The Failure and the Brat... What Could Go Wrong? (Zozee)

[TheHighwayman]

Thriv shrugged. "I never asked for payment, but I suppose that can be settled once we get there. Now, you wanted back on your own horse?" The knight held up a hand to help her down and glanced about the side of the road. Now that that mess was defused- or at least seemed to be- his instincts were telling him something else was going to go wrong. Whatever it was though, he couldn't see any clues about it. Not only that, but he still couldn't remember what the herb did- oh right, hadn't Elizabeth asked about it before the incident?

"The herb was dark green, tends to grow in high places, and had small prickly bits near the base. Tastes pretty good if it's cooked right. Other than that, I can't tell you much about it." Maybe it mucked about with one's bowels? No, no, that wasn't it. Thriv could feel the answer darting just out of his mind's reach and grimaced. "Does that ring any bells? If not, I suppose we'll just have to find out the hard way."

[zozee9]

Elizabeth hesitantly took the knight's hand. It wasn't the cleanest thing, but she wasn't confident of her ability to get off a horse when her legs were straddling it. She didn't mention any more about paying, but still planned on compensating him somehow. It wasn't good moral to not pay people for their effort.

After getting down, she released her grip of Thrivaok's hand and listened to his description of the herb. "That could be a ton of things. But my guess is that it's only dangerous if it isn't cooked right, otherwise it's perfectly fine. There are a lot of herbs like that. You can cook the poison out of the poison out of them, but it's a gamble in case you don't cook it long enough." And if the ogre didn't cook it long enough... well, that would be a problem. She would be without a bodyguard.

[TheHighwayman]

"Oh, well, the stew didn't taste like there was anything wrong with it, and I don't feel ill." Thriv shook his head and slung himself up onto Spire. "Hopefully it will be perfectly fine... I hope. No sense in worrying about it now though, seeing as there's nothing we can do." Giving the charger's flanks a kick, Thriv and the horse got going once again.

Thriv did a little bit of mental math, and reasoned that they should actually be reasonably close to the next town- enough to get there before nightfall- assuming the earlier signpost had been accurate. While he personally felt like he could sprint through the night, himself (though he knew well enough the boost from the herb would wear off soon enough), he expected Elizabeth would appreciate it a lot more than a bed made of dirt.

"So, anything I should know as a bodyguard that's not come up yet? Any phobias? Besides bugs, I noticed that one. Anything you're liable to get yourself in trouble over?"

[zozee9]

Elizabeth felt uncertain that it was smart to trust Thrivaok's lack of caring, but figured he would say something with that annoying voice of his if he started to feel sick. Then she might be able to diagnose him and give him a potion or something. Until then, he wasn't her responsibility. But she was still his.

She climbed on to Snow with no problems and sat like she normally did. Now that they weren't running, she wasn't worried about stability. Looking down at her dress, Elizabeth scoffed at herself in disgust. The dress was covered in dirt and needed a good washing.

Thrivaok's voice caught her a little off guard, even though it seemed like he was always talking. "Hm? Oh, I have tons of phobias. But they all are reasonable, of course," she snottily replied. Reasonable was very subjective in this situation.

[TheHighwayman]

Reasonable phobias, right. "Well, could you tell me some of the more common ones? If we get into trouble somewhere, it wouldn't be great for a plan to fall apart because you saw something and panicked. Besides, if I know about them, I can deal with them." By now Thriv had just about given up trying to figure out what the possible side effects were, as it was entirely possible he'd not had enough for it to matter anyway.

As the pair topped a hill, Thriv grinned and pointed down ahead. It was far off, barely visible really, but the outline of a town could just be made out in the distance. There were quite a few hills, and the road winded quite a bit, so it would probably take a while to reach it, but it was visible. "Hah! I'll bet you that one can't be full of ogres. Not a bad sized one either, by the looks of it. Probably big enough to have an inn."

Thriv peered ahead and thought for a moment, then nodded. "I'd bet we can make it there just after nightfall, if we move quick enough."

[zozee9]

Elizabeth searched through her mind, trying to find all the phobias she had. Some were bigger, some were smaller. Some she didn't realize she had until she came to face them. For instance, she learned that she was afraid of rain while she was bathing. Because if there was rain, there could be lightening. And if there was lightening, things could get ugly quickly.

She was just about to list some of these phobias off when she saw the town in the horizon. It seemed so far away, but she was determined to make it there that night. Sleeping outside of an inn again was not her preference. At all.

"Well let's get moving, then!" stated Elizabeth as Snow moved to do the exact same thing. "And I'm scared of bugs, ghosts, spirits, fae folk—especially fairies, with their disgusting wings, being underground, tight spaces, lightening, dark forests, and much more. Any specifics you'd like to know about?"

[TheHighwayman]

Hrm... that was quite the list, Thriv thought. The ghost bit was understandable- he wasn't sure exactly what he'd do if he had to fight a ghost himself. Would a sword pass right through them? Or would it hurt them? But how would that work, if a ghost didn't have a body- Thriv shook his head, he was getting away from the point. Alright, those phobias he could probably handle without too much trouble. There was one thing that didn't quite seem right though...

"Why fairies?" he asked. "I mean, I don't really trust magic, but I don't see any reason to be afraid of them. It's not like they could really hurt you- well, I guess most bugs can't really hurt you either, but still..." Thriv scratched his head. It just didn't make much sense to him.

Thriv's armor clanked a bit as he shifted in the saddle and looked around. Something wasn't quite sitting right with him. He had a gut feeling that despite the sun setting out ahead of them- which, he noted, wasn't a bad view- the day was far from over. And once again he had no idea of the why or what of it.

