Wooden Swords and Horseshoes [Nam]

[GoblinFae]

"Certainly good to be home," the great beast sighed, his chest heaving with the breath that passed out of his lungs. Enormous hooves pounded the earth as the centaur giddily pranced in place. Iorwerth's last trip to La'marri had certainly been a relaxing one. The children there always served to lighten his spirits, but home truly was where the heart is and Connlaoth would always be where Iorwerth's heart would remain.

He loved the land no matter the attitudes of the people that lived on it. As long as he was a free spirit and able to run and sing, he would. Not even imprisonment would keep him from his work. There would just be more stories to recount in the future, provided of course he could ever manage to get free. But, that was something to worry about another time. Getting out for a run or rather a ride was sounding awfully enticing right now.

The centaur excitedly shifted forms right there on the edge of Athervann Lake's treeline after a hasty and cursory glance about. It felt good to be in human form for a change and he relished the ability to stretch his different limbs and to give Ylli a gentle pat on the forehead.

"Good to be home indeed!"

[Nam]

William had been by the lake. These were one of those days he finally decided to take action and practice into one day becoming a knight. He didn't want peering eyes to watch as he did though and moved to a more secluded place with nothing but the sound of his battle cries as he thrust his wooden sword into the air and pretended to fend off the Magic-Users from Connlaoth. He could already imagine an epic battle of proportionate events taking place through his eyes. The valiant Galahad with cape and sword rushes into the castle of the enemy. He'd block off their arrows and attacks with the swift of his trusty shield and counter with his deadly blade.

Evildoers fall and fear the great and mighty Galahad as he radiates light about him and purges their darkness away. Don't fret! Angsar; rain droplets of pity over these poor souls and purify those who have to live with the curse of magic and fall under temptation. William would null his enemies with the power of Mordecai. His abilities would have been so advanced and sophisticated that he'd simply rest the palm of his hand over a Mage and do what none other had ever done before: purge the darkness within and permanently rid them of the burden of magic.

William dropped to the ground and the crowd cheers and chants his name. He smiles at the slow paced clouds that moved along the wind's direction and painted his world with different shades of white and blue.

Suddenly, he could hear the sound of what he could only compare to clapping hooves against the moist and lush ground. Curiously, as always, William grabbed his trusty sword and rose to his feet as he scurried stealthily into the bushes and trees. He slowly and cautiously stuck his neck out and observed the Centaur. "A Mage..." he murmured, gripping his wooden sword. Centaurs were known to be magical by nature, which made them a born mage. William, though, didn't know exactly what made centaurs magical. Could they breathe fire? Turn him to stone with a mere glance?

And then... "HAGHP!" he squeaked and dropped onto the ground after seeing half-horse and half-man become a horse and a man. Magic! He was all alone in Athervann Lake with a magic-user and hadn't realized he had made an audible squeal, a thud, and rustled the bushes in which he was hiding. The man would have definitely detected his presence. He needed to ask for help! He thought. William turned on his fours and started crawling away. He needed to call a Mordecai!

[GoblinFae]

He paused in his movements to listen but hearing nothing more than the faint rustling he continued his stretching for a few moments before mounting up and letting Ylli go for a run around the edge of the lake. It was certainly an odd experience to both feel the movement as a rider and as a runner, for what Ylli felt so too did Iorwerth as they were one and the same. A broken bone was a broken bone, a pebble stuck in a hoof felt just like a pebble inside his boot. There was no escaping their joined nature.

Iorwerth slowed them soon after a few minutes and headed them into the opposing treeline of where they had come. It was time to head into town and get back to work before it got dark. As tired as he may be, a bed and a meal would not pay for themselves. The sounds of movement though were louder now and seemed to be made by something far bigger than he had suspected.

There should have been nothing in this air that threatening but one never knew. Perhaps it was someone hurt or in need of help.Gathering his wits about him and consoling himself that it was just another adventure waiting to be told in one of his stories, he called out at last. "Hello? Is someone there? Are you hurt?"

[Nam]

William gasped and crawled back in a rush. His heart pounding and dilated eyes, the boy panicked. "N-no! Nobody here...!" he covered his mouth the moment he realized what he had just done. How stupid of him, he thought. Regardless, the boy stayed put thinking –perhaps he actually bought it-. He reached to his right and gripped the handle on his wooden sword, which he had accidentally dropped. Will held his breath and gazed at the man through the gaps between the leaves in the bushes.

[GoblinFae]

"Nobody?" Iorwerth repeated, a smile on his face as he held his chin in hand, looking toward the sky. "Now that's an interesting name. Don't think I've ever met anyone named 'Nobody' before, let alone 'Nobody here.' It's a nice name though, probably could write a whole song about it. Would you like that Sir Here?"

The centaur of course could not see who he was talking to but he had a generally good idea of where the voice was specifically coming from. He hopped down from Ylli's back and relaxed back against his four-legged "other" half, trying to adopt as nonthreatening a posture as he could.

"You sure you're comfortable where you are? There are some rather nasty pricker bushes over where your voice is coming from. I would hate to find out that the great Sir Nobody Here was so grievously injured. Unless of course you are as much a master of ventriloquy as you are of disguise. In which case I take my metaphorical hat off to you."

Iorwerth bowed low, waiting to see how the other individual would react. He was getting the sense that this was not so much as a current injury as something else, although what that "else" was, was very much unknown to him and he was a curious enough centaur to want to find out.

[Nam]

Will gasped as the man unmounted his horse and scurried back sluggishly within the bush. The centaur's warning about pricker bushes was too late though. The boy found himself wincing at the sharp quill protruding from the branches concealing his presence, which now held a piece of fabric from his commoner clothing. His human blood dripped down the length of his arm. He pressed his hand over the bruise just below his shoulder and peered through the leaves.

He's not coming... Will thought with relief. The man was only standing there, though it wouldn't be long before he decided to check inside the bush; when that time came, the boy would have the end of his carved wooden sword ready to poke his eye out. Meanwhile, he looked around for a way to avoid confronting the man in the first place.  Will surveyed his surroundings finding -obviously- mud, sticks, and rocks.

The boy switched his sword to the other hand and grabbed a rock with the other; sticking his sword to the side, he would begin to rustle the bushes, adjacent to his location and then tossed the stone at the foot of a tree at the other end of the linear path. This was all an attempt to simulate the action of scurrying, ultimately, leading the man away from his true location.

[GoblinFae]

The boy's plan would have probably worked if he had considered one thing. Iorwerth saw the rock launch into the bushes due to his keeping his eyes searching on the ground for "Nobody." While he did not see the initial appearance of the sailing rock, the centaur had seen both part of its arc and its final disappearance.

Instead of directly turning in the direction though that he had seen it come from he resolved to let this individual think that he had taken the bait. Quite loudly he headed in the rock's direction, calling out for the person.

"Hey! No need to run off. I'm not scary, I'm not here to hurt you Nobody! Won't you come out and say hello?"

All the while though, Iorwerth was keeping an eye out in the other direction to see if he caught anyone thrashing about. He knew from experience that sometimes when caught in a bind, people tend to refuse offered help and then hurt themselves more in an effort to take care of the problem themselves.