether or not you are is to be discovered."

At the sight of the gun, Oax whined and cowered, crouching low, her ears back.  Kirl looked at the hyena in disgust. "If you're such a coward, get out of here.  I don't need you."

Oax whined bu slunk off, her tail between her legs. Kirl looked back to the man. "Back to the subject at hand. . . You seem to think I don't know what I'm doing, think again, you have no idea who I am, don't judge before the show has even started."

Then Oax leaped from behind a bush and at the man's back.  The hyena and Kirl had a mental link, and they had planned this out.  Oax had pretended to be a coward, Kirl  sent her away, and then Oax snuck around behind the man and attacked from there.

The second Oax attacked, Kirl rolled down and away behind a large stone of the ruins of a building, in case the man shot his gun.

[Jounin64]

Nezhir quickly senses the ambush and throws the man in between him and the hyena. A blood curdling scream from the man sounds through the area as he releases pressure on the woman and snaps her neck. "If you thought these lives mattered then you are more foolish than I thought. I'm rich enough to give up a bonus, so those lives were worthless to me."

He puts the gun away. "Do you see these scars kid? This proves that I am strong I endured the coliseum and I can handle you. He sneers while advancing pulling his scimitars out.

[JackieCat]

Oax, immediately pulled in her legs as to not harm the man.  She landed on him, but the man would sustain no injuries.

Kirl gritted her teeth when the mercenary killed the woman, and once again her long daggers were in her hands.  She leaped forwards, slashing out with one dagger while bringing up another to block any attack by the man.  As she did this, Oax again attacked from behind, aiming to claw and scratch at the man's back and neck.

[Jounin64]

"Hmph fools." Nezhir side steps them and bolts for the slaves. He slings one over each shoulder and darts his way to the nearby ruins for cover.

"This little pigskin is getting on my nerves she has no right to get in the way of an Essryni and absolutely no right to interfere with my business." Nezhir mumbles while camping out in a shrine

[JackieCat]

The man managed to avoid their attacks and he picked up the two slaves, running away.  Kirl and Oax made chase, and the hyena would have caught him, if she hadn't taken a bad step and her paw had slipped between two rocks.  She fell flat, twisting her ankle, causing them to have to stop.

They gave chase soon after, the hyena sniffing the ground, tracking the man.

That evening they came upon him in some ruins.  The two his behind a pile of fallen stone, watching the man.  They were completely silent, even an elf would have trouble hearing them.  They were both rangers, and had learned to move silently.

[Jounin64]

Nezhir sat there in silence expecting to be ambushed at any moment. But unknowingly the barely living slave starts to crawl towards the obelisk in the middle of the shrine. His bloodied hand touches the obelisk and it absorbs the blood from his open wounds draining him of life.

The obelisk starts glowing and a mist surrounds the shrine. Nezhir remains motionless as he stares at the obelisk. A black cloaked figure then arises from the mist, Nezhir pulls out his pistol in case it attacks.

[JackieCat]

Kirl felt a pang as the man died, the life drained from him by the obelisk, and she saw the figure emerged from the mist.  She narrowed her eyes, wondering what the being was.  She and Oax saw the mercenary draw his swords, and Kirl readied her weapons as the black cloaked being emerged, but neither she nor Oax made a move to attack it, not yet, anyways.

Kirl watched the mercenary to see his reaction to the cloaked being.

[Jounin64]

Nezhir carefully looks over the figure deciding that it'll be no use wasting bullets on them. He puts his gun away and draws his swords out. "Who and what are you."Nezhir states pointing one sword towards its throat."

Still standing idly the figure responds in an echoed ominous voice. "The ones who sealed me refereed to me as Nox...that is all." A flash of darkness covers the area, the effect fades but Nox is nowhere to be seen.

"Great...that thing better have a big bounty soon if I'm gonna go demon hunting or whatever that thing is." Nezhir mumbles while putting away his swords and picking up the corpses.

[JackieCat]

The black being, Nox, disappeared as fast as it had come, and the bounty hunter picked up the two corpses.  As he did so Kirl felt her anger build, but she didn't let it show.

"Stop!" Kirl said loudly enough for the bounty hunter to hear her.  Her voice echoed throughout the ruins, so the bounty hunter would have no way of telling where she was hiding.  "I just want to talk with you, will you, please, give me a moment?"

[Jounin64]

"This isn't a timed bounty so why not? Except I doubt it's just a chat your looking for if your still hiding. Come out where I can see you then we'll go from there."

[JackieCat]

"I do just want to talk," Kirl said, not moving from her hiding spot. "But I fear if I come out you'll attempt to kill me with that gun of yours."

[Jounin64]

"Ignorant pigskin, do you think I'm some bloodthirsty brute? I am not a man without honor, I only kill my targets there is no use killing innocents. But if you were to strike I will retaliate without hesitation."

[JackieCat]

"Name calling will not get you your way," Kirl said. "But since the matter I must discuss with you is urgent, I will reveal myself.  If what you say about your honor is true, there will be no fight, I will not use my weapons unless you use yours."

Oax stayed put as Kirl rose from behind the rocks and walked down the pile of rubble until she got to the bottom.  She walked towards the man but stopped about fifteen feet away.

"I must ask you why you are going after slaves," Kirl said.

[Jounin64]

"Humph it's not name calling it's what you... are and they had a bounty on them so I took it. Most bounties in Essyrn are catching thieves or slaves."

Nezhir cracks his neck and pulls his face wrappings down to reveal a slight smirk. "Besides it's my fated duty as the strong to hunt the weak."

[JackieCat]

Kirl crossed her arms, but she would be ready for a fight if it came.  She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. "Do you know what I think?  I think that you, sir, are wrong," Kirl said. "Sure, sure, you may be strong of body, strong of mind, and strong of will, and those people that you were sent to hunt, they may have been physically weak, they may not have been the smartest, but, gods, they had will.  Just because they were weak in some aspects, they were very strong in others.  They were most likely good people.  They may have had a family, and people they loved, and people who loved them.  They were strong in will, in their moral code.  You lack that.  And as far as I can tell, you lack what those people had, all that is good.  You capture, and even kill, innocent people to make a living.  I cannot see how anyone could do that and be content.  You take innocent lives to get a little coin in your pocket.  And I don't just mean killing slaves, I mean when you capture them and take them back to masters who are cruel and ruthless, you may as well have been destroying their lives."

[Jounin64]

Nezhir puts his face wraps back up and stares her dead in the eyes. "You don't know what pain truly is. Love is a lie only told to keep you close to them. I was a slave once, I was in the coliseum once and I escaped that fate on my own. Never once did I ever have friends or family to help me."

Nezhir begins walking away. "Now I have to find out more about this Nox, it seems like a worthy opponent to me."

[JackieCat]

"Wait!" Kirl stepped forward and instinctively put her hand on the man's shoulder as the man started to walk away. "It's not all about that.  You were a slave, you were miserable, and yet you put that misery upon others.  When you capture escaped slaves and bring them back to their masters, you are making them go through the same thing you did.  You know what they feel, so how could you ever willingly put that upon someone?  Give them that misery and pain?"