[zozee9]

"Why fairies?!" asked Elizabeth, clearly outraged. "Have you seen them?! They have their disgusting wings and they're mischievous little twits that want nothing more than to harm you. I refuse to be in the same building as one of those things. Everybody from Serendipity knows better than to trust them—but I'm one of the few that know how dangerous those things actually can be."

Elizabeth stuck her chin into the air, not willing to accept an opinion other than her own. She was right, and that was that. Unlike Thrivaok, she didn't even notice the pretty sunset. Or, to be more accurate, it wasn't anything special. A sunset was a sunset and they were supposed to be pretty. It was merely as it was supposed to be.

[TheHighwayman]

Thriv just shook his head and decided not to comment. He'd always thought the Serenian prejudice against the fae was odd. Even the Connlaothians, with all their hate of magic (which he didn't entirely understand either) didn't dislike the fae that much, so long as they refrained from actively using their magic. Ah well, it was unusual, but based on what he'd heard of the world, so were a lot of things. Besides, they probably wouldn't run into any fae, so it wasn't worth worrying about.

"Well, enough about the phobias. How about something else we'll have to deal with eventually- money. Should we just worry about our own provisions, or what? I've got a little bit of money from when I left home still, and a few bits I picked up along the way. How well stocked are you?" Thriv didn't think Elizabeth would want too pool resources, but it was worth knowing how long what they each had would hold out anyway.

[zozee9]

Elizabeth merely ignored Thrivaok's head shaking. Obviously he didn't understand the dangers of fairies. So if he got killed by one, it wasn't her fault. She warned him.

But then he brought up money. Honestly, she had planned on paying him with the money her aunt and uncle had. Her dad promised her that he had at least snuck some of his money over to them for her use only. The money that was actually inside her pockets and bags, however, was very limited.

Not wanting to let this fact be known, Elizabeth covered, "Why, do you want me to pay for all of your meals? Too bad for you, but I don't donate to the poor. We can buy our own stuff." But she wondered how much she'd actually be able to buy. Good food was expensive, nice dresses were expensive, lodging was expensive. Or so she was told. Everything had always been bought for her before.

[TheHighwayman]

"I wasn't asking you to pay for my food; I was trying to make sure you wouldn't run out and I'd have to take care of both of us." He'd told the woman he'd wanted no payment, why would she think he was asking for a handout? Thriv decided to write it off to the woman's normal attitude and not to worry about it. In the worst case scenario, they'd just rely on his snares and whatever they might catch for food, and just not sleep in any inns.

The knight stretched and felt at the straps of his armor. Normally he had no problems going all day in the chainmail, but it had been an eventful two days, and he'd be happy to get a chance to rest. Tugging at the leather keeping his shoulder plates in place, he pulled off the heavy sheets of metal and dropped them in one of his empty saddlebags- presumably where he'd normally store the entire set. "Ah, that's much better."

[zozee9]

Elizabeth just huffed at Thrivaok's words and went back to daydreaming. She was attentive to what was happening, but didn't really care. She questioned her bodyguards decision to take off some of his armor. What if somebody shot an arrow at his shoulder? Oh well. She shrugged the idea off, deciding that it wasn't anything important enough to bother her.

She thought back to the days in which she used to watch the peasant kids fight over food. Occasionally she would bring them an apple or a loaf of bread and pass her time by observing how they split it. On rare occasions, they would actually split it. But more often than not, they'd fight amongst themselves. Humans were greedy creatures, after all.

Elizabeth was snapped out of her thoughts when she thought she heard a branch snap. Her head snapped to the right but all she could see was open grass and some rocks. The hills from where she was to the village weren't covered in trees, thank goodness, so she had a clear view. Not seeing anybody, Elizabeth decided it was probably just the wind and she returned her gaze forward again. But then she heard another stick snap.

[TheHighwayman]

Thriv had let himself get relaxed in the saddle. There was no danger of anything ambushing them there, and he was tired. So it took him a moment to register the sound of a snapping twig. When he did, however, it woke him in an instant. The young knight spun in the saddle, looking about frantically for whatever the threat was. "What? Who? Where?" After about ten seconds of seeing absolutely nothing, he looked to Elizabeth and asked, "You heard that too, right?"

Then there was another twig snapping, and he spun back to once again face down... a whole lot of grass. What was that? He heard another noise behind him, from another direction, but before he could turn to look a loud thud reverberated through his skull, followed by another as the rock hit the ground.

Slowly the man slumped in his saddle, sliding out of the stirrups and gradually, gradually getting closer to- whump- there he went. On the one hand, the young knight was lying out cold- and possibly worse- on the ground... on the other hand, his armor did clank rather amusingly as he went down. As soon as the man went down, a figure rose from the grass on the other side of the road and let out a whoop...

[zozee9]

Elizabeth was glad that she wasn't the only one who heard the noise. It meant she wasn't going insane. Actually, once she thought about it, this was probably worse. If they both heard the noise, that meant there was something there. A shiver went up her back as she realized this.

Her searching around was as frantic—if not more frantic—as Thrivaok's. However, she saw just as little as he did. She heard a thud and looked his way, but there was nothing to be seen except him sliding off his horse and onto the ground. But then she heard a cry and turned towards the person making that sound.

Or rather, the dwarf making that sound.

She couldn't help but chuckle. Her bodyguard had just been taken out by a man that was barely growing a beard and couldn't have been taller than three feet. Well, maybe that explained why he could hide so easily. Or, as Elizabeth soon discovered, they could hide so easily.

Another dozen dwarves started coming up out of nowhere around her. Snow instinctively walked closer to Spire as the dwarves started getting closer and closer to them. Their presence was intimidating, even with their height being so small. Elizabeth was wondering why they hadn't taken her out, as well, until she realized that maybe her previous assumption had been wrong.

These weren't male dwarves.

They were female dwarves with beards